India v England: Despite some frustration, James Anderson sees bigger picture of rotation

Dubai: England star bowler James Anderson finds the ECB’s rotation policy frustrating at times but the country’s all-time leading wicket-taker says he also sees the bigger picture given the team’s packed schedule.

England are scheduled to play 17 Tests this year, apart from the Twenty20 World Cup and other limited-overs fixtures, and have rotated players to help them bear the toll of spending time inside biosecure bubbles as part of COVID-19 protocols.

The team rested Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes for the Sri Lanka series, and Jonny Bairstow and Mark Wood for the first two Tests in India, while Jos Buttler returned home after the opening Test in Chennai.

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Anderson, 38, took five wickets in England’s victory in the first Test but was rested in the second, which the hosts won to level the four-match series 1-1.

The seamer, who has taken 611 test wickets, is expected to return for the day-night Test, under floodlights with a pink ball, in Ahmedabad from Wednesday.

“It’s obviously mixed emotions missing out after playing pretty well in the first test,” he said. “I think the idea was if I missed that one then that would give me the best chance of being fit and firing for the pink-ball Test.

“I’m feeling good and fresh and ready to go again if called upon. Frustrating I guess to an extent, but I can kind of see the bigger picture with the amount of cricket that we’ve got.”

England’s rotation policy has received plenty of criticism from fans and pundits given the importance of the series against India, which they must win 3-1 to have any chance of qualifying for the World Test Championship final at home against New Zealand later this year.

“I can only see positives really coming out of this,” Anderson said, pointing to his injury setbacks in the last two years. “For me it’s gonna hopefully keep me going longer ... It’s not a case of shielding, it’s just a case of trying to make sure you’re not wearing someone out until they completely break in half.”

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India warns states of worsening COVID-19 situation if rules ignored

New Delhi: India announced an expansion of its vaccination programme on Wednesday but warned that breaches of coronavirus protocols could worsen an infection surge in many states.

Nearly a month after the health minister declared that COVID-19 had been contained, states such as Maharashtra in the west and Kerala in the south have reported a surge in cases, as reluctance grows over mask-wearing and social distancing.

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

"Any laxity in implementing stringent measures to curb the spread, especially in view of new strains of virus ... could compound the situation," the ministry said in a statement singling out nine states and a federal territory.

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

Tests falling

The ministry said that while cases in the states of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab, as well as the federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir, were rising, the proportion of high-accuracy RT-PCR tests in those places was falling. Cases have also risen in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

In the past week, a third of India's 36 states and union territories have reported an average of more than 100 new cases each day, with Kerala and Maharashtra both reporting more than 4,000, in a trend experts link to the reopening of schools and suburban train services.

The government has also asked states to speed vaccinations for healthcare and frontline workers. Just about 11 million people have received one or two doses in a campaign that began on Jan. 16, versus a target of 300 million by August.

From March 1, India will start vaccinating people above 60 and those older than 45 with health conditions free of charge in about 10,000 government hospitals and for a fee in more than 20,000 private facilities, the government said.

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

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for confirmation.

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Multiple deaths in Haiti prison break, including jail director

Port-Au-Prince: Multiple people were killed Thursday in Haiti, including the director of a prison in the suburbs of capital Port-au-Prince, after several inmates escaped, police said.

"Division inspector Paul Hector Joseph, who is in charge of the civil prison of Croix des Bouquets, was killed in the prison," Gary Desrosiers, the spokesperson for the Haitian national police, told AFP.

"Multiple prisoners have escaped," he added, without specifying the number.

At least six people were shot dead in the streets near the prison, an AFP photographer observed. The victims' identities could not be determined.

Around midday, inmates at the prison in the heart of downtown said they heard bursts of gunfire.

Photos and videos showing men escaping the jail quickly went viral on social media.

Employees at second-hand clothing stores located in a market adjacent to the prison told an AFP photographer that they were forced to give their merchandise to the escaped prisoners.

A large police force was mobilised to the prison, regaining control of the building in the afternoon.

In 2014, more than 300 inmates successfully escaped the high-security prison, which was built with Canadian funding and opened in 2012.

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Man held for allegedly killing mother, looting jewellery in India

Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh): The 24-year-old son of a jeweller allegedly murdered his mother and looted valuables worth more than Rs10 million from her house in the Saroj Nagar Colony of Aligarh.

The accused, Yogesh, and his three associates, including two women, were arrested on Sunday and the stolen gold, diamond and silver jewellery was recovered from them.

According to the police, jeweller Kuldeep Verma’s son Yogesh, a commerce graduate, was living separately in a rented accommodation for the past six months after he tied a knot with a married woman, Sonam, against his parents’ wishes. He was also jobless.

He had asked his mother Kanchan for money on several occasions but she refused.

Facing financial issues, Yogesh chalked out a plan to loot his own house. His wife, Sonam, friend, Tanuj Chaudhary and Tanuj’s girlfriend, Shehjal Chauhan, were all part of the plot.

On Friday, Yogesh first dropped his pregnant wife at a doctor’s clinic for a check-up and then went to his parents’ house with Tanuj and Shehjal. While they dropped Shehjal a few metres away from the house to keep an eye outside, Yogesh and Tanuj went inside after Kanchan opened the door for her son.

During interrogation, Yogesh confessed that he told his mother that he had come to pick his clothes and then strangled her with her saree. They later dragged her body to the bathroom and cut a geyser pipe to make it look like an accident.

An unconscious Kanchan was found in the bathroom by a neighbour, who called on her and found the main door open.

She immediately informed the police who took her to hospital, where she was declared brought dead.

Kanchan’s husband, Kuldeep Verma, was in his shop at the time of the incident.

Circle officer (CO) Anil Samaniya told reporters that Yogesh had confessed to his crime and the looted jewellery worth Rs10 million along with Rs100,000 cash has been recovered from them.

The CO said that the cutter used to break a locker has also been recovered. He added that they were booked under IPC sections 302 (murder), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).

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Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed meets with Indian Minister of External Affairs in New Delhi

NEW DELHI: Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, met with Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Indian Minister of External Affairs, to discuss the historic UAE-India friendship ties and ways of enhancing joint cooperation and partnership to serve the mutual interests of the two countries and their people.

The two ministers reviewed the cooperation and coordination between the two countries in facing the COVID-19 pandemic and ways to support global efforts to ensure the delivery of vaccines to all countries.

The two sides also discussed regional and international issues of common interest and exchanged views on them.

Sheikh Abdullah affirmed the depth of the Emirati-Indian relations and the UAE’s keenness, with the support and patronage of its wise leadership, to strengthen and develop them in all fields.

Dr. Jaishankar hosted a lunch in honour of Sheikh Abdullah and his delegation.

Dr. Ahmed Al Banna, the UAE Ambassador to India, also attended the meeting.

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Indian climate activist Disha Ravi granted bail in sedition case over farm protests

New Delhi: A New Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to 22-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi, who was arrested for sedition over the creation of an online toolkit to help protesting farmers.

Judge Dharmender Rana said there was little to hold Ravi, a founder of the local chapter of Swedish climate crusader Greta Thunberg’s movement, in custody any longer.

Her arrest at home in the southern city of Bengaluru earlier this month stoked criticism of repression of dissent.

Police said she was involved in producing and disseminating an action plan that sparked violence during farmers’ protests in Delhi. Her lawyers said the arrest was illegal and there was nothing seditious in the toolkit.

“Considering the scanty and sketchy evidence on record, I do not find any palpable reason for keeping a 22-year-old in custody,” Rana told a packed courtroom.

Ravi’s arrest came as the government has been trying to get farmers to back down from a campaign that has drawn support around India and from abroad.

Tens of thousands have been camped out on the outskirts of New Delhi in bitter cold since December to protest new agricultural laws they say will hurt them to the benefit of large corporations.

The government says the reforms will bring new investment in the vast and antiquated agriculture produce markets.

Rana ordered the granting of bail to Ravi subject to furnishing two sureties of 100,000 Indian rupees ($1,379.96) each.

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COVID-19: Pakistan eases restrictions following drop in new infections

Islamabad: In view of the declining new cases of COVID-19 in Pakistan, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has allowed commercial activities across the country but on a limited scale and under all the coronavirus health protocols.

According to a statement, the NCOC after a comprehensive review of the existing situation of COVID-19, has decided to grant permission to the marriage halls to hold indoor wedding ceremonies from March 15. Similarly, cinemas, theatres and shrines have also been allowed to resume normal working from mid-March.

The NCOC has also removed the 50 per cent attendance condition at workplaces with immediate effect.

The list of relaxations includes the permission to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold local bodies’ polls in May or June this year.

The NCOC has also increased the upper limit of spectators’ number attending Pakistan Super League (PSL) matches to 50 per cent from the present 20pc and also approved full attendance under SOPs during play-offs with stringent standard operating procedures.

Indoor dining

The decision to allow indoor dining to the restaurants however, has been delayed. According to the NCOC statement another meeting will be held on March 10 to review the situation. However, the statement said the decisions could be reviewed in case infection rate rose again.

Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood on Thursday announced that schools across the country would resume regular 5-day classes from Monday, March 1.

By returning to the normal hours, the schools will end almost a year of online classes which were implemented to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a tweet, Shafqat Mehmood shared the ‘important’ news that all schools would go back to regular 5-day classes from Monday March 1.

“Restrictions imposed in some major cities on schools to conduct staggered classes were only till Feb 28,” the minister further announced.

Pakistan on Thursday reported 64 deaths and 1,361 new cases of COVID-19 during the past 24 hours. With these latest figures, the tally of cases has surged to 575,941 and the death toll has reached 12,772.

According to the official portal of the Health Ministry, the number of critical cases too has increased from 1,200 to 1,500 in the country while the active cases stand at 23,281.

In the same period of twenty-four hours 1,681 persons were recovered too from the virus taking the overall tally of recoveries to 539,888.

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Australia says Facebook to restore pages after changes to landmark legislation

Canberra: Facebook Inc will restore Australian news pages in the next few days after Canberra agreed to amend legislation that would force the social media giant to pay media companies for news content.

Australia and Facebook have been locked in a stand-off for more than a week as Canberra pushed ahead with the measure, aimed at tech behemoths, such as Facebook and Alphabet Inc's Google.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Facebook said a compromise had been reached on key aspects of the law, which was fiercely opposed by the tech companies.

"As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism, and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days," said Will Easton, managing director of Facebook Australia.

The social media firm sparked global outrage last week by blacking out news for its Australian users and inadvertently blocking a series of non-news Facebook pages linked to everything from cancer charities to emergency response services.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison had angrily accused Facebook of making a decision to "unfriend" Australia.

But the last minute compromise - as parliament looks set to pass the law this week - means that Facebook and Google, which was also targetted, will not be penalised so long as they reach some deals with local media firms to pay for news.

They will also get an additional two months to broker those agreements.

"We're pleased that we've been able to reach an agreement with the Australian government and appreciate the constructive discussions we've had" said Easton.

Precedent-setting 

The tech firms had fiercely opposed the legislation from the get-go, fearing it would create international precedent that would threaten their business models.

"There is no doubt that Australia has been a proxy battle for the world," said Frydenberg.

In particular, the companies objected to rules that made negotiations with media companies mandatory and gave an independent Australian arbiter the right to impose a settlement.

Google was keen to avoid creating a precedent that platforms should pay anyone for links, something they could make their flagship search engine unworkable.

Facebook - which is much less reliant on news content - had said being forced to pay for news was simply not worth it.

"We have come to an agreement that will allow us to support the publishers we choose to, including small and local publishers," said Facebook vice president for global news partnerships Campbell Brown.

Despite earlier threats to pull its services from Australia over the legislation, Google had already softened its stance and brokered deals worth millions of dollars with a host of local media companies, including the two largest: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and Nine Entertainment.

Facebook and Google still face the prospect of having to agree deals with media around the world, as the European Union, Canada and other jurisdictions move to regulate the sector.

Since their emergence around the turn of the century, Google and Facebook have been largely unregulated and have grown into two of the world's largest and most profitable companies.

But a string of scandals about misinformation, privacy violations, data harvesting and their virtual monopoly on online advertising has triggered the attention of watchdogs.

For every $100 (Dh367) spent by Australian advertisers today, $49 goes to Google and $24 to Facebook, according to the country's competition watchdog.

Critics of the law have said it is punishing successful companies and amounts to a money grab by struggling but politically connected traditional media.

They also lament that there is no requirement in the law that money gained by the media companies from Facebook and Google be spent on expanding public interest journalism rather than just boost profits.

Thousands of journalism jobs and scores of news outlets have been lost in Australia alone over the past decade as the sector watched advertising revenue flow to the digital players.

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Doctor appears in court video call while performing surgery

Sacramento, California: The Medical Board of California said it would investigate a plastic surgeon who appeared in a videoconference for his traffic violation trial while operating.

The Sacramento Bee reports Dr. Scott Green appeared Thursday for his Sacramento Superior Court trial, held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic, from an operating room. He was dressed in surgical scrubs with a patient undergoing the procedure just out of view" the beeps of medical machinery can be heard in the background.

"Hello, Mr. Green? Hi. Are you available for trial?" asked a courtroom clerk as an officer summoned to appear in trial raised her eyebrows. "It kind of looks like you're in an operating room right now?"

"I am, sir," Green replied. "Yes, I'm in an operating room right now. Yes, I'm available for trial. Go right ahead."

The clerk reminded Green the proceedings were being livestreamed because traffic trials are required by law to be open to the public, and Green said he understood. He appeared to continue working with his head down while waiting for Court Commissioner Gary Link to enter the chamber.

When Link appeared and saw the doctor on the screen, the judge hesitated to proceed with the trial out of concern for the welfare of the patient.

"I have another surgeon right here who's doing the surgery with me, so I can stand here and allow them to do the surgery also," Green said.

The judge said he didn't think it was appropriate to conduct trial under the circumstances. He told Green he'd rather set a new date for trial "when you're not actively involved or participating and attending to the needs of a patient."

Green apologized.

"Sometimes, surgery doesn't always go as," he said before the judge interrupted him.

"It happens. We want to keep people healthy, we want to keep them alive. That's important," Link said.

The board said it would look into the incident, saying it "expects physicians to follow the standard of care when treating their patients."

A call seeking comment from Green has not been returned.

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Iran rejects idea of informal US nuclear deal talks

Dubai: Iran on Sunday ruled out holding an informal meeting with the United States and other major powers to discuss ways to salvage the unravelling 2015 nuclear deal, insisting Washington must first lift all its unilateral sanctions.

“Considering the recent actions and statements by the United States and three European powers, Iran does not consider this the time to hold an informal meeting with these countries, which was proposed by the EU foreign policy chief,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said, according to Iranian media.

The United States said it was disappointed but remained ready to “re-engage in meaningful diplomacy” and would consult with the other major powers to seek a way forward.

Iranian officials had said Tehran was studying a proposal by European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to hold an informal meeting with other parties to the nuclear pact and the United States, which reimposed sanctions on Iran after then-President Donald Trump quit the deal in 2018.

The new administration of President Joe Biden has said it is ready to talk to Iran about both nations resuming compliance with the accord, which scrapped broad economic sanctions against Iran in return for curbs intended to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons — something Iran says it does not want.

But the parties cannot agree who should make the first move.

Iran says the United States must lift sanctions, while Washington says Tehran must return to compliance with the deal, which Iran has been progressively breaching since 2019.

A White House spokeswoman said Washington remained keen to achieve a “mutual return to compliance” with the deal.

She said it would consult with the major powers that are also parties to the deal — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — on the best way forward.

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Rahul Gandhi ventures into the sea with fishermen in Kerala

Kollam: Seeking to reach out to the fishing community in poll-bound Kerala, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday interacted with fishermen at Thangassery beach in the district.

Gandhi, who had been touring the state for the last two days, also ventured into the sea with the fisherfolk in their boat.

After beginning his journey from Vadi beach here by 4.30am, he spent nearly an hour with them before reaching the venue of interaction.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi shows the victory sign after catching fish with fishermen, at Thangassery Beach in Kollam on Wednesday, February 24, 2021. Image Credit: ANI

He also cast the net and engaged in fishing along with them.

Clad in blue T-shirt and khaki trousers, the Congress leader could be seen waving hands to the onlookers from the boat while reaching back to the shores.

AICC general secretary K C Venugopal and T N Prathapan MP, also chairman of National Fishermen Congress, accompanied him during his sea journey.

During the interaction, Gandhi said he always wanted to experience the life of fishermen.

“Early this morning, I went to sea with my brothers. From the moment the boat went and came back, they took the entire risk, their entire labour. They go to the sea, buy the net and somebody else gets the profit,” Gandhi said.

“We tried to fish but got only one. Even with this investment, the net came back empty. This was my experience,” he added.

Gandhi further said he would strive to have a separate ministry for fisheries at the Centre.

“So that the issues of fishing community can be defended and protected,” he said adding that the UDF leaders in the state would soon hold discussions with the fisherfolk to prepare a separate manifesto for them during the impending assembly polls.

Taking a dig at the LDF government apparently over the ongoing controversy related to the alleged deep sea fishing contract, the Congress leader said he would like to see what they were going to do with the trawlers.

“I am for competition, but not for unfair competition. So, there should be a level playing field for everyone,” he added.

Gandhi’s interaction with the fishermen assumes significance as the Congress-led UDF has raised allegations against the Left government in the state over an alleged deep sea fishing contract with a US-based company.

In the wake of the controversy, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had directed the officials concerned to cancel the MoU between EMCC, the US-based firm and Kerala State Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINC), a public sector undertaking and probe the circumstances under which it was signed.

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US: Why a plane's engine exploded over Denver

The investigation into an engine explosion on a jetliner taking off from Denver is focusing on a fan blade that appeared to be weakened by wear and tear, a development reminiscent of a fatal failure on board another plane in 2018.

These and other recent engine failures raise questions over long-held assumptions about how long fan blades last and whether they are being inspected often enough.

A Boeing 777 operated by United Airlines had to make an emergency landing in Denver after one of its engines blew apart, spewing huge chunks of wreckage that landed in neighbourhoods and sports fields. Passengers captured video of the crippled engine, wobbling and still on fire, as pilots made a safe return to the airport minutes after the plane bound for Hawaii took off.

What happened?

Investigators said late Monday that two fan blades in the Pratt & Whitney engine broke off and one of them showed signs of metal fatigue, or hairline cracks from the stress of wear and tear. They believe the weakened blade broke off first, then chipped off half of an adjacent blade.

Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the agency's investigators will examine maintenance records for the engine and fan blades. He said fan blade pieces - including one found on a football field in a Denver suburb - will be examined on Tuesday in a Pratt & Whitney laboratory.

Federal Aviation Administration head Stephen Dickson said inspectors quickly determined that inspections should be done more frequently for the type of hollow fan blades in certain Pratt & Whitney engines that are used on some Boeing 777s.

As a result, 69 planes and another 59 in storage were grounded in the US, Japan and South Korea, the only countries with planes using this particular engine. United, the only US carrier with affected planes, said it grounded 24 Boeing 777s and 28 others will remain parked. Japanese regulators ordered Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways to ground 32 planes, and South Korea's Korean Air and Asiana Airlines said Monday they will ground their Boeing 777s.

What are investigators looking into?

Safety experts said the investigation will focus on why the fan blades snapped - whether mistakes were made in manufacturing or maintenance or if problems were missed during inspections - and whether blade inspections need to be done differently or more often. They will compare Saturday's incident with similar ones in December in Japan and in 2018 on another United flight to Hawaii.

Investigators will also look at why the cowling, which covers the front of the engine, broke off along with other parts. Photos showed a large gash in the fairing, a piece of composite material that makes planes more aerodynamic by smoothing out joints where the body meets the wings.

“That was a substantial hit,'' said John Goglia, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating Saturday's incident. “If that had hit the wing, things might have been different because the wing is full of fuel'' and the broken engine was still on fire.

Sumwalt said, however, that “there was no structural damage'' to the plane.

Another concern: The engine remained on fire even after pilots presumably shut off its fuel supply. That could indicate a fuel leak, said Todd Curtis, a former Boeing engineer and now a safety consultant.

How much danger were passengers in?

Safety experts were alarmed because debris blew off the disintegrating engine, creating shrapnel that can damage key systems like hydraulic lines or hit the passenger cabin.

The last accident-related death on a US airline flight occurred in 2018, when a broken fan blade triggered an engine breakup on a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737. Part of the engine housing struck and broke a window. The passenger in the window seat was blown halfway outside and died of her injuries. That engine was made by a different company, CFM International, a joint venture of General Electric and France's Safran S.A.

On Saturday, none of the 231 passengers or 10 crew members were hurt.

Have there been similar incidents?

Hours before the Denver flight, a Boeing 747 cargo plane in the Netherlands suffered an engine failure that resulted in engine parts falling to the ground. Although the plane has Pratt & Whitney engines, they are different from those on some Boeing 777s, and nothing yet shows any similarity to the problem on the United plane, said Janet Northcote, a spokeswoman for the European Aviation Safety Agency.

Other mishaps appear to be closely related to the Denver incident, however.

In December, a Japan Airlines Boeing 777 with the same series Pratt & Whitney engines suffered fan blade damage and lost a large panel but was able to land safely.

In 2018, another United Airlines Boeing 777 suffered an engine failure that caused parts of the housing to break off and fall into the Pacific Ocean as the plane flew from San Francisco to Honolulu. In a report last year on the incident, the NTSB said Pratt & Whitney missed signs of cracking in previous inspections of the fan blade that broke, and it faulted the company's training. The company told the NTSB it was fixing the shortcomings.

Will this hurt boeing?

Cai von Rumohr, an aviation analyst with Cowen, said events around Saturday's flight will be a bigger issue for Pratt & Whitney's parent company, Raytheon, than for Boeing. Still, he said, it's “probably not a major negative'' for Raytheon because it affects a relatively small number of planes and the engines have been used for many years.

Other experts said Boeing could be in the spotlight too as investigators look into why the cowling separated from the engine. “That cowling is a Boeing design, it's not the engine manufacturer's design,'' said Jeff Guzzetti, former director of the FAA's accident investigation division.

Boeing's reputation has been battered since 2018 by two deadly crashes of another plane, the 737 Max.

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US ‘gravely concerned’ over Tigray situation, says Blinken

Washington: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday condemned alleged atrocities committed in Ethiopia’s Tigray and called on the African Union and other international partners to help address the crisis in the conflict-hit region.

His comments came a day after a report by Amnesty International alleging Eritrean soldiers fighting in Tigray had killed hundreds of people in November last year in what the rights group described as a likely crime against humanity.

“The United States is gravely concerned by reported atrocities and the overall deteriorating situation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia,” Blinken said in a statement.

“We are also deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian crisis.”

Tigray has been the theater of fighting since early November, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced military operations against the northern region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, accusing it of attacking federal army camps.

Pro-government troops took the regional capital Mekele in late November but clashes have persisted in the region.

“We ask international partners, especially the African Union and regional partners, to work with us to address the crisis in Tigray, including through action at the UN and other relevant bodies,” Blinken said.

All parties

He called for the “immediate withdrawal” of Eritrean forces and Amhara regional forces from Tigray and unilateral declarations of a cessation of hostilities by all parties.

The presence of Eritrean troops in Ethiopia in the Tigray conflict has been widely documented but has been denied by both countries.

Eritrea has rejected Amnesty’s allegations.

Blinken in early February had voiced grave concern over Tigray and urged immediate humanitarian access.

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Toolkit case: Disha Ravi sent to one-day police remand

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Monday sought the custody of climate activist Disha Ravi for five more days in connection with the 'Toolkit' case.

The climate activist was produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma of the Patiala House Court at the end of her three-day judicial custody, amid high security.

Disha Ravi faces charges of conspiracy and sedition in the 'Toolkit' conspiracy case related to the farmers' agitation and was arrested from Bengaluru on February 13.

In the last hearing, the police had told the court that her custody would be required on February 22 to confront her with co-accused Shantanu Muluk.

Muluk and another accused Nikita Jacob joined the investigation into the case at Delhi Police's Cyber Cell office in Dwarka earlier in the day. They were issued a notice to join the probe, last week.

The police said that their confrontation was required as she gave evasive replies during the five-day police custody following her arrest and shifted the blame onto Shantanu and another co-accused Nikita Jacob.

The Delhi Police have contended that the google document tweeted by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg to back the farmers' protest and then deleted, was created by Ravi and two other activists -- Jacob and Muluk.

A 'Toolkit' is a series of guidelines suggesting how a particular aim can be achieved. Toolkits chart out plans of action explaining topics at hand and offer suggestions that could be followed to achieve particular goals.

Notably, the order on Ravi's bail application will be pronounced on Tuesday. During the three-hour-long bail hearing on February 20, the police said that the 'Toolkit' was a sinister design to defame India and cause violence.

"Poetic Justice Foundation and Sikhs For Justice in order to hide their involvement, used Disha Ravi as a front to carry out nefarious activity," Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju told the court, adding that these organizations were connected to the Khalistani movement.

The Delhi Police further told the city court that Ravi Disha covered her track and deleted evidence like contents of the Toolkit and a WhatsApp group, which the public prosecutor emphasized shows her "guilty mind".

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Brazil trans twins undergo gender confirmation surgery together

SAO PAULO: Growing up as identical twins, Mayla and Sofia always did everything together, and their decision to undergo gender confirmation surgery is no exception.

The 19-year-old twins, who grew up in a small town in southeastern Brazil, both say they “never identified as boys.”

Now, they have made the transition they long dreamed of together, in what their doctor calls a first.

“This is the only reported case in the world” of twins who were presumed to be male at birth undergoing female gender confirmation surgery together, said Dr Jose Carlos Martins of the Transgender Center Brazil, a clinic in the southeastern city of Blumenau.

Martins performed the five-hour surgery on the twins one day apart.

A week later, the euphoric young women smiled, joked and shed tears as they talked about their shared journey in a video-conference interview with AFP.

“I always loved my body, but I didn’t like my genitalia,” said Mayla Rezende, a brunette who is studying medicine in Argentina.

“I would blow dandelion seeds into the air and wish for God to turn me into a girl,” she said.

When she saw herself after her surgery, she wept, she said.

Her sister, Sofia Albuquerck, is more reserved.

But their camaraderie is clear. They finish each other’s sentences while sharing stories of how they supported each other through the bullying, sexual harassment and violence they were subjected to in childhood and adolescence.

‘Most transphobic country’

“We live in the most transphobic country in the world,” said Albuquerck, a blonde who is studying civil engineering in Sao Paulo.

There were 175 trans people murdered in Brazil last year, the most of any country, according to the National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals (Antra).

Sofia Albuquerck and Mayla Rezende Image Credit: AFP

Latin America’s largest country is known for a strong culture of machismo and overt homophobia, not least on the part of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

The twins were born in Tapira, a town of 4,000 people in the state of Minas Gerais.

They still bear the emotional scars of their difficult childhoods: to this day, they live in fear of abuse. But they always had the support of their family, they said.

“Our parents weren’t afraid of what we were, they were afraid that people would mistreat us,” said Rezende.

Their grandfather is the one who paid for their surgeries. He auctioned off a property he owned to pay the 100,000-reais ($20,000) bill.

Their mother, Mara Lucia da Silva, said it was “a relief” when her twins came out as trans.

“I don’t even remember thinking of them as boys. To me, they were always girls,” she said.

She recalled taking them to doctors and psychologists as children.

“In my heart, I always knew they were girls, and that they were suffering,” said the 43-year-old school secretary, who has two other daughters.

“I’m upset with myself for never giving them a doll or a dress, for not making them happier when they were girls,” she said.

But the twins said their mother was a rock of support.

“Whenever someone did something to us in the street, the first thing we wanted to do was go home and tell our mom, for her to give us a hug,” said Rezende.

“She was like a lioness. She always protected us fiercely.”

Proud women

Rezende and Albuquerck - one has their father’s surname, the other that of the grandfather who financed their surgeries - were originally planning to go to Thailand for the operation.

But then Rezende found the Transgender Center, which opened in 2015.

Gender confirmation surgery has been covered by Brazil’s public health system since 2011. But only five public hospitals perform the procedure, and the waiting list is long.

This handout picture released by the Transgender Centre Brazil shows Brazilian doctor Jose Martins posing for a picture as he holds a book about transgenders written by him, in Blumenau, Brazil, on July 8, 2020. Image Credit: AFP

Going through a private clinic enabled the twins to have the surgery sooner.

“I’m proud to be a trans woman. I’ve lived in fear of society for too long. Now I’m asking for respect,” said Rezende, who keeps a picture of Saint Sebastian, the Christian martyr, with her constantly.

Albuquerck, who is also religious, said that she believes “God created souls, not bodies.”

“I want to help people see that we’re human beings, too,” she said.

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Profile: Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

The Duke of Edinburgh remains in hospital for a period of "observation and rest". He was admitted to hospital in London on February 16 for an undisclosed reason although it is not related to coronavirus.

Prince Philip, who turns 100 on June 10, has been spending the latest lockdown with Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle where both received COVID vaccinations in January.

The duke was said to be in good spirits when he entered the King Edward VII Hospital in central London "as a precautionary measure" after feeling unwell.

Image Credit: Vijith Pulikkal/Gulf News | Graphic News

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El Salvador’s Bukele poised for majority in mid-term votes

San Salvador: Salvadorans went to the polls on Sunday to vote in legislative and municipal elections that could give a broad victory to President Nayib Bukele’s party, consolidating his overhaul of traditional politics.

Opinion polls show that Bukele’s party, New Ideas, could win more than half of the mayoral positions, and enough seats to hold at least a simple majority in Congress.

A two-thirds majority in Congress would let the party appoint high-level government officials, such as the attorney general and five of the 15 Supreme Court justices.

Bukele, a 39-year-old publicist and city mayor, took office in 2019 promising to root out corruption and upend the two-party politics - led by the Nationalist Republican Alliance and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front - that has dominated since the end of the civil war in 1992.

Despite garnering popularity by providing economic support during the pandemic and curbing homicides, Bukele has clashed with both the legislature and the Supreme Court, and rights groups say he has shown authoritarian tendencies.

Blank check

Wilson Sandoval, coordinator of El Salvador’s Anticorruption Legal Advisory Center, said it would be important to maintain a counterweight to the executive branch.

Voting Bukele would essentially take away an entity that can control the executive, Sandoval said, and so “we are giving them a blank check so they can do whatever they want.” Bukele has said his rivals are fearful because his policies threaten their privileges.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. (1300 GMT) and are slated to close at 5 p.m. (2300 GMT), with voters set to vote for 84 lawmakers and 262 mayors.

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Pakistan: Jailed lawyer facing charges of attack on IHC building elected President of IHC Bar

Islamabad: A lawyer currently in jail and facing charges of storming the Islamabad High Court (IHC) building has been elected President of Islamabad High Court (IHC) Bar Association for the year 2021-22.

The victory of a ‘trouble-maker’ advocate to the top slot of the Bar indicates that the current lawyers-judges differences are not going to resolve in the coming days as both the sides are sticking to their stance.

The newly-elected president Zahid Mehmood Raja has won against Naveed Hayat Malik who is also in jail facing the similar charges.

They are among 400 lawyers who allegedly stormed the IHC building on Feb 8, injuring the IHC’s staff. They were protesting against demolition of their chambers by the Islamabad administration and demanding action against them.

Football ground

The administration on the other hand said the chambers were constructed on a football ground and thus were illegal and an encroachment on government land.

Chief Justice Athar Minallah who was in his chamber on that day was taken hostage by the protesting lawyers and was released only after the invention of the judges of the IHC and senior lawyers.

After the incident took place, Justice Minallah declared there would be zero tolerance against the lawyers who showed disrespect to the court as well as the law of the land.

He directed the police to register cases against them. The court also initiated contempt proceedings against them.

The Islamabad Police registered an FIR against 21 lawyers under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

Twelve of them were arrested but later three were released on bail. Police a day earlier again arrested two more lawyers for storming the court’s building and vandalizing the Chief Justice Block.

Currently there are 11 lawyers behind the bars. In Saturday’s elections of the IHCBA, Zahid Mehmood Raja secured 585 votes while Naveed Malik bagged 486 votes.

According to the results, Tasadduq Hanif was elected Secretary of the Bar with 767 against 298 votes of Chaudhry Tanveer Akhtar. Tasadduq Hanif is also facing charges of contempt of court and a case of attack on the IHC building.

Withdrawal cases

The Islamabad Bar Council (IBC), IHCBA and the District Bar Association in a joint statement have already called for withdrawal of cases against these lawyers.

The outgoing secretary of the IHC Bar, Sohail Chaudhry while talking to Gulf News on Sunday termed the victory of Zahid Raja and Tasadduq Hanif a show of confidence by the 2,163 members of the IHC bar in their leadership.

About the issue of the arrested lawyers and addressing the lack of confidence between the bench and the bar, he hoped the new cabinet would address the issue in a mature and professional way.

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India medical panel slams health minister Harsh Vardhan for endorsing Patanjali’s Coronil as treatment for COVID-19

New Delhi: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Monday came down heavily on Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan for endorsing Patanjali’s Coronil which was relaunched as treatment of COVID-19, a claim questioned by the World Health Organisation.

“As per the code of the Medical Council of India, which binds the code of conduct of every modern medical doctor, no doctor can promote any drug. However, it is surprising that the health minister, who himself is a modern medicine doctor, was found promoting the drug,” the association said.

The IMA said that the false and fabricated projection of an unscientific medicine made in the presence of the country’s health minister, later rejected by the WHO is a slap and insult to the whole nation.

The association questioned the Union Health Minister’s ethics as a physician and health minister of the country for making an appearance at the launch event organised by Ayurvedic drug firm Patanjali run by Yoga guru Ramdev.

The association mentioned a clause under the National Medical commission (erstwhile MCI) which prohibits a physician from promoting a drug.

“Under section 6:1:1, a physician shall not give to any person, whether for compensation or otherwise, any approval, recommendation, endorsement, certificate, report or statement with respect of any drug, medicine, with his name, signature, or photograph in any form or manner of advertising through any mode nor shall he boast of cases, operations, cures or remedies or permit the publication of report thereof through any mode,” the IMA specified.

The association said that it will write to the NMC for seeking suo moto explanation for Harsh Vardhan’s “blatant disrespect to the code of conduct of Medical council of India”.

In a grand launch event held on February 19, where Harsh Vardhan and Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari were also present, Patanjali had billed Coronil tablets as the “first evidence-based medicine for COVID-19”.

In the event, Baba Ramdev, co-founder of the ayurvedic firm had claimed that the ayurvedic medicine has received certification from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which was later denied by the UN body in an official tweet.

At the launch event of Coronil, Patanjali said: “Coronil has received the Certificate of Pharmaceutical Product (CoPP) from the Ayush section of Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation as per the WHO certification scheme.”

Hours later, the WHO South-East Asia tweeted: “WHO has not reviewed or certified the effectiveness of any traditional medicine for the treatment of COVID-19”.

Now when the WHO rejected the claims, Patanjali’s CEO Acharya Balkrishna made a clarification on Twitter. He wrote: “We want to clarify to avoid confusion that our WHO GMP compliant COPP certificate to Coronil is issued by DCGI, Government of India”.

Balkrishna also added that “WHO does not approve or disapprove of any drugs. Instead, it works for building a better and healthier future for people all over the world”.

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Boeing confirms all 777s with same PW engine grounded

Paris: Some 128 Boeing 777 aircraft using the same Pratt & Whitney engine which failed on a flight out of Denver have now been grounded, a spokeswoman for the giant US planemaker confirmed on Monday.

"I have just had confirmation that all the 777s equipped with this engine have been grounded," she said in a text message to AFP.

As well as United Airlines, the PW4000 engine type was also used by Japan's ANA and JAL groups, plus South Korea's Asiana Airlines.

In a statement Sunday, the company had recommended that all the aircraft concerned should be grounded as US regulators investigated a United Airlines flight which was forced to return to Denver airport after one of its engines caught fire and broke up.

A video shot from inside the aircraft - which had 231 passengers and 10 crew onboard - showed the right engine ablaze and wobbling on the wing of the Boeing 777-200.

Its front cowling - which landed in the front yard of a house, missing it by inches, was entirely missing as the aircraft returned to Denver airport.

There were no injuries on the plane or on the ground, authorities said.

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Gunmen kill four female aid workers in northwest Pakistan

Peshawar: Four women aid workers were gunned down Monday in a restive part of northwestern Pakistan, police said, as a fresh wave of extremist violence rattles the Afghan borderlands.

The aid workers were ambushed by two gunmen as they were driving through a village in North Waziristan district, according to local police chief Shafiullah Gandapur, who said just one passenger survived the assault.

“No one has claimed responsibility for the attack so far but it was surely an act of terrorism,” he told AFP.

Gandapur said the aid workers were affiliated with a programme run by a local institute to develop household skills for women.

The incident and death toll was confirmed by Rasul Khan, another local police official.

The so-called tribal areas along the Afghan border remain notorious for the availability of cheap guns, drugs and smuggled goods.

The region was once home to a wide array of jihadist groups and was a focal point in the global war on terror.

Massive operation

Attacks have decreased in recent years following a series of military offensives against homegrown and foreign militants.

In 2014, the army launched a massive operation to wipe out militant bases in North Waziristan aimed at ending a near decade-long insurgency that cost thousands of lives.

But militant groups are still able to carry out sporadic, isolated assaults.

A recent surge in attacks targeting security forces along the Afghan border has sparked fears that jihadist groups may be regrouping.

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Hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped in northwest Nigeria

Abuja: Kidnappers have abducted hundreds of schoolgirls in northwest Nigeria’s Zamfara state, a spokesman for the state governor said on Friday.

This is the second such kidnapping in a little over a week in Nigeria’s north, where a surge in armed militancy in the northwest has led to a widespread and worsening breakdown of security.

A teacher said that at least 300 learners were taken during the Friday morning attack.

Last week, unidentified gunmen killed a student in an overnight attack on a boarding school in the north-central Nigerian state of Niger and kidnapped 42 people, including 27 students. The hostages are yet to be released.

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Indian newspapers ask Google to pay publishers 85% of ad revenues

Dubai: India’s largest media body - representing more than 1,000 newspapers with 71 million copies in circulation in 19 languages - has asked Google to share at least 85 per cent of the digital giant’s advertising revenue with publishers.

The demand from the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) came on Thursday in a letter written by its president L. Adimoolam to Google India vice-president and country head Sanjay Gupta.

Noting that Indian publishers continued to invest heavily to support “quality journalism with credible news, current affairs, analysis, information and entertainment”, Adimoolam said that the proprietary content generated out of this expensive and rigorous process ultimately provided Google its credibility and authenticity in India.

Clear lack of transparency

However, in return, Indian media publishers were facing a very opaque advertising system, as they were unable to get details of Google’s advertising value chain, he said.

“The Society insisted that Google should increase the publisher share of advertising revenue to 85 per cent, and also ensure more transparency in the revenue reports provided to publishers by Google,” the INS said in a statement made available to Gulf News. “The society has demanded Google should pay for news generated by the newspapers which employ thousands of journalists on the ground, at considerable expense, for gathering and verifying information.”

The letter was sent on the same day that Australia’s parliament passed a law to make Google and Facebook pay media companies for content on their platforms. Countries like the UK and Canada are also mulling similar laws.

“In the dialogue we are having with Google for the past three months, we are trying to figure out an appropriate monetisation model that would work out in favour of both parties,” Mohit Jain, vice-president of INS, told Gulf News in a phone interview from Mumbai. “Over time, if this approach does not work out, some publishers are also looking at working with the government for legislative support on the same.”

Australian government has shown the way in taking on digital media giants and have them pay for part of the content they place on their platforms. Image Credit: Reuters

Fast paced growth

According to a FICCI-EY 2020 report, India’s digital news readership has grown to more than 300 million users and the country remains the world’s fastest-growing advertising market. Ad revenues of Facebook and Google in India rose to $1.58 billion in FY19, with the two companies garnering nearly 70 per cent market share of India’s online advertising space. According to Dentsu Aegis, India’s online ad spend is expected to reach $3.87 billion by 2022.

But beleaguered Indian media companies have seen major layoffs and shut down of operations since the pandemic-triggered lockdown last year, and are now looking up to the government to enact legislation similar to Australia to make Google and Facebook share ad revenues.

“It is also noted that Google has recently agreed to better compensate and pay publishers in France, the European Union and notably in Australia,” the INS said. “However, newspaper publishers [in India] are seeing their share of the advertising pie shrinking in the digital space, even as Google is taking a giant share of advertising spends,” the society said.

India's news publishing industry is at a critical juncture. While digital readership has shot up significantly, there is limited gains on the revenue side for the content creators. Image Credit: AFP

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Philippines extends partial coronavirus curbs in capital until end-March

Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has extended partial coronavirus curbs in the capital until the end of March, as the country awaits the arrival of vaccines, the presidential spokesman said on Saturday.

With southeast Asia’s second-highest tally of infections and deaths, the Philippines has suffered lengthy, strict lockdowns in Manila and provinces, hitting an economy that was among Asia’s fastest growing before the pandemic.

Curbs will stay for another month in Manila, which accounts for 40% of national economic output, the spokesman, Harry Roque, said in a statement. Also under partial curbs are Duterte’s southern home city of Davao, and the northern city of Baguio.

New infections

The curbs limit operations of businesses and public transport. The decision follows a report of 2,651 new virus infections, the highest daily increase in more than four months.

Despite calls to further re-open the economy, the firebrand leader has pledged to maintain curbs in the virus epicentre of Manila until mass vaccinations begin.

The Philippines will be the last regional nation to get its first shipment of vaccines, comprising 600,000 doses of Sinovac Biotech’s vaccines donated by China, to be delivered on Sunday, and earmarked for healthcare workers and troops.

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India announces new guidelines to curb misuse of social media platforms

New Delhi: The Indian government on Thursday announced new rules to curb misuse of social media platforms, as it mandated firms to appoint grievance officers, disclose the first originator of the mischievous information and remove, within 24 hours, content depicting nudity or morphed pictures of women.

Concerns have been raised about rampant abuse of social media platforms and spread of fake news and the government is bringing in a "soft touch" regulation, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said while announcing the new guidelines.

As per the new rules, social media intermediaries have to appoint grievance officers, who shall register complaints in 24 hours. The grievance redressal official must be resident in India, and monthly compliance reports will have to be filed by social media platforms.

Social media platforms on being asked by court or government will be required to disclose the first originator of the mischievous information.

It was not immediately clear if this would mean messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Signal and others would have to break end-to-end encryption in India in order to comply.

Prasad said the new regulations were a "soft touch progressive institutional mechanism" required for the "security and sovereignty of India, public order, and rape or any other sexually explicit material."

"The government welcomes criticism of the government and the right to dissent, but it is very important that the users must be given a forum to raise their grievances against the abuse and misuse of social media," Prasad said during a televised news conference.

The new regulations are to take effect within three months. They also will apply to digital streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, which will have to set a "classification rating" to describe the content on their platforms.

Twitter found itself in a standoff with the government earlier this month when it refused to fully comply with a government order to remove some accounts, including those of news organisations, journalists, activists and politicians, citing its "principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression."

The government said the accounts - unspecified in number - were using provocative hashtags to spread misinformation about massive farmer protests.

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Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny to publish political thriller

Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state who ran against Donald Trump for president in 2016, is to publish a suspense thriller with Canadian author Louise Penny in October, publishers Simon & Schuster and St. Martin's Press said Tuesday.

’State of Terror’ will be on bookshelves on October 12, the publishers said, and will tell the story of a novice secretary of state serving in the administration of her political rival as a "series of terrorist attacks throws the global order into disarray."

Although the book's blurb makes no explicit mention of Trump, whose "America First" policy reined in the United States's global leadership role, the book is set "after four years of American leadership that shrank from the world stage."

"Writing a thriller with Louise is a dream come true," Clinton said in a statement. "I've relished every one of her books and their characters as well as her friendship. Now we're joining our experiences to explore the complex world of high stakes diplomacy and treachery. All is not as it first appears."

For her part, Penny said that writing with Clinton was "an incredible experience, to get inside the State Department. Inside the White House. Inside the mind of the Secretary of State as high stake crises explode."

"Before we started, we talked about her time as Secretary of State. What was her worst nightmare? STATE OF TERROR is the answer," she said.

By venturing into fiction, the former First Lady is following in the footsteps of her husband, former president Bill Clinton, who in June came out with a political novel, ‘The President's Daughter’, written with bestselling thriller writer James Patterson.

They had co-authored another book in 2018 called ‘The President is Missing’ about a terrorist cyberattack on the White House. It sold more than three million copies and is being adapted for television.

Penny is a bestselling author whose Inspector Armand Gamache books have been translated into 31 languages.

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US President Joe Biden revokes Trump ban on many 'Green Card' applicants

President Joe Biden revoked a series of executive orders and memos issued by Donald Trump, affecting policies on financial regulation, immigration, funding for so-called "anarchist" cities and architecture.

The actions were Biden's latest to erase Trump's legacy and reset the nation's course, without any involvement by Congress. In Biden's first week in office alone, he issued 39 executive actions, many of which overturned Trump orders.

The orders revoked by Biden include a 2017 measure signed by Trump directing the government to streamline regulations affecting the financial services industry, part of an effort to roll back the impact of the Dodd-Frank Act.  Biden's also targeted some of the most controversial executive actions Trump took during his final months in office.

Among them is the withdrawal of an executive order that used the coronavirus pandemic to halt the issuance of new green cards, a move that drastically cut legal immigration to the U.S. Trump - who unveiled the changes after originally tweeting that he would act to prohibit "immigration into our Country" - had argued the measures were necessary to protect the American economy as it recovered from the pandemic.

"To the contrary, it harms the United States, including by preventing certain family members of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents from joining their families here," Biden said in a presidential proclamation. "It also harms industries in the United States that utilize talent from around the world."

Biden had come under intense pressure from immigrant rights advocates to rescind Trump's immigration bans, which were set to expire at the end of March. Groups that favored lower levels of immigration said they were essential for protecting U.S. workers.

The president's proclamation, however, did not revoke a different set of Trump's pandemic-related restrictions on certain temporary worker visas, including H-1Bs, which technology companies use to hire coders and engineers from other countries. Business groups called on Biden to immediately lift those bans and leaders have grown frustrated that they have not yet been revoked, arguing the policies hurt U.S. companies.

Restrictions on guest-worker visas, which also cover non-agricultural seasonal laborers, au pairs and others, have been under review by the Biden administration and are due to expire at the end of March.

Biden also eliminated Trump's effort to identify cities he claimed were "permitting anarchy, violence and destruction" following anti-police brutality protests last summer, some of which involved violence and property destruction. Trump sought to cut federal funding to New York City, Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

Classical Architecture

And Biden scrapped a lame duck executive order that made classical architecture the preferred style for federal buildings in Washington. Trump's order stopped short of short of mandating that all new buildings conform to a classical style, but did require that they be "beautiful."

Finally, the president withdrew two Trump-era moves affecting federal workers: a 2018 executive order that allowed Pentagon leadership to limit the ability of civilian Department of Defense employees from collective bargaining, and a 2021 executive order that restricted the ability of career staff at government agencies from issuing regulations.

Any federal positions, committees, and task forces created in association with the orders would also be eliminated, the White House said.

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Biden nominates Indian-American lawyer Kiran Ahuja to head key federal personnel agency

Washington: President Joe Biden has tapped Kiran Arjandas Ahuja, a civil rights lawyer, activist and Obama-era veteran, to lead the Office of Personnel Management, a department the Trump administration tried to kill but is now expected to take on a high-profile role.

Ahuja, 49, served as the personnel agency’s chief of staff from 2015 to 2017 as it faced fallout from a massive data breach that compromised the personal information of millions of federal workers and contractors. Before that, she led the Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Obama White House.

Ahuja returned to federal personnel matters during the Biden transition as head of the team reviewing OPM and other agencies that deal with the federal workforce, taking a leave from her role as chief executive of Philanthropy Northwest, a regional philanthropic network of six northwestern states. Her nomination was announced Tuesday.

Ahuja would have a mandate to reverse course on former president Donald Trump’s policies on the civil service, which he and his top aides often derided as a “deep state” of Democratic bureaucrats. Many agencies lost experts in a range of fields during the Trump era, and Biden has pledged to revitalise the workforce.

The agency became deeply politicised under the Trump administration, which installed a record number of political appointees there as personnel policy was increasingly dictated by the White House. Trump’s last confirmed personnel chief, Dale Cabaniss, quit with no notice last year after five months on the job, following months of tension with political appointees installed by the White House to monitor how she ran the office.

Trump’s first chief, Jeff Tien Han Pon, was fired after seven months because he resisted the administration’s plan to dismantle the office and farm out its functions to other departments, including the White House.

OPM sets central policies ranging from hiring to firing for the 2.1 million executive branch workers and administers their retirement, insurance and other benefits.

The Trump administration had proposed gutting the agency by shifting most of its roughly 2,500 employees to the General Services Administration while moving its policymaking functions into the Office of Management and Budget, putting them under more direct White House control. A bipartisan move in Congress blocked those changes, although lawmakers agreed to move to the Defence Department thousands of employees who conduct background checks for prospective and current employees.

Weakened agency

Even as it was left mostly intact, the personnel agency found itself weakened by the Trump White House, which set a tone with numerous far-reaching policies to curb the power of the federal workforce and its unions.

Biden revoked them within days of taking office, stressing that rebuilding the civil service would be a priority for his government.

The Trump actions included presidential orders to restrict the role of unions in the federal workplace, limit employee protections in disciplinary cases to the minimum required by law, suspend diversity training pending a review of the content, and remove civil service protections from a large class of employees.

The office had only acting directors for all but about a quarter of Trump’s term, with two directors who were confirmed by the Senate each resigning after about six months. Trump’s last confirmed director resigned just as the coronavirus pandemic put new demands on federal agencies and turned unprecedented numbers of federal workers into teleworkers. The Senate did not act on a later nominee because of concerns about comments he had made while a political commentator.

“Kiran Ahuja brings a wealth of experience in federal personnel matters, and her record of advocacy on behalf of women of colour is reason for us to be optimistic that she will make it a priority to reverse the previous administration’s active undermining of diversity and inclusion efforts across the government,” Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing the workforce, said in a statement. “We look forward to working together with Ms. Ahuja to uphold merit systems and principles and rebuild the apolitical civil service.”

Critically important office

Max Stier, president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, called the personnel office “critically important to building a high-functioning federal workforce” in a statement and commended Biden for his commitment to “recruiting, retaining and honouring” the civil service.

Ahuja arrived at the agency during the Obama administration as it was hit by one of the federal government’s most far-reaching data breaches. The background investigation records of 4.2 million current, former and prospective federal employees and contractors were hacked, including personal information. It look the agency years to recover, and the incident, blamed on China, cost the agency’s director at the time her job.

Born to immigrants from India, Ahuja grew up in Savannah, Georgia, and went to work as an attorney for the Justice Department after law school. She left the government to become founding director of a nonprofit, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum.

Ahuja is a graduate of Spelman College and got her law degree from the University of Georgia.

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Pakistan: Four reverse osmosis water filtration plants reopened in Lyari

Karachi: The system of water supply to the impoverished and historic Lyari area of Karachi through a network of reverse osmosis (RO) filtration plants to treat the subsoil water has partially been made functional again.

Sindh Information and Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah inaugurated the four RO plants of Lyari along with the chief of Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KWSB) and local leaders of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) ruling in the province.

The RO plants are situated in the areas of Maripur Road, Grid station, Chakiwara, and Peoples’ Stadium in Lyari.

The Local Government Minister said at the inauguration ceremony that initially these RO plants would be used to supply 200,000 gallons clean drinking water daily to the residents of Lyari.

One million gallons

He said that by the month of June this year, the capacity of these RO plants would be increased to one million gallons daily of treated water.

He conceded the situation that availability of potable water had been the longstanding issue of Lyari.

He recalled that earlier the then president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari had gifted the network of RO plants for the residents of Lyari but these treatment facilities had become non-functional since 2019 due to various reasons.

The Local Government Minister said the Chairman of PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had issued special directives to him and to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to resolve all civic issues of Lyari and also to expeditiously complete development schemes in the locality.

He said that another two major RO plants of Lyari would be made functional in next three weeks.

He mentioned that the Sindh government had also been working to restore RO plants in the nearby coastal locality of Keamari.

He urged the residents to take care and assume the ownership of the newly inaugurated RO plants for their continued operation.

He informed the audience that the PPP Chairman would soon inaugurate the newly reconstructed road network of Lyari.

Employment opportunities

He said the Sindh government after providing the facilities of a university, a medical college, would also build an engineering college in Lyari.

He held out the commitment that the Sindh government would provide employment opportunities to the educated youth of Lyari.

Water demand of Karachi goes up to 120 million gallons daily during summers as the KWSB faces a shortfall of around 500 MGD of meet this requirement.

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Bone cancer survivor to join billionaire on SpaceX flight

Cape Canaveral, Florida: After beating bone cancer, Hayley Arceneaux figures rocketing into orbit on SpaceX's first private flight should be a piece of cosmic cake.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital announced Monday that the 29-year-old physician assistant _ a former patient hired last spring _ will launch later this year alongside a billionaire who's using his purchased spaceflight as a charitable fundraiser.

Arceneaux will become the youngest American in space _ beating NASA record-holder Sally Ride by over two years _ when she blasts off this fall with entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and two yet-to-be-chosen contest winners.

She'll also be the first to launch with a prosthesis. When she was 10, she had surgery at St. Jude to replace her knee and get a titanium rod in her left thigh bone. She still limps and suffers occasional leg pain, but has been cleared for flight by SpaceX. She'll serve as the crew's medical officer.

"My battle with cancer really prepared me for space travel,'' Arceneaux said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It made me tough, and then also I think it really taught me to expect the unexpected and go along for the ride.''

She wants to show her young patients and other cancer survivors that "the sky is not even the limit anymore.''

"It's going to mean so much to these kids to see a survivor in space,'' she said.

Isaacman announced his space mission Feb. 1, pledging to raise $200 million for St. Jude, half of that his own contribution. As the flight's self-appointed commander, he offered one of the four SpaceX Dragon capsule seats to St. Jude.

Without alerting the staff, St. Jude chose Arceneaux from among the "scores'' of hospital and fundraising employees who had once been patients and could represent the next generation, said Rick Shadyac, president of St. Jude's fundraising organization.

Arceneaux was at home in Memphis, Tennessee, when she got the "out of the blue'' call in January asking if she'd represent St. Jude in space.

Her immediate response: "Yes! Yes! Please!'' But first she wanted to run it past her mother in St. Francisville, Louisiana. (Her father died of kidney cancer in 2018.) Next she reached out to her brother and sister-in-law, both of them aerospace engineers in Huntsville, Alabama, who "reassured me how safe space travel is.''

A lifelong space fan who embraces adventure, Arceneaux insists those who know her won't be surprised. She's plunged on a bungee swing in New Zealand and ridden camels in Morocco. And she loves roller-coasters.

Isaacman, who flies fighter jets for a hobby, considers her a perfect fit.

"It's not all supposed to be about getting people excited to be astronauts someday, which is certainly cool,'' Isaacman, 38, said last week. "It's also supposed to be about an inspiring message of what we can accomplish here on Earth."

He has two more crew members to select, and he plans to reveal them in March.

One will be a sweepstakes winner" anyone donating to St. Jude this month is eligible. So far, more than $9 million has come in, according to Shadyac. The other seat will go to a business owner who uses Shift4Payments, Isaacman's Allentown, Pennsylvania, credit card-processing company.

Liftoff is targeted around October at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, with the capsule orbiting Earth two to four days. He's not divulging the cost.

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Czechs confined to their districts as infections soar

Prague: The Czech government said Friday it would ban people from leaving their districts from March 1 as coronavirus infections kept soaring in the world's worst-hit country.

It also ordered people to wear face masks outdoors in inhabited areas and in busy workplaces, and closed all schools, kindergartens and shops selling non-essential goods.

People will only be allowed to leave their district with a document showing they are going to work, to a doctor or to take care of their relatives.

Shopping is possible only within a district, while sports and walks will only be allowed within the home town or city.

Interior Minister Jan Hamacek said the measures would be in force for three weeks, adding the police would carry out random checks.

"The only goal is to reverse the rising curve of new infections and patients in intensive care before it's too late," he told reporters.

The cabinet also declared a new, month-long state of emergency, its legal vehicle to keep the restrictions in place, starting on February 28.

The country tops the world in terms of new infections per 100,000 people over the last 14 days and is second only to neighbouring Slovakia in deaths, according to an AFP tally.

Grappling with recurrent upswings since last summer, the EU member of 10.7 million people has seen 1.2 million cases and 20,000 deaths since the outbreak began.

Daily new infections are running at around 15,000, which Health Minister Jan Blatny said he expected to grow to some 20,000 soon.

Vaccinations are arriving slower than expected as doctors have so far given just over 600,000 jabs with EU supplies hitting bottlenecks.

The Czech government already shuttered three of the worst-hit districts earlier this month, following a curfew, a limit on gatherings, and restaurant or cinema closures approved last year.

On Tuesday, the health ministry said intensive care wards were reaching capacity and that the entire health system was close to its limit.

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Trump 'offered Kim Jong Un a ride home on Air Force One'

Seoul: Donald Trump offered North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a ride home on Air Force One after a summit in Hanoi two years ago, according to a new BBC documentary.

Kim and Trump first engaged in a war of words and mutual threats, before an extraordinary diplomatic bromance that featured headline-grabbing summits and a declaration of love by the former US president.

But no substantive progress was made, with the process deadlocked after the pair's meeting in Hanoi broke up over sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in return.

According to a BBC documentary, "Trump Takes on the World", the US president "stunned even the most seasoned diplomats" by offering Kim a lift home on Air Force One after the 2019 summit in Vietnam.

If Kim had accepted the offer, it would have put the North Korean leader - and probably some of his entourage - inside the US president's official aircraft and seen it enter North Korean airspace, raising multiple security issues.

In the event, Kim turned it down.

"President Trump offered Kim a lift home on Air Force One," Matthew Pottinger, the top Asia expert on Trump's National Security Council, told the BBC, it reported at the weekend.

"The president knew that Kim had arrived on a multi-day train ride through China into Hanoi and the president said: 'I can get you home in two hours if you want.' Kim declined."

For his first summit with Trump in Singapore in 2018, Kim hitched a ride on an Air China plane, with Beijing keen to keep North Korea - whose existence as a buffer state keeps US troops in the South well away from China's borders - firmly within its sphere of influence.

During the Singapore summit, Trump gave Kim a glimpse inside his presidential state car - a $1.5 million Cadillac also known as "The Beast" - in a show of their newly friendly rapport.

But last month Kim said the US was his nuclear-armed nation's "biggest enemy", adding that Washington's "policy against North Korea will never change" no matter "who is in power".

North Korean official media have yet to refer to Joe Biden - who beat Trump in last year's election - by name as US president.

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Amid COVID-19 pandemic, flu has disappeared in the US

New York: February is usually the peak of flu season, with doctors’ offices and hospitals packed with suffering patients. But not this year.

Flu has virtually disappeared from the US, with reports coming in at far lower levels than anything seen in decades.

Experts say that measures put in place to fend off the coronavirus - mask wearing, social distancing and virtual schooling - were a big factor in preventing a “twindemic” of flu and COVID-19. A push to get more people vaccinated against flu probably helped, too, as did fewer people traveling, they say.

Another possible explanation: The coronavirus has essentially muscled aside flu and other bugs that are more common in the fall and winter. Scientists don’t fully understand the mechanism behind that, but it would be consistent with patterns seen when certain flu strains predominate over others, said Dr. Arnold Monto, a flu expert at the University of Michigan.

Nationally, “this is the lowest flu season we’ve had on record,” according to a surveillance system that is about 25 years old, said Lynnette Brammer of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hospitals say the usual steady stream of flu-stricken patients never materialised.

At Maine Medical Center in Portland, the state’s largest hospital, “I have seen zero documented flu cases this winter,” said Dr Nate Mick, the head of the emergency department.

Ditto in Oregon’s capital city, where the outpatient respiratory clinics affiliated with Salem Hospital have not seen any confirmed flu cases.

“It’s beautiful,” said the health system’s Dr Michelle Rasmussen.

Astonishing numbers

The numbers are astonishing considering flu has long been the nation’s biggest infectious disease threat. In recent years, it has been blamed for 600,000 to 800,000 annual hospitalisations and 50,000 to 60,000 deaths.

Across the globe, flu activity has been at very low levels in China, Europe and elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. And that follows reports of little flu in South Africa, Australia and other countries during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter months of May through August.

The story of course has been different with coronavirus, which has killed more than 500,000 people in the United States. COVID-19 cases and deaths reached new heights in December and January, before beginning a recent decline.

Flu-related hospitalisations, however, are a small fraction of where they would stand during even a very mild season, said Brammer, who oversees the CDC’s tracking of the virus.

Flu death data for the whole US population is hard to compile quickly, but CDC officials keep a running count of deaths of children. One paediatric flu death has been reported so far this season, compared with 92 reported at the same point in last year’s flu season.

“Many parents will tell you that this year their kids have been as healthy as they’ve ever been, because they’re not swimming in the germ pool at school or day care the same way they were in prior years,” Mick said.

Some doctors say they have even stopped sending specimens for testing, because they don’t think flu is present. Nevertheless, many labs are using a CDC-developed “multiplex test” that checks specimens for both the coronavirus and flu, Brammer said.

More than 190 million flu vaccine doses were distributed this season, but the number of infections is so low that it’s difficult for CDC to do its annual calculation of how well the vaccine is working, Brammer said. There’s simply not enough data, she said.

That also is challenging the planning of next season’s flu vaccine. Such work usually starts with checking which flu strains are circulating around the world and predicting which of them will likely predominate in the year ahead.

“But there’s not a lot of (flu) viruses to look at,” Brammer said.

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'Never bet against America,' Warren Buffett advises investors

Washington: Ninety-year-old billionaire Warren Buffett reaffirmed his fervent belief in the American Dream in a letter to investors published Saturday - advising them never to bet against the country despite its many problems.

"In its brief 232 years of existence, there has been no incubator for unleashing human potential like America," he said in the message to investors in his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate.

Even after a particularly difficult 2020 - when the COVID-19 pandemic plunged the world's largest economy into recession and pushed millions into poverty - "our country's economic progress has been breathtaking," he said.

The man known as the Oracle of Omaha added: "Our unwavering conclusion: Never bet against America."

Buffett's annual letter is always highly anticipated by the business world because of his reputation as a prudent investor with a canny view to long-term trends.

But in his latest letter, Buffett did acknowledge a mistake made in 2016 that became evident last year: Berkshire's purchase of Precision Castparts (PCC), which led to an "ugly $11 billion write-down."

"I paid too much for the company," Buffett wrote. "No one misled me in any way - I was simply too optimistic about PCC's normalized profit potential," an error laid bare when the company's aerospace customers fell on hard times last year.

Buffett also announced that Berkshire's annual meeting, which in normal years draws thousands of shareholders to Omaha, Nebraska will take place in a virtual format on May 1, as it was last year because of the pandemic.

He said he and partner Charlie Munger would answer shareholders' questions.

Last year, Buffett wrote, the conglomerate they led met neither of two goals: "Berkshire made no sizable acquisitions and operating earnings fell nine percent.

"We did, though, increase Berkshire's per-share intrinsic value by both retaining earnings and repurchasing about five percent of our shares."

He voiced confidence that Berkshire's capital gains from its investment holdings would be "substantial" over time.

Looking ahead, Buffett said Berkshire would remain "a collection of controlled and non-controlled businesses."

He said shareholders' capital would be invested in "whatever we believe makes the most sense, based on a company's durable competitive strengths, the capabilities and character of its management, and price."

Berkshire had net earnings in 2020 of $42.5 billion, helped by its insurance business, but the overall figure was down 48 percent from 2019.

Berkshire last year sold its airline stocks because of the pandemic and invested more heavily in pharmaceutical products.

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No bail for Indian climate activist Disha Ravi over farmer protests

New Delhi: A 22-year-old Indian climate activist who is facing sedition charges for her alleged role in the creation of an online document intended to help amplify farmer protests did not get bail Saturday after a court said it will reserve its order for next week.

Judge Dharmender Rana said the court will pronounce the bail order on Disha Ravi’s bail plea on Tuesday, extending her judicial custody by two more days.

Ravi is part of the Indian wing of Fridays for Future, a global climate change movement founded by Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg. She was arrested last week at her home in the southern city of Bengaluru by New Delhi police.

Officials have said that the document Ravi shared on social media spread misinformation about the ongoing protests by farmers and “tarnished the image of India”.

Ravi did not speak herself in the court but denied the accusations against her through her lawyer Siddarth Agarwal, who argued that the document, which the authorities are calling a “toolkit”, was a mere “resource document” used by social activists for campaigning.

Agarwal said that police had no evidence to back up its claims that the document was responsible for the violence during the farmers’ march on Jan. 26, India’s Republic Day, when the until then largely peaceful protests erupted into clashes with police.

Earlier this week, police said the document shared on social media indicated that there was a “conspiracy” behind the violence in which one protester was killed and hundreds of police and demonstrators were injured.

Tens of thousands of farmers have camped outside New Delhi for months in protest against new agricultural laws that they say will devastate their livelihood. The protests have posed a major challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, which says the laws are needed to modernise Indian farming.

Police have registered a case of sedition against Ravi, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Prosecutions under colonial-era sedition law are rare, but successive governments have used it to silence journalists, critics and dissenters in India. Official data shows that Modi’s government has used the law more than any other - up by nearly 30 per cent.

“If highlighting the farmers protest on the global platform is sedition, then I’m guilty,” Agarwal told the court on Ravi’s behalf.

The court asked police to present evidence that links the January 26 violence with the document climate activist shared on social media.

“Is there any evidence? Or are we on surmises or conjectures?” the court said.

Ravi’s arrest, which comes after the government ordered Twitter to block certain accounts and charged journalists with sedition earlier this month, has drawn widespread condemnation within India and overseas. Critics and opposition parties say her case highlights a growing crackdown on dissent under Modi’s government and have called her arrest harassment, intimidation and an attack on democracy.

Protests in multiple Indian cities were held this week, with demonstrators pressing for her immediate release.

On Friday, Thunberg sent out two tweets with a hashtag supporting Disha.

“Freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest and assembly are non-negotiable human rights. These must be a fundamental part of any democracy. #StandWithDishaRavi,” Thunberg tweeted.

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UK accelerates vaccine rollout as end of lockdown in sight

London: The UK government on Sunday vowed to offer a first coronavirus vaccine dose to every adult by the end of July, as it readied to announce a gradual easing of its third lockdown.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who will outline the lockdown review in parliament on Monday, said the faster inoculation campaign would seek to offer a first dose to everyone aged over 50 by mid-April.

The previous targets in the world-first campaign were to inoculate over 50s by May, and all adults by September.

“We will now aim to offer a jab to every adult by the end of July, helping us protect the most vulnerable sooner, and take further steps to ease some of the restrictions,” Johnson said, while adding the exit would be “cautious and phased”.

Britain, one of the hardest-hit countries in the world by the Covid-19 pandemic with more than 120,000 deaths, was also the first nation to begin a mass vaccination campaign, in December.

More than 17 million people have now received at least a first dose - one-third of the UK population.

But with infection rates and hospitalisations soaring after an easing of restrictions over Christmas, the government imposed a third lockdown at the start of January, including the closure of schools, non-essential businesses and hospitality venues.

Case numbers are falling again and early evidence suggests the vaccinations are helping to reduce serious illness, while pressure is building on the government to return to normality.

Johnson’s cabinet was meeting on Sunday to finalise his House of Commons statement, which is expected to endorse the reopening of schools on March 8 - although teaching unions say allowing all pupils to return on the same day is “reckless”.

“All of us understandably want to go back to normal, but it is right to be cautious,,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News on Sunday, noting that nearly 20,000 people remain in hospital with Covid.

Johnson’s statement is expected to lay out a gradual easing more widely after March 8, including for outdoor activities. But the full reopening of retail and pubs, and attendance at sporting events, will be delayed until later.

John Edmunds, an epidemiologist and government advisor from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the BBC: “The vast majority of us are still not immune.

“Easing up too quickly will increase pressure, cases will increase again. We’re not through this yet.”

Edmunds also called for the acceleration of vaccine trials on children, stressing “there is significant risk of a resurgence” until the entire population is inoculated, not just adults.

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Jasprit Bumrah released from India Test squad on request: BCCI

Dubai: Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has been released from the India team on his request, the Indian cricket board announced on Saturday.

“Bumrah made a request to BCCI to be released from India’s squad ahead of the fourth Test owing to personal reasons. Accordingly, the fast bowler has been released and he will not be available for selection for the fourth Test [against England],” said a BCCI statement. The fourth Test begins on March 4.

“There will be no addition to India’s squad for the final Test,” the BCCI said.

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The BCCI, however, did not mention the reason for Bumrah’s release. On a Motera pitch that assisted spinners, Bumrah was asked to bowl only six overs in the first innings of third Test and he didn’t take any wickets. In the second innings, neither he nor Ishant Sharma, the other fast bowler, bowled a single over.

India won the match by 10 wickets, and now lead the four-Test match series 2-1.

Squad for 4th Test: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav

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