beIN Sports seeks $1bn compensation for Saudi piracy

In brief

GULF TIMES

published in

QATAR

since 1978

TUESDAY Vol. XXXIX No. 10959

October 2, 2018Moharram 22, 1440 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

Qatar Airways upgradesfi ve Airbus A350-900sto higher capacity

BUSINESS | SPORT | Page 1

Al Sadd hope to assert their supremacy over Persepolis

beIN Sports seeks $1bn compensation for Saudi piracyBy Anthony HarwoodLondon Correspondent

Qatar’s global sports and enter-tainment media group, beIN Corporation (beIN) has lodged

an international investment arbitration case against Saudi Arabia worth $1bn in compensation for what has been de-scribed as “the most widespread piracy of sports broadcasting that the world has ever seen”.

beIN Sports said it had been driven out of its biggest broadcast market in the region with millions of viewers stopping subscriptions for crown jewel events such as the FIFA World Cup, Premier League, Champions League and Formula One.

Instead, fans are able to watch cov-erage of the same fi xtures on a pirate station, called beoutQ, which is trans-

mitted via the Riyadh-based satel-lite provider, Arabsat, owned by Saudi Arabia. The broadcasts are exactly the same with only diff erence being a beoutQ logo superimposed over the beIN one.

At the same time as the beIN was yesterday launching its “investment arbitration” case against Saudi Arabia for $1bn in damages, Qatar announced it was taking Riyadh to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for breaking laws on the protection of intellectual prop-erty.

Three months ago FIFA threatened to take legal action after beoutQ trans-mitted the whole of the World Cup, de-spite the rights for the tournament in the Mena (Middle East and North Af-rica) region being held by Qatar.

Before that UEFA had also con-demned illegal transmissions of the Champions League saying state-spon-

sored piracy “poses a signifi cant threat to European football”.

The piracy began after a Saudi Ara-bia-led alliance launched a diplomat-ic and trade boycott of Qatar in June 2017 accusing the Gulf state of cosy-ing up to Iran and supporting terror-

ism, which Doha denies.The Riyadh-government banned

viewers from renewing their subscrip-tions with beIN Sports, and instead managed to fi nd a way to steal the Qatar channel’s feed which could be viewed via beoutQ decoder boxes.

Commenting on the arbitration , So-phie Jordan, General Counsel of beIN Media Group, said: “After failed at-tempts to resolve this dispute through dialogue, we have now been forced to issue a Notice of Arbitration due to Saudi Arabia’s concerted campaign to prevent beIN from operating in the country, despite beIN having the legal and commercial right to do so.

“We are a well-respected global broadcaster, providing millions of customers around the world with top quality programming. Quite clearly, we are being unfairly used as a politi-cal football in a wider regional dispute. But this case has implications far be-yond beIN; in beoutQ, Saudi Arabia has created a plague of piracy and un-less the whole sports, entertainment and broadcast industry takes a stand, its impact will be devastating and ir-reversible.”

Saudi Arabia has denied being behind the illegal broadcasts, blaming Cuban and Columbian companies instead.

However, in August three of the world’s leading digital security and technology companies – Cisco Systems, NAGRA and Overon – confi rmed that beoutQ was be-ing distributed via Arabsat.

It prompted the Premier League to launch its own legal action over the illicit streaming of its matches say-ing: “The Premier League has seen compelling evidence demonstrat-ing ‘beoutQ’ is a highly sophisticated pirate operation which has used the services of the satellite provider Ar-absat to distribute the illegal content.”

The sale of subscriptions and set-top boxes for the pirate TV network is available in shops across Saudi Arabia, which has a population of 32mn, and fans regularly gather in restaurants and cafes to watch matches.

Qatar initiates new proceedings against Saudi before WTO

Qatar has initiated new proceedings against Saudi Arabia before the World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement body, accusing Riyadh of violating the intellectual property rights of Qatari citizens and entities guaranteed under international conventions.The Ministry of Economy and Commerce yesterday said in accordance with Article 4 of

the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes, Qatar’s Off ice at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva submitted a request for formal consultations, including Saudi Arabia’s violations against Qatar with respect to the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement). Page 5

QATAR | Immigration

Stage set for opening offi rst overseas visa centreWith Qatar completing all preparations for the opening of the first Qatar Visa Centre (QVC) outside the State, it was stressed yesterday that one of the aims of the initiative is to ensure protection against health problems that may originate abroad and reduce the risk of serious diseases being brought into the country. The first phase of the new recruitment mechanism, under which work visa-related procedures are to be completed in the home countries of expatriate workers before they arrive in Qatar, will come into eff ect on October 12, when the first QVC opens in Sri Lanka. Page 6

QATAR | Sport

2022 will create a betterfuture, says al-ThawadiThe most profound legacy of the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be “the breaking down of stereotypes and people coming together”, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) Secretary-General Hassan al-Thawadi told opening session of the 2018 Social Forum of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council in Geneva. He was delivering a keynote speech at the annual forum which off ers a space for open and interactive dialogue between civil society entities, representatives of member states and intergovernmental organisations, on a theme chosen by the Human Rights Council each year. Page 24

QATAR | Charity

QC provides aid toYemeni familiesQatar Charity has provided assistance to Yemeni families and students who have been forced to leave their country and live in Sudan for several years. Qatar Charity said in a statement yesterday that it paid tuition fees for some students and provided food aid for about 3,500 people during the year. The statement pointed out that some students failed to pay the fees for university studies, Qatar Charity intervened to ensure that they did not stop or drop out of school, as part of its eff orts to support students.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani arrived yesterday evening in Quito on a two-day state visit to Ecuador. He was greeted upon arrival at Mariscal Sucre Presidential Airport among others by Minister of Foreign Aff airs and Human Mobility of Ecuador Jose Valencia Amores.

Amir starts tour of Latin American countries;new bilateral pacts to be signed in vital fi elds

Amir arrives in Ecuador, also to visit Peru, Paraguay and Argentina QNAQuito

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani arrived yesterday evening in

Quito on a two-day state visit to the Republic of Ecuador.

The Amir was greeted upon arrival at Mariscal Sucre Presidential Airport by Minister of Foreign Aff airs and Hu-man Mobility of Ecuador Jose Valencia, ambassador of Qatar to Ecuador Mo-hammed Ali al-Malki, ambassador of Ecuador to Qatar Yvonne Aboul Baki, and members of the Qatari embassy in Quito.

His Highness the Amir is accompa-nied by an offi cial delegation.

In a tweet, His Highness the Amir said he has started a tour of Latin American countries to strengthen bilateral co-operation with several countries.

“Today I have started a tour in Latin America to strengthen bilateral co-op-eration with Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay and Argentina, preceded by two tours in 2015 and 2016.

“New partnership agreements will be signed in vital fi elds for the interests of our countries,” the post said.

The Amir’s visit to Ecuador is an opportunity to strengthen the bonds of friendship between the two coun-tries and peoples, the Foreign Minis-ter of Ecuador Jose Valencia Amores has said.

The Ecuadorian minister said that talks between the leaders of the two countries will draw a renewable road map for relations during the coming years.

In an interview with a Qatar Arabic daily, the Ecuadorian minister said Qatar and Ecuador have the same de-termination to set an ambitious agenda that focus on economic and cultural co-operation, and on increasing bilat-eral investment and trade.

Amores pointed out that during His Highness the Amir’s visit to Quito, a joint high-level ministerial commit-tee will be set up for economic, com-mercial, investment and technical co-operation, adding that the ministerial committee will co-ordinate specifi c programmes and initiatives to achieve the common objectives in a number of areas such as agriculture, public health, culture, environment, nature protection and sports.

Ecuador’s Foreign Minister ex-pressed his country’s aspiration to par-ticipate in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, saying “We very much hope so.”

Ecuador provides excellent oppor-

tunities for foreign investment, he said, calling on Qatari companies to invest in his country and participate in strategic projects of oil extraction, as well as in agriculture, tourism and other fi elds.

The Ecuadorian Foreign Minister praised the close co-operation between the two countries in the United Nations and their partnership in building a sta-ble and peaceful world and in giving due respect to the principles of inter-national law.

“We support the goals of sustain-able development and the reform of the United Nations system to make it more democratic, effective and

transparent,” he told Al-Sharq.On the summit between the Arab

world and Latin America, Amores said Ecuador strongly supports all mecha-nisms of regional dialogue as a way to enhance co-operation between Latin American countries and Arab countries in a comprehensive manner, pointing out that his country has a long his-tory of communications with the Arab world.

The Foreign Minister said his coun-try has a lot of motivation to work to-wards strengthening relations with Arab countries, expressing his aspira-tion to support Arab-Latin relations in the coming years. Page 7

QATAR

Gulf Times Tuesday, October 2, 20182

Al-Sulaiti holds talks in KenyaThe president of Kenya,

Uhuru Kenyatta, met with HE the Minister of

Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti in Nairobi yesterday.

At the outset of the meet-ing, the Qatari minister con-veyed the greetings of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to the Kenyan president, and his wishes to the friendly people of Kenya further progress and prosperity.

For his part, the Kenyan pres-ident entrusted the Minister of Transport and Communications with his greetings to HH the Amir, wishing His Highness the best of health and the people of Qatar continuous development and prosperity.

Talks during the meet-ing covered the bilateral rela-tions and ways of promoting them, in addition to a number

of issues of mutual concern.HE Jassim Seif Ahmed al-

Sulaiti also met with Kenyan Minister of Transport, Infra-structure, Housing and Urban Development James Macharia.

During the meeting they dis-

cussed aspects of co-operation in the fi elds of transport services, ports and aviation, and means of further enhancing them. They also discussed potential invest-ment opportunities in these fi elds, in addition to a number of

matters of common interest be-tween the two friendly countries.

The meetings were attended by Qatar Airways chief execu-tive Akbar al-Baker and Qatar’s ambassador to Nairobi Jabr bin Ali al-Dosari.

QNL to mark World Mental Health Day

Qatar National Library (QNL) will celebrate the World Mental

Health Day, which is cel-ebrated on October 10 each year to raise public aware-ness of mental health issues.

On October 13 also, QNL will host a series of events to mark the day, in collabo-ration with the Ministry of Public Health, the Min-istry of Interior, Primary Healthcare Corporation and Vodafone Qatar. Experts will provide tips on dealing with mental health issues in interactive workshops in-cluding ‘Progressive Muscle Relaxation,’ ‘Mindfulness in the Workplace,’ ‘Drugs and Mental Health’ and ‘Mental Health Care Services.’

The Qatar Philharmon-ic Orchestra continues its monthly concert series at QNL on October 18, led by famous Syrian violinist Maias Alyamani, one of the Philhar-monic’s original musicians. On October 25, the Orchestra of the Filipino Youth will per-form a selection of classical music favourites. The concert is open to the public.

Readers and aspiring writers will get to hear sev-eral Qatari authors discuss

literature in Qatar and share their experiences on Octo-ber 23 at the QNL’S Qatari Authors Forum.

On October 13, young read-ers and their families will have the opportunity to meet local authors and illustrators during the art workshop organised by ‘Maktaba’ and the ‘Generation Amazing’ programme of the Supreme Committee for De-livery and Legacy. Participants will have the chance to meet the authors and illustrators be-hind six new children’s books, listen to story time and take part in exciting art activities.

Dr Richard O’Kennedy, Qatar Foundation vice presi-dent for research, develop-ment and innovation, will speak on the role of science as a driver for peace and its role in national identity in ‘Science Forum as a Motor for Peace’ on October 16. Mem-bers of the public are encour-aged to register for the event on the library’s website.

Also, experts from the Min-istry of Public Health will ad-dress food and water quality in Qatar on October 25.

On October 28, to cel-ebrate International Open Access Week, the library will host a lecture. (QNA)

Academic deputies discuss plan for new year

The annual meeting of aca-demic deputies for the aca-demic year 2018/2019 dis-

cussed a number of topics related to the developed curriculum and the mechanisms of providing students with basic competencies, granting a supportive environment for work in schools and ways of raising the ef-fi ciency of academic staff .

Moza al-Mudahka, director, educational guidance department at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, said the meet-ing is a response to Qatar’s vision for creativity, independent think-ing, constructive initiatives as well as attention to academic achieve-ment in all fi elds of specialisation.

She added it also provided an opportunity to have a discussion with the academic deputies and to defi ne their roles and respon-sibilities, as well as the levels of support provided by the educa-tional counsellor in schools to teachers and co-ordinators, and the classifi cation of teachers ac-cording to the levels of support provided to them during the past year, which is 75% general sup-port, 11% intensive support, and 14% self-development.

Another meeting held by the ministry for science, chemistry, biology and physics co-ordina-tors in public schools discussed ways to enhance the educational outcomes of public school stu-dents and the academic level of students in scientifi c subjects.

The meeting addressed some important academic and scien-tifi c aspects, including the in-troduction of the quarterly plans and the updated lesson plans for the current year 2018/2019, as well as the introduction of ex-tracurricular activities and the World Science Olympiad. (QNA)

Nama launches ‘My Decision’ campaign for youth

The Social Development Cen-tre – Nama launched the “My Decision” campaign,

which comes within the framework of supporting and preparing young people to enable them to contribute positively to the progress of the so-ciety in which they live. The launch took place during an event organ-ised by the centre at Qatar National Library.

The inauguration ceremony

included a number of topics such as a discussion dialogue with the young people involved in the campaign in order to benefi t from their ideas, aspi-rations and visions, and sought to have positive impact on the campaign’s participants and enhance their future goals.

The two-week campaign targets those aged 15-25 years and aims to develop their skills

to contribute to Qatar’s future and help them overcome the challenges and hesitation they may face as they choose a dis-cipline. This includes raising their awareness of the impor-tance of selecting majors that fi t their educational prefer-ences, introducing them to the needs of the job market and highlighting gaps in the specialised areas required

by a knowledge economy.The campaign also intro-

duces the ‘My Decision’ mobile app. Students can use the app to seek answers to many chal-lenges they face as they choose their academic and professional tracks. The app features per-sonality tests to match students to an area of study, a search en-gine for local universities and their programmes, direct appli-

cations to academic and profes-sional courses, and opportuni-ties for experience in the local job market.

The participants praised the centre’s initiatives in enhancing youth skills and activating their pivotal role in creating a bet-ter future for them. They also hailed the objectives of “My Decision” campaign.

Though “My Decision” cam-

paign, Nama aims to motivate and empower young people in line with the aspirations of Qatar in order to contribute to the achievement of the Qatar National Vision 2030, and in line with the objectives of Qa-tar Foundation for Social Ac-tion. My decision campaign is also a new step for the centre to continue its role in supporting young people. (QNA)

QATAR3


PHCC launches second phase of adolescent health programmeAs part of its mission to

improve health serv-ices within Qatar, in

line with the National Health Strategy, Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has re-cently announced the second phase of the Adolescent Health Programme which aims to fo-cus on adolescent students in schools aged 10-18.

Dr Layla al-Dahneem, com-munity medicine consultant and manager of School Health Services and Programme, said, “The aim of this project is to promote psychosocial, social, and intellectual health in young people. The programme will help us identify the problems and challenges faced with-in their daily environment, whether at home or in school. It is crucial that we ensure that these students have access to

healthcare to help them cope with health and psychological changes during the early years of adolescent development.”

A memorandum of under-standing was signed earlier this year between PHCC and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to imple-ment this programme in public schools through several dif-ferent stages, starting from the pilot phase, which will be launched early next month, with six diff erent local schools.

The programme deals with a range of important key prob-lems, such as addiction, hyper-activity, depression, and vio-lence, aiming to help teachers, psychologists, social workers and nurses in schools to iden-tify problems that the teen may be exposed to. It also encour-ages the students to seek help

and advice when recognis-ing that they may be suff ering from psychological, social, or behavioural pressures.

A working team was formed for the programme in schools. The team includes the head of school, the vice principal, as well as the school counsel-lors, nurses, and psych-social workers.

If team members notice any psychological or social prob-lems with any of the students, they would be obliged to refer the case to the school nurse who will co-ordinate with ad-ministration in order to inform the parents through a consent form, providing them with all the information about the pro-gramme, linking them directly to the school psychologist who will be able to answer any questions they may have.

More than 400 attend Sidra’s health conferenceMore than 400 research-

ers, guests, healthcare professionals, exhibi-

tors and international speakers gathered at the second Confer-ence on Diabetes, Obesity, Car-diovascular Diseases and Stroke (Cudos 2018) hosted by Sidra Medicine from September 22-24.

Themed on “Childhood Dia-betes: from Novel Discoveries to Clinical Practice”, the three day conference concluded with sev-eral high profi le presentations and discussions related to ad-dressing diabetes challenges in children and women.

Prof the Lord Darzi of Den-ham, vice chair, Sidra Medi-cine, who shared his message via video, highlighted how Cudos 2018 is rooted in de-veloping practical and imple-mentable improvements in care – keeping the needs of the patients in mind.

In addition to establishing several local and international collaborations with partners, a key outcome from Cudos 2018, was the recognition of three young investigators – Omair al-Naeemi, Reem Hasna and Mohamed Ibrahim Janahi. They were awarded by Sidra Medi-

cine chief research offi cer, Prof Christof von Kalle and Dr Am-mira-Sarah Akil, staff scientist and Cudos 2018 Conference chairperson and Organiser for their outstanding presentations on medical sciences.

Local keynote speakers in-cluded Sheikh Dr Mohamed bin Hamad al-Thani, director of public health at the Min-istry of Public Health, who highlighted the investment Qatar is making in addressing diabetes and how Cudos 2018 has brought together local and

international experts who are committed to optimising the health of children as well as adults with diabetes.

Reem al-Mansoori, assistant undersecretary for Digital Soci-ety Development at the Ministry of Transportation and Commu-nications Qatar, discussed the ministry’s Smart Qatar Health-care initiative.

Dr Abdulla al-Ansari, HMC acting chief medical offi cer, said, “Diabetes and obesity are among the greatest threats facing health and well-being in Qatar. HMC’s

Qatar Metabolic Institute is playing an important role in promoting clinical, education, and research eff orts that target diabetes and obesity-related ill-nesses. This conference brought together an interdisciplinary group of professionals work-ing in the fi elds of diabetes and childhood obesity and provided an important platform to explore the role healthcare profession-als play in promoting strategies which enhance the well-being of children living with, or at risk of, these metabolic diseases.”

Sidra Medicine concludes Cudos 2018.

Qatar takes part in ‘Human Faces of Al-Quds’ photo contest

Qatar has participated in “Human Faces of Al-Quds” international

youth photography competi-tion, which was organised by the Islamic Conference Youth

Forum for Dialogue and Co-operation (ICYF-DC), an inter-national institution affi liated to the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC), at Unesco headquarters in Paris, in the framework of the co-operation between Qatar’s Ministry of Culture and Sports and the ICYF-DC, on the occasion of

choosing Al-Quds as Islamic World Youth Capital 2018.

In a speech on behalf of HE the Minister of Culture and Sports Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali, Qatar’s Permanent Rep-resentative to Unesco Ali Za-inal, stressed the importance of the exhibition in highlighting the objective of establishing the

OIC, which aimed at protecting Al-Quds Al-Sharif after burning Al-Aqsa Mosque by some ex-tremists at that time, the minis-try said in a statement yesterday.

Zainal said that the ex-hibition refl ected the hope for fi nding a permanent and just solution to the issue of Al-Quds Al-Sharif.

During the event, the at-tendees extended thanks to Qatar in recognition of its sup-portive positions to Al-Quds Al-Sharif, including Islamic Conference Youth Forum president Elshad Iskandarov who praised the partnership and co-operation between Qatar and the forum.

Iskandarov noted that the “Human Faces of Al-Quds” photography competition has seen a remarkable turnout by young people.

For his part, Palestinian am-bassador to France Salman al-Harfi shed light on the latest developments in the region, and the illegal transfer of the US Em-

bassy to Jerusalem by virtue of international law, stressing that the US measure does not serve the peace process in the region.

He stressed the importance of such events in affi rming the identity of Al-Quds and rais-ing awareness on its importance among young people in the Islamic world.

QNAParis

QATAR


The Crown Prince of Kuwait Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah met with Qatar’s ambassador to Kuwait, Bandar bin Mohammad al-Attiyah, at Bayan Palace yesterday. During the meeting, they discussed bilateral relations and means of enhancing and developing them, in addition to issues of common concern.

Kuwait’s crown prince holds talks with Qatari ambassador Silatech to raise funds to

support young refugees

Silatech, a leading social or-ganisation based in Qatar, has launched a humanitarian

campaign which involves a ‘compe-tition’ to raise funds to support the needs and requirements of young refugees and internally displaced persons in confl ict zones with spe-cial focus on countries like Syria.

The initiative seeks to involve the Qatari community in providing hu-manitarian assistance and solutions to generate useful opportunities for the Syrian refugee and displaced persons worldwide.

“Through the exercise we hope to contribute to enhancing the role of youth as global citizens to ad-dress greater challenges, particu-larly the issues of refugees and dis-placed persons of confl ict zones and promote a sense of compassion and responsibility towards their

disadvantaged youth,” said Faisal al-Emadi, executive director of programmes at Silatech.

As part of the mission, a group con-sisting of 30 young men and women in Qatar will ‘compete’ to mobilise funds to generate jobs for approxi-mately 30,000 young refugees within 30 days, said al-Emadi. “The cam-paign aims to providing refugees and their families with decent livelihood opportunities and enabling them to improve their lives.”

The Silatech offi cial said the or-ganisation is working to connect

disadvantaged and marginalised youth, especially those in the con-fl icts and crisis aff ected zones with opportunities like vocational train-ing, development of skills required by employers, employment and supporting funding them to estab-lish income-generating ventures. “Providing work for youth saves their families from poverty and gives them stability and hope for a better future”.

The campaign, being spearheaded by Qatari youth, has been launched under the sponsorship of partners

from various sectors. It aims to contribute and supplement Qatar’s various eff orts and its humanitarian and developmental role in helping the neighbouring societies.

Qatar is one of the top donors providing developmental and hu-manitarian assistance worldwide.

International Union of Preachers secretary-general Sheikh Ahmed al-Buainain said, “The worsening situation of refugees and internally displaced per-sons calls for our support by providing them with decent work and thus saving their families from poverty.”

Qatar Foundation’s (QF) external relations head Habes Howail said, “We are all aware of the suff erings of our fellow refugees and it is an issue that has many economic and social dimen-sions that aff ect not only their lives but also our society in terms of security and prosperity of our country.”

At the briefi ng, QF’s Akhlaquna award winner Swar Al Dalab Ali and representative of Qatari society Eman al-Kaabi also spoke.

By Ramesh MathewStaff Reporter

Faisal al-Emadi speaks as Sheikh Ahmed al-Buainain, Habes Howail, Swar Al Dalab Ali, Eman al-Kaabi look on: PICTURE: Shaji Kayamkulam

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa received the credentials of Saad bin Ali al-Mohannadi as Qatar’s ambassador extraordinary and plenipo-tentiary to the country. The ambassador conveyed the greetings of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and wishes of the best of health to the Portuguese president and further progress and prosperity to the people of Portugal. For his part, the Portuguese president entrusted the ambassador with his greetings to His Highness the Amir and his wishes of further development and prosperity to the Qatari people. He wished the ambassador success in his du-ties and in promoting the friendship and co-operation relations between Qatar and Portugal.

Qatari ambassador presents credentials

Audi A4, A5 and A6 models recalled for coolant pump defectThe Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC), in collaboration with Q-Auto, has announced the recall of Audi A4, A5 and A6 models of 2012 over malfunction in the additional coolant pump in the vehicle’s cooling system.The MEC said the recall campaign comes within the framework of its ongoing eff orts to protect consumers and ensure that automobile dealers follow up on vehicles’ defects and repair them.The MEC said that it will co-ordinate with the dealer to follow up on the maintenance and repair works and will communicate with customers to ensure that the necessary repairs are carried out. The MEC has urged all customers to report any violations to its Consumer Protection and Anti-Commercial Fraud Department through the following channels: Call centre: 16001, e-mail: [email protected], Twitter: @MEC_Qatar, Instagram: MEC_Qatar, MEC mobile app for Android and IOS: MEC_Qatar

Amir greets presidents of China, Nigeria and CyprusHis Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and His Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani sent yesterday cables of congratulations to Chinese President Xi Jinping on his country’s National Day. HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani also sent a similar cable to Prime Minister Li Keqiang.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, His Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani sent yesterday cables of congratulations to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on the anniversary of his country’s Independence Day.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, His Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani sent yesterday cables of congratulations to Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades on the anniversary of his country’s Independence Day.

5Gulf TimesTuesday, October 2, 2018

QATAR

Culture is Qatar’s permanent ambassador to the worldQNADoha

In his speech before the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA),

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani spoke about one of the most important features of Qatar’s soft power which is a culture of peace based on well-informed and well-educated youth that develops its capabilities to sup-port human development in the society as a whole.

On the United Nations plat-form, His Highness the Amir said that Qatar believes that the education and comprehensive participation of youth consti-

tute the fi rst line of defence of the collective security system and an important factor in com-bating terrorism, and building peace and stability. He stressed that human development and protection and promotion of hu-man rights are top priorities of the state, and Qatar continues its eff orts at the legislative and institutional levels in the imple-mentation of its National Vision 2030, which emphasises human development. And His Highness the Amir pointed out, in this context, that the State of Qa-tar has joined the International Covenant on Civil and Politi-cal Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

His Highness the Amir an-

nounced Qatar’s commitment to provide quality education to another 1mn girls around the world by 2021. Qatar’s initiatives to promote education around the world have only boosted its cultural diplomacy, includ-ing ‘Educate a Child’ initiative, which has successfully assisted 10mn marginalised out-of-school children to receive qual-ity primary education, including 82 partnerships in 50 countries worth $1.8bn, in which the Gov-ernment of Qatar contributed with one-third to global eff orts between the private sector and civil society organisations.

Several international capi-tals have recently witnessed a strong presence of Qatari cul-ture as part of Doha’s belief in

the importance of spreading the culture of peace. This was evi-denced by the great success of the Mobile International Exhi-bition of Sheikh Faisal Museum entitled ‘The Majlis Cultures in Dialogue’ in its fi rst edition in the capital city of Valletta, Mal-ta under the patronage of His Highness the Amir.

The exhibition, which runs until October 28 and is sched-uled to be held in a number of European capitals, was only one of the major projects and ideas presented by the State of Qatar to promote cultural diplomacy with the world.

In this regard, the Cultural Years programme is also a great success with friendly and broth-erly countries. This started with

the cultural year Qatar-Japan 2012, Qatar-UK 2013, Qatar-Brazil 2014, the Cultural Year Qatar-Turkey 2015, Qatar-China 2016, Qatar-Germany 2017, and Qatar-Russia 2018, in addition to the opening of the Center of the Arab Cultural House ‘Diwan’ in Germany last year to be a cen-tre for intercultural communica-tion. It also acts as a bridge of communication between peo-ples, and the development of a preliminary plan for a co-opera-tive programme between Katara and the global network of diplo-macy, which opens wide pros-pects in strengthening relations between countries and peoples.

On Qatar’s use of cultural di-plomacy in its relations with the countries of the world, HE the

Minister of Culture and Sports Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali told Qatar News Agency (QNA) that Qatar seeks to con-tribute to human civilisation by developing all forms of cultural diplomacy through renewing concepts and enhancing the role of awareness and conscience in the development of relations be-tween communities.

He pointed out that cultural diplomacy is central to building strong relations between peo-ples based on respect for cul-tures. The minister explained that the exhibition ‘The Majlis, Cultures in Dialogue’ which is currently taking place in Malta, is a global event that refl ects the cultural ties that Qatar seeks to affi rm with the countries of

the world. The exhibition pro-motes the value of civilisational dialogue among nations and the role of Qatar in dedicating this value, from the perspective of the past, as a reservoir of human experience.

Al-Ali explained that there is no progress for the peoples without taking the lesson from this common past, in which all peoples contributed with their diff erent cultures.

This exhibition and other cul-tural events of Qatar refl ected the value of diversity and the impact of intercultural dialogue, and the openness of the Orient to the West, to emphasise that coexistence is based on dialogue and acceptance of the other and respect for his culture.

Qatar initiates new proceedings against Saudi before WTOQatar has initiated new

proceedings against Saudi Arabia before the

World Trade Organisation’s dis-pute settlement body, accusing Riyadh of violating the intel-lectual property rights of Qatari citizens and entities guaranteed under international conven-tions.

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce yesterday said in accordance with Article 4 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes, Qa-tar’s Offi ce at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva submitted a request for formal consultations, including Saudi Arabia’s violations against Qa-tar with respect to the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).

“Since June 2017, Saudi Ara-bia has taken diplomatic, po-litical and economic measures against Qatar. Saudi Arabia’s actions represent not only a violation of Qatar’s trade rights but they also aff ect the rights of other trading partners. The new dispute focuses on viola-tions with respect to protection of intellectual property rights in Saudi Arabia.

“Of particular concern, Saudi Arabia prohibited a Qatari com-pany – beIN Media Group LLP – from broadcasting its con-tent in the country. Soon after, a sophisticated broadcast pirate named ‘beoutQ’ began the un-

authorised broadcast of beIN’s copyrighted media content in Saudi Arabia, including through the sale of beoutQ subscriptions and set-top decoder boxes at numerous retail outlets across the country. Contrary to its obli-gations under the TRIPS Agree-ment, Saudi Arabia has, among other things, refused to take any eff ective action against beoutQ; restricted or otherwise frus-trated beIN’s ability to pursue civil actions before Saudi courts; denounced beIN’s requests to investigate and prevent the pi-rate’s unauthorised broadcasts; and promoted public gatherings with screenings of beoutQ’s un-authorised broadcasts,” the MEC said.

HE Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim

bin Mohamed al-Thani, Minis-ter of Economy and Commerce, stressed that Saudi Arabia’s ac-tions in terms of banning Qatari citizens and entities from exer-cising their basic rights to pro-tect and defend their intellectual property rights before enforce-ment authorities in that country is a fl agrant violation of Saudi international and moral obliga-tions.

HE the Minister added that these violations refl ect Saudi Arabia’s failure to comply with its commitments in terms of protecting copyrights, radio and television broadcasting rights, and trademarks, among other rights, which has caused signifi -cant commercial losses for Qa-tari citizens and entities.

The Air Expeditionary Wing Command at Al Udeid Air Base has received Lieutenant General Enzo Vecciarelli, Chief of the Italian Air Force, during his off icial visit to Doha. He reviewed the simulator and attached facilities in addition to visiting the maintenance building. He was also briefed on the latest technology used in maintaining aircraft. Lieutenant General Vecciarelli praised the readiness of the Air Expeditionary Wing Command, appreciating its role in combating terrorism and support operations.

Air command

Qatar Biobank aims to enrol 60,000 participants: Offi cial

Qatar Biobank aims to enrol 60,000 partici-pants in its medical research programme, an offi cial has revealed. “So far, we have

enrolled 25% of the targeted population in less than four years, and over the years we plan to re-cruit 60,000 people to participate in our medical research programme, which will enable us to draw a genome map of Qatar,” said Mohamed al-Dosari, head of communications and participant recruit-ment at Qatar Biobank.

He was speaking at the the European biobanking community during Europe Biobank Week (EBW), which took place in Antwerp, Belgium where Qa-tar Biobank, a member of Qatar Foundation (QF), showcased its public recruitment strategy. “We re-cently marked a major milestone with the screening of the 15,000th participant; a clear indicator of the public’s growing awareness of Qatar Biobank and the Qatar Genome Programme, and their greater understanding of the impact their participation has on the future health of the country,” noted al-Dosari

“Qatar Biobank has a comprehensive public re-cruitment strategy that leverages the power of the domestic media landscape to raise awareness and encourage the public to enrol,” he added. The event was hosted by Biobanking and BioMolecu-lar Resources Research Infrastructure – European Research Infrastructure Consortium and the Euro-pean, Middle Eastern and African Society for Biop-reservation and Biobanking. Held under the theme ‘Biosharing for Scientifi c Discovery’, it brought together international biomedical researchers, policymakers, and scientists to address challenges, explore future collaborations, and highlight their achievements in the industry.

Dr Nahla M Afi fi , acting director and scientifi c and education manager at Qatar Biobank, said: “It is an honour for Qatar Biobank to participate in Eu-rope Biobank Week for the fi fth year running. “This gathering off ers an invaluable opportunity for us to

expand our global outreach and strengthen our in-ternational network of key stakeholders in the bio-medical fi eld, while gaining a greater insight of the diff erent models adopted by biomedical institutes from around the world.”

Al-Dosari, delivered a poster presentation on ‘Driving Qatar Biobank’s Public Recruitment through the Eff ective Utilisation of Nationwide Events and Social Media.’ It highlighted Qatar Biobank’s use of the local media landscape, social media, and national events to encourage members of the population to sign up and be part of its vital medical research.

Qatar Biobank has a comprehensive public recruitment strategy.

Msheireb Museums receives CECA award for Best Educational Practice

Msheireb Museums (MM), the cultural destination at Msheir-

eb Downtown Doha (MDD), won the ‘Best Educational Practice Programme’ award by the International Committee for Education and Cultural Ac-tion (CECA) during its confer-ence and awards held in Tbilisi, Georgia.

CECA is one of the oldest and largest international commit-tees of the International Coun-cil of Museums (ICOM) with over 1,000 members from 85 countries.

CECA members are profes-sionals working in diff erent sectors of the museum fi eld or institutions related to muse-ums such as educators, cura-tors, professors, communica-tion agents or interpreters, interested in education and cultural action applied to a par-ticular sort of heritage.

The ‘Best Educational Prac-tice Programme’ award explores a range of creative practices in museums that support CECA’s main message of enriching ed-ucational and cultural applied actions. It is an award granted to fi ve participants with fi ve diff erent practical projects that explore their own individual heritage.

Msheireb Museums’ winning project, Bin Jelmood educa-tional programme, introduces

the story of Bin Jelmood house in an eff ective and engaging way, using innovative methods to reach a young target audi-ence. The Bin Jelmood House, which tells the story of slav-ery and how it has evolved into modern forms of human ex-ploitation, is one of four his-toric heritage houses that make up Msheireb Museums.

“We are proud that our mu-seums education initiatives are being recognised globally, and look forward to continuing to deliver high-quality, engaging and immersive learning experi-ences for the public,” museum director Hafi z Ali said.

CECA president Milene Chiovatto congratulated Msheireb Museums “for being a star in our award ceremonies for best practices in CECA. We are honoured to have them rep-resented this year.”

“This year, I am honoured to have been one of the awarded participants for the Bin Jelmood House educational programme and activity collateral. The booklet that was recognised by ICOM jury members, introduces students aged 8-12 to the history of slavery in Qatar,” Msheireb Museums education offi cer Sheikha Moza al-Thani said.

“It took a lot of hard work to

produce, and I am very proud that it has been recognised by such an esteemed organisa-tion,” she added.

In addition to the win-ning educational programme, Msheireb Museums, in col-laboration with the Univer-sity College of London-Qatar (UCL-Q), presented at the con-ference, a research paper titled “When a University and Mu-seum Work Together”, which outlined the successful series of UCL-Q Masters in Museum Studies students’ exhibitions hosted at Msheireb Museums.

“We always look forward to working with UCL-Q and vari-ous educational institutions to develop community led ex-hibitions that off er an exciting and insightful perspective on Qatar’s heritage and social his-tory,” added Msheireb Muse-ums exhibitions manager Fahad al-Turky.

Since Msheireb Museums opened in 2015, it has a record of hosting exhibitions and con-ferences that raise awareness on various cultural topics that support the cultural scene in Qatar. The aim of the UCL-Q exhibitions is to ensure the aca-demic engagement of students through a museum’s learning experience, in which students are given the opportunity to ex-perience creating a full museum exhibition.

The International Committee for Education and Cultural Action conference and awards was held in Tbilisi, Georgia.

QATAR


With Qatar completing all preparations for the opening of the fi rst Qa-

tar Visa Centre (QVC) outside the State, it was stressed yesterday that one of the aims of the initia-tive is to ensure protection against health problems that may originate abroad and reduce the risk of seri-ous diseases being brought into the country.

The fi rst phase of the new re-cruitment mechanism, under which work visa-related pro-cedures are to be completed in the home countries of expatriate workers before they arrive in Qatar, will come into eff ect on October 12, when the fi rst QVC opens in Sri Lanka.

These and other details of the initiative were explained yesterday at press conference in Doha by offi -cials from the ministries of Interior (MoI), Public Health (MoPH), and Administrative Development, La-bour and Social Aff airs (MADLSA).

Present at the press meet were Mohamed Hassan al-Obaidali, as-sistant undersecretary for labour aff airs at the MADLSA; Major Ab-dulla Khalifa al-Muhannadi, di-rector of the Visa Support Services Department at the MoI; and, Dr Ibrahim al-Sha’r, director of the Medical Commission Department.

Overall, 20 QVCs will be opened in eight countries over the next few months, the offi cial Qatar News Agency reports.

The centres will operate based on an integrated electronic system for the implementation of proce-dures such as medical examina-tion, fi ngerprint and biometrics, and the signing of work contracts for expatriates outside the State, under the supervision of and fol-low-up by the authorities con-cerned within Qatar.

Stressing that the MoPH is con-cerned with the health security of

the country, Dr al-Sha’r said that conducting the medical examina-tion of expatriate workers prior to their arrival in Qatar will help re-duce the risk of the arrival of some cases of serious diseases such as HIV/Aids or hepatitis, as well as some chronic diseases or inju-ries that may be an obstacle for a worker in performing the work for which s/he is recruited.

He said that the Medical Com-mission is the fi rst defender to pre-vent the incursion of any disease that is dangerous to the health of the community.

Dr al-Sha’r also stressed that the Medical Commission will con-stantly follow-up on the approved medical examination centres out-side the State to ensure the validity and quality of tests conducted for foreign workers.

According to a brochure ex-plaining the procedures, the ex-panded medical check-up will include a vision test, vaccination, and a physical examination by a doctor in addition to the standard blood test and X-ray.

Meanwhile, assistant undersec-retary for labour aff airs at MADL-SA al-Obaidali said that the aim of the initiative is to simplify and fa-cilitate procedures for employers, as well as to provide more protec-tion to expatriate workers coming to work in Qatar.

He stressed that the project comes as a confi rmation of the role of Qatar in the care and protection of the rights of expatriate work-ers, through the application of the highest international standards in this regard.

He said that prior to the start of the project, meetings were held with the labour attaches of coun-tries that supply workers to Qatar to discuss the launch of the QVCs.

The process starts here in Qatar, where the employer or recruiter

applies for approval of foreign worker visas based on work con-tracts according to the applicable regulation through the MoI web-site or Metrash 2.

When the approvals are granted, the applicant can proceed with necessary procedures at the avail-able QVC at his own country.

Al-Obaidali said the new system would considerably help in reduc-ing the number of labour disputes, such as over fraudulent contracts and illegal fees collected by re-cruitment agencies from employ-ees in the country of origin.

In addition, both the employer and employee would have a clear picture of the agreed terms and conditions, and hence the protec-tion of the rights of both would be ensured.

MoI Visa Support Services di-rector Major al-Muhannadi said that the ministry has been working on the completion of the project for more than a year, in view of its importance in providing more ad-vanced and easier services.

Following the opening of the fi rst centre on October 12, the Sri Lankan labour-providing com-panies should recruit workers through this centre and the new electronic mechanism, he added.

He said that the services pro-vided by these centres, including QVC of Sri Lanka, will be initially

limited to fi ngerprinting the work-er, recording vital data, conducting medical examinations and signing the contract of employment, with new services to be added in the fu-ture, including documentation of scientifi c and practical qualifi ca-tions, and wage protection system, in accordance with a transpar-ent mechanism that protects the worker and the employer.

The service comes within the framework of the MoI’s keenness to provide excellent electronic services that will help deliver its services to applicants easily and save time and eff ort, he continued.

The offi cial said the service aims to ensure the speedy completion of transactions to start work im-mediately after entering the State, as well as avoid cases of workers returning to their home country if they are found unsuitable for the purpose for which they were brought.

The project utilises advanced systems in medical check-ups and biometric and fi ngerprint process-ing, ensure the compliance of both employers and employees with the terms and conditions of the con-tract, adopt a more transparent and responsible recruitment sys-tem, and enhance the importance of e-government services as a fi xed and fi rst choice for applicants.

On how the system works, he

explained that after the neces-sary approvals for recruitment – whether as employees of compa-nies or as domestic workers – are obtained, the role of these centres begins by receiving these workers and registering their entry.

This will be followed by handing over the contract for signing, fi n-gerprinting, vital data entry, medi-cal examination, fi nal approval, and issuance of the visa.

The offi cial said the procedures within the QVC will take only one hour, while the results of the tests will be available in 24 to 48 hours.

Once the expatriate worker ar-rives in Qatar after getting the visa, the residency permit card will be issued shortly, and he or she can start work immediately.

Major al-Muhannadi said that all steps to apply for recruitment of Sri Lankan workers from the QVC are available on the MoI website and Metrash2, indicating that the procedures of recruitment are the same as the old ones.

The offi cial noted that the project has been implemented through co-operation between the MoI, the MADLSA, the MoPH and the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs (MoFA), which will monitor and supervise the services provided by the QVCs.

Major al-Muhannadi stressed that the QVCs will operate accord-ing to international standards, and will be monitored by the relevant authorities within Qatar.

He said the system of work mechanism was tested between service centres outside Qatar and the Visa Support Services Depart-ment at the General Directorate of Passports.

Major al-Muhannadi recalled that at the end of 2017, the MoI had entered into a contract with an in-ternational service supplier to pre-pare and equip the QVCs.

He said the construction of these centres took into consideration the highlights of Qatari architecture while maintaining modern features that will facilitate smooth opera-tions.

Each centre has an adequate number of counters arranged in a way that will ease the fl ow and progress of work, and employees can process all the necessary pro-cedures in one place.

Qatar’s fi rst overseas visa centre set to open

The ministry off icials at the press conference yesterday.

14 centres to open by 2018-end

Fourteen of the 20 Qatar Visa Centres (QVCs) that

will come up in eight labour-exporting countries

will be opened before the end of 2018, according

to Major Abdulla al-Muhannadi, director of the Visa

Support Services Department at the Ministry of

Interior.

The eight countries (and cities therein) covered in

the first phase of the project are as follows:

Sri Lanka – one centre in Colombo;

Indonesia – three centres, in Jakarta, Semarang,

and Bandung;

Nepal – one centre in Kathmandu;

Tunisia – one centre in Tunis;

Pakistan – two centres, in Karachi and Islamabad;

India – seven centres, in Mumbai, Delhi, Kochi,

Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Chennai;

Bangladesh – two centres, in Dhaka and Sylhet;

and,

the Philippines – three centres, in Manila, Cebu,

and Davao.

He noted that these eight countries are the biggest

labour-exporting countries for Qatar.

Overall process

Employer cycle:

1 – Applicant identification and registration through

the MoI website or Metrash2

2 – MoI assessment

3 – Payment of service cost through the MoI or

Metrash2 payment portal

4 – Approval and reference number generation for

booking an appointment for the expat worker

Applicant cycle:

1 – Appointment scheduling, applicant registration,

document collection and attestation, fingerprint

and biometric collection, medical examination

Final approval and visa issuance

Steps for QVC (starts with Sri Lanka)

QVC biometric enrolment

1 – Obtain vthe isa reference number from the

employer

2 – Book an appointment on www.qatarvisacenter.

com

3 – Arrive at QVC 15 minutes before the appoint-

ment

4 – On token call, enter biometric booth and enrol

fingerprints

5 – Verify and e-sign employment contract

6 – Undergo iris scan

7 – Undergo facial image capture

QVC medical centre

1 – Register at medical test reception

2 – Undergo standard medical parameter measure-

ment

3 – Get vision tested

4 – Submit blood samples

5 – Take MMR and DT vaccination

6 – Undergo X-ray scan

7 – Meet doctor for physical exam

A Qatari entrepreneur has opened a new café, Dugvil, meaning baby elephant, at Al

Duhail Sports Club premises.“The name is unique as I have a

special feeling for elephants. Right from my childhood, I have been very fond of elephants, and this special bond has made me choose Dugvil as the name for my new venture,” said Abdulaziz Mohamed Saqar, the per-son behind the new venture. “I ad-mire its strength and wisdom, and I have learned a lot in my life from these qualities.”

He said that his café will donate a percentage of its annual revenue for elephant welfare in countries where it is becoming extinct.

“Elephants are adorable animals, as well being clever, obedient, proud royal and strong,” Saqar explained. “Since these animals are threatened with extinction, we are going to contribute to the elephants’ welfare annually.”

“We have kept a box at the café, and people who are interested can deposit any amount for this cause,” he added.

According to Saqar, coff ee con-nects people in many ways.

“When people are together, they sit and pour out their inner feel-ings over a cup of coff ee. Coff ee has helped people connect their inner being and discover their true po-tential, boosting their creativity and wisdom,” he noted.

Saqar highlighted that another specialty of the Dugvil Café is the

type of coff ee beans and the way it is prepared for the coff ee.

“We import these beans from Ethiopia. We roast it in-house, and prepare the coff ee powder in a spe-

cial way which makes our coff ee dif-ferent from other ones,” he said.

“We are hopeful that the coff ee will draw the attention of the people soon and they will feel the diff er-

ence,” Saqar pointed out.In addition to hot and cold cof-

fee products, the café off ers various types of snacks and cakes, sand-wiches, and others.

Café with jumbo aims at Al Duhail Sports Club

Abdulaziz Mohamed Saqar with guests at the café.

Right: Some of the items on off er at Dugvil Café.

Gandhi’s birth anniversary event at Indian embassyThe Indian embassy in Qatar, along with the Indian Cultural Centre (ICC), is celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi at Ashoka Hall (ICC building) today at 6.30pm.Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, and 2018 is being celebrated as his 150th birth anniversary.In a statement yesterday, the embassy said “all are cordially invited to be part of the celebrations on the ICC premises”.“Truthfulness was one of the dearest principles Gandhiji followed until his last breath, as he believed that truth never damages a cause that is just,” the embassy said. “He stressed the significance of non-violence, which is a very relevant principle to be adopted by the whole world.”“He strongly believed non-violence is the weapon of the strong and not the weak. Being strong meant having attributes of truthfulness, forgiveness and enduring the journey of life with integrity,” the statement notes.“Be the change you want to see in the world was one of the several messages given by Gandhiji. He was, and continues to be, an inspiration, guiding billions through his philosophy of life revolving around the importance of truth, non-violence, self-respect and simplicity, philosophies that are still relevant in the present world scenario,” the statement adds.

CNA-Q now accepting student applications for winter semesterCollege of the North Atlantic – Qatar (CNA-Q) is now accepting applications for admission from new students for the winter semester, which begins with the first day of classes on January 6, 2019.The college is accepting students to its over 30 programmes in the schools of business studies, engineering technology, health sciences, and information technology.The technician certificate programme, which runs in partnership with Qatar Petroleum, is also accepting applicants.New students are encouraged to apply before the November 24 deadline.English and mathematics placement tests will be held before December 8 to validate academic standing and place students in appropriate course levels.Programmes in business studies include marketing, accounting and human resource management while health sciences feature a number of specialised allied health careers, including advanced care paramedicine, pharmacy technician, and environmental health.In the engineering technology field, openings exist for hands-on training leading to an array of career options from electrical power system technology to process automation technology.In the school of information technology, programmes of study include hardware or software development, systems administration and web development.“The winter semester promises to be another semester where CNA-Q continues to flourish. In the Fall 2018 semester, we saw unprecedented growth in the student body bring our enrolment to 2,500 full-time students,” said CNA-Q’s academic vice-president Samah Gamar. “As a national college with local Qatari leadership, national values and pride, we are looking forward to the successes of the winter semester.”

7Gulf TimesTuesday, October 2, 2018

PERUAMIR VISITS SOUTH AMERICA

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani

Martín Vizcarra, President of Peru

‘Amir’s visit very important for both Qatar and Peru’The upcoming offi cial visit of His Highness the

Amir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to Peru is very important for both Qatar and Peru,

the ambassador of Peru told Gulf Times. “It will be the fi rst time that the heads of both

states meet personally to discuss the ways and means to strengthen the bonds of friendship and co-operation. I expect a very busy agenda for both leaders and delegations, as there are many issues to be addressed,” said Carlos Velasco Mendiola,

ambassador of Peru.“The agenda of discussions will include issues

of bilateral and multilateral interest, as well as re-gional and global matters. The mutual dialogue among the two leaders will centre around the ways of strengthening the co-operation in diff erent fi elds, such as political, economic and commercial (improving bilateral trade), investment opportuni-ties, air connectivity between both countries, cul-tural, youth and sports, as well as co-operation in multilateral forums,” explained Mendiola.

According to the envoy, there are posi-tive expectations in the economic and entrepreneurial circles of Peru about the offi cial visit of His Highness the Amir of Qatar. Cabinet ministers will also meet with the delegation to deal issues of their respective sectors.

The Peruvian ambassador also high-lighted that diplomatic relations between both the countries are entering into the 25th anniversary. “Diplomatic relations between Peru and Qatar were established on November 7th, 1989, which means that next year we will commemorate the 25th anniversary. Since that date, the bi-lateral relations between the two coun-tries have been developing positively and gradually. Today, we have a solid le-

gal framework of the relations, created during the successful offi cial visit of His Highness the Father Amir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani in February 2013, reciprocated by the president of Peru in 2014,” noted the offi cial.

The envoy maintained that the gov-ernment of Peru is committed to contin-ue and enhance the relations with Qatar. “We have great expectations in the fu-ture development of the bilateral rela-tions. We are both modern societies and developing countries with abound natu-ral resources in our own regions. There-fore, I believe that the co-operation in economic, trade, fi nancial, educational and scientifi c and technological fi elds will secure this purpose. Particularly, the

cultural domain can bring both countries closer together and allow to know each other better,” he hoped.

The ambassador also pointed out that Peru observes the leadership of the gov-ernment of Qatar with great attention in the fi eld of international diplomacy and confl ict resolution, as well as mediation in diff erent parts of the world and at the re-gional level. “There is ample coincidence between foreign policies of Peru and Qatar on issues of the global agenda under the framework of the United Nations Charter, the respect of international law and the peaceful solution of confl icts, as well as in the fi ght against international terrorism, promotion and defence of human rights and protection of environment,” he added.

Peru: prosperous economy with one of the fastest industrial growth ratesThe Republic of Peru is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the west by the Pacific Ocean. Peru is an extremely biodiverse country with habitats ranging from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region in the west to the peaks of the Andes mountains vertically extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the tropical Amazon Basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon river.Peruvian territory was home to several ancient cultures, ranging from the Norte Chico civilisation in the 32nd century BC, the oldest civilization in the Americas, to the Inca Empire, the largest and most sophisticated state in pre-Columbian America.The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a Viceroyalty that encompassed most of its South American colonies, with its capital in Lima. Peru formally proclaimed independence in 1821, and following the military campaigns of José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar, and the decisive battle of Ayacucho, Peru secured independence in 1824. Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. It is classified as an emerging market with a high level of human development and an upper middle income level. It is one of the region’s most prosperous economies and it has one of the world’s fastest industrial growth rates.Its main economic activities include mining, manufacturing, agriculture and fishing; along with other growing sectors such as telecommunications and biotechnology. The country forms part of The Pacific Pumas, a political and economic grouping of countries along Latin America’s Pacific coast that share common trends of positive growth, stable macroeconomic foundations, improved governance and an openness to global integration.Peru ranks high in social freedom and one of the lowest homicide rates in South America; it is an active member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation,

the Pacific Alliance, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the World Trade Organisation; and is considered as a middle power.Peru has a multi-ethnic population of over 31mn, which includes Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and Asians. The main spoken language is Spanish, although a significant number of Peruvians speak Quechua, Aymara or other native languages. This mixture of cultural traditions has resulted in a wide diversity of expressions in fields such as art, cuisine, literature, and music. (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

By Joseph VargheseStaff Reporter

Ambassador Carlos Velasco Mendiola

Qatar, Peru to sign several pacts, says ambassadorBy Joseph VargheseStaff Reporter

Qatar and Peru are likely to sign a number of agree-ments during the offi cial

visit of His Highness the Amir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to Peru, according to the ambassador of Peru.

“The Ministry of External Relations of Peru and the Min-istry of Foreign Aff airs of Qatar are working very hard to pre-pare several agreements to be signed on the occasion of the offi cial visit of His Highness the Amir and his delegation. They pertain to the political – diplo-matic co-operation, sports and youth, fi ghting drug traffi cking, disaster management, civil avia-tion, agriculture and an execu-tive programme for our existing cultural agreement,” disclosed Carlos Velasco Mendiola, am-bassador of Peru.

The ambassador said that the

present trade exchange and vol-ume have been modest and do not refl ect the potential of the two countries. “Peru is a net importer of petrochemical deri-vates, such as polythene, from Qatar. On the other side, some products (like quinoa) and Peru-vian fresh fruits and vegetables are already present in the local markets in Doha, as well as some alpaca and vicuna wool textiles. I expect, once the commercial agreement enters into force, this will improve. It is important to encourage our private sectors to look to our markets and see the new opportunities,” he high-lighted.

According to Mendiola, there are plenty of investment op-portunities in Peru in the fi eld of energy, agriculture, mining, tourism and infrastructure.

“Both governments are working to improve the legal framework to facilitate and promote the Qatari invest-ments in Peru. At present, we

have a Memorandum of Un-derstanding ( MoU) signed be-tween Qatar Holding Llc., and the Peruvian agency Proinver-

sion. Also, we have another MoU between Qatar Mining and the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Peru. Since Peru pos-

sesses large gas fields, which are the 3rd most abundant re-serves in South America, we are much interested in expanding

the co-operation in this area and benefiting from the exten-sive experience of Qatar,” he pointed out.

The envoy also noted that another area of co-operation, which has been subject of dis-cussion on both sides, is the pro-tection of environment.

He highlighted, “Peru is high-ly interested in receiving tech-nical consultancy on policies in supplying and transfer of tech-nology for energy production through low polluting sources, as well as for renewable energy, desalinisation and irrigation management, which is being developed by Qatar Foundation. Also, we are seeking co-oper-ation from Qatar National Re-search Fund for the researchers of Peruvian institutes and public and private universities within the framework of the MoU of co-operation in education, superior education and scientifi c research between Qatar and Peru signed in 2003. In the fi ght against il-

licit drug traffi cking, which af-fects the security of nationals of both countries, we are working on an agreement at the level of the Ministries of Interior.”

According to embassy records of Peru, there are about 160 Peruvian citizens in Qatar and majority of them work as profes-sionals and pilots in Qatar Air-ways, others in Qatar Petroleum, hotel management or are spous-es of expats. The Peru embassy in Qatar issued 45 tourist visas for Qatari citizens and 28 busi-ness visas in 2017.

Mendiola was all praise for the eff orts and preparations that Qatar is doing for the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Doha. “The initiatives and work of the Su-preme Committee for Delivery and Legacy is outstanding in the infrastructure to timely build the stadiums that will host the com-petition, rails systems and roads, as well as accommodations for the fans that shall visit Qatar to see the games,” he highlighted.

Bilateral relations - milestonesDiplomatic relations between Qatar and Peru were established in 1989. The embassy of Peru in Doha was inaugurated in 2011, and Qatar’s embassy in Lima was opened in 2012.The Qatari-Peruvian Parliamentary Friendship Society was established in 2013. The society aims at strengthening the diplomatic roles of Qatar and Peru, and enhancing the friendly relations between the two countries.

Exchange of visits:His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Amir of Qatar at that time, visited Peru in 2010.Peruvian Minister of Production Jose Orkizo visited Qatar in 2012.

Peru’s Minister of Foreign Aff airs Jose García Belaúnde visited Qatar in 2010.

Agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoU) between the two countries:Co-operation agreement in the legal fieldAgreement for news exchange and co-operation Memorandum of understanding for bilateral political consultation between foreign ministries of the

two countries.MoU in the fields of education, higher education, and scientific researchMoU in the field of miningMoU between the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the two countriesMoU regarding investment co-operation

Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru, on a mountain ridge 2,430m above sea level. Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was constructed as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438-1472). It is the most familiar icon of the Inca civilisation. Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historic Sanctuary in 1981 and a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1983. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll. Since its discovery in 1911, growing numbers of tourists have visited the site each year, including 1,411,279 in 2017 – making it Peru’s most visited tourist attraction and a major revenue generator.

Machu Picchu – the pride of Peru

REGION/ARAB WORLD


Iran fi res missiles at extremists in Syria over parade attackReutersBeirut

Iran said it fi red missiles yesterday at Islamic State militants in Syria it blames for an attack on its soil

on September 22 and said the action shows the government’s readiness to punish the “wickedness” of its en-emies.

Tehran has accused some Gulf Arab states of attacking a military parade in southwestern Iran and killing 25 peo-ple, nearly half of them members of the elite Revolutionary Guards.

Yesterday’s strike targeted the bas-es in eastern Syria, the Guards said in a statement on Sepah News, their news site.

It killed a number of militant lead-ers and destroyed their supplies and infrastructure, they said.

The strike targeted the last pocket of territory in southeastern Syria held by Islamic State.

It is an area where the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched a new off ensive last month against Islamic State.

The US-led coalition confi rmed Iranian forces had conducted “no no-tice strikes last night”.

“At this time, the coalition is still assessing if any damage occurred and no coalition forces were in danger,” Col spokesman Sean Ryan said.

Fars News posted video footage of several missiles streaking into a dark sky during the attack.

The six ballistic missiles used in the attack fl ew 570km to hit the targets, the Guards said.

A map shown on state TV pin-pointed Kermanshah in western Iran as the launch site and Albu Kamal in southeast Syria as the target.

The missiles were Iranian-made Zolfaqar and Qiam missiles, Fars News reported.

“Our iron fi st is prepared to deliver a decisive and crushing response to

any wickedness and mischief of the enemies,” the Guards, the most pow-erful military force in the Islamic Re-public, said.

Seven drones were also used to bomb militant targets during the at-tack, they said.

The Ahvaz National Resistance, an Iranian ethnic Arab separatist move-ment, and the Islamic State have both claimed responsibility for the Sep-tember 22 attack.

Neither group has presented conclusive evidence to back up its claim.

“The terrorists used bullets and we gave them a reply with missiles,” Fars News quoted Brigadier General Ami-rali Hajizadeh, head of the Guards’ airspace division, as saying.

“The security of the Iranian peo-ple is our red line and we will not be found wanting.”

A senior Revolutionary Guards commander said yesterday that Is-lamic State militants in Syria’s Deir

al-Zor province had helped coordi-nate the parade attack.

These Islamic State militants were the target of the missile strike, said Major General Mohamed Baqeri, the armed forces chief of staff , according to Fars News.

Mohsen Rezaie, a former com-mander of the Guards, suggested in a Twitter message yesterday that more attacks were coming.

“The main punishment is on the way,” Rezaie, who is secretary of the Expediency Council, an un-elected arbitration body that resolves dis-putes between parliament and a cleri-cal vetting body, the Guardian Coun-cil, wrote.

Last year, the Guards fi red missiles at Islamic State militants in Syria after the group claimed responsibility for an attack on the parliament in Tehran and the mausoleum of the founder of Iran’s revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, that left at least 18 people dead and dozens wounded.

UN staff ers quit Gaza over security fears after job cutsAFPGaza City

The UN agency for Palestinian ref-ugees said yesterday it was tem-porarily withdrawing part of its

foreign staff from the Gaza Strip follow-ing security concerns linked to job cuts in the Palestinian enclave.

It said in a statement it had “decided to temporarily withdraw part of its in-ternational staff from Gaza following a series of worrying security incidents af-fecting its personnel in the strip.”

A source with knowledge of the situ-ation said six foreign staff ers remained out of the 19 who are usually there.

The Israeli defence ministry unit that oversees the crossing said a number of foreign employees from the agency known as UNRWA “were evacuated from the Gaza Strip to Israel” on Monday.

UNRWA employees in the strip have held strikes, sit-ins and other protests since the agency announced in July it was cutting more than 250 jobs in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Hundreds of full-time roles have also become part-time.

Laid-off workers warn that their fam-ilies will be at serious risk in blockaded Gaza, where unemployment is at some 53%.

The cuts come as a result of US Presi-dent Donald Trump’s decision to cancel all aid to the agency.

An UNRWA source said a protest was held yesterday outside a Gaza City hotel where agency offi cials were meeting.

The agency’s statement said that “earlier today, a number of staff were harassed and prevented from carrying out their duties”.

“Some of these actions have specifi -cally targeted the UNRWA management in Gaza,” it said.

It called on the authorities in the en-clave run by Islamist movement Hamas “to respond to its repeated demands to provide eff ective protection to its em-ployees and facilities.” “The lack of ef-fective security and safety risk impact-ing vital humanitarian services to more than 1.3mn refugees in Gaza,” it said.

UNRWA’s head in Gaza has previously accused the agency’s labour union in the enclave of “mutiny”. The United States has traditionally been UNRWA’s largest con-tributor, providing around $350mn a year, but Trump has cancelled all support.

It received pledges of $118mn from donor countries last week to help it overcome the funding crisis, but still has a shortfall of $68mn in its annual budget.

Created in 1949, the agency supplies aid to more than 3mn of the 5mn eligible Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories.

Around 13,000 people work for UN-RWA in Gaza, where more than two-thirds of the roughly two million resi-dents are eligible for aid.

The agency also says more than 200,000 Palestinians attend its schools in the Gaza Strip.

Despite the removal of part of its for-eign staff , UNRWA operations were con-tinuing in Gaza, the agency said.

Its director of operations and other international staff were remaining in Gaza, UNRWA said.

More than 750,000 Palestinians fl ed or were expelled during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

They and all their descendants are deemed by the UN agency to be refugees who fall under its remit.

Palestinian employees of United Nations Relief and Works Agency wear orange jumpsuits as they protest against job cuts outside UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City last month.

Civilian deaths in September lowest in Syria war: monitor

AFPBeirut

The number of civilians killed last month in Syria was at its lowest since the start of the

confl ict more than seven years ago, a war monitor said yesterday.

A total of 139 civilians, including 58 children, were killed in confl ict-related violence across the country in September, according to the Syr-ian Observatory for Human Rights.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said it was “the lowest monthly toll for civilians” since the start of the confl ict in March 2011.

Of the 1,059 people who died last

month, 436 were rebel fi ghters, 239 soldiers and allied militiamen, and 236 were extremists. The identity of nine others was unknown.

The decline in the number of civilian casualties comes after months of Russian-backed gov-ernment operations that saw Da-mascus reconquer signifi cant ter-ritory.

It also coincides with a deal reached on September 17 by Russia and Turkey — two of the main for-eign brokers in the Syrian confl ict — aimed at averting a major assault in the northern Idlib region.

The province of Idlib is home to the last major rebel bastion in the country and aid groups had feared a

full-blown regime off ensive would spark suff ering on a scale not yet seen since the start of the war.

Fighting is also ongoing in east-ern Syria, where holdout jihad-ist fi ghters from the Islamic State group are defending their last pocket in the country.

The Britain-based Observatory relies on an extensive network of sources across Syria, where it says close to 365,000 people have been killed since the start of the war.

More than 110,000 of them are civilians, it says.

The highest monthly number of civilian deaths the Observatory ever recorded was 6,657 in May 2015.

A general view of the rebel-held northern Syrian city of Idlib.

ARAB WORLD9Gulf Times

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Lebanon calls Israeli charge of missile site ‘pure lies’By Weedah Hamzah, DPABeirut

Lebanese Foreign Minister Jubran Bassil yesterday de-scribed Israel’s allegations of

missile sites near Beirut Airport as “pure lies.”

During his address before the UN General Assembly on Thursday, Israeli Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanayhu held up aerial photos of what he claimed were Hezbollah weap-ons storage sites in the Leba-nese capital.

He accused Iran of directing the militant organization to build se-cret sites to convert projectiles into precision-guided missiles capable of targeting Israel.

“Lebanon will not accept the UN to be used as a platform to as-sault Lebanon,” Bassil told foreign ambassadors in Beirut during a press conference.

Israel does not respect the Unit-ed Nations or its resolutions, he added.

According to a foreign ministry source, diplomats from around 70 countries attended the conference in Beirut and some of them joined a tour to the sites mentioned by the Israeli premier.

The sites visited, including the Al Ahed sports stadium, are lo-cated in areas under the control of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement.

In comments made to a Leba-nese television, Russian Ambas-

sador Alexander Zaspekin, who toured the sites, described the Is-

raeli claims as “unrealistic.”Footage showed a member of the

club telling the ambassadors: “We are a sports club and this is a place

to play football and raise youth on loving sports and enjoy peace.”

Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil gestures as he speaks during a tour for diplomats and journalists near the airport in Beirut yesterday.

UN invites West Sahara rivals for fresh parleys

The United Nations has invited Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Polisario Front, a Western Sa-

hara independence movement, for talks in Geneva on the confl ict in the desert region next December, a UN spokes-woman said in Geneva yesterday.

UN eff orts have repeatedly failed to broker a settlement over the territory, contested between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario since Spanish colonial power left in 1974.

UN Special Envoy for Western Sa-hara, Horst Kohler, has invited the for-eign ministers of Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania as well as the secretary gen-eral of the Polisario Front for a meeting in Geneva, the spokeswoman said. Mo-rocco has insisted that Algeria should be brought to the negotiation table accus-ing it of backing Polisario militarily and fi nancially.

Algeria denies the accusations.“The purpose of the meeting is to take

stock of developments since the last round of negotiations, address regional issues, and discuss the next steps in the political process on Western Sahara,” the UN spokeswoman said.

The talks come after Kohler’s sec-ond visit to the region in June and after his briefi ng to the Security Council on 8 August, during which he announced his intention of organising a meeting before the end of the year.

In 1991 the UN brokered a ceasefi re between Morocco and the Polisario and supported a referendum on the region’s future, including the possibility of inde-pendence. The vote never happened.

Morocco has off ered autonomy to Western Sahara, a thinly populated re-gion that has rich fi shing waters and phosphate deposits, and may also have oil and gas reserves. Polisario and its ally Algeria reject this and say they want a referendum, with independence for Western Sahara as one of the options.

Palestinians strike for Israeli Arab rightsReutersRamallah

Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem held a general strike yesterday in support of

an Israeli-Arab protest against Israel’s new Nation State Law.

Passed by Israel’s parliament in July, the Nation State Law declares that only Jews have the right of self-determination in Israel and downgrades Arabic from its status as an offi cial state language.

The legislation has come under fi erce criticism at home and abroad.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended the law, saying it is necessary in order to fend off Palestinian challenges to Jewish self-determination.

Across the Palestinian territories yes-terday, Palestinian schools, universi-ties, government offices and shops were closed in solidarity with the Israeli Arab minority which shut down its private sector.

“It is the minimum we can do for our peo-ple against the racist nation-state law,” said Abu Jabir al-Iraqi, a resident of the Israeli Arab town Taybeh.

Many of Israel’s Arab citizens also iden-tify as Palestinian. They make up a fi fth of Israel’s 9mn citizens.

Israeli law grants them full equal rights, but many say they face discrimination and are treated as second-class citizens.

Some Palestinians, however, questioned whether the strike was eff ective.

“I don’t know if the strike we are holding in the West Bank is aff ecting the Jews or not, or whether it is merely shutting down all the services for nothing,” said Diaa Rayan, 34, as he drove his car through the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

“This strike will make no change,” said Ismail al-Saidi, a butcher from Gaza. “To

make a change we need weapons to fi ght the enemy.”

In his address to the UN General As-sembly on Thursday, Netanyahu said con-demnations of the law were “outlandish attacks.”

“When Israel is called racist for making Hebrew its offi cial language and the Star of David its national fl ag, when Israel is la-belled an apartheid state for declaring itself the nation state of the Jewish people, this is downright preposterous,” he said.

An Arab Israeli protester holds a sign during a demonstration against the ‘Jewish Nation-State Law’ in the northern Israeli village of Jatt.

AFRICA


Namibia’s president yesterday called for a change to the constitution to allow the government to expropriate land and re-distribute it to the majority black population. “The willing-buyer willing-seller principle has not delivered results. Careful consideration should be given to expropriation,” President Hage Geingob said at the opening of the Second National Land Conference in the capital Windhoek. The southern African country wants to transfer 43%, or 15mn hectares of its arable agricultural land, to previously disadvantaged blacks by 2020. At the end of 2015, 27% has been redistributed, according to the Namibia Agriculture Union.

A suicide bomber yesterday rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into a vehicle carrying a European Union military convoy, injuring two civilians, police said. Shebaab claimed responsibility for the attack against “European Union Christians”, which targeted vehicles carrying Italian soldiers, in a statement on a pro-Shebaab website. “The attacked convoy was coming from the ministry of defence when targeted along the industrial road and... two civilians were wounded,” police officer Ahmed Ibrahim told AFP. “No Italian soldiers were injured in the event,” the Italian army said in Rome.

Classes resumed yesterday at universities in Niger after teachers suspended a month-long strike over pay and academic management, two trade unions in the West African country announced. “Our members are disciplined and will obey this” decision, the secretary-general of the National Union of Teacher-Researchers in Higher Education (SNECS), Nabala Adare, told AFP. “Courses began again in faculties but many students are waiting for the schedules of their activities,” said Idder Algabid, leader of the Union of Nigerien Scholars (USN), a union of students.

Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo yesterday asked the International Criminal Court to acquit him of crimes against humanity and free him after seven years in detention. Gbagbo, 73, is the first-ever head of state to be handed over to the Hague-based ICC, where he has been on trial since 2016. He faces four counts of crimes against humanity for his role in fomenting a wave of post-electoral violence eight years ago in the west African nation. After more than two years on trial, Gbagbo’s lawyers believe the prosecution failed to prove the charges and are demanding a “full dismissal, an acquittal on all charges” and Gbagbo’s immediate release.

Namibia mulls land reform to boost black ownership

Shebaab attack EU military convoy, two wounded

Classes at Niger university resume after staff strike

I Coast’s Gbagbo demands freedom from ICC custody

CHARTER CHANGEMILITANCY EDUCATION IN THE DOCK

A soldier holds position as damage is assessed after a Shebaab attack on a European Union armoured convoy in Mogadishu.

Cameroon tense on anglophone ‘independence’ anniversaryBy Amaury Hauchard and Reinnier Kaze, AFPYaounde

Cameroon’s restive anglophone re-gions were in lockdown yesterday as separatists marked the fi rst an-

niversary of a symbolic “independence” declaration just a week before a nation-wide presidential poll.

A 48-hour curfew was imposed on English-speaking towns in the regions which have been rocked by deadly clash-es sparked by the majority francophone country’s sensitive linguistic divide.

Gunfi re was reported yesterday in the fl ashpoint town of Buea in the country’s southwest which has been at the heart of the nascent insurgency.

In other English-speaking areas, shops were ordered to close, meetings of more than four people were banned and trans-port was suspended.

On October 1, 2017 at least 40 pro-an-glophone protesters were killed by police according to analysts at the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank which said that “tens of thousands of demonstrators” took to the streets.

The worst-aff ected towns — Buea, and Bamenda, the capital of the northwest re-gion — were fl ooded with security forces who arrested dozens of suspects following a symbolic “independence” declaration.

“The army killed lots of people on Oc-tober 1. For nearly two weeks they shot at people like they were birds,” the bishop of Buea, Emmanuel Bushu, had said at that time last year.

The fl ag of the self-styled Republic of Ambazonia replaced the Cameroonian colours in a number of villages in the an-glophone region with separatist fi ghters vowing to make the switch permanent. The confl ict continues unabated one year on.

Cameroonian security forces are de-ployed to the region in massive numbers and the strength of the secessionists has grown exponentially.

There are now more than 1,000 separatist fi ghters, according to the ICG, who control “a signifi cant proportion of rural areas and main roads” in the anglophone region.

A spike in attacks on symbols of the Cameroonian state including killings of police and kidnappings of civil servants has forced functionaries in several areas to fl ee.

By comparison, not one official has fled the country’s far north despite re-peated attacks by the Nigeria-based ex-

tremist group Boko Haram since 2014.Yaounde said in September that it

wanted to return offi cials who had aban-doned their posts “because of insecurity” in anglophone areas.

But a week before Cameroonians head to the ballot box, anglophone separatists vow that there will be no election in their areas next Sunday.

Cameroonian offi cials responded by insisting that polling would be held in all 360 of the country’s districts.

The anglophone regions have histori-cally been a reliable pool of votes for the main opposition Social democratic front (SDF) party — an anglophone force.

In an eff ort to limit the risk of attacks on polling stations, the Elecam electoral commission will relocate a number of vot-ing centres.

Voters from the anglophone regions al-ready face obstacles in casting their ballots as the UN estimates that 246,000 people have fl ed their homes in the southwest for other parts of Cameroon.

More than 25,000 others are refugees in neighbouring Nigeria.

There are no fi gures for the scale of the displacement in the northwest region and daily clashes alongside offi cial restrictions complicate the work of humanitarian or-ganisations and journalists.

The security forces who have been drafted in to battle what President Paul Biya describes as a “secessionist move-ment” spreading “trouble” have suff ered 170 fatalities since 2017 at the hands of the separatists.

At least 400 civilians have also lost their lives according to NGOs while no estimate exists for the separatist death toll.

As polling day has drawn closer the situation has deteriorated with the start of the new school year disrupted at the be-ginning of September.

At least one teacher has been killed, another maimed and several schools have come under attack.

Buea has been on the frontline of clash-es between separatist fi ghters and the se-curity forces.

Last week several civilians were killed by the military, according to witnesses in-cluding a taxi driver and a shopkeeper who were themselves subsequently killed, ac-cording to local sources, taking the toll to eight.

An indefi nite nighttime curfew remains in force in the northwest following an at-tack on a convoy of buses in a suburb of Bamenda at the beginning of September.

Melania Trump carves solo path on Africa visitBy Sebastian Smith and Jerome Cartillier, AFPWashington

Melania Trump yesterday left Washington — and her husband’s shadow — for a four-country

tour of Africa that will give the glamorous and at times enigmatic fi rst lady a chance to carve her own diplomatic path.

The trip to Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt is her fi rst big solo international trip.

Unlike Michelle Obama, who was a popular and constant presence on TV shows and magazine covers, former fash-ion model Melania has kept largely to the background as Donald Trump alternately wows and dismays the world in a presi-dency he has turned into the biggest show on earth.

Spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said Melania Trump’s Africa tour will be a “diplomatic and humanitarian visit” fo-cused on her #BeBest campaign for “chil-dren and their well-being.” There was lit-tle other information available about the trip, with only hours to go.

In typical fashion, it was Donald Trump who seized the headlines, telling journal-ists last week that his wife was “making a big trip to Africa.”

“We both love Africa. Africa is so beau-tiful, the most beautiful part of the world, in many ways,” continued the president.

But even if Donald Trump stole her thunder, there’s no doubt that Melania Trump means to take ownership of the visit.

At a time when her husband’s govern-ment is pushing for radical reductions of US aid around the world, Melania will “showcase” the work of the huge US Agency for International Development, or USAID, Grisham said.

“This is her trip, her initiative,” she said.Melania Trump held a #BeBest event at

the United Nations last week, during the world body’s annual gathering.

However, the 48-year-old fi rst lady has been more noted for her absences during a hectic presidency in which Donald Trump is almost omnipresent on social media, television and front pages.

With little more than a month to go be-fore the Republicans risk major losses in Congressional elections, Trump is hold-ing rallies around the country several times a week.

But Melania Trump is not by his side.When he made a heavily publicised trip

last month to North and South Carolina to assess damage from Hurricane Florence and to comfort locals, she was also miss-ing.

“We haven’t seen a sign that she is will-ing to embrace being a political asset,” said Anita McBride, a former chief of staff for Laura Bush, the wife of president George W Bush.

“The ability and the opportunity is there. Whether she chooses to use it will be another question.”

Even what was arguably Melania Trump’s most memorable public ap-pearance came wrapped in mystery and controversy, yet again raising the question of what kind of first lady oc-cupies this controversy-filled White House.

It was June and her husband’s policy of discouraging illegal immigration by sepa-rating children from their parents at the Mexican border had turned into a political fi restorm.

Unexpectedly, Melania Trump fl ew down to Texas to visit some of the chil-dren, and even more unexpectedly the back of her jacket bore these words scrawled in white: “I really don’t care. Do U?”

No one knew what she meant.“She’s a woman of few words,” McBride

said. “The one exception is when she wore that jacket. I will never understand that.”

But with the Africa trip, it seems clear what the fi rst lady wants to show: she does care.

Kid’s musical off to off -Broadway premiere

By Cecilie Kallestrup, Reuters Nairobi

Feathery costumes, multi-coloured makeup and East African instruments are

packed into boxes, ready for ship-ping as Kenya’s National Theatre prepares to take its popular chil-dren’s show Tinga Tinga Tales to New York.

The cartoon by multiple BAFTA award-winner Claudia Lloyd and Kenyan singer-songwriter Eric Wainaina features Kenyan chil-dren’s fables to explain questions from the animal kingdom, such as why the giraff e’s neck is long and how the chameleon got its colours.

The 2016 musical adaption, brought to life by a breakdancing Rastafari tortoise, a soul singing hippopotamus and a jazz savvy el-ephant, takes musical inspiration from gospel, funk and hiphop — genres rooted in the United States.

“I’m thrilled to be able to give back to an audience that I’ve bor-rowed so much from,” said Wain-aina, who is the show’s composer, music director and also plays the lead character Monkey.

“We all borrow from each other and I’m really happy to go and show this African manifestation of all this music that I’ve been listening to.”

The cartoon, named after a col-ourful Tanzanian art-style, was fi rst commissioned by Britain’s public broadcaster, the BBC.

Lloyd said she was excited to bring East African children’s tales, visual arts and music tradition to the United States, where the team will perform for two weeks in Oc-tober at New Victory Theatre, an off -Broadway theatre for children.

She said she believed the show had the potential to reach a much broader audience than the one it has so far entertained with full the-atres in the Kenyan capital.

“When they all get up and scream and shout, that’s why we are do-ing this,” said Lloyd, adding she still tears up with joy when she sees families or school classes engage in the tale and move to the beats.

“There’s no reason why this couldn’t tour around the world. I would love it to go to pan-African capital cities and spread the Tinga-love a bit.”

Cast members of the popular children’s show Tinga Tinga Tales perform at Kenya’s National Theatre in Nairobi.

Members of the community pelt stones and clash with South African riot police during a protest yesterday after a woman was killed in a crossfire incident in Johannesburg’s Westbury suburb. Roads were blocked with burning tyres and rocks in protest against crime and gang-related activities.

Protesting crime

Buhari opens re-election bid with keynote speechAFPAbuja

Nigeria’s President Muham-madu Buhari yesterday made his fi nal independence day

address to the nation before elec-tions next year, eff ectively setting out his government’s manifesto as he seeks a second term.

The 75-year-old former military ruler is currently the only candidate in the running to secure the presi-dential ticket of his ruling All Pro-gressives Congress (APC) party.

The APC national convention is expected to endorse him this week-end at the same time as the main op-position Peoples Democratic Party picks its challenger.

October 1, which is a public holi-day in Nigeria and commemorates the day in 1960 when Nigeria won independence from Britain, tradi-tionally sees presidents take stock.

But with candidates and parties jockeying for position at party pri-

maries, the head of state’s message takes on added signifi cance.

Buhari came to power in 2015 on a pledge to defeat Boko Haram insur-gents, take tougher action on cor-ruption and improve the economy.

He vowed in the speech to “work tirelessly to promote, protect and preserve...a united, peaceful, pros-perous and secure Nigeria”.

On security, he has previously said the jihadists, whose campaign of violence has left more than 27,000 dead since 2009, were “technically defeated”, despite repeated attacks.

In the latest attacks, nine people were killed during raids on two vil-lages in the Konduga area of north-eastern Borno state on September 19.

There have also been at least eight attempts to overrun military bases.

Yesterday, he said only there had been “a steady improvement in the security situation” and the govern-ment remained “committed to end-ing the crisis”.

Over the last year the security services have equally been stretched

by renewed violence in a long-running resource confl ict between farmers and nomadic herders, plus cattle rustling and kidnapping gangs.

Parliament at one point even is-sued Buhari with a veiled threat of impeachment for failing to protect lives and property.

Buhari said only he was seeking a “durable solution” to the pastoralist confl ict, which has seen 1,300 people killed in the fi rst half of this year and has been seen as having the potential to disrupt the election.

Last week, 11 people were killed in fi ghting near the central city of Jos, leading to a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

On the economy, which in 2016 went into into recession, Buhari of-fered little detail other than to say the government was seeking to end the reliance on oil revenue.

Recent days have been hit by the threat of a widening national strike over a new minimum wage while there is some disquiet over the coun-try’s debt profi le.

And in what could be seen as an attempt to mend fences af-ter describing young Nigerians as “lazy” earlier this year, Buhari said young people “play a central role” in the country from tech-nology to the arts. More than half of Nigeria’s over 180mn people are under 24.

February’s elections will be the fi rst involving young people who have never lived under military rule.

Nigeria returned to civilian gov-ernment in 1999.

Elections since then have been blighted by rigging and deadly po-litical violence.

Last week, international observers expressed concerns about irregulari-ties, harassment and intimidation of voters at a governorship election in the southwestern state of Osun, which was won by the APC.

Buhari promised elections would be “fully participatory, free and fair”.

“The ballot box is how we make our choice for the governments that rule in our name,” he added.

AMERICAS11Gulf Times


Autopsies were expected yesterday on the bodies of three men killed in a US car blast, a rare event which tight-lipped police called a criminal case. The explosion in Allentown, Pennsylvania late Saturday, turned the car into a fireball and before it was reduced to twisted metal. “It burst into flames while it was still going,” Anthony Sealy, a witness, told WGAL TV. Coroner Scott Grim confirmed three men had been killed, but police said the victims were still being identified. “We have a high degree of confidence that the perpetrator was probably killed in the incident,” Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin told reporters in the community about 60km north of Philadelphia.

Streaming giant Netflix Inc will now allow users to choose how a TV episode or movie will end as it pushes further into interactive TV, Bloomberg reported yesterday. The Los Gatos, California-based company is developing specials that will let its users decide the next storyline, citing people familiar with the matter. Netflix had earlier released the animated programme Puss in Book where viewers could choose alternate endings of the same show. The first project of the new lineup is expected to be released by the end of this year, and Netflix’s popular sci-fi show Black Mirror will feature an episode under this project. Netflix was not immediately available for comments.

The US Coast Guard suspended its search on Sunday for three missing people from a helicopter crash in the frigid waters near Lituya Bay, about 187km northwest of Juneau, Alaska. “After maximising search eff orts with air, surface and shoreside assets we suspended the search today,” Captain Darran McLenon, of the 17th Coast Guard District, said in the statement. A 14-year-old boy was found alive on Friday, a few hours after the wreck, suff ering from mild hypothermia, but otherwise in good condition, according to Coast Guard spokesman Nate Littlejohn. Neither the Coast Guard nor the Alaska Department of Public Safety has released the names of the missing people or the youth.

The US Justice Department’s lawsuit to block a California law aimed at ensuring all online data to be treated equally sets up a legal clash over so-called “net neutrality” and the authority to regulate the Internet. California Governor Jerry Brown on Sunday signed the law that re-established net neutrality in his state, the country’s largest and home to some of the largest online firms including Facebook and Google. Within hours, the Trump administration sued to block the law. “Under the constitution, states do not regulate interstate commerce — the federal government does,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

Tropical Storm Rosa diminished from a Pacific hurricane over the weekend, but will still bring strong winds and dangerous rip currents to southern California, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said yesterday. It could also bring life-threatening flash floods to central Arizona over the next few days, the NHC added. “This storm still has a punch, it’s still dangerous,” said David Roth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. Swells generated by Rosa yesterday were aff ecting the coasts of southwestern Mexico, the west coast of the Baja California peninsula and southern California through today, the weather service said in an advisory.

3 killed as car explodes, police seek cause

Netflix viewers to pick how TV episodes, movies end

Search for survivors in icy Alaska waters suspended

California law sets up legal clash over ‘net neutrality’

Rosa still packs a punch to south California, Arizona

MYSTERY BLAST ENTERTAINMENTCHOPPER CRASH JUSTICE WEATHER

Trudeau sets out to sell trade pact to nervous votersBy Michel Comte, AFPOttawa

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the new continental trade

agreement with the United States and Mexico “a good day for Can-ada,” but must now sell it to dairy farmers, unions and voters.

The eleventh-hour deal was reached late Sunday after more than a year of tough negotiations to replace a 24-year-old trade pact that US President Donald Trump had labelled a “disaster.”

Canadian dairy farmers imme-diately denounced the new US-Mexico-Canada Agreement for easing market protections, but

auto workers praised it for safe-guarding the nation’s top export — cars.

The political impact of the agreement could soon be tested in provincial elections being held yesterday in Quebec, a key dairy producing province.

Trudeau put the best face on the deal, welcoming it in a late night call with Trump as “a new and modern trade agreement.”

They “stressed that the agree-ment would bring the countries closer together, create jobs and grow the middle class, enhance North American competitive-ness, and provide stability, pre-dictability, and prosperity to the region,” according to a readout.

“It’s a good day for Canada,”

Trudeau told reporters after a late Sunday cabinet meeting.

In Quebec, politicians lament-ed that its dairy sector was pay-ing the biggest price in order to get a deal.

“The worst-case scenario has been realized,” Parti Quebecois leader Jean-Francois Lisee said.

Canada’s supply-managed system controls the production and price of milk and poultry and ensures stable incomes for Cana-dian farmers.

Preserving the protections for dairy was politically important to Trudeau, whose Liberal party faces elections next year.

But Trump had threatened to leave Canada out of the trade deal altogether if an agreement could

not be reached by midnight on Sunday, confronting Trudeau with the prospect of broader dis-ruptions to the Canadian econo-my.

The Dairy Farmers of Canada warned that giving US farmers an additional 3.59% slice of the C$20bn (US$16bn) Canadian milk and cheese market “will have a dramatic impact not only for dairy farmers but for the whole sector.”

“This has happened, despite assurances that our government would not sign a bad deal for Ca-nadians,” it said.

“We fail to see how this deal can be good for the 220,000 Ca-nadian families that depend on dairy for their livelihood.”

But experts noted that this ac-cess is similar to what was off ered in a free trade deal with Europe and in the Trans Pacifi c Partner-ship.

And on the streets of Canadian cities, a collective sigh of relief was expressed by bystanders in-terviewed by local media, happy that some stability would now return in the Canada-US rela-tionship.

“We can rejoice that we are not facing the alternative, dark-er outcome (of no deal) despite some important reversals from the original trade pact,” professor Louis Belanger of the University of Laval in Quebec told AFP.

He and others listed as wins for Canada: keeping dispute resolu-

tion panels that have been used in the past to successfully challenge US anti-dumping and counter-vailing duties on its lumber and other key sectors; continued ac-cess to the US auto market; and, an exemption for Canada’s cul-tural industries.

“Since Prime Minister Tru-deau did not give in on these key issues, I don’t think he’ll pay a political price at the polls next year,” Belanger said.

“Most Canadians blame the American administration for the mess we’re in, and I think Jus-tin Trudeau will be recognized for saving the furniture,” he told AFP.

Some suggested that greater patent protections for some

drugs will make them costlier, but Dias said he expected the government to pitch a national pharmacare plan next year that would mitigate the higher pric-es.

“Don’t call it Nafta, at least not while Donald Trump is listening,” CIBC World Markets analyst Av-ery Shenfeld said in a research note.

“But the good news is like a rose by any other name, a deal reached last night between the US, Canada and Mexico will smell pretty sweet relative to the alternative of an all-out trade war.”

He predicted “the deal won’t be a huge game changer for Ca-nadian growth.”

Vegas remembers

victims of shooting

on 1st anniversary

ReutersLas Vegas

White doves fl ew overhead, each tagged with a name of the 58 people killed one year ago in the

largest mass shooting in modern American history, as loved ones gathered in Las Vegas at a sunrise service yesterday to remember them.

“On October 1st, our city was jolted into darkness,” said Mynda Smith, whose sis-ter Neysa Tonks, a 46-year-old mother of three, was among those gunned down in the massacre that wounded more than 800 at an outdoor country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip.

“None of us will ever be the same af-ter that night. However, none of us were alone,” she said, recalling the massive re-sponse of citizens donating blood, aiding the injured and feeding families stunned by the violence.

“We found love that came from so many that were there to help us.”

Gunman Stephen Paddock, 64, fi red more than 1,100 rounds from his 32nd-fl oor hotel suite at the Mandalay Bay on the evening of October 1, 2017, and then killed himself before police stormed his room.

At the daybreak ceremony one year later, friends and family members bowed their heads for 58 seconds of silence before a choral group sang You’ll Never Walk Alone and the air was fi lled with the mournful strains of bagpipes.

MGM Resorts International, which owns the Mandalay Bay and drew criticism for countersuing victims to seek immunity from damage claims, expressed solidarity and sympathy on the fi rst anniversary of the gun violence.

“One year ago, our community suff ered an unforgettable act of terror,” MGM Re-sorts chairman and chief executive Jim Murren said in a statement.

“We share the sorrow of those who mourn and continue to search for meaning in events that lie beyond our understand-ing.”

Paddock used “bump stock” devices to accelerate the rate of fi re from his semi-automatic rifl es, eff ectively turning them into machine guns.

The use of bump stocks, which are legal under US law, prompted calls from politi-cians and gun control activists to ban the devices.

Within days, National Rifl e Association leaders urged the US government to review whether bump stocks were legal.

Drawing criticism from some NRA members who viewed that call as a betrayal of the powerful gun lobby’s principles, the NRA position also gave political cover to the Trump administration to consider regulating bump stocks.

The US Justice Department said yes-terday it had submitted a proposed ban on bump stocks last week to the Offi ce of Management and Budget for review, part of the legal process required for the regula-tion to take eff ect.

President Donald Trump, asked about bump stocks at a news conference yester-day, said his administration was scram-bling to ensure the devices would be illegal within a matter of weeks.

“We’re knocking out bump stocks,” Trump said. “Bump stocks are done — I told the NRA.”

US Supreme Court opens new term, overshadowed by Kavanaugh brawlReutersWashington

The short-handed US Supreme Court yesterday launched its new term, with the legal argu-

ments in its stately courtroom over-shadowed by the harsh fi ght over President Donald Trump’s nomina-tion of Brett Kavanaugh for a lifetime job as a justice.

There were eight justices, rather than the usual nine, following the re-tirement of long-serving conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, eff ective in July.

Trump selected Kavanaugh to re-place Kennedy, but the Senate confi r-mation process has been detoured as the FBI conducts an investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against the nominee.

The diffi culties facing the court now that it is — at least temporarily — evenly divided ideologically with four liberals and four conservatives were on full display yesterday in the fi rst of two cases argued before the justices. Kavanaugh’s confi rmation would re-store and deepen conservative control of the court.

A 4-4 split is possible in the case, a property rights dispute brought by timber company Weyerhaeuser Co seeking to limit the federal govern-ment’s power to designate private land as protected habitat for endan-gered species.

The dispute focused on the dusky gopher frog, an amphibian protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. Weyerhaeuser harvests timber on the Louisiana land in question and is backed in the case by business groups including the US Chamber of Com-merce.

Weyerhaeuser challenged a lower court ruling upholding a 2012 US Fish and Wildlife Service decision to include private land where the frog does not currently live as critical habitat, potentially putting restric-tions on future development oppor-tunities.

The case pitted property rights against federal conservation meas-ures.

The frog, found only in four loca-tions in southern Mississippi, also previously inhabited Louisiana and Alabama.

While the liberal justices appeared sympathetic to the government’s defense of the critical habitat desig-nation, the conservatives seemed to lean more toward the property own-ers.

“We know a habitat isn’t just where a species lives....It’s also where a spe-cies could live,” liberal Justice Elena Kagan said.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito said that although some might not be concerned about a large company like Weyerhaeuser being forced to spend money on the property for the ben-efi t of the frogs, the law would apply equally to a family farm.

A 4-4 ruling leaves lower court de-cisions in place and sets no nation-wide legal precedent.

If Kavanaugh is confirmed, the court could decide to rehear the case with a full complement of jus-tices.

The second case, to be argued after the frog dispute, involved the scope of a federal law that outlaws discrimina-tion on the basis of age.

Chief Justice John Roberts began the day’s proceedings with business as usual by congratulating Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for her “dis-

tinguished service” during a quarter century on the court.

Before hearing their fi rst arguments of the term, the justices issued a list of cases it was accepting and rejecting.

Among them, they rejected Bill Cosby’s bid to avoid a defamation lawsuit brought by a well-known former model, Janice Dickinson, who said the comedian sought to destroy her reputation after she publicly ac-cused him of rape.

Trump nominated conserva-tive federal appeals court judge Ka-vanaugh in July.

The FBI investigation, ordered by Trump on Friday under pressure from moderates in his own party, is due to last no more than a week.

For the current term, the court has some important cases, though none yet of the magnitude of the biggest from the previous term such as the fi ght over Trump’s ban on people from

several Muslim-majority countries entering the United States.

One case involves whether a state and the federal government can each prosecute a person for the same crime.

Other cases include whether the US attorney general has too much power in determining to whom the federal sex off ender registry applies, and whether a state can execute a con-victed murderer who, after a series of strokes, forgot the crime.

Trump wants ‘comprehensive’ FBI investigation

New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at a rally yesterday in Boston, calling on Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) to reject Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

President Donald Trump said yes-

terday he wants the FBI to conduct

a comprehensive investigation into

sexual misconduct allegations against

his Supreme Court nominee Brett

Kavanaugh, but said he did not want to

see a “witch hunt.”

“I want them to do a very compre-

hensive investigation. Whatever that

means, according to the senators and

the Republicans and the Republican

majority, I want them to do that,” Trump

said at a White House news conference.

“With that being said, I’d like it to go

quickly.”

Trump on Friday ordered the FBI to

carry out an investigation lasting up

to a week of the allegations against

Kavanaugh, acting on a request from

Senate Republican leaders who were

pressed by moderate senators in

Trump’s own party.

Christine Blasey Ford, a university

professor from California, testified

before the Senate Judiciary Com-

mittee last week that Kavanaugh

sexually assaulted her in 1982 when

they were both high school students

in Maryland.

Kavanaugh has denied her allega-

tion, as well as sexual misconduct ac-

cusations by two other women.

Questions about the scope of the

FBI investigation emerged over the

weekend amid reports that Senate

Republicans were working with the

White House to contain the number

of witnesses and the allegations to be

investigated.

Democrats expressed concern on

Sunday about reported eff orts to stymie

the probe, which comes after the Judici-

ary Committee approved Kavanaugh’s

nomination on Friday before it goes to

the full Senate for a final vote.

“It is up to me, but I’m instructing

them (FBI) as per what I feel the Senate

wants,” Trump said.

“I want it to be quickly, because it’s

unfair to the family and to the judge. It’s

so unfair to his kids and his wife.”

“We don’t want to go on a witch hunt,

do we?” Trump asked.

The Republican president was

sympathetic to Kavanaugh, saying the

nominee has been treated unfairly and

that he believes Kavanaugh did not lie

about the extent of his drinking in high

school and college during testimony

before the Senate panel on Thursday.

ASIA


Dhaka delays plan to shift Rohingyas to remote islandBangladesh has post-

poned plans to begin relocating Rohingya

Muslims to a remote island, offi cials said yesterday, amid staunch opposition to the controversial idea among refugees living near the Myanmar border.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was slated to open the new set-tlement built to house 100,000 refugees on Bhashan Char on October 3, despite warnings the

silty strip was prone to violent weather.

But a spokesman for Bangla-desh’s armed forces, which has overseen the $280mn-eff ort to transform the muddy islet into a habitable camp, said the opening ceremony had been delayed.

“We will announce a new date soon,” Lieutenant Colonel Alamgir Kabir said, without providing further details.

The controversial plan, fi rst fl oated in 2015, was already well behind schedule.

Offi cials previously said they wanted to start moving refu-

gees from overcrowded camps near the border with Myanmar to the island in June, before the monsoon season began.

A senior disaster manage-ment offi cial said in September that nearly three quarters of the project was complete, with the navy fast-tracking construc-tion of shelters and evacuation centres.

No reason was provided for the latest delay.

But the proposal to uproot the refugees to a remote island that only rose from the sea in 2006 remains unpopular in the teeming Rohingya camps.

The island is one hour by boat from the nearest land but vio-lent storms make the journey by sea dangerous or sometimes impossible.

“It is cut off from the main-land. What if someone needs emergency medical attention?” said Rohingya community leader Abdul Gowff er.

The UN has insisted that any relocation to Bhashan Char be voluntary.

Local authorities have been seeking to reassure refugees that they will be safe on the island.

“We are still working on it. We’re

talking to the families,” Bangla-desh’s Refugee Commissioner Abul Kalam said.

One million displaced Mus-lims live cheek by jowl on hill-side shanties near the Myan-mar border, in conditions aid groups warn put them at risk from fl oods, landslides and disease.

There was a further push to get the plan off the ground after 700,000 Rohingyas, fl eeing a violent crackdown in Myanmar in August last year, poured into southeast Bangladesh.

But rights groups have warned it is too risky to house

refugees on the island. Hun-dreds of thousands have died in Bangladesh from natural disas-ters in the last 50 years, mostly in coastal areas near Bhashan Char.

Local offi cials have pointed to a newly-constructed 3m (9ft) high embankment around the island they say will keep out tidal surges in the event of a cyclone.

But refugees remain wary.“Any strong blow from a cy-

clone and, God forbid, the shel-ters would be wiped out,” said a community leader, Mohammad Shoyeb.

AFPDhaka

Climber missing on Nepal mount

A Czech climber has been missing for the past two days on the world’s

eighth-highest mountain, Mount Manaslu, his expedition organiser said yesterday.

Roman Hlavko, a member of a four-person expedition team, was descending with his team on Saturday after reaching the top of the 8,163m-high peak in Nepal, said Tej Bahadur Thapa of Mountain Treks and Expedition.

“His partners reported that he was missing after they arrived in Camp III,” Thapa told DPA from the mountain’s base camp.

He said search and rescue teams in helicopters and on foot had been deployed, but that their eff orts were hampered by bad weather.

Nepal’s main climbing season runs between April and May, when weather conditions are favourable.

But several climbers also at-tempt to reach some of the world’s highest peaks during the au-tumn season from September to October, despite increased risks.

DPAKathmandu

Nepal and China to facilitate joint investment in power sectorNepal and China have agreed to facilitate joint investment in the power sector, according to a statement issued by both sides after a meeting.The meeting of the Nepal-China Joint Implementation Mechanism was conducted on Friday as a stepping stone to implement the memorandum of understanding on energy co-operation signed by the energy ministers of both countries during the visit of Nepali Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli to China in June, the Himalayan Times reported yesterday.According to the joint statement, both sides introduced their power systems, investment prospects, power markets, future plans among others to make both sides familiar with each other’s power system.The joint statement said that during the meeting, possible energy collaboration and the possibility of developing cross-border interconnection were also discussed.Dinesh Ghimire, a spokesperson at Nepal’s ministry of energy, water resources and irrigation (MoEWRI), told Xinhua news agency that the two sides agreed to prepare a power system co-operation plan once the Nepali and Chinese authorities give the go-ahead.“A joint working group will be formed to prepare the plan,” Ghimire said, adding that the plan will also involve the identification and selection of energy projects for joint development.The Nepali team was led by Anup Kumar Upadhyay, secretary at MoEWRI, while the Chinese delegation was led by He Yang, an off icial at the National Energy Administration of China. (IANS)

Thailand struggles to win back tourists from China

As China kicked off its “Golden Week” holiday yesterday, Thailand said

it was struggling to lure back visitors from its biggest source of tourists, after a boat accident in July that killed dozens.

Lured by Thailand’s proxim-ity and plentiful attractions, visitors from China accounted for nearly a third of last year’s record 35.38mn arrivals in the Southeast Asian nation.

But a Thai tourism offi cial said he expected arrivals dur-ing the Chinese holiday to dip 1% this year.

“The decrease is because the boat incident has aff ected our safety image,” said Yutha-sak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The agency has rounded down its forecast of Chinese arrivals for the year to 10.5mn from 11mn, he added.

Thailand has tried to lure back Chinese tourists by of-fering special immigration lanes at key airports, and is also considering off ering them a double-entry visa.

In July, Chinese arrivals fell 0.9% from a year earlier for their fi rst drop since the start of 2017, when the government cracked down on cheap tour packages.

Tourism experts blamed a July boat disaster off the coast of Phuket that killed 47 Chinese in Thailand’s worst tourist-related disaster in years, underscoring concerns over the kingdom’s lax attitude to safety.

Chinese tourist arrivals con-tinued to fall in August, plung-ing 11.77% from a year earlier, tourism ministry data showed.

Industry experts had hoped that Golden Week, which runs from October 1 to October 7 this year and is one of China’s most popular holidays, would bring back its tourists, but that appears not to be the case.

ReutersBangkok

Task force to guard Cambodian leader

A Cambodian police task force has been formed to provide security for

main opposition leader Kem Sokha, who has been under de facto house arrest since he was released on bail last month, local media reported.

The task force of more than 500 municipal offi cers has also been charged with prevent-ing protests in his vicinity, the Khmer Times reported, citing the authorities’ security plan.

It was assigned on Friday to police targeted areas within a four-block radius of Sokha’s

home in Phnom Penh, where he has been restricted by court order.

“The court made a request, so I have to set up the group to ensure his safety,” Phnom Penh police chief Sar Thet told the Times. “I think Sokha is now co-operating with our police very well. There has been nothing unusual happening yet.”

Sokha, president of the outlawed opposition Cam-bodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was jailed in Sep-tember 2017 on widely decried treason charges, which he denies.

He was released from jail in September.

DPAPhnom Penh

Thai anti-junta party begins recruitment ahead of polls

A Thai progressive anti-junta political party yes-terday began recruiting

members for the 2019 elections a few days after Thailand’s Election Commission approved the party’s status.

“We’re inviting anyone who cannot tolerate the cycle of old politics and want to make changes,” said Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, founder of the Future Forward Party, the

only party so far to take a clear anti-military stance, at a press conference in Bangkok.

“We’re willing to work with any parties holding the same ideals, namely non-acceptance of extended military power into the future, amending the entire constitution and eradi-cate outcomes of the coup,” the 39-year-old added.

Thanathorn’s remarks came amidst a gradual revival of po-litical activities in Thailand, as the ruling military government allowed political parties to re-cruit members and convene

meetings in early September ahead of general elections, ten-tatively set for February.

A full lift of the junta’s ban on political activities – includ-ing election campaigns – is ex-pected in December.

Since coming into power in a May 2014 coup, the junta has postponed election dates at least four times, citing the need to fulfi l its reforms and ensure political stability.

But as the regime is pav-ing the way for a democratic election, its opponents have criticised its attempt to pro-

long power through pro-junta parties, especially when Prime Minister and junta leader Prayut Chan-o-cha expressed interest in joining politics last week.

The regime has also been criticised for punishing op-ponents with lawsuits, as Thanathorn and his two fellow party members were charged in mid-September for a computer crime violation after criticising the junta on Facebook.

“This is not a pressing con-cern. The charges against us are not deterring us in any way,” he said.

DPABangkok

Members of Future Forward pose for photographs during the off icial launch of the political party in Bangkok yesterday.

Japanese warship visits Lanka

Japan’s largest warship, the Kaga helicopter carrier, sailed into Sri Lanka’s Co-

lombo harbour this weekend, marking Tokyo’s highest pro-fi le salvo in a diplomatic battle with China for infl uence along the region’s vital commercial sea lanes.

Japan has long provided low-interest loans and aid to Sri Lan-ka, helping it transform Colom-bo into a major trans-shipment port tapping the artery of global trade just south of the island that links Europe and the Middle East with Asia.

Japan’s military diploma-cy is fl ourishing under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

“Japan’s government is pro-moting a free and open Indo-Pacifi c and this deployment in

the Asia Pacifi c is a component of that strategy,” Rear Admiral Tatsuya Fukuda, the commander of the Kaga and its destroyer escort, said in his cabin as the carrier steamed for Colombo through the Indian Ocean.

“Maritime security and sta-bility is of critical importance” to an island nation like Japan, he added.

On its way to Sri Lanka, the 248m (814ft) ship carried out na-val drills in the Philippines and Indonesia. It also drilled with a British Navy frigate before dock-ing in Colombo on Sunday with 500 sailors and four submarine hunting helicopters aboard.

As part of the goodwill visit, the Kaga’s crew also brought packets of colourful origami paper, crafting fl owers for local children who came to tour the ship soon after it docked.

The visit was intended to re-assure Sri Lanka of Japan’s will-

ingness and capability to dis-patch its most powerful military assets to a region.

“Sri Lanka, as a hub in the In-dian Ocean, and upholding its commitment to a free and open Indian Ocean, welcomes naval vessels from all our partner na-tions, to interact with Sri Lanka’s Navy,” said Sri Lankan foreign ministry spokeswoman Ma-hishini Colonne. “Several navy vessels from our partner coun-tries have visited Sri Lanka this year already and the ship from Japan, a close bilateral partner, is welcomed in the same spirit.”

“Sri Lanka is a key country within the region and a core part of Japan’s open and free Indo-Pacifi c strategy. A monopoly by any country at a Sri Lankan port would run counter to that,” a foreign ministry offi cial told Reuters, asking not to be identi-fi ed because he is not authorised to talk to the media.

In March, Sri Lanka’s Presi-dent Maithripala Sirisena visited Tokyo for talks with Abe, who despite being constrained by a constitution that forbids the use of force overseas, has sought a greater role for his military in the region.

Such naval forays are a re-cent change that for some vet-eran sailors on the Kaga was unexpected.

“When I joined, we would sail out for the day and train from morning till night. I never imag-ined that we would be deployed on actual missions like this,” said Command Master Chief, Yasuhara Tohno, a 35 year navy veteran.

The Kaga is half-way through a two-month deployment that will see it visit India next.

In the last fi ve years, Japanese naval vessels have stopped in Sri Lanka 50 times.

But the Kaga’s new role as a

ReutersColombo

big stick of Japanese diplomacy is for some infl uential mili-tary experts in Japan foolhardy because it means deploying ships away from where they are needed more.

“I am strongly against it,” said Yoji Koda, a retired admiral who is now a fellow at the Fairbank

Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard. “Our navy was tasked to kill submarines in the West-ern Pacifi c and guarantee the safety of US naval forces. That is enough, we can’t do anymore things.” Japan has one of the big-gest and most advanced navies in the world with more than 40 de-

stroyers, four helicopter carriers and around 20 submarines.

“We undertake far more mis-sions than we did in the past. That means we are stretched in some areas but it is our job to complete the job with the equip-ment we have,” said Fukuda, Kaga’s commander.

A Sri Lankan marine stands guard in front of Japanese helicopter carrier Kaga docked at Colombo port in Sri Lanka yesterday.

ASIA/AUSTRALASIA13Gulf Times


Protesters rally in Hong Kong over China suppressionAFPHong Kong

Protesters marched in Hong Kong yesterday against suppression by Beijing as

fears grow that freedoms in the semi-autonomous city are seri-ously under threat. Offi cial num-bers were way down on last year’s event with organisers estimating 1,500 had turned out, compared with tens of thousands in 2017.

But an AFP journalist at the scene estimated slightly higher, although crowds yesterday were

visibly smaller than the previous year. The pro-democracy protest comes a week after Hong Kong banned a pro-independence par-ty on the grounds it was a threat to national security, the fi rst time a political party has been prohib-ited since the city was handed back to China by Britain in 1997.

The emergence of an inde-pendence movement calling for Hong Kong to split from China has incensed Beijing as it em-phasises the importance of ter-ritorial integrity and has led to a crackdown on political expres-sion. Leading pro-democracy

campaigner Joshua Wong said he feared his party, Demosisto, could be next because it pro-motes self-determination for Hong Kong.

One high-profi le Demosisto candidate was already barred from a recent by-election. “We need to protect and defend the freedom of association in Hong Kong,” Wong, 21, told AFP at the rally. Independence supporters were initially blocked by police from entering the square at the end point of the march, but the crowd managed to push through. The rally dispersed around 6pm.

The pro-democracy protest is held every October 1, China’s National Day, which marks the communist party’s establish-ment of the People’s Republic of China.

But despite many residents’ dissatisfaction with China’s growing infl uence, the numbers attending the city’s traditional street protests have shrunk since massive 2014 pro-democracy rallies failed to win reform. Yuet Wong, a 21-year-old student, said there was a sense of pow-erlessness among young people, particularly after the disqualifi -

cation of elected pro-democracy legislators, but said she was still motivated to come out. “Even if we can’t achieve anything im-mediately, we want to show the government we won’t be com-promised and won’t be silent,” she told AFP.

Hong Kong enjoys rights un-seen on the mainland including freedom of speech but there are growing fears those are being eroded.

There are also concerns that the city will introduce a con-troversial anti-subversion law designed to protect China’s na-

tional security and potentially put freedoms at further risk. “They talk about national secu-rity, but what about our security? They don’t care about that,” said a 50-year-old offi ce worker who gave her name as Miss Hau.

“Today they say we can’t talk about A, but tomorrow they might say we can’t talk about B, and in the end we won’t be able to talk about anything,” she told AFP. Other protesters criticised the government’s “totalitar-ian agenda”. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, appointed by a pro-Beijing committee, said in an

offi cial address yesterday that Hong Kong must “fi rmly uphold China’s sovereignty, security and development interests”. Crit-ics say Hong Kong is being sub-sumed into mainland China via perks and infrastructure projects designed to blur boundaries.

Last month saw the opening of a multi-billion-dollar high-speed rail link to the mainland, with part of the Hong Kong sta-tion coming under Chinese law. A long-delayed mega-bridge between Hong Kong and south-ern China is set to open later this month.

Perfect storm of factors behind tsunami-quakeAFPJakarta

Inadequate warning systems, a lack of education about what to do when the quake hit and

a narrow bay that channelled the tsunami’s destructive force — a perfect storm of factors spawned the deadly disaster in Indonesia.

The massive 7.5-magnitude tremor struck Friday and sent monster waves barrelling into the island of Sulawesi, leaving at least 844 dead in the seaside city of Palu and surrounding areas.

As victims were buried in a mass grave and rescue teams struggled to reach remote areas, questions mounted about what exactly happened and if more could have been done to save lives. The tragedy has highlighted what critics say is a patchy early-warning system to detect tsu-namis in the seismically-active Southeast Asian archipelago.

“There was no information about a tsunami recorded by the tide-monitoring station in Palu because it was not working,” Widjo Kongko, a tsunami expert with the Indonesian govern-ment’s technology agency, told AFP.

The station keeps a check on changes in tides and should have detected if destructive waves were headed for the city. After the initial quake, Indone-

sia’s geophysics agency — which monitors seismic activity — did issue a tsunami warning but lift-ed it soon afterwards.

It was only later that images emerged of a surging wall of wa-ter charging into the coast, fl at-tening buildings and overturning cars.

Tide-monitoring stations and data-modelling are the main tools in Indonesia for predicting if a quake has generated a tsu-nami. But even if all the country’s stations are working, experts say the network is limited and in any case gives people little time to fl ee as they only detect waves once they are close to shore.

Eff orts to improve systems have been beset by problems,

from a failure to properly main-tain new equipment to bureau-cratic bickering. After a quake-tsunami in 2004 off Sumatra island killed 220,000 across the region, with most victims in In-donesia, 22 early-warning buoys were deployed around the coun-try to detect tsunamis.

But offi cials have admitted that they are no longer working after being vandalised and due to a lack of funds for maintenance. In another case, a major project with funding from the US Na-tional Science Foundation to de-ploy high-tech tsunami sensors in a quake-prone part of western Indonesia has been delayed.

Louise Comfort, a natural disaster expert from the Univer-

sity of Pittsburgh who has led the American side of the initia-tive, said that it had been put on hold after disagreement between government agencies and a delay in getting fi nancing. “It’s so dis-heartening and it’s so sad because we’ve got the technology, we’ve got the knowledge, we know we can do it,” she told AFP.

However, others called for a stronger focus on simply teach-ing people to head to higher ground when a quake hits, rather than on expensive technology which many communities in a developing country like Indone-sia cannot aff ord.

“For a place like Indonesia to try and defend its coastline, edu-cation is almost certainly going to outpace technology for the foreseeable future,” said Adam Switzer, a tsunami expert from Nanyang Technological Univer-sity’s Earth Observatory of Sin-gapore.

“Every kid in Indonesia needs to be taught what to do if they are on the coast and there is an earthquake.” Observers stressed the Indonesian quake was highly complex, and it would not have been easy to predict it would send a tsunami barrelling towards the small community of Palu.

The initial tremor was a side-ways movement of tectonic plates, rather than the sort of violent upward thrust that would typically generate destruc-

tive waves, and was followed by scores of aftershocks. Experts believe that the tsunami could have been triggered by an under-water landslide that followed the tremor.

Palu’s unique geography will not have helped, they said — the tsunami likely intensifi ed as it raced down the narrow bay on which the city sits.

“Geographical factors (the

narrow bay, shallow water) seemed to have played major roles,” said Taro Arikawa, a pro-fessor at Chuo University in To-kyo. “The tsunami must have come very fast and suddenly.”

A car is seen outside a mosque after the area was hit by a tsunami, triggered by the earthquake, in Palu, Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi yesterday.

People inspect damaged houses in Palu.

People queue for petrol in Palu.

Kiwi PM faces domestic woes as ‘Jacinda-mania’ goes globalAFPWellington

New Zealand Prime Min-ister Jacinda Ardern and baby daughter Neve

charmed the world in New York during last week’s UN General Assembly, but pundits say her government’s lustre has started to fade back home after almost a year in power.

“Jacinda-mania goes global” trumpeted Kiwi pop culture website The Spinoff , saying Ar-dern had been embraced “as a beacon of hope for our troubled world”.

For the head of a small, remote

nation of just 4.5mn people, Ar-dern enjoyed an extraordinarily high profi le at the global meet-ing. The centre-left leader, who won power in an election upset late last year, graced talk show host Stephen Colbert’s couch, met with celebrities such as Anne Hathaway and shared parenting tips with the panel of NBC’s To-day Show.

Part of her appeal was un-doubtedly the presence of “fi rst baby” Neve, born in June when Ardern became only the second female prime minister in the world to give birth while serving in offi ce, after Pakistan’s Bena-zir Bhutto in 1990. “Images of a baby and her mother in the UN

general assembly are historically signifi cant,” Victoria University political analyst Bryce Edwards wrote after photographs of Ar-dern kissing her daughter in the UN Assembly Hall went viral.

The infant’s presence pro-vided Ardern, 38, with ample an-ecdotal fodder on the chat show circuit but also added heft to her passionate advocacy for gender equality. Political commenta-tor Martyn Bradbury said the sight of Ardern addressing the UN while partner Clarke Gay-ford looked after Neve “reset the brand that is New Zealand”.

Ardern’s repeated calls for ac-tion on climate change and more compassionate political dis-

course prompted TVNZ to label her “the anti-Trump”, while Stuff website said her words to the UN “directly challenge the view of the world outlined by US Presi-dent Donald Trump in his speech there earlier this week”.

But while Ardern projects a can-do image of youthful vigour overseas, her policy initiatives have been stymied on several oc-casions back home by coalition partner New Zealand First (NZF). Ardern’s Labour Party needs the populist NZF to govern, and its 73-year-old leader Winston Pe-ters is not averse to undercutting her on issues such as law and or-der if he feels it will appeal to his electoral base.

UN rights expert urges Malaysia to end child marriageMalaysia should ban child mar-riage immediately, a United Nations human rights expert said yesterday, stepping into a controversy that has raged since reports in July that a 44-year-old Malaysian man had married an 11-year-old Thai girl. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s government, in power since May, has promised to raise the legal age of marriage to 18, provoking a backlash from some conservative Islamic leaders who argue that early marriage provides an answer to social ills like premarital sex and pregnan-

cies out of wedlock. Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, the UN special rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, urged Malaysian authorities to protect the rights of minors, particularly young girls. Married under-age girls were at higher risk of domestic violence, and are often denied the chance to pursue an education, she told reporters. “By marrying them, you are denying these girls their basic human rights,” said de Boer-Buquicchio, who was on an eight-day visit to mostly-Muslim Malaysia. In Malaysia, the legal minimum age

for marriage under civil law for both genders is 18. However, girls can marry at 16 with the permis-sion of their state’s chief minister, while Islamic law sets a 16-year minimum age for girls and allows even earlier marriages with the permission of the Shariah court. The UN off icial called on Malaysia to remove exemptions that allowed underage children to marry, saying “there can be no exceptions.”More than 5,000 applications for marriages involving mi-nors were made at the Shariah court between 2013 and 2017,

government statistics show. But many child marriages remained unreported, particularly among indigenous groups on Borneo, in Malaysia’s east, de Boer-Buquic-chio said.“It is time to be firm,” she said, adding that Malaysia’s govern-ment should engage religious and customary leaders on the issue.“The political will is there, but the question is how you can reach out to all the diff erent entities.”Last year, Malaysia passed a law on sexual off ences against chil-dren but did not criminalise child marriage.

No suffi cient ground to impeach Duterte: PalaceBy Catherine S ValenteManila Times

President Rodrigo Duterte cannot be impeached on the basis of his supposed

admission of the “sin” of order-ing extrajudicial killings (EJKs), Malacanang insisted yesterday.

Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr said there was no solid evidence to implicate Duterte, as he reiter-ated that the president never ad-mitted guilt for any crime.

“I’m sure it will also be dis-missed by Congress not be-cause it’s a political process, but because it’s utterly bereft of merit,” Roque told reporters.

Antonio “Tony” La Vina, former dean of the Ateneo School of Government and op-position fi gures such as former congressman Neri Colmenares have claimed that Duterte could be held liable for culpable vio-lation of the Constitution for admitting to authorising extra-judicial killings.

The president on Thursday said the summary executions that had taken place under his war on drugs were his only “sin.” “What are your sins? Me? I told the military ‘what are my sins?’ Did I steal money? Even just one peso? Did I prosecute somebody I sent to jail? My only sin is extrajudicial killings,” Du-terte said in remarks to career civil service executives.

La Vina, in an interview with dzBB radio, said: “It’s clear he wasn’t joking when he said that. The demeanour was very clear.”

“It came from the mouth of the President. You don’t need to prove that. That’s called admis-sion against interest. That’s the highest and strongest evidence. Because nobody confesses un-less they mean it,” he added.

La Vina said there was no more need to prove Duterte’s guilt before the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is hearing complaints of human rights violations under the Du-terte drug war, because there was already admission. Roque, however, reminded La Vina about the proper context of the President’s statement on extra-judicial killings, saying there was no admission on the part of Duterte. “He (La Vina) is sim-

ply wrong. He is not specialist in the fi eld. He’s wrong. It pre-supposes that our judicial sys-tem is not working in the fi rst place. It presupposed that the President actually admitted to murder. Did he? Not by virtue of the context of what he said. As I said, there is even no crime as EJK. It’s a misnomer because you know there can be judicial killings in this country because we have done away with the death penalty,” he said.

Roque also said the president merely emphasised that he was never accused of corruption nor was he engaged in politi-cal vendetta. “I’d like to reit-erate that the context of what the president said is that EJKs are the only criticisms labelled against him and that no one has ever accused him of corrup-tion. I don’t think this amounts to admission because for it to be an admission or declaration against interest, he must have explicitly admitted to the crime of murder, which he has not,” Roque said.

“I’d like to emphasise that there’s actually no crime under both domestic laws or interna-tional laws as EJK. In fact, this is misleading term because killing in our Constitution and in our laws is never legal so there’s no such thing as extrajudicial kill-ings. So it’s either a lawful kill-ing or an unlawful killing,” he added.

President Rodrigo Duterte.

Hammondpledges tostick withausterityGuardian News and MediaLondon

Philip Hammond has warned the Treasury’s austerity programme will

come under attack from what he called “populists and dema-gogues” among Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters, but claimed it would retain the backing of the British people.

The chancellor said he would withhold funds to protect the economy should the govern-ment fail to secure a Brexit deal. But he conceded that his plan to be fi scally responsible would be controversial and the Conserva-tive party needed to hold its nerve over the coming months as pleas for extra spending grew louder.

Speaking at the Tory confer-ence in Birmingham, Hammond also said the time was approach-ing when the government would need to tax Internet companies such as Amazon and Google, say-ing: “The global Internet giants must contribute fairly to funding our public services.”

Hammond said the best way to tax international companies was through global agreements, but added: “The time for talk-ing is coming to an end and the stalling has to stop. If we cannot reach agreement, the UK will go it alone with a digital services tax of its own.”

With four weeks to go until the autumn budget, Hammond hinted he would take a cautious approach due to the possibility of Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal.

Backing Theresa May’s Cheq-uers plan for a comprehensive exit deal, Hammond said Europe would remain Britain’s largest trading partner and there was a need for friction-free access to the EU to continue.

Nevertheless, Hammond said the government was prepar-ing for the possibility of a no-deal outcome, saying: “And be in no doubt that I will maintain enough fi scal fi repower to sup-port our economy if that hap-pens.”

Britain takesnew combativetone to diffi cultBrexit talksReutersBirmingham

Britain cannot be bullied, Brexit minister Dominic Raab said yesterday, sharp-

ening the government’s criticism of the European Union for taunt-ing Prime Minister Theresa May and souring diffi cult Brexit talks.

May’s ministers have come out one by one at their party’s annual conference in the city of Birming-ham to warn the EU that they will embrace leaving without a deal if the bloc fails to show “respect” in the talks to end Britain’s member-ship.

Just six months before Brit-ain is due to leave the EU in the country’s biggest shift in foreign and trade policy in more than 40 years, May faces growing criti-cism over her proposals not only in her governing party but also in Brussels.

Highlighting the depth of the divide, the Conservative Party conference was mostly viewed with indignation by EU fi gures yesterday after Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt compared the bloc to the Soviet Union.

Party unity is on the ministers’ minds, however, and they are en-couraging the faithful to direct their anger at the EU rather than at their prime minister, who some eurosceptic Conservatives ac-cuse of leading Britain towards a “Brexit in name only”.

Other ministers, such as Fi-nance Minister Philip Hammond, have taken a softer tone, pointing out that leaving without a deal could hurt Britain’s economy, the world’s fi fth largest.

But Raab said he had called on the EU to match the “ambition

and pragmatism” Britain had put forward with May’s Chequers proposals, named after her coun-try residence where an agreement with her ministers was hashed out in July.

“Unfortunately, that wasn’t on display in Salzburg,” he said, de-scribing a summit last month in the Austrian city where EU lead-ers rejected parts of the Chequers plan.

“Our prime minister has been constructive and respectful. In return we heard jibes from senior leaders and we saw a starkly one-sided approach to negotiation.”

“What is unthinkable is that this government, or any British government, could be bullied by the threat of some kind of eco-nomic embargo, into signing a one-sided deal against our coun-try’s interests,” Raab said.

Instead of the much-hoped-for staging post, the Salzburg summit has become a byword for a sharp deterioration in the atmosphere of the talks, when British govern-ment offi cials felt May was am-bushed by the other EU leaders over Brexit.

A tweet by European Council president Donald Tusk showing him off ering May a selection of cakes with the comment: “A piece of cake, perhaps? Sorry, no cher-ries” “certainly had an impact”, one offi cial said.

With no divorce deal and a standoff over the shape of any future relationship, the possibil-ity of a “no deal Brexit” has in-creased, with some businesses preparing for what they see as a worst case scenario.

“The world is watching,” said Matthew Fell, chief UK policy director at the Confederation of British Industry. “Every signal is

hugely important in terms of set-ting the tone. So the more that people can coalesce around some areas of agreement such as an in-dustrial strategy, innovation and skills would be hugely helpful,” he said.

But one source close to the government said there was now a sense that the EU had realised that the tone set in Salzburg was “perhaps a bit off ” and, behind the scenes, conversations be-tween the two sides were more constructive.

Hammond, for one, was keen to pursue a more positive stance.

After Brexit, Britain and the EU will still “be neighbours and we are going to have to carry on living with each other,” he told the conference, again backing May’s Chequers plan. “Tusk says it won’t work. But that’s what people said about the light bulb in 1878. Our job is to prove him wrong.”

But his softer line won less sup-port at the conference than those adopted by Raab, Trade Minister Liam Fox and Hunt, who likened some of the EU’s behaviour to that of the Soviet Union.

The jibe was particularly felt by those eastern members of the bloc who fell into Moscow’s orbit after World War II and only regained full independence after the col-lapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

They joined the EU more than a decade later.

Lithuania’s EU commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis told Hunt he was born in a Soviet gulag forced labour camp and was jailed by the Soviet KGB state security agency. “Happy to brief you on the main diff erences between EU and So-viet Union,” he said. “Anytime. Whatever helps.”

Three ministers ‘infavour of new vote’ReutersBirmingham

Three government minis-ters privately support the idea of holding a second

referendum on the fi nal Brexit deal, a former junior minister said yesterday.

Conservative lawmaker Phil-lip Lee, who resigned from the justice ministry in June over the government’s handling of Brexit, told a packed pro-EU event on the sidelines of the party’s an-nual conference that the min-isters had told him so in private conversations.

“I suspect there are signifi -cant numbers of colleagues who can see the argument for a sec-ond referendum, I know of three ministers who do,” he said in re-sponse to a question about how many Conservative lawmakers support a so-called people’s vote.

Lee did not identify the three ministers.

Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly ruled out holding a public vote on any fi nal Brexit

deal but the opposition Labour Party increased pressure on her last week by saying it would keep the option of another referen-dum on the table.

With six months to go until Britain is due to leave the Euro-pean Union, May is yet to reach an exit deal with the bloc, and both Labour and many lawmak-ers in her own party are threat-ening to vote against any deal in parliament.

Justine Greening, who served as education minister under May until January, said May’s so-called Chequers propos-als would not get through par-liament, and neither would a Canada-style free trade deal preferred by some Brexit cam-paigners.

“Parliament is at a stalemate,” Greening told the event. “I think there is a growing body of Con-servative MPs who have thought their way through this, as we have, and reached the same logi-cal conclusion that a referendum is the only way to unlock a parlia-ment stalemate.”

“It is a question of when they make their views known.”

14 Gulf TimesTuesday, October 2, 2018

BRITAIN

Tory delegate ‘slappedby Chinese TV reporter’Guardian News and MediaLondon

A woman believed to be a reporter for Chinese state media is being held by

police after allegedly slapping a delegate in the face during a Hong Kong fringe event at the Conserv-ative party’s annual conference.

Enoch Lieu claimed the woman assaulted him after he asked her to leave the event entitled: the erosion of freedom, the rule of law and autonomy in Hong Kong, at the Birmingham International Convention Centre (ICC), on Sunday.

He said Fiona Bruce MP, who was chairing the event, asked the woman to leave because she shouted at one of the speakers, Benedict Rogers, founder of Hong Kong Watch, accusing him of try-ing to break up China.

“I approached her, and tried to tell her she had made her point and she was no longer welcome,” Lieu wrote on Twitter. “The re-porter continued her shouting

and whilst I was trying to escort her out, she accused me of try-ing to silence her. Then I said: ‘No miss, you have to go.’ All of a sud-den, she slapped me in my face.”

“The audience was shocked and some brave men and women came and tried to escort her out. During the struggle, she contin-ued her shouting and refused to leave, then out of the blue again, slapped me again.”

Video footage posted on the Hong Kong Free Press website appeared to show part of the in-cident. Lieu can be seen telling a visibly angry woman: “You are in the Conservative party confer-ence ….please go.” She responds by appearing to throw a slap, al-though the video does not show whether it landed.

As others restrain her and try to usher her away, she tells Lieu: “You have no right, you have no democratic (sic) in the UK, I’m a journalist here. ... I have (a) right to protest.” Lieu said he had con-fi rmed later that she worked for Chinese government-owned CCTV.

A spokeswoman for West Mid-lands police said: “Police were called to hall 11 at the ICC on Sun-day at 2.30pm after reports a dis-turbance had broken out during a talk on Hong Kong. A 48-year-old woman from King’s Cross, London, was arrested on suspi-cion of common assault. She re-mains in police custody.” She said the woman had identifi ed herself as working with a TV company. A spokesman for the Chinese em-bassy in London said the journal-ist deserved an apology.

He said: “In a country that boasts freedom of speech, it is puzzling that the Chinese jour-nalist should encounter obstruc-tion in such a way and even as-sault at the fringe event when she simply raised a question and expressed her opinions. This is completely unacceptable.

“The human rights commit-tee of the UK Conservative party should stop interfering in China’s internal aff airs and stop meddling in Hong Kong aff airs. The organ-iser of fringe event should apolo-gise to the Chinese journalist.”

Hunt rebuked by EU after Soviet prison comparisonGuardian News and MediaLondon

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has been rebuked by the European commission

for a speech at the Conservative party conference where he com-pared the European Union to the Soviet Union.

Asked to respond to Hunt’s remarks, the European commis-sion’s chief spokesman, Marga-ritis Schinas, said: “I would say respectfully that we would all

benefi t – and in particular foreign aff airs ministers – from opening a history book from time to time.”

Two former leaders of the For-eign Offi ce and a former president of Estonia were among those who condemned the speech, in which Hunt described the EU as a prison.

Peter Ricketts, who ran the Foreign Offi ce in 2006-10 and is a former ambassador to France, tweeted: “This rubbish is un-worthy of a British foreign secre-tary. The EU isn’t a Soviet-style prison. Its legal order has brought peace and prosperity after a cen-

tury of war. Our decision to leave was always going to leave us worse off . The only punishment is the self-infl icted variety.”

Sir Simon Fraser, who led the Foreign Offi ce in 2010-15, said he agreed with Lord Ricketts. “Whatever you think about Brexit, shocking failure of judgment for British foreign secretary to com-pare European Union with Soviet Union,” he wrote on Twitter.

The comparison would have been shocking for many EU member states that were once occupied by the Soviet Union or

controlled from Moscow.Donald Tusk, the president

of the European council and a former Polish prime minister, was a student supporter of Po-land’s anti-communist Solidarity trade union. He lost his job and was evicted from his home when Poland’s rulers cracked down on opponents in 1981, and was later jailed for founding a periodical about liberal economics.

Radosław Sikorski, foreign minister in Tusk’s government, demanded an apology from Hunt, describing comparisons of the

European Union to the USSR as “cheap and off ensive, particu-larly to us who have lived in both”. On Twitter he wrote: “Did the Red Army force you to join? How many millions has Brussels exter-minated? Gulag for demanding a referendum on independence? Apologise, Jeremy Hunt!”

Latvia’s ambassador to Lon-don, Baiba Braze, tweeted: “So-viets killed, deported, exiled and imprisoned (hundreds of) thou-sands of Latvia’s inhabitants after the illegal occupation in 1940, and ruined lives of three generations,

while the EU has brought pros-perity, equality, growth, respect.”

To dispel the impression of a break in relations, Braze later added she was grateful for Hunt’s “warm words and memories” of his visit to Latvia and “the UK’s contribution to our freedom”.

Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Esto-nia’s former president, criticised Hunt’s words in a series of wither-ing tweets. “I used to think foreign ministers were the smartest peo-ple in democratic governments,” he wrote.

However, while serving as Es-

tonia’s foreign minister “I realised then that most of my colleagues from parliamentary democracies were either the head of the junior coalition partner (with little in-terest in foreign policy) or a crony/competitor of the PM.”

Hunt told party conference delegates he had voted to remain in the EU but now supported leave because of what he called the EU’s “arrogance” during Brexit nego-tiations. He said the EU seemed to want to “punish” a member for leaving, and likened its tactics to the Soviet Union’s.

Scottish Conservative Party leader Ruth Davidson gives a speech in the main hall on the second day of the Conservative Party Conference 2018 at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham yesterday.

Prime Minister Theresa May uses a screw driver as she and Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond are shown products by apprentices during a visit to engineering services company adi Group in Birmingham yesterday on the morning of the second day of the Conservative Party conference.

BRITAIN15Gulf Times


Call to halt ‘nuclear mud’dumping off WalesGuardian News and MediaLondon

An eclectic group of activ-ists including scientists, surfers and a member

of the Welsh band Super Furry Animals is attempting to halt the dumping of “nuclear mud” exca-vated as part of the vast Hinkley Point C construction project.

The activists are appearing in court in Cardiff today to try to ob-tain an injunction to stop 300,000 tonnes of sediment from the pow-er station site in Somerset being disposed a mile and half from the Welsh capital.

If the legal action does not suc-ceed, a Welsh assembly member, Neil McEvoy, is calling for boat owners to form a “people’s fl otilla” to take direct action and blockade a sandbank called Cardiff Grounds, where the mud is being dumped. McEvoy has already boarded a barge disposing of the mud to try to block the operation.

Campaigners claim the mud has not been tested properly and could contain particles that may pose

a health risk. They have dubbed the sediment “nuclear mud” and nicknamed the sea off Cardiff “Geiger Bay”, a play on “Tiger Bay”, the old slang name for the city’s docklands. One of their main con-cerns is that the sediment could be washed ashore in a storm.

EDF Energy, which is building Hinkley Point C on the English side of the Bristol Channel, along with the Welsh government and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) have insisted the mud is safe.

The legal action is being fi -nanced by crowdfunding and is being fronted by the keyboard player from Super Furry Animals, Cian Ciaran, who said he was an-gry and sad the mud was already being dumped at Cardiff Grounds.

He told the Guardian: “I’m in-volved as a Welshman and a con-cerned earthling. I felt compelled to play a part. I felt at a loss over the lack of action by the Welsh La-bour government and the apathy of NRW. This is about reasonable people asking reasonable ques-tions.”

Ciaran said he did not have faith in the international standards that

EDF, by which the Welsh govern-ment and NRW said they were bound. “They try to convince us that the mud is safe and there’s nothing to worry about but I can’t take the nuclear industry’s word for it. “The Welsh government has had ample opportunity to stop it but they haven’t. They’ve put their heads in the mud rather than sand.” Ciaran said he had been out to Cardiff Grounds to view the mud dumping at close hand. “I felt angry, saddened, desperate. Potentially it’s causing irreversible harm,” he said.

Among those backing the ob-jectors is the Emeritus Prof Keith Barnham, a distinguished research fellow in the physics department at Imperial College London, who argues it is possible that large amounts of uranium and danger-ous levels of plutonium could have reached the mud when cooling water from the decommissioned Hinkley Point A was discharged.

Surfers from the Gower penin-sula to the west of Cardiff were among those who joined a dem-onstration against the dump at the Welsh assembly last week.

Man charged withkilling mum, daughterDaily MailLondon

The next door neighbour of a mother and daugh-ter stabbed to death in a

leafy village has been charged with their murders.

Jack Ralph, 28, is accused of attacking Sharon Harris, 55, and her mother Margaret, 78, after a noisy row outside their home in Hadlow, Kent.

He has also been charged with the attempted murder of Margaret’s husband David, 76, who was airlifted to hospi-tal after being stabbed during the incident early on Saturday morning.

Neighbours said Ralph had been having a row with a wom-an, believed to be his ex-girl-friend, outside Harris’ three-bedroom mock-Tudor home when the retired mechanic tried to intervene.

Paramedics rushed to the family’s aid but Sharon and Margaret were pronounced dead at the scene. Harris was in a stable condition in hospital.

Locals told how there had been

an ongoing dispute between the Harris family and their next door neighbours over a shared drive.

Michael Maile, who has lived on the quiet street where the at-tack took place for 32 years, said the argument was over a parking space to the side of the Harris house.

He said: “The Harrises were upset as they used to use the full shared drive. There isn’t a lot of room and the previous tenants used to allow them the whole space. But when the new neighbours moved in they de-manded the parking space back. That caused a bit of tension.”

He added that Ralph had moved into the house “not too long ago”.

“Usually nothing happens here, now we are scared,” he said. “It’s a scary thing to live near. We knew the Harris family, me and my wife would say “hello” when we saw them. They were quiet, reserved people, and Margaret never left the house. She was frail, no one has seen her for a year. David was up at 6am every morning when he would move his camper van to let the daugh-ter’s car out.”

Cuban artist Tania Bruguera sits in the middle of her Hyundai Commission artwork, Our Neighbours, in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, in London, Britain, yesterday.

A tourist poses for a souvenir snap in front of autumn foliage in Pitlochry, Scotland, yesterday.

Artwork

Spring in her step, autumn in the airLambethcouncil facesinstitutionalracism chargesGuardian News and MediaLondon

Council staff in one of London’s most ethnically diverse boroughs have

accused bosses of institutional racism, claiming that racial ten-sion is escalating at the local authority with devastating con-sequences.

In a strongly worded letter to councillors in Lambeth, a group of staff who call themselves Lam-beth Black Workers write of the “despair, humiliation, disap-pointments, rejection and loss of staff unity that are direct conse-quences of racism at work”.

“We write to you to impart the reality of daily working life for black staff who work for this bor-ough,” the letter states.

A group of around 20 workers ranging from senior to junior staff met to arrange the open letter, the Guardian has learned. They are from various parts of the council, working in housing, environment, social services and fi nances.

Complaints made by staff cen-tre on racist comments and slurs, and inequality of access to jobs and fl exible working. “We watch as teams that are primarily white are permitted fl exible working while teams that are primarily black have little or no access to (it),” the letter says.

The staff called for council-lors to intervene, saying they have “exhausted all formal routes”.

A Lambeth council spokesper-son said: “We take the allegations made within this anonymous let-ter extremely seriously, and it is essential that staff feel valued and respected and are given the op-portunity to be heard.”

The deputy leaders of the coun-cil, Jennifer Brathwaite and Jack Hopkins, off ered to meet staff who had concerns. “We would urge you to raise these allegations through the proper formal chan-nels,” they wrote back.

The group agreed to a meet-

ing but said formal channels of complaint were blocked. The staff added: “Institutional racism oper-ates in a much more insidious and often less immediately obvious way to perpetuate racial disadvantage. White job applicants are more suc-cessful than black job applicants. White staff tend to progress more readily than black staff . White staff seem to have fewer problems with discretionary management deci-sions than black staff .”

Last year Lambeth Unison con-ducted a survey of black members of the union about racism. Of the more than 100 workers who re-sponded, half (50%) said they had witnessed or experienced racism from managers in the past two years, and more than a third (35%) said they had witnessed or experi-enced racism from colleagues.

Almost two-thirds (65%) said they did not believe white man-agers treated all people equally during the course of a restructure, and 56% felt reorganisations were used as an opportunity to make BAME staff redundant.

Hassina Malik, an assistant branch secretary at Lambeth Uni-son, said the results were shock-ing. “In March 2017 we shared the results of the survey with the councillors and with the chief executive of the council. They agreed it was important to address the problems we had highlighted and said they would engage a third party – someone independent – to look into staff experience of in-stitutional racism and the survey.

“More than a year later that person has still not been engaged. The council have reneged on their agreement to investigate and ad-dress institutional racism.” She said the situation in relation to race was “seriously escalating”.

An anonymous staff member said managers had told her they had “white privilege”, and white col-leagues had made it clear black staff members did not belong in certain areas of the building. She said in the eating area there was segregation between white and BAME staff .

Woman jailed afterconfessing to murderGuardian News and MediaLondon

A woman has been jailed for the murder of a 19-year-old man in Sunderland 14

years ago, a case that had been unsolved until she walked into a police station and confessed.

Scott Pritchard was found with serious head injuries by the back door of his home in Hendon on January 7, 2004, and later died in hospital.

Despite a police investigation that involved 300 offi cers, 1,600 statements and 4,000 exhib-its, the case remained open until Karen Tunmore, 36, a children’s football coach, walked into a po-lice station in July this year and confessed.

She was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 17-and-

a-half years at Newcastle crown court yesterday.

Tunmore walked into Mid-dle Engine Lane police station in Wallsend and confessed to Pritchard’s murder, saying she could no longer stand the guilt.

“To get that call so long after the event, you have that feeling of it being a bit incredible,” de-tective chief inspector John Bent, of Northumbria police, told the Guardian. “But actually once we started taking details from her she had a chilling amount of accurate information that was never re-leased to the media.”

Tunmore was charged and pleaded guilty at a bail hearing at Newcastle magistrates court on August 8.

She said that on the day of the murder she was with a man she called Steve to whom Pritch-ard owed money. The pair asked

Pritchard for cash and when he said he didn’t have any she “saw red” and hit him three or four times over the head with a base-ball bat, a story consistent with the pathologist’s report.

Pritchard was using crutches at the time because of a broken foot, and Tunmore told police he was sitting down because he was tired when she attacked him, a detail consistent with the pattern of blood spatter. She said she later threw the bat in the Tyne at North Shields fi sh quay and sold her car, which had blood stains.

In 2005 Pritchard’s father, Robert Stacey, was charged with his son’s murder, but the case was dropped when the Crown Pros-ecution Service decided there was not enough evidence against him.

Bent described Stacey’s arrest as a “sad twist in the tale”. “He was arrested on circumstantial

evidence alone,” he said. “There was no direct forensic evidence or witness testimony that put him at the scene. There was the sugges-tion that the pair may have fallen out, which could have been a mo-tive.”

Stacey, now 64, is currently in hospital after suff ering a heart attack. In a victim impact state-ment read to the court, Stacey said being charged with his son’s murder stunned him. He spent 16 months in Durham prison before the charges were dropped.

Stacey described being un-able to return to Hendon because of abuse he received from peo-ple who thought he was guilty of murder. He said a rock was thrown through his window and he received threats that his house would be burned down.

Police said Tunmore was very remorseful about what had hap-

pened and had apologised for the grief she had put the fam-ily through. “Living with a hor-rifi c murder like this has weighed heavy on Tunmore’s conscience,” said Bent.

He said police were looking to speak to Steve, the man Tunmore was with that day. She said she had met him through attending car rallies and he was a member of the Mad Dogs criminal gang that operated in Hendon at the time of the murder.

He was 19 or in his early 20s at the time and had dark hair and a distinctive scar on the left side of his head above his ear.

“We think she knows who this person is but she won’t tell us be-cause she says she’s not going to be a grass. Steve might not be his name,” said Bent. “She says that after they got rid of the car they never spoke again.”

Britain’s financial services watchdog has fined Tesco Bank £16.4mn for failing to protect customers against a cyberattack. Tesco Personal Finance Plc failed to exercise “due skill, care and diligence in protecting its personal current account holders” against the 2016 attack, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said yesterday. The FCA said the attackers “exploited deficiencies in Tesco Bank’s design of its debit card, its financial crime controls and in its financial crime operations team.” The “largely avoidable,” 48-hour security breach allowed the cyber attackers to take £2.26mn from the bank’s accounts.

Medical experts have been instructed to draw up advice on the maximum time young people should spend on social media, the health secretary revealed. Matt Hancock said he is ‘very worried’ by the growing evidence of the harmful impact on young people of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. He has instructed Britain’s chief medical off icer Dame Sally Davies to prepare off icial guidance on safe time limits, similar to the advice given on how many units of alcohol a person should drink. He told the Observer: “The terms of reference of Facebook and Instagram say you shouldn’t be on it if you are under the age of 13. But they do nothing to police that.”

Theresa May is facing a fresh Tory revolt over the controversial HS2 rail line. Senior party figures rallied behind a new drive to axe the £56bn project. At a Cabinet meeting last week, Andrea Leadsom urged fellow ministers to rethink the scheme. The Commons leader said that the vast budget would be better spent elsewhere. Boris Johnson and David Davis also ramped up pressure on May. But Business Secretary Greg Clark said that scrapping the link between London, the Midlands and the North of England would be ‘completely the wrong approach’. The first phase of the project between London and Birmingham was formally approved by Parliament 18 months ago.

Dementia patients are being charged 40% more by care homes than those without the condition, a leading charity has warned. They are forced to pay a ‘dementia premium’ even though they do not necessarily receive any extra care, the Alzheimer’s Society said. Research by the charity found a number of care homes and home help agencies are automatically increasing their fees for dementia patients, regardless of their personal needs. Patients without dementia pay between £26,000 and £41,600 a year for a care home, depending on location and facilities. Those with the condition pay a minimum of £33,800 a year, rising to £62,400 for the most expensive homes.

Two new justices have been sworn in at the supreme court on the opening day of the legal year. A quarter of its judges now are women. Lady Arden and Lord Kitchin took their oaths of off ice for the UK’s highest court yesterday. Arden’s husband, Lord Mance, who recently retired as deputy president of the supreme court, was among those present. The ceremony was held shortly before the traditional service in Westminster Abbey marking the first formal day of the legal year and the judges’ robed procession to a late breakfast reception in parliament. There are now three women justices on the supreme court.

Watchdog fines Tesco Bankover 2016 cyberattack

Medical experts to drawup Facebook ‘safe limit’

Cabinet split over new bidto derail £56bn HS2 line

Care homes chargingdementia patients extra

Supreme court swearsin two new judges

CORPORATE WARNINGTRAVEL HEALTHCARE APPOINTMENT

EUROPE


Macedonia’s hopes of joining the European Union and the Nato

were in limbo yesterday, a day af-ter voters backed a plan to change the country’s name by a large margin but failed to hit the 50% turnout required for the referen-dum result to be valid.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said he would press on regard-less with a vote in parliament to endorse the change of name to the “Republic of North Mac-edonia”, but the defence minister said that an early election might now prove necessary, potentially derailing the whole plan due to a tight timeframe.

Some 91% of voters backed the name change, demanded by neighbouring Greece as a pre-condition for it lifting its veto on Macedonia joining the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organ-isation (Nato).

However, turnout was just 36.9%, fi nal fi gures showed, far below the required threshold.

The EU, echoing the pro-Western Zaev, hailed the referen-dum result as a ringing endorse-ment of Macedonia’s plans to join the bloc and the Nato.

“It is now in the hands of poli-ticians in Skopje to decide on the way forward,” Nato head Jens

Stoltenberg and top EU offi cial Donald Tusk said in a joint state-ment. “We encourage them to seize this historic opportunity.”

Russia, which opposes the Nato’s eastern expansion, said it expected the law in Macedonia to be respected.

Zaev lacks the two-thirds majority in parliament to push through the name change, and the main nationalist opposition VMRO-DPMNE has vowed to block the legislation.

Many of its supporters did not vote in order to invalidate the re-sult.

“In the coming week we will

assess if we can secure the nec-essary majority for the constitu-tional changes, and if not we will call an early election,” Defence Minister Radmila Sekerinska told Reuters. “The downside is that the election would postpone adoption of the constitutional changes for 45 to 60 days.”

Political analysts said that the outcome greatly complicated the tiny former Yugoslav republic’s push to join Western structures.

“Instead of having a clearer picture the outcome of the ref-erendum only deepens the crisis,’ said analyst Petar Arsovski. “We are likely heading towards early

elections and Macedonia does not have time for that.”

Greece tried to put a brave face on the setback.

“We hope that Mr Zaev’s ini-tiative for a constitutional re-form will be successful,” Greek government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said yesterday.

“The Greek government will continue with sobriety and pru-dence ... to support the need for an implementation of the deal. This opportunity must not be wasted,” he said.

Greece has insisted on the change because it views the name ‘Macedonia’ as implying a terri-

torial claim on a northern Greek region of that name.

Greece’s parliament must also approve the June name deal and, like Zaev, leftist Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras also faces opposition from nationalist foes.

An early election could be called in Macedonia for the end of November at the earli-est, pushing the constitutional changes into the spring.

“The biggest risk is that this drags on and the EU’s electoral calendar overtakes things,” an EU offi cial said, referring to next May’s elections to the European Parliament.

Macedonia’s EU and Nato hopes in limboReutersSkopje

Zaev: has vowed to push ahead with the name change.

Moscow slams ‘forced’ name change referendum

Moscow said yesterday that low turnout in the referendum on Macedo-

nia’s name change renders it invalid, adding that lack of interest means

that the population has boycotted a decision “forced” upon it.

“The turnout of 36.8% does not permit to call the vote successful and

unequivocally shows that Macedonian voters preferred to boycott the

decisions roughly forced upon Skopje and Athens,” a statement by the

Russian foreign ministry said.

It said that European politicians had “participated in a propaganda

campaign and meddled in domestic aff airs of this Balkan country without

shame”.

Despite the low turnout, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev vowed yesterday to

push ahead with the name change.

The Russian foreign ministry condemned the move: “There is a clear

drive to ensure Skopje’s entanglement in the Nato despite the will of the

Macedonian people.”

Moscow is traditionally wary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

(Nato)’s enlargement in eastern Europe.

The alliance’s 1999 bombings of its ally Serbia caused a major rift in Rus-

sia’s relations with the West at the time.

Pro-independence protest-ers obstructed major roads and a high-speed railway

line in Spain’s Catalonia region yesterday, a year after a banned referendum on secession was marred by police violence.

“Everything began on Octo-ber 1 and everything goes back to October 1,” the region’s sepa-ratist president Quim Torra said.

He spoke at a ceremony in Sant Julia de Ramis, northern Catalonia, on a stage near a big black and white banner that read “No forgetting, no forgiving”.

Ten kilometres (six miles) away in Girona, hundreds of ac-tivists, many covering their fac-es with scarves, occupied high-speed railway tracks for around three hours, blocking services linking Figueres, Girona and Barcelona, Spain’s state-owned rail operator Renfe said.

Central streets in Barcelona and Lleida were blocked, as was the AP-7 motorway south of Barcelona, and the A2 that links the city with Madrid, Catalan TV images showed.

Activists swarmed into Cata-lonia’s regional government building in Girona and took down the facade’s Spanish fl ag, replacing it with a red, yellow and blue separatist fl ag.

Torra praised their actions, saying they were “doing well in putting on the pressure”.

Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, who is Catalan, warned that “maintaining pub-lic order is the responsibility of Torra and the Catalan regional government”.

A year after the contested ref-erendum, disagreements among separatists have nevertheless deepened in the wealthy north-eastern region, which is home to 7.5mn people and has its own language.

Far from uniting the com-munity, it has polarised public opinion, cleaving deep divisions as to the region’s fate.

The independence movement itself is divided and rudderless, with separatist parties that have an absolute majority in the re-gional parliament split on what strategy to pursue to break from Spain – direct confrontation or moderation.

The protests were called on-line by a grassroots group called the Committees for the Defence

of the Republic (CDRs), founded to help stage last year’s banned referendum and now demand-ing a clean break with the Span-ish state.

“A year ago we voted for inde-pendence... let’s act,” the CDRs tweeted.

Around 500 people marched through Barcelona, setting off fi recrackers and chanting “We voted and we won”.

Some called for Torra to re-sign because he did not push hard enough for independence.

Ana Sarabia, 48, said that she is “disappointed” because Cata-lan leaders had not implemented independence as promised.

“We want to show them that they are where they are thanks to the people and that we have the power. If they don’t do any-thing, we will act,” she told AFP at the demonstration.

Thousands of students also took to the streets of the Catalan capital in a separate protest to

demand that the results of last year’s referendum be respected.

Already on Saturday, Barce-lona was the scene of unrest, with 24 people injured and six detained as separatists clashed with police.

They were taking part in a demonstration called to counter a rally by police paying tribute to colleagues deployed to prevent the 2017 Catalan independence referendum.

The Catalan government, then led by Carles Puigdemont, pushed ahead with the vote on secession despite the Spanish courts declaring it illegal.

The vote was marred by a vio-lent police crackdown on polling stations that made headlines around the world.

A majority voted for inde-pendence, but turnout was low as opponents stayed away.

In a radio interview, the spokeswoman for the Socialist government in Madrid, Isabel

Celaa, said that the referendum had been “illegal” and had no “legal consequence”.

But she said the occasionally violent police intervention to impede the vote – as ordered by Spain’s then-conservative gov-ernment – was a mistake.

Celaa said that the footage of police charging at voters – even if some of it was later found to be false – “seriously damaged Spain’s reputation”.

After the Catalan government declared unilateral independ-ence on October 27, Madrid swiftly sacked the Catalan gov-ernment, prompting several key fi gures to fl ee abroad, including Puigdemont.

Others were jailed.In total, 13 separatist lead-

ers have been charged with re-bellion, nine of whom are in preventative custody in Spain awaiting trial, while four oth-ers are in self-exile in Belgium, Scotland and Switzerland.

Catalan separatists mark banned vote by blocking roads, rail lineAFPBarcelona

Separatist protesters block the tracks of high-speed train in Girona as they mark the first anniversary of Catalonia’s banned independence referendum. In the foreground is the flag for the Catalan independence movement.

French singer Charles Aznavour, who rose to stardom under the wing

of Edith Piaf and went on to steal the hearts of millions with decades of haunting love songs, has died at the age of 94, his spokeswoman said yester-day.

He died overnight at one of his homes in the southeast of France.

Aznavour – some called him a French Frank Sinatra – was born Shahnour Varinag Azna-vourian in Paris to Armenian parents.

He sold more than 100mn records in 80 countries, among them She and Formidable.

He began his career peddling his music to French artists of the 1940s and 1950s such as Piaf, Maurice Chevalier and Charles Trenet.

He discovered his talent for penning songs while perform-ing in cabarets with partner Pierre Roche, with Roche play-ing the piano and Aznavour singing.

It was after World War II that Piaf took notice of the duo and took them with her on a tour of the United States and Canada, with Aznavour composing some of her most popular hits.

The young Aznavour grew up on Paris’s Left Bank.

His father was a singer who also worked as a cook and restaurant manager, and his mother was an actress.

In his autobiography, Azna-vour by Aznavour, he recalls that after a period when he tried playing the role of a tough guy, along with his teen-age pals, he was goaded one evening into climbing on the bandstand to sing.

“There, I had a revelation. I saw that the girls looked at me much more, their eyes moist and their lips apart, than when I played a terror ... I was only 15 or 16, but I understood,” he wrote.

Later in his life, fans would celebrate Aznavour for his ma-ture storytelling ability and warbly voice which, while not considered beautiful, was rich in sensitivity and range.

“I have the kind of voice that gels with the type of songs I write,” wrote Aznavour in his biography.

His ability to perform in French, Spanish, English, Ital-ian and German also helped.

President Emmanuel Ma-cron was a big fan of Aznavour and sang many of his songs during karaoke nights with friends when he was a student, according to former class-mates.

Beloved French singer Aznavour dies at 94

ReutersParis

Aznavour: has been described as a French Frank Sinatra.

Turkey has delivered a list of 136 people it wants German authorities to

extradite over suspected links to terrorist groups, Hurriyet newspaper quoted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as say-ing yesterday.

Erdogan visited Berlin last week in an attempt to mend bilateral ties that have de-teriorated since a number of German citizens were jailed in Turkey in a crackdown that has followed a failed coup in July 2016.

The newspaper quoted Er-dogan as telling reporters on the fl ight home: “I don’t know all of the names but it is a sub-stantial list. A list of 136 people in Germany.”

He did not specify which groups were included, but was also quoted as saying that Ger-many should be more eff ective in countering members of the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and leftist militant group DHKP-C.

A report by Germany-based broadcaster Deutsche Welle Turkey cited German govern-ment offi cials as saying Erdog-an had not delivered a list.

There was no immediate re-sponse from the Berlin foreign ministry to a Reuters request for clarifi cation.

In 2016, Germany extradited 55 people to Turkey, including eight over alleged terrorism off ences, according to German data, but extradition requests by Ankara since the coup at-tempt have borne little fruit.

Ankara says that Gulen’s network orchestrated the failed coup.

He denies any involvement.Erdogan asked Germany

during his visit to label Gulen’s network a terrorist organisa-tion but Berlin said it needed more evidence.

Erdogan said his administra-tion had in the past delivered documents to Berlin contain-ing the names of more than 4,000 people with links to the PKK, adding that there was a diff erence in the “understand-ing of terror” between Turkey and both Germany and the United States.

Ties between Ankara and Washington are also at a low ebb, and Erdogan said sepa-rately yesterday that he would resist US eff orts to impose sanctions over the trial of a Christian pastor detained for two years in Turkey over al-leged links to coup supporters.

The pastor denies the allega-tions.

Turkey asks Germany to extradite 136 people

ReutersIstanbul

The brother of a US-based preacher accused of mas-terminding the failed 2016

coup in Turkey was jailed for more than 10 years on Monday, Turkish state media said.

Kutbettin Gulen is the brother of Fethullah Gulen, who is ac-cused by Ankara of staging the bid to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

A court in the Aegean city of Izmir sentenced Kutbettin Gu-len, who was fi rst detained in October 2016, to 10 years and six months in jail, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

He had been charged with

“membership of an armed terror group”.

Kutbettin Gulen, who is held in jail in the nearby region of Deni-zli, did not take part in the hear-ing in person but his lawyer was present, Anadolu said.

Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has denied or-chestrating the July 15, 2016 coup plot that saw 250 killed, not in-cluding the plotters.

Gulen’s supporters have re-jected the description of his group by the Turkish authorities as the Fethullah Terror Organi-sation (FETO), saying that he merely runs a peaceful organisa-tion called Hizmet (Service).

However, Ankara wants Gu-

len extradited from the US and has expressed impatience over Washington’s failure to hand him over, with the issue a major bone of contention in Turkey-US ties.

According to previous Turkish media reports, Gulen has three living brothers, Mesih, Salih and Kutbettin, as well as two who are dead, Seyfullah and Hasbi.

He also has two sisters, Nur-hayat and Fazilet. Their wherea-bouts are unknown.

Tens of thousands of people have been arrested in the crack-down that followed the failed coup in a sweep aimed at eradi-cating all infl uence of the Gulen movement in Turkey.

Kutbettin is the only sibling of Gulen believed to have been ar-rested in the crackdown.

Turkish court jails Gulen’s brotherAFPIstanbul

EUROPE17Gulf Times


German police have ar-rested six men on sus-picion of belonging to a

far-right “terrorist” group that attacked foreigners in the city of Chemnitz.

The German nationals, aged 20 to 31, were taken into custo-dy for allegedly forming a group called “Revolution Chemnitz” with the aim of subverting the democratic state.

“To this end, they intended to launch violent and armed attacks against foreigners and people who have diff erent po-litical views,” said federal pros-ecutors in a statement.

Their targets included repre-sentatives of diff erent political parties as well as members of the economic establishment, the prosecutors said.

They added that the group appeared to have been planning an assault on Germany’s Unity Day, which falls tomorrow.

“They wanted to change the country,” investigators told Munich-based daily Sueddeut-sche Zeitung (SZ).

Citing intercepted chats and telephone calls, SZ reported that the men “wanted to achieve more than the National Socialist Underground” or NSU, a neo-Nazi extremist group uncovered in 2011 that murdered 10 people and planted three bombs.

As well as politicians, the

group wanted to attack jour-nalists, who they referred to as “the media dictatorship and its slaves”, the newspaper added.

The arrests once again cast an uncomfortable spotlight on ex-tremism in Saxony state, where Chemnitz is located and which is a stronghold of the far-right party Afd (Alternative for Ger-many).

Investigators are still try-ing to determine if the suspects were involved in the wave of xenophobic marches that swept Chemnitz at the end of August following a fatal stabbing, alleg-edly by an asylum-seeker.

However, prosecutors said that on September 14, fi ve of the suspects “armed with glass bot-tles, weighted knuckle gloves, and an electroshock appliance, attacked and hurt several for-eign residents” in Chemnitz.

“Investigations show that the assault was a test-run for an event that one of the accused planned for October 3, 2018,” said prosecutors.

Police are still investigating what exactly was being plotted by the group.

More than 100 police offi cers were deployed to search apart-ments and other premises.

“With the arrests and raids, we are sending a clear signal that we are identifying and breaking up such right-wing terrorist structures early,” said Saxony interior minister Roland Woeller.

Germany’s Justice Minister

Katarina Barley highlighted the suspects’ links to the football hooligan, skinhead and neo-Nazi scenes and warned that “the network under investiga-tion does not stand in isolation”.

At least one of the men, Tom W, was convicted 10 years ago over his role as a leader of a vio-lent 50-strong far-right group known as “Sturm 34” that was ultimately banned, Sueddeut-sche Zeitung reported.

Saxony, a former communist state, has gained notoriety as the home base of several ex-tremist groups.

Eight members of a far-right outfi t called the Freital group were jailed in March on ter-rorism and attempted murder charges for a series of explo-sions targeting refugees and anti-fascist activists.

Members of the NSU, re-sponsible for several racist killings, also evaded police for years in Chemnitz and another Saxony town, Zwickau.

Most recently, Chemnitz has been polarised over the ques-tion of migrants since 35-year-old carpenter Daniel Hille was stabbed to death on August 26.

Police probing that killing have detained a Syrian man, Alaa S, 23, while an interna-tional warrant has been issued for an Iraqi.

In the hours after the stab-bing, thousands of people took to the streets in protest, an-swering calls by the AfD and na-tionalist group PEGIDA, which

campaigns against what it calls the Islamisation of the West.

Police found themselves overwhelmed by the swift mo-bilisation of the region’s foot-ball hooligans and right-wing extremists, with the demon-strations degenerating into mob violence against foreigners.

August’s week of xenopho-bic protests in Chemnitz deeply shocked Germany, prompt-ing Chancellor Angela Merkel to urge Germans to stand up against the far-right.

Merkel is due to visit Chem-nitz in November, but she faces a cold reception.

The events also strained Mer-kel’s coalition government.

Her conservatives and their Social Democrat (SPD) coali-tion partners could not agree what to do with the head of the BfV domestic spy agency, who questioned the authenticity of a video showing skinheads chas-ing migrants.

They reached a compromise last month to transfer him to the interior ministry, ending a row that almost felled their six-month-old government.

Resentment runs deep in the city over Merkel’s liberal refu-gee policy that led to the arrival of more than a million asylum-seekers in Germany since 2015.

Interior Minister Horst See-hofer said after the arrests yes-terday that the threat of a mili-tant attack in Germany remains high, which means “an attack could take place any moment”.

German police uncover far-right terrorist ringAFP/ReutersBerlin/Karlsruhe

A convey of police cars transporting suspected right-wing terroristsarrive at the Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe, southwestern Germany.

American James Allison and Japanese Tasuku Honjo won the 2018

Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine yesterday for game-changing discoveries about how to harness and manipulate the immune system to fi ght cancer.

The scientists’ work in the 1990s has since swiftly led to new and dramatically improved therapies for cancers such as melanoma and lung cancer, which had previously been ex-tremely diffi cult to treat.

“The seminal discoveries by the two Laureates constitute a landmark in our fi ght against cancer,” the Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said as it awarded the prize of 9mn crowns ($1mn).

Allison and Honjo showed releasing the brakes on the im-mune system can unleash its power to attack cancer.

The resulting treatments, known as immune checkpoint blockade, have “fundamentally changed the outcome” for some advanced cancer patients”, the Nobel institute said.

Medicine is the fi rst of the

Nobel Prizes that are awarded each year.

The prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace were created in accordance with the will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel and have been awarded since 1901.

The literature prize will not be handed out this year after the awarding body was hit by a sex-ual misconduct scandal.

A Swedish court on Monday found a man at the centre of the scandal guilty of rape and sen-tenced him to two years in jail (see report below).

Allison’s and Honjo’s work focused on proteins that act as brakes on the immune system – preventing the body’s main im-mune cells, known as T-cells, from attacking tumours eff ec-tively.

Allison, a professor at the University of Texas MD An-derson Cancer Centre, worked on a protein known as CTLA-4 and realised that if this could be blocked, a brake would be re-leased.

“It immediately occurred to me, and some of the people in my lab, that maybe we can use this to unleash the immune sys-tem to attack cancer cells,” Alli-

son told a news conference after getting the prize.

Honjo, a professor at Kyoto University since 1984, sepa-rately discovered a second pro-tein called PD-1 and found that it too acted as an immune sys-tem brake, but with a diff erent mechanism.

The discoveries led to the creation of a multibillion-dollar market for new cancer medi-cines.

Bristol-Myers Squibb’s CTLA-4 therapy Yervoy was the fi rst such drug to win approval, in 2011.

However, it is medicines tar-geting PD-1 blockade that have proved a bigger commercial hit, led by Merck & Co’s Keytruda in 2014.

These and rival drugs from Roche, AstraZeneca, Pfi zer, and Sanofi now off er new options for patients with melanoma, lung and bladder cancers.

Sales of such medicines, which are given as infusions, are expected to reach some $15bn this year, according to Thomson Reuters consensus forecasts.

Some analysts see eventual revenues of $50bn.

Honjo, 76, told a news confer-ence in Tokyo that he was hon-oured to get the Nobel, but his

work was not yet done.“I would like to keep on doing

my research ... so that this im-mune treatment could save more cancer patients,” he said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe congratulated Honjo in a phone call, telling him: “I believe the achievements of your research have given cancer pa-tients hope and light.”

Allison told a news conference that he was in a “state of shock”

hours after learning from his son that he had been awarded the Nobel prize.

“As a basic scientist, to have my work really impact people is just one of the best things,” he said. “I think it’s everybody’s dream. And I’ve been lucky enough to do work that is ben-efi ting people now.”

Commenting on the award, Kevin Harrington, a professor at the Institute of Cancer Research

in London, said that the work had revolutionised cancer treat-ment.

“We’ve gone from being in a situation where patients were eff ectively untreatable to hav-ing a range of immunotherapy options that, when they work, work very well indeed,” he said in a statement. “For some pa-tients we see their tumours shrink or completely disappear and are eff ectively cured.”

Nobel medicine prize awarded to scientists from US and JapanReutersStockholm/London

The Nobel Prize laureates for Medicine or Physiology 2018, James P Allison of the US and Tasuku Honjo of Japan, are named at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

Europe’s physics lab CERN has suspended a scientist over a lecture that sug-

gested physics was “built by men” and accused women of demanding specialist jobs with-out suitable qualifi cations.

The presentation by Alessan-dro Strumia of Pisa University was delivered on Friday at the Geneva lab during a workshop on the relationship between high energy theory and gender.

The presentation – which in-cludes various slides, charts and

graphs – appears to claim that men face discrimination in the fi eld of physics.

One pictorial series suggests that women line up to take gen-der studies and then later pro-test over a lack of jobs in STEM (science, technology, engineer-ing and mathematics) fi elds.

“Physics invented and built by men, it’s not by invitation,” one slide says.

“CERN considers the pres-entation delivered by an invited scientist during a workshop on High Energy Theory and Gender as highly off ensive,” the lab said in a statement. “It has therefore decided to remove the slides

from the online repository, in line with a Code of Conduct that does not tolerate personal at-tacks and insults.”

In a second statement, the lab said it had “suspended the scientist from any activity at CERN with immediate eff ect, pending investigation into last week’s event”.

The presentation was one of 38 delivered at the workshop, CERN noted, warning that the off ensive material “risks over-shadowing the important mes-sage and achievements of the event”.

CERN, the French acronym for the European Centre for Nu-

clear Research, is for the fi rst time being led by a female direc-tor general: Fabiola Gianotti, an Italian expert in experimental particle physics, took charge in 2016.

The lab has said that despite eff orts to close its own gender gap, women still account for less than 20% of staff .

The lab notes that it has backed initiatives aimed at boosting female participation in the sciences.

“Diversity is a strong reality at CERN, and is also one of the core values underpinning our Code of Conduct,” the state-ment said.

CERN suspends scientist over lectureAFPGeneva

Man at centre of Nobel prize scandal convicted

A Swedish court has found a man at the centre of a scandal that has

rocked the academy that awards the Nobel literature prize guilty of

rape and sentenced him to two years in jail.

The crisis over the charges against Jean-Claude Arnault prompted

some members of the Swedish Academy to quit and forced it to can-

cel this year’s literature prize, which would have been announced

this month.

It is the biggest scandal to hit the Academy since a Swedish king

founded it more than 200 years ago.

Arnault, 72, pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape in a district

court in Stockholm. The court acquitted him of one.

His lawyer, Bjorn Hurtig, was not immediately available for com-

ment.

Arnault is married to a member of the Swedish Academy and has

worked as a professional photographer and artistic director.

Arnault has also said he is not the source of leaks of the names of

some past winners.

With Academy members down to only 10 and statutes saying that 12

are needed to vote in new members, previous Permanent Secretary

Sara Danius and two other members who have eff ectively left, have

said they are willing to take part in important votes such as filling

vacant seats.

Suspect ‘paid’ €70,000 for Slovak journalist murderAFPBratislava

A female suspect paid tens of thousands of euros for the murder of a Slovak

journalist whose death triggered mass protests and toppled a prime minister, a prosecutor said yesterday.

Journalist Jan Kuciak, who had been probing ties between poli-ticians and the Italian mafi a, was found shot dead with his fi ancée at the couple’s home near Brati-slava in February, plunging the country into crisis.

The woman, named as “Alena Zs, who ordered the murder, Tomas Sz was the one who shot them, Miroslav M was a driver, and Zoltan A, an intermediary,” the unnamed prosecutor told re-porters in Bratislava.

All four individuals have been detained and charged.

The prosecutor said that Alena Zs had allegedly paid €50,000 ($58,100) and forgiven a €20,000 debt in exchange for the murder.

“Only the murder of Jan Ku-ciak was ordered. His fi ancée Martina Kusnirova was an in-nocent victim who was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the prosecutor added.

Local media said Alena Zs had worked as an interpreter for Slo-vak entrepreneur Marian Koc-ner, whose business activities were the subject of an investiga-tion by Kuciak.

Local media added that Koc-ner is allegedly the godfather of the 44-year-old woman’s daughter.

A 55-year-old multi-million-aire who owns more than a dozen companies, Kocner has been in custody since June on suspicion of having forged promissory notes.

He has not been charged.Last year, the National Crimi-

nal Agency (NAKA) dropped an investigation into alleged tax fraud by Kocner.

Known for threatening jour-nalists, Kocner vowed last year to set up a website publishing in-formation on reporters’ private lives, according to the leading SME daily.

Asked whether Kocner was suspected of involvement in Ku-ciak’s murder, prosecutor gener-al Jaromir Ciznar told reporters yesterday: “I am not going to tell you this now.”

This picture taken on Sunday shows Alena Zs, a suspect charged of premeditated murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova, being escorted by police.

Racehorse runs into betting bar

A young racehorse trained near the world-famous Chateau de Chantilly escaped her handler and bolted for the nearest sports betting bar, sending panicked customers scampering for safety.According to newspaper Ouest-France, trainer Jean-Marie Beguignem said he lost control of the horse as he led her from a stable to the racecourse, located about 50km (31.1 miles) to the north of Paris.He said the horse had a penchant for running away.“There was quite a panic. I still can’t quite believe it happened,” bar owner Stephane Jasmin told Reuters.The horse ran from one end of the bar to the other before turning around and charging back through, still bucking its legs and crashing into tables and chairs, Jasmin said.The incident took place on September 24.


INDIA

Bollywood’s ‘First Lady’Krishna Raj Kapoor dead

IANSMumbai

Krishna Kapoor, the widow of legendary Bollywood actor-fi lmmaker Raj Ka-

poor, died in Mumbai yesterday at the age of 87, bringing an end to the second generation of the infl uential clan.

Several fi lm fraternity celeb-rities mourned her demise, and remembered her as the pillar of the Kapoor family, and as some-one who personifi ed grace, dig-nity and aff ection.

Krishna, who married Raj Ka-poor in May 1946, is survived by her sons Randhir Kapoor, Rishi Ka-poor, Rajiv Kapoor, and daughters Ritu Nanda and Rima Kapoor-Jain.

“Regret to announce I lost my mother early this morning. She died peacefully,” Randhir said in a statement.

She was due to attend today the inauguration of Raj Kapoor’s dream project – the planet’s big-gest pillar-less dome in Pune on a property formerly owned by the late fi lmmaker, which Krish-na sold to Vishwanath Karad. But fate willed otherwise.

Krishna’s granddaughters Rid-dhima Kapoor Sahni, Karisma

Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan were emotional as they bid goodbye to their ‘dadi’, whose last journey saw her body adorned by a blanket of white fl owers.

“I will always love you – RIP dadi,” Riddhima posted on In-stagram.

Krishna was the sister of the legendary villain, the late Prem Nath and comedian Rajendra Nath and their brother-in-law is the other Bollywood baddie, Prem Chopra. She is known to have conducted herself with great dig-nity when Raj Kapoor had an aff air with Nargis, but she put her foot down and moved out of the house when her husband got inclined to-wards Vyjayanthimala, Rishi Ka-poor had shared in his book.

“He did all he could to woo her back, but my mother wouldn’t give in until he had ended that chapter of his life,” Rishi wrote.

Industrialists Anil Ambani and Bollywood personalities Amitabh Bachchan, Sharmila Tagore, Sanjay Dutt, Abhishek Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao, Kajol, Ajay Devgn, Saif Ali Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Kunal Kemmu, Alia Bhatt, Rani Muk-erji, Ayan Mukerji, Anil Kapoor and Salma Khan were among those who were present.

India, Uzbekistan to step uptrade and investment tiesIANSNew Delhi

India and Uzbekistan set an annual bilateral trade target of $1bn to be achieved in two

years and agreed to co-operate in counter-terrorism eff orts as the two sides signed 17 agreements across a range of sectors follow-ing delegation-level talks led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Shavkat Mirziy-oyev here yesterday.

They also agreed to further strengthen their Strategic Part-nership and boost connectivity in a signifi cant manifestation of India’s increasing engagements with Central Asia.

“We have agreed to strength-en trade and investment ties and have set a bilateral trade target of $1bn by 2020,” Modi said at a joint press conference with Mirziyoyev after the talks. “We have also decided to start nego-tiations for a preferential trade agreement.”

Bilateral trade stands at around $350mn now.

According to a joint state-ment, both sides called for fur-ther promotion of investment.

“They noted the favourable conditions for investment by In-dian companies in Uzbekistan, including in the framework of the special economic zones and free pharmaceutical zones,” it stated.

Both countries positively as-sessed the establishment of an Uzbek-Indian Business Council between Confederation of In-dian Industry and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan.

Modi said India had decided to extend a line of credit (LoC) of $200mn to Uzbekistan for hous-ing and other social infrastruc-ture projects.

“We will welcome Uz-bekistan’s proposals under $800mn line of credit and buy-er’s credit from Exim Bank,” he said. “We have proposed to help Uzbekistan in the areas of space, human resource development and IT.”

The two sides discussed ways to boost connectivity.

Modi stressed the importance of Chabahar port in Iran being jointly developed by India, Iran and Afghanistan.

He expressed gratitude to Uz-bekistan for its support in In-

dia for becoming a member of the Ashgabat Agreement which seeks to establish an interna-tional transport and transit corridor between Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

“We are happy Uzbekistan has agreed to be a part of the Inter-national North South Transport Corridor (INSTC),” he said.

The INSTC is a 7,200km-long multi-modal network of ship, rail and road routes to move freight between India, Iran, Af-ghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe.

Modi said that India and Uz-bekistan shared their vision and plans to further strengthen their strategic partnership.

The India-Uzbekistan rela-tionship was elevated to a Stra-tegic Partnership when then Uzbek president Islam Karimov visited India in 2011.

“Meaningful discussions were also held on regional issues of importance that are linked to our security, peace, prosperity and co-operation,” Modi said.

Both sides agreed to deepen co-operation in the Shang-hai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) and other international forums.

Jaitley hits backat Congressover remarkson IL&FS crisisIANSNew Delhi

Facing constant attack on the Infrastructure Leas-ing and Financial Services

crisis, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday hit back at the Congress accusing the opposi-tion party of “spreading disin-formation” and said the “per-verted Rahul Gandhi school of thinking” was fi nding a scam in an investment by a fi nancial in-stitutions in a company.

Calling Congress a “national saboteur”, Jaitley asked whether all those instances of public sec-tor entities investing in IL&FS during the Congress regime were a scam.

“The fi nancial institutions’ investment in any company – ‘is it a scam’ as Rahul Gandhi and his coterie are spreading? Was it a scam in 1987 when the IL&FS was promoted with the Cen-tral Bank of India having 50.5% shares and the UTI having 30.5% shares,” Jaitley asked in a Face-book post.

“Was it a scam in 2005 when LIC acquired 15% stake in IL&FS and in March, 2006 when it ac-quired another 11.10% stake? In fact, LIC further bought 19.34 lakh shares in IL&FS in 2010,” he added.

“Do I start calling all these investments today ‘a scam’ as per ‘the perverted Rahul Gandhi school of thinking’?”

The minister said the Con-gress must remember that “the days of crony capitalism” were over and that Bharatiya Janata Party government dealt with such challenges “objectively and professionally”.

Jaitley’s remarks came a day after Congress president Rahul Gandhi alleged that public mon-ey was being used to bail out the

debt-ridden IL&FS group.In a tweet, Gandhi alleged that

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was bailing out the group which had a long-term debt liability of around Rs910bn through pub-lic savings in the Life Insurance Corporation and the State Bank of India.

“From where has he invented a proposal of Rs91,000 crore in-vestment likely to take place by LIC and SBI in the IL&FS,” Jait-ley asked.

“The Congress Party, for the last few days, has been busy spreading misinformation about the government’s possible moves in relation to the private sector company IL&FS. The Congress is a national saboteur. It wants to sabotage India’s economy by allowing a situation in relation to a company to persist, expand and become unmanageable. It lacks statesmanship and vision,” he said.

The minister added that it was, in fact, a section of the Congress leadership which was urging him to enable investments in the IL&FS and save the company.

“A senior Congress leader, K V Thomas, who is a former un-ion minister and has been the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, has written to me on September 20 making such a request.

“It demolishes every word that Rahul Gandhi and his co-terie has been spreading. It may be advisable for Rahul Gandhi to get some ‘words of wisdom’ from Thomas,” he said.

Meanwhile, amid media re-ports that public sector banks wrote-off loans worth over sev-en times the recovery amount in the last four years, Jaitley said the write-off s do not lead to any loan waiver and that the banks continue the recovery process “rigorously.”

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma meet Kalpana Tiwari, the widow of Apple executive Vivek Tiwari and her brother Vishnu Tiwari, in Lucknow yesterday.

UP govt under fi re aftermurder of Apple managerReutersLucknow

The deadly shooting of an Apple manager by police in Uttar Pradesh prompt-

ed human rights activists and opposition parties to demand reform, saying it was only the latest in a series of extrajudicial killings by local police.

The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh attempted to quickly defuse the attacks by off ering the dead manager’s widow a state gov-ernment job and compensation for the death of her husband.

Police in the northern state also issued a public apology and assured it would act against the two policemen involved.

Two police constables on mo-torbike patrol early on Saturday morning stopped the car of mid-level Apple sales manager Vivek Tiwari, who was returning from an iPhone store launch with an-other Apple employee.

There have been confl ict-

ing accounts of what happened next.

The patrolman who shot Ti-wari told reporters on Saturday: “I didn’t shoot at him. The bul-let was shot by mistake.”

But the state’s top police of-fi cer, O P Singh, said on Satur-day that the offi cer claimed to have fi red in self-defence.

One of Tiwari’s friends said he had been told by his fam-ily that when Tiwari declined to step out of the car, he was shot.

A photograph from the site of the incident, which occurred about 13km from state capi-tal Lucknow, showed Tiwari’s damaged sports utility vehicle with a cracked windshield.

Yesterday, state Chief Min-ister Yogi Adityanath met Ti-wari’s wife, assured her a job and at least Rs2.5mn in com-pensation.

The two offi cers have been arrested and the Uttar Pradesh state police offi cer Singh said he was determined to “punish & wean out such rogues in uni-form”.

Though such killings are fre-quently reported across India, swift police action is rare.

But Tiwari’s case has reso-nated as he worked for one of the best-known companies in the world and belonged to the upper caste Brahmin commu-nity.

Apple on Sunday said it was shocked and heartbroken by Ti-wari’s death, and extended deep-est sympathies to his family.

Human rights activists said the state, which has a high crime rate and a reputation for gang-sterism, needed to do more to stop police killings of civilians.

State police in September in-vited journalists to fi lm a con-frontation between police and two armed men in Aligarh city in which the two men were shot dead, according to media re-ports.

The clash began when the two opened fi re on police, police said.

India’s National Human Rights Commission said 19 al-leged criminals were killed and

89 injured in 433 police en-counters in Uttar Pradesh in six months to August 2017.

In February, the commission said the state’s police offi cers were “feeling free, misusing their power in the light of an undeclared endorsement given by the higher ups”.

“It is unfortunate that there is an uproar only about this case and not questions raised about Uttar Pradesh police operating procedures,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“Suspects have to be arrest-ed, prosecuted, not killed on the streets by police,” she said.

The case has also drawn po-litical attention.

Pawan Khera, a spokesman for the main opposition Con-gress Party, blamed the state government for the killing and called for “stringent action” against the police offi cers in-volved in the shootout.

The incident is a stark re-minder of how police brutality is widely prevalent in India.

Earlier this year, police in the port city of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu gave no warning before fi ring with live ammuni-tion on protesters seeking the closure of a copper smelter, kill-ing at least ten people.

“Police in Uttar Pradesh have become trigger happy, we have to see that minimum use of force is done,” said Vappala Balachandran, a former deputy police commissioner in Mum-bai.

“The central government should ensure that the police, their training methods are re-formed”.

Tiwari is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Ajay Kumar, one of Tiwari’s friends, described him as a hard working, jovial person who was fond of singing folk songs.

He had faced fi nancial hard-ship but then his life changed after 2014 when he landed a job as an Apple manager respon-sible for managing sales and working with the company’s partners in the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev arrive for a meeting at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi yesterday.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) yesterday asked telecom operators to submit a plan to stop the use of Aadhaar for authentication of subscribers. The Supreme Court last week disallowed private companies from possessing the Aadhaar details of customers while upholding the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act. In a letter, the UIDAI has asked telecom service providers to submit by October 15 an exit plan for closure of use of Aadhaar-based authentication systems. The letter also asked the operators to delink Aadhaar from mobile numbers and perform KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures afresh using the list of documents approved by the Department of Telecom (DoT). Cellular Operators’ Authority of India director general Rajan Mathews said the industry body would talk to the DoT soon to discuss the modalities.

Air Marshal Raghunath Nambiar yesterday took over as the Air Off icer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Air Command. Air Warriors of Headquarters of the Eastern Air Command welcomed Air Marshal Nambiar, who succeeded Air Marshal Anil Khosla, with a ceremonial guard of honour in Shillong. Khosla has been appointed the new Vice Chief of Air Force. Commissioned in the Indian Air Force as fighter pilot in June 1981, Nambiar has the distinction of having the highest number of flying hours on the Mirage-2000 in the IAF with over 2,300 flying hours on the aircraft to his credit, and overall 5,100 hrs of flying experience. He is an Experimental Test Pilot and has flown 42 types of aircraft as Pilot in Command. Nambiar earlier served in the Eastern Air Command headquarters as Senior Air Staff Off icer (SASO).

A 31-year-old tutor was shot dead in north Delhi yesterday, and the victim’s family alleged his Muslim girlfriend’s brother’s hand could be behind the murder. Deputy Commissioner of Police Aslam Khan said Ankit was shot dead inside his coaching centre, close to his home, at about 8.30am. The suspect wore a pollution mask and entered the coaching centre before the victim arrived. Once Ankit was in, the suspect shot him on his head from behind, the off icial said. “The motive is not clear but the victim’s family has alleged that it might be because of a girl with whom he was in a relationship,” Khan said. “We are investigating the matter to verify whether the claims made by his family are true,” police said, adding that Ankit’s girlfriend’s family members were being questioned.

Marriage can wait but politics cannot, says Bihar’s 28-year-old Leader of Opposition Tejaswi Yadav, who says he will marry after the 2019 general elections. “I will marry only after the Lok Sabha polls,” the former Bihar deputy chief minister said on Sunday night in Patna after arriving from Ranchi where he met his ailing father and Raashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav. Lalu Prasad is undergoing treatment at a Ranchi hospital after being jailed in the fodder scam. Tejashwi, the younger son of Lalu Prasad, said he will marry a girl of his parents’ choice. “I will prefer an arranged marriage.” According to him, he was getting marriage proposals from within Bihar and beyond. Two years ago, when he was the deputy chief minister, he reportedly received 44,000 marriage proposals on WhatsApp.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan yesterday held a meeting over the September 28 Supreme Court verdict that threw open the Sabarimala temple to all women, and discussed steps to welcome women this upcoming season. “The meeting has decided to increase facilities at various camps en route to the temple. At the Nilackal base camp, we have decided to increase pilgrim facilities from 6,000 to 10,000. There will also be a special enclosure for women,” Minister for Devasoms K Surendran said. Former chief minister Oommen Chandy asked Vijayan not to take hasty steps. “There is no doubt that the court ruling should be adhered to, but it has also come as a shock to others... The state government should explore all options and not implement the verdict in a hurry,” said Chandy.

Companies told to give Aadhaar exit plan by Oct 15

Nambiar new chief of Eastern Air Command

Tutor shot dead in his coaching centre in Delhi

Marriage only after 2019elections, says Tejashwi

Vijayan holds meeting over Sabarimala verdict

TELECOM APPOINTMENTCRIME POLITICS PILGRIMAGE

INDIA19Gulf Times


Nirav Modi’sLondon, NYassets worth$87mn seizedAgenciesNew Delhi

Authorities yesterday said they have seized assets of fugitive billionaire jew-

eller Nirav Modi worth some $87mn, piling pressure on one of the main suspects in a $1.8bn fraud at a major state-run bank.

The seized assets included overseas bank accounts and diamond studded jewellery to the tune of $3.1mn that has been brought back to India from Hong Kong in 23 shipments, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said.

The jewellery had been shipped out after Indian federal police registered a case of fraud against Modi in January.

“The international co-opera-tion has borne fruit,” the ED said in a statement.

“This has resulted in (the) sei-zure and provisional attachment of jewellery, bank accounts and immovable properties worth $87mn in India as well as four foreign jurisdictions.”

The list of seized assets in-clude a London property worth about $7.8mn and two others in New York’s popular Central Park, valued at $29mn.

According to the ED offi cials, they were purchased in the name of The Ithaca Trust.

One of the properties in Cen-tral Park south in New York was in the name of Central Park Real Estate LLC, a group company of Firestar Group.

In 2018, it was transferred to the Trust.

The benefi ciary of the Ithaca

Trust allegedly is Nirav Modi’s wife Ami Modi, a US national, and her children and the settler of the trust was Nirav Modi’s sister Purvi Modi, a Belgian na-tional.

“The other property was also purchased in the name of The Ithaca Trust in 2017. And before paying the consideration for the property, the stolen fund was layered extensively involving multiple jurisdictions like Dubai, Bahamas, USA, Singapore etc.,” the offi cial said.

“The consideration was paid from a fi duciary account of Commonwealth Trust Company, Singapore and the deal was car-ried out by a lawyer fi rm based in US,” the offi cial said.

The offi cial said the London property’s benefi cial owner is Nirav Modi’s sister Purvi.

According to the offi cial, the property was bought in the name of the Belvedere Holdings Group Limited which was managed by Trident Trust in Singapore, and established by Monte Cristo Trust.

“The said trust is having Purvi Modi as settler and benefi ciary,” he said.

Modi, last seen in Britain, fl ed India in February after authori-ties accused him of defrauding the Punjab National Bank.

Modi and his uncle and busi-ness partner Mehul Choksi, also a diamond merchant, are ac-cused of illegally diverting loans from the bank to foreign-based companies.

Choksi is in Antigua.Modi, 47, had luxury stores in

several major cities and boasted celebrity customers including

actresses Naomi Watts, Kate Winslet and Priyanka Chopra.

Before the case, Forbes had estimated his worth at $1.73bn, placing him 85th on India’s rich list.

He has now been removed from the ranking.

In February and March, the ED seized Modi’s farmhouse, high-end antique jewellery, watches and rare paintings.

Interpol has issued a Red Cor-ner Notice against Nirav Modi, Neeshal, Purvi and his executive Subhash Parab.

Yesterday, Interpol, at the re-quest of the Central Bureau of Investigation and ED, issued a Red Corner Notice against Nirav Modi’s trusted offi cial Aditya Nanavati.

Nanavati used to head the op-erations of Firestar Diamond’s business in Hong Kong.

It is learnt that he is also in Belgium.

The offi cial also said that Let-ters of Rogatory (LR) have also been sent to the authorities of foreign jurisdictions to enforce the provisional attachment or-ders.

Modi is not the only Indian billionaire facing heat from the authorities.

Vijay Mallya, a business tycoon who owned a For-mula One team and the failed Kingfisher Airlines, left In-dia in 2016 after authorities launched money-laundering charges against him.

He was subsequently arrested in Britain and released on bail as he battles extradition, living in a sprawling $15mn mansion in southeast England.

Delhi High Court frees activist from house arrestAgenciesNew Delhi

The Delhi High Court yes-terday ordered the release of a human rights activist

from house arrest.The court said prominent left-

ist activist and journalist Gautam Navlakha’s prolonged detention wasn’t legal, his associate and fellow campaigner Sehba Hus-sain told reporters.

Navlakha was arrested along-side four other campaigners dur-ing nationwide raids on August 28.

Police in Maharashtra said the activists were linked to left-wing Maoist rebels and had foment-ed violence between Dalit and right-wing groups near Pune on January 1.

A bench of justices S Muralid-har and Vinod Goel also set aside a lower court order allowing the Maharashtra police to take Nav-lakha to Pune and said his de-tention had exceeded 24 hours which was “untenable” in law.

“Consequently the house ar-rest of the petitioner comes to an end now,” the bench said.

“It is obvious that the order passed by the Chief Metropoli-tan Magistrate is unsustainable in law,” the bench said, observ-ing that the transit remand order was passed in violation of the the basic provisions of the Constitu-tion and Code of Criminal Proce-dure (CrPC).

The high court bench, how-ever, said that the Maharashtra police were free to begin fresh proceedings in the matter against Navlakha.

It also rejected the Maharash-tra police’s plea seeking an ex-tension of the house arrest by a few more days.

The high court in its order observed that the magistrate had passed the order without studying the case diary and the grounds of arrest were not communicated to Navlakha while arresting and seeking his remand.

The bench also noted that the Supreme Court had extended the

house arrest by four more weeks to allow the petitioner time to “avail the legal remedies”.

Media reports said the four other campaigners were likely to seek a similar release.

Critics have accused the Bharatiya Janata Party govern-ment of targeting left-wing aca-demics and activists.

Protests were held in several cities shortly after the arrests where protesters condemned the action.

Also yesterday, Home Minis-ter Rajnath Singh said the central government was taking steps to curb all possible national securi-ty threats, including Maoism and terrorism, and assured the states of central forces’ help whenever they require.

“Be it Maoism, terrorism or extremism – all sorts of security threats are being adequately dealt with. We are doing whatever is necessary to curb any potential security threat and will continue to do so,” Singh said after a meet-ing of the Eastern Zonal Council in Kolkata.

Congress and AAP demand probe into morgue mysteryIANSPanaji

The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party yesterday demanded a judicial probe

into the mysterious disappear-ance of the mortal remains of a 24-year-old footballer from the mortuary of Goa’s biggest gov-ernment hospital.

The demand comes on a day when Director General of Police Muktesh Chander directed the Crime Branch to take over the in-vestigation of the shocking case, over which Health Minister Vish-wajit Rane’s resignation is being demanded by the opposition.

“A retired high court judge should be investigating the case and not Goa police. At the least it is criminal negligence of the highest order. We want Rane to resign,” Congress spokesman Sunil Kawthankar told a press conference.

AAP leader Elvis Gomes said that “no amount of damage con-trol will restore confi dence in what the government is doing.

“Only an inquiry by a judge, whether sitting or retired, will be

able to get to the root of the mat-ter,” he said.

Earlier, DGP Chander ordered the transfer of the case to the Crime Branch following a formal request by Rane.

“Considering the gravity of the off ence and to ensure a thor-ough and more professional investigation, the case stands transferred to Crime Branch with immediate eff ect,” the top cop’s order reads.

Three offi cials attached to the Goa Medical College near Panaji were suspended by the Health Min-istry on Saturday after the body of Januz Gonsalves, a resident of Al-dona village, went missing.

An internal probe by the Health Ministry revealed that the body was reportedly switched and cremated along with un-claimed cadavers which are rou-tinely disposed of by hospital authorities.

The incident came to light af-ter the family turned up at the morgue on Saturday to claim the remains.

Rane has already issued a pub-lic apology for the goof-up even as the Congress has demanded his resignation.

School children with their head tonsured and dressed like Mahatma Gandhi perform yoga during an event at a school in Chennai yesterday.

Clean Indiainitiative atrue tributeto Gandhi:president

IANSNew Delhi

In his message on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti, President Ram Nath Kovind yesterday

said Mahatma Gandhi will be the guiding light in India’s pursuit to eradicate poverty and achieve rapid social and economic progress.

He said it would be “only be-fi tting” to celebrate this year’s Jayanti with welfare programmes pertinent to the life and work of Gandhi, a Rashtrapati Bhavan statement said.

“The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (clean India campaign) is a true tribute to Gandhiji, who espoused cleanliness as an essential element of healthy living,” Kovind said.

“This Gandhi Jayanti let us all resolve to make our homes, resi-dential areas, cities, villages and our country clean and to spread the message of total sanitation. Mahatma Gandhiji’s message remains relevant for all Indians and indeed for all humanity.”

This year is even more special since it marks the beginning of the celebration of 150 years of Gandhi’s birth, he added.

The president said Gandhi’s leadership inspired millions to participate in the struggle for in-dependence.

He said Gandhi Jayanti was an occasion “to rededicate our-selves” to the values espoused by the Father of the Nation includ-ing peace, harmony and inclu-sive national development.

“Mahatma Gandhi’s values and his life itself had a universal appeal, making him an ideal not just for Indians but for the entire world,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay homage to Gandhi today and attend programmes related to sanitation and renew-able energy.

“Events related to sanitation and renewable energy shall be the focus of the prime minister’s engagements on Gandhi Jay-anti,” said a statement from the Prime Minister’s Offi ce.

Students of Allahabad University shout slogans ahead of the Allahabad University Students Union election, in Allahabad yesterday.

Students election

India-born Gita Gopinath appointed IMF chief economistIANSNew York

Eminent academic and eco-nomic adviser to the Kerala government, Gita Gopi-

nath, was yesterday appointed as Chief Economist of the Interna-tional Monetary Fund.

Announcing the appointment, IMF Managing Director Chris-tine Lagarde called her “one of the world’s outstanding econo-

mists with impeccable academic credentials, a proven track record of intellectual leadership and ex-tensive international experience”.

“I am delighted to name such a talented fi gure as our Chief Economist,” she said in a state-ment.

She succeeds Maurice Obst-feld, who announced in July that he would retire at the end of this year.

Gopinath, who received her MA degree from the Delhi School

of Economics, is the John Zwaan-stra Professor of International Studies and Economics at Har-vard University.

She is concurrently the eco-nomic adviser to the Chief Min-ister of Kerala. Gopinath was ap-pointed in 2016 to the honorary position with the rank of princi-pal secretary.

She has also served as a mem-ber of the Eminent Persons Ad-visory Group on G-20 Matters for India’s Ministry of Finance.

She received her PhD in eco-nomics from Princeton Univer-sity in 2001 for her work on in-ternational macroeconomics and trade where her thesis advisers included economic luminaries Ben Bernanke before he became Federal Reserve chairman and Kenneth Rogoff , who was the IMF’s chief economist from 2001 to 2003.

In a 2016 interview with the Minneapolis Fed, Bernanke de-scribed Gopinath as “one of the

strongest and most promising students I ever worked with.”

She was an assistant professor at University of Chicago before moving to Harvard in 2005.

Her bachelor’s degree was from Lady Sri Ram College in New Delhi.

She received the Bhagwati Prize for the best paper published in the Journal of International Economics in 2003 and 2004.

In 2014, she was named one of the top 25 economists under 45

by the IMF and she was a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2011.

Gopinath is also the co-editor of the American Economic Review and Handbook of Interna-tional Economics, co-director of the Inter-national Finance and Macroeconomics Pro-gramme at the Na-tional Bureau of Economic

Research and a member of the Economic Advisory Panel of the

Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

She has authored some 40 research ar-ticles on exchange rates, trade and in-vestment, interna-tional fi nancial crises, monetary policy, debt and emerging market

crises, accord-ing to the IMF.


LATIN AMERICA

Brazil fi rmCielo in bidto regainlost groundReutersSao Paulo

Brazilian payment processor Cielo SA’s once fat margins have been decimated by rivals

who lease or sell credit card ter-minals to merchants for a fraction of what the market leader has long charged.

Now Cielo is fi ghting back, off er-ing services such as inventory man-agement and market intelligence tools to justify its premium pricing and retain its core payments clients, two sources close to the company said.

The company, Brazil’s dominant payment processor, has its work cut out for it.

At the end of June, the number of merchants using Cielo’s payment systems was down almost one-fi fth from a year ago to 1.1mn. And its shares, which once reliably outper-formed Brazil’s benchmark stock in-dex, have plunged 43% this year.

Cielo has been struggling even as Brazilian credit and debit card trans-actions surged 14% in the fi rst half of 2018, according to industry associa-tion Abecs.

The cozy duopoly Cielo shared with rival Rede — owned by Itau Unibanco Holding SA — has been shattered as the two have respec-tively lost exclusive rights to process Visa and MasterCard transactions in Brazil.

Sao Paulo restaurant owner Sid-ney Tadeu Prado is just the kind of client Cielo is battling to keep.

For nearly two decades, he had to lease two diff erent payment ter-minals, one from Cielo for Visa and another from Rede for MasterCard, each costing him roughly 150 reais per month.

Then last year, Stone Pagamen-tos SA, a company Prado had never heard of, off ered to lease him a single terminal for both Visa and MasterCard payments for 40 reais a month.

He has already returned Rede’s machine and will soon do the same with Cielo’s.

The two sources said Cielo aims to mostly hold the line on prices de-spite the onslaught from Stone and another upstart, Pagseguro Digital.

World courtsinks Bolivia’slegal fi ght for sea accessAFPThe Hague

The International Court of Justice yesterday ruled against landlocked Bolivia

in a row with Chile over access to the Pacifi c Ocean that dates back to the 19th century.

Bolivia lost its prized route to the sea in an 1879-1883 war with Chile, and Santiago has rejected every attempt since then by its smaller and poorer neighbour to win back its coastline.

La Paz took Santiago to the top UN court in The Hague in 2013 to try to force it to the negotiating table over the maritime spat, a long-running strain on relations between the two South Ameri-can countries.

“The court by 12 votes to three fi nds that the Republic of Chile did not undertake a legal obli-gation to negotiate a sovereign access for the...state of Bolivia,” judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf said at the end of a judgement that took an hour and 20 minutes to read out.

The judge said, however, he hoped that “with willingness on the part of both parties mean-ingful negotiations can be un-dertaken”.

Bolivia’s leftist President Evo Morales — who has used the is-sue to boost support at home as he seeks a fourth term in offi ce — attended the court in person for the verdict.

“Bolivia will never give up” its claim, Morales told reporters afterwards. “The people of the world know that Bolivia had an

invasion and we had our sover-eign access to the Pacifi c Ocean taken away from us.”

The ICJ was set up after World War II to rule in disputes be-tween UN member states.

The court’s fi ndings are bind-ing and cannot be appealed, al-though it has no real power to enforce them.

Chile and Bolivia have had no diplomatic relations since 1978 when Bolivia’s last major at-tempt to negotiate a passage to the Pacifi c broke down in acri-mony.

The War of the Pacifi c pit-ted Bolivia and Peru on one side against Chile on the other, and saw battles fought in the Pacifi c Ocean, the Andes mountains and even in the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world.

Decades of post-independ-ence border tensions in South America were fi nally ignited by a dispute over Bolivian attempts to tax a Chilean company min-ing saltpetre, a mineral used in fertilizer that was at the time replacing the traditional use of guano, the excrement of seabirds and bats.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera lashed out at his Bolivian counterpart as he hailed the ICJ’s decision.

“President Evo Morales of Bo-livia has created false expecta-tions in his own people, and has created great frustration in his own people,” he said in a state-ment.

“We have lost fi ve valuable years of the healthy and nec-essary relationship that Chile needs with all neighbouring

countries, including Bolivia.”Morales has weaponised the

dispute to boost his popularity at home where the importance of the issue is underscored by the fact that Bolivia still has a navy despite lack of access to the sea.

A small crowd of Bolivian pro-testers waved fl ags, played pan pipes and banged drums outside the Peace Palace for the verdict, shouting “The struggle contin-ues!”

“Of course we are sad about the decision. We’re a small country, but we’re not Switzer-land or Luxembourg. We need access to export and import our goods,” said Gabriella Telleria, 50, one of the protesters.

“We asked for justice and we didn’t get it,” she said.

Bolivia says regaining the 400kms of coastline along the northern tip of Chile that it lost in the war would stimu-late growth and development in South America’s poorest coun-try.

Bolivian activists said the loss of the Chuquicamata mine, the world’s largest open-pit cop-per mine which is situated in the disputed area, has also badly hit the country’s indigenous peo-ples.

For its part, Santiago says the border is based on a 1904 peace treaty signed with Bolivia in the wake of the War of the Pacifi c and therefore must be respected.

Meanwhile, Chile has opened its own case against Bolivia over the Silala waterway, which fl ows into the Atacama desert and which La Paz has threatened to divert.

Bolivian President Evo Morales leaves the International Court of Justice, the UN’s highest court for disputes between states, after the ruling in The Hague, the Netherlands, yesterday.

Brazil’s next president faces tough austerity juggling actAFPRio de Janeiro

Whoever wins Brazil’s presidential election on October 7 will have

their work cut out - juggling mar-ket pressure to implement auster-ity measures while trying to drag 23mn people out of poverty.

According to a World Bank report presented to the 13 can-didates, Latin America’s big-gest economy is facing “three main challenges: a major fi scal imbalance...a lack of sustainable

growth in productivity...(and) the state’s ever increasing dif-fi culty in providing basic public services.”

In Brazil, “part of the popula-tion still lives in the 19th century and the other part is already in the 21st century,” says Marcelo Neri, an economist at the so-cioeconomic think tank Getulio Vargas Foundation.

Neri says millions of Brazilians have a poor education, live with-out access to water and sanita-tion, and are confronted by “lev-els of violence worthy of a war.”

As for the economy, it’s strug-

gling. Public debt hit 77% of gross domestic product in July, up from 56% in 2014.

The World Bank says it won’t stabilise unless Brazil manages an unlikely 4% annual growth through to 2030. Without deep structural reforms, the debt could reach 140% of GDP, the World Bank says.

While hugely unpopular out-going President Michel Temer has frozen public spending, he has left hanging the delicate question of pension reform, con-sidered by the markets as a cor-nerstone to fi scal consolidation.

Most presidential candidates are proposing pension reform and a programme to reduce the public defi cit, but without going into specifi cs on the fi gures for fear of losing votes.

Right wing frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro has proposed a transi-tion towards a system of funded

pensions and a 20% reduction in the public debt through “priva-tisation and sales.”

His closest rival, the leftist Fernando Haddad, is off ering the opposite: “an end to privatisa-tion” while he intends to “increase employment” and “battle tax dodging” in order to balance the public books. Former Sao Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin has made an ambitious promise to wipe out the public debt “in two years” through privatisation and a simplifi ed tax system.

The problem is that while can-didates focus on trying to win

votes, they might ignore the most pressing issues aff ecting those most in need. Neri says the coun-try needs social “inclusion poli-cies” but fears that “the elections aren’t heading in that direction.”

Six million (33%) more people live in poverty than in 2014, the Getulio Vargas foundation says.

There are also 13mn people unemployed in a country with a population of 208mn that ranks ninth in the world in terms of so-cial inequality.

Marcos Lisboa, president of teaching and research institute, Insper, is concerned that all the

candidates are travelling a wor-ryingly well-trodden road.

“The worry is that debates on the most urgent problems are ditched in favour of proposals that either reproduce the dis-aster the country went through these last few years, or that promise the moon,” says Lisboa.

Brazil needs to choose the “middle path,” says Neri, be-tween those who advocate aus-terity after two years of recession followed by two more of weak growth, and those who believe that such a policy would fi nish off the sick patient.

Colombian city helping young shun life of violenceThomson Reuters FoundationCali, Colombia

As a boy growing up in a slum in Cali, one of the most world’s most violent

cities, Andres Felipe Gonzalez knew his chances of a life with-out crime or becoming a victim of crime were slim.

“I remember hooded men would enter the neighbourhood. We’d switch off the lights and hide under a table,” said Gonzal-ez, who lives in southwest Cali’s Las Minas Comuna 18 neigh-bourhood.

“In the culture I grew up in, the best man is the one who has the biggest gun. The bigger the gun, the more respect you have,” said Gonzalez, known locally as Fares.

But against the odds, Fares did not end up joining a gang or re-sorting to violence.

Fares, now 27, is part of a mul-ti-million-dollar initiative that aims to keep young men off the streets and away from gangs in Colombia’s third largest city by off ering them other options.

Since starting in 2016, the project, called “Integrated Ap-proach to Gangs — Youth With-out Borders” (TIP) and funded by Cali city hall, has worked with about 1,400 people and 73 gangs in slum areas, including young men and women at risk of being recruited by gangs.

With a murder rate of 51 per 100,000 people in 2017, Cali ranks as one of the world’s most dangerous cities. Much of the violence is drug or gang-relat-ed, and perpetrated by young men.

Across Latin America, cit-ies seeking to cope better with modern-day pressures are look-ing beyond risks from natural hazards like fl oods, and tackling social stresses too.

In Cali, preventing gang vio-lence is part of the city’s fi ve-pronged resilience strategy, drawn up under its membership of the 100 Resilient Cities net-work, backed by The Rockefeller Foundation.

The plan also covers action on climate change, education, transport and governance.

“We understand resilience

as overcoming both shocks and tensions,” said Juan Camilo Cock, deputy secretary of the Areas of Inclusion and Oppor-tunities programme at Cali may-oral offi ce.

Tensions are ongoing issues that aff ect people’s livelihoods, he noted. “When we did the di-agnostic for resilience in Cali, one of the main issues that came out was violence,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Cali’s homicide rate has de-creased since 2012 when 80 per 100,000 people were murdered in the city, he noted. “It’s come down 30% in fi ve years — but we know we need to go further,” Cock said.

The TIP programme works with neighbourhood street gangs, typically comprising about 20 teenagers who are small-time drug dealers catering to local demand and who fi ght turf wars.

“Once violence becomes nor-malised in a community, kids as they grow up don’t see other op-tions for their future. What they do see are opportunities within criminal life,” Cock said.

“Then it becomes a life choice, and we know that we need to break that cycle.”

Robert Muggah, research di-rector of the Igarape Institute, a Brazil-based think tank, said Latin American governments trying to combat gang violence had largely used heavy-handed responses.

That involves security forces raiding crime-ridden slums as seen in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and parts of Central America.

But in recent decades, new methods of tackling violence have gained currency, with Co-lombia leading the way, Muggah said.

“It’s this idea that we shouldn’t only rely on the pu-nitive and policing side of the equation, but we need to em-phasise the social prevention side of things,” he said.

The new approach focuses on community policing, as well as supporting and working with community leaders, and has also been introduced in countries such as Jamaica, Brazil and Hon-duras.

It draws on the belief that

communities themselves have the ability to regulate and mod-erate delinquent behaviour, while reinforcing positive be-haviour that can be extremely eff ective in keeping youth away from gangs, Muggah said.

Colombia caught onto this early and “understood that re-silience had to be built from the bottom up”, he explained.

This bottom-up approach is being deployed in Las Minas and other poor areas of Cali.

Most are informal settlements of brick shacks, home to people uprooted by Colombia’s internal confl ict.

In Las Minas, Fares leads a tight-knit group of six men aged 16 to 27 who belong to the TIP programme, which is imple-mented by Cali’s University of Valle and local police authori-ties.

Together, the young men rap, write songs, make music videos, paint, play football and fl y kites as an alternative to gang life. “The group is like a protective shield. It’s about getting out of a negative environment,” Fares said.

Often bored, jobless or school dropouts, teenagers are typi-cally fi rst introduced to gang life while loitering on street corners, where they make easy prey.

Gangs off er jobs earning up to $100 a day selling drugs, as well as a sense of belonging, friend-ship and protection that too of-ten the state, police and families have failed to provide, Fares said.

“Gangs give you work — and you become emotionally tied to them,” he said.

With the support of police and psychologists, Fares and his friends have turned an aban-doned school into a small library and community centre, cleared garbage dumps, and painted a playground.

They also run a kids’ home-work club and family cinema night. “If I wasn’t part of the programme, I’d be on the street. This keeps me distracted,” said 16-year-old Camilo.

Gangs divide communities — both physically and socially — making them less able to with-stand violence. Neighbourhoods are often carved up along gang

territory lines known as “invis-ible borders”.

“There’s a culture of silence,” Cock said. “People start losing trust in each other, and in the state, and that is the breakdown of social fabric.”

In some slums, “invisible borders” mean children cannot go to a certain school or library because it is too risky to cross another gang’s area, and even drop out of education. “For the municipality, for the state, it becomes a real challenge,” Cock said. “That’s why engaging with gang members is important, to start bringing down levels of violence, to start replacing the order of gangs by the order of the state.”

Authorities also work with community youth leaders like Fares to decide how to best to improve areas and make them safer, by installing lighting for example.

“We don’t want safe neigh-bourhoods because of a big po-lice presence,” Cock said. “We want safer neighbourhoods be-cause people aren’t killing each other.”

The problem is that while candidates focus on trying to win votes, they might ignore the most pressing issues aff ecting those most in need

PAKISTAN21Gulf Times


Prime Minister Imran Khan will soon appoint a new head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),

after the incumbent chief of the coun-try’s premier spy agency is set to retire this month.

There were reports that Lieutenant General Naveed Mukhtar, the outgoing ISI director general, would be retiring on October 1 (yesterday).

However, military sources suggested that was not correct.

According to the sources, the current ISI chief has still a few days left in the offi ce.

They, however, confi rmed that he would retire sometime this month.

Following his retirement, the prime minister would appoint a new ISI direc-tor general.

Although there is no offi cial word yet, the incoming ISI chief is likely to be picked from the recently-promoted ma-jor generals.

The offi cers, who were promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, include Shaheen Mazhar, Nadeem Zaki Manj, Abdul Aziz, Asim Munir, and Waseem Ashraf.

Traditionally, the coveted slot of ISI director general, considered the most powerful after the army chief’s post, goes to a three-star general with a con-siderable experience of working in intel-ligence agencies.

If this convention remains, the new ISI chief would be one of the following: Lieutenant General Manj, Lieutenant

General Munir, and Lieutenant General Ashraf.

Both Manj and Munir served as mili-tary intelligence director general, while Ashraf had the experience of working in the ISI.

Defence analyst retired Lieuten-ant General Amjad Shoaib, who is still closely connected with the security establishment, believes that Manj and Munir are hot favourites to replace the current ISI chief.

He said a list of three lieutenant gen-erals would be forwarded to the prime minister, who would then pick one of them.

“Intelligence background, career record, and certain other personality traits play a key role in the appointment of ISI chief,” Shoaib explained.

He said that unlike the past, this time

the appointment of new ISI chief would be made without any controversy.

The reason, he cited, is because of the harmony between the civil and military leadership.

The prime minister would pick the new ISI chief based on the recommen-dations of the army chief, he added.

This would be the fi rst major appoint-ment Imran will make in the security es-tablishment.

Within weeks of taking charge, the prime minister visited the ISI headquar-ters in Islamabad.

He praised the intelligence agency for its contribution in the fi ght against ter-rorism, declaring that the ISI as one of the world’s best spy agencies.

Neither the army nor the government has offi cially commented on the antici-pated appointment of the ISI chief.

PM set to make his fi rst key army appointment

InternewsIslamabad

After witnessing around 50% decline in fi ling tax returns, the Pakistan Te-

hreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led govern-ment is left with no other option but to grant two-month exten-sion in fi ling income tax returns.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) also faced revenue shortfall

of Rs15bn from its revised target for the fi rst quarter (July-Sept) period of the current fi scal year (2018-2019).

According to details, the FBR had provisionally received only 340,000 returns for the Tax Year 2018 up to September 30, com-pared with 608,587 income tax returns in the same period of the last fi scal year, refl ecting a de-crease of 268,587 returns.

Offi cial sources at the FBR said

that the last government had in-troduced tax incentives for indi-viduals in massive manner that resulted into exclusion of almost 1.2mn fi lers from the tax net.

The restriction on fi lers for purchasing plots and motor ve-hicles also created problems for fi ling income tax returns.

However, the sources said that it is failure of the FBR that they failed to convince taxpayers to come into the tax net.

A statement issued by the FBR states that the authority collect-ed Rs836bn in the fi rst quarter.

The FBR, during the fi rst quarter of the current fi nancial year, recorded a provisional net revenue collection of Rs836bn compared with Rs766bn col-lected during the same period of the previous fi scal year, includ-ing collection on account of book adjustments.

The assigned revised revenue

target for the fi rst quarter is Rs-851bn.

The increase of Rs70bn from the corresponding period of pre-vious fi nancial year is despite the fact that relief measures, intro-duced through the Finance Act 2018, have adversely aff ected revenue collection in the fi rst quarter.

The provisional collection for the month of September 2018 stands at Rs323bn, excluding

collection on account of book adjustments.

The collection fi gures received in the treasuries of the remote ar-eas may further swell the revenue fi gures.

The revenue collection trend during the fi rst quarter of the fi nancial year augurs well for the eff orts of the FBR towards achievement of the assigned re-vised annual revenue target of Rs4,398bn.

The FBR has also extended the due date for fi ling Income Tax Returns/Statements by compa-nies required to fi le returns by September 30, salaried individu-als, other individuals and organi-sations, to November 30.

The date was extended for two months in view of the directions of federal minister for fi nance, revenue and economic aff airs for simplifi cation of the return forms.

Deadline to fi le tax returns extended till November 30InternewsIslamabad

The government led by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is

willing to accommodate any op-position candidate as the chair-man of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), even if he or she belongs to Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N), ex-cept for its chief Shehbaz Sharif and his close aides.

This transpired during recent talks between the government and opposition.

Those who are considered close associates of either former prime minister Nawaz Sharif or Shehbaz include Rana Sanaul-lah, Khawaja Asif, and Ahsan Iqbal.

PML-N sources said that Speaker of the National Assem-bly Asad Qaiser conveyed to the

party leaders that Prime Minis-ter Khan is willing to accept even a PML-N lawmaker on the post, other than Shehbaz and a hand-ful of other “hawkish” leaders.

The appointment of the PAC chief is likely to be fi nalised af-ter Foreign Minister Shah Me-hmood Qureshi returns to the country after the conclusion of his offi cial visit to the United States.

Senior PML-N leader Sanaul-lah said that the PML-N would not accept anyone else other than Shehbaz as the PAC chief.

“Over the years, this has be-come a tradition: the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly holds the portfolio of the PAC chairman. The PTI is shying away from this because it fears strict accountability by a credible personality such as Shehbaz Sharif.”

Sanaullah insisted that if She-hbaz is not appointed the PAC

chief, the PML-N would not ac-cept the leadership position of any standing committee, or even quitting all parliamentary com-mittees.

“Yes, we can go to the extent of withdrawing from all the committees and this is being discussed within the party,” said a senior party member.

However, a well-placed PML-N source dismissed this possi-bility, saying that it is just a ne-gotiating tactic.

The source said that despite repeated demands by opposition parties for appointing the PAC chief from among opposition members, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry’s opposition to Shehbaz Sharif as the PAC chief is indicative of the government’s plans.

The source cited several state-ments by the information minis-ter in this regard.

The government, he said, is

also likely to accept someone from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as the PAC chief, other than “Asif Ali Zardari and Bila-wal Bhutto Zardari”.

Talks with PML-N leaders in-dicates the PPP is also eyeing the post of PAC chairman.

It is learnt that PPP supremo Zardari wants his son Bilawal to be appointed PAC chief.

However, some PML-N lead-ers close to Shehbaz maintain that the PPP and other smaller opposition groups, such as the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and the Awami National Party (ANP), are willing to sup-port Shehbaz’s candidacy.

They are said to have started lobbying in this regard, reach-ing out to certain “favourable” government fi gures to win them over for Shehbaz’s candidacy.

However, other key PML-N leaders believe otherwise.

“The PPP supports the de-

mand that the PAC chairman must be from the opposition, but for its own sake. Bilawal is the PPP’s candidate for the post,” said a former federal min-ister, requesting anonymity.

A PTI senator said Khan would not “risk” appointing Shehbaz or Bilawal as the PAC chief.

“Not only the Sharif family, but Zardari too are in deep trou-ble. They are facing cases of cor-ruption and money-laundering. Bilawal’s elevation as the PAC chief would be a huge relief for Zardari. The PM would never want this to happen,” the law-maker maintained.

PTI unwilling to hand PAC post to top opposition fi guresInternewsIslamabad

The jeep bumps along a sloppy mud road carved between Pakistan’s

northern mountains, its tyres running with breathtaking precision along the very edge, where nothing but air lies be-tween them and the snake-like river winding hundreds of feet below.

More than 3,000m (around 10,000’) above sea level, the vehicle has no room for error, its other side just inches from scraping along the rock face, its passengers worriedly monitor-ing how anxious the driver ap-pears.

For his part, Shahid Ka-rim spends as much of his time watching the mountains them-selves as he does gauging how close he is bringing his jeep to the edge.

“At every second death is written on this road ... this

whole area is notorious for land-slides,” he says, adding that fall-ing rocks have struck his vehicle many times.

The precarious roads of Pa-kistan’s mountainous north are lifelines for its scattered and re-mote population.

The thoroughfare that Ka-rim is travelling is the only one connecting the 2,400 residents of the village of Shimshal to the outside world.

Drivers like Karim, a native of the region who has been navi-gating this stretch of road since 2004, are the only ones who use them, making a career out of fer-rying villagers, tourists, and the handful of Westerners who make the knuckle-whitening journey each year.

They are the ones with the ex-perience to know that landslides are as great a threat as the road’s narrowness and lack of safety barriers.

During spring and autumn, when there is no snow or rain, an ibex walking delicately along

the heights can trigger a rockfall, while a strong breeze on a sum-mer’s day can set pebbles sliding away.

The lightest rainfall can shift rocks, while in the frozen win-ters even sunlight can be dan-gerous, melting the snow that surrounds boulders and pre-vents them from raining down on the road.

Sometimes rocks falling from above are less of a danger than those tumbling away beneath the car tyres, loosened by the weight of the vehicle and sent crashing down into the abyss.

The more desperate passen-gers are for the journey to end, the slower the driver is forced to crawl along the roads.

“We have passengers with us whose lives depend on us,” Kar-im says. “So it is really important to drive slowly.”

This road was inaugurated in 2003 after 18 years of labour by locals, in which three villagers lost their lives.

Before then, the people of

Shimshal had to walk for days, crossing icy rivers and climbing deadly ridges in freezing tem-peratures, to reach the nearest large village of Passu.

Previous rulers of Hunza, the former principality that encom-passes Shimshal and now forms part of Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, would banish criminals to Shimshal as punishment.

The suff ering lay in the jour-ney, which was so tough that few survived it, most slipping to their death from precarious ridges with others succumbing to cold and pneumonia.

The road, despite causing so much fear in the hearts of tour-ists, is therefore seen as a bless-ing by residents of Shimshal, bringing education and basic

amenities to their remote moun-tain homes.

That includes electricity: for years residents have generated power with small solar pan-els, though this year a hydro-power plant built with materials brought in along the road is set to be completed.

Every morning the sound of a blaring car horn tears into the dawn serenity of Shimshal.

Its residents are not bothered by the rude awakening.

So few people dare drive the road that – barring emergencies – those who wish to travel out-side crowd into just one vehicle that leaves daily.

Its driver is simply making sure no one misses the journey.

A mere six vehicles from Shimshal and four from Passu

regularly make the commute.The villagers muster at a sin-

gle point with their luggage as the driver continues cruising through the village honking, sometimes for as longs as half an hour.

Doulat Amin, the fi rst teacher to work in Shimshal valley, is among the people waiting one rainy dawn to get into central Hunza.

“I came here in 1966 as a teacher and there were so many diffi culties back then,” the 75-year-old said. “There was no education, because there was no road.”

Travelling its rocky way is risky – but, Amin says, God is with the passengers. “We plead with him every time we travel on the road.”

Daring death on the remote roadsof Pakistan’s northBy Gohar Abbas, AFPShimsal Hunza

In this photograph taken on May 7, locals travel in a vehicle in Shimshal valley of Hunza district in northern Pakistan. The precarious roads of Pakistan’s mountainous north are lifelines for its scattered and remote population.

Pakistan trims rail projectby $2bnReutersLahore

Islamabad has cut the size of the biggest Chinese “Silk Road” project in Pakistan by

$2bn, Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed said yesterday, citing government concerns about the country’s debt levels.

The megaproject to revamp the colonial-era line stretching 1,872km (1,163 miles) from Ka-rachi to the northwestern city of Peshawar was initially priced at $8.2bn, but wrangling over costs has led to delays.

The changes are part of Islam-abad’s eff orts to rethink key Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects in Pakistan, where Beijing has pledged about $60bn in fi nanc-ing, but the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan ap-pears to be more cautious about the Chinese investment.

“Pakistan is a poor country that cannot aff ord huge bur-den of the loans,” Rasheed told a news conference in the city of Lahore.

“Therefore, we have reduced the loan from China under the CPEC for rail projects from $8.2bn to $6.2bn,” he added, referring to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Rasheed said that the govern-ment remains committed to the Karachi-Peshawar Main Line-1 (ML-1) project but added that he wishes to further reduce the cost to $4.2bn from $6.2bn.

Islamabad has balked at the fi nancing terms and has pushed for deeply concessional loans for ML-1.

It also invited third countries to join or for the Chinese to be investors in the project through the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model that would rely less on debt.

The United States has criti-cised the BRI projects, warning that the loans could turn into debt traps for poor countries unable to pay them money back.

Beijing denies the claims, say-ing that the loans are a win-win situation for both countries.

“The CPEC is like the back-bone for Pakistan, but our eyes and ears are open,” Rasheed said.

The ML-1 is the spine of the country’s dilapidated rail net-work, as well as the biggest source of revenue.

Pakistan’s rail system has struggled to break even for dec-ades as passenger numbers plunge, train lines close and the vital freight business nosedives.

Deciding on the new ISI chief would be the first major appointment Imran will make in the security establishment.

Shehbaz Sharif: the PML-N’s choice for the PAC chairmanship.

KP Governor’s House opensto the publicThe Governor’s House in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was opened to public here on the other day, and students of three government girls colleges were the first to visit the building and meet Governor Shah Farman.Sindh Governor Imran Ismail and Punjab Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar have already welcomed members of the public into their respective Governor’s Houses.

Gilgit-Baltistan governor sworn in

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Raja Jalal Hussain Maqpoon took the oath as the sixth governor of Gilgit-Baltistan yesterday.The chief judge of the GB Supreme Appellate Court, Javed Iqbal, administered the oath to Maqpoon.


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Same old questions surface after US Ryder Cup loss

A change in PGA Tour scheduling will ensure the American players are fresher at future Ryder Cups, but that alone will not guarantee future success, particularly when the biennial event against Europe is held away from home.

It certainly did not help that 11 of the 12 members of the losing United States team at Le Golf National arrived jet-lagged directly from the Tour Championship on the PGA Tour.

But several Europeans also played in Atlanta, including Francesco Molinari who won all his fi ve matches in Paris.

So scheduling cannot take all the blame for the American team’s performance, except perhaps for the poor form of Tiger Woods, who was a shadow of the player who clinched his memorable victory at East Lake last Sunday.

The PGA Tour schedule from next year will be condensed to fi nish by the end of August, a month before the Ryder Cup, so everyone should be rested and raring to go for the 2020 edition.

More problematic when the 2022 event is staged in Rome is whether the American players will be familiar with the course.

Half the team had never set foot on Le Golf National before last week and only one, Justin Thomas, had played it in competition.

For all the mountains of statistical data the American leadership employed an analytics fi rm to provide, nothing helps more than knowing a course inside out.

Losing captain Jim Furyk defended his troops, pointing out that several had visited the

course before the British Open.But half the team did not, a situation that could arise

again unless the Americans make a reconnaissance visit a prerequisite for future team selection.

Europe will continue to set up the course to the perceived strength of their team, but knowledge of the layout would help nullify any home advantage.

Four years ago, at the team news conference after losing in Scotland, Phil Mickelson issued a thinly-veiled criticism of Tom Watson as his captain sat awkwardly at the same table.

Mickelson said things had strayed from the winning formula used by 2008-winning captain Paul Azinger.

“He got everybody invested in the process,” Mickelson said of Azinger.

The criticism set in motion soul-searching at the PGA of America, which created a task force including Furyk, Woods and Mickelson to examine what could be changed to ensure future success.

Victory on home soil in 2016 appeared to validate the process, but this year’s heavy loss could raise questions of whether that result was merely an aberration which had little to do with the task force.

Mickelson could hardly have been more supportive of his skipper on Sunday.

“Our captain is one of the best people in golf,” Mickelson said, praising Furyk for bringing the players into the decision-making process. “We just didn’t quite execute.”

Furyk, for his part, vowed to do what he could to help.The US will already have revenge on their mind when the

event is held in 2020 at Whistling Straits, Wisconsin,

The PGA Tour schedule from next year will be condensed to fi nish by the end of August

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CHAIRMANAbdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFFaisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka

Deputy Managing EditorK T Chacko

By Tatiana Bautzer, Marcela Ayres and Christian Plumb/ ReutersSao Paulo/ Brasilia

Brazil’s business class is quietly rooting for far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro to win the nation’s

highest offi ce this month, fearful of a return to leftist rule in Latin America’s largest economy.

The nation’s currency and equity markets have increasingly rallied in lock-step with favourable poll numbers for Bolsonaro, a fi rebrand congressman better known for his broadsides against gays and Afro-Brazilians than his embrace of free markets.

Over a 27-year legislative career, Bolsonaro has voted repeatedly to preserve state-owned monopolies and against reforming Brazil’s bloated public pension system.

But his selection of a respected University of Chicago-educated banker, Paulo Guedes, as his economic adviser is good enough for many investors and business owners.

Some view Bolsonaro as the least worst alternative in a race that is shaping up as a showdown between the far right and far left.

Pollsters are predicting a second-round run-off between Bolsonaro and former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad, candidate for the leftist Workers Party, or PT, who has been surging in the polls.

Many economists blame statist policies of the PT, which ruled Brazil for much of the past 15 years, for tipping Brazil into a deep downturn, whose vestiges are still weighing on the economy.

Luciano Hang, the owner of the privately-owned department store chain Havan, is one of few executives to openly support Bolsonaro, whose unabashed admiration for Brazil’s former military dictatorship and frequent denigration

of women and minorities have alienated large swaths of the electorate.

Still, Hang estimates that “more than 80%” of people in a 300-member business council to which he belongs are backing Bolsonaro now that more moderate candidates in a crowded presidential fi eld appear to be fading.

“Business people and entrepreneurs throughout Brazil in all segments of the public favour Bolsonaro and will actively campaign for him,” Hang said.

Bolsonaro’s growing acceptance among Brazil’s business elites underscores how a polarised political landscape is driving moderates to extremes, and how markets are unsettled by a wide-open and unpredictable race.

Those jitters have already slowed the country’s M&A and IPO markets to a crawl and last month sent Brazil’s currency, the real, to a record low against the dollar.

Bolsonaro is the current front-runner among 13 presidential candidates heading into the fi rst round of balloting slated for October 7, with 27% of the likely vote, according to a survey last week from polling fi rm Ibope.

But whether he ultimately prevails remains to be seen.

If no candidate wins a majority on the fi rst ballot, as is predicted, the top two vote-getters will face off in a fi nal round of voting on October 28, when the same poll shows Bolsonaro losing to Haddad by 4 percentage points.

Haddad, an economist, has been meeting with major investors to quell fears about a PT return to power.

Known for his bookish, calm demeanor, Haddad has played up his orthodox positions on infl ation, exchange rates and defi cits.

Still, he has acknowledged he would dump the labour and spending reforms of unpopular outgoing President Michel Temer.

And he has made it clear his administration would run state-

controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA or Petrobras as a development vehicle and scuttle the proposed sale of Embraer’s commercial jet business to Boeing Co.

Haddad recently tweeted that the market was “an abstract entity that terrorises the public.”

Corporate admirers of Bolsonaro, meanwhile, point to his choice of adviser Guedes as a reason to tune out their candidate’s divisive rhetoric, authoritarian leanings and wildly shifting views on Brazil’s economy.

Bolsonaro, for example, once suggested that ex-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso be gunned down for privatising former government enterprises including iron ore miner Vale.

In contrast, Guedes, currently the head of asset management fi rm Bozano Investimentos, is a fi erce advocate of privatising Petrobras and government-controlled lender Banco do Brasil SA.

If elected, Bolsonaro has promised to make Guedes a kind of super minister in charge of fi nance, planning and trade, with wide latitude to set economic policy.

Guedes has held a series of meetings with investment banks, corporate chieftains and international investors to coax them onto the Bolsonaro bandwagon.

The banker has also met with members of the Finance Ministry at least three times in an eff ort to signal continuity with Temer’s reform agenda, including changes to the country’s insolvent pension system.

“Paulo Guedes indeed gives Bolsonaro’s candidacy a lot of credibility,” said Claudio Pacini, head of Brazilian stock trading at US broker INTL FCStone in Miami.

“Together with the fear of the rise of the left, the two things mitigate in Bolsonaro’s favour.”

But some question how long the Bolsonaro-Guedes partnership might last

even if the candidate is elected.“Bolsonaro is a recent convert to pro-

market liberalism - that’s not his thing, it’s never been his thing,” said Monica de Bolle, director of Latin American studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington.

Such doubts were heightened last month when Guedes proposed reviving an unpopular fi nancial transactions tax known as the CPMF to raise badly needed revenue.

That idea was swiftly shot down by Bolsonaro from the hospital where he has been convalescing.

He was stabbed by a mentally disturbed assailant at a campaign rally last month.

Guedes cancelled at least two planned public appearances soon after, fueling speculation that he had been eff ectively muzzled by the campaign for the time being.

Guedes declined to comment about the disagreement.

But de Bolle of SAIS sees turbulence ahead.

“It seems obvious that Paulo Guedes wouldn’t last in a Bolsonaro government,” she said.

Many also wonder how eff ectively Bolsonaro might govern if elected.

In nearly three decades in Congress, he has not authored a single signifi cant piece of legislation.

His Social Liberty Party, the ninth party to which he has belonged, has only a smattering of votes in Brazil’s legislature.

He would need to forge alliances with other parties to get anything done, a task at which he has little experience.

“The government is broke and Bolsonaro has no allies to push for budget cuts, and not even a history of pursuing them,” said a senior banker at one of Brazil’s top lenders.

For the business community, the banker said, a vote for Bolsonaro is a choice between “the awful and the extremely awful.”

Brazilians are fearful ofa return to leftist rule

Supporters of Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro attend a demonstration at Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo, Brazil on September 30.

COMMENT

Gulf Times Tuesday, October 2, 2018 23

One club does not fi t all in Europe

Antidepressants may help ease IBS

By Jean Pisani-FerryParis

“Italy,” a contemptuous Metternich said two centuries ago as the peninsula was split into a myriad of fi efdoms, “is

only a geographical expression.” Some in Beijing, Moscow, New Delhi, and even Washington regard Europe the same way. They acknowledge that the European Union matters for trade agreements and currency issues, but consider it too irresolute to be a real player in today’s global power game, and too divided to cope with security and migration challenges. Proving them wrong is the task that Europe must now tackle.

Existential debates are admittedly as old as the EU – and so pervasive that they seem to be part of its identity. But they are also as alien to the vast majority of citizens as they are familiar to the small circle of policy wonks who obsess over them. So, one could be forgiven for ignoring Europe’s latest identity crisis.

That would be a serious mistake. To survive in a diff erent, much tougher world, the EU must redefi ne its purpose. It was mainly designed to steer internal integration; now it must confront external threats. It used to be the champion of rules; it is unprepared for the new, transactional game of geopolitics. The US looked after its security; President Donald Trump regards this responsibility as an excessive burden. Refugee fl ows were a negligible trickle; though they are back to low levels, the massive surge in 2015 exposed the dysfunctional character of the European asylum regime.

And all of this comes at a time when the EU is already deeply divided. The scars from the post-2008 split between eurozone creditors and debtors are still visible, and a new fi ght pits advocates

of the open society against proponents of identity politics. External issues add to existing divisions, because attitudes about migration, perceptions of foreign threats, and willingness to use military power diff er widely. Europe risks a protracted stalemate.

The EU traditionally resorted to two techniques to cope with its divisions. The fi rst was to buy time, by pretending that all member countries, though not equally ready to act, shared the same ultimate goal of “ever closer union.” This multi-speed approach has reached its limits. We can perhaps still pretend, against the odds, that all member countries will ultimately join the euro; but we cannot ignore the gulf between those who claim one can be a proud European Muslim and those for whom Christianity is quintessential to European citizenship.

The second technique has been to transfer competences to the EU level and to sort out diff erences through majority voting. This is how the single market was built and how trade policy is successfully managed, despite widely diff erent attitudes and interests. But such a process works only as long as member countries agree to abide by majority rule. Opposing stances on security, defence, or, again, asylum cannot be sorted out this way. It was actually tried – for refugees – and failed: a decision on how to allocate asylum-seekers to member states was reached, but it could not be implemented.

The prospective EU enlargement in the Western Balkans further complicates the problem. These countries have made great eff orts to join Europe and deserve to be rewarded. But they would make the EU even more heterogeneous and would likely add to its divisions.

This is why, in a recent paper, my colleagues from the think tank Bruegel and I advocate an overhaul of Europe’s

architecture. We propose a new structure composed of a common base and a few optional clubs devoted to major policy areas.

The base would essentially comprise the single market, the customs union, and essential fl anking rules and institutions to ensure consumer protection, uphold competition, and manage research, energy and climate, infrastructure, and regional policies. The institutional pillars – the Commission, the Council, the

Parliament, and the Court of Justice – would also be part of the base, as would the EU’s founding principles: human rights, freedom, democracy, equality, and the rule of law. It would be a sort of bare-bones EU, consistent with the original project but stripped of would-be common policies.

Clubs would be built around key policy areas. Because their members would share the same goals, they would be more eff ective internally and externally. One club would

combine the euro, fi scal co-ordination, bank surveillance, and resolution of fi nancial crises. Another would combine asylum policy, border protection, and co-operation in police and judicial aff airs; this area could retain control-free internal borders, which is increasingly diffi cult between countries with widely diff ering asylum policies. A third club would be devoted to defence and external security; inclusion in it would require contributing resources and

participating in military operations. A fourth club could be envisaged for common policy areas that are still in their infancy, such as education.

To ensure that a structure of this sort retains enough unity and prevent it from degenerating into a spaghetti bowl of loose arrangements, key safeguards would need to be introduced. First, clubs should be coherent and not à la carte. Second, institutional consistency should be preserved. In particular, there should be only one European Commission (though there would be club secretariats), one Parliament (though its members could meet in club formations), and one Court of Justice for the bare-bones Union and the clubs. Furthermore, participation in and withdrawal from the clubs should require passing high enough hurdles to ensure stable membership.

Such an approach would not by itself prevent the EU’s dissolution or promote enlargement to less-developed countries. But built-in fl exibility would help build a partnership with willing neighbours. A bare-bones EU would provide a sound basis for co-operation with a “ring of friends” that would not participate fully in the single market and the free movement of people but could be involved, on a multilateral basis, in a series of co-operative arrangements.

Is it risky to break taboos? Yes. But the biggest risk is to remain mired in outdated structures and to succumb to inertia. Europe is a bigger dream than the house we have built. – Project Syndicate

Jean Pisani-Ferry, a professor at the Hertie School of Governance (Berlin) and Sciences Po (Paris), holds the Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa chair at the European University Institute and is a senior fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank.

Live issues

By Lisa Rapaport/ Reuters HealthLondon

People struggling with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) might feel better with antidepres-sants or psychotherapy, a

recent study suggests.People with IBS typically suff er

from chronic abdominal pain, gas, diarrhoea and constipation.

While some people improve with customised diets that avoid certain foods that trigger symptoms, this approach doesn’t help everyone and some emerging research suggests that the condition may also be infl uenced by processes in the brain.

For the current analysis, researchers examined data from 53 trials that compared the eff ects of

antidepressants or psychotherapy, either alone or in combination, versus placebo treatments or “usual management” in people with IBS.

Rates of “no relief” were highest with placebo treatments. People were 34% less likely to have no relief from antidepressants and 31% less likely to get no relief from psychotherapy, the study found.

“One component of IBS is increased sensitivity to the functions of the bowels; simply summarised, this means either the nerves taking messages from the bowel to the brain are more sensitive or that the brain is more attentive or reacts in a more emotional manner to the normal messages arising in the bowel, or both,” said Dr Michael Camilleri, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science in Rochester,

Minnesota, who wasn’t involved in the current study.

“Since there are really no medications to reduce the nerve sensitivity, some doctors give medications that modulate the function of the brain in the hope that this approach will reduce the ability to sense or emotionally react to the signals or messages arriving from the bowels,” Camilleri said.

Psychiatric conditions including depression, anxiety, and somatisation – physical symptoms thought to have psychological origins – are common among people with IBS, researchers note in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Although the use of antidepressants is common among IBS patients, psychotherapy is not, the study authors note.

One limitation of the current study is that the smaller studies used in the analysis had a wide variety of designs and methods for testing the success of treatment, researchers note. Another drawback is that these studies weren’t designed to prove how antidepressants or psychotherapy might directly improve IBS symptoms.

Still, a psychological evaluation may make sense for IBS patients because it’s possible their symptoms might be a byproduct of untreated depression, said Dr Agnieszka Kulak-Bejda, a psychiatry researcher at the Medical University of Białystok in Poland who wasn’t involved in the study.

Antidepressants may work better for certain types of IBS, and the study fi ndings also suggest that the type of medication may matter, Kulak-Bejda said.

By Thomas Urbain/ AFPNew York

F ire and Fury, A Higher Loyalty, Fear: three books about Donald Trump have each sold more than a million copies in

the United States, a fi rst that refl ects Americans’ fascination with their ever-surprising president.

The great majority of successful books on politics have been written by politicians themselves – or by ghostwriters working with them.

Barack Obama set the standard in the genre, selling a combined 4.6mn copies of his autobiographical books Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope.

In their time, Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Jimmy Carter, Hillary Clinton and even Sarah Palin all topped the best-seller lists at least for a few weeks, while not reaching Obama’s lofty level.

And in 1976, Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward sold 630,000 copies of his The Final Days, chronicling the dramatic unwinding of the Nixon presidency.

After that, however, there have been no chart-toppers about a president.

But in just nine months, Fire and Fury by journalist and author Michael Wolff , A Higher Loyalty by former FBI chief James Comey, and Woodward’s Fear have sold a combined total of more than 5mn copies, according to numbers reviewed by AFP.

“I’m not surprised,” said David Corn, co-author of Russian Roulette, a

book about Russian interference in the American presidential campaign.

“There is deep desire on the part of many Americans for an understanding of what happened in this country” during the 2016 presidential campaign, he said, and also of “what’s going on now within the Trump White House.”

In the past, books about a presidency were generally published only after it was over, leaving sources freer to talk and allowing greater historical perspective.

But, “as ever, Trump has sped everything up,” Jon Meacham, the author of several best-selling political and historical books, told MSNBC.

“It’s almost as if we had a webcam” providing live coverage of events inside the White House.

Trump himself has, however unintentionally, helped promote these books – all of which paint an apocalyptic picture of his administration – by fi ring

off highly critical Twitter messages about them.

“The Woodward book is a Joke,” he tweeted shortly before Fear was published, “just another assault against me.”

“I guess people want to see how bad it really is” in the White House, said Marianne Elliott, who is on a long waiting list at the New York public library to read Fear.

Many opposition Democrats, though repelled by Trump, his politics and his blustering personality, have been eager to read anything they can fi nd about him.

“They want more bad information, to make you feel better because you know he’s terrible,” Elliott said. “It’s comforting.”

While coming nowhere near the success of Woodward or Wolff , several books favourable to the president have also done well – helped by Trump’s endorsements.

“In our very divided society, people are feeling motivated by their political passion in deciding what books to read and buy,” said Corn.

Trump’s impact on the publishing world doesn’t stop with the current best-sellers.

Books like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, portraying totalitarian regimes that manipulate people through disinformation and propaganda, have enjoyed newfound popularity.

Nor does the surging interest in political books seem close to peaking.

The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis (author of Liar’s Poker and The Big Short), The Apprentice by Washington Post journalist Greg Miller, and the Stormy Daniels book Full Disclosure, about the adult fi lm star’s alleged sexual liaison with Trump, are all set to reach bookstores today.

“One potential problem is that people get too accustomed to the outrages of the Trump administration,” Corn said, “and therefore become less interested in books like these.

“But I don’t see that happening any time soon.”

Might Trump himself set a new sales record? The onetime real estate magnate, co-author of 1987’s best-selling The Art of the Deal, has already said he plans eventually to write “the real book” about his presidency.

Corn is not holding his breath.“According to The Washington Post,

Trump has made over 5,000 false statements as president. So I would not look forward to looking at any book of his as an accurate refl ection of reality.”

Trump helps publishers sell millions of books

“There is deep desire on the part of many Americans for an understanding of what happened in this country during the 2016 presidential campaign and also of what’s going on now within the Trump White House.”

WARNING

Inshore : NilOffshore : Nil

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becomes hot daytime with local clouds may be rainy at places by afternoon. Relatively humid by night.

Offshore : Misty at first and some clouds

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Offshrore : Northeasterly-South-easterly 03-13 KT

Visibility : 4-8/3 KM Offshore : 1-3 FT

TODAY

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Minimum Temperature : 310c





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QATAR

Health minister attends ‘Together We Make A Diff erence’ seminar

HE the Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mo-hamed al-Kuwari wit-

nessed the opening of ‘Together We Make A Diff erence’ seminar organised by the Ministry re-cently, during which the promi-nent initiatives of Qatar’s Public Health Strategy 2017-2022 were reviewed.

The seminar was attended by all health sector partners and stakeholders in the implementa-tion of health initiatives in Qatar, including Hamad Medical Corpo-ration, Primary Health Care Cor-poration, Medical Services in the Ministry of Interior, Qatar Armed Forces and Qatar Petroleum, as well as the private health sector.

Dr Sheikh Mohamed bin Ha-mad al-Thani, director of Public Health Department at the Min-istry of Public Health, highlight-ed that strengthening Qatar’s governance, laws, regulations,

performance management and health indicators is required for successful work within the framework of public health serv-ices and functions.

“Qatar ranks 13th based on Legatum Prosperity Index (LPI) about the world’s best health systems by 2017 and we hope to be among the top 10 countries in the world for the next few years. Achieving the goals of the National Health Strategy and the objectives of Qatar’s pub-lic health strategy will lead to a healthier life and enhance well-being for all at diff erent stages of life,” Dr Sheikh Mohamed said.

The National Health Strategy 2018-2022 covers thoroughly all other health-related strategies in Qatar, including the Qatar Public Health Strategy, which encom-passes seven priority population groups and fi ve system-wide ar-eas. Twelve national leaders have

also been appointed to serve as specialised committees for the implementation of the National Health Strategy.

Anna Morten of the Nation-al Health Strategy Task Force noted: “In order to achieve the vision and address the health challenges in Qatar, the National Health Strategy aims to design and develop health services that are suitable for patients and their families and contribute to the development of the functioning of the health system by moving from a focus on treating patho-logical symptoms to help people maintain good health.

Hamad Jassim al-Hammer, manager of Public Relations at MoPH, reviewed the most im-portant initiatives to involve the community in Qatar’s public health strategy and its important role in improving the health of the population. HE the Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari and Dr Sheikh Mohamed bin Hamad al-Thani along with other dignitaries at the

event.

World Cup 2022 will create a better future for region: al-Thawadi

The most profound legacy of the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be “the breaking

down of stereotypes and people coming together”, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) Secretary-General Hassan al-Thawadi told the opening ses-sion of the 2018 Social Forum of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council in Geneva.

He was delivering a keynote speech at the annual forum which off ers a space for open and interactive dialogue between civil society entities, representa-tives of member states and inter-governmental organisations, on a theme chosen by the Human Rights Council each year.

This year’s edition, taking place until tomorrow (October 3), is being held under the theme of: “The Possibilities of Using Sport and the Olympic Ideal to Pro-mote Human Rights For All and To Strengthen Universal Respect For Them.”

In his address, al-Thawadi

highlighted the tournament’s unique status as one of the few remaining unifying platforms around the world at a time when global dialogue trends are em-phasising division and dispute. He pointed out the ability of sport, and football in particular, to bring people together.

He said: “Football’s status as the world’s universal language manifests every four years dur-ing the World Cup. In 2018, 3.4bn people – over half of the world’s population – tuned in to the FIFA World Cup. No other event on this planet gathers the collective attention of humanity the way the World Cup does.

A platform with such power must be harnessed and utilised with both ambition and respon-sibility – on local, regional and international levels.

It must be used to improve lives and create a better future for a region of the world that is in desperate need for sparks of optimism. I’m proud to say

that’s what we are doing ahead of 2022.” Al-Thawadi then went on to explain how the SC’s various legacy programmes, including Challenge 22, Generation Amaz-ing, Josoor Institute and the Ac-

cessibility Forum, are helping to facilitate social and economic development in the region, and providing youth with the tools and knowledge necessary for building a better future. Speak-

ing about other areas in which the 2022 FIFA World Cup has served as a catalyst for change, al-Thawadi also explained how the tournament has helped drive forward the reforms required to

improve workers’ welfare con-ditions in Qatar and ensure the health, safety, security and dig-nity of the workers contributing towards the development of the nation.

“People from all corners of the world will visit Qatar in 2022, and billions will be watching on screens. For Qa-tar, the Middle East, and for the international community, the FIFA World Cup in 2022 is a precious opportunity to cel-ebrate our common humanity and advance progress for hu-man rights in our region.”

Al-Thawadi concluded his speech by noting the importance of recognising the potential of sport and mega-events as vital steps for the UN in its mission towards attaining its Sustainable Development Goals. He suggest-ed sport be used as a powerful tool in breaking social, cultural and economic barriers in order to

achieve these goals.Prior to the opening, al-Tha-

wadi met with Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Hu-man Rights, to discuss areas of common interest and means of further enhancing collaboration between the SC and the UN Hu-man Rights Council.

Al-Thawadi’s participation in the event builds on previous SC engagements and collaboration with the UN over the past year.

These include participation in an event organised in Febru-ary 2018 by the Permanent Mis-sion of Qatar to the UN in Geneva under the title of “Hosting Mega Sport Events: Strengthening the Respect for Human Rights”, the UN Offi ce for Drugs and Crime’s special event entitled “Crime Prevention and Sustainable De-velopment Through Sports”, held in April 2018, and the 38th Ses-sion of the UN Human Rights Council held in June 2018.

SC Secretary-General Hassan al-Thawadi addressing the opening session of the 2018 Social Forum of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and other dignitaries at the opening session.

Qatari contemporary art, photography works to be showcased in St Petersburg

Qatar Museums (QM) will mark the end of its hugely successful Qatar-

Russia 2018 Year of Culture with an exhibition showcasing the country’s rapid social and urban transformation as seen through the eyes of emerging local and expatriate artists.

Under the patronage of QM chairperson, HE Sheikha Al Ma-yassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the ‘Qatar Contemporary: Art and Photography’ exhibition will be held from November 14 to December 10 at St Petersburg’s Manege Central Exhibition Hall within the framework of the 7th St Petersburg International Cul-tural Forum.

Curated by Dr Bahaa Abudaya, more than 100 artworks from over 45 artists are to be displayed, alongside 350 photographs from 55 Qatar-based photographers, curated by Dr Giles Matthew Hudson and Sheikha Maryam al-Thani.

These will join 200 photo-graphs from the QM’s historical collections, which will also be exhibited, providing a high-pro-fi le platform for photography to promote mutual understanding between cultures and nations.

The exhibition, which in-cludes a collaboration with Vir-ginia Commonwealth Univer-sity in Qatar, will explore various themes in defi ning the contem-porary, such as materiality, with its connotations of construction and progress, alluding to the building blocks of modern insti-tutions and society.

Another theme depicts how cultural practice and interpre-

tation constantly shifts be-tween tradition and the push for progress. The fi nal theme bears witness to the mounting eff ects of digital technology and auto-mated processes on art and Qa-tari society as a whole.

“The Qatar-Russia 2018 Year of Culture aims to strengthen re-lations between Qatar and Rus-sia, celebrating the vibrant com-plexity of both nations and their people.

Through this incredible exhi-bition we will be introducing new audiences to Qatar’s rapid devel-opment as told through the eyes of the people that have lived and breathed our country’s trans-formation,” QM’s international

and public relations director Mohamed al-Othman said. The rapid transformation that Qatar is currently experiencing brings with it unprecedented creative opportunities for photographers to not only document but to con-tribute towards the reshaping of the visual identity of the nation, QM noted.

A separate section in the ex-hibition showcases the work of contemporary photographers based in Qatar, alongside pho-tography commissioned by QM as part of the Years of Culture ex-change programme.

Related photographs from the collections and short fi lms from the Doha Film Institute ‘Made

in Qatar’ programme will also be displayed. The displays seek to examine the changing nature of Qatar as a people and as a place through photographic medium; to provide a platform for emerg-ing photographers based in the country; and to introduce Qatar Museums’ historic collections to new audiences, revealing the role of photography in promoting mutual understanding between cultures and nations.

“I’ve no doubt that the works on display will help foster cul-tural dialogue between everyone who sees them – thereby help-ing achieve the central goal of the Years of Culture programme,” al-Othman added. Christto and Andrew’s images.

One of Ahmed Nooh’s masterpieces.

The ‘Qatar Contemporary: Art and Photography’ exhibition showcases more than 100 artworks from over 45 artists, alongside 350 photographs from 55 Qatar-based photographers.

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