SPORTS 8 @newsofbahrain Pepe rescues Arsenal · 2019-10-26 · day of ‘heritage season’ 8 WORLD...

Runner disqualified for wearing hijabWashington, DC

A US high school runner says she was disqualified from a cross country event in the state of Ohio because her coach didn’t have a waiver allowing

her to wear a hijab.The association that oversees high school sports in

the state said on Thursday that it’s considering chang-ing its rules after the disqualification.

Noor Abukaram said she felt humiliated after being ruled out last weekend following a race in which she posted her best time for the season.

“My heart dropped, I felt like something horrible had happened,” she told WTOL-TV. “I think I was mostly embarrassed.”

Her coach at Sylvania Northview High School told

The Blade newspaper he made a mistake by not getting the waiver, but he didn’t think it was needed because no one had raised the issue at her previous 10 races this year.

Ms Abukaram, 16, said she was not upset with her coach, only the rule.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren expressed her solidar-ity with the excluded runner.

“I’ve got your back, Noor,” she said on Twitter.

02Nuke weapon threat stressed at key global co-operation summit

03Arab woman sentenced for attacking two policewomen

04A host of events lined up for final day of ‘heritage season’

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Pepe rescues Arsenal as United eke out rare away win Nicolas Pepe came off the bench to rescue Arsenal at home against Vitoria Guimaraes with two late free kicks in the Europa League on Thursday. P11

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Rise in violence as protest enters day 9

Beirut

Lebanon’s ninth day of an-ti-government protests witnessed a change in

pace as clashes erupted between Hezbollah supporters, protes-tors and riot police, before and after the group’s Secretary-Gen-eral Hassan Nasrallah’s speech.

Several people were injured as both sides hurled projectiles at one another. It was a dra-matic shift from the morning, when people in Beirut’s Martyrs Square and Riad Al Solh calmly set up stands of Lebanese mer-chandise, and vendors prepared their food offerings.

Riot police were forced to in-tervene between both sides in an attempt to deter the projectiles following Nasrallah’s speech — which was decried as similar to an earlier address given by Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

“They’re all the same: Hariri, Nasrallah, Aoun, Bassil,” Alaa

Mortada, one of the protestors, was quoted by Arab News.

“Look at what they’re doing. Aren’t we all Lebanese? This is why we need to remove religion from politics,” he added.

Nasrallah continued to throw his weight behind the Hariri gov-ernment, claiming that the pro-tests were an “achievement” since they pushed the government to announce a budget with no tax.

“We don’t accept toppling the presidency, we also don’t back government resignation,” he said, adding: “Lebanon has entered a dangerous phase, there are pros-pects that our country will be politically targeted by interna-tional, regional powers.”

Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance and National Economy, met with former British Prime Minister David Cameron on the sidelines of his participation in the 44th Conference of the Arab Federation of Financial Market Traders (ICA), which opened yesterday under the patronage of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister. Shaikh Salman appreciated Mr Cameron’s efforts to enhance the existing friendly relations between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the United Kingdom, especially in the field of economic and financial co-operation. They also reviewed the global economic situation and topics of common interest, in addition to a number of important developments discussed by the conference.

Firm UK ties

They’re all the same: Hariri, Nasrallah,

Aoun, Bassil. PROTESTER

Protests grip Iraq At least 40 dead in renewed protests across the nation

• Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani urged protesters to use “restraint” to stop the demos descending into “chaos”.

• The unrest has broken nearly two years of relative stability in Iraq, which lived through foreign occupation.

Baghdad

Eleven protesters died yes-terday while setting fire to the headquarters of a

powerful armed faction in the southern Iraqi city of Diwani-

yah, a security source told AFP.The fire at the Badr organisa-

tion’s offices was the deadliest incident yet on Friday, when an-ti-government rallies resumed across the country.

The Iraqi Human Rights Commission said another 30 demonstrators died and more than 2,000 were wounded by

gunfire and tear gas in protests in Baghdad and the country’s south.

Security forces used tear gas and an Iranian-backed militia opened fire to try to quell re-newed demonstrations against corruption and economic hard-ship, security sources said.

A government intelligence officer and a member of the powerful Asaib Ahl Al Haq mi-litia were killed in a clash with protesters in the southern city of Amara, police sources said.

Nearly 1,800 people were in-jured nationally as demonstra-tors took to the streets to vent frustration at political elites they say have failed to improve their lives after years of conflict.

Anti-government protesters run for cover while Iraqi security forces fire tear gas during a demonstration in Central Baghdad.

25per cent is the

unemployment in the country, according to

World Bank.

Noor Abukaram was disqualified for wearing hijab.

Muslim students should never be denied participation in school activities.

ELIZABETH WARREN

Man killed in accident TDT | Manama

A 54 years old Asian was killed in an accident

that occurred in Salmaniya area yesterday.

According to Interior Ministry, he was hit by a car while standing on one of the sides of the road.

“The driver rammed his car into a parked car, before drifting his vehicle into the victim,” the Interior Minis-try tweeted yesterday.

The man died instantly. No more details were avail-able until press time.

Eight killed in shooting spree Moscow

Eight Russian service members were killed in

an apparent shooting spree at a military base in Siberia yesterday, Russia’s top law enforcement agency said in a statement.

According to the statement from the Investigative Com-mittee, a soldier allegedly opened fire on colleagues at a military garrison near the city of Chita, killing two officers and six enlisted personnel.

A suspect in the case, Pri-vate Ramil Shamsutdinov, a member of Unit 54160, had been detained, the Investiga-tive Committee said.

According to the Rus-sian defence ministry, the shooting occurred at around 6:20 pm local time during a change in a guard shift.

Eight service members were killed on the spot, and two additional military per-sonnel were injured and tak-en to a hospital; their condi-tion is not life-threatening, the ministry said.

02SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2019

• The minister praised the Non-Aligned Movement for upholding its principles and values since its establishment in Bandung Conference in Indonesia in 1955.

• He asserted the Kingdom’s commitment to its policy of working with allies and international partners.

Baku

Delegated by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the Minister of

Foreign Affairs, Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, participated in the open-ing of the 18th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, held on 25-26 October 2019, in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan.

The summit is being chaired by President Ilham Aliyev of the Republic of Azerbaijan, with the participation of more than 125 countries and regional and inter-national organisations.

The Minister conveyed the greetings of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to President Ilham Aliyev, as well as HM’s wishes of success to the summit to fulfil the peoples’ aspi-rations for security, stability and development.

Shaikh Khalid delivered a speech in which he stressed the Kingdom of Bahrain’s continued support for the objectives of the Non-Aligned Movement, which seek to maintain international peace and security.

He noted that the Kingdom is committed to the approach of cooperation and collective ac-tion to strengthen the security and stability in the world, main-taining relations and peaceful coexistence among nations and peoples, adhering to the princi-ples of good-neighbourliness and non-interference in the internal affairs of states, and refraining from threatening policies that destabilise international and re-gional security.

The minister stated that the Kingdom of Bahrain has recent-ly hosted the Warsaw Process Working Group on Maritime and Aviation Security in partnership with the United States of Ameri-ca and the Republic of Poland, as part of its efforts to address the threats to security and stability,

both in the Gulf region and the world. He added that the work-ing group was held following the terrorist attacks on sea lanes in the Arabian Gulf and the region and the attacks on oil facilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

He noted that the establish-ment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone and other weapons of mass

destruction in the Middle East is an important measure to pro-mote peace, security and stability throughout the world, calling upon the international communi-ty to work towards this vital goal of the Treaty on the Non-Prolifer-ation of Nuclear Weapons.

He asserted the Kingdom’s commitment to its policy of

working with allies and interna-tional partners, adding that it will continue its efforts to provide all means of security and peace and face all challenges targeting the region.

The minister praised the Non-Aligned Movement for upholding its principles and values since its establishment in Bandung Con-ference in Indonesia in 1955.

He affirmed the Kingdom’s support to various issues along-side the Movement, including the Palestinian cause, fighting terrorism and confronting its sponsors and financiers and stopping interference in the in-

ternal affairs of states, which ob-structs the settlement of crises and hinders the establishment of positive relations among states based on respect for independ-ence, sovereignty, mutual trust and good-neighbourliness.

He also stressed that the Kingdom of Bahrain will remain committed to working with its brothers in the Arab Coalition to support legitimacy in Yemen to achieve the security and stability in the Republic of Yemen, and reach a peaceful solution based on the Gulf Initiative and its ex-ecutive mechanism and the out-comes of the national dialogue and Security Council Resolution 2216 of the year 2015, in a way that would ensure the unity of Yemen and the safety of its ter-ritories.

He also expressed appreciation for the efforts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to unite all the na-tional parties and the legitimate government in Yemen, to enable them to face the Houthi coup mi-litia and others who pose a threat to the security and stability of Yemen and the region as a whole.

Regarding the Syrian Arab Republic, the Minister stressed the importance of preserving its independence and unity, and cat-egorically rejecting occupation of any of its territory by any foreign forces.

He stressed the need to reach a political solution in accordance with the Geneva Declaration 1 and the relevant United Nations resolutions.

He also affirmed that the Golan Heights is an occupied Arab Syr-ian territory in accordance with international resolutions issued in this regard.

Deputy Premier holds meeting with former UK Prime MinisterManama

Deputy Prime Minister, HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, held

a meeting with former British Prime Minister, David Camer-on, who is participating as a key speaker in the 44th Interarab Cambist Association Confer-ence (ICA), which kicked off here yesterday, under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Sal-man bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the

Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister.

HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak conveyed greetings from His Majesty King Ham-ad bin Isa Al Khalifa, His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Su-preme Commander and First Deputy Premier, to David Cam-

eron, as well as their welcome of his participation in ICA.

The Deputy Premier and former UK Prime Minister dis-cussed the long-standing friend-ship relations between Bahrain and Britain, and areas of bilateral co-operation in various fields for the best interests of the two Kingdoms and their friendly peoples.

They also reviewed a number of regional and global issues of mutual interest, in addition to

ICA’s agenda regarding financial services within a stable invest-ment and economic atmosphere.

Former British Prime Minis-ter conveyed his greetings and good wishes to HM the King, HRH Premier and HRH Crown Prince, expressing delight at visiting Bahrain and taking part in the conference.

President of the Court of the Crown Prince, Shaikh Khalifa bin Duaij Al Khalifa, attended the meeting.HH Shaikh Mohammed with Mr Cameron.

Nuke weapon threat stressed at key global co-operation summit

Foreign Minister highlights the Kingdom’s foreign policy stances

Shaikh Khalid delivers his speech at the summit as Bangladesh President Sheikh Hasina looks on.

Shaikh Khalid with heads and representatives of countries which are part of the Non-Aligned Movement in Baku.

The Kingdom of Bahrain will remain committed to working with its brothers

in the Arab Coalition to support legitimacy in

Yemen. SHAIKH KHALID

Bahraini envoy attends Working Group Meeting on Energy SecurityWarsaw

The Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the Republic of Poland resid-

ing in Berlin, Abdullah Abdulla-tif Abdullah, participated in the Warsaw Process Working Group on Energy Security, in partner-ship with the United States and the Republic of Poland on 23-24 October 2019.

The session, hosted by the Re-public of Poland in partnership with the United States of Ameri-ca, was opened by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, Jacek Czaputowicz, the

Secretary of State in the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Poland, Michał Kurtyka, and the Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic

of Poland, Georgette Mosbacher. The Polish Minister of For-

eign Affairs delivered a speech in which he underscored the im-portance of holding such groups

in light of the current challenges threatening energy security in the Middle East and the world at large. He also stressed the need to enhance cooperation in order to preserve the security and stabili-ty of energy and reduce the illicit trade of petroleum products.

The Secretary of State in the Ministry of Environment com-mended the Kingdom of Bahrain for hosting the Warsaw Process Working Group on Maritime and Aviation Security, discuss-ing the protection of vital energy infrastructure, diversification of energy sources, and safety of the power supply chain.

Mr Abdullah Abdullah at the meeting.


Arab woman sentenced for attacking two policewomen

She was accused of attacking, insulting two policewomen

• The woman is said to have been under the influence of alcohol when she crashed her car.

• The accused hit one of the policewomen in the face with the handcuffs before

hurling the other cops with insults.

TDT | Manama

An Arab woman accused of beating and insulting two policewomen has been

jailed for one year.The convict cursed a police-

woman that she wouldn’t be able to give birth to children as she along with her team approached

to arrest her. The woman is said to have

been under the influence of al-cohol when she crashed her car and the policewomen attempted to arrest her.

The accused hit one of the policewomen in the face with the handcuffs before hurling the other cops with insults.

“We were notified on the incident and we rushed to the scene. When we arrived, the Arab woman was hysterical and very angry.

“We tried to calm her in an ef-

fort to take her to the Ministry of Interior’s clinic to examine as she was obviously drunk,” one of the policewomen told prosecutors.

“I tried to handcuff her but she hit me with the cuffs in the face, bruising my lower lip.

“She then cursed both of us saying, you wouldn’t be able to bear children,” she added.

The Arab woman was even-tually arrested and tried for car-rying out a physical assault and insulting two policewomen.

We tried to calm her in an effort to take her to the Ministry

of Interior’s clinic to examine as she was

obviously drunk. VICTIM

Two faces trial for disrupting traffic by burning couch

• The pair were charged on grounds of arson.

TDT | Manama

The High Criminal Court has begun hearing the

case of two men, including a football player, accused of setting a couch on fire to obstruct the traffic on a public road and put people’s lives at risk.

The duo were arrested after the General Directo-rate of Criminal Investiga-tion and Forensic Science received a complaint from Sitra Police Station over car-rying out the act in protest against judicial decisions on some convicts.

Police investigations con-firmed the involvement of the pair in the incident af-ter their fingerprints were found in the scene.

The first defendant, aged 19 and a football player in a local club, was arrested and admitted to agreeing with others, including his co-sus-pect in an effort to hinder the traffic after the enforce-ment of court judgements against the defendants.

The pair were charged on grounds of arson.

UN awareness event held Manama

Th e R e g i o n a l R e p -re s e n t a t i o n o f t h e

United Nations High Com-mission for Refugees in the GCC countries (UNHCR), in collaboration with the Unit-ed Nations Resident Co-or-dinator’s Office (RCO) in the Kingdom, and with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the King-dom (MoFA), organised for the first time an awareness booth in City Centre Bah-rain Mall in Manama on 24 and 25 October 2019.

T h e e ve n t a i m e d t o raise awareness about the plight of over 70.8 million persons, who were forci-bly displaced worldwide as a result of armed con-flicts, human rights vio-lations, and persecution. Amin El Sharkawi, the UN Resident Co-ordinator in Bahrain, praised UNHCR’s activities.

House committee stresses draft law to channel govt revenues TDT | Manama

The Committee on Fi-nancial and Economic Affairs of the House of

Representatives has recom-mended to adhere to a draft law requiring that the revenues of all government bodies and institutions be transferred to the public account.

This includes any public in-stitution, corporation or com-pany, irrespective of the per-centage of the government ‘s contribution to it.

The Shura Council voted last January to reject the draft law, on the pretext that it impedes the independence of some pub-lic bodies and institutions of the state, established under its laws.

The law aims, according to his explanation note, to in-crease the proceeds of the state budget by injecting the reve-nues of public bodies, institu-tions and government-owned companies into the state public.

Scores of fiscal violations were unveiled with the release of the National Audit Office (NAO) annual report, Tribune has learnt.

The report which is annual-ly released at this time of the year addresses violations and shortages of performance at government bodies.

The report was handed over to the Council of Representa-tives’ Speaker Fawziya Zain-al by NAO Chairman Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa.

It mentions some of the vi-olations detected at ministries and public authorities in 2018.

In the report, it was stated that many ministries and gov-ernment bodies had directly borrowed funds from foreign parties without including the debts in the general balance recorded.

The report mentioned that this has reflected a false image of the actual amount of the pub-lic debt released earlier, which is nearly BD12.5 billion, while the actual public debt amount was over BD13.5 billion.

In its recommendation, the NAO stressed the need to take more effective measures to control the levels of public debt, in order to tighten con-

trol over it and ensure its man-agement on sound economic

and regulatory bases.Other violations detected

included the ones within Ed-ucation Ministry, where the report showed that 60 out of 134 operating kindergartens in the Kingdom have not renewed their licences for periods ex-ceeding five years.

The report said that there was a significant delay in the renewal of licences, and also noted two kindergartens were licensed to operate, although they did not meet the necessary requirements.

It was also mentioned in the report that 59 out of 107 private educational institutions, 55 per cent of the total institutions in the Kingdom, have not renewed their licences for long periods

of up to five years.The report underlined vari-

ous excessive spending in sev-eral government entities such as the Youth and Sports Affairs Ministry, Bahrain Internation-al Airport, Health Ministry, Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry, Bahrain Institute of Public Ad-ministration and more.

The annual report is issued by the NAO, as an independent entity, for the aim of improving the government’s performance financially and administra-tively, ensuring accountability and promoting transparency, in accordance with interna-tional standards, and within the framework of the laws and systems regulating the process.

The House in session.

The law aims, according to his

explanation note, to increase the

proceeds of the state budget by injecting

the revenues of public bodies.

KNOW

DID

Works Minister attends key GCC meetingMuscat

Works, Municipalities and Urban Planning Affairs Minister Es-

sam Khalaf has attended the 22nd meeting of the Gulf Co-op-eration Council (GCC) municipal ministerial committee, which convened in Muscat, the Sultan-ate of Oman.

The committee endorsed a number of recommendations which were submitted by the Kingdom of Bahrain to the pre-paratory meeting.

The recommendations focused particularly on green building, domestic waster recycling, cen-tral markets, tree-planting and

revamping town.The minister stressed Bah-

rain’s keenness on development the municipal work in the GCC countries, underlining the impor-tance of focusing on issues that concern citizens and contribute to further enhancing environ-ment-friendly urban develop-ment and upgrading municipal services.

He stressed the importance of endorsing the final draft of the unified GCC urban develop-ment strategy which, he said, would develop joint municipal co-operation and promote sus-tainable environment urban de-velopment, keeping abreast of regional and global trends.Mr Khalaf along with other GCC ministers at the meeting.


A host of events lined up for final day of ‘heritage season’

The event is being organised by Popular Heritage Sports Committee of Bahrain Olympic Committee

• The final day of the three-month season will feature a host of events, such as folk shows, craftsmen’s products and a boat show.

• HH Shaikh Nasser asserted that the heritage sports are an integral part of the national identity.

Manama

Under the patronage of His Majesty King Ham-ad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the

closing ceremony of the second edition of the “Nasser bin Ham-ad Marine Heritage Season” will

be held today at the Bahrain Na-tional Museum.

The Nasser bin Hamad Ma-rine Heritage Season, which started on August 3, is organised by the Bahrain Olympic Com-mittee (BOC)’s Popular Heritage Sports Committee.

HM King Hamad will watch the race over the HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad’s Cup for the elite and that over the HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad’s Cup for the public.

On the occasion, HM the King’s Representative for Charity Work and Youth Affairs, National Se-curity Advisor and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, extended deepest thanks and appreciation to HM the King for patronising the closing ceremony of the Ma-rine Heritage Season, stressing that the royal support reflects

HM King Hamad’s care for the youth and sports sector, in gen-eral and the popular heritage

sports, in particular.HH Shaikh Nasser asserted

that the heritage sports are an integral part of the national iden-tity, expressing pride in HM the King’s patronage of the event aimed at preserving Bahrain’s rich marine heritage.

The final day of the three-month season will feature a host of events, such as folk shows, craftsmen’s products and a boat show.

Chairman of the season’s or-ganising committee, Mohammed Janahi, said that the second edi-tion of the HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Marine Heritage Sea-son has achieved outstanding success, with the holding of nu-merous events and competitions which were massively attended by Bahraini youth who showed a great interest in such sports.

Mr Janahi pointed out that a total of 2,000 participants

took part in the season’s various competitions, including pearl diving using traditional meth-ods, pearl diving using modern equipment, fishing and rowing, stressing that this year’s edition has succeeded in attracting a great number of Bahraini youth and involving them in beneficial sports activities.

On the season’s prizes, he said that they are worth more than half a million US dollars, which, he explained, reflects the extent of care enjoyed by such sports from HM the King and HH Shai-kh Nasser.

Mr Janahi hailed the honour-ing of the winners of various competitions by HH Shaikh Nas-ser’s and HH Shaikh Khalid’s sons, which, he said, proves the leadership’s interest in promot-ing heritage sports and increas-ing the number of those who practise them.

Saudi Arabia to attend military drill Riyadh

The Saudi Royal Naval Forces is set to take part

in IMX 19, US Central Naval Command, and the world’s largest multinational mixed international naval exercise, which will take place at the North Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, Coast of Djibouti and Gulf of Aqaba.

Fifty-six countries and six international organisations will also take part in the mul-tinational naval drill, which will be held from October 26 and November 14.

The drill is the most com-prehensive exercise in the world aimed at fostering rela-tionships and inter-operabili-ty between supporting forces and maritime security oper-ations by working together among participating forces, in order to deter threats to the freedom of navigation, and demonstrate the global determination to maintain the freedom of navigation and free flow of maritime trade.

Toastmasters gear up for unique gathering TDT | Manama

Div-A Debate Toastmas-ters is all set to host the

first TMx, a unique gathering in Bahrain that will unleash new ideas, inspire and in-form.

The event will be held on November 1 at the British University of Bahrain in Saar from 4pm to 7pm.

TMx is a platform for toastmasters to share their knowledge and expertise to the world with the theme ‘Great Ideas for Daily Life’.

The TMx speakers include Hisham Jiffry, Kamal Al She-habi, Meenakshi Sundaram, Mohamed Ali Shukri, Anil Menon, Sajitha Sateesh, Mariam Haji, Hassanain Al-saffar, Meenakshi Sundaram and Ali Shahbaz Ali.

TMx is an experiment in bringing innovative ideas to a greater audience in line with District 20 Programme Qual-ity Director’s initiative ‘Step Out, Speak Out.’

The first batch of speakers were chosen for the diversity of their topics and their im-pact on people’s daily lives. Mohamed Ali Shukri is an International award-win-ning speaker, a professional trainer and coach.

Participants get to witness history being made as this is a first-of-its kind event in toastmasters in Bahrain. They will also be inspired with new ideas and new viewpoints - maybe even get to be on the TMx stage next year, said the organisers.

HH Shaikh Nasser

His Majesty

Bahrainis trained for the AWS Solutions Architect TDT | Manama

Thinksmart trained 16 del-egates for the AWS Certi-fied Solutions Architect

that helps Bahraini individuals for skills development on mi-grating their key applications to cloud.

The training was held at the Le Meridien Hotel, attended by Bahraini IT professionals from leading companies.

AWS is the most sought-after certification in the world and the AWS Certification has be-come a one-stop shop for many companies looking for solutions to help their businesses run more efficiently.

The demand of AWS in Bah-rain is increasing and IT compa-nies are preparing their business

to implement the basic architec-tural principles of building on the AWS Cloud.

As part of the training, the attendees had the knowledge on best practices for building secure and reliable applications

on the AWS platform. The course has helped the in-

dividuals to have the ability to identify and define the technical requirements for an AWS-based application.

Mr Ahmed Al Hujairy, Group

CEO of Thinksmart said, “Peo-ple in the IT industry are now migrating to AWS Cloud. We pro-vide the best to every Bahraini IT professional to validate their technical skills and expertise with an industry-recognised

credential and help them grow their career through the AWS Certified Solutions Architect course.

“The course includes the hands-on experience using net-working, storage and database AWS services that are the most useful tools in the AWS infra-structure.”

Bahraini IT professionals who underwent training.

The course includes the hands-on experience

using networking, storage and database AWS services that are

the most useful tools in the AWS infrastructure.

MR AL HUJAIRI

FIRST Global Challenge kicks off with 1,500 students Dubai

The FIRST Global Challenge 2019 in Dubai, the third edition of the annual in-

ternational robotics competition, kicked off at Festival Arena yes-terday with the participation of more than 1,500 contestants from 191 countries.

This year’s theme – “Ocean Op-

portunities” – focuses on creat-ing robots to clean up the oceans through eliminating waste and pollutants.

A number of senior officials and executives attended the first day of the competition with local and international media covering the event that is taking place outside the Americas for the first time af-ter the United States and Mexico

hosted the first two editions. The choice of Dubai as the host

of this year’s competition reaf-firms its global leadership status in the empowerment of youth through the development of tech-nology and innovation, and aligns with the values of the UAE’s Year of Tolerance.

Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence

and Deputy Managing Director of Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) stressed the importance of host-ing this event as part of the UAE’s journey in shaping the future and keeping pace with the rapid tech-nological developments driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) across the board.

Mr Al Olama said: “Robotics is one of the most important fields

of scientific competition among the world’s largest economies. The UAE’s interest in this vital domain stems from the economic and scientific opportunities asso-ciated with robots in diverse areas of life, in addition to the country’s keenness to contribute to finding solutions to anticipated challeng-es that may face the world in the future.”

Latest AI-powered face recognition system introduced TDT | Manama

NGN International, a re-gional technology group operating in Bahrain, in-

troduced “iFalcon Face Control” during the launch of the fifth consecutive edition of the Ma-nama Entrepreneurship week (MEW).

iFalcon Face Control Mobile is a world’s first fully autonomous AI-powered face recognition system integrated with a wear-

able device – AR smart glasses. iFalcon Face Control Mobile

is designed for law enforcement officers and security guards on patrol.

The bodycam or smart glasses screen the crowd to match faces against a database of violators, missing people or suspects.

On the sidelines of the MEW, NGN revealed that iFalcon Face Control brings face recognition capabilities anywhere, even without the network of CCTV

cameras covering every inch of the city.

It proves particularly effective in detecting people at public events, sports facilities and in other crowded areas: violators, ‘watch listed’ individuals and missing people, monitoring im-migrants and identification of violators and impostors at bor-der customs control, and pre-venting terrorism, espionage and unauthorised access to sen-sitive areas.Mr Isa Janahi was honoured at MEW event.

Hosting this international event reflects the UAE’s belief in the importance of accelerating the pace of the Fourth Industrial

Revolution. MR AL OLAMA

05

world

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2019

These beasts were out of range in Kazakhstan all summer

and now once they reached the super expensive Iran and

Pakistan, they are spewing out hundreds of text messages with

their locations

IGOR KARYAKIN

RUSSIAN RAPTORS RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION NETWORK

Fresh UK arrests over 39 dead found in truck

London

British police investigating the discovery of 39 bodies

in a truck said yesterday they had arrested two people on suspicion of manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people.

Eight women and 31 men, believed to be Chinese nation-als, were found in the refriger-ated trailer on Wednesday, in a case that has shocked Britain.

After detaining a 25-year-old truck driver from Northern Ireland at the scene on suspi-cion of murder, Essex police confirmed two additional ar-rests on Friday.

A man and a woman, both aged 38 and from Warrington in Cheshire, northwest Eng-land, “have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to traf-fic people and on suspicion of 39 counts of manslaughter”, the force said.

The first autopsies were to take place Friday as investiga-tors attempt to establish how they died before the work be-gins on trying to identify the victims.

Ambulances had been called to a parked-up truck in an in-

dustrial zone in Grays, east of London, early Wednesday but all the victims inside were already dead.

The refrigerated trailer had arrived at nearby Purfleet on the River Thames estuary on a ferry from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge just over an hour before ambulance crews called the police at 1:40 am.

The truck which collected the trailer had left the port 35 minutes before that call.

Questions have been raised about when the victims en-tered the refrigerated trailer, where temperatures can be as low as minus 25 degrees Cel-sius (minus 13 degrees Fahr-enheit).

The crossing to Purfleet from Zeebrugge, one of the world’s busiest ports for car-go on trucks, takes nine to 12 hours.

Belgian investigators were working to establish where the trailer came from before reaching the port.

“We have ways to recon-struct the route of the contain-er but it’s not instantaneous, it can take time,” Eric Van Duyse, spokesman for the Belgian fed-eral prosecutor’s office, said.

A vehicle of a funeral home, escorted by police, leaves the Port of Tilbury where the bodies of immigrants are being held by authorities

UK museum names blind beetle after Greta ThunbergLondon

Britain’s Natural History Museum yesterday named

a tiny, blind and wingless bee-tle after climate activist Greta Thunberg.

The honey-coloured insect, measuring less than one mil-limetre, was discovered in the Kenyan capital Nairobi in the 1960s.

But it apparently remained nameless until the venerable London museum’s scientific as-sociate Michael Darby stepped in.

“I am immensely impressed with the work of this young campaigner and wanted to acknowledge her outstanding contribution in rais-

ing awareness of environmen-tal issues,” Darby said.

Sweden’s Thunberg, still

only 16, has injected a burst of energy into the climate change movement since launching her first school strikes one year ago.

She has also become a global pop culture icon.

Earlier this month, British superstar DJ Fatboy Slim paid tribute to Thunberg by using samples from her incandescent speech at the United Nations in

a remix of his smash hit “Right Here, Right Now”.

But she has never before been linked to an insect.

Max Barclay, a senior curator at the 146-year-old museum, said “the name of this beetle is particularly poignant”.

“It is likely that undiscov-ered species are being lost all the time, before scientists have even named them, be-cause of biodiversity loss,” said Barclay.

“So it is appropriate to name one of the newest discoveries after someone who has worked so hard to champion the natural world and protect vulnerable species.”

The museum said the bee-tle’s existence in its vast col-lection had only just been discovered.

It’s formal scientific name is Nelloptodes gretae.

It belongs to the “Ptiliidae family of beetles which includes some of the smallest insects in the world,” the museum said in a statement.

Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, still only 16, has injected a burst of energy into the climate change movement

KNOW WHAT

The honey-coloured insect, measuring less than one millimetre, was discovered in the Kenyan capital Nairobi in the 1960s

Roaming Russian eagles leave scientists broke• Steppe eagles breed in southern Russia and Kazakhstan, and spend their winter in Africa and India

Moscow

Russian scientists track-ing migrating eagles were

forced to start a crowdfunding campaign after their birds wan-dered into Iran and foreign text messages from their tracking devices depleted the project’s budget.

Scientists rang the alarm ear-lier this month when several endangered steppe eagles trans-

mitting coordinates via Russian mobile numbers wandered into the roaming zone after spending the summer in an area without mobile coverage.

“These beasts were out of range in Kazakhstan all summer and now once they reached the super expensive Iran and Paki-stan, they are spewing out hun-dreds of text messages with their locations,” wrote Igor Karyakin of the Russian Raptors Research and Conservation Network.

Scientists this week launched a campaign called “Top up the eagle’s mobile” to keep the re-search going with the public’s help after taking out a loan to pay for the text messages costing 49 rubles each ($0.77) instead of the usual price of 2 to 15 rubles.

“They really left us penniless, we had to take out a loan to feed the tracker device,” Karyakin wrote Friday. Bird lovers, how-ever, have already contributed enough to last through the year.

“People are still sending mon-ey so there is hope we can keep the eagle sim cards running until they come back from their fara-way journeys in early summer to Russia, where mobile connectiv-ity is not so expensive,” he wrote.

Steppe eagles breed in south-ern Russia and Kazakhstan, and spend their winter in Africa and India. They have experienced rapid decline due to the spread of farming land across their ter-ritory and are vulnerable to wind turbines, according to Bird Life International.

Pakistan court frees ex-PM Sharif for medical treatmentAP | Lahore, Pakistan

A top Pakistani court yes-terday ordered convicted

former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif released on bail so he can seek medical treatment at home or abroad, his family and a defense lawyer said.

The decision was announced by the Lahore High Court after hearing a petition from Sharif ’s brother, Shahbaz Sharif, who heads the main opposition Paki-stan Muslim League party.

But it doesn’t mean that the former premier will automat-ically be freed as he faces an-other appeal hearing for bail next week.

Nawaz Sharif was rushed from prison to the government hospital in Lahore on Monday, after his health condition was

said to have deteriorated. He has remained there under su-pervision of prison authorities.

The 69-year-old Sharif, who served three times as prime minister, has had a history of

health problems, including heart disease.

His lawyer Ashtar Ausaf said court authorities cannot release Sharif immediately until they hear a separate appeal set for next Tuesday. That hearing per-tains to the second corruption conviction against Sharif, he added.

When Sharif was taken to hospital on Monday, his doc-tors initially believed he had contracted dengue fever, which is rampant across Pakistan. But later medical tests concluded that his immune system mal-functioned, which was the reason for a concerningly low platelet count.

Panicked over his deterio-rating health, Sharif ’s family petitioned the court in Lahore, requesting his release.

Pakistani former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrives at a court in Lahore, Pakistan

06 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2019

society

With an objective to contribute to the society as responsible global citizens, the students of New Millennium School-DPS undertook a charity drive by donating an amount of BD 300 to the Batelco ‘ Child Care Home’. The fund was raised through NMMUN (New Millennium Model United Nations Conference, 2019). The New Millennium School is the first CBSE School in the island, to host an International Model United Nations for two days, in which over 250 delegates from various schools across Bahrain participate every year.

Fourteen passionate and daring riders belonging to the Pleasure Riders and Desi Riders team hailing from four nationalities (Bahrani, US, India and Pakistan) took off for a 4,000-plus km ride rolling their wheels across four borders. The mission of riding 1009-km in one day was a beautiful 7 days dream come true. They had started off on 11.10.2019 and rode till 17.10.19. Heading the team were captains Umesh and Abid.

The New Millennium School, DPS Bahrain, wore a festive look as the students celebrated the festival of lights, Diwali. The significance of the day was brought out in a special assembly by skit, songs and speeches. Various activities such as Diya Decoration, Diya Painting and Diwali Card Making were organized. Chairman Dr Ravi Pillai, Managing Director Mrs Geetha Pillai and Principal, Arun Kuumar Sharma shared festive wishes with the staff, parents and the students and encouraged them to observe an eco-friendly and a safe Diwali.

Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al Mutawa, Minister of Cabinet Affairs recognised Dr Jassim Haji, President Artificial Intelligence Society during 5th Government’s Excellence Award, which was held at Grove Hotel- Alamwaj with several participants from the public and private sectors.

The Rotary club of Sulmaniya held its regular lunch meeting at the Golden Tulip Hotel. To support Rotary International’s World Polio Day, the invited guest speaker was Dr Mariam Al Hejari Assistant Undersecretary for Public Health to update the members on the status of Polio in Bahrain. She mentioned how the ministry is combating the disease by educating people. The Rotary International has created a hashtags #endpolio and #worldpolioday in order to raise awareness of how close we are to eradicate the disease.


society

With an objective to contribute to the society as responsible global citizens, the students of New Millennium School-DPS undertook a charity drive by donating an amount of BD 300 to the Batelco ‘ Child Care Home’. The fund was raised through NMMUN (New Millennium Model United Nations Conference, 2019). The New Millennium School is the first CBSE School in the island, to host an International Model United Nations for two days, in which over 250 delegates from various schools across Bahrain participate every year.



Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al Mutawa, Minister of Cabinet Affairs recognised Dr Jassim Haji, President Artificial Intelligence Society during 5th Government’s Excellence Award, which was held at Grove Hotel- Alamwaj with several participants from the public and private sectors.


07

society



Indian Social Forum in association with Middle East Traders held a blood donation camp at Salmaniya Hospital as part of a month-long “Happy Family Healthy Bahrain” program. More than a hundred expatriates donated their blood during the campaign. The event was officially inaugurated by Dr Sawsan Kamal, Member of Parliament for Manama.

Al Rashid Group, in cooperation with the Royal Charity Organization, launched a donation campaign during their “Shukran Ramadan” initiative. Throughout Bahrain, Shukran members donated Shukran points earned from their purchases to support and make a difference in the lives of those in need. The Shukran Loyalty Programme is the largest loyalty programme in the Middle East that rewards customers when shopping at Al Rashid Group brands as well as other partner brands.



08

business


Pilots can make mistakes -- they’re

human, but the root of the problem is the

design

GERRY SOEJATMAN

JAKARTA-BASED AVIATION ANALYST

Boeing design flaw a factor in Lion Air crash• Pilots in both planes had struggled to control as the jets careered downwards

• 737 MAX pilots were not properly briefed on how to handle a malfunction

Jakarta

A design flaw, inadequate pilot training and poor flight crew performance

contributed to a Boeing jet crashing in Indonesia last year, killing all 189 people on board, investigators said yesterday, in what one aviation analyst called a “damning” report.

The Lion Air disaster was fol-lowed months later by a second crash -- involving the same mod-el of aircraft -- when an Ethio-pian Airlines plane went down with 157 people aboard, leading to the global grounding of Boe-ing’s entire 737 MAX fleet.

The crashes threw a spotlight on the MAX model’s Manoeu-vring Characteristics Augmen-tation System (MCAS), an an-ti-stall mechanism, that pilots in both planes had struggled to control as the jets careered downwards.

On Friday, Indonesia’s Nation-al Transportation Safety Com-mittee said Boeing’s design of the anti-stall system and its cer-tification by US regulators was “inadequate”.

The MCAS was vulnerable to a single sensor that it relied on for inputs, and 737 MAX pilots were not properly briefed on how to handle a malfunction, it said in

its final report on the crash.“The aircraft flight manual

and flight crew training did not include information about MCAS,” it said.

A sensor on the doomed jet’s system was “miscalibrated” and the problem wasn’t caught by Lion Air maintenance crews, it said, after the plane’s previous flight also experienced loss-of-control problems.

The emergency was not “ef-fectively managed” by the crew, who had previous performance issues, it added.

‘Heartfelt condolences’

An earlier report released by international regulators said the US Federal Aviation Administra-tion (FAA) lacked the manpower and expertise to fully evaluate the jet’s MCAS when it certified the plane.

Yesterday’s report comes after Boeing -- facing scores of law-suits -- replaced the chief of its commercial plane division this week, the most significant ex-ecutive departure since the 737 MAX grounding plunged it into

crisis seven months ago.Boeing has faced fresh scru-

tiny following the revelation of text messages from 2016 in which a test pilot described the MCAS during a simulation as “running rampant” and behav-ing in an “egregious” manner.

On Friday, Boeing expressed “heartfelt condolences” to vic-tims’ families, and said it had since fixed the flight-control system’s software.

“These software changes will prevent the flight control con-ditions that occurred in this

accident from ever happen-ing again,” Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement.

NTSC chairman Soerjanto Tjahjono told reporters Friday that all the factors it highlighted were “interrelated” in explain-ing why the crash happened.

But aviation analysts said much of the blame traces back to Boeing.

“What the Indonesians have written here is damning,” said Stephen Wright, professor of aircraft systems at Finland’s Tampere University.

“(Lion staff ) were doing their job based on the informa-tion that they’ve been given ... Everything points back to the manufacturer and how it (MCAS) was approved,” he added.

Another expert said the air-craft’s design problems trumped all else.

“Pilots can make mistakes -- they’re human, but the root of the problem is the design,” said Jakarta-based aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman.

“The MCAS was created to be able to react based on a single input only, via one computer,

(and) there was no cross-check-ing system to confirm whether or not the input was accurate. That’s the issue.”

‘My only son’Lion Air, Southeast Asia’s big-

gest carrier by fleet size, said Friday’s report was “essential to determine the root cause and contributing factors to the acci-dent and take immediate correc-tive actions”.

The FAA said it the ground-ed single-aisle jet would only return to service only after it determined the model is safe.

After receiving a briefing on the report this week ahead of its public release, some of the victims’ relatives expressed dis-appointment.

“However, we’ve got no choice but to accept the re-port,” said Epi Syamsul Qomar, who lost his son, after fami-lies met with investigators in Jakarta.

“People keep telling me to let go, to stay strong, but how do I do that? It’s not that easy. He was my only son and I miss him every day.”

Indonesian carrier Lion Air is Southeast Asia’s biggest carrier by fleet size

Indonesian investigators speak during a news conference on the release of the final report into the 2018 crash of a Boeing 737 Max jet operated by Lion Air, that killed 189 people, in Jakarta, Indonesia

The October 29 Boeing crash was followed just months later by a second -- involving the same model -- in Ethiopia

Pound retreats as Johnson seeks election to deliver Brexit

• EU ambassadors postponed until next week a decision on how long to delay Britain’s exit from the bloc

London

The British pound dropped against the dollar and euro

on Friday, as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson sought to force through Brexit with the help of an early general election.

EU ambassadors on Friday meanwhile postponed until next week a decision on how long to delay Britain’s exit from the bloc.

Around 1330 GMT, sterling was down at $1.2820, while the euro climbed to 86.59 pence.

Earlier this week, the pound broke $1.30 for the first time in five months on optimism that a no-deal Brexit would be avoid-ed.

Elsewhere on Friday, Euro-pean stock markets dropped after a mixed showing in Asia, as traders digested another batch of global corporate earnings.

In foreign exchange, “the lat-

est political twist keeping ster-ling under pressure has a touch of surrealism about it”, noted Ricardo Evangelista, senior an-alyst at ActivTrades.

“There is an absurdity about the situation and the markets are reacting by once again walk-ing away from the pound.”

With Johnson giving up on a pledge for Britain to leave the EU by October 31, the prime minister has said his wish is now for a general election on

December 12.Should it be held and his Con-

servative party win, analysts see parliament finally approving his Brexit deal.

But opposition MPs are reluc-tant to agree to Johnson’s poll demand unless they can be cer-tain Brexit has been postponed beyond Halloween and that the UK will be spared a no-deal di-vorce from the European Union.

But some EU members, nota-bly France, oppose granting an

extension until January 31, as requested by the UK parliament.

They instead want a shorter delay unless Britain can show it is organising a general elec-tion that could clarify its Brexit position.

US-China tradeAway from the Brexit saga,

investors awaited the latest developments in the China-US trade talks.

Optimism that the two eco-nomic superpowers would hammer out details for a mini agreement by next month have helped support equities this week.

There remain concerns however that the talks could be derailed at the last minute, with the passage of a US bill defending civil rights in Hong Kong the latest bump in the road.

Adding to the mix were com-ments from Vice President Mike Pence, who vowed support for Hong Kong pro-democracy pro-testers and hit out at China’s trading behaviour.

Wall Street opened lower on Friday, with the Dow dipping 0.1 per cent in the first minute of trading.

Key figures around 1330 GMTPound/dollar: q at $1.2820 from $1.2851

Euro/pound: p at 86.59 pence from 86.41 pence

Dollar/yen: q at 108.57 yen from 108.61 yen

Euro/dollar: q at $1.1100 from $1.1104

London - FTSE 100: q 0.6 pc at 7,288.08 points

Frankfurt - DAX 30: q 0.2 pc at 12,851.75

Paris - CAC 40: p 0.1 pc at 5,691.82

EURO STOXX 50: q 0.3 pc at 3,612.01

New York - Dow: q 0.1 pc at 26,768.46

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: p 0.2 pc at 22,799.81 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: q 0.5 pc at 26,667.39 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: p 0.5 pc at 2,954.93 (close)

Brent North Sea crude: q 0.2 pc at $61.54 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: q 0.3 pc at $56.06 per barrel

Philippines loses bid to recover millions from estate of Marcos

Manila

The Philippine government has lost a decades-old legal

effort to seize millions of dol-lars from the estate of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, a court said yesterday, accusing state prosecutors of failing to produce admissible evidence.

Lawyers had submitted “de-fective” evidence consisting mostly of poor-quality photo-copies, some of which were no longer readable, Justice Alex Quiroz of a special anti-graft court said in a release of the October 14 decision.

The ruling was another blow to efforts to recover the late dictator’s alleged ill-gotten

wealth after the court also ruled in favour of Marcos’s estate on another multi-mil-lion-dollar case in September.

After a bloodless “people power” revolt chased Marcos into US exile in 1986, the Phil-ippines launched a global bid to recover at least $10 billion in assets that the Marcoses and their cronies acquired using funds allegedly stolen from state coffers over his 20-year rule.

It has recovered 172.6 billion pesos ($3.4 billion at current market rates) so far, accord-ing to the government agency tasked with tracking down the assets. About a dozen forfei-ture cases against the Marcos-es have yet to be resolved.

A revolt chased Ferdinand Marcos (L) into exile in 1986


Jaguar Land Rover has improved its performance this

quarter and delivered a well-rounded

performance. In particular, the

improvement in China on the back of better

operational metrics is reassuring

TATA MOTORS

China is willing to import more high-quality goods and high value-added goods from Brazil that meet Chinese

market needsXI JINPING

China demand for Jaguar Land Rover contains Tata losses• Maruti Suzuki on Thursday reported a 39.4 percent fall in its quarterly profits

Mumbai

Indian automaker Tata Motors reported yesterday narrowed

losses as growing demand in China for Jaguar Land Rover offset dire conditions in its home market, beating analyst predic-tions.

The company which owns Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) lost 2.17 billion rupees ($30.6 million) in the three months to September, down from a loss of 10.49 bil-lion rupees in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenues dipped by nine per-cent. The heavily indebted com-pany has now suffered losses in

five of the last six quarters. In the June-ended quarter, it had lost 36.99 billion rupees.

“Jaguar Land Rover has improved its performance

this quarter and delivered a well-rounded performance. In particular, the improvement in China on the back of better op-erational metrics is reassuring,”

Tata Motors said.Tata said its British arm JLR

reported a pre-tax profit of 156 million pounds ($200 million) and sold 134,489 units, up by 2.9

per cent.Tata shares had spiked almost

15pc last week on hopes of an orderly British exit from the Eu-ropean Union. Britain, the EU and China are JLR’s key markets.

But with India’s automobile sales down for the 11th-straight month in September, chief ex-ecutive Guenter Butschek said the entire domestic industry was suffering.

“Growth continues to be im-pacted by subdued growth, high-er capacity from the new axle load norms, liquidity stress, low freight availability, weak con-sumer sentiment and general economic slowdown,” Butschek said.

Maruti Suzuki on Thurs-day reported a 39.4pc fall in its quarterly profits and a 24.3pc plunge in revenues despite slashing prices for several models.

On Wednesday, India’s Bajaj Auto reported a jump in its quar-terly profits but its revenues fell by four percent.

Shares of Tata Motors were down almost five percent in Mumbai as markets closed.

Chinese demand for Jaguar Land Rover cars helped contain losses at parent Tata Motors

Future deliveryJapanese trucks designed with no cabin and interchangeable cargo holds

Reuters | Tokyo

In Japan, trucks are being designed for a driverless future with no cabin and interchangeable container areas that would

allow vehicles to be highly customised for parcel delivery or even serve as mini-hotels or beauty salons.

At the Tokyo Motor Show this week, Hino Motors, the truckmaking arm of Toyota Motor Corp, showcased the futur-istic “Flatformer”, which had no driver’s cabin and where the low-riding bed is fixed but the cargo or container section can be swapped out.

On display was a concept battery-electric model with a cargo hold divvied up into stacked storage boxes that would help parcel delivery companies to sort, load and deliver goods more efficiently.

“The idea is to produce a standardized truck bed upon which customers can customise according to the services they offer,” said Atsuyuki Hanazawa, manager of the design division at Hino’s future projects group.

Explosive growth in online shopping and increased demand for same-day deliveries have heaped pressure on courier com-panies and their drivers - particularly in Japan where the sector has borne the brunt of a worsening labour shortage.

In 2016, video footage of a courier in Japan kicking and toss-ing parcels in apparent frustration due to overwork went viral, sparking widespread public criticism.

Toyota’s minivehicle brand Daihatsu also showed off its “Tsu-mu Tsumu” model with a removable cargo hold - one that can be adapted to suit the needs of farmers transporting vegetable harvests, or as a food truck, or for businesses that need to deliver food to restaurants.

Such flexibility may be critical for the future of minitrucks in Japan, given that the number of farmers - a core customer base for Daihatsu’s no-frills, affordable vehicles - is dwindling as the country ages rapidly.

“The needs of people who use minitrucks are changing, so we need to start thinking about products beyond what we’ve been offering and which enable multi-functionality,” said Daihatsu designer Osamu Iwanami.

While production versions of the Hino and Daihatsu models are likely years away, Toyota has also said it is developing pro-duction models of “e-Palette” shuttle bus-sized, self-driving multi-purpose vehicles that can be used, for instance, as mobile restaurants or offices.

Hino delivery truck “Flatformer” is seen in Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan

Xi, Bolsonaro plan increased trade amid US trade warAFP | Beijing

China said yesterday it would increase its trade with Brazil, as it seeks to

balance the impact of a protract-ed trade war with the US.

President Xi Jinping and Bra-zil’s President Jair Bolsonaro reaffirmed ties on Friday during the Brazilian leader’s first offi-cial visit to China.

“China is willing to import more high-quality goods and high value-added goods from Brazil that meet Chinese mar-ket needs,” said state-run CCTV, quoting Xi.

Brazil and China expect to “promote the diversified growth of bilateral agricultural product exports” through agreements between the customs and agri-culture authorities of the two countries, according to a joint statement by Xi and Bolsonaro.

China is already Brazil’s larg-est trading partner for both exports and imports, accord-ing to data from Brazil’s trade

ministry.With a trade war raging be-

tween Washington and Beijing, China’s imports of US farm goods fell from $19.5 billion in 2017 to just over $9 billion last year, creating a shortfall be-tween supply and demand for key products like soy.

Brazil is already China’s

biggest source of soy imports, according to agriculture data provider Trase.

Brazilian and Chinese leaders emphasised continued cooper-ation between emerging econ-omies in the face of protection-ism worldwide.

“The world is facing serious challenges from unilateralism

and protectionism, putting pres-sure on major economies as un-certainty and instability are on the rise,” Chinese vice premier Hu Chunhua said at a morning business forum attended by Bol-sonaro, who also met with Pre-mier Li Keqiang later in the day.

“China and Brazil, as two ma-jor economies, should increase communication and coopera-tion to face these challenges and realize shared development,” Hu said.

President Xi Jinping (L with Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro) said China was looking to increase trade with Brazil

Samsung scion faces new bribery trialSeoul

The heir to the Samsung em-pire arrived at court Friday

for a retrial over a sprawling corruption scandal that threat-ens to disrupt management at the world’s biggest smartphone and memory chip maker.

Lee Jae-yong is vice-chair-man of Samsung Electronics -- where profits have been falling for months -- and was jailed for five years in 2017 for brib-ery, embezzlement and other offences in connection with the scandal that brought down South Korean president Park Geun-hye.

The 51-year-old was released a year later after an appeals court dismissed most of his bribery convictions and gave him a suspended sentence, but that decision was set aside by the Supreme Court in August, which ordered a retrial.

Accompanied by his lawyers,

Lee walked stony-faced into the Seoul High Court for the new proceedings, only telling report-ers: “I’m sorry for causing many people concern. I apologise.”

The case centres on millions of dollars the Samsung group paid Park’s secret confidante Choi Soon-sil, allegedly for gov-ernment favours such as ensur-

ing a smooth transition for Lee to succeed his ailing father.

The scandal highlighted shady links between big busi-ness and politics in South Ko-rea, with the ousted president and her friend accused of taking bribes from corporate bigwigs in exchange for preferential treatment.

The two women were both convicted and given dec-ades-long jail sentences, and are due to face separate retrials of their own.

But the Supreme Court’s de-cision does not bode well for Lee, as it ruled that 8.6 billion won ($7.3 million) paid by Sam-sung should be considered as bribes.

“A bribery case exceeding 5 billion won is not eligible for a suspended jail term,” independ-ent attorney Shin Jang-sik said. “I think he is likely to return to prison.”

Lee has effectively been at the helm of the sprawling Samsung group since his father and group chairman Lee Kun-hee was left bedridden by a heart attack in 2014. Both Lee’s father and grandfather -- Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull -- had brushes with the law themselves but never served time behind bars.

Samsung’s overall turnover is equivalent to a fifth of the national gross domestic product


New Delhi

Sportswear brand Reebok and American supermodel Gigi Hadid have unveiled

the second chapter in their de-sign partnership with their new collection, which is available now.

The Fall/Winter Reebok x Gigi Hadid range of new ap-parel and footwear silhouettes fuse Reebok’s heritage with Gigi’s childhood memories of spending time outdoors.

Reflecting Gigi’s love for the outdoors, a colour palette of desert khaki and sky blue dominate alongside timeless white and black.

“The model’s fearless at-titude and boundless energy comes from her experience as a nationally ranked horse-back rider and captain of her school volleyball team. With this collection Gigi encourages individuals to make their own adventures and embrace the

wild, wherever that may be,” Reebok has said in

a statement.

Kangana celebrates Diwali with ‘Thalaivi’ team in L.A.

Los Angeles

It’s Diwali time and actress Kangana Ranaut seems to be in full festive spir-

it. She is currently in Los Angeles to prepare for her upcoming film “Thalai-vi”, which is based on the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa.

Amidst her work sched-ule, Kangana took out some time and held a little Diwali bash with the film’s team.

A few pictures and videos were posted on Kanga-

na’s official Instagram handle, which is managed by

her team.In the video,

Kangana is seen having dinner with her sister Rangoli and the “Thalaivi’’ team and also had a small anarka-li firecracker placed on the table to cele-

brate Diwali.“Diwali came

early for Kangana as she preps for T h a l a i v i i n L.A,” the cap-tion read.

Disha Patani commences shooting for Ekta Kapoor’s

“KTina’’Mumbai

Actress Disha Patani has been roped in for producer Ekta Kapoor’s new project titled

“KTina”.Ekta on Friday took to Instagram

and announced the news among the netizens.

“KTINA ka sab ko “JAI MATA DI’’ ! ( she used to be TINA ab KTINA as K

suits her ...her Astro said )but yaaaar who wears so many rings? Disha As never before

#favscript #shootbegins,” Ekta wrote.She also posted a photograph in which

Disha is seen wearing a lot of rings on her fingers.

Unconfirmed rumours suggest the film could bear shades of Ekta’s life. Disha will be playing the role of smalltown Punjabi girl.

Alia Bhatt’s nostalgic post for mom Soni on her birthday

Mumbai

Actress Soni Razdan turned a year older on

Friday, and her daughter Alia Bhatt posted a heartfelt post on social media to mark her special day.

“To the most inspiring, un-derstanding, beautiful, spe-cial/light soul that exists. I love you soo much mama.. thank you for being you and thank you for making me ?? Happy Birthday Mama,” Alia wrote on Instagram.

Along with it, the “Raazi” actress uploaded a throw-back picture in which baby Alia is seen sitting on the lap of Soni. Alia’s post has garnered a lot of comments and wishes, especially from the film fraternity.

Actress Dia Mirza com-mented: “ Happy birthday my darling, wonderful Soni Razdan. I love you.”

Did Selena just shield ex-beau Justin Bieber’s wife Hailey?

Los Angeles

Po p s t a r S e l e n a G o m e z

has posted an In-stagram Live video requesting fans to “stop tearing other women down”. The request comes in the wake of heavy trolling

that model Hailey Bieber has been facing ever

since Selena re-leased her new single “Lose you to love me”.

F o r t h e uninitiated, Selena’s latest song is being billed as heart-break pop. The number is be-lieved to have references to the stormy rela-tionship she once shared with Hai-

ley’s husband, pop star Justin Bieber.

The 27-year-old Selena had a blow hot, blow cold af-

fair with Justin from 2010 to 2017, after which the “Baby” hitmaker got together with Hailey, who is now his wife,

reports daily-mail.co.uk.

Although Sele-na sings with gusto

about how she was “re-placed” within just two months, widespread trolling of Hai-ley following the song’s release has now forced the pop star to defend the model.

Things wors-ened for Hailey when she re-vealed on social media that she has been listen-ing to Summer Walker’s song ti-tled “I’’ll kill you”. Selena fans took this to be Hailey’s hateful response to the “Lose you t o l o v e m e ” n u m b e r, t h e Daily Mail re-port added.

Deepika Padukone to play Draupadi in Madhu Mantena’s production Mahabharat

Mumbai

Mahabharat is set to be made from Drau-padi’s point of view,

and actress Deepika Padu-kone will play the central character. She has teamed up with producer Madhu Man-tena and will be producing the film too.

Deepika turned producer with Chhapaak, a film in-spired by the life of acid attack survivor, Laxmi Agarwal. Her second production, Mahab-harat, seen through the eyes of Draupadi, will be a fresh take on the mythological tale.

“I’m absolutely thrilled and honoured to be essaying the role of Draupadi. I truly be-lieve that it is the role of a life-time. While the Mahabharat is popularly known for its

mythological tales and cultur-al influence, many of life’s les-sons are also derived from the Mahabharat but most often from its men. Telling it with this fresh and new perspective will not only be interesting but also very significant,” Deepika said.

Here’s how Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez helped elementary school students

Los Angeles

Jennifer Lopez and fian-cee Alex Rodriguez did

something which will just melt your heart. The cou-ple donated a year’s worth of food to students at Jacks-boro Elementary School.

After the two saw a teach-er’s viral post about how one of her students often goes hungry, they quickly pitched in and donated to the school’s food pantry by contributing meals from their new compa-ny, Tiller & Hatch, reported People magazine.

Brooke Goins, the teacher at the school, first shared her student’s story in a Facebook post on October 2. In the post, she explained that she was teary-eyed after hear-ing that one of her students was out of food at home and needed some from school.

“Today I cried at work. Not because I hate my job, or that it is just too hard (it really is). Today I cried for a child, a child who so inno-cently talked about food, and the lack of it. He asked when the lady that puts food in his backpack was coming,” she wrote. “He told me he was out of it at home and needed more ... No kid should ever be hungry, ever.”

Anne Hathaway to be back with ‘Modern Love’ season two

Los Angeles

Anne Hathaway is sure to return with season of

two of her recently released romantic comedy series - ‘Modern Love’.

The first season which started streaming on Am-azon Prime on Friday is based on the popular New York Times column of the same name and explores the different sides of love, according to Deadline.

“Being given a green light to proceed with Modern Love is a great opportunity for us to continue to tell sto-ries of love, while opening up the series into new cities and worlds. The possibili-ties are truly endless,” The Hollywood Reporter quoted John Carney, the show’s ex-ecutive producer as saying in a statement.

Hinting a bit at what’s in store for the second season, Carney disclosed that it can branch out and dig deep into “what it means to love in this complicated world.”

Apart from Anne Hatha-way, ‘Modern Love’ had a cast including Tina Fey, Ju-lia Garner, Catherine Keen-er, Dev Patel, Andrew Scott, John Slattery, and Andy Garcia, among others.

Taylor Swift dedicates her 13 years in industry to fans

Los Angeles

Taylor Swift has become quite a common name and her songs echo around the globe! Well, this didn’t

happen overnight. As she turned 13 in the industry, the crooner put out the most beau-tiful message for her fans which is sure to make you go aww!

With around seven albums and numerous melodies, Swift seemed in adulation of her fans whom she credited with all the success and the “support” which helped her stay true!

“I said in an interview 13 years ago “I’m just hoping that I have a second album that does as well as the first and someday get to be a headliner and always be the same person that I started out as,” the singer began writing on Instagram.

She continued with a note of thanks for the fans who turned her into “a headliner”.

Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez

Alia Bhatt

Gigi Hadid

Justin Bieber

Selena Gomez

Anne Hathaway

Pepe rescues Arsenal as United eke out rare away win Celtic and Arsenal snatched last-gasp Europa League victories to move top of Group E and F respectively

• Pepe double rescues Arsenal after Vitoria Guimaraes threaten upset

• Anthony Martial on the spot to give Manchester United win in Belgrade

AFP | Paris

Nicolas Pepe came off the bench to rescue Arsenal at home against Vitoria

Guimaraes with two late free kicks in the Europa League on Thursday.

Arsenal came from behind to win 3-2 and stay perfect in Group F.

They are one of only two teams on nine points from three games, along with Sevilla, who beat Dudelange of Luxembourg 3-0 in Group A.

Manchester United are one of the teams on seven points and need just one more win to en-sure they qualify from Group L after eking out a 1-0 win against Partizan on an emotional day in Belgrade.

Celtic came from a goal down

to beat Lazio 2-1 in Glasgow and remain top of Group E. PSV Ein-dhoven were held 0-0 at home by Linz but still lead Group D

Rangers drew 1-1 in Por-to in Group G while Wolves beat Slovan 2-1 in Bratisla-va in Group K and both are in contention.

At the Emirates, Arsenal made 10 changes from the team that lost at Sheffield United on Mon-

day in the Premier League. For much of the match, they looked even worse.

Arsenal dominated possession but were outshot 14-11.

They made the worst possible start, falling behind after nine minutes to a goal by a former Tottenham player.

In the ninth minute, Mar-cus Edwards, once compared by Spurs manager Mauri-

cio Pochettino to a young Li-onel Messi, fired a shot under Emiliano Martinez.

Brazilian teenager Gabriel Martinelli replied with a head-er but Vitoria regained the lead before half time with a goal from Bruno Duarte.

With Arsenal’s young strikers struggling, Pepe, who had not yet scored a goal from open play for the Gunners, came on in the

64th minute.After 80 minutes he curled a

free kick inside the far post. He repeated the trick three minutes into added time to secure the victory.

“It’s important for Pepe,” said Arsenal manager Unai Emery of his big summer signing. “He can gain confidence from tonight. When he scores it’s good for him and the team.”

In Belgrade, Manchester Unit-ed held a ceremony to remem-ber the ‘Busby Babes’, and then won away for the first time since March

Anthony Martial scored the only goal with a penalty kick after 43 minutes, but the hosts had eight strikes on target to just three by United.

The game marked the re-turn to the ground where Matt Busby’s famous team of young-sters played their last game, a European Cup quarter-final against Red Star in February 1958.

Their plane crashed in Mu-nich on the way home and seven United players were among the 23 who died.

United had only played in Belgrade once since then, when they lost a European Cup semi-final to Partizan in 1966.

11

sports


Nicolas Pepe scores the Arsenal winner from a free-kick

Smith, Warner return to Aussie T20 side as World Cup loomsAFP | Sydney

Steve Smith and David Warn-er return to the short format

Sunday in the first of Australia’s three games against a buoyant Sri Lanka, with both tipped for next year’s Twenty20 World Cup at home.

The star batsmen were both banned for a year for their roles in a ball-tampering scandal but

have rejoined their coun-try’s Test, one-day and now T20 sides.

Despite their suc-cess in other formats, Australia have never won a T20 World Cup, with a 2010 final appearance their best show-

ing.The compe-

tition gets un-derway Down

Under next Octo-ber and selectors are banking on the same 14 picked to play Sri Lanka forming the bulk of their side.

“We have looked to put a squad together that we think can take us

through to that tournament,” said national selector Trevor Hohns.

“The squad we have select-ed is quite role specific and we believe it gives us the flex-ibility to thrive in all match conditions.”

Aaron Finch retains the captaincy, with Smith still barred from holding any lead-ership role until the end of March for his part on trying

to alter the ball with sand-paper in South Africa last year.

Australia will be heavily re-lying on the widely acclaimed batsman after his incredible exploits on his return to the game in the recent Ashes series against England.

Warner flopped in the those five Tests but is Australia’s high-est ever T20 run-scorer. He is set to open the innings with

Finch, before Smith comes in at first drop.

Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc spearhead the bowling attack, backed up by Andrew Tye, Kane Richardson and Billy Stanlake.

They will have their work cut out against a Sri Lankan side full of confidence after a stun-ning three-match T20 series sweep against Pakistan earlier this month.

David Warner (L) and Steve Smith (R) celebrate a wicket during a match (file photo)

India ‘moving on’ from Dhoni: chief selectorAFP | New Delhi

India’s chief selector has strongly hinted that Mahen-

dra Singh Dhoni’s illustrious international career is over, saying Thursday they were “moving on” and giving op-portunities to youngsters.

Ex-skipper and one-day stal-wart Dhoni has not played for India since the World Cup in July, triggering speculation that the 38-year-old warhorse might hang up his bat and gloves soon.

On Thursday he was left out of the national squad to take on Bangladesh in three Twenty20 internationals at home next month, and he played no part in South Africa’s recent tour.

The same day, selection committee chairman M.S.K. Prasad said they were back-ing youngsters such as Rish-abh Pant for the wicketkeep-er-batsman’s role.

“This is our clear thought process that post World Cup we are focusing on Rishabh Pant only,” he was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of In-dia news agency, in response to a question on Dhoni’s future.

“I made it very clear post the World Cup that we are moving on. We are giving opportuni-

ties to youngsters and see that they establish themselves in the side.”

Feted as a national hero for leading India to their 2011 World Cup triumph, Dhoni retired from Test cricket in 2014 with 4,876 runs from 90 matches.

Dhoni has been a mainstay of India’s one-day teams, mak-ing 10,773 runs from 350 ODIs, but his form dipped during this year’s World Cup when India were knocked out in the semi-finals.

Nicknamed “Captain Cool”, Dhoni led India across all three formats and is credited with infusing a fighting spirit in the squad.

Echoing current cap-tain Virat Kohli and the new head of the Indian cricket board Sourav Ganguly, Prasad said any decision to retire would purely be Dho-ni’s “personal call”.

“Everything is his personal decision. We have already laid the roadm-ap for the fu-ture in the way we are s e l e c t i n g teams.”

Proteas captain Du Plessis calls for coaching ‘clarity’AFP | Johannesburg

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said yester-

day that full-time appoint-ments concerning the na-tional team’s coaching staff and selectors needed to be made urgently.

Speaking on the team’s return from a three-Test trouncing in India, Du Plessis said uncertainty over key positions was “a massive red flag”.

Cricket South Africa fired coach Ottis Gibson, his back-up staff and the selectors after a poor World Cup campaign.

They announced a new structure headed by a di-rector of cricket and a team director.

Former one-day inter-national player Corrie van Zyl and 37-year-old Enoch Nkwe were appointed in an interim capacity, with Nkwe in charge of the team in India.

Du Plessis said he was committed to continuing as captain despite going through what he described as “the toughest period in my cricket journey”.

But he said his own posi-tion and those of the other key posts “needs to be re-solved as soon as possible”.

“The most important thing right now is clarity,” he said.

“Someone needs to make decisions, the director of cricket first and then filter down so everyone else can make decisions,” he added.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Wenger eyes return, misses ‘wet Wednesdays at Stoke’AFP | Tokyo

Former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is ready to return

to football management and resume battle with that stub-born coat zipper, claiming he misses “wet Wednesdays at Stoke”.

The Frenchman, who turned

70 earlier this week, ended his 22-year reign at Arsenal at the end of last season after cap-turing three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups with Gunners.

But during a visit to Tokyo, Wenger told AFP that absence had not diminished his pas-sion for the game and revealed

he has had “offers from all over the world” during his hiatus.

“I refused until now to come back because we had some fam-ily sickness problems,” he said in an interview.

“The offers always came in at a moment when I couldn’t real-ly do it or didn’t want to do it.”

Back injury forces Wawrinka out of Federer clash in BaselAFP | Basel, Switzerland

Stan Wawrinka was forced to withdraw from yester-

day’s Basel quarter-final show-down against best friend Roger Federer with a back injury, just an hour after struggling past America’s Frances Tiafoe in a gruelling second round

clash.“The bad news is

that I will have to re-tire,” the 34-year-old three-time Grand Slam winner said after his 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 win.

“I had some trou-ble with my back in

the last game. I’m sure I cannot make

it for tomorrow (Fri-day). I will pull out.”

Top seed Federer, chasing a 10th title at his hometown event, will receive a walkover into Saturday’s semi-finals.

It would have been the 27th meeting between the two Swiss teammates and Federer would have been the comfortable fa-

vourite boasting a 23-3 record over their 14-year rivalry.

Wawrinka stands in provi-sional 14th place in the points race to the year-end ATP Fi-nals and his chances of qual-ifying now look slim with just next week’s Paris Mas-ters to play on the regular schedule.

The struggle against Tiafoe, which lasted for two and a half hours and was decided by an 11-minute concluding game, had put Wawrinka into his fifth quarter-final at the Swiss tour-nament.

“I was fighting well, he was playing well, I expected a tough match,” Wawrinka said.

Wawrinka hammered 14 aces -- his last two in the penulti-mate game.

Tiafoe saved a Wawrinka match point with an ace of his own in the final game before the home favourite got the crowd on its feet with a backhand win-ner down the line to seal the success.

Both players hugged at the net, with Tiafoe receiving a standing ovation from the 9,000-strong crowd.

Endler-Trochu and Bartlett-Rook clinch doubles titles in ITF Juniors

TDT | Manama

Mark Owen Endler and Pablo Trochu, along with Aryana Bartlett

and Olivia Rook, were yesterday night crowned champions of their respective doubles catego-ries in the 11th Bahrain ITF Ten-nis Juniors Championship 2019 at Bahrain Tennis Club (BTC) in Juffair.

Endler from Germany and Trochu from France claimed the Boys’ Doubles title after defeat-ing the British pair of Alexander Knox Jones and Archie Graham 6-2, 6-4.

Earlier yesterday evening, Bartlett and Rook emerged as the Girls’ Doubles winners after overcoming fellow-Briton Issey Purser and her Indian partner Rhea Singh 6-3, 6-2.

Both pairings captured their maiden titles as duos in an ITF tournament.

They were awarded their respective trophies after both final matches by BTC Chair-man Khamis Al Muqla and BTC Vice-Chairman Mirza Al Sam-mak, in the presence of other club officials, players and guests.

Endler, meanwhile, kept his hopes alive for a championship double after booking his place in the Boys’ Singles final. There, he will face off with Knox Jones once again.

The Girls’ Doubles final will be contested between Stefania Bojica of Romania and Purser.

Both singles title matches will be held Saturday (Editor’s note: October 26) on the final day of the tournament. The girls’ fi-nal will kick off the action at

3pm, followed by the boys’ fi-nal at 5pm. Following both con-tests, the awards presentation and closing ceremony will take place. All are welcome to at-tend. Entrance to BTC is free of charge.

The 11th Bahrain ITF Tennis Juniors Championship 2019 is being held under the patronage of Deputy Prime Minister His Highness Shaikh Mohammed

bin Mubarak Al Khalifa. It has been organised in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs, the Bahrain Tennis Federation and the In-ternational Tennis Federation (ITF); and is being supported by Bahrain National Gas Com-pany, Bapco and Ebrahim K Kanoo.

The tournament is a part of the ITF World Tennis Tour Jun-

iors, and it continues the tradi-tion of BTC’s hosting world-class tennis championships each year.

In the Boys’ Doubles final, Endler and Trochu lived up to their billing as top seeds and overcame a tough fight from Knox Jones and Graham in a closely contested affair.

“Pablo is a really good play-er, we are very happy and re-lieved we won,” said 17-year-old

Endler. “Although we have not known each other very long, we won a tournament in Finland last year in Tennis Europe but this is our first win in the ITF and this is great.”

Trochu, 16, commented: “We have a good feeling on the court for one another and we had good confidence today. We were also more relaxed and that helped us get the win.”

In the Girls’ Doubles, 14-year-old Bartlett and 16-year-old Rook used their experience training together at university to help them defeat the tandem of Purser and Singh.

“The win was sort of unex-pected; this is our first ITF title together and it is the first time we’ve played together, so we feel very happy,” said Rook. “It’s been a tough week; we were both eliminated in the singles but we managed to keep it together in the doubles.”

Bartlett added: “We started the match really well and went 4-1 up. We then lost the next two games but recovered and pulled out the next two for the first set. Then, going 5-2 up in the second set from a deuce was a really key point. We just kept playing hard because we never know what can happen, and we’re just really happy to have won it in the end.”

In yesterday’s Boys’ Singles semis, fourth-seeded Endler got the better of eighth-seeded Gra-ham 6-3, 6-4 to book his ticket to the title contest. Endler is once again set to face off with Knox Jones, the Boys’ Singles fifth seed, who defeated countryman Daniel Abernethy 6-2, 6-1 to ad-vance to the finale.

In the Girls’ Singles, Bojica ended the inspirational run of Egyptian qualifier Mariam Atia. The Romanian lived up to her tag as second seed in a 6-1, 6-4 win. Purser followed suit and de-feated Jermine Sherif of Egypt, who was another qualifier to make it all the way through to the final four. Purser won their tough battle 6-3, 7-5.


Hon. Chairman Najeb Yacob Alhamer | Editor-in-Chief Mahmood AI Mahmood | Chairman & Managing Director P Unnikrishnan Advertisement: Update Media W.L.L | Tel: 38444692, Email: [email protected] | Newsroom: Tel: 38444680, Email: [email protected]

Subscription & circulation: Tel: 36458394 | Email:[email protected] | Website: www.newsofbahrain.com | Printed and published by Al Ayam Publishing

Winners and runner up with the officials of the event

Stan Wawrinka hits a return

Zinchenko, Rodri add to Man City’s defensive woesAFP | Manchester

Manchester City’s thread-bare defensive resources

were dealt another blow yester-day as Pep Guardiola confirmed Oleksandr Zinchenko and Rod-ri are set to miss the next few weeks.

Left-back Zinchenko has undergone minor surgery on a knee problem and could be sidelined for up to six weeks.

“He had a contact with a knee. He felt something in the bone and has to stop,” said Guardiola.

“He had something to clean up the knee. It was not a big issue. Five or six weeks.”

Spanish international Rodri is a defensive midfielder by trade,

but had been used by Guardiola at centre-back against Crystal Palace last weekend and before hobbling off with a hamstring injury early on in Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Atalanta.

“They told me after the (November) international break maybe he will be ready again.”

Both players are set to miss the crucial trip to Liverpool in the Premier League on Novem-ber 10 plus the visits of Aston Villa and Southampton to the Etihad.

City are already short of de-fensive cover with centre-back Aymeric Laporte sidelined until 2020.

England international John

Stones made his comeback from injury with two substitute appearanc-es over the past week and Guardiola defend-ed his decision to leave the centre-back on the bench to play convert-ed midfielders Fer-nandinho and Rodri at the heart of his defence.

“It’s not about the first choice, it’s about being fit,” added Guardi-ola. “He has h a d m a n y i n j u r i e s . That ’s why he couldn’t play.”

Oleksandr Zinchenko

Boys’ Doubles Finals1-M O Endler (GER)/P Trochu (FRA) bt 3-A Graham (GBR)/A K Jones (GBR) 6-2, 6-4

Boys’ Singles Semi-Finals4-Mark Owen Endler (GER) bt 8-Archie Graham (GBR) 6-3, 6-45-Alexander Knox Jones (GBR) bt Daniel Abernethy (GBR) 6-2, 6-1

Girls’ Doubles FinalsA Bartlett (GBR)/O Rook (GBR) bt I Purser (GBR)/R Singh (IND) 6-3, 6-2

Girls’ Singles Semi-Finals2-Stefania Bojica (ROU) bt Mariam Atia (EGY) 6-1, 6-4Issey Purser (GBR) bt Jermine Sherif (EGY) 6-3, 7-5

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