Kenya’s High Court temporarily halted a move by the government on Thursday to close the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps housing nearly 500,000 people, mostly Somali refugees.

The court issued a stay order following a petition filed to the high court that challenged a decision by the Interior Ministry calling on the UN refugee agency to formulate a plan to close the camps as soon as possible.

“Former presidential aspirant Peter Gichira moved to the court, challenging the government decision to close the two camps arguing that the move is unconstitutional,” according to Kenya’s Citizen Television.

The case will be initially heard on April 13.

Kenya gave the UN Refugee Agency a 14-day ultimatum on March 24 to formulate a plan to close the camps, Kenya’s Interior Ministry tweeted, saying there is no room for further negotiations.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) promptly responded and warned of a catastrophe if refugees are ejected from the Dadaab and Kakuma camps which have a population of 218,873 and 196,666, respectively.

The East African country revealed plans to shut the Dadaab camp in November 2016, citing a security threat to Kenyans.

Kenya alleged that al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabaab terrorists who attacked Garissa University, killing more than 140 students in 2015, had been facilitated by sympathizers from the camp, citing it as the main reason for the closure./aa

The United States Wednesday said it was prepared to remove sanctions on Iran to resume compliance with the nuclear deal, including those that are inconsistent with the 2015 pact, but provided no details.

“We are prepared to take the steps necessary to return to compliance with the JCPOA, including by lifting sanctions that are inconsistent with the JCPOA. I am not in a position here to give you chapter and verse on what those might be,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.

He was referring to the pact formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 deal, which lifted economic sanctions on Iran in return for curbs to its nuclear program, and reimposed U.S. sanctions, prompting Iran to violate the accord’s atomic limitations.

The deal’s remaining parties – Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia – agreed Tuesday to form two expert-level groups whose job is to marry lists of sanctions that the U.S. could lift with nuclear obligations Iran should meet.

The U.S. State Department’s statement came after diplomats from the major powers and the European Union met separately Wednesday with Iran and the U.S. to discuss what sanctions Washington might remove and what nuclear curbs Tehran might observe, in an effort to bring both countries back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, a U.S. official was cited by Reuters as saying.

Longtime foes the U.S. and Iran have said they do not expect quick breakthroughs in the talks that began in Vienna Tuesday, with European and other diplomats as intermediaries because Tehran rejects face-to-face talks for now.

Diplomats said the working groups, which are chaired by the EU and exclude the U.S., met Wednesday. A U.S. official said on condition of anonymity that the U.S. delegation in Vienna had been briefed on the discussions./agencies

Nowadays a name synonymous with privacy scandals, Facebook, did not notify the more than 530 million users whose details were obtained through the misuse of a feature before 2019 and recently made public in a database, a statement by the social media giant showed Wednesday. According to a company spokesperson, it also does not currently have plans to do so.

Business Insider reported last week that phone numbers and other details from user profiles were available in a public database. Facebook said in a blog post Tuesday that "malicious actors" had obtained the data prior to September 2019 by "scraping" profiles using a vulnerability in the platform's tool for synching contacts.

The Facebook spokesperson said the social media company was not confident it had full visibility on which users would need to be notified. He said it also took into account that users could not fix the issue and that the data was publicly available, in deciding not to notify users. Facebook has said it plugged the hole after identifying the problem at the time.

The scraped information did not include financial information, health information or passwords, Facebook said. However, the collated data could provide valuable information for hacks or other abuses.

Facebook, which has long been under scrutiny over how it handles user privacy, in 2019, reached a landmark settlement with the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over its investigation into allegations the company misused user data.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission, the European Union's lead regulator for Facebook, said on Tuesday it had contacted the company about the data leak. It said it received "no proactive communication from Facebook" but was now in contact.

The July 2019 FTC settlement requires Facebook to report details about unauthorized access to data on 500 or more users within 30 days of confirming an incident.

The Facebook spokesperson declined to comment on the company's conversations with regulators but said it was in contact to answer their questions.

Meanwhile, Turkey has sought an explanation from Facebook over the massive data leak.

Personal data of more than half a billion Facebook users reemerged online after it was leaked by hackers for free Saturday. The information from 106 countries included everything from phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names to locations, birthdates and email addresses.

The leaked data included records of around 20 million users in Turkey, in addition to 32 million from the U.S. and 11 million from the United Kingdom.

The information appears to be several years old but is another example of the vast amount of data Facebook and other social media platforms collect, and the limits to how secure that data is./aa

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Wednesday reiterated Turkey's determination to bring inflation down to single digits, a week before the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) holds the first policy meeting under its new governor.

“We are determined to bring inflation, which has recently accelerated, down to single digits,” Erdoğan told lawmakers from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Parliament.

Long an issue for the economy, the annual inflation edged higher in March to above 16%, while producer prices surged beyond 31%.

Inflation is expected to peak at as high as 18% in April before dipping afterward.

Erdoğan also said they sought lower borrowing costs.

“Hopefully, by bringing interest rates down to single digits, we will also lessen their burden on the budget,” the president noted.

Since taking the CBRT's helm on March 20, Şahap Kavcıoğlu has said tight monetary policy is needed for now, given high inflation.

Kavcıoğlu replaced Naci Ağbal who was dismissed two days after the central bank hiked its benchmark policy rate – the one-week repo rate – by higher-than-expected 200 basis points to 19%.

During his four-month term, Ağbal raised the policy rate by 875 basis points and expected inflation to hit a 5% target by the end of 2023.

Kavcıoğlu has said the bank remains strongly committed to the target.

New governor’s first policy meeting

The central bank is expected to hold its benchmark policy rate steady at Kavcıoğlu’s first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on April 15, initial polls predicted Wednesday.

Eleven of 12 participants in a Reuters poll expect the bank to hold steady at 19%. One economist predicted a cut to 18.50%.

Kavcioğlu has pledged to keep the policy rate above inflation until it was clearly on a permanent downward trajectory.

He also dismissed “prejudiced” expectations of an early rate cut in April or the following months.

The Reuters poll showed the first rate cut is expected in the second or third quarter.

By year-end, Turkey’s policy rate is expected to stand at 15%, according to the poll, with seven forecasts ranging between 12% and 17%. Only one poll respondent expected a rate hike this year.

The Kenyan Defense Force (KDF) is currently considering various options for the procurement of new armored vehicles, including Turkish land vehicles manufacturer Otokar’s Arma 8x8 tactical wheeled armored vehicle, according to the African press.

Local news sites indicate that the procurement request is expected to become official through an auction in July. The KDF announced last year that it needed new armored vehicles to better manage its counterterrorism operations against Al-Shabaab terrorists.

Kenya's options, along with Otokar, also include European armored vehicle producers, such as Excalibur and Mowag, where the latter’s Piranha 8x8 series may meet the KDF's requirements.

The Piranha is a family of armored vehicles manufactured by the Swiss company itself or under license by other companies, which has seen five generations of vehicles produced, and numerous variants are currently in service with military forces across the globe.

Otokar's Arma 8x8 is the newest member of Otokar's vehicle development program that was initially kicked off in 2007 and was unveiled at the International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF) held in Istanbul in May 2011. The new generation, modular and multi-wheel armored vehicle is said to have superior tactical and technical features.

It has an armored monocoque V-shaped steel hull and has a large internal capacity despite a low silhouette.

The modular design of the vehicle enables the installation of a range of weapons systems and equipment based on particular mission requirements.

The vehicle allows for the transportation of a maximum of 12 personnel, including a driver and a commander.

Most recently, in October last year, Otokar signed an export deal with an undisclosed African country for the sale of the Arma 8x8 along with the company's other 4x4 tactical wheeled armored vehicles. Kazakhstan, who purchased the same vehicle, tested the Arma 8x8s earlier this March./agencies

China on Wednesday hit back at the U.S., accusing it of "politicizing sports," after Washington said it would discuss boycotting the Beijing Olympics with allies amid growing calls to shun the Winter Games on human rights grounds.

Republican politicians in the U.S. have led calls for a boycott of the Olympics, in part over what rights monitors say is the mass incarceration and indoctrination of more than a million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim people in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

China has rejected the claims and said Wednesday that allegations of genocide are "the lie of the century from top to bottom."

"As for the idea of a so-called joint boycott of the Beijing Olympics, I want to stress that politicizing sports goes against the spirit of the Olympic Charter, and damages the rights and interests of each country's athletes and the global Olympic cause," said foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.

He said it would "not be accepted by the international community."

On Tuesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price was asked if the United States would consider a joint boycott with allies and said it was "something that we certainly wish to discuss."

But he later stressed that the United States does not "have any announcement regarding the Beijing Olympics," writing on Twitter that "we will continue to consult closely with allies and partners to define our common concerns and establish our shared approach."

"When it comes to our concerns with the government in Beijing, including Beijing's egregious human rights violations – its conduct of genocide in the case of Xinjiang," Price said, U.S. action is "meaningful" but an effort that "brings along our allies and partners will have all the more influence with Beijing."

President Joe Biden's administration has repeatedly kept the door open to boycotting the Olympics without announcing any firm direction.

A potential boycott of the Beijing Olympics has increasingly become embroiled in U.S. domestic politics, with Republicans seeking to paint Biden as hypocritical and soft on China.

The United States led a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, with the Soviet bloc snubbing the Summer Games in Los Angeles four years later in retaliation.

US Olympic chiefs oppose boycott

The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), in the meantime, reiterated its opposition to a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, saying athletes should not be used as "political pawns."

In remarks to reporters ahead of a U.S. Olympic team media event, USOPC president Susanne Lyons repeated the organization's stance that boycotts were ineffective.

"We at the USOPC oppose athlete boycotts because they've been shown to negatively impact athletes while not effectively addressing global issues," Lyons said.

"For our athletes, their only dream is to represent the USA and what we stand for on the international field of play.

"We do not believe that Team USA's young athletes should be used as political pawns."

The Beijing Winter Games are scheduled to begin on Feb. 4 next year, just six months after the postponed summer Tokyo Olympics./agencies

As the investigation into AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine and its links to rare blood clots came to an end, the European Union's medicines regulator announced Wednesday the conclusions they have reached, saying the review has found a "possible link” between the two but that the benefits of the shot still outweighed the risks.

In a statement released Wednesday, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) placed no new restrictions on using the vaccine in people 18 and over. The EMA said most of the cases reported have occurred in women under 60 within two weeks of vaccination.

The agency said based on the currently available evidence, it was not able to identify specific risk factors. Experts reviewed several dozen cases that came mainly from Europe and the United Kingdom, where around 25 million people have received the AstraZeneca vaccine.

"The reported cases of unusual blood clotting following vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine should be listed as possible side effects of the vaccine,” said Emer Cooke, the agency's executive director, as quoted by The Associated Press (AP).

"One plausible explanation for the combination of blood clots and low blood platelets is an immune response, leading to a condition similar to one seen sometimes in patients treated with heparin," the EMA said, according to Reuters.

Earlier this week, a senior official from the EMA said there was a causal link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the rare clots that have been seen in dozens of people worldwide, among the tens of millions who have received at least one dose of the shot.

Marco Cavaleri, head of health threats and vaccine strategy at the Amsterdam-based agency, said in comments to Rome’s Il Messaggero newspaper on Tuesday that "it is becoming more and more difficult to affirm that there isn’t a cause-and-effect relationship between AstraZeneca vaccines and the very rare cases of blood clots associated with a low level of platelets.”

However, Cavaleri acknowledged the agency hadn't yet figured out how exactly the vaccine might be causing these rare side effects. The agency said its evaluation "has not yet reached a conclusion and the review is currently ongoing.”

The EMA is particularly focused on two types of rare blood clots, one that appears in multiple blood vessels and another that occurs in a vein that drains blood from the brain. It is also evaluating reports of people who had low levels of blood platelets, which puts them at risk of severe bleeding.

The EMA, the World Health Organization (WHO) and numerous other health authorities have said repeatedly that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective and that the protection it offers against COVID-19 outweighs the small risks of rare blood clots.

As recently as last week, the EMA said "there is no evidence that would support restricting the use of this vaccine in any population,” a response to several countries doing just that, though an expert said more brain clots were being reported than would be expected.

To date, most of the cases have been reported in younger women, who are more susceptible to developing such rare clots anyway, making understanding what is causing the clots potentially more difficult.

"The problem is these clots are very unusual, and we don't really know what the background rate of them is, so it's very hard to know if the vaccine is contributing to this,” said Dr. Peter English, who formerly chaired the British Medical Association's Public Health Medicine Committee.

A full investigation would likely take months, but English said given the urgency of the continuing pandemic, regulators would likely make a quick decision. "It's very likely we will see a suspension of the vaccine's use in certain groups while they do the further investigations to give us clearer answers," English said.

In March, more than a dozen countries, mostly in Europe, suspended their use of AstraZeneca over the blood clot issue. Most restarted, some with age restrictions, after the EMA said countries should continue using the potentially life-saving vaccine.

The suspensions were seen as particularly damaging for AstraZeneca because they came after repeated missteps in how the company reported data on the vaccine's effectiveness and concerns over how well its shot worked in older people.

That has led to frequently changing advice in some countries on who can take the vaccine, raising worries that AstraZeneca’s credibility could be permanently damaged, spurring more vaccine hesitancy and prolonging the pandemic.

English said the back-and-forth over the AstraZeneca vaccine globally could have serious consequences. "We can’t afford not to use this vaccine if we are going to end the pandemic,” he said.

That’s because the vaccine is cheaper and easier to store than many others, is critical to Europe’s immunization campaign and a pillar of the U.N.-backed program known as COVAX that aims to get vaccines to some of the world’s poorest countries. It has been endorsed for use in more than 50 countries, including by the 27-nation EU and WHO. U.S. authorities are still evaluating the vaccine.

The latest suspension of AstraZeneca came in Spain's Castilla y Leon region, where health chief Veronica Casado said Wednesday that "the principle of prudence” drove her to put a temporary hold on the vaccine that she still backed as being both effective and necessary.

"If there are in fact individuals of a certain age group that could have a higher risk (of clotting) then we need to adjust its use,” Casado told Spanish public radio. "We are not questioning AstraZeneca. We need all the vaccines possible to reach the goal of 70% of the adult population.”

French health authorities said they, too, were awaiting EMA’s conclusions and would follow the agency’s recommendations, especially for the 500,000 people who have received a first dose of AstraZeneca.

English, the former chair of the British drug regulator, said that even rare, serious side effects are seen with established vaccines and that policymakers often decide that bigger public health goals warrants their use, citing the polio vaccine as an example. For every million doses that are given of the oral polio vaccine, about one child is paralyzed from the live virus contained in the vaccine.

On Tuesday, AstraZeneca and Oxford University, which developed the vaccine, paused a study of the shot in children while the U.K. regulator evaluates the link between the shot and rare blood clots in adults./agencies

The number of air passengers in Turkey – including transit passengers – hit 17.68 million in the first quarter of 2021, the country's airport authority announced Wednesday.

The figure was around 33.6 million in the same period last year, the General Directorate of the State Airports Authority (DHMI) data showed.

The decrease largely stemmed from pandemic measures like lockdowns and travel restrictions.

The number of international passengers reached 6 million during the first three months of 2021, while around 11.65 million domestic passengers traveled through Turkish airports in the same period.

Airports in the country served 238,448 aircraft, including overflights. Air cargo traffic registered at around 600,433 tons, according to the DHMI figures.

The top three airports with the most flights were Istanbul Airport and Ataturk Airport – both in the country's largest metropolitan cityö while the latter only serves cargo transportation – and Antalya Airport in the Mediterranean resort city.

In March alone, Turkey served 7.05 million passengers, 89,680 aircraft and 227,232 tons of mail and cargo.

A Bloomberg report showed in January that Istanbul Airport was the busiest in Europe in terms of passengers in 2020.

With 23.4 million travelers, the newly built facility surpassed London’s Heathrow and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle, which followed Istanbul with 22.3 million and 22.1 million passengers, respectively.

Heathrow Airport, formerly the busiest in Europe, later said in a statement that passenger numbers slumped 73% during 2020 as COVID-19 restrictions wiped out international travel.

The airport said its annual cargo volumes also fell 28% as fewer passenger planes meant there was less space available for goods.

For December, Heathrow said the passenger numbers plunged 83% as the new strain of COVID-19 led to countries restricting travelers from Britain and millions of passengers were forced to cancel plans.

The number of passengers traveling through Turkish airports, including transit passengers, reached 81.7 million in 2020, the country's airport authority had previously announced.

Istanbul Airport was naturally the busiest airport in Turkey too, welcoming 23.4 million passengers and serving some 185,642 aircraft last year.

The total number of passengers fell by 61% compared to the previous year due to global travel restrictions, border shutdowns and an overall decline in consumer demand, the DHMI said./daily sabah