ANKARA

Chinese technology giant Huawei on Thursday unveiled its latest version of self-developed Harmony operating system (HarmonyOS) that is seen as an alternative for Google's Android, the country’s state-run media said.

The latest version was unveiled by Richard Yu Chengdong, the CEO of Huawei’s consumer business at the company’s annual developers conference in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan, according to the Global Times tabloid.

This came less than a week before the US latest chipset ban on Huawei takes effect.

Last month, the US Department of Commerce issued updates to a list of rules designed to restrict Huawei’s access to US-based technology last month.

The new rule would prevent Huawei from acquiring chips developed or produced with US technology and software from Sept. 15.

The latest development in HarmonyOS, EMUI 11 and its own ecosystem Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) Core 5.0 will enable its products to seamlessly connect to others, which is considered the Chinese tech giant's direct response to the expanded ban from the Trump administration, according to the tabloid.

"HarmonyOS will be used in smartphones in next year," Yu said.

He said that despite the Washington restrictions on Huawei, the company recorded 105 million smartphone unit shipments in the first half of 2020.

"Despite the US ban, Huawei recorded 105 million smartphone unit shipments in the first half of 2020, with a total revenue of 255.8 billion yuan ($37.4 billion)," the Global Times quoted Richard Yu Chengdong as saying.

The Chinese giant currently has 1.8 million developers and 490 million active users on its ecosystem, making it the third largest ecosystem.

Chinese analysts believed the Huawei can now confront the US sanctions.

"We need to take a long-term perspective of this battle, five to 10 years. The coming years will surely be hard for Huawei, but by stepping up its efforts, the company, along with China's high-tech sector, will grow stronger," Fang Xingdong, founder of Beijing-based technology think tank ChinaLabs, told the tabloid./aa

ANKARA

Turkish intelligence agents arrested a member of the PKK/KCK terror group Thursday in Ukraine and brought him back to Turkey in a special operation.

The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) determined that Isa Ozer, who had escaped from Turkey after an arrest warrant was issued for him, was staying in the city of Odesa for a while, according to a security source who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

It was found that Ozer continued to carry out terrorist activities from Ukraine and MIT brought him back to Turkey using special methods, the source added.

He was brought by plane to Istanbul, where he was handed over to the anti-terror unit of the Istanbul Police Department, and proceedings against him are underway at the Security Directorate.

Ozer faces several charges, including being a member of an armed terrorist organization and promoting terrorist groups.

Ozer, who joined the PKK/KCK in 1996, is said to be a member of a Romania-based pro-PKK foundation and extorted money from Turks there and was deported after being remanded for racketeering.

He was remanded in 2012 in a probe into the PKK/KCK’s presence in Turkey’s Agri province, and after being released in 2014, he assumed the duty of an “executive member” of the terror group’s assembly there.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the European Union -- has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants./aa

ZUMPANGO, Mexico (Reuters) - Amid busy construction crews racing to build an airport in Mexico, scientists are unearthing more and more mammoth skeletons in what has quickly become one of the world's biggest concentrations of the now-extinct relative of modern elephants.

More than 100 mammoth skeletons have been identified spread across nearly 200 excavation sites, along with a mix of other Ice Age mammals, in the area destined to become the Mexican capital's new commercial airport.

Lead archeologist Ruben Manzanilla explained on Tuesday that around 24,000 years ago mammoth herds reached this spot where sprawling grasslands and lakes would have enticed them to reside.

"This place was like a paradise," he told Reuters, noting that as the last glaciers melted a wide range of mammals - including ancient species of camels, horses and buffalo - lived along what would have been an extremely muddy shoreline.

"Then over many years the same story repeated itself: The animals ventured too far, got trapped and couldn't get their legs out of the muck," said Manzanilla.

He speculates that most of the mammoths died this way, though he adds that there is some evidence that around 10,000 years ago early humans may have also hunted the 20-tonne beasts with flint arrows and spears, or dug rudimentary shallow water pits to snare them.

But the sheer amount of bones, including long, curling tusks - technically the animal's front two teeth - have come as a shock.

"We had the idea that we'd find mammoth remains, but not this many," he said.

Once the excavations are finished, Manzanilla said the site, located about 30 miles (50km) north of downtown Mexico City, could rival others in the United States and Siberia as the planet's biggest deposit of mammoth skeletons.

He noted that a museum-style mammoth exhibit is being planned for the airport's main terminal.

The series of inter-connected lakes that once covered the Valley of Mexico were deliberately drained by Spanish colonial masters beginning in the 1600s in an effort to tame annual flooding.

Today, the mostly dry landscape is dominated by the working-class neighborhoods and highways that spill out from Mexico City.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Uncontrolled wildfires driven by high winds and unprecedented temperatures raged across the U.S. West on Tuesday, incinerating the Washington town of Malden and threatening communities in Oregon and California.

Firefighters and emergency responders searched on Tuesday for residents of tiny Malden, about 300 miles (480 km) east of Seattle, a day after a firestorm destroyed 80% of its homes, along with the fire station, post office, city hall and library.

"The scale of this disaster really can't be expressed in words," said Brett Myers, sheriff of Whitman County, where the town of 200-300 people is located. "I pray everyone got out in time."

The fire that destroyed Malden erupted about noon on Sunday, driven by winds of 40 miles per hour (34 knots), Myers told Reuters.

Authorities went door-to-door ordering evacuations before the blaze arrived. The fire engulfed most of the town over the course of about three hours.

"It moved incredibly fast," Myers said.

That fire was one of dozens of large blazes burning in Washington, Oregon and California over the Labor Day holiday weekend, as the thermometer soared. Temperatures in the western part of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley topped 121 degrees Fahrenheit (49 Celsius).

"I have no patience for climate change deniers," California Governor Gavin Newsom said, pointing to the high temperatures, as well as years of drought that have killed millions of trees, providing fuel for fires. "It simply is completely inconsistent ... with the reality on the ground."

PEAK FIRE SEASON

About 14,000 firefighters battled 25 blazes in California with more than 2.2 million acres (890,308 hectares) charred since the fire season got an early - and deadly - start last month, a record for this point in the year, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said on Tuesday. The state's peak fire season has yet to begin.

Fires forced thousands of residents to evacuate their homes and closed several nationl forests across the state.

Smoke darkened the skies and made breathing difficult as far north as Canada and well down the coast toward Southern California. In the state capital of Sacramento, the skies were gray and it was difficult to breathe, as high winds carried in dust and smoke from numerous fires.

Air throughout much of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, the state's agricultural breadbasket, was rated "hazardous" by the state.

The Creek Fire in the Fresno area of central California, which caused the weekend emergency evacuation of more than 200 people vacationing at a popular reservoir, grew overnight under what CalFire on Tuesday called "extreme conditions."

The blaze, which started on Sept. 4, threatened the community of Shaver Lake, among others, fueled in part by trees weakened by drought and killed by the invasive bark beetle, the fire agency said.

HELICOPTER EVACUATIONS

At a news conference on Tuesday, Newsom praised the firefighters who led a helicopter evacuation of the area, saying they saved 214 people in smoky conditions that made it difficult to see.

"They very easily could have turned around and said the smoke made that mission too dangerous," Newsom said, calling the rescuers heroic. Rescue efforts continued on Tuesday, he said, with about 165 people airlifted to safety and escape routes sought for more than a dozen more.

By Tuesday morning, the fire was completely uncontained and had burned 144,000 acres (58,275 hectares), CalFire said.

Firefighters on the ground were also in peril.

Fifteen firefighters fighting another blaze in the Los Padres National Forest were forced to take cover in their personal fire shelters, which is "considered a life-saving measure and a last resort," said Chris Barth, a spokesman for the Pacific Northwest Team Two fire command. Three were seriously injured, one critically.

Pacific Gas & Electric <PCG.N> (PG&E) shut off power to thousands of residents in 22 counties in California to prevent sparks from its equipment from setting off more fires.

A fire in San Bernardino County, southeast of Los Angeles, that officials said was caused by a pyrotechnic device used during a gender reveal party, had burned nearly 11,000 acres by Tuesday morning and was 16% contained, CalFire said.

Newsom on Sunday declared a state of emergency in Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, San Bernardino and San Diego counties due to the wildfires.

In Oregon, several communities were evacuated and the first day of school postponed, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon

Militant groups have killed more than 280 people and abducted over 90 others in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in two months, UN-affiliated local media reported.

The Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO) and Patriotic Force and Integrationist of Congo (FPIC) perpetrated most of the atrocities in the northeastern Ituri province, Radio Okapi reported late Tuesday, quoting a report by the Ituri civil society group.

Calling on the government to speed up the disarmament of militia groups to avoid further victims, the group revealed that 286 civilians had been killed, 36 others seriously injured, seven women raped and 97 people kidnapped since June 29, 2020.

It also condemned the burning of 30 houses by the armed groups in the war-torn region.

Marie Noella Nyaloka, a senior member of the civil society group, said more than five million people, mostly children, were living in destitute conditions.

The group said the provincial government and security forces had shown that their abilities were limited in resolving the crisis, which has lasted for three years.

It urged the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) to redefine its role concerning militia groups and urged vigilance and caution among residents in reporting suspicious individuals.

Since January, the situation in Ituri has been deteriorating, particularly in the territories of Djugu, Irumu and Mahagi. That month, the country's army launched an operation against militants in the gold-rich province as part of a wider offensive launched last October.

Most militia groups in the region have reportedly abandoned their political demands and are involved in mineral trafficking and looting./aa