Hamad Port to start full operations from Dec 1 - Gulf Times

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QATAR

since 1978MONDAY Vol. XXXVII No. 10286

November 28, 2016Safar 28, 1438 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

BUSINESS |

QIMC-led JV in deal forcalcium chloride plant

SPORT | Page 1

Rosbergwins FormulaOne title in Abu Dhabi

QATAR

REGION

ARAB WORLD

INTERNATIONAL

COMMENT

BUSINESS

CLASSIFIED

SPORTS

26, 27

1–5, 11-12

6-10

1 – 12

2-8, 28

9

10, 11

12–25

INDEX

QATAR | Communication

Post offi ces to haveself-service kiosksQatar Postal Services Company (Q-Post) and Malomatia, the leading national IT service and solution provider, have reached an agreement for introducing Electronic Point of Sales (E-POS) systems and self-service kiosks at post offices across the country. The signing ceremony that took place at Q-Post head office was attended by chairman and managing director Faleh al-Naemi and Malomatia managing director and board member Yousef al-Naama. Page 5

REGION | Politics

Kuwait opposition instrong election showingOpposition groups and their allies secured nearly half of the Kuwaiti parliament’s seats, off icial election results showed yesterday. The opposition and its allies won 24 of the assembly’s 50 seats, the electoral authority announced following Saturday’s snap election called after a dispute over the hiking of petrol prices. Page 9

ARAB WORLD | Confl ict

Thousands flee regimeadvance into east AleppoThousands of civilians have fled rebel-held east Aleppo after government forces, determined to retake all of Syria’s second city, seized its largest rebel-controlled district and advanced into two other areas. The capture on Saturday of Masaken Hanano - which had been the biggest rebel-held district of Aleppo - was a breakthrough in a 13-day regime off ensive to retake the entire city. Yesterday, regime forces also took control of two neighbouring areas, Jabal Badra and Baadeen, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said. Page 10

Ambulance alert systemon way for motorists

Hamad Portto start fulloperationsfrom Dec 1

Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Ambulance Service is currently testing an interna-

tional FM radio over-broadcast system which will allow ambulance crews to alert surrounding drivers of their ap-proach.

The new system, Radiolert Mobile FM80, is an internationally used soft-ware that enables ambulance crews to send a message to cars up to 200m ahead.

“The technology we are currently testing off ers us a highly advanced way of alerting drivers that an ambulance is approaching,” said Ahmed al-Bakri, operations manager at the Ambulance Service.

“Our ambulance lights and sirens can be seen or heard by drivers up to 50m away, but the Radiolert system allows us to forewarn drivers much

further ahead,” stated executive direc-tor, Healthcare Co-ordination Service, Thomas Reimann.

When activated by the ambulance driver or crew member, the system overrides the FM radio channel inside cars within the signal vicinity and re-lays the message ‘Warning, ambulance approaching. Give way.’

“Depending on the registered lan-guage of the FM radio channel be-ing broadcast, the Radiolert system will play the warning message in one of four languages: Arabic, English, Hindi and Malayalam,” Reimann ex-plained.

Al-Bakri recalled the 2012 national campaign, ‘Help us Help you’, designed to educate the public about practical ways in which they could assist the Ambulance Service.

“One of the key messages of the

campaign was to give way to ambu-lances on the road in order to ensure our teams to arrive at their destina-tion as quickly as possible,” he point-ed out.

HMC’s Ambulance Service consist-ently meets or exceeds its National Health Strategy response targets.

Throughout 2015, the service reached 91.8% of calls within Doha in under 10 minutes. This impressive performance has been achieved de-spite an increase in the number of calls received by the service.

In recent years, the Ambulance Service has expanded the LifeFlight service, introduced a new state-of-the-art ambulance fl eet and built dispatch points around the country. These steps have enabled the service to reach patients quickly, regardless of their location.

By Pratap JohnChief Business Reporter

Qatar’s multi-billion dollar state-of-the-art Hamad Port will start full operations on

December 1, the Ministry of Transport and Communications has announced.

Consequently, the existing Doha Port will be closed to commercial ves-sel traffi c from December 1, although it will continue to receive cruise ships for some time. Doha Port will be totally closed from March 31, showed the an-nouncement by the ministry and the New Port Project Steering Committee.

The Hamad Port Project was launched in June 2007 with the rec-ognition that Qatar’s import demands were set to rise dramatically in the coming years.

Located on a 26.5-sq-km area south of Doha, the multi-billion dol-lar project is one of the world’s larg-est greenfi eld port developments, and will include a new port, a new base for the Qatar Emiri Naval Forces and the Um Alhoul Special Economic Zone, a report by the Oxford Business Group showed.

Its facilities include a general cargo terminal, multi-use terminal, off shore supply base, coast guard facility and marine unit, as well as a centralised Customs area, administrative district and multiple maritime facilities.

On completion of all construction phases, Hamad Port will off er capacity for 6mn twenty-foot equivalent units a year, as well as 1.7mn tonnes of general goods, 1mn tonnes of food grains and 500,000 vehicles.

Once the fi rst phase becomes fully operational in 2016, it will increase an-

nual handling capacity in Qatar to 2mn twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from the 750,000-TEU capacity at the existing port.

Once the fi rst phase is operational, the government will evaluate the time-lines for the other two phases, which would bring the total handling capacity to 6mn TEUs once completed.

In an earlier interview with the Ox-ford Business Group, HE the Minister of Transport and Communications, Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti said Ha-mad Port was strategically located to handle the expanding trade in the Gulf and beyond, into the hinterland of Qa-tar and neighbouring GCC countries.

The facilities will feature cutting-edge technology and associated sys-tems that will cater to all types of ves-sels, cargo handling and clearance, and throughput rates that will set the facility apart from the region’s existing ports.

Environmental protection strate-gies – such as sustainable resource use, waste management and sustain-ability certifi cation for buildings – will ensure the port achieves a sustainable balance between economic growth, social development and environmental protection.

The transfer of operations from the existing Doha Port to Hamad Port has involved the transfer of staff employed by Qatar Ports Management Company (Mwani), government agencies, stake-holders and service providers, al-Su-laiti said.

While these organisations have worked effi ciently and eff ectively at Doha Port, the early operational phase has allowed the integration of their ac-tivities in the improved working envi-ronment off ered by Hamad Port.

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani met at the Emiri Diwan yesterday with GCC Secretary General Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani. During the meeting, the GCC chief briefed the Emir on the latest preparations for the 37th GCC Summit due to be held in Bahrain in December. Talks during the meeting also dealt with a number of topics relating to the march of the GCC’s joint action and means of enhancing it in addition to the latest developments in the region.

Emir meets GCC chief

Personnel of the General Directorate of the Civil Defence rescued a motorist on Saturday from drowning as his vehicle got stranded in an underpass for camels at Rawdat Al Rashid. Local Arabic daily Arrayah reported yesterday that the motorist’s SUV was submerged in the rainwater that flooded the unpaved underpass. The Civil Defence team rushed to the spot after receiving a call for help. A Civil Defence personnel was lowered into the underpass with the help of a crane and he rescued the man. A video of the rescue operation has gone viral on various social media platforms. Accordingly, the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has tweeted that the underpass is designated only for camels. It is located under Salwa Road 2km north of exit 29 towards Abu Samra.

Motorist rescuedThundery downpour leavesseveral Doha roads fl ooded

A late-afternoon downpour left a number of roads fl ooded in Doha yesterday as the country

experienced another day of rain and thunder.

More showers are expected in Qatar today, the Met department has said.

While thundery rain was reported from across the country through the day, the capital remained largely dry until around 4pm yesterday. For about 45 minutes since then, heavy rain – ac-companied by strong winds – lashed diff erent parts of the city, catching commuters unawares and resulting in waterlogging that led to long traffi c queues along several roads.

The areas aff ected by yesterday’s downpour included Najma, Mansoura, Mamoura, Abu Hamour, Doha Jadeed, Al Hilal and several others, according to reports. Vehicular movement was slow at a number of places, such as the Doha-Industrial Area road, Salwa Road, Al Waab signal, Mannai tun-nel, Corniche and February 22 Road, among others.

The Ministry of Interior urged peo-ple to be patient and follow instruc-tions, noting that traffi c patrols had been stationed at various locations to ease vehicular fl ow. It also advised motorists not to take the risk of driv-ing through fl ooded stretches as they could be unaware of the water depth or the presence of obstacles therein.

Doha and other parts of Qatar had

received heavy rain on Saturday, too, which caused fl ooding in a number of areas.

The Met department has said thun-dershowers and strong winds are once again expected in diff erent parts of the country today. It has also issued a warning for strong winds and high seas in off shore areas.

The wind speed may go up to 25 knots in both inshore and off shore ar-eas, with the sea level rising to 8ft to-wards the north.

The detailed forecast for inshore areas also says cloudy conditions are likely today and there is a chance of scattered rain, which may become thundery at times. Clouds and scat-

tered rain are also expected in off shore areas.

A minimum temperature of 20C is expected in Mesaieed, Wakrah and other places today, while in Doha it will be 21C.

Yesterday, a minimum temperature of 19C was recorded in Al Sheehaniya, Karana and Turayna. In the capital, a minimum of 20C was recorded in the Qatar University area.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Munici-pality and Environment (MME)’s rain emergency teams continued to drain water from areas lying in diff erent mu-nicipalities in the country yesterday, with forecasts indicating that the rain this year could be heavier than last year in most regions of the country, the of-fi cial Qatar News Agency (QNA) re-ported early yesterday evening.

The emergency teams had drained out some 17mn gallons of water in the municipalities of Doha, Al Wak-rah, Umm Salal, Al Rayyan, Al Khor, Al Khor & Al Thakhira, Al Daayen, Al Shamal and Al Sheehaniya, the report said, quoting Mohamed Saif Tashal al-Hajri, head of the rain emergency team.

The offi cial stressed that there has been there has been co-ordination with emergency teams in diff erent munici-palities and relevant state entities since the start of rainfall in diff erent parts of the country, with vehicles and water suction trucks instructed to swiftly re-spond to calls from the public.

Further, al-Hajri said the teams were continuing to exert eff orts to remove water from roundabouts, major streets and tunnels. Large quantities of water were drained out and the process con-tinued round the clock.

An update issued by the MME later in the evening said nearly 7.5mn gal-lons of water had been drained out in Al Wakrah Municipality from Friday

morning until 9pm yesterday, and the operations were still under way.

Similarly, 320,000 gallons of wa-ter were drained out in Al Sheehaniya Municipality until 8pm yesterday, while more than 11mn gallons had been pumped out in Al Rayyan Municipality since Saturday.

“Tireless eff orts continue all over the state to remove rainwater. More

rains are expected. Co-operate with the authorities and stay safe,” the MME tweeted.

While the authorities continued with their eff orts to remove rainwater across the country, residents yesterday said several internal roads were still fl ooded and it was diffi cult to access homes and other buildings due to wa-terlogging. Page 28

Emergency teams continued to drain rainwater from areas in diff erent municipalities in the country.

QATAR

Gulf Times Monday, November 28, 20162

Official

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani yesterday issued the following decrees yesterday:1. Decree No 51 of 2016 ratifying a Memorandum of Co-operation (MoC) in the legal field between the Ministry of Justice of Qatar and the Ministry of Justice in Jordan signed in Amman on 21/02/2016 annexed to this Decree. The MoC shall have the force of law in accordance with Article 68 of the Constitution. 2. Decree No 52 of 2016 ratifying an agreement for co-operation in the legal field between the governments of Qatar and Kenya signed in Doha on 23/04/2014 annexed to this decree.

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani yesterday issued the following instruments of ratification: 1. Approving an air services agreement between the governments of Qatar and Benin signed in Doha on 12/11/2014.2. Approving a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the governments of Qatar and Greece in the field of health and medical science signed in Doha on 26/10/2008.3. Approving the accession of Qatar to the Nagoya Protocol On Access To Genetic Resources And The Fair And Equitable Sharing Of Benefits Arising From Their Utilisation To The Convention On Biological Diversity.

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani yesterday ratified Cabinet Decision No. 32 of 2016 issuing the Executive Regulations for the Human Resources Law.

Qatar and Moldova yesterday finalised the signing of the air services agreement between the two countries.The agreement allows assigned carriers in Qatar and Moldova to operate any number of passenger and cargo flights between the two countries. The agreement was signed by Abdullah bin Nasser Turki al-Subaey, Chairman of Civil Aviation Authority, and Moldova’s Deputy Minister of Transport and Roads Infrastructure Sergei Bucataru.

Emir issuestwo decrees

Instrumentsof ratification

Emir ratifiesCabinet decision

Qatar, Moldova sign air service pact

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani received the copies of credentials of three new ambassadors to Qatar at the Emiri Diwan yesterday. Ambassadors of Finland, The Bahamas and Burundi – Riitta Swan, Tony Joudi, and Issa Ntambuca, respectively, presented their credentials to the Emir. The Emir welcomed the new ambassadors and wished them success in their missions and further progress and prosperity for the relations between Qatar and their respective countries. Earlier, on arrival at the Emiri Diwan, the ambassadors were accorded an off icial reception ceremony.

Emir receives credentials of new ambassadors

QU launches new Frenchlanguage programmeQatar University (QU) yes-

terday held a ceremony to launch a Minor in

French Language and receive a donation of around 100 French books, DVDs and magazines from the French embassy.

The Minor in French Language was created by QU College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Depart-ment of English Literature and Linguistics with the aim to give QU students access to another foreign language and culture be-sides English.

The Minor programme com-prises 24 credit-hours and tar-gets students who are beginners or low intermediates in French. It is currently off ered only to female students. The number of applicants for the fi rst year is 38, most of them Qataris.

Graduates from this pro-gramme will reach a level of competency that is functional enough to travel to French speaking countries. They will also stand in a good position to pursue their studies abroad

in French speaking institutions or to work in a professional set-ting where French may be re-quired.

Basic French is the fi rst course and main entry-point for this programme. It became avail-able for the fi rst time in Fall 2016 and it is currently attended by 22 students.

The event was attended by QU president Dr Hassan al-Der-ham, French ambassador Dr Eric Chevallier, QU vice-president for Academic Aff airs Dr Mazen Hasna, representatives of the French Institute, Lycée franco-qatarien Voltaire and Lycée Bo-naparte, as well as QU faculty, students and staff .

The event featured an over-view on the Minor in French Language by QU CAS associate professor of French Language Dr Paula Bouff ard, an overview on the donated books by QU Library director Dr Imad Bashir, and a presentation by QU French Club president Maytha Mohamed al-Mansoori.

QSL apologies to fansfor ticketing error

Qatar Stars League CEO Hani Taleb Ballan has assured that an inter-

nal investigation is underway under his direct supervision over the mistake relating to misprinted time on sold tickets for the Al Arabi versus Al Sadd match on Saturday evening.

The QSL CEO also stressed that the mistake proved to be an inadvertent error on the behalf of a staff member working on the system. He also expressed his apologies to everyone who was aff ected by this error, pointing out that

individuals will be contacted in order to compensate for the damage, whether the price of tickets or free tickets for fur-ther QSL games.

Ballan said the error is “con-sidered a joint one between the employee responsible for the system and the QSL Marketing & Communications Depart-ment’’.

Moreover, Ballan didn’t ex-clude himself from the liabil-ity in his capacity as the CEO of the Qatar Stars League, repeating his apologies to all QSL stakeholders and affi li-ates from the QFA, clubs and fans. Ballan also promised that such errors will be avoided in future.

QNADoha

Dr Eric Chevallier receiving a memento from Dr Hassan al-Derham yesterday.

QATAR3Gulf Times

Monday, November 28, 2016

Prime Minister holds talks with UAE leaders

HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Inte-rior Sheikh Abdullah bin

Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani held separate meetings with leaders of the United Arab Emirates here yesterday.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces met HE the Prime Minis-ter at Yas Marina Circuit.

At the outset of the meet-ing, the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior conveyed the greetings of HH the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Ha-mad al-Thani to Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, President of United Arab Emirates and to him and his wishes of further progress and prosperity to the people of the UAE.

For his part, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi reciprocated the Emir’s greetings and wished further prosperity to the Qatari people.

Talks during the meeting dealt with relations between Qatar and the UAE and means of en-hancing them along with issues of common concern.

The meeting was attended by Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed al-Nahyan, UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior.

HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nass-er bin Khalifa al-Thani also held a separate meeting with Lt Gen-eral Sheikh Saif bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

Talks dealt with the existing relations between Qatar and the UAE and security issues in par-ticular.

The Prime Minister attended a luncheon banquet hosted by Lt General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

Later, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Du-

bai Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum met at Zabeel Pal-ace with HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani.

The Prime Minister conveyed to Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum the greetings of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and the UAE vice-president reciprocated the Emir’s greetings.

During the meeting, they re-viewed the relations between the two countries and ways of en-hancing them in various fi elds, especially on the economic and security levels.

From the UAE side, the meet-ing was attended by Crown Prince of Dubai Sheikh Ham-dan bin Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Maktoum bin Mo-hamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Lt General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed al-Nahy-an.

The Prime Minister and Min-ister of Interior attended a part of the fi nal race of the Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix held in Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi and hosted by the United Arab Emirates.

The closing was attended by a number of several leaders, senior offi cials and heads of delega-tions, and guests of the Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Later HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Kha-lifa al-Thani left Abu Dhabi con-cluding a short visit.

The Premier and Minister of Interior and the accompany-ing delegation were seen off at Abu Dhabi International Air-port by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Saif bin Zayed al-Nahyan, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Af-fairs Dr Anwar Mohamed Gar-gash and Qatar’s ambassador to UAE, Hadi bin Nasser Mansour al-Hajri.

QNAAbu Dhabi

HE the Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani with Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

HE the Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani holding talks with Lt General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed al-Nahyan, UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

WCM-Q signsagreement with QGBC

Sahtak Awalan - Your Health First, the pub-lic health campaign of

Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q), has signed a Memo-randum of Understanding with the Green Life initiative of Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC).

Your Health First and Green Life will work together to raise awareness of the impact that the built environment has on public health, promote sustain-able health and environmental practices, and collaborate on joint research projects to im-prove understanding of the link between the environment and good health.

The fi ve-year agreement was signed by Meshal al-Shamari, QGBC director, and Nesreen al-Rifai, WCM-Q’s chief com-munications offi cer, at the Qa-tar Green Buildings Conference, held during Qatar Sustainability Week.

Al-Shamari expressed de-light to be partnering with Sa-htak Awalan as it is fully in line with the objectives of the newly launched Green Life initiative.

“The Green Life is world’s fi rst sustainability loyalty pro-gramme, which is designed to help people consider sustain-ability as a lifestyle and to show them that a few little changes can make a huge impact”

Al-Shamari said, “Together with Sahatak Awalan, we will have numerous activities across the country in the near future to spread awareness and help resi-dents achieve healthier lifestyles and environments.”

Al-Rifai said ‘Your Health First and Green Life share a deep commitment to sustainable health that is intrinsically linked to respect for the environment. “With this MoU we will be able to work collaboratively to create projects that encourage appreci-ation of fresh, healthy produce.”

QATAR


The armed forces will be holding a military parade training for the National Day on December 17 from 6am to 1pm that includes parachuting and paramotoring shows from 2.30-10pm, the general command of the armed forces said.In the Corniche area,

the armed forces will hold parachuting training on December 18 from 6am to 1pm at an altitude of 1 ,000-5,000 feet and paramotoring shows at an altitude of 660 feet and a radius of 2km.On the same day in Katara, the armed forces will carry

out parachuting shows at an altitude of 1,000-5,000 feet and a radius of 500 metres from 2.30-8pm and paramotoring shows at an altitude of 660 feet and a radius of 2km.The general command of the armed forces has cautioned visitors to these areas.

Armed Forces to hold National Day parade training

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani met the outgoing South African ambassador to Qatar, Saad Cachalia, at the Emiri Diwan yesterday. The Emir wished the outgoing ambassador success in his future assignments and further progress and prosperity for bilateral relations between Qatar and South Africa. The ambassador expressed thanks and gratitude to the Emir and the off icials in Qatar for the co-operation he received during his tenure.

Emir meets outgoing envoy of S Africa

Qatar Biobank study points to high obesity levels

Findings from the study of the fi rst 3,000 sam-ples collected by Qatar

Biobank have found high overweight and obesity lev-els, as well as a 17% rate of diabetes in the adults sur-veyed.

Qatar Biobank and the Qatar Genome Programme presented the fi ndings on collecting and profi ling ge-nome samples of the Qatari population at the third Mid-dle East Molecular Biology Congress and Exhibition held recently at Qatar Uni-versity.

The four-day congress,

organised by Middle East Molecular Biology Sources, was attended by leading doctors, healthcare policy-makers, researchers and students from Qatar and around the world.

“We believe that our cur-rent fi ndings will help de-sign guidelines for preven-tion of diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases, and plan future strategies and educational activities for our local community,” said Dr Nahla Afi fi , acting director of Qatar Biobank. “We are confi dent that our data will be of great sup-

port to health strategies at both national and individual levels to fulfi l the delivery of personalised and precision healthcare.”

Dr Afi fi and Dr Said Is-mail, manager of the Qa-tar Genome Programme, discussed their eff orts to collect and profi le genome

samples of the Qatari popu-lation, with the goal of mov-ing towards more personal-ised and effi cient medicine.

Dr Ismail opened the presentations with a look at the Qatar Genome Pro-gramme’s ongoing eff orts to create a reference map of the Qatari genome us-ing samples provided by the population. By doing so, the Qatar Genome Programme is already off ering valuable opportunities for local re-searchers to study various diseases within the popula-tion.

The goal, said Dr Ismail, is

to enable healthcare provid-ers to use that genetic infor-mation to better serve their patients through preventa-tive and curative measures. “No more will medicine be one-size-fi ts-all. Instead, each genomic group will have its own approach to medical issues,” he said.

Qatar Biobank and the Qatar Genome Programme are part of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development working towards developing healthcare in Qatar by ad-vancing personalised medi-cine through vital research.

“We believe that our current fi ndings will help design guidelines for prevention of diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases’’

QRCS holds disaster

management course

Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has concluded a fi ve-day basic disaster management training course for 30 vol-

unteers from QRCS and other Qatari organisa-tions.

The purpose of the course is to build the capacity of volunteers in disaster response, through a set of topics that comply with inter-national standards.

During the event, the participants were in-troduced to QRCS’s mission and activities, the history and components of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and the seven Fundamental Principles.

Other topics covered by the course included the Disaster Management Unit, the Interna-tional Humanitarian Law, Sphere Project, as-sessment, health, water and sanitation, food, camp management, psychological support, media relations, registration, distribution, logistics, co-ordination, and restoring family links.

This course is part of a larger disaster pre-paredness programme conducted by QRCS to enhance community preparedness skills, under the supervision of disaster management spe-cialists.

QNADoha

5Gulf TimesMonday, November 28, 2016

QATAR

HBKU Press to holdinformation sessionsat Doha Book Fair

Post offi ces to haveself-service kiosks

Hamad Bin Khalifa Uni-versity (HBKU) Press will be participating in

the Doha International Book Fair (DIBF) to be held at the Doha Exhibition and Conven-tion Centre from November 30 to December 10.

“The aim is to support the vibrant scholarly and literary culture in Qatar by empowering local talent and by focusing on the ingenuity of the Qatari and Arab population,” Fakri Saleh, head of Arabic Publishing at HBKU Press, said.

“We hope to attract and in-spire new authors to see HBKU Press as the leading choice for publishing in Qatar, and as a cornerstone of Qatar’s knowl-edge-based economy.”

This year, HBKU Press will ac-tively participate in the DIBF by holding open forums for those interested in a variety of topics.

Author Eissa Abdullah is to hold a session that will explore

writing for the unique market of young adults.

As the renowned author of the best-selling titles, Ce-saran’s Treasure, Cesaran’s Treasure -The Gate of Katara and Delmun’s Riddles and Shawk Al Kawadi, Abdullah will delve into the specifi cs of char-acter development and tone of voice regarding this ever-ex-panding niche market.

Another forum will centre around the critical biography, Saladin, written by Dr Abdul Rahman Azzam.

Saladin was one of the most famous players in Islamic history.

This ground-breaking biog-raphy uncovers the real Saladin, placing him in historical con-text against the backdrop of the 10th and 11th-century Sunni revival, a powerful sweeping intellectual renaissance that would ultimately transform every fi eld of Islamic thought.

Dr Alwaleed AlKhaja, senior

editor at HBKU Press, will hold a session to examine the de-velopmental process of how to publish an academic book with HBKU Press.

Dr Alwaleed will go through the defi ne academic publish-ing, explain step-by-step the submission and publishing process, explore the concept of open access publishing, and demonstrate how and why HBKU Press is the number one choice in Qatar and the Gulf for authors and researchers looking to get published.

HBKU Press will also hold a book signing and meet and greet with best-selling Qatari author, Abdulaziz al-Mahmoud.

The critically acclaimed au-thor of The Corsair and The Holy Sail, will launch his new chil-dren’s graphic novel Arhama, an epic tale of an adventurer who comes to appreciate the value of learning and being prepared in order to succeed. Page 7

Qatar Postal Services Company (Q-Post) and Malomatia, the leading

national IT service and solution provider, have reached an agree-ment for introducing Electronic Point of Sales (E-POS) systems and self-service kiosks at post offi ces across the country.

The signing ceremony that took place at Q-Post head of-fi ce was attended by chairman and managing director Faleh al-Naemi and Malomatia manag-ing director and board member Yousef al-Naama.

Al-Naemi said the signing

reflects one of most ambitious IT projects for Q-Post, which will ultimately support its ob-jectives of implementing an advanced technology project that meets the company’s cur-rent and transformation future needs.

“It will help improve customer experience signifi cantly. Q-Post is eager to provide the latest postal technological services by transforming their traditional ways of business operations.

The introduction of E-POS systems and self-service kiosks is one of such initiatives.”

Al-Naemi also said working with Malomatia on this project was in fact based on Q-Post’s trust on the leading national company for executing nation-wide major projects in various sectors.

“We are proud to work with Qatar Post for delivering this strategic project in achieving the set objectives of Qatar Post by providing advanced tech-nology services,” al-Naama said.

He felt with the milestone project their company demon-strated its commitment towards

governmental sectors in taking and executing vital IT national projects in Qatar.

“Our commitment is to de-ploy our experts and techno-logical capabilities by teaming up with worldwide partners, to help fulfil Qatar National Vi-sion 2030 by working towards a greater knowledge-based economy”.

For the execution of this project, Malomatia has teamed up with some of the well-known technology suppliers of auto-mated retail postal systems and solutions in the world.

Q-Post’s Faleh al-Naemi (right) and Malomatia’s Yousef al-Naama exchange documents at the signing ceremony.

The winners of ‘Safari Win 10 BMW 5 Series Cars’ promotion’s first lucky draw, Udayakumar Golpala Pillai (coupon number 0125724) and Pradeep (1293391) receive the key from Safari Group director/general manager Zainul Abideen and operations manager Shahid Khan. The second lucky draw for the next two BMW cars will be held at Safari Mall on December 20.

Safari picks first winners of promotion

QATAR


WISH names winners of young innovators showcase competition

The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) has an-

nounced the winning partic-ipants for this year’s Young Innovators competition. The winners will showcase their healthcare inventions at the 2016 WISH Summit on No-vember 29 and 30 in Doha.

The innovations include devices, applications, pio-neering delivery models and design-based solutions that aim to improve the quality of care and patient experience, while also reducing costs.

The winning innovators include: Israa Nasir and Ka-mil Shafi q for ‘Ammi Serv-ice’, a voice messaging serv-ice to educate women in rural areas about maternal health; Vasundhra Khanna for ‘Bac-Kits’, a home-based testing kit for bacterial infections; Costa Carlos for the ‘OT-TAA Project’, a communi-cation platform for people with speech impairments; Abderrahim Bourouis for ‘Wonder Kit’, a multimedia shirt for monitoring children with autism; Said Alfarei for ‘Baseer’, an interactive board that helps blind people read and write English and Ara-bic; Haris Aghadi and Ab-dulla ElKhenji for ‘Meddy’, an online network of doctors in Qatar and Malaz Moha-mad and Hannah Anderson for developing a teaching device to train patients and caregivers about proper dia-betic wound care.

The WISH 2016 Young In-novators represent diverse backgrounds, coming from Pa-kistan, Argentina, Qatar, Unit-ed States, India, Oman and Al-geria. They will showcase their innovations in the Gallery Area, as part of the WISH Summit.

Another WISH 2016 Young Innovator, Abder-rahim Bourouis, was a fi-nalist in season eight of the Arab world’s leading scientific ‘edutainment’ TV programme, Stars of Science. His Smart Au-tism Shirt is set to be-come one of the projects that will benefit Qatar’s healthcare sector.

Bourouis said: “I am proud to be showcasing ‘Won-derKit’ and to be a part of the WISH Young Innovators programme 2016. My hope is to have ‘WonderKit’ out in the market and to achieve the goal of improving the daily lives of families with autistic children, using this wearable technology.”

Attending the WISH 2016 Summit will provide a gate-way for the Young Innova-tors to network and pro-mote their ideas to leading health experts and delegates from around the world. This once-in-a-lifetime oppor-tunity will allow the Young Innovators to directly com-municate with senior global healthcare policy and deci-sion makers.

Egbert Schillings, CEO of WISH, pointed out that the founder of WISH, HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, has a long record of cham-pioning the cause of children and young adults.

“That is why this pro-gramme showcases the tal-ents of young innovators from Qatar and around the world. This year’s cohort has impressed us with their ingenuity and entrepreneur-ship, but most of all with their commitment to the fundamental human value of health for all.”

WISH to focus locally on three major health issues in 2017

HMC honours employees

Hamad Medi-cal Corporation (HMC) awarded

top honours to 29 win-ning projects at the seventh annual Stars of Excellence staff award ceremony. The event was attended by more than 500 members of staff .

This year, the win-ning projects were se-lected from a total of 303 submissions, one of the highest number of submissions received in recent years. Each year, winners are chosen

based on their perform-ance against key criteria such as the application of international best practice, evidence of direct improvements re-sulting from the project, and how the project has impacted patient care and the overall patient experience. HE the Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari said the awards ceremony is an important platform to recognise and reward the hard work of all HMC staff .

HMC off icials receive an award.

By Joseph VargheseStaff Reporter

The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) will be focusing on autism, dementia and precision

medicine among other topics for its local community outreach in 2017.

“We will be focusing to help raise awareness among the local public on topics such as dementia and autism.We will collaborate with World Health Or-ganisation (WHO) to address the chal-lenges in dementia in the region imme-diately after the WISH Summit 2016,”

Egbert Schillings, CEO, WISH told Gulf Times.

“The day after the summit, we will be hosting a meeting with technical assist-ance from World Health Organisation on the challenges posed by dementia to health systems in the region with repre-sentatives from several countries in the region,” he explained.

“We will be convening the dementia leads from the Eastern Mediterranean Region to support regional and global collaboration on a health condition that will likely touch all of us during our life-time, either as patients or caregivers for a loved-one diagnosed with dementia.

“The demographic scenario is diff erent in each country. In the Middle East, the demographics is still quite young. But the idea for any health system is to get ahead of a challenge, rather than wait until it becomes a crisis. We have a great work-ing relationship with the department of mental health and substance abuse at the WHO, under the leadership support from Dr Shekhar Saxena, director, Department of Mental Health and substance abuse at WHO,” he maintained.

“We plan to have a lot of local pro-grammes along the lines of our recent dementia community event with Hamad Medical Corporation. We were encour-

aged by the interest on the part of the local community for translating more of our policy research into practical public education and awareness-raising,” he noted.

According to the offi cial, WISH has been very fortunate to work with great organisations locally and globally to create impact together. “We will con-tinue the collaborations with our exist-ing partners such as with The Carter Center on mental health journalism and our partners here in Doha and in the US to provide patient safety training to stu-dents and faculty of the local health sci-ences colleges,” he added.

QATAR7Gulf Times


NBK Automobiles sponsors Grazia Style AwardsNasser Bin Khaled (NBK)

Automobiles, the au-thorised distributor of

Mercedes-Benz in Qatar, has sponsored the inaugural Grazia Style Awards.

NBK Automobiles, exclusive automobile partner of the event, also sponsored two award cat-egories and presented the tro-phies to the winners. Daniela Frings, brand marketing execu-tive at Mercedes-Benz Middle East, bestowed the ‘Best Re-

gional Designer’ award while Alexandra Goodwin conferred the ‘Best Shopping Destination’ award.

The awards by Grazia maga-zine, the only international women’s monthly in Qatar and one of 25 international edi-tions of the leading fashion title, showcase the best that Qatar has to off er and welcomes the who’s who of the international industry to an awards ceremony to honour the standout style

stars from the past 12 months. During the event, NBK Au-

tomobiles announced the new platform of Mercedes-Benz - ‘She’s Mercedes’ - which is “dedicated to inspiring, con-necting and empowering women to be their best”, the statement notes. The primary aim of this platform is to create a dialogue that is embedded in a mix of formats and engage exceptional women from diff erent fi elds and industries.

Khalid Sha’aban, general manager at NBK Automobiles, said ‘She’s Mercedes’ targets self-made and self-reliant, driv-en businesswomen, fashionistas and trendsetters”. “Our aim is to empower women and create a personalised platform for them to exchange their experiences and ideas.”

The Grazia Style Awards, held in Qatar for the fi rst time, aim to “celebrate everything that is great in fashion – from the

NBK Automobiles announced the new platform of Mercedes-Benz - ‘She’s Mercedes’ - during the event.

best in design talent to favour-ite shopping destinations”, the statement further points out.

Sha’aban added, “We are proud to have partnered with the Grazia Style Awards in Qatar to showcase the best that Doha has to off er. Mercedes-Benz has strong ties with the fashion world and developed signifi cant partnerships across major in-

ternational fashion weeks and events in Qatar over its history. The brand found that collaborat-ing on the fi rst fashion event of its kind in Qatar was a natural fi t.

“Mercedes-Benz is now a ma-jor ambassador for fashion and style brands in the world, and we are happy to complement our Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week that we organise here in Qatar

by sponsoring these prestigious Awards organised by one of the most recognised magazines in the fashion world”.

The two awards highlight “Mercedes-Benz’s commitment to developing talents from Qatar and the region and aiding them in pursuing their careers by provid-ing them with optimal support and exposure”.

QNB is platinum sponsor of Doha International Book Fair

The 27th Doha International Book Fair will have QNB as its platinum sponsor, the

leading fi nancial institution in the Middle East and Africa.

Organised by the Ministry of Culture and Sports and Dar Al Kutub, the event will be held at the Doha Exhibition and Con-vention Centre (DECC) from November 30 to December 10.

“QNB’s sponsorship of this event comes as an important part of its corporate social re-sponsibility (CSR) programme and the bank’s eff orts to sup-port cultural events both in Qatar and abroad across its

international footprint,” it was announced in a statement.

The fair, held this year under the theme ‘Read’ will showcase over 100,000 books in Arabic and other foreign languages as well as host daily seminars and profes-sional workshops by specialised institutions such as the Arab Publishers Federation, Katara’s Arab Novel Award, and others.

The fair will see the partici-pation of over 490 publish-ing houses from 33 countries from across the Arab world and beyond, as well as partici-pation from some ministries and academic and cultural

institutions in GCC states. The event provides the par-

ticipating publishers and par-ties with a chance to showcase their latest publications to the Qatari community.

QNB Group’s presence through its subsidiaries and as-sociate companies extends to more than 30 countries across three continents providing a comprehensive range of ad-vanced products and services.

The total number of employ-ees is more than 27,300 operating through more than 1,200 loca-tions. QNB has an ATM network of more than 4,300 machines.

Luxury brand Moncler opens store at HIA

Qatar Duty Free (QDF) and luxury French-Ital-ian brand Moncler have

launched a pop-up boutique re-tail space at Hamad International Airport (HIA), providing shoppers with the “fi rst-ever dedicated” Moncler store in Qatar.

Located in the main departures hall of HIA, and situated behind the Lamp Bear, the pop-up Mon-cler boutique takes visitors on a journey through the French Alps, in a setting reminiscent of some of Europe’s most luxurious snow resorts. The luxury shopping expe-rience houses Moncler’s men’s and women’s ready-to-wear and ac-cessory collection, along with the luxury brand’s famous down jack-ets, according to a press statement.

The boutique marks the begin-

The Moncler pop-up store at HIA.

ning of a permanent and much larger presence for Moncler in QDF, with the brand’s permanent standalone store scheduled to open at the airport in early 2017.

Luis Gasset, senior vice-pres-ident of QDF, said: “Moncler is a

globally renowned brand that’s synonymous with quality and style, and it is this same brand synergy that forms a natural partnership between Qatar Duty Free and Mon-cler. Both brands share the same vision for adventure and provide

global travellers with unrivalled levels of quality and luxury, and I am thrilled to be able to off er our travellers this exciting boutique store, followed by Qatar’s fi rst-ev-er permanent Moncler store, which will be unveiled in 2017.”

The addition of the Moncler pop-up store “complements QDF’s well-established luxury retail experience at HIA with a range of premium stores stock-ing leading brands to surprise and delight the discerning travel-ler”. The statement added, “With a number of fl ights to the world’s most sought-after winter and ad-venture destinations, Qatar Duty Free’s dedicated Moncler boutique is a welcome and timely addi-tion to what is one of the world’s leading airports for shopping.”

QATAR


QIB hosts students of Rawdat Rashid Independent SchoolQatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has

hosted a group of students from Rawdat Rashid Independent

Secondary Boys School at its Al Rayyan branch.

The school visit aimed to educate the students on the important role of banks in the daily lives of individu-als and businesses as well as for the country’s economic development and growth.

The students toured the branch and visited its Affl uent Banking (Tamayuz) centre to get a fi rst-hand experience and understanding of the numerous operations taking place in diff erent sec-tions of the branch to provide the re-quired fi nancial services to people and companies in Qatar.

Senior bank representatives briefed the students on the vast spectrum of products and services off ered by banks in general and QIB in particular to improve the quality of life of citi-zens and residents, and fuel economic growth. Examples of how the bank is supporting building of Qatar’s infra-structure as well as the government’s objectives for the economy’s diver-sifi cation and the development of a

Skyline Automotive is offi cial distributor of Hyundai MotorHyundai Motor Company

has announced that Skyline Automotive is

its offi cial distributor for Qatar, underlining a “determination to increase its share of the local car market”.

“Skyline Automotive has am-bitious plans for growth, bringing together a leadership team with extensive experience working in the motor industry in Qatar, as well as across the wider GCC and Middle East,” Hyundai said in a press statement yesterday.

The new distributor is re-sponsible for sales and service of the full Hyundai 2017 model range, from small hatchbacks and sedans to SUVs. It will also introduce the luxury Genesis

brand to the Qatari market from this month. Its fi rst showroom is now open on B-Ring Road, and more sales and service cen-tres will open at convenient locations across Qatar in the coming months, the statement notes.

“We are very impressed by Skyline Automotive’s dedica-tion due to their understanding of the market and their rapidity in establishing sales and after-sales facilities,” said Mike Song, Hyundai’s head of operations for Africa and the Middle East. “Hyundai has achieved success by setting high standards, and we look for partnerships that match those standards, and that will consistently deliver

on the promise we make to our customers. We believe we have found the right partner in Qa-tar.”

As Hyundai’s offi cial dis-tributor, Skyline Automotive will off er “some of the safest, most innovative, stylish and reliable cars available, designed and built to the highest speci-fi cations and standards by the world’s fi fth-largest car manu-facturer”.

Further, the statement stressed that the appointment was a clear signal of Hyundai’s confi dence in the market and its strong com-mitment to growth in Qatar and in the region more generally. As well as being the number fi ve car-maker by volume, the Hyundai

The showroom on B-Ring Road.

Paiman El Malla, managing director, Skyline Automotive.

AAB sponsors futsal tournament

Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros Co (AAB), the exclusive distribu-tor of Toyota and Lexus in Qa-

tar, was the main sponsor of the fi rst Hameedian’s Fantastic 5 Futsal Tour-nament 2016.

The event was organised by Hameed Al Husseini Colombo - Old Boys’ As-sociation in Qatar. Proceeds of the

tournament will go to the educational and sports facilities of the school in Sri Lanka.

The event was successfully held with 24 teams participating in the one-day-event at the Pearling Inter-national School in Doha.

Main Jaran, general manager, Elec-tro Trade, a provider of electrical so-

lutions in the construction industry and a division of AAB’s Commercial & Industrial Solutions, represented AAB during the awarding ceremony of the winners.

The sponsorship falls under AAB’s corporate social responsibility initia-tive of building and developing com-munities through sport.

Main Jaran awarding the championship cup.

Students with bank off icials.

strong private sector in accordance with Qatar National Vision 2030 were discussed.

Students expressed an inter-

est in knowing more about the specifi c nature and mechanism of Islamic banking, with QIB rep-resentatives explaining the basic

principles of Shariah-compliant banking.

The group of students had the op-portunity to learn more about QIB’s

specifi c products and services and were informed on how investments in tech-nology made it possible to off er the bank’s services any time and through diff erent channels such as ATMs, QIB’s mobile banking application and the call centre.

The visit concluded with a series of observations by the students re-garding banking transactions, Islamic fi nance and products off ered by the bank as well as questions about em-ployment opportunities for Qatari youths in the banking sector.

QIB representatives answered all the questions and emphasised the posi-tive role that banks play as businesses in their own right through job crea-tion, fi nancial education and continue innovation.

School teachers and students com-mended the visit and expressed their thanks and appreciation to QIB for giv-ing them the opportunity to take a clos-er look at banking and understand the broader role of the fi nancial sector in supporting and stimulating economic and social progress.

The visit was organised as part of QIB’s social responsibility role.

name was recently ranked the world’s sixth most valuable car brand, and the 35th most valuable brand in all industries, by global

brand specialists Interbrand.“We are proud to represent

the Hyundai brand in Qatar and excited by the huge opportu-nity ahead of us,” said Paiman El Malla, managing director of Skyline Automotive. “The vision for Skyline Automotive is to be a truly service-led and custom-er-focused organisation, which aligns perfectly with Hyundai’s

brand ethos. We have a clear and focused plan for growth matched with the expertise, skills and am-bition to succeed. We look for-ward to building a very strong partnership with Hyundai in the years to come.”

El Malla has previously held senior positions with BMW operations in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Sony’s new headphone launched

Fifty One East, Qatar’s lead-ing department store, and Sony launched the MDR-

1000X, industry-leading noise cancelling headphones.

“The premium headphones of-fer the most responsive cancella-tion of ambient sound frequency range on the market,” it was claimed in a statement yesterday.

While extending the range of wireless and noise cancelling headphones already available from Sony, the 1000X is the fi rst to off er a ‘Personal NC Optimiser’ function and a ‘Quick Attention’ mode that lets the user place the palm of a hand to the outside of the right headphone ear cup to have a conversation with some-one, without taking the headset off . These unique listening expe-riences are realised by the newly developed Sense Engine feature.

These are also the fi rst head-phones with the DSEE HX built in to upscale compressed music from any source to near High-Resolution Audio sound quality, even in wireless mode.

‘Personal NC Optimiser’ anal-yses the shape of the user’s head and how the headphones are worn. Making the most of noise cancelling, the ‘Ambient Sound Mode’ setting changes the sound condition so that one can enjoy listening to music while catching the ambient sound outside.

Sony has removed the need for a wired connection while ensur-ing the same great sound qual-ity. Bluetooth technology allows quick connection.

The 1000X wireless and noise cancelling headphones have a 20 hour battery life. With a swivel and folding structure, the 1000X can be easily stowed away in a bag.

Available in black or gray beige, the new 1000X headphones come with their own durable leather case and will be available at Fifty One East store located in Al Maha Center on Salwa Road in addition to all branches of Vir-gin Megastore as well as major retailers in Qatar.

The new MDR-1000X headphone.

REGION9Gulf Times


UN Yemen envoy in new bid for peaceAFPMuscat

The UN envoy for Yemen has announced a new bid for peace talks between the gov-

ernment and rebels, after the latest ceasefi re failed to end the 20-month confl ict.

The peace eff ort by Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed came as dozens were reported killed in fi ghting at the week-end.

Envoy Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he was heading to Riyadh and Kuwait “to prepare for a new round” of talks, as he left Muscat late Saturday after discussions with representatives of Yemen’s Shia Houthi rebels and their allies.

Riyadh has been the base of Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi since the rebels forced him to fl ee his country in March 2015 and prompted Saudi Arabia to lead an Arab coalition in a military campaign against the in-surgents.

Hadi fl ew to Aden on Saturday for a surprise visit to the southern port city

serving as Yemen’s temporary capital since coalition-backed loyalists recap-tured it from the rebels.

“I am ready to visit President Hadi in Aden if need be,” Ould Cheikh Ahmed said, in a statement carried by Oman’s offi cial ONA news agency.

He said he found “a lot of serious-ness” in talks with representatives of the Huthis and their allies from the party of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The envoy also said he had been in contact with US Secretary of State John Kerry who “sees a historic chance to achieve peace in Yemen”.

A previous round of peace talks held in Kuwait collapsed in August.

A 48-hour ceasefi re declared by the coalition ended last Monday with lit-tle success in reducing violence in the war-torn country.

Both parties traded blame for the numerous violations of the ceasefi re that came into eff ect after Kerry inter-vened.

It was the latest international at-tempt to end a confl ict which the United Nations says has killed more than 7,000 people and wounded nearly

37,000 since March last year.The Houthi rebels overran the

capital Sanaa and other parts of the impoverished country in September 2014.

A Yemeni offi cial said yesterday 12 civilians were killed when a coalition air strike hit two makeshift wooden houses sheltering displaced families in the western province of Ho-deida.

The offi cial said the raid late on Saturday had apparently targeted the two houses “mistakenly”, adding that a rebel position 300m away was un-touched.

In northwest Yemen, the sources said, 40 soldiers and 22 rebels have been killed since Friday in heavy clashes for control of a road linking the Red Sea port city of Midi and nearby Haradh.

Elsewhere, two women were killed in rebel bombing of the south-western city of Taez, military offi cials said.

Clashes raged on the outskirts of the fl ashpoint city, killing four rebels and three government soldiers late on Sat-urday, they said.

Kuwaiti opposition win big in anti-austerity voteReutersKuwait City

Opposition candidates are esti-mated to have won around 20 seats out of 50 in Kuwaiti elec-

tions that saw most parliament mem-bers replaced, in a vote analysts said refl ects anger at austerity measures to curb a budget defi cit.

The results of Saturday’s vote are likely to make it harder for the govern-ment to work with the new assembly to pass further reforms.

State news agency KUNA said that 30 new MPs gained seats in the 50-member parliament, including several younger men and one woman, after a turnout estimated at around 65% for the Gulf’s most outspoken legislature.

Analyst Ibrahim al-Hadban said the election campaign had shown that some of the decisions taken by the gov-ernment were not popular among citi-zens, including raising gasoline prices.

“MPs who were in the assembly did not object to these decisions. So, in my view, they were blamed and pun-ished,” Hadban, who teaches politi-cal science at Kuwait University, told Reuters.

With no political parties, it was dif-fi cult to pin down precisely how many opposition MPs had been elected.

But some estimates put the number at between 17 and 24.

The opposition, including the Mus-lim Brotherhood, liberals and pan-Arabists, had boycotted the election in 2012 to protest against changes to election laws they saw as favouring pro-government candidates.

At least two cabinet members failed to win parliament seats this time, ap-parently an indication of popular dis-content with the government’s aus-terity plans.

The parliament had been due to run until July 2017, but the emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, dissolved it in October, saying “security chal-lenges” in the region — an apparent reference to wars in Iraq and Syria — should be met by consulting the pop-ular will.

More than 290 candidates, includ-ing 14 women, were standing in an assembly that enjoys legislative pow-ers but has often been at odds with the government of Kuwait, one of the world’s wealthiest countries, thwart-ing attempts to strengthen fi scal dis-cipline.

Former speaker Marzouq al-

Ghanem, who retained his seat, said political stability was crucial for Ku-wait to focus on economic develop-ment in what he described as a “sensi-tive, critical and important stage”.

“As I pointed out to all political blocs, progress or development must have a base and the base is political stability,” Ghanem told Reuters after polls closed on Saturday night.

Campaigning had focused mainly on austerity measures adopted in the past year after offi cials forecast a defi cit of 9.5bn dinars ($31bn) for the 2016/17 fi scal year.

Although the defi cit is likely to be smaller than forecast as it was based on an oil price of $25 a barrel, many Kuwaitis fear the government will try to raise prices further and cut many of the perks they have enjoyed for dec-ades.

Former Kuwaiti parliament speaker Marzouq al-Ghanem celebrates with supporters following his victory in the parliamentary election in Kuwait City yesterday.

ARAB WORLD


Hundreds abandon Aleppo as Syrian army advancesReutersBeirut

Hundreds of residents of rebel-held eastern Aleppo fl ed shifting front-lines, sources said yesterday, after an

advance by the Syrian army and allied forces that rebels fear could split their most impor-tant urban stronghold in two.

The army and its allies took control on Saturday of the large Hanano housing dis-trict, on the northeast frontline of the be-sieged eastern part of Aleppo.

Yesterday, they said they had captured the neighbouring district, Jabal Badro.

Neither area was heavily populated but the advance, accompanied by Russian and Syr-ian air strikes, has raised fears among the in-surgents that the northern part of east Alep-po could be cut off from the southern part.

That would weaken their control over the east and bring more residents closer to frontlines.

Capturing all of Aleppo would be a major

victory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after fi ve and a half years of fi ghting that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced 11mn others.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the confl ict, said about 400 people travelled into government-controlled Hanano from neighbouring rebel-held dis-tricts, from where some were transferred to government-held western Aleppo.

Some are also crossing into an Aleppo dis-trict held by the Kurdish YPG militia, which has largely avoided fi ghting the Syrian gov-ernment and has been spared air attacks.

The Observatory said about 30 families entered this district, Sheikh Maqsoud.

Russian news agencies, citing the Defence Ministry, said yesterday more than 900 ci-vilians, including 119 children, had left Jabal Badro in the last 24 hours.

“We left Hanano because of the bombard-ment from the Syrian army during their ad-vance, and the chlorine gas,” Mohamed, who declined to use his full name out of fear for his safety, told Reuters.

He was waiting with his wife, mother and three children at a minibus stop, hoping to travel on to government-held west Aleppo.

He said Hanano had contained about 200-300 families, but they had come and gone throughout the war depending on the intensity of strikes.

A 13-month inquiry by the global chemical weapons watchdog and the United Nations concluded that Syrian government forces, including helicopter squadrons, were responsible for the use of chlorine barrel bombs against civilians.

Syrian authorities deny having used chemical weapons in the confl ict.

Aleppo, which was Syria’s biggest city before the war began in 2011, is divided between the government-held west and rebel-held east.

UN offi cials say at least 250,000 people are under siege in the east.

There were fi erce clashes in areas adjacent to Hanano, the Observatory, rebel sources and Syrian state media said.

Rebel sources say they are fi ghting back with diffi culty in the face of sustained aerial bombardment.

“The revolutionary forces are reinforcing their defence lines on the edges of Hanano, steadfast in the defence of our people in Aleppo...

But the planes have destroyed everything, stones, trees and people, in a systematic policy of destruction,” said Yasser al-Yousef, from the political offi ce of the Nour al-Din al-Zinki rebel group.

People are also being displaced internally within east Aleppo.

Hundreds are moving south within the besieged sector to avoid being trapped in the smaller northern part should the government split it in two.

“Many people are being displaced from the eastern to the western neighbourhoods of besieged Aleppo. There were about 300 families which moved, but there are fami-lies who are exhausted and the army is advancing in a very big way,” Ibrahim Abu Laith, an offi cial at the civil defence rescue organisation in east Aleppo, told Reuters from the city.

He said the civil defence was giving aid to those dis-placed, but the service was coming under extreme strain because of the bombardments and displacements.

It has said its supplies and equipment are running very low, with few if any medical centres left to take people for treatment.

Strike over fuel subsidies quietens Khartoum streetsAFPKhartoum

Several public transport buses stayed off the streets in Khartoum yesterday and many shops shut in a mixed response to opposition calls for a nationwide strike

against fuel subsidy cuts.The call for a three-day strike came after the authori-

ties announced a 30% hike in petrol and diesel prices that has led to a sharp rise in the cost of other goods, including medicines.

Several key squares and roads in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman were deserted yesterday morning, the start of the working week in the Muslim country, as many public transport buses remained off the streets, AFP cor-respondents reported.

Schools in Khartoum were open but many parents pre-ferred to keep their children at home fearing clashes be-tween protesters and security forces.

“My son’s school urged parents to send only grown up boys. My fi ve-year-old son is at home,” Mohamed Khalid, a resident of south Khartoum, told AFP.

The capital’s squares were free of the normal traffi c jams, while many shops, cafes and restaurants in downtown Khartoum and Omdurman remained shut.

“There are not many people on the roads, which has im-pacted my business since I opened in the morning,” said Ahmad Saleh, an owner of a grocery shop in downtown Omdurman.

Restaurant owners said they had told their workers to prepare less food, anticipating a drop in business.

“There is at least a 40% drop in business. My usual customers are other shopkeepers and many of them have closed their shops today,” said Ibrahim Mohamed, who runs a restaurant in north Khartoum. “Some of my workers have also not reported to work today.”

However, state employees turned up for work, trans-ported by government buses to their offi ces.

The authorities are determined to avoid any repetition of 2013 unrest that was sparked by a similar round of fuel subsidy cuts.

It was suppressed only by a deadly crackdown by secu-rity forces that drew international condemnation.

Rights groups say that crackdown left about 200 people dead, while the government put the death toll at less than 100.

President Omar al-Bashir’s regime has been forced to progressively reduce fuel subsidies since 2011 when South Sudan seceded and took with it nearly three-quarters of the formerly united country’s oil reserves.

The latest fuel price hike coupled with a sharp fall in the Sudanese pound has triggered sporadic protests.

Groups of protesters have staged rallies in Khartoum, which have been swiftly dispersed by anti-riot police.

“Before the price rise we needed 30 pounds ($ 4.60) to buy our daily vegetables,” said Fatima Ibrahim, a resident of Khartoum.

“Now we need 100 to 150 pounds to buy the same amount of items. What will people do?”

Prices of medicines have shot up on the back of a sliding pound on the black market.

The Sudanese pound has dropped by more than 60% to the dollar in the past six months.

“The fall in the currency has defi nitely aff ected the prices of medicines, especially those imported by private companies,” Health Minister Bahar Idris Abu Garda told AFP.

The authorities are working to ensure that medicines are available at reasonable prices, he said, as the country yes-terday received the fi rst batch of medicines from the UN Development Programme under a $60mn deal.

Algerian trade union members shouts slogans outside the People’s National Assembly in Algiers to protest pension reforms being debated by deputies.

Pension woes

ARAB WORLD11Gulf Times


After IS hell, displaced Iraqis face winter freezeBy Rouba El Husseini, AFPKhazir, Iraq

After enduring two years of tyranny under the Islamic State group and surviving

the war that liberated them, dis-placed civilians in northern Iraq face a new enemy: the cold.

With the fi ghting raging inside Mosul where hundreds of thou-sands of civilians still live, an early winter and sub-zero temperatures have brought an added challenge.

“At night we have to keep our heads under the blanket and curl into a ball to stay warm,” said Alya Zannun, a 56-year-old woman living in a tent in Khazir camp, southeast of Mosul.

“We are dying from the cold, our hands are getting dry and are covered in fungi,” she said, wash-ing a few dishes with ice-cold water.

Warda Maraebi, a 71-year-old woman helping her with the dishes, said: “We can’t even stretch our fi ngers because of the cold, how are the children going to handle this?”

More than 70,000 people have been displaced in the Mosul area since Iraqi forces launched a ma-jor off ensive to retake the IS bas-tion on October 17.

Despite the fact that larger num-bers were initially expected, aid organisations have been racing against time to build enough camps and provide basic assistance.

Fatima Omar, 38, fl ed her home east of Mosul earlier this month with her six children.

“At night, the tent was shak-

ing, it felt like the wind was going to blow it away,” she said. “If the weather gets any worse, the tent will just collapse.”

Some of the displaced now housed in the camps dotting the Mosul region were battling tem-peratures of over 40 degrees Cel-sius just a few weeks ago.

Northern Iraq gets cold weath-er in the winter however and even snowfall in some areas, includ-ing regions of the Kurdish region housing many of the country’s more than 3mn displaced.

Fatima was given a heater but the device was still in its box in-side her tent because she had no kerosene to make it work.

“Yes they gave us a heater but it’s never been used. No fuel, no electricity. What are we sup-posed to do with it?” she said.

She said her youngest child was suff ering from diarrhoea and

also expressed concern about the health of her 71-year-old cousin Mariam Safar.

On the other side of the wire mesh ringing the sprawling camp, vendors selling food to the displaced people above the fence are now also off ering clothes.

Bushra Talal, whose husband was killed by militants in their Mosul neighbourhood of Al Sa-mah two years ago, broke into tears when she spoke about the conditions in the camp.

She said her daughters, aged 13, 10 and eight called at night complaining about the cold.

“We are suff ering from the cold, my daughters are getting sick...The water is so cold I can’t let them have a bath,” said the

woman, wearing a black abaya and yellow head scarf. “I went to the person in charge of the camp and asked him to let us leave. I don’t want my children to die of exposure,” said the young woman.

The United Nations said it started delivering winter assist-ance to 4.6mn displaced Iraqis and Syrians but it said its plan was only partially funded.

The UN’s refugee agency said it was specifi cally targeting 1.2mn displaced Iraqis, including many of those aff ected by the Mosul of-fensive. Diff erent camps get dif-ferent quality aid and, with winter barely started, many displaced families are suff ering already.

“When the rain comes, I will die,” said Mariam Safar.

An Iraqi boy, who fled Mosul with his family, carries a ball at the UN-run Al Hol refugee camp in Syria’s Hasakeh province.

Fatah readies rare congress as succession talk buildsBy Hossam Ezzedine, AFPRamallah

Palestinian President Mah-moud Abbas’s Fatah party tomorrow holds its fi rst con-

gress since 2009 as the 81-year-old leader seeks to close ranks and fend off a key rival.

While Abbas’s advisers insist the congress is being held because it is overdue, some analysts see it as an opportunity for him to sideline al-lies of his exiled longtime rival Mo-hamed Dahlan.

Talk of who will eventually suc-ceed Abbas as Palestinian president has intensifi ed, with the ageing leader not having publicly designat-ed a successor.

A recent hospitalisation for a heart test has only added to such talk, but Abbas has maintained that he has no intention of stepping down anytime soon.

Arab nations have reportedly been pressuring Abbas to allow Dahlan to return in hopes that it will help lead to a smooth transition.

The congress to last up to fi ve days in the occupied West Bank city of

Ramallah is expected to be key for the future of the secular party and the Palestinian Authority it controls.

It is to include elections for Fa-tah’s central committee – in which Abbas serves as president – and its revolutionary council, considered Fatah’s parliament and which has more than 120 members.

The 1,400 Fatah offi cials invited to attend the congress are to vote for 18 members of the central commit-tee and 80 seats on the revolution-ary council, while the rest are to be nominated.

Observers see the reduced number of offi cials to vote – down from more than 2,000 in 2009 – as part of a move to exclude Dahlan supporters.

Now in exile in the United Arab Emirates, Dahlan was expelled from Fatah in 2011 and has faced a series of legal cases since.

Abbas’s term as Palestinian presi-dent offi cially ended in 2009 but there has been no election since due to an ongoing dispute between his party and its main rival, Islamist movement Hamas.

The Palestinian parliament has not met since 2007.

Fatah – which controls the West

Bank – and Hamas have been at log-gerheads since the latter seized the Gaza Strip in a near civil war in 2007.

Dahlan fell from grace in June 2007 after the humiliating rout of his forces by Hamas in week-long street battles that saw the Islam-ists expel Fatah from the coastal enclave.

The Gaza-born politician was expelled from Fatah in 2011 over al-legations of fi nancial corruption and murder. The Palestinian high court in 2015 upheld a presidential decree lifting Dahlan’s parliamentary im-munity, sparking condemnation from civil society activists.

That “cannot be taken out of context: one of political infi ghting within Fatah around the person of lawmaker Dahlan,” political analyst Jihad Harb said of the lifting of his immunity.

Fatah has become increasingly intolerant of dissent from the party line, Harb said.

The party is the main component of the Palestine Liberation Organi-sation and led the movement to sign the 1993 Oslo Accords that gave birth to the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad – the

two most powerful forces in Gaza – have never joined the PLO.

Recent opinion polls have sug-gested most Palestinians would like Abbas to step down.

Political analyst Abdel Majid Abu Sweilam says that, beyond staving off Abbas’s rivals, the congress also aims to reinforce Fatah’s hold within the institutions of the Palestinian Authority.

The congress will also address the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, stalled since early 2014.

It will be Fatah’s seventh congress since its founding in 1959 and the fi rst since 2009.

The 2009 meeting saw younger offi cials enter the central committee including Marwan Barghouti, cur-rently imprisoned, as well as Jibril Rajoub and Dahlan.

Polls have shown that Barghouti would win if an election for Pales-tinian president were held today, but he is jailed for life for murder by Israel over his role in the second Pal-estinian intifada.

Rajoub, a former head of intelligence, now leads the Palestinian Football As-sociation and has been an advocate for the Palestinian cause within the sport.

Israel douses fi res that forced mass evacuationsAFPJerusalem

Firefi ghters have ex-tinguished blazes that ravaged Israel and the

occupied West Bank for fi ve days and forced tens of thou-sands to fl ee, authorities said yesterday, blaming arsonists for some outbreaks.

There were no deaths but some 122 people were treat-ed for injuries, mainly due to smoke inhalation, medical offi cials said. Around 700 homes were damaged or de-stroyed as the blazes fed by high winds and dry condi-tions ripped through thou-sands of hectares.

In recent days, fi refi ghting planes from a list of coun-

tries could be seen sloping low over the hills of the oc-cupied West Bank and Israel dropping tonnes of water and retardants.

At one point last week, fl ames towered over an area near Jerusalem, and residents were left surveying their charred homes and busi-nesses yesterday.

“There are no active sites

left,” fi re and rescue service spokesman Yoram Levy told AFP. “Since last night it’s pretty calm. We have no new activity.”

According to Levy, fi re-fi ghters dealt with about 2,000 fi res in Israel and the West Bank, 20 of them major.

The Israeli authorities suspect that some of the fi res were set alight on pur-

pose and linked to the Is-raeli-Palestinian confl ict. Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said yester-day that 17 of 110 fi res in the West Bank were so far determined to be arson, without providing further details.

Speaking at the Israeli settlement of Halamish in the West Bank, where doz-ens of homes were dam-aged at the weekend, he said Israel should respond to any arson by building more settlement homes.

Police have arrested 23 people suspected of light-ing fi res and interrogated another seven.

However, Palestinian authorities also joined in the massive international eff ort to douse the fast-spreading fi res and have pointed to damage to their crops and land.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a rare phone call to Pales-tinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday to thank him for those eff orts.

Lieberman also thanked the Palestinians.

Levy noted forces were still “on high alert” due to dry conditions and high winds that were not ex-pected to change prior to rainfall expected on Wednesday.

In an example of the risks, a forest fi re was ex-tinguished yesterday near Kiryat Malakhi in southern Israel.

Israeli fi refi ghters had since last Tuesday been battling wildfi res through-out the country which on Thursday hit major city Haifa, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate their homes.

Around 1,000 residents of Halamish near Ramallah in the West Bank had to fl ee at the weekend. Some 45 homes there were damaged or destroyed by fi re, police said.

AFRICA


South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has lashed out at debt rat-

ing agencies, calling their refer-ences to political risk in recent reviews of the country as mis-chievous and unscientifi c.

On Friday, Fitch kept the credit score of Africa’s most industrial-ised economy one notch above junk status but changed its out-look to negative from stable, warning that political risks could hurt growth.

The agency said that ANC in-fi ghting was likely to continue at least until the party’s electoral conference in December next year and this would distract poli-cymakers and undermine the in-vestment climate.

“This will distract policymak-ers and lead to mixed messages that will continue to undermine the investment climate, thereby constraining GDP growth,” Fitch said.

The ANC, which in August suff ered its heaviest electoral losses since coming to power in 1994, said rating agencies’ con-cerns about political uncertainty were curious given that politi-cal disagreements were a regular feature of democracy.

“The conference’s impact on governance and macroeconomic performance is an untested and unscientifi c observation,” ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said in a statement.

Moody’s kept its Baa2 rat-ing for South African debt un-

changed on Friday but said po-litical uncertainty was hurting business confi dence and without fundamental structural reforms to support higher medium-term growth a downgrade was likely.

The threat of downgrades has focused the spotlight on Presi-dent Jacob Zuma and his admin-istration.

This month an anti-graft watchdog alleged infl uence-peddling in Zuma’s government.

Also worrying investors was the decision by state prosecu-tors last month to charge Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan with fraud, a move seen by many as a ploy by people linked to the president to seize control of the Treasury.

Zuma has denied any wrong-doing.

Analysts said the ongoing

political skirmishes combined with weak economic growth had raised the chance of downgrades in 2017.

“Zuma has focused on remov-ing Gordhan and maintaining his grip on power, while Gordhan (has) been working very hard to avert a ratings downgrade,” Fitch said.

“The risk of a downgrade has clearly risen,” Stanlib chief ana-lyst Kevin Lings said. “Without structural reforms to lift growth and ensure more political sta-bility, Moody’s will be forced to downgrade South Africa.”

Old Mutual economist Rian le Roux said Standard & Poor’s, which ranks South Africa one notch above junk with a negative outlook, and is due to publish a review next Friday, said that the agency’s institutional strength

rating could trigger a downgrade.“If they change this to nega-

tive on account of the political tensions concerning the fi nance minister and concerns over the broad direction of economic pol-icy, then they could downgrade us,” le Roux said.

S&P’s cut state-owned power utility Eskom’s credit rating a further notch into subinvest-ment on Friday, raising fears this was a precursor to a sovereign rating downgrade.

Gordhan had been due to ap-pear in court earlier this month on graft charges that many ana-lysts saw as an attempt by Zuma associates to oust him.

The charges were dropped at the last minute, exposing ten-sions in the ANC as several min-isters came out in his support.

Gordhan was appointed only

last year to calm panicked inves-tors when Zuma sacked two fi -nance ministers within four days.

Gordhan and deputy presi-dent Cyril Ramaphosa have been pushing for reform of loss-mak-ing state companies, including power company Eskom and na-tional airline South African Air-ways.

A recent watchdog report in-cluded allegations that Zuma ensured one business family won huge preferential contracts to supply Eskom with coal.

Zuma said on Friday he would launch a court challenge to the report and its order to set up a ju-dicial inquiry.

The ANC is due to elect a new leader at the end of next year, ahead of the 2019 general elec-tion when Zuma must stand down after serving two terms.

ANC slams ratings agencies’ commentsReuters/AFPJohannesburg

Gordhan (below) has been working very hard to avert a ratings downgrade, according to Fitch, while Zuma (right) has been focused on removing the finance minister and maintaining his grip on power.

The new head of South Af-rica’s anti-corruption watchdog has fi led a crim-

inal complaint against her pred-ecessor for leaking an interview she conducted while probing corruption allegations against President Jacob Zuma, according to media reports.

The current public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has laid a charge against Thuli Madonsela for allegedly breaking the law as the latter investigated Zuma’s links to an infl uential business family after the president com-plained, the Sunday Times paper reported.

Madonsela has said she re-leased the recording of an inter-view she conducted with Zuma after he accused her of not giving him the opportunity to respond to her allegations.

“A case has been opened ... because there is an investiga-tion that needs to happen (into) whether the leakage happened in violation of the law,” the paper quoted Mkhwebane as saying.

The watchdog’s offi ce did not respond to AFP calls yesterday.

Madonsela’s report, released earlier this month just before she stepped down, made allegations over Zuma’s relationship with the Guptas, an Indian business family accused of wielding un-due political infl uence.

It also ordered a judicial in-quiry into the allegations.

Zuma has said he would launch a court challenge against the report as well as to oppose a judicial inquiry.

The report alleged that Zuma ensured the Gupta family won

huge contracts on favourable terms with state companies and that they were able to choose cabinet ministers.

In power since 2009, Zuma has been engulfed by graft scandals and several humiliating court rulings.

Increasing numbers of anti-apartheid veterans, activists of the ruling African National Con-gress (ANC), trade unions, civil groups and business leaders have called for Zuma to resign in re-cent months.

Another Sunday paper, the City Press, reported that during a weekend meeting of ANC fi g-ures, the Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom had tabled a motion calling for Zuma to step down.

The party could not be reached for comment.

Zuma still commands loy-alty among ANC lawmakers and many party members.

Zuma is due to appear this week before the party’s integrity committee, which was formed in 2013 to protect the ANC’s image from allegations of misconduct.

Madonsela accused over leaked Zuma interview: paperAFPJohannesburg

A case has been opened to look into whether the leakage of Madonsela (pictured)’s interview with Zuma happened in violation of the law.

Aviators fl ying vintage planes the length of Afri-ca were showing them off

in the skies over a Kenyan game park yesterday, a day after one of the aircraft was wrecked in a forced landing.

The Vintage Air Rally, includ-ing biplanes built in the 1920s and 1930s, has fl own from Eu-rope past Egypt’s pyramids and through Sudan and Ethiopia, where participants were briefl y detained because of a dispute over whether they had proper authorisation.

“They are tough conditions for the aeroplanes. It’s hot, it’s high and in the afternoons we get the thunderstorms,” rally organiser Sam Rutherford told reporters as the planes fl ew over a game park on the outskirts of Nairobi.

“We did lose an aircraft,” he said of Saturday’s incident,

when a vintage Boeing Stearman suff ered an engine failure and made a forced landing north-west of Nairobi.

The plane was “written off ” but the crew were fi ne, Ruther-ford said.

The vintage Boeing Stearman were fl own by an Irish father and daughter team.

“Team Eagle in a Boeing Stearman have suff ered total engine failure and made a forced landing. We are happy to say and terribly relieved that both crew are uninjured, but the aircraft is irreparably damaged,” the Vin-tage Air Rally said on its Face-book page.

The rally also briefl y lost track of veteran pilot Maurice Kirk, 72, and his plane after the stop in Ethiopia last week.

After being released from Ethiopia he landed up in con-fl ict-torn South Sudan instead of Kenya.

“Locals found him and called a Brit in Juba they recently worked for. He contacted the

British embassy in Juba,” organ-isers said on their Facebook page on Saturday.

Kirk and his plane are no long-er part of the rally.

About a dozen planes from the

1920s and 1930s are taking part in the 13,000km (8,000-mile) journey from the Greek island of Crete to Cape Town – an ex-traordinary bid in aircraft with no autopilot, automation or pro-

tection from the elements.The teams became the fi rst

group of aircraft to land at Egypt’s Giza pyramids in 80 years.

After the problem in Ethio-

pia, the teams made it to Kenya where they fl ew their vintage planes yesterday above Nairobi’s famed National Park, where li-ons, zebra and giraff e roam in the shadow of the city.

Enthusiasts lose one vintage plane but press on southReuters/AFPNairobi

A plane flies over spectators during the Vintage Air Rally at the Nairobi National Park yesterday.

Ugandan police stormed the palace of a tribal king and arrested him yesterday af-

ter fi erce clashes between security forces and a separatist militia they believe is linked to him killed 55, police said.

Heavy fi ghting broke out on Saturday in the western town of Kasese, home to King Charles Wesley Mumbere of the Rwen-zururu kingdom, when his royal guards attacked patrolling secu-rity forces, killing 14 police offi c-ers and 41 militants, said police spokesman Andrew Felix Kaweesi.

President Yoweri Museveni phoned the king yesterday morn-ing and ordered him to disband the guards, who are believed to be part of a militia agitating for the crea-tion of an independent republic

straddling Uganda and the Demo-cratic Republic of the Congo.

“We took time to talk to the king to get those people out but the king was non-compliant. The only option was to storm the palace and get those people out and get him out for his own security and safety,” Kaweesi told AFP. “He has to explain his involvement in these incidents. He will be charged with inciting violence and brought to Kampala.”

Violence has been simmering in the region all week, with four mil-itants killed when they attacked a police post on Thursday, a police spokeswoman told AFP.

Kaweesi said that members of the royal guard threw an impro-vised grenade at patrolling offi cers on Saturday, prompting them to open fi re and kill four of the “at-tackers”.

“That incident set off an ex-plosion in all local sub-counties,”

he said, adding that fi ghting be-tween militants – not all of them royal guards – armed with guns and spears and security forces had continued until late in the evening.

The Rwenzururu kingdom is a traditional monarchy based near the Rwenzori mountains which straddle Uganda and the Demo-cratic Republic of the Congo, of the Bakonzo people – with sup-porters among those who share the same culture and language in the Congo.

The monarchy started out as a separatist movement of the same name when the Bakonzo – tired of being subjected to the rule of another tribe under colonial rule – declared their own kingdom in 1962.

The move led to years of blood-shed until a settlement was reached in 1982 in which the movement laid down arms in re-turn for local autonomy.

Ugandan President Yoweri Mu-seveni offi cially recognised the kingdom in 2009.

However unrest has continued to simmer in the complex ethnic and political confl ict, as many in the region still feel marginalised by authorities in distant Kampala.

Some in Uganda, with the sup-port from their sister tribe in the Congo, have taken up arms and are agitating for the creation of the Yiira Republic which would cover territory in Uganda and part of North Kivu in the Congo.

The Banande in the Congo and the Bakonzo in Uganda, have the same culture and language and are believed to stem from one people known as the Ba-Yira.

Though Mumbere has distanced himself from the cause, authori-ties accuse his royal guards of training in the mountains along-side separatist militia forces to at-tack government installations.

Ugandan tribal king held after deadly clashesAFPKampala

34 civilians killed in Congo

AFPGoma

At least 34 civilians were killed yesterday in a fl are-up of ethnic violence in

restive eastern Democratic Re-public of the Congo, authorities said, following a week of soaring tensions.

“The provisional toll is 34 ci-vilians killed,” said local offi cial Joy Bokele, referring to an attack by a Nande ethnicity militia on the Hutu village of Luhanga.

“They started by attacking the FARDC (Congo military) posi-tion. While they were attack-ing the FARDC, another group was executing the population with bladed weapons or bullets,” Bokele said.

Bokele added that the attack was carried out by a Nande mili-tia group and that one of the at-tackers was killed in the clashes.

Tensions between the Nande and Hutu peoples have been running high in the restive east, shaken by two decades of fi ght-ing over land, ethnic tensions and mineral riches.

The Nande accuse Congo-lese Hutus of abetting the FDLR Rwandan rebel group.

The Hutus, in return, say they are looking for land where they can settle for farming and ac-cuse the Nande of trying to expel them.

Yesterday’s killings are the worst inter-communal violence in a year.

Dozens of people have died since the start of the year in fi ghting between the Nande and the Hutus.

“If the army had not inter-vened, there would have been many more dead,” said a military source.

It is thought that the attack on the Hutu village was carried out by the Mai-Mai Mazembe, a Nande “self-defence” militia.

“The militia was searching for members of the Hutu commu-nity and wreaked carnage before burning down the village en-tirely,” said a local rights group, the Centre for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (CEPADHO).”The attack-ers were there for more than an hour.”

AMERICA13Gulf Times


Reuters San Francisco

Four California inmates cut through the bars of a second-story jail

window and rappelled down the building’s side in an overnight escape bid, au-thorities said.

Two of the inmates who broke out of the Santa Clara County jail in San Jose were caught immediately, but the others remain at large, the Santa Clara County Sheriff ’s Offi ce said in a statement.

Offi cials said a massive search that includes dogs and a helicopter was un-der way for inmates Rogelio Chavez, 33, and Laron Campbell, 26.

The two were jailed on charges of false imprison-ment and fi rearms viola-

tions, among other counts.The inmates cut through

the window’s bars on Wednesday night.

The statement did not say how the prisoners got their hands on tools to remove the bars.

Authorities said no cut-ting tools were found in the cell after the escape.

The sheriff ’s department said the inmates are be-lieved to have escaped from an established containment zone around the jail, citing surveillance footage that captured the fl eeing men.

KNTV, an NBC affi liate, quoted a sheriff ’s spokes-man as saying they escaped using clothing to climb down the side of the build-ing.

A deputy on patrol no-ticed the clothing hanging from the window, it said.

Reuters Florida

US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday called a request for a recount of votes in Wisconsin a

“scam” by the Green Party and said even his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton had said the election results should be ac-cepted.

“This is a scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded, and the results of this election should be respected instead of being challenged and abused, which is exactly what (Green Par-ty leader) Jill Stein is doing,” Trump said in a statement about the recount.

“This recount is just a way for Jill Stein, who received less than one % of the vote overall and wasn’t even on the ballot in many states, to fi ll her coff ers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount,” Trump said.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign will take part in a recount of Wisconsin votes in the US presidential race, an eff ort Republican winner Donald Trump called “ridiculous” on Saturday.

Wisconsin’s election board on Friday approved the recount requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

She has said she wants to guarantee the integrity of the US voting system since computer hacking had marked the No-vember 8 election.

Marc Elias, the Clinton campaign coun-sel, said the campaign would take part in the recount in Wisconsin as well as in the other battleground states of Pennsylvania and Michigan if recounts were mounted there.

Elias said in a statement on the Medium website that the Clinton campaign had not planned to seek a recount since its own in-vestigation had failed to turn up any sign of hacking of voting systems.

“But now that a recount has been initi-ated in Wisconsin, we intend to participate in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides,” Elias said.

Clinton’s campaign should be legally represented in Wisconsin to be able to monitor the recount, he said.

In a statement, Trump said the three states had been won by wide margins, including by more than 70,000 votes in Pennsylvania.

The recount is a “scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded,” he said.

The $7mn Stein has sought to raise for the recounts is a way “to fi ll her coff ers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount”, he said.

Although Trump won the Electoral Col-lege tally, Clinton will have won the na-tional popular vote by more than 2mn bal-lots when the fi nal results are in.

Stein has raised $5.8mn of the $7mn needed to cover fees and legal costs for the three recounts, according to her campaign website.

The deadline for fi ling a recount bid in

Pennsylvania is Monday.The voting margins make it highly un-

likely any recounts would end up giving Clinton a win in all three states, which would be needed for the overall election result to change.

Trump beat Clinton in Pennsylvania by 70,010 votes, in Michigan by 10,704 votes and in Wisconsin by 27,257 votes.

Experts urged extra scrutiny of the three states, Stein told CNN on Friday, because their voting systems were seen as vulner-able.

Hateful letters sent anonymously to three mosques in California with a warn-ing that President-elect Donald Trump would “cleanse” the United States of Mus-lims have stirred fears among congregants, a community leader said on Saturday.

Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the let-ters were identical and were postmarked as being sent from Santa Clarita just north of Los Angeles.

Ayloush said his group is considering asking the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into the letters, which he believes were sent to other mosques aside from the three that received them earlier this week.

Civil rights groups have signalled alarm over attacks targeting minorities, includ-ing Muslims, since Republican Trump won the presidential election on November 8.

There have also been reports of harass-ment toward Trump supporters.

The letters were sent earlier this week to the Islamic centers of Long Beach and Claremont in Southern California and to

Evergreen Islamic Center in the Northern California city of San Jose, Ayloush said.

They are signed anonymously as “Americans for a Better Way” and say that Trump would “cleanse America and make it shine again” and would carry out a gen-ocide against Muslims.

“You Muslims would be wise to pack your bags and get out of Dodge,” the let-ter said.

Ayloush said he has counselled the three mosques to work with their local police departments to have the letters investi-gated as hate crimes.

The San Jose police department in a statement said that, following a report about the letter, it sent offi cers to Ever-green Islamic Center on Thursday and that a unit that handles hate crime investiga-tions will conduct the probe.

Trump’s name has been mentioned in some hateful graffi ti markings that sur-faced since his election. A representative of Trump’s transition team could not be reached immediately for comment.

Last year, as a candidate in the Republi-can presidential primary, Trump called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.

Trump this year pledged to suspend im-migration from countries where Islamist militants are active but did not say he still wanted to ban all Muslims.

Following his election, Trump, who takes offi ce on January 20, promised to be a president for all Americans.

CAIR has tallied more than 100 inci-dents targeting Muslims in the United States since Trump was elected.

Trump calls Green Party vote recount request a ‘scam’

A family from the Cheyenne River tribe plays together near Turtle Island during a protest against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota.

Reuters Cannon Ball

Activists protesting plans to run an oil pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in

North Dakota said on Saturday they have no intention of leaving a protest camp af-ter US

authorities warned it must be vacated by December 5.

The US Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the federal land where the main camp protesting the Dakota Access pipe-line is located, said it would close public access to the area north of the Cannonball River, including to protesters.

It said this was partly to protect the general public from violent confrontations between protesters and law enforcement that have occurred in the area.

Those who stay could face prosecution for trespassing, the Corps said in a letter to

tribal leaders on Friday.Organisers told a news conference on

Saturday at the main protest site where about 5,000 people are camped that they had no intention of moving.

“We are staying here committed to our prayer,” said Dallas Goldtooth, an organ-iser with the Indigenous Environmental Network. “Forced removal and state op-pression? This is nothing new to us as na-tive people.”

There are smaller camps on land not subject to the planned restrictions, in-cluding an area south of the Cannonball River where the Corps said it was estab-lishing a free-speech zone.

North Dakota governor Jack Dalrymple, a Republican, on Saturday said he sup-ported the decision and the federal gov-ernment, which allowed the protesters to become entrenched, must lead in the camp’s peaceful closure.

Standing Rock chairman Dave Archam-bault said he received notice on Friday

about the decision in a letter from Colonel John Henderson, an Army Corps district commander.

Archambault said the best thing the federal government could do for safety is deny the easement for the pipeline. “We have an escalating situation where safety is a concern for everybody.”

Archambault said he did not see the let-ter as a forced eviction and the tribe would continue to exercise its First Amendment rights to free speech.

The tribe is working on a location on reservation land should people choose to go there, he said.

“I don’t think it will ever be an eviction where forces just come in and push people out,” Archambault said.

Demonstrators have protested for months against the $3.8bn Dakota Access Pipeline, owned by Energy Transfer Part-ners LP, saying it poses a threat to water resources and sacred Native American sites.

The companies say the pipeline would carry Bakken shale oil more cheaply and safely from North Dakota to Illinois en route to US Gulf Coast refi neries.

The 1,885km project is mostly complete except for the segment planned to run un-der Lake Oahe less than half a mile north of Standing Rock.

The Obama administration in Septem-ber postponed fi nal approval of a permit required to allow tunnelling beneath the lake, a move intended to give federal offi -cials more time to consult with tribal lead-ers.

But the delay also led to escalating ten-sions over the project.

Last weekend, police used water hoses in subfreezing weather in an attempt to disperse about 400 activists near the pro-posed tunnel excavation site.

Demonstrators plan a march at noon Sunday in Washington, from the Depart-ment of Justice to the Washington Monu-ment.

Anti-pipeline protesters told to leave their camp by December 5

Reuters Tennessee

A lottery ticket sold in Tennessee had the winning numbers for

a $421mn Powerball jackpot, one of the biggest on record, offi cials said after Saturday’s draw.

The winning numbers se-lected were 17, 19, 21, 37, 44, with the Powerball 16.

No one as yet had stepped forward to claim the prize, which grew in size since Sep-tember 17, the last time any-one matched all six numbers.

The jackpot soared from $403mn to a reported $420.9mn on Saturday due to a spate of late ticket-buying.

The prize is paid out over 30 years, with the option of a lump sum payment, which offi cials said would add up to about $254.7mn.

The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292mn.

The largest ever US lottery prize of $1.6bn was split be-tween three winning tickets in January.

Powerball, one of several games run by the Multi-State Lottery Association, a non-profi t owned and oper-ated by member states’ lot-teries, is played in 44 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Vir-gin Islands.

Players can either buy $2 tickets using their own numbers or have them ran-domly generated by a com-puter.

The Mega Millions lottery, also off ered by the associa-tion, produced the country’s second-largest-ever prize, worth $656mn, in a 2012 drawing.

For every $1 worth of Powerball sales, half goes to prizes, 40% to state govern-ments for causes such as ed-ucation, and 10% to retailers who sell the tickets and other administrative costs.

One ticket wins$421mn lottery

Reuters New Orleans

A shooting in New Or-leans’ Bourbon Street tourist quarter killed

one man and wounded nine other people early yesterday, and police have arrested two people on weapons charges, authorities said.

Dozens of offi cers who re-sponded to reports of gunfi re at about 1:30am

found people aged between 20 and 37 wounded at the scene, police said in a state-ment.

Ambulances took the vic-

tims to hospitals, where one man died.

Another victim was taken to a hospital by a private vehicle, the statement said.

The victims were eight men and two women, and the cause of the incident is under inves-tigation.

Offi cers arrested two peo-ple at the scene on weapons charges, including one who was wounded.

The shooting took place as New Orleans has deployed extra police patrols during the Bayou Classic weekend, which features a football game between Grambling State and Southern universities.

One dead in New Orleans shooting

Reuters Alaska

Four people, includ-ing a 8-week-old girl, have been found shot

to death in an Alaska hotel room in what authorities are investigating as a mur-der-suicide, police said.

Fairbanks police were called to a Hampton Inn on Friday afternoon and found a man sitting in a second-fl oor hallway, crying, police said in a statement.

“The male directed the offi cers to a nearby room.

Offi cers entered the room and found four individu-als deceased from apparent

gunshot wounds,” the Fri-day statement said.

The victims were iden-tifi ed as Linda Hutton, 54; Emily McDonald, 22; McKay Hutton, 22; and Teagan Hutton, 8 weeks.

The shooting apparently took place shortly before offi cers arrived.

The deaths are under in-vestigation.

There was no sign of drugs or alcohol being in-volved, the police state-ment said.

The identity of the man in the hall was not released.

Police in Fairbanks, a city of 32,000 people about 250 miles north of Anchorage, said he was not a suspect.

Four dead in Alaska hotel room

Four inmates rappel from California jail, two still at large

The Clinton campaign has belatedly joined the recount drive

ASEAN

Gulf TimesMonday, November 28, 201614

Cop in trouble over gun, suicide message onlineAgenciesSatun

A police offi cer is in the hot seat with his superiors af-ter posting an image on-

line of him pointing a gun at his head with a message about tak-ing his life in protest at a com-mander’s orders.

The image of Pol Sub Lt Jet-sada Saleemin, of Muang po-lice station, was posted on the Muang district police opera-tions centre’s Line group on Nov 25, Bangkok Post reported.

It quickly spread to other Line chat groups and drew a mixed reaction.

Some people felt pity for him, while others saw it as be-ing inappropriate for the offic-er to point a gun at his head and post the image with a message about shooting himself online.

Satun deputy police chief Pol Col Jeerawat Payungtham said Pol Sub Lt Jetsada had been ordered by his superior to per-form a duty in lieu of a junior officer who was on leave. Pol Sub Lt Jetsada was asked to handle the work for two shifts of 12 hours each.

But Pol Sub Lt Jetsada might have not read the entire order and he may have assumed that he was being punished by being moved to handle the work of a lower-ranked officer.

After the image of Pol Sub Lt Jetsada pointing a gun at his head spread online, Pol Maj Gen Thattongsak Pupan-thatchasee, chief of Satun po-lice, asked him to explain his action, according to Thairath Online.

Pol Col Phumsit Nawong, chief of Satun police station, said subordinates should talk to their superiors first if they have any work-related prob-lems.

He said an investigation would be launched into the leaking of the image from the police operation centre’s Line group.

Thailand town lays on monkey banquetAFPLopburi, Thailand

It is a feast fi t for a monkey king.

Yesterday, the central Thai town of Lopburi put on a fi ve-star banquet for its hundreds of macaque inhabitants, sparking a mass simian food fi ght.

Lopburi has been laying on an annual feast – part merit-mak-ing tradition and part unabashed tourist attraction – for its mon-keys since the late 1980s.

This year’s feast featured a smorgasbord of fruit that was quickly demolished by the hun-gry guests who squawked and tussled as they gulped down their feast, much to the delight

of a horde of distantly related human onlookers armed with cameras.

While Thailand is an over-whelmingly Buddhist nation, it has long assimilated Hindu traditions and lore from its pre-Buddhist era.

As a result monkeys are af-forded a special place in Thai hearts thanks to the heroic Hin-du monkey god Hanuman, who helped Rama rescue his beloved wife Sita from the clutches of an evil demon king.

But the inhabitants of Lopburi take their love for monkeys to a whole new level.

The festival takes place on the ruins of Phra Prang Sam Yot, an 800-year-old Khmer-era Hindu temple and one of the town’s

most striking landmarks.“It’s pretty awesome to see so

many wild monkeys just roaming around the streets,” said Aman-da, a tourist from the United States.

“They were eating over there and lots of food to choose from and they were attacking each other and running around and jumping on people,” she said.

The regular feeding has left Lopburi’s monkey population notoriously unafraid of humans.

“The monkeys are crazy,” said Fang Xi, a 36-year-old sales manager from China.

“One of the monkeys wants to steal my hair clip and doesn’t want to get off my shoulder. Two other girls were afraid and ran away.”

Najib cools snap election talk as Malaysia lacks ‘feel good factor’ReutersKuala Lumpur

Malaysian Prime Min-ister Najib Razak said yesterday that he will

“not necessarily” call a snap election next year, amid talk that he would seek an early vote as splits in the opposition have hobbled eff orts to oust him over a long-running fi nancial scan-dal.

The multi-ethnic Southeast Asian country is due to hold an election by August 2018, and a government offi cial has told Reuters that Najib could call for a poll in the second half of 2017.

But in an interview published

in The Star daily yesterday, Na-jib, who has led the country since 2009, suggested he was in no hurry to call for a vote, and remarked on the current lack of a “feel good factor” among Ma-laysians.

“Not necessarily...it can be later,” Najib replied when asked whether an election could be called sometime next year.

“With today’s economic situ-ation, it’s going to be a challenge because you don’t see the world economy on a rising trend.

It’s going to be much more the same next year, as the year be-fore,” Najib said.

Najib has been battling calls to step down over a scandal in-volving state fund 1Malaysia

Development Berhad (1MDB).The US Justice Department

fi led lawsuits in July alleging misappropriation of over $3.5bn from the fund and that some of those fl owed into the accounts of “Malaysian Offi cial 1”, whom US and Malaysian offi cials have identifi ed as Najib. Najib has

denied wrongdoing and has consolidated power by sacking critics within his ruling party and cracking down on dissent.

His fi ercest critic is former premier Mahathir Mohamed, who is over 90 years old.

Mahathir joined hands with Najib’s sacked former deputy Muhyiddin Yassin to form a new party. But the main Islam-ist party’s failure to join eff orts by other opposition parties campaigning against Najib, has made it hard for them to whip up more support among ethnic Malays.

Anwar Ibrahim, the most charismatic opposition leader, is serving a fi ve-year sentence on sodomy charges that sup-

porters and many observers be-lieve were politically motivated.

Looking ahead, Najib said he expected some recovery in oil and gas revenues to help the na-tional mood.

“After that I think that the price of oil will likely be at a slightly higher level, not at the all time high, but something be-tween $60 to $70 per barrel, will be a comfortable level for us,” he said. The Malaysian economy has been hit hard by the slide in oil prices. A recent slump in the ringgit currency to a near 14-month low has also raised concerns.

In the interview with The Star, Najib also said a free trade deal for the Asia Pacifi c region

was important to create jobs, investment and wealth.

US President-elect Donald Trump has said he would with-draw the United States from the multi-country Trans Pacifi c Partnership (TPP), which ex-cludes China.

And Najib said if the TPP is a non-starter, he would hope that agreement can be reached on the Regional Comprehen-sive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a China-backed trade deal which excludes the United States.“If the TPP is a no-go, then RCEP must be brought to a conclusion, the earlier the better and I think realistically we are talking about the end of 2017,” Najib said.

A Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 leaves contrails over the sky above Adelaide, Australia yesterday.

Sky thrills

Police make

more arrests

in foiled

bomb plot

AFPJakarta

Indonesian police arrested a third Islamic State-linked militant yesterday accused

of plotting to bomb the Myan-mar embassy in Jakarta, as anger grows at a violent military crack-down on Rohingya Muslims.

The militants – all from a domestic cell affiliated with the Syria-based group – had amassed enough explosives to create bombs more powerful than those used in the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, police say.

“They were helping plan a bomb attack against par-liament, the national police headquarters, the embassy of Myanmar and several televi-sion stations,” national police spokesman Rikwanto said in a text message.

Anger is growing in Indone-sia and other parts of the world over what has been described as the “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya in Myanmar’s Ra-khine state.

Refugees fleeing into Bang-ladesh say Myanmar’s military has been leading a campaign of rape and murder against the homeless ethnic group.

Thousands of Muslims ral-lied in capitals across Asia on Friday demanding an end to the violence.

In Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority coun-try, protesters urged their gov-ernment to cut diplomatic ties with Yangon.

Monkeys eat fruit at an ancient temple during the annual “monkey buff et” in Lopburi province, north of Bangkok yesterday.

Monkeys climb on tourists during the annual Monkey Buff et Festival at the Phra Prang Sam Yot temple in Lopburi province, north of Bangkok.

Najib Razak: set to delay election

AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA15Gulf Times


Spectators watch Aboriginal dancers and acrobats perform with a 50-tonne Arcadia spider, constructed from used repurposed military hardware, during a laser and pyro-technics show in Perth, Australia.

Repurposed to spit fire

Front pages of Japan’s major news papers report the death of Fidel Castro in Tokyo yesterday.

Coverage of Castro

Guardian News London

Human rights lawyers say that chil-dren being kept in a maximum security prison in Victoria are be-

ing held in solitary confi nement, denied access to fresh air, threatened by staff and kept in conditions that are “unequivocally unfi t for children”. Up to 40 children were transferred to a secure unit of the Barwon prison, a high-risk, maximum security prison for men, located near Geelong, fol-lowing ongoing rioting by youth in the Parkville and Malmsbury juvenile prisons.

Barwon is the prison where notori-ous gangland criminal Carl Williams was beaten to death by another inmate in 2010.

The move to send children there was

announced by the government as an in-terim measure while sections of the Parkville facility damaged during rioting were rebuilt.

The children are being sent to the Gre-villea unit of Barwon prison as a tempo-rary measure, entirely separate from the adult population, however it is unclear how long they would be kept there for.

But the director of legal advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, Ruth Bar-son, said she spoke to several of the chil-dren being held in Barwon on Saturday evening, and that a number of them had not been involved in the rioting.

“Most of the children in Barwon are on remand so they’ve not been found guilty of the crimes they’re being detained for,” she said.

“One young man who came from Parkville and who had not been involved in the rioting there has now gone from at-tending school every day while at Parkville

and doing really well, to being locked in a concrete box for up to 23 hours each day.

“There’s no doubt the government has a policy challenge on its hands, but cruelty can never be a justifi able response.

The nation rallied in response to Don Dale and Victorians should also rally against the inhumane treatment of [these] children.”

Most of the children held at Barwon were only 16 years old and were being subject to solitary confi nement, lawyers who visited the children over the weekend said.

Many have a registered disability, have been exposed to family violence and are in the child protection system.

They have been cut off from access to education or treatment programmes,

lawyers said, which they would nor-mally receive in youth detention.

However, Guardian Australia has been told by government sources that there are

teachers on site as well as health services and a visitors centre for family visits.

Standard management does not involve 20 hours of lock-down per day, sources said.

But Barson said that: “They haven’t seen the sky for close to a week”.

“They’re fearful and reported being threatened with the use of dogs,

restraints and gas,” she said.On Wednesday, the Victorian Aborigi-

nal Legal Service will argue in the supreme court that the transfer of children to Bar-won was unlawful and an abuse of their human rights.

The minister for families and children, Jenny Mikakos, told Guardian Australia yesterday: “We will defend this matter vigorously in court”. “The steps taken by the Government are consistent with rel-evant legislation and Victoria’s charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities,” she said.

Youths moved to jail ‘unfi t for children’

AFP Seoul

A prominent K-pop music video director was charged yesterday as part of a cor-

ruption scandal rocking South Ko-rea and engulfi ng president Park Geun-hye.

Cha Eun-Taek, who has worked with “Gangnam Style” star Psy and boy band megastars Big Bang, used his ties to a secret confi dante of Park to win lucrative projects from state agencies and private fi rms, prosecutors say.

That confi dante — Choi Soon-Sil — has been labelled Park’s eminence grise, a shadowy fi gure who is be-lieved to have leveraged her close relationship with the president to extract more than $60mn from top fi rms, including Samsung.

Prosecutors say Park herself or-dered her former economic adviser to help Cha pressure offi cials and private fi rms so that he would win contracts.

Cha, 46, has been charged with abuse of power, coercion and em-bezzlement and becomes the latest public fi gure to be embroiled in the snowballing scandal.

Choi, 60, is accused of meddling in a wide range of state aff airs in-cluding the country’s preparations for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Prosecutors last week for-mally charged her with abuse of power and coercion, saying Park was a “co-culprit” who had col-luded with Choi to strongarm top firms into giving cash to non-profit foundations Choi controlled.

Park — now the fi rst South Ko-rean president to become a crimi-nal suspect while in offi ce — has rejected a series of requests from prosecutors to answer their ques-tions.

As a sitting president, Park can-not be charged with a criminal of-fence except insurrection or trea-son, but she can be investigated and potentially charged once her term is over.

Park is faced with growing pub-lic calls to resign and a push by lawmakers to impeach her, with her job approval ratings diving to record lows of four %.

Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in recent weeks to call for her ouster, with organis-ers claiming the latest rally on Sat-urday in Seoul drew 1.5mn people.

Celebrity charged in Korea scam

AFP Sydney

The death toll from Aus-tralia’s “thunderstorm asthma” episode has

risen to six and three others are in critical condition, authori-ties said yesterday, as they as-sessed the fallout from the un-precedented event.

Four victims — ranging from the ages of 18 to 35 — were last week linked to the unusual weather phenomenon, where a thunderstorm coincided with a high pollen count and sent more than 8,500 patients to hospital emergency depart-ments.

The rare event in Australia’s southern state of Victoria trig-gered respiratory problems for asthma and hay fever suff erers.

“There have now been six deaths that may have occurred as a result of conditions re-lating to the thunderstorm asthma events on Monday,” Victoria’s health department

spokesman said in a statement.“Five patients are continuing

to receive specialist ICU (in-tensive care unit) care in hos-pitals in Melbourne, with three still in a critical condition.”

A further 12 people were being treated for respiratory and other health problems, he added.

No further details were re-leased about the two latest vic-tims.

Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy said Thursday the demand for ambulances was so acute at one point that “it was like having 150 bombs going off right across a particular part of metropolitan Melbourne”.

The government has launched a review into how emergency and health services can better respond and manage such rare events.

The phenomena occurs when rye grass pollen gets wet, breaks into smaller pieces and enters people’s lungs, causing them breathing issues.

Toll rises in Australia ‘thunderstorm asthma’

Surging homeowner loans in China raise alarms over debtAFPBeijing

Chinese household debt has risen at an “alarm-ing” pace as property

values have soared, analysts say, raising the risk that a real estate downturn could send shockwaves through the world’s second largest economy. Loose credit and changing habits have rapidly transformed the country’s fa-mously loan-averse consumers into enthusiastic borrowers.

Skyrocketing real estate prices in major Chinese cities in recent years have seen fami-lies’ wealth surge.

But at the same time they have fuelled a historic boom in mortgage lending, as buyers race to get on the property lad-der, or invest to profi t from the phenomenon.

Now the debt owed by households in the world’s second largest economy has surged from 28% of GDP to more than 40% in the past fi ve years.

“The notion that Chinese people do not like to borrow is clearly outdated,” said Chen Long of Gavekal Dragonomics.

The share of household loans

to overall lending hit 67.5% in the third quarter of 2016, more than twice the share of the year before.

But this surge has raised fears that a sharp drop in prop-erty prices would cause many new loans to go bad, causing a domino eff ect on interest rates, exchange rates and commodity prices that “could turn out to be a global macro event”, ANZ analysts said in a recent note.

While China’s household debt ratio is still lower than advanced countries such as the US (nearly 80% of GDP) and Japan (more than 60%), it has already exceeded that of emerging markets Brazil and India, and if it keeps growing at its current pace will hit 70% of GDP in a few years.

The ruling Communist party has set a target of 6.5 to 7% economic growth for 2017, and the country is on track to hit it thanks to a property frenzy in cities and a fl ood of easy credit.

China’s total debt — in-cluding housing, fi nancial and government sector debt — hit 168.48tn yuan ($25tn) at the end of last year, equivalent to 249% of national GDP, accord-ing to estimates by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top government think tank.

The prison was the scene of a violent murder of an inmate

BRITAIN


Runway plan backed usingold pollution data: ministerLondon Evening StandardLondon

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling admitted the gov-ernment backed a third

runway at Heathrow without fully understanding the implications of ground-breaking new evidence on vehicle emission standards.

Ministers insist the west Lon-don airport can expand within EU limits on air pollution, which are currently being widely breached in the capital.

But a study for the government, supporting its third runway deci-sion, was not based on the latest international analysis by experts, which showed emissions from some diesel vehicles are worse than previously claimed.

“Further work is needed to un-derstand the implications of this evidence,” Grayling told MPs in a letter ahead of his appearance in front of the Commons environ-mental audit committee this week. “But our initial assessment sug-gests that revised forecasts would be likely to be within the range of scenarios already considered by

our re-analysis (on air quality).”However, committee chair-

woman Mary Creagh said: “We will want to hear from the minister how the government can meet air quality standards given what we now know about real-world emis-sions, which are higher than used in the government’s business case (for a third runway).

“We are also concerned that the plans for low-emission vehicle uptake and improvements in pub-lic transport are over-ambitious.”

Lord Deben, chairman of the committee on climate change, also raised doubts over whether anoth-er runway could be built without breaching Britain’s legally binding carbon targets.

The Tory peer said these could be met if levels of aviation emis-sions were the same as in 2005 but the department for transport had “left open” for them to rise.

“What is not possible is to have a business plan that suggests that, overall, aviation would increase the emissions by 15%,” he added.

Other sectors such as the steel industry would fi nd it “practically impossible” to make suffi cient ex-tra cuts to off set such a large rise.

Ministers insist the govern-ment’s 2015 Air Quality Plan and new measures around Heathrow will ensure London will not be breaking nitrogen dioxide levels in the mid 2020s when the new run-way is due to open.

But the government was de-feated earlier this month for the second time in the courts over this blueprint.

The ruling in the Judicial Re-view, brought by environmental lawyers ClientEarth, called the plan “woefully inadequate”.

“We are carefully considering what this means for the airport capacity programme,” Grayling added in his letter.

The Cabinet minister empha-sised that fi nal consent for another runway would only be given if the government believed it would not breach the UK’s compliance with pollution limits.

A government spokeswoman said: “Improving air quality is a priority and we are determined to cut harmful emissions. Our plans have always followed the best available evidence – we have al-ways been clear that we are ready to update them if necessary.”

Sinkhole swallowspart of bus in LondonGuardian News and MediaLondon

Firefi ghters rescued passen-gers in south London after a sinkhole caused by ma-

jor fl ooding swallowed part of a coach.

Onlookers said the road looked like a river after the hole opened on Lewisham’s Lee High Road on Saturday, following a burst wa-ter main. Footage on social media showed the emergency services dealing with the vehicle, which was stuck in several inches of wa-ter.

Police declared a major inci-dent, cordoned off roads and asked residents to avoid Lewisham town centre. Homes in the surrounding area were left without water and a temporary shelter was set up on Bonfi eld Road for those displaced due to fl ooding.

Thames Water said repairs were “complicated and taking longer than normal”. Transport for Lon-don said the road closures meant 18 bus routes were on diversion yesterday but that there were no excessive delays.

Sinkholes occur when water

gradually dissolves soluble bed-rock, forming a cavity under the ground over thousands of years. Loose sedimentary rock closer to the surface gradually falls into the hole, until the surface is no longer able to support itself and collapses.

South London was hit by a simi-lar incident earlier this year when a 13ft sinkhole opened above a sewer in Forest Hill, causing major dis-ruption to commuters due to dam-age to rail tracks.

More sinkholes have been ap-pearing around the UK in recent years. In 2014, scientists recorded a fi ve-fold increase in the number of sinkholes occurring over a par-ticularly rainy winter.

Although sinkholes are closely linked to rainfall, humans can ex-acerbate the process. Anything that has the potential to divert water to weak points beneath the earth will accelerate the creation of sinkholes.

Earlier this month, a 20-metre sinkhole opened up in the centre of the Japanese city Fukuoka. Peo-ple were forced to evacuate nearby buildings as the sinkhole fi lled with water, but there were no inju-ries and the hole was fi lled in a two days by authorities.

Selfridges bosses have unveiled what they claim will be the world’s largest “handbag hall” as part of a £300mn overhaul of the store. The designer handbag and accessories department is being tripled in size and when finished in 2018 will be 380ft long – 35ft longer than the pitch at Wembley Stadium. The first phase, which was opened this week, is part of a four-year project to transform the department store’s eastern wing in Duke Street, overseen by designers David Chipperfield Architects. The expansion of the handbag department follows a decade of growing sales of so-called “It bags”, costing hundreds or thousands of pounds, that have replaced shoes as status symbols.

Selfridges plans largest accessories hallLibDems eyepro-EU votersin Richmondby-poll pushGuardian News and MediaLondon

The Liberal Democrats are to target pro-EU Labour sup-porters and “soft Tories”

who backed Remain, in a fi nal canvassing blitz ahead of Thurs-day’s Richmond by-election, amid growing confi dence in their camp that they are within striking distance of winning the seat.

Party documents obtained by the Observer, laying out their strategy for the fi nal days, sug-gest undecided Labour voters will be key, and failure to per-suade enough of them to vote tactically may prevent the Lib-Dems pulling off one of the big-gest by-election upsets of recent years.

Internal polling by the Lib-Dems suggests they have closed the gap on former Tory MP Zac Goldsmith, a hardline Brexiter who quit to stand as an inde-pendent over the government’s decision to expand Heathrow airport, from about 20% at the start of the campaign, to under 4% with fi ve days to go.

The LibDem strategy papers say undecided Labour voters have to switch if Goldsmith is to be ousted. “Canvass returns show that about a third of the re-maining Labour support is open to us – winning this will be key,” the documents say. “There are still too many LibDem/Labour waverers ... and these Labour voters could hand victory to Zac Goldsmith if we cannot persuade them to vote tactically.”

Support for Labour, which de-cided to run a candidate, Chris-tian Wolmar, despite pressure from senior fi gures in the party to give the LibDems a free run, has fallen from the mid-teens at the start of campaign to just 9% now according to the LibDems.

These people and pro-EU “soft Tories” are concerned about Brexit and are therefore prime

targets. “Unprompted, they raise Brexit as the deciding issue for them and they are positively engaging with our campaign on this issue,” the documents state. “How they break and whether or not the Labour vote drops anoth-er 2-3% will decide the result.”

The contest has been in-creasingly dominated by issues around Brexit. While Goldsmith has a strong local following, hav-ing fought a long if ultimately unsuccessful campaign to stop Heathrow expansion, he is at odds with the majority of his constituents over the EU. Seven-ty percent of people in the con-stituency voted for remain.

The LibDems’ own internal polling now puts Goldsmith on 46.7%, the LibDems on 43.3% and Labour on 9.5%.

Even if the LibDem candi-date, Sarah Olney, was to come a good second to Goldsmith, it would give a signifi cant boost to the party, which suff ered a dev-astating general election result last year after fi ve years in coali-tion with the Tories. Their total number of MPs fell from 56 to just eight.

Tim Farron, the leader of the LibDems, has highlighted the risk that Brexit and the loss of EU workers would represent to the local health service, claim-ing that about 250 doctors and over 1,000 nurses in the area were from other countries inside the EU, and might have to return home. At Kingston hospital over a third of nurses and almost one in fi ve doctors are EU migrants, he said.

“A hard Brexit would stretch the NHS to breaking point,” Far-ron said, “blowing a hole in the public fi nances and risking an exodus of EU nationals on which our health service relies. Hos-pitals around Richmond, where hundreds of doctors and over a thousand nurses come from Eu-rope, would be particularly badly hit.”

Govt mistaken on socialcare funding: top ToryGuardian News and MediaLondon

Philip Hammond made a mistake in failing to give more funding to social

care in the Autumn Statement, Stephen Dorrell has said.

The former Conservative health secretary and chair of the NHS Confederation joined other senior Tories, including former health secretary Andrew Lansley and Sarah Wollaston, the chair of the House of Commons health select committee, in expressing fears that the NHS is suff ering

because of shortages in social care provision.

Dorrell said told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show he was “very disappointed” the chancellor dismissed calls for further fund-ing of social care in the Autumn Statement. “It was a mistake in my view not to make an invest-ment in social care,” he said.

“There is no good going into this winter saying it is all going to be all right when we already have lengthening queues in A&E departments, we already have problems with hospitals unable to discharge people because of inad-equate provision of social care.”

There have been numerous warnings in recent months that the NHS is at a tipping point be-cause many hospitals are unable to discharge elderly patients to social care arrangements.

Senior fi gures in the medi-cal profession, together with Tory, Labour and Liberal Dem-ocrat leaders in local govern-ment, wrote to the Observer this weekend demanding a U-turn on funding, as they argued that the safety of millions of elderly people was at risk because of an acute fi nancial crisis.

Labour MPs reacted with fury to the Autumn Statement after

Hammond did not mention so-cial care once during his Com-mons speech.

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said it was unbelievable the issue could be ignored. “Everyone has been pointing out that the social care sector is in crisis, on the verge of tipping points, lots of organisa-tions including the chief execu-tive of the NHS has been calling for extra investment in social care and he’s done absolutely nothing. Nowt. Zilch,” he said.

It prompted Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, to launch a national “Care for the NHS”

campaign on Saturday.“The Conservatives are fail-

ing our health service, which has been pushed into fi nan-cial crisis and soaring defi cits,” he said. “Patients are facing longer waits, with hospitals overcrowded, understaff ed and threatened with closure. Labour will stand up for the NHS. We will always make sure the NHS has the funding it needs and will join up services from home to hospital with a properly in-tegrated health and social care service. Labour created the NHS to care for us all, now it’s time to care for the NHS.”

Grayling: ‘further work needed’

Labour will not win a general election as Ukip-lite: AbbottGuardian News and MediaLondon

Labour will not win a gen-eral election if it lurches to the right to become “Ukip-

lite”, Diane Abbott has said, as she called on her party to hold its nerve over the issue of immigra-tion.

In an interview with the Guard-

ian, the shadow home secretary said Labour’s priority should be to push for Britain to remain a part of the single market after Brexit, and that politicians must be honest with voters and tell them the only way to achieve that is to accept continued freedom of movement.

“We can’t fi ght and win an elec-tion in 2020 as Ukip-lite. The idea that moving right on immigration in post-industrial Britain will save

us seats is I think misconceived,” she said. Abbott claimed that the toxic atmosphere since the EU referendum, fuelled in part by newspaper coverage, had left many Britons feeling frightened about their futures and wanting people to speak up on their behalf.

She also suggested that parts of the country dependent on the EU for business but in which people voted overwhelmingly for Brexit

were “incrementally beginning to wonder whether they did the right thing”. “I think there’s a little bit of Bregret, and because the Tories don’t have a plan, because their approach is so chaotic, I think we’ll see more Bregret as time goes on,” she said.

The Hackney North MP con-ceded that many voters who voted to leave the EU in June’s referendum did so because they

hoped immigration would fall. But she rejected the idea, mooted by prominent Labour backbench-ers including Stephen Kinnock, Emma Reynolds and Rachel Reeves, that the party must be willing to advocate limits on im-migration to meet the concerns of its voters, particularly in post-industrial areas.

“It is absolutely fair to say that on doorsteps colleagues are fi nd-

ing people complaining about im-migration, but it is simply not the case that immigration has driven down wages, or that immigration has created the insecurity or in-stability they perceive,” she said.

How to respond to such con-cerns has been a source of conten-tion for Labour since the referen-dum, with voters in many of the party’s northern and Welsh seats opted to leave. Abbott said Labour

needed to hold its nerve following Donald Trump’s victory in the US election.

“Colleagues are entitled to speak up for their constituents. My point is, particularly in the wake of Trump, the Labour party has to off er resistance to a general rightward trend on race and im-migration because I think it could be a downward spiral. We have to speak up for people.”

BRITAIN17Gulf Times


Uproar overtop architect’scall to abolish social housingLondon Evening StandardLondon

A top London architect has triggered a storm by calling for “free-riding”

council tenants to be moved out of central London and aff ord-able housing to be abolished.

In a hugely controversial speech Patrik Schumacher, di-rector and principal of Zaha Hadid Architects, also praised London’s foreign second-home owners – “even if they’re here only for a few weeks” – and suggested that “80% of Hyde Park” should be built over.

The “starchitect” succeed-ed Dame Zaha, the London Aquatics Centre designer, as head of the world-renowned Clerkenwell practice follow-ing her death in March.

In his address to the World Architecture Festival in Berlin he said the UK capital’s hous-ing crisis was the result of “in-tellectually bankrupt” plan-ning departments and only the free market can provide “housing for everyone”.

But it is his comments on social housing that have pro-voked the most furious re-sponse, with one critic dub-bing him “the Donald Trump of architecture”.

The German-born designer, 55, said social housing ten-ants in gentrifying central areas should not expect to be able to carry on living there when their council estates are demolished and should be re-placed by more “productive” residents – such as his own staff.

Schumacher, who had

worked alongside Hadid since 1988, said: “The fact that somebody has enjoyed the privilege of a subsidised cen-tral location for some time in my view does not and should not establish ownership over this public resource.

“Is it not fair that now it’s somebody else turn to enjoy this central location? Espe-cially if it is those who really need it to be productive and better able to produce the support required for those who have been subsidised all along and will continue to be subsidised.”

He said it made more sense for his own employees “who are working very hard and generating value, hav-ing to commute and having flat shares” to occupy central London areas at present “left to people who are free-riding and backed by the police for decades and supposedly for decades to come.”

In a seven point “urban pol-icy manifesto” for solving the housing crisis, Schumacher said one demand would be to “abolish all forms of social and affordable housing”.

He also said: “Foreign in-vestment capital coming into town should and would be great news. I know a lot of people who have second homes in London and I’m so glad they do. Even if they’re here only for a few weeks and throw some key parties, these are amazing multiplying events.”

Sadiq Khan branded the comments “out of touch” and “just plain wrong”.

The mayor told the Stand-

ard: “One of our biggest strengths as a city is our di-versity, with Londoners from different backgrounds living side by side.

“So whether these out-of-touch comments were de-signed to shock or not, anyone who thinks abolishing af-fordable housing altogether, supporting ‘buy-to-leave’ empty properties and build-ing on Hyde Park is the answer to London’s housing crisis doesn’t understand the first thing about our great city.

“I was elected mayor due to my commitment to tackle the housing crisis. I know – and most Londoners agree – that this means building more new and affordable homes for citi-zens to rent and buy and pro-tecting our public squares and parks. I’ll listen to any ideas people have about tackling the housing crisis, but in this case Schumacher is just plain wrong.”

A video of the speech on the Dezeen architectural maga-zine website provoked hun-dreds of comments, most critical, though some were supportive.

Simon Elmer, co-founder of The Architects for Social Group, called the views “pret-ty crude social engineering” and challenged Schumacher to a London public debate on the issues raised, which he has ac-cepted.

After the conference Schu-macher called his speech “brainstorming” and later said on Facebook the views were his own and did not rep-resent the policies of the prac-tice he leads.

Whirlpool ‘must ban’faulty tumble dryersLondon Evening StandardLondon

A London MP has made a fresh call to ban the use of faulty tumble dryers that

sparked a spate of house fi res, including a major blaze in Shep-herd’s Bush.

Five million Whirlpool tumble dryers in the UK will be replaced or repaired but MP Andy Slaughter wants the company to issue a no-tice telling customers to stop using them at once.

Twelve months after Whirlpool put out a safety warning about its Hotpoint, Indesit and Creda machines, the Hammersmith MP has labelled its attempts to pro-tect customers as “inadequate” and has written to chief executive Maurizio Pettorino demanding action.

He said: “A year on from Whirl-pool’s decision not to tell their customers to stop using their faulty tumble dryers, it is clearer than ever that this advice is wrong and potentially dangerous.

“There is a clear and growing consensus of expert and profes-sional opinion from the London

Fire Brigade and Which? that these machines should be imme-diately taken out of use, to prevent any further events like the devas-tating Shepherd’s Bush fi re.”

On August 19, more than 100 families were evacuated from the Shepherds Court tower block after a fi re broke out in the kitchen of Sharna Defreitas’s seventh-fl oor fl at. No one was injured. London Fire Brigade identifi ed her Indesit tumble dryer as the cause of the blaze and has also put pressure on Whirlpool to issue an immediate ban.

Faulty Hotpoint dryers have been the cause of several house fi res in the past two years. Doug McTavish, 39, and Bernard Hender, 19, from Conwy, north Wales, died in October 2014 after a Hotpoint dryer in their kitchen caught fi re. Last May, mother Melissa Doo-ley had to run from her Notting-ham home after her dryer burst into fl ames. Katrina and Matthew Draper’s Rhondda Valley home was destroyed by a fi re in July.

Currently Whirlpool has issued a safety product warning advising people not to leave the dryers un-attended and to clean the lint fi lter after each cycle.

Residentsfume ascycle laneroadworksbring chaosLondon Evening StandardLondon

Angry residents say the ex-tension of London’s fl ag-ship cycle superhighway

is making life “unbearable”.Months of roadworks at Lan-

caster Gate to extend the segre-gated track north of Hyde Park has led to traffi c gridlock, according to locals. The road has been reduced to one lane between Brook Street and Lancaster Gate, causing daily jams. Locals described motorists shouting and swearing as they jostled for space.

One resident of a multi-mil-lion-pound house overlooking Hyde Park said it took 40 minutes to drive a mile on Bayswater Road.

Balil Mohamed, 55, said: “There’s a lot of traffi c in the morning especially. I’m not against the cycle lane, but it’s caused havoc on the road. And they’re taking their sweet time. Most times when I drive (past) they’re sitting there chatting.”

A resident of nearby Sussex Gardens, who gave her name as Saba, said she had lived in the area for 40 years and had never experi-enced so much disruption.

She added: “The works them-selves have created too much noise, too much dust. But it’s what they have done – how can I bring stuff to the house? And af-terwards, when it’s a bicycle lane, where can I stop my car?”

A black cab driver said it had taken him 10 minutes to travel 170 yards. He said: “It’s not just the pollution, it’s the noise pollution.”

The largely segregated route is due to be completed between Paddington and Tower Hill next summer, more than a year behind schedule, once a “half-mile gap” is completed in front of Bucking-ham Palace.

Earlier this month, mayor Sadiq Khan axed plans to extend the cy-cle superhighway west to Acton using the A40 Westway fl yover.

Transport for London bosses said they were “conscious of the need to minimise disruption for local people” and were “work-ing hard” to fi nish work by next month.

Bletchley Park to becomeschool for ‘codebreakers’ReutersBletchley

It was once the home of Brit-ain’s codebreakers during World War II.

Now more than 70 years later, Bletchley Park is preparing to host the UK’s first national col-lege of cyber education, with a first intake of students starting in September 2018.

Work is under way to revamp several derelict buildings on the site where mathematician Alan Turing cracked Nazi Germany’s “unbreakable” Enigma code.

The new school for 16- to 18-year-olds, which will sit beside the historical attraction and the National Museum of Computing, will take 100 stu-dents in its first year.

Forty percent of their curricu-lum will consist of cyber studies.

The plan for the school, which will be part publicly and part privately funded, was un-veiled by Qufaro, which calls itself a not-for-profit body formed by cyber security ex-

perts, as part of an initiative to establish a UK national cyber security hub.

“Bletchley Park we felt was a natural home for a cyber secu-rity college because it’s building on the innovation and the work that took place in World War II, bringing it up to date and mak-ing it relevant again,” said Tim Reynolds, deputy chairman of the National Museum of Com-puting and a director of Qufaro.

Selection for places will be through talent spotting and an entrance exam.

Qufaro expects 90% of stu-dents to board at the school.

“What we are looking to do is to wrap around all of the ex-pertise that currently exists along with the educational sup-port that they are going to need, to ensure that they’re either industry ready or university ready,” Reynolds said.

“This will be a one-stop-shop where the outcome, or output in terms of students, will be ready for whatever path they choose to take.”

While Bletchley Park attracts

visitors, some of its build-ings are in need of work, with smashed windows and peeling paint.

Among those who have helped save it from disrepair is Margaret Sale, whose late husband Tony led the rebuild-ing of a replica of Colossus, the world’s first electronic compu-ter, used to decipher codes sent from the Lorenz Cipher, a ma-chine used by the Nazis.

The 84-year-old, who still volunteers at the National Mu-seum of Computing, hopes the new college will help preserve the Bletchley Park legacy.

Asked about the difference between the site’s codebreak-ing past and the college’s future work, she said: “It will have a different feel because the world is so different.

Now we know what is in peo-ple’s speeches before they even sometimes know it themselves.”

“So much has changed...But basically it’s still the same thing. It’s making sure that you are one step in advance of your enemies.”

Prince Harry warms up before a friendly game of cricket in Gros Islet, St. Lucia.

Artist Anselm Kiefer has transformed the White Cube gallery for a show including huge new paintings and sculptures. The German artist, whose work often concerns his country’s troubled past, has dimmed the lights in the Bermondsey gallery and filled it with a series of beds covered in metal sheets and named after famous figures who have influenced him. The Walhalla show also includes a rusty spiral staircase hung with clothes and his trademark images of towers in desolate wastelands.

Howzat

Kiefer artwork

Huge rise in hospital beds taken up by people with malnutritionGuardian News and MediaLondon

The number of hospital beds in England taken up by patients being treated for

malnutrition has almost trebled over the last 10 years, in what charities say shows the “genu-inely shocking” extent of hunger and poor diet.

Offi cial fi gures reveal that peo-ple with malnutrition accounted for 184,528 hospital bed days last year, a huge rise on 65,048 in 2006-07. The sharp increase is adding to the pressures on hospi-tals, which are already struggling with record levels of overcrowding.

Critics have said the upward trend is a result of rising poverty, deep cutbacks in recent years to meals on wheels services for the

elderly and inadequate social care support, especially for older peo-ple. Jonathan Ashworth, the shad-ow health secretary, unearthed the fi gures in a response to a recent parliamentary question submit-ted to the Health Minister Nicola Blackwood.

“These fi gures paint a grim picture of Britain under the Con-servatives,” he said. “Real poverty is causing vulnerable people, par-

ticularly the elderly, to go hungry and undernourished so much so that they end up in hospital.

“Our research reveals a shocking picture of levels of malnutrition in 21st-century England and the im-pact it has on our NHS. This is un-acceptable in modern Britain.”

The department of health fi g-ures showed that the number of bed days accounted for by some-one with a primary or secondary

diagnosis of malnutrition rose from 128,361 in 2010-11, the year the coalition came to power, to 184,528 last year – a 61% rise over fi ve years.

Such patients only account for one in 256 of all hospital bed days, or 0.4% of the 47.3m total, but the fi nancial cost is considerable as each bed costs the NHS an aver-age of £400 a day to staff and given the condition each spell in hospital

because lasts an average of 22 to 23 days.

Simon Bottery, the director of policy at the charity Independent Age, said: “These new fi gures on malnutrition are genuinely shock-ing. As a society there is no excuse for us failing to ensure that older people are able to eat enough food, of the right quality, to stay healthy.

“Yet we have been cutting back the meals on wheels services and

lunch clubs on which so many vul-nerable elderly people relied and reducing the numbers who receive home care visits.”

Freedom of Information re-quests submitted to local coun-cils in England early last year by the then shadow care minister Liz Kendall found that 220,000 fewer people were receiving meals on wheels in late 2014 than in 2010, a fall of 63%.

EUROPE


Swiss have voted in a refer-endum to reject a speedy exit from the nation’s fi ve

nuclear power plants, as con-cerns over losing energy inde-pendence outweighed safety worries raised by the measure’s proponents.

Nearly 55% of voters turned down the initiative yesterday, with the rest favouring it in a vote that was part of the Swiss sys-

tem of direct democracy giving citizens a fi nal say on important issues.

Swiss reactors Muehleberg and Beznau I and II would have been shuttered next year, followed by Goesgen in 2024 and Leibstadt in 2029, had the initiative passed.

The Swiss government and industry fought the plan, say-ing it could have led to black-outs, higher costs and the loss of energy independence because the country would have become more dependent on coal-fi red power from Germany.

“We’re very happy Swiss vot-ers are giving such an explicit re-sult,” said Heinz Karrer, a former head of the utility Axpo and cur-rent president of the pro-busi-ness group Economiesuisse, in an interview on state-run television SRF.

“Switzerland’s people don’t want a radical solution,” he said. “It would have caused uncer-tainties about our energy sup-ply, something Swiss people were unwilling to risk.”

Germany plans to shutter its remaining nuclear plants by

2022, a response to the 2011 dis-aster in Japan that also prompted the Swiss initiative.

Switzerland has a 2050 energy strategy in which it would gradu-ally replace nuclear power that now supplies about one-third of the country’s electricity with renewables, including wind and solar.

The strategy calls for eventual closure of the Swiss reactors, but without a deadline.

That plan is under threat, however, with the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), the largest in parlia-

ment, aiming to challenge it with a separate referendum on the grounds it is too expensive.

Swiss energy minister Doris Leuthard, at a press conference in Berne following the vote, said she would counter any SVP-led ref-erendum with arguments simi-lar to those that she used when fi ghting yesterday’s initiative.

“I’m relieved by this outcome, because it allows us the neces-

sary time to transform our energy system,” Leuthard told reporters. “The people are in agreement – this is something that won’t hap-pen overnight.”

Swiss utility BKW AG already plans to shutter Muehleberg in 2019, citing the high costs of maintenance and operations.

Swiss Green Party advocates for a quicker atomic power exit have cited worries about an aging

atomic capability, with Beznau I the oldest operating nuclear power station in the world, hav-ing been started in 1969.

That reactor and Leibstadt, the largest Swiss atomic power station, have been offl ine for months following maintenance issues, including the discovery of discolouration in eight cladding tubes used to encase Leibstadt’s fuel rods.

Swiss against quick exit from nuclear powerReutersZurich Supporters of the nuclear exit follow the vote on a TV screen in Bern, Switzerland. The measure was

defeated.

The world’s largest metal moveable structure will be unveiled tomorrow

over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant’s doomed fourth reactor in Ukraine to ensure the safety of future generations across Europe.

The giant arch – nearly as long as two football pitches and taller than New York’s Statue of Lib-erty – will edge into place over an existing crumbling dome that the Soviets constructed in haste when disaster struck three dec-ades ago on April 26.

Radioactive fallout from the site of the world’s worst civil nuclear accident contaminat-ed Ukraine and spread across three-quarters of Europe.

Work on the previous safety dome began after a 10-day fi re caused by the explosion was contained but as radiation still spewed.

“It was done through the su-per-human eff orts of thousands of ordinary people,” the Cherno-byl museum’s deputy chief Anna Korolevska told AFP. “What kind of protective gear could they have possibly had? They worked in regular construction clothes.”

About 30 of the clean-up workers known as liquidators were killed on site or died from overwhelming radiation poison-ing in the following weeks.

The toll from the accident caused by errors during an ex-perimental safety check remains under dispute because the So-viet authorities did their best to cover up the tragedy.

Kiev held a May Day parade as invisible contamination spread over the city while then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev only admitted on May 14 that some-thing had gone terribly wrong.

A United Nations estimate in 2005 said around 4,000 people had either been killed or were left dying from cancer and other related disease.

But the Greenpeace environ-mental protection group be-lieves the fi gure may be closer to 100,000.

The authorities maintain a

30km (19-mile-wide) exclusion zone around the plant in which only a few dozen elderly people live.

Concerns over the safety of the disintegrating concrete shelter – built by 90,000 people in just 206 days – prompted the European Bank for Reconstruc-tion and Development (EBRD) to spearhead a €2.1bn ($2.2bn) project to install a new safety dome.

The numerous problems with the Soviet-era solution includ-ed the fact that the protective structure only had a 30-year lifespan.

Yet its deterioration began much sooner than that.

“Radioactive dust inside the structure is being blown out through the cracks,” Sergiy Paskevych of Ukraine’s Institute of Nuclear Power Plant Safety Problems told AFP.

He added that the existing structure could crumble under extreme weather.

“This would especially be a potential problem if there was a tornado or an earthquake,” Paskevych said.

The new arch should be able to

withstand tremors of 6.0 mag-nitude – a strength rarely seen in eastern Europe – and torna-dos the likes of which strike the region once every million years.

Chernobyl’s dangers are real

but Kiev complains that Eu-rope’s help took a long time coming.

The EBRD found 40 state sponsors to fund a competition in 2007 to choose who should

build a moveable dome the likes of which the world had never seen.

A French consortium of two companies known as Novarka fi nished the designs in 2010 and

began construction two years later.

The shelter was edged toward the fourth reactor in just under three weeks of delicate work this month that was interrupted by inclement weather and other potential dangers.

It will later be fi tted with radi-ation control equipment as well as air vents and fi re protective measures.

That equipment inside the arch is due to start working by the end of 2017.

“And only then will we begin to disassemble the old, unstable structure,” the head of Ukraine’s State Nuclear Regulation In-spections agency Sergiy Bozhko told AFP.

But he said no timeframe had yet been set for the truly hazard-ous work of removing all the re-maining nuclear fuel from inside the plant or taking apart the old dome.

“Those decisions will be made based on future studies,” Bozhko said.

Novarka believes that its arch will keep the continent safe from nuclear fallout for the next 100 years.

Giant new dome set to keep Chernobyl safeAFPChernobyl

This undated handout picture from Russian news agency Tass shows a military helicopter spreading stuff supposed to reduce the contamination of the air full of radioactive elements above the Chernobyl nuclear plant, days after its No. 4 reactor’s blast, the world’s worst nuclear accident of the 20th century.

Right: This file photo taken on December 15, 2000 shows leading engineer of Chernobyl’s nuclear power plant Sergey Bashtovoi turning the key of the emergency stop as he shuts down the plant’s third reactor.

This file handout photo taken on August 5, 1986 by Russian news agency Tass shows repairs being carried out on the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Russia, following a major explosion on April 26, 1986.

Some 2,000 people gathered in central Kiev yesterday to support a call by former

regional governor Mikheil Saa-kashvili – also a former president of Georgia – to rise up against the Ukrainian government.

Known for pro-Western re-forms in his native Georgia, Saa-kashvili, who quit as governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region this month, was one of the foreign technocrats appointed to top government positions to put the country on a pro-European path.

But Saakashvili, who was head

of state of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, resigned because he was being held back in his eff orts to fi ght corruption among high-ranking offi cials.

Protestors brandishing fl ags of Ukraine, Georgia and the Eu-ropean Union chanted “Glory to Ukraine!” and “Mikheil!” as Saakashvili addressed the crowd, an AFP reporter saw at the scene.

“They steal everything they can reach,” Saakashvili said on stage, referring to Ukrainian of-fi cials. “They are afraid of me be-cause I know how to destroy their house of cards. They are afraid of me because I’m not silent.”

Pensioner Valentyna Gerash-chenko, 80, was among those

supporting Saakashvili.“We haven’t found a person

like this in Ukraine,” she said. “They are all corrupt.”

Saakashvili was a supporter of Ukraine’s 2014 pro-EU revo-lution that ousted the Russian-backed president and set the former Soviet republic on its westward course.

But he had repeated run-ins with some members of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s in-ner circle and was frequently ac-cused of having outsized political ambitions of his own.

Saakashvili also vowed to form an opposition political move-ment that could oust Poroshenko and force early elections.

Saakashvili urges uprising against Ukraine governmentAFPKiev

Saakashvili addresses supporters during the rally in Kiev. Some 2,000 people gathered in central Kiev to support Saakashvili, known for pro-Western reforms in his native Georgia, in his call to rise up against the Ukrainian government.

Pilots union open to talks with LufthansaReutersFrankfurt

German pilots union VC said yesterday that it was open to further talks with

Lufthansa to try to fi nd a com-promise over a long-running pay dispute that caused a four-day strike last week, adding the airline needed to present a new off er.

“It will become clear in the course of the day how the dis-pute will continue,” a spokesman for VC told Reuters.

Lufthansa said earlier that all fl ights would start on schedule today, November 28, as there had been no further strike call from VC so far.

Lufthansa cancelled nearly 2,800 fl ights during a four-day strike from Wednesday that af-fected more than 350,000 pas-sengers, the 14th walkout in a dispute since early 2014 that has cost the carrier hundreds of mil-lions of euros.

Germany’s biggest airline ear-lier urged VC to resume talks.

“We have to talk,” Bettina Volkens, Lufthansa’s board member in charge of human re-sources, told Bild am Sonntag. “I hope very much that (VC) fi nally changes its uncompromising stance. This cannot be forced via strikes.”

VC rejected the latest pay of-fer from Lufthansa late on Friday but lifted the threat of extending its strike beyond Saturday.

It said on Saturday that more strikes were possible, and would be announced at least 24 hours in advance.

Lufthansa has off ered to in-crease wages by 4.4% in two instalments, plus a one-off pay-ment worth 1.8 months’ pay.

The union wants an average annual pay rise of 3.7% for 5,400 pilots over a fi ve-year period backdated to 2012.

Pilot strikes cost Lufthansa €222mn ($235mn) in 2014, ac-cording to the IW Cologne In-stitute for Economic Research, while in 2015, walkouts by pilots and cabin crew cost the airline €231mn.

Lufthansa said it had taken another €20mn hit over the fi rst two days of the latest strike.

People walk past an information sign with Lufthansa logo at the airport in Duesseldorf.

EUROPE19Gulf Times


Two former prime ministers went head-to-head yes-terday in a run-off vote for

France’s centre-right presiden-tial nomination, with the vic-tor expected to face a showdown against a resurgent far-right in May.

The winner, either Francois Fillon or Alain Juppe, will most likely represent the entire French political mainstream against the National Front’s Marine Le Pen, in another test of the anti-establishment anger in Western countries that saw Britain vote to leave the EU and Americans elect Donald Trump as president.

Opinion polls show Fillon, a social conservative with a deep attachment to France’s Catholic roots, as the clear favourite after stunning his more centrist chal-lenger with a surge in support just before the November 20 par-ty nomination fi rst round.

Voting opened at more than 10,000 polling stations across France at 8am (0700 GMT) and was set to close at 7pm, with the fi rst results likely up to an hour and a half later.

Organisers from the centre-right party, which took the name Les Republicains last year, said that by midday the participation rate was 10-15% higher than in last week’s fi rst round.

A 62-year-old racing car en-thusiast who lives in a Loire valley chateau, Fillon promises radical reforms to France’s reg-ulation-encumbered economy, vowing to roll back the state and slash government’s bloated costs.

Scrambling to regain momen-tum, Juppe, 71, a soft-mannered moderate who is now mayor of Bordeaux, has attacked the “bru-tality” of his rival’s reform pro-gramme and says the Paris law-maker lacks credibility.

But in a blow to Juppe, televi-sion viewers found the harder-

line Fillon more convincing in a head-to-head debate on Thurs-day.

“He’s not ashamed of being on the right, and even less of being Catholic,” Fillon backer Valerie Sonnard, a childminder in her forties, told Reuters at a polling station in Toulouse, southern France yesterday.

“My choice is Francois Fillon because I don’t want a right that is tainted by the left,” said Harold Bakinsian, a 51 year-old architect voting in Frejus on the Mediter-ranean coast.

As the two candidates voted, Fillon told reporters: “It is the voters who are talking now, not the candidate.”

Juppe meanwhile said he was proud of his campaign, but also complained over the way he had been cast on social media as soft on Islamist militancy – a sen-sitive subject in France, where more than 230 people have died in Islamist militant attacks since January last year.

“Some truths came out too late,” he said.

Any registered voter can take part in the primary, making its outcome diffi cult to predict.

The search for a consensus

candidate to stop the National Front could help the more cen-trist Juppe, particularly if many voters from outside the ranks of the centre-right take part.

“I voted for Alain Juppe be-cause I fear Francois Fillon’s eco-nomic programme, too rightist and too conservative, will divide society too much,” said Daniel Dunia, a Toulouse-based re-searcher in his forties who con-siders himself a left-wing voter.

Pollsters say the winner of the centre-right primary will be the favourite to enter the Elysee pal-ace, likely to place in the top two alongside Le Pen in a fi rst round in April and defeat her in a run-off in May.

While polls show either Fillon or Juppe would beat Le Pen, Ju-ppe would do so by a more com-fortable margin.

But the shock results in the British referendum and US presi-dential contest mean forecasters’ assumptions are being treated with caution.

Voter anger is sweeping aside establishment fi gures in West-ern countries, with Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi forecast to lose a referendum on constitu-tional reform on December 4.

Germany’s Angela Merkel faces a fi ght for re-election next year.

French President Francois Hollande is so unpopular and his Socialists so divided that poll-sters say he would be unlikely even to reach the run-off should he decide to run.

With France still under a state of emergency since Islam-ist militant attacks over the past two years, cultural tensions in a country that hosts Europe’s big-gest Muslim community have been central to the election de-bate.

Juppe praises France’s diver-sity.

Fillon says immigrants should assimilate to French cultural val-ues.

“I think Juppe hasn’t been fi rm enough on immigration ques-tions and on the attacks,” said Sonnard, the childminder in Toulouse.

There are also diff erences on foreign policy, with Fillon’s pro-Russia stance raising eyebrows in Germany.

On social policy, Fillon wants to curb adoption rights for same-sex couples.

Much of the arguments have

centred on the economy.Fillon proposes to cut twice as

many public sector jobs as Juppe, lower corporate taxes, take on trade unions and reduce the role of the state, like his hero, Marga-ret Thatcher.

Fillon’s photoshopped face wearing the former British prime minister’s distinctive hairstyle graced the front page of a left-leaning national newspaper last week.

“You think I look like Margaret Thatcher?” he joked in English to reporters yesterday.

Voters say that they are fed up with France’s near double-digit rate of unemployment – nearly double that of some European peers – and sluggish job creation in an economy that is forecast to grow an anaemic 1.4% in 2016.

Hollande now has two weeks in which to decide whether to run for re-election.

A win for Fillon and his hard-line economic platform would give the 62-year-old Hollande a target to attack and could con-vince him to make a bid for a sec-ond fi ve-year mandate against the odds.

The Socialist primaries are due to take place in January.

Former PMs vie for conservative ticketReutersParis

Right: Juppe leaves the polling station in Bordeaux.

Fillon leaves the voting booth in a polling station in Paris yesterday.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls kept open yesterday the possibility

that he could challenge his boss Francois Hollande as the Social-ists’ candidate in the 2017 presi-dential election, risking a further splintering of a fractured left.

In past weeks, the message from the Valls’ camp has been that he would wait for President Hollande’s decision on whether to seek a second term, and would make a presidential bid of his own only if Hollande decided to step aside.

However, in an interview pub-lished yesterday in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, Valls did not rule out running against Hollande in the Socialist party primaries in January.

“I will make my decision while examining my conscience ... whatever happens, the best in-terests of the country will infl u-ence my decision,” he said.

Asked if he was putting pres-sure on Hollande, Valls replied: “This is a very serious and his-toric moment for the country. Each of us must be aware of that. I am putting pressure on every-one.”

Valls was also openly critical of Hollande’s conduct with re-gard to the publication of a con-troversial book on his presidency based on interviews throughout the fi ve-year term conducted by two journalists.

A Valls versus Hollande sce-nario could divide the Socialists further, just as their centre-right opponents pick a candidate and

get down to serious campaigning against the far-right.

A run-off vote to choose the centre-right Les Republicains candidate, with former prime minister Francois Fillon seen likely to win, was under way yesterday with a result expected later in the evening.

Polls suggest no candidate of the left would reach a sec-ond round run-off in next May’s election, where the Les Repub-licains candidate chosen in yes-terday’s vote would probably face far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen.

Hollande has scored the low-est popularity ratings of mod-ern times in a fi ve-year mandate marked by high unemployment and a series of Islamist militant attacks on French soil.

His authority has also been put in question by the publication in October of the book written by journalists from Le Monde news-paper.

In interviews for the book, Hollande was shown as criticis-ing many of his own allies, spoke of “problems with Islam” and revealed details of conversations between state leaders.

“We need to state that over the last few weeks, the context has changed. The publication of that book created real disar-ray amongst the left-wing,” said Valls, who also warned that the Socialist party risked getting wiped out in next year’s vote.

Referring to Valls’ interview, Hollande told an audience in Madagascar, where he was at-tending a gathering for French-speaking countries: “The most important thing is that we all get behind one another.”

PM Valls keeping his options openReutersParis

Valls with Hollande: potential rivals.

Dutch offi cials have culled 190,000 ducks on a central Netherlands farm where in-

spectors have confi rmed the presence of a highly infectious strain of bird fl u, offi cials and local media said yester-day.

The outbreak was detected at a farm in Biddinghuizen, about 70km (43 miles) west of Amsterdam, where about 180,000 ducks were put down together with another 10,000 within a

1km radius, the Dutch food and safety watchdog NVWA said.

“There are three other poultry farms within a three kilometre radius and they are being monitored,” the NVWA added in a statement.

Authorities have also imposed a ban on poultry and poultry product trans-port within a 10km radius, the state-ment said.

Tests indicated that the birds were killed by an H5N8 variant of the dis-ease “which is highly infectious” for poultry – killing about 30% of infect-ed birds – but not “very dangerous to humans”, public newscaster NOS said.

Earlier this month the Netherlands shuttered petting zoos and banned duck hunting as it stepped up meas-ures to stem a bird fl u outbreak blamed for killing scores of poultry and more than a thousand wild birds in the country.

In the western port of Rotterdam, a park closed its animal section after several aquatic birds were found to have died from the H5N8 virus.

Others still not aff ected have been penned in.

And on the banks of Lake Marker-meer, close to Amsterdam, about 1,250 wild birds were found dead earlier this

month, local news reports said.The H5N1 strain of bird fl u has

killed more than 420 people, mainly in southeast Asia, since fi rst appear-ing in 2003.

Another strain of bird fl u, H7N9, has claimed more than 200 lives since emerging in 2013, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) fi gures.

Avian fl u hit the Netherlands in 2003 with health authorities destroy-ing some 30mn birds in an eff ort to quash an outbreak.

Around 106mn chickens are raised on Dutch poultry farms, according to the latest Dutch statistics.

Dutch kill 190,000 ducks to contain outbreakAFPThe Hague

An NVWA worker in protective gear gets ready to cull ducks as part of measures against bird flu at a duck farm in Hierden.

The constitutional reforms due for a December 4 referendum in Italy are

“good”, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in an interview yesterday, adding that he hoped they will be approved.

Proposed reforms would re-duce the veto powers of the upper chamber of parliament and those of regional administrations, to the benefi t of the government.

Supporters say this would make Italy more stable, while critics fear a weakening of demo-cratic checks and balances.

“I don’t know if it will be use-ful to [Italian Prime Minister Matteo] Renzi if I say that I hope for a ‘yes’ win. I will only say that I hope that the ‘no’ will not win,” Juncker told the La Stampa newspaper.

“The referendum is key to de-fi ne Italy’s institutional set up for the next years. I do not want to interfere in the debate. But it is obvious that Italy must continue its reform process. And it is good that Renzi is tackling institution-al architecture issues,” he added.

Renzi, who leads the “yes”

campaign, claimed on Thursday that Italy will have greater in-fl uence on key European Union policies like migration if reforms are approved, because the coun-try will be less prone to govern-ment crises.

Juncker said frontline coun-tries like Italy and Greece re-ceived insuffi cient help from EU peers on migration issues.

A plan was agreed last year to move 160,000 refugees from the two countries to other EU states, but only about 7,500 have been relocated so far.

The relocation plan has been opposed by Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Renzi has proposed to punish them by curtailing EU regional funding, which disproportion-ally benefi ts newer central and eastern EU nations.

The head the EU executive said “some countries’” refusal to take in refugees was unacceptable, as well as preferences for non-Muslim migration, expressed by several eastern European capi-tals.

“These kind of sentences run

against the entire history of Eu-rope,” he said.

But Juncker also reacted to Renzi’s frequent bashing of EU institutions.

“I struggle to accept these acerbic remarks about the Com-mission [...] I’d like some politi-cians to look at us more fairly,” he said.

Renzi has already won the backing of outgoing US President Barack Obama and key business leaders.

Such endorsements, however, are double-edged sword, as they allow the opposition to depict Renzi as following the agenda of foreign powers and big corpora-tions.

A member of the far-right Northern League, which is cam-paigning for a “no” vote, said that Juncker would receive an-other disappointment from Ital-ian voters, after the Brexit ref-erendum and Donald Trump’s victory in the United States.

“All these political and fi nan-cial leaders have not yet under-stood that if they suggest one thing, people do exactly the op-posite, because they have had enough of them, Renzi and eve-rybody else who do their bid-ding,” the League’s Roberto Cal-deroli said.

EU’s Juncker: Renzi’s reforms are ‘good’By Alvise Armellini, DPARome

Demonstrators hold a banner picturing Renzi with a prohibition sign and placards reading ‘PD (Democratic Party) go home, I vote NO’ during a ‘C’e chi dice NO’ (‘Some say no’) rally in central Rome yesterday.

Juncker: I don’t know if it will be useful to [Italian Prime Minister Matteo] Renzi if I say that I hope for a ‘yes’ win. I will only say that I hope that the ‘no’ will not win.

Serbia’s soldiers hold fi rst protestAFPBelgrade

Around 1,000 Serbian army soldiers and sup-porters took to the streets

of Belgrade yesterday to pro-test low wages and poor work-ing conditions, in the fi rst-ever public protest of the kind, local media reported.

The protest, held in front of the defence ministry in down-town Belgrade, was organised by the military trade union and backed by their police counter-parts, the state-run Tanjug news agency reported.

“If a Serbian soldier cannot feed his family ... it is a problem,” union leader Novica Antic was quoted telling the crowd.

The union claims that more than three-quarters of the ar-my’s employees have monthly wages lower than Serbia’s na-tional average, which was €370 ($389) in October.

This year 1,000 people left the Balkan country’s armed forces due to low salaries and poor working conditions, Antic said.

The protesters, carrying Ser-bian and union fl ags, later de-livered a letter to the offi ce of President Tomislav Nikolic, also the supreme commander of the country’s armed forces, calling on him to “protect” them.

Serbia’s army has undergone a series of reforms since the ouster of late strongman Slobodan Mi-losevic in 2000.

The armed forces are fully professional since 2011 and now estimated to number some 30,000.

Military experts estimate that about 2.5mn of Serbia’s popula-tion of 7.1mn could be called up for service if needed.


INDIA20

Top militant,fi ve othersescape fromPunjab jailReward of Rs2.5mn off ered for information on the prisoners

AgenciesNabha, Punjab

At least 10 armed men dis-guised as policemen at-tacked a high security

prison yesterday and freed a top Sikh militant commander and fi ve others in Punjab offi cials said.

The attackers travelled in cars and stormed Nabha Jail after stabbing a guard at the main gate and fi ring rounds of live ammu-nition before fl eeing with the in-mates.

“We have sounded an alert in the state and formed special teams to nab them,” H S Dhillon, Punjab director general of police for law and order, said.

Two more guards were in-jured in the attack in Patiala district.

Police identifi ed one of the fu-gitives as Harminder Singh Min-too, chief of the Khalistan Lib-eration Force (KLF) – a militant group fi ghting for a separate Sikh homeland in Punjab.

Mintoo was arrested in 2014 and is on trial for “terror attacks and funding”.

The others are part of a local criminal gang and were on trial for murder.

Unconfi rmed local media re-ports said the attackers num-bered around 20.

A senior police offi cer said the swift assault took guards by surprise as the attackers moved quickly through the complex, indicating they knew the jail lay-out.

“We are trying to figure out the connection between the gangsters and the militant lead-er. Did he flee by fluke?” the of-ficer said.

Offi cial sources said the secu-rity in the jail did not retaliate, raising suspicion.

Jail offi cials told police that the attackers entered the prison by telling the outer security they had brought a prisoner for verifi -cation.

Their vehicles were allowed entry.

Four offi cials, including the Punjab prison chief and jail su-perintendent, have either been suspended or sacked because of the jailbreak, authorities said.

A reward of Rs2.5mn ($36,000) has been off ered for information on the escaped prisoners.

Punjab Deputy Chief Minis-ter Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is also the home minister, and Punjab Director General of Po-lice Suresh Arora reached the Nabha jail.

The attack took place when the prisoners were brought out of their barracks for breakfast

and other morning chores, jail sources said.

Witnesses heard several rounds of fi ring around 9am.

“I was going on my motorcycle when I saw two-three cars with armed men inside. They were fi r-ing in the air and were in police uniform,” a villager told reporters near the jail.

Sukhbir Badal spoke to Na-tional Security Adviser Ajit Doval and updated him on the steps taken to apprehend the prisoners and attackers.

In a related development, a woman was killed as police fi red at a vehicle on the Patiala-Cheeka road after it failed to stop at a barricade set up to catch the escaped prisoners.

Police sources said it was a case of mistaken identity.

Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh said “the in-cident had exposed a complete breakdown of law and order in the state, while triggering fears of revival of terrorism ahead of assembly elections.

“This has happened with the connivance of the Punjab gov-ernment. They have got these people out to use them in elec-tions. The shocking manner in which the gangsters walked into the high-security jail and freed a dreaded Khalistani terrorist along with other convicts clearly shows complicity at the highest levels,” Singh said.

Rights activists demandjudicial probe into killingsBy Ashraf PadannaThiruvananthapuram

Human rights activ-ists in Kerala yesterday rejected a magisterial

and police probe that the state government has ordered into the alleged killing of two Mao-ist rebels.

Alleging it was a ploy to jus-tify the police version that the rebels died in a gunbattle when security forces surrounded their hideout, the rights activ-ists wanted an independent judicial inquiry by a retired or serving judicial offi cer.

Dhanraj, 60, and Ajita, 45, believed to be leaders of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), were shot dead in the Nilambur forests in Malappuram district last week.

Three days after the incident, police revealed details of the encounter However, reporters have not been allowed to visit the area where the gunbattle took place.

According to the police there were 12 armed men who fi red at them and escaped. But in the exchange of fi re Dhanraj and Ajita, both from Tamil Nadu, died.

“It was a cold-blooded mur-der. The autopsy reveals that the police shot them from be-hind infl icting a dozen bullet wounds,” PA Pouran, secretary of the Kerala chapter of the People’s Union for Civil Liber-ties (PUCL), alleged.

“They came out with an ex-planation only after three days with some cooked up pieces of evidence. The chief minister or the police chief had not held a formal press conference and explained things so far.”

There were seven bullet wounds in the body of the man, and the woman had 19.

The police also exhibited 16 mobile phones, two laptops and other gadgets, books, ban-knotes of half a million rupees and food they seized from the rebels.

“They are now trying to le-

gitimise an illegal act of a brutal killing by ordering an inquiry by a junior government offi cial. This is not acceptable to us,” said Pouran.

The Communist Party of India (CPI), the second largest coali-tion partner, had immediately after the killings also said the po-lice theory was unbelievable.

Following this, the police came out with the explanation on Saturday and Chief Minis-ter Pinarayi Vijayan, who also holds the home portfolio, or-dered an inquiry by a sub-col-lector yesterday, saying that it was indeed an encounter.

But the CPI stuck to its po-sition, even after the leader of opposition and Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, a former home minister, justifi ed the po-lice action.

“They were not holding any arms except a small pistol. There is a mystery shrouding the episode, which the govern-ment should solve,” said senior CPI leader Pannyan Raveen-dran.

Film directormissing sinceMay arrestedFilm director S Madhan of Vendhar Movies, an entertainment company owned by the Chennai-based SRM education conglomerate, who went missing on May 27, was arrested from a house in Tiruppur city, about 450km from Chennai last week.Madhan began his career by allegedly ‘selling’ SRM’s professional seats for hefty sums.Soon after Madhan’s disappearance, more than 120 applicants to medical seats in SRM University complained that he had collected Rs840mn on promise of giving them seats.Meanwhile Madhan’s wife and mother also filed a habeas corpus petition in the Madras High Court. This led to the arrest of SRM founder/chairman T R Pachamuthu and five others. Madhan’s family accused Pachamuthu of lynching him, but was granted bail with a heavy fine and after he promised to reimburse the money collected by Madhan. Meanwhile police continued to search for Madhan based on his last note that he was going to the Hindu city of Kasi to attain salvation. However they could not locate him in Kasi or other holy cities in north India. Finally they got a tip-off about Geethanjali, a woman with whom Madhan kept in touch through WhatsApp. They arrested Geethanjali in Chennai and she admitted to have helped Madhan lease a house in Varanasi with bogus documents. By further tracking Madhan’s cell phone, whose SIM card he changed frequently, police located him hiding inside the loft of another girlfriend’s house in Tiruppur. He was sent to Puzhal prison in Chennai. Police also found out that despite having two wives and three children, Madhan had spent the past six months touring north India with many women, buying property and living luxuriously.

Aged coupleclaim Dhanushis their sonAn old couple have claimed that popular Tamil film star Dhanush is their son and a court in Madurai has accepted their petition and ordered the actor to appear on January 12.Kathiresan and Meenakshi produced childhood photos and a birth certificate to prove that Dhanush was their son. They added that his real name was Kaliselvan and he studied up to Class X at Melur town in Madurai. He reportedly ran away in 2002 over poor academic record. The couple requested visitation rights and a monthly maintenance of Rs65,000 from Dhanush. Dhanush is the younger son of film distributor Kasturi Raja and is married to superstar Rajnikanth’s elder daughter Aishwarya. He is an award-winning actor, producer, playback singer and scriptwriter whose production Visaranai is India’s entry for foreign language films for 2017 Oscar Awards.

Medical students suspended for torturing monkeyFour students of the Christian Medical College (CMC) were suspended for torturing and killing a female bonnet macaque monkey that had wandered into their campus in Vellore.The incident came to light when another student sent a video clip to an animal rights activist in Mumbai, who alerted his colleagues in Chennai.The activists’ team reached Vellore and with the help of police exhumed the monkey’s carcass. They found out that Samuvel, Rohitkumar Yenukutti, Arun Luvis and Aleks Selkaleyal had caught the monkey with a blanket, hit it with sticks and stones and strangled it. Two months ago, two medical students were caught flinging two dogs from the terrace of a house in Chennai.

‘I am sacrifi cing my life to trigger concern about plastic’Guardian News and MediaChennai

In late October, the streets of the temple town of Thanjavur were abuzz with

Diwali festivities, the skies glittering with fi reworks. One home, however, was cloaked in darkness.

“We aren’t celebrating Diwali because we are in mourning this year,” said K Kumaran, just back from his 10-hour shift as a se-curity guard at a private college. In the corner of the living room, his wife Vijaya fi xes the wick on a fl ickering oil lamp that stood in front of a framed photograph of their 19-year-old son, Jawa-har.

“If he was here, my son would

have approved of the dark house,” said Vijaya. “He thought fi recrackers were polluting, and environmentally disastrous.”

Jawahar, a young commu-nity activist in Tamil Nadu, had killed himself less than a month earlier.

He had left home after break-fast on October 10, and did not return or call home all day.

“At fi rst, we didn’t think it was unusual,” said Kumaran, sighing. Jawahar had been a strenuous activist, often out on protests around the area.

Earlier this year, he had gone on a hunger strike; he sat on the road outside a central tourist spot, demanding that city offi cials confi scate all plastic bags. Before that, he had climbed the Collec-tor’s offi ce building, threatening

to jump off unless Thanjavur en-forced the plastic ban.

On both occasions, it was the police that called Kumaran and Vijaya, asking them to take their boy home after he had been de-tained. In many other instanc-es, the parents had found out about Jawahar’s public protests through the local newspapers.

But after a day had passed this time and there had still been no word from their son, Kumaran fi led a missing person’s com-plaint, on Vijaya’s insistence. That evening the police found him; he had drowned in the ca-nal. No one suspected suicide until, on the day of the crema-tion, a cousin found a video in Jawahar’s phone.

“It was a declaration of sui-cide,” said the cousin, K Elavaenil.

In the self-recorded video, the religious Jawahar wears holy ash on his forehead. Speaking in Tamil he says, “I am sacrifi cing my life in the hope that it will trigger serious concern about plastic use in India. Since all of my peaceful means of pro-test failed, I’m forced to choose suicide. To save the lives of mil-lions of people aff ected by toxic plastic, I don’t think it’s wrong to kill myself.”

As a teenager, Jawahar had shown a keen interest in envi-ronmental issues, especially the indiscriminate use of plastic. He quit school in the 10th grade and watched the news obses-sively. From 2014, every few weeks, he had fi led petitions at the town municipality demand-ing an action plan to ban or re-

cycle plastic, manage waste, or replant trees cut for laying highways. Soon, he began to stage dramatic protests. “He used to say that people are dull and lazy, and one must shock to attract attention to important issues,” said Elavaenil.

Offi cials in the police station of Thanjavur remember Jawa-har as a passionate boy.

“He was a known face, always in the Collector’s offi ce, fi ght-ing about this or that,” said In-spector R Rajendran, who once convinced the young man to climb down from the roof of the building.

“His heart was in the right place, but what he didn’t un-derstand is that making the town a zero-plastic zone cannot happen overnight.”

Vijaya said: “Jawahar was fi ghting alone and growing an-grier with the world. When all you can think of is how to pro-tect the environment, just seeing a person use a plastic cover can perhaps push you over the edge.”

Jawahar had taken on a gar-gantuan problem. India is a relatively new user of plastic, which has only really come into circulation since the economy was liberalised in the early nine-ties. Indians consume a rela-tively small amount of plastic per person – a fraction of the amount consumed in the US and China estimated at 9.7kg in 2013, far below 109kg in the US and 45kg in China. But plastic use has been growing at 10% a year, and consumption is ex-pected to double by 2020.

A policeman and onlookers stand near the gate of the Nabha jail yesterday.

Tamil NaduRoundupBy Umaima Shafiq

People participate in the ‘Freedom 10K Run’ in Hyderabad yesterday. The event is an initiative to promote running as the primary form of fitness.

Freedom run

INDIA21Gulf Times


Too early togauge impact of notes ban,say expertsAFPMumbai

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s shock decision to scrap most of India’s cur-

rency was hailed by some as a masterstroke against endemic corruption, but signs are emerg-ing that it may hit the economy hard.

The sweeping overnight aboli-tion of all high-value notes was supposed to bring billions in black money back into the for-mal system.

But experts are warning the ensuing cash crunch could have a dramatic impact on growth just as the economy was beginning to take fl ight.

India runs largely on cash, but that is still in short supply, nearly three weeks after Modi’s shock announcement that 86% of its currency would be withdrawn from circulation.

Many ATMs remain empty and banks have been forced to ration cash as they face huge queues.

Many people have still not been able to change their old currency.

That has left farmers unable to sow their crops and produce markets all but empty, while small traders like the tea sellers that dot India’s streets say busi-ness has fallen off a cliff .

On Thursday former prime minister Manmohan Singh, a re-spected economist, told parlia-ment the surprise decision would shave at least two percentage points off growth and slammed the government for what he said was shoddy implementation.

The rupee shake-up had been a “a monumental management failure” and “a case of organised loot and legalised plunder”, said Singh, who belongs to the oppo-sition Congress Party.

More worrying still for the prime minister, experts includ-ing former US treasury secretary Larry Summers have questioned whether the scheme will even achieve its core aim of cutting tax evasion.

“Without new measures to

combat corruption, we doubt that this currency reform will have lasting benefi ts,” said Sum-mers in a blog post denouncing the move.

“Corruption will continue albeit with slightly diff erent ar-rangements.”

Most experts agree it is too early to say what the impact will be on India’s gross domes-tic product, which expanded 7.1% year-on-year in the three months from April-June, out-pacing China.

“The fall-out of the policy is unfolding now. So the next month will be critical to deter-mine what people fi nally think of this move,” political analyst Devdan Chaudhuri said.

But ratings agency Fitch has already said it is revising down its India growth forecast for the fourth quarter of the calendar year, saying it would “almost certainly” be weak.

Yes Bank chief economist Shubhada Rao said it would take until the middle of next year for growth to recover.

“We are seeing disruption to growth in the near term, but once liquidity is restored, demand will return. By the second quarter of the next fi nancial year, GDP will return to normalcy,” he said.

Experts say the move was a contributing factor to the ru-pee hitting an all-time low of 68.8625 against the dollar on Thursday, although the main reason was an expected US rate rise next month.

The uncertainty has contrib-uted to huge outfl ows of foreign capital from India, although N SVenkatesh, a currency special-ist at IDBI Bank, said this could reverse in time.

“Foreign investors are waiting to see how the demonetisation drive will play out in the near term. If it stabilises, all the cash could come back to the Indian economy,” he said.

Modi, who won a landslide election victory in 2014 on a promise to tackle endemic cor-ruption, has strongly defended his move, which still enjoys widespread popular support.

Modi allays concerns over currency moveEmbrace cashless transactions, says prime minister

AgenciesNew Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday he was confi dent India would

emerge “glowing like gold” fol-lowing the government’s deci-sion to scrap high-value currency notes.

Bank notes of Rs500 and Rs1,000 ceased to be legal tender from midnight on November 8, hours after Modi announced the move to fi ght corruption and tax evasion.

“Almost every economist is analysing the move. The whole world is watching whether 1.25bn Indians will be successful even after enduring hardships,” Modi said in his monthly radio address ‘Mann Ki Baat’.

“The world may have ques-tions or doubts, but India has faith in its people. Our country will emerge glowing like gold from the fi re. The main reason behind this confi dence is our people,” he said.

Modi’s comments come days after his predecessor, Manmo-han Singh, considered the archi-tect of India’s economic reforms, said the country’s gross domes-tic product (GDP) would fall by about 2% because of the deci-sion.

A number of economic think-tanks have also revised down their growth outlook for India.

Over the past weeks, Indians have been struggling to get new Rs500 and 2,000 notes, form-ing queues outside banks and ATMs.

Businesses have also suff ered due to the liquidity crunch.

Modi has said the cash crunch will be over by the end of De-cember and appealed to Indians to embrace cashless transactions

through mobile banking, debit and credit cards.

“Learn the different ways you can use your bank ac-counts and Internet banking. Learn how to effectively use the apps of various banks on your phones. Learn how to run your business without cash. Learn about card payments and other electronic modes of payment,” Modi said.

“A cashless economy is secure, it is clean.”

Modi asked the youth of India to take a pledge to make this ini-tiative a success and urged them to teach their families, neigh-bours and small business own-ers how to go cashless and make electronic payments.

“You have a leadership role to play in taking India towards an increasingly digital economy. Your father or mother or even elder brother at home may not know. But you know how to book train tickets online, you know how to buy things online.

“Educate them on how to download apps, how to spend money using mobile phones, how to make payments, how to do business.

“More importantly, if you could teach a push-cart vendor or your vegetable vendor, there is no reason we cannot move to-wards a cashless India.”

Senior offi cials admit the move will disrupt economic activity but argue it will be benefi cial for the economy in the long-term.

Opposition parties have called for a nationwide protest today against the decision to withdraw the notes.

However, the Congress Party said it has not called for a ‘Bharat bandh’ or a countrywide shut-down but ‘Jan Aakrosh Diwas’ to hold protests over demonetisa-tion.

“There will be protest rallies; we have not called for a ‘Bharat bandh’ (shutdown). Misinforma-tion has been spread by the BJP, which is ill-informed,” senior

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said.

“The Bharatiya Janata Party has spread the misinformation that the Congress and other op-position parties have called for a ‘bandh’. The country is already shut from November 9, a day after the prime minister an-nounced the demonetisation move. That’s why we don’t want a ‘Bharat bandh’,” he added.

Ramesh said the decision to demonitise the Rs1,000 and Rs500 notes was to hide the cen-tral government’s own failure to deliver on Modi’s promise of bringing back black money from abroad, made during the 2014 general elections.

“It is a political move be-ing projected as a fi ght against corruption,” said the Congress leader.

“People who actually have black money are still leading a luxurious life whereas honest people are facing hardships,” he added.

People queue outside an ATM of State Bank of India to withdraw cash in Ahmedabad yesterday.

Man held for allegedlyraping Japanese tourist

SYL issue can trigger return of terror in Punjab: Amarinder

AFPThiruvananthapuram

A man was arrested yes-terday for allegedly rap-ing a Japanese tourist at

a popular beach resort in Kerala, in the latest case of sexual assault against a visitor.

The 35-year-old woman was found bleeding by hotel staff in the town of Kovalam early yesterday and is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.

The woman sustained inter-nal injuries but doctors have de-clared her out of danger.

Police identifi ed the accused as a 25-year-old whose fam-ily runs a handicrafts store in the tourist hotspot.

“He has been sent to judicial custody and we are waiting for the victim to recover to record her full statement,” police offi cer Vipin Kumar said.

Japanese offi cials in New Delhi

have been informed about the incident, he said.

The woman came to India two weeks ago and arrived in the beach town on Saturday, hours before the alleged assault took place. It was un-clear how the two met, police said.

Sexual attacks on tourists in India are widespread, with sev-eral Western countries warning visitors about the risk.

Last year a Japanese woman was drugged and raped by a tourist guide in Jaipur, less than a month after six men gang-raped a 22-year-old Japanese tourist in the eastern city of Kolkata.

A court in June convicted fi ve men for gang-raping a 52-year-old Danish tourist in New Delhi in 2014.

They were jailed for life.India is facing intense scrutiny

over its eff orts to curb violence against women in general fol-lowing the fatal gang-rape of an Indian medical student in New Delhi in December 2012, which sparked a global outcry.

IANSNew Delhi

Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh has warned that the construction of the

controversial Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal to provide water to neighbouring Haryana can trigger the return of Khalistani terrorism in the border state.

There are Khalistani elements across the border (in Pakistan) who are waiting for an opportune moment to once again unleash terror on Punjab’s soil, the senior Congress leader and former chief minister said in an interview.

Peace in Punjab was marred from the late 1970s till 1993 by militants’ demand for an independent state of Khalistan for the Sikh.

Elections to the 117-member Punjab assembly are to be held in early 2017, where the ruling Shi-romani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata

Party alliance will be pitted against the opposition Congress and the emerging Aam Aadmi Party.

“Denial of water to residents of Malwa and other regions of south-ern Punjab, in particular, can lead to violence, given the past violence in the region which saw the onset of terrorism with the passing of Anandpur Sahib resolution in 1973 (by the Akalis) and also the spread of Naxalism,” the 74-year-old senior politician said.

Singh, who resigned as Lok Sabha member after the Supreme Court ruling on a Presidential Reference on sharing of river wa-ters with Haryana, also said that the demonetisation of Rs500 and Rs1,000 currency notes had also emerged as an important issue in Punjab due to hardships it caused the people.

Singh on November 23 handed over his resignation to Lok Sab-ha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to protest over the SYL canal issue.

The Supreme Court on No-vember 10 held as “unconstitu-tional” the 2004 law passed by the Punjab assembly which was intended to deny Haryana its share in the river waters through the SYL canal.

Singh was the chief minis-ter when the Punjab assembly passed the Punjab Termination of Water Agreements Act, 2004.

In case the Congress returns to power in Punjab, Singh said, he will again take legal recourse by bringing in proper legislations in the state assembly on the sharing of river waters.

“I will do it once again when I am in power with two-thirds majority in the assembly. I had earlier also done all I could legally to prevent even a single drop of water from fl owing out of Punjab. I can promise one thing: water of Punjab will remain with the state’s people, who need every single drop of it for their own survival.

Two more people, including a doctor, have been arrested in the inter-state child traff icking case, police said in Kolkata yesterday. Tapan Biswas, associated with the Baduria nursing home, one of the hubs of newborn child traff icking in West Ben-gal’s North 24 Parganas district, was arrested from a relative’s house at Burdwan district’s Memari on Saturday night. Biswas was on the run since the police conducted the raid in Baduria. Basanti Chakraborty was also arrested from Thakurpukur region in South Kolkata on the same night for her links with the old age home in Thakurpukur. She was allegedly involved in the traff icking of 10 baby girls, who were recovered by the off icials, from the home.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar yesterday said his post-retirement memoirs will include detailed and specific accounts of the goings-on in his min-istry, whose charge he took over two years back. “I will not spell out everything now. After retiring, when I write my memoirs, I will be more specific...” he told a meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party women workers in Panaji. Parrikar also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had empowered army commanders to retaliate if an enemy attacked. “When our soldiers were attacked, our armed forces have responded appropriately. The government has empowered army commanders and has given them power to retaliate if attacked. As a result coun-try’s border is safe,” he said.

Toonz Media Group’s short film Magical Piano has bagged a Unesco film award. The film was created in association with the Toonz-Disney collaborative venture Kahaani Masters, a story-writing contest organised to find out the finest story masters in the country. The film follows the story of a child who receives a magical piano for his birthday. Using the magic of music, the child goes on to clean the whole planet and then the whole universe making this a cleaner and happy place to live in. The story was written by Mayul Verma, an upper primary stu-dent from Agra. The award was handed over at the COP 22 Green Zone in the Unesco Pavilion recently held at Morocco, said a Toonz press release issued in Thiruvananthapuram yesterday.

In the wake of the cash crunch following demon-etisation, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) yesterday announced it has put in place a digital payment system for car parking charges at all its airports that would commence e-transactions from tomorrow. Consequently, free car parking services provided from November 14 will end tonight at all airports, the AAI said. “In the wake of new currency crisis arising due to demonetisa-tion of Rs500 and 1,000 notes, AAI has evolved a digital payment mechanism through e-payment transactions using debit/credit cards, Paytm, Freecharge and other digital payment methods with eff ect from the midnight of 28th November, 2016,” it said.

The Himachal Pradesh government yesterday said the state revenue had recorded remarkable increase in the wake of eff ective steps for trans-parent tax collection and extension of various concessions/facilities to diff erent industries. The Excise and Taxation Department collected the highest 65% of the state’s revenue, with collec-tions in the last three fiscal years totalling Rs-150bn. The target for this fiscal year is Rs65bn. All registered traders and dealers are being brought under the cover of a Group Accident Insurance Scheme by relaxing annual business limit this year. The insurance premium will be borne by the state and the insurance cover has been increased to Rs300,000 from Rs200,000.

Two more arrested in child traff icking case

‘Will write about defence ministry stint in memoirs’

Toonz Media Group’sfilm wins Unesco award

Digital payment forairport car parking

State revenue has goneup, says Himachal govt

INVESTIGATION PEOPLEHONOUR E-TRANSACTION TAX COLLECTION

Members of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) prepare for their turn prior to performing in a cultural programme during the 68th NCC day celebrations in Secunderabad, the twin city of Hyderabad, on Saturday. The NCC, a voluntary organisation which recruits cadets from secondary schools and colleges, was formed in 1948 to develop social service and leadership skills among participating youth under the auspices of the defence ministry.

NCC day

LATIN AMERICA


Nephews’ drug conviction‘US imperialism’: MaduroReutersCaracas

Venezuelan President Nico-las Maduro said the US convicted his wife’s neph-

ews on drug charges last week to weaken his leftist government.

Two nephews of Venezuela’s fi rst lady were found guilty ear-lier this month in a jury trial on charges that they tried to carry out a multi-million-dollar drug deal to obtain a large amount of cash to help their family stay in power.

In his fi rst comments since the conviction, Maduro blasted what he said was a clear sign of “US im-perialism.”

“You think it’s just by chance that the imperialists created a case that had as its only objective to attack the First Lady, the First Combatant, the wife of the presi-dent?” Maduro said in an hours-long speech during a “Women’s March” in Caracas, accusing Washington of seeking to weaken his administration.

The case has been an embar-rassment for the leftist leader amid an economic crisis in the oil-rich nation that has left millions going hungry because they cannot fi nd or aff ord food.

The high-profi le case was one of several in which US prosecutors have linked individuals tied to the Venezuelan government to drug traffi cking.

Venezuela’s opposition has seized the case as evidence that top echelons of the government are involved in narcotics, and has demanded a full explanation and investigation.

But compliant state media have barely touched on the case amid a wider offi cial silence.

Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, 31, and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, 30, nephews of Cilia Flores, Maduro’s wife and a big player in the country’s politics, were convicted by a federal jury in Manhattan of conspiring to import cocaine into the US.

The pair were arrested in Haiti in November 2015 and fl own to the US following a sting operation orchestrated by the US Drug En-forcement Administration.

Prosecutors said the two men plotted to use a Venezuelan air-port’s presidential hangar to send 800kgs of cocaine to Honduras for shipment into the US.

The US and Venezuela have had a diffi cult relationship since the late Hugo Chavez was elected to power in 1998.

Maduro routinely blames the US for waging an “economic war” against Venezuela. The US gov-ernment did not immediately re-spond to a request for comment.

Ultimatum issued toPeru’s ex-fi rst ladyAFPLima

A judge gave Peru’s ex-fi rst lady Nadine Heredia 10 days to return to her coun-

try, where she is under investiga-tion, or face preventative deten-tion.

“This is a request specifi cally for Nadine Heredia, who is being investigated for money launder-ing, to return to Peru within 10 days and to quit her job at the FAO; in the event she does not return, she could face preventive deten-tion,” judge Richard Concepcion said in an order.

The FAO is the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Heredia is accused along with her husband, former president Ollanta Humala, of laundering $1.5mn allegedly given to fund his 2006 and 2011 presidential cam-paigns.

With the investigation under way, the Rome-based FAO ap-pointed Heredia to head its liaison offi ce in Geneva, where the UN has

its European headquarters.Peru’s foreign ministry has said

it complained to the FAO’s repre-sentative in Peru “against a deci-sion that could be interpreted as interference in a judicial investiga-tion in Peru.”

Heredia had been forbidden to leave Peru while the courts inves-tigated, but a judge recently lifted the travel ban against her.

Humala, who left offi ce in July after his term ended, was ordered not to leave the country as of last week.

Prosecutors believe the laun-dered funds came from the gov-ernment of Venezuela’s then-president Hugo Chavez and two large construction fi rms in Brazil.

If found guilty, the couple face between eight and 10 years in prison.

On Friday, a UN spokeswoman said privileges and immunities are extended to staff of all UN agen-cies, and staff members of spe-cialised agencies in the exercise of their functions.

Heredia is believed to be in Rome.

A coco-taxi drives past a Cuban flag at half mast in Havana, Cuba, yesterday.

Cubans fretover life after Castro withTrump next doorReutersHavana

The death of Fidel Castro has added to worries among Cubans that US President-

elect Donald Trump will slam the door shut on nascent trade and travel ties, undoing two years of detente with the US under Obama.

Many Cubans believe they could do with their late leader’s charisma and way with words to counter Trump’s bombast.

“With ‘El Comandante’ gone, I am a little fearful of what could happen because of Trump’s way of thinking and acting,” said Yaneisi Lara, a 36-year-old Havana street vendor and fl ower seller. “He could set back and block every-thing that’s been going on, all the things Obama has done. And he did a lot, managing to get the US closer to Cuba,” she said, admit-ting she would consider moving to the US herself.

Trump has struck a very dif-ferent tone from Obama, who reached an agreement two years ago with Castro’s younger brother, President Raul Castro, to end half a century of hostilities.

Late in his election campaign, Trump sought to reassure Cuban-American voters in Florida that he was fi rm in his opposition to the Castros, and pledged that, if elected, he would close down the newly re-opened US embassy in Havana.

Earlier on, in the primary con-tests to pick the Republican presi-dential nominee, Trump said he thought restoring diplomatic ties with Cuba was fi ne, but that Obama ought to have cut a better deal.

Now that Trump has won the presidency, it is hard to know ex-actly what his approach to Cuba will be.

“None of that has been de-cided,” Trump’s senior adviser, Kellyanne Conway, said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ yesterday. “The president-elect will make those decisions once he takes offi ce.”

However, Reince Priebus, who will be Trump’s chief of staff when he takes offi ce on January 20, said

Trump would call for more politi-cal freedoms from the Cuban gov-ernment, and that if he did not get this he would roll back Obama’s opening.

“There isn’t going to be a one-way relationship from the US to Cuba without some action from the Castro administration,” Prie-bus said on Fox News Sunday.

After the death of the 90-year-old Fidel Castro on Friday, Obama called him a “singular fi gure,” while Trump described him as a “brutal dictator.”

Castro began his career as a revolutionary by toppling a US-backed government, repelled a CIA-backed counter-revolution-ary invasion in 1961, and faced off against president John F Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis a year later.

During 49 years in offi ce, he crossed swords with 10 US presi-dents. And while he took a lower profi le after offi cially retiring in 2008, Castro never stopped warn-ing Cubans that the American government was not to be trusted.

Although moving closer to the US, Raul Castro has not given up much ground to the Obama ad-ministration in terms of liberal-ising Cuba’s one-party political system.

Obama did not succeed in convincing Congress to lift the US’ tough economic embargo on Cuba, but he personally opposed the sanctions and used executive actions to allow more contact and commerce.

The fi rst US commercial fl ight to Havana in about half a century is due to arrive today.

Trump could easily review such measures.

He has included Mauricio Clav-er-Carone, a leading advocate for maintaining a tough economic embargo, in his transition team.

Without giving any specifi cs, Trump said on Saturday that his administration would “do all it can” once he takes offi ce to help increase freedom and prosperity for Cuban people after the death of Castro.

“Trump is the polar opposite of Obama,” said burly Havana taxi driver Pablo Fernandez Martinez, 39, as he hustled for work.

Cuba readies for four-dayCastro funeral processionAFPHavana

Cuba mourned its revo-lutionary leader Fidel Castro yesterday as it

prepared a four-day funeral pro-cession for the giant fi gure of modern history, loved by many but branded a tyrant by others.

After the stunned commo-tion triggered by Saturday’s an-nouncement that Castro, 90, had died, yesterday was a day of preparations ahead of a fl urry of events to mark his death.

Students left lighted candles next to a portrait of the black-bearded communist leader dur-ing a vigil at Havana University.

A titan of the 20th century who beat the odds to endure into the 21st, Castro died late Friday after surviving 11 US administra-tions and hundreds of assassina-tion attempts. No cause of death was given.

“It is a great loss. The most important thing is that he died when he chose, not when all the counter-revolutionaries want-ed,” said Carlos Manuel Obregon Rodriguez, a 43-year-old taxi driver in Havana. “It may not be painful for everyone, but it is for a lot of people. I was born under this revolution and I owe Fidel a lot.”

President Raul Castro said his older brother’s remains would be cremated Saturday, the fi rst of

nine days of national mourning. There was no offi cial confi rma-tion of whether that had yet hap-pened.

Havana was unusually quiet after alcohol sales were restricted and shows and baseball matches suspended. No offi cial events were held yesterday but a series of memorials will begin today, when Cubans are called to con-verge on Havana’s Revolution Square. “Today will be great. It will go down in history,” Obregon said.

Castro’s ashes will then go on a four-day island-wide procession before being buried in the south-eastern city of Santiago on De-cember 4, the government said.

Santiago, Cuba’s second city,

was the scene of Castro’s ill-fated fi rst attempt at revolution in 1953 — six years before he suc-ceeded in ousting the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Castro ruled Cuba from 1959 with an iron fi st until he hand-ed power to his brother Raul in 2006 due to his ailing health. Ordinary Cubans hailed him for providing free health and education. But he cracked down harshly on dissent, jailing and exiling opponents.

Even in retirement, Castro wielded infl uence behind the scenes and regularly penned diatribes against American “im-perialism” in the state press.

Havana was unusually si-lent as the nine offi cial days of

mourning began. “What can I say? Fidel Castro was larger than life,” said a tearful Aurora Men-dez, 82.

She recalled a life in pov-erty before Castro’s revolution in 1959. “Fidel was always fi rst in everything, fi ghting for the downtrodden and the poor,” she said.

Indiana Valdes and her hus-band Maykel Duquesne, who work at a state-run bank, wor-ried about life after Castro. “Fi-del was the island’s protector, he was everywhere,” said Valdes, 43.

Fidel Castro, who came to power as a bearded, cigar-chomping 32-year-old, adopted the slogan “socialism or death” and kept his faith to the end.

Farmer sues German energy giant over climate changeAFPEssen, Germany

A German court has begun hearing a complaint by a Peruvian farmer who ac-

cuses energy giant RWE of con-tributing to climate change that has caused glacial melting in the Andes, threatening his home and livelihood.

Saul Luciano Lliuya argues that RWE, as a major historic emitter of greenhouse gases, should share in the cost of pro-tecting his hometown Huaraz from a nearby glacial lake that is at risk of overfl owing from melt-ing snow and ice.

“We hope that the court will rule in our favour, so as to save our world, our Earth, in some way,” said Luciano, who had

travelled to the western German city of Essen to attend the hear-ing.

Luciano, who is also a moun-tain guide, is being advised by pressure group Germanwatch which said the case was the fi rst of its kind in Europe and could set a legal precedent.

But Germany’s second-largest energy producer said the case was “unfounded”, telling the

court it “could not be made li-able for general and global de-velopments such as climate change”.

“There is no legal basis for the applicant’s request,” RWE spokesman Guido Steff en said.

Observers had expected the court to reject the David versus Goliath case very early, but the judge has instead set a new hear-ing date for December 15.

It is unclear if a ruling would be expected at that date, or if the judge would seek “proof of evidence”, meaning the court would plunge into the question of climate change and its causes in proceedings that could last months.

Luciano’s German lawyer, Roda Verheyen, claimed that RWE is the “top single-greatest CO2-emitter in Europe”.

Pointing to a 2013 climate study, she said the company was responsible for 0.5% of the total emissions “since the be-ginning of industrialisation” — making it at least partly responsible for the Peruvian farmer’s plight.

“We’re not saying that RWE is responsible for climate change as a whole, but we’re saying that RWE is a major contributor and

should therefore be obliged to pay 17,000 euros ($18,000) — a pro-rata sum towards the costs of eliminating the risk of fl ood-ing,” Verheyen said.

Besides seeking the sum to help pay for fl ood defences, Lu-ciano is also asking RWE to re-imburse him for 6,300 euros he himself has spent on protective measures, according to a sum-mary of the case.

“You think it’s just by chance that the imperialists created a case that had as its only objective to attack the First Lady”

Thousands of people take part in a rally to demand the end of violence and abuse against women in Quito. The protest was prompted by a series of brutal murders which stoked outrage over a long-smouldering problem in the region.

Anger at abuse

PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN23Gulf Times


Qamar Bajwa: The general with extraordinary abilities

Pakistan’s new army chief General Qamar Javed Ba-jwa is known as an offi cer

with extraordinary abilities, says the BBC.

The new army chief, Gen Ba-jwa, and his predecessor Gen Raheel Sharif have several com-monalities in personal and pro-fessional respect.

Just like Gen Raheel, he is known among his colleagues as open-minded offi cer and is al-ways desirous of training and enhancing the expertise of army.

The BBC says some of the offi cers, who have previously worked with Gen Bajwa, are of the opinion that discussion on every topic could be held with him at any time.

This quality makes him popu-lar and exceptional among his associates.

The senior army offi cers, in their quest for keeping them-selves above political affi liations, are generally seen avoiding dis-cussing political issues not only with their close friends but also at private gatherings.

But Gen Bajwa has quite dif-ferent attitude in this respect.

Some of the officers, who

worked with him, say that he not only has solid opinion on political issues but also doesn’t hesitate expressing them.

According to the BBC, Gen Bajwa is recognised as an offi cer having an extraordinary deci-sion-making ability.

This characteristic is also shared by both Gen Bajwa and Gen Raheel.

The outgoing army chief had expressed his qual-ity by launching the North Waziristan operation – which had been delayed for several years – and playing a decisive role during the 2014

sit-in of Imran Khan.Gen Bajwa, again just like

Gen Raheel, takes keen interest in matters related to the army’s training and has played an vital role as the head of the army’s training branch.

Gen Bajwa has not only led Pakistan’s largest 10 Corps but also severed in it twice.

He designed the recently held military exercises.

Previously, he served as com-mandant of the Infantry School in Quetta.

Gen Bajwa belongs to the in-fantry’s Bloch Regiment and has served in the UN peace mission in Congo.

InternewsLahore

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif talks with Qamar Javed Bajwa, Pakistan’s newly designated Army Chief, at the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad, on Saturday.

Six oil fi rm workers kidnappedSix Pakistanis working for

a Polish oil and gas sur-veying company have

been kidnapped in northwest-ern Pakistan, military sources said, years after a Polish engi-neer from the same company was beheaded by Pakistani militants.

The six Geofi zyka Krakow workers were snatched from their vehicles on Saturday after-noon on a road near the village of Drazinda, about 80km from the city of Dera Ismail Khan, two of-fi cials with security forces in the area said.

One of the offi cials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to media, provided Reuters with the names and national identity card numbers of the workers.

Geofi zyka Krakow, a subsidi-ary of Poland’s state-run gas fi rm PGNiG, could not be imme-diately reached for comment.

On its website, the PGNiG lo-cal unit said it had gone into liq-uidation in August 2016.

“They were sub-contractors providing works for Geofi zyka Krakow, a company which is now in liquidation. They were not Polish,” a PGNiG spokesman said.

He declined to give any more details.

A Polish foreign ministry spokeswoman tweeted that there were no Polish citizens in the group and that the Polish embassy in Islamabad is moni-toring the situation.

No militant group has claimed responsibility for the kidnap-pings.

In the past, militants from the Pakistani Taliban group have kidnapped people in the region for ransom or to bargain for the release of prisoners.

The area where the workers were kidnapped is close to South Waziristan, part of the lawless Federally Administered Tribal

Areas (FATA) bordering Afghan-istan.

Geofi zyka Krakow has a long history of seismic survey work in Pakistan.

In 2008, a Polish engineer working for the fi rm was kid-napped by the Pakistani Taliban near the northwestern city of Attock, and beheaded several months later.

Overall security in Pakistan has improved over the last few years but many of the north-western areas bordering Af-ghanistan remain volatile and dangerous, especially for for-eigners and those working with foreign companies.

The frontier regions, deeply conservative and hard to access due to rough terrain, have long been the sanctuary of fi ghters from Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other militant groups.

Most of the myriad mili-tant groups that stage attacks inside Pakistan are trying to overthrow the government to establish an Islamic theocracy and impose a stricter interpre-tation of the religion than is practised in much of the coun-try.

ReutersDera Ismail Khan

“They were sub-contractors providing works for Geofi zyka Krakow, a company which is now in liquidation. They were not Polish”Citizens Against Weapons (CAW) group volunteers carry signs during a campaign ‘Walk a cause’ demanding to deweaponise the city, in

Karachi, Pakistan, yesterday.

Walking for a cause

Kabul police raid shisha cafes in crackdown

Afghan police and health offi cials raided cafes and restaurants in Kabul yes-

terday, confi scating shisha wa-ter pipes and paraphernalia in a campaign to halt “debauchery and vulgarity”.

Critics say the campaign will only distract police from the Afghan capital’s deteriorating security situation, while doing little to change the pervasive smoking culture in the long-term.

Shisha cafes, where cus-tomers inhale fruit-flavoured tobacco using pipes that draw the smoke through water, are popular public gathering

spots for Afghan men.The Afghan authorities, how-

ever, say the cafes can be breed-ing grounds for petty criminals.

Led by the health ministry, authorities plan to go through each Kabul neighbourhood this week to enforce, for the fi rst time, a two-year-old law ban-ning indoor smoking in restau-rants.

“We have to have control over shisha cafes, which promote debauchery and vulgarity in so-ciety,” Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi told reporters outside one of the many restau-rants raided by police.

“This is a religious and Islamic society and our young genera-tion should not waste their en-ergy in a wrong way,” he added while standing near two pick-up

trucks full of confi scated shisha pipes.

Teams of police offi cers yes-terday walked from one cafe to the next, confi scating pipes and ripping down pictures advertis-ing shisha smoking.

Many cafe owners and cus-tomers were taken by surprise, with a few racing out covering their faces.

Some angry customers said that police should be focusing more on protecting the commu-nity from suicide bombers and kidnappings.

“The police cannot even se-cure the safety of their people and are instead wasting their time on grabbing some water pipes from these small busi-nesses,” said Saboor Bayat, a customer at Kabulistan cafe.

ReutersKabul

A policeman confiscates shisha water pipes from a shisha cafe during a raid in Kabul yesterday.

Islamabad andKabul resumehigh-levelcontacts

Pakistan and Afghanistan have resumed high-level contacts rekindling hopes

for normalisation of their bilat-eral relationship.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Na-waz Sharif met Afghan President Dr Ashraf Ghani in Ashgabat on the sidelines of the Global Con-ference on Sustainable Trans-port and the outgoing army chief, General Raheel Sharif, spoke to Afghan Chief Execu-tive Dr Abdullah Abdullah on the phone.

The prime minister and the army chief contacted the Afghan leaders at a time when Islama-bad has stepped up eff orts to encourage the Taliban to join the peace process.

It was learnt that there had been some diplomatic eff orts this month when a three-mem-ber Taliban delegation was in Pakistan’s capital to explore peace prospects.

“The Taliban’s Qatar offi ce is now considering a strategy for possible political negotiations,” a member of the Taliban offi ce in Qatar said.

Nawaz and Ghani discussed peace prospects and the former ‘appreciated’ Afghan govern-ment’s efforts for peace and stability in the strife-torn country.

‘‘[He] also expressed sup-port to the peace deal between Afghan government and Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan,” the PM offi ce said in a statement.

The prime minister said a po-litically negotiated settlement through an Afghan owned and Afghan led peace process is the most viable option for lasting peace in Afghanistan.

“Pakistan will continue its serious eff orts for facilitating the peace process, including through the Quadrilateral Co-operation Group (QCG) of Af-ghanistan, China, Pakistan and the US,” he told Ghani.

InternewsIslamabad

Pakistani opposition demands

severing trade ties with India

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf vice chairman Shah Me-hmood Qureshi has urged

the government to immediately sever trade ties with India over the killing of ten of its civil-ians and three soldiers in fir-ing along the Line of Control (LoC).

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is fond of Indian bananas and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, who should have been at the border to defend the country, has been defending the prime minister in the Panamagate case, Qureshi said on Saturday.

Qureshi told the media in Umerkot that despite cross-border fi ring along the LoC the Pakistani government had not broken trade ties with the neigh-

bouring country, Dawn online reported.

Tension between India and Pakistan is again at a peak.

“Indian forces are killing in-nocent civilians and our army personnel along the LoC but our Prime Minister is fondly eat-ing bananas imported from the neighbouring nation.

It is high time we sever trade ties with India and unite on one platform,” Qureshi said.

AgenciesIslamabad

Pakistan’s census not anytime soon if tensions persist with India

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has not been able to come up with

a concrete time frame for con-ducting the long-awaited sixth population and housing census in the country.

A meeting was convened by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to review PBS preparations for the census yesterday.

Several such meetings have been held since the Council of Common Interests (CCI) de-cided to postpone the census in March 2016.

But given the non-availability of army personnel due to esca-lating tensions along the Line of Control with India, it looks like the census will remain in limbo until the CCI revises its decision.

The last census was held 17 years ago.

“We are ready to hold the census,” a senior PBS official said, but maintained that the

decision to conduct census with support from the army was taken in the CCI meeting held in March 2016.

The bureau has completed its preparations, he said, adding that it was now up to the CCI to decide and give the bureau a roadmap moving forward.

Asked when the CCI meeting would be convened next, the of-fi cial said it was not their man-date to summon a meeting.

Following the decision to in-volve the army in the census exercise, the PBS estimated it would need around 167,000 army personnel to go door-to-door.

In addition, the bureau esti-mated it would need an addi-tional 20-30,000 personnel to supervise the census operation.

A PBS offi cial said that the army had estimated the to-tal manpower for the census at around 300,000, but given the prevailing conditions on the Line of Control (LoC), it would be next to impossible to spare such a large chunk of human resource

from the armed forces.Asked about the fate of the

census, the offi cial said it was up to the CCI to decide whether to go ahead without the army or not.

But he was of the opinion that the involvement of army personnel would make the cen-sus results more acceptable and transparent.

However, the political govern-ment would decide the mode of the census, the offi cial said.

An official statement issued after the meeting said PBS Chief Statistician Asif Bajwa gave an overview of the prepa-rations, apprising the meeting that the necessary prepara-tions on the civilian side had been completed, including the release of funds for logistical arrangements, procurement of hardware and appointment of field staff for the census opera-tion.

The fi nance minister ex-pressed satisfaction with the preparations made on the civil side for holding the census.

InternewsIslamabad

PHILIPPINES


Troops fi re artillery at militants in southAFPButig

Troops yesterday fi red ar-tillery at positions held by a militant faction in

the southern Philippines as more soldiers deployed against the group, which staged a deadly bombing in President Rodrigo Duterte’s home city.

Troops used 105mm artil-lery to blast the positions of the Maute group in the nearly deserted town of Butig in the second day of fighting since the gunmen — who claim al-legiance to the Islamic State group — occupied Butig’s abandoned town hall.

Mortar bombs could be heard

in the distance as an MG-520 helicopter gunship flew over-head, a reporter in the town said.

Most of the 17,000 residents of the largely Muslim town on Mindanao island fled to evacu-ation centres in neighbouring towns or to relatives elsewhere after the Maute incursion on Saturday, said Mayor Dimna-tang Pansar.

“We can’t fight the Maute with only 20 policemen,” he said, appealing for more sol-diers to be assigned there.

Only a few residents stayed in their homes as armoured vehicles and military snipers fanned out through the town streets, slowly advancing on the Maute group’s position.

Armed forces spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla, citing what he called “intelligence sources”, said 11 of the militants had been killed and five wounded.

Padilla said their bodies had not yet been recovered.

Two soldiers were wounded in the battle, he added.

Reporters in Butig said the military had obtained pho-tographs showing the Maute group flying the black IS flag over the old town hall.

However they themselves were not allowed to get close enough to verify this.

Another military spokes-man, Colonel Edgard Arevalo, said this symbolic action was expected.

“They have long been pro-fessing allegiance to the foreign terror group. This is still part of the Maute group’s agenda in courting support and encour-aging similar-minded individ-uals to support ISIS,” he said in a statement, using another acronym for IS.

The Maute group is one of several armed organisations in Mindanao which have pledged allegiance to Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria.

In past clashes with troops, its members were seen carrying black IS flags and bandannas bearing the militants’ insignia were found in their base, the military said.

Three members of the Mau-te group were arrested last

month, accused of the Septem-ber bombing that left 15 people dead in Davao, Duterte’s home town and Mindanao’s largest city.

Government forces captured a Maute training camp in the town in June after a 10-day gunbattle that left four soldiers and dozens of militants dead, according to an army account.

The Maute group, once de-scribed by the military as a small-time extortion gang, at-tacked a remote army outpost in Butig in February, triggering a week of fighting that the mil-itary said left six soldiers and 12 militants dead.

The group also beheaded two employees of a local sawmill in April, the military has said.

Troops fire their 105mm howitzer cannons towards enemy positions from their base near Butig town in Lanao del Sur province on the southern island of Mindanao yesterday.

De Lima to face ombudsman probe over links to illegal drug tradeBy Ma. Reina Leanne Tolentino & Jaime G AquinoManila Times

Former Justice secretary and now Sen. Leila de Lima is facing a fact-fi nding in-

vestigation in connection with her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales has said.

“Well there is a pending case fi led before the deputy ombuds-man of the Visayas and that is against de Lima … so we are con-ducting fact-fi nding,” Morales told reporters in an interview on Friday on the sidelines of the annual homecoming of the Uni-versity of the Philippines College of Law.

“Because there have been some leads so we gave it due course by conducting fact-fi nd-ing,” Morales said.

Morales was criticised in Oc-tober for saying an investigation on de Lima was “not going to happen” as there were no leads.

A complaint had been fi led at the Offi ce of the Ombudsman in the Visayas by Police Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido of Albuera, Leyte against de Lima and several oth-ers.

In his complaint, Espenido accused de Lima of receiving protection money from alleged Eastern Visayas drug kingpin Rolando “Kerwin” Espinosa Jr.

De Lima has denied any links

to drug traders, even as several inmates of the New Bilibid Pris-on had testifi ed that they gave money to the former Justice sec-retary through her driver-body-guard, Ronnie Palisoc-Dayan.

After weeks in hiding, Dayan on Thursday testifi ed before the House of Representatives that he received money from Espinosa on de Lima’s behalf.

The testimony also revealed details of the seven-year roman-tic aff air between de Lima and Dayan, a native of Urbiztondo, Pangasinan.

But Dayan’s testimony clashed with that of Espinosa. At the Senate on Wednesday, Espinosa

said the payoff s occurred in 2015, but Dayan said money changed hands in 2014.

Espinosa himself fl ed to the United Arab Emirates after he and his late father Rolando Sr, mayor of Albuera town, were linked to the drug trade by President Rodrigo Duterte. The younger Espinosa was repatri-ated to Manila last November 18.

On Saturday, Senior Insp. Ronald Allan Rupisan, chief of police of San Gabriel, La Union, said a farmer-couple had turned over a mobile phone and a wrist-watch left by Dayan in their house before his capture last November 22.

Police said Augustine and Cristina Dingcog had confi rmed that Dayan slept in their house at Sitio Bato in Barangay Lacong.

The farmers gave the Sam-sung Galaxy Y with a Smart SIM card and the Festina silver watch to Lacong Barangay chair-man Dominador Lilan at around 10.30am on November 25, police said.

Earlier, the couple found Day-an’s gun, a calibre .40 Glock 22 Gen 4 with a magazine and 15 live ammunition. Police are still determining if the gun was li-censed.

The couple told Manila Times Dayan’s wife Norilyn visited him at least six times at a hut in a farm owned by a resident of Barangay San Felipe in San Juan, La Union.

The cellphone and the wrist-watch were then turned over by Lilan to Police Offi cer 3 Joff re Uluan, chief investigator of the San Gabriel police station.

Uluan told Manila Times Dayan’s phone contained con-tact numbers of some prominent government offi cials like sena-tors, congressmen, board mem-bers, police offi cers and others. The inbox contained text mes-sages sent to his family and other personalities.

Police said the cellphone of Dayan could serve as evidence of recent transactions with a number of personalities while he was hiding in the mountains of San Gabriel.

This will also counter the statements of Dayan during the House inquiry on November 24 that he had no cellphone while he was in hiding, and had no communications with de Lima and his wife Norilyn or other relatives.

Dayan’s supposed friends Daniel Dingcog and Reynal-do Espe told Manila Times de Lima’s ex-bodyguard, whom they knew as “Dodong,” was always busy answering his cell-phone, especially when he was already drunk.

“We often heard him (Dayan) talking to a certain ‘Ma’am’ and his ‘love’ to his cellphone, ask-ing for help and advice about his problem, but we did not ask him what his problem was,” Daniel said in the Ilocano language.

Daniel also claimed he saw red and white cars believed to be owned by Dayan, which were used by Dayan’s wife and neph-ew Jomar each time they visited him in his hideout in September, October and in the fi rst week of November.

He also claimed he had heard Dayan talking to “Ma’am” ask-ing for money.

Daniel said he used to accom-pany Dayan to Bacnotan town to buy rice and groceries and to get money from the ATM. Dayan al-ways wore a jacket and a cap.

He said he had also accom-panied Dayan to the Bacnotan cockpit arena, bringing along fi ghting cocks.

Leila de Lima: under scrutiny

Homemade bomb explodes

outside Catholic church

DPAManila

A homemade bomb ex-ploded in front of a Catholic Church in the

southern Philippines yester-day, injuring two people, local offi cials said.

The blast occurred as peo-ple were coming out of the Our Lady of Hope Parish in the town of Esperanza in the southern province of Sultan Kudarat after a mass.

Local mayor Helen Latog said a car was parked across

the main entrance of the church which helped to block the impact of the explosion, but two of the car’s passengers were injured.

Superintendent Romeo Galgo, a regional police spokesman, said the device was believed to have been trig-gered by a mobile phone.

Galgo said intelligence of-fi cials believe the bombing was meant to divert atten-tion from a military off ensive against the Maute group, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist organisation.

Farmers aff ected by typhoon get aid packagesin CagayanBy Leander C DomingoManila Times/Solana

Super typhoon Lawin-af-fected farmers in Cagay-an got a much-needed

boost as they make the transi-tion to ecologically viable ag-riculture after the devastation wrought by Lawin on their crops and lands.

This came in the form of seed and fertiliser response packages from the Green-peace Southeast Asia (GSA)-led People’s Food Movement (PFM). The food campaign network distributed organic seeds, fertilisers and other farm inputs to 150 farmers in the municipality.

The PFM’s activity here is in collaboration with Green Meadows Foundation and Solana Ecological Agriculture Group, Solana town’s local government and Greenpeace Philippines.

GSA Executive Director Yeb Saño said the response pack-ages include vegetable seeds, vermicast, molasses, palay seeds, bokashi and various concoctions that were sourced from farmers practising eco-logical agriculture in Nueva Ecija and nearby provinces.

Sano said that whenever ex-treme weather events such as droughts and super typhoons hit an area, the agriculture sector always suff ers the most.

“The impact of these ex-treme weather disturbances bury our farmers further in an endless cycle of debt, our food production and supply decrease, and food prices in-crease. All of us are aff ected. We need to empower our farmers to be able to help the whole nation,” Sano said.

He explained that events like Lawin, aggravated by climate change, has wrought havoc on the lives and livelihood of farmers in the Philippines.

He added that Lawin caused at least P10.2bn damage to agriculture, P3.4bn to infra-structure, and aff ected more than 49,000 farmers in diff er-ent provinces in Luzon.

Lawin was classifi ed as a Category 5 storm with maxi-mum sustained winds of 165 miles per hour.

In Cagayan province, the Department of Agriculture has

recorded that at least 56,000 hectares of rice fi elds, 9,000 hectares of corn fi elds and 2,000 hectares of vegetables plantations were destroyed.

Contributing almost 30% to the country’s rice and corn needs,

Cagayan and its nearby provinces of Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino in Ca-gayan Valley (Region 2) are the top food production areas of the country.

A two-day seminar on In-tegrated and Diversifi ed Or-ganic Farming System before the seed distribution was also conducted here by Jon-jon Sarmiento of Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (Pakisama) along with Lerma Matus, a typhoon Yolanda farmer-survivor.

During the seminar, Sarmiento said, the farm-ers were trained to practice climate-resilient agriculture, self-suffi ciency by preserving the seeds, and making their own fertilisers sourced from materials that are abundant and readily available in their areas, so that they will not have to resort to loans to re-build their farms.

Ramon Padilla, national co-ordinator of the Cen-tre for Health Initiatives and Management of Ecosystems (CHIMES), said Lawin brought devastation to the livelihood of small holders and producers but it also opened up opportu-nities to start the conversation on the seeds as the core of life and food.

“We want to reclaim own-ership and control of the food system for the small hold-ers and household produc-ers, in consideration with the consumers’ right to safe and healthy food,” Padilla said.

Padilla added that through seed response work, the PFM hopes to help address the looming hunger among farm-ers aff ected by typhoon Lawin and slowly ease their way out of the cycle of indebtedness.

He said the activity also aimed to show the farm-ers that there is an alterna-tive way of farming that will provide them, their families, and the whole nation with healthy food that are produced through safe, sustainable and climate resilient agriculture.

Vice mayor killed in

daring attack at home

By Moh SaaduddinManila Times/Kidapawan City

The newly-installed vice mayor of Datu Saudi Ampatuan town in

Maguindanao province was killed in a daring attack car-ried out by unidentifi ed in-dividuals yesterday morning, authorities here said.

An initial police report said Vice Mayor Anwar Sindatuk was killed by unknown men who barged into his house at around 8.20am. No individual or group has claimed responsi-

bility for the killing of Sindatuk who only recently took the seat of the town’s vice mayor, when Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom was killed last month during an alleged shootout with police operatives in Makilala, North Cotabato.

Mayor Dimaukom was re-placed by his wife, the then vice mayor Anida Dimaukom. Based on the law of succession, Sindatuk was then sworn in as vice mayor.

Sindatuk was elected as the fi rst ranking municipal coun-cillor of Datu Saudi Ampatuan town in the May elections.

SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL25


Lanka leader seeks Trump help to drop war crimes chargesSri Lanka’s President

Maithripala Sirisena has asked Donald Trump to

pressure the UN Human Rights Council to drop war crimes al-legations against the country’s troops.

Sirisena’s offi ce said yester-day he had sent a “special mes-sage” to President-elect Trump seeking US intervention at the council, where Sri Lanka faces censure for wartime atrocities.

“I sent a special message to Donald Trump asking him to support us at the (council),” the president said. “I am ask-ing him to help completely clear my country (of war crimes al-

legations) and allow us to start afresh.”

Sirisena said he was making a similar appeal to the incoming UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

However, during a visit by outgoing Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Sri Lanka last month, Sirisena had asked for more time to investigate war crimes, a sensitive political is-sue in the majority-Sinhalese country.

Sri Lanka has said it will set up special courts to address is-sues of accountability, but the promised judicial mechanisms have yet to be established.

There have been allegations that troops killed up to 40,000 minority Tamils during the fi nal battle against separatist Tamil

Tiger rebels in 2009, a period when Sirisena’s predecessor and strongman leader Mahinda Rajapakse was in power.

Sirisena said he had been able to “tone down” a US-initiated censure resolution soon after defeating Rajapakse and coming to power in January 2015. But he was keen to secure Trump’s help to have the allegations against Sri Lanka dropped.

President Sirisena said: “I was able to save the former President Mahinda Rajapakse and our valiant soldiers by giving the UN Human Rights Council necessary messages.”

He was referring to the leni-ency shown by the US and the international community af-ter he came to power defeating the anti-west Rajapakse in the

January 2015 presidential election. Having led three anti-Sri Lan-

ka resolutions at the UNHRC be-tween 2012 and 2014, the Barak Obama administration adopted a softer line on Sri Lanka since the pro-west Sirisena was elected as president.

The rights council has asked Sri Lanka to ensure credible in-vestigations into war crimes, pay reparations to victims and their families and ensure reconciliation after 37 years of ethnic war which claimed at least 100,000 lives.

Troops still have a large pres-ence in the former confl ict zones in the north and east and keep a close watch on the local Tamil population, seven years after the end of the war.

Sirisena hopes that his re-marks at Galle will go down

AFPColombo

Maithripala Sirisena: “I am asking Donald Trump to help completely clear my country (of war crimes allegations) and allow us to start afresh.”

well with the SLFP cadres and leaders who fear that in the forthcoming local bodies elec-tions, the faction led by former president Rajapakse will score because it has been portray-ing itself as the protector of the

armed forces against the West-ern nations’ accusations, disre-garding the fact that the armed forces had rid Sri Lanka and the world of one of the most deadly terrorist groups - the Tamil Tigers.

7 killed, 18 injured in Nepal crash

Seven people were killed and 18 others were injured when an overcrowded jeep

crashed in central Nepal, local police said yesterday.

The jeep veered off a dirt track late Saturday and fell into a stream 100m below the road in Batasedanda, about 150km south-west of Kathmandu, local police spokesman Bishnu Hari Koirala said.

“Six died on the spot and one died on the way to hospital,” Koirala said. “Three people, in-cluding the jeep’s driver, were seriously injured.”

All 18 injured passengers were taken to two hospitals in Bharat-pur, the town nearest to the site, he said.

In September, 18 people were killed when an overcrowded passenger bus crashed on a nar-row mountain road in northern Nepal.

Poorly maintained vehicles coupled with reckless driving and bad roads lead to numer-ous fatal road accidents in Nepal every year.

DPAKathmandu

Flight carrying Hasina makes emergency halt

An international fl ight car-rying Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

to Hungary made an emergency landing in Turkmenistan after technical problems, offi cials said yesterday.

Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Memon told reporters that the fl ight operated by the national airline

made an emergency landing at Ashgabat International Air-port after the fuel pressure of one of the Boeing 777’s engines dropped.

“All passengers of the fl ight are safe,” he added.

Hasina was aboard the plane along with her entourage as she was on her way to Budapest for the International Water Summit 2016 to kick off today.

Shakil Meraj, Biman Bangla-desh Airlines spokesman, said the technical problems were

DPADhaka

repaired, and the fl ight with 99 passengers and 22 crews mem-bers left for Budapest from Ashgabat after a test run.

Hasina waited at the Ashga-bat airport for nearly four hours, said a foreign ministry offi cial.

Militant outfi t chief, 9 others charged under terror law

A Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against militant outfi t Ansarul-

lah Bangla Team (ABT) chief Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani and nine others in a case fi led under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Qamrul Hossain Mollah framed charges against them and also fi xed January 4 to start the trial in the case.

Rahmani is known to be a top fi nancier of militant activities in Bangladesh.

The other accused include

Saiful Islam alias Prince, Abu Hanif, Ali Azad, Jahidur Rah-man, Kazi Dewan, Naimul Hasan, Junnun, Aminul Islam and Abdullah Al Asadullah alias Piyas.

Among the accused, Rahm-ani, Saiful Islam alias Babu and Abu Hanif are now in jail, while Ali Ahad secured bail. The oth-ers remained fugitive.

Earlier on November 8, the court issued an arrest warrant against the fugitives after tak-ing the charge-sheet into cog-nisance.

On August 24, 2013, Detec-tive Branch (DB) police inspec-tor Nibaran Chandra Barman fi led a case under the Anti-Ter-

rorism Act with Mohammad-pur police station in Dhaka.

On September 8, 2014, an-other DB police inspector Abdul Latif submitted a charge-sheet against 10 ABT men, including Jasimuddin Rahmani.

Prime suspect Rahmani is now serving a fi ve-year prison term for involvement in the 2013 murder of blogger Ahmed Razib Haider.

In 2013, police fi led the case under the Anti-Terrorism Act accusing Rahmani of inciting terrorism through his sermons.

In September next year, po-lice pressed charges against 10 persons.

The documents claimed the

suspects were plotting against Bangladesh’s sovereignty and attempting to tarnish the image of the government.

The trial was stalled as the home ministry’s clearance was needed. On November 8 this year, the court took the police chargesheet into cognisance.

The charge-sheet details sus-picious fi nancial transactions involving Rahmani.

It said Rahmani transacted 24.8mn taka from diff erent branches of Al Arafah Islami Bank across the country.

Investigators say they believe the funds were used to fi nance militant activities.

By Mizan RahmanDhaka

Sheikh Hasina was aboard the Boeing 777 along with her en-tourage as she was on her way to Budapest.

Nepal uses token system for vehicles entering China

Nepal has introduced a token system for its cargo containers en-

tering the bordering Kerung (Geelong inland port) in China through Rasuwagadhi region, the only operating interna-tional border point between the two countries.

“We have implemented the token system starting from Saturday. Now, only 50 con-tainers can enter China at once for importing goods from the country,” Xinhua news agency quoted Krishna Prasad Adhikari, chief district offi cer of bordering Rasuwa district, as saying.

“After these containers re-turn to Nepal, another 50 will be given tokens to enter China.”

According to Adhikari, vehicle movement on the Nepali side of the border has been diffi cult due to parking of hundreds of trucks on the road, which remains fragile after the April 25 earthquake last year.

Due to traffi c jams on the road, several hydropower projects being developed near the border are fi nding it hard to transport necessary construction materials, said Nepali offi cials.

As the traditionally main trade route - Tatopani-Khasa (Zhang-mu) route - has remained closed since last year’s quake, the trad-ers have started shifting to Rasu-wagadhi border for their export and import requirements.

The new route was formally opened for international trade only in December 2014.

According to Adhikari, the new system will ease the movement of vehicles across the border.

But, the Nepali offi cials also fear whether entry and exit of 50 containers would be enough for the growing trade through this route.

“Currently, around 200 containers are returning at once from China bringing goods,” Kedar Paneru, Chief Customs Offi cer at Rasuwa district, said yesterday.

According to Paneru, the shipment of containers is taking place twice a week currently.

“If it takes place twice a week with 50 containers at a time in-stead of most of the days in a week, it will create a big prob-lem in bilateral trade and rev-enue collection of the Nepali government,” said Paneru.

Although Nepali traders have been increasingly using the Rasuwagadhi-Kerung route after the closure of Tatopani-Khasa border point, the new route has not been as busy as the old one.

IANSKathmandu

Opposition disinclined towards statute changes

Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is in a tight spot as he prepares to table in parliament the second amendment to the constitution in the next few days but the opposition seems not to be supporting him, the media reported yesterday, IANS reports.As the country marks the tenth anniversary of the peace accord this week, Dahal assured the Madhesi parties that he would deliver this time, but they are not satisfied with his promise, the Nepali Times reported.The Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), the second largest party in the Nepali Parliament, has told the Prime Minister that it will not support the bill.The Nepali Congress, the coalition partner of Dahal’s Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), is letting him stew.But Dahal told the Nepali Times this week that he does not feel burdened by his work.CPN-Maoist-Centre politburo member Bodh Raj Upadhyay said: “The chairman (Dahal) has lost his charisma, the cadre are frustrated and our party is on the verge of collapse. He needs to make a bold and quick move. If he succeeds, it will revive our party and his political career.”Dahal is trying to make the Constitution “broadly acceptable” to all by pushing four amendments - tinkering with federal boundaries, easing restrictions on the rights of naturalised citizens, ensuring proportional representation in Parliament and recognising more off icial languages.But the CPN-UML is opposing the Prime Minister’s proposals, saying these are not in the interest of Nepalis and are directed by a foreign hand.The Federal Alliance has rejected the amendment bill, and even the Madhesi Front is lukewarm towards it.

Nepal Vice President Nanda Kishor Pun (second right, front) inaugurates the 14th Handicraft Trade Fair and 12th Craft competition in Kathmandu. The Federation of Handicraft Associations of Nepal (FHAN) in co-operation with Ministry of Commerce, Nepal Trade Integration Strategy (NTIS Programme) Trade and Export Promotion Center organised the fair which will run till November 29.

Handicraft Trade Fair opens

US puts off trade meet with Bangladesh

The United States has put off the third round meeting of the Trade and

Investment Co-operation Fo-rum Agreement (TICFA) with Bangladesh, scheduled to be held in Dhaka on December 13 in view of President-elect Don-ald Trump’s decision to scrap the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership

(TPP) and other deals with foreign countries.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed announced the postpone-ment yesterday after a meeting with US ambassador Marcia Bernicat.

He said it was postponed for installation of the new govern-ment in the United States after the recent election.

“The meeting would be held in March or April on the availability of suitable time,” Tofail Ahmed said. “While the new govern-

ment would assume in offi ce, the US Trade Representative (USTR) would also be changed … So, we have to wait for the new offi cials.”

Mentioning that Bangladesh and the US had signed TICFA to strengthen trade co-operation, he said Bangladesh is yet to reap the benefi ts of the agreement.

Congratulating President-elect Donald Trump, Ahmed said he (Trump) has declared that TPP would be cancelled under his 100-day activities as it is totally

against the principle of the WTO. “Bangladesh would benefi t after the cancellation of TPP.”

Turning on the generalised sys-tem of preferences (GSP), the com-merce minister said the US is not providing the facilities to Bangla-desh due to political grounds.

“Our commitment would continue to strengthen trade and commercial co-operation with Bangladesh,” said Bernicat while speaking at the briefi ng about the TICFA meeting.

By Mizan RahmanDhaka

In a very interesting twist to the theories about the climate change saga, it has been found that the enormous glaciers of West Antarctica appear to be retreating in an ‘unstoppable’ way. The process, if it continues, could ultimately turn the West Antarctic ice sheet into an area of wide open ocean and raise global sea levels by 10ft.

Though it has long been assumed that this destabilisation of West Antarctica was caused by human-induced climate change, a new study published in the journal Nature last week may have just made that story considerably more complicated, The Washington Post reported.

The new research, led by researchers with the British Antarctic Survey but with accompaniment from scientists at US, German, Dutch, Swiss, and British universities, focuses on Pine Island Glacier, one of the largest and most threatening in West Antarctica. It is dumping nearly 50bn tonnes of ice into the oceans each year – more than any other glacier on the globe except for its next door neighbour, Thwaites – and could ultimately raise ocean levels by close to 2ft all on its own.

This is happening because the glacier has been retreating backwards and downhill – the marine-based glacier rests in very deep waters, and the terrain behind where it currently touches the ocean gets even deeper inland. It is an unstable confi guration, and scientists have long suspected that warm ocean waters created the problem by eff ectively un-grounding the glacier from a roughly 800m deep undersea ridge, upon which it was

resting in a more stable alignment.

The surprise from the new study, though, is the suggestion that the un-grounding may have started all the way back in the early to mid-1940s – while there were no satellite images of Antarctica. The early 1940s were hot for a very particular reason – a

strong and long-lasting Pacifi c El Nino event spanning from 1939 to 1942. This mega-El Nino, a precursor to the massive El Ninos since seen in 1997-1998 and 2015-2016, aff ected the circulation of the atmosphere all the way down in Antarctica, where stronger winds in the Amundsen sea region can allow warmer deep waters, called “circumpolar deep water,” to move in towards the glaciers. There is general agreement that these waters are responsible for West Antarctic retreat.

Through the new study researchers conclude that a little after the El Nino of 1939 to 1942, an “ocean cavity” opened up behind the ridge, one that warm waters could get into – a fi rst sign of destabilisation. However, the ice did not lift fully off the ridge until around 1970, the researchers believe.

The unavoidable question is what this sequence of events says about our own responsibility for destabilising Pine Island (and, perhaps, other West Antarctic glaciers). The world was less warm in the 1940s, after all, and the role of human-caused global warming on El Nino events remains debated.

According to James Smith, a glaciologist with the British Antarctic Survey and the fi rst author of the study, the 1940s is potentially a few years before the really big spike in anthropogenic-forced warming but it is certainly within the realms of human-induced change. Arguments are sure to fl ow back and forth. But one thing is clear – we are changing the planet in myriad ways with our greenhouse gas emissions.

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Pine Island Glacier is dumping nearly 50bn tonnes of ice into the oceans each year

Going by the more recent history, it would have been convenient for Army Chief Raheel Sharif to enjoy an encore on the basis of current form

By Kamran RehmatDoha

General Raheel Sharif will have a bracketed affi x from tomorrow, the one that signals career-end: retired.

In hanging his uniform at the end of his three-year term, he has revived a tradition that ought to have been the standard but was tinkered with by his more power-hungry predecessors.

If the outgoing strongman deserves plaudits it is for something else: turning around Pakistan’s existential fi ght against terrorism and extremism with unrelenting commitment and dare, giving a weary nation credible hope of better tomorrows.

But his retirement or otherwise (read coerced or willing extension) remained the focus of the only entity that has an even larger-than-life footprint than the men in khakis - Pakistan’s chatterbox electronic media. That kind of shebang obviously takes its toll on the government and so it remained just as wary despite an early call from the General about stacking to the retirement plan.

In most democracies, the appointment and retirement of a military commander is a routine aff air, not some national issue of the scale that would keep a fretting stakeholder or two up at night and, as a result, entail the kind of media circus it does in Pakistan. But then, the country has been ruled directly by the military for nearly half its existence and few, if ever, question the sweeping trajectory of its power even when it stays behind the constitutionally elected chief executive.

That the khaki chief announced the decision in January this year to retire on time - through the Director General Inter-Services Public Relations on Twitter - itself betrayed the extent of civil-military imbalance. It demonstrated his desire to go out

on his terms, a legacy untouched by a civilian chief executive. Ideally, it would be the chief executive’s call signed by the president.

Gen. Sharif’s decision to exit the door on schedule has been welcomed by both the government and the opposition. Going by the more recent history, it would have been convenient for him to enjoy an encore on the basis of current form, and few among the critics would probably have even broken a sweat had the army chief been handed what has been a done deal in the country’s peculiar power matrix for the last two decades.

In keeping his word, Gen. Sharif breaks path from two of his immediate predecessors, who didn’t quite cover themselves in glory in securing extended terms that, in eff ect, brought Pakistan to a sorry pass, especially in the global war on terrorism. The incumbent has not only cleared the messy ground he inherited, but is also credited with setting desirable goals in pursuing the fi ght against terrorism.

The measure of success is evident not only in how the khakis blitzed militants and their hideouts in the badlands up north, but restoring peace to Karachi, the country’s economic

lifeline, which enjoys the kind of normalcy today it has not seen in the last two-and-a-half decades. It gave birth to that famed Twitter hashtag - #ShukriaRaheelSharif (Thank you Raheel Sharif) - that is used by both his indulgent supporters and sarcastic detractors!

While there is still time to analyse his redoubtable contribution, the decision to hang up his boots offers several ponderables, none more compelling than the raison d’etre: Did he do it out of conviction premised in a rich family tradition (his brother laid down his life on the war front and is a recipient of Nishan-e-Haider, the highest gallantry award)? Was it a calculated decision after not getting favourable vibes from the civilian Sharif and growing unease that the extension issue may have compromised his declared mission of eliminating terrorism this year in Pakistan? May be a bit of both?

Some giveaways can be contextualised on the basis of performance and perception. The image of the army had eroded a great deal in the last years of General Pervez Musharraf - who was forced to resign

under immense political pressure - and subsequently, under General Ashfaq Kayani, whose reluctance to launch a military operation in North Waziristan (the hotbed of militancy) and the shocking US raid that snared Osama bin Laden from near a premier military academy had brought the institution’s morale to an all-time low.

Musharraf benefi ted from two extensions - in all, three successive terms - that he gave himself after ousting the second-time elected government of Nawaz Sharif; and Kayani one - amounting to two full terms.

Gen. Sharif, on the other hand, arrived with a sense of direction and purpose. Even though he reportedly took a unilateral decision in pursuing the military operation Zarb-e-Azb - claims of the Sharif government notwithstanding - the rich dividends gave him a certain authority that would otherwise have been lacking.

The political downside for the civilian Sharif is that he has been largely walking in the shadows of the khaki Sharif since coming into power a third time in 2013 - something that rankles him no end. It is an open secret that the PM did not fancy giving his namesake the leeway to prolong his own ‘second fi ddle’ agony. Perhaps, the General saved the PM his blushes by default in sticking to a ‘principled decision’!

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, a confi dante of the PM, had long been giving the media to believe that neither the issue of extension was under consideration nor was any such fi le on the PM’s table. Knowledgeable circles however, contend it had been more than a passing worry for the government, and Asif, sort of gave the game away in pointedly praising the army chief for “introducing a healthy trend in the country”.

Where the timely arrival of a new army chief - a decision the prime minister once again laboured over right until the end - has reinforced a desirable tradition, it has also raised the stakes for General Qamar Javed Bajwa to at least meet the benchmark set by the outgoing commander. Those are indeed big shoes to fi ll, not in the least, Gen. Sharif’s unfailing ability to strike a chord with popular sentiment thanks to action on the fi eld and optics off it.

The writer is Community Editor.

General keeps his word, bequeaths strong legacy

The stakes of Italy’s referendumBy Mario MargioccoMilan

In the last 68 years, Italy has held 17 general elections and a few referendums.

But only three times has an Italian vote claimed centre stage internationally: in 1948, when the choice was between the West and communism; in 1976, when voters faced a similar choice, between the Christian Democrats and Enrico Berlinguer’s “Eurocommunism”; and now, with the upcoming referendum on constitutional reforms.

The implications of the upcoming vote are enormous.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has staked his political future on the vote, pledging to step down (though not immediately) if the reforms are rejected.

Such an outcome that would irreparably weaken the centre-left government coalition as well: Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) is already roiled by infi ghting over the reforms.

In fact, the PD may not be able to avoid a split even if the vote goes the prime minister’s way.

A defeat for Renzi will be read as a victory for Italy’s two major populist parties: the Lega Nord and the larger Five Star Movement, led by the comedian Beppe Grillo.

The two parties are not allied, but both are nurtured by anti-establishment sentiment and favour “national solutions” to Italy’s problems – beginning with a return to the Italian lira.

If Renzi is defeated, Lega Nord and the Five Star Movement could join forces to support a new government and hold a new referendum – this time on the euro.

If Italy – one of the world’s largest public debtors – decided to go it alone, the entire European project could be dealt a mortal blow.

In the age of Donald Trump and Brexit, that outcome is far from unthinkable.

The issue at stake in the referendum is not inconsequential, but it should not decide the fate of Europe.

Italians will vote on whether to strip the Senate (the parliament’s upper

house) of two-thirds of its members and much of its legislative authority, making it merely a talking shop akin to the second chamber of Germany’s Bundesrat, and return some of the regions’ powers to the central government.

Changes like these have been discussed for 30 years.

The lack of movement could benefi t Renzi, if voters conclude that they should not waste such a rare opportunity to do something to reform their sclerotic system.

President Sergio Mattarella is impartial, but he would prefer that the reforms go forward.

His predecessor, Giorgio Napolitano, is also strongly in favour of the reforms, which he says would be “great news for Italy.”

But the reforms have also faced stiff opposition.

Some state institutions dislike the idea of delivering more powers to the executive branch; magistrates, for example, fear a loss of judges’ extensive and unchecked powers.

Then there are the new populists, several PD old-timers, and plenty of other establishment fi gures, including several former members of the constitutional court, who generally fear change.

Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, ever the opportunist, is also opposing the reforms.

The opposition, as usual, benefi ts considerably from its simple message.

To vote “no” is to vote against the “system” and all of its corruption.

Who is not against corruption? Add to that rising Euroskepticism, and the result is an intoxicating political brew.

Opinion polls now indicate a 5-6-point majority for No, with 20% of voters still undecided.

If a general election follows the referendum, Grillo will be running neck and neck with Renzi’s PD.

Given the huge premium accorded to the winner by Italy’s new electoral law (Renzi was sure he would be the one to benefi t), such a prospect is truly frightening.

Grillo – much like Lega Nord’s Matteo Salvini – has scant political experience, little knowledge of European history, few refi ned

arguments, and no credible vision for the future.

He blames Europe for Italy’s mistakes, such as piling up massive public debt, which now amounts to 132% of GDP.

And he makes unfeasible promises, such as a guaranteed income for all citizens without other means.

Juan Peron, the consummate populist, proved just how fl awed such giveaways can be when he took a similar tack in Argentina.

And that is not even the only Argentinian mistake Grillo may be set to make.

He also supports the Argentinian model of dealing with the debt by defaulting on it.

It is such an absurd proposition – Italy has never defaulted, though it did, under Mussolini, try to go its “own way,” with disastrous results – that one wonders whether Grillo

is capable of distinguishing between policy and comedy.

As in the United Kingdom and the United States, change is the magic word in Italy today.

Nobody wants to be against change.Instead, opposition to reform is

framed as support for better reforms.Don’t just change the constitution,

the No campaign implores voters: change everything! As in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s great novel Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), changing everything could be just the way to keep it all the same.

That is the last thing Italy needs. – Project Syndicate

Mario Margiocco’s most recent book is Il disastro americano. Riuscirà Obama a cambiare Wall Street e Washington? (The American Disaster: Will Obama Change Wall Street and Washington?).

Retreating glaciers inWest Antarctica maycause a sea change

THE LAST STAND: General Raheel Sharif’s decision to retire on time, the first army chief to do so since 1996, has reinforced a desirable tradition.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has staked his political future on the vote.

COMMENT

The lack of order in the international order is greatly complicating the task of bringing Mideast confl icts to an end

By Christopher R HillDenver

The Middle East’s tragic tale of two cities – Aleppo in Syria and Mosul in Iraq – speaks to a fundamental lack of

consensus in the region and within the broader international community.

The lack of order in the international order is greatly complicating the task of bringing these confl icts to an end.

When the bloody confl ict fi nally ends in Syria, there will be no victory parades, no moment of national catharsis.

More likely than not, what there will be is a political arrangement that leaves Syria within its current borders but with local autonomy that refl ects the diversity and – at least for the time being – the mutual distrust of its various ethnic and religious groups.

No one will be happy.The accoutrements of a civil

state do not exist, and there are no institutions around which to build social consensus or the rule of law.

Until these broad principles can be articulated, the war will never be truly over.

Ceasefi res work best – and hold the longest – when the combatants fi nally understand that a set of principles agreed by the broader international community will be the basis for shaping the future of their country.

The Syrian war is not unprecedented in the region.

The Lebanese Civil War was even longer: from 1975 to 1990, that

war produced a similar number of casualties and refugees, and when all is said and done, probably a similar number of unsuccessful ceasefi res.

The Syrian civil war is not yet even half the length of that horrifi c struggle; but nor is there any sign that the various combatants are fatigued by it.

The international community will likely be aff ected by Syria’s civil war more than it was by Lebanon’s, owing to its greater global impact.

The refugee tide was at fi rst contained within the neighbourhood, especially in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and even Iraq.

But soon refugees began to fl ow

to Europe and elsewhere, causing political tensions in countries far removed from the confl ict.

The huddled masses of refugees crossing one European frontier after another soon became a metaphor for what angers so many Europeans in this globalised age.

The lack of international consensus on Syria, refl ected in the failure of the United Nations Security Council’s permanent players to agree on a way forward, has caused the situation on the ground to worsen.

Fueled by continued support of the combatants by Middle Eastern states (which seem to have no confi dence in the international system), and with

Russia’s direct participation in the fi ghting, the crisis has deepened.

Russia’s intervention on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has also caused further deterioration in US-Russian relations, which could fuel danger elsewhere in the world.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov have so far failed to fi nd any workable way forward to end the fi ghting.

One longs for the day that Kerry and Lavrov emerge from a negotiating room to announce to the world that they have agreed on a set of principles that will guide Syria’s future and will work to achieve consensus among

other members of the international community and with the combatants themselves.

Only when the combatants can envision the post-war future can a ceasefi re work.

Nobody wants to be the last person to die fi ghting when the future is already known.

In Mosul, the fi ghting is not a civil war.

Unlike in Syria, where there must be tradeoff s among the combatants, in Mosul the struggle against the so-called Islamic State (IS) is a war of annihilation.

And, in contrast to the Russian and Syrian off ensive in Aleppo, the Iraqi

Arabs and Kurds and their American advisers most likely worked for months to anticipate issues and to ensure success before the fi ghting began.

But it is already clear that there is far more at stake in the Mosul campaign than the eradication of IS.

Depending on how it ends, we will know whether Iraq emerges as a multi-sectarian state or a set of sectarian and ethnic enclaves.

Sunnis seem to want no part of the Shia-majority government in Baghdad, even though the Iraqi army (along with the Kurds) is playing the largest role in the fi ght against IS.

As if the Sunni-Shia divide within Iraq were not diffi cult enough, a deeper and even more problematic fi ssure has now emerged – Turkey’s own struggles with its identity and its externally imposed borders.

The statement by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that his country has not reconciled itself to its 100-year-old southern border with Iraq’s Nineva Province has greatly complicated Turkey’s ability to play a role in Iraq’s healing process.

Arabs have long harboured deep suspicion that the Turks want more than just to protect the Turkmen minority and Sunni Arabs in the confl ict.

Now, Erdogan has confi rmed these suspicions.

How the fi ghting in Aleppo and Mosul ends will help clarify the tasks ahead.

But until Russia, the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and others (Europe, is anyone home?) can come together around a set of principles that steer the region toward peace, the carnage will continue. —Project Syndicate

Christopher R Hill, former US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, is Dean of the Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, and the author of Outpost.

Masters of war in Syria and Iraq

Live issues

How to talk to strangers

The politics of job polarisation

By Oliver BurkemanNew York

I know I risk having my British citizenship revoked for saying this, but I admired how Jonathan Dunne – the American

behind those “Tube chat” badges, encouraging conversation on the London Underground – responded to the hostility his project provoked.

He ordered twice as many badges, recruited volunteers, and plunged back into the fray.

Don’t get me wrong: true to my nationality, my fi rst instinct is that anyone proposing more conversation between strangers should be imprisoned without trial.

But on refl ection, that reaction’s odd.

After all, Tube chat isn’t encouraging unwanted conversation

(if you aren’t up for talking, don’t wear a badge). The main objection seemed to be how excruciating it would be to have to listen to other passengers’ stumbling attempts at dialogue.

And when you’re that horrifi ed by the prospect of humans willingly engaging in mundane activities in public, isn’t it possible the problem isn’t with them?

Because the truth – according to an accumulating body of research, and now a book, When Strangers Meet, by the American educator Kio Stark – is that people really are happier when they talk to strangers, even when they predict they’ll hate it.

This topic quickly gets derailed by questions of street harassment, but Stark is clear she’s not excusing that.

But her book suggests that the right way to combat a culture of obnoxious interactions between strangers is to foster a culture of sensitive,

empathetic ones instead – not to shut down the whole idea, which feels rather like capitulating to the creeps.

Done right, she says, encounters between strangers create “beautiful and surprising interruptions in the expected narrative of your daily life… You fi nd questions whose answers you thought you knew”. Can moaning ever make you happy?

Read more Legitimate fears of harassment aside, we probably hate the idea of striking up such conversations because it combines two ubiquitous stumbling blocks on the path to happiness.

One is how bad we are at “aff ective forecasting”, or predicting what will make us happy: when asked by researchers to imagine talking to someone on the train or bus, plenty of people are appalled; when asked actually to do it, they report enjoying the journey more.

The other problem is “pluralistic ignorance”, whereby we follow a rule because we assume everyone else supports it, when really they’re assuming likewise.

And so the carriage remains mute, even though many might be secretly yearning to talk.

I don’t expect the curmudgeons reading this to buy the argument.

I barely buy it myself, which is why my recent attempts to talk more to strangers have been so faltering. (Also, I’m still traumatised by trying it on a recent trip to Sweden, apparently the only country worse at public small talk than the Brits.) But that’s the thing about affective forecasting: we can’t trust our own predictions.

So you’re certain you’d never wear a Tube chat badge? Maybe that’s just a sign you should.

[email protected]

By Simon JohnsonWashington, DC

A core problem in the United States today – refl ected in Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election

earlier this month – is that too many Americans feel helpless and insecure in the face of the job polarisation that has resulted from globalisation and new technology.

While highly educated people at the top of the income distribution are doing better than ever, people with only a high school education face declining incomes, living standards, and prospects for themselves and their children.

The middle class is being torn apart.Trump won largely because he

persuaded voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and elsewhere that his policies will yield better outcomes in communities where manufacturing is declining.

In fact, his administration, backed by Republican majorities in both houses of the US Congress, will likely only make things worse for hard-pressed Americans.

The underlying problem is new technology, specifi cally information technology, and the way it has transformed the nature of work.

As David Autor and David Dorn have shown, many middle-skill, middle-income, middle-class jobs have disappeared.

The new jobs that have emerged are well paid for highly educated people and poorly paid for people who have

only a high school education.A leading symptom – but only a

symptom – is the disappearance of well-paid factory jobs.

Employment in manufacturing fell by more than 2mn from 2004 to 2014, and now accounts for just over 8% of total employment – continuing a long decline since the 1950s.

This technology-driven trend has been compounded by the eff ects of decreased transportation and communication costs, making it cheaper to move goods over long distances.

Growing networks of sophisticated suppliers make it easier to move manufacturing activity overseas to lower-wage locations.

Many US companies have made this a signifi cant part of their business strategy, with the resulting decline of US manufacturing going hand in hand with a decline in unionisation.

When people lose a relatively high-wage and high-benefit union job, they often are reemployed at a lower wage and without the same level of benefits.

The 2008 fi nancial crisis exacerbated income inequality and economic insecurity in part by accelerating the loss of manufacturing jobs.

Arguments that it was necessary, or even “optimal,” to skew fi nancial support from the government toward banks and their executives are not persuasive (at least, not outside Wall Street). Yes, well-off Americans experienced a big plunge in wealth when asset prices tanked.

But they have since benefi ted from

robust recovery in stock prices and high-end real estate.

In this environment, with so many people insecure about their economic prospects, the push by President Barack Obama’s administration for the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership (TPP) was a tone-deaf approach, at best.

The administration argued that TPP would create some good jobs – and that people who lost jobs as a result could be “compensated.” But such compensation always proves to be minimal and is widely viewed as meaningless.

That’s why Trump racked up large majorities in so many working-class bastions that had previously supported Obama.

Unfortunately, life is about to get worse for these voters.

With control of the presidency and Congress, the Republicans are likely to pursue three main economic policies.

Lowering personal and corporate taxes will primarily help richer Americans.

Repeal of Obama’s signature healthcare reform will have a severe impact on many lower-income people as they lose aff ordable insurance coverage.

And fi nancial deregulation will mostly favour large global banks, encourage reckless risk-taking, and set the stage for another large-scale crisis.

In addition, the confrontational trade measures that Trump has proposed are likely to make the employment situation worse.

At the same time, the extent of any eff ective stimulus to the economy is likely to be very small.

Overheating the economy – leading

to higher infl ation and higher interest rates – does not typically help lower-income people (remember the 1970s). Trump’s main substantive promise has been to bring back middle-class jobs, particularly in manufacturing.

But nothing in his policies or the broader Republican program will address the underlying issue of technological change.

And the next wave of technology, including driverless vehicles, will have a major negative impact on the incomes and opportunities of everyone who currently delivers goods or transports passengers by car.

Moreover, the rapid advance of artifi cial intelligence and robotics means that even if manufacturing output in the US stabilises or ticks upwards, it will not involve anywhere near the number of middle-skill jobs that it did in the past.

Likewise, automation will erode the number of currently well-paid jobs in the service sector.

Given the role of technology in displacing workers, protectionism – tearing up trade agreements and imposing tariff s on Chinese and Mexican goods – won’t bring back high-paying manufacturing jobs, and Trump has no plan B. That means the polarisation of America that brought Trump to power will only become far more severe. – Project Syndicate

Simon Johnson is a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and the co-author of White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters to You.

A man eats food that was distributed as aid in a rebel-held besieged area in Aleppo, Syria.

Gulf Times Monday, November 28, 2016 27

Three-day forecast

TODAY

WEDNESDAY

High: 26 C

Low : 21 C

High: 26 C

Low: 21 C

Weather report

Around the region

Abu DhabiBaghdadDubaiKuwait CityManamaMuscatRiyadhTehran

Weather todayM SunnySunnyP CloudyP CloudyRainSunnyT StormsSunny

Around the world

Athens BeirutBangkok BerlinCairoCape Town ColomboDhakaHong KongIstanbulJakartaKarachiLondonManilaMoscowNew DelhiNew York ParisSao PauloSeoulSingaporeSydney Tokyo Clear

Max/min19/1122/1632/2303/-425/1524/1630/2328/2021/1713/0830/2432/1608/-132/250/-1129/1212/0906/-231/2105/-431/2427/1815/10

Weather todayRainSunnyM SunnySunnyM SunnyM SunnyP CloudyM SunnyP CloudyRainT StormsSunnySunnyP CloudyS ShowersSunnyM SunnySunnyT StormsSunnyT StormsI T Storms

Fishermen’s forecast

OFFSHORE DOHAWind: NW 12-22/25 KTWaves: 04-07/08 Feet

INSHORE DOHAWind: NW 05-15/25 KTWaves: 1-3 Feet

High: 26 C

Low: 21 C

TUESDAY

Expected strong wind and high sea

Sunny

Sunny

Max/min31/2220/0229/2223/1324/1927/2120/1511/01

Weather tomorrowM SunnySunnyM SunnyP CloudySunnySunnyS ShowersSunny

Max/min29/2221/0828/2323/1424/1928/2222/15

Max/min14/0623/1832/2202/-225/1724/1629/2429/2120/1708/0432/2530/1606/-232/25-10/-1228/1317/1204/-327/1808/-231/2422/1613/06

Weather tomorrowS ShowersM SunnyM SunnyM SunnyP CloudyCloudyP CloudyM SunnyS ShowersRainS T StormsSunnySunnyM SunnyCloudy SunnyRainSunnyT StormsM SunnyT StormsP CloudyClear

13/03

QATAR


Kahramaa forum discusses waysto meet challenges of utilities sector

Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has held its

annual planning forum with the theme, “ Efficiency To-wards Excellence”.

The corporation’s corporate strategic plan (2017- 2021), the roadmap to Qatar National Vi-sion (QNV) 2030 and plans of the different departments for the same planning cycle fea-tured prominently in the delib-erations.

The event had the presence of HE the Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada, Kahramaa’s president and senior engineer Essa bin Hilal al-Kuwari, di-rectors, department manag-ers and senior functionaries

of Kahramaa. The corporate strategic plan which has pri-marily six major objectives namely asset excellence, op-erational excellence, people excellence, community, social excellence and commercial excellence, would be achieved through a number of Key Per-formance Indicators (KPIs).

All the departments’ busi-ness plans have been aligned with their KPIs to achieve set parameters and targets.

The forum discussed the business plans (2017–2021) of Kahramaa’s directorates and departments and the road-map to meet the challenges of the utility sector and cus-tomer service to help achieve the goals of Qatar National

Vision 2030. Speaking at the meeting, Dr al-Sada said Kahramaa’s Corporate Stra-tegic Plan (2017- 2021) has embodied in it the philoso-phy of QNV 2030, ten-point strategy of the second phase of National Development Strategy (2017- 2022) and re-marks made in the speech of HH Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani during the opening of 45th Shura Coun-cil.

Kahramaa launched its transformational journey in the beginning of 2014 by adopting the general strate-gies and objectives which it aimed to achieve over the next five years, and a long-term roadmap until 2030.

The gathering at Kahramaa’s Annual Planning Forum.

Minister for Energy and Industry HE Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada (right) and Kahramaa president Essa bin Hilal al-Kuwari.

Traffi c slows after heavy downpourBy Ramesh MathewStaff Reporter

With Qatar receiving heavy downpour for the second day run-

ning in the afternoon yesterday, many roads, including those on the western side of Doha were reportedly fl ooded.

There were also reports of se-vere waterlogging in other areas.

As on the fi rst day, Muaither and its surroundings and the Doha Industrial area were heav-ily aff ected with waters fl ood-ing some of the streets in these places.

According to information re-ceived from residents of these areas, the situation that followed the rains yesterday was similar to what these localities had experi-enced on Saturday.

Representatives of a sewage

clearing fi rm said more than 50 vehicles belonging to their com-pany were at work both on Sat-urday and yesterday at a location in Muaither.

There was similar or even greater demand for tankers, for clearing rainwater from the In-dustrial Area streets as well. Their activities are expected to continue even today.

Vehicular movement was abysmally slow on the Doha-Industrial Area road, Salwa road, Al Waab signal and surround-ings, Corniche and Shamal Ex-pressway among others, inquir-ies found.

Waterlogging continued for the second successive day in many of the inner roads of Doha, too, especially in Doha Jadeed, Mansoura and Farij Abdul Azeez.

The roads surrounding Souq Waqif were marooned and no traffi c was seen in the area for a while.

Visibility fell considerably across the country in the wake of the rains and it had its eff ect on traffi c fl ow.

Fishermen also informed that Halul and other places experi-enced good rains between 3pm and 4pm. Some of the boats which left Doha for fi shing in those areas are now berthed in Halul and are expected to return only when weather conditions improve.

While cautioning the resi-dents on the necessity of driving carefully, the Ministry of Inte-rior has tweeted that traffi c pa-trols were stationed at a number of locations to ease vehicular movement.

Though there were reports of electricity disruption on Satur-day in parts of Doha, and even outside the city, there were no such reports yesterday. How-ever, there were reports of water leaking through the roof of some of the new buildings, including shopping centres.

Later, Qatar Meteorology di-rector Abdulla al-Mannai re-vealed that the rains may be weaker today (Monday).

Some of the high-rises in Doha’s West Bay are reflected in the rainwater that flooded an open ground. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil

Tankers continued to be deployed at many areas to alleviate flooding yesterday.

Motorists negotiate a flooded street during the downpour. PICTURE: Shaji KayamkulamTraff ic slowed down due to the downpour. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil

Hamad Port to start full operations from Dec 1 - Gulf Times

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Transcript of Hamad Port to start full operations from Dec 1 - Gulf Times