People stand in line for Covid-19 tests in Beijing on April 23, one day after 10 infections were detected in middle school students. AP Photo
People stand in line for Covid-19 tests in Beijing on April 23, one day after 10 infections were detected in middle school students. AP Photo
People stand in line for Covid-19 tests in Beijing on April 23, one day after 10 infections were detected in middle school students. AP Photo
People stand in line for Covid-19 tests in Beijing on April 23, one day after 10 infections were detected in middle school students. AP Photo

Coronavirus

China sounds alert over Beijing Covid-19 cases as Shanghai reports more deaths

Mass testing launched after 10 students tested positive in the Chinese capital's Chaoyang district

Associated Press

April 23, 2022

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China's capital Beijing was placed on alert after 10 middle school students tested positive for Covid-19, in what city officials said was an initial round of testing.

City officials suspended classes in the school for a week following the positive test results on Friday. Beijing also reported four other confirmed cases that day that were counted separately.

Mainland China reported 24,326 new community-transmitted infections on Saturday, with the vast majority of them asymptomatic cases in Shanghai, where enforcement of a strict “zero-Covid” strategy has drawn global attention.

  • People line up for Covid-19 tests in a residential community under lockdown in Shanghai, China. EPA
    People line up for Covid-19 tests in a residential community under lockdown in Shanghai, China. EPA
  • Shanghai reported 3,590 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases and 19,923 local asymptomatic infections on April 16, according to the Shanghai Health Commission. EPA
    Shanghai reported 3,590 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases and 19,923 local asymptomatic infections on April 16, according to the Shanghai Health Commission. EPA
  • On April 1 the city went into a general lockdown for 4 days. Those 4 days turned into 16 days – and counting. EPA
    On April 1 the city went into a general lockdown for 4 days. Those 4 days turned into 16 days – and counting. EPA
  • Some lockdown restrictions have been lifted. EPA
    Some lockdown restrictions have been lifted. EPA
  • Most delivery services are blocked, making it difficult for people to buy food and groceries. EPA
    Most delivery services are blocked, making it difficult for people to buy food and groceries. EPA
  • A man seen through a fence stands in a residential community under lockdown. EPA
    A man seen through a fence stands in a residential community under lockdown. EPA
  • A man takes a Covid-19 test in Shanghai. EPA
    A man takes a Covid-19 test in Shanghai. EPA
  • A woman wearing a mask for protection sits with her dog after Covid-19 testing. EPA
    A woman wearing a mask for protection sits with her dog after Covid-19 testing. EPA
  • A woman carries a box of supplies at a makeshift hospital in Shanghai. AP
    A woman carries a box of supplies at a makeshift hospital in Shanghai. AP

China has doubled down on the approach even in face of the highly transmissible Omicron variant. The zero-Covid policy, involving mass testing and strict lockdowns where people could not leave their homes, warded off many deaths and widespread outbreaks when faced with less transmissible variants.

Some question whether the strategy is worth the trade-offs. Many residents in Shanghai have struggled to get adequate food supplies, while some were also unable to get drugs or medical attention. Some elderly people died after an outbreak at a hospital led medical staff to be quarantined.

The country is now facing its worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic in the central city of Wuhan.

Local media reported that in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, the government ordered the suspension of in-person after-school activities and classes. The city government is now conducting a round of mass testing to look for more cases.

In Shanghai, city officials reported 12 new deaths on Saturday, all elderly patients with underlying illnesses.

THE BIO

Age: 33

Favourite quote: “If you’re going through hell, keep going” Winston Churchill

Favourite breed of dog: All of them. I can’t possibly pick a favourite.

Favourite place in the UAE: The Stray Dogs Centre in Umm Al Quwain. It sounds predictable, but it honestly is my favourite place to spend time. Surrounded by hundreds of dogs that love you - what could possibly be better than that?

Favourite colour: All the colours that dogs come in

Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts

Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.

The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.

Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.

More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.

The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.

Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:

November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.

April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.

February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.

December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.

July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.

May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.

New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.

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From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases

A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.

One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait,  Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.

In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.

The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.

And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.

 

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Five famous companies founded by teens

There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:

  1. Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate. 
  2. Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc. 
  3. Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway. 
  4. Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
  5. Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
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The biog

Born November 11, 1948
Education: BA, English Language and Literature, Cairo University
Family: Four brothers, seven sisters, two daughters, 42 and 39, two sons, 43 and 35, and 15 grandchildren
Hobbies: Reading and traveling

Updated: April 25, 2022, 10:17 AM
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