Bayram Cigerli Blog

Bigger İnfo Center and Archive
  • Herşey Dahil Sadece 350 Tl'ye Web Site Sahibi Ol

    Hızlı ve kolay bir şekilde sende web site sahibi olmak istiyorsan tek yapman gereken sitenin aşağısında bulunan iletişim formu üzerinden gerekli bilgileri girmen. Hepsi bu kadar.

  • Web Siteye Reklam Ver

    Sende web sitemize reklam vermek veya ilan vermek istiyorsan. Tek yapman gereken sitenin en altında bulunan yere iletişim bilgilerini girmen yeterli olacaktır. Ekip arkadaşlarımız siziznle iletişime gececektir.

  • Web Sitemizin Yazarı Editörü OL

    Sende kalemine güveniyorsan web sitemizde bir şeyler paylaşmak yazmak istiyorsan siteinin en aşağısında bulunan iletişim formunu kullanarak bizimle iletişime gecebilirisni

Welcome, Stefan Kirmse!

We are happy to introduce our guest blogger for October 2020: Stefan Kirmse (Leibniz-
Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin). Dr. habil. Kirmse is a senior research fellow and research coordinator at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, and a senior lecturer at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He is a historian of law in imperial Russia, focusing on Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus region, and Central Asia. He holds a BA from the University of Dublin, an M.Phil. from the University of Oxford, a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and a Habilitation from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.

His most recent book, The Lawful Empire: Legal Change and Cultural Diversity in Late Tsarist Russia, came out with Cambridge University Press in 2019. His first monograph was Youth and Globalization in Central Asia: Everyday Life between Religion, Media, and International Donors (Campus, 2013). In addition to publishing many peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, Stefan Kirmse is also the editor of the volume, One Law for All? Western Models and Local Practices in (post-) Imperial Contexts (Campus, 2012).

You can read more about his publications and background here.

Welcome, Stefan Kirmse!

--Mitra Sharafi

Thank you, Nurfadzilah Yahaya!

 We're delighted to have had Nurfadzilah Yahaya, National University of Singapore, join us as guest blogger in September 2020. Many thanks for her insightful guest posts this month on topics from cardboard camels on book covers (see hers here) to the history of land reclamation (her next big project). Here are her posts, all in one place for your convenience: 

Thank you, Professor Yahaya!

--Mitra Sharafi

The Blackout 2019 English BluRay 480p 400MB 720p 1.1GB ESubs

The Blackout 2019 English BluRay 480p 400MB 720p 1.1GB ESubs

                         हॉलीवुड मूवीज

The Blackout 2019 English BluRay 480p 400MB 720p 1.1GB ESubs


The India Movies

दा इंडिया मूवीज

The Blackout 2019 English BluRay 480p 400MB 720p 1.1GB ESubs







                        जल्दी डाऊनलोड करे।




                                अभी देेखे।      




                                    480P




                                    720P



The India Movies पर सबसे पहले Download करे। Latest Movies अगर आप को कोई परेशानी आ रही है। तो कृपा हमसे संपर्क करे। या फिर Comment Box में अपनी राय दे। धन्यवाद।








TWELVE NEW CASES TODAY, WEDNESDAY

 Filenews 30 September 2020



The Ministry of Health informs that, according to an update received today by the Epidemiological Surveillance Unit from contracting laboratories, a total of 3,147 laboratory diagnoses identified 12 new cases of COVID-19 disease.

In detail, virus-positive individuals emerged as follows:

• Of 655 samples taken through a private initiative, 1 case was identified.

• Of 180 samples taken through the process of tracing contacts of already confirmed cases, 7 cases were detected.

• Of 875 samples taken as part of the laboratory sample test of 3,000 people in Larnaca Province, 3 cases were detected.

• Of 939 samples taken as part of a passenger and repatriated check, 1 case was identified.

In addition, the following laboratory tests were carried out, without the detection of a case:

• From samples taken under the programme of referrals by Personal Physicians and control of special teams through the Public Health Clinics, 225 laboratory tests were completed,

• From samples taken from the Microbiological Laboratories of the General Hospitals, 104 laboratory tests were carried out,

• From a program carried out by the Ministry of Justice and Public Order for the control of staff working in the courts, we have had a result for 2 samples, and

• Samples taken as part of the control programme for pupils, teachers and school staff completed 167 laboratory diagnoses.

The 12 current new COVID-19 cases identified by the following audits:

• 7 x tracing:

1. The three people are contacts from the football family environment of ASIL Solution, announced on 27/9.

2. Three other people are contacts from the British family environment announced on 28/9 by the Microbiological Laboratories of the General Hospitals. It is recalled that they had come from England on 18/9 on holiday and on 27/9 the first person developed symptoms.

3. One person is a contact of a football player of the National Achna announced on 22/9. Although he had two sampling appointments scheduled at the Public Health Clinics, he did not go for the sampling and did the examination privately. He also has symptoms (swallowing and sore throat).

• 1 x flight: This person came from Manchester to Paphos on 29/9.

• 1 x private initiative: This is a person who came from Russia on 18/9 and did the examination on the 12th day to be released from quarantine, according to the relevant Decree.

• 3 x control program of 3,000 people in Larnaca Province:

1. The 1st concerns a person who has symptoms (minds) on 28/9.

2. The 2nd person is an employee of an executive company of the Administration of the National Achna and at the same time works in a department of the National Achna. Due to the many cases in the National chain, they sent all employees of the company for examination through sampling. He has symptoms (runny nose and loss of taste) since 28/9.

3. The 3rd person is also an employee of an executive company of the National Administration and took the test through the program because they sent all the staff of the company. He has symptoms since 29/9 (runny nose and brains).

4. A further two positive incidents were sent from the programme today, concerning persons already notified yesterday through tracing and concerning case contacts. Yesterday and in parallel with their scheduled appointment for sampling through tracing, on their own initiative they did the test and through the program.

Therefore, and on the basis of the data so far, the total number of cases amounts to 1,755.

11 patients are being treated at the reference hospital, including three in the Increased Care Unit. A patient from Famagusta was transferred today and is being treated intubated in the ICU of Nicosia.

It is noted that 16 cases have been detected from the Larnaca sampling so far. Four of them had symptoms and instead of contacting their Personal Physician they went for sampling through the program. Also, 7 people are from the ASIL Solution cluster and 2 were close contacts who had to be confined. In addition to this possibly altering the result of the sampling, it increases the chances of spreading the virus to other people who were at the site for sampling. Also of concern is the incident of a person who twice refused to go to a scheduled appointment for sampling through the tracing process and did the examination privately again endangering other people who may have been in contact with him.

Once again, the Ministry of Health appeals to all citizens to strictly follow the instructions given to them by the Epidemiological Surveillance Unit in case they are close contacts of confirmed cases. An appeal is also made to those who develop symptoms to immediately restrict their contacts with other people, to isolate themselves and to contact their Personal Physician for medical advice. We are at a very critical stage of the pandemic and failure to comply with the directives poses risks of derailing the situation.

Source: eyenews

EXPLAINED - PRITI PATEL'S SHELVED PLAN TO SHIP ASYLUM SEEKERS TO SOUTH ATLANTIC

 The Week 30 September 2020 - by Joe Evans

© Provided by The Week

Priti Patel asked officials to explore sending asylum seekers to isolated islands 4,000 miles from the UK in the south Atlantic, it has emerged.

The home secretary made the suggestion of transferring migrants to Ascension, an isolated volcanic British territory, and St Helena, which is part of the same island group but 800 miles away. 

The Foreign Office was “consulted on the plan and provided an assessment of the practicality of shipping asylum seekers to the remote locations”, the Financial Times reports.

Several Whitehall officials told the paper that Patel “had ordered work on how other countries dealt with what Home Office ministers have called ‘illegal’ migration”, drawing inspiration from Australia, which runs a number of offshore asylum centres.

Allies of the home secretary said that the idea was not going ahead, however, individuals close to her department said an offshore asylum centre had been on the table.

A Home Office source made no mention of the plan, but told Sky News that ministers “are developing plans to reform policies and laws around illegal migration and asylum to ensure we are able to provide protection to those who need it, while preventing abuse of the system and the criminality associated with it”.

Responding to the news, Labour shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds, tweeted: “This ludicrous idea is inhumane, completely impractical and wildly expensive. So it seems entirely plausible this Tory government came up with it.”

Ascension Island, which has a population of less than 1,000, houses a Royal Air Force airfield and was used to launch aerial attacks during the Falklands conflict. St Helena “is also one of the most isolated islands in the world, lying 1,210 miles off the west coast of Africa”, The Guardian adds.

WHAT IS EUROPEAN STATE AID - AND WHY IS IT THREATENING TO DERAIL BREXIT NEGOTIATIONS?

 The Week 30 September 2020 - by Gabriel Power

© Provided by The Week

The European Union has rejected a pitch by Boris Johnson to end the Brexit deadlock with a set of proposals limiting state aid to British companies.

The UK made a last-minute decision to hand over five new proposals “in a bid end months of stalemate”, but were “rebuffed” by EU negotiator Michel Barnier, the Daily Express says.

A Brussels source told The Guardian that Johnson offered to lay out a series of “principles” on controlling state subsidies as part of an effort to end the logjam over what has become the “most contentious of the outstanding issues” in the negotiations.

What are EU state aid rules?

State aid rules are set of laws dictating how governments can subsidise businesses.

State aid takes the form of state-backed financial assistance given to private companies, either in the form of direct cash grants or indirect aid such as tax credits, in a manner which could distort market competition.

The EU enforces rules which state that member countries of the bloc are allowed to provide state aid only with approval from the European Commission. But EU rules do not allow governments to give money to save failing companies, for example companies that made recurrent losses in recent years.

Why is it a Brexit sticking point?

Throughout negotiations, the EU has “pushed for the UK to accept the bloc’s state aid rules”, which “do not allow unfair subsidies to be granted”, The Guardian says. But Brussels eventually “made a major concession during the summer, dropping its demand that Britain should continue to follow” its rules directly, The Irish Times adds. 

Instead, the EU is now asking the UK to lay out what its state aid rules will look like after 31 December, when the Brexit transition period officially comes to an end. 

The bloc also wants London to “outline the terms on which an independent, domestic regulator would operate, and to agree a robust dispute-resolution mechanism with the EU” in the case of allegations of unfair market competition, the paper adds.

This has become a major point of contention, with EU officials warning that any agreement on managing state aid would need to be taken “at the highest level” because it clashes with the bloc’s original trade proposals, The Guardian reports.

Will there be a breakthrough?

UK ministers last week told The Times that they “believe that a deal can be reached on state aid” in which Britain would agree to meet some “baseline rules” over its use. Chancellor Rishi Sunak also thinks that Britain is “likely to get a deal and has been working on proposals for Britain’s post-Brexit state aid regime”, the paper adds.

But while the UK is looking to enter intense talks to seal a deal by the 15 October EU summit, the EU has warned that this will only happen if there is significant movement on the part of the UK.

If Britain does not move towards the EU’s position on state aid, there will be “no deal and the end of the transition period will bring serious disruption to the British economy”, The Irish Times says.

“It will hurt EU member states too, including Ireland, but the biggest cost will be borne by Britain, where a no-deal outcome would hurt the parts of the economy which have been least affected by coronavirus,” the paper adds.

RAPE WILL NOW CARRY LIFE IMPRISONMENT

 in-cyprus 30 September 2020 - by Constantinos Tsintas



A proposal goes to the parliament plenum next month, raising the sentence for rape to life imprisonment.

MPs will vote on the relevant bill next Friday October 9 and will take immediate effect, with the House Legal Affairs Committee optimistic it will secure the majority needed.

According to the terms of the bill, rape will carry life imprisonment.

Rape is legally defined as sexual abuse through any kind of penetration and forcing someone into a sexual act by penetration.

Forcing someone to have sexual contact or engage in other sexual acts, will carry a maximum sentence of ten years, without differentiating between men and women.

AKEL MP Aristos Damianou said he was pleased that the proposal on modernising the definition of rape secured complete acceptance and will now be covering all possible incidents.

Meanwhile, the definition of child pornography was changed to material of sexual abuse and exploitation of children in accordance to European Parliament, the Council of Europe and Interpol recommendations.

 

Inspector NottyK 2018 Bengali HDTVRip 480p 400MB 720p 1.2GB

Inspector NottyK 2018 Bengali HDTVRip 480p 400MB 720p 1.2GB


                         बंगाली मूवीज

Inspector NottyK 2018 Bengali HDTVRip 480p 400MB 720p 1.2GB



The India Movies

दा इंडिया मूवीज


Inspector NottyK 2018 Bengali HDTVRip 480p 400MB 720p 1.2GB







                        जल्दी डाऊनलोड करे।





                                अभी देेखे।      




                                    480P




                                    720P



The India Movies पर सबसे पहले Download करे। Latest Movies अगर आप को कोई परेशानी आ रही है। तो कृपा हमसे संपर्क करे। या फिर Comment Box में अपनी राय दे। धन्यवाद।








CYPRUS JUSTICE FACES 'SERIOUS EFFICIENCY CHALLENGES' SAYS EU

 Cyprus Mail 30 September 2020 - by Jean Christou



The EU’s first-ever report cards for member states, the Rule of Law Reports, issued on Wednesday, honed in on justice reforms in Cyprus, saying the system was experiencing serious efficiency challenges and a nearly complete lack of digitalisation but overall the island appeared to receive a decent ‘pass mark’.

The Commission has described the reports as “a new preventive tool”.

The aim is to look at key developments across the EU – positive and negative – as well as the specific situation in each member state to identify possible problems in relation to the rule of law as early as possible, as well as best practices. “It is not a sanctioning mechanism,” the Commission said, and does not make recommendations to member states.

Areas covered by the report include justice systems, anti-corruption frameworks, media pluralism and freedom, and other institutional issues linked to checks and balances.

However, a Reuters report on Tuesday said the report comes as the bloc is looking to link access to EU money, including a new €750 billion coronavirus recovery fund, to respecting the rule of law.

According to the individual country reports, the Cypriot justice system has been undergoing a number of structural changes and reforms since 2019 with the aim of overcoming important challenges as regards its efficiency and quality, in particular as regards digitalisation.

“The justice system is experiencing serious efficiency challenges,” the report said, and “a nearly complete lack of digitalisation” with no electronic information on case progress and no electronic case management system.

It said civil, commercial and administrative judicial proceedings remain very lengthy and the clearance of backlogs of delayed cases, which have accumulated in the courts, is a pressing task in the reform process.

There was also very limited information about the judicial system available for the general public, the report added.

Hence, the level of perceived judicial independence is average. Among the general public, 55 per cent consider judicial independence to be ‘fairly and very good’, a share that slightly decreased in 2020. The corresponding figure among companies is 48 per cent and has been decreasing in recent years.

The time needed to resolve civil, commercial and administrative cases in first instance courts (737 days in 2018, compared to 1,118 in 2017) still remains among the highest in the EU, the report said.

“In administrative justice, efficiency gains at first instance, reflected in a reduced length of proceedings (487 days in 2018 compared to 2,162 days in 2017) and higher clearance rates (around 219 per cent in 2018 compared to around 74 per cent in 2017),” it added.

However, very lengthy proceedings in the final instance (2,156 days in 2018) remain.

The report noted that an action plan to address these efficiency challenges has been adopted and its implementation is ongoing, “albeit with some delay”.

Reforms include the establishment of new specialised courts, the restructuring of the courts, the creation of a training school for judges, the revision of the rules of civil procedure and measures to address the backlog of cases. There is also a pending reform on the establishment of a Supreme Constitutional Court and of a High Court. Many of these reforms are still under discussion or are experiencing delay. A review of the Law Office is also ongoing with a view to enhancing its capacity, including separation of functions and recruitment procedures.

Elsewhere, Cyprus has made some progress in tackling and investigating corruption, including high-profile cases, the EU said. Key legislation for the prevention of corruption is still pending but lobbying and whistle-blower protection remain unregulated by law and an independent anti-corruption authority remains to be established.

While Codes of Conduct exist for members of the Government, public officials and prosecutors, but there are no similar provisions for the members of the House of Representatives. A code is currently being debated by MPs.

The report also notes that in Cyprus, freedom of expression and the right of access to information find legal and formal protection in the Constitution. Secondary legislation expressly protects the right of journalists to protect their sources and fosters media pluralism in the radio and television sector, it added. However, an issue of concern is that there is no framework guaranteeing ownership transparency in the written press and digital media sectors, which makes it difficult to identify and verify ultimate owners or crossownership in these sectors.


Ellipsis

This is my last post as a guest blogger on Legal History Blog in September 2020. Thank you for engaging with me this past month.

In a report on a Muslim endowment known as a waqf in Penang, a scholar of Islamic law pointed out that certain paragraphs in a report quoting a translation of a will of a Peranakan (mixed Malay and Gujarati in this case) merchant in 1892 contained ellipsis, a series of three points with spaces between them which he took to mean that some part of the will had been deliberately removed. The translator told him that ellipsis punctuation marks were common in academic and legal writing and that parts of the will were omitted in the report as “it conveyed the same meaning.” Certainly, this is common form but did it really convey “the same meaning”? Any detail omitted would change the meaning of the text even if a little. Yet, ellipses are common in translations of legal documents. They are found all over Powers of Attorney, wills and codicils that I encountered in the colonial archives. Every layer of translation necessitated more ellipses in fact such that translations became progressively, and I must say, alarmingly, shorter. Ellipses is what interest me most. Not in the sense of what is hidden, but what is understood to be missing. How did groups of people across time and space come to understand what is not being said in law reports, and come to accept legal conventions regarding such deliberate omissions? When was the moment that particular words, formats and punctuation were understood to be code for something else? How was this knowledge transmitted, and to whom? Who gets to see the code, and who does not?

         One can see why ellipsis invoked this reaction. In 1892, Penang was part of the British colony known as the Straits Settlements. It is easy to ascribe sinister motives to a translation of a document that was originally produced during the British colonial period and whose translation in 2020 still subscribed to colonial legal norms. Already compromises to the institution of the waqf had kicked in with the English Common Law of Trusts, being denied perpetuity, a requirement according to Islamic law.    

While close to submitting my book manuscript last year which became Fluid Jurisdictions: Colonial Law and Arabs in Southeast Asia, I read Katharina Pistor’s The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality. I came to realize that a lot of things that postcolonial nation-states inherited were not substantive laws necessarily, but rather laws that have been encoded in specific ways. These coded forms, including English law of trusts at the confluence of law and economics, had been applied to waqfs during the colonial period. A trust is a form of preemptive asset-shielding, Pistor writes. These codes are what prove to be resilient and useful through time. As cadres of legal practitioners painstakingly gained knowledge of legal codes, they understandably became more invested in preserving them. We come to rely on these legal experts who were able to decipher these established codes, much like how the translator in Penang in the middle of 2020 informed his colleague about the use of ellipsis as a norm of legal reporting while the latter was much more concerned with the Islamic law of waqfs which had been coded as a modified common law trust 128 years before in Penang.

The most interesting stories lie between the dots, historians might be tempted to suggest but the dots collectively encode so much information such that they are endowed with the capacity to protect and act in specific ways. In order to view the extent of this capacity, legal historians have to adopt a broad view across legal domains and jurisdictions to tell more unexpected stories.

 

Pistor, Katharina. The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019.

 

Nurfadzilah Yahaya


Moore on Anti-Federalists and Implementing Article III

Tyler Moore, a 2011 graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center and a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Notre Dame, has posted Trimming the Least Dangerous Branch: the Anti-Federalists and the Implementation of Article III, which is forthcoming in the Tulsa Law Review:

The traditional narrative of events following the ratification debates has connected the Bill of Rights with the Anti-Federalists and the Judiciary and Process Acts of 1789 with the Federalists. Although the scholarly consensus has turned against the Bill of Rights part of this story, most scholars continue to portray the first Congress’s implementation of Article III as a victory for the Federalists. In this article, I trace the development of the Anti-Federalists’ theory of federal/state power and its application to the judiciary in an effort to show why the second part of the above narrative also has it wrong.

Here is the short version. Having adopted the same conception of federalism as an underappreciated faction of delegates at the Constitutional Convention, Anti-Federalist writers like “Brutus” argued that some mechanism was needed to prevent the states from being swallowed up by federal judicial overreach. Despite Alexander Hamilton’s attempts in Federalist Nos. 78-83 to downplay this danger and emphasize the necessity of a robust system of federal inferior courts with general “arising under” jurisdiction, it was the Anti-Federalists’ arguments that continued to resonate in the state ratifying conventions and beyond. Oliver Ellsworth, the Connecticut Federalist who was the primary draftsman of the Judiciary and Process Acts, had shown his sympathy with Brutus all along. And the bare bones, state-dependent inferior court structure he helped create is testimony to this sympathy. Like the Bill of Rights, then, the Anti-Federalists’ influence on the original federal judiciary was a vicarious one. But unlike the Bill of Rights, this victory tracked their theory of federalism and gave them a meaningful structural change that could protect the states against a national consolidation. 

--Dan Ernst

Central Intelligence 2016 Dual Audio BluRay 480p 300MB 720p 1.1GB

 Central Intelligence 2016  Dual Audio BluRay    480p 300MB 720p 1.1GB 



Central Intelligence 2016  Dual Audio BluRay    480p 300MB 720p 1.1GB



   
Central Intelligence 2016  Dual Audio BluRay    480p 300MB 720p 1.1GB







 




https://linkskat.cc/view.php?id=23504






https://linkskat.cc/view.php?id=23505


The India Movies पर सबसे पहले Download करे। Latest Movies अगर आप को कोई परेशानी आ रही है। तो कृपा हमसे संपर्क करे। या फिर Comment Box में अपनी राय दे। धन्यवाद।



LIFE EXPECTANCY ACROSS EU REGIONS

 in-cyprus 30 September 2020 - by Maria Bitar



In 2018, the life expectancy of a newborn in the EU was 81.0 years according to data by Eurostat.

This figure was 5.5 years higher for women (83.7 years) than men (78.2 years).

Similarly, female life expectancy was higher than male life expectancy in every NUTS level 2 region with available data.

In 2018, the 10 regions in the EU with the highest levels of female life expectancy at birth were all located in Spain or France.

The Spanish capital region had the highest female life expectancy (88.1 years), while the top 10 regions were completed by six more Spanish regions and three French regions.

Some of the highest levels of male life expectancy at birth were recorded in northern and central Italy, with a peak of 82.7 years in Provincia Autonoma di Trento.

On average, a person aged 65 years living in the Comunidad de Madrid could expect to live a further 23.2 years.

In 2018, an EU resident who had survived to the age of 65 could expect to live, on average, a further 20.0 years.

The highest levels of life expectancy at this age were recorded in a band of regions running from northern Spain through much of western and southern France and into northern and central parts of Italy, as well as the north-western Greek region of Ipeiros.

In Cyprus, on average, a person aged 65 years could expect to live a further 20.5 years (19.1 for men and 21.8 for women), while the corresponding figure for Greece was a further 20.6 years (19.1 for men and 21.9 for women).

A more detailed analysis of NUTS level 2 regions reveals that in 2018, a person at the age of 65 living in the Comunidad de Madrid could expect to live a further 23.2 years on average, while the corresponding figure for Île de France was a further 23.0 years.

In contrast, life expectancy at 65 years was considerably lower in the vast majority of regions in eastern and Baltic Member States.

The lowest levels of life expectancy at 65 years were recorded in two Bulgarian regions — where a 65 year-old person could expect to live, on average, a further 15.7 years.

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 30 - CORONAVIRUS GLOBAL UPDATE



 in-cyprus 30 September 2020 - by Maria Bitar

World Bank President David Malpass said he was seeking board approval for a $12 billion coronavirus vaccine financing plan to help poor and developing countries secure vaccine doses, as part of the $160 billion coronavirus aid financing pledged by the bank.

EUROPE

* Italy is likely to extend a state of emergency to help keep the health crisis under control, a senior official said.

* Finland and Poland slapped new curfews on bars and restaurants, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the country would restrict the size of gatherings and fine people who flout tracking rules.

* Hundreds of junior Spanish doctors took to the streets of Barcelona to demand better working conditions as they struggle against a second wave of infections.

AMERICAS

* US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Tuesday she hoped to have a coronavirus aid deal with the White House this week, after speaking with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

* Walt Disney said on Tuesday it will lay off roughly 28,000 employees, mostly at its US theme parks, where attendance has been crushed by the pandemic, especially in California where Disneyland remains closed.

* New York City will impose fines on people who refuse to wear a face covering as the rate of positive tests for the novel coronavirus climbed above 3% for the first time in months, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

* Canada’s federal authorities and its two biggest provinces promised new measures to combat a second wave that is notching up as many cases as during the pandemic’s peak in April.

* Colombia will extend a selective quarantine for the duration of October.

* Mexico’s confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 738,163 on Tuesday, according to updated data from the health ministry, along with a total reported death toll of 77,163. Authorities reported 4,446 new cases along with 560 deaths on Tuesday, but the true figures are likely significantly higher due to little testing.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* India’s coronavirus case tally surged to 6.23 million after it reported 80,472 new infections in the last 24 hours, data from the health ministry showed on Wednesday.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Israel’s parliament approved a government-backed edict on Wednesday likely to stifle protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged corruption and his handling of the coronavirus crisis.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said its experimental two-antibody cocktail reduced viral levels and improved symptoms in non-hospitalised patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19.

* Results from an early safety study showed Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate appeared safe and showed signs of working in older adults, researchers said.

* Germany’s CureVac NV said it has started a mid-stage study testing its experimental coronavirus vaccine and plans to begin a decisive global trial with about 30,000 volunteers in the fourth quarter.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* The US recovery from the coronavirus-linked recession has been more robust than expected, a top Federal Reserve policymaker said, though he added it could be about three years before the economy regains its full strength.

(Reuters)

BRITISH PEACEKEEPER COVID POSITIVE, UNFICYP CONFIRMS

 in-cyprus 30 September 2020 - by Constantinos Tsintas



A British peacekeeper has tested positive for coronavirus and has already been isolated, said UNFICYP’s press spokesman Aleem Siddick, confirming yesterday’s relevant health ministry statement, part of the daily announcement of new cases.

‘We can confirm that one of our peacekeepers, from the UK, has tested positive for Covid’, Siddick said, adding that the patient had been asymptomatic and was immediately isolated following the positive test.

He noted that UNFICYP had concluded relevant contact tracing to prevent the spread of the virus and was working closely with Cyprus authorities for strict adherence to all the protocols for the prevention and risk limitation protocols.

Siddick stressed that all new UNFICYP staff go through a total of 28 days in quarantine, 14 prior to their departure for Cyprus and a further two weeks following their arrival.

Five UNFICYP peacekeepers have tested positive since March 2020, four of which have made a full recovery.

The spokesman stressed that the mission’s priority is to ensure that all military staff are COVID free and UNFICYP is in line with all the UN Secretary General and Cyprus directives.

EUROPA DONNA CONCERNED OVER DRUG SHORTAGE FOR BREAST CANCER PATIENTS

 Cyprus Mail 30 September 2020 - by Evie Andreou



Europa Donna Cyprus expressed concerns on Wednesday over drug shortages that affect the treatment of cancer patients.

The breast cancer awareness group said they had received complaints from cancer patients, that drugs for metastatic breast cancer, while already approved by the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) are not available to patients.

Faslodex, which is an injectable drug given monthly to women with breast cancer, as well as morphine, which is given to cancer patients in general, is currently in short supply, it said, and as a result, patients miss their treatments.

Europa Donna Cyprus said they contacted the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) but have not received explanations, while it has yet to receive an official response about this.

They called on the HIO to promptly resolve the problem. The shortage of these drugs is putting patients’’ health at risk, they said.

 

EXPATS RANK CYPRUS 44th FROM 60 DESTINATIONS ON ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

 Cyprus Mail 30 September 2020 - by Annette Chrysostomou



Cyprus has been is ranked 44th out of 60 destinations for sustainability and the environment, expats have voted.

Expats and global minds community InterNations published its first Environment and Sustainability rankings on Wednesday, revealing the best and worst countries for the sustainable expat.

Finland, Sweden and Norway top the list while India, Kuwait and Egypt come last.

The ranking is based on eight factors, expats’ satisfaction with the availability of green goods and services, air quality, water and sanitation, energy supply and local waste management and recycling infrastructure.

It also includes their perception of how much the government supports policies to protect the environment and how interested the local population is when it comes to environmental issues.

Cyprus ranks among the bottom 20 for all subcategories except for quality of environment, where it is number 33.

The country does particularly well with regard to its air quality, for which it is ranked 26th.

Some 68 per cent of expats reported they rate this positively.

Around 81 per cent said they like the natural environment but more than one in five, 21 per cent, are dissatisfied with the water and sanitation infrastructure.

Thirty-four per cent do not agree the government supports policies to protect the environment and 44 per cent of expats say the population is not very interested in environmental issues, with one British respondent saying “garbage is left just anywhere”.

“There is little awareness about environmental issues”, an Italian echoed.

In addition, 43 per cent are unhappy with local waste management and recycling efforts, compared to 28 per cent globally.

Moreover, 28 per cent of respondents are unhappy with the country’s energy supply, and only 42 per cent rate the availability of green goods and services positively.

For a country to be featured in the rankings, a sample size of at least 75 survey respondents per country was necessary. In 2020, 60 destinations met this requirement, with more than 15,000 expats taking part in total, representing 173 nationalities and living in 181 countries or territories.

With around four million members in 420 cities around the world, InterNations is the largest global community and a source of information for people who live and work abroad. InterNations offers global and local networking and socialising, both online and face to face.

For more information see www.internations.org


LARNACA SHOWS OFF ITS UNDERWATER TREASURES IN NEW VIDEO

 Cyprus Mail 30 September 2020 - by Annette Chrysostomou



The Larnaca tourism board made a move to promote diving tourism on Wednesday, presenting shipwrecks at the bottom of the sea in a newly-released video.

According to the board’s monthly newsletter, people, and not only lovers of diving tourism are invited to “immerse themselves” in the fascinating world of living marine life located in the area of ​​Larnaca through the new video clip.

Entitled ‘Larnaca’s fascinating underwater world’, the video visits five of the most popular shipwrecks and diving sites, including sea caves, to show why the area is known as a diving destination.

The video begins with HMS Cricket, an old British ship carrying weapons that is upside down on the seabed. The ship survived World War I, was then used as a target for the British Air Force RAF in Larnaca Bay and finally sank in 1947 due to bad weather.

It is surrounded by a rich marine life including octopuses, slugs, snails, lionfish, starfish and sea bream.

 

The next two vessels shown in the clip are the ones recently acquired by Larnaca, the LEF1 and Elpida which were launched in December 2019 and have already begun to attract marine life.

Elpida sank to a depth of 32 metres while LEF1 is at a depth of just 13 metres, as the aim is to create the first swimming reef in Cyprus with it.

In the caves located in the sea area of ​​Pyla, divers can enjoy stalagmites, stalactites and gorges while larger fish and other creatures can be found among the rocks.

The video also shows the legendary shipwreck Zenovia, one of the top diving destinations in the world.

“The ship is located in the port of Larnaca and fascinates with the huge variety of marine life it has, including lionfish, barracuda, sea slugs and snails, starfish, turtles and octopuses,” the tourist board commented.

Divers can also tour the cargo of the ship which consists of trucks and thousands of eggs.