GCC leaders seek greater security and stability - Gulf Times

In brief

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QATAR

since 1978WEDNESDAY Vol. XXXVII No. 10295

December 7, 2016Rabia I 8, 1438 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

BUSINESS | Page 1

Malaysia eyeing Qatarinvestment for LangkawiIsland tourism growth

SPORT | Page 1

Lekhwiya beat Jaish 2-1, cut lead at top to one point

QATAR

REGION

ARAB WORLD

INTERNATIONAL

COMMENT

BUSINESS

CLASSIFIED

SPORTS

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1–6, 12-16

7-11

1 – 12

4-13, 31, 32

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INDEX

QATAR | Services

Passports departmentsto work in two shift sThe Ministry of Interior (MoI) has announced that the General Directorate of Passports and all its departments at the headquarters and service centres will work in two shifts on all working days (Sunday to Thursday) . The timings are: 6am to 1pm in the morning and from 1pm to 6pm in the evening. In a press statement yesterday, the MoI stressed that the decision was in line with measures undertaken by it to simplify the procedures for availing of the services and to save time and eff ort.

QATAR | Milestone

Viaducts across elevatedMetro sections completeThe Qatar Rail has announced the completion of all viaducts across the elevated sections of Doha Metro Project. At a meeting on Sunday, Minister of Transport and Communications and Vice Chairman of the Rail Steering Committee HE Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti, Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Qatar Rail Abdulla Abdulaziz al-Subaie, CEO of Qatar Rail Saad Ahmed al-Muhannadi along with Project Directors and employees gathered to mark the occasion. Page 4

QATAR | Tourism

Souq Waqif hopes forboost from cruise shipsSeveral restaurants, coff ee shops and other retail outlets at Souq Waqif are expected to get a fillip from cruise tourism with more passengers opting for a city tour. With 32 ships carrying more than 50,000 passengers expected to dock at Doha Port this 2016/2017 cruise season, Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) hopes to attract more foreign visitors to further boost the country’s hospitality and retail sectors. Page 31

GCC leaders seek greatersecurity and stability

Qatar to spend QR46bn on major projects in 2017By Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter

Qatar expects its economy to grow 3.4% in 2017 and plans investment up to QR46bn in

major infrastructure projects as part of strategy to achieve sustainable devel-opment and economic diversifi cation, according to a top government offi cial.

“Qatar is forecast to reach an annual growth rate of 3.4% in 2017, which is the highest forecast growth in the GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council),” Finance Minister HE Ali Sherif al-Emadi told Euromoney conference, quoting the estimates of the International Mon-etary Fund (IMF).

Several measures, including effi -ciency enhancement in public spend-ing, the fi nancial sector growth and higher contribution of the private sec-tor, would make Qatar achieve such a high growth, he said.

He also highlighted that the non-oil sector achieved a growth rate of 5.8% this year, demonstrating the success of

the country’s diversifi cation strategy.The fi nance minister stressed that

the 2016 budget reinforces Qatar’s confi dence for the future, with dedi-cated investment in healthcare, edu-cation and transportation – along with investment in infrastructure for the 2022 FIFA World Cup – all likely to have a “positive” eff ect on the national economy.

“The total budget committed for the development of key strategic meg-aprojects stands at QR374bn, with a further QR46bn set to be invested in 2017,” he said.

Moreover, infl ation is kept under control through constant co-ordina-tion between the fi nancial and mon-etary policies to provide more support for the business environment and in-vestments in the country, al-Emadi said.

He said signifi cant recent regulatory reforms, such as the enhancements made to the sovereign tender and pro-curement process to improve trans-parency and encourage small business participation, were key steps to en-

hance economic diversifi cation.Ali Ahmed al-Kuwari, QNB group

chief executive, said a current account surplus of 4.1% of GDP (gross domes-tic product) in 2016 and the top invest-ment grades received from all major ratings agencies were evidences of the country’s sustained economic per-formance.

Stressing that the strength of Qa-tar’s economy is refl ected by the posi-tion of its largest bank, he said “we set ourselves the target of being number one in all key metrics – assets, profi t-ability and revenue – across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) banking sector by 2017, and I’m pleased and proud to say we have achieved that goal one year early in 2016.”

Renowned economist George Mag-nus said while the underlying econom-ic picture was net positive, political factors is likely to increase uncertainty and instability into 2017 and beyond.

Referring to the slowdown in growth in world trade since the 2008 fi nancial crisis, he said “this no longer looked like a cyclical slowdown but rather a

structural change that was likely to be exacerbated if the new US administra-tion pushed forward trade barriers.”

China’s high credit growth and in-creased credit gap – in terms of debt as a percentage of GDP – as a potential risk for the future, according to him.

Acknowledging the challenges fac-ing developed economies in 2017, al-Emadi suggested that global fi nancial policies need to be aligned to deliver sustained growth.

Hafez Ghanem, vice president (Mena), The World Bank, outlined some of the economic challenges likely to affect stability in the re-gion.

“We can see that the Mena region has the world’s highest level of youth unemployment and particularly un-employment for the more educated section of young people, which is an urgent issue that needs to be ad-dressed,” he said.

QNAManama

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani participated along with the leaders of the

Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries in the opening session of 37th GCC Supreme Council summit yesterday evening at Sakhir Palace in Manama, Bahrain.

HH Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, Personal Representative of HH the Emir, and members of the offi cial delegation accompanying the Emir also attended the session.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia stressed that the current circumstances in the re-gion are highly complicated and obvi-ous to everyone as well as the crises it was facing, “requiring all of us to work together to confront and deal with them in a spirit of responsibility and determination and intensify eff orts in order to consolidate the foundations of security and stability of our region as well as development and prosperity for our countries and peoples.”

In his speech before the opening of the GCC Supreme Council 37th ses-sion in Manama, the Saudi king said that despite the important achieve-ments implemented by the GCC, “We gear forward to better future that guarantees the aspirations of the GCC citizens towards more prosperity and dignifi ed living, enhances the march of the GCC at the regional and inter-national arenas through active foreign

policies to achieve security and stabil-ity in the region and supports regional and international peace.”

He expressed satisfaction for what has been achieved by the competent agencies of the GCC council over the past year in accordance with mecha-nisms adopted by the council which aim to raise the level of co-operation

and co-ordination, including the de-cision of establishing the Economic and Development Aff airs Commission which began its work recently to pro-mote joint action in the economic and development fi elds.

King Salman said that the sad situ-ation being suffered by some Arab countries, characterised by terror-

ism, domestic struggle and blood-shed, is an imperative result of the alliance of terrorism, sectarianism and flagrant interference, leading to their destabilisation and breach of security.

King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifah of the Kingdom of Bahrain said that the GCC became an important plat-form seeking to enhance regional and international security and stability through active political initiatives of the regional conflicts and prevention of foreign interference in its internal affairs.

In his speech before the session, the Bahraini king added that the summit comes amid unprecedented political and economic events facing the whole world, which requires the highest lev-els of co-operation and integration among the GCC states.

He hailed the landmark strides of the council, which is not just a tool to consolidate achievements, as it gained leverage and morphed into a regional milestone that takes the initiative to maintain security and peace in the re-gion and the world.

The Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah said the GCC summit comes amid rapid internation-al changes and critical conditions that necessitate continuing consultations and co-ordination to consider and preclude relevant refl ections on the GCC countries.

Addressing the summit, the emir of Kuwait said that the region is currently faced with grave challenges, where on the economic front, dwindling oil pric-es are a major concern. Page 14

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani participates in the opening session of 37th GCC Supreme Council summit in Manama, Bahrain, yesterday.

Qatar callsfor IAEAsafeguards for MideastN-facilities

Sports investmentto promote peace

QNAVienna

Qatar has called for urgent im-plementation of the resolu-tions of international legitima-

cy on subjecting all nuclear facilities in the Middle East to the comprehensive IAEA safeguards, as an essential step for the establishment of a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, which enhances the eff ectiveness of the NPT and bolsters nuclear security in world-wide.

This came in a statement of the State of Qatar at the International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Security in Vienna delivered by HE Dr Ahmed Hassan al-Hammadi, Secretary-General of the Foreign Ministry and the Governor of Qatar to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

HE Dr al-Hammadi, noted that “The State of Qatar, like the other Middle East countries, is alarmed by the presence of nuclear activi-ties in our region which are not in-tended for peaceful purposes, and bothered about the grave conse-quences that threaten international peace and security by the presence of these activities, it calls on the inter-national community for the urgent implementation of the resolutions of international legitimacy for subject-ing all facilities nuclear in the Mid-dle East to the comprehensive IAEA safeguards.”

He expressed the hope that the con-ference discussions would crystallise international convictions and co-operation to promote the nuclear se-curity, and give a strong boost to joint international action in other areas to realise peace, security, economic well-being for all peoples.

Qatar has reaff irmed to continue its eff orts in the sports investment by creating an environment of understanding, in order to promote co-operation, solidarity and peace at the national, regional and international levels. This came in a statement delivered by Afra Ghanem al-Saleh, a member of the Qatari delegation participating in the 71st session of the UN General Assembly on the item plenary session (11) on “Sport for development and peace.”

HE Ali Sherif al-Emadi, right, Ali Ahmed al-Kuwari

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani is being greeted by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifah of Bahrain on arrival in Manama yesterday.

QATAR

Gulf Times Wednesday, December 7, 20164

Viaducts across elevatedMetro stations completeThe Qatar Rail has an-

nounced the comple-tion of all viaducts

across the elevated sections of Doha Metro Project.

At a meeting on Sunday, Minister of Transport and Communications and Vice Chairman of the Rail Steering Committee HE Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti, Manag-ing Director and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Qatar Rail Abdulla Abdulaziz al-Subaie, CEO of Qatar Rail Saad Ahmed al-Muhannadi along with Project Directors and employees gathered to mark the occasion at the end-ing point of the northern sec-tion of the Red Line Elevated and at Grade, where the mile-stone was achieved.

HE al-Sulaiti said: “Trans-portation projects have made signifi cant strides and achievements under the wise

leadership of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and follow-up and supervision of HE the Prime Minister and Interior Min-ister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani.”

The minister added: “Two days ago, and six months ahead of schedule, we cel-ebrated the inauguration of Hamad Port. Shortly be-fore this, Qatar Rail was able to complete 111km of tun-nelling works on the Doha Metro project which was three months ahead of time. Today we proudly gather to celebrate another important milestone with the comple-tion of viaducts on the Doha Metro Project three months ahead of time as well. I would also like to emphasise that the Ministry’s development plans for transportation projects in general are pro-

gressing signifi cantly.”The construction of via-

ducts included the northern and southern sections of the Red Line and a section of the Green Line. The installa-tion of the fi nal segment of the viaducts was celebrated near the Doha Golf Club.

The work on Doha Metro’s viaducts fi rst started in Au-gust 2015. Since then a total of 8.7km of viaducts have been completed, made up of 2,293 segments. Lifting the segments were a total of fi ve launching girders. Massive pieces of state-of-the-art equipment, the launching girders generally span around 80m in length with a total weight of approximately 381 tonnes of steel. All this was achieved with minimum dis-ruption to traffi c.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Abdulla Abdulaziz al-

Subaie said: “I am delighted to be present to witness this signifi cant milestone as the fi nal segment was lifted in to place, completing all via-ducts across the Doha Metro Project. Completion of the elevated viaduct sections is yet another important ac-complishment following the tunnelling completion of the Doha Metro project.”

The overall completion of Doha Metro currently stands at 51%.

Completion of the viaduct sections follows shortly on from the completion of all tunnelling across the Metro Project. The fi rst phase of the Doha Metro is expected to be complete in 2020 when the project’s 37 metro stations are expected to be operative with an average journey time of two minutes between intermediary stations.

HE al-Sulaiti and others on a site inspection at the northern section of the Red Line Elevated.

QATAR


HE the Justice Minister Dr Hassan Lahdan Saqr al-Mohannadi with new batch of graduates.

Minister unveils plan for full Qatarisation of legal positions

HE the Justice Minis-ter Dr Hassan Lah-dan Saqr al-Mohan-

nadi has revealed that there is a plan for full Qatarisa-tion of legal positions in the state.

Speaking at a seminar organised by the Justice Ministry yesterday under the title “The history of the judiciary in Qatar,” the Min-ister said the Qatarisation plan will be implemented in co-ordination with vari-ous law enforcement agen-cies, focusing on qualifi ed and effi cient national cadres who can make contribution to the legal system in the state, without giving up the

Arab and international ex-pertise and their contribu-tion to the renaissance tak-ing place in the country in

all fi elds and the legal fi eld in particular.

The judicial system in Qatar is a source of admi-

ration and an example that can be followed, the Minis-ter said. This is what makes several parties keen to take advantage of this national expertise in the legal fi eld, he added.

Judge Ibrahim Saleh al-Nisef, the president of the appeals court, also delivered a speech.

On the sidelines of the seminar, a graduation cer-emony was held for the par-ticipants of the fi fth training course for assistant pros-ecutors, the 14th training course for new legal offi cers and seventh training course for lawyers under training, who have completed their mandatory training cours-es at the legal and judicial study centre at the Ministry of Justice.

QNADoha

HE the Justice Minister Dr Hassan Lahdan Saqr al-Mohannadi presenting a certificate.

QATAR9Gulf Times

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

HE the Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada yesterday met Indian Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan in New Delhi. Held on the sidelines of Dr al-Sada’s participation in the Petrotech conference and exhibition, which took place in the Indian capital of New Delhi, the meeting discussed issues of mutual interest. The minister gave a speech on gas markets and economic growth during the opening of the fifth ministerial gas forum, which is organised by the International Gas Union and the International Energy Forum in India.

Al-Sada attends Petrotech conference in Delhi

Call to give more support to localfamilies to market their products

Local productive fami-lies should be given more practical sup-

port to help them market their products and further grow their businesses, the Central Municipal Council (CMC) has suggested.

The council issued a number of recommenda-tions in this respect yester-day, at its regular bi-weekly session, addressed to the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME).

The CMC suggested that the MME study the pos-sibility of allocating fi xed places to such families in public parks and gardens, managed and operated by the ministry, to encour-age them to market their products and reach out to a broader customer base.

Another study should be conducted to explore the possibility of issuing permits to these families to operate trolleys and push-carts to act as a platform for market-ing their products. Also, plots of land should be allocated to act as assembly points for these push-carts and trol-leys, as part of eff orts under-taken to encourage the pro-ductive families to develop their small businesses.

The CMC also issued a number of recommenda-tions to preserve the ex-ternal looks of commercial complexes and multi-story buildings. It said the MME could study the possibility of putting decorative covers around garbage containers at these place, which could help preserve the aesthetic

appeal of these structures. Also, the relevant minis-

terial decision on the regu-lations for public cleanli-ness should be enforced, the members stressed. Ac-cordingly, every multi-sto-ry building and complexes should allocate a “collec-tion room” for garbage con-tainers, away from parking lots and common corridors, easily accessible by garbage collectors and trucks.

Meanwhile, the council received a response from HE the Minister of Municipality and Environment Mohamed bin Abdullah al-Rumaihi on the expansion of an area temporarily allocated for workers’ accommoda-tion in the Umm Al Zuba-rah area with 166,000sqm on the northern side and

330,200sqm on the south-ern side. In addition, neces-sary services were provided, including public facilities, commercial outlets, gar-dens and mosques. Some spaces were also allocated for greenery.

Regarding lease con-tracts, there is a suggestion to increase their duration from one year to fi ve renew-able years.

Regarding the risks that fuel tanks in the Abu Hamour area may pose to inhabitants of the neigh-bourhood, Qatar Fuel (Wo-qod) stressed that sophis-ticated safety and security measures and precautions had been put in place, and there was an eff ective pro-tective system in case of fi res.

In brief

QATAR


HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and HH the Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani have sent cables of congratulations to Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn on his accession to the throne in the kingdom.

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, HH the Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani have sent cables of congratulations to Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto on the anniversary of his country’s Independence Day.

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, HH the Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani have sent cables of congratulations to Gambia’s president-elect Adama Barrow on the occasion of his victory in the presidential elections.

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, HH the Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani have sent cables of congratulations to Uzbekistan president-elect Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the occasion of his victory in the presidential election.

Emir greets Thailand’s king

Independence Day greetings sent

Qatari leaders send congratulatory cables to Gambia’s president-elect

Emir sends greeting to Uzbekistan’s president-elect

Bahraini daily praises Emir’s

policies and achievements

Bahraini newspaper Akhbar al-Khaleej has praised the leadership

of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani since he took power in June 2013.

The newspaper stated that under the leadership of HH the Emir “Qatar, by 2030, seeks to be ranked as a developed country, having the necessary capacities to achieve sustainable devel-opment and ensure the con-tinuation of a decent life for its people, generation after generation.”

Furthermore, Akhbar Al-Khaleej presented the eco-nomic achievements of Qa-tar, explaining that the State has witnessed a signifi cant economic transformation in the past decade as the huge increase in the oil and gas production led to a record

breaking economic growth and resulted in governmental surpluses and wide spending programmes in infrastruc-ture, energy and housing.

The newspaper added that Qatar was able to out-perform the rest of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries in gross domestic product (GDP) which stood at 18% per year and it was able to rank 13th among 61 countries, mostly developed, in the Global Competitive-ness Report issued by the International Institute for Management Development for the year 2015.

Furthermore, the news-paper, published in Bahrain, which is hosting the meet-ings of the 37th session of the Supreme Council of the GCC, praised the pioneering role of Qatar in supporting the path of the Council, by constantly pursuing foreign policies that rely on the sup-port of the GCC.

QNAManama

Emir hosts luncheon banquet in honour of Saudi king

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani hosted a luncheon banquet yester-

day at Al Bahr Palace in honour of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia.

The banquet was attended by HH the Personal Representative of HH the Emir Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, HH the Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani, and the sons of HH the Father Emir.

From the Saudi side, Prince Ab-dulilah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, ad-viser to the Custodian of the two Holy Mosques, attended the luncheon banquet as well as Prince Khalid bin Fahd bin Khalid bin Mohamed al-Saud, Prince Mansour bin Saud bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Prince Moham-ed bin Fahd bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Prince Saud bin Fahd bin Abdulaziz al-Saud along with a number of min-isters and members of the accompa-nying delegation.

Later in the afternoon, HH the Emir led well-wishers to see off the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud from Hamad International Airport after a two-day offi cial visit to Qatar.

HH the Personal Representative of HH the Emir Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, and HH the Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani, along with the sons of HH the Father Emir were present to see off the Custo-dian of the Two Holy Mosques.

Also on hand to see off the Custo-dian of the Two Holy Mosques were a number of ministers.

QNADoha

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia at the luncheon banquet yesterday, Below: HH the Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani and other dignitaries at the luncheon banquet.

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani seeing off the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia at Hamad InternationalAirport yesterday.

QATAR11Gulf Times


Improving patient care discussed at WCM-QStrategies to translate research

into decisive action to im-prove patient safety in hospi-

tals were discussed at the latest in-stalment of Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar’s Grand Rounds series.

Visiting expert Dr Peter Kaboli, chief of medicine, Iowa City VA Hospital, said that it was cru-cial for eff orts to improve patient care to be grounded in very thor-ough research, and for the results

of improvement strategies to be carefully monitored and analysed.

He said, “The key for making real improvements to the quality of care is to eliminate disconnect between decisive action and rig-orous research. Quality improve-ment measures need to be based on rigorous research that are translated into clear recommen-dations and strategies, which are then implemented and followed up

with monitoring and evaluation. This continuum, which is based on a very close working relationship between researchers and clinicians is therefore very important.”

Dr Kaboli, who was speaking at WCM-Q to an audience of physicians, pharmacists, nurses, medical educa-tors, students and other healthcare providers, described a number of cases where quality improvement research had been used eff ectively.

These included studies to de-termine the optimal length of stay in hospital for patients, to analyse the eff ectiveness of remote tele-medicine consultations for HIV patients, and to assess several dif-ferent protocols for co-ordinating multidisciplinary patient care.

“Multidisciplinary care is a very good target for research-based qual-ity improvement because it often draws together large and diverse

teams that comprise of doctors, nurses, other health professionals, social workers and others, each of whom have very diff erent schedules and workloads. Using quality im-provement research we have been able to test several diff erent sys-tems to see what works best for co-ordinating care,” Dr Kaboli added.

Right: Dr Peter Kaboli speaking at the event.

CIS programme wins award at HMC event

The Clinical Informa-tion Systems (CIS) transformation pro-

gramme that has imple-mented a single electronic medical record for each pa-tient, has been recognised with the prestigious Man-aging Director’s Award at Hamad Medical Corpora-tion’s ( HMC) annual Stars of Excellence Awards.

The Clinical Information System (CIS) programme has seen millions of paper-based patient records con-verted into standardised electronic records.

More than 24,000 mem-bers of HMC’s clinical and non-clinical workforce were trained to use the sys-tem. Working alongside this process was patient registration, creating new and updated records for each and every patient of HMC’s network of hospitals and services.

“This programme touch-es not only a majority of our staff every day, but also has a real and positive impact on the lives of our patients,” said HE the Minister of Public Health and Manag-ing Director of HMC Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Ku-wari, while presenting the award to the team respon-sible for the transformation at an event last month.

“We are very proud of the fact that Qatar is the second and largest country in the world to have a sin-gle, integrated electronic

health record for every patient. Our staff have worked hard to implement this programme so that we can respond to changes in healthcare technology and most importantly, patients’ needs and expectations,” added Dr al-Kuwari.

Each year, the Stars of Excellence Awards winners are chosen based on their performance against key criteria such as the appli-cation of international best practice, evidence of direct improvements resulting from the project, and how the project has impacted patient care and the overall patient experience.

Dr Wasmiya Dalham, executive director, Nurs-ing Informatics at HMC said the CIS programme has already resulted in real improvements to patient care, including a reduction in medication errors and decreases in readmission rates.

“Now that the CIS is integrated into our clini-cal processes, patients are starting to see improve-ments in their experience within our hospitals,” she said. “For example, if dur-ing a consultation a physi-cian prescribes medication, this is sent electronically to the pharmacy for the patient to collect. At the same time, follow-up out-patient clinic appointments can also be scheduled,” she added.

HE Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari and members of the winning team at the HMC Stars of Excellence Awards.

Digital Innovation launches Morphy Richards products

Digital Innovation has brought Morphy Richards, a popular

appliances brand from the UK, to Qatar.

Morphy Richards is a member of the Glen Dim-plex Group and has been in existence for over 80 years. It is a “household name in the UK and other parts of the world”, according to a statement.

“The people of Qatar will now be able to experience and celebrate British in-novation, design and style with Morphy Richards and its best-ever product range. For 80 years, their unique approach to quality, tech-nology and simplicity has made life at home beauti-fully easy. And now the people of Qatar will surely see why,” the CEO of Dig-ital Innovation said in the statement.

Over the years, Morphy

Richards has received nu-merous awards, including the Red Dot Award, iF De-sign award and more, for its designs, functionality and high-quality products that have “brought convenience to users”.

The range currently in-cludes toasters, kettles, cof-fee makers, hand blenders and steam irons, and more products are set to come soon, the statement adds.

Morphy Richards is dis-tributed exclusively by Dig-ital Innovation in Qatar and will be available at Spark Lifestyle Electronics, Jum-bo Electronics and leading hypermarkets.

Morphy Richards products.

QATAR


Strong winds in some areas are forecast

Strong winds are ex-pected in parts of the country by this

afternoon, the Qatar Met department has said.

This is to be preceded by poor visibility in some areas in the early hours of the day, according to the weather offi ce, which has also issued a warning for strong winds and high seas in off shore areas by the afternoon.

Northwesterly winds will blow at 10-20 knots in inshore areas, going up to 25 knots in some places.

In off shore areas, the wind speed will be 12-22 knots (northwesterly), in-creasing to 18-25 knots by the afternoon, while the sea level may rise to 10ft.

The detailed report for

inshore areas says it will be hazy to misty/foggy in some places at fi rst, followed by mild day-time conditions. Slight to blowing dust is also ex-pected, and it will be rela-tively cold by night. Vis-ibility may drop to 2km or less in some places in the early hours of the day.

Hazy conditions and some clouds are also likely in off shore areas today.

A minimum tempera-ture of 19C is expected today in Abu Samra, while in Doha it will be 21C. Yesterday, a minimum temperature of 16C was recorded in Turayna and Karana, followed by 18C in Mesaieed. In the capital, the minimum was 20C in the Qatar University area.

SC signs MoU with India’s CII for 2022 projectsThe Supreme Committee

for Delivery & Legacy (SC) has signed a mem-

orandum of understanding (MoU) with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), a lead-ing Indian industry body, to encourage the participation of Indian companies in 2022 in-frastructure projects.

This comes as the SC con-tinues to strengthen the close relationship with India in the years leading up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, ac-cording to a statement from the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy.

The MoU, signed with the CII in New Delhi recently, would provide a framework for Indian companies seeking to under-take projects, including in in-frastructure, for the delivery of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The memorandum was inked during the visit of HE the Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani to

New Delhi, where he led dele-gation-level talks with his Indi-an counterpart, Narendra Modi.

Earlier in 2016, the SC an-nounced Indian construction giant Larsen & Toubro as the main contractor in an Indo-Qatar joint venture for the con-struction of the 40,000-capac-ity Al Rayyan Stadium, which will host matches up to the quarter-fi nal stages of the 2022 World Cup.

SC secretary-general Hassan al-Thawadi, talking to www.sc.qa on the occasion of the Qa-tar 2022 bid win anniversary, said India is one of the two next global football destinations: “There is signifi cant invest-ment in the Indian league, there is huge interest and following from Indian fans in relation to football.

“In 2002, eastern Asia hosted the fi rst World Cup in Asia. The resounding success on and off the pitch is an example of the resounding success 2022 can

SC and CII off icials mark the signing of the MoU.

and will be, not only in the Mid-dle East and Arab world, but also for western Asia and Asia as a whole.”

SC assistant secretary-gen-eral Nasser al-Khater said the doors of Qatar would be open

in 2022 for football fans from India and Indian expatriates in the Middle East. “I would say good luck to the Indian national team for 2022, and there are a lot of Indian expatriates from the region who will be interested

to attend games here, as well as people fl ying from India.”

Al-Khater also said Qatar looked at India as a natural stra-tegic partner. “The Indian popu-lation and community has been an integral part of society for

decades in Qatar, and has helped build this country and make it what it is today.

In October, the fi rst pouring of concrete at Al Rayyan Stadium site took place, fi ve weeks ahead of schedule.

Chevrolet TrailBlazer, Colorado recalled

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC) has announced a recall

of Chevrolet TrailBlazer and Colorado vehicles, model year 2012 to 2016, due to the missing roadside kit.

The recall is being carried out in collaboration with Jaidah Au-tomotive, dealer of Chevrolet vehicles in Qatar.

In a press statement yesterday, the ministry said the recall cam-paign fell within the framework of its ongoing eff orts to protect consumers and ensure that car dealers followed up on vehicle defects and repairs.

The MEC has said it will co-ordinate with the dealer to fol-low up on the maintenance and repair works and communi-cate with customers to ensure that the necessary repairs are carried out.

The ministry has urged all customers to report violations to its Consumer Protection and Anti-Commercial Fraud Depart-ment.

Katara takes part in Asian Art Biennale BangladeshKatara-the Cultural Village

has participated in the ‘17th Asian Art Biennale

Bangladesh 2016’, showcasing valuable artworks and master-pieces by contemporary Qatari artists.

Research and Studies Depart-ment director Dr Nadia al-Ma-dahka and contemporary artist Mohamed al-Ateeq represented Katara at the internationally-re-nowned art event, held at the Na-tional Theater of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.

The delegation also participated in a two-day seminar themed ‘Art and the City’.

The event eyes the continuity, change, and the co-existence of modernity and tradition in the arts of Asian countries.

“It’s an outstanding interna-tional artistic venue where local artists have their creative works displayed,” Katara said in a state-ment.

The event attracted artists and contributions from countries across the world, including Qatar,

The Qatari delegation participating in a two-day seminar themed ‘Art and the City.’

Nepal, Iran, China, Thailand, Ko-rea, Pakistan, Egypt, Japan Chile, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Romania, Turkey, Fiji, Italy, and Saudi Arabia, among others.

The 17th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh 2016, confronted with the emerging realities, are increasingly adjusting their strat-egies to the global preference for new media while working within traditions where artistic expres-sions are seen to refl ect the inter-connectedness of art, community and environment.

Qatar artwork displayed at the event in Bangladesh, participated by Dr Nadia al-Madahka and Mohamed al-Ateeq.

Ezdan Real Estate honours workers Ezdan Real Estate Compa-

ny, a subsidiary of Ezdan Holding Group, honoured

a number of workers in recog-nition of their eff orts and dedi-cation, the company said in a statement.

The group said the event was organised at Ezdan Hotel to motivate qualifi ed work-ers and hone their skills. The ceremony was attended by Ezdan Real Estate Company acting general manager Omar al-Yafey and employees from Ezdan Holding Group and its subsidiaries.

Al-Yafey said: “Ezdan Real Estate Company has an ambi-

tious vision for its employees and workers, as it seeks to propel their capabilities and stimulate them

towards excellence to eff ectively contribute to the achievement of desired goals.

“Encouragement is an integral part of any successful corporate business. It ensures the accom-

plishment of better future results and strengthens workers’ and employees loyalty through paying tribute and expressing gratitude for their eff orts and devotion.”

He added: “In this regard, I would like to emphasise that all the honorees have been carefully selected based on their outstand-ing performance, competence, and skills in performing their du-ties throughout their careers in the company.”

This year, Ezdan Holding Group has obtained, in addition to Ezdan Real Estate and Ezdan Malls, the ISO 9001:2008 certifi cation on quality management and best professional practices.

Dignitaries from Ezdan Real Estate Company and employees during a special ceremony held at Ezdan Hotel.

QATAR13


Katara hosts forum on ‘cultural industries’Katara-the Cultural Vil-

lage organised an inter-national conference on

‘Encouraging dialogue and di-versity through cultural indus-tries’, bringing together craft industry representatives from diff erent countries.

Speaking at the event, Katara’s marketing and communica-tions head Darwish Ahmed said that their eff orts in enhancing the values of dialogue and cul-tural diversity through crafts and handicraft professions are highly appreciated.

“The output of your distin-guished meeting will be re-garded as a valuable reference in our bid to protect creativity, upgrade skills and boost talent; to have a better engagement in the cultural development plan,” he noted.

Katara has prioritised all is-sues and themes linked to the deeply-rooted traditions and national cultural heritage, according to Ahmed.

He said they are strongly de-termined to shoulder the re-sponsibility of preserving the legacy left by their forefathers from neglect, forgetfulness and extinction. Participants from diff erent countries gathered at Katara to take part in the conference.

“Katara’s journey to revive this great legacy of the past has witnessed us hosting, organis-ing and staging dozens of unique cultural activities and events,” Ahmad added.

“Katara gained an interna-tional reputation as a key cultur-al-focused powerhouse and we have off ered all sorts of constant support to the people work-ing in the cultural industries, crafts and handicrafts sector,” he pointed out.

The event was also attended

by Unesco representative in the Gulf, Dr Anna Paolini, secre-tary-general of the National Commission for Education, Culture and Science in Qa-tar, Dr Hamda al-Sulaiti, and representatives of diplomatic missions in Doha.

“It’s not only a conference. We are celebrating a full year of activities that the three part-ners have been doing since January 2016,” Dr Paolini said. “The cultural diversity festival was fi rst launched in January

2016 and lasted until May 2016.”The festival enthralled Katara

visitors with the participation of performers and singers from 21 countries that showcased their traditions and heritage from all over the world, representing four continents.

“This conference marks the end of the programme and it is focusing in particular on how the craft industries can contribute to cultural identity while boosting the economy,” she added.

– Page 30

QCS launches prostate cancer awareness driveQatar Cancer Soci-

ety (QCS) organised a sporting event, in col-

laboration with Doha Bank, as part of its campaign ‘Be Mustache’ to raise awareness on prostate cancer and men’s health.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men in Qatar and the world, and the fi fth biggest cause of death in men from cancer globally.

QCS is holding awareness lectures and workshops in-volving various sectors in the country to raise awareness on the symptoms of the disease, the factors responsible for it as well as methods of prevention

and cure for the disease.According to Dr Hadi Mo-

hamad Abu Rasheed, health educator at QCS, the chance of having prostate cancer ris-es rapidly after the age of 50 and any case of family history more than doubles the risk of developing the disease.

Besides, men who eat a lot of red meat or high fat dairy prod-ucts and fewer fruits and veg-etables, are susceptible to de-velop prostate cancer. “Obese men run a higher risk of getting more advanced and serious prostate cancer,” he said.

Smoking can result in in-creased risk of being aff ected by prostate cancer and expo-sure to chemicals at workplace

is another major reason for the disease, he added.

Dr Rasheed added that symptoms of prostate cancer at an early stage are hardly visible. The symptoms become visible in advanced stages. In most cases, symptoms are caused by benign prostatic enlargement, or an infection. So, it is impor-tant for people to visit a doctor to understand the symptoms.

Symptoms of prostate cancer include problems in urinat-ing, including a weak or inter-rupted urinary fl ow, pain while urinating, inability to urinate, sense of incompletely empty-ing the bladder, intense need to urinate, or the need to urinate more often, especially at night.

QCS members at a sporting event recently.

MEC issues 69 violation reports in NovemberIntensive inspection campaigns car-

ried out by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC) resulted in

the issuance of 69 violation reports in November, it was announced yesterday.

The initiative was aimed at monitor-ing the compliance of suppliers with the obligations stipulated under Law No 8 of 2008 on Consumer Protection,

the MEC said in a press statement. It fell within the framework of the ministry’s keenness to monitor markets and com-mercial activities in a bid to crack down on price manipulation, disclose viola-tions and protect consumer rights.

The 69 violations detected during the inspection campaigns, which were con-ducted by inspectors from the ministry

in various regions of the state, pertained to failure to comply with the list of sell-ing prices before and during reductions (16 cases); failure to announce product/service prices (12); failure to clearly iden-tify service information, including its advantages, characteristics and prices (4); failure to announce product/serv-ice prices in Arabic (3); failure to comply

with the prices of fruits and vegetables stated in the daily bulletin (3); declar-ing reductions without obtaining the necessary approval from the competent authority (6); and selling and displaying expired products (6), among others.

The fi nes issued by the ministry to the violating outlets included closures and fi nancial penalties ranging from

QR5,000 to QR30,000, in accordance with the laws and regulations of the Consumer Protection and Anti-Com-mercial Fraud Department.

In addition, the consumer protec-tion authorities at the ministry re-ceived 1,242 complaints, and necessary action was taken to resolve the issues.

The ministry stressed that it would

not tolerate any violations of the Con-sumer Protection Law and its regula-tions, and would intensify its inspection campaigns to crack down on violations. It will refer those who violate laws and ministerial decrees to the competent authorities, who will, in turn, take ap-propriate action against perpetrators in order to protect consumer rights.

14 Gulf TimesWednesday, December 7, 2016

REGION

Saudi sentences 15 to death for spying for IranReutersDubai

A Saudi court yesterday sentenced 15 people to death for spying for Iran,

Saudi-owned media reported.The Specialised Criminal

Court in Riyadh sentenced 15 other suspects to prison terms ranging from six months to 25 years, and acquitted two, the Arabic-language al-Riyadh newspaper said on its website.

The suspects, comprising

30 Saudi Shia Muslims, one Iranian and an Afghan, were detained in 2013 on charges of spying for Iran and went on trial in February.

The rulings are subject to ap-peal, and death sentences must go to the king for ratifi cation.

The trial is the fi rst in recent memory in which Saudi citizens have been accused of spying.

In January, Saudi Arabia ex-ecuted a prominent Shia cleric convicted of involvement in the killing of policemen, prompting protesters to storm

the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Riyadh then broke off diplo-matic ties.

Many of the suspects are former employees of the Saudi defence and interior ministries, Saudi media said.

They were accused of set-ting up a spy ring and passing sensitive military and security information to Iran, seeking to sabotage Saudi economic inter-ests, undermining community cohesion and inciting sectarian strife.

The charges also included

supporting protests in Qatif in Eastern Province, recruiting others for espionage, sending encrypted reports to Iranian in-telligence via e-mail and com-mitting high treason against the king.

Among those arrested in 2013 were an elderly university pro-fessor, a paediatrician, a banker and two clerics.

Most were from al-Ahsa, a mixed Shia and Sunni region.

Saudi Arabia has blamed sporadic unrest among Shias in Qatif on Iran.

Suspected IS militants arrested in Aden

AFPAden

Yemeni authorities have arrested eight suspected Islamic State group mili-

tants implicated in a spate of at-tacks targeting security person-nel in Aden this year, police said.

Police in the southern port city, headquarters of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, also seized si-lenced pistols and letters from IS leaders in Iraq and Syria, a

statement said late on Monday.There have been a spate of

deadly gun attacks in Aden this year as government forces have struggled to restore security in the city after driving out Shia rebels and their allies in July 2015.

The insecurity prompted the cabinet to move to Saudi Arabia last year only returning in Sep-tember.

IS and its militant rival Al Qaeda have taken advantage of the confl ict between the govern-ment and the rebels, who con-

trol the capital Sanaa, to bolster their presence across much of the south.

In the southeastern province of Hadramawt, government troops seized four tonnes of ex-plosives and arrested fi ve sus-pects in the port of Shihr, the army said.

With the support of special forces from a Saudi-led coali-tion, government troops drove the militants out of provincial capital Mukalla in April, but they are still present in other parts of the vast province.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman of Saudi Arabia meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May during the GCC Summit yesterday in the Bahraini capital Manama.

British PM joinsGulf summit forpost-Brexit talksAFPDubai

British Prime Minister Theresa May is to meet Gulf leaders who yester-

day opened their annual summit in Bahrain, for talks on trade ties after Britain leaves the European Union.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman of Saudi Arabia opened the sum-mit with a call for “doubling of eff orts” to face regional chal-lenges.

May was expected to meet the leaders later yesterday be-fore addressing the summit to-day, when she will become the first British premier and the first woman to attend the an-nual gathering of the six Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states.

Defence ties are also expected

to be high on the agenda as Brit-ain builds a new naval base in Bahrain, while advocacy groups have urged May to raise human rights concerns.

May’s two-day visit comes as her government faces mount-ing domestic criticism that it has not done enough to avoid post-Brexit disruption to British trade, which is currently carried out under EU agreements.

“I will have the opportunity to talk to all six leaders about how we can develop our trade rela-tionship, as well as co-operation on security and defence,” May said before arriving in Manama late on Monday.

Her offi ce said May will dis-cuss possibilities for post-Brexit free trade arrangements with the GCC states - Qatar, Saudi Ara-bia, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

“As the UK leaves the EU, we should seize the opportunity to

forge a new trade arrangement between the UK and the Gulf,” the British premier said.

Ahead of the summit, May yesterday met King Salman, Bahrain’s King Hamad, the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Ah-mad al-Sabah and UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

In October last year, Britain began building a naval base at Mina Salman, outside Man-ama, its first new permanent base in the Middle East in four decades.

May told 300 Royal Navy of-fi cers aboard HMS Ocean that she wanted to “step up our de-fence and security co-operation to keep British citizens safe at home and abroad”.

Britain’s force already sta-tioned in Bahrain was “a clear demonstration of the UK’s en-during security commitment to the Gulf”, she said.

GCC leaders posing for a group picture during the GCC Summit in the Bahraini capital Manama yesterday.

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani with Kuwaiti leaders.

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani meeting with King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifah of Bahrain yesterday.

The GCC Summit under way in Manama yesterday.

Emir arrives in Bahrain for GCC summitQNAManama

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani arrived yesterday

in the Kingdom of Bahrain to lead the State of Qatar’s del-egation to the 37th session of the GCC Supreme Council in Manama.

Upon his arrival along with the accompanying delegation at Sakhir Airbase Airport, HH the Emir was received by King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa al-Kha-lifah.

Bahrain’s Prime Minister

Prince Khalifah bin Salman al-Khalifah and Bahrain’s Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Com-mander and First Deputy Prime Minister, Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifah, were also present during the reception along with chairmen of the Shu-ra and Representatives’ Coun-cils.

A number of ministers also attended the reception as well as GCC Secretary General Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, Qatar’s ambassador to Bahrain Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani, members of the embassy and a number of senior civil and military offi cials.

A mission of honour was formed to accompany HH the Emir under the presidency of Bahraini Minister of Finance Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohamed al-Khalifah.

HH the Emir extended his and the Qatari people’s “greetings to HM King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifah and the honour-able Bahraini people along with the sincerest wishes of good and success to them and more progress to their fraternal coun-try.”

“I’m pleased also to greet my brothers leaders of the GCC who participate in this session that takes place in light of ex-

tremely serious regional and international circumstances, hoping that its outcomes will help in supporting and en-hancing the good march of our council, achieving its desired goals and consolidating our re-gion’s security and stability,” HH the Emir said, praying for the good of the Arab and Mus-lim peoples.

An official delegation in-cluding HH Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, Personal Representative of HH the Emir, and a number of Their Excel-lencies ministers are accompa-nying HH the Emir during the summit.

ARAB WORLD15Gulf Times


Libyan forces hunting down last of IS militants in SirteAFPTripoli

Forces loyal to Libya’s unity government said yesterday they were hunting down the

last militants in the city of Sirte af-ter the Islamic State group’s ouster from its former bastion.

The loyalists said their soldiers were “chasing the last militants hiding in fewer than 10 houses” in the seafront district of Al-Giza al-Bahriya, the last to fall in the almost seven-month-long battle.

They also “managed to rescue a group of women and children that the defeated gangs of Daesh (IS) were using as human shields”, the force backing the Government of National Accord (GNA) said on its Facebook page.

The pro-GNA force announced its full control of Sirte on Monday, in a major blow to the militants, and that dozens of IS fi ghters had surrendered.

Sirte’s fall comes as IS also faces a string of military setbacks in Syr-ia and Iraq.

Thirteen bodies of IS fi ghters

were found yesterday in Al-Giza al-Bahriya’s streets, the pro-GNA force said.

The battle for the city, which was the last signifi cant territory held by IS in Libya, cost the lives of nearly 700 loyalist troops and an unknown number of IS fi ghters.

“Today they helped many wom-en and over 20 children, mostly infants and toddlers, who came out terrifi ed and in dire need of medical and post-traumatic as-sistance”, it said.

Libyan television stations have since Monday been broadcast-

ing footage of women in black and small children, their hair covered with dust, emerging from Sirte homes, and of soldiers chanting to celebrate a hard-fought victory.

“The liberation of Sirte is an historic day for Libya that must be celebrated across the nation,” a GNA vice premier, Moussa el-Koni, wrote on Twitter.

He said the Mediterranean city, which IS had seized in June 2015, was “in the centre and capable of linking” the country which is po-litically divided between east and west.

But for inhabitants of Sirte, the hometown of Muammar Gaddafi which was subsequently neglected in the aftermath of the 2011 revolt which ousted the longtime dicta-tor, the outlook remains gloomy.

“I used to live in Al-Giza al-Bahriya. No doubt my home has been destroyed,” said Abdessalam al-Sirtawi, who took refuge in Tripoli and has been there with his family for several months.

“I don’t know if (Sirte) will fi nd the means to recover. But the im-portant thing is that we’ve got rid of those monsters,” he said.

Loyalist forces launched the of-fensive against Sirte on May 12, quickly seizing large parts of the city and cornering the militants.

But IS put up fi erce resistance with suicide car bombings, snipers and improvised explosive devices.

The off ensive in Sirte, 450km east of Tripoli, has been backed since August by a US bombing campaign.

On the political front, the city’s capture boosts the authori-ty of the UN-backed GNA, which was set up in Tripoli in March but whose legitimacy is contested by

a rival administration in eastern Libya.

The country descended into chaos following the Nato-backed ousting of Gaddafi , with rival ad-ministrations emerging and well-armed militias vying for control of its vast oil wealth.

The infi ghting and lawlessness allowed extremist groups such as IS to seize several coastal regions, giving the militants a toehold on Europe’s doorstep.

The fall of Sirte comes as IS also faces a series of military defeats in Syria and Iraq.

A picture taken from a rebel-held area shows smoke billowing from buildings in the pro-regime Shia town of Fuaa, in northwestern Idlib province in Syria yesterday. Syria’s government said it would not agree to a ceasefire in Aleppo unless it guarantees a full withdrawal of rebel factions from the city.

Iraqi troopslaunch fresh assault towards Mosul centreReutersBaghdad

Iraqi army units surged to-wards the centre of Mosul yesterday in an attack from

the city’s southeastern edges that could give fresh impetus to the seven-week-old battle for Islamic State’s Iraqi stronghold.

Campaign commander Lieu-tenant General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah was quoted by Iraqi television as saying troops had entered Salam Hospital, less than 1.5km from the Tigris river running through the city centre.

If confi rmed, that would mark a signifi cant advance by the Ninth Armoured Division, which had been tied up for more than a month in close-quarter combat with Islamic State on the south-eastern fringes of the city.

Residents of Islamic State-controlled districts of east Mosul said by telephone the army had punched deep into the east bank of the city, getting close to the Tigris.

“The fi ghting right now is very heavy – Iraqi forces have gone past our neighbourhood with-out entering it. Our area is now practically surrounded by the river and the Iraqi forces,” said a resident of the Palestine neigh-bourhood.

Islamic State’s news agency appeared to confi rm the advance, saying three car bombers struck the troops near Salam Hospital.

A Reuters team saw thick black smoke rising from the area around the hospital.

“We made good advances to-day,” said a soldier who identifi ed himself as Abu Ahmed.

Mosul is by far the largest city under Islamic State control and defeat there would roll back the self-styled caliphate it declared in 2014 after seizing large parts of Iraq and Syria.

Some 100,000 Iraqi soldiers, security forces, Kurdish pesh-merga fi ghters and mainly Shia paramilitary forces are partici-pating in the Mosul campaign

that began on October 17, with air and ground support from a US-led coalition.

A colonel in the armoured di-vision said yesterday’s assault, launched at 6am, aimed to ul-timately reach Mosul’s Fourth Bridge, the southernmost of fi ve bridges spanning the river.

The bridge, like three others, has been hit by US-led air strikes to prevent Islamic State send-ing reinforcements and suicide car bombs across the city to the eastern front.

The last and oldest bridge, built in the 1930s, was targeted on Monday night, two residents said.

The structure was not de-stroyed, but the air strikes made two large craters in the approach roads on both sides.

“I saw Daesh (Islamic State) using bulldozers to fi ll the craters with sand and by midday vehi-cles managed to cross the bridge normally. I drove my car to the other side of the bridge and saw also Daesh vehicles crossing,” a taxi driver told Reuters.

The army says it is facing the toughest urban warfare im-aginable - hundreds of suicide car bomb attacks, mortar bar-rages, sniper fi re and ambushes launched from a network of tun-nels.

More than a million civilians are still in the city.

The colonel said yesterday’s off ensive aimed to overwhelm the militants, who have put up stiff resistance but are hugely outnumbered by the attacking forces.

“We are using a new tactic – increasing the numbers of ad-vancing forces and also attack-ing from multiple fronts to take the initiative and prevent Daesh fi ghters from organising any counter-attacks,” the colonel said by telephone.

He said the four armoured di-vision regiments, whose tanks and heavy armour have strug-gled to adapt to street-by-street fi ghting, had been reinforced by an infantry regiment.

Syrian army seizes key ground in Aleppo battleRussia and US trade barbs over stalled eff orts to end fighting in the city

AFPAleppo

Syria’s army seized key ground in its battle to re-take Aleppo yesterday,

capturing fi ve more districts including a strategic neighbour-hood at the heart of rebel terri-tory.

The advance came as Moscow and Washington traded barbs over stalled eff orts to end fi ght-ing in the city, where forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have made signifi cant advances in recent days.

Yesterday, government troops retook fi ve districts including the strategic Shaar neighbour-hood and were in control of 70% of former rebel territory in east

Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The monitoring group de-scribed Shaar as “the most im-portant neighbourhood in the heart of east Aleppo”, and said rebels were being reduced to fi ghting a “war of attrition” with regime troops.

The rapid regime gains have left opposition fi ghters scram-bling to defend the shrink-ing enclave they still control in Aleppo’s southeastern districts.

Despite mounting criticism of the off ensive, world powers have struggled to fi nd a way to halt the fi ghting.

Key Assad ally Russia had an-nounced talks with the United States in Geneva for yesterday or today on organising a rebel withdrawal from Aleppo ahead of a ceasefi re.

But yesterday, Foreign Minis-ter Sergei Lavrov accused Wash-ington, which has backed rebel

groups against Assad, of back-tracking.

“It looks like an attempt to buy time for the rebels to have a breather, take a pause and replenish their reserves,” Lavrov said, adding that Mos-cow had the impression that “a serious discussion with our American partners isn’t working out”.

US Secretary of State John Kerry denied any change of plans.

“I’m not aware of any specifi c refusal,” he replied when asked about Moscow’s allegations as he attended a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels.

Washington had also accused Moscow of stalling for time after Russia and China blocked a UN Security Council resolution on Monday calling for a seven-day ceasefi re.

Russia said the resolution should have been postponed

until after the Geneva talks, say-ing an agreement on organising a withdrawal was close.

The deputy US envoy to the United Nations, Michele Sison, ac-cused Moscow of using a “made-up alibi” to block the resolution.

Syria’s foreign ministry said that it would not agree to any ceasefi re without a guarantee of a rebel withdrawal.

“Syria will not leave its citi-zens in east Aleppo to be held hostage, and will exert every ef-fort to liberate them,” said a for-eign ministry statement carried by state news agency Sana.

The rebels have so far rejected any talk of leaving the city, with Yasser al-Youssef of the leading Nureddin al-Zinki faction de-scribing the proposal as “unac-ceptable”.

Opposition fi ghters have been forced to evacuate several of their besieged strongholds in Syria during the confl ict, most

recently a string of areas near Damascus.

But the loss of Aleppo would be the biggest blow yet to op-position forces in Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 with popular protests calling for As-sad’s ouster.

More than 300,000 people have since died and millions forced from their homes.

Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial and cultural hub, has been a key battleground of the war and suf-fered some of its worst violence.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday lashed out at the international community’s inability to stop the bloodshed.

“Aleppo is a disgrace,” she said in a speech to her conserva-tive Christian Democratic Un-ion party.

She said world powers must “continue to fi ght” to establish aid corridors for desperate resi-dents.

25 held as Egypt bustsorgan trading racket

Golden Netanyahu statue put up secretly as protest

AFPCairo

Egyptian authorities an-nounced yesterday the ar-rest of 25 members of an

international network allegedly traffi cking in human organs, in-cluding university professors and doctors.

“Today at dawn, the largest international network for trad-ing human organs has been cap-tured,” the country’s Adminis-trative Control Authority said in a statement on its website.

The network “is made up of Egyptians and Arabs taking ad-vantage of some of the citizens’ diffi cult economic conditions so that they buy their human or-gans and sell it for large sums of money,” it said.

The authority, which is re-sponsible for tracking corruption cases in state institutions, said 25 people were arrested includ-ing university professors, doc-tors, medical workers, owners of

medical centres, intermediaries and brokers.

They were found in possession of “millions of dollars and gold bullion”, it said.

Ten medical centres and labo-ratories had been searched and the authorities had found documents related to the charge and comput-ers with trading information.

Egypt’s parliament passed a law in 2010 banning commercial trade in organs as well as trans-plants between Egyptians and foreigners, except in cases of husband and wife.

A World Health Organisation co-ordinator at the time, Luc Noel, named Egypt that year as one of the top fi ve countries in il-legal organ trade.

The law aimed to regulate or-gan transplants in a bid to curb illegal traffi cking and tourism for such operations.

According to the United Na-tions, hundreds of poor Egyp-tians sell their kidneys and livers each year to be able to buy food or pay off debts.

AFPTel Aviv

A 4m-high golden statue of Israeli Prime Minis-ter Benjamin Netanyahu

was raised secretly in a Tel Aviv square in a free speech protest yesterday, sparking political de-bate and online humour.

It was put up overnight ille-gally in the centre of the Israeli commercial capital in a square named after former premier Yitzhak Rabin, who was assas-sinated in 1995 by a Jewish ex-tremist.

Israeli artist Itay Zalait claimed responsibility, saying he wanted to spark a debate on freedom of speech by replicating the kind of statue erected by dictatorial regimes.

Passers-by gathered out of cu-riosity yesterday morning, with some taking selfi es in front of the statue depicting Netanyahu in a suit.

“I did it to check one thing: can I do it?” Zalait said. “Will this work be allowed and will there be sanctions?”

Culture Minister Miri Regev hit back on Facebook.

“How an artist can be discon-nected from reality!” she wrote. “Israel is a democracy, one of the freest countries.”

Within hours the Netanyahu statue had been toppled, ap-parently by a member of the public.

On social media, Israelis joked that it was reminiscent of the iconic Saddam Hussein statue pulled down after the US-led in-vasion of Iraq in 2003.

Left-leaning artists have ac-cused Netanyahu’s government of seeking to muzzle them, par-ticularly with Regev’s promo-tion of a bill to cut subsidies to cultural institutions deemed not “loyal” to the state.

Netanyahu also leads what is seen as the most rightwing gov-

ernment in Israeli history, and critics accuse him of consolidat-ing power.

In addition to being premier, he also holds the economy, for-eign aff airs, communication and regional aff airs portfolios.

Zalait said he wanted to open a debate around Israeli attitudes to Netanyahu by placing the statue at the spot where Rabin, who won the Nobel prize for his peace eff orts with the Palestinians, was killed.

“The reaction of the Israelis interests me, from those who say they would like to see more statues like that on the squares of the country to those who want to demolish it with a hammer,” he said.

In the United States in Au-gust, a group of artists installed giant and unflattering statues in several American cities of Donald Trump, with the then presidential candidate entirely naked.

A man in the crowd uses a stick to topple over a statue of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, created by Israeli sculptor Itay Zalait as a political protest against Netanyahu, at a square outside Tel Aviv’s city hall, yesterday.

AFRICA


Sick Kenyans were turned away from hospitals, and patients left stranded in

their wards as a crippling strike by doctors and nurses demand-ing pay rises entered a second day yesterday.

Several patients have died as a result of lack of care in pub-lic hospitals, many of which are completely unstaff ed.

Kenyans have been directed to private clinics that are unaf-fordable to the majority of the population.

“We have had many patients leaving our facility because we have no services off ered due to the ongoing strike,” said David Mukabi, the superintendent in charge of Busia hospital in west-ern Kenya.

He said that a 24-year-old pa-tient had died on Monday night as a result of the strike.

Meanwhile, the deaths of two women at the Port Victoria Hos-pital in western Budalangi on Monday and three patients in Mombasa yesterday were attrib-uted to the strike.

“The strike is to blame be-cause the patient, who is my sister, was in a good condition

and was improving,” said Steven Mwaura, whose sister died of meningitis.

Local media reported tales of patients suff ering burns or in labour left stranded in front of hospitals.

At one hospital in western Kenya a security guard had to help a woman give birth, while in another an orphaned child was left alone in an empty ward with no parents to organise her trans-fer, The Standard daily newspa-per reported.

On Monday more than 100 patients escaped from Kenya’s only psychiatric hospital in the capital Nairobi as the strike

started, police commander Japheth Koome told AFP.

Unions are demanding a 300% pay rise for doctors and 25% to 40% pay rise for nurses that they say was agreed upon in a 2013 collective bargaining agreement, but has yet to be im-plemented.

Ouma Oluga, secretary gen-eral of the Kenya Medical Prac-titioners Pharmacists and Den-tists’ Union (KMPPDU), said striking workers had been called to a meeting at the health min-istry yesterday but government offi cials never showed up.

“The government of Kenya will either have to pay doctors or

will have none of them,” Oluga said.

Poor salaries and working conditions have led to an exodus of Kenyan doctors to other Afri-can countries and abroad, that prompted the Central Organi-sation of Trade Unions (COTU) to warn of “catastrophe” in the health sector in 2014.

According to the COTU, Ken-ya has some 3,300 doctors in public health centres for a popu-lation of some 40mn.

“With a starting salary of about 40,000 shillings ($400, €365) doctors are among the poorest paid public workers, yet they off er a critical service,” read

an editorial in the Daily Nation newspaper. “It is appalling that Kenya cannot pay its doctors a decent salary, while billions are shamelessly stolen from the public coff ers.”

Many Kenyans on social me-dia support the strike, point-ing to scandals in corruption-plagued Kenya in which millions of dollars have been embezzled or gone unaccounted for, while the doctors struggle for wage in-creases.

“We continue to appeal to the health workers to resume duty as we continue with the negotia-tions,” said health cabinet secre-tary Cleopa Mailu.

Hospitals turn sick away as Kenyan doctors strikeAFPNairobi

Action promised against illegal schoolsReutersNairobi

Kenya has promised to crack down on schools operating illegally af-

ter teachers called for a ban on a chain of low-cost private schools backed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Bridge International Acad-emies (BIA), which is also sup-ported by British aid money, of-fers cheap nursery and primary education to poor families.

But it has faced criticism for its “academy in a box” model, which keeps costs down by get-ting untrained teachers to read scripted lessons from a tablet computer.

Uganda’s high court ordered the closure of 63 BIA schools last month for operating with-out a licence, using unregistered teachers and having poor sanita-tion – a ruling that the company is appealing.

Kenya’s National Union of Teachers (KNUT) launched a report on Monday criticising BIA’s low quality of education and called for all 405 schools in Kenya to be shut.

“They should not be allowed to exploit children from poor households,” said Wilson Sos-sion, KNUT’s secretary general.

Low-cost private schools are expanding across the region, particularly in unplanned slums where there are not enough gov-ernment schools.

Last year, the United Na-tions adopted an ambitious set of development goals, pledging to leave no one behind, includ-ing some 57mn children who are not in primary school – most of them in Africa.

BIA, which aims to reach 10mn students by 2025, targets families living on $2 per person a day.

The KNUT report said the majority of parents interviewed struggled to pay BIA fees, which can reach $20 a month when school meals and other extras are included.

It said pupils were regularly excluded because of arrears.

“My wife was admitted to hospital ... so I decided to pay the hospital bill fi rst and pay school fees later but my children were sent home,” one parent was quoted as saying.

Most BIA teachers in eight sampled schools had no teaching qualifi cations, the report said.

Kenya’s education minis-ter, Fred Matiangi, told a media briefi ng in Nairobi he had visited Bridge schools and agreed with the criticisms in the report.

“It is true that some of these schools are ... (not) off ering quality education as they pur-port to,” he said, adding that the government will soon release its own report on BIA.

He ordered offi cials to crack down on schools operating il-legally, but did not elaborate on how he thought schools were breaking the law.

BIA spokesman Antony Okonji said Bridge schools had become involved in several court cases in Kenya after local authorities rec-ommended their closure for not being registered.

The for-profi t chain would not tell the Thomson Reuters Foundation how many of its schools were registered, but said 88 had been inspected, which is one of the steps towards regis-tration.

BIA’s entrepreneurial ap-proach has won it fi nancial backing from the World Bank’s private sector arm, the Interna-tional Finance Corporation, and Britain’s Department for Inter-national Development (DFID).

But increased foreign invest-ment in private schools has been controversial, with anti-poverty campaigners calling for a greater focus on the right to free quality public education.

A supporter of Ghana’s main opposition party was killed this week fol-

lowing violent clashes at a cam-paign rally as tensions fl ared ahead of presidential polls, po-lice said yesterday.

Six people were in a critical condition following Monday’s clashes which were the latest violence in the run-up to the presidential vote today.

Incumbent President John Mahama, who has appealed for calm, will face off with opposi-tion favourite Nana Akufo Addo.

Last month Akufo Addo’s Ac-cra residence was reportedly at-tacked while he was away on a campaign tour in what his party claimed was an attempt to “cre-ate an atmosphere of fear within Ghana”.

Ken Yeboah, deputy police commissioner for the northern region, said a supporter of Akufo Addo’s NPP party was beaten to death during a political rally in

Chereponi on Monday at which clashes erupted between sup-porters of the president and backers of the opposition.

“There was a clash between the youth ... they started throw-ing stones, fi ghting, then the police went in and separated (them),” Yeboah said.

He said that despite the police intervention, clashes resumed and the youths began to set fi re to campaign materials and dis-charge fi rearms.

“The young person who died was beaten,” he said, adding that 14 other supporters were injured in the violence, including the six who are in a critical condition.

Yeboah described the clashes as “disappointing” and appealed for calm.

“For now both parties can be blamed for it. We can’t blame security,” he said.

Tensions have been rising in the run-up to the election in Ghana, which is normally seen as a beacon of stability and de-mocracy in Africa.

The problems have been ex-acerbated by hulking vigilantes

known as “macho men”, report-edly hired by political parties to protect politicians.

But they have been accused of going beyond their brief.

“They pose a real risk in terms of violence, intimidation and creating the basis for violent acts with the possibility of reciprocal responses,” said Dr Kwasi An-ing, director of the Faculty of Academic Aff airs and Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC).

The centre has this year iden-tifi ed 16 militias in Ghana, with eleven based in Tamale – the region rocked by Monday’s vio-lence.

With names like “Aluta (wres-tling) Boys”, “Pentagon”, “Al Qaeda” or “Al Jazeera”, members are mostly illiterate and tend to come mostly from poor back-grounds in the Muslim-majority region.

The main political parties have denounced the groups, but Aning remains sceptical.

“That is the rhetoric (but) political parties have not re-

ally distanced themselves. There have been meetings between the police and these groups in which assurances have been given to the police, but the reality on the ground is diff erent,” he said.

The militias have been ac-cused of stealing ballot boxes and attacking or intimidat-ing their political opponents in Ghana’s past elections.

The fl agging economy and corruption allegations against

offi cials have also been key is-sues during campaigning.

With exports of gold, cocoa and oil, Ghana’s economy en-joyed signifi cant growth until recent years when huge foreign debts slowed down progress.

Another issue that may aff ect voters is technical problems at polling stations which govern-ment worker Abdul Basit be-lieves may prevent people from casting their ballots.

“That could bring violence and tension. That is our fear. Especially for this part of the country (Tamale),” said Basit.

Following the last elections in 2012, Akufo Addo – who polled 47.7% of the vote compared to Mahama’s 50.7% – contested the results in Ghana’s consti-tutional court, although he was ultimately unsuccessful.

This time he has vowed to ac-cept the results even if he loses.

Campaign billboards show Mahama and Akufo Addo on a street in Accra.

Ghana opposition supporter killed at election gatheringAFPAccra

Child soldier-turned-warlord Dominic Ong-wen was known as a

“ferocious and enthusiastic” rebel fi ghter, the International Criminal Court (ICC) heard yes-terday, as he became the fi rst-ever member of Uganda’s brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to go on trial.

“Dominic Ongwen became one of the most senior com-manders in the LRA ... follow-ing rapid promotion for his loyal fi ghting and ferocity,” ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said.

“He did so by his enthusiastic adoption of the LRA’s violent methods and through demon-strations that he could be more active and more brutal” than others, Bensouda told the court.

Warning that she was about to show “extremely disturbing im-ages”, she played shocking vid-eos of the scene after an LRA at-tack on northern Lukodi refugee camp, showing disembowelled children, and the charred bodies of babies in shallow graves.

Ongwen, 41, earlier denied 70 war crimes and crimes against humanity charges as he also be-came the fi rst former child sol-dier to be tried by the ICC for his role in the notorious rebel group led by the elusive Joseph Kony.

“In the name of God, I deny all these charges in respect to the war in northern Uganda,” Ongwen said.

He maintained he “was not the LRA”, but “one of the peo-ple who had crimes committed” against them.

A self-styled mystic and prophet, Kony launched a bloody rebellion against Kam-pala some three decades ago seeking to impose his own ver-sion of the Ten Commandments on northern Uganda.

The UN says it has slaugh-tered more than 100,000 people and abducted 60,000 children since it was set up in 1987.

More than 4,000 victims are taking part in Ongwen’s trial and scores were watching the proceedings at four sites in northern Uganda.

About 150 people, mostly subsistence farmers, crammed into a room at Lukodi primary school to watch, squeezed onto rows of dilapidated wooden benches.

“We have been waiting al-most 11 years for justice,” said Vincent Oyet, whose stepmoth-er was shot in a 2004 LRA raid and whose house was burned to the ground.

The son of Ugandan school-teachers, Ongwen was abducted as a child while on his way to school, and likely suff ered sa-distic initiation rites into the militia’s ranks such as being forced to drink the blood of his victims.

But ICC prosecutors in The Hague say unlike some 9,000 people who escaped from the

LRA, Ongwen chose to stay, helping orchestrate the abduc-tion and enslavement “of chil-dren under the age of 15 to par-ticipate actively in hostilities”.

The trial focuses on attacks on four refugee camps in north-ern Uganda from 2002 to 2005, in which people were killed, tortured, raped and children kidnapped to be “moulded” into the LRA’s way of life.

Some were as young as six, said Bensouda, recounting how one witness told of kids being given military training but “they were so small that the muzzles of their AK47 rifl es dragged on the ground”.

Ongwen also stands accused of systematically abducting young girls for sex, and distrib-uting hundreds to his men.

“They were held for months, and in many cases for years in sexual and domestic slavery,” Bensouda said, describing re-peated rapes that often led to the birth of children who were “ingested” into the LRA ranks.

Ongwen, who listened in-tently in court writing notes in

a small notebook, is said to have had at least seven wives – one was just 10 when she was fi rst raped.

DNA tests have revealed he fathered at least 11 children with diff erent girls.

The defence however says it is considering several argu-ments including that Ongwen is suff ering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

His lawyers also maintain he was acting under duress.

But Bensouda said: “Having suff ered victimisation in the past is not a justifi cation or an excuse to victimise others.”

Each human being is “en-dowed with moral responsibility for their actions”, she said.

“We are not here to deny that he was a victim in his youth, we will prove what he did, what he said and the impact on the many victims,” she said.

Ongwen surrendered himself to US forces in 2015.

But Kony remains at large with about 150 followers hiding out in the jungles of the Central African Republic.

Ex-LRA commander denies war crimesAFPThe Hague

People at Lukodi primary school watch the screening of the start of the trial of Ongwen in The Hague.

Congolese troops last week detained dozens of South Sudanese sol-

diers who were fl eeing a rebel attack across the border, a lo-cal radio station and aid work-ers said yesterday, increasing fears of spillover from South Sudan’s confl ict.

More than 57,000 South Su-danese refugees have poured into the Democratic Repub-lic of the Congo this year as fi ghting between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and various rebel groups inches south towards the Congo and Uganda.

Valentin Ngaito, editor of a community radio station in the Congolese town of Aba, 10km (six miles) south of the border, told Reuters that Congolese troops detained 41 South Su-danese soldiers and one police offi cer on Saturday after they fl ed a rebel assault over the frontier.

“They came with their fami-lies – women and children. They remained at the military headquarters until (Monday),” he said, adding that he believed the regional UN mission had since transported them to the town of Dungu, about 200km away.

The UN mission, the Con-golese army and the Congolese government were not imme-diately available for comment and Reuters was unable to independently verify the ac-count.

But Medard Mokobke Mabe, a co-ordinator for the Red Cross in the area, said that South Sudanese soldiers had been detained after having crossed the border.

He did not know how many have been detained.

UN Congo mission chief Maman Sidikou told the Secu-rity Council on Monday that concern was increasing about the spillover eff ects from the South Sudan confl ict into the Congo.

More than 1mn people have fl ed South Sudan since the confl ict erupted in December 2013 following a dispute be-tween Kiir and his former vice-president, Riek Machar.

It is the largest exodus from confl ict in central Africa since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Machar and more than 750 supporters fl ed into the Congo in August after fi erce fi ght-ing in the South Sudan capital Juba.

They were evacuated by the UN mission from northeastern Congo to receive medical care.

Most are still staying on UN bases.

Fleeing S Sudanese troops held in CongoReutersKinshasa

Mugabe praises resilient Zimbabweans, skirts bond notesPresident Robert Mugabe praised Zimbabweans yesterday for their resilience in the face of economic hardship, in a speech that avoided the recent introduction of “bond notes”, a new currency that has raised concerns of a return to uncontrolled money-printing.The southern African nation is grappling with a devastating drought that has left more than 4mn

people facing hunger, while the worst financial crisis in seven years has fuelled some of the biggest anti-government protests in a decade.Africa’s oldest leader, now aged 92, stumbled through a 30-minute State of the Nation speech in parliament that lavished praise on the security forces for maintaining “the peaceful environment that we have”.

17Gulf TimesWednesday, December 7, 2016

AMERICAS

Beyonce

leads with

9 Grammy

nominations

AFPNew York

Pop diva Beyonce yesterday led nominations for next year’s Grammy Awards but

faced tough competition from fellow chart-topping artistes in-cluding Adele.

Beyonce received nods in nine categories for the music indus-try’s biggest night including Al-bum of the Year for Lemonade.

Beyonce will face off at the February 12 awards in three of the most prestigious categories against English balladeer Adele, whose 25 has been one of the top-selling albums of the 21st century.

Besides Album of the Year, Beyonce and Adele go head-to-head for Record of the Year, which recognises individual tracks, and Song of the Year, which looks at songwriting.

Adele was nominated in the two categories for her power-track of lost love Hello, while Beyonce is in the running for Formation, a bouncy track that marks her deepest foray into hip-hop.

The 59th Grammy Awards will be presented at a gala in Los An-geles after voting by 13,000 mu-sic professionals.

If she wins in all categories, Beyonce would break the record for most Grammys by a female artiste. Beyonce has won 20 Grammys over her career but has never won Album of the Year, despite being nominated twice in the category.

Two of hip-hop’s biggest names, Kanye West and Drake, were each nominated in eight categories as was R&B sensation Rihanna.

West, a media celebrity who recently was hospitalised after a reported breakdown, took ad-vantage of a change in Grammy rules to consider streaming-only releases.

West put out his last album, The Life of Pablo, only on Tidal and then other streaming serv-ices as the on-demand online format rapidly grows.

With no physical album, West challenged traditional industry notions of an album, tinkering with his music after its “release.”

Dad jailed for leavingson to die in hot carAFPMiami

A man from the southern US state of Georgia got life in prison without

possibility of parole for leaving his toddler son to die in a hot car while he sent sexually explicit messages from his offi ce.

Justin Ross Harris, 36, was given the maximum sentence af-ter lead prosecutor Chuck Boring said 22-month-old Cooper Har-ris perished in “the most tortur-ous, horrifi c, unimaginable way possible.”

Harris has said that he forgot to drop his son off at daycare on June 18, 2014, and didn’t realise he had left the boy strapped into his car seat until after he had driven for a few minutes after leaving work.

Prosecutors had argued that Harris wanted to be free of family responsibilities. An investigation revealed that Harris had made Internet searches about life with-out children and how to survive prison, and watched videos of animals dying in cars in the sun.

In an unexpected twist to the case, a police detective said Har-

ris had texted sexually explicit messages to six women, one of them as young as 17, while his son was baking to his death.

A jury three weeks ago found him guilty of charges including malice murder, cruelty to chil-dren and sexual exploitation of children — in reference to the teenage woman he texted.

In addition to the life term for the murder charge, Cobb County superior court Judge Mary Staley Clark tacked on 32 years for the other crimes.

“The evidence that was pre-sented at trial and the jury’s verdict basically says it all,” Bor-ing said. “The evidence showed that this defendant was driven by selfi shness and committed an unspeakable act against his own fl esh and blood.”

Harris, who was wearing an orange prison jumpsuit with his hands and ankles shackled, de-clined to speak at the sentenc-ing. He frowned throughout the proceeding but did not show any emotion as the sentence was read out.

His attorney, Maddox Kilgore, said he planned to fi le a motion for a new trial.

I suff er from mentalillness, says Lady GagaLondon Evening StandardLos Angeles

Lady Gaga has revealed she has post-traumatic stress disorder after being raped

when she was 19.The singer, now 30, spoke for

the fi rst time about her strug-gle while visiting a centre for young homeless LGBTQ people in New York.

“I suff er from a mental ill-ness — I suff er from PTSD,” she said. “I’ve never told anyone that before, so here we are.”

Two years ago Gaga revealed that she was raped at the age of 19 by a man who was 20 years older than her. In an interview with the Today breakfast show after her visit to the centre, she said: “I told the kids today that I suff er from a mental illness.”

She added: “The kindness that’s shown to me by doctors as well as my family, and my friends, it’s really saved my life. I’ve been searching for ways to heal myself, and I’ve found that kindness is the best way.”

She said she battles with mental illness “every day”.

Talking about her trip to the Ali Forney Centre, the sing-er said: “These children are not just homeless or in need. Many of them are trauma sur-vivors. They’ve been rejected in some type of way. My own trauma in my life has helped me to understand the trauma of others.

“I am no better than any of those kids. And I’m no worse than any of them. We are equal. We both walk our two feet on the same earth.

“It’s really important to re-mind kids who are suff ering from a traumatic experience or from abandonment, to remind them that they’re not alone, and that they’re loved. And we’re in this together.”

She was visiting the centre as part of a campaign to share one million acts of kindness by the end of the year.

Gaga revealed in a 2014 ra-dio interview on The Howard Stern Show that she had been raped as a teenager. At the

time, she said she had waited to go public about the rape because she did not want it to defi ne her. “I went to Catholic school and then all this crazy stuff happened, and I was go-ing, ‘Oh, is this just the way adults are?’ I was very naïve,” she explained.

“It happens every day, and it’s really scary, and it’s sad,” she added, explaining that the true impact did not hit her until four or fi ve years later.

She did not tell anyone about the rape for seven years: “I was so traumatised by it that I was like, ‘Just keep go-ing.’ Because I just had to get out of there.”

In the Today interview, which was broadcast yester-day, she said that “meditation helps me to calm down”. She later tweeted: “Today I shared one my deepest secrets w/ the world. Secrets keep you sick w/ shame.”

Lady Gaga was in London on Monday to attend the Fash-ion Awards at the Royal Albert Hall.

Trump callsfor cancellingnew Air ForceOne jet orderReutersNew York

US president-elect Donald Trump yesterday urged the government to cancel

an order with Boeing Co to de-velop a revamped Air Force One — one of the most prominent symbols of the US presidency — saying costs were out of control.

Trump, who takes offi ce on January 20, pledged during his unconventional campaign for the White House that he would put his skills as a businessman to work for taxpayers, and had griped about the cost of Presi-dent Barack Obama’s use of the presidential aircraft.

It was not immediately clear what prompted his complaint about Boeing yesterday, but a spokesman said that Trump was sending a message that he in-tends to save taxpayers’ money.

“Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4bn. Cancel order!” Trump said on Twitter before making a surprise ap-pearance in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, where he amplifi ed his comments.

“The plane is totally out of control. I think it’s ridiculous. I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money but not that much money,” he told reporters.

It was not clear what Trump’s source of information was for the cost. The budgeted costs for the Air Force One replacement programme are $2.87bn for the fi scal years 2015 through 2021, according to budget documents.

A March 2016 report from the Government Accountability Of-fi ce, a watchdog agency, esti-mated the total cost of the two 747’s, which have to be exten-sively modifi ed so they can func-tion as an airborne White House, was estimated at $3.2bn.

Boeing has not yet been awarded the money to build the two proposed Air Force One re-placements. It is currently work-ing on engineering and design-ing the aircraft.

“We are currently under con-tract for $170mn to help deter-mine the capabilities of these complex military aircraft that serve the unique requirements of the president of the United States,” the company said in a statement. “We look forward to working with the US Air Force on subsequent phases of the pro-gramme allowing us to deliver the best planes for the president at the best value for the Ameri-can taxpayer.”

Boeing shares dipped after Trump’s tweet and were down around 0.5% at midday. Shares of several other major defence contractors were also lower.

A wealthy real estate developer, Trump used his own Boeing 757 to campaign around the country, pledging to shake up Washington.

A Trump spokesman said that his comments about the plane refl ected the president-elect’s desire to keep down costs across the board, and so save taxpayers’ money.

The US Air Force, which oper-ates the presidential planes, fi rst announced in January 2015 that Boeing’s 747-8 would be used to replace the two current planes that transport the US president.

The Air Force has two planes in case one breaks down or needs to be taken out of service for maintenance. The two replace-ments for the current Air Force One planes are scheduled to be in service by the 2024 fi scal year.

Boeing offi cials were caught off guard by Trump’s comments since the company is simply meeting requirements mapped out by the Air Force in consul-tation with the White House, said defence consultant Loren Thompson, who has close ties to Boeing and other companies.

The cost of the planes is high because of the unique security requirements and communica-tions equipment, Thompson said. “Air Force One has unique mission requirements, includ-ing possibly having to operate in a nuclear war,” Thompson said. “Of course it’s not like buying a vanilla Boeing jumbo jet.”

US presidents have used Boe-ing planes since 1943, according to the company’s website. The 747-8 planes, 240 feet long long with a wing span of 224 feet, can fl y direct from Washington to Hong Kong, 1,600km farther than the current Air Force One.

In a September 2015 Rolling Stone profi le of Trump, early on in his presidential campaign, he was quoted as gushing about the capabilities of his own Boeing plane.

“I bought this from Paul Allen and gutted it top to bottom. It’s bigger than Air Force One, which is a step down from this in every way. Rolls-Royce engines; seats 43. Did you know it was featured on the Discovery Channel as the world’s most luxurious jetliner?” he said.President-elect Donald Trump speaks to reporters at Trump Tower in New York City yesterday.

Trudeau transfixed

The manager of a California warehouse where 36 people died in a horrific fire last week yesterday apologised but declined to accept blame for what he called a “mass grave.” The Oakland, California warehouse housed an artist collective had “started off as a dream, an idea,” manager Derick Ion Almena told broadcaster NBC. On Friday, the two-storey building went up in flames, trapping dozens of partygoers attending a rave. Firefighters said they do not expect to find any more bodies in the charred warehouse. Asked by NBC about his accountability in the episode, Almena asked incredulously: “Should I be held accountable? I can barely stand here right now.”

Current US Vice President Joe Biden told reporters in Washington that he’s not ruling out a run for president in the country’s next election. “I’m gonna run in 2020,” Biden said, as heard in audio recorded by an NBC News correspondent. When asked what for, Biden responded: “For president.” When pressed on the comment, Biden remained unclear on the details however. “I’m not committing not to run,” he said. “I’m not committing to anything. I learned a long time ago fate has a strange way of intervening.” The remarks came after Biden presided over an emotional vote in the US Senate to rename part of a medical innovation bill after his oldest son, Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015.

Authorities ratcheted up security on the Los Angeles metro following a tip from overseas about an impending bomb attack yesterday against a station in the sprawling rail network. The threat was relayed by an anonymous man who called a public safety line run by an unidentified foreign government, which then passed on the information to a Federal Bureau of Investigation terrorism task force, said Deirdre Fike, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s off ice in Los Angeles. The target of the threatened attack was metro’s Universal City station where the caller who spoke English said an explosive device would go off yesterday, Fike told reporters.

Comedian Bill Cosby has lost a bid to keep Pennsylvania prosecutors from using his own words against him at his criminal sexual assault trial. Judge Steven O’Neill of the Court of Common Pleas in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, ruled that prosecutors can introduce potentially damaging sworn testimony the 79-year-old entertainer gave about his sexual history during a civil case in 2005. The testimony, in which Cosby acknowledged giving women Quaaludes before engaging in what he described as consensual sexual acts with them, helped persuade the Montgomery County district attorney to file charges after it was unsealed in 2015.

Two Muslim women working for authorities in New York suff ered hate crimes just 36 hours apart, off icials said, following an explosion in such incidents across America since the election of Donald Trump. A uniformed city transit employee was taken to hospital with injuries to her knee and ankle after being pushed down the stairs at Grand Central Station. A male suspect allegedly pushed the station agent and called her “terrorist,” said Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. On Monday, another man was held on a $50,000 bail on a hate crime charge after an off -duty Muslim police off icer was harassed in Brooklyn while out with her 16-year-old son.

Manager of warehousegutted by fire apologises

Joe Biden hints at a 2020 presidential run

Increased security onmetro after bomb threat

Cosby testimony can beused against him: judge

Two Muslim women subjected to hate crimes

TRAGEDY PEOPLESCARE LEGAL LAW AND ORDER

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau watches as Isabel Clement, 12, takes part in the Hour of Code event at Shopify in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

ASEAN

Gulf TimesWednesday, December 7, 201618

Annan urges rule of law amid Rohingya crisisReutersYangon

Former UN chief Kofi An-nan yesterday urged My-anmar security forces to

act within the rule of law in the country’s northwest, where an army crackdown has killed at least 86 people and sent 10,000 fl eeing over the border to Bang-ladesh.

The violence is the biggest challenge faced by Aung San Suu Kyi’s eight-month-old govern-

ment and has prompted calls for the Nobel Peace laureate to do more to help the Rohingya mi-nority, who are denied citizen-ship and access to basic services.

Security operations must not compromise citizens’ civil rights, said Annan, who heads a government-appointed panel tasked with fi nding solutions to the confl ict between Myanmar’s Buddhists and the Muslim Ro-hingyas.

“There is no trade-off be-tween security and civil liber-ties,” he told reporters in Yangon,

the commercial capital, after meeting state counsellor Suu Kyi and commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing on his second visit to the country. “Wherever secu-rity operations might be neces-sary, civilians must be protected at all times and I urge the securi-ty services to act in full compli-ance with the rule of law.”

The committee was “deeply concerned by reports of alleged human rights abuses,” Annan said.

Myanmar authorities have rejected allegations by residents

and rights groups that soldiers raped Rohingya women, burnt homes and killed civilians dur-ing a crackdown in response to coordinated attacks on three border posts along the frontier with Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi appointed the nine-member panel before the cur-rent fi ghting erupted to advise on the restive state, where ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and the Ro-hingya Muslims have lived sepa-rately since clashes in 2012 that killed more than 100 people.

Protesters across Southeast

Asia have turned out for dem-onstrations against the violence, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia, which have predomi-nantly Muslim populations.

In Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, more than 10,000 peo-ple took to the streets yesterday to protest outside the Myanmar embassy against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims, a city po-lice offi cial told Reuters.

More than 10,000 people had fl ed to Bangladesh in recent weeks, United Nations offi cials said last week.

14 dead in southern Thailand fl ooding

AFPBangkok

Days of torrential rain and fl ooding have killed at least 14 people in south-

ern Thailand, with authorities declaring much of the region a disaster zone, the government said yesterday.

Heavy rains have lashed the central part of Thailand’s south for much of the last week, in-cluding the popular tourist draws of Krabi, Koh Samui and Koh Pha-ngan, aff ecting some fl ights and ferry services.

“582,343 people from 88 dis-tricts are aff ected and 14 have people have been killed,” the in-terior ministry said in an update.

Three people have been in-jured, the statement added, with 11 southern provinces declared disaster zones, a process that frees up more emergency gov-ernment aid and resources.

At least three people are known to be missing.

In Saiburi district, Pattani province, rescuers on Tuesday were searching a swollen river for two missing boys who were swept away in a fl ash fl ood as anxious relatives looked on, an AFP photographer at the scene said. Railway services have also been suspended south of Na-khon Si Thammarat province af-ter fl oodwaters covered the train line there.

Police start burning massive drug haulAFPJakarta

Police began torching about a tonne of illegal drugs in Jakarta yesterday,

as Indonesian President Joko Widodo defended his tough war on narcotics.

Authorities wheeled out giant furnaces to incinerate some of the massive haul on display, including nearly half a tonne of methamphetamine, 190,000 ecstasy tablets and 420 kilogrammes of marijua-na.

Widodo and other top offi -cials, wearing protective gloves and masks, inspected the drugs before tossing bags of pills into the incinerator.

Indonesia has tough drugs laws but Widodo has made combating narcotics a top pri-ority since taking offi ce in late 2014, resuming the execution of traffi ckers after an unoffi cial hiatus.

Eighteen convicted drug smugglers — including 15 for-eigners — have been sent to the fi ring squad in Indonesia under his administration.

Widodo has defended his hardline stance, claiming Indo-nesia faces a “drugs emergency” and must act to protect the next generation.

“Every year 15,000 Indone-sian youth die because of drugs.

How many drug dealers and traffi ckers die every year?” he said.

“When I see this evidence, it becomes clear we once again have to declare a war on drugs,” he added, to applause.

Indonesia’s drugs agency said

in 2016 nearly a tonne of meth-amphetamine, three tonnes of marijuana and roughly 600,000

ecstasy pills had been seized. They said the production of

synthetic drugs was shifting to

countries that were tradition-ally transit points for narcotics, like Indonesia.

Widodo ordered an offi cial investigation in August into al-legations top police and military

offi cers took kickbacks from a drug kingpin to protect his lu-crative business.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Chief Security Minister Wiranto (second right), Head of the National anti-Narcotics Agency (BNN) Commissioner General Budi Waseso (left) and Director General of Customs Heru Pamungkas (right) prepare to destroy illegal narcotics during a ceremony in Jakarta yesterday.

Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, head of the nine-member multi-sector advisory commission on Myanmar’s Rakhine State, delivers his address at a press conference in Yangon yesterday, flanked by commission members Mya Thidar (left) and Saw Khin Tint.

Singapore tops latest education surveyReutersParis

Fifteen-year-olds from Singapore topped the ranks of the best-

performing students in the OECD’s triennial survey on international education, fol-lowed by Japan, Estonia, Fin-land and Canada.

The metropolitan areas of Hong Kong, Macau and Taipei also scored high in the survey covering science, reading and mathematics, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

Some 540,000 students across 72 countries or cities were quizzed with a compu-ter-based test during the latest version of the survey, known as the Programme for Inter-national Student Assessment (PISA).

With a special focus this time on science, the survey found that students knowledge in the fi eld was broadly stable over the last decade, although Colombia, Israel, Macau, Portugal, Qatar and Romania made signifi cant gains.

Among the 35 mostly

wealthy countries belonging to the OECD, one out of fi ve students on average did not achieve the baseline level of profi ciency in science.

“Sciences education isn’t keeping up. Why? Because sci-ence itself is moving at light-ening speed,” said OECD Sec-retary General Angel Gurria.

Presenting the results, he said that students from Singa-pore were eff ectively a year and a half ahead of other students on average.

Students from both Britain and the United States saw a decline in their reading, math-ematics and science scores on average since the last survey in 2012.

A nearly 20% increase in spending per student over the past decade in OECD countries had little impact on students’ scores in science, the survey found.

Students in private schools scored better in science than public schools, but that was no longer the case after adjust-ing the data to take students’ social and economic back-grounds into account.

“A privately funded educa-tion is not a guarantee of suc-cess,” Gurria said.

Group held for treason ‘got money transfers’

ReutersJakarta

Indonesian police said yes-terday they had evidence that a group of people ac-

cused of plotting to hijack a protest rally to lead an uprising against the government had received money transfers from an unidentifi ed source.

Police arrested eight people on Friday for suspected trea-son in pre-dawn raids ahead of the rally that day by protesters

opposed to the Christian gov-ernor of the capital, Jakarta.

“There is evidence of trans-fers,” national police spokes-man Martinus Sitompul said, when asked if the group had been funded by others.

He declined to elaborate on where the funds had come from. More than 150,000 peo-ple, led by hardliners, took to the streets last week to call for the arrest of Jakarta’s gover-nor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who they say insulted the holy book.

AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA19Gulf Times


At least three senior minis-ters joined the race to re-place New Zealand Prime

Minister John Key yesterday, a day after Key stunned the nation by resigning to spend more time with his family, with his deputy Bill English seen as the front-runner.

English, the fi nance minister and deputy leader of the ruling centre-right National Party, an-nounced his candidacy, as did Health Minister Jonathan Cole-man and Police Minister Judith Collins.

The 54-year-old English, from a farming background, lacks the charisma of the aff able Key but is recognised as the economic brain who guided the centre-right ad-ministration through the global fi nancial crisis.

He is a veteran MP, having en-tered parliament in 1990 and he

was at the helm of the National Party when it suff ered its worst election defeat in 2002.

Coleman was fi rst elected to parliament 11 years ago after practising as a doctor in New Zealand, Britain and Australia.

In 2014, he became the fi rst doctor in 70 years to be respon-sible for New Zealand’s health portfolio.

Collins was seen as a high-fl y-er when she entered parliament in 2002 but resigned as a cabinet minister in 2014 after a leaked e-mail alleged that she had under-mined the work of a senior civil servant.

She was restored as a minister a year ago.

Collins, 57, argued the National Party needed the best person at the helm “and I believe I’m that person”.

“It’s going to need someone who can make decisions, who can think on their feet, who can make hard calls and who can connect to New Zealanders, whether they’re

women, men or of any ethnic-ity – and I believe I can do that,” she said.

Other contenders may yet still emerge before the party holds a caucus meeting on Monday to vote for a new leader.

English, who has been en-dorsed by Key, is seen as best-placed to win but some analysts felt Coleman stood a chance.

“It’s Bill English’s to lose in the sense that there’s such a strong endorsement and essen-tially direction from Key that it’s very diffi cult for the caucus to outright repudiate the prime minister’s preference,” said Jon Johansson, a political scientist at Wellington’s Victoria University.

Several Cabinet members, in-cluding Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse and Pri-mary Industry Minister Nathan Guy, have declared their support for English.

Other potential candidates include senior Cabinet minis-ter Steven Joyce, fellow Cabinet

minister Paula Bennett and En-ergy Minister Simon Bridges.

“I can see fantastic oppor-tunities for stronger economic performance, for spreading the benefi ts of growth for more New Zealanders ... I am a candidate for leadership,” English told report-ers after a caucus meeting in New Zealand’s distinctive “Beehive” parliament building in the capi-tal, Wellington.

National elections are not ex-pected until late 2017.

A recent UMR survey of vot-ers pegged English as favourite to replace Key on 21%, followed by Joyce on 16%, Bennett on 11% and Collins on 6%.

Coleman was not ranked in the survey, which was conducted in early October, but said that he had the advantage of youth and energy.

“I am seeking party leader-ship and I am absolutely up for the challenge. I believe I’ve got the energy, I’ve got the relative youth on my side, and I am ab-

solutely focused on winning this leadership contest,” he said. “I feel it needs generational change, it’s going to need new thinking in policy areas, it’s going to need new personnel.”

Johansson said some back-benchers felt senior party posi-tions were all held by old hands and there was room for new blood.

“I think there could be a little bit more turbulence going on in that caucus than surface appear-ances,” he said.

Key has been New Zealand’s leader since 2008 and the Na-tional Party is part-way through a third, three-year term that has been marked by political stability and economic reform.

He remains one of the world’s most popular leaders, praised for his stewardship of New Zealand’s $170bn economy in the after-math of the global fi nancial crisis and two devastating earthquakes in Christchurch, the largest city on New Zealand’s South Island.

Contenders line up after NZ PM resignsReuters/AFPWellington

South Korea’s most powerful tycoons, including de facto Samsung chief Lee Jae-

yong, stammered and squirmed yesterday under a verbal assault from a parliamentary commit-tee probing a corruption scandal that has riveted the nation.

Millions watched in astonish-ment as the televised hearing showed the heads of the coun-try’s eight largest conglomerates being publicly chastised over do-nations their companies made to dubious foundations controlled by Choi Soo-sil, a close friend of President Park Geun-hye.

“Do you know anything?” one legislator chided Lee as he re-peatedly claimed ignorance of who in Samsung authorised cash transfers to a foundation in Ger-many that funded the equestrian training of Choi’s daughter.

“Do you think you’re doing a good job as the head of a global company like Samsung by saying that you don’t know?” the legis-lator demanded.

The vice-chairman of Sam-sung Electronics and de facto head of the entire Samsung Group looked deeply uncom-fortable as he sought to bat away questions with what sounded like rehearsed expressions of re-morse and contrition.

“I have so many weaknesses and Samsung has things to cor-rect,” Lee responded when asked if he agreed with the public per-ception that the conglomerates known as “chaebols” had know-ingly connived with Choi.

“This crisis made me real-ise that we need to change our-

selves,” Lee added, ignoring de-mands to answer the question and prompting one exasperated committee member to shout: “Stop giving ridiculous answers and excuses!”

Choi is currently awaiting trial on charges of coercion and abuse of power.

Park on Friday faces an im-peachment vote in parliament which is almost certain to be adopted with the backing of more than 30 members of her own Saenuri Party.

Park is accused of colluding in Choi’s eff orts to strong-arm the companies represented at yes-terday’s hearing into funding two foundations that Choi allegedly used as personal ATMs.

Samsung made the big-gest contributions of 20bn won

($17mn), followed by Hyundai, SK, LG and Lotte, whose chair-men were also at the hearing.

Their giant family-run cor-porations have dominated the export-driven direction of Asia’s fourth largest economy for dec-ades.

They all denied providing funds in return for favours but suggested that they regularly came under pressure from high-level political circles.

“It’s diffi cult for corporations to turn down a request from the (presidential) Blue House,” said Huh Chang-soo, chair of the GS Group and head of the Federation of Korean Industries.

Lee testifi ed at the hearing that Samsung had received many requests for funding, but “never provided support or gave dona-

tions in return for something”.He also recalled Park pushing

for donations during a meeting in July, but said there was no men-tion of specifi c foundations.

He denied any personal rela-tionship with Choi and, while ac-knowledging payments had been made that benefi ted her daugh-ter, stressed that he had not been consulted.

“I will advise my aides to en-sure something like this will nev-er happen in the future,” Lee said.

The committee said it would seek to compel Choi to submit to questioning after she rejected a summons to appear today on health grounds.

It was the fi rst such hearing since 1988 when chaebol heads were questioned over donations to a slush fund for former strong-

man Chun Doo-hwan.The current scandal has trig-

gered protests and lifted the lid on simmering anger over widen-ing income gaps and resentment at the gilded life and privileges of the political and business elite.

Protesters outside the national assembly greeted the arriving in-dustry titans with cries of “Lock them up!”

“It’s extremely rare for these people to be exposed to the public eye in this way,” Chung Sun-sup, chief executive of Chaebol.com, a website that tracks corporate assets and practices, told AFP.

“People hate them for their behaviour and envy them their wealth. For many, the sight of them being summoned to parlia-ment for a grilling will be quite cathartic,” Chung said.

Chaebol chiefs harangued in graft scandal probeAFPSeoul

(From left) CJ Group chairman Sohn Kyung-shik, LG Group chairman Koo Bon-moo, Hanhwa Group chairman Kim Seung-youn, SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, Samsung Group’s heir-apparent Lee Jae-yong, Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin, Hanjin Group chairman Cho Yang-ho, and Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo take an oath yesterday during a parliamentary probe into a scandal engulfing President Park at the National Assembly in Seoul.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, engulfed in an infl uence peddling scandal,

said if she was impeached she would wait for a court to uphold the decision, an offi cial of her party said yesterday, signalling a political crisis could drag on for months.

Parliament is expected to hold a vote on her on Friday, but even if the opposition managed to win the two-thirds majority needed for impeachment, the vote must be upheld by the Constitutional Court, a process that could take months.

Park met leaders of her Saenu-ri party and top offi cial Chung Jin-suk later said the president was willing to accept her party’s proposal for her to step down in April, but gave no indication that was willing to resign immedi-ately.

“She will fi ght really hard to

overturn at the Constitutional Court,” said Rhee Jong-hoon, a political commentator at iGM Consulting.

“And if the motion is over-turned? She will remain in offi ce until her term is fi nished. Noth-ing matters after the Constitu-tional Court rules against the impeachment bill.”

Park, whose term offi cially ends in February 2018, could be-come South Korea’s fi rst demo-cratically-elected leader to leave offi ce early in disgrace.

Her comments indicated that she had not changed her mind in the face of intense pressure for her to resign immediately.

“If the impeachment proceed-ings take place, and the motion is approved, I will observe the process taken by the Constitu-tional Court and calmly go along with what’s right for the country and the people,” Chung quoted Park as saying.

The three opposition parties need at least 28 members from Park’s Saenuri Party for the im-

peachment bill to pass with a two-thirds majority.

At least 29 of them are believed to be planning to vote for the bill, members of a breakaway faction said.

Park is accused of colluding with a friend and a former aide to pressure big business owners into paying into two foundations set up to back her policy initia-tives.

Park has denied wrongdoing but has apologised for careless-ness in her ties with the friend, Choi Soon-sil.

In televised remarks last week, Park off ered to step down and asked parliament to decide how and when she should leave offi ce.

Protesters have also been marching to demand she resign.

The opposition has cited a protest rally on Saturday, which organisers called the largest yet, with 1.7mn participants, as the clearest reason why she should be ousted.

Police said the crowd in Seoul reached 320,000 at its peak.

President Park says she’d wait for top court to uphold impeachmentReutersSeoul

Supporters of President Park wave the national flags during a rally yesterday against the impeachment of the president outside the ruling Saenuri Party building in Seoul.

Lawsuit filed against S Korea presidentFive thousand South Koreans filed a lawsuit yesterday, demanding compensation from President Park Geun-hye, the same day business leaders were questioned by parliament over the ongoing corruption scandal engulfing the embattled leader.The plaintiff s filed the suit at a Seoul district court, seeking 500,000 won ($427) each in compensation for mental suff ering caused by Park’s influence-peddling scandal, according to Yonhap news agency.Attorney Kwak Sang-eon, who represents the group, said the president should be held responsible for “committing criminal activities using the status of the president”, Yonhap reported.Kwak is the son-in-law of late former president Roh Moo-hyun.

A pair of rainbow-painted lions displayed in front of one of Hong Kong’s

most iconic buildings has been slammed as “disgusting” by anti-gay campaigners who condemned the show of sup-port for the city’s LGBT com-munity.

The multi-coloured art piece has been placed in front of the HSBC’s landmark building in the business district, beside two famous bronze lions that the bank fi rst installed in 1935.

An important symbol of power in Chinese culture, the bank’s bronze guardians have come to represent prosperity in Hong Kong.

The rainbow installation, painted by local artist Michael Lam for HSBC’s “Celebrate Pride, Celebrate Unity” cam-paign, drew the ire of con-servatives, with some groups launching a petition to have the artwork removed.

The petition said that the rainbow colours, symbolic of the LGBT community, are emasculating and deprive “all the strength and stamina of the original lions”.

It said the statues are “caus-ing annoyance to the feelings of many Hong Kong people as well as trampling on the exist-ing family values”.

The petition has been or-ganised by Roger Wong, an outspoken fi gure against gay rights and the father of Joshua Wong, who famously led Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Um-brella Movement in 2014.

The LGBT-friendly lions will be on show throughout December, following Hong Kong’s annual pride march last month that saw thousands of gay rights supporters hit the streets of the international fi -nancial hub.

“Having a workforce that refl ects the diversity of our millions of customers in Hong Kong and which draws on a wide range of perspectives makes us better able to serve the whole community,” HSBC spokesman Adam Harper told AFP.

Despite the emergence of some LGBT-supporting initia-tives in Hong Kong, conserva-tive groups regularly hit back at the promotion of what they claim is an anti-family agenda.

The government has also been criticised by rights cam-paigners for a lack of anti-discrimination laws and lit-tle progress towards marriage equality.

HSBC’s Facebook page drew thousands of “likes” and many comments expressing admira-tion for its campaign, but some also expressed anger.

“Have you seen what eff ects a small group of gays would have on our society’s systems and the next generation? If HSBC continues to support the rainbow movement I’m defi -nitely going to cancel my ac-count,” said one comment.

However, passers-by were overwhelmingly in favour of the statues, with some stop-ping to take photos.

“A bank needs to be more in-clusive rather than just cater to one group of people,” said Bri-an Yip, who works in fi nance.

HK row over HSBC’s rainbow lion statuesAFPHong Kong

A man walks between a pair of lions painted in rainbow stripes displayed outside HSBC’s main off ice in Hong Kong.

China users complain of combustible iPhones, says consumer watchdog

Several Chinese iPhone users have claimed that their handsets caught fire or exploded, according to a Shanghai consumer watchdog which called on tech giant Apple to address the complaints.Fresh on the heels of Samsung’s worldwide Galaxy Note 7 safety fiasco, the state-run Shanghai Consumer Council said it had received eight reports in recent months of iPhones that spontaneously combusted while being used or charged.The report, seen on the council’s website, was posted on Friday.It quoted one woman as saying that her iPhone 6s Plus exploded in August, shattering the screen and leaving the battery and back of the phone blackened.Apple provided the woman with a new iPhone but did not address the cause of the incident, the report said.“Apple should be responsible for consumers” and deal with complaints in a timely manner, the council said. “A large amount of consumer complaints are not solved eff ectively.”The council said it has received a six-fold surge in total complaints against Apple in the past two months, including sudden shutdowns of the iPhone 6 and 6s even though batteries still have enough power.AFP was unable to immediately obtain a response from Apple in China over the consumer watchdog report.

Aussie filmed boxing a kangaroo to save dog keeps his job as zookeeper

A man who boxed a kangaroo to save his dog in a video watched by 3mn people online will not lose his job as a zookeeper, it was announced yesterday.Greig Tonkins, 34, an elephant keeper at Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, was filmed by a friend as he ran towards a 2m tall male kangaroo that was holding his mastiff dog in a headlock.The dog was being used by Tonkins and his friends to hunt wild boar near the western New South Wales town of Condobolin to fulfil the wishes of a terminally ill friend, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.In the video, the animal rears up on its tail to full height while still holding the dog, named Max.After the kangaroo lets the dog go, Tonkins then gives a sharp jab to the animal’s head and it stands still, seemingly shocked and confused.Tonkins backs off and the kangaroo turns and hops away.Taronga Zoo said yesterday that they had received demands for Tonkins to be sacked after the video went viral on YouTube and on international television news.

Japan plans bigger defence budgetJapan is planning to increase its defence budget once again amid threats from North Korea and China, the Nikkei business magazine reported yesterday.Ministers want to raise defence spending, already at a record high, to ¥5.1tn ($40bn) during the coming fiscal year.The government is expected to vote on the decision this month.If the increase goes ahead, it will be the fifth time in as many years that Japan’s defence budget has risen.

BRITAIN


Man shot dead afterleaving restaurantLondon Evening StandardLondon

A man was shot in the head at point-blank range after be-ing ambushed in a residen-

tial street moments after leaving a restaurant.

The 24-year-old was pro-nounced dead at the scene after being gunned down as he tried to get into a car in Fulham at about 9.30pm on Monday night. A wit-ness told how the man’s friend desperately tried to help him be-fore shouting: “He’s gone, he’s gone.”

The victim had been dining at Caribbean restaurant Jerkys, whose regulars are said to include Britain’s Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon.

Jorge Pardo, 30, a phone app developer who lives nearby, said: “I heard a noise like a fi recracker. I looked out of the window and there were two guys running away in opposite directions. There were people in the road calling the po-

lice. The man’s friend was shout-ing his name and then screamed ‘He’s gone, he’s gone.’”

A murder investigation has been launched and police are seeking witnesses — including drivers and cyclists who may have camera footage. Detectives said the gun-man had been lying in wait and struck as the victim got into the front passenger seat of a silver and black Renault Captur in Walham Grove, off North End Road.

Residents reported hearing a “loud bang” before the area “swarmed with police” and para-medics. A manager at Jerky’s told the Standard: “Two men came into the shop. They ordered, sat down, ate and enjoyed their meal before they left.

“I think it was their fi rst time here, I’ve never seen them before, but everything was calm and cool. No one was fi ghting. They’d just left and crossed the road when I heard a loud bang.

“We didn’t see what happened. We just saw a car on the other side of the road. The car door was open

and he was shot. It’s very sad.” A resident said: “There was a

really loud bang and we thought it was a car backfi ring.

“We didn’t think for a minute it was a gunshot. I have been here for four years, it’s a beautiful road with nice people, it’s a total shock.”

Another neighbour added: “There was a strange bang, I looked out of the window and saw a group of guys in the street near a car. It was like something out of a gangster movie. I took cover because I didn’t know if the incident had fi nished. It’s very frightening for us.”

Next of kin have been informed and a post-mortem examination is due to take place. There have been no arrests. Detective chief inspector Noel McHugh said: “It would appear the murderer had been waiting in the street in Walham Grove for a while for the friends to return to their car. Did you see someone hanging around from about 8.30pm up until the time of the murder?”

Hunt for vinyl recordafter ‘mystery attack’London Evening StandardLondon

Police believe the wherea-bouts of a rare vinyl record are key to the mystery of

why a City worker was found ly-ing in a street with a broken skull.

Christopher Mapleston, 29, is still in hospital after being discovered in the middle of a road in south London following a night out last month.

Police do not know whether the KPMG Japan specialist fell or was the victim of a robbery.

He was last seen by friends, who have told detectives that he had with him a limited-edi-tion record titled Awakening by Japanese artist Hiroshi Sato featuring Wendy Matthews.

The record and Mapleston’s iPhone 6 are missing and police have issued an appeal to find them.

Detective constable Terry Martin, from Lewisham CID, said: “We cannot be certain whether Christopher’s injury was the result of a fall or an at-tack. One line of enquiry is that he may have been the victim of a robbery as he was found with-

out his iPhone 6. Having spoken to his friends we now know that Christopher was also in posses-sion of a limited-edition record which has yet to be located.

“I am appealing to anyone who may have found it or has been of-fered the item for sale to get in contact with us immediately.”

The financial consultant was last seen by friends as he ran for a N343 bus close to Peckham Rye railway station between 1.30am and 2am on November 20.

He was found about an hour later in Arbuthnot Road in New Cross with head injuries.

He remains in a stable, but serious condition in hospi-tal. Because of his injuries, he has not been able to tell police what happened. But officers have been piecing together his movements from talking to his friends and analysing CCTV footage.

They are keen to hear from anyone who saw Mapleston that night. He is described as approximately 5ft 7in tall and of slim build with brown hair. He was wearing a green camou-flage jacket, black trousers and trainers.

A blanket of smog hangs over London. Three of London’s wealthiest areas were yesterday named for the fifth year running as the worst black spots for toxic particulate air pollution. Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and the City had the highest rate of deaths attributable to PM2.5 particulate pollution. Yesterday, pollution levels were elevated in these three areas, with the Square Mile one below “high” and the two other areas on lower levels of “moderate”.

Former Newcastle United and England football player, Alan Shearer, poses with his medal after been appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), for charitable services to the community, after it was presented to him by Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, at an Investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace yesterday.

Dirty air

Ex-footballer feted

A Belgian national has been found guilty in a British court of funding terrorism after handing over thousands of pounds which may have been used to help fund the Brussels bombings. Zakaria Boufassil, 26, was arrested with Mohamed Ali Ahmed, 27, after the pair arranged a meeting with Brussels bombing suspect Mohamed Abrini in July 2015 and handed over £3,000 in cash in a park in the British city of Birmingham. Before travelling to Britain for the meeting, Brussels suspect Abrini was smuggled into Syria via Istanbul and met Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is believed to have masterminded the Paris terror attacks last year.

Heavy fog across the south of England caused traff ic disruption yesterday morning and dozens of flights were cancelled due to low visibility. Hundreds of passengers were stranded at Heathrow, which was forced to cancel 45 flights because of low visibility, while London City airport in east London had cancelled 43 arrivals and departures by 9am. Up to 18 flights were also delayed or diverted as fog shrouded the city, causing poor visibility. Gatwick said the fog impacted incoming flights and there were delays but no cancellations, while Stansted said it had accepted two diversions from City airport.

British actor Peter Vaughan, best known for his role as Maester Aemon in hit television series Game of Thrones, died yesterday at the age of 93. The character actor had been a recognisable figure on British television screens since the 1950s, but his appearance in the fantasy epic over five years from 2011 won him global fans. “Very sadly Peter Vaughan passed away at approximately 10.30 yesterday morning. He died peacefully with his family around him,” his agent Sally Long-Innes said. Partially sighted in real life, in Game of Thrones he played the blind maester of Castle Black, one of the lord commander’s closest advisers in the Night’s Watch.

A mother-of-three who robbed a 72-year-old pensioner as she withdrew money from a cash machine has been jailed for 18 months. Emma White, 26, was so high on drugs she can barely remember mugging Rita O’Driscoll as she withdrew £300 for a friend at the cash machine in Brixton. The pensioner was so shocked by the robbery she struggled to tell police what had happened to her, Inner London crown court heard. Judge Tudor Owen jailed White for 18 months. He said her behaviour was “disgraceful” and told her that if she did not kick her drug addiction she could spend the rest of her life in and out of prison. White, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to robbery.

A father was killed in a suspected hit-and-run crash as he cycled to work in the early hours. Steve Wightwick, 38, from Buckhurst Hill, was found in the road with critical injuries at about 4.15am on Thursday. He was pronounced dead at the Royal London Hospital. A crowdfunding page has been set up to support his wife Dalene and their son, who has just turned 10. Detective inspector Dave Jones, of Essex Police, said: “We believe the vehicle involved in this collision was a small lorry, probably less than seven-and-a-half tonnes, and light in colour. It was travelling towards Buckhurst Hill from Debden.” Off icers found a wing mirror at the scene.

Belgian convicted forfunding terrorism

Heavy fog causesflight delays

Game of Thrones’ starPeter Vaughan dies at 93

Woman jailed for robbing pensioner

Search for lorry as cyclistdies in suspected hit-run

VERDICT WEATHEROBITUARY CRIME ACCIDENT

Trumpscales backplans forwall at golfcourse

ReutersDublin

A golf course owned by US president-elect Donald Trump has agreed to scale

back a wall designed to protect its greens from coastal ero-sion after opposition from local residents, the local council said yesterday. A plan submitted by Trump’s company in May to build a 2.8km armourstone wall up to 20 metres wide and 5 metres above the water line between the sea and the dunes sparked a campaign by environmental groups and locals to protect the beach.

In its place, the golf club man-agement are now proposing two less visible barriers, of 650 metres and 250 metres in length, above the water line at either end of the beach, two people who attended a public consultation on Monday said. A manager at Trump Inter-national Golf Links Doonbeg did not immediately respond to a re-quest for comment.

“The original plan they had was just never going to pass. It was just astronomically huge and so over the top. That was never going to be a runner,” Green Party mem-ber Fergal Smith said. “They are learning that it’s actually more de-tailed than just needing a big wall.”

Trump, whose campaign for the US presidency was dominated by plans to build a wall to curb im-migration from Mexico, has spent $330mn buying golf courses and land to develop since he began in-vesting in the sport in 1997.

The environmental group Save The Waves collected 100,000 sig-natures opposed to the initial de-velopment plan.

That application was with-drawn on Monday, said a spokes-man for Clare County Council, which received more than 100 ob-jections to the plan.

The new plan provides for a less visible sheet metal piling and rock armour at two points above the high water mark, and for two golf holes to be relocated inland, said the Green Party’s Smith, who at-tended the Monday meeting.

Governmentunveils majoroverhaul ofrail networkGuardian News and MediaLondon

The government has un-veiled plans for a fully pri-vatised railway line, with

track and trains operated by the same company.

A new line linking Oxford and Cambridge will not be developed by Network Rail, the owner of Britain’s rail infrastructure. In-stead, a new entity will be respon-sible for track and infrastructure, as well as operating train services, under proposals drawn up by the Transport Secretary, Chris Gray-ling.

“What we are doing is taking this line out of Network Rail’s con-trol,” Grayling told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “Network Rail has got a huge number of projects to deliver at the moment … I want it to happen quicker. This is an es-sential corridor for this country. On that route we are going to bring in private fi nance, in a form to be decided.”

In a keynote speech yesterday, Grayling outlined the government plans to reunite the operation of tracks and trains, which are cur-rently the respective responsibil-ity of publicly owned Network Rail and private train operating com-panies (TOCs). He also outlined how future rail franchises will have to create integrated operating teams between TOCs and Network Rail.

The RMT union said Grayling’s rail plans would recreate privati-sation chaos that it claims he in-troduced in the prison system as justice secretary.

Grayling told parliament in a

written statement yesterday: “I am going to establish East West Rail as a new and separate organisation, to accelerate the permissions needed to reopen the route, and to secure private-sector involvement to de-sign, build and operate the route as an integrated organisation.”

He said he intended to build on two major reports into the rail in-dustry, the 2011 McNulty report and the 2015 Shaw report, that ad-vocated cost-cutting, devolution and bringing in private fi nance. He added: “But there is much more to do.” While offi cials at the depart-ment for transport have disputed reports that Grayling is seeking more immediate challenges to Network Rail, unions pledged to fi ght the proposed changes.

The RMT general secretary, Mick Cash, said: “This is a poli-tician who doesn’t believe in the public sector, who spent fi ve years at the justice department and left a prison system in chaos and now wants to do the same on the railways. And we are not going to stand idly by and watch that hap-pen.

“This is a slippery slope to pri-vatisation and the breakup of Net-work Rail and we are deeply con-cerned about it.”

Grayling denied he was intent on privatisation. “I don’t intend to sell off the existing rail network. I don’t intend to privatise Network Rail again,” he told Today. He said the Oxford and Cambridge rail link would be developed by a separate company outside Network Rail in the same way that the Crossrail link had been developed in Lon-don.

Rail privatisation has consist-ently polled as deeply unpopu-

lar with supporters of all parties, and privately owned Railtrack’s management of the track and in-frastructure from 1994 to 2002 remains associated with fatal train crashes including Potters Bar and Hatfi eld, in Hertfordshire.

Despite this, Grayling hopes the restored Oxford to Cambridge line, axed following the Beeching cuts in the 1960s, will be the fi rst integrated rail operation in Britain since privatisation in the 1990s.

Funding towards restoring the rail link between the cities, on a route that will have a branch to Milton Keynes, and eventually ex-tend to Norwich and Ipswich, was announced in the Autumn State-ment last month.

A new organisation, East West Rail, will be created early in 2017 to secure investment and build the line, eventually becoming a private company that will operate train services. In the meantime, Gray-ling will demand that Network Rail and TOCs work more closely together in the interests of pas-sengers, with proposals for more “vertical integration” to be built into the upcoming South Eastern and East Midlands franchises

Grayling said: “I believe it will mean they run better on a day-to-day basis … Our railway is much better run by one joined-up team of people. They don’t have to work for the same company. They do have to work in the same team.”

A lack of communication and shared incentives between track and train operators has been iden-tifi ed as one factor in the long-running problems at Southern, the commuter network to the south of London, which has been plagued by delays and cancelled services.

BRITAIN21Gulf Times


Helen Marten wins Turner prizeGuardian News and MediaLondon

Helen Marten has sealed her position as one of the UK’s most exciting young artists

after being named the winner of the 2016 Turner prize, her second big award in the space of a month.

The 31-year-old artist, who was born in Macclesfi eld, was present-ed with her £25,000 prize by the writer Ben Okri at a ceremony at London’s Tate Britain gallery.

It comes only weeks after she won the £30,000 Hepworth Prize for Sculpture. On that occasion Marten announced from the stage that she would be sharing the winnings with her fellow artists and she later confi rmed she would be doing the same thing with the Turner Prize. “I don’t feel I need to politicise that gesture,” she said. “I can do it quietly.”

She won for work which baffl es gallery goers as much as it grips and delights them. Marten creates complex sculptures from a bewil-dering array of materials and in-vites people to investigate them as they might an archaeological dig.

Marten said she was feeling

“numb” after being named win-ner, but “deeply honoured”.

Part of her did not want to win, she admitted, and she did not en-joy the media spectacle and pub-licity - “it can only be unhealthy and diffi cult for the people in-volved”. But the amount of peo-ple seeing her work had proved interesting and educational.

It may even change the vo-cabulary she uses in her work, Marten said. “It makes you real-ise that the art world as a whole is operating in a very hermetic bubble of sign language that is not necessarily generous to a wider public audience which is not initiated in that kind of lan-guage or visual information.

“Putting something here and seeing what the public perception of it is is very humbling and edu-cational, it makes you think maybe my work is not universal, maybe the themes I’m employing are not immediately understandable.”

The chair of judges, Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson, said Marten, who is based in London, was making work which had real longevity and was using objects, forms and images in a similar way to a poet using language.

Govt will needto bring new law ‘in case oflegal setback’ReutersLondon

The government will need to put forward a parliamenta-ry bill to trigger formal Eu-

ropean Union divorce talks should it lose a Supreme Court fi ght over who can start the Brexit process, a government lawyer said yesterday.

However, this could be just a one-line piece of legislation, James Eadie added — an option which could limit anti-Brexit law-makers’ ability to delay the process or water down government poli-cies on the terms of the EU exit.

“It would require not just par-liamentary involvement...but primary legislation,” Eadie told the Supreme Court. “The reason it requires primary legislation is (because) you are being asked to declare...unlawful the exercise of the prerogative power to give Arti-cle 50 notice as the fi rst step in the process,” he told the 11 justices.

He was referring to an execu-tive power known as “prerogative” which, under Britain’s unwritten constitution, allows the govern-ment to take certain actions with-out going through parliament.

“If the Supreme Court decides against our arguments here then the solution in legal terms is a one-line act,” Eadie said on day two of a four-day hearing.

“Maybe that would lead to all sorts of parliamentary compli-cation and possible additions and amendments and so on, but that’s the solution.”

The government is appealing against a High Court ruling last month that it could not invoke Ar-ticle 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which begins a two-year exit process from the European Union, without parliamentary assent.

Prime Minister Theresa May has said she intends to trigger Article 50 by the end of March and the EU’s chief negotiator said yesterday that would give

a target of October 2018 for the Brexit deal to be agreed.

Eadie said by giving approval for June’s referendum on wheth-er Britain should leave the EU, parliament had accepted that Article 50 would have to be trig-gered in the event of a “leave” vote as that was the only way to implement the result.

Britons voted for Brexit by 52% to 48% and the government has said this mandated it to begin the divorce process using the pre-rogative power.

British judges are not sup-posed to compel parliament to legislate and Eadie said this was what the Supreme Court was being asked to do. Noting that there had already been several debates about Brexit in parlia-ment, including one called by the opposition Labour Party, Eadie said lawmakers had not called for primary legislation to trigger Article 50 during those debates.

“Parliament does not seem to want the obligation that the (High Court) has thrust upon them,” he said. There had been speculation that in the wake of a Supreme Court defeat May might seek to get lawmakers’ approval by a par-liamentary motion which could be brought forward quickly and avoid the detailed scrutiny that a new bill might elicit.

Investors believe that greater parliamentary involvement would reduce the chances of a “hard Brexit” in which tight controls on immigration are prioritised over European single market access.

May is facing a rebellion from her own lawmakers today when parliament debates whether the government should set out its Brexit plan before triggering Ar-ticle 50.

The pound hit a two-month high against the dollar yesterday as investors bet the government would lose the Supreme Court case. The verdict is expected in January.

Chinese fi rm buys pubvisited by Xi JinpingGuardian News and MediaLondon

It was an improbable symbol of the embryonic romance be-tween London and Beijing: a

16th-century Buckinghamshire pub where then prime minister David Cameron and Chinese pres-ident Xi Jinping sealed their coun-tries’ “golden” friendship over a drink.

Now the Plough at Cadsden – a rural tavern near the offi cial coun-try retreat used by British prime ministers – has reportedly been sold to Chinese investors for an undisclosed fee.

“We are really pleased to have completed the sale of the Plough to SinoFortone Investment,” Neil Morgan, the Christie & Co direc-tor behind the sale was quoted as saying by the Morning Advertiser, a publication focusing on the pub sector.

“The pub became famous in Chinese circles following the visit of President Xi Jinping, and it has become quite a tourist

attraction for Chinese visitors since, who are keen to sample the classic British food that the president tried,” Morgan added.

Peter Zhang, the managing director of the government-backed investment group behind the deal, said: “We are so excited about this new adventure.”

“The English pub concept is growing very fast in China and it’s the best way culturally to link people from diff erent coun-tries and build friendships,” Zhang was quoted as saying by the state-run China Daily news-paper.

The Plough at Cadsden served its fi rst ale during the Ming dy-nasty and today describes itself as “probably the most famous pub in England” and “that kind of pub (where) everyone feels at home here and can be sure of a warm welcome”.

Because of its proximity to Chequers, the prime minister’s country home in Buckingham-shire, a succession of political fi gures has propped up its bar over the years, including Edward

Heath, Britain’s leader from 1970 until 1974.

The pub’s website says it also regularly hosts “a variety of local celebrities from the world of fi lm, television and the music industry”.

It wasn’t until October 2015, however, when Xi and Cameron graced its bar during the former’s state visit to Britain, that the wa-tering hole came on to Chinese radars.

Xi’s brief visit, which helped launch a controversial diplomatic fl irtation dubbed the “golden era” of UK-China relations, made the pub a magnet for some of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists who visit Britain each year.

“We read the news that Presi-dent Xi visited here and would love to experience the food and drink that he tasted,” one such visitor, 26-year-old Miao Xin, told the China Daily last year.

Speaking to the same newspa-per, the pub’s landlord, Steve Holl-ings, claimed Xi had sent him an e-mail “thanking him, and saying that he enjoyed the meal and drink in the pub”.

Protesters hold placards and shout outside the Supreme Court on the second day of the challenge against a court ruling that Theresa May’s government requires parliamentary approval to start the process of leaving the European Union, in Parliament Square, central London, yesterday.

Gigi Hadid was named the winner of the International Model award at the Fashion Awards 2016 in London.

Model of the Year

May rejects EU chief’sBrexit talks’ timetableLondon Evening StandardLondon

The row over Brexit escalat-ed dramatically yesterday as Theresa May rejected a

call from an EU chief to fast-track the UK’s departure deal.

The prime minister rebuff ed an 18-month timescale laid out by Michel Barnier, the European Commission’s chief Brexit nego-tiator.

May is planning to trigger Ar-ticle 50, to start the process of quitting the EU, by next March.

Barnier said “time will be short” and an agreement should be reached before October 2018.

But No 10 refused to accept his proposed timetable.

A spokesman for the govern-ment said: “We’ve been clear on our timetable, we will trigger A50 and then there is a two-year period for negotiations. We’re not looking to extend that proc-ess but what the government is focused on is getting best pos-sible deal.”

Barnier also struck a tough stance against allowing Britain to “cherry pick” over its new re-lationship with the EU. But he appeared open to a “transitional period” for Britain as it leaves the union.

Speaking for the fi rst time about the complex talks, he said:

“The single market and its four freedoms are indivisible.” Being a member of the EU comes with rights and benefi ts, he added. “A third country can never have the same rights and benefi ts since they are not subject to the same obligations,” he said.

Barnier said Article 50 talks should be concluded in October 2018, with Britain, the European Parliament and other bodies then having fi ve months to ratify the split.

“We all have a common inter-est in not prolonging this state of lack of certainty,” he said. “We are ready, keep calm and negotiate!”

EU leaders are keen to avoid Brexit continuing into the run-

up to European Parliament elec-tions in 2019.

Barnier said he was aiming for an “orderly” departure of the UK from the union. “There would be some point and usefulness of a transitional period if it eased the path towards a future arrange-ment in this new partnership,” he added.

His timetable was welcomed by pro-Brexit MPs. Peter Bone said: “He was right to say that this negotiation should be much quicker than two years.” Fellow Tory Philip Davies said: “I wel-come that (timetable). Either the EU wants a trade deal with us, or they don’t.”

As the Supreme Court held

its second day of its hearing on whether Parliament should have a say on triggering Article 50, May was urged by London Tory MPs to set out her “high-level” Brexit plans.

Senior Conservative MP Bob Neill, co-chairman of the cross-party group of London MPs, said his “instinct” was to back a La-bour motion today which could infl ict a fi rst parliamentary de-feat on the PM.

Labour’s motion acknowledg-es some elements of the govern-ment’s position should remain secret but urges May to “commit to publishing the government’s plan for leaving the EU” before the formal process begins.

Water main that fl ooded homes ‘had burst twice before’London Evening StandardLondon

The huge water main that caused devastating fl oods in Islington on Mon-

day had burst twice before, the Standard revealed.

Loss adjusters said the 36-inch pipe beneath Upper Street that failed on Monday morning had been responsible for fl oods

in 1996 and 2005 in almost ex-actly the same spot.

A Thames Water spokes-man said: “We’ll be reviewing the history of this pipe as part of a thorough investigation into Monday’s burst.”

Residents of more than 30 homes had to fl ee as water rose up to six feet in their basements, and a similar number of businesses in and around the historic Camden Passage antiques district suff ered

major damage. Alex Balcombe, a director of loss adjusters Harris Balcombe, said: “It’s going to be an awful Christmas for a lot of people. None of those homes are going to be fi xed by Christmas.”

The scale of the damage is still being calculated by Thames Wa-ter’s emergency response con-tractors Floodcall and their loss adjusters, but the total bill is ex-pected to exceed £10mn.

Residents aff ected include a

young couple two weeks away from their wedding, a woman whose bedroom was completely submerged and a family whose art collection was destroyed.

Stuart Rock, 56, a magazine editor, and his wife Jo Willett, 55, a TV producer, are among those in temporary accommoda-tion and have been told that they might not be able return to their house for six months.

Rock described scenes “like

Titanic” when he opened his curtains to see six feet of wa-ter seeping through the French doors from their garden. He said their basement, which is their living area and kitchen, had been “absolutely destroyed”. A fridge-freezer was thrown on its side and the cooker pulled off the wall.

Rock said: “I opened the cur-tains and it was like looking into a fi sh tank. Then the water came in through the glass. The water

was bringing the garden with it — it had bricks and plants in it. The basements and the gardens are completely destroyed.

“There is nothing that is repa-rable. Everything will have to be done — wiring, plastering, the whole kitchen. It was like a war zone. The loss adjuster said eve-rything has to go. Everyone uses and lives at basement level, so for all of us it’s the same story. Some people have lost entire collec-

tions of art and valuables, family belongings and precious things.

“They are saying we won’t be able to live here for six months. Everything has to be done — they are talking about taking up the slate fl oors.”

When the main burst in 1996, 30 homes and businesses, in-cluding the home of then Tory MP Tim Devlin, were inundated and in 2005 Camden Passage was deluged.

EUROPE


The head of Europe’s po-lice agency has said that it would “look again” at the

largest migrant shipwreck in the Mediterranean this year, follow-ing an investigation by Reuters and BBC Newsnight that exposed a gap in the response by law en-forcement.

Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, said his agency would reconsider the shipwreck, given “the absence of any clear an-swers”.

The Reuters investigation

into an incident on April 9, in which an estimated 500 people drowned, raised “uncomfort-able” issues, Wainwright said.

It found that no offi cial body, national or international, has held anyone to account for the deaths or even opened an inquiry into the shipwreck.

Only 37 people survived when an Egyptian trawler capsized as its crew of smugglers loaded more migrants on board from a smaller feeder boat.

The survivors, who eventually reached Greece on April 16, said that the smugglers abandoned the scene, leaving up to 100 peo-ple still alive in the sea.

They said the smugglers used force to stop survivors on the feeder boat rescuing others.

Among the dead were an esti-mated 190 Somalis, around 150 Ethiopians, 80 Egyptians, and some 85 people from Sudan, Syr-ia and other countries.

In interviews with Reuters and BBC Newsnight, Wain-wright said that in hindsight his agency should have investigated the April sinking, and the media inquiries might have exposed a “gap here in the collective re-sponse by Europe” to such cases.

Italy, where the ship was head-ed, has not investigated the sink-ing.

Nor has Greece, where the sur-vivors landed.

Both countries judged that no crime had occurred within their jurisdiction.

There has been no investiga-tion by any United Nations body, the European Union’s frontier agency, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, or the EU naval task force in the Mediterranean.

All said investigating the inci-dent was not within their man-date.

Reuters has identifi ed the owners of the doomed ship and the ringleaders of the voyage, as well as the alleged people-bro-kers who assembled the migrants

in Cairo and Alexandria and took their money.

The investigation also revealed that, under pressure from smug-glers, some survivors initially lied about the journey, stating that they left from Tobruk, Libya, in-stead of Alexandria, Egypt, their real departure point.

In Egypt, Judge Khaled al-Nashar, assistant to Egypt’s min-ister of justice for parliamentary and media aff airs, said he could not confi rm what inquiries had taken place into the April sink-ing.

But he said Egypt had just passed new laws against illegal migration and was determined to

take action against smugglers.He said that further action

over the April sinking was not ruled out.

“If the occurrence of such a crime is proven, Egypt certainly will not hesitate to conduct the necessary investigations to un-cover it and arrest the perpetra-tors and bring them to justice.”

Some Egyptian lawyers believe the smugglers’ actions may have amounted to murder.

“I consider putting 500 people on this boat to be murder. There is no other way to describe it,” said Sabry Tolba, an Egyptian lawyer hired by the families of some of those who died.

Europol to ‘look again’ at worst migrant drowning of 2016ReutersLondon

Chancellor Angela Mer-kel has lashed populists seeking to exploit Ger-

many’s refugee infl ux, but set down a tough line on integration – including a ban on the full-face veil – as she launched into election campaign mode.

Outlining a strategy to coun-ter populism that has consumed key allies abroad, Merkel vowed yesterday that there would be no repeat of last year’s record refu-gee arrivals.

She also stressed it was le-gitimate for Germany to expect newcomers to integrate, and this included a rejection of the niqab.

“The full veil must be banned wherever it is legally possible,” she told the annual gathering of her centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), urg-ing them to back her bid for a fourth term.

Merkel was rewarded with a standing ovation that lasted more than 11 minutes as the majority of the 1,001 delegates present rallied behind her.

“She took on a new tone, she signalled that in the future, refugee and immigration poli-

cies will be more restrictive,” Wolfgang Reinhart from the southwestern region of Baden-Wuerttemberg told AFP.

But dissenters made their voices heard when delegates were asked to re-elect Merkel as chief for the next two years, as the congress gave her just 89.5% – her second worst score, and the worst since she became chancellor in 2005.

Her lowest was in 2004, when she was approved by 88.4%.

National media had suggested that a score below 90% would be a slap in the face.

Merkel, who has led Germany for 11 years, last month con-fi rmed that she would run for a fourth term but acknowledged that the election would be “more diffi cult” than any other she has contested.

Merkel’s CDU and its Bavar-ian sister party CSU sailed to a decisive win of 41.5% at the last election in 2013 – its best result since national reunifi cation in 1990, on the back of strong ap-proval for her tough stance on austerity for debt-stricken EU nations.

Three years on, there are rumblings of discontent – even within her own party – follow-ing her September 2015 decision

to admit refugees fl eeing war in mostly-Muslim nations, a move that deeply polarised Europe’s biggest economy.

There have also been ques-tions about whether the 62-year-old has fresh ideas to off er in a world upended by Brexit, the surprise election of Donald Trump and the depar-ture of Italian Prime Minister

Matteo Renzi following a crush-ing referendum defeat champi-oned by populists.

The CDU has seen setbacks in fi ve consecutive state polls as voters punished Merkel for her liberal refugee policy, with more than a million people seeking asylum in Germany since 2015.

Merkel reiterated that next year’s poll will “not be a walk in

the park” as Germany is deeply polarised, but urged the popula-tion to remain “sceptical about simple answers”.

“Rarely is it the simple an-swers that bring progress to our country,” she said, in a clear ref-erence to the upstart anti-Islam and populist AfD, which Merkel had previously criticised as of-fering no solutions to problems.

Party members are particu-larly anxious to halt a haemor-rhage of support to the AfD, which now enjoys 12% support, according to opinion polls.

At the last general election it fell short of the 5% threshold to ensure representation.

Beyond domestic issues, Merkel also devoted a large part of her address to crises abroad as she noted that in 2016, “the world has not become stronger and more stable, but weaker and more unstable”.

She deplored the failure of the international community to al-leviate the suff ering in Syria’s besieged city of Aleppo, calling it a “disgrace”.

Merkel said she was shocked to see tens of thousands of Ger-mans hitting the streets to dem-onstrate against free trade deals but virtually no protests against the bloodletting in Syria.

“There is something wrong there,” she said.

She also underlined the im-portance of holding the Euro-pean Union together, saying that Germany will do well “only when Europe does well too”.

In the face of the mountain of challenges, Merkel urged her delegates: “You must, you must, help me.”

Merkel launches election campaign at CDU meetAFPEssen, Germany

Merkel: in 2016, ‘the world has not become stronger and more stable, but weaker and more unstable’.

Austria plans to jail or fi ne migrants who lied in bid for asylumReutersVienna

Austria plans to jail or fi ne asylum-seekers who lie to the authorities, a move

aimed partly at dissuading mi-grants from trying to settle, it said yesterday.

The cabinet agreed on a draft law that would allow the author-ities to punish asylum applicants who lie about their identities – for example by pretending to be Syrian so that their claims have a better chance of being accept-ed – with a fi ne of up to €5,000 ($5,373) or three weeks impris-onment.

Those who stay in Austria de-spite being ordered to leave face fi nes of between €5,000 and €15,000 or six weeks in prison, said the conservative People’s Party (OVP), which is in coali-tion with the Social Democrats (SPO).

The centrist government has this year tightened migration laws.

The anti-immigrant Free-dom Party (FPOe), whose can-didate Norbert Hofer made it to Sunday’s presidential election run-off , has been leading opin-ion polls with around 33% for months.

“Certainly these (measures) have in part a signalling eff ect,” OVP junior economy minister, Harald Mahrer, said when asked if the law was designed to scare off migrants.

“What kind of rule of law would we have in the republic if we said we do not punish these things?”

The bill needs the approval of parliament.

Other European countries, such as Denmark and Sweden, have also toughened asylum laws or tightened border controls in recent months as European Un-ion member states have failed to agree on a mechanism for dis-tributing migrants among them-selves.

Austria’s Greens criticised the bill and called for the costs of accepting asylum-seekers to be spread among European Union member states.

“That way you can stop the nationalist competition for who can scare off asylum seekers the most,” said Alev Korun of the Greens.

Austria has announced a cap on asylum claims of 37,500 this year, having taken in 90,000 asylum-seekers last year, when it was swept up in Europe’s mi-gration crisis.

The interior ministry said that it had received 37,000 asylum applications by the end of Octo-ber, but only counted 30,000 as relevant to the cap as it strips out certain cases, including those that it believes should be proc-essed in other countries.

One SPO minister said that emergency measures would not be needed this year or next year, when the cap falls to 35,000, to stay below the limit.

German police have de-tained an Iraqi migrant for suspected rape only days

after an Afghan was held in a sep-arate rape and murder case, and the government warned against a political backlash to such crimes.

The two cases threaten to fan anti-migrant sentiment in Germany, which saw a record 890,000 people from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere arrive last year.

The anti-immigrant Alterna-tive for Germany (AfD) party has grown in support while Chancel-lor Angela Merkel’s popularity has suff ered.

Police said yesterday that the Iraqi, 31, was detained in his ref-ugee hostel on Monday on suspi-cion of raping a Chinese student and attempting to rape another in the western city of Bochum.

The 17-year-old Afghan was detained on Friday on suspi-cion of raping and murdering a 19-year-old German student as she cycled home from a par-ty in the southwestern city of Freiburg.

The Iraqi man is accused of dragging the two Chinese stu-dents aged 21 and 27 into a bush and forcing himself on them in separate incidents on August 6 and November 16, a police offi cial said told reporters.

Prosecutors are checking if the man, who has denied the accu-

sations, could have committed other crimes.

The Freiburg incident caused outrage when it came to light.

The Berlin newspaper Ta-gesspiegel said it had withheld from publishing on its website around 40% of user comments on the topic as they were slan-derous, racist or defamatory.

That compares with around 10% on any other issue.

In an interview with ARD tel-evision late on Monday, Merkel was asked about the rape and murder case in Freiburg and she warned against tarring all refu-gees with the same brush.

“That was a terrible murder and, if it turns out that it was an Afghan refugee, then that is to be condemned, just as is the case

with any other murderer,” Merkel said.

“But then I say that this can’t lead to the rejection of an entire group, just as we don’t draw con-clusions about an entire group from one person in other circum-stances,” she added.

Merkel’s Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel and government spokesman Steff en Seibert also warned against a backlash after the Freiburg case.

Public concerns about wom-en’s safety and the integration of the mostly Muslim migrants have come to the fore since hun-dreds of women were sexually assaulted and robbed by men of North African and Arab appear-ance during New Year festivities in Cologne on December 31.

German police detain rape suspectReutersBerlin

A woman looks at flowers and messages attached on a tree near the site in Freiburg where a 19-year-old female student died on October 15.

A Greek court ruled yester-day that three Turkish of-fi cers accused of playing

a part in a failed July coup could be extradited to Turkey, in a case that has strained relations be-tween the two neighbours.

The Athens appeals court said that the three – out of eight of-

fi cers seeking asylum in Greece – should be sent back for “at-tempting to topple the regime” of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a judicial source said.

Earlier in the day, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanako-poulos said that the Greek au-thorities would abide with the court rulings on the case “irre-spective of the political cost”.

The ruling came a day after the same court rejected extradition

for another three of the offi cers, deeming that Turkish authori-ties had not provided suffi cient evidence, and that their personal safety was in jeopardy at home.

That decision outraged An-kara, which has arrested tens of thousands of people as part of a wide-ranging crackdown since the attempted putsch.

The court is expected to decide the fate of the remaining two of-fi cers tomorrow.

Yesterday, it was revealed that the court prosecutor had lodged an appeal against Monday’s rul-ing, arguing that the case should be heard by the Supreme Court.

Turkey may still appeal the case, and any fi nal decision to extradite rests with the Greek minister of justice.

The two Turkish commanders, four captains and two sergeants requested asylum in Greece af-ter landing a military helicopter

in the northern city of Alexan-droupoli shortly after the at-tempted government takeover in mid-July.

The offi cers are currently also appealing against a Greek refusal to grant them asylum in Septem-ber.

Ankara has asked Athens to extradite them all to face trial in Turkey for their alleged role in the failed coup, including an al-leged attempt on Erdogan’s life.

Greek court clears extradition of three Turkish offi cersAFPAthens

Catholic bishops in Swit-zerland have created a fund to help people sex-

ually abused by clergy mem-bers in cases where the statute of limitations has passed, they said on Monday.

The Swiss Bishops Con-ference (SBK) said it had created a reparations fund worth 500,000 Swiss francs ($495,000, €462,000) to be used to pay sex abuse victims who no longer have the right to seek redress in court.

“The responsible clergy be-lieve that sex abuse victims in cases where the public stat-

ute of limitations has passed and where the church has long turned a blind eye and pro-vided no reparations, are in a particularly diffi cult situation,” SBK said in a statement.

SBK said the fund was the latest step in a process it began six years ago when it acknowl-edged responsibility.

The bishops announced the new fund after gathering on Monday in Sion in southern Switzerland for a “penance prayer” alongside a delegation of victims.

Since 2010, SBK said 223 victims had informed the church authorities of such cases of abuse, most of which had taken place between 1950 and 1990.

$495,000 fund for sex abuse victimsAFPGeneva

‘Unstable man’ shoots off icer in the head at police stationA Danish police off icer was in hospital yesterday after an “unstable” man who apparently acted alone shot him in the head at a police station outside Copenhagen, authorities said.According to Danish media, the off icer was a police dog handler, while the suspect was known to have attacked police off icers in the past.Police did not directly address whether the case

had terror links. A 26-year-old man known to police was arrested.The off icer was in “serious condition but according to doctors his life is not in danger”, police said in a statement.The attacker shot the off icer as he was arriving for duty at 8.20am (0720 GMT) in Albertslund, a disadvantaged town west of the capital.

Sweden imprisons Iraqi for war crimesA Swedish court has jailed an Iraqi man for six months for war crimes in a landmark case after he posted photos on Facebook of himself posing with dead bodies in Iraq.The photos posted on Facebook in July 2015, show Iraqi citizen Raed Abdulkareem, 24, who sought asylum in Sweden in October that same year, posing next to a severed head on a plate and decapitated bodies.He claims to have fought for the Iraqi government against the Islamic State group.

EUROPE23Gulf Times


Nato and the European Union overcame years of rivalry yesterday to agree

a seven-point plan to counter tactics such as cyber-attacks, information warfare and irregu-lar militia from Russia and other potential aggressors.

The pact, which is not legally-binding, allows the six EU states outside the North Atlantic Treaty

Organisation (Nato) to benefi t from some of the US military support that president-elect Donald Trump has suggested could be conditional on greater European defence spending.

The proposals should also re-assure Europe that the United States, the leading power in Nato, is committed to the region de-spite Trump’s campaign com-ments that have unsettled allies, Nato offi cials said.

“We are strengthening the transatlantic bond and the vital

link between North America and Europe,” Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a news con-ference with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

“The US commitment to Nato transcends politics ... I am con-fi dent that the majority of both major parties (in the US) are committed to Nato,” outgoing US Secretary of State John Kerry told journalists.

During the United States elec-tion campaign, Trump chal-lenged long-time US foreign

policy in Europe by saying that Washington might not defend Nato allies that do not pay more for their own security.

The EU-Nato agreement fol-lows agreement on a separate EU defence fund to pay for heli-copters, planes and other equip-ment, in part to send a signal to Trump.

The EU-Nato plan aims to en-sure any assets in the 22 allies in both Nato and the EU are avail-able for both Nato and EU opera-tions.

“With a changing security environment, it’s a good thing for Nato and the European Un-ion to combine eff orts,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.

Cyber-attacks blamed on Rus-sia, a migration crisis and failing states near Europe require both Nato’s military response and a softer security approach that the EU can provide to combat propa-ganda and provide training to stabilise governments, offi cials say.

Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea showed the West’s ina-bility to deal with unconvention-al tactics such as computer hack-ers, disinformation campaigns and militia without insignia.

Under the agreement, experts from the European Union and Nato will co-operate to detect and defl ect hackers on computer networks and prepare for poten-tial attacks.

Nato and the EU should also co-operate more closely in the Mediterranean, where both have

operations, and to avoid any re-turn to the competing operations of the past.

However, both institutions face limits because of tensions between Turkey and Greece that limit information sharing.

Turkey, a member of Nato but not of the EU, blocks the sharing of alliance intelligence with the EU, while EU- and Nato-member Greece does not want Brussels sharing any sensitive informa-tion with the alliance because of Turkey.

EU and Nato cement ‘transatlantic bond’ReutersBrussels

Mogherini and Stoltenberg at a news conference following a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels.

Ukraine feels let down by the European Union for not keeping to a promise

to give its citizens visa-free trav-el in the bloc, senior Ukrainian offi cials said.

The comments, made by two senior offi cials in interviews with Reuters, were unusually outspo-ken and cut through the public displays of bonhomie shown at a Ukraine-EU summit in Brussels in November.

They are also a refl ection of Ukraine’s nervousness about be-ing abandoned by Western back-ers in its stand-off with Russia over its 2014 annexation of Cri-mea and Moscow’s support for separatist rebels in the Donbass region.

These worries have been heightened by events seen as playing into the Kremlin’s hands, including the election of Donald Trump and the prospect of Fran-cois Fillon, who favours thawing ties with the Kremlin, taking the French presidency next year.

Ukraine was promised visa liberalisation if it met a number of conditions, including steps to tackle corruption.

But visa liberalisation has not materialised yet as the EU wants to put an emergency suspension mechanism in place fi rst.

The mechanism would make it easier to suspend any visa-waiv-ers if the bloc sees a sharp rise in overstays, asylum requests or readmission refusals from a non-EU state that has had travel rules relaxed.

“While of course the Ukrain-ian president and his delegation tried to keep optimism publicly, I understand very well if they return to Kiev somewhat disap-pointed,” Anders Fogh Rasmus-sen, an adviser to Ukraine’s pres-ident, said.

“I would even use a stronger word. I think it’s a kind of be-trayal from the EU side, taking into account that Ukraine has carefully fulfi lled all necessary criteria for visa liberalisation,” the former Nato chief said.

European Council President Donald Tusk, who spoke Ukrain-ian and exchanged jokes with Ukrainian President Petro Poro-shenko at a joint news conference at the November 24 summit, said he hoped the visa-free regime would be in place by the end of the year.

But Ukrainian Deputy Foreign

Minister Olena Zerkal said the Europeans had shown little de-sire to implement visa-free ac-cess.

“Only constant pressure and the constant raising of this is-sue may force them to move for-ward,” she said in an interview at her offi ce. “Maybe this is not diplomatic, this is probably not diplomatic: we see complete impotence in the European Un-ion, and in the European institu-tions.”

Giving an example of the pre-vailing attitudes, she recounted an incident when, weeks before the summit, the Ukrainians were told by the French and Germans not to expect a positive decision.

“When I asked if they believe that it is unfair, that we in many areas are discriminated against compared to others, the German ambassador in Brussels told me ‘life is not fair and you should cope with this’,” she said.

EU offi cials publicly say Ukraine and fellow aspirant Georgia have qualifi ed for visa liberalisation, but behind the scenes Germany, France, Bel-gium and Italy appear to be stall-ing.

“The EU understands that, in the eyes of Ukraine, the visa-free regime is a question of the EU’s reputation,” said a European dip-lomat, who declined to be identi-fi ed.

“The EU will try to do our best to provide the visa-free regime to Ukraine based on the under-standing of these risks,” he said. “(But) not everything in Brussels revolves around Ukraine.”

Representatives of EU states will discuss the issue again in Brussels today.

Hugues Mingarelli, the EU ambassador to Ukraine, said Ukraine would be granted a visa-free regime as soon as the emer-gency suspension mechanism was agreed.

“We all hope that this will hap-pen in the next few weeks. I can-not say anything more precise,” he told a local news agency in an interview published yesterday.

The EU and the United States propped up Ukraine with money and diplomatic support after the country plunged into turmoil in 2014 and a new, Western-backed leadership took charge.

But since then, Ukraine’s in-ternational supporters have become increasingly irked by what they see as Kiev’s patchy progress in tackling corruption and modernising the economy.

Some EU member states want sanctions on Russia lifted.

Ukraine, in turn, has its own grievances.

Kiev has bristled at signs of a European rapprochement with Russia.

It also resents being told to do more to uphold its side of the Minsk peace process, bro-kered between Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine, to end the separatist violence in eastern Ukraine, saying the onus is on Russia as the “aggressor” nation.

The Maidan street protests in 2013/2014 were sparked by Ukraine’s Kremlin-backed leader reneging on a plan to sign a po-litical and trade agreement with the EU.

But the fate of that deal, which was later signed, is now uncer-tain after Dutch voters rejected it in a referendum in April.

“I think that there are many things that can be considered as a betrayal,” Zerkal said, when asked if the visa issue constituted a betrayal.

“The decision on Opal was also a betrayal of Ukraine,” she said, referring to the European Commission allowing Russia’s Gazprom to use the Opal pipeline in Germany, opening the way to bypass Ukraine as a gas transit route.

Ukraine feels let down by EU with visa deal elusiveBy Pavel Polityuk and Matthias Williams, ReutersKiev

Ukrainian and EU flags fly in front of the presidential administration in Kiev.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was named the country’s new

prime minister yesterday after Manuel Valls resigned to seek the Socialist nomination in next year’s presidential election.

Cazeneuve, who has overseen the security forces’ reaction to a string of Islamist militant at-tacks that have killed more than 230 people in France over the past two years, will head the Socialist government until the election in May.

The widely-respected law-yer was named to the post after President Francois Hollande ac-cepted Valls’ resignation.

The government will work “up to the end, to its last day, to prepare the future”, Hollande told reporters yesterday during a trip to an industry fair near Paris.

Cazeneuve, 53, has served in various government roles, including budget and Europe minister before becoming inte-rior minister in April 2014.

“He has a good knowledge of the security issues and the fi ght against terrorism, which are the government’s priorities,” an aide to Hollande told AFP on condi-tion of anonymity.

Cazeneuve will be replaced in the interior ministry by Bruno Le Roux, currently the leader of the Socialists in the lower house of parliament.

The mini-reshuffl e comes

after Valls, who was Hollande’s right-hand man for the past two-and-a-half years, quit to focus on the presidential race.

Valls, a divisive fi gure, threw his hat in the ring on Monday, after Hollande said last week that he would bow out after a single troubled term.

Appealing to the left to unite behind him, Valls vowed to take the fi ght to election frontrunner, conservative Republicans can-didate Francois Fillon, as well as far-right National Front (FN) leader Marine Le Pen.

“We’re told that Francois Fillon is the next president of the Republic. Nothing is set in stone,” he declared.

“My candidacy is one of rec-onciliation,” Valls, whom polls currently place fi fth in the elec-tion, said in a speech in his po-litical base in the gritty Paris suburb of Evry.

The far-right, which was

beaten in Austria’s presidential election at the weekend, was “at the gates of power” in France with a programme that would ruin the poor, he warned.

Faced with Donald Trump in the White House and Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, France needed someone with “strong experience”, he said.

He laid into Fillon, a self-declared Thatcherite, accusing him of trotting out the “old reci-pes of the 1980s”.

Polls show Le Pen and Fillon far out in front in the opening round of the election on April 23, with Fillon expected to beat Le Pen in May’s second round.

Valls would crash out with 10% if he won the Socialist nomination – behind former economy minister Emmanuel Macron and the Communist-backed Jean-Luc Melenchon, an Ifop-Fiducial poll showed yes-terday.

Spanish-born Valls will go up against seven other candi-dates in the two-round primary on January 22 and 29, including Arnaud Montebourg, another former economy minister from a leftist Socialist faction.

Many on the left see Valls as a right-winger after he used decrees to force through labour reforms and called for dual-national terror convicts to be stripped of their French nation-ality.

His stern line on secularism and Islam has also turned off many lifelong Socialists after he declared the Islamic burqini swimsuit was “not compatible” with French values last summer.

On Monday, he admitted to having used “harsh words” in the past and adopted a more conciliatory tone.

“I’ve had enough of the talk that divides us and stigmatises our Muslim compatriots and refugees fl eeing war,” he said.

But his biggest handicap could be his government’s bleak economic record.

Le Pen has dismissed him as the unpopular Hollande’s “dou-ble”.

When Valls last sought the Socialist nomination fi ve years ago, he garnered only 5.6%.

Former education minister Benoit Hamon, one of his chal-lengers in the primary, said yes-terday that the Socialists needed to pick someone who represent-ed “a proper left”.

“It seems to me that he (Valls) cannot embody the future of the left,” Hamon said.

Cazeneuve replaces Valls as French prime ministerAFPParis

Valls (right) with Cazeneuve at the Hotel Matignon in Paris, prior to the start of the handover ceremony after Valls resigned as premier to seek the Socialist nomination in next year’s presidential election.

A German court has ruled that energy suppliers can claim compensation over

the country’s nuclear power phase-out following the 2011 Fukushima disaster, dealing a blow to one of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fl agship policies.

Judges did not agree with pow-er plant operators that the shut-down ordered by lawmakers in 2011 amounted to an “expropria-tion” of their assets, but said the government should agree a deal

to compensate the fi rms by June 2018.

“It was permissible for law-makers to take the accident in Fukushima as a prompt to speed up exiting nuclear energy to pro-tect the health of people and the environment,” senior judge Fer-dinand Kirchhof told the court in Karlsruhe.

Although the phase-out de-cision itself was legal, the court found, the fi rms have a right to “appropriate” compensation – which is not provided for in the law as it stands.

The judges did not specify how much the compensation should

be, but media reports said the plaintiff s – German electricity giants EON and RWE and Swe-den’s Vattenfall – had sought some €20bn ($21bn) in damages.

Merkel’s government decided after Japan’s 2011 Fukushima re-actor meltdowns to halt opera-tions of Germany’s eight oldest nuclear plants and to shutter the other nine by 2022.

The move marked a sharp re-versal for Merkel, who had earlier overturned a phase-out ordered by a previous government in 2002.

“With today’s judgment from the highest German court, we

have clarity in a fundamental le-gal question for our business and its owners,” RWE Power chief ex-ecutive Matthias Hartung said in a statement.

EON’s chief executive Johan-nes Teyssen told the court in March that the government’s de-cision had penalised many small shareholders who had put their savings and pensions into the company, the largest energy pro-vider in Germany.

In a statement yesterday, EON said it had invested “several hun-dred million euros” into extend-ing the life of its nuclear plants before the 2011 decision.

The company said it would now study the verdict and was prepared “to enter into construc-tive talks” with the government.

The fi rms have complained that the expensive exit from nu-clear comes as they are already battling low wholesale electric-ity prices and competition from heavily subsidised renewables as part of Germany’s shift to clean energy such as wind, solar and biomass.

Critics counter that the big energy companies benefi ted from massive state subsidies when the nuclear plants fi rst went into op-eration.

Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks welcomed the court’s confi rmation that the nuclear phase-out was legal.

She added in a statement that since the judges had only partial-ly upheld the fi rms’ complaints, the “demands for billions are now off the table”.

The verdict could however have an impact on parallel nego-tiations between the government and nuclear plant operators on managing the country’s atomic waste disposal.

Under a draft law approved in October, the fi rms Vattenfall, EON, RWE and EnBW would

have to contribute €23.5bn to a state fund for the storage of nu-clear waste by 2022.

But the agreement is yet to be fi nalised, and the plaintiff s may well use the favourable verdict as leverage in the talks.

Energy policy expert Claudia Kemfert of the DIW think-tank said with yesterday’s ruling, Ger-many’s nuclear power exit was “becoming even more expen-sive than thought for the general public”.

Safely decommissioning all the plants and storing their radioac-tive parts and waste could cost up to €50bn, experts estimate.

Court backs compensation claims over German nuclear power exitAFPKarlsruhe, Germany

Court cases against two teachers in Germany who held the heads of several children down a toilet and pressed the flush were called off yesterday, a court off icial said.The trial was ended as the toilet dunking was not carried out to punish the children and was rather a “bit of fun that got out of hand”, according to Oliver Emmer, director of the district court in the western town of Pruem.One teacher was made to pay compensation of €400 ($430).The children, who were 12 years old at the time of the incident at a youth welfare facility in the Eifel district, apparently agreed to have their heads flushed.“Their guilt is therefore to be assessed as small,” court director Emmer said.One of the boys also pushed both the teachers’ heads down the toilet, he added.The second teacher was cautioned for coercion as she had forced an 11-year-old in February 2015 to spend two days in a room that resembled a

construction site with just water and dry bread.The boy had insulted the teacher and she wanted to make him apologise to her.She was ordered to pay €1,000 as condition of probation.The women admitted the facts of the case.At the time of the incident, they were aged 22 and 27 years old, relatively inexperienced and working with diff icult groups.“They are not criminals,” Emmer said.“It was all just fun and games,” one of the women’s defence lawyers, Hans-Josef Ewertz, said.The children got on well with the teachers both before and after the incident, Ewertz said.The facility, named Eifel Court Youth Welfare Gorup, had its licence revoked by the Rhineland-Palatinate State Off ice for Social Services, Youth and Care in the spring of 2015.In April 2016 a new facility was opened at the same site to care for unaccompanied refugee children, a spokeswoman for the state off ice in the city of Mainz said.

Case closed against teachers who flushed children’s headsSpanish govt to raise minimum wage by 8%

Spain’s minority conservative

government has approved

raising the country’s minimum

monthly wage by 8.0% next year

to €825.5 ($876), as demanded

by the main opposition Social-

ists.

Finance Minister Cristobal

Montoro said the rise – approved

at a weekly cabinet meeting

– was “negotiated with other

political groups”.

The minimum wage will rise

from €764.4 to €825.5, an

increase of €61.1.

That is higher than the monthly

minimum wage of €618 in

neighbouring Portugal but far

lower than the minimum wage of

€1,467 in France.

Four arrested for dance troupe member’s murder

Telangana takes lessons of Tripura’s success

Punjab launches check-up for 30-plus

Following Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s death, President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday cancelled his visit to Kurukshetra in Haryana to inaugurate the ‘Gita Mahotsav’. Cultural and other celebratory events were also cancelled. The low-key inauguration was done by Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. The chief minister said that cultural and other celebratory events have been cancelled at the Mahotsav. Other events like seminars and discussions will be held as scheduled. The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Haryana was preparing for the past one year for the Rs1bn extravaganza on Hindu scripture Bhagvad Gita from yesterday. The holy land of Kurukshetra is about 100km from Chandigarh.

Real estate barons Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal have been barred from leaving the country until the Supreme Court decides the petitions by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy, seeking a review of the 2015 verdict on their sentencing. The bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Kurian Joseph and Adarsh Kumar Goel said this as senior lawyer Salman Khurshid, appearing for the Ansal brothers, in an oral undertaking told the bench his clients would not leave the country till the review petitions are decided. The court fixed December 14 for hearing the matter as it issued a notice to the Ansal brothers.

President skips Gita festival in Haryana

Ansal brothers told not to leave country

EVENTSUPHAAR TRAGEDY

Four men have been arrested over the fatal shooting of a female member of a dance troupe at a wedding function in Punjab’s Bathinda district, police said yesterday. The main accused Lucky Goyal alias Billa, weapon owner Sanju Goyal, marriage venue owner Jagsir Singh and the groom’s father Narinder Kumar were charged with the murder of 24-year-old Kulwinder Kaur late on Saturday evening. Goyal allegedly fired at Kaur with a .12 bore gun when she was dancing during the function in Maur Mandi town of Bathinda, 200km from Chandigarh. Kaur, who was said to be three-months pregnant, collapsed after she was shot by a drunk Goyal.

INVESTIGATION LITERACY HEALTH

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal yesterday launched the ‘Free Annual Preventive Health Check-up Programme’ (FAPHC) for all citizens of the state above the age of 30. “The scheme is for all the 30-plus citizens of the state to make people health conscious to initiate treatment for any disease detected by these diagnostic tests at the early stage,” Badal said. The Punjab government scheme comes in the run-up to assembly elections in the state, likely to be held early next year. “A majority of the people are least health conscious and this scheme will be instrumental in changing their mindset to stay healthy through regular check-up and medical tests,” Badal said.

Telangana will introduce Left-ruled Tripura’s model of success in literacy, Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari said in Agartala yesterday after a three-day tour of the northeastern state. Accompanied by top education department off icials, Srihari visited various villages and literacy centres in Tripura to study the success of literacy in the state, which attained the literacy rate of 96.82%. “I am personally overwhelmed by the success of Tripura in literacy. At the interior areas and villages, people especially the women and tribals are very glad after becoming literate,” the visiting minister, who also holds the education portfolio of Telangana government, told reporters before leaving for Hyderabad.


INDIA24

Black money will vanishby year-end,says BJP chief

2 Akali legislators join Congress

Shah ridicules former prime minister Manmohan Singh for opposing demonetisation

IANSNew Delhi

Bharatiya Janata Party pres-ident Amit Shah yesterday rubbished charges of ille-

galities in the party’s land deals prior to the decision to demon-etise high denomination notes and asserted that by the end of this year the country will become free of black money.

“Opposition parties are point-ing fi ngers at the land deals by the BJP, but these were author-ised in January 2015,” Shah said at the ‘Agenda Aaj Tak’ event here.

“In January 2015, we had de-cided to set up party offi ces in all districts of the country, and these land deals are in pursuance of that decision,” said Shah.

The party bought land across the country at 170 locations be-tween January 2015 and Novem-ber 2016, he added.

Opposition parties have al-leged the BJP had prior informa-tion about the demonetisation and the land deals were done to turn black money into white.

Shah said the allegations were baseless.

“The deposits of money in the bank accounts are a mere coin-cidence. Moreover, the opposi-tion should try to think logically. Why would we deposit money on November 8 and raise suspicion? This is nothing but a mere coin-cidence,” said Shah.

“Earlier, the opposition used to ask Modi what he has done to bring black money back. And now, after demonetisation, the opposition is asking why he did this,” said Shah, ridiculing the opposition.

The BJP chief said demon-etisation was a historic decision, and asserted that the economy will get rid of black money.

“By December 30, the coun-try will get rid of the entire black money,” Shah said adding: “The black money will either come back to the system through de-posits in the banks or, if people don’t deposit fearing penalty, then the money with them will become useless after December 31.

“So both ways, the black mon-ey will be eliminated from the system.”

Shah ridiculed former prime minister Manmohan Singh for opposing demonetisation.

Referring to Singh’s stinging criticism against demonetisation in parliament recently, Shah said

the world renowned-economist, who long had been part of the country’s economic policy-mak-ing, should answer about India’s economic performance when his Congress party was in power.

“From 1975 till 2014, Singh, in various capacities, had been part of the country’s economic policy-making. Can he answer why the GDP growth rate fell to 4% during his reign from the 8% it had achieved under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who is not an econo-mist?

“Again a ‘chaiwala’ (Modi) is running the country and the economy is growing at 7.6%. It is for Singh to answer this,” said Shah who also said that “after seeing Singh, I don’t want to be an economist”.

Referring to assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh due next year, Shah said the BJP would come to power, and claimed that demon-etisation has created a level play-ing fi eld for all parties.

“Because of demonetisation, now there will be no black money in the elections. It has created a level playing fi eld for all. If any party says it is having prob-lems, then that means the party doesn’t want black money to be removed from the system,” said Shah.

IANSNew Delhi

The Congress in Punjab got a boost yesterday as two legislators from

the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal joined the party, officials said.

State Congress chief Ama-rinder Singh said cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu met him and “gave an impression he is inclined to sup-port our party.”

The two Akali members of the state assembly who joined the Congress are Rajinder Kaur Bhagike from Nihal Singh Wala

and Mahesh Inder Singh from Baghapurana.

Amarinder Singh, a former chief minister, said the party’s list of candidates for the 2017 assembly elections will be fi -nalised by tomorrow, and an-nounced on December 9 or 10.

“I met him (Sidhu). I can tell that much. I hope he’ll very soon make an announcement about what he wishes to do. I found him in a very positive frame of mind. I hope it’ll be a positive decision,” Singh said, without revealing when the meeting took place.

“The impression I got, with-out any commitment from his side, is that he is inclined to-

wards supporting us. I can’t tell you about his joining,” he said.

Singh said Sidhu told him his family had supported the Con-gress in the past and that his father was a district Congress president and remained an ad-vocate general during the Con-gress rule in the state.

Asked what the former crick-eter wants from the Congress, Singh said: “He doesn’t want anything. He just has to make up his mind on whether he will like to carry on with what he is doing or whether he wants to come...

“...no assurance from his side, but certainly I feel the way he was talking, he would like to campaign for the Congress or

work for the Congress. But this he has to announce himself.”

Asked whether Sidhu will contest the Amritsar Lok Sabha by-election, Singh said: “That will be the Congress president’s decision. I don’t think Navjot is interested. It’s for him to say, but I don’t think he is interested.”

Sidhu had earlier represented Amritsar constituency in the Lok Sabha. Singh won the seat in the 2014 general elections by defeating the present federal Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, but resigned from the Lok Sabha membership on November 11 in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal.

Coup in a state — Banerjee’s dangerous ideaPretenders to the throne are

fi nding the going tough. Prime Minister Narendra

Modi is showing no sign of fa-tigue in the face of relentless at-tack from the opposition, leav-ing in utter despair those who thought that one day they could sit where Modi is sitting now.

With just 44 seats in the Lok Sabha, the fi ght had gone out of the Congress Party long time ago. All it is now left with are some inane and often times comical interludes by its vice-president and chief strategist Rahul Gandhi.

Yes, it can still bring parlia-ment to a standstill, but that is more due to lung power than oratorical skills or nuanced pol-icy enunciations and every day it indulges in this act the party’s stock continues its inexorable journey to nothingness. Rahul Gandhi as prime minister is a very, very distant dream today.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was seen as the one ca-pable of mounting a challenge to Modi not only because he won a comprehensive victory in the state assembly elections in Oc-tober last year but also because his demeanour and utterances carried a certain courage of con-viction that was missing in other leaders of the opposition.

But his ‘grand alliance’ with the convicted Lalu Prasad Ya-dav combined with a somewhat short-sighted policy of prohi-bition has left Kumar in a pre-

carious position. His support for Modi in the ongoing demoneti-sation drive has sent the rumour mill on overdrive. “Nitish is get-ting ready to dump Lalu and re-turn to NDA” (Modi’s National Democratic Alliance), so goes the refrain.

That support for the demon-etisation came close on the heels of Bihar becoming the fi rst non-NDA state to ratify the goods and services tax (GST) bill on which Modi has set much store for the economic rejuvenation of India, encouraging the ‘Nitish-on-the-move brigade’ to turn up the volume.

Although Kumar may be still harbouring thoughts of moving to the high chair in Delhi - what is a politician without ambition after all - he seems to have lost the challenger’s fervour and im-patience that were in evidence immediately after the assembly polls.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took his ambition to be-come India’s prime minister to a whole new level by calling the incumbent all sorts of names. He was ostensibly opposing Modi’s programmes and policies - and he continues to do so - but being much younger than Nitish Ku-mar and certainly of a diff erent bend of mind, Kejriwal started showering abuses on Modi that even some of his staunchest supporters found diffi cult to jus-tify. He probably thought that that was the language his elec-

torate would understand better, but disillusionment is setting in faster than the winter fog over Delhi.

A series of legal setbacks cou-pled with a major rift in the Pun-jab unit of his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have left Kejriwal severely wounded. The demonetisation, if the grapevine has to be be-lieved, has come as a bolt from the blue to Kejriwal who is facing a major cash crunch ahead of the crucial assembly polls in Punjab. The AAP’s decision to pull out of local government polls in several states is said to be a direct fallout of that fi scal defi cit.

Allegations by a section of his party in Punjab that Kejriwal’s Delhi-based deputies are sell-ing party tickets to the highest bidder - the going rate is not less that Rs20mn per seat - have created further confusion within the AAP which has not yet recovered from the loss of its state convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur who rebelled against the party chief.

Kejriwal’s biggest worry now is how to salvage the party in Punjab and challenge the ruling

Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine and the Congress. Six months ago the AAP looked like giving the other two a seri-ous run for their monies. Not any more. A defeat in Punjab could also spell doom for the AAP else-where, including Delhi.

This brings to the other chief pretender to the throne, Mamata Banerjee. No doubt Banerjee is a people’s leader. With almost no fi nancial clout to brag about and a rag-tag second string to rely on, she brought the mighty Marxists to their knees ending their nearly four-decade long stranglehold on West Bengal. That in itself is a story of legen-dary proportions.

It may be too much to expect Banerjee to undo all that dam-age - to industry, agriculture, education, healthcare and what have you - that the Marxists had wrought during their long, law-less reign. But six years are good enough to know which way the wind is blowing.

Yes, the politics of mur-der and mayhem has changed somewhat but there is precious little to brag about in other

fields. The loss of 16 assembly seats (from 227 in 2011 to 211 in 2016) may not have been a ma-jor setback because of the vast majority that Banerjee’s Trina-mool Congress (TMC) enjoys but it must be taken as an indi-cator of the people’s mood.

The state’s fi nances are in a mess. A fi scal defi cit of Rs273bn and a revenue defi cit of Rs171bn (comparative fi gures for lowly Bihar are Rs151bn and Rs148bn) do not augur well for any chief minister who wants to alleviate/eradicate poverty. A state largely dependent on agriculture, es-pecially by small and marginal farmers, West Bengal has only 3% of India’s arable land but has 8% of the country’s population. Top industrialists continue to be ambivalent about investing in the state although promises have been made at various investment forums. Banerjee, therefore, has more than one reason to feel frustrated.

Modi’s demonetisation was a godsend, so to speak, for Baner-jee to take out that frustration. She could see hundreds of peo-ple, especially the poor, lining up at banks and ATMs to take out small amounts of money to buy home essentials. She read the Supreme Court observation that the queues could lead to ri-ots. Now is the time to hit out at Modi, she thought, because the people would back her and rise in revolt.

Frustration as an emotion is

ill suited for politics, especially in crucial, game-changing mo-ments like the one India is pres-ently going through. A cool head, rather than a heart boiling over, is the need of the hour. Unfortu-nately Banerjee was found want-ing in this aspect.

First she fl ew to the national capital and, together with Kejri-wal, breathed fi re and brimstone at Modi at a meeting in the city’s main vegetable market. Three days are all you have got to roll back demonetisation, other-wise…, she warned Modi. Noth-ing happened.

She then fl ew to Bihar’s capital city of Patna and, despite Nit-ish Kumar and his party staying away, organised a rally but even Lalu Prasad Yadav, a staunch critic of Modi, did not attend, adding to Banerjee’s frustration.

The next day, as her fl ight was about to land in Kolkata, the pilot was told there was traffi c congestion at the airport and he would have to hold the aircraft hovering over the city. Banerjee immediately saw Modi’s hand in this, not just to delay her land-ing but to let the plane run out of fuel and crash! The chief minis-ter simply forgot, or is not aware, that there are international avia-tion rules that govern such situ-ations and a plane will never be held up over an airport if it was getting low on fuel. And was it only her life on the line in that scenario? If ever there was stu-pid alibi, this was it.

Banerjee lands in due course and immediately sees another conspiracy, something even more sinister for the country at large. As she drove to her offi ce, she found Indian Army soldiers manning a toll plaza near the building. “Coup!,” she cried. Modi is sending the army to take over her secretariat, Banerjee al-leged, whereas the soldiers were on a routine annual stock-taking of load carriers that pass through the plaza. This was required for mobilization in case of a calami-tous emergency. And they were doing the same in nine other states.

Nobody bought the coup plot, so Banerjee changed tack and al-leged that the soldiers were col-lecting money from the truck and bus drivers. This was fl atly rejected “with contempt” by the General Offi cer Command-ing (GOC) of the Eastern Com-mand which is headquartered in Kolkata.

Politicians go to great lengths to demean and disgrace each other but dragging the na-tion’s army into the equation is a first, especially with charges of corruption. It is most certain that Modi had no information about what an army unit was doing at a toll plaza in Kolkata, leave alone sending it on a coup mission. But now that she has come up with this idea, if Ban-erjee were to one day become India’s prime minister, can we put it past her?

Activists carry placards displaying images of the Babri Mosque as they take part in a protest to mark the 24th anniversary of the destruction of the mosque, in New Delhi yesterday. Hindu hardliners demolished the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh on December 6, 1992, claiming it was built on the site of the birth place of Ram, sparking country-wide Hindu-Muslim riots.

Activists mark Babri anniversary

Delhi DiaryBy A K B Krishnan

Gulf Times Correspondent

25Gulf TimesWednesday, December 7, 2016

INDIA

Mass grief as Jayalalithaa buriedThousands in tearful farewell to iconic leader

AgenciesChennai

Hundreds of thousands of mourners paid an emo-tional fi nal farewell yes-

terday to Tamil Nadu Chief Min-ister J Jayalalithaa as the former movie star who enjoyed god-like status was buried.

A day after the 68-year-old died following a massive week-end cardiac arrest, huge crowds lined the street of Chennai as Jayalalithaa’s coffi n was taken to its fi nal resting place.

Mourners clambered onto statues, trees and soft drinks stalls that lined the city’s Marina beach, eager to view the cortege.

Television put the number of mourners at around 1mn.

As the sun began to set, Jay-alalithaa’s confi dante Sasikala performed the fi nal rituals over-seen by a Brahmin priest before her tricolour-draped body in a sandalwood casket was lowered into a grave near the memorial to her mentor M G Ramachandran.

As an era ended in Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa’s last journey started from Rajaji Hall, where hundreds of thousands thronged for a fi nal look at their iconic leader, and slowly moved to-wards the Marina Beach fl ooded with mourners.

The 3km procession through Chennai streets, packed on both sides by men and women, many weeping, took more than an hour.

The chief of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was laid to rest with full state honours next to MGR, who brought the young Jayala-lithaa from the fi lm industry into the male-dominated Dravidian politics.

Her successor Chief Minister

O Panneerselvam, and Sasikala, dressed in black, were seated on the military truck that towed the glass casket-laden carriage with Jayalalithaa’s body.

Despite being twice jailed over allegations of corruption, the woman known simply as Amma, or mother, was a revered fi gure in Tamil Nadu and one of India’s most popular and successful politicians as a populist cham-pion of the poor.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi fl ew to Chennai to pay his own respects.

President Pranab Mukher-jee, chief ministers from Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Ut-tar Pradesh, Karnataka and Pu-ducherry, Congress vice presi-dent Rahul Gandhi and others too paid their last respects as streams of her supporters lined up outside the Rajaji Hall where her casket was on display.

While the coffi n was wrapped in an Indian fl ag, many of the mourners were wearing scarves with the red, white and black colours of her party.

Many of the women mourners screamed hysterically and wept, although there were no reports of serious unrest amid a large se-curity presence.

“It is a very sad day. She was an essential part of the state. She was meant for greatness,” said Christina Paun, a 34-year-old university professor who was among those queueing to pay their respects.

“She had a very diffi cult life in a male-dominated society but she was always diff erent. She was always great. She had per-fect control over her emotions.

“She has left a big void and we will have to see if someone can fi ll her shoes.”

Famed for a vast sari collec-tion that won her comparisons with Imelda Marcos, Jayalalithaa was also one of India’s most po-

larising politicians, seen by some as an autocratic and secretive leader.

But nothing could dent her popularity in Tamil Nadu, where she was elected chief minister on four occasions in a period when it became one of India’s most prosperous states.

Jayalalitha fi rst made her name starring in movies along-side MGR, who later became her political mentor before his death nearly 30 years ago.

Although most Hindus are cremated, Jayalalithaa had re-quested in her will that she be buried alongside her former co-star in his memorial building.

As her coffi n was lowered into the ground inside the mauso-

leum, thousands of petals were scattered on top.

Hundreds of supporters had kept a round-the-clock vigil out-side the Apollo Hospital since she was fi rst admitted in September suff ering from a fever.

When she fi rst fell ill one sup-porter set himself on fi re, while an elderly man suspended him-self from a crane with steel hooks pierced through his skin.

“The people are very de-pressed. We were expecting her to recover even yesterday. She is the bravest lady in the world,” said Manohar, a businessman who was among the queue of mourners.

Tamil Nadu has declared a week-long mourning, during

which schools and colleges will be shut for three days.

No state transport corpora-tion buses plied yesterday and millions stayed indoors.

The central government too announced a day of mourning.

The state had been tense since Sunday after reports that her health had worsened and she had been put on life support.

On Monday scuffl es broke out outside the hospital as many of her thousands of supporters there tried to break through po-lice barricades.

When MGR died in 1987, riots and looting broke out across the state.

Security had been reinforced across Tamil Nadu ahead of Jay-

alalitha’s death over fears of an emotional reaction.

Jayalalithaa earned the loy-alty of many voters with a series of populist schemes, including “Amma canteens” that provided lunch for just Rs3 and vast elec-tion-time giveaways.

Several of her supporters re-sorted to self-harm when she was briefl y jailed in 2014 on charges of corruption.

Her conviction, later over-turned on appeal, sparked mass protests and even some reported suicides.

Jayalalithaa’s death has plunged one of India’s most eco-nomically powerful states into a period of political uncertainty.

Though Panneerselvam was

sworn in as chief minister, ob-servers are uncertain whether a loyalist who lacks mass support will be able to rule smoothly.

Tamil Nadu is an important economic centre in India and a base for auto fi rms Ford Motor Daimler, Hyundai and Nissan and IT fi rm Cognizant.

Panneerselvam had stood in for Jayalalithaa in the past, but made clear he was not replacing her.

He declined to take her place at the head of the cabinet table while she was ill and instead had her picture placed there.

His rise to the top job in Tamil Nadu was aimed at allaying fears of a power struggle in the AIAD-MK, which Jayalalithaa had ruled with an iron hand.

Supporters of Jayalalithaa crowd around the vehicle carrying her body during her funeral procession in Chennai yesterday.

A reluctant star whose journey was more dramatic than any fi lm scriptIANSChennai

Much before she won over people in her po-litical avatar, J Jayala-

lithaa was the uncrowned queen and a very popular pin-up star of Tamil cinema during 1960s and 1970s. For all her reluctance to be an actress, her journey as one of the leading luminaries of south Indian cinema is more dramatic than any fi lm script.

Jayalalithaa, 68, died on Mon-day after a 74-day battle for life.

Though born in the lap of lux-ury, bad times fell upon the fam-ily when Jayalalithaa was very

young, forcing her to follow her mother’s footsteps into acting in order to support the family.

As an individual, Jayalalithaa hated limelight. In an interview to Simi Garewal, she had said, “I have been propelled by fate into two high-profi led careers,” (the second being her stint as chief minister of Tamil Nadu).

In 1961, when she was barely 12, her fi rst association with cel-luloid came in the form of Eng-lish fi lm, Epistle, directed by Shankar Giri.

Ace director B R Panthulu in-troduced her in a leading role in the 1964 Kannada fi lm, Chinna-da Gombe, and her performance garnered a lot of attention.

In 1965, she made her acting debut in Tamil and Telugu in-dustries with fi lms Vennira Adaia and Manshulu Mamathalu re-spectively. Her role as a girl with a mental disorder falling for her psychiatrist in Sridhar-directed Vennira Adai was well received.

In 1965, when Panthulu cast her opposite the charismatic M G Ramachandran (MGR) in Ayirathil Oruvan, little did he know that the pair would go on to create history. They worked together in 28 fi lms.

Many of her movies with MGR – Adimai Penn, Kavalkaran, Ra-man Thediya Seethai and Thedi Vanda Mappillai – are timeless and memorable even today.

A little less known fact is that Jayalalithaa replaced Saroja Devi in Adimai Penn as the latter was married by then. MGR reshot the whole movie with her.

The song Amma Endral Anbu from Adimai Penn also marked her singing debut.

Jayalalithaa was known to re-invent on screen and she didn’t hesitate to take up glamorous roles, even if it required her to wear sleeveless blouses and tight-fi tting salwar kameezes. She was reportedly the fi rst leading lady in Tamil fi lm indus-try to wear Western clothes.

She had also paired with Sivaji Ganeshan on several occasions, and they’re popular for working

together in Tamil fi lms such as Motor Sundaram Pillai, the full-length comedy Galatta Kaly-anam and Engirundho Vandhal among others.

Her performance as a prosti-tute-turned wife in Engirundho Vandhal propelled her to the forefront of fi lmdom.

Jayalalithaa won the best ac-tress Filmfare award for the 1972 Tamil fi lm Pattikada Pattanama. The fi lm also won a National award.

She’s also known for her col-laboration with actors such as Muthuraman, Jaishankar, Nagesh and Ravichandran. Op-posite Jaishankar, she starred in hit fi lms Muthuchippi, Yaar Nee,

Nee and Vairam among others.The Jaishankar-Jayalalithaa

combination resulted in memo-rable fi lms such as Naan, Bhag-dad Perazhagi and Magarasi.

In 1973, she won her second Filmfare award for the Tamil fi lm Suryakanthi, in which she also crooned two songs Oh meri diruba and Naan andral adhua.

She also thrived in mythologi-cal roles, in movies such as Kan-dan Karunai, Annai Velangani, Sri Krishna Vijayam and Saras-wathi Sabadham. Jayalalithaa acted in 28 Telugu fi lms.

Undeterred by the presence of thespians such as Savitri and Jamuna, she proved her mettle in the Telugu fi lm industry.

In her solo Hindi fi lm, Izzat, she played a tribal belle while her association with Malayalam in-dustry ended with just two fi lms, Jesus and Uppu.

She made her last on screen appearance in Tamil fi lm Nadhi-yal Thedi Vanda Kadhala (1980), and by then was nursing her po-litical ambitions.

In 1982, she became an AIAD-MK party member. In the political circuit, she was popularly known as “Puratchi Thalaivi’, meaning a revolutionary leader for her ag-gressive brand of politics.

In 1991, Jayalalithaa was sworn in as the chief minister for the fi rst time. From then on, her journey as Amma started.

New CM’s major challenge will be to hold AIADMK fl ock togetherIANSChennai

O Panneerselvam, Tamil Nadu’s new chief minister, still owns a tea stall in his

village that is run by his relatives.A man of few words, Panneersel-

vam was catapulted into the politi-cal landscape when he became the interim chief minister twice – fi rst in 2001, when J Jayalalithaa was dis-qualifi ed by the Supreme Court in a land deal, and again in 2014 when she was jailed for corruption.

And on the third occasion, the son of a farmer became the fulltime chief minister of the sprawling state after Jayalalithaa died on Monday night.

Many in Tamil Nadu say he owes his claim to the post to his unfl inch-ing loyalty to “Amma” – as Jayala-lithaa was popularly called by her passionate fans, including Panneer-selvam.

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam legislators unanimously pledged their support to Panneer-selvam following the death of Jay-alalithaa in a hospital here. He took oath early yesterday.

Political pundits believe that this time around Panneerselvam seems to be a compromise candidate for the AIADMK that returned to power in the May election with a huge ma-jority in the assembly.

Paneerelvam faces many chal-lenges in an uncertain world of Dra-vidian politics.

The biggest would be to hold the AIADMK fl ock together after the death of its charismatic leader and take other senior ministers along with him.

He, many feel, may not be able to match the gravitas of Jayalalithaa that held her millions of followers together during her nearly three decades as a politician and a leader of masses.

The new chief minister partly owes his political fortunes in the AIADMK to his proximity to former Lok Sabha member T T V Dinaka-

ran, a nephew of Jayalalithaa’s con-fi dante V K Sasikala.

Panneerselvam represents Bo-dinayakanur constituency in the southern district of Theni where he opened a tea stall called “PV Can-teen”. The eatery is now run by his brother who has renamed it “Rosie Canteen”.

Born in 1951 in Periayakulam in Theni, he also tried his hand in farming before venturing into poli-tics. His fi rst success came in 1996 when he was elected the chairman of the Periyakulam Municipality.

A father of three, Panneersel-vam’s big break came when he was elected to the assembly in 2001 from Periakulam. Jayalalithaa made him the revenue minister.

In September 2001, when he be-came the interim chief minister, Panneerselvam was criticised as a puppet. He famously refused to oc-cupy the chief minister’s chair.

He continued to be loyal to “Amma” and handled all key port-folios since October 11, 2016, weeks after Jayalalithaa was admitted to the Apollo Hospital here.

Panneerselvam: compromise candidate

Supporters of Jayalalithaa react as they wait to catch a glimpse of her funeral procession.

26 Gulf TimesWednesday, December 7, 2016

LATIN AMERICA

Ex-coup leader, fugitivewins Haitian Senate seat

ReutersPort-au-Prince

A former Haitian coup leader wanted by the US Drug Enforcement

Administration for alleged cocaine traffi cking and money laundering has won election to Haiti’s senate, according to preliminary results released by the electoral council. Guy Philippe defeated all other candidates in the second round of elections, held on November 20, for the southwestern Grand Anse region, which is still re-covering from the damage in-fl icted by Hurricane Matthew.

“Victory, thank you Grand Anse,” said a message posted on Philippe’s Facebook page. “My fellow compatriots, to-gether we will accomplish and live a patriotic act of faith.”

In Haiti, losing candidates have a period in which to fi le complaints about the results.

If Philippe’s win stands, he would take offi ce early next year for a six-year term.

In 2004, the former police of-fi cer, who Human Rights Watch

said had overseen extrajudicial killings, was a prominent fi g-ure in a coup against president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

His election underscores po-litical turmoil in impoverished Haiti, which is still struggling to establish democratic institu-tions more than 20 years after it threw off a dictatorship.

The DEA has a long-stand-ing arrest warrant against Philippe and lists him as one of its Most Wanted Fugitives, accusing him of conspiracy to import cocaine and launder monetary instruments.

He has denied the accusa-tions and said the US had no legal jurisdiction to make ar-rests in Haiti.

DEA agents backed by Hai-tian police made a failed bid to arrest Philippe in 2007.

He was not at home when the agents showed up.

The DEA spokeswoman for Miami, Anne Judith Lambert, said the agency could not comment on Philippe because the warrant was active.

A US embassy spokesman said it had no offi cial position on Philippe’s electoral victory.

Builder admits to graftin stadium contracts dealReutersSao Paulo

Andrade Gutierrez Engen-haria SA, Brazil’s second-largest construction fi rm,

has admitted to being part of a cartel for building World Cup soccer stadiums under a leni-ency agreement with anti-trust regulator Cade, the agency said.

As part of the agreement, Andrade Gutierrez provided evidence implicating fi ve other engineering fi rms that allegedly colluded in the bidding for con-tracts to build or renovate stadi-ums used in the 2014 FIFA World Cup hosted by Brazil, Cade said.

The fi ve fi rms are Odebrecht Investimentos em Infraestrutura Ltda, a unit of Odebrecht SA; Construcoes e Comercio Ca-margo Correa SA, a unit of Ca-margo Correa SA; Construtora OAS SA; Construtora Queiroz Galvao SA; and Carioca Chris-tiani Nielsen Engenharia SA.

Camargo Correa said it did not participate in any projects to build stadiums for the World Cup.

In a statement to Reuters, Ca-margo said it signed other leni-ency agreements with Cade and federal prosecutors “to correct irregularities.”

Carioca, OAS and Odebrecht declined to comment on An-drade’s leniency agreement.

Queiroz did not reply to a comment request.

The leniency deal is the sev-enth struck by Cade with com-panies that have been blacklisted for involvement in Brazil’s larg-est corruption scandal centred on state-run oil company Petro-bras.

Under a leniency agreement, a company must admit to guilt and provide evidence of wrongdoing by other players in a conspiracy or cartel, potentially exempting it from paying fi nes.

The new agreement signals tougher regulatory oversight over companies suspected of engaging in anticompetitive practices to win contracts from government or state-run com-panies.

Cade found evidence of bid-rigging on contracts for fi ve sta-

diums, including the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, Arena Pernam-buco near Recife and Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte.

The names of two of the fi ve stadiums remain confi dential so as not to hamper investigations, Cade said.

Last week, Andrade Gutierrez and Cade announced a leniency agreement as part of a separate bid-rigging probe related to en-gineering works carried out in Rio de Janeiro shanty towns.

Andrade Gutierrez was re-sponsible for the most expensive arena built for the World Cup, Brasilia’s 70,000-seat Mane Garrincha National Stadium.

It was not yet known wheth-er the stadium was subject to bid rigging. It cost more than $800mn at the time, a price tag that helped fuel violent pro-tests.

With no top-tier soccer team, Brasilia, the capital, is struggling to cover the $2.5mn it cost to maintain the stadium, a colise-um-like building that has drawn its biggest crowds for concerts by Paul McCartney and Beyonce.

Temer fi ndsplaying role ofBrazil saviourno easy taskReutersRio de Janeiro

When Michel Temer took over Brazil’s presidency in May,

many hoped he could overcome the political gridlock, corrup-tion scandals and economic ob-stacles that have hobbled Latin America’s biggest country.

But seven months into the job, Brazil’s problems look just as in-tractable as they did when Temer and his Congressional allies or-chestrated the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff , his predecessor.

Like a sequel to her adminis-tration, Temer’s is already beset by scandal, an unwieldy legisla-ture and an economy that risks entering a third year of reces-sion.

Instead of hope and change, after 13 years of increasingly feckless government by the left-ist Workers Party, even those who enabled Temer’s ascent fear more of the same.

“We already have a crisis of confi dence as bad as it was with Dilma,” says Cristo-vam Buarque, a veteran senator scorned by fellow leftists for sup-porting Rousseff ’s im-peachment. “There is no indication the coun-try has a way out of this mess.”

A quick fi x would

be rare in Brazil’s chaotic, multi-party democracy.

After all, Temer, as vice presi-dent, was part of Rousseff ’s ad-ministration and, critics say, helped create the mess.

His Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), a shapeshifting mix of conserva-tives and centrists, was a key part of the Workers Party coali-tion.

And Temer, a backroom deal-maker who calls his specialty “arbitrating confl ict,” is not the commandeering, inspirational saviour that many Brazilians crave.

“This is someone known for accommodation, not for lead-ing with ideas, certainty and strength,” says Rafael Cortez, a political scientist at Tendencias, a Sao Paulo consulting fi rm.

The president and his aides say they remain confi dent they can pull Brazil from the morass.

But many Brazilians are grow-ing impatient, with memories fresh of an economic boom that preceded the Rousseff adminis-

tration.The recession is proving

relentless, pushing un-employment toward a 12% level unseen in over a decade.

Last week, govern-ment data showed the

economy contracted for a seventh

consecutive quarter.

Opposition activists in Venezuela shout slogans demanding that the leftist government of Nicolas Maduro order the release of political prisoners, outside the Nunciature in Caracas yesterday.

Venezuela opposition withdraws from talksAFPCaracas

Venezuela’s opposition yesterday withdrew from the latest round of crisis

negotiations with authorities, insisting the government fi rst release prisoners and allow a vote on the volatile country’s political future.

It was the latest clash in a tense standoff between the South American country’s so-cialist government and the centre right-dominated oppo-sition.

“We are staying in the dia-logue system but we are not going to take part in the meet-ing,” said Jesus Torrealba, leader of the opposition MUD coalition.

His side insists the govern-ment release jailed opposition leaders and agree to hold a vote on whether Socialist President Nicolas Maduro should stay in offi ce.

Maduro has refused both de-mands, despite insisting he is open to dialogue.

The centre-right opposition blames Maduro’s management for a deep economic crisis.

Maduro says the crisis is a US-backed capitalist conspir-acy. His number two Diosdado Cabello had insisted on Mon-day: “We will not withdraw from the talks.”

A recession driven by plung-ing prices for Venezuela’s cru-cial crude oil exports has led to shortages of food and medicine. Citizens face long queues to buy basic supplies and infl ation has soared.

Deadly riots and looting have broken out over recent months. The dialogue aims to calm tensions as the centre-right opposition demands a

vote on removing Maduro.The MUD claimed Madu-

ro’s side had agreed at the last round of talks to meet some of its demands. “The government is not only failing to fulfi l its promises, it is denying all the agreements,” Torrealba said on the radio.

Maduro insists the issue of prisoners and a vote were never on the table.

A group of 14 jailed opposi-tion leaders launched a hunger strike on Monday to demand the government release politi-cal prisoners and allow a vote to settle the crisis.

Analysts have warned there is a risk of unrest in Venezuela. Anti-government protests in 2014 led to clashes that left 43 people dead.

Maduro has the public back-ing of the military high com-mand and of most state institu-tions.

Torrealba said his side would only meet with Vatican and re-gional Latin American media-tors.

MUD sources said they did not rule out that the govern-ment might make “proposals” via the mediators to unblock the talks.

Colombian singer Shakira attends an event to present her new fragarance “Dance” in Santiago, Chile.

Shakira in Chile

European Union countries yesterday cleared the way for full normalisation of ties with communist Cuba next week by dropping demands for Havana to first improve its human rights record. Cuban and EU off icials signed a normalisation deal in March as US President Barack Obama brought Havana back in from the cold after nearly 60 years, but it still needed backing by the 28 EU member states. EU ministers meeting in Brussels agreed yesterday to repeal a 1996 policy containing the human rights conditions and to have the normalisation deal signed on December 12. “We are truly at a turning point in the relations between the EU and Cuba,” EU foreign aff airs chief Federica Mogherini said.

A trumpeter has died after being badly beaten during a concert he was giving in a cathedral near Buenos Aires, attacked by parents from a preschool where he had allegedly molested children, a priest said. Marcelo Fabian Pecollo, a music teacher and trumpeter with the Moron city orchestra, was sentenced in 2010 to 30 years in prison for molesting five preschool children. He was freed in 2014 after a sentence reduction. The attack took place on October 30 at the cathedral in Moron, a Buenos Aires suburb. Pecollo, 42, tried to get away but the group caught up with him and beat him, including one parent who hit the man with his own trumpet, according to witnesses.

Mexican police working with military troops killed 14 suspected criminals in a shootout in the crime-plagued state of Veracruz, off icials said. Authorities have stepped up antidrug patrols in the Gulf coast state, where cartels are responsible for a spike in crime. Off icials said police patrolling the region came under fire from a criminal gang hidden behind a small hill in the town of Suchilapan, a mountainous area on the border of Veracruz state and Oaxaca to the south. Marine troops were enlisted after the assault to help flush out the attackers, and an ensuing gunfight resulted in the deaths of the 14 suspected criminals, a government statement said.

Lawmakers stripped El Salvador’s ambassador to Germany of immunity so he can face arms-traff icking charges dating back to his time as deputy defence minister. Atilio Benitez, a retired general and Iraq war veteran, served as deputy defence minister in 2009-2011 before becoming defence minister in 2011-2013. The vote to lift his immunity was adopted by 43 lawmakers in the country’s 84-seat legislative assembly after prosecutors said he faced charges of illegally trading in arms, weapons possession and fraud. The investigation against him started in 2012, based on allegations that three years earlier he had sold weapons stocked for destruction.

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen will visit diplomatic ally Guatemala next month, the foreign minister said, but it was unclear if she would also go to the US after a phone call with president-elect Donald Trump raised sensitivities in Sino-US relations. Tsai is due to visit Guatemala on January 11-12, Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales said. He gave no details on what President Jimmy Morales and Tsai would discuss. Taiwan’s Liberty Times, considered close to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, reported on Monday that Tsai was planning to transit in New York early next month on her way to visit three diplomatic allies in Central America — Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.

EU drops rights conditionfor Cuba normalisation

Paedophile dies after concert attack

14 suspects killed in clash with Mexico police

El Salvador stripsambassador of immunity

Taiwan president tovisit Guatemala

POLICY CRIMELAW AND ORDER DECISION OFFICIAL

Senate defies order to suspend speaker

Brazil’s Senate yesterday rejected a judge’s order to suspend its speaker who faces trial for alleged embezzlement in a scandal that threatens to destabilise President Michel Temer. The chamber’s governing panel said it would keep Speaker Renan Calheiros in his post until a full session of all 11 judges in the

Supreme Court rules on whether he should be suspended. “Removing the speaker of the Senate from his post nine days before the end of his term... through a monocratic decision... even in Brazil, democracy does not deserve such a fate,” Calheiros told reporters after meeting with the panel.

PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN27Gulf Times


Pakistan fi nally recognises its unsung hero – Abdus Salam

Making amends for a historic injustice, the incumbent govern-

ment of Pakistan has decided to honour the fi rst Nobel laureate physicist of Pakistan, Professor Abdus Salam, by renaming the National Centre for Physics after him.

Academics and campaigners have long struggled to name a university or higher learning or research institute after Dr Abdus Salam who belonged to the Ah-madiya community.

No government could muster courage to honour the globally acclaimed physicist for fear of reprisal from the religious right.

Prime Minister Nawaz Shar-if yesterday gave approval ‘in principle’ to renaming the Na-tional Centre for Physics after Dr Salam, directing the Ministry of Federal Education and Profes-sional Training to forward a for-mal summary in this regard for approval of President Mamnoon Hussain.

The prime minister has also approved grant of fi ve fellow-ships annually to Pakistani stu-dents for PhD in physics through

the Higher Education Commis-sion at reputed international universities.

The programme has also been named Professor Abdus Salam Fellowship.

The centre situated near the Quaid-i-Azam University is an autonomous body funded by the government of Pakistan.

It was the brainchild of Dr Salam who envisioned estab-lishing a national centre of ex-cellence in Pakistan in 1976 where scientists could work in physics in collaboration with in-ternational scientists.

But opposition from past governments and religious big-

otry had forced him to leave the country for Italy where he estab-lished the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste.

In 2000, the National Cen-tre for Physics was founded by the late professor Dr Riazuddin and nuclear physicist Dr Ishfaq Ahmad, fulfi lling the wish of Dr Salam.

The prime minister in a state-ment said the decision was tak-en “in recognition of the great contributions of renowned Pa-kistani physicist Dr Mohamad Abdus Salam”. The PM Offi ce maintained that renaming the National Centre for Physics as

Dr Abdus Salam’s Centre for Physics would be another step towards honouring the Pakistani scientist.

Academics and activists, who waged a long struggle to recog-nise the scientist as a national hero, have commended the deci-sion.

“Renaming the NCP as ASCP indicates that Pakistan is now ready to recognise the scientif-ic achievements of its citizens irrespective of religious faith,” said physicist Pervez Hoodb-hoy.

“It will help soften Pakistan’s image abroad. This is badly needed when we are accused of

being intolerant and terrorist.”From the point of view of sci-

ence, he said, “Our recognition of Abdus Salam will encourage young Pakistanis to seek a ca-reer in science. In India, there are many role models, but in Pakistan, so far there is only one.”

The government’s recognition is overdue because Salam’s work had already put Pakistan on the scientifi c map of the world, and everyone was astonished that Salam was not recognised in his own country, he said.

“The present government should be congratulated for cor-recting a ‘historic injustice’.”

InternewsIslamabad

Abdus Salam

How toxic water destroyed Pakistan’s largest lake

For generations the Mohan-na tribe have lived, loved, worked, and played on

Pakistan’s Manchar Lake; their fl oating settlement serving their needs from birth to death.

But an unrelenting flow of toxic wastewater is pouring into the lake — a byproduct of industrialisation and ag-gressive agricultural practices upstream — and has slowly rendered it inhospitable, poi-soning the water and almost everything in it.

For fi shermen such as Mo-hamed Yusuf, life on the lake is becoming intolerable.

“When we were young, our lives were very good. Every kind of fi sh was available. Our earn-ings were good,” he said.

“When my father would go fi shing he would bring back over a hundred kilos of fi sh. Now the situation has changed. The fi sh is extinct because of the bad wa-ter,” he added.

The wooden, fl at-bottomed barge he lives in with his mother, wife, and their nine children, has ornate carvings but it has seen better days.

Now Yusuf barely catches enough fi sh to feed his family, let

alone be able to save the money he needs to maintain his boat.

He estimates they have just fi ve years before it is beyond re-pair, fearing he will soon have to leave the place where he was born.

And yet their whole life is packed into this fl oating home: Clothes and linen are stacked in the stern, kitchenware and food under the prow.

Cooking is done down in the hold, on a little earthen hearth fed by the stems of aquatic plants.

“If it is hot we sleep on the roof, in the winter we sleep in-side the boat on the fl oor,” said Yusuf.

Two cradles swing as the breeze softens the heat: the larger for his child born on board some 40 days ago, the smaller one for the Qur’an, a dignifi ed place for the Holy Book to avoid desecration.

Neighbouring boathouses are anchored a few dozen metres away.

Children wade or swim in the shallows while adults navigate the water in narrow wooden ca-noes, which they skillfully push with a pole.

“We have been living this way for generations,” explained the fi sherman.

The size of Manchar Lake,

one of the largest fresh water reserves in Pakistan, varies de-pending on rainfall.

It can measure more than 250 square kilometres after the an-nual monsoon.

In the 1970s a series of drains and canals were built to carry sewage to the lake from several major cities in Sindh province,

as well as industrial wastewater, and overfl ow from rice paddies full of pesticides and fertilisers.

The system, known as the Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD), also dumps into the lake vast quantities of brackish water drained from the right bank of the Indus to make the surround-ing land arable.

Meanwhile, mountain tor-rents supplying fresh water have declined.

So too has the flow of the Indus itself into the lake, due to the building of dams and greater irrigation, explains Mustafa Mirani of the Paki-stani Fishermen Forum, which campaigns for the protection

and conservation of the lake.As far back as the 1990s, as-

sessments found the land and the water was being destroyed by a toxic mix of saline, chemi-cals and sewage, explains the activist, who grew up on the lake.

It was then proposed to re-route the RBOD to empty into the Arabian Sea further south.

But the plan has been sus-pended for years due to lack of funds, and dirty water continues to fl ow into the lake untreated and unabated.

The water is no longer drink-able.

The pollution has killed off fl ora and fauna and it has become impossible to grow vegetables in the toxic silt.

Migrating birds, which once came in their thousands to rest among the reeds on the lake, are now rarely seen.

Fish stock has also plummet-ed.

In the 1970s, more than 15,000 tonnes were netted each year compared with 2,000-3,800 tonnes in recent years, according to the Sindh Fisheries Depart-ment.

The number of the Mohanna tribe living around the lake has halved in the last 25 years, ac-cording to Mirani.

“When I was growing I saw

some 400 boats and that many families on them.

All of them, eating, sleeping, marrying, all would take place on the boats,” he recalled.

“Now, because of poverty, they can’t mend or repair their boats. So gradually all these boats are vanishing.”

There are now just four dozen fl oating homes left on the lake.

But life on the shore is tough too.

Their rudimentary villages are made from mud and have little sanitation.

Saindad, a toothless sexa-generian, who now lives on the shore in a shabby reed cabin has had no source of income since his last boat sank.

“We don’t have water or any fi ltration facility. And no-one cares about us. We are so poor we don’t even have cooking utensils or other essential things,” he said.

His sons left to look for work in neighbouring cities.

Some of the lake’s inhabitants have taken to fi shing the seas near Karachi or neighbouring Balochistan.

The Pakistani Supreme Court took up the issue in 2010, but has failed to force government action.

“This lake is gifted from God,” sighs Mirani, “but all its beauty has been ruined.”

AFPManchar Lake, Pakistan

In this photograph taken on September 9, 2016, a woman holds up a plate of food as she makes her way through the water in front of the floating boathouses on Manchar lake.

PM approves fi nancing plan for Diamer dam

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ‘ap-proved in principle’ the

fi nancing plan for the Rs1.45tn Diamer-Bhasha dam and hydro-power project with a directive to start physical work on it before the end of next year.

According to a statement is-sued by the Prime Minister Of-fi ce yesterday, the innovative plan proposing the project fi -nancing on a self-reliance ba-sis was presented by Water and Power Secretary Mohamed You-nas Dagha.

Informed sources said the government had now made up its mind for a segregated ap-proach to the project fi nancing implementation in view of diffi -culties in taking on board major multilateral agencies, particu-larly the World Bank which was reluctant to fi nance it due to In-dian pressure.

As a consequence, the Asian Development Bank also had not committed to funding the project as confi rmed by its president Takehiko Nakao at a news confer-ence here in October this year.

According to the sources, the presentation on the project fi -nancing was made to the prime minister a few days ago.

Under the new plan, originally fl oated by the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) in May this year, the project has been divided into two parts to reduce the size of the project and fi nancing requirements.

The PM Offi ce said the dam portion of the project would be funded through Public Sec-tor Development Programme (PSDP) allocations and Wapda-generated resources while the fi nancing for the power genera-tion portion would be arranged on a commercial basis by the water and power ministry either through Wapda or through leas-ing its existing projects.

The water and power secre-tary said that the power gen-eration portion would be funded commercially either by Wapda or by off ering it to the private sector.

He said the tentative cost of the project was estimated at around Rs1.450tn, including the dam’s cost of Rs550 billion, over a period of seven years starting from 2017-18.

It also includes Rs80bn al-

ready allocated for land acquisi-tion and other activities.

Dagha said that most of the land for the project had already been acquired two months ago.

Interestingly, the water and power ministry informed the Senate on Nov 24 that 28,247 acres out of 37,419 acres of land required for construction of the project had so far been acquired.

The water and power sec-retary said the prime minister had ordered fi nalisation of cost estimates and annual allocation by involving an international consortium of consultants to review the project’s design and cost.“The project’s ground-breaking is planned for end- 2017,” he added.

An offi cial said the project would get about Rs60-70bn an-nually under the PSDP.

The prime minister also con-stituted a committee comprising secretaries of water and power,

planning and fi nance to expe-dite the process of completing the fi nancial proposal.

He asked the water and power secretary to start preparations so that physical work on the dam could start before the end of 2017, the PM Offi ce statement said.

InternewsIslamabad

Suspected Islamic State (IS) and Taliban militants are brought before media during a press conference in Jalalabad yesterday. Afghan National Directorate Security (NDS) forces arrested three suspected IS fighters and eight Taliban insurgents during an operation in diff erent part of Jalalabad city, off icials said.

Taliban militants held

Pakistan’s Gadani ship-breaking yard reopens after tragedy

Probe into

hiring of 50

govt staff

from 1 family

Ship-breaking activi-ties at Pakistan’s port area of Gadani, hous-

ing the world’s third biggest ship-breaking hub, resumed yesterday after a provincial court ordered reopening of the yard that was on halt fol-lowing the November’s trag-ic incident that killed at least 26 workers.

Offi cials said the High Court of Balochistan ordered the re-sumption of activities at Gada-ni ship-breaking yard, setting aside an earlier order of the provincial government to cease ship-breaking following a fi re accident on November 1.

Offi cials said the provin-

cial court ordered the removal of section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, prohibiting assembly of more than four people in an area.

Ikhlaq Memon, acting chair-man at Pakistan Ship Breakers Association said the associa-tion received the court order.

“The fullfl edge activities will resume in a couple of days.”

Last week, the association urged the federal and provincial governments to allow resump-tion of the ship-breaking ac-tivities.

It also fi led 22 appeals in the local court against the section 144.

Memon said the association is willing to fulfi ll its promises. “We have already started to work on safety system development, medical facility and construction

of a hospital in the area.”He said a committee, con-

stituted to fi nd the cause of the fi re that broke out after a number of explosions on a scrapped oil ship, is preparing a report and its fi ndings will help the industry and government adopt better safety/prevention measures.

A business leader said the resumption of activities at the yard will help in reviving busi-nesses of the allied industries.

“This will also prevent job-lessness,” said Sheikh Khalid Tawab, senior vice president at the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI). Gadani ship-breaking yard, around 50km northwest of Karachi, consists of 132 ship breaking plots along the 10-km long beachfront.

Pakistani authorities prom-ised an inquiry yesterday after a southern province

was found to have employed al-most 50 members of the same family in various health ministry jobs, many in the same hospital.

The sheer number of the ap-pointments — from vaccinators to security guards to lab technicians — has attracted the attention of the Supreme Court which will begin a hearing from today.

The matter surfaced when a man fi led a petition complaining provincial health department had recruited some 48 cousins in the Ghotki district of Sindh province.

“Since 2008 till recently more than four dozen members of Chad-har family have been appointed by the authorities,” complainant Far-man Ali Pitafi , a health department employee, told AFP, adding they were all cousins.

He said many of the fam-ily members were appointed in subordinate grades but quickly promoted.

The provincial health minister Sikandar Ali Mandhro said he was unaware of the matter but would look into it.

InternewsKarachi

AFPKarachi

A man strangled his five children to death before committing sui-cide in Pakistan’s Punjab province yesterday, the media reported.Hussain, a resident of Lalian tehsil, killed his daughter and four sons, police off icer Mustansar Feroz was quoted as saying. Hussain report-edly took the extreme step after his wife deserted him.

A Pakistani court has charged the brother of a slain social media star with her murder, the final step before a trial begins in one of the country’s highest-profile “honour killings”.Model Qandeel Baloch, who shot to fame for her pro-vocative selfies, was strangled in July by her brother

Mohamed Waseem. He said she had brought shame on the family and confessed to his crime in a press conference after his arrest. Waseem was produced before a court in the central city of Multan on Mon-day along with his cousin Haq Nawaz whom police deemed to be an accomplice.

Man strangles five children, commits suicide

Pakistani court charges brother in killing of social media star

PHILIPPINES


Police murdered townmayor: investigatorsAFPManila

Philippine police murdered a town mayor while he was helpless in a jail cell,

justice department investiga-tors said yesterday, contradict-ing claims by the accused and President Rodrigo Duterte that he was killed in a gunbattle.

The accusations by the Na-tional Bureau of Investigation deepened concerns that police were carrying out summary exe-cutions as part of Duterte’s con-troversial war on crime, which has claimed more than 5,100 lives in just over fi ve months.

The NBI, equivalent to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, said police shot dead mayor Ro-lando Espinosa and cellmate Raul Yap last month as they were de-fenceless in a provincial jail cell.

“After conducting an exhaus-tive investigation of the incidents surrounding the killing of Mayor Espinosa and Yap, the NBI con-cluded that the testimonies of several witnesses had disputed the claim of an alleged shootout between the (police) operatives and inmates Mayor Espinosa and Raul Yap but (was) a ‘rub out’,” the NBI said in a statement.

“Rub out” is a local expres-sion, referring to the police kill-ing a suspect and then saying he died in a gunbattle.

“The pieces of evidence, both testimonial and the forensic evidence all agree. We believe

we have a very strong case,” NBI deputy director Ferdinand Lavin told reporters.

Lavin said the NBI had rec-ommended murder and perjury charges against 24 offi cers for

their alleged role in the killings and subsequent lies. The jus-tice department will then de-cide whether to fi le the murder charges.

The accused police had claimed they fi red in self-de-fence at the pair when they went into the jail cell before dawn to carry out a search warrant.

The police alleged Espinosa, who was in jail after being ar-rested in October on drug and gun possession charges, had a fi rearm and methamphetamine in the cell. Lawmakers, media groups and human rights advo-cates had ridiculed that version of events, asking why police had to carry out a search in a jail cell at night and why CCTV footage of the event had disappeared.

They also asked how a man in jail could have a gun and drugs, and why he would shoot at po-lice knowing he was outnum-bered.

However Duterte, who has pledged never to let a policeman go to jail for waging his war on crime, repeatedly defended the offi cers involved.

Duterte had accused Espino-sa, mayor of the town of Albuera in the eastern province of Leyte, of being a drug lord.

He had initially given po-lice “shoot-to-kill” orders if Espinosa did not surrender, prompting the mayor to turn himself in.

In a speech late Monday, Du-terte defended the police who killed Espinosa and said he be-lieved their version of events.

“Do not force me to believe the theories and assumptions, even with the witnesses, that the mayor was killed (illegally) in the prison,” he said.

Duterte had previously sig-nalled he was happy Espinosa had been shot dead.

“You have here a guy, a gov-ernment employee, using his offi ce and money of govern-ment, cooking (illegal drugs) and destroying the lives of so many millions of Filipinos. So what is there for me to say about it?” he said last month.

Duterte’s police chief initially stood down the police offi cer in charge of the raid pending an investigation, but the president immediately reinstated him.

Duterte, 71, won May elec-tions in a landslide on a promise to kill tens of thousands of crim-inals to prevent the Philippines from becoming a narco-state.

His subsequent war on crime, in which an average of more than 30 people a day are being killed, has led to fears police are carrying out mass extrajudicial killings.

Duterte has repeatedly pledged to protect police from murder charges relating to his crime war, and pardon them if they are found guilty.

Police Superintendent Marvin Marcos, head of the local Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, who led the deadly raid gestures during a senate hearing in Manila over the death of a town mayor.

De Lima turns emotional in confrontation with DayanBy Jeff erson AntipordaManila Times

Senator Leila de Lima strug-gled to maintain her equa-nimity when she confront-

ed her former lover and driver, Ronnie Dayan, at the Senate on Monday.

But the lawmaker turned emotional when she insisted that she does not know Kerwin Espinosa and appealed to the two men to tell the truth.

Dayan had told members of the Senate Committee on Pub-lic Order and Dangerous Drugs that he collected money from Espinosa for De Lima.

He said it was the former Jus-tice chief who gave him Espino-sa’s cellphone number.

“I’m appealing to both of you, tell the truth, that what you are saying that I know you (Espino-sa) and that I received money is not true,” De Lima said.

She said the testimonies of Dayan and Espinosa are full of loopholes.

In her manifestation during the hearing, De Lima claimed both men lied.

“These are not cases of sim-ple, minor, innocuous inconsist-encies. These are very serious, these are very glaring, these are very irreconcilable versions of your stories about me knowing you,” she said.

“I would enjoy cross-exam-ining the both of you but I’m avoiding that because there might still be an opportunity for your handlers to make your testimonies right,” De Lima said.

“Although I’m telling you I forgive you. I forgive both of you. I forgive all those other Bilibid witnesses who also lied in the House inquiry. I’m not blaming you. I’m not angry with you. It is your handlers who I’m angry at. You are both vulnerable. You are being used to destroy me and I will know in due time who they are,” she added.

Dayan and Espinosa remained calm while De Lima was ad-dressing them.

Leila de Lima: seeking truth?

Woman drug supplier surrenders to police chiefBy Jeff erson Antiporda & Anthony VargasManila Times

The woman who supplied illegal drugs to Kerwin Espinosa has surrendered

to authorities.Philippine National Police

(PNP) chief Ronald de la Rosa said Lovely Impal, has turned herself in.

Espinosa earlier told senators that Impal was one of his suppli-ers of drugs. According to him, Impal was introduced to him by another drug lord, Jeff rey “Jag-uar” Diaz, while he was detained at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilita-tion Centre in Cebu City.

Diaz was killed in a police op-eration in Las Pinas City in June this year.

Impal, he added operates in Mindanao, particularly in Ca-gayan de Oro, Iligan and Bukid-non.

“She surrendered to me,” Dela Rosa told reporters in a news

briefi ng on Monday. “Right now she’s undergoing investigation at the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (PNP-AIDG).”

Espinosa had claimed that Impal also supplies drugs to several individuals, such as Eu-gene Alegre, Dodong, Velendres, Crisostomo Llagonos (Tata Ne-gro), Carlos Dy, Ricking, Jerome Estrada, Charlie Parba, Ryan Tu-mulak and Enrico Caca.

Espinosa was again grilled by senators yesterday as the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs resumed its in-quiry into the killing of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr.

Senators however could not establish how Kerwin managed to have contact with Ronnie Dayan, Senator Leila de Lima’s former driver-bodyguard that led to the supposed delivery of P8mn pesos to the former Justice secretary last year.

Dayan maintained that it was De Lima who gave him Kerwin’s phone number.

But Kerwin had said that it was Albuera Police chief Jovie Espenido who informed him that de Lima’s driver-bodyguard will contact him.

Espenido however denied Kerwin’s claims and insisted that he never knew Dayan.

Because of the contradicting statements of the three men, Sen. Richard Gordon moved that the phone records of Dayan, Es-penido and Kerwin be subpoe-naed.

Meanwhile, Dayan clarifi ed that the supposed meeting be-tween De Lima and Kerwin in Baguio City happened in No-vember 2015 and not in 2014 as he claimed earlier.

Dayan changed his statement after Sen. Dick Gordon showed him a Facebook post showing photos of De Lima with Kerwin at Burnham Park in Baguio City dated November 19, 2015.

Lacson also presented Ram Espinosa, cousin of Kerwin, who testifi ed that they were indeed in Baguio City on the said date.

Dayan also admitted receiv-ing money from Rafael Ragos, former deputy director of the National Bureau of Investigation and former Bureau of Correc-tions (BuCor) director Franklin Jesus Bucayu.

He said he received P15,000 to P30,000 from the two offi cials.

Senator Manny Pacquiao however was not convinced that Dayan told the truth and moved that he be cited in contempt.

Members of the committee granted Pacquiao’s motion and ordered that Dayan be held at the Senate premises until he decides to tell the truth.

But Senate majority leader Vicente Sotto moved to amend Pacquiao’s motion and proposed that Dayan be detained at the national penitentiary.

But Lacson said that he will have to meet with the members of the two committees to decide if Dayan would be transferred.

“In the meantime you will stay here at the Senate premises and we will resolve it,” Lacson said.

New US envoy confi dent of stable relationsDPAManila

The new US ambassador to the Philippines expressed confi dence yesterday that

there will be a stable relation-ship between the two countries, despite recent anti-American statements by Philippine Presi-dent Rodrigo Duterte.

Ambassador Sung Kim thanked Duterte for a warm welcome as he presented his credentials, just fi ve days after he arrived in Manila.

They spoke for about one hour, according to presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella.

“Over the weeks, months and years ahead, I look forward to working closely with the Philip-pines’ government and Filipino people to expand our relation-ship and to engage in many areas of mutual interest,” Kim said af-ter the meeting.

“I am confi dent that our mu-tual respect combined with the close ties and shared history and values will ensure stability in our relationship over the long term and the years and decades to come,” he added.

Since he took offi ce in June, Duterte has criticised the US in various statements and vowed to “separate” the Philippines from America by following foreign policy that does not mimic that of Washington’s.

Arroyo fi rm on stand against death penaltyBy Llanesca T PantiManila Times

Deputy Speaker Gloria Arroyo is not budg-ing from her stand opposing the reimpo-sition of the death penalty even if she is

allied with President Rodrigo Duterte.“I spoke to President Duterte about it, and it

is alright with him if I oppose the death penalty,” Arroyo told reporters.

The House Sub-Committee on Judicial Re-forms recently approved the death penalty bill.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has said the meas-ure will be approved by the House of Representa-tives before the Christmas break.

The death penalty was abolished in 2006 when Arroyo was the president.

Asked if the drug problem is a valid justifi ca-tion for the reimposition of death penalty, Arroyo said she could not second-guess the president.

“I will not argue (with that reasoning). I am not the president anymore. I have personal con-viction, but he is the president now. I am against it, but I want the administration to succeed,” she pointed out.“He (Duterte) has to decide how to deal with it,” Arroyo added.

On the fi ring of Vice President Leni Robredo by text, the former leader said it has been done

before. “It was inevitable because of their diver-gence on a lot of issues,” she told reporters.

“When I was the president, I had diff erences of opinions with my Cabinet members. One of my senior offi cials also got booted through a text message, so it has been done before,” Arroyo ex-plained.

“Speaking from experience, I also recall re-ceiving a text message asking me not to attend a certain Estrada Cabinet meeting, and I respected the instruction. It can be done,” she added.

Arroyo: opposition to death penalty

Higher reparations for victims of crime soughtManila TimesManila

Makati City representa-tive Luis Campos Jr has sought raising

to P100,000 the maximum amount of compensation that may be received by victims of violent crime such as murder and rape, or their heirs.

House Bill 4529 proposes to increase to P3,000 the maximum amount of repara-tion that may be obtained by

victims of unlawful impris-onment or arbitrary confine-ment for every month they were illegally held.

Republic Act 7309, or An Act Creating a Board of Claims under the Department of Justice (DOJ), provides no more than P10,000 to each “victim of violent crime” and only up to P1,000 per month to each “victim of unjust im-prisonment.” In pushing for the swift passage of the bill, Campos noted that the maxi-mum amounts of indemnity

that may be paid by the Board of Claims have not been re-vised upward since 1992.

“Congress should now up-grade the ceiling for payable claims, for the benefi t of suf-ferers of violent crime and illic-it imprisonment or detention, especially those from poverty-stricken families,” he said.

Under the law, all benefits paid by the Board of Claims are “without prejudice to the right of the claimant to seek other remedies under existing laws.”

The police and the military raided yesterday a housing complex of the Maute family blamed for terroristic activities in the country and recovered firearms and explosives, Manila Times reported.A Special Action Force (SAF) commando was wounded during the raid. Reports said Police Of-ficer 2 Rolando Redondo sustained injuries when he stepped on a booby trap bomb that exploded.Arrested during the pre-dawn raid in Barangay Lilod Saduc here was a barangay (village) off icial identified

as Hadji Amir Badio. The operation was conducted with search warrants at the houses of Farhana Maute, mother of other accused Abdullah Maute, Mohamed Khayam Maute, Abdulrahman Maute, Mahater Maute, Abdul Aziz Maute and Hamsa Maute for alleged illegal possession of firearms and illegal drugs. The police recovered from the house com-plex two 81-mm mortar cartridges and a shotgun. The raid was conducted while military forces contin-ued operation against the Maute group.

Firearms, explosives seized from Maute lairCRIME

SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL29


Bangladesh steps up patrols to block Rohingya refugeesMore than 20,000 Ro-

hingyas have fl ed to Bangladesh in recent

weeks, humanitarian offi cials said yesterday, following a bloody crackdown by the army in neighbouring Myanmar.

Bangladesh has stepped up patrols on the border to try to stem the tide of refugees since an eruption of unrest in Myan-mar’s western state of Rakhine in early October.

But Sanjukta Sahany, head of the International Organisa-tion for Migration (IOM) offi ce in Bangladesh’s southeastern district of Cox’s Bazar border-ing Rakhine, said around 21,000 members of the stateless ethnic minority had crossed over in the past two months.

The vast majority of those who arrived took refuge in makeshift settlements, offi cial refugee camps and villages, said Sahany.

“An estimated 21,000 Ro-hingyas have arrived in Cox’s Bazar district between October 9 and December 2,” she said over phone.

“It is based on the fi gures collected by UN agencies and international NGOs” (non-governmental organisations).

The Dhaka offi ce of the Unit-ed Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in a statement also said it “estimate(d) that there could be 21,000 new arrivals in recent weeks”.

Those interviewed by AFP inside Bangladesh told horrify-

ing stories of gang-rape, tor-ture and murder at the hands of Myanmar’s security forces.

Analysis of satellite images by Human Rights Watch found hun-dreds of buildings in Rohingya villages have been razed.

Myanmar has denied allega-tions of abuse but has banned foreign journalists and inde-pendent investigators from accessing the area.

Myanmar’s Nobel peace lau-reate and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has faced a growing international backlash for what a UN offi cial has said amounts to a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingyas, a Mus-lim group loathed by many of Myanmar’s Buddhist majority.

Last week she vowed to work for “peace and national recon-ciliation”, saying her country faced many challenges, but did not mention the violence in Rakhine state.

But Kofi Annan, a former UN chief appointed by Suu Kyi as head of a commission on Ra-khine, hoped Myanmar would allow journalists to visit the state to “help eliminate some of the rumours we are hearing”.

“The issue of genocide and ethnic cleansing - this is a very serious charge. It is a charge that requires legal review and a judicial determination,” Annan told reporters in Yangon.

“It is not a charge that should be thrown around loosely.”

Bangladesh has reinforced its border posts and deployed coastguard ships to try to prevent a fresh infl ux of refugees.

In the past two months its border guards have prevented

AFPDhaka

Bangladeshi police stand guard as activists from Islamic organisations march towards the Myanmar embassy in Dhaka yesterday, to protest against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

hundreds of boats packed with Rohingya women and children from entering the country.

On Monday, a vessel carrying Rohingya refugees sank in the Naf border river, leaving dozens missing. A woman was rescued and told reporters the boat was carrying some 30 Rohingyas fl eeing violence in Rakhine.

Bangladesh police said they recovered a woman’s body near

where the boat went down but they could not confi rm whether she was a Rohingya.

“The body has been sent for post mortem,” local police chief Abdul Mazid said.

The Bangladesh government has been under pressure from Muslim groups and the oppo-sition to open its border to the fl eeing Rohingyas.

Police on yesterday stopped

thousands of hardline Muslims from marching to the Myanmar embassy in Dhaka to protest at they called the “genocide” of the Rohingyas.

Shiblee Noman, an assistant commissioner of Dhaka police, said about 10,000 Muslims, many shouting slogans against Suu Kyi, joined the march before it was halted at central Dhaka’s Nightingale Crossing.

“They were peaceful,” he said.More than 230,000 Rohingyas

are already living in Bangladesh, most of them illegally, although around 32,000 are formally registered as refugees.

Violence in Rakhine has surged in the last month after security forces poured into the area following a series of attacks on police posts blamed on local militants.

Jaya had towering presence: Sirisena

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena yes-terday said he was sad-

dened by the death of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalith-aa, who he said had a “towering presence in Indian politics”.

Jayalalithaa, who died on Monday night, was “totally dedi-cated to the welfare of the people she represented” and was dearly loved by her people, Sirisena said in a statement.

“India loses a leading female politician and a truly pro-poor leader, whom people fondly called ‘Amma’.

“At this time of grief, our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Tamil Nadu,” he added.

Jayalalithaa frequently de-nounced the arrests of Tamil Nadu fi shermen by the Sri Lankan Navy. Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka are separated by a strip of sea.

IANSColombo

Tamil lawmakers clash over prefabricated houses

Sri Lanka’s Tamil lawmakers yesterday clashed in parliament over prefabricated houses being constructed for those aff ected by the three-decade long civil war in the country’s north and east, a media report said. The main Tamil party - Tamil National Alliance (TNA) - parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran demanded the resignation of D M Swaminathan, the minister of prison reforms, resettlement and religious aff airs, for going ahead with the prefabricated houses despite several concerns raised. “I will say it again we have no confidence in minister Swaminathan,” Sumanthiran said. Sumanthiran said that he had submitted proposals to construct permanent houses for the war displaced people at a lower cost but the minister had disregarded the proposal. The firm Arcelor-Mittal was to build 65,000 prefabricated houses at a cost of Rs2.1mn each but the TNA argues that more suitable houses can be built for around Rs850,000. TNA and opposition leader R Sampanthan said the people in the North need permanent houses and not prefabricated houses. “Why are you trying to build houses at double the cost?” he asked. Sumanthiran reiterated the TNA position that prefabricated houses were not suitable. He said that a financier of the UNP of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was the local agent of the firm. In a letter to President Maithripala Sirisena and Wickremesinghe, the TNA had pointed to the unsuitability of the proposed prefabricated houses. Defending his decision, Swaminathan said the suitability of the prefabricated houses has been tested and proved fine. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe who intervened in the cross talk assured that the government would further discuss the issue with all parties concerned.

Signifi cant progress in quake recovery work

Nepal’s Red Cross So-ciety yesterday said there has been a sig-

nifi cant progress on the re-covery operations of survivors of the devastating earthquake that rocked the country last year as it claimed that 79% of the total funds received have been spent on more than 5,000 families.

“We are now making sig-nifi cant progress on shelter, which is the most urgent pri-ority for many of the sur-vivors,” said Dev Dhakhwa, secretary general, Nepal Red Cross Society.

“More than 5,000 families have already received the fi rst tranche off Red Cross cash grants and many have started building their new houses,” Dhakhwa told reporters while launching this year’s World Disaster Report.

Since Nepal’s deadly 2015 earthquakes, the Red Cross Red Crescent has reached more than 3mn survivors with emergency aid and is now helping tens of thousands of people rebuild their homes and get back on their feet in various ways.

But owner-driven rebuild-

ing of permanent housing, with Red Cross fi nancial and technical support is only one component of an integrated recovery programme being implemented in the 14-worst aff ected districts.

“The various pieces of the jigsaw are now coming to-gether and other concrete ex-amples of what we are doing include rebuilding and up-grading health posts and hos-pitals and dozens of schools. Providing clean drinking water and proper toilets to quake-aff ected communi-ties,” said Max Santner, head, International Federation of Red Cross Societies’ Nepal country offi ce.

The Red Cross is also pro-viding cash grants, seeds and tools to help people restore their livelihoods through farming or other ways.

Ensuring that local Red Cross chapters are better pre-pared to face future disasters in a further important prior-ity, with the NRCS network of community volunteers play-ing a vital role.

“Helping communities to regain resilience is at the core of our work, so this gives extra relevance for us to the focus of this year’s World Disasters Report,” said NRCS chairman Sanjiv Thapa.

AgenciesKathmandu

PM specialaide dies

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s special assistant Mahbubul Hoque Shakil

passed away at a restaurant in Dhaka’s Gulshan area yesterday. He was 47.

Shakil, former vice president of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), a student front of ruling Awami League, breathed his last in the Samdado restaurant, prime minister’s assistant press secre-tary Asif Kabir told newsmen.

Shakil’s body will be at kept at BIRDEM hospital’s morgue, Nasrul Hamid, state minister for energy, said outside Samdado.

An autopsy will be conducted at Dhaka University at 11am to-day. The body will then be taken to Mymensingh. He will be bur-ied in his home at Baghmara.

Five workers of the restaurant have been detained by police, said sources.

Prime Minister Hasina mourned the death of her aide, said Ihsanul Karim, her press secretary. Parliament speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury also off ered condolences.

Shakil was chief executive of-fi cer of the Centre for Research and Information (CRI), Awami League’s research cell formed after the 2001 election.

By Mizan RahmanDhaka

A Sri Lankan man takes a selfie on the beach in the capital Colombo yesterday.

Selfie on the beach

President Hamid to hold dialoguewith parties on new election panel

In a major political devel-opment, President Abdul Hamid has decided to hold

dialogue with all registered po-litical parties to reconstitute the election commission (EC).

“As per Article 118 of the con-stitution, the president will hold dialogue with registered political parties before appointing the chief election commissioner (CEC) and commissioners. The dialogue will

begin after December 16,” presi-dent’s press secretary Joynal Abe-din told newsmen yesterday.

However, a source at the Pres-ident’s Secretariat said the dia-logue will begin on December 18 with BNP.

There are 40 registered politi-cal parties now in the country.

In 2012, then president Zillur Rahman appointed the present CEC Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad to lead the fi ve-member EC through a search committee after holding meetings with political parties.

The tenure of current EC expires

in February next. The new EC will conduct the next general election scheduled to be held in 2019.

On November 18, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chair-person Khaleda Zia placed a 13-point proposal for forming the new EC and called for recon-stituting the EC in consultation with representatives of all reg-istered political parties or with representatives of all political parties who over diff erent pe-riods had representation in the national parliament.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister

Sheikh Hasina at a conference on December 3 said, “She (Khale-da) has made her proposal; now she can tell the president about it, and he’ll make the decision. We’ve nothing to say ... accord-ing to the rules, the president will consider their proposal.”

Meanwhile, the BNP yesterday submitted a 13-point proposal on constituting a stronger EC to the President’s Secretariat for consideration.

A two-member BNP delega-tion, comprising vice chairman Ruhul Alam Chowdhury and

senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, took a copy of Khaleda’s proposals and a letter of the party seeking the presi-dent’s appointment to the presi-dential place at around 11am.

Brigadier General Mainur Rah-man, assistant military secretary to the president, received the proposal paper and the letter on behalf of the president who left for Singapore at around 10:30 am for a medical check-up there.

President’s aide Mahmudul Hasan said, “The BNP delega-tion handed over a copy of their

By Mizan RahmanDhaka

President Abdul Hamid to meet opposition parties on December 16.

proposals on election com-mission formation and a letter signed by the party secretary general to the president’s assist-ant military secretary.”

President Hamid will hold dia-logue gradually with political parties on the EC formation after his return

from Singapore. The president is likely to return on December 11.

Emerging from the President’s Secretariat, Rizvi said the BNP hopes that the president as the guardian of the state will take eff ective steps to form an acceptable EC as per hopes and aspirations of people.

International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde has called for greater attention to protecting the dignity of women and legal measures to safeguard their rights in the labour market. More participation by women in the workforce boosts global growth and reduces inequality, she pointed out in a Bloomberg interview, saying everyone has a responsibility to combat misogyny.

It’s now an established fact that gender equality and empowerment of women are key to ensuring faster and sustainable development. Denying women full participation in the economy can prove costly. Full gender equality would add 26%, or $28tn – roughly matching the US and Chinese economies combined – to global gross domestic product by 2025, according to a 2015 McKinsey study.

Qatar has made signifi cant strides over the years to ensure women’s full participation in the wider economy. While Qatar ranks high globally on human development, it scores low on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Qatar is the highest rated Gulf country on UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Index, but the nation fares poorly in the Gender Inequality Index (GII). Even among Gulf countries, Qatar has a low GII standing, according to

the Fourth National Human Development Report released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) in September 2015.

Female labour force participation in Qatar, high by Gulf standards, has increased. But it is still low compared with countries at similar higher levels of economic

and human development, the MDPS report said. Women today represent about 50% of the world’s

population and, for the past two decades, about 50% of the labour force. But they are only half as likely as men to have a full-time wage-earning job, according to a recent World Bank report. While women, who do have paid jobs earn as much as one-third less than men, fewer women than men are involved in trade or own registered companies, the report said.

For the fi rst time since it was launched in 2002, the World Bank’s ease of doing business report, a globally respected gauge of a country’s competitiveness, has added a gender dimension in the ranking criteria.

True, women have advanced to the top of prominent companies, including General Motors, PepsiCo, EasyJet, Yahoo and India’s SBI. Yet the gap stays starker: Men hold over 80% of all S&P 500 board seats. One-third of Silicon Valley companies had no female directors when surveyed in 2015. In the Asia-Pacifi c region, women hold fewer than 10% of board seats in a 2015 study of 100 companies.

Here is a compelling economic case for investing in women: A $1 spend on improving women’s economic opportunities is estimated to add around $7 to the wider economy, mainly in health, poverty-alleviation and education benefi ts. And women tend to invest up to 90% of their earnings in their families, compared to 30-40% contribution by men.

While legal and regulatory measures will go a long way in ensuring women’s active participation in the economy, raising awareness and changing the mind-sets are also prerequisites to arrive at a sustainable development model.

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Women today represent about 50% of the world’s population and about 50% of the labour force

By Muhammad Saeed al- BloshiDoha

In the past, traditional handicrafts were defi ned by the natural environments that surrounded human societies. This type of

cultural expression is adapted to the climate and natural environment providing solutions to daily needs. Traditional handicrafts in the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula have many similar cultural characteristics due to shared religion, language and history. The interactions within this region enabled frequent communication between people and paved the way for some infl uences from India, Persia and Africa.

However, in recent years and with oil discovery and globalisation, most of the Qatari trades and handicrafts industries have seen a signifi cant decline. The new economic ventures off ered through oil and gas is directly connected to the neglect of many crafts and folk industries like pearl diving which was the backbone of Qatar’s economy in the past. People turned to work in oil companies leaving traditional handicrafts businesses for a better paid job. Eventually, the concept of handicrafts and folk industries became insignifi cant to new generations who no longer wish to continue practising traditional handicrafts since there are better opportunities that allow them to maintain today’s Qatari lifestyle.

Some of the traditional Qatari handicrafts are:

Al Sadu: Sadu is a craft known to be used by Bedouin societies; it is a craft of knitting wool that comes from sheep, camels and goats. The tools used by women in the spinning and knitting process are called Meghzal, El Nul and Elmanshaza. This traditional handicraft is still alive and practised by some women in Qatar.

Al Khous : One of the traditional industries that has almost ceased to exist in Qatar, it was entirely dependent on palm leaves secured from diff erent areas around the Gulf. Al Khous were used to make baskets, mats and other products that can be used in traditional Qatari households.

Gypsum decoration : This handicraft is well known in the Gulf region with its abstract nature, using architectural and natural themes. Gypsum was used because it can withstand extreme weather conditions. People in Qatar decorated the facades of their houses, palaces, forts, towers and mosques off ering an aesthetic improvement.

Dhow-making : Dhow-making was in the past one of the main industries in Qatar. The industry depended on imported timber a specifi c kind from India like pine wood which can withstand the sea environment. The wood was coated with special oils called “Aldgs” to isolate the wood from sea water. The person who made these dhows was called Al Gallaf. Today, there is only one workshop that builds traditional dhows.

Some of the most important types of dhows are Al Bateel, Al Baghla, Al Galbot, Al Sanbok, elBoom, Al Baggara, elhori, Almachoh, and El Shahouf.

Pearl-diving: There are many historic accounts of the long standing practice of pearl-diving in the Gulf region that became a substantial source of income for the region.

There were two pearl-diving seasons: the great dive called “eloud” with a diving duration of about three or four months starting from June until the end of September. Then the second dive season called “Al Khanijeih” which lasted for about 40 days. However, with the discovery of oil and the invention of the Japanese cultured pearls, the demand for Gulf pearls declined.

In conclusion, practitioners of traditional handicrafts played a key role in Qatari community and sustained its economy before the discovery of oil. Protecting traditional handicrafts remains an important part of preserving our culture and identity for future generations. To that end it is important to adapt traditional practices to modern contexts and

Qatari handicrafts: Gypsumdecoration to dhow-making

Gait parameters anddecline in memory

needs while maintaining the affi liated traditional values.

Muhammad Saeed al -Bloshi

graduated with a degree in Arts and Archaeology in 1984 from the faculty of Human and Social Sciences of the Lebanese University in Beirut. In 1991 he worked as a researcher in material culture, handicrafts and folkloric industries at the Folklore Center of the GCC and served as the director of the

documentation department of the council in 1996. In 2000 he became a supervisor of the handicrafts and folkloric industries unit at the Ministry of Education and Culture.

He became a heritage expert for the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage in 2006, and he was the Manager for the participation of the State of Qatar at the Shanghai Expo in 2010 and again at the Milan Expo in 2015. He is currently Heritage Consultant at the Ministry of Culture and Sports.

Investing in women:How gender paritymakes economic sense

Tribune News ServiceRochester, Minn.

Walking is a milestone in development for toddlers, but it’s actually only one part

of the complex cognitive task known as gait that includes everything from a person’s stride length to the accompanying swing of each arm. A Mayo Clinic study recently published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that problems associated with gait can predict a signifi cant decline in memory and thinking.

Using the Rochester Epidemiology Project, Mayo Clinic researchers examined medical records of Olmsted County, Minn., residents, who were between ages 70 and 89 as of Oct. 1, 2004. The analysis included 3,426 cognitively normal participants enrolled in the Mayo Clinic Study of Ageing who had a complete gait and neuropsychological assessment.

Using computerised analyses, researchers measured gait parameters, such as:

Stride lengthAmbulatory

timeGait speedStep countCadenceStance timeArm swingAlterations in several gait

parameters were associated with decline in memory, thinking and language skills, and visual perception of the spatial relationship of objects. The study results also supported the role of computerised analysis because the computer tool detected modifi cations before impairment was detected with a standard neuropsychological test. - Mayo Clinic Network

Gypsum was used to decorate the facades of buildings in Qatar.

Live issues

Intercultural Dialogue and Cultural Diversity Programme

The Intercultural Dialogue and Cultural Diversity Programme is the outcome of the co-operation established between Unesco Doha Off ice, Katara Cultural Village Foundation and Qatar National Commission for Unesco with the aim to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding and awareness.The programme was launched on January 10, 2016 with the Cultural Diversity Festival that brought together performing groups from 21 countries representing different regions of the world and celebrating cultural pluralism in Qatar. It will

come to a close with an expert conference on Promoting Dialogue and Diversity through Cultural Industries that is being held from December 6-8 in Doha. The venue of the conference is Building 15, Katara Cultural Village.This mini article series shares selected contributions of Qatari and international experts from the conference with the wider public and aims to raise awareness around the social, cultural and economic impact of traditional handicraft practices. The views of the authors do not necessarily represent those of Unesco.

Three-day forecast

TODAY

FRIDAY

High: 28 C

Low : 21 C

High: 25 C

Low: 17 C

Weather report

Around the region

Abu DhabiBaghdadDubaiKuwait CityManamaMuscatRiyadhTehran

Weather todaySunnySunnyP CloudyM SunnySunnyM SunnySunnySunny

Around the world

Athens BeirutBangkok BerlinCairoCape Town ColomboDhakaHong KongIstanbulJakartaKarachiLondonManilaMoscowNew DelhiNew York ParisSao PauloSeoulSingaporeSydney Tokyo Cloudy

Max/min15/0719/1331/2403/0223/1226/1432/2430/1723/1809/0230/2432/1613/0931/25-11/-1126/1209/0309/0232/1909/-433/2523/1911/05

Weather todayM CloudyM SunnyM CloudyM CloudyP CloudySunnyP CloudySunnyP CloudyS ShowersT StormsSunnyP CloudyS T StormsCloudySunnyCloudyFogSunnyP CloudyS T StormsS Showers

Fishermen’s forecast

OFFSHORE DOHAWind: NW 18-25 KTWaves: 6-8/10 Feet

INSHORE DOHAWind: NW 10-20/25 KTWaves: 1-3/4 Feet

High: 25 C

Low: 18 C

THURSDAY

Expected strong wind and high sea by afternoon

Sunny

Cloudy

Max/min30/2217/0329/2117/0824/1729/2123/1012/01

Weather tomorrowM SunnyM SunnyM SunnyP CloudySunnySunnySunnyM Sunny

Max/min28/2116/0228/2218/1023/1728/2123/10

Max/min12/0417/0931/2309/0623/1322/1731/2430/1723/1707/0131/2531/1714/1131/24-3/-726/1207/0111/0330/2007/-132/2531/1814/04

Weather tomorrowSunnyP CloudyM CloudyCloudySunnyP CloudyS T StormsSunnyM SunnyP CloudyS T StormsSunnyShowersT StormsS Showers SunnyCloudyP CloudyT StormsM CloudyT StormsP CloudyClear

12/01

QATAR31


Souq Waqif businesses hope for boost from cruise tourismBy Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

Several restaurants, coff ee shops and other retail out-lets at Souq Waqif are ex-

pected to get a fi llip from cruise tourism with more passengers opting for a city tour, it is learnt.

With 32 ships carrying more than 50,000 passengers ex-pected to dock at Doha Port this 2016/2017 cruise season, Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) hopes to attract more foreign visitors to further boost the country’s hos-pitality and retail sectors.

An employee at a Lebanese restaurant told Gulf Times that they had recorded an increasing number of tourists from Europe and the US in recent months.

While they normally receive a lot of customers mostly (Qatar residents) during winter, she es-timates that more than 15% are foreign visitors.

“They come in groups from morning to evening with a tour guide, many look for Arabic food and drinks while others go for international cuisines,” she added.

Apart from Iraqi and Leba-nese restaurants, Souq Waqif also hosts a number of Italian, Moroccan, Indian, Syrian, Turk-ish, Thai and Qatari restaurants, among others.

Some tour operators noted that many cruise passengers prefer to visit museums (Muse-um of Islamic Art), Souq Waqif, Katara – the Cultural Village and The Pearl-Qatar, places which are minutes away from the Doha Port.

A tour guide pointed out that city tour packages provide tour-ists with a wide range of off er-ings such as dhow rides, spas and massage treats in hotels, shop-ping, visit to cultural places and exhibitions, and a unique dining experience in several restaurants

and cafe.An Iraqi restaurant em-ployee hopes to get another “fair share of the pie” with the arrival of MSC Fantasia today.

The mega cruise ship, carrying more than 3,000 passengers and 1,300 crew members, is expected to have six calls to Doha this sea-

son, according to QTA.“Most people from the West

who dine with us like our kebabs, lamb and chicken tika and other grilled meats,” he said. “We nev-er fail to serve Arabic sweets too.”

With the new free transit visa at Hamad International Air-

port (HIA) in place, restaurants at Souq Waqif expressed opti-mism that they will be getting more customers in the coming months.

To be eligible for the tran-sit visa, passengers must have a confi rmed ticket for a journey

into Qatar, with a confi rmed on-ward journey out of the country on a Qatar Airways-operated fl ight. The initiative aims to at-tract more passengers passing by HIA to explore and experience unique Qatari hospitality for up to 96 hours in between fl ights.

Cruise passengers receive a warm welcome from nationals. PICTURE: Joey Aguilar Souq Waqif is all set to receive more tourists this winter. PICTURE: Peter Alagos

Qatar Airways ‘fi rst Mideast airline’ to serve popular beach spot of KrabiThe coastal gateway of

Krabi, Thailand, yester-day welcomed the fi rst

Qatar Airways fl ight to arrive at its international airport from Doha, Qatar.

The Airbus A330-200 was greeted by a water salute to ush-er in the new four times weekly service to southern Thailand’s west coast.

On board the inaugural fl ight was Qatar Airways Senior Vice President of Asia-Pacifi c, Marwan Koleilat, and Thai-land’s ambassador to Qatar, Soonthorn Chaiyindeepum.

With the launch of this new service Qatar Airways has be-come the fi rst Middle Eastern airline to provide scheduled services to Krabi, providing fast and convenient access to one of the world’s most popular tour-ism regions.

Travellers can now enjoy year-round services to the in-credible islands of Phi Phi Na-tional Park, while also enjoy-ing other cultural experiences in the southern Thai province famous for stunning land and seascapes, world-class diving, national parks and eco-tours.

Marwan Koleilat, said: “I am delighted to be able to inaugu-

rate the fi rst service to Krabi, providing travellers from key markets with direct access to Krabi and the region’s tourism hotspots – undeniably some of the most popular and sought after travel destinations in the world. Thailand remains an im-portant market for Qatar Air-ways as we continue to explore key secondary destinations to

better serve the global travel-ler. Guests can now enjoy Qatar Airways’ award-winning serv-ice on board one of the youngest fl eets in the industry when we fl y together to Krabi, Thailand.

“Additionally, the new serv-ice to Krabi opens up a host of convenient global destinations for the people of Krabi and its region and I’d like to thank the

Thai people for their continued support over the last 20 years.”

The southern Thai region of Krabi is a province of stunning natural beauty, with towering limestone formations hugging a myriad of tropical beaches. The area is home to the famous Ti-ger Cave Temple, Railay Beach, Ko Poda, Khao Phanom Bencha National Park and Ko Lanta Yai;

combining to attract a consid-erable number of sun-seeking tourists every year.

Tourism Authority of Thai-land Governor, Yuthasak Su-pasorn, said: “We wish to ex-press our warmest welcome to Qatar Airways and its new route between Krabi and Doha. Thanks to the new route launch; Thailand now has even bet-ter connections to the world. Krabi is one of Thailand’s most iconic regions; situated on the Andaman Sea on the south-western coast it is rich with pearly beaches, translucent waters, coral reefs, waterfalls and natural caves. Last year, Thailand received more than 39,000 tourists from Qatar and with this new route, we expect more tourist arrivals in the years ahead. This new route also provides great connectivity for travellers coming from other parts of the GCC, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.”

Krabi becomes the third stra-tegic destination in Thailand that Qatar Airways serves. Fol-lowing the inaugural service to Bangkok in 1996, Qatar Airways launched services to Phuket in 2010 and will begin services to Chiang Mai in 2017.

Daily Doha-Dublin fl ights from June

Qatar Airways has an-nounced that it will of-fer daily non-stop fl ights

between Doha and Dublin, the capital of Ireland, from June 12, 2017.

Situated on Ireland’s east coast, Dublin features many cultural and historic highlights and has long attracted visitors from all over the world.

Visitors to the city are able to see attractions such as St Patrick’s Cathedral and Dublin Castle, while also being in easy reach of the city’s beaches and the famous Wicklow Moun-tains. Dublin also serves as the gateway to all of Ireland with its lush countryside and many historic attractions.

Qatar Airways Group chief executive Akbar al-Baker said: “Qatar Airways has seen un-precedented growth in recent times and continues to launch new destinations on our global route map, enhancing connec-tivity for our passengers from around the world.

“The launch of flights to Dublin, the capital of Ireland, is an exciting addition to our net-work and I am confident that business and leisure passen-gers will benefit from our Boe-ing 787 Dreamliner service and smooth onward connections through our home and hub,

Hamad International Airport.” Dublin Airport managing di-rector Vincent Harrison said he is delighted that Qatar Airways will be launching its Dublin-Doha service in 2017.

“We look forward to wel-coming the new daily Doha service from June and to work-ing closely with Qatar Airways to promote the route.”

Qatar Airways’ Boeing 787 features 254 custom-made seats across its Business and Economy Class cabins with specially designed interiors.

Passengers flying from Dub-lin can enjoy a “quick and con-venient” transfer at Hamad International Airport as they travel onwards to the more than 150 destinations on Qatar Air-ways’ global network, accord-ing to a press statement.

The Doha-Dublin flight schedule is as follows: Tues-day, Thursday, Saturday (from June 12, 2017) – QR19 depart-ing Doha at 1.25am and arriving in Dublin at 7.25am, and QR20 departing Dublin at 8.50am and arriving in Doha at 6.05pm; Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday (from Jun 13) – QR17 departing Doha at 7.20am and arriving in Dublin at 1.20pm, and QR18 departing Dublin at 3.25pm and arriving in Doha at 12.40am (+1).

Marwan Koleilat, Qatar Airways Senior Vice President of Asia-Pacific, receiving a welcome garland from Nob Kongpun, Vice Governor of Krabi.

National, regional health priorities discussed at summitHamad Medical Corporation

(HMC), in collaboration with the Association of Academic Health

Centres International (AAHCI), recently hosted the second AAHCI Middle East and North Africa (Mena) Regional Sum-mit.

The summit featured a cadre of local and international experts in the fi elds of clinical care, health professions educa-tion and research, which are all areas that are integral to academic health centres.

The meeting was inaugurated by HE Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari, Minister of Public Health and Managing Director of HMC, who was instrumental in launching Qatar’s national academic health system in 2011. The summit was supported by the World Innovation for Health Summit.

Al-Kuwari praised the achievements generated under HMC’s longstanding partnership with the AAHCI and reiterat-ed HMC’s commitment to developing the academic health concept locally in Qatar as well as regionally.

“We remain steadfast in our commit-ment to the ideals of academic health and in our desire to work closely with the AAHCI and other regional academic cen-tres in the Middle East.The development

of an integrated Academic Health System underpins our determination to meet the healthcare challenges of Qatar’s growing population and aligns with the aspiration of Qatar’s National Vision 2030,” she said.

“It has indeed been a privilege to work with Hamad Medical Corporation, and our colleagues in the region,” said Dr Ste-ven A Wartman, president and CEO of the Association of Academic Health Centres. “The progress that is being made is re-markable and I look forward to an excep-tionally bright future.”

Since 2014, HMC has been the host of the AAHCI Mena Regional Offi ce, one of several regional offi ces established to represent the Association’s international members and provide a framework for a co-ordinated and cohesive system-wide approach to addressing the needs of ex-isting and new AAHCI members.

The second AAHCI Mena meeting in Doha represented an important op-portunity for academic health leaders to chart the direction of future collaborative health initiatives in the region and discuss local, regional and national health priori-ties.

“HMC’s approach to integrating clini-cal care, education and research is predi-

cated on close collaboration between leading academic and research institu-tions, as well as healthcare providers. It is essential that we partner with other clini-cal and academic centres of excellence to build on strong foundations for the ad-vancement of new treatments and mod-els of care that will help enhance patient care,” said Dr Abdullatif al-Khal, deputy chief medical offi cer and director, Medi-cal Education at HMC.

HMC has led the development of an in-tegrated Academic Health System (AHS) to make a signifi cant, positive impact upon patient care, health professions ed-ucation and research.

The Academic Health System in Qatar is an active nationwide network that in-tegrates research, education and clinical care to focus on improving patient care and the delivery of innovative healthcare solutions.

The eight partners working collabo-ratively in the AHS include HMC, Sidra Medical and Research Center, Weill Cor-nell Medicine - Qatar, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, College of the North Atlantic - Qatar, the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), Qatar University and the University of Calgary in Qatar.

HE Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari is seen with Dr Victor Dzau, president, National Academy of Medicine and Dr Mariam Abdul Malik, managing director, PHCC.

QATAR


Crowd-sourced fi lm on Qatar set for world debut

The crowd-sourced fi lm initiative by Doha Film Institute (DFI) and

Qatar Tourism Authority, #DariQatar, which presents an opportunity for the Qatari public to narrate their stories with short videos of life in the country, will mark its world premiere at Katara Drama Theatre today.

#DariQatar received 10,000-plus submissions from more than 200 enthusi-asts, representing 22 nation-alities.

Among the top contribu-tors are 17 Qatari nationals, who joined others in sub-mitting video clips of the nation, covering six broad themes: joy, adventure, fam-ily, traditions, friendship and uniquely Qatar. The final cut of #DariQatar is created from video footage of over 250 hours, according to a press statement.

#DariQatar, which means ‘My Home Qatar’ in Arabic, is the visual narrative of the nation presented entirely through the eyes of the people of Qatar.

They were encouraged to shoot on practically any as-pect of life in the country with the “overwhelming re-sponse” highlighted by sub-missions that talk of their hopes, loves, fears, dreams and everyday realities, the statement noted.

#DariQatar will be an in-spirational work that cel-ebrates a year in the life of Qatar, highlighting aspects of the nation such as the Na-tional Day celebrations, key national events, sports, busi-ness centres - including oil and gas facilities, the modern

airport, education and prac-tically every fi eld that docu-ments life in Qatar.

The visuals and personal stories give insights into the diversity of Qatar and serve as honest portraits of life in the nation.

Fatma al-Remaihi, CEO of DFI, said: “We are amazed by the overwhelming re-sponse from the community to #DariQatar. We are equally delighted with the qual-ity of the submissions, with the participants presenting us with some captivating vi-gnettes of everyday life. The creativity with which they have approached the subjects in bringing out everyday life from unusual angles and nar-ratives totally surprised our production team.”

Qatari director Ahmad al-Sharif has curated the selection of clips that form the narrative, refl ecting the warmth and diversity of the country.

He recalled that the diversi-ty of the submissions allowed him to build a story-line that presented Qatar, its culture, traditions and developments in all their glory.

From introducing view-ers to Qatar through visual stories of its tradition and heritage to highlighting the Islamic heritage and culture, #DariQatar will take viewers through to modern Qatar, and incorporates personal sto-ries of people who call Qatar home.

#DariQatar has the support of platinum partners Occi-dental Petroleum Corpora-tion and United Development Company, developer of The Pearl-Qatar.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople, The Salesman win awardsHunt for the Wilderpeople,

The Eagle Huntress and The Salesman have won

best fi lm awards in diff erent cat-egories of the Ajyal competition, Doha Film Institute (DFI) has announced.

Ajyal Jurors voted in three categories – Mohaq (aged eight to 12 years), Hilal (13 to 17 years) and Bader (18 to 21 years) – at the recently-held fourth Ajyal Youth Film Festival.

The winners were honoured at the closing night ceremo-ny, which was followed by the Mena premiere of The Red Tur-tle (France, Japan), directed by

Academy Award-winning Dutch animator Michael Dudok de Wit.

In the Mohaq category, Hunt for the Wilderpeople (New Zea-land) by Taika Waititi was named the best fi lm while Riceballs (Australia) by Shingo Usami won the best short award.

In Hilal, The Eagle Huntress (Mongolia, UK, US) by Otto Bell won the best fi lm title with King’s Day (The Netherlands) by Steven Wouterlood named the best short.

Finally, in the Bader category, The Salesman (Iran, France) by Asghar Farhadi was recognised as the best fi lm, while Mariam

(France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia) by Faiza Ambah was adjudged the best short. The concluding day saw renowned actress Meg Ryan addressing the Ajyal Jurors about her fi rst feature-length directo-rial debut Ithaca (US), a fi lm that underlines the power of speak-ing out clearly against a world forever embroiled in confl ict.

DFI noted that there were 38 fi lms in the Ajyal competition this year; four feature-length fi lms and nine shorts in the Mo-haq programme, fi ve feature-length fi lms and six shorts in Hi-lal, and fi ve feature-length fi lms and nine shorts in Bader.

Each of the Ajyal juries voted for the best fi lm prize for their favourite short and feature-length fi lms, for a total of six awards.

Earlier, the festival awarded the winners in the Made in Qa-tar programme, which included 17 fi lms by Qatari directors and those who call Qatar home.

The winners are Kashta by AJ al-Thani, best narrative; Amer: An Arabian Legend by Jassim al-Rumaihi, best documentary; Al-Johara by Nora al-Subai, special jury award; and More Than Two Days by Ahmed Abdelnaser, honorary jury award.

This year, the festival featured the fi rst Ajyal Talks, a series of open discussions with social infl uencers. Khaled Khalifa, United Nations High Commis-sioner for Refugees Regional Representative to the States of the GCC, led a discussion on ‘Why Refugees Matter’ on the current global displacement cri-sis with a focus on the situation of Syrian refugees.

Mohamed al-Hajji, who led the Ajyal Talks on ‘Ten Things I Learned in my Twenties’, said social media has a transforma-tional impact on how content is produced for television and fi lm.

Some of the winners at the award ceremony.

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