BUSINESS | Page 1

GULF TIMES

published in

QATAR

since 1978FRIDAY Vol. XXXX No. 11325

October 4, 2019Safar 5 , 1441 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

SPORT | Page 1

Barshim poised for giant leap to high jump greatness

Qatar stresses role of natural gas in meeting economic challenges

PM attends World Teachers’ Day celebration

HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani yesterday attended the annual celebration of World Teachers’ Day held at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC). HE the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohamed Abdul Wahed Ali al-Hammmadi, who attended the event, said Qatar has become an attractive destination for educators from around the world. Sheikhs, ministers and diplomats attended the ceremony along with a number of educators and school administrators. Page 2

Gold medallist China’s Lijiao Gong, silver medallist Jamaica’s Danniel Thomas-Dodd and bronze medallist Germany’s Christina Schwanitz pose after the Women’s shot put final at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha yesterday.

Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser celebrates after winning the Women’s 400m final at the 2019 IAAF Athletics World Championships at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha yesterday.

Gong, Kaul, Naser claim honoursBy Mikhil BhatDoha

A packed and boisterous Kha-lifa International Stadium played witness to Lijiao Gong defend her

shot put world title after a few nervous moments, even as Salwa Eid Naser ran the third fastest time in history to be-come the women’s 400m world cham-pion beating favourite Shaunae Miller-Uibo for gold yesterday.

Both women’s heptathlon and men’s decathlon events saw dramatic vic-tories as Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson notched the biggest margin of victory in over three decades when she won by 304 points, and Germa-

ny’s Niklas Kaul took full advantage of world record holder Kevin Mayer’s absence to become the youngest ever world champion in the event.

With only a 19-point defi cit to make up on Estonia’s Maicel Uibo, 21-year-old Kaul ran an impressive 4:15.71 in the men’s 1,500m, just outside his per-sonal best, to grab the gold.

Maicel made it two silvers in the evening for the Uibo couple. Canada’s Damian Warner won bronze.

Mayer’s title defence came to a teary end in the men’s decathlon as the Frenchman pulled out after he found himself unable to continue during the pole vault.

Mayer had taken the lead in decath-lon after the discus throw, and he even

tried to continue stopping short twice during the pole vault before pulling out.

“I am not ok, but it will be fi ne. I was disappointed because I was leading. But this is sport,” Mayer said yester-day. “Yesterday, I had an injury at my right knee, but I was still able to do the hurdles and discus. It was very diffi -cult. But then my left hamstring hurt and I had to stop.”

Kaul went over 5m mark in pole vault with Uibo grabbing the overall lead with a 5.4m eff ort.

However, Kaul roared back into con-tention with a mammoth 79.05m throw in javelin, the penultimate event, to come within striking distance.To Page 16

Foreign journalists praise QatarQNA Doha

Several foreign correspond-ents present in Doha to cover World Athletics Championships

praised Qatar’s organisation of the event and reserved special praise for Khalifa International Stadium.

L’Equipe’s journalist told Qatar News Agency that the effort made by the Organising Committee was clear, expressing his admiration of Khalifa International Stadium and its cooling technology.

He also said it was healthy for other countries from all around the world to host the competition, as it should not be monopolised by major European nations.

Kenya’s Daily National reporter said all aspects of the event are going well.

He noted that the media centre es-pecially was well equipped for report-ers to do their jobs.

He also praised the intensity of the competition.

On 2022 FIFA World Cup, he ex-pressed his belief that Qatar will host a wonderful edition.

He praised Qatar’s modern infra-structure and said he would gladly come back to cover the World Cup in three years’ time.

SOJC Track’s Alex Castell praised the organisation of the competition and Khalifa International Stadium.

He noted that despite the heat and humidity, the weather inside the sta-dium was good thanks to the technol-ogy.

Veteran German journalist Ewald Walker who writes for Leichtathletik, which specialises in athletics, ex-pressed delight to be in Doha to cover the event.

He said the organisation of the event was going as well as it could be.

Walker said he has covered four dif-ferent World Athletics Championships, but highlighted this one was complete-ly diff erent because it is organised in the Middle East.

He highlighted that the level of com-petition among the athletes has been high.

The German noted that the level of organisation was superior, especially inside the stadium.

He acknowledged that there were some challenges facing the marathon due to the weather which may not be suitable for all participants.

Walker also said that the IAAF should consider organising the event as an independent race in the future.

He also said that there were many special moments in this year’s event, such as organising the 4x400 relay for the fi rst time ever. Page 16

Germany’s Niklas Kaul reacts after winning the Men’s 1,500m decathlon final at the 2019 IAAF Athletics World Championships at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha yesterday.

Britain’s Katerina Johnson-Thompson celebrates winning gold in Women’s heptathlon 800m at the Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, yesterday.

Shot put winners

400 metres gold Heptathlon gold Decathlon gold

2 Gulf TimesFriday, October 4, 2019

QATAR

Offi cial

Amir sends congratulations to president of Germany

His 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 President of Germany Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the anniversary of his country’s Unity Day. Also, HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani sent a cable of congratulations to German Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel on the anniversary of her country’s Unity Day.

Condolences sent to Indian president and prime minister

His 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 condolences to President of India Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the victims of floods in east and north of India. Also, HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani sent a cable of condolence to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the victims of floods in east and north of India.

Amir sends greetingsto president of IraqHis 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 President of Iraq Barham Salih on the anniversary of his country’s Independence Day. Also, HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani sent a cable of congratulations to Prime Minister of Iraq Adil Abdul-Mahdi on the anniversary of his country’s Independence Day.

‘Teacher is at the forefront of Qatar’s National Policy’QNADoha

HE the Minister of Edu-cation and Higher Ed-ucation Dr Mohamed

Abdul Wahed Ali al-Hammadi said that Qatar’s annual cele-bration of World Teachers’ Day is an appreciation of the role of teachers in accordance with the joint recommendation of International Labour Organi-sation (ILO) and Unesco.

In his speech at Qatar Na-tional Convention Center yesterday, HE the Minister of Education noted that Qatar’s National Vision aims to trans-form the country by 2030 into a developed country capable of achieving sustainable develop-ment, adding that this can only be achieved through build-ing an educational system that meets modern international standards in which teachers play a pivotal role in preparing students for the future, and di-recting the human and knowl-edge capital of Qatar in its right paths.

HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Ab-dullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani attended the annual celebration of World Teachers’ Day held at the Qatar National Convention Center yesterday.

HE Dr al-Hammadi added that Qatar’s national policies are centred on the advance-ment of human resources, and the teacher is at the forefront of this policy, and this cel-ebration is a vivid indication of Qatar’s interest in teachers, and following the directives of His Highness the Amir Sheikh

Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Qatar has achieved all interna-tional standards and guidelines concerning the status of teach-ers including their security and job satisfaction.

HE Dr al-Hammadi said that Qatar became a career attrac-tion, and teachers working in the government sector are from 56 nationalities, and those in the private education sector are from 105 nationalities, which indicates Qatar’s openness to the world despite the unjust blockade.

He stressed that as the min-istry looks forward to a more eff ective role for teachers in achieving Qatar National Vi-sion 2030, the ministry has stipulated the achievement of the highest indicators of in-tegrity and transparency in the educational system, through

the implementation of criteria and selection methods accord-ing to high qualifi cations. This, he said, is because progress in education depends on the qualifi cations and experience of teachers and their human qualities.

He added that in light of the future directions, the ministry will continue to develop its ed-ucational visions to overcome all the diffi culties and chal-lenges, especially the demo-graphic challenge, and the in-crease in demand for education and the opening of new schools annually, and this requires the recruitment of more teachers in light of the scarcity of quali-fi ed teachers in the region.

HE Dr al-Hammadi renewed the ministry’s commitment to support teachers and safeguard all their rights in accordance

with national policies and in-ternational conventions.

HE the minister stressed the importance of the role of teachers in Qatar schools, to renew the ministry’s vision of the teaching profession, in ac-cordance with an approach that takes into account the diversity and individual diff erences of children, and respect their dig-nity and cultural specifi cities, and expand their perceptions, so that they can compete with their peers at the global level.

HE the minister also called on students and all partners of the educational process to share the joy of the teachers in Qatar and express their grati-tude, respect and appreciation, and give them the considera-tion and social status they de-serve, because they are the source of inspiration and the

keys to the future we want.In his speech, HE Dr al-

Hammadi expressed his sin-cere gratitude and apprecia-tion to HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Kha-lifa al-Thani for the continu-ous support and guidance to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

He also welcomed the new teachers who joined the teach-ing profession this year. During the celebration, HE the Min-ister of Education and High-er Education honoured 100 teachers, in recognition of their eff orts in the fi eld of education in Qatar.

On behalf of the direc-tor, Unesco Regional Offi ce in Doha, Anna Paolini, Dan-iello Padilla delivered the joint United Nations message to

celebrate World Teachers’ Day this year, in which he empha-sised that teachers are the cor-nerstone of future education systems.

Padilla pointed out that in the face of poor teachers’ wages, and not giving them their true value, attracting and retaining talent could be a challenge, as well as a lack of resources for children with special educational needs, per-sons with disabilities, refugees and young multilingual stu-dents could deprive children of the basic need of education.

Padilla stressed the urgency of taking the necessary meas-ures in this context, and said that by reviewing the fi gures of the Unesco Institute for Sta-tistics (UIS), the world today needs about 69mn new teach-ers to meet the 2030 educa-tion agenda. Adding that these problems were evident in rural and crisis-stricken areas in developing countries, where teachers, especially women, faced isolation and violence, and the migration of teachers to urban areas left rural schools underemployed.

On behalf of the honoured teachers, Saeed Salah al-Malki from the Sumaysima Primary School for Boys praised the Ministry of Education’s keen-ness to organise this celebra-tion annually and to honour the teachers who spent years in this profession.

Qatar celebrates World Teachers’ Day annually, as ap-proved by Unesco, on the 5th of October each year, in recogni-tion the role of teachers as the main pillar of the educational process.

‘No Boundaries’ exhibition opens

The ‘No Boundaries’ exhibition by Italian artist Caterina Varchetta opened at the Katara – the Cul-

tural Village on Wednesday, featuring a unique collection of canvas and por-celains, highlighting the deep-rooted relations between Qatar and Italy.

“I fi nd harmony between light and shadow, tradition, innovation, fragil-ity, and strength in all aspects of art refl ected on my work,” said Varchetta, a Doha resident.

The exhibition, organised by the embassy of Italy in Doha and Katara, will run until October 13 at Katara’s Building 22, Gallery 2. It is offi cially part of the initiative supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Aff airs and International Co-operation, aimed at promoting Italian contemporary art abroad.

The opening ceremony was at-tended by Katara general manager Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim al-Sulaiti, Italian ambassador Pasquale Salzano, as well as several other envoys from various missions in Doha.

“Exposed to local infl uences and in-spired by the landscapes of Qatar, Var-chetta applies to canvas and porcelains a very personal artistic language, mix-

ing Italian traditions and Qatari sym-bols. As a consequence, her artworks engage without limits and restrictions in an open dialogue between two cul-tures,” Salzano said in his speech.

“Here it is the powerful message of ‘No Boundaries’. Art knows no borders. It goes beyond any barriers and rejects labels, constrictions and divisions,” he noted. “This is exactly the approach that Italy and Qatar share towards art and culture, which need to remain free and inclusive.”

The envoy lauded the artist for sharing her talent and sensitivity, ex-pressed through outstanding artworks that show the tight connections be-tween Italy and Qatar.

He also thanked Dr al-Sulaiti for “an excellent ongoing co-operation that signifi cantly contributes to the strengthening of the relations between Qatar and Italy, while off ering cultural programmes that benefi t our commu-nities.”

“We have decided to resume our cul-tural journey after the summer break from a unique collection of canvas and porcelains created by the Italian art-ist Caterina Varchetta, precisely from Naples – where I come from – but

based in Doha, where she lives with her family,” Salzano said. Dr al-Sulaiti also inaugurated ‘A Journey Through My Stories’ exhibition by Portuguese artist Patricia Mouzinho, showcasing 40 paintings belonging to the School of Cubist Art. He stressed that the the two exhibitions serve as an opportu-nity for many people to learn about new experiences, build relations, and exchange of experiences.

“Katara is witnessing a remarkable development at all levels, especially in the diversity of exhibitions and art-ists,” Dr al-Sulaiti said, adding that the two exhibitions have an artistic fl avour, which refl ects a deep vision and a melting pot of diverse cultural experiences. Mouzinho said that her works have been an expression of many mixed feelings of being a journalist 27 years ago as she visited diff erent coun-tries around the world.

“I am happy to be in Qatar and this unique and beautiful cultural village, Katara,” she added.

‘No Boundaries will run until Oc-tober 13 (building 22) while ‘A journey through my stories’ in the building 19 Hall 1 will continue until 14 of this month.

Caterina Varchetta, Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim al-Sulaiti and Pasquale Salzano at the opening of ‘No Boundaries’ exhibition.

HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, HE the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohamed Abdul Wahed Ali al-Hammadi with off icials and teachers at the World Teachers’ Day celebrations yesterday.

Media City’s Board of Directors issues decisions

The Media City Board of Directors held its third meeting yesterday under the chairmanship of HE Chairman of the Board of Directors of Media City Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed bin Saif al-Thani. The meeting reviewed the agenda, took appropriate decisions, discussed the regulations governing the Media City. It reviewed a number of diff erent tenders, especially the details of the tender for the selection of permanent buildings in Lusail City, as its infrastructure and environment, is an appropriate location for the Media City project, which contributes to achieving the objectives set for this project.HE Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed al-Thani said that HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani issued a decision to appoint Saud bin Abdullah al-Attiyah to the Board of Directors. HE the PM stressed that having Saud al-Attiyah onboard is a step forward and represents an integration of members with their diff erent special-ties. During the past period, the Board of Directors has adopted the organisational structures of the city, the charter of professional honour, in addition to the organisational decisions that facilitate the establishment of the Media City. (QNA)

QATAR/REGION/ARAB WORLD3Gulf Times

Friday, October 4, 2019

The State of Qatar yesterday participated in the extraordinary meeting of the Chiefs of Staff of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) in Riyadh. Qatar’s delegation to the meeting was headed by HE the Chief of Staff of the Qatar Armed Forces Lieutenant-General (Pilot) Ghanem bin Shaheen al-Ghanem. The meeting discussed a number of topics aimed at enhancing the future of the Gulf defence policy and strengthening co-ordination in the areas of military co-operation among member states in line with a unified strategy. — QNA

Qatar participates in GCC Chiefs of Staff meetingQU graduates create fi refi ghting robotFour female Qatari gradu-

ates from Qatar Univer-sity’s (QU) College of En-

gineering have locally designed, built and tested a fi rst-of-its-kind robotic fi refi ghting vehicle, it was announced yesterday.

Al-Maha al-Shamari, Jawaher al-Sulaiti, Ghader al-Sharshani and Bashayr al-Mehaiza, who graduated from the College’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, accom-plished the task under the super-vision of Dr Jamil Renno.

The remotely controlled ro-botic fi refi ghting vehicle is kit-ted with a 360 degree panoramic camera that streams live video to a mobile phone or to a central control room.

The robot is also equipped with a gas detector that feeds back gas levels to the fi refi ghters on the ground.

The four engineers, now adopted by Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), are en-

hancing their design to make it more suitable for extinguishing fi res in oil and gas facilities.

The team has held several fruitful meetings with govern-mental and commercial stake-holders with a view to launch a Qatari company that will pro-duce these robotic vehicles for

deployment at sites in the coun-try.

This eff ort fi ts within Qa-tar National Vision 2030 as a step towards diversifying the economy and contributes to-wards the transformation into a knowledge-based economy, a QU statement elaborated.

The firefighting robot.

The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Aff airs has granted 20 employees of the Labor Inspection Department at the Ministry’s headquarters the status of judicial off icers in relation to the implementation of the provisions of the Labor Law and its implementing decisions. HE the Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Aff airs Yousef bin Mohamed al-Othman Fakhro honoured the judicial off icers who contributed to accomplishing the tasks in an outstanding manner in the implementation of the Labor Law and its implementing resolutions. — QNA

20 appointed as judicial officersAttorney-general meets Gambian offi cials

HE the Attorney-General Dr Ali bin Fetais al-Marri yesterday met advisers

and offi cials from the ministries of Foreign Aff airs, Trade and Economy in the Republic of The Gambia, at the end of their par-ticipation in a training workshop, organised by the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Center (RO-LACC) in Doha under the title Corruption and Ribery in Civil Services.

ROLACC has concluded the three-day training workshop which was presented for the Gambian delegation, tackling the legal and practical aspects of an-ti-corruption-related matters on national and international levels

in addition to other topics con-cerning the rule of law and anti-corruption.

The workshop was delivered by a lineup of professors from Sussex University, Hamad bin Khalifa University and Ahmed bin Mohamed Military College.

The workshop comes within

the series of workshops present-ed by the ROLACC in the context technical and training support it off ers to African countries.

Rule of Law and Anti-Corrup-tion Center (ROLACC) activities are carried in co-operation with the United Nations and its agen-cies. — QNA

As Libya’s war drags on, Tripoli drowns in waste as dump becomes a battlegroundBy Nawas al-Darraji, AFPTripoli

Faraj al-Doukali hastened to unload the dozens of rub-bish bags from his van onto

a sidewalk dump in Siyahiya, a residential district west of the Libyan capital.

“Each weekend I collect the rubbish from my four brothers at the farm where we live and I look for somewhere to dump it. I have no choice but to leave it here on the footpath,” he said.

Across Tripoli, tonnes of waste overfl ows from bins and piles up on roadsides.

The rubbish crisis adds to the daily ordeal for residents of the capital, where life is already punctuated by shortages of fuel, electricity and water.

Fed up with the smell and the sight of rats and stray cats feast-ing in the garbage, some resi-dents have taken to burning the rubbish.

But this only replaces the stench of rotting garbage with columns of nauseating smoke in the streets of the capital.

Tripoli’s trash turmoil isn’t a new phenomenon but it has reached alarming proportions in recent months.

Municipal rubbish trucks no longer collect waste because the city’s main landfi ll is on a front-line.

The dump is at Sidi al-Sayeh, 45km south of Tripoli, where forces loyal to the capital’s UN-recognised Government of Na-tional Accord (GNA) are bat-tling those of eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar, who launched an off ensive on April 4 to seize the city.

Doukali seems more angered by the rubbish than the fi ghting.

“Is it up to citizens to collect the garbage now? Why doesn’t the government and the mu-nicipality provide skips in every neighbourhood?” he asked.

A furious passerby interjected:

“I’m talking to the government of the east (which supports Haftar) and that of the west (the GNA): keep your ministerial portfolios and the money, but fi nd a solu-tion to this rubbish crisis because it’s making us sick.”

Without long-term solutions and as long as fi ghting contin-ues, “the crisis will worsen”, said Tarek al-Jadidi, director of envi-ronmental protection at the Na-tional Centre for the Prevention of Diseases in Tripoli.

“In addition to the lack of en-vironmental awareness among citizens, the state is unable to manage the rubbish in the streets, while ongoing confl ict prevents the implementation of plans like in other countries,” Jadidi said.

In theory, waste management in Tripoli takes place in stages, with rubbish being taken fi rst to collection points and then on-wards to the main landfi ll.

But with the landfi ll in a com-bat zone, collection points are overfl owing.

Rubbish sorting and recycling are out of the question.

Glass, paper and plastic could be recycled, but specialised fa-cilities “require a stable security situation”, Jadidi said.

Rouqaya al-Hachemi, an en-vironmental researcher, recently conducted a study on the rubbish crisis in Tripoli.

She found that respiratory ill-nesses and skin conditions have clearly increased among chil-dren, the elderly and pregnant women.

“People are aware of the envi-ronmental risks and dangers of garbage fi res but they complain about a lack of skips,” she said.

To resolve this chronic cri-sis, Hachemi recommends “the creation of a ministry of envi-ronment to manage the rubbish situation, and laws to punish off enders”. Waste management may not seem like Libya’s most pressing issue, but ultimately, Hachemi said, “it’s about the health of citizens”.

Ruqaya al-Hashemi, researcher and academic at Libya’s National Centre for the Prevention of Diseases in Tripoli, speaks during an interview with AFP at the centre’s headquarters in Tripoli.

Iraq toll climbs as unrest spreadsBy Ahmed Rasheed and Ali Hafthi, Reuters Baghdad

Iraqi security forces opened fi re on thousands of demonstrators who defi ed a curfew in Bagh-

dad yesterday and exchanged fi re with gunmen in southern cities, bringing to 27 the death toll from three days of anti-government protests.

The protests spread to other cit-ies in predominantly Shia south-ern Iraq, where policemen said they increasingly encountered demonstrators carrying weapons.

Two policemen and two pro-testers were killed late yesterday in the city of Diwaniya some 160km south of Baghdad, according to police.

In nearby Hilla one protester was bludgeoned to death, accord-ing to police and hospital sources.

Three more died in a district of Baghdad and elsewhere in the cap-ital protesters had set fi re to army vehicles, security sources said.

The protests, in which more

than 600 people have also been wounded, began over unemploy-ment and poor services but have escalated into calls for a change of government and pose one of the worst security challenges in years in the war-weary country.

They appear to be independent of any political party and seem-ingly took the security forces by surprise.

“The bullets do not scare us. They do not scare Iraqis. This will all come down over their heads,” said one protester in the capital.

At least 4,000 protesters gath-ered in Baghdad’s Tayaran Square and attempted to march onto the central Tahrir Square but were met with open fi re and heavy tear gas.

Police used live ammunition in the Zaafaraniya district of Bagh-dad, where three protesters were shot dead, and there were protests in the northwestern Shula district.

Police said protesters had fi red at them in the town of Rifae near the southern city of Nassiriya where seven people were killed overnight and another yesterday.

Fifty people were wounded in Ri-

fae, including fi ve police, they said.Four people were killed in clash-

es overnight in another southern city, Amara.

Amnesty International called on Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s government to rein in the security forces and investigate the killings.

“It is outrageous that Iraqi se-curity forces time and again deal with protesters with such brutal-ity using lethal and unnecessary force. It is crucial that the authori-ties ensure a fully independent and impartial investigation,” said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East Research Director.

The United Nations urged the government to “exercise maxi-mum restraint” and allow peaceful protests.

A curfew, lifted early in the morning in southern cities, was reimposed immediately in Nas-siriya and later in Amara.

Curfews have also been declared in Najaf and Hilla.

In Baghdad, the authorities at-tempted to head off protests by imposing a curfew from 5am.

Troops patrolled main roads and public spaces, but by morn-ing sporadic demonstrations had begun, and troops opened fi re with live rounds to disperse them.

Residents of the capital queued outside supermarkets and food stores to stock up on supplies in case of a sudden rise in prices or further security restrictions by authorities.

Iraq has struggled to recover since defeating Islamic State mili-tants in 2017.

Its infrastructure has been laid to waste by decades of sectarian civil war, foreign occupation, two US invasions, UN sanctions and war against its neighbours.

With the country at last at peace and free to trade, many Iraqis say their government has failed to re-build the nation.

The demonstrations began in Baghdad on Tuesday and quickly grew and spread to other cities, mainly in Iraq’s south.

Police have fi red live rounds, tear gas and water cannon to dis-perse protesters.

Protesters directed their an-

ger at a government and political class they say is corrupt and doing nothing to improve their lives.

“The people are being robbed. The people are now begging on the street. There is no work, you come to protest, they fi re at you. Live gunfi re,” said a man covering his face in a scarf.

Iraq has the world’s fourth-larg-est reserves of oil, according to the International Monetary Fund, but much of its population of 40mn lives in poverty and without de-cent healthcare, education or power and water supply.

Anti-government demon-strations last year that began in oil-rich Basra prompted a heavy crackdown by security forces and nearly 30 people were killed.

Prime Minister Abdul Mahdi chaired an emergency national security council meeting and or-dered yesterday’s curfew in Bagh-dad.

Only travellers to and from the airport, ambulances, some gov-ernment employees and religious pilgrims were to be allowed on the streets.

Lobby fi rm pays out $1mn

for jailed Tunisia candidate

AFPTunis

The publication by US authorities of a $1mn interna-tional lobbying contract to promote a jailed front-runner in Tunisia’s presidential election has trig-

gered an uproar in the North African country.The US Justice Department published a copy of the

deal with Canada-based Dickens and Maddison to lobby for imprisoned media mogul Nabil Karoui “in the United States, the Russian Federation, the United Nation...in or-der to attaining the presidency of the Republic of Tunisia”.

The one-year contract, dated August 19, far exceeds Tu-nisia’s limits on campaign spending.

The document, fi rst published by the Al Monitor news site, was inked three months after Karoui formalised his candidacy and just days before he was arrested on August 23 on charges of tax evasion and money laundering.

It is signed by the fi rm’s president Ari Ben Menashe — who describes himself as a former Israeli intelligence of-fi cer — and pledges the company will “strive to arrange meetings with the Honourable Donald Trump” and Rus-sian President Vladimir Putin.

Tunisia’s electoral commission ISIE capped campaign spending at 1.7mn dinars ($630,000) for the fi rst round of the presidential vote on September 15 and 1mn dinars in the lead-up to the fi nal runoff on October 13.

Karoui came in second in the fi rst round with 15.6%, be-hind independent law professor Kais Saied.

Sudan leader meets Qatar’s ambassadorThe President of the Sovereign Council of the Republic of Sudan Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan met Qatar’s Ambassador to Sudan Abdulrahman bin Ali al-Kubaisi.During the meeting, the ambassador conveyed the greetings of His Highness the

Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to the president of the Council and his wishes of good health and success to him and to the Sudanese people continued progress and development.For his part, the president of Sudan’s Sovereign Council conveyed through the

ambassador his greetings to the Amir, wishing His Highness good health and happiness and the Qatari people further progress and prosperity.During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations between the two countries and ways of enhancing them.

AFRICA

Gulf Times Friday, October 4, 20194

Human rights groups in Tanzania yesterday fired a volley of criticism after video footage emerged of 14 school pupils being caned by a regional governor for breaking school rules. Footage of the punishment, which went viral on the Internet, showed Albert Chalamila, governor of Mbeya in southern Tanzania, giving three strokes of the cane to each student, all of them stretched out on the ground. They had violated a ban on having mobile phones in their school. The punishment was administered in front of the students’ schoolmates, police off icers and teachers. Under a 1979 law, corporal punishment can only be administered by the school’s director, and only in the event of serious breaches.

The Republic of Congo yesterday launched a campaign to distribute anti-malaria bed nets to more than 90% of the nation’s households. More than 3mn insecticide-treated nets will be distributed over the five-day operation, initiated by Prime Minister Clement Mouamba in the capital Brazzaville. The cost of the operation, put at $13.39mn, is being met by the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Health Minister Jacqueline Lydia Mikolo said malaria was the prime cause of death among children aged under five, and the disease was a major cause of absence from school.

At least 21 people have died after an illegal gold mine collapsed in Maniema in eastern DR Congo, the provincial governor said yesterday, a day after the accident. “There have already been 21 deaths,” Augustin Musafiri, the governor of Maniema, said without giving details. On Wednesday, Steve Mbikayi, the minister of national solidarity and humanitarian action, tweeted that 14 people had died and three had been hospitalised with serious injuries. A civil society activist Justin Kyanga Asumani said yesterday there were 25 deaths “because 10 new bodies have been recovered, including nine men and one woman.”

Five footballers from Eritrea’s national side have gone missing in Uganda during a regional tournament, an off icial said yesterday, raising suspicion they may be trying to seek asylum. Eritrea, which has been blocked from African football competitions in the past because players would often flee while abroad, is considered among the most repressive countries on earth. The five players have been missing since Sunday, an off icial from the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations said. Police have been roped into the search eff ort around Jinja, in eastern Uganda, where the players were last seen and other members of the squad have been accounted for.

Long-delayed legislative polls that Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno had vowed to hold by year’s end are likely to take place in the first three months of 2020, the country’s election board said yesterday. The head of the electoral commission, Kodi Mahamat, told a press conference “the realistic timeframe for holding legislative elections (is) the first quarter of 2020”. The last poll for the National Assembly took place in 2011, when the president’s party gained a majority. The scheduled 2015 vote has been repeatedly delayed — a situation blamed by Deby on a lack of funds in one of the world’s most impoverished states.

Schoolchildren caned over mobile phones

Congo distributes mosquito nets in anti-malaria drive

DR Congo gold mine collapse toll up to 21

Five Eritrean footballers go missing in Uganda

Chad postpones election to 2020, seeks funding

PUNISHMENT HEALTHACCIDENT OFFSIDE POLITICS

Burundian refugees return home from TanzaniaAFP Gisuru, Burundi

Nearly 600 Burundi-ans who fl ed political violence in their home

country to Tanzania were repat-riated voluntarily yesterday, the UN refugee agency and witnesses said.

The move came after the Tan-zanian government vowed that from October 1 it would start re-patriating all Burundians, willing or not — a stance that some offi -cials appeared to be trying to roll back.

A UNHCR offi cial told AFP on condition of anonymity that “590 Burundian refugees left Tanzania in a convoy of voluntary returnees this morning.”

The group arrived on eight buses in Gisuru in eastern Bu-rundi, where there is a transit centre for returning refugees, witnesses said.

“These returnees will stay in the camp until tomorrow, before being sent to their home towns with a kit of supplies to last them three months,” a Burundian offi -cial told AFP, also on condition of anonymity.

The UNHCR has facilitated

the voluntary return of almost 75,000 refugees since September 2017, under a deal with Burundi and Tanzania.

According to the agency, some 225,000 Burundian refugees are still living in three camps in Tan-zania.

Another 71,000 are in Rwanda, 45,000 in the Democratic Re-public of Congo and 43,000 in Uganda.

At the end of August, Tan-zanian Interior Minister Kangi Lugola said that from October 1, all Burundian refugees would be sent back home, arguing that their home was now at peace.

However government spokes-man Hassan Abbas said yester-day that “nobody will be forced to go back.”

Nevertheless he insisted “Bu-rundi is peaceful and they are busy preparing for elections next year.”

“Tanzania respects the inter-national agreements on refugees and will ensure the refugees re-location process is handled care-fully,” he told reporters.

Burundi has been in crisis since 2015, when President Pierre Nkurunziza ran for a third term and was re-elected in a vote boy-cotted by most of the opposition.

At least 1,200 people were killed and more than 400,000 displaced in violence between April 2015 and May 2017 the UN says was mostly carried out by state security forces.

In August the UNHCR said in a statement: “While overall secu-rity has improved, UNHCR is of the opinion conditions in Burun-di are not currently conducive to promote returns.”

“Hundreds still fl ee Burundi each month, and UNHCR urges governments in the region to maintain open borders and ac-cess to asylum for those who need it,” the UNHCR added.

Burundian refugees in the camps who spoke to AFP by phone said the situation was calm and that those seeking to return voluntarily were register-ing with authorities.

However they said some had chosen to fl ee to Uganda, Rwanda or Kenya because of pressure to return back to Burundi.

“At fi rst they banned leaving the camp to work in the fi elds of Tanzanians, then they closed the shops, the bars inside the camps. Most recently they closed the markets,” one refugee said in the Nduta camp in the northwest of the country.

Burundian refugees get off from a bus from Tanzania as part of a repartition programme at the Nyabitare transit site in the Gisuru commune, Ruyigi province, Burundi.

Eight abducted from Nigeria school: policeAFPKano

Gunmen yesterday abducted six girls and two staff members from a boarding school in a northern Nigerian region no-

torious for banditry and ransom kidnappings, police said.

Armed men gained entry into the Engravers College, a mixed boarding school in a remote area just south of the city of Kaduna, police spokesman Yakubu Sabo said.

“(They) took away two staff of the college and six female students to an unknown desti-nation,” Sabo said.

The school, which hosts girls and boys, is lo-cated far to the west of an area notorious for at-tacks by the Boko Haram extremist group.

The police said they had deployed units “to the area for possible rescue of the victims and arresting the perpetrators.”

It said offi cers were “doing everything pos-sible to secure the release of all the victims un-hurt”.

The bursar at the school confi rmed the kid-napping to AFP.

“Unknown gunmen broke into the school around 12.10am and took away six female stu-dents and two staff who live inside the school,” Elvis Allah-Yaro said.

Abductions for ransom are common in Ni-geria and the highway from the capital Abuja to the city of Kaduna has seen a surge in attacks by armed criminals, but raids on schools are rare.

Tanzania says not hiding info on Ebola cases

Tanzania yesterday denied it was with-holding information from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on suspect-

ed cases of Ebola, saying it was not hiding any outbreak of the deadly disease in the country.

“Ebola is known as a fast-spreading disease, whose impact can be felt globally. This is not a disease that the Tanzanian government can hide,” Tanzania health minister Ummy Mwal-imu told journalists in commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

“Reports suggesting that Tanzania has not been transparent about suspected cases of Ebo-la and is not sharing information with the WHO are false and should be ignored.”

Last month WHO said Tanzania had refused to provide detailed information on suspected Ebola cases.

The organisation said it was made aware on September 10 of the death of a patient in Dar es Salaam, and was unoffi cially told the next day the person had tested positive for Ebola.

Mwalimu said Tanzania has investigated some 28 suspected cases of Ebola over the past year, including two cases in September, but they all tested negative.

‘Early warning systems’ to stop xenophobic attacksBy Sofia Christensen, AFPPretoria

The presidents of Nigeria and South Africa yesterday agreed to share intelligence and set

up “early warning mechanisms” to prevent attacks on foreign nationals, weeks after xenophobic violence in Johannesburg stirred tensions be-tween the continent’s largest econo-mies.

Muhammadu Buhari and South African counterpart Cyril Ram-aphosa discussed trade and political ties at the start of Buhari’s three-day state visit, the fi rst by a Nigerian leader since 2013.

The talks were overshadowed by a recent spate of attacks against for-eign workers in South Africa, where the unemployment rate stands at 29%.

Much of the violence was directed at Nigerians.

Buhari and Ramaphosa said they would work together on policing and shared intelligence to prevent similar incidents.

“Early warning mechanisms will be set up so that when we see there is restiveness in both of our people...we will be able to inform one anoth-er,” Ramaphosa said.

“Our condemnation of all forms of intolerance and acts of violence re-mains fi rm,” he said.

“We are equally committed to up-holding the rule of law and ensuring that all those involved in criminal activities, regardless of their nation-ality, are prosecuted.”

Buhari called for more tolerance and heightened security.

“Our respective police forces and security agencies must be very alert,” he told the press conference.

“Police must be on alert not to al-low violence to escalate,” he said.

A statement from the Nigerian presidency added that increased competition in an era of globalisa-tion meant that security agencies “should show more interest in mar-ket operations, players and likely ar-eas of tensions.”

Mobs descended on foreign-owned stores in and around Johan-nesburg in early September, destroy-ing properties and looting.

At least 12 people were killed, most of them South African.

Violent attacks targeting foreign-ers erupted notably in 2008 and 2015, shocking a country that suf-fered racist white-minority rule for decades and which now prides itself as a “rainbow nation” for people of all colours and communities.

The latest violence sparked fury in Nigeria and triggered retaliatory attacks against South African busi-nesses.

Hundreds of migrants were repat-riated by Nigerian authorities last month.

Ramaphosa, who has repeatedly apologised for the attacks, reiterated his government’s “deep regret”.

He rejected the view that the xen-

ophobia was only targeted at Nige-rians and stressed the importance of balancing economic relations be-tween the countries.

“Over 100 South African compa-nies have made investments in Ni-geria,” Ramaphosa said, addressing the SA-Nigeria business forum.

“South Africa is by far the largest purchaser of Nigerian products in Africa, accounting for nearly half of Nigeria’s exports to the rest of Africa in 2018,” he added.

Africa’s most industrialised econ-omy is a magnet for migrant workers seeking better job prospects on the continent.

Nigerians make up a signifi cant

part of that population, which also includes people from Malawi, Zim-babwe and South Asia.

Most Nigerians in South Africa work in small shops providing cell-phone repairs, hairdressing, me-chanics and tailoring services.

South Africa’s business involve-ment in Nigeria is based on larger companies such as its telecoms gi-ant MTN, leading supermarket chain Shoprite and Standard Bank.

“South Africa has a number of large corporations that operate in Nigerian market.

In the South African market, many of (the Nigerian players) are small and medium enterprises,” said Ramaphosa.

“We want to address this im-balance so that we have more and more slightly larger Nigerian com-panies coming to operate here,” he said.

In a joint statement, both presi-dents welcomed “steps to increase trade volumes as well as private sec-tor investments”.

Buhari, meanwhile, exhorted his countrymen to respect the laws of the nation, they are living in.

“When you are in Rome,” he said, “you do what the Romans do”.

Ramaphosa also called for a re-vamp of the UN Security Council, saying: “We want Africa to be repre-sented. We want equity.”

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari shakes hands with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa during their meeting in Pretoria yesterday.

AMERICAS5Gulf Times

Friday, October 4, 2019

US President Donald Trump openly called on China as well as Ukraine

to investigate his potential 2020 election rival Joe Biden, dou-bling down as Democrats began interviewing witnesses in an im-peachment investigation that has rocked the White House.

Facing possible removal from offi ce precisely for seeking for-eign help against his political challengers, Trump said that he wanted Ukraine President Vo-lodymyr Zelenskiy and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to go after Bi-den, the leader in the race for the Democratic presidential nomi-nation next year.

“I would say that President Zelenskiy, if it were me, I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens,” Trump told reporters outside the White House.

“If they were honest about it, they would start a very sim-ple investigation on the Bidens,” Trump said of Ukraine. “Like-wise, China should start an in-vestigation into the Bidens, be-cause what happened in China is just about as bad as what hap-pened with Ukraine.”

Asked if he would ask Xi to do the same, Trump replied: “It’s certainly something we can start thinking about.”

In a statement, Biden’s cam-

paign called the president’s com-ments “a grotesque choice of lies over truth and self over the coun-try”.

Kate Bedingfi eld, Biden’s dep-uty campaign manager, said that Trump was “desperately clutch-ing for conspiracy theories that have been debunked and dis-missed by independent, credible news organisations”.

“Donald Trump is terrifi ed that Joe Biden will beat him like a drum,” she added.

Trump ramped up his eff ort to shape the public narrative just as the fi rst major witness in the im-peachment probe arrived in Con-gress to provide testimony on allegations that the White House illicitly sought political help from Ukraine for the 2020 election.

Former US special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker was caught up earlier this year in the eff orts by Trump and Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden and Biden’s son Hunter, who had business ties to a Ukraine gas tycoon.

Those eff orts culminated in a July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelenskiy, in which Trump appeared to tie getting dirt on Biden to military aid for Ukraine.

A US intelligence offi cer’s whistleblower complaint about the impropriety of Trump’s ac-tions, and a White House record of the call, both released last week, drove Democrats to open the impeachment investigation,

alleging that the president be-trayed his oath of offi ce and jeop-ardised national security.

Volker could strengthen the Democrats’ case.

The whistleblower com-plaint depicts him speaking with Giuliani “in an attempt to ‘con-tain the damage’ to US national security” of Giuliani’s meddling in Ukraine aff airs.

A day after the July 25 call, Volker met Zelenskiy and other senior Ukraine offi cials and ad-vised them “about how to ‘navi-gate’ the demands that the presi-dent had made of Mr Zelenskiy”.

House investigators received more potential evidence against Trump Wednesday when the inspector-general of the State Department handed over a pack-age of materials sent to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier this year to support an investigation of the Bidens.

Giuliani told US media that he sent the package, which was in an envelope labelled “White House”.

The Giuliani package con-tained “disinformation, de-bunked conspiracy theories, and baseless allegations” regarding the Bidens, Democrats said in a statement after meeting the in-spector-general.

“These documents also rein-force concern that the president and his allies sought to use the machinery of the State Depart-ment to further the president’s personal political interests,” they said.

Trump, meanwhile, pressed forward with his strategy of de-fl ecting the allegations by focus-ing the narrative on the Bidens, as his Republican allies in Con-gress sought to put brakes on the impeachment probe.

House Minority Leader called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to suspend the inquiry until “transparent and equitable rules and procedures” could be estab-lished.

Anything less than a “through, transparent, and fair process would represent a supreme insult to our Constitution”, he said.

Trump and Giuliani allege that Biden, as vice-president, tried to block a Ukraine corruption probe into his son’s business partner, using US aid as leverage.

However, the record shows that there was no investigation,

and that Biden in fact viewed Kyiv’s corruption prosecutor at the time as deeply compromised.

Trump is also seeking to paint his Democrat accusers “liars”.

“Schiff has now been proven to be a liar ... he’s a stone-cold liar,” Trump told reporters. “The whole investigation is crum-bling.”

Opinion polls showed increas-ing public support to impeach the president, but also suggested his strategy to hurt Biden was having an impact.

USA Today said 45% of Ameri-cans support an impeachment vote, against 38% opposed, ac-cording to a USA Today/Ipsos poll published yesterday.

The poll, however, also showed 41% in favour of examining the Bidens’ ties to Ukraine while 21% were opposed.

Trump openly calls on China, Ukraine to investigate Biden

AFPWashington

Trump: I would say that (Ukraine’s) President Zelenskiy, if it were me, I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens ... likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens.

Pence says Biden and son should be investigated

Vice-President Mike Pence has

off ered a full-throated defence of

President Donald Trump’s call for

an investigation into former vice-

president Joe Biden and his son’s

dealings with Ukraine, saying that

the American people deserve to

know the facts.

“The American people have the

right to know whether or not the

(former) vice-president of the

United States or his family profited

from his position,” Pence told

reporters in Scottsdale, Arizona.

In a phone call in July, Trump

pressed Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate

Biden, the leading candidate for

the Democratic presidential nomi-

nation, and his son Hunter.

Pence: The American people have the right to know.

That request is at the centre of an

impeachment inquiry launched by

House Democrats, who accuse the

president of abusing his off ice in

an eff ort to gather dirt on a politi-

cal rival.

Trump has repeatedly suggested

that Biden pressured Ukraine to

fire a top prosecutor because the

prosecutor was investigating a

Ukrainian gas company where

Hunter Biden sat on the board, a

claim for which the president has

off ered no evidence.

Pence, who had remained largely

silent as the political controversy

erupted, firmly sided with Trump

in his remarks.

“My predecessor had a son who

was paid $50,000 a month to be

on a Ukrainian board at the time

that Vice-President Biden was lead-

ing the Obama administration’s

eff orts in Ukraine, I think (that) is

worth looking into,” Pence said.

“And the president has made it

very clear that he believes ... other

nations around the world should

look into it as well.”

“When you hold the second high-

est off ice in the land it comes with

unique responsibilities – not just

to be above impropriety, but to

be above the appearance of im-

propriety, and clearly in this case

there are legitimate questions that

ought to be asked,” Pence added

in a direct attack on Biden.

Pence also took aim at Democrats

generally for what he termed as

“endless investigations” of Trump,

which he said should end.

Democratic presidential contenders on Wednes-day vowed to pursue far-

reaching limits on guns, tackling an issue that has become a top concern for their party’s voters.

Nine of the leading candi-dates gathered in Las Vegas for an all-day forum on gun safety, a day after the city marked two years since it suff ered the dead-liest mass shooting in modern US history, which killed 58 peo-ple.

The event – co-hosted by the gun safety advocacy groups Giff ords and the student-led “March For Our Lives” – rep-resented an eff ort to keep gun violence at the forefront of the campaign, despite the looming spectre of an impeachment in-quiry into US President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.

“We cannot wait for this hell to be visited upon your commu-nity for you to be activated for this fi ght,” said US Senator Cory Booker, who spoke passionately about witnessing fi rsthand the scourge of gun violence in his low-income, neighbourhood in Newark, New Jersey. “It is a life-and-death issue for people in communities like mine.”

The candidates’ forceful words provided the latest evi-dence that the politics around gun control have shifted follow-ing a spate of high-profi le mass shootings in recent years.

Most of the Democrats were broadly in agreement on certain policies, including universal background checks, “red fl ag” laws that allow courts to remove guns from dangerous people and an assault-style weapons ban.

However, the back-to-back appearances also exposed some

fi ssures among the Democrats over other ideas.

Former vice-president Joe Bi-den, who is leading most public polls, released a gun reform pro-posal hours before the event that called for banning online sales and repealing a law that gives gun makers special protections against civil liability.

“Imagine if the same law ex-isted for drug companies that existed for gun companies,” Bi-den said.

But Biden does not support some other candidates’ propos-als, such as a mandatory buy-back programme for assault-style weapons or a national licensing requirement.

In his remarks, Booker – the fi rst presidential candidate to call for licensing earlier this year – noted most people already support the concept.

“You should not be a nominee from our party that can serious-ly stand in front of urban places and say, ‘I will protect you’, if you don’t believe in gun licens-ing,” Booker said.

Former US Representative Beto O’Rourke, who has made gun safety the central cause of his campaign since a gun-

man murdered 22 people in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, two months ago, echoed his vow to force people to give up “weap-ons of war” through buybacks.

Several candidates spoke about the particular toll gun violence has on communities of colour, as well as the psycho-logical damage done to children fearful of school shootings.

US Senator Kamala Harris said teachers had told her they have lollipops on hand to keep the youngest students quiet in the event of an attack.

“This is traumatising our children,” she said.

In Washington, the Repub-lican majority in the US Senate has shown little appetite for new limits.

Trump, whose 2016 campaign was bolstered by millions of dollars from the National Rifl e Association (NRA), has off ered mixed signals.

On Wednesday, Trump blamed the Democrats’ im-peachment investigation for a lack of progress on gun safety, a claim that US Senator Elizabeth Warren decried as an “alterna-tive reality”.

Several candidates sought

to tie gun safety to the broader themes of their campaigns.

Warren said gun violence has gone unchecked for the same reason that climate change and drug prices remained unad-dressed in Washington: compa-nies have bought off politicians.

“You have to stop and ask yourself the question: What is so badly broken in this de-mocracy that something that the overwhelming majority of Americans want to see done doesn’t get done,” she said. “And the answer is, there’s too much power in the hands of the gun industry and the gun lobby.”

Biden, who has argued that defeating Trump is the most important thing for Democrats to accomplish, said he expected new laws would pass easily once “we get this guy out of offi ce”.

Andrew Yang, the entrepre-neur whose signature proposal is giving every American $1,000 a month, argued that universal basic income would help amel-iorate much of the economic distress that contributes to gun violence.

The forum also gave candi-dates an opportunity to push back against arguments that their positions are impractical or politically untenable.

Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said the country has already established that some limits on weapons are legal and appropriate.

“Anybody can have a wa-ter balloon; nobody can have a Predator drone,” he said. “Somewhere we’re going to draw a line. And all we’re saying ... is that we need to draw the line a lot tighter.”

US Senator Bernie Sanders, who had been scheduled to ap-pear, was forced to cancel after his hospitalisation for a proce-dure to clear a blocked artery.

Democratic candidates vow action on gunsReutersLas Vegas

Biden: Imagine if the same law existed for drug companies that existed for gun companies.

Prime Minister Justin Tru-deau appeared for his fi rst debate of the 2019 election

on Wednesday, clashing with his main rival Andrew Scheer of the Conservative Party just three weeks ahead of the knife-edge vote.

They sparred in French over heady topics such as laicism, abortion, doctor-assisted dy-ing, decriminalising narcotics, and gay marriage, as well as vote movers climate change and the economy.

Both were looking to sway votes in the key battleground of Quebec, where one-quarter of the 338 seats in parliament are up for grabs.

Going toe-to-toe with Scheer as well as fi elding attacks in open fl oor exchanges from New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh and Yves-Francois Blan-chet of the Bloc Quebecois, Tru-deau was animated in defending his fi rst-term record.

Scheer, who is untested and less comfortable speaking in French than English, needed to show Canadians that he’s ready to be prime minister.

However, at times, he seemed like a wallfl ower.

Scheer dodged questions on his personal views on abortion, and was criticised for expecting other nations to take the bulk of climate actions, while promising to roll back a Liberal carbon tax.

“The Conservatives are strug-gling with the fact that their values do not align with the pro-gressivism of Canadians,” Tru-deau said.

The incumbent prime minis-ter blasted provincial Tory lead-ers for going to court against a federal carbon tax, saying that “Andrew Scheer is not going to stand up to them” while touting a Liberal pledge to plant two billion trees over the next four years.

However, he faced criticism from Singh for having national-ised an oil pipeline.

Scheer also shot back, raising Trudeau’s ethics lapses includ-ing his meddling in the criminal

prosecution of engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.

Scheer has said that he would, if elected, launch a judicial in-quiry into Trudeau’s unapolo-getic arm-twisting of his attor-ney-general to settle the case in order to save up to 9,000 jobs.

The scandal, revealed earlier this year, tarnished Trudeau’s golden boy image, while plung-ing his Liberals into a dead heat with the Tories in polls ahead of the October 21 election.

Photos that emerged last month of Trudeau wearing “blackface” makeup to parties decades ago also sullied his per-sonal popularity but did not get a mention in the debate.

For his part, Scheer has strug-gled to charm Canadians dur-ing the campaign, while fending off attacks over his opposition to same-sex marriage in a 2005 speech.

He got one of the few laughs in the debate when he took Trudeau to task for having two campaign aircraft, “one for Mr Trudeau and the media, and one for his cos-tumes and canoes”.

The latter was a reference to Trudeau paddling up to a podium for a campaign announcement.

Trudeau clarifi ed later that the Liberals bought carbon credits to off set his campaign jetsetting.

In such a close election, McGill University politics professor Daniel Beland told AFP that the debates “could aff ect the race in a big way”.

Two more debates – one in French and one in English – are scheduled for October 7 and 10.

Whereas Trudeau shone in

2015 debates that led to the Lib-erals’s landslide victory and seems at ease at town hall meet-ings where he fi elds questions from Canadians, he now has a target on his back and the most to lose, Beland said.

Ahead of the debate, Trudeau worked out in a boxing ring – bolstering the view that he is against the ropes fi ghting for his political survival and needs to land a knock-out blow in these debates.

The Liberals are currently leading in Quebec, but the sepa-ratist Bloc Quebecois, which had been presumed dead after a dis-mal showing in the 2015 election that resulted in only 10 seats for it in parliament – two short of offi cial party status – has seen an unexpected surge.

Quebec separatism – after two failed referendums in 1980 and 1995 on splitting away from the rest of Canada – is a no-go nowadays.

But the Bloc has tapped into lingering Quebec nationalism to revive its fortunes, arguing that it is best positioned to defend the province’s interests.

Blanchet, a former provincial minister and television ana-lyst, has also closely aligned his party’s policies with those of the hugely popular Quebec govern-ment of Francois Legault.

That includes restrictions on religious symbols and dress, and more say on immigration policy.

But its revival could split votes on the left, notably in rural Que-bec where the Liberals must make gains, risking handing electoral victory to the Conservatives.

Trudeau, Conservative rival clash in fi rst Canada debateAFPMontreal

Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanchet, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, TVA network host Pierre Bruneau, Liberal leader and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh pose on Wednesday evening before the French language debate for the 2019 federal election at TVA studios in Montreal.

$800mn settlement announced in Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017A settlement of up to $800mn was announced yesterday for victims of America’s worst mass shooting – a rampage that left 58 dead and more than 800 wounded in Las Vegas.In the October 2017 massacre, a man named Stephen Paddock opened fire with high-power rifles from the 32nd-floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, unleashing more than 1,000 rounds as he mowed down

people among a crowd attending an outdoor country music festival.That hotel is owned by a chain that belongs to MGM Resorts International, which was sued on grounds of negligence for allowing Paddock to stockpile guns and ammunition in his hotel room without being noticed.MGM Resorts International and lawyers for plaintiff s in the massacre said the settlement would provide between $735mn and

$800mn, depending on how many plaintiff s take part in the settlement and drop their lawsuits.The statement said the settlement does not amount to an admission of liability by MGM Resorts.The two sides said they expect the process to be completed by late next year.Paddock was found dead in his hotel room with a self-inflicted gunshot.

6 Gulf TimesFriday, October 4, 2019

ASIA

Indonesia accuses two Singaporeans over imported plastic wasteReutersJakarta

Indonesia is accusing two Sin-gaporeans of importing 87 containers of plastic scrap

without the correct permits, an of-fi cial said yesterday, marking a step up in the country’s eff orts to crack down on shipments of foreign

waste. Indonesia has tightened customs inspections and sent back containers of plastic trash amid an increase in shipments from West-ern countries after China banned imports last year.

The two Singaporeans are a di-rector and a commissioner of PT Advance Recycle Technology, a recycling company based in the province of Banten on Java is-

land, the Environment Ministry’s director general of law enforce-ment, Rasio Ridho Sani said. The two were identifi ed only by their initials.

The two were accused of be-ing responsible for importing 87 containers of plastic scrap from Hong Kong, Spain, Cana-da, Australia and Japan between May and June this year without

proper permits, Sani told a news conference. Some of the waste was found to be contaminated with hazardous items such as printed circuit boards, used re-mote controls and used batter-ies, he said. PT Advance Recycle Technology declined to comment when reached by telephone. The suspects or their lawyers could not immediately be reached for

comment. “We have to protect our community’s health and our environment. We don’t want our country to be other countries’ dump site. We must protect our sovereignty,” Sani said.

The case is the fi rst since In-donesia passed a 2009 law on protecting and managing the en-vironment, he said. The South-east Asian country already strug-

gles to deal with its own waste, which often goes into landfi lls or is dumped in rivers. Indonesia is the second biggest contribu-tor of plastic pollutants in the ocean, a 2015 study in the jour-nal ‘Science’ showed. A person found guilty of illegally import-ing hazardous and toxic material could face up to 15 years in prison and a fi ne of up to 15bn rupiah

($1.06mn), Sani said. Restric-tions on importing plastic scrap have been resisted by some.

A plastics lobby group com-plained in August that increased inspections had held up material, resulting in a plunge in exports of recycled plastic products. Im-ported waste also provides a live-lihood for thousands in a village in East Java.

A salesman sells onions to a customer at Kawran Bazaar wholesale market in Dhaka. Onion prices have skyrocketed in Bangladesh after India banned its export over local shortages, forcing the government to import the vegetable from other countries and sell it at subsidised prices.

Soaring onion prices in Bangladesh

Indonesia says over 11,500 have fl ed violence-hit Papuan townReutersJakarta

Indonesian authorities said yesterday more than 11,500 people have been evacuated

from the town of Wamena in the easternmost province of Papua since dozens died during clashes last month in the area.

Located on the western half of the island of New Guinea and long racked by a simmer-ing separatist insurgency, Pa-pua encompasses Indonesia’s two easternmost provinces and has a distinct ethnic Melanesian population.

There has been a spike in pro-tests and unrest since late Au-gust after Papuan students in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second city on the island of Java, were

taunted and attacked by a mob chanting racial epithets over ac-cusations they had desecrated a national fl ag. In some of the worst bloodshed in decades in Papua, 33 people died and scores were hurt during clashes in Wa-mena on September 23.

Government offi ces and homes were burned down, and 250 cars and motorcycles de-stroyed, as indigenous Papuans and security forces clashed.

The government and some Papuan independence activists say 25 of the 33 who died there were migrants from elsewhere in

the country. Erizal, 42, a former resident of Wamena who had left, said his child and wife died during the unrest and he now felt too traumatised to consider returning to the town.

“I am in my village in Padang now, maybe I will not return back to Wamena,” he said by telephone from the Padang area on Sumatra island where he was originally from.

He said his shop had also been burnt down in the unrest. Be-tween Sept 23 and Oct 2 Indo-nesia’s air force had fl own 7,467 people out of Wamena on Her-

cules planes, while 4,179 people had left on commercial fl ights, said Harry Hikmat, an offi cial at Indonesia’s social ministry. Ah-mad Musthofa Kamal, a spokes-man for the Papuan police, said the situation in Wamane was now stable and that shops and markets were open again.

A former Dutch colony, Papua was formally incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after a dis-puted vote of about 1,025 hand-picked tribal leaders. The result of the plebiscite was overseen and endorsed by the United Na-tions.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has opened the door to holding talks with separatists in Papua, a departure from the stance of previous governments and some of his cabinet minis-ters.

In some of the worst bloodshed in decades in Papua, 33 people died and scores were hurt during clashes in Wamena on September 23

Residents carry their belongings as security off icers stand guard following a riot in Ilaga, Puncak regency in Papua, Indonesia.

Security off icers stand guard as passengers wait to board an aircraft at Ilaga Airport in Puncak regency, Papua, Indonesia.

Cambodian judge orders reinvestigation

of spying case against Free Asia reportersReutersPhnom Penh

A Cambodian judge yester-day ordered a reinvestiga-tion of the espionage case

against two former Radio Free Asia journalists, saying he could not rule on their guilt or inno-cence without enough evidence.

The case has added to concerns about a crackdown on criticism and dissent by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who extended his rule of more than three dec-ades in an election last year after the main opposition party leader was arrested on treason charges and his party banned.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court Judge Im Vannak had been scheduled to deliver a verdict in the two-year-old case against the reporters, Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin, but instead he ordered a fresh investigation into hard disks seized when they were arrested in 2017. Radio Free Asia (RFA) and rights groups said the case should be dropped. “These delays drag out an unnecessary ordeal that has unfolded for al-most two years,” RFA’s spokes-person, Rohit Mahajan, told Reu-ters.

The two former reporters for Washington-based RFA, a non-profi t broadcaster that receives funding from a US government agency, were arrested in Novem-ber 2017. RFA had earlier shut down its Phnom Penh offi ce cit-ing a “relentless crackdown on independent voices” which made it impossible for it to guarantee the integrity of its journalistic mission. The two were charged with providing information “de-structive to national defence to a foreign state” after they were caught fi ling stories to RFA, the court said at the time.

They denied the charges. Their lawyer said they had merely been doing their jobs as journalists. The arrests came as Hun Sen was fi ghting a war of words with the US embassy and State De-partment over his government’s

crackdown on the opposition. The veteran leader has accused the United States of trying to end his rule. Yeang Sothearin told Reuters outside the court he was disappointed with the judge’s or-der for more investigation. “This is another delay of my rights be-

ing restricted and freedom being pressured,” he said.

Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s regional direc-tor for East and Southeast Asia, called on the court to dismiss the case. “The Cambodian au-thorities are using trumped-up

charges to make an example of two brave professional journal-ists and to silence anyone else who dares to speak truth to pow-er in Cambodia.”

Human Rights Watch’s Phil Robertson said the case “was po-litically motivated from day one” and should not continue. “The judge’s admission there is no real evidence should have prompted the dismissal of the case, not a re-investigation which will plunge these journalists back into a never-ending nightmare,” Robertson said.

The opposition has termed Cambodia essentially a one-party state after Hun Sen’s party won all of the seats in parliament in a 2018 election, after the Su-preme Court disbanded the main opposition party.

Authorities have arrested at least 30 opposition activists this year, accusing them of plotting to overthrow the government ahead of the planned return from self-exile of former opposition leader Sam Rainsy on November 9.

Cambodian PM Hun Sen

Wild tiger kills woman in NepalA wild tiger has killed a 48-year-old woman who was collecting fodder for her cattle near a national park in south-western Nepal, a wildlife off icial said yesterday. The woman was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared her dead late Wednesday, said Apa Nath Baral, chief conservation off icer

of Bardia National Park. “She suff ered injuries to her head, hands and face,” said Baral. In August, wild tigers killed two people near the national park. Baral said shrinking of the endangered animal’s habitat and an increase in human activities near the protected area were causing the attacks by wild animals. He said wildlife and

security off icials were tracking the movements of the tiger in the area.”We will decide on whether to capture it after analysing the footage from camera traps,” he told DPA.Nepal is home to 235 endangered wild tigers that live in protected areas in the country’s southern plains along the border with India.

Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin, former journalists from the US-funded Radio Free Asia (RFA), who have been charged with espionage, arrive at the Municipal Court of Phnom Penh for their verdict, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Duterte’s relaxed style in Russia comes under social media fi re DPA Manila

Philippine President Ro-drigo Duterte, currently visiting Russia, has come

under fi re for showing up with a loosened tie and shirt to a meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Duterte met Medvedev on

Wednesday, during which he noted the increase in defence, military, trade, economic and social exchanges between the two countries, presidential spokesman Salvado Panelo said. But for social media users in the Philippines and in Rus-sia, the meeting was notable for Duterte’s unkempt look during a handshake with Medvedev, images of which went viral.

“The Russian Internet is hav-ing a blast: ‘Did he just leave the pub?’, ‘Do Filipinos know what a (state visit) protocol is?’ people ask,” tweeted Pavel Vondra, a Russian journalist.

In Manila, netizens bashed Duterte for “bringing shame” on the Philippines, while some asked Russia to keep him.

“We apologise for this man,” one tweet said.

ASIA/AUSTRALASIA7Gulf Times

Friday, October 4, 2019

Anti-government protesters shout slogans and wave placards at a rally calling for president Moon Jae-in to step down, in central Seoul yesterday. Moon’s approval rating recently hit a record low after he appointed a scandal-tainted ally as justice minister.

Protest against Moon Jae-in

N Korea says it successfully tested new ballistic missileReutersSeoul

North Korea said yesterday it had successfully test-fi red a new submarine-

launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from the sea to contain external threats and bolster self-defence, ahead of fresh nuclear talks with the United States.

The launch on Wednesday was the most provocative by North Korea since it resumed dialogue with the United States in 2018 and a reminder by Pyongyang of the weapons capability it has been aggressively developing, in-cluding intercontinental ballistic missiles, analysts said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “sent warm congratulations” to the defence scientists who conducted the test, state news agency KCNA said, indicating he did not attend the launch as he has at previous tests of new weapons systems. The new type of SLBM, called Pukguksong-3, was “fi red in vertical mode” in

the waters off the eastern city of Wonsan, KCNA said, confi rming an assessment by South Korea’s military on Wednesday that the missile was launched on a lofted trajectory.

“The successful new-type SLBM test-fi ring comes to be of great signifi cance as it ushered in a new phase in containing the outside forces’ threat to the DPRK and further bolstering its military muscle for self-defence,” KCNA said. DPRK is short for the North’s offi cial name, the Demo-cratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The test “had no adverse im-pact on the security of neigh-bouring countries,” KCNA said but gave no other details about the launch. Photos released in the North’s offi cial Rodong Sin-

mun newspaper, whose front two pages featured the test, showed a black-and-white painted missile clearing the surface of the water, then the rocket engine igniting to propel it into the sky.

A State Department spokes-woman called on Pyongyang to “refrain from provocations” and to remain committed to nuclear negotiations.

South Korea expressed strong concern and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the launch, saying it was a vio-lation of UN Security Council resolutions. North Korea rejects UN Security Council resolutions that ban Pyongyang from using ballistic missile technology, say-ing they are an infringement of its right to self-defence. Talks aimed

at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes have been stalled since a second summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Vi-etnam in February broke down in disagreement over nuclear disarmament. North Korea fi red the missile hours after announc-ing it would resume talks with the United States by holding work-ing-level negotiations on Oct 5.

North Korea’s chief nuclear ne-gotiator, Kim Myong-gil, arrived at the Beijing airport yesterday with other North Korean offi cials and booked fl ights to Stockholm, Sweden, Yonhap reported, citing an airport offi cial. “We’re going for the DPRK-US working-level negotiations,” the negotiator Kim told reporters in Beijing, accord-ing to Yonhap. “There’s been a

new signal from the US side, so we’re going with great expecta-tions and optimism about the outcome.”

The Pukguksong-3 appeared to be a new design that has en-hanced range and stability com-pared with a version tested in 2016, three analysts said. It was probably launched from a test platform and not a submarine, which would be the fi nal stage of testing, said Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far East-ern Studies in Seoul.

State news agency KCNA re-leased photos and a report in July of leader Kim Jong-un inspecting a large, newly built submarine, but an unnamed South Korean military source said Thursday that the submarine appears to be

still incomplete, Yonhap news agency reported. Leader Kim Jong-un’s absence at the test is “extremely unusual,” Kyungnam University’s Kim said, probably meant to contain the political fallout that could result in the upcoming talks falling apart be-fore they even start.

On Wednesday, South Ko-rea’s military said the missile fl ew 450km and reached an al-titude of 910km. It was likely a Pukguksong-class weapon, as the North’s earlier subma-rine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) under development were known. South Korean De-fence Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said the Pukguksong, or Pole Star in Korean, would have had a range of about 1,300km on a standard trajectory. North Korea had been

developing SLBM technology before it suspended long-range missile and nuclear tests and be-gan talks with the United States that led to the fi rst summit be-tween Kim and Trump in Singa-pore in June 2018.

The latest version of the Pukguksong may be the longest-range North Korean missile that uses solid fuel and the fi rst nu-clear-capable missile to be tested since November 2017, Ankit Pan-da of the US-based Federation of American Scientists said.

North Korea has been devel-oping rocket engines that burn solid fuel, which has advantages in military use compared with liquid fuel because it is stable and versatile, allowing it to be stored in missiles until they are ready for launch.

Test launch comes days ahead of fresh US nuclear talks; Kim Jong-un sends ‘warm congratulations’ to launch team; Japan PM condemned launch as violation of UN sanctions The test-firing of ‘the new-type SLBM Pukguksong-3’ in the waters off Wonsan Bay of the East Sea of Korea.

Six killed as typhoon lashes South KoreaAFPBusan

At least six people were killed and several others missing after Typhoon

Mitag lashed South Korea with heavy rain and strong winds, au-thorities said yesterday.

The storm hit southern parts

of the country on Wednesday night, prompting fl ood warnings and triggering landslides in af-fected areas.

A woman in her 70s died af-ter she was swept away by strong winds in the southeastern city of Pohang while another woman was killed after heavy rain caused her house to collapse as she slept, the Ministry of the Interior and

Safety said. A total of six people were killed across the country but the toll was expected to rise with several people missing. In the southern port city of Bu-san - one of the hardest hit ar-eas - around 600 rescue workers were trying to locate four people believed to be trapped beneath a landslide.

“An enormous amount of sand

and earth slid down several hun-dred metres and instantly buried a house and a restaurant,” said a witness quoted by Yonhap news agency. More than 100 homes were fl ooded and over 1,500 fam-ilies evacuated their houses in advance, the ministry said.

Mitag is the 18th typhoon this year and seventh to hit the Ko-rean peninsula.

Buildings are inundated by floodwaters from heavy rains caused by Typhoon Mitag in Gangneung yesterday.

Australian PM Morrison echoes Trump with call to reject globalismReutersSydney

Australia should reject “un-accountable internation-alist bureaucracy”, Prime

Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday, echoing a recent call by US President Donald Trump for nations to embrace national-ism.

“We should avoid any refl ex towards a negative globalism that coercively seeks to impose a mandate from an often ill-de-fi ned borderless global commu-nity,” Morrison said in a speech

at the Lowy Institute think-tank.“Under my leadership, Aus-

tralia’s international engagement will be squarely driven by Aus-tralia’s national interests.”

Trump in September called on nations around the globe to embrace nationalism and reject globalism, saying wise leaders put their own people and coun-tries fi rst. Morrison last month skipped the UN Climate Action Summit despite being in the United States to visit the Trump administration at the time.

While endorsing a key ele-ment of Trump’s foreign policy, Morrison insisted Australia did

not have to choose between its closest historical ally, the United States, and its biggest trading partner, China. China is a major consumer of Australian iron ore, coal and agricultural goods, buy-ing more than one-third of the country’s total exports and send-ing more than a million tourists and students there each year.

But the Australian-Chinese bilateral relationship has been strained in recent years as Can-berra grows increasingly con-cerned about Beijing’s activi-ties in Australia and the Pacifi c. Australian intelligence deter-mined China was responsible for

a cyber-attack on its parliament and three largest political parties before a general election in May, fi ve people with direct knowl-edge of the matter told Reuters.

China denies responsibility for the attack. Morrison has also an-gered China by joining the United States in calling for it to drop its “developing economy” status, which he reiterated yesterday. “We would expect China’s obli-gations to refl ect its greater pow-er status,” said Morrison.

“The rules and institutions that support global co-operation must refl ect the modern world. It can’t be set and forget.”

Killer Japanese fungus found in Australia’s far north for fi rst timeAFPSydney

One of the world’s deadli-est fungi has been dis-covered in Australia’s

far north for the fi rst time — thousands of miles from its na-tive habitat in the mountains of Japan and Korea.

The Poison Fire Coral fungus was discovered in a suburb of Cairns by a local photographer and subsequently identifi ed by scientists, James Cook Univer-sity announced yesterday.

Several people have died in Japan and Korea after mistak-ing the bright red fungi for ed-ible mushrooms that are used

in traditional medicine, and brewing it into a tea. James Cook University mycologist Matt Barrett, who confi rmed the identity of the toxic mush-room found in Australia, said the discovery extends its known distribution “considerably”.

Poison Fire Coral is the only known mushroom with toxins that can be absorbed through the skin, and causes a “horrify-ing” array of symptoms if eaten, including vomiting, diarrhoea, fever and numbness. If left un-treated, it can cause multiple organ failure or brain damage leading to death.

“The fact that we can fi nd such a distinctive and medically important fungus like Poison

Fire Coral right in our backyard shows we have much to learn about fungi in northern Aus-tralia,” Barrett said.

Ray Palmer, a self-described “fungi fanatic” who found the specimen told AFP he had spent the past decade photographing various fungi in the rainforest surrounding his home city of Cairns.

“It didn’t surprise me be-cause I have been fi nding quite a few things over the years,” he said.

“No one traipses around the rainforest up here photograph-ing fungi. There are quite a few (more) things to be found and they probably will be in the coming years.”

Gunman shot dead after opening fire on police stationsA gunman has been shot dead after an hour-long shooting spree in western Sydney on Wednes-day night, in which he opened fire on a residential home and two police stations. New South Wales (NSW) Police declared the shooting at a police station “a critical incident,” which left multiple off icers with injuries, in-cluding one who is being treated in hospital for a pellet wound to

his head. Police said a number of shots were fired into the front of St Marys Police Station on Wednesday night. Shortly after, the same gunman, armed with a pump-action 12 gauge shotgun, fired a number of shots at police off icers at Penrith Police Station.Police returned fire, fatally injuring the man who died at the scene, NSW Police said in a statement overnight. The

two shootings are linked to an earlier incident where shots were fired into a suburban home in the western Sydney suburb of Marayong, police said.Local media identified the gun-man as 32-year-old bodybuilder Daniel King. Reports said the suburban home belonged to his estranged girlfriend, who is seven months pregnant with King’s child.

Media outlets in‘bidding war’ forArcuri scoopGuardian News and MediaLondon

A media bidding war is apparently under way for the exclusive rights

to a tell-all interview with the US businesswoman at the cen-tre of a confl ict of interest row involving Boris Johnson, the Guardian has learned.

A US lawyer claiming to act on behalf of Jennifer Arcuri is inviting media outlets, in-cluding British publications, to bid six-figure sums for an interview with the tech entre-preneur.

California-based Michael Walsh – who says he repre-sents Arcuri, having known her for 14 years – claimed fi ve outlets were in the running for an interview with $225,000 the highest bid so far.

Walsh said there was a “queue” of fi ve “interested par-ties”. He said Arcuri was willing to speak about her friendship with Johnson in the next 72 hours but “the price has to be right, that’s the way it is”.

It is the latest twist after revelations more than 10 days ago that firms run by Arcuri received £126,000 of public money, some of which was awarded while Johnson was London mayor. She also went on three overseas trade mis-sions led by Johnson, having initially been turned down for two of them. Arcuri has said all the allegations are false.

On Tuesday, the Guard-ian revealed a Whitehall offi cial who ran the scheme that grant-ed Arcuri a coveted entrepre-neur visa had worked for Boris Johnson when he was mayor. Johnson refused three times to deny outright that he had had an aff air with Arcuri during an interview with Sky News earlier this week.

Walsh told the Guardian on Wednesday: “I’m not going to put words in her mouth. I’ve known her quite a while and it’s kind of a diffi cult situation for

her. She’s very angry about the whole situation, particularly the aspects of recriminations against her supposedly taking public funds. She vehemently denies that and says all her actions were legal and above board.”

The lawyer, a registered at-torney in California, said Ar-curi would be going with “the best package … it may not necessarily be for the highest amount”.

He added: “She wants to get her story out there and I’ve been given my instructions.”

Asked how the Guardian could be sure he did represent Arcuri, he replied: “I do, I’ve known her for 14 years.” On Wednesday, the Daily Mail tracked down Arcuri near her Los Angeles home. “Someone has gone to great lengths to put together a massive attack and I stand by the legitimacy of my business. I am in fact a legiti-mate businesswoman,” she re-portedly said.

The paper reported Arcuri had been lying low since the al-legations, quoting an unnamed friend as saying: “She is still deciding how best to get her side of the story across. She is an astute and serious business-woman and knows she needs to regain control of this situation.” News of the auction for Arcuri’s story comes two days after it was reported that her laptop, containing personal details of her time with Johnson, had been stolen.

The Daily Mirror reported that the device had been stolen in the UK in the past 10 days, quoting an unnamed friend as saying: “Her laptop contains so much personal information covering the time she knew Boris. She is racking her brains as to what it may hold. There are pictures, emails and docu-ments on the laptop which she is terrifi ed could be hawked around if someone gains access to it.”

Arcuri did not respond to a request for comment.

Johnson’s Brexit plan failsto convince EU, Ireland

ReutersDublin/Brussels

The European Union and Ire-land yesterday said Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s

Brexit proposals were unlikely to yield a deal, with Dublin bluntly warning that Britain was heading towards a no-deal exit unless it made more concessions.

The European Union said it ful-ly backed Ireland and that while it was open to discussions, it was still unconvinced about Johnson’s plan — cast by British offi cials as the fi nal off er to avert a no-deal Brexit on October 31.

Just 28 days before the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU, both sides are positioning them-selves to avoid blame for a delay or a disorderly no-deal Brexit.

Johnson says he wants an agreement but insists there can be no further Brexit postponement.

The cool reception from Brus-sels to Johnson’s proposal indi-cates just how far apart the two sides are on the fi rst departure of a sovereign state from the EU, which was forged from Europe’s ruins after World War II.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Var-adkar, who is key to any possible deal, said he did not fully under-stand how the British proposals

might work and that Dublin could not sign up to a treaty that did not safeguard an open Irish-British border.

Varadkar’s deputy, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, went further, saying that if Johnson’s proposals were fi nal then a no-deal Brexit lay ahead.

“My judgement is that Boris Johnson does want a deal and that the paper that was published on Wednesday was an eff ort to move us in the direction of a deal. But...if that is the fi nal proposal, there will be no-deal,” Coveney told parliament.

European Council president Donald Tusk said the bloc re-

mained fully united behind Ire-land. “We remain open but still unconvinced,” Tusk said. John-son made what his offi ce said was his fi nal Brexit pitch to the EU on Wednesday, off ering a possible compromise on the most conten-tious issue that initially drew a cautious welcome by the EU.

Johnson went further than many expected on trying to solve the dilemma over the border be-tween British-ruled Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland — with a proposal for an all-island regulatory zone to cover all goods.

This would replace the so-called “backstop” arrangement he says he cannot accept.

Besides the concession, how-ever, Johnson proposed giving Northern Ireland’s institutions the ongoing power to abide by or exit the regulatory zone — a possi-ble step too far for Ireland and the EU. While the EU was careful not to dismiss the British proposals outright, offi cials in Brussels were extremely cool about the move.

It can only be a starting point to more talks, according to offi cials and diplomats dealing with Brexit in EU hub Brussels. “It does not contain any decent solution for customs. And it erects a hard bor-der on the island of Ireland,” said a senior EU offi cial, saying the plan “can’t fl y” as it stands.

Scottish governmentextends fracking banGuardian News and MediaEdinburgh

Paul Wheelhouse, the en-vironment minister, said his devolved government

would also refuse to issue licenc-es for onshore unconventional oil and gas projects, including fracking, shale gas or coalbed methane projects.

But Wheelhouse rejected calls from climate campaigners and Scottish Labour for fracking to be specifi cally outlawed by leg-islation in Scotland. He said the government’s regulatory powers under its planning and licensing systems were strong enough.

Promising the government could consider legislation if it was needed in future, Wheelhouse said fracking was incompatible with the Scottish parliament’s new tar-get of cutting climate emissions to net zero by 2045, which was passed by MSPs last week.

“There has been a dramatic change in public perceptions of the environment, the climate

crisis and the expectations of government to respond,” he said. As a result “an unconventional oil and gas industry would not be of suffi cient positive benefi t to Scotland to outweigh its negative impacts”.

Claudia Beamish, Scottish La-bour’s environment spokeswom-an, said that without legislation this ban could be overturned by another government in future.

The ban formalises a mora-torium fi rst announced by the Scottish government in January 2015 after it came under intense pressure, fuelled by pro-inde-pendence activists and cam-paigns in Scottish National Party target seats aff ected by fracking licences in central Scotland.

It is understood there were strong reservations about a per-manent ban from Fergus Ewing, the then energy minister, but in 2017 ministers confi rmed the moratorium would continue.

It led to a court challenge by the oil and chemicals giant Ineos, which runs the Grangemouth chemicals and oil refi nery com-

plex west of Edinburgh.The Scottish government won

but its lawyers admitted in court that the moratorium did not amount to a formal ban. It was instead a policy of “no support”, a distinction which Wheelhouse repeated yesterday.

Mark Ruskell, the Scottish Greens climate spokesman, said ministers should now follow through by fi nally rejecting an application by Ineos dating from 2012 to produce coalbed methane near Airth.

Wheelhouse said that appli-cation would now be decided and said the government’s chief planner had written yesterday to Scotland’s 32 councils to tell them planning permission for any unconventional oil and gas project should now be refused.

That planning direction would be underwritten in the next na-tional planning framework, giv-ing it statutory force. That is due to be passed by the Scottish par-liament before the next Holyrood elections in May 2021, he added, but that could not be guaranteed.

London trial for newdriverless cars heldGuardian News and MediaLondon

Work to bring driverless cars to Britain’s streets has reached a milestone

with the fi rst demonstration of an autonomous fl eet driving in a “complex urban environment” in London.

Ford Mondeos fi tted with au-tonomous technology from the UK tech fi rm Oxbotica operated on public roads around the former Ol-ympic Park in Stratford this week.

Directors of the £13.6mn Driven programme, a partially govern-ment-funded consortium, said it had “exceeded their initial plan” and was a signifi cant step in con-fi rming autonomous vehicles could operate in real-life situa-tions in a large European city.

Oxbotica said fi rst passenger trials of a separate venture, an au-tonomous ride-sharing taxi serv-ice planned with the cab fi rm Ad-dison Lee in the capital, could now start in June 2020.

The Driven team – a combina-tion of local authority planners, insurers, cyber-security and data experts, as well as Oxbotica – have

been conducting trials in Oxford to examine what they called the “ecosystem” around autonomous vehicles, such as potential prob-lems with hackers, communica-tions technology and the legal framework.

For now, the cars are operated with a safety driver in the front seat ready to take control, and prompted by the technology to decide whether to intervene in diffi cult situations. On an oth-erwise autonomous spin around Stratford’s East Village, through A-roads, traffi c intersections and residential streets, the safety driv-er in the Guardian’s car only once opted to grab the wheel as a pre-caution, when an oncoming mini-cab swerved around a parked lorry.

Dr Graeme Smith, Driven’s pro-gramme director and Oxbotica’s senior vice-president, said the project was making “autonomous vehicles a reality on our roads”.

He said: “The car is a bauble on top of the iceberg: underpinning that is a host of other things that need to happen, from cybersecu-rity to ensure we have constant, secure communication; insurers for product liability and real-life risk assessment.”

Extinction Rebellion protests

Police stands in front of the Treasury building during an Extinction Rebellion protest in London yesterday. Four people were arrested after the activists tried to spray fake blood at the Treasury from the top of a fire engine.

William visits Oxford

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge interacts with Bambam, a robot designed to understand the environment and pick up objects during a visit to off icially open the new graduate building, the H B Allen Centre, at Keble College, Oxford University in Oxford, central England, yesterday.

Seriously ill girl can be taken to Italy for treatment: courtGuardian News and MediaLondon

The parents of a fi ve-year-old girl with a serious brain in-jury have won a high court

battle to take her to Italy for treat-ment after UK doctors said her life support should be withdrawn.

Tafi da Raqeeb, from Newham in east London, has been in hospital since February after sustaining a brain injury. Doctors at the Royal London hospital, where she is on ventilation, say she has no aware-

ness or prospect of recovering and it is not in her interests to continue treatment.

But her parents, Shelina Begum, 39, and Mohamed Raqeeb, 45, challenged that prognosis during a week-long hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in which they pleaded for the chance to take her to the Gaslini children’s hospital in Genoa.

Judge Alastair MacDonald QC yesterday ruled in favour of her parents and against Barts Health NHS trust, which runs the Royal London hospital.

MacDonald said: “Either the NHS trust or the Gaslini hospital in Italy or another hospital will have to continue treating Tafi da with life-sustaining treatment.” David Lock QC, representing Tafi da’s parents, thanked the judge for his ruling saying it had come as “an intense relief to them” after the “intolerable pressure” of the last few months.

Katie Gollop QC, for the trust, said Barts would have to review the judgment and its ramifi cations for other children before deciding whether to appeal. The trust has 21

days to lodge an appeal but Mac-Donald and lawyers for Tafi da and her parents urged it to expedite its decision given the circumstances of the case.

During the trial the court heard that Tafi da could live for up to 20 years on ventilation. They have now won permission to take her to the Gaslini so that doctors there can perform a tracheotomy, ena-bling her to return home and be ventilated there.

Rejecting the doctors’ progno-sis, Begum, an immigration law-yer, said her daughter had shown

signs of awareness, producing videos shown to the court that she claimed illustrated this.

Gollop said Tafi da could not see, feel, taste or move and in the future was predicted to develop a number of conditions. They include spasticity, spinal cur-vature, dislocation of the hips, double incontinence and poten-tially epilepsy.

But Begum, who said there had been a breakdown of trust with the Royal London, said she re-mained hopeful that her daugh-ter’s condition would improve,

pleading for her to be given time. She said that if Tafi da’s functions did not return, she would “still cherish her life the way it is”.

Speaking after the judgment, she said: “Our beautiful daugh-ter, Tafi da, is not dying and we are continuously seeing small but important signs that she is gradu-ally improving and we have always been hopeful that she might make something of a recovery if she is just given the time and the right treatment to continue to improve.”

The ruling follows a number of high-profi le cases in which

judges have ruled in favour of NHS trusts against parents’ des-perate attempts to keep their children alive, including those of Charlie Gard, Alfi e Evans and Isaiah Haastrup. Tafi da’s trans-fer to Italy is being funded by the community platform CitizenGo, which intervened unsuccessfully in those other cases. Her situ-ation diff ers from theirs in that because experts say she is not in pain and her condition is stable, neither life-sustaining treatment nor transfer to Italy are consid-ered harmful.

8 Gulf TimesFriday, October 4, 2019

BRITAIN/IRELAND

EUROPE9Gulf Times

Friday, October 4, 2019

A knife-wielding man who worked at police head-quarters in central Paris

went on a rampage yesterday, stabbing to death four employees before he was shot dead, offi cials said.

A fi fth person was critically injured and was being treated in hospital after the deadliest attack on police in France in years, the motive of which was still unclear.

Sources close to the inves-tigation said the attacker, a 45-year-old IT worker in the po-lice intelligence department, had converted to Islam 18 months ago.

He killed three male offi c-ers and a female assistant before being shot in the courtyard of the square stone building next to Notre-Dame cathedral in the historic heart of Paris.

The man, who was born in the French Caribbean territory of Martinique and had worked for the police since 2003, had a hear-ing disability.

Police searched his home in a quiet residence in Gonesse, a low-income suburb north of Paris, and took his wife into custody, Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz told reporters.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that the assailant had “never shown any behav-ioural problems”.

The police were “particularly stricken by this exceptionally grave incident”, said Castaner, who postponed a planned trip to Greece and Turkey to visit the scene with President Emmanuel Macron.

Addressing a public meet-ing later in the southern town of Rodez, Macron called the at-

tack a “veritable tragedy” and described the perpetrator’s col-leagues as being “in a state of shock”.

The assailant used a kitchen knife to stab the three police of-fi cers in their offi ces before going on to attack the female employee on the staircase.

In the courtyard, he was con-fronted by an offi cer who ordered him to drop the knife.

When he refused, the offi cer shot him in the head, police sources said.

Heitz said he was “in constant contact” with anti-terrorism investigators about the case but that for the moment it was being handled by his offi ce.

The police building was cor-doned off after the lunchtime attack and dozens of police and emergency vehicles converged at the scene.

“People were running every-where, there was crying every-where,” said Emery Siamandi, an interpreter who was in the build-ing when the attack happened.

“I heard a shot, I gathered it was inside,” he told AFP. “Mo-ments later, I saw police offi cers crying. They were in a panic.”

Initial reports said investiga-tors believed a workplace dispute could have sparked the incident.

“Did he snap, or was there some other reason? It’s still too early to say,” Loic Travers, head of the Alliance Police union for the Paris region, told BFM television.

Yesterday’s killings come amid growing tensions within the ranks of the police, who have been stretched to the limit after a year of trying to contain weekly “yellow vest” anti-Macron dem-onstrations.

Thousands of police offi cers marched in Paris on Wednesday for better working conditions, a rare protest that took place

against the backdrop of a spike in police suicides – 52 so far this year.

But the police have also been a recurring target of religious extremist groups, such as the Islamic State (IS), behind a wave of attacks in France since 2015, from large synchronised assaults to isolated knife and gun attacks.

In January 2015, two police offi cers were among 12 people killed when gunmen stormed the Paris offi ces of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

A day later, a policewoman was shot dead in southern Paris.

In June 2016, a police couple were stabbed to death in their home in a suburb west of Paris by

a man claiming allegiance to IS, who broadcast the attack live on Facebook.

And in April 2017, a man

opened fi re on a police van on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, killing an offi cer and wounding two oth-ers along with a pedestrian.

Four die in rampage at Paris police HQAFPParis

Soldiers stand guard near the Paris police headquarters after four off icers were killed in a knife attack.

Emergency personnel are seen stand near an air ambulance helicopter on the Pont Marie, near the Paris police headquarters.

Three Swedish police of-fi cers were cleared yes-terday of shooting dead

a 20-year-old man with Down’s syndrome and autism who had sneaked out of his home in the middle of the night to play with a toy pistol, a Stockholm court said.

Eric Torell’s death last Au-gust caused a public outcry and raised questions over the use of deadly force by the police.

The offi cers fi red 25 shots at Torell, who had the mental age of a three-year-old, believing the toy was a real weapon.

Torell was hit three times.

Two of the shots, including the one that killed him, hit him in the back.

Two of the offi cers were charged with misconduct and the third with causing another person’s death.

The prosecutor had asked for a fi ne for the two offi cers and a suspended sentence and a fi ne for the offi cer charged with kill-ing Torell.

The offi cers had denied wrongdoing.

The court said in a state-ment that the offi cers believed they were in severe danger and it could not be determined in which order the shots had hit the man, or his pattern of move-ment.

“All-in-all the prosecutor has

not disproved the argument of perceived self-defence and the violence used is not considered manifestly unjustifi able,” the court said in a statement.

The prosecutor acknowl-edged during the trial that the police offi cers had been within their right to open fi re, but that they should have stopped once Torell turned his back on them.

The prosecutor said in a statement he had not yet de-cided whether to appeal against the verdict.

The defence team had called a stress expert as a witness to argue that the situation was so stressful that the police offi cers should not be found guilty.

Despite the outcry at the time of the shooting, there was lit-

tle reaction to the verdict in a country that has no organised anti-gun lobby and a traditional faith in the role of the authori-ties.

Swedish police, who are rou-tinely armed, have shot dead an average of one person per year over the past 20 years, accord-ing to police statistics.

However, numbers have been increasing, with six people shot dead in 2018.

The average is 3.2 over the past fi ve years.

In the United States, 992 peo-ple were shot dead by police in 2018, according to the Washing-ton Post’s database.

The population of the United States is about 330mn compared with Sweden’s 10mn.

Swedish court clears cops of killing Down’s syndrome manReutersStockholm

Chancellor Angela Merkel made a veiled attack on the far-right Alterna-

tive for Germany (AfD) party on the 29th anniversary of German reunifi cation yesterday, saying that economic grievances in the east were no excuse for racism.

In a speech marking the an-niversary, Merkel cited a govern-ment-commissioned report that found economic discrepancies between the eastern and west-ern parts of Germany and which said people in the east feel like second-class citizens.

But she said this was no jus-tifi cation for verbal attacks on foreigners under the guise of free speech, and that such at-tacks threatened democracy in Germany.

Shortly after she spoke, about 600 people took part in a far-right rally in Berlin, with some carrying German fl ags and wav-

ing anti-Islam placards.Merkel did not mention the

anti-migrant AfD by name but it has stronger support in eastern parts of Germany and made big gains in elections in two eastern regions last month.

“It should never be the case

that disappointment with poli-tics, however signifi cant, be ac-cepted as a legitimate reason to marginalise, threaten or attack others because of their skin colour, religion, sex, or sexual orientation,” Merkel said in the northern city of Kiel.

“The values of our constitu-tion must guide each and every debate in our country,” she said. “In concrete terms this means, ‘Yes’ to open debate, ‘Yes’ to tough demands from politics, ‘No’ to intolerance, ‘No’ to mar-ginalisation, ‘No’ to hate and

anti-Semitism, ‘No’ to living at the expense of the weak and mi-norities.”

Merkel’s conservatives and their Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners have accused the AfD, the largest opposition party in parliament, of legiti-mising a language of hate that spurs violence.

They have said the AfD ma-nipulates the grievances of eastern Germans – about lower wages and pensions, an exodus of young people, plans to phase out coal and the challenge of in-tegrating a record infl ux of refu-gees – to make political gains through populism.

The AfD, which entered par-liament two years ago in elec-tions that were shaped by dis-quiet over Merkel’s decision in 2015 to welcome almost 1mn migrants, says it has always dis-tanced itself from extremists.

The deadly shooting of a pro-immigration conservative politician in June and a rise in anti-Semitism have fuelled de-

bate about the anti-immigrant speeches of some AfD leaders.

The party has about 10% sup-port in western regions and is polling at 14% nationally.

The report cited by Merkel showed east Germany’s eco-nomic strength has risen to 75% of the west German level from 43% in 1990.

Employment is at a high in the east and wages there are 84% of those in the west, it showed.

The report found that less than 40% say reunifi cation was worth it and less than half are happy with democracy in Ger-many.

“A lot has been achieved in the past 29 years. In the west as well as in the east, people are all in all happier with their lives than at any other moment since reunifi cation. But we also know that this is not the whole truth,” Merkel said. “We must all learn to understand why reunifi ca-tion for many people in eastern states is not only a positive ex-perience.”

Merkel warning on racism on anniversary of German reunifi cationReutersKiel, Germany

Merkel: It should never be the case that disappointment with politics .. be accepted as a legitimate reason to marginalise, threaten or attack others because of their skin colour, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.

Carola Rackete, the Ger-man captain of a mi-grant rescue ship who

illegally entered Italian waters, accused the European Union of shirking its duty to rescue mi-grants from the Mediterranean Sea in an address to EU law-makers yesterday.

Instead, the bloc had del-egated “responsibility for res-cues to a country at war, Libya”, she said in the European Parlia-ment in Brussels, and called for EU-level shared responsibility for migrants rescued at sea.

Libya is not a safe place to return intercepted migrants to, Rackete said at the hear-ing commemorating the sixth anniversary of the Lampedusa shipwreck, in which more than 300 people drowned off the Italian island’s coast.

The EU suspended patrols by its own naval vessels in March amid a fi erce spat over how to distribute migrants rescued at sea throughout the bloc, but still supports and trains the Libyan coastguard.

UN agencies have repeat-edly highlighted the hellish conditions migrants who have landed in Libya whilst trying to reach Europe face in the coun-try’s detention centres.

Many rescue boats have been also been left stranded since last summer, with Euro-pean ports refusing entry un-

til member states could strike agreements to take in the res-cued migrants on board.

The 31-year-old Rackete was the captain of one such boat, and came to public attention after taking 40 migrants to the island of Lampedusa on June 29, ignoring orders not to enter Italian territorial waters.

She remains a suspect in Italian criminal investigations, according to the German NGO Sea-Watch for which she cap-tained the rescue ship.

The aff air has made her a public – and polarising – fi g-ure, amid the wider and long-running controversy over the EU’s response to the infl ux of migrants from North Africa.

Rackete’s speech came ahead of a meeting of EU interior ministers next week in Lux-embourg, where a proposal for a temporary mechanism for disembarkation and distribu-tion of migrants in the EU is expected on the agenda.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said the plan was a “good start” to en-suring certainty around disem-barkation, urging EU member states to open their ports and take their fair share of disem-barked people.

Furthermore, “EU minis-ters should affi rm clearly that rescue vessels should not be bound to obey instructions to disembark in Libya”, the two human rights organisations said in a joint statement yes-terday.

Migrant rescue boat captain Rackete wants EU-level rescue plan

DPABrussels

Rackete takes part in a protest yesterday calling for migrants’ rights near the European Parliament in Brussels.

‘Urgent need’ to stop migrants from leaving Turkey, says EU commissioner

EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said yesterday that there is an “urgent need” to stop illegal departures from Turkey as Greece struggles to cope with a sharp increase in the refugee arrivals.“Irregular arrivals to Greece increased over the past weeks and months,” Avramopoulos told a news conference in Ankara, alongside the Turkish and German interior ministers.“There is an urgent need to further strengthen the prevention and detection of irregular departures from Turkey,” he said.The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) announced on Tuesday that arrivals by sea from Turkey to Greece, mostly of Afghan and Syrian families, increased to 10,258 in September.That represented the highest monthly total since the 2016 deal between Turkey and the EU to curb the flow of arrivals, according to the refugee agency.Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu however called on the EU to share the refugee burder as Ankara fears a new influx from Syria’s Idlib province near the border.Turkey “has fulfilled its commitments” under the 2016 accord with the EU, said Soylu. “We expect Europe to be in the same frame.”He also warned that the hostilities in Idlib could trigger a massive influx to Turkey, which is already home to 3.6mn Syrian refugees.Avramopoulos said he appreciated the work already done by Ankara, “especially as the migratory pressure on Turkey continues”.

Teachersprotestfollowing colleague’s suicide

AFPBobigny, France

Thousands of French teach-ers took to the streets yesterday in solidarity

with a principal who committed suicide in the lobby of her school last month after complaining in a letter about a work overload leaving her “exhausted”.

Christine Renon took her own life last month at her school in Pantin in northern Paris just days after outlining the pressure of her job in a letter, in a tragedy that has shocked teachers, pupils and parents in Paris.

“We can all recognise our-selves in the letter,” said teacher Isabelle at the protest in front of the education headquarters for the Seine-Saint-Denis region in northern Paris.

“Our working conditions are terrible ... anyone could do what she did,” she said, trembling in the midst of hundreds of fellow teachers, principals, and parents of pupils.

“I am Christine Renon,” said Isabelle’s poster, borrowing from the “Je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) slogan adopted world-wide after the religious extrem-ist attacks on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015.

Another protester bore aloft a cardboard placard imploring: “Leave us to teach.”

A caretaker at the school in Pantin found 58-year-old Renon’s body in the lobby on September 23.

Two days earlier, Renon had written a letter addressed to about 30 colleagues in which she bemoaned the accumulation of “time-consuming tasks” and detailed her “exhaustion”.

Yesterday’s protests were or-ganised to coincide with Renon’s funeral.

Residents of flood-aff ected Patna, in Bihar, fear an epidemic outbreak with stagnant rain water emitting stench and animal carcasses floating around. It has simply added to their woes of staying indoors for around a week, surrounded by four-six feet deep stinking water.

Epidemic fears in PatnaMamallapuramgets a makeoverfor Modi-Xi three-day meetThe state government has sought the court’s permission to put up welcome banners from the Chennai airport to Mamallapuram

IANSChennai

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi

Jinping scheduled to meet at Mamallapuram near here from October 11-13, the Tamil Nadu government is busy preparing the ground for the summit, in-cluding getting the Madras High Court’s sanction to put up wel-come banners.

The state government had sought the court’s permission to put up welcome banners from the Chennai airport to Mamal-lapuram.

The court yesterday, while permitting the state government to put up banners, said that they should not hinder the public.

On October 2, Chief Minister K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam ac-companied by top administra-tive and police offi cials visited Mamallapuram also known as Mahabalipuram and inspected the arrangements being made for the second India-China informal summit between Modi and Xi.

Mamallapuram, about 60km from here, is famous for its stone

temples and stone carvings and is a Unesco World Heritage Site that has been brought under a security blanket with police per-sonnel maintaining a strict vigil.

The authorities have already removed roadside shops in the locality and installed CCTV cameras at strategic locations.

The police have also advised the hotels and resorts to rent out rooms only to those having prop-er identifi cation papers.

The residents have also been asked not to entertain guests till the summit gets over.

According to police, checks are being conducted at lodges and hotels and those who are stay-ing without proper identifi cation papers have been asked to vacate.

Senior police offi cials are making regular trips to Mamal-lapuram to check on the security arrangements.

Fishermen have been advised to keep away from the sea during the summit days.

The two leaders are also slated to visit the Shore Temple.

Meanwhile, the roads are be-ing re-laid and the medians painted afresh.

Apart from the positive results of the talks between the leaders of the world’s two most populous nations, in-bound tourism to Mamallapuram is expected to in-crease as a result of the summit.

“Mamallapuram is already a Unesco World Heritage Site fa-mous of its stone carvings and stone temples. The India-China summit will bring this tourist spot under focus,” Yangya Pra-kash Chandran, founder and CEO, Crossway Hotels and Re-sorts, said.

He said Modi himself recently said at a function at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) he would visit Mamal-lapuram and also urged the peo-ple to start out on domestic tour-ism.

Chandran said Tamil Nadu is already a top inbound tourist destination in the country.

Apart from stone carvings at Mamallapuram, the entire East Coast Road leading to the town is dotted with several places of tourist interest like the Crocodile Park, VGP Marine Kingdom and others.

Modi govt ‘readying for cabinet reshuffl e’IANSNew Delhi

After coming back to pow-er with a thumping ma-jority this May, the Modi

government is all set to go for its fi rst cabinet reshuffl e very soon.

Sources say, the reshuffl e can take place as early as in the next 15 days.

Informed sources said a major inclusion in the new cabinet can be Suresh Prabhu, who is likely to make a comeback, after he was dropped from the cabinet when Modi took oath on May 30, this year. The former Shiv Sainik is tipped to head the commerce and industry ministry. Right now, the portfolio is being han-dled by Piyush Goyal.

Prabhu earlier in Modi 1.0 had handled commerce and indus-try portfolio. He is also India’s ‘Sherpa’ at the G20.

One of the reasons Prabhu didn’t make the cut was an over-whelming feeling within the BJP that Prabhu failed to garner div-idends for the party in spite of holding portfolios like railways which plays a key role in infl u-encing the electorate.

But with the economy slid-ing and the GDP projections taking a dip, Modi seems to be falling back on people with core expertise. Prabhu is a chartered accountant-turned-politician who was poached from the Shiv Sena when the BJP’s ally refused to send him to the cabinet from its share, during Modi’s fi rst tenure.

In spite of the economy not being in the best of shape and continued job losses in key sec-tors like automobile, Nirmala Sitharaman seems to have saved her meaty fi nance portfolio. Sitharaman has been on a spree to make amends to inject adren-aline rush into a weary economy, including the latest cut on cor-porate tax from 30% to 22%, which was hailed by Modi as “historic”.

Merger of banks and with-drawal of enhanced surcharge for FPI (foreign portfolio inves-tors) are twin major decisions that seems to have done the trick for her.

Modi, however is expected to bring in more technocrats and people with core expertise for ministries that are crucial

for the economic turnaround of the country. Remember, Modi surprised many when S Jaishankar, a former foreign secretary was inducted in the cabinet this time. But his do-main expertise in international diplomacy helped India sail through after abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitu-tion that gave special powers to Kashmir.

Right now there are 58 minis-ters in the union council of min-isters and just 24 out of them are of cabinet rank. Many minis-ters who are shuttling between many portfolios will be divested of some of their responsibilities, say sources.

For example, Narendra Singh Tomar holds agriculture and farmers welfare, rural develop-

ment and panchayati raj port-folios. Ravi Shankar Prasad is entrusted with responsibilities of law and justice, communi-cations, electronics and infor-mation technology - three key ministries.

Chances are, some of them may be relieved of the additional burden, given the important role they play also for the organisa-tion. Tomar is the Haryana elec-tion-in-charge, while Prasad is the key BJP face to communicate from the party platform, after the death of Arun Jaitley.

It’s the fi rst ever cabinet re-shuffl e after the Modi govern-ment swept back to power with 303 seats. With the box of Ar-ticle 370 ticked, the goal of this reshuffl e will be economic turn-around.

HDIL chief arrested over banking scamReutersMumbai

The police yesterday ar-rested the head of a bank-rupt realty company after

lender Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC) ac-cused executives of partaking in a “criminal conspiracy” involv-ing forged audit reports that cost the bank some Rs43.55bn.

In the latest case to roil the banking sector, PMC made a police complaint accusing its own executives and offi cials at Housing Development and In-frastructure Limited (HDIL) of misleading the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from 2008 to August 2019 by forging the audits to hide the fact that big accounts had be-come non-performing assets.

The RBI last week took charge of the bank and suspended man-aging director Joy Thomas and

the bank’s board after uncover-ing lending irregularities.

PMC has been barred from re-newing, or granting any loans, or making investments without the RBI’s prior approval.

Depositors have been in-formed they can only withdraw a maximum of Rs10,000 from their PMC accounts over the next six months.

On Tuesday, dozens of ac-count holders gathered outside an RBI offi ce in Mumbai to pro-test against the curbs and de-mand that the central bank and government intervene to release their funds.

Yesterday evening, the Eco-nomic Off ences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police arrested HDIL’s chairman Rakesh Kumar Wadha-wan as well as his son Sarang Wad-hawan, the bank’s vice chairman, Mumbai Police spokesperson Pra-naya Ashok said.

He declined to provide infor-

mation about the charges against them.

Reuters was not immediately able to contact the two Wadha-wans.

HDIL did not immediately re-spond to a request for comment.

In the past two years, the country’s troubled banking sec-tor has been rocked by a multi-billion-dollar fraud at a state-run lender, the collapse of a major infrastructure lender, bad loan issues at state-run banks and a liquidity squeeze that has hit shadow lenders.

Media outlets on Sunday re-ported that PMC’s exposure to HDIL stood at Rs65bn, which accounts for 73% of its overall Rs88.8bn loan book.

That is well above the RBI’s permissible exposure levels to a single entity.

PMC could not immediately be reached for comment on the estimate.

Pala legislator facescheating allegationsIANSThiruvananthapuram

A Mumbai-based Kerala businessman, Dinesh Menon, has alleged that

Pala legislator Mani C Kappen has cheated him of Rs32.5mn, a charge denied by the latter.

The issue resurfaced yester-day after Revolutionary Socialist Party of Kerala (Bolshevik) leader Shibhu Baby John posted an e-mail statement by Kappen, given to the Central Bureau of Investi-gation, on his Facebook.

Kappen in the e-mail stated that Menon - whom Kappen had introduced to then Kerala home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan (2006-11) and his son later - had some cash dealings with him for allotment of shares of Kannur Airport Ltd.

Kappen threatened to take legal action against Menon for spreading false allegations.

“I have not given any statement

to the CBI against Balakrishnan. John is using a forged letter and that’s what he has posted on the Facebook. I owe some money to Menon. I gave him Rs2.5mn and a few cheques, which bounced,” Kappen admitted.

Menon told the media in Delhi that he was introduced by Ka-ppen to Balakrishnan when he was the home minister and it was merely a courtesy meeting.

“I have had no dealings with either Balakrishnan or his son. It’s Kappen with whom I had dealings. He took Rs32.5mn promising me shares of Kan-nur Airport Ltd. But all I got was a letter stating that the shares can’t be allotted. Kappen then returned Rs2.5mn, and a few cheques. He said he would give me two acres of land at the fa-mous tourist destination Kuma-rakom in Kottayam. Later I found that he had pledged that land. After his cheques bounced, I fi led a case which is pending in court,” Menon said.

INDIA

Gulf Times Friday, October 4, 201910

Journalists in Kashmir yesterday staged a small silent protest against what they say has been a “media gag” by authorities that has badly aff ected their ability to work in the region for the last 60 days. The government stripped Kashmir of au-tonomy on August 5, shutting off phone networks and imposing curfew-like restrictions in some areas. Some of those curbs have been slowly relaxed, but mobile and Internet communications in the Kashmir valley are largely still blocked, severely impacting the ability of journalists to re-port. Carrying placards more than 100 journalists protested at the press club premises in Srinagar, as street protests are restricted.

Aaditya Thackeray, the veritable ‘crown prince’ of the Shiv Sena, yesterday filed his nomina-tion papers from the Worli Assembly seat in Mumbai for the October 21 Maharashtra As-sembly elections. Before filing his nomination papers, Aaditya prayed before a portrait of his grandfather and Sena founder-patriarch the late Bal Thackeray at his family home ‘Matoshri’ in Bandra. Thereafter, the 29-year-old stepped out to create history by becoming the first member of the Thackeray family to discard the ‘remote control’ and choose to make a direct connect with the public by plunging into the electoral fray.

In a pre-poll jolt for the Congress in Mahar-ashtra, senior party leader Sanjay Nirupam yesterday declared he will “not campaign” in the October 21 Assembly elections. The former Mumbai Congress chief and three-time MP’s decision came after the party rejected his plea for nominating at least one Muslim or minority candidate from each district in the state. “For Mumbai, I had recommended only one name of a potentially winner Muslim candidate from Versova, but that has been rejected without assigning reasons. This means the party has no need for me. I shall sit at home during elec-tions,” a jilted Nirupam said.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram yesterday expressed hope his father will be “be back home soon”, while reiterat-ing it was “political vendetta”. The Sivaganga MP said: “I am hopeful that my father will be back home soon.” However, he refused to comment on the recent order of the Delhi High Court dismiss-ing the regular bail plea filed by P Chidambaram in the CBI case relating to INX Media. Speaking to reporters outside Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court, Karti Chidambaram said: “The court has allowed home-cooked food for my father, it was kind of an interim relief. What is happening to my father is because of political vendetta.”

Making his first public appearance in 20 days, during which he eluded the Central Bureau of Investigation officials frantically searching for him, senior IPS officer Rajeev Kumar yester-day surrendered before the Alipore court in Kolkata and was given him bail in connection with the Saradha ponzi scheme scam. Kumar gave himself up before the additional chief judicial magistrate Subrata Mukherjee, as part of formalities two days after he was granted anticipatory bail by the Calcutta High Court in the case. The ACJM asked Kumar to furnish two sureties of Rs 50,000 each for availing of the bail.

Aaditya Thackeray filesnomination from Worli

‘Miff ed’ Nirupam refusesto campaign for Congress

Kashmiri journalists protest ‘media gag’

My dad will be back homesoon: Karti Chidambaram

Kumar surrenders to complete bail formalities

ANGER POLITICSDECISION OPINION PEOPLE

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arrives at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi yesterday at the start of an off icial visit.

Hasina arrives

“Mamallapuram is already a Unesco World Heritage Site famous of its stone carvings and stone temples. The India-China summit will bring this tourist spot under focus”

Sumo wrestlinglooks to catchon in BrazilAFPSao Paulo

Every two weeks, Rui Junior drives eight hours from his hometown of Londrina to

Sao Paulo for a training session — in sumo, which is trying to get its due in Brazil.

Even though the South Ameri-can country is home to the larg-est Japanese community outside Japan, the ancient form of wres-tling is still a fl edgling sport here, and training is not always all that easy.

“I’ve been going to Sao Paulo for years to practice,” says Junior, who is 25 years and weighs in at 160kgs.

“It’s an eight-hour drive to get there, and another eight hours to get home. It costs me a fair bit of money, but it’s worth it. It makes me really happy,” he said.

Junior is a 10-time Brazil heavyweight champion and a three-time winner in all of South America.

He is the main attraction at weekly training sessions at the Mie Nishi gym in Sao Paulo, which claims it is the only pub-lic ring outside Japan solely for sumo wrestling.

Inside, about 10 men and women in diff erent weight class-es — none of them of Asian de-scent — train together.

In their mawashis, the sport’s trademark belts, they warm up in a circle around the dohyo, or dirt ring where the fi ghters battle each other.

But these amateur sumos are far from achieving the level of the pros in Japan.

With his thick beard and round stomach, Junior stands out from his fellow gym mates, who are mostly rather slim.

Without a viable sparring partner in Londrina, Junior started playing American foot-ball to stay in shape.

“I have to train on my own, because it’s technically rather diffi cult. Even if I know the right techniques, I need someone to train me, show me what I’m do-

ing wrong,” he says.Several of the men and women

who practice sumo in Sao Paulo, including Junior, are getting ready for the World Sumo Cham-pionships, which will take place later this month in Osaka.

Among the women, the best known is 40-year-old Fernanda Rojas, who will represent Brazil for the “sixth or seventh” time at worlds.

Rojas says sumo among women got more popular in Brazil “when sumo was battling to be recognised as an Olympic sport.”

“Nowadays, there are a fair number of female sumos in the country, and that number is growing every day, as there are school programmes in place,” she explains.

Mixed-gender training ses-sions help the women be more competitive, she adds.

“Sumo is not just a question of strength; it’s also about agility,” Rojas says.

To help spread sumo across Brazil, the Japanese government sent a coach under the auspices of the Japan International Coop-eration Agency (JICA).

Guilherme Vaz, a 17-year-old who will head to the world championships for the fi rst time in the middleweight division, is a promising prospect.

“I’m very motivated. I could come back with a medal. My main rivals come from Japan and Mongolia,” says Vaz, who says his passion for sumo is part of a fam-ily tradition.

Vaz also trains at Mie Nishi in Sao Paulo as he has no viable training partners in his home-town in the suburbs of the Bra-zilian mega-city.

The teen explains that he tried to convince his friends to do sumo, but that he couldn’t because “it’s a sport that falls victim to a lot of preconceived notions.”

“Some think it’s weird to fi ght bare-chested, to grapple with another man... I try to tell them that it’s not like that, to change their view of things, but it’s com-plicated,” Vaz admits.

Honduras president rejects‘false’ US drugs trial claimsAFPNew York

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez took millions of dollars in

bribes from drug lords including jailed Mexican kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, a US prosecutor said at the opening of his brother’s trial.

The president’s brother, Juan Antonio Hernandez — a former Honduran congressman also known as Tony — was arrested at a Miami airport in November 2018 for conspiring to import cocaine

into the US, weapons off ences and making false statements.

“The defendant was protected by the current president, who has received millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffi ckers like ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, who person-ally delivered $1mn to the defend-ant for his brother,” prosecutor Jason Richman said.

President Hernandez dismissed the accusation as “absurd.” It “is 100% false, absurd and ridicu-lous... this is less serious than Al-ice in Wonderland,” he wrote on Twitter.

Richman said that Tony Hernan-dez belonged to “a state-sponsored

organisation that distributed co-caine for years” in the US, with the goal of making millions of dollars, adding that corrupt “mayors, con-gressmen, military generals (and) police chiefs protected his organi-sation.”

The charges run to four counts. If convicted, he faces from fi ve years to life in prison.

The US government alleges that Tony Hernandez, who served as a member of the Honduran Con-gress from 2014 to 2018, worked from 2004 to 2016 with others in Colombia, Honduras and Mexico to import cocaine into the US via plane, boat and submarine.

The prosecution also says Tony Hernandez was involved in at least two murders of rival drug traffi ck-ers in 2011 and 2013.

Some of the cocaine he was transporting was labeled with his initials “TH,” according to US at-torney Geoff rey Berman.

Defence attorney Omar Malone said Tony Hernandez was the tar-get of violent criminals because his brother’s administration au-thorised the extradition of drug traffi ckers to the US.

He also referenced the cordial relationship between Honduras and the US, which saw the coun-try’s president shake hands with

his US counterpart Donald Trump at the United Nations General As-sembly in New York.

“The president of Honduras has interacted with the US like any other president of any other country,” Malone said.

Tony Hernandez, 41, wore a blue suit and appeared calm dur-ing the selection process of 12 ju-rors and six alternates.

For security reasons the jurors will only be identifi ed with num-bers, as is typical for major drug-traffi cking trials.

The judge estimates the trial will last between 10 and 12 busi-ness days.

Russia PM visits Cubain eff ort to renew tiesReutersHavana/Moscow

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev began an offi cial two-day visit

to Havana yesterday in a strong show of Russia’s support for the island as it faces escalating pres-sure from the US.

Moscow has sought to renew its commercial, military and po-litical ties with Cuba in recent years, as part of a broader strate-gy to expand its presence in Latin America as a counterweight to China and the US.

It has also backed Cuba’s left-ist allies Venezuela and Nica-ragua, under attack from the Trump administration.

Medvedev’s visit — the highest profi le Russian tour since that of President Vladimir Putin in 2014 — is symbolically important, an-alysts said.

“The symbolism is that the US strategy of economic strangula-tion will fail because Cuba can turn elsewhere for support — just as it did during the Cold War,”

said William LeoGrande, a pro-fessor of government at Ameri-can University.

“That’s a message to the US, but also to the Cuban people that they should not despair because they have other friends abroad.”

Russia has in particular the capacity to help Cuba out of its current fuel crisis which Ha-vana blames on US sanctions on energy shipments to the island, although it remains unclear whether it is willing to make such a large commitment.

Throughout the Cold War, Moscow propped up Fidel Cas-tro’s government, providing it with billions of dollars worth of grain, machinery and other goods.

Those subsidies disappeared with the 1991 collapse of the So-viet Union and trade plunged.

Relations got a boost once more in 2014 when Russia forgave 90% of Cuba’s $35bn Soviet-era debt and started providing export fi -nancing to Russian companies looking to sell to the island.

That has become increasingly important as western commer-

cial fi nancing is drying up due to growing US hostility.

Russian companies have signed various modest, multi-million dollar deals with Cuba in recent years to upgrade its indus-trial sector and infrastructure.

During Medvedev’s visit, the Russian Export Center (REC) plans to sign a deal with Cuba’s Aviaimport to fi nance around 21mn euros worth of projects to provide technical assistance for airplanes produced by Rus-sia, REC director general Andrei Slepnyov said.

Separately, REC and Banco Exterior de Cuba plan to sign a fi nancing deal worth around 33.8mn euros to upgrade a steel bars and wire factory.

This would allow Cuba’s Aci-nox Comercial to upgrade rolled steel production capacity to 170,000 tonnes per year from 40,000 tonnes now, he said.

“This can help to enhance (Acinox’s) competitive positions including international ones... and result in infl ows of forex rev-enues to the country,” Slepnyov said.

Brazil pension recastclears fi rst hurdleReutersBrasilia

Brazil’s Senate has approved a landmark pension reform bill in a fi rst round of vot-

ing, in a relief for far-right Presi-dent Jair Bolsonaro, although senators voted down an amend-ment in a move that dilutes the reform’s projected savings.

The bill will now pass to a sec-ond and fi nal voting round.

Senate president David Alco-lumbre said the process is likely to be completed by October 10, or perhaps slightly later in the month.

On Tuesday, senators had eas-ily approved the bill’s main text but rejected a key amendment, which reduced bonus salary pay-ments to low-paid workers, dilut-ing the bill’s overall fi scal impact by 76bn reais ($18bn). Bolsonaro on Wednesday urged senators to approve the legislation, which re-quires two rounds of voting in the upper house because it will change the constitution.

“Reform is necessary. If it doesn’t come, Brazil will be bankrupt in two years. Sorry, you have to approve it, there’s no al-

ternative,” Bolsonaro said in a video on his Facebook page.

“There is no plan B...other governments have tried to do it but failed. That’s the reality.”

Lower house Speaker Rodrigo Maia was sanguine about the cuts to the bill’s potential sav-ings. “The fundamental part is guaranteed, it’s approved,” he said.

Overhauling the costly social security system is Bolsonaro’s economic priority this year.

Through a mix of unpopular measures such as an increase to the minimum retirement age and to workers’ pension contri-butions, the bill aims to save the public purse more than 900bn reais over the next decade.

The head of Bolsonaro’s politi-cal party in the senate, senator Major Olimpio, warned on Tues-day that the second-round vote scheduled for next week might not take place if the govern-ment reneges on promises made to lawmakers in return for their support.

The government, central bank and many economists insist that pension reform is needed to boost confi dence, investment and ulti-mately economic growth.

Venezuela marks China anniversary

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro applauds next to China’s ambassador to Venezuela, Li Baorong, during a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in Caracas, Venezuela.

Fire destroys factory

Workers of the Caribbean Craft factory clear the remains of arts and crafts burnt in a fire, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

LATIN AMERICA

Gulf Times Friday, October 4, 2019 11

Brazilian police have opened an investigation into possible criminal activity surrounding an apparent oil spill off beaches along the country’s northeast coast, federal prosecutors said. The probe aims to establish the origin of the oil slicks, which could represent “possible major environmental damage in the region,” the police said in a statement. Brazil’s northeast coast is famed for its sandy beaches and is popular with tourists. Environmental agency Ibama said last week that the mysterious spill had contaminated beaches and coastline across eight states, and that some oil-coated birds and sea turtles had been washed up and were being treated.

Colombian off icials have ordered a probe following the daring escape in Bogota of an imprisoned ex-senator from a medical centre where she had gone to see a dentist. Aida Merlano managed to slip away from her escorts, climbed out a window, and slid down a cord, landing heavily on the sidewalk before calmly escaping on the back of a waiting motorcycle. A video of her bold escape shot by a nearby security camera went viral on social media. Merlano, a native of the northern city of Barranquilla, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in September for buying votes during the 2018 general election that saw her elected senator for the Conservative Party.

Costa Rica’s congress has approved a $350mn loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to lower its debt, which is equal to more than half of the Central American nation’s gross domestic product. Lawmakers voted unanimously for the loan, which Finance Minister Rocio Aguilar said will save the government $13mn and help diminish financing needs in the local market as well as reduce pressure on interest rates. The IDB loan has a 20-year term with a five-year grace period, Costa Rica’s office of the president said. In an earlier effort to cut ballooning debt, Costa Rica in July approved the placement of up to $1.5bn in bonds.

Argentine economists forecast a deeper recession and maintained a pessimistic inflation forecast at a shade under 55% in the latest central bank monthly poll of analysts. The prediction follows weeks of political uncertainty and a plunge in the value of the peso after Alberto Fernandez, a Peronist candidate, soundly beat market-friendly incumbent President Mauricio Macri in an August primary election. Inflation was seen at 54.9% for the year, according to the survey of 45 analysts, down from 55% in the same central bank poll which was released last month, shortly after the shock primary election result.

A dam at a gold mine in western Brazil burst leaving a 2km trail of mining waste and injuring two people, according to the country’s National Mining Agency (ANM). No one was killed in the incident in Mato Grosso state, ANM said in a statement. The dam is registered under the name of an individual wildcat miner rather than in the name of a mining company. Inspections of the dam had not turned up any problems, and it had been declared as stable on September 25, the agency said. Brazil remains on high alert for dam ruptures after a tailings dam at a Vale SA iron ore mine burst in January, killing at least 250 people in the second major disaster of its kind in four years.

Police probe mysterious oil slicks on Brazil beaches

Former Colombia senatorflees police custody

Costa Rica to avail$350mn IDB loan

Argentine economistsforecast deeper recession

Burst dam at gold mineleaves two injured

LAW AND ORDER PEOPLE DECISIONECONOMYACCIDENT

PAKISTAN

Gulf Times Friday, October 4, 201912

Peace talks in Afghanistan must resume as soon as possible, Pakistan and the

Taliban militant group urged yesterday, after US President Donald Trump broke off negoti-ations last month seeking to end the United States’ longest war.

Trump halted talks with the group, aimed at striking a deal for US and other foreign troops to withdraw in exchange for Tal-iban security guarantees, after it carried out a bomb attack in Ka-bul that killed 12 people, includ-ing a US soldier.

“Both sides agreed on the need for the earliest resumption

of the peace process,” Pakistan’s Foreign Offi ce said in a statement yesterday after Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi met a Taliban delegation that is visit-ing Islamabad. “War is not a so-lution to any problem. Talks are the only and positive solution to establish peace in Afghanistan.”

The US embassy in the Pa-kistani capital did not imme-diately respond to a request for comment.

The United States has long considered Pakistan’s co-opera-tion crucial to eff orts to end the war in Afghanistan.

The Taliban delegation was led by the group’s co-founder and head of the political wing, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was detained in custody in

Pakistan for eight years before being released in 2018.

Representatives from the ex-tremist militant group arrived in Pakistan overnight.

Baradar was greeted with hugs and smiles by Qureshi and spy chief Lieutenant-General Faiz Hameed, footage released by the ministry showed.

Pakistan was one of only three countries to recognise the Tali-ban regime.

The visit is part of eff orts to reach out to regional countries after their talks with the United Stated broke down last month.

The meeting came as Zalmay Khalilzad, the top US envoy in-volved in the peace talks, also visited Islamabad for talks with the government, although it was

not clear if he would have any contact with the Taliban.

The latest development fol-lows a meeting last week be-tween Trump and Prime Minis-ter Imran Khan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

A pause in the bloodshed would help smooth the way to an agreement, Pakistan’s foreign minister said.

“It was emphasised that re-duction of violence by all parties to the confl ict was necessary,” the ministry said, adding that such a step would help to speed resumption of the peace eff ort.

“The Taliban were very, very positive and they want to resume talks,” a Pakistani offi cial told DPA, requesting anonymity.

Pakistan, Taliban call for Afghan talks to resumeReuters/DPA/AFP/InternewsIslamabad/Peshawar

In this handout released by the foreign ministry shows Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi receiving members of the Taliban delegation in Islamabad.

The Pakistan cabinet has been informed that the federal government is

leading the provincial govern-ments in redressal of citizen complaints received at the Prime Minister’s Pakistan Citi-zen Portal.

The cabinet was informed re-cently that so far 1.173mn users had registered themselves on the portal, with 100,300 inland users, 103,000 overseas Paki-stanis, and 4,000 foreigners.

Province-wise data shows 568,000 users from Punjab, 284,000 from Khyber Pa-khtunkhwa, 137,000 from Sindh, 35,000 from Islamabad, 12,000 from Baluchistan, 7,000 from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and 1,000 from Gilgit-Baltistan, are registered with the portal.

According to the report pre-

sented to the cabinet, the fed-eral government had resolved 509,153 out of 553,125 com-plaints.

In Punjab, 392,292 com-plaints were resolved with 88% redressal rate.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa secured 87% on the score card by resolv-ing 100,635 out of 116,050 com-plaints.

In Islamabad, 9,909 com-plaints were resolved out of 11,137.

The Baluchistan government resolved 6,166 complaints out of 7,782, securing 79% redres-sal rate.

Sindh, however, lagged with merely 40% redressal rate and could only resolve 38,268 out of 95,894 complaints.

The cabinet was informed that out of the 37,029 com-plaints that had been pending in the past 90 days, 84% com-plaints pertained to the Sindh government.

It was told that on the basis of the nature and feedback re-ceived from the citizens, various policy initiatives were taken to facilitate them.

These policy initiatives in-clude, among others, enforce-ment of SOPs (standard operat-ing procedures) for facilitation of persons with missing fi nger prints, exemption of overseas Pakistanis from withholding tax, payment of outstanding stipends to more than 29,000 interns who were hired by the previous government but were not paid their stipend, and fa-cilitation of females and persons with disabilities.

It was informed that on the basis of the complaints, strict action was taken and senior lev-el offi cers were taken to task for dereliction of duty.

Various success stories where the citizens were provided relief were also shared with the cabi-net.

These included provision of assistance to the citizens in cases of non-co-operation from government offi cials and offi ces, action against high-handedness of police offi cials, recovery of abductee, blackmailing, taking action against police offi cials who had colluded with culprits involved in rape of a girl, bring-ing back of a Pakistani citizen who was stuck in Saudi Arabia due to bankruptcy of a company.

The cabinet was informed that eff orts were afoot to insti-tutionalise the system and cre-ate greater awareness among people about the facility.

Eff orts were also being made to stop misuse, blackmailing and mala fi de through imple-mentation of Citizen’s Respon-sibility Index.

Prime Minister Imran Khan and the cabinet members ex-pressed appreciation for the performance of the Pakistan Citizen Portal.

Over 500,000 complaints resolved through the premier’s citizen portalInternewsIslamabad

Prime Minister Imran Khan will pay an offi cial visit to China on Octo-

ber 7-8 with the main agenda of “revival” of stalled China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

“Removal of all bottlenecks in CPEC projects and their timely completion is the top priority of the government,” the prime minister reiterated while chairing a meeting on the economic corridor on Wednes-day.

He said he would soon visit China and meet its leadership to strengthen friendship be-tween the two countries.

It has been learnt that most of the CPEC-related projects have stalled due to reasons in-cluding prevailing fi nancial crunch confronting the gov-ernment and “non-co-opera-tion” of the bureaucracy due to “fear of the National Account-ability Bureau”.

Minister for Planning and Development Khusro Bakhtiar apprised the meeting about CPEC-related projects and the progress so far made.

Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed briefed the meeting on Main Line-1 (ML-1) projects being executed to lay a new railway track from Karachi to Peshawar under the umbrella of the CPEC.

Meanwhile, addressing a prize distribution ceremony for madrassa students who had performed distinctively in the examinations of contemporary education boards and seminar-ies, Prime Minister Khan said the government’s plan to intro-duce uniform curriculum in the country would be implemented by March next year so that all graduates could have equal opportunities to grow in their practical life. “The graduates of the new education system will have understanding of religion, contemporary knowledge and science and technology.”

He said the government plans to synchronise the en-

tire education system to create social harmony in the country, adding that reforms were being introduced in the education system which would help uplift the lower section of the society with the provision of equal op-portunities to progress.

Highlighting the plight of the Kashmiris, the prime min-ister said that 8mn people had been locked in an open jail that Indian-administered Kashmir had become for two months.

At present, Khan said, three education systems are in vogue in Pakistan, which was leading to injustices and divisions in the society.

“The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government had decided in its early days that the stu-dents of seminaries will be im-parted contemporary modern education so that they too can get important positions in dif-ferent professions,” he added.

Underlining importance of education, the prime minister said Islam laid special empha-sis on education and that the “Muslims had ruled the world for 700 years not because of sword but education”.

“Muslims are weak today mainly due to lack of educa-tion,” he deplored.

Speaking on the occasion, Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said a uni-form curriculum is being pre-pared for government-run and private schools as well as ma-drassas.

Imran to visit China next week for talksInternewsIslamabad

Prime Minister Khan: Removal of all bottlenecks in CPEC projects and their timely completion is the top priority of the government.

The year is 2025 and mili-tants have attacked India’s parliament, killing most of

its leaders.New Delhi retaliates by send-

ing tanks into the part of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan.

Fearing it will be overrun, Is-lamabad hits the invading forc-es with its battlefi eld nuclear weapons, triggering the dead-liest confl ict in history – and catastrophic global cooling, with temperatures not seen since the last Ice Age.

This scenario was modelled by researchers in a new paper pub-lished on Wednesday, which en-

visaged more than 100mn imme-diate deaths, followed by global mass starvation after megatons of thick black soot block out sun-light for up to a decade.

It comes at a time of renewed tensions between the two South Asian rivals, which have fought several wars over the Muslim-majority territory of Kashmir and are rapidly building up their atomic arsenals.

They currently each have about 150 nuclear warheads at their disposal, with the number expected to climb to more than 200 by 2025.

“Unfortunately it’s timely be-cause India and Pakistan remain in confl ict over Kashmir, and every month or so you can read about people dying along the

border,” Alan Robock, a profes-sor in environmental sciences at Rutgers University, who co-au-thored the paper in Science Ad-vances, told AFP.

India’s Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi scrapped the autonomy of the part of Kashmir control-led by New Delhi in August, with his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan warning the United Na-tions late last month that the dispute could escalate into nu-clear war.

The two countries last fought a border confl ict in February, but they pulled back from the brink after Pakistan returned a downed pilot to India.

India has a “no fi rst strike” policy, but reserves the right to mount a nuclear response to any

hit by weapons of mass destruc-tion.

Pakistan has declared that it would only use nuclear weapons if it could not stop an invasion by conventional means or were at-tacked fi rst with nuclear weap-ons.

The authors wrote that al-though their scenario had Paki-stan pulling the trigger fi rst, they did not mean to imply they be-lieved this was more likely.

Based on their current popula-tions and the urban centres that would be likely targeted, the re-searchers estimated up to 125mn could be killed if both countries expended the bulk of their high-est yield weapons.

Around 75-80mn people were killed in World War II.

This most extreme scenario would involve the use of 100 kiloton weapons, more than six times as powerful as the bombs dropped on Hiroshima.

A single airburst from such a bomb could kill 2mn people and injure 1.5mn – but most of the deaths would occur from the rag-ing fi restorms that followed the blast.

“India would suff er two to three times more fatalities and casualties than Pakistan because, in our scenario, Pakistan uses more weapons than India, and because India has a much larger population and more densely populated cities,” the research paper said.

As a percentage of its urban population, though, Pakistan’s

losses would be about twice those of India.

However, nuclear Armageddon would be only the beginning.

The research found that the fi restorms could release 16mn to 36mn tonnes of soot (black car-bon) into the upper atmosphere, spreading around the world within weeks.

The soot in turn would absorb solar radiation, heating the air up and boosting the smoke’s rise.

Sunlight reaching the Earth would decline 20% to 35%, cool-ing the surface by 3.6° to 9° Fahrenheit (2° to 5° Celsius) and reducing precipitation by 15% to 30%.

Worldwide food shortages would follow, with the eff ects persisting up to 10 years.

“I hope our work will make people realise you can’t use nu-clear weapons, they are weapons of mass genocide,” Robock told AFP, adding the paper lent more evidence to support the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nu-clear Weapons.

Johann Chacko, a column-ist for Quartz India and doctoral student at SOAS in London, said the work “helps the global com-munity evaluate the cost of nu-clear war for everyone, not just the combatant nations”, particu-larly its climatic impacts.

However, he added: “There’s very little in the history of Indo-Pakistan kinetic confl ict to sug-gest that leadership on either side would continue escalating until they annihilated the other.”

India-Pakistan nuclear war could kill 100mn, says research paperAFP/InternewsWashington

Four months after the controversial raise given to the political elite of the Punjab inviting the ire of prime minister, the Buzdar government raised by 150% the basic salary of bureaucratic elite – this time without consulting the provincial assembly.Sources in the Prime Minister’s Off ice said that Prime Minister Imran Khan is being told that the raise was in the name of “executive allowance”.The beneficiaries predominately belong to the ex-DMG (District Management Group, now known as the Pakistan Administrative Service, PAS) and ex-PCS (Punjab Civil Services, presently called the Provincial Management Service, PMS).Interestingly, this raise was approved by the provincial cabinet, and the off icial notification issued on July 29, within weeks after the Punjab Assembly passed the provincial budget.The Usman Buzdar-led cabinet of the province, which has more than 2mn employees, granted this huge raise to a select group of 1,700, ignoring all others, including professors, teachers, doctors, engineers, and civil servants not belonging to the services now treated as “elite” PAS at the federal level and PMS in Punjab.The posting earmarked “executive allowance” include almost all posts of provincial secretaries, additional chief secretaries, members of Board of Revenue, additional secretaries, deputy secretaries, section off icers, commissioners, deputy commissioners, assistant commissioners, revenue off icials, and special judicial magistrates.The eff ort in choosing the posts for the hefty “executive allowance” appears to clearly benefit off icers belonging to the PAS and the PMS.It is also relevant to mention here that all those who were involved in the initiation and processing of the finance department’s summary, are beneficiaries of this raise.

‘Elite’ Punjab off icials get big pay hikeSunset walker

A child walks during sunset along Karachi’s Clifton beach.

Navy aims to create jobs for womenInternewsKarachi

Under the theme of Em-powering Women in Mar-itime Community, the

Pakistan Navy recently observed the World Maritime Day.

The day is observed interna-tionally during the last week of September every year under the auspices of International Mari-time Organisation.

This year’s theme was aimed at creating environment and developing career opportunities for women in the maritime do-main.

In his message on the occa-sion, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi said that with renewed impetus on the maritime sector following development of the China-Paki-stan Economic Corridor, mari-time activities in Pakistan were bound to increase manifolds.

“Therefore, building capaci-ties to capitalise on the econom-ic opportunities off ered by the maritime sector, especially par-ticipation of women constitut-ing about half of our population, is considered vital for accruing benefi ts off ered by our maritime potential.

“There is a need to create en-vironment and career develop-ment opportunities for women in maritime administration, ports and maritime training in-stitutions which has become a fundamental imperative for long term development,” he said.

On the occasion of World Maritime Day 2019, the navy undertook a range of activities to underscore the importance of maritime sector with special emphasis on the contribution of women in this fi eld in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A colourful Maritime Gala at the Pakistan Maritime Museum, a seminar on the topic of Em-powering Women in Maritime Community by the National In-stitute of Maritime Aff airs, an awareness campaign about the protection of marine environ-ment and harbour cleaning ac-tivities were carried out at Ka-rachi.

THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH13Gulf Times

Friday, October 4, 2019

War against an open enemy

The arrows of Satan

‘No contagion, no pessimism, no Haammah and no Safar’

The greatest thing that can be used as a defence against dev-ils is sticking to the Book and the Sunnah, by one’s knowl-

edge and by one’s actions. The Book and the Sunnah present the straight path, and it is Satan (Shaytan) who struggles to steer us from this straight path. Allah says in the Qur’an:

“And He (commands you, saying:) This is My straight path, so follow it. Follow not other ways, lest you be part-ed from His way. This has He ordained for you, that you may ward off evil.” (al-Anaam 153). The Prophet (sallal-laahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) explained this verse. He once drew a straight line with his hand and said, “This is the straight path of Allah.” Then on its left and on its right he drew other lines and he said, “These paths all have Satan calling (people) to them.” And then he recited the above verse. [This was narrated by Ahmad, al-Haakim, who called it sahih, and al-Nasa’i]

If the person follows what has come from Allah in his beliefs, actions, words, worship, law, and so on, and avoids what He has forbidden, then he will be protected from Satan. Allah says in the Qur’an:

“Oh you who believe, Come, all of you, into submission (unto Him); and follow not the footsteps of Satan. Lo! He is an open enemy for you” (al-Baqara 208). The Arabic word al-silm in that verse refers to Islam while some say it means obeying Allah and Muqaatil says it refers to all acts in which there is righteousness. From that we see that it is an order to apply all of the branches of Islam and all the aspects of its laws ac-cording to one’s abilities; and the verse prohibits the following of the footsteps of Satan. Whoever does not follow any part of Islam has, in fact, followed in some of the footsteps of Satan. There-fore any kind of allowing what Allah has prohibited or vice-versa is a following of Satan. Eating any forbidden and foul

foods is all part of following in the foot-steps of Satan that has been declared prohibited for us.

“O mankind! Eat that which is law-ful and wholesome in the earth, and follow not the footsteps of the devil. Lo! he is an open enemy for you” (al-Baqara 168).

Sticking to the Book of Allah and his Sunnah in one’s words and actions will rebuke Satan and will greatly infuriate him. It is recorded in Sahih Muslim, Musnad Ahmad and Sunan Ibn Majah on the authority of Abu Hurairah that the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said,

“When the son of Adam reads a verse of prostration and then pros-trates, Satan departs from him and cries, saying, ‘Woe to me. The son of Adam was ordered to prostrate and he did so and, therefore, he will be granted paradise. I was ordered to prostrate and disobeyed and, therefore, I will get the hell-fi re.”

Satan readies himself and chooses his prey carefully. He is determined as he shoots the arrows of looks to go through

your eyes, tearing the veils of modesty and chastity. This arouses the desires of the weak heart, which commands the body to pursue the satisfaction of such desires. The tongue speaks, the legs walk, and thus, unlawful acts are committed and the soul falls into the mire of sin.

“That is purer for them”In order to ward off this Satanic cy-

cle, Allah The Almighty instructed his believing slaves, both men and women, to lower their gaze. He told them that this would purify them. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {Tell the believing men to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts. That is purer for them. Indeed, Allah is acquainted with what they do. And tell the believing women to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts.} [Qur’an 24:30-31]

Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy upon him, said in his well-known book Al-Fawaa’id: A collection of Wise Sayings that Sahl ibn ‘Abdul-lah, may Allah have mercy upon him says, “Abandoning the order is greater than committing the prohibition in the Sight of Allah because Adam, may Al-lah exalt his mention, was forbidden to eat from the tree and when he, may Al-lah exalt his mention, ate from it Allah accepted his repentance, but Satan was ordered to prostrate to Adam, when he refused and Allah did not accept his repentance.”

Again Ibn al-Qayyim, may Al-lah have mercy upon him, says in his another famous book in Ad-Daa’ wad-Dawaa’, “Look at the accuracy of the Qur’anic expression in the order to lower the gaze, as if Allah The Almighty reminds us that not lower-ing the gaze causes the doom of the doer and his suff ering in this life and in the Hereafter. Failing to lower one’s gaze is the basis for the problems that affl ict man. An unlawful look gener-ates thoughts, then thoughts generate ideas, then ideas generate desires, then desires generate will, which develops into resolve and determination, then the action inevitably takes place if there is nothing to prevent it.”

This is the destructive cycle of Sa-tan, which traps the one who does not lower his gaze, then records the images and scenes seen by his treacherous eyes. The cursed Satan waits for the moment of weakness in man’s faith to release these images and scenes in

his mind and soul, igniting his sexual desire, which dominates the heart that commands the body to disobey Allah The Almighty, and so on in a consecu-tive sequence. The more the images vary, the easier arousal and falling into sin will be. On the other hand, the less the images and scenes, the weaker their impact and infl uence on the heart will be. According to a saying, “Patience over lowering the gaze is easier than patience over the pain of its consequences.”

O Muslim who does not lower his gaze, if your eyes roam around looking at the charms of beautiful women, you would plant in your heart thorns of loss and regret.

“Allah knows that which deceives the eyes”

Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {He knows that which de-ceives the eyes and what the breasts conceal.} [Qur’an 40:19] This is a great verse and the interpreter of the Quran, Ibn Mas‘ood, may Allah be pleased with him, tells you its meaning, “It refers to a man who enters a per-son’s house where there is a beautiful woman among them, or that a beauti-ful woman passes by them, and while they do not notice him, he looks at her; when they see him, he lowers his gaze. However, Allah The Almighty Knows that he inwardly wishes to see her private parts.”

The great scholar, Al-Ameen Ash-Shinqeeti, may Allah have mercy upon him, said in his book Adhwaa’ Al-Bayaan, “The verse contains a warning for the one who betrays with his eyes by looking at what is unlawful for him. The slave of Allah will stand before Allah and be questioned about his senses. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart - about all those [one] will be questioned.} [Qur’an 17:36]

If you will be questioned on the Day of Resurrection about your stares and looks, have you prepared an answer for this?

The fornication of the eyesTo make this act more repugnant

to the souls, the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, called it adultery of the eyes. It was narrated on the authority of Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said: “Allah has written for the son of Adam his inevitable share of adultery. The adultery of the eye is looking (at what is prohibited), the adultery of the ears is listening (to what is prohibited), the

adultery of the tongue is uttering (what it is unlawful to utter), the adultery of the hand is doing (what is prohibited), the adultery of the legs is walking (to what is prohibited) and the heart de-sires and wishes for (adultery) and the private parts affi rm that or contradict it.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

In Sharh Saheeh Muslim, An-Nawawi, may Allah have mercy upon him, said, “The meaning of the Hadith is that a share of adultery is written for the son of Adam. Some people commit actual adultery such as a male com-mits sexual intercourse with a female who is unlawful to him. Other people commit adultery in the fi gurative sense by looking at the prohibition or listening to adultery and its relevant aff airs, or by touching with the hand a non-Mahram (marriageable) woman or kissing her, or by walking to com-mit adultery, seeing, touching, or forbidden talking with a non-Mahram woman, or by inner thoughts. All these things belong to metaphoric adultery. By “The private parts affi rm that or contradict it” it means that adultery might actually happen through the private parts or might not take place by entering the male genital organ into the female genital organ even if he is close to doing it. Allah knows best.”

Destruction of homesIt is noticeable that one of the most

important causes of problems in many homes is failing to lower the gaze. When the husband releases his gaze, a com-parison will seep into his heart between his wife and the corrupting programmes made by some people to tempt others. This comparison causes many problems in homes, when the husband asks his wife to give him what he sees from dis-solute women and provocative images are imprinted in his mind.

It is also noticeable that releasing the gaze is one of the main reasons for the delay in marriage. That is because the young man already has in his mind multiple examples of beautiful girls, especially those whom he watches on television and searches hard to get one like them. Yet, he will not get what he wants, because what he sees on televi-sion is generally deceptive beauty and false femininity, and thus leads him to delay his marriage and aff ects the mar-riage of Muslim girls with him.

Article source: http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/

Khutbah by Shaykh Saalih Aal Ash-Shaykh

O believers in Allah and His messen-ger! Fear Allah and glorify Him as He deserves to be. Know that this life is nothing except a very short period

of time, so act righteously herein. He who does so will have a great and pleasant consequence by the mercy and favour of Allah and he who is neither conscious nor fearful of Allah will not have a way out of his hardships and will have an evil end.

Servants of Allah! Abu Hurairah (radhiallah ‘anhu – May Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said: “No contagion, no pessimism, no Haam-mah and no Safar” (Bukhari). The meaning of this Hadith is as follows: Haammah is a type of bird; the pre-Islamic Arabs used to think that whenever this bird landed on anyone’s house, somebody who lived in that house would defi nitely die. This is of course a type of superstition. As for Safar, this is another type of superstition; one group of Islamic scholars held the view that the pre-Islamic Arabs were highly superstitious regarding the month of Safar while another group held the view that Safar is in fact a worm which used to dwell in the bodies of some animals (as a disease) and that this disease was contagious.

In this Hadith the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) negated and refuted the prevalent belief of the disbelievers at that time. These false beliefs would aff ect the hearts of the people so greatly that it would weaken their reliance on Allah and lead them to doubting Him and even attributing evil to Him. Also, these beliefs would lead people to attribute defi ciencies to Allah, either by them claiming that He has incapabili-ties or by them ascribing partners to Him in acts of worship, or in controlling destiny.

So the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) was addressing all those who truly believe in Al-lah and in His control over everything by saying: “No contagion, no pessimism, no Haammah and no Safar.”

The words “No contagion” mean that conta-gion is not independently eff ective, because the Pre-Islamic Arabs used to believe that contagion was itself a characteristic of a disease and that it had no external control over it. They also be-lieved that there was nothing that could prevent contagion from occurring and that nothing could eliminate it.

When the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said: “No contagion.” He certainly did not mean that contagion itself does not exist, nor did he mean that diseases and sicknesses do not spread from one person to another due to them coming into close contact, rather, this is something that obviously occurs. However, what the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) was doing was refuting the belief that the disbeliev-ers had which was that if a sick person happened to come close enough to a healthy person, then sickness would defi nitely be passed onto the healthy person. The disbelievers used to believe that this transfer was beyond the control and will of Allah and that it was bound to happen.

Therefore, what the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) was explaining was that sick-ness does not spread simply by mixing healthy people with sick ones, rather, it happens with the decree and command of Allah; contagion may or may not occur because it is not necessarily the case that every contagious disease will spread from a sick person to a healthy one unless and until Allah permits this to occur. If Allah does not permit it to happen then it cannot and will not ever occur, because that is by the decree and command of Allah.

Contagion is nothing but a means that will only have an eff ect if Allah decrees for it to occur, it is not something that necessarily takes place. Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said: “A sick one should not go into the presence of a healthy one, nor should a healthy one go into the presence of a sick one.” (Mus-lim). He (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said this regarding camels because allowing them to mix is a means of spreading disease among them. Therefore, in this Hadith, the Prophet (sallal-laahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) proves that contagion actually exists, but he (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) only proved its existence as a means and not as an end.

This is exactly the same as saying, for exam-ple, that if a person were to do something that could result in his death, then by doing it, he would die – if Allah decreed that to happen. It is also the same as saying, for example, that if a person were to eat and drink then he would satisfy his hunger and quench his thirst. In real-ity, these actions are nothing but means to an end that will only occur if Allah has decreed it to do so.

Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated that the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi

wa sallam) said: “Run away from a person with leprosy as you would run away from a lion.” (Ahmad and Bukhari). This is because mixing with such a person is a means of spreading the sickness from a person with leprosy to a healthy one. So this Hadith of the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) explains that although these are nothing but means and that their eff ect will not take place without the decree of Allah, we still have to exert our utmost eff orts in avoiding these means that may result in disease, destruc-tion or tribulations. Moreover, we must rely on Allah in all cases.

This is why on one occasion the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) sat next to a man who had leprosy and ate with him from the same plate, he (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) even put his hand in the same food that the man was eat-ing from to prove to people that diseases spread only if Allah wills for them to do so. He (sallal-laahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) also did this to show that it is not a must that contagious sicknesses will spread and that it is only Allah who gives the ability for these means to take eff ect. Then, after eating, he (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said: “No contagion and no pessimism.”

He (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said: “No pessimism” because during Jaahiliyyah, or the pre-Islamic period of ignorance, the disbelievers were extremely pessimistic about everything. Ibn Mas’ood, may Allah be pleased with him, said that “Each one of us had this (i.e., pessimism), but Allah replaced it with our reliance on Him.” (Abu Daawood and Tirmi-dhi). This saying means that at that time, the people’s hearts were full of pessimism. For example, people used to feel pessimism when they felt the wind blowing strongly, or if some of them intended to set out on a journey and subsequently saw something that they disliked, they would be sure that they would meet a calamity or even death during the forthcoming trip, so they would be overcome by pessimism.

However, a believer must completely rely on Allah as Ibn Mas’ood, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “Allah replaces pessimism with reliance on Him.” Pessimism is a false and futile concept; it has no eff ect in determining events because they are all under the control and decree of Allah. This is why the Prophet (sallal-laahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) used to hate pessimism and love optimism; for one who is always optimistic has a high opinion of his Lord, which the believer is commanded to have. As for pes-simism, this leads a person into thinking evil

of his Lord, which was the belief of the people during Jahiliyyah. Due to these reasons, the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) forbade us from being pessimistic by saying: “No pes-simism.”

Then, he (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said “No Haammah” which refers to the bird already mentioned which the disbelievers had false beliefs about. For example, they believed that a person who was murdered would have this bird in his grave screaming for revenge. They also thought that the Haammah bird contained the soul of a dead person and fl ew it between diff erent neighbourhoods. There were count-less other false beliefs which were prevalent at that time, so the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) had to refute and negate them because these beliefs were contrary to the sound creed that a Muslim is commanded to have. The Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) clarifi ed the concept that everything occurs due to the decree and command of Allah and nothing else.

Another falsehood which the Prophet (sal-lallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) wanted to eliminate from its roots was regarding the month of Safar. Many scholars are of the view that Safar was a month in which the pre-Islamic Arabs were particularly pessimistic. Therefore, when the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said, “No Safar”, this was an indication that he (sal-lallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) wanted to refute and negate all the false beliefs that the disbelievers used to harbour regarding that month. The dis-believers used to think that during the month of Safar, all problems, disasters, calamities and other evils would occur. Therefore they would avoid getting married in this month as they thought that such a union would be doomed; nobody would trade during this month as they thought that it would be fruitless; they also thought that all other endeavours during that month would end in problems, hardships and even death. These are the types of beliefs that the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) countered due to their falsity.

Safar is just one of 12 months that Allah has given us; nothing happens in this month except what Allah has decreed to happen within it, Al-lah did not specify a certain month of the year where all diffi culties, hardships and calamities would affl ict people. In fact, if one looks at his-tory, he will discover that many conquests and victories occurred during the month of Safar for the Muslims; it may be that some people are ignorant of this and therefore it becomes

incumbent on us to pay attention to facts like these and convey them to the masses. By doing this we are going back to the fundamentals and bases of these false concepts and cutting them off from their roots. Therefore, in this particu-lar case, we know that believing that Safar as an ‘unlucky’ month is a false and frivolous belief, both from the words of the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) and by practical experience of the fact that there has been a lot of goodness in this month throughout history. Therefore, all forms of pessimism regarding minutes, hours, days and months are negated by Islam – our faith must be sound and distinct from that of the disbelievers.

The Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) exerted all possible eff orts in explaining these concepts to us. He (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) made it clear that we need to purify our hearts from thinking evil of our Lord or being pessimis-tic regarding places, times or dates. For example, we must refute and negate the belief that some have which is to think that Wednesday is a day on which all evil takes place, so they avoid doing certain things on that day.

Dear believers! We must pay close attention to such matters, our belief must be sound and correct, and we must not allow our hearts and minds to be invaded by such falsities. We must not be pessimistic regarding specifi c times and places because the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) forbade us from doing this. Also, it goes against the sound belief that we are required as Muslims to possess. I ask Allah to guide me and you all and to make us among those who always think highly of their Lord.

Also, we must know that favours and bounties cannot be attained except by being obedient to Allah and that hardship, calamities and problems can be reduced if not terminated by supplicating to Allah or by being obedient to Him. Therefore, whoever relies on Allah, He is suffi cient for him. Allah says that which translates as:

“...And whoever fears Allah – He will make for him of his matter ease.” (At-Talaaq: 4).

Nothing can avert the decree and command of Allah except supplication. Destruction and calamities cannot be stopped except through obedience to Allah. I ask Allah to make me and you all among those whom He has mercy upon. Allah says that which translates as: “By time, Indeed mankind is in loss, Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and ad-vised each other to truth and advised each other to patience.” (Al-Asr: 1-3).

The Great Mosque of the Mourides in the Senegalese capital Dakar. The mosque which can accommodate 30,000 worshippers is touted as the largest in West Africa.

By David Smith Washington

What did the president say and when did he say it? Donald Trump’s politically catastrophic

phone call with the leader of Ukraine, suffi cient to prompt an impeachment inquiry, might just be the tip of an iceberg that could doom his presidency.

On Monday it emerged that Trump urged Australia’s prime minister during a recent phone call to help the US attorney general gather information that he hopes will undermine Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged collusion with Russia.

The White House restricted access to the call’s transcript to a small group of presidential aides, the New York Times reported, noting this was an unusual decision similar to the handling of the July call in which he pressed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to dig for dirt on a political rival.

It raised questions: how many more compromising conversations have there been? Will the transcripts inevitably leak out with the help of more whistleblowers? And could their combined eff ect be enough to persuade Senate Republicans it is time to dump Trump, just as an incriminating tape led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon?

“I think the conversations between Trump and world leaders stored in the White House server are critical, and could very well seal his fate,” said Chris Whipple, author of The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Defi ne Every Presidency.

“A single conversation, recorded in black and white by a notetaker, has already been a game-changer. Trump’s mafi a-style shakedown of the president of Ukraine has moved the needle dramatically. If there are other, similarly damning conversations to be found in the White House server, impeachment could gain critical mass in a hurry. And even this Senate might convict when confronted with that kind of evidence: Facts are stubborn things.”

Whipple added: “The House must move quickly to preserve the notes of those conversations.”

Unlike Nixon, or indeed any other US president in history, Trump had no prior political or military experience. His shallow knowledge, short attention span and tendency to wing it have been brutally exposed on the world stage. The public comments at a joint press conference with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, siding with the Russian president against his own intelligence agencies, were bad enough.

But what he has said on the line from the Oval Offi ce, White House residence or Air Force One, with offi cials typically producing a rough transcript straight away, may be worse.

According to CNN, the president’s phone calls with Putin and some other leaders so alarmed White House offi cials that aides took “remarkable steps to keep from becoming public”. This included storing reconstructed transcripts of the calls on “a highly classifi ed computer system” normally intended for closely guarded government secrets.

Last week the Washington Post reported that in 2017, Trump told Russian offi cials in the Oval Offi ce that he was “unconcerned about Moscow’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election because the United States did the same in other countries,” an assertion that prompted alarmed White House offi cials to limit access to the remarks to an unusually small number of people.

Then there was the Ukraine call with its request for an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden, a potential opponent in next year’s presidential election. White House officials moved the summary of it to a “standalone computer system reserved for codeword-level intelligence information, such as covert action,” according to an intelligence community whistleblower’s complaint.

A note in the complaint’s appendix said: “According to White House offi cials I spoke with, this was ‘not the fi rst time’ under this administration that a Presidential transcript was placed into this codeword-level system solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive – rather than national security sensitive – information.”

Indeed, the transcripts appeared to have been concealed to avoid embarrassment rather than security reasons. Democrats pursuing impeachment would give much to get their hands on this material, not least the content of the president’s dialogues with Putin, to whom his continued

deference remains one of the great mysteries of the age.

Adam Schiff , the chair of the House intelligence committee, told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday: “If those conversations with Putin or with other world leaders are sequestered in that same electronic fi le that is meant for covert action, not meant for this, if there’s an eff ort to hide those and cover those up, yes, we’re determined to fi nd out.”

But whereas the White House was quick to release a rough transcript of the Ukraine conversation, implying a failure to comprehend its gravity, it is unlikely to be so forthcoming next time. Putin has already warned against it and independent observers warn that such disclosures would set a dangerous precedent, given foreign leaders’ expectations of confi dentiality.

Yet secrets fi nd a way, and the political momentum could become irresistible. Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in the governance studies programme at the Brookings Institution think-tank in Washington, told an audience there on Monday: “It is very interesting how this issue may begin with Ukraine but end with Russia or another country because it has now come out that there are hidden communications.

“It reminds me of the revelation of the White House taping system during Watergate. Again, it was a throwaway: it was something that nobody ever even knew about, nobody knew it was going to happen. Once it was out there

everybody said, ‘Oh, my god! This can do it.’”

The West Wing tapes included the “smoking gun” evidence that Nixon told aides to order the CIA to shut down the FBI’s investigation into a break-in at the Democratic National Committee offi ces at the Watergate complex. It confi rmed testimony by John Dean, the former White House counsel, that Nixon tried to cover up the burglary. The president’s once seemingly invincible support among Republicans collapsed and he was forced to resign before he could be impeached.

While Nixon’s off ence was purely domestic, Trump directly solicited the intervention of a foreign power, an act that history may judge to be more heinous. While Nixon’s fate was sealed by big and clunky tapes, the key to Trump’s downfall may be locked in a hi-tech computer server.

Kamarck added: “Now, I would assume that at some point in this process a subgroup of Democrats and Republicans with the properly high security clearances are going to have a look at that server and they’re going to have to say, ‘What’s in here? Is it all covert operations and military movements, or is it something else?’

“What makes you suspicious is that server began to be used the day after the famous meeting between Trump and the Russian foreign minister and the Russian ambassador, where they threw out the Americans and let the Russians stay. So there’s just a lot more to happen here.” — Guardian News and Media

Gulf Times Friday, October 4, 2019

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CHAIRMANAbdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFFaisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka

Deputy Managing EditorK T Chacko

The toxic cocktail that fuels xenophobiain South Africa

A cocktail of unemployment, inequality and poverty, mixed with South Africa’s violent past, are to blame for attacks on foreigners that so tarnished the country’s image last month. The deadly assaults rocked South Africa’s relations with its neighbours but especially with Nigeria, whose President, Muhammadu Buhari, began a state visit there yesterday.

At least 10 South Africans and two foreigners were killed after mobs descended on foreign-owned stores in poor districts in and around Johannesburg. The violence - the latest in a rash of such attacks over the past decade - is mainly rooted in a sickly economy and faltering politics, stirring rivalry for jobs, especially in manual labour.

South Africa is a magnet for poor migrants from neighbouring Mozambique, Lesotho and Zimbabwe, but even further afi eld, including Nigeria and even South Asia.

The country has a terrible combination of extremely high unemployment and the highest inequality rate in the world. Competition for jobs, social services and housing

create a fertile terrain for mobilisation along identity lines.Reliable figures are sketchy, but the last census in

2011 counted just over 2.1mn “international migrants”, around 4% of South Africa’s population at the time. Joblessness hit a record 29% this year, reaching above 50% for youth.

According to Loren Landau, a researcher for the African Centre for Migration & Society, the country’s politicians were also indirectly to blame for stoking the mood. “It’s anti-immigrant but it’s not an immigrant issue,” Landau says.

Rhetoric tinged with xenophobia ran high in the run-up to elections this year. Both the ruling African National Congress (ANC)

and rival Democratic Alliance (DA) pledged to crack down on irregular migrants.

Another factor is South Africa’s own troubled past, whose trauma is felt today.

In 1994 the country inherited a deeply wounded society. Old patterns of power, property and wealth haven’t been fundamentally transformed. That translates into deep-seated anger and high levels of violence.

That brutality is also a legacy of the anti-apartheid struggle. Townships were deeply politicised and organised by groups that used violence as part of their anti-apartheid campaign. Those people remained and didn’t give up their violent ways.

Successive governments have since failed to fi ll the gaps in social provision created by white supremacy. In many communities, failures of the state have led people to rely on informal systems of power. With rampant crime levels and a thin police force, those who cannot aff ord to live in privately secured areas are confronted with thugs and mob justice.

Gang leaders use the hardship of townships to stoke anti-foreigner sentiment and “reinforce their authority at the local level.

Amnesty International has condemned the government’s failure to prosecute suspected perpetrators of xenophobic crimes.

The attacks are “a direct consequence of years of impunity and failures in the criminal justice system,” it said in a statement last month.

Former president Jacob Zuma has been charged with 16 counts of corruption during his time in offi ce.

The accusations prompted his resignation last year, although prosecution has been sluggish.

The country has a terrible combination of extremely high unemployment and the highest inequality rate in the world

Echoes of the Nixon tapes? The transcripts that could doom Trump

Trump talks to reporters as he departs for travel to Florida yesterday. Experts say the Ukraine call could be the tip of the iceberg.

COMMENT

Gulf Times Friday, October 4, 2019 15

Preventing digital feudalismBy Mariana Mazzucato London

The use and abuse of data by Facebook and other tech companies are fi nally garner-ing the offi cial attention they

deserve.With personal data becoming the

world’s most valuable commodity, will users be the platform economy’s masters or its slaves?

Prospects for democratising the platform economy remain dim.

Algorithms are developing in ways that allow companies to profi t from our past, present, and future behaviour – or what Shoshana Zuboff of Harvard Business School describes as our “behavioural surplus.” In many cases, digital platforms already know our preferences better than we do, and can nudge us to behave in ways that produce still more value.

Do we really want to live in a society where our innermost desires and manifestations of personal agency are up for sale?

Capitalism has always excelled at creating new desires and cravings.

But with big data and algorithms, tech companies have both accelerated and inverted this process.

Rather than just creating new goods and services in anticipation of what people might want, they already know what we will want, and are selling our future selves.

Worse, the algorithmic processes being used often perpetuate gender and racial biases, and can be manipulated for profi t or political gain.

While we all benefi t immensely from digital services such as Google search, we didn’t sign up to have our behaviour catalogued, shaped, and sold.

To change this will require focusing directly on the prevailing business model, and specifi cally on the source

of economic rents.Just as landowners in the 17th

century extracted rents from land-price infl ation, and just as robber barons profi ted from the scarcity of oil, today’s platform fi rms are extracting value through the monopolisation of search and e-commerce services.

To be sure, it is predictable that sectors with high network externalities – where the benefi ts to individual users increase as a function of the total number of users – will produce large companies.

That is why telephone companies grew so massive in the past.

The problem is not size, but how network-based companies wield their market power.

Today’s tech companies originally used their broad networks to bring in diverse suppliers, much to the benefi t of consumers.

Amazon allowed small publishers to sell titles (including my fi rst book) that otherwise would not have made it to the display shelf at your local bookstore.

Google’s search engine used to return a diverse array of providers, goods, and services.

But now, both companies use their dominant positions to stifl e competition, by controlling which products users see and favouring their own brands (many of which have seemingly independent names).

Meanwhile, companies that do not advertise on these platforms fi nd themselves at a severe disadvantage.

As Tim O’Reilly has argued, over time, such rent seeking weakens the ecosystem of suppliers that the platforms were originally created to serve.

Rather than simply assuming that economic rents are all the same, economic policymakers should be trying to understand how platform algorithms allocate value among consumers, suppliers, and the platform itself.

While some allocations may refl ect real competition, others are being driven by value extraction rather than value creation.

Thus, we need to develop a new governance structure, which starts with creating a new vocabulary.

For example, calling platform companies “tech giants” implies they have invested in the technologies from which they are profi ting, when it was really taxpayers who funded the key underlying technologies – from the Internet to GPS.

Moreover, the widespread use of tax arbitrage and contract workers (to avoid the costs of providing health insurance and other benefi ts) is eroding the markets and institutions

upon which the platform economy relies.

Rather than talking about regulation, then, we need to go further, embracing concepts such as co-creation.

Governments can and should be shaping markets to ensure that collectively created value serves collective ends.

Likewise, competition policy should not be focused solely on the question of size.

Breaking up large companies would not solve the problems of value extraction or abuses of individual rights.

There is no reason to assume that many smaller Googles or Facebooks

would operate diff erently or develop new, less exploitative algorithms.

Creating an environment that rewards genuine value creation and punishes value extraction is the fundamental economic challenge of our time.

Fortunately, governments, too, are now creating platforms to identify citizens, collect taxes, and provide public services.

Owing to concerns in the early days of the Internet about offi cial misuse of data, much of the current data architecture was built by private companies.

But government platforms now have enormous potential to improve the effi ciency of the public sector and to

democratise the platform economy.To realise that potential, we will

need to rethink the governance of data, develop new institutions, and, given the dynamics of the platform economy, experiment with alternative forms of ownership.

To take just one of many examples, the data that one generates when using Google Maps or Citymapper – or any other platform that relies on taxpayer-funded technologies – should be used to improve public transportation and other services, rather than simply becoming private profits.

Of course, some will argue that regulating the platform economy will impede market-driven value creation.

But they should go back and read their Adam Smith, whose ideal of a “free market” was one free from rents, not from the state.

Algorithms and big data could be used to improve public services, working conditions, and the well-being of all people.

But these technologies are currently being used to undermine public services, promote zero-hour contracts, violate individual privacy, and destabilise the world’s democracies – all in the interest of personal gain.

Innovation does not just have a rate of progression; it also has a direction.

The threat posed by artifi cial intelligence and other technologies lies not in the pace of their development, but in how they are being designed and deployed.

Our challenge is to set a new course. – Project Syndicate

Mariana Mazzucato is Professor of Economics of Innovation and Public Value and Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP). She is the author of The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy.

Typing speeds on mobiles rival keyboard users

The issue behind our issues

Live issues

By Ian Sample London

Think of it as an upside to spending hours on a smartphone. Thanks to all that dexetrous thumb work,

people can now type nearly as fast on a screen as they can on a keyboard.

Researchers made the discovery during a study of typing skills in which more than 37,000 volunteers from 160 countries took a speed and accuracy test on their mobile phones.

People who tapped out messages with a single fi nger managed on average only 29 words per minute (wpm), but those who mastered the two-thumb technique hit a blistering 38wpm, only 25% slower than an average typer on a full-sized Qwerty keyboard.

One volunteer thumbed out

sentences on her mobile phone at a blur-inducing 85wpm, far exceeding the 52wpm that people typically reach on a standard keyboard.

While the study involved participants from around the world, the majority were women in their 20s and about half were Americans.

“One of the most surprising things we found is that some people can type surprisingly fast with smartphone keyboards,” said Anna Feit, a co-author of the study and computer scientist at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

“We showed, at a large scale, that people who type using both thumbs are very much faster than those who use just one fi nger.”

People who could remember when mobile phones were only good for phone calls were considerably slower than younger users, the study suggested.

Teenagers tapped out sentences at an average of about 40wpm, while those in their 40s and 50s managed only 29wpm and 26wpm.

“We see a clear trend due to experience in typing on these devices,” Feit said.

“Young people are growing up with them and some do all of their typing on mobile phones.”

On average, those who took part in the study spent six hours per day on their devices.

Spending more time on smartphones only partly explains why people are getting faster at screen typing.

Mobile devices are often improved with technical tricks that help people type more quickly, such as autocorrect and word prediction.

The scientists found that autocorrect improved typing speeds by nearly 9wpm, but word prediction slowed people by 2wpm, distracting them and making them choose suggested words.

“If you want to be fast, make use of both your thumbs and turn on autocorrection, even though it might be annoying at times,” said Feit.

“And then just keep using it.” – Guardian News and Media

By Jim O’Neill London

As the chair of the Royal Institute of International Aff airs (Chatham House), I recently hosted an off site

event with some of the organisation’s strongest supporters, research staff , and other leaders.

I left with a clearer view of three of the biggest issues of our time: slowing productivity growth, anti-establishment politics, and the rise of China.

Generally speaking, the reason that we have so many “issues” is that the international capitalist model has stopped functioning as it should, particularly in the years since the 2008 fi nancial crisis.

This has become increasingly apparent to many Western voters, even as experts have struggled to understand the precise nature of the economic and political shifts underway.

According to the economic textbooks that I grew up with in the 1970s, successful businesses within a market-based system should deliver profi ts to their equity owners, which in turn should lead to stronger investment and rising wages.

At the same time, the potential for profi ts should attract new market entrants, which in turn should erode the incumbents’ profi tability, fuel competition, and spur innovation.

This pattern no longer holds.Incumbents’ reported profi ts seem to

rise persistently – often with the help

of extremely effi cient balance-sheet and fi nancial management – but there is scarce evidence of rising investment or wages.

As a result, productivity across many advanced economies appears to be trending lower.

In these circumstances, it is little wonder that Western voters have been attracted to anti-establishment political parties.

But this does not mean that liberal democracy is breaking down, as one often hears.

In fact, a forthcoming Chatham House report casts substantial doubt on the credibility of that alarmist claim.

Between the 1970s and the start of the new millennium, politics in many Western countries moved rightward – a trend epitomised by New Labour in the United Kingdom and the Democratic Leadership Council in the United States.

For a while, this mode of politics seemed to work fi ne.

Under conditions of persistent growth, low inflation, and a rising tide that lifted all (or most) boats, a neoliberal consensus crystallised, and alternative views were marginalised.

Everything changed after 2008.Over the past decade, markets

seemed to have stopped delivering widely shared growth, and mainstream parties have not come up with any new ideas.

Voters have thus turned to the once-sidelined voices on the left and right.

The far-left policies being proposed by UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn almost certainly would not work.

But that is beside the point.What matters to disadvantaged voters

is that Corbyn’s proposals seem to off er something that the current system does not.

Similarly, those on the right are unlikely to deliver greater prosperity, but their ideas have the virtue of sounding diff erent.

Blaming immigration, “globalists,” and China for everything can make for a powerful sales pitch.

In order to off er voters a better choice, the centre must do much more to ensure that market forces are delivering the same results as they did in previous decades.

And here, throwing around sweeping accusations of “populism” and the end of democracy won’t help.

In trying to explain the current moment, too many of my liberal colleagues are relying on a mistaken narrative.

The problem is not that scary new populist forces are destroying the post-war economic model; rather, it is the other way around.

The rise of new political movements is the logical result of the earlier period of neoliberal consolidation, and of the failure of centrist thinking to deliver the same results it once did.

To be sure, there is some merit to the argument that social media have facilitated the spread of heterodox – and sometimes toxic – points of view.

The leading social media companies clearly have not spent enough on protecting their users from sophisticated propaganda, scams, and the like.

But the real question is why those

messages have found so many receptive ears.

After all, the same technologies that allow marginal voices to reach a much larger audience are also available to centrists.

Barack Obama’s 2008 US presidential campaign harnessed the power of these platforms to great eff ect.

Finally, the Sino-American dispute over trade and technology may be more dramatic for involving a non-liberal, non-Western rising power.

But the essence of the confl ict is economic.

Within the next decade or so, China’s economy will likely surpass that of the US as the largest in the world.

To my mind, Western policymakers should be countering Sinophobia and encouraging their societies to live comfortably with China.

Economic progress in China will not prevent America’s 327mn people from becoming individually wealthier themselves.

If the West adopts sensible policies, its own fi rms and consumers stand to benefi t substantially from China’s growth.

As for think-tanks like Chatham House, it is clear that we must play a more active role in setting the facts straight on all of these issues.

It would be a tragedy to sacrifi ce our collective prosperity as a result of unclear thinking. – Project Syndicate

Jim O’Neill, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a former UK Treasury Minister, is Chair of Chatham House.

While we all benefit immensely from digital services, we didn’t sign up to have our behaviour catalogued, shaped, and sold.

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QATAR

Gulf Times Friday, October 4, 201916

Police College fetes graduates

The Police College yesterday host-ed convocation of the third batch of offi cials who completed div-

ing and paragliding courses organised by the Ministry of Interior (MoI). In all, 112 candidates attended the training in diving, swimming and skydiving.

The graduates underwent intensive training programmes prepared and handled by experts.

The graduation ceremony was at-tended by HE the Minister of Justice and Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Aff airs Dr Issa Saad al-Jafali al-Nuaimi, and Minister of Interior’s adviser and deputy chairman of the Supreme Coun-cil of Police College Major General Dr Abdullah Yousef al-Mal, along with di-rectors of various MoI departments and parents of the graduates.

The Police College is the fi rst institu-tion in the region that off ers specialised courses in diving and paragliding in order to help enhance the candidates’ self-confi dence and decision-making

capacity, facing emergency and endur-ing diffi culties.

Besides, the course helps them ac-quire skills that increase effi ciency and professional skills as police offi cers.

The training programme was in two sessions. Apart from practical sessions on diving, swimming and parachuting, theoretical classes were also held under

the supervision of the experts on jump-ing, altitude and safety proceedings.

During the sessions, the students were divided into groups and one train-er assigned to each group.

During the convocation, Major Gen-eral Dr Abdullah Yousef al-Mal praised the eff orts by Police College to make the course a success and said the college is

keen to organise specialised courses for its students in order to help them achieve additional professional skills.

He also praised the eff orts of the Qatar Amiri Air Force and Lekhwiya for their co-operation in organising the training. The function also marked honouring of Lekhwiya and Qatar Amiri Air Force offi cials.

The graduates with HE the Minister of Justice and Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Aff airs Dr Issa Saad al-Jafali al-Nuaimi, Minister of Interior’s adviser and deputy chairman of the Supreme Council of Police College Major General Dr Abdullah Yousef al-Mal, Police College director general Brigadier Mohamed Abdullah al-Muhana al-Marri and other off icials.

HE the Minister of Justice and Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Aff airs Dr Issa Saad al-Jafali al-Nuaimi, Minister of Interior’s adviser and deputy chairman of the Supreme Council of Police College Major General Dr Abdullah Yousef al-Mal, and the Police College director general Brigadier Mohamed Abdullah al-Muhana al-Marri attending the convocation ceremony yesterday. PICTURES: Shemeer Rasheed

IAAF offi cial praises Asian participationQNADoha

President of the Asian Ath-letics Association (AAA) and vice president of the

International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), Dahlan Jumaan al-Hamad, yes-terday praised the great Asian participation in the Doha IAAF World Athletics Championships and the results achieved so far.

Many of the continent’s cham-pions have been crowned with medals and achieved new per-sonal records, which clearly in-dicates the great work done by the national federations in Asian countries, al-Hamad, who is also vice chairman of the Supreme Or-ganising Committee and director general of the Organising Com-mittee of the IAAF World Athlet-ics Championships Doha 2019, said.

Speaking at a ceremony held by the Organising Committee of the heads of national asso-ciations in the presence of IAAF president Sebastian Coe, al-Hamad said Qatar has managed to provide all the potentials for success, and at the same time provided an opportunity for all Asian champions to hold camps and preparations before the start of the Asian event, as is the case for many teams from other con-tinents.

He added that the Organising Committee has on more than one occasion welcomed the unprec-edented number of athletes from the world and that all Asian teams attended the tournament, which is another proof of the interest of countries in this event.

He said that the association is constantly working on plans to develop the game and that will be achieved only when there is co-operation from all national asso-ciations.

Al-Hamad said the AAA is planning in the next phase to or-ganise a new tournament, the AAA Cup, in order to increase the participation of all athletes and allow them to fi ne tune their skills before participating in world championships.

Coe praised Qatar’s successes in hosting the world champion-ships, which he considered the best so far, while praising the achievements of the Asian cham-pions in diff erent competitions and races

Meanwhile, several foreign cor-respondents present in Doha to cover championships praised Qa-tar’s organisation of the event and reserved special praise for Khalifa International Stadium.

L’Equipe’s journalist told Qatar News Agency that the eff ort made by the Organising Committee was clear, expressing his admiration of Khalifa International Stadium and its cooling technology.

He also said it was healthy for other countries from all around the world to host the competi-tion, as it should not be mo-nopolised by major European nations.

Kenya’s Daily National reporter said all aspects of the event are going well.

He noted that the media centre especially was well equipped for reporters to do their jobs.

He also praised the intensity of the competition.

On 2022 FIFA World Cup, he expressed his belief that Qatar will host a wonderful edition.

He praised Qatar’s modern in-frastructure and said he would gladly come back to cover the World Cup in three years’ time.

SOJC Track’s Alex Castell praised the organisation of the competition and Khalifa Interna-tional Stadium.

He noted that despite the heat and humidity, the weather inside the stadium was good thanks to the technology.

Veteran German journal-ist Ewald Walker who writes for Leichtathletik, which specialises in athletics, expressed delight to be in Doha to cover the event.

He said the organisation of the event was going as well as it could be.

Walker said he has covered four diff erent World Athletics Cham-pionships, but highlighted this one was completely diff erent be-

cause it is organised in the Middle East.

He highlighted that the level of competition among the athletes has been high.

The German noted that the level of organisation was superior, especially inside the stadium.

He acknowledged that there were some challenges facing the

marathon due to the weather which may not be suitable for all participants.

Walker also said that the IAAF should consider organising the event as an independent race in the future.

He also said that there were many special moments in this year’s event, such as organizing

the 4x400 relay for the fi rst time ever.

Walker said the services pro-vided by the Organising Com-mittee to journalists were very good.

He also said that the availabil-ity of transport makes it easier for journalists to cover the events.

On Qatar’s ability to host the

2022 FIFA World Cup for the fi rst time in the Middle East, he said it is evident now that the country can do it.

He highlighted that the capa-bilities inside the stadium and outside, in addition to the friend-liness of the Qatari people will en-hance the ability of the country to host a memorable event.

President of the Asian Athletics Association (AAA) and vice president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), Dahlan Jumaan al-Hamad, with delegates of the World Athletics Championships.

Gong, Kaul and Naser claim honoursFrom Page 1

As she got closer to the fi nish line in the women’s 400m fi nal, Naser ran like a machine, with an expression-less face. But just as she crossed the line, her poker face transformed into a feeling of disbelief as the Bahrain athlete tried processing her world title-winning run, beating Bahamian favourite Miller-Uibo.

The victory came in the third fastest time in history – 48.14 sec-onds.

Naser had picked up pace going into the fi nal bend even as Miller-Uibo inched closer to the front, but the former had snatched the advantage on to the fi nal straight, and there was little that the Olym-pic champion from Bahamas could do other than settle for silver.

Jamaican Shericka Jackson won bronze in a time of 49.47 seconds.

“This is crazy… I’m world champion. I am really short of words to describe how I am feel-ing,” Naser said after her win. “To cross the line and see that I am a world champion in that amazing time, I couldn’t believe it.”

With a 137-point lead going into the 800m run, the fi nal event of the women’s heptathlon, Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson had the gold medal in touching dis-tance.

The 26-year-old confi rmed it when she ran a personal best of 2:07.26 in the 800m leg for a world leading haul of 6981 points, which

is also a British record.Belgian Nafi ssatou Thiam (6677

points) fi nished seventh in the heat behind the Liverpool runner to settle for silver, with Austrian Verena Preiner taking bronze with a haul of 6560 points.

Jamaican Danniel Thomas-Dodd must have given Chinese shot put star Lijiao Gong a few nervous moments, when the former hit the 20m tape during the women’s fi nal yesterday. That was until the offi cial raised the red fl ag citing a foul.

Gong had only one attempt left at the time with her best a 19.55m fourth attempt, which eventually proved enough as the Chinese sen-sation, the only woman to go past 20m this year, had successfully de-fended her title, as Thomas-Dodd

settled for silver with a 19.47m fi -nal attempt, ahead of Germany’s Christina Schwanitz.

“I am really excited to defend my title in Doha, because it will help me to increase my self-con-fi dence in the future competitions and also in the training. I have a saying that there is nothing better you can stick to than your dream. This season was very long and hard, so all my hair turned white,” said 30-year-old Gong, who has now won a medal at every Worlds going back to 2009.

“It’s defi nitely a big accom-plishment for me. In 2017, I was very disappointed but it was my fi rst world championships and I had to take everything in strides and make a mark for myself,” said Thomas-Dodd, who won her

country’s fi rst women’s medal at a Worlds throws competition.

Schwanitz, the 2015 world champion, threw a 19.17m for her bronze to cap a fantastic season for a mother of twins. “Incred-ible! This was the hardest medal for me in my life after giving birth to my twins. I am mega happy. The season had a lot of ups and downs, squeeze in my studies of social work and education studies, plus the kids in between,” Schwanitz said.

All 12 athletes in tomorrow’s men’s shot put fi nal cleared the automatic qualifi cation mark of 20.90m with defending cham-pion Tomas Walsh of New Zea-land leading the way with a 21.92m opening act.

Six more, including Darlan

Romani of Brazil, Darrell Hill of the US, Konrad Bukowiecki of Po-land, this year’s world leader Ryan Crouser of the US, Walsh’s com-patriot Jacko Gill and 2017 silver medallist Joe Kovacs of the US, needed only their fi rst attempt for a spot in the medal round.

“I wanted to put the speed up as fast as I can. I think if you can man-age a good throw around 22.50, it may give you a chance to win a title,” Walsh said after the qualifi -cation yesterday. For context, only Crouser and Romani have cleared 22.50m this year, with Walsh’s best being a 22.44.

In the women’s triple jump, with the automatic qualifi cation mark set at 14.30m, Jamaican champion Shanieka Ricketts was the fi rst to book her spot in the fi nal with a

fi rst attempt eff ort of 14.42. Amer-ican Keturah Orji hit the mark on her fi rst attempt, while the 2017 silver medallist Caterine Ibarguen of Colombia needed two eff orts to reach tomorrow’s medal round.

Venezuelan World champion Yulimar Rojas, the only one in the line-up to cross the 15m mark this year, was through to the fi nal after a second attempt 14.31m

“It means a lot to me to qualify as the fi rst jumper at the world cham-pionships. I am happy to come out there and get the job done in the fi rst round,” Ricketts said.

“It takes a lot of pressure off and I can go back and get ready for the fi nal on Saturday. I am still hoping to be able to get to the 15m, hope-fully it comes on Saturday. Any mark to be on the podium would be satisfactory.”

TACTICAL RACEWomen’s 10,000m champion

Sifan Hassan ran a tactical race in the 1500m semi-fi nal as she moved into the fi nal with a Heat 1 win in a modest 4:14.69. The second heat, which as almost 13 seconds faster, was topped by three-time World Championships medallist, Jenny Simpson of the US.

The 2017 and Olympic cham-pion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya fi nished fourth behind Hassan, American Shelby Houlihan and Morocco’s Rababe Arafi in the fi rst heat.

Djibouti’s Ayanleh Souleiman once again made his presence felt

at a major championships when the fi fth fastest athlete this year topped the third heat of the men’s 1500m heats and also the time-charts for the evening for a place in today’s semifi nal.

The silver medallist from Lon-don, Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya, won the second heat as he looks to go for gold in the absence of his training partner, compatriot and defending champion Elijah Mo-tonei Manangoi.

Both the Ingebrigtsen broth-ers from Norway, Jakob and 2017 bronze medallist Filip, are in the next round too.

GOOD NEWSDuring the course of the day,

two appeals – one each from Team Poland and Team Spain – ensured that their athletes were elevated to the medals podium yesterday.

In the fi rst, the Polish contin-gent brought into question the fi rst eff ort of the Hungarian bronze medallist in the men’s hammer throw fi nal, Bence Halasz, claim-ing that he touched the ground outside the circle.

The jury upheld the appeal and added European champion Wo-jciech Nowicki, who had fi nished fourth in the standings, to the po-dium with a bronze.

Spain’s Orlando Ortega too was awarded a bronze for the men’s 110m hurdles after Jamaican Omar McLeod’s tumble in the fi nal was deemed to have impeded the Span-iard while he was third in the race.

Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson celebrates after winning the Women’s heptathlon.

Germany’s Niklas Kaul reacts after winning the decathlon gold with Germany’s Tim Nowak, Germany’s Kai Kazmirek and Estonia’s Maicel Uibo who won the silver.