24,754.06 -28.23 -0.11% 8,621.34 +101.13 +1.19% 58.32 -0.04 -0.07% DOW JONES QE NYMEX Latest Figures GULF TIMES published in QATAR since 1978 Highest honour for Emir SATURDAY Vol. XXXVIII No. 10676 December 23, 2017 Rabia Il 5, 1439 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals Russia backs gradual exit from oil cuts with Opec BUSINESS | Page 1 Defending champs Qatar eye victory against Yemen SPORT | Page 1 Heavy fog hits visibility; motorists cautioned By Joey Aguilar Staff Reporter T he thick blanket of fog that en- veloped many parts of Qatar late on Thursday night, early morning and late night yesterday, is expected to prevail early today also. “The fog was so thick after Thursday midnight that it took me double the time on my drive home through the regular route,” a Doha resident told Gulf Times. Visibility had dropped to a few feet at many places in Doha, forcing motorists to drive very slow. The fog, which lin- gered on until 10am in various locations across the country prevented many resi- dents from conducting their usual out- door and recreational activities yester- day, it is learnt. Public parks, which are popular places for picnickers, cyclists, joggers, walkers and skateboarders, among others who hold their regular sessions, attracted less visitors. Cyclists and families who frequent the Doha Festival City’s Outdoor Leisure Trail seemed to have postponed their weekly ride yesterday. The 4.5km track, which opened on October 21, features a running and walk- ing path, and a dedicated lane for cycling enthusiasts. “Normally a lot of families and chil- dren can be seen here in the morning but the foggy and cold weather probably changed their mind and preferred to stay home,” an employee of the mall told Gulf Times. Other public parks such as Aspire Park, Souq Waqif park, and Hotel Park wit- nessed a decline in the number of visitors yesterday morning, including the Mu- seum of Islamic Art (MIA) Park, which is open to the public round-the-clock. The weather also prevented dhows from sailing, keeping them at bay until before noon for a cruise. However, the foggy conditions failed to dampen the spirit of some some cyclists, who are members of the Qatar Chain Reaction (QCR). They conducted their Friday ride from Doha to Al Khor despite low visibility along the whole stretch of the highway. The cyclists who posted their pictures on QCR’s Facebook page described their experience on social media as “nice, dif- ferent ride… North European environ- ment.” On Thursday, Qatar’s Traffic Depart- ment at the Ministry of Interior advised motorists on its social media channels to drive safely due to low visibility in several roads outside the city caused by heavy fog. The inshore and offshore forecast for today is expected poor horizontal vis- ibility at places at first due to fog. The maximum temperature of 27C is ex- pected in Doha and at Mesaieed, Wak- rah, and Al Khor, followed by 24C at Abu Samra and 23C at Ruwais and Dukhan. The minimum temperature of 9C is expected at Abu Samra, followed by 11C at Mesaieed, Wakrah, Al Khor and Dukhan, 15C at Ruwais and 16C in Doha. A lone cyclist braves the fog during a ride through the MIA Park yesterday morning. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil Qatar opens new chapter in ties with Ivory Coast, Guinea His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani holding talks with Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan yesterday. His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani holding talks with Guinea President Alpha Conde in Conakry yesterday. UN imposes new sanctions on N Korea Reuters United Nations T he UN Security Council yesterday unanimously imposed new sanc- tions on North Korea following its latest intercontinental ballistic mis- sile test, a move that analysts said could have a significant impact on the isolated country’s struggling economy. The resolution seeks to ban nearly 90% of refined petroleum product ex- ports to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and, in what dip- lomats said was a last-minute change, demands the repatriation of North Ko- reans working abroad within 24 months, instead of 12 months as first proposed. The US-drafted resolution would also cap crude oil supplies to North Korea at 4mn barrels a year. QNA Abidjan/Conakry H is Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani held wide-ranging talks with the leaders of Ivory Coast and Guinea and witnessed the signing of several agreements and memoranda of under- standing yesterday, as part of his six- nation West African tour. The Emir arrived in Ivory Coast capi- tal Abidjan yesterday evening from Co- nakry in Guinea. Upon arrival in Abid- jan the Emir and the accompanying delegation were welcomed at Abidjan International Airport by Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara. The country’s Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly along with a number of ministers, senior officials, ambassador of Ivory Coast to Qatar F Toure, Charge d’Affaires of the Qatari embassy in Ivory Coast, Shamsan Ab- dallah al-Sada, and a number of tribal leaders were also present at the airport to greet the Emir and the accompany- ing delegation. Later at the presidential palace, the Emir and President Ouattara chaired an official session of talks. At the beginning of the session, President Ouattara welcomed the Emir and his accompanying delegation, ex- pressing his pleasure at the first visit of the Emir to Ivory Coast. The president stressed that Ivory Coast is keen on advancing co-op- eration with Qatar in various fields to achieve the aspirations of the two friendly people. President Alassane Ouattara said that the position of Ivory Coast on the Gulf crisis is fully consistent with that of the African Union, which supports its solution through dialogue and dip- lomatic means. For his part, the Emir expressed his thanks to President Ouattara and the people of Ivory Coast for their warm reception and hospitality. The Emir stressed the importance of this visit in strengthening relations between Qatar and Ivory Coast. During the meeting, they discussed ways to deepen and develop the rela- tions between the two countries and the prospects for co-operation between them, especially in the fields of energy, infrastructure, tourism and the promo- tion of investment opportunities at the private sector level. The two sides also discussed the latest developments on the regional and international arenas. The meeting was attended by the members of the official delegation ac- companying the Emir. On the Ivory Coast side the meeting was attended by Prime Minister Ama- dou Gon Coulibaly and a number of ministers and senior officials. The Emir and President Ouattara also held a bilateral meeting, during which they discussed the existing re- lations between Qatar and Ivory Coast and ways to develop and diversify them. During the meeting, which was held at the presidential palace in Abid- jan, the Emir and President Ouattara also discussed the latest regional and international developments and ex- changed views on them, especially the two countries’ stance towards some of the challenges facing the world, such as terrorism and ways to combat it and stop its funding. Following the talks, the Emir and President Ouattara witnessed the sign- ing of the following agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) between Qatar and Ivory Coast at the presidential palace in Abidjan: Q An air services agreement Q An MoU for co-operation in the field of youth Q An MoU for co-operation in sport Q An MoU for co-operation in the field of culture The signing ceremony was attended by the members of the official delega- tion accompanying the Emir and Ivory Coast Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly and a number of ministers and senior officials. Earlier in Guinea, His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al- Thani held talks with the President Al- pha Conde, and witnessed the signing of a number of agreements and memo- randa of understanding at the Sheraton Hotel in capital Conakry. President Alpha Conde welcomed the Emir and the accompanying del- egation, thanking him for visiting his country. To Page 2 O Emir holds wide-ranging talks in Abidjan and Conakry O Qatar signs raft of agreements to enhance relations O Ivory Coast, Guinea back African Union stand on Gulf crisis His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani was presented with the ‘National Medal of Merit’, the highest medal of Ivory Coast by President Alassane Ouattara, at a ceremony held at the presidential palace in Abidjan yesterday.
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24,754.06-28.23-0.11%
8,621.34+101.13+1.19%
58.32-0.04
-0.07%
DOW JONES QE NYMEX
Latest Figures
GULF TIMES
published in
QATAR
since 1978
Highest honour for Emir
SATURDAY Vol. XXXVIII No. 10676
December 23, 2017Rabia Il 5, 1439 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals
Russia backs gradual exit from oil cuts with Opec
BUSINESS | Page 1
Defending champs Qatar eye victory against Yemen
SPORT | Page 1
Heavy fog hits visibility; motorists cautionedBy Joey AguilarStaff Reporter
The thick blanket of fog that en-veloped many parts of Qatar late on Thursday night, early morning
and late night yesterday, is expected to prevail early today also.
“The fog was so thick after Thursday midnight that it took me double the time on my drive home through the regular route,” a Doha resident told Gulf Times.
Visibility had dropped to a few feet at many places in Doha, forcing motorists to drive very slow. The fog, which lin-gered on until 10am in various locations across the country prevented many resi-dents from conducting their usual out-door and recreational activities yester-day, it is learnt.
Public parks, which are popular places for picnickers, cyclists, joggers, walkers and skateboarders, among others who hold their regular sessions, attracted less visitors.
Cyclists and families who frequent the Doha Festival City’s Outdoor Leisure Trail seemed to have postponed their weekly ride yesterday.
The 4.5km track, which opened on October 21, features a running and walk-ing path, and a dedicated lane for cycling enthusiasts.
“Normally a lot of families and chil-dren can be seen here in the morning but the foggy and cold weather probably changed their mind and preferred to stay home,” an employee of the mall told Gulf Times.
Other public parks such as Aspire Park, Souq Waqif park, and Hotel Park wit-nessed a decline in the number of visitors yesterday morning, including the Mu-seum of Islamic Art (MIA) Park, which is open to the public round-the-clock.
The weather also prevented dhows from sailing, keeping them at bay until before noon for a cruise. However, the foggy conditions failed to dampen the spirit of some some cyclists, who are members of the Qatar Chain Reaction
(QCR). They conducted their Friday ride from Doha to Al Khor despite low visibility along the whole stretch of the highway.
The cyclists who posted their pictures on QCR’s Facebook page described their experience on social media as “nice, dif-ferent ride… North European environ-ment.”
On Thursday, Qatar’s Traffi c Depart-ment at the Ministry of Interior advised motorists on its social media channels to drive safely due to low visibility in several roads outside the city caused by heavy fog.
The inshore and off shore forecast for today is expected poor horizontal vis-ibility at places at fi rst due to fog. The maximum temperature of 27C is ex-pected in Doha and at Mesaieed, Wak-rah, and Al Khor, followed by 24C at Abu Samra and 23C at Ruwais and Dukhan.
The minimum temperature of 9C is expected at Abu Samra, followed by 11C at Mesaieed, Wakrah, Al Khor and Dukhan, 15C at Ruwais and 16C in Doha.
A lone cyclist braves the fog during a ride through the MIA Park yesterday morning. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil
Qatar opens new chapter inties with Ivory Coast, Guinea
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani holding talks with Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan yesterday. His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani holding talks with Guinea President Alpha Conde in Conakry yesterday.
UN imposesnew sanctions on N KoreaReutersUnited Nations
The UN Security Council yesterday unanimously imposed new sanc-tions on North Korea following
its latest intercontinental ballistic mis-sile test, a move that analysts said could have a signifi cant impact on the isolated country’s struggling economy.
The resolution seeks to ban nearly 90% of refi ned petroleum product ex-ports to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and, in what dip-lomats said was a last-minute change, demands the repatriation of North Ko-reans working abroad within 24 months, instead of 12 months as fi rst proposed.
The US-drafted resolution would also cap crude oil supplies to North Korea at 4mn barrels a year.
QNAAbidjan/Conakry
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani held wide-ranging talks with
the leaders of Ivory Coast and Guinea and witnessed the signing of several agreements and memoranda of under-standing yesterday, as part of his six-nation West African tour.
The Emir arrived in Ivory Coast capi-tal Abidjan yesterday evening from Co-nakry in Guinea. Upon arrival in Abid-jan the Emir and the accompanying delegation were welcomed at Abidjan International Airport by Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara.
The country’s Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly along with a number of ministers, senior offi cials, ambassador of Ivory Coast to Qatar F Toure, Charge d’Aff aires of the Qatari embassy in Ivory Coast, Shamsan Ab-dallah al-Sada, and a number of tribal leaders were also present at the airport to greet the Emir and the accompany-ing delegation.
Later at the presidential palace, the Emir and President Ouattara chaired an offi cial session of talks.
At the beginning of the session, President Ouattara welcomed the Emir and his accompanying delegation, ex-pressing his pleasure at the fi rst visit of the Emir to Ivory Coast.
The president stressed that Ivory Coast is keen on advancing co-op-eration with Qatar in various fi elds to achieve the aspirations of the two friendly people.
President Alassane Ouattara said that the position of Ivory Coast on the Gulf crisis is fully consistent with that of the African Union, which supports its solution through dialogue and dip-lomatic means.
For his part, the Emir expressed his thanks to President Ouattara and the people of Ivory Coast for their warm reception and hospitality. The Emir stressed the importance of this visit in strengthening relations between Qatar and Ivory Coast.
During the meeting, they discussed ways to deepen and develop the rela-tions between the two countries and
the prospects for co-operation between them, especially in the fi elds of energy, infrastructure, tourism and the promo-tion of investment opportunities at the private sector level. The two sides also discussed the latest developments on the regional and international arenas.
The meeting was attended by the members of the offi cial delegation ac-companying the Emir.
On the Ivory Coast side the meeting was attended by Prime Minister Ama-dou Gon Coulibaly and a number of ministers and senior offi cials.
The Emir and President Ouattara also held a bilateral meeting, during which they discussed the existing re-lations between Qatar and Ivory Coast and ways to develop and diversify them.
During the meeting, which was held at the presidential palace in Abid-jan, the Emir and President Ouattara also discussed the latest regional and international developments and ex-changed views on them, especially the two countries’ stance towards some of the challenges facing the world, such as terrorism and ways to combat it and stop its funding.
Following the talks, the Emir and President Ouattara witnessed the sign-ing of the following agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) between Qatar and Ivory Coast at the presidential palace in Abidjan:
An air services agreement An MoU for co-operation in the
fi eld of youth An MoU for co-operation in sport An MoU for co-operation in the
fi eld of cultureThe signing ceremony was attended
by the members of the offi cial delega-tion accompanying the Emir and Ivory Coast Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly and a number of ministers and senior offi cials.
Earlier in Guinea, His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani held talks with the President Al-pha Conde, and witnessed the signing of a number of agreements and memo-randa of understanding at the Sheraton Hotel in capital Conakry.
President Alpha Conde welcomed the Emir and the accompanying del-egation, thanking him for visiting his country. To Page 2
Emir holds wide-ranging talks in Abidjan and Conakry Qatar signs raft of agreements to enhance relations Ivory Coast, Guinea back African Union stand on Gulf crisis
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani was presented with the ‘National Medal of Merit’, the highest medal of Ivory Coast by President Alassane Ouattara, at a ceremony held at the presidential palace in Abidjan yesterday.
QATAR
Gulf Times Saturday, December 23, 20172
Qatar expands ties with Ivory Coast and GuineaFrom Page 1He stressed the importance of
this visit in strengthening rela-tions between Qatar and Guin-ea, and expressed the desire of Guinea to expand relations with Qatar in various fi elds.
For his part, the Emir thanked the President Conde and the Guinean people for their hos-pitality, and hoped that his fi rst visit to Guinea would enhance co-operation and friendship
between the two countries.The talks dealt with bilateral
relations and ways to develop co-operation, especially in the areas of energy, economy, in-vestment and food security, as well as expanding partnership in other fi elds.
Both sides discussed the cur-rent regional and international developments and the danger posed by terrorism and extrem-ism to the region and to the world. They affi rmed the two countries’ steadfast stance in combating this dangerous phe-nomena which undermines the security of the region and the world.
The talks also dealt with the economic, social and develop-mental challenges faced by some African countries.
The Emir stressed the contin-ued support of Qatar to a number of African countries, especially in the fi elds of development, health and education.
Regarding the Gulf crisis, the president of Guinea, who is also the president of the African Un-ion, affi rmed that the Union’s position is to support the Kuwaiti mediation to resolve the crisis through dialogue.
The Emir thanked the Guin-ean president in particular and the African Union in general for their position on the current Gulf crisis.
The meeting was attended by the members of the offi cial del-egation accompanying the Emir and ministers and senior offi cials from the Guinean side.
During a separate session of talks the Emir and president of Guinea discussed ways to devel-op bilateral relations and co-op-eration in a way that serve the in-terests of both sides, particularly in fi elds of economy, investment, and food security.
The meeting, which took place in Sheraton Conakry, also saw the exchange of views on the lat-est regional and international developments. The two sides also discussed issues of joint in-terest, particularly counter-ter-rorism and counter-extremism eff orts.
Following the talks, the Emir and President Conde witnessed the signing of the following agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoU) between Qatar and Guinea at the Sheraton Conakry:
An agreement on the en-couragement and protection of investments
A maritime transport agreement
An MoU between Qatar Ports Management Company (Mawani Qatar) and Port of Conakry
An MoU in the fi eld of youth An MoU in the fi eld of culture An MoU in the sports fi eld An MoU in food security
The signing ceremony was at-tended by members of the offi cial delegation accompanying the Emir, and ministers and ranking offi cials in Guinea.
Following the agreement sign-ing ceremony, the Emir attended
Forum highlights Qatar’s leading role in GTL fi eld A symposium hosted by
Texas A&M University at Qatar (Tamuq), and
sponsored by Sasol and the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), has focused on gas-to-liquid (GTL) technology and highlighted Qatar’s leading role in the fi eld.
Sasol, an international in-tegrated chemicals and energy company, was a key sponsor of the Bukur Reaction Engineering and Catalysis Symposium 2017 in Education City.
The event, organised by the Texas A&M Engineering Experi-ment Station Gas and Fuels Re-search Centre and funded jointly by Sasol and QNRF, brought to-gether world leaders in GTL and catalysis.
The symposium was designed to celebrate Qatar’s sponsor-ship of top-notch research and expertise in the fi eld of GTL, and to refl ect on the career and
achievements of Tamuq chemi-cal engineering professor Dr Dragomir Bukur, who in more than 40 years of research in gas-processing technology and catalysis has revolutionised the fi eld.
Other symposium co-or-ganisers included Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s Qatar En-vironment and Energy Research Institute and Qatar University’s Gas Processing Centre.
Symposium sponsors and attendees showed their com-mitment to advancing Qatar’s human capacity by training highly skilled scientists and engineers to lead the future of gas-processing technol-ogy. Sasol, an industry leader in the commercial application of GTL catalysis around the world, highlighted key suc-cesses in the Oryx GTL facility, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Sasol.
Speaking before to the event, Sasol senior vice-presi-dent for energy Thabiet Booley said: “GTL catalysis has trans-formed the outlook for Qatar and provided the world with a reliable and clean energy source. This conference not only celebrates the successes that have been achieved, but also continues to advance the research and potential for future growth.”
Dr César O Malavé, dean, Texas A&M at Qatar, said: “Alongside our longtime part-ner, Sasol, Texas A&M at Qa-tar aims to provide a medium to discuss knowledge that has direct bearing on the pillars of Qatar’s energy and industry sectors.
“That this symposium hon-ours the work of Dr Bukur is fi tting, as he has made pioneer-ing, state-of-the-art contribu-tions to the fi eld, and enriched
Participants of the symposium in a group photo.
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani is greeted by Ivory Coast off icials upon arrival in Abidjan yesterday.
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani being welcomed by tribal leaders upon arrival in Abidjan yesterday.
the faculty and students of Texas A&M at Qatar.”
Dr Nimir Elbashir, sympo-sium chair and director of TEES Gas and Fuels Research Centre at Texas A&M at Qatar, noted: “Qa-tar is leading the world in natu-
ral gas monetisation, and we are highlighting Qatar’s leadership role in this fi eld.”
Dr Abdul Sattar al-Taie, QNRF executive director, added: “We recognise the signifi cance of the new technologies showcased at
this event, many of which are home-grown and designed to reinforce Qatar’s position within this fi eld.”
The symposium was open to researchers, students and indus-try experts in Qatar, providing
them with a platform to share their research on catalysis and reaction engineering. The out-come of this symposium will be disseminated as scientifi c jour-nal papers in a reputable catalysis journal and through other forms.
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani being received by Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan yesterday.
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani holding talks with President Alassane Ouattara of Ivory Coast in Abidjan yesterday.
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and President Alassane Ouattara witness the signing of an agreement between Qatar and Ivory Coast at the presidential palace in Abidjan yesterday.
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani attends a dinner banquet hosted by President Alassane Ouattara of Ivory Coast at the presidential palace in Abidjan yesterday.
a luncheon banquet hosted by President Alpha Conde at the Sheraton Hotel in Conakry.
The banquet was attended by several ministers and senior of-fi cials from the Guinean side.
Later in the afternoon, the Emir left Conakry concluding his offi cial visit to the Republic of Guinea.
Bidding the Emir farewell upon departure from Conakry Inter-national Airport was President Conde, Prime Minister of Guinea
Mamady Youla and a number of ministers and ranking offi cials, besides Qatar’s ambassador to Guinea Saree Ali al-Qahtani and heads of diplomatic missions.
The Emir sent a cable to Presi-dent Conde thanking him for the welcome accorded to him and the accompanying delegation and for providing an opportunity to ex-change views on regional and in-ternational issues of joint interest, in addition to enhancing bilateral relations and co-operation. Page 3
QATAR3Gulf Times
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Emir chairs offi cial talks with president of Guinea
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani being welcomed by President of Guinea Alpha Conde at the Sheraton Hotel in Conakry yesterday.
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and President of Guinea Alpha Conde chairing official talks between Qatar and Guinea in Conakry yesterday.
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and President of Guinea Alpha Conde witness the signing of an agreement at the Sheraton Hotel in Conakry yesterday.
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani being seen off by President of Guinea Alpha Conde at Conakry International Airport yesterday.
QATAR/REGION/ARAB WORLD
Gulf TimesSaturday, December 23, 20174
Top masters of cinema for Qumra 2018Venice Golden Lion win-
ning Russian director and writer Andrey Zvy-
agintsev (Leviathan, Loveless), Cannes Palme d’Or winning Thai fi lmmaker and visual art-ist Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and the only documentary di-rector to win the Berlinale Gold-en Bear Italian director Gian-franco Rosi are confi rmed as the fi rst three Masters of the Doha Film Institute’s (DFI) dedicated industry event Qumra 2018.
In the fourth edition of Qumra next year, they will deliver Master Classes to upcoming fi lmmakers from Qatar and around the world, providing them with unique pro-fessional development oppor-tunities through the mentoring sessions and development work-shops led by fi lm industry experts.
In addition, defi ning fi lms by the three Qumra masters will be screened to public audiences, shar-ing artistic inspirations of world-renowned masters of cinema. For the fi lmmakers that make up the Qumra delegates, the programme provides invaluable access to the fi nest works in global cinema by true vanguards of the industry.
“The fourth edition of Qum-ra is blessed to welcome three distinguished auteurs of world cinema, true masters who have presented standout fi lms that refl ect our world today through thought-provoking messages and discussions,” DFI CEO Fat-ma al-Remaihi said. Artistic ad-viser Elia Suleiman said fi lms by
such masters touch the soul un-like any other. “Weerasethakul’s fi lms express a rich poetic beau-ty that can only come with deep contemplation and meditation. A profound window into modern Russian society, Zvyagintsev’s fi lms shine with an unsettling narrative brilliance,” he noted.
“Rosi presents a gritty reality with a gravitas that holds you to an unavoidable empathy. All three Masters are exceptional fi lmmakers who defi ne what it is to continuously elevate the standards of world cinema,” Suleiman added.
Previous Qumra Masters include Argentina’s eminent Lucrecia Martel, internationally acclaimed Portuguese producer Paulo Bran-co, Best Foreign Language Film Os-car winning Iranian master Asghar Farhadi, French auteur Bruno Du-mont, Cambodian creative docu-mentarian Rithy Panh, Mexican actor/director/producer Gael Gar-cia Bernal, Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominated Maurita-
nian director Abderrahmane Sis-sako, Romanian auteur and Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungiu, Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winning Bosnian writer/director Danis Tanovic, Palme d’Or win-ning Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Cannes Grand Prix win-ning Japanese fi lmmaker Naomi Kawase, Oscar nominated director Joshua Oppenheimer, Cannes Best Screenplay winning writer James Schamus and Aleksandr Sokurov. There are two 2018 Qumra masters to be confi rmed.
Two Palestinians die in anti-US protestsReuters Gaza
Israeli troops shot dead at least two Palestinians and wounded about 60 with live fi re yesterday, the
Health Ministry in Gaza said, as pro-tests intensifi ed against Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
A UN General Assembly resolu-tion passed on Thursday, rejecting US President Donald Trump’s Dec 6 Je-rusalem declaration, did little to calm Palestinian anger over his reversal of decades-old US policy on the contest-ed holy city.
Instead, thousands of Palestin-ian protesters, many of them throw-ing rocks, confronted Israeli security forces along the Gaza border fence, in all of occupied West Bank’s seven cities and in East Jerusalem.
In Bethlehem, smoke from burning tyres billowed in the street, just two days before Christmas celebrations.
Israeli gunfi re killed two Palestin-ians in a confrontation in the southern Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the Pal-estinian Health Ministry said, putting the number of wounded at 120, half of them shot with live ammunition and the rest struck by rubber bullets or hit by tear gas canisters.
In a statement, the Israeli military
said some 2,000 Palestinians had faced off against the troops at the Gaza bor-der fence.
It said the crowd threw stones and rolled burning tyres at soldiers, who responded with “riot dispersal” meas-ures and “fi red live rounds selectively towards main instigators”. Protesters chanted “Trump is a coward. Trump is a fool”. Among the wounded was a man dressed as Santa Claus.
Palestinian health offi cials said at least one Palestinian suff ered a live bullet wound in the West Bank and some 30 protesters were hit by rubber bullets.
The military, putting the number of demonstrators at about 1,700 and the
injured at six, said troops faced fi re-bombs, rocks and burning tyres.
The protests died down after sunset.Demonstrations have been held dai-
ly since Trump’s announcement.Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas, in a Christmas message, called the US leader’s move “an insult to mil-lions of people worldwide, and also to the city of Jerusalem”.
Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the Jerusalem city’s eastern sector.
Most countries regard the status of Jerusalem as a matter to be settled in an eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, although that process is now stalled.
Andrey Zvyagintsev Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Gianfranco Rosi
QU workshop highlights sustainable mobility
The Qatar Transportation and Traffi c Safety Centre (QTTSC) at Qatar Uni-versity College of Engineering (QU-
CENG) recently hosted a workshop titled “Towards Safe and Sustainable Mobility”.
The workshop was organised in collab-oration with Rutgers University and spon-sored by Qatar National Research Fund. It aimed to provide the best practices and identify and implement solutions for sus-tainable mobility.
Attendees included CENG Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department assistant professor, Dr Murat Kucukvar, QTTSC assistant research professor Dr Nuri Onat, Rutgers University School of
Engineering Industrial and Systems En-gineering chairman Prof Mohsen Jafari, Qatar Rail Technical Interface Eng Cha-makh Mohamed Chamakh, and Qatar Rail Logistics operations manager Eng Torsten Spiller, as well as CENG faculty and stu-dents.
The programme agenda featured pres-entations and discussions delivered by speakers from QU, Rutgers University and Qatar Rail.
They provided the audience with an in-depth insight into various topics such as safe and sustainable mobility, Qatar inte-grated railways programme’s contribution to a sustainable and safe mobility in Qatar,
a global web-based decision support tool for sustainable transport, and sustain-ability assessment frameworks for trans-portation.
Dr al-Khalifa said, “This workshop comes as part of QTTSC’s commitment to advance research and studies that meet national needs in the area of road and traf-fi c safety. It also demonstrates the centre’s ongoing eff orts to provide traffi c and road safety experts with a platform to showcase the best solutions for maintaining high lev-els of transportation systems and to come up with sustainable plans to reduce road traffi c crashes and develop a safe road and transportation system.”
Nakilat’s internship programme ‘successful’
Nakilat has said it has successfully concluded its internship pro-
gramme this year, in partner-ship with several local educa-tional institutions.
A graduation ceremony was held to recognise the contribu-tion and eff orts of the students who interned either during the summer or fall university breaks.
The students were placed in various departments across the company, such as Information Technology, Fleet, Human Re-source and others.
“Their presence brought about fresh ideas and per-spectives from their diverse academic backgrounds, thus adding tremendous value to diff erent aspects of our busi-ness operations,” Nakilat said in a press statement.
Nakilat chief administration offi cer Rashid al-Marri said, “We are pleased to be in part-nership with some of the most reputable educational institutes in Doha to nurture and develop their young talents. Nakilat’s development programmes are strategically designed to groom leaders for tomorrow, leaders who will steer Nakilat towards
its vision to be a global leader and provider of choice for ener-gy transportation and maritime services.
“Our dedicated eff orts refl ect our ongoing commitment to generate capable and dedicated pool of talents for the industry, ultimately contributing to Qa-tar National Vision 2030.”
Investing in human capital
development “is the foundation of our long-term strategy for growth”, the statement noted, adding that “we recognise that the key to our success and sus-tainability relies on the talent pipeline that we build, invest, develop and nurture today”.
Nakilat has stressed that it focuses its capability develop-ment eff orts through various
in-house programmes, such as the comprehensive National Development Programme, in-ternships to undergraduate students from various univer-sities across Qatar, Marine Ca-det sponsorship programme, as well as extensive learning and development activities to en-hance leadership skills within the organisation.
Participants in the programme with off icials.
Major powers seek to hold Syria congress in late January
AFPAstana
Major powerbrokers agreed yes-terday to hold a peace congress for Syria in Russia’s Black Sea
resort of Sochi in late January after pre-vious attempts to hold the conference collapsed.
Sochi will host the “Congress of Na-tional Dialogue” on Syria on January 29 and 30, said a joint statement released after two days of talks spearheaded by Russia and Iran, both key backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s re-gime, and rebel-aligned Turkey.
The congress will see “the participa-
tion of all segments of Syrian society,” said the statement released in the Ka-zakh capital Astana. “To this end three guarantors will hold a special prepara-tion meeting in Sochi before the con-gress on January 19-20,” it added, refer-ring to Russia, Turkey and Iran.
But a list of prospective participants was not released and the opposition did not immediately confi rm participation.
A previous attempt to convene the Sochi congress in November failed fol-lowing a lack of agreement among would-be participants.
Turkey has said it will be opposed to any talks involving the Kurdish YPG militia of the Democratic Union Party (PYD).
Palestinian protesters carry a wounded comrade during clashes with Israeli soldiers near the border fence, east of Gaza City, yesterday.
The head of Iran’s justice ministry was quoted yesterday as saying Tehran would decide the fate of a detained British-Iranian aid worker sentenced to five years in jail and that he could not confirm Western media reports relating to her case. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliff e, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 at a Tehran airport as she was heading back to Britain with her two-year-old daughter after a family visit. She was convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran’s clerical establish-ment, a charge denied by her fam-ily and the Foundation, a charity organisation that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News.
Justice ministry says no decision on aid worker
LEGAL
Zimbabwe returns White farmer’s landReutersRusape, Zimbabwe
The last time white Zimba-bwean farmer Rob Smart left his land it was at gun-
point, forced out in June by riot police armed with teargas and AK-47 assault rifl es.
He returned on Thursday to ululations and tears of joy from former workers and their fami-lies who were also kicked out — a jubilant return and the fi rst sign that the president who has re-placed Robert Mugabe is making good on a vow to stop illegal land seizures and restore property rights.
Scores of jubilant black Zim-babweans nearly knocked the 71-year-old off his feet as he and his two children stepped out of their car and onto their land for the fi rst time in six months.
Smart’s case was taken up by Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimba-bwe’s then vice-president who heard of Smart’s violent eviction while at an investment confer-ence in Johannesburg.
Mnangagwa became president last month following a de facto coup that ended 93-year-old Mugabe’s rule.
In the latter half of his 37 years in power, Zimbabwe’s economy collapsed, especially after the seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms under the banner of post-colonial land reform.
Land ownership is one of Zim-babwe’s most sensitive political topics. Colonialists seized some
of the best agricultural land and much of it remained in the hands of white farmers after independ-ence in 1980 leaving many blacks eff ectively landless.
Twenty years later, Mugabe authorised the violent invasion of many white-owned farms and justifi ed it on the grounds that it was redressing imbalances from the colonial era.
White farmers complained that well connected people used state security forces to force them off their farms, sometimes in the middle of harvesting, even after the Mugabe government in-
dicated, some four years ago, that land seizures were over.
“We are overjoyed, over the moon. We thought we would nev-er see this day coming,” Smart’s son, Darryn, told Reuters.
“Getting back to the farm has given not just us, but the whole community hope that it’s a new Zimbabwe, a new country.”
Rob Smart, whose father said he started the farm from “virgin bush” in 1932, expressed confi -dence in the new government’s pledge to protect the commercial farming sector, a mainstay of the struggling economy.
“It’s early days but so far what they (the new government) said they are going to do they are do-ing,” he told Reuters.
“We just hope this whole in-cident will give hope to other farmers, who’ve had the same situation.”
Mnangagwa, who is under pressure to revive the economy ahead of elections next year, said on Thursday that he was resolute about the changes he was intro-ducing.
“There is no business as usu-al. Things have changed, it’s a new era,” he said at a meeting
with business leaders in South Africa.
“I’m from the military. If it’s ‘left turn’ then it’s ‘left turn’. If it’s ‘right turn’ it’s ‘right turn’. No confusion.”
Mnangagwa’s new agricul-ture minister, Perrance Shiri, last week ordered illegal occu-piers of farms to vacate the land immediately, a move that could ultimately see some white farm-ers who say they were unfairly evicted return to farming.
Shiri, a military hardliner who was head of the air force be-fore being picked for the crucial ministry this month, called for “unquestionable sanity on the farms”.
For 83-year-old Anna Matem-ani, whose late husband worked on the farm, Smart’s return was long overdue.
“I’m so happy he is fi nally back. He always helped us and the farm provides jobs for many of our young people,” said the grandmother of 15, who grew up and raised her children on the farm and witnessed Rob’s birth, wiping away tears.
Some of the Smarts’ joy sub-sided as they walked into their ransacked farmhouses.
The occupiers had looted property, including clothes, the children’s toys, three guns, bot-tles of 100-year-old wine and Smart’s late father Roy’s medals from when he served with the Police Reserve Air Wing in the former Rhodesia.
“I’m sad about my grandfa-ther’s medals,” Darryn Smart said, surveying a ransacked room.
“You can buy tables and chairs, you can’t buy that family history. But thank goodness we’re here.”
Commercial farmer Darreyn Smart is welcomed at Lesbury Estates by village elders and children at a farm in Headlands communal lands east of the capital Harare.
A pilot of the French Air Force boards a Mirage 2000 aircraft, as he prepares to take off from an airbase in Niamey to participate in a Barkhane mission in Africa’s Sahel region.
Mission Sahel
Need for food, arms spurs Boko Haram attacks in NigeriaAFP Kano, Nigeria
A surge in Boko Haram at-tacks in Nigeria’s restive northeast despite a sus-
tained military off ensive is being driven by a need to replenish food and weapon supplies, security and local sources say.
In recent months, fi ghters from two of the main factions of the hardline Islamist group, led respectively by Abubakar Shekau and Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi, have launched attacks on troops, hit-and-run raids and suicide bombings in towns and villages across the region.
The upsurge followed a rela-tive lull after months of military off ensives against the insurgents which saw them routed from their strongholds, prompting the government to declare them a spent force.
“The increased Boko Haram
attacks are in desperate response to the ongoing military opera-tions that have cut off the terror-ists’ supply lines for food, weap-ons and ammunitions,” a senior military offi cer involved in the operation in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, told AFP.
“They are fi ghting back to se-cure these essential items they so desperately need because they know they will die whichever way, as hunger is a silent killer,” said the army offi cer, who asked not to be identifi ed by name be-cause he was not authorised to speak to the media.
“No doubt Boko Haram (fi ght-ers) are starving and are desper-ately in search of food,” agreed Mamman Sani, a fi sherman in the town of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad.
“They are attacking military locations for weapons and raid-ing villages for food,” he added.
In the latest such attacks, on December 13, fi ghters from the
Barnawi faction, which has the backing of the Islamic State group, made a failed attempt to take over a military base in Mainok, a village outside Maiduguri, though they succeeded in seizing four vehi-cles, two of them armoured.
On November 21, a Boko Har-am suicide bomber blew himself up at a mosque in Mubi in neigh-bouring Adamawa state, killing at least 50 worshippers.
Last month, fi ghters briefl y overran Magumeri, about 50km north of Maiduguri, forcing troops to withdraw until rein-forcements arrived.
And this month, two suicide bombers killed at least 13 people and injured more than 50 in Biu, a town about 185 kilometres south of Maiduguri.
Worried by the increased at-tacks, Nigeria’s military au-thorities replaced the army commander in charge of the counter-insurgency operation in the region.
“The terrorists are attacking military locations, particularly those with few troops, to cart away equipment, instil fear and bolster their capabilities,” said a local militia member who is as-sisting the military in the fi ght against the jihadists.
He said that on December 10, Shekau, the shadowy leader of Boko Haram’s other main fac-tion and the former deputy of the group’s founder, led about 400 fi ghters in an attack on a military post in Bita, a village near the border with Cameroon.
He said the jihadists forced the troops to withdraw before haul-ing away weapons and heading back to their nearby sanctuary in the Sambisa forest — an area which the military claimed had been seized in December last year.
The eight-year Boko Haram insurgency has killed 20,000 people and forced 2.6mn out of the homes, prompting a humani-
tarian crisis in the region.The violence has also taken a
heavy toll on a military already overstretched by unrest in Ni-geria’s oil-producing region along with eff orts to halt clashes between farmers and herders, as well as by peacekeeping opera-tions elsewhere in Africa.
President Muhammadi Buhari said recently that Nigeria was considering recalling troops on peacekeeping missions in Guinea Bissau to bolster the counter-in-surgency operation at home.
On December 4, the two Boko Haram factions met in Duguri on Lake Chad to discuss a truce after days of clashes in the Dikwa area in northern Borno, according to sources close to the negotiation.
The two sides agreed to forge a common front against the mili-tary, the sources added.
But the peace talks collapsed days later after the killing of 18 members of Barnawi’s faction by Shekau’s fi ghters.
Ugandan army attacks rebel camps in DR Congo after killing of UN troopsAFPKampala
Uganda’s army said yesterday it had launched attacks on a shadowy rebel group in the
eastern Democratic Republic of Con-go, where the militants killed 14 UN peacekeepers earlier this month.
“Shared intelligence between Ugan-da and the DRC, confi rmed that the Al-lied Democratic Forces (ADF) terrorists which recently carried out attacks on UN peacekeepers... were planning to conduct hostile activities against Ugan-da,” read a statement from the army. The ADF, a Ugandan rebel group domi-nated by hardline Muslim operating in the DRC, was behind an attack that left 14 Tanzanian peacekeepers dead two weeks ago, according to the UN.
The ADF started out with the aim of overthrowing Uganda’s President
Yoweri Museveni, who was seen as hostile to Muslims. But it went on to absorb other rebel factions into its ranks and started carrying out attacks in 1995.Gradually pushed westwards by the Ugandan army, the ADF relo-cated most of its activities to the DRC.The ADF was blamed for an ambush on UN peacekeepers in eastern DR Congo in October, which killed two peacekeepers and wounded 12.
It has also been accused by Kinsha-sa and the UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO of killing more than 700 people in the Beni region since Octo-ber 2014. Kinshasa has insisted on a jihadist motive to the killings.
But many observers and experts say there has been no proven link with the global jihadist underground, and that this is a “simplistic” explanation for their acts.
Many ADF recruits — drawn from Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya and as far
as Somalia — are not hardcore ideo-logues but young Muslims lured by the promise of going to study in Saudi Arabia, an intelligence agent and civil society source told AFP last year.
A group run by US researcher Jason Stearns published a report claiming several distinct groups “appear to be involved in the massacres”, including soldiers from the regular army.
The government rejected the claims and Stearns was expelled from DRC after the report’s release.
Beni’s mayor Bwanakawa Nyonyi told AFP last year he believes the mas-sacres are carried out by a nebulous group, with politically-motivated “Congolese hands” behind them.
In explaining the violence, some have cited struggles for control of traffi cking in various industries like timber, agricultural produce or min-erals in a region with extremely rich potential.
Somalia ex-minister releasedReutersMogadishu
A court in Somalia on Thursday released without charge a former
minister and government critic who spent two days in jail after being arrested for alleged trea-son, an arrest which ignited a smouldering political crisis for the fragile government.
Abdirahman Abdishakur was released after the attor-ney general, who had ordered his arrest, had failed to bring evidence against him, Judge Aweys Sheikh Abdullahi told a courtroom.
He was released at midnight after reconciliation eff orts be-tween the government and tra-ditional leaders before Thurs-day’s court ruling, Information Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman said.
Somali attorney gener-al Ahmed Ali Dahir said he planned to appeal the ruling and criticised the court for not granting him fi ve extra days to investigate as he had request-ed.
“The case is in its fi rst phase,” he told reporters. “The attorney general’s offi ce was not given the investigation pe-riod it asked for.”
Earlier this week, Dahir had described Abdishakur’s house as a hub for the opposition and a gathering point for people who wanted to replace the gov-ernment.
The arrest of Abdishakur, who ran in the February elec-tion won by President Mo-hamed Abdullahi Mohamed, followed mounting pressure on the president and his UN-
backed government to end an Islamist insurgency.
On Wednesday, some Somali lawmakers said they planned to impeach the president. Parlia-ment adjourned last week until the end of February, but some legislators want it to recon-vene on an emergency basis, lawmaker Mahad Salad told Reuters.
The political turmoil en-dangers fragile gains against the Al Shebaab insurgency. Al Shebaab have been step-ping up pressure on Moham-ed’s government by staging frequent and increasingly large-scale bombings against both civilian and military targets in recent months in the capital Mogadishu and elsewhere.
The group is fi ghting to expel African Union peacekeeping force AMISOM from Somalia, topple the federal government and impose rule based on its strict interpretation of Islam’s sharia law.
More than 500 people were killed in twin bomb blasts in Mogadishu in October while this month a suicide bomber killed at least 18 people at a Mogadishu police academy.
Early on Thursday, Al She-baab militants ambushed three vehicles belonging to the military’s US-trained special forces unit Danab on a road be-tween Mogadishu and the town of Wanlaweyn.
The group said it seized the three cars while residents said they saw two burning cars.
Police Major Ahmed Nur told Reuters Al Shebaab had targeted the convoy with a roadside bomb before am-bushing it.
South Sudan army ‘breached truce’ReutersJuba
A South Sudanese rebel group yesterday ac-cused government
troops of attacking their base only a day after the parties signed a ceasefi re in a four-year war that has already killed tens of thousands of people.
The ceasefi re, that would al-low humanitarian groups ac-cess to civilians caught in the fi ghting, formally comes into force tomorrow morning.
Yesterday afternoon, a spokesman for the SPLA-IO rebel group said army forces had attacked a rebel base in Deim Jalab, in the western part of the country.
Lam Paul Gabriel said two rebels and fi ve government troops were killed in the fi ght-ing.
The army spokesman in the capital, Juba, did not immedi-ately respond to a request for comment.
The war that began in late 2013 in the world’s youngest nation has forced a third of the population to fl ee their homes.
The United Nations de-scribes the violence as ethnic cleansing. Earlier this year, pockets of the country plunged briefl y into famine.
The latest round of talks in the Ethiopian capital, con-vened by the East African bloc IGAD, brought the warring sides back to the negotiat-ing table after a 2015 peace deal collapsed last year during heavy fi ghting in Juba.
After the new agreement was signed on Thursday, South Sudan’s Information Minis-ter Michael Makuei Leuth told journalists: “The cessation of hostilities will be eff ective 72 hours from now.
As of now, we will send mes-sages to all the commands in the fi eld to abide by this cessa-tion of hostilities.
“From now onwards, there will be no more fi ghting,” he added. “Just talks.”
Persident Emmerson Mnangagwa has delivered on his promise to return land
AFRICA5Gulf Times
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Boston-area paramedics on front lines of massive US opioid crisisReutersBoston
The paramedics fi nd them everywhere — slumped over car steering wheels,
barely breathing in doughnut shop bathrooms or dead in der-elict apartments and expensive mansions.
For the Cataldo Ambulance Service crews outside Boston on the front lines of the US opioid epidemic, the fl ood of overdose calls is a grim daily reality, de-spite expanded access to over-dose reversal drugs.
“When I started, this was a rare thing. You did one or two here and there. Now, we do quite a few,” said Dave Franklin, 44, a supervisor at the private service that contracts with cities who has worked in the fi eld for more than 20 years.
In Massachusetts, EMS opioid overdose calls hit 20,978 in 2016, up from 8,389 in 2013, according to a state report.
Amid wider use by bystanders and police of naloxone, a drug that reverses overdose symp-toms, state fi gures showed a small drop in opioid deaths in the fi rst nine months of 2017 com-pared with 2016.
But Franklin does not yet see a turning point. “It’s not going
away anytime soon. People are still dying regularly,” he said.
In the United States, deaths from drug overdoses have sur-passed deaths by fi rearms and motor vehicle crashes, according to a 2017 Drug Enforcement Ad-ministration report.
President Donald Trump has declared a public health emer-gency over opioid abuse, promis-ing to increase treatment but ini-tially dedicating no money for it.
Opioids, primarily prescrip-tion painkillers, heroin and syn-thetic drugs like fentanyl, a pain medicine 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, are fuelling the crisis.
Opioid-related overdoses kill 91 people in the United States each day, the Drug Enforcement Administration said.
On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control reported, based on the latest available fi gures, that the US rate of drug overdose deaths in 2016 grew 21% from the prior year.
“It’s hard to watch, and it’s devastating,” said Domenic Co-rey, 27, who has seen the evidence up close working as a Cataldo paramedic.
Mornings before starting his shift, another Cataldo para-medic, Andrew Simpson, grabs his stethoscope, intravenous
supplies, scissors and pen light. At the ambulance, he checks to make sure there is enough naloxone.
They carry more than double the amount they once did be-cause stronger opioids mean that multiple doses of naloxone are often required for someone who is barely breathing.
Simpson, 34, works at least two 24-hour shifts a week in a high-turnover job that can be stressful and where pay starts at $14 an hour. Just touching Fenta-nyl can send an EMS worker into overdose.
Simpson’s radio crackles with calls. Diffi culty breathing. Person down. Unresponsive. Overdose. They turn on the lights and roll.
From experience, they know it might be a man who overdosed into unconsciousness while driv-ing, a teen or elderly user passed out in a park or an already stiff -ened corpse in a hotel room strewn with needles and powder.
On arrival, they spray naloxone up the nose or inject it into the user, pump oxygen into lungs and wait. Some respond gulping for air or vomiting and confused.
“Why are you in my house? What’s going on?” Simpson re-called as a common question from recipients of his aid.
Some people are grateful and repentant, crying, shaking hands
and promising to get treatment. Others deny they took drugs at all.
The calls often come in waves when fentanyl too potent for us-ers hits the streets.
Time of day matters, too. “If it’s in the afternoon, there’s a much better chance they are still alive,” he said. “If we get the call at 7am, they probably shot up the night before.”
The paramedics say they often see families torn apart in front of their eyes or bereaved parents.
“You see the parents, they’re crushed; just the look of defeat, you know? They lost the most important person in the world to them.
I can’t even imagine. But you see it over and over again,” Corey said.
The cost of naloxone has risen with demand, eating into the service’s budgets, Franklin said.
But they are also using their steady overdose runs to help some cities map drug hotspots and for police to visit users to urge them into treatment.
“In the back of the ambu-lance, you talk to them and hope they get treatment,” Simpson said, explaining that most agree they need to get help. “But then at times I’ll see the same person three months down the line and they have overdosed.”
Ambulance medics revive a unresponsive 38-year-old man after an opioid overdose in the parking lot of a drug store in the Boston suburb of Malden.
Streep’s brand under threat over Weinstein denialAFPLos Angeles
She started the year leading the chorus of opprobrium against President Donald Trump but 12
months on Meryl Streep, multiple Os-car-winner and doyenne of the liberal Hollywood elite, has become a target herself.
The 68-year-old is coming under fi re over her denials that she knew about the misconduct of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who is alleged to have spent his career sexually assaulting, harass-ing and intimidating women.
Streep has worked on several Wein-stein produced fi lms and jokingly re-ferred to him as “God” at the 2012 Golden Globes.
The pre-eminent actress of her gen-eration, Streep has had a glittering 40-year career that has seen her play
everything from a Nazi concentration camp survivor to an ABBA-singing mother.
She earned her fi rst of a record 20 Oscar nominations in 1979 for the Vi-etnam war drama The Deer Hunter and has won the coveted golden statue three times, most recently in 2012 as Marga-ret Thatcher in the Weinstein-distrib-uted “The Iron Lady.”
It was her political activism rather than her acting prowess that grabbed headlines during the last awards sea-son, as she received widespread praise, and some criticism, for a speech at the Golden Globes denouncing Trump.
All eyes turned to the actress again as the Weinstein controversy broke in early October, when Streep spoke out to say she was “appalled” by the “dis-graceful” news and had no idea about the allegations.
Her denials over Weinstein have sparked incredulity, particularly among
activists in the #MeToo social media movement against sexual misconduct who have concluded that those closest to the disgraced producer must have turned a blind eye.
Rose McGowan, one of the cam-paign’s most prominent advocates and an alleged victim of Weinstein, criti-cised Streep in a since-deleted tweet over plans for actresses to wear black to the Golden Globes in a silent protest against sexual assault.
“YOUR SILENCE is THE problem. You’ll accept a fake award breathlessly & aff ect (sic) no real change. I despise your hypocrisy,” McGowan tweeted.
Streep responded in a lengthy state-ment to the Huffi ngton Post on Monday that she “did not know about Wein-stein’s crimes, not in the 90s when he attacked (McGowan), or through sub-sequent decades when he proceeded to attack others”.
The new denial has done little to si-
lence her critics, however, and on Tues-day around a dozen posters appeared in Los Angeles, depicting Streep as an enabler of Weinstein, who has always denied nonconsensual sexual contact with any of his accusers.
Sabo, a 49-year-old rightwing guerilla artist and former US marine claimed responsibility for the posters, which show Streep with a red stripe across her face and the text, “She knew”.
He added that he had conceived the campaign as retaliation for Streep us-ing her latest fi lm The Post to attack Trump, who is facing accusations of his own by as many as 16 women who say he sexually assaulted them.
Entertainment writer Ira Madison III wrote in a commentary for the Daily Beast that Streep’s denials rang true, arguing that the rough ride she has had over Weinstein is nothing more than a manifestation of the sexism inherent in show business.
“Here we are, attacking a woman for what she may or may not have known, when everyone seems to insist that everyone in the industry knew,” he said.
“Why then, have George Clooney or Brad Pitt, not been as viciously at-tacked as Streep? Why not Bob Wein-stein, his own brother, who’s remained relatively unscathed from Harvey’s downfall?”
Beneath the rarifi ed air of the Hol-lywood Hills, the public seems less willing to give Streep the benefi t of the doubt.
Celebrity branding expert Jeetendr Sehdev solicits opinions twice a year about the rich and famous from 2,000 randomly-selected adults across America as part of an ongoing study es-tablished in 2012.
He said 58% of those surveyed in October on attitudes to the Weinstein controversy “now feel negatively to-
wards the once beloved Streep” follow-ing her initial denials.
“Streep’s claims that she didn’t know are ludicrous and the kiss of death for her image in Hollywood,” the best-selling author of The Kim Kardashian Principle told AFP.
He accused Streep of underestimat-ing the intelligence of the public and the courage of female peers who had spoken out against Weinstein, adding that Clooney also had questions to an-swer over his response to the scandal.
“Streep needs to apologize to her fans for not telling the truth. And per-haps explain what pressures she was feeling to make such a public statement to begin with,” Sehdev said.
“Many people assume that Wein-stein reaches out to his close friends to see if they could speak out on his behalf and try to damage control.
Were Streep and Clooney part of this pact?”
Raul Castroto step down as Cuba’s presidentAFPHavana
Cuban President Raul Castro will step down in April 2018 straight
after his successor is chosen by a top governing council, ac-cording to a vote Thursday in the island state’s National As-sembly.
The decision means Castro, 86, will stay on two months longer than previously antici-pated.
“When the National Assem-bly in constituted (in April), my second and last term as head of state and the government will be concluded, and Cuba will have a new president,” Castro said when closing the parlia-mentary session on Thursday.
He was to have stepped down in February under a sys-tem tied to the Communist-ruled country’s electoral cal-endar.
But polls have been pushed back because of a damaging hurricane that hit the island in September.
Cuba’s president is desig-nated by a 31-member body called the Council of State. The head of the council is au-tomatically president of the country.
But the Council of State fi rst has to be selected by the National Assembly which has about 600 seats, a process that will now take place on April 19, lawmakers voted in a session closed to international media. The new National Assembly will be elected at a date yet to be set.
Castro, who offi cially be-came president in 2008 after serving as interim leader for two years, had already an-nounced he would not be seek-ing a new mandate. His depar-ture will mark the end of six decades of Castro rule.
His late brother Fidel Cas-tro, who died last year, gov-erned the country after seizing power in 1959 at the head of a left-wing revolution.
Raul Castro, however, is ex-pected to remain leader of the island’s all-powerful Commu-nist Party of Cuba until its next congress scheduled for 2021 — when he will be aged 90. His fi rst vice president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, 57, is seen as his likely successor.
Whoever is designated pres-ident would have the diffi cult task of consolidating the Com-munist principles established by the Castros while pursuing an economic transition plotted by Raul Castro.
Former senior fi gure in Mexico govt held
AFPMexico City
Mexican police have ar-rested a former top fi gure in President
Enrique Pena Nieto’s ruling In-stitutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) on charges of embezzling funds for his party, offi cials said Thursday.
Alejandro Gutierrez, who served as the PRI’s assistant secretary from 2015-2016, was arrested on Wednesday in the northern state of Chihuahua and charged with “participat-ing in a sophisticated scheme to embezzle 250mn pesos ($13mn)”, from public funds, prosecutors said.
The Mexican daily Reforma said on Tuesday that Jaime Herrera, a former fi nance min-ister in the 2010-16 Chihuahua state government of Cesar Du-arte — who is himself on the run in the United States — had accused Gutierrez of siphoning off government funds for the party’s campaign coff ers.
He said Gutierrez had been abetted by Alfonso Isaac Gam-boa, the head of the political and budget control depart-ment at the Mexican fi nance ministry.
At the time of the alleged
crime, the fi nance ministry was headed by Luis Videgaray, who currently serves as Pena Nieto’s foreign minister and who is a close ally of the presi-dent.
The fi nance ministry issued a statement denying the alle-gations.
Jose Antonio Meade, a former fi nance minister and popular pick as PRI candi-date for next year’s presiden-tial elections, insisted that the government of Chihuahua had ruled out any party link to the alleged embezzlement scheme.
The PRI has been plagued by a string of scandals involving its regional governors in recent months.
The former governor of the southeastern state of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, is currently serving a prison sentence for corruption, while Roberto Borge, the ex-governor of Qin-tana Roo in the southwest, had to be extradited from Panama to face charges of fi nancial wrongdoing.
Seven months before Mex-ico holds its 2018 presidential elections, the leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the National Renewal Move-ment — who has promised to crack down on corruption — is leading in the polls.
Trump signs tax, govt spending bills into lawReutersWashington
US President Donald Trump signed Republicans’ mas-sive $1.5tn tax overhaul
into law yesterday, cementing the biggest legislative victory of his fi rst year in offi ce, and also ap-proved a short-term spending bill that averts a possible government shutdown.
Trump said he wanted to sign the tax bill before leaving Wash-ington for his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, rather than stage a more formal ceremony in Janu-ary, so he could keep his promise to fi nish work before Christmas.
“I didn’t want you folks to say I wasn’t keeping my promise. I’m keeping my promise,” he told re-porters in the White House.
The two pieces of legislation represent Trump’s most signifi -cant accomplishment with Con-gress since taking offi ce in Janu-ary, as well as a sign of what awaits when he returns from Florida af-ter the Christmas holiday.
The tax package, the largest such overhaul since the 1980s, slashes the corporate rate from 35% to 21% and temporarily re-duces the tax burden for most individuals as well.
Trump praised several com-panies that have announced em-
ployee bonuses in the wake of the bill’s passage, naming AT&T, Boeing, Wells Fargo, Comcast and Sinclair Broadcast Group.
“Corporations are literally go-ing wild over this,” he said.
Democrats had opposed the bill as a giveaway to the wealthy that would add $1.5tn to the $20tn na-tional debt during the next dec-ade. The spending bill extends federal funding through January 19, largely at current levels. It does nothing to resolve broader dis-putes over immigration, health-care and military spending.
Republicans also are divided over whether to follow up their sweeping overhaul of the US tax code with a dramatic restructur-ing of federal benefi t programmes.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he would like to revamp wel-fare and health programmes but Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told National Public Radio on Monday that he was not interested in cutting those pro-grammes without Democratic support.
Trump’s year also closes with signifi cant turnover of many top staff ers who had been in the White House since early in his term.
On Friday, the White House confi rmed Deputy Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn and Jeremy Katz, who worked under White House economic adviser Gary Cohn, were leaving.
The Republican-controlled US
Congress on Thursday passed a short-term funding bill to keep the federal government running for four more weeks, averting a looming shutdown.
Members of the House of Rep-resentatives voted 231-188 for the bill and the Senate followed with a 66 to 32 vote.
The temporary funding exten-sion — which lasts until January 19 — gives more time to lawmak-ers from both parties to reach an agreement on funding for the remainder of the 2018 fi scal year, which ends September 30.
Opposition Democrats had the numbers to block the Republican bill in the Senate, theoretically giving them the ability to lever-age concessions.
Some Democratic senators opposed the measure because it did not address the fate of hun-dreds of thousands of young immigrants who came to the United States illegally as chil-dren — known as “Dreamers” — whose status has been thrown into doubt by President Donald Trump.
But the fact that the Senate majority leader has agreed to put a bill on the status of those im-migrants on the fl oor in January may have encouraged Democrats not to stand in the way of the funding measure.
In the House, some Repub-licans had threatened to vote “no” on the temporary funding bill because it does not fund the Department of Defense for the entire year.
Earlier in the day, Trump ac-cused Democrats of trying to block the bill in order to close down the federal government — something that did not in the end occur.
“House Democrats want a SHUTDOWN for the holidays in order to distract from the very popular, just passed, Tax Cuts.
House Republicans, don’t let this happen,” he tweeted.
“Pass the (bill) TODAY and keep our Government OPEN!”
While a government shutdown has been averted, there has been no grand compromise on some of the most contentious issues fac-ing the country, such as immigra-tion and health care.
President Trump greets well wishers at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland before departing for Florida.
The tax bill is the biggest legislative achievement of the Trump administration
6 Gulf TimesSaturday, December 23, 2017
AMERICAS
ASIA/AUSTRALAISA7Gulf Times
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Moon visits scene of deadly S Korea fi re as anger mountsReutersSeoul
South Korean President Moon Jae-in comforted mourners in the small sce-
nic city of Jecheon yesterday amid growing public anger at how fi re ripped through an eight-storey building, killing at least 29 people, most of them taking a sauna.
All but one of the victims had been identifi ed by yesterday morning, including 20 women who were overcome by toxic
fumes in the second-fl oor sauna, Jecheon fi re chief Lee Sang-min said. “Our crew on the scene said the lockers inside the facility were installed like a labyrinth and it’s a glass building with few win-dows, which apparently made way for the smoke from the fi rst fl oor to quickly fi ll up the second fl oor,” Lee told reporters.
Anger mounted at reports of shoddy building construction, broken doors and other problems that may have contributed to the deaths.
One man shouted at offi cials visiting survivors in hospital,
complaining that fi refi ghters failed to break through to the trapped women in time.
Media reported that a glass door leading to the sauna had not been working properly for more than a month, and that emer-gency stairs were often used for storage.
“Nothing has changed even after the Sewol tragedy,” parlia-ment member Ahn Cheol-soo said, referring to the 2014 ferry sinking that killed more than 300 people, mostly South Korean schoolchildren. “I just cannot understand why the same type of
accidents happen over and over again,” he said, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Jecheon’s mayor told reporters the city was considering a mass funeral and planned to cover most of the costs. Investigators were still trying to fi nd out the cause of the confl agration, but were focusing on a fi rst-fl oor parking lot, Lee said. “There were cars parked on the fi rst fl oor, and as they were burning, a large amount of toxic gases were re-leased.”
Tragic stories began to emerge as victims were identifi ed. One
man told Yonhap that he lost his mother, wife, and daughter. An-other said he received a phone call from his trapped wife as she coughed in the gathering smoke, but was later unable to reach her again.
Heavy smoke charred glass facade of the building as fire-fighters struggled to extinguish the blaze, climbing up and down a ladder in a desperate search for survivors. Organis-ers called off a leg of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games torch relay in Jecheon on what should have been a day of
celebration ahead of the games. “We thought that having a
torch relay at a place where so many people died in a fi re ac-cident is just not right, and therefore cancelled today’s event in Jecheon,” Ryu Hoyon, the torch relay manager for the Pyeongchang organising com-mittee, told Reuters. “We are planning to adjust further sched-ules with those who want to con-tinue the relay.”
Jecheon is southeast of the capital Seoul and is popular with visitors to its mountains and lakes.
Australian police seize record A$1bn methamphetamine haul
Australian police said yesterday they had seized a record 1.2 tonnes of methamphetamine with a street value of more than A$1bn ($771mn) after a raid in a remote area of the west Australian coast. Eight Australian men were charged with off ences carrying a maximum sen-
tence of life imprisonment, police in Western Australia state said in a statement. “We are striking at the top end of drug traff icking before it gets further down the distribution chain,” Western Australia Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said.The drugs were collected from a
ship called the Valkoista, police said, and were then off loaded into a white hire van at a dock in Ger-aldton, about 375km (230 miles) north of the Western Australia capital, Perth. Tactical police inter-cepted the van as it reversed away from the dock. Police arrested the
van’s three occupants, all from the eastern Australian state of New South Wales. Three others were arrested on the Valkoista and the remaining two were charged in Perth. Police said they suspected the drugs were destined for Aus-tralia’s more populous east coast.
Nine foreigners among injured in Melbourne attackAFPMelbourne
A man who mowed down pedestrians with his car in Melbourne attributed
his actions to “perceived mis-treatment of Muslims”, Australia said, with nine foreigners among the injured.
Nineteen people were rushed to hospital, and three remain critical, after the Australian-Afghan driver ploughed through a busy downtown intersection on Thursday in what authorities said was a “deliberate act”.
The 32-year-old, who came to Australia as a refugee, has a history of drug abuse and men-tal problems and Prime Minis-ter Malcolm Turnbull reiterated there was no links to terrorism “at this stage”. “To be attacked
like this, in the middle of one of our great cities, is a shocking event, a shocking crime,” Turn-bull said.
“He has said, in a number of what the police are describing as utterings, that he attributed his actions to perceived mistreat-ment of Muslims.
“But at this stage, because investigations are continuing, apart from that statement, there are no known links to any po-litical issues, or any links to ex-tremist groups, and I am advised at the moment that no terrorism link has been identifi ed.”
The man, who was wrestled from the car by an off -duty po-lice offi cer, was due to undergo a psychiatric assessment later yesterday. Turnbull said nine foreign nationals were among those hurt, including three South Korean tourists, accord-
ing to the country’s Yonhap news agency. Melbourne’s Her-ald Sun said the other victims came from China, Italy, India, Venezuela, Ireland, and New Zealand, with the city full of tourists for the festive season. Turnbull assured Australians Thursday’s carnage was an iso-lated incident and “we should continue to go about our daily lives in the way we always do”.
Melbourne began returning to normal on yesterday, with roads reopened. But there was a boost-ed armed police presence, with a major carols by candlelight event scheduled for Christmas Eve and the Boxing Day cricket Test between Australia and Eng-land taking place nearby.
Thursday’s incident came af-ter a car rammed into pedestri-ans in Melbourne’s busiest mall in January, killing six people.
The driver, whose case is still being heard in court, was a drug addict and had allegedly just stabbed his brother.
Canberra has become in-creasingly worried about home-grown extremism and offi cials say they have prevented 13 terror attacks on home soil in the past few years.
The government in August unveiled a strategy aimed at preventing vehicle attacks in crowded public places.
Suggested steps include de-terrent options like fencing and closed-circuit cameras, and de-laying approaches such as trees and bollards to slow down ve-hicles. Melbourne has also been installing a public siren system and more security cameras to warn people of a possible ter-rorist attack or other serious threats.
The street outside Flinders Street station is cordoned off by Australian police at the scene where a car ran over pedestrians in downtown Melbourne.
Police and emergency personnel work at the scene where a car ran over pedestrians in Flinders Street in Melbourne on Thursday.
Moon Jae-in
Vietnam upholds prison term of dissident activist amid criticismDPA Hanoi
The US is “deeply trou-bled” following a north-ern Vietnamese court’s
decision yesterday to uphold the nine-year prison sentence of an activist convicted of an-ti-state crimes, a US State De-partment offi cial said.
Tran Thi Nga, 40, was con-victed in July for having “ac-cessed the Internet to post a number of video clips and ar-ticles” that were described as anti-state propaganda.
She had campaigned against labour rights abuses, traffi ck-ing, police brutality and land confi scation, and has partici-pated in environmental pro-tests.
Pope Thrower, the US em-bassy spokesman in Hanoi, told DPA that Nga ought to be released following a Ha Nam provincial court’s Friday deci-sion to uphold the sentence. “We are deeply troubled that a Vietnamese court upheld the conviction of peaceful activist Tran Thi Nga,” said Thrower, adding that other prisoners of conscience should be released.
“The United States calls on
Vietnam to release Tran Thi Nga and all other prisoners of conscience immediately, and to allow all individuals in Vi-etnam to express their political views without fear of retribu-tion,” he said.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for Nga’s immediate release. “Tran Thi Nga is one of the latest targets of Viet-nam’s escalating crackdown on activists and critics,” said Brad Adams, HRW Asia direc-tor, in a statement. “Instead of
engaging in discussions with critics, the government is in-creasingly using harsh sen-tences and abusive treatment to stifl e dissent.”
Vietnam, which is ruled by a single-party communist state, broadly outlaws dissent. At least a dozen people have been arrested, charged or convicted of anti-state crimes in 2017.
Vietnam denies holding po-litical prisoners, maintaining that all convicted persons are guilty of serious crimes.
Rights activist Tran Thi Nga stands during her appeal at a local people’s court in the northern province of Ha Nam yesterday.
Malaysia arrests foreign militants in new raids
Malaysian police have detained 20 alleged militants, including a leading member of an Indone-sian extremist group and others believed to be planning to fight in the strife-torn southern Philip-pines, authorities said yesterday. They were the latest arrests of alleged extremists in Malaysia, as fears grow militants who had been fighting with the Islamic State (IS) group overseas are heading back to Southeast Asia after losses in the Middle East. The arrests were made in nationwide raids from late No-vember to mid-December, police said in a statement.
Among those detained was an alleged senior leader of the In-donesian IS-linked militant outfit Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which has been blamed for sev-eral recent deadly attacks in its home country. The 24-year-old was picked up in the southern Malaysian state of Johor, police said, without identifying him. A 50-year-old Filipino suspected of trying to recruit people to join Philippine kidnap-for-ransom gang Abu Sayyaf was arrested in Kuala Lumpur. Several Filipinos, Malaysians and Indonesians were detained on Borneo island, also suspected of
planning to join militants in the Philippines. The arrests come after hundreds of local and foreign gunmen who had pledged alle-giance to IS laid siege to Marawi in Philippines for five months. The brutal battle for Marawi claimed over 1,000 lives. A militant from an unidentified North African country who had previously fought with IS in the Middle East was also arrested at Kuala Lumpur airport, police said. Malaysia has rounded up hundreds of suspected militants in recent years but has not suf-fered a major attack.
Man charged with killing crocodile in AustraliaDPA Sydney
A man has been charged with killing a 5.2-m croc-odile after it was found
shot dead near Rockhampton in the northern Australian state of Queensland, police said yester-day. Police said they found the
body of the “iconic” croc fl oating in the Fitzroy River in Septem-ber and an autopsy found several projectiles in the body.
Crocodiles are protected ani-mals in Australia and may not be killed without authority from wildlife offi cers unless they pose a threat. Police searched a prop-erty at Etna Creek on Thursday and seized two rifl es and ammu-
nition. A 31-year-old man was charged with killing a protected animal. The killing of such a large animal was likely to aff ect the local ecosystem, Department of Environment and Science spokesman Michael Joyce told The Morning Bulletin newspaper. “It’s such a large animal and the territory it would take up and its responsibilities in that area...
sometimes you can see the change in days when a large ani-mal is removed. Sometimes it can take a long time and it could take an entire season for that to occur,” he said. “We may not see the results of a breeding croco-dile like that for a number of years.” The maximum penalty the crocodile killer faces is a fi ne of A$28,383 (US $21,894).
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak delivers his speech during a rally against US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, in Putrajaya, outside Kuala Lumpur, yesterday. Thousands of people in Malaysia protested yesterday calling for Jerusalem to be freed from Israeli control.
Protest in Putrajaya
8 Gulf TimesSaturday, December 23, 2017
BRITAIN
Blue British passportto return after BrexitAFPLondon
Britain will return to a blue and gold passport design after the country leaves
the European Union in 2019 “to restore our national identity”, the interior ministry announced yesterday.
The country will phase out the current burgundy colour travel document — used across the EU — following Brexit, when it will no longer be required to conform to the bloc’s rules.
“Leaving the EU gives us a unique opportunity to restore our national identity and forge a new path for ourselves in the world,” Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis said in a state-ment.
He added the new passports would be “one of the most secure travel documents in the world” and feature a raft of updated security measures to protect against fraud and forgery.
The current paper-based pic-ture page will be replaced with a new, super-strength plastic polycarbonate material that will
be more diffi cult to alter, accord-ing to the ministry.
The new blue and gold design — a return to the colours Britain used for decades following its adoption in 1921 — will be issued from October 2019, when a new contract for passport provision begins.
The existing burgundy pass-port, in use since 1988, will initially continue to be handed out without references to the EU after Brexit, which is set for March 29, 2019.
The pro-Brexit tabloid The Sun led a campaign “to scrap the EU’s burgundy model forced on the nation”, demanding a return to the “iconic” dark blue passport.
It hailed the decision as “a stunning campaign victory”, with Lewis penning a column for the right-wing newspaper pro-claiming the move.
Eurosceptic lawmakers also celebrated the change.
“A great Christmas present for those who care about our national identity — the fanatical Remainers hate it, but the restoration of our own British passport is a power-ful symbol that Britain is back!” Andrew Rosindell, a Conservative MP, wrote on Twitter.
Tributes paid to womankilled in Aldi stabbingGuardian News and Media London
The family of a woman who was stabbed to death in an Aldi supermarket in Skip-
ton have said she was “beautiful, fun-loving and caring”.
The woman, named locally as Jodie Willsher, 30, was working in the store in the North York-shire town when she was at-tacked on Thursday afternoon. She died from her injuries in hospital.
Police said on Thursday evening they had arrested a 44-year-old local man on suspi-cion of murder.
A witness who did not want to be named described hearing “loads of screams” and seeing a woman lying on the fl oor and a man pinned down as “everyone screamed and ran”.
“I just saw the aftermath, I was so scared I ran off . All the staff were racing about not knowing what to do,” she said.
Willsher was married with a young daughter. Her cousin
Chris Swales posted on social media: “We lost a beautiful, fun-loving and caring person. How can life be so cruel?
“A (selfi sh) act by one per-son has left a husband without a wife and a little girl without her mother. You weren’t just my cousin Jodie, you were like the sister I never had and now I’m broken you’ve gone. Be the brightest star in the sky and sleep tight.”
A former school friend of Willsher, who did not want to be named, lay down fl owers de-scribing the victim as an “abso-lutely lovely person”.
“I don’t know anyone who had a grudge against her, she seemed, lovely, such a nice per-son,” he said.
”There’s probably 20,000 people in Skipton and around 5,000 will know her, through school and working at the shop, it’s that kind of small town.
“There’s so many people she knew, so many people aff ected by it. It’s shocking, an absolutely lovely person, never do any harm to nobody.
Andy Rankine, the town’s mayor, said Skipton was a small but close-knit community where most people knew each other. “The whole town is in shock and grieving over the loss of Jodie. Christmas this year will be an ordeal for many residents,” he said.
An Aldi spokesman said the branch would be closed for the foreseeable future. A police guard remained at the scene and a growing pile of fl owers and tributes were left at the store by locals.
A spokesperson for North Yorkshire police said they were called to the scene at 3.27pm on Thursday. “The suspect was ini-tially detained by brave members of staff and public before he was arrested by offi cers who were quickly on scene,” they said.
“He was taken into custody on suspicion of attempted mur-der, but it has now turned into a murder investigation despite the eff orts of medics to save the vic-tim. The woman’s family are be-ing supported by police offi cers while inquiries continue.”
Jail sentencefor man who killed mother,son increasedGuardian News and MediaLondon
Three senior judges have increased the sentence handed down to a home-
less man who turned on the woman who tried to help him and killed both her and her teen-age son.
Aaron Barley was originally told he would spend at least 30 years in prison for the murders of Tracey and Pierce Wilkinson at their home in Stourbridge, West Midlands in March.
Following an appeal by the so-licitor general, Robert Buckland, however, the three judges ruled that the sentence was insuffi -cient in what they described as a “most exceptional and grave case” and increased Barley’s minimum term to 35 years.
Barley, 24, admitted the two murders and the attempted murder of Tracey Wilkinson’s husband, Peter. He was taken into their family home and given a fresh chance in life after Tracey spotted him sleeping rough out-side a supermarket.
Sentencing in the original trial, Justice Carr had told Barley he had carried out “a vicious and unprovoked attack” on people who had shown him “extraordi-nary kindness and generosity”.
She said she had decided not to impose a whole-life tariff principally because of his age.
In the appeal court, Lord Jus-tice Holroyde said Carr was en-titled to conclude that the cir-cumstances of the crimes, truly dreadful as they were, did not require a whole-life order.
He added, however, that the only signifi cant mitigating fea-tures were Barley’s psychologi-cal problems - which did not prevent his ability to plan and meticulously carry out the at-tack - and his admissions.
“The brutality of the stab-bings and the terror which the
victims must have felt were very grave aggravating features,” he said.
Peter Wilkinson and his daughter Lydia, who was away at university at the time of the attack, were at the high court in London while Barley watched from prison via videolink.
Speaking after the hearing, Buckland said: “Barley’s attack on the Wilkinson family was a truly despicable crime. “The Wilkinson family had gone out of their way to help him and he repaid their kind-ness with a brutal attack which devastated their family.
“My thoughts are with Peter and Lydia Wilkinson particularly and I hope they can fi nd some comfort in the increased sen-tence.”
Barley stabbed Tracey 17 times and infl icted eight knife wounds on Pierce after sneaking into their home dressed in a balaclava.
Birmingham crown court had heard that Tracey took pity on Barley, when she found him hud-dled in a cardboard box outside a supermarket in September 2016.
She drove him home and gave him her husband’s dinner. The family helped Barley fi nd ac-commodation and made sure he had a hot meal every night.
Peter gave Barley a job at his company but had to sack him af-ter he began taking drugs.
Last year, Barley spent Christ-mas Day with the family and wrote Tracey a card addressed: “To the mother that I never had.” When he lost his accommoda-tion, the family allowed him to stay with them for two weeks.
At the end of March, Bar-ley arrived at the family home dressed in black and armed with a knife. He killed Tracey in her bed and her 13-year-old son in his room. When Peter returned, Barley leapt out of a garden shed, where he had been hiding, and attacked him. Barley stabbed Wilkinson six times before fl ee-ing in his victim’s Land Rover.
Prime Minister Theresa May talks with children and their parents at a kindergarten school during her visit to the Sovereign Base Area (SBA) of Akrotiri, a British overseas territory located 10kms west of the Cypriot port city of Limassol, yesterday.
I was unaware of claimsagainst Green, says MayReutersLondon
Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday said she knew nothing of allega-
tions of inappropriate behav-iour by her most senior minis-ter, forced to resign this week, until she read about them in a newspaper.
Damian Green, 61, has been accused of making a sexual ad-vance towards academic Kate Maltby, the daughter of a fam-ily friend, in 2015, suggesting it might further her career.
May forced Green, one of her closest political allies, to resign on Wednesday night because of a separate scandal — lying about whether he knew por-nography had been found on computers in his parliamentary offi ce.
An internal investigation re-quested by May and conducted by a senior government offi cial said on Wednesday it was not possible to reach a defi nitive conclusion on Maltby’s alle-gations but said it found them plausible.
In an interview with the Dai-ly Telegraph published yester-
day, Maltby said she had told an aide in May’s Downing Street offi ce about Green’s advances in 2016.
However May said she had not been aware of the accusa-tions about Green until they became public last month when Maltby wrote about them.
“I fi rst learnt of these allega-tions when Kate Maltby wrote about them in the Times,” May said in a television interview while visiting a British air base in Cyprus yesterday.
“I recognise that Kate Malt-by was obviously extremely distressed by what had hap-
pened. Green has recognised that, he said that in the letter that he wrote to me, and he has apologised. And I think that’s absolutely the right thing to do.”
Green quit after the review said he had made inaccurate statements following reports last month in the Sunday Times newspaper that police had found pornography on his of-fi ce computers in the Houses of Parliament in 2008.
He said he had not down-loaded or viewed the pornogra-phy, but admitted making mis-leading statements.
Two former police offi cers who publicly disclosed details about Green’s computers are themselves facing investigation over whether they breached data protection laws.
Foreign Secretary Boris John-son said their actions had “the slight feeling of a vendetta”.
Green was appointed fi rst secretary of state six months ago in a bid to shore up May’s premiership following her dis-astrous June snap election that lost her party its majority in parliament, and is the third cabinet minister to quit in less than two months.
A handout picture released by the Passport Off ice shows the blue cover of a UK passport.
Charles Dutoit, the 81-year-old conductor and artistic director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, has been accused of sexual assault by six female musicians. The orchestra has released a statement saying that it, along with Dutoit, “have jointly agreed to release him from his forthcoming concert obligations with the orchestra for the immediate future,” adding that it is “committed to the highest standards of ethical behaviour”. “These accusations are taken very seriously by the orchestra and the RPO believes that the truth of the matter should be determined by the legal process,” the statement continues.
The Houses of Parliament are in danger of suff ering from a Grenfell Tower-style disaster unless urgent repairs are undertaken, the outgoing off icial responsible for the building has warned. The Palace of Westminster, home to the House of Commons and House of Lords as well as the famous clock tower, is at high risk of a major fire, according to David Leakey, Black Rod of Westminster, a post responsible for maintaining the palace’s upkeep. As he stood down after seven years in the role this week, Leakey urged lawmakers to back a speedy overhaul of the sprawling site to avert a potential catastrophe.
A plane carrying 25 people came off the runway after landing, forcing the suspension of flights in and out of Bristol Airport. The Embraer 145 aircraft, from Frankfurt, left the runway as it taxied to the terminal just after 11.30GMT. “No-one was hurt and passengers were disembarked and returned to the terminal by coach,” a spokesman said. It is understood 21 arriving flights and 19 departures have been cancelled or diverted to other airports. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch confirmed it was sending a team to Bristol Airport. Passengers on EasyJet flights to Inverness, Prague, Belfast and Geneva were told to collect their bags and make alternative flight arrangements “from home”.
Ten members of a moped gang have been jailed for targeting mobile phone shops in a £1.2mn smash-and-grab spree. The men, armed with hammers and knives, broke into stores using angle grinders and attacked three security guards during the raids. They ransacked 17 shops in London between May and November 2016, taking high-end iPhone and Samsungs headsets. All 10, aged between 19 and 24, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit burglary at Blackfriars Crown Court. The gang broke into the stores using fencing blocks as makeshift battering rams. Three security guards were beaten and one witness was threatened with a firearm during the spree.
Celebrity chef Nick Nairn has been assaulted in Aberdeen. The 58-year-old chef - known from the BBC’s Ready Steady Cook and Landward - said he was attacked in Union Street by two “feisty chaps.” He was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for treatment, and later said: “I am fine - I look a fright.” Police Scotland said they thought that two men wearing black jackets and jeans may have information that could help with their inquiries. The chef said incident, which took place near Union Street’s junction with Union Row, happened after he left his cook school with operations manager Julia Forster.
Famed conductor accusedof sexual assault
Parliament ‘at risk ofGrenfell-style disaster’
Plane comes off airportrunway after landing
Smash-and-grab gangjailed over £1.2mn thefts
Celebrity chef Nairnassaulted in Aberdeen
CRIME WARNINGACCIDENT VERDICT PEOPLE
EUROPE9Gulf Times
Saturday, December 23, 2017
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives hope to draw the Social
Democrats (SPD) into coalition with off ers on healthcare and employment, one of her minis-ters said, but the two camps re-main far apart on tax issues.
Merkel’s CDU/CSU (Chris-tian Democratic Union/Chris-tian Social Union) alliance won a national election in September, but she has so far failed to agree
terms with other parties on a co-alition that would enable her to serve a fourth term.
Her best chance now appears to be a reboot of the “grand coa-lition” with the centre-left SPD that ran Germany from 2013 to 2017 and continues to govern in a caretaker capacity.
Peter Altmaier, acting fi nance minister and Merkel’s chancel-lery chief, told newspaper Sued-deutsche Zeitung that he thought such an alliance was again pos-sible.
The SPD had previously said it intended to go into opposition
after suff ering its worst election result in more than eight dec-ades.
But Germany’s two biggest po-litical groups are now set to start exploratory coalition talks next month and hope to decide by January 12 whether to open full-blown negotiations.
Asked what off ers the con-servatives would make, Altmaier said: “We’ll of course talk with the SPD about problems in hos-pitals and nursing care, improve-ments for families and children, broadband expansion, qualifi ca-tion for new jobs and how we can
reach full employment.”There is overlap with the SPD
on these areas, the minister said, adding that helping Germany’s 900,000 long-term unemployed needed to be a key project – an idea likely to go down well with the SPD.
Taxation could be a sticking point, however.
Senior SPD member Andrea Nahles told German magazine Der Spiegel that her party want-ed to press for a higher top rate of tax for individuals and non-listed companies and ensure the wealthy paid more.
The conservatives have re-jected the idea of higher taxes for the rich.
Altmaier said that while the conservatives would not draw any red lines ahead of the talks, they wanted a coalition treaty to include a pledge not to raise taxes or increase debt.
The SPD also wants to scrap Germany’s dual healthcare sys-tem of premium private care and more widely accessible public care to replace it with a single “citizen’s insurance”.
The conservatives fear that would harm competition.
Nahles said that employers and employees needed to pay the same amount towards pub-lic healthcare and doctors’ fees for public and private healthcare systems should be reviewed.
While the conservatives have made clear they are keen on an-other “grand coalition”, the SPD has kept the option of tolerating a minority Merkel-led government on the table.
The chancellor rejects that idea.
Senior SPD member and For-eign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told the Funke newspaper consortium
that some of his party colleagues were ready to live with a minority government.
But he said he worried about the implications for Europe’s stability.
“I’m rather sceptical,” he said in an interview published yes-terday as political crisis gripped Spain, where separatists were set to regain power in Catalonia fol-lowing regional elections.
“A shaky government in Ger-many would probably lead to an earthquake in Europe – but we need to talk about it,” Gabriel added.
Merkel’s conservatives tempt SPD with off er on healthcare and jobsReutersBerlin
Separatists looked set yes-terday to regain power in Catalonia after voters re-
jected Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s attempt to neu-ter its independence movement, instead re-igniting the country’s biggest political crisis in dec-ades.
Spanish markets recoiled at a surprise result that is also a set-back for the European Union, which must now brace for more secessionist noise as it grapples with the disruption of Brexit and simmering east European dis-content.
By risking a parliamentary election in the region, Rajoy appears to have made the same mistake that leaders including Greece’s Alexis Tsipras, Britain’s David Cameron and Italy’s Mat-teo Renzi have made in recent years: betting that voters would resolve their troublesome do-mestic conundrums for them.
With well over 99% of votes from Thursday’s election count-
ed, separatist parties had se-cured a slim majority.
Spain’s stock market fell around 1% and the country’s borrowing costs rose as inves-tors bet the ensuing ramp-up in tensions with its richest region will hurt the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy.
Rajoy ruled out calling na-tional elections over events that have weakened his authority, while both he and exiled sepa-ratist leader Carles Puigdemont said they were open for dialogue.
However, they off ered no de-tails and such calls in the past have failed to yield any solution.
After several strained months that saw secessionists organise an illegal referendum on Oc-tober 1, and police confi scate urns to try to prevent it from taking place, the election result has done nothing to resolve the standoff either.
The secessionists kept a ma-jority, but it was reduced and they may have diffi culty forming a government; and support for unionist party Ciudadanos has surged, but not enough to cata-pult them into power.
“The divisions are huge. It will take time to mend them and that should be the priority for all political actors, reconciliation within the remit of the law,” Ra-joy told a news conference at the government’s Moncloa head-quarters.
With Catalonia accounting for one-fi fth of its economy, Spain had already trimmed growth forecasts for 2018, and the pros-pect of prolonged uncertainty worries business leaders.
“More companies leaving, less economic activity there – and worse for everyone,” said the chief executive of a major listed Spanish company, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the tense climate of the inde-pendence debate.
More than 3,100 fi rms have shifted their headquarters out of the region since October’s refer-endum.
Overnight hotel stays rose 2.1% in Spain in November but fell 7.3% in Catalonia, the Na-tional Statistics Institute said.
Rajoy, who called the election after sacking the previous seces-sionist government, had hoped to mobilise hitherto quiescent supporters of union with Spain and deal separatism a decisive blow.
Instead, his own party per-formed miserably, and the result raises the question of a return to power for Puigdemont, who campaigned from self-imposed exile in Brussels after Rajoy de-posed him as Catalan president.
“Catalonia is back to square one,” said Marco Protopapa, an analyst at JP Morgan, forecast-ing that tensions would quickly return between Madrid and an “emboldened pro-independ-ence camp eager to exploit the tactical advantage of a favour-able election outcome”.
While Rajoy dodged questions about whether he would negoti-ate directly with Puigdemont, the Catalan politician said now was the time for dialogue be-tween the two.
“We’ve at least won the right to be heard,” Puigdemont said, adding that he was open to re-turning to Spain if given guaran-tees that he could take his posi-tion as head of a potential new Catalan government.
Currently he faces the pros-pect of arrest for his role in or-ganising the banned referen-dum.
When the Catalan parliament declared independence after the referendum, Rajoy invoked con-stitutional powers to impose di-rect rule from Madrid.
He promised to restore Cata-lonia’s autonomy regardless of the election result, but could re-impose it if a new government again pursued secession.
The EU’s major powers, Ger-many and France, have backed his anti-independence stance despite some criticism of his methods at times.
Meanwhile, Puigdemont’s attempts to gain international support in Brussels have failed so far.
He has called the EU a “club of decadent countries” for declin-ing to mediate a solution.
Yesterday a German govern-ment spokeswoman urged rec-onciliation in Catalonia, adding that the Spanish constitution would have to be respected.
Secessionists say that Catalo-nia pays an unfair share of taxes to Madrid, but investors fear in-dependence would knock the in-debted region out of the EU and the eurozone by default.
“There is a huge eff ect on investment from abroad. As there’s a lack of stability here,
people who were investing here are going to other cities and other regions,” said Rafael Pris-co, commercial director in a real estate agent in central Barcelona that deals mostly with foreign clients.
Europe now ends the year having struggled to build on the integrationist Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the French presidential election in May.
Germany faces months of po-litical limbo, Brussels is mired in a nasty dispute with Poland’s right-wing government, and a far-right party has just entered the government in Austria.
In Thursday’s vote, Catalo-nia’s separatist parties won 70 of the 135 seats, compared with 72 last time, with Puigdemont’s Junts Per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) retaining its po-sition as the largest separatist force.
Ciudadanos (Citizens) won the most votes, but other un-ionist forces – Rajoy’s People’s Party and the Socialist Party – performed dismally.
“It’s a bitter victory,” said Paloma Morales, a 27-year-old student at a Ciudadanos rally. “It means four more years of misery.”
Crisis in Catalonia: back to square one for SpainReutersBarcelona/Madrid
Rajoy: The divisions are huge. It will take time to mend them and that should be the priority for all political actors, reconciliation within the remit of the law.
Puigdemont: We’ve at least won the right to be heard.
The United Nations began bringing African refugees to Italy from Libya yes-
terday, evacuating them from detention centres whose condi-tions have been condemned by humanitarian groups as inhu-mane.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants have fl ed confl ict or poverty at home and are now trapped in Libya, where they had hoped to pay people smug-glers for passage to Europe via Italy.
It is the fi rst time the UN High Commissioner for Refu-gees (UNHCR) in Libya has evacuated refugees directly to Europe.
An Italian C-130 military plane landed at an airport south of the capital carrying 110 wom-en and children, and a second fl ight is expected to bring more than 50 people later in the day.
The African migrants, in-cluding many small children, were covered in blankets or bundled in coats as they dis-embarked from the plane on a chilly evening.
“We really hope other coun-
tries will follow the same path,” Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR’s Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean, said after the fi rst plane arrived.
“Some of those evacuated suff ered tremendously and were held captive in inhumane con-ditions while in Libya. Five of these women gave birth while in detention, with only the very limited medical assistance,” Cochetel said.
The UNHCR estimates about 18,000 people are being held in detention centres for immi-grants that are controlled by the Tripoli government and it aims to evacuate as many as 10,000 next year.
Italy’s Catholic Church will house many of the new arrivals in shelters across the country, church charity Caritas said, as the migrants from Eritrea, Ethi-opia, Somalia, and Yemen go through the country’s asylum request process.
Migrant arrivals to Italy have fallen by two-thirds since July from the same period last year after offi cials working for the UN-backed govern-ment in Tripoli persuaded hu-man smugglers in the city of Sabratha to stop boats leaving.
Italy is also bolstering the
Libyan coast guard’s ability to turn back boats.
Italy’s move to open a safe corridor for some of the mi-grants follows criticism by rights groups who have con-demned the country’s eff orts to block migrants in Libya in exchange for aid, training and equipment to fi ght smuggling.
“This should be a point of pride for Italians,” Interior Min-ister Marco Minniti told report-ers on the tarmac. “This is the just beginning. We will contin-ue to try to open this humani-tarian corridor.”
Migrant smuggling has fl our-ished since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with more than 600,000 making the perilous journey across the cen-tral Mediterranean in four years.
Tens of thousands of mi-grants are estimated to be de-tained by smugglers, and the African Union says that as many as 700,000 are in Libya.
The UNHCR has registered more than 44,000 as refugees and asylum seekers.
The UNHCR classifi es yes-terday’s arrivals as “vulnerable” refugees, which means they are children, victims of abuse, women, the elderly or have dis-abilities.
UN evacuates refugees from Libya to Italy for fi rst timeReutersPratica de Mare, Italy
Evacuated migrants taken out of detention centres in Libya by the UNHCR wait to board buses upon arrival the Pratica di Mare military airport in Rome.
Danish police said yester-day that they had arrested an asylum-seeker from
Sweden for trying “to commit a terrorist act” in Copenhagen.
The Copenhagen police said
they arrested the 30-year-old Syrian jointly with the Danish Security and Intelligence Service on Thursday over a failed attack which he plotted with a 21-year-old male in November 2016.
The man has denied the charg-es, Danish news agency Ritzau reported.
The hearing was held behind
closed doors and the court or-dered that the suspect’s identity not be revealed.
“The man is charged with attempted terrorism for hav-ing, together with another man convicted in Germany, planned to randomly kill or hurt several people in an unknown location in Copenhagen,” the police said.
The police added the two men “wanted to attack people with knives and thereafter detonate one or several explosives, which failed when the accomplice was denied entry into Denmark and arrested by the German police”.
Prosecutor Sidsel Klixbuell said that the plans were “very grave”.
Danish police arrest Syrian over attack planAFP/DPACopenhagen
Bar patrons win €220mn in lottery
Customers at a bar in the northwest Spanish town of Vilalba took home around €220mn ($261mn) in prize money from Spain’s traditional Christmas lottery yesterday.“I don’t even know how much that is,” bar owner and lottery ticket seller Pilar said, adding that she won some money.This year’s prize money totalled €2.4bn, with the highest individual prize – dubbed El Gordo, or The Fat One – coming in at €4mn.A total of 160 main prizes are up for grabs in the lottery, because each of the 100,000 numbers is sold 160 times.Many Spaniards opt for buying one-tenth of a ticket for €20, rather than a full ticket for €200, distributing the prize money from El Gordo and other smaller prizes to more people.The northwest region of Galicia was the largest winner of prize money this year, with people there taking in €520mn, according to the state-run lottery operator LAE.The lottery draw takes place every year on December 22.The drawing takes more than three hours because many smaller prizes are also awarded.The tradition, which started more than 200 years ago, sees millions of Spaniards going online and queuing up outside shops across the country.
Explosion rocks Greek courthouse
A bomb exploded early yesterday outside one of Greece’s main courthouses, causing material damage but no injuries, with police suspecting a far-left group of setting it off to protest property foreclosures sought by debt-laden banks.The explosion occurred at 0125 GMT outside the Athens appeals court after calls warning of a bomb were made to media outlets, police said.The blast broke several windows and caused extensive damage to the court’s front entrance, where part of the first floor appears to have collapsed.Windows at nearby buildings were also shattered.The attack took place just three blocks from the Athens police headquarters, yet the assailants were able to escape.There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Man killed in fireworks blast
A man was killed and a woman was injured by the overnight explosion of a cherry bomb firework in Naples, reports said yesterday, quoting Carabinieri police sources.The victim was a 32-year-old with a criminal record for robbery, while the woman, 43, was his partner, the Adnkronos news agency said.She was hospitalised but her life is not in danger.The explosion took place in San Giovanni a Teduccio, an eastern suburb of Naples, shortly before 4am (0300 GMT).The Carabinieri are investigating the incident.
INDIA
Gulf Times Saturday, December 23, 201710
Entire foundation of BJPbased on lies, says RahulIANSNew Delhi
Congress president Rahul Gandhi yesterday hit out at the BJP following the
court verdict in the 2G spectrum case, saying the ruling party’s “foundation was based on lies” and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being silent on the “sudden spurt” in turno-ver in the business of BJP chief Amit Shah’s son.
“The entire foundation of BJP is based on lies,” Gandhi told reporters after chairing his fi rst meeting as party chief of the
Congress Working Committee.He said the 2G spectrum ver-
dict has been a “vindication” of the party’s stand.
“The whole architecture of the BJP is about lies. When we went to Gujarat and spoke to people they said there is no (Gujarat) model. It is stealing of resources of people of Gujarat. Whether it is bringing Rs1.5mn in each ac-count, whether it is 2G, whether it is giving farmers proper remu-neration, whether it is Gujarat model… one by one the lies are coming out,” Gandhi said.
“There are two other lies, very big ones,” Gandhi said and raked up the issue of turnover of a
company belonging to Jay Shah witnessing a massive increase in turnover from Rs 50,000 to Rs800mn “in three months” after the National Democratic Alliance came to power in 2014.
“That is the truth. Our prime minister has nothing to say about it,” he said.
Gandhi accused Modi of be-ing silent on the Congress’ questions about the “change in Rafale deal”.
Referring to the 2G spectrum case, he said “the truth of 2G is in front of everyone”.
A Delhi court on Thursday acquitted all the accused, in-cluding Dravida Munnetra Ka-
zhagam leaders – former tel-ecom minister A Raja and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi – in the alleged 2G spectrum scam in which the then CAG had esti-mated a presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore.
Congress leaders have accused the BJP of carrying out baseless propaganda against the party-led United Progressive Alliance government in the 2G spectrum case to erode its credibility.
Earlier hundreds of Con-gress workers in Delhi staged a demonstration against the BJP outside parliament yesterday, demanding an apology from Modi and Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal for “spreading lies” against the previous UPA gov-ernment.
“The court verdict on 2G scam case has proved that the way in which the BJP and others accused the UPA government... (it) has exposed all,” Delhi Con-gress president Ajay Maken told reporters.
He said the court in its verdict said that the “entire case was based on gossips and rumours”.
Maken also slammed social activist Anna Hazare and oth-ers for protesting against the Congress-led United Progres-sive Alliance government of that time.
India, China agree onneed for border peaceIANSNew Delhi
Special representatives of In-dia and China yesterday held “positive and focused” talks
here on the long-drawn boundary question and agreed on the need to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas – nearly four months after the Doklam stand-off was resolved.
Special representatives – Na-tional Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Yang Jiechi, state councillor and a Communist Party politburo member, also exchanged ideas on various confi dence building meas-ures at the 20th round of talks, held annually.
Both sides also agreed to seek “mutually acceptable resolutions of their diff erences with due re-spect for each other’s sensitivities, concerns and aspirations”.
“The special representatives undertook a comprehensive re-view of earlier rounds of talks and agreed that an early settlement of the boundary question serves
the fundamental interests of both countries,” the external aff airs ministry said in a statement fol-lowing the talks on the border question.
Stating that the talks were “positive and focused”, the state-ment said that the special repre-sentatives “re-emphasised their commitment to achieve a fair, reasonable and mutually accept-able solution to the India-China boundary question at an early date”.
“The two sides agreed that pending the fi nal resolution of the boundary question, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” it stated. “In this regard, the special representa-tives exchanged ideas on various confi dence building measures.”
This was the fi rst such meeting after Indian and Chinese troops were locked in a 73-day face-off earlier this year in Doklam region near the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction and comes amid reports of heightened Chinese military presence near that area.
Earlier this month, the Doklam
issue came up for discussion dur-ing a meeting between External Aff airs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi here.
According to the external aff airs ministry statement, both sides also reviewed the development of India-China bilateral relations, agreed to maintain regular contact and to advance the development of bilateral relations in all areas.
“They underlined the need for the two countries to build on their convergences, while seek-ing mutually acceptable resolu-tions of their diff erences with due respect for each other’s sen-sitivities, concerns and aspira-tions,” it stated.
“They acknowledged that as two large developing countries engaged in their national mod-ernisation, relations between India and China transcend their bilateral dimensions and have signifi cance for peace, stability and development of Asia and the world. Both sides also exchanged views on regional and global is-sues of mutual interest.”
Court relief for Chavan in Adarshscam caseIANSMumbai
In a major relief for former chief minister Ashok Chavan, the Bombay High Court yester-
day “quashed and set aside” the sanction accorded by Maharash-tra governor C V Rao to prosecute the senior Congress leader in the Adarsh Housing Society scam.
The main reason for the court’s decision was that the Central Bu-reau of Investigation (CBI) had failed to present any fresh evi-dence against Chavan while seek-ing sanction from the governor to prosecute him, Chavan’s lawyer, senior counsel Amit Desai told mediapersons.
Chavan hailed the verdict by saying “truth has prevailed”.
In February 2016, governor Rao had granted sanction to the CBI to prosecute Chavan on vari-ous charges, including criminal conspiracy, cheating, misuse of powers and authority, bypassing norms, etc, in the Adarsh Society scam, under the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act.
Setting aside the governor’s sanction, a division bench com-prising Justice Ranjit More and Justice Sadhana Jadhav ruled in their 58-page detailed order that “it cannot be sustained”.
The high court also held that the material collected by the investi-gating agency must be admissible as evidence or capable of being converted into evidence which can be substantiated at the trial stage. The judges said neither the extract of the Justice J A Patil Commis-sion Report nor an earlier order of a single judge of the Bombay High Court of November 19, 2014, were admissible in evidence or capable of being converted into evidence, and hence could not be consid-ered.
Incidentally, the previous gov-ernor, K Sankaranarayanan, had declined to grant sanction in De-cember 2013, but after three years
when the CBI again approached the governor’s offi ce it was granted by the incumbent Governor Rao.
“In the absence of fresh ma-terial, the governor (Rao) has no jurisdiction to review the order of the erstwhile governor (Sankara-narayanan),” Justice More and Jus-tice Jadhav’s verdict said.
Last year, Chavan had fi led a petition challenging Rao’s order, terming it as “arbitrary, illegal, unjust” and that the sanction to prosecute him was accorded with “malafi de intentions”.
During the hearings in the eight-year old case, his lawyer De-sai argued that the February 2016 sanction order was “politically biased” and motivated by changed political circumstances rather than any change in the material aspects of the case.
After the verdict, Chavan said “truth has prevailed” since the al-legations levelled against him were “political vendetta”.
“These allegations were politi-cally motivated without any basis. That is why the Congress party stood by me and made me the state party president despite the allega-tions against me,” Chavan said.
He said Rao had “erred in sanc-tioning the prosecution” against him particularly since his pred-ecessor Sankaranarayanan had re-jected the CBI plea.
On his future course of action, Chavan said he would fi rst study the full judgement before deciding on the same. Following the stun-ning revelations that emerged in the Adarsh Society scam and its consequent political fallout, Cha-van resigned as chief minister in November 2010.
Among others, the names of at least three former chief ministers (besides Chavan), ex-ministers, top bureaucrats – including the controversial IFS offi cer and former deputy consul-general of India in New York, Devyani Kho-bragade – had fi gured as allottees of posh fl ats in the building as de-tails tumbled out.
Toddler forges bondwith gang of monkeysAFPDharwad
He is still too young to talk, but a two-year-old boy has become a mod-
ern-day Mowgli and a subject of local intrigue after befriend-ing a gang of langur monkeys.
Samarth Bangari’s unusu-al friendship was discovered when the youngster was spot-ted alone in his village in Al-lapur, roughly 400km from the city of Bengaluru, playing with nearly two dozen grey langurs.
The infant’s uncle, Barama Reddy, said it was “strange” for the monkeys to behave like that, and villagers feared the boy would be attacked while his parents worked in a nearby field.
But it soon became clear they were more than comfortable in his presence, with the young-ster happy to share some of his food with the visiting troupe.
The monkeys kept return-ing, day after day, to visit their young friend, his uncle said. “Since that day, the monkeys haven’t missed a day. They
come to the house around the same time,” Reddy said.
“Even if he is sleeping, they fi rst wake him up, and then sit with him for an hour or two.”
The unusual relationship piqued local interest, and soon people began visiting the house to catch a glimpse of young Sa-marth tottering around the farm with 20 langurs in tow.
Thinking the monkeys must enjoy the company of children, another youngster was plonked next to Samarth but the langur pack became aggressive, Reddy said.
He said Samarth was now a local legend due to his “special bond” with the monkeys, whose sounds he mimics even though he cannot speak yet.
“Everyone thinks that he is special and they are communi-cating with each other, and can understand what is being said,” Reddy said.
Mowgli was a character in The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling’s tales about a boy who grew up in the wild in India, and is often used as a shorthand for people who are able to bridge the hu-man-animal divide.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi is seen with party leaders Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and others during Congress Working Committee meeting in New Delhi yesterday.
In a shocking incident, a youth set a girl on fire in full public view in Hyderabad, police said. The incident occurred in Lalaguda area in the evening when the 23-year-old girl was returning home from work. Sandhya Rani sustained 80% burns and she was rushed to government-run Gandhi Hospital, where her condition is stated to be critical. The attacker is suspected to be a jilted lover of Sandhya. Quoting eye-witnesses, the police said she was returning home when the youth on a motorcycle met her. They discussed some matter for about 10 minutes. During a heated argument, the attackers sprinkled petrol, set her on fire and escaped before people could raise an alarm.
Shows of Tiger Zinda Hai, a Salman Khan-Katrina Kaif film, had to be stopped in many cinema halls across Rajasthan after members of the Valmiki community raised slogans, tore and burnt posters over the alleged use of a pejorative word by Salman during a promotional event. The protests started from Ajmer and soon reached Jaipur and Kota, leading to cancellation of the shows in several cinema halls of the film that released nationwide yesterday. According to information, the Valmiki community is aggrieved due to the alleged use of pejorative language by Salman Khan. The protesters alleged that Salman had insulted the Valmiki community by using “cheap language”.
Vijay Rupani will continue as Gujarat chief minister, aided by Nitin Patel as his deputy, the central observer team of the BJP announced yesterday, ending the suspense of who will lead the government. Rupani, who had been appointed as chief minister on August 7, 2016, after Anandiben Patel was removed from the post, was selected by the newly-elected legislators .The observer team comprised of union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Saroj Pandey. Rupani’s selection could also be with an eye on the 2019 general elections that are just 18 months away, and the party didn’t want to take a risk by bringing in any new face which could halt the ongoing works and development.
The enforcement directorate yesterday said it has arrested two “main fraudsters” linked to an alleged Rajasthan land scam, involving a hospitality firm that lists Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra as one of its directors. Jaiprakash Bagarwa and Ashok Kumar were arrested on Thursday, the agency said in a statement. “The ED has obtained important leads while investigating Kolayat (Bikaner) land scam case and arrested main fraudsters Jaiprakash Bagarwa and Ashok Kumar.” ED off icials said Ashok Kumar is a aide of Mahesh Nagar of Skylight Hospitality. The Delhi-based hospitality firm claims Vadra is one of its directors since 2007.
The fate of two former chief ministers of Bihar – Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra – will be decided today in a fodder scam case. Lalu Prasad, also the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief, reached Ranchi yesterday evening to hear the verdict. Today is the last working day of this year. The courts will remain closed till January 1, 2018. According to a lawyer, hearing in the multi-million fodder scam case, which relates to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 8.4mn from Deoghar district treasury, was completed on December 13 in a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court of Ranchi. Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra have already been convicted in another fodder scam case and they are out on bail.
‘Jilted’ youth sets womanon fire in Hyderabad
Screening of Salman filmstopped by protesters
Rupani stays on as GujaratCM, Patel to be deputy
Two held in land scam‘linked to Vadra firm’
Lalu faces verdict infodder scam case today
CRIME CONTROVERSYAPPOINTMENT CLAIM LEGAL
Samarth Bangari, 2, sits among langur monkeys in a field near his home in Allapur, Karnataka.
PAKISTAN11Gulf Times
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Pakistan has ordered 27 in-ternational aid groups to shut down for working in
unauthorised areas, spurring hu-man rights campaigners to de-nounce swelling constraints on free speech and humanitarian work.
The ministry of interior gave the 27 NGOs 90 days to conclude operations, according to a list seen by Reuters.
Among those being expelled are Action Aid, World Vision, Plan International, Trocaire, Pathfi nder International, Dan-ish Refugee Council, George So-ros’ Open Society Foundations, Oxfam Novib, and Marie Stopes.
Talal Chaudhry, Pakistan’s minister of state for interior af-fairs, told Reuters that the reason for shutting down the non-gov-ernmental organisations (NGOs) is because they were doing work in Pakistan “which is beyond their mandate and for which they have no legal justifi cation”.
He declined to give specifi c examples, but said the targeted NGOs spend “all their money” on administration, are not doing the work that they said they were doing, and are working in areas where they were not authorised.
The Pakistan Humanitarian Forum (PHF), which represents 63 international aid groups, said
the ministry had issued 11 of its members “letters of rejection”.
No reason for the rejections have been provided, the forum said.
Plan International, which has worked in Pakistan since 1997, said it is supporting more than 1.6mn children across Pakistan.
Plan said that it was given no reason for the ministry’s decision and would appeal it.
“The organisation is hope-ful that the appeals process will make it possible for its work with vulnerable and marginal-ised children, especially girls, to continue in Pakistan,” it said in a statement.
All the other NGOs on the list who responded to queries from Reuters also said they had been given no reason for being forced to shut down.
“They must be having reasons
for every (NGO) and those rea-sons should have been shared with the organisations,” said a representative from one NGO who declined to be identifi ed.
Chaudhry said that the number of NGOs in the country ballooned after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
Many organisations arrived to provide humanitarian assistance after Islamabad allied itself with the United States in what was then known as the global war on terror.
“But there were also a number of NGOs that are used, knowing-ly or unknowingly, for activities that confl ict with Pakistan’s na-tional interests,” Chaudhry said, adding that registration proce-dures are commonplace in other countries.
Pakistan has hardened its stance towards domestic and in-
ternational NGOs in recent years, requiring them to undertake a painstaking registration process and clear multiple bureaucratic hurdles to continue working in the country.
The Save the Children aid group fell afoul of the govern-ment in 2011, when it was linked to a Pakistani doctor recruited by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to help in the hunt that led to the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the town of Abbottabad.
In January, the interior min-istry ordered a dozen domestic groups working on women’s is-sues and human rights to halt op-erations, a move later overturned in courts.
Pakistan is not alone in crack-ing down on foreign charities.
Indian Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi’s government has since
2014 tightened surveillance of non-profi t groups, saying that they were acting against India’s national interests.
Thousands of foreign-funded charities’ licences have been cancelled for misreporting dona-tions.
In China, a law that went into eff ect on January 1 this year grants broad powers to police to question NGO workers, moni-tor their fi nances, regulate their work and shut down offi ces.
The clampdown on NGOs has come after a number of activists disappeared this year, some of whom have not been heard from.
Reuters estimates at least 14 people have been picked up and interrogated from major urban centres including journalists, political workers, and social me-dia activists.
Three members of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) have also disappeared in the past year, chairperson Mehdi Hasan told Reuters.
Human rights campaigners say the crackdown on NGOs and disappearances of civil society activists are part of a wider cam-paign to quell free speech.
“They both signify the shrink-ing space for free expression and activism in Pakistan and the di-minishing tolerance the Pakistan state has,” Saroop Ijaz, a repre-sentative for the Pakistan chap-ter of Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.
27 global aid groups ordered to pack upReutersIslamabad
Sunset rider
Locals are seen on a beach in Karachi yesterday during sunset on the shortest day of the year.
The fi nance department of Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(KP) region believes an initia-tive to reform the pension sys-tem of the province is likely to reduce the number of pension-ers by around 30,000 and save the exchequer over Rs8bn an-nually.
Offi cial sources here said the fi nance department is alarmed at the province’s pension bill, which amounted to Rs53bn in the current year.
It has begun the system’s structural reforms, which in-cluded digitisation of the pen-sioners’ records, replacement of one bank based payments with individual accounts, pro-posed amendments to the pen-sion rules, and biometric veri-fi cation among others.
Provincial fi nance secretary Shakeel Qadir Khan says that the department is set to com-plete the digitisation of the pensioner records, and that it had so far digitised the docu-ments of 127,000 people.
He said that the digitisa-tion is likely to bring down the pensioners’ number from the current 170,000 to 135,000 by eliminating ghost pensioners, replications, and suspicious cases.
The offi cial said that after the automation of the pension system, the department would be able to project the pension growth and know about all benefi ciaries.
He added that the depart-ment is working out a bank account-based disbursement to the pensioners to eliminate ghost pensioners.
Khan also said that the department had proposed amendments to the pension rules to the federal government to end a very liberal pension regime.
“The existing pension sys-tem is very anomalous,” he said.
Khan said that the depart-ment is also working with the federal government on a number of cases where it is suspected that pension was being paid to federal govern-ment employees.
He admitted that the growth of the KP pension fund, which currently totalled Rs40bn, is slow.
Naveed Alam, the project manager of the Automation of Pension Payment System, said that the pension budget was estimated by the district account offi cers (DAOs) and
disbursed through designated banks.
He said the DAOs are sup-posed to carry out the post-payment audit of vouchers provided by the bank, but that was not taking place due to a lack of capacity.
Naveed said that the pen-sioners could so far only re-ceive their money from the National Bank of Pakistan.
However, he said, they had held meetings with other banks, which had agreed to provide ATMs with simplifi ed activation procedures.
“We are also starting a pi-lot project to collect biometric verifi cation of all pensioners from districts of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan from January 2018, which will be extended to other districts a month later,” he said.
Naveed said that the Na-tional Database and Registra-tion Authority (Nadra) has agreed to verify the details for the provincial government.
He said the department would also replace the manual life certifi cates with multi-lay-ered digital certifi cates using Nadra services.
Naveed said the analysis of digitised data had off ered newer insights into the pen-sion system.
He said of the 127,000 pen-sioners, 85,103 were alive, but the remainder of some 42,000 cases, the families continued to receive the money.
“We have a case where a per-son with a date of birth of 1932, retired in 1988, and died in 2003,” he said, adding that his spouse continued to collect the pension until 2014 and later, a 52-year-old widow daughter received it.
He said that woman had shared a family tree of fi ve sis-ters and six brothers with the department, which means that there the government would see no end of payment to this family.
The offi cial said the depart-ment had also come across the case of a BPS-18 female gov-ernment offi cer, who draws Rs120,000 as her salary and Rs60,000 as father’s pension being his dependent at the same time.
In a bid to overcome such cases, the fi nance department is mulling proposals includ-ing not allowing pensions to unmarried daughters after 35 years, widow daughter hav-ing a son aged over 21 years, and excluding the brother, sis-ter, father, grandson, mother, daughter-in-law, and grand-daughter, besides changing defi nition of “dependent”.
KP govt pension reforms to save Rs8bn annuallyInternewsPeshawar
Five activists who made international headlines when they went missing
earlier this year were cleared of blasphemy charges yesterday, a lawyer said.
The men, who used social media to stand against reli-gious intolerance and at times criticised Pakistan’s power-ful military, vanished within days of each other in January, sparking fears of a government crackdown.
Four of them have since been released, with some accusing their captors of torture.
No group claimed responsi-bility for their abduction, and Pakistan’s government and military have denied involve-ment.
But during their disappear-ance, a virulent social media campaign to paint them as blasphemers began, triggering a fl ood of threats.
Blasphemy is a criminal of-fence in Pakistan and can carry
the death penalty, although the state has never executed some-one convicted of it.
However, even mere accusa-tions can spark mob lynchings and vigilante murders.
Observers have said the al-legations alone were enough to put the fi ve activists’ lives in danger.
Yesterday the Federal Inves-tigation Agency (FIA) told the Islamabad High Court that it could fi nd no evidence against the fi ve men.
“The FIA offi cials told the court that it ... seems the fi ve bloggers were not involved in blasphemy,” Tariq Asad, one of the lawyers bringing the charge against the activists, told AFP. “The judge remarked that no innocent person should be im-plicated in a false case of blas-phemy.”
Ahmad Waqass Goraya, one of the activists who was re-leased and lives in the Nether-lands, told AFP that the court should now investigate why Pakistan’s mainstream media repeated the dangerous claims against him without proof.
Bloggers cleared of blasphemy chargesAFPIslamabad
Bhutto’s party seeks parliamentary debate on banning international NGOs
Bilawal Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has
expressed concern over the government decision to
impose ban on international non-governmental organi-
sation (INGOs) across the country.
Party sources said here on Wednesday that the party
has submitted a “calling attention” notice to the Na-
tional Assembly Secretariat to discuss it on the floor of
National Assembly.
The notice submitted by party legislators Nafisa Shah,
Shugufta Jummani, Shahida Rehmani, Shazia Sobia,
and Beelam Hasnain.
Through the notice, the PPP legislators draw the atten-
tion of the minister for interior towards the decision
of the government to ban a large number of INGO’s
operating across Pakistan causing grave concern
among public.
The calling attention notice stated that the decision
will seriously aff ect the ongoing development and
relief work carried out by these organisations which
will adversely impact the people of Pakistan.
“Besides, it may aff ect Pakistan’s relations with the
international community,” the “calling attention” notice
stated.
The notice stated that his is a serious matter that war-
rants the immediate response from the minister on the
floor of the house.
Security forces sur-rounded a Pakistan In-ternational Airlines (PIA)
plane yesterday after a cat sneaked into the cockpit.
The pilot had signalled “danger on board”, Geo TV re-ported yesterday.
There were 30 passengers on board.
A spokesman for the na-tional carrier, Mashood Tajwar, said the plane that was set to depart from Karachi was al-ready on the runway when the pilot had to turn around.
“It is normal in such cases that the airport police and fi re department come to the plane,” he said.
The cat fl ed from the cockpit into the cabin when staff tried to catch it, the Express Tribune newspaper reported.
Only after several attempts could it be caught and taken off the plane.
“We are now investigating how the cat could get in there and hide,” Tajwar said.
The plane was parked in a remote part of the airport be-fore the fl ight, he said.
The plane was headed for the port city of Gwadar on Paki-stan’s southwestern coast.
Security forces sent in over cat in cockpitDPAIslamabad
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is con-cerned that there would
be signifi cant number reduction of female voters during a revision of electoral rolls due to fears that female photographs on voter lists might be misused.
The matter may be taken up
during the upcoming series of meetings at the commission.
Meanwhile, informally, the provincial election commission-ers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan provinces have al-ready voiced concern, as scores of people have approached them to fi nd out how to get the names of female voters deleted, it was learnt.
On the one hand, a special campaign is under way in as
many as 79 districts to register female voters, who do not have their computerised national identity card (CNIC) and cannot thus be registered as voter.
On the other hand, there is possibility of deletion of female voters.
The ongoing campaign is aimed at bridging the gap be-tween the number of male and female voters.
Presently, female voters are
12.2mn fewer in number than male voters.
One major reason for the gap is that the male family members do not want their female fam-ily members to be photographed, even for the purpose of acquiring a CNIC.
The alarming trend of the im-ages on the social media being used has been cited as a reason for this.
“Owing to sensitivities at-
tached to this issue, the ECP had opposed the proposal from the word go in 2016 that voter lists with photographs of females be given to candidates or political parties, for fear of their misuse,” a senior ECP offi cial said.
However, the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms overlooked the commission’s point of view, and this proposal was made part of the Elections Act 2017.
The offi cial said that there is a feeling at the commission that there would defi nitely be with-drawals and deletion of female voters in coming weeks and months.
Another ECP offi cial said that as it could be considered a breach of privacy of family members for the images of female voters to be shared, it has been proposed pro-posed that the voter lists might still be shared but with the pho-
tographs of the female voters omitted.
As per the chapter dealing with the electoral rolls in the act, hard and soft (in USB-PDF format) copies of electoral rolls (with photographs of voters) will be provided to all candidates on payment of cost.
In line with the legislation, the Election Commission has written to the district election commis-sioners to comply with it.
Fears of drastic drop in number of female voters in 2018 electionsInternewsIslamabad
Austenistan – a tribute to Jane AustenWhat is inspired by Jane Austen and set in Pakistan? Nothing, until Austenistan came along.The book is now the talk of literary circles and drawing interest worldwide.It is the fiction anthology published by Bloomsbury and written by Jane Austen enthusiasts in Pakistan.The idea for the book was first conceived at a meeting of the Jane Austen Society of Pakistan by founder and editor of the book, Laaleen Sukhera.A panel discussion was held at Lahore’s literary hub, The Last Word, a few days after the launch of the book.All stories are situated in Pakistan, from the 1980s to the present.Replace the flouncy dresses with Ali Xeeshan or Elan’s latest collection, the balls with mehendis and shaadis, the Darcys with young men returning from abroad, and that’s the setting of Austenistan.
PHILIPPINES
Gulf TimesSaturday, December 23, 201712
Three dead, six missing as storm hits MindanaoAFPManila
At least three people were killed and six others were missing after a tropical
storm struck the southern Phil-ippines yesterday, unleashing fl oods and landslides across a region of 20mn people, offi cials said.
Tropical Storm Tembin hit the east coast of Mindanao, the archipelago nation’s second-largest island, before dawn with gusts of 125 kilometres an hour bringing torrential rain, the state weather offi ce said.
“We forced hundreds of peo-ple to evacuate some villages, but the water rose swiftly and our rescuers cannot reach other areas,” civil defence offi cer Sa-ripada Pacasum of Lanao del Sur province, one of the hardest-hit areas, said.
The Philippines lies on the Pa-cifi c typhoon belt and endures an average of 20 typhoons and storms each year, but Mindanao is rarely hit by these cyclones.
A small landslide buried sev-
eral houses in the town of Tu-gaya and killed two children, with fi ve other people missing and believed trapped beneath
the rubble, Pacasum said.An-other landslide buried four houses in the city of Valencia, killing an elderly woman, said
the city’s civil defence offi cer Junrey Vallejo.
Rescuers used heavy machin-ery to dig in search of a girl who
remained missing as of yesterday afternoon, he said. Police and civil defence offi cials reported heavy fl ooding in several Mind-anao towns and cities as Tembin weakened and swiftly moved across the region.
Photos shared by rescuers on social media showed rampaging, mud-brown fl oodwaters sweep-ing down a highway in Lanao del Sur province, engulfi ng houses and a van, and people seeking refuge on the upper fl oors of their homes.
Pacasum, the provincial civil defence offi cer, said among the fl ooded areas was the city of Marawi, recovering from fi ve months of fi ghting between troops and militants that left more than 1,100 people dead earlier this year.
Police also reported wide-spread fl ooding in Cagayan de Oro, one of Mindanao’s largest cities.Electricity was cut across large swathes of the island.
Tembin struck less than a week after Tropical Storm Kai-Tak devastated the central Phil-ippines, leaving more than 54 dead and 24 missing.
People take photos inside a house lit up by Christmas light installations in Rizal, Metro Manila, yesterday.
Festive celebration
Policemen evacuate a baby in Cagayan City yesterday, after the Cagayan River swelled caused by heavy rains brought by tropical storm Tembin.
252 passengers rescued from capsized ferryReutersReal
The Philippines’ coast guard said yesterday it had rescued 252 pas-
sengers and crew, including an Australian and his Filipino wife, and recovered fi ve dead people from a ferry that capsized east of the capital Manila.
A Philippine vessel capsized on Thursday because of bad weather, highlighting frequent boat accidents in the Southeast Asian nation that is composed of more than 7,000 islands.
The Philippine Coast Guard has confi rmed fi ve deaths while 252 passengers including an Australian and his Filipino wife, were rescued, said spokesman Captain Arm and Balilo.
“All the passengers and crew are accounted for but as I have said we will re-evaluate based on the claims of the families of the missing passengers,” Balilo told Reuters.
The vessel was carrying 257 passengers and crew.
The boat left the port around 9am and capsized an hour later
due to strong winds and giant waves.
A survivor said the passen-
gers panicked when the boat started to take in water and went to one side, causing the
ferry to tilt and capsize.“The others waited on top of
the ship while it was sinking, but
I didn’t do that because I know the ship will break down and I want to avoid getting hurt by that,” Rene Ebuenga, a rescued passenger told Reuters. “That’s dangerous and the big waves can slam debris to your body.”
The ferry capsized and sank about fi ve miles off Quezon province, east of the capital on the main northern island of Luzon. The Philippine Coast Guard said it will conduct an in-quiry to determine the cause of the incident and to verify pos-sible oil spills.
In 1987, nearly 5,000 people died in the world’s worst peace-time shipping disaster when an overloaded passenger ferry Dona Paz collided with an oil tanker off Mindoro island in the central Philippines.
Tropical storm Tembin, packing centre winds of 80kmh, made landfall on the southern island of Mindanao early yes-terday. It weakened after hitting the land mass, the weather bu-reau said yesterday.
But, the weather agency warned of extensive fl ooding and landslides until the storm exits the Philippines tomorrow.
Stranded passengers are pictured at a ferry terminal after all ferry services were cancelled, a day after a Philippine vessel capsized because of bad weather in Infanta, Quezon, yesterday.
Maoist rebels declare Christmas truceReutersManila
Philippine Maoist rebels declared a traditional Christmas truce yester-
day after the government an-nounced the same, calling off hostilities for six days.
In a statement posted on its website, Jorge Madlos, alias Ka Oris, spokesman for the communist New People Army (NPA), said the truce would last from today to Tuesday, when the group celebrates its 49th anniversary.
“All units of the NPA and the people’s militias shall remain on active defensive mode in order to defend the people and revolutionary forces,” Mad-los said, adding the guerrillas will “maintain a high degree of alertness and preparation against any hostile actions or
movements by enemy armed forces”.
On Thursday, the defence department announced a truce over the same period to allow Filipinos to celebrate a “stress-free” Christmas sea-son.Both the government and the NPA have declared Christ-mas truces since the late 1980s when the two sides fi rst agreed to peace talks, brokered by Norway.
The tradition has continued even after negotiations stalled and now have been scrapped by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The NPA rebels, estimat-ed to number around 3,000, have been fi ghting for nearly 50 years in a confl ict that has killed more than 40,000 peo-ple and stifl ed growth in re-source-rich areas of the coun-try.
The country also faces vari-ous insurgencies in the south.
Sacked Navy chief ‘may not be reassigned’Manila TimesManila
Defence Secretary Delfi n Lorenzana yesterday ex-pressed doubts that Vice
Admiral Ronald Joseph Merca-do, the Philippine Navy fl ag of-fi cer in command who had been sacked, will be given another high military position.
Lorenzana cited the looming retirement of Mercado, who was removed over an P18bn frigate deal.
“I doubt (that he will be given a new position) because his time (in his job) is too short already,” he said in a chance interview at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
“His (Mercado) status here at the Offi ce of Chief of Staff is that he will stay here until March unless he will be reassigned,” Lorenzana added.
Mercado, a member of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) “Matikas” Class of 1983, is set to retire in March 2018.
He was replaced by one of his
underclassman, Rear Admiral Robert Empedrad of the PMA “Sinagtala” Class of 1986, with whom he allegedly had a rift arising from the frigate deal.
Turnover of command from Mercado to Empedrad was held closed-door at Camp Aguinaldo, the general headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), on Tuesday.
The Defence chief accused Mercado of “insubordination” for insisting that another pri-vate company will provide the weapons system for the frigates set to be procured, a fi rm which was not indicated in the contract with the Hyundai Heavy Indus-tries from South Korea.
Lorenzana said the Depart-ment of National Defence had to comply with the contract with Hyundai, the company that won the bid for the frigate programme of the Philippine Navy.
“We cannot deviate from what is in the contract because if we will do so… the proponent will go to court and what he (Mer-cado) did is that he delayed this project,” he added.
Call to remember those who died
fi ghting for nationBy Catherine S ValenteManila Times
President Rodrigo Duterte has urged Filipinos to remember this holiday
season all Filipinos who sacri-fi ced their lives fi ghting for the country.
In his Christmas message, the president called on Fili-pinos to be compassionate to others, including to those who have suff ered due to the months-long siege in Marawi City.
“As we celebrate the year’s most festive and joyful sea-son, I would like to greet all my fellow Filipinos a very Merry Christmas. And in the midst of all merriment, let us pause and remember our countrymen who lost their lives fi ghting for the integrity of our country,” Duterte said in a video posted on the Facebook page of the Presidential Communications Offi ce.
The president also called on Filipinos not to forget those “those who lost their homes and loved ones in the recent war” and “those who are far from their families and those who are not fortunate and as blessed as most of us.”
“Let us show our true com-passion and include them in our supplications during the Yuletide season,” Duterte said.
At least 1,000 people were killed in the fi ve-month siege of Marawi. Tens of thousands of residents were also dis-placed from their hometown, with some staying in evacu-ation centres for nearly half a year.
The president also wished for a “progressive and peace-ful country” and for Filipinos to prosper.
“And as always, I wish a progressive and peaceful country and for the prosper-ity of our countrymen. Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year,” he said.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr said Duterte, like most Filipinos, is expected to spend a simple Christmas cel-ebration with his family and friends in his home city, Davao City.
Roque said the president would also spend time with his supporters, who go to his home every Christmas.
“Like all Filipinos, he will be with his family and loved ones. He will be in Davao be-cause fi rst of all, his fellow Davaoenos have been used to visit him. He has so many visi-tors,” Roque told reporters in a chance interview.
“When it comes to Christ-mas, we all do the same thing. It’s really a time for family,” he added.
This December 25 is Du-terte’s second time to cel-ebrate Christmas as the coun-try’s president.
Last year, the president also welcomed Christmas in his home in Davao City with his family and friends.
Duterte, who assumed the presidency in June 2016, spends his weekends in Davao City and goes to Manila on weekdays for work.
Roque said Duterte will also visit cancer-stricken patients in his province, which he regu-larly does every Christmas.
SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL13
Gulf Times Saturday, December 23, 2017
UN slams Australia for sending back asylum seeker to LankaThe United Nations’ refu-
gee agency has con-demned Australia’s forced
return of an asylum seeker to Sri Lanka without any assessment of his claim for protection, say-ing the man is at serious risk of persecution in his homeland.
The UNHCR had sought as-surances from the Australian government the man would not be removed from the country and would be allowed to apply for protection.
But on Wednesday, the man was forcibly removed, in hand-cuff s, from Villawood deten-tion centre and fl own back to Sri Lanka.
The Australian government has maintained that the man was removed because he missed its
October 1 deadline to apply for protection, and was deemed not to be seeking protection.
However, lawyers for the man said he had a “credible claim” for protection, based on his Tamil ethnicity, and familial connec-tion to the now-defunct sepa-ratist army the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Tamil Ti-gers. It is not suggested he was a member of the LTTE.
The man had struggled to fi ll out the 41-page protection ap-plication form in English unas-sisted, and was not able to ac-cess legal assistance before the deadline.
With assistance from the Refugee Advice and Casework Service, he lodged an applica-tion for protection during Oc-tober but was told he had missed the deadline and his claim would not be assessed.
Asylum seekers returned to Sri
Lanka are routinely arrested at the airport, and jailed at Nego-mbo before facing court. “The use of torture … [remains] en-demic and routine, for those ar-rested and detained on national security grounds,” the UN says.
Lawyers and advocates for the returned man have not been able to contact him since he was returned.
A spokeswoman for the UNH-CR, Catherine Stubberfi eld, said the UN was aware of a number of asylum seekers who were unable to meet the government’s dead-line of October 1 to submit their applications for asylum.
“Since July 2012, people who sought asylum by sea were ex-cluded from lodging an applica-tion in Australia for up to four years.
“While they were all invited to apply by October 2016, some asylum seekers have been un-
able to complete this process within the time frame for a range of valid reasons, including a lack of access to legal representation. This was the case for the asy-lum seeker forcibly returned to Sri Lanka this week.”
It was a worrying breach of Australia’s international legal obligations, Stubberfi eld said.
“In this context, the return of an asylum-seeker - whose claim for international protection was not considered on its merits - presents a serious risk of return to danger or persecution.”
Regardless of ministerial dead-lines, Australia is still legally bound by its non-refoulement obligations under the refugees’ convention. It cannot return a per-son to a place “where [their] life or freedom would be threatened”.
The return of Tamils to post-war Sri Lanka, by Australia and other countries, remains
controversial. There has been widespread reportage of the mistreatment and torture of prisoners by Sri Lankan security forces, including the systematic use of rape.
In July the UN’s special rap-porteur on counter-terrorism and human rights Ben Emmer-son visited Sri Lanka and re-ported that “the use of torture, has been, and remains today, en-demic and routine, for those ar-rested and detained on national security grounds”.
“Entire communities have been stigmatised and targeted for harassment and arbitrary arrest and detention, and any person suspected of association, however indirect, with the LTTE remains at immediate risk of de-tention and torture,” Emmerson wrote.
The October 1 deadline was announced in May by then im-
migration – now home aff airs – minister Peter Dutton, who accused asylum seekers of being “fake refugees”.
Seven thousand asylum seek-ers, many of whom had lived for years in Australia without ever being allowed to apply for protection, were told they must meet the October 1 deadline. It is understood all but 71 met the deadline.
Australia’s department of im-migration declined to comment on the specifi c case of the man deported on Wednesday, but has commented on the return of Tamils generally, and its non-refoulement obligations.
“Australia does not remove people to Sri Lanka who engage Australia’s non-refoulement obligations,” a spokesperson said last week. “Australia takes its non-refoulement obligations seriously.”
By Ben Doherty, GNSCanberra/Colombo
Two killed in Lanka train-car collisionTwo people were killed in a collision accident by a train and a car at a level crossing in Negambo town of Sri Lanka yesterday, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said.Gunasekara said the two people in the car were hit by a train and died upon admission to a local hospital. The train was heading for Colombo from Chilaw.National Council for Road Safety chairman Sisira Kodagoda said that there were as many as 24 fatalities reported during the first half of this year in accidents involving trains, and unprotected level crossings had been the main cause for such accidents.“We have 1,410 such unprotected level crossings throughout the country. We are planning to introduce a signal system called the Bell and Light to avert such accidents involving trains in the future,” he said.There was also an awareness programme at main railway stations and railway compartments to educate people about the menace and measures to avoid train accidents.
13 held for breaching poll laws in Lanka
At least 13 people have been arrested for allegedly breaching election rules in
Sri Lanka ahead of the February 10 local council polls which are being seen as the fi rst electoral test for President Maithripala Sirisena-led unity government.
Police said the suspects have been charged with fl outing elec-tion laws by engaging in rallies and displaying promotional ban-ners and fl ags in vehicles. The suspects were arrested in Nikaw-eratiya, Kahawatte, Kobeygane, Mahawa and Ambanpola.
Nominations were closed this week for elections to 341 local councils throughout the island. The election which should have been held in 2015 would be the fi rst single day local council election in over three decades. The poll was postponed for electoral reforms and demarcation of new wards.
The new system which re-placed the previous proportional representation system is a mix of fi rst past the post and the propor-tional representation. It will be the fi rst time that local govern-ment elections will be held under the new voting system, which was passed by the Sri Lanka govern-ment. Under the new system, the seats of local government was in-creased to 8,825 and 25% quota were reserved for women.
The election has the added sig-nifi cance of being the fi rst elec-toral test for the current unity government between President Sirisena’s Freedom Party and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremes-inghe’s UNP. The MoU between the two parties is due to end in the New Year. Both leaders are set to campaign separately for their respective parties. The UNP has the majority in the central gov-ernment yet still short of the 113 seats required in the 225-member national parliament.
Professor found six weeks after suspected abduction
A respected Bangladeshi professor who vanished more than a month ago
has returned home “mentally traumatised”, his family said yesterday, amid a spate of dis-appearances in recent months.
Mubashar Hasan, an expert on Islamic militancy at North South University in Dhaka, had not been seen since No-vember 7, with an offi cial search unable to locate the associate professor.
His disappearance was the ninth high-profi le case since July in Bangladesh, where the government has been accused of abductions and unoffi -cial detention of critics and opponents in secret jails.
“He was physically okay but mentally traumatised,” Has-an’s sister Tamanna Tasmin said after her brother returned home late Thursday evening.
“We are extremely happy that my brother has returned.”
The professor told local broadcasters that he had been “abducted for ransom”, but did not elaborate on his wherea-bouts for the past six weeks.
Local police chief Jahangir Kabir Khan said Hasan told in-vestigators he had been taken by “strangers”.
In recent months opposi-tion political fi gures, a busi-nessman and journalists have vanished in Bangladesh.
This week a prominent journalist reappeared more than two months after going missing in similarly mysteri-ously circumstances. A retired diplomat who went missing earlier this month has still not been found, his family says.
Rights groups urged au-thorities to bring those be-hind the spate of abductions to heel.
“These disappearances should stop immediately. It is an international crime,” Adilur Rahman Khan, from Bangladeshi rights watchdog Odhikar, said.
The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been accused of illegally de-taining hundreds of people, sometimes for months on end.
Human Rights Watch in July said at least 90 people were victims of forced disap-pearances in 2016, including nearly two dozen who turned up dead.
AFPDhaka
IANSColombo
People cross the Buriganga river by boat in a winter morning in Dhaka yesterday.
Boat ride
Jatiya Party candidate wins mayoral election
The candidate of Jatiya Party (JP), headed by former president H M
Ershad, has won the Rangpur mayoral election with a land-slide victory, defeating the nominee of its political ally Awami League.
As per unoffi cial results, JP mayor candidate Mostafi zar
Mostafa bagged 160,489 votes with party symbol ‘plough’, beating Sharfuddin Jhantu by 98,089 votes. Jhantu man-aged 62,400 votes with ‘boat’ symbol.
Another heavyweight, BNP’s Kawsar Zaman Babla, fi nished third with 35,136 votes for party symbol ‘paddy sheaf’.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) K M Nurul Huda said the commission was satisfi ed with the “peaceful and fair” polls.
Even the candidates, espe-cially the mayoral aspirants, expressed satisfaction with the voting atmosphere. Though the BNP mayoral candidate raised some allegations of vote rigging, the CEC turned them down.
Amid the usual vote cast through ballot papers, the EC also introduced the electronic voting machine (EVM) at one centre on a trial basis ahead of large-scale use of such
machines in other elections.According to the EC, seven
mayoral candidates contested the polls, while 211 aspirants vied for general ward councillor posts and 65 women aspirants for re-served councillor posts.
Ershad said the election was a test for the EC before the parliamentary polls.
Under the current EC, this was the second major election after the Comilla City Corporation polls in March.
By Mizan RahmanDhaka
Dancing bears rescued in Nepal
The last dancing bears in Nepal have been rescued from their owners in a
dramatic night-time raid.According to sources, po-
lice tracked the owners’ mobile phones and found two sloth bears in a dis-tressed state in Iharbari, southeastern Nepal.
They showed signs of psycho-logical trauma such as cowering, pacing and paw sucking.
The bears - 19-year-old male Rangila and 17-year-old female Sridevi - had been taken from their mothers at an early age and forced to perform.
The owners had removed
their teeth, pierced their noses with a burning hot rod and shoved a rope through it to control them.
The bears were then taken to Amlekhgunj Forest and Wildlife Reserve for treatment.
Police were helped by the Jane Goodall Institute Nepal and the London-based non-profi t World Animal Protec-tion which proudly declared: ‘We just saved Nepal’s last two dancing bears.’
Manoj Gautam, of the Jane Goodall Institute of Nepal, said: “We are thrilled that the last two dancing bears have been rescued from their lifetime of suff ering.”
“After a year of tracking them, using our own intelligence and in co-operation with local po-
AgenciesKathmandu
The two bears being taken to Amlekhgunj Forest and Wildlife Reserve in Nepal.
lice, our hard eff ort and dedica-tion has helped to bring an end to this illegal tradition.”
Neil D’Cruze, Wildlife Tech-nical Expert for World Animal Protection, said: “It’s extremely
distressing to see animals being stolen from the wild and the sad reality is there are more wild ani-mals suff ering across the world, purely for the entertainment of tourists.”
Nepal launches fl ood resilience portal for risk reduction
The Nepal government has launched the fl ood resil-ience portal in Nepali
language to provide a consoli-dated information gateway to public as part of risk reduction and management.
The portal www.fl oodresil-ience.net.np was launched by the ministry of federal aff airs and local development in part-nership with various organisa-tions like International Fed-eration of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Practical Action and Zurich Global Flood Resilience Programme.
According to the govern-ment, the portal will timely inform the public about fl ood risks in fl ood-risk zones and will minimise the loss of prop-
erty and lives. It is also expect-ed to enable practitioners to access the most locally relevant fl ood risk reduction resources and inform resilience building activities with current good practices.
Addressing the launching ceremony, Nepali State Min-ister for Federal Aff airs and Local Development Janak Raj Chaudhary focused on need of localised and contextualised knowledge in Nepal.
“Government of Nepal is committed to follow the SENDAI Framework and SDGs to mitigate disaster risks and reduce vulnerability in Nepal,” Chaudhary was quoted in the statement issued by Practical Action.
In an eff ort to identify innova-tive and cost-eff ective ways to implement disaster risk reduc-tion eff orts at the community
and national levels for resilience against fl ooding, Nepal govern-ment has been working with diff erent actors at international, national to community level.
Nepal is ranked the 20th as the most multi-hazard prone countries in the world and 30th in terms of fl ood risks. Inun-dation along the river banks in the Terai plains every monsoon poses threat to lives and liveli-hood of many.
Only in the last monsoon, the massive fl ood, the biggest of its kind in decades aff ected 35 of the country’s 77 districts aff ecting over 1.7mn people and leaving 134 dead.
The Nepali government has also recently formulated Dis-aster Risk Reduction and Man-agement Act which has deput-ed right, responsibilities and duties to central, provincial and local governments.
IANSKathmandu
The majority of the world’s countries have shown that they have the courage to do the right thing when it comes to the emotive issue of the status of Jerusalem.
The results of Thursday’s vote at the United Nations on a resolution calling on the United States to drop its recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital should be seen as a stinging rebuke of US President Donald Trump’s Middle East policy.
The non-binding measure passed at a UN General Assembly emergency meeting with 128 votes in favour and nine against, while 35 countries abstained.
The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest issues in the peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in a 1967 war and Palestinians want it as the capital of a future state they seek.
The international community does not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the full city of Jerusalem, which is home to religious sites and has particular signifi cance for Muslims, Christians and Jews.
The Palestinians were furious over President Trump’s recent move to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and his decision to shift the US
embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city. The decision has resulted in deadly protests in the region.
Thursday’s vote is a victory for Palestinians.“This decision reaffirms once again that the just
Palestinian cause enjoys the support of international community, and no decisions made by any side could change the reality, that Jerusalem is an occupied territory under international law,” Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement.
Qatar also has welcomed the UN resolution asking the US to withdraw its decision on Jerusalem. HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani tweeted: “The majority vote of international community in favour of UN resolution on Al Quds reaffi rms the just cause and right of Palestinians to establish their own independent state with Jerusalem as its capital”
Mevlut Cavusoglu, Foreign Minister of Turkey, a co-sponsor of the resolution, said on Twitter that “dignity and sovereignty are not for sale”.
The resolution, co-sponsored by Turkey and Yemen, called Trump’s recognition “null and void” and reaffi rmed 10 security council resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the city’s fi nal status must be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
It also “demands that all states comply with security council resolutions regarding the holy city of Jerusalem, and not to recognise any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions”.
That the resolution passed in the face of unprecedented threat and intimidation by the Trump administration, is a message to the latter that the global community will not be bullied by the whims of a superpower.
Using foreign aid to bully other countries or to force them to toe one’s line is deplorable.
If, as President Trump has threatened, the US cuts fi nancial aid to member states that have voted against its decision, it will go to show that Uncle Sam’s generosity is not based on altruism but on the principle of quid pro quo.
If it follows through with that threat, the US will further isolate itself and lose what little respect it still commands among its friends in the world.
There is only one course left for the Trump administration to salvage its respect in the eyes of the Muslims around the world, who have been seething at its recent decision on Jerusalem. Rescind it.
UN vote on statusof Jerusalem: ahumiliation for US
COMMENT
GULF TIMES
Thursday’s vote is a victory for Palestinians
Gulf Times Saturday, December 23, 201714
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Aids, NCDs, and the ABCs of organisingBy Kent Buse and Laurel SpragueGeneva
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), like heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and chronic lung
disease, are responsible for 70% of all deaths. There is incontrovertible evidence that tobacco use, inactivity, unhealthy diets, and excessive alcohol consumption increase the odds of dying prematurely from an NCD.
And yet, despite widespread knowledge of the risks, global obesity goes largely unchecked, while tobacco and alcohol use continue to rise. It is against this backdrop that networks of NCD alliances met on December 9-11 at the second Global NCD Alliance Forum, in the United Arab Emirates.
As they search for solutions to bring NCDs under control, they should look for inspiration to the movement to fi ght Aids. People living with and aff ected by HIV continue to drive response eff orts, and their unique form of mobilisation has been instrumental to progress. While the battle is not over, Aids activists know that it can be won.
Similarly, a mobilised NCD movement can turn the tide against that epidemic. Yet, in 2015, Richard Horton, the editor of The Lancet, described the NCD community as needing an “electric shock to its semi-comatose soul.” He added: “But who has the courage to deliver it?”
We believe there are lessons to be learned from Aids activists. As global attention focuses on NCD prevention, those seeking to control preventable illnesses should look to the “ABCs” of Aids organising for guidance.
The fi rst letter that the NCD community should consider is “A,” for
activism. Anyone over 40 will recall images of Aids activists performing “die-ins” at scientifi c meetings around the world. In the United States, Aids activists took to the streets, even shutting down the Food and Drug Administration’s headquarters for a day in October 1988. Globally, activists lobbied governments and pharmaceutical companies to make medicines more aff ordable. This activism continues, and should serve as a model for action on NCDs.
Next, the NCD community must adopt a bolder approach to budgets – the “B” of the Aids movement’s strategy. Civic organising and grassroots activism may fuel early energies, but organising and sustaining a broad-based coalition takes money. The Aids movement was clear about this from the beginning, and lobbied for resources to support its advocacy and accountability eff ectively.
“C” is for coalitions: the Aids movement was quick to understand that progress would come only with diverse support. Activists established links between people living with HIV and those with other concerns, such as women’s rights, intellectual property, nutrition, and housing. Issue-specifi c coalitions and campaigns work best when they bring together government insiders and outsiders, to combine perspectives and expertise.
The Aids movement also understood that a holistic response to the epidemic was essential if support was to spread. Thus, “D,” the determinant of success, was to draw attention to the interconnectivity of the challenge. For example, lobbying education leaders to keep girls in school longer has contributed to providing young people with the knowledge and agency to make smart decisions about when and with whom to negotiate safe sex.
Similarly, links were forged between groups working on poverty, gender, and nutrition – factors that played a role in driving the Aids crisis. NCDs are no less isolated in their causality, and similarly require a multi-sector approach to prevention.
Engagement – “E” – was what helped the Aids movement become so infl uential. By borrowing from the playbook of the disability rights movement, which championed the mantra “Nothing About Us Without Us,” Aids advocates demanded representation on the bodies established to address the disease. For example, UNAIDS remains the only United Nations agency with seats on its board for representatives from civil society. This norm is so powerfully embedded in the Aids movement that it would be almost unthinkable for an Aids meeting to take place without representation from the community.
Disease prevention movements must also develop persuasive narratives, and “F” – framing the issue – was essential to the Aids community’s eff ort to gain support from political leaders. In particular, access to Aids treatment was framed as a matter of economic justice. Framing the narrative this way led to a dramatic reduction in the price of medicines, so much so that more than half of people living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries are in treatment.
An equally important framing issue for Aids, which is highly relevant to the NCDs movement, is that of responsibility. The Aids community worked hard to shift the focus from blaming individuals’ lifestyle choices to putting the onus on the state for providing health care and removing legal discrimination.
In the Aids debate, gender – our movement’s “G” – was a signifi cant
focal point. Initially gender identity was embedded in the DNA of the Aids movement early on. Gender dimensions of NCDs are no less important; one only has to consider how tobacco is marketed to understand that. Gender, therefore, must become a focus of NCDs prevention eff orts.
Finally, “H” – human rights – was the bedrock of the Aids response. Campaigns were launched against discrimination in workplaces, schools, and health centres. Strategic litigation helped ensure equality under the law. The Aids movement refused to hold major conferences in countries with punitive laws against people living with HIV. The NCD movement could take a similar tack by, for example, refusing to meet in countries that fail to restrict advertising of junk food to children.
The list of Aids lessons could continue throughout the alphabet, but ending with “H” is apt, given that human rights drove the response, and should drive the response to NCDs. Poverty, exclusion, and social and economic marginalisation put people at higher risk for HIV. It is no diff erent for NCDs.
The early mainstream reaction to the Aids epidemic was to ask, “Why don’t those people make better choices?” The Aids movement made clear that was the wrong question. Today, with 70% of the planet at risk of premature death from preventable illnesses, “those people” are many of us. The NCD and Aids communities can learn from one another. We are a stronger movement when we join forces.
The views expressed here do not necessarily refl ect those of UNAIDS. – Project Syndicate
Kent Buse is Chief of Strategic Policy Directions at UNAIDS. Laurel Sprague is Executive Director of the Global Network of People Living with HIV.
Aids activists performing a “die-in” at a scientific meeting.
Gulf Times Saturday, December 23, 2017 15
COMMENT
LEGAL HELPLINE
Compensating for damage caused by employee
LEGAL SYSTEM IN QATAR
According to Article 35 of the Civil and Commercial Procedure law, the time limit for appearance before Summary Court, Plenary Court and Court of Appeal is fi ve days. In an emergency case, this time limit may be reduced to 24 hours. In urgent cases, the time limit for appearance shall be 24 hours. In an emergency case, this time limit shall be reduced to one hour provided that the summons is served on the same party and refusal by him to receive the same shall be deemed in this case as service of the summons upon him, unless the lawsuit is against a sailor. The reduction of time limits in the aforementioned cases shall be made with permission from the judge of summary matters and a copy shall be delivered to the party with the claim. The authority responsible for the service of the summons shall serve it within two weeks from the date of receipt, unless a date for the hearing of the lawsuit is fi xed during this period, then the summons shall be served before the hearing. However, in all cases, the time limit for appearance shall be complied with. Non-compliance with the time limit stipulated shall not render the summons void and shall not lead to the invalidity of proceedings. If the summons is not served on the specifi c date fi xed for the hearing, another hearing may be held after summoning the concerned parties.
As per Article 39, the court in which the lawsuit is fi led may deliver a judgment against those employees at the offi ce of the Registry or those authorised to execute the summons with a fi ne that shall not exceed QR 100. Judgment on this matter shall be fi nal. On the day specifi ed for hearing of the lawsuit, the parties shall appear either personally or through their legal representatives. The court shall duly accept spouses or relatives or in-laws up to the fourth degree as representatives of the parties. Once the power of attorney is issued by one of the litigants, his attorney’s address shall be used for serving the summons pertaining to the lawsuit at the level of legal action for which the
attorney is appointed to appear. According to Article 43, power of attorney in litigation confers authority to carry out the actions and measures necessary to fi le and pursue the case or to defend it, to take protective measures until verdict is passed on the merits of the case at the level of legal action for which the attorney is appointed, to announce this verdict, and to receive fees and expenses; without prejudice to areas in which the law requires special authorisation. The following actions are invalid without special authorisation: the concession or waiver of rights claims, reconciliation or arbitration thereof, acceptance, request and refusal of oath, stay of litigation, waiver of judgment or means of appeal, stay of attachment, relinquishment of securities while debts remain outstanding; allegations of falsifi cations, acceptance or rejection of an off er, de facto submissions or admission of such; and receipt of sums of money from the court on behalf of the client, or any other conduct for which the law requires a special mandate. As per Article 48, the withdrawal or dismissal of the attorney shall not impede the proceedings against him present unless the litigant announces the appointment of another attorney to replace or the principal decides to conduct the case himself. The attorney shall not withdraw from the power of attorney at an inappropriate time.
By Dr Nizar Kochery Doha
Question: As per law, is the company liable for every act of the employees? Last month, we received a legal notice from lawyer stating that the company has to compensate for the damage caused by the employee. On enquiry, we found that it is something which is beyond the scope of employment and is related to personal issues of the employee. We have responded to the letter refusing to entertain such matters as it is not related to his employment. Now he has filed a civil case in the court claiming compensation from the company? Being the employer, are we liable for the same? Please advise.
UX, Doha
Answer: Employer is not liable for the damage caused as a result of an unlawful act by the employee where that act was committed not during the course of the employment. According to Article 209 of the civil laws, an employer is liable towards an injured person for the damage caused by an unlawful act of his employee when the act was performed by the servant in the course, or as a result, of his employment. The employment relationship shall be established where the activities of the employee are in furtherance of duties that are owed to the employer and where the employer exercises actual powers of supervision and control, directly or indirectly, over the activities of the employee. The employer is liable for the detriment caused as a result of an unlawful act by the employee where that act was committed during the course of the employment.
Punishment forprotecting accused
Q: In a cheque case, I am holding a judgment with imprisonment and attachment orders for recovery against the accused. The accused has good relationship with a higher official in the court. I feel that he may use his contact to delay or stop the execution. Is this possible?
SM, Doha
A: According to Article 164 of the penal laws, any public officer, who infringes the provisions of the law with the intention to protect a
person from serving or executing due sentence by reducing the imposed penalty or delaying its execution or to protect any asset from confiscation, seizure, or any restriction set by the law on the said asset, or to delay its confiscation or seizure, or to impose or execute any restriction on it; shall be punished with an imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years and a fine not exceeding QR10,000 or both.
Rules for transferof vehiclesQ: Two years ago, I signed a guarantee for one of my Egyptian friends to buy a car. Due to various reasons, my friend did not return to Qatar. Being a guarantor, I am afraid the car company may deposit my guarantee cheque in case of non-payment of monthly instalments. I don’t have that much cash in my bank account and I cannot pay this amount. I
discussed with my friend about this and he agreed to transfer the car to my name so that I can settle the dues. When I approached the traffi c department, according to police, the owner should come for transferring the car. My friend has no valid visa and he cannot come. How can I transfer the car without his presence? Please advise.
GS, Doha
A: In order to transfer the car, ask your friend to prepare a special power of attorney authorising someone in Qatar to sell the car. The power of attorney should specifi cally state the purpose and it should include all relevant details to identify the car. The power of attorney prepared outside Qatar for use in Qatar requires to be notarised, attested, and consularised at the level of the Qatari embassy in the country of origin, before it is re-attested by the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs in Qatar. The attorney can transfer the car into your name with this special power of attorney.
Termination of probationerQ: We have appointed a new receptionist in our office and the contract has been signed as per employment law. Now he is on probation and we found him not suitable for the position. So, in order to avoid further complications, we want to terminate him as per the provisions of law? Please advise.
HS, Doha
A: If the employee is on probation, the employer can terminate the employee if it has been proved to him that the employee is not capable of carrying out the work, provided that the employer shall notify the worker thereof before at least three days from the date of termination.
Please send your questions by e-mail to: [email protected]
By Kemal DervisWashington, D.C.
Economic growth is accelerating across most of the world.
Yet the world’s total gross debt-to-GDP ratio has reached
nearly 250%, up from 210% before the global economic crisis nearly a decade ago, despite post-crisis eff orts by regulators in many important economies to drive the banking sector to deleverage.
This has raised doubts about the sustainability of the recovery, with some arguing that a rise in interest rates could trigger another global crisis.
But how likely is that to happen?To answer this question, one must
recall that debt is both a liability and an asset.
In a closed economy – and we don’t owe anything to non-earthlings – overall debt and the corresponding assets necessarily cancel each other out.
So what really matters is the composition of debts and liabilities – or, to put it simply, who owes what to whom.
High public-sector debt, for example, signals the possible need for tax increases – the opposite of the tax legislation being advanced by Republican legislators in the US – and/or higher interest rates (real or nominal, depending on monetary policy and infl ation). If debt is owed largely to foreign lenders, interest-rate risk is compounded by exchange-rate risk.
For private-sector debt, much depends on its type: the hedging sort, where a debtor’s cash fl ow covers all obligations; the speculative type, where cash fl ow covers interest only; or the Ponzi kind, where cash fl ow does not even cover that.
As the late American economist Hyman Minsky explained, the
higher the share of debt that falls into the speculative or Ponzi categories, the higher the risk that a confidence shock will trigger a sudden wave of deleveraging that quickly morphs into a full-blown financial crisis.
For both public- and private-sector debt, maturities also play an important role.
Longer maturities leave more time for adjustment, lowering the risk of a confi dence shock.
Yet while it makes little sense to focus on simple aggregate fi gures, both public institutions and private researchers tend to do precisely that.
Consider the coverage of the Greek debt crisis.
Headlines tracked the debt-to-GDP ratio’s climb from 100% in 2007 to 180% this year, yet little attention was paid to private-sector debt.
And, in fact, as foreign public creditors replaced private debt holders and interest rates were lowered, Greece’s overall debt, while still high, became more sustainable.
Its continued sustainability will depend partly on the trajectory of Greece’s GDP – the denominator in the debt ratio.
A similar mistake is made in assessing China’s debts, about which the world is most concerned.
The figures are certainly daunting: China’s debt-to-GDP ratio now stands at about 250%, with private-sector debt amounting to about 210% of GDP.
But about two-thirds of the private-sector debt that is defined as bank loans and corporate bonds is actually held by state-owned enterprises and local-government entities.
The central government has considerable control over both.
For China, the biggest risk probably lies in the shadow banking sector, on which reliable data are not available.
On the other hand, a signifi cant
share of the growth in private debt ratios in recent years may be a result of the “formalisation” of parts of the shadow banking system – a trend that would bode well for economic stability.
And there is more good news for China.
Most Chinese debt is held in renminbi; the country possesses massive foreign-exchange reserves of close to $3tn; and capital controls
are still eff ective, despite having been eased in recent years.
The country’s leaders thus have a public-policy war chest that they can use to cushion against fi nancial turmoil.
Among the rest of the emerging economies, there are some sources of concern.
But, overall, the situation is relatively stable.
Though private-sector debt has lately been rising, its levels remain tolerable. And public-sector debt has been growing only moderately, relative to GDP.
As for the advanced economies, there is little reason to believe that a debt crisis is around the corner in Japan.
In the US, public debt is set to increase, thanks to the impending
tax overhaul; but the blow will be cushioned, at least for the next year or two, by continued growth acceleration.
And though low-quality assets held by the banking system are likely to impede Europe’s recovery, they are unlikely to spark a fi nancial crisis.
In short, the world does not seem to face much risk of a debt crisis in the short term.
On the contrary, the stage seems to be set for continued increases in asset valuations and demand-driven growth.
That said, geopolitical risks should not be discounted.
While markets tend to shrug off localised political crises and even larger geopolitical challenges, some dramas may be set to spin out of control.
In particular, the North Korean nuclear threat remains acute, with the possibility of a sudden escalation raising the risk of confl ict between the US and China.
Rising income inequality, exacerbated by the mismatch between skills and jobs in the digital age, will impede growth, unless a wide array of difficult structural reforms are implemented, including reforms aimed at constraining climate change.
As long as the geopolitical situation remains manageable, policymakers should have time to implement the needed structural reforms.
But the window of opportunity will not stay open forever.
If policymakers waste time on trickle-down sophistry, as is happening in the US, the world may be headed for severe economic distress. – Project Syndicate
Kemal Dervis, former minister of economic aff airs of Turkey and former administrator for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), is Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Is another debt crisis on the way?
WARNINGInshore : Expected poor horizon-
tal visibility at places at first due to fog.
Offshore : Expected poor visibility at places at first due to fog
WEATHERInshore : Hazy to misty/foggy at
places at first becomes moderate temperature daytime with some clouds,cold by night
WINDInshore : Northwesterly 04-10 KTOffshrore : Northwesterly 03-12
KT reaches to 15 KT at time.
Visibility : 4-8 KM/2 KM or less at places at first
SEA STATEOffshore : 1-3 FT rising to 4 FT
TODAY
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BaghdadKuwait CityManamaMuscat Tehran
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16 Gulf TimesSaturday, December 23, 2017
QATAR
Medical City to redefi ne healthcare in the regionHamad Medical Corpora-
tion’s (HMC) new Medi-cal City complex, the
biggest healthcare facility ex-pansion in the region, will bring new services and care options to create a patient-centred healing environment for Qatar residents.
Once fully operational, the three new hospitals – Qatar Re-habilitation Institute, Women’s Wellness and Research Center, and the Ambulatory Care Center – will house 500 new hospital beds and 3,000 highly trained clinical and support staff .
The size of 35 soccer pitches, the facilities have a number of unique features. It is the home to the largest rehabilitation hospital in the region; Qatar Rehabilita-tion Institute (QRI), at 38,000sq m, is the size of fi ve soccer pitch-es.
The QRI houses seven indoor heated hydrotherapy pools, each with the highest water quality standards, and 11 rehabilitation gyms. It has more than 2,000m of pneumatic tubes crisscrossing the three hospitals, and transport medicine and lab specimens to various units within the hospitals in minutes.
The complex has the largest healthcare kitchen in the Middle East which is able to deliver up to 4,000 meals a day to patients and
catering for more than 65 diff er-ent diets. The 17,000 babies born each year at the Women’s Well-ness and Research Centre will get the best start in life with more than 100 neonatal intensive care cots, seven operating theatres, 26 labour and delivery rooms, and 50 outpatient examination
rooms. The Ambulatory Care Centre, which is delivering out-patient and day surgery services, is equipped with state-of-the-art theatres, an extensive radiol-ogy unit, examination suites and treatment rooms, and 12 exami-nation rooms for ENT and audi-ology.
“This is a project of immense size and complexity,” said HMC’s chief of healthcare facilities Hamad al-Khalifa. “It is a sig-nifi cant improvement in space, environment, and infrastruc-ture compared to current HMC facilities — a state-of-the-art home for an increasing range of
innovative services off ering new models of care.”
“Our Medical City hospitals are delivering on a promise to expand world-class facilities for the people of Qatar,” continued al-Khalifa. “But this is not just about the bricks and mortar – the dedicated and highly-qualifi ed clinical and support teams staff -ing these facilities will also deliv-er high-quality, compassionate
care to every patient.”Dr Abdulla al-Ansari, acting
chief medical offi cer at HMC said the opening of the new hospitals is the culmination of many years of careful planning and hard work.
“Our new hospitals provide a state-of-the-art home for a range of innovative services and new integrated models of care. Designed with the experience of
our patients and their families in mind, we are delivering on a promise to expand world-class facilities,” said Dr al-Ansari.
Earlier this month, Ali Abdul-lah al-Khater, HMC’s chief com-munications offi cer and chair of the Healthcare Communica-tions Committee, announced the launch of a website dedicated ex-clusively to the new Medical City Hospitals.
The Qatar Rehabilitation Institute features seven advanced hydrotherapy pools.
The Ambulatory Care Center features 14 state-of-the-art operating theatres.
Women’s Wellness and Research Center provides 240 private inpatient rooms.
Qur’anic Botanic Garden holds ‘Fun & Learn’ eventQur’anic Botanic Garden
(QBG), a member of Qa-tar Foundation (QF), has
begun the second round of its ‘Fun & Learn’ educational pro-gramme for primary school stu-dents at Oxygen Park in Educa-tion City.
The QBG programme is set to welcome more than 40 students from various schools across the country to Oxygen Park every Thursday.
In addition, as part of the ini-tiative, QBG will host weekly site visits to the QF plant nursery for pre-school and primary schools. The aim of the programme, which will run until the end of March 2018, is to teach partici-pants about plants and the en-
vironment. Fatima al-Khulaifi , manager, QBG, said, “The ‘Fun & Learn’ initiative is organised by the Qur’anic Botanic Garden in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Higher Educa-tion. The programme combines science with a series of fun ac-tivities to create a healthy edu-cational environment outside of school that will help students explore their natural surround-ings and improve their research skills.
The initiative also promotes extra-curricular activities and increases young people’s aware-ness of the importance of plant conservation within Qatar to foster sustainable development.”
The QBG programme aims to
teach students about plant life-cycles, the importance of plants, the defi nition of environmental preservation, and the signifi -cance of sustainability over all. QBG has designed fi ve inter-active stations, including: the ‘Vertical Agriculture’ activity, which allows students to prac-tice non-traditional planting methods using recycled irriga-tion pipes; ‘Green Dolls’, where students reuse old planting pots to create garden decora-tions; ‘Fruit Box’, which teaches students about the plants and fruits of QBG; ‘Treasure Hunt’, where students can learn about Oxygen Park’s plants, elements, and diff erent components of the Qur’anic Botanic Garden, as
well as ‘Puzzles and Maze’, which teaches participants about plant life.
During the 2016-2017 aca-demic year, QBG worked with more than 30 schools and kin-dergartens in the ‘Fun & Learn’ programme. The initiative was also able to engage with more than 1,200 students at the ses-sions provided in Oxygen Park and through school visits to the QF plant nursery.
QBG seeks to promote student and community participation and to raise public awareness of the importance of agriculture in Qatar to support QF’s com-mitment to sustainable devel-opment and environmental re-sponsibility.
Primary schoolchildren enjoy activities organised by Qur’anic Botanic Garden as part of its ‘Fun & Learn’ programme held at Oxygen Park.
Qbake strives to enhance its reach
Prominent local bakery fi rm Qbake is looking to enhance its market
reach by increasing produc-tion capacity and launching more food items in the local market, according to offi cials.
The prevailing situation in Qatar, caused by the ille-gal blockade, has given local companies such as Qbake an opportunity to boost their business in order to cater to the demand for various kinds of goods.
The company participated in the recently held Made in Qatar exhibition in Doha. The Qbake stall at the venue, Doha Exhibition and Con-vention Centre, drew the attention of many visitors with an attractive display of its items. The baking firm, it is learnt, has more than 40 varieties of breads, buns, cr-oissants, cakes, biscuits and muffins.
The company is known as the leading producer of Arabic bread in the country.
Enquiries with some com-pany offi cials found that the fi rm would be eager to launch more items to cater to the lo-cal demand.
“There is a growing de-mand for most of our prod-ucts and that has prompted us to explore more opportunities in the local market,” said one of them.
The bakery’s transforma-tion “has been spectacular since the launch of the Qbake brand”, sources pointed out, adding that Qbake products are widely used in the country and there is an even greater scope now.
“The bakery brand, belong-ing to Zad Holding, has be-come a household name and is a part of the daily lives of many people in the country,” a source pointed out.
The Qbake stall at Made in Qatar. PICTURE: Jayaram
Huge stock of decorative items up for grabs
Huge stocks of decorative items for the year-end festive celebrations are available in Qatar’s major hypermarkets and department stores, it is found. Visits to some of these retail outlets over the past few days show that customers can choose from a wide of range of products and also avail of special offers at some stores, as they prepare for the festivities.“The variety is good and large quantities are available at some of the bigger stores,” said a source familiar with the retail sector. “Customers have a lot to choose from.”For instance, shelves at a leading hypermarket were filled with various decorative and fancy items, a majority of which were made in China. “The past 7-10 days have been really good as people of different nationalities have thronged the place to make their festive purchases,” said a sales employee, adding that the hypermarket was hoping to receive even more customers over the next few days.While some of the smaller goods are priced as low as QR2, some of the bigger items cost well over QR150, especially festive trees, it was found. The prices of such trees further increases depending on the quality, costing well over QR250 in some places.Different types of decorative lights are also being sold.“We are looking for good-quality decorative materials at reasonable rates. There is a lot to choose from this year and we are sure to bag a great deal somewhere,” said a Doha-resident, who was looking for festive items along with his family members.
The Doha Corniche was cleaned up within a “record time” of three hours after the grand Qatar National Day celebrations, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has said on Twitter. The work was carried out by the General Cleanliness Department of the MME. In a statement, the ministry said some 781 workers, drivers and supervisors were involved in the Doha Corniche cleanup drive. Also, 47 specialised equipment were deployed for the work. Safar Mubarak al-Shafi, director of the department, stressed that they exerted great eff orts to restore the cleanliness of the areas where National Day celebrations were held. This included the removal of garbage and all types of items left behind by the revellers, including paper and plastic, from such places. The cleanup drive covered the Darb Al Saai celebration venue in addition to the Corniche, where close co-ordination with the Traff ic Department and Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya) facilitated the process.
Cleanup completed at Corniche
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