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World in brief: August 10, 2020

IRAN: A newspaper was shut down by the government yesterday after it published remarks by an expert that cast doubt on the veracity of official coronavirus case and death numbers.

On Sunday, the Jahane Sanat business daily quoted Mohammad Reza Mahboobfar, an epidemiologist that the paper said had worked on the government’s anti-coronavirus campaign, as saying that the true number of cases and deaths in Iran could be 20 times higher than the numbers reported by the health ministry.

Iran has the Middle East’s worst coronavirus outbreak and cases and deaths have surged since May, when the government eased lockdown restrictions for the sake of the economy.

PAKISTAN: A bomb targeting an anti-drug force tore through a busy market in south-western Pakistan yesterday, killing at least five people and wounding 10 others.

No-one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion in the border town of Chaman, near Afghanistan, which was caused by a bomb attached to a motorcycle. 

Mohammad Ali, a local police official, said that some of the wounded were in critical condition.

SPAIN: NGO refugee rescuers in Spain paid tribute to a former volunteer and documentary filmmaker yesterday, who died in a tragic diving accident at the weekend.

Fernando Garfella, 31, failed to resurface during a solo scuba dive off the coast of Mallorca on Sunday.

Oscar Camps, founder of the Spanish refugee-rescue charity Open Arms, said that “a friend, an admired professional, leaves too soon, but he will always be with us.”

DENMARK: The number of wild boar in Denmark has fallen since a 43-mile fence was erected along the German border last year to prevent them from making illegal crossings.

The number of wild pigs in Denmark has fallen from 35-40 to fewer than 25 after the fence was erected to prevent disease from damaging the Danish pork industry, according to officials yesterday.

Denmark is the only EU country where pigs outnumber people, with 215 pigs to every 100 residents.

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