25-12-2020

FRiDAY, DecemBeR 25, 2020
2
Trump pardons more
allies and Kushner's father,
sparking fresh outrage
WASHINGTON- US President Donald
Trump issued new pardons Wednesday for
allies including the father of his son-in-law
Jared Kushner and two confidants caught up
in the probe into Russian meddling in the
2016 election that brought him to power,
repots BSS.
The pardons added to a long list he has
granted in his waning days in office and
sparked fresh outrage.
Among those pardoned were Charles
Kushner, who pleaded guilty to charges
including tax evasion and witness tampering
in 2004, as well as former campaign manager
Paul Manafort and longtime adviser Roger
Stone.
The trio were among 26 people pardoned
and three who had all or part of their sentences
commuted by Trump on Wednesday.
They come only a day after Trump pardoned
another 15 people and commuted sentences
for five, including corrupt Republican
congressmen and security guards convicted of
killing 14 civilians in a 2007 Baghdad massacre.
Trump's pardon of Manafort, who was at
the heart of the investigation by special prosecutor
Robert Mueller into allegations of
Russian interference in the election four years
ago, triggered fury that Trump was trying to
erase the probe he has always described as a
"witch hunt."
Democratic congressman Adam Schiff, who
heads the House intelligence committee, said
in a tweet that "during the Mueller investigation,
Trump's lawyer floated a pardon to
Manafort. Manafort withdrew his cooperation
with prosecutors, lied, was convicted and then
Trump praised him for not 'ratting.' Trump's
pardon now completes the corrupt scheme."
Manafort himself took to Twitter, saying,
GD- 1764/20 (5x 3)
"You truly did 'Make America Great Again.'
God Bless you & your family. I wish you a
Merry Christmas & many good wishes for the
coming years."
David Axelrod, a political commentator and
former aide to president Barack Obama, said
of the move, "Everyone saw this raw sewage
dump of pardons and commutations for
@realDonaldTrump apparatchiks and loyalists
coming … Yet the spectacle is still
appalling."
Republican Senator Ben Sasse, who has
publicly spoken out against Trump, said simply,
"This is rotten to the core."
Earlier in the day, Iraqis had expressed outrage
and sadness after Trump delivered pardons
for the four Blackwater security contractors
who were convicted of murder and
manslaughter six years ago for the Nisur
Square massacre.
The four, all former US servicemen, opened
fire unprovoked on the crowded square in 2007,
leaving at least 14 civilians dead - though Iraqi
authorities put the toll as high as 17 - while
wounding dozens more and deeply souring US-
Iraqi relations.
Retired US general Mark Hertling, who
served in Iraq, called the Blackwater pardon
"egregious and disgusting."
"This was a craven war crime that resulted in
the death of 17 Iraqi civilians. Shame on you Mr
President," Hertling tweeted, using the higher
death toll.
Trump had also extended pardons to two
more minor figures in the 2016 Russia election
meddling investigation, and granted clemency
to three former Republican lawmakers that
watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility
and Ethics in Washington called "three of the
most corrupt members of Congress in recent
history."
China begins
anti-monopoly
investigation
into Alibaba
BEIJING - China has
launched an anti-monopoly
investigation into Alibaba,
regulators said Thursday,
heaping further pressure on
the e-commerce giant and
sending its share price tumbling,
repots BSS.
Regulators will also hold
"supervisory and guidance"
talks with Alibaba's gigantic
financial services subsidiary
Ant Group, state media
reported, just weeks after its
record-breaking IPO was
halted at the last minute by
Beijing.
The moves demonstrate
mounting state pressure on
one of the country's most
influential companies,
whose success revolutionised
the e-commerce
landscape and made its
founder Jack Ma China's
richest man.
Investigators are looking
into Alibaba for "suspected
monopolistic practices", the
State Administration for
Market Regulation said in a
statement.
Alibaba shares tumbled
5.48 percent on the news
shortly after the Hong Kong
Stock Exchange opened
Thursday morning.
Its financial services subsidiary
Ant Group said in a
statement that it would "diligently
study and strictly
comply with regulatory
departments' requests".
Gunmen kill
dozens in
Ethiopia attack,
says rights body
ADDIS ABABA: Gunmen
killed more than 100 people
in an attack on Wednesday
in western Ethiopia, the
national human rights body
said, the latest in a series of
deadly assaults in the area,
repots BSS.
The Ethiopian Human
Rights Commission
(EHRC), a governmentaffiliated
but independent
body, said in a statement
late on Wednesday that
"more than 100 people have
been killed in fires and
shooting perpetrated by
armed men" in the
Benishangul-Gumuz region.
The commission said survivors
had "disturbing
photo evidence" of the
attack on sleeping residents
in Metekel zone, which
began in the early hours of
Wednesday and continued
until afternoon.
Kishoreganj Journalist Forum, Dhaka (KJFD) organized a memorial meeting on eminent journalist
Rahat Khan.
Photo : TBT
Studies find having
COVID-19 may protect
against reinfection
WASHINGTON : Two new studies give encouraging evidence
that having COVID-19 may offer some protection
against future infections. Researchers found that people who
made antibodies to the coronavirus were much less likely to
test positive again for up to six months and maybe longer,
repots BSS.
The results bode well for vaccines, which provoke the
immune system to make antibodies - substances that attach
to a virus and help it be eliminated.
Researchers found that people with antibodies from natural
infections were "at much lower risk ... on the order of the
same kind of protection you'd get from an effective vaccine,"
of getting the virus again, said Dr. Ned Sharpless, director of
the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
"It's very, very rare" to get reinfected, he said.
The institute's study had nothing to do with cancer - many
federal researchers have shifted to coronavirus work because
of the pandemic. Both studies used two types of tests. One is
a blood test for antibodies, which can linger for many months
after infection. The other type of test uses nasal or other samples
to detect the virus itself or bits of it, suggesting current or
recent infection. One study, published Wednesday by the
New England Journal of Medicine, involved more than
12,500 health workers at Oxford University Hospitals in the
United Kingdom. Among the 1,265 who had coronavirus
antibodies at the outset, only two had positive results on tests
to detect active infection in the following six months and neither
developed symptoms.
That contrasts with the 11,364 workers who initially did not
have antibodies; 223 of them tested positive for infection in
the roughly six months that followed.
The National Cancer Institute study involved more than 3
million people who had antibody tests from two private labs
in the United States. Only 0.3% of those who initially had
antibodies later tested positive for the coronavirus, compared
with 3% of those who lacked such antibodies.
"It's very gratifying" to see that the Oxford researchers saw
the same risk reduction - 10 times less likely to have a second
infection if antibodies were present, Sharpless said.
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BCIC-300 Date : 24.12.2020
GD- 1760/20 (6 x 4)
GD- 1762/20 (8 x 4)