International SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2021 Jade and rubies: How Myanmar’s military 200 years after Napoleon defeat, Russia and France bury their dead Page 6 amassed its fortune Page 7 ROME: Italian outgoing Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (left) hands over the cabinet minister bell to new Prime Minister Mario Draghi during a handover ceremony at Palazzo Chigi yesterday. —AFP Draghi sworn in as Italy’s new PM Country hopes to turn page with appointment of ‘Super Mario’ Palestinians hoping ROME: Former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi. Conte’s final months in office were marked pledged to do “whatever it takes” to save the Draghi was formally sworn in as Italy’s new prime by political turmoil but the former law professor - eurozone in the midst of the 2010s debt crisis. vote boosts strength minister yesterday, against the backdrop of the who rose to power in 2018 with no prior political Yesterday, European Commmision President deadly coronavirus pandemic and a crippling reces- experience - represented for many Italians a com- Ursula von der Leyden tweeted that Draghi’s GAZA CITY: A deal reached between sion. The appointment of the 73-year-old known as forting, steady hand during the darkest moments of “experience will be an exceptional asset for Italy Palestinian rivals Fatah and Hamas to hold elec- “Super Mario” capped weeks of political instability the pandemic last year. & Europe” while British Prime Minister Boris tions is aimed at renewing confidence in for the country still in the grips of the health crisis Johnson congratulated him. Although Draghi him- Palestinian governance ahead of a diplomatic that has killed more than 93,000 people. Coalition, for now? self has no political power base, he relies on years push and talks with Israel, experts said. Joe “I swear to be loyal to the Republic,” recited Draghi has the support of a rainbow coalition of experience in the Italian civil service, as well as Biden’s election as US president motivated Draghi, as he stood before President Sergio ranging from leftists to Matteo Salvini’s far-right his banking career. Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas of Fatah, to Mattarella in the ornate presidential palace in a tel- League. It includes the populist Five Star Movement His arrival was cheered by the financial markets hold “serious” talks with Hamas, according to a evised ceremony. Members of his new cabinet, who (M5S), the center-left Democratic Party (PD) and with Italy’s borrowing costs dropping to a historic Palestinian analyst. include technocrats, veteran politicians and minis- Italia Viva - who made-up the previous government low this week. Nevertheless, “it is difficult to over- Abbas’ Palestinian Authority had cut ties with ters held over from the previous government, each before falling out over the handling of the COVID- state the scale of the challenges that Draghi and Donald Trump’s administration, accusing it of took the oath of office. Draghi was parachuted in by 19 pandemic. M5S, parliament’s biggest party that Italy face”, said Luigi Scazzieri of the Centre for bias towards Israel, and Abbas wants to renew Mattarella after the previous centre-left coalition began life as an anti-establishment movement, was European Reform. The COVID-19 shutdown and the legitimacy of Palestinian institutions as he under premier Giuseppe Conte collapsed, leading split over whether to support a government led by waves of subsequent restrictions caused the re-engages with Washington, said the analyst Italy rudderless amid the worst recession since an unelected technocrat. economy to shrink by a staggering 8.9 percent Ashraf Abu al-Houl. In January, Abbas, whose World War II. But in an online vote, members backed Draghi by last year, while more than 420,000 people have Fatah party controls the Palestinian Authority in After assembling a broad-based coalition, on 59 percent, after securing the promise of a new lost their jobs. the occupied West Bank, announced the dates Friday night Draghi formally accepted the post of super-ministry for “ecological transition”. That post The virus remains rife and Conte’s cabinet, in one for the first Palestinian elections in 15 years. premier, publicly revealing the new cabinet for the has gone to renowned physicist Roberto Cingolani, of its last acts, on Friday tightened curbs in four Hamas Islamists won a surprising landslide first time. On Wednesday, Draghi will be presented who works at Italian aeronautics giant Leonardo. regions and extended a ban on inter-regional travel. when Palestinians last went to the polls in 2006, to the Senate, the upper house of parliament, fol- The senior deputy governor of Bank of Italy, Like other European Union countries, Italy has also in a result not recognized by Fatah and which lowed by the lower Chamber of Deputies on Daniele Franco, was named economy minister, while fallen behind in its vaccination program, blaming sparked deadly clashes and left Palestinian poli- Thursday for a confidence vote that will give the Roberto Speranza and Luigi Di Maio stay on at delivery delays. The country is pinning hopes on tics divided. Hamas has held power in Gaza final official blessing to his government. health and foreign affairs, respectively. receiving more than euro 220 billion ($267 billion) since 2007, the year Israel imposed a blockade “Break a leg,” read the headline on La Stampa in EU recovery funds to help get back on its feet, on the coastal enclave, while Fatah has retained daily Saturday, as an Ipsos poll in the Corriere della Challenges await but analysts expect uphill challenges for Draghi in control in the West Bank. —AFP Sera daily showed 62 percent of Italians supporting High hopes await the new leader, who famously pushing through structural reforms. —AFP predecessor Donald Trump. returned to Mexico under the agreement Biden dismantling It saw tens of thousands of non- from Jan 2019, when the program began to Mexican asylum seekers - mostly from be implemented, through Dec 2020, Trump’s ‘Remain Central America - sent back over the bor- according to the NGO American der pending the outcome of their asylum Immigration Council. applications, creating a humanitarian crisis US authorities emphasized that they are in Mexico’ policy in the area, exacerbated by the COVID-19 working closely with the Mexican govern- pandemic. “Beginning on February 19, the ment and with international organizations WASHINGTON: Asylum seekers forced Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and NGOs at the border. DHS chief to remain in Mexico while their cases are will begin phase one of a program to Alejandro Mayorkas, who is the first being resolved in the United States will restore safe and orderly processing at the Latino and the first immigrant to head the begin to be admitted into the US as of southwest border,” the agency announced department, stressed that Washington is next week, President Joe Biden’s admin- in a statement. committed to “rebuilding a safe, orderly istration announced Friday. Biden It said there are approximately 25,000 and humane immigration system”. “This instructed the Department of Homeland active cases still. Candidates will be tested latest action is another step in our commit- Security (DHS) earlier this month to take first for the coronavirus, a senior DHS offi- ment to reform immigration policies that action to end the controversial “Remain cial who asked not to be identified told do not align with our nation’s values,” in Mexico” program put in place by his reporters. At least 70,000 people were Mayorkas said in a statement. —AFP missile fired into Marib’s suburbs and air Yemen rocked by strikes from the Saudi-backed military coalition pounding rebel positions. “Most heavy clashes amid of the deaths were Houthis hit by air strikes,” he added. Yemen is engulfed in a bloody power starvation warning struggle that erupted in 2014 between its DUBAI: Fighting in Yemen’s north has left government, supported by Saudi Arabia, and dozens dead and wounded, a government Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who control the source said Friday, as UN agencies issued capital Sanaa and most of the north. The stark warnings that 400,000 children risk grinding conflict has claimed tens of thou- sands of lives and displaced millions, accord- In this photo taken on Jan 20, 2021, a Yemeni death this year from lack of food. Yemen’s mother sits with her malnourished child during Iran-backed Houthis rebels have resumed an ing to international organizations, with close to 80 percent of the 29-million population in treatment at a medical center in Yemen’s north- offensive to seize strategic oil-rich Marib, ern Hajjah province. —AFP the government’s last northern stronghold, need of some form of aid for survival. the loss of which would be disastrous for the The upsurge in violence comes as beleaguered leadership. Washington said it would remove the Houthi Trump. The sanctions had sparked an outcry “Dozens of people have been killed rebels from its list of terrorist groups next from aid groups, who said the designation and wounded on both sides,” a govern- Tuesday, overturning sanctions put in place would put them at legal risk and severely ment source told AFP, reporting a Houthi by the administration of ex-president Donald hamper efforts. —AFP.