Amir exchangesEid greetingswith ErdoganHis Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani yesterday exchanged greetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the occasion of Eid al-Adha during a telephone conversation.

In brief

GULF TIMES

published in

QATAR

since 1978

WEDNESDAY Vol. XXXIX No. 10918

August 22, 2018Dhul-Hijja 11, 1439 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

China shipowners stop hauling Iran oil as US sanctions near

BUSINESS | Page 1 SPORT | Page 1

Coach Kotze plotting Samba’s path to world title

Premier League gets tough with Saudi piracyBy Anthony HarwoodLondon Correspondent

The Premier League yesterday announced it was taking legal action against a Saudi Arabian

pirate station that is illegally broad-casting its matches.

All 20 matches from the opening two weekends of the new season have been shown on the rogue channel, beoutQ, which is broadcast via the satellite pro-vider Arabsat.

In a hard-hitting statement, the

Premier League said yesterday: “The Premier League takes piracy in all its forms extremely seriously and is com-mitted to working with its broadcast partners and regulatory authorities in territories around the world to stop the non-authorised exploitation of its content.

“As such, the Premier League has ap-pointed legal counsel in Saudi Arabia to begin the process of bringing legal ac-tion against the parties involved in this piracy.”

Arabsat is owned by the Saudi gov-ernment, which has denied being be-

hind the piracy, blaming Cuba and Co-lombia instead.

Last week, Qatar-based beIN Sports, which owns exclusive rights to the Pre-mier League in the Mena (Middle East and North Africa) region, produced ev-idence to show that the pirate channel is being broadcast by the Riyadh-based provider.

The Premier League statement added, “The Premier League has seen compelling evidence demonstrat-ing ‘beoutQ’ is a highly sophisticated pirate operation, which has used the services of satellite provider Arabsat

to distribute the illegal content.”The announcement followed a deci-

sion last week by the Premier League and La Ligue to write to the European Com-mission about beoutQ so pressure can be brought to bear on the Saudi authorities.

beoutQ’s illegal transmissions of major European leagues – as well as the Champions League, World Cup and Formula 1 - began last season after a diplomatic row broke out between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In June 2017, a Saudi-led alliance led a diplomatic and trade boycott of Qatar, which in-cluded banning the sale of beIN satel-

lite decoder boxes in the kingdom.beoutQ found a way of stealing the

beIN feed, superimposing its own logo over the beIN one.

In January, the Association for the Protection of Sporting Programmes, a grouping of broadcasters, the profes-sional leagues and the sports’ federal bodies, met to work out how to com-bat the threat of piracy which has been described by UEFA as a threat to the future of European football.

Didier Quillot, the French LFP (Ligue de Football Professionnel) ex-ecutive director-general, said: “Pirate

broadcasts attack directly at the eco-nomic heart of the sport and we must unite in our struggle against this prac-tice.”

Sophie Jordan, executive director of Legal Aff airs at beIN Media Group, added: “It is time for Arabsat to switch off the pirate transmissions it has sup-ported for almost a year; it is time for Arabsat to be made accountable for facilitating the largest pay TV piracy organisation in the history of Pay-TV.”

beIN Sports has exclusive rights to show the Premier League in the Mena region for the next three seasons.

Amir attends Eid prayer,receives well-wishersQNADoha

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani performed Eid al-Adha prayer

along with a group of loyal citizens at Al Wajbah praying area yesterday morning.

His Highness the Personal Repre-sentative of the Amir Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Khalifa al-Thani and HE Sheikh Jassim bin Kha-lifa al-Thani took part in the prayer.

It was also attended by a number of sheikhs, ministers and members of dip-lomatic corps in addition to citizens.

HE Sheikh Dr Thaqeel Sayer al-Sham-mari, judge at the Court of Cassation and member of the Supreme Judiciary Coun-cil, who led the prayer, delivered the Eid sermon in which he urged worshippers to ponder the deep meanings of Eid al-Adha, the importance performing the Eid prayer because it is a ritual of Islam.

He also called for using this occa-sion to increase acts of worship, do good deeds and worship Allah the Almighty and following the Sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him).

In the sermon, Dr al-Shammari high-lighted the importance of the day of sac-rifi ce, which was observed yesterday.

He also said that Islam is a religion of love and peace. “This urges us to meet the sense of belonging to the nation and that the nation’s sons strive to meet its interests and protect it from all evils through co-operation between all on the basis of good governance that is based on justice and love for all, as well as on the basis of promoting unity and love and staying away from intolerance.”

Scores of worshippers performed the Eid prayer in mosques and praying areas across the country. Later in the morning, His Highness the Amir received well-wishers on the advent of Eid al-Adha at Al Wajbah Palace.

The Amir received HE the Prime Min-ister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Ab-dullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, and sheikhs, ministers, ministries’ un-dersecretaries, Advisory Council mem-bers and citizens.

The Amir also received heads of diplo-matic missions accredited to the country as well as army and police offi cers, and heads of national institutions and de-partments. The well-wishers expressed their greetings and congratulations to the Amir on the blessed occasion, pray-ing for its return with good and blessings for the Qatari people and the Arab and Muslim nations.

His Highness the Personal Represent-ative of the Amir Sheikh Jassim bin Ha-mad al-Thani attended the receptions along with His Highness Sheikh Abdul-lah bin Khalifa al-Thani, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al-Thani and HE Sheikh Jassim bin Khalifa al-Thani.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani performs Eid al-Adha prayer yesterday.

Joy, piety mark festivitiesBy Ayman AdlyStaff Reporter

Thousands of believers turned up in large numbers to perform the Eid al-Adha prayer at designat-

ed prayer yards and mosques around the country early yesterday.

The Eid holidays began in an atmos-

phere of joy, piety and camaraderie, with the participation of people from all walks of life.

On their part, the authorities had made the necessary arrangements to ensure that people were able to cele-brate the occasion without any glitch-es.

Traffi c patrols controlled the en-try and exit points at key locations to

maintain smooth vehicular fl ow. The streets saw heavy traffi c early in the morning as people started arriving for the Eid prayer, many of them wearing new clothes for the occasion. Many children also accompanied their par-ents for the prayer.

As the prayer concluded, people started greeting each other and wish-ing Eid Mubarak. To Page 2

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani receives well-wishers who came to greet him on the occasion of Eid al-Adha. Pages 2, 3, 16

AMERICA | Verdict

Trump aide Manafort guilty of bank fraudFormer Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty yesterday on eight charges of tax and bank fraud and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts, after a jury said it could not reach consensus on the other 10 charges against him. The jury, after almost four days of deliberations, found Manafort guilty of two of nine bank fraud charges, all five tax fraud charges he faced and one of four charges of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. Judge T S Ellis declared a mistrial on 10 of the 18 counts, after the jury told him it could not reach a verdict on those charges.

AMERICA | Entertainment

Danny Boyle out as next Bond movie director Acclaimed British director Danny Boyle has pulled out of the latest James Bond movie due to “creative diff erences,” the producers of the multi-million dollar film franchise said yesterday. “Michael G Wilson, Barbara Broccoli and Daniel Craig today announced that due to creative diff erences Danny Boyle has decided to no longer direct Bond 25,” said a statement on the off icial 007 website and Twitter account. The tweet gave no details of the diff erences and no information on who would take over from Boyle, or whether production on the 25th film in the MGM spy franchise would be delayed.

INDIA | Space

Scientists confi rm ice exists at Moon’s poles Scientists said yesterday they have confirmed the existence of ice on the Moon’s surface for the first time, a discovery that could one day help humans survive there. The ice mainly lies in the frigid shadows of craters at the lunar poles, and was detected using instruments that flew on the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, launched in 2008 by the Indian Space Research Organisation.

INDIA | Tragedy

Kerala seeks $1.4bn loan for reconstructionIndia’s flood-ravaged Kerala state will seek to borrow more than Rs100bn ($1.4bn) to finance reconstruction work after a disaster that has claimed nearly 400 lives, its chief minister said yesterday. Page 10

QATAR

Gulf Times Wednesday, August 22, 20182

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani performed Eid al-Adha prayer along with sheikhs, ministers, members of diplomatic corps and citizens at Al Wajbah grounds yesterday morning. Following the prayers, the Amir received scores of well-wishers, including HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, sheikhs, ministers, ministries’ undersecretaries, Advisory Council members, and citizens. The Amir also received the heads of diplomatic missions accredited to Qatar as well as army and police off icers, and heads of national institutions and departments. Page 16

Amir performs Eid prayer

HGH sees drop in emergency cases on fi rst day of Eid

The Emergency Depart-ment at Hamad Medi-cal Corporation (HMC)’s

Hamad General Hospital (HGH) received a total of 449 emer-gency cases from 6am until 6pm yesterday, the fi rst day of Eid al-Adha.

This marked a decrease from last year, when more than 500 cases were reported on the same day, according to HMC offi cials.

Dr Yousif Mohamed Eltayeb, accident and emergency medi-cine consultant at HGH, said it appears that HMC’s campaign in the run-up to Eid, including tips on food intake, is yielding the desired results.

A majority of the cases re-ported yesterday were routine in nature.

Most of the patients were giv-en treatment and sent back on the same day.

There were also around 54 gastroenteritis cases, 15 cardiac cases and four traffi c accident cases.

HMC offi cials confi rmed that the emergency cases reported were mostly minor ones and not many critical cases had been re-ported so far.

“This year, there has been no increase in the number of emer-gency cases compared to 2017.

In fact, fewer emergency cases were reported at HGH yesterday than on the fi rst day of Eid al-Adha in 2017, when more than 500 cases were recorded.

Our campaign on prepara-tions for Eid and moderation in food intake is paying off

well,” Dr Eltayeb told Gulf Times.

“We had advised people to avoid high-calorie meals that are rich in fats and carbohydrates.

We had also encouraged par-ents to closely observe their kids during indoor as well as outdoor activities.

They must take enough safety measures to prevent children from falling and getting injured in crowded places,” he explained. “We had also advised motorists to be very cautious while driving, es-pecially in congested areas, as well as in places where Eid celebrations are going on.”

In the coming days too, Dr Eltayeb said people must re-frain from overeating, especially items with meat.

“This can prevent gastroin-testinal disorders and intestinal dysplasia and indigestion.

They should also follow healthy steps when preparing food and eating it.

Do not eat fatty meals late in the evening and the last meal should be taken at least two hours before sleep,” he ad-vised.

By Joseph Varghese Staff Reporter

Dr Yousif Mohamed Eltayeb

Joy, piety mark Eid al-Adha festivities in QatarFrom Page 1While some headed home to enjoy family

gatherings or visit friends, others went to the Doha Central Market - and other designated places in the country - to buy and slaughter the sacrifi cial sheep.

Malls and other venues, such as Katara - the Cultural Village and the Summer Entertainment City at Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre, which are hosting a wide range of special shows and activities for Eid, also saw large crowds as the day progressed. Besides, many people also visited beaches and parks around Qatar.

With the authorities taking the neces-sary steps to ensure that the process went off smoothly, livestock selling points and slaugh-terhouses in Doha and beyond saw hectic ac-tivity from the morning. Traffi c patrols also controlled the exit and entry points around the

Doha Central Market and abattoirs to prevent congestion.

Mohamed Rashid al-Marri, head of the health control and meat health unit at the Doha Central Market, said the slaughtering process was well-organised and conducted in accord-ance with the plans laid down by Doha Mu-nicipality in co-operation with Widam Food Company. The aim was to facilitate and ease the operations for all customers and save their ef-fort and time.

Accordingly, around 100 butchers were kept on duty to ensure the speedy delivery of the re-quired services. Customer numbers were given out from 5am and the slaughterhouses worked to full capacity.

He added that the entire process is super-vised by veterinarians until the meat is deliv-ered to the customer, making sure that all the

necessary health checks have been conducted.Meanwhile, Abdullah al-Sulaiti, acting head

of the Health Control Section at Doha Munici-pality, said some 3,600 sacrifi cial sheep had been slaughtered so far at abattoirs of the Cen-tral Market. He also noted that 45 camels and cows had been slaughtered there.

A team of 25 veterinarians was present at the slaughterhouses to follow up on and su-pervise the progress of work at its various stages. Accordingly, 26 sheep (full) carcasses were destroyed after being found unfit for human consumption, the Ministry of Mu-nicipality and Environment said in a state-ment yesterday. No cow or camel carcass was destroyed.

Al-Sulaiti said a certifi cate is issued to the buyers of animals whose carcasses are de-stroyed in order to get the same replaced with new, healthy ones from the point of sale.

He said that four slaughterhouses were oper-

ated, including the ones for cows and camels, to cater to the huge demand. Priority is given to individuals wishing to have their sheep slaugh-tered in the morning while companies were mostly allotted the evening shift. Proper co-or-dination was maintained with Widam to secure an adequate workforce for such tasks.

In addition, an ambulance was deployed near the site to handle any health emergency, if re-quired. Also, a reserve water tank and electric-ity generator were provided in case of any dis-ruption in supply.

Regarding health control at food establish-ments within Doha Municipality areas dur-ing the Eid holidays, he stressed that sudden inspection tours were being conducted at places such as public kitchens, which receive a large number of orders to prepare food for family gatherings during this season.

Eid events at Katara enthral huge crowds

The first day of Eid al-Adha celebrations at Katara – the Cultural

Village yesterday attracted thousands of visitors, featur-ing an array of entertainment shows, a gift-distribution ac-tivity and a spectacular fire-works display.

A musical band from the Police Training Institute enthralled the crowd with its presentation during the opening salvo – a much-awaited special parade at Katara Esplanade from 8.15pm.

“I, my wife and children, love to watch these kinds of shows, and we have been anticipat-ing the parade and fi reworks display during the Eid al-Adha celebrations at Katara,” said Puneeth, an Asian expatriate, adding that they prefer to spend the holidays at the cultural vil-lage.

After the show, his two daughters and other children received Eid gifts from Katara staff .

Katara also organised com-petitions and fun activities for children at the amphitheatre, which drew a large number of spectators who took videos and photographs of the perform-ances.

Eateries at Katara off ered a variety of food and beverage at the event, apart from the com-plimentary bottled water and

refreshments provided by the Cultural Village.

After the last live perform-ance by the Police Training Institute’s musical band, the celebration concluded with a colourful fi reworks display at 9.45pm, which was also wit-nessed by a large number of spectators along the Doha Cor-niche and Museum of Islamic Art.

Besides the performanc-es at the esplanade, the Eid celebrations at Katara also feature a number of exhibi-tions taking place in different buildings.

Katara noted that resi-dents in Qatar will have the chance to see artworks by local and international art-ists at three of its exhibi-tions, open to the public from 10am to 10pm.

These are ‘The Colour Bar’, which showcases paintings and art installations of popular anime cartoon characters by six Qatari artists (Building 19); ‘Sajaya’ (simplicity) displays 24 Arabic calligraphy works of Turkish calligrapher Zaki al-Hashemi, highlighting the Arab and Islamic heritage (Building 18); and the ‘The Chant of Sta-bility’ by Qatari artist Maryam al-Mulla (Building 22), a mural portraying the unjust blockade of Qatar.

According to the organis-ers, artists have been show-casing their works at Katara, helping further contribute to the vibrant art scene in the country.

By Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

Children receive Eid gifts as part of the celebrations at Katara. PICTURE: Nasar T K

The dazzling fireworks display at Katara. (Supplied picture)

There was hectic activity at the Doha Central Market yesterday, with people turning up in large numbers to buy sacrificial animals and get them slaughtered at abattoirs. PICTURE: Nasar T K

QATAR/REGION/ARAB WORLD3Gulf Times

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Aff airs Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah yesterday performed the Eid al-Adha prayer at the Qatar Armed Forces (QAF) General Command prayer hall. HE the Chief of Staff of the Qatar Armed Forces Major General (Pilot) Ghanem bin Shaheen al-Ghanem, a number of senior army off icers and other QAF personnel also performed the prayer.

Defence minister performs Eid prayer

Malls around the country are hosting special activities and shows as part of the Eid al-Adha celebrations. Among these the Ben 10 activation at Doha Festival City (DHFC), held in partnership with Cartoon Network, which attracted both children and adults yesterday. The offering features an array of activities and games to enjoy, including arts and crafts and an augmented reality plat-form. DHFC is also hosting the Ben 10 Live Show daily. Meanwhile, Lagoona Mall drew large crowds with its ‘Sleeping Beauty’ show and the Roaming Robots yesterday. PICTURES: Shemeer Rasheed and Noushad Thekkayil

Festive fervour at malls

People turned up in large numbers at mosques and prayer yards early yesterday for the Eid al-Adha prayer. The prayer was followed by people of all ages and from different walks of life exchanging ‘Eid Mubarak’ greetings. PICTURES: Noushad Thekkayil and Shemeer Rasheed

A day of piety

QRCS announces emergency aid for quake-hit LombokQNADoha

Qatar Red Crescent (QRCS) has announced that it will provide

emergency assistance to those affected by the recent earth-quake in the Indonesian is-land of Lombok at a cost of $200,000.

The QRC said the assistance is to provide non-food relief items, which include a shelter package, such as plastic sheets, blankets, mosquito nets and water-saving containers.

The assistance also includes the provision of health services of first aid, personal hygiene and awareness packages for the benefit of 700 affected fami-lies.

On August 5, the Qatar Red Crescent launched the Emer-gency Information Manage-ment Centre to follow up on the latest developments of the earthquake and is in contact with the partners of the Inter-national Movement and the Na-tional Assembly in Indonesia to follow up on the situation.

The Lombok Island has been hit by more than 30 earth-quakes since late July, in ad-dition to hundreds of after-shocks that left 477 dead, more than 7,000 wounded and some 415,000 displaced people.

The earthquakes also de-stroyed more than 32,000 buildings, as well as causing severe damage to roads and bridges, as well as power cuts and damage to communication networks.

Kalyan Jewellers staff ers contribute over QR522,000 to Kerala relief fund

Kalyan Jewellers has an-nounced that its em-ployees will contribute

over QR522,000, equivalent to around Rs1 crore, to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) in view of the fl oods in the southern Indian state of Kerala.

More than 8,000 employ-ees working across Kalyan Jewellers showrooms and My Kalyan outlets in the Mid-dle East and India raised this amount by contributing one day’s salary towards flood relief and rehabilitation, the jeweller said in a press state-

ment. The cheque will be handed over to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan by employee representatives of Kalyan Jewellers in Thiru-vananthapuram.

T S Kalyanaraman, chair-man and managing direc-tor of Kalyan Jewellers, said: “Kerala is going though one of the most testing phases in its history, with floods and landslides claiming lives and homes. Our employees have volunteered to contribute one day’s salary towards the CM-DRF. I express my gratitude to my team and join them in

prayers and sincerely hope that normalcy returns to the state, quickly.”

Earlier this month, the Kalyan Jewellers management had contributed a sum of over AED522,000 towards flood relief initiatives. Apart from monetary support, Kalyan’s team was also actively in-volved in ground level relief activities across the state, the statement noted. Some Kaly-an showrooms are also func-tioning as collection points for ‘Home Re-Entry’ kits, which are being distributed in Kerala.

Direct fl ights from Doha to Kochi may resume on Aug 26

Direct fl ights from Doha to Kochi may resume on August 26 as the Kerala

airport plans to reopen that day.The airport owner Cochin

International Airport Limited (CIAL) yesterday said, “We hope that we can resume operations on August 26 as announced earlier.”

Kerala’s largest airport at Nedumbassery near Kochi was shut down on August 15 due to heavy rain and fl oods, which caused the runway, taxiway and apron to be submerged.

It was initially slated to

resume operations at 2pm on August 18, but owing to the se-verity of the fl oods, it was de-ferred to August 26.

Qatar Airways and Indian car-riers – Air India Express, Jet Air-ways and IndiGo operate direct fl ights between Doha and Kochi.

Qatar Airways has already re-routed its fl ights - QR 516 and QR 517 between Doha and Ko-chi (Nedumbassery) to Thiru-vananthapuram International Airport until August 25.

Air India Express has al-ready diverted its Kochi fl ights

to Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.

Thousands of Qatar residents from central Kerala have been relying on the Nedumbassery airport to fl y to Doha. Doha, which also provides excellent connectivity to the three in-ternational airports in Kerala – Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode, has been a pop-ular transit point for thousands of Malayalis living in North America and Europe besides the Middle East.

CIAL said fl ood waters have

completely drained off its runway, taxiway and parking bays. It also stated milling work on the runway will be completed in two days. It said cleaning work inside the ter-minals is in progress and re-con-struction work has already begun.

“To ensure utmost safe-ty, all runway lights (almost 800 of them) have to be re-moved, tested and refi tted. Another challenge is the re-construction of the fl ood-hit perimeter wall. We have lost al-most 2,600 metres of the wall,” a CIAL update said yesterday.

Inquiry into killing of Palestinian teensReuters Jerusalem

Israel’s military said yesterday it would launch a criminal in-vestigation into two incidents

in which its troops shot dead Pal-estinian teenagers taking part in protests along the Gaza border.

The inquiry into the deaths of Abed Nabi, 18, on March 30, and 15-year-old Othman Helles on July 13 was the fi rst announced by the military into its use of lethal force in the border demonstra-tions that began fi ve months ago.

At least 170 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers during the weekly protests, drawing international criticism

of Israel.One Israeli soldier has been killed by a Gaza sniper.

Protests have included at-tempts to breach Israel’s security fence along the frontier with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. There was no immediate comment by Palestinian offi cials in the oc-cupied West Bank or in Gaza, where celebrations for the holi-day of Eid al-Adha have begun.

But Nabi’s father, Bahjat, said the soldier who shot his son should stand trial. “I ask for jus-tice and to put the soldier who has wrongfully shot my son on trial. He was shot in the back. I ask for psychological and fi nancial com-pensation for what we are going through,” Bahjat Nabi said.

A statement from the Israeli

military said its initial inquir-ies into the two events raised “a suspicion that the shooting in these incidents was not in ac-cordance with standard operat-ing procedures”. Video posted on social media after the March 30 incident showed a Palestinian, identifi ed by protest organisers as Abed Nabi, dropping to the ground as he ran, holding a tyre.

The organisers said he was shot with his back to Israeli forces.

The Gaza Health Ministry said that in the July 13 shooting, Helles was hit in the chest.

Israel has accused Hamas, of using the demonstrations as a cover for launching attacks.

Hamas denies this.The protest campaign is

pressing for an end to the Is-raeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza and for the right to return to land that Palestinians lost to Israel in the 1948 war of its foundation.

More than half of Gaza’s 2mn residents are war refugees and their descendants.

Citing security concerns over Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza, Israel and Egypt main-tain tight restrictions on their border crossings with the en-clave, which have reduced its economy to a state of collapse.

The UN and Egypt have been leading eff orts to mediate a long-term ceasefi re between Israel and Hamas, tackle humanitarian issues in Gaza and improve the economy of the small, coastal strip.

Iran unveils first domestic fighter jetIran unveiled its first domestic fighter jet yesterday, with Presi-dent Hassan Rouhani insisting that Tehran’s military strength was only designed to deter en-emies and create “lasting peace”.Images on state television showed Rouhani sitting in the cockpit of the new “Kowsar” fourth-generation fighter at the National Defence Industry exhibi-tion in Tehran. State media said it had “advanced avionics” and multi-purpose radar, and that it was “100% indigenously made” for the first time. Footage of the Kowsar’s test flights was circulated by various off icial media.But live footage of the plane taxiing along a runway at the defence show was cut before it could take off . “When I speak of our readiness to defend, it means we seek lasting peace. If we lack readiness, we welcome war,” Rouhani said in a televised speech shortly after.“Some think when we increase our military power, this means we seek war. (But) this is peace-seeking because we don’t want war to happen,” he added. AFP

Asian expatriates turn up in large numbers

Hundreds of expatri-ates from Asian com-munities in the country

participated in the Eid al-Adha celebrations yesterday evening in diff erent parts of the country.

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) and Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and So-cial Aff airs (MADLSA) provided important awareness tips for the members of these communities.

Festive events were held at Asian Town, Barwa Al Baraha near the Industrial Zone and at the Barwa sports complex for work-ers in Al Khor. The celebrations included a number of artistic and heritage performances refl ect-ing the cultures of diff erent Asian

countries such as India, Bangla-desh, Nepal, Pakistan and others.

During the celebrations, the MoI provided awareness-raising activities on security and safety and the role of community polic-ing in enhancing relations with the public as well as boosting se-curity and order. The activities also shed light on some laws relat-ed to residency and work within the State, workers’ rights and du-ties and other related topics.

On its part, the MADLSA raised awareness on the Labour Law, workers’ rights and the du-ties stipulated therein, as well as the services provided by the ministry to all citizens and resi-dents. QNAAsian expatriates attending an event yesterday. (Picture courtesy of MoI)

AFRICA

Gulf Times Wednesday, August 22, 20184

War and Ebola: DR Congo battles a double nightmareBy Albert Kambale, AFPBeni, DR Congo

First came the war, which de-veloped into a brutal, bloody tussle between militias who

abused civilians or killed them. Now Ebola, a name almost as dreaded as death itself, has come.

In the Beni region, in the Demo-cratic Republic of Congo’s eastern province of Kivu, the twin peril has bred fear and despair.

The region is haunted in par-ticular by the Allied Defence Forc-es (ADF), a Ugandan rebel group blamed for hundreds of civilian deaths over the past four years.

On August 1, Beni declared an outbreak of Ebola epicentred in Mangina — a small town that had been a relative haven from the

fi ghting — where six members of the same family died of the dis-ease.

“I fl ed here from Kokola, where the ADF were committing atroci-ties,” said Pascaline Fitina, a 36-year-old woman, sitting alone, her head in her hands.

“I went to my elder sister, but she has died of Ebola and her hus-band is being quarantined at the treatment centre. I don’t know what to do.”

Pascal Lukula, a 38-year-old farmer with fi ve children, said he was stuck in Mangina, unable to get to other members of his family, because of the encroaching militia.

“We are caught between the hammer and the anvil,” he sighed. “The ADF’s on one side, and Ebola on the other.”

The Congolese health minis-

try said last week the death toll in the east had reached 42 out of 66 probable and confi rmed cases.

The outbreak — the country’s 10th since the disease was discov-ered in then-Zaire in 1976 — was announced just a week after the end of an Ebola fl areup in north-western Equateur province that claimed 33 lives.

Ebola causes serious illness in-cluding vomiting, diarrhoea and in some cases internal and external bleeding.

It is often fatal if untreated.The disease is caused by a virus

that is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads among humans through close contact with the blood, body fl uids, secre-tions or organs of an infected per-son.

In Mangina, located 30km

southwest of the city of Beni, sus-picion and rumour seem to have spread across the population.

Containers of chlorinated water have been installed in front of all shops and in the markets to pro-vide rudimentary hand protection.

“I wear gloves to protect me from the epidemic,” said Jonas Mumbere, 26, who drives a motor-cycle taxi.

“Customers have started to think twice about getting on the motorbike for fear of contamina-tion.”

Health experts have long fret-ted about the problems of com-bating Ebola in the DRC, a vast country that is poor and unstable and shares boundaries with nine countries.

World Health Organization (WHO) chief, Tedros Adhanom

Ghebreyesus, has warned that confl ict had helped create “a con-ducive environment for the trans-mission” of Ebola.

Hanna Leskinen of the Interna-tional Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the grassroots work in combating Ebola lies in locating and treating patients and isolating people who have been in contact with them.

In North Kivu, “people are mov-ing around all the time, fl eeing the latest wave of violence,” she said.

“It enormously complicates search and followup of infected people.”

Another worry is for the safety of health workers — “the police and army are providing night-and-day security” for them, said North Kivu’s governor, Ephrem Kasereka.

Zimbabwe says ‘hostility of West’ putting off renewed investmentReutersJohannesburg

Western hostility towards Zimbabwe is deterring investment, the presi-

dency spokesman said yesterday, comments in sharp contrast with President Emmerson Mnan-gagwa’s previous eff orts to woo Western governments.

Mnangagwa has made progress in improving Zimbabwe’s rela-tions with Western states before and after he won a July 30 presi-dential election, the fi rst since the removal of long-time leader Rob-ert Mugabe in a de facto coup last November.

But with a violent crackdown

on opposition protesters by secu-rity forces after the election — a reminder to many of the repres-sive Mugabe era, the remarks by Mnangagwa’s spokesman George Charamba signalled that his charm off ensive towards the West may al-ready be unravelling.

Mnangagwa’s victory is being challenged in Zimbabwe’s con-stitutional court this week by op-position leader Nelson Chamisa, who says the electoral commission rigged the vote.

The commission has defended its independence.

Economists say that for the southern African country to revive its struggling economy it needs to clear its arrears with Western donors and agree a fi nancing pro-

gramme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Charamba said Western states were preventing that.

“Of concern to investors is the continued hostility of the West, principally America which has been infl uencing IFIs (Interna-tional Financial Institutions) neg-atively against Zimbabwe,” Chara-mba said in an e-mailed response to questions about investor con-cerns over the election. “This has delayed a resolution to the debt question, itself the elephant in the room.”

Charamba said delays caused by Chamisa’s court challenge to Mnangagwa’s election victory were also putting off investors.

“External partners — govern-

mental and entrepreneurial — are irritated by the delay in closure to what in all estimate was a free, fair, democratic and credible electoral process,” he said.

“Many investment projects have been waiting in the wings and the frustration of many investors who cannot wait much longer is palpa-ble.”

There were hopes a peaceful vote would end Zimbabwe’s pariah status and launch an economic re-covery, but post-election unrest has raised uncomfortable compar-isons with its violent past.

Mnangagwa, the 75-year-old former Mugabe ally, has urged Zimbabweans to unite behind him but questions linger over the death of six people in an army clamp-

down on protests against the rul-ing party’s victory.

Mnangagwa has repeatedly expressed a desire to mend rifts with Western governments and has been pictured in recent weeks smiling with Western ambassadors in Harare. He announced billions of dollars in investment commit-ments before the election, includ-ing from Western fi rms.

As Zimbabwe became increasing isolated under Mugabe, it turned to China to help prop up its economy.

Charamba said that despite at-tempts by some “intrusive for-eigners” to derail the country’s progress, Zimbabwe had good relations with southern African governments and the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) states.

Tanker missing off Gabon with 17 sailors onboardAFPLibreville

A tanker is missing off the coast of Gabon with 17 Georgian sailors onboard,

offi cials said yesterday.The ship “disappeared” from

tracking screens on August 14, the source said, while regional military offi cials said the potential search area was between the Gabonese coast and the Sao Tome and Princ-ipe archipelago.

Specialist websites list the

121m ship, the Pantelena, as a 7,000-tonne, 12-year-old dual-purpose oil or chemical tanker.

The vessel is Panamanian-fl agged and owned by a Greek company, Lotus Shipping Co Ltd.

The Georgian foreign ministry in Tbilisi, in a statement issued last Friday, said there were concerns for 17 Georgian sailors onboard and a search operation was being con-ducted with the help of the British maritime authorities.

Gabon lies on the southern part of the Gulf of Guinea — the great bend in the coastline of West Af-

rican — where pirates are a notori-ous problem for shipping.

The Pantelena “turned off its lo-cator beacon,” a device that tracks a vessel’s position by satellite, a re-gional military offi cial said.

“The fi rst thing that pirates do when they board a ship is to cut off this beacon.”

A crew member aboard a ship sailing between Libreville and Port-Gentil, Gabon’s economic hub, told AFP: “We received a dis-tress message over the radio and we alerted the Gabonese navy.”

A Gabonese navy offi cial con-

fi rmed, “We received an alert...about the Pantelena, but we didn’t have enough information to inter-vene.”

In Sao Tome and Principe, which is located about 260km from Gabon, the commander of the local coastguard, Joao Idalecio, said it had dispatched a patrol ves-sel with a crew of 30 to search for the tanker.

In February, a Panama-regis-tered tanker, the MT Marine Ex-press with 13,500 tonnes of gasoline was seized with its crew as it was anchored off Benin. The ship and

crew were freed several days later.Last month, the International

Maritime Bureau (IMB) said that its specialist piracy reporting cen-tre had recorded 107 incidents worldwide in the fi rst six months of 2018.

“All 25 crew kidnappings report-ed this year have occurred over six incidents in the Gulf of Guinea, highlighting the higher risks in this area,” the IMB said.

However, the true number of in-cidents in the Gulf of Guinea is be-lieved to be “signifi cantly higher,” its report added.

Zambia set to take to the skies after 24 yearsAFPLusaka

Zambia is to relaunch its national airline after 24 years without a fl ag carrier following a deal with

Ethiopian Airlines that will see $30mn invested in the new venture.

The announcement earlier this week marks Ethiopian Airlines’ growing role in aviation across Africa as it looks to cement its position as the continent’s largest airline by revenue.

The carrier from Africa’s second most populous country already has interests in the airline of Malawi and Togo-based private carrier ASKY, and has signalled its desire to help establish nascent state-run carrier Nigeria Air.

“The initial investment as we start up the national carrier will be $30mn. It is expected that the new airline will oper-ate 12 aircraft and carry over 1.9mn pas-sengers by 2028,” said a statement jointly issued by Zambia’s Industrial Develop-ment Corp (IDC) and Ethiopian Airlines.

Zambia Airways was liquidated in 1994 when vice president Godfrey Mi-yanda took to state TV to announce the airline’s demise.

“As strategic partners on the national airline project of Zambia, IDC will hold 55% equity in the carrier, with Ethio-pian Airlines holding 45%,” added the statement.

The airline will initially operate routes across Africa, before extending its network to Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Protesters burn tyres on a street during a demonstration to demand the release of the Ugandan politician Robert Kyagulanyi who was recently arrested for treason and possession of firearms in Kampala.

Kampala protest

AMERICAS5Gulf Times

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Microsoft Corporation said that hackers linked to Russia’s government

sought to launch cyber-attacks on the US Senate and conserva-tive American think tanks, warn-ing that Moscow is broadening attacks ahead of November’s congressional elections.

The world’s biggest software company said late on Monday that last week it took control of six Web domains that hackers had created to mimic websites belonging to the Senate and the think tanks.

Such fake sites can be used by hackers to try and trick users into giving up their login details, which would then give the at-tackers access to confi dential systems and fi les.

The domain takedowns are the latest in a string of actions by Mi-crosoft to thwart what it says are hacking attempts by a Russian-backed group known as APT28

(also known as Fancy Bear).The company said it has shut

down 84 fake websites in 12 court-approved actions over the past two years.

“We’re concerned that these and other attempts pose secu-rity threats to a broadening array of groups connected with both American political parties in the run-up to the 2018 elections,” Microsoft president Brad Smith said in a blog post.

Microsoft said it had no evi-dence that the hackers had suc-ceeded in compromising any user credentials before it took control of the malicious sites or whether any data was stolen.

The Kremlin rejected the Mi-crosoft allegations and said there was no evidence to support them.

“We don’t know what hackers they are talking about,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Who exactly are they talking about? We don’t under-stand what the proof and the ba-sis is for them drawing these kind of conclusions. Such information (proof) is lacking.”

Moscow has repeatedly dis-missed allegations that it has used hackers to infl uence US elections and political opinion.

The targets, Microsoft said, in-cluded the International Repub-lican Institute, whose high-pro-fi le Republican board members include Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has criticised US President Donald Trump’s in-teractions with Russia and Mos-

cow’s human rights record.The Hudson Institute, another

target, has hosted discussions on topics including cyber-security, according to Microsoft.

It has also examined the global rise of kleptocracy, citing Russia as an example.

Other malicious domains were used to mimic legitimate sites used by the US Senate and Mi-crosoft’s Offi ce software suite, the company said.

Microsoft’s report came amid increasing tensions between Moscow and Washington over alleged election-meddling.

A US federal grand jury indict-ed 12 Russian intelligence offi c-ers in July on charges of hacking Democratic Party computer net-works in an attempt to sway the 2016 US presidential election, and some US offi cials have said that Moscow could try to inter-fere in the US mid-term elections in November.

Three US intelligence offi cials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the Russian hacking into traditional Repub-

lican policy organisations is nei-ther new nor confi ned to Russia.

Others including China and Iran, have attempted to pen-etrate the websites and commu-nications of political and other groups across what one of the offi cials described as “the entire political spectrum from far-left to far-right”.

One cyber-security researcher said there was no evidence to link this latest activity directly to election interference.

“APT28 has targeted political entities for around a decade, as have other actors, including oth-er Russian actors. This activity today looks like run-of-the-mill spying. So far nothing special,” said Thomas Rid, professor of strategic studies at John Hopkins School of Advanced Internation-al Studies (SAIS).

“The interesting question is if stolen information surfaces publicly or not,” he said. “For the moment I sit and wait.

“What’s interesting is not hacking and trolling, but leaking and forging.”

Microsoft: Hackerstargeted US SenateReutersWashington

Microsoft president Brad Smith: These attempts pose security threats ... to groups connected with both American political parties in the run-up to the 2018 elections.

US President Donald Trump’s former law-yer, Michael Cohen, has

reached a plea bargain with fed-

eral prosecutors in New York on campaign fi nance violations, bank fraud and tax evasion, news media outlets reported yesterday, citing unnamed sources.

Cohen, 51, surrendered to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), CNN said.

News that Cohen had entered into a plea agreement followed a report earlier in the day by NBC News, then others, that he was discussing a deal with prosecu-tors.

The plea bargain could increase legal risks for the president, as it

raises the possibility that Cohen will provide information to US Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible co-ordination with the Trump campaign.

Trump has repeatedly denied

any collusion and has called the Mueller investigation a witch hunt.

Russia has denied meddling in the election.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow inter-fered.

Former Trump lawyer Cohen reaches plea deal: reportsReutersNew York

US prisoners declared a nationwide strike yesterday, demanding

changes to correctional insti-tutions including living condi-tions, pathways to parole and voting rights restoration.

The US incarceration rate is the world’s highest: about 2.2mn people were behind bars at the end of 2016, a fi gure the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says represents ap-proximately one-fi fth of the global population of prisoners.

The strike – set to continue through September 9, accord-ing to organisers – was called in response to a deadly riot in April at a maximum security prison in South Carolina, Lee Correctional Institution.

“Seven comrades lost their lives during a senseless upris-ing that could have been avoid-ed had the prison not been so overcrowded from the greed wrought by mass incarcera-tion, and a lack of respect for human life that is embedded

in our nation’s penal ideology,” the group of incarcerated pris-on rights advocates leading the strike said.

“These men and women are demanding humane living conditions, access to rehabili-tation, sentencing reform and the end of modern day slavery,” the group, known as Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, said.

Organisers throughout the United States advised inmates to engage in peaceful sit-ins, hunger strikes, and work stop-pages.

Low remuneration for pris-oners put to work at jobs like cooking and cleaning is high on the list of grievances released by organisers, who dubbed the practice “slavery”.

Udi Ofer, who leads the ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice, praised the strikers and backed their 10 demands, par-ticularly the right to vote for felons and prisoners.

Felon enfranchisement laws vary state by state, but in many places inmates lose voting rights for a period while incar-cerated, and sometimes after release as well.

US inmates launch nationwide strikeAFPWashington

Canada scraps family reunification lottery programme following outcry

Canada is scrapping a family reunification lottery and going back to a first-come, first-serve immigration policy as it looks to double the number of parents and grandparents admitted to the country.The change back to the old system follows a backlash from frustrated sponsors who described the lottery as “cruel”, “heartless”, and a “Vegas-like circus”.Last year when the lottery was introduced, more than 95,000 filled out an online form to be entered in a draw, but just 10,000 potential sponsors were selected.Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said Canada will admit up to 20,500 parents and grandparents under its reunification programme in 2019, and 21,000 in 2020.In the United States, President Donald Trump has derisively branded a similar family reunification programme “chain migration”.It allows naturalised US citizens to sponsor close relatives for permanent residency.

6 Gulf TimesWednesday, August 22, 2018

ASIA

Malaysia to shelve China-backed projects worth $22bnAFPBeijing

Malaysia will shelve three China-backed projects worth a total $22bn

until the debt-laden Southeast Asian nation can aff ord to pay for them, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday during a visit to Beijing.

The projects include a railway connecting Malaysia’s east coast to southern Thailand and Kuala Lumpur, and two gas pipelines.

“I explained to (the Chinese leaders) why we can’t have the ECRL (East Coast Rail Link),” Mahathir told Malaysian report-ers at the end of his fi ve-day visit, saying the project “will be deferred until such time when we can aff ord (it)”.

“It’s about borrowing too much money, which we can-not aff ord, we cannot repay, and also because we don’t need those projects for Malaysia at this mo-ment... our problem now is how to solve our fi nancial defi cit.”

Mahathir is trying to reduce

Malaysia’s national debt, which has ballooned to some $250bn. Chinese foreign ministry spokes-man Lu Kang acknowledged that “any co-operation between the two countries will inevitably lead to problems of one kind or an-other”.

“We take a long-term view of the relationship between our two countries and will resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiation,” Lu told a regular press briefi ng. After meeting Premier Li Keqiang on Monday, Mahathir said he believed China

would help Malaysia resolve its fi scal problems. The Malaysian leader also warned against “a new version of colonialism hap-pening because poor countries are unable to compete with rich countries just in terms of open free trade”.

The $20-bn rail project was given to China’s largest engi-neering fi rm, the China Commu-nications Construction Compa-ny, and mostly fi nanced by a loan from the Export-Import Bank of China. Malaysia’s fi nance ministry said in July that 88% of

the cost of the two gas pipelines worth 9.4bn ringgit ($2.32bn) had been paid to their Chinese contractor despite only 13% of the work being completed.

One pipeline is in Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo island and the other runs from Malacca in peninsular Malaysia to the northern state of Kedah. “We do not fi nd the need for... (the pipe-line projects),” Mahathir said. “It costs too much money. And we have to cancel or defer it to a later stage.” In May, Mahathir shelved separate plans to build a high-

speed railway between Singapore and Malaysia which had been agreed several years ago, saying it was too costly. Despite the threat to revise China-linked contracts, Mahathir sought to strengthen business ties with Beijing during the trip. China is the top trad-ing partner of Malaysia, which is home to a substantial ethnic Chinese minority. Relations were warm under the previous government of Prime Minister Najib Razak, and Chinese in-vestment in the country surged as Beijing signed deals for major

infrastructure and construction projects. The projects shelved by Mahathir are part of China’s ambitious Belt and Road initia-tive, an international trade in-frastructure programme aimed at reviving Silk Road routes across the globe.

China’s fi nancial largesse has raised concerns over the vul-nerability of poorer nations to such massive debt. Last year, Sri Lanka was forced to hand over majority control of its Hamban-tota port to China after failing to repay its loans.

Japan off ers to boost Sri Lanka security as China makes inroadsAFPColombo

Japan has pledged to help strengthen Sri Lanka’s mari-time security, authorities said

yesterday, in a new sign of ef-forts to counter China’s strategic grip on the Indian Ocean island. President Maithripala Sirisena thanked Japan’s Defence Minis-ter Itsunori Onodera for donat-ing two coast guard patrol craft costing over $11mn in total, his offi ce said in a statement after talks in Colombo.

“Attention has been drawn to further strengthening maritime security co-operation between Japan and Sri Lanka,” the state-

ment said. The visit came a week after the US State Department gave $39mn to strengthen the is-land’s naval capabilities.

Sirisena said he was happy that Onodera, the fi rst Japanese defence minister to visit, was travelling to two strategic ports on the island.

Onodera will visit Hambanto-ta, which Colombo in December 2017 leased to a Chinese state-owned company for 99 years.

The government said it was forced to lease the port for $1.1bn because it could not service loans from Beijing to build the white-elephant facility agreed by former president Mahinda Rajapakse. Hambantota, 230km from Colombo, straddles the

world’s busiest east-west ship-ping route and gives China a foothold in a region long domi-nated by India.

The Japanese minister will also visit Trincomalee, a natural harbour that was the target of Japanese bombing during World War II. China has edged out Ja-pan as a key funder of ports and other projects in the island in recent years. Sri Lanka has be-come a key link in its ambitious “Belt and Road” international infrastructure initiative. China has also vowed to keep provid-ing fi nancial help to Sri Lanka. The International Monetary Fund, which bailed out Sri Lanka in 2016 with a $1.5bn loan, has warned Colombo over its debt.

Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera (left) and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe shake hands during a meeting in Colombo yesterday.

Denied ‘eff ective access’ to Rakhine in Myanmar: UNReutersYangon

The United Nations is awaiting “eff ective ac-cess” to the Myanmar

region where 700,000 Rohingya Muslims were driven out in an army crackdown, months after agreeing with the government to aid the return of refugees, the UN country head said yesterday.

The organisation’s agencies for development and refugees — UNDP and UNHCR — signed a memorandum of understand-ing with Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in June to allow Ro-hingya who fl ed to Bangladesh last year to return home.

But requests for authorisa-tions for staff to visit the con-fl ict area have been beset by delays and authorities have of-fered access to a limited area, Knut Ostby, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, told Reuters.

Ostby said the United Nations had declined to accept an off er from the government to work in a limited number of villages and would not send in experts until it had negotiated a better deal.

“They’re standing ready to go when we have eff ective access,” he said. “We need to have the possibility to do a proper job.”

His comments came despite an announcement from Suu Kyi yesterday that her govern-ment had “granted access” to the United Nations to work in

23 villages across northern Ra-khine State as part of a “pilot assessment programme”. The United Nations wants to imple-ment “quick impact projects” to benefi t the population still there, including cash-for-work schemes and small-scale infra-structure projects.

Ostby said he did not know how the 23 villages, spread

out across Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships, had been selected. The United Na-tions wanted to work in villages next to one another, he said, to avoid the risk of creating “in-equality among neighbouring villages”.

Government spokesman Zaw Htay said the United Nations could work within the selected

areas fi rst and then expand its operations. “As far as I under-stand, UNDP is to implement pilot project within the allowed villages and extend afterwards,” Zaw Htay said. “If UNDP does not think it’s enough, they would have to discuss with the government.”

The United Nations as been mostly barred from northern Rakhine State since August last year, when the government ac-cused UN agencies of supplying food to Rohingya militants.

The Rohingya, who regard themselves as native to Rakhine state, are widely considered as interlopers by Myanmar’s Bud-dhist majority and are denied citizenship.

The June deal between the United Nations and the govern-ment was not made public, but a draft was seen by Reuters and also leaked online last month.

Refugee leaders and human rights groups said the deal failed to give assurances that return-ing refugees would be granted citizenship and freedom of movement.

Ostby said the United Na-tions had advocated for the re-lease of the memorandum of understanding.

“We have proposed to the government that it would be a good idea to make it public,” he said. “Having said that, we rec-ognise that such agreements are not normally publicised in other countries.”

Myanmar vows to deliver on repatriation deal

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi reaff irmed her country’s commitment yesterday to repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people living in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh, saying the pace would however be set by Dhaka. Suu Kyi has been criticised internationally since close to 700,000 people fled to neighbouring Bangladesh in a mass exodus since August last year, provoked by a crackdown at the hands of Myanmar security forces in Rakhine state. “We hope to work with Bangladesh to aff ect the voluntary, safe and dignified return of displaced people from Northern Rakhine,” said Suu Kyi in a speech at a hotel in Singapore, in reference to a deal that was struck between the two countries last November. “Both sides

agreed, inter alia, to deliver on the commitments made to speed up implementation of bilateral agreements on repatriation,” she added. As evidence for the government’s readiness to comply with the agreement, Suu Kyi pointed to the fact that Myanmar had “mapped out the off icial sites for the resettlement of refugees,” and that United Nations off icials had been granted access to 32 villages. However, Suu Kyi was reluctant to provide a timeline as to when the resettlement process would be completed, saying only that “it depends on the timeline.” “The returnees have to be sent back by Bangladesh. We can only welcome them at the border,” she said in response to a question by the audience. “Bangladesh would also have to decide how quickly it wants the process to be completed.”

Cambodia frees activist, journalists after flawed electionTwo journalists were freed from jail in Cambodia yesterday, a day after a prominent land rights activist was pardoned, as the government loosens its grip on dissenters in the wake of a flawed election victory last month. Cambodia’s king pardoned land campaigner Tep Vanny late Monday at the request of strongman prime minister Hun Sen, days after he off icially extended his 33-year grip on power. And yesterday, two journalists who had worked for the US-backed broadcaster Radio Free Asia received bail and were

released, 10 months after they were detained on espionage charges in a case slammed by rights groups. Analysts have said Hun Sen could use pardons and the kingdom’s pliant courts to help deflect criticism, as he has in the past, amid questions of legitimacy after July’s vote was widely decried as a sham.Vanny has long been a thorn in the side of authorities for advocating on behalf of Phnom Penh communities displaced by unchecked development, and has been in and out of jail. Last arrested in August 2016, she was hit with an additional two-and-a-half-year jail term just as her

sentence was due to expire. Vanny told AFP yesterday while picking up her belongings at Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison that she was surprised by the pardon, which cut short her time behind bars by about a year. “I was reluctant to believe it when prison guards told me to prepare myself for the release, so I asked them: ‘Are you joking with me?’” she said. Three other activists who were already out on bail were also included in the pardon signed by King Norodom Sihamoni.The journalists – Oun Chhin and Yeang Sothearin – were arrested last November for allegedly

running an illegal media studio and filing reports from a guesthouse in the capital. Their arrest came after Radio Free Asia, a popular source of Khmer-language news, suspended its operations in Cambodia, citing the government’s “increasingly threatening and intimidating rhetoric about RFA”. Phnom Penh municipal court spokesperson Y Rin told AFP they received bail based on the decision of an investigating judge. The two were released later yesterday from Prey Sar, where they greeted family and friends at the prison gates in a joyful reunion.

Vietnam’s caged bears dying off as bile prices plummetAFPThai Nguyen, Vietnam

Two moon bears are gently removed from the cramped cages where they have

been held for 13 years, rescuers carefully checking their rotten teeth and matted paws before sending them to their new home in a grassy sanctuary in northern Vietnam.

The animals are among the lucky few to be rescued in a country where hundreds of bears are feared to have been killed or starved to death as the cost of once-valuable farmed bile has plummeted. Bear bile is extracted – often continuously and pain-fully – from the animals’ gall-bladders and used in traditional

medicine in Vietnam, where the illegal practice remains wide-spread.

But consumers are shunning the farmed version in favour of bile taken from the nearly extinct wild bear population, which can cost 12 times more, and farmers can no longer earn what they used to from the illicit trade. If con-sumer demand for wild bear gall-bladders catches on, it could spell the end for wild bears, which are killed for the sought-after organ. The trend is also bad news for caged bears, whose owners can no longer aff ord to keep them alive.

“Farmers said it wasn’t profi t-able to keep the bears any more so they started feeding them less and let them die off ,” Brian Crudge, research programme manager at Free The Bears, told AFP this

week. The number of captive bears has dropped dramatically since 2005 from about 4,500 to less than 800 today, according to offi cial data and Crudge, who recently co-authored a study on the issue.

With about 200 bears in Vi-etnam’s rescue centres, he said many likely starved to death or were killed off and sold for their body parts. Bear paws are popu-larly used as a delicacy in soup or liquor, while bones are used for cooking and teeth and claws for decoration or jewellery.

Now it’s a race against time to rescue Vietnam’s remaining caged bears. “It’s quite urgent, we want to get as many of them as we can before it’s too late,” Crudge said. Some farmers – who can legally keep bears as pets but are

not allowed to extract bile – have started handing over their bears voluntarily.

One farmer told AFP he used to earn $10 for 1ml (0.03 fl uid ounces) of farmed bile, but now only makes about $2, as some consumers prefer to shell out for a supposedly higher quality product from wild bears. “People don’t seem to like the bile any-more so it’s harder to fi nd cus-tomers,” said the farmer, speak-ing anonymously. He used to keep about a dozen bears in cages at his home and now has none, but just smiled when asked when hap-pened to them, refusing to elabo-rate.

Vietnam has come under fi re for failing to crack down on the illegal trade, but in a landmark decision last year said it would

abolish all bear farms by 2022. It is likely to meet that goal, but not all will make it into sanctuaries with death rates likely to remain steady. But a fortunate few will, like moon bears Hoa Lan and Hoa Tra who were sent to a rescue centre in Ninh Binh province this week.

After being rescued from the farm where they have lived since 2005, they will spend a few weeks in quarantine before being al-lowed to frolic in the grass with their fellow rescuees – which will require some courage after so many years in a cage. “It’s pretty scary for them at fi rst. It can take several weeks until they’re brave enough to go around the enclo-sure,” said Emily Lloyd, animal manager at Four Paws Vietnam, which runs the sanctuary.

A caged bear during a rescue operation from a facility where bear bile is extracted in Thai Nguyen province.

ASIA/AUSTRALASIA7Gulf Times

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

A damaged car after a crash in Liuzhou in China’s southern Guangxi region. The driver, who was escaping after killing his girlfriend and her family, crashed into motorbikes and then attacked passersby with a knife leaving two more people dead and 12 others injured, according to local police.

An injured man receiving medical treatment after a car crashed into motorcycles in Liuzhou in China’s southern Guangxi region.

Knifeman kills six in ChinaSix people were killed after a man went on a killing spree in southern China, stabbing his girlfriend and her relatives, ploughing a car into pedestrians and attacking passersby. The 54-year-old man surnamed Huang had been having relationship problems and decided to take it out on his girlfriend and her fam-ily in Monday’s attack, Liuzhou police said in a statement. He stabbed the woman and her relatives at their home – killing all four of them – and fled in a black SUV. “When driving on the Wenchang Bridge, (Huang) got agitated by the traff ic and took it out on passersby, killing two and injuring 12,” the Monday statement said. Police said he ploughed the vehicle into several motorists on electric bicycles, then got out of the car and stabbed pedestrians with a knife before he was arrested. Knife attacks are not uncommon in China. In July, a man who stabbed nine children to death and wounded another 11 in northern China was sentenced to death.

Australian PM urges unity after surviving leadership challengeAFPSydney

Embattled Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull pleaded for unity yesterday

after narrowly surviving a lead-ership challenge as discontent with his rule boiled over less than a year before national elections.

Turnbull, considered a moder-ate, declared his position vacant at a Liberal party meeting to force the issue after rampant specula-tion that the more hardline Home Aff airs Minister Peter Dutton wanted his job, with the govern-ment trailing the Labor opposi-tion in opinion polls.

The disunity came to a head on Monday when Turnbull was forced to shelve plans to embed carbon emissions targets in law after a revolt by fellow Liberal politicians. Turnbull won the ballot 48-35, but the episode se-riously undermined his position. “It is really important that we put these diff erences behind us and get on with our job of looking after the 25mn Australians who have put us here,” he said after-wards.

“We know that disunity un-dermines the ability of any gov-ernment to get its job done, and unity is absolutely critical.”

There was also an election for deputy leader. The incumbent, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, was the only one who threw her

hat in the ring and she held onto the role. Dutton, a former po-lice offi cer who ran a powerful department that oversees the country’s domestic spy service, border force and national police, quit the cabinet and moved to the backbench.

Treasurer Scott Morrison will assume his job until a re-placement is appointed. John Hewson, a former leader of the Liberal party who is now with the Australian National Univer-sity’s school of public policy, said

Turnbull was wounded and an-other challenge was likely within weeks.

“This was a trial run and I ex-pect them (Dutton and support-ers) to do it again in September,” he told AFP, adding that it was all about “revenge and ego”.

He pinpointed former prime minister Tony Abbott, who Turnbull ousted in a 2015 party room coup, as a key player be-hind the move. “Abbott wants to get even and Turnbull is now in the tightest of positions. He must

stand up for his key polices in the national interest and get out there and argue the case.”

Dutton refused to rule out an-other tilt at the top job, saying he made his move in the belief that he had the best chance of steer-ing the party to an election vic-tory.

“What is my next step, what is my job from here? My job is to make sure I can prosecute the sort of messages I spoke about and that is the only thing I am fo-cussed on,” he said. It is the latest

chapter in a turbulent period for Australian politics. Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was oust-ed by his deputy Julia Gillard in 2010. He later returned the fa-vour and stormed back to power in 2013 shortly before losing the election to Abbott’s Liberal/Na-tional coalition.

Abbott was then unseated by Turnbull and is now a vo-cal backbencher and critic of his successor. Abbott was in charge when Canberra agreed to cut emissions by 26% by 2030 as part of the so-called Paris Agreement. But he has since railed against the commitment he made.

He argued it should not be enshrined in law as part of the government’s new energy policy, known as the National Energy Guarantee, with consumers fac-ing soaring electricity prices. Several right-wingers allied to Abbott had threatened to vote with the opposition to block the NEG, and with the government only having a wafer-thin parlia-mentary majority, it was doomed in its current form.

Turnbull caved in, triggering the leadership ballot. Disquiet with Turnbull had been building for some time, with the govern-ment trailing Labor in 38 con-secutive opinion polls.

The latest on Monday showed it lagging even further behind – 45 to 55% on a two-party basis – with national elections due by the middle of next year.

Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull arrives to attend the Parliament session in Canberra yesterday.

Aid agencies rush to help survivors

of Lombok quakesAFPSugian, Indonesia

Indonesian aid agencies and offi cials rushed yes-terday to help survivors af-

ter the third quake disaster in less than a month on Lombok island, where some 500 peo-ple have died and hundreds of thousands are homeless.

The picturesque island next to holiday hotspot Bali was hit by two deadly quakes on July 29 and August 5. On Sunday it was shaken again by a string of fresh tremors and aftershocks, with the strongest measuring 6.9 magnitude. At least 13 peo-ple were killed on Sunday on Lombok and the neighbouring island of Sumbawa, mostly by falling debris, according to the national disaster agency.

Drone footage from the vil-lage of Sugian, on the hard-hit eastern part of Lombok, showed streets lined with rub-ble, caved-in roofs and a col-lapsed mosque.

Aid organisations have vowed to step up humanitar-ian assistance on the island as devastated residents struggle in makeshift displacement camps. “We are focusing on the basics, provision of shelter materials – tarpaulins, shelter kits, hy-giene kits,” said Tom Howells from Save the Children. “We have shipped enough for about 20,000 people over the past two weeks,” he told AFP.

Indonesia’s disaster agency said it was also accelerating eff orts to rebuild destroyed homes, hospitals and schools. However, relief agencies fret that access to food, shelter and clean water is insuffi cient for

some of the more than 430,000 displaced by the disaster. “There has been damage to the water infrastructure, which is already quite poor in Lombok due to a lack of ground supply and drought conditions,” How-ells said.

Tens of thousands of homes, mosques and businesses across Lombok had already been de-stroyed by the 6.9-magnitude quake on August 5 that killed at least 481 people. A week before that quake, a tremor surged through the island and killed 17. Some 150 patients at a hos-pital in Lombok’s capital Mata-ram were being treated in tents after they were taken out of the damaged building Sunday over safety fears.

“We heard a sound like the building was cracking and eve-ryone panicked, so all the pa-tients were taken outside,” said Andre, a relative of a patient. The hospital had already been damaged in the early August tremor.

Most people caught in the latest quake had been out-side their homes or at shelters when it struck, a fact which limited casualties, authorities have said. Rebuilding costs are estimated to top 7tn rupiah ($480mn).

However, the disaster agency said yesterday that the quakes would not be labelled a national emergency, which would unlock the central gov-ernment’s four trillion-rupiah disaster relief fund. While the idea was gaining support in some quarters, the agency’s spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said it would “show weakness” from a country reg-ularly hit by natural disasters.

No indication N Korea nuclear

activities stopped, says IAEAAFPVienna

The UN’s nuclear watchdog said it had not seen any indication that nuclear

activities in North Korea have stopped despite its pledges to de-nuclearise.

“The continuation and fur-ther development of the DPRK’s nuclear programme and related statements by the DPRK are a cause for grave concern,” said a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), referring to North Korea’s offi cial name.

The report, published late Monday, by director general Yukiya Amano is to be submit-ted to an IAEA board meeting in September.

In 2009 Pyongyang expelled IAEA inspectors from its Yong-byon nuclear site and has since refused to allow IAEA inspec-tions on its territory.

The watchdog has stepped up monitoring through open source

information and satellite image-ry, it said. “As the agency remains unable to carry out verifi cation activities in the DPRK, its knowl-edge of the DPRK’s nuclear pro-gramme is limited and, as further nuclear activities take place in the country, this knowledge is declining,” it said. Between late-April and early-May, there were indications of the operation of the steam plant that serves the radiochemical laboratory at the Yongbyon site, according to the report.

However, the steam plant was not operative long enough to have supported the reproc-essing of a complete core from the experimental nuclear power plant reactor, it added. The re-port added steam charges and the outfl ow of cooling water at the Yongbyon experimental nuclear power plant had also been ob-served “consistent with the reac-tor’s operation”.

“Since December 2015, when the current operational cycle started, there have been indi-cations consistent with several

short periods of reactor shut-down. However, none of these periods were of suffi cient dura-tion for the complete reactor core to have been discharged. The Agency’s observations indicate that the current operational cycle is longer than the previous one,” it said.

It also found “indications consistent with the use of the reported centrifuge enrichment facility located within the plant, including the operation of the cooling units as well as regular movements of vehicles.” North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump held a groundbreaking summit in Sin-gapore in June. At the meeting the pair struck a vague agree-ment to denuclearise the Korean peninsula, but there has been lit-tle movement since.

Before this, Kim met South Korean President Moon Jae-in in April for their fi rst summit. They agreed to push for a declaration of an end to the Korean War this year. The two leaders are due to meet again in September.

Top South Korea Buddhist quits over corruption, fatherhood allegations

AFPSeoul

The head of South Korea’s biggest Buddhist denom-ination stepped down

yesterday amid allegations that he forged his academic creden-tials, amassed vast wealth and fathered a child in breach of celi-bacy rules.

With more than 3,000 tem-ples, 13,000 monks and 7mn followers, the Jogye Order is fol-lowed by most of South Korea’s Buddhists and is highly infl uen-tial in a country where religion remains a powerful social force.

But it has long been dogged by corruption allegations and factional feuds that often spill over into the headlines. The resignation of Jogye president Seoljeong came days after he lost an unprecedented vote of no confi dence by the order’s gov-erning committee.

The 76-year-old bid farewell to the followers and offi cials at the the order’s headquarters in

Seoul and left for another tem-ple south of Seoul where he had previously served for years. “I joined this religious sect to bring changes to the fl awed Ko-rean Buddhism but will have to return to the mountain having failed to fulfi l my wish,” he said

in a press conference. Seoljeong would likely have been forced out of the job at a meeting of the order’s elders today. Pressure had mounted on the monk since an investigative TV programme claimed in May that he had fa-thered a daughter in breach

of celibacy rules, and secretly owned vast real estate holdings despite taking a vow of poverty.

The investigation also re-vealed that the nation’s top university denied Seoljeong had graduated from the institution, contradicting a claim made in his autobiography.

Many rank and fi le members and civic groups staged months-long protests demanding his resignation, and a senior re-form-minded monk was recently hospitalised after a conducting 41-day hunger strike against the monk. Seoljeong, who took of-fi ce last November, has denied all the allegations, accusing an “old guard” within the order’s leader-ship of derailing his reform drive by framing him.

He repeated the denial yes-terday, claiming that “a handful of politically-minded monks are destroying the order”.

A 2014 survey by Korea Gal-lup showed 22% of South Ko-reans identify themselves as Buddhist, while nearly 30% are Christian.

Seoljeong, president of South Korea’s Buddhist Jogye Order, speaks during a press conference at the Jogyesa temple in Seoul yesterday.

BRITAIN/IRELAND

Gulf Times Wednesday, August 22, 20188

Nuns look at a Skoda car with a stained glass windscreen at the Papal Congress at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin.

A tycoon killed with his family in a seaplane crash in Australia on New Year’s Eve has left a £41mn ($52mn) fortune to the crisis-hit charity Oxfam, a British newspaper reported yesterday. “We are extremely grateful for this bequest,” Oxfam said in a statement. Richard Cousins, 58, boss of catering giant Compass Group Plc, died with sons William, 25, Edward, 23, fiancee Emma Bowden, 48, and her daughter Heather, 11, when their plane nose-dived into the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney. The Sun reported that some time before the crash, Cousins drew up a will with a “common tragedy clause”, leaving his money to Oxfam in the event that he and his sons were killed together.

Police have defended an off icer caught on camera apparently slapping a teenage girl and pulling her hair as she resisted arrest. The altercation was filmed by a passerby in the Lancashire town of Accrington on Monday and has been viewed more than 2mn times after being posted on Facebook, the Guardian reports. Lancashire police acknowledged that the restraint techniques used in the arrest “may look shocking to untrained onlookers” and said they were investigating. The force said two off icers had to go to hospital after the incident. One female off icer suff ered bite marks and a male off icer sustained cuts to his head, a spokesman said.

A holidaymaker who took pebbles from a Cornish beach was forced to travel hundreds of miles to return the souvenirs to avoid a hefty fine. The man was traced to his home after taking a carrier bag full of stones from a beach at Crackington Haven near Bude, the Guardian reports. He was told that he faced a fine of up to £1,000 so he decided to return to Cornwall’s Atlantic coast and put the round grey stones back where he found them. The problem of pebble plundering at Crackington Haven hit the headlines in the late nineties when the issue was blamed on television garden re-design programmes and magazine articles.

A Briton who fell critically ill last month after being exposed to a Soviet-made nerve agent was admitted back to hospital with eye trouble, his brother told British media yesterday. “He’s just told me now he can’t see, he has blurred vision,” Matthew Rowley was quoted by the Guardian newspaper as saying. He said his brother Charlie was in intensive care at Salisbury hospital — the same facility where he was treated before. The brother said he was not qualified to say whether the new illness was related to the poisoning with the toxin, known as Novichok, but added that it was “pretty coincidental”.

Tycoon killed in plane crash leaves £41mn to Oxfam

Police defend off icer filmed slapping teenage girl

Cornwall ‘pebble plunderers’ warned as tourist faces fine

Novichok survivor back in hospital with eye problem

ART SCREEN CHARITY‘RESISTING ARREST’ £1,000 PROBLEM CAUSE UNKNOWN

Government reports biggest July budget surplus in 18 yearsBy Richard Partington Guardian News and Media

Britain has recorded the big-gest July budget surplus since the millennium, giv-

ing a boost to Philip Hammond as he considers ways to pay for greater NHS spending in the au-tumn budget.

The Offi ce for National Sta-tistics said public sector net borrowing, excluding the state-owned banks, went into surplus for July by £2bn, meaning the government received more in tax income than was spent on public services.

The surplus was the biggest re-corded for the month of July in 18

years, and outstripped City ana-lysts’ forecasts of about £1.1bn.

However, the fi gures showed strong seasonal infl ows of in-come tax receipts.

The better-than-expected re-sults will pile pressure on Ham-mond to loosen the purse strings at the autumn budget after years of austerity.

Unite, the trade union, said the latest fi gures showed there was capacity for further borrowing to protect the crumbling public sector.

John McDonnell, the Labour shadow chancellor, said the sur-plus had come at the expense of public services and living stand-ards. “(Hammond) has passed on the defi cit to his colleagues in

other departments: record NHS defi cits, schools begging parents for money for essentials, and a growing social care crisis,” he said.

The government has com-mitted to fi nd ways to fi nance a £20bn-a-year injection of extra cash into the NHS by 2023-24, with taxpayers expected to face increases when the chancellor delivers his budget.

But despite the latest improve-ment in the public fi nances, which could help minimise the tax increases, Hammond has committed to delivering a zero annual defi cit by the middle of the next decade.

The latest fi gures from the ONS showed total borrowing for

the fi nancial year so far, begin-ning in April, was the lowest for 16 years.

The government defi cit stood at £12.8bn, which is £8.5bn less than in the same period a year ago.

Ruth Gregory, a senior econo-mist at the consultancy Capital Economics, said if the reduc-tion in borrowing was sustained throughout this year, the defi cit would undershoot the target set by the Offi ce for Budget Respon-sibility by about £13bn.

“As things stand, the chan-cellor should have some extra money to play with in the au-tumn budget … He should be able to deliver the extra funds for the NHS without compromising his fi scal target or having to fi nd sav-

ings elsewhere,” she said.Although the latest snapshot

hands the chancellor greater wriggle room, a Treasury spokes-man said the government “cannot be complacent” when it comes to fi xing the public fi nances.

“We must keep debt falling to build a stronger economy and se-cure a brighter future for the next generation,” he said.

Much of the improvement in July was due to growth in income tax receipts, with the UK reach-ing record employment levels, despite weaker economic growth and sluggish pay increases.

The exchequer also recorded a jump in VAT receipts and corpo-ration tax income.

In contrast, income from

stamp duty has dropped by al-most 10% for the fi nancial year so far, refl ecting weaker sales in the UK property market — par-ticularly in London.

Up to 40% of stamp duty tax receipts in the last fi nancial year were from sales in the capital.

The Offi ce for Budget Respon-sibility (OBR), the government’s budget watchdog, said the im-provement for July was probably down to weaker growth in depart-mental spending this year, lower debt payments on government borrowing and changes in the tim-ing of transfers to the EU budget.

Despite the positive news, ob-servers said July tends to deliver sur-pluses for the public fi nances due to the timing of some tax returns,

while warning there could be weaker months ahead as the UK economy stutters.

While he faces calls from La-bour and some Tory MPs to raise spending, Hammond may be re-luctant to do so ahead of Britain leaving the EU.

John Hawksworth, chief econ-omist at the accountancy fi rm PwC said the chancellor would probably still need to raise taxes at the autumn budget.

“He will still have some tough choices to make … if he is to fund planned increases in NHS spend-ing and to respond to other press-ing demands to ease austerity for schools, local councils, prisons, police and other public services.”

Britain, EU vow continuous Brexit talks in fi nal phaseBy Danny Kemp, AFPBrussels

London and Brussels will start roll-ing Brexit negotiations in the fi nal phase of talks as fears grow that

Britain could leave the European Union next year without a deal, EU negotiator Michel Barnier said yesterday.

Barnier and his British counterpart Dominic Raab said after talks in Brus-sels that key diff erences remained and it was important to “intensify” the pace of negotiations.

“The negotiations are now entering the fi nal stage. We have agreed that the EU and the UK will negotiate continu-ously from now on,” Barnier said after meeting the UK’s Brexit minister Do-minic Raab in Brussels.

“Dominic and I will meet regularly to take stock and move the negotiations forward.”

The Brexit talks have become stuck on fundamental issues including how to avoid a hard border between EU mem-ber Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland after Britain leaves the EU’s single market, and on the fu-ture trading relationship.

The two sides have just a few months before an agreement on Britain’s di-vorce from the European Union — set for March 29, 2019 — must be forged in principle by October or November.

Raab — whose predecessor David Davis resigned in July over diff erences with Prime Minister Theresa May’s ne-gotiating strategy — said that he would be back in Brussels next week for fur-ther talks.

“We have agreed that we need to step

up the intensity of the negotiations,” he added.

“If we have that ambition, that prag-matism, that energy on both sides, I’m confi dent we can reach a deal in Octo-ber,” he said.

Until now there have been sepa-rate “rounds” of Brexit talks every few weeks, but the pace has increased noticeably since Raab took over from Davis, who made just a handful of visits this year.

Leaving without a deal could hamper exports to the EU, Britain’s largest mar-ket, as it would end tariff -free trade.

Raab played down talk of a “no deal” scenario, saying only that Britain had to be ready for “all eventualities”.

“Our actions speak louder than words. We’re out here, I’m here seeing Michel again, I should be returning next week. We’re going to be picking up the intensity of the negotiations — we agree on that — at a political level,” he said.

Barnier said the main challenge in the coming months was to set the shape of the future trading relationship be-tween Britain and the EU, saying it was a “partnership that has no precedent.”

May’s strategy calls for largely fric-tionless trade with the EU, but Brussels has warned that Britain cannot expect all the benefi ts of the single market without also respecting rules on free immigration within the 28-nation bloc.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is once again warning that a Brexit with no deal could threaten the conti-nent’s unity for a generation, according to his offi ce.

“One of the biggest threats to Euro-pean unity would be a chaotic no-deal Brexit,” Hunt was to say in a speech at

the US Institute of Peace in Washing-ton, according to excerpts provided by the Foreign Offi ce.

Meanwhile, Trade Secretary Liam Fox urged Britain to look beyond Brexit

as he unveiled the government’s future strategy to become an “exporting su-perpower”.

A key problem for Britain is its aim to stay part of the EU’s customs regime

while also being able to strike its own trade deals with other countries. “It’s really important that we don’t have such a narrow bandwidth that we only think about Brexit,” Fox said in London.

European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, attends a media briefing with Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Dominic Raab, after a meeting at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels yesterday.

A woman and her child ride ‘dodgem’ cars at a fairground set up to celebrate Eid al-Adha in Burgess Park, south London.

Eid cheer No charges against ex-police chief over HillsboroughReutersLondon

A former British police chief constable accused of lying over his role in the 1989 Hillsborough soccer stadium

crush that killed 96 fans will no longer face charges after a review of evidence, prosecu-tors said yesterday.

Norman Bettison had been charged with four off ences of misconduct in public offi ce related to statements he made in the after-math of the disaster and about the culpabil-ity of fans which prosecutors believed were untrue.

The victims, all Liverpool supporters, died in an overcrowded, fenced-in enclosure at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffi eld, northern England, during an FA Cup semi-fi nal be-tween Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

Police at fi rst blamed the tragedy on drunk-en fans, an explanation that was always re-jected by survivors, relatives of the victims

and the wider Liverpool community.Families spent decades campaigning for

justice for the 96.Prosecutors announced last year that they

would bring criminal charges against six peo-ple including Bettison and other former police chiefs over the deaths and an alleged subse-quent cover-up by police of their own mis-takes.

The Crown Prosecution Service said yes-terday they had discontinued the case against Bettison however following a number of de-velopments.

“These include changes in the evidence of two witnesses and the death of a third wit-ness,” it said.

As a result there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.

Charges remain in place against other of-fi cers including former police chief superin-tendent David Duckenfi eld who was in charge of police operations at Hillsborough on the fateful day. He was charged with manslaugh-ter by gross negligence.

Govt says sorry to ‘Windrush generation’ReutersLondon

Britain said it would for-mally apologise to 18 members of the “Win-

drush generation” who were forced to leave or detained be-cause they were not issued with documents when they came to the country from the Caribbean after World War II.

The scandal damaged the authority of Prime Minister Theresa May, who had led ef-forts to tackle illegal immigra-tion when she led the Home Office, and resulted in the res-ignation of her interior minister Amber Rudd.

May said earlier this year that the treatment of thousands of migrants who were invited to fi ll labour shortages in post-war Britain on ships such as the Em-pire Windrush had been “appall-ing”.

The government said 18 people had been identified in a review of removals and de-tentions affecting Caribbean nationals, of whom 11 went on voluntarily to leave Britain and seven were detained but subse-quently released without being removed.

Fourteen of the 18 had been contacted and would be given the option to return, it said.

They would also be guided to a compensation scheme.

Interior Minister Sajid Javid said the experiences faced by some members of the Windrush generation were completely un-acceptable.

“I would like to personally apologise to those identifi ed in our review and am committed to providing them with the support and compensation they deserve,” he said yesterday.

“We must do everything we can to ensure that nothing like this happens again — which is why I have asked an independ-ent adviser to look at what les-sons we can learn from Wind-rush.”

The government also said 74 people were either detained or removed because they had lost their entitlement to stay in Brit-ain after leaving for more than two years, and a further 72 people were detained temporarily at port but allowed to enter.

A task-force set up after the scandal had helped 2,272 people to get the documentation they needed to prove their existing right to be in the UK, the govern-ment said.

A further 1,465 people had been granted citizenship or documentation to prove their status under a formal Windrush Scheme.

EUROPE9Gulf Times

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Some 177 migrants who have been on an Italian coastguard boat for fi ve

days were not allowed to dis-embark yesterday, despite their ship having reached overnight the Sicilian shore.

It was the latest act of defi -ance by Italy’s populist govern-ment, which, since being sworn in June, has taken drastic meas-ures to curb migrant arrivals.

The Diciotti vessel rescued the migrants on Thursday in Maltese search and rescue wa-ters, and was initially denied port docking rights by both Italy and Malta.

On Monday, Italy agreed to let the Diciotti arrive in the port of Catania, but Interior Minis-ter Matteo Salvini is not letting anyone get off until other EU nations agree to take in the mi-grants.

Italy should “demand expla-nations from Brussels and other European governments” about their lack of help, Salvini, a far-right, eurosceptic leader, said in a statement.

He recalled a similar situation in mid-July, when Italy accepted two rescue ships with 450 mi-grants, after a deal was reached to redistribute some of them to other EU nations.

Since then, Salvini charged,

only France kept its word, taking 47 out of an agreed quota of 50.

Germany, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Malta, all due to take 50 people each, accepted none, he added.

Salvini also called on the EU to investigate reports from mi-grants that the Maltese navy intercepted, but did not rescue them, instead escorting them towards Italy.

The Maltese government has

said the boat the migrants were originally travelling in was not in distress and that migrants told Maltese offi cials that they wanted to reach Italy.

In Brussels, Alexander Win-terstein, a European Com-mission spokesman, said that eff orts to broker a new burden-sharing deal for the Diciotti were “ongoing”, but declined to com-ment further.

Salvini’s hardline stance has

earned criticism from human rights associations and watch-dogs, including the UN Refu-gee Agency UNHCR and Italy’s commissioners for the rights of minors and detainees.

It has also raised questions over the legitimacy of trying to bar an Italian coastguard vessel from reaching an Italian port, and of leaving of the rescued migrants, including children, in a confi ned space for days.

“It is incomprehensible. Even embarrassing,” coastguard offi -cial Antonello Ciavarelli told the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Monday.

“The Diciotti is a military ship of the Italian state and it is be-ing forbidden to moor in an Ital-ian port,” he complained before the permit was issued to reach Catania.

Magistratura Democratica, a left-leaning association of mag-istrates, said that nobody should “remain silent” over Salvini’s violation of “the values and the rules of the [Italian] Constitu-tion”.

According to internal coast-guard documents published on Twitter by Alessandra Ziniti, a journalist with Italian daily La Repubblica, there are 34 children among Diciotti passengers.

“We are very worried about the conditions of these peo-ple,” Giovanna Di Benedetto, a spokeswoman for the Save the Children charity, told SkyTG24 news channel.

Reporting that many aboard had spent 12-18 months in Lib-yan detention camps, Di Bene-detto said that denying them as-sistance was “inadmissible”.

The Italian coastguard origi-nally took on 190 migrants but 13 people in need of urgent medical attention were taken on Thurs-day to the island of Lampedusa for urgent medical treatment.

Italy stops migrants from disembarkingDPARome

Migrants on board the Italian coast guard vessel Diciotti at the port of Catania.

The western German city of Cologne is set to host a stream of video and com-

puter game enthusiasts in the coming days, after the Games-com industry fair opened yes-terday.

Some 500,000 visitors are expected to participate in Gamescom events at the Co-logne Exhibition Centre and throughout the city before the event closes on Saturday.

The premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia –

where Cologne is located – and the city’s mayor attended the fi rst day of the fair, which is re-served for industry and media representatives.

Private visitors are welcome from today.

State Premier Armin Laschet said he would like to see state subsidies for developers dou-bled in Germany, pointing out

that state support for the gam-ing industry is already common practice in other countries, such as Poland.

More than 1,000 exhibitors from over 50 countries – in-cluding big names like Ubisoft, Koch Media, and THQ Nor-dic – will display their wares at Gamescom, according to the fair’s website.

500,000 visitorsexpected at Gamescom

DPACologne

Children play during the media day at Gamescom.

Firefi ghters and emer-gency workers combed yesterday the creek bed

downstream from a gorge where sudden heavy rain cre-ated a wall of water that swept away tourists on Monday in the southern Italy region of Calab-ria, killing at least 10 people.

Twenty-three people were rescued after being caught by the rush of water, rocks and mud, and many were being treated in local hospitals, the civil protection agency said.

Three people thought to be missing were found, so no one was offi cially unaccounted for.

“The people thought to be missing have been traced,” the fi re department said.

But precautionary searches were continuing for people possibly still there since the gorge is open to the general public and visitors are not re-quired to register.

“Since no one keeps track of the number of people in the gorge at any one time, we can’t yet exclude that someone else was there,” said Piefrancesco Demilito of the civil protection agency.

The Raganello creek, part of the Pollino National Park, runs through the narrow gorge,

which is 1km deep with sheer rock walls that are only about 4m wide in some places.

Dozens of people were ex-ploring the gorge when a storm dumped heavy rain upstream, and the narrow canyon fun-nelled the runoff into a raging wall of water and debris that engulfed some hikers and sent others scrambling to higher ground.

Meteorologists had warned of possible heavy rains in the area.

The civil protection agency revised down the death toll to 10 from 11, a number an-nounced erroneously earlier yesterday.

All of the victims were Ital-ian, Demilito said.

Some bodies were found several kilometres downstream from where they were when the fl ood hit.

Squads of rescuers used spotlights in search-and-res-cue operations overnight, and helicopters took to the air at fi rst light.

The disaster followed on the heels of a a motorway bridge collapse in northern Italy that killed 43.

“Our entire country is pro-foundly sad for this new trag-edy that caused deaths and injuries in the Pollino Park,” Italian President Sergio Mat-tarella said in a statement.

Hunt for survivors after Italy fl ash fl oodReutersRome

Rescue workers cross the canyon of the Raganello creek after several people were killed in a mountain gorge flooding.

Italian actress and sexual abuse campaigner Asia Ar-gento has denied having had a

sexual relationship fi ve years ago with an underage teen, calling the allegations part of “a long-standing persecution”.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that Argento, 42, a Harvey Weinstein accuser and leading fi gure in the #MeToo movement, had paid actor and rock musician Jimmy Bennett $380,000 over the alleged 2013 encounter at a hotel in Los An-geles.

Bennett was two months past his 17th birthday at the time of the alleged encounter, while Ar-gento was 37.

The legal age of consent in California is 18.

“I strongly deny and oppose the contents of the New York

Times article ... as circulated also in national and international news,” a statement issued by her agent said.

“I am deeply shocked and hurt by having read news that is abso-lutely false. I have never had any sexual relationship with Ben-nett,” it goes on.

Argento says that she was linked to Bennett “during several years by friendship only”.

The pair had acted together in the 2004 fi lm The Heart Is De-ceitful Above All Things, in which Argento plays Bennett’s troubled mother.

Argento said that the friend-ship “ended when, subsequent to my exposure in the Weinstein case, Bennett ... unexpectedly made an exorbitant request of money from me”.

Argento became a powerful voice for the #MeToo move-ment after accusing Hollywood producer Weinstein of raping her when she was 21 in his hotel room

in 1997 during the Cannes fi lm festival.

Argento goes on to say that her boyfriend, the late chef Anthony Bourdain, “was afraid of the pos-sible negative publicity that such a person, whom he considered dangerous, could have brought upon us”.

“We decided to deal compas-sionately with Bennett’s demand for help and give it to him. An-thony personally undertook to help Bennett economically, upon

the condition that we would no longer suff er any further intru-sions in our life,” the statement said.

“This is, therefore, the ump-teenth development of a se-quence of events that brings me great sadness and that con-stitutes a long-standing per-secution,” Argento said, before pledging to take “all necessary initiatives for my protection be-fore all competent venues”.

Bennett’s legal action was launched a month after Argento’s accusations against Weinstein were made public, according to the New York Times report, which added that his lawyer claimed his client recalled the hotel encoun-ter after seeing Argento present herself as a victim of sexual as-sault.

On Monday police in Califor-nia said that Argento was not currently under active investi-gation over the Times report but that “enquiries will be made”.

Leading #MeToo fi gure denies 2013 incidentAFPRome

Argento: I strongly deny and oppose the contents of the New York Times article.

Yesterday Czechs and Slo-vaks marked 50 years since Soviet tanks crushed the

“Prague Spring” democratic re-form drive, while protesters used the anniversary to rail against the current Czech government’s ties to the Communist Party.

Hundreds paid tribute to the victims of the 1968 crackdown at noon ceremonies in central Prague that also drew demon-strators chanting “Shame!” as populist billionaire Prime Minis-ter Andrej Babis spoke.

His minority coalition is the fi rst government since the 1989 collapse of communism to rely on backing from the Communist Party to survive in parliament.

A Communist Party member in the 1980s, Babis has denied allegations that he served as a regime secret police agent before 1989.

“He who governs with the Communists disrespects the vic-tims of the occupation of 1968!” read posters held by protesters in front of the radio station in downtown Prague where around 15 unarmed people, mostly youths, died trying to prevent the Soviets from taking the building 50 years ago.

The burgeoning “Prague Spring” movement, led by Com-munist Party leader Alexander Dubcek, had tried to put “a hu-man face on socialism” through democratic reforms to Czecho-slovakia’s totalitarian regime.

But on the night of August 20-21, 1968, Soviet soldiers backed by Bulgarian, east German, Hun-garian, and Polish units brutally put an end to the movement.

Around 50 Czechs and Slovaks were killed on the fi rst day alone, while the total number of victims of the Soviet occupation is 402, according to historians.

The last Soviet soldier left Czechoslovakia only in 1991, two years after the “Velvet Revolu-tion” that toppled totalitarian communist rule – and two years before the country split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

“Let us use this day of solemn commemoration to collectively

remember that freedom and the respect for human rights can never be taken for granted and need to be fought for every sin-gle day,” European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement yesterday.

EU Council President Donald Tusk said on Twitter that while the Soviet invasion crushed the Prague Spring, “the desire for freedom and democracy survived and is the essence of what unites Europe today”.

Concerts and other gatherings took place yesterday across the Czech Republic.

At night, local pop stars such as Marta Kubisova performed an outdoor concert at Wenceslas Square in Prague.

In 1968, Kubisova openly took part in the Prague Spring and later sang the era’s most famous song Prayer for Marta, whose lyrics include: “Let peace remain with this country / Malice, envy, hate, fear and contention / Let these pass away.”

With the country back in the grip of loyal communist leaders who followed Moscow’s line, the powerful song was banned and Kubisova silenced – until the re-gime was brought down in 1989.

Kubisova joined the dissident movement and became close with playwright Vaclav Havel who headed a human rights group and later became the country’s fi rst post-communist president.

Czech public television aired special programmes about the events of August 21, 1968 all day yesterday.

While nearly all Czechs and Slovaks condemn the Soviet crackdown, nearly 40% of Rus-sians see it as a necessary de-fensive measure, according to a recent survey by Russia’s inde-pendent Levada think tank.

The proportion of Rus-sians condemning the invasion dropped to 19% this year, down from 29% in 2013, according to the survey.

“The poll results suggest that Russia is returning to propa-ganda in the spirit of the era of (former Soviet leader Leonid) Brezhnev,” Levada centre direc-tor Lev Gudkov said, quoted by the Czech press.

Czechs protest against government 50 years after Soviet-led attackAFPPrague

A demonstrator shows a mirror to Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis as the latter gives a speech outside the Czech Radio building in Prague as part of the commemorations marking the 50th anniversary of the Soviet-led invasion of former Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Former Nazi camp guard deported to Germany from USGermany, citing its “moral duty”, took in a 95-year-old former guard at a Nazi labour camp where more than 6,000 people were killed, after he was stripped of his US citizenship.The German foreign ministry said it had agreed to accept the former Ukraine national Jakiw Palij following his expulsion from the United States late on Monday, adding that Berlin felt obliged to accept him in light of the Nazis’ crimes.“The United States had repeatedly pressed for Germany to take in Palij,” the ministry said.Berlin, however, had long resisted because he was not a German citizen.“The US administration, senators, members of Congress and representatives of the Jewish community in the US stress that people who served the rogue Nazi regime should not be able to live out their twilight years in peace in their country of choice, the US,” the ministry added.Palij concealed his Nazi past from immigration agents when he moved to the United States in 1949, the US Justice Department said.He became American in 1957.A federal judge revoked Pajil’s US citizenship in August 2003 and the following year, a US immigration judge ordered his deportation to Ukraine, Poland, Germany or any other country that would admit him.

INDIA

Gulf Times Wednesday, August 22, 201810

The Delhi High Court yesterday asked the Centre and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to file response on the plea seeking exemplary damages for the losses caused due to leakage of Aadhaar data. A bench of Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice A K Chawla asked the Centre and UIDAI to file response within six weeks and listed the matter for further hearing on November 19. The court was hearing a plea filed by Shamnad Basheer through advocate Siddharth Aggarwal alleging that the dissemination of personal information of Aadhaar holders made it clear that government is responsible for any breach of right to informational privacy.

A former temple priest, who has been booked for molesting two young women in the temple premises, surrendered yesterday before a local magistrate after remaining traceless for nearly one month. The 51-year-old accused, Dhananjay Bhave, now a former priest at the popular Mangueshi temple located in South Goa, was formally arrested by off icials from the Ponda Police Station soon after his surrender. “The accused has been remanded for two days in police custody,” an off icial investigating the case said requesting anonymity. On July 19, Bhave was booked under Section 354 (outraging modesty) of the IPC after a young woman accused him of hugging and kissing her.

The Supreme Court said yesterday that it was “very distressing that more than 200,000 children were ‘missing’ from government-run shelters homes, suggesting that there should be Central and state-level committees to monitor and prevent the incidents of physical and sexual abuse of children living in such homes. A bench of Justice Madan B Lokur, Justice S Abdul Naseer and Justice Deepak Gupta was told by a lawyer assisting the court that as per data available from 2016 to March 2018, there were more than 200,000 missing from the shelter homes. The bench told the Centre: “It makes us very sad that children are treated as numbers. Are you aware of the situation? It is very distressing.”

Seven Indian and international firms have bid for supply of 378 coaches for the upcoming Mumbai’s Metro 2A and Metro 7 corridors, an off icial said yesterday. These firms are Hyundai Rotem, Korea; Bombardier India and Bombardier, Germany; CRRC Corp Ltd; Bharat Earth Movers Ltd; Titagarh Wagons and Titagarh Firema, Italy; Alstom Transport India and Alstom SA (France); and CAF India and CAF Spain. The successful bidder’s name will be announced soon by the evaluation committee. “The entire bidding process was as per the norms set by the Asian Development Bank,” said R A Rajeev, Metropolitan Commissioner, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.

Legendary singer Asha Bhosle will pay tribute to four legendary Indian film music composers — Sachin Dev Burman, Hemant Kumar, Salil Chowdhury and Rahul Dev Burman — by performing at The Bengal Tigers, a show to be held in Mumbai on September 1. Bhosle will share her experiences about all four ‘Bengal Tigers’ during the show at the Shanmukhananda Hall, read a statement issued on behalf of the organisers Badaam Raja Productions, owned by Vinayak Gawande, Ninad Karpe and Poonam Torgal. Compositions of the four composers will be presented featuring young artistes like Shailaja Subramanian, Anindita Paul, Adish Telang and Hrishikesh Ranade.

Aadhaar data breach: HC seeks Centre’s response

Former priest accused of molestation surrenders

SC worries about kids missing from shelters

Seven firms bid for trains to run on Mumbai Metro

Asha Bhosle to pay tribute to four iconic composers

JUSTICE ON THE RUNMONITORING SITUATION INFRASTRUCTURE ‘BENGAL TIGERS’

Million pack Kerala relief campsBy Bhuvan Bagga, AFPChengannur

More than 1mn people have swarmed relief camps in India’s Kerala

state to escape devastating mon-soon fl oods that have killed more than 410 people, offi cials said yesterday as a huge international aid operation gathered pace.

People are fl ocking to camps as the scale of the desolation is revealed by receding waters and the military rescues more people each day.

The Kerala government said 1,028,000 people are now in about 3,200 relief camps across the southern state.

Offi cials said six more bodies were found on Monday, taking the death toll to more than 410 since the monsoon started in June.

Kerala authorities say they are desperate for funds.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan demanded a $375mn package from the government, saying the state must confront more than $3bn in devastation.

Millions of dollars in dona-tions have poured into Kerala from the rest of India and abroad in recent days.

Other state governments have promised more than $50mn while ministers and company chiefs have publicly vowed to give a month’s salary.

Even Supreme Court judges have donated $360 each while the Britain-based Sikh group Khalsa Aid International has set up its own relief camp in Kochi, Kerala’s main city, to provide meals for 3,000 people a day.

The rescue operation is now focused on the worst-hit areas such as Chengannur, where more than 60cm of water blocked many roads as more rain fell yes-terday.

Army teams said several thou-sand people in the town remained in homes inundated by 10 days of torrential downpours.

Relief teams reached the house of retired army offi cer K G

Pillai, who said up to 2.4m of water had engulfed the house where his family had lived since 1952.

“In the past there has never

been more than one foot of fl oods and people are not used to this,” he said.

“Around 26 people moved into the fi rst fl oor of our home” to take refuge, he said.

In nearby Pandanad, locals said there was a desperate shortage of drinking water and dry clothes and people implored drivers of passing vehicles for supplies.

Next to an inundated road, army major Jingy Joseph sat barefoot with her four-year-old daughter Angelina, gazing at an overfl owing river.

“My daughter is safe — and that is all that matters,” Joseph told AFP.

She was on duty in Punjab when her parents’ house, where her daughter was staying, was inundated last week.

“I lost all contact with them for around four days and literally had to make an appeal on Face-book for any update,” she added.

Her video became one of the most widely shared distress ap-peals on Indian social media.

“I can talk about it now but they were the most anxious hours. I was strong but broke

when I heard my daughter was crying for milk and water at the time,” Joseph added.

She took a train ride and a fl ight and travelled several hours in a car to reach her parents and move them to a safe place.

Thousands of army, navy and air force personnel have fanned out across the state to help those stranded in remote and hilly areas.

Dozens of helicopters and even drones have been dropping food, medicine and water to cut-off villages.

Tens of thousands of people in Chengannur and surrounding towns and villages are relying on community kitchens for meals, after water from hilly districts poured down into lowland regions.

The government says that more than 10,000km of roads have been destroyed or damaged while a legislator said 50,000 houses had been wiped out.

Shashi Tharoor, a deputy from Kerala and former UN offi cial, estimated that 50,000 houses had been destroyed.

He said he would seek possi-ble UN assistance in relief eff orts during a trip to Geneva this week. Men carry food and water aid distributed to those stranded by floods in Pandanad in Alappuzha district.

‘None of the above’ cannot be allowed in RS polls: SCIANS New Delhi

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that NOTA (None of the above) option cannot be allowed in the Rajya Sabha

elections as it would “wholly undermine the purity of democracy”.

“The option of NOTA may serve as an elixir in direct elections but in respect of election to Council of States which is a dif-ferent one, it would wholly undermine the purity of democracy and also serve as the Satan of defection and corruption,” said a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud.

Quashing a notifi cation issued by the Election Commission introducing NOTA in Rajya Sabha elections, Chief Justice Misra said: “The introduction of NOTA in indirect election may on the fi rst glance tempt the in-tellect but on a keen scrutiny, it falls to the ground, for it completely ignores the role of an elector in such an election and fully de-

stroys the democratic value.”“More so where the electors’ vote has val-

ue and the value of that vote is transferable...It is an abstraction which does not withstand the scrutiny of the ‘cosmos of correctness’,” it added quoting Justice Krishna Iyer.

The apex court said it has to be remem-bered that “democracy garners its strength from the citizenry trust which is sustained only on the foundational pillars of purity, integrity, probity and rectitude and such strongholds can be maintained only by en-suring the process of election remains un-sullied and unpolluted so that the citadel of democracy stand still as an impregnable bul-wark against unscrupulous forces”.

Noting that the voting in election to Ra-jya Sabha are by open ballot, the court said that it has been so introduced to “sustain the foundational values of party discipline and to avoid any kind of cross voting thereby en-suring purity in the election process.”

Noting that the nature of voting by an elector in Rajya Sabha election is of a “grave concern”, the court said: “It is because in

such an election, there is a party whip and the elector is bound to obey the command of the party.”

The party discipline in this kind of elec-tion, the court said, is of “extreme signifi -cance, for that is the fulcrum of the existence of political parties. It is essential in a parlia-mentary democracy.”

“The thought of cross-voting and corruption is obnoxious in such a voting”, the court said.

Holding that the Election Commission has to act within the four corners of law made by Parliament, the court said: “The Commis-sion cannot be allowed to conceive of certain concepts or ideas or, for that matter, think of a diff erent dimension which would not fi t into the legal framework.”

The top court verdict came on a petition by Shailesh Manubhai Parmar who had chal-lenged August 1, 2017, a circular issued by Secretary, Gujarat Legislature Secretariat, making available the option of NOTA during voting for election to Rajya Sabha. Shailesh Manubhai Parmar is the chief whip of the Congress in Gujarat assembly.

Floods recede in Karnataka, relief work in full swing: offi cialIANS Bengaluru

Relief operations were in full swing yesterday in Karna-taka’s fl ood-hit Kodagu

district as rains abated and life limped back to normal, an offi cial has said.

“We are concentrating on pro-viding shelter and other relief to the people evacuated from towns and villages in the hilly ar-eas fl ooded by rains and blocked by landslides,” Kodagu Deputy Commissioner P Sreevidya told reporters at Madikeri, about 270km from here.

Though rescue operations had slowed down as fl ood waters receded, the administration is using drones to look for people reported missing or stranded in remote areas or villages where landslips were witnessed.

“We are receiving huge quan-tities of relief material, espe-

cially food items, water, clothes, utensils, mats and tarpaulin from Bengaluru, Mysuru, Man-galuru, Udupi and other places in the state. Essential items, including medicines, have been rushed to 41 relief camps hous-ing about 5,000 people,” said Sreevidya.

The administration has also rushed food grains and other provisions to towns and villages across the district as heavy rains and fl oods disrupted supplies over the last 10 days due to land-slides and roadblocks.

“Besides state offi cials, hun-dreds of volunteers from non-government organisations are helping us in looking after those lodged in relief camps.

It will take at least a week before they can return to their homes as restoration works are slow due to extensive damage caused by fl oodwaters,” the of-fi cer said.

According to initial estimates,

the cumulative loss in the rav-aged district is said to be over Rs 20bn due to heavy damage to infrastructure like roads, bridges, power lines, apart from houses and agricultural land.

According to the Indian Air Force (IAF), two MI-17 helicop-ters took off for relief work in Kodagu, operating from Kushal-nagar, Periapatna and Harangi.

“Helicopters undertook aer-ial recce and rescue missions in fl ood-aff ected areas of Mon-nangeri and Jodupala to iden-tify ground rescue in coordina-tion with district offi cials,” the IAF training command said in a statement here.

The choppers were also used in airlifting essential supplies to the aff ected areas.

The district administration has also ordered hotels, resorts, homestays and guesthouses to cancel bookings till August 31 due to the havoc wrought by heavy rains in the hilly region.

Billboard campaign against elephant rides in JaipurIANS Jaipur

Hathi Gaon (the village of el-ephants), near Jaipur, has 102 of them. It is from here the giant

animal is sent to various tourist places for joy rides.

One of these resident-elephants, El-ephant Number 44, if you care, has been badly sick with serious infections in the foot.

And it continues to carry tourists for joy rides.

‘Shackled, beaten, and abused. Be a compassionate traveller: Say no to el-ephant rides’ — reads a big billboard of People for the Ethical Treatment of Ani-mals (PETA) at the Railway Station Flyo-ver in Jaipur.

Elephant Number 44’s plight was highlighted in June 2017 when a group of American tourists at Amer Fort saw him being beaten up continuously for at least 10 minutes.

His story spread light wild fi re, prompting Bollywood actor Sonakshi Sinha in February 2018 to write to PETA India requesting sending the animal to a rehab facility for urgent care. Instead, the elephant continues to be used for rides.

“The gut-wrenching image of a suf-fering captive elephant being viciously beaten by a group of men should be enough to convince any compassionate person never to ride an elephant”, says PETA India CEO Dr Manilal Valliyate.

The billboard follows a PETA India re-port in April that revealed shocking cru-elty to elephants used for rides at Amer Fort and at elephant village (Hathi Gaon).

According to the PETA India report, among the 102 working elephants exam-ined at Amer Fort, many were found to be more than 50 years old.

Ten tested reactive to tuberculosis test, which can be transmitted to humans, and 19 were observed to be visually impaired, rendering them unfi t to give rides be-cause of the danger posed to both them-selves and the public, the report said.

All were found to be suff ering from various foot problems, including over-grown toenails and bruised footpads, and many displayed stereotypical behaviour patterns, such as repetitive swaying and head-bobbing, indicating severe psycho-logical distress, the report said.

“The tusks of 47 elephants appeared to have been cut, in apparent violation of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, raising suspicion that the tusks may have entered the illegal wildlife trade,” the report said.

Farmers stage a demonstration to press for their various demands in Amritsar yesterday.

Farmers’ protest

PAKISTAN11Gulf Times

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

With mounting censor-ship and increasing threats to dissent in

the country, reports of a shut-down against micro-blogging website Twitter have worried digital rights experts, journalists and activists as well as common users.

On Wednesday, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said it had warned Twit-ter that the tech giant would be banned in Pakistan for not com-plying with its directive to block “objectionable content” despite repeated requests from the au-thorities.

In its fi nal notice to the micro-blogging website, the authority said a blanket ban would be in-stated in the country if the gov-ernment’s requests were not ad-dressed within 15 days.

Following reports of the pos-sible shutdown, German ambas-

sador to Pakistan Martin Kobler expressed his concerns.

In a tweet, he said: “Worried about press reports that #twit-ter is threatened in #pakistan. I love my followers. I learn so much from you. Social media must be handled with responsi-bility but must not be blocked. A free country needs free social media!”

“These bans and shutdowns only serve to de-stabilise the im-age of the country. Other coun-tries are moving forward tak-ing advantage of the digital age but Pakistan is still afraid of the Internet,” digital rights expert Nighat Dad said.

Recalling how similar at-tempts had been made to block the spread of social media in the country in the past when Face-book was banned twice in 2008 and then again in 2010 and ac-cess to YouTube was blocked in 2012 for over two years, Dad said the ban would not work this time as times had changed.

“People have become more

digitally aware now. Their lives literally depend on the Internet and even political leaders rely on social media for communication. Twitter is far more popular [and useful] than they [authorities] perceive it to be,” she added.

Besides disrupting public dis-course, banning a website con-stitutes as violation of Article 19 of the Constitution, Dad pointed out.

“We will challenge the deci-sion legally, if it is instated, for it is restricting free speech and access to information which is a right under the Constitution,” she asserted.

Interestingly, Pakistan is not alone in expressing concern over Twitter’s inability to curb propa-ganda.

The company has been wide-ly criticised for years for their seemingly lax eff orts to police bad actors, including abusive us-ers.

Recently, amid increasing pressure from various countries in the election year, the company

suspended 70mn accounts as part of a crackdown on malicious activity on its platform.

In a blog post earlier this year, the company wrote that it had identifi ed and challenged more than 9.9mn potentially spammy or automated accounts per week and had introduced measures to fi ght abuse, hateful conduct and violent extremism.

However, telecom authorities in Pakistan maintain that when-ever they sought information about an individual who had up-loaded “objectionable content”, Twitter did not respond and rarely took down the content.

What is objectionable con-tent?

PTA chairman Muhammad Naveed pointed out that it is not under the regulatory body’s mandate to shut down a website.

“We are answerable to insti-tutions and Twitter is not co-operating. We have asked them to remove blasphemous content related to Shaukat Aziz case and they have not responded. There

are many other similar cases,” he insisted.

Although what constitutes as “objectionable” is open to in-terpretation, online content is monitored under the Prevention of Electronics Crime Act (Peca), which defi nes “unlawful online content”.

Clause 37 of the Peca empow-ers the PTA to regulate Internet content as under: “Unlawful on-line content. (I) The Authority shall have the power to remove or block or issue directions for removal or blocking of access to

an information through any in-formation system if it considers it necessary in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defence of Pakistan or any part thereof, public or-der, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court or commission of or incitement to an off ence under this Act.”

The PTA chairman further clarifi ed recent reports suggest-ing that the authorities are plan-ning to crackdown on the use of social media under a “Social Media Control Act” under which online abuse would lead to pun-ishment of three years and a fi ne worth Rs10mn.

“There is no particular act re-lated to social media. We only implement punishment liable under the Peca,” he said.

Usama Khilji, the director of Bolo Bhi, an advocacy forum for digital rights, is of the opinion that the state must not play judge on what people are allowed to say, as long as it does not directly incite violence or cause harm.

“We have seen the state abuse Section 10 of the Peca 16 (cyber-crime bill) which relates to ter-rorism being used against activ-ists that criticise state policies,” he said.

“Citizens must be allowed to criticise the policies of a state that they fund through their taxes and government that they choose through their votes,” Khilji maintained.

However, optimistic that with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s re-liance on social media for its success to be elected to power, the digital rights expert said he expected little to no support for the move to ban Twitter from the new government.

Speaking about alternative measures to curtail spread of in-fl ammatory content online,

Dad citied Germany’s example where websites are charged with a hefty penalty if they don’t com-ply with offi cial requests.

“Hold the websites accounta-ble instead of punishing Internet users,” she advised.

Threat to ban Twitter worries digital rights expertsInternewsKarachi

Prime Minister Imran Khan has defended Navjot Singh Sidhu, a minister for the

Indian state of Punjab, calling him an “ambassador of peace”, amid political backlash over his visit to Pakistan.

“I want to thank Sidhu for coming to Pakistan for my oath taking,” newly-elected Khan tweeted.

“He was an ambassador of peace & was given amazing love & aff ection by ppl of Pakistan,” he tweeted yesterday. “Those in India who targeted him are do-ing a gt disservice to peace in the subcontinent – without peace our ppl cannot progress.”

A former Test opener, Sidhu crossed over to neighbouring Pakistan after being invited by his cricketer friend Khan to the latter’s swearing-in ceremony as prime minister on Saturday.

Pictures of Sidhu hugging Pa-kistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and sharing the front row with the head of Pakistan-administered Kashmir Masood Khan were splashed all over In-dian media.

Sidhu was attacked by Indian politicians, including those from his Indian National Congress, for the hug, saying that he should have avoided the gesture at a time when Indian soldiers were being killed in clashes with Pakistani forces on the border.

The images were seized up by opposition leaders who called Sidhu’s actions shameful and ac-cused him of compromising the nation’s dignity.

The chief minister of northern Punjab state said that it is wrong of his cabinet colleague to show aff ection for the Pakistani army chief when “Indian soldiers were being killed everyday”.

Earlier at a press conference, Sidhu dismissed criticism over attending Khan’s inauguration, saying that goodwill measures are important in improving rela-tions between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

“For peace and prosperity [be-tween both nations], such good-will messages are necessary,” Sidhu said.

Sidhu, 54, said that his act of hugging the Pakistani army chief was an “emotional response”, after Bajwa informed him that

his country’s government was making eff orts to open Kartar-pur Sahib – a holy Sikh shrine in Pakistan – to Sikh pilgrims from India.

“For me this was a very emo-tional moment and there was a feeling of aff ection. After that brief moment, there was no meeting (between us),” Sidhu told reporters. “It just lasted a minute maybe. So I am sad and there is a bit of disappointment on this front.”

A doughty opening batsman,

Sidhu is remembered for fa-mously hitting Shane Warne to all corners at the start of the great Australian spinner’s Test career.

With his razor-sharp wit and colourful turbans – usually paired with a matching blazer-pocket handkerchief – Sidhu forged a successful career as a pundit after retirement, before also becoming a gameshow host.

Meanwhile, domestic media reported that the radical Hin-du group Bajrang Dal had put a bounty of Rs500,000 rupees

($7,100) on Sidhu’s head, while a sedition case was fi led in an In-dian town over the hug.

The Himalayan region of Kashmir is at the heart of the decades-long confl ict between the nuclear-armed foes, with both sides laying claim to the confl ict-riven territory.

Ties, including sports and cultural contacts, plummeted after the 2008 militant attacks in Mumbai, which New Delhi blames on Pakistani militant groups.

Imran defends Sidhu over visit to PakistanDPA/AFPNew Delhi

This handout photograph released by the Press Information Department (PID) on August 18, shows Prime Minister Imran Khan with members of the 1992 Cricket world cup team and former Indian cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu (top right) in Islamabad.

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo is likely to visit Islamabad in the

fi rst week of September for con-sultations with Prime Minister Imran Khan and his team on is-sues of mutual interests, diplo-matic and offi cial sources said.

Pompeo, who is expected in Islamabad on September 5, will likely be the fi rst foreign digni-tary to meet the newly-elected prime minister, who took the oath of his offi ce on Saturday.

During his talks with the Paki-stani offi cials, Pompeo may focus on two major issues: eff orts to re-vive once close ties between the two states and Pakistan’s support for a US-led move to jump-start

the Afghan peace process, the sources said.

Pakistan is likely to seek the US support for its bid to obtain an expected $12bn fi nancial package

from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Islamabad also hopes that an improvement in relations will lead to the resumption of US se-

curity assistance to the country and the restoration training fa-cilities for their military.

Alice Wells, who heads the Bu-reau for South and Central Asian Aff airs at the US State Depart-ment, may also accompany Pom-peo, according to the sources.

Pompeo and his delegation may also visit India and Afghani-stan during this trip, which is part of the Trump administra-tion’s eff orts to conclude a peace agreement in Afghanistan be-fore the mid-term congressional elections in the United States scheduled for November.

Earlier this week, US offi cials urged Pakistan to help end the Afghan war, adding that recent terrorist attacks in Afghanistan had not discouraged them from negotiating peace with some Tal-iban factions.

Wells reminded Pakistan that now is the time to peacefully end the 17-year-old war in Afghani-stan and encouraged Islamabad to play a leading role in this proc-ess.

Washington believes Paki-stan has enough infl uence over the Afghan Taliban to persuade them to join the peace process, and wants Islamabad to help es-tablish a political set-up in Kabul that would allow a peaceful with-drawal of American troops from Afghanistan.

On Monday last week, Pompeo telephoned Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman and sought his support for arranging another ceasefi re in Afghanistan.

The fi rst ceasefi re on Eid al-Fitr led to the fi rst face-to-face talks between the US and Taliban offi cials in Doha last month.

Both sides are now trying to hold the second round, also in Doha, in September.

In recent statements, the US offi cials have also expressed the desire to restore their once close ties with Pakistan.

On Saturday, the US State De-partment said that it recognised and welcomed the new Paki-stani prime minister, dispelling the impression that Washington is not happy with Imran Khan’s election.

In an earlier statement, a sen-ior US offi cial had expressed the hope that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government would work with the US for translat-ing tough issues into mutual achievements.

In her speech at the Pakistan embassy earlier this week, Wells not only welcomed Khan’s elec-

tion but also expressed the desire to work with his government for resolving diffi cult issues.

“A negotiated political settle-ment to the 17-year-long confl ict in Afghanistan is a critical shared goal, and an area where we all would hope to see progress in the coming months,” she said.

In a similar message, Pompeo also stressed this point and ex-pressed the desire to work with Pakistan to “advance (the) shared goals of security, stability, and prosperity in South Asia”.

Relations between Pakistan and the US nosedived in Janu-ary when US President Donald Trump accused Islamabad of providing a “safe haven” to the terrorists who kill American sol-diers in Afghanistan while tak-ing billions of dollars in aid from Washington.

Pompeo to hold talks with premier next monthInternewsIslamabad

Pompeo: expected in Islamabad on September 5.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Punjab will face mul-

tiple issues that have long been left unaddressed.

The more important amongst these issues are a growing number of jobless graduates, falling crop yields, worsening business climate, deteriorating public service delivery, widening regional disparity and so on.

On top of that, the PTI gov-ernment will be short on time because of the voters’ expecta-tions.

It will be also working un-der the shadow of the Paki-stan Muslim League – Nawaz’s Shehbaz Sharif, who was pre-viously the chief minister.

“You may disagree with Shehbaz’s infatuation with large infrastructure schemes, but he has certainly created a big constituency in the prov-ince for that kind of develop-ment,” argued an economist, who declined to be identifi ed due to personal reasons. “The next government will not only have to deliver that kind of in-frastructure development, but also work hard to drastically improve governance to off er an alternative to the voters.”

Some insist that the key to tackling challenges fac-ing the incoming government lies in the implementation of wide-ranging governance, civil service and local govern-ment reforms, development of its long-term social and eco-nomic goals and strategy, and the linkage of its targets with provincial budgets.

“The immediate task for the new government should be to simultaneously draw up a strategy for restructuring development planning proc-esses and reforming the public fi nance management system

to plug leakages of taxpayers’ money and create a larger pool of fi nancial resource for accel-erating growth and improving public service delivery,” said an offi cial, who has worked in the Shehbaz Sharif govern-ment as well as international organisations, on condition of anonymity.

“There has been a signifi cant increase in public investment in Punjab over the last several years. But the money in the past was spent in a haphazard manner. The challenge now is to stop the wastage of public money,” he added.

The provincial budgets should be refl ective of the gov-ernment’s overall social and economic growth targets and strategy rather than an indi-vidual’s aspirations.

According to him, the new government will also have to undertake large-scale civil service reforms to prepare and motivate the bureaucracy.

While the public planning processes and fi nance manage-ment systems are in immediate need of improvement for an effi cient use of the taxpayers’ money, Lahore University of Management Science-based economist Usman Khan as-serts that it is also crucial to improve the worsening busi-ness environment in the prov-ince to increase participation of the private sector in creating jobs.

“The number of idle youth in the 15-24 age group is grow-ing in Punjab, with the total number rising to 11.5mn, in-cluding 8mn females, in 2015,” he said.

“Moreover, the unemploy-ment rate amongst graduates has gone up to almost 21.5%,” Khan said. “Now that is an alarming situation because the government cannot provide jobs to everyone, and you need to facilitate private investment to grow the economy and cre-ate jobs.”

New Punjab govt faces challenges long unaddressedInternewsIslamabad

LATIN AMERICA

Gulf TimesWednesday, August 22, 201812

Business leaders lambast Maduro’s new banknotesAFP Caracas

New banknotes stripped of fi ve zeros entered cir-culation in Venezuela

on Monday as part of President Nicolas Maduro’s radical plan to curb hyperinfl ation, but busi-ness leaders branded the move as counterproductive.

The country appeared para-lysed.

Most shops and businesses closed as Venezuelans react-ed nervously to the issuing of the new “sovereign bolivar,” launched to replace the oil-rich, cash-strapped country’s crip-pled “strong bolivar.”

But Carlos Larrazabal, presi-dent of leading business asso-ciation, Fedecamaras, said the measure would only “increase economic instability.”

Having been suspended for more than 12 hours on Sunday, electronic transactions resumed amid palpable uncertainty.

“We’re all in the same boat, waiting to see what will happen,” Maria Sanchez, a 39-year-old shopkeeper said after withdraw-ing some cash.

Alongside the bolivar rede-nomination, Maduro announced other measures to tackle wide-spread poverty, including a 3,400% hike in the minimum

wage, the fi fth such move this year alone.

“That’s a crazy measure,” Henkel Garcia, director of con-sultancy group Econometrica, said.

Larrazabal said it “could dev-astate companies’ already de-bilitated assets.”

Infl ation that the Interna-tional Monetary Fund predicts will reach 1mn% this year ren-dered the old bolivar currency practically worthless, while the economic crisis has driven more than 2mn people to fl ee the country, according to the United Nations. In a video broadcast on Monday night on Facebook, Ma-duro said the launch of the new bank notes had gone smoothly, insisting “the banking system performed wonderfully.”

He also issued a vague threat to companies to comply with the minimum wage increase.

“Otherwise, they will have to answer to us,” Maduro said with-out explaining what punishment there might be.

On the border with Brazil, the fl ow of fl eeing people contin-ued despite some 1,200 being driven back over the weekend in anti-migrant violence that got so bad President Michel Temer sent troops to the area to restore order.

“The Venezuelan people bear the tragic cost of the Maduro re-

gime’s rampant corruption and tyranny,” tweeted US Vice Presi-dent Mike Pence, adding that “recent moves will only make life worse for every Venezuelan.”

“Nicolas Maduro and his re-gime have driven a once-pros-perous country to economic ruin

and humanitarian crisis,” Pence said. The embattled Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, said the country needed to show “fi scal discipline” and stop the excessive money print-ing of recent years.

In the capital, Caracas, resi-

dents were sceptical about the new measures, not least since former president Hugo Chavez slashed three zeros from the bo-livar 10 years ago without halting hyperinfl ation.

“Everything will stay the same, prices will continue to

rise,” 39-year-old Bruno Choy, who runs a street food stand, said.

Angel Arias, a 67-year-old re-tiree, dubbed the new currency a “pure lie!”

Three of the country’s leading opposition groups — Primero Justicia, Voluntad Popular and Causa R — have called for a gen-eral strike and day of protests.

Government loyalist and president of the controversial regime-dominated legislature, Diosdado Cabello responded on Monday by announcing a “counter-march.”

One of Maduro’s most baffl ing reforms has been to anchor the new currency to the country’s widely discredited cryptocur-rency, the petro.

Each petro will be worth about $60, based on the price of a bar-rel of Venezuelan oil.

In the new currency, that will be 3,600 bolivars — signalling a massive devaluation.

In turn, the minimum wage will be fi xed at half a petro — 1,800 bolivars, about $28.

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez insisted the reform programme would be funded “with oil income, with taxes and income from gasoline price hikes.”

Maduro also announced a curb on heavily subsidised fuel in a bid to prevent oil being

smuggled to other countries.Fuel subsidies have cost Ven-

ezuela $10bn since 2012, accord-ing to oil analyst Luis Oliveros, but without them, most people would not be able to buy fuel.

The blows kept coming on Monday as US oil giant Cono-coPhillips said Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA had agreed to make a $2bn settlement to halt the seizure of its Caribbean assets.

ConocoPhillips seized $750mn of PDVSA assets in May after winning two international arbitration cases against Ven-ezuela for the “unlawful and un-compensated expropriation” of its heavy crude oil projects in the country by Chavez in 2007.

Earlier this month, a US court had also ruled that Cana-dian mining company Crystallex could seize shares in PDVSA’s US-based subsidiary Citgo as payment for a $1.2bn debt.

Now in a fourth year of reces-sion, Venezuela has been ham-strung by shortages of basic goods such as food and medi-cine, and paralysed public serv-ices, including water, electricity and transport.

Oil production accounts for 96% of Venezuela’s revenue — but that has slumped to a 30-year low of 1.4mn barrels a day, compared to its record high of 3.2mn 10 years ago.

Venezuelan streets quieter than usual after strike callReutersCaracas

Venezuela’s streets were qui-eter than normal yesterday but many businesses re-

mained open despite an opposition call for a national strike to protest economic measures announced by socialist President Nicolas Ma-duro.

The Opec nation on Monday cut fi ve zeros from prices in response to hyperinfl ation as part of a broad set of measures meant to address an economic crisis, including peg-ging the country’s currency to an obscure state-backed cryptocur-rency.

Opposition critics slammed the plan as inadequate in the face of infl ation that topped 82,000% in July and called for a one-day halt of commercial activities.

“Don’t go to work, you have the right to protest, because what’s at stake is your life, your future, and your country.

Rebel!” opposition party Popu-lar Will wrote via its Twitter ac-count. Maduro declared on Mon-day a national holiday for banks and consumers to get accustomed to the new pricing scheme, under which items that cost 1,000,000 bolivars last week were remarked with price tags of 10 bolivars.

Fedecamaras, the country’s main business group, slammed the proposal as “incoherent,” noting that the plan’s 3,000% minimum wage increase would make it im-possible for businesses to keep their doors open.

The Information Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The ruling Socialist Party an-nounced a march yesterday morn-ing to support Maduro’s economic measures that was scheduled to end with a rally at the presidential palace. The collapse of the coun-try’s once-booming economy has fuelled hunger and disease, spur-ring an exodus of migrants to near-by countries.

In recent days, Ecuador and Peru tightened visa requirements for Venezuelans and violence drove hundreds of Venezuelan migrants back across the border with Brazil.

The discontent has also spread to the military, as soldiers strug-gle to get enough food and many desert by leaving the country.

Two high-ranking military of-fi cers were arrested this month for alleged involvement in drone explosions during a speech by Ma-duro, who called it an assassina-tion attempt.

Maduro says his government is the victim of an “economic war” led by the opposition with the help of Washington, which last year levied several rounds of sanctions against his government and high-ranking offi cials.

Venezuelans queue to eat breakfast at Spanish priest Jose Lopez Fernandez de Bobadilla’s parish in Pacaraima, Roraima, Brazil, at the border, yesterday.

Venezuelans heading to Peru walk along the Panamerican highway in Tulcan, Ecuador, after crossing from Colombia, yesterday.

A woman holds new bolivar-notes in downtown Caracas.

Ex-president Lula tops opinion polls

DPARio de Janeiro

Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is topping opinion polls

ahead of elections in October al-though he is behind bars, serving time on a conviction for corrup-tion.

Lula has 37% approval in opinion polls ahead of popu-list right-winger Jair Bolsonaro, who is polling at 18%, according to fi gures released on Monday.

Brazil’s Workers’ Party (PT) registered Lula last week despite him serving a jail sentence, the party announced.

Lula, 72, was found guilty of corruption and money-launder-ing in connection with the reno-vation of a beachside penthouse, which was bankrolled by a com-pany seeking contracts with the state oil giant Petrobras.

He is serving a 12-year jail sentence in Curitiba in southern Brazil. His party regards the judi-cial proceedings as a manoeuvre by the political right to remove leftist Lula from the presidential race. The Supreme Electoral Tri-bunal (TSE) is expected to cancel Lula’s candidacy on the grounds that the law does not allow peo-ple with criminal records to run for president.

The court needs to announce its decision by September 17.

The PT might then replace Lula with its candidate for his vice president, former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad.

The October 7 elections come at a time of political and eco-nomic crisis, with much of the political class tarnished by cor-ruption scandals and the econ-omy still recovering from the 2015-16 recession.

China, El Salvador establish ties in fresh defeat for Taiwan

China and El Salvador estab-

lished diplomatic relations

yesterday as the Central Amer-

ican nation ditched Taiwan in

yet another victory for Beijing

in its campaign to isolate the

island. Beijing has been using

its economic clout to peel

away international support

for the democratically-ruled

island, leaving it with only 17

diplomatic allies around the

world. Speaking in Beijing at

the Diaoyutai Guest House,

Chinese Foreign Minister

Wang Yi praised El Salvador’s

decision to “recognise there is

one China in the world”.

“This further goes to show

the One China policy is in line

with international norms, is

the correct choice... and is the

basis of China’s relation with

any country,” he said.

PHILIPPINES13Gulf Times

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Nation needs more citizens like Ninoy ‘for a better future’By Ralph VillanuevaManila Times

The country needs more citizens like the late former senator Benigno

“Ninoy” Aquino Jr, for a better and brighter future, according to President Rodrigo Duterte.

“In this time of real and last-ing change, we need more citi-zens like (Aquino) so we can steer our country toward the direction where a brighter and better future awaits us all,” Du-terte said in his Ninoy Aquino Day message yesterday.

“This can only be achieved if we work together to institute meaningful reforms that will put an end to the many social ills that have obstructed our path toward becoming a ma-ture and stable democracy,” the president added.

Duterte called on the people to refl ect on Aquino’s sacrifi ces that led to the freedom that Fili-pinos enjoy today.

“Let us take this opportu-nity to refl ect on his sacrifi ce as we honour the courage and patriotism that Ninoy demon-strated during his struggle. May his dedication to his cause serve as a guidepost for our current leaders in government as they advance the welfare of our peo-ple, especially the oppressed and marginalised,” he said.

Aquino’s assassination at

the then-Manila International Airport 35 years ago, upon his return to the country from a three-year self-exile in Bos-ton, Massachusetts, triggered events that led to the overthrow of then-president Ferdinand Marcos.

Aquino’s wife, Corazon or Cory, replaced Marcos.

According to history books, Marcos’ 21-year regime was fi lled with human rights viola-tions and alleged accumulation of billions in ill-gotten wealth.

A three-day “people power”

uprising, dubbed as the fi rst bloodless revolt in the world, led to Marcos fl eeing to Hawaii on February 25, 1986.

Marcos’ family is well in pow-er at present.

His wife, Imelda, is an Ilocos Norte lawmaker, his daughter,

Imee, is Ilocos Norte gover-nor and his son, Ferdinand Jr or Bongbong, was a former senator.

Bongbong is challenging the results of the 2016 vice presidential elections where he came up short against then-Camarines Sur Rep. Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo, who beat him by 263,473 votes.

The chairman of the Presi-dential Anti-Corruption Com-mission (PACC), Dante Jimenez, also yesterday noted that justice for Ninoy remains elusive 35 years after he was assassinated.

In a statement, Jimenez said while suspects responsible for the killing of Aquino have been sentenced, the masterminds behind the murder remained unidentifi ed.

“Who masterminded the orchestrated killing of Ninoy Aquino? Because only the sol-diers and police security escorts were convicted by the court,” he added.

Despite having two Aquinos as president, Jimenez said, the real masterminds behind the assassination have not been identifi ed.

He was referring to Cory Aquino and her son Noynoy. Cory replaced Marcos as presi-dent while Noynoy was Du-terte’s predecessor.

“Justice remains elusive and still haunts the nation that is waiting for answers,” Jimenez said.

Family, friends and support-ers remembered Ninoy on his 35th death anniversary.

Present at a Mass commem-orating the occasion at Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City were Noynoy, Robredo, Senator Antonio Trillanes, former Social Welfare secre-tary Corazon Soliman, former chairman Etta Rosales of the Commission on Human Rights and former Education chief Armin Luistro.

The celebration, dubbed as “Mass for National Transfor-mation” and presided by Msgr. Gerardo Santos, also remem-bered those who were killed under President Duterte’s war on drugs and those who were victims of martial law.

Hundreds of Aquino’s sup-porters also attended the Mass, clad in yellow shirts, some with yellow ribbons on their wrists or around their heads.

Civil society groups and sup-porters expressed their support for the “sacrifi ce and heroism” of the late former senator.

“We in Tindig Pilipinas recall the many deeds and wisdom of Ninoy as we confront the Du-terte dictatorship,” the groups said in a statement.

“Ninoy told us to fi ght, to be fi rm, and to hold fast to our principles. Most important, Ninoy taught us our true value, that we are worth dying for,” Tindig Pilipinas added.

Supporters of former president Benigno Aquino flash the “Laban” (fight) symbol during a mass commemorating the 35th death anniversary of Aquino’s father Ninoy in Manila, yesterday.

Former president Benigno Aquino along with current Vice President Leni Robredo pray during a mass commemorating the 35th death anniversary of Aquino’s father Ninoy in Manila, yesterday.

OFWs aff ected by airport chaos to receive assistanceManila TimesManila

The Department of Foreign Aff airs (DFA) yesterday said it would extend fi -

nancial assistance to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were aff ected by the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) runway accident.

Foreign Aff airs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the DFA, through its Offi ce of Migrant Workers Aff airs, would give P5,000 to the aff ected OFWs starting today until August 24.

The cash aid will be given to OFWs who were unable to depart due to fl ight delays and cancella-tions.

“The DFA, together with the Department of Labour and Employment and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administra-tion are working together to ad-dress the concerns of our over-seas workers who have been stranded at the NAIA in the

past few days,” Cayetano said.The cash aid can be claimed

at the OMWA offi ces at the third fl oor of the DFA Building in Rox-as Boulevard and at NAIA Ter-minals 1, 2, and 3.

Those claiming the fi nancial

assistance need to present their airline ticket showing their orig-inal date of departure, the reis-sued ticket showing new date of departure, employment con-tract, and overseas employment certifi cate.

The DFA earlier said its em-bassies and consulates general abroad would issue certifi cations and make representations with foreign employers to explain the delay in the arrival of their Fili-pino employees if needed.

Passengers, including Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), continue to wait for their respective flights at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 in Paranaque, yesterday.

New law to ensure workers’ safetyBy Catherine S ValenteManila Times

President Rodrigo Du-terte has signed into law a measure seeking to ensure

the safety of Filipino workers, from hazards in their work envi-ronment.

Duterte signed Republic Act 11058 or “An Act Strengthening Compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Standards” on August 17, but the documents were released to the media only on August 20.

The new law mandates the labour secretary to issue the standards of occupational safety and health (OSH) based on the number of employees, nature of operations, and the risk or haz-ard involved.

Covered by the law are all es-tablishments, projects, sites, including Philippine economic zones and all other places of work except the public sector.

RA 11058 requires employers to provide a place of employ-ment free from hazards, give complete job safety instructions and comply with OSH standards including the provision of pro-tective and safety devices.

It also requires all safety and health personnel to undergo training on basic occupational safety and health as prescribed by the Department of Labour and Employment.

Employers who violate the law face a penalty of P100,000 for each day of violation to be counted from the day the employer or con-tractor is notifi ed of the violation.

The new law also provides for the creation of an OSH com-mittee, which will ensure the enforcement of the safety and health programme of the covered workplaces. The committee will be chaired by the employer or his representative. Its members will include safety offi cers represent-ing the contractor or subcontrac-tor and company workers either coming from the union or those picked via simple majority vote.

The committee shall plan, de-velop, oversee and monitor the implementation of the safety and health programme. The presi-dent also signed RA 11057 or an “Act Strengthening the Secured Transactions Legal Framework in the Philippines,” which provides for “the creation, perfection, de-termination of priority, establish-ment of a centralised notice regis-try, and enforcement of security interests in personal property.”

RA 11057 shall apply to all transactions of any form that se-cure an obligation with moveable collateral, except interests in air-craft and interests in ships.

Under the law, the priority of security interests and liens in the same collateral shall be deter-mined according to time of reg-istration of a notice or perfection by other means, without regard to the order of creation of the secu-rity interests and liens.

School faces probe over students’ rights violationManila TimesLegazpi City

The Department of Education (DepEd) in Bicol is conducting an investigation of the Bicol Central Academy (BCA) in Naga City,

after the burning of its students’ personal be-longings for allegedly disobeying a directive.

Gilbert Sadsad, DepEd regional director in Bi-col, said, “In the light of the recent incident in Bicol Central Academy in Camarines Sur involv-ing a teacher-owner-administrator burning the properties of students inside the school, we are deeply saddened and are now investigating the matter,” he said.

The DepEd offi cial said there is clear instance of child abuse and a violation of the child protec-tion policy.

Involved in the incident was Alexander James Jaucian, school administrator and now provincial board member.

A report said that senior high school students of BCA were instructed not to bring a “big bag” on August 17 for the school’s Tusumaki Day and to wear business attire as they were to serve as substitute teachers while the faculty attended a seminar. Tatsumaki Day in BCA is the day when students teach their fellow learners.

But some students brought bags for their clothes and other personal belongings like laptop

and cellphones, while some came in denim jeans and rubber shoes that apparently angered the school administrator.

The students were reportedly ordered to gather at the school grounds and watched as their bags containing their belongings were set on fi re as “punishment” for not following the instructions.

Sadsad on Monday went to the school to con-duct initial investigation and was able to talk to the principal, but Jaucian was reportedly not around.

A dialogue between the school management, parents and students was set today.

“While we cannot sanction the off ending per-son because he is under the jurisdiction of au-thorities of a private school, we will review our policies to determine if we can provide sanctions in terms of possible revocation of the school’s permit to operate and other benefi ts provided by the government,” Sadsad added.

Mayfl or Jumamil, DepEd Bicol administra-tion and information offi cer, said even if BCA is a private school, a call for action from parents prompted the school division offi ce in Camarines Sur to send a request to the BCA administrator for a written explanation regarding the incident. It is now awaiting response.

She said private schools are independent enti-ties and as such, supervision and authority over them rests on the members of the institutions’ board.

Gulf Times Wednesday, August 22, 2018

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End of Greek bailout odyssey, but debt concerns linger

After an eight-year-long odyssey navigating its debt crisis, Greece has fi nally been unshackled from its handcuff s to emerge from the biggest bailout in economic history.

Well, sort of. Since 2010, the European Union and the International

Monetary Fund have committed more than €300bn ($352bn) in bailout loans to Greece. In return, lenders imposed harsh fi scal terms on the country to meet strict budgetary targets and accept frequent inspections.

The belt-tightening worked, on paper, with Greece now running surpluses. But the economic toll has been crippling: The economy has shrunk by more than 25% and more than 1mn jobs have disappeared. And thousands of Greeks have seen their living standards fall below the poverty line.

The Greek leg of the global fi nancial crisis was sparked when George Papandreou’s newly elected government revealed that the country had misled the world about its fi nances and the 2009 budget defi cit had swelled to more than 15% of gross domestic product, fi ve times the EU limit.

At the time of the May 2010 aid package – the fi rst of three – politicians from euro-area creditor countries argued the crisis was the result of chronic fi scal and economic indiscipline.

To justify breaching a “no bailout clause,” loans were tied to strict conditions, covering fi scal sustainability, fi nancial stability, growth and competitiveness, and reform of public administration and justice.

Over the three bailouts, Greece has sold state assets, made sweeping changes to the electricity market and regulations covering everything from lawyers

to hairdressers. The country has also reduced the public payrolls by 150,000 jobs by only hiring one person for every fi ve departures.

The Greek debt crisis had also brought about an existential crisis for the euro.

The prospect of a debt-ridden member being kicked out of the union also led to wider repercussions: If one country can leave, why not another?

The European single currency had plunged to an 11-year low against the dollar in January 2015 after the anti-austerity, neo-Marxist party Syriza won the Greek election.

But the threat of a one-way ticket from the eurozone, brought about largely by German pressure, fi nally persuaded leftist Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to say “I give in” in July 2015 to agree to tough reforms for an €86bn, three-year bailout, the nation’s third in fi ve years.

True, amid such hostile terms as “fi scal waterboarding,” “fi nancial terrorism,” “a decade of mismanagement,” it is clear that in the 8-year Greek debt odyssey, both sides made countless mistakes and misjudgements.

But easing Greece’s debt burden while keeping the country within the eurozone was the correct and achievable path out of the crisis, in a win not only for those countries, but also for the world economy, said Jeff rey D Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University in 2015.

Some economists now fear the bailout terms — forbearance on some loan repayments but no debt forgiveness — could invite a new crisis. For now, the biggest questions are whether the country can really stand on its own, and when Greeks will start seeing the economic recovery in their wallets.

The Greek economy has shrunk by more than 25%; 1mn jobs have disappeared

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CHAIRMANAbdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFFaisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka

Deputy Managing EditorK T Chacko

ReutersBuenos Aires

With interest rates sky-high and the economy heading for recession, Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri

is running short of options to stem a slide in the peso, economists say, leaving the battered currency at the mercy of volatility in emerging markets.

Macri’s government has already taken a series of measures to restore confi dence in the peso since it came under pressure in May, reviving memories of a painful 2002 economic crisis in Latin America’s third-largest economy.

The peso, which has fallen around 40% so far this year, rivals the Turkish lira as the world’s worst performing currency in 2018.

Argentina’s central bank hiked interest rates to 40% in May, and Macri sealed a $50-bn deal with the International Monetary Fund in June — removing the need for outside funding and briefl y steadying the peso.

His government has since announced more than $2bn in budget savings.

But jitters returned in recent weeks as Turkey’s fi nancial crisis roiled emerging markets, after Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan clashed with US President Donald Trump.

Emerging market investors were already unnerved by the US-China trade tensions and the Federal Reserve’s tightening.

Confi dence in Argentina was also shaken by a major corruption scandal in the construction sector, expected to damage economic growth already hit by a drought that crippled vital agricultural production.

The peso has tumbled 8.5% against the dollar in the past two weeks despite Argentina’s central bank again hiking rates to 45%. On Wednesday, the bank was forced to sell $781mn in reserves to support the peso, before tightening reserve requirements a day later.

Such dizzying interest rates and the fi scal measures would normally be enough to halt a currency run but sentiment was being dictated by global events, said Alberto Bernal, chief strategist at XP Investments in New York.

“Seventy % of the problems facing Argentina are external in nature,” Bernal said. “Macri needs luck...He needs Trump to go easier against China and Europe.

He needs Erdogan to come to his senses and he needs a weaker dollar, which means he needs the US Federal reserve to be a little less aggressive in its policy guidelines.”

While economists are urging Turkey’s Erdogan to adopt a series of policy measures to restore confi dence in the economy — including strengthening central bank independence, raising interest rates and fi scal tightening — business-friendly Macri has already announced many of these.

A major challenge for Argentina is that interest rate rises have limited impact in fi ghting infl ation because

consumers and businesses use little credit after years of fi nancial crises, economists say.

Infl ation jumped to 31% in June.Last year, private sector credit made

up just 16% of gross domestic product (GDP) in Argentina, compared to 113% in neighbouring Chile, according to World Bank fi gures.

Similarly, on the fi scal front Macri’s options are limited.

He has already suspended a reduction in soy export taxes and unveiled other fi scal measures worth around $2.2bn in savings.

Yet a weakening economy leaves Macri with few policy levers to pull without infl icting further damage.

Despite high expectations at the start of 2018, the currency crisis and drought have slammed Argentina’s $640bn economy into reverse.

After growing 3.6% in the fi rst quarter, the economy shrank 5.8% in May when the crisis struck, according to offi cial statistics.

It is due to re-enter recession in the third quarter, economists say, only two years after it returned to growth.

With Macri expected to seek a second four-year term next year, major spending cuts and tax rises are politically unpalatable.

Diego Ferro, partner and portfolio

manager at Greylock Capital in New York, said that until recently investors had been happy with Argentina’s gradualist approach, but market turmoil had made them impatient for results from Macri’s government.

“They have shown that they are on the right path and under normal circumstances this would be enough,” said Ferro. “But after the disappointments they have suff ered and the overall concern about emerging markets, it might not yet be enough to prompt a turnaround in the market.”

Some investors are also concerned that political pressures in Argentina will make it diffi cult to implement reforms.

The changes to soy taxes have already proven unpopular with the farm lobby, a key base of his support.

Riot police were needed to control demonstrators in December when Congress passed pension changes.

Unions have protested over planned labour reforms that have now stalled in the legislature, where there is resistance to the fi scal tightening required by the IMF deal.

Macri agreed with the Fund to cut Argentina’s fi scal defi cit from 3.7% of gross domestic product last year to 2.7% in 2018 and 1.3% in 2019.

Many ordinary Argentines blame Macri for worsening infl ation after cuts

to public utility subsidies — a key plank of his economic platform — drove water and heating bills higher.

Macri admitted last Friday that poverty would rise this year because of high infl ation.

“He’s very constrained because of the social tensions that are blowing up due to the slowing economy,” said Buenos Aires-based economist Gustavo Ber.

Economists expect the economy to contract 0.3% this year and grow 1.5% next year, according to the most recent central bank survey.

Macri has defended his gradual approach to reform, saying it was needed to shelter ordinary Argentines from a drop in living standards.

Yet for some, Macri squandered an opportunity for sweeping change after he was elected in 2015 amid frustration with outgoing President Cristina Fernandez’s administration of 12 years of leftist rule.

“Macri is doing the right things but he’s doing them two years too late,” said Guillermo Nielsen, an economist and former fi nance secretary in the left-leaning government of Nestor Kirchner.

“He did not make the changes that the Argentine economy needed to get back to growth,” he said. “I don’t see Argentina coming back anytime soon.”

Macri lacks options to defend peso

Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri is running short of options to stem a slide in the peso.

COMMENT

Gulf Times Wednesday, August 22, 2018 15

Eff ect of childhood exposure to secondhand smoke

Food loss is set to increase by a third by 2030

Live issues

QNAWashington

A new study suggests that long-term exposure to secondhand smoke during childhood increases the risk

of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) death in adulthood.

The study also suggests secondhand smoke exposure as an adult increases the risk of death not only from COPD but also several other conditions.

Secondhand smoke is known to have adverse eff ects on the lung and vascular systems in both children and adults.

But it is unknown whether childhood exposure to secondhand smoke is associated with mortality in adulthood.

To explore the issue, American Cancer Society epidemiologists led by W Ryan Diver, MSPH, examined associations of childhood and adult secondhand smoke exposure with death from all causes, ischemic heart disease, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among 70,900 never-smoking men and women from the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort.

Study participants, primarily ages

50 to 74 at the beginning of the study, answered questions about their secondhand smoke exposure during childhood and as adults and were followed for 22 years.

Those who reported having lived with a daily smoker throughout their childhood had 31% higher mortality from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease compared to those who did not live with a smoker.

In a calculation done for this release, Diver says the increase in COPD mortality corresponds to about seven

additional deaths per year per 100,000 never-smoking study participants.

Although the study counted only deaths, the increase in fatal COPD implies that living with a smoker during childhood could also increase risk of non-fatal COPD.

In addition, secondhand smoke exposure (10 or more hours/week) as an adult was associated with a 9% higher risk of all-cause mortality, a 27% higher risk of death from ischemic heart disease, a 23% higher risk of death from stroke, and a 42%

higher risk of death from COPD.“This is the fi rst study to identify

an association between childhood exposure to secondhand smoke and death from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in middle age and beyond,” said Diver. “The results also suggest that adult secondhand smoke exposure increases the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease death.

“Overall, our fi ndings provide further evidence for reducing secondhand smoke exposure throughout life.”

Guardian News & Media London

The amount of food that is wasted each year will rise by a third by 2030, when 2.1bn tonnes will either be

lost or thrown away, equivalent to 66 tonnes per second, according to new analysis.

The report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) warns that the global response to food waste is fragmented and inadequate, and that the problem is growing at an alarming rate.

The report suggests the creation of an ecolabel, similar to fair trade campaigns, to encourage customers to buy from companies that have committed to reducing waste.

“The scale of the problem is one that will continue to grow while we’re developing our solutions,” said Shalini Unnikrishnan, a partner and managing director at BCG. “As population grows rapidly in certain industrialising parts of the world, like in Asia, consumption is growing very rapidly.”

Each year, 1.6bn tonnes of food worth approximately $1.2tn, goes to waste - about one third of the food produced globally.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that about 815mn of the 7.6bn people in the world (10.7%), were suff ering from chronic undernourishment in 2016.

Food waste and loss accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the FAO.

Unless urgent action is taken by governments, companies and consumers, the report warns there is little chance of meeting UN targets to halve food waste by 2030.

Over this period, food loss and waste is projected to increase in most regions around the world, with a signifi cant spike in Asia, according to the study.

Countries that are industrialising and have a growing population will see the largest increases, said Unnikrishnan.

“As wealth grows, people are demanding more food, more diverse food, food that is not grown locally. That’s going to increase food loss and waste.”

At the same time, there are ineffi ciencies in the supply of food in such countries.

“There are still a lot of smallholder farmers, there are still a lot of gaps

in our ability to fully utilise the production that is happening,” she added.

While in developing countries waste occurs during production processes, in wealthy countries waste is mostly driven by retailers and consumers, who throw away food because they have purchased too much or because it does not meet aesthetic standards.

Supermarket promotions and a lack of accurate information have contributed to waste, the report warned.

Many customers wrongly believe that meat and vegetables are always healthier when fresh than when frozen.

“In fact, the opposite is often true: frozen food products frequently retain more nutrients than unfrozen items, which can degrade during the shipping process,” the report said.

Companies have experimented with waste reduction initiatives, such as Tesco’s buy one get one free pilot, which allows customers to pick up their free product when they actually need it.

But the report stated such eff orts do not go far enough.

The creation of an ecolabel could encourage companies to work harder.

The report said companies have been slow to adopt digital tools that enable better matching of supply and demand.

It urged companies to show leadership by investing in infrastructure, as well as education for consumers, company employees and farmers.

Changes in government regulation, which do not incentivise waste reduction, are also needed, said Unnikrishnan.

“If you’re a producer trying to to produce blueberries, you’re dealing with size restrictions, storage restrictions, expiration date restrictions,” she said, adding that these will restrictions will vary across markets.

In China, for example, there are rules regarding the size of fresh blueberries that can be sold.

There is more awareness of food loss and waste, but that the global response so far is inadequate.

“It’s fragmented, limited and ultimately insufficient given the magnitude of the problem,” she said.

“It’s not an easy problem, no single country, no single entity can solve the entire problem on their own.”

‘India ignored fl ood warnings in Kerala’AFPNew Delhi

Top Indian environment experts who predicted devastating fl oods would hit Kerala state said yesterday

their warnings went unheeded by politicians eager to fast-track money-making projects.

The southern state has been battered by the worst fl oods in almost a century that have killed more than 410 people since the monsoon started in June.

Kerala is criss-crossed by 44 rivers and famed for its backwaters, a chain of brackish lagoons and lakes that run parallel to the Arabian Sea — creating an environmentally sensitive region with many unique species of plants and animals.

Muralee Thummarukudy, a United Nations disaster response expert, and ecologist Madhav Gadgil, warned in reports back as far as 2011 that a mega-monsoon was inevitable and that the state was ill-prepared.

Critics say Kerala and the national government have ignored environmental concerns as they push power plants and coal mines, hotel resorts and new housing.

Lakes and wetlands that soak up fl oods have disappeared, and new concrete buildings concentrate excess water in certain areas and make it harder to drain away.

Thummarukudy predicted a fl ood disaster in Kerala in a 2013 article that called for changes in land use.

Thousands of lives were lost in a 1924 fl ood in the region and Thummarukudy said repeats often come 50 or 100 years later.

“Change in land use planning is always diffi cult in every country because both private property rights and large amounts of money are involved. So I was not surprised that such changes were not made,” he said.

“I am very sad that my predictions about fl oods in Kerala came true with tragic loss of life.”

In recent years, Kerala governments have aggressively promoted the state’s palm tree-lined beaches and lush plantations to draw international tourists, and foreign arrivals doubled in 10 years to hit more than a million in 2017.

But the rush for revenue has led to violations of coastal planning regulations.

Ecologist Madhav Gadgil, who

suggested a ban on new industrial and mining activities in Kerala in a 2011 report, said man-made problems had played a key role in the disaster.

But political and corporate lobbying meant the recommendations were ignored and resorts for the wealthy have mushroomed along coasts and rivers.

“Unfortunately, our state governments are in collusion with vested interests that do not want any environmental laws to be implemented,” Gadgil said.

“Our recommendations would have been accepted in any law-abiding society.

But we have a lawless society and extremely poor governance.”

A senior offi cial in Kerala’s environment and climate change department downplayed the criticism.

“It is wrong to say we have not done enough.

We started eco-restoration of wetlands and we have also banned plastic,” she told AFP, asking not to be named.

“We are doing our best. It is nature’s fury, you cannot point blame on anyone.”

Thousands of kilometres of Kerala roads have been swept away by landslides and fl ooding and tens of thousands of houses destroyed or damaged.

The gates of dams built in the past three decades have had to be opened to prevent overfl owing and that compounded fl ooding estimated to have left more than $3 bn of damage — a bill expected to rise signifi cantly.

The fl ooding in Kerala is reminiscent

of a similar disaster in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand where some 6,000 people died in 2013.

Chaotic planning was again seen as partly to blame.

Across India, protests have been mounting against new industries that local residents say are polluting the environment and making them sick.

In May, a copper plant in Tamil Nadu state was shut after protests by residents, in which 13 people died, accusing a mining company of fl outing environmental standards.

Kerala and Tamil Nadu Fire Force personnel ferry an elderly in a dinghy through flood waters during a rescue operation in Annamanada village in Thrissur District, in Kerala, on August 19.

Indian people are airlifted by Navy personnel during a rescue operation at a flooded area in Paravoor near Kochi, in Kerala, on August 18, 2018.

WARNINGInshore : Nil

Offshore : Nil

WEATHERInshore : Misty at places at first,

becomes hot daytime and humid by night.

Offshore : Slight dust at times.

WINDInshore : Northwesterly-North-

easterly 05-15 KT

Offshrore : Mainly Northwesterly 02-12/16 KT

Visibility : 4-8/3 KM

Offshore : 1-3/4 FT at places.

TODAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

Maximum Temperature : 410c

Minimum Temperature : 320c

Maximum Temperature : 420c

Minimum Temperature : 320c

Maximum Temperature : 410c

Minimum Temperature : 320c

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Fisherman's forecast

Three-day forecast

16 Gulf TimesWednesday, August 22, 2018

QATAR

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