05/11/2025

WEDNESDAY | NOV 5, 2025

8

‘Ban mercury dental fillings by 2030’

Shein vows to cooperate with France PARIS: Asian e-commerce giant Shein yesterday pledged to “cooperate fully” with French judicial authorities after an uproar over it selling childlike sex dolls, and said it was prepared to disclose the names of people who bought them. The controversy comes as the online fast fashion seller is set to open its first bricks and mortar store in the world in the prestigious BHV department store in central Paris. “We will cooperate fully with the judicial authorities,” Shein’s spokesman in France, Quentin Ruffat, told RMC radio, adding the company was prepared to share names of those who have bought such dolls. “We will be completely transparent with the authorities. If they ask us to do so, we will comply. “We will put the necessary safeguards in place to ensure that this does not happen again.” The Paris prosecutor’s office said it had opened investigations against Shein, and also rival online retailers AliExpress, Temu and Wish, over the sale of sex dolls. The probes were for distributing “messages that are violent, pornographic or improper, and accessible to minors”, the office said. The investigations were launched after France’s anti-fraud unit reported on Saturday that Shein was selling childlike sex dolls. French media published a photo of one of the dolls sold on the platform, accompanied by an explicitly sexual caption. The pictured doll measured around 80cm in height and held a teddy bear. Ruffat described what had happened as “serious, unacceptable, intolerable”. He chalked up the sale of the dolls to “an internal malfunction, a malfunction in our processes and governance”. “We assessed the situation and responded quickly.” On Monday, Shein announced it was imposing a “total ban on sex-doll-type products” and had deleted all listings and images linked to them. – AFP Mushroom murderer appeals verdict SYDNEY: Convicted

Some countries have already banned its use in dental amalgam, a common filling material for treating tooth decay used for more than 175 years. The Minamata Convention on Mercury is an international treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury and mercury compounds. More than 150 countries are party to the convention, which was adopted in 2013 and came into force in 2017. It stipulates that signatories must take measures to phase out the use of mercury based dental amalgams. However, a bloc of African countries want to go further, with a ban on their production, import and export, starting in 2030. They have submitted a draft amendment to the convention, to be examined at this week’s conference on the treaty. Opening the debate, Burkina Faso’s representative said that in less-wealthy countries, “there is insufficient, or even a complete lack of, infrastructure” for dealing

with mercury waste. A few countries opposed the African proposal, including Britain, Iran and India. Britain’s representative said 2030 was “too soon”, and despite “strong environmental reasons for reducing our global reliance on dental amalgam”, the cost and longevity of alternatives should be a factor in any decision to phase out mercury use. The conference will also examine how better to combat skin-lightening cosmetics containing mercury. “The convention already bans the use of mercury in cosmetics,” the convention’s executive secretary Monika Stankiewicz told reporters. “However, we know that the sales of skin lightening products with mercury and other hazardous substances have exploded globally, especially on online markets.” When added to cosmetics, mercury lightens the skin by suppressing melanin production. However, the process is not permanent and is dangerous to health. – AFP

GENEVA: Countries including the United States have called for a worldwide ban on mercury-based dental amalgams by 2030, at a meeting of signatories to a treaty on limiting the toxic metal. “It’s inexcusable that governments around the world still allow mercury-based compounds in healthcare – and safe alternatives exist,” said US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In a video message to the conference in Geneva, Kennedy asked why mercury was deemed “dangerous in batteries, in over-the counter medications and make-up”, but acceptable in dental fillings. The World Health Organisation considers mercury one of the top 10 chemicals of major public health concern, calling it “toxic to human health”. o Conference scrutinises skin-lightening products

murderer Erin Patterson (pic) has lodged an appeal to overturn her guilty verdicts for killing three people with toxic mushrooms, local media reported, after a trial that sparked a media frenzy. Patterson, 51, was handed life in prison with parole this year for

An Afghan shopkeeper searches for remains in Tangi Tashqurghan. – AFPPIC

serving a beef Wellington laced with poisonous fungi to her estranged husband’s parents, aunt and uncle during a lunch at her home in 2023, killing three of them. But local media, including national broadcaster ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald , reported on Monday night that Patterson’s bid to appeal her guilty verdicts had been lodged and accepted by the Court of Appeal. Her legal team has not outlined the reasons for the appeal. Patterson was sentenced in September and a judge said she would be eligible for parole after 33 years. Her legal team had argued she should be given the chance of release after 30 years because the notoriety of her case would have meant she would spend most of her prison sentence in isolation. The prosecution has since appealed the “manifestly inadequate” sentence. – AFP

Afghans begin clean-up after earthquake

TANGI TASHQURGHAN: Residents of northern Afghanistan began a clean-up operation yesterday after a powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake left at least 20 dead and almost 1,000 injured. The quake struck near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif early on Monday, killing at least 20 people and damaging the city’s historic Blue Mosque, authorities said. Some 945 people have been injured, according to the latest figures from UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan. Hundreds of houses were either completely or partially destroyed, according to the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority, a figure that aid groups said was

concerning just ahead of the Afghan winter, where temperatures drop below freezing. Afghans in Tangi Tashqurgan, an area close to the quake epicentre, were yesterday digging out rubble and reinforcing affected buildings. Shopkeeper Mohammad Yasin said dozens of structures had been damaged or destroyed in the quake. “If you go inside the shops, you feel afraid they might collapse any moment, maybe now or in 10 minutes,” he said. The disaster is the latest challenge for Afghanistan’s administration, already grappling with crises including an earthquake in August that killed thousands in the east of the country, a sharp drop in foreign aid and mass deportations of Afghan refugees by neighbouring countries.

The United Nations has pledged assistance, along with India, which is seeking to thaw ties with the government in Afghanistan, which is still under sanctions from many Western nations. China said yesterday it would also offer aid. Hemmed in by rugged mountains, Afghanistan is prone to a range of natural disasters, but its earthquakes cause the most fatalities, killing about 560 people on average each year and causing annual damage estimated at US$80 million (RM336 million). Rudimentary building quality also contributes to the casualty figures, with experts recommending new structures be built in an earthquake-resistant way and existing buildings be retrofitted to reduce the chances of collapse. – Reuters