Qatar's budget may return to healthy surplus in 2019: QNB

In brief

GULF TIMES

published in

QATAR

since 1978

THURSDAY Vol. XXXIX No. 10947

September 20, 2018Moharram 10, 1440 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

Commercial Bank’sremittance serviceproves to be a big hit

QATAR | Page 3

Kumar, Sharma shine in India’s win over Pakistan

SPORT | Page 1

QATAR | Offi cial

Amir congratulatesNepal’s presidentHis Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and His Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani sent yesterday cables of congratulations to Nepal’s President, Bidhya Devi Bhandari, on the anniversary of her country’s Independence Day. HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani also sent a similar cable to Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli. Page 28

QATAR | Diplomacy

Amir sends messageto Liberian presidentHis Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani sent yesterday a written message to Liberian President George Weah, pertaining to bilateral relations and the means to enhance them. The charge d’aff aires at Qatar’s embassy in Liberia, Fahad Rashid al-Muraikhi, delivered the message during a reception held for him by the Liberian president.

QATAR | US report

Blockade had negativeimpact on anti-terror fi ghtThe imposition of the blockade on Qatar by the Saudi-led bloc last year had a negative impact on regional counterterrorism co-operation, the US State Department said in a new report yesterday. The report on terrorism in 2017 also highlights the co-operation between the US and Qatar in counterterrorism, notably the signing of a counterterrorism memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two countries in July last year to increase co-operation. Page 7

PAKISTAN | Politics

Sharif released fromjail on court ordersFormer Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif was released from prison late yesterday to be met by jubilant supporters after a court suspended his prison sentence for corruption pending an appeal hearing. Sharif — who was ousted from off ice last year by the Supreme Court for alleged corruption — was freed along with his daughter. Sharif and Maryam Nawaz were arrested on their return in July from London to campaign in elections. Page 24

Amir meets South African MP Amir visits Qatari artist’s show

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani met yesterday at his Amiri Diwan off ice with Zwelivelile Mandela, member of South Africa Parliament, and his accompanying delegation, who called to greet His Highness on the occasion of their visit to Qatar. The meeting dealt with topics of mutual interest.

Canada keen on partnership in education sector: envoy Canadian educational

institutions to visit Qatar from October 21-23

By Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

Representatives from 30 prestig-ious schools and universities in Canada will be in Qatar from Oc-

tober 21-23 to explore various collabo-ration opportunities with other edu-cational institutions in the country, as well as meeting prospective students, Canada’s new ambassador Stefanie McCollum has said.

The envoy told Gulf Times that the upcoming Canadian University tour

aims to further strengthen the educa-tion relations between the two coun-tries.

“The delegates will be looking at schools which are already well estab-lished in Qatar for their positive expe-rience to help them explore future op-portunities,” McCollum said, adding that the visit will involve close collabo-rations with universities in Qatar which have similar interest programmes.

The tour, she noted, also serves as a platform for student exchanges be-tween Qatar and Canada.

Like in previous years, the 2018 tour aims to promote Canadian universities and is organised with the support of Qa-tar’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education and in partnership with the College of the North Atlantic – Qatar.

Parents and students in Qatar who are considering an education abroad will have the chance to meet with rep-resentatives from universities to learn about education in Canada.

The tour, McCollum added, is also an opportunity for the embassy to promote Canada as an education des-tination, expressing optimism that the number of Qataris studying in Canada will continue to increase in the future.

“We need to be able to articulate how lovely the cities are, they are all con-sistently ranked some of the best places to live, play, work, and study,” she not-ed. “Canada’s educational institutions are internationally respected for their diplomas, degrees, and certifi cations.”

Citing the “warm and strong rela-

tionship” between the two countries, McCollum said they are also keen to continue and further expand their co-operation in the area of culture.

“Culture hasn’t been an area of fo-cus but I don’t see why we couldn’t explore these opportunities come up certainly when there are Canadian cul-tural signature events in the region,” she stressed.

In March 2017, the embassy brought to Doha a renowned Canadian band, ‘Les Portageux,’ to mark the 150th an-niversary of Canada’s Confederation, and as part of the Francophone week in Qatar.

The second performance of famous Canadian singer, composer and pro-ducer, Bryan Adams, in Doha also took place in the same month, enthralling a

huge crowd at Grand Hyatt Doha. As the focus now shifts from Rus-

sia to Qatar for the hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the envoy said many Canadians are working with various organisations and institutions, par-ticularly in infrastructure, which are getting ready for the high number of people who will be coming for this prestigious tournament.

“We have some expertise that we can lend and we’ll also probably be look-ing to learn from the experience here, learn from the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy on how they organ-ise themselves and how they prepare to receive that infl ux of people,” noted McCollum, citing Canada, along with the US and Mexico, as host of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Canadian ambassador to Qatar Stefanie McCollum.

Qatar’s budget may return to healthy surplus in 2019: QNBBy Pratap JohnChief Business Reporter

Helped by higher hydrocarbon prices, government fi nances are expected to steadily im-

prove with Qatar’s budget seen in “broad balance” this year, before re-turning to a “healthy surplus” in 2019, according to QNB.

“Higher hydrocarbon prices and spending restraint will see the budget steadily improving,” QNB said in its ‘Qatar Economic Insight- September’ released here yesterday.

The fi scal defi cit “narrowed” to 1.6% of GDP in 2017 from 4.7% in 2016. The “fall” refl ected government expenditure “restraints” in the face of “slowing” revenue growth, it said.

Qatar’s Ministry of Finance data shows that total expenditure “slipped” by 2% in 2017 versus 2016. Important-ly, capital spending on major projects was sustained with growth of 2.6% last year.

Meanwhile, revenues grew by 9% in 2017, helped by the increase in hydro-carbon prices, QNB said.

On the expenditure side, spending is expected to show modest overall year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in 2018 as “re-straint” in current spending continues and, as Capex spending on large infra-structure projects and the 2022 World

Cup starts to “fl atten out”. 2019’s more relaxed climate should

then allow for some pick up in current spending and increased transfers, such as to QIA or debt repayments, as the surplus grows.

On the revenue side, QNB noted Qatar’s growth rates will be lifted by higher hydrocarbon revenues as the full benefi t of the doubling of crude prices from June 2016’s level is felt and the partial lifting of Opec output caps spurs the modest output gains embed-ded in its GDP forecast.

As a result of the recent strength in oil prices, QNB has revised up its forecasts for average annual oil prices to $72/b for 2018 from $69/b and to $69/b in 2019 from $66/b.

Both demand and supply factors, however, suggest a tilt towards lower prices in 2019 as global demand cools and infrastructure constraints on US shale supply fade.

The expected introduction of VAT in 2019 will boost revenues by around 1¼% of GDP, helping diversify and reduce volatility in government rev-enues.

Qatar’s GDP growth is forecast to improve to 2.6% this year from 2017’s 1.6% out-turn, QNB noted.

On the hydrocarbon side, modest growth of 0.2% is anticipated, which would end four years of declines.

The lifting of Opec production

cuts should modestly boost crude oil production, while the end of mainte-nance work and temporary shutdowns should start to spur a recovery in LNG output through the year.

A further pick up of 0.7% in hy-drocarbon output is then expected in 2019.

“Qatar’s economic performance re-mains resilient,” QNB said and noted that despite the economic blockade imposed by some of its neighbours, the economy grew by 1.6% in 2017.

An important drag on growth was the hydrocarbon sector, which con-tracted by 0.7% as a result of Opec output cuts and maintenance on LNG trains.

Growth in the non-hydrocarbon sector slowed from a buoyant 5.3% to a still-solid 3.8%, proving resilient to the temporary disruption by the eco-nomic blockade on Qatar by some of its neighbours.

Construction, which accounts for 21% of non-hydrocarbon output, re-mained the key growth driver, it said.

Construction output was up 17.5% in 2017, supported by key infrastruc-ture projects related to Qatar’s Vision 2030 and also the 2022 World Cup.

The construction sector’s buoy-ancy has continued so far in 2018 with the latest data showing output up 17.2% year-on-year (y-o-y) in the fi rst quarter.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani visiting Qatari artist Ahmed al-Maadheed’s exhibition “5/6”.

Qatar plant to produce 700hp, 1,000km range electric car in 2022

A view of the guests at the meeting.

By Ramesh MathewStaff Reporter

The fi rst electric car from the proposed new venture of Qatar Quality Trading Company will

roll out of the assembly line in 2022, it was announced yesterday.

Named ‘Katara’, the 700hp green car would have a range of 1,000km on a 10-minute single charge.

The $9bn-project is backed by the production technology of ARM of Ja-pan and is expected to come up near the New Industrial Area, company offi cials said. The plant will be spread over 6.5sq km.

Addressing a press conference, the promoters said once all approvals and clearances are received, the work of the state-of- the-art complex, containing six factories, with 12 assembly lines will start production as early as 2022.

In his presentation, ARM managing director Takayuki Hirayama said the

company would produce 500,000 cars in the fi rst three years after starting production in 2022. “Our expectation is that approximately 1mn units would be launched by the end of 2035.”

Speaking to Gulf Times, Qatar Qual-ity Trading Company’s managing di-rector Musa Ramadan said the fi rst 10 ‘Katara’ cars would be produced in Ja-pan. He said the company is expected to produce one car every 10 minutes from each of the six plants. The full production capacity of the plant will be reached after seven years, with 12 pro-duction lines running 24 hours a day.

The company has an ambitious plan to sell the cars worldwide and an amount of $0.4bn has been set apart for global advertising and $0.1bn for marketing and sales research.

The production lines to be made in Japan are expected to cost about $3bn. ARM is one of the leading Japanese companies in technology, systems de-sign and programming for production lines. To Page 7

QATAR3Gulf Times

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Commercial Bank remittance service proves to be a big hitCommercial Bank’s ‘60 Seconds Remittance’ service is the first-of-its-kind in Qatar and allows customers to send money instantly to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and The Philippines

Commercial Bank’s award-winning ‘60 Seconds Remittance service’ has

recorded more than 1mn trans-actions, since it was launched in June 2017.

Commercial Bank’s ‘60 Sec-onds Remittance’ service is the fi rst-of-its-kind in Qatar. It al-lows customers to send money abroad within a minute.

Customers can access the service through Commercial Bank Internet Banking and Mo-bile Banking App to send money to banks in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and The Philip-pines almost instantly.

The ‘60 Seconds Remittance’ service was initially launched in June 2017 for remittances to In-dia. Due to its popularity among customers, it was later extended to Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Today, it is available to as many as 28 banks in India, 35 banks in the Philippines, 26 banks in Sri Lanka, 29 banks in Pakistan and 28 banks in Nepal. It covers 95% of banks in each country.

Addressing a media round table at the Commercial Bank Plaza yesterday, bank’s execu-tive general manager (consumer banking) Amit Sah said, “Our aim at Commercial Bank is to use digital technology to transform our customer experience. Be-

fore launching the ‘60 Seconds Remittance’ service, we asked our customers, through surveys and focus groups, how we could make their lives easier. For ex-patriate customers, the answer was clear- they were fed up of spending their time queuing in banks or exchange houses dur-ing their weekends to transfer money.

“Our solution was the ‘60 Seconds Remittance’ service. It is a service that is convenient, quick, easy to use, secure and

available 24 hours, seven days a week. It is also cost-eff ective, off ering market-leading ex-change rates and competitively priced fees as low as QR5 per transaction.

“Because we knew that it was going to fulfi l a real demand in the Qatar market for a convenient bank transfer service, it is no sur-prise to us that the use of the 60 Seconds Remittance is so high. We hope to expand the service in the future to cover more coun-tries. And of course, we are con-

tinually looking at other ways that we can use technology to improve our customer experi-ence. For Commercial Bank, the future of banking is digital, and we want to be at the forefront of these developments.”

The service is further evi-dence that Commercial Bank is a leader in digital banking in Qa-tar. In recognition of this mar-ket-leading remittance service, Commercial Bank was named ‘The Best Remittance Service for the Middle East’ at the Asian

Banker’s Excellence Services Awards 2018.

Commercial Bank’s corpo-rate strategy is based around fi ve ‘C’s, which are: corporate earn-ings quality, client experience, creativity and innovation, cul-ture and compliance.

The ‘60 Seconds Remittance’ service is evidence that the bank is delivering on the creativ-ity and innovation strand of this strategy, which is the driving force behind its digital products and services.

CB plans to expand‘60 Seconds Remittance’service to UK, EuropeBy Pratap JohnChief Business Reporter

Commercial Bank is planning to expand its ‘60 Seconds Remittance’ service to the UK and other European markets over the next few months, said bank’s executive general manager (consumer banking) Amit Sah.A first-of-its-kind service in Qa-tar, it allows customers to send money almost instantly to their home country accounts in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Philippines.The service has become “very popular”, which is evident from Commercial Bank record-ing in excess of 1mn transac-tions since it was launched in June 2017.In terms of the number of customers, India is the most popular country to send remit-tances to, using Commercial Bank’s ‘60 Seconds Remit-tance’ service. Sah said Commercial Bank provides banking service to nearly one-third of the em-ployed people in Qatar. Off icial data indicates that “more than 95% of the expatriate popula-tion has a need to send money home”.Explaining the reasons for designing the product, Sah said, “Based on our survey, we found out the need to create an ultra-competitive service to meet the needs of a large customer base. It should be instant, round-the-clock, cost-eff icient and convenient. Our solution was the 60 Seconds Remittance service.”“Customer service is at the heart of everything we do. We knew that our expatriate customers wanted a quicker, simpler way of sending remittances to banks in their home countries, and we were determined to provide it to

them. For Commercial Bank, the future of banking is digital, and we want to be pioneers of this change in Qatar.”Addressing a media roundta-ble at the Commercial Bank Plaza yesterday, Sah said all Commercial Bank custom-ers could access this service through Commercial Bank Internet Banking and Mobile Banking App. Customers can use the Com-mercial Bank Internet Banking and Mobile Banking App to instantly send money to banks in India, Pakistan, the Philip-pines, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The service is available to as many as 28 banks in India, 35 banks in the Philippines, 26 banks in Sri Lanka, 29 banks in Pakistan and 28 banks in Nepal. It covers 95% of banks in each country.The ‘Commercial Bank Internet Banking and Mobile Banking’ App services have scored highly in its customer feedback surveys. In the last survey, Commercial Bank scored 94% overall satisfac-tion (94% for security and ease of login, 93% for range of services, design and ease of use and 92% for reliability). The Net Promoter Score for the Commercial Bank Internet Banking and Mobile Bank-ing App services was 72, Sah revealed.Asked about the product’s impact on Commercial Bank’s bottom line, Sah said, “Com-mercial Bank and its subsidiar-ies and associates reported a net profit of QR855mn in H1, 2018. This is a 376% increase compared to the same period in 2017. Undoubtedly, our continued introduction of new and innovative products in re-tail banking – most notably the 60 Second Remittance service – plays a role in attracting and maintaining customers and, therefore, driving profit.”

Record 1mn plus transactions for ‘60 Seconds Remittance’ service

Abeer Marwan al-Kalla, Commercial Bank head (marketing communications and branding) speaks at the event. (Right) Amit Sah addresses a media roundtable at the Commercial Bank Plaza yesterday. PICTURES: Nasar T K

QATAR

Gulf Times Thursday, September 20, 20184

Education for middle class priority: ministerQatar reiterated the im-

portance of education for the middle class in socie-

ties due to the class’ prominence for community and economic development, highlighting that its stability is a stability for the world.

Speaking at the 12th World Economic Forum’s (WEF) an-nual meeting of the New Cham-pions, HE the Minister of Edu-cation and Higher Education Dr Mohammed Abdul Wahed Ali al-Hammadi said the middle class is facing severe neglect due to the consecutive confl icts and revolutions and wars around the world.

He reiterated that supporting the educational system directly impacts the needs of the middle class.

The minister highlighted that Qatar continuously works on giving the middle class full potential for outstanding edu-cation, through a number of procedures and measures such as providing free education in government schools, introduc-ing educational voucher systems

in private schools, promoting the school environment and the provided educational services, developing curricula that meet the aspirations of students and their families which contrib-utes to achieving Qatar National Vision 2030.

“The State also provides vari-ous facilities for the private sec-tors and the diff erent commu-nities residing in Qatar to open new schools, including granting them school buildings or lands to build schools.”

He highlighted the need to focus on the eff orts to use infor-mation technology in educating the middle class, which enables it to ensure educational oppor-tunities and meet its needs in digital skills for jobs.

The minister said Qatar’s pursuit to promote the role of technology is shown in provid-ing educational programmes, launching specialised applica-tions, setting comprehensive education systems, providing diverse interactive services to develop students’ skills, as well as launching an academic track of technology and a second-ary school applying Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

QNATianjin, China

HE the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohammed Abdul Wahed Ali al-Hammadi speaking at 12th World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting of the New Champions.

He confi rmed that university education refl ects a basic re-quirements for the needs of the middle class and its aspirations, universities must direct research towards identifying the need and meet the challenges faced by this class of society.

The minister said it is neces-sary to examine the poor qual-ity of educational outputs in higher education institutions in many countries, and the lack of

adaptation to the needs of the labour market.

He said Qatar has become a model to follow when higher ed-ucation reformation projects are mentioned and Qatar University, biggest national university, is one of the best 500 universities around the world and Educa-tion City is home to many elite universities.

The minister reviewed the eff orts exerted by Qatar to

achieve its goals on a global level, where the “Educate A Child” programme provided education for 10mn children out of school. “Qatar also spared no eff ort to improve ed-ucational environment in areas of armed confl ict where Qatar Fund for Development is an-other example that highlights the State’s keenness to support Education in various countries around the world.”

Cabinet approves draft law on arts, publications

HE the Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-

Thani chaired the Cabinet’s weekly meeting at Amiri Di-wan yesterday.

After the meeting, HE the Minister of Justice and Act-ing Minister of State for Cabi-net Aff airs Dr Hassan Lahdan Saqr al-Mohannadi said that the Cabinet considered several topics listed on its agenda.

The Cabinet approved a draft law regulating publica-tions, publishing, media ac-tivities and arts.

The draft law was pre-pared in the framework of modernising legislation and keeping abreast of the technical and technologi-cal development in the fi eld of publications, publish-ing, media activities and arts, and in support of the freedom of opinion and ex-pression and freedom of the press and media in Qatar.

The draft law includes provisions relating to the organisation of press, print-ing houses, the circulation of publications, publishers, the establishment and man-agement of cinemas and theatres, the organisation of works of art, fi lm produc-tion, radio and television broadcasting, advertising,

media services and public relations.

The Cabinet also approved a draft decision identifying the facilities that are committed to the installation of cameras and security surveillance de-vices.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet approved a draft agreement on cooperation in the fi eld of higher education and sci-entifi c research between the Government of Qatar and the Government of Kuwait.

The Cabinet also approved a draft memorandum of un-derstanding in the area of co-operation on the exchange of information between the Fi-nancial Information Unit of Qatar and the Financial Fol-low-up Unit in Palestine.

The Cabinet approved the Executive Programme (I) for co-operation in the fi eld of ra-dio and television for the me-dia for the media and cultural agreement between Qatar and Sudan for the years (2018-2019-2020).

The Cabinet approved a memorandum of understand-ing for co-operation in the fi eld of agriculture between the Ministry of Municipal-ity and Environment of Qatar and the Ministry of Agricul-ture and Rural Development of Romania.

Amir issues order appointing minister of stateHis Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani issued yesterday Amiri Order No (4) of 2018, appointing HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani as Minister of State. The Amiri order is eff ective starting from its date of issue and is to be published in the off icial gazette. Decision on appointment of CEO of QIA: His Highness the Amir also issued yesterday Amiri Decision No (65) of 2018, appointing Mansour Ibrahim al-Mahmoud as chief executive off icer of Qatar Investment Authority. The decision is eff ective starting from its date of issue and is to be published in the off icial gazette.

Japan Emperor receives papers of Qatari envoyEmperor Akihito of Japan received the credentials of Hassan bin Mohammad Rafi al-Emadi as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Qatar to Japan.During the meeting, the ambassador conveyed greetings of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to the Japan Emperor and his wishes of health and happiness as well as his wishes of further progress and prosperity to the government and people of Japan.The Emperor of Japan entrusted the ambassador to convey his greetings to His Highness the Amir, wishing him best of health and happiness and Qatar further progress and prosperity.The Emperor of Japan wished the ambassador success in his duties and work to promote and strengthen the friendly relations and co-operation between Qatar and Japan.

Deputy PM and FM holds talks in Athens

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos met yester-day with HE the Deputy

Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Aff airs Sheikh Moham-ed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who is currently visiting Athens.

At the outset of the meeting, HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Aff airs conveyed greetings of His High-ness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to the Greek president and his wishes of fur-ther progress and prosperity to the people of Greece.

For his part, the Greek presi-dent entrusted the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Aff airs to convey his greetings to His Highness the Amir and his wishes of health and happiness to him as well as his wishes of more progress and prosperity to the people of Qatar.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed bilateral rela-tions and means to promote them in addition to a number of topics of mutual interest.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Aff airs underlined the depth of the rela-tions between the two countries and Qatar’s desire to strengthen and promote these relations as well as its keenness to ce-ment political and economic co-operation with Greece.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met yesterday with HE

QNAAthens

HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Aff airs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani holding talks with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos. Below: HE Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani during a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Aff airs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani. During the meeting the two sides discussed bilateral rela-tions and ways to boost and de-velop them in addition to topics of common interest.

HE Sheikh Mohamed bin Ab-

dulrahman al-Thani also met yesterday with Greek Minister of Foreign Aff airs Nikos Kotzias. During the meeting, they dis-cussed bilateral relations and means of enhancing and de-veloping them, in addition to a number of topics of common interest.

HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti met with Portugal’s Minister of Sea Ana Paula Vitorino in Lisbon yesterday. During the meeting, they discussed bilateral relations between Qatar and Portugal and ways to boost and develop the relations in diff erent fields especially the maritime field. They also discussed the draft maritime transport agreement, to be signed soon. They also discussed a number of issues of common interest. HE Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti is currently visiting Portugal to attend Oceans Meeting 2018, which will begin today in Lisbon.

Al-Sulaiti meets Portugal’s minister

The dignitaries at the event.

‘The Majlis Cultures in Dialogue’ exhibition opens in Malta

Under the Patronage of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Ha-

mad al-Thani, cross-cultural exhibition ‘The Majlis Cultures in Dialogue’ of Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al-Thani Museum has opened in Valetta, the European culture capital.

The opening ceremony was attended by Malta President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca and a number of Maltese ministers and offi cials. From the Qatari side, the ceremony was attended by HE the Minister of Culture and Sports Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali, HE the Minis-ter of State Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kuwari and HE Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al-Thani along with a number of senior offi cials.

“The Majlis Cultures in Dia-logue” is being organised at the initiative of the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al-Thani Museum, in partnership with the Unesco Doha Offi ce and the Qatar Na-tional Commission for Educa-tion, Culture and Science.

The exhibition, which features a collection of the Sheikh Faisal bin Qasim Al-Thani Museum, will tour a number of European countries, including France,

Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Russia and the UK. The tour will continue through 2020.

“The Majlis Cultures in Dia-logue” is part of a larger project that seeks to connect people, beliefs and cultures by off ering a platform for respectful, yet inci-sive dialogue. Along with a pro-gramme of conferences and edu-cational activities, the exhibition is designed to encourage visitors to respond to what they see and to share their own stories, creat-ing dialogue between East and West, between young and old, between the past and the future.

At the opening ceremony, Presi-dent Preca extended thanks to His Highness the Amir for his support for culture and patronage of the exhibition, pointing that the Mal-ta’s capital Valletta is Europe’s cul-tural capital and that her country is a bridge for cultures in the heart of the Mediterranean.

“The exhibition contributes to achieving greater peace and diversity of cultures, where Arab culture is one of the pillars of the world heritage, calling for con-certed eff orts to celebrate diver-sity in all its forms.”

For his part, HE Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali said that the exhibition is of special importance due to the patronage of His Highness the Amir, adding that it is a global event because

it refl ects the cultural ties that Qatar seeks to affi rm with the countries of the world.

He also pointed that the ex-hibition promotes the value of civilisational dialogue among nations and the role of Qatar in devoting this value which al-lows humanity to progress, while considering the past as an arse-nal of human experiences.

“The exhibition refl ects the value of diversity and the impact of dialogue of cultures, and the openness of the East to the West, to emphasise that co-existence is based on dialogue, acceptance of the other and respect for culture.”

HE Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kuwari praised the initiative of HE Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al-Thani, pointing out that it is an example to make the private sector a companion to the public sector in culture, where his in-stitution is very active in culture, as it has early awareness of the importance of culture, besides the collection of antiquities, ar-tifacts and rare pieces.

HE Sheikh Faisal, the owner of this initiative, said: “We are grateful for the trust shown by His Highness the Amir and we believe that co-operation with Unesco serves the Qatari role in preserving history, cul-ture and traditions for future generations.”

QNAValetta

Rights action plan committee holds meeting

The National Human Rights action plan com-mittee held its second

consultative meeting with enti-ties involved with humanitarian work and education and media sectors.

The meeting was chaired by director of the Human Rights Department at the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs, Faisal bin Ab-dullah al-Henzab, who is also the deputy chairman of the committee.

The meeting was organised within the framework of the consultative process accom-panying the preparation of the plan, as confi rmed by the guide-lines and best practices of the Offi ce of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR), and the com-mitment to ensuring the prepa-ration process is accompanied

by consultation with stakehold-ers in the promotion and protec-tion of human rights.

The rapporteur of the com-mittee Fatma al-Kuwari, who is third secretary at Human Rights Department at the ministry touched on formation of the committee. Afterwards, repre-sentatives of diff erent authori-ties presented their suggestions and recommendations.

It should be noted that the formation of the committee charged with preparing the na-tional work plan was a decision of the Cabinet in 2017. The com-mittee is chaired by Ministry of Foreign Aff airs Secretary-Gen-eral Dr Ahmed Hassan al-Ham-madi, and the membership of various entities in the state.

The formation of the commit-tee comes within the framework of the State’s eff orts to establish

a state of law and institutions, the subject of which is the pro-motion and protection of hu-man rights as a strategic choice.

This is emphasised in Qatar Na-tional Vision 2030 in the fi rst national development strategy (2011-2016) and 2018-2022.

NHRC voted in 4 posts in Global Human Rights AllianceThe National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) won yesterday the confidence of members of the Asia Pacific Forum and will occupy four leading posts at the Global Alliance for National Human Rights institutions.Members of their 23rd annual meeting forum, which concluded yesterday, voted NHRC chairman HE Dr Ali bin Sumaikh al-Marri as deputy chairman of the Global Alliance for National Human Rights Institutions, secretary of the alliance, and member of its

executive off ice. The members also voted Dr Mohammed bin Saif al-Kuwari as member of the APF council. The historic win for the NHRC reflects its status and contribution to humanitarian issues regionally and internationally. The Global Alliance is comprised of more than 110 national institutions from across the world. The alliance had refused many requests made by the blockading countries, including downgrading the NHRC’s rating from A in a bid to undermine it.

QATAR5


MME set to launch Sustainable Strategic PlanUnder the patronage of

HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior

Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Sustain-able Strategic Plan 2018-2022 for the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) will be launched on Sunday.

The ministry announced this at a press conference yesterday, re-vealing that it concluded the plan for the next fi ve years and present-ed the goals, phases, methodology and priorities for action.

Sheikh Faleh bin Nasser al-Thani, assistant undersecretary for general services aff airs at the ministry, said the strategic plan is a roadmap that leads to achieving the goals of the min-istry, in parallel with the second

National Development Strategy 2018-2022 and Qatar National Vision 2030. “The ministry will develop its vision and strategic value by focusing on benefi ciar-ies and improving the services it provides.”

He said since the decision of the Minister of Municipality and Environment to form a team to follow up preparing this plan, its sectors and manage its im-plementation, the methodology of the project and its plan have been supervised. The team also held periodic meetings with the planning and quality depart-ment to receive a briefi ng on the updates of each phase, as well as to supervise the project outputs, adopt the completed work and other related matters.

The offi cial said the method-ology that was followed to im-plement the project focused on a number of factors in developing as establishing the sustainable strategic plan and its sectors for the ministry, which included as-sessing the strategic content and analysing the strategic options.

He said based on this, the strategic map of the ministry has been fi nalised and its strategic plan has been prepared includ-ing the vision, message, val-ues, strategic goals and the link between them.

Sheikh Faleh highlighted that with the ministry’s vision, mes-sage and goals, strategic maps were designed and balanced scorecard for the sectors to clar-ify the linkage between the min-

istry’s strategic objectives and sectoral objectives, in addition to identifying performance in-dicators and targets for the next fi ve years from 2018-2022.

He highlighted due to the ministry’s keenness to build ef-fective communication between departments and sector strate-gies, a harmonisation process between the strategic goals and department initiatives and the strategic goals of the sectors took place.

In addition it translated bal-anced scorecard for departments to operational plans through several issues such as prioritis-ing projects based on the strate-gic map of the sector in question and the strategic objectives of management as well as setting

time schedules and activities to implement projects.

The process also included identifying the resources re-quired to implement the plan, strategic plan implementation management processes, detailed performance indicators and how to calculate them, sources of data, the method of aggregation and the periodicity of measurement as well as the development of an integrated framework for risk management, contingency plans and business continuity, he said.

Zafer Mohammed al-Hajri, di-rector, planning and quality at the ministry, stressed the importance of strategic plans governing the institutional work, in line with Qatar National Vision 2030.

He pointed to the depart-

Sheikh Faleh bin Nasser al-Thani and Zafer Mohammed al-Hajri speaking at a press conference.

ment eff orts in preparation of the sustainable strategic plan of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, using experts and specialists from various sectors of the ministry, and an interna-tional expert house specialised

in the formulation of strategic plans, focusing on evaluating the strategic context of the ministry through studying the internal and external environment, and making appropriate comparisons regionally and globally. (QNA)

Workshop on crises and disasters concludes

The National Defence and Crisis Man-agement Centre of

the Qatar Armed Forces has concluded a two-day workshop on crises and disasters.

The workshop was pre-sented by Dr Mohammed Khalifa Mubarak al-Ku-wari, assistant professor at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and head of the Department of Human Sciences, Qatar University, and Saif Saeed al-Nuaimi, director of health, safety and environment of Qatar Petroleum, in the presence of Brig General Abdullah Eid al-Berdini, command-er of the National Defence and Crisis Management Centre.

The workshop featured several important topics including unifi cation of the concept of collective action between ministries and in-

stitutions and the State’s bodies in crisis and disas-ter situations, and to raise awareness among civilians in the event of crises and how to deal with them.

It also dealt with the na-ture of the work and the

possibilities available in all ministries, institutions to identify the negatives and how to address them to ensure that they are not repeated.

Among of the most likely crises facing the National

Defence and Crisis Man-agement Centre are wars, nuclear accidents, major fi res, poisonous gas leaks, water poisoning, earth-quakes, oil spillage, total power or water outages, hijacking and terrorism.

The workshop being attended by armed forces off icers and other off icials at the National Defence and Crisis Management Centre of the Qatar Armed Forces.

QATAR


QF to host teaching and learning forumQatar Foundation (QF) will

host its fi fth annual Teaching and Learning Forum, spon-

sored by ExxonMobil Qatar, on Oc-tober 7 at Qatar National Convention Centre, aimed at equipping teachers with the tools to inspire young people to excel personally and academically.

Organised by the Education De-velopment Institute (EDI), which is part of QF’s Pre-University Educa-tion (PUE), this year’s forum will be held under the theme of ‘Engagement: Student Engagement, Teacher En-gagement, Leadership Engagement, Parent Engagement, and Community Engagement’.

It will feature a number of ex-perts and motivational speakers, including Steve Francis, the forum’s keynote speaker and a leading edu-cator, author, and creator of Happy Schools, a programme designed to boost staff morale and reduce teacher stress.

Dr Janet Goodall, a lecturer in Educational Leadership and Man-agement at the University of Bath,

UK; Joy Marchese, founder of Posi-tive Discipline UK, and a teacher and parent educator at the Ameri-can School of London; and Dr Michael Lovorn, a Student Engage-ment expert from the University of Alabama, US, will also be present-ing sessions at the one-day event, which is now open for registration.

Buthaina Ali al-Nuaimi, presi-

dent of PUE, QF, said, “The Teach-ing and Learning Forum is a plat-form for educators to network and learn from each other.

“This year, it highlights the im-portance of the engagement of all stakeholders of education: stu-dents, teachers, leadership, parents, and the community. This forum aims to stimulate fruitful discus-

sions that will lead to continuous improvement in schools.”

The forum will also feature work-shops delivered by educators and leaders from across Qatar, as well as poster presentations that will discuss various topics linked to this year’s theme of engagement.

“At ExxonMobil Qatar, we believe that it is our responsibility, as an ac-tive member of the community, to invest in initiatives that support the development of human capacity,” said Alistair Routledge, president and gen-eral manager for ExxonMobil Qatar.

“We are proud to have been sup-porting Qatar Foundation’s suc-cessful Teaching and Learning Forum since 2014, which equips educators with the latest teaching skills, tools, and techniques and energises education, since 2014. By helping educators instil a passion for knowledge in their students, we can create a confi dent and well-equipped generation that can build a sustainable, knowledge-based economy for Qatar’s future.”

The annual forum will feature a number of experts and motivational speakers.

MEC shuts down beauty salon in Al Gharafa

The Ministry of Economy and Com-merce (MEC) has

announced the two-week closure of a beauty salon located in Al Gharafa over the display and sale of expired products.

The closure decision comes within the frame-work of its intensive in-spection campaigns to monitor markets and com-mercial activities in order to crack down on viola-tions, price manipula-tion and counterfeit and substandard products, the ministry has said in a statement.

The beauty salon was fi ned and closed for a two-week period in line with Article 7 of Law No 8 of 2008.

Article 7 compels sup-pliers to clearly display on the product’s package or label the type and nature of the item as well as other relevant data. The law also prohibits the display of fraudulent descriptions, advertisements and

misleading statements.The administrative clo-

sure declaration shall be published at the expense of the salon that has com-mitted the violation in ac-cordance with Article 3 of Law No 8 on Consumer Protection. The law stipu-lates that the closure deci-sion shall be published on the ministry’s website and in two daily newspapers at the expense of the violator.

The ministry has stressed that it will not tolerate any violations of the Consumer Protection Law and its regulations. It will intensify its inspec-tion campaigns and refer those who violate laws and ministerial decrees to the competent authorities, who will, in turn, take ap-propriate action against the perpetrators in order to protect consumer rights.

The MEC has urged all consumers to report viola-tions or submit complaints and suggestions to its consumer protection and anti-commercial fraud

department through the call centre: 16001, e-mail: [email protected], Twit-ter: MEC_QATAR, Insta-gram: MEC_QATAR and the ministry’s application on smartphones available on iPhone and Android devices: MEC_QATAR

An MEC inspector putting up the closure notice.

Surgeon ordered to pay QR1mn in negligence case

The Civilian Court of First Instance has ordered a sur-geon and the hospital he

works for to pay a compensation of QR1mn for the damages caused to a Qatari woman, local Arabic daily Arrayah reported yesterday.

The court observed that due to negligence and professional error, the doctor had forgot-ten a piece of gauze inside the stomach of the woman while performing a stomach band-ing operation. Besides, he did

not take the necessary surgical procedures to ensure the qual-ity of the operation causing her stomach to leak.

The lawyer of the claimant ar-gued that his client had sustained substantial damages due to the

negligence of the surgeon, which forced her to go abroad and under-go three remedial surgeries.

“This also caused her huge fi -nancial loss and suff ering for a pe-riod of six months as she was un-der treatment,” the lawyer argued.

Accordingly, the court formed a medical committee, which checked the claimant and proved that there had been a medical error due to the neg-ligence of the doctor, the daily added.

QNB becomes Diamond sponsor of Cudos 2018Qatar National

Bank (QNB) has announced its

diamond sponsorship of the ‘Conference on Un-derstanding Molecular Mechanisms in Cardio-vascular Biology, Diabe-tes, Obesity and Stroke’ (Cudos) slated from Sep-tember 22 to 24 at the Qa-tar National Convention Centre.

Organised by Sidra Med-icine and Research under the theme ‘Childhood Dia-

betes: From Novel Discov-eries to Clinical Practice’, the three-day conference will focus on the current research and innovations in diabetes technologies for mothers and children with or at risk of childhood diabetes.

The comprehensive programming of the sci-entifi c sessions at Cudos 2018 will provide cutting-edge education and infor-mation for all members of the diabetes commu-

nity, including physicians, scientists, nurses, nurse practitioners, dietitians, pharmacists, psycholo-gists, and other healthcare professionals.

QNB has sponsored an array of health conferenc-es over the years, and the bank’s sponsorship of the event is part of its commit-ment to promoting health-care excellence and nurtur-ing health awareness and expertise in Qatar and in other parts of the world.

QNB Group’s pres-ence through its sub-sidiaries and associ-ate companies now extends to 31 countries across three continents providing a compre-hensive range of ad-vanced products and services. The total number of employees is around 29,000 operat-ing through more than 1,100 locations, with an ATM network of more than 4,400 machines.

Ooredoo offi cial telecom sponsor of health meet Cudos 2018

Ooredoo has an-nounced it is the offi cial telecom-

munication sponsor of Cudos 2018.

Cudos stands for - Con-ference on Understanding Molecular Mechanisms in Cardiovascular Biology Dia-betes, Obesity, and Stroke – and the event will run from 22-24 September at Qatar National Convention Centre.

As offi cial telecommu-nications sponsor, Oore-doo will be promoting the event across its social media channels, as well as continuing to spread the message of the importance of healthy living across Qatar.

Following the success of Cudos 2017, Cudos 2018 is themed on: Childhood Dia-betes: From Novel Discover-ies to Clinical Practice.

According to the organis-ers, this year’s conference will bring together world-class diabetes specialists from around the globe and high-calibre Qatari re-searchers and clinicians to explore the challenges and

treatment options for one of the world’s most prevalent disorders.

The agenda will comprise of 14 scientifi c session dis-tributed over the three days, including keynote lectures, plenary sessions, experts opinions, round table dis-cussions, posters presen-tations, award winners and social interactions among the diverse attendees.

Talking about the event, Manar Khalifa al-Mu-raikhi, director of PR and Corporate Communica-tions, Ooredoo Qatar, said: “As the nation’s leading telecom provider, we take pride in supporting events that make a diff erence to the community, especially in terms of encouraging a healthy and active Qatar. We hope the event is not only successful but helps to ensure Qatar off er the best quality of care for our people.”

This is the latest in a line of educational events Oore-doo has supported in 2018.

QATAR7Gulf Times


Blockade against Qatar had negative impact on regional anti-terror fi ght: US reportThe imposition of the

blockade on Qatar by the Saudi-led bloc last year

had a negative impact on regional counterterrorism co-operation, according to a new report issued by the US Department of State yesterday.

The report on terrorism in 2017 also highlights the co-operation between the US and Qatar in counterterrorism, notably the signing of a counterterrorism memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two countries in July last year to increase co-operation.

Overall, the report said glo-bal terror attacks fell by 23% and deaths due to terrorism dropped by 27% in 2017 as compared to 2016.

“An unexpected break in ties with Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt in June (2017) had a negative impact on regional counterterrorism co-operation,” the report said in its overview for the Middle East and North Africa.

In the Qatar-specifi c section, the report notes that the US and Qatar signifi cantly increased counterterrorism co-operation in 2017 under the counterterror-ism MoU signed by the US Secre-tary of State and HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Aff airs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani in July.

Under the MoU, Qatar and the US set forth mutually accepted means of increasing information sharing, disrupting terrorism fi -nancing fl ows and intensifying

counterterrorism activities. At the November 8, 2017, US-

Qatar Counterterrorism Dia-logue, the two governments af-fi rmed the progress made on implementing the MoU and committed to expand bilateral counterterrorism co-operation.

“Qatar is an active participant in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, is active in all Defeat-ISIS Coalition working groups and has provided signifi cant sup-port in facilitating US military operations in the region. Qatar hosts approximately 10,000 US servicemen and women on two military installations critical to coalition eff orts. Security serv-ices capable of monitoring and disrupting terrorist activities have maintained the status quo,” the report said.

In July last year, the Qatari gov-ernment promulgated Decree No 11 of 2017, which amended the 2004 Law on Combating Ter-rorism. The amendment set out defi nitions of terrorism-related activities, penalties for terror-ism-related off ences and the establishment of a national des-ignations list. In October, the US government led a workshop for relevant Qatari authorities on the planned establishment of a do-mestic designations regime.

The report continued: “The State Security Bureau maintains an aggressive posture towards monitoring internal extremist and terrorism-related activities. The Ministry of Interior (MoI) and Internal Security Force are well-positioned to respond to in-cidents with rapid reaction forces

that routinely engage in struc-tured counterterrorism train-ing and exercises. The Offi ce of Public Prosecution is tasked with prosecuting all crimes, includ-ing any related to terrorism, and plays a signifi cant role in terror-ism investigations.

“Qatar maintains an inter-agency National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NATC) composed of representatives from more than 10 government agencies. The NATC is tasked with formulating Qatar’s counterterrorism policy,

ensuring interagency co-ordina-tion, fulfi lling Qatar’s obligations to counter terrorism under inter-national conventions, and par-ticipating in multilateral confer-ences on terrorism. US offi cials met regularly with the chairman of the NATC to discuss imple-mentation of the counterterror-ism MoU and overall counterter-rorism co-operation.”

As a result of the counterter-rorism MoU, the US and Qatar signifi cantly increased informa-tion sharing, including on iden-tities of known and suspected terrorists, the report stressed. Aviation security information sharing also increased, as new protocols were agreed to and es-

tablished. During 2017, the MoI authorities co-operated with the US Department of Home-land Security offi cials to enhance screening capabilities of the millions of travellers who pass through Doha’s Hamad Interna-tional Airport each year.

US technical assistance to Qa-tari law enforcement and judicial agencies also increased as a result of the counterterrorism MoU.

“In June, Qatar expelled six Hamas members, including Saleh al-Arouri, one of the founders of the Izz al-Din al Qassam Bri-gades,” the report said.

Qatar is a member of the Mid-dle East North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF), a Financial Action Task Force-style regional body. In 2017, Qatar commenced preparations for the 2019 MENAFATF Mutual Evalu-ation, including establishing an interagency task force, formal-ising co-operation with the In-ternational Monetary Fund and intensifying co-ordination with US counterparts.

Qatar is a member of the De-feat-ISIS Coalition’s Counter-ISIS Finance Group and the Ter-rorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC), a US-GCC initiative an-nounced during President Don-ald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May 2017.

In 2017, Qatar passed updated terrorism fi nancing legislation. Decree No 11 of 2017 defi ned terrorism fi nancing-related ac-tivities, laid out penalties and established a domestic desig-nations list. Qatari legislation requires the Offi ce of Public

Prosecution to freeze the funds of individuals and organisa-tions included on the UN Secu-rity Council ISIS and Al Qaeda sanctions list. Qatar Central Bank works with fi nancial insti-tutions to confi rm asset-freez-ing compliance with respect to these UN obligations.

“Qatar deepened co-opera-tion with the US on combatting terrorism fi nancing during 2017. In October, Qatar joined the US and other TFTC countries in co-ordinated domestic designa-tions of individuals and entities associated with AQAP (Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) and ISIS-Yemen,” the report noted.

Two UN-designated fi nan-ciers who were acquitted in a 2015-2016 trial were placed under arrest and imprisoned in July 2017. The Qatari Attorney-General initiated proceedings to appeal the prior acquittals. Additionally, Qatari authori-ties also placed under arrest two other terrorism fi nanciers pre-viously convicted in the 2015-2016 trial.

In July, Qatari authorities took sweeping measures to monitor and restrict the over-seas activities of Qatari chari-ties, requiring all such activity to be conducted via one of the two approved charities. Au-thorities also signifi cantly in-creased procedures to monitor private donations. The sector is overseen by the Regulatory Au-thority for Charitable Activi-ties, in co-ordination with the central bank and law-enforce-ment agencies.

Hassad sets up fi rm tosupport local farmersQNADoha

Hassad Food Company, the leading investment company in the food

sector, has established a lo-cal marketing and agricultural services company in order to support the private agricul-tural sector and to contribute to self-suffi ciency.

This was announced by the Ministerial Group for the En-couragement and Participation of the Private Sector following the directives of HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Inte-rior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nass-er bin Khalifa al-Thani.

The new company will sup-port local farmers by market-ing their products, as well as providing various other agri-cultural services, in order to in-crease the quantity and quality of local production.

The Chief Executive Offi cer of Hassad Food Company, Mo-

hamed bin Badr al-Sada, said in a statement that the compa-ny sought to support the local agricultural sector and encour-age farmers to increase their production, because contrib-uting to food security was the main goal of Hassad’s strategy.

Al-Sada explained that the company was launched in co-ordination with Qatar Cham-ber of Commerce, which aims to reduce the burden on local farmers and encourage them to increase production.

Hassad CEO Mohamed bin Badr al-Sadah.

“Qatar is an active participant in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, is active in all Defeat-ISIS Coalition working groups and has provided signifi cant support in facilitating US military operations in the region”

Qatar plant to produce electric cars

From Page 1Besides Hirayama and Ra-

madan, CEO of Qatar Qual-ity Trading Company Ali bin Nasser al-Misnad and direc-tor of the Environmental and Municipal Studies Center at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment Dr Moham-ed Saif al-Kuwari spoke at the meeting.

Qatar’s Minister for Energy and Industry HE Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada, Japanese ambassador Seiichi Otsuka, Syrian ambassador Nizar Has-san al-Haraki, Qatar Chamber vice president Mohamed bin Twar al-Kuwari and Saif al-Hajri were among other digni-taries who attended.

Dr al-Kuwari said the es-tablishment of the fi rst plant

for the production of electric cars in Qatar would help pre-serve the environment and achieve the Qatar National Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy 2018-2022, which strongly recom-mended the preservation of the environment and devel-opment of alternative energy.

ARM managing director Takayushi Hirayama.

QATAR

Gulf TimesThursday, September 20, 20188

Qatar Airways Cargo gets QEP accreditation at 10 new stations

Qatar Airways Cargo has received the Qualifi ed En-virotainer Provider Train-

ing and Quality Programme (QEP) accreditation for 10 new stations: London Heathrow, Milan, Shang-hai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Colombo, Delhi, Hy-derabad and Chennai, it was an-nounced.

The QEP accreditation recog-nises air cargo carriers that operate Envirotainer containers in com-pliance with Good Distribution Practice (GDP) throughout their network and which demonstrate capability in properly managing active pharma shipments, meet the company’s training and qual-ity requirements, and pass the En-virotainer audits.

The 10 most recently accred-ited Qatar Airways Cargo stations now join Amsterdam, Basel, Paris, Doha and Chicago, bringing the total number of QEP accredited stations to 15 globally.

“We have come a long way since introducing the QR Pharma prod-uct in 2014, and we are always seeking new ways to enhance the cool chain for the benefi t of our customers and business,” Qatar Airways Cargo chief offi cer Guil-laume Halleux said.

“The Envirotainer’s QEP ac-creditation at 10 new stations in our network endorses our effi cient pharma handling processes and our capability to manage active pharma shipments, which is rec-ognised by both, forwarders and shippers,” Halleux noted. “Our aim is to continue to enrol more stations into the Envirotainer ac-creditation programme in the coming months.”

Envirotainer’s Partner Manage-ment global head Bourji Mourad said QEP provides a structured, analytical approach for assessing quality that will simplify valida-tion plans for pharmaceutical shipments.

“The QEP accreditation serves to align practices and procedures across the cold chain and through our involvement with the various industry associations, Envirotain-er ensures that QEP is compliant with the most current best prac-tices,” Mourad added.

Qatar Airways Cargo has been managing Envirotainer contain-ers to transport pharmaceuticals since 2014. As one of the leading

international air cargo carriers, the airline is committed to ensuring the enhancement of service qual-ity and constant innovation of the QR Pharma service.

The healthcare cold chain mar-ket is growing each year. With considerable investments in qual-ity handling, infrastructure, facili-ties, people and procedures at each of its pharma stations, the cargo carrier provides high operating

standards for the transportation of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products globally.

Expertly-trained staff at every pharma station ensure that the cool chain is unbroken from origin to destination.

The airline’s pharma network spans more than 70 stations glo-bally, with the latest addition of Oslo in May 2018.

The carrier’s state-of-the-art

airside transit facility, the Climate Control Centre, inaugurated last year, enables Qatar Airways Cargo to process an additional 285,000 tonnes annually within a climate-controlled environment.

The cargo carrier makes use of refrigerated trucks on the ramp in Doha, ensuring there are no tem-perature excursions, which is cru-cial to maintain a seamless

cool chain.

The accreditation recognises the cargo carrier’s stringent and safe processes in handling Envirotainer containers at several stations across its network

Qatar Airways Cargo provides high operating standards for the transportation of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products globally.

Intertec Group hosts Xiaomi dealer meetIntertec Group, a distributor of

smartphones and smart devices, has hosted the Xiaomi Dealer Meet-

ing in the presence of Xiaomi offi cials in Qatar, to offi cially address all partners and the media.

On the occasion, they offi cially intro-duced Xiaomi’s sub-band, Pocophone, and its brand-new model, Pocophone F1, to the Qatar market. They also re-ferred to Xiaomi’s available models and ecosystem products.

George Thomas, Group CFO and ad-viser to the chairman – Intertec Group, offi cially welcomed all delegates and attendees to the meeting. He expressed appreciation for Xiaomi and the part-ners for their extensive support and the achievements in the Qatar market.

“As a responsible distributor, Inter-tec Group is very keen to follow Xiao-mi’s slogan, ‘Innovation for everyone’, and we are contributing our uncom-promised eff orts to bring and release the latest innovation from Xiaomi to the Qatar market,” he said.

Ronni Wang, MEA general manager – Xiaomi, spoke about the company and its work culture and also explained Xi-aomi’s vision and mission, ‘Innovation for everyone’, to the invitees. He shared offi cial data on the periodic and sys-tematic growth of Xiaomi in the global market.

Wang expressed gratitude to the Qa-tar team for the “signifi cant achieve-ments and remarkable market share”, noting that the brand is in the No 3 position in Qatar with 19% of market share, according to the IDC report for the second quarter of 2018.

Asraf N K, division manager - Inter-tec Group, delivered the vote of thanks and spoke about the rise in Xiaomi’s market share in the Qatar market. “If we can maintain this pace, then cer-tainly we can upgrade the position of Xiaomi in the near future in Qatar,” he noted.

Currently, the Xiaomi mobile range is available across Qatar. Customers can visit the authorised Mi Store on Al Nasr Street to experience and grab the full range of Xiaomi mobiles and eco-system products.

He also referred to grey market stocks available in the Qatar market, and re-minded stockholders to check and en-sure Intertec’s offi cial stock sticker on the box to avail of the authorised serv-ice benefi ts and genuine stock.

Intertec Group and Xiaomi off icials at the event.

The dealer meeting was attended by all partners.

QATAR9Gulf Times


MoPH organises public campaign, off ers free health check servicesAs part of the 4th Qatar Patient

Safety Week, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has or-

ganised a public campaign at City Center Doha and Qatar National Li-brary (QNL), it was announced yester-day. This campaign will be rolled out in collaboration with the Al Emadi Hospi-tal, National Diabetes Strategy, Qatar Red Crescent Society and Qatar Music Academy.

All community members are invited to come meet and discuss with health-care experts issues related to patient safety. They can also get blood sugar

checked free of charge. Throughout this campaign, the MoPH will focus on promoting shared decision making in healthcare, protection from infection and measures to prevent diabetes or living safely with it.

The key messages that will be used to cover these areas are: Diabetes: Prevent it or Live Safely with It, Together, lets Break the Chain of Infection, Nothing About Me Without Me.

The public campaign will take place today and tomorrow at City Center Doha from 4pm-10pm and 2pm-10pm, respectively. There will be health pro-

motion activities, blood sugar checking with a lot of fun activities for the kids.

The QNL will be hosting a public awareness day on September 22 at the Library’s Special Events Area.

It will be using the same messages conveyed through role play, followed by an expert panel to answer questions from the audience. As a special treat for visitors, the event, which is open to the public, will conclude with a musi-cal performance by Qatar Music Acad-emy’s Marasi Ensemble. The MoPH is celebrating its 4th Qatar Patient Safety Week until September 22.

PHCC studying feasibility of robots to man pharmaciesBy Joseph VargheseStaff Reporter

The Pharmacy Depart-ment at the Primary Health Care Corpora-

tion (PHCC) has enhanced and integrated several of its serv-ices with other healthcare pro-viders in the country.

“PHCC provides about 3mn medical prescriptions annually across all its health centres. We have also integrated many of our services with Hamad Medical Corporation as well

as other healthcare organisa-tions so that the patients can continue their treatment at our health centres,” said Dr Durriya Mubarak al-Qahtani, director of Integrated Care & Continu-ity of Care, PHCC, yesterday during a press conference.

“We are starting the ambu-latory clinical pharmacy pro-gramme which will run for the next six months in PHCC. We have also started the homecare pharmacist facility. All these will enhance the competency of the pharmacists to support and guide the patients,” noted

Dr Wael Ezzeldin Saeed, phar-macy affairs specialist, Oper-ations-Clinical Operations & Support, PHCC.

According to Dr Saeed, PHCC is also studying the feasibility and effectiveness of using robots for dispens-ing the medicine and will seek the guidance of Hamad Medi-cal Corporation in this re-gard. “The new design of the pharmacy has made the work flow more efficient. We have six new health centres that were opened in the very re-cent years. At these facilities,

we have more windows and we have removed the barriers. We have also separate counters for special needs people,” ex-plained Dr al-Qahtani.

“We have also integrated the services at the pharmacy too. Now patients can get the medication as well as pay at the same counter. We are also working to make awareness among the patients about the need to reduce the use of an-tibiotics,” continued Dr al-Qahtani.

“We have also started patient counselling as part of the en-

hanced pharmacy services. We have formed a patient counsel-ling team, especially in high-risk cases, we provide this fa-cility. The patients are taken to the counselling room and are provided all the necessary ad-vice the patients need. We give information about the medica-tion and the treatment plan. In some cases, the follow-up cases from HMC are being done at PHCC health centres with the same level of competency,” add-ed Dr Saeed. PHCC, at present, has 26 health centres across the country.

Dr Wael Ezzeldin Saeed

Dr Durriya Mubarak al-Qahtani

HMC kicks off awareness drive on ambulance serviceHamad Medical Corpora-

tion’s (HMC) Ambulance Service has commenced

activities in Villaggio Mall to educate the public about the key messages of its ‘Know the 5 to save a life’ national awareness campaign, which was relaunched at the start of the summer.

The campaign, initially run in 2013, aims to educate the pub-lic about the key actions to take when calling an ambulance in an emergency situation.

“The second phase of the campaign has been an enormous success and enabled us to com-municate these important mes-sages to Qatar’s population,” said Brendon Morris, executive direc-tor of the Ambulance Service.

“Throughout the summer we used a wide range of channels, including newspapers, roadside advertising boards, social me-

dia and online adverts to reach as many people as possible. The start of this phase of in-mall ac-tivities gives us an opportunity to discuss the messages in per-son with members of the public,” added Morris.

Members of the Ambulance Service will be in Villaggio Mall daily until September 24 before moving to Doha Festival City from September 26 to October 1. They will be highlighting the campaign’s messages and ex-plaining the role of the Ambu-lance Service to the public.

The ‘Know the 5 to save a life’ messages are: Dial 999 imme-diately; Know your location; Answer all questions; Follow all instructions and Give way to ambulances. “Our Ambulance Service provides a vital service to Qatar’s population. Every day, our teams rush to assist people

with serious medical emergen-cies, so being able to work ef-fectively with the public helps ensure we can provide the very best standard of emergency care as quickly as possible,” stated Ali Darwish, assistant executive di-rector of the Ambulance Service.

“The ‘Know the 5 to save a life’ campaign is helping to educate the public about the key actions to take when calling an ambu-lance in an emergency situation. I encourage anyone visiting Vil-laggio Mall or Doha Festival City when our teams are there to take the time to speak to our staff and ask any questions they may have about the Ambulance Service,” added Darwish.

This week HMC’s Ambulance Service commenced activities in Villaggio Mall to educate the public about the key messages of its ‘Know the 5 to save a life’.HMC team commenced activities in Villaggio Mall to educate the public on ambulance service.

Aspetar lab re-accredited

for highest standards

The laboratory at Asp-etar orthopaedic and sports medicine hos-

pital was awarded a two-year re-accreditation by the Commission on Laboratory Accreditation of the College of American Pathologists (CAP), based on the results of a recent on-site inspec-tion.

“Our laboratory serv-ices team deserves all the accolades which this re-accreditation implies,” said Dr Asmaa Marwani, direc-tor of the department of Aspetar laboratory. “This reaccreditation reaffi rms our commitment to provide the highest quality labora-tory services and reliable testing results to our pa-

tients,” added Dr Marwani. This achievement follows the accreditation of Asp-etar’s laboratory in 2014, and renewed two years later, demonstrating how Aspetar is continuing to provide the highest quality internation-al standard patient care to patients around the world.

Aspetar laboratory’s ob-jective is to improve lives and transform healthcare, provide excellent teaching, research and quality patient service to meet the health needs of Qatar Sport’s com-munity – Aspire academy, sports clubs, and federa-tions – and the region.

Aspetar is a world leading sports medicine hospital and the fi rst of its kind in the

Middle East. Since 2007, the hospital has provided top-level comprehensive medi-cal treatment to all athletes in a state-of-the-art facility that sets new standards in-ternationally.

As the leading organi-sation for board-certifi ed pathologists, CAP serves patients, pathologists, and the public by fostering and advocating excellence in the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine world-wide.

With 18,000 physician members, the CAP has led laboratory accreditation for more than 50 years with more than 7,900 CAP-ac-credited laboratories in 50 countries. Aspetar laboratory has been awarded a two-year re-accreditation.

By Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

Campers, adventure seek-ers and beach-goers will fi nd the country’s camp-

ing season enjoyable starting this winter with the launch of Al Enna project, Qatar Tourism Author-ity’s (QTA) has said.

Al Enna, a Qatari word mean-ing ‘camping ground,’ aims to enhance the overall desert and camping experience through improved services and safety, protecting the environment at Sealine and Inland Sea (Khor Al Adaid) areas and preserving nat-ural life.

“The project is the first step in a comprehensive develop-ment of the Sealine area, which aims at developing the camping experience, preserving the her-itage of Qatar and protecting one of the most beautiful natu-ral areas in the world,” Omar al-Jaber, a QTA representative and Al Enna Project’s official spokesperson, told a press con-ference yesterday.

Qatar’s Ministry of Munici-pality and Environment (MME); Ministry of Interior; Public Works Authority (Ashghal); Qa-tar Motor and Motorcycle Fed-eration; Batabit (Qatar Centre for Motorcycles), Mawater and QTA have joined hands to deliver a revamped and one-of-its-kind tourism off ering in the country.

In her presentation, QTA’s festivals and tourism events di-rector Mashal Shahbik said Al Enna will develop infrastructures and extend basic services to 200 camp grounds at Sealine as part of a pilot phase. A special zone

for ATV sports will be built over a 300,000sqm area, aimed at en-suring visitor’s safety while pro-tecting the campers’ privacy. It will feature 28 motorcycle rental shops and eight ATV tracks (two for advanced riders, one for in-termediate level riders, four for beginners and one for ladies only).

Dune bashing will be banned in areas with wildlife to protect the indigenous fl ora and fauna, according to QTA. MME will establish a wildlife nursery to

reintroduce plant and animal populations aff ected by previous camping seasons in a fenced area spanning 326,000sq m.

Recycling services will also be in place as part of an enhanced waste management system. Plastic use will be banned in res-taurants and cafes to protect the environment.

Al Enna will see major devel-opments over an area at the Sea-line beach, which can accommo-date up to 15,000 visitors. This includes creating shaded areas,

opening of cafés and restaurants, as well as designating a special area for families and another for children, apart from fi tness ma-chines and equipment for water and beach sports such as football and volleyball.

The project will also build a special entertainment zone, in-cluding a theatre that will host an array of cultural activities and events such as poetry nights dur-ing the weekends.

The zone’s design will draw inspiration from the surround-

ing area’s natural features to be in keeping with Qatar’s cultural heritage, QTA noted.

Meanwhile, engineer Salem Mohamed al-Shawi, assistant manager of road projects at Ash-ghal, announced that they re-cently started developing a new road to connect motorists to the Sealine beach, and it is expected to be completed by November.

“The road will conclude with parking spaces and service roads. Another road will take motor-ists from Endurance Roundabout

all the way to Signature Dune, and we will begin working on it in the fi rst quarter of 2019, with completion expected in the third quarter of the year,” he added. “This road will help motorists reach the Inland Sea area. These roads will be connected to Doha via the G-ring road, also cur-rently under construction.”

Unique and safe camping season with Al Enna

The 2018/19 winter camping season will be diff erent than any other especially with the launch of Al Enna, which will enhance the camping experience, ac-cording to Ministry of Interior’s

(MoI) Lt Col Yousef Mohamed al-Obaidli. He noted that the South Security Department is work-ing closely with the committee in charge of desert camping to provide security checks and raise awareness of safe practices.

“In addition, civil defence, ambulances and patrols will be in the area to respond quickly in case of incidents,” Lt Col al-Obaidli said.

Meanwhile, Major Jaber al-Odhaiba, assistant director of media and traffi c awareness at MoI’s Traffi c Department, said they will streamline the entry and exit of vehicles, including caravans, to prevent congestion.

10 Gulf TimesThursday, September 20, 2018

QATAR

Al Enna project launchedThe project aims to enhance the overall desert and camping experience through improved services and safety, and environmental protection

Representatives from Qatar’s Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Ministry of Interior, Public Works Authority, Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation, Batabit (Qatar Centre for Motorcycles), Mawater and QTA at the press conference yesterday announcing the launch of the Al Enna project. PICTURES: Ram Chand

Mashal Shahbik presents details of the project.

The Visa Support Services Department at the General Directorate of Passports has held a seminar for various Ministry of Interior (MoI) department directors and committee heads on the project pertaining to the completion of work visa procedures in the home countries of expatriates. These procedures include fingerprinting, biometric data processing, medical examination and signing of the labour contract. These steps will be completed through visa services centres to be set up in diff erent countries. Maj Abdullah Khalifa al-Mohannadi, director of the Visa Support Services Department, explained the project and noted that it will be implemented in Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal and Tunisia in the first phase. The session is the latest in a series of seminars held by the MoI to introduce the new system of completing residency permit (RP) procedures in the home countries of expatriates.

MoI officials briefed on new system

Vodafone Qatar to pioneer adoption of eSIM

Vodafone Qatar will pio-neer the adoption of eSIM on September 28,

becoming one of the fi rst op-erators in the region to provide this technology, it was an-nounced yesterday.

Vodafone Qatar is working closely with Apple and other vendors to activate this new technology in the very near fu-ture, according to a statement.

An eSIM is an electronic SIM-Card embedded inside a compatible device. There are no physical SIM cards involved and no physical swapping over required by the user.

There are several benefi ts of eSIM such as making it easier to switch network, or switch between personal and business numbers. eSIMs will also en-able more connected devices simply because eSIMs don’t require much space inside a device, enabling compact de-vices like fi tness trackers to have stand-alone connectivity in a way they just weren’t able to before.

Vodafone Qatar CEO Sheikh

Hamad Abdulla al-Thani said: “Vodafone Qatar has a rich history of bringing leading in-novations and technology to the country; launching eSIM is a continuation of this. We see many advantages of this new technology and our customers in Qatar will be some of the fi rst globally to benefi t from it.”

The new iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max introduce Dual

SIM through the use of a digital eSIM. Vodafone Qatar will open pre-orders for the new iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max tomor-row (Friday, 21 September 2018) at 12.01am, via their website www.vodafone.qa/iphonexs for all customers in Qatar and at 9am in their store at Villag-gio mall for new Red Postpaid customers, and will be available in stores starting September 28.

Fifty One East opens Pandora kiosk at Villaggio

Fifty One East, Qatar’s leading depart-ment store, and Pandora, the glo-bal brand famous for genuine hand-

fi nished jewellery, have come together to launch a 12sq m kiosk at Villaggio Mall.

The kiosk showcases Pandora’s various

collections of charms and jewellery. The lat-est collections are also available in Lagoona Mall, Doha Festival City, The Centre and Landmark Mall. Founded in 1982 in Copen-hagen, Denmark, Pandora makes ‘modern, genuine and hand-fi nished feminine high-

quality jewellery at the most reasonable price’.

The eclectic range of Pandora’s col-lections provides charms collectors with choices such as bracelets, rings, earrings and keepsake charms.

Fifty One East opens a 12sq m Pandora kiosk at Villaggio Mall.

Al Jazeera’s Contrast wins OJA’s Storytelling award

Al Jazeera’s Contrast has been honoured at the Online Journalism Awards (OJA) in the Excellence in Immersive Storytelling category for its 360° film, Yemen’s Skies of Terror. The awards were presented on September 15 in Austin, Texas, as part of the US-based Online News Association 2018 conference. Contrast is Al Jazeera’s immersive media studio, specialising in the production of compelling 360° video, augmented reality and virtual reality content.Yemen’s Skies of Terror is an immersive film by Contrast that sheds light on the suff ering of the Yemeni population due to the indiscriminate bombing and air raids over the past three years by a Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis. The film features heartbreaking stories of three children from Sana’a and Al Hodeidah who have lost their family members and loved ones in addition to losing homes after being destroyed during raids by the

coalition forces. Yemen’s Skies of Terror was filmed by two local journalists, Manal Qaed Alwesabi and Ahmad al-Gohbari, following remote training by Al Jazeera’s Contrast team on 360° immersive filming. Manal and Ahmad were given the necessary equipment to document the day-to-day reality of life in the war-torn country during the ongoing conflict.“The film is a testament to a true collaboration across borders, as Al Jazeera journalists worked hand in hand with the brave Yemeni journalists on the ground, alongside other Yemeni and international talent, from composers to animators,” Al Jazeera Media Network said in a statement.Both Ahmad and Manal are thrilled to see the international community recognising their work, hoping that the much needed stories coming out of Yemen will continue to be amplified. “I am happy if I see anything in the news about the war in Yemen. We need to feel

that we are not alone,” says Manal.The OJAs, launched in May 2000, are the only comprehensive set of journalism prizes honouring excellence in digital journalism around the world. The OJA award is another achievement by the Contrast team in bringing outstanding immersive content from around the world to a global audience, the statement notes. Contrast collaborates with existing departments across Al Jazeera Media Network to produce ‘best-in-class’ 2D and 3D content. It produces unique documentaries, videos, and live streams that push the boundaries of narrative storytelling while taking viewers directly to the front lines of the biggest news events in the world. One can learn more about the studio at contrastvr.com and on social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo and YouTube.

QATAR/REGION

11Gulf Times Thursday, September 20, 2018

QU-CAS students attend familiarisation session on ‘2022 World Cup’ logistics

The Sport sciences programme at Qatar University’s College of Arts and Sciences (QU-CAS), hosted

recently the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) to deliver an in-formative session for students about the latest logistics arrangements of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Speakers included Mohamed Saadoun al-Kuwari, ambassador of the SC, senior presenter at beIN Sport, and a graduate of QU in Sport Science and PE; and Ali al-Mahmoud, Education & Sport En-gagement Specialist in the SC.

They presented details of the diff er-ent facets and logistics of organising the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The speak-ers highlighted the progress of the con-struction of diff erent venues, techniques and latest technology adopted in the de-sign of stadiums, and the safety of con-struction workers.

Moreover, they discussed transpor-tation, roads and accommodation and mega projects of urban regeneration to facilitate the welcoming and movement of fans from and to diff erent venues and in the city.

The speakers also emphasised the legacy aspects in terms of sustainability and the use of newly-built stadia dur-ing and after the event. There was also a display of the models of the seven stadi-

ums to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup’s matches.

Dr Mahfoud Amara, director of Sport Sciences Programme at QU introduced diff erent opportunities off ered by the World Cup to strengthen sport science provision in the country and in the re-gion, in addition to the training of stu-dents in diff erent sciences of sport.

Dr Mahfoud said, “It’s a golden op-portunity for students to have an up to date information about the organisation of this mega event, the fi rst to be held by an Arab and Muslim country. It gave them the chance to ask direct questions about maximising the use of diff erent new facilities post event, the future of old stadiums, job prospects for gradu-ated students in sport sciences, diff erent schemes off ered by the Supreme Council of Delivery & Legacy for further train-ing and cultural programmes to promote Qatar and Arab cultures before and dur-ing the World Cup.

“More students’ outreach sessions will be organised by the Supreme Council for Delivery & Legacy at Qatar University on diff erent topics related to the delivery and legacy of the World Cup. In addition to being a sport competition, the World Cup is an opportunity to showcase the country’s culture, education and inno-vation,” Dr Mahfoud added.

Qatar Ports Management Company (Mwani Qatar) has released data on its performance in August 2018. The monthly performance shows an increase of 66% in container volumes, 7.5% in vehicles (roll-on, roll-off ) and 7% in livestock compared to August last year, Mwani Qatar has tweeted. The infographic also shows an increase in livestock handling in comparison with July 2018. Meanwhile, a total of 359 vessels were handled by Mwani Qatar ports last month.

Mwani Qatar reveals performance data for August Texas A&M at Qatar students receive Aggie Rings

Fifty-seven students from Texas A&M University at Qatar

recently received their Ag-gie Rings at a ceremony in Education City. Texas A&M University students are called ‘Aggies’ and that tradition continues at Tex-as A&M’s branch campus in Doha.

The Aggie Ring is the most visible symbol of the Aggie Network that con-nects graduates of Texas A&M around the world. Dating back more than 100 years, the Aggie Ring is a tradition that is deep in

symbolism and represents the values every Aggie should hold: excellence, integrity, leadership, loy-alty, respect and selfl ess service.

Those who have earned the right to wear the Aggie Ring have cleared some of the toughest require-ments in the US for a class ring, making it one of the most treasured items an Aggie possesses. In 2017, more than 15,000 Ag-gie Rings were purchased from Texas A&M’s alumni organisation, The Associ-ation of Former Students.

60% of Old Airport area development work ‘completed’

Around 60% of the con-struction works of the project to develop the

infrastructure of the Old Air-port Area have been accom-plished, local Arabic daily Arrayah reported yesterday cit-ing a source at the Public Works Authority (Ashghal).

The project is expected to

be completed by the end of the year.

The company undertaking the project has so far complet-ed works on developing eight streets in the internal sectors of the area, which were complete-ly opened for traffi c circulation.

The source pointed out that the project aims at enhanc-

ing the main roads of the Old Airport Area with all the basic services required by the resi-dents.

The project entails paving all the streets and developing the sanitary drainage networks and connecting all houses to it. In addition, the project provides another network to collect and

dispose rainwater and under-ground water, as the area has high underground water levels.

Besides infrastructure works, there are scheduled beautifi ca-tion works such as planting of trees and laying of pedestrian pavements. Other works in-clude lighting, and walking and cycling tracks.

A pose with the Aggie Ring.

Dr Danielle Nuding

QNL hosts lecture by Nasa planetary scientist

Qatar National Library (QNL), in collaboration with the US embassy

in Doha, hosted a lecture by Dr Danielle Nuding, planetary sci-entist and systems engineer at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Dr Nuding is in Qatar as part of US State Department’s speak-er programme where it brings out experts in various fi elds to the region.

The lecture, entitled ‘Explor-ing Mars: The Path of a Mars Sci-entist and Engineer,’ highlighted the progress Dr Nuding and her team have made in their research to study and explore Mars.

Dr Nuding is currently work-ing on the next rover going to Mars (M2020), and is prima-

rily focused on integrating many systems to work together as a single complex spacecraft unit.

Dr Nuding said, “Scientifi c discovery always begins with thorough literature research; as past discoveries seed new ideas and innovation. Libraries pro-vide a unique learning environ-ment and provide key resources for everyone in the community. I discovered the allurement of libraries as a child. The library has always been my avenue for exploration; from reading about the latest discoveries to having a quiet space to explore thoughts and ideas. Most importantly, libraries bring people together and help communities thrive through sharing of knowledge and new perspectives.”

Mohamed Saadoun al-Kuwari speaking at the QU event.

WCM-Q Grand Rounds discusses optimisation of clinical teaching

Methods for optimising clinical teaching for medical students were

discussed at the latest Weill Cor-nell Medicine - Qatar (WCM-Q) Grand Rounds.

Dr Todd Simon, designated institutional offi cer at New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Meth-odist Hospital, led a discussion that explored key traits of good teachers, diff erent categories of learners, and the principles of adult learning theory.

Dr Simon also emphasised the importance for faculty to continually refl ect upon their teaching methods and classroom experiences, and to seek out and emulate accomplished teachers and best teaching practices

Dr Simon said, “Emulating good teachers and their practices is a very eff ective way to opti-mise learning outcomes. Most eff ective clinical teachers have an organised, planned approach, systematic teaching practices, are very good at summarising information, and demonstrate a high degree of knowledge and competence. Not only this, but the best teachers are also re-spectful, friendly, and are en-thusiastic about their subject and about teaching. That en-

thusiasm is very stimulating and engaging for students.”

Dr Simon then explained that learners in clinical medi-cine settings can be catego-rised into four groups: report-ers, who are adept at gathering data by taking a patient’s his-tory and conducting a physi-cal exam; interpreters who are good at assimilating that data and developing a differential

diagnosis; managers, who can gather data, interpret it and also develop diagnostic and treatment plans; and educa-tors, who can do all of the above and also teach the concept to other learners.

Dr Simon added, “Once you have categorised your learner you can most effectively help them to progress by teaching to their level.”

Dr Todd Simon

US govt seeks to negotiate a treaty with TehranReuters Washington

The United States is seek-ing to negotiate a treaty with Iran to include

Tehran’s ballistic missile pro-gramme and its regional be-haviour, the US special envoy for Iran said yesterday ahead of UN meetings in New York next week.

Iran has rejected US attempts to hold high-level talks since President Donald Trump tore up a nuclear deal between Te-hran and six world powers ear-lier this year.

Secretary of State Mike Pom-peo listed a dozen demands in May that he said could make up a new agreement, although Hook’s reference to a treaty, which would have to be ap-proved by the US Senate, ap-pears to be a new focus.

“The new deal that we hope to be able to sign with Iran, and it will not be a personal agree-ment between two govern-ments like the last one, we seek a treaty,” envoy Brian Hook told

an audience at the Hudson In-stitute think-tank.

Among Pompeo’s demands was the release of Americans jailed by Tehran, an end to its nuclear and missile pro-grammes and for Iran to with-draw its forces and end fi nancial support for sides in the con-fl icts in Syria and Yemen.

But Hook acknowledged Ira-nian leaders have not been in-terested in talks despite state-ments by Trump this year that the administration was willing to meet.

The 2015 deal was an execu-tive agreement that was not ratifi ed by the US Senate and covered only Iran’s nuclear pro-gramme. A treaty would require approval by the Senate.

Some opponents of the nu-clear agreement have argued that Obama’s failure to seek Senate approval of the deal al-

lowed Trump to unilaterally withdraw.

“They did not have the votes in the US Senate so they found the votes in the UN Security Council. That is insuffi cient in our system of government if you want to have something endur-ing and sustainable,” Hook said, adding that Washington hoped US sanctions would force Te-hran to negotiate.

Iran views the United States as acting in bad faith by with-drawing from a deal and has longed blamed Washington for stoking instability in the Mid-dle East.

It has said Trump’s off er to negotiate contradicts his ac-tions and accused Washing-ton of trying to foment regime change.

Trump will chair a session on Iran during the UN General As-sembly meetings in New York next week.

In July, Trump said he was willing to meet Iran’s leaders “anytime they want” prompt-ing speculation that a meet-ing might take place at the UN meetings next week.

“The Ayatollah, the president and foreign minister have all in-dicated they are not interested in talking,” Hook said, referring to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif.

“We respect that though that does not change our plans. We have a sanctions regime that is underway, stronger measures are yet to come,” he added.

Hook said the administration was expanding its diplomatic eff orts to ensure that purchases of Iranian oil are drastically re-duced by Nov 4 when Wash-ington reimposes oil sanctions against Tehran.

Hook said Iran posed an in-ternational threat to peace and security that went beyond the six major powers that signs the initial nuclear deal.

European and Asian coun-tries have been trying to salvage the nuclear deal despite new US sanctions against Tehran.

“If we want to have a stable and prosperous Middle East it starts with constraining Iran,” Hook said.

The 2015 deal was an executive agreement that was not ratifi ed by the US Senate and covered only Iran’s nuclear programme

REGION/ARAB WORLD

Gulf TimesThursday, September 20, 201812

More than 5mn children in Yemen ‘risk starving to death’AFP Sanaa

More than 5mn children risk famine in war-torn Yemen as food and fuel

prices soar, Save the Children said yesterday, warning an entire generation may face death and “starvation on an unprecedent-ed scale”. The three-year confl ict between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and Houthi rebels has pushed the already impov-erished country to the brink of famine, leaving many unable to aff ord food and water.

“Millions of children don’t know when or if their next meal will come,” said Helle Thorning-Schmidt, CEO of Save the Chil-dren International.

“This war risks killing an en-tire generation of Yemen’s chil-dren who face multiple threats, from bombs to hunger to pre-ventable diseases like cholera.”

The already dire humanitarian situation is being exacerbated by the battle for the lifeline port of Hodeidah, which is threatening to disrupt what little aid is trick-ling into the country.

Located on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, the city is controlled by the rebels and blockaded by Sau-di Arabia and its allies.

Having already identified 4mn children at risk of starva-tion, Save The Children warned yesterday another million could now face famine as the Hodeidah battle escalates.

“In one hospital I visited in north Yemen, the babies were

too weak to cry, their bod-ies exhausted by hunger,” said Thorning-Schmidt.

Food prices in some parts of the country have doubled in just a few days, and the non-governmental organisation said families faced impossible choices on whether to pay to take a baby to hospital at the expense of feeding the rest of the family.

A total of 5.2mn children across Yemen are now at risk

of starvation, according to the Britain-based NGO.

The World Food Programme last year warned that food had become a “weapon of war” in Yemen, where fi ghting, cholera and looming famine have created what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The UN this week said food prices were up a whopping 68% since 2015, when a regional mili-tary coalition led by Saudi Ara-bia joined the government’s war

against the Houthi rebels.The cost of a food basket,

which contains pantry staples and canned goods, has increased by 35% and cooking gas and fuel prices by more than 25% over the past year, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.

The United Nations has warned that any major fi ght-ing in Hodeidah could halt food distributions to 8mn Yemenis dependent on them for survival.

The country’s economy and

population of 22mn people de-pend almost entirely on imports.

Deadly clashes resumed on Monday night around Hodei-dah after UN-sponsored talks collapsed in Geneva earlier this month. “Time is running out for aid agencies in Yemen to pre-vent this country from slipping into a devastating famine and we cannot aff ord any disruption to the lifeline we are providing for the innocent victims of this confl ict,” said World Food Pro-

gramme director David Beasley.UN offi cials are now pushing

to fi nd a solution to the Hodei-dah confl ict.

The UN Yemen envoy Martin Griffi ths was in Riyadh yesterday after a three-day visit to Yemen aimed at restarting negotiations between the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Houthis.

The United Nations’ humani-tarian co-ordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, was also in Ho-

deidah yesterday, according to a high-ranking Yemeni military source.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said yesterday that fi ghting in Hodei-dah city had “slowed down”, but battles were ongoing in other parts of Hodeidah province.

Nearly 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the Saudi-led coalition inter-vened in the Yemen confl ict in 2015.

Inflation and rising living costs sparked protests in Yemen’s second city of Aden.A malnourished Yemeni child lies on a hospital bed in the Hajjah province as the conflict pushes the country to the brink of famine.

Abbas to hold Mideast meeting in New YorkAFPUnited Nations

Palestinian president Mah-moud Abbas has invited Middle East envoys, for-

eign ministers and Security Council diplomats to a meeting in New York next week to discuss prospects for peace, the Pales-tinian ambassador said yester-day.

The meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly debate was called amid a crisis in ties with President Donald Trump’s administration over its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and cuts to Pal-estinian aid. Abbas will meet with the group of 30 ministers and diplomats including the

heads of UN committees that deal with Palestinian issues on September 26, a day before he is scheduled to deliver his ad-dress at the General Assembly.

Palestinian Ambassador Riy-ad Mansour did not provide de-tails, but he told reporters that there had been a “radical shift” under the Trump administra-tion to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

The Palestinian leadership cut off contact with the White House after Trump decided to move the US embassy to Jeru-salem, whose eastern area the Palestinians claim as their own capital. Palestinian leaders see Trump’s administration as bla-tantly biased.

Abbas addressed the Secu-rity Council in February to call

for an international conference to re-launch the peace process under a new mediator to re-place the United States.

Trump has tasked his son-in-law Jared Kushner and law-yer Jason Greenblatt with the drafting of a peace plan, but there has been some scepticism about whether the proposals will materialise.

It remains unclear whether there will be contacts between the Palestinians and the US ad-ministration on the sidelines of the weeklong General Assem-bly debate.

Shortly after Abbas deliv-ers his address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have his turn at the podium to deliver what is likely to be a strong rebuttal.

Eight Palestinians injured in Israeli fi reQNAGaza

Eight Palestinians were wounded by Israeli occu-pation forces yesterday in

the central and southern Gaza

Strip. According to the Pales-tinian News Agency (WAFA), the Israeli occupation forces positioned in the vicinity of the border fence east of Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip fi red at a group of citizens, wound-ing six, who were later taken to

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city.

The same source added that two other Palestinians were also wounded after Israeli sol-diers fi red at a group of civilians near the Israeli military site of Kissufi m in northeastern Khan

Yunis, and then taken to the hospital.

Four Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces the previous day, east of Khan Yu-nis, near the Beit Hanoun bor-der crossing in northern Gaza Strip.

Relatives of Palestinian Ahmed Omar, who was killed during a protest near the Israeli Erez crossing with Gaza, mourn during his funeral in Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, yesterday.

Crackdown turns Egypt into an ‘open air prison’ for criticsReuters Cairo

Amnesty International yesterday accused Egypt’s government of mount-

ing a crackdown on freedom of expression that had turned the country into an “open-air pris-on” for critics.

The international human rights group said authorities had arrested at least 111 people since December for criticising Presi-dent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Egypt’s human rights situation

in a campaign that surpassed any under ousted President Hosni Mubarak.“It is currently more dangerous to criticise the gov-ernment in Egypt than at any time in the country’s recent history,” Amnesty’s North Af-rica Campaigns Director, Najia Bounaim, said in a statement.

“Egyptians living under President al-Sisi are treated as criminals simply for peacefully expressing their opinions.”

A government spokesman had no immediate comment on the Amnesty report when contacted by Reuters. The se-

curity services had ruthlessly clamped down on independent political, social and cultural spaces, Amnesty said.

“These measures, more ex-treme than anything seen in former President Hosni Mu-barak’s repressive 30-year rule, have turned Egypt into an open-air prison for critics,” it said.

Sisi’s supporters maintain the president, who was re-elected in March, has been try-ing to combat an insurgency and restore order to the coun-try following years of chaos af-ter Arab Spring demonstrations

forced Mubarak to step down in 2011.They say that Sisi has improved security since 2013, when as army chief he ousted President Mohamed Mursi fol-lowing mass protests against his rule. Among those arrested were at least 35 people held on charges of “unauthorised pro-test” and “joining a terrorist group” after a peaceful protest against metro fare increases, and comics and satirists who posted commentary online, Amnesty said.

They also include prominent figures and possible presiden-

tial contenders, such as former military chief of staff Sami Anan and former presidential contender Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, as well as former state auditor Hesham Genena.

Amnesty said at least 28 journalists were also among those detained since Decem-ber 2017. “President al-Sisi’s administration is punishing peaceful opposition and po-litical activists with spurious counter-terrorism legislation and other vague laws that de-fine any dissent as a criminal act,” Bounaim said.

Thousands return to their homes after deal

DPABeirut

Around 7,000 people from Syria’s Hama and Idlib provinces have returned

to their homes after an agree-ment by Turkey and Russia to set up a demilitarised zone in Idlib, a monitoring group said yesterday.

The Britain-based Syrian Ob-servatory for Human Rights said that in the last 48 hours, around 7,000 displaced people have re-turned to their hometowns.

Most of them are from areas in the north and north-eastern countryside of Hama and the south and south-eastern coun-tryside of Idlib, the group said.

According to Mustafa al-Hajj Youssef, the head of the White Helmets rescue organisation in Idlib, convoys have been accom-panying people to their homes since Tuesday, “especially to ar-eas that have witnessed heavy air strikes since early September.”

The United Nations said two weeks ago that more than 30,000 people had been displaced from Idlib province this month as re-sult of Syrian government and Russian air strikes.

Idlib is home to 3mn civil-

ians and is largely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an alliance led by an Al Qaeda-affi l-iated group.

Russia and Turkey agreed this week to create a buff er zone by October 15 in a 15-20 square-kilometre area that will separate Syrian troops and rebels.

According to the deal, the rebels will hand over their heavy weapons under the supervision of Russia and Turkey by Novem-ber 10.

Russia has been the major benefactor of the Syrian gov-ernment in the country’s seven-year civil war.

However, several hardline groups have rejected the deal.

Among them are Ansar al-Tawheed and Ansar al-Allah, ac-cording to the Observatory.

Israel to present fi ndings over downing of plane

Israel’s air force chief will today present findings in Moscow related to an incident in which a Russian military plane was downed off Syria’s coast, Israel’s military said. Israel on Tuesday blamed Syria, saying its anti-aircraft batteries “fired indiscriminately” and failed to ensure that no Russian planes were in the air. The army said Major-General Amikam Norkin and other senior off icers would “present the situation report of the event regarding all aspects.

AFRICA13Gulf Times


DR Congo set to unveil candidates for troubled electionsBy Samir Tounsi, AFPKinshasa

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s marathon road towards presidential elec-

tions reached a key stage yes-terday with the stage set for the publication of offi cially-vetted candidates for the December 23 poll in which two heavyweight contenders have been sidelined.

More than two dozen people registered their bid with the In-dependent National Electoral Commission (CENI), a much-contested panel tasked with overseeing the ballot in one of the Africa’s biggest and most unsta-ble nations.

It is expected to give the green light to opposition fi gures Felix Tshisekedi and Vital Kamerhe, as well as to Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, a hardline former inte-rior minister backed by President Joseph Kabila.

But the list is also set to confi rm the exclusion of former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba and regional baron Moise Katumbi — a move that raised howls of protest from

their powerful blocs of supporters.Bemba lashed what he calls a

“parody of an election.”He accused Kabila — whom

critics characterise as corrupt and manipulative — of pulling strings “to ensure that the gov-ernment’s candidate does not have a serious challenger.”

The DRC, previously known as Zaire, has never had a peace-ful transition of power since it gained independence from Bel-gium in 1960.

Most of its citizens are deeply poor despite the DRC’s wealth of gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt, uranium and oil.

Bloody confl icts trouble the vast country’s east and centre.

Kabila, 47, has been in power since 2001.

His second and fi nal term in offi ce ended nearly two years ago, but he kept in power thanks to a caretaker clause in the constitu-tion.

Months of feverish speculation about Kabila’s plans, marked by protests that were bloodily re-pressed, ended in August when he threw his weight behind Shadary.

Around 500 people gathered in

Kinshasa’s Roman Catholic ca-thedral late yesterday for a mass to commemorate “martyrs” who died in anti-Kabila protests in 2016.

Voting day on December 23 will take place for the presidency, legislature and provincial bodies, throwing down a huge logistical and technical challenge to CENI in a country where infrastructure is poor.

The big challenge for the frag-mented opposition is to unite behind a credible candidate af-ter the loss of the people-pulling power of Bemba and Katumbi.

It will stage a rally in Kinshasa on September 29 on the heels of talks in Brussels and a meet-ing in Johannesburg with South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party.

In the absence of a single champion, boycotting the elec-tion, citing for example security concerns over electronic voting machines, may loom as an oppo-sition strategy, say analysts.

Last week, Tshisekedi, Kamer-he, Bemba and Katumbi joined with two fellow opposition lead-ers to warn CENI and Kabila’s

government to ensure fair elec-tions or else “be held responsible for the chaos and consequences.”

Bemba, 55, a former rebel and ex-vice president, declared his candidacy when he made a tri-umphant return home from Belgium after the International Criminal Court in The Hague acquitted him of war crimes charges.

But he was excluded by CENI, in a decision upheld by the Con-stitutional Court, on the grounds that the ICC had convicted him separately on charges of tamper-ing with witnesses at his war-crimes trial.

That conviction and a one-year sentence were upheld by the ICC on Monday along with a 300,000-euro ($350,000) fi ne.

Bemba’s lawyer, Melinda Tay-lor, said in an email to AFP yester-day that he would fi le an appeal.

Katumbi, 53, a former Kabila ally and ex-governor of the min-eral-rich province of Katanga, says he was blocked at the Zam-bian border to prevent him from returning to the country to fi le his candidacy. He has lived in ex-ile since 2016.

Congolese police off icers attempt to disperse members of the Civil Society Action Collective chanting slogans as they protest to demand free fair elections outside government headquarters in Kinshasa.

Liberia hunts missing cash, bans 15 from foreign travelReutersMonrovia

Fifteen Liberians, including the son of former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, are

banned from leaving the country while the government investi-gates the whereabouts of $104mn in missing cash intended for the central bank, the government has said.

A series of shipments of notes ordered by Liberia’s central bank from printers overseas have dis-appeared since last year after passing through the country’s main ports, Liberia’s information minister Eugene Nagbe told local radio.

The missing amount is the equivalent of nearly 5% of the West African country’s gross do-mestic product (GDP).

Charles Sirleaf, the son of Nobel Peace Prize winner El-len Johnson Sirleaf, and former central bank governor, Milton Weeks, are among those barred from travel as part of the inves-tigation, said a Ministry of Infor-mation statement released late on Tuesday.

“The government...takes the

ongoing investigation seriously because it has national security implications,” it said.

Weeks told Reuters he had “no involvement in this matter” and was cooperating with investigators.

Sirleaf was not immediately reachable for comment.

Central Bank offi cials also did not respond to requests for com-ment.

Investigators are still trying to ascertain how much money was ordered, where it was printed, how much of it eventually ar-rived in the country, and where it is now.

The money was ordered when Sirleaf was still in power, before President George Weah took over this year.

Justice Minister Frank Musah Dean said Sirleaf’s administra-tion had not informed Liberia’s current government of the initial order and that an investigation had begun once Weah became aware of it in August.

Information minister Nagabe told Voice of America there were no records of the containers be-ing collected from the ports, de-spite several bank staff employ-ees having written a request for pick-up on March 31.

The containers were recorded as having arrived in November 2017 and August 2018.

Liberia does not have its own mint, and the central bank is the only body with the power to or-der new currency.

Liberia’s government last ap-proved the printing of new notes in August 2016, as the country recovered from a devastating Ebola epidemic.

The missing cash comes as an unexpected blow to Liberia, one of the world’s poorest countries that suff ered two civil wars be-tween 1989 and 2003.

Ebola struck in 2013, killing thousands over the following three years.

Sirleaf was lauded for cement-ing peace during her 12-year presidency but was criticised for failing to rein in high-level cor-ruption.

Charles Sirleaf, one of three of her sons appointed to govern-ment posts, was suspended from his position as Deputy Central Bank Governor in 2012 during an anti-corruption investigation.

But he was re-appointed in-terim central bank chief in Feb-ruary 2016, drawing accusations of nepotism.

Zimbabwe seeks $35mn to fi ght cholera outbreakReutersHarare

Zimbabwe is appealing to individu-al citizens and local companies for $35mn to help fi ght a cholera outbreak

that has killed 31 and infected more than 5,000, the fi nance minister said.

The worst cholera outbreak in a decade has exposed the problem of decaying urban infrastructure that became synonymous with the rule of Robert Mugabe who was removed after a coup in November and re-placed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The government has raised $29mn, half from private companies and foreign aid agencies, out of a target of $64.1mn needed for vaccinations, drugs, clean water and better water and sewer pipes, said Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube.

“The private corporate sector, develop-ment partners, individuals, including Zim-babweans in the diaspora, are being called upon to provide both fi nancial and non-fi nancial assistance towards responding to the cholera outbreak,” Ncube told reporters.

Critics in the opposition say the govern-ment is quick to fi nd money to import luxury vehicles using scarce foreign exchange but

has had to appeal to individuals and compa-nies to fi ght cholera.

Earlier yesterday, Mnangagwa visited Harare’s Glenview township, the epicentre of the outbreak, and met patients and fami-lies who lost relatives to the disease.

Mnangagwa said his government would help the opposition-led Harare city council to replace ageing water and sewer pipes af-ter government offi cials and the opposition blamed each other for the outbreak.

Police this week started clearing illegal vendors from Harare’s streets, saying this was part of a drive to bring cholera under control.

Patients are treated at a clinic dealing with cholera outbreak in Harare.

Zambian minister sacked over misused donor funds

Zambian President Edgar Lungu yesterday fi red a cabinet minister in charge

of social welfare funds after Brit-ain and Finland froze aid over suspicions that $4mn of funding may have been misused.

The money was channeled into the social cash transfer scheme, a donor-supported programme under which the government re-lays money to vulnerable house-holds in rural areas.

Lungu’s spokesman Amos Chanda said Olipa Phiri had been made Community Development and Social Welfare Minister, re-placing Emerine Kabanshi.

“The new minister has been given a clear mission to get down to work and clean up the mess that has been identifi ed in the administration of the social cash transfer,” Chanda said.

Kabanshi has not made any public comment on the aff air,

and Reuters was unable to reach her by phone.

Chanda said Phiri would work with the auditor-general and other investigative agencies to ensure that accountability was restored.

Preliminary investigations re-vealed that the state-owned com-pany engaged by the government to distribute the money had used part of it to pay its retirees and re-furbish offi ces, Chanda said.

War on extreme poverty faces challenges in Africa: World BankAFPWashington

The share of the people liv-ing in extreme poverty around the globe has de-

clined but is falling a slower pace as the challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa become more acute, the World Bank said yesterday.

The slowing decline and un-

even success rate raises concerns as more of the world’s poor be-come concentrated in a region beset by confl ict and the eff ects of climate change, the bank said in its annual report.

The global development lender said the percentage of people liv-ing in extreme poverty fell to a new low of 10% in 2015 — the lat-est year for which data is avail-able — down from 11% in 2013,

refl ecting steady but slowing progress globally.

The number of people liv-ing on less than $1.90 a day, the threshold for extreme poverty, fell during this period by 68mn to 736mn, the data shows.

“Over the last 25 years, more than a billion people have lifted themselves out of extreme pov-erty and the global poverty rate is now lower than it has ever been

in recorded history. This is one of the greatest human achievements of our time,” World Bank group president Jim Yong Kim said.

But the report shows the rate of decline is slowing, especially in the least developed countries.

So “if we are going to end poverty by 2030, we need much more investment, particularly in building human capital, to help promote the inclusive growth it

will take to reach the remaining poor,” Kim said. “For their sake, we cannot fail.”

As more countries lift people out of poverty, a higher share of the world’s poor will be concen-trated in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region that already has high poverty rates of 41 %, and slow progress, said Carolina Sanchez-Paramo of the World Bank’s Pov-erty & Equity Global Practice.

This fi ght “will be won and lost” in Sub-Saharan Africa, she told reporters.

There are many confl ict coun-tries in the region but they also are more susceptible to the im-pact of changing climate, she said.

The anti-poverty eff orts also have suff ered from a combina-tion of lower economic growth rates and growth that is “more

concentrated in capital inten-sive” industries that do not gen-erate as much employment.

That makes the growth less inclusive in some African coun-tries so “it pays off less in terms of poverty reduction,” she said.

About half of the world’s countries now have poverty rates below 3%, but the report said the world was not on track to achieve that target globally by 2030.

AMERICAS


The alleged killer of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, whose disappearance produced national headlines, yesterday pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder at a court appearance. Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a 24-year-old farm worker from Mexico accused of stabbing 20-year-old Tibbetts, appeared in a black-and-white striped jumpsuit at his arraignment in Poweshiek County Courthouse in Montezuma, Iowa. “Mr Rivera pleads not guilty,” his lawyer Chad Frese told the judge as Rivera listened through black headphones to a translator. District Court Judge Joel Yates set his trial for April 16.

Federal prosecutors have accused three men of portraying themselves as investment professionals and using a phony portfolio of consumer debt to defraud hundreds of unwary investors out of tens of millions of dollars as part of a $364mn Ponzi scheme. Kevin Merrill of Maryland, 53, Jay Ledford of Texas and Nevada, 54, and Cameron Jezierski of Texas, 28, misused millions of dollars to maintain a lavish lifestyle, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday in a federal court in Baltimore. The indictment charged the three with conspiracy, wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering. Lawyers for the defendants could not be identified as of yesterday.

The US Senate voted on Tuesday to guarantee royalties for digital broadcast of songs from before 1972, in a rare bipartisan effort seen as one of the biggest shakeups ever of how musicians are compensated. The bill unanimously passed the Senate after approval in April in the House of Representatives, virtually ensuring it will become law once the two chambers sort out differences. The Music Modernization Act most notably will ensure that streaming and other digital services compensate musicians for songs penned before 1972, when current copyright law took effect.

Around two thirds of the US public are in favour of taking in people fleeing violence and war, according to a study released yesterday. Some 66% of Americans are in favour of taking in refugees, with 29% against, according to the survey conducted by the Washington-based Pew Research Center in spring 2018. President Donald Trump’s administration has cut the number of refugees allowed to settle in the United States, most recently announcing a reduction from 45,000 to 30,000 for the 2019 fiscal year. Most Europeans also support taking in those fleeing violence and war, but are unhappy with how the European Union is dealing with refugee policy, according to the survey.

US President Donald Trump said yesterday he is not worried about what his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is co-operating with the US special counsel’s probe into Russian election meddling, will tell prosecutors, as long as he is truthful. “No, I’m not,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if he was concerned what Manafort might say. “As long as he tells the truth, it’s 100%,” Trump said. “If he tells the truth, no problem.” Manafort pleaded guilty last week to criminal charges stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the US 2016 presidential election and possible co-ordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

In court, immigrant denies killing Iowa student

Prosecutors charge three in $364mn Ponzi scheme

US Senate votes to ensure royalties for older songs

Two-thirds of Americans support taking in refugees

Trump is not worried by what Manafort will tell prosecutors

JUSTICE INDICTEDMUSICAL RIGHTS STUDY POLITICS

President pledges ‘100%’ support for storm-battered North CarolinaBy Nicholas Kamm and Chris Lefkow, AFP Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, United States

US President Donald Trump yesterday prom-ised federal aid and “100

percent” support as he arrived in North Carolina to tour areas of the eastern state pummelled by Hurricane Florence.

“Some of the fl ooding is actu-ally epic,” Trump said at a news conference after landing in Air Force One at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point on North Carolina’s Neuse River.

“We’ve seen all the pictures where houses are literally cov-ered beyond the roof,” he added.

He pledged federal assistance as North Carolina begins the re-covery from a storm estimated to have caused billions of dollars in damage and left dozens dead.

“Whatever we have to do at the

federal level we’ll be there,” Trump said. “We will be there 100%.”

The president off ered his con-dolences for the nearly 40 people killed by the storm.

“America grieves with you and our hearts break for you...We will never forget your loss, we will never leave your side. We are with you all the way,” he said.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said his state took a “gut punch” from Florence, which made landfall on the coast as a Category 1 hurricane on Friday and drenched some parts of the state with 100cm of rain.

“Our people are still reeling...Our rivers are still cresting and there is still danger for some peo-ple,” he added.

Cooper said farmers in the state had suff ered signifi cant losses to crops, while major roads re-mained fl ooded and thousands of people were still without power. “A lot of businesses are down and, of course, people have lost

their homes,” he added. “We have weathered storms

before in our state but we have never seen one like this,” Cooper went on. “It has been epic, dis-astrous and widespread. It is a storm like no other.”

The governor told Trump the state could “come back stronger than ever” but would need the president’s help.

“We’ve got a long road ahead in the days, months and even years ahead to make sure we build back to where we need to be in North Carolina,” he said.

Following the news confer-ence Trump joined the governor handing out meals in styrofoam containers to North Carolina residents and asking how they were doing. The president is scheduled to tour neighbouring South Carolina before returning to Washington.

He asked a state offi cial dur-ing his briefi ng at the Marine Corps base how a region of North

Carolina called Lake Norman had been impacted.

Told it was doing fi ne, Trump said: “I love that area. I can’t tell you why, but I love that area.” The Trump National Golf Club is locat-ed on the shores of Lake Norman.

NBA legend Michael Jordan, a North Carolina native, an-nounced meanwhile he was do-nating $2mn to help with recov-ery eff orts from the hurricane.

Jordan, who owns the National Basketball Association’s Char-lotte Hornets, grew up in Wilm-ington, near where Florence made landfall. “You gotta take care of home,” Jordan told The Charlotte Observer newspaper.

“Wilmington truly is my home,” the former Chicago Bulls star added. “When it’s home, that’s tough to swallow.”

Jordan donated $1mn to the American Red Cross and another $1mn to the Foundation for the Carolinas Florence Response Fund, the Observer said.Rescuers help evacuate people from their homes in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Trump tells Kavanaugh accuser to testify in the SenateReuters Washington

President Donald Trump yesterday stepped up his defence of his US Su-preme Court pick, saying it is hard to

imagine Brett Kavanaugh committed a sexual assault and that it would be unfortunate if the nominee’s accuser does not testify before the Senate.

Trump made his remarks a day after law-yers for Christine Blasey Ford, a university professor in California, said she would tes-tify before the Senate Judiciary Committee only if the FBI fi rst investigates her allega-tion that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982 when both were high school students in Maryland.

The FBI has said it is not investigating the matter.

Ford’s demand cast doubt on whether a hearing planned by the committee for Mon-day to hear testimony from Kavanaugh, who has called the allegation “completely false,” and Ford will occur.

The allegation has placed the nomination of Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge, in peril.

The Senate must confi rm nominees to life-time posts of the top US court.

“Look, if she shows up and makes a cred-ible showing, that will be very interesting and we’ll have to make a decision. But I can only say this: he’s such an outstanding man — very hard for me to imagine that any-thing happened,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

The Republican president said he wanted the Senate confi rmation process to play out.

“If she shows up, that would be wonderful. If she doesn’t show up, that would be unfor-tunate,” Trump added.

“I think he’s an extraordinary man. I think he’s a man of great intellect, as I’ve been telling you, and he had this unblemished record. This is a very tough thing for him and his family. And we want to get it over with,” Trump said.

Ford has accused Kavanaugh of attacking her and trying to remove her clothing while

he was drunk at a party in 1982 when he was 17 years old and she was 15.

Ford’s lawyers said in a letter sent on Tues-day to Senator Chuck Grassley, the Judiciary Committee’s Republican chairman, that she has faced “vicious harassment and even death threats” since coming forward on Sunday.

At the US Capitol, Grassley said he was trying to get Ford to testify by Monday, pub-licly or privately.

“I’m concentrating on doing everything I can to make sure Dr Ford is comfortable to testify,” Grassley told reporters. “We have to make plans for her to come and that’s what I’m concentrating on.”

The allegation has roiled a confi rmation process that once appeared smooth for Ka-vanaugh, who if confi rmed could consolidate the conservative grip on the top US court.

The confi rmation fi ght comes just weeks before November 6 congressional elections in which Democrats are seeking to win control of Congress from Trump’s fellow Republicans.

Republicans control the Senate by only a narrow margin, meaning any defections could sink the nomination and deal a major setback to Trump, who has been engaged in a so-far successful eff ort since becoming pres-ident last year to move the Supreme Court and broader federal judiciary to the right.

Republican panel member Lindsey Gra-ham said on Twitter that requiring an FBI investigation of a 36-year-old allegation “is not about fi nding the truth, but delaying the process till after the midterm elections.”

In a statement on Tuesday Grassley said: “Nothing the FBI or any other investigator does would have any bearing on what Dr Ford tells the committee, so there is no reason for any further delay.”

The Justice Department has said that the FBI sent the initial letter Ford wrote mak-ing the allegation against Kavanaugh to the White House and considers its role in the matter complete.

Democrats have said the White House can order a more detailed FBI investigation, as occurred during the 1991 confi rmation process for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas after he was accused of sexual har-assment.

Expo on conspiracy theories aims to capture zeitgeistBy Thomas Urbain, AFPNew York

The Kennedy assassination, Watergate, 911 and the war in Iraq: all these landmark

events in US history fuelled pub-lic suspicions about the elites and fostered conspiracy theories that inspired artists, and are the focus of a new exhibition at New York’s Met Breuer museum.

‘Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy’, which opened on Tuesday and runs until January 6, attempts to capture the zeitgeist of an age riven with alternative theo-ries about the hidden machinations of power, in what museum director Max Hollein calls a “timely exhibi-tion.”

The history of conspiracy theo-ries goes back centuries, but the show at the Met Breuer — an off -shoot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated to modern and contemporary works — kicks off with the most famous of the mod-ern era, the assassination of presi-dent John F Kennedy.

It is not so much the event it-self but the investigations that followed, notably the Warren and Church commissions that ex-amined the actions of the US spy agencies, which drive the show.

“It was really spurred on in a way by all of the commissions that were taking place in the 1970s reexamin-ing what happened,” said curator Ian Alteveer.

“It begins to simmer and it comes to a slow boil by the 1970s.”

An example of how that has translated into the artistic psyche is the 1976 work ‘The Lee Harvey Oswald Interview’, featured on the poster for the exhibition.

The work by veteran US artist Lutz Bacher — who uses a pseudo-nym and has never revealed her real identity — features an imagined

interview the artist herself carries out with the president’s assassin, together with a montage of pictures of Oswald.

The story of Lee Harvey Oswald looms large over the exhibition, which opens with a huge portrait of the assassin entitled ‘Peach Os-wald’ by painter Wayne Gonzales.

The fi rst part of the show is dedi-cated to works that are based on factual research and try to alert the viewer to the real cloak-and-dag-ger operations of the US govern-ment, businesses and arms dealers.

That includes Trevor Paglen’s series of photographs of secret CIA prisons and Alfredo Jaar’s work recalling former secretary of state Henry Kissinger’s support for Chil-ean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

The second part of the show is devoted to artists inspired by con-spiracy theories to create abstract, often fantastical art that sheds a light on the way society is aff ected by such tales.

“These works...all address an ur-gency to question, to imagine and to understand that the world that

surrounds us and that we live in is way more complex than we think or that others want us to think,” said Hollein.

The exhibition does not include any works about President Don-ald Trump, a longstanding backer of conspiracy theories such as his predecessor Barack Obama’s al-legedly falsified birth certificate, or his favourite topic of “fake news.”

“There’s not yet enough histori-cal distance, even for an artist, to kind of respond,” said Alteveer.

A visitor looks at ‘Government of California’ (1969) by Peter Saul during an exhibition at the Met Breuer, Metropolitan Museum of Art titled ‘Everything is Connected: Art and Conspiracy’ in New York. The assassination of Kennedy, Watergate, Iraqi invasions, major events in modern US history have fueled public suspicion of the elite and inspired many artists, as evidenced by a new exhibition at the Met Breuer, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

‘More work’ to get a continental trade deal: TrudeauBy Michel Comte, AFPOttawa

There is still a way to go to reach a new North American Free Trade Agreement, Can-

ada’s prime minister said yesterday, brushing off US pressure for a quick deal as high-level talks resumed in Washington.

“Our team is in Washington this morning to continue to see if we can get a good deal for Canada, a good deal for everyone,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“We remain confi dent that there is always a deal possible, but it will take more work,” he added.

As he spoke in Ottawa, Canada’s top diplomat Chrystia Freeland, who

leads the Canadian negotiating team, was meeting US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington.

Negotiations to modernise the 1994 accord between Canada, the United States and Mexico started a year ago at the behest of US Presi-dent Donald Trump, who called it “one of the worst trade deals in history” for sending many manu-facturing jobs — notably in the auto sector — to Mexico.

Freeland told reporters yester-day that negotiators had worked through the night.

She emerged from meetings with Lighthizer saying offi cials were “tired but in good spirits.”

“Our negotiators have been re-ally hard added including an all-night session last night of one

team. So we are working very, very hard,” she said.

The United States and Mexico sealed their own two-way deal at the end of August, and Trump has since ramped up pressure on Cana-da to accept his terms.

But Ottawa has seemed reluctant to heed Trump’s push to sign a deal before US midterm elections in No-vember and the transfer of power in December to Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador — as Trudeau’s Liberals also need a win to hold up to voters when they return to the polls in one year.

Ottawa and Washington remain at odds over Canada’s protected dairy sector and cultural subsidies, as well as Canada’s demand for an interna-tional system for resolving disputes.

Earlier, Canadian dairy farmers publicly urged Trudeau not to cave to US demands for increased access to Canada’s dairy market, noting that the US already sells fi ve times more milk to Canada than Canada sells to the US.

“We call on the government to en-sure that any fi nal Nafta deal has no further negative impact on our dairy sector,” Pierre Lampron, the presi-dent of the Dairy Farmers of Canada, said at a news conference.

Flanked by dairy farmers from all of Canada’s 10 provinces, he said Ottawa had given milk and cheese carve-outs to the EU and 10 member nations in the Trans-Pacifi c Part-nership trade pact in order to secure free trade with those blocs. This cost Canada C$250mn (US$193mn) in lost milk production, Lampron said.

ASIA15


Maldives heads to polls amid criticism over fairness of voteMore than a quarter of

a million people will vote on Sunday for the

next leader of the tropical Mal-dives in an election criticised internationally for a lack of transparency and suppression of government critics.

President Abdulla Yameen is seeking a second fi ve-year term in the Indian Ocean archipela-go, a popular high-end tourist destination and a key state in the battle for infl uence between India and China.

But the government has jailed many of his main rivals after speedy trials for charges rang-ing from terrorism to corrup-tion, and introduced new vote-counting rules that observers say will prevent them from seeing individual ballot papers, leading to doubts about the le-gitimacy of the vote.

The main opposition Mal-dives Democratic Party (MDP) and local and international observers have also raised con-cerns over restrictions on for-eign journalists wanting to cover the polls and the Election Commission’s refusal to share

the fi nal list of voters.“Maldives authorities have

detained critics, muzzled the media and misused the Elec-tion Commission to obstruct opposition candidates to en-sure President Yameen a victory on election day,” said Patricia Gossman, Asia associate direc-tor at Human Rights Watch.

Transparency Maldives (TM), an independent election moni-tor, said on Tuesday that “un-less these issues are resolved, it is very likely that the outcome of such an election will not be accepted by the people”.

Election Commission spokesman Ahmed Akram said the allegations “don’t have any basis in reality”.

“The counting process will not be diff erent from the previ-ous elections,” he said.

The Election Commission has previously said that foreign observers will be present, with-out naming who those will be.

Yameen, 59, dismissed al-legations of abuse of power earlier this month during cam-paigning.

“If the accusations about au-thoritarianism are true, when I go to islands, the people will tell me ‘we are tolerating so much abuse’,” he said.

“I won’t see smiles on the faces. No one will come to greet me and shake my hand, if there is tyranny.”

The country has faced up-heaval since February, when Yameen imposed a state of emergency to annul a Supreme Court ruling that quashed the convictions of nine opposition leaders, including former presi-dent Mohamed Nasheed, the country’s fi rst democratically elected leader.

Since then, Yameen’s rul-ing coalition has enacted laws without a required quorum in parliament, approved by the Supreme Court after its chief justice was arrested in Febru-ary for alleged corruption under emergency regulations.

MDP leader Nasheed, who in 2009 famously held a cabinet meeting underwater in scuba gear to highlight the dangers of global warming to the low-ly-ing islands, is currently in exile in Sri Lanka and is barred from standing in Sunday’s poll.

Member of parliament Ib-rahim Mohamed Solih (Ibu) is running against Yameen un-der an opposition coalition, promising democracy, a crack-down on corruption and better relations with the West after

ReutersMale/Colombo

Youths walk past the posters of Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Maldivian presidential candidate backed by the opposition coalition, on a road ahead of the presidential election in Male yesterday.

Yameen steered the country closer to China.

“What happens from today to the voting day remains un-certain,” the MDP’s spokesman, Hamid Abdul Ghafoor, who lives in exile, told Reuters.

Yameen’s administration made defamation a crime in 2016, a move government crit-

ics say was aimed at stifl ing dis-sent. It also suspended 56 law-yers from attending court last year for demanding to uphold the rule of law.

“The space for civil society has not shrunk. It does not exist any more,” Shahindha Ismail, the ex-ecutive director at Maldives De-mocracy Network, told Reuters.

Yameen has disregarded calls from the United Nations, several western countries and India for an amicable solution to the lin-gering political crisis. In 2016, the Maldives quit the Com-monwealth group of nations, which threatened to suspend the country after it criticised the government for rights abuses.

Lanka to provide digital ID cards

The Sri Lankan govern-ment will soon implement digital identifi cation (ID)

cards for its citizens aimed at strengthening the island’s digital economy, offi cials said.

Hans Wijayasuriya, vice chair-man of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and director of Dialog Axiata, said that these would be irrefutable digital identifi cation cards which could not be forged as it would be bio-metric, Xin-hua news agency reported.

“Thereby, every citizen could potentially be incorporated as economic entities into the larger economy,” Wijayasuriya said.

The idea proposed in 2012 had gone through many processes and would be introduced in the near future. This digital ID would help the government to eff ec-tively disburse welfare funds, said Wijayasuriya.

“The government’s invest-ments in welfare can be targeted and directed at the right seg-ments down to a single citizen.”

Wijayasuriya added that im-plementation of the digital iden-tifi cation card would create an economic surplus which could be reinvested for growth.

IANSColombo

Maldives president took gifts from developers: report

The president of the Maldives appeared to have accepted lavish

gifts from a billionaire devel-oper who was later leased two islands in the paradise archi-pelago without bidding for them, a corruption watchdog has alleged.

The claims - including that President Abdulla Yameen directly participated in a mul-ti-million dollar scam that helped developers skirt public tenders and acquire dozens of islands and lagoons - come days before the strongman leader seeks re-election in the nation of 340,000 people.

Yameen, whose main po-litical rivals are in jail or exile, has denied any involvement in the alleged island-leasing scam, which fi rst came to light in a 2016 investigation by Al Jazeera.

His deputy and then-tour-ism minister Ahmed Adeeb, who was accused of spear-heading the scheme between 2014 and 2015 and paying off judges and politicians, was later jailed on multiple charges including corruption.

But new allegations of Yameen’s involvement have been made by the Organised Crime and Corruption Re-porting Project, which gleaned fresh details from leaked gov-ernment documents and other evidence it says implicates the president.

The global investigative

journalism consortium says Yameen assisted with at least two dozen no-tender deals to tourism resort developers, and directly ordered one island be leased through a state-owned company at the centre of the scandal.

Reporters also allegedly ac-quired photographs showing that Yameen and Adeeb were gifted luxury stays in Singa-pore by a billionaire hotelier, who was later granted one un-inhabited Maldivian island for $5mn and another for free.

Independent reporting in the Maldives is diffi cult and Yameen, who has ruled since winning a controversial run-off in 2013, has cracked down on the press in the lead up to Sunday’s poll.

Human Rights Watch this month warned the regime was fi ning news organisations in a bid to silence dissent and enforce censorship, while the opposition has accused the government of denying access to foreign media to cover the upcoming presidential elec-tion.

The US State Department this month warned of “demo-cratic backsliding” and urged Yameen to release political prisoners, stop interfering in parliament and hold an elec-tion that refl ects the will of the people.

“The United States will consider appropriate measures against those in-dividuals who undermine democracy, the rule of law, and a free and fair electoral process,” it said.

AFPNew Delhi

Vietnam jails two Americans for attempting to overthrow state

A Vietnamese court sen-tenced two Americans of Vietnamese origin to 14

years in prison yesterday for “at-tempting to overthrow the state”, a court offi cial told Reuters.

James Nguyen and Angel Phan were convicted, along with 10 accomplices who received shorter jail terms, after a two-day trial. The defendants all faced the same charge.

Phan and Nguyen were ac-cused of running a network

of underground operatives in Vietnam, some of whom were given titles in a shadow gov-ernment such as “governor of Saigon”, or “commander of national defence guards,” the ministry of public security’s offi cial news website reported yesterday.

The pair assigned “counter-revolutionary” missions to the group’s members in Vietnam, the report said, including a plan to broadcast anti-government propaganda from local radio stations, organise protests, and deface an image of former presi-dent Ho Chi Minh.

“The remaining 10 defend-ants in the same trial received prison terms of between fi ve and 11 years,” an offi cial at the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court told Reuters by phone.

Phan and Nguyen will be de-ported after serving their jail term, Voice of Vietnam radio re-ported.

According to state media, the pair were acting on behalf of the “Provisional National Govern-ment of Vietnam”, a California-based organisation run by Viet-namese-Americans still loyal to the now defunct state of South Vietnam.

The US organisation, which was listed as a “terrorist” group by Hanoi in January this year, dispatched Phan and Nguyen to Vietnam in February 2017 to carry out their alleged activities on Vietnamese national holi-days, according to the ministry of public security’s offi cial news website.

In June, a court in Ho Chi Minh City upheld prison sentences against 15 mem-bers of the group it said were guilty of planting bombs in the international terminal of Tan Son Nhat airport in April last year.

In another case last month, police said it had arrested seven people from a separate group over the bombing of a Ho Chi Minh City police station in June.

That incident, in which two small explosive devices were detonated, injured three people in what police said was a “ter-rorist case against the people’s government”.

The Provisional National Government of Vietnam did not respond to a request for com-ment made via its website.

The US embassy in Hanoi was not able to provide immediate comment.

ReutersHanoi

Men wearing a soldier hat and a traditional Vietnamese conical hat walk at Chuong village outside Hanoi in Vietnam yesterday.

Headgears Cambodia bans song

The Cambodian gov-ernment has banned a 10-year-old Khmer-

language ballad about the poor working conditions faced by domestic workers, local media reported yesterday.

The four-minute track, titled Only True Love Re-mained, tells the story of a woman lured into work as a maid by a good salary, only to end up as “entertainment for vicious men who abuse wom-en,” according to the lyrics.

The information ministry on Monday ordered all media to stop broadcasting the song in order to “prevent negative ef-fects on the feelings and dignity of domestic workers while the

government has been focusing on them to give them full rights,” the Khmer Times reported.

Ministry spokesman Ouk Kimseng said the government believed the song “devalues domestic work.”

Singer Keo Chansamphors, who released the song 10 years ago but did not write it, said it refl ects real stories.

While maids have legal pro-tections, Chansamphors said the song acted as a reminder to the government.

“What is important is the ministry should give better pro-tection to working maids rather than banning the song,” she said.

Khun Tharo, a coordina-tor at workers’ rights group Central, said the song merely described a domestic worker’s life. “This song does nothing wrong,” Tharo said.

DPAPhnom Penh

Bangkok’s vendors decry evictions as authorities clean up

“Quick, move!” Bangkok street vendors call to each other as they rush carts

laden with souvenirs and snacks from the city’s bustling Ram-kamhaeng Road, pushing their wares into an alley before the police spot them.

Once the backbone of Bang-kok’s renowned roadside econo-my, thousands of licensed street vendors have spent much of the past two years being shifted to locations they deem less favour-able, by authorities bent on im-

proving hygiene and imposing order.

Thailand’s street stalls are usually a magnet for tourists in a country where tourism is a ma-jor source of income, and which has welcomed record numbers of travellers in recent years.

The military junta, how-ever, has been keen to improve standards of living, particularly ahead of a general election pen-cilled in for early next year - the fi rst since it assumed power in 2014.

“The pavement is the pave-ment. It is not a place to sell things,” said Wanlop Suwandee, the Bangkok governor’s chief ad-

viser. “We are doing this in ear-nest, to return the pavement to the people.”

The Bangkok Metropoli-tan Administration (BMA) has moved 20,000 street vendors from 478 locations since 2016. It told Reuters it has identifi ed 205 more loca-tions to address, and that in recent weeks it has increased the rate of clearance. Vendors who return to cleared areas risk being fi ned.

But some relocated street vendors said much-reduced foot traffi c at their new pitches is threatening their livelihoods.

In response, 1,200 members

of the Network of Thai Vendors for Sustainable Development marched to the prime minister’s offi ce on September 4 and sub-mitted a letter demanding a halt to evictions and calling on offi -cials to fi nd a solution together.

“They can clean up the streets but please don’t get rid of us entirely,” said Lewan Choptha, 54, a souvenir stall

owner and one of group’s leaders.Street vendors play a crucial

role in Thailand’s economy and are a source of aff ordable food, experts say. Professor Naru-mol Nirathron of Thammasat University surveyed 200 peo-ple last year and found 87 per-cent bought items from street vendors.

“It doesn’t just aff ect the vendors. It aff ects the customer as well - low income earners, for example, or those who have to travel a long way to work in Bangkok,” said Chidchanok Sa-mantrakul from Women In In-formal Employment: Globaliz-ing and Organizing (WIEGO) and

co-author of a report on street vendors.

They are also of cultural sig-nifi cance. The government of nearby Singapore long ago moved street sellers to hawker centres, and last month pro-posed their inclusion in the Unesco Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Having come to regard sales on a public thoroughfare as a nuisance, Bangkok authorities are similarly moving street sell-ers to alternative locations such as indoor markets.

“This is nothing to do with the election,” Wanlop said. “Peo-

ple have complained they can’t travel safely on the pavement... sometimes they have to walk on the road.”

However, some street vendors said business conditions at new locations are so dire that they were prepared to risk fi nes of as much as 300 baht ($9.19) to go back to their former pitches.

“It was a narrow market on the second fl oor of building. It was impossible to sell anything,” said a seafood seller who opted to return. “Before, I had enough to pay for school, water and electricity. Now we have to rely on loan sharks who charge us 20% interest.”

ReutersBangkok

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has identifi ed 205 new locations to address, and that in recent weeks it has increased the rate of clearance


ASIA/AUSTRALASIA

Kim agrees to inspections at nuclear sitesReutersSeoul

North Korea said yesterday it would permanently abolish its key missile fa-

cilities in the presence of foreign experts, in a new gesture by lead-er Kim Jong-un to revive faltering talks with Washington over his country’s nuclear programme.

After a summit in Pyongyang, Kim and South Korean Presi-dent Moon Jae-in said the North was also willing to close its main nuclear complex but only if the United States took unspecifi ed reciprocal action.

The pledges Kim and Moon made at their third summit this year could inject fresh momen-tum into the stalled nuclear ne-gotiations between Washing-ton and Pyongyang and lay the groundwork for another meet-ing Kim recently proposed to US President Donald Trump.

“I don’t think President Moon got everything he was seeking from these interactions, but Kim Jong-un gave Moon some tangi-ble things for which he can take credit,” said Michael Madden, an analyst at the Stimson Centre’s 38 North think tank in Washing-ton.

“These are good-faith gestures which will likely facilitate fur-ther and more substantive nego-tiations,” Madden said, adding a second summit between Kim and Trump was “highly probable”. Kim pledged to work toward the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula” during his two meetings with Moon earlier this year and at his historic June summit with Trump in Singa-pore.

But discussions over how to implement the vague commit-ments have since faltered. Wash-ington is demanding concrete action towards denuclearisation, such as a full disclosure of North Korea’s nuclear and missile facil-ities, before agreeing to key goals of Pyongyang — declaring an of-fi cial end to the 1950-53 Korean War and easing tough interna-tional sanctions.

Trump welcomed the lat-est pledges, saying they were

part of “tremendous progress” with Pyongyang on a number of fronts, and hailed the “very good news” from the Korean nations’ summit. “He’s calm, I’m calm —so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters at the White House, referring to Kim. “It’s very much calmed down.”

But the United States is likely to be concerned economic co-operation plans announced by the two Korean leaders that could undermine US-driven United Nations sanctions against North Korea. Speaking at a joint news conference in Pyongyang, the two Korean leaders agreed to turn the Korean peninsula into a “land of peace without nuclear weap-ons and nuclear threats.”

Kim said he would visit Seoul in the near future, in what would be the fi rst-ever visit to South Korean capital by a North Ko-rean leader. Moon said the visit was expected to take place by the end of the year. The leaders also announced a series of steps to deepen bilateral exchanges in the economy, culture and sport.

Kim’s latest promises come days before Moon meets Trump in New York at the UN General Assembly next week. South Ko-rean offi cials hope Moon will be able to convince Trump to restart

nuclear talks with Pyongyang, after he cancelled a trip by his secretary of state to North Ko-rea last month, citing lack of progress.

Though North Korea has uni-laterally stopped nuclear and missile tests, it did not allow in-ternational inspections of the dismantling its main nuclear test site in May, drawing criticism that its action was for show and could be easily reversed.

As a next step, North Korea will allow experts from “concerned countries” to watch the closure of its missile engine testing site and launch pad in the north-western town of Dongchang-ri, according to a joint statement signed by Moon and Kim.

The facilities were a key test centre for North Korea’s inter-continental ballistic missiles de-signed to reach the United States.

The North also “expressed its readiness” to take additional measures, such as a permanent dismantlement of its main nucle-ar facilities in Yongbyon should there be unspecifi ed correspond-ing action from the United States, according to the statement. Those US steps could include an end-of-war declaration, South Korea’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, told reporters. The neighbours remain techni-cally at war because the Korean War ended in armistice and not a peace treaty. North Korea has consistently refused to give up its nuclear arsenal unilaterally, and stressed that the United States should fi rst agree to a formal dec-laration ending the war.

Satellite images and other evi-dence in recent months have sug-gested North Korea is continuing to work on its nuclear programme

clandestinely. Seo Yu-suk, a re-search manager at the Institute of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the facilities at Dongchang-ri and Yongbyon were “almost obsolete” and the North has mo-bile missile launchers that are easier to use and harder to detect, while there are likely covert sites elsewhere.

At the summit, the two Koreas agreed to begin construction to reconnect railways and roads link-ing the countries within this year. They will also work to restart a joint factory park in the North bor-der city of Kaesong and tours to the North’s Mount Kumgang resort, when conditions are met.

Some experts worry those projects could constitute a vio-lation of UN Security Coun-cil sanctions aimed at drying up resources for Pyongyang’s weapons programmes, and upset

Washington.The two Koreas also agreed to

pursue a bid to co-host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games, and actively work together in other international competitions in-cluding the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Later yesterday, Moon was scheduled to watch the North’s signature “Brilliant Fa-therland” Mass Game, with a formation of glowing drones, la-sers and stadium-sized gymnas-tics shows designed to glorify the country.

Today, the last day of his three-day visit, Moon plans to visit Mount Baektu in North Korea with Kim before returning home.

North Korea says Kim’s grand-father and father were born at Mount Baektu, a centrepiece of the North’s idolisation and prop-aganda campaign to highlight the ruling family’s sacred bloodline.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, first lady Kim Jung-sook, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju visit Taedong River Seafood Restaurant in Pyongyang.

A view of the audience at the performance titled ‘The Glorious Country’ at the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang.

The two Koreas also agreed to pursue a bid to co-host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games, and actively work together in other international competitions including the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo

China’s President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan welcome Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni and his mother former queen Monique at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, in Beijing, China, yesterday.

Cambodian royals in Beijing

Former PM Najib to face further charges in scandalReutersKuala Lumpur

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will face further corruption

charges related to money alleg-edly siphoned off from scandal-plagued state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the anti-corruption agency said yesterday.

Najib has faced intense scru-tiny since unexpectedly losing a general election in May to Ma-hathir Mohamad, who reopened investigations into allegations that billions of dollars were stolen from 1MDB. In July and August, Najib was slapped with charges of money laundering, criminal breach of trust and abuse of pow-er in relation to 1MDB.

The charges relate to funds of about 42mn ringgit ($10.14mn) that allegedly fl owed from SRC International, a former 1MDB unit, into Najib’s personal bank account. Najib has pleaded not

guilty to all charges and has con-sistently denied wrongdoing.

Najib was arrested yesterday in connection with a deposit of 2.6bn ringgit ($627.79mn) into his personal account and will be taken to court today, the Malay-sian Anti-Corruption Commis-sion (MACC) said in a statement. Najib would face “several charg-es” under a section of the MACC Act which deals with using one’s

offi ce or position for gratifi ca-tion, the agency said.

The US Department of Justice has alleged in civil lawsuits that more than $4.5bn from 1MDB was laundered through a com-plex web of transactions and shell companies. It also alleges that $681mn, based on foreign exchange rates at the time of the transaction, of 1MDB funds went into Najib’s bank account.

Najib Razak would face “several charges” under a section of the anti-corruption act which deals with using one’s off ice or position for gratification.

Strawberry sabotage akin to ‘terrorism’: Australia PM

The tainting of supermarket strawberries with sewing needles is comparable to “terrorism”, Australia’s prime minister said yesterday, as he demanded tougher sentencing in response to a nationwide scare. Urging Australians to make a strawberry pavlova this weekend to help struggling farmers, Scott Morrison demanded a change in the law to put the perpetrators behind bars for 15 years. “We’re not mucking about,” said Morrison, after at least 20 pieces of fruit were found to be contaminated with needles or pins. “This is not on, this is just not on in this country,” he said. Calling the perpetrator a “coward and a grub”, Morrison called on parliament to quickly raise the maximum sentence for such deliberate food contamination from 10 to 15 years behind bars. That, he said, would put the crime on par with “things like possessing child pornography and financing terrorism. That’s how seriously I take this.” The scare has prompted a slew of supermarket recalls, and some stores in New Zealand have temporarily banned the sale of Australian strawberries.

At least 21 dead, dozens ill in Malaysia from bootleg liquorPolice in Malaysia are investigating a case of alcohol poisoning that killed at least 21 people, with dozens more hospitalised, most of them citizens of Asian nations, off icials said yesterday. Cheap, homemade liquor is popular among poor,

migrant workers in Malaysia, which has high taxes on alcohol. A total of 57 cases of methanol poisoning had been reported in Kuala Lumpur, the capital, and its surrounding state of Selangor, Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said. “The number of cases is

expected to increase as more patients come in for treatment,” he told a news conference in the administrative capital of Putrajaya. Methanol, an alcohol compound used in making spurious liquor, is harmless in tiny amounts but lethal in larger concentrations.

BRITAIN/IRELAND17Gulf Times


UK plans fortrade and Irishborder ‘need tobe reworked’AgenciesLondon

Donald Tusk has said that Theresa May’s Chequers proposals for dealing

with the Irish border and future trade relations after Brexit will need to be “reworked and fur-ther negotiated” in a sign of how far the UK and EU are from re-solving the most fraught issues in the divorce talks.

Opening the EU summit in Salzburg, Tusk, the European council president, said the Brex-it talks were entering a decisive phase and that “various scenar-ios” were still possible – a clear hint that no-deal remained a possibility if no acceptable reso-lution to the negotiations could be reached.

Tusk said that some of May’s Chequers proposals “indicated positive evolution” and high-lighted the “among other things, the readiness to co-operate on security and foreign policy”.

But in a blow to the British prime minister the EU leader said that was not the case “on other issues, such as the Irish question, or the framework for economic co-operation, where the UK proposals will need to be reworked and further negoti-ated”.

Tusk confi rmed there would be a special European summit in November, which is intended to be when Brexit negotiations end, and tried to add a note of urgency in conclusion, saying: “There is more hope but there is surely less and less time, every day left we must use for talks.”

Meanwhile David Davis has predicted that Theresa May will have to “reset” her stance on Brexit because she will not be able to get her Chequers plan through parliament.

The former Brexit secretary said there were signs Brus-sels was softening its stance on Northern Ireland, but he warned that EU negotiators would “pile on extra requests” in other ar-eas in the coming weeks before agreeing a deal with the UK.

The prime minister’s warning earlier this week that parliament would have to choose between a version of her Chequers plan or no deal was a false choice, Davis told BBC Radio 4’s Today pro-gramme.

He said: “What may well happen is that they pile on ex-tra requests, demands, money, migration, you name it ... An-gela Merkel said you must be seen to suffer. All these things will come back and we’ll see more and more pressure. And she’ll have a deal which she won’t be able to bring back to the House of Commons be-cause it will be lumbered with loads of other EU demands. So she’s going to have to have something else.”

Davis predicted that May would have to change tack to avoid the prospects of exiting the EU with no deal. “The time when the decision has got to be taken are going to November, when it is really threatening. Everybody is afraid of no deal, then there will be a point at which it will be possible to reset … there will be other deals on the table at that point.”

He added: “The reset is to step back to what Donald Tusk of-fered in March. He said you can have a free trade agreement.”

Citing EU trade deals with Canada and South Korea, Davis said: “It is possible. Indeed it is almost possible off the shelf.”

He urged May to use the £39bn divorce settlement agreed last year as a bargaining chip to get a better deal than that proposed in the Chequers plan. He said: “We have a negotiating lever. We have 39bn of them, the £39bn contribution we are go-ing to make in the withdrawal agreement. Once we have signed that away our negotiating lever-age evaporates.”

On Tuesday, the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said the bloc was ready to improve its proposal on avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland. The border issue was the “one area where I think the EU is soften-ing”, Davis claimed.

He pointed out that Barnier appeared ready to accept checks away from the border after rul-ing them out earlier this year. “Those are the very methods you use to cure the problem of the hard border in Northern Ire-land itself,” Davis said.

Davis also dismissed the growing clamour for a people’s vote on the fi nal deal. He said: “To announce a second refer-endum would be to invite the European Union to give us the worst deal possible in order to persuade us to stay in.

“That’s the consequence of a second referendum and is why it is very bad idea. It is completely against the national interest.”

Top Tory distanceshimself from BannonReutersLondon

One of the leading politi-cians pushing for a sharp exit from the European

Union, Jacob Rees-Mogg, says he has no interest in joining a cam-paign to disrupt EU operations organised by former Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon.

Rees-Mogg, whose image as an old-fashioned, unashamedly “posh” Conservative has endeared him to many voters disillusioned with more modern-looking poli-ticians, said he had met Bannon only once, in 2017.

“Meeting someone does not mean you’re endorsing them,” he said in an interview. “He is a very well informed man,” Rees-Mogg said of Bannon, but added: “We just had a discussion on world af-fairs. His world view is not my world view.”

Rees-Mogg, chair of the Euro-pean Research Group of anti-EU Members of Parliament, is a lead-ing light of the staunchly anti-EU wing of Theresa May’s party that is urging the prime minister to drop her “soft Brexit” strategy which would maintain many of Britain’s

close ties to the bloc.He said he had had no contact

with Bannon since the one meet-ing in 2017 and had no interest in supporting a Brussels-based, Europe-wide “Movement” that Bannon is putting together to elect right-wing nationalist and popu-list members in European Parlia-ment elections next May.

In a interview yesterday, Ban-non praised Rees-Mogg as a “very important” British leader.

But he said that as it appeared certain that Britain is leaving the EU, he and his advisers, includ-ing British European Parliament member Nigel Farage, decided some time ago not to involve Brit-ain in The Movement.

Bannon, who addressed a con-ference of France’s far-right Na-tional Front in March, said he planned to speak at a populist gathering this weekend in Rome where Italian Deputy Prime Min-ister Matteo Salvini, who recently endorsed Bannon’s Movement, will also speak. Before returning to the US to help support pro-Trump candidates in Congressional elec-tions, Bannon said he hoped to check in with other European leaders who might be interested in joining his campaign.

May’s £2bn fundingfor housing hailedGuardian News and MediaLondon

Housing associations have welcomed Theresa May’s announcement of an extra

£2bn in longer-term funding for new developments, as homeless-ness charities said the measure should be the start of a wider shift in government towards seeing the benefi ts of social housing.

The prime minister told the National Housing Federation (NHF) conference in London that the money would fund schemes over the next decade.

May used a signifi cant section of her speech to pointedly praise social housing, a sign of the grad-ual shift in the Conservative party away from the primacy of boost-ing home ownership, which is an increasingly unrealistic goal for many young people.

May called for an end to the “stigma” of social housing, also arguing that mixed estates should be better integrated, with no vis-ible diff erence between social and aff ordable properties and those

available at full market rents or for sale.

Social housing “should not be tucked away behind the private homes, out of sight and out of mind”, she told the conference.

A number of mixed develop-ments have attracted controversy for segregating poorer residents from better-off householders, particularly through the use of so-called “poor doors” in blocks of fl ats – separate entrances to access social rent or aff ordable properties.

The main announcement of the speech was £2bn of what is described as new funding for so-cial and aff ordable housing. This can be applied for until 2028-29, intended to help long-term con-struction decisions.

David Orr, the chief execu-tive of the NHF, which rep-resents housing associations, said the long-term element was “a total step change” and would hugely help planning. “Ultimately, this will have a huge impact on building the af-fordable homes that thousands of people across the country

desperately need,” he said.Paul Hackett, the chair of G15,

which groups together many of London’s major housing asso-ciations, said the sector had long called on the government to begin long-term funding deals, and the new plan would bring many ad-vantages.

The chief executive of the homelessness charity Shelter, Polly Neate, said that while the news was welcome, there were still more than a million house-holds on social housing waiting lists.

She said: “This must be the start and not the end. What we need now is more social homes actually being built as well as a big shift in attitude to start view-ing social housing as a right for hard-pressed families across the country.”

In her speech, May said that in return for the new approach, housing associations should use their expertise, local connec-tions and long-term planning “to achieve things neither private de-velopers nor local authorities are capable of doing”.

A murder investigation has been launched after a 25-year-old man was fatally stabbed in north London. Police and paramedics were called to reports of a stabbing in Tufnell Park. They could not save the victim, who was pronounced dead 40 minutes later. Formal identification has yet to take place, but the man’s next of kin have been informed, the Metropolitan police said. A nearby road was cordoned off on Tuesday night as police searched the area with sniff er dogs. The Met said: “Extra police will be in the area and a number of inquiries, including the recovery of local CCTV footage, forensic analysis and appeals for information from the public, are ongoing.”

Sports Direct tycoon Mike Ashley has come under fire for leaving thousands of House of Fraser customers in the dark over gift card replacements. After Ashley bought out the department store for a cut-price £90mn five weeks ago, customers with gift cards were told to send them in to be issued with a replacement. However, they have heard nothing back, fuelling fears the cards are now worthless. Shoppers have no legal right to a replacement from Ashley because the cards were bought before the firm went into administration. But a consumer rights expert from Which? warned of ‘shoddy customer service’ and said this was ‘no way to treat loyal customers’.

Thousands of children are being put at risk of deadly diseases because parents are failing to take them for routine vaccinations, a report shows. Health leaders warned Britain risks ‘turning back the clock’ to when diseases like tetanus, diphtheria and polio were commonplace, unless uptake improves. The latest NHS figures reveal a worrying trend of falling immunisation levels year-on-year against potentially fatal diseases. Coverage declined for nine out of 12 routine vaccines for under-5s in the last year. Uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella jab was 91.2% – its lowest in seven years – and well below the World Health Organisation’s target of 95%.

The brother of a council worker shot dead in front of TV cameras in a planning row said ‘good riddance’ after being told the murderer had died aged 78. In 1991 Albert Dryden opened fire on planning off icial Harry Collinson outside his illegally built bungalow in the first murder caught on British television. Dryden died at his care home in Co Durham after being released from prison on compassionate grounds last year. Harry’s brother, Roy, said: “Good riddance… I cannot say I am sorry, because I am not – I am pleased. It is the best news I have had all day.” Dryden shot Harry at point-blank range, before wounding a police off icer and a BBC reporter as they fled.

Prince William followed in his mother’s footsteps as he toured a children’s hospice 30 years after she opened it. Diana was 27 when she visited the Acorns hospice in Selly Oak, Birmingham, in December 1988. Her son is now 36 and a father-of-three. Some of the staff and supporters who were present at both events said they remembered Diana’s visit ‘like it was yesterday’ and declared that William had inherited his mother’s way with the youngsters. To add to the sense of poignancy the prince posed for pictures next to the plaque commemorating his mother’s visit. He told well-wishers it was ‘fantastic’ to be there.

Man, 25, fatally stabbedin north London

Anger at House of Fraser’ssilence over gift cards

Fears over falling vaccination rates

Man who killed counciloff icial on TV dies at 78

William pays poignantvisit to Diana hospice

CRIME FALLOUTHEALTH PEOPLE ROYALTY

Three hurtas car hitspedestriansoutside mosqueDaily MailLondon

Three people have been in-jured after a car ploughed into a crowd outside a north

London Islamic centre, in an inci-dent that is being treated as a hate crime.

The collision took place at al-Majlis al-Hussaini centre at the junction of Oxgate Lane and Edg-ware Road in Brent, which had been hosting a religious event.

Simon Rose, the local police commander, said at 12.30am vol-untary stewards and members of the security team challenged a group of people who were in a car park around the corner from the centre. The volunteers and stewards were allegedly subjected to Islamophobic and racist abuse and there was an altercation.

“The people who had been challenged then drove at members of the community in a car,” Rose said. “The car mounted the pave-ment twice and two people have been seriously hurt. Their injuries at this time are not believed to be life-threatening.” He added: “It’s being dealt with as an Islamopho-bic hate crime. It is not at this time being dealt with as a terrorism in-cident, although that is as always subject to continuous review.”

There have been no arrests and police are hunting for the car and its occupants.

A witness said the vehicle mounted the pavement several times before ploughing into the crowd in what he believed was a deliberate attempt to hurt or kill people wearing the Islamic dress.

Ali Mashkour, 33, who was helping with security at the event, said he saw one person fl ung 10ft into the air by the car and then dragged underneath it.

“I heard glass breaking and the revving of an engine and the screeching of tyres. It was driv-ing quite fast, around 30mph,” said Mashkour, a former special constable with the Metropolitan police.

Lady Gabriella Windsor and her fiancee Thomas Kingston pose after the announcement of their engagement in London yesterday. Lady Gabriella Windsor is the daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.

Just engaged

Prime Minister Theresa May speaks to journalists as she arrives at the Felsenreitschule prior to their informal dinner as part of the EU informal summit of heads of state or government in Salzburg, Austria, yesterday.

BRITAIN/IRELAND


Khan unveils new planto tackle violent crimeDaily MailLondon

Sadiq Khan yesterday an-nounced a major policy shift to halt the wave

of knife killings in London by adopting a new “public health” approach.

The mayor bowed to pressure from all sides of the political spec-trum to set up a specialist Violence Reduction Unit to tackle gangs and help teenagers escape crime. It will use lessons learned from Glasgow which halved its own murder rate with the strategy.

Khan’s move comes after more than 100 murder investigations have been launched in London this year, including more than 60 fatal stabbings and 10 shootings, many involving teenagers.

Big questions still remained, however, over who would man-age and lead the unit. City Hall announced an initial investment of £500,000 towards setting it up by bringing together specialists in health, policing and local gov-

ernment. City Hall said it had re-searched the successful approach taken in Glasgow under the leader-ship of Karyn McCluskey, dubbed Scotland’s Gangbuster. She com-bined tough policing to disrupt gangs with help for teenagers keen to escape lives of crime and prison.

Khan said: “We have listened and researched the public health approaches in cities like Glasgow, where their own long-term ap-proach over more than a decade has delivered large reductions in violence. “City Hall has spent time properly learning the lessons from Glasgow and developing plans to scale their approach up to meet the diff erent needs and challenges we face in London.”

The mayor highlighted the diff erence in size of the two cit-ies. Glasgow has a population of 600,000 compared with 9mn in London across myriad districts.

Former Met superintendent Leroy Logan, who criticised the mayor for lacking a “coherent strategy” to tackle violence this month, said: “The mayor has come late to this, but I welcome the an-

nouncement.” Lord Paddick, the former Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner and Lib-eral Democrat peer, said: “Sadiq has realised that the next may-oral campaign is beginning and his vulnerability around violence and child deaths. But the lesson from Scotland is that there are no quick fi xes. A lot of this is about children who suff ered trauma in their early years who need help.”

Labour MP Sarah Jones, founder of the all-party parliamentary group on knife crime, said: “I have been campaigning for a violence reduction unit for over a year. We know that policing alone won’t stop the violence. I applaud the mayor for this bold move.”

Gareth Bacon, the Tory opposi-tion leader on the London Assem-bly, said: “As usual with this mayor the devil will be in the detail. He needs to lead this energetically with drive and conviction, and he will be judged on the results.” City Hall stressed that it already had a smaller-scale public health style policy, but the new unit would be at the heart of a long-term strategy.

Windrush activist, victim O’Connor diesGuardian News and MediaLondon

One of the most prominent victims of the Windrush scandal, who spoke in

parliament earlier this year to describe the severity of the prob-lems she was facing, has died aged 57.

Sarah O’Connor was found dead at her home on Sunday morning. A postmortem will be held tomor-row, but her death has provision-ally been attributed to natural causes.

In March, O’Connor told the Guardian she was facing bank-ruptcy as a result of being classi-fi ed as an illegal immigrant. At the start of this year, she was so wor-ried about her predicament that she said she was afraid to open the front door for fear that it might be the Home Offi ce coming to deport her, or bailiff s arriving to remove her possessions.

She moved to Britain 51 years ago, but had struggled to make offi cials understand she was in the country legally. As a result, O’Connor was unable to take up a new job and was refused unem-

ployment benefi ts, leaving her without an income. She spent the fi nal year of her life trying to ex-tract herself from a spiral of prob-lems that emerged because of an offi cial decision to categorise her as someone who was in the coun-try illegally.

Although O’Connor went through a naturalisation cer-emony at the end of July and was formally recognised as British, her problems continued. In the weeks before she died, her landlord had given her notice to leave and, still struggling to get work, she was having diffi culty fi nding a new home.

Her daughter, Stephanie O’Connor, said her mother had been relieved to have been through the naturalisation ceremony, but also annoyed it had been neces-sary. “She was so happy to have fi nally got somewhere; we’d been banging our heads against the wall for so long. But she had mixed emotions about it – she felt she should always have had it,” her daughter said.

Stephanie O’Connor said the immigration problems, which emerged a year ago, had badly af-fected her mother.

Return home orlose tenancies,Grenfell arearesidents toldGuardian News and MediaLondon

Traumatised residents who lived in the vicinity of Grenfell Tower have been

given an ultimatum by Kensing-ton and Chelsea council about returning to their homes, the Guardian has learned.

Residents who were evacu-ated on the night of the fi re last year who lived in the Walkways or in nearby Treadgold or Bram-ley House – an area of low-rise housing connected to the tower – are due to receive letters from the council saying they are expected to make a decision by the end of this month about returning to their former homes.

Those who do not return will have their council tenancies ter-minated.

A council spokesman said fewer than 80 residents who lived in the Walkways were aff ected by this policy as many others stayed in their homes after the fi re or if they left on the night of the fi re have al-ready returned.

The letter from the coun-cil states that these residents are likely to have to start pay-ing higher rents from October 22 if they do not return to their former homes.

At the moment council tenants evacuated from their homes after the fi re into temporary accommo-dation pay the rent they were pay-ing to the council before the fi re, not the higher cost of temporary accommodation. Tenants may be eligible for housing benefi t to cov-er some or all of the higher cost.

“If you do not feel able to return home you will have to end your council tenancy,” the letter states. However, it adds that nobody will be forced to give up their tenancy against their will and that those unable to make a decision by the end of this month will be given more support to help them make their decision “within a reason-able timescale”.

The letter points out that those

wishing to be rehoused rather than returning to their homes in the shadow of the tower may have a long wait – even those deemed to be in emergency medical prior-ity or at serious risk of harm will have to wait more than a year for a two-, three- or four-bedroom property.

Beinazir Lasharie and her fam-ily are among the residents aff ect-ed by this policy. She and her chil-dren remain traumatised by the fi re. She condemned the council’s new policy.

“Due to the health issues and trauma of my children and the proximity of our fl at it’s unrea-sonable to give us the ‘choice’ of either moving back or relinquish-ing the tenancy,” she said.

“Our lives have changed forever and none of it is our fault. I had a plan mapped out for me and my kids. All that has gone and I am no longer able to provide my children with security and I have no idea what our future looks like.

“We have no choice right now and cornering us with an ultimatum is really stressful, I don’t have a choice, my fam-ily has been split up and we are depressed and traumatised and I have three small vulnerable chil-dren to look after.”

The local Labour councillor Judith Blakeman, who has a large caseload of residents’ housing problems following the fi re, said: “The policy takes little account of personal circumstances. The council are still forcing people to decide when they may be too traumatised to do so.

“In eff ect they are saying ‘trust us’ at a time when there is no trust in the council. Residents will have no clear indication of how or where they will be rehoused, nor what type of tenancy they will be given.”

The local Labour MP Emma Dent Coad said: “The deadline is creating a climate of fear which is both inhumane and hindering the ability of deeply traumatised peo-ple to make important decisions about their futures.”

Two killed as stormlashes UK, IrelandGuardian News and MediaLondon

Two people have died and several others have re-quired hospital treatment

as Storm Ali swept across the north of Ireland, central Scot-land and northern England with winds of up to 90 miles per hour.

A man died after he was hit by a tree as he worked in a country park in Northern Ireland and a woman was killed when a caravan was blown off a cliff in the west of Ireland. In the Northern Irish incident yesterday afternoon, another man was injured when he was also hit by the tree. The pair were doing contract work for Northern Ireland Water in Slieve Gullion Forest Park, near Newry,

County Down. The man who died was in his 20s. The injured man, who is in his 40s, was taken to hospital. Police said there were no suspicious circumstances and the incident was being investigated by the region’s Health and Safety Executive.

Earlier, as the fi rst named storm of the season struck dur-ing the morning rush-hour, Irish police confi rmed the woman’s death. Irish police said: “Gardai at Clifden, County Galway, are in-vestigating an incident which oc-curred at Claddaghduff , County Galway, yesterday morning.

“At approximately 7.45am, a report was received that a caravan had blown off the cliff at the above location. A search was carried out at the scene on the beach and af-ter a short time the body of a fe-

male in her 50s was recovered.” The Met Offi ce issued amber “be prepared” weather alerts along the path of the storm, which re-mained in place until 6pm. It said gusts of 91mph had been recorded in Killowen, County Down, yes-terday morning but the strong-est winds were felt in central and southern Scotland and north-east England later.

About 55,000 homes and busi-nesses, mainly in the south-west of Ireland, were left without power, while 16,000 in the south-west of Scotland were similarly aff ected.

A major incident involving “serious risk to life” was declared in Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland, by the police and local council. Schoolchildren were not allowed to walk home

because of fl ying debris.The council’s virtual op-

erations support team earlier warned: “In order to keep pupils safe, we will not be allowing chil-dren to walk home from school at the end of the school day. Staff will remain in school to supervise pupils at the end of the school day until they can be collected. We are asking parents to collect their children in vehicles where pos-sible or wait until the wind calms down.”

The storm caused widespread travel disruption across Scot-land’s central belt, with all train services out of Edinburgh Waver-ley, Glasgow Queen Street and Glasgow Central’s high level sus-pended by early afternoon after damage to overhead power cables. Flights from Glasgow and Edin-

burgh airports were also delayed.Vehicles and pedestrians were

stopped from using the Forth Road Bridge, while the Queens-ferry Crossing was shut to high-sided vehicles and double-decker buses. Restrictions were also put in place on Skye Bridge, while a 91.7 miles per hour gust was re-corded on the Tay Road Bridge, which has also been closed to traffi c.

A ship became detached from its moorings in strong winds at the port of Greenock, Inverclyde. Oceania Cruises said: “Yester-day afternoon, the … Nautica encountered extremely strong winds, which resulted in the part-ing of mooring lines and the ves-sel being detached from the dock. All guests and crew onboard are safe and there were no injuries.”

Sadiq Khan: major policy shift.

Happiness declining in girls, young women: surveyGuardian News and MediaLondon

There has been a sharp de-cline in happiness among girls and young women in

the UK in the last decade, with the majority of them blaming ex-ams and social media for causing stress, a major survey has found.

Just one in four (25%) girls and

young women between the ages of seven and 21 described themselves as “very happy” in the latest girls’ attitudes survey for the Girlguid-ing organisation – down from 41% in 2009.

The oldest were the least happy – more than a quarter (27%) of young women aged 17 to 21 said they did not feel happy, up from 11% in 2009. Their unhappiness in turn aff ected their confi dence

(61%), health (50%), relationships (49%) and studies (39%).

While seven out of 10 girls (69%) identifi ed school exams as the key cause of stress, pressure from social media was blamed by six out 10 girls (59%), and increas-ing numbers said they had expe-rienced unkind, threatening and negative behaviour online com-pared with fi ve years ago.

The research polled 1,900 girls

and women aged between the ages of seven and 21, and included Guides and non-members of the group.

The report raised concerns that girls today are socialising less in person and spending more time online. “Relationships are an es-sential element of contentment and it may be no coincidence that 10 years ago, girls of all ages were socialising more and comparing

their lives online less,” it said.“The percentage of girls and

young women feeling unsafe out-side is alarmingly high,” the re-port continued. “More than half of those aged 13 to 21 have felt unsafe walking home alone, experienced harassment or know someone who has, and nearly half feel unsafe us-ing public transport.”

Older Guides who have risen through the ranks of the organisa-

tion expressed shock at the deep levels of unhappiness revealed in the 2018 survey. “It’s really sad,” said Victoria Kinkaid, a 23-year-old medical student who has been a Guide for 18 years.

She pointed to more encourag-ing fi ndings too. Young girls were more likely to consider themselves a feminist – up from just over a third (35%) in 2013 to just un-der half (47%) this year. “That’s a

lovely thing to hear,” said Kinkaid. “When I was 16, being a feminist had a lot of negative connotations attached to it. Today from what I can see on social media, it’s more of a trendy word and less of a ta-boo.”

Girls in 2018 were more likely to have friends who have experi-enced mental health problems, but they’re also talking more about it than in previous years.

Two women walk on a windy day in Dundee, Scotland, yesterday.

EUROPE19Gulf Times


Belgian builds musical bridge across the BosphorusBy Philippe Agret, AFP Brussels

Belgian musician Tristan Driessens found his inspi-ration and his calling east

of the Bosphorus, becoming one of the West’s few masters of the oud and of Ottoman classical music.

Now he is helping build a mu-sical bridge for others, working with refugees arriving from the east to help preserve and develop their musical culture in European exile.

“Sometimes you choose your fate, sometimes fate chooses you,” Driessens told AFP, ex-plaining how he came to master the oud, the oriental lute, and become artistic director of Refu-gees for Refugees.

This group brings together ref-ugees who have fl ed to Belgium from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and as far as Tibet to play concerts and record new music together in Brussels.

A record, named ‘Amerli’ af-ter an Iraqi town besieged by the Islamic State extremist group,

was released in May 2016 by the world music educational asso-ciation Muziekpublique.

A portion of the sales of the recording was invested in two Belgian NGOs working with ref-ugees from the confl icts in the Middle East, Globe Aroma and Synergie 14.

Driessens, a 36-year-old Bel-gian oudist already leads sev-eral successful groups: Lamekan Ensemble, Seyir Trio, Soolmaan Quintet and La Compagnie d’Elias.

But he did not impose his own vision on the refugee ensemble, trying to draw music from their talents, traditions and life expe-rience, and to guide it towards forming a whole.

“There are so many rich per-sonalities,” Driessens told AFP.

Among the group are Dolma Renqingi, a Tibetan singer, Asad Qizilbash, a Pakistani who plays the sarod, another form of lute, Afghan troubador Aman Yusufi and “musicians who have such important experiences, as refu-gees and as human beings, in the realm of music”.

At Muziekpublique, Driessens

teaches Turkish music, but he in-vited his new colleagues to share all “their baggage, their musical tastes and their technique.”

“From there, I put together a rundown,” he explains.

“I spot the pearls...to create something of relevance, but for me this group is fi rst and fore-most a human adventure.”

A second Refugees for Refu-gees album is due out next year.

Driessens also owes his musi-cal calling to a journey, albeit not a forced one.

Between the ages of 15 and 17, the young oud player roamed Spain with his mother, living and travelling in a gypsy caravan pulled by two horses.

There he discovered musical traditions drawn from both the Sephardic Jews and Arab Anda-lucia.

“It shaped how I saw the world and allowed me to meet many artists at a very young age,” he said.

The oud is often associated with Arabic music, but Dries-sens’ next encounter was with learned Turkish performers, vir-tuosos like Yurdal Tokcan and

Necati Celik, whom he sees as “a father, an anchor.”

The young Belgian’s for-mal guitar and piano training had been in the Western tradi-tion, but Turkish classical music would open the door to eastern styles.

“The power of expression that can be contained in a simple ori-ental melody fascinates me,” he said.

For just over a decade he has made regular pilgrimages to Is-tanbul, the city on the Bospho-rus, bridge between Europe and Asia to sit at the feet of masters.

“It’s a cord that I can’t cut, a second home,” he said.

“Whether it’s to make a re-cording, attend an artist in resi-dence or just drink Turkish coff ee with my master. I was formed in this city.”

Turkish classical music draws on an oral tradition, sometimes with a written score serving as an aide-memoire to its complex, even arcane, melodies.

Driessens did not want to pre-tend to master it in a few months or even years.

“It’s a music that is passed

from master to disciple,” he said, describing long informal ses-sions with his guides, copying and imitating their playing until the underlying music revealed itself.

The music of the Ottoman court has infl uenced western players since the 15th century.

Moldovan prince Dimitrie Cantemir was an adept in the early 18th, a successor to the 17th century Pole Wojciech Bobowski, alias Ali Ufki.

Sufi and Dervish infl uences also fed back into the tradition, which spread throughout the diverse corners of the sultan’s empire, and now, with Driessens, the Turkish foundation mixes with other infl uences.

Alongside his work with refu-gees, he is recording tunes infl u-enced by western European folk melodies and modern jazz with musicians from Armenia, Bul-garia and elsewhere.

“I’m not trying to pass my-self off as a Turk,” Driessens insisted.

“I’m Tristan Driessens, born in Belgium to Belgian parents — but blessed with multiple identities.”

Belgian artistic director and oud player Tristan Driessens poses for a picture during an interview in Brussels.

Merkel coalition slides into ‘permanent crisis mode’ReutersBerlin

A clumsy compromise to end a row over the fate of Germa-ny’s spy chief has exposed a

cruel fact: the parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s right-left coali-tion are loveless partners in a dys-functional relationship that none of them can aff ord to quit.

The coalition leaders sought on Tuesday night to end a scandal that had rumbled on for 11 days by agreeing to replace the head of the BfV domestic intelligence agency, who has faced accusations of har-bouring far-right sympathies.

Their solution — promoting spy-master Hans-Georg Maassen to a bet-ter paid position at the Interior Min-istry — has only infl amed tensions among the rank-and-fi le of the ruling parties, whose leaders are united by fear more than collective purpose.

The scandal, the latest in a se-ries of setbacks to shake the six-month-old coalition, threatens to erode further the German ruling elite’s authority and may point to years of policy drift just as Ger-many and Europe are crying out for fi rm leadership.

Polls show both Merkel’s con-servative bloc and its junior coali-

tion partner, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), would bleed votes to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the ecolo-gist Greens in any new elections.

That leaves their leaders hanging on to the awkward right-left ‘grand coalition’ as Merkel, serving her fourth and likely fi nal term as chan-cellor, tries to secure her legacy as a stateswoman and the SPD struggles to remain relevant to voters.

“The grand coalition is like a dead marriage where the spouses have too many intertwined assets to be able to separate without heavy losses,” said Josef Joff e, publisher-editor of weekly Die Zeit.

“They would be trounced in snap elections. Nor can they recruit more docile partners among the four opposition parties.”

The Maassen scandal comes only two months after Merkel closed a painful row with her Bavarian CSU allies on immigration — an issue that goes back to her 2015 decision to leave open Germany’s borders to refugees fl eeing war in the Middle East.

The SPD had wanted Maas-sen removed after he questioned the authenticity of video footage showing far-right radicals hound-ing migrants in the eastern German city of Chemnitz.

But Interior Minister Horst See-hofer, leader of the Bavarian Chris-tian Social Union (CSU), sister par-ty of Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), stood behind Maassen.

By promoting the spymaster to the post of state secretary in his Interior Ministry, Seehofer found a solution that satisfi ed the SPD’s demand for Maassen’s removal from the BfV but left the coalition looking lame.

“The only thing that is still grand in this coalition is the absolute de-termination to carry on muddling through,” mass-selling daily Bild wrote in an editorial.

The grand coalition only took of-fi ce in March, nearly six months af-ter last year’s election, as there was eff ectively no other viable govern-ing option following the collapse of talks between Merkel’s conserva-tives and two smaller parties.

After the Maassen deal, pres-sure is growing in the SPD for its leaders to reconsider the coalition or else deliver results that will win back working class voters who are turning to the far right or left, and middle class voters moving to the Greens.

“Patience in the SPD with this grand coalition is extremely thin,” said Ralf Stegner, a senior SPD of-fi cial.

Even SPD Secretary General Lars Klingbeil questioned Maassen’s promotion, adding: “We must fi -nally get out of this permanent cri-sis mode.”

SPD leader Andrea Nahles said the party should remain in the coa-lition but added that Seehofer’s decision to transfer Maassen to his ministry was a “further burden” for co-operation.

In a letter to party members, she added: “The SPD shouldn’t sacri-fi ce this government because Horst Seehofer employs a civil servant whom we consider to be unsuit-able.”

Merkel’s 2015 decision on refu-gees has proved to be the defi ning moment of her leadership and one that still haunts her as the CSU, fearful of losing votes to the AfD in Bavaria’s state election on October 14, tries to sound tough on immi-gration.

The CSU is likely to lose its ab-solute majority in Bavaria, which could make it an even more diffi cult partner for Merkel.

Nationally, the conservative bloc is polling around 30%, down from 33% in last September’s election.

The SPD is on about 18%, down from 20.5%. The AfD is polling around 15%, with the Greens close behind.

French President Emmanuel Macron places a wreath in front of a memorial fountain during a national ceremony yesterday to pay tribute to the victims of militant attacks in Paris.

Sombre ceremony

EU must end migration blame game, says TuskReutersSalzburg

The chairman of the body grouping European Union government leaders lashed out yesterday against those

seeking to score political points by whip-ping up disputes over migration rather than helping each other respond to the challenge.

EU leaders were meeting in the Austrian city of Salzburg to tackle migration once again, an issue that has badly damaged their unity in recent years.

They will seek more ways of reducing immigration and, right before chairing the talks, EU Council chairman Donald Tusk said progress had been made since migrant arriv-als peaked in 2015.

He said fewer than 100,000 migrants had crossed the Mediterranean to Europe with-out necessary documentation this year.

“In fact, this is less than in the years before the migration crisis,” Tusk said.

“I will call on EU leaders to stop the migra-tion blame game. Despite aggressive rheto-ric, things are moving in the right direction,” he told reporters in Salzburg.

“Instead of taking political advantage of the situation, we should focus on what

works...We can no longer be divided into those who want to solve the problem of ille-gal migrant fl ows and those who want to use it for political gain.”

More than a million migrants arrived from the tumultuous Middle East and im-poverished Africa in 2015, stretching pub-lic services and leading to a rise in far-right anti-immigrant parties challenging liberal democracies around the EU.

The EU has since struck deals with coun-tries from Turkey to Lebanon to Libya, of-fering them money and aid in exchange for keeping a tighter lid on migration to Europe.

It has also tightened its borders and made it harder to win asylum.

Despite a steep drop in immigration numbers since 2015, however, political aftershocks are still reverberating with member states at loggerheads over how to distribute new arrivals and share the bur-den of integrating migrants already in the EU.

Italy’s fi rebrand far-right interior min-ister, Matteo Salvini, has excoriated the EU over its disarray on migration.

A majority of Europeans support taking in refugees although many disapprove of how the EU has handled a record infl ux, ac-cording to a new survey by the Pew Research Center.

Amazon’s use of merchant data under EU microscope

European Union regulators are check-ing whether US online retailer Amazon is using merchants’ data in a way that

stifl es competition, Europe’s antitrust chief said yesterday.

The comments by European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager come as the world’s largest online retailer faces calls for more regulatory intervention and even its potential break-up because of its sheer size.

Vestager said the issue was about a com-pany hosting merchants on its site and at the same time competing with those same retailers by using their data for its own sales.

“We are gathering information on the is-sue and we have sent quite a number of ques-tionnaires to market participants in order to

understand this issue in full,” Vestager told a news conference.

“These are very early days and we haven’t formally opened a case. We are trying to make sure that we get the full picture.”

Seattle-based Amazon declined to com-ment. Half of all items sold on its site globally come from small- and medium-sized busi-nesses.

Last year, third party sellers in Britain sold more than £2.3bn ($3.03bn) worth of prod-ucts outside the country while in Germany, they sold 2.1bn euros ($2.45bn) outside Ger-many.

Vestager has the power to fi ne compa-nies up to 10% of their global turnover for breaching EU antitrust rules.

Startup Picnic runs grocery delivery bus in Dutch online shopping boomBy Toby Sterling, Reuters Utrecht, Netherlands

Coming to a stop outside yet another front door on Utrecht’s narrow streets,

25-year-old Susann Huber gets out of her electric minivan, pulls out a crate of groceries and hands them over to a waiting customer.

Huber works for Picnic, an on-line supermarket which targets

middle-income shoppers and is the fi rst to off er free delivery in the Netherlands, where online grocery shopping is booming.

Statistics Netherlands said yesterday that 29% of Dutch households ordered groceries at least once online in 2017, the most in the European Union, passing Britain at 28%.

Multinational Ahold Delhaize was the fi rst to off er online gro-ceries in the Netherlands in 2010,

but the practice has kicked into high gear recently due to what ABN Amro analyst Henk Hofst-ede dubbed the “Picnic Eff ect.”

“It has acted like a cattle prod to the other major players,” he said. Hofstede estimates Ahold’s market share at 50%, followed by privately-held Jumbo, which holds 30%.

Picnic has taken 10% market share since its launch by four en-trepreneurs three years ago.

Picnic snagged an eye-catch-ing 100mn euro investment last year which it is using to fund a rapid expansion, including open-ing its fi rst hub in Germany last month.

Chief executive Michiel Muller told Reuters that the company was saving on costs by delivering along regular routes, somewhat like a public bus — or the “Milk-man 2.0”.

The milkman of yore was “a very

nice guy, very fresh products, al-ways on time, once per day,” Mull-er said. “We kind of replicated that model, and added technology.”

Customers can place their or-ders by smartphone app only, and pay upfront by 10pm for delivery in a 20-minute window the fol-lowing day.

Muller said the company, which had 150,000 customers at mid-year, can only add 1,000 customers a week against a cur-

rent waiting list of thousands.So it cherry-picks its launches

along the most attractive routes.He forecasts the company will

more than double sales this year, from 100mn euros in 2017.

Customer Marieke Dubbel-man, a mother of four, said Pic-nic’s selection is somewhat lim-ited, but the quality was fi ne and prices comparable to that of a mid-range supermarket.

“I really use it for staples shop-

ping: laundry detergent, bot-tles of milk, stuff you don’t want to waste your time getting and dragging home,” she said.

Muller acknowledged Picnic’s model could not compete with “on demand” or same-day de-livery services, such as those of-fered by Instacart in the US, and that it faces a long-term threat from highly automated com-petitors on the model of Amazon.com and Britain’s Ocado.

EUROPE


Russian offi cial calls for rare vote re-run over fraud

By Polina Nikolskaya, Reuters Vladivostok

Russia’s top election offi cial yesterday recommended that a regional election be

re-run following allegations that it had been rigged to secure vic-tory for the Kremlin’s candidate.

Communist Party supporters took to the streets of Vladivostok to protest after the incumbent governor of the far eastern Pri-morsky region mounted an im-probable comeback in the fi nal stages of counting to edge out his Communist challenger in Sun-day’s run-off vote.

Ella Pamfi lova, head of the Central Election Commission, did

not accuse the Kremlin-backed United Russia candidate, Andrei Tarasenko, of orchestrating the vote-rigging, but said yesterday that a raft of irregularities had been identifi ed, including ballot stuffi ng and vote buying.

She recommended the vote be annulled and a new one held within three months, according to Russian news agencies.

The regional election commis-sion is to decide today whether to follow her advice.

Tarasenko’s struggles and three other reversals in elec-tions to select regional governors this month amount to the worst showing for Kremlin-backed candidates since 2012.

Though there is no immedi-

ate threat to the United Russia party’s grip on power, it suggests growing discontent over liv-ing standards, not least plans to delay the retirement age, which have also been refl ected in de-clining popularity ratings for President Vladimir Putin.

With just under 99% of votes counted on Sunday night, Tarasenko was trailing Commu-nist Andrei Ishchenko by more than two percentage points.

But on Monday, the local elec-tion commission said Tarasenko had won by just over one per-centage point, with results showing he had received almost every one of the fi nal 20,000 votes counted.

Putin had met Tarasenko

ahead of the vote and told him that “everything will be okay,” according to a Kremlin transcript of the meeting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday that the Kremlin supported Pamfi lova’s call for a re-run, adding that the “pri-ority of clean and fair elections” was more important to Putin than his preference of candidate.

Anna, a 25-year-old project manager who attended a rally against electoral fraud in Vladi-vostok, said it would be fairer to recount the previous vote, rather than hold a new one:

“This is also manipulation. The votes should be recounted, and the results should not simply be annulled.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin aims a Chukavin sniper rifle SVCh-308 made by Russian firearms maker Kalashnikov Concern at Patriot military theme park outside Moscow.

Hungary minister slams UN rights experts over ‘lies’ReutersGeneva

Hungary’s foreign minis-ter yesterday lashed out at what he called “bi-

ased, pro-migration” UN human rights experts, accusing them of spreading lies about his coun-try and saying Budapest had the right to keep out illegal migrants.

The right-wing government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban is one of the strongest opponents of immigration into the European Union.

It has built a fence along Hun-gary’s southern borders and made it very diffi cult for refugees to apply for asylum.

A UN rights watchdog, which reviewed Hungary’s record, urged the government in April to crack down on hate speech by politicians against Roma, Mus-lims and other minorities, and to repeal a law allowing migrants to be deported without a chance to seek asylum.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, in an angry and apparently improvised speech yesterday, appeared to take aim

at the panel composed of 18 in-dependent experts, saying “they should not be independent from the truth”.

“Recently, unfortunately, some UN officials started to spread lies against and about my country,” he told the UN Human Rights Council, where Hungary is currently among the 47 member states of the Geneva forum.

Szijjarto, who headed Hun-gary’s delegation to the review by the separate watchdog in March-April, noted that Orban’s conservative Fidesz party had

subsequently won re-election for a third consecutive term with a large majority.

“UN offi cials would like to force on us impossible things, to allow illegal migrants to enter our country. They say that migration is a fundamental human right, which is a lie,” he said.

John Fisher, Geneva director of the New York-based activ-ist group Human Rights Watch, tweeted: “#Hungary unhinged. Foreign Minister embarrass-es himself and his country by launching anti-migrant, anti-NGO, anti-#UN tirade.”

Turkey jails 24 airport workers over protestsReutersIstanbul

A Turkish court has jailed pending trial 24 people involved in protests over

work conditions at Istanbul’s new airport last week, broad-caster CNN Turk said yesterday.

The airport is a centrepiece of a 15-year construction boom un-der President Tayyip Erdogan.

It has an initial planned capac-ity of 90mn passengers a year,

making it one of the world’s big-gest airports.

Istanbul’s governor had said on Sunday more than 400 people were initially detained for taking part in the protests.

Work resumed at the airport on Monday with a heavy police and gendarmerie presence, ac-cording to labour unions.

A total of 43 people among those detained were sent to an Istanbul court to rule on what action would be taken and it re-leased 19 of them subject to judi-

cial monitoring, CNN Turk said.The 24 formally arrested and

remanded in custody faced pro-visional charges such resisting police, damaging public property and contravening the law gov-erning protests, it said.

Workers have long complained about food, housing and work safety conditions at the con-struction site, which unions have likened to a concentration camp.

In February, Turkey’s labour ministry said 27 workers had died at the airport since the start of

work in 2015, mainly from acci-dents or health problems.

Protests started last Friday af-ter a shuttle bus accident injured 17 workers.

Airport operator IGA said on Sunday work at the airport was on schedule and the planned Oc-tober 29 opening would not be delayed.

Steps had been taken to im-prove working conditions and living quarters, which workers say were infested with bedbugs, it said.

Italian youths rally to free screenings of police violence fi lmBy Kelly Velasquez, AFPRome

Thousands of Italians are fl ocking to illegal free public screenings of a new fi lm about a young man’s 2009 death in custody, a potent sym-

bol of police violence and a merciless penal system.In city piazzas and lecture theatres around the

country, community groups and student organi-sations are showing pirated versions of the Netfl ix fi lm Sulla mia pelle (On My Skin).

The fi lm tells the tragic story of Stefano Cucchi, 31, who was arrested in Rome in October 2009 in possession of small amounts of drugs.

Director Alessio Cremonini’s fi lm has bounced from the red carpet of the Venice Film Festival, where it premiered last month, into the collective conscience of Italian youths living under a popu-list, right-wing government.

Some of the 2,000 people who attended a screening at Rome’s prestigious La Sapienza uni-versity last Friday were reduced to tears.

“What happened to Stefano Cucchi could have happened to any one of us,” said Teo, a 27-year-old cameraman.

Student Luca Matteuzzi said the fi lm was “both hard and beautiful. Violent without showing any blood.”

“It doesn’t show the police as animals but it points the fi nger at a timorous bureaucracy that is incapable of facing its responsibilities.”

In the fi lm Cucchi, who suff ered from epilepsy, spends a week going through the system, at po-lice stations and then Rome’s central Regina Coeli prison.

Despite being covered in bruises and barely able to walk, a judge remands him into custody and he eventually ends up in the prison infi rmary, where

he dies a week after being arrested.The already-slight Cucchi weighed just 37kg

when he died, and his family took shocking pho-tos of his emaciated and battered body in the morgue.

His sister Ilaria has fought for justice for years, trying to establish who was responsible for her brother’s death nearly a decade ago.

However despite years of legal battles no one has yet been successfully prosecuted. Five police offi cers are currently on trial over the aff air, three of them charged with manslaughter.

“It’s moving to see how things are being organ-ised spontaneously to see my brother’s story,” Il-aria Cucchi told AFP.

“He wasn’t anybody, and now they’ll know him in Spain, in France, around the world,” said Cuc-chi, who after the premiere dedicated the fi lm to far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

“This fi lm should make everyone refl ect, espe-cially him (Salvini).Stefano represents a human being whose rights were denied and violated,” said Ilaria, who accused the police of torturing her brother.

Listings of upcoming public screenings can be found easily online.

“This is how we can make people aware of the abuse of power by those in uniform and, more generally, on conditions in Italian prisons,” screening organiser Giovanni told Italian daily La Repubblica.

The fi lm came out in Italian cinemas on Septem-ber 12 and Andrea Occhipinti of distributor Lucky Red has slammed the “piracy” going on around the country.

The fi lm’s star, Alessandro Borghi, who lost 18 kilos to play the role of Cucchi, said: “What’s happening goes beyond cinema. We are all fi ght-ing for the same cause, it’s a communion of ideas.”

Pensioners scuff le with police during a protest in front of Parliament in Madrid yesterday.

Pension pains

Poland may not be ready for‘Fort Trump’: US Army headAFPWashington

Poland might not yet be ready for a perma-nent US military base, the head of the US Army said yesterday, the day after Polish

President Andrzej Duda off ered to host “Fort Trump.”

Duda went to the White House on Tuesday to reiterate Poland’s long-standing desire for a perma-nent US troop deployment to the eastern European country — a contentious move some worry would anger Russia and draw US troops away from long-established bases in Germany.

But US Army Secretary Mark Esper told AFP that when he visited Poland in January, it appeared there was not enough space on off er to fulfi l the training requirements for US soldiers.

“It was not suffi cient in terms of size and what we could do in the manoeuver space and certainly on the ranges,” Esper said.

“You need a lot of range space to do tank gunnery, for example.”

He added that, in many cases, the terrain was “maybe not robust enough to really allow us to maintain the level of readiness we would like to maintain.”

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday ex-pressed similar concerns, saying there was a “host

of details” that need to be studied alongside the Poles before any decision is made.

“It’s not just about a base,” Mattis told reporters.“It’s about training ranges, it’s about mainte-

nance facilities at the base, all these kinds of things.”Trump said Poland is off ering to pay Washing-

ton at least $2bn to help meet the costs of the base, which Duda said could be called “Fort Trump,” and that the US is “looking at it very seriously.”

Duda said Russian military expansion, starting with a takeover of rebel areas of neighboring Geor-gia and more recently the annexation of Ukraine’s Black Sea Crimea region, was part of “constant vio-lation of international law.”

Poland has been angling for a permanent US troop presence since at least a decade ago, when it was in talks with president George W Bush’s admin-istration to host a missile-defense complex.

That deal eventually fell through under presi-dent Barack Obama, but Poland in March signed a $4.75bn contract to purchase a US-made Patriot anti-missile system.

Nato last year opened a counter-espionage hub in Poland aimed at expanding the alliance’s intel-ligence-gathering capabilities amid tensions with Russia.

The US-led alliance has also bolstered its forces in eastern Europe with four international battalions acting as tripwires against possible Russian adven-turism in the region.

Germany likely to miss target of 1mn electric cars by 2022

Germany will likely have to delay its target of having 1mn electric vehicles on the road by two years to 2022, according to a gov-

ernment-sponsored report.“Considering the current market dynamics, the

1mn target will likely shift to 2022,” the report by the German National Platform for Electric Mobil-ity, which was submitted yesterday to Chancellor Angela Merkel, said.

New registrations of electrical vehicles more than doubled in Germany last year, the fastest growth in the world, and there were 131,000 such vehicles reg-istered by the end of 2017, according to the report.

Sales were helped by the launch of a German subsidy scheme in 2016 worth about 1bn euros

($1.2bn), partly fi nanced by the German car in-dustry, to boost electric car usage.

However, many consumers have been discour-aged by the cost of the cars, their limited driving ranges and the lack of charging points.

Germany’s coalition government plans to ease the tax burden on drivers of electric vehicles, pro-vide at least an additional 100,000 charge points across the country and subsidise car-sharing to push a shift to greener transport.

“We certainly had a delayed start (to electric mobility), but now we are catching up,” Germa-ny’s Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer said yesterday, adding he saw no need for further in-centive schemes.

Congresswants CAGto probeRafale dealIANSNew Delhi

The Congress yesterday es-calated its attack on the Rafale deal, and high-level

party delegation met Comptrol-ler and Auditor General of India (CAG) Rajiv Mehrishi demanding a probe into the government’s deal with France to purchase 36 fi ghter jets.

The opposition party has been saying that the deal has caused a “loss” to the exchequer and “en-dangered” national security.

The party later claimed that the CAG told the delegation that the auditor was examining the entire issue and would soon sub-mit a report to parliament.

The delegation that included Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Shar-ma, Ahmed Patel and Randeep Singh Surjewala also submitted a memorandum to the CAG giving the history of the proposal to buy Rafale fi ghter jets, a process that began in 2007.

The memorandum said that the “unilateral” purchase of 36 Rafale jets from Dassault Avia-tion has caused a “loss to public exchequer, endangered national security, bypassed Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to benefi t crony friends, and violated the mandatory provisions of Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP)”.

The memorandum to the CAG marks an escalation by the Con-gress of its fi ght against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s gov-ernment over the Rafale issue, on which the party has held press conferences in diff erent parts of the country.

Former defence minister A K Antony on Tuesday accused the government of compromising national security by reducing the number of fi ghter planes to be bought from 126 as negotiated by the Congress government to 36. Defence Minister Nirmala Sith-araman countered the charges and held the former government responsible for the exclusion of HAL in the deal.

“The CAG told us that they were examining the entire Ra-fale deal including the payments

and procedures made,” Surjewala said after meeting the CAG.

“Modi will be exposed soon...as CAG has assured (us) that they will look at all the documents that we brought in the public do-main and very soon it will submit a report in parliament,” he said.

Surjewala said Modi was “per-sonally responsible” for violat-ing the DPP and exclusion of the HAL from getting an off set con-tract worth over Rs300bn from Dassault Aviation.

The memorandum includes “acts of commission and omis-sion” by the government in the deal announced by Modi in April 2015.

Pointing to the violations of DPP by Modi, the memorandum states: “No mandatory prior ap-proval of ‘Cabinet Committee on Security’ was taken before an-nouncing purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft on 10th April, 2015.

“Mandatory requirement of DPP for ‘Price Discovery’ through the instrumentalities of ‘Contract Negotiation Commit-tee’ (CNC) and ‘Price Negotia-tion Committee’ (PNC) were not followed by the PM. Transfer of Technology to HAL for manu-facture of Rafale aircraft in India was also sacrifi ced by the PM.

“Not only this, the decision of Modi in proceeding to announce purchase of 36 Rafale ‘off -the-shelf’ on April 10, 2015, when an international tender was al-ready under negotiation as also the subsequent cancellation of the international tender on 24th June 2015, is clearly violative of the DPP,” it said.

It said that against the origi-nally negotiated price of the deal, the Modi government’s purchase price “is over 300% higher, involving an extra out-fl ow of money from public ex-chequer of Rs41,000 crore, ap-proximately”.

It also accused Sitharaman of “lying” about the off set contract.

“While Dassault Aviation and Reliance Defence Ltd claim that a Rs30,000-crore off set contract has been awarded, Sitharaman in a press release (07.02.2018) claimed that no off set contract had been awarded.”

Govt okays ordinanceto outlaw ‘triple talaq’AgenciesNew Delhi

India yesterday prescribed arrests and jail terms for of-fenders in a campaign to

stamp out “triple talaq.”The Supreme Court in August

last year outlawed the practice that had allowed Muslim men to divorce their wives by simply saying the word “talaq” three times.

Yesterday’s move comes months ahead of general elec-tions next year at which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) needs to broaden its support be-yond its core Hindu base.

India’s cabinet approved a decree making the procedure a punishable off ence, as the gov-ernment had struggled to pass

the law in the face of opposition in parliament, even though the practice persists, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

“The instance of triple talaq has continued unabated,” Prasad told a news briefi ng, adding that the government had recorded 201 such divorces after the Su-preme Court struck down the law.

“In a secular country like In-dia gender justice was given the complete go-by.”

The ordinance allows for the couple to reach a settlement if the wife wishes, Prasad said, but how much jail time it prescribed was not immediately clear.

The legislation stymied in parliament sought to make the practice a non-bailable off ence, with up to three years in jail.

Prasad said there were in-stances of men divorcing their

wives over the WhatsApp mes-saging app or for reasons such as their poor cooking.

India has so far been one of the few countries where a Muslim man could divorce his wife by saying talaq three times in quick succession.

Critics of the practice say it leaves women destitute and robs them of basic rights.

The BJP has struggled to change a perception that it is against minority Muslims and lower-caste people, which could cost it votes in next year’s polls, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said in March.

“This ‘triple talaq’ ordinance basically is to try and win over a segment in the Muslim com-munity, to win the women’s vote among the minorities,” said San-deep Shastri, a political analyst at Jain University in Bengaluru.

The government’s execu-tive order would allow Muslim women or immediate relatives to complain to the police, who could then arrest the husband if required, Prasad said, calling the issue one of gender justice and equality.

An ordinance is valid for six months, after which it has to be approved by both houses of par-liament.

The ordinance has tweaked a few provisions in the bill in re-sponse to concerns, Prasad said.

Unlike in the bill, where any-one can make a complaint, only a relation through blood or mar-riage can fi le a police complaint under the ordinance.

The ordinance also includes a provision for immediate bail, but only with the wife’s consent, Prasad said.

Critics had pointed out that if

the main breadwinner is jailed, it may pose a problem for the fam-ily.

“This should have been done many years ago, it is a positive development,” said Zakia So-man, one of the petitioners be-fore the Supreme Court.

Some opposition parties want lesser sentence for the convict-ed, while others have said that to criminalise a social practice is wrong.

Prasad accused opposition parties of failing to end an “arbi-trary and unconstitutional prac-tice” because of pure vote bank politics.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board and other institu-tions have opposed legislation, saying that once the Supreme Court struck down the practice, it should be left to the commu-nity to change their ways.

Death toll of sewer cleanersrevealed for the fi rst timeGuardian News and Media New Delhi

At least one Indian worker has died while cleaning sewers or septic tanks eve-

ry fi ve days since the beginning of 2017, according to the fi rst of-fi cial government statistics on the work, considered one of country’s most insidious forms of caste dis-crimination and deadliest jobs.

But activists and the National Commission for Safai Karama-charis (NCSK), the government agency that provided the data, say the real death rate is probably much higher – with many Indian authorities still undercounting the number of such workers in their state.

Eleven Indians have died so far this month while cleaning sew-ers or septic tanks without ad-

equate safety gear. Five died in a single incident last week in New Delhi when they were allegedly pressured into cleaning a sewage treatment tank.

“Soon after (one of the men) Umesh stepped into the plant, he fell unconscious,” a colleague of the men, Kapil Kumar, said. “Another worker entered to check on him, but he too fainted. Later, three others entered one by one, but they all fainted.”

The spate of deaths has sparked protests in Delhi and donations of more than Rs1mn for the fam-ily of another man who died while cleaning a sewer last Friday, after a tweet went viral showing his son crying over his body.

Manhar Valjibhai Zala, the chairman of the NCSK, said data collected so far by his agency had shown 123 deaths in sewers since the beginning of 2017. He esti-

mated at least another 612 people had died since 1993.

The fi gures are the fi rst offi -cial statistics on a problem In-dian governments have sworn to eradicate since the 1950s, but NCSK offi cials admit they are in-complete, cobbled together based on English and Hindi newspaper articles and fi gures supplied by 13 of India’s 28 states and territories.

Safai Karmachari Andolan, an activist group working to reha-bilitate scavengers, says its data shows at least 300 people have died since the start of 2017.

Successive governments have passed several pieces of legislation outlawing manual scavenging, the latest in 2013. But many scaven-gers are employed through several chains of subcontractors and even when police are willing to pros-ecute an employer, establishing who is culpable can be unclear.

INDIA

Gulf Times Thursday, September 20, 2018 21

No information on extradition of Christian Michel: CBIIANSNew Delhi

Indian offi cials said yester-day they have not received any communication from the

United Arab Emirates about the extradition order of British na-tional Christian Michel James, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case, even as they claimed that a court in the Gulf country had ruled that he can be extradited.

“The Central Bureau of Inves-tigation (CBI) has not received any communication regard-ing Michel’s extradition from the Ministry of External Aff airs (MEA),” CBI spokesman Ab-hishek Dayal said here.

The MEA is the agency con-cerned that gets notifi ed about the proceedings regarding any wanted persons in other coun-tries. It then informs the investi-gating agencies in India.

The CBI offi cial’s remarks came amid media reports that a

UAE court has ordered the ex-tradition of Michel to India in the Rs36bn chopper deal case.

Offi cial sources also said that the UAE has not communicated to MEA yet on the extradition of Michel.

It is learnt that the UAE gov-ernment had approached its court late last month asking if Michel can be extradited to a third country - India. And then apparently the court on Septem-ber 2 said that he can be extra-dited. The Indian mission in UAE

has been asked to fi nd get details on this.

In January this year, the En-forcement Directorate had lodged a request with the UAE authori-ties for extraditing Michel. Both the ED and the CBI had fi led charge-sheets in bribery cases in Indian courts and non-bailable warrants had been issued against him.

Last year, a red corner notice was issued against Michel by the Interpol on a request by the CBI. RCNs were also issued against

two Italians involved in the al-leged scam - Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke.

According to Indian investiga-tive agencies, Michel received at least Rs2.35bn for ensuring that the chopper contract went to AgustaWestland. He was a fre-quent visitor to India, having un-dertaken 300 trips between 1997 and 2013.

On January 1, 2014, India can-celled the contract with Fin-meccanica’s British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying

12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the Indian Air Force, over al-leged breach of contractual obligations and on charges of paying kickbacks amounting to Rs4.23bn.

The CBI, which registered an FIR on March 12, 2013, had al-leged that then IAF chief S P Tyagi and the other accused received kickbacks from Agus-taWestland to help it win the contract. The FIR mentioned charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and those under the

Prevention of Corruption Act.The operational fl ight ceiling

of the choppers was reduced from 6,000m, as originally proposed, to 4,500m and the cabin height was brought down to 1.8m.

The twin modifi cations were allegedly meant to rig the deal in favour of AgustaWestland, which eventually walked away with the order to supply the 12 choppers for the Communication Squad-ron of the IAF for ferrying the president, the prime minister and other VVIPs.

IANSNew Delhi

A day after the Enforce-ment Directorate (ED) registered a case of money

laundering against Karnataka minister D K Shivakumar, the Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday hit out at the Congress, saying the opposition party and corrup-tion have become synonymous.

“Unaccounted cash, hawala transactions and corrupt deals, these are the pillars on which the Congress sits. We now know, why Congress Party was cry-ing during demonetisation,” BJP spokesman Sambit Patra told a press conference here.

Presenting confessional state-ments of three men accused in the case registered against Shi-vakumar pertaining to the recov-ery of Rs40mn from fl ats owned by the minister in Delhi, the BJP

leader said it shows the Con-gress’s involvement and ‘proof of hawala network’ that helped transfer money from Karnataka to the All India Congress Com-mittee (AICC).

Besides Shivakumar, Sachin Narayan, Anjaneya Hanuman-thaiah, an employee of Karna-taka Bhawan in New Delhi, and N Rajendra have been named in the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

“The confessional statement of the offi cials shows how the Congress was linked in hawala transaction. Hanumanthaiah was not only the liaison offi cer of Karnataka, but he was as per protocol appointed as secretary of Shivakumar,” Patra said.

“The Congress has been com-pletely exposed today,” he said seeking to know from part presi-dent Rahul Gandhi why his party was crying during demonetisa-tion.

Congress synonymouswith corruption: BJP

People shout slogans during a protest against the Indian cabinet’s approval of an ordinance making “triple talaq” a punishable off ence, in Mumbai yesterday.

BJP spokesman Sambit Patra addresses a press conference in New Delhi yesterday.

Top law fi rmunder policescrutiny inNirav probeReutersMumbai/ New Delhi

India’s largest law firm, Cyril Amarchand Mangal-das (CAM), is being scru-

tinised by federal agents after they seized documents related to the $2bn fraud at state-run Punjab National Bank from CAM’s premises in February, a lawyer representing the gov-ernment and a police source told Reuters.

In what has been dubbed as India’s biggest bank fraud, PNB in January alleged that billionaire diamond jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle had for years fraudu-lently raised billions of dollars in foreign credit by conspiring with staff at the bank.

In mid-February, Modi’s aides packed cartons of docu-ments at one of his diamond firm’s offices in Mumbai and sent them to CAM’s office near-by, from where police seized them within a week on Febru-ary 21, a review of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) court filings and witness testi-monies showed.

K Raghavacharyulu, a pros-ecution lawyer in the Modi case, and two CBI sources who de-clined to be named, said CAM possessed documents detailing Modi’s dealings with PNB, even though the fi rm wasn’t repre-senting the diamond magnate or his companies.

“CAM was not their attorney in the PNB fraud case, 100% sure... that’s why they could not cite attorney-client privilege,” Raghavacharyulu said, adding that his assessment was based on regular briefi ngs he received from CBI investigating offi cers.

CAM declined to comment on its relationship with Modi, who is on the run overseas.

Its spokeswoman, Madhumita Paul, said the fi rm “strictly fol-lows the legal best practices and does not comment on matters that are sub-judice or are under investigation”.

In CBI’s fi rst charge-sheet in May in the fraud case against Modi and others, the agency said that “incriminating documents/articles relevant to the case” were concealed in the offi ce of CAM.

No charges were brought against the law fi rm and it was not named as a witness in the case.

Since then, Raghavacharyulu said, police have not interviewed any CAM offi cial in the case, though one CBI source said that before fi ling the fi rst charge-sheet, police summoned, ques-tioned and recorded the state-ment of at least one junior CAM lawyer.

That statement has still not been produced in court be-cause the agency is deliberating whether to charge the law fi rm for concealment of evidence or name it as a prosecution wit-ness to testify against Modi, the source said.

Raghavacharyulu said it is possible the police could bring charges against CAM for helping conceal documents.

“Who told you we are not go-ing to charge them?” he said.

“The possibility of naming CAM in the next Nirav Modi case charge-sheet has not been ruled out.”

CAM declined to comment on the possibility of being charged or being named as a witness, and said the Reuters findings were “full of false and

speculative statements”.It did not elaborate.The fi rm didn’t comment on

why it possessed the documents seized by the CBI.

CBI’s spokesman, Abhishek Dayal, declined to comment for this article, saying the PNB fraud case was under investigation and it will not be appropriate to say anything at this stage.

The CBI fi rst learnt of CAM’s possession of the documents when it questioned Modi’s offi ce staff , the police source said.

The documents were moved in a mini-truck in 50-60 car-tons to the law fi rm, according to two witness testimonies seen by Reuters.

On the afternoon of February 20, CBI offi cers went to CAM’s offi ce with a legal search au-thorisation and the documents were found in a meeting room, according to a previously unre-ported 10-page CBI “search list” seen by Reuters.

The CBI search - which in-volved eight federal police offi c-ers - included locking and seal-ing the meeting room overnight as the search dragged on over two days.

On the night of February 21, CBI offi cers left with 24,625 pag-es of documents, which included copies of fi nancial statements of Modi’s fi rms and details of inter-bank fund transfers, according to the search list.

CAM has more than 600 law-yers.

It has advised companies such as Alphabet Inc’s Google, Mi-crosoft, Standard Chartered and India’s ICICI Bank, according to research fi rm The Legal 500.

It also advises Thomson Reu-ters, which owns Reuters, the company’s news division.

Kerala police questionbishop in rape caseIANSKochi, Kerala

Police yesterday questioned Bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of raping a nun,

for seven hours and asked him to report back today morning, an offi cial said.

The bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Jalandhar, accompanied by his lawyer and a few priests, arrived in a car around 11amto the Crime Branch offi ce in Tripunithura near here.

Around 6.30pm, the bishop was allowed to leave. Addressing the media soon after the bishop left, Kottayam superintendent of police Harishankar said the fi rst phase of interrogation was over.

“He has been served a notice to appear before the probe team tomorrow at 11am here. He is co-operating with us. Since the questioning is going on, at the moment, we won’t be unable

to share what the bishop had to say,” said Harishankar.

Ahead of the questioning in the morning, top police offi cers - Inspector General of Police Vi-jay Sakhre, Harishankar and his deputy K Subhash - held a meet-ing at the IGP offi ce in Kochi.

“We are under no pressure. We have conducted a detailed probe which was spread across fi ve states. There is no directive that the bishop should not be ar-rested,” said Harishankar.

The police ensured that the media could not get close to him or even take his picture.

According to them, Tripu-nithura on the outskirts of Kochi was chosen as the venue to avoid the protests underway in Kochi for the last 12 days.

The bishop on Tuesday got a relief from the Kerala High Court which agreed to hear his antici-patory bail plea on September 25.

The court also asked the state government to fi le an affi davit.


INDIA

I underwent untold misery,suff ering: Nambi NarayananIANSThiruvananthapuram

Days after the Supreme Court cleared his name in a so-called spy scan-

dal, former space scientist S Nambi Narayanan said yester-day he underwent “untold mis-ery” and “suff ering” when he was jailed.

And reiterating that the “ISRO spy scandal” was no spy case at all, Narayanan told re-porters here that those who plotted the story should have been a little clever.

“This was nothing but a fab-ricated case. They claimed that I had sold a yet-to-be-created cryogenic technology to an en-emy nation. How is it possible to sell something when it was never there?

“Those who fabricated the case should have been a little

clever,” he said. “I fought this legal battle for so long because I wanted to clear my name that I was not a spy. Right from the day one this case surfaced, I was sure that this is no spy case and I am not a spy. That has been achieved,” Narayanan said.

On September 14, the Su-preme Court awarded Naray-anan Rs5mn compensation for the humiliation and suff ering he underwent after being arrested by Kerala police.

The Supreme Court has also ordered the setting up of a com-mittee led by a former apex court judge, D K Jain, to inquire into the role of the offi cials who implicated the Indian Space Re-search Organisation (ISRO) sci-entist.

The offi cials include then in-spector general of police Siby Mathews and then deputy su-perintendents of police K K Joshua and S Vijayan.

“It is for Mathews to answer all the questions as he was the head of the Special Investiga-tion Team. About four years back, he and his wife met me. I never made this public but the media found it out.”

He said he was jailed and tor-tured and underwent untold misery and suff ering.

Narayanan said that while a section of the media believed there was no spy case, another section wrote concocted stories out of ignorance.

The CBI cleared him in 1995 and he resumed his work. He later retired from ISRO.

Narayanan said that fi lm-maker Anand Mahadevan was directing a fi lm based on what happened to him and it was be-ing produced in English, Hindi and Tamil. Actor Madhavan would play his role. “The shoot-ing is expected to begin very soon.”

Angry woman torches bus

A firefighter sprays water on a bus of the Uttar Pradesh State Roadways Transport Corporation that was torched by a woman, in Varanasi yesterday. Police said the woman was upset at not being able to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his parliamentary constituency on Tuesday. She has been demanding carving out of a separate Poorvanchal state from Uttar Pradesh.

The Gujarat Assembly yesterday unanimously passed a bill proposing to hike the salaries of legislators, ministers, speaker, deputy speaker and leader of opposition by at least Rs45,000 a month. The monthly salary of the MLAs will be increased to Rs116,000 from the Rs70,727, a rise of about 64%, while those of the ministers, speaker, deputy speaker and leader of opposition will go up to Rs132,000 from Rs86,000, an increase of about 54%. The revised salaries will come into retrospective eff ect from February 2017, with a disbursal of Rs60mn in arrears. The new remuneration structure will put an extra burden of Rs100mn annually on the state exchequer. Minister of State for Parliamentary Aff airs Pradeepsinh Jadeja said the salaries had not been revised since 2005.

Jharkhand Urban Development Minister C P Singh yesterday launched an indefinite hunger strike at Kotwali Police Station in Ranchi to protest against the arrest of five Hindus over communal clashes. “This protest is against the police who always take action against the majority community, while the criminals from other communities go scot-free,” Singh told reporters. Earlier in the day, the police arrested the five men after clashes broke out between Hindus and Muslims near a temple. The Hindus on Tuesday accused the Muslims of the area of desecrating a prayer site. The issue was, however, resolved following police intervention. But yesterday, members of the two communities once again clashed and threw stones at each other. On Tuesday, six policemen received injuries in clashes between the members of two communities in the state’s Koderma district.

No government parties, events, functions and workshops of the Uttar Pradesh government will on be held in private hotels, an off icial said yesterday. This has been ordered by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as part of an austerity drive to cut government expenditure, the off icial said. For all these events, government departments will have to use government buildings and campuses, a letter from Chief Secretary Anoop Chandra Pandey to all departmental heads says. Barring unavoidable circumstances, all government off icials and employees will now on fly economy class. Bureaucrats cannot use government money to send greeting cards, gifts, calendars and diaries on New Year and other occasions. The guidelines will be binding on all government departments, public sector undertakings.

The Delhi High Court yesterday asked the Delhi government to take action against illegal pathology laboratories and diagnostic centres. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V Kameswar Rao said that running such illegal labs and centres was a “serious” matter and called for their inspection. The bench also asked the government to file an aff idavit to indicate how the labs and centres were to be regulated till a law on their functioning was formulated. The court was hearing a public interest litigation by activist Bijon Kumar Misra, who pleaded for appropriate government steps to ensure that labs and diagnostic centres maintained quality as the line of treatment of patients depended solely on their reports. He claimed that only 10% of the labs operating in Delhi were accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing.

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge yesterday again declined to attend a meeting of the Lokpal Selection Committee, reiterating that “invitation as a special invitee without the right of participation, recording of opinion and voting was an eyewash”. The Lok Sabha member said it was a concerted eff ort and also a design to keep an important member of the Selection Committee out and thus have an overbearing influence on the selection of the Lokpal. As per the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act 2013, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha is a member of the Selection Committee. Since Kharge does not have that status, he has not been made a part of the Selection Panel and only a ‘special invitee’. Kharge said it was distressing that the government continued to invite him as a special invitee.

Salaries of Gujarat MLAsgo up by Rs45,000 a month

Minister on hunger strikeagainst arrest of Hindus

UP govt events athotels banned

Act against illegal medicallabs, court tells Delhi govt

Kharge again declinesto attend Lokpal meet

DECISIONPROTEST AUSTERITY INVESTIGATIONBOYCOTT

BJP chief meets party leaders, nobreakthrough on Goa leadershipIANSPanaji

The Bharatiya Janata Par-ty’s quest to fi nd a re-placement for ailing Goa

Chief Minister Manohar Parri-kar met with a setback yesterday as a meeting of top state party offi cials with BJP president Amit Shah in Delhi failed to resolve the issue.

Party sources said the meet-ing, attended by state BJP president Vinay Tendulkar and Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik – both contend-ers for the chief ministerial post – and South Goa MP Narendra Savoikar remained inconclusive.

“Our party president is seized of the matter, but no decision

has been made on the leadership issue yet,” a BJP leader said on the condition of anonymity.

Sources said that a pointed demand made by regional ally Goa Forward to appoint a non-legislator as the chief minister was shot down by Parrikar, admitted to the All India In-stitute of Medical Sciences in Delhi.

Parrikar, suff ering from ad-vanced pancreatic cancer, has been in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, New York and now Delhi since February, when his illness was diagnosed.

This has led to criticism from the opposition and civil soci-ety, which have demanded that Parrikar should resign to make way for a “fully fit” chief min-ister who can efficiently dis-

charge official duties.There are several options

which the BJP leadership has been tinkering with over the last few days, ever since the high command took serious note of the criticism about Parrikar’s absence from offi ce.

The options include Shripad Naik, a popular ‘bahujan samaj’ (non-Brahmin caste) leader whose presence could be a boon for the BJP, which has over the last few years been accused of alienating the lower castes.

While Naik is Parrikar’s peer in the Goa BJP, both leaders have shadow-boxed each other on several occasions and are known to head two power centres with-in the party.

The other options include Vinay Tendulkar, a Rajya Sabah

MP who has in the past sacri-fi ced ministerial berth as well as a party ticket on leadership’s in-structions as also Goa Assembly Speaker Pramod Sawant.

Senior state party leaders as well as ex-MLAs, who met na-tional general secretary Ram Lal in Goa this week have rejected the proposal to invite a member of the alliance parties to head the coalition government.

Speaking to IANS, Goa For-ward president Vijai Sardesai said that he was fi ne with the delay on part of the BJP to decide on the leadership issue.

“Let them take time. But the decision should be a permanent one that keeps the state’s politi-cal stability in mind,” the Town and Country Planning minister said.

Naidu in Bucharest

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu meets Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila in Bucharest yesterday.

Brazil pollcareens into‘dangerous’polarisationReutersSao Paulo/Brasilia

Brazil’s presidential cam-paign, already the most divisive since the end of

military rule three decades ago, has become even more polarised, raising concerns about the future of the country’s democracy.

Less than three weeks before the vote, polling shows that the middle has collapsed, with the electorate heading to either a left or right extreme.

On the right is poll-leading Jair Bolsonaro, a retired army captain, who has emerged from a September 6 assassination at-tempt more radical than ever.

He said in a Facebook video viewed 7mn times by yester-day morning that if he loses the election, it would be because the leftist Workers Party (PT) rigged the voting system. That jolted an already tense political landscape.

On the other side, the PT has called the election a fraud be-cause its jailed founder and Bra-zil’s most popular politician, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has not been allowed to run due to a cor-ruption conviction.

The party has made “Free Lula” its rallying cry.

The PT’s stance has stoked concerns among a wide swathe of voters, who blame the party for widespread political corrup-tion and fear that if the PT’s can-didate, Fernando Haddad, wins he would pardon Lula.

Haddad on Tuesday fl atly de-nied he would do that, though he said the former president would be an essential adviser to his gov-ernment, even from jail.

Lost in the increasingly toxic

atmosphere ahead of the October 7 fi rst-round vote is any chance Brazil’s election will unite a deep-ly split country, raising the risk that the next government will be paralysed by infi ghting and op-position, unable to make headway against the dual economic and political crises facing Brazil, the world’s eighth-largest economy.

“Many thought that by the time we got close to the election, some middle ground would be found, and that is not what we are seeing,” said Monica de Bolle, director of Latin American studies programme at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Instead, Bolsonaro, 63, is heading to a likely October 28 runoff vote against Haddad, 55, a matchup that polls show is dead-locked. The election has become “very dangerous,” de Bolle said.

That is mainly because Bol-sonaro, who has repeatedly praised Brazil’s military regime, and his running mate, Hamilton Mourao, a retired army general, have openly talked “about con-straining civil liberties and re-writing the Constitution in an authoritarian way,” de Bolle said.

Mourao has said the armed forces should carry out a coup if the country’s judiciary cannot end political corruption. “They are not shying away from saying these things openly and they are not being criticised for saying them,” she added.

Amid rising crime and con-tinued revelations of corrup-tion, the Bolsonaro ticket of-fers a simple formula for voters, while enticing powerful busi-ness sectors with promises of liberal economic policies and, above all, stopping the return of Lula’s party and its state-led

plans for the economy.“What I fi nd really surpris-

ing is that there is a large seg-ment of the Brazilian population, the elite, the people who should know better, who are basically throwing risk aside and saying ‘you know, I don’t care.

I just don’t want the PT back in power,’” de Bolle said.

That is seen in the open arms that infl uential Brazilian eco-nomic groups are off ering to Bol-sonaro’s team.

On Monday, Mourao, who last week said Brazil’s Constitution could be re-written without di-rect input from voters, addressed a luncheon of Sao Paulo busi-ness leaders, who interrupted his 40-minute address on several occasions with applause.

When asked during a panel dis-cussion if he believed in the dem-ocratic process, Mourao said “if I were anti-democratic, I would not be participating in this elec-tion. I’d be home polishing my.45 pistol and waiting for better days.”

The line drew laughter from the crowd. Asked about Bolsonaro’s allegation the PT would try to rig the voting system to win, Mourao said that “you have to take into ac-count he is a man who practically died just over a week ago.”

However, Carlos Melo, a political scientist with Insper, a Sao Paulo business school, said Bolsonaro has raised that concern before and is doing so now as a “preemptive measure...anticipating any defeat so he can question the results.”

“Bolsonaro is a political actor who has never fully supported Brazilian democracy,” Melo said. “His choice of Mourao as a run-ning mate obviously adds anoth-er element that puts pressure on our democracy.”

Mexico marks twinquakes’ anniversaryAFPMexico City

Memorials were held in Mexico yesterday in memory of the two

earthquakes that devastated the country on September 19 — one that killed 369 people last year, and another in 1985 that killed more than 10,000.

President Enrique Pena Nieto presided over a solemn ceremony on Mexico City’s central square, the Zocalo, where soldiers raised an enormous Mexican fl ag at 7.19am (1219GMT) — the mo-ment when an 8.1-magnitude earthquake struck 33 years ago, leaving huge swathes of the capi-tal in ruins.

Rescue workers known as “moles” — volunteers who tun-nelled through the rubble in search of survivors — held their own ceremony at the site where the 15-storey Nuevo Leon apart-

ment building collapsed, killing hundreds of people.

Thousands of Mexicans be-came impromptu rescuers in the aftermath of the quake, as the overwhelmed authorities strug-gled to deal with the worst natu-ral disaster in the country’s his-tory.

The same volunteerism fl our-ished after last year’s quake, al-though the authorities were less paralysed than in 1985.

“On that September 19 (1985), we were in the living room. At 7.19, that enormous building started to dance, to break into pieces. The windows shattered and cut us all over. But we didn’t even feel pain.

Or hope, for that matter,” said Fernando Lopez Padilla, 67. “In a matter of seconds, the whole thing collapsed. We were buried, trying to fi nd our children, but completely surrounded by con-crete. We managed to rescue a three-month-old baby girl and a

12-year-old girl named Sandra,” he said.

Since 2015, Mexico City has relied on a seismic monitor-ing system connected to 8,000 alarms around the capital to warn residents when a quake is about to strike. Every year on Septem-ber 19, the city holds a massive earthquake drill to prepare and pay tribute to the victims of 1985.

Last year, all proceeded as planned: at 11am, the city’s 20mn people dutifully evacuated build-ings, practised their emergency protocols, then went back to their business. Two hours and 14 minutes later, the ground started shaking for real, as a 7.1-magni-tude earthquake rocked the cen-tre of the country.

Ironically, because the epicen-tre was just 120kms away — and not on the Pacifi c coast, where the seismic monitors are concen-trated — the earthquake alarms did not sound until the city was already shaking violently.

Fernandez deniescorruption claimsReutersBuenos Aires

Argentina’s ex-president Cristina Fernandez said that she never received

corrupt payments and chal-lenged investigators to scour her home region of Patagonia if they believed she had hidden cash.

Using her immunity as a sena-tor to refuse to answer any ques-tions, Fernandez handed a writ-ten statement to the federal judge investigating a sprawling bribery scandal that has ensnared dozens of former offi cials and construc-tion company executives.

The statement was published on her party’s website.

“They can dig up all of Patago-nia, but they will never fi nd any-thing because I never received any illicit money,” the statement said, citing offi cial allegations that cash was kept in under-ground vaults at Fernandez’s pri-vate residence or hidden in con-tainers in the southern Argentina countryside.

Federal judge Claudio Bona-dio said in the indictment that offi cials had found empty vaults under the house, but no money.

Fernandez, president from 2007 through 2015, is accused of heading a network in which of-fi cials in her administration ac-cepted bribes from construction companies in exchange for public works contracts.

Known as the “notebooks” scandal, the allegations arose in August after a local newspa-per published diaries kept by a former government chauff eur, who said his notes documented hundreds of millions of dollars delivered to the offi ces of Fern-andez and her late husband and presidential predecessor Nestor Kirchner.

“There is no evidence that links me to this alleged network,” Fernandez’s statement said.

Fernandez was previously in-dicted on corruption charges in 2016 after her former public works secretary was caught try-ing to hide bags of cash in a con-vent.

Venezuelato bump upoil exportsto China

Presidential candidate Fernando Haddad of Workers Party (PT) attends a rally in Sao Paulo, Brazil, yesterday.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he was evaluating whether or not he would attend this week’s United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, citing concerns about his safety. “You know they have me in their sights to kill me...I want to go to New York but I have to take care of my security,” Maduro said. Earlier Maduro said Venezuelan ex-military off icers were conspiring to overthrow his government with the help of the US. In August, two drones exploded over a rally in Caracas where Maduro was giving a speech, injuring seven soldiers and leading to the arrest of over a dozen suspects. Maduro described it as an assassination attempt.

Former vice president of Guatemala Eduardo Stein has been appointed joint special representative for Venezuelan refugees and migrants, the United Nations refugee and migration agencies announced yesterday. Four years of recession have seen 1.6mn people flee Venezuela since 2015, the UN says, creating a migration crisis in the region. Stein, vice president between 2004 and 2008, will promote “a coherent and harmonised regional approach to the Venezuela situation in co-ordination with national governments, international organisations and other relevant stakeholders,” the UNHCR and IOM said in a joint statement.

The rebuilding of the National Museum of Brazil after it was gutted by fire could take 10 years, according to Unesco. The building in Rio de Janeiro was destroyed in a blaze three weeks ago, together with much of its priceless collection. The United Nations’ cultural agency made its assessment based on comparisons with similar situations, said Unesco representative Marlova Jovchelovitch Noleto. The National Museum, Brazil’s oldest, housed one of the most important geological, botanical, palaeontological and archaeological collections in South America. The museum administration believes that around 90% of the estimated 20mn exhibits were destroyed.

A criminal court in Ecuador suspended a hearing meant to decide whether to call former president Rafael Correa to trial over the kidnapping of an opposition lawmaker in Colombia. Barely an hour into the hearing, judge Daniela Camacho postponed the hearing until tomorrow to provide more time to study prosecution documents into the 2012 kidnapping of Fernando Balda. Correa, who lives in his wife’s native Belgium and cannot be tried in absentia, blasted the decision as “shameful” on Twitter, calling on the prosecutor in charge to “resign.” “He had a month and a half to prepare for this hearing,” fumed Correa.

Seven inmates died after a riot at an overcrowded prison in the northern Brazilian state of Para following a failed escape attempt. After 16 prisoners tried but failed to escape through an air duct during the early hours of the morning, after they were detected by security cameras, a riot broke out. Some 120 prisoners took part in the violence, setting light to a room housing generators, leading to “a part of the cells, infirmary and prison secretariat being destroyed,” a prison source said. Six prisoners were killed by fellow inmates while a seventh died from burns. The rioting prisoners were demanding quicker judgements and improved conditions.

Maduro says he may notattend UN assembly

UN puts Stein in charge ofVenezuela migrant crisis

Rio museum ‘could take adecade to rebuild after fire’

Court suspends hearingin Correa kidnapping case

Seven inmates die afterBrazil prison riot

COMMENTAPPOINTMENT FORECAST LEGALVIOLENCE

LATIN AMERICA


Anger at price hike

Demonstrators march during a protest to demand a reduction in energy service costs in Buenos Aires, Argentina, yesterday.

AFPCaracas

Venezuela is to increase its oil exports to China to 1mn barrels a day, President

Nicolas Maduro said just days after visiting the Asian power-house.

Maduro said each country would invest “around $5bn” in the project by August 2019.

Private sector estimates put the current export fi gure to Chi-na at around 700,000 barrels a day.

Maduro spent two days in China last week, welcomed by counterpart Xi Jinping and at-tending meetings at the China Development Bank and the Chi-na National Petroleum Corpora-tion.

Venezuela, the country with the largest crude reserves in the world, has received more than $60bn in credit from Beijing over the last decade but still owes about $20bn and has been repay-ing the debt with oil shipments.

Speaking to foreign media, Maduro said China National Pe-troleum Corporation president Zhang Jianhua will visit Ven-ezuela today to fi nalise “the in-vestment they’re going to make.” China eased Venezuela’s debt repayment conditions in 2016 with the South American country gripped by an economic crisis.

Maduro refused to comment on whether those conditions had been extended during negotia-tions with China.

“Venezuela pays its debts on time, it’s shown in the most dif-fi cult moments its ability to re-spond to its Chinese commit-ments,” he said. “The accounts are clear with them.”

Upon his return from China on Saturday, Maduro had refused to comment on rumours he had been off ered an extra $5bn loan.

He also walked into a social media storm after a celebrity chef in Turkey had posted videos of Maduro gorging on juicy chunks of meat and sucking on a cigar at a trendy restaurant in Istanbul during a stopover.

Venezuela is plagued by eco-nomic woes following four years of recession and infl ation ex-pected to reach 1mn% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

PAKISTAN


Sharif released from jail on court ordersPakistani authorities re-

leased former prime min-ister Nawaz Sharif and

his daughter from jail yesterday after a court suspended prison sentences they got in July over the purchase of upscale apart-ments in London.

Supporters showered Sharif’s car with rose petals after he was freed from the jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, television footage showed. “The prison-ers have been set free,” Ishaq Cheema, an offi cial at Adyala jail, said.

Earlier in the day Islamabad High Court suspended the 10-year jail term of the three-time premier, who was once the fa-vourite of Pakistan’s powerful generals but has since fallen out and clashed with the military.

The ruling comes almost two months after Sharif’s party lost a general election to the party of new Prime Minister Imran Khan. Sharif’s party and oth-ers allege the July 25 polls were rigged to favour Khan.

The court also freed Sharif’s daughter and political heir Mar-yam, who was jailed for seven years on corruption charges re-lating to the family’s acquisition of the London fl ats.

“The prosecution has failed to show the properties belong to Nawaz Sharif,” Justice Athar Mi-nallah told the court.

The convictions are still un-der appeal with the same court, but the judge said they should be freed immediately while the case continues.

“Justice has been served, and I congratulate Nawaz Sharif’s supporters,” former foreign

ReutersIslamabad

Nawaz Sharif (centre, back) sits in a vehicle alongside his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif, right, following his release from Adiala prison in Rawalpindi yesterday.

minister Khawaja Asif, a staunch Sharif ally, said outside the courtroom, where supporters chanted pro-Sharif slogans.

Sharif was ousted and dis-qualifi ed from holding offi ce by the Supreme Court in July 2017 and jailed earlier this year in ab-sentia. He was arrested on July 13 upon returning from London.

The case against Sharif stemmed from 2016 Panama Pa-pers revelations that showed his family owned the London apart-ments through off shore com-panies. Maryam was convicted

for concealing ownership of the properties. They both deny wrongdoing.

Sharif’s release comes a week after the death aged 68 of Kul-soom, his wife of 47 years, who had been battling cancer in a London hospital. The former First Lady’s funeral in Pakistan, for which the family were briefl y paroled, gripped the nation.

Sharif has repeatedly called the cases against him politically motivated, suggesting collusion between the military and courts to destabilise his Pakistan Muslim

League-Nawaz (PML-N) party and throw him out of power.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the ruling party led by former cricketer Khan, said the judiciary was independent and the cases would continue.

“The Sharif family still has not proven where the billions of rupees came from for their prop-erty,” said Fawad Chaudhry, the government’s information min-ister, according to PTI’s offi cial Twitter account.

In opposition, Khan was a vo-cal supporter of the legal cases

that removed Sharif from offi ce.Sharif, a political survivor, was

previously jailed after the 1999 coup by military ruler Pervez Mushar-raf. Sharif later went into exile after striking a deal with the military and returned in 2007 to contest an elec-tion after Musharraf stepped down in the face of mass protests.

Khan is making his fi rst offi cial overseas trip to Saudi Arabia, the country that gave Sharif shelter after the 1999 coup, where he is reportedly seeking fi nancial help to stave off the likelihood of an-other IMF bailout.

Saudi king hosts Khan

Saudi King Salman hosted Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday on

his maiden foreign visit since coming to power, state media said, as Islamabad seeks to stave off a fi nancial crisis.

Khan also met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Energy Minister Khalid al-Fal-ih as he concluded his two-day visit, the Saudi Press Agency said, amid speculation that he would seek economic assist-ance from the oil-rich ally.

“Anyone who comes to power in Pakistan will visit Saudi Arabia fi rst,” Khan told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya tel-evision during his visit to the western city of Jeddah.

“Saudi Arabia has in the past helped Pakistan when Pakistan has been in need,” he added.

Former cricket great Khan, who assumed offi ce one month ago, faces challenges including a faltering economy, militant extremism, water

shortages and a rapidly grow-ing population.

The most pressing is a loom-ing balance-of-payments cri-sis, with analysts predicting Pakistan will have to go to the International Monetary Fund for a fresh bailout.

The IMF has bailed Paki-stan out repeatedly since the late 1980s. The last time was in 2013, when Islamabad got a $6.6bn loan to tackle a similar crisis.

Pakistani media has specu-lated that Khan is eyeing Saudi Arabia and China to provide loans to rescue Islamabad from the crisis and stave off another IMF bailout.

Khan was accompanied to Jeddah by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Finance Minister Asad Umar, who met his Saudi counterpart Mohammed al-Jadaan.

The two fi nance ministers spoke about “fi nancial and economic cooperation” be-tween the two countries, SPA said in a brief statement.

Khan is also due to visit the United Arab Emirates follow-ing his Saudi visit.

AFPRiyadh

PM’s aides get important roles

Imran Khan’s friends, one after the other, have start-ed getting roles in his gov-

ernment.British national Syed

Zulfi kar Abbas Bukhari, commonly known as Zulfi Bukhari, is the latest induc-tion in Khan’s offi cial team, while some other friends have already been given cabinet berths, either at the centre or in Punjab.

However, another of Khan’s confi dantes, Mufti Saeed, is yet to be given any role in the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) coalition government.

Saeed was part of two im-portant engagements earlier this year in the presence of two witnesses, Awn Chaudhary and Bukhari.

Both are now part of the government set-up. Chaud-hary was recently appointed as an adviser to Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, while Bukhari was on Tuesday ap-pointed as the prime minister’s special assistant on overseas Pakistanis and human resource development, with the status of a minister of state.

Naeemul Haq, who has a long personal association with Khan and has been a regular feature of Banigala for years, is already serving the prime minister as his political advis-er. Haq also enjoys the status of a state minister.

Iftikhar Durrani, another close aide of Khan since he moved to Banigala, is now the PM’s adviser on the media with the status of a minister of state. Durrani is said to have qualifi ed for the cabinet slot

because of his media-related work during the last few years.

Ehsan Mani, another friend of Khan, has been appointed the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Zakir Khan, who is also on the list of his close friends, has also been made the PCB director for in-ternational cricket.

Khan’s friend and British-Pakistani entrepreneur Aneel Musarrat made headlines when he was allowed to attend a cabinet meeting in Islama-bad on Monday.

Musarrat subsequently said that he would provide free ad-vice to PM Khan on his plans to build 5mn low-cost homes, but would not take up any for-mal role in the cabinet.

Since Khan assumed of-fi ce, there has been a lot of speculation about the role of Musarrat, whose pictures with Khan and a few other top Pa-kistani offi cials recently went viral on the social media.

But Musarrat subsequently said that he would take no of-fi cial position in the Pakistani government and has no plans to do business here, although he admitted to having been given an informal role by the prime minister.

Talking on friends get-ting slots in the government, a source close to the prime minister said it’s not about friends, it’s about governance.

Requesting anonymity, he said the practice of engag-ing people of character, com-petence and higher skills in specifi c fi elds was not unique to Pakistan, it happens world over.

He said the previous gov-ernments had given govern-ment positions to close rela-tives and friends.

InternewsIslamabad

China says military ties ‘backbone’ to Pakistan relations

Military ties between China and Pakistan are the “backbone”

of relations between the two countries, a senior Chinese general told Pakistan’s visit-ing army chief, days after a Pakistani minister stirred un-ease about Chinese Silk Road projects.

General Qamar Javed Bajwa is the most senior Pakistani fi gure to visit ally China since the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan took of-fi ce in August, and his trip comes a week or so after a sen-ior Chinese diplomat visited Islamabad.

Pakistan has deepened ties with China in recent years as relations with the United States have frayed.

Bajwa may be hoping to smooth out any Chinese alarm at comments last week by Pakistan’s Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Da-wood, who suggested sus-pending for a year projects in the China-Pakistan Eco-nomic Corridor, the Paki-stan leg of China’s Belt and Road Initiative that includes recreating the old Silk Road trading route.

On Tuesday, Zhang Youxia, a deputy chairman of China’s powerful Central Military Commission which President Xi Jinping heads, reiterated to Bajwa that the two countries

are “all weather” strategic co-operative partners.

“China-Pakistan military ties are an important back-bone of relations between the two countries,” said Zhang according to a statement by China’s defence ministry late on Tuesday.

“The two militaries should further pay close attention to practical co-operation in all areas, keep raising the ability to deal with various security risks and challenges, and join hands to protect the common interests of both countries.”

However, Zhang cited Xi as saying that the Belt and Road initiative should be a bench-mark for China-Pakistan ties.

He said China appreci-ated the new Pakistan gov-ernment’s platform of fully promoting the relationship and that China was willing to work with the new govern-ment to push construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Beijing has pledged to invest about $60bn in Pakistan for infrastructure for the Belt and Road project.

ReutersBeijing

Viewers watch a television in a barber shop in Karachi yesterday, showing action from an Asia Cup group cricket match between India and Pakistan in Dubai.

Cricket fans

“The two militaries should further pay close attention to practical co-operation in all areas, keep raising the ability to deal with various security risks and challenges, and join hands to protect the common interests of both countries”

UK acknowledges Pakistan’s role in curbing terrorism

Terrorism incidents have decreased in Pakistan and the country has achieved

wonderful success in the war against militancy, said British Home Secretary Sajid Javid.

He called on Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar yesterday.

Javid highlighted that his par-ents belong to Sahiwal and he has a special connection with Pakistan, despite being a British citizen.

During the meeting, Buzdar

said he wanted to seek further co-operation in health, educa-tion and promotion of the rule of law with Britain.

He underscored that Pakistan and the UK are strong partners in the journey of development and prosperity. Unique programmes have been initiated in the health, education and other sectors in collaboration with the Depart-ment for International Develop-ment (DFID).

The Punjab government in-tended to expand these pro-grammes so that more and more people could benefi t from such schemes, he added.

The chief minister said the

Punjab government appreci-ated British co-operation and its desire to bring further im-provements to diff erent sectors. He said that prime minister’s 100-day agenda is a conclusive programme of national develop-ment and prosperity.

Talking about the unprec-edented sacrifi ces rendered by Pakistan in the war against ter-rorism, the chief minister said thousands of precious had have been lost.

He said the whole of human history would be hard pressed to present such an example. “Our brave sons and people from dif-ferent walks of life have written a

new history with their sacrifi ces and that is why the menace of terrorism has been overcome to a large extent.”

He appreciated Britain’s co-operation, under the rule of law programme, and hoped that this partnership would further ex-pand in the days to come.

Javid was confi dent that the Punjab government was working hard for public welfare. He add-ed that the British government wanted to further promote bilat-eral co-operation with the pro-vincial government in future. “We will work collectively to promote opportunities for to business, ed-ucation and development.”

InternewsLahore

ECP asked to delimit merged areas for local govt pollsAuthorities in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) secretariat have sought delimitation of the recently merged seven tribal districts and six Frontier Regions as the provincial government is planning to hold the local government elections there in March next year.The Fata secretariat through a letter to the secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on September 13 sought delimitation of the constituencies of the local governments in the erstwhile tribal areas.The ECP has been asked to initiate the process of delimitation of the constituencies in the erstwhile tribal areas so that election could be held as per the proposed programme of the provincial government. (Internews)

PHILIPPINES

25Gulf Times Thursday, September 20, 2018

Typhoon death toll set to rise as rescue continuesAFP Manila

The death toll in the Phil-ippines from Typhoon Mangkhut has climbed

to 81 and could hit triple dig-its as searchers dig through a landslide where dozens are pre-sumed dead, authorities said yesterday.

Mangkhut swamped farm fi elds in the nation’s agricul-tural north and smashed hous-es when it tore through at the weekend with violent winds and heavy rains.Since then the toll has climbed mostly due to the corpses recovered from the massive landslide in the mining town of Itogon where dozens are still believed buried under the mud.

“From the list I saw 59 peo-ple are still missing (at Itogon),” Ricardo Jalad, civil defence chief, said.”If you add that to those already recovered it’s pos-sible the toll could top 100.”

The typhoon, the most pow-erful to strike this year, also battered Hong Kong and killed four in China’s southern prov-

ince of Guangdong.Searchers at Itogon contin-

ued their grim work yesterday, digging with shovels and their bare hands in the vast expanse

of mud that crushed dwellings used by small-scale miners.

The area was primed for dis-aster before Mangkhut hit, as it came on the heels of nearly a

month of continuous monsoon rains that saturated the soil of the already hazardous area.

Of the hundreds digging through the debris, many were

miners themselves who were looking for friends and rela-tives, determined to make sure they received a proper burial.

The Philippines’s deadliest

storm on record is super ty-phoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,350 people dead or miss-ing across the central Philip-pines in November 2013.

Rescuers continue their search for missing miners in a landslide caused by Typhoon Mangkhut at a small-scale mining camp in Itogon, Benguet, yesterday.

Residents carry a motorcycle as they hike on a road eroded by a landslide caused by the typhoon at a small-scale mining camp in Itogon, Benguet.

Call for rallies against ‘dictatorship’By Catherine A ModestoManila Times

An archdiocese in Iloilo province in central Phil-ippines and major Cath-

olic church organisations have called on the faithful and Cath-olic institutions to join simulta-neous rallies against “dictator-ship” in the country tomorrow (September 21) to condemn the “rise of another dictator.”

The Church organisations yesterday said they hoped that the protest rallies might awaken their desire to “fi ght for human rights and stand fi rm against the continued damaging eff ects of Martial Law in 1972 to our economic, social and political life and historical revisionism and (also on the)commitment to disallow another dictator to rise.”

In a statement, Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP), Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipi-nas (Council of the Laity of the Philippines), and Promotion of Church People’s Response and Religious Discernment Group (RGD) called on the faithful to join them “in prayer and ac-tion at the Mass for Dignity and Peace at the San Agustin Church in Intramuros, Manila.”

In the statement signed by Fr

Cielito Almazan and Sr Regina Kuizon, chairmen of AMRSP, and Sr Patricia Fox, RGD con-venor, who is facing a deporta-tion order and Fr Rolly de Leon, co-chairman of PCPR, the re-ligious groups said the event would be “balanced with the hopeful celebration of the In-ternational Day of Peace.”

They added that they would march with various church denominations and sectors to the “United People’s Action

Against Dictatorship” at Luneta Park in Manila at 3pm.

Monday’s call came amid the Church’s claim that the situa-tion under the Duterte admin-istration was “reminiscent of the dark past.”

“I would like to urge our Catholic faithful living nearby and Catholic institutions to join the ecumenical rally in front of the Provincial Capitol Grounds,” wrote Jaro Archbish-op Jose Romeo Lazo in a letter,

which was posted by the Arch-diocese of Jaro Commission of Social Communications on its Facebook page. Lazo said he was hopeful that the gathering would be “peaceful.”

On September 21, 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law through Proclamation 1081, which, ac-cording to the prelate, put the country under “trying times.”

For the Catholic Church, Lazo said, society was built

on “fostered inward sense of justice and kindliness, and of service to common good and strengthened basic convictions as to the true nature of the po-litical community,” not in any form of “compulsion” and dic-tatorship.

He ended his letter with a prayer.

The Church has openly criti-cised policies under President Rodrigo Duterte, such as the war on illegal drugs, saying it is a violation of human rights.

Some of the Church’s ranking offi cials have accused Duterte of turning a “blind eye” to the country’s problems and instead focusing on “silencing his crit-ics” such as Senator Antonio Trillanes, Sister Fox and Sena-tor Leila de Lima.

Duterte placed Mindanao under martial law in 2017 af-ter Islamic State-linked rebels took hostages from a Catholic church and raised the IS fl ag.

The University of the Phil-ippines yesterday proclaimed September 21 as Day of Remem-brance.

Danilo Concepcion, UP president, said “Martial Law (that was imposed in 1972) re-sulted in severe political and economic repression, generat-ing widespread discontent and resistance among the Filipino people.”

Leaders from diff erent organisations, civil society groups, Martial Law victims and other sectorial groups gather in Intramuros, Manila yesterday to convene the ‘United People’s Action,’ to mark the 46th anniversary of Martial Law.

Damage to farm sector hits billionsBy Eireene J Gomez Manila Times

Total damage and losses to the agriculture sector caused by Typhoon “Om-

pong” have reached P16.76bn, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).

The fi gure breached the agen-cy’s P13.2bn damage projection in a “worst case scenario,” and was still expected to go up as the DA-Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Operation Center (DA-DRRMOC) continued to monitor eff ects of the typhoon on the farm sector.

A report from the DA-DR-RMOC showed that a total of 636,908 hectares of agricultural lands suff ered an estimated pro-duction loss of 731,294 metric tons (MT).The total damage and losses cover Ilocos (Region I), Cagayan Valley (Region II), Cen-tral Luzon (Region III), Calabar-zon (Region IV-A) and Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).To this total, rice contributed the largest share of losses at 68.30% or P11.45bn, aff ecting 474,838 hectares or 47.71% of 995,218 hectares of standing crops.

Production losses were placed at 558,441 MT.

Provinces heavily aff ected were Nueva Ecija in Region III with P2.84bn in damage, fol-lowed by Cagayan in Region II with P2.77bn, the DA-DRRMOC said. In the fi sheries sector, damage and losses were placed at P6.94mn in production and facilities/equipment, including tilapia ponds, fi sh cages, FRP (fi berglass reinforced plastic) boats, dikes and breeding tanks in Cagayan Valley.

“To date, there are no changes in the damage and losses in corn, high-value crops, livestock/poultry and irrigation facilities,” the DA-DRRMOC said.

Production losses in corn amounted to P4.50bn, aff ecting a total of 148,587 hectares with estimated production loss of 281,039 MT. Most of the aff ected crops were in their reproductive stages. High-value crop produc-tion losses, aff ecting 7,913 hec-tares in the Cordillera Adminis-trative Region and the provinces of Rizal (Region IV-A), Cagayan and Isabela (Region II), reached P15.72mn. Production loss stood at 14,258 metric tonnes.

Losses to livestock were re-ported in CAR, with 20,316 ani-mal heads aff ected (103 heads in livestock and 20,213 heads in poultry), amounting to P 5.51mn or 1.01% of the overall damage and losses.

Damage to irrigation facilities reached P15.72mn in Ilocos Norte (Region I), aff ecting small-water impounding projects, impound-ing dams and spillways.

Duterte rules out pardon for army offi cial facing kidnap charge

By Catherine S ValenteManila Times

President Rodrigo Duterte will not grant pardon to retired major general Jo-

vito Palparan Jr, who was con-victed of kidnapping and illegal detention, Malacanang assured the public yesterday.

Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr allayed fears that Palparan, who was meted life imprisonment on Monday for the disappearance of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño in 2006, would be granted presi-dential pardon.

“The government went after Palparan and the government will ensure that the victims will be given justice,” Roque said in an interview with dzRH radio.

The two students were ab-ducted by Palparan’s men dur-ing the height of then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s an-ti-communist insurgency drive “Oplan Bantay Laya.”

Empeno’s mother, Concep-cion, earlier voiced her fear that Palparan might be par-doned especially now that Ar-royo is the speaker of the House

of Representatives. Palparan was found guilty on Monday by Malolos Regional Trial Court Judge Alexander Tamayo for the abduction of Cadapan and Empeno. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and com-mitted to the National Bilibid Prison.

However, the retired major general will remain in the cus-tody of the Philippine Army until the Malolos court issues an order for his transfer to the NBP,

Lt Col Louie Villanueva, Army spokesman, said.

“We are still waiting for the order from the court regarding General Palparan’s transfer. As of now, he will be retained here at our custody pending the or-der from the Malolos court,” Villanueva said.

Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr allayed fears that Palparan, who was meted life imprisonment on Monday for the disappearance of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno in 2006, would be granted presidential pardon


COMMENT

26

To Advertise [email protected]

Display 44466621 44418811

Classified 44466609 44418811

Subscription [email protected]

© 2018 Gulf Times. All rights reserved

GULF TIMES

P.O.Box 2888, Doha, Qatar

[email protected]

44350478 (News),

44466404 (Sport),

44466636 (Home delivery)

44350474

facebook.com/gulftimes

twitter.com/gulftimes_Qatar

CHAIRMANAbdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFFaisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka

Deputy Managing EditorK T Chacko

By Kaamil Ahmed/IRINDhaka

Rohingya children play under a half-mangled roof of twisted tin sheets as the rain beats down on the Bangladeshi refugee camp

that has become their home. Their sod-den playground was a fully functioning health clinic before a monsoon landslide forced staff and patients to abandon it in June. Its replacement – a simple tent – is a fraction of the size, humid, and has no electricity.

Gonoshasthaya Kendra, the local NGO that runs the clinic, doesn’t have the money to repair it so it is seeking help from a large international aid agency that does. But the two organisations can’t strike a deal on the upgrade. For now, it sits in disrepair, while in the tent nearby frustrated medics listen to Ro-hingya patients perched on plastic chairs in the 35-degree heat.

“This situation’s sad for me. It’s sad for all of us,” says Papi, the clinic’s doc-tor, pointing to the damaged, empty clinic. “We’re not getting enough sup-port.”

This feeling of not being supported is representative of a larger friction between the local and international aid groups that work in the packed Rohingya refugee camps of southern Bangladesh.

Local aid groups and volunteers were the fi rst to respond last August as a military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine State drove more than 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh. Today, how-ever, locals are dwarfed by dozens of in-ternational aid agencies – who dominate donor funding and the response itself.

Prominent Bangladeshi NGOs say they lack the resources that could sustain and grow local aid expertise, their staff are often poached by big international aid groups, and they’ve been excluded from decision-making in an emergency unfolding on their own soil.

However, as the Rohingya refugee crisis moves into its second year, local aid groups believe that international attention – and donor funding – will wane, and that the plethora of interna-tional organisations and staff that now dominate the response will inevitably shrink.

“In the course of time, some day, there will be no aid, or reduced aid,” said Rezaul Chowdhury, the head of COAST, an NGO from Cox’s Bazar that has spearheaded eff orts to even out a donor system it sees as lopsided in favour of the larger, international players.

“The Rohingya will (still) be there. So why don’t we take the responsibility for Rohingya from now on?”

Nearly 100 NGOs and UN agencies now operate in the camps – more than two-thirds of them are international groups, such as the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, or its migration arm, IOM, the two lead aid agencies for the Rohingya response.

Local aid offi cials here speak of a power imbalance in relationships with their international counterparts.

Sultan Mahmud, who leads Gono-shasthaya Kendra’s Rohingya pro-

grammes, says his group’s destroyed health clinic is a prime example.

UNHCR is happy to help, in principle, but it wants Gonoshasthaya Kendra to also expand the clinic’s services. Mahmud says his staff may not have the resources to do this, and the most imme-diate concern is maintaining the clinic so that it at least stays open.

“They say there is partnership, but it is not equal partnership,” Mahmud said.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in aid funds have been pledged to help the refugees. But local aid organisations like Gonoshasthaya Kendra see only a trickle of this funding, which is largely fi ltered from international donors down through UN agencies and big international NGOs.

Bangladeshi organisations have valuable local knowledge, but this imbalanced relationship has limited their contributions, says Smruti Patel, co-founder of the Global Mentoring Initiative, an organisation that stud-ies the role local organisations play in humanitarian crises.

She described the partnership between international and local NGOs as a “subcontracting” relationship – a characterisation commonly voiced by both Bangladeshi and foreign aid work-ers here.

“(Local NGOs’) value is that they have access to communities, they are really connected, they know what the issues are,” she said. “But we don’t value that.”

And just as Bangladeshi organisa-tions are demanding a greater say over a crisis in their own country, the Rohingya refugees themselves are largely unable to participate in decisions that aff ect them – whether that’s humanitarian aid in the camps or the controversial prospect of eventual returns to Myanmar.

Patel says Rohingya perspectives are sorely missing from the discussions.

“There are so many issues where they should have a voice but they don’t and the Rohingya are not even present,” said Patel. “Everything is being decided for them, but nothing with them.”

Criticism of international dominance in the aid sector is not new. But last year’s Rohingya refugee crisis erupted a little over a year after dozens of the world’s largest donors and aid groups

pledged to reform the aid sector, in part by putting more power in the hands of local aid workers, organisations, and governments to play a leading role in crises around the world.

In Bangladesh, local aid leaders believed the Rohingya emergency would be an opportunity to implement these changes. A year later, they’re still wait-ing.

“We’re still hoping for the best, but, truly speaking, it is not happening,” said COAST’s Chowdhury, one of the most outspoken proponents of aid reform in Cox’s Bazar.

A December 2017 briefi ng by the Humanitarian Advisory Group esti-mated that local NGOs had seen only 4% of total aid funds directed toward the crisis – far short of the aid sector’s global commitments to boost local funding to 25%.

At the same time, only one local group has a leadership role in co-ordinating the various humanitarian sectors in the camps; out of 21 co-ordination posi-tions, just one is held by a local NGO – Mukti, a Cox’s Bazar-based group that co-leads the food security sector.

Luc Soenen, who co-ordinates water, sanitation, and shelter eff orts in Asia for ECHO, the European Commission’s aid arm, says the humanitarian response during the Rohingya crisis has been “Western-led and oriented”.

“It’s a shame,” he said. “All or most of the management of the response is by us. Local implementers… aren’t involved enough.”

Major international donors direct the bulk of aid funds through UN agencies or big international groups – and ECHO is no exception. EU rules mean that ECHO is only allowed to directly contract or-ganisations based in Europe, which rules out most local aid groups from the start.

“It seems like when the money comes from abroad, we give ourselves the right to manage it, to decide about it,” he said.

Some in the aid community say progress has been made in redress-ing the imbalance, but argue that the intense pressure created by the scale of last year’s Rohingya infl ux means that helping local groups build up skills and take on more responsibilities has taken a back seat.

Manuel Marques Pereira, the IOM’s emergency co-ordinator in Cox’s Bazar, said the organisation has helped train lo-cal groups on reducing disaster risks and upgrading shelters.

“IOM believes that this empowerment process is vital, but it is a slow process,” Pereira said, adding that the IOM had di-rected more than $4.5mn towards other aid groups, mostly Bangladeshi NGOs, over the past year.

Today, Bangladesh’s sprawling refugee camps are covered with the logos of donors and humanitarian groups: plas-tered onto the sides of clinics, makeshift schools, stockpiles of aid items, and boldly coloured signposts announcing donor-funded projects often miles away.

But in the early days of last year’s Rohingya exodus, only a handful of international agencies were working in the camps. As thousands, then tens of thousands of refugees surged into Bangladesh, it was local responders – volunteers from nearby communities, local NGOs and civil society groups, and Bangladeshi authorities – who fi rst rushed to help in large numbers.

And for Bangladeshis here, the refugee infl ow is not viewed as a temporary cri-sis, but as a long-term emergency that has played out over decades.

“We’re not only helping this time; we’ve helped since 1978,” said Syed Saliheen, a local interpreter at a clinic for pregnant Rohingya women run by COAST, referring to a previous mili-tary crackdown in Myanmar that sent an estimated 200,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.

“If we have only a little land and some tarpaulin, we give it to them for shelter,” he said. “Whatever we have, we give them. If we don’t have it, we try to raise money. Whenever something happens to them, it’s us who have to help.”

Locals like Saliheen still form the backbone of the response today. They are doctors, healthcare workers, teach-ers, social workers, interpreters – the local Chittagonian dialect spoken here is similar to the language spoken by the Rohingya.

They view themselves as the common thread throughout multiple refugee in-fl uxes, and expect to remain linked to the Rohingya long after staff at international aid agencies have moved on.

With the monsoon rain beating down on the roof, a Bangladeshi doc-tor in the clinic tries to communicate with a Rohingya patient. Unable to explain the medical terms, she turns to Saliheen.

When he fi rst started interpreting, Saliheen says he struggled with some of the terminology used in the clinic. The Rohingya word for pregnancy, hamil, came from Arabic rather than the Ben-gali dialect used in Cox’s Bazar.

“So I write the words down and talk to old Rohingya who know a bit of Bengali,” he says.

The clinic had earlier been staff ed by foreign doctors, but COAST soon hired its own staff – a situation made possible because of its local fi eld workers and their language skills.

“At the beginning, it was diffi cult for us, but now it’s OK,” Saliheen says. “We’ve learned.”

Rohingya crisis: Bangla aidgroups want more of a say

Rohingya women wait to be seen by a doctor at a clinic for pregnant women run by COAST, a local NGO.

How inclusive growth still eludes India

Inequality and lack of access to public goods and services has been the bane of Indian society for centuries. But never has it been as stark as it is today, with 10% of India’s richest families owning 56% of the total national income, accord-ing to the World Inequality Report.

But even more disturbing is the fact that this economic inequality is prevalent not only among the various states of the country, but also within a state itself. Intra- and inter-state variations are not just restricted to economic pa-rameters but are equally applicable to social indicators like proper nutrition, basic medical care, personal safety, water and sanitation, personal rights, to name just a few, collec-tively categorised under the Social Progress Index (SPI).

It only strengthens the belief that even after over 70 years of independence, inclusive growth has remained elusive, calling for a serious policy rethink in terms of redistri-bution of wealth, equal opportunities for all and proper distribution of goods and services in the country.

Take the case of a rich and progressive state like Mahar-ashtra with the greatest nominal GDP among all states. It too harbours a district like Nandurbar, which can easily be grouped with some of the poorest districts of the country.

For instance, the diff erence between the economic den-sity, which is the GDP per sq km as defi ned by the World Bank report of 2011, between Nandurbar and Pune is 317. While Pune has a rank of 39, Nandurbar is way down the ladder at 356 among all districts in the country.

The great divide within and among states in SPI too points to the urgent need for reforms in policy measures to put the house in order.

How to provide access to health and wellness to its ordinary citizens is something that succes-sive governments have struggled with, without fi nding a ready answer. Even a progressive district like Chennai in Tamil Nadu (ranked third in the SPI) suff ers from poor access to health

and wellness with a score of 49.6. Kancheepuram district in Tamil Nadu too has a poor record in terms of access to advanced education (36.8) despite ranked 14 on the SPI. It is equally true for the industrial district of Ludhiana in Punjab.

Setting up more and more primary health centres and local government hospitals with doctors from outside have not really helped. The hub-and-spoke model, where primary centres treat simple diseases and refer the more serious ones to multi-specialty hospitals, has failed to take off in India because of the absence of trained doctors in the districts and villages.

The Chinese model of barefoot doctors - local youths trained in basic healthcare services and servicing com-munity hospitals, and specialists taking care of the major hospitals - could be a ready solution.

Even high economic density and a decent SPI rank is not enough to lure top universities to a district. Nashik in Maharashtra is a case in point. It has an economic density of 110 and an SPI of 122, but still has a poor score of 32.2 on the issue of access to advanced education.

The reason for pointing out such stark contrasts is not just to highlight the miseries of various districts but to point out the massive diff erences among districts of the same state. Inequality breeds social tensions and hence constrains the growth of a nation. Hence, equity, equal opportunities for all, inclusiveness and well-being of all should be the government’s motto rather than having is-lands of affl uence in a sea of poverty.

Economic inequality is prevalent not only among the various states of the country, but also within a state itself

COMMENT


Physician burnout taking centre stage

Hurricanes at the ballot box

Live issues

By Linda CarrollReuters

The medical establishment may fi nally be coming to grips with the issue of physician burnout.

The evidence: two studies on the topic reported in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

One study found that nearly half of junior physicians were already having burnout symptoms at least one day a week. The other study underscored how hard it is to assess the problem.

After reviewing previous studies, researchers found huge variations in defi nitions of burnout and estimated rates among doctors, which ranged from 0 to 80%.

“With two lead articles in one of the most prominent medical journals in the world, it means that burnout is now being taken seriously by the medical mainstream,” said Dr Albert W Wu, an internist and professor of health policy & management at the Johns Hopkins

Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.

“It is being endorsed at an alarm-ing rate by physicians who range from trainees to seasoned veterans and it is accompanied by other disturbing cor-relates that include a high rate of suicidal ideation, regret about one’s job choice and an acknowledgement of not being one’s best self in practicing medicine,” Wu said.

“This represents a crisis in slow mo-tion.”

Doctors’ workloads have changed considerably over the years. Today they spend less time interacting with patients.

Instead, “physicians are spending a lot of time trying to get authorisations for treatment that they know their patients need and insurance companies won’t pay for,” Wu said.

“Insurance companies and others have discovered the way to get doctors to order fewer tests and medications is to make it a huge hassle to get them.”

This may partly explain why nearly 50% of young doctors in post-medical

school training programmes called residencies reported burnout at least one day a week.

And a large number felt they had made a mistake in choosing a subspe-cialty, such as pathology or anaesthesi-ology, or even medicine in general as a profession.

That study followed 3,588 physicians, who were surveyed during their last year of medical school and again in their second year of residency.

Along with a host of demographic questions, the doctors were asked to rate themselves on two statements: “I feel burned out from my work” and “I’ve become more callous towards people since I started this job.”

Those questions were designed to capture two of the three symptoms that fi t the classical defi nition of burnout: exhaustion and feelings of depersonali-sation.

The third symptom would be a low sense of personal accomplishment.

Residents were also asked two ques-tions designed to illuminate regrets they might have about their careers:

“If you could revisit your career choice would you choose to become a physician again?” and “If you could revisit your specialty choice, would you choose the same specialty again?”

Overall, 45% of residents reported at least one symptom of burnout at least once a week, while 14% reported career choice regret.

While once a week may not sound like a lot, physicians who feel burnout this often are more likely to report thinking about suicide, making a major medical error and wanting to leave medicine, said lead author Dr Lotte Dyrbye, who co-directs the physician well-being programme at the Mayo Clinic in Ro-chester, Minnesota.

“Burnout is very much a real thing,” Dyrbye said.

And it’s especially prevalent among physicians, Dyrbye said, noting that while doctors may have close to a 50% burnout rate, among other US workers the rate is under 30%.

Still, Dyrbye said, “We need more research in the fi eld with good attention to method.”

By Vinod ThomasSingapore

Hurricane Florence, which smashed into the southeast-ern United States last week, is the latest in a string of

extreme weather events that has raised expectations for disaster preparedness.

With big storms occurring more fre-quently, authorities worldwide are re-sponding with upgraded early-warning systems, better evacuation plans, and more aggressive sheltering strategies.

But the day is fast approaching when fi res, droughts, and storms exacerbated by global warming will dwarf our ability to respond.

The case for reducing carbon dioxide emissions – and slowing the rate of an-thropogenic warming – grows stronger with every new catastrophe.

The solution is clear: we must elect leaders who will take climate change seriously.

In the US, the next opportunity to do that will be the midterm congressional elections in November.

Three decades have passed since former Nasa scientist James Hansen fi rst warned “with a high degree of confi -dence” that human activity was making the planet hotter.

And yet, because too few people heeded his warnings then, everyone is

paying a price now.In the fi rst nine months of 2018,

the world has experienced a lifetime’s worth of “historic” weather events – from drought-fuelled forest fi res in the American West, Greece, and Sweden, to fl oods in Hawaii, southern India, and elsewhere in South Asia.

As Florence was tearing through the Carolinas, Typhoon Mangkhut was swamping the Philippines and southern China.

While Hansen’s warnings came when climate science was in its infancy, scientists today have connected the dots among CO2 emissions, climate change, and severe weather.

For example, researchers have linked global warming to extreme heat waves – such as the ones recently experienced in California, China, Japan, and South Korea.

Data have also tied the severity of hurricanes in the southern US to warmer waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas and other areas in 2017, brought 50 inches of rain in some places.

To be sure, disaster planning still saves lives.

In Houston, authorities were ready for Harvey in part because of lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.

That storm caused 1,833 deaths, while at least 88 were killed during Harvey.

The impact of lessons learned in India is even more striking.

In October 2013, residents of Odisha state were alerted early to the arrival of Cyclone Phailin.

By the time the storm made landfall, many people had already evacuated.

Although Phailin did claim 45 lives, a storm of similar magnitude that hit the same region 14 years earlier killed 10,000 people.

Still, emergency management eff orts will struggle to keep pace with the havoc wrought by climate change, owing to a dangerous disconnect between knowl-edge and action, even as the scientifi c evidence piles up.

For example, many economic advisers still consider climate-change solutions to be anti-growth rather than pro-growth – despite the fact that low-carbon solutions create new investment opportunities and jobs.

Policymakers are equally reluctant to champion meaningful changes – like carbon taxes or the elimination of fossil-fuel subsidies.

Leaders in most countries consider the status quo to be politically safer.

Even weather reports on television typically fail to mention climate change as an underlying cause of severe mete-orological events.

But the gap is most glaring at the policy level, particularly in the US.

With the international response to

climate change at a critical juncture, the Trump administration is putting the US economy on a path to higher CO2 emissions by reversing emissions limits for coal-fi red power plants, encourag-ing higher fossil-fuel production, and rolling back support for wind and solar power.

None of this makes economic sense.To make matters worse, the White

House’s proposed cuts to the National Weather Service and its loosening of en-vironmental and zoning regulations will further impede disaster management.

As the world’s largest CO2 emitter per capita, the US has a unique responsibil-ity to help solve the climate-change challenge.

So do American voters.When they go to the polls in Novem-

ber, they must consider the candidates’ policies towards climate change.

While domestic issues might be up-permost in voters’ minds, Harvey, Flor-ence, and other extreme weather events have made global warming a local issue and placed it squarely on the ballot. – Project Syndicate

Vinod Thomas, former Director General of Independent Evaluation at the World Bank, is a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore and author of Climate Change and Natural Disasters: Transforming Economies and Policies for a Sustainable Future.

Europe’s refugee scandalBy Gordon Brown London

It has long been known that the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos is plagued by overcrowding, unsanitary condi-

tions, and rampant violence, including riots that have left many injured.

But when aid workers reported in April that children as young as ten were attempting suicide, another tragic facet of the refugee crisis was highlighted: 30mn children around the world are currently displaced, many in appalling conditions.

The crisis is not just putting them in danger today; it is threatening to destroy their futures.

In the Moria camp, children live in fear.

Recent riots have displaced hundreds of camp residents and badly injured several.

This is traumatising for children who are with their families, but even more so for the many who are unaccompanied.

Making matters worse, many children lack even basic shelter, with thousands of families crammed into cheap donated tents that often aren’t even waterproof.

Last winter, three people died of car-bon monoxide poisoning while trying to stay warm.

But the challenges these children face extend far beyond the short term.

Even if refugee children eventually manage to get somewhere safe, their prospects are bleak, because most will never have a chance to go to school – a reality that will severely undermine their ability to fi nd gainful employment.

At last count, there were 1,729 children in Moria, more than 1,000 of whom are of school age.

The number recently increased as a huge surge in boat landings brought

834 new arrivals to the camp last week alone.

None attends public school, and the Greek government has yet to allow them access to any of the formal education programmes that were established for asylum seekers.

The best option available to Moria’s refugee children are cramped informal education centres, where high teacher turnover is a serious problem.

Yet not even this option is avail-able to all, as the existing centres can

provide education to only 500 children per day – less than half the school-age population.

And that number may be set to fall: the largest informal education centre run by Unicef, is set to close in Decem-ber, because the €30,000 ($34,900) per month needed to operate it cannot be found.

But there may be hope for refugees stuck in Moria.

Greek offi cials have given the Min-istry of Migration 30 days to improve

conditions in the camp or close it down.The move is long overdue.This is not to diminish the momen-

tous challenge Greece faces.Already struggling under the weight

of austerity, the country has had to cope with 1.1mn refugee arrivals since 2014, and hundreds more refugees continue to arrive on the shores of Lesbos every day.

This has been devastating for the small island, whose tourist industry has been decimated.

With the rest of the European Union eff ectively closed to refugees in Greece, camps on the mainland have fi lled up.

But Moria is still operating at three-four times its offi cial capacity.

The European Commission has allo-cated more than €1.5bn to Greece since 2015 to manage the refugee crisis and says that additional emergency support is on off er.

Where exactly past funds have gone is now the subject of searching ques-tions by Sebastian Leape, a volunteer

who spent recent weeks in the camp.Inadequate support for refugees is

not just a problem in Greece, with refu-gee camps in many countries having come under scrutiny for poor condi-tions.

As United Nations High Commis-sioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has acknowledged, this includes a dearth of educational opportunities.

Fewer than half of school-age refugee children worldwide attend school; not even one in four make it to secondary school; and under 1% go on to pursue a higher education.

Countries where there are large populations of refugees need enough funding to enable them to give refugee children access to local schools.

The Education Cannot Wait fund was established to close the education-fi nancing gap for such children.

Led by Yasmine Sherif, the fund co-ordinates with the UN and its humani-tarian agencies, both fi nancially and organisationally, to ensure that every refugee boy and girl has the opportunity to get an education.

Long-term educational and employ-ment needs have historically been undervalued in humanitarian planning.

But, as much as refugees need proper food, shelter, and healthcare today, they also need the knowledge and tools to build new lives and contribute to soci-ety tomorrow, whether in their home country or in a new one.

It is in the best interest of all of us to ensure that they gain the skills they need. – Project Syndicate

Gordon Brown, former prime min-ister and Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, is United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Oppor-tunity. He chairs the Advisory Board of the Catalyst Foundation.

Many children lack even basic shelter, with thousands of families crammed into cheap donated tents that often aren’t even waterproof.

WARNINGInshore : Expected poor vis-

ibility at places by early morning

Offshore : NilWEATHERInshore : Misty to foggy at places

by early morning, becomes hot and rela-tively humid daytime. Humid by night.

Offshore : Misty at times WINDInshore : Northeasterly-North-

westerly 05-15 KT

Offshrore : Northwesterly-North-easterly 03-13 KT

Visibility : 4-8/2 KM Offshore : 1-3 FT

TODAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

Maximum Temperature : 400c

Minimum Temperature : 320c





BaghdadKuwait CityManamaMuscat Tehran

AthensBeirut BangkokBerlinCairoCape TownColomboDhakaHong KongIstanbulJakartaKarachiLondonManilaMoscowNew DelhiNew YorkParisSao PauloSeoulSingaporeSydneyTokyo

Weather

today

Sunny

Sunny

Sunny

Sunny

Sunny

Max/min

43/24

43/30

38/31

33/27

29/19

Weather

tomorrow

Sunny

Sunny

Sunny

Sunny

P Cloudy

Max/min

43/26

45/30

38/31

32/27

28/18

Around the region

Around the world

Max/min

29/21

29/25

33/26

29/18

34/22

15/09

29/25

33/27

28/24

26/21

33/25

30/26

21/11

32/26

23/11

36/25

23/18

27/17

26/18

21/18

31/25

16/08

24/20

Weather

today

Sunny

M Sunny

S T Storms

M Sunny

Sunny

Sunny

T Storm

T Storm

P Cloudy

Sunny

S T Storms

P Cloudy

Cloudy

T Storm

Sunny

Sunny

P Cloudy

P Cloudy

S T Storms

Rain

S T Storms

S Showers

Cloudy

Max/min

30/19

29/25

32/26

31/11

34/23

17/11

28/25

33/26

28/24

26/19

33/25

32/26

17/09

31/25

25/13

32/25

26/21

19/10

24/17

22/16

30/24

19/09

23/17

Weather

tomorrow

Sunny

M Sunny

S T Storms

Rain

Sunny

M Sunny

T Storm

S T Storms

M Sunny

P Cloudy

S T Storms

P Cloudy

Cloudy

S T Storms

Sunny

S T Storms

Cloudy

Rain

P Cloudy

Rain

T Storm

Sunny

Rain

Fisherman's forecast

Three-day forecast


QATAR

Nepal eyes Qatari investments in energy, tourismBy Peter AlagosBusiness Reporter

Nepal is currently con-ducting an investment programme to study the

feasibility of developing projects in the sectors of hydropower and tourism. This aims to infuse Qa-tari investments in these projects, said ambassador Ramesh Prasad Koirala.

“India and China are large mar-kets and Nepal is situated between these two countries, presenting a

lot of opportunities, especially in the tourism sector,” Koirala told Gulf Times on the sidelines of Ne-pal’s National Day celebrations held yesterday in Doha.

According to Koirala, Qatar Airways and Hamad Internation-al Airport “are also interested” in developing tourism-related projects with the government of Nepal in the future. To further develop and enhance bilateral, trade and economic relations with Qatar, the ambassador said Ne-pal is expected to send high-level delegations to the country within

the year. “High-level dignitar-ies will be visiting Qatar soon to hold talks to deepen ties between the two countries. The focus of the discussions would be how to develop mutual co-operation and benefi ts,” Koirala pointed out.

The investment programme in Nepal also aims to bring busi-ness delegations that would visit both countries and explore the opportunities to develop projects in specifi c sectors, not only in clean energy and tourism, but also in areas such as agriculture, which could help address Qatar’s

food security initiatives, Koirala stressed. Citing Nepal’s “very good climate,” Koirala said Nepal is looking to export “a wide va-riety” of organic farm produce to Qatar. Next month, the ambassa-dor said a Nepalese trade delega-tion will visit Qatar to meet with their Qatari counterparts and to showcase products from Nepal.

“We plan to bring in economic experts from Nepal to highlight the investment opportunities in Nepal. In the area of hydropower, this is one of the cleanest forms of energy. I think we are the second

largest country in the world after Brazil to develop hydropower,” the ambassador said. Koirala also reiterated Nepal’s plans to export mineral water to Qatar, among other destinations worldwide. He said after the rainy season in Nepal, investors from Qatar will

visit the country to inspect and collect water samples from natu-ral sources by the end of October. “The Himalayas is a mountainous area that is replete with sources of pure water. Right now, experts in Nepal are testing the water’s natural mineral content because

it must comply with GCC stand-ards. Once all these have been fi -nalised, then we could expect ex-port to start,” he said, adding that Nepal is also looking supply min-eral water to its local market and to export to countries like India and other international markets.

HE the Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Aff airs Dr Issa Saad al-Jafali al-Nuaimi, HE Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs Dr Ahmed bin Hassan al-Hammadi, Ministry of Foreign Aff airs protocol director Ibrahim Fakhroo, and Nepal ambassador Ramesh Prasad Koirala during the cake-cutting ceremony to commemorate Nepal National Day held yesterday in Doha. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil

Katara opens four unique, impressive exhibitionsKatara – the Cultural Vil-

lage opened four unique exhibitions by Syrian,

Russian, and Qatari artists on Tuesday, in the presence of sen-ior Katara offi cials, diplomats and art enthusiasts. Organised in co-operation with the Syrian embassy in Doha, the opening of the ‘We Love Life’ exhibition by Syrian artist Akram Sweidan at Building 19 was graced by Ka-tara’s deputy general manager for operations Ahmed Abdul Rah-man al-Sayed and Syrian ambas-sador Nizar al-Haraki.

The envoy highlighted Swei-dan’s “artistic experience in con-verting bombs and shells into art objects.”

While saying the exhibition is a message of life and peace, the envoy cited the challenges faced by the artist in pursuing his pas-sion such as imprisonment and deportation to the north. “He is still moving ahead with his ar-tistic project to spread the values

of life, peace, truth and beauty,” said al-Haraki, who thanked Ka-tara stressing that “they are the partners of every artist in its love for life and art”.

Al-Sayed said the exhibition is in harmony with the message of peace and life through art and creativity that Katara promotes, citing “the artist’s brilliant skill and intelligence in transforming shells into artworks.” The audi-ence also watched a documenta-ry fi lm explaining the artist’s way of performing his works.

Katara’s human resources de-partment manager Saif Saeed al-Dosari and Katara Art Centre manager Tariq al-Jaidah led the opening of the ‘National Decla-ration’ exhibition by artist Shouq al-Mana at Building 5. “I try to focus through my artwork on the emotional state and national feelings which prevailed before the imposition of the blockade on Qatar in June 2017,” the artist said.

“It includes references to my strong relationship with poetry and recognition of the strong leadership of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and the symbol that he represents,” al-Mana added.

In the same building, the ‘Journey from North to South’ exhibition by Russian artist Mar-ia Ozianikova was also opened for the fi rst time in Qatar and coincides with the celebration of the Qatar Russia Year of Culture 2018.

According to Katara, the artist highlighted her interest in tradi-tional Qatari heritage and land-scapes in her artworks. In addi-tion, the opening of the Mashhad exhibition at Katara Art Centre’s Building 5, as a part of the “Minus 40” project of Al-Markhia Gal-lery, featured the works of Syrian artists Shadi Abu Saada and Alaa Abu Shahin, which present vari-ous artistic experiences from oil painting to sculpture.

More exhibitions Katara is set to host three new

exhibitions from today. An ex-hibition, ‘Athar N’, featuring the works of Qatari artists Muna al-Bader, Fatima al-Nuaimy and Jawahir al-Mannai will be held in Building 22 from today until Oc-tober 13.

Building 19 will also host an art exhibition, titled ‘Re-Action’, highlighting the works of a group of Sudanese artists from today. It continues until October 10.

From Japan, Ayumi Endo will illustrate her vision of human-ity through her paintings, which will be on display in Building 19 from today until September 29. She says her artworks can cross all linguistic barriers, according to a statement by Katara.

All these exhibitions indicate diff erent creative art trends and feature a unique style, which is in line with Katara’s vision to intro-duce and promote fi ne arts of all types, the statement adds.

Ahmed Abdul Rahman al-Sayed and Syrian ambassador Nizar al-Haraki at the ‘We Love Life’ exhibition at Katara—the Cultural Village.

QU architecture department receives NAAB accreditation

Qatar University’s Col-lege of Engineering (QU-CENG) Depart-

ment of Architecture and Urban Planning (DAUP) has received the accreditation of the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) for the first time and for six years.

CENG acting dean Prof Ab-delmagid Hammuda told a press conference yesterday, “NAAB accreditation of CENG Architecture Programme comes in line with the expan-sion of the number of college programmes and students.

NAAB Accreditation was achieved after CENG received last year the academic ac-creditation of seven of its programmes from the Board

of Accreditation of Engineer-ing and Technology, the world leader in quality assurance and innovation in applied science, engineering, for six years.”

“Academic accreditation is one of the most impor-tant achievements of CENG through the concerted ef-forts of all CENG members in co-ordination with industrial partners to ensure that stu-dents get high education of international standards,” he concluded.

DAUP head Dr Fodil Fadli said, “Academic accredita-tion, which is one of the most important institutions of the international architectural education, is an important indicator of the quality of education provided by DAUP

to support industry and com-munity.” “NAAB enhances DAUP commitment to lift up department’s responsibility to preserve this distinguished educational level, in order to maintain the confidence of the public and private sectors, and the scientific research con-ducted by the DAUP members in co-operation with several local and international insti-tutions,” he added.

QU is committed to provid-ing high-quality education in areas of national priority. With 86 specialisations at the undergraduate and gradu-ate levels, QU offers the wid-est range of academic pro-grammes in Qatar tailoring them to meet the needs of Qa-tari society. QU architecture department gets accreditation of National Architectural Accrediting Board.

Msheireb Museums Friends graduates new tour guides

A group of tour museum guides and volunteers has graduated from Msheireb Museums’ one-week workshop, which forms part of the ‘Msheireb Museums Friends programme,’ it was announced. The graduates, all from the Qatar Youth Hostel Centre and aged between 20 and 26 years, completed both theoretical and practical training. Lessons focused on how to guide visitors and tourists throughout the museums and other tourist sites, and professionally inform and describe Qatar’s rich heritage and history. “The ceremony reiterates the role that Msheireb Museums play in supporting tourism in Qatar through training tour guides,” Msheireb Museums’ director

Hafez Ali said. Abdul Rahman Mohamed al-Hajri, director of the Department of Youth Aff airs, said the programme contributes in raising and developing the skills of the participants in the field of arts and cultural heritage. “This will in turn enhance the image of Qatari society and national identity,” he said, stressing that the readiness of the Ministry of Culture and Sports to continue its collaboration with Msheireb Museums to serve the youth of Qatar support cultural tourism and promote Qatar identity.The management of Qatar Youth Hostel Centre thanked Msheireb Museums for training their youth on the basic skills to be a successful tour guide. Launched last year, ‘Msheireb

Museums Friends’ is a mutually-beneficial volunteer programme that empowers teachers and educational leaders to become tour guides in the museums and enhance their skills to lead student tours. The programme will also enable students to enhance their leadership skills while introducing the community to the country’s rich culture. Established to create cultural ambassadors, Msheireb Museums Friends trains a number of teachers and leaders from a wide range of educational organisations, youth associations, and with students, helping to develop their leadership skills and so they can get the most out of the Msheireb Museum’s four historic cultural houses.

One group of tour museum guides and volunteers who completed Msheireb Museums’ one-week workshop.

Another group of tour museum guides and volunteers who completed the training.

Qatar's budget may return to healthy surplus in 2019: QNB

Documents