Main tunnel in Onaiza Interchange opens - Gulf Times

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Main tunnel in Onaiza Interchange opensThe 630m main tunnel in Onaiza

Interchange, one of the key three interchanges on the under-con-

struction 6.5km Lusail Expressway, was opened for traffi c yesterday four months ahead of schedule by the Public Works Authority, Ashghal.

At the formal opening, Ashghal president and senior engineer Saad bin Ahmed al-Mohannadi said the tun-nel’s opening for traffi c was decided a week after a site inspection by HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani.

While the tunnel will partially help in enhancing the traffi c fl ow in the area, the full benefi t is expected to be felt after the completion of the whole Lusail Expressway in January 2018, by reducing the travel time signifi cantly, al-Mohannadi explained.

Including the access roads to the tunnel from both ends, the project is almost 1km in length. Three of the four lanes of the Expressway on either side are now open and it would ensure smooth traffi c from The Pearl-Qatar and northern neighbourhoods towards the West Bay.

As part of the interchange, a new bridge which is under construction will eventually connect the eastern side of

Onaiza Street with Katara - Cultural Village and a number of hotels and other residential and commercial es-tablishments west of the street.

The tunnel starts from near the traf-fi c lights near the old Doha Exhibitions Centre and goes up the signallised in-tersection in front of Katara.

Al-Mohannadi hoped a major bridge being built at West Bay Interchange as part of the project would be completed in June this year.

It was also informed that two more tunnels being being as part of the Ex-pressway would be completed at the Pearl Interchange in September this year. The Lusail Expressway project will have cycle and pedestrian paths all along.

At the dedication of the tunnel, al-Mohannadi said the repeated visits of the prime minister and senior offi cials to the projects’ sites boosted the morale of everyone associated with such mega projects and helped accelerate the pace of works.

Lusail Expressway, which connects Doha and neighbourhoods with up-coming Lusail City, covers many public destinations in the north, in particular the Diplomatic Area and a number of under construction hotels, malls and similar facilities in Lusail. Page 10

Saad bin Ahmed al-Mohannadi and other Ashghal off icials at the opening of the Onaiza tunnel yesterday. PICTURE: Shemeer Rasheed

Leading fi rms win last contract for Msheireb Downtown project

Msheireb Properties has awarded the contract for major construction work of

phase four of Msheireb Downtown Doha project to Teyseer Contracting Company and Consolidated Contrac-tors Company (CCC).

Spread over 132,000sq m of gross fl oor area, phase four is the last one to complete Msheireb Downtown Doha.

Featuring the development’s tallest building, phase four will consist of a major public plaza and 11 mixed-use buildings, which include commercial offi ces, residential and retail space, 5-star hotels, medical offi ce building containing clinical and administrative spaces, and six car parking basements. This vibrant area will also off er resi-

dents and tenants access to Msheireb station, the largest Doha Metro sta-tion, which marks the crossing of Qa-tar Rail’s three metro lines, the Red, Green and Gold Lines.

The award of the last and fourth phase of Msheireb Down Town has been issued to complete the project, enabling Msheireb Properties to re-alise their vision of transforming Qatar’s urban landscape. The newly appointed partners, in collaboration with Msheireb Properties, are ensur-ing that Msheireb Downtown Project stands up to the demands of modern life and the testing conditions that our local environment presents, pro-viding an exciting new way to live and work. To Page 10

Lekhwiya take on El Jaish in crunch clash

QATAR | Offi cial

FM meets premierof Guinea-BissauHE the Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met yesterday with the Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who is currently on a visit to Qatar. They discussed bilateral relations between the two sides and the means to enhance them, particularly in the economic and energy sector.

QATAR | Health

Autism awarenesscampaign startsThe autism awareness month campaign, organised by the Ministry of Public Health in co-operation with various partner organisations in the country, began in Doha yesterday. HE the Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari highlighted the importance of increasing public education about autism spectrum disorder, noting that such awareness events provide important opportunities that contribute towards public education and understanding. Page 6, 28

EUROPE | Aviation

Shortest internationalfl ight discontinuedAn eight-minute flight between Germany and Switzerland that was said to be the world’s shortest regularly scheduled international route has been discontinued, off icials said. The route, which carried passengers over Lake Constance as it flew between Altenrhein in Switzerland and Friedrichshafen in southern Germany, was only launched in November. Vienna-based airline People’s Viennaline was abandoning the route as of April 14 due to low demand, Claus-Dieter Wehr, the chief executive of Friedrichshafen airport, was quoted as saying. The mini-flight was criticised by environmentalists as a senseless source of pollution.

Half of antibiotics prescribedby private clinics ‘unnecessary’Hamad Medical Corporation

(HMC) has cautioned the pub-lic about improper antibiotic

use pointing to a landmark study that indicates nearly half of antibiotics pre-scribed by private clinics in Qatar may be unnecessary.

A team led by Prof Adeel Ajwad Butt, vice chair for faculty aff airs, De-partment of Medicine and director, Clinical Epidemiology Research Unit at HMC, and including clinicians and researchers from HMC, the Ministry of Public Health and Qatar University, evaluated more than 75,000 health in-surance claims related to prescriptions for antibiotics and found that “45% were for conditions which typically do not require antibiotics.”

The study, published in the Inter-national Journal of Infectious Diseases, highlights that the misuse of antibiot-ics threatens the usefulness of these important drugs.

“We found that most of the inap-propriate claims, around 85%, were for acute upper respiratory tract in-fections (URTIs), which are caused by viruses and do not require antibiotics,” said Prof Butt.

The study, which examined the pat-tern of antibiotic prescriptions for outpatients in private clinics in Qa-tar between May 2014 and December 2015, highlights the importance of not prescribing medications unnecessar-

ily, such as in cases where infections are known to be self-limiting.

Prof Abdul-Badi Abou-Samra, chairman of Internal Medicine for HMC, added that the improper use of antibiotics accelerates the emergence of drug-resistant infections, which re-sults in an increased risk of serious ill-ness and even death among individuals with infections caused by drug-resist-ant bacteria or pathogens.

“Antibiotics are one of the most powerful tools we have to fi ght life-threatening infections. They can suc-cessfully combat infections that used to be fatal, like bacterial pneumonia. However, the misuse, including the overuse, of antibiotics promotes anti-biotic resistance. If we continue to use them inappropriately, we will under-mine our ability to treat patients with deadly infections and diseases,” said Prof Abou-Samra.

Prof Butt noted that in recent years there has been a global increase in an-tibiotic resistance, compounded by the limited number of new drugs being discovered. He said the driving force for this increase is the abuse or overuse of antibiotics, especially for upper res-piratory tract infections.

“Antibiotics are an important tool in relieving symptoms of bacterial in-fections. However, improper use can cause many diff erent types of bacteria to become unresponsive to antibiotics.

In recent years, resistance to antibiotics has become more common and many diseases cannot be treated as they could in the past,” added Prof Butt.

Prof Abou-Samra added that it is important for patients to respect their physician’s recommendation, say-ing that antibiotics are only eff ective against bacteria, not infections caused by viruses.

“Some patients will request an an-tibiotic for common infections caused by viruses, such as coughs, colds or the fl u. Antibiotics are not eff ective in treating these conditions and strains of streptococcus, which can cause dis-eases such as strep throat, meningitis and pneumonia are often resistant to antibiotics,” said Prof Abou-Samra.

He added that patients can do their part to prevent antibiotic resistance by being cautious and only taking antibi-otics when absolutely necessary and as directed by a physician. He says that if patients are prescribed an antibiotic, it is important to take the entire course as prescribed.

“Sometimes a patient will start to feel better before all the bacteria have been destroyed and sometimes stop taking their medication. Depending on the medical condition, antibiot-ics usually have to be taken for several days or sometimes even weeks before the infection clears up,” added Prof Abou-Samra.

The Cultural Village Foundation - Katara has announced a new award for the Holy Qur’an recitation contest with prizes worth QR1.5mn. The fi rst-place winner will receive QR500,000, the second-place winner QR400,000, and the third winner QR300,000. The fourth and fi ft h prize winners will receive QR200,000 and

QR100,000 respectively.The registration for the award has started. Interested participants can fi ll out an online form at www.kataraquran.com. The contest is for male participants aged 18 and above. Islamic preachers, Arabic and Islamic teachers, broadcasters on various media channels, and winners of similar awards are not eligible to participate.

Katara announces Qur’an recitation contest prizes

The maximum temperature in Qatar is forecast to touch 39C today at Abu Samra from yesterday’s 38C, the Met offi ce has said. Doha is expected to record a high of 36C, followed by 35C at Dukhan, 34C at Al Khor, 33C at Mesaieed and Wakrah and 30C at Ruwais. The minimum temperature of 23C is forecast at Mesaieed, Wakrah, Al Khor, Ruwais, Dukhan and Abu Samra, followed by 25C in Doha.

Mudslides killed more than 150 people and left hundreds injured or missing aft er destroying homes in southern Colombia, offi cials said yesterday. They were the latest victims of fl oods that have struck the Pacifi c side of South America over recent months, also killing scores of people in Peru and Ecuador. In the southwestern Colombian town of Mocoa, the surge swept away houses, bridges, vehicles and trees. Page 22

Mudslides kill over150 in Colombia

Weather forecast

QATAR

Gulf Times Sunday, April 2, 20172

HE Sheikh Thani bin Hamad al-Thani has conveyed the condolences of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and HH the Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani to Sheikh Hamad bin Mohamed al-Sharqi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Fujairah and the members of the ruling family on the death of the Deputy Ruler of Fujairah, Sheikh Hamad bin Saif al-Sharqi, during his visit to Fujairah, UAE, yesterday.

Emir’s condolences conveyed to Fujairah ruler

Qatar to preside over 50th session of UN population commission

Qatar will chair the 50th session of the UN Commission on

Population and Develop-ment (CPD) tomorrow.

HE the Minister of De-velopment Planning and Statistics and Chairman of the Permanent Population Committee (PPC), Dr Saleh Mohamed Salem al-Nabit will lead the Ministry’s del-egation to the session.

A press release pub-

lished by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics yesterday stated that the agenda of this year’s session, to be held under the theme of ‘Changing Population Age Structures and Sustain-able Development’ at the United Nations, New York, from March 3-7, includes several important issues, including a general debate for the further implemen-tation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development at glo-

bal, regional and national levels.

The release highlighted the PPC’s participation in the ongoing preparations for the current session, re-ferring in this regard to the 17th meeting of heads of National Population Coun-cils and Committees in the Arab countries held in Egypt on 8-9 November 2016.

The third session of the meeting briefed the nation-al population councils and committees on the data re-lating to “Changing Popu-lation Structure in the Arab

Region and its Relation to Sustainable Development” as well as the eff orts being exerted by Qatar to prepare for this session.

The Permanent Popula-tion Committee represented by its vice-chair participat-ed in the informal meeting which took place in prepa-ration of the CPD current session in New York on 27th of February and chaired by Qatar’s Permanent Rep-resentative to the United Nations, HE ambassador Sheikha Alia Ahmed bint Seif al-Thani.

QNADoha

QATAR


Orphans Care Centre “Dhreima” has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Doha-based Humanitarian Funds of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) to develop the strategic work of the centre. The MoU was signed by Chairman of the OIC Humanitarian Funds Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Dhreima Executive Director Mariam bint Ali al-Misnad.

The MoU includes co-operation in the areas of developing and building the capacities of the employees, co-operation between the two sides in holding lectures and workshops for target groups in the Centre aiming to enhance their self-confidence, addressing the psychological problems and obstacles they suff er, and raising awareness among the community about how to deal with them in line with the mission of Dherima.

Dhreima signs MoU with OIC Humanitarian Funds

QRCS, AbbVie join hands to fi ght hepatitis C in Qatar

Qatar Red Crescent (QRCS) and AbbVie Biopharmaceuticals

GmbH yesterday signed a memorandum of under-standing (MoU) to inau-gurate a public hepatitis C awareness programme in Qatar.

QRCS Secretary-Gener-al, Ali Hassan al-Hammadi, said during a press confer-ence held on the occasion, the programme involves awareness and fundraising activities to help hepatitis C patients in Qatar.

This is part of an agree-ment signed earlier with Hamad Medical Corpora-tion (HMC) to sponsor ex-patriate hepatitis C patients who cannot aff ord the costs of treatment.

“In conformity with the advancement in healthcare and other sectors, and un-der the global plan of World Health Organisation (WHO) for a world free of hepatitis C by 2020, MoPH and HMC geared up for major action in this respect. As an auxil-iary to the State of Qatar in its humanitarian and social policies, QRCS is taking its part of health education and medical coverage for residents with hepatitis C,” saidl-Hammadi.

Hepatitis C, he added, is a serious health threat to millions of people around the world, aff ecting nor-mal lifestyles, productivity, healthcare systems, tourism attractiveness, and other aspects of economy.

In his speech, HE Sheikh Dr Mohamed bin Hamad al-Thani said, “In Qatar, the prevalence of hepatitis C is 0.8% among the whole population and only 0.25% among Qatari nationals. However, this disease is one of the government’s health priorities, in view of its grave implications for personal health and the na-tional medical system”.

“To protect the health of both nationals and resi-dents, the government adopted a well-designed strategy to control this dis-ease by 2020. We have suc-cessfully reduced its preva-lence, through four pillars: awareness, early examina-tion, treatment, and fol-low-up. Several parties are involved, including MoPH, HMC, Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), QRCS, and Ministry of Interior’s (MoI) Medical Services De-partment,” he told reporters.

He revealed the treat-

ment of more than 1,000 patients, launch of aware-ness and early detection courses, construction and an integrated database sup-ported with academic pa-pers and scientifi c journals.

For his side, Abi Nakhoul stated, “By virtue of many years of hard work, we have made a track record and be-come well in place to pro-vide high-quality health-care for our patients. We are determined to go on with our patient-oriented in-curable disease control and awareness eff orts”.

According to him, 95% of people with hepatitis C are not aware of their infection. Liver tests are complicated and costly. “As health serv-ice providers, you are the cornerstone of this initia-tive. Together, we can over-come the challenges of this disease. We are sure that you are able to help those who suff er this fatal virus,” he concluded.

QNADoha

Qatar Red Crescent (QRCS) and AbbVie Biopharmaceuticals GmbH off icials after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to inaugurate a public hepatitis C awareness programme in Qatar.

QATAR


HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, HH the

Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdul-lah bin Hamad al-Thani, and HE the Prime Minis-ter and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani yes-

terday sent cables to Ku-waiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah condoling the death of Sheikh Saad Jaber al-Athbi al-Mohamed al-Sabah.

Emir condoles with Kuwaiti leaderRAF launchesproject to houseSyrians in Idlib

Sheikh Thani Bin Ab-dullah Foundation for Humanitarian Serv-

ices (RAF) yesterday laid the cornerstone for the Nasser bin Khaled project to house the displaced Syrians in Reef Idlib Province.

The new project is funded by Nasser Bin Khaled Al-Thani Charitable Founda-tion.

In a press release, RAF said, the neighbourhood includes 100 housing units to accommodate more than 700 displaced Syrians, and is expected to be completed in six months at a cost of QR3.3mn.

Dr Mohamed Salah, Dep-uty Director General of the RAF Foundation, said that the Nasser Bin Khaled resi-dential neighbourhood will shelter 100 displaced Syrian families and provide at least 700 displaced persons with a decent life.

Located in Reef Idlib Province, the project will occupy an area of 12,000 square metres, he said, adding that the residential unit covering a 60 square metres each, will consist of 3 rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom.

From her side, HE Sheikha Lina bint Nasser bin Khalid al-Thani, Deputy Chair-man of Nasser Bin Khaled Al-Thani Charitable Foun-dation and CEO of Al Hiba Branch, said: “The Nasser Bin Khaled Residential Project is one of a series of joint relief and development projects, which will be im-plemented in the future in co-operation with the RAF Foundation for the benefit of the Syrian brothers.”

QNADoha

Sidra clinicians who participate in caring for children with ASD.

Family-centred autismcare provided at SidraSidra Medical and Re-

search Centre (Sidra) has adopted an ap-

proach for caring for chil-dren with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by pro-viding care for the whole family. The concept ties in closely with Sidra’s overall goal to provide patient and family-centred care across all facets of health delivery.

Sidra is currently part of a National Autism Working Group, under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Health. The group includes a dedicated consortium of various ministries, the pub-lic and private sector, hos-pitals and most importantly parents and caregivers who are part of the Qatar Autism Families Association.

The group is working closely to fi nalise a Qa-tar National Autism Plan, based on six pillars – Aware-ness; Early Recognition and Screening; Diagnosis and

Assessment; Interventions; Education and Transition into Adolescence, Adult-hood and Elderhood.

While there is still room for further enhancement in the services currently avail-able for children and youth with ASD in Qatar, over the last few years there has been a signifi cant change in soci-ety’s attitudes towards ac-cepting them into the com-munity fold, Sidra said in a statement yesterday.

From more easily acces-sible clinical services, sup-port groups, behavioural therapies to school-based programmes – there is a growing network of support services now available for families in Qatar.

At Sidra, the Develop-mental Paediatrics and Child and Adolescent Psy-chiatry clinics currently provide multiple services for children and young peo-ple with ASD. This includes

comprehensive diagnostic assessments and treatment recommendations. The clinics also provide evalu-ation services for children with comorbid emotional and psychiatric issues.

Dr Fatima Janjua, divi-sion chief of developmental paediatrics, explained that, children referred with sus-pected ASD participate in a multidisciplinary assess-ment, on the same day, by a team of doctors, psycholo-gists, therapists and nurses. This approach allows for a more accurate and immedi-ate diagnosis, which in turn leads to earlier intervention.

Dr Ahsan Nazeer, division chief of child and adolescent psychiatry from Sidra said: “Family is an integral part of the care and signifi cant ef-fort goes into educating them during sessions at our clinic. With the right support to the families – they in turn can help their child to learn,

grow and thrive. Each family receives a detailed report of initial evaluation about the child. The report provides a valuable record of the current functioning, diagnosis of the child and possible treatment recommendations. Families can share this report with schools and diff erent com-munity organisations to re-ceive appropriate services for their child.”

Sidra’s clinicians have shared some tips for parents of children with ASD such as focusing on the positive side by encouraging the children.

They also point out that one of the most impor-tant factors in the child’s progress is parents’ ac-ceptance and participa-tion in the intervention programme. Moreover, children with ASD feel safe and secure when they know what to expect each day. Page 28

Eid Charity highlights role of women in humanitarian work

Eid Charity organised yesterday in Istanbul the International Con-

ference on Women’s Hu-manitarian Work under the theme “The reality of wom-en in humanitarian work...challenges and hopes.”

The two-day event brings together more than 60 charitable organisa-tions, in addition to dozens of women concerned with charitable work around the world.

The conference aims to focus on women’s role in

humanitarian work and ways to develop their abili-ties in the fi eld.

Addressing the confer-ence Special Envoy of the Arab League Secretary General HE Sheikha Hessa bint Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani said that charitable work was one of the ways to respond to human suff ering in crises situations.

She noted that the ab-sence of women from hu-manitarian work can actu-ally compound disasters, especially for aff ected women and children.

The Arab League of-fi cial praised the idea and organisation of the confer-

ence, adding that the event will play an important role in documenting the role of women in charitable and humanitarian work.

She referred to the his-tory of women’s role in humanitarian work in the Arab world.

They were fi rst present back when Palestinian refu-gees crossed the borders to Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.

Sheikha Hessa highlight-ed the fact that women’s eff orts in alleviating that crisis was not documented.

On the Syrian crisis, HE Sheikha Hessa bint Kha-lifa al-Thani said that it was one of the worst cri-

ses in history.This was backed up by sta-

tistics revealing that women and children represented the majority of refugees.

She added that such sta-tistics emphasise the role that women can play to al-leviate this particular hu-manitarian crisis.

For her part, head of Eid Charity women’s centre Amina Maarifi ya said that women have a prominent role in creating strong and vibrant societies. She add-ed that the participation of women in humanitarian work emphasises women’s role as an important and ac-tive part of society.

QNAIstanbul

QNADoha

QATAR7Gulf Times

Sunday, April 2, 2017

HE the Attorney General, Dr Ali bin Fetais al-Marri, in his capacity as the UN Special Advocate, met President Macky Sall of Senegal in Dakar yesterday. Talks dealt with activities of the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Centre (ROLACC), and the projects needed by the African continent. The meeting was attended by Qatar’s ambassador to Senegal Saree bin Ali al-Qahtani. HE Dr Ali bin Fetais al-Marri also met Senegal’s Prime Minister, Mohamed bin Abdullah Dionne, and Minister of Justice, Sidiki Kaba.

Al-Marri meets Senegalese leaders

WISE summit to tackle recent challenges The theme for the World

Innovation Summit for Education (WISE ) 2017

conference, ‘Co-Exist, Co-Cre-ate: Learning to Live and Work Together’ will address important education challenges of the recent times, a senior offi cial has said.

In an exclusive interview with Gulf Times, Dr Asmaa E Al-fadala, director, Research and Content WISE said, “The WISE 2017 theme is intended to refl ect the commitment of WISE to ad-dressing important education challenges of our times.

“We are facing disruption and economic uncertainty in a number of ways stemming from confl ict, mass migration, grow-ing inequality, and rapid techno-logical change. Yet in education, challenges also present oppor-tunities to break down old as-sumptions, and bring forth the new ideas that are paving the way for positive disruption.”

“The theme is the starting point for several questions.

How should we rethink and reorganise the way we deliver learning in an age of disruption and uncertainty? What should be the role of education in fos-tering social change? How do we harness the power of sci-ence and technology to improve outcomes not just in learning but in overall well-being? How can we best advocate for sus-tained investment in education in times of slowing economic growth?” she pointed out.

The offi cial said that the sum-mit is an opportunity for Qatar to listen, explore and share ex-periences with a diverse range of thinkers and doers, policy-makers, and many other educa-tion stakeholders from around the globe.

“Then we need to bring our learnings and experiences to our practice as educators and leaders here in Qatar. As Qatar contin-ues to grow its knowledge-based economy, there also is a growing interest and enthusiasm among

Qatar-based educators and leaders for exploring new, inno-vative practices and approaches to school systems, building teacher skills, inspiring students to get involved in their learning process.” she said.

The official noted that the planning for WISE 2017 is well underway, and more details will be made public in com-ing months. She explained: “In general, the sessions will focus on key challenges of

refugees, technology, early childhood, language learning, entrepreneurship, and many other topics. Participants will be able to organise their own meet-ups and tailor their schedules to their interests.”

“The WISE Majlis, of course, will be a central meet-ing place at WISE, where delegates can interact. It is a focal point for the WISE Research authors, and most important a venue where stu-dents and teachers from Qa-tar’s schools will experience the latest classroom teaching practices,” she added.

The 2017 WISE global sum-mit, a biennial event, will take place from November 14 to 16 in Doha. The summit gathers policymakers, educators, entre-preneurs, corporate and govern-ment leaders from around the world to explore current trends and share their visions for co-designing the future of educa-tion. Dr Asmaa E Alfadala.

“In general, the sessions will focus on key challenges of refugees, technology, early childhood, language learning, entrepreneurship, and many other topics. Participants will be able to organise their own meet-ups and tailor their schedules to their interests”

Expat gets one-year jailfor selling forged visas

Motorist fi ned QR10,000

for injuring two persons

A Doha Criminal Court has sentenced a Jorda-nian man to one year

in jail for counterfeiting the signature of a company owner and selling two work visas.

Local Arabic daily Arrayah reported yesterday that ac-cording to the fi le of the case, investigation revealed that the defendant sold two work visas to two expatriate women for QR20,000 and QR17,000, re-spectively.

He managed to issue the visas by counterfeiting the signature of a local beauty salon owner after getting copies of the necessary doc-

uments of the business. The issue started when the

owner posted an advertise-ment expressing her desire to sell the business, so the defendant started negotia-tions but they never reached an agreement. In the process, he got a copy of all the related documents of the business.

Further, the defendant convinced her to start a new beauty salon and initiated the necessary legal procedures. However, she came to know about the two visas and how he had counterfeited her sig-nature and started legal action against him.

A Doha Criminal Court has fi ned a GCC man QR10,000 and suspend-

ed his driving licence for two months for injuring two persons while driving his vehicle.

Local Arabic daily Arrayah reported that the court also ordered him to pay a sum of QR106,000 for one of the victims and QR10,000 for the other in collaboration with the insurance company concerned as compensation.

The defendant was con-victed of reckless driving and failing to take the necessary precautions when driving. The traffi c report confi rmed that

he was speeding, which made him unable to avoid collision with the vehicle of the victims’ that was on the right track.

The fi rst victim, who was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident, sustained 53% disability to his body and the other 5%, according to the ap-proved medical reports.

QATAR


PHCC provides CDI training for physiciansPrimary Health Care Corpora-

tion (PHCC) in partnership with American Health Information

Management Association (AHIMA), has launched a custom-made Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) training programme for its physi-cians.

Clinical documentation will be soon available to patients through an on-line patient portal. CDI has a direct impact on patient care by providing informa-tion to all members of the care team, as well as those downstream who may be treating the patient at a further stage.

The main objectives behind this pro-gramme are to ensure patients’ safety, continuity of care and quality electron-ic referrals to HMC and Sidra Medical and Research Center.

“We are delighted to partner with AHIMA in the Clinical Documentation Improvement Training Programme for PHCC physicians and believe that considering CDI as a key element of PHCC strategy will improve all aspects of our operations,” said Dr Taha Ab-dulhameed, lead subject matter expert physician at PHCC.

“By ensuring and facilitating the ac-

curacy of reporting of diagnoses and procedures, Clinical Documentation Improvement will help PHCC be com-pliant with quality measures. Further-more, when put as a priority for PHCC physicians, it will result in greater co-

operation between diff erent clinical teams and improve patient outcomes”, Dr Taha added.

PHCC is ensuring successful inte-gration of clinical documentation with an electronic medical record by engag-

ing 75 of its clinical staff , mainly phy-sicians, into this training programme. Physicians that will then transfer the knowledge to their colleagues to im-prove their clinical documentation.

“AHIMA World Congress is sup-

porting PHCC to help create a CDI pro-gramme and start staff on the path to professional staff certifi cation in CDI. This initiative is pioneered in Qatar to create a case for both - eff ective or-ganisational improvement and work-

force development for entire Primary Healthcare system in Qatar, ” said Al-exandre Bouché, global managing di-rector of AHIMA.

“Clinical Documentation Improve-ment Training will ensure safer and higher quality care, integrity of data, more complete and specifi c clinical coding, which enables more accurate physician and healthcare institution profi ling, more accurate refl ection of severity of illness, ” he added.

Following the full implementation of Cerner Clinical Information Sys-tem across all 23 PHCC, which went live in July 2016, the electronic Medi-cal Record (EMR) has been success-fully utilised by all PHCC clinicians to document patient care visits that reach almost 10,000 a day. The EMR system, which includes radiology images, is fully shared with HMC; this facilitates communication between physicians managing patient care in a time-effi -cient manner.

To ensure the continuity of the health information technology success, PHCC is now directing its eff orts onto quality clinical documentation to improve pa-tient care and safety.

PHCC physicians and AHIMA officials who took part in the training programme.

The French embassy issued 30,000 visas last year, half of them for Qatari citizens, French ambassador Eric Chevallier has said. Speaking on the sidelines of opening a restaurant at a hotel in Doha on Wednesday evening, he said that the embassy is keen on increasing the number of visitors from Qatar to France and issues Schengen visas within a short time, especially for Qataris within 48 hours of application.The envoy stressed the number of issued visas has been on the rise year on year. However, the number of visitors to France from Qatar last year may have exceeded the 30,000 visas issued as the embassy issues multi-entry visas valid for a number of years. Further, Chevallier said that co-operation between Qatar and France is growing in several fields.

French embassy issued 30,000 visas

QATAR9Gulf Times


‘Foodex Qatar’ opensDiff erent food brands and tech-

nology from 15 countries are on display at the “1st Interna-

tional Exhibition for Food, Beverage & Process Technology in Qatar” (Foodex Qatar), which opens today (April 2) at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre.

The three-day expo, organised by Dubai’s Al Fajer Information and Serv-ices and Gulf Marketing, will also see the staging of the “1st Forum of GCC Food Products Manufacturers & Food Security Programme” organised by the Gulf Organisation for Industrial Consulting (Goic), in conjunction with Foodex Qatar.

Al Fajer Information and Serv-ices general manager Satish Khanna

said Foodex Qatar will give the Mid-dle East food industry, especially in Qatar, a wider horizon and encourage world leaders in the food business to set up their operations “in the richest economy”, as well as create investment opportunities for local businessmen to tie up with leading brands names.

The countries participating in the event are China, Thailand, Belgium, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mali, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzer-land, Turkey, the UAE, and the UK, Goic said in a statement.

Goic secretary general Abdulaziz bin Hamad al-Ageel reiterated Goic’s role as a regional diplomatic organisation, which aims to achieve industrial co-operation and co-ordination for eco-

nomic integration in the GCC region.He added: “In light of the impor-

tance of food products manufactur-ing and its vital role in achieving food security and self-suffi ciency, Goic decided to hold the ‘1st Forum of GCC Food Products Manufacturers & Food Security Programme’ in parallel with Foodex Qatar.”

Gulf Marketing chief executive Salah Janahi said the partnership with Goic aims to introduce investment op-portunities in the GCC industrial sec-tor.

The forum, he added, will provide data on food industries and food se-curity policies in the region and allow for fruitful discussions to promote the sector.

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), through the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practi-

tioners (QCHP), has released an up-dated “Approved Specialty Qualifi -cations List for Physicians” in Qatar, which now includes doctors from the Philippines who are diplomates of the Philippine Board.

Diplomates of the Philippine Board can get the “specialist” title after three years of work experience from post-qualification degree, unless more years of experience is specified.

They are not eligible for a “consult-ant” title unless a higher qualifi cation is obtained.

This follows the ministerial meet-ing on January 23 between HE the Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari and the Philip-pines’ Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Dr Paulyn Jean B Rossel-Ubial.

The meeting, organised by the Phil-ippine Business Council (PBC), also discussed the equivalency of the qual-ifi cations of Filipino medical profes-sionals.

Together with PBC Qatar execu-tives, Rossel-Ubial was joined by Maylene Beltran, the director of the DOH’s Bureau of International Health Co-operation, and Dr Jose M Tiong-co, the chief executive of the Medical Mission Group (MMG) Hospitals and Health Services Co-operative of the Philippines.

Representatives of MMG advis-ers ProInvest Plus International and Kasian Qatar Consulting were also present.

Dr Tiongco said that the equiva-lency of Filipino doctors “is crucial” to the planned Filipino hospital and polyclinic that MMG is working to set up in Qatar.

A fi ve-member team from MMG Philippines was in Qatar in January to meet Qatari investors and evaluate potential locations, as well as meet the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practi-tioners “to champion the qualifi ca-

tions of Filipino medical profession-als”.

The discussion on equivalency was spearheaded by the Filipino Medi-cal Association in Qatar two years ago with the support and endorsement of the Philippines embassy.

PBC Qatar chairman Greg Loayon told Gulf Times that he is “thankful for the recognition accorded by MoPH and QCHP to Filipino doctors”.

He added that this reinforces the competency of Filipino medical pro-fessionals in Qatar, “which will serve to bolster the number of qualifi ed doc-tors in the country”.

Robert Lepon, adviser to PBC Qatar, added: “The establishment of a Filipino hospital and polyclinic in the country supports one of the pillars of Qatar’s National Vision 2030.”

According to PBC chief executive Lyndon Magsino, the MMG and its advisers “are now working towards fi -nalising the set-up of the fi rst of a se-ries of polyclinics, as well as fi rming up discussions with the Qatari investor for the Filipino hospital”.

Recognition for Filipino doctorsBy Peter AlagosBusiness Reporter

HE the Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari and Dr Rossel-Ubial, with MMG chief executive Dr Tiongco and other dignitaries after their meeting in Doha.

QATAR


Wedding service providers to introduce unifi ed contractsThe Ministry of Economy

and Commerce (MEC) has reached an agree-

ment with the companies that provide wedding and cel-ebration halls and equipment rental services to introduce an approved, unifi ed service contracts, eff ective from July 1.

The move is aimed at protect-ing the rights of both service providers and consumers upon the agreed services and avoid unnecessary disputes and mis-understandings upon the deliv-ery of the requested services. It is also in line with the stipula-tions of Law No. 8 for 2008 on Consumer Protection.

The MEC Consumer Pro-tection and Anti-Commercial

Fraud Department agreed with the representatives and offi cials of such companies on three types of contracts in this regard: a wedding hall rental contract, a wedding hall equipment con-tract, and a tent rental and sup-plies contract, in addition to a service delivery report for each contract.

The adoption of service de-livery reports is intended to prove the delivery of a serv-ice as agreed upon at the time of the contract was signed. Consumers may also report their objection or comments when it comes to services they believe were not delivered as required.

MEC also urges all benefi ci-

aries of rental and equipment services for wedding hall and tents to adopt the contracts approved by competent au-thorities and include the phrase “contract approved by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce”. Besides, clients should ensure the compliance of service providers with the services and specifi cations agreed upon before signing the delivery report. Once agreed upon, the specifi cations be-come binding for both sig-natories of the contract, and each party should comply with them.

In case of dealing with of-fi ces that do not adopt con-tracts approved by the MEC,

the consumer is responsible for verifying the provisions of the contract and related documents before signing them, as well as taking the necessary precau-tions and refraining from sign-ing until clarifi cations are given concerning ambiguous serv-ices and non-compliant legal provisions.

MEC said providers of rental and equipment services for wedding halls and tents will have to comply with the new approved contracts within a pe-riod of three months from April 1 to July 1. Competent authori-ties at the ministry will monitor the compliance of offi ces spe-cialised in the rental and equip-ment of wedding halls and tents

with their obligations as per the approved contracts as well as the provisions and regulations of Law No. (8) on Consumer Protection and its executive regulations. The ministry will also take legal action against companies that fail to comply with these provisions.

Earlier, the Consumer Pro-tection and Anti-Commercial Fraud department had held a series of meetings with these companies, where a discussion was held on issues relating to payment procedures, deposits, the postponement and cancel-lation of agreed upon events, or the reassignment of the ceremony to another person.

The meetings fall under

MEC’s belief in the importance of the ongoing communica-tion with suppliers and service providers in general, including service providers specialising in the rental and equipment of wedding halls and tents, to regulate the relation with con-sumers. The ministry urged service providers to comply with article (11) of the afore-mentioned law, which compels them to disclose specifi ca-tions, requirements and prices in a precise, clear and detailed way in contracts signed with customers. Service providers shall also abide by the specifi -cations agreed upon when pro-viding services to consumers on the agreed upon date.

Plan to recycle waste paper from banks, off icesThe public cleaning department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has launched a programme to recycle waste paper of banks, organisations and other government entities, local Arabic daily Arrayah reported yesterday.Safar Mubarak al-Shafi, director, public cleaning department, told the daily that the programme is currently in the preparation phase with the targeted entities being provided with waste containers to start implementation soon. The off icial explained that paper waste accounts for around 17% of the total refuse collected daily from the diff erent areas of the country. This could translate to around 400-500 tonnes of refuse material daily, which is a significantly high quantity that should be better used.Special containers will be distributed to the targeted entities to dispose of their waste paper which will then be taken for recycling.

Last contract for Msheireb Downtown project awarded

From Page 1

Ali al-Kuwari, chief of-fi cer (Design and Deliv-ery) at Msheireb Prop-

erties, said: “We are delighted to working with Teyseer Con-tracting Company and Con-solidated Contractors Company. Their wealth of expertise, local knowledge, and commitment to Qatar’s 2030 vision provide us with the confi dence that togeth-er we will deliver the highest quality of standards, and create an iconic project that enhances the city’s urban landscape.”

Osama al-Jarbi, general manager, Consolidated Con-tractors Company said, “The joint venture of Teyseer Con-tracting Company, TCC and Consolidated Contractors Company, allow us to enhance our services and contribute to-wards a world class destination that improves the aesthetics of the city and makes living and working more convenient and comfortable. On this occasion, we have the honour to part-ner with Msheireb Properties and we are commit to deliver-

ing exceptional quality of work and utmost professionalism, which all parties have become distinguished with.”

Msheireb Downtown Doha (MDD) is a pioneering project

developed to revive the old com-mercial centre of the city of Doha by bridging the past with its cul-tural ties and ancestry, with the demands of a modern day city. The development aims to build

sustainable and innovative initi-atives that enrich communities and individual lives, promote environment friendly living and rediscover and implement heritage and culture.

An architect’s impression of Msheireb Downtown Doha project.

Al Jazeera executive appointed to NU-Q’s joint advisory board

A digital media expert and executive behind the launch of AJ+, Yaser Bishr,

has been appointed to North-western University in Qatar’s (NU-Q) joint advisory board.

Bishr, executive director of digital media at Al Jazeera Media Network, leads the digital media strategy, innovation, and incu-bation, as well as Al Jazeera’s global expansion strategies. Pre-viously, he served as chief strat-egist and business development director at Lockheed Martin, Washington DC.

“Bishr’s extensive experience within digital divisions will add great value to the board, especial-ly as we look for innovative ways to address the rapidly evolv-ing digital media landscape,” said Everette E Dennis, dean and CEO. “His appointment comes at a crucial time for NU-Q, as we recently moved into our new

building – the most technologi-cally advanced media school in the world – and will benefi t from his knowledge and expertise in utilising this equipment to the benefi t of our students.”

Prior to assuming his current position, Bishr served as execu-tive director for corporate strate-gy and development at Al Jazeera, steering several projects, includ-ing the conception and launch of AJ+ in 2014. AJ+ is now ranked

one of the top news sources on Facebook, and has had a reach of more than fi ve billion views across its media platforms.

NU-Q’s advisory board is co-chaired by HE Sheikha Hind bint Hamad al-Thani, vice chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation, and Daniel I Linzer, provost of Northwestern Uni-versity. Most recently, promi-nent US journalist and Medill School of Journalism alumna Geneva Overholser was also appointed to the board.

Bishr holds an MBA from Duke University, Fuqua School of Business where he was hon-oured with the Duke University Scholar Merits Award. He also holds a Bachelor of Science with honours in civil engineering, an MS and PhD in computer science from the University of Twente and Waginengen University in the Netherlands.

Yaser Bishr

Registration for Gulf studies programme ends tomorrowRegistration for MA and

PhD programmes will conclude tomorrow at

the Gulf Studies Centre (GSC) of Qatar University College of Arts and Sciences, a world-fi rst within the region to focus exclusively on the Gulf.

The GSC engages in interdis-ciplinary, Gulf-focused studies and research in three main areas: energy and economics, politics and security, and social issues.

Dr Abdullah Baabood, direc-tor, GSC, said the centre off ers faculty and students a rare op-portunity to be exposed to aca-demic research in the fi eld of Gulf studies.

“The fi eld of Gulf studies ranges from issues of politics and regional security, labour migra-

tion and education to resource management and sustainable de-velopment. Due to the increasing regional and global interest in this strategic area, the GSC developed further and established a research centre in the fall of 2013.”

The MA and PhD pro-grammes were developed in response to a growing need

among stakeholders in the re-gion for highly qualifi ed gradu-ates in the fi eld of Gulf studies, Dr Baabood said, adding, “The programmes aim to provide students with an in-depth and interdisciplinary understand-ing of issues related to the con-temporary states of the Gulf.”

GSC associate professor in

Contemporary History and Poli-tics Dr Mahjoob Zweiri said, “The MA and PhD programmes in Gulf Studies provide students with op-portunities to contribute to one of the world’s most rapidly develop-ing regions while instilling a solid foundation for lifelong learning. They also provide students with internship and assistantship op-portunities on a competitive basis to gain work experience and off -set tuition costs, preparing them to excel in their future professional and academic pursuits.”

He also noted that the pro-grammes provide an advanced inter-disciplinary understanding and in-depth knowledge of issues related to GCC countries, and advance a level of scholarship on Gulf issues that is much-needed at this time.

Dr Mahjoob Zweiri, associate professor, GSC.

Dr Abdullah Baabood, director, GSC.

QATAR11Gulf Times


Mannai Automotive group scoops dealership awardA two-man team from

Mannai Automotive’s Heavy Equipment Group

has beaten off competition from nine countries to scoop a prestigious dealership award.

Senior superintendent T K Sivasubramaniam and senior technician Sujith Kumara rep-resented the Qatari company in an inter-dealership challenge, Emtech.

The event is an annual tech-nical skill competition open to representatives from the VE Commercial Vehicles’ (VECV) dealership network.

VECV is a joint venture be-tween the Volvo Group and Eicher Motors, a commercial vehicle manufacturer in India whose origins date back to 1948.

Since July 2008, the joint venture has included a complete range of Eicher branded trucks and buses, VE Powertrain, Eich-er’s components and engineer-ing design services businesses, as well as the sales and distribu-tion business of Eicher Busses and Trucks.

Altan Yuksel, a senior man-ager at Mannai Automotive-Heavy Equipment Group, said teams from India, South Asia and the Middle East took part in earlier rounds of the competi-tion before fi ve teams went head to head in the fi nal in India on February 26-27.

In the fi nal challenges, fi ve technical stations had to be cleared within 30 minutes allotted to each station, with three diff er-ent activities for each station.

Mannai Automotive Heavy Equipment Group’s Sivasubramaniam and Kumara receiving the award from VECV’s Vinod Aggarwal, J P Verma, and Kaushik Bhattacharya as other off icials look on.

The Mannai HEG Service team successfully cleared all the tasks, and the winners were announced at a grand award ceremony on February 27.

Sivasubramaniam and Kumara were presented with the award from VECV CEO Vinod Aggarw-al, vice president (After Market) JP Verma, and Kaushik Bhat-tacharya, head of Exports After Market.

Yuksel said: “Everyone at Mannai is delighted to see two dedicated members of staff com-ing out on top in a highly chal-lenging competition featuring vastly experienced competitors.

“Their eye for detail and the

need to be fast, but thorough de-fi nes everything that we stand for at Mannai Automotive. We are dedicated to providing a high-quality, award-winning service to all our clients.”

Khalid Yousef, General Man-ager – Heavy Equipment Group, added: “Our inspectors and technicians are highly trained to deliver a fi rst-class service under challenging conditions. Sivasub-ramaniam and Kumara have sim-ply confi rmed the high degree of quality and commitment that we go into every job.

“Their achievement in rising up against teams from nine other countries shows that we are run-

ning an award-winning service for clients in Qatar.”

VECV’s commitment to it ex-ports markets will be highlighted further this year with plans for a new generation truck in the light and medium duty truck sector that will have high power and torque combinations. Featuring a four-cylinder, four-Valve E494 CRS technology engine with Volvo’s engine management sys-tem, the truck will combine high performance with lower mainte-nance demands.

The company, which has a commercial vehicle manufac-turing plant in Madhya Pradesh, India, has a wide product range

from 5-tonne to 49-tonne trucks and 15-65-seater buses.

Mannai Automotive’s Heavy Equipment Group, VECV’s distributor in Qatar, is part of the Mannai Group. Founded in 1951, as an auto spare parts distributor, Mannai Corpora-tion has grown to become one of Qatar’s leading private

sector groups. Its automotive arm holds the

exclusive franchise in Qatar for General Motors (GM) brands, Cadillac and GMC. The dealer-ship has pioneered in providing Mobile Services Vans to deliver a faster and more effi cient car service.

Ooredoo names new director of community & PR

Ooredoo has announced that Manar Khalifa al-Muraikhi was ap-

pointed as the new director of community and public rela-tions (PR) for Ooredoo Qatar as the company continues to promote young Qatar nation-al leaders into key executive roles.

Ooredoo Qatar CEO Waleed al-Sayed said: “This is an im-portant role for Ooredoo Qa-tar as it oversees all our com-munity activities and helps our customers understand our role as a data experience leader. I am positive Manar will do a fantastic job as she has proven herself a highly-motivated and able Ooredoo family member.”

Al-Muraikhi has a 10-year experience in marketing and communications, with six of these years working within Ooredoo across communi-cations and CSR roles. Also, al-Muraikhi recently gradu-ated from the Qatari Leader-ship Centre (QLC) in 2017 and has an MBA from the Univer-sity of Northampton Business School.

Ooredoo maintains a busy

Manar Khalifa al-Muraikhi

and active community rela-tions programme, working with schools and universities to promote technology-en-hanced education, support-ing a range of programmes to promote healthy lifestyles, including the annual Oore-doo Marathon, and engaging with a range of programmes to promote Qatar’s culture and traditions.

Al-Muraikhi takes on the role from Fatima Sultan al-Kuwari, who has been promot-ed to senior director of Brand & Corporate Responsibility for Ooredoo Group.

Medical vouchers for Gulf Femina readers

Gulf Femina readers won a total of QR10,000 in free vouchers at Badr

Al Samaa in partnership with Gulf Times.

Ansari Haneefa, business development executive, Badr Al Samaa, picked the winning coupons along with Sanjai Noah, senior business devel-

opment manager, Gulf Times, at the draw conducted at the Gulf Times offi ce. A total of 20 readers won QR500 each worth of free medical vouch-ers off ered by Badr Al Samaa. The winners will be individu-ally contacted from the Gulf Times offi ce to hand over their vouchers.

Ansari Haneefa (right) picked the winning coupons along with Sanjai Noah.

QIB opens new branch at Mall of QatarQatar Islamic Bank

(QIB) has opened its new branch at the

Mall of Qatar. The new branch will have extended working hours throughout the week and will operate from Satur-day to Thursday from 9am to 2:30pm and from 3:30pm to 9pm, while on Fridays, the branch will operate from 4pm to 9pm.

The bank’s expansion plan has been focusing on be-ing present at key landmarks within the country. This year saw the opening a new branch at the Ministry of En-dowment and Islamic Aff airs (Awqaf) Tower in West Bay and relocating its Al Gharrafa branch to Q-mall, another addition to Qatar’s growing retail scene.

“We will continue to expand our footprint in the country and

Off icials of QIB Mall of Qatar branch.

contribute to Qatar’s thriving economic scene,” said D Anand, general manager, QIB’s Personal Banking Group.

Fusing its customer-centric approach with technological-

ly-progressive strategies, QIB developed a new service called the ‘Bank and Shop’, a new SMS notifi cation service that in-forms customers when their turn arrives.

With the new feature, cus-tomers do not need to wait at the branch until they get served. Instead, they will receive their waiting ticket by SMS and can enjoy their time at Mall of Qatar

until another SMS informs them it is their turn to be served. The new service has been unveiled across all QIB mall branches in-cluding Q-Mall, City Center, Dar Al Salam, and The Gate Mall.

The new full-service branch will also off er customers a full range of premium QIB products and services to meet both eve-ry day and specialised fi nance needs.

The opening brings QIB’s branch network to 29, with 12 dedicated ladies centres, nine Tamayuz (Affl uent) centres, and two private banking lounges. In addition to its local expan-sion, QIB has strong presence in the UK through its fully-owned subsidiary QIB-UK.

The Mall of Qatar branch will also incorporate ATM and cash deposit machine that can be used for withdrawing or depositing cash and other services.

AAB launches test drive campaignAbdulla Abdulghani and

Bros Company (AAB) has launched a test drive

campaign at select malls in Doha featuring Toyota’s Prius Hybrid, Corolla and Camry.

“The campaign makes it even easier for people to touch, try and test drive their favour-ite Toyota models,” AAB said in a statement.

The schedule of the test drive will be as follows: LuLu Hypermarket, Barwa City – April 6 (4pm to 10pm), April 7 (2pm to 10pm) and April 8 (2pm to 8pm).

Villaggio Mall – April 13 (4pm to 10pm), April 14 (2pm

Toyota Corolla

to 10pm) and April 15 (2pm to 8pm).

AAB, established in 1958 as part of Qatar’s infrastruc-ture development, was in 1964 awarded the Toyota dealer-

ship. AAB has grown to be one of Qatar’s leading automobile companies with operations spanning heavy equipment, pre-owned vehicles, rental and leasing.

Toyota Camry Toyota Prius

Residents in Doha Jadeed zone feel ATM crunchThe Doha Jadeed zone is

one of the most densely populated areas in the city

limits, but residents and shop-keepers feel there are not enough ATMs within the area to cater to the growing requirements.

“The lack of suffi cient ATMs is as severe as the shortage of adequate parking spaces in the area,” a shop-keeper told Gulf Times. As of now, the entire area has only a couple of ATMs and residents from the area are aggrieved that they need to cross the busy roads surrounding Doha Jadeed to access the nearest available ATM.

While people on the eastern side need to rely on the only ATM on that side, those resi-dents on the longer southern stretch too have just one ATM machine for their require-ments. It has been found peo-ple on both the sides need to cross the major roads (Airport Road and B Ring Road) passing through the area if they need to use an ATM.

Situation of those on the northern side is even worse with absolutely no ATMs along that stretch. They have no option

other than crossing over to the western side of the Bank Street.

If there were only fewer new complexes earlier in the zone where ATM machines could be installed, now a number of new

buildings have come up in the locality and ATMs could be in-stalled in some of them to meet the demand.

Though the work of a massive commercial complex of Barwa

has just begun in the area, it re-mains to be seen how long will it take for completion. Some of the residents hope this complex would have such provisions as ATMs when it is opened.

There are only a couple of ATMs in the densely populated Doha Jadeed area. PICTURE: Jayaram

REGION/ARAB WORLD

Gulf TimesSunday, April 2, 201712

In Lebanese town, mounting trash shows strain of refugeesReuters Bar Elias, Lebanon

At the entrance of a rural town in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley, a blue sign says

“Welcome to Bar Elias, popula-tion 50,000” but in the past six years, that number has more than doubled with Syrians seek-ing shelter from the war across the border.

“They are our guests,” said Mayor Mawas Araji. “But we don’t have the capacity to serve them as we should.”

The refugee crisis has drained public services in the historically poor area in Lebanon’s farming heartland, Araji said.

Yet perhaps the most glar-ing strain has been the garbage mountain rising among the hills, or the open water canals overfl owing with trash in the winter.

With the infl ux of people,

Bar Elias now handles 40 extra tonnes of refuse every day, in a country that already had no na-tional waste disposal plan.

Since the Syrian conflict began in 2011, at least 1.5mn people have poured into Leba-non — around a quarter of the country’s population — where most languish in severe pov-erty.

Makeshift settlements have popped up all around the coun-try as the Lebanese government has long rejected setting up ref-ugee camps.

To stem the fl ow of Syrians making the perilous journey to Europe by boat, the European Union has funnelled billions into Syria’s neighbouring countries, giving Lebanon 147mn euros be-tween 2014 and 2016.

For government offi cials, the need for foreign funding is clear in cases like Bar Elias, where aid groups have warned of dire envi-ronmental hazards.

The EU funded a 4.5mn euro waste management facility set to open next month in the town,

around 12km from the Syrian border. The massive hangar will process 150 tonnes of waste daily

from Bar Elias and two nearby towns, creating several jobs, Araji said.

“For us, this was a dream.”Nestled between the fi elds of

Bar Elias, Hassan Ibrahim, 62, lives amid hundreds of cramped tents pitched haphazardly in the mud.

“We’ve appointed someone here to collect the garbage...so when the municipality comes, everything is ready,” said Ibra-him, who escaped shelling in Aleppo fi ve years ago.

But in another makeshift camp a few streets away, Maamar al-Alawi seems less cheerful.

Across from her tent, a large cesspit is brimming with sewage water and rubbish.

During heavy rainfall, the gut-ters also spill over with fl oating plastic bags.

“It’s all garbage on top of gar-bage,” said al-Alawi, who cleans around her family’s spot every day in vain.”You go into the tent, and it stinks.”

As well as the dangers of open dumpsites and burning waste,

trash also often fi lls irrigation canals that feed nearby vegeta-ble fi elds, according to the EU-funded agency that designed the Bar Elias facility.

Lebanon has been plagued by a waste disposal crisis, regard-less of refugees, with politi-cians repeatedly failing to agree a solution, sparking several mass protests in recent years.

On a recent visit to the Bekaa, European Commissioner Johan-nes Hahn said the EU was “try-ing to do our best to resolve the Syrian crisis”.

“But I’m a realistic man,” he added. “And I have to do fi rst things fi rst” by helping fi ll Leba-non’s shortages.

The new Bar Elias facil-ity represents a prototype that should become part of broader national plans for develop-ment, said Ziad el-Sayegh, senior national policy adviser for Lebanon’s ministry of the displaced.

Boys sift through garbage at a dump near a makeshift settlement for Syrian refugees in Bar Elias town, in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon.

Khalid al-Saif, chairman, Chamber of Commerce, Hail, Saudi Arabia, inaugurated Malabar Gold & Diamonds’ 12th showroom in the country at Hail on March 29, in the presence of Shamlal Ahamed, managing director – international operations, Malabar Gold & Diamonds; Abdul Salam K P, group executive director, Malabar Group; Gafoor Edakkuni, regional director and other dignitaries including Waseem M al-Qahtani, management team members and well-wishers.

Malabar Gold & Diamonds’ new outlet opens in Saudi Arabia

Syrians fl ee Raqqa ‘hell’ as US-backed assault nearsAFP Ain Issa, Syria

In a muddy camp in north-ern Syria, civilians who fl ed Raqqa said fear of an ex-

pected US-backed assault on the Islamic State group bastion was reaching a fever pitch.

This week, hundreds of civil-ians escaped Raqqa and headed north to the camp in Ain Issa, in territory controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed Arab-Kurdish alliance.

As part of their campaign to capture Raqqa, the militants’ so-called “caliphate”, the SDF have been bearing down on the IS-held town of Tabqa and the nearby vital Tabqa Dam over the past 10 days.

Rumours that Syria’s biggest dam would collapse and fl ood Raqqa, 55 kilometres down-stream, have sparked panic in the city.

“The hisbah (religious po-lice) announced over the mega-phones ‘the land will be fl ooded, the Tabqa dam has collapsed,’” said Mohamed Mahmoud, 38.

Mahmoud, his brother and both their families paid $1,000 to a smuggler and fl ed Raqqa on foot earlier this week.

“I was so afraid, I couldn’t think straight,” he said.

The camp where he has found shelter is home to several thou-sand Syrians displaced by war, including 400 families who ar-rived this week from Raqqa.

Children waddled through

makeshift pathways between tents emblazoned with the logo of the UN refugee agency (UN-HCR), clutching sandwiches and water bottles.

Inside tents, men waited for their turn to have their IS-man-dated beards shaved then exam-ined their bare chins in a small mirror. Mahmoud’s face was weighed down by exhaustion, his clothes covered in dust.

He hovered protectively around his elderly mother who sat in a wheelchair, its wheels caked in mud after their arduous 14-hour trek out of Raqqa.

“It’s hell there. Fear rules over everything,” he said as took ap-parent pleasure puffi ng on a cigarette, a vice which IS banned when they captured Raqqa in 2014.

“IS is fi nished now. Most of its fi ghters fl ed to Mayadeen or Albu Kamal,” two towns in the

oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor, most of which is under IS control. At the entrance to the camp, Kurdish police units — known as Asayesh — searched visibly shaken new arrivals.

Ahmad, a Raqqa native in his 50s, said residents seized the op-portunity to fl ee when they saw IS fi ghters leave.

“We were no longer afraid to fl ee Raqqa like before, because IS fi ghters were less and less visible,” he said, his six children perched atop suitcases packed with their belongings.

Ahmad said the militants “abandoned most of the dams, built tunnels around the city” and protected their positions with sand bags. He said the jour-ney to Ain Issa was traumatic.

“We were so terribly afraid of the air strikes, that the coalition might think we are IS fi ghters,” he said.

Internally displaced Syrian people who fled Raqqa city get out of a truck at a camp in Ain Issa, Raqqa Governorate, yesterday.

Rebels in Yemen have detained five staff members of the International Medical Corps and two contracted drivers, the aid organisation and a local source said yesterday. “We are working to ensure this matter can be resolved as soon as possible,” the Los Angeles-based relief agency said in a statement posted on Friday on its website.The non-governmental organisa-tion declined to reveal further details yesterday, but a Yemeni aid off icial said that the detained staff are all Yemenis, and were captured in the central province of Ibb.The organisation’s website says it has more than 150 local staff in Yemen and that it has operated since 2012 from three off ices in the Arabian Peninsula country. It says its relief eff orts continue to provide a lifeline for families in the rebel-held capital and in Ibb, as well as the flashpoint southwestern city of Taez and Aden and Lahj in the south. Houthi rebels and their allies control most of Yemen’s north and west, while forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, backed by a coali-tion, control the south and east.

Yemen rebels detain seven aid workers: NGO

UNREST

Bomb wounds 16 near police training centre in Nile DeltaReutersCairo

At least 13 policemen and three civilians were wounded when a bomb

exploded near a police training centre in the Nile Delta city of Tanta yesterday in an attack claimed by a militant group.

The bomb was planted on a motorcycle parked near the centre, which was cordoned off following the blast as secu-rity forces combed the scene, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Two of the wounded are in a critical condition, a health ministry spokesman said.

A newly emerged militant group that calls itself Louwaa el Thawra, or the Revolution Brigade, claimed responsibil-ity for the attack via Twitter.

“A training centre for the police militias has been tar-

geted in Gharbia province with a highly explosive device...

our fi ghters withdrew safely after completing the mission,” the group’s statement said without giving further details.

Egypt faces a hardline in-surgency led by Islamic State’s branch in North Sinai, where hundreds of soldiers and po-lice have been killed.

There have also been at-tacks in Cairo and other cities.

Judges and other senior of-fi cials have been targeted in-creasingly by radicals angered by hefty prison sentences im-posed on members of the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood, which says it is a peaceful organisa-tion, won Egypt’s fi rst free elections after the 2011 upris-ing that ended Hosni Mubar-ak’s 30-year rule.

Since the Brotherhood’s candidate, President Mo-hamed Mursi was deposed

in mid-2013 after mass pro-tests against his rule, general-turned-president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has overseen a crack-down in which hundreds of Brotherhood supporters have been killed and thousands jailed or sentenced to death.

“Did you think we had for-gotten the blood of our mar-tyrs?..Revenge..Revenge is a right,” the militant group said on Twitter about an hour be-fore the claim of responsibility.

Revolution Brigade has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks, including the assassination of a senior Egyptian military offi cial who was shot as he left his home on the outskirts of Cairo.

Brigadier General Adel Ra-jaaie, 52, an armoured division commander who had served in troubled northern Sinai, was the most senior military offi -cial to be assassinated in Cairo since Mursi was ousted.

Ayad al-Jumaili, believed to be the deputy of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been killed in an air strike, Iraqi State TV said yesterday, citing Iraqi military intelligence.The US-led anti-Islamic State coalition said it was unable at the moment to confirm the report. Iraqi TV said Jumaili was killed with other Islamic State commanders in a strike carried out by the Iraqi air force in the region of al-Qaim, near the border with Syria. It gave no detail or date for the raid. “The air force’s planes executed with accuracy a strike on the headquarters of Daesh in al-Qaim.. resulting in the killing of Daesh’s second-in-command...Ayad al-Jumaili, alias Abu Yahya, the war minister,” said state TV, citing a statement from the directorate of military intelligence. Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led coalition, have been battling since October to retake the city of Mosul, Islamic State’s stronghold in Iraq.

Israeli paramilitary police off icers shot dead a Palestinian yesterday after he stabbed three Israelis in Jerusalem’s Old City, a police spokesman said. The fighter wounded two ultra-Orthodox Jewish men in the street before fleeing into a nearby house where he was caught by border police off icers who had given chase. He stabbed one of them before being shot, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. One of the two civilians was stabbed in the upper body and suff ered injuries described as moderate. The other man and the border policeman were lightly wounded, Rosenfeld added.

Top IS leader killed in air strike

Police shoot dead Palestinian

CONFLICT

TENSION

AFRICA13Gulf Times


Boko Haram militants have abducted 22 girls and women in two separate

raids in northeast Nigeria, resi-dents and vigilantes told AFP.

In the fi rst attack on Thursday, the Islamist militants raided the village of Pulka near border with Cameroon where they kidnapped 18 girls.

“Boko Haram fi ghters from Mamman Nur camp arrived in pickup vans around 6am and

seized 14 young girls aged 17 and below while residents fl ed into the bush,” a Pulka community leader told AFP by phone.

“They picked four other girls who were fl eeing the raid that they came across in the bush out-side the village,” said the com-munity leader who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

According to the offi cial, the attackers were loyal to the fac-tion headed by Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the son of Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf.

Barnawi was appointed last year by the Islamic State (IS)

group to replace leader Abubakar Shekau, who had pledged alle-giance to the Middle East mili-tant group in 2015.

Another resident confi rmed the raid and said the girls were likely to end up as brides.

“They didn’t harm anyone during the raid and they made no attempt to shoot people running away from the village,” said the resident.

In the second incident outside the village of Dumba, close to Lake Chad, the militants killed a herdsman who had tried to es-cape after refusing to pay protec-

tion money, said Adamu Ahmed, a member of an anti-Boko Haram militia.

“When the Boko Haram gun-men came for the money they re-alised he had left with everything and they decided to go after him on their motorcycles,” Ahmed said.

“They caught up with him near Dumba where they slaughtered him and shot dead 50 of his cat-tle. They took four women from the man’s family and the rest of the herd,” he said.

The promotion of Barnawi had revealed divisions in the group,

as Shekau had been criticised for mass killings and suicide attacks against civilians.

Barnawi and his right-hand man Mamman Nur, who is seen as the real leader, had promised residents in areas under their control would not be harmed as long as they did not co-operate with Nigerian troops.

But in recent weeks the Islam-ist fi ghters have intensifi ed raids in areas near Lake Chad, stealing food from residents.

They have also killed several civilians they accused of co-op-erating with the military.

Boko Haram seize 22 in two Nigeria raidsAFPKano

The price of ivory on Chinese markets has slumped by two-thirds

since 2014 as Beijing rolls out a ban on trade in elephant tusks, but illegal markets in neigh-bouring countries are expand-ing, researchers said.

The research, published on Wednesday, March 29, by con-servation group Save the Ele-phants, came a day before China closed the last of its legal ivory factories.

Authorities there will also shutter all retail outlets by year-end in a bid to stem demand for a commodity that has expanded along with China’s economy and decimated elephant popu-lations across much of Africa over the past decade.

“I believe that the future of the African elephants is in the hands of China,” said Ian Douglas-Hamilton, the group’s founder and president.

Environmentalists have long said that China’s licensed ivory trade off ered opportunities to disguise the traffi cking of poached tusks.

Esmond Martin, one of the report’s authors, said some Chi-nese buyers were getting around the domestic ban by visiting markets across the border in Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, which have expanded in recent years.

“There has been a boom in the illegal trade,” he said. “What needs to be done is to close (this) down ... in neighbouring coun-tries.”

Research by Save the El-ephants in eight Chinese cit-ies found licensed sellers were winding down stocks ahead of the retail ban.

Meanwhile, the average price of raw ivory on illegal markets in China – $2,100 per kilogramme in early 2014 – had slipped to $1,100 by late 2015 and was now around $730, the research showed.

The Chinese government does not reveal the prices it sells ivory to authorised factories but researchers said illegal ivory prices tracked the offi cial ones at a slightly lower rate.

Save the Elephants said some ivory outlets they visited had started replacing elephant ivory with that of mammoths, dug out of the tundra in Russia and shipped to China.

While the ban has helped, Save the Elephants said China’s slowing economy and a crack-down on corruption, including on the tradition of using ivory to bribe government offi cials, had also contributed to the slump in prices.

However, the long-term suc-cess of eff orts to protect ele-phants rested with the ability to make clear to those buying ivory that they were responsible for

the eradication of a species.Douglas-Hamilton said that

interaction with Chinese leaders and celebrities had resulted in change, with more people now associating ivory with dead el-ephants.

“Awareness has to be the long-term key for the future,” he said. “Simply by the arith-metic (of China’s population) ... if there is a substantial propor-tion buying ivory, that would be the end of the elephants.”

China ivory prices fall on ban, but illegal markets thrive: researchersBy David Lewis, ReutersNairobi

A man checks a tusk at an ivory workshop in Beijing.

This picture taken on March 17 shows an elephant with a broken tusk at Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, Kenya.

The offi ces of Uganda’s leading private news-paper were ransacked

overnight and all its computers stolen, its editor said yesterday, dealing a fresh blow to inde-pendent media in the country.

“Almost all our desktops, a couple of laptops, cameras and hard drives were stolen,” said The Observer editor Richard Ka-vuma, standing in the ransacked offi ce in Kampala.

“The thieves were probably looking to destroy the evidence (images) that might have in-criminated them,” he said.

Kavuma, who discovered the break-in yesterday, said the thieves also took the paper’s computer server which backed up the offi ce’s fi les as well as CCTV footage of the premises.

In October last year The Ob-server suff ered a break-in and

its computers were taken.The paper, which is published

three times per week, is known for investigative work and has been criticised several times by the Ugandan government.

“One break-in is bad enough,

to have two in six months is par-ticularly hard on us. It’s a big blow,” James Tumusiime, man-aging director of Observer Me-dia, said.

Tumusiime described the newspaper, which he co-found-

ed with a collective of journal-ists, as “a voice of reason” in a “landscape that is politically polarised”.

Since elections in February 2016 secured another fi ve-year term for President Yoweri Mu-seveni who has ruled the east African country since 1986, there has been a spate of break-ins targeting activist and civil society organisations.

A group of 31 non-govern-mental organisations has pe-titioned the police, calling for urgent and transparent investi-gations.

Kavuma, an award-winning journalist, described the break-in as “an attack on one of the independent voices the country – it’s bad for democracy, it’s bad for the media”.

Yesterday Kampala’s police condemned “in the strongest words possible” the break-in at The Observer, and said they would work to apprehend the criminals.

Ugandan newspaper burglarised, againAFPKampala

A journalist is seen through a window with sawed-off grills following an overnight break-in at the off ices of The Observer newspaper in Kampala.

An outbreak of meningi-tis has killed 324 people across several states in

Nigeria since mid-December, the health ministry said yes-terday.

Earlier this week the fi gure was 282.

More than 2,500 people were infected with cerebrospinal meningitis caused by the Neis-seria meningitidis Type C bac-terium in 16 of 36 states across Africa’s most populous nation of about 180mn people, said health ministry spokeswoman Boade Akinola.

This week senior health offi -cials said that Nigeria is facing a major shortfall in vaccines to contain the outbreak of men-ingitis.

The head of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu, said that nearly 2,000 cases had been reported since the fi rst in the northwestern state of Zamfara.

“We currently have 1,966 suspected cases across the country; 109 of those, have been laboratory confi rmed,” he told a news conference in Abuja.

Zamfara and the neighbour-ing states of Sokoto, Katsina, Kebbi and Niger have been hit hardest by the disease.

Most of the dead are children aged fi ve to 14.

“We are in the middle of signifi cant response in each of these states to minimise the impact of meningitis among our people,” he said.

But Ihekweazu said the type of meningitis C strain respon-sible for the outbreak was not

common in Nigeria and there was a “limited stock” of vac-cine worldwide.

The World Health Organi-sation (WHO), which man-ages the stocks, has delivered 500,000 doses for a vaccina-tion programme to start in Zamfara on April 11, he added.

Another NCDC offi cial had described the shortage as “ma-jor”.

“For Zamfara state alone ... it is estimated that about 3mn doses of vaccine will be re-quired,” the offi cial added.

A team was working to de-termine the actual number of doses required to contain the spread of the disease.

Meningitis is caused by dif-ferent types of bacteria, six of which can cause epidemics.

It is transmitted between people through coughs and sneezes, and facilitated by cramped living conditions and close contact.

The illness causes acute in-fl ammation of the outer layers of the brain and spinal cord, with the most common symp-toms being fever, headache and neck stiff ness.

It has a high mortality rate if untreated.

Nigeria lies in the so-called “meningitis belt” of sub-Sa-haran Africa, stretching from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east, where outbreaks of the disease are a regular occur-rence.

More than 13,700 people were infected and more than 1,100 died in an outbreak in Ni-geria and neighbouring Niger in 2015.

The worst outbreak in Ni-geria took place in 1996, when almost 12,000 people died from the disease, according to health ministry statistics.

Meningitis death toll above 300 in NigeriaDPAAbuja

A new Islamist militant al-liance claimed responsi-bility yesterday for an at-

tack that killed three members of Mali’s security forces on March 29, according to a statement re-leased by monitoring group SITE.

Three Malian militant groups with previous Al Qaeda links re-cently joined forces to create the “Group to Support Islam and Muslims” (GSIM), led by Iyad Ag Ghaly of Islamist organisation Ansar Dine.

The group, also known as Nus-rat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen in Arabic, mounted an attack that killed three gendarmes, they said, though Malian security sources told AFP the day of the attack that it was two soldiers and a civilian who were killed.

“This past Wednesday, a bri-gade of mujahideen was able to attack a Malian gendarmerie

post in Boulikessi, which is part of the Douentza area, near the Burkinabe border,” the statement released by SITE said. “The at-tack resulted in killing three gen-darmes and seizing some weap-ons and ammunition as spoils.”

It is believed to be the militant alliance’s second operation after their merger, following the kill-ing of 11 soldiers in the same area on March 5.

Ansar Dine was involved in an onslaught that saw northern

Mali fall out of government con-trol for nearly a year from spring 2012.

The extremists were later expelled from the region by a French-led international mili-tary intervention.

Nonetheless large swathes of northern Mali continue to come under attack.

The area is also seen by gov-ernments battling the militant threat as a launchpad for attacks against other countries.

New alliance claims Mali attackAFPDakar

A Chinese bank will help fi nance the construc-tion of 2,000 homes for

Zambian military personnel who face a critical shortage of housing, President Edgar Lun-gu said on Thursday.

The 1.5bn Zambia kwacha ($157mn) project would be fi -nanced by the Development Bank of Zambia (DBZ) with support from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Lungu said in a state-ment.

China has invested heav-ily in modernising roads and other infrastructure in Zambia, whose top export is copper.

“My government will not al-low our gallant men and wom-en in uniform to continue liv-ing in dilapidated and at times makeshift structures far below their noble status,” Lungu said.

Zambia’s has an urban hous-ing shortfall of 1.3mn proper-ties, projected to reach 3mn by 2025, according to British charity Habitat for Humanity.

Due to the lack of aff ordable housing, 70% of urban dwell-ers, including soldiers, live in slums with inadequate access to water and sanitation, Habi-tat for Humanity estimates.

Lungu said soldiers and other defence and security personnel need to live in designated areas not only for easy mobilisation but to enhance discipline and improve administration.

Mali’s state of emergency extended by 10 days

The state of emergency in force almost non-stop for 16 months in Mali

was extended by 10 days from Friday, the government said.

The measure has been renewed several times since Islamist militants

stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako in November 2015, killing 20

people in an attack claimed by Al Qaeda’s regional branch.

The fresh extension would allow the government to “further strengthen

prevention and counter-terrorism measures, and increase the operational

capabilities and processes of the armed forces and security”, the state-

ment released late on Thursday said.

There remained “the threat of terrorism in Mali and in the region, as well

as risks to people and goods”, it added.

Zambia gets Chinese aid for army housingReutersLusaka

15 killed as militia attacks Congo townAt least 15 people were killed when militia fighters and security forces clashed in central Congo, a representative of a local civil society organisation said yesterday.Members of the Kamwina Nsapu militia attacked the town of Tshimbulu yesterday morning, Victor Lutumba, the secretary general of the town’s civil society organisation, told DPA.Local radio journalist Martin Kandolo said he counted 19 dead bodies.

Kenya probes police killingAFPNairobi

Kenya’s police chief has ordered an investigation after a video circulated

on social media showing a police offi cer killing a disarmed man in cold blood in front of a crowd of onlookers in Nairobi.

“I have ordered thorough investigations on the shoot-ing incident that occurred in Eastleigh”, a majority Somali neighbourhood in the Ken-yan capital, Inspector General Joseph Boinnet said.

“I have seen the video and I condemn those actions. Investi-gations have already started and I can assure you action will be taken against offi cers involved,” he said.

Amateur cellphone footage fi rst shows one man lying lifeless in a pool of blood having been shot shortly before by police.

At his side, two plain-clothes policemen are holding and ques-tioning another young man.

Then one of the offi cers fi res several rounds at point-blank range at the suspect.

The offi cer is seen delivering a fi nal shot to the head of the in-jured and bleeding man.

The incident has again raised concerns about police abuse in Kenya and outrage at the ap-parent “brazen execution of two young men”, said the Law Soci-ety of Kenya.

Police say they were pursuing two men in their 20s as suspect-ed members of the notorious Superpower gang and caught up with them outside a shopping mall.

“These boys have given us sleepless nights because they commit robberies and kill, then they relocate and resurface,” a police offi cer with knowledge of the gang who requested ano-nymity told AFP.

AMERICA


President Donald Trump leaves without signing executive orders on trade during a signing ceremony at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.

Signing ceremony

More reports of harassment by Fox star O’Reilly: NYTAFPWashington

Bill O’Reilly, a star Fox News commentator, has been accused of harass-

ment by at least fi ve employees of the network, which has paid millions to resolve their claims, The New York Times reported Saturday.

It said Fox had paid the fi ve women a total of $13mn in ex-change for their silence and agreeing not to pursue litiga-tion against the news channel, a favorite among conservatives.

While two of the cases were previously known, the Times said it had unearthed three more cases of harassment, two of a sexual nature and one al-leging abusive behavior by O’Reilly.

The fi ve women either worked on his program, The O’Reilly Factor, or made regular appearances on it.

They have accused O’Reilly of using his powerful position at Fox to pressure them for sex-ual favors.

In a carefully worded state-

ment posted on his website, O’Reilly did not actually deny any of the allegations, but said his prominence made him “vulnerable to lawsuits from individuals who want me to pay them to avoid negative public-ity”.

He noted that “in my more than 20 years at Fox News Channel, no one has ever fi led a complaint about me with the Human Resources Depart-ment, even on the anonymous hotline”.

O’Reilly, who is 67, is one of the most prominent faces on American television. The O’Reilly Factor is watched by some 450,000 viewers a day, one of Fox’s biggest audiences.

The Times story comes less than a year after Roger Ailes resigned as the Fox News chief executive following accusa-tions from several women that he had sexually harassed them.

In November, then Fox an-chor Megyn Kelly described similar encounters, which Ailes denied.

Fox News did not immedi-ately reply to requests from AFP for comment.

Guardian News and MediaLondon

A top aide to Donald Trump has called for a primary challenge to a Republican

member of Congress.In a tweet yesterday, Dan

Scavino, the White House di-rector of social media, called on voters to defeat congressman Justin Amash of Michigan.

Scavino wrote: “@realDon-aldTrump is bringing auto plants & jobs back to Michi-gan.@justinamash is a big liability.#TrumpTrain, defeat him in primary.”

The libertarian-leaning Amash, who was fi rst elected to the House in 2010, is a member of the hardline Freedom Cau-cus and has long been critical of Trump.

The direct intervention by Scavino, who has worked for Trump since caddying for the then-real estate developer as a teenager, is however a new sign of division between Trump and congressional Republicans.

The president this week used Twitter to criticise members of the Freedom Caucus for their role in blocking the American Health Care Act, the House bill that aimed to replace Barack Obama’s healthcare reform, the Aff ordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.

The AHCA was pulled from the House fl oor shortly before a scheduled vote, due to insuf-fi cient support from all corners of the Republican party.

Many members of the Free-dom Caucus thought the bill, which was widely criticised for its likely removal of insurance from millions of Americans, in fact left government with too prominent a role in the provi-sion of healthcare.

In a reference to rightwing descriptions of supposedly self-serving Washington DC, Amash derided the AHCA as “Swamp-care”. In tweets on Thursday, Trump criticised three mem-bers of the Freedom Caucus: chair Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Jim Jordan of Ohio and Ral Labrador of Idaho.

Meadows and Labrador stumped for Trump in 2016, and Labrador was considered for a cabinet post.

In a tweet of his own on Thursday, the Idaho Republi-can wrote:

“Freedom Caucus stood with u when others ran. Remember who your real friends are. We’re trying to help u succeed.”

Trump has yet to criticise Amash by name.

The maverick Michigan Re-publican is however used to primary challenges.

In 2014, he fended off a self-funding establishment Repub-lican who was endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce.

However, a competitive primary in Amash’s district, which includes the city of Grand Rapids, could have po-litical consequences.

Obama won the district in 2008 and Trump ran 8% be-hind Amash there in 2016.

AFPWashington

Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner have held

onto real estate and business investments valued in the hun-dreds of millions while working government jobs, according to ethics fi lings released late Fri-day by the White House.

The disclosures came in a mass document release showing the wealth and fi nancial assets of scores of senior White House staff members at the time they began government work.

Ivanka Trump’s stake in the Trump International Hotel, located blocks from the White House, is one source of income that could represent a confl ict of interest.

Critics have noted that inter-est groups or foreign govern-ments could stay at the luxury hotel to get in the administra-tion’s good graces.

The White House documents

show that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who are both offi cially close advisers to the president, are still getting in-come from holdings valued at between $240mn and $740mn.

Ivanka Trump — who just days ago announced she would of-fi cially enter a federal role as an unpaid adviser to the US presi-dent — will hang on to her stake in the Trump International Hotel.

According to her husband’s disclosure the hotel stake is worth between $5mn and $25mn.

Between January 2016 and March 2017 she made between $1mn and $5mn in rent or roy-alties from the hotel, the docu-ments showed.

Kushner was recently tapped by his Republican father-in-law to lead a new White House offi ce that aims to use business ideas to help streamline the government, according to the Washington Post.

The 36-year-old is a sen-ior adviser to Trump with far-reaching infl uence over domes-tic and foreign policy.

Kushner left high-level posi-tions at more than 200 entities related to his family’s real es-tate business, according to the documents, but will continue to

reap benefi ts from many hold-ings related to the business em-pire he ran with his father.

The White House disclosures included information on the as-sets of Gary Cohn — the former president of Goldman Sachs who heads the White House National Economic Council — and Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s chief strategist.

Cohn reported assets of be-tween $253 and $611mn, and income in 2016 of up to $77mn.

Bannon’s most important as-set is his private consulting fi rm, valued at between $5mn and $25mn. He also had rental real estate valued at up to $10.5mn and up to $2.25mn in the bank.

Bannon reported $191,000 in consulting fees earned from the conservative outlet Breitbart News Network, which he for-merly headed, as well as more than $125,000 for work at the data fi rm Cambridge Analytica, which worked for the Trump campaign, and more than $61,000 in salary for a conserv-ative nonprofi t group.

The Trump administration is considered one of the wealthi-est in US history — Bloomberg estimates his cabinet and senior staff are worth some $12bn.

Since being elected president, Donald Trump’s vast business empire has been scrutinised by ethics experts who say it poses major confl icts of interest.

Before taking offi ce in January Trump said he would formally hand “complete and total” con-trol of his business empire to his adult sons, Don Jr and Eric, in a bid to avoid confl icts of interest — but he would not divest from his business holdings.

The Trump Organization, whose network of hotels, golf clubs and luxury residential towers stretches across 20 countries, is not listed on the stock market, and thus releases no public statistics.

Trump has thus far refused to release his tax returns, meaning little is known about the extent of its interests.

Don Jr, 38, and Eric, 32, are Trump’s eldest sons from his fi rst marriage. They are cur-rently executive vice presidents in the Trump Organization.

Trump’s personal lawyer Sheri Dillon promised that the new president would “build in protections” to show that his actions “are for their benefi t and not to support his fi nancial interests.”

Ivanka and Jared still have stake inmany business’

Guardian News and MediaWashington

Donald Trump may not look like a conservative, act like a conservative or

sound like a conservative, but he has been governing like one.

Many Republican activists are satisfi ed with the fi rst 70 days of his administration.

In conversations with such fi gures this week, issues such as Trump’s controversial travel bans or the resignation of na-tional security adviser Michael Flynn did not come up.

Instead, optimism cen-tered around eff orts to roll back Obama-era regulations and the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to fi ll the vacant supreme court seat.

Grover Norquist, a long-time and vocal activist, leader of Americans for Tax Reform, said: “On the deregulatory front he’s been phenomenal.” Trump’s picks to staff his ad-ministration, Norquist said,

were “all people who under-stand the costs of the regula-tory burden and are committed to ruling back the over-regu-lations of both George W Bush and Obama”.This was echoed by Matt Schlapp, head of the American Conservative Union.

His organisation, he said, was “really happy with the team[Trump has] put around himself and the executive orders he’s been rolling out”. Norquist said that while Trump’s “back-ground isn’t Reagan Republican” he thought the 45th president had come around to that mindset “whether by instinct or what he’s learned”.

He noted that while Trump, a former Democratic donor who has promised spending on infra-structure and health “ insurance for everybody”, had come to that position by a slightly unusual path - “he talks about ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ and not ‘liberty, liberty, lib-erty’” - he had produced a con-servative result.

“His answers were all con-

servative even if his phrasing appeared to be populist,” said Norquist.

It also helped, Norquist said, that Trump ran for president against Hillary Clinton, who he said was the antithesis of Reagan Republicanism.

The result was that if Trump was against everything the former secretary of state was for, he had no choice but to be a Rea-gan Republican.

This process had been ampli-fi ed, Norquist said, by Trump’s rejection by “the establishment left … whose job it is to se-duce you when it comes to DC”. Schlapp argued that Trump is more conservative than he seems.

In his opinion skeptics on the right have not been paying atten-tion.

“I think they didn’t listen,” he said, “and they didn’t take Trump seriously and they didn’t spend time with him and when you spend time with him, he has conservative instincts.

“I believe Barack Obama had

a big impact on him,” Schlapp added,

saying that “people who were less partisan thought Obama presidency was a great chance for our country to bridge the di-vide”.

“A lot of Republicans who I know who voted for Obama thought that actually he might fi nd this third way and fi nd a way to bridge partisan divide and I think what people saw with Obama was a very aggressive lib-eral agenda and I think there was a backlash to Obama.”

Furthermore, Schlapp said, a robust conservative movement always provides strong guardrails on executive appointments made by Republican administrations.

Trump’s selection of Gorsuch, for example, came from a list of potential supreme court picks that his campaign worked up with the Heritage Foundation, a prominent think tank that has infl uenced other moves by the Trump administration.

Despite all the steps taken

through executive orders and White House support for con-gressional eff orts to overturn rules instituted by Obama in his fi nal months in offi ce, Trump is without actual legislative suc-cess.

The failure of the Ameri-can Health Care Act (AHCA), the proposed replacement for Obamacare, hit hard.

After the AHCA was pulled, fi nger-pointing ensued across the Republican party.

Some blamed Speaker Paul Ryan and House leadership; oth-ers blamed the hard-right Free-dom Caucus, whose refusal to back the bill was an important factor in its collapse.

But no blame was cast towards Trump directly.

Supporters and opponents of the bill went out of their way to praise the president’s involve-ment.

“Legislation is obviously a lot of work, a lot of detail, a lot of titles and a lot of legal interpreta-tion and so it’s just harder,” said

Schlapp, a veteran of the George W Bush White House, in discuss-ing the work involved in passing a bill compared with that of nam-ing a political appointee.

Some House Republicans, Schlapp said, were frustrated that they could not improve the process of pushing the AHCA into law.

Norquist, though, laid the blame for the AHCA’s fall on the Freedom Caucus, who he called “the Know Nothing caucus”.Such hard-right fi gures, he said, felt Trump was stealing their spot-light.

Their objection “appears to be the same that some conserva-tives had to [former speaker] Newt Gingrich”, he said: “That he sucks all the oxygen out of the room and Gingrich is always taking everyone’s ideas and mas-saging them and making them his own.”

Although Trump has been aggressive on Twitter towards the Freedom Caucus, they have shrugged such shots aside.

One member, Justin Amash of Michigan, tweeted on Friday of the AHCA: “Didn’t vote for #Swampcare because it’s just another version of #Obamacare - and just as dysfunctional (which is pretty hard to pull off ).”

Norquist said: “I’m not sur-prised by … the odd reactions by some people who want to be Mr Conservative if the president is always sitting in that spot.”

Trump’s work on appoint-ments and deregulation have not appeased all conservatives.

Bill Kristol, founder of the the Weekly Standard and former chief of staff to vice-president Dan Quayle, told the Guardian:

“Trump’s pretty much been as bad as I expected.”

Kristol, who was a “Never Trump” Republican in 2016, said that while Trump has “done some individually good things … he lacks both the character and judgment as well as the qualifi -cations for the job and lacks most conservative policies or princi-ples”.

Trump backers happy with regulatory roll-back

ReutersMontana

A Roman Catholic diocese in Montana has fi led for bank-ruptcy protection, months

before facing its fi rst trial of a civil lawsuit stemming from child sex abuse claims against its clergy, church offi cials and the plaintiff s’ lawyers said on Friday.

The Diocese of Great Falls-Bill-ings fi led a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in Montana federal court as part of a negotiated settlement of dozens of “credible” sex abuse cases that date from 1950s through the 1990s, lawyers for 72 victims and the diocese said in separate statements.

At least 15 other US Catholic dis-tricts and religious orders have been driven to seek Chapter 11 protection by a sex abuse scandal that erupted in 2002.

Montana’s other Catholic diocese in Helena, the state capital, fi led for bankruptcy in 2012 to settle cases stemming from similar accusations.

If granted by a judge, the Great Falls bankruptcy would allow the diocese and its insurer to contrib-ute to a fund that would be set aside to compensate victims, the diocese said in a statement.

The total sum paid to victims will be determined after both sides nego-tiate settlement terms.

Timothy Kosnoff , a Seattle lawyer who has represented victims in both of the Montana diocesan cases, told Reuters that bankruptcy is the only realistic mechanism to settle the claims.

Diocese inbankruptcy plea overabuse claims

W House director calls on voters to defeat ‘big liability’

Despite relinquishing hold of many investments the couple still have income from stakes in other businesses

ASIA/AUSTRALASIA15


Floods still rising with two dead, four missingAFPBeenleigh, Australia

Flooded rivers were still rising yesterday in two Australian states with two

women dead and four people missing after torrential rains in the wake of a powerful tropical cyclone.

Queensland police warned that the Logan River, which runs through Beenleigh south of Brisbane, would only hit peak fl ood levels during the afternoon while further north the city of Rockhampton was also facing a serious threat.

Commissioner Ian Stewart warned there was “still a major risk to the community around Logan and further south caused by that fl ooding situation.”

Rockhampton, with a popu-lation of over 80,000 on the Fitzroy River, was expected to suff er fl ood levels not seen for a century and Stewart urged resi-dents in low-lying areas to leave.

“By Wednesday, we will be at peak fl ooding in Rockhampton,” he said.

“It will be a gradual rise, so I encourage people to move now.”

Queensland police tweeted “we currently have four people missing...that we have serious concerns about,” including a 77-year-old man.

Tens of thousands of peo-ple have been evacuated from a string of towns in Queens-land and New South Wales as the fl oods move south towards Ballina, cutting roads.

Others have tried to stick it

out to save their properties.The scene was grim along the

Logan river.Casey Bently, a 47-year-old

mechanic from North Maclean appeared visibly upset as she looked at her house, submerged to the roof.

“We got as much out as we could in the short time that we had,” she said.

“People have lost everything.

I’d only just fi nished renovating the house, and it is all gone again now.”

Nearby a calf was stuck in a tree as a man in a kayak paddled out to see if it was alive.

Dozens gathered to watch but by the time two people on jet skis arrived to help the calf only to discover it was dead.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on residents in aff ected areas to exercise cau-tion.

“In many parts of the country you will see fl oodwaters contin-uing to rise over the next days,” he told reporters.

“This is a very dangerous time in these flooded areas.

“I want to say to every-body who is affected by these floods — do not go into flooded waters. Do not cross flooded roads.”

Category four Cyclone Deb-bie hit northeastern Australia on Tuesday between Bowen and Airlie Beach ripping up trees and causing widespread dam-age that is still being assessed. It was downgraded to a tropical low as it tracked southeast still packing high winds and dump-ing huge amounts of rain all

down the east coast to Sydney and beyond before blowing out over the Tasman Sea.

Police on Friday found the body of a woman who disap-peared in floodwaters near Murwillumbah just south of the Queensland border.

And a 64-year-old woman, whose vehicle was swept off a causeway on a property in Gungal, in the Hunter Valley south of Sydney was also found dead Friday.

Lismore, south of Murwil-lumbah was among the worst flooded towns on Friday with Tweed Heads, Kingscliff and Murwillumbah also subject to evacuation orders.

In areas further north where the cyclone made landfall, wa-ter and power were still being restored.

Bowen, Mackay and the Whitsunday islands bore the brunt of the cyclone and nearly 40,000 homes were waiting to be re-connected yesterday.

The military has mobilised 1,300 soldiers for the clean-up with helicopters and planes de-ploying to restore infrastruc-ture and supply emergency food, water and fuel.

Suu Kyi’s new govt faces fi rst test at pollsAFPYangon

Aung San Suu Kyi’s gov-ernment faced its fi rst test at the ballot box

yesterday in by-elections around Myanmar seen as a barometer for growing disillu-sionment with her party after a year in offi ce.

The euphoria that sur-rounded the democracy icon’s landslide electoral win in 2015 has ebbed as her party strug-gles to push through promised reforms.

With only 19 contested seats, the by-elections will not alter the balance of power in a government fi rmly dominated by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).

But the voting off ers a chance to gauge the party’s popularity after a rocky 12 at the helm.

Discontent is particularly acute in frontier areas where many ethnic minorities see Suu Kyi as working too closely with the military that ran the country for 50 years.

Yet the party remains the fi rst choice for many in Myan-mar, with early results show-ing the NLD poised to win fi ve races in the commercial hub Yangon.

“Based on the information we have, we won fi ve seats in Yangon,” the city’s chief minister Phyo Min Thein told reporters at the NLD’s head-quarters.

The full results are expected today.

While polling stations around the city lacked the en-thusiasm and fanfare of the historic 2015 election, many voters still queued up to mark paper ballots and exercise their political rights.

Most of the races were held for seats vacated by politicians who took up ministerial roles in the new civilian govern-ment.

But others lie in remote are-as where voting was never held in 2015 because of unrest.

The NLD faces its toughest challenge to the north in Shan State, where tens of thousands have been displaced by a surge fi ghting between the army and ethnic insurgents.

“There are many victims of war here and other ethnic ar-eas now,” Sai One Leng Kham,

an upper house MP from the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, told AFP ahead of the vote.

“Sometimes (the NLD) works without any under-standing of what’s going on on the ground.”

Myanmar’s economic and political elite, including the NLD and army, have long been dominated by the majority Bamar ethnicity and are ac-cused of steamrolling local cultures.

In strife-torn Rakhine State on Myanmar’s western coast-line, the NLD is up against both the local Arakan National Party and the military-backed USDP.

Both challengers peddle an ultra-nationalist line that may appeal to voters in a state seething with religious and ethnic tensions.

The northern part of Ra-khine has been engulfed in turmoil ever since a new Ro-hingya uprising erupted last October and was met with a bloody military crackdown.

Some 75,000 of the Mus-lim minority have fl ed a brutal army campaign that UN inves-tigators believe may amount to a crime against humanity.

The crisis has posed a ma-jor moral challenge to Suu Kyi, who must contend with in-ternational pressure to defend the Rohingya and fervent anti-Muslim sentiment against the group by many at home.

To the south in Mon State, the NLD faces controversy over the naming of a new bridge af-ter Suu Kyi’s father that many see as a symbol of the party’s disregard for minorities.

Suu Kyi herself is consti-tutionally barred from cam-paigning while in offi ce.

But she came out to defend the NLD in a rare national ad-dress to mark her administra-tion’s one year anniversary on Thursday.

She conceded the party had “not achieved the level of de-velopment that people have expected”.

But the former activist stressed her commitment to rebuilding the impoverished nation and securing peace.

“I believe most people are becoming increasingly aware that they do not have to live in fear of the government any-more,” she added.”I see this as progress.”

At least one person was killed and 28 are feared buried after a land-slide struck Indonesia, the national disaster agency said yesterday.A wall of mud that slammed onto houses from a hillside after heavy rainfall, damaged dozens of homes in Ponorogo district, East Java yesterday morning.Seventeen people were injured and sent for treatment to a local hospital, the national disaster agency spokesman said as the military, police and volunteers worked to score the area for the missing. Local people had evacu-ated the village after warnings from off icials.

US President Donald Trump has written to Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang to promote more co-operation between the two countries, the government web-site cited Quang as saying.Vietnam and the US had ad-vanced ties to a new level under the Obama administration amid a dispute with China over South China Sea issues, while Trump has also expressed his hope for a stronger relationship.Trump sent a letter to Quang “aff irming his wishes to promote cooperation on economics, trade, regional and international issues”, the Vietnam-ese government website said.

One killed, 28 missing in Indonesia landslide

Trump letter for Vietnam’s leader

TRAGEDY

DIPLOMACY

Ethnic Yao minority women brush their long hair as part of a performance during the local Long Hair Festival, to celebrate the third day of the third lunar month which is regarded as a traditional festival for many ethnic minorities in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.

Long hair festival

Kayakers paddle on the flooded Logan River, caused by Cyclone Debbie, as it flows over the Mt Lindesay Highway in Waterford West near Brisbane, Australia, yesterday.

Japan counts down to cherry blossom feverAFP Mito, Japan

Japan’s cherry blossom sea-son kicks off boozy par-ties across the country and

draws tourists from far and wide, but the annual coming-of-spring ritual isn’t offi cial un-til inspectors like Hisato Nishii sign off on it.

Over the past few weeks, lo-cal weather offi ces have been sending civil servants like Nishii out to so-called barometer trees that signal when sakura — cher-ry blossom in Japanese — have bloomed.

It’s no small matter.Millions of Japanese celebrate

the explosion of white and pink fl owers heralding the change of season, with the Tokyo area expected to hit full bloom this week.

Parks are full, restaurants are packed, and companies get in on the action with sakura-branded merchandise, from pink beer cans to fl ower-motif candy.

The festivities come at a time when Japan kicks off a new business year, many university graduates start their fi rst full-time jobs, and older colleagues shift into new positions.

The very short season — full blooms only last about a week before the petals start falling off trees — has long been cast as a symbol of the fragility of life in

Japanese art and literature.“Sakura have soaked into

Japanese people’s minds be-cause they come at a time when many are starting a new chapter in their life,” Nishii said, as he inspected a barometer tree in Mito city, about 100 kilometres

northeast of Tokyo.“They capture people’s

hearts because they bloom only for a short period of time.”

Blooms in a particular area — they start as early as March in southern Kyushu and as late as May in northernmost Hokkaido

— are offi cial when a half dozen or more fl owers blossom on a barometer tree.

Inspectors initially come once a day, but once the buds start swelling up, the visits in-crease to twice daily, Nishii said.

The location of a sample tree

is a tightly guarded secret to prevent pranks.

“We carefully observe them so as not to miss any open buds and once we confi rm it, we of-fi cially announce the blossom season’s start,” he said.

The Japan Meteorological

Agency has been monitoring cherry blossoms since 1953, but timing the blooms is still far from an exact science.

A big rainfall can wash out the delicate fl owers while a cold weather snap sometimes delays their appearance.

It’s a nail-biting experi-ence for some, including many tourists who book travel around the expected times for a full bloom when trees are covered in a blanket of flowers.

Parks in Tokyo have already been filling up as friends, families and colleagues stake out choice spots, laying plastic tarps on the grass as they start hours-long parties under the pretty-in-pink trees.

Yusuke Kinoshita was one of thousands of locals and tourists who gathered in Ueno Park, one of the capital’s most popular sakura viewing spots, even before the blooms started.“I’ve been drinking since 10 this morning,” the 39-year-old hotel worker said one recent weekday afternoon after his shift, noting that his boss would be joining the boozy party later on.

“It’s the Japanese way for the most junior colleagues to stake out a spot and get the party going once the boss comes.

“We drink because it’s sakura season,” he added. “We drink because it’s spring.”

Women taking a selfie with cherry blossoms in a park in Tokyo.

BRITAIN


The Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, poses before a yellow vespa during her visit to Marinella, in Naples. Britain’s Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall are doing a European tour aimed at strengthening relations with EU allies post Brexit.

Duchess in Naples

Evening StandardLondon

A fi fth person has been ar-rested after a car allegedly ploughed into a group of

people queuing outside a pub in Islington on Saturday night.

Witnesses described their hor-ror and panic when a car swerved around the corner and crashed into people waiting outside the Old Queen’s Head on Essex Road.

The driver and passenger in the car fl ed on foot but were chased by offi cers, who arrested four men at the scene.

And police announced on Sun-day evening that a fi fth male was arrested on Sunday afternoon in connection with the incident.

All fi ve suspects – arrested on suspicion of a variety of off ences including GBH and possession of a weapon – have been detained in police custody.

Police confi rmed the incident — which happened days after a car mounted a pavement in the deadly terror attack on West-minster — was not being treated as terror-related.

One shocked witness de-scribed seeing a “handful of cas-ualties and a very large knife” in the chaos.

Another told the MailOn-line described that people were “knocked over like dominoes” when the vehicle careered around the bend. Police have said four men were held on suspicion of GBH with intent and possession of points and blades following the incident.

She said: “There were about twenty people in the queue and I was at the back with my friends.

“The car came screeching round the corner at about 50mph and was coming straight for me.

“I pushed over the barriers and fell to the fl oor as the car smashed into three people in front of me.

They were knocked over like dominoes.”

A Metropolitan Police state-ment explained offi cers had been in the vicinity of the crash after being called to reports of an at-tempted robbery in Cross Street just before 11pm.

“Having arrived on the scene offi cers found that any suspects had fl ed the area but remained and began searching,” the state-ment said.

“Shortly after 11pm offi cers a vehicle collided with four peo-ple outside a pub in nearby Essex Road in the immediate vicinity where police were searching.

“Police offi cers responded and began administering fi rst aid un-til the arrival of London Ambu-lance Service.”

Three people — two women

and one man – were rushed to hospital and a fourth person was treated at the scene for minor in-juries.

Two of the injured parties re-main in hospital but their inju-ries are not being treated as life threatening.

Four of the men arrested are between 17 and 19-years-old.

Details of the fi fth arrest have not yet been released.

Superintendent Peter Gard-ner said: “This is a complicated incident involving a number of suspects.

“We know that a group of peo-ple were outside the busy pub in a popular part of London at the time of the collision.

“I would like to praise the ac-tions of our offi cers who dealt with a traumatic incident and displayed remarkable courage and professionalism.”

The incident has been referred to the Met’s professional stand-ard’s agency, the Directorate of Professional Standards, for re-view due to the fact that offi cers were in the vicinity of the crash when it happened.

“I would also reassure our community that due to this se-rious collision happening in the vicinity or our offi cers, it is only right that the Met’s professional standards offi cers look at the circumstances,” Superintendent Gardner added.

“Lastly, I would like to abso-

lutely reassure residents that this incident was in no way terrorist related.” A charity boss was knocked

unconscious after a man smashed a Coca-Cola bottle over his head in a daylight street attack outside his north London offi ce.

Father-of-two Mohamed Nacer was rushed to hospital af-ter being fl oored in Finsbury Park by a stranger who told him: “I will open up your stomach”. Nacer, 45, who runs community char-ity the Arab Advice Bureau, had confronted a group of men loi-tering outside his offi ce on Seven Sisters Road at around 5.30pm on Thursday evening.

Witnesses described seeing “a lot of blood” on the pavement following the vicious attack outside shop Food City, which neighbours Nacer’s offi ce.

Nacer told the Standard on Friday: “I thought I was going to die, I was very scared, it was a very shocking situation.

I couldn’t sleep last night.”He said: “Seven Sisters Road is

a big area, lots of shops and obvi-ously there is a high rate of crime here and recently I noticed there was a big rise of drug dealing in the area and around Wilberforce Road.

“I have reported it to the po-lice.

They are selling drugs in day-light, you have to do something about it.”

He said he saw a group of men loitering outside his offi ce and went to confront them.

“I saw them outside and I said please can you get away from my shop,” Nacer said.

“They were saying I will open up your stomach.

I was very scared because the guy was putting his hand inside his jacket.

“I went to stand by the shop.I tried to speak Arabic to rea-

son with one of the guys.I thought he would take that as

a compliment and he would calm down.

“The guy went inside the shop and grabbed a bottle of coke and hit me on the head.

“I lost unconsciousness, I was on the fl oor.”

Nacer added: “The message I want to get through is that vari-ous people are trying to work hard for the community, I work hard for the safety of people liv-ing in the area.

“And we do not want to be the target.”

One witness told the Standard she saw “a pool of blood and cou-ple of groceries lying around it”. She added: “An alarming amount of blood.”

Police told the Hackney Ga-zette they were called to the scene, near to the junction with Wilberforce Road, and put a po-lice cordon in place.

No arrests have been made.

Fifth arrest after car ‘ploughs into revellers’

The Evening StandardLondon

A 17-year-old asylum seeker was brutally beaten by a gang of thugs in a suspect-

ed hate crime in south London.The boy is believed to have

been waiting at a bus stop with two friends outside a pub in Croydon when he was set upon by a group of eight men.

The men asked him where he was from and after fi nding out he was an asylum seeker, they chased him and repeatedly beat him over the head, leaving him unconscious, Scotland Yard said.

A number of people rushed to help him as he lay in the road fol-lowing the attack, as police and paramedics raced to the scene at about 11.30pm on Friday.

The Met said the boy, who suf-fered serious head injuries, was

taken to a south London hospital in a critical condition.

He is now in a serious but sta-ble condition.

DS Kris Blamires, from Croy-don CID, said: “At this early stage it is believed that about eight suspects approached the victim as he waited at a bus stop with two friends outside the Goat Public House in the Shrublands.

“It is understood that the sus-pects asked the victim where he was from and when they es-tablished that he was an asy-lum seeker they chased him and launched a brutal attack.

“He has sustained critical head and facial injuries as a result of this attack which included re-peated blows to the head by a large group of attackers.

“A number of people came to the aid of the victim as he lay un-conscious and injured following the assault.”

The suspects are believed to have made off in the direction of the Goat Pub, Broom Road, fol-lowing the attack in Shrublands Avenue.

Police say they are are in the process of informing next of kin.

The two friends of the victim managed to escape the attackers and suff ered minor injuries only.

There are no other reported injuries and no arrests have been made.

DC Blamires added: “I would encourage all those who came to his aid and those in the immedi-ate area who witnessed the attack or saw the males leave the scene to get in touch.

“All communities stand to-gether against hate and we would ask anyone with any information to come forward immediately.”

A bishop and his female secretary have been jailed after a woman and teenage girl were

sexually assaulted during private prayer sessions at their south London Christian centre.

Benjamin Egbujor, 55, car-ried out the attacks at the Jubi-lee Christian Centre in Penarth Street, Peckham, forcing the vic-tims to strip.

During his lone attack on the girl, who was under 16 at the time, the bishop took her into his private offi ce where he forced her to undress before assaulting her.

After police started investigat-ing the attack, a woman in her 30s came forward who said she had also been abused by Egbujor.

On that occasion, his secretary Rose Nwenwu, 43, also took part, taking off the woman’s clothes.

The off ences took place at the centre between March 2011 and January 2013.

On Friday, Egbujor, 55, of Ha-rold Avenue, Belvedere, was sen-tenced at Inner London Crown

Court to three years and four months in jail. He had earlier been convicted of sexual assault and causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Nwenwu, of Thurlestone Road, West Norwood, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for sexual assault and three years, to be served concurrently, for help-ing and encouraging Egbujor.

Police Constable James Bell, of the Met’s Off ences and Child Abuse Command, said: “Egbu-jor and Nwenwu preyed on their victim’s vulnerabilities, whilst satisfying their own sexual urges under the guise of private prayer.

“I commend the victims for their courage and commitment in this case.

I fear there may be other vic-tims who have not yet come forward and I urge them or any victim of sexual abuse to tell the police what happened.”

Police are hunting a thug after a bus passenger was punched in the face before being thrown to the pavement and attacked.

The victim, a 44-year-old, was trying to board a bus near the council offi ces in Upper Street, Islington, when the man lashed out at him, police say.

He was then hurled on to the ground and attacked as he lay on the fl oor before the assailant, who was clutching a Waitrose shopping bag, walked off towards Angel.

The injured man was rushed to hospital where he remains, days after the March 28 attack, which took place at around 3.30pm.

Police say the attacker was black, aged from 25 to 35, and of athletic build with short, pos-sibly receding hair.He wore a smart, dark jacket and dark trou-sers. Police say the man was be-tween 5ft 6ins and 5ft 11ins tall. A Conservative Parlia-

mentary aide accused of raping a woman in an MP’s offi ce at the House of Commons appeared in court this morning.

Samuel Armstrong, the chief of staff to South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay, allegedly carried out the attack in his boss’s Westmin-ster offi ce.

It is said the 23-year-old twice raped the woman and sexually assaulted her in October last year, Westminster magistrates court heard.

The alleged attack took place in a room at the Norman Shaw North building, which is adjacent to Portcullis House and part of the Houses of Parliament estate.

Armstrong, clutching a black lever arch fi le, spoke only to con-fi rm his identity as he appeared in the dock today for the fi rst time.

Prosecutor Naomi Ryan told the court: “The allegation is rape, at the Palace of Westminster.”

Teen asylum seeker beaten by ‘gang of thugs’


A popular north London shop worker who has lived in the UK for 26

years faces being deported af-ter he was detained by immi-gration offi cers the day after Theresa May triggered Article 50.

Stojan Jankovic, known as Stoly, is currently being held in a detention centre in Dorset and could be forced to leave the country as early as Tuesday.

The 52-year-old moved to London from the former Yugoslavia in 1991 and has worked at Earth Natural Foods in Kentish Town Road for the last 15 years.

He was taken into custody “without warning” when he attended his monthly ap-pointment at an immigration reporting centre on Thursday, John Grayson, who co-owns the shop, said. He told the Standard: “He has been signing on at these appointments every month without fail for the last 10 years.

“Then on Thursday after-noon we got a panicked phone call from him.

“He said ‘they are taking me away’.”

Grayson said Jankovic was put into the back of van before being whisked off .

He added: “He’s reliable, he’s never had a day off work in the time he’s been working for me.

“He has always paid his taxes and his national insurance.

He’s never claimed a penny of state benefi ts.

“Avuncular is the word a lot people use to describe him, He’s cheerful, slightly eccen-tric, very popular.

“He’s peace loving and leads a quiet life.

“He’s known as our public face, he’s very well known in the local community and has been in the country unbroken for the last 26 years.”

Local MP Keir Starmer has asked for Mr Jankovic’s depor-tation date to be delayed by at least 14 days to allow time for a legal challenge, Mr Grayson said.

Janokvis is understood to have applied for asylum when he arrived in the country but his application was refused.

It is believed his leave to re-main in the country expired in 1999 but he has been working and paying taxes since then without any problems.

Grayson added: “Consider-ing the circumstances he’s in good spirits, he understands what’s happening and he’s an optimistic person.”

An online petition calling for Jankovic to remain in the UK was set up on Friday and has already received over 700 signatures, while the hashtag #savestoly has been started on Twitter.

Jankovic is currently at a The Verne Immigration Removal Centre – a former prison in the Isle of Portland, Dorset.

Shop worker facingdeportation after 26 years in Britain


Jeremy Corbyn has become so unpopular in London that even Labour support-

ers in his home city think he is doing badly, a damning new poll revealed today.

The Labour leader gets neg-ative ratings from every key group of Londoners, including young people, unskilled work-ers and inner London residents — seen as the party’s bedrock voters.

But another Labour politi-cian has soared up the ratings to become the most popular politician among Londoners: Mayor of London Sadiq Khan outshines not only Corbyn but also Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

Astonishingly, half of Con-servatives think Khan is doing well, along with majorities of young and old, diff erent social classes and inner and outer Londoners.

The fi ndings, produced for Queen Mary University of London, are a triumph for the Mayor — and a serious blow to his party’s leader.

Just 18% of Londoners think Corbyn is doing well, while 62% say he is doing badly — a negative score of -44.

His ratings are a disastrous -35 among people who backed Labour at the 2015 general election, and -7 even among people who say they are cur-rent Labour supporters.

Some 58% of Londoners say Khan is doing well and a mere 23% think he is doing badly — a score of +35.

Among the better-off ABC1 voters, a Tory target, he scores +41.

In outer London, which was Johnson’s heartland, Mr Khan scores +31.

“Part of the reason Khan polls so well is he has cross-party appeal, from not only Labour voters but a big major-ity of Lib-Dems and even just over half of those who voted Conservative in 2015,” said Professor Philip Cowley, direc-tor of the university’s Mile End Institute.

Johnson scored a massive +43 among Londoners in a 2013 poll in the prime of his stint as mayor.

However, he is now down to -14 in his new role as foreign secretary.

The Prime Minister’s rating was a healthy +9 among Lon-doners.

The net scores of other lead-ers were Lib Dem Tim Farron, -8; Ukip’s Paul Nuttall, -34; and the Greens’ Caroline Lu-cas, +13.

Corbyn loses supporteven in his home city

Police found weapons on the occupants of the car who were chased down

BRITAIN17Gulf Times


Supporters of the far-right group Britain First wave flags as they march in central London yesterday following the March 22 terror attack on the British parliament.Right: Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, AKA Tommy Robinson, former leader of the right-wing EDL (English Defence League) is escorted away by police from a Britain First march and an English Defence League march in central London.

Scuffl es in London as EDLrally met by anti-fascistsAgenciesLondon

Protesters clashed in central London as far-right sup-porters were met by anti-

fascist campaigners in central London.

A march and rally planned by Britain First and the English De-fence League (EDL) was taking place near a counter demonstra-tion from Unite Against Fascism (UAF). Frantic scenes unfolded when ex-EDL leader Tommy Robinson arrived and a high number of police offi cers moved to contain potential trouble.

Police said 12 people had been arrested by 2pm as the protests continued through the capital.

Crowds had gathered in Tra-falgar Square from around mid-day and must obey conditions imposed by the Metropolitan Police which include following a set route.

UAF protesters, who ap-peared to vastly outnumber the far-right, chanted “EDL go to hell” and hundreds of protest-ers spilled onto the surrounding roads.

Many of those taking part wore masks which covered their faces.

Scotland Yard said on Friday that the information and in-telligence available to the Met meant that they felt it necessary to impose the conditions to pre-vent the demonstrations from resulting in “serious disorder, serious damage to property, serious disruption to the life of the community, and to pre-vent the intimidation of local people trying to go about their business”. Chief Superintend-ent Catherine Roper said: “The right to protest is a fundamental right in our democratic society, but this right must be balanced

against the right of people to go about their day without fear of violence, disorder or disrup-tion.

“Experience has shown us that when groups with confl icting views come together it can cre-ate tension and disorder, not just on the day itself but in the longer term.

“What we have had to care-fully consider is how to balance the right to protest with the negative impact on our com-munities and potential violence and disorder that may have re-sulted from these protests going

ahead as they were suggested.“If you want to protest on

Saturday, we ask that you do so peacefully, no matter what your view.

We will adopt a robust arrest policy on anyone who attends and is intent on violence and disorder, or is in breach of these conditions.

The right-wing groups had or-ganised separate demonstrations that fi nished on the Victoria Em-bankment, close to Westminster Bridge, where a terror attack 10 days ago killed four people and injured 50.

A similar number of Unite Against Fascism (UAF) demon-strators convened a short dis-tance away chanting “Racist scum”, but were kept at bay by several lines of police.

During the march itself, some UAF supporters got close to the Britain First marchers, among them Barry Kader, 23, from Bris-tol, who said:

“Fascism needs to be chal-lenged at street level.These marches can encourage people, it can help with their public sup-port.”

Paul Golding, the leader of

Britain First, who was released from prison in January for breaching a high court ban by entering a mosque,addressed supporters waving some of the 400 Union Jack fl ags made by his mother on Friday night.

Earlier, as the marchers moved from Charing Cross station, Golding’s mother Chris had said of the fl ags: “They really lift the march, they look lovely.”

Following a a recital of the Lord’s prayer, Golding warned his audience about east Lon-don’s Brick Lane and its apparent “mobs”, telling supporters he was also fi nding it impossible to eat tikka masala now because of the preponderance of halal meat.

Golding added: “We are the face of the future.”

Yet the turnout must have been a disappointment.

Britain First has 1.6mn Face-book followers and more than 2,700 had expressed an interest in going to the march.

Among those that did turn up was John Lillywhite, 78, who was on his debut demonstration and had turned up because he felt the the government didn’t understand the “threat”.Despite an instruction from Golding not to talk to the media, Britain First organiser Angela Holbrooks, from Timperley, near Altrin-cham,

Greater Manchester, said: “We

need to keep our streets safe for our women and children.

If anyone says anything they’re attacked. But they don’t want to integrate.”

Retired fi refi ghter Steve Green, 52, from Gravesend, Kent, said he attended the march because he was scared.”Politicians are doing nothing to protect us.They don’t want to mix.My daughter will be forced to wear a burqa at this rate.”

At the UAF counter-rally, which included representa-tives of trade unions, and faith and community groups, speak-ers praised the unity shown by Londoners following the West-minster attack and condemned attempts to use the attack to stir hatred and division.

Weyman Bennett, UAF joint secretary, said: “While we recog-nise that this despicable attempt to use the outrage of the West-minster attack to whip up hate fell fl at, this should not be cause for complacency.

These groups remain intent on stirring racial and religious ha-tred and must be opposed wher-ever they rear their head.

“The murder of Jo Cox, the shocking rise in hate crime, and the rise of the far right in Europe show that it is critical we unite against fascism, racism, Islamo-phobia and antisemitism at this time.”

Paul Golding, leader of the far-right organisation Britain First marches in central London yesterday. Right: An activist from a counter demonstration organised by the Unite Against Fascism organisation is detained by police in central London.

Release strengthens belief that Masood acted alone

People look at floral tributes in Parliament Square following the attack in Westminster, central London.

Guardian NewsLondon

Police have released without charge all of the 12 peo-ple arrested in connection

with the Westminster terrorist attack last week,

strengthening investigators belief that Briton Khalid Masood acted alone when he killed four and injured more than 50.

A 30-year-old man arrested on 26 March in Birmingham on sus-picion of preparation of terrorist acts and detained under the Ter-rorism Act was released yester-day and faced no further action, police said.

Eleven other people previously arrested in connection with the investigation into the 22 March attack had previously been re-leased with no further action.

Masood’s partner, Rohey Hy-dara, was one of those individu-als.

The four victims of the attack have been formally identifi ed as

Kurt Cochran, 54, an American tourist; Aysha Frade, 44, a teach-er; PC Keith Palmer, 48; and Le-slie Rhodes, 75, a retired window cleaner.

The inquests into their deaths opened and adjourned on Wednesday under the authority of senior coroner for Westmin-ster, Fiona Wilcox.

A provisional date for the pre-inquest review was set for 19 May at the Royal Courts of Justice.

An inquest into the death of Masood, 52, heard on Thursday that he died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

It was also adjourned until 19 May.

More than 50 people were in-jured in the attack, with wounds ranging from cuts and bruises to extensive bone and skull frac-tures.

Andreea Cristea, a Romanian tourist who fell into the Thames during the attack, remains in critical but stable condition.

The entire incident on 22 March lasted just 82 seconds.

Police said it began at 14:40:08 when Masood’s hire car mounted the pavement on Westminster Bridge, weaving along the foot-path and road until 14:40:38, when he crashed into the perim-eter fence of the Palace of West-minster.

He left the car at 14:40:51 and was shot by a police fi rearms of-fi cer, part of the close protection team of the defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon, in the palace courtyard at 14:41:30.

At 14:40:59, the fi rst 999 call was made to the Met reporting the incident.

Deputy assistant Metropolitan police commissioner Neil Basu said last week the investigation continued and appealed for any-one who had spoken to Masood in recent months, especially in the days leading up to the attack, to contact the police.

They are still trying to estab-lish whether he had been “in-spired by terrorist propaganda or if others have encouraged, sup-ported or directed him”. How-

ever, he added: “We still believe that Masood acted alone on the day and there is no information or intelligence to suggest there are further attacks planned.

“Even if he acted alone in the preparation, we need to establish with absolute clarity why he did these unspeakable acts to bring reassurance to Londoners, and to provide answers and closure for the families of those killed and the victims and survivors of this atrocity.

We must all accept that there is a possibility we will never un-derstand why he did this. That understanding may have died with him.”

In a statement released on Tuesday through the Metropoli-tan police, Masood’s partner, Ro-hey Hydara, said: “I am saddened and shocked by what Khalid has done.I totally condemn his actions.I express my condolenc-es to the families of the victims that have died, and wish a speedy recovery to all the injured.”

Her comments followed a

statement issued by Masood’s mother, Janet Ajao, who has been under armed police guard in west Wales, where she runs a craft business.

“Since discovering that it was my son who was responsible, I have shed many tears for the people caught up in this hor-rendous incident,” she said. “I wish to make it absolutely clear, so there can be no doubt, I do not

condone his actions or support the beliefs he held that led to him committing this atrocity.”

All 12 people arrested in con-nection with the March 22 attack that left fi ve people dead close to the British parliament have now been released without charge, London’s Metropolitan Police said yesterday.

“All those arrested in connec-tion with the terrorist attack in

Westminster on Wednesday, 22 March have now been released with no further action,” the Met-ropolitan Police said in a state-ment.

Eleven of those arrested had already been released, and yes-terday police freed the 12th per-son, a 30-year-old man arrested on March 26 in Birmingham on suspicion of preparation of ter-rorist acts.

A huge police presence prevented a riot in Central London

EUROPE


The organisers of the Euro-vision song contest have threatened to ban Ukraine

from future competitions unless it allows Russia’s entrant to en-tering the country and take part in this year’s show, which Kiev is hosting.

Last week Ukraine imposed a three-year entry ban on Rus-sian singer Yuliya Samoilova, 27, for illegally entering Moscow-annexed Crimea to perform at a concert in 2015.

The head of the European

Broadcasting Union (EBU) In-grid Deltenre, in a letter sent to Ukraine’s Prime Minister Volo-dymyr Groysman dated March 23, said the ban on the singer taking part in next month’s Eu-rovision was “unacceptable”.

As a consequence, Ukraine’s public broadcaster UAPBC “might be excluded from future events”, Deltenre warned the prime minister in a letter.

The leaked letter was pub-lished by European media out-lets on Friday.

Eurovision’s press offi ce has confi rmed the letter’s authen-ticity to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

If Kiev’s ban against Sam-oilova is not lifted it “would certainly have a very big nega-tive impact on Ukraine’s inter-national reputation as a modern, democratic European nation”, said Deltenre.

“We are increasingly frustrat-ed, in fact angry, that this year’s competition is being used as a tool in the ongoing confronta-tion between the Russian Fed-eration and Ukraine,” the EBU head added.

Russia’s Channel One on Thursday refused the off er by Eurovision to have Samoilova participating the competition remotely.

“We fi nd the off er of remote participation odd and refuse it, for it is going absolutely against the very essence of the event,” the offi cial Russian broadcaster said after Eurovision suggested that she could participate via satellite.

The singer has been in a wheelchair since a bad reaction to a vaccine in childhood, ac-cording to the biography on her website.

Moscow and Kiev has been at political loggerheads since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and over Russia’s subsequent involvement in a confl ict pit-ting Ukraine troops against pro-

Russian rebels in the east of the country.

Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the start of a pro-Russian insurgency, which Kiev and the West accuse Mos-cow of masterminding.

Russia has denied the claims.Ukraine complained yes-

terday of “unprecedented and unacceptable” calls from the Eurovision Song Contest’s or-ganisers for it to lift the entry ban on Samoilova.

“It is unprecedented and unacceptable to demand such extraordinary decisions from Ukraine for the sake of Rus-sia,” Deputy Prime Minister

Vyacheslav Kyrylenko said in comments released by his offi ce yesterday.

“I think that France, Germany, Britain, Poland would have made the same decision, as well as any other country that is a member of the EBU,” Kyrylenko said in comments from an interview to a Ukrainian radio station.

He reiterated that Russia can take part in Eurovision in Kiev “only if their participant is someone who has not violated Ukrainian law”.

The semifi nals of Eurovision will be held in Kiev on May 9 and 11, while the fi nal will be on May 13.

Eurovision threat to ban Ukraine over singer rowAFPBerlin/Kiev

Pillow fights

Left: Cypriots participate in the annual pillow fight yesterday in Faneromeni Square in the old city of the capital Nicosia.

Participants fight with pillows yesterday in Budapest.

Right: A child lies covered in pillow filling during the International Pillow Fight Day 2017 event yesterday in Bucharest.

The fi rst generation of Chi-nese nationals to settle in France, most of whom ar-

rived in a wave in the 1970s, rare-ly if ever expressed themselves publicly.

Many lacked legal working papers and struggled to learn French, but still they found a foothold as workers in textile businesses and restaurants in the French capital.

Now their sons and daughters – who were born and educated in France – are speaking up in anger over the police killing of a Chi-nese national in late March.

Chinese immigrants “saw it as a bad thing to criticise the police, and they considered themselves strangers in France”, said Richard Beraha, author of a book dissect-ing the Chinese experience in France.

But this new generation of Chinese-French is not afraid to make demands, and the older people, “who were reluctant, are joining the movement”, he said.

Shaoyo Liu, a 56-year-old fa-ther of fi ve, was shot by a police team called to his apartment in northeast Paris over a suspected domestic dispute.

Authorities say he attacked an offi cer with a knife, causing in-juries, and that another offi cer opened fi re in self-defence.

The dead man’s family dis-putes the police version of events.

The incident caused tensions between Paris and Beijing as well as sparking nights of protests from members of the French capital’s up to 300,000-strong Chinese community.

Zhou, a 20-year-old student who came to protest in Paris this week, drew parallels with the case of Theo, a young black man who sustained severe anal and rectal injuries during a police stop-and-search in early Febru-ary.

The case prompted such up-roar in France that President Francois Hollande visited Theo in hospital, appealing for calm fol-lowing a week of sustained riots in mid-February.

“When a Chinese person is killed by police, there is no offi -cial response,” Zhou said.

About 45 people have been ar-rested in the series of protests in Paris over the Chinese man’s killing, with many waving ban-ners bearing slogans such as “co-lonialist police” and “Wake up French Asians! You are still op-pressed in this country”.

The anger has also spread on-line where a petition calling for “justice and truth for Shaoyo Liu” has gathered nearly 50,000 signatures.

In a rare move refl ecting the shock in China over the shooting, Beijing said it had fi led an offi cial complaint to France.

Beijing called on Paris to

“guarantee the safety and legal rights and interests of Chinese citizens in France and to treat the reaction of Chinese people to this incident in a rational way”, a for-eign ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Yesterday, however, the Paris

police stressed that security for the city’s Asian community is a “priority”, outlining new meas-ures for dealing with complaints, including an improved transla-tion system.

In the course of a meeting with Jun Zhai – the Chinese ambas-

sador to France – and members from various Chinese immigrant groups, Paris police chief Michel Cadot “expressed his condo-lences to the Chinese community and his sympathy to the family”, a police statement said.

In August 2016, similar street protests erupted for greater se-curity after the fatal mugging of 49-year-old tailor Zhang Chao-lin in the Aubervilliers suburb north of Paris.

Violent robberies tripled in 2016 in the suburb targeting the Chinese community, where eth-nic Chinese are seen as lucrative prey as they are thought to carry large sums of cash.

At the time of the tailor’s death, tens of thousands of eth-nic Chinese fl ooded the streets of Paris, protesting against “anti-Asian racism”.

“Chinese people were asking for nothing more than to be safe, but were scorned by the govern-ment,” said Yehman Chen, 49. “Today, it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Ethnic Chinese have routinely complained about frequent at-tacks in the community, but say little has been done to help, said accountant Weirong Zhang.

“The fi rst time was in 2003, I had been here a few months and my luggage was stolen, every-thing I had” she said. “I went to the police. They asked me if I had papers, a credit card. No? So, they discouraged me from fi ling a complaint.”

New Chinese-French generation speaks up after killingBy Pauline Froissart and Antoine Maignan, AFPParis

A woman speaks during a demonstration for justice at the Place de la Republique (Republic’s Square) on Thursday following the death of Liu Shaoyo during a police intervention.

Below: A woman wearing a hijab takes part in the event in Bucharest.

Driven back by police ba-tons and snarling dogs, or beaten and robbed by

the smugglers they relied on, migrants caught in Serbia have regularly been victims of vio-lence as they struggle to reach Europe.

About 8,000 migrants have been trapped in the coun-try since the European Union closed its borders, hoping to block the so-called Balkans route taken by hundreds of thousands of people fl eeing the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

But migrants continue to cross the region in smaller numbers – a few hundred a day – often with the help of traf-fi ckers.

“I could not imagine that European police could be so vi-olent,” Najim Khan, a 21-year-old mason from Pakistan, said in a Belgrade park.

The claims from migrants as well as aid groups are dismissed by the authorities: Croatia says there is “no proof” of abuses, Hungary says it acts “with re-spect to human dignity”, and Bulgaria says it has looked into every claim “but they were never confi rmed”.

Khan, who arrived from Bul-garia a few weeks ago, says that one evening, the police burst into the squat where he was staying in Sofi a.

“They beat us, took us to a police station and then to a closed centre. They beat us again during transfers,” he said.

Once in Serbia, he tried to reach the European Union despite the increased patrols at Hungary’s border, but his group was quickly spotted by the Hungarian police.

“They made us lie on our stomachs, in a line. They ran on our backs, laughing. They were throwing beers in our faces,” Khan said. “They took our cell-phones and broke them. They did not take our money.”

In early March, medical aid group Medecins sans Fron-tieres (MSF) denounced the violence against migrants, calling it a “ritual of brutality ... designed to stop people from trying to cross again”.

“The militarisation of the EU borders has led to a staggering increase in violence, especially along the Balkans,” said Andrea Contenta of MSF, which has set

up a clinic in Belgrade. “More than half of our patients have experienced violent events during their journey.”

Rados Djurovic, of the Asy-lum Protection Centre in Ser-bia, said migrants “complain mostly about violence suff ered in Hungary, where they were bitten by dogs, hit brutally, causing broken bones”.

Many also complained about abuse in Croatia, but the situa-tion was better in Serbia, where the police have been given clear instructions, according to an aid worker who declined to be named.

Contenta added that al-though smugglers were re-sponsible for some of the as-saults, “the vast majority of our patients reported alleged violence perpetrated by state authorities, mainly by EU member states such as Hun-gary, Bulgaria and Croatia”.

Attal Shafi hullah, a 16-year-old Afghan, said he had experi-enced both.

One night Shafi hullah and three comrades were inter-cepted by the Bulgarian police as they tried to leave Serbia.

“Sometimes they let you go,” he said. “Other times not.”

This time, the offi cers beat them, he said.

“Maybe they wanted mon-ey,” said Shafi hullah, whose face bears the scars of burns suff ered when his home went up in fl ames in Afghanistan.

But he is certain that fi nan-cial motivations were behind the blows of smugglers he met a few weeks later, as they told the migrants to have money sent to them from back home.

“They wanted to make an example, to show that it is a serious business,” Shafi hullah said.

In a Belgrade reception cen-tre, 14-year-old Qayum Mo-hammadi remembered vomit-ing after being sprayed with tear gas when the bus carry-ing him and other migrants crashed into a wall while trying to outrun a Bulgarian patrol.

Rights group say the EU bor-der closures have only made the Balkans route more dan-gerous, now that such attempts are illegal.

Medecins sans Frontieres has registered more than 70 migrant deaths between Greece and Hungary since last year.

The causes of death include hypothermia, drowning, traffi c accidents – and suicides.

Stranded in Serbia, migrants endure an odyssey of violenceBy Nicolas Gaudichet, AFPBelgrade

Migrants charge their mobile phones at a restaurant near the central bus station in Belgrade.

Greece to crack down on asylum claim ‘abuse’AFPAthens

Greece will toughen rules on voluntary repatriation to combat alleged abuses

by economic migrants seeking refugee status, the migration ministry said on Friday.

A ministry source told AFP new rules would be adopted “in the coming days” to withhold cash subsidies for repatriation from those migrants who ap-peal against the rejection of their asylum claim.

Organised by the Interna-tional Organisation for Migra-tion (IOM), the repatriation programme has returned some 7,000 people since European states shut their borders to mi-grants early last year.

Participants are also given €500 ($537) as an incentive to return home and to help them with reintegration.

For the time being, those stuck on Greek islands under last year’s EU-Turkey migration pact also are given €1,000.

Under the new rules, migrants who came to Greece from 2015 onwards will have fi ve days to apply for voluntary IOM repatri-ation once their asylum requests are turned down.

If they fail to do so, they will no longer be entitled to join the programme – and lose the cash benefi ts.

Migration Minister Yian-nis Mouzalas said on Thursday that thousands of migrants are “abusing” the system by lodg-ing appeals against the rejection of their asylum claims, causing a “bottleneck” in the procedure.

“Whoever lands on Greek soil requests asylum,” Mouzalas said. “There is no other way to help those really entitled to asylum and quickly process their claim.”

Thousands of people, many of them Syrians fl eeing war, are stuck in Greece’s Aegean islands as a result of the EU-Turkish pact that followed last year’s border closures in Europe.

Most of them have fi led for asylum to avoid being sent back to Turkey, but these applications take months to handle.

Humanitarian groups have re-peatedly sounded the alarm over declining morale in their camps.

On Thursday, a Syrian man was badly hurt after setting him-self on fi re at a migrant camp on the island of Chios.

A police offi cer who tried to stop him was also hurt.

EUROPE19Gulf Times


France’s presidential elec-tion race is looking tighter than it was seven days ago,

an opinion poll showed yester-day as the main candidates took their campaigns to the south of the country.

Voting intentions in the April 23 fi rst round for the frontrun-ners, centrist Emmanuel Ma-cron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen, showed both slipping one percentage point to 25% and 24% respectively.

Third-placed conserva-tive Francois Fillon gained two points to 19%, and the far-left’s Jean-Luc Melenchon one point to 15%, the BVA poll said.

Complicating predictions, 38% of people either could not say how they would vote, or may yet change their minds.

That was down two percent-age points from a week earlier,

but showed that the race re-mains wide open.

The poll showed independent Macron had solidifi ed his voter base, with 63% of those opting for him sure of their decision, up eight points from a week ago and his highest certainty score since campaigning began in earnest in February.

However, Le Pen still had by far the most solid voter base, with an unchanged 81% of her voters certain to pick her.

Shock election outcomes abroad including the US presi-dential victory of Donald Trump and Britain’s Brexit referendum vote have fed expectations that Le Pen’s anti-euro, anti-immi-gration platform could sweep her to power in France.

The poll though, like others this year, showed Macron beat-ing her with 60% of votes in the May 7 second round.

Fillon’s recovery from the lows that followed a fake work scandal surrounding his wife puts him within fi ve points of Le Pen and six points of Macron, with some voters previously tempted to abstain deciding to go for him after all, BVA’s com-mentary said.

BVA put Melenchon’s climb since a strong performance in the fi rst TV debate on March 20 partly down to more of his natural sympathisers deciding to vote.

It said offi cial Socialist can-

didate Benoit Hamon, who is in fi fth place on 11.5% and also has hard left policies, could be vul-nerable.

Hamon’s base of sure voters is just 45%, it noted, and many could end up being split between Melenchon and Macron.

An Odoxa survey on Friday showed Melenchon just one per-centage point behind Fillon on 16%, but eight points ahead of Hamon.

Le Pen was due to hold a meet-ing in Bordeaux today, but it was her two main rivals who were making headlines yesterday.

Macron met conservative and security hardliner Christian Estrosi in Marseille, part of his strategy of showing he wants to transcend the right-left divide of French politics.

Estrosi is a key ally of conserv-ative former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

He stands a long way to the right of the Socialist govern-ment in which Macron was economy minister until last year, but was among those who tried and failed to oust scandal-hit Fillon as the candidate of The Republicans.

Fillon sought to get his presi-dential campaign back on track by turning back the clock with a warning about France’s heavy debts.

France faces the same fate as debt-ridden Greece, he warned during a visit to Corsica, reviv-ing the “failing state” contro-versy he stoked on the Mediter-ranean island in 2007.

Fillon has based his campaign on the need to rein in spending and cut France’s defi cit, pledging €100bn ($106.5bn) of spending cuts and a reduction of 500,000 in the public sector workforce, proposals that are tougher than those of any other mainstream candidate.

It was in Corsica in September 2007, as prime minister under the then newly-elected Sarkozy, that he sparked a political storm by saying he was at the head of a failing state.

Election rivals start campaigns in south FranceReutersMarseille/Biguglia, France

Left: A Macron supporter holds leaflets for French presidential election candidate on the streets of Quimper, western France.

Right: Protesters wearing masks, depicting left and far-left, of Hamon and Melenchon (right), take part in a fake marriage after a bullish Melenchon rebuff ed an appeal on Thursday by Hamon for the two to join forces, during a demonstration yesterday calling for a joint candidacy in Paris.

A campaign poster of French presidential election candidate Marine Le Pen is seen in Tarascon-sur-Ariege, southwestern France.

A Fillon supporter holds leaflets of the French presidential election candidate on the streets of Quimper, western France.

The G7 group of rich na-tions committed on Friday to pursuing the creation of

a UN peacekeeping force to pro-tect world heritage sites from de-struction in confl ict and combat-ting the traffi cking of plundered treasures.

Destroying antiquities at her-itage sites like the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and the shrines of Timbuktu in Mali has increas-ingly become a tactic of war for groups like Islamic State (IS), both to feed propaganda and profi t from smuggling, the Unit-ed Nations says.

The G7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Brit-ain, the United States, and Italy

– signed an accord in the Ital-ian city of Florence, cradle of the Renaissance, to strengthen in-ternational collaboration to pro-tect cultural heritage.

Armed UN peacekeepers de-ployed in countries like the Dem-ocratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Syria are com-monly known as “Blue Helmets”.

Italy has put together a unit of Italian “blue helmets of culture” active in areas where the United Nations has humanitarian opera-tions.

The culture ministry said Fri-day’s accord included a com-mitment to enable such restorers and art experts to join missions in confl ict zones.

Even so, it is not clear how ex-actly such an addition to a peace-keeping unit might operate.

Last week, the UN Security

Council adopted its fi rst-ever resolution focusing on cultural heritage, in which it called on states to step up the fi ght against the looting and traffi cking of ar-chaeological, religious and other cultural artefacts.

Italy, which is hosting G7 meetings this year, set up a spe-cial police force in 1969 to track

down stolen artefacts and art-works, which are often smuggled abroad.

Since then, the force has re-covered some 800,000 artefacts stolen in Italy, which has more Unesco world heritage sites than any other country.

Culture Minister Dario Franc-eschini said Italy wanted “to

make culture an instrument of dialogue between nations”.

Asked ahead of the Florence meeting how others had reacted to his plan to introduce culture to the G7 agenda in light of US President Donald Trump’s desire to cut funding for the arts, Franc-eschini said Italy had met with “a lot of openness”.

Italy wins G7 backing for UN peacekeeping force to protect cultureReutersRome

People hold umbrellas with inscriptions that translate into ‘Museum of textiles, let’s protect our heritage’, ‘death of a museum’, and “Museem of textiles, 120,000 petitions, say no to the closure’ during a demonstration yesterday in Lyon against the closure project of Musee des Tissus (Museum of Textiles). Participants were asked to come with an umbrella decorated with pieces of textile.

Paris Pompidou Centre museum shut by security guard strike

The Pompidou Centre modern art museum – one of

the biggest tourist draws in the French capital – will

remain closed this weekend because of a week-long

strike by security guards, its management said.

Around 100 guards walked out on Monday over a new

law which forces them to become civil servants rather

than be employed under the terms of their contracts.

Talks between the guards’ unions and the French

ministry of culture broke down on Thursday.

Management said yesterday that they had no option

but to keep the museum’s doors shut over the week-

end when tens of thousands of visitors were expected.

The iconic gallery attracted 3.3mn art lovers last year.

Nearly 1,200 people work at the museum, which last

year bucked the fall in visitor numbers of other major

tourist attractions in the French capital after the Paris

and Nice terror attacks.

With up to 18,000 visitors a day passing through its

doors, the state-funded museum stands to lose hun-

dreds of thousands of euros from the stoppage.

Cases of depression have ballooned almost 20% in a decade, making the

debilitating disorder linked to suicide the leading cause of dis-ability worldwide, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday.

By 2015, the number of people globally living with depression, according to a revised defi ni-tion, had reached 322mn, up 18.4% since 2005, the UN agen-cy said.

“These new fi gures are a wake-up call for all countries to rethink their approaches to mental health and to treat it with the urgency that it de-serves,” WHO chief Margaret Chan said in a statement.

According to the agency’s defi nition, depression is more than just a bout of the blues.

It is a “persistent sadness and a loss of interest in activi-ties that people normally enjoy, accompanied by an inability to carry out daily activities for two weeks or more”.

Lack of energy, shifts in ap-petite or sleep patterns, sub-stance abuse, anxiety, feelings of worthlessness and thoughts of self-harm or suicide are also common, and can wreak havoc on entire families.

The drop in productivity, and other medical conditions often linked to depression, also takes a fi nancial toll, with the global cost estimated at $1tn annually, the WHO said.

Shekhar Saxena, head of the agency’s mental health and sub-stance abuse department, said on Thursday that both psycho-social and medical treatments could be highly eff ective, insist-ing on the importance of reach-ing more of those in need.

Even in the most developed

countries, around half of people suff ering from depression are not diagnosed or treated, and the percentage soars to between 80% and 90% in less developed nations.

Treatment can be diffi cult to access, while a fear of stigma also prevents many people from seeking the help required to live healthy and productive lives, the agency said.

According to the WHO, every dollar invested in improving ac-cess to treatment leads to a re-turn of $4 in better health and productivity.

And “early identifi cation and treatment of depression is a very eff ective means of decreasing death by suicide”, Saxena told reporters.

About 800,000 people com-mit suicide worldwide every year, amounting to one suicide every four seconds.

And the link to depression is clear.

Saxena pointed to stud-ies showing that 70% to 80% of people who commit sui-cide in high-income countries, and around half of those who kill themselves in low-income countries, suff er from mental disorders, of which depression is the most common.

Global depression cases up 20% in decadeBy Nina Larson, AFPGeneva

Chan: These new figures are a wake-up call for all countries to rethink their approaches to mental health and to treat it with the urgency that it deserve.

Hungary has launched an anti-EU campaign that asks households on

how to deal with Brussels poli-cies that it says threaten Hun-garians’ independence.

Questionnaires titled “Let’s stop Brussels!” are being post-ed to households nationwide, a senior government offi cial, Bence Tuzson, told a press conference to launch the drive.

“Big decisions and strug-gles lie ahead of Hungary in the coming period, (Hungary) can only win those struggles if it feels the support of the coun-try,” said Tuzson.

The six questions on the survey mostly ask citizens “what Hungary should do”

about EU policies on immigra-tion and economic issues like tax-raising powers.

One question for instance asks “what Hungary should do” as “despite a series of re-cent terror attacks in Europe ... Brussels wants to force Hunga-ry to let in illegal immigrants”.

The answer options are: “Il-legal immigrants should be kept under supervision until the authorities decide in their cases”; and “We should al-low illegal immigrants to move freely in Hungary”.

The survey, called a “Na-tional Consultation 2017” by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing government, fol-lows the coming into force last week of new rules allow-ing the indefi nite detention of migrants in border container camps.

Hungary launches ‘Stop Brussels’ driveAFPBudapest

Bob Dylan fi nally gets his Nobel

DPA/AFPStockholm

US rock legend Bob Dylan, winner of the 2016 No-bel Literature Prize, has

at long last received his Nobel diploma and medal, members of the Swedish Academy told Swedish broadcaster SVT yes-terday.

The handover took place in conjunction with Dylan’s visit to Stockholm, shortly before the fi rst of his two scheduled con-certs this weekend in the Swed-ish capital.

The singer-songwriter was unable to attend the December 10 award ceremony.

The Academy’s permanent secretary, Sara Danius, was one of the Academy members who attended his concert yesterday evening.

She told SVT that Dylan had received the prize, but declined further comment on where the handover took place.

Earlier, Danius said in a blog post that “the setting will be small and intimate, and no me-dia will be present – only Bob Dylan and members of the Acad-emy will attend, all according to Dylan’s wishes”.

Mikael Timm, a culture re-porter at the public Swedish Radio, thinks that Dylan wanted the meeting to be strictly private to avoid a situation that could spiral out of his control, espe-cially after a series of “humili-ating press conferences” in the 1960s.

“He obviously wants to com-municate but realised he doesn’t need to be exposed to aggressive and off ensive press conferences,” Timm told AFP.

Dylan was set to perform con-certs this weekend in Stockholm, the fi rst stop on a long-planned European tour for his latest al-bum of cover songs Triplicate.

Fans were already gathering at the Stockholm Waterfront venue a little before yesterday’s sched-uled performance at 7.30pm (1730 GMT).

Ylva Berglof, a 62-year-old fan who will see the enigmatic music icon perform for the 18th time, told AFP that Dylan “de-serves (the Nobel) even though I think he didn’t handle it well. He could have been more grateful”.

“Whenever you want to take him in a certain direction, he does the exact opposite,” said Martin Nystrom, a music critic for Swedish daily Dagens Ny-heter. “He’s very unpredictable.”

The 75-year-old Dylan did not give his traditional Nobel lecture during the meeting, the only re-quirement to receive the 8mn kronor (€837,000, $891,000) that comes with the prize.

He has until June 10 to deliver his lecture, which could be any-thing from a short speech to a performance, a video broadcast or even a song.

Failing that, he risks losing the prize money.

Dylan kept silent for weeks after he was announced as the winner and when he was asked at the time why he did not respond to the Academy’s calls, he told the Daily Telegraph: “Well, I’m right here.”

Dylan later apologised for not being able to attend the cer-emony. and expressed surprise over being chosen for an honour given to literature heavyweights like Ernest Hemingway and Al-bert Camus.

INDIA


Three soldiers were injured on Saturday in an attack on a convoy, claimed by Hizbul Mujahideen, in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar district, off icials said. The militants fired at the convoy near the Jhelum Valley College of Medical Science on the Srinagar-Muzaff arabad highway, the off icials told IANS. The militant outfit owned responsibility for the attack and said it had been carried out to protest Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit. On Sunday, Modi will inaugurate the 9.2km Nashri-Chenani tunnel that connects Jammu region’s Udhampur and Ramban districts on the strategic 300km Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.

The head warden of a prison was yesterday placed under suspension after a video showing him dancing with a woman inside the jail premises went viral on social media. “Haryana Inspector General of Police (Prisons) has suspended Satwan Singh, Head Warden, District Jail Karnal with eff ect from April 1, 2017, for his involvement in a video of cultural programme at District Jail Jind, which went viral on social media,” a state government spokesman said in Chandigarh. The video showed the jail warden, in uniform, performing some vulgar dance steps with a professional dancer on a stage inside the Jind jail premises during a function organised to mark the Holi festival.

After the arrest of two British nationals for alleged harassment of an air hostess on Air India’s London-Delhi flight, an airline spokesperson said yesterday that a probe is being carried out in this matter. “The AI is also carrying it’s probe and the incident is condemned,” Air India spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar said. “The crew reported the matter to the security agencies. The accused Jaspal Singh Benning (35) and Charandeep Khaira (36) had come to Delhi to attend the marriage of their relative in Jaipur.” They were arrested under Section 509 for intent to insult the modesty of women. They allegedly passed lewd remarks at the air hostess.

One of the major tourist attractions of Kashmir Valley and Asias largest Tulip Garden was opened for visitors yesterday. Located in the foothills of the Zabarwan Mountains on the banks of the Dal Lake and spread over 75 acres of picturesque land the Tulip Garden was opened ahead of schedule this year. “For the first time, 48 varieties of tulips have come to bloom in the garden where we have sown 1.5mn bulbs of the flower this year, those who love nature and tulips, no longer need to go to Holland or elsewhere,” said Farooq Ahmad Shah, Secretary State Tourism Department.

The Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping (CUNPK) in India and the UN Women will together organise a two-week training programme for female peacekeepers here on April 3-14, said an off icial release. “The Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping (CUNPK) in India, in partnership with the UN Women is organising two-week training at Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi from April 3 to April 14,” said the Ministry of External Aff airs in a release. “A total of 41 participants from 27 diff erent countries are attending the course to derive benefit from it and to be available to the United Nations for deployment in field areas,” it said.

3 troops injured in Hizb attack in Srinagar

Jail warden suspended for vulgar dance

AI probes harassment of hostess by UK nationals

Kashmir’s famed Tulip Garden opens for visitors

UN bodies to train female peacekeepers in Delhi

AMBUSH INAPPROPRIATEINVESTIGATION TOURIST ATTRACTION READY TO DEPLOY

Thomas Chandy sworn in as Kerala ministerBy Ashraf Padanna Thiruvananthapuram

Non-Resident Indian (NRI) businessman and Nation-alist Congress Party (NCP)

leader Thomas Chandy yesterday took oath as a new minister in the ten-month-old Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala.

The Kuwait-based education entrepreneur who represents the Kuttanad assembly constituency in Alappuzha district holds the port-folios of road transport, motor vehi-cles and water transport.

The 61-year-old, the richest among the 140 legislators in the southern state, replaces his senior party colleague AK Saseendran, 71, who had to resign after a telephone honeytrap laid by a newly launched television channel.

Governor P Sathasivam adminis-tered the oath of offi ce and secrecy at an august function held at the Raj Bhavan. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vi-jayan, his ministers and Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan were also present.

Though the opposition Congress leaders were away in Malappuram attending a meeting of its top deci-sion-making body and campaigning for the April 12 by-poll there, former chief minister VS Achuthanandan, a veteran leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which leads the ruling coalition, was conspicu-ous by his absence.

“The fi rst on my agenda is to achieve a turnaround for the loss-making (public transport behemoth) KSRTC without terminating the loss-making services,” he told re-porters after assuming offi ce.

“States closer to us like Karna-taka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh all runs the road transport corporations profi tably. Why is it not possible in Kerala?”

Chandy is the fourth minister from the communist heartland of Alappuzha after Thomas Isaac, G Sudhakaran and P Thilothaman,

making it the largest contingent in the 20-member cabinet, which also exposes its demographic imbalance.

Kannur and Thrissur closely fol-low with three ministers each, but there are three unrepresented dis-tricts, including the third most pop-ulous district of Ernakulam.

Kottayam and Wayanad have no representation while Malappuram, which has the double the size of Alappuzha in population, and the second most populous Thiruvanan-thapuram, has only one minister in the cabinet.

“I have to fi nd out the cancer cells in the KSRTC and remove them. I’ll utilise my long experience and ex-pertise in running a business suc-cessfully, for it,” he added, address-ing a meet-the-press at the Press Club here.

Meanwhile, the special investiga-tion team of the Kerala police, which held its fi rst meeting on the day, re-portedly decided to serve a notice on the Mangalam Television to submit the cellphone and other gadgets its woman journalist used to trap the 71-year-old minister to engage in lewd talks.

Kerala Governor P Sathasivam administers the oath of off ice to Thomas Chandy at the Raj Bhavan in Thiruvanan-thapuram yesterday.

Truckers go on strike to protest premium hikeIANS Bengaluru

Truck owners began an indefi nite strike from yesterday to protest mainly against the proposed

50% hike in the third party insurance premium, amid apprehensions that the protest could lead to supply dis-ruption and raise commodity prices in the coming days.

In a bid to resolve the stand-off , the strikers will meet Insurance Regulato-ry and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) chairman on Monday, and take a decision on whether to continue with the agitation based on the discussions with the regulator.

“One of the reasons for going on strike is the drastic 50 per cent increase in the third party premium charged for trucks by the insurers.

We have a meeting with the IRDAI

chairman on Monday at Hyderabad,” said P V Subramani, vice president, All India Motor Transport Congress-South Zone.

The third party premium for automo-biles is decided by IRDAI while all other premium rates are decided by the insur-ers — private and government-owned.

Fleet owners normally go only for third party policies and take care of the damages to vehicles on their own.

The South India Motor Transport Association and South Zone Motor Transporters’ Welfare Association (SZMTWA) had gone for the indefi -nite strike from Thursday and All In-dia Confederation of Goods Vehicles Owners’ Association (ACOGOA) joined the protests from yesterday.

“We protest the exhorbitant rise in premium of the third party insurance, which has gone up by 800% from 2002 to till date,” ACOGOA’s president Channa Reddy told IANS.

On the insurer’s argument about the rising third party accident claims and the compensation paid, Subramani said: “Let them show their numbers in a transparent manner. If the business is loss-making, why is that the insurers are off ering discounts on premium that ranges up to 70% in the case of compre-hensive policies and up to two per cent in the case third party policies?”

Around 2.2mn trucks have stayed off the road in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry since Thursday midnight.

“Our future course of action will depend on the outcome of the meeting with IRDAI on Monday in Hyderabad,” said SZMTWA’s general secretary G R Shanmugappa. “The fi ve states and one union territory (in South India) will incur a loss of Rs55bn per day due to this agitation,” he added.

Around 10,000 trucks in Maharash-tra have stopped plying to south Indian

states in support of the strike.Maharashtra State Truck/Tempo/

Tanker/Bus Transporters Confedera-tion senior vice-president Raman Kho-sla told IANS: “We are fully in support of our brethren on strike and so we are not sending any vehicles from here to cross over to the southern states. The trucks daily carry all types of cargo, ranging from foods, fruits, vegetables, industrial good, general and consumer goods for the markets there.”

Truck owners are also demanding reinstatement of tariff advisory com-mittee and protesting against fi nes proposed in the Motor Vehicles Act amendment.

All India Motor Transport Con-gress’s (AIMTC) president S K Mittal said truckers have been demanding category wise real time data from the insurance regulator but this has not been provided so far.

“Previously, tariff advisory com-

mittee was an active body having rep-resentatives from all stakeholders. The committee must be re-instated and real time data should be made avail-able to the committee to take the fi nal decision of hike. Till then, the current arbitrary and unilateral third party in-surance premium hike should be kept in abeyance,” Mittal told IANS.

According to truckers in West Ben-gal, the strike has been successful not only in Bengal but also in Odisha, As-sam, Tripura and Bihar.

“Along with premium hike, we are protesting against the fi nes proposed in the amended Motor Vehicles Act. We met offi cials of Union Surface Transport Department and they as-sured to take care of truckers’ con-cerns. But after that IRDAI announced its decision to implement the premium hike,” said Federation of West Bengal Truck Operators Association Presi-dent Mahinder Singh Gill said.

All India Confederation of Goods Vehicle Owners Associations members protest against the central government order on increased third-party insurance in Bengaluru yesterday.

ED raids 300 shell companies in 16 statesIANS New Delhi

In one of its biggest crackdown on shell companies, the Enforce-ment Directorate yesterday con-

ducted simultaneous raids on around 110 premises and 300 shell companies across the country that were suspect-ed to be involved in dubious and illegal transactions during demonetisation, offi cials said.

The country-wide operation was carried out across 16 states with multiple teams of the agency raiding premises of about 300 shell fi rms in prominent places like Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Patna, Ranchi, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar and Ben-galuru among others.

“Several top business houses be-ing searched in various cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata,” the offi cial told IANS in New Delhi.

The raids are being carried out un-der the Prevention of Money Laun-dering Act (PMLA) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to investigate instances of money laun-dering and illegal foreign exchange transactions.

Offi cial sources said the action is part of the mandate given to the ED under a Special Task Force created by the government last month on the directions of the Prime Minister’s Of-fi ce.

The task force was created under the co-chairmanship of the Revenue Sec-retary and Corporate Aff airs Secretary to monitor the actions taken against shell companies by various agencies from regulatory ministries and En-forcement Agencies.

In a statement, the Finance Minis-try said last month that harsh puni-tive action will be taken against shell companies, including freezing of bank accounts, striking off names of dor-mant companies and invoking Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amend-ment Act, 2016.

Shell Companies are companies that exist only on paper, and can be used for money laundering.

The statement said there were about 1.5mn registered companies in India and only 600,000 of these fi le their annual returns.

INDIA21Gulf Times


Akhilesh humiliated me like no one: MulayamIANS Lucknow

Diff erences between Sama-jwadi Party (SP) founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and

his son Akhilesh Yadav came to the fore again yesterday when the Ya-dav chieftain slammed his son for showing disrespect towards him and uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav.

Quoting a statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kannauj during the state assembly elections that how can a man who has insulted his father be loyal to the people of the state, Mulayam endorsed Modi’s views on the issue and said “Ye sahi hai ki jo baap ka nahin hua, wo kisi ka nahin ho sakta (He who does not respect his fa-ther will not respect anyone).”

In Mainpuri to inaugurate a hotel, the former federal defence minister claimed that Modi’s statement had aff ected the voters and led to the drubbing of the Samajwadi Party at the hustings.

The veteran politician also point-ed out that never in the history of the country had anyone named his son

the chief minister despite being ac-tive in political life, like he had done.

“While the people voted for me as the chief minister in 2012 I chose to make Akhilesh the chief minister, but he humiliated me thereafter” he rued.

“I have never been insulted so much ever in my life,” he lamented.

“But I did not say anything to anyone as my own blood was out against me,” the three-time Uttar Pradesh chief minister added.

He said it was a tragedy that his son had joined hands with the Con-gress, a party which led “murderous attacks” on him not once but thrice.

Akhilesh had “overthrown” his father as national president of the party in a political coup of sorts on January 1, after a bitter battle of power and supremacy in the party.

Akhilesh had also expelled Ra-jya Sabha member Amar Singh and sacked his uncle Shivpal Singh Ya-dav as the state unit president.

Mulayam had not campaigned for party candidates in the state assembly polls and only addressed rallies for his brother Shivpal in Jaswantnagar and daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav in Lucknow.

India, Malaysia reaffi rm strategic co-operationIANS New Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday that India and Malaysia have agreed to further strengthen

bilateral strategic co-operation while continuing with joint anti-terrorism ef-forts.

“We live in times and in a region, where both conventional and non-con-ventional security threats are constant-ly on the rise,” Modi said while jointly addressing the media with Malaysian Prime Najib Razak following delega-tion-level talks between the two sides.

“Prime Minister Najib and I agreed that these challenges threaten the sta-bility and economic prosperity of our countries and the region,” he said. “And, require us and other countries of the re-gion to work together. In this context, I deeply appreciate our continuing co-operation with the Malaysian govern-ment in our joint anti-terrorism eff orts.”

Modi praised Razak for his leadership in countering radicalisation and terror-ism and said it “is an inspiration for the entire region”.

Stating that the wide-ranging defence partnership has brought the armed forces of the two countries closer, he said: “We are co-operating in training and capacity building; maintenance of equipment and military hardware; maritime security; and in disaster response.”

Modi also said that he and Razak were conscious of their “role and responsibil-ity in promoting economic prosperity, freedom of navigation, and stability in the Asia-Pacifi c region, especially its oceans”.

“To secure our societies, and for the greater regional good, we have agreed to further strengthen our strategic part-nership to shape an eff ective response to our common concerns and challenges,” he said.

On the economic side, Modi said both countries “have built a thriving eco-nomic partnership”.

“In our eff orts to scale this up, as the fastest growing large economy in the world, India off ers unparalleled oppor-tunities,” he stated.

“And, to build new avenues of pros-perity in our societies we are ready to expand trade and capital fl ows between our two economies.”

Stating that infrastructure has been an area of fruitful partnerships between the two sides, he said that much more could be done as India’s infrastructure needs and plans of developing smart cities matched well with Malaysian ca-pacities.

“Malaysian companies are partici-pating in many of our infrastructure projects across diff erent states in India,” he said.

“Indian companies too are extensive-ly engaged and invested in the Malay-sian economy.”

Modi also said that business partner-ships forged between the two countries would enhance the level and momen-tum of commercial engagement.

“We are also converging eff orts aimed at food security that are linked to the well-being of our farmers,” he stated.

Razak said that the defence and stra-

tegic partnership would be very impor-tant for both countries to fi ght global terrorism, militancy and extremism, including the fi ght against the Islamic State terror outfi t.

He expressed “deep admiration” for Modi for undertaking bold economic re-forms and congratulated the Indian leader for the country’s high economic growth.

Following yesterday’s talks, India and Malaysia signed agreements, includ-ing on civil aviation, education, human resource development and setting up of a fertiliser plant in Malaysia and a tech-nology park in Andhra Pradesh.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak shakes hands with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi after meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi yesterday.

Kerala Congress questions government over anti-corruption police chief’s ‘leave’By Ashraf Padanna Thiruvananthapuram

The opposition Congress party has asked the government to clarify why its anti-corruption

police chief was forced to go on an “endless leave.”

The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) director Jacob Thomas had on Friday dramatically announced that he was on a one-month leave and he would like to end his service in the government forever.

Power Minister M M Mani later clarifi ed that he was asked to leave for receiving adverse observations from the High Court repeatedly and he had committed some errors in investiga-tions.

“His image had taken a massive beating, and his behaviour, at times overreacting, was not often good, though he had done something against corruption,” the minister said.

The chief minister had last month asserted in the state assembly that he was going to stay there, despite severe criticism from all quarters.

Top bureaucrats were also baying for his blood saying he was putting hur-dles before their effi cient functioning.

Ten days back, chief secretary SM Vijayanand, who retired last week, had recommended action against him for not disclosing his assets in Tamil Nadu and alleged irregularities in purchas-ing dredgers when he was heading the state’s ports.

In his report to the Advocate Gen-eral, with inputs from additional chief secretaries KM Abraham and Paul An-tony, both facing vigilance probe Tho-mas ordered, said he had committed serious irregularities.

After his retirement, Vijayanand went on record that he was haunting upright offi cers through investigations based on complaints from persons of questionable background.

M M Hassan, the Congress party president in the state, who sought a clarifi cation from the government on his removal, however, welcomed it saying he was crossing all bounda-ries to insult “reputed people in public life.”

He also wanted criminal proceed-ings against him for insulting public

fi gures without evidence in mere al-legations of corruption motivated by political rivalry.

“I don’t think he’s a saint or an an-gel. The government had chosen a cor-rupt man to act against corrupt people. There’s a mystery,” Hassan told report-ers in Malappuram.

“If he had gathered any piece of al-legations (against Congress leaders) during his investigation, he should make it public. Otherwise, he should face prosecution.”

The opposition also criticised the government’s decision to allow the po-lice chief, Loknath Behera, to double as the director of vigilance, which is to function independently as an agency mandated to investigate corruption in high places.

“Allowing the police chief to head the anti-corruption wing is illegal and immoral. The government owes the people an explanation,” said Ramesh Chennithala, the party’s fl oor leader and a former home minister.

Meanwhile, Thomas said Vijayan had asked him to go on forced leave, and he would explain everything in public later.

Meghalaya, Assam chief ministers meet to discuss inter-state boundary disputesIANS Guwahati

Meghalaya and Assam yesterday ordered the chief secretaries of both the states to re-start

their dialogue process to resolve the vexed inter-state boundary disputes.

The decision was taken at a meet-ing between Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal and Meghalaya CM Mukul Sangma at Brahmaputra State Guest House in Guwahati.

“The chief secretaries of Assam and Meghalaya have been asked to contin-ue the dialogue on the 12 areas of dif-ference,” Sonowal told journalists after the meeting.

“We have discussed a lot of issues, and it was fruitful. The chief secretar-ies will discuss the boundary dispute. We have also decided to work together for our mutual growth,” he said.

The 12 areas of diff erence include Upper Tarabari, Gizang reserve forest,

Hahim, Langpih, Borduar, Boklapara, Nongwah-Matamur, Khanapara-Pilang-kata, Deshdemoreah, Khanduli-Psiar area, Ratacherra and Blocks I and II. The total area of diff erence is 2,765.14sq km, of which Blocks I and II cover 1,583.42sq km.

Yesterday’s meeting was the fi rst of-fi cial meeting between the two chief ministers after Sonowal assumed offi ce in Assam in May last year.

Sangma last held discussions with then-chief minister Tarun Gogoi on June 5, 2010 following the incident in which four Khasi villagers were killed during fi ring by Assam police person-nel at Langpih on May 14, 2010.

“We had a fruitful dialogue and as a follow up of discussions held earlier, more discussions will be held so that both the states can resolve the long pending issue mutually which will be acceptable to both the states,” the Meghalaya chief minister said.

Moreover, he said that issues related to disputes would be further discussed at the level of the chief secretaries.

On the Meghalaya Assembly resolu-tion asking the central government to constitute a Boundary Commission to resolve the inter-state boundary im-broglio, Sangma said: “They (Assam) have made their stand but we will dis-cuss mutually.”

In March 2011, the Meghalaya As-sembly had passed a resolution to urge the central government to constitute a Boundary Commission to re-examine and redefi ne the inter-state boundary between the two states.

The Assam assembly adopted an-other resolution negating the Megha-laya resolution.

Meanwhile, both the chief ministers decided to conduct joint operations along the inter-state boundary to fl ush out mil-itants along the inter-state boundary to ensure peace and tranquillity.

“We have also decided to work to-gether to restore the environment and whoever is doing illegal activities like hill cutting should stop, and action will be taken jointly on this issue,” Sonowal said.

Dalai Lama heads to Arunachal Pradesh

The Dalai Lama arrived yester-day in Assam ahead of a visit to neighbouring Arunachal

Pradesh, a region run by New Delhi but claimed by Beijing.

The Tibetan spiritual leader’s trip is expected to fuel tensions between India and China over strategic is-sues such as China’s growing ties with India’s arch-rival Pakistan.

China claims the region in the eastern Himalayas as “South Tibet”.

The Dalai Lama told Reuters TV at the airport in the Assam city of Guwahati that his visit was to pro-mote religious harmony.

He said he was happy to be back in a region that revived his memo-ries of escape from Tibet in 1959, after a failed uprising against Chi-nese rule.

“I still feel the feeling of that time,” he said.

China said on Friday it was “res-olutely opposed” to the visit, and urged India to “avoid taking any ac-tions that would further complicate the border issue”.

An Indian government offi cial had earlier said on Friday that the Dalai Lama’s visit was religious, not political.

LATIN AMERICA


Workers take part in a protest against Labour and Social Security reform projects in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.

Doctors in Cuba removed a benign node from the vocal cords of Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, the Bolivian government said yesterday. Morales will remain in Cuba for at least two more days and will need about six days without speaking to fully recover, Rene Martinez, Minister of the Presidency, said on Telesur, in a television broadcast from Havana. Morales, 57, took off ice in the Andean country in 2006 and was elected to a third term as president in 2014. He said last year he may run for a fourth consecutive term in 2019 elections despite losing a referendum that would have reformed the country’s constitution to allow him to run again.

Tens of thousands of Brazilians returned to the streets Friday to protest reforms backed by President Michel Temer’s conservative government. Union members, students, teachers and leftist groups gathered late in the afternoon in central Sao Paulo to demonstrate, as similar protests took place nationwide in cities including Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte. Unions dubbed Friday’s protests a “warm-up” for a general strike set for April 28. “Today is another national day of demonstrations against the reform of the pension system, labour laws and all the attacks that the Temer government against the workers,” said Marcella Azevedo, who leads the Movement of Women in Struggle group.

A South Korean freighter with 24 crew on board is believed to have sunk in the Atlantic Ocean after issuing a distress call, the Uruguayan navy said yesterday. The Stella Daisy issued an emergency call on Friday shortly before noon local time, saying it was taking on water. Because the ship was far off the Uruguayan coast — some 2,000 nautical miles from Montevideo — the navy organised a search by four merchant ships in the area, spokesman Gaston Jaunsolo told AFP in Montevideo. He said the first ships to reach the scene had detected a “strong smell of fuel” and spotted debris, “an indication that the damaged ship had sunk,” the navy said.

Venezuela’s murder rate rose to an average 60 per day last year, up from about 45 per day in 2015, the attorney general’s off ice said on Friday, as a deep economic and political crisis exacerbated violence in the country. Off icial data put the murder rate at 70.1 per 100,000 inhabitants last year, up from 58 in 2015. Violent crime is one of the most pervasive anxieties for Venezuelans, especially in poor slums dominated by gangs and rife with guns. Numerous state security plans and disarmament drives in recent years have failed to curb violence given easy access to weapons, police participation in crime, and high levels of impunity in the nation of 30mn people.

Morales’ throat operation in Cuba deemed a success

Brazilians protest against Temer-backed reforms

Uruguay says missing Korean freighter sank

Venezuela murders soared to 60 each day in 2016

CONVALESCINGREJECTED DEBRIS SPOTTED CRIME

Caracas seeks to cool outrage on U-turn over congress annulmentReutersCaracas

Venezuela’s pro-govern-ment Supreme Court yesterday revoked its

controversial annulment of the opposition-led Congress amid international condemnation and protests against socialist Presi-dent Nicolas Maduro.

Unprecedented pressure from other Latin American nations and dissent within its own ranks appear to have been the catalyst for the court’s reversal of its own Wednesday ruling.

“This controversy is over,” Ma-duro said just after midnight to a specially convened state security committee that ordered the top court to reconsider.

The tribunal duly erased the two controversial judgements and its president, Maikel Moreno, met with both foreign envoys and journalists to explain the deci-sion, insisting there had never been any intention to strip the National Assembly of its powers.

While Maduro, 54, sought to cast developments as the achievement of a statesman re-solving a power confl ict beneath him, his foes said it was a hypo-critical row-back by an unpopu-lar government that had over-played its hand.

“You can’t pretend to just normalise the nation after car-rying out a ‘coup,’” said Julio

Borges, leader of the legislature.He said the ruling had merely

shown the world what Venezue-lans already knew — that Maduro had become a dictator.

Borges publicly tore up the court rulings this week, refused to attend the overnight security committee, which includes the heads of major institutions, and led an open-air meeting of the National Assembly in a Caracas square on Saturday.

Having already shot down most congressional measures since the opposition won control in 2015, the Supreme Court went further with its Wednesday deci-sion that it was taking over the legislature’s role because it was in “contempt” of the law.

Although scores of dissidents have been detained during Ma-duro’s four-year rule and the Na-tional Assembly stripped of pow-er anyway in practice, the court’s move was arguably the most ex-plicitly anti-democratic measure.

It galvanised Venezuela’s de-moralised and divided opposition coalition and brought a torrent of international condemnation and concern ranging from the United Nations and European Union to most major Latin American countries.

The Supreme Court’s fl ip-fl op may take the edge off protests but Maduro’s opponents at home and abroad will seek to maintain the pressure.

They are furious that authori-

ties thwarted a push for a refer-endum to recall Maduro last year and postponed local elections scheduled for 2016.

Now they are calling for next year’s presidential election to be brought forward and the delayed local polls to be held, confi dent the ruling Socialist Party would lose.

“It’s time to mobilise!” stu-dent David Pernia, 29, said in western San Cristobal city, add-ing Venezuelans were fed up with autocratic rule and economic hardship. “Women don’t have food for their children, people don’t have medicines.”

Hundreds of opposition sup-porters marched yesterday in Caracas, while South America’s MERCOSUR bloc was to meet in Argentina with most of its mem-bers unhappy at Venezuela.

The hemispheric Organization of American States (OAS) had a special session scheduled for to-morrow in Washington.

Even before this week’s events, OAS head Luis Almagro had been pushing for Venezuela’s suspen-sion but he is unlikely to garner the two-thirds support needed in the 34-nation block despite hardening sentiment toward Ma-duro round the region.

Venezuela still can count on support from fellow leftist allies and other small nations grate-ful for subsidised oil dating from the 1999-2013 rule of late leader Hugo Chavez.

Maduro accuses the United States of orchestrating a campaign to oust him and said he had been subject this week to a “political, media and diplomatic lynching.”

Some criticism even came from within government, with Attorney General Luisa Ortega rebuking the court in an ex-tremely rare show of dissent from a senior offi cial.

“It constitutes a rupture of the constitutional order,” she said in a speech on state television on Friday.

Pockets of protesters had blocked roads, chanted slogans and waved banners saying “No To Dictatorship” around Ven-ezuela on Friday, leading to some clashes with security forces.

Given past failures of opposi-tion street protests, it is unlikely there will be mass support for a new wave.

Rather, the opposition will be hoping ramped-up foreign pres-sure or a nudge from the powerful military may force Maduro’s hand.

“Venezuela’s grave situation remains the same,” opposition leader Henrique Capriles said, calling on the government to free jailed activists, allow humanitar-ian aid into Venezuela, call elec-tions and restore autonomy to congress.

Maduro will be hoping to ride out this week’s storm and there is no immediate threat to his grip on power.

The former bus driver, foreign minister and self-declared “son”

of Chavez, was narrowly elected president in 2013. His ratings have plummeted as Venezuelans strug-gle with an unprecedented eco-nomic crisis including food and medicine shortages plus the world’s highest infl ation. Critics blame a failing socialist system, whereas the government says its enemies are waging an “economic war.” The fall in oil prices since mid-2014 has exacerbated the crisis.

The Supreme Court’s move this week may have been partly motivated by fi nancial reasons.

The wording about taking over Assembly functions came in a ruling allowing Maduro to create joint oil ventures without con-gress’ approval.

That may have its genesis in the urgent need to raise money from oil partners to pay $3bn in bond maturities due this month,

analysts and sources say.The government, though, was

probably also seeking to further disempower the opposition as it made headway turning interna-tional opinion against Maduro.

During Chavez’s rule, the so-cialists were proud of their elec-toral legitimacy after repeatedly winning votes so increased ques-tioning of their democratic cre-dentials stings.

Venezuelans living in Peru and other protesters take part in a rally against President Nicolas Maduro’s government outside the Venezuela embassy in Lima.

Colombia mudslides kill at least 112: presidentAFPBogota

Mudslides have killed 112 peo-ple, injured 180 and left up to 200 missing after destroying

homes in southern Colombia, the Red Cross and offi cials said yesterday.

The surge swept away houses, bridg-es, vehicles and trees, leaving piles of wrecked timber and brown mud, army photographs from the town of Mocoa showed.

The mudslides struck late Friday af-ter days of torrential rain.

President Juan Manuel Santos yester-day visited Mocoa, the capital of Putu-mayo department, to supervise rescue and assistance eff orts in the heavily for-ested region.

“I have just been informed that 112 people are dead,” he said. “We don’t know how many more there will be; we are still searching.”

Earlier, the Red Cross aid group’s res-cue offi cial Cesar Urena told AFP that 92 people were dead and 180 injured.

He warned that the death toll — ini-tially put at 16 — would probably rise further because 200 people were still missing.

“The number is rising enormously and at considerable speed,” he said. The dis-aster is of “large proportions,” he added.

Putumayo Governor Sorrel Aroca called the development “an unprec-edented tragedy” for the area. There are “hundreds of families we have not yet found and whole neighbourhoods have disappeared,” he told W Radio.

Carlos Ivan Marquez, director of the National Disaster Risk Management Unit, told AFP the mudslides were caused by the rise of the Mocoa River and tributaries.

The rivers fl ooded, causing a “big av-alanche,” the army said in a statement.

Some 130mm of rain fell on Friday night, Santos said.

“That means 30% of monthly rainfall fell last night, which precipitated a sud-den rise of several rivers,” he said.

He promised earlier on Twitter to “guarantee assistance to the victims of

this tragedy, which has Colombians in mourning.”

“Our prayers are with the victims and those aff ected,” he added.

The authorities activated a crisis group including more than 100 local offi cials, military personnel, police and

rescuers to search for missing people and begin removing mountains of de-bris, Marquez said.

Mocoa, a town of 40,000 people, was left without power or running water.

“There are lots of people in the streets, lots of people displaced and

many houses have collapsed,” retired Mocoa resident Hernando Rodriguez, 69, said by telephone.

“People do not know what to do...there were no preparations” made for such a disaster, he said. “We are just scarcely re-alising what has happened to us.”

Several deadly landslides have struck Colombia in recent months.

A landslide in November killed nine people in the southwestern rural town of El Tambo, offi cials said at the time.

A landslide the month before killed 10 people in the north of the country.

People help carry a woman after mudslides following heavy rains, in Mocoa, Putumayo department.

Protester killed in Paraguay clashesReutersAsuncionb1

A protester was killed in Paraguay after a secret Senate vote for a consti-

tutional amendment that would allow President Horacio Cartes to run for re-election sparked violent clashes and the country’s Congress was stormed and set alight.

Rodrigo Quintana, 25, was killed by a rubber bullet fi red by police in the headquarters of the liberal youth activist group, the Paraguayan opposition said.

The interior ministry said in a statement an investigation into Quintana’s death would be opened.

His doctor said he had suf-fered a severe head injury.

Activists were arriving yester-day in Paraguay’s capital Asun-cion from the landlocked coun-try’s interior in a sign the violent protests that resulted in a fi re in the fi rst fl oor of Congress on Fri-day could continue.

Cartes called for calm and a rejection of violence in a state-ment released on Twitter.

He promised the government would do its best to maintain order.

Firefi ghters managed to con-trol the fl ames after protesters left the building late on Friday, although protests and riots con-tinued in other parts of Asuncion and elsewhere in the country into the early hours of Saturday.

Around 200 protesters were detained, police said, and shops and government buildings were vandalised.

Several politicians and jour-nalists were injured, local media reported, and Interior Minister Tadeo Rojas said several police were hurt.

One member of the lower house of Congress, who had been participating in protests that af-ternoon, underwent surgery after being hit by rubber bullets.

PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN23Gulf Times


Military courts get Pakistanpresident’s nod

Pakistani President Mam-noon Hussain yesterday gave his approval to the

revival of military courts for an-other two years with eff ect from January 7, more than two months after a tug of war between the government and opposition par-ties over the way of their func-tioning.

The government says the re-vival was imperative keeping in view the recent spate of terror-ism in the country.

The president’s spokesman said: “President Mamnoon Hus-sain on Saturday gave his formal assent to the Pakistan Army Act 2017 and the 23rd Constitutional Amendment Bill.”

Both pieces of legislation are aimed at granting legal cover to the military courts for trying ci-vilians charged with terrorism.

The president also approved the Inquiry Commission Bill 2017, paving the way for the for-mation of the commission to in-vestigate any matter.

When the military courts bill was tabled in parliament it was titled the 23rd Constitution Amendment Bill, but now it will be called the 28th Constitution Amendment Bill.

The Senate passed the bill on March 22, a day after it was ap-proved by the National Assem-bly with 255 votes in favour and four against, exceeding the two-thirds majority required for its passage.

Giving reasons for the revival of military courts, the 23rd Con-stitution Amendment Bill said: “An extraordinary situation and circumstances still exist which demand continuation of the special measures adopted for expeditious disposal of certain off ences.

“The Constitution (Twenty-

fi rst Amendment) Act, 2015 was passed (with a sunset clause of two years) enabling trial under the Pakistan Army Act, 1952 for expeditious disposal of cases re-lated to terrorism.

These measures have yielded positive results in combating terrorism.

It is, therefore, proposed to continue these special meas-ures for a further period of two years through this Constitution Amendment Bill.”

The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl lawmakers abstained from voting on the bill, saying they had reservations over its legal language, especially the phrase “terrorism in the name of reli-gion”.

The government and the op-position had until recently struggled to reach a consensus on the courts’ revival despite frequent discussions.

The primary concern of crit-ics was the mystery surround-ing military court trials: no one knows who the convicts are, what charges have been brought against them, or what their de-fence is against the allegations levelled.

The government and opposi-tion parties have decided that it will be the last two-year exten-sion for the military courts and formed a high-powered parlia-mentary committee compris-ing parliamentary leaders of all

parties to oversee the govern-ment’s efforts over the much-demanded judicial reforms to make the existing judicial system stronger to deal with terrorism-related cases and to monitor the National Action Plan and other issues pertain-ing to national security.

The government held a series of meetings on the issue mainly because of reservations ex-pressed by the main opposition Pakistan Peoples Party which stuck to its stance that since the term of the present government will be over in May 2018, the extension of military courts for two years (beyond 2018) will be illogical.

Secondly, the PPP was of the view that like in the past, mili-tary courts should be presided over by a sessions judge who would be assisted by an addi-tional sessions judge.

However, the party later with-drew its both demands, thus paving the way for the revival of military courts.

The Pakistan Commission of Inquiry Act 2017 signed by the president was tabled by the government in the Senate in the wake of the Panamagate contro-versy last year.

The bill was introduced after former chief justice Anwar Za-heer Jamali refused to form a

“toothless” inquiry commis-sion on Panamagate under the Pakistan Commission of Inquiry Act 1956.

Earlier this month, the Senate passed the bill with four amend-ments, one of which makes it mandatory for the government to make the commission’s report public within 30 days of its sub-mission.

The bill was presented in the National Assembly for a sec-ond time after the Senate made amendments to it.

It was passed by the assembly last week.

InternewsIslamabad

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Friday imposed a fine of Rs1mn on Hum TV for airing “objection-able clips” in one of its drama series. According to the Pemra press release, after a number of complaints from the public, a show-cause notice was sent to Hum TV on February 20, 2017, seeking an explanation within seven days. After hearing Hum TV’s representatives, analysing their written reply and reviewing the objectionable clips, a personal hearing committee unanimously agreed that the content was in violation of the clauses 3(1)(a), 3(1)(e), 12 and 17 of the Elec-tronic Media (Programmes and Advertisements) Code of Conduct, 2015. “On account of the airing of the episode Chew Gum in the drama serial Kitni Girhein Baqi Hein having indecent content... a fine of Rs1,000,000 is imposed on Hum TV, payable within three weeks from the issuance of this decision,” said the press release. It added that the channel was also warned to be more vigilant in the selection of the theme of its dramas or soaps, keeping in view the provisions of the Electronic Media (Programmes and Adver-tisements) Code of Conduct 2015, socio-cultural norms and values of the country.

At least 15 shops were gutted as fire erupted in Lahore’s famous Anarkali Bazaar early yesterday, off icials said. According to Dawn online, firefighters took seven hours to douse the flames that en-gulfed six buildings in the market. An electrical short circuit in one of the buildings likely caused the fire. No loss of life or injuries were re-ported. However, traders claimed they incurred losses of tens of millions of rupees. A rescue off icial said a huge amount of firecrack-ers and decoration material was stored in the burnt shops and godowns.

The Pakistani authorities relaxed the movement at Torkham border crossing for three days and asked the stranded truck owners to leave for Afghanistan and return within three days. Torkham pass-port off icial, Shamsul Islam, said that they had asked the transport-ers to transport goods to Afghani-stan and re-enter Pakistan in three days. He said the relaxation was given to drivers of those loaded trucks waiting for the last three weeks to leave for Afghanistan.The off icial said they would again tighten the movement at the bor-der crossing after three days and would not allow anyone without valid passport and Afghan visa.He said truckers would be allowed to cross the border after showing their computerised national iden-tity cards to the border authorities. Meanwhile, hundreds of loaded trucks transporting diff erent goods to Afghanistan started moving to avoid further losses. Sources said the Torkham border would remain open till 10pm for three days to facilitate the truckers to let them enter Afghanistan.

Hum TV fined Rs1mn for airing objectionable clips

Over dozen shops gutted in Lahore fire

Pak-Afghan border movement relaxed for 3 days

MEDIA

DISASTER

FACILITY

A girl shows one side of a commemorative coin in Islamabad, Pakistan, on March 31. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday issued 50,000 coins of Rs50 to commemorate the services for humanity rendered by Pakistan’s most respected philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi, who passed away at the age of 92 in Karachi on July 8, 2016.

Commemorative coin

Mamnoon Hussain

UN approves $36mn to mitigateclimate change eff ects in Pakistan

Polio refusal by literates baffl es offi cials

The UN-led Green Cli-mate Fund (GCF) has approved US$36mn for

the second phase of the glacial lake outburst fl oods (GLOFs) project to mitigate the climate change risks in Gilgit-Baltistan in north of Pakistan.

Gilgit-Baltistan Environ-mental Protection Agency (GBEPA) project director Shah-zad Shigri said on completion of the fi rst phase of the GLOF project, GCF had approved $36mn for its second phase.

He said that GB was sensitive area for environmental impacts on livelihood, adding the peo-ple were vulnerable to climate change risks as the region had witnessed increased frequency

in GLOF incidents.GBEPA would take various

steps for implementation and adoption of the GLOF project`s phase two, said Shigri, add-ing training sessions would be organised to create awareness about impacts of climate change and GLOF on the people.

“An early warning system about glacial outbursts will be installed at various locations; safe havens for residents living in low lying areas will be estab-lished; bridges and protective walls will be constructed along the banks of rivers and streams under the project,” he explained.

The 4-year climate change adoption project titled “Reduc-ing Risks and Vulnerabilities from Glacial Lake Outburst Floods” in northern Pakistan costing $3.7mn had been launched in Gilgit and Chitral in October 2015.

The project was aimed at de-veloping human and technical capacity of public institutions to understand and address im-mediate GLOF risks for vulner-able communities.

Under the project the early warning system of GLOF had been installed in Bagrot valley of Gilgit.

Shigri maintained that GB witnessed increase in average temperatures in recent years, saying as per the data collected from seven machines installed at diff erent locations in the re-gion, a .68 centigrade increase had been witnessed in temper-ature in GB from 1984 to 2013.

Meanwhile, GBLA Speaker Fida Nashad, Deputy Speaker Jaff arullah, minister Dr Iqbal and legislators from opposition and treasury benches visited GL OF project in Bagrot yesterday.

Educated people refusing to vaccinate their children during polio campaigns

across Pakistan is an unfortunate situation, an offi cial has said.

A large number of educated people did not want to vaccinate their children during the recent polio drive here, Dawn online quoted Additional Deputy Com-missioner Abdul Sattar Isani as saying.

He said all possible steps would be taken to ensure that every child was administered the polio drops.

Cases were registered against those who refused to get their

children vaccinated, he said.Senator Ayesha Raza Fa-

rooq, the focal person on po-lio eradication in Pakistan, said she was against register-ing cases as administration of polio vaccine was a continu-ous process.

She requested the media to play a role in creating awareness about polio vaccination and that it is safe.

Samples collected from Is-lamabad and Rawalpindi were found positive for the poliovirus. A special polio campaign was launched on March 27 in the high risk areas.

“It was strange that we faced a strong resistance from even well-educated people. Though they did not have religious rea-

sons but were not in favour of vaccinating their children,” a campaign offi cial said.

“A majority of them claimed that they had administered the polio drops privately but failed to produce a vaccination card or certifi cate,” he said.

According to the offi cial, the team faced an awkward situa-tion when a deputy secretary of a ministry refused to administer polio drops to his children.

“A well-known doctor, who works in a private hospital, was involved in asking citizens not to administer polio drops to chil-dren.

According to Isani, some people believe that they should administer polio drops to their children privately.

InternewsIslamabad

AgenciesIslamabad

Prince Charles thanks Pakistani surgeon for treating terror victims

The Prince of Wales has thanked a Pakistani con-sultant neurosurgeon for

treating the victims of West-minster terrorism attack by Kahlid Masood.

Neurosurgeon Dr Irfan Ma-lik, a graduate from Nishter Medical College, led the team of doctors and staff at the King’s College who treated the injured patients who were brought to the hospital minutes after ter-rorist Khalid Masood hit pe-destrians on the Westminster Bridge on his suicide mission.

Dr Malik was the senior team leader and surgeon on call that day when the terrorist attack unfolded around the Palace of Westminster.

At least 50 people were in-jured who required treatment at hospitals across central London, mainly at King’s Col-lege because of its reputation as “trauma centre”. The Prince of Wales visited King’s College Hospital in London to meet the injured to boost their morale and met the hospital staff who treated and looked after the victims.

Speaking to Geo News at the King’s College, Dr Irfan Malik said that he felt proud

and that, as a Pakistani doc-tor, he was able to help victims of terrorism and play his part in getting the victims back on their feet.

Dr Irfan Malik, who also treated Army Public School student Mohamed Ibrahim Khan at the Harley Street Clin-ic last year, said that the West-minster terror attack was a “se-rious incident” in which the car of Kahlid Masood had “hit the pedestrians with high impact” and caused “serious brain and spine injuries including long bone injuries”.

He told Geo News, “It was a chaotic situation and patients who were brought in through air ambulance were injured seriously. Most of the injuries were of spine and brain.”

Speaking about his experi-ence of meeting the Prince of Wales, Dr Irfan Malik shared that he was told by the hospi-tal management that someone “important” was coming to see the patients and also to meet the staff to thank them for their role.

“I was told that the Prince would like to meet the sur-geons who treated the patients and my name was put forward. When we met him, his highness appreciated us for our role and he made inquiries about the in-cident.

The Prince of Wales was very happy that we supported the patients.”

Dr Irfan Malik said that he felt proud that he was original-ly trained in Pakistan but now serving in London.

He said that Pakistanis knew very well how terrorism im-pacted lives.

He said that “unfortunately Pakistan has been a victim of terrorism and its name is asso-ciated with terrorism.”

He said he was helping the injured victims so they could go back to work and take control of their lives.

He said that the patients were being looked after well and some would stay in the hospital for long.

Dr Irfan Malik said that as soon as the terror attack was over, he was informed that a major incident had happened and that they should be pre-pared to deal with a lot of casu-alties.

“We got the wards ready immediately to admit the patients. Some were rushed in operation theatre imme-diately because they needed emergency treatment. We are always prepared for such situ-ations as we go through dem-onstrations routinely to deal with such emergency situa-tions.”

InternewsIslamabad

Fears of acute water shortage subside

Fears of an acute water shortage in Pakistan dur-ing the Kharif cropping

season have subsided as the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) now believes that the wa-ter shortfall will be limited to April only.

At a meeting of Irsa’s advi-sory committee on Saturday, its chairperson Syed Mazhar Ali Shah concluded that while there would be an 18 per cent wa-ter shortfall in the early Kharif weeks it would be limited to April and would be followed by an upturn.

“Overall, there would be no water shortage,” spokesperson Khalid Idrees Rana said.

The Kharif cropping season starts in April-June and lasts un-til October-December in various parts of the country.

Rice, sugarcane, cotton, maize and mash are some of the key crops of the season.

Sharing details about wa-ter availability in the coming months, Rana said total water availability at rim stations was estimated at 110mn acre feet (MAF) during the entire Kharif season, starting on April 1 and ending in October.

Of this, 23.63 MAF would be available in the early season and 82.2 MAF in the latter half of Kharif.

The meteorological depart-ment’s director general told the committee that there would be cloud streams in the early part of April, but overall tempera-tures would rise by two degrees centigrade.“Based on this fore-cast, Irsa believes that the snow will start melting quite early and contribute positively to the river fl ows.”

In response to a question about Irsa’s previous estimates

of 35% water shortfall, the spokesperson said that estimate was history.

It was based on the situation in the second week of March.

He said the shortage in the last two weeks of March was man-aged by the provinces through prudent utilisation.

After setting aside 10.7 MAF water to fl ow downstream Ko-tri and conveyance losses, there would be 67 MAF for distribu-tion among the provinces for ir-rigation.

Rana said earlier estimates of 35-40% losses by the technical committee had been trimmed down to a maximum of 35% loss in early Kharif weeks.

From the quantity of water available for distribution among the provinces, Punjab would get 33.23 MAF, Sindh 30.39 MAF, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 0.82 MAF and Balochistan 2.6 MAF.

The committee decided with consensus that the provincial

indents for water releases would be met.

Rana said that Balochistan had complained about a water shortage at its Kirthar and Ga-rang stations.

Sindh then agreed to postpone the closing of its canals from Sukkur and Guddu barrages to April 5 instead of April 1 to com-pensate Balochistan in the short term.

The advisory committee decid-ed that in the long term, Sindh and Balochistan would jointly moni-tor discharges from Kirthar and Garang regulation stations during Kharif under the supervision of the water regulator.

The committee also allowed Punjab to reopen the canals from Trimmu and Punjnad, which it had closed in the middle of March.

The province was also al-lowed to utilise 5,000 cusecs from Chashma downstream and Taunsa.

InternewsIslamabad

PHILIPPINES

Gulf TimesSunday, April 2, 201724

Rebels agree to discuss ceasefi re with govt at talksAFPManila

Communist rebels waging one of the world’s long-est-running insurgencies

in the Philippines say they are willing to discuss a formal cease-fi re proposed by the government in upcoming talks in the Nether-lands.

The insurgency began in 1968 in the poverty-stricken country, and has claimed an estimated 30,000 lives according to the military. The meeting, starting today, will be the fourth round of talks between the National Democratic Front and Manila, which have been on and off for 30 years but were restarted by President Rodrigo Duterte after he took offi ce last June.

The government has billed a permanent ceasefi re as its pri-mary goal, though a week of negotiations on the outskirts of Rome in January ended without such a deal.

“The (front) believes it is pos-sible at the soonest time to have a bilateral ceasefi re agreement,” chief rebel negotiator Fidel Ag-caoili said in a statement issued from his exile in the Netherlands late Friday.

He said the rebel negotiating team was “willing to be fl exible and is open to discussing with its counterpart what kind of bi-lateral ceasefi re agreement is de-sired by the (government)”.

However, chief government negotiator Silvestre Bello said

Friday he expected the week’s talks to be “very diffi cult and ex-acting”, with no guarantees for a breakthrough.

The National Democratic Front is made up of several groups, the most prominent of which is the Communist Party of the Philippines, whose guerrilla unit is the 4,000-strong New People’s Army (NPA).

Duterte, a self-described so-cialist who once boasted of his

links to the communist rebels, has made a peace deal with the movement one of his top pri-orities. After taking offi ce he released captured rebel leaders and both sides declared sepa-rate temporary ceasefi res to pave the way for peace talks, the fi rst round of which Norway hosted and mediated in August.

But the fi ery leader was seen to have jeopardised the peace process in February, angrily call-

ing off talks after the guerrillas killed several soldiers and police in a series of attacks.

Norway convinced the two parties to return to the negotiat-ing table following informal talks held in the Dutch city of Utrecht last month.

Bello said Duterte wanted as the fi rst item on the April 2-6 agenda a negotiated ceasefi re leading to the “lowering or end-ing of hostilities”. The two sides

said today’s meeting, originally scheduled for Oslo, will be held in the Dutch town of Noordwijk, which is close to Utrecht where rebel negotiator Agcaoili and some of the senior leaders of the insurgency live in exile.

As well as a possible ceasefi re, both sides are expected to dis-cuss a raft of socio-economic reforms that Bello described as “the heart and soul of the peace process”.

Move to rename marine zone after China shows interestReutersManila

The Philippines said yes-terday it was planning to change the name of

a stretch of water east of the country in a bid to highlight its sovereignty over the area, which was surveyed recently by a Chinese vessel.

A Chinese survey ship was tracked for several months late last year moving around Benham Rise — declared part of the Philippines’ continental shelf in 2012 by the United Na-tions, stirring concern in Ma-nila about Beijing’s possible intentions.

China says the ship was simply passing through the area and was not engaged in any other activity, and the country’s foreign minister said last week China fully re-spects the Philippines’ mari-time area rights over Benham Rise.

Manila said yesterday it wanted to rename the area, which is roughly the size of Greece and believed by some scientists to be rich in biodi-versity and tuna, “Philippine Rise”.

“A motion has been made subject to the conduct of the requisite legal and logistical study to eff ect the change,”

presidential spokesman Er-nesto Abella said in a state-ment.

The president ordered the foreign ministry and ex-ecutive secretary’s offices to study changing the ter-ritory’s name to emphasise Philippine sovereign rights, he said. Territorial rows with China have usually centred on the South China Sea, west of the Philippines, a conduit for about $5tn of shipped goods annually.

China lays claim to almost the entire South China Sea.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who has sought a warm rela-tionship with Beijing follow-ing years of territorial spats under the previous president, ordered the navy to put up “structures” in Benham Rise to assert sovereignty over the area.

He has come under pres-sure of late for what critics say is a defeatist stance, accusing him of turning a blind eye to China’s island-building in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines and its activities at Benham Rise.

A Senate hearing this week revealed China sought permis-sion two years ago to survey Benham Rise, but the request was rejected because it would not let Philippine experts take part.

Protesters hold up placards as members and supporters of an underground Communist movement march along a street in Manila on Friday. Placards read: “Rejoice on victory of the Second Congress of the Communist Party of the Philippines.”

Duterte invites EU critics, wants to ‘slap them’ReutersManila

Philippines’ President Rod-rigo Duterte lashed out on Friday at European Union

critics of his bloody anti-nar-cotics campaign, threatening to “slap” them.

It is the latest of the leader’s near-daily diatribe against the United States, EU and the United Nations while heaping praise on China and Russia.

“Come here and we will talk because I want to slap you,” Duterte said in a speech during celebrations of Women’s Day at the presidential palace late on Friday.

Duterte scoff ed at the bloc for recommending the Philippines build “clinics around like in oth-er countries, and give shabu, co-caine and heroin like in Holland.”

The Southeast Asian leader lashed out on the EU last week for hypocrisy and called the bloc “sons of *******” for recom-

mending a rehabilitation-cen-tred solution to the drugs prob-lem.

More than 8,000 people have been killed since Duterte took power on June 30 last year, with police taking responsibility for a third of those deaths, citing self-defence during anti-narcotics operations.

The government rejects local and international human rights groups’ allegations that police are involved in thousands of mysterious deaths.

Duterte castigated the EU for believing reports of non-government groups that tag the leader for the killings. “Even if it’s just epilepsy, they count it against me,” he said, to the laughter of the crowd.

Duterte boasted of his new-found friendship with China, which had been embroiled in a territorial spat with the Philip-pines before Duterte took offi ce.

As for Russia, Duterte said he plans to make it the trade gate-way for Eastern Europe. President Rodrigo Duterte greets female supporters at the Malacanang Palace during the “Digong’s Day for Women” event.

Arroyo seeks eff orts for constitutional overhaulBy Llanesca T PantiManila Times

Former president and now Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of Pampanga has

called on fellow Charter change advocates to take advantage of the Duterte administration’s strong mandate and push hard for a constitutional overhaul, but said the presidency must be retained whatever form of gov-ernment is chosen.

Arroyo, who is being eyed by President Rodrigo Duterte to head a

25-man commission to study amendments to the 1987 Con-stitution, made the call in a speech before the Philippine Constitution Association (Phil-consa) Thursday night, as she recalled her administration’s multi-track eff orts to amend Charter.

“Now that our very popular president has pushed for feder-alism, I hope the Charter change advocates will sustain their de-

votion to Constitutional revi-sion as well as during my time,” said Arroyo, who was president from 2001 to 2010.

Arroyo acknowledged that suspicions of term extensions were the biggest stumbling blocks in her own bid to amend the Constitution, which, she said, the current proponents should avoid.

“In sum, the proponents should stress to the public that elections would not be can-celled, and that even in a par-liamentary system, they would still vote for the president. They should avoid semantic arguments on whether the pro-posal was parliamentary with a president or presidential with a unicameral congress,” Arroyo said.

Arroyo noted that prior to her term, the Philippines missed the boat for Charter change twice: fi rst during the time of Presi-dent Fidel Ramos with the “Pir-ma” signature drive and second during the term of President Joseph Estrada, who formed

a preparatory commission on constitutional reform and launched the “Constitutional Correction for Development” or Concord campaign.

Arroyo said she and her allies failed despite various initia-tives to pursue Charter change, namely: people’s initiative or signature drive, a constituent assembly with Congress con-

vening in joint session to amend the Charter, and a constitution-al convention in which voters elect delegates.

The people’s initiative was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2006, in a close 8-7 vote because of the lack of an enabling law and be-cause it was going to be used for a wholesale, rather than partial,

revision of the Charter, she said.Plans for either a constitu-

ent assembly or constitutional convention never took off be-cause of upheavals such as the “Edsa 3” uprising over Estrada’s ouster and Arroyo’s takeover in 2001; the 2003 Oakwood rebel-lion in Makati; the scandal over alleged fraud during the 2004 presidential elections dur-ing which Arroyo was recorded conversing with a poll offi cial; and the death of former Presi-dent Corazon Aquino in August 2009 that generated public cla-mour for her son Sen. Benigno Aquino to run for president.

On top of this, Arroyo had to fend off fi ve impeachment com-plaints.

Arroyo was hopeful the shift to a federal form of government – under which the country would be divided into 11 states with taxation and other powers – would succeed under the Du-terte administration.

“Before he ran for president, he (Duterte) burst into the na-tional scene advocating fed-

eralism. His landslide victory shows that the public response to Charter change is positive,” Arroyo said. On Friday, Inte-rior and Local Government Secretary Ismael Sueno said federalism, not the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) to expand the powers of the Mus-lim autonomous region, would solve peace and security prob-lems in Mindanao.

“Everyone agrees that the so-lution to confl ict in Mindanao is federalism,” Sueno told report-ers. “BBL is not the solution. In fact, most educated Muslim leaders are also not in favour of BBL and even the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) does not agree (with BBL),” he added.

Sueno said federalism would be able to fast-track Mindanao’s development.

“BBL might trigger some problems if this will be passed in the Congress. With federalism, it will be able to garner resourc-es and even develop Mindanao in terms of its economy,” Sueno noted.

‘Weak’ poll protest delaying caseBy Llanesca T PantiManila Times

Former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s “weak” elec-tion protest against Vice

President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo is delaying the case, Robredo’s camp has said.

Lawyer Romulo Macalintal, lead counsel for Robredo, made the stance in response to accu-sations of the Marcos camp that the vice president was resorting to delaying tactics.

Robredo had fi led a motion for reconsideration on the Presi-dential Electoral Tribunal (PET) decision fi nding Marcos’ protest suffi cient in form and substance.

Macalintal argued that for one, Marcos failed to comply with tribunal rules that require a detailed specifi cation of the acts or omissions showing election fraud and irregularities.

Macalintal noted that while Marcos protested results in at least 662 municipalities in vari-ous provinces, he only made de-tailed specifi cation of fraud in 57 municipalities.

“Detailed specifi cation means that Marcos should specifi cally allege in his protest who, what, where or when these acts were committed. If Marcos only fi led a strong and meritorious election protest with full compliance with the rules on the substance or evi-dence to be alleged in the com-plaint, we would not have any ground to question his apparent haphazardly prepared election protest,” Macalintal said.

“Marcos is the very root or cause why his complaint is still at the preliminary stage. Let it be of record that it is not a matter of a delayed action on Marcos’ election protest but mainly a matter of a very weak and frivo-lous case he presented before the PET,” Macalintal added.

Macalintal also said Marcos was bordering on questioning the PET’s competence because of repeated accusations that Ro-bredo was delaying the protest.

“Vice President Robredo, as a lawyer, knows that we should not resort to any act that would give the impression that we are delaying its resolution to show our respect to the members of the PET, thus she gave us her strict instruction to comply with all its rules,” Macalintal said.

Arroyo: backing charter change

SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL/MALDIVES25


3 killed in Bangladesh raid on militant den

Three people includ-ing a woman were killed when Bangla-

desh security forces stormed an Islamist militant hide-out yesterday, police said, as the Muslim-majority nation

fi ghts to contain a wave of extremist attacks.

The incident was the latest battle against militants in re-cent days, which have involved hostage-taking, deadly explo-sions and gunfi ghts at multiple hideouts in several locations in northeastern areas of the country.

Yesterday’s assault saw a SWAT team enter a duplex in Moulvibazar town that they had surrounded since Wednes-day, pitting police against what they believe is a new militant faction.

The head of the counter-terrorism unit Monirul Islam

told reporters that it was not clear if the people they discov-ered dead inside had died from police fi re, or if they had blown themselves up.

Police said those inside were from a new wing of an extrem-ist group that the government has blamed for a wave of deadly attacks targeting foreigners and religious minorities in recent years, including an attack last year on a Dhaka cafe where 22 people, mostly foreigners, were killed by armed terrorists.

The Islamic State group has taken credit for the bomb attacks but the government has rejected the claim and instead blamed

the banned homegrown Islamist organisation, Jamayetul Muja-hideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Eight people, including women, were found dead af-ter a police raid earlier this week in a nearby house, which is owned by the same person as the property in yesterday’s incident – a British citizen of Bangladesh-origin.

Last week army commandos stormed a fi ve-storey building in the nearby city of Sylhet to free dozens of hostages, triggering a violent three-day stand-off .

At least four militants died and another six people, includ-ing two police offi cers, were

killed when two bombs went off near a crowd watching the operation.

One of the explosions fatally injured the intelligence chief of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) – the elite force which has been at the forefront of the country’s fi ght against Islamist militancy – a big blow to the security forces.

“One of the bodies (found in Moulvibazar town) was of the man who most possibly led the Sylhet bomb attacks,” Islam said.

Since the Dhaka cafe attack, security forces have launched a nationwide crackdown on Is-lamist extremist groups, killing around 65 suspected militants.

The incident is the latest battle against militants in recent days, which include hostage-taking, deadly explosions and gunfights at multiple hideouts in several locations

AFPDhaka

Lanka court stops jumbo fl ying to N Zealand

A Sri Lankan baby el-ephant gifted to New Zealand has been pre-

vented from leaving the South Asian island after animal ac-tivists said it was cruel to sep-arate her from her family.

Six-year-old Nandi was bequeathed to former New Zealand prime minister John Key by President Maithri-pala Sirisena at a meeting in Colombo in February 2016 to mark “excellent bilateral rela-tions” between the two coun-tries.

New Zealand vets had vis-ited Sri Lanka last year to pre-pare Nandi for the journey to Auckland Zoo.

But animal rights activists have since intervened, arguing against moving the elephant to a foreign country where she will likely fi nd it diffi cult to be separated from her family and adapt to the new climate.

The group of 18 secured a temporary victory on Fri-day when a Sri Lankan court was assured by the state that Nandi would not be fl own out of the country pending a fi -nal decision on the case next month.

“Sri Lankan elephants have very strong family ties and to take away a child is a sin,” Omalpe Sobitha, a Buddhist monk and one of the activists, said.

He added that the animal may not be able to cope with

the cold weather in Auckland, where mean annual tempera-tures of around 15 degrees Celsius (59 Fahrenheit) would come as a shock to a calf used to the tropical 27 degree aver-age in Sri Lanka.

“We have an assurance from the court yesterday (Friday) that Nandi will not be taken out of the country until the case is concluded,” he said.

Born and raised in a 93-strong herd in a coconut grove at an orphanage in cen-tral Sri Lanka, Nandi is the second baby elephant to be presented to New Zealand in a year after a female baby An-jalee was sent to Auckland Zoo in 2015.

Key told Sirisena at their meeting last February that Anjalee had gained 700kg (1,540 pounds) in one year and that it was “loving its life in New Zealand and I am sure its friend (Nandi) will have such a good time as well in New Zea-land”.

Sri Lanka has a long history of giving elephants as presents – China has been gifted three over the years, and two each for Japan, South Korea, the Czech Republic and the Unit-ed States.

AFPColombo

“We have an assurance from the court yesterday (Friday) that Nandi will not be taken out of the country until the case is concluded”India, Nepal to

sign pact on transit cargo movement

India and Nepal will soon sign a memorandum of intent (MoI) to facilitate a pilot run for the movement of traff ic-in-transit.“An MoI on India-Nepal Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS) pilot run will soon be signed by India and Nepal to facilitate movement of traff ic-in-transit belonging to Nepal from the port of arrival in India to Nepal. The pilot aims to demonstrate the benefits, especially in terms of reduced costs, of the ECTS system,” the Indian finance ministry said in a statement on Thursday.Currently clearance is done through physical inspection which is time consuming as well as costly. The MoI will include the use of ECTS to follow the cargo (containers and full-body trucks) as it moves from the port of arrival through India, to the Nepal border. The ECTS will lead to reduced cost and save time as it speeds up cargo clearance at border crossings. The ECTS uses technology such as satellite positioning systems, cellular communications, radio frequency (RF) identification, web-based software and others, to ensure the security of the cargo and avoid any interference in transit. The pilot project will be supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the South Asia Subregional Economic Co-operation (SASEC) Trade Facilitation Strategic Framework, and its success will serve as the basis for its use in other SASEC corridors as well as in inland movement of cargo. ECTS pilots have already been done along the Kolkata-Jaigaon-Phuentsholing route between India and Bhutan, and for inland trans-shipment in India.

Nepalese youths queue up to file the application forms for enrolment in “Myadi Prahari”, the temporary security force for upcoming local elections in Kathmandu yesterday. Nepal is scheduled to hold local-level election on May 14 for the first time in 19 years.

Recruitment for poll security staff

Maldives opposition decries ‘ramped up crackdown’

The Maldives opposition alliance has denounced the governments “new

campaign of intimidation and harassment against op-position leaders” after a failed bid to impeach the speaker of parliament.

Speaker Abdulla Maseeh was accused of allowing President Abdulla Yameen to control the parliament and prevent-ing the institution from hold-ing the government and state institutions accountable.

After a no-confi dence mo-

tion against Maseeh was de-feated earlier this week (March 27), fresh terror charges were raised against former president Mohamed Nasheed.

Former president Abdul Gayoom was expelled from ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), the party he founded; and former defence minister Mohamed Nazim was abruptly taken back to jail, re-ported Maldives Independent yesterday.

Jumhooree Party (JP) leader Qasim Ibrahim and his deputy, MP Abdulla Riyaz, were interro-gated by the police whilst jailed member of parliament (MP) Ahmed Mahloof was deprived

of his weekly phone call, family meeting and conjugal visit for one month.

“This week’s crackdown ap-pears to be an attempt by the President to eff ectively crimi-nalise the political opposition and thwart any attempts by the parliament to hold the president and his regime accountable,” the opposition alliance said in a joint statement on Friday.

Ahead of the no-confi dence vote, former presidents Gayoom and Nasheed along with JP leader Gasim and Adhaalath Party leader Sheikh Imran Ab-dulla had signed a pact “to unite against President Yameen’s increasing authoritarianism.”

The grand coalition sought to dismantle the pro-government parliamentary majority with the bid to remove speaker Maseeh, said the report.

Hours after the vote, the eth-ics committee of the PPM ex-pelled Gayoom from the party, accusing him of “working with the opposition to overthrow the lawful government.”

But Gayoom, who is in India visiting a sick relative, disputed the legal standing of the ethics committee, which he had sus-pended in October at the height of the PPM’s leadership dispute.

According to the PPM’s charter, the party’s president can only be dismissed if a two-

thirds majority of delegates at a national conference votes in favour of a no-confi dence motion.

The PPM yesterday said that loss of any one person is no obstacle to the party’s work, referring to Gayoom ouster.

On Thursday, the civil court ordered the police to shut down the “offi ce of the PPM presi-dent” set up by Gayoom in Hen-veiru Thema and to stop any activity being carried out under the party’s name with the PPM fl ag and logo.

On Friday evening, po-lice offi cers broke the pad-lock on the gate and re-moved the PPM nameplate

and fl ag from Gayoom’s offi ce.Fresh terrorism charges were

also fi led against former presi-dent Nasheed over the military’s nine-day “protective custody” of then-MP Yameen in 2010.

On Friday night, Abdul Sat-tar, secretary general of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), was also summoned for questioning at the police head-quarters.

Sattar said the police inter-rogated him over a tweet from the MDP’s offi cial account that urged opposition support-ers to gather near the police headquarters in solidarity with Gasim when he was summoned for questioning.

IANSMale

Bangladeshi youths who were released by Indian authorities wait for repatriation at the international immigration checkpost in Hili, South Dinajpur district of India’s West Bengal state yesterday.

Waiting for repatriationSaima is made WHO Champion for Autism

Saima Wazed Hossain, chairperson of Bangla-desh National Advisory

Committee for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disor-ders, and daughter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has been designated as WHO Champion for Autism in South East Asia region.

WHO regional offi ce for South East Asia, located in New Delhi, made the announcement yesterday on the occasion of World Autism Day observed worldwide on April 2 every year.

The UN agency said, as WHO Champion, she will be support-ing its advocacy with 11 mem-ber-countries of the region for inclusion of the issue in national policies and strategies.

This is to promote WHO’s mental health initiatives and strengthen research and evi-dence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) for more fo-cused interventions to address the suff ering of children with

the disorder, as well as their parents and caregivers.

“Saima (Wazed) Hossain’s dedicated and unprecedented eff orts have put autism high on the health agenda in her coun-try Bangladesh, and helped get substantial regional and global attention to autism spectrum disorder and other mental and neurodevelopmental disor-ders,” WHO regional director Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh said.

“Her support as Regional Champion is expected to gar-ner momentum for awareness and action in member coun-

tries, as much remains to be done for autism in across the region,” she said.

She hoped that Saima will play a vital role as a regional champion to garner momen-tum for awareness and action for autism across the region.

Mentioning that autism prevalence rates are estimated at 160 cases in a population of 10,000 or one in 62 children, Dr Khetrapal Singh also said that in the low and middle-income countries, children with ASD don’t get medical attention and necessary care.

“Their life is a struggle, of-ten marred by stigma, margin-alisation and discrimination. Autism continues to be a public health challenge which needs to be addressed with more focused eff orts,” she added.

WHO has been advocating for political commitment to the needs and services for ASD, scaling up resources and raising public awareness to facilitate early detection, community-based intervention and multi-sectoral approach to reduce the impact of ASD.

By Mizan Rahman Dhaka

Saima Hossain

The need to fi nd an acceptable long-term solution to commercial distortions caused by the recent ban on certain carry-on electronic devices on some Middle Eastern fl ights to the United States in particular, is in the interest of the global aviation industry that contributes signifi cantly to economies worldwide.

This has been emphasised by the global body of airlines – International Air Transport Association or IATA, which has called upon governments to urgently fi nd alternatives to recently announced measures by the United States and the United Kingdom to restrict the carry-on of large electronic items on certain fl ights departing the Middle East and North Africa.

Obviously, there is a clear need to maintain public confi dence in the security of the global aviation industry, which safely and securely operates an average 100,000 fl ights a day.

IATA expects nearly 4bn travellers and 55.7mn tonnes of cargo to be lifted by airlines worldwide this year. And almost 1% of global GDP is spent on air transport – some $769bn.

Air transport has clearly made the world more accessible than ever and it is a critical enabler of the global economy.

The value of trade carried by air transport in 2017 is expected to be $5.7tn, a 4.9% increase on 2015. Air cargo accounts for around 35% of the total value of goods traded globally.

At a recent industry meeting IATA’s Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said: “The current measures are not an acceptable long-term solution to whatever threat they are trying to mitigate. Even in the

short term it is diffi cult to understand their eff ectiveness. And the commercial distortions they create are severe. We call on governments to work with the industry to fi nd a way to keep fl ying secure without separating

passengers from their personal electronics.”The global body of airlines rightfully expressed

frustration at the process used by certain governments to put in place the security measures, which was woefully lacking.

“The industry came together quickly to implement the new requirements. That was a challenge because there was no prior consultation and little co-ordination by governments,” said de Juniac.

IATA has long called for better information sharing and co-ordination on security measures among governments and with the industry.

While governments have the primary responsibility for security, the airline industry too has passenger safety as its top priority. To do that eff ectively, intelligence that can be shared needs to be provided amongst governments and with the industry. Certainly, eff ective co-operation between industry and governments yields a better result.

The ban on laptops, iPads and other electronics (larger than a cellphone) on fl ights from as many as 10 airports in the Middle East has already sparked criticism from technology experts, who say the new rules appear to be at odds with basic computer science.

Air transport is the business of freedom. The safe and effi cient global movement of goods and people is a positive force in our world.

The aviation industry improves peoples’ lives by creating economic opportunity and supporting global understanding.

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Air transport has made the world more accessible than ever

Why business isgreener than Trump

How to handle an oil shockBy Carmen M. ReinhartCambridge

The global oil market is a volatile place. But, abstracting from high-frequency fl uctuations,

average annual world prices (in US dollars) plummeted about 60% between 2012 and 2016. So how do countries like Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Venezuela cope with a collapse in the price of their dominant (and in some cases, only) export?

A textbook response suggests that a government should adjust fi scal expenditures in response to permanent (or very persistent) drops in export and budget revenues. A government can fi nance external and fi scal defi cits if the shock is perceived as short-lived.

Highlighting the dramatic economic eff ects of oil producers’ reversal of fortune, the fi gure below compares the sum of the balances (surplus or defi cit) in the general government’s budget and the external balance, as measured by the current account, for 18 oil producers, with both components scaled to nominal GDP. In the majority of cases, the twin surpluses of 2011, prior to the peak in oil prices, gave way to substantial twin deficits in 2016. A swing amounting to 30 percentage points of

GDP (and sometimes much larger) is not uncommon in this group.

The fact that the twin defi cits remain so large in most cases is an indication that even with substantial adjustment eff orts in some countries, much of the shortfall in export and fi scal revenue was fi nanced with new domestic and external debt. In hyperinfl ationary Venezuela, printing money was the primary method of government fi nance.

Some countries, notably Saudi Arabia, which issued the largest volume of external debt of any emerging market in October 2016, started with a clean balance sheet – no outstanding debt and a high stock of assets. But even with such favourable initial conditions in “stocks,” the combination of record or near-record twin defi cits fi nanced through reserve losses and US dollar-denominated debt has led to a spate of credit-rating downgrades, with the most recent coming from Fitch last week. Of course, not every downgrade is followed by a default; but the direction is hardly encouraging, especially given the pace of deterioration.

Will an oil-price recovery reverse this trend?

Cycles in oil and commodity prices are notoriously diffi cult to predict. Some oil-market bulls nowadays are pointing to a recovery in global demand. Arguments for this view

range from those emphasising comparatively low inventories in Europe, Japan, and other places, to those pointing to the recent surge in North America of consumer purchases of gas-guzzling vehicles, like SUVs and trucks.

But the bullish view is by no means unchallenged. Prevalent among the reasons listed by those forecasting a continued slump in oil prices are some of the old usual suspects. The Saudis’ inability to rein in production among some of Opec’s poorer members in dire need of foreign exchange is an old (and usually relevant) story. Complicating matters for Saudi eff orts to stabilise prices is the comparatively new challenge of rapid growth in US production.

Indeed, the most recent data indicate that the recent setback in the WTI Crude Oil price has not slowed the growth in the Crude Oil Rotary Rig Count, which increased sharply in the week ending March 24. The rise took the Rig Count to its highest level since September 2015, as US production has replaced cutbacks by Opec and other producers, and US inventories have set new record highs each of the last fi ve weeks.

Judging from their actions, the governments of several oil-producing countries appear to be betting that the slide in oil prices is either over or about to end soon. Gulf countries

are forecast to issue sovereign debt in possibly record magnitudes. As for external debt, these countries are expected to drive the bulk of 2017 sovereign issuance, according to a recent report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

If oil prices fail to recover, however, this surge in debt issuance could backfi re. Furthermore, issuing dollar-denominated debt carries an additional risk and cost in the event of currency depreciation (or devaluation) for those with an exchange rate pegged to the US dollar.

While the future of oil prices is uncertain, the fate of countries that have treated adverse shocks as temporary and reversible, and were then proven wrong, has seldom been encouraging. The fact that international fi nancial markets welcome the placement of new debt by countries with obviously large and unresolved twin defi cits primarily refl ects their search for any kind of yield in an era of exceptionally low global interest rates. These countries’ leaders should not interpret demand for their debt as a vote of confi dence in their policies and economies. – Project Syndicate

Carmen Reinhart is Professor of the International Financial System at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Business leaders need to show Trump that they are not cheerleaders for coal, pollution, and global warming

By Mark Malloch-BrownLondon

The relationship between business, politics, and the environment is about to become more complicated.

As US President Donald Trump’s administration threatens to dismantle vital environmental protections, some of which have existed for decades, business leaders are increasingly recognising – and acting upon – the need for environmentally sustainable policies.

Trump, who once called climate change a Chinese hoax intended to weaken the US economy, has already repealed the Stream Protection Rule, which bars coal producers from dumping waste into waterways. Next on the chopping block may be the Clean Power Plan, which limits greenhouse-gas emissions from generating plants – by far the country’s largest source of CO2 emissions – with the goal of cutting carbon pollution from the power sector to 32% below 2005 levels by 2030. The Trump administration has even threatened to back out of the Paris climate agreement, to which the world’s governments committed in 2015.

A decade ago, business leaders would have largely welcomed such regressive environmental policies, which can lower costs and expand opportunities, by reducing constraints on their companies’ behaviour. But today, even as markets respond

bullishly to Trump’s “business-friendly” pledges – not just deregulation and tax cuts, but also a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan that would include reviving coal – business leaders have remained cautious.

In particular, they have strong reservations about a potential withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. Whatever benefi ts could be derived from a low-regulation economy would not off set the harm of reneging on environmental commitments that are viewed as vital to American business success.

Some are already making their voices heard on the matter. Since Trump’s election, nearly 900 companies and investors, many of them American, have signed an open letter, “Business Backs Low Carbon,” calling on the administration not to withdraw the US from the Paris agreement. These companies, which include large multinationals, believe that failure to build a low-carbon economy would jeopardise America’s prosperity.

There is compelling recent research to support this view. In February, a study by Energy Innovation showed that elimination of the Clean Power Plan alone could cost the US $600bn and cause 120,000 premature deaths by 2050.

By contrast, eff orts to build a more sustainable economy would bring far-reaching benefi ts. A December 2016 report by the Risky Business Project, led by American CEOs and former municipal and federal leaders, shows that savings in fuel costs from an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050 could exceed the required capital investment by $150bn.

Last January, the Business & Sustainable Development Commission, which I chair, estimated in its fl agship report that companies could unlock $12tn globally in revenue and savings by pursuing sustainable

business models. Such models can also create up to 380mn jobs by 2030 in key economic sectors, including food and agriculture, energy, transport, health, and municipal government. In the energy sector alone, the opportunities are valued at $4.3tn.

Corporate strategies are increasingly falling into line with these fi ndings. In 2005, on the heels of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the US Gulf Coast and aff ected a signifi cant regional consumer base for Walmart, the company’s then-CEO Lee Scott delivered a telling speech, entitled “Twenty-First Century Leadership,” to all company employees. Scott set signifi cant environmental goals, as part of a broader vision for Walmart to become a more responsible corporate citizen.

Today, Walmart is a leading commercial solar and on-site renewable-energy user, deriving about 25% of its global energy consumption from renewable sources. (The company’s goal, set by Scott, is to rely entirely on renewables.) By increasing the effi ciency of its US fl eet of trucks, Walmart avoided the emission of nearly 650,000 metric tons of CO2 from 2005 to 2015, and saved nearly $1bn in 2016 alone.

Another US company, Mars, Inc., is on a similar path. A signatory of the Business Backs Low Carbon letter, Mars is working to eliminate its greenhouse-gas emissions entirely by 2040, through greater effi ciency and investment in renewable energy projects like wind turbines. The company’s CEO, Grant Reid, is also a member of the Business & Sustainable Development Commission.

But, while business leadership and collective action are needed to create a sustainable and inclusive economy (a central message of our commission’s report), the private sector cannot do it alone. Government must be an active partner, helping to

scale sustainable activities by creating market conditions that spur a “race to the top” and unlock the fi nance needed to keep America competitive and innovative.

So it is not enough simply to oppose Trump’s environmentally damaging policies; businesses need to get his administration on their side, so that the US authorities create an environment that encourages sustainable practices and green innovation. Such an environment could include carbon pricing, which a growing number of businesses are pursuing internally, and tax credits for carbon effi ciency.

Trump’s own businesses have benefi ted from such government interventions. As the New York Times recently revealed, in 2012, Trump secured nearly $1mn in energy-effi ciency incentives and low-interest loans from New York State.

A groundswell of support from CEOs, on a nonpartisan basis, could be the key to spurring the needed action. Before the Paris climate conference, politicians knew that environmental activists wanted a deal to limit climate change; arguably, what ultimately drove them to act, however, was fi nding out that CEOs and boards felt the same way.

Business leaders need to show Trump that they are not cheerleaders for coal, pollution, and global warming. They are determined champions of an enlightened environmentalism that is in the interest of all their stakeholders – customers, shareholders, employees, and the communities in which they operate. – Project Syndicate

Mark Malloch Brown, a former UN deputy secretary-general and UK Foreign Office minister of state for Africa, is Chair of the Business and Sustainable Development Commission.

Long-term solutionneeded for e-devicesban on fl ights to US

Chairman: Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah

Deputy Managing Editor: K T Chacko

A solar installation at a Walmart store in Mountain View, California. Walmart is a leading commercial solar and on-site renewable-energy user.

COMMENT

High lead exposure in blood lowers children’s IQQNAWashington

Researchers at the University of Otago claim that lead exposure may result in loss of intelligence and lower

occupational standing.People in New Zealand actually

exhibit the exact same situation, according to a renowned Dunedin study.

Back in 1972, Kiwis have experienced one of the highest leaded gasoline levels in the world.

Lasting for about a decade, the toxic era continues to aff ect the people of New Zealand up until today.

Apparently, those who lived between the 1970s and the 1980s had lower IQ levels compared to those who were not exposed to lead.

Also, they tend to have lower-skilled jobs than their parents or their own children.

According to New Zealand Herald, leaded petrol was only completely phased out in 1996.

Now, out of the more than 1,000 Dunedin participants, the study found out that 565 were damaged by the chemical.

It further noted that lead levels in the blood are higher in childhood while the loss of IQ happens in adulthood.

The participants were part of a life-long research featuring individuals born between 1972 and 1973.

From infancy, these samples have been regularly assessed for cognitive skills.

It was when they turned 11 that the experts from the University of Otago took the blood samples.

The loss of intelligence, meanwhile, appeared when the respondents reached the age of 38.

Science Daily explained that the ones carrying over 10 micrograms of lead per decilitre of blood at age 11 had IQ levels that are 4.25 lower than those with lesser lead.

For the record, the fi gures were based on the report by Duke University. The study also noted that for every 5 micrograms increase of blood-lead content, a person loses around 1.5 IQ points.

The average contamination recorded for the test samples was 10.99 micrograms.

Gulf Times Sunday, April 2, 2017 27

Even dyed-in-the-wool Europhiles admitted that the Rome gathering felt more like a wake than a party

By Yanis VaroufakisAthens

On March 25, Europe’s leaders convened in the birthplace of the “European project” to celebrate the 60th

anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. But what exactly was there to celebrate?

Were they revelling in Europe’s disintegration, which they now call “multi-speed” or “variable geometry” Europe? Or were they there to applaud their business-as-usual approach to every crisis – an approach that has fanned the fl ames of xenophobic nationalism throughout the European Union?

Even dyed-in-the-wool Europhiles admitted that the Rome gathering felt more like a wake than a party. A few days later, British Prime Minister Theresa May sent her letter to the EU formally triggering the United Kingdom’s slow but irreversible exit.

The liberal establishment in London and around the continent is aghast at how populism is tearing Europe apart. Like the Bourbons, they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing. Not once did they pause for critical self-refl ection, and now they feign shock at the legitimacy gap and the anti-establishment passion that threatens the status quo and, consequently, their authority.

Back in 2015, I often warned Greece’s creditors – the creme de la creme of the international liberal establishment (the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission, the European Central Bank, German and French offi cials, and so on) – that strangling our new government in its cradle was not in their interest. If our democratic,

Europeanist, progressive challenge to permanent debt bondage were snuff ed out, I told them, the deepening crisis would produce a xenophobic, illiberal, anti-European wave not only in Greece but across the continent.

Like reckless giants, they did not heed the omens. Greece’s brief rebellion against permanent depression was ruthlessly suppressed in the summer of 2015. It was a very modern coup: EU institutions used banks, not tanks. Unlike the coups that overthrew Greece’s democracy in 1967 or Czechoslovakia’s Prague Spring a year later, the usurpers wore suits and sipped mineral water.

The offi cial version of these events was that the EU was obliged to intervene to force a wayward population back to the path of fi scal

rectitude and structural reform. In reality, the coup leaders’ main concern was to avoid admitting what they had been doing since 2010: extending a generalised bankruptcy into the future by forcing Greece to accept new, European taxpayer-funded loans, conditional on ever-greater austerity that could only shrink Greek national income further.

The only way to continue doing this in 2015 and beyond, however, was to push Greece deeper into insolvency. And that required crushing our Greek Spring.

Interestingly, the surrender document forced upon Greece’s prime minister, and approved by Parliament, was phrased as if it had been written at the request of the Greek authorities. Like Czechoslovakia’s leaders in 1968,

forced by the Kremlin to sign a letter inviting the Warsaw Pact to invade their country, the victim was required to pretend that it had requested its punishment. The EU was only responding kindly to that request. Greece experienced collectively the treatment Britain’s poor receive when they claim benefi ts at Job Centers, where they must accept responsibility for their humiliation by affi rming condescending platitudes such as: “My only limitations are the ones I set for myself.”

This punitive turn on the part of the European establishment was accompanied by the loss of all self-restraint. As Greece’s fi nance minister, in early 2015, I learned that the salaries of the Chair, CEO, and members of the board of a public institution (the

Hellenic Financial Stability Facility [HFSF]) were stratospheric. To economise, but also to restore fairness, I announced a salary cut of around 40%, refl ecting the average reduction in wages throughout Greece since the start of the crisis in 2010.

The EU, usually so keen to shrink my ministry’s outlays on wages and pensions, did not exactly embrace my decision. The European Commission demanded that I reverse it: after all, these salaries went to functionaries selected by EU bureaucrats – people they considered their own. After the EU forced our government into submission, and following my resignation, those salaries were raised by up to 71% – the CEO’s annual pay was bumped to €220,000 ($235,000). In the same month, pensioners

receiving €300 per month would have their monthly benefi ts cut by up to €100.

Once upon a time, the liberal project’s defi ning feature was, in John F Kennedy’s stirring words, the readiness to “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” Even neoliberals, like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, strove to win hearts and minds, to convince the working class that tax cuts and deregulation were in its interest.

Alas, following Europe’s economic crisis, something other than liberalism, or even neoliberalism, has taken over our establishment, seemingly without anyone noticing. Europe now has a highly illiberal establishment that does not even try to win over the population.

Greece was just the start. The repression of the Greek Spring in 2015 led the left-wing Podemos party to lose its momentum in Spain; no doubt many of its potential voters feared a fate similar to ours. And, having observed the EU’s callous disregard for democracy in Greece, Spain, and elsewhere, many supporters of Britain’s Labour Party went on to vote for Brexit, which in turn boosted Donald Trump, whose triumph in the United States fi lled the sails of xenophobic nationalists throughout Europe and the world.

Now that the so-called liberal establishment is feeling the nationalist, bigoted backlash that its own illiberalism brought about, it is responding a little like the proverbial parricide who appeals to the court for leniency on the grounds that he is now an orphan. It is time to tell Europe’s elites that they have only themselves to blame. And it is time for progressives to join forces and reclaim European democracy from an establishment that has lost its way and endangered European unity. – Project Syndicate

Yanis Varoufakis, a former fi nance minister of Greece, is Professor of Economics at the University of Athens.

Europe’s illiberal establishment

Thousands attend a rally to support the European Union on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of signing the Treaty of Rome at the Coliseum in Rome, Italy, on March 25.

Three-day forecast

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TUESDAY

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Low : 25 C

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OFFSHORE DOHAWind: NE-SE 03-12 KTWaves: 1-3 Feet

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09/06


QATAR28

Health ministry and QF launch autism awareness activitiesThe autism awareness

month campaign, organ-ised by the Ministry of

Public Health (MoPH) in co-operation with various partners, and hosted by Qatar Foundation (QF) was launched yesterday at a family fun day event in the Al Shaqab equestrian centre, Edu-cation City.

The event was jointly organ-ised by Hamad Medical Cor-poration, Primary Health Care Corporation, World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), Qa-tar Autism Families Association, Nomas Centre under the Min-istry of Culture and Sports and Renad Academy.

World Autism Awareness Day was fi rst proposed by HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of QF, to the United Nations in 2007 and was adopted without a vote by the UN Gen-eral Assembly. The fi rst World Autism Awareness Day was cel-ebrated on April 2, 2008, to raise awareness of individuals living with autism spectrum disorder.

HE the Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari highlighted the im-portance of increasing public education about autism spec-trum disorder, noting that such awareness events provide im-portant opportunities for public education and understanding.

“It is important to intensify our collective eff orts to fully support people with autism so that they can be integrated into society and participate with their peers in school activities, recreation, and work, according to their abilities.”

The community day provided ample opportunity for families and children to take part in vari-

ous events, including interaction with horses, diff erent sports, and various recreational and awareness activities.

Dr Mariam AbdulMalik, man-aging director of the Primary Health Care Corporation said: “We are honoured to be a part of this national drive to not only raise awareness of autism but to also encourage friends and col-laborators to become partners in the movement toward accept-ance and appreciation. This is an opportunity to embrace a new perspective, to promote autism awareness, autism acceptance and to draw attention to many individuals facing an autism di-agnosis each year.”

Additional autism aware-ness promotion activities will be held during April. These have

been organised by Qatar Foun-dation for Education, Science and Community Development and its affi liated schools, Qatar University, Hamad Medical Cor-poration, Primary Health Care Corporation, Sidra Medical and Research Center, WISH, Qatar Autism Families Association, Nomas Centre under the Min-istry of Culture and Sports, Re-nad Academy, Qatar Institute for Speech and Hearing, Ontario Centre for Special Education, Step by Step Centre for Special Needs, Mind Institute and Sha-fallah Centre for Children with Special Needs.

The activities include aware-ness and recreational activities for families. Some events also include free screening for chil-dren, various presentations, and

educational and awareness lec-tures to highlight what autism spectrum disorder is and how it aff ects individuals with the con-dition and their families.

Machaille al-Naimi, presi-dent of community develop-ment, QF, who attended the event, said: “We are delighted to host such an important event today, and to see so many members of the community in attendance.”

“Through our World Autism Awareness Day activities, we aim to raise awareness. We want to demonstrate that while au-tism may be a permanent condi-tion, treatment and therapy can lead to improvements. We be-lieve that this event showcases our commitment to serving the whole community.”

A child interacts with a horse at Al Shaqab equestrian centre. Machaille al-Naimi from QF interacting with some of the participants.

Families enjoy a range of interactive activities at the World Autism Awareness Day event.

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