Four men hijacked and set fire to a bus in a pro-British unionist community in Northern Ireland on Sunday evening, authorities said.

Police said they received a report of a hijacking incident in the Church Road area of Newtownabbey, a Belfast suburb, around 7:45 p.m.

“It was reported that four men got onto the bus and ordered passengers off before the bus was then set alight. Church Road is currently closed and diversions are in place and police would ask members of the public to avoid the area,” the Police Service of Northern Ireland said in a statement.

Bus operator Translink said the driver and a small number of passengers safely disembarked.

“Our driver is badly shaken and is currently being supported by colleagues,” the company said in a statement.

“We are very disappointed by this intimidating attack on our member of staff and public transport services in the area. We utterly condemn this behaviour and will be working closely with the PSNI to investigate this incident,” the statement said.

Last week, two masked and armed men hijacked and set fire to another bus in an attack that local media said was linked to tensions over post-Brexit trade barriers.

(Source: Reuters)

Britain’s Brexit minister threatened Monday to trigger a contentious break clause in the UK’s divorce deal with the European Union – a move that would send the UK’s already chilly relations with its huge neighbor into a deep freeze.

David Frost told a gathering of the UK’s governing Conservative Party that the Brexit agreement – which he negotiated and was signed by Britain and the EU – was undermining peace in Northern Ireland and causing “instability and disruption.”

He said unless there are major changes to the deal, Britain will invoke Article 16, a provision that lets either side suspend the agreement in exceptional circumstances.

However, Britain has made that threat before, and Frost did not pull the trigger.

“But we cannot wait forever,” he said.

The crisis straining UK-EU relations stems from trade arrangements for Northern Ireland, the only part of the UK that has a land border with the 27-nation bloc. The divorce deal the two sides struck before Britain’s departure means customs and border checks must be conducted on some goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

The regulations are intended to prevent goods from Britain entering the EU’s tariff-free single market while keeping an open border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland – a key pillar of Northern Ireland’s peace process. But the checks have angered Northern Ireland’s unionists, who say they impose burdensome red tape on businesses and weaken Northern Ireland’s ties with the rest of the UK.

Britain accuses the EU of being needlessly “purist” in implementing the agreement, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, and says it requires major changes to work.

Blaming the bloc’s “heavy-handed actions,” Frost said “the Protocol itself” was undermining Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace agreement.

“Businesses, political parties, the institutions, and indeed all in Northern Ireland face instability and disruption,” he said.

“So I urge the EU to be ambitious. It’s no use tinkering around the edges. We need significant change.”

Officials in the EU are likely to greet Frost’s ultimatum with disdain. The EU blames Britain for the disruption, accusing it of trying to renege on a legally binding deal it signed up to.

Britain has also angered the EU by delaying the introduction of checks on some goods from the bloc agreed in the divorce deal, citing the burden on businesses.

Britain’s Conservatives are holding their first in-person conference since Britain left the bloc last year. Despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s vow to “get Brexit done,” the rupture is roiling the economy as Britain tries to bounce back from pandemic disruption and damage.

A severe shortage of truck drivers, due in part to a post-Brexit exodus of European workers, has snarled British supply chains, leaving gaps on supermarket shelves, fast-food chains without chicken and gas pumps dry of fuel. Scores of soldiers have been drafted in to drive fuel tankers after more than a week of gas shortages.

AP

Britain will issue up to 10,500 temporary work visas to lorry drivers and poultry workers to ease chronic staff shortages, the government announced Saturday, in a U-turn on post-Brexit immigration policy.

The short-term visas, to run from next month until late December, come as ministers grapple with a huge shortfall in drivers and some other key workers that has hit fuel supplies and additional industries.

A tanker drivers shortage has caused large queues at petrol stations in recent days, as people ignore government pleas not to panic-buy fuel after some garages closed due to the lack of deliveries.

The decision to expand the critical worker visa scheme is a reversal by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose government had tightened post-Brexit immigration rules insisting that Britain’s reliance on foreign labour must end.

It had resisted the move for months, despite an estimated shortage of around 100,000 heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers and warnings from various sectors that supplies would run short.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps nevertheless insisted he was taking action “at the earliest opportunity” and that a broader package of measures announced would ensure pre-Christmas preparations “remain on track”.

“The industries must also play their part with working conditions continuing to improve and the deserved salary increases continuing to be maintained in order for companies to retain new drivers,” he added.

But one business leader dismissed the new measures as inadequate.

Millions of pounds for ‘skills bootcamps’

“This announcement is the equivalent of throwing a thimble of water on a bonfire,” said Ruby McGregor-Smith, president of the British Chambers of Commerce.

The additional testing would take time to impact while new visa numbers were “insufficient” and not “enough to address the scale of the problem”, she added.

The new measures will focus on rapidly expanding the number of new domestic drivers, and include deploying Ministry of Defence driving examiners to help provide thousands of extra tests over the next 12 weeks.

Meanwhile the education ministry and partner agencies will spend millions of pounds training 4,000 people to become HGV drivers, creating new so-called “skills bootcamps” to speed up the process.

Nearly 1 million letters will also be sent to all drivers who currently hold an HGV licence, asking any not currently driving to come back to work.

Johnson has been under increasing pressure to act, after the pandemic and Brexit combined to worsen the haulier shortage and other crises emerged, including escalating energy prices.

As well as threatening timely fuel supplies, the lack of lorry drivers has hit British factories, restaurants and supermarkets in recent weeks and months.

US burger chain McDonald’s ran out of milkshakes and bottled drinks last month, fast-food giant KFC was forced to remove some items from its menu, while restaurant chain Nando’s temporarily shut dozens of outlets due to a lack of chicken.

Supermarkets are also feeling the heat, with frozen-food group Iceland and retail king Tesco warning of Christmas product shortages.

‘It’s ridiculous’

This week it was the turn of the fuel sector, with growing lines of cars clogging the approaches to petrol stations following some closures and panic-buying, particularly in southeast England.

Drivers appeared less than reassured Saturday, as queues again formed for fuel.

Mike Davey, 56, had been waiting more than half an hour to fill up at a petrol station run by the supermarket chain Tesco in Kent, southeast of London.

“I just want to get some fuel to get to work. People are just like filling up jerry cans – it’s ridiculous,” he told AFP.

“Maybe they need to bring some army drivers in,” Davey added.

The government has so far resisted calls to deploy soldiers to help deliver petrol directly.

As part of the measures announced, taxpayers will also help pay for some adult HGV license applications in the next academic year – which can cost thousands of pounds – through an adult education budget fund.

Source: AFP

The European Union announced on Thursday that it will impose a universal charger for smartphones, setting up a clash with Apple and its widely used iPhone.

The European Commission believes a standard cable for all devices will cut back on electronic waste, but Apple argues that a one-size fits all charger would slow innovation and create more pollution.

The bloc is home to 450 million people, some of the world’s richest consumers, and the imposition of the USB-C as a cable standard, once approved by member states and European Parliament, would affect the entire global smartphone market.

“European consumers have been frustrated long enough about incompatible chargers piling up in their drawers,” said EU executive vice president Margrethe Vestager in a statement.

“We gave industry plenty of time to come up with their own solutions, now time is ripe for legislative action for a common charger,” she said.

Consumers currently have to decide between phones served by three main chargers: “Lightning” for Apple handsets, the micro-USB widely used on most other mobile phones and the newer USB-C that is increasingly coming into use.

That range is already greatly simplified from 2009, when dozens of different types of chargers were bundled with mobile phones, creating piles of electronic garbage when users changed brands.

‘Inconvenient’ and wasteful

The EU said the current situation remained “inconvenient” and that European consumers spent approximately 2.4 billion euros ($2.8 billion) annually on standalone chargers they bought separately.

Thierry Breton, the internal market commissioner also pushed back against the industry’s argument that innovation would be harmed.

He told reporters that US tech giants “are always making this argument, that (EU law) is against innovation … It is not against innovation. It is for European consumers, it is not against anyone.”

Apple, which already uses USB-C connectors on some of its iPads and laptop computers, insists legislation to force a universal charger for all mobiles in the European Union is unwarranted.

“We remain concerned that strict regulation mandating just one type of connector stifles innovation rather than encouraging it, which in turn will harm consumers in Europe and around the world,” Apple said.

‘Ample time’ to switch

Some in the industry argue that phones already in use with a legacy charging cable will lose their resale value if it cannot be replaced, and add to the glut of digital waste.

The European Commission had long defended a voluntary agreement it made with the device industry that was set in place in 2009 and saw a big reduction in cables, but Apple refused to abide by it.

In the commission’s proposal, which could yet be considerably changed before ratification, smartphone makers will be given a 24-month transition period, giving “ample time” for companies to fall in line, the commission said.

Apple said that it believed the two-year transition period was a worry for the industry and too short to prevent the sale of existing equipment.

EU consumer group ANEC cautiously welcomed the proposal but urged that the plan be expanded to wireless charging systems, which are increasingly being adopted by phonemakers.

“It is therefore important to avoid any fragmentation in this area as well,” the group said.

Source: AFP

In her final visit to Moscow before stepping down as leader, German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday asked her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to free Alexei Navalny from prison on the anniversary of the opposition leader’s poisoning.

Merkel’s trip to Moscow comes exactly a year after a nerve-agent attack on the now-jailed Navalny, whose life was saved by Berlin doctors.

Her aides have made clear that the timing of the meeting is not accidental.

“I demanded from the Russian President that he free Navalny,” Merkel told a Kremlin press conference, standing alongside Putin.

The Russian leader referred to his challenger as “the defendant”. He denied Navalny was jailed for his political activity, saying he was behind bars for “criminal offences”.

“I would ask that the judicial decisions of the Russian Federation be treated with respect,” Putin said, claiming that Russia had an inclusive political system.

Earlier, the German chancellor said it was important for Berlin to continue engaging with Moscow, despite “deep differences” on a range of issues.  

“We have a lot to talk about,” Merkel said, naming several issues on their agenda, including the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, and Putin, a former KGB agent stationed there, speak each other’s languages.

During the chancellor’s 16 years in power, the pair always kept a dialogue despite strained relations, dampened by issues ranging from alleged cyberattacks to the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria. 

Navalny ‘wrongly’ imprisoned

Merkel has previously blamed Navalny’s near-fatal poisoning on the Kremlin after tests in European laboratories showed Navalny was poisoned using the Novichok chemical weapon.  

Her spokesman Steffen Seibert said the attack had put a “heavy burden” on relations between the two countries. 

Navalny is now held in a maximum security prison colony in Pokrov, 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Moscow.

This month he was charged with new crimes that could prolong his jail time by three years. If found guilty, he could only be released after 2024, the year Russia is scheduled to hold a presidential election.

Seibert said Navalny had been “wrongly” imprisoned.

In a message from prison posted on his Instagram by his team Friday, Navalny said the 20th of August – when he thought “he died” after losing consciousness on a flight over Siberia – was his “second birthday”.

He thanked his supporters for calling for him to be taken out of Russia for treatment.

“Thanks to you I survived and landed in prison,” he joked, adding “sorry, I could not help myself”. 

Ukraine visit

Both Merkel and Putin said the crisis in Afghanistan had figured prominently during their talks.

In his first comments on the subject since the Taliban takeover, Putin said the world community should prevent the “collapse” of the country and ensure “terrorists” do not enter neighbouring countries from Afghanistan.

He said the world must accept the fact that the Taliban now control Afghanistan, criticising the “irresponsible policy” of imposing “outside values” on the war-torn country.  

Merkel and Putin also discussed the simmering conflict in eastern Ukraine and the authoritarian crackdown in Russia-allied Belarus.

Germany has been a major player in efforts to broker peace in eastern Ukraine and Merkel expressed hope that peace talks on the conflict between Kiev and pro-Russia separatists would continue after she leaves power.

She told Putin that “even if the progress isn’t as fast as we hoped”, the peace talks should be kept “alive”.

Merkel is set to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev on Sunday.

Source: AFP

The Green Pass will be required to enter restaurants, cinemas, museums and indoor sports venues starting on Friday.

Italy’s cabinet Thursday made the coronavirus health pass obligatory for teachers as well as passengers on public transport, including domestic flights, ferries and long-distance trains.

The Green Pass, which is an extension of the EU’s digital Covid certificate, will already be required from Friday to enter cinemas, museums and indoor sports venues, or eat indoors at restaurants.

The health certificate proves bearers have either been vaccinated with at least one dose, have recovered from Covid-19 within the past six months, or have tested negative in the previous 48 hours.

Under the new decree law, school and university staff will need the pass, as will university students.

Staff without passes for five days straight will be suspended and have their pay frozen, Italian media said.

‘Italians remarkably disciplined and accepting’

Education minister Patrizio Bianchi told a press conference that over 86 percent of school personnel had been vaccinated, and that the number may be closer to 90 percent.

Health minister Roberto Speranza called on families to give the jab to children over 12 years old, and said teenagers would be eligible for cut-price rapid covid detection tests.

The green pass will be obligatory on domestic flights, trains and some ferry services from September 1.

Speranza said the pass — which has sparked protests in some quarters — was key to curbing rising Covid-19 cases, and he urged Italians to carry on getting vaccinated.

“The numbers are encouraging, with 70 million (vaccine) doses administered,” Speranza said, adding that the use of the green pass would “avoid closures and protect freedom”.

The minimum quarantine period for people who test positive for the virus or have been in contact with a COVID-19 patient was reduced for those who have been vaccinated, from 10 to 7 days.

Italy was the first country in Europe to make it obligatory for doctors and health workers in the public and private sector to get vaccinated or face being banned from working directly with patients.

A group of 300 Italian health workers has gone to court to try to get the obligation overturned.

(AFP)

Germany and France will begin offering a third COVID-19 vaccine booster shot to the most vulnerable members of their populations starting in September, disregarding a WHO appeal to delay third doses until more people in poorer countries are vaccinated.

Germany and France will go ahead with COVID-19 vaccine boosters from September, disregarding an appeal by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to hold off until more people are vaccinated across the globe.

The decision to press ahead with booster shots despite the strongest statement yet from the WHO highlights the challenge of dealing with a global pandemic while countries try to protect their own citizens from the more infectious Delta variant.

French President Emmanuel Macron said France was working on rolling out third COVID-19 vaccine doses to the elderly and vulnerable from September.

“A third dose will likely be necessary, not for everyone straightaway, but in any case for the most vulnerable and the most elderly,” Macron said on his Instagram account.

Germany intends to give boosters to immunocompromised patients, the very elderly and nursing home residents from September, the health ministry said.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on Wednesday for a halt to vaccine boosters until at least the end of September, saying it was unacceptable for rich countries to use more of the global vaccine supply.

High-income countries administered around 50 doses for every 100 people in May, and that number has since doubled, according to WHO. Low-income countries have only been able to administer 1.5 doses for every 100 people, due to lack of supplies.

“I understand the concern of all governments to protect their people from the Delta variant. But we cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it,” Tedros said.

Germany rejected those accusations, saying it would also donate at least 30 million vaccine doses to poorer countries.

“We want to provide the vulnerable groups in Germany with a precautionary third vaccination and at the same time support the vaccination of as many people in the world as possible,” the ministry said.

Macron’s government is trying to step up France’s vaccination programme as the country faces a fourth wave of the virus and street demonstrations in protest against the government’s COVID policies.

France and Germany have so far given at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to 64.5% and 62% of their respective populations, with 49% of the French and 53% of Germans fully-vaccinated.

(REUTERS)

Chancellor Angela Merkel visited flood-ravaged areas of Germany on Sunday to survey the damage and meet survivors after days of extreme rainfall in western Europe left at least 183 people dead and dozens missing.

Merkel travelled to the village of Schuld in Rhineland-Palatinate state, one of the two hardest-hit regions in western Germany where the swollen Ahr river swept away houses and left debris piled high in the streets.

“We are by your side,” Merkel told residents of the small town Adenau, calling the situation there “terrifying”.

The chancellor said she was overwhelmed by the “surreal, eerie” devastation she had seen.

“It is shocking – I can almost say that the German language doesn’t have words for the destruction that has been unleashed,” she told reporters.

Merkel also pledged that a short-term relief programme would be launched by the government on Wednesday.

At least 156 people have died since Wednesday in Germany’s worst flooding in living memory, police said in an update Sunday morning. In Rhineland-Palatinate state alone, police reported 110 dead and 670 injured.

At least 27 people have also lost their lives in neighbouring Belgium.

Today I went to Rochefort and Pepinster. I saw the devastation caused by the floods.

My heart ached as I met people who have lost their homes, the savings of a lifetime.

Rescue crews in both countries were sifting through rubble to find victims, often in dangerous conditions.

The historic downpours also battered Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

As the waters began to recede in Rhineland-Palatinate and neighbouring North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW), concern shifted south to Germany’s Upper Bavaria region, where heavy rains inundated basements and swelled rivers and creeks late Saturday.

One person died in Berchtesgadener Land, a spokeswoman for the Bavarian district told AFP.

In Austria, emergency workers in the Salzburg and Tyrol regions were on high alert for flooding. The historic town centre of Hallein, near the German frontier, was under water.

“Heavy rains and storms are unfortunately causing severe damage in several places in Austria,” Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Twitter. Merkel has called the floods a “tragedy” and pledged support from the federal government for Germany’s stricken municipalities.

Speaking alongside US President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday, Merkel said her “heart goes out to all of those who in this catastrophe lost their loved ones”.

The government has said it is working to set up a special aid fund, with the cost of damage expected to reach several billion euros.

The scale of the flood impact was gradually becoming clear in Germany, with damaged buildings being assessed, some of which will have to be demolished, and efforts under way to restore gas, electricity and telephone services.

In some areas, soldiers used armoured vehicles to clear the debris clogging streets.

In North-Rhine Westphalia, divers were sent in to search submerged homes and vehicles.

Local authorities in NRW and Rhineland-Palatinate said dozens of people remain unaccounted for across both states.

They have stressed, however, that disruption to communication networks made a precise assessment difficult, and the real number of missing could be lower.

Roger Lewentz, interior minister for Rhineland-Palatinate, said more than 670 people were injured.

“I’ve lived here my whole life, I was born here, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Gregor Degen, a baker in the devastated spa town of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler near Schuld.

Across the border in Belgium, the death toll jumped to 27 with many people still missing.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Alexander de Croo visited the flooded areas of Rochefort and Pepinster together on Saturday.

“Europe is with you,” von der Leyen tweeted afterwards. “We are with you in mourning and we will be with you in rebuilding.”

Belgium has declared Tuesday a day of official mourning.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

German emergency responders were on Friday still searching for hundreds of missing people after the worst floods in living memory killed at least 81 in the country’s west.

“I fear that we will only see the full extent of the disaster in the coming days,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said from Washington, where she met with President Joe Biden.

Catching residents of several regions unaware and leaving destruction and despair in their wake, the masses of water were dubbed the “flood of death” by top-selling daily Bild.

Neighbouring Belgium counted at least nine dead, while Luxembourg and the Netherlands were also severely affected by the torrents of water, with thousands evacuated in the city of Maastricht.

But Germany’s toll was by far the highest at 81, and likely to rise with large numbers of people still missing in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, the hardest-hit states.

“It is a catastrophe. There are dead, missing and many are still in danger,” says Malu Dreyer, President of German state of Rheinland Pfalz, hit by devastating floods.

In the devastated Ahrweiler district of Rhineland-Palatinate around 1,300 people were unaccounted for, although local authorities told Bild the high number was likely down to damaged phone networks.

Regional interior minister Roger Lewentz told broadcaster SWR that “we believe there are still 40, 50 or 60 people missing, and when you haven’t heard for people for such a long time … you have to fear the worst.”

“The number of victims will likely keep rising in the coming days,” he added.

‘Disaster’

What’s more, continuing rain is forecast for parts of the west, where water levels in the Rhine river and its tributaries are rising dangerously.

Around 1,000 soldiers have been deployed to help with rescue operations and rubble-clearing in affected towns and villages.

Streets and houses under water, overturned cars and uprooted trees could be seen everywhere the floodwaters had passed, while some districts were cut off from the outside world.

In Ahrweiler several houses collapsed completely, leaving the impression the town had been struck by a tsunami.

At least 20 people had been confirmed dead in Euskirchen, one of the worst-hit towns just to the north.

Its normally spick and span centre had been turned into a heap of rubble, with house facades torn off by the rushing floods.

Adding to the town’s woes, a nearby dam remains at risk of giving way.

“My empathy and my heart go out to all of those who in this catastrophe lost their loved ones, or who are still worrying about the fate of people still missing,” Merkel told reporters in Washington.

She said her government would not leave those affected “alone with their suffering”, adding that it was doing its “utmost to help them in their distress”.

Pensioner Annemarie Mueller, 65, looking out at her flooded garden and garage from her balcony, said her town of Mayen had been completely unprepared for the destruction.

“Where did all this rain come from? It’s crazy,” she told AFP, recalling the floodwater crashing through her street during the night.

“It made such a loud noise and given how fast it came down, we thought it would break the door down.”

Four people are still missing in Belgium and the army has been sent to four of the country’s 10 provinces to help with rescue and evacuations.

With homes under water since Wednesday, people from resort town Spa were being put up in tents.

The swollen Meuse river “is going to look very dangerous for Liege”, a nearby city of 200,000 people, said Wallonia regional president Elio Di Rupo.

Climate change?

The storms have put climate change back at the centre of Germany’s election campaign ahead of a September 26 parliamentary poll marking the end of Merkel’s 16 years in power.

Germany “must prepare much better” in future, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said, adding that “this extreme weather is a consequence of climate change”.

Because a warmer atmosphere holds more water, climate change increases the risk and intensity of flooding from extreme rainfall.

In urban areas with poor drainage and buildings located in flood zones, the damage can be severe.

Political candidates were quick to open a bidding war on climate following the floods.

North Rhine-Westphalia premier Armin Laschet, the conservative running to succeed Merkel, called for “speeding up” global efforts to fight climate change, underlining the link between global warming and extreme weather.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Ireland said on Tuesday it will restrict indoor drinking and eating in bars and restaurants to those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or who have previously been infected by it due to concerns about the Delta variant.

The country joins a handful of places in Europe to introduce the measure, including Austria, Denmark, and Israel, while Moscow has brought in similar restrictions.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin, who announced a general slowdown of the easing of public health restrictions, said that health officials told him they thought that the variant made indoor hospitality too dangerous for the unvaccinated.

“The safest way to now proceed with a return to indoor hospitality is to limit access to those who have been fully vaccinated or have recovered from COVID infection,” Martin said.

Only 41% of Ireland’s adult population has been vaccinated, with 65% having received one dose, the health minister said on Monday. A senior health official earlier this month said some in their 20s may have to wait until September for a first dose.

Indoor venues such as theatres and concert venues may also face restrictions, Martin later told journalists.

Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said that the only other option to a vaccine verification system which had been presented to the government by Irish health officials was closing indoor hospitality for the foreseeable future.

“The alternative is not a delay of a few weeks … the alternative is a prolonged delay until we reach herd immunity, and with new variants very likely, we just cannot say when that would be,” Varadkar told a press briefing.

Varadkar said that while people would “feel it is divisive, that they are being left outside”, the government felt it was the least bad option.

Bars, restaurants, and cafes have been closed in Ireland for much of the past 16 months, with the latest national lockdown in place since late December. Outdoor dining and drinking has been allowed since June 7. The country also has some of the strictest travel restrictions in the European Union.

Ireland has the fifth highest rate of COVID-19 infections of the 31 countries monitored by the European Centre for Disease Control.

Martin said indoor dining would now not be reopened on Monday as planned but would be delayed until a new system of vaccine certification has been implemented.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said the details of the verification had not been finalised but might involve a QR code readable by a smartphone.

Source: REUTERS