{"id":43640,"date":"2020-08-28T05:22:21","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T05:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=43640"},"modified":"2020-08-28T05:22:21","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T05:22:21","slug":"cairo-express-buses-fast-lane-to-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=43640","title":{"rendered":"Cairo express buses\u2019 fast lane to the future"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT: Canadian Foreign Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne has called on Lebanese authorities to heed the will of their people. He also reiterated that international aid to help the country recover from its financial crisis is dependent on the implementation of \u201cvery serious\u201d economic and political reforms.<\/p>\n

\nSpeaking exclusively to Arab News on Thursday after arriving in Beirut to assess the situation following the devastating explosion in the city\u2019s port on Aug. 4, he said: \u201cImpunity must end. Young people, women and victims have spoken, and we must listen to them. In a tragedy of unprecedented magnitude, we must ask the right questions and develop inclusive answers to match, for a prosperous Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHe said Canada supports the Lebanese people, and stressed the importance of reforms to the efforts to ensure a lasting recovery.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cCanada wishes to be part of the reconstruction,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are happy to help Lebanon but reforms are needed and the corruption must stop. The streets spoke; the young people, the women and the victims spoke. Now we have to listen to them.<\/p>\n

\n

\nHIGH<\/span>LIGHTS<\/h4>\n
\n
\n
    \n
  • \nCanada providing a historic response to the historic challenge, says visiting minister.<\/li>\n
  • \nCanada wishes to be part of the reconstruction, says Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne.<\/li>\n
  • \n300,000-strong diaspora want to help build a prosperous and inclusive Lebanon.<\/li>\n
  • \nUNESCO chief stresses need for reconstruction of damaged heritage sites in order to protect the cultural history of Beirut.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    \n\u201cI am very happy to be here for the next two days and meet civil society representatives, and make sure that Canada is providing a historic response to the historic challenge facing the Lebanese people.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \nChampagne noted that food security was severely affected by the explosion, on top of a growing economic crisis that has caused inflation to soar, and that Canada is ready to help alleviate this.<\/p>\n

    \nHe said that his country is home to \u201c300,000 Canadians of Lebanese origin who want to help build a prosperous and inclusive Lebanon\u201d and that \u201cthe diaspora will want to lend a hand to their Lebanese brothers and sisters, if the mode of governance is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \nMeanwhile, Ziad Bekdash, vice-president of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, said that 90 percent of Lebanese exports are once again passing through Port of Beirut, less than a month after the explosion that destroyed much of it and surrounding residential neighborhoods. He praised the port authorities and the Lebanese Army for resuming operations so quickly.<\/p>\n

    \nThe Internal Security Forces said that its Scientific Investigation Department has identified the victims of the blast from their remains, but three people are still missing.<\/p>\n

    \n
    \"\"
    \nUNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay on Thursday visits Beirut\u2019s Orthodox Three Doctors School that was badly damaged by the Aug. 4 port explosion. (AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

    \nAs part of international efforts to rebuild schools damaged by the blast, UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay visited a number of them in the Gemmayzeh and Achrafieh districts. She said the education of nearly 85,000 students has been disrupted by the explosion, at a time when the education sector was already experiencing difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

    \nAzoulay also inspected destroyed or badly damaged heritage buildings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \nDuring a meeting with President Michel Aoun, she stressed the importance of rebuilding them to preserve the city\u2019s cultural history, and said UNESCO will help with the process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    BEIRUT: Canadian Foreign Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne has called on Lebanese authorities to heed the will of their people. He also reiterated that international aid to help the country recover from its financial crisis is dependent on the implementation of \u201cvery serious\u201d economic and political reforms. Speaking exclusively to Arab News on Thursday after arriving in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}