Turkey News Gazette

Uganda is likely to impose another lockdown as the number of cases increased in the country, a Health Ministry official said on Thursday.

“We are experiencing a new wave of COVID-19. We are seeing more young people getting infected. It is no longer a disease of the old people,” Dr. Diana Atwine, permanent secretary at the Health Ministry, told media.

Atwine said that the number of infections increased by 80% between March and April, adding that the second wave of COVID 19 is “severe.”

“People need to change their lifestyle. We are amidst a pandemic … We need to lockdown,” she said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Henry Mwebesa, the director of health services, said a total of 803 COVID-19 cases and one death have been recorded in schools across the country.

Mwebesa said the main drivers of the spread of the virus in schools is overcrowding and non-adherence to the COVID-19 protocols.

A total of 44,594 virus cases and 361 deaths have been recorded in the country since the beginning of the pandemic.

Source: Anadolu Agency

US President Joe Biden said on Thursday he will almost certainly release an intelligence report he ordered on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

Asked by reporters if he would pledge to release it in full, Biden said, “Yes, unless there’s something I am unaware of.” He did not elaborate before getting on Air Force One for the state of Ohio.

Biden tasked his intelligence community on Wednesday with intensifying its investigation into the origins of the pandemic and gave intelligence agencies 90 days to report back to him on their findings, saying he asked “for areas of further inquiry that may be required, including specific questions for China.”

Biden said the intelligence community has “coalesced around two likely scenarios” regarding the origins of COVID-19 but noted they have not “reached a definitive conclusion on this question.”

Both scenarios have been assessed with low or moderate confidence, with two agencies leaning toward one scenario and a third leaning toward the other, Biden said. But he noted, “the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other.”

Biden did not specify which scenarios are being considered but there has been growing debate about whether the virus emerged from a laboratory or was a natural development.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that three researchers at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology became seriously ill in November 2019 and required hospital care to treat symptoms consistent with a COVID-19 infection and other seasonal illnesses.

The report was based on US intelligence.

The pandemic is widely regarded as beginning in December 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan. It has claimed more than 3.5 million lives and infected 168 million people since it was first detected, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The chairman of the Pakistani parliament’s committee on Kashmir accused India on Thursday of replicating the Israeli occupation model in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

Shehryar Khan Afridi, speaking at a seminar in the capital Islamabad, said the world must stand up to the Indian atrocities in the occupied valley.

“Before Aug. 5, 2019, the Indian regime had sent its top police and civil bureaucrats posted in Jammu and Kashmir to Israel for learning, training and then brought [them] back to replicate the Israeli model in Jammu and Kashmir,” Afridi claimed.

“Among those included infamous police officer, Imtiaz Hussain, who is blamed for killing 200 Kashmiri Muslims. Imtiaz Hussain was sent to Israel to understand the Israeli security system before Aug. 5, 2019, and on return, he was posted as security in-charge in Srinagar to suppress protests in Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.

On the date, India scrapped Kashmir’s special status.

Afridi said Israel’s settlement colonialism is being duplicated in Jammu and Kashmir in blatant violation of UN resolutions.

“4,000,000 new domicile certificates have been issued,” he said. “500,000 of which have been issued to people from mainland India who have never visited Kashmir.”

He claimed that non-local Indians are provided tourism opportunities and forestland is leased to them, but Kashmiris are kept away.

“India is economically strangulating Kashmiris and dispossessing the Kashmiris in blatant violation of the UN resolutions,” he added.

Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir President Masood Khan, Turkey’s Ambassador Ihsan Mustafa Yurdakul, Ambassador of Palestine Ahmad Rabaie and Ambassador of Azerbaijan Ali Fikrat Oglu Alizada, and Pakistani government officials also spoke on the occasion.

Speakers observed that the Kashmir and Palestine issues are instances of the worst human rights violations in the modern world. Both issues are outstanding and as old as the United Nations itself, but they have not been resolved.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi Thursday arrived in the Djiboutian capital on a state visit to the tiny strategic Horn of African nation.

Al-Sisi met his newly-reelected Djiboutian counterpart, Ismail Omar Guelleh, and discussed bilateral and regional issues, including the Ethiopian renaissance dam on the Nile.

“I stressed Egypt’s rejection of any attempt to impose a fait accompli through unilateral measures that disregard the interests and rights of the two downstream countries,” Sisi said during a news conference in Djibouti.

Egypt and Djibouti would intensify cooperation on matters related to the security of the Red Sea.

According to Djiboutian local media Ismail Omar Guelleh, who was recently elected as president for a fifth term, expressed keenness on having Egyptian private investments in his country.

Analysts believe the Egyptian president’s visit to Djibouti is significant given the current political situation in the Horn of Africa region.

Rashid Abdi, an analyst, told Anadolu Agency over the phone that Cairo is developing strategic and diplomatic ties in the Horn of Africa and East Africa region to build a new alliance.

“Sisi’s visit to Djibouti, which borders Ethiopia, is significant in view of the renaissance dam crisis. Cairo signed a defense pact with Kenya yesterday and it also established a good relationship with its immediate neighbor Sudan and now Djibouti,” Abdi said.

Djibouti, bordering Somalia in the south and the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in the east, is a small country located in the Horn of Africa.

Source: Anadolu Agency

British tourists hoping to spend summer holidays in France after the end of a long coronavirus lockdown will have to change plans.

From May 31, travelers from the UK will need compelling reasons to travel to France and upon entry be subjected to a week-long isolation, as part of the reinforced restrictions announced in view of the rising cases of COVID-19 variant.

Taking to Twitter to announce the new measures, Clement Beaune, secretary of state for European affairs, said all non-resident foreign nationals will require compelling reasons to enter France. They will have to produce a negative PCR or an antigen test of less than 48 hours and undergo a seven-day self-isolation.

From June 9, France is set to open its borders for EU tourists who are vaccinated or produce a negative COVID-19 PCR test. However, the rapid spread of the coronavirus variant in the UK, first identified in India, has forced France to put it on the list of countries with mandatory isolation. Over 5,000 cases of this variant have been detected across the UK.

The UK is one of the top tourist markets for France with over 13 million arriving annually for holidays. The global lockdown induced by the outbreak of the pandemic and the ongoing lockdowns and curfew restrictions had crashed the French tourism industry, resulting in heavy losses. France is currently lifting its lockdown and opening up public places, museums, restaurants, and cafes.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s presidential communications director on Thursday spoke at an international conference to mark the 61st anniversary of the 1960 coup in the country.

Addressing the virtual conference, Fahrettin Altun noted the Turkish nation would always remember and remain grateful to Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan and Foreign Minister Fatin Rustu Zorlu, who were executed by the military junta after show trials on the island of Yassiada.

The coup [of 1960] paved the way for military coup by memorandum in 1971, coup of 1980 and the military memorandum of 1997, he said.

“Democrat Party and its successor social-political movements represented national will against tutelage regime. However, these movements were confronted through coups,” said Altun.

He underscored that the coups also undermined Turkey’s economic development and foreign policy interests.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Two vaccines developed by China’s Sinopharm appeared effective, said a study published in a leading US medical journal.


The inactivated vaccines prevented symptomatic infections by 72.8% and 78.1%, said the study published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

A total of 40,832 volunteers from the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan took part in the study.


They were equally split into three groups and were given either two doses of the vaccines, three weeks apart, or a placebo.


None of the volunteers, who were given an active vaccine, contracted severe disease, compared with two of those given a placebo, the study showed.​​​​​​​

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s benchmark stock index closed Thursday at 1,415.03 points, down 0.84% from the previous close.

Starting the day at 1,426.55 points, Borsa Istanbul’s BIST 100 index lost 12.03 points from Wednesday’s close of 1,427.06 points.

One ounce of gold traded for $1,898.50 by market close, down from $1,910.10 at the previous close, according to data from Borsa Istanbul’s Precious Metals and Diamond Markets.

The price of Brent crude oil was around $68.99 per barrel as of 6.28 p.m. local time (1528GMT).

Exchange Rates Wednesday Thursday

USD/TRY 8.4350 8,4660

EUR/TRY 10.3220 10,3310

GBP/TRY 11.9720 12,0450

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkey clinched a 2-1 home victory over Azerbaijan on Thursday in a friendly game.

Azerbaijan broke the deadlock when Emin Makhmudov netted from close range in minute 28 at Antalya’s Bahcesehir Okullari Arena.

In the 34th minute, Turkey equalized the game with a header from Galatasaray striker Halil Dervisoglu.

Turkey took the lead near the end of the first half as Kaan Ayhan put the ball into the away side’s net.

Neither side produced a goal in the second half.

With this win, Turkey claimed its sixth win over Azerbaijan.

The Turkish national team will take on Guinea for a second exhibition match at the Antalya Stadium on May 31.​​​​​​​

Source: Anadolu Agency