Ministry to open more markets for Qatari farmers - Gulf Times

In brief

GULF TIMES

published in

QATAR

since 1978

FRIDAY Vol. XXXIX No. 10983

October 26, 2018Safar 17, 1440 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

Qatar banking assets rise 4% to hit QR1.4tn in September: QCB

BUSINESS |

World gymnastics championshipsoff to a grandstart in Doha

SPORT | Page 1

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani met US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and the delegation accompanying him, at Al Bahr Palace yesterday. The meeting dealt with reviewing relations and the strategic partnership between Qatar and the US, as well as the means to enhance them in financial and economic fields. The meeting also focused on reviewing counter-terrorism eff orts, besides addressing regional and international issues.

Amir meets US treasury secretaryMinistry to openmore markets forQatari farmers

QNADoha

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment will open more markets to support Qatari farm-

ers, it was announced yesterday.“Promoting local produce will sup-

port Qatari farmers by lowering the marketing costs and encouraging them to increase production,” HE the Minister of Municipality and Environment Mo-hamed bin Abdullah al-Rumaihi said.

Speaking to reporters after inau-gurating a new vegetable yard at Al Shamal, he explained that the ministry aims to facilitate the supply of local pro-duce from the farms to the consumers.

“Such eff orts ease the burden on farmers in terms of marketing their products, as all they have to do is bring their products to these markets.

“The markets for local produce must be located in easily accessible areas as the products may not be suitable for

long-distance transport.”HE al-Rumaihi was of the view that

Al Shamal town deserves the interest given to it as it has a large number of farmers, some of whom are yet to com-mence production.

“A market will be inaugurated in Al Sheehaniya too,” he added. Markets for local vegetables were also opened yes-terday at Al Khor, Al Thukhaira, and Al Wakrah.

The Agricultural Aff airs Depart-ment manager Youssef al-Khulaifi said a total of 12 farms are participating in Al Shamal market, bringing to 100 the total number of farms marketing their products in the local markets.

“These markets have made big sales of around 4mn boxes of produce ever since their fi rst season in 2012/2013, including some 1.2mn boxes last year alone,” he added.

Abdulrahman al-Sulaiti, who over-sees the markets, said that consumers are keen on visiting the local produce markets, due to their high quality and reasonable prices.

“The idea behind these markets is to provide producers with the ability to market their products without fees or middlemen,” he added.Khashoggi murder ‘premeditated’, Saudi admits

QATAR | Offi cial

Amir congratulatesVietnam president-electHis Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani sent yesterday a cable of congratulations to Dr Nguyen Phu Trong on his election as president of Vietnam, wishing him success in his duties and the relations between Qatar and Vietnam further development and growth. His Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani has also sent a similar cable to Dr Nguyen Phu Trong on his election as Vietnam’s president.

QATAR | Offi cial

Amir greets newEthiopian presidentHis Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani has sent a cable of congratulations to President Sahle-Work Zewde who was sworn-in as President of Ethiopia, wishing her success and more development and prosperity for the relations between Qatar and Ethiopia. His Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani has also sent a similar cable to President Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia.

QATAR | Energy

Woqod achieves net profi t of QR825mnQatar Fuel (Woqod) achieved a net profit of QR825mn at the end of September 2018 compared to QR643mn for the same period in 2017, with an increase of QR182mn or 28%, QNA reported yesterday.

GCC-US summit will be held in January, according to what was agreed upon with no changes, Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jarallah has aff irmed. In a statement posted by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), al-Jarallah said that there will be a

meeting of the ministerial committee to follow up the implementation of the resolutions issued by the current session of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries. He said Kuwait is looking forward to holding this meeting in November. – QNA Page 3

HE al-Rumaihi inaugurates a new vegetable yard

GCC-US summit in January: Kuwaiti deputy FMSaudi Arabia’s public prosecu-tor yesterday said the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the

kingdom’s Istanbul consulate earlier this month was premeditated, revers-ing previous offi cial statements that the killing was unintended, Reuters reported.

The Saudi disclosure came after CIA

director Gina Haspel heard an audio recording of the killing during a fact-fi nding visit to Turkey this week. The spy chief later briefed US President Donald Trump on the matter.

Meanwhile, Khashoggi’s eldest son Salah and his family were on their way to the US yesterday after Saudi Arabia lifted their travel ban, according to

State Department sources. A source close to the family said Salah holds dual US-Saudi citizenship.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the killing in the strong-est terms possible during a phone call with King Salman, and vowed to take appropriate measures in response, the chancellery said. Page 9

QATAR

Gulf Times Friday, October 26, 20182

Al-Muraikhi holdstalks with Tajikistan PM

Foreign ministrysecretary-general meets UN off icial

Qatar attends Arabenvironment ministers’ meeting

Tajikistan Prime Minister, Kokhir Rasulzoda, has met the Minister of State for Foreign Aff airs HE Sultan bin Saad al-Muraikhi, in Dushanbe. The meeting focused on bilateral relations.

HE Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs, Dr Ahmed bin Hassan al-Hammadi, yesterday met the Director of Middle East and West Asia Division of the Department of Political Aff airs at the United Nations, Susanne Rose, who is currently visiting Qatar. The meeting focused on enhancing the scope of co-operation, and discussed issues of joint interest.

The 30th session of the Council of Arab Ministers Responsible for the Environment began in Cairo yesterday, chaired by Lebanon. Qatar is participating with a delegation chaired by Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the Arab League Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz al-Sahlawi.

OFFICIAL

HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani yesterday met US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his accompanying delegation in Doha yesterday. During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations and ways of developing and strengthening them in various fields, especially in economy and investment sectors. They also reviewed the eff orts of Qatar and the US in fighting terrorism and combating terror financing, in addition to the regional and international developments.

PM, US treasury secretary hold talksPM meets FIFA security director

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

bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani yesterday met FIFA’s Security Director Helmut Joseph Spahn, currently visiting Qatar.

During the meeting, they dis-cussed areas of co-operation between Qatar and the FIFA, as well as the preparations for Qa-tar 2022 World Cup.

Following the meeting, HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani and FIFA security director visited the National Command Centre (NCC) of the Ministry of In-terior, where Helmut Spahn was briefed on the goals and services of the centre which was established in 2006 in conjunction with the organi-sation of the 15th Asian Games in Qatar.

He also was briefed on the centre’s modern equipment and advanced technological systems to maintain security and response to accidents and emergencies through secu-

HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, and FIFA’s Security Director Helmut Joseph Spahn, visiting the National Command Centre (NCC) of the Ministry of Interior yesterday.

rity systems based on inter-national standards such as the unified geographical system (Najm) and the early warning system of vital facilities, as

well as emergency and traffic services.

FIFA’s security director hailed the level of preparations and the eff orts made by Qatar to host the

2022 World Cup. He also praised the facilities

and the advanced systems at the National Command Centre. – QNA

Nature highlights scientifi c research at QU

An intensive scientifi c re-port titled “Qatar puts the Pursuit of Knowledge

Front and Centre” has been pub-lished in the renowned science journal Nature, presenting the research eff orts of Qatar Univer-sity (QU) on the country’s devel-opment and its needs.

Nature publishes fi ne peer-reviewed research that drives ground-breaking discovery, QU said in a statement yesterday.

The report highlights the high regional and international rank-ing of QU, which is due much in part to the original achievements in research and education.

“Our university has enabled Qatari citizens to become minis-ters, presidents of agencies, and infl uential members of govern-ment,” QU dean Dr Hassan al-Derham pointed out.

QU vice-president for re-search and graduate studies Dr Mariam al-Maadeed said the university is the largest national institution serving government, society and industry in Qatar.

The report begins by provid-ing a background on the vision of Qatar in general and explains the vision to become a knowledge-based economy and how QU has benefi ted from the country’s in-terest in expanding its research and development.

Among the ways in which QU invested in research is the inau-guration of the Research Com-plex, a state-of-the-art research facility.

QU developed partnerships with governmental authorities

and key players in the industry, such as with Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Petrochemical Company and ExxonMobil Research Qatar, and many major companies.

Research at QU is aligned with Qatar National Vision 2030, which emphasises the impor-tance of an economy centred on innovation, entrepreneur-ship, excellence in education, a world-class infrastructure, and effi cient public services.

The report’s main points in-clude encouraging partnerships especially with major private and public companies to de-velop research that focuses on

various fi elds; highlighting the Centre of Advanced Material’s programmes such as material science corrosion and nanote-chnology; and Biomedical Re-search Centre’s collaboration with concerned local and in-ternational institutions to keep Qatar healthy by conducting re-search on neural stem cell, car-diovascular diseases, hyperten-sion, infectious diseases, cancer, diabetes, and other common diseases in Qatar and the region.

The report highlights the Lab-oratory Animal Research Cen-tre’s eff orts in providing research and experiments on animals to

produce valid scientifi c data to help biomedical and medical in-vestigations aimed at determin-ing the causes of diseases and test their potential treatments and therapies.

The report cites Kindi Cen-tre’s support in information and communication technology by developing computer research in the fi elds of cyber security, data business analytics, cloud computing, mobile sensors, net-works and their applications. The centre achieved outstanding publications, received awards, and received wide recognition.

The Social and Economic

Survey Institute (Sesri) was also included in the report, citing its production of high quality sur-vey data on the process of change and transformation within the fabric of Qatari society.

The institute collects infor-mation on important issues like family, education, immigration, modernisation, health, media, and other vital socio-economic topics.

Sesri is also investigating the views of society on issues of public interest such as the FIFA World Cup, sponsorship, the blockade, in order to produce reliable data which helps con-cerned state authorities and de-cision makers to draw their pri-orities and successful planning.

The report concludes by high-lighting QU’s ambitious goals of the transformative strategic plan from 2018 to 2022 to develop re-search on the above-mentioned fi elds.

The plan also includes the supplementary support for graduate students through the newly established Graduate Academic Support Unit, which creates synergy between educa-tion and research, supporting capacity building and talented students, who are the driving force behind the societal devel-opments and prosperity.

The report also includes in-formation, statistics and data on the future plans of the State and University, which is on its way toward regional and inter-national excellence in education and research.

CNA-Q, PHCC partner on campus

for breast cancer screening

The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) Breast Cancer Screening

Bus was on campus at College of the North Atlantic-Qatar (CNA-Q) to off er screening for females over 45 years.

Numerous staff members, and students’ family members were screened on Wednesday, as part of Qatar’s National Cancer Pro-gramme.

When caught at an early stage, there is nearly a 100% survival rate from breast cancer. One former instructor at CNA-Q, Kim Doucet, knows this well. In 2016 she was screened in PH-CC’s bus when it visited the Col-lege campus.

The results showed that two tiny cancerous lumps were de-tected in her right breast. At 48 years, she had never experienced any symptoms or family history of cancer, and she regularly con-ducted self-examinations.

“If the PHCC mobile breast screening bus never came to campus, I would have never had a mammogram. I would have never has known that I had can-cer,” she said. “I’m happy to fi nd the cancer when I did – I’m hap-py to be alive!”

“At CNA-Q, we want to en-sure that Qatar’s population is not only educated, but healthy, happy and productive. Offer-ing breast screening, health and wellness awareness cam-

paigns and recreation activi-ties on campus is part of our holistic approach to ensuring our students, staff and their

families are fulfilled mem-bers of society,” said dean of Student Affairs, Kathleen Howard.

English instructor Moira Phillips registers for screening aboard the PHCC bus at the CNA-Q campus on Wednesday. Below: PHCC’smobile breast screening bus.

Stark Motors to be Milipol Qatardiamond sponsor

Milipol Qatar Commit-tee chairman Major General Nasser bin

Fahd al-Thani has announced that Stark Motors and Eshhar Security Services will be the diamond sponsor of Milipol Qatar 2018.

The International Exhibition of Homeland Security and Civil Defence will take place on Octo-ber 29-31, 2018 at Doha Exhibi-tion and Convention Centre.

The event will bring togeth-er experts and specialists in internal security, civil defence and public safety sectors, de-cision-makers and leaders to meet under one roof and re-view the latest security solu-tions.

Major General Nasser bin Fahd al-Thani said that internal secu-

rity and civil defence are among the cornerstones of any coun-try and that Qatar is a leading country in the fi eld of security and pays great attention to en-sure and enhance its security together with leading national companies.

Mohamed al-Ali, owner of Eshhar Security Services and chairman of Stark Motors, said: “The holding of this distin-guished exhibition contributes greatly to encouraging progress

and development in our be-loved country, Qatar, for its se-curity and safety technologies. The event also hosts seminars and discussions rich with glo-bal experience and informa-tion.”

He added that the exhibition represents a natural refl ection of the growth witnessed by Qatar in recent times in all sectors, espe-cially the security sector. Milipol is a good opportunity to get to know the international compa-nies participating in the exhibi-tion and a means of presenting products of diff erent compa-nies. It will be an occasion for the competent establishments and authorities in Qatar to learn about the latest security equip-ment and safety solutions in the world.

Stark Motors is the fi rst na-tional manufacturer of ar-moured vehicles. The company aims to provide complete solu-tions to provide maximum pro-tection for private and transport vehicles, relying on the exper-tise of a distinguished team of designers and engineers recog-nised globally.

Stark Motors and Eshhar Security Services is the first national manufacturer of armoured vehicles

Milipol Qatar 2018 will bring together experts and specialists in internal security, civil defence and public safety sectors

Major General Nasser bin Fahd al-Thani

Doha declared Capital of Islamic Youth for 2019

Doha has been selected as the Capital of the Is-lamic Youth for 2019, in

recognition of Qatar’s eff orts in supporting and empowering the Islamic youth.

The selection took place on Wednesday night in Istanbul af-ter the activities of Al-Quds as the capital of Islamic youth for the year 2018 came to a close.

Doha was declared the Capital of the Islamic Youth at a special dinner after a unanimous deci-sion by the Islamic Youth Forum for Dialogue and Co-operation, the youth wing of the Organi-sation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC). In his fi rst reaction to this announcement, HE the Minis-ter of Culture and Sports, Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali praised the eff orts of Qatari youth on the world stage.

The minister said the par-ticipants’ consensus to declare Doha as the Capital of the Islam-ic Youth 2019 refl ects the status of Qatari youth locally and inter-nationally and the leadership’s belief in the role of Qatari youth in the vision of 2030.

“The youth in the Islamic

world will have the opportu-nity to further build this creative force that is suffi ciently aware of the requirements of the present and the future and has a deep vi-sion for a society we want and a lifestyle we desire in the context of our contemporary civilisa-tion”, he added.

The announcement was pre-ceded by the third meeting of the General Assembly of the OIC Youth Forum for Dialogue and Co-operation, which was at-tended by HE Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali.

He highlighted the features of the roadmap for the youth of the Islamic world, who seek the development of its socie-ties through the establishment of civilisational change starting with self-change and ending with changing the way people live by raising the effi ciency of the people.

The Director of Youth Aff airs Department at the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Abdulrah-man Mohamed al-Hajri, said that this announcement is a culmination of his department’s work and a result of the eff orts that follow the general policy of the state within a clear vision, aimed at empowering young people. - QNA

The report published in Nature highlights QU’s various science experiments.

QNAIstanbul

QATAR/REGION/ARAB WORLD3Gulf Times

Friday, October 26, 2018

GCC-US meet in January, says Kuwait ministerQNAKuwait

Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jar-allah affirmed that the

GCC-US summit will be held in January, with no changes according to what was agreed upon.

In a statement posted by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), al-Jarallah said that there will be a meeting of the Ministerial Committee to follow up the implementa-tion of the resolutions issued by the current session of the

Gulf Co-operation Coun-cil (GCC) countries, look-ing forward to holding this meeting in November.

The Deputy Foreign Minis-ter said that Kuwait, as current president of the GCC, invited the brothers in the GCC states to a senior-level meeting to review the implementation of the previ-ous summit.

Al-Jarallah underlined the

possibility of inviting Kuwait to hold a conference for the relief of the Yemeni people by saying, “our eff orts are continuing to support the Yemeni people and alleviate their suff ering, Kuwait has made great eff orts in this re-gard.”

He pointed out that Kuwait has committed to provide as-sistance worth $250mn to the Yemeni people in 2018, as they previously provided $100mn.

Al-Jarallah concluded by stat-ing Kuwait’s obligations are per-manent and continuous, as well as joint eff orts with the GCC countries.

Lieutenant Colonel Khalifa Mohamed al-Attiyah, director-general of Industrial Security at the MoI, and Nasser Ali al-Mohannadi, director of Shared Services at Kahramaa, at the MoI signing ceremony. The General Directorate of Industrial Security at the Ministry of Interior (MoI) and Qatar General Electricity & Water Corp (Kahramaa) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday morning, the MoI said in a tweet. The MoU envisages co-ordination and co-operation between the two entities with regard to the protection of Kahramaa facilities in the best interests of the State as well as both parties. Lieutenant Colonel al-Attiyah and al-Mohannadi signed the MoU representing the two organisations. “The MoU aims to provide technical and security support and exchange of expertise in the field of training and protection of facilities, in the interest of both parties,” the ministry added.

MoI, Kahramaa sign security agreement

SC, Interpol consider stadium safety normsQNADoha

The third consultative meeting on stadium safety and security licensing and

certifi cation, organized by the security committee of the Su-preme Committee for Delivery and Legacy in cooperation with the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) (Project Stadia) concluded yesterday.

The three-day meeting was attended by many international experts on security and safety

measures in licensing and issu-ing stadium certifi cates to ensure that they are ready to host major sporting events and competi-tions.

The aim of the meeting is to highlight the efforts of the State of Qatar in the field of security and safety measures in the licensing and issuance of stadium certificates, espe-cially that the supervisors of the construction of the 2022 FIFA World Cup stadiums have followed the best internation-al standards and developed a guiding framework for the is-

suance of such certificates and licenses to be a reference for all countries of the world.

Project Stadia senior man-ager Falah Abdullah al-Dosari said that the meeting resulted in the adoption of the issuance of certificates and licenses guide for stadium security and safety, stressing that the experts participating in the meeting expressed their con-fidence in the State of Qatar and its achievements on the ground in relation to the es-tablishment of sports stadi-ums that meet the require-

ments of security and safety, promising a prominent World Cup in 2022.

The three-day meeting dis-cussed a number of important topics, including the timetable for the construction of all facili-ties for hosting the World Cup in 2022 and delivering on time, the plan for licensing and accredi-tation of playgrounds for com-pleted facilities, maintenance of stadiums, tools and operational responsibilities in the post-construction phase, as well as choosing the 2022 World Cup ac-tion plan.

More rain expected over weekend: Met offi ce

Wet weather is likely to return to the country this weekend as the

Met department has said thun-dershowers are expected in the southern parts of Qatar today along with strong winds.

Then, there are chances of scattered rain in the country be-tween tomorrow noon and Sun-day evening, which may turn thundery at times. These condi-

tions are likely to peak on Sunday morning, the weather offi ce has tweeted.

Doha and other parts of the country experienced heavy rainfall recently, especially last Saturday when thunder-storms and strong winds were reported from around the country.

There is no warning for off -shore areas today. The wind

speed (mainly southeasterly) in inshore areas will range from 5-15 knots, going up to 25 knots dur-ing thundery rain.

The detailed forecast for today says it will be relatively hot during the day and cloudy conditions are also likely. There is a chance of rain, which may turn thundery in the southern parts of Qatar by this afternoon. Partly cloudy

conditions have been forecast offshore.

The minimum and maximum temperatures are expected to be 25C in Al Khor and Dukhan, while in Doha the mercury level will range from 30C to 35C. Yes-terday, a minimum of 25C was recorded in Al Khor, while the maximum was 40C in Jumayli-yah. Doha temperatures ranged yesterday between 30C and 35C.

Fuel shipments

from Qatar power

up Gaza turbineA second turbine in the Gaza

Strip’s only power plant started

operating yesterday, bringing

much-needed electricity to the

blockaded coastal enclave.

Nickolay Mladenov, the

UN envoy for the Middle

East Peace Process, said that

second turbine will produce 52

megawatts of electricity, giv-

ing Gaza a total supply of 172

megawatts, the highest elec-

tricity output since January.

The increase in electricity

comes after Qatar delivered

fuel to the Gaza Strip, which is

blockaded by Israel and Egypt.

Qatar had promised last

Sunday to eventually deliver

enough fuel to increase elec-

tricity output from eight to 16

hours a day.

“Today the second turbine

of the Gaza power plant starts

producing 52MW, alleviating

the suff ering of 2mn Palestin-

ians in Gaza,” Mladenov, who

helped broker the deal, said on

Twitter.

Two turbines in the power

plant remain inactive.

UN off icials hope the deal

could significantly increase

electricity rates in Gaza, where

residents receive only a few

hours of mains power a day.

It could also help calm ten-

sions between Gaza’s Islamist

rulers Hamas and Israel.

Fuel deliveries were tempo-

rarily suspended by Israel over

violence emanating from the

strip but resumed Wednesday.

Fifteen trucks carrying

around 500,000 litres of fuel

entered Gaza yesterday, an

off icial said on condition of

anonymity.

The fuel deal was brokered

through the UN without the

involvement of the Palestinian

Authority, the internationally-

recognised Palestinian govern-

ment which is based in the

occupied West Bank.

According to Gisha, an

Israeli human rights group,

the Gaza Strip needs a total of

280 megawatts during peak

demand in summer and winter.

Gaza — home to around

2mn people — has one of the

highest unemployment rates

in the world.

Iraq cabinet holds fi rst post-Saddam meeting outside Green Zone

AFPBaghdad

Iraq’s cabinet yesterday met for the fi rst time outside the Green Zone, the fortifi ed

Baghdad district set up 15 years ago in the wake of the US inva-sion.

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mah-di and 14 new ministers whose positions were approved over-night by parliament.

The cabinet meeting was held in the highly symbolic former parliament complex that was used under former dictator Saddam Hussain. After Saddam’s fall from power in 2003, ongoing violence and insecurity in Iraq ensured the Green Zone endured as an enclave for dignitaries and offi cials, cut off from the rest of capital.

The US and Britain built diplo-matic missions in the zone, while Iraq’s government and parliament

similarly retreated behind its blast walls, barbed wire and checkpoints.

Under pressure from compet-

ing parliamentary factions who are clamouring for a place in the cabinet, Abdel Mahdi has yet to

ask the legislature to approve his candidates for key ministries in-cluding interior and defence.

Iraq’s Prime Minister-designate Adel Abdul Mahdi announces his cabinet at parliament headquarters in Baghdad on Wednesday night.

The Amiri Naval Forces have carried out the joint exercise ‘PASSEX’ with their French counterpart, with the participation of the frigate COURBET, in the Qatari territorial and economic waters. The naval exercise included a number of elements, such as MANOEUVERING EX, SURFACE EX and ADEX with he fighters wing of the Qatar Amiri Air Force. The military exercise is part of the co-operation agreements between the two countries in the fields of training and planning.

HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Aff airs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani has met the UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Aff airs Jeremy Hunt, during his off icial visit to the United Kingdom. The meeting discussed bilateral relations and means of boosting them, in addition to a number of regional and international issues of common concern.

Qatar, France hold joint naval exercise FM meets UK foreign secretary

“Our eff orts are continuing to support the Yemeni people and alleviate their suff ering, Kuwait has made great eff orts in this regard”

At least 18 people, mostly children, die in fl ash fl ood in Jordan

At least 18 people, mainly schoolchildren and teach-ers, were killed yesterday

in a fl ash fl ood near Jordan’s Dead Sea that happened while they were on an outing, rescuers and hospital workers said.

Thirty-four people were res-cued in an major operation in-volving police helicopters and hundreds of army troops, police chief Brigadier General Farid Al Sharaa told state television.

Some of those rescued were in a serious condition.

Many of those killed were children under 14.

A number of families picnick-ing in the popular destination were also among the dead and injured, rescuers said, without

giving a breakdown of numbers.Hundreds of families and

relatives converged on Shounah hospital a few kilometers from the resort area.

Relatives sobbed and searched for details about the missing children, a witness said.

King Abdullah cancelled a trip to Bahrain to follow the rescue operations, state media said.

Israel sent search-and-rescue helicopters to assist, an Israeli military statement said, adding the team dispatched at Amman’s request was operating on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea.

Civil defence spokesman Captain Iyad Al Omar told Reu-ters the number of casualties was expected to rise.

Rescue workers using fl ash-lights were searching the cliff s near the shore of the Dead Sea where bodies had been found.

ReutersDead Sea, Jordan

‘Fiercest’ shellfire yet around Syria truce zone: monitor

Rebels and extremists traded fire with government forces in northern Syria overnight, their “fiercest” exchanges since a buff er zone deal was announced for the area last month, a monitor said yesterday.A 15km to 20km wide “de-militarised zone” was announced by rebel backer Turkey and government ally Moscow on September 17 to separate government troops from rebel fighters in their last major bastion in Idlib province and adjacent areas.Shelling has continued intermittently, however, and escalated dramatically late on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday.“It was the fiercest bombing yet since September 17,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based monitoring group.

AFRICA


SA top court curtails tribal chiefs’ power to cut mining dealsBy Ed Stoddard, Reuters Johannesburg

South Africa’s top court yes-terday ruled that a platinum miner that has a deal with a

tribal chief could not evict a group of black farmers, in a decision that could curtail the power of tradi-tional leaders whose deals often disadvantage poor blacks.

Land rights are a red-hot issue ahead of elections in 2019 as the African National Congress (ANC) moves for constitutional change aimed at a more equitable distri-bution of land.

This includes expropriating land from whites without compensa-tion, but also addressing the plight of poor blacks vulnerable to forced evictions in tribal lands because of deals stuck by local chiefs under a

property rights system with roots in the colonial and apartheid eras.

At issue in the case before the Constitutional Court was a deal agreed with the council of the Bak-gatla tribe to allow Pilanesberg Platinum Mines (PPM), a unit of unlisted Sedibelo Platinum Mines, to evict farmers to expand its open-pit mine.

The farmers argued that they were the rightful owners of the farm and needed to be consulted before mining took place.

In previous court fi lings, PPM and a partner company formed by the tribal council took the position that the Bakgatla community con-trols the farm and adjoining prop-erties communally, with the chief as custodian.

The court ruled that such an ar-rangement ran rough shod over the rights of the applicants, comprised

of 13 families whose ancestors bought the farm over a century ago but could not get title deeds to it because of racist laws at the time.

“There is a constitutional im-perative...to ensure that persons or communities whose tenure of land is legally insecure as a result of past racially discriminatory laws or practices are entitled either to tenure which is legally secure or to comparable redress,” it said.

After the unanimous judgment was delivered, about 50 people in-cluding the farmers facing eviction and their supporters broke out into song and dance in the court.

“We feel vindicated. The chief never listened to us,” said a jubilant Setshedi Rasepae, one of the sup-porters.

Through a spokesman, the com-pany said: “Sedibelo Platinum Mines is studying the judgment

and will advise pursuant actions as and when appropriate.”

Lawyers and land policy experts say the implications are far reach-ing and could raise questions about other mining deals signed between companies and tribal chiefs, which have stoked social strife and con-fl ict.

“It dramatically undermines the powers of traditional leaders to make deals on behalf of subjects,” said Johan Lorenzen, a lawyer at human rights fi rm Richard Spoor Inc Attorneys.

Aninka Claassens, director of the University of Cape Town’s Land and Accountability Research Centre, said: “No mining com-pany can continue to pretend that traditional leaders are authorised to make these deals without the consent of the people directly af-fected.”

Traditional leaders hold sway in South Africa’s old “Homelands,” islands of rural poverty where most blacks were literally confi ned along tribal lines under apartheid.

These areas comprise only 13% of South Africa’s land but are home to a third of the population, 17mn blacks, mostly subsistence farmers working tiny plots.

On these lands, the chiefs of-ten determine who gets to farm or where cattle are grazed and also — and more signifi cantly — who gets access to resources like water and minerals.

The chiefs maintain they are the custodians of African culture and tradition and play a role in mediat-ing disputes and dispensing justice among their subjects.

Critics allege some have used their powers of resource allocation to enrich themselves.

Ethiopia appoints Africa’s only female presidentAFPAddis Ababa

Ethiopia yesterday appointed a woman to the largely cer-emonial position of presi-

dent for the fi rst time, further in-creasing female representation in the government of Africa’s second most populous nation.

In a unanimous vote, Ethiopian lawmakers picked career diplomat Sahle-Work Zewde, 68, to replace Mulatu Teshome who resigned in unclear circumstances.

Ethiopia’s reformist Prime Min-ister Abiy Ahmed last week ap-pointed a slimline 20-person cabi-net in which half the posts are held by women.

They include defence minister Aisha Mohamed and Muferiat Ka-

mil, who leads the newly-created Ministry of Peace, responsible for

police and domestic intelligence agencies.

“If the current change in Ethio-pia is headed equally by both men and women, it can sustain its mo-mentum and realise a prosperous Ethiopia free of religious, ethnic and gender discrimination,” Sahle-Work said yesterday.

Sahle-Work, who was born in the capital Addis Ababa and at-tended university in France, has been Ethiopia’s ambassador to France, Djibouti, Senegal and the regional bloc, the Intergovern-mental Authority on Development (IGAD).

Just prior to her appointment as president she was the UN’s top of-fi cial at the African Union.

She is fl uent in English and French as well as Amharic, Ethio-pia’s main language.

As president she is expected to serve two six-year terms.

“Mulatu has shown us the way for change and hope, he has shown life continues before and after leaving power. I call on oth-ers to heed his example and be ready for change,” said Sahle-Work in a speech to parliament yesterday.

Political power in Ethiopia is wielded by the prime minister with the president’s role restricted to attending ceremonies and func-tions.

Nevertheless, Sahle-Work’s po-sition carries important symbolic weight and social infl uence.

“Government and opposition parties have to understand we are living in a common house and fo-cus on things that unite us, not what divides us, to create a country

and generation that will make all of us proud,” she said.

“The absence of peace victim-ises fi rstly women, so during my tenure I will emphasise women’s roles in ensuring peace and the dividends of peace for women.”

Sahle-Work becomes Africa’s only serving female head of state, albeit in a ceremonial role.

A handful of African countries have in the recent past been led by female presidents with executive powers, including Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia (2006-18) and Joyce Banda in Malawi (2012-14).

Banda was elevated to the presi-dency following the death in of-fi ce of Bingu wa Mutharika, while Sirleaf won two elections before standing down earlier this year at the end of her constitutionally mandated terms.

Zewde ... new responsibilities

Weah announces free tuition for undergradsAFPMonrovia

Liberian President George Weah, who overcame childhood poverty to be-

come one of the world’s top foot-ballers, has abolished tuition fees for undergraduate students in the poor West African country’s state universities.

Speaking Wednesday night on the campus of the University of Liberia in the name of “the Libe-rian people and my government”, Weah declared “free tuition for all undergraduate students” at all the public universities.

Weah said his decision arose after a meeting he had with the university administration.

“The students came in front of my offi ce to complain that the administrators have in-creased the tuition in the school. I was not happy about that,” said Weah, who took offi ce in January.

An administrator informed him that the actual fee had not changed, but the fall of the Li-berian dollar against the US one

had led to a rise in the amount due in the local currency. Both currencies are legal tender in Liberia, which was founded by freed former American slaves.

“I was shocked when I was told that every semester about 20,000 (would-be students) go through the registration process, (but) only 12,000 attend.

“Furthermore, about 5,000 of the 12,000 who are in attendance are depending on some form of fi nan-cial aids or scholarship. The rest of the students do not attend due to the lack of fi nancial aid,” Weah added.

Weah was elected late last year on a platform of fi ghting poverty and kickstarting an economy still aff ected by two civil wars be-tween 1989 and 2003, as well as providing stability and growth.

“The inability of our young people to continue their educa-tion is very troubling,” he said on campus.

Liberia has four state univer-sities: the main University of Liberia, the Booker Washington Institute, Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law and the William Tubman University.

Militancy-ravaged Mali extends emergency

Militancy-hit Mali yes-terday extended by a year a state of emer-

gency in place since a deadly No-vember 2015 attack on a top ho-tel in the capital Bamako which claimed 20 lives.

The state of emergency was due to expire at the end of this month and the cabinet approved the extension, a statement said yesterday.

It gives authorities greater powers to take measures to pre-empt attacks and accords more powers to security forces and judicial authorities, the govern-ment said.

The extension was necessary to “reinforce preventive measures to prevent the threat of attacks on

people and their goods,” it said.The eighth largest country in

Africa and one of the poorest in the world, the landlocked Sahel state has been grappling with violence since 2012.

Tuareg rebels staged an up-rising in northern Mali which jihadists then exploited to take over key cities.

The extremists were routed in a French-led military operation in 2013 but large stretches of the country remain out of govern-ment control.

In central Mali, the situation has been made even more unsta-ble by a resurgence of violence between ethnic groups, notably Fulani nomadic herders and Do-gon farmers over access to land.

Nigeria cuts curfew in violence-hit Kaduna

AFPKano

Authorities in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna have relaxed a round-the-

clock curfew that was imposed because of deadly sectarian vio-lence between Muslim and Chris-tian mobs.

The reduction by 11 hours now allows residents outside from dawn to dusk, said Ka-duna state governor’s spokes-man Samuel Aruwan late on Wednesday.

“Residents are now free to pur-sue their legitimate businesses

from 6:00am to 5:00pm...until further notice,” he added.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai im-posed the 24-hour curfew last Sunday after at least 55 people were killed in clashes in the town of Kasuwan Magani.

On Tuesday, he gave residents a four-hour window to leave their homes and restock food supplies following complaints that people had run out of basic necessities, including water and food.

Yesterday, residents reported banks, schools, offi ces and busi-nesses reopened while armed sol-diers and policemen patrolled the streets of notorious fl ashpoints.

Communal violence erupted

after fi ghting broke out between Hausa Muslim and Adara Chris-tian youths in Kasuwan Magani’s market following a dispute among wheelbarrow porters.

Two people were said to have been killed in the initial fracas but the violence then dramatically escalated when Adara youths at-tacked Hausa residents, burning homes and killing dozens.

The violence spread to Kaduna city on Sunday.

Kaduna state lies in the fl ash-point Middle Belt of Nigeria, where the mainly Muslim north meets the largely Christian south, and has seen previous bouts of bloody sectarian violence.

Africa’s largest train-making plant opens doors in JohannesburgAFPJohannesburg

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday un-veiled the continent’s largest

train manufacturing plant, a joint venture between the national rail fi rm and French transport group Alstom.

The factory is a part of a 51-bil-lion-rand ($3.5bn) deal between Alstom and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) to produce a fl eet of 580 six-car suburban trains.

The fi rst train from the Gibela plant in Dunnottar, east of Johan-nesburg, is scheduled to roll off the test track by the end of this year.

South Africa’s economy has in recent years suff ered low growth rates and this year slipped into a recession, and Ramaphosa hailed the new investment in trains.

“This investment here signifi es a new era in the modernisation of modern rail network,” he said as he formally inaugurated the plant.

“Our railways must become the arteries of a growing economy that brings meaningful improve-ment in people’s lives.”

The president said the plant was a “major boost to our manufactur-ing capacity as a country.”

“Manufacturing...is the real en-gine of economic growth.”

When fully operational, the plant is expected to employ 1,500 people.

At least 56 trains are to be built over the next two years.

“This factory is a major boost to the rail industry in the coun-try, as South Africa will now be able to produce state-of-the-art trains locally,” said Didier Pfl eger, Alstom senior vice president for Middle East and Africa.

Burundi govt skips last round of peace talks in Tanzania

Burundi’s government is not participating in the last round of peace talks that began yes-

terday, saying that they won’t en-gage in dialogue with “putschists.”

The talks got underway in the Tanzanian city of Arusha despite the government’s absence.

“The government of Burundi cannot agree to be at the same ta-ble for talks with the putschists sought by Burundian justice,” gov-ernment spokesman Prosper Nta-horwamiye told DPA.

Burundi has been seized by civil unrest since 2015, when President

Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would seek a third term in offi ce. The same year, in response to Nkurunzi-za’s attempts to stay in power, a mili-tary coup was launched but failed.

Ntahorwamiye added that the month of October is a period of mourning in Burundi because of the deaths of two previous leaders.

He said the government had suggested the talks be postponed.

The talks were set with opposi-tion members in exile of the oppo-sition umbrella group CNARED — most of whose leaders are in exile.

While the talks are supposed to

be drawing up a roadmap to elec-tions in 2020, Ntahorwamiye said: “How can we implement conclu-sions from a dialogue in which we do not did not take part?”

Earlier this year, changes to the constitution were approved that al-low Nkurunziza to potentially remain in power until 2034; he has, however, said he’ll step down in 2020.

The European Union yesterday renewed sanctions against the east African state, saying “the EU has stressed that only through dia-logue leading to consensus...can a lasting political solution be found.”

AMERICA5Gulf Times


European members of Nato have urged the United States to try to bring Rus-

sia back into compliance with a nuclear arms control treaty rath-er than quit it, diplomats said, seeking to avoid a split in the alli-ance that Moscow could exploit.

In a closed-door meeting at the North Atlantic Treaty Or-

ganisation (Nato), offi cials from the Pentagon, the US State De-partment, and the US National Security Council briefed alliance envoys on US President Don-ald Trump’s decision to pull out of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which rid Europe of land-based nuclear missiles.

Diplomats present said Ger-many and other European allies called for a fi nal eff ort on Wash-ington’s part to convince the

Kremlin to stop what the West says are violations, or possibly renegotiate it to include China.

“Allies want to see a last-ditch eff ort to avoid a US withdrawal,” one Nato diplomat said on con-dition of anonymity because of the classifi ed nature of the meet-ing, which took place two days after senior US offi cial John Bol-ton informed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

“Nobody takes issue with Rus-sia’s violation of the treaty, but

a withdrawal would make it easy for Moscow to blame us for the end of this landmark agreement,” a second diplomat said.

Nato declined to comment on the details of the meeting but is-sued a statement saying that al-lies assessed “the implications of Russia’s destabilising behaviour on our security”.

“Nato allies will continue to consult on this important issue,” it added.

Earlier this week, Nato Secre-

tary General Jens Stoltenberg laid the blame on Russia for violating the treaty by developing the SSC-8, a land-based, intermediate-range Cruise missile which also has the name of Novator 9M729.

Russia denies any claims.Nato allies including Belgium

and the Netherlands, which host US nuclear weapons facilities in Europe, warned in the North Atlantic Council, Nato’s high-est decision-making body, of a public outcry if the US were to try

to install medium-range nuclear weapons on their territory again.

Stoltenberg said on Wednes-day that he did not think this would lead to reciprocal deploy-ments of US missiles in Europe as happened in the 1980s.

European allies see the INF treaty as a pillar of arms control and, while accepting that Mos-cow is violating it by developing new weapons, are concerned its collapse could lead to a new arms race with possibly a new genera-

tion of US nuclear missiles sta-tioned on the continent.

Diplomats said the US offi cials did hold out the possibility that the US may delay its formal with-drawal to after a planned meet-ing between Putin and Trump in Paris on November 11.

The treaty foresees a six-month notifi cation period for any withdrawal, also potentially giving Washington time to nego-tiate with Moscow before fi nally pulling out.

Nato urges Trump offi cials not to quit nuke treatyReutersBrussels

The two bombs sent to former vice-president Joe Biden and a third to actor Robert De Niro

yesterday were similar to the devices intended for several other high-profi le Democrats and critics of US President Donald Trump, authorities said.

None of the 10 devices exploded but authorities stepped up a manhunt for the serial bomber amid a contentious campaign season ahead of the No-vember 6 elections, in which Trump’s Republicans will try to maintain ma-jorities in the Senate and House of Representatives.

No one has claimed responsibility and the Federal Bureau of Investiga-tion (FBI) urged the public to report any tips and be vigilant.

Several of the eight people who were sent bombs – including former presi-dent Barack Obama and Trump’s rival for the presidency, Hillary Clinton – have been singled out regularly for harsh rhetoric from Trump and right-wing critics.

Leading Democrats said that the bombs were a dangerous outgrowth of an antagonistic political atmosphere created by the president.

Trump condemned the bombs but later blamed the media, his frequent foil, for much of the angry tone.

Trump and other Republicans have likened Democrats to an “angry mob”, citing protests at the confi rmation hearing of US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The pipe bombs discovered on Wednesday were similar to the ones sent to Biden and De Niro, a federal of-fi cial told Reuters.

Authorities described the devices as crude, while security experts said their goal may have been to create fear rather than to kill.

The FBI said yesterday that one of the two packages sent to Biden – who once said he would have fought Trump if they were in high school – was dis-covered at a mail facility in his home state of Delaware and the second at another location.

The device intended for De Niro, who received a loud ovation when he hurled an obscenity at Trump at the Tony Awards last June, was sent to one of his properties in New York City.

As investigators sought the would-be bomber, police evacuated a building adjacent to the US Capitol that houses lawmakers’ offi ces around midday but did not cite a reason for the action.

At a Wisconsin rally Wednesday

night, Trump, who has denounced news media organisations as an “en-emy of the people,” called attention to “how nice I’m behaving tonight” but yesterday morning he attacked the media.

“A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate report-ing of the Mainstream Media that I re-fer to as Fake News,” Trump wrote. “It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Me-dia must clean up its act, FAST!”

Also sent packages were Eric Holder, who served as attorney general under Obama; former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director John Brennan, who had his security clearance with-drawn after frequently lambasting Trump; prominent Democratic Party donor George Soros; and, California Representative Maxine Waters, anoth-er outspoken Trump critic.

Two packages were sent to Waters, who Trump has called “an extraordi-narily low IQ person”, Several politi-cians, including US Senate Major-ity Leader Mitch McConnell and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, de-scribed the package bombs as an act of terrorism.

“Someone is trying to intimidate. Someone is trying to quash voices in this country using violence,” De Blasio said. “I am confi dent that we will fi nd the perpetrator or perpetrators.”

The CNN bureau in New York re-ceived a package addressed to Bren-nan, who has appeared as a CNN analyst, leading police to evacuate the Time Warner building in a Manhattan neighbourhood near Central Park.

The package sent to CNN, which Trump has frequently derided for its coverage of him, contained an enve-lope of white powder that experts were analysing, New York City Police Com-missioner James O’Neill said.

Some major media outlets in New York, including the New York Times, increased security yesterday.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told CNN that some of the packages in his state were hand-delivered and that the authorities were scrutinising security camera videos for signs of the bomber.

Trump told the Wisconsin rally his government would conduct “an ag-gressive investigation”.

“Any acts or threats of political vio-lence are an attack on our democracy itself,” Trump said. “We want all sides to come together in peace and har-mony.”

Last week, Trump, who joined other Republicans in accusing Democrats of encouraging “mob” tactics, heaped praise on a Montana congressional candidate who assaulted a reporter during his successful 2017 campaign.

The fi rst package turned up on Monday and was addressed to Soros, the billionaire fi nancier and advocate of liberal, open-border values who is a frequent target of right-wing con-spiracy theories.

The FBI said on Wednesday that the packages consisted of a manila envelope with a bubble-wrap interior containing “potentially destructive devices”.

Each bore a computer-printed ad-dress label and six “Forever” postage stamps, the FBI said.

More bombs sent to critics of presidentReutersWashington/New York

Right: A police off icer is seen outside the off ice of the the New York Times. Security is being ramped up in New York City after explosive devices were sent to top Democratic politicians and to CNN headquarters.

Trump: Mainstream media must clean up its act.

The Pentagon is expected to de-ploy about 800 troops to the US-Mexico border, two US of-

fi cials told AFP yesterday, after Presi-dent Donald Trump said the military would be used there to tackle a “na-tional emergency”.

The active-duty troops would aug-ment the 2,000 or so National Guards-men already deployed to support op-erations on the border, and could come from multiple military bases around the US.

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis is ex-pected to sign orders for the new de-ployment, one offi cial said.

The troops would include doc-tors and engineers and would be used mainly to provide logistical support including tents, vehicles and equip-ment.

The offi cial said that the troops would satisfy elements of a “wish list” for military assistance sent to the Pen-

tagon by the Department of Homeland Security, the huge US agency with re-sponsibility for the border.

Trump earlier tweeted earlier yes-terday that “Democrat inspired” laws make it diffi cult to stop people at the border.

“I am bringing out the military for this National Emergency. They will be stopped!” he said.

In April, Trump said he would send thousands of National Guard troops to the southern border.

That initial authorisation allowed for about 4,000 Guardsmen to be sent to the frontier, but only about half that number have been deployed.

Those troops are mainly serving in a support role to help free up border pa-trol offi cers.

Yesterday’s move comes as thou-sands of Central American migrants are crossing Mexico toward the United States in a “caravan”.

The issue has become a rallying cry for the US president, who has taken a hard line on illegal immigration and has repeatedly kept the story in the

headlines in the run up to America’s mid-term Congressional elections that could see the Democrats regain some degree of power.

In a series of tweets last week, Trump signalled his intention to send more troops, saying that unless Mex-ico stopped the “onslaught” of peo-ple from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, he would “call up the US Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!”

He has also announced the US would start cutting aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Yesterday, the caravan set off from the town of Mapastepec in the south-ern Mexican state of Chiapas, moving on to the next stop in their long march north.

They were headed to the town of Pijijiapan, some on trucks but most making the seven-hour trek on foot.

Four days after crossing into Mexico, the caravan is still more than 3,000km (1,860 miles) from the US border, moving along a route that runs parallel with the Pacifi c coast.

Pentagon to send 800 troops to borderAFPWashington

Ford orders recall of 1.5mn vehiclesFord has announced a recall of 1.5mn vehicles because of a malfunctioning valve in the fuel system that could result in the indicator showing an incorrect fuel level.The aff ected vehicles were sold in North America and are equipped with a canister purge valve that may become stuck in an open position, Ford said in a news release.That could result in an excessive vacuum in the fuel system that may cause deformation of the vehicle’s plastic fuel tank.“As a result, the customer could observe a malfunction indicator light or a fuel gauge with fluctuating or inaccurate fuel levels,” Ford said.The problem could lead to the car stalling or an inability to restart the vehicle, which can increase the risk of a crash.Ford said it was not aware of any accidents, injuries or fires as a result of the problem.The aff ected cars are 2012-18 Ford Focus vehicles equipped with certain 2.0-litre engines.More than 1.2mn of the cars aff ected were sold in the United States.The remainder were sold in Canada and Mexico.

AI art sold for more than $400,000A work of art created by an algorithm has been sold for $432,500, the auction house said yesterday.It is the first time a piece of art made using artificial intelligence (AI) has gone under the hammer, according to Christie’s in New York.The price was far beyond the estimate of $7,000 to $10,000 set for what the auctioneer describes as the portrait of “a portly gentleman, possibly French”, who appears to be a man of the church, judging by his clothing.Five bidders drove up the price of the Portrait of Edmond Belamy, which is part of a group of portraits of the fictional Belamy family.The series is the brainchild of Obvious, a Paris-based collective exploring the interface between art and artificial intelligence,Christie’s said in a statement.The algorithm used a data set of 15,000 portraits painted between the 14th and 20th centuries to create a new image.In February, another work from the series was sold to collector Nicolas Laugero Lasserre for €10,000.

ASIA


Swamped with plastic waste: Malaysia struggles as global scrap piles upBy A Ananthalakshmi and Emily Chow, Reuters Pulau Indah, Malaysia

Hundreds of sacks fi lled with plastic waste from the United States, Britain, South Korea and

Spain spill onto the streets of an indus-trial zone in Pulau Indah, an island town just an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur and home to Malaysia’s biggest port.

The stench of burning plastic and fumes from nearly a dozen recycling factories wafts through the neighbour-hood, even as more container-loads of plastic waste are unloaded.

Pulau Indah — ironically, the name means “beautiful island” in Malay — is one of many towns in Malaysia where illegal plastic recycling factories have popped up in recent months as the Southeast Asian nation became the top choice for plastic waste exporters from around the world.

The trigger for this dumping deluge was a Chinese ban on waste imports from the beginning of this year, which disrupted the fl ow of more than 7mn tonnes of plastic scrap a year.

Malaysia quickly became the lead-ing alternative destination, importing nearly half a million tonnes of plastic waste between January and July from just its top 10 source-countries.

Dozens of factories have opened up

in Malaysia to handle that waste, many without an operating licence, using low-end technology and environmen-tally harmful methods of disposal.

“The situation is getting worse, es-pecially with more and more illegal plastic recycling factories,” Yeo Bee Yin, Malaysia’s minister of energy, technol-ogy, science, climate change and envi-ronment, told parliament last week.

Used plastic is recycled into pellets, which are then used to manufacture other plastic products, but the process comes with pollution risks.

Plastic unsuitable for recycling is burnt, which releases toxic chemicals into the atmosphere.

Or it ends up in landfi ll, potentially contaminating soil and water sources.

Yeo said she does not want Malay-sia to be the “trash can” for developed nations, but Housing Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin, who oversees the waste management department, told Reuters that the government also does not want to miss out on a business that could be worth billions.

Both ministers are members of a gov-ernment committee studying its op-tions for dealing with the growing pile of plastic waste.

In the Pulau Indah industrial zone, Reuters reporters saw nearly a dozen recycling plants, many of them without signboards or company names, though government data shows only two facto-

ries in that area have a licence to import plastic waste.

One of the bigger ones, Jingye Manu-facturing Sdn Bhd, was shut down in August for not having a licence, accord-ing to an offi cial notice seen by Reuters.

But workers in the factory and others nearby say it reopened within weeks, and when Reuters reporters visited ear-lier this month, it was operating.

Plastic waste was stacked up within the premises and all along the road.

The factory supervisor declined comment.

Company records show Jingye was set up in Malaysia in October 2017, three months after China said it would ban imports of foreign waste from 2018.

Reuters could not reach the owners of the factory and no contact details were listed in records.

One worker in the industrial zone, who did not want to be identifi ed, said there were as many as eight illegal fac-tories in the zone and many openly burned plastic that cannot be recycled.

“Every night they burn. I see black smoke at night, so I go over and ask him ‘why are you trying to kill me?’ They ig-nore me,” he said.

In the nearby district of Kuala Lan-gat, authorities found 41 factories operating illegally, many of them run by Chinese companies, according to Housing Minister Zuraida.

Around 30 were shut down by au-

thorities in the last three months after residents complained of open burning of plastic and health complications.

It is unclear how the illegal factories are sourcing plastic waste.

Zuraida said some of the 95 compa-nies that have a permit to import and recycle such waste are subcontracting to illegal factories as they lack the ca-pacity to handle such volumes.

Malaysia’s imports of plastic waste from its 10 biggest source-countries

jumped to 456,000 tonnes between January and July, versus 316,600 tonnes purchased in all of 2017 and 168,500 tonnes in 2016.

The United States, the world’s top exporter of plastic waste, sent 178,238 tonnes of such waste to Malaysia be-tween January and July, nearly twice as much as it sent to second top destina-tion, Thailand, according to the United Nations’ trade database and the Insti-tute of Scrap Recycling Industries. Brit-

ain, another big plastic waste exporter, sends a quarter of its waste to Malaysia, also more than any other country.

Environment Minister Yeo esti-mated that the plastic recycling indus-try would earn Malaysia 3.5bn ringgit ($841.95mn) this year.

Zuraida said she planned to intro-duce new rules soon that will make it harder for factories to qualify for an import licence.

“I understand plastic recycling is quite lucrative. So I am also thinking should we miss this economic opportu-nity? This is something the committee will study,” Zuraida told Reuters.

If such an option is pursued, Malay-sia would do so on strict terms, require high-end, green technology and allow factories to operate only in heavy in-dustrial areas, she said.

The factories are currently located haphazardly, including near or within residential areas.

In Kuala Langat, southwest of Kuala Lumpur, a massive recycling factory nestled between palm plantations was shut down three months ago.

But 3m tall towers of plastic waste — mostly consumer packaging material from the United States, Britain, France, Netherlands, Germany and Australia — were still piled in the front yard.

A large plot of land next to the factory has been turned into a dumping site for scrap.

Plastic waste is piled outside an illegal recycling factory in Jenjarom, Kuala Langat, Malaysia.

Najib faces 6 more graft charges over state fundsReutersKuala Lumpur

Former Malaysian premier Najib Razak was yesterday charged with six counts of

criminal breach of trust involv-ing government funds worth more than $1.5bn, adding to the 32 charges he already faces for money laundering and graft.

His former treasury chief, Ir-wan Serigar Abdullah, was also charged with criminal breach of trust, becoming the high-est-ranking civil servant to be charged since Najib was unex-pectedly ousted in a general elec-tion in May. The two pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Each charge carries a jail term of up to 20 years, a fi nancial pen-alty and a whipping sentence, but both Najib and Irwan would be exempted from whipping as they are over the age of 50.

“Nothing in the charges show that any of the acts I undertook resulted in any benefi t to me,” Najib said at a press conference after the court hearing.

“There shouldn’t be any be-lief that any of the monies stated in the charges were lost, or that there were any elements of self-interest.”

The new administration led by Mahathir Mohamed has been cracking down on corruption and has charged several former senior government offi cials, including Najib’s former deputy.

A particular focus is how billions of dollars went miss-ing from state fund 1Malaysian Development Berhad (1MDB), founded by Najib in 2009.

Four of the six charges fi led yesterday involving about 4.78bn ringgit relate to a settlement agreement between 1MDB and Abu Dhabi state fund IPIC, said Azam Baki, a deputy commis-sioner at the anti-graft agency.

In 2017, 1MDB had agreed to pay $1.2bn to the Abu Dhabi fund, in a settlement agreement following a dispute between the two over bond payments, ac-cording to the companies.

The 1MDB-linked charges al-lege Irwan and Najib committed the breach of trust off ence with 220mn ringgit of government funds meant for Kuala Lumpur International Airport Berhad, 1.3bn ringgit meant for a sub-sidy and cash aid programme and 3.3bn ringgit of other govern-ment funds.

Najib’s lawyer Mohamed Sha-fee Abdullah said his client did not personally benefi t from these transactions.

“These were funds that were initially allocated for a purpose, but on priority was revised, in the face of urgency and dire straits the nation was placed into.

For the purposes of settlement of the IPIC issue, an executive decision had to be undertaken very honestly,” Shafee told the court.

He said the other two charges

relate to a pipeline project and the East Cost Rail Link (ECRL), a $14bn project that was the cen-trepiece of China’s infrastructure push in Malaysia.

The project, signed under Na-jib’s premiership, was suspended by Mahathir who has said the deal was “unfair” to Malaysia.

The judge released Najib and Irwan after setting a bail of 1mn ringgit each.

Prosecutors had earlier asked for 3mn ringgit bail for Najib, but the former premier’s lawyers said it was getting diffi cult for Najib to settle bail after having paid 4.5mn ringgit in bail since July.

“I would like to ask that my cli-ent is given at least three weeks for him to settle the 1mn bail be-cause it has become very diffi cult for my client, even before and in the latest case,” Shafee said, add-ing Najib’s bank accounts remain frozen.

The judge ordered the bail be paid in 10 days.

Najib is already facing 32 mon-ey laundering, graft and breach of trust charges over transactions linked to 1MDB.

He has pleaded not guilty and his trial is due to begin next year.

His wife, Rosmah Mansor, was charged with money laundering earlier this month and had to pay bail of 2mn ringgit.

US authorities allege that $4.5bn was siphoned from 1MDB and that about $700mn was di-verted into Najib’s personal bank accounts.

Indonesians yesterday held mass prayers at the Balaroa village, where soil liquefaction happened after the powerful magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit central Sulawesi on September 28.

Mourned

Duterte sacks top customs offi cials over missed drugs ReutersManila

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yester-day fi red the head of the Bureau of Customs and ordered all top bureau offi cials replaced

after the agency failed to intercept more than a tonne of drugs, the second such case in two years.

Duterte has made a bloody fi ght against drugs the centrepiece of his administration since he won a presidential election in 2016.

Thousands of people have been killed in the crackdown.

Duterte said Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapena was being removed from his post and all his deputies and top offi cials would be trans-ferred.

“The commissioners are out, the department heads are out,” Duterte said during a speech at a ceremony commemorating the founding of the coastguard.

He said he was appointing retired army general to take over the bureau and soldiers and members of the coastguard would help him.

Duterte said Lapena would be reassigned to a government training agency.

Lapena, who was at the ceremony, expressed surprise by his transfer and commented briefl y to reporters to express his thanks to Duterte for his new posting.

He was not available for comment later.Lapena, a retired police general, has been un-

der pressure since customs authorities failed to detect a shipment estimated at more than a tonne of methamphetamines being smuggled into the country in July.

Drug enforcement agents later found traces of the drugs in the containers in which they were smuggled, but the drugs were gone. Duterte did not refer to that case yesterday.

The previous head of the customs bureau was removed after a huge amount of drugs were smuggled into the country in May last year.

‘Ongoing genocide’ against Myanmar’s Rohingya: UNAFPUnited Nations

A genocide against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims is still con-tinuing, UN investigators said

Wednesday as they presented a report to the Security Council, calling for the issue to be referred to an international tribunal.

Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, said that beyond mass killings, the con-fl ict included the ostracisation of the population, prevention of births, and widespread displacement in camps.

“It is an ongoing genocide,” he told a press conference.

“We consider the genocide intent can be reasonably inferred,” he said as he presented the team’s report to a United Nations Security Council meeting.

The 444-page report, fi rst made public last month, called on the coun-cil to refer the issue to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, or to cre-ate an ad hoc tribunal, as was done with the former Yugoslavia.

The explosive report said that My-anmar’s top generals, including Com-mander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, must be investigated and prosecuted for genocide in Rakhine state.

Myanmar has rejected accusations that its military committed atrocities in the crackdown last year that forced 720,000 Rohingya to fl ee over the bor-der to Bangladesh.

The confl ict has also seen about 390 villages destroyed and 10,000 Ro-hingya killed, Darusman said.

“The conditions are not in place for a safe, dignifi ed and sustainable return of the Rohingyas in Bangladesh” to My-anmar, he warned, adding any attempt would just risk more deaths.

At the end of an October 10-20 visit to the country, the UN’s Special En-voy to Myanmar, Christine Schraner

Burgener, said that accountability and “inclusive dialogue” were the two im-portant pillars for national reconcilia-tion.

“Credible fact-fi nding is the fi rst step towards accountability,” she said.

The Myanmar government rejected the UN mission’s fi ndings, questioning its independence and pointing out that it had itself established an independent investigative commission made up of Asian diplomats.

Darusman said however that Myan-mar’s internal inquiries have “proven to be ineff ective failures” so far.

The Security Council meeting was called by Western powers but opposed by China and Russia, allies who have friendly ties with Myanmar’s military and have regularly shielded the nation from criticism.

Myanmar maintains that the vio-lence in Rakhine was triggered by Ro-hingya extremists who attacked border posts in August 2017.

The military has denied almost all accusations of genocide levelled against it, insisting that “clearance op-erations” were necessary to fi ght Ro-hingya militants.

But the UN fact-fi nding mission said there were reasonable grounds to be-lieve that the atrocities were commit-ted with the intention of destroying the Rohingya.

It found that the military’s tactics had been “consistently and grossly disproportionate to actual security threats”, and that estimates that some 10,000 people were killed in the crack-down was likely a conservative fi gure.

Myanmar’s de facto leader Suu Kyi — once lionised by the international com-munity as a democracy icon — has seen a sharp fall from grace following her re-fusal to speak out against the military.

The UN mission has pointed out that her government’s attempts to white-wash facts had worsened the situation for the embattled Rohingya.

Singapore opposition leaders appeal for help to stave off bankruptcyBy Fathin Ungku, Reuters Singapore

Leaders of Singapore’s only parliamentary opposi-tion party have appealed

to supporters for fi nancial help, saying they face the risk of bank-ruptcy as costs mount in civil cases they are fi ghting.

The three offi cials are being sued by two town councils con-trolled by the party between 2011 and 2015 for more than S$30mn ($21.7mn) in damages.

The councils say the trio failed in their fi duciary duties — claims

the defendants say are unfounded.The three can lose their parlia-

mentary seats if declared bank-rupt, which will cut the party’s seats to six in the 100-seat as-sembly dominated by the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).

“We need fi nancial resources to fi ght the legal battle and to deal with the prospect of being made a bankrupt,” party chief Pritam Singh, former leader Low Thia Khiang, and party chair Syl-via Lim said in a joint post on a website set up to appeal for sup-port in their case.

They said they have used personal savings and fi nancial support from

friends to pay almost S$600,000 in legal fees and will continue to fi ght the claims against them.

Singh took to the witness stand yesterday hearing in the trial which is expected to con-tinue until into next month. The trio are being sued in sepa-rate cases by the town councils for wrongful payments made to companies.

“We have acted in good faith, and did what we believed to be in the best interests of our residents and the Town Council,” the Work-ers’ Party leaders said in the post.

The next general election is due by early 2021.

AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA7Gulf Times


Koreans remove guns from Cold War truce villageAFPSeoul

The two Koreas yesterday were removing the last remaining fi rearms and

guard posts from a Cold War era truce village where armed soldiers have stared each other down for decades, Seoul’s de-fence ministry said.

The Joint Security Area — also known as the truce village of Panmunjom — has historically been both a fl ashpoint and a key location for diplomacy between the two Koreas ever since their split in 1953.

It is the only spot along the tense, 250km frontier where soldiers from North Korea and the US-led United Nations

Command stand face to face.By today, all guards will be dis-

armed, ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said, part of a recent diplomatic thaw between the two foes that has gathered pace.

“I am aware that it is going according to plan,” Choi told re-porters.

Panmunjom was where the ar-mistice that ended the bitter Ko-rean War was signed.

It was a designated neutral zone until the “axe murder in-cident” in 1976, when North Korean soldiers attacked a work party trying to chop down a tree inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), leaving two US army of-fi cers dead.

Once demilitarised, the JSA will be guarded by 35 unarmed

personnel from each side and “freedom of movement” will be allowed for visitors and tour-ists, according to a military pact signed between the two Koreas last month.

South and North Korea — which are technically still at war — agreed to take measures to ease military tensions on their border at a meeting in Pyongyang last month between President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un.

The two sides fi nished remov-ing landmines at the JSA — which has been increasingly used for talks between the two Koreas — last week as part of the deal.

The September summit was the third this year between the leaders, as a remarkable rap-prochement takes hold on the peninsula.

Moon has advocated engage-ment with the isolated North to nudge it toward denuclearisa-tion.

The two Koreas and the UN Command, which is included as it retains jurisdiction over the southern half of the JSA, will conduct a joint verifi cation until Saturday.

The UNC chief, US general Vincent Brooks, told report-ers in August that as UN com-mander he supported initiatives that could reduce military ten-sions.

But he added that as com-mander of the combined US-South Korean forces — one of his other roles — he felt there was a “reasonable degree of risk” in Seoul’s plans to dismantle guard posts near the DMZ.

Members of South Korea’s Defence Ministry recovery team work on recovering the remains of soldiers killed in the Korean War in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas in Cheorwon, 90km northeast of Seoul.

Tonga princess greets Harry, MeghanReutersSydney

A Tongan princess yesterday welcomed Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan

when they arrived in the tiny South Pacifi c nation, before driving into the capital as thousands of school-children cheered and waved fl ags along the way.

Princess Latufuipeka Tukuaho, the eldest daughter of King Tupou, shook hands and curtseyed to greet Harry, clad in beige linen suit and Meghan, who wore a long-sleeved red dress in the colour of the Tongan fl ag, with a label visible at the hem.

“How do we love thee, Meghan? Oh let us count the ways,” said one

Twitter user, Talita Kefu of San Mateo in California, in a message on the social network. “Thank you for donning our national colours.”

Dancers in woven skirts and necklaces crafted from red fl owers and feathers in their hair sang and clapped to welcome the royal couple to the Polynesian kingdom, made up of 170 mostly uninhabited islands.

Red-and-white balloons and streamers dotted the route of their motorcade into Nuku’alofa, the cap-ital, while schoolchildren in red and white uniforms waved small plastic British and Tongan fl ags and cheered excitedly.

Tonga is the only sovereign con-stitutional monarchy in Oceania that retains its own royal family, while the region’s other constitutional

monarchies, like Australia and New Zealand, recognise Britain’s Queen Elizabeth as their head of state.

The couple dine with Tupou be-fore an audience today with Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Phiva, who briefl y found himself at the centre of a dip-lomatic storm in August, when he called for China to forgive mounting debt in the region.

Tonga is one of seven island na-tions in the South Pacifi c indebted to China, which is building infl uence in the region.

The visit by the British royal cou-ple, who announced last week that they are expecting a child, follows a tour of Fiji and Australia, where they will return for the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in Sydney, be-fore wrapping up in New Zealand.

Tongan artistes perform during the visit of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, in Nuku’alofa.

Japan’s Abe meets China premier as relations thawAFPBeijing

Japan’s Shinzo Abe and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang yesterday commemorated the 40th anniversary

of a friendship treaty, at the start of a rare trip to Beijing by the Japanese prime minister, who is seeking to repair frayed relations.

Abe’s visit is part of a painstaking courtship aimed at winning over the world’s second economy after a disas-trous falling-out in 2012, when Tokyo “nationalised” disputed islands claimed by Beijing.

Slowly defrosting relations have warmed rapidly in recent months as the two countries face down huge tariff s from US President Donald Trump, who is set on reducing American trade defi -cits with both countries.

Looking to hedge against the US lead-er, Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to discuss how to improve economic cooperation between the world’s second and third largest econo-mies when they meet today.

Japanese business is eager for in-creased access to China’s massive market, while Beijing is interested in Japanese technology and corporate know-how.

During a reception to celebrate the signing of the treaty that put Japanese and Chinese relations back on track after

World War II, Li called for the countries to “jointly promote regional peace” and “safeguard multilateralism and free trade,” according to state broadcaster CCTV.

“Japan and China play an irreplace-able role in the economic development of Asia and even the world,” Abe said, ac-cording to CCTV, calling on both sides to work together to “promote world peace and prosperity.”

Abe’s visit is the fi rst by a Japanese prime minister since 2011.

Since an awkward 2014 encounter between Abe and Xi on the sidelines of a summit, there have been ministerial

visits by both sides and a softening of rhetoric.

“Our two countries have been mak-ing continuous eff orts to improve rela-tions,” Abe said before fl ying to Beijing, expressing his hope that the visit would “lift bilateral relations to a new level.”

Abe and Xi are likely to focus on a range of potential deals, including joint investments in infrastructure in region-al nations including Indonesia and the Philippines.

Abe said they also planned to discuss North Korea and territorial frictions — calling to make “the East China Sea a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation.”

The Japanese leader, who leaves China tomorrow, will also hold additional talks with Li.

Just days before Abe’s trip, Tokyo lodged an offi cial complaint after Chi-nese ships cruised around the disputed islands that Tokyo calls the Senkaku and Beijing labels the Diaoyu islands.

Abe’s three-day trip sets up the pos-sibility that Xi will visit Japan next year.

China has long denounced Japan for what it says is an insuffi ciently contrite attitude towards its role in World War II.

But ahead of the trip, Beijing has taken a more cordial stance than it has in the past.

Japanese media have reported Abe is hoping the visit will produce a soft pow-er win in the form of some panda diplo-macy, with zoos in Sendai and Kobe ap-parently angling for new additions.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shake hands during their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing

Beijing insists Chinese military will act ‘at any cost’ to prevent Taiwan splitReutersBeijing

China’s military will take action “at any cost” to foil any attempt to separate the self-ruled island of

Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own, the country’s defence minister said yesterday.

China has been infuriated by recent US sanctions on its military, one of a growing number of fl ashpoints in Sino-US ties that include a bitter trade war, the issue of Taiwan, and China’s increas-ingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea.

On Monday, the United States sent two warships through the Taiwan Strait in the second such operation this year and the latest in a series of US gestures in support of democratic Taiwan.

“The Taiwan issue is related to China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and touches upon China’s core interests,” Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe said at the opening of the Xiangshan

Forum in Beijing, which China styles as its answer to the annual Shangri-La Dia-logue security forum in Singapore.

“On this issue, it is extremely danger-ous to repeatedly challenge China’s bot-tom line. If someone tries to separate out Taiwan, China’s military will take the necessary actions at any cost.”

Taiwan’s Presidential Offi ce and De-fence Ministry declined to comment on Wei’s remarks.

China-Taiwan relations have dete-riorated since the island’s President Tsai Ing-wen, of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, swept to power in 2016.

Tsai says she wants to maintain the status quo with China but will not be bullied.

Beijing, which has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, has also viewed US overtures to-ward the island with alarm, such as a new de facto embassy there and passage of a law to encourage visits by US offi cials.

China’s military ties with the United

States are important and sensitive, Wei said, adding that China would never give up an inch of its territory.

Beijing opposed displays of strength and provocation in the South China Sea by “nations from outside the region” carried out under the pretense of pro-tecting freedom of fl ight and navigation, he added.

The world’s two largest economies needed to deepen high-level ties so as to navigate tension and rein in the risk of inadvertent confl ict, US Defense Secre-tary Jim Mattis told his Chinese counter-part in Singapore last week.

China has also expressed concern af-ter US President Donald Trump said the United States would withdraw from a Cold War-era treaty that eliminated nu-clear missiles from Europe because Rus-sia was violating the pact.

China is not a party to that treaty, but Trump has also suggested China’s military strength played a role in his decision, which China has described as “completely wrong”.

N Korean general attends China forumReutersBeijing

A North Korean general yes-terday got a warm welcome in Beijing, a rare high-profi le

showing at an international mili-tary forum by his normally reclusive country, underscoring an improve-ment in ties with China and the world.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump held a landmark summit in Singa-pore in June as they both look to set aside decades of hostility and bring peace to the Korean peninsula.

The two Koreas have also held three summits this year, while Kim has also met Chinese President Xi Jinping three times in 2018.

Attending the Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, which China styles as its answer to the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singa-pore, Kim Hyong Ryong, vice minis-ter of North Korea’s People’s Armed Forces, was greeted warmly by other attendees, including Singapore De-fence Minister Ng Eng Hen.

Addressing the forum, Kim said peace was the priority.

“Until only a year ago, the danger of military confl ict lingered on the Korean Peninsula but today we are witnessing a series of events beyond all our expectations giving rise to the warm atmosphere of reconciliation, unity and peace,” he said, in com-

ments translated into English.“Today’s dramatic reality of the

Korean Peninsula is the fruition of chairman Kim Jong Un’s determi-nation and bold decision to turn the Korean Peninsula into a cradle of peace without any nuclear weapons or nuclear threats and achieve na-tional reunifi cation,” Kim said.

Chinese state media said it was the fi rst time a North Korean general had attended the forum, which sen-ior Western offi cials are traditionally largely absent from.

Kim said North Korea was mak-ing “sincere eff orts” to successfully implement agreements reached by leader Kim and Trump in Singapore.

That summit was an “event of ep-ochal signifi cance” putting an end to their hostility and opening up a new

chapter in ties, he said.North Korea wants to turn the

peninsula into a “cradle for peace and prosperity that contributes to the security of Asia and the globe by thoroughly implementing the DPRK-US joint statement”, Kim added, referring to his country’s of-fi cial name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“The important reason the DPRK put forward a new strategic policy line of concentrating all eff orts on socialist economic construction is to contribute to peace and stability of the region and the whole world,” he said.

“The DPRK will continue to ful-fi l its obligations and role in order to ease tensions and achieve stable peace on the Korean Peninsula.”

Singaporean indicted for laundering funds for N Korea

US prosecutors yesterday unveiled

charges against a Singapore business-

man once lauded as a leading young

entrepreneur, alleging he illegally

laundered millions of dollars in funds

for North Korea.

A grand jury indictment charged

Tan Wee Beng, 41, with working with

several other unnamed actors to

move money through the interna-

tional banking system for North

Korean banks between 2011 and 2018,

violating international sanctions on

North Korea.

Separately, the US Treasury

slapped sanctions on Tan and two

companies he ran — Wee Tiong(S) Pte

and WT Marine Pte, both of which did

business with North Korea.

Tan “conducted illicit transactions

totalling millions of dollars in support

of North Korean entities in blatant vio-

lation of a host of economic sanctions

the United States has established

against North Korea and North Kore-

an entities,” said FBI assistant director

William Sweeney in a statement.

The FBI placed Tan on its “most

wanted” list, saying his whereabouts

are currently unknown.

Govt apologisesto migrantsforced to giveDNA samplesGuardian News and MediaLondon

The home secretary has apol-ogised to migrants – in-cluding to Afghan nationals

who worked for the British armed forces and Gurkha soldiers – who were forced to provide DNA sam-ples under the government’s hos-tile environment agenda.

Migrants seeking to live and work in the UK on the basis of a family relationship can choose to provide DNA to prove a relation-ship to support an application.

But Sajid Javid told the House of Commons that in June it be-came apparent that the provision of DNA evidence had been made a requirement and was “not simply a request” in a number of family visa applications.

“I want to take this opportu-nity to apologise to those who have been aff ected by this process,” Javid said.

The minister said he had set up a new taskforce for anyone who felt they had been wrongly required to provide DNA evidence for an im-migration application.

The home secretary said the issue came to light over the sum-mer and an internal review was immediately ordered. The review had fi nished but there was further work to be done to establish the scale of the problem, Javid said.

“But regardless of the numbers of the people that have been af-fected, one case is one too many,” he said. “I’m determined to get to the bottom of how and why in some cases people can be com-pelled to supply DNA evidence in the fi rst place.” The majority of cases identifi ed were part of a Home Offi ce operation, which started in April 2016, to clamp down on alleged fraud in some family and human rights immigra-tion applications.

Letters sent as part of the op-eration incorrectly stated that the applicant had to provide DNA evi-

dence and that not providing such information without a reasonable excuse would lead to their appli-cation being refused on suitability grounds.

Javid said 83 applications were refused, including seven refused solely for the failure to provide DNA evidence. A further six ap-pear to have been refused for failure to provide DNA evidence where this was not the sole reason.

In addition, the home secre-tary said the illegal requirement to provide DNA had been applied to Gurkha soldiers and Afghan na-tionals who had worked for the UK government.

In January 2015, a scheme was expanded to allow adult depend-ent children of Gurkhas dis-charged before 1997 to settle in the UK, Javid said.

Guidance was published that stated that DNA evidence might be required and that applications could be refused if that evidence was not provided without reason-able excuse within four weeks.

“This published guidance was wrong and has now been updated,” Javid said, adding that there were 51 cases identifi ed where DNA evidence was requested from ap-plicants at their own cost.

There were four cases from the same family who had their appli-cation refused solely because they did not provide DNA evidence.

In 2013, applications from Af-ghan nationals formerly employed by the UK government to resettle in the UK were welcomed.

But the terms of the scheme in-cluded mandatory DNA testing for family groups paid for by the UK government, Javid said.

Current investigations suggest that no one making an applica-tion under this scheme has been refused because they did not take a DNA test, he said.

“Nonetheless mandatory test-ing should not have been part of this scheme and this requirement has now been removed,” the home secretary added.

Philip Green namedover harassment claimsGuardian News and MediaLondon

The retail tycoon Philip Green has been named in parliament as the busi-

nessman accused over sexual harassment and bullying allega-tions that the Daily Telegraph was barred from reporting by an injunction.

Green, the owner of Topshop, was named by Labour peer Pe-ter Hain, who said he was using parliamentary privilege in the public interest.

Lord Hain told the House of Lords: “Having been contacted by somebody intimately in-

volved in the case of a powerful businessman using non-disclo-sure agreements and substantial payments to conceal the truth about serious and repeated sex-ual harassment, racist abuse and bullying which is compulsively continuing, I feel it’s my duty under parliamentary privilege to name Philip Green as the indi-vidual in question, given that the media have been subject to an injunction preventing publica-tion of the full details of a story which is clearly in the public in-terest.”

Hain’s intervention comes after court of appeal judges granted a temporary injunction blocking the Daily Telegraph

from publishing allegations of misconduct made by fi ve em-ployees about a fi gure the news-paper described as a “leading businessman”.

That decision overturned an earlier fi nding by the high court that to identify the man would be in the public interest.

On Tuesday, the Telegraph published claims that an un-named “leading businessman” had used NDAs to pay off former employees who had accused him of discreditable conduct, in what it described as “a British .MeToo scandal”. The Guardian has ap-proached Green for comment.

There was silence in the House of Lords after Hain made

his statement, an intervention before a routine statement on immigration made by Conserva-tive Home Offi ce minister Lady Williams.

After the name was revealed, Conservative vice-chairman James Cleverley said on Twit-ter that he hoped “people must now realise that injunctions and super-injunctions are nothing more than a good way to part with large sums of mon-ey and a bad way to keep things secret”.

Theresa May said the gov-ernment was committed to re-forming the use of NDAs when questioned in the Commons on Wednesday.

“Non-disclosure agree-ments cannot stop people from whistleblowing, but it is clear that some employers are us-ing them unethically,” May said. She said the government was going to bring forward its con-sultation “to seek to improve the regulation around non-dis-closure agreements and make it absolutely explicit to employees when a non-disclosure agree-ment does not apply and when it cannot be enforced”.

She was responding to a ques-tion from Labour’s Jess Phillips, who said: “It seems our laws al-low rich and powerful men to do what they want as long as they pay to keep it quiet.”

Missing mum could havebeen murdered: policeDaily MailLondon

The boyfriend of a miss-ing mother-of-fi ve spoke of his fi nal conversation

with her as police said they were treating the disappearance as po-tential murder.

Sarah Wellgreen, 46, vanished from her former partner Ben Lacomba’s £330,000 four-bed-room house in New Ash Green, Kent, a fortnight ago.

The beautician had recently moved back in with Lacomba, 38, with her three youngest chil-dren – six-year-old twins and a 12-year-old boy – although they had not rekindled their ro-mance.

Taxi driver Lacomba is said to be a fan of Nerf guns, the chil-dren’s toy that fi res foam bul-lets, and would organise play-fi ghts among friends. Detectives quizzed him for three days last week before releasing him.

Wellgreen’s boyfriend, Neil James, spoke for the fi rst time

about how he panicked on the day she vanished when she failed to respond to his texts.

James, from Guildford, Sur-rey, said: “On the Tuesday night I spoke to Sarah on the phone at 9.24pm. The conversation went on for about 15 minutes. She said she was at home and she was in bed.

On Wednesday morning, I texted her about 7.50am: “morn-ing, honey, how’s you?”, that sort of thing, and it didn’t deliver. I didn’t think anything of it at fi rst – I thought she just hadn’t charged her phone or whatever.

“It got to lunchtime and then I tried texting her again, I tried calling her, e-mailing her, What-sApp, Messenger.’ Panicking, he messaged Wellgreen’s older sons, Lewis, 22, and Jack, 21, from her previous marriage to Dave Bur-dett.

The news that Kent Police were treating her disappearance as ‘suspicious and a potential murder’ came as it emerged the devoted mother has missed one of her children’s birthdays. Well-

green’s family desperately ap-pealed for information after her disappearance from the secluded village on October 9.

Kent Police said her small black 4x4 had been left outside her house in the secluded village, while neither her phone nor bank cards have been used since she went missing.

Detective superintendent Paul Fotheringham said: “It is en-tirely out of character for her to go missing and having conducted extensive inquiries and searches, this case is now being treated as a potential murder.

“Signifi cantly, Sarah has missed one of her children’s birthdays for which she had made plans – and that too was completely out of character.”

Wellgreen’s uncle Ronald Wellgreen, 61, said: “I’m gob-smacked that it could now be a potential murder investigation. It’s been 15 days now. It looks to me like she could have died, but I’ve got no reason to think she was killed by someone – why would she be?”

Gritters readied asbitter cold on the wayGuardian News and MediaLondon

Council gritters are be-ing prepared for the fi rst signs of winter in Brit-

ain, with bitterly cold weather forecast for the coming days and snow a possibility in some parts.

The end of the week will be noticeably colder than recent days, with early frost and ice arriving for some, according to the Met Office, which tweeted out a warning that the chang-ing of the clocks this weekend would be accompanied by a cold blast.

The Met Offi ce meteorolo-gist John West predicted “a real change in feel from the rather mild weather, due to high pres-sure in the UK and replaced by a strong northerly fl ow from the Arctic”.

“While the thermometers will be maxing out at about 6C (42.8F) it will feel colder in that strong northerly wind,” he said.

While gritters are already pa-trolling Scottish roads, English councils are also stepping up preparations, with a number

carrying out dry runs on roads in recent days.

“Our gritters are now on 24-hour standby, ready to react to the weather. And with tempera-tures set to drop, you may see them in the next few days,” said Stoke-on-Trent council.

Durham council said several of its older gritters had been re-placed, with four new power gritters and 23 new trailer grit-ters among a 76-strong fl eet of road gritting vehicles and snow blowers.

Today is expected to be a colder day across the whole country, with northerly winds. Any rain in the south will clear to leave sunny spells. Showers would mostly aff ect northern Scotland, Wales and areas near western and eastern coasts, the Met Offi ce said. Some of them, across high ground in Scotland, will be wintry.

Predicting cold and windy weather over the coming week-end, with overnight frost and icy patches, the Met Offi ce said showers would be blustery around coasts, with some snow on hills. Showers will ease from the north-west by Monday.

Royals in Tonga

Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, arrive at Fua’amotu Airport, Tonga, on day one of the royal couple’s visit to Tonga yesterday. Page 7

Irish presidential election begins

Presiding off icer Carmel McBride and Garda Sergeant John Gallagher arrive by helicopter with a ballot box for the Irish presidential election, on Inishbofin Island, County Donegal, Ireland, yesterday. Some 2,100 registered voters on 12 remote islands off the west coast went to the polls one day ahead of the rest of the electorate. With a huge lead in the opinion polls ahead of the vote, President Michael D Higgins appears to be a near-certainty to win his second seven-year term for the largely ceremonial off ice.

8 Gulf TimesFriday, October 26, 2018

BRITAIN/IRELAND

A female Chinese reporter has been charged with assault after allegedly slapping a volunteer at an event on the sidelines of the Conservative Party conference last month where they were discussing political freedoms in Hong Kong. Kong Linlin, a 48-year-old reporter for the country’s state-run broadcaster China Central Television, was arrested after the incident at the event that featured pro-democracy supporters from the former British colony. West Midlands Police said she had been charged with common assault and will appear at Birmingham Magistrates Court on November 7. Kong did not respond to a request for comment left at her company’s off ices in London.

French free-climber Alain Robert, known as ‘Spiderman’, attempts to climb up the outside of the Heron Tower in the financial district of London, Britain, yesterday.

A family bakery has been criticised for selling ‘ginger persons’ instead of gingerbread men. The decision to rebrand the traditional biscuit has gone down badly with traditionalists. An image of ‘ginger persons’ on sale at the Thomas the Baker shop in York at a price of four for £1.20 was shared thousands of times online and provoked a heated debate. One Twitter user said: “What is going on in the world they’ve always been GINGERBREAD MEN now they’re called “Gingerbread persons” Another wrote: ‘What on earth is our world coming too? They have always been gingerbread men!’ Others blamed ‘feminists’ and ‘snowflakes’ for the gender-neutral change.

Speaker John Bercow could face an investigation into historical bullying allegations made against him by Commons staff . Parliament’s ruling body, the House of Commons Commission, has agreed to consider such claims after a damning report into bullying and sexual harassment. The recommendation of the inquiry headed by Dame Laura Cox was adopted by the commission. Her report said the senior management of parliament had allowed a culture of bullying and harassment to ‘thrive’. The blow for Bercow came as the chairman of the women and equalities committee, Maria Miller, quit a diversity group led by the Speaker in protest that he had not resigned.

Women will be allowed to apply for all military roles in the British armed forces including in frontline infantry units and the Royal Marines, the government has announced. It was confirmed that women will also be able to put themselves forward for selection for specialist units including the SAS and SBS. The Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson, made the announcement, which the ministry of defence described as historic, during a land power demonstration on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. Williamson said that, from yesterday, women already serving in the army were able to transfer into infantry roles.

Journalist charged forslapping man at conference

Bakery’s gingerbread menturned into ‘ginger persons’

Bercow could face‘bullying’ inquiry

All roles in military to beopen to women: govt

LAW AND ORDERPEOPLE OFFBEATSETBACKDECISION

EUROPE9Gulf Times


Thousands against Franco burialThousands of protesters gathered outside the Almudena Roman Catholic Cathedral in central Madrid yesterday to demonstrate against any plans to bury the remains of former dictator Francisco Franco at the site.Families of the tens of thousands of his opponents who were killed or imprisoned during his near four-decade rule oppose his burial at such an emblematic site.Spanish lawmakers voted in September to remove the remains of Franco from a mausoleum where tens of thousands of victims of the 1936-39 civil war that brought him to power are also laid to rest.It is still not known where his remains will be transferred to.The Franco family has a crypt at the cathedral and Franco’s daughter is buried there.People chanted ‘Criminal out of the cathedral’ and carried placards reading ‘Madrid: Without Franco’ and ‘Justice!’The plans to move the remains have divided Spanish society. Some of his descendants have opposed the exhumation.

EU prize given to Ukraine’s SentsovThe European Parliament has awarded the Sakharov human rights prize to Ukrainian Oleg Sentsov and called for Russia to free the filmmaker, jailed after opposing the annexation of his native Crimea.In bestowing the honour, the European Union’s elected assembly took Russian President Vladimir Putin again to task over what it sees as his illegal occupation of Ukraine.Russia’s foreign ministry slammed the award as “an absolutely politicised” move.In announcing the Sakharov prize, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said Sentsov’s case reminded the assembly that it has a duty to defend human rights everywhere.Sentsov, 42, is serving a 20-year sentence in a Russian penal colony north of the Arctic Circle based on his 2015 conviction for an arson plot in Crimea.Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory in 2014, triggering European and US sanctions.

Dry Danube reveals treasureA treasure trove of some 2,000 gold and silver coins has been found on the Danube riverbed in Hungary thanks to an exceptionally low water level, archaeologists said yesterday.“Around 2,000 coins have been found, as well as arms, pikes, cannon balls and swords,” Katalin Kovacs, an archaeologist with the Ferenczy Museum Centre, told the MTI agency.The discovery was made this week where the river passes by the town of Erd, to the south of Budapest.Archaeologists are working frantically, assisted by divers and drones, to extract what they can from the site before a rise in river levels expected this weekend.Like other rivers across Europe, the Danube is in some places at a historically low level after a long period of dry weather.In Budapest it is running at a mere 38cm (15”), which has aff ected shipping traff ic.The treasure, which includes ducats and pennies, was found amid the wreck of a trading boat whose origin is not yet known, archaeologists said.

Kosovo court jails Roma manA Pristina court has sentenced a Roma man to 10 years in prison for torturing civilians during Kosovo’s 1998-99 conflict with Serbia.Skender Bislimi is the first Roma, a minority group in the region, to be convicted of war crimes in the independence struggle that pitted ethnic Albanian guerillas against Serb forces.The 58-year-old was found guilty of torturing ethnic Albanian civilians in March 1999 as a member of a Serb paramilitary group.Bislimi, who acted “together with at least 10 members” of the group, “violated the bodily integrity and health of more than 40 civilians, Albanian males, by applying measures of intimidation and terror”, the Pristina court said in a statement.Bislimi was extradited to Kosovo from Bosnia in 2016 after being held on an international arrest warrant.The war paved the way for Kosovo’s independence and claimed 13,000 lives, mostly ethnic Albanians.

PROTEST HUMAN RIGHTS CLIMATE WAR CRIMES

Khashoggi’s son leaves Saudi Arabia for US: HRWAgenciesWashington

The eldest son of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Salah, and

his family left the Gulf kingdom after the government lifted a travel ban, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said yesterday.

“Salah and his family are on a plane to (Washington) DC now,”

Sarah Leah Whitson, the rights watchdog’s executive director for the Middle East and North Africa, told AFP, citing a family friend.

There was no immediate com-ment from Saudi offi cials, but Whitson said that they were apparently allowed to leave af-ter the travel ban on Salah was lifted.

Later, the US State Depart-ment said in a statement that

Salah was on his way to the US from Saudi Arabia, as reported by Reuters.

Salah, a dual US-Saudi citi-zen, will be joined in the US by his other siblings who are based there, friends of the family told AFP.

“Jamal’s family needs a place to be together where they feel safe to mourn their beloved one,” said Randa Slim, director of con-fl ict resolution at the Washing-

ton-based Middle East Institute, who knew the slain journalist personally.

“It is tragic that it took his death to get the Saudi authori-ties to grant them the freedom to travel,” Slim told AFP.

Jamal Khashoggi, a Washing-ton Post contributor, was killed on October 2 after a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain paperwork before marry-ing his Turkish fi ancee.

After fi rst insisting that Khashoggi left the consulate un-harmed, the Saudi authorities said he was killed in an argument that degenerated into a brawl.

Riyadh fi nally accepted yes-terday what Turkey had said virtually from the start – that he was killed in a premeditated hit.

“The lifting of this travel ban on Salah and his family is a huge sigh of relief,” Whitson said. “We should keep in mind

there are hundreds, if not thou-sands, of people in Saudi Ara-bia who face travel bans and are held in detention without any justice.”

An offi cial in Washington said US Secretary of State Mike Pom-peo had “raised the safety and security of the Khashoggi family members with the Saudi leader-ship”, but declined to discuss the specifi cs of Salah’s travel.

His departure comes after

Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman met Salah as well as Khashoggi’s brother, Sahel, at the royal pal-ace in Riyadh on Tuesday.

Saudi state media said they off ered their condolences to the family, but pictures of the prince shaking hands with Salah went viral on social media, where rights activists demanded the immediate lifting of the travel ban.

Merkel condemns journalist’s killing in call with Saudi king

Agencies & Al Jazeera

German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the killing of journalist Jamal

Khashoggi in the strongest terms possible during a phone call with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, and vowed to take appropriate meas-ures in response, the chancellery said.

Merkel “made clear that the exact course of events must be cleared up”, the chancellery said in a statement after yesterday’s telephone call between the two leaders.

“The chancellor urged Saudi Arabia to ensure a rapid, trans-parent and credible investiga-tion. She stressed that all those responsible must be held ac-countable,” the statement added.

The United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has said the killing of Khashoggi, who vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, bears the hallmark of an extrajudicial execution.

“What we know is suffi cient to suggest very strongly that Mr Khashoggi was the victim of an extrajudicial execution,” Agnes Callamard told Al Jazeera.

“First, we know that kill-ing was in the consulate, which is representative of the state of Saudi Arabia. Second, the indi-viduals present at the time of the disappearance and the alleged killing were representatives of the State. Subsequently, over the last few days at least, Saudi authorities have recognised in-dividuals at the highest levels of the structures of authority were involved in the disappearance and the killing.

“All of those elements indicate that the disappearance and now killing of Jamal Khashoggi bear the hallmark of an extrajudicial execution.”

The European Parliament yesterday urged an “independ-ent and impartial” international probe into the death of Khashog-gi, Qatar News Agency reported.

In a resolution, the European Parliament condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the re-ported torture and killing of the journalist at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The resolution also called for

those responsible to be “iden-tifi ed and brought to justice,” and for EU member countries to “stand ready to impose targeted sanctions”, including visa bans and freezing assets, as possi-ble sanctions if Saudi agents are found culpable in Khashoggi’s death.

The European Parliament also demanded an EU-wide arms embargo against Saudi Arabia in response to the murder of Khashoggi, DPA said.

“The murder is unlikely to have happened without the knowledge or control of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” lawmakers noted.

The parliament resolution was passed by 325 votes in favour, one against and 19 abstentions, during a plenary session in the French city of Strasbourg.

Meanwhile, King Salman spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by telephone yesterday to brief him on the investigation into the murder of Khashoggi, Reuters said, citing the offi cial Saudi press agency.

The king assured Putin that the Saudi government was de-termined to hold the guilty par-ties accountable and to make sure “they receive their punish-ment”.

The Kremlin said in a state-ment yesterday that Putin and King Salman had addressed the situation related to the “Khashoggi case” during their phone conversation.

DPA also reported that Ger-man police are no longer training Saudi border guards as of the be-ginning of October, the Interior Ministry in Berlin announced yesterday, in a further sign of worsening security ties in the wake of Khashoggi’s death.

CIA chief briefs Trump on Khashoggi probe

Saudi dissident defi ant after Khashoggi murder

Haspel listened to audio tape of murder: sources

Turkish police investigating water samples from well in Saudi consulate

Washington Post issues full-page ad for truth in Khashoggi case

Agencies & Al Jazeera

The head of the CIA yester-day briefed US President Donald Trump on the lat-

est developments in the inves-tigation of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi after a fact-fi nding mission to Turkey, offi cials said.

CIA director Gina Haspel delivered her report to Trump at the White House with Sec-retary of State Mike Pompeo also present, State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said, according to AFP.

Haspel shared her “fi ndings and discussions from her trip to Turkey”, said Palladino, who de-clined to discuss the substance of her presentation.

The CIA chief held talks Tues-day in Turkey as global outrage mounted over the killing of Saudi palace critic Khashoggi inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.

Turkish media said intelli-gence offi cers provided Haspel

with video images and audio tapes of Khashoggi’s killing gathered from the consulate.

Sources told Reuters that Haspel heard an audio record-ing of Khashoggi’s death dur-ing the trip to Turkey, but it was not clear what could be heard. “We have shared with those who sought additional information some of the information and fi ndings that the prosecutor has allowed us to share,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavu-soglu told reporters, without giving details.

Palladino said the US was still waiting for a more detailed probe by the Saudis. “We want this as soon as possible. The longer the

investigation takes, the more concerned we become about its impact and its effi cacy. And the longer it takes, the longer there are questions about this tragedy that remain unanswered,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Saudi Ara-bia’s public prosecutor said Khashoggi’s murder was pre-meditated, reversing previous offi cial statements that the kill-ing was unintended.

Saudi offi cials initially de-nied having anything to do with Khashoggi’s disappearance after he entered the consulate on Oc-tober 2, before changing the of-fi cial account to say an internal investigation suggested he was accidentally killed in a botched

operation to return him to the kingdom.

Yesterday, Saudi state TV quoted the Saudi public pros-ecutor as saying the killing was premeditated, and that prosecu-tors were interrogating suspects on the basis of information pro-vided by a joint Saudi-Turkish task force.

“Information from the Turk-ish side affi rms that the suspects in Khashoggi’s case premeditat-ed their crime,” said the state-ment carried by state TV.

Turkish newspaper Yeni Sa-fak, citing an audio recording, has said his torturers cut off his fi ngers during an interrogation and later beheaded him.

A European security source who was briefed by people who listened to the audio said of the recording: “There was an argu-ment at the beginning, they in-sulted each other, it then devel-oped. (Saudis said) ‘Let’s give a lesson to him’.”

Khashoggi did not appear to believe he was going to die, the source said.

Turkish police were inves-tigating water samples from a well at the consulate yesterday after initially being denied ac-cess, broadcaster CNN Turk said.

Meanwhile, dozens of people stood vigil outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul yester-day to demand justice. Sev-eral carried cardboard images of his face and signs reading “Khashoggi’s friends”. One, his hands painted red, wore a mask depicting the face of Crown Prince Mohamed.

The Washington Post called on its readers to “Demand the Truth” regarding the murder of Khashoggi, who was a columnist with the paper, in its online and print editions yesterday, DPA re-ported.

“On Tuesday, October 2 Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi entered the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Is-tanbul and was brutally mur-dered,” the newspaper wrote in the full-page print ad.

It then showed Crown Prince Mohamed with the words “De-mand the Truth” splashed in all caps. The online edition featured the same image.

AFPLondon

Saudi dissident satirist Ghanem Almasarir, whose social media mockery of

Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman gets millions of hits, has told AFP he is undeterred by journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.

Speaking at a protest on Wednesday outside the Saudi embassy in London, Almasa-rir said Khashoggi’s slaying had shown the wider world a darker side to the power wielded by Prince Mohamed.

“If they are not held account-able, they will continue to do it,” the 38-year-old said, adding that many Saudi dissidents liv-ing in Britain were “afraid right now to leave their houses”.

Almasarir and a dozen ac-tivists hired an old-fashioned, open-top red London bus to drive past the Saudi embassy for their demonstration, chanting “Where is the body of Jamal?”

and accusing Prince Mohamed of being behind his murder.

The bus was plastered in ban-ners reading “Justice for Jamal”, which the demonstrators then unfurled outside the security fence surrounding the plush 18th-century mansion in central London.

From self-imposed exile in Britain, the video-blogging po-litical satirist has racked up more than 200mn views on YouTube.

His outspoken anti-regime criticism has also earned him enemies.

On August 31, just over a month before Khashoggi was killed, Almasarir said he was fol-lowed and beaten by two Saudi men.

The scene – in which he was punched in broad daylight – was captured on video.

Khashoggi’s death has caused such a wave of fear among ex-iles that some are now cautious of even visiting their country’s overseas missions.

Looking at the wrought iron gates of the Saudi embassy, Al-

masarir said he has no plans to step beyond them any time soon.

“If we happen to walk inside, I think we will end up like what Jamal Khashoggi has suff ered.

“They might kill us and dis-member our bodies,” said the dissident, who has political asy-lum in Britain and said he has refused invitations to renew his

Saudi passport at the embassy.After emerging as fi rst-in-

line to the Saudi throne in June 2017, Prince Mohamed gained popularity after shaking up the ultraconservative kingdom with fundamental reforms.

However, his image has been tarnished by Khashoggi’s kill-ing and many critics now see the 33-year-old’s crackdown on dis-sent as verging on authoritarian-ism.

“A lot of people around the world have the wrong image of the Saudis,” said Almasarir. If critics were being murdered abroad, it begs the question as to the fate of domestic dissidents, he said. “But I don’t think we should be intimidated because we have freedom of speech,” he added.

Almasarir’s videos ridicule, in particular, the crown prince – the power behind King Salman’s throne.

“I mock the Saudis. I nick-name the crown prince Tubby Teddy Bear. I criticise them and make a joke out of them and their

decisions,” he said.Almasarir said international

pressure over Khashoggi’s mur-der should lead to Prince Mo-hamed being prosecuted.

“If they refuse to do so, the international community should get together and impose sanc-tions on him personally. He should be banned from travel-ling,” the social media star said.

Some American politicians are calling for tough action if a link to the Saudi royal family is proven. Saudi offi cials say the crown prince did not order the killing.

Almasarir said he hoped the global outrage would bring change to the kingdom, pointing out that 94% of his YouTube hits come from within Saudi Arabia.

“The Saudi people are fed up with the government, they don’t trust them and they see my show as a voice for them.”

He said people watched his YouTube channel “in secrecy but I hope that one day (they) will share it and it’s not a crime in Saudi Arabia”.

United Nations special rapporteur: Khashoggi was victim of extrajudicial killing

European Parliament urges international probe, seeks Saudi arms embargo

Putin briefed on investigation

Angela Merkel

Ghanem Almasarir poses for a photograph in front of a protest outside the Saudi Arabian embassy in west London, calling for justice for Jamal Khashoggi.

People hold posters picturing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and a candle during a gathering outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul yesterday.

Turkey questions 38 workers at Saudi consulate

Turkish prosecutors have so far taken statements from 38 employees at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul as part of the probe into the killing of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, DPA said, citing a report by Turkish state news agency Anadolu.The workers were asked

whether they witnessed anything extraordinary on the day of Khashoggi’s death or had seen Khashoggi or the 15 alleged perpetrators, according to the report. Another five employees still have to be questioned, the report added. It was not clear if the workers were only Turkish employees.

Govt hits back at Rahulclaims over CBI row

18 AIADMK legislatorsdisqualifi cation upheld

IANSNew Delhi

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday hit back at Congress president

Rahul Gandhi accusing him of “spreading falsehood” over the issue of Central Bureau of Inves-tigation director Alok Verma and said that he was living in “hallu-cination”.

“Congress has lost all hopes of becoming relevant and it has also lost patience. And there-fore in their dreams also they are dreaming only about Rafale. It appears Rahul is living in hal-lucination,” Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters at the party headquarters.

“He is manufacturing lies on Rafale every day. Today he came

out with two falsehoods. The fi rst falsehood is that the CBI director was removed but the fact is that he was not removed. He has been sent on leave. Ver-ma and special director Rakesh Asthana have been sent on leave,” he said.

The second falsehood was that “Verma was sent on leave because he was inquiring about Rafale”.

“There is no inquiry. There is no case of inquiry on Rafale. He (Rahul) says that papers were taken from his offi ce. This is ut-terly fallacious, malicious and a manufactured lie,” he said.

The BJP leader’s remarks came soon after the Congress presi-dent sharpened his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying Verma was “removed in panic” because he was going to begin a probe into the controver-

sial Rafale deal that would have been “suicidal” for Modi.

Slamming the Congress, Ja-vadekar said, “Why they are doing this? Because Congress and Rahul think that he has lost a chance to pocket the heavy commission through his friend Sanjay Bhandari if he was the middleman.”

Javadekar said the people were more mature than Rahul Gandhi. “The country has not witnessed such an immature politician. He failed in his two-minute press conference yesterday on matter, on manner and on method,” he said.

Javadekar said Gandhi has lost civility and therefore he was “cursing” the prime minister day in and day out.

Accusing the Congress of having misused the CBI when it was in power, Javadekar said,

“Who misused the CBI. We never interfered. Actually people are accusing us now that why we did not interfere in time. There was anarchy-like situation de-veloping and we should have interfered earlier. But we never interfered.”

Javadekar said that even after fi nding out that a ‘Look Out’ cir-cular, which was being issued to Karti Chidambaram, was leaked and even after the Aircel Maxis deal case report was found in the bedroom of erstwhile fi nance minister P Chidambaram the government had not interfered.

“The coal scam accused had easy access to the then CBI di-rector (Ranjit Sinha) and the case is in court. Moin Qureshi was the go between as always. And there are many cases which show tre-mendous interference when they used, misused and abused the

CBI,” he added.Re-emphasising ruling BJP

government’s complete trans-parency in defence-related mat-ters, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman yesterday attacked the opposition Congress for “brazenly misleading” the na-tion on the Rafale fi ghter jet deal.

“The allegations the Congress is making are baseless. The rules, which were essentially framed during their (UPA government) period, very clearly tell me one thing – they are misleading the nation brazenly,” she said ad-dressing the Economic India Summit-2018, in Mumbai.

Pointing out that all the doubts and questions raised by opposition parties have already been answered, Sitharaman charged them with changing the ‘milepost’ repeatedly.

IANSHyderabad/Visakhapatnam

YSR Congress Party presi-dent Y S Jaganmohan Reddy suff ered a minor

injury at the Visakhapatam air-port in a knife attack by a man and was yesterday admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad even as Andhra Pradesh’s ruling TDP voiced doubts that the attack could be a political conspiracy.

Soon after landing in Hydera-bad, the Andhra Pradesh’s leader of opposition was admitted to a hospital. Doctors said his condi-tion was stable.

The injury on his left arm was three to four inch deep and it required nine stitches, the doc-tors said. With doubts being ex-pressed by YSRCP leaders that the knife could have been laced with poison, the doctors sent his blood samples for examination.

Jagan sustained injury on his left arm when he was stabbed by a youth who sneaked up to him with a request to take a selfi e, police said.

The attacker, identifi ed as Jari-palli Srinivas, works as a waiter at a restaurant at the airport.

A commandant of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) overpowered the attacker, who was handed over to police. Ja-gan continued his journey to Hyderabad after getting fi rst aid from the airport staff .

Andhra Pradesh director gen-eral of police R P Thakur said they were questioning the ac-cused. The police chief said Srinivas claimed to be a fan of Jagan. “Prima facie it appears that he resorted to the attack for publicity,” he said.

The offi cer said the police had no role in the security measures inside the airport. He said it was for CISF to fi nd out how the at-tacker managed to carry a knife into the airport. A case has been registered by the police on a complaint by CISF.

The YSRCP chief visits Hy-derabad every Friday to attend the court in the disproportionate assets case. Jagan tweeted after landing in Hyderabad that he was safe.

Politician stabbedat Vizag airport

IANSChennai

In a relief to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) gov-

ernment in Tamil Nadu, the Madras High Court yester-day upheld the state assembly speaker’s order disqualifying 18 AIADMK legislators last year that could pave the way for bye-elections in 20 constitu-encies, including two that fell vacant following the death of MLAs.

Justice M Sathyanarayanan, the third judge named by the Su-preme Court after a split verdict delivered by a two-judge bench earlier, upheld Speaker P Dha-napal’s order, saying it was done under the provisions of the anti-defection law and vacated the stay on holding bye-elections to these constituencies.

Before reading out the op-erative portions of the judge-ment, justice Sathyanaray-

anan observed that he was giving his verdict independ-ently on the basis of the ar-guments presented before him and was not going by the judgement given by the then chief justice Indrani Banerjee and justice M Sundar.

Dismissing all the writ pe-titions filed by 18 disqualified MLAs, the judge, in his 475-page judgement, said the high constitutional office of the speaker is always considered as the respectable position in tune with the said office and the speaker is expected to be not only impartial but should be perceptible.

The disqualifi ed legislators are with sidelined party leader T T V Dhinakaran, now an in-dependent legislator in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

Reacting to the judgement, Dhinakaran told reporters: “We will discuss with the 18 legisla-tors and decide on the future course of action.” He said it was “an experience for us”.

“If the 18 disqualifi ed leg-islators decide to go on appeal against the decision then we will go for an appeal,” Dhinaka-ran said.

Chief Minister Edapadi Pal-aniswamy said it was a good judgement and the AIADMK was ready to face elections in these constituencies.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhag-am president M K Stalin said the bypolls for the 20 assembly constituencies should be held immediately.

In the 235-member Assembly, the AIADMK has 115 members followed by the DMK with 88, Congress eight, one of the IUML, one Independent, the Speaker and 20 vacant seats (18 disquali-fi ed and two dead). Besides, there is a nominated member.

Three legislators though be-longing to three diff erent par-ties won their seats under the AIADMK’s two leaves symbol. Of that, one legislator Karunas is openly supporting Dhinaka-ran.

10 Gulf TimesFriday, October 26, 2018

INDIA

YSR Congress Party President Y S Jaganmohan Reddy arrives at the Visakhapatam airport where he was later attacked with a knife by a man.

A court yesterday granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and nine other Aam Aadmi Party MLAs in a case of alleged assault on chief secretary Anshu Prakash. The party accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of conspiring against its MLAs. Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal granted bail and asked the accused to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 each and has listed the matter for further hearing on December 7. AAP leader and Delhi Cabinet Minister Gopal Rai accused Modi and his government of conspiring against the Aam Aadmi Party government.

A day after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan chaired a high-level meeting with senior police off icials in Thiruvananthapuram, authorities yesterday launched a crackdown on protesters who prevented women in the 10-50 age group from entering the Sabarimala temple. Police have arrested over 1,400 people across the state, registering 258 cases against 2,000 people for defying an order of the Supreme Court that had allowed women of all ages to visit the temple. The police arrested people from Pathanamthitta – the district where the temple is located, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Ernakulam and elsewhere.

A nun who was at the forefront of a protest against now tainted and rape accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal was at the receiving end from her colleagues yesterday. The incident took place when the body of Father Kuriakose Kattuthara, who had given statements against Mulakkal, was brought for final rites at the St Mary’s Forane Church near Alappuzha, Kerala. Kattuthara was found dead in a room at the St. Mary’s Church complex in Dasuya, Punjab. The nun, Anupama, told the media: “I do not know why people in my parish are against me.” While she was speaking to the media, some of her colleagues gathered at the spot and shouted at her and told her to leave.

The enforcement directorate yesterday said it has sent a request for attachment of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi’s Hong Kong assets worth Rs2.55bn in the multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan default case. The financial probe agency sought attachment of the assets by Hong Kong authorities under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED said it has till date attached properties worth Rs47.44bn in connection with the case in India and abroad. The agency said it gathered information that certain valuables pertaining to Nirav Modi controlled companies are lying in the vaults of a Hong Kong-based Logistics Company.

Four militants were yesterday killed in two separate gunfights with security forces in the Kashmir Valley. The security personnel surrounded Athoora village in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district after receiving information about the presence of militants there, police said. “As the security forces surrounded the hiding militants, they fired at the security forces triggering an encounter in which two militants were killed,” a police officer said. Later security forces started a cordon and search operation in Arwani village in Anantnag district after learning that some militants were hiding there.

Kejriwal granted bail in assault case

Kerala cracks down onSabarimala protesters

Nun who protested againsttainted bishop heckled

Move to attach Nirav Modi’sHong Kong properties

Four militants shotdead in Kashmir

REPRIEVE LAW AND ORDERPEOPLE LEGAL MILITANCY

Chidambaramcharged in Aircel-Maxis deal caseIANSNew Delhi

The enforcement direc-torate (ED) yesterday fi led a chargesheet in the

Rs35bn Aircel-Maxis case, ac-cusing former fi nance minister P Chidambaram and a few oth-ers of laundering Rs11.59mn.

The ED has also charged Chidambaram and others for their role in the Foreign In-vestment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval in March 2006 to Global Communica-tion and Services Holdings Ltd, Mauritius, in violation of various rules and regulations governing the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy in India.

The supplementary pros-ecution complaint was fi led before special judge 0 P Saini, who listed the matter for fur-ther hearing on November 26.

The charge-sheet named Chidambaram, S Bhaskarara-man, the chartered accountant of Chidambaram’s son Karti, private persons Augustus Ralph Marshall and V Srini-vasan.

The other accused in the case include companies such as Aircel Televentures, Astro All Asia Networks Plc Malay-sia, Maxis Mobile Services Sdn Bhd, Bumi Armada Berhad, and Bumi Armada Navigation Sdn Bhd.

“As per rules and FDI policy of the government in 2006, Chidambaram, the then finance minister, was empowered to give approval to foreign investment pro-posals worth up to Rs6bn only. The foreign investment proposal of Global Commu-nication and Services Hold-ing Limited, Mauritius, was of $800mn (Rs36.5bn ap-proximately),” the ED said.

The agency alleged that the proposal should have been referred to the Cabinet Com-mittee on Economic Aff airs (CCEA), which was the com-

petent authority to give the approval.

“But it was not referred to CCEA, and was approved by Chidambaram under a con-spiracy,” the agency said.

Claiming that the com-plaint was on the basis of adequate material evidences in the form of e-mails, and communications retrieved from seized digital devices from Karti and his associates, the ED filed the voluminous information collected from various sources.

“The material evidences inter-alia reveal routing of proceeds of crimes in the guise of bonafi de business deal by the benefi ciaries of illegal FIPB approval in the companies of Karti. Investigation has re-vealed the fi nancial linkage of Karti and P Chidambaram,” the ED said.

“There are contradictory and evasive responses. Yet, the ED has collected materials that are corroboratory statements recorded under Section 50 of the PMLA from various per-sons during the investigation to substantiate the off ence of money laundering,” the agency said.

ED’s lawyers N K Matta and Nitesh Rana requested the court to take cognisance of the chargesheet and initiate pro-ceedings against the accused. They also apprised the court that the ED investigation was still on.

On June 13, the ED had fi led a chargesheet against Karti and two companies – Ad-vantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL) and Chess Management Services Pvt Ltd (CMSPL) – under vari-ous provisions of the Preven-tion of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The CBI and ED are inves-tigating Karti Chidambaram’s alleged role in getting FIPB clearance for the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006 when his father was the Union fi nance minis-ter.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hands over car keys to employees of Surat-based diamond merchant Savji Dholakia at a programme in New Delhi yesterday. The diamond merchant gifted 600 cars to his employees as Diwali gift.

600 cars gifted to employees

LATIN AMERICA11Gulf Times


China ‘looks tomake peace with Brazil afterBolsanaro rant’ReutersBrasilia

The Chinese government is trying to make peace with Brazil’s leading presidential

candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, whose China-bashing threatens to chill a profi table trading relationship that has benefi ted both countries.

Chinese diplomats based in Brasilia have met twice with top Bolsonaro advisers in recent weeks, according to participants in the meetings.

Their aim is to highlight co-operation with Latin America’s largest country, whose grain and minerals have fuelled China’s rise while lifting millions of Brazilians from poverty in the resulting com-modities boom.

Bolsonaro has portrayed China, its largest trading partner, as a predator looking to dominate key sectors of its economy.

With its own economy slowing, China cannot aff ord to become embroiled in another costly trade war like that which has erupted between Beijing and Washington.

Two-way trade between China and Brazil stood at $75bn last year, according to Brazilian government statistics.

China has invested $124bn in Brazil since 2003, mostly in the oil, mining and energy sectors. China is eager to bankroll railway, port and other infrastructure projects here to speed the movement of its Brazilian grain.

But the far-right Bolsonaro, much like US President Donald Trump, has criticised China re-peatedly on the campaign trail, saying the Chinese should not be

allowed to own Brazilian land or control key industries.

An ardent nationalist, Bol-sonaro is expected to win a land-slide victory in balloting this Sun-day. “The Chinese are not buying in Brazil. They are buying Brazil,” Bolsonaro has warned repeatedly.

Companies in the crosshairs include China Molybdenum Co, which bought a $1.7bn niobium mine in 2016 that Bolsonaro says Brazil should develop itself.

Niobium is used as an additive to steel to make it stronger and lighter. It is used in cars, buildings, jet engines and a host of other ap-plications.

Brazil controls about 85% of the world’s supply and Bolsonaro wants his nation to reap the ben-efi ts.

Bolsonaro is also on record op-posing a planned privatisation of some assets of state-owned util-ity Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA (Eletrobras) on concerns that Chinese buyers would win the bid.

Offi cials at China Molybdenum declined requests for comment.

But six senior executives at Chinese companies operating in Brazil said they were watching Bolsonaro’s remarks with varying degrees of concern.

“We are worrying a bit about some of his extreme views,” one Chinese infrastructure execu-tive told Reuters. “He is on guard against China.”

Bolsonaro’s friendly leanings toward Taiwan are likewise vexing to Beijing, which considers Taiwan a renegade province. Bolsonaro in February became the fi rst Brazilian presidential candidate to visit Tai-wan since Brazil recognised Beijing

as the sole Chinese government under the One China policy in the 1970s.

The Chinese embassy in Brazil issued a letter condemning Bol-sonaro’s Taiwan trip as an “aff ront to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China.”

Bolsonaro’s combative stance is in stark contrast to the rest of Latin America, whose leaders have wel-comed Chinese investment, loans and commodities purchases.

And it could eventually put him at odds with Brazil’s power-ful farm and mining industries, for whom China is an indispensable customer.

Brazil’s farm sector, mean-while, has reaped the benefi t of China’s feud with Trump. Beijing has sharply reduced purchases of American soybeans, fi lling the gap with Brazilian grain.

Brazilian exports of soy to China are up 22% by value this year with about 80 % of its soy shipments now destined there.

The US-China trade war has given Brazil leverage for now.

But Jorge Arbache, former sec-retary for international aff airs at Brazil’s planning ministry, said Brazil would do well not to over-play its hand.

Brazil “does not have the luxury of giving up its biggest trade and investment partner,” Arbache said. “There’s not one economy in the world that can occupy the space China occupies.”

Chinese diplomats met with Bolsonaro’s top economic adviser Paulo Guedes in early September to discuss the importance of the bilateral relationship, Qu Yuhui, Chinese Minister-Counsellor at the embassy in Brasilia, said.

Argentine lawmakersclear austerity budget

Viral video turns Brazilian cop into politician

AgenciesBuenos Aires

The lower house of Argen-tina’s Congress yesterday approved an unpopular

austerity budget designed to meet the requirements of a $57bn IMF bailout.

The vote came in the early morning after 14 hours of debate and a day of unrest that saw po-lice fi re tear gas at people throw-ing rocks outside the legislature building to protest the 2019 blueprint’s bitter cocktail of tax increases and spending cuts.

The vote tally was 138 in favour to 103 against, with eight absten-tions.

The draft now goes to the Sen-ate for fi nal approval.

Unions and the leftist opposi-tion have criticised centre-right President Mauricio Macri’s eco-nomic programme of sweeping spending cuts to meet the def-icit-reduction requirements of the IMF loan.

The bailout is supposed to help Argentina recover from an eco-nomic crisis in which the peso has lost half its value this year, infl ation is forecast to fi nish the

year at 40% and the economy is expected to shrink by 2.6%.

“We are in a crisis and the government must take respon-sibility. Social problems and the recession oblige us to pass the law,” ruling Cambiemos party lawmaker Mario Negri said in a speech after the budget passed.

“To have no budget would be a defeat for the country,” he added.

Macri has pledged cuts of $10bn in health, education, sci-ence, transportation, public works and culture.

“No to the IMF budget. Don’t cut our future!” shouted demon-strators outside Congress while, inside the chamber, tempers ran high as lawmakers jostled and traded insults ahead of the vote.

“In Argentina, austerity pro-grammes always end up in a cri-sis. Why do they think the Titan-ic is not going to sink this time?” lawmaker Agustin Rossi of the centre-left Front for Victory party of former president Cris-tina Kirchner said after the vote.

Street protests have refl ected growing public anger after Macri slashed civil service jobs as part of a bid to cut Argentina’s fi scal defi cit and tame infl ation at the IMF’s behest.

AFPSao Paulo

It took three gunshots to change Katia Sastre’s life, turning the police offi cer fi rst into a heroine

and then one of the most success-ful politicians in Brazil’s general election.

Those three shots were what it took to kill an armed robber out-

side her daughter’s school and turn Sastre’s life upside down.

She was praised by Sao Paulo’s governor and having been fast-tracked into politics, Sastre re-ceived 264,000 votes as she was elected to Congress.

Known locally as “mother po-lice offi cer,” Sastre was not shy in using the video of her dramatic shoot-out to promote herself in the election run-up.

“I shot and I would do it again. I’m brave,” she said in a campaign video, dressed in her police uni-form.

In the video, an armed robber appears suddenly pointing a gun at a woman, but just as quickly, as others scream and run away, the off -duty Sastre pulls a weapon from her handbag and shoots him, twice in the chest and once in the leg.

The 21-year-old assailant died in a hospital.

“I’m not happy about the death, which no one wants. But I am hap-py for having saved good people,” the 42-year-old Sastre said from her offi ce in Suzano, a city in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area.

Sastre wasn’t just some ordi-nary passer-by, though. She joined the military police two decades ago, following in the footsteps of

her father, grandfather and great-grandfather, while her husband also works for the same force.

Her moment of fame came on Mothers’ Day in May, after which the video quickly went viral on so-cial media.

“When I left the police station after making a statement, people started ringing me and congratu-lating me as they’d seen the video,” she recounts with a smile.

Her actions proved popular not least because security and safety have been major campaign issues in Brazil, where 63,800 people were murdered last year alone.

Sastre’s phone didn’t stop ring-ing and almost every political par-ty made overtures hoping to cash in on her sudden fame, recognising her instant marketability.

She opted for the conservative Party of the Republic and became

one of 35 armed forces candidates to earn seats in parliament, twice the number prior to the October 7 general election.

Although she proved highly popular, Sastre’s campaign wasn’t without controversy.

She had to pull the shooting video for a few days after an appeal by two leftist parties that said it in-cited violence, but the courts sub-sequently sided with Sastre.

Migrant caravan resumestrek to US-Mexico borderAFPMapastepec, Mexico

Thousands of Central American migrants cross-ing Mexico towards the US

in a caravan have resumed their long trek, walking about 12 hours to their next destination.

The migrants, who have drawn near-daily Twitter tirades from US President Donald Trump, walked and hitched rides from the town of Huixtla, in southern Mexico, to Mapastepec, some 60 kilometres away.

Carrying their few belong-ings on their backs — many with babies pressed to their chests or holding their children by the hand — they left at dawn after taking a one-day break to rest, bathe and nurse aching and injured feet.

“I miss my country. I’m not doing this because I want to. No one wants to leave their home to go to a place they don’t know. But sometimes necessity pushes us to do this, because of what’s happening in our countries,” said Delmer Martinez, a migrant from El Salvador.

Fleeing violent crime, politi-cal unrest and poverty at home, the migrants say they are deter-mined to reach the US — despite Trump’s vows to stop them, and his threats to cut aid to Central American countries, as well as to deploy the military and close the southern US border.

There are now about 7,000 mi-grants in the caravan, the United Nations estimates — though Mexican authorities put the number much lower on Wednes-day at 3,630.

The vast majority are from Honduras.

In a show of solidarity, Mexi-cans watching the caravan pass shouted out, “Keep it up, broth-ers!” and gave them food and water.

“Mexico! Mexico!” the mi-grants shouted in reply, bathed in sweat under the hot sun of the southern state of Chiapas.

They have so far travelled about 100 kilometres from the Mexico-Guatemala border, where they crashed through a series of border gates last Friday.

Halted at the fi nal gate by hundreds of riot police, most of

the caravan entered Mexico by swimming or taking rafts across the river that forms the border.

Mexican federal police have periodically accompanied the caravan in trucks or fl own over-head in helicopters, but without attempting to stop it.

According to the Mexican government, about 1,700 peo-ple who were travelling in the caravan have requested asylum in Mexico. The migrants still have some 3,000kms left to walk to reach the US.

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro labelled US Vice Presi-dent Mike Pence “a madman” after he accused Caracas of fi -nancing the caravan.

“What tremendous convening power I have in Central America, Mike Pence! If it wasn’t for an extremist, an extremist mad-man saying it....one would have to laugh.” Pence on Tuesday said Honduran President Juan Or-lando Hernandez told him the caravan “was organised by left-ist groups in Honduras fi nanced by Venezuela and sent north to challenge our sovereignty and challenge our border.”

Farcoffi cialin hidingcontactscourt

AFPBogota

The man who negotiated Farc’s peace agreement with the Colombian gov-

ernment has emerged from hid-ing to comply with a demand that former guerrilla leaders reaffi rm their commitment to the 2016 peace agreement that ended decades of confl ict.

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) — set up after the deal — announced that Ivan Marquez had submitted a state-ment through his lawyers.

The court had asked 30 former rebel commanders to re-affi rm their commitment to the agreement Farc signed with the government in November 2016.

The special peace tribunal was set up to try former com-batants accused of atrocities during the fi ve-decade war.

The tribunal had set a Tues-day deadline for contact from the missing guerrilla leaders, failing which they could face re-moval from its list and face trial instead by ordinary courts.

The special peace tribunals provides for alternative prison sentences for those involved in the confl ict — both guerrillas and soldiers — who admit their crimes, compensate victims and pledge to reject violence.

However, the JEP has said it was concerned by reports that several former leaders had com-mitted crimes after the 2016 deal was signed.

Only those who have not committed crimes after the deal can benefi t from the special court.

Several ex-leaders, includ-ing Marquez — who renounced his Senate seat — have gone into hiding in recent weeks.

Colombian media reports said the former rebel commanders had either rejoined dissident Farc cadres in the mountains or fl ed to Socialist-led Venezuela, which Farc — now a political party — denied.

A protester throws back a tear gas canister at the police during clashes outside the Congress as the budget bill was debated, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Mexico’s president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador talks to reporters before casting his vote in a public consultation on the fate of a $13.3bn Mexico City International Airport project, in Mexico City, Mexico, yesterday.

Vote on airport’s fate

PAKISTAN


The opposition Pakistan Muslim League – Na-waz (PML-N) of Shehbaz

Sharif has decided not to go for street agitation against the rul-ing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government despite Prime Minister Imran Khan’s challenge to opposition parties to hold public protests against his gov-ernment’s anti-graft campaign, party sources said.

In his address to the nation this week, the prime minister had once again off ered the opposition parties shipping containers and free food if they wished to launch public protests against his gov-ernment.

However, leaders of the pre-vious ruling PML-N party have ruled out the possibility of any protest or a sit-in any time soon.

They have termed Khan’s

speech as a rant of a leader still stuck in the “opposition mode”.

They claim that the PTI gov-ernment does not need any protest or sit-in as it is already weakening.

“The PTI is a very strong op-position of its own government,” a PML-N leader said.

Senator Mushahidullah Khan said that Prime Minister Khan had mastered only one speech, which he also used to deliver while standing on a shipping container during his party’s 2014 sit-in.

“Imran Khan has failed to come out of that opposition mode, and that is why the PML-N does not take his speeches seriously,” he said.

He said the party would not go for any street protest as there would be no need of it.

“Protest days are gone and the PML-N will achieve nothing out of protests. The party will con-tinue to fi ght its case only in the Senate, the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies,” he said.

The senator said that the PML-N would do things on its own schedule, adding that the party would give the PTI a “sur-prise of its life”.

Answering a question about

former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s absence from main-stream politics, he said: “Sharif was, and still is, at the helm of the party aff airs. He has a diff er-ent style of working. He does not

wish to draw unnecessary atten-tion towards himself.

“He will not succumb to the pressure of social media, which is rife with rumours of a deal [with the establishment]. He will inter-act with the media when he will feel the need for it.”

Pervaiz Rashid, another sen-ior PML-N leader, said that they are fi ghting their cases through the relevant forums, and that the party would move forward re-sponsibly.

“We will not stoop to the level of the PTI. The PML-N is a ma-ture party and is well aware of how to handle its aff airs,” he said.

Rashid also said that the party would not stage protests on the “instructions” of Imran Khan.

He also denied speculation that Sharif was refusing to an-swer media queries.

“[On an occasion that] Sharif did not respond to media, (it is because) journalists started asking questions on the court premises, where the judge had advised them not to talk about politics,” he said.

PML-N not planning anti-govt protestsSharif’s party not taking the bait despite Imran dare

InternewsLahore

Imran Khan: accused of still being ‘stuck in opposition mode’.

The government has re-moved the condition of being a tax-fi ler for non-

resident Pakistanis to purchase properties in the country.

Offi cial sources have con-fi rmed that the decision was taken for non-resident individ-uals investing in the real estate sector.

The condition, which was im-posed by the previous govern-ment, increased challenges for overseas Pakistanis.

The decision issued via an offi cial notifi cation also reveals that the restriction on purchase or transfer of property having a value exceeding Rs5mn by non-fi lers will not apply to legal heirs acquiring property through in-heritance.

The condition of being a tax fi ler will not apply on overseas Pakistanis who are able to pro-

duce a certifi cate from a sched-uled bank verifying receipt of foreign exchange remitted from outside Pakistan through nor-mal banking channels, during a period of 60 days prior to the date of registering, recording, or attesting transfer of immovable property valuing Rs5mn.

To eff ectively implement re-strictions on non-fi lers to pur-chase and sell properties and vehicles, the government has introduced penalties upon lo-cal manufacturers of vehicles, excise and taxation department and authorities responsible for registering, recording or attest-ing of immovable properties.

A local manufacturer of a mo-tor vehicle will pay a penalty of 5% of the value of the motor vehicle if it accepts or processes any application for booking or purchase of a locally-manufac-tured motor vehicle by a non-fi ler.

Similarly, the excise and taxa-tion department will pay a pen-

alty of 3% of the value of a motor vehicle if it accepts, processes, or registers applications for registration of a locally-man-ufactured motor vehicle or the fi rst registration of an imported vehicle by a non-fi ler.

If any authority responsi-ble for registering, recording, or attesting the transfer of im-movable property accepts or processes the registration or at-testation of immovable property valuing above Rs5mn in the case of a non-fi ler, it will be liable to a penalty of 3% of the value of im-movable property.

Through an amendment in the Finance Act 2018, banks will provide information to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) of individuals who withdraw cash in excess of Rs50,000 in a day, as well as information on any tax deduction for fi ler and non-fi lers amounting to Rs1mn or more during each preceding calendar year.

The banks have also been

mandated to provide a list con-taining particulars of deposits amounting to Rs10mn or more made during a calendar month, and give a list of payments made by any person against credit card bills amounting to Rs200,000 or more during the preceding calendar month.

They will also provide a list of persons receiving profi t on debt exceeding Rs1mn for tax fi lers and Rs500,000 for non-fi lers, along with information regard-ing tax deduction during the preceding fi nancial year.

The information is to be pro-vided on a monthly basis.

Through an amendment, the government has allowed tax-payers to revise their tax returns voluntarily by December 31, along with the payment of high-er tax, which is 25% higher than tax paid with returns on the ba-sis of taxable income.

In case no tax is payable, the taxpayer will have to pay 2% of the turnover.

Non-taxpaying non-resident Pakistanis can buy propertyInternewsIslamabad

All in a day’s work

A man sits with assorted oil bottles, displayed on a traditional wooden extractor, at a market in Karachi.

Western nations, in-cluding the US and European countries,

have expressed “serious con-cerns” over Pakistan’s crack-down on aid groups, diplomats said.

At least 18 international aid agencies, most of them work-ing on human rights issues, were ordered to leave Pakistan over recent months after being refused registration.

The countries have writ-ten a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying that the aid groups have not received proper explanations as to why the government had ordered them out, and they criticised a “lack of transparency” in the registration process.

“We are writing to express serious concerns with respect to recent developments,” the countries said in the letter seen by Reuters.

Four diplomats confi rmed its authenticity.

“Restriction on civil soci-ety risks aff ecting Pakistan’s international reputation as a genuine partner on human de-velopments and undermining confi dence of the international donor and business commu-nity,” they said in the letter.

Neither Khan’s offi ce nor the foreign ministry had any im-mediate comment on the letter, which was signed by envoys from the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, Norway, and Swit-zerland.

The European Union ambas-sador signed on behalf of the 17 EU countries with missions in Pakistan, including Britain and France.

A similar letter was sent to the interior ministry in Sep-tember, diplomatic sources say.

The 18 aid organisations are appealing against their expul-sion orders, issued late last year to 27 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in all.

The Western envoys said that the impact of expelling the groups would be “signifi -cant”, and warned that it would imperil some of development goals championed by Khan, who was elected in July on a populist platform to help the poor.

“Restricting INGO (inter-national non-governmental organisation) operations will aff ect millions of poor Paki-stanis. In 2017 alone, the INGO sector reached 34mn people with humanitarian relief and development assistance,” the countries said in their letter. “This will mean thousands of Pakistanis employed by INGOs and local partners may lose their jobs.”

One of the 18 groups fac-ing closure, ActionAid, which focuses on education, poverty alleviation and human rights, said this month that the expul-sion of the groups was part of a broader pattern.

“Pakistan’s decision to shut down ActionAid and other in-ternational NGOs is a worry-ing escalation of recent attacks on civil society, academics and journalists,” the group said.

US, EU concerned about ‘crackdown’ on aid groupsReutersIslamabad

Key govt buildings to become schools, museums, and parksInternewsIslamabad

The Imran Khan govern-ment has approved con-version of several state

buildings, including governor houses, into educational insti-tutions, parks, hotels, and mu-seums.

Offi cial sources said that the approval was given at a meeting presided by Prime Minister Im-ran Khan after his return from Saudi Arabia this week.

Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood, Higher Education Commission chairman Tariq Binori, the secretaries of foreign aff airs, education, housing and national heritage, and the chief secretaries of four provinces and other senior offi cials, attended the meeting.

Khan reviewed the operation-al costs of governor houses and other state buildings.

The meeting approved the conversion of the Punjab Gov-ernor’s House into a public park.

Its outer wall would be de-molished for easy access by the public.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor’s House will be turned into a women’s park and a mu-seum.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor’s House at Nathiagali will become a boutique hotel, while the Governor’s House in Quetta in Baluchistan, spread over 25 acres, will also be turned into a public park.

However, more suggestions will be taken for better utilisa-tion of the buildings.

The meeting recommended that state guest houses in Kara-chi and Lahore be converted into fi ve-star hotels.

The central building of Cham-ba House in Lahore will be used in a way to generate funds, while the building of 90-Shahrah-e-Quaid-e-Azam will be converted into a crafts museum and a con-ference hall.

An information technology park will be established in the buildings of Punjab House and Governor House in Rawalpindi.

The meeting recommended that the Punjab House at Pindi Point in Murree be turned into a university, and the Government House at Kashmir Point, also in Murree, will be renovated.

Three committees have been established to convert the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad into an international university.

Construction work on the $8bn Diamer Bha-sha dam in Pakistan is

likely to start by April 2020, as four-fi fths of the 37,500 acres of land for it has been acquired, and the remaining is under process to complete ac-quisition.

Offi cial sources said that a power ministry offi cial has told the Senate Standing Commit-tee on Power that there will be two power generation houses of the dam – one each in Gilg-it-Baltistan and Khyber Pa-khtunkhwa – to be completed in 2028.

The offi cial further said that work on the Mohmand Dam is expected to start by April 2019 and completed by 2025.

The committee met this week, with Senator Fida Khan chairing.

Meanwhile, the committee members were informed by Power Division secretary Ir-fan Ali that Pakistan’s largest power company K-Electric, which is based in Karachi, can-not be handed over to Shang-hai Electric, unless it clears the

arrears of the federal govern-ment which are pending for a long time.

The committee was told that the agreement of 650MW electricity supply to K-Electric expired in January 2015, while it is still getting this electricity from the national grid.

The offi cial also told the committee that there is a se-rious issue of power trans-mission lines which are not bearing the load of required electricity.

Ali also said that the govern-ment is going to install devices on cables from transformer to electric meter to control power theft, and would start a cam-paign against theft with the support of provinces.

The offi cial said that due to shortfall of 90% recovery in electricity bills in Baluchistan, power supply is being supplied according to already-formed policy.

The biggest issue is that of 29,000 agriculture tubewells in Baluchistan.

Of their bills, 10% is being paid by farmers, 40% by the province and the balance by the federal government.

Their arrears have reached to tens of billions of rupees.

Construction on $8bn dam to start by April 2020InternewsIslamabad

A British Pakistani has been elected as a presi-dent of the Royal So-

ciety of Medicine in recogni-tion of his services to Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) and medical education.

Professor Dr Shahed Qurai-shi is an ENT (Ears, Nose and Throat) consultant and he be-comes the fi rst Pakistani to get appointed at this post.

The Royal Society of Medi-cine is one of the world’s most prestigious organisations of

senior British doctors, and a major provider of postgraduate medical education.

Quraishi will be taking charge as the president of the Royal Society of Medicine (Laryngology & Rhinology Section) in London.

When contacted, Dr Qurai-shi said: “I am humbled to have this privilege. Being of Pakista-ni origin, it’s a great honour for Pakistan and speaks volumes about the contribution of Brit-ish Pakistani diaspora.”

He is a ENT consultant sur-geon and a head and neck sur-geon who graduated from the Dow Medical College Karachi.

British Pakistani to head key UK bodyInternewsLondon

The Pakistan government has taken the control of managing foreign scholarships from the ministry of inter-provincial co-ordination and handed it over to the education ministry.Sources said that students have been facing hardships in acquiring foreign scholarships due to the “incompetence” of off icials at the inter-provincial ministry.The inter-provincial ministry had been having

scholarship aff airs managed by a section off icer who was deployed as an education off icer, leading to failure for the scholarship programme.The government therefore decided to shift control and management of the scholarships to the education ministry.According to an off icial of the ministry of inter-provincial co-ordination, the ministry operates various departments, divisions and

institutions under its umbrella.The inclusion of education was an addition in the ministry, he said, adding his off ice had requested that the Establishment Division shift control of the education and scholarship department to the education ministry.In addition to scholarships, control of the Pakistan Boy Scouts and Girl Guides Association has also been handed over to the education ministry.

Education ministry takes over management of foreign scholarships

The Donkey King keeping strong run at box off icePakistan has had its share of animated films in this post-revival age of cinema, but it seems The Donkey King, which is written, directed and co-produced by Aziz Jindani, will continue to impress the audience for some time.Released in cinemas across Pakistan on October 13 under the banner of Geo Films, the film collected around Rs40mn in its first week, breaking previous box off ice records in Pakistan made by other animated films.In its second week, The Donkey King has raked in Rs37.5mn, making the grand total of Rs77.5mn. according to Entertainment Pakistan website.The website also states that the film’s second weekend numbers are around 36% more than its first weekend numbers.The Donkey King has become the second highest grossing animated film in Pakistan behind 3 Bahadur: The Revenge of Baba Balaam, which collected Rs80mn.It is estimated that The Donkey King will emerge as the highest grossing animated film produced in Pakistan.

THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH13Gulf Times


Q&A based on evidence fromthe Qur’an and the Sunnah

1 Why has Allah created us? Answer: To worship Him alone and to

worship no other besides Him. And I (Allah) created not the Jinn and human

beings except they should worship Me (alone). [Q. 51:56]

The right of Allah upon slaves is to worship Him and not to associate partners with Him. [Al-Bukhari, Muslim]

2 How should we worship Allah? As Allah and His Messenger commanded us. And they were commanded not, but that they

should worship Allah, and worship none but Him alone (Q. 98:5)

Whoever does any deed (in religion) which our matter in not in accordance with, it will not be accepted. (Muslim)

3 Should we worship Allah with fear and hope?

Yes, we worship Him with fear and hope. And invoke Him with fear and hope (Q. 7:56) I beseech Allah to grant me Paradise and I

seek refuge in Him from Hellfi re. (Abu Dawud)

4 What is Ihsaan (perfection in worship)?

Ihsaan is to be conscious that Allah sees us during worship.

Who sees you (O Muhammad) when you stand up (alone at night for Tahajjud prayer).(Q. 26: 218-219)

Ihsaan is to worship Allah as if you are seeing Him, yet truly He is seeing you. (Muslim)

5 Why did Allah send the Messengers? To call mankind to His worship and to reject

the worship of anything besides Allah. And verily We have sent among every nation

a Messenger (proclaiming) worship Allah alone and avoid Taghoot (false deities) (Q.16:36)

The prophets are brothers and their faith is one. (Al-Bukhari & Muslim)

6 What is meant by (Tawheed) oneness of Allah?

It means devoting worship to him alone like supplication, vow, judgment.

So know (O Muhammad) that there is no God except Allah (Q.47:19)

Let the fi rst thing you invite them to do is to testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah (Al-Bukhari & Muslim)

7 What is the meaning of there is no God but Allah?

It means there is no deity that truly deserves to be worshipped except Allah.

That is because Allah, He is the truth and that is which they invoke besides Him is Al-Baatil (falsehood, Satan, and all other deities) (Q. 30:31)

Whoever says there is no God except Allah and rejects whatever is worshipped besides Allah, his property and blood become sacrosanct and his reckoning with Allah , the Mighty and Exalted (Muslim)

8 What is meant by oneness of names and attributes of Allah?

To confi rm the names and attributes as Allah described them in His Book and as His Messenger described them in authentic Sunnah.

There is nothing like unto Him and His the All-Hearer, the All-seer (Q. 42:11)

Allah descends each night to the fi rst heaven. (Ahmad)

9 What is the benefi t of monotheism (oneness of Allah) to the Muslim?

Right guidance in this world and salvation from eternal punishment in the Hereafter.

It is those who believe (in oneness of Allah) and confuse not their belief with Thulm (wrong) by worshipping others besides Allah) for them (only) there is security and they are guided. (Q.6:8)

The right of worshippers upon Allah is that He will not punish those who worship none beside Him (Al-Bukhari & Muslim)

10 Where is Allah? Allah is over the Throne which is above the

seven heavens Ar-Rahmaan (The Merciful) Istawaa (rose

over) the Throne (Q. 20:5) Allah wrote out in a book with Him over the

throne that His mercy preceded His wrath. (Al-Bukhari)

11 Is Allah with us by His entity or knowledge?

Allah with us by His knowledge, He hears and sees us

He (Allah) said: Fear not, verily I am with you both, Hearing and Seeing (Q. 20 :46)

You call upon the one Who hears, Who is near and is with you. (Muslim)

12 What is the greatest sin with Allah? It is the major Shirk (polytheism). Verily whoever sets partners with Allah , then

Allah has forbidden paradise for him and the Fire will be his abode (Q.5:72)

The Prophet was asked : what is the greater sin , he said: To ascribe partners to Allah even though he created you. (Al-Bukhari)

13 What is the major shirk (polytheism)? It is to devote any forms of worship to one

other than Allah. Verily Allah forgives not that partners should

be set up with Him, but He forgives all that He wills. (Q. 4:48)

The greatest sins are polytheism etc. (Muslim)

14 What is the harm of major shirk? The reason for eternity in Hellfi re.

Verily whoever assigns partners (commits shirk) to Allah, Allah makes it impermissible for him to enter Al-Jannah. (Q. 5: 72)

Whoever died while joining partners with Allah (commits shirk) enters Hellfi re. (Muslim)

15 Are good deeds of any benefi t to one who worships others besides Allah?

No, good deeds are of no benefi t to those who worship others besides Allah.

But if they had joined in worship others with Allah, all that they used to do would have been of no benefi t to hem (Q. 27 :20)

Whoever does any deed in which he associates partners with Me, I reject him and his shirk. (Muslim)

16 Does shirk exist among Muslims today?

Yes, it does exist. And most of them believe not in Allah

except that they attribute partners (unto Him) (Q.12:106)

The doom Day will not occur until some tribes of my Ummah (Islamic nation) have joined the idolaters and they will even worship idols. (At-Tirmidhi)

17 What is ruling concerning praying (supplicating) to other than Allah like the dead?

Praying to them is a major Shirk. Invoke not with Allah another Ilaah

(God) Lest you be among those who receive punishment. (Q.26:213)

Whoever dies having called upon partners besides Allah shall enter Hellfi re. (Al-Bukhari)

18 Is supplication a form of worship? Yes, supplication is worship. And your Lord said: Invoke Me, I will respond

to your invocation. (Q. 40:60) Supplication is worship. (At-Tirmidhi)

19 Do dead hear our supplication? No, they do not hear. But you cannot make hear those who are in

graves. (Q. 35:22) Allah has assigned angels to inform me of my

nation salutation. (Ahmad)

20 Do we seek help from those who are dead, or from those who are not present?

No we do not seek help from, we rather seek help from Allah.

(Remember) when you sought help of your Lord, and He answered you. (Q. 8:9)

O Ever-Living, Self-Subsistent, upon Him all subsist , I seek help through Your Mercy (At-Tirmidhi)

21 Is it permitted to seek help from any other besides Allah?

No, it is not permitted. You (alone) we worship and you alone) we

ask for help. (Q.1:5) If you ask, ask of Allah, if you seek help seek

help of Allah. (At-Tirmidhi)

22 Can one seek help from the living? Yes, in the matters in which they are able to

help Help one another in Al-Birr and At-Taqwa

(virtue, righteousness) (Q.5:2) Allah helps the worshipper as long as the

worshipper helps his brother. (Muslim)

23 Is it allowed to make vows to other than Allah?

No, it is not allowed to swear oaths except in Allah’s Name.

O my Lord I have to you what is in my womb to be dedicated for your services. (Q. 3:35)

Whoever vows to obey Allah should obey Him, and whoever vows to disobey Him should not disobey Him. (Al-Bukhari)

24 Is it allowed to sacrifi ce in any name besides Allah?

No, it is not allowed. Therefore turn in prayer to your Lord and

sacrifi ce (to Him only). (Q. 108:2) Allah curses whoever sacrifi ces and

slaughters in any name other than Allah. (Muslim)

25 Is it permitted to circumambulate the graves of pious men?

No, it is not allowed. And circumambulate the Ancient House (the

Ka’aba in Makkah). (Q.22:29) Whoever circumambulate the House (Ka’aba)

seven times and prays two raka’h. (Ibn Majah)

26 Is it allowed to pray while the grave is in front of you?

No, it is not allowed. So turn your face in the direction of Al-

Masjid Al-Haraam. (Q. 2: 144) Don’t sit on the graves and do not pray

towards them. (Muslim)

27 What is the ruling in Islam concerning the practice of sihr (black magic/sorcery)?

The practice of sihr is considered an act of disbelief.

But the Devils disbelieve, teaching men sihr. (Q.2:102)

Avoid seven destroyers: Shirk, sihr...(Muslim)

28 Should we believe the claims of fortunetellers and soothsayers?

No, we should not believe them. Say: None in the heavens and the earth

knows the Ghaib (unseen). (Q27:65) Whoever goes to a fortuneteller or

soothsayer, and believe what they say, has disbelieved in what has been revealed to Muhammad. (Ahmad)

29 Does any one have the knowledge of the (unseen)?

No one but Allah alone has the knowledge of the unseen.

And with Him are the keys of Ghaib (unseen), none knows them but He. (Q.6:59)

No one has the knowledge of the unseen except Allah. (At-Tabaraani)

30 By what sources do the Muslims govern?

Muslims govern by laws laid down in the Qur’an and authentic Ahadith.

And so judge (you O Muhammad) between them by what Allah has revealed. (Q.5:49)

Allah is the judge and to whom is the return.

31 What is the ruling in Islam concerning applying non - Islamic laws?

It is an act of disbelief. And whosoever does not judge by what

Allah has revealed, such are the disbelievers. (Q.5:44)

When the leaders do not rule by Allah’s Book (Qur’an ) and choose the good from that which Allah has revealed, Allah will cause confl ict among them (Ibn-Majah)

32 Is it permitted to swear by other than Allah’s Name?

No, it is not permitted. Say: By my Lord you will certainly be

resurrected. (Q.64:7) Whoever swears by anyone other than Allah,

has associated partners with Allah. (Ahmad)

33 Should we wear good luck charms (like amulets or talismans)?

No, we should not wear them . And if Allah touches you with harm none can

remove it but He. (Q.6:17) Whoever wears an amulet has committed

Shirk. (Ahmad)

34 Through what may we seek intercession with Allah?

By His Names and Attributes. And (all) the most beautiful Names belong to

Allah, so call on Him by them. (Q.7:P108) I ask you by all your names, with which you

wave named your self. (Ahmad) 35 Does any supplication to Allah require a

human intermediary? No, prayer does not require a human

intermediary. And when my slaves ask you (O Muhammad)

concerning Me, then I am indeed near (to them by My knowledge). (Q.2:186)

You pray to the one who hears all and He is near and He is with you. (Muslim)

36 What is the mediation (waasitah) of the Messenger?

The mediation of the Messenger is the transmission of Allah’s Message .

O Messenger (Muhammad) proclaim what has been sent down to you from your Lord. (Q.5:67)

Oh Allah, have I proclaimed your message? Oh Allah bear witness. (In response to the statement of the sahaabah, ‘Indeed, we bear witness that you have proclaimed the message.’ - Muslim)

37 From whom may we seek the Messenger’s intercession?

From Allah alone. Say: To Allah belongs all intercession.

(Q39:44) Oh Allah grant to him (the Prophet)

intercession for me. (At-Tirmidhi)

38 How do we demonstrate our love for Allah and his Messenger?

By obeying and following their commands. Say (O Muhammad to mankind) if you really

love Allah then follow me, Allah will love you. (Q. 3:31)

None of you have perfect faith until you love me more than your parents, children, and all mankind. (Al-Bukhari & Muslim)

39 Should we be excessive in our praise for the Messenger?

No, we should not be excessive in our praise to him.

Say I am only a man like you. It has been inspired to me that your god is one Ilaah (Allah). (Q18:110)

Do not exaggerate in praising me, I am only a slave. So say Allah’s slave and Messenger. (Al-Bukhari)

40 Who were the fi rst creation? From human being was Adam and from

things was the pen. Remember when your Lord said to the

angels truly I am going to create man from clay. (Q.38:71)

The fi rst thing created by Allah was the pen. (At-Tirmidhi & Abu-Dawud)

41 From what was Prophet Muhammad created?

He was created from Nutfah (drops of semen – male and female discharges)

It is He Who created you (Adam) from dust, then from a Nutfah. (Q.40:67)

In every one of you, all components are created together in your mother’s womb by 40 days. (Mutafaqun ‘alaihi)

42 What is the status of jihad for the sake of Allah in Islam?

It is obligatory with lives, wealth and speech. March forth, whether you are light (being

healthy, young and wealthy) or heavy (being ill, old and poor) strive hard with your wealth and your lives in the cause of Allah. (Q.9:41)

Fight against the polytheisms with your wealth, lives and speech. (Abu Dawud)

43 What is Walaa (friendship and loyalty)?

Walaa (friendship and loyalty) is love and help of the faithful believers.

The believers men and women are Auliyaa (helpers, supporters friends and protectors) of one another. (Q9:71)

The faithful believers are as a brick structure, each supporting the other. (Muslim)

44 Is seeking the friendship and help of disbelievers permitted?

No, it’s not permitted. And if any amongst you take them as Auliyaa

then surely he is one of them (Q.5:51) The people of such and such clan are not my

supporters (Auliyaa). (Al-Bukhari & Muslim)

45 Who is Wali (friend)? A Wali is a true believer, who fears Allah very

much. Verily, Auliyaa of Allah no fear shall come

upon them nor shall they grieve (Q.10:62 - 63) My only Wali are Allah then the most pious

among the true believers. (Al-Bukhari & Muslim)

46 Why did Allah reveal the Qur’an? So as to apply it to our daily life. Follow what has been sent down to you from

your Lord (Q.7:3) Read Qur’an and apply it, do not make your

living from it. (Ahmad)

47 Is the Qur’an alone suffi cient for us without the Hadith (statements, actions, tacit approvals of the Prophet)?

No, it is not suffi cient . And We have sent down unto you (O

Muhammad ) the reminder and the advice (the Qur’an) that you may explain clearly to men what is sent down to them, and that they may give thought. (Q. 16:44 )

Indeed, I have been given Qur’an and along with it that which is like it. (Abu Dawud)

48 Should we give priority to other opinions over the Word of Allah and His Messengers?

No, we should not. Oh you who believe, do not be forward

(hasten not to decide) in the presence of Allah and His Messenger. (Q.49:1)

There is no obedience to the creatures if it means disobeying the Creator. (Ahmad)

49 What should we do if we diff er in the religious matters?

We should refer to holy Qur’an and authentic Sunnah.

And if you diff er in any thing amongst yourselves, refer back to Allah and His Messenger. (Q.4:59)

I am leaving two things with you, you will never go astray if you hold fast to them, and they are Allah’s Book and the Sunnah.

50 What is (al-bid’ah) innovation in religion?

It is any thing not based on evidence from Islamic law

Or have they partners with Allah who have instituted for them a religion which Allah has not allowed? (Q. 42:21)

Whoever adds something new in our matter (Islam), it will not be accepted. (Al-Bukhari & Muslim)

51 Is there good innovation (bid’atun hasanatun) in religion?

No, there is no good innovation in religion. This day I have perfected your religion for

you, completed my favour on you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion. (Q. 5:3)

Beware of new things (in the matters of religion) for every new thing is innovation, every innovation is heresy and every heresy leads to Hellfi re. (An-Nasaa’i)

52 Is there such a thing as Sunnah Hasanah in Islam?

Yes, there is Sunnah Hasanah are good deeds (such as giving charity).

And made us leaders of the Muttaqun (the pious). (Q. 25:74)

Whoever introduces a good practice into Islam, will have the reward for it and the reward of those who follow his practice thereafter, yet they will lose nothing of their reward. (Muslim)

53 Is it enough for a person to reform himself?

No, it is a duty on him to reform his relatives also.

Oh you who believe! Ward off yourselves and your families against a Fire. (Q. 66:6)

Verily Allah will ask every shepherd about his fl ock. Did he protect it or lose it? (hasan - An-Nasaa’i)

54 When will Muslims be victorious?

When they apply Qur’an and Sunnah (fully) in their lives.

O you who believe! If you help in the cause of Allah, He will help you, and make your foothold fi rm. (Q.47:7)

There will always be a victorious group from my nation. (Ibn Majah)


COMMENT14

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Trump should beworried about political violence

One doesn’t yet know who was responsible for the explosive devices and suspicious packages sent to former US president Obama, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, philanthropist and liberal donor George Soros, CNN headquarters, Maxine Waters (Democrat – Los Angeles) and others.

It’s conceivable that the most obvious motivation – to cause injury and conceivably death to people who have been at odds with President Trump and his supporters – will turn out not to be the reason, and that some diff erent, more personal explanation will eventually be unearthed.

It seems far more likely, however, that an unstable mind marinated in the often vicious rhetoric of the current political moment decided to act on his beliefs.

It’s always possible that someone will be inspired by ugly words to commit violent acts. President Trump needs to realise that.

Trump said the right thing on Wednesday when he said that “in these times we have to unify, we have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America.”

The problem is that this is the same president who once called major news organisations “the enemy of

the American People,” who refused to answer a question from a CNN correspondent because “CNN is fake news,” who ranted about “Crooked Hillary” while his adoring fans chanted “Lock her up,”

and who only a few days ago entertained the crowd at one of his rallies by complimenting a member of Congress who pleaded guilty to assaulting a reporter while campaigning. “Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my candidate,” the president said.

The intended recipients of the explosive devices are a who’s who of Trump targets: Soros, the bogeyman for right-wing conspiracy theorists; John Brennan, Obama’s CIA director whom Trump has described as “a loudmouth, partisan, political hack who cannot be trusted with the secrets to our country”; Waters, whom Trump has derided as “crazy” and “low IQ.”

If it turns out that the devices, which fortunately harmed no one, were sent by a supporter of the president, Trump can of course argue that he never encouraged violence or criminality. But surely this kind of violence is the foreseeable outcome of our increasingly toxic politics, in which diff erences over issues have grown into walls, rage has replaced discourse, in which both House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Democrat – San Francisco) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican – Kentucky) have recently been chased and cursed in the streets by angry opponents. And in which the president of the United States, far from bringing the country together, fans fl ames of fear, divisiveness and distrust through a rhetoric of bigotry and anger.

The fact that hostile, provocative and ugly political speech falls short of the legal defi nition of incitement doesn’t make it right. It’s always possible that someone will be inspired by ugly words to commit violent acts. The president needs to realise that. – Tribune News Service

“In these times we have to unify, we have to come together”

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CHAIRMANAbdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFFaisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka

Deputy Managing EditorK T Chacko

By Anatole KaletskyLondon

As the Brexit negotiations enter their endgame, a stalemate has become the most likely outcome. This is good news. It

does not mean that Britain will “crash out” of the European Union with no agreement: deals in the European Union tend to be struck at the last possible moment. But the British parliament will probably reject whatever arrangement Prime Minister Theresa May manages to negotiate with European leaders, and the likeliest way to end the deadlock will be to hold a new referendum that reconsiders the decision to leave the EU.

Until recently, conventional wisdom dismissed this possibility. But now the political mechanics that could lead to a new referendum and the cancellation of Brexit are becoming clear.

Whatever version of Brexit May proposes now faces a veto. A Norwegian-style “soft Brexit” that would keep Britain in the EU’s trading structures would be blocked by the Euroskeptics in May’s Conservative Party. A “hard Brexit,” which would require border controls with the Republic of Ireland, is unacceptable to the Irish government and the EU. And a hybrid arrangement that would take Britain out of the EU single market but keep Northern Ireland in would be a dealbreaker for Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, whose support May needs to stay in power.

These competing vetoes explain May’s only strategy for delivering Brexit: to tell MPs and EU leaders that they must choose the lesser of two evils.

Either they accept whatever Brexit deal May proposes, or they will face a chaotic “no deal” Brexit that would be catastrophic not just for the United Kingdom, but for the entire EU.

But May’s eff ort to present a Hobson’s Choice suff ers a fatal fl aw: almost nobody believes that she would dare to infl ict chaos on British businesses and voters. A no-deal Brexit would rule out the transition period that Britain desperately needs to negotiate the thousands of rules, regulations, and standards required to continue trading with Europe, as well as the US, Japan, China, and other countries covered by agreements negotiated by the EU over many decades.

Without this transition period, British exports would come to a temporary standstill in March 2019, because agreements on product safety, labeling, food quality, public procurement, and hundreds of other little-known issues must be negotiated to trade under World Trade Organization rules – and these need to satisfy all 164 members of the WTO. The disruption of trade fl ows would only be temporary, because Britain would eventually negotiate the necessary WTO agreements, but even a brief interruption could be devastating, as evidenced by the “sudden stop” in bank fi nance that lasted only a few weeks after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

To make her no-deal threat more credible, May has tried sending dozens of “technical notices” to businesses, hospitals, and public agencies about the emergency preparations they should make. Unfortunately for the

Brexiteers, the eff ect of these warnings has been counter-productive: instead of triggering an upsurge of preparations, the prospect of aircraft being grounded, hospitals running out of medicines, and exports coming to a standstill have made a no-deal Brexit implausible to the point of absurdity and probably discouraged business decision-makers from wasting money preparing for such an unrealistic contingency.

The upshot is that even if May genuinely wanted to pursue a no-deal Brexit, a large parliamentary majority would unite to prevent it. While there are questions about the exact parliamentary procedures, the political dynamics are clear. Pursuing such a desperately risky gamble against the expressed wishes of a parliamentary majority would trigger a constitutional crisis that could be resolved only by appealing to voters – either through a general election or a new referendum.

The opposition Labour Party would demand a general election, but the Conservatives, split as they are over Europe, would unite to block this. Once the election gambit failed, Labour would almost surely support a referendum, which is backed by 85% of its members. Only a few Conservatives would then be needed to create a referendum majority, and they might fi nd themselves with an unexpected ally: Theresa May.

For May, a referendum could be the key that unlocks the cage in which her own “red lines” have trapped her. Once it was clear that the only option for leaving the EU would be to crash out with no deal, May could honestly claim that she had followed the mandate from the 2016

referendum to deliver Brexit, but that this would involve more disruption than predicted. It would therefore be right to ask voters where or not they still wanted to go ahead with Brexit on these tougher terms.

By posing this question, May could outmanoeuvre Boris Johnson and her other rivals. Because the hardline Brexiteers have presented “no deal” as a perfectly acceptable outcome, they could not object if this were the form of Brexit put to voters. If it won, May could not be held responsible and would have the satisfaction of watching Johnson cope with the resulting chaos.

Much more likely is that a new referendum would reject a no-deal Brexit, not just because of the economic risks, but also because the demographic balance of the UK population has shifted in favor of pro-European voters by around 1mn since 2016. If voters rejected “no deal” in favor of no Brexit, May’s hardline opponents would be silenced, and her position as Prime Minister would be secured until the 2022 election. Better still, the end of Brexit uncertainty would result in an economic rebound, almost certainly guaranteeing a Conservative victory in 2022.

In short, a new referendum to break the impending parliamentary deadlock would probably mean that Britain remains in Europe and May remains in Downing Street. Why would she not seize this chance? - Project Syndicate

Anatole Kaletsky is Chief Economist and Co-Chairman of Gavekal Dragonomics and the author of Capitalism 4.0, The Birth of a New Economy.

Theresa May could back a new Brexit referendum

Prime Minister Theresa May. For May, a referendum could be the key that unlocks the cage in which her own “red lines” have trapped her.

COMMENT

Gulf Times Friday, October 26, 2018 15

New diabetes treatment could end daily insulin jabs

US must stop supplying Saudi bombing of Yemen

Live issues

LondonGuardian News and Media

A potential medical breakthrough that could put an end to the daily insulin injections endured by people

living with diabetes has been unveiled by Dutch scientists.

By destroying the mucous membrane in the small intestine and causing a new one to develop, scientists stabilised the blood sugar levels of people with type 2 diabetes. The results have been described as “spectacular” – albeit unexpected – by the chief researchers involved.

In the hourlong procedure, trialled on 50 patients in Amsterdam, a tube with a small balloon in its end is inserted through the mouth of the patient down to the small intestine.

The balloon is infl ated with hot water and the mucous membrane burned away by the heat. Within two weeks a new membrane develops, leading to an improvement in the patient’s health.

Even a year after the treatment, the disease was found to be stable in 90% of those treated. It is believed there is a link between nutrient absorption by the mucus membrane in the small intestine and the development of

insulin resistance among people with type 2 diabetes.

Jacques Bergman, a professor of gastroenterology at Amsterdam UMC, said: “Because of this treatment the use of insulin can be postponed or perhaps prevented. That is promising.”

Bergman added of the procedure that it was “amazing that people suff er very little from this”.

He told the Dutch broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting: “With those people we see a spectacular improvement in blood sugar levels one day after the operation, before they even lose one kilo, which has put us on the track.

“Because the question now is whether this is a permanent treatment, or whether it is something that you have to keep repeating – something that in theory should be possible. We looked at whether we could stop their insulin, which is still ongoing, but the fi rst results are truly spectacular, with the lion’s share of patients no longer using insulin after this treatment.”

The new discovery initially seems most suitable for borderline patients who already take pills but whose blood sugar level is high enough for doctors to advise that they inject insulin in the short term.

Apart from dispensing with insulin injections, researchers claim that those treated could benefi t from a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, blindness and numbness in the hands and feet.

Scientists from Amsterdam UMC who presented their study at a conference in Vienna this week were said to be cautious but “jubilant” about the initial results.

People with type 2 diabetes aged between 28 and 75 are now being recruited for a larger study of 100 people.

Almost 3.7mn people in the UK live with a diagnosis of type 1 or 2 diabetes, an increase of 1.9mn since 1998. Type 1 diabetes is where the level of sugar in the blood is too high because the pancreas does not produce insulin.

Those with type 2 diabetes are not producing enough insulin. The impact can be controlled by changes to diet, but it is a progressive disease. Most people will need to take tablets or inject insulin after living with it for fi ve to 10 years.

Nine out of 10 people diagnosed with diabetes have type 2. It is estimated that there are nearly 1mn people currently living with the condition who have yet to be diagnosed and that 12.3mn people are at an increased risk due high levels of sugar in their blood.

By Mark WeisbrotWashington

Each day since October 2, new evidence has emerged that the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal

Khashoggi, a resident of Virginia, was a premeditated murder.

At the same time, it is also increasingly clear that the murder was approved at the highest levels of the Saudi Arabian government, most likely including the current ruler, Crown Prince Mohammd bin Salman.

The Saudis at fi rst maintained that Khashoggi had left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, alive; they then claimed, incredulously, that he was killed there in the course of a fi st fi ght.

But we also know that a team of 15 Saudis, including “an autopsy expert” and others with links to Saudi high offi cials and intelligence, was fl own in at dawn on October 2.

In the past four years, the United States has supplied 60% of Saudi arms purchases – many of which are used to kill civilians in Yemen.

Should the US government cut

off weapons sales to Saudi Arabia in response to this atrocity? Of course it should. But President Donald Trump has opposed this measure, and The Washington Post reports that Congress might not even have a chance to vote on it.

However, there is something vastly more important and obvious that the US Congress can do – regardless of what Trump wants – about Saudi atrocities. The Congress can stop US participation in the Saudis’ genocidal war in Yemen.

Since 2015, the US military has been providing mid-air refuelling to Saudi and UAE planes conducting airstrikes that have killed thousands of civilians in Yemen – including a school bus with 40 children that was hit by a US-supplied bomb in August.

These bombing raids also have hit water, sewage, and other vital infrastructure, causing thousands more deaths and a million people infected with cholera.

But most catastrophically, the air strikes and the Saudi blockade and siege of Yemen’s major port city have caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today, with 14mn people

on the brink of starvation, according to the UN.

The New York Times editorial board has noted that the Saudis were trying to “starve Yemen into submission,” a strategy that constituted “war crimes.”

Congress can stop these horrifi c crimes, because the Saudi and UAE bombers are dependent on mid-air refuelling from US planes. The US also provides assistance with targeting and intelligence and logistics.

There are currently bipartisan bills in both Houses of Congress to cut off US participation in the war.

House Concurrent Resolution 138, introduced by Ro Khanna (Democrat-California), has 56 co-sponsors. These include high-level leadership, such as the ranking Democratic members of the Foreign Aff airs, Armed Services, Appropriations, and Judiciary Committees.

The Senate bill, led by Bernie Sanders and Mike Lee, got 44 votes in February and is likely to get a majority in the wake of the Khashoggi murder.

These bills have been introduced under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, a law that reinforced the Constitution’s provision that Congress

should decide whether or not the US military should be deployed in war.

Under the two resolutions, if the Congress votes to end US military participation in the Saudi war, the president will have 30 days to withdraw.

In the coming months, tens of thousands of people across the country will be contacting their representatives and senators to persuade them to vote to end this war that has nothing to do with US national security.

They will be up against some of the most powerful interests in the world: the military-industrial complex – including the weapons manufacturers that Trump has expressed concerns about – as well as the national security state. But if enough people participate in this eff ort, the war will end.

A graduate of the University of Michigan, Mark Weisbrot is Co-Director of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research and the president of Just Foreign Policy. Readers may write him at CEPR, 1611 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20009. – Tribune News Service

The end of Germany’s two-party systemBy Sławomir SierakowskiBerlin

The German Social Democrats’ (SPD) existential crisis can no longer be treated as a typical party crisis. The

party captured a mere 9.7% of the vote in regional elections in Bavaria this month, and it is trailing both the populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and the Greens in national opinion polls. With another important regional election fast approaching in Hesse, polls indicate that the SPD will lose still more support, albeit not as dramatically as in Bavaria.

The SPD and the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) have stood as the twin pillars of German politics since the end of World War II. But with the SPD declining, Germany is moving from a de facto two-party system to a multiparty system in which no single party plays a dominant role.

The German post-war consensus is collapsing in key areas – history (attitudes toward WWII), geopolitics (attitudes toward Russia), the economy (attitudes toward the auto industry), and ethics (attitudes toward refugees) – and this is refl ected in the fracturing of the political scene. German voters have rejected the longstanding CDU/CSU-SPD “grand coalition.” Whereas smaller parties once functioned as mere subsidiaries of either the SPD or the CDU/CSU, the bit players are now eclipsing the former stars.

Moreover, what was once “Red Munich” has now turned Green. Whereas cities had long been SPD strongholds, they are switching to the Greens and other smaller parties. Making matters worse for the SPD, the demographic profi le of its core electorate amounts to a death sentence. Only 8% of SPD voters are under the age of 30, and a whopping

54% are over 60. By contrast, just 24% of Greens are over 60. And Die Linke, meanwhile, has become increasingly attractive both to younger new leftists and ageing post-communists from the former East Germany.

Just as a two-party system ensures stability and predictability, so might its collapse contribute to radical social change. By defi nition, the fall of the establishment implies the rise of the anti-establishment, often in the form of populism. Since 2005, the SPD has

participated as the minority partner in three grand-coalition governments. As a result, it has come to be associated with the status quo, even though it hasn’t been able to claim direct credit for the previous governments’ successes.

Something similar happened in Austria, where the Social Democratic Party ruled either alone or in conjunction with the Austrian People’s Party between 1971 and 1999 (except for 1983-1986). Such long periods of

grand-coalition rule allowed for the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria to present itself as an agent for change.

When a grand coalition is threatened, its members tend to panic. Those who toe the party line lose support, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel has. Others thus attempt to appropriate populist language – as CSU leader Horst Seehofer has done in recent months – while still others will try to associate themselves with new

political platforms. Hence, Alexander Dobrindt of the CSU has promised a “conservative revolution,” while Martin Schulz, the erstwhile leader of the SPD, has promoted EU federation.

At any rate, when the constituent parts of a coalition start moving in diff erent directions, things quickly fall apart. Still, it is worth noting that while the SPD and the CDU are currently losing support, their ideas remain popular. Their problem is not that they are devoid of ideas, but that they lack political credibility.

This credibility defi cit has created a vacuum for other parties to fi ll. Thus, the Greens have made gains in Bavaria by supporting an open-door refugee policy that actually originated with the CDU/SPD. Likewise, the AfD has wrested the anti-refugee mantle away from the CSU and Seehofer, who went so far as to try to undermine Merkel’s government from within while serving as Minister of the Interior. The common thread connecting all of the parties that performed well in the Bavarian election is that they ran politicians who are at least consistent in their views.

Unfortunately for Germany, multiparty systems are generally unstable and less predictable, which explains why every other European country – Latvia is a current example – constantly struggles to establish a governing coalition. Under such conditions, it is not uncommon for bizarre arrangements to arise, including coalitions between the far left and the far right, as we have seen in Greece, Italy, and Slovakia.

Germany’s best hope now is that its newly emerging multiparty system will impede the progress of the AfD, by nullifying its anti-establishment appeal. The AfD will take its place on the radical right as one party among many. Its support will remain in the 10-20% range, but it will not go any

further than that. In fact, this has already happened in Bavaria, where the AfD garnered 10.2% of the vote this month, down from the 12.4% that it received in last year’s federal election.

Another potential silver lining to a multiparty system is that it might lead to more political engagement. In the case of Bavaria, voter participation rose to 72.4% this election cycle, up from 63.6% fi ve years ago.

Looking ahead, Germany may now end up with rotating coalition governments comprising multiple parties. For example, one could imagine an arrangement between the CDU/CSU, the Free Democrats, and the Greens – the so-called Jamaica coalition. But this scenario would most likely produce political paralysis, because politicians from competing parties within the coalition would constantly undercut one another other while pandering to the popular will. Moreover, the chancellorship – traditionally very strong in Germany – will always be weaker in a patchwork government.

Most likely, the fall of the CDU/CSU-SPD duopoly will undermine German hegemony in Europe, even if no other country can replace Germany in that role. At the same time, the weakening of the SPD will diminish the socialist faction in the European Parliament, where a similar eclipse of two-party rule could be in the offi ng. Yet without the twin pillars of the European People’s Party and the Party of European Socialists, the parliament will be incapable of making even insignifi cant decisions. As Germany and the SPD go, so goes Europe. – Project Syndicate

Sławomir Sierakowski, founder of the Krytyka Polityczna movement, is Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Warsaw and a fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin.

Andrea Nahles (right), leader of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), speaks with Thorsten Schaefer-Guembel, her party’s top candidate in Hesse, during an election rally in Heuchelheim, western Germany on Wednesday, ahead of the week-end’s regional election.

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QATAR


HE the Minister of Municipality and Environment Mohamed bin Abdullah al-Rumaihi opened yesterday a new yard at Al Shamal for local farm produce. More such markets will be opened to support Qatari farmers, he said on the occasion. PICTURES: Ram Chand.

Minister opens new vegetable yard at Al Shamal

Katara hosts Andalusian music concertKuwaiti lensmen’s award-winningphotographs on show at Katara

Ooredoo off ers eSIM technology

Aspire Zone ‘Pink Walk’ sees huge turnout

Katara - the Cultural Vil-lage Foundation, in co-ordination with the Alge-

rian embassy in Qatar, recently organised an Andalusian music concert performed at the Opera House theatre in Katara.

The concert was attended by several diplomats and dignitar-ies as well as by a considerable number of Andalusian music fans and visitors from diff erent communities in Qatar, Katara said in a statement.

Abdulaziz al-Sabaa, Algeria’s ambassador to Qatar, delivered a speech before the audience where he praised the eff orts of Katara to host the concert fea-turing prominent Algerian ar-tiste Nassima Shaaban. “I would like to convey my deepest grati-tude to Katara for their constant co-operation and keenness to present the precious culture of Algeria as well as other cultural specialties from around the world,” he said.

Shaaban expressed happiness at being able to perform in Qa-tar for the fi rst time after having performed at many places in the world.

“I am here to present this mar-vellous type of music in the best form, which carries a message of peace to the world from our deep-rooted heritage – one that we inherited from our ancestors in Andalusia,” Shaaban said.

The artiste stressed that she acquired this art from the older generation and is now teaching it to youngsters in order to “pre-serve this valued heritage”.

Katara has hosted several cul-tural events in co-operation with the Algerian embassy in Doha, such as the successful Shahrazad Symphony musical show in 2016 and the Algerian folklore show at the Cultural Diversity Festival.

By Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

Some 24 Kuwaiti photog-raphers, who call Qatar their second home, are

showcasing 42 stunning and award-winning images at the ‘Creative’ exhibition, being held at the Katara – the Cul-tural Village.

The exhibition, organised by Youth Hobbies Centre and Kuwait Science Club in asso-ciation with Qatar’s Ministry of Culture and Sports, was opened by Katara’s human resourc-es department manager Saif Saeed al-Dosari on Wednesday.

“This is the fi rst time we did an exhibition in Qatar, which is my second home,” Kuwait Sci-ence Club president Yacoub al-Kanderi told reporters.

‘Creative,’ featuring the works of Kuwait Science Club members, presents a variety of themes such as wildlife, street photography, sports, abstract, architecture and portraits, among others.

The photographers have won several awards in local and in-ternational competitions such as Trierenberg Super Circuit in Austria, BBC and National Ge-ographic for their photographs, highlighting “the features and beauty of nature and the civili-sations.”

Many of the photographs at ‘Creative’ were also published in international magazines, ac-cording to al-Kanderi.

About Katara, he fi nds the cultural village an excellent venue for such kind of exhibi-tions. “Everything here is good, wherever you go you will see something special,” he said.

“Through ‘Creative,’ we hope to send a message to everyone,” al-Kanderi stressed.

A QNA report, quoting the su-pervisor of the photography de-partment at the Youth Hobbies Centre of the Ministry of Culture and Sports Abdulaziz al-Kubaisi, noted that this exhibition was the result of a close co-operation with the Kuwait Scientifi c Club’s photography department.

Al-Kubaisi said that another exhibition is to be held in co-op-

eration with photographers from Oman and Qatar, featuring their works in either or both countries.

Kuwaiti photographer Amani al-Sai, also a member of the Club, said the exhibition is an opportunity to meet experi-enced photographers and learn from other schools of photog-raphy outside Kuwait.

Established in August 11, 1979,

the Kuwait Science Club is a non-profi t organisation spon-sored by the Ministry of Social Aff airs and Labour and managed by nine board of directors.

The Club’s photography de-partment is one of the main references for photographers in Kuwait, which teaches and trains young and aspiring pho-tographers.

Ooredoo yesterday an-nounced that custom-ers can now enjoy eSIM

technology on Qatar’s biggest mobile network with compat-ible devices available for pur-chase via the eShop and Ooredoo Shops.

eSIM is a revolutionary technology that allows a mo-bile phone to work without a physical SIM card and enables users to use both their private and business numbers at the same time and switch between them seamlessly without needing to physically swap SIM cards.

This technology will provide a whole new digital experience for customers in Qatar and the region.

Thanks to the launch, cus-tomers can request an eSIM

in any Ooredoo Shop or on the eShop, and start using the technology on available com-patible devices as soon as the manufacturer has updated their software. This is the only self-service digital eSIM fea-ture available in Qatar and the region. At the time of purchase, customer will get a QR code, which can be requested over

digital channels like SMS or e-mail.

Ooredoo is also the only op-erator in the country offering eSIM for both post-paid and pre-paid customers via digital channels, according to a state-ment. To enjoy the benefits of eSIM, post–paid customers will pay a onetime activation fee of QR50 and pre–paid cus-tomers QR35.

Talking about the launch, Waleed al-Sayed, Ooredoo’s CEO commented: “Ooredoo is delighted to be the fi rst to off er eSIM technology to our custom-ers with a compatible device. eSIMs will help everyone seam-lessly switch between their mo-bile accounts and connect faster than ever before.

More information on eSIM can be had from Ooredoo.qa

To mark this year’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Aspire Zone Foundation

(AZF), in collaboration with the Primary Health Care Corpora-tion (PHCC) and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), organised the fourth consecutive annual ‘Pink Walk’ breast cancer aware-ness event yesterday at Aspire Park, sponsored by Saleh Al Ha-mad Al Mana Co - Nissan Qatar.

The aim is to encourage par-ticipants to embrace a healthier lifestyle and learn more about the causes of breast cancer as well as recommended steps to reduce the risk of developing it.

Hundreds of women of all ages participated in various ac-tivities at the ‘Pink Walk’ breast cancer awareness event. The event kicked off with interactive awareness sessions presented by HMC followed by a fi ve-minute warm-up session delivered by an Aspire Zone fi tness instruc-tor, for the 1-2km walk around Aspire Park.

Commenting on the event, Hamad al-Khaldi, head of PR and CSR at Aspire Zone Foun-

dation said: “We are very happy with this large turnout to this year’s ‘Pink Walk’ campaign. Thanks to the organisers at As-pire Zone Foundation, and our partners HMC and PHCC. This is the fourth consecutive year we have organised such activ-ity. I’m glad to say that the level of participation refl ects peo-ple’s appetite to learn more and educate themselves about breast cancer, as well as an increased willingness to become involved in activities that raise awareness about such important issues in Qatar.”

Dr Shaikha Abu Shaikha Cancer Programme Manager at PHCC said: “Partnering with renowned entities like HMC and Aspire Zone is key in maximising the reach to the targeted audi-ence and spreading awareness messages about the importance of early detection and ways to improve one’s health. We at PHCC believe that unity makes strength, hence we always look forward to joining forces with other private and government bodies to maximise the level

of education on breast cancer across the communities, so they can take initiatives to improve their lifestyles and perceive breast cancer screening as a rou-tine check-up.”

Following the event, AZF car-ried out a raffl e draw, in which a Nissan sedan car was presented

to the winner from the fi rst 200 female participants.

Earlier this week, Aspire Zone Foundation organised ‘Cook Pink’ an internal event for its employees to raise their awareness on the importance of healthy food in the prevention of breast cancer. The event wit-

nessed a large turnout from AZF employees and was sponsored by L’Occitane.

The event is designed to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an annual international health campaign organised by major breast cancer charities every October. Organisations

worldwide hold activities to in-crease awareness of the disease among community members, particularly women, and to raise funds for research into its caus-es, prevention, diagnosis, treat-ment and cure.

As a sports organisation, AZF focuses on promoting an ac-

tive and healthy lifestyle among all community members, in line with the Human Development pillar of the Qatar National Vi-sion 2030, which aims to create a physically and psychologically healthy population for a well-rounded society.

Some of the participants during the Pink Walk at Aspire Park yesterday. PICTURE: Shemeer Rasheed.

Yacoub al-Kanderi (left) shows his works to Saif Saeed al-Dosari, who opened the Kuwait exhibition ‘Creative’ at Katara. PICTURES: Jayaram.

A photograph of Mohamed Awadh showcased at ‘Creative’ exhibition, which presents a variety of themes such as portraits. Right: Kuwaiti photographer Mustafa al-Basheer’s photograph on display at the ‘Creative’ exhibition.

Nassima Shaaban (middle) performing at the show.

Ministry to open more markets for Qatari farmers - Gulf Times

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