Turkey is setting up infrastructure for the delivery of goods by drones.

According to information received by Anadolu Agency, the Turkish General Directorate of Civil Aviation (SHGM) is developing a management model to authorize drones to operate for civilian purposes.

This model aims to use Turkish civil airspace effectively, safely, and efficiently.

It will centrally monitor the movement of air corridors of more than 50,000 drones.

Once the plan is smoothed out, test flights will be conducted between two hospitals in Istanbul.

The drones will carry lightweight medicines until June 6.

They can also be used to collect blood samples and supply vaccines in hard-to-reach locations./aa

Turkish security forces neutralized two YPG/PKK terrorists in northern Syria, the National Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

The terrorists were preparing to launch an attack in the Operation Euphrates Shield zone when they were neutralized by Turkish commandos, the ministry said on Twitter.

Security forces will continue to take all measures to ensure peace and stability in the region, it added.

Turkish authorities often use the word “neutralized” in statements to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

Since 2016, Turkey has launched a trio of successful anti-terror operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019).

While the terrorist presence in these areas has been largely eradicated, terror groups have made periodic efforts to shatter the peace in the region.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot./aa

French and British pharmaceutical companies announced on Friday that they will initiate global phase 3 clinical efficacy studies of a coronavirus vaccine candidate. 

The clinical study will assess the safety, efficacy and immunogenicity, according to a statement from Sanofi and GSK.

The efficiency study will include more than 35,000 participants who are older than 18 years old from America, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The statement said that in a Phase 2 study, the candidate achieved high rates of neutralizing antibody responses in all adult age groups, with 95 to 100% seroconversion rates.

If Phase 3 results are positive, the vaccine is expected to be approved in the last quarter of 2021.

To ensure rapid access to the vaccine, the two companies plan to start production of their COVID-19 vaccine candidates in the weeks following positive clinical results.

“We have adapted our vaccine development strategy based on forward-looking considerations as the virus continues to evolve, as well as anticipating what may be needed in a post-pandemic setting,” said Executive Vice President and global head of Sanofi, Thomas Triomphe. “This trial is testament to the urgency and agility in our approach to help overcome the ongoing impact of this pandemic.”

GSK Vaccines President Roger Connor said he believes further solutions are needed for COVID-19 to help reach people around the world, especially as the pandemic develops and variants continue to emerge.

“Adjusting our technology and study designs reflects this need and will further build the potential of this adjuvanted protein-based vaccine,” he said. “We are grateful to the volunteers who will take part in the trials and hope the results will add to the encouraging data we’ve seen so far so we can make the vaccine available as quickly as possible.”

The first stage of the study aims to prevent symptomatic COVID-19 in adults who were not exposed to the virus. Secondly, to prevent patients from having severe symptoms and to prevent asymptomatic infection.

Sanofi also provides production support to other vaccine manufacturers. The company recently announced it would manufacture up to 200 million doses of Moderna's vaccine for the US starting in September.

It announced at the beginning of the year that it would provide 125 million doses of production support to BioNTech for the European Union, announcing last February that Johnson & Johnson will support the company with about 12 million doses per month for the production of the vaccine./aa

An “Israeli” court on Friday extended the detention of two Palestinian journalists detained by police in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem. 

Solicitor of Palestinian journalists Jad Qadmani noted the “Israeli” magistrate court in West Jerusalem extended the detention of Al-Qafiyah television reporter Ziynet al-Halawani and cameraman Wahbi Mekkiye at the request of the prosecutor's office.

He told Anadolu Agency that “Israeli” police brutally attacked the journalists and footage of the attack was presented to the court. "However, the court decided to extend the detention period of the two journalists for a few more days," he said.

The journalists were detained while on duty late Thursday.

Mekkiye was beaten and sustained injuries while police tried to detain him.

Makkiye and Halawani spent the night in a detention center.

Recent tensions that started in East Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan spread to Gaza as a result of “Israeli” assaults on worshippers in the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

At least 254 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children and 39 women, and more than 1,900 others injured in the “Israeli” onslaught on Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials. Health authorities in the West Bank confirmed 31 killed in the occupied region.

The UN chief said Friday that the world needs to double vaccine production with more equitably distributed doses to quell anger in some countries before a rampant virus turns back on wealthier countries.

Speaking virtually at the Global Solutions Summit in Berlin, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said 1.7 billion doses of vaccines against COVID -19 have been distributed worldwide but describe the current inequity in vaccine distribution as "scandalous."

"First of all, 10 countries have until now used 75% of the vaccines administered, and low-income countries only got 0.3%, the African continent 1%," said Guterres speaking at a discussion titled "How fair is the global access to vaccines?"

"So, it's clear that in the global north, we have several countries that are vaccinating at a relatively acceptable rate. But in the global south, we are falling behind in a dramatic way," the UN chief said.

The risk is evident because the virus spreads quickly and mutates frequently, he stressed.

And some of these mutations have already produced viruses that are more easily transmissible, Guterres said.

Dangerous virus mutations

There is also a suspicion that some of the virus mutations might also reduce the efficiency of vaccines, even if not entirely, making them useless "as it spreads like wildfire, in some parts of the world."

He said that if the gap between richer and poorer nations is not closed quickly enough and equitably, there might be a severe problem in which even those countries that are vaccinated might discover that those vaccines will serve no purpose.

"It is absolutely essential to double the production of vaccines," said Guterres, pleading that "we absolutely must have an equitable distribution."

"We have seen vaccine nationalism, hoarding of vaccines nationally as importing vaccines, many countries buying three or four times the volume of their population."

At the same time, there is enormous difficulty in supplying vaccines to the global south.

"I've been talking to people in the business community on the civil society of African countries, Latin American countries.

"There is anger. There are people who do not understand how is it possible that they are left behind when they see that in some rich countries, the majority of the population has been vaccinated," said Guterres.

He warned that such anger "can be very dangerous in relation to future international relations."

He also warned that a future pandemic might be more dangerous when it comes than the current one./aa

There have been mixed reactions in Africa after Germany formally recognized the atrocities committed against the Herero and Nama ethnic groups in today’s Namibia at the start of 20th century as "genocide".

"Let's think beyond the money that Germany is giving Namibia. It should be beyond this, Germany should enable Namibians to own some of the wealth owned by Germans in that country," South African academic and analyst Tinyiko Maluleke told Anadolu Agency in an interview.

He said Germans own much of the Namibian economy and this needs to be shared with the locals.

On Friday, Germany agreed to fund projects in Namibia worth €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) over 30 years for its role in mass killings and property seizures in its then-colony more than a century ago.

"We will now also officially refer to these events as what they were from today's perspective: a genocide," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.

Some 60,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama people were murdered by German troops in southwestern Africa between 1904 and 1908 for rebelling against the colonial master.

Berlin's move to recognize these crimes as a "genocide" came after over five years of negotiations between Germany and Namibia to address their difficult history.

Maluleke said during colonialism, Germany encouraged its citizens to move and settle in Namibia, where they acquired wealth, yet it is difficult for a Namibian to settle or be granted citizenship in Germany.

"Will Namibians be compensated like the Jews?" he asked.

Meanwhile, other people Anadolu Agency spoke to said they believe €1.1 billion is a small amount as compensation for the crimes committed.

Namibia's presidential press secretary Alfredo Hengari said Germany's formal acceptance of the atrocities as genocide is an important step towards reconciliation and reparation.

However, Iqbal Jassat, an executive at the Johannesburg-based Media Review Network (MRN), for his part, wants human rights movements across the world to demand accountability and restitution of legitimate rights from former colonizers who continue to violate international conventions as neocolonialists.

"Unless citizens of former colonies demand restitution, we expect little or no movement towards justice," he told Anadolu Agency.

He added that "Germany belatedly but finally has emerged from its dark history as a colonial power by acknowledging its genocidal role in Namibia."

Iqbal, however, wonders if Britain, France, and Portugal, which were also colonial masters, will stand to be counted for apologizing over crimes they committed during colonialism.

But Maluleke says what Germany did to the Herero and Nama ethnic groups in its former colony was genocide and cannot be equated to just colonialism.

"We shouldn't trivialize genocide, compared to colonialism. What the Germans did in Namibia was extermination, though it is never too late to apologize, any apology should not be scoffed at," he said, adding this will be significant if the reparations are meaningful./aa

  KARACHI, Pakistan

Pakistan on Friday confirmed that the “Indian strain” of the coronavirus – a “double-mutant” variant – was detected in the country.

The country's Health Ministry said in a statement that a case of an Indian variant has been traced after “whole-genome sequencing of SARS CoV-2 samples was collected during the first three weeks of May 2021.”

“The sequencing results confirmed detection of seven cases of B.1.351 [South African variant] and one case of B.1.617.2 [Indian variant]. This is the first in-country detection of the latter strain,” the statement added without specifying the cities or provinces where these viruses were detected.

The new variant is considered to be responsible for a recent spike in COVID-19 cases in neighboring India.

Last week, the wife of an Indian diplomat returning from India tested positive for coronavirus after rapid testing at the northeastern Wagah border.

However, the authorities did not reveal the kind of the virus.

“As per protocols, contact tracing of all the cases are in progress,” the statement further said, adding that continued detection of global strains highlights the ongoing need for “guidelines, usage of masks and need for vaccination.”

Pakistan has already banned land and air travel from India, citing concerns about the spread of the latest coronavirus variant.

The two South Asian nuclear rivals have been grappling with a devastating COVID-19 wave, while the situation in Pakistan has been considered relatively better compared to India, where hospitals are reportedly running out of beds and oxygen supplies.

Pakistan’s overall COVID-19 caseload has reached 913,784 with 20,607 deaths since March 2020.

The country recorded 2,482 new cases and 67 deaths on Friday./agencies

Turkey's private lender Isbank on Friday inked a sustainability-related syndicated loan agreement worth approximately $1 billion, with the participation of 38 banks from 18 countries, according to a bank statement.

The loan is secured through two different tranches: €544.7 million ($665 million) and $300 million, at 367 days maturity, with a roll-over ratio of 110%.

Sustainability performance criteria were determined within the scope of the agreement, the statement said, adding if the bank's performance criteria such as electricity supply from renewable sources and increasing the ratio of disabled-friendly cash machines to the total number of ATMs are met, the costs of the syndication loan will improve.

Commenting on the deal, Isbank's Deputy General Manager Gamze Yalcin said: "Maintaining its position as Turkey's largest private bank, Isbank supports the financing of foreign trade transactions of companies operating in the real sector with these loans."

The bank will continue to contribute to the development of the country's economy, Yalcin added./aa