25-10-2021

Erdogan orders removal
of 10 ambassadors,
including US envoy
ISTANBUL : Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that he had
ordered 10 foreign ambassadors who called
for the release of a jailed philanthropist to
be declared persona non grata.
The envoys, including the U.S., French
and German representatives in Ankara,
issued a statement earlier this week calling
for a resolution to the case of Osman
Kavala, a businessman and philanthropist
held in prison since 2017 despite not
having been convicted of a crime, reports
UNB.
Describing the statement as an
"impudence," Erdogan said he had ordered
the ambassadors be declared undesirable.
"I gave the instruction to our foreign
minister and said 'You will immediately
handle the persona non grata declaration
of these 10 ambassadors,'" Erdogan said
during a rally in the western city of
Eskisehir.
He added: "They will recognize,
understand and know Turkey. The day they
don't know or understand Turkey, they will
leave." The diplomats, who also include
the ambassadors of the Netherlands,
Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Finland,
Norway and New Zealand, were
summoned to the foreign ministry on
Tuesday.
A declaration of persona non grata
against a diplomat usually means that
individual is banned from remaining in
their host country.
Kavala, 64, was acquitted last year of
charges linked to nationwide antigovernment
protests in 2013, but the
ruling was overturned and joined to
charges relating to a 2016 coup attempt.
International observers and human
rights groups have repeatedly called for the
release of Kavala and Kurdish politician
Selahattin Demirtas, who has been jailed
since 2016. They say their imprisonment is
based on political considerations. Ankara
denies the claims and insists on the
independence of Turkish courts.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that he had ordered 10
foreign ambassadors who called for the release of a jailed philanthropist to be
declared persona non grata.
Photo : AP
Germany says border
protection is 'legitimate'
BERLIN : Germany's interior minister said
Sunday it was "legitimate" to protect
borders, after several EU states asked
Brussels to pay for barriers to prevent illegal
migrants from entering the bloc.
The call came earlier this month, as Poland
proposed building a 350 million-euro ($410
million-) wall on its border with Belarus to
keep migrants out.
The EU accuses the Belarusian authorities
of flying migrants from the Middle East and
Africa to Minsk and then sending them into
the bloc on foot in retaliation for sanctions
imposed over a crackdown on the
opposition.
Asked whether Poland's border wall was
necessary, Germany's Interior Minister
Horst Seehofer said protecting frontiers was
justifiable.
"It is legitimate for us to protect the
external border in such a way that
undetected border crossings are prevented,"
he told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper
Sunday.
The surge in people crossing illegally over
the EU's eastern frontier with Belarus has
placed major strains on member states
unaccustomed to dealing with large-scale
arrivals.
Seehofer also said Germany would
increase controls on the German-Polish
border and that eight hundreds-strong
teams of police had already been deployed.
"If necessary, I am ready to reinforce this
even more," he said.
According to figures from the German
interior ministry, around 5,700 people have
travelled over the border between Germany
and Poland without an entry permit since the
start of the year.
Seehofer wrote to his Polish counterpart
Mariusz Kaminski last week to propose
increasing joint patrols along the border with
Poland in response to rising numbers of
migrants.
Kaminski responded that Poland would
offer its "full support" for such measures.
However, Seehofer also said last week
Germany had no plans to close the border
with Poland, adding that such a move would
also be "legally questionable".
Earlier this month, officials from countries
including Poland, Lithuania and Greece
argued for barriers along EU borders to
counter efforts to weaponise migration.
Brussels has so far shied away from
funding border walls for members states,
insisting that the current legal framework
only allows it to use EU budget funds for
"border management systems".
Germany's interior minister said Sunday it was "legitimate" to protect borders,
after several EU states asked Brussels to pay for barriers to prevent
illegal migrants from entering the bloc.
Photo : AP
Cuba reports lowest number
of daily infections from
COVID-19 in four months
HAVANA : Cuba reported
on Saturday the lowest
number of daily infections of
the novel coronavirus
(COVID-19) in four months,
with 1,393 cases registered
in the last 24 hours, bringing
the total to 944,431.
According to the Ministry
of Public Health, there were
14 deaths in the last day,
bringing the death toll to
8,167, reports UNB.
"Today, we have
encouraging figures," said
the ministry's director of
hygiene and epidemiology,
Francisco Duran.
Duran stated that there
are currently 5,846 active
cases, the lowest figure in
four months.
The central province of
Sancti Spiritus, which on
Friday became the epicenter
of the disease in the country,
reported an incidence rate of
960.2 per 100,000
inhabitants.
In Cuba, an accelerated
mass immunization process
against COVID-19 is
underway, in which about
62 percent of the country's
11.2 million people have
been fully vaccinated with
the Cuban-made vaccines
Abdala, Soberana 02, and
Soberana Plus.
China calls for tightened
response as new COVID-19
outbreak affects 11 regions
BEIJING : A total of 11
provincial-level regions have
been affected within a week
as a fresh outbreak of
COVID-19 emerged in
China, a spokesperson with
the National Health
Commission (NHC) said
Sunday.
Sporadic cases reported in
various regions have been
increasing ever since Oct. 17,
Mi Feng, spokesperson for
the NHC, told a press
conference.
Most of the cases have
inter-region travel histories,
increasing the risk of virus
transmission to other
regions, Mi said.
The spokesperson called
for tightened anti-epidemic
response against the new
outbreak.
US urges NKorea to
stop missile tests
and return to talks
SEOUL, South Korea : A
senior U.S. diplomat on
Sunday urged North Korea
to end a recent series of
missile tests and resume
negotiations, days after the
North performed its first
u n d e r w a t e r - l a u n c h e d
ballistic missile launch in
two years.
Sung Kim, the top U.S.
official on North Korea
affairs, spoke after meeting
with South Korean officials
to discuss North Korea's
recent streak of missile tests
that came amid a longrunning
stalemate in
nuclear diplomacy between
Washington and
Pyongyang. "We call on the
DPRK to cease these
provocations and other
destabilizing activities, and
instead, engage in
dialogue," Kim told
reporters, referring to North
Korea by its official name,
the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea.
"We remain ready to meet
with the DPRK without
preconditions and we have
made clear that the United
States harbors no hostile
intent towards the DPRK,"
he said.
Last Tuesday, North
Korea fired a newly
developed ballistic missile
from a submarine in its fifth
round of weapons tests in
recent weeks. South Korean
officials said the submarinefired
missile appears to be in
an early stage of
development.
Still, that marked the
North's first underwaterlaunched
test since
October in 2019 and the
most high-profile one
since President Joe Biden
took office in January.
monDAY, ocToBER 25, 2021
7
A strong earthquake struck northeastern Taiwan on Sunday, with residents reporting violent shaking in
the capital Taipei but there were no immediate reports of widespread damage.
Photo : AP
Strong quake strikes
northern Taiwan
TAIPEI : A strong earthquake struck
northeastern Taiwan on Sunday, with
residents reporting violent shaking in the
capital Taipei but there were no immediate
reports of widespread damage.
Taiwan's central weather bureau said the
quake was of magnitude 6.5 while the US
Geological Survey gave a lower figure of 6.2.
It hit northeastern Yilan county at 1:11 pm
(0511 GMT) at a depth of 67 kilometres (42
miles).
An AFP reporter who lives in Yilan said the
shaking seemed to last some 30 seconds.
"The walls of the house were shaking, both
sideways and up and down, it felt quite
strong," the reporter said.
There was no damage in his
neighbourhood. The main quake was
followed by a 5.4-magnitude aftershock and
Taipei's MRT metro system shut down as a
precaution for a little under an hour before
service resumed. Tom Parker, a British
illustrator who lives in Taipei, said he was
riding the subway when the quake hit.
"First time I've felt a quake on the MRT.
Like a tame rollercoaster," he tweeted,
adding he and other commuters were told to
shelter in place in the station for now.
Many others reported the tremor on social
media. "I was scared to death, I screamed in
my room," Yu Ting wrote on Facebook.
"This earthquake is really big, glass has
shattered in my living room." Some grocery
stores reported food and other goods were
thrown from shelves by the shaking.
Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes as
the island lies near the junction of two
tectonic plates.
Some earthquakes of this magnitude can
prove deadly, although much depends on
where the quake strikes and at what depth.
Hualien, a scenic tourist hotspot.
Egyptian writer warns of "risks"
of following Western media
CAIRO : The Western media attempt to
shape global perceptions while warping the
truth, which is why people should be aware
of the risks in following their reports, wrote
Egyptian writer Azza Radwan Sedky in a
recent article, reports UNB.
"The Western media is no better, if also no
worse, than Hollywood, which, if it so
chooses, manages to manipulate and
mislead whether viewers like it or not,"
Sedky wrote in her article titled "Follow the
western media-at your own risk."
The piece was published earlier this month
on Ahramonline, the English website of
Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram newspaper.
Sedky cited how Hollywood cowboy
movies in the 1950s and 1960s have misled
audiences regarding the native Indians,
saying that Hollywood movies propagated
"unfair and unjust" vision and misled the
Ethiopia launches air strike
on Tigray's 'western front'
ADDIS ABABA : Ethiopia's military launched an air strike on
a rebel-held facility in Tigray's west on Sunday, a government
official said, the seventh aerial bombardment in the war-hit
region in a week.
"Today the western front of (Mai Tsebri) which was serving
as a training and military command post for the terrorist
group TPLF has been the target of an air strike," government
spokeswoman Selamawit Kassa said, referring to the Tigray
People's Liberation Front (TPLF).
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government has been locked
in a war against the TPLF since last November, though
Tigray itself had seen little combat since late June, when the
rebels seized control of much of Ethiopia's northernmost
region and the military largely withdrew.
But on Monday Ethiopia's air force launched two strikes on
Tigray's capital Mekele that the UN said killed three children
and wounded several other people.
Since then there have been three more strikes on Mekele
and another targeting what the government described as a
weapons cache in the town of Agbe, about 80 kilometres (50
miles) to the west.
The strikes coincide with ramped-up fighting in Amhara
region, south of Tigray.
They have drawn rebukes from Western powers, with the
US last week condemning "the continuing escalation of
violence, putting civilians in harm's way".
A strike Friday on Mekele forced a UN flight carrying 11
humanitarian personnel to turn back to Ethiopian capital
Addis Ababa, and the UN subsequently announced it was
suspending its twice-weekly flights to the region.
The conflict has spurred fears of widespread starvation.
world to accept the depictions as authentic.
"The same thing is sometimes true of the
Western media," wrote Sedky, calling
Western media's prejudice against China,
Russia, Iran, and Egypt as "recognizable
bias."
"Stories in the Western media about these
countries are constantly presented
negatively, highlighting gloom and doom,"
she wrote, deeming the Western media "a
propaganda tool."
The Western media also provide other
media with descriptions which create
negative stereotypes, with phrases like
"China's tabloids say ... " and "Egypt's progovernment
media argues ..., " Sedky wrote.
Such phrases leave readers with
stereotypical negative impressions on
Russia, China, Iran and Egypt while the
Western media "alters and twists facts."
Drag racer slams into
spectators in Texas; 2
children killed
KERRVILLE : A driver lost
control during a Texas drag
racing event on an airport
runway and slammed into a
crowd of spectators, killing
two children and injuring
eight other people Saturday,
authorities said.
A 6-year-old boy and an 8-
year-old boy were killed in the
crash Saturday afternoon at
an event called "Airport Race
Wars 2" at the Kerrville-Kerr
County Airport, police said in
a news release. The organized
event was attended by
thousands and involved
drivers speeding down a
runway as they competed for
cash.
The driver "lost control and
left the runway, crashing into
parked vehicles and striking
spectators who were
observing the races," Kerville
police said.
The injured victims were
taken to various hospitals,
including a 46-year-old
woman who was listed in
critical condition. The
majority of the other injuries
are not believed to be lifethreatening,
although the
condition of a 26-year-old
man was unknown,
authorities said. A 4-year-old
boy and a 3-month-old girl
were taken to a hospital for
precautionary evaluations.
Authorities did not
immediately release the
identities of the two children
who were killed at the event
about 60 miles (97
kilometers) northwest of San
Antonio..
The Kerrville Convention
and Visitors Bureau's website
promoted the event as an
"action packed, familyfriendly
day" in which fans
could watch the "fastest drag
cars compete for over $8000
in total prizes."