Day: November 20, 2022

Valencia again put the ball into Qatar’s net, with a penalty kick, in the 16th minute, and then in the 31st, he scored again with an accurate header.

Valencia walked off from a light injury in the 43rd minute, and the first half ended 2-0, despite Qatar’s better display after the second goal and Almoez Ali missing a critical shot in the final seconds.

Pedro of Qatar wasted another important goal chance in the 61st minute.

Enner Valencia substituted in the 77th minute, coming off the bench with applause.

After a long shot by Qatar’s Muntari missed the Ecuador goal by inches in the 85th minute, the game ended 2-0 for Ecuador.

Wtih this result, Qatar became the first hosts in the history of the World Cup to lose the opening match.

Ecuador now leads Group A of World Cup with 3 points while Qatar placed fourth with zero.

Senegal will take on the Netherlands in the next Group A match on Monday.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Earlier, Erdogan attended a reception hosted by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. During the reception, Erdogan held brief conversations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and Jordan’s King Abdullah.

Other world leaders Erdogan spoke with include Kuwait’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, the ruler of Dubai, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The president held also talks with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

Also attending the opening ceremony were Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Liberian President George Weah, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Senegalese President Macky Sall, and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Before his political career, Erdogan played semiprofessional football in Türkiye.

Under a bilateral security cooperation agreement, Türkiye deployed more than 3,000 police officers and security personnel to provide security for the World Cup with their Qatari counterparts.

The international football tournament runs through Dec. 18.

Source: Anadolu Agency

“We attach great importance to the security and stability of Kazakhstan, with which we have deep historical ties and enjoy very close relations, and we hope that the results of the elections will be auspicious for the friendly and brotherly Kazakh people,” the ministry said in a statement.

Nearly 12 million voters cast ballots to elect a new president after current President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in September called for early elections, saying the polls would launch “an electoral cycle that will lead to a radical reset of the entire political system.”

Tokayev took over as president in March 2019, succeeding Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ruled the oil-rich Central Asian nation for three decades.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Sought by police for allegedly helping Hassan and confessed terrorist bomber Ahlam Albashir to enter Türkiye illegally from Hatay, a Turkish province bordering Syria, the suspects, identified as Suleyman G. and Tareq A., were sent to the Istanbul Courthouse after police procedures.

Suleyman G reportedly denied the accusations against him.

Tareq A. reportedly said he was smuggling people but added: “I transport refugees who enter Türkiye as fugitives from one location to another. I never imagined things would get to this point.”

The judge ordered the arrest of the two defendants on charges of attacking the unity and integrity of the state, murder, and immigrant smuggling.

The ruling said Tareq A. drove Alham Albashir and Bilal Hassan from Antakya, Hatay to Ceyhan, in Adana, southern Türkiye.

Istanbul prosecutors are continuing their investigation into the Nov. 13 terrorist attack in Istanbul which killed six people and injured 81 others.

As part of the investigation, a person detained on suspicion of helping Albashir and Hassan cross into Türkiye has been released, and proceedings of five other suspects are ongoing.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Qatar 2022 official mascot La’eeb, whose name is an Arabic word meaning super-skilled player, along with the flags of all 32 participating nations were flying in the field.

African American movie star Morgan Freeman was among the guests.

Korean K-pop star Jungkook also performed a mini-concert.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani welcomed fans from all over the world.

“How beautiful it is for people to put aside what divides them in order to celebrate their diversity,” he said.

“Let this tournament be full of inspiring days of goodness and hope,” he said, “and welcome everyone to the world in Doha.”

The opening game of the championship, Qatar vs. Ecuador in Group A, will kick off at 1600GMT.

Source: Anadolu Agency

“Our planet is still in the emergency room. We need to drastically reduce emissions now, and this is an issue this COP did not address,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

He described the decisions made by COP27, hosted by Egypt, as “clearly not enough” to cut emissions.

For his part, European Commission’s Vice President, Frans Timmermans, said the outcomes of the climate change conference were not a sufficient step to move forward with reducing emissions.

“It does not bring enough added efforts for major emitters to increase and accelerate their emissions cuts,” Timmermans told the conference.

Countries attending COP27 in Egypt’s Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier Sunday adopted a final agreement that establishes a fund to help poor nations cope with disasters caused by global warming.

Critics, however, say the deal does not do enough to boost efforts to tackle the emissions that cause global warming.

The agreement came after marathon talks between delegates from about 200 countries that exceeded the final date of the summit. COP27 was originally scheduled to close on Friday.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Erdogan also attended a reception hosted by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. During the reception, Erdogan held brief conversations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah.

Other world leaders Erdogan chatted with include Kuwait’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, and the ruler of Dubai.

Erdogan, a onetime semi-professional football player in his youth, is also set to watch the opening match between Qatar and Ecuador.

Under a bilateral security cooperation agreement, Ankara deployed more than 3,000 police officers and security personnel to provide security for the World Cup with their Qatari counterparts.

The international football tournament runs through Dec. 18.

Source: Anadolu Agency

“The news from our team yesterday and this morning is extremely disturbing. Explosions occurred at the site of this major nuclear power plant, which is completely unacceptable. Whoever is behind this, it must stop immediately. As I have said many times before, you’re playing with fire,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement issued by the agency.

According to the IAEA statement, several explosions were heard in the morning, following similar reports from Tuesday night.

“Citing information provided by plant management, the IAEA team said there had been damage to some buildings, systems and equipment at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant site, but none of them so far critical for nuclear safety and security. There were no reports of casualties,” it further read.

The statement added that Grossi renewed his demand for a safety and security zone around the nuclear plant from both Russia and Ukraine “as soon as possible,” though these efforts were unsuccessful.

The Russian state news agency TASS reported that 15 explosions were recorded at the plant, as it cited claims by Renat Karchaa, an advisor to Rosenergoatom, a subsidiary of the state nuclear agency Rosatom.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s nuclear agency Energoatom later claimed that the Russian military hit facilities within the plant 12 times.

The plant in southeastern Ukraine has been under Russian control since March, early into Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Since then, concerns have grown of a nuclear disaster between Moscow and Kyiv, both of which accuse each other of attacks on the nuclear facility.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the world’s 10 largest nuclear power plants, generated 20% of Ukraine’s electricity before the war.

Source: Anadolu Agency

While domestic voting has concluded, 57 polling stations abroad continue their work, according to the state-run Kazinform news agency.

Voting procedures in all 17 administrative regions of the country began at 7 a.m. Astana time (0100GMT).

“More than 12,000 Kazakh citizens will be able to vote at 68 polling stations in 53 countries,” Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Aibek Smadiyarov announced last week.

The elections put incumbent President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev against five other presidential candidates in the country’s seventh presidential race.

The call for early elections was made by Tokayev in late September with a decree saying the polls would launch “an electoral cycle that will lead to a radical reset of the entire political system.”

The announcement of early elections came the day after Tokayev approved a constitutional amendment to increase the presidential term to seven years from five while barring future presidents from serving a second term.

Another move was changing the capital’s name back to Astana, after it was changed from Astana to Nur-Sultan in 2019 in tribute to outgoing President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Tokayev took over as president in March 2019, succeeding Nazarbayev, who ruled the oil-rich Central Asian nation for three decades.

Preliminary election results are expected to be announced on Monday and Tuesday, according to a Kazakh Foreign Ministry statement.

Source: Anadolu Agency