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World
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TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2020
Africa
Middle East
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (AP) — Over
2,000 Israelis took to the streets
of Tel Aviv last Sunday, demon-
strating against Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts
to form an “emergency” govern-
ment with his chief rival and ac-
cusing him of using the COVID19
crisis to escape prosecution on
corruption charges.
Demonstrators wore face
masks and largely kept their dis-
tance from one another, in line
with social-distancing rules, as
speakers criticised Netanyahu’s
possible partnership with rival
Benny Gantz. Some held black
lags, which have become the
symbol of their campaign in re-
cent weeks.
Gantz, who during three bit-
ter election campaigns over the
past year vowed never to sit in a
government with Netanyahu due
to his legal problems, announced
last month that he had accepted
the prime minister’s suggestion to
form an “emergency” government
to deal with the COVID19 crisis.
The announcement infuri-
ated many of Gantz’s supporters
and caused his Blue and White
party to fracture. “You don’t ight
corruption from within. If you’re
Israelis accuse Netanyahu
of endangering democracy
inside, you’re part of it,” said
Gantz’s former political partner
Yair Lapid, who withdrew from
the Blue and White alliance
last month.
Netanyahu has been charged
with fraud, breach of justice and
accepting bribes.
He denied the charges and
said he is the victim of a hostile
media and aggressive police
and prosecutors. Protesters last
Sunday accused Netanyahu of
exploiting the crisis to evade
his looming trial and cement his
lengthy rule.
Citing the pandemic, Ne-
tanyahu’s hand-picked Justice
Minister delayed the Prime
Minister’s trial just two days
before it was to begin until
late May.
People keep social distancing amid concerns over the country’s
COVID 19 outbreak, during a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel. PHOTO: AP
ACCRA (AFP) - Ghana yesterday
ended a three-week lockdown on
two key regions as the west Af-
rican nation’s leader said testing
had improved and the measures
were having a “severe” impact on
the poor.
President Nana Akufo-Addo an-
nounced the lifting of restrictions
on movement around the capital
Accra and second region Kumasi
in a televised address.
He said the move was being
taken “in view of our ability to un-
dertake aggressive contact tracing
of infected persons, the enhance-
ment of our capacity to test, the
expansion in the numbers of our
treatment and isolation centres”.
“This decision to restrict move-
ment has occasioned a number
of severe dificulties for all of us
across the country, especially for the
poor and vulnerable,” he said in the
speech last Sunday. Ghana has so far
conirmed 1,042 infections, with nine
deaths, from COVID19.
The country of around 30 million
has ramped up testing and checked
over 68,000 samples.
Measures including the closure
of the country’s border, shuttering of
schools and limiting of public gath-
erings remain in force.
Akufo-Addo said people were en-
couraged “to wear a mask wherever
you go” to help contain the spread of
the virus.
Ghana lifts lockdown on key regions
Factory workers check personal protective equipment for COVID 19
frontline health workers at a factory commissioned by the government, in
Accra. PHOTO: AFP