Volume 22 | Number 7252 | 2 Riyals Sunday 13 August 2017 | 21 Dhul-Qa’Da 1438 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com The Swiss Organization for the Protection of Human Rights, in a statement released yesterday, slammed the Saudi plan to impose contstraints on Qatari citizens trying to travel to the kingdom to perform Haj. A former Afghan mujahideen fighter says Saudi was interested in hosting a Taliban office, the Middle East Eye reports. Abdullah Anas says he made multiple visits to Saudi Arabia between 2006 and 2008 and met senior officials, including the-then head of intelligence, Prince Muqrin, to help establish a Taliban office. Marquez claims pole ahead of Ducati duo Ooredoo initiative helps boost Qatar’s businesses BUSINESS | 18 SPORT | 24 3 rd Best News Website in the Middle East Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani visiting the Building Automation & Control System (BACS) centre for Doha Metro stations. The system was recently assembled at one of the Doha Metro project sites. The Prime Minister was accompanied by Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, and Qatar Rail Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Eng Abdulla Abdulaziz Al Subaie. → See also page 2 PM visits BACS centre for Doha Metro stations Qatar-Turkey trade route via Iran to cut transportation cost Mohammad Shoeb The Peninsula T he newly-announced land trade route through Tur- key, Iran and Qatar is expected to significantly reduce the cost of transportation of goods. The new trade line will lead to a decline of nearly 80 percent in the transportation cost of food items compared to air freight charges, say experts. Mohammed bin Mahdi Al Ahbabi, Board Member of Qatar Chamber, said: “The new land trade line between Turkey and Qatar via Iran, will reduce the cost of transport of goods by about 80 percent compared to air cargo.” Al Ahbabi, also the Head of Trade and Research Committee at QC, who recently headed a 100-member trade delegation to Turkey, added: The cost of air freight is ranging between $1.2 and $1.5 per kg, while the cost of road transport per kg is approx- imately $0.15 (15 cents).” He noted that the new trade line will be more sustainable and reliable, and boost the Turkey- Qatar bilateral trade volume manifold, given the fact busi- nessmen from both countries have signed scores of trade agreements, especially during their recent visit to Turkey from August 3-6. Turkey’s Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci last week announced plans to use a land route through Iran to export goods to Qatar. The sea route between Tur- key and Qatar initially took 11 days, while the land route took 14 days. And recent experiments have reduced this duration to nine days. And Turkey aims at reducing the travel time to five or six days or even less. But the newly propounded commercial land transport line, from Turkey’s Mardin city to Iran’s Bushehr port, will further shorten the duration to two or three days at the most. The dis- tance between Mardin city (Turkey) and the port of Bush- ehr (Iran) is about 1,700km, which can be traveled by trucks in about 22 hours, while the dis- tance between the Iranian port of Bushehr and Qatar’s Hamad Port is 140km, and the Turkish trucks can cross the 140km sea distance between the two ports on Ro-Ro ships in just 8 hours. So a truck with Turkish goods can reach to Doha through this route in less than two days. “Given the nature of some food items, such as vegetables, fruits, poultry and dairy prod- ucts, land transport is the best way to import them. The new route will not only bring the cost of transportation down signifi- cantly, but the items that reach will be more fresh and of better quality”, Ahmed Al Khalaf, Chair- man of International Projects Development Co, the parent company of Qatar Meat, told The Peninsula over phone, yester- day. He said that some Turkish food stuff has already started coming through the new land route after Turkey and Iran ver- bally agreed on it. But the official announcement is expected to be made this week. Yet another prominent Qatari businessman, Ali Hassan Al Khalaf, Chairman of Qatar Consume, that also runs a chain of retail outlets, across the coun- try, said: “The new land route is going to be more sustainable and economically viable in the days to come. As more and more importers start using the route, the economies of scale will come into play, which will help further reduce the transportation cost.” He said that in the coming days even the neighbouring countries of Turkey and Iran, such as Russia and Pakistan, can also benefit from the new land route to export their goods to Qatar. He also said that Iran has developed a wide networks of road and rail lines, which will help the movement of goods much smoother and faster. Ali Hassan noted that unlike the previously-used Saudi land route, the Turkey-Iran-Qatar route will have lesser number of checkpoints, which will ensure the faster movement of trucks. → Continued on page 3 Siege: NHRC receives 3,269 complaints Mohammed Osman The Peninsula Q atar National Human Right Committee (QNHRC) has received over 3,000 complaints of human rights violations since the cur- rent siege of Qatar. The rights body said yesterday it had received a total of 3,269 com- plaints since the blockade was imposed on June 5. Only around ten or so days are left for the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Makkah (Haj) and restrictions imposed by Saudi authorities have still not been lifted, said Dr Ali bin Sumaikh Al Marri, Chairman of NHRC. A total of 21,255 people have so far applied to perform Haj this year and the quota strength is only 2,400. The deadline for people travelling by road for Haj is August 21, and for those fly- ing is August 26, but Saudis remain adamant on not lifting the restrictions. The committee has urged the Saudi authorities to lift all restrictions, open direct flights to Jeddah and open the land route instead of insisting on forcing pilgrims from Qatar to travel through a third country which is hard for the elderly and low-income pilgrims, specially expatriates, said Al Marri, speak- ing at press meet at the NHRC headquarters. If these restrictions, which include stopping companies from giving accommodation, food and transportation in Saudi Arabia to Qataris, are not withdrawn the committee will keep seeking support of international human rights organisations to protect the religious rights of the citizens and to end exploitation of Haj for political goals, he added. Propaganda against Qataris, especially that linking them with terrorism, is endangering their safety, he said, adding that NHRC had received many complaints from Haj operating companies that are facing hard- ships in running their business. The committee has urged Islamic scholars and related entities to persuade Saudi authorities end measures taken against pilgrims from Qatar. NHRC recently noted that Saudis have scaled back some measures taken against their citizens living in Qatar, which is a positive development, Al Marri said. They allowed Saudi students studying in Qatar to continue their education, as well as let Saudi businessmen with permanent residency in Qatar stay and run their business. In another positive develop- ment, the Saudis have allowed Qatari students to enter Saudi but UAE and Bahrain continue to stonewall them despite a majority of the students being in UAE universities, said Al Marri. Saudi said it will allow their entry through border checkpoints but no details were given about implementing the decision, leaving it to whims of border officials. → Continued on page 5 Qatari and Turkish firms sign 15 agreements The Peninsula Q atari and Turkish firms recently signed agree- ments in sectors as varied as pharmaceuticals and ship- ping, in another step at boosting trade and economic ties among the close allies. Fifteen agreements were entered into during the recent visit of a Qatari trade delegation to the Turkish cities of Izmir and Istanbul from August 3 to 6, Saleh bin Hamad Al Sharqi, Director General of Qatar Cham- ber (QC), said yesterday. Al Sharqi added that the agreements focused on cooper- ation in pharmaceuticals, foodstuff, construction, build- ing materials, shipping, logistics, plastic, aluminum, glass, tech- nology, furniture and air conditioning. He added that the remarka- bly successful visit strengthened cooperation between business- men of the two countries, during which he laid the groundwork for further cooperation in vari- ous fields of trade and industry. The QC Director General was accompanied by a number of Qatari businessmen, who held meetings with a number of Turkish businessmen in Istan- bul on August 6. They discussed ways of enhancing cooperation between the two sides in the fields of foodstuff, juices, con- struction and electricity. Ibrahim Shakler, Chairman of the Istanbul Chamber, met Al Sharqi in the presence of the members of the Board of Direc- tors of the Istanbul Chamber, and the Vice-President of the Turkish Exporters Association and the Qatari businessmen. → Continued on page 2 Trade cooperation Fifteen agreements focus on pharmaceuticals, foodstuff, construction, building materials, shipping, logistics, plastic, aluminum, glass, technology, furniture and air conditioning. The commiee has urged the Saudi authorities to liſt all restrictions, open direct flights to Jeddah and open the land route. PAGE 5 H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari, Cultural Adviser at the Emiri Diwan and Qatar’s candidate for Director-General of Unesco, has said that if he was elected for the post he would revive the body by introducing it to the world. Read full interview.
Transcript
Volume 22 | Number 7252 | 2 RiyalsSunday 13 August 2017 | 21 Dhul-Qa’Da 1438 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com
The Swiss Organization for the Protection of Human Rights, in a statement released yesterday, slammed the Saudi plan to impose contstraints on Qatari citizens trying to travel to the kingdom to perform Haj.
A former Afghan mujahideen fighter says Saudi was interested in hosting a Taliban office, the Middle East Eye reports. Abdullah Anas says he made multiple visits to Saudi Arabia between 2006 and 2008 and met senior officials, including the-then head of intelligence, Prince Muqrin, to help establish a Taliban office.
Marquez claims pole ahead of Ducati duo
Ooredoo initiative helps boost Qatar’s
businesses
BUSINESS | 18 SPORT | 24
3rd Best News Website in the Middle East
Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani visiting the Building Automation & Control System (BACS) centre for Doha Metro stations. The system was recently assembled at one of the Doha Metro project sites. The Prime Minister was accompanied by Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, and Qatar Rail Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Eng Abdulla Abdulaziz Al Subaie. → See also page 2
PM visits BACS centre for Doha Metro stations
Qatar-Turkey trade route via Iran to cut transportation costMohammad Shoeb The Peninsula
The newly-announced land trade route through Tur-key, Iran and Qatar is
expected to significantly reduce the cost of transportation of goods. The new trade line will lead to a decline of nearly 80 percent in the transportation cost of food items compared to air freight charges, say experts.
Mohammed bin Mahdi Al Ahbabi, Board Member of Qatar Chamber, said: “The new land trade line between Turkey and Qatar via Iran, will reduce the cost of transport of goods by about 80 percent compared to air cargo.”
Al Ahbabi, also the Head of Trade and Research Committee at QC, who recently headed a 100-member trade delegation to Turkey, added: The cost of air freight is ranging between $1.2 and $1.5 per kg, while the cost of road transport per kg is approx-imately $0.15 (15 cents).”
He noted that the new trade line will be more sustainable and reliable, and boost the Turkey-Qatar bilateral trade volume manifold, given the fact busi-nessmen from both countries have signed scores of trade agreements, especially during their recent visit to Turkey from August 3-6.
Turkey’s Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci last week
announced plans to use a land route through Iran to export goods to Qatar.
The sea route between Tur-key and Qatar initially took 11 days, while the land route took 14 days. And recent experiments have reduced this duration to nine days. And Turkey aims at reducing the travel time to five or six days or even less.
But the newly propounded commercial land transport line, from Turkey’s Mardin city to Iran’s Bushehr port, will further shorten the duration to two or three days at the most. The dis-tance between Mardin city (Turkey) and the port of Bush-ehr (Iran) is about 1,700km, which can be traveled by trucks
in about 22 hours, while the dis-tance between the Iranian port of Bushehr and Qatar’s Hamad Port is 140km, and the Turkish trucks can cross the 140km sea distance between the two ports on Ro-Ro ships in just 8 hours. So a truck with Turkish goods can reach to Doha through this route in less than two days.
“Given the nature of some food items, such as vegetables, fruits, poultry and dairy prod-ucts, land transport is the best way to import them. The new route will not only bring the cost of transportation down signifi-cantly, but the items that reach will be more fresh and of better quality”, Ahmed Al Khalaf, Chair-man of International Projects
Development Co, the parent company of Qatar Meat, told The Peninsula over phone, yester-day. He said that some Turkish food stuff has already started coming through the new land route after Turkey and Iran ver-bally agreed on it. But the official announcement is expected to be made this week.
Yet another prominent Qatari businessman, Ali Hassan Al Khalaf, Chairman of Qatar Consume, that also runs a chain of retail outlets, across the coun-try, said: “The new land route is going to be more sustainable and economically viable in the days to come. As more and more importers start using the route, the economies of scale will come
into play, which will help further reduce the transportation cost.”
He said that in the coming days even the neighbouring countries of Turkey and Iran, such as Russia and Pakistan, can also benefit from the new land route to export their goods to Qatar. He also said that Iran has developed a wide networks of road and rail lines, which will help the movement of goods much smoother and faster.
Ali Hassan noted that unlike the previously-used Saudi land route, the Turkey-Iran-Qatar route will have lesser number of checkpoints, which will ensure the faster movement of trucks.
→ Continued on page 3
Siege: NHRC receives 3,269 complaints
Mohammed Osman The Peninsula
Qatar National Human Right Committee ( Q N H R C ) h a s received over 3,000 complaints of human
rights violations since the cur-rent siege of Qatar. The rights body said yesterday it had received a total of 3,269 com-plaints since the blockade was imposed on June 5.
Only around ten or so days are left for the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Makkah (Haj) and restrictions imposed by Saudi authorities have still not been lifted, said Dr Ali bin Sumaikh Al Marri, Chairman of NHRC.
A total of 21,255 people have so far applied to perform Haj
this year and the quota strength is only 2,400. The deadline for people travelling by road for Haj is August 21, and for those fly-ing is August 26, but Saudis remain adamant on not lifting the restrictions.
The committee has urged the Saudi authorities to lift all restrictions, open direct flights to Jeddah and open the land route instead of insisting on forcing pilgrims from Qatar to travel through a third country which is hard for the elderly and low-income pilgrims, specially expatriates, said Al Marri, speak-ing at press meet at the NHRC headquarters.
If these restrictions, which include stopping companies from giving accommodation, food and transportation in Saudi Arabia to Qataris, are not withdrawn the committee will keep seeking support of international human rights organisations to protect the religious rights of the citizens and to end exploitation of Haj for political goals, he added.
Propaganda against Qataris, especially that linking them with terrorism, is endangering their safety, he said, adding that NHRC had received many
complaints from Haj operating companies that are facing hard-ships in running their business. The committee has urged Islamic scholars and related entities to persuade Saudi authorities end measures taken against pilgrims from Qatar.
NHRC recently noted that Saudis have scaled back some measures taken against their citizens living in Qatar, which is a positive development, Al Marri said. They allowed Saudi students studying in Qatar to continue their education, as well as let Saudi businessmen with permanent residency in Qatar stay and run their business.
In another positive develop-ment, the Saudis have allowed Qatari students to enter Saudi but UAE and Bahrain continue to stonewall them despite a majority of the students being in UAE universities, said Al Marri. Saudi said it will allow their entry through border checkpoints but no details were given about implementing the decision, leaving it to whims of border officials.
→ Continued on page 5
Qatari and Turkish firms sign 15 agreements The Peninsula
Qatari and Turkish firms recently signed agree-ments in sectors as varied
as pharmaceuticals and ship-ping, in another step at boosting trade and economic ties among the close allies.
Fifteen agreements were entered into during the recent visit of a Qatari trade delegation to the Turkish cities of Izmir and Istanbul from August 3 to 6, Saleh bin Hamad Al Sharqi, Director General of Qatar Cham-ber (QC), said yesterday.
Al Sharqi added that the agreements focused on cooper-ation in pharmaceuticals, foodstuff, construction, build-ing materials, shipping, logistics,
plastic, aluminum, glass, tech-nology, furniture and air conditioning.
He added that the remarka-bly successful visit strengthened cooperation between business-men of the two countries, during which he laid the groundwork
for further cooperation in vari-ous fields of trade and industry.
The QC Director General was accompanied by a number of Qatari businessmen, who held meetings with a number of Turkish businessmen in Istan-bul on August 6. They discussed ways of enhancing cooperation between the two sides in the fields of foodstuff, juices, con-struction and electricity.
Ibrahim Shakler, Chairman of the Istanbul Chamber, met Al Sharqi in the presence of the members of the Board of Direc-tors of the Istanbul Chamber, and the Vice-President of the Turkish Exporters Association and the Qatari businessmen.
→ Continued on page 2
Trade cooperation
Fifteen agreements focus on pharmaceuticals, foodstuff, construction, building materials, shipping, logistics, plastic, aluminum, glass, technology, furniture and air conditioning.
The committee has urged the Saudi authorities to lift all restrictions, open direct flights to Jeddah and open the land route.
PAGE 5
H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari, Cultural
Adviser at the Emiri Diwan and Qatar’s candidate for Director-General of Unesco, has said that if he was elected for the post he would revive the body by introducing it to the world. Read full interview.
02 SUNDAY 13 AUGUST 2017HOME
PM visits BACS centre for Doha Metro stations
The Peninsula
Prime Minister and Inte-rior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani visited the
newly-assembled Building Auto-mation & Control System (BACS) centre for the Doha Metro sta-tions, which was recently assembled at one of the Doha Metro project sites.
The centre is where the assembly of the BACS panels and the process of connecting all required panels, for each station, into one complete system would take place. After rigorous test-ing, they would then be installed in the respective stations.
The Prime Minister was accompanied by Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, and Qatar Rail Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Eng. Abdulla Abdulaziz Al Subaie.
Throughout the visit, the ongoing operations affirmed
Qatar Rail’s commitment to moving forward with the project while ensuring the highest stand-ards of safety and functionality. Dedication to delivery is evident in Qatar Rail’s decision to relo-cate the BACS centre from its previous location in Dubai to Doha.
The Building Automation & Control System of each station is state of the art, fully-auto-mated system that integrates hardware and software compo-nents to control and monitor the stations’ electrical and mechan-ical systems.
This system enables the Doha Metro operator to act proactively
and actively as required to ensure the passengers’ utmost level of safety and security at all times.
The Minister of Transport and Communications said: “The quick decision and challenging logistics that were practically overcome in the relocation of the centre affirms the faith we have in the project’s adaptabil-ity and is a testament to the ability of Qatar Rail’s astute management in coping with unforeseen challenges. Any doubt that the project will be delayed in light of external fac-tors has been relinquished by the hard work and dedication
of the Qatar Rail team. I would like to thank everyone who has committed to this project from the onset, as the dedication showed by every one of you shows that no challenge is insur-mountable. It is this very dedication and commitment to delivery that Qatar can look for-ward to when enjoying a safe, efficient and world class trans-portation service managed by a team of experts in their field.”
Speaking during the visit, Al Subaie said: “Completing the installation and testing works in Doha means operations are bet-ter supervised and programme delivery is not affected by
unforeseen delays. The facility will also serve as the testing hub where rigorous testing of the functionality and performance of the complete BACS system for each metro station will take place.”
“Upon testing completion, BACS panels and components are disconnected and transported to the construction site of the metro station that they belong for their final installation,” Al Subaie said.
“The speed and efficiency by which the relocation of the BACS centre took place is indeed a tes-tament to the adaptability and planning capabilities of both Qatar Rail and our partners in
light of any sudden challenges,” he said.
With the centre now fully functional and the assembly of the BACS panels underway, it is clear that the Doha Metro project is progressing unhampered towards completion. The first four Rolling Stock (trains) from Japan are anticipated to arrive in Doha before year end. Three out of the 37 Metro Stations, namely; Al Doha, Al Jadeda, Al Qassar and Economic Zone, have been designated as ‘Pilot Sta-tions’ and are expected to be ready for final inspection by Qatar Civil Defence by December.
Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani along with Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, and Qatar Rail Managing Director and CEO, Eng. Abdulla Abdulaziz Al Subaie, at the BACS centre (left).
Qatari & Turkey firms sign 15 pactsContinued from page 1
Cooperation between the two chambers of Qatar and Istanbul, pav-ing the way for business owners to achieve more cooperation and estab-lish alliances that serve the economies of both countries.
On the sidelines of these meetings in Istanbul, three cooperation agree-ments were signed between companies from Qatar and Turkey.
Al Sharqi has invited the President of the Istanbul Chamber to organise a visit to a delegation of Turkish busi-nessmen to Doha to view the projects and opportunities available in Qatar. The invitation was accepted by the Turkish side and the agreement to organise the visit after the end of the Haj season, in October.
The visit of the Qatari business owners Izmir signed 12 cooperation agreements with a number of Turkish companies. The QC, in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy of Tur-key and the Commercial Office of the Turkish Embassy in Qatar, organised
a meeting with Qatari businessmen during the period the trade mission’s visit. Mohammed Mahdi Al Ahbabi, a member of the Board of Directors of the Qatar Chamber, headed the dele-gation of Qatari businessmen. On the
sidelines of the events, a number of Qatari businessmen visited the Turk-ish companies and factories to get acquainted with the quality of the prod-ucts and to know more about the scale of their operations.
August 22 deadline for leasing 32 shops in Al Khor marketThe Peninsula
The Municipality of Al Khor yester-day started receiving applications from interested traders for leasing
shops in Al Khor market. There are 32 shops available for leas-
ing and the deadline for submitting applications is August 22. The office receiving the applications is located in the same market and will be working from 8am to 12 noon.
The leasing will be through auction and the interested traders should put the number of the shops wanted in the appli-cation, said the organising office.
Tenant must be a Qatari and not less than 18 years old, resident of Al Khor and Dekhira area. Only one application is allowed for an applicant and application should be submitted in sealed envelope with copy of ID and commercial registra-tion if the applicant has already got a shop, said the organising entity.
Buy smart devices from Ooredoo SSMsThe Peninsula
Ooredoo has unveiled its new generation of Ooredoo Self-Service Machines (SSMs), which
have been designed to become a true one-stop-shop for customers’ needs.
The new Self-Service Machines will offer a host of new services, including a first-in-the-region oppor-tunity to buy smart devices from Ooredoo via the machine.
Speaking at the launch event, Waleed Al Sayed, Chief Executive Officer, Ooredoo Qatar, said: “Oore-doo has invested significantly to enrich its customers’ communications expe-rience, ensuring that the best and latest services are available to them. Launch-ing the new Self-Service Machines is our way to offer more convenience and faster service to Ooredoo customers, who can now use the machine to pur-chase a new phone or device 24/7, as well as sign-up to our services or pur-chase a Hala Sim Card.”
Ooredoo’s new machine will ena-ble Ooredoo to respond to evolving customer demand and allow imme-diate product purchase.
The un-manned SSM will also give new customers and tourists a simple
and easy-to-use solution in locations such as the airport, shopping centres and other tourist destinations.
“With this new addition to our self-service portfolio, we hope to rede-fine customer experience by allowing our customers to save time and be 100% in control,” added Waleed Al-Sayed.
This is the latest in a series of sig-nificant upgrades on Ooredoo’s network of SSMs, as the company
continues to offer more options for customers to facilitate access to Oore-doo’s products and services.
In addition to registering for serv-ices or buying devices via the Ooredoo Self-Service Machines, cus-tomers can also pay Ooredoo Shahry and Kahramaa bills, top-up Hala accounts, and purchase vouchers for an incredible range of shopping and dining experiences for popular brands in Qatar.
Qatar Rail relocated the BACS centre from its previous location in Dubai to Doha.
Saleh bin Hamad Al Sharqi, Director-General of Qatar Chamber, and other members of the Qatari trade delegation with their Turkish counterparts during the recently concluded visit to Turkey.
Ooredoo officials at the launch of the new SSM.
03SUNDAY 13 AUGUST 2017 HOME
Major General Hamad Ahmed Al Nuaimi, head of Military Colleges and Institutes, and Brigadier General Dicken, Commander of the British 51th Brigade, with a number of military leaders at the conclusion of the “Decisive Decision 13” exercise. The three-week “Decisive Decision 13” exercise focused on training the officer cadets in three areas: fighting in the built-up areas, defence and training with live ammunition and movement on battlefield. 212 officers from the 13th batch of Ahmed bin Mohammed Military College participated in the exercise, which took place in Wales, along with the 51st Battalion of the British Armed Forces.
‘Sama-Nama’ launched for social entrepreneursAmna Pervaiz Rao The Peninsula
Nama Center marked International Youth Day yesterday at Drama Theater, K a t a r a , a n d
launched the largest innovative programme for social entrepre-neurs called ‘Sama-Nama’.
In addition to its participa-tion in the International Youth Day 2017 under the theme ‘Youth Building Peace’, the Nama Center celebrated youth contributions to conflict preven-tion, the consolidation of sustainable peace and the achievement of social justice.
The celebrations included holding a seminar on the role of Qatari youth in spreading peace amid siege crisis. A number of Qatari media personalities, art-ists and influencers took part in the event and highlighted the role of the ‘Best Buddies Qatar’ initiative in supporting young people with special needs. The Best Buddies Qatar Ambassador delivered a speech on the occasion.
Talking to The Peninsula, Abdul Rehman Al Sayed, Head of Community of Outreach at Nama Canter, said: “Today we are proud to be a part of this event, International Youth Day is marked worldwide. Youth plays an important role in Qatari society, as they are the leaders of the future in Qatar. We
launched our programme ‘Sama-Nama’ and our new web-site. This project aims to develop young social entrepreneurs in Qatari society. Social entrepre-neurship is new in our region. This programme is of two weeks to be held one in Qatar and one abroad, which will include lec-tures, workshops and physical activities. This project is to bring the best proposal in light.”
“The website allows the public to communicate directly with officials about the services provided by the Center and to obtain more information. Through the website, visitors can also register for the elec-tronic newsletter to follow the latest news and activities of the Center,” he added.
The design of the new web-site of Nama provides an attractive and interactive plat-form for users who want to know more about the services provided by the Center. The website is moreover character-ised by its variety of content,
making visiting the new site a useful and enjoyable experience at the same time.
On this occasion, Maryam bint Abdullatif Al Mannai, Act-ing Executive Manager of Nama Center, said: “Our participation in the International Youth Day 2017 comes in the context of the implementation of our strategic approach, which focuses on nurturing human capital of youth, represented by the youth segment in particular.”
“Young people chosen to join the Sama Nama project will have to pass rigorous standards that test the qualities required of social entrepreneurs as well as ensure their ability to pass the capacity-building phase and create projects that serve the community. Sama Nama will also equip them with the nec-essary capacities to manage their idea, follow up on its implementation, monitor its progress and evaluate its impact and outcome,” she added.
Laalei Abu Alfain, Executive Director of Best Buddies Qatar initiative, said: “Best Buddies Qatar is keen to support youth in all fields, especially young people with special needs. Youth play an important role in Qatari society. Young people with spe-cial needs are also now achieving education. Today I was proud to see our ambassa-dor, she delivered a speech on the occasion of International Youth Day.”
TOP: Officials and other dignitaries at the celebration of the International Youth Day 2017 held at Katara yesterday. Qatari artist Ahmed bin Majed Al Maadheed (second left) Prominent Artist Nasser Al Mughaiseb (centre), Ghanem Al Sulaiti (second right) and other officials at the event. Pic: Kammutty VP / The Peninsula
Nama Center marked International Youth Day and celebrations included holding a seminar on the role of Qatari youth in spreading peace amid siege crisis.
Qatar to enhance space technology capabilitiesQNA
When Qatar launched its first satellite inde-pendently on August
29, 2013, it was a result of a real-isation of the importance of operating a satellite that satis-fies the growing needs in the field of telecommunications and broadcasting.
Qatar’s journey with satel-lites began with the launch of es’hailsat 1 successfully from French Guiana, which estab-lished a new phase for the State of Qatar in enhancing its capa-bilities in the field operating satellites. This helped guarantee high quality for the country and the subscribers in es’hailsat 1.
The launch of a satellite is essential for Qatar in light of the country’s achievements in the field of media, whether Al Jazeera network or other Qatari channels. Also, the current developments which see the country subjected to one media campaign after another and blocking of its media outlets by siege countries requires
having an independent satellite. Es’hailsat 1 began operation on December 18, 2013, on Qatar’s National Day. Bein Sport and Al Jazeera Network used the satel-lite to broadcast their services. They were followed by other channels such as Qatar TV, Al Arabi TV, Al Rayyan among others.
The satellite is owned by Qatar Satellite Company. The company has a strategy of own-ing and operating four satellites by 2022 and is planning to launch es’hailsat 2 in the near future. Head of the company’s sails department, Mohammed Waleed Al Sayed, told Qatar
News Agency (QNA) the impor-tance for the State to operate its own satellites. He also discussed the feasibility of space technol-ogy. He said that es’hailsat 1 was a qualitative leap for Qatar’s tel-ecommunication sector, as it created a new market for tele-c o m m u n i c a t i o n a n d broadcasting sectors. He also highlighted that independently operating a satellite helps boost the independence of the coun-try in the field. It also facilitates creating new offerings in the media sector, such as introduc-ing new channels and networks.
Al Sayed said that the com-pany has more than one strategic partner in the Middle-East, North Africa, in addition to a number of European countries. He also revealed that the company has plans in place to increase its broadcasting services in the future.
The satellite provides high quality, premium DTH television content from the key 25.5 East b r o a d c a s t i n g h o t s p o t
neighbourhood for customers. Having both Ku- and Ka-band capacity, Es’hailsat 1 provides the region with the most advanced and sophisticated services, including broadcast, telecommu-nications and broadband.
On the current developments and its potential impact on the performance of es’hailsat 1, Al Sayed said the company was committed to provide the best services without disruptions to the broadcasting. He said that the company has designed satellites that can limit signal distortion and jamming.
The Qatari company was established in 2010 with the goal of managing and developing Qatar’s presence in space. The company provides independent, high-quality, advanced satellite services to broadcasters, busi-nesses and governments in the Mena region and beyond.
It took three years to build eshailsat-1 and launch it. The six-tonne high-powered SSL satellite has a design life of 15 years, Es’hailsat 1 has both
Ku- and Ka-band payload, and is positioned at the key 25.5 degrees East location in geosta-tionary orbit. As for eshailsat-2, it was manufactured by Japanese company Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. It is scheduled to launch from the US in 2018, in cooperation with American com-pany Spacex.
The company is also con-cerned with developing national cadres in the space field. Four of the companies engineers grad-uated from a 24-month intensive programme on space adminis-tration from Space Systems/Loral, which manufactured the first Qatari satellite. In addition to that, there were other train-ing programmes that aimed at developing the abilities of engi-neers operating s’hailsat 1. These programmes are also commit-ted to developing the abilities of engineers working on the design of es’hailsat 2. The company also sent a number of Qatari students to study abroad in prestigious universities and gain an engi-neering degree in the field.
Qatar Satellite Company has a strategy of owning and operating four satellites by 2022 and is planning to launch es’hailsat 2 in the near future.
New trade route to Turkey via Iran to cut cost
Continued from page 1This will not only save a
lot of time and money, but goods will reach without los-ing much of their nutrition value. “The new trade line will have a direct impact on the volume of trade exchange between Qatar and Turkey in the next phase. And the recently signed trade agree-ments between businessmen of two friendly countries will further ease the flow of goods,” Saleh bin Hamad Al Sharqi, Director General of the Qatar Chamber, was quoted as saying by Lusail, a local business daily published by Dar Al Sharq group.
Al Sharqi said that the focus on this trade line would be food items, especially those stuffs which were tra-ditionally imported by land route before the blockade. He also pointed out that the new land route will not affect the movement of non-food goods imported by sea transport from Turkey to Hamad Port.
QC to build homes for flood victims in IndonesiaJAKARTA: Qatar Charity signed a cooperation and partnership agreement with the Municipal-ity of Garut, Indonesia, to build houses for several victims of the floods that hit the city in Sep-tember last year.
The agreement, which was signed at the headquarters of the Qatar Charity in Jakarta, provides for the construction of 100 houses for the most needy and most affected fam-ilies. The project is scheduled to be implemented at Al Kaw-thar complex, as the municipal authority will nom-inate the beneficiary families on the bases agreed upon with Qatar Charity. President of Garut City Rudi Janwan praised the support of Qatar and its people during difficult times and worst crises.
‘Decisive Decision 13’ exercise concludes
04 SUNDAY 13 AUGUST 2017HOME
05SUNDAY 13 AUGUST 2017 HOME
We need to reintroduce Unesco: Al KawariThe Peninsula
H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari (pictured), Cul-tural Adviser at the Emiri Diwan and Qatar’s can-didate for the post of
Director-General at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), has said that if he was elected for the post he would revive the organisation through intro-ducing it to the world.
“I give lectures in many universi-ties and when I talk about Unesco, the students do not know where it is located. They do not know about the objectives of Unesco. They confuse Unesco with other organisations like Unicef. So we need to reintroduce Unesco,” Dr Al Kawari said in an inter-view with an Indian magazine Diplomatic Square.
“If you want Unesco to be financed, it has to be presented effec-tively and forcefully to the world. Unesco is among the noblest organi-sations in the world. It can attract the attention of many good businessper-sons and professionals for charity, but it has to be presented well. Should I be elected, my first job would be to reintroduce Unesco. It is a great organ-isation and people must know more about it. Another important thing I will strive for is consensus,” he added.
He said: “In the earlier days when Unesco was a big success, most reso-lutions were taken by consensus so that the organisation enjoyed the sup-port of every one. I will strive to revive this tradition. All these things are in my mind and in my vision and I look forward to India’s support.”
Dr Al Kawari was in Delhi on Fri-day to meet Indian officials. For India, exercising a decision to support Dr Al Kawari should be an easy task keep-ing in view, the centuries of historical and cultural ties between the Indian and Arab nations, the cultural affinity and profound economic ties, the present political relations and of course the fact that who else can be a better custodian of global heritage than
someone who hails from the ancient cradle of civilisation —from Hindus-tan, Afghanistan, Persia, Babylon, Mesopotamia, Levant, Egypt and so on.
During his very brief stay, Dr Al Kawari in an exclusive interview to Diplomatic Square, speaks about Unesco and his mission. To another question on visa-free entra, he said: “I agree that this visa-free entry for Indi-ans is a very important development. Any Indian can now go and visit Qatar without visa, spend a few days there and then come back. The Indian com-munity has played a very important role in building our nation. They are active, effective and a peaceful community.”
On his candidature, he said: “My career as an ambassador is spread across the years and in between, I have been the Chairman of many large companies and I have very significant
experience in the financial and cor-porate management of very large companies. Today, Unesco is under great pressure and it needs to be saved. The Director-General of Unesco will have a great responsibility, a mission that has to be met.”
On a question about destruction of Buddha statues at Bamiyan, Afghan-istan or Palmyra in Syria, he said: this is a very, very important question and I thank you for raising it.
The international community has to formulate a law to prevent any party to cause hurt to any international her-itage because it is the conscience of the all people living in this world.
If you look to the extremism or ter-rorism, he said, they target the human heritage as much as they target tour-ists and when they do so, they target the history of the world. They target what unites the world. So it’s good that lately a resolution is evolving that con-siders this as an international crime. But they also need to strengthen this resolution by implementing it.
He said that science remains very much important along with culture for Unesco. “It’s going to be a part of my job to enhance the role of science and look for synergy with other organisa-tions, like Unicef, like WHO that are connected to the top commercial groups. We need this kind of synergy because we need to help each other. This is one of the points so this is very important.”
He said that the current financial crisis of Unesco was an exceptional one and demands innovative solutions. “You know that the main problem is that America stopped to pay their dues since 2011 (Americans pay about 24 percent of the budget) and that gen-erated the main reason for this problem. I had a kind of debate with the American ambassador and I told him that when you decided ‘not to pay because you are not happy with cer-tain resolution’ it becomes a political problem.”
“I said to him, that it’s not Amer-ica but the entire international community that looks to terrorism as the first enemy – it is correct, and you say that we will fight it by force that is also correct but to fight terrorism should you stop payments that go for education, science, heritage, youth programmes, communication, gen-der equality – all very important programmes listed under Unesco’s list of activities. When you do this, it impedes development and you actu-ally fuel terrorism and you appear not to be serious in fighting terrorism.”
Siege: NHRC receives 3,269 complaints
Continued from page 1The total number of complaints received by
the committee from Qatari students affected by the siege are 201 students and majority of them were studying in the UAE (122 students) Saudi Ara-bia (52) and Bahrain (27). The committee also received complaints of 459 expat workers from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and other Asian coun-tries, who are facing difficult living situation in Saudi Arabia and not allowed to enter Qatar with their Qatari employers. Al Marri also said their problems were discussed with the concerned embassies, but the their case is pending.
However, the authorities did not allow in a similar way to some 984 Qatari businessmen and owners of properties and livestock (Saudi Arabia 607, the UAE 331 and Bahrain 46). At least hold-ers of unified ID numbers should be allowed to enter Saudi to look after their businesses and prop-erties, he said. Violations to the rights of the Qatari investors and owners of properties by the siege countries and their deportation reflect that the investment environment in these countries are not secure, he sad, adding local, international and GCC laws should be respected.
NHRC has noted many violations to the rights of people with disabilities to get treatment, move their necessary equipment.
Al Marri also expressed his disappointment on the silence of Arabic League, Islamic Cooper-ation Organization and GCC regarding the ongoing violations to the rights of Qatari and other GCC citizens.
“The Indian community has played a very important role in building our nation. They are active, effective and a peaceful community,” said Dr Al Kawari.
Dr Al Kawari said that science remains very much important along with culture for Unesco. “It’s going to be a part of my job to enhance the role of science and look for synergy with other organisations, like Unicef, like WHO that are connected to the top commercial groups. We need this kind of synergy because we need to help each other. This is one of the points so this is very important.”
NHRC Chairman Dr Ali bin Samikh Al Marri addressing the press conference. Pic: Salim
Matramkot/ The Peninsula
06 SUNDAY 13 AUGUST 2017HOME
Director-General of Public Security, Staff Major General Saad bin Jassim Al Khulaifi (left), launching the new website of the First Major Events Security Conference to be hosted by Doha in November 2017.
Website launched
The Peninsula
Malabar Gold & Diamonds, one of the BIG 5 jewel-lery retailers, received
‘Retail Jeweller India Award - RJIA’ for the special contributions to the gem and jewellery industry at an event held in Grand Hyatt, Mumbai recently.
MP Ahammed, Chairman - Malabar Group, received the award from Praveen Shanker Pandai, President, Gem and Jewellery Export Council, and Gyan Shyam Dholakia, Manag-ing Director, Harikrishna
Exports Pvt Ltd, in the presence of Shamlal Ahamed MP, Man-aging Director, International operations, Malabar Gold & Dia-monds; Asher O, Managing Director, India Operations, Mal-abar gold and Diamonds and Abdul Salam KP, Group Execu-tive Director, Malabar Group.
The panel of jury has selected from a list of over thou-sands of nominees from the industry for the coveted prize. Malabar Gold & Diamonds has also awarded the best television campaign award for the current year.
Retail Jeweller India Awards
was established in 2005 by Soma Bhatta, Editor & Director, The Retail Jeweller India mag-azine and Samit Bhatta, Associate Publisher, The Retail Jeweller India magazine, with the mission to take the US $30bn Retail Jewellery industry for-ward by creating a platform for recognizing the best work of the industry in fields of design, retail and marketing.
Also, known as India’s Oscars for the Retail jewellery industry and the only business awards specifically for retail jewellers in the country of 300,000 retail jewellers.
Malabar Gold & Diamonds bagsRetail Jeweller India Award
MP Ahammed, Chairman of Malabar Group, receiving the award from Praveen Shanker Pandai, President, Gem and Jewellery Export Council, and Gyan Shyam Dholakia, Managing Director, Harikrishna Exports Pvt Ltd at an event held in Grand Hyatt, Mumbai recently.
The Peninsula
The BMW X3 was the car that launched the mid-size SAV (Sports Activity Vehi-
cle) segment in 2003. Since then, BMW has recorded more than 1.5 million new registrations of the X3 across the two model generations so far.
And now the new BMW X3 is set to write the next chapter in this success story with an even more striking, dynamic design language, powerful yet also efficient drive systems and luxurious appointments. Like all members of the successful X family, it blends standout driv-ing qualities on any terrain with unrestr ic ted everyday usability.
Sharper design and three model variants.
The third generation of the BMW X3 follows in its predeces-sors’ tyre tracks by combining rugged off-road looks with a sporting presence. Its familiar proportions, including very short front and rear overhangs, shine the spotlight on the per-fect 50:50 distribution of weight between the front and rear axle.
The potent dynamic intent of the new BMW X3 is high-lighted by a chunky kidney grille and foglamps featuring a hex-agonal design for the first time on a BMW X model. At the rear, the light clusters (whose three-dimensional look in optional full-LED guise give them
considerable visual impact), markedly downward-sloping roof spoiler and twin exhaust tailpipes bring matters to asuit-ably muscular conclusion. The xLine, M Sport and Luxury Line trim variants (the latter is a new addition to the line-up) and the range of BMW Individual items enable the appearance of the BMW X3 to be adapted even more precisely to the custom-er’s personal tastes. In addition to the standard 18-inch light-alloy wheels (previously: 17-inch), customers can dip into the options list for wheel/tyre combinations in sizes up to 21-inch. As well as making var-ious exterior tweaks, the three trim variants also adapt the ambience inside the car to their particular themes. The interior of the new BMW X3 displays unbeatable fit and finish and material quality, and is even classier and more luxurious than
its predecessor. Comfort levels are further elevated by a host of new equipment options like three-zone automatic climate control, the Ambient Air pack-age, active seat ventilation, the cargo function of the standard 40:20:40 split/folding rear seat backrests and the panoramic glass roof that brings extra air-iness to the interior and further enhances perceived quality.
Another new equipment item is the optional BMW Dis-play Key, which not only locks and unlocks the BMW X3 by radio remote control, but also shows a variety of status infor-mation on the car and serves as the control unit for the optional auxiliary heating, for example.
The BMW engineers have employed far-reaching chassis modifications to significantly improve the driving dynamics, directional stability and steer-ing feel of the new BMW X3.
The all-new BMW X3 set to write the next chapter in a success story
Mental Health Conference invites abstract submissions
The Peninsula
In its Monthly Business Progress Report on the Com-merce Sector, the Ministry
of Economy and Commerce announced the registration of 1,590 new companies during July.
The Ministry of Economy and Commerce has issued its Business Progress Report on the Commerce Sector for July 2017. The report indicated the regis-tration of 1,590 new companies including 1241 main commer-cial records and 349 branch commercial records.
Limited liability companies accounted for 61% of new com-mercial records followed by limited liability companies in the category of single-person companies at 24% while 14% of new companies were registered in the category of Individual Corporations. Contracting com-panies topped the list of most common activities in July, with 182 commercial records issued in this field. 170 commercial records were issued for grocery and supply stores, while 110 commercial records were issued for service activities and transaction processing. The field of construction materials
trading followed with 107 records.
The report pointed out that a total of 9744 commercial licenses were issued, amended or renewed during the month of July 2017. 952 new commer-cial licenses were issued while 804 were modified and 7988 commercial licenses were renewed. A total of 331 compa-nies closed in July, representing 21% of newly registered companies.
Regarding write-off activ-ities, contracting companies topped the list at 27%, followed by electrical appliances and electronics trading at 20%. Trading in commodities fol-lowed in third place at 19%.
The report has indicated that the total number of trans-actions that took place during July 2017 at the ministry’s branches reached 30448 trans-actions. In the area of intellectual property rights, the report indicated that 52 new patent applications were issued in July 2017 while 149 patent applications were renewed. In addition, 3261 trademarks have been registered during July, while 11 certificates were issued in the field of copyright and related rights.
1,590 new firms registered in July
The Peninsula
Hamad Medical Corpo-ration is once again developing the pro-
gramme for its International Mental Health Conference. This is the sixth such confer-ence bringing together policy and decision makers, researchers, clinicians, stu-dents and other stakeholders to share work in the areas of mental health diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
The planning committee is inviting abstract submis-sions from experts in the field of mental health to partici-pate in this year’s event, which will take place at the Hilton Hotel in Doha from November 30 to December 2.
Dr Suhaila Ghuloum (pic-tured), Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at HMC’s Mental Health Service and the Con-f e r e n c e O r g a n i z i n g Committee Chairperson, explained that the conference is an important event which provides an ideal platform for peer-to-peer learning and networking. “This is one of the leading conferences in this region dedicated to con-t inuing profess ional development for all health-care professionals working within or alongside the men-tal health sector.“
“Each year we invite key international speakers to present some of the latest knowledge and findings; but we also look forward to hav-ing local and regional experts present papers based on their own findings that are highly relevant to local customs and culture,” Dr Ghuloum added.
07SUNDAY 13 AUGUST 2017 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA
11 dead in Kenya post-election violence
Nairobi
Reuters
Kenyan police killed at least 11 people in a crackdown on protests as anger at the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta erupted in the
western city of Kisumu and slums sur-rounding the capital, officials and witnesses said yesterday.
However, the NASA opposition coa-lition, led by four-time presidential hopeful Raila Odinga, put the death toll at more than 100, including 10 children, albeit without providing evidence. Odinga has rejected the poll and its result as “massive” fraud.
Reuters was able to confirm 11 deaths, including one girl, in the space of 24 hours, and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said 24 people had been shot dead by police since Tuesday, election day.
Top Odinga lieutenant Johnson Muthama said police had been packing corpses into body bags and dumping them, remarks likely to exacerbate the tensions that followed Friday night’s official announcement that Kenyatta had won, with 54.3 percent of votes.
The eruption of violence has revived dark memories of a decade ago, when
Odinga, 72, lost an election in contro-versial circumstances that sparked a wave of ethnic unrest in which 1,200 people were killed and 600,000 dis-placed. Interior Minister Fred Matiang’i said the trouble was localised and blamed it on “criminal elements” rather than legitimate political protest. He also denied accusations of police brutality.
“Let us be honest — there are no demonstrations happening,” he told reporters.
“Individuals or gangs that are loot-ing shops, that want to endanger lives, that are breaking into people’s busi-nesses –those are not demonstrators. They are criminals and we expect police
to deal with criminals how criminals should be dealt with.”
However, James Orengo, another top NASA official, said the killings were part of a carefully laid plan by 55-year-old Kenyatta’s Jubilee party and the security forces to rig the poll, crush dis-sent and then hide the evidence.
“This violence, this state terror is being executed following very meticu-lous preparation,” he said.
“It’s like they knew what they were going to do. They knew they were going to steal an election. They knew the peo-ple would be unhappy, and therefore all the instruments of violence were put in place.”
Nairobi
AP
Kenyan police shot and killed two people during riots by opposi-tion supporters after President
Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the win-ner in elections overshadowed by fraud allegations, authorities said yes-terday, while a father said his 9-year-old daughter was killed by a stray bullet in the capital.
The two police shootings occurred on the outskirts of Kisumu, a city where opposition leader Raila Odinga has strong support. Another five peo-ple were injured by gunfire in Kisumu. In Mathare, Wycliff Mokaya said his 9-year-old daughter was killed by a stray bullet while on their third-floor balcony. “I was watching her play with her friends when she suddenly fell down,” Mokaya said. “She was my only hope.”
7 rescue workers shot dead in Syria townBeirut
AFP
Unidentified assailants shot dead seven members of Syria’s White Helmets rescue service
early yesterday during a raid on their base in a jihadist-held northwestern town, the group said.
The attackers struck in Sarmin, 9km east of the city of Idlib, that is controlled by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham jihadist alliance. “The civil defence centre in Sarmin was the tar-get of an armed attack by unknown
assailants in which seven volunteers were killed,” the White Helmets said. “Two minibuses, some white helmets and walkie-talkies were stolen.”
It was not immediately clear whether the motives for the raid were political or purely criminal. Hayat Tahrir Al Sham denounced what it called an “ugly crime” and vowed to track down the perpetrators and bring them to account.
The jihadist group said the attack was aimed at “undermining our rev-olution”, adding that it stood ready to protect the White Helmets in
“liberated areas” of Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the seven volunteers had all been killed by bullets to the head.
“Colleagues came in the morn-ing for the change of shift and found them dead,” its director, Rami Abdel Rahman, said. The White Helmets emerged in 2013, working to rescue civilians in rebel-held areas.
They have since gained interna-tional renown for their daring rescues, often filmed and circulated on social media, and were nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.
Top Odinga lieutenant Johnson Muthama said police had been packing corpses into body bags and dumping them.
Nine-year-old girl shot dead A woman cries as she stands behind policemen during clashes between supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga and policemen, in Nairobi, yesterday.
Iran in talks to buy 48 helicopters from AirbusDubai
Reuters
Iran is holding talks with European planemaker Air-bus to buy 48 helicopters for
civilian use, an Iranian official was yesterday quoted as saying, as Iran continues its shopping spree of Western aircraft after the lifting of sanctions.
“The Health Ministry is planning to order 45 HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medi-cal Service) helicopters and the purchase is being negotiated by the Ministry of Roads and
Urban Development,” Iran’s Financial Tribune daily quoted Deputy Minister Asghar Fakhrieh-Kashan as saying.
“Ports and Maritime Organ-ization is also planning to hold a tender to purchase three search-and-rescue helicop-ters,” he added.
An Airbus Helicopters spokesman said: “We don’t comment on discussions we may or may not be having with potential customers”.
Iran has ordered more than 200 planes since international sanctions were lifted.
Tender Fees Tender Bond Tender Closing (QR) Amount (QR) System Date Logo Organization Tender No. Subject
Trabzon
Anatolia
The civilian martyred by PKK terrorists in northern Turkey was a 15-year-old boy, the provincial governor’s office
said. Eren Bulbul died from wounds sus-tained as he helped gendarmes track PKK terrorists in Macka, a town 22km south of the Black Sea city of Trabzon, on Friday. Gen-darmerie Master Sgt Ferhat Gedik, 41, was injured in the same incident and also died.
Funeral prayers for Eren, attended by Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, were said at Macka Central Mosque after which he was due to be buried in Kopruyani neighbour-hood, the Trabzon governor’s office said.
Boy latest victim of PKK terrorists
GGlobal stocks are under huge pressure as the escalating tension between the US and North Korea remains main market driver. Investors are increasingly dumping shares and are dashing for safe havens. As
investors struggled to grapple with the Washington-Pyongyang spat, an estimated $1trillion was wiped off from the global equity market this week.
US stock indexes opened higher for the first time in four days on Friday. Still, the S&P 500 is on track to post its biggest weekly loss in about nine months.
On Tuesday, Trumps said he would bring ‘fire and fury’ against North Korea if it didn’t drop threats against the US. Traders pinned the selloff on those remarks. Yesterday, he escalated those threats by issuing his starkest warning yet against North Korea, saying that ‘military solutions’ were ‘in place, locked and loaded’ should Pyongyang ‘act unwisely’. North Korea had responded to Trump’s threat to unleash ‘fire and fury’, with a warning to land a missile near the US Pacific territory of Guam.
The escalating war of words inflicted huge damage on global stock markets. Stocks around the world slid again yesterday following the sabre-rattling between the heads of two countries. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX)--a measure of investors’ fear gauge--surged 44 percent to 16.04 Thursday, its highest level since US Election Day. The index has sky-rocketed 70.6 percent
this week. “The escalation of the
geopolitical situation between the US and North Korea is beginning to rattle investors’ nerves as was witnessed in the VIX index on Friday. The overall ‘fear factor’ is the market’s worst enemy that will feed on itself, leading to increased hedging”, Reuters reported quoting market experts as
saying.Asian equity markets had extended their sell-off
overnight as a war of words between the US and North Korea intensified. In Asia, benchmarks in Hong Kong and South Korea—which had been one of the best performers of 2017—closed down 2 percent and 1.7 percent respectively, yesterday, putting the week’s drop at 2.5 percent and 3.2 percent.
A sell-off among heavyweight basic resources stocks exacerbated the third day of losses for European shares, Friday and put them on track for their worst week this year as ratcheting political tensions dented equities worldwide. Gulf stock indexes moved sideways on Thursday, continuing a two-week-old trend.
Appetite for haven assets continued to support gold, which rose 0.2 percent Friday to $1,293 a troy ounce. The precious metal was up 2.3 percent on the week. The nervous tone across global stock markets continued to fuel “flight-to-safety” trades. The yen remained in favour in the currency markets.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.9 percent to $51.44 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange on Friday. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures fell 1 percent to $48.13 a barrel.
Let us be peaceful... We have seen the results of political violence. And I am certain that there is no single Kenyan who would wish for us to go back to this.
Uhuru KenyattaKenyan President
The escalating war of words inflicted huge damage on global stock markets.
It’s early morning at a fishing port in Dubai. A group of mostly retired fishermen are playing cards, eating dates and drinking coffee at the port’s majlis, a traditional meeting space.
Here, the Emirati fisherman say they aren’t too worried about the political fallout with Qatar that’s gripped the region since early June, when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with the small Gulf state, accusing it of sup-porting extremists.
“When it comes to politics, it’s not our business,” Thani Obeid said. “If everyone walks around saying their opinion there will be chaos.”
Obeid, 65, and Salem Jomaa, 70, say they have faith in the “wisdom” of the region’s rul-ers because “we are one family.”
“The Gulf is one home. From Saudi Arabia to Ras Al Khaimah (in the UAE) to Oman. We are all brothers, cousins, friends,” Jomaa said. “We are all Muslims.”
Centuries-old ties that bind families to tribes and tribes to ruling sheikhs underpin the Arabian Peninsula, but that kinship is now under strain.
The crisis has also upended some red lines, making what was once illegal now legal, and vice-versa.
Chief among them was an understanding — enshrined in tradition and government enforced — that criticism of another Gulf country or its esteemed ruler could lead to automatic imprisonment and hefty fines.
After the row erupted June 5, those rules changed. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain warned instead that anyone who sympathises with Qatar or criticises the measures taken against it would be imprisoned and fined.
Qatari citizens were also expelled from the three countries after years of visa-free travel throughout the Gulf. Transport links with Qatar were cut and Saudi Arabia sealed shut Qatar’s only land border, impacting food imports.
Saudi and Emirati officials insist the measures are not aimed at Qatari citizens, but at the government. That distinction has meant little to Qataris who say the blockade on their country and the assault on their leadership is like an attack on the whole society.
“If they talk about our Emir, it’s like they are talking about us. The siege and blockade and making it illegal to sympathise with Qatar, this is against us,” Ahmed Al Khayli, a 36-year-old Qatari said.
Speaking by phone from Qatar, Al Khayli said he believes the relationship between Qataris and others in the Gulf has become “more sensitive.”
Many Qataris — who number around 270,000 citizens — believe their small, energy-rich country is standing up for itself, refusing to surrender its sovereignty. Patriotic fervour has swept through the country. Tow-ering images of Emir, H H Sheikh Tamim bin
Qatar crisis redraws red lines and frays age-old Gulf tiesAya BatrawyAP
Hamad Al Thani, are plastered on cars, billboards and storefronts across the capital.
In Qatar and the UAE, where for-eigners far outnumber locals, many talk with sincere admiration for their rulers. It’s a relationship that harkens to a time when tribal elders were responsible for the security of their communities, which relied on pearl diving and fishing for survival. Then, as now, tribes in the Ara-bian Peninsula intermarried.
The expulsion of Qataris separated mixed-nationality families, parents from their children and husbands from their wives. After public outcry, the three Gulf countries said exceptions would be made for immediate family members, though rights groups say students and families are still being affected.
Hamad al-Kulaib, a 38-year-old Kuwaiti businessman, said the crisis “feels like a battle of the egos” between high-ranking officials. Kuwait, which has remained neutral, is trying to medi-ate the crisis.
“The tension between Qatar and the Saudi-led bloc is certainly putting all our social relationships in danger,” he said.
Though there have been fallouts in the past between Gulf states, this is the most severe crisis in decades.
Saudi and Emirati media have unleashed a barrage of critical reports about Qatar, accusing it of sedition, lying, sponsoring terrorism and trying to destabilise the region. Qatar’s support of opposition Islamist groups and its ties with Iran has unnerved its neighbours. Qatar says accusations it backs extremist groups are politically motivated and denies it has ever sponsored terrorism.
Meanwhile, Qatari-affiliated press upped their critical coverage of Saudi Arabia since the row erupted. Qatar and the UAE have also traded accusations of hacking.
In the years before the crisis, state-linked news channels and papers did not criticise a fellow Gulf nation’s ruler or policies.
Officially, at least, Qatar has kept a modicum of decorum in place. The Emir congratulated the Saudi king and his son,
Prince Mohammed bin Salman, when he was elevated to crown prince in late June. The Emir also sent a cable of con-dolences to King Salman on the death of his elder brother.
Those acts sparked a hashtag on Twitter in support of Qatar, and another hashtag said Saudis still welcome ties with Qatari citizens. Twitter is also where people have rallied behind their governments.
Emirati social media star Taim al-Falasi hit back at accusations that citizens in the UAE were being paid to support the moves against Qatar. In a fiercely-worded post, she asked Qataris how they could continue to support their Emir after all the allegations made against Qatar.
At the majlis in Dubai’s harbor, the fishermen shake their heads when the mention of Twitter comes up. They dis-approve of the fierce words being traded online.
“If you add fuel to a fire, the fire will grow,” Obeid said.
In Kuwait, 27-year-old Barrak Al Dakhail says the crisis has polarised opinions there and made relationships among people in the Gulf “awkward.”
“If the situation continues to esca-late, it might create a bigger wedge between the people ... and that’s cer-tainly something we don’t want,” he said.
The author is Associated Press reporter in the Arabian Peninsula.
Saudi and Emirati media have unleashed a barrage of critical reports about Qatar, accusing it of sedition, lying, sponsoring terrorism and trying to destabilise the region.
E D I T O R I A L
A view of the Doha skyline.
09SUNDAY 13 AUGUST 2017 OPINION
on Thursday that he has been a PRI member for 13 years.
Experts say the rule change represents a deft maneuver by the traditionalist Pena Nieto, fur-nishing him with a better cast of potential candidates, while allowing him to keep PRI presidential hopefuls on their toes.
“The winner is Pena Nieto because he opens the deck, but he doesn’t show his cards,” said former government intelligence official Gustavo Mohar. “It’s a smart play by the PRI and the president.”
The PRI, which controlled Mexico with a mix of patronage, authoritarianism and graft for an uninterrupted 71 years until its ouster in 2000, has cast its efforts to allow outsiders as evidence of a sensitive, modernising party in tune with global democratic trends.
But the change also harks back to the years when PRI presidents, constitutionally shackled by a single six-year term, would personally choose their successor via an opaque process known as the “dedazo,” or finger point.
While Mexico’s competitive democracy means Pena Nieto cannot choose the next presi-dent, the decision to allow outside candidates
Brexit: Does anyone know where it is headed?
Since a June 2016 referendum triggered the United Kingdom’s divorce from the Euro-pean Union, things have gone from bad to worse. The economy has seen a slowdown and many financial institutions have threat-
ened to move their offices to other EU countries.The price of food rose almost a week after the
Brexit vote and it will only continue to rise; at the same time salaries remain unchanged since 2008. The cost of living is getting higher and households are reeling from it. But it is not only food prices which have affected the UK economy; everything else will follow.
Professor Anastasia Nesvetailova, director of the City Political Economy Research Centre (CITYPERC), at the City University of London, says: “First, the devaluation of sterling, which I don’t think has been priced fully.
“I expect sterling to still collapse more and, so, through this devaluation everything is affected -- savings, all import and export prices, raw materials, construction, supply chains, wages. It’s a whole polit-ical economy in which we are all embedded, and we have now become poorer.”
Nesvetailova also said some industries have prof-ited from Brexit but not because they did anything different, more so because the pound is cheaper and therefore there is a bigger export market which is favoring them.
The original forecast for UK economic growth was set at 1.9 percent, but the Bank of England has reduced that to 1.7 percent for this year. Economic growth is also set to slow to 1.6 percent in 2018 down from a previous forecast of 1.7 percent.
This can be attributed to the fact that the U.K. has no real plan for Brexit.
Credible fallbackFormer Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn
King, has said that the UK needs “credible fallback” in case of no deal with the EU. The fact is, he should have given this advice to now former Prime Minister David Cameron before he triggered the 2016 referendum.
The political climate at the time was shifting in both directions; King’s advice would have been
better served then than it is now after UK triggered Article 50.
The fact is, Cameron would not have taken the advice even then because his inexperienced advisors would have advised him just as they did, which in the end triggered a breakdown in the UK economy.
Another matter is that Cameron should never have made the referendum vote binding if he had no plan for the fallout.
After he put the UK in this mess, he promptly resigned, leaving the government in a shambles over how to proceed. Cameron and his advisors went into the referendum blind, and he is now being tipped by some in the media to become the next secretary-general of Nato.
But the EU was not created to be exited, it was created for lifelong membership. And while the EU itself has many faults which will never be rectified because it suits the unelected Brussels bureaucrats, at least the way it was, it brought stability.
To this day, the British government does not have a plan in place. The negotiating team is not following one plan, but instead, variations of ideas are being thrown around, none of which make sense nor which are responsive to some sort of strategy nor which can provide stability for British citizens.
The whole thing is a mess of massive proportions and the UK can expect to walk away with no good deal, but whatever deal they do walk away with the UK “will have to pay,” says Nesvetailova.
“There is no way around it. They will have to pay a lot of money and will continue to pay. It may be packaged, not as a direct EU contribution, but maybe as a combination of direct sums that, to the UK politi-cal electorate, will be sold as being a reduced sum, not €100bn but maybe €50bn.
“But the other €50 billion will have to come through other EU deals, for instance, direct invest-ment into Poland, or direct infrastructure investment into Portugal, or agricultural policy,” she adds.
Only when the bill is paid can the UK move on with its negotiations, but since time is running out, chances are that any viable trade agreement even a temporary one cannot be done in the time left.
The continued instability of which companies stay and which go would mean unemployment and possibly even a recession; economic uncertainty is certainly leading in that direction. But what can the government do to appease the crises?
Well, according to Nesvetailova, it can do many things: “The problem is that is hasn’t been doing much from what we have seen.
“The overall strategy is to reduce the uncertainty; the most practical way to do it is to announce what happens on the day of the so-called Brexit.
“Do we continue along the same arrangements and can we be assured that it will continue at least for the transitional period or do we go into the cliff-edge scenario of the WTO rules?”
This means if the UK leaves the EU with no trade deal (or no trade deal with anyone else), it would have to apply trade tariffs on imports.
Soft BrexitAs there is currently no regulatory framework in
place in the UK which can come in on the day Britain leaves the EU — nor even a plan for a week after that day — what the country would then need to do is make sure that the regular framework is functional but specify which framework that would be.
Will it be the EU law we are currently operating under or will it be something else? No economic or political decision can occur without political context; it is all about regulations.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond is advocating for a soft Brexit and coming under con-tinued fire from the staunch Brexiteers. But, as Nesvetailova said, maybe even a soft Brexit is not a pragmatic solution to an enormous problem.
It assures a short-term certainty scenario for
A move by Mexico’s ruling party to allow an outsider to run for President strengthens the hand of beleaguered leader
Enrique Pena Nieto, granting him more power to pick his own candidate and opening a path for his finance minister, Jose Antonio Meade.
Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revo-lutionary Party (PRI) loosened its rules on Wednesday, allowing illustrious, non-party figures to lead the party in the 2018 vote and eliminating a requirement for candidates to have been 10-year party members.
A full party ballot is likely to enshrine the statute.
Stained by graft, tepid growth and rising violence, the centrist PRI faces an uphill battle to win the election, and party figures concede the new rules may reflect its best chance of retaining the presidency.
The obvious beneficiary is Meade, a soft-spoken civil servant whose lack of PRI membership and ties to the conservative National Action Party (PAN) had barred him from being the party’s candidate.
However, many believe Education Minister Aurelio Nuno, the President’s former chief of staff, also benefits from the removal of the 10-year mem-bership bylaw, despite his assertions
Mexico ruling party’s reform props President ahead of vote
British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers her speech at the Conservative conference in Birmingham.
was seen by some as a similar imposition. “This confirms that we’re going back to the future.” Mohar said.
Tough ElectionAlthough hurt by his proximity to the unpopu-
lar Pena Nieto and criticisms of his time as education minister, which was marked by tough battles with teachers unions, Nuno is more palat-able to the PRI rank-and-file than Meade, who has served in two PAN administrations.
Meade is also a possible candidate to replace Banco de Mexico Governor Agustin Carstens when he steps down this year. Still, with corruption likely to be a hot topic in 2018, the unblemished, techno-cratic Meade is seen as a solid choice.
“Meade strikes me as very good, a winner,” said a PRI senator, speaking on condition of anonymity given party sensitivities over favoring a candidate at this stage. “He would lure PAN voters.”
Whoever ends up as the PRI candidate is likely to face the current presidential front-runner, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The PRI is currently polling in third place, well behind Lopez Obrador’s National Regeneration Movement (MORENA).
A victory for the nationalist-leaning Lopez Obrador could stoke tensions with the administra-tion of U.S. President Donald Trump, just as the United States, Mexico and Canada seek to seal a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Mexican diplomatic sources say many in the US government are wary of Lopez Obrador and favor a president close to Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, who leads Mexico’s NAFTA talks and has a working relationship with Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner.
Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, a former state governor, polls well as a potential candidate, despite an inability to control spiraling violence, while bookish Health Minister Jose Narro is among others also being spoken of.
All thoughts and views expressed in these columns are those of the writers, not of the newspaper.
All correspondence regarding Views and Opinion pages should be mailed to the [email protected]
decision planners, where we con-tinue to have the same regulatory standards, and everything remains the same, we can plan ahead, and as we plan, we can adjust or softly announce new political reality. But this change cannot be all in one go, the UK would need to find money to install these new regulatory bodies in order to slowly make a transition from EU law into British law.
All this should have been a think-ing option pre-referendum vote and should have been expressed to the voting public, but instead a lot of lies were told and people, naively, voted accordingly.The vote was either an emotional response or protest against the austerity measures of the Cameron/Osborne era.
Giving a country a vote that would ultimately slow down the economy and destabilise the already-shaky job market, was a selfish decision by Cameron.
The fact that he gave the vote the green light and did not have a plan for Brexit shows the process of thinking of his government.
It is not about the people, who will be the worst affected, it is about the positions ex-ministers and their advisors will sit in, post-Downing Street. And while there is infighting in the Conservative Party and gossip suggests Prime Minister Theresa May will not be replaced, she should have a Brexit cabinet that speaks with one voice.
Although how certain May’s future is, time will tell, one thing is for sure — Brexit is very much hap-pening one way or another, no matter how disappointing or harm-ful for UK interests it is.
Nadina RoncAnatolia
Although how certain May’s future is, time will tell, one thing is for sure — Brexit is very much happening one way or another, no matter how disappointing or harmful for UK interests it is.
Gabriel StargardterReuters
The PRI, which controlled Mexico with a mix of patronage, authoritarianism and graft for an uninterrupted 71 years until its ouster in 2000, has cast its efforts to allow outsiders as evidence of a sensitive, modernising party in tune with global democratic trends.
Children hold the national flag during an event at a school in Amritsar yesterday, ahead of Independence Day on August 15.
Holding onto the future
Gorakhpur
IANS
Under all-round attack, the Uttar Pradesh govern-ment yesterday suspended the head
of the hospital over the deaths of 63 children in five days, even as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his Health Minister blamed it on lack of cleanliness and dis-eases and not due to lack of oxygen.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in whose con-stituency the hospital is located, the opposition demanded the resignations of the state Health and Medical Education Ministers. The Centre sent Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and Health Secretary CK Mishra to Gorakhpur and look into the lapses in the BRD Medical Col-lege, where the children, including in the neonatal ward, were said to have perished due to lack of oxygen supply.
Principal of the Baba Raghav Das Medical College RK Mishra was suspended for alleged neg-ligence and callousness. Mishra later said he had already given his resignation, owing moral responsibility for the tragedy. Mishra has been asked to stay put as a committee had been formed
to fix responsibility. Announcing the suspension,
Mishra asked media not to jump to conclusions because a probe has been ordered. He said once the probe findings are out, strict action will be taken against the culprits. He claimed that no deaths had taken place due to lack of oxygen. Meanwhile,
addressing a public meeting in Allahabad, Adityanath said the deaths in his hometown were caused by filth and the scourge of open defecation.
“There are vector-borne dis-eases, such as encephalitis ...It is a tragedy that lives of young chil-dren have been snuffed out because we do not lead a clean and hygienic life,” he said and reminded the crowd that the dis-ease has been the bane of eastern Uttar Pradesh since 1978.
Singh, along with his cabinet colleague, Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon, were sent by the Chief Minister on Sat-urday morning to the hospital. Singh said the Chief Minister had visited the hospital on July 9 and again on August 9 where many things were reviewed, but the shortage of oxygen or any pay-ment issue was never discussed.
He said that in 2014 the number of deaths due to encephalitis was 19, in 2015 it was 22, and 19 in 2016. Singh explained that he was not trying to justify the deaths at the BRD hospital.
The Minister said they have gone through the oxygen gas supply issue and that after thor-ough scrutiny they were of the opinion that the deaths had not taken place due to lack of oxy-gen. He also said that if any
disruption in oxygen supply comes to light in further probe, the guilty would be brought to book.
In more embarrassment for the state government, it has come to light that the staff of the Central Oxygen Pipeline Plant at the hospital - from where oxy-gen is piped to different wards - had written to the head of the paediatrics department warning
them of dwindling oxygen stock. They had forewarned that the shortage could hit the patients admitted in various wards, spe-cially the children.
It appears that the warning fell on deaf ears and that no advance arrangements were made for the oxygen. Mean-while, Parveen Modi, owner of Pushpa Sales company, which used to supply oxygen to the BRD
hospital, denied that his com-pany had the tender to supply oxygen.
He told media persons that his contract with the hospital had ended in March and was not renewed. He said the contract of Pushpa Sales was ended and the contract given to a new firm from Allahabad - Imperial Gas, after the BJP government came to power this year.
63 kids dead amid row over oxygen supplies
Thiruvananthapuram
IANS
Acting on a complaint, Kerala Police chief Loknath Behra yesterday
ordered a Crime Branch probe into the death of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)’s state unit President Uzhavoor Vijayan, who passed away on July 23.
The NCP is an ally of the ruling Left Democratic Front
(LDF) and has two legislators in the government, including a cabinet minister.
It was the Kottayam district unit of the NCP that first wrote to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that there was a need to probe the death of their par-ty’s state chief.
The complaint that the Chief Minister received was for-warded to Behra, who on Saturday directed IG of Police S. Sreejith to submit a report
after conducting a probe into the complaint. It was on July 23 early morning that 60-year-old Uzhavoor Vijayan breathed his last at a private hospital here. He had been admitted there since the beginning of July as he was suffering from cardiac and gastrointestinal ailments.
Ever since the death of the state NCP chief, top party lead-ers have been expressing differing views with regard to the reason of his death.
10 SUNDAY 13 AUGUST 2017ASIA
Workers examine oxygen cylinders at Baba Raghav Das Hospital in Gorakhpur, in Uttar Pradesh, yesterday.
Probe into lapses
The Centre sent Minister of State for Health and Health Secretary to look into the lapses in the BRD Medical College, where the children, including in the neonatal ward, were said to have perished due to lack of oxygen supply.
Prime Minister spoke with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in whose constituency the hospital is located, and the opposition demanded the resignations of the state Health and Medical Education Ministers.
New Delhi
IANS
Marking a deep rift in the party, the Nitish Kumar faction yesterday
removed senior leader and former party president Sharad Yadav as head of its parliamen-tary party in the Rajya Sabha, and replaced him with Ram Chandra Prasad Singh.
JD-U spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan confirmed the removal of Sharad Yadav.
The decision was taken a day after the party suspended its rebel MP Ali Anwar Ansari from
the parliamentary party, for tak-ing part in a meeting of opposition parties convened by Congress President Sonia Gan-dhi on Friday.
Ansari along with Yadav expressed differences with party President Nitish Kumar’s deci-sion to snap ties with the Grand Alliance of Congress and RJD and form a government in Bihar with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Speaking in Bihar’s Madhep-ura district, Sharad Yadav hit out at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying the party is not Kumar’s alone but belonged to him too.
“JD-U sirf Nitish Kumar ki hi
party nahi hai, yeh meri bhi party hai,” Sharad Yadav said on the last day of his three-day Sam-vad Yatra to meet people and interact with them. He told them of his displeasure and pain over Nitish Kumar’s decision to break the Grand Alliance of JD-U, RJD and Congress and join hands with the BJP and form a new government. Nitish Kumar is the Janata Dal-United national pres-ident and said to fully control the party in Bihar. “There are two JD-Us in Bihar, one is sarkari (official) and another is janata (of the people). All the party legis-lators, leaders, who are close to
the government for personal benefit are with Nitish Kumar, but leaders and workers close to the people are with me,” Sharad Yadav said. He refused to com-ment on the JD-U decision to replace him as the parliamen-tary party leader. Sharad Yadav, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, said when he had “not been afraid of Indira Gandhi, what do others matter”.
“I am not afraid of any one to speak the truth and stand by my principles,” he said in refer-ence to his fight against the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in the mid 70s, when he
was a student leader close to Jay-aprakash Narayan, who led the movement that ousted Indira Gandhi from power for the first time in 1977.
Sharad Yadav said action has been taken against a few lead-ers of the party “who are standing with me”, and leaders close to Nitish Kumar have been threatening other JD-U leaders supporting him. Sharad Yadav reiterated that he is still with the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alli-ance) that was given a mandate by 11 crore people in Bihar in the 2015 assembly polls to rule for five years.
Nitish faction removes Sharad as party head in RSJammu
IANS
A woman and an army JCO were killed yester-day in an unprovoked
breach of the LoC ceasefire by Pakistani soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, officials said.
Ruqia Bibi was killed in Pakistan firing on the LoC in Bakakot area of Mendhar sec-tor in Poonch in the morning, police said.
Defence Ministry spokes-man, Lt Col Manish Mehta said Pakistan army resorted to unprovoked, indiscrimi-nate ceasefire violation in Mendhar sector at 5.30am.
“After Indian positions retaliated effectively, firing exchanges stopped in Mend-har sector at 6.45am.
Bhopal
IANS
Social activist Medha Patkar yesterday ended her 17-day fast to protest
against the government’s ‘apathy’ towards resettlement of those affected by the increase in the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam.
Patkar, however, would remain in detention. She was detained on Wednesday, hours after being discharged from a private hospital in Indore.
On the request of several organisations associated with the Narmada Bachao Ando-lan, the social activist ended her fast. “Fifteen members representing various organ-isations went to Dhar jail, where Patkar has been detained for the past three days,” former MLA Dr. Suni-lam said, adding: “Keeping her health condition in mind, the members requested Patkar to call off the fast.”
New Delhi
IANS
People in India will be able to witness the August 21 total solar eclipse on a
YouTube channel, thanks to an initiative by Space India.
The Delhi-based Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators, will live-stream the upcoming celestial event from the US, the company said in a statement on Saturday.
The solar eclipse -- when the Moon completely covers the Sun, will cross the US from Ore-gon to South Carolina over the course of an hour-and-a-half, and 14 US states will experience night-like darkness for approx-imately two minutes in the middle of the day.
“This is an unique phenom-enon. The path of the total solar eclipse will cut throughout the US and will be viewed by mil-lions. “Observers outside this path will still see a partial solar eclipse,” said Sachin Bahmba, Chairman and Managing Direc-tor at Space Group, who is leading the team from India for the expedition.
Amateur astronomers such as Yogeshwar Kanu Aggarwal, Luv Sharma, and Surinder Solanki, will accompany Bah-mba, whose expedition includes taking photographs of all important phases observed
during a total eclipse -- called as “contacts.”
The team will also be able to get unique and amazing fea-tures such as “Diamond Ring” and “Bailys’ Beads” -- which happens as pinpoints of light are passed through the uneven features and craters of the Moon when the moon is cover-ing the sun. The experiments will include studying the corona of the Sun which is only visible during an eclipse.
“The corona... gives valua-ble information about the temperature of the Sun’s atmosphere. Besides, temper-ature on Earth is expected to fall during the eclipse. So, the tem-perature will be recorded at different stages,” Bahmba explained.
The live streaming will be done from Idaho in the US using a 50 mm f/5 finderscope, a small auxiliary telescope mounted on an Astrotrac tracker -- the main astronom-ical telescope -- to follow the Sun. The device will have a webcam and a solar filter fitted to it, which will enable stream-ing directly on the official YouTube channel of Space India and will also be available on the organisation’s website.
Space India had also con-ducted similar expeditions during other total solar eclipse in 2009 and annular solar eclipse in 2010.
Space India to live-stream solar eclipse on August 21
Two dead in Pakistan firing on LoC
Medha Patkar ends fast over Narmada issue
Kerala Crime Branch to probe Vijayan’s death
An aerobatic team performs during a rehearsal ahead of Independence Day celebrations, in Islamabad, yesterday.
Aerial rehearsal
Kathmandu
AFP
Floods and landslides caused by torrential monsoon rains have killed at least 25
people in the last two days across Nepal, officials said yes.
Heavy rains have hit more than a dozen districts in the country’s far eastern region as well as some areas in the west since Friday morning, the home
ministry said. Flooding has occurred across the densely pop-ulated lowlands that border India, while some remote dis-tricts in the hilly areas of the far east have been hit by landslides triggered by the monsoon rains.
“We are still collecting the details of the loss. According to the preliminary reports to the ministry over 25 people are feared dead,” Home Ministry spokesman Deepak Kafle said.
The Prime Minister’s office issued a statement putting the death toll at more than two dozen since Friday.
Thirteen people died in east-ern districts and at least four others are missing, the head of the region’s police Ramesh Bhat-tarai said.
Telephone and electricity lines have also been affected by the heavy downpour making it difficult to confirm the full extent
of the damage in remote areas, the police chief added.
Roads across the southern plains have been blocked by the rains and three highway bridges collapsed in western Banke dis-trict, Home Minister Janardan Sharma said. Images on social media showed the runway at Biratnagar airport in eastern Morang district submerged in a metre (three feet) of water with an empty plane stranded on the
tarmac. Chief of Morang district police Arun BC said that airport had been shut due to the flooding.
The most recent deaths bring the total death toll from this year’s monsoon to over 90, according to government figures. Nearly 100 people died last year in Nepal during the rainy season, which typically begins in late June and lasts until the end of August.
Beijing
AFP
Chinese leader Xi Jin-ping urged US President Donald Trump yesterday to avoid rhetoric that
could inflame tensions with North Korea as an escalating war of words raised global alarm.
Xi made the plea in a phone call hours after Trump ramped up his warnings to Pyongyang, saying the Stalinist regime would “truly regret” taking hos-tile action against the United States. The White House said in a statement that the two lead-ers “agreed North Korea must stop provocative and escalatory behaviour” and that they are both committed to the denu-clearisation of the peninsula.
But the Chinese foreign ministry said Xi urged Trump to avoid “words and deeds” that would “exacerbate” the already-tense situation, exer-cise restraint and seek a political settlement.
Trump has been engaged all week in verbal sparring with the North over its weapons and missile programmes, as US media reported Pyongyang has
successfully miniaturised a nuclear warhead.
The Republican billionaire has progressively ramped up the tone throughout the week and on Friday declared that the US military is “locked and loaded.” In a call with Guam Governor Eddie Calvo on Fri-day, Trump said the US military is prepared to “ensure the safety and security of the peo-ple of Guam” in response to Pyongyang’s plans to launch missiles towards the Pacific ter-ritory. Japanese media said Tokyo was deploying its Patriot missile defence system follow-ing Pyongyang’s threat to fire ballistic missiles over the coun-try towards Guam.
Shanghai
Reuters
China yesterday freed one of the last remain-ing Crown Resorts Ltd
executives jailed for illegally promoting gambling, as a protracted saga that forced the Australian casino opera-tor to cancel global expansion plans and hurt profits nears an end.
Jason O’Connor, head of international VIP gambling with the casino giant, was released before 7am, an offi-cial told media outside the detention centre in Shanghai. The Australian was the most senior of 16 staff detained in October and jailed by a Shanghai court in June. His 10-month sentence ran from the time of his first detention on Oct. 14 last year.
He was flying home fol-lowing his release on Saturday, it was said.
Hong Kong AFP
Hong Kong’s official radio station said it will replace its 24-hour BBC broad-
cast with Chinese state-run programming in a move critics yesterday said was a step towards “mainlandisation”.
The city’s Radio Television Hong Kong has been broadcast-ing the BBC World Service live since 1978 but will replace it
starting September 4 with the China National Radio Hong Kong Edition (CNR).
Some see the move as signs that the city is further aligning itself with China. “This is abso-lutely one step forward towards mainlandisation in Hong Kong,” pro-democracy lawmaker Clau-dia Mo said, adding that Chinese authorities may feel that city res-idents were not patriotic enough.
“They should all be reigned in and taught to feel Chinese,”
Mo said of the motive behind the move, which comes at a time when many feel Beijing is squeezing the semi-autonomous city’s freedoms.
Residents also took to social media to decry the move, with Yu Yeuk-mui saying on Face-book: “One more bad news! Hong Kong is burning already”.
Frustrations over the city’s political and social develop-ments have led to the emergence of a new independence
movement calling for Hong Kong to break from the mainland.
The unveiling of a controver-sial rail link to the mainland last month which would see a por-tion of the city come under Chinese law has been the focus of the most recent backlash, with critics saying the city’s cherished freedoms are being eroded.
RTHK’s head of corporate communications Amen Ng said the CNR Hong Kong edition is “tailor-made for Hong Kong
people”. “It will encourage the cultural exchange between mainland China and Hong Kong,” Ng said.
Bank teller Alex Yan agreed, saying the benefits of the broad-cast outweighed the disadvantages as the new CNR programming would offer resi-dents an insight into the lives of their northern neighbours. “It can help them better understand the things happening in China,” Yan, 21, said.
Xi urges Trump not to inflame N Korea tension
Seoul
Reuters
North Korea said yesterday that nearly 3.5 million workers, party members
and soldiers volunteered to join or rejoin its army to resist new UN sanctions and to fight against the United States in the current geopolitical tension between Pyongyang and Washington.
Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s official newspaper, said the volunteers had offered to join or rejoin the People’s Army after the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) issued a state-ment on Monday condemning new sanctions imposed by the United Nations in retaliation for North Korean missile tests.
Ear l ier th is week,
nuclear-armed North Korea threatened to strike the United States and its Pacific territory of Guam. KCNA said on Wednes-day a mass rally was held in Pyongyang to support the gov-ernment. North Korea has previously mobilised large crowds to show its resolve when tensions escalate.
In August 2015, 1 million North Koreans offered to enlist or re-enlist in the army when a mine exploded in the demilita-rised zone between the two Koreas, raising additional ten-sions. North Korea warned foreign diplomats to leave Pyongyang in 2013 when it sus-pended work at a joint inter-Korean industrial park and threatened missile strikes on U.S. Pacific bases, notably in Guam and Hawaii.
3.5 million join army
North Korean youth, workers and trade union members holding a rally to protest the UN Security Council’s “sanctions resolution” at the compound of the Monument to Party Founding in Pyongyang, yesterday. (RIGHT) A PAC-3 surface-to-air missile is transported into Japan Ground Self-Defence Forces’ Kaita base in Kaita town, Hiroshima prefecture.
Tokyo
AFP
Japan deployed its Patriot missile defence system yesterday after North Korea threatened to fire ballistic missiles over the country towards the US Pacific territory of Guam, local officials and reports
said. Japan has in the past vowed to shoot down North Korean mis-siles or rockets that threaten to hit its territory.
The defence ministry deployed the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system in Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi in western Japan, which North Korea had warned could be along its missiles’ flight path, public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News said.
It also deployed the anti-missile system in neighbouring Ehime, according to the reports, while the Asahi Shimbun said one maritime Self-Defence Force Aegis destroyer was stationed in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) to shoot down airborne missiles.
Television footage showed military vehicles carrying launchers and other equipment for the surface-to-air system entering a Japa-nese base in Kochi before dawn.
Immediate confirmation from the defence ministry was not avail-able but an official at the crisis management office of the Kochi prefectural government said the PAC-3 had been deployed.
Japan deploys missile defence over threat
25 dead in Nepal landslides and floods
Manila
AFP
Three men kidnapped by Islamist militants in the southern Philippines
escaped while their captors prayed, dodging bullets as they ran, police said yesterday after a ruse using fake ransom money failed.
The fate of a fourth man who ran off in a different direc-tion was unclear.
The construction workers were taken to the police on Jolo island on Friday, four weeks after being abducted by the Abu Sayyaf group, which is holding more than a dozen other
hostages including several for-eigners in remote jungles.
The gunmen had received an undetermined amount of cash for the hostages on Thurs-day, but refused to release them after realising the money was fake, regional police chief Reuben Sindac said.
The three told police their fourth colleague had run in another direction and it was unclear if he had escaped or been recaptured by the mili-tants. Police said the militants also beheaded seven loggers on the southern island of Basilan last month, during which a Vietnamese hostage was also killed.
Captives escape Philippine militants
Hong Kong broadcaster to replace BBC with Chinese radio
Kabul
AP
An Afghan official says at least 13 civilians, including women and
children, have been killed after their house was hit by mortars during a battle in northern Faryab province.
Gen Dilawer Shah Dilawer, Faryab provincial police chief, said yesterday that three other civilians were wounded after two mortars hit the house Friday evening.
Dilawer says it isn’t clear who targeted the house in Dawlat Abad district — the Taliban or Afghan National Security Forces. He said a del-egation has been sent to the area to find out more about the attack.
11SUNDAY 13 AUGUST 2017 ASIA
Mortars hit house in Afghan province; 13 dead
China frees top Crown Resorts executive
Xi made the plea in a phone call hours after Trump ramped up his warnings to Pyongyang, saying the Stalinist regime would “truly regret” taking hostile action against the United States.
12 SUNDAY 13 AUGUST 2017EUROPE
MSF suspends Mediterranean migrant rescuesRome
Reuters
Doctors Without Bor-ders (MSF) said yesterday it was suspending its migrant rescues in
the Mediterranean because it felt threatened by the Libyan coast-guard and the Italian government’s policies have made its job harder.
The aid group’s decision is the latest development in mounting tensions between Rome and NGOs as migration dominates Italy’s political agenda ahead of elections early next year.
“We are suspending our activities because now we feel
that the threatening behaviour by the Libyan coastguard is very serious ... we cannot put our col-leagues in danger,” the president of MSF’s Italian arm Loris De Filippi said.
Almost 600,000 migrants have arrived in Italy over the past four years, the vast majority
setting sail from lawless Libya in flimsy vessels operated by peo-ple smugglers. More than 13,000 migrants have died trying to make the crossing.
Charity boats have played a growing role in rescues, picking up more than a third of all migrants brought ashore so far this year against less than one percent in 2014.
However, Italy fears the groups are facilitating people smuggling and encouraging migrants to make the passage, and it has proposed a Code of Conduct governing how they operate.
Some groups, including MSF, have refused to sign the code.
They object to a requirement that Italian police officers be on
their boats and that the boats must take migrants to a safe port themselves, rather than trans-ferring them to other vessels to allow smaller boats to stay in the area for further rescues.
MSF operates one rescue ship in the Mediterranean, the Vox Prudence, currently docked in the Sicilian port of Catania.
In the last six weeks, the number of migrant arrivals in Italy has slowed sharply and Rome has begun collaborating more closely with the Libyan coastguard, which De Filippi said was threatening the NGOs and preventing them from working.
He said the Libyan coast-guard had demanded the NGOs should leave an area of hundreds
of kilometres around its coast, whereas previously they had been allowed to conduct search and rescue operations as close as 11 nautical miles to the mainland.
“Last year the coastguard fired 13 shots on our boat and that was in a situation that was much calmer than the present one,” said De Fil ippi yesterday.
He said MSF would continue its collaboration with another aid group, SOS Mediterranee, which operates a rescue ship in the Mediterranean with MSF doctors on board.
De Filippi said the Rome gov-ernment’s Code of Conduct for NGOs and its support for the Lib-yan coastguard showed it was
now mixing the humanitarian goal of saving lives with “a polit-ical and military intention” of reducing arrivals.
A government spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
Last week Italy began a naval mission in Libyan waters to train and support its coastguard, despite opposition from factions in eastern Libya that oppose the UN-backed government based in Tripoli.
General Khalifa Haftar, a commander aligned with an Eastern-based parliament, told Italian daily Corriere della Sera yesterday that the presence of Italian military vessels in Libyan waters was unacceptable but he would not attack them.
Five dead as storms ravage PolandWarsaw
Reuters
Five people, including two teenage girl scouts, died and more than 30 were
injured as a result of falling trees in a series of severe storms that hit Poland overnight.
The girls, 13 and 14, were crushed by falling trees while sleeping in a tent when a storm hit their campground late on Friday in the Tuchola Forest in northern Poland, according to the Regional Crisis Management Team office in Gdansk.
Some 20 scouts were injured
and taken to local hospitals.Adam Kralisz, chairman of
the Lodz Region of the Scouting Association of the Republic (Poland), where the scouts were from, said that evacuation was ordered immediately, but con-ditions were horrendous.
“We had to force our way for kilometres through the forest, among falling trees.”
Three other victims also died as a result of falling trees and 10 people were injured in separate incidents in Poland’s north.
More than 170,000 people were left without power and
800 buildings were damaged in storms that hit mostly Poland’s north and west, according to the Regional Crisis Management Team in Gdansk.
More storms were expected yesterday and warnings of severe weather conditions were issued for a number of regions amid unusually high for Poland temperatures that on Friday reached 35 to 38 Celsius.
An emergency meeting of the government’s Crisis Man-agement Team was called yesterday and Prime Minister Beata Szydlo promised to help all those in need.
Tainted egg scare reaches SpainMadrid
AFP
Liquid egg products tainted by fipronil were discov-ered at a food company in
northern Spain, authorities said yesterday, the first time the chemical that has caused a Europe-wide crisis has been detected in the country.
Fipronil, which can harm human health, has been discov-ered in eggs in 16 European countries since the scandal
came to light on August 1 and has even been found as far afield as Hong Kong.
Millions of eggs have been pulled from supermarket shelves and dozens of poultry farms closed, with the European Commission calling for a spe-cial meeting on the crisis.
Spain appeared to have been spared but on Friday afternoon, a batch of “20,000 units of pas-teurised liquid egg” tainted with fipronil was discovered at a food company in the Basque
Country in northern Spain, a spokeswoman for the regional government’s health depart-ment said.
“The company had not used them yet,” she said, adding that as a result they had not entered the food chain in Spain. They will all be destroyed.
The spokeswoman, who refused to be named, said she did not know where the batch came from, but Spanish media reports suggested it had been imported from France.
Russia to train women as military pilotsMoscow
AFP
FEMALE candidates are to be accepted for the first time to train as pilots for Russia’s air force, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said yesterday.
“There are many young women who would like to become military pilots. We have received hundreds of letters,” he said, according to a ministry statement.
“That’s why we’ve decided that this year we will enrol a first group of women at the military academy of Krasnodar.”
“There will be few of them, 15 in all. But given the quantity of applications that we receive, we can’t ignore them. From October 1, the first group of women will start to train to become pilots,” he said, adding that he hoped they will be qualified in five years.
Portugal fights 220 wildfires in one dayLisbon
AP
PORTUGAL is fighting to put out a spate of wildfires after the southern European country hit a year high of outbreaks for a single day on Friday, authori-ties said yesterday.
Portugal’s Civil Protection Agency, which coordinates its firefighting efforts, said that it recorded a record for this year of 220 separate wildfires on Friday.
Over 2,500 firefighters supported by over 800 vehi-cles and 15 air units were still mobilized yesterday morn-ing to combat the flames.
Portugal has been hard hit by wildfires, including one that killed 64 people in June, during a summer marked by high temperatures and a lack of rain.
Basques support Catalonia independence vote San Sebastian
AFP
Hundreds of Basques turned out on the streets yesterday in support of
Catalonia and its planned ref-erendum on independence from Madrid, an ambition long fought for by Basque separatists.
The demonstration was symbolic, in a region still marked by decades of violence waged by armed separatist group ETA, and where the desire for independence remains strong despite the cur-rent peaceful times.
Arnaldo Otegi, a veteran leader in the northern region who was once part of ETA and now heads up Sortu, a party that campaigns for independ-ence, was present at the march.
He said the protest had been called to demonstrate Basque solidarity “with people who are giving an important example in democracy in Europe and demanding the right to self-determination to
decide whether they want to be independent or not.”
Otegi was referring to the northeastern region of Catalo-nia, where the regional, separatist government is plan-ning to hold an independence referendum on October 1.
But the central government in Madrid categorically refuses such a vote which it says threat-ens Spain’s unity, and has warned Catalan leaders they face reprisals if they go ahead with it.
Under a clear blue sky in the Basque seaside resort of San Sebastian, organisers said some 3,000 protesters attended the march.
They waved the red and yellow Esteleda flag used by those who want independence in Catalonia, as well as red, white and green Basque regional flags.
Lawmakers from Catalo-nia’s radical, far-left CUP party, which is part of a majority pro-independence coalition in Catalonia’s parliament, were also present at the march.
London
AP
Eleven candidates are vying to lead Britain’s right-wing UK Inde-
pendence Party, including the founder of an anti-Islam organisation whose inclusion in the race has divided the party.
Anne Marie Waters, founder of a group called Sharia Watch, is on the list despite opposition from some UKIP members.
Party leaders blocked her from being a candidate in June’s national election, cit-ing her views on Islam.
UKIP opposes Britain’s EU membership, and played a
key role in bringing about the 2016 referendum that ended in a decision to leave the bloc.
But the party has strug-gled since achieving its main goal. It has no members in Britain’s Parliament and lacks a potential leader as well-known as ex-chief Nigel Farage.
Farage has said that UKIP will be “finished” if it becomes an anti-Islam party rather than sticking to its core poli-cies of leaving the EU and controlling immigration.
Mike Hookem, a UKIP lawmaker serving in the European Parliament, said he was resigning as a party whip to protest Waters’ inclusion in the leadership race.
Submarine owner jailed over missing reporterCopenhagen
AP
A Danish court has ordered the owner of an amateur-built submarine to be
held in pre-trial detention for 24 days while police investigate the disappearance of a Swedish journalist who had been on the ship.
Peter Madsen was arrested on Friday on preliminary man-slaughter charges after his 40-tonne, nearly 18-metre-long submarine sank off Denmark’s eastern coast.
He has denied responsibil-ity for the fate of 30-year-old Kim Wall, saying she had dis-embarked before his vessel went down.
Judge Kari Soerensen announced the ruling yesterday after a two-hour custody hear-ing held behind closed doors.
Madsen’s defence lawyer, Bettina Hald Engmark, said her client maintains he is innocent.
Hald Engmark says Madsen is “willing to cooperate” and hasn’t decided whether to appeal the detention ruling.
We are suspending our activities because now we feel that the threatening behaviour by the Libyan coastguard is very serious ... we cannot put our colleagues in danger: Official
In danger
A roof destroyed by a storm hangs from an apartment building, in Bydgoszcz, yesterday.
Anti-Islam candidate to stand for UKIP leadership
A woman stands in the tower of the private submarine "UC3 Nautilus", in Copenhagen Harbour, Denmark, yesterday.
13SUNDAY 13 AUGUST 2017 EUROPE
Merkel embarks on election campaignBerlin
AFP
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, fresh from a three-week Alpine holiday, embarked yesterday
on what may be the most bizarre election campaign in the coun-try’s post-war history.
After months of studiously ignoring the race for the Septem-ber 24 election, Merkel kicked off a series of rallies across the country with a campaign speech in the western city of Dortmund delivering an upbeat message on jobs.
“We are set to reach full employment by 2025, that is to say an unemployment rate under three percent, and I believe we can achieve it,” said Merkel of a key objective of her centre-right Christian Democrat Union (CDU).
As of July the German jobless rate stood at 5.7 percent, rela-tively low among European nations. “We have today 44 mil-lion employed in Germany. Those are really very good fig-ures,” the 63-year-old told her supporters.
But just six weeks before the European Union’s top economic power and most populous nation goes to the polls, Germans have
been barely taking notice of the election.
After 12 years in power, Mer-kel, frequently called the world’s most powerful woman and Europe’s de facto leader, looks set to win a fourth term.
Gone are the warnings of her political demise heard at the height of the 2015 refugee influx in Europe, when nearly 900,000 asylum seekers entered the country.
Her conservative Christian Democrats lead their closest
rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD), by a 12-to-17-point mar-gin, meaning it would take a political earthquake to shift the field at this point.
“It is probably the strangest election race in the history of the Federal Republic,” Heribert Prantl of the national broadsheet Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote this week.
“There is no wind, never mind a wind of change.”
Merkel’s main challenger, SPD leader and former European Parliament spokesman Martin Schulz, has led what many com-mentators call a plodding campaign.
But they acknowledge that there is little mood around for renewal, as Germans look out on a turbulent world unsettled by US President Donald Trump and Brexit.
After high-drama election campaigns in the United States, Britain and France, Germans appear relieved that their race is so low-stakes.
“The German elections are very difficult to understand from a foreign point of view because there’s hardly any polarisation,” political scientist Timo Lochocki of the German Marshall Fund of the US said.
Meanwhile, the frustrated
Social Democrats are faced with an enemy who refuses to engage, with German media nicknaming the lonely Schulz the “Shadowboxer”.
“The SPD can’t polarise the campaign alone; the CDU doesn’t answer, so (the campaign) is dying,” said Lochocki.
He cited three main reasons for German satisfaction with the status quo: the rude health of the economy with solid growth, Mer-kel’s right-left “grand coalition” government creating broad con-sensus around contentious issues such as immigration and secu-rity, and a pact by mainstream parties to shun the political fringe.
The CDU has plumped for a
soft-focus campaign centred on patriotism and Merkel herself.
The party drew ridicule for its soporific slogan “For a Ger-many in which we live well and happily”, and a campaign poster featuring a young female voter literally asleep in a meadow.
Schulz this month accused Merkel of eroding German democracy with her barely per-ceptible re-election bid.
“A chancellor who does not tell voters what she intends to do is neglecting her duty and that endangers the future of the country,” he warned.
Given she has been in power since 2005, making her the long-est-serving current leader of any major Western democracy,
Merkel still enjoys a remarkable personal popularity rating of around 60 percent—nearly dou-ble that of Schulz.
In a column called “Wander Woman” this week, Rene Pfister of Der Spiegel noted the fascina-tion Germans had with the down-to-earth images of Mer-kel hiking in gear she has been wearing year after year that were splashed on the pages of news-papers and magazines during her holiday.
“It is among the curiosities of this election campaign that even Merkel’s summer holiday led her poll numbers to climb,” Pfister said, noting that Merkel’s no-nonsense style mirrored Ger-mans’ own view of themselves.
Court jails British family over modern slavery ringLondon
Reuters
A British court convicted an extended family of mod-ern slavery offences after
they forced vulnerable people to work for them for little or no wages while their captors lived a life of luxury, prosecutors said.
Nottingham Crown Court convicted 11 members of the Rooney family of a series of offences, including forced and compulsory labour, exploitation and fraud, the Crown Prosecu-tion Service (CPS) said.
Chief Crown Prosecutor
Janine Smith said the defendants “lived lives of luxury at the expense of their victims, con-demning them to live in fear, misery and squalor”.
“For them, exploitation, vio-lence and extortion were a way of life,” Smith said in a statement.
“The family lured vulnera-ble people, some of them homeless or with learning disa-bilities, with the promise of work, food and accommoda-tion,” the CPS said recently.
They were taken to travel-lers sites in the eastern city of Lincoln and housed in shabby, dilapidated caravans, mostly with no heating, running water and toilets, including one man who was held for 26 years.
The 18 victims were told they
owed money and forced to work long hours on site or for the defendants’ businesses repair-ing properties and paving driveways, without safety equipment.
They would often go hungry and were subjected to beatings and threats to keep them from leaving, the CPS said.
Their captors often denied them medical treatment, even if severely injured, and some who tried to escape were tracked down and brought back.
Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said modern slav-ery and human trafficking were
more prevalent than previously thought, affecting every large town and city across the country.
British government passed tough anti-slavery legislation in 2015 introducing life sen-tences for traffickers and forcing companies to disclose what they are doing to ensure their supply chains are free from slavery.
“There are 21 million people in forced labour globally, includ-ing children, in a business worth $150bn a year,” according to the International Labour Organiza-tion (ILO).
Greece seizes two tonnes of marijuanaAthens
AP
GREEK authorities say they have seized roughly two tonnes of Albania-grown marijuana on an Italian-flagged yacht destined for the Aegean Sea islands.
The coast guard says the seizure followed a tip-off and took place on Friday south of the Greek island of Kythera, at the entrance to the Aegean.
It was one of the largest quantities of marijuana ever confiscated in Greece.
A coast guard statement says the motorized yacht departed from an Italian port and picked up the drugs in Albania, which is a major pro-ducer of illegal marijuana.
The two-man crew, an Italian and an Albanian national, were arrested. The yacht was impounded.
Four arrested in Italy’s anti-mafia operationRome
AP
Police in southeastern Italy have arrested four sus-pects and seized weapons
to head off more gangland-style murders in a region popular with vacation-goers where four people were killed, authorities said yesterday.
Carabinieri Col. Marco Aquilio said that the arrests on Friday night were part of a crackdown ordered by the national government in the Puglia region after a pair of innocent witnesses and two others were slain earlier in the week in the Gargano area, the “spur” of the boot-shaped peninsula.
Italy has sent in nearly 200 police, including Carabinieri that specialize in anti-mafia operations in the mountainous and forested terrain of Sardinia and Calabria.
“They are an elite corps, expert in (criminal) roundups and searching for fugitives,” Aquilio said.
He said the four suspects who were nabbed on Friday were “about to carry out exe-cutions” of rival mobsters. “They were armed to the teeth.”
The alleged target of
Wednesday’s deadly ambush was a suspected mobster who was gunned down along with his brother-in-law as they drove along a country road.
Two local farmers who were believed to have acciden-tally witnessed the slayings tried to flee in their vehicle, but the alleged attackers gave chase and fatally shot them.
Milan’s Corriere della Sera newspaper reported yesterday that shortly after the slayings, a frightened French motorist stopped police to report she had just seen four hooded men with automatic weapons. It was unclear if the tourist had wit-nessed the slayings.
Puglia, with its long coast-line, sandy beaches and excellent wines, is a favorite tourist destination for Italians and foreigners. The rugged Gar-gano promontory offers panoramic views and pictur-esque seaport towns surrounded by crystalline waters.
But anti-mafia prosecutors say the region also is home to mobsters whose dangerousness is often underestimated. For generation’s, Italy’s southern Adriatic coast, across from the Balkans, has been a landing area for smugglers.
Residents protest Barcelona tourist influxBarcelona
AP
Around a hundred Barce-lona residents have gathered on the Spanish
city’s beach to protest the unchecked growth of mass tour-ism to the popular vacation destination.
The protest was organised yesterday by a local residents’
group under the theme “Recover the beach for everyone!”
They say the influx of tour-ists has increased the price of rents and driven a spike in rowdy behaviour by party-seek-ing foreigners.
Tensions have been grow-ing between authorities and radical leftist groups who launched a campaign of vandal-ism against mass tourism in
Barcelona and other parts of Spain.
Spain, a country of 46 mil-lion, received 75.3 million tourists in 2016.
The number of arriving tourists increased by 12 percent in the first six months of this year.
Tourism accounts for 11 per-cent of Spain’s gross domestic product.
Merkel kicked off a series of rallies across the country with a campaign speech in the western city of Dortmund delivering an upbeat message on jobs.
Rallies begin
Merkel’s main challenger, SPD leader and former European Parliament spokesman Martin Schulz, has led what many commentators call a plodding campaign.
Members of far-right Alternative for Germany party protest against German Chancellor Angela Merkel and leader of the Christian Democratic Union party, in Dortmund, Germany, yesterday.
Nottingham Crown Court convicted 11 members of the Rooney family of a series of offences, including forced and compulsory labour, exploitation and fraud.
An anti-tourism banner on La Barceloneta beach during a demonstration against unchecked growth of mass tourism, in Barcelona, yesterday.
Wrong man arrested in jogger-rage caseLondon
AP
THE search is still on for a road-rage jogger who shoved a woman into the path of a London bus.
The Metropolitan Police force said yesterday that a man arrested this week has now been “eliminated from the investigation.”
The American investment banker was apprehended Thursday on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.
His lawyers later released a statement saying he wasn’t involved and could prove he was in the United States at the time of the May 5 incident.
The arrest came after police released surveillance camera footage showing a jog-ger in shorts and T-shirt banging into a pedestrian, who tumbled in front of a bus.
14 SUNDAY 13 AUGUST 2017AMERICAS
State of emergency
A Virginia city was flooded with white nationalist demonstrators as well as counter-protesters, prompting the state’s governor to declare a state of emergency.
Witnesses at the scene saw demonstrators, some clad in militia uniforms, throwing punches and hurling bottles.
Charlottesville
AFP
A picturesque Virginia city was flooded yes-terday with white nationalist demon-strators as well as
counter-protesters, prompting the state’s governor to declare a state of emergency as law enforcement tried to quell vio-lent skirmishes.
Hundreds were in Charlottes-ville either to demonstrate in or rail against a “Unite the Right Rally,” one day after hundreds of torch-bearing marchers demon-strated at the normally tranquil city’s university campus.
US President Donald Trump urged unity as the unrest flared, calling on Americans to “con-demn all that hate stands for”. “We ALL must be united & con-demn all that hate stands for,” the Republican leader tweeted. “There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Let’s come together as one!”
After urging Virginians a day earlier to stay clear of the rallies, the state’s governor Terry McAu-liffe yesterday declared a state of emergency, saying on Twitter it was necessary “to aid state response to violence at Alt-Right rally in Charlottesville” as hun-dreds from both sides clashed.
Police began evacuating the city’s Emancipation Park after declaring those gathered there to be part of an “unlawful assem-bly”. By midday local authorities had reported one arrest and said emergency personnel had responded to eight injuries.
Witnesses at the scene saw demonstrators, some clad in militia uniforms, throwing
Caracas
AFP
Venezuela’s new Constitu-ent Assembly yesterday strongly backed socialist
President Nicolas Maduro in the face of the “vile threats” of his US counterpart Donald Trump, who said US military action was an option to quell the South Ameri-can country’s devastating crisis.
“We reject the cowardly, insolent and vile threats” of Trump against “the sacred sov-ereignty of Venezuela,” Delcy Rodriguez, president of the assembly, wrote on Twitter.
The assembly’s 545 members — all members of the governing party — would join Maduro “in defense” of the country, she added. The election of the assembly, decried by the oppo-sition as an attempt by Maduro
to install a “communist dictator-ship,” sharply increased tensions between Caracas and Washing-ton. The two have not had ambassadors in each other’s cap-itals since 2010.
“We have many options for Venezuela, and by the way I’m not going to rule out a military option,” Trump told reporters Friday at his golf course in Bed-minster, New Jersey, where he is vacationing.
The unexpected warning shocked many Venezuelans. Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino called it “an act of cra-ziness,” warning that in the event of US aggression, the nation’s military would lead the defense of “the interests and sovereignty of our beloved Venezuela.”
Venezuela is facing its worst political crisis in decades. Four months of protests have claimed
more than 125 lives, but Maduro, whose ouster the demonstrators are demanding, has remained deaf to international pressures.
Meanwhile, Peru ordered the expulsion of Venezuela’s ambas-sador over his country’s “break with democratic rule” under Maduro, and Caracas followed hours later with its own tit-for-tat response.
Ambassador Diego Molero has five days to leave Peru, the foreign ministry said. In Vene-zuela, the government responded by expelling Lima’s top envoy Carlos Rossi, with the same deadline given.
“In light of the measure adopted by the Peruvian govern-ment, we find ourselves in the lamentable obligation to expel the charge d’affaires of Peru in Venezuela,” a Venezuelan for-eign ministry statement read.
Washington
AFP
The West Wing is where it all happens at the White House — historic decisions,
power struggles, meetings with foreign leaders. It is the nerve centre of American power.
The West Wing, which was made even more famous by the award-winning television series of the same name, is home to the Oval Office and the Situation Room, where the president and his top aides meet in a crisis.
It also houses the offices of the president’s closest advisers, the White House press corps and the briefing room. But for a week now, the West Wing has been one big construction site. Presi-dent Donald Trump and his inner circle have decamped. In their place are painters, plumbers and
construction workers. The Oval Office is empty — the armchairs where foreign leaders have sat, couches, tables and even the leg-endary Resolute Desk, under which Caroline Kennedy hid as a child, have all been moved out.
Trump is vacationing at his golf club resort in Bedminster, New Jersey. His close aides have temporarily moved to the adja-cent Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Like the rest of the White House, the cornerstone of which was laid in 1792, the West Wing needs regular renovations. The main goal of this summer’s work is to update the creaking air conditioning system.
The General Services Admin-istration, the government agency tasked with maintaining federal buildings, said the heating and AC system was “well past its life cycle and will fail in the near
future without intervention”. All of the carpeting in the West Wing is to be replaced — at a cost of $1.17 million. A fresh coat of paint will add another $275,000 to the bill. According to the GSA, the expenses are in line with those incurred by the three previous administrations.
The White House, which was rebuilt after being torched by the British during the War of 1812, has undergone numerous rounds of renovations, including a major refurb in the late 1940s under Harry Truman. Until the start of the 20th century, the president worked from the second floor of the house, where he lived with his family. In 1902, Teddy Roo-sevelt created what would later become the West Wing. “It really made the White House what it is today,” Evan Phifer, a research historian at the White House
Historical Association, said. “Roosevelt created a wing,” he said, “and that was expanded over the years.”
“Taft in 1909 had the first Oval Office, but it’s not until 1934 when Franklin D Roosevelt ren-ovates and expands the West Wing that the Oval Office is placed in the current southeast corner adjacent to what’s now the Rose Garden.” William Howard Taft was the 27th pres-ident. The last major renovations came during the presidency of Richard Nixon, who decided to add a briefing room — its 49 seats shared by accredited reporters from around the world—above the pool built by FDR in 1933.
The structure of the pool, which can be reached by a small staircase, is still intact—but it is filled with electrical cables. The
original tiles are now covered by the signatures of journalists and White House employees who have visited it.
The renovation work under-way is nothing special, but was highlighted after Trump report-edly called the most famous building in America a “real dump” in a conversation with some of his club members, according to Golf.com.
The real estate mogul-turned-president categorically denied making such a statement, insisting he was happy to leave his gilded New York penthouse for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. “I love the White House, one of the most beautiful buildings (homes) I have ever seen,” he tweeted. In 10 days, he will return to his new home sweet home — which should have the smell of fresh paint.
Bedminster
AFP
The United States said on Friday that it holds Cuba responsible for
investigating an apparent sonic attack that left several of its diplomats in need of medical treatment.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the US mission in Havana had not been able to determine who was behind what he called “health attacks” on its staff. But he warned: “We hold the Cubans responsible just as every host country has a responsibility for safety and security of dip-lomats in their country.
“We hold the Cuban authorities responsible for finding out who is carrying out these health attacks not just on our diplomats — as you’ve seen there are cases with other dip-lomats as well.” Canada revealed that one of its diplo-mats had also fallen victim to the mysterious attack, which officials said seem to have been carried out with some kind of sonic device.
US personnel began expe-riencing ailments in late 2016, but that it was not immediately recognized that it could be any-thing other than an ordinary health issue. US media have said the diplomats suffered hearing loss. Cuba’s foreign ministry said US officials had alerted it to the “alleged inci-dents” on February 17.
Relations between the United States and Cuba were restored by then US president Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro in 2015 after a half-century break. But tensions mounted again after the detente was partly rolled back by Obama’s successor Donald Trump.
Trump urges unity as far-right rally erupts in violence
Charlottesville
AFP
A vehicle ploughed into a crowd of people yesterday at a Virginia rally where
violence had erupted between white nationalist demonstrators and counter-protesters, wit-nesses said, with police reporting “multiple injuries.”
“Charlottesville Police and Virginia State Police are on the scene of a three vehicle accident” said the Charlottesville Police Department in a statement. A witness said that a dozen people had been hurt in the collision — which he called “intentional” — saying one girl got “tore up” after the car “backed up and they hit again”. He said the dark sedan “raced down here, jumped over the speed bumps and it backed up and it hit everyone again.”
“There was a girl that was on the ground; she was trying to get up,” he added. Witnesses saw injured people on the ground and others in tears.
According to witnesses, the victims were counter-protestors who had descended on Char-lottesville to denounce so-called “alt-right” demonstrators, among them Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi sympathizers. Ambu-lances quickly arrived at the scene. The crash occurred as hundreds flooded Charlottesville either to take part in or voice condemna-tion for a far-right rally that quickly erupted in violence.
Car rams into crowd at Virginia rally
A vehicle is seen ploughing into the crowd gathered on a street in Charlottesville, Virginia, after police broke up a clash between white nationalists and counter-protesters, yesterday, in this still image from a video obtained from social media.
punches and hurling bottles even before the official 1600 GMT rally start time. State police also tweeted that some crowd mem-bers were using pepper spray, and local media footage showed images of riot police, national guard members and an armored vehicle in the city’s downtown.
“It is now clear that public safety cannot be safeguarded without additional powers, and that the mostly out-of-state pro-testers have come to Virginia to endanger our citizens and prop-erty,” McAuliffe wrote in a statement on his emergency dec-laration. “I am disgusted by the hatred, bigotry and violence these protesters have brought to our state over the past 24 hours.”
In light of the unrest, city leaders also declared a state of emergency. Video footage from the demonstration showed anti-racism protesters waving flags from the Black Lives Matter movement, as crowds chanted slogans like “We say no to racist
fear” and “No Nazis, no KKK, no fascist USA.”
Others brandished Confed-erate flags, today considered a symbol of racism by many Amer-icans. Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler, who had called for the white nationalist demonstration, on Saturday declared it “a mon-umental event for our movement” even after evacua-tions began. Yesterday’s far-right rally follows a much smaller demonstration last month that saw a few dozen Ku Klux Klan-linked marchers gather to protest the city’s planned removal of a statue of General Robert E. Lee, who led Confederate forces in the US Civil War.
Though they were outnum-bered by hundreds of jeering counter-protesters, the extreme
right marchers — some donning the traditional white hood of the notorious white power group — saw their images spread worldwide on social media. And this time the extreme right brought in big names of the “alt-right” movement — which has been emboldened, critics say, by Donald Trump’s ascent to the White House — in a bid to attract more supporters.
Normally reticent First Lady Melania Trump took to Twitter to respond to the demonstra-tions, writing, “Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let’s communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville.” Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan also weighed in on the social media platform: “The views
fueling the spectacle in Charlottes-ville are repugnant. Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry.”
Friday night’s pre-demonstra-tion also turned into a brawl after torch-bearers linked to the white supremacist far right were met by a group of counter-protesters. Charlottesville’s mayor Mike Signer dubbed Friday’s march a “cowardly parade of hatred, big-otry, racism and intolerance.”
University of Virginia Presi-dent Teresa Sullivan on Saturday condemned that demonstration, saying in a statement that “the intimidating and abhorrent behavior displayed by the alt-right protesters was wrong.”
One protester was arrested and charged with assault and disorderly conduct, she said.
As Trump vacations in New Jersey, West Wing upended
US says Cuba must probe attacks on diplomats
Venezuela assembly denounces ‘vile threats’ from US President
Members of Mexican Solidarity with Venezuela Coordination and of the World Front of Democratic Youth demonstrate in support of President Nicolas Maduro in Mexico City yesterday.
Joyalukkas, the world’s favourite jeweller, has signed up one of the most successful and admired
actresses in Indian cinema as the brand’s ambassador.
“Kajol is a perfect fit for Joyaluk-kas,” said Joy Alukkas, Chairman and Managing Director of Joyalukkas Group. “She is one of the most iconic beauties in the industry and is an unconventional actress who shines in the most challenging roles, yet she is vibrant & her down to earth person-ality well loved by her legion of fans. All these qualities resonate with our brand. We are very happy to have her as the face of Joyalukkas for years to come.” Kajol Devgan is a multi-award-winning actress, holding the record for the most number of Filmfare Best Actress Awards. She is known for her versatility and outstanding
performances. She is signed up to be the Joyalukkas Brand Ambassador with the brand’s extensive expansion plans which include entering new territo-ries with the aim to “ornament the world.” “I have been an admirer of the Joyalukkas brand for some time now. Joy Alukkas’s success story is also very inspiring, I am very excited to be a part of the world’s favourite jeweller’s fam-ily,” says Kajol Devgan.
Joyalukkas is a global jewellery retail chain with over 140 showrooms across 12 countries, India, UAE, UK, USA, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain & Kuwait. A massive advertising cam-paign featuring Kajol Devgan is currently in production and expected to roll out across the Group’s network in the last quarter of the year.
“It is a privilege to work with someone who has the same values and passion for excellence as all of us at
Joyalukkas,” says John Paul Alukkas, Executive Director of Joyalukkas Group. “We are delighted to welcome
Kajol as our newest brand ambassa-dor and look forward to a fruitful and lasting relationship with her.”
Joyalukkas signs up Kajol as brand ambassador
Actress Kajol Devgan with the team of Joyalukkas.
The Peninsula
In a move calculated to pro-vide new delight to Doha’s luxury-savvy scene, Shangri-
La Hotel Doha, owned by Al Rayan Tourism Investment Company (ARTIC) – the inter-national hospitality subsidiary of Al Faisal Holding Company headed by Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani – has boldly opened its helipad for selected, exclusive events poised atop 50 stories of high-end hospitality.
One of the few luxury hotels in the heart of the city which boasts a full-size helipad, Shangri-La Hotel Doha first took advantage of its prime, open-air location and striking city views to host a series of ‘Highest Iftar’ and Suhoor events. Throughout
the Holy Month of Ramadan this year, very-high-profile influenc-ers and media including Yousef Erakat (10M YouTube subscrib-ers) were invited onto Shangri-La’s Helipad – in an ini-tiative brought on by Khalifa Al Haroon, Founder of ILQ. Local and international guests dined by the dozen, enjoying ‘Majlis’-themed events and authentic Middle Eastern cuisine as well as the opportunity to take part in a group prayer at sunset on one of the tallest towers in West Bay. Further events have included ‘Anthem’, in which, through a perfect summer sun-set, the Doha Film Institute and local guitarist Abdulla Al Khu-zaei (@twinkee47) offered guests an unforgettable evening of short film musing upon the
Qatar crises. Also notable was a special session of ‘Yoga with Oysho’ offering a whole new level of calm to a total of 20 media influencers balancing body and mind high above the bustle of the city streets.
Like most hotel helipads, the Shangri-La Doha’s landing area is usually strictly out of bounds to guests, but for special events it can accommodate up to 20 invitees at a time.
Alex Willats, General Man-ager of Shangri-La Hotel Doha said: “We pride ourselves on making the best use possible of our prime location in the heart of the city for the benefit and enjoyment of our guests. Stand-ing tall in the middle of West Bay, we wanted to take advan-tage of and utilize one of the
Shangri-La Hotel opens helipad to events
The Peninsula
Lulu group kicks off Book Fair at Lulu Hypermarket in Barwa city. The 15-day event, till August 20,
conducted in association with Cres-cent book shop, brings to Qatar a range of books to satiate varied tastes.
This festival was inaugurated at Lulu Hypermarket, Barwa City by Kha-led Al Zeyana, Chief Editor of Qatar News Agency, in the presence of Habeeb Rahman, Executive Director of Friends Cultural Centre, Sheela Tomy, renowned writer and executive member of Friends Cultural Centre and Shanavas PM, Regional Manager of Lulu Group and other officials from Lulu Group and dignitaries.
Emphasised on raising awareness and inculcating the reading habit to a generation more technologically inclined, the Lulu Book Fair is aimed at focusing on reading for knowledge, fun, opportunities and inspiration, especially for the younger generation. The fair will have quite an offering
which a book lover searches for - be it fiction, Non-fiction, Cookery, chil-dren’s books, self-help, Islamic, arts, philosophy or history, management, classics and lifestyle too has got prom-inence. Children need not get disappointed as there is enough to keep them interested in the fair.
Lulu Book Fair is a celebration of discovering books, discovering read-ing and discovering the genre of storytelling.
The Lulu Book Fair is an attempt to inculcate the reading habits and develop literacy skills within an enjoy-able environment, broaden
imagination, improve talents, enhance creative thinking skills, introduce pos-itive behavior & attitudes and enhance work skills.
It will also offer a platform for the latest Arab and foreign publications to showcase diverse cultures and liter-acy styles.
Lulu Group Book Fair draws crowds at Barwa City
The Peninsula
Lexus LX 570 received an award as the best Luxury SUV in Qatar by Arab
Motors and Maqina auto maga-zines. The award was presented to RK Murugan, AAB Acting CEO, during an event held in Lexus showroom. The Lexus LX repre-sents a paradigm for automotive perfection and reflects the evo-lution of this iconic vehicle to offer luxury, technology and ele-gance through its sophisticated exterior design, progressive lux-ury interior and advanced technologies.
Receiving the Award, RK Murugan said, “We at AAB are extremely pleased to know that Lexus LX has won the prestig-ious award for the best Luxury SUV in Qatar. The Lexus LX, with its outstanding performance and
versatility has already carved a niche in the luxury segment.”
The Lexus LX is for those seeking that special combination of unparalleled off-road per-formance and luxurious daily driving. With a powerful V8 engine, sophisticated 4WD chas-sis and seating for eight, the LX 570 remains one of the few lux-ury utility vehicles that combines sumptuous luxury with brute performance, providing a silken-smooth ride along with the capability to venture where few others can – all while sur-rounded in unsurpassed interior comfort and refinement. The result, unsurprisingly, is a driv-ing experience taken to new heights.
The restyled front end wears an even bolder rendition of the Lexus signature spindle grille, framed by elegant satin chrome
trim and complemented by a dis-tinctive standard LED headlight, turn signals and fog lights.
Powerfully elegant designThe exterior of the Lexus LX
combines the power of an SUV with the inherent luxury befit-ting a Lexus flagship. The front profile provides a sense of sta-bility with its daringly muscular lower portion, while the side profile emphasizes a refined yet bold and dynamic underbody and the rear cuts a sturdy yet graceful outline. The spindle grille projects a sense of strength and elegance, and symbolizes the ever-evolving nature of Lexus. The lower portion of the grille takes on a protective shape while the inner grille bar juts out ener-getically from the hood and merges with the grille frame to form a single hard surface. Sequential LED turn signal lamps
are utilized in a Lexus vehicle for the first time. These innovative lamps light up in a flowing sequence, increasing visibility when turning right or left.
Outstanding performance and versatility
The Lexus LX 570’s
formidable 5.7-liter V8 engine produces 362 horsepower and 54.0 kg-m of torque at 3,200 RPM. It also delivers 90 percent of its peak torque at just 2,000 rpm to confidently tackle the challenges of demanding terrain with a smoothness that takes
driving freeways and city streets in easy stride. Combined with a super intelligent, electronically controlled eight-speed automatic transmission, the Lexus LX dem-onstrates easy acceleration on-road and ample power at low and medium speeds off-road.
most exclusive platforms any hotel or skyscraper pos-sesses in this luxurious part of the city. Shangri-La Hotel Doha’s Helipad is a platform that offers the most mag-nificent views of Doha’s strikingly beautiful skyline. The events we’ve hosted so far have proved very successful and we look forward to many more.”
Shangri-La Hotel Doha are planning to host a variety of exclusive events, private dinners, movie screenings and sunset/sunrise viewings, on their one-of-a-kind heli-pad during the fall of 2017 – stay tuned for the announcements!
Lexus LX 570 crowned as the best Luxury SUV in Qatar
RK Murugan, AAB Acting CEO, receiving the award during an event in Lexus showroom.
