TEHRAN: Two moderate earthquakes rattled Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan on Saturday evening, the country’s state TV reported. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, according to the state-run IRNA news agency, but the quakes, both after sundown, caused people to rush out and stay on the streets as several aftershocks jolted the area. The TV report said that first, a magnitude 5.7 quake struck after 8 p.m. at a depth of 10 kilometers (about 6 miles). The second, magnitude 5.8 temblor happened two minutes later, at a depth of 9 kilometers (5.5 miles). The area of both quakes, near the city of Bandar Khamir, is roughly about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of the capital, Tehran. The area lies along Iran’s coast, near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which is the passageway for nearly a third of all oil traded by sea. It has seen many moderate earthquakes in recent weeks. Earlier this month, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed five people and injured 44 in the same province. And in November, two earthquakes, magnitude 6.4 and 6.3, led to the death of one man. Iran lies on major seismic fault lines and experiences one earthquake a day on average. In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake flattened the historic city of Bam, killing 26,000 people. A magnitude 7 earthquake that struck western Iran in 2017 killed more than 600 people and injured more than 9,000.

JERUSALEM: Two Palestinians were killed overnight during an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestinian health ministry said early Sunday. The ministry said Muhamad Azizi, 25, was killed by a bullet to the chest while Abdul Rahman Jamal Suleiman Sobh, 28, was shot in the head. Six others were wounded, including two in serious condition, it said. The Israeli army said it was carrying out an operation in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, without immediately commenting on the Palestinian report of casualties. In a statement it said there were exchanges of fire between armed suspects and troops. At least 52 Palestinians have been killed since late March, mostly in the West Bank, among them suspected militants and also non-combatants, including Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American dual national, who was covering an Israeli raid in Jenin. Israeli security forces have launched near-daily raids in the West Bank following a spate of attacks in Israel in recent months. Over the same period, 19 people — the majority Israeli civilians inside Israel — have been killed, mainly in attacks by Palestinians. Three Israeli Arab attackers have also been killed.

ABASSAN, Palestinian Territories: Seventeen-year-old Istabraq Baraka fell pregnant soon after her wedding in the Gaza Strip. Three months later her husband killed her. “She died from a severe beating, which caused bleeding on the brain and lungs and broken ribs,” said her mother Nazmiya. Sitting with her husband Suleiman in a garden in Abassan, near the city of Khan Yunis in the south of the Palestinian territory, the 53-year-old talks at lightning speed about last year’s killing of one of her two daughters, as well as the loss of an unborn grandchild.

Istabraq’s father wipes tears away with the corner of a red-and-white keffiyeh wrapped around his head. He laments the slow pace of legal proceedings since his daughter’s husband handed himself in to the police shortly after the killing. “The perpetrator admitted his crime, a year and a month until now and nothing’s happened,” said the 70-year-old. Femicide is on the rise in Gaza, according to figures from the Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counselling, a Palestinian civil society group. The organization registered six killings and suspicious deaths related to domestic violence in 2019, a figure which rose to 19 the following year. UN Women said the situation worsened at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, which resulted in the “lockdown of survivors of violence with their abusers.” Ayah Alwakil, a lawyer from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, said women can consider violence from their husbands normal behavior in Gaza’s patriarchal society, which has been controlled by the Hamas Islamist group since 2007. “Some women don’t know their rights and some others are afraid of going to court, for lack of family support,” she added. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said 38 percent of women in Gaza faced physical or psychological violence from their husbands in 2019, but Alwakil estimated the true figure to be far higher.

Men convicted of killing their wives can be jailed or face the death penalty. But the sentence is reduced if they commit a so-called “honor killing,” in which a relative is murdered because they are deemed to have brought shame to the family. UN Women says such “outdated and discriminatory laws” impede justice. Additionally, those seeking to escape domestic violence risk losing their children. If a wife obtains a divorce, custody passes to the ex-husband once a daughter turns 11 or a son reaches nine. Noha Khaziq, 31, stayed with her abusive husband because they had four children. He killed her in February. “Her husband tied her up and left her at home so that she couldn’t escape and get out. When he returned she was dead,” said her brother Abdelaziz, who shares his sister’s green eyes. “We feel satisfied with the death sentence ruling against the husband, five months after the heinous crime, but we demand the sentence be enforced quickly,” said the 28-year-old. The Khaziq family has not seen Noha’s children since she was killed, because custody was granted to their father’s relatives.

Fifteen years since the Israeli-led blockade of Gaza began, it is almost impossible for women fleeing violence to leave the Palestinian enclave. In a territory home to 2.3 million residents, around 40 women are staying in only two specialized refuges. When AFP visited one of them, a woman with bruises covering one side of her face sat in a corner. She was about to return to her husband, rather than risk losing access to her children. “The law is not on women’s side all the time in the Gaza Strip,” said Aziza Elkahlout, a spokeswoman for the social development ministry which runs one of the refuges. “We thought of opening the safe house because of the injustice women are exposed to,” she added, blaming the Israeli blockade for Gaza’s dire living conditions. But such reasoning is inadequate for Suleiman Baraka, who says the authorities are partly responsible for his daughter’s killing. “The government helps the offender because it doesn’t take any immediate decisions,” said Istabraq’s father. He is reminded of his daughter every time he reaches for his phone, whose screen shows a photo of him with his two girls. More than a year since Istabraq was killed, he warned that delays in reaching justice only “encourage criminals.”

PARAKH, Iraq: Abandoned sandals and upturned chairs attest to the panic that gripped this peaceful rest spot in Iraq’s Kurdish mountains when deadly shelling slammed into it this week. Turkey denies that its forces were responsible for the artillery fire that killed nine people and wounded 23 on Wednesday. But both the government in Baghdad and the Kurdish regional authorities, who organized a press tour of the lunch spot in the border village of Parakh, have said Turkish forces were to blame. Civilians have been repeatedly caught up in the crossfire of Turkey’s nearly four-decade-old war against the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, which has repeatedly extended across the border into northern Iraq. It is easy to understand why this mountain village less than 5km from the Turkish border is so popular with holidaymakers and day-trippers from the scorching plains of Iraq. A mountain stream runs through the village watering a tree-lined valley that provides welcome shade from the heat. Now the stream is filled with upturned tables and chairs from the riverside restaurants where the artillery bombardment sowed panic. “We didn’t know what to do,” said shopkeeper Ali Osman. “Things were so bad that families were fleeing leaving their children behind.” Osman said that business had been good but he didn’t know how much longer it could last. “Arab tourists (from the plains of Iraq) come here a lot,” said the 52-year-old, sporting traditional Kurdish dress. “Daily we receive about 100 coachloads of day trippers and then there are those who come with their own vehicles. “In our village there are around 35 houses. I don’t think we can live here any longer. We are going to have to leave the village.” A public outcry over Wednesday’s deadly bombardment sparked anti-Turkish demonstrations in cities across central and southern Iraq.

DUBAI: Tobacco use remains a serious health concern in countries across the Middle East and North Africa, which have some of the highest proportions of smokers in the world.

Despite this high prevalence of tobacco use in the region, policies introduced by Saudi authorities appear to have resulted in significant reductions in the number of smokers in the country, coupled with an increase in those seeking help to quit the habit.

The public-health consequences of what the World Health Organization calls a “tobacco epidemic” are grave. Tobacco smoke contains more than 2,500 carcinogenic chemicals and, according to WHO data, smoking eventually kills up to 50 percent of those who indulge in the habit.

The Tobacco Atlas, a project that collects data about the problems stemming from this global epidemic and the ways in which they are being tackled, estimates that more than 8.67 million people died from smoking-related diseases in 2019 alone, including 1.3 million who were exposed to secondhand smoke, also known as passive smoking.

In Saudi Arabia alone, it is estimated that smoking kills 70,000 people each year.

Smoking is responsible for between 80 and 90 percent of lung cancer deaths and significantly increases the risk of other cancers, as well as cardiovascular, lung, neurological, eye, digestive and infectious diseases.

The often-hidden economic toll of smoking, which includes the bill for medical care of smokers and those exposed to secondhand smoke, costs many countries billions of dollars each year.

According to the Tobacco Atlas, the worldwide economic damage caused by smoking in 2019 amounted to approximately $2 trillion, which is equivalent to about 1.8 percent of global gross domestic product.

A study published in the academic journal Tobacco Control in 2021 estimates that the total cost of smoking for the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE — amounted to more than $14.3 billion in 2016 alone. Government health spending accounted for almost 75 percent of the cost.

Among those six nations, the economic cost of smoking was highest for Saudi Arabia, the most populous GCC country, where it amounted to more than $6.3 billion.

The global prevalence of smoking dropped from 22.7 percent in 2007 to 19.6 percent in 2019, the most recent year for which WHO data is available, according to Tobacco Atlas.

The Eastern Mediterranean region has experienced a 15 percent drop in the proportion of the population over the age of 15 who smoke daily since 1990. However, the number of smokers in the region has doubled since 2007 due to the rapid population growth of the Middle East.

A growing number of younger smokers creates more challenges. While the use of electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products — known as “vaping” — is often marketed to smokers and non-smokers alike as a less-harmful alternative to cigarettes, it carries its own risks, especially for teenagers and young adults.

Dr. Shaikh Abdullah, a pediatric and adolescent specialist at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, previously told Arab News in September 2019 that “one might be tempted to turn to e-cigarettes as a way to ease the transition from traditional cigarettes to not smoking at all. But smoking e-cigarettes is not advisable either.”

He warned that young people who vape are at risk of stunted brain development and developing memory issues.

* 2.5K Carcinogenic chemicals in tobacco smoke.

* 8.67m Deaths from smoking-related diseases (2019).

* $6.3bn Economic cost of smoking for Saudi Arabia (2016).

* $14.3bn Economic cost of smoking for GCC bloc (2016).

The Saudi Ministry of Health is working to address the challenges created by the rise in popularity of vaping. It has posted messages and images on Twitter and other social media platforms warning of the dangers of e-cigarettes, featuring slogans such as: “Flavor inside, color outside, but its truth is an electronic heart attack.”

Since the early 2000s, Saudi authorities have adopted a range of policies designed to combat tobacco use. In 2003, they launched the nation’s first public anti-smoking campaign.

In 2015, they banned smoking in many public places, including educational and cultural organizations and almost all workplaces. The current goal is to reduce the proportion of the population that smokes daily from 11 percent to five percent by 2030.

Authorities in Riyadh are not resting on their laurels, however, and plan to implement additional initiatives to further reduce the harm caused by tobacco use.

In an interview in June this year with the Saudi TV channel Al-Ekhbariya, Dr. Mansour Al-Qahtani, the secretary general of the Saudi Anti-Tobacco Committee, said that the government intends to ban the sale of tobacco products in supermarkets, after having previously banned their sale in kiosks in 2016.

Thereafter, cigarettes will only be available for purchase in specialist shops selling tobacco products such as shisha and chewing tobacco.

The heavy taxation of tobacco products has proven to be a particularly effective tool for combating smoking and one that the Kingdom has relied on heavily. While the Middle East as a whole trails other regions in imposing heavy taxes on tobacco as a deterrent, a number of GCC countries have bucked this trend.

A 2021 WHO study that compared anti-smoking policies around the world found that in June 2017, Saudi Arabia introduced the highest duty on cigarettes in the GCC area: An excise tax of 100 percent.

Research has shown that the Saudi policies have been successful in reducing smoking. A study published in the Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal found that the 2017 tax increase was followed by a noticeable reduction in the Kingdom’s smoking population and in the number of cigarettes smoked.

A 2022 analysis published by the Annals of Saudi Medicine also revealed that the annual importation of cigarettes dropped by over 27 percent from 2013 to 2019 after the implementation of the tax.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE has also imposed advertising restrictions and bans on smoking in public, and implemented extensive programs to help and support smokers who want to quit, according to the WHO.

The Kingdom was only the second country in the Arab world to establish national stop-smoking programs and clinics, in 2011, after Bahrain, which introduced them in 2004.

As of 2019, there were 542 such clinics operating across Saudi Arabia. According to official statistics, nearly 27 percent of people in the Kingdom who participated in programs designed to help them stop smoking managed to quit, according to a 2020 study published in the Journal of Health Informatics in Developing Countries.

Saudi Arabia also leads the Arab world in the use of media to raise awareness of the harm tobacco use can cause, and on the warnings printed on cigarette packaging.

According to a 2022 study published in the journal Tobacco Control, Saudi Arabia was the first country in the Eastern Mediterranean region to mandate the use of plain, non-visually appealing packaging on tobacco products.

The significant reduction in smoking in Saudi Arabia, following the strict measures introduced to increase the cost of consumption and decrease demand, is unsurprising and follows data-driven policy recommendations.

A 2018 study of public-health policies designed to reduce smoking, published by the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, found that a tax rate of at least 50 percent is the most effective tool in the long term.

However, the Saudi government is not content to make do with the results of its existing policies. In an interview this year with Yahla Program, Al-Qahtani said: “According to studies, the most successful method for combating smoking is not voluntary or treatment (for those seeking to quit) but laws and (government) policies, and the most important among them is increasing the price. We are still striving to increase the price.”

According to the latest international studies, he added, a 150 percent tax would be more effective. If introduced, this policy would result in the price of a pack of cigarettes increasing to about $10.50 in Saudi Arabia, the highest average price for a pack in the Arab world.

BEIRUT: Political observers fear a strike by Lebanon’s public sector employees that started a month ago will turn into civil disobedience if it is not dealt with properly, amid government efforts to address their grievances.

The heads of the administrative units in the Ministry of Education and Higher Education announced that they, too, would join the strike by Monday.

Ministry employees said they were joining the strike because their salaries no longer covered the cost of getting to work and because of delays in paying transport allowances and social assistance that were approved months ago.

They said they were also protesting against the “humiliation” they faced in banks while trying to withdraw their salaries, which were barely enough to feed their children and cover medicine and hospitalization costs.

But public sector employees fear their industrial action will affect their July salaries as Finance Ministry employees are also on strike.

Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, director-general of Lebanon’s General Security agency, warned that political disasters were ravaging the country and the state was “rapidly falling.”

He said: “Only the military and security institutions remain, but the country could be facing further deterioration.”

Salaries were not enough to cover basic needs, and there were no signs that Lebanon and its components were making any progress, he added.

“Everyone seems to be involved in the race for the presidency while forming a government seems to be postponed due to the current political impasse.”

He said public administration was shut and that the Lebanese were suffocating. “We do not know when it is time to surrender. We are in a country roaming on shifting sands.”

Ibrahim said the national currency’s value was ever-depreciating and that Lebanon was, unfortunately, not present at the discussion table of the regional and international community, except as a new home for refugees and displaced people.

His warnings came amid indications that public sector employees might hear some good news in the coming days.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Finance Minister Youssef Khalil have been making efforts to convince Finance Ministry employees to go to their offices to ensure all striking workers receive their July salaries on time.

The representative for the Employees Association in the government, Hassan Wehbe, said: “The initial agreement provides for giving an additional salary with the previously approved social assistance worth LBP2,000,000 ($1,326.7) in addition to an LBP95,000 transportation allowance for every work day, with incentives that may amount to a minimum of LBP200,000 LBP and a maximum of LBP300,000.”

Lebanese President Michel Aoun has signed a decree to give temporary social assistance to all public sector employees and retirees and to give the Finance Ministry an advance from the treasury to cover this assistance.

But the proposal has not satisfied the committees leading the strike. The industrial action was sparked by a decision to pay judges' salaries according to the US dollar exchange rate of LBP8,000 instead of LBP1,507, which was the official rate before the Lebanese economic collapse began in 2019.

Caretaker Minister of Social Affairs Hector Hajjar said a meeting on Monday was expected to suggest solutions that would be in everyone’s interests, especially employees.

Hajjar said that the public sector could not function properly by only allocating two working days per week but through the possibility of allocating new revenues to the treasury.

A delegation of the Lebanese-American Coordination Committee said the country was facing an unprecedented crisis at the constitutional, sovereign, economic and social levels.

It said many sectors were severely affected and subject to massive collapse.

The observations came at the end of the delegation's visit to Lebanon, which included meetings with key government officials, parties, and activists.

The committee said that Lebanon’s friends in the international community and the Arab world had expressed keenness to save the country's identity and ensure its recovery.

“This proves that Lebanon is not left behind, and all concerned parties in the US are making sure support is provided for Lebanon, especially to the Lebanese army. The constitution must be respected and all international resolutions regarding Lebanon’s sovereignty must be implemented.

“This is a historic moment that should not be wasted because of political settlements and positions that lack courage. Wasting this opportunity could lead to Lebanon’s total collapse.”