In brief

GULF TIMES

published in

QATAR

since 1978

TUESDAY Vol. XXXIX No. 10882

July 17, 2018Dhul-Qa’da 4, 1439 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

Moody’s affi rms ratingsof 10 Qatar banks

BUSINESS | Page 1 SPORT | Page 1

Les Bleus arrive toecstatic reception

Questions raised over funding of UK sporting meetBy Jim WatersonLondon

After Russia’s wildly success-ful World Cup, the eyes of the sporting world have turned to

the next host, Qatar — and a recent event in London gave an indication of the scrutiny that lies ahead for the con-troversial organisers, and of the Mid-dle Eastern diplomatic battle that will shadow the tournament.

Journalists who attended the launch of the Foundation For Sports Integrity at the plush Four Seasons hotel were ush-ered through security to watch a series of panels featuring high-profi le guests.

The former Manchester United foot-baller Louis Saha appeared in a discus-sion alongside the former FA chairman Greg Dyke.

Other guests included Damian Col-lins MP and the former US women’s goalkeeper Hope Solo.

But as well as the guest list and the glamorous surroundings, there was an-other striking feature of the event: ques-tions over the funding of the previously unknown organisation, which was un-veiling itself at short notice with a lavish conference and a public commitment to stamping out corruption in world sport.

Several guests received fees in the thousands of pounds and stayed in ex-pensive hotels.

Substantial sums appeared to have been spent staging the event and pro-ducing professional videos of the dis-cussions, which regularly questioned the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

“We believe that sport belongs to the people and should not be exploited

by those in positions of authority, be they individuals, offi cials, corporations or nation states,” the foundation an-nounced in its mission statement.

It pledged to fund “research into sports corruption and related matters” and to support whistleblowers.

That was in May.Today, questions remain over who

funded the Sports, Politics and Integ-rity conference given its own commit-ment to transparency — and whether it was actually linked to the ongoing

feud between Qatar and regional rivals, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in an attempt to turn the media against the 2022 hosts.

There is no suggestion that it is illegal to refuse to disclose funding sources.

But even Steve Rabinowitz, a Wash-ington, DC publicist who helped book guests and promote the event, admitted: “It is ironic that they’re all about trans-parency in sport and yet they’ve not been so transparent in their fi nances.”

“A couple of speakers spoke pro bono but most got paid,” he told the Guard-ian. “If they got fl own in, they got fl own business class.

“Fancy hotels. First-rate production. Not a bazillion pounds, but you know, they did it right, they did it nice. It cost money.”

The event was hosted by Jaimie Fuller, an Australian businessman who

campaigns for FIFA reform.Fuller has repeatedly declined to

identify the main source of funding to the Guardian and there is no detail on the trustees of his organisation.

Despite the lack of transparency, the coverage of the event was substantial.

News outlets and social media sup-porters from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates gave substantial coverage.

Other coverage appeared on the BBC, CNN and dozens of sites including the Guardian, which published an agency report.

Although the foundation has a remit across all sport, discussion at the con-ference focused on Doha’s activities.

Nicholas McGeehan, a researcher on labour rights in the Gulf, said he was of-fered a fee by Fuller to appear on a panel.

“I was approached to speak at it, but I asked for assurances it wasn’t Gulf

money — it was clear there was a lot of money behind it,” he said.

McGeehan also told the organisers he would critique other Gulf nations, not just Qatar. “Those assurances were given and then two days later I was un-invited. They couldn’t give a reason as to why I wasn’t appearing.

“It just yells Saudi and UAE money.”Paperwork obtained by journalists at

the Play the Game Foundation and the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet, and shared with the Guardian, shows cer-tain conference bookings were made in the name of a British company called Akta Group.

The business is run by the wife of Kha-lid al-Hail, a London-based Qatari who previously organised the Qatar Global Security and Stability conference, but has denied receiving funding from either Saudi Arabia or the UAE. To Page 5

Qatar Airwaysfi nalises orderfor fi ve Boeing 777 freighters

Deal worth $1.7bn at current list prices

Qatar Airways steals the limelight on opening day of Farnborough International Airshow 2018

Airline signs contract with CAE to acquire new flight simulators

Qatar Airways was the centre of attention on the fi rst day of the Farnborough International Air-

show 2018, displaying six of its most advanced aircraft, including the Airbus A350-1000 and the Boeing 777-300ER, both of which feature the airline’s award-winning Business Class seat, Qsuite.

The airline also displayed for the fi rst time its Boeing 747-8 Cargo Freighter, as well as Air Italy’s second Boeing 737 MAX 8 in striking new livery, Qatar Ex-ecutive’s Gulfstream G500 jet and the JetSuiteX Embraer 135 jet.

Qatar Airways Group chief executive Akbar al-Baker welcomed many VIP delegates and senior offi cials at its cha-let and on board the aircraft, including Qatar’s Minister of Finance and Qatar

Airways chairman HE Ali Sherif al-Emadi, Yousef bin Ali al-Khater, am-bassador of Qatar to the UK and Hamad International Airport chief operating offi cer Badr Mohamed al-Meer.

Day one of the airshow kicked off with the award-winning airline com-mitting to purchase fi ve new CAE 7000XR Series full-fl ight simulators and two CAE 500XR Series fl ight train-ing devices for the Boeing 777X and the 737 MAX from the global leader in training CAE.

The contract signing ceremony be-tween al-Baker and Nick Leontidis, CAE Group President, Civil Aviation Training Solutions, is a testament to the airline’s commitment to innovation and safety, a statement from the airline said.

Also a purchase agreement signing ceremony between Boeing and Qatar Airways, fi nalising the airline’s order for fi ve 777 Freighters, also took place. The deal, valued at $1.7bn at current list prices, was announced as a com-mitment in April. Al-Baker and Boe-ing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO Kevin McAllister signed the agreement at the Boeing chalet where a crowd of media and VIP guests gath-ered to watch this milestone moment in the history of Qatar Airways. To Page 3

Qatar Airways Group chief executive Akbar al-Baker and Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO Kevin McAllister signing the agreement in the presence of HE the Minister of Finance and Qatar Airways chairman Ali Sherif al-Emadi and other dignitaries.

QATAR | Health

Ministry recalls sevenpharmaceutical productsThe Ministry of Public Health has recalled seven pharmaceutical products that contain the ingredient Valsartan, manufactured by Chinese company Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical LT, on the suspicion of them having carcinogenic properties. The Pharmacy and Drug Control department at the ministry said it received memos from international organisations on the possibility of a “carcinogenic flaw” called n-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in the active substance Valsartan manufactured by the company. Page 2

QATAR | Football

120,000 fans enjoyedRussia World CupNearly 120,000 football fans enjoyed Russia 2018 World Cup at the fan zones in Al Sadd Club and Hamad International Airport. The fan zone in Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena welcomed about 70,000 fans throughout the month, while the fan zone in Hamad International Airport received 50,000 passengers who enjoyed the exciting matches in three beautifully-themed areas. Page 20

ARAB WORLD | Confl ict

Israel hits Hamasposts in Gaza StripAn Israeli aircraft hit two Hamas posts in the Gaza Strip yesterday in response to balloons carrying firebombs over the border fence to burn Israeli farmland, the army said. Gazan security sources and residents said the strikes occurred in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip and caused no injuries. Israel’s army said the strikes targeted an area near where arson balloons were launched. Page 9

AFRICA | Diplomacy

Eritrea reopens itsembassy in EthiopiaEritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki reopened his country’s embassy in Ethiopia yesterday, the latest in a series of dizzying peace moves after two decades of war between the neighbours. The embassy inauguration caps Isaias’s historic visit to the Ethiopian capital aimed at cementing peace less than a week after the former enemies declared an end to the conflict. Page 10

Trump backs Putin on election meddlingReutersHelsinki

Standing side-by-side with Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump yesterday refused

to blame the Russian leader for med-dling in the 2016 elections, casting doubt on the fi ndings of his own intel-ligence agencies and sparking a storm of criticism at home.

On a day when he faced pressure from critics, allied countries and even his own staff to take a tough line, Trump said not a single critical word about Moscow on any of the issues that have brought relations between the two powers to the lowest ebb since the Cold War.

Instead, he denounced the “stupid-ity” of his own country’s policy, espe-cially the decision to investigate elec-tion interference following the fi ndings of US intelligence agencies. A pros-ecutor announced an indictment three days ago of Russian spies for hacking into Democratic Party networks.

Trump’s performance at a joint news conference in Helsinki stirred a wave of condemnation in the United States, where the White House has struggled for months to dispel a suggestion that Trump was unwilling to stand up to Putin.

His performance was denounced as “treasonous” by a former CIA chief and condemned as “shameful” by a Republican senator, although some other Republicans were more cautious.

Asked if he believed US intelligence agencies, which concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help him defeat Democratic candidate Hil-lary Clinton, he said he was not con-vinced.

“I don’t see any reason why it would be Russia”, Trump said. “President Pu-tin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

Before the summit even began, Trump blamed his own country for the deterioration in relations.

“Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of US foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” he said on Twitter.

The Russian foreign ministry tweet-ed back: “We agree”. Page 14

Deputy Amir receives new Korean envoy

His Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani received at the Amiri Diwan off ice yesterday the credentials of new ambassador of Republic of Korea to Qatar, Kim Chang-Mo. The Deputy Amir welcomed the ambassador and wished him success in his mission and the relations between Qatar and Korea further progress and prosperity. Page 2

PM meets German ambassador

HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani yesterday met Germany’s ambassador to Qatar Hans-Udo Muzel. During the meeting, they discussed aspects of co-operation between Qatar and Germnay and issues of mutual interest. Page 2

Was a recent ‘sports integrity’ event that questioned 2022 World Cup decision funded by Qatar rivals?

QATAR

Gulf Times Tuesday, July 17, 20182

His Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani received at the Amiri Diwan off ice yesterday morning the credentials of five new ambassadors to Qatar. The Deputy Amir received the credentials of the ambassador of South Africa, Republic of Korea, Argentina, Mongolia and Uzbekistan to Qatar - Faizal Moosa, Kim Chang-Mo, Carlos Hernandez, Zorigt Chintushig and Bakhromjon Aloev, respectively. The ambassadors conveyed the greetings of leaders of their countries to His Highness the Deputy Amir and their best wishes for the Qatari people of further progress and prosperity. The Deputy Amir welcomed the new ambassadors and wished them success in their missions and the relations between Qatar and their countries further progress and prosperity. Earlier upon arrival at the Amiri Diwan, the ambassadors received an off icial reception ceremony.

Deputy Amir receives credentials of new ambassadors

HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani hodling talks with the ambassadors of the United Kingdom, and Iran to Qatar - Ajay Sharma and Mohamed Ali Subhani, respectively - yesterday in Doha. During the meetings, the ambassadors discussed aspects of co-operation between Qatar and their countries and issues of mutual interest. The Prime Minister also met the German ambassador to Qatar Hans-Udo Muzel yesterday.

PM meets ambassadors

‘2022 World Cuprefl ects Qatar’sglobal standing’

The Advisory Council yes-terday held its regular weekly meeting under the

chairmanship of HE the Speaker Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid al-Mahmoud.

At the outset of the ses-sion, the Advisory Council ex-pressed pride and congratulated His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Qatari nationals and the coun-try’s residents on the occasion of His Highness receiving the man-tle to host 2022 FIFA World Cup from Russia.

The Council stressed that this international event is the result of Qatar’s wise policies, prominent role on both regional and international levels, and big successes in the fi eld of hosting major sports events as well as the confi dence of the countries of the world.

The Council expressed its confi dence that the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar will be an im-portant milestone in the history of the World Cup and in the his-tory of international sport, and not only for the State of Qatar but also for all Arabs.

The Council then continued its consideration of its agenda, discussing the complementary report of the Internal and Ex-ternal Aff airs Committee on the request for general discussion submitted by several members on the harm to the children of divorced Qatari mothers and widows of fathers from the siege countries.

The Council also discussed the

report of the Legal and Legisla-tive Aff airs Committee on a draft law establishing the Workers’ Support and Insurance Fund.

The Council also discussed the complementary report of the Services and Public Utilities Committee on the request for a general discussion submitted by a number of members on the phenomenon of increase in rents of shops.

After extensive discussions on the three reports, the Council decided to approve them and to submit its recommendations to the Cabinet.

Then, HE the Advisory Coun-cil Secretary-General Fahad bin Mubarak al-Khayareen read out the Amiri Decree No 39 for 2018 adjourning the 46th ordinary session of the Advisory Council.

The Speaker delivered a speech on the occasion of the adjournment of the current ses-sion, extending, in his name and

on behalf of the members of the Council, thanking His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Ha-mad al-Thani for his support to the Council in order to achieve its mission and to play its role in serving the citizens and defend-ing the causes of Qatar.

He also praised the eff orts of the government and its co-oper-ation with the Advisory Council, which had a positive impact on the Council’s achievements in the area of legislation in all fi elds and in issuing many recommen-dations of interest to Qatar and its people.

HE Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid al-Mahmoud voiced his satisfaction with the positive re-sults achieved by the Council in the fi eld of parliamentary diplo-macy, at the regional and inter-national levels, which had a clear impact on informing parlia-ments of fraternal and friendly countries as well as the Europe-an Parliament about the position of Qatar on the siege.

He pointed out that all the draft laws and decrees submitted to the Council had been com-pleted and submitted to the gov-ernment.

Concluding his speech, the Advisory Council Speaker thanked the members of the Council for their eff orts, wheth-er in the plenary sessions of the Council or through its special-ised committees, and for their keenness in their discussions, during which they enriched the Council’s sessions with thoughts, ideas and constructive proposals.

He also thanked the General Secretariat and all the staff of the of the Advisory Council.

QNADoha

HE the Speaker Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid al-Mahmoud

Ministry recalls seven drugson cancer fears

The Ministry of Pub-lic Health has recalled seven pharmaceuti-

cal products that contain the ingredient Valsartan, manu-factured by Chinese company Zhejiang Huahai Pharma-ceutical LT, on the suspicion of them having carcinogenic properties.

The Pharmacy and Drug Control department at the ministry said it received memos from international organisations on the possibil-ity of a “carcinogenic fl aw” called n-nitrosodimethyl-amine (NDMA) in the active substance Valsartan manufac-tured by the company.

The ministry said it with-drew all the pharmaceutical products that contain the ac-tive substance, once it re-ceived the memo.

The list of recalled prod-ucts include Cinfaval and Co-cinfaval manufactured by Spanish Cinfa Laboratories,

as well as Diostar and Diostar plus manufactured by Jordan’s Pharma International Co, An-ginet and Co-Anginet pro-duced by the Jordanian United Pharmaceuticals Manufactur-ing Co and Valzaar manufac-tured by the Indian Torrent Pharmaceuticals.

The ministry revealed that other products that contain the active substance Valsar-tan manufactured by other companies are safe and are not included in the withdrawal process.

The Pharmacy and Drug Control department reaf-fi rmed its keenness ensure the health and safety of all citizens and residents.

The department added that it is taking all preventative procedures to stop the circu-lation of any pharmaceutical product that does not meet the international standards.

The department added that it is in continuous contact with World Health Organisa-tion, institutions and other health organisations for medi-cines and pharmaceuticals.

QNADoha

QFCRA guidelines to tackle money laundering, terror fi nancing

HE the Governor of the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) Sheikh Abdulla

bin Saoud al-Thani announced that QCB, Qatar Financial Mar-kets Authority (QFMA) and Qatar Financial Centre Regu-latory Authority (QFCRA) have each issued guidelines to their fi nancial institutions address-ing critical areas of compliance with the regulators’ anti-mon-ey laundering and combat-ing terrorism fi nancing (AML/

CFT) rules and requirements.Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud al-

Thani said: “Qatar’s AML/CFT framework meets international standards and best practice and its eff ectiveness is essential to protecting the integrity of its fi -nancial system and the interna-tional fi nancial system. The new guidelines will ensure that Qatar’s fi nancial institutions understand our expectations and, thanks to the collaboration between the QCB, QFMA and QFCRA, fi nan-

cial institutions will have a clear and consistent roadmap to best in class compliance.”

The guidelines were prepared collaboratively by the QCB, QFMA and QFCRA and their publication delivers clear and consistent guidance to all fi nan-cial institutions in Qatar regard-ing the steps required to comply with certain critical aspects of the QCB’s, QFMA’s and QFCRA’s existing AML/CFT rules.

Specifi cally, the newly-pub-

lished guidelines deliver detailed direction for all fi nancial institu-tions on AML/CFT matters re-lated to customer due diligence, correspondent banking, reliance on third parties, high risk juris-dictions, benefi cial ownership issues, legal entity transparency, and the regulators’ expectations for the risk-based systems and controls that fi nancial institu-tions are required to implement to combat money laundering and terrorism fi nancing. - QNA

Qatar embassy in Spain hosts 2022 World Cup celebration

Qatar’s embassy in Spain organised a ceremony to welcome Qatar’s hosting

of the 2022 World Cup in con-junction with His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani receiving the mantle of the tournament from Rus-sian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The celebration, which was held at the residence of Qatar’s ambassador to Spain, Mohamed Jaham al-Kuwari in Madrid, was attended by more than 500 per-sonalities including Spanish MPs and politicians, diplomats, sports stars and celebrities, as well as a large group of journalists from leading Spanish newspapers.

In his opening speech, the Qatari ambassador highlighted the special importance of Qatar 2022 World Cup because it is the fi rst of its kind in the Middle East and will serve the interests of all countries in the region for its prominent role as a bridge between Arab and Western civi-lizations and cultures, as well as its economic, political, cultural and humanitarian dimensions.

The ambassador underlined that sports is an essential part of the policy of Qatar, which will continue to support young ath-letes through serious projects

such as Aspire Academy and AS Arabia, noting that Qatar will continue to organise important sports events, the most impor-tant of them being the 2022 FIFA World Cup, preparations for which are in full swing.

The ambassador stressed Qatar’s keenness to protect the rights of workers, which was commended by competent in-ternational bodies such as the International Labour Organisa-tion, and called on everyone to visit Qatar and discover the open and hospitable country.

The celebration included a Spanish-language video pro-duced by the embassy which

presented Qatar’s key achieve-ments and projects in the fi eld of sports, such as the Aspire Acad-emy and the World Cup stadi-ums.

In line with Qatar’s policy of supporting young people and enhancing the role of sport and culture, the ambassador hon-oured two of the most promising Spanish talents.

He presented the Estrella del Deporte sports prize to Diego Rodriguez Ferrero, and the Ojal award to Spanish singer Maria Beatriz Veiga Piriz.

A Spanish band presented a song about the role of Qatar 2022 World Cup as a bridge between

diff erent peoples and cultures.For his part, the Mayor of Lyon

Antonio Silban said that the Qa-tari model in the management and marketing of football as key to inter-people relations as it plays a prominent role in sup-porting Qatar’s bid for the 2022 World Cup.

Meanwhile, former president of Spanish sports club Real Ma-drid Ramon Calderon said that during his frequent visits to Doha, he noticed the great work that has been achieved in Qatar. He is cer-tain that Qatar 2022 will be the best in terms of organisation in the history of the tournament.

Director of the Arab House

Foundation Pedro Martinez un-derlined the great role of Qatar through what he described as “sports diplomacy”, noting that his institution hosted several meetings and seminars in co-ordination with Qatar on the im-portance of sports as a common factor among peoples.

He expressed the hope that Qatar would organise a World Cup worthy of the size of the sacrifi ces made by Qataris in or-der to host a major event like the 2022 World Cup.

The Qatari celebrations reso-nated widely in the Spanish media.

Spanish daily El Mundo said that His Highness the Amir of

Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani attended the closing of Moscow 2018 World Cup with a busy international agenda and has devoted a lot of money to marketing Qatar World Cup.

The newspaper also noted the emergence of the role of Paris as an intermediary in the current Gulf crisis and the comments of French President Emmanuel Macaron when he said: “Qatar is a key partner to help us achieve peace in the Middle East,” as well as his praise for the Qatari eff orts in the fi ght against extremism and terrorism.

El Mundo also highlighted the Amir’s extensive diplomatic tour which included the United States

and a number of countries.The Qatari ambassador’s

speech on foreign workers dur-ing the celebration received a positive reaction in the Spanish media. The Diplomat in Spain newspaper published an arti-cle entitled “Qatar Guarantees Workers’ Rights in the 2022 World Cup”, in which it referred to international reports that document the measures adopt-ed by the Qatari institutions to improve the conditions of the workers and ensure their rights.

The newspaper highlighted the statements of ambassador Jaham al-Kuwari on Qatar’s commitment to continue its ef-forts in this regard.

QNAMadrid

Ambassador Mohamed Jaham al-Kuwari presenting the Estrella del Deporte sports prize to Diego Rodriguez Ferrero, and the Ojal award to Spanish singer Maria Beatriz Veiga Piriz.

Guests at the event held at the ambassador’s residence in Madrid.

QATAR3Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti met Italian Ports Association (ASSOPORTI) secretary-gen-eral Francesco Mariani in Doha yesterday. The meeting discussed co-operation relations between Qatar and Italy in the ports sector. The meeting also discussed establishing eff ective alliances in the maritime business between both sides, co-operation in managing ports and operations, training and developing employees’ skills, exchanging ideas and the best procedures to improve ports’ operation. The Italian ambassador to Qatar, Pasquale Salzano, attended the meeting.

Qatar and Italy seek to enhance ties in ports sector

HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti held talks with the Belgian ambassador to Qatar Bart De Groof. They discussed relations between Qatar and Belgium in the fields of transport and communications and means of further enhancing them.

Minister holds talks with Belgian envoy

Qatar Executive unveils Gulfstream G500 Jet at air showQatar Executive, the pri-

vate jet charter division of Qatar Airways Group, has

unveiled its brand-new execu-tive jet, the Gulfstream G500, on the opening day of Farnborough International Air Show.

The G500 jet will be one of the fastest and most techno-logically advanced aircraft in the Qatar Executive fl eet when it enters service later this year, the company has said in a state-ment. “The G500 cabin will also set new industry benchmarks as one of the quietest in the in-dustry, as well as having the best cabin altitude pressure, allow-ing for unparalleled passenger comfort.”

The all-new G500 aircraft will offi cially join Qatar Executive’s fl eet by the end of this year and mark the beginning of an agree-ment that was initiated in Octo-ber 2014 between Qatar Airways and Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.

Qatar Airways Group chief executive Akbar al-Baker said, “We are tremendously excited to be unveiling our fi rst Gulf-stream G500 jet at this year’s Farnborough International Air-show. With its many advanced features, this ultra-modern air-craft will enable us to off er our global clientele unprecedented levels of service. The G500 also demonstrates our commitment to continuing to expand the Qa-tar Executive fl eet, in line with our accelerated growth strategy, enabling us to exceed our cli-ents’ expectations time and time again.”

Gulfstream president Mark Burns added, “We are excited to join Qatar Executive as they

Akbar al-Baker along with other dignitaries and off icials at the unveiling of the Gulfstream G500 at Farnborough International Airshow.

Qatar Airways congratulates World Cup winnerQatar Airways, an offi cial

FIFA partner and the of-fi cial airline of FIFA, has

congratulated France for win-ning the 2018 FIFA World Cup following a month of football excitement in Russia.

The tournament was watched by more than 2bn spectators around the world, with more than 250mn views on Qatar Air-ways’ social media channels, the Doha-based carrier said in a statement yesterday.

“Qatar Airways proudly sup-ported the matches as they un-folded and now prepares to look ahead to the thrilling prospect of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar,” the airline stressed.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup was “a thrilling competition, bring-ing people together through the shared love of football and sports”. Qatar Airways took its celebration to the skies prior to the tournament’s semi-fi nal and

fi nal by fl ying a hand-painted Boeing 777 aircraft in FIFA livery to Moscow.

The bespoke aircraft has been hand-painted in Ireland and “showcases just one example of how the World’s Best Airline has committed itself to this im-portant partnership, one of the biggest sporting sponsorships in the world, alongside dedicated fan zones showcasing Qatari hospitality”.

Qatar Airways Group chief executive Akbar al-Baker said, “I would like to congratu-late France on the win against Croatia. As a global airline, we could not be more proud to be part of this huge sporting event that has brought the world to-gether though a shared love of football and sport. We are tru-ly inspired by the excitement this tournament has created, and by the tremendous enthu-siasm shown by fans around

the world at each and every match.”

Qatar Airways senior vice-president (Marketing and Cor-porate Communications) Salam al-Shawa added, “The 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia has been both exciting and inspirational, as it has brought people togeth-er from all around the world to cheer for their teams and cel-ebrate their love of football. We now look forward with tremen-dous anticipation to 2022, when the tournament will be hosted in our home country, Qatar. As the national carrier of Qatar, we could not be more proud as we prepare to welcome fans to our home and host city, Doha.”

Qatar Airways kicked off its celebration of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in June by teaming up with singer and TV star Nicole Scherzinger for a re-recording of the classic song, ‘Dancing in the Streets’, which resulted in an

“upbeat and infectiously fun-fi lled” ‘musical’-style TV com-mercial. The song expresses the airline’s fi rm belief that sports is a universal language, which has the power to inspire and encour-age people to follow their dreams and has a reach of more than 238mn people through social media and an anticipated broad-cast reach on television stations around the world of 3.3bn view-ers.

The fi nal match marked the beginning of preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qa-tar that will be held at stadiums across the country, including the location of the recent Amir Cup in May 2018, the Khalifa Inter-national Stadium, one of eight venues in Qatar that will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

In December 2017, Qatar Air-ways launched daily services to the cultural capital of Rus-sia, St Petersburg, doubling the

number of Russian routes oper-ated by the carrier. The addition of St Petersburg to Qatar Air-ways’ route map demonstrates the importance of the Russian market to the carrier, which has been fl ying to Moscow since 2004. The airline currently op-erates three daily fl ights between Moscow and Doha, in addition to a daily fl ight between St Peters-burg and Doha.

In May 2017, Qatar Airways announced a sponsorship deal with FIFA, which saw the airline become an offi cial FIFA partner and the offi cial airline of FIFA through 2022. The partner-ship, one of the biggest sporting sponsorships in the world, gives Qatar Airways extensive mar-keting and branding rights at the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups, respectively hosted in Russia and Qatar, with an expected au-dience reach of more than 2bn people per tournament.

Qatar Airways is an off icial FIFA partner and the off icial airline of FIFA. Pictured are moments from the trophy and medal presentation on July 15 after France won the World Cup in a thrilling final in Moscow, Russia.

showcase their fi rst G500 at Farnborough. The G500 ushers in a new standard of business-jet travel for passengers and pilots, and we look forward to continu-ing our partnership with Qatar Executive as their G500 aircraft enters service later this year.”

The G500 is powered by the next-generation Pratt & Whit-ney Canada PW800 engines, optimised for high-altitude, fast and long-range jets. In addi-tion to being one of the “quietest and most effi cient jets in the in-dustry, the aircraft’s remarkable range makes it capable of travel-ling non-stop from Istanbul to Cape Town, Los Angeles to Lon-don, and San Francisco to Tokyo”, the statement notes.

The cabin contains the “most advanced technology”, includ-ing satellite communications, high-speed Internet, the Oryx One entertainment system, wireless local area network and

Gulfstream’s Cabin Management System, which allows passengers to use their own personal elec-tronic devices to control audio, video, lighting, temperature, window shades and other cabin functions.

Qatar Executive expects to re-ceive eight of the 25 additional new aircraft it has on order be-tween now and the end of 2019. The division continues to in-crease its global reach to new destinations. This year alone, Qatar Executive has continued to serve its loyal customers and operated to many destinations around the world, including Ar-gentina, Brazil, Patagonia, Suri-nam and Uruguay, to name a few.

Qatar Executive now operates a fl eet of 13 ultra-modern Gulf-stream and Bombardier private jets, including fi ve Gulfstream G650ERs, three Bombardier Challenger 605s, four Global 5000s and one Global XRS air-

craft. Qatar Executive’s service portfolio also includes aircraft management, airliner charter, maintenance and fi xed-based operation services.

In May 2018, the private char-ter provider took delivery of its fi fth Gulfstream G650ER aircraft, the fastest, ultra-long range busi-ness jet in the industry, making Qatar Executive the world’s larg-est owner-operator of this jet type. The G650ER is renowned for its “incredible 7,500-nauti-cal mile range, industry-leading cabin technology and unparalleled passenger comfort”.

The division also recently an-nounced that it will be opening a new dedicated offi ce in Shang-hai in the coming months to help meet passenger demand in the market and provide enhanced service to its clients in Asia. Also, Qatar Executive had recently announced plans to open a new offi ce in Moscow later this year.

Qatar Airways fi nalises agreement to buy fi ve Boeing 777 freightersFrom page 1

Present at the Boeing sign-ing ceremony and the purchase agreement signing between the airline and CAE were HE al-Emadi and al-Khater.

“We are tremendously excited to be back at Farnborough this year, showcasing six of the most technologically advanced air-craft in the sky. The aircraft on display here have set new stand-ards of excellence in the indus-try, and affi rm our commitment to providing our passengers with the fi nest experience possible,” al-Baker said.

“We are delighted to use the platform of the airshow to meet with our friends from Boeing to fi nalise the commitment we made to purchasing fi ve 777 Freighters earlier this year. Qatar Airways Cargo is growing exponentially year on year and the addition of these aircraft will only serve to further strengthen its already robust performance in the cargo category. The airshow has also been an opportunity to meet with

CAE to sign an agreement for six new fl ight simulators, which will give Qatar Airways pilots world-class training with state-of-the-art equipment.”

McAllister said: “We are proud that Qatar Airways recognises the value of the 777 Freighter and continues to invest in this aircraft to serve its expanding freight operations. We continue to see a resurgence in the air cargo market and we are confi dent that Boe-ing’s industry-leading freighter family is well positioned to meet our customers’ requirements.”

Leontidis said: “We are pleased to be Qatar Airways’ training partner of choice and to support our airline partner’s growth and training needs for its new Boeing 777X and 737 MAX fl eet. The future of aviation and demand for pilot training in the Middle East is on the rise. This new training equipment agreement is a testament to our commitment to provide Qatar Airways with the most compre-hensive training solutions for many years to come. We also

look forward to supporting our partner with the entry into serv-ice of the new 777X aircraft.”

On the opening day of the air-show, the award-winning airline unveiled its fi rst state-of-the-art Gulfstream G500 jet, which will offi cially join Qatar Execu-tive’s fl eet by the end of this year. Qatar Executive continues to grow its global reach, with an aim of serving worldwide desti-nations. As such, Qatar Execu-tive is set to receive up to 25 new aircraft between now and 2022, a combination of the G500, G600 and G650ER jets, to be able to off er passengers across the world its exclusive and unmatched pri-vate jet experience.

The airline’s cargo division also publicly displayed one of its freighter aircraft for the fi rst time at Farnborough Interna-tional Airshow. The Boeing 747-8 Freighter gives cargo opera-tors the lowest operating costs and best economics of any large freighter aircraft while providing enhanced environmental per-formance.

HE the Minister of Finance and Qatar Airways chairman Ali Sherif al-Emadi and Qatar’s ambassador to the UK Yousef bin Ali al-Khater look on as Qatar Airways Group chief executive Akbar al-Baker and Nick Leontidis, CAE Group president, Civil Aviation Training Solutions, shake hands after signing an agreement.

QATAR

Gulf Times Tuesday, July 17, 20184

Bayt Aman hosted 20 expats since openingTwo years after opening,

Hamad Medical Cor-poration’s (HMC) Bayt

Aman is continuing to support expatriate labourers who have been released from hospital and are awaiting return to their home country.

Since opening in June 2016, Bayt Aman has hosted 20 resi-dents, with nine successfully discharged and safely returned to their home countries, HMC said in a statement.

“The expatriate workers who are cared for at Bayt Aman no longer need the high-level of clinical supervision that is pro-vided at HMC’s rehabilitation and long-term care units; but they do require some support. The majority of these individu-als have sustained a traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury or injuries to multiple body parts and organ systems. While they have recovered from a seri-ous injury and are clinically well enough to leave the hospital or a long-term care facility, they still

Dr Wafa al-Yazeedi Mahmoud al-Raisi

require support. At Bayt Aman, we are able to provide them with this extra support and assist-ance,” said Dr Wafa al-Yazeedi, chairperson, Qatar Rehabilita-tion Institute (QRI).

Located in the Al Thumama area, Bayt Aman can accom-modate up to 12 guests at any given time, with most residents spending several months at the facility before returning to their home country. Established in collaboration with Qatar Build-ing Company, Bayt Aman pro-

vides safe and accessible ac-commodation for workers with disabilities who are awaiting re-patriation to their home country, the statement notes.

“Some patients discharged from HMC hospitals no longer need hospital-based care but they are not yet ready to return home due to the severity of their injury or the unsuitability of their accommodation. Bayt Aman is staff ed 24 hours a day, seven days a week and was created with the vision of providing a space for

discharged expatriate labourers to fully recuperate and re-adjust to their daily routine,” explained Mahmoud Saleh al-Raisi, chief, Continuing Care Group.

Dr Nasser al-Nabit, execu-tive director (business develop-ment), Continuing Care Group, who oversees operations at Bayt Aman, said that guests of the fa-cility are outpatients, with many receiving follow-up rehabilita-tion services at QRI on an outpa-tient basis. “While the facility is staff ed by a charge nurse and pa-tient care attendants, residents are encouraged to be independ-ent,” he said.

“Our residents are considered outpatients with our facility act-ing as assisted-living accommo-dations. Patients are encouraged to be as independent as possible, particularly in terms of their daily self-care activities,” said Dr al-Nabit.

Calling Bayt Aman a safe and restorative environment for ex-patriate workers who have com-pleted medical treatment and

are waiting to return home, Dr al-Nabit says staff at the facility are focused on helping residents who have completed their medi-cal treatment to fully recuperate and adjust to what may be a new normal routine.

“While waiting to be cleared for travel back to their home country, residents at Bayt Aman are kept busy by engaging in activities such as exercising, painting, cooking, taking care of plants, or socialising with visitors. Staff regularly organise events for our residents, such as painting classes recently held in collaboration with artists from the International Artists Doha,” added Dr al-Nabit.

Dr al-Nabit expressed grati-tude to the National Human Rights Committee, Ministry of Interior and Jassim and Hamad Bin Jassim Charitable Founda-tion for their support in facili-tating the safe repatriation of the nine former residents who have returned to their home countries.

Qatar condemns Kabul explosion

Qatar has strongly con-demned and denounced the explosion which

took place near a ministry in the Afghan capital Kabul and left several dead and injured.

In a statement yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs reiterated Qatar’s fi rm posi-

tion rejecting violence and terrorism regardless of mo-tives and reasons.

The statement expressed the condolences of Qatar to the families of the victims and the government and people of Afghanistan, wishing a speedy recovery for the injured.

Farewell ceremony for ambassador

HE the Secretary-Gen-eral of the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs of

Algeria Noureddine Ayadi hosted a farewell ceremony in honour of Qatar’s outgoing ambassador Ibrahim bin Ab-dulaziz al-Sahlawi in Algiers.

The ceremony was attended by the Director-General of Pro-tocol and the Director-General for the Arab Countries at the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs, the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and a number of ambas-sadors accredited to Algeria.

Qatar-Italy ties reviewed

The Under Secre-tary of the Italian Ministry of For-

eign Aff airs, Manlio Di Stefano, met Qatar’s am-bassador Abdulaziz bin

Ahmad al-Malki in Rome yesterday.

The meeting discussed the bilateral relations and ways to develop them, in addition to topics of common interest.

Envoy presents papers

Gambia’s Minister of Foreign Aff airs, Inter-national Co-operation

and Gambians Abroad Ma-madou Tangara yesterday received a copy of the cre-dentials of Faisal bin Fahad al-Mana as ambassador of Qatar.

The Gambian foreign min-

ister wished ambassador success in his mission, and relations between Qatar and Gambia further development.

For his part, the ambassa-dor expressed his willingness to work on the development of bilateral relations between Qatar and Gambia.

MEC fi nes Salwa Road tyre shops for violations

A surprise inspection cam-paign carried out by the Ministry of Economy and

Commerce (MEC) targeting tyre repair and sale shops on Salwa Road resulted in the imposition of fi nes for three violations, it was announced yesterday.

The violations included the display and sale of expired tyres in violation of Article 6 of Law No 8 of 2008 on consumer protec-tion and anti-commercial fraud, the MEC said in a statement.

The ministry said it conducted the surprise inspection campaign, targeting a number of outlets on Salwa Road specialising in the dis-play, sale and repair of car tyres, in order to monitor the compliance of suppliers with Law No 8 of 2008 on consumer protection.

The intensive and regular in-spection campaigns come with-in the framework of the MEC’s eff orts to regulate markets and commercial activities across Qa-tar and uncover and crack down

on violations, counterfeit goods and substandard products.

Violations of Law No 8 of 2008 on consumer protection can re-sult in administrative closure and fi nancial penalties ranging from QR3,000 to QR1mn, the statement adds.

The ministry has stressed that it will not tolerate any violations of Consumer Protection Law and its regulations, and will refer those who violate laws and min-isterial decrees to the competent

authorities, who will, in turn, take appropriate action against the perpetrators in order to

protect consumer rights.The MEC has urged all con-

sumers to report violations or submit complaints and sugges-tions through the call centre: 16001, e-mail: info@mec.gov.qa, Twitter: MEC_QATAR, Insta-gram: MEC_QATAR and the min-istry’s applications on smart-phones available on iPhone and Android devices: MEC_QATAR

The violations included the display and sale of expired tyres.

QATAR5Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Qatar Museums (QM) opened the third edition of its “Artist in Residence” pro-

gramme yesterday, featuring the works of 18 artists at the Fire Sta-tion’s Garage gallery in Doha.

The exhibition, titled Dual Inspi-rations and held under the patron-age of QM Chairperson HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, will be open to the public from today until October 1.

The participating artists are Mu-barak Nasser al-Thani, May Saleh al-Mannai, Fatima Mohamed, Al-exandra Jawe Oddie, Yasser Ab-dulla al-Mulla, Islam Shehab, Ryan Browning, Fatma al-Naimi, Wajiha Pervez, Yousef Fawzi Bahzad, Dio-go Esteves, Aisha al-Fadhala, Paul Valentine, Aisha al-Malki, Yassmin al-Khasawneh, Rachel Leah Cohn, Shouq al-Mana, and Ahmad Nooh Ahmad.

“The exhibition explores the ideas that revolve around inspira-tion as a platform, through which 18 artists experiment in relation to the creative process,” said curator Dr Bahaa Abudaya, who is also the curator of Contemporary Art at the Fire Station.

“Active discussion and interac-tion between artists and curator helped raise issues pertinent to the

identity of contemporary art pro-duction and the essence of a truly contemporary artwork,” he said.

According to Abudaya, this year’s edition is presented as a con-versation between two artists shar-ing their perspectives on the same topic.

The exhibition’s main narrative falls on “refl ection and inspiration” where two artists are matched in one section under a specifi c theme, which describes their work: self, memory, constructivism, material, contemplation, abstractionism, city, result, perception, and view-point.

The exhibition marks the end of a successful season of the Artist in Residence programme – an annual initiative that nurtures creative tal-ent from across the country.

“This exhibition is not only a testament to the world-class ar-tistic talent that exists among Qa-tar’s creative community, but is also a proof of the impact that the programme has had in terms of nurturing our artists’ skills,” Fire Station director Khalifa al-Obaidly said in a statement. “I am proud to announce the conclusion of anoth-er exciting edition and look forward to being amazed by our artists’ fu-ture endeavours.”

Dual Inspirations also features a special section dubbed “Contem-porary Artists Reading Modernism Loudly”, tackling the inspiring re-

lationship between contemporary and modern art.

Organisers said that the par-ticipants have been tasked with visiting Mathaf and choosing an artwork that inspires and informs their own practice.

The selected artwork is present-ed alongside their own to empha-sise a dialogue that has taken place between two epochs and genera-tions of artists.

Some of the artists’ ideas were an extension and an answer to works by those pioneers, while others were chosen to question or provide a contrast to the works presented at Mathaf.

The participating artists are Mu-barak Nasser al-Thani, May Saleh al-Mannai, Fatima Mohamed, Yousef Fawzi Bahzad, Paul Valen-tine, Ryan Browning, and Diogo Esteves.

The Artist in Residency pro-

gramme provides participants with an opportunity to delve into the world of aestheticism and be ex-posed to infl uential mentors that can help them challenge and de-velop their artistic skills.

The programme is a highlight of the QM’s initiatives, all which aim to create a new generation of talents that can inspire audiences and drive forward Qatar’s cultural sector.

According to the QM, artists who are resident in Qatar move into one of the studios, collaborate with fellow creatives and develop their artistic technique during the nine-month programme.

Artists meet curators, access all QM exhibitions and are encouraged to join lectures.

They also benefi t from weekly mentoring sessions and meet arts professionals from all over the world, representing Qatar in the international cultural community.

Dual Inspirations on full display at third ‘Artist in Residence’By Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

Left and right: Some of the highlights of the exhibition, which will be open to the public from today until October 1. PICTURES: Ram Chand

Below: This picture supplied by Qatar Museums (QM) shows QM off icials and other dignitaries discussing one of the works at the exhibition following its opening.

Senior offi cials from the sports sector in Sudan have described His Highness the Amir Sheikh

Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani offi cially receiving the mantle of hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar from Rus-sian President Vladimir Putin, in the presence of International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) president Gianni Infantino, as a historic event and an opportunity for Arab countries to highlight their talents.

Speaking exclusively to Qatar News Agency (QNA), the Sudanese sports offi cials expressed pride and admira-tion with the Qatari achievements, which gives Arab countries the oppor-tunity to prepare for an appearance in an international forum that would be

held for the fi rst time in an Arab coun-try.

Higher Committee for the National Teams chairman Hassan Bargo said that not only Qatar but all of the Arab people are fi lled with joy.

He added that it has been the best response to those who have doubted Qatar’s capabilities, and by receiving international recognition, it reaffi rms Qatar’s global standing and transpar-ency in all matters.

Bargo said that under the directive of Sudanese President Omar al-Ba-shir, Sudan launched the Sudan dream project for the country to project a strong presence in the World Cup in Qatar.

Bargo highlighted that Qatar’s ef-forts in supporting sports in Sudan.

Sudanese football association ex-ecutive secretary Hasan Abu Jabal said that hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup

in Qatar is a great honour for all Arabs.He added that the experience gained

from the recently-concluded 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia will help Qa-tar ensure a successful event.

Head of sports sector at Sudan’s Al Hilal Club, Dr Haydar Hassan Haj al-Sidig, said that as an Arab, he feels pride and joy as Qatar hosts the World Cup.

He added that Qatar’s success indi-cators have been proven through the nation’s organisation of major sports events.

Former Sudanese youth and sports minister Dr Abdul Karim Musa said that the upcoming four years will wit-ness intense global movement towards Qatar because it has achieved the Arab dream.

He lauded His Highness the Amir’s words that 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar will be for all Arabs.

Qatar World Cup a chance to highlight Arab talent, say Sudan sports offi cialsQNAKhartoum

Questions over funding of UK meetFrom Page 1

Last year, Akta paid the former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith and the BBC journalist John Simpson to attend an-other conference in a London hotel on the future of Qatar, which was highly critical of the government.

That event was supported by the pro-Saudi Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski, who received £15,000 from Akta for helping to prepare the conference, and the British Monar-chist Society’s Thomas J Mace-Arch-er-Mills — a regular royal pundit who was recently exposed as an American from upstate New York.

Fuller did not directly comment on whether al-Hail or Akta helped or-ganise his conference but said a major share of the money came “from an in-dividual funder who has made it a con-dition of funding support that their identity not be disclosed”.

“They have signifi cant private wealth derived personally and there is no funding from any state or govern-ment, and I have not been presented with any evidence to the contrary,” Fuller added.

He said that he had been invited to help with the conference late in the day as a “means of launching” his founda-tion, by which time “many logistical arrangements were already in place”.

Both the conference and last year’s Global Security and Stability event received PR support from Rabinowitz,

whose Bluelight Strategies fi rm lists al-Hail as a client on its website.

Rabinowitz, who said he no longer represents the Qatari, admitted that the sports conference funding re-mained unclear: “I don’t know what the full source of the money is, I just don’t know, besides Jaimie putting seed money in.”

“For me it was important that it was not Saudi or Emirati government money,” he said. “I would have to reg-ister with my justice ministry as a for-eign agent, even if that government paid Jaimie Fuller and he paid me ... I looked at it pretty hard and I’m per-suaded there was no Saudi or Emirati money.”

When contacted for comment, al-Hail suggested that the Guardian was taking part in an “orchestrated at-tempt to fabricate a story against me”.

When a detailed set of points were put to his lawyer, including sugges-tions that al-Hail was involved in or-ganising the conference and questions about whether he had ever received fi nancial assistance from either the Saudi or UAE governments, he de-clined to comment.

Some individuals involved in the event speculated that Fuller was “duped” into hosting it.

Rabinowitz described him as “a to-tally righteous guy in everything he’s done in sport” while the investiga-tive journalist Andrew Jennings, who appeared at the conference, vouched

for his “good friend” and said “he’s straight”.

“I was asked if I’d go and put the boot into the Qataris,” said Jennings. “I have no concern that the UAE or Saudi Arabia governments infl uenced the conference, as I set the programme and the speakers.”

The Gulf crisis has increasingly been fought through attempts to infl uence the media.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly called for Qatar to shut down its Al Jazeera news network, while Qatar has ac-cused Saudi Arabia of pirating its multi-billion-dollar live sports TV network.

Last year, the Intercept obtained documents which suggested the UAE planned a fi nancial war on Qatar and campaign to force it to share the 2022 World Cup with its neighbours.

A spokesperson for Collins said the MP appeared on the panel as a favour: “Damian received no payment for speaking at the event, was not involved in its organisation and was invited by Jamie Fuller who Damian has worked with for many years on the New FIFA Now campaign.”

The Qatari authorities have raised concerns about the event’s funding with some of the speakers.

Rabinowitz, however, said it was part of the inevitable geopolitical bat-tle that followed Qatar’s successful bid to host the biggest event in football. – Guardian News & Media

QATAR

Gulf Times Tuesday, July 17, 20186

Asian Town shopping festival winners announced

Ibn Ajayan Projects has announced the winners of the second draw for Asian Town Shopping Festival 2018.

The company said in a press statement that Siraj Ahamad won a Suzuki Jimny 2018 in the raffl e draw held yesterday.

Salem al-Fouhaid, Public and Govern-ment Relations manager at Ibn Ajayan Projects, handed over the key to the winner.

Other winners have received prizes such as TV, mobile phone, home theatre and blenders.

All of them are Asian expatriates and many of them are workers in the Industrial Area, the statement notes.

The Asian Town Shopping Festival is a three-month-long festival in which a to-tal of three cars and six Smart LED TVs, six mobile phones, six blenders and six home theatre systems are being given away.

A Mahindra XUV500 is the prize for car winners in the third and last raffl e draw.

Ibn Ajayan Project is organising the shop-ping festival in Asian Town for the third time.

This year, for all those who make pur-chases for a minimum of QR50 from the of-fi cial participating shops in Plaza Mall and Cricket Stadium Complex can avail of cou-pons for the raffl e draw.

Salem al-Fouhaid, Public and Government Relation manager at Ibn Ajayan Projects, handed over the key to the winner.

Alfardan wins double at marketing awards nightAlfardan Premier Motors Co,

the offi cial retailer of Jag-uar Land Rover in Qatar, has

been recognised with two awards at Jaguar Land Rover Mena’s An-nual Retailer Marketing Confer-ence.

Alfardan Premier Motors re-ceived two marketing awards in front of their peers from across the Middle East and North Africa re-gion for the Best Jaguar Land Rover Event in 2017/2018 and the Best Jaguar Land Rover Social Media Content produced during the past 12 months in the Mena region, the company said in a statement.

Hussein Adra, Marketing and Customer Relationship manager for Alfardan Premier Motors, ac-cepted the awards and said: “These awards are recognition for the en-tire team at Alfardan Premier Mo-tors and the hard work put in to ensure that Jaguar and Land Rover remain the leading prestige brands in Qatar. Marketing through events and the informed use of social me-dia are incredibly powerful tools in the fi ercely competitive luxury au-tomotive market and we are proud to have been recognised for our in-novative work.”

Dr Benjamin Trespe, brand di-rector, Jaguar Land Rover Mena Region, added: “Alfardan Premier Motors has shown its ongoing commitment to Jaguar Land Rover

in this region and these awards are testament to our strong partner-ship with them in Qatar. While we are immensely proud of all our dealers throughout the Middle East and North Africa region, it is always incredibly satisfying to rec-

ognise those that exceed the rigor-ous standards we set for our retail partners.”

The award for Best Event for 2017/2018 was in recognition of Alfardan Premier Motors’ dis-play of vehicles at Mall of Qatar in

March 2018, which gave motoring fans a close-up look at their fa-vourite models from the Jaguar and Land Rover family.

Models on display included the award-winning Range Rover Velar, Range Rover Evoque, Land Rover

Discovery and Discovery Sport, while Jaguar’s range was repre-sented by an award-winning line-up, featuring the Jaguar F-PACE, F-TYPE Coupé, Jaguar’s premium saloon range with the Jaguar XF and XE models and the latest com-pact SUV, Jaguar E-PACE.

An extensive range of clothing and merchandise complemented the display and gave visitors a full immersion into the Jaguar and Land Rover lifestyle experience.

This award was judged on its creative approach to the activity, its seamless delivery, the number of leads it generated, its brand ex-posure and the relevance to the brand, the statement noted.

The award for Best Social Media Content 2017/2018 was also pre-sented to Alfardan Premier Motors.

Criteria for this award included quality of content in relation to story and message delivered, im-ages, text and supporting captions and how they relate to Jaguar Land Rover’s brand ethos, the relevance to the local market and the per-formance of those results.

Alfardan Premier Motors has been a key member of Jaguar Land Rover Mena’s retailer network, not only playing a major role in the growth of the brands in Qatar but also contributing to the overall success of Jaguar Land Rover with-in the region, the statement adds.

Alfardan Premier Motors received two marketing awards for the Best Jaguar Land Rover Event in 2017/2018 and the Best Jaguar Land Rover Social Media Content produced during the past 12 months in the Mena region.

2005-2007 Jeep models recalled

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC), in col-laboration with United Cars

Almana (aftersales), dealer of Jeep vehicles in Qatar, has announced the recall of Jeep Cherokee models of 2005-2007 over the rear suspension lower control arms.

In a statement yesterday, the min-istry said the recall campaign came within the framework of its ongoing eff orts to protect consumers and en-sure that car dealers followed up on vehicle defects and repairs.

The MEC has said it will co-ordi-nate with the dealer to follow up on the maintenance and repair works and communicate with customers to ensure that the necessary repairs are carried out.

The ministry has urged all cus-tomers to report violations to its Consumer Protection and Anti-Commercial Fraud Department, which processes complaints, in-quiries and suggestions through the call centre: 16001, e-mail: info@mec.gov.qa, Twitter: @MEC_Qa-tar, Instagram: MEC_Qatar and the its mobile app for Android and iOS: MEC_Qatar

Winners of 2018 WISE Awards announced

The World Innovation Sum-mit for Education (WISE), an initiative of Qatar

Foundation (QF), has announced the six winners of the 2018 WISE Awards, recognising and pro-moting innovative projects from across the world that address global challenges in education.

The 2018 WISE Awards win-ners are Safe Spaces Clubs for Girls, One Village One Pre-School, Generation, Technology-Based Deaf Education Pakistan, Partners for Possibility: 1001 Nights Life Skills, and Citizen-ship Education Programme.

Projects selected through the annual WISE Awards tackle pressing education issues such as girls’ education, early childhood education, the refugee crisis, cultural exchange, citizenship values, youth employment, en-trepreneurship in disadvantaged communities, deaf education, enhancing teacher motivation and stimulating critical and crea-tive thinking.

Stavros N Yiannouka, CEO of WISE, said: “This year, we re-ceived 413 applications for the WISE Awards, and our rigorous selection process has succeeded in fi nding six excellent and inno-vative projects tackling a diverse

mix of education challenges from around the world.

“These projects demonstrate that there are existing global or-ganisations and individuals who share our passion for tackling education challenges through in-

novative solutions. We are very grateful to our WISE Awards jury members, who did a thorough job in evaluating the projects.”

To be selected as WISE Awards winners, educational projects are required to show that they are established and innovative, and to have already demonstrated a transformative impact on indi-viduals, communities, and so-ciety within their context. They must also be fi nancially stable, have a clear development plan, and be scalable and replicable.

The winning projects will be celebrated on September 22 at WISE@NY in New York, US.

In addition to publicity and networking opportunities, each project will receive $20,000.

The World Innovation Summit for Education was established by QF in 2009.

It is an international, multi-sectoral platform for creative, evidence-based thinking, de-bate, and purposeful action in education.

Generation, one of the 2018 WISE Awards winners.

AFRICA

Gulf TimesTuesday, July 17, 20188

Eritrea reopens embassy in Addis AbabaReuters Addis Ababa

Eritrea reopened its em-bassy in Ethiopia yes-terday in further evi-

dence of a rapid thaw between two countries that a week ago ended two decades of military stalemate over a border war in which tens of thousands died.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrea’s Pres-ident Isaias Afwerki re-opened the embassy in the capital Ad-dis Ababa in a brief ceremony, a Reuters witness said.

One week ago the leaders de-clared their “state of war” over and Isaias spent the weekend in Ethiopia.

The rapprochement could help Ethiopia, a landlocked country of 100mn people with the largest economy in East Af-rica, by making access to Erit-rea’s ports possible.

At the same time, better ties could help Eritrea overcome decades of relative isolation.

The leaders jointly raised the Eritrean fl ag inside a newly re-furbished embassy as a military band played Eritrea’s anthem.

They then toured the build-ing and looked at its furniture and two rusting cars that be-longed to Eritrea’s last ambas-sador.

In a tweet Eritrea’s informa-tion minister, Yemane Meskel described the reopening of the embassy as “yet another mile-stone in the robust and special ties of peace and friendship both countries are cultivat-ing with earnestness in these momentous times.” Isaias later fl ew home, he said.

When Isaias came to Addis Ababa on Saturday thousands lined the main thoroughfare, Bole Road, sporting T-shirts emblazoned with the pictures of both countries’ leaders.

The visit comes just days after Abiy visited Eritrea and signed a pact with Isaias on re-suming ties, a move that ended a near 20-year military stand-off after a border war.

Eritrea formally seceded from Ethiopia in 1993 after a long battle for independence, but the two fought a border war in 1998 that claimed lives of at least 80,000.

A peace deal was signed two years later but Ethiopia re-fused to implement it, saying it wanted more talks.

The armies of both nations have both been facing off across their border since the war end-ed and security dominates both countries concerns.

The rapprochement was set in motion after Abiy in April became Ethiopia’s prime min-ister.

Abiy said he would ac-cept and implement a bound-ary commission’s ruling on the Eritrea border and implement sweeping political and eco-nomic reforms.

Abiy’s chief of staff , Fitsum Arega, said in a tweet better ties “will create the ideal con-ditions to address remaining strategic issues in the shared interest of the two nations.”

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea (right) celebrate the opening of the Embassy of Eritrea in Ethiopia.

About 20 Nigerian soldiers are missing after a clash with Boko Haram militants in the northeast of the country, security sources said yesterday, though the military denied reports that some troops could not be found. The con-frontation between militants and troops took place on Saturday in the Bama area of Borno, the state worst hit by the militant group which has killed more than 30,000 people since 2009 when it launched an insurgency to cre-ate a caliphate. Three soldiers told Reuters more than 20 were miss-ing. “We lost some of our soldiers in the attack. It is possible those missing are dead. We haven’t seen about 23 of them now,” said an off icer who did not want to be named. Another soldier involved in the clash said the troops were ambushed while conducting a “clearance operation”, adding that “over 20 soldiers have not been seen up till now”.He said five military vehicles were taken. The militant group carries out suicide bomb attacks in crowded places, such as markets, as well as gun raids and attacks on military bases.

About 20 Nigerian soldiers ‘missing’ after militant clash

UNREST

REGION/ARAB WORLD9Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Israel hits Hamas posts in Gaza StripAFPJerusalem

An Israeli aircraft hit two Hamas posts in the Gaza Strip yesterday in re-

sponse to balloons carrying fi re-bombs over the border fence to burn Israeli farmland, the army said.

The strikes signalled a tough-er Israeli response to the hun-dreds of balloons and kites car-

rying fi rebombs that have been launched from the blockaded Gaza Strip since April.

Gazan security sources and residents said the strikes oc-curred in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip and caused no injuries.

Israel’s army said the strikes targeted an area near where ar-son balloons were launched.

A spokesman for Israel’s fi re service said four fi res had been started inside Israel yesterday

due to the fi rebombs. That was signifi cantly less

than the average of around 24 per day that had been occurring re-cently, said fi re service spokes-man Eli Cohen.

Later in the day, Israel said a projectile – possibly a rocket – was fi red from the Gaza Strip but appeared to have fallen within the Palestinian enclave.

The strikes came after the heaviest exchange of fi re be-tween Israel and Palestinian

fi ghters in Gaza since a 2014 war on Saturday.

Those Israeli air strikes were partially in response to the months of fi res started by the kite fi rebombs, but also over continuing protests and clashes along the Gaza border.

Israel hit dozens of sites it said belonged to fi ghters in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing two Palestinian teenagers, while around 200 rockets and mortars were fi red at Israel from the Ha-mas-run enclave.

Hamas announced a ceasefi re late Saturday, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the kite fi res must stop.

“I have directed the (military) to defeat and stop the terror of incendiary kites and balloons, and we are in the midst of the process,” Netanyahu said yes-terday while visiting the city of Sderot, where four people were wounded when a rocket hit a house on Saturday.

“There is an exchange of blows here. It is not over in one go.”

Palestinians in Gaza see the kites and balloons as legitimate resistance against Israel. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said “the Israeli occupation has ex-aggerated the damage caused by the kites and balloons in order to justify its aggression on Gaza”.

“The Israeli occupation would be playing with fi re if its war-planes targeted kite fl yers,” he said.

Palestinian students scrap school holidays to save villageAFP Khan al-Ahmar

Under the sun’s harsh glare, dozens of stu-dents sing the Palestin-

ian national anthem — begin-ning a new school year early as part of eff orts to keep their village from being demolished.

The students of Khan al-Ah-mar went back to their village school in the occupied West Bank yesterday, while Israeli authorities seek to evict them.

“We are starting the school year earlier because the Israe-lis want to destroy the school,” said Amani Ali, 11.

“So when they come to de-molish it, we will be here.”

Israel says the Bedouin vil-lage, located in a strategic spot east of Jerusalem near Israeli settlements and on the road to the Dead Sea, was constructed illegally and is seeking to move its 191 residents elsewhere.

The residents of the vil-lage point out that it is nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits from Israeli authorities in around 60 % of the West Bank where they maintain full control.

On May 24, Israel’s supreme court allowed authorities to go ahead with demolition of the small hillside village that sits between a highway, the desert and two Israeli settlements.

Since then, two new court challenges have been fi led on behalf of the village, tempo-

rarily suspending demolition plans, and the court plans to hold another hearing by August 15 at the latest, activists say.

European countries have ral-lied to support the villagers, calling for demolition plans to be cancelled.

“The fact that the students are at the school can prevent the decision from being carried out because they are going to see that there are classes, life, people,” said Ghadir Darsya, who has taught in Khan al-Ah-mar for three years.

“No one knows what’s going to happen,” she added, while sorting books with her col-leagues amid the sound of chil-dren’s voices from an adjacent playground.

The school was constructed in 2009 with the support of NGOs and the European Union.

Largely built with tyres, sand and mud, it serves 170 students from various Bedouin villages, according to the principal.

“There are about 50 families with many children. Where are they going to go?” said Darsya.

The rest of the village is made up of homes of metal sheets, cardboard and wood, as is common in such Bedouin communities.

“We are always afraid. I can-not sleep at night,” said Raya Jahalin, as her grandchildren played on a large carpet behind her that serves as a living room devoid of furniture.

“It is our land. I have lived here for 50 years. I was born

here. My children were married here.”

The villagers say Khan al-Ahmar has been located there since 1952.

It was established after Bedouins from the Jahalin tribe were, according to rights activ-ists, expelled from the Negev desert in the south after the creation of Israel in 1948.

Israeli authorities now want to relocate them to an area near Abu Dis in the West Bank, but the villagers are refusing, say-ing that the site is near a dump and in an urban environment where their animals cannot graze.

For Eid Abu Khamis, a village spokesman, forced eviction of Bedouins throughout the area would put in peril the possibil-ity of a future Palestinian state.

If they are replaced with Is-raeli settlers, Khamis and rights groups say the West Bank could be cut in two, dividing the half north of Jerusalem from the southern one.

Israeli rights group B’Tselem says around 180 communities are threatened with eviction in the West Bank.

B’Tselem spokesman Amit Gilutz says Israel has for dec-ades pursued a policy of trying to evict Palestinians from the part of the West Bank where it exerts full control.

It has sought to avoid forced transfers, he said, but applies enough pressure on the villag-ers in hopes that they fi nally decide to leave on their own.

Palestinian children queue up before the early start of classes at a school in the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the occupied West Bank, yesterday.

Palestinian artists display artwork in the yard of the damaged Arts and Crafts Village, which was hit by Israeli air strikes two days before, in Gaza City, yesterday.

Iran’s top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has criticised Saudi Arabia over its management of the Haj pilgrimage and called for a fresh investigation into a 2015 crush that killed hundreds, Iranian state TV reported yesterday.The criticism comes ahead of this year’s Haj and amid tension.Riyadh says nearly 800 pilgrims died when two big groups of pilgrims collided at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometre east of Makkah, on their way to performing the “Stoning of the Devil” ritual at Jamarat.Counts by countries of repatriated bodies showed over 2,000 people may have died, including more than 400 Iranians. “A fact-finding committee, with Iran’s presence, should be formed to investigate these cruelties.Relevant Iranian authorities should mobilise all legal resources to follow up the tragedy,” Khame-nei said in a speech to Iran’s Haj organisers. “The holy lands belong to all Muslims...it does not belong to rulers of Saudi Arabia,” said Khamenei. Iran boycotted the Haj in 2016 amid tensions with Saudi Arabia over the incident.About 90,000 Iranians attended the pilgrimage last year. Iran also boycotted the Haj for three years after 402 pilgrims, including 275 Iranians, died in clashes with Saudi security forces at an anti-US and anti-Israel rally in Makkah in 1987.

Charred remains of a flatbread baked about 14,500 years ago in a stone fireplace at a site in northeastern Jordan have given researchers a delectable surprise: people began making bread, a vital staple food, millennia before they developed agriculture. No matter how you slice it, the discov-ery detailed yesterday shows that hunter-gatherers in the Eastern Mediterranean achieved the cul-tural milestone of bread-making far earlier than previously known, more than 4,000 years before plant cultivation took root. The flatbread, likely unleavened and somewhat resembling pita bread, was fashioned from wild cereals such as barley, einkorn or oats, as well as tubers from an aquatic papyrus relative, that had been ground into flour. It was made by a culture called the Natufians, who had begun to embrace a seden-tary rather than nomadic lifestyle, and was found at a Black Desert archaeological site.

Khamenei slams Saudi over management of pilgrimage

World’s oldest bread found at Jordan site

CRITICISM

DISCLOSURE

Top photographer ‘dies in Syria jail’AFP Beirut

An award-winning Pales-tinian-Syrian photogra-pher who documented

life in the Yarmuk refugee camp in southern Damascus has died after nearly three years in re-gime detention, his partner said yesterday.

Niraz Saied, who himself hailed from the Palestinian camp, was arrested by security forces in October 2015.

His longtime partner, Lamis Alkhateeb, wrote on Facebook yesterday that Saied had died while in detention.

He was believed to be 27

years old. “There’s noth-ing harder than writing these words, but Niraz doesn’t die in silence,” wrote Alkhateeb, who lives in Germany.

“They killed my darling, my husband, my Niraz — they killed you, my soul. Niraz died in the Syrian regime’s prisons,” she wrote.

It was not clear how Alkha-teeb had learned of Saied’s death, and she did not immedi-ately respond to AFP’s request for additional comment.

Their relationship had formed part of the 2014 film Letters from Yarmuk, which featured clips filmed by Saied of daily life in the battered, besieged camp.

That same year, Saied won a photography competition run by the United Nations’ Pales-tinian agency (UNRWA) with a snapshot titled “The Three Kings.”

It depicted the downtrod-den faces of three brothers waiting to be evacuated from the camp for medical treat-ment.

“You can’t find a complete family in the refugee camp,” Saied said after winning the award.

“I used to feel that in every portrait of a Palestinian fam-ily you could see the shadow of a person missing, and that is why my photos are dimly lit.But there is always hope.”

Protesters at gas fi eld want jobs, better servicesReuters Basra

About 200 protesters gathered at the main entrance to Iraq’s Siba

natural gas fi eld yesterday, police sources said, following more than a week of unrest over poor services sweeping southern cities amid political uncertainty.

Growing anger has put a spotlight on the performance of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is seeking a second term after a May 12 parliamen-tary election, which refl ected widespread discontent over hardships and corruption.

The crumbling oil hub of Basra and others parts of the south have long been neglect-ed, fi rst by dictator Saddam Hussein and then other gov-ernments after him. Similar protests have occurred in the past.

This time the unrest is more widespread and demonstra-tors have for the fi rst time at-tacked provincial government headquarters and even build-ings belonging to powerful paramilitary groups.

Three demonstrators have been killed in clashes with se-curity forces and dozens were wounded.

In a rare move, protesters stormed the international air-port in Najaf, a holy city, tem-

porarily halting air traffi c.Abadi has announced that

his caretaker government would release funds for water, electricity and health serv-ices in Basra, once dubbed the “Venice of the Middle East” for its network of canals.

Yesterday’s demonstration has not aff ected operations at Siba, which is run by Kuwait Energy PLC, Siba offi cials said.

“We have demonstrated near the fi eld to press the com-pany to give us jobs. We are living nearby and watching every day hundreds of work-

ers here sitting jobless and can hardly give food to our chil-dren,” said Salim Khasbawi, who is unemployed. Residents of the southern oil-exporting city of Basra have gathered at the main gate to three major oil fi elds — West Qurna 1, West Qurna 2 and Rumaila.

Local offi cials said dem-onstrations have not aff ected crude production in Basra, whose shipments account for more than 95% of Opec pro-ducer Iraq’s state revenues.

Any disruption could have a severe impact on the country’s

limping economy and push up global oil prices.

Anger is mounting at a time when politicians are strug-gling to form a government after the election, which was marred by allegations of fraud that prompted a recount.

The political bloc led by populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr came fi rst in the elec-tion after promising to ease poverty, create jobs and fi ght corruption. There have been no reports of attacks directed against Sadr’s political bloc or followers.

Iraqi protesters block the road during a protest in the south of Basra, yesterday.

Army captures strategic hill overlooking border

Reuters Amman

The Syrian army and its al-lies have taken control of a strategic hill overlook-

ing the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as it pushes forward with an off ensive to seize the re-maining parts of the southwest from rebels, state tv and rebels said yesterday.

It said the army had taken control of Al-Haara hill on the second day of an off ensive to take back the last parts of south-west Syria in Quneitra province that are in rebel hands and are close to the border with Israel.

The hilltop, which had a major anti-aircraft radar base that was part of elaborate Syrian army defences against Israel, and is the highest ground in Deraa province, fell into rebel hands in October 2014.

It has been heavily bombed by Russian and Syrian army raids in the past two days as the army has moved closer to the Israeli border after gaining control of most of Deraa province to the east in a push that began last June, according to rebels and a war monitor.

A Syrian army source quoted by state media said the army had made territorial gains in Quneitra province where it seized the town of Mashara, about 11km (7 miles) from the Golan frontier. Rebels said Russian and Syrian jets in-tensively bombed a string of rebel-held towns in Quneitra

to force them to surrender in a strategy that offers rebels the choice of either evacuating to opposition-held areas or being recruited into state-run mili-tias.The army said the rebel-held towns of Qusaiba, Sweisa and Ain Teineh had raised the national flag, but rebel sources said these towns were being bombarded into submission.

The violence is taking place a few kilometres away from the line marking the start of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force zone, an area monitored by a UN force since 1974 in the wake of the Arab-Israeli War.

Israel has threatened a “harsh response” to any at-tempt by Syrian forces to de-ploy in that zone.

Israel does not want Iran and Hezbollah, both allies of Syr-ian President Bashar al-Assad, who are well entrenched in that area, to move forces near its border.

US President Donald Trump said at a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday in Helsinki that both had agreed to work together to help ensure Israel’s security. Putin cited the need to restore the situation along the Golan borders to the state that prevailed before the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in 2011.

Ahead of the summit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-yahu met Putin in Moscow and on Sunday spoke to Trump about Iran and Syria and thanked him for his tough stance on Iran.

AMERICAS

Gulf Times Tuesday, July 17, 201810

Tina Trachtenberg, also known as ‘Mother Pigeon’ works on stuff ed pigeon sculpture she sells at Union Square in Manhattan, New York.

Colombian former Farc guerrilla commander Ivan Marquez said yesterday he will not take his seat in the Senate this week to protest the arrest of fellow rebel Jesus Santrich and changes to the peace accord he said betrayed and disfigured it. Marquez and another nine former leaders of the Farc were due to be sworn in to congress on Friday as part of a peace agreement signed in 2016 that put an end their part in a five-decade conflict. Benkos Bioho, another former Farc fighter, will take his seat instead. Marquez blamed changes to the original peace agreement and failure to allow the group to transform to legal politics as the reasons for his decision.

Nicaraguan police and paramilitary groups loyal to President Daniel Ortega killed at least 10 people on Sunday, a human rights association said, as the death toll from violent clashes in the Central American country continues to rise. The people were killed when government forces attacked the community of Monimbo and nearby city of Masaya, about 25km southeast of the capital, Managua, said Alvaro Leiva of the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights. “We are talking about more than 10 deaths at this time,” Leiva told a local television station. The government could not immediately be reached for comment.

Argentina says it has captured a former Chilean army colonel convicted of crimes against humanity during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Sergio Francisco Jara Arancibia was “one of Chile’s most wanted fugitives over murders committed in 1973” Argentina’s ministry of security and the nation said, announcing the retired military leader’s arrest in Mar del Plata, some 400km to the south of the capital Buenos Aires on the Atlantic coast. “The detainee will be extradited to Chile,” said the ministry. Jara Arancibia had been “on the run for more than a year” and was the subject of an international arrest warrant.

An Indiana man was charged yesterday with sexually assaulting and murdering an 8-year-old girl in 1988, police said, a day after they said he had confessed to the crime. John Miller, 59, of Grabill, Indiana, appeared briefly in court in Fort Wayne to face charges of murdering April Tinsley, off icials said. DNA evidence and records on publicly accessible genealogical websites helped investigators track down the suspect, the Fort Wayne, Indiana, police department said in a court filing on Sunday. Tinsley’s mother reported her missing from her family home on April 1, 1988. Investigators found her body three days later, about 32km away.

Ex-Farc leader Marquez declines to take Senate seat

10 more die in violent Nicaragua protests

Former Pinochet colonel captured in Argentina

DNA leads to suspect in 30-year-old murder case

PIGEON WORKS! POLITICSCIVIL STRIFE ON THE RUN NABBED

Lawmakers slam ‘weak’ Trump on Putin meetReutersWashington

Some prominent Republican and Demo-cratic members of the US Congress yesterday strongly criticised President

Donald Trump for failing to deliver a strong warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin about meddling in American elections, say-ing Trump has sent a message of weakness to Moscow.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a senior Republi-can and member of the Senate Armed Serv-ices Committee, said of Trump’s performance at a press conference with Putin following their summit in Helsinki: “Missed opportu-nity by President Trump to fi rmly hold Russia accountable for 2016 meddling and deliver a strong warning regarding future elections. This answer by President Trump will be seen by Russia as a sign of weakness and create far more problems than it solves.”

Republican Trump, standing alongside Pu-tin in front of reporters, said he saw no rea-son to believe Russia had hacked the 2016 US election to help him win and that Putin “was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

On Friday, a US special counsel announced indictments of 12 Russian spies on charges of hacking Democratic Party computer net-

works as part of the interference in the elec-tion campaign.

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schum-er said Trump’s approach in Helsinki was un-precedented for a leader of the United States.

“For the president of the United States to side with President Putin against American law enforcement, American defence offi -cials, and American intelligence agencies is thoughtless, dangerous, and weak,” Schumer said.

Another Republican senator, Jeff Flake, on Twitter called Trump’s words “shameful.”

“I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian ag-gression. This is shameful,” Flake wrote.

Trump also said that he holds both the United States and Russia responsible for years of strained relations, which he said he is now trying to improve.

Washington imposed sanctions on Mos-cow after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine as well as for cyber attacks on the American electoral process.

Republican Representative Justin Amash, an outspoken conservative, said on Twitter: “A person can be in favor of improving rela-tions with Russia, in favor of meeting with Putin, and still think something is not right here.”

Comments by former clerks may backfi re on Trump’s Supreme Court nomineeReuters Washington

When it became clear that President Donald Trump was seriously

considering nominating Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court, the conservative judge’s former law clerks swung into ac-tion as among his most energetic public cheerleaders.

But in making the case for him in the media on issues includ-ing his stance toward abortion, healthcare and an expansive view of religious liberty, they may have opened up lines of attack on Ka-vanaugh by Democrats and lib-eral advocacy groups seeking to

derail his nomination in the US Senate.

Trump named Kavanaugh, 53, on July 9 to replace retiring Jus-tice Anthony Kennedy.

Before he can assume the life-time job on the nine-member court, the Senate must vote to confi rm him.

No date has yet been set for the customary Judiciary Committee confi rmation hearings.

Kavanaugh has served for 12 years on an infl uential federal ap-peals court in Washington.

Several of the 48 lawyers who served as his clerks — a year-long job working for a judge, usually straight out of law school — ap-peared on cable TV shows, wrote opinion articles and spoke to re-

porters, often trying to shore up support among conservatives.

Their comments may have helped Kavanaugh’s cause before Trump nominated him by push-ing back on complaints by some conservatives that the judge would not lean far enough to the right on social issues like abor-tion as well as on a conservative legal challenge to the Obamacare healthcare law.

But the chief threat to Trump’s nominee now is the Democratic campaign to block Kavanaugh’s confi rmation in a Senate in which the president’s fellow Republi-cans hold a slim 51-49 majority.

Of the 48 clerks, 34 signed a letter calling for the Senate to confi rm his appointment.

Many secured prestigious Supreme Court clerkships af-ter working for Kavanaugh and subsequently landed jobs at law fi rms, law schools and in govern-ment.

One clerk, Sarah Pitlyk, wrote a piece for the conserva-tive National Review a week before the nomination was an-nounced in which she touted Kavanaugh’s “clear, consistent and rock solid record on the is-sues that matter most to social conservatives.”

Pitlyk, who could not be reached for comment, said that “no court of appeals judge in the nation has a stronger more con-sistent record” than Kavanaugh on “protecting religious liberty

and enforcing restrictions on abortion.”

Democrats have raised the possibility that the Supreme Court, with Trump’s appoint-ment of a second justice in Ka-vanaugh, could overturn the landmark 1973 ruling legalizing abortion nationwide.

Conservatives had advocated a broad view of religious liberty and free speech.

Another clerk, Justin Walker, wrote an article in another con-servative publication, The Fed-eralist, defending Kavanaugh against criticism from the right about a 2011 opinion he wrote concerning Democratic former President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law.

Walker talked up Kavanaugh’s conservative credentials on Fox News ahead of the nomination.

“He is a warrior with a back-bone of iron,” Walker told Fox, also calling Kavanaugh “a fi ghter for conservative legal principles” who would not “go wobbly” if appointed to the Supreme Court.

“I felt like his record was being misrepresented,” Walker said in an interview, adding that he was speaking only about Kavanaugh’s approach to the law, not his poli-tics.

Christopher Kang, who worked in the Obama White House and helped with the nominations of liberal Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Ka-gan, said he was surprised by

some of the comments by Ka-vanaugh’s clerks.

“I think that is really striking. We would not have used clerks to talk about a judge’s judicial philosophy,” said Kang, who now works for Demand Justice, a liberal group that opposes Ka-vanaugh’s nomination.

Supreme Court nominees rou-tinely try to avoid being pinned down during confi rmation hear-ings on how they would rule on given issues, especially contro-versial ones like abortion.

But some of the comments made by clerks, Kang said, will “make it harder” for Kavanaugh to fend off questions about whether he will rule conserva-tively on social issues.

‘Trump baby’ blimp could soon fly in New Jersey

The blimp portraying Donald Trump as a

snarling baby that flew over London last week

during the US president’s European tour could

soon be in New Jersey’s skies after activists

said they had raised enough money to bring it

to the United States.

Anti-Trump activists by mid-day yesterday

had raised more than $8,000 on GoFundMe.

com, more than the $4,500 they said they

had needed to get the diaper-wearing helium

balloon to Bedminster, New Jersey, home of

the Trump National Golf Club that the president

regularly visits.

Organizer Didier Jiminez-Castro said he hoped

the balloon would spur enthusiasm for Demo-

cratic candidates in November’s congressional

elections. “Baby Trump will give that punch, that

energy that we need for the midterms — it’s going

to get people out of the house,” Jiminez-Castro

said in a phone interview.

He told New Jersey media he expects the

blimp to be in Bedminster, a suburb about

56km west of New York City, by mid-August.

He urged donors to share extra funds with @

babytrumptour, which got requests for a blimp

visit from more than 300 US cities, including St

Louis and Austin, Texas.

On the GoFundMe page, Jiminez-Castro

said he sought to bring the blimp to the United

States because “he mention(ed) he does not feel

welcome with the Baby Trump in display and we

need to get under his skin as much as we can.”

During his first off icial visit to the United

Kingdom, Trump said he avoided London

due to the blimp and the tens of thousands of

protesters that took to the streets to decry his

policies. “I guess when they put out blimps to

make me feel unwelcome, no reason for me

to go to London,” the Sun newspaper quoted

Trump as saying.

Trump yesterday met Russian President

Vladimir Putin, capping a European visit in

which he criticised Nato allies’ military spending

and embarrassed British Prime Minister Theresa

May by saying she refused to take his advice

about Britain’s exit from the European Union.

It’s unclear whether Trump will actually see

the blimp since the Federal Aviation Admin-

istration places flight restrictions on airspace

over Bedminster whenever the president visits.

An FAA spokesman referred questions to the

US Secret Service. Secret Service off icials did

not respond to a request seeking comment.

Bedminster Township Administrator Judy

Sullivan said there are no local permits re-

quired to fly a blimp.

ACLU wants to bar govt from mass

deportations of reunited familiesBy Tom Hals, Reuters San Diego

The US government should be barred from quickly deport-ing immigrant parents who

are reunited with their children because doing so could violate the children’s rights to seek asylum, a rights group said yesterday.

The government is working to meet a court order to reunite by July 26 around 2,500 immigrant children who were separated by US immigration offi cials from their parents at the US-Mexican border.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the case that led to the reunifi cation order, said in court papers yesterday that im-migrant parents should be given a week after being reunited to decide if they want to be deported alone or as a family.

“A one-week stay is a reason-able and appropriate remedy to en-sure that the unimaginable trauma these families have suff ered does

not turn even worse because par-ents made an uninformed decision about the fate of their child,” the ACLU wrote in a fi ling with a San Diego federal court.

The ACLU has used the case to challenge a policy of President Donald Trump’s administration to separate families as part of a broader crackdown on illegal im-migration.

The president ordered the prac-tice stopped on June 20 after wide-spread public outcry.

Judge Dana Sabraw of the US District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego ordered on June 26 that children should be returned to their parents within specifi ed deadlines, and has been overseeing the process.

In its fi ling, the ACLU said par-ents must determine if their child should remain in the United States to pursue their own asylum claim, but that decision requires time to discuss with a lawyer or advocate for the child.

The rights group said it was act-

ing on “persistent and increasing rumours” of rapid deportations, which it said the US government has not denied.

The US Department of Home-land Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Many of the immigrants separat-ed from their children were seeking asylum after fl eeing violence and crime in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

Children were sent to multiple care facilities across the country, and their parents were incarcer-ated in immigration detention cen-tres or federal prisons — in keeping with the government’s “zero toler-ance” policy under which all adults crossing the border illegally would face prosecution.

Sabraw chastised the govern-ment on Friday for asserting that pressure from the court to expedite reunifi cations could put children at risk.

The US Department of Health and Human Services, which has custody of the children, has since

submitted a fuller plan for reunit-ing families by the deadline.

The government has said it has reunited all of the roughly 60 eli-gible children under 5 with their parents, although it failed to do so by the court-imposed deadline of July 6.

Attention has now turned to reuniting the much larger group of children, those aged 5 to 17.

A government plan fi led with the court on Sunday calls for the Health Department to move the children to eight locations operated by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in coming days, possibly requiring working round-the-clock, according to an opera-tion plan submitted to the judge.

ICE and the Offi ce of Refugee Resettlement will verify parentage and screen adults to weed out those with serious criminal backgrounds or other issues that could endanger children.

Once verifi cation is complete, parents and children will be reu-nited.

A group of women representing WaterAid’s NYC ‘Walk for Water’, make their way through midtown New York to show the daily lives of their peers in developing countries, by “walking for water” through the busy streets of New York. Each woman, is representing a country where many people do not have clean water close to home, and will carry a yellow bucket that holds 20 litres which is a typical amount of water carried by women in countries where access to water is an issue.

‘Walk for water’

ASIA11Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Australians in cave rescue given diplomatic immunityThailand gave diplomatic

immunity to three Aus-tralians who helped a

boys’ soccer team escape from a fl ooded cave, in case “some-thing went wrong”, its foreign minister said yesterday.

The 12 boys of the “Wild Boars” soccer team and their coach are recovering from their ordeal and are to be discharged on Thursday from a hospital in the northern town of Chiang Rai.

Dozens of foreign divers and rescue personnel joined the 17-day rescue that captivated people around the world.

But immunity was granted only to Australian doctor Rich-ard Harris and two medical as-sistants, said Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai.

“Doctor Richard Harris did his utmost on the medical mis-sion he was responsible for, but if something went wrong he needed protection,” he told Reuters.

“We provided this only to Dr Richard Harris and two medical assistants. Only to the Austral-ian medical team,” he said.

“We knew there were risks involved in this mission...so

there was an understanding reached between the Thai gov-ernment and the Australian government,” Don added.

“The Thai government would like to thank Dr Harris.”

A spokeswoman for Aus-tralia’s department of foreign aff airs and trade declined to comment.

The success was tinged with bitterness, however, as Har-ris learnt his father, Jim, died in Australia shortly after the three-day rescue was complet-ed last week.

Harris, an anaesthetist, went into the Tham Luang cave to as-sess the boys’ health and was one of the last rescuers out of the cave after the boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach were brought to safety.

There have been reports the boys were sedated for their trip out through narrow, fl ooded pas-sageways, though offi cials said only that some had been given medicine to calm their nerves.

The soccer team was explor-ing the cave on June 23 when monsoon rains trapped them deep inside the 10km (6-mile mile) cave complex.

Thai navy SEALs and an in-ternational team of cave-div-ing experts played a key role in bringing them to safety.

ReutersBangkok

Mourners attend the funeral of former Thai navy diver, Samarn Kunan, who died during the rescue mission for the 12 boys of the “Wild Boars” soccer team and their coach, near the Tham Luang cave complex, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, yesterday.

Thais have fl ooded social me-dia with grateful messages for mission participants, including Harris and the only casualty,

Samarn Kunan, 38, a former member of Thailand’s elite SEALs unit.

Samarn, who died after deliv-

ering oxygen tanks in the cave, was cremated on Saturday in a ceremony broadcast live on Thai television.

The boys wiped away tears as they signed a portrait of Sa-marn, in photographs released by the hospital on Sunday.

Last body in boat disaster retrieved

Thailand has recovered the last body after a boating accident killed dozens of

Chinese tourists this month off the southern resort island of Phuket.

The Phoenix was carrying 105 people - mostly Chinese - when it sank on the way back from a popular snorkelling spot on July 5.

Divers and the navy spent more than a week retrieving bodies, some from inside the boat, as out-raged relatives waited for news.

Phuket’s public relations de-partment said in a statement late Sunday that the “last body of the dead from the Phoenix boat ac-cident” was recovered that night.

“All missing found,” the state-ment added, putting the fi nal death toll at 47.

A minute’s silence was held for the victims at a ceremony attend-ed by the Chinese ambassador.

The Phoenix was among three vessels which ignored a bad weather warning against day trips to the islands around Phuket.

The disaster was one of the worst boating accidents in recent history in Thailand, which has a poor safety record despite being heavily reliant on tourism.

But it received little interna-tional attention compared to the dramatic rescue of 12 children and their football coach from a cave in northern Thailand.

The country last year re-ceived 35mn tourists of whom nearly 10mn were from China, government statistics show.

AFPPhuket

Truck kills 4 refugees

A truck overturned in a Bangladeshi refugee camp for Rohingya Muslims

from Myanmar yesterday, killing at least four refugees, three from the same family, police said.

The accident happened in Cox’s Bazar, next to Myan-mar, and one of the dead was a month-old baby, police said.

A truck carrying bamboo over-turned near the Balukhali camp, home to thousands of Rohingya.

Most Rohingya refugees live in shacks made of bamboo and plastic sheets that cling to steep, denuded hills in Cox’s Bazar. Their numbers have swelled since last August when an army operation in Myanmar, follow-ing Rohingya insurgents’ attacks on security forces, prompted an exodus to Bangladesh.

ReutersDhaka

Cave rescuer considering legal action against MuskAFPBangkok

A British caver who helped rescue 12 boys from a Thai cave said yesterday he may take legal action against Elon Musk after the entrepreneur called him a “pedo”.Tesla CEO Musk launched the extraordinary tirade against Vernon Unsworth without providing any justification or explanation, after the cave expert slammed his off er of a miniature submarine to extract the footballers from the Tham Luang cave as a “PR stunt”.The “Wild Boar” team were rescued last week by an international team of divers through a narrow network of twisting, flooded tunnels.Unsworth, who provided mapping knowledge of the cave to rescuers, said Musk’s prototype would have had

“absolutely no chance of working”.Musk responded on Sunday in a bizarre series of tweets referring to Unsworth, without using his name, as “pedo guy”. “Pedo” is short for paedophile.The entrepreneur doubled down on his claim, tweeting from his off icial account to more than 22mn followers: “Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true”. Musk later deleted the tweets and did not immediately respond to a request for comment through Tesla.Unsworth said yesterday he had not reviewed the tweets in full and had only heard about them.But asked if he would take legal action against Musk over the allegation, Unsworth said: “If it’s what I think it is yes.”The caver said he would make a decision when he flies back to the UK this week, but added that the

episode with Musk “ain’t finished”.Unsworth, who lives part of the year in Thailand, took part in the gargantuan 18-day eff ort to retrieve the 12 boys and their coach, a mission that ended on July 10 when the last five members were extracted.The boys are all in good health and expected to be released from the hospital Thursday.The boys got stuck in the cave after wandering in on June 23 after football practice only to find themselves trapped by rising floodwaters.They were found nine days later on a muddy embankment several kilometres inside.The unprecedented operation to haul them out involved sedating the footballers and swimming and carrying them through tight, waterlogged passages. Musk had proposed using “a tiny, kid-size submarine”

featuring technology from his space exploration firm to evacuate the boys, and travelled to Thailand with a prototype last Tuesday.Musk’s tweets attacking Unsworth prompted condemnation from those who took part in the mission to save the boys. Claus Rasmussen, a Danish national and instructor at Blue Label diving in Phuket, called the allegations “inappropriate” and praised Unsworth’s role in the rescue. “He was one of the driving forces in getting everything done and clarifying for us divers what was going on,” he said.Musk had earlier triggered controversy after tweeting that the Thai rescue chief, who had declined the submarine prototype off er, was not really in charge of the operation.“He’s just a PR stunt merchant – that’s all he is,” Unsworth said.

EU warns Sri Lanka over death penalty

EU ambassadors warned Sri Lanka yesterday against ending its 42-

year moratorium on capi-tal punishment and said the island risked losing trade concessions if it went ahead.

Last week President Maithripala Sirisena said re-peat drug off enders would be hanged as part of a new crackdown on narcotics.

“The diplomatic missions have requested the president to maintain the moratorium on the implementation of the death penalty and to uphold Sri Lanka’s tradition of oppo-sition to capital punishment,” the EU ambassadors said in a joint statement.

Police believe the Indian Ocean island is being used as a transit point by drug traffi ck-ers. More than a tonne of co-caine seized in recent years was destroyed by police in January.

The main Welikada prison said it was advertising this week for two hangmen to

carry out the fi rst execution in 42 years after refurbishing the gallows.

Diplomats said they ex-pected Sirisena to roll back the decision, but should the island go ahead it would lose prefer-ential access for its exports to the 28-member EU bloc.

“If Sri Lanka resumes capi-tal punishment, Colombo will immediately lose the GSP-Plus status,” an EU diplomatic source said.

EU diplomats have estimat-ed that Sri Lanka gains an es-timated 300mn euro ($350mn) advantage annually thanks to the GSP-Plus system.

Prison spokesman Thush-ara Upuldeniya said there were 373 convicts on death row in Sri Lanka, including 18 for serious drug crimes.

Death sentences are still handed down for crimes in-cluding murder, rape and drug-related crimes, but the last execution was in 1976.

Nearly 900 people are current-ly in prison after been sentenced to death, although many have had their sentences commuted to life or are appealing.

AFPColombo

EU warns of curbs against Maldives rights violators

The European Union could adopt sanctions ranging from travel bans to as-

set freezes against those in the Maldives responsible for hu-man rights violations and un-dermining the rule of law in the Indian Ocean island chain, the bloc warned yesterday.

There has been political up-heaval in the Maldives since February, when President Ab-dulla Yameen imposed a 45-day state of emergency to annul a Supreme Court ruling quashing the convictions of nine opposi-tion leaders, including the fi rst democratically elected leader, Mohamed Nasheed.

Yesterday’s decision was a direct follow-up to the Coun-cil’s conclusions of February 26 that urged Yameen’s govern-ment to engage with opposition leaders for credible, transpar-

ent and inclusive presidential elections, the European Union said.

“This decision makes it pos-sible, if the situation does not improve, to impose a travel ban and an asset freeze on relevant individuals and entities,” it said in a statement, without identi-fying any targets.

The situation did not accord with principles of democratic rule and separation of powers, it added, warning that targeted measures could be considered if the situation did not improve.

Maldives government of-fi cials did not immediately re-spond to telephone calls from Reuters to seek comment.

In Colombo, the British high commission said the United Kingdom was concerned over lack of judicial independence in Maldives and the govern-ment’s intention to reintroduce the death penalty after a ban of more than 60 years.

The move comes ahead of a

presidential election set for Sep-tember 23 at which Yameen will seek a second fi ve-year term.

The opposition has accused Yameen’s government of jailing its leaders who could challenge his re-election bid.

The government denies this.Already Nasheed has with-

drawn his candidacy in the presidential election after the national election commission ruled him ineligible to run.

The Maldives, home to 400,000 people and best known as a tropical paradise for tourists, has experienced political unrest since Nasheed was forced to quit amid a police mutiny in 2012.

Nasheed was convicted of terrorism charges in 2015 and sentenced to 13 years in prison after a controversial and widely criticised trial.

Allowed to leave the Maldives on medical grounds in 2016, he secured asylum in Britain and has lived in Sri Lanka since last year.

ReutersColombo

Nepal to host 4th BIMSTEC summit from August 30The 4th BIMSTEC Summit will be held in the Nepal capital on August 30 and 31, Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Aff airs said yesterday.“We have started preparations to ensure the success of the summit,” Nepal’s Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali told reporters. Nepal is the current chair of the BIMSTEC.“It is an important regional gathering in Kathmandu after the promulgation of the new Nepalese Constitution and formation of the new government in the Himalayan nation. The government attaches high importance to the summit, for which we have formed several committees,” he said. India is actively rooting for BIMSTEC as New Delhi has already hosted its leaders at the BRICS Outreach Summit in 2016 in Goa.The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Co-operation (BIMSTEC) has as members seven nations of South Asia and Southeast Asia - Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan, and Nepal.As per a decision of the 6th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting in Thailand in 2004, the summit should be held every two years, as far as possible. However, till date, summit meetings have been held only in 2004, 2008 and 2014.

Trial delayed for Australian fi lmmaker jailed in Cambodia

The trial of an Australian journalist and fi lmmaker jailed in Cambodia on

espionage charges for more than a year has been postponed for a month so that his new at-torney can prepare his defence, his son said yesterday.

Australian James Ricketson, 69, was detained in June 2017 while fl ying a drone over an opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) rally and charged with collecting information that may undermine national defence.

He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

The CNRP was dissolved by court order last year and has been banned from participat-ing in the country’s upcoming elections on July 29.

The political party’s presi-dent was detained in Septem-ber on widely criticised treason charges.

Ricketson’s newly hired at-torney, Kong Sam Onn, needed additional time to study some 1,400 pages of case fi les and build a defence strategy, Rick-

etson’s son, Jesse Ricketson, said yesterday.

His father remained in the medical ward of Prey Sar prison in the capital Phnom Penh with an undiagnosed chest com-plaint and other health condi-tions, Jesse Ricketson said.

In a letter published by the Khmer Times last week, James

Ricketson apologised to long-time Prime Minister Hun Sen for previous critical remarks, writing that he realised his past “disrespectful comments” about the government were “disruptive and ill-informed.”

The trial is scheduled to resume on August 16, attorney Peung Yok Hiep said.

DPAPhnom Penh

James Ricketson arrives in Phnom Penh court for his continuing trial yesterday.

AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA

Gulf TimesTuesday, July 17, 201812

Artist highlights water contamination in ChinaReutersBeijing

Chinese artist Brother Nut can point to some success from his Beijing exhibit

that used 10,000 bottles of yel-lowish water to raise awareness of contaminated rural ground water, although it did not go down so well with Beijing au-thorities.

The central government ac-knowledges that years of unbri-dled economic development has resulted in areas of the country with contaminated ground wa-ter.

While it has stepped up clean-up projects in recent years, envi-ronmental activists say aware-ness of the issue lags far behind that of air pollution, while en-forcement of quality standards is patchy.

“People have focused more on air pollution, because smog is easy to spot. But not much at-tention has been put on water,” said Brother Nut, who previous-ly drew attention to air pollution by making a brick from smog particles that he had collected with a vacuum cleaner.

He uses a pseudonym and says

he does not want to use his real name to “protect” himself.

So in June, he set out to change things.

He fi lled 10,000 bottles with water from the small county of Xiaohaotu in northwestern Shaanxi province and set up an

exhibition in a narrow lane in Beijing with shelves of the bot-tles to mimic a supermarket.

Xiaohaotu residents say the water is contaminated with pol-lutants. While that prompted the environmental bureau covering Xiaohaotu to launch an inves-

tigation and oil giant Sinopec to partly stop drilling in a gas fi eld residents say is the source of the contamination, Beijing authori-ties took a dim view of the art and confi scated most of the bot-tles.

They said Brother Nut had

broken trademark regulations by using bottles labelled with the popular Nongfu Spring brand.

When Brother Nut took the remaining bottles and his ex-hibit on the road, local offi cials pounced to confi scate them, saying he had parked illegally and was driving without a li-cence.

He even tried to organise a heavy metal concert in Xiaoha-otu on land he says was “deeply contaminated by heavy metals”, to raise awareness.

To avoid breaking laws pro-hibiting public gatherings, he planned for an audience of 200 sheep.

But he couldn’t fi nd a single sheep and suspects local offi cials had moved them elsewhere.

The legal department of Non-gfu, China’s largest bottled wa-ter company, declined to com-ment on the case.

There were no immediate an-swers to calls to Nongfu public relations offi ce, the Xiaohaotu government and the Beijing Ad-

ministration for Industry and Commerce.

Drawing attention to social issues has been a staple of Chi-na’s art scene since the 1980s, propelling activist-artists like Ai Weiwei to global stardom, al-though it has become less preva-lent in recent years as the Com-munist Party under President Xi Jinping has been increasingly intolerant of any form of dissent.

Residents of Xiaohaotu, where the average annual income is about 10,000 yuan ($1,497), have complained for years about local water pollution.

They say the ground water, used to farm and drink, was pol-luted by the Sinopec gas project launched in 2005.

Huabei oil-and-gas company, the Sinopec subsidiary in charge of the project, declined to com-ment and referred Reuters to an online statement announcing that drilling had been partly sus-pended pending the outcome of the environmental investigation.

The Xiaohaotu environmental bureau found that the local water contained levels of heavy metals, such as iron and manganese, that exceeded national standards by as much as 4.2 times.

Its investigation continues.

Fierce heatwave hits Japan fl ood recoveryAFPTokyo

A blistering heatwave smothered swathes of fl ood-hit western Japan

yesterday, hampering clean-up eff orts as survivors and relief workers toil in stifl ing tempera-tures a week after devastating inundations that killed more than 200 people.

Tens of thousands of rescue workers are still digging through the debris for bodies after Ja-pan’s worst weather-related disaster in over three decades, which saw record downpours spark fl ash fl ooding and land-slides across the region.

The toll of 219 is expected to continue to rise, with at least 21 still missing, while the punish-ing heatwave has pushed the thermometer above 35C and raised fears for vulnerable peo-ple. Some 4,700 survivors were forced to evacuate the disaster area, where homes were reduced to rubble by the fl oods and land-slides.

Many remain in shelters, while others have been left without water supply.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga warned survi-vors, volunteers and the 64,000

rescue workers in the disaster zone of the dangers of heat-stroke.

“We are operating in tough conditions, with a severe heat-wave in this region,” Koji Kuni-

tomi, a spokesman at the disas-ter management department in fl ood-hit Okayama prefecture, told AFP.

Sweltering summer weather has swept across Japan in re-

cent days, sending temperatures surging just days after the record rainfall.

The country’s meteorological agency has warned that the heat is “more severe” than normal,

with temperatures in Okayama hitting a high of 36.8C yesterday, compared to an average high of 31C in the city.

On Sunday, local media re-ported that three people had died and more than 2,000 were sent to hospital across the nation due to heatstroke.

Television footage of the relief eff orts in western Japan showed survivors and volunteers strug-gling to clear debris under the intense sun.

The body of one victim cov-ered in a blue tarpaulin was car-ried from a destroyed house in Aki, Hiroshima yesterday.

The scale of the toll from the fl oods has prompted questions about whether authorities were properly prepared and acted ef-fectively.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged support for survi-vors’ businesses, including to provide interest-free loans to farmers in the region.

“I want to take concrete meas-ures to help people in the disas-ter areas revive their livelihoods as quickly as possible,” Abe told his ministers and government offi cials in Tokyo.

The government has assessed agricultural losses of at least 48bn yen ($429mn), according to Suga.

Chinese performance artist “Brother Nut” is seen with bottled polluted groundwater from Xiaohaotu county, Yulin of Shaanxi province, next to a mini van, which is used for a roaming exhibition.

A pedestrian Yang Ziyi drinks a bottle of polluted groundwater from Xiaohaotu county, Yulin of Shaanxi province, at a roaming exhibition by Chinese performance artist “Brother Nut,” in Beijing 798 art area.

Submerged and destroyed houses are seen near the site where river banks were broken along Suemasa river in Mabi town in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture.

The damaged house of 51-year-old Kairyu Takahashi, an Okayama prefectural assemblyman, is seen in a flood aff ected area in Mabi town in Kurashiki, Japan.

Mob butchers hundreds of crocs in revenge attackAFP Sorong

A c l u b - a n d - m a c h e te wielding mob in Indo-nesia butchered nearly

300 crocodiles in an act of revenge after a local man was killed by one of the reptiles, authorities said yesterday.

Images from the scene showed dozens of dead croco-diles lying on top of each other and covered in blood after the attack at a breeding farm in Papua province.

The incident happened on Saturday following the funeral of the 48-year-old man who was killed after he entered an enclosure while looking for grass to feed his livestock, police and conservation offi cials said.

“One of the crocodile farm employees...heard someone screaming for help and ran to the scene where they saw a person being mauled by a crocodile,” said Basar Manul-lang, head of Indonesia’s Nat-ural Resources Conservation Agency in West Papua.

The man’s family and “hun-dreds” of other locals, angry over the farm’s location near

a residential area, marched to the police station where they were told the breeder would pay compensation, he added.

But the mob was not satis-fi ed and headed to the croco-dile farm armed with clubs, knives, machetes and shovels which they used to slaughter some 292 crocs, ranging from palm-sized babies to two-metre adults, authorities said.

Outnumbered police and conservation offi cials said they were unable to stop the grisly attack.

Criminal charges may be laid, they said.

“For now we are still ques-tioning the witnesses,” said district police chief Dewa Made Sidan Sutrahna.

The bloody incident high-lighted the dangers of tres-passing into a breeding farm and also raised concerns about its safety.

“They have to make sure that the farm has good barri-ers and they need to step up security with CCTV and se-curity signs to warn people” of the dangers, said Dwi Nugroho Adhiasto, programme manag-er at the World Conservation Society’s Indonesia offi ce.

Support for Turnbull hits two-year highReutersSydney

Support for Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is at a two-year

high, an opinion poll showed yesterday, a boost for the cen-tre-right government ahead of a series of by-elections at the end of July.

The last Newspoll before the July 28 by-elections showed Turnbull’s personal popular-

ity at 48%, its highest since the 2016 general election, and above opposition Labor leader Bill Shorten at 29%.

Turnbull’s popularity could help the government’s chances in the fi ve by-elections, one an-alyst said, despite Labor’s 51-49 lead over the governing centre-right Liberal-National coali-tion. “There will be some voters that vote on preferred leader. Turnbull will be pleased,” said Peter Chen, a political scientist at Sydney University.

Najib to refi le lawsuits against top investigators

ReutersKuala Lumpur

Former Malaysian pre-mier Najib Razak will fi le fresh civil suits against

three investigators of a multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB, after he withdrew his earlier applications against them yesterday.

Najib and his family have faced intense scrutiny since a shock defeat in a May election

by his former mentor-turned-foe, Mahathir Mohamed, who reopened an investigation into 1Malaysia Development Ber-had (1MDB) after becoming prime minister.

Najib’s initial suits came days before he was arrested and charged over suspicious transactions at SRC Interna-tional, a former unit of 1MDB.

Najib, who has consist-ently denied any wrongdo-ing regarding 1MDB and SRC, pleaded not guilty.

BRITAIN13Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Migration toBritain fromEU falls to afour-year lowGuardian News and MediaLondon

The number of people moving to the UK from EU countries has fallen to

the lowest level for four years, according to official figures.

Data from the Office for Na-tional Statistics released yes-terday showed net long-term migration to the UK from the EU was 101,000 in 2017 – the lowest level since the year end-ing March 2013.

The figures showed the gov-ernment remains a long way from meeting its “objective” to cut overall net migration to the tens of thousands.

But the continuing down-ward trend will also concern business leaders and employ-ers, who have claimed the drop in immigration is costing the economy billions of pounds a year.

Overall, the data showed about 280,000 more people came to the UK than left in 2017.

While net migration contin-ues to add to the UK popula-tion, the figure is down from record highs recorded in 2015 and early 2016.

There has been a gradual in-crease in emigration since 2015 to approximately 350,000. Im-migration has stayed stable at about 630,000, the report showed.

Net migration from countries outside the EU rose to 227,000, the highest level since Septem-ber 2010.

The figures also appeared to confirm reports from the fruit-picking industry and so-cial care employers that there has been a drop in the number of people applying to come to the UK from within the EU. The number of EU citizens moving to look for work was 37,000, a fall of 18,000 on the previous year and a continuing down-ward trend since June 2016.

The net migration figure of 282,000 in the year to De-

cember 2017 compared with 249,000 in year to the end of December 2016, the figures showed.

The number of non-EU citi-zens coming to the UK for work-related reasons was 87,000, up by 21,000 on the previous year, according to the data.

The target of reducing net migration to the tens of thou-sands was set by David Cam-eron at the beginning of the Conservative-Liberal Demo-crat coalition government in 2010, but the figure has never been met.

Sajid Javid, the home secre-tary, is thought to be reluctant to maintain a target that was set when Theresa May was in charge of the Home Office.

In January, the home affairs select committee urged the government to drop the target on the grounds that failing to meet it “undermines” public trust. MPs on the committee also said fears about the scale of illegal immigration have grown because of a lack of official data.

Appearing before the com-mittee last week, Javid did not endorse the figures. Asked whether the immigration target was a “massive chain around your neck” and whether he wanted to ditch it, the home secretary smiled and replied: “Next question”.

The thinktank Global Britain claimed last week that the fall in immigration is already cost-ing the UK more than £1bn a year.

Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, said: “As this data shows, the government’s net migration target is utterly misconceived. It has never been met and the government’s most recent efforts to meet it led to the Windrush scandal, and de-porting our own citizens.

“Like the ‘hostile environ-ment’, it’s clear to almost eve-ryone except Theresa May that the net migration target should go.”

May bows to Brexit pressure in parliamentReutersLondon

Prime Minister Theresa May bowed to pressure from Brexit supporters in

her Conservative Party yester-day, accepting their changes to a customs bill that underpins Britain’s departure from the Eu-ropean Union.

May, vulnerable in parliament after losing her party’s major-ity at an ill-judged election last year, has come under fi re from both wings of her party over a hard-won Brexit plan, with one ex-minister calling it the “worst of all worlds”.

Eurosceptic lawmakers had

targeted her government’s customs legislation to try to toughen up her plans to leave the EU, but instead of facing them down and fuelling tensions, her spokesman said the government would accept their four amend-ments.

It was not clear the move would fundamentally change her plans — the changes do little more than to put government policy into law, her spokesman said — but it was a victory of sorts for those law-makers who say May has betrayed them on Brexit, the biggest shift in British trade and foreign policy for decades.

However, by hardening the language to emphasise that the future collection of duties and

taxes by Britain and the EU is on a reciprocal basis, Brexit sup-porters may have made May’s plan less sellable to the bloc.

May denied a suggestion in parliament that her Brexit plan was dead, and her spokesman said the decision to accept those amendments were “consistent” with the white paper policy doc-ument ministers agreed earlier this month.

“We’ve accepted the amend-ments because we believe they are consistent with the approach that we set out, and in a number of cases it reinforces some of the messages that came in the white paper,” the spokesman told re-porters.

Where the government might

struggle is explaining its accept-ance of the demand that the EU must collect tariff s on Britain’s behalf, if London is to do the same.

The spokesman said that was met by the government’s pursuit of “a mechanism for the remit-tance of relevant tariff revenues”. But one expert, Anand Menon, professor of European politics and foreign aff airs at King’s Col-lege London, said the relation-ship could never be reciprocal.

“There is no way a govern-ment white paper can stipulate that 27 other countries are go-ing to collect our tariff s for us. It makes no sense,” he said.

The battle over the amend-ments to the Taxation (Cross-

border Trade) Bill, or customs bill, is unlikely to be the last that May and her team will have to face. May had to fi ght hard to get the agreement of Cabinet min-isters at her Chequers country residence earlier this month for her vision for Britain’s future ties with the EU.

It was then undermined by the resignations of her Brexit minister David Davis and foreign secretary Boris Johnson.

The plan, only a starting point for the second phase of talks with the EU, has come under fi re from other eurosceptic law-makers, who say the proposal to keep close customs ties to the EU betrays her commitment for a clean break with the bloc.

Wimbledon cleaningstaff ‘take food from bins’Guardian News and MediaLondon

Cleaning staff at Wim-bledon claim they were forced to take food from

bins because they were given in-suffi cient money by the All Eng-land Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) to buy lunch and dinner while working.

The staff said they also had to crouch in corridors during their breaks, due to a lack of offi cial break areas and insuffi cient time for breaks during the tourna-ment, which fi nished on Sunday.

Some housekeepers, who are employed by LSS, a subsidiary of Compass, claim that AELTC pro-vides insuffi cient money on their accreditation for food during their daily shifts, which regularly last 15 hours.

Compass employs about 1,800 people at Wimbledon. It oper-ates in 50 countries and also sup-plies catering services to venues as diverse as oil rigs and school canteens. Last week the Guard-

ian revealed how Wimbledon catering workers are paid the day rate for working night shifts, and earn well below the London liv-ing wage.

A housekeeper who has worked at Wimbledon for three years said: “In the last article about FMC, a subsidiary of Compass, the AELTC statement suggested that they meet with companies to discuss pay. The indication we’ve got seems to be the oppo-site. The AELTC themselves de-cide certain aspects such as who gets how much money on their accreditation to buy food.

“Cleaning staff who regu-larly work 15 hours a day receive £11.50 (for food) and get a one-hour break a day. This is utterly insuffi cient and insulting espe-cially while many staff working shorter hours and much less tax-ing jobs are receiving up to £30.”

Housekeepers usually start the day at 8am. They will be given an hour-long lunch break some time between midday and 3pm, during which they can spend the money accredited to them by

AELTC. They are given no din-ner, and no break until they fi nish at about 10pm.

“Many of us have been re-luctant to complain as we know the blame will be passed on to a contractor in order to fi nd a scapegoat, but the problem is in-grained within the AELTC,” add-ed a group of three housekeepers who have worked at Wimbledon for the past two years.

“The club demands that housekeeping staff be seen and not heard. All other companies seem to have offi cial break areas while cleaning staff , who are all just students, are left crouching in corridors behind bins. When staff do fi nd somewhere to have a break, facilities management from the club are swiftly on the scene to move them on like a pack of rats.”

Another housekeeper com-mented: “It’s not uncommon for us to rely on chefs who are about to throw away food to give us something in the evening. I’ve seen people pick packets of sushi out of bins when it gets really late into a shift.”

Two tarantulas ‘on theloose’ in DerbyshireGuardian News and MediaLondon

Two tarantulas may be on the loose in a village after three of their babies were

found abandoned in a car park.The RSPCA said it had rescued

the baby Brazilian bird-eating spiders after they were found discarded in pots in Derbyshire.

Inspectors said the contain-ers were run over by a vehicle in the village of Somercotes but the driver believes he saw two “larg-er spiders” possibly the parents – scuttling away.

The tarantula is thought to be the Brazilian salmon pink bird-eater, one of the world’s largest of the species with a leg span of up to 25cm.

The spiders are partially pink and usually live on the forest fl oor in Brazil and eat insects, lizards, mice and the occasional small bird.

Experts said the missing ta-rantulas may not survive long in English weather. Yet the unsea-sonably warm climate has led to concerns they may roam for longer than expected.

Kristy Ludlam, an RSPCA in-spector, said an “understandably shaken” woman had found the baby spiders in Bateman’s Yard livery stable’s car park in Somercotes last Thursday and contacted the RSPCA as she is terrifi ed of them.

“It appears someone ran over two of the pots and the driver told the woman who called us he thought he saw two larger spi-ders. No bodies were found, so it is assumed they may have es-caped,” she said.

“We collected all the pots and took them to a specialist who found three baby arachnids in them, which he believes are bird-eating spiders – when he opened one pot a spider ran up his arm.

“He is keeping all the pots warm and secure as there is a possibility more eggs may hatch.”

It is an off ence under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act to release or allow any non-native species to escape into the wild.

The rescued spiders have been taken to Arnold and Carlton vet-erinary centre in Nottingham where they will be cared for until they are ready to be rehomed, the RSPCA said.

Queen Elizabeth stands with The King and Queen of the Belgians, Philippe of Belgium and Queen Mathilde, in the grand corridor during their visit to Windsor Castle yesterday.

The government yesterday announced plans for its first spaceport on a remote peninsula in north-west-ern Scotland as part of a major redevelopment of its space industry. The government said it will invest £2.5mn in a vertical launch spaceport for rockets and satellites in Scotland’s sparsely populated Suth-erland county. It will invest another £2mn in three horizontal launch sites, saying it saw a potential benefit to the economy of some £3.8bn over the next decade from the new space sites. “As a nation of innovators and entrepreneurs, we want Britain to be the first place in mainland Europe to launch satellites as part of our modern industrial strategy,” Business Secretary Greg Clark said.

A protester accused of flying a paraglider into a no-fly zone set up to protect Donald Trump while he visited his Scottish golf course has been released from custody. The man was arrested and charged on Sunday after allegedly piloting the paraglider in front of the Trump Turnberry hotel on Friday, trailing a banner reading: “Trump: well below par.” Police Scotland said the incident was being treated as a breach of the air exclusion zone in place for the US president’s two-night stay. The 55-year-old man had been due to appear at Ayr sheriff court yesterday. But the Crown Off ice, which runs Scotland’s prosecu-tion service, said he had instead been released pending further investigation.

After resigning as foreign minister last week over Prime Minister Theresa May’s compromise plan for Brexit, Boris Johnson is back at his old job as a columnist at the eurosceptic Daily Tel-egraph newspaper. “He’s Back,” the paper said on its front page yesterday. Johnson was named foreign minister in July 2016 after playing a leading role in the Brexit referendum campaign. He was forced to give up his regular columns, which a spokesman said were “inappropriate” for his new role. When he gave up the newspa-per job he also had to renounce the salary of £275,000 that went with it for a more modest ministerial income of £143,789.

Richard Bacon has said he thought his life was about to end and paid tribute to the NHS after waking from a medically induced coma. The television and radio presenter was taken to hospital 11 days ago after falling ill on a flight to Britain from the US. He said yesterday the con-dition, initially diagnosed as pneumonia in both lungs, was now being treated as an unidentified double chest infection. Describing his ordeal, Bacon said on Twitter that he had nearly died and added: “At one point I thought, this is it.” He said that thanks to the NHS’s work he would be present for the health service’s 100th birthday in 30 years’ time.

Spaceport to be developedin remote area of Scotland

Man arrested over Trumpparaglider protest freed

Johnson returns as Telegraph columnist

TV presenter pays tributeto NHS after health ordeal

OFFICIAL PLANDECISION PEOPLE HEALTHCARE

Off icials record and examine cygnets and swans during the annual census of the Queen’s swans, known as ‘Swan Upping’, along the River Thames near Chertsey, Britain, yesterday.

‘Swan Upping’

Passengers wait at Southgate Underground Station, temporarily renamed as ‘Gareth Southgate’ in honour of England soccer team manager Gareth Southgate, in London yesterday.

Tube station renamed

EUROPE

Gulf Times Tuesday, July 17, 201814

Standing side-by-side with Vladimir Putin yester-day, US President Donald

Trump refused to blame the Rus-sian leader for meddling in the 2016 elections, casting doubt on the fi ndings of his own intel-ligence agencies and sparking a storm of criticism at home.

On a day when he faced pres-sure from critics, allied countries and even his own staff to take a tough line, Trump said not a single critical word about Mos-cow on any of the issues that have brought relations between the two powers to the lowest ebb since the Cold War.

Instead, he denounced the “stupidity” of his own country’s policy, especially the decision to investigate election interference following the fi ndings of US in-telligence agencies.

A prosecutor announced an indictment three days ago of Russian spies for hacking into Democratic Party networks.

Trump’s performance at a joint news conference in Helsinki stirred a wave of condemna-tion in the United States, where the White House has struggled for months to dispel a sugges-tion that Trump was unwilling to stand up to Putin.

His performance was de-nounced as “treasonous” by a former US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief and con-demned as “shameful” by a Re-publican senator, although some other Republicans were more cautious.

Asked if he believed US intel-ligence agencies, which conclud-

ed that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help him defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, he said he was not con-vinced.

“I don’t see any reason why it would be” Russia, Trump said. “President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

In one response, the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, a Trump nominee approved by Congress, said in a statement: “We have been clear in our as-sessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their on-going, pervasive eff orts to under-mine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in sup-port of our national security.”

Before the summit even began, Trump blamed his own country for the deterioration in relations.

“Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of US foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” he said on Twitter.

The Russian foreign ministry tweeted back: “We agree”.

At the news conference, Trump was invited by reporters to off er any criticism of Russia but he repeatedly declined.

Asked if Russia was at all to blame for the poor ties, the US president said: “I hold both countries responsible.”

“I think the US has been fool-ish. We’ve all been foolish,” he said, before veering into discus-sion about his election victory. “I beat Hillary Clinton easily and frankly we beat her ... we won that race and it’s a shame that there can be even a little bit of a cloud over it.”

Trump’s warm words for Rus-sia were a marked contrast from the past week when he repeatedly rebuked traditional US allies at a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) and during a visit to Britain.

Asked if Putin was an adver-sary, he said: “Actually I called him a competitor and a good competitor he is and I think the

word competitor is a compli-ment.”

Putin spoke of the importance of the two countries working to-gether and praised Trump, at one point interrupting the news con-ference to give the US president a soccer ball.

Asked whether he had wanted Trump to win the 2016 election and had instructed offi cials to help him, Putin said “Yes I did”, although he denied any interfer-ence, saying the allegations were “complete nonsense”.

The summit caps a trip abroad during which Trump accused Nato allies of failing to spend enough on their militaries and embarrassed British Prime Min-ister Theresa May by saying that she refused to take his advice about how to negotiate Britain’s exit from the EU.

He referred to the European Union itself as a “foe” in trade and repeatedly criticised it.

EU President Donald Tusk suggested that the US president was “spreading fake news” by

calling Europe a US foe.“America and the EU are best

friends. Whoever says we are foes is spreading fake news,” Tusk tweeted late on Sunday during an EU-China summit in Beijing, without naming Trump directly.

Trump often uses the term “fake news” when he disagrees with news reports.

“Europe and China, America and Russia, today in Beijing and in Helsinki, are jointly responsi-ble for improving the world or-der, not for destroying it,” Tusk said in a separate tweet.

“I hope this message reaches Helsinki,” the former Polish pre-mier added.

Tusk echoed broader fears that Trump is tearing down the post-World War II order in which the United States built a system of alliances and rules to advance peace and prosperity.

In the run-up to last week’s Nato summit in Brussels, Tusk delivered a blunt message to Trump to stop criticising Euro-pean allies.

“The US doesn’t have and won’t have a better ally than the EU. We spend on defence much more than Russia and as much as China,” Tusk said. “Dear Ameri-ca, appreciate your allies, after all you don’t have that many.”

And in some of the strongest words yet refl ecting the unease of Washington’s traditional allies, Germany’s foreign minister said yesterday that Europe could no longer rely on the United States.

“To maintain our partnership with the USA we must readjust it,” Heiko Maas told the Funke newspaper group. “The fi rst clear consequence can only be that we need to align ourselves even more closely in Europe.”

Trump backs Putin against US fi ndingsReuters/AFPHelsinki

Trump and Putin at the Helsinki summit.

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has proposed an

anti-terrorism bill in parlia-ment as the state of emergency, in place for two years after a failed coup, ends on July 18.

Ahead of the June 24 presi-dential and parliamentary elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said that his fi rst task if he won re-elec-tion would be to lift emergency rule.

It was imposed days after the July 15, 2016, coup attempt by a faction of the military.

It has been extended seven times, each for periods of three months.

The current extension ex-pires at 1am on July 19 (2200 GMT on July 18).

“The state of emergency is being lifted. I repeat: The state of emergency will be removed from the agenda of Turkey on July 18,” said Bulent Turan, an AKP deputy leader.

The 28-article draft bill is based on international and Eu-ropean laws, he said, adding that it was given to opposition parties before being submitted to parliament.

Turan said there were two options: either parliament passes the bill this week, or within 15 days.

“May we never again be forced once more into such a constitutional system as the state of emergency,” Turan said.

The state of emergency led to a crackdown on government critics and opposition media.

More than 70,000 people have been arrested in connec-tion with the coup attempt,

and more than 110,000 people have been purged from the civil service and military, according to state media.

While the AKP did not se-cure a parliamentary major-ity on its own following the June elections, it has done so through its alliance with the far-right Nationalist Move-ment Party (MHP).

Turan said: “With the sup-port of the opposition, we want this bill to be legalised as soon as possible and to continue our fi ght against terrorism, in the absence of a state of emergen-cy, without any problems.”

Before the elections, Erdog-an had warned that emergency rule could be reintroduced at any time if the threat of terror-ism re-emerges.

Erdogan is now both the head of state and government after Turkey’s radical switch to an executive presidency from a parliamentary model.

He has vastly expanded powers, including over the ju-diciary and the ability to rule by decree.

Ankara blames US-based Islamic cleric and one-time Erdogan ally Fethullah Gulen for orchestrating the coup at-tempt.

Gulen denies involvement.Earlier yesterday, Justice

Minister Abdulhamit Gul said that Turkey would keep up the pressure on Gulen’s move-ment.

Last week, Erdogan spokes-man Ibrahim Kalin said after the fi rst meeting of the new cabinet that “nobody should be concerned that it [the fi ght against terrorism] will be weakened,” stopped or slowed down, adding that after emer-gency rule is lifted, the battle would continue using anti-terrorism laws.

Turkey’s ruling party proposes anti-terror lawDPAIstanbul

An Istanbul court has ac-quitted one of Turkey’s most prominent politi-

cal journalists in a long-run-ning case on espionage charges dating back to an arms inter-ception on the Syrian border in 2014.

Erdem Gul, the Ankara bu-reau chief of the opposition Cumhuriyet daily, was acquit-ted by the Istanbul criminal court, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Gul had in May 2016 been sentenced to fi ve years in jail and his then editor-in-chief Can Dundar to fi ve years and 10 months for revealing state se-crets over their front page story which alleged Turkish secret services sought to deliver arms to Syria rebels.

Despite spending time in pre-trial detention, neither was sent to jail and both walked free pending appeal.

But in a hugely complex process, Turkey’s top ap-peals court in March quashed both convictions, saying that Gul should be acquitted but Dundar given a stiff er sentence of up to 20 years.

A retrial then commenced.The cases of Gul and Dundar

have now been separated and Dundar remains on trial.

Gul is still working in his job

for Cumhuriyet but Dundar left Turkey for Germany shortly after the initial verdict, saying that he refused to put his head “under the guillotine”.

Cumhuriyet’s report on a shipment of arms intercepted at the Syrian border in January 2014 sparked a furore when it was published, fuelling specu-lation about Turkey’s role in the Syrian confl ict and its al-leged ties to Islamist groups.

President Recep Tayyip Er-dogan had reacted furiously to the allegations, personally warning Dundar that he would “pay a heavy price”.

He has accused Fethullah Gulen, the US-based preacher blamed by Turkey for the 2016 failed coup, of instigating the scandal to discredit his gov-ernment.

It was the fi rst in a number of high profi le criminal cas-es against journalists which multiplied after the failed July 2016 coup against Erdogan and amplifi ed concerns over press freedoms in the country.

In a separate case, 13 journal-ists and staff from Cumhuriyet were given jail sentences of up to seven-and-a-half years in late April on terror-linked charges, which critics said was punishment for the paper’s anti-Erdogan stance.

They are all however still free pending appeal.

Gul remains on trial in an-other separate case.

Journalist acquitted in ‘espionage’ caseAFPIstanbul

The European Union should send back to Libya all migrants rescued in the

central Mediterranean, Italy’s hardline Interior Minister Mat-teo Salvini said yesterday, after a new batch of arrivals in Pozzallo, Sicily.

A total of 447 people were dis-embarked, Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the Interna-tional Organisation for Migration (IOM), told DPA.

This was after Italy’s govern-ment got other European Union nations to agree to take in some of them.

Sharing the burden of the ar-rivals “is a fi rst signifi cant step forward, but the solution is not sharing among European coun-tries, but blocking [migrant] de-partures,” Salvini said in a press conference during a visit to Mos-cow.

“[We should] save, rescue, treat, feed and return [migrants] to where they came from, one by one [...] the European Union must convince itself that it is the only solution to get out of this tunnel,” he added.

“The objective is to change the rules and make Libyan ports safe ports,” Salvini said, calling for an end to a long-standing policy of considering the confl ict-ridden north African nation too danger-

ous for migrants’ well-being.According to the United Na-

tions, migrants in Libya face ar-bitrary detention in substandard conditions in offi cial detention centres, and torture, extortion, forced labour and unlawful kill-ing in unoffi cial facilities run by traffi ckers.

In Brussels, European Com-mission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud rowed back against Sal-vini’s idea.

“No European operation and no European vessel carries out disembarkation in Libya. This is because we do not consider it to be a safe country,” she said.

The migrants who arrived in Pozzallo spent time in an unof-fi cial Libyan detention camp and many suff er from malnutrition and scabies, Di Giacomo said.

They set off from the Libyan port of Zuwarah on July 11, he added.

They were picked up on Sat-urday, after they ran out of food and water, by a British vessel de-ployed in a mission by EU border agency Frontex and by a boat of the Guardia di Finanza, Italy’s customs police.

A day before the rescue, some 30 migrants jumped off their overcrowded ship in the hope of reaching a boat spotted in the distance, and four drowned, ac-cording to survivors interviewed by IOM staff .

One victim was a minor, di Gi-acomo said.

On Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte wrote on Twitter and Facebook that France, Malta, Germany, Spain and Portugal had each agreed to host 50 of the migrants.

Ireland should take an addi-tional 20, an Italian government source added yesterday.

The sharing agreement is a positive development but “ad hoc solutions such as this cannot be sustainable in the long term”, European Commission spokes-man Margaritis Schinas said in Brussels, urging EU states to reach more solid agreements.

Migration has become one of the most intractable issues for EU governments, even if fi gures show that asylum requests and sea arrivals have fallen signifi -

cantly from peak fi gures reached in 2015-2016.

Italy has a new populist ad-ministration which is leading a crusade against migrant arrivals.

One of its fi rst decisions has been to prevent charity-run ships from taking migrants res-

cued at sea to Italian ports.Non-governmental organisa-

tions say that this strategy is re-sponsible for a reported increase in deaths at sea, as the fate of mi-grants is increasingly left in the hands of a poorly-equipped, EU-funded, Libyan coastguard.

EU must return all migrants to Libya, says Italy ministerDPARome

A board reading ‘A gift to the nation: Salvini on an inflatable boat’ is seen during a pro-migrant demonstration on Saturday in Ventimiglia, northern Italy, close to the French border.

Salvini: The solution is not sharing (of migrants) among European countries, but blocking (migrant) departures.

Workers in Spain, Ger-many and Poland plan to walk off the

job today as online retailing gi-ant Amazon carries out its major summer sales event called Prime Day.

The walkout at the Amazon packing and distribution cen-tre in San Fernando de Henares,

near Madrid, kicked off yester-day and was scheduled to last through tomorrow.

The strike is part of a move-ment launched in March to ob-tain an increase in wages, which have not risen since 2016 at the largest Amazon logistics centre in Spain.

Ana Berceruelo of the CCOO union said that about 80% of workers at the site joined the walkout yesterday.

Meanwhile, the German trade

union Verdi said that employees in German and Poland would also be striking to protest against their working conditions, which includes long periods of stand-ing, walking long distances and repetitive tasks.

Verdi did not specify how many people it expected to par-ticipate in the strikes.

Verdi has been demanding a collective wage agreement for Amazon’s 16,000 workers across Germany since 2013, but the re-

tail giant has refused to engage with the union on the issue.

An Amazon spokeswoman said it was possible to be a fair and responsible employer with-out off ering a collective wage agreement.

The strikes are focused on health policy.

“The message is clear: The online giant is getting rich at the expense of the health of its staff ,” said Verdi spokeswoman Stefanie Nutzenberger.

Prime Day, a 36-hour sale which began yesterday, is a ma-jor money-spinner for the com-pany.

In Germany, warehouse work-ers are planning walkouts to-day in the cities of Leipzig and Koblenz, as well as the towns of Bad Hersfeld in Hesse, Graben in Bavaria, and Rheinberg and Werne in North Rhine West-phalia.

Amazon said it expected only a fraction of its 12,000 workers

in Germany to join the strike, and that there would be no im-pact on Prime Day deliveries.

It also said Amazon fulfi lment centre jobs off ered competitive pay and comprehensive benefi ts from the fi rst day of employ-ment.

Permanent staff earn €12.22 ($14.31) an hour or more after two years.

Germany is Amazon’s second largest national market after the United States.

Strikes in Europe on Amazon’s Prime DayAFP/DPA/ReutersMadrid

Probe call made against ex-king

Spain’s former king Juan Carlos is in the spotlight after his former mistress claimed he was involved in money laundering, sparking calls for an investigation.The scandal broke after two Spanish websites published recordings attributed to Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein in which she alleges Juan Carlos tried to hide money transfers and used her name to buy property in Monaco and Morocco.In the recordings, she claims he also pocketed money from a high-speed train contract with Saudi Arabia.

15Gulf TimesTuesday, July 17, 2018

INDIA

Checks on charity’scare homes orderedReutersNew Delhi

The government has in-structed all state gov-ernments to conduct

an immediate inspection of all childcare homes run by the Missionaries of Charity, a Ro-man Catholic order founded by the late Mother Teresa, amid concerns over baby traffi cking.

Earlier this month authori-ties shut down a home run by the order in eastern Jharkhand that provides shelter for preg-nant, unmarried women after a nun and a worker there were arrested for baby traffi cking.

Women and Child Develop-ment Minister Maneka Gandhi said in a statement yesterday she had also instructed states to ensure that all childcare insti-tutions be registered and linked to the federal adoption author-ity within the next one month.

“Taking cognizance of the recent cases of illegal adop-tions carried out by Mission-aries of Charity in Jharkhand, Maneka has instructed the states to get childcare homes

run by Missionaries of Charity all over the country inspected immediately,” the ministry said in the statement.

Missionaries of Charity spokeswoman Sunita Kumar could not provide an immedi-ate comment.

There has been a number of reports of babies and children being traffi cked through char-ity-run homes and hospitals in India, which campaigners say is driven by a long waiting list for adoption.

The Missionaries of Charity stopped organising adoptions in India in 2015 saying they disagreed with government rules that made it easier for single, divorced, and separated people to adopt children.

The ministry said under the Juvenile Justice Act which came into eff ect more than two years ago it was mandatory for every shelter home dealing with children and their adop-tion to register and also link the organisation to the Central Adoption Resource Author-ity (CARA). However, about 4,000 institutions are yet to be linked, the ministry said.

Maharashtra faces milkshortage as farmers strikeIANSMumbai

Thousands of milk farm-ers across Maharashtra launched an agitation for

their various demands early yes-terday, hitting supply of fresh milk across big and small cities in the state.

Scores of milk tankers bound for major cities including Mum-bai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik and others were blocked in diff er-ent parts of the state, raising the spectre of milk shortage.

As the agitation continued, around a dozen milk tankers each from Nashik and Kolhapur were dispatched for Mumbai un-der armed police escorts, while the opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party and others threw their weight behind the agitators.

The farmers’ groups, led by Swabhimani Shetkari Sang-hatana (SSS) and Maharashtra Kisan Sabha (MKS), are de-manding a subsidy of Rs5 per li-tre of milk, waiver of goods and

services tax (GST) on butter and milk powder among others.

Tankers laden with lakhs of litres of milk were waylaid and emptied on the roads in Pune, Nashik, Kolhapur, Sangli, Beed, Palghar, Buldana, Washim, Au-rangabad and Solapur, while at least one tanker was torched near Amravati en route to the cities, which are totally dependent on supplies from the rural areas.

The state government has warned the protesters of strict action.

At some places, top leaders like SSS president and MP Raju Shetti and MKS president Ajit Nawale took to the streets to block the milk tankers while sev-eral big and small milk co-oper-atives announced support to the farmers’ agitation.

“The state government has fi xed the procurement price of Rs27 per litre but the farmers get barely Rs17 per litre. We are de-manding a direct subsidy of Rs5 per litre to the farmers, as provid-ed in Goa, Karnataka and Kerala.

“With a drop in the rates of skimmed milk powder, even the

milk co-operatives are facing a tough time,” Shetti told the media.

Nawale said the government’s announcement of Rs50 per kg subsidy for milk powder may not benefi t the farmers since the prices of milk powder have come down in the international mar-ket, but would be a boon to pri-vate companies which convert milk into powder.

As the issue was taken up in the Maharashtra legislature in Nagpur, Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development Minister Mahadev Jankar assured that the cities would not suff er any milk shortages.

He said that Mumbai, which requires over 7mn litres of fresh milk daily, has adequate stocks for 15 days. Most urban centres together account for over 10mn litres, with Pune and surround-ings needing 1.3mn daily.

“We are trying to resolve the issue. If anybody attempts to break the law, they will be dealt with sternly,” Jankar warned the farmers, and later said the gov-ernment was prepared to give Rs3 per litre subsidy.

Congressprotests as BJPvandalisesTharoor’s offi ceBy Ashraf PadannaThiruvananthapuram

Activists of Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party

(BJP) vandalised the offi ce of Congress MP Dr Shashi Tha-roor here yesterday. They poured burnt motor oil all over the premises and erected a ‘Pakistan Offi ce’ banner in re-action to Tharooor’s remarks that the BJP was trying to turn the country into a ‘Hindu Pa-kistan’.

Though the police were present at the location they did not try to stop the vandals or take them into custody.

Dr Tharoor disclosed that the “BJP vandals” had poured oil all over the sign boards, doors, walls and gate of the property. They also drove away citizens waiting to meet Tha-roor with their petitions and shouted slogans asking him to go to Pakistan.

Tharoor was not at his offi ce at the time of the attack.

“We have all been warned. The BJP’s answer to the simple question ‘have you given up the dream of a Hindu Rashtra’ is apparently vandalism and violence,” Tharoor said. “That is the face they have shown in Thiruvananthapuram today. Most Hindus will say these Sanghi (the BJP and its affi li-ates) thugs do not represent us.”

The former UN undersec-retary general and author of 17 books had last week warned that the BJP would rewrite the constitution if it returned to power in next year’s national elections.

He later clarifi ed there was nothing new in his statement and he had been holding this view for a long time now. Tha-roor also tweeted similar com-ments he made fi ve years ago.

“Our democratic constitu-tion as we understand it will not survive as the BJP will have

all the elements they need to tear apart the Constitution of India and write a new one,” Tharoor had said while deliv-ering a lecture on “challenges before democracy and secu-larism.”

“The new constitution will be one which will enshrine principles of Hindu Rash-tra, that will remove equality for minorities, that’ll create a ‘Hindu Pakistan’, and that isn’t what Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and great heroes of the freedom struggle had fought for,” Tharoor said.

Congress leaders, including M M Hassan, state unit presi-dent, and opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, rushed to Tharoor’s offi ce on hearing of BJP’s vandalism.

“Tharoor was only doing his duty in cautioning people as their representative on the dangers of returning Modi to power,” Chennithala said while protesting against the police inaction. “The Congress party is united in supporting Tharoor in this matter. This is what’s in store for freedom of movement and free speech if the BJP re-turns to power with a majority,” Chennithala warned.

Currently, the BJP lacks a majority in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, to amend the constitution. However, it controls a vast majority of states that elects its members on the retirement of MPs on rotation.

Suhaib Moulavi, the imam of the city’s Palayam Mosque, also condemned the attack on the people’s representa-tive and asked the state gov-ernment to take stern action against the attackers.

“Secular India needs to fear as long as the Sangh does not withdraw its agenda for a Hindu nation,” he said in a statement. “Tharoor was only sharing this anxiety on the fu-ture of India.”

BJP supporters stand next to a damaged tent, which collapsed during a public meeting addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a college ground in Midnapore yesterday.

Modi attacks Mamatagovt at W Bengal rallyIANSMidnapore (West Bengal)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday hailed his government for raising

the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) of crops, while lam-basting West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee regime for “forming a nexus with syndicates” and murdering Dalit political activ-ists, even as 90 people sustained injuries following a canopy col-lapse at a BJP rally here.

Indicating that the govern-ment’s recent measures to woo the farmers would be a major campaign issue in coming state assembly and Lok Sabha polls, he blamed previous govern-ments for failing to hike the MSP of crops despite farmers’ demands and expert panels’ rec-ommendations.

“The demand for raising the MSP was placed before every government. Many commissions and committees were formed.

But every time it was stalled. Files kept on piling,” the prime minister told a farmers’ rally in Midnapore town.

“The farmers went on de-manding and agitating... but neither the state governments nor those in power in Delhi heard them..”

The centre recently approved an MSP, providing farmers a profi t of 50% or more over “cost of production” for kharif crops for 2018-19.

Reiterating his commitment to farmers, Modi said the gov-ernment was working to dou-ble farmers’ income by 2022, and highlighted the decision to consider bamboo as a grass that paved the way for peas-ants to produce, cut and sell bamboo.

Listing his government’s policy initiatives for farm-ers, he said: “”My government is your government and it is a pro-farmer government.” While Modi utilised the fi rst part of his speech to endear himself to the

agrarian constituency, which so long seemed upset with his government, the latter half of his address contained an all-out attack on Mamata’s Trinamool Congress dispensation, accusing it of having no faith in democ-racy, the Indian constitution or the electoral process.

“Those who don’t believe in democracy or the process of election, or the Constitution and the government that has to be reprimanded by High Court and Supreme Court, should be careful. This is Bengal, none of them will be spared,” warned the prime minister, who start-ed his speech in Bengali amid tumultuous applause and high-decibel chants of “Modi, Modi”.

Asking Mamata to take note of “the strength and discipline” of the people at the rally, Modi urged the people and the work-ers of BJP to “think together and bravely” to shake the “founda-tion of the syndicate” as was done in Tripura – where the BJP

won the assembly polls earlier this year by ending 25 years of Left Front rule.

Referring to the 34 years of Left Front rule in West Bengal

that ended in 2011 when the Tri-namool was came to power, he said while it took time to vote out the communists, it won’t take long this time around.

People push their vehicle along a water-logged road under Minto bridge during heavy monsoon rain in New Delhi yesterday.

Rains cause chaos

A day after an air hostess fell to her death in south Delhi, police arrested her husband yesterday after questioning him. Anissa Batra’s family maintained that it was a case of murder even as police registered a suicide case on Sunday. The 39-year-old fell from the terrace of her home in Hauz Khas area. A police off icial said her husband Mayank Singhvi was questioned for an hour at the Hauz Khas police station before he was arrested. His family was also questioned in the case. The charge-sheet stated that the woman was assaulted since her marriage. Last month Batra’s father had told police, “if my daughter is harmed in any way, Singhvi should be held responsible for it.”

Former cricket captain Mohamed Azharuddin’s plans to contest from Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat threw the Congress party into turmoil yesterday with the former MP Anjan Kumar Yadav declaring that he will not give up his claim to the constituency. Yadav’s supporters disrupted a meeting of the party’s Greater Hyderabad unit yesterday shouting slogans against Azharuddin. They opposed any move to field the former cricketer from Secunderabad. Yadav’s group resorted to the protest in presence of All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary N S Bose Raju and president of party’s Telangana unit Uttam Kumar Reddy.

A Bengali migrant worker died in a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram from injuries he sustained after being beaten up by a group of people who claimed he had stolen a hen. The assault took place at Anchal. According to police, Manik Roy, 34, who had been working and living in Anchal for the past few years, was walking home carrying a hen when a group of locals claimed it was stolen and started beating him. On hearing his cries for help, a crowd gathered, including a person who said it was he who had given Roy the hen. The assailants then fled. Roy was taken to a nearby hospital but he died. The medical report showed Roy died due to being hit on the head.

After being rapped by the Supreme Court over the condition of the Taj Mahal, the government yesterday said that it will take action on a “war footing” to deal with air and water pollution in and around the world-famous 17th-century Mughal monument. The assurance came after a high-level inter-ministerial meeting in New Delhi, chaired by Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and attended by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma and state Minister Satyapal Singh, where steps to tackle yellowing of the Taj Mahal and controlling Yamuna pollution were discussed.

On a day Congress chief Rahul Gandhi wrote to the prime minister to seek support for the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament, a woman leader of the opposition party yesterday said the “anti-women” government had betrayed women on all counts. “We are approaching the last monsoon session (of parliament) of this National Democratic Alliance government and the picture for Indian women is bleak and gloomy. Like all other aspects of governance, it is finally established that empowerment of women and assurance of their personal security was only a farce,” said Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev.

Air hostess’ husband helda day after her death

Azharuddin’s plans queerthe pitch for Congress

Migrant worker beatento death in Kerala

Steps to fight Taj pollution soon, pledges government

Modi govt anti-women,says Congress leader

INVESTIGATION POLITICSCRIME DECISION CLAIM

90 injured as canopy collapsesNinety people sustained injuries and were taken to hospital yesterday when a part of the canopy collapsed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi address in a rally in West Bengal’s Midnapore town, hospital authorities said. The injured were rushed to the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital in ambulances in the prime minister’s convoy and even on motorcycles, after the incident yesterday afternoon. According to a list released by the Medical Superintendent of the hospital, a total of 90 persons were taken to the hospital, including 66 males and 24 females. However

14 of them were discharged after primary treatment and the rest admitted to diff erent departments in the hospital. The rally was organised by the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh later said: “If it is found that the crash happened due to any intentional mistake on anybody’s part, then proper action will be taken.” After the rally, Modi visited the injured in the hospital and talked to the doctors treating them. “Modi was at the hospital for five-six minutes. He talked to some of the injured and the doctors and then left for Delhi by a helicopter,” a BJP leader said.

PAKISTAN

Gulf Times Tuesday, July 17, 201816

The police have opened criminal cases against nearly 17,000 members

of the former ruling party for breach of election rules, a state-ment said yesterday.

The 16,868 cases, which the police statement said were reg-istered in the eastern province of Punjab over the past four days, come after the party said that police had detained hundreds of Pakistan Muslim League – Na-waz (PML-N) members in the central city of Lahore.

The statement gave no details of which election rules were sus-pected of having been broken.

Cases were also registered against 39 members from Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, the statement said.

It said that 270 people had been detained, but it did not say which political party they be-longed to.

The PML-N’s founder, ousted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, facing a conviction in

absentia on corruption charges, was jailed last week when he re-turned to the country seeking to revitalise the PML-N ahead of the July 25 vote.

The campaign has been riven

by accusations that Pakistan’s powerful military is working be-hind the scenes to skew the con-test in favour of former cricket hero Khan and his PTI.

The military, which has ruled

the nuclear-armed country for almost half its history and ended Sharif’s second stint in power in 1999 in a bloodless coup, has re-peatedly denied any interference.

The PTI chief has also denied

colluding with the military.National polls indicate a close

race between the PML-N and the PTI, with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in third place.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan meanwhile said that it is con-cerned about the legitimacy of the election, saying that “the public perception is that all par-ties have not been given equal freedom to run their election campaigns” (see accompanying report).

Police detained the PML-N members in Lahore last week ahead of a rally by thousands of supporters welcoming Sharif.

Three local PML-N leaders said the crackdown involved in-timidation and threats by the police, intelligence agencies, and a paramilitary force to keep them from attending the rally to wel-come Sharif.

They spoke to Reuters on con-dition of anonymity, fearing backlash from authorities.

On Sunday, Pakistani authori-ties opened a criminal investiga-tion into leaders of the PML-N under an anti-terrorism law.

Cases opened against 17,000 party workersReutersLahore

Rights group warns of ‘blatant’ bid to manipulate the vote

Pakistan’s human rights commission has slammed

“blatant, aggressive and unabashed” attempts to

manipulate the upcoming election, as politicians

expressed security fears following one of the country’s

deadliest attacks.

A string of attacks has killed 175 people across the

country in the past week, and there have been

widespread allegations that the powerful military is

meddling in the run-up to the July 25 vote.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has vowed

to go ahead with the vote “at all costs”.

However, the independent Human Rights Commission

of Pakistan has warned that it is “gravely concerned

over what it sees as blatant, aggressive and unabashed

attempts to manipulate the outcome of the upcoming

elections”.

“While it is critical that the polls are held as scheduled,

there are now ample grounds to doubt their legitimacy

– with alarming implications for Pakistan’s transition to

an eff ective democracy,” it said in a statement.

A suicide blast at a political rally in the southwestern

province of Baluchistan last Friday killed 149 people.

It was the second deadliest militant attack in Pakistan’s

long battle with violent extremism, surpassed only by

an assault on a school in 2014, which left more than

150 people dead.

The attack and others have spurred a surge in criticism

of the army.

The military has overseen a dramatic improvement in

security but in recent months has been widely accused

of what one think-tank termed a “silent coup”.

“The attacks are taking place because the security

agencies are involved in politics and not doing their

job,” Mushahidullah Khan, a senior leader with the

Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N), told AFP.

“The elections are being contested in an environment

of fear,” the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party

(PPP), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said during a visit to the

Baluchistan provincial capital Quetta yesterday.

“Security should be the top priority for the govern-

ment,” he said, adding: “I hope that the election will be

held on July 25.”

Other politicians from parties across the political spec-

trum have echoed his concerns.

The military has insisted that it is taking “no direct role”

in the election.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has asked journalists

why they have been portraying former prime minister Nawaz Sharif as an innocent person.

He asked why such journalists are not thinking about the future of their children rather than try-ing to save a criminal.

Khan said that it took him 22 years to make the masses realise that corruption is dangerous and it had destroyed the economy of the country, leading to price hikes and manifold increase in the foreign debt.

“Foreign debt of the country was Rs6,000bn a decade ago, which is now Rs27,000bn, and the masses have to pay the price for the debt as the Pakistan Mus-lim League – Nawaz (PML-N) government had imposed taxes to pay the instalments of the debt,” he said while addressing a gathering at the Dhobi Ghat ground.

Khan raised questions over utilisation of the debt, asking whether any dam was built with it.

He said that the average monthly salary of a person is Rs200,000 ($1,600, £1,200) in the US and Britain, but in Paki-stan, this fi gure is Rs15,000.

Khan said that the per-unit price of electricity was Rs2.13 a decade ago and Rs9.86 (an in-crease of 400%) now, while the per-unit gas price has increased from Rs150 to Rs573, which has badly aff ected the textile sector.

He referred to other essential commodities like fl our, pulses, and milk, the prices of which have increased manifold.

Before his address, some PTI workers in front of the stage clashed.

The reason for the fi ghting is unclear.

Addressing a public rally at Mai Heer Stadium at Jhang, Khan alleged that the PML-N intro-duced and strengthened a cor-

rupt governing system.He pledged that if the PTI won

the July 25 election and formed government, the party would introduce a comprehensive pub-lic-friendly local government system, saying that a better local government system is the key to change the lives of people.

“The maximum resources were spent on corruption-based development projects, ignoring the needs of the people living in small cities of Punjab,” he said. “The Multan Metro Bus project is a proved example of corruption.”

Claiming that former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif made the police corrupt, Khan said that the PTI had a plan to make the police department apolitical.

He added that after com-ing into power, his party would introduce real democracy, em-power public institutions, and involving the masses in the deci-sion-making process for devel-opment projects.

“State resources will be dis-tributed equally to small towns and cities,” the PTI chief said.

Khan questions media ‘portrayal’ of Sharif as an ‘innocent’ personInternewsLahore

Khan: asked why journalists are not thinking about the future of their children.

Nawaz Sharif has chal-lenged the decision of an anti-graft court to hand

him a 10-year jail term on cor-ruption charges.

“The conviction and sentence are based on no evidence,” Shar-if’s lawyer Khawaja Haris Ahmad said in an appeal fi led at the Is-lamabad High Court (IHC).

The court is likely start hearing

the appeal from today, said Saad Hashmi, a member of Sharif’s le-gal team.

The National Accountability Bureau court ruled on July 6 that Sharif’s family bought properties in London with funds from Paki-stan in the 1990s during one of Sharif’s three terms in power.

Sharif was handed 10 years of jail and a fi ne of £8mn ($10.5mn), his daughter Maryam Nawaz was handed an eight-year jail term and £2mn fi ne, and his son-in-law Muhammad Safdar was sen-

tenced to one year in prison.Since their return to Paki-

stan from London on Friday, the three-time prime minister and his daughter have been impris-oned in a high-security jail in Rawalpindi.

The court ruling, which came just weeks ahead of national elections scheduled for July 25, has reinforced suspicions held by many that the country’s power-ful military colluded with the ju-diciary to prevent Sharif’s party from seeking another term.

Sharif challenges 10-year jail termDPAIslamabad

Sharif and Maryam: convicted earlier this month.

The Chief Justice of Paki-stan, Saqib Nisar, is on an unlikely mission to build

two multi-billion dollar dams to help alleviate the country’s wa-ter shortage.

On July 4 he ordered the gov-ernment to immediately start the construction of the long-planned dams, and then donated Rs10mn ($8,200) from his own pocket to launch a public fund-raising campaign.

According to the fi gures up-dated yesterday on the Su-preme Court’s website, around

Rs110mn have been raised so far.One of the dams, called Diam-

er-Basha, is in its preliminary stage and is being built on the Indus river in northern Pakistan, some 300km west of K2 – the second highest mountain in the world.

The dam, if completed, is touted to become the highest roller-compacted concrete dam in the world.

The second one is Mohmand dam, set to be constructed on the Swat river, some 40km north of Peshawar.

The UN Development Pro-gramme says that Pakistan could run dry by 2025 unless action is taken.

Despite the pressing need for a solution, Nisar’s donation drive has come under criticism from experts and the public alike.

According to Khurram Hus-sain, a business editor at Pa-kistan’s Dawn newspaper, the estimated cost for the construc-tion is Rs1.450tn (around $12bn).

Calling the fundraising drive “embarassing”, he wrote in his weekly opinion column: “If we assume that on average, the ac-count sees an infl ow of Rs20mn per day (which is highly opti-mistic), then it will take 72,500 days to reach the target, or 199 years”.

Following the chief justice’s lead, the Pakistan army said in

a statement on Twitter that two days’ salary of military offi cers and one day’s salary of the sol-diers would be donated to the fund.

Nisar has also asked the gov-ernment to generate funds for the construction of future dams through water pricing.

“Water pricing mechanism should be improved to get rev-enue for construction of dams,” Nisar said, according to minutes of a recent meeting, to the min-istries of planning, water re-sources, energy, law and justice, climate change and the cabinet division, besides professional and technical agencies and pro-vincial governments.

Presiding over the meeting of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP), attended by senior representatives of the ministries, Indus River System Authority, National Engineer-ing Services Pakistan, Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), Indus Water Commis-sion, and private experts, the chief justice said that the issue of water scarcity had reached an alarming level.

Nisar said that the resolution of the water issue is “respon-sibility of the executives, and failure to discharge this respon-sibility has resulted in taking up of this issue by the superior ju-diciary as breach of fundamental

right i.e. right to life”.The Planning Commission

told the meeting that the na-tional water policy approved by the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz government had iden-tifi ed 30-40 areas for urgent works that would take four to fi ve years to achieve.

Nisar asserted that the judici-ary would fi nd a solution to the water shortage in the country.

He said it is crucial because he had been told by experts during the course of hearing a related case that Pakistan could not survive in this situation of wa-ter scarcity and that all research reports showed that Pakistan could run out of water by 2024.

Chief justice launches fundraising campaign for damsDPA/InternewsIslamabad

At least 16 people were killed when a truck crashed into a parked bus in southern Pa-

kistan yesterday, in the latest fatal collision on the country’s notori-ously dangerous roads.

The long haul truck slammed into the back of the bus, which was on stopped on the side of the high-way with a fl at tyre near the south-ern city of Hyderabad.

Several passengers were on the side of the road during the inci-

dent as the driver sought help to change the tyre, while others were waiting inside the vehicle.

“The women and children still in the bus suff ered the brunt of the collision,” local police offi cer Za-hid Ali Shah told AFP.

Eight were hurt in the collision.“It seems to be an incident of

reckless driving,” Shah said, add-ing the truck driver fl ed the scene of the crash.

Pakistan has one of the world’s worst records for fatal traffi c ac-cidents, many of them blamed on poor roads, badly-maintained ve-hicles, and reckless driving.

16 die in road collisionAFPKarachi

Residents gather around the wreckage of a bus and truck following a collision near Hyderabad.

Survey identifi es disruptive ‘elements’InternewsRawalpindi

The Punjab government has directed divisional police chiefs across the prov-

ince to monitor more than 780 “troublemakers” from various political parties, who have been identifi ed in a survey, to prevent untoward incidents during the campaigning period and polling.

The provincial government is wary of taking action against the “troublemakers” because of the political implications.

According to sources, the pro-vincial authorities have asked divisional and district police chiefs and divisional commis-sioners to hold divisional intel-ligence committee meetings immediately and take the nec-essary measures to prevent any disruptive activity during the campaigning period.

The police have been directed to constitute Quick Response Force squads to manage aff airs before, during, and after the elections to deal with any even-tuality and law and order situa-tion.

Sources said that provincial authorities had already reported that between June 1 and June 21, nine election-related clashes had been reported in Punjab, in which two people were killed.

During the 2013 elections, 101 incidents of election-related violence took place in Punjab, leaving 23 dead and 63 injured.

Firearms were used in 89 of these incidents.

The home department has said that in view of the threat perception, the intelligence re-port and past events, the Pro-vincial Intelligence Committee (PIC)’s fi eld staff conducted a survey that identifi ed 786 “anti-social elements and miscreants” who are likely to indulge in dis-ruptive activities.

The death toll from a suicide attack on an election rally in Baluchistan on Friday has

risen to 149, offi cials said, putting it among the deadliest attacks in the south Asian nation’s history.

As campaigning steps up for gen-

eral elections on July 25, bombings across Pakistan have stoked fears of more violence in the country of 208mn, where political rallies can draw tens of thousands of people.

Friday’s attack at a rally for the Baluchistan Awami Party (BAP) outside the town of Mastung was claimed by the Islamic State.

Among the dead was the party’s provincial candidate, Siraj Raisani.

A video clip showed Raisani be-ginning his speech just before the attack, greeting crowds seated on the ground under a large tent before the blast hit and the image cut off .

Provincial government offi cials said they were not told about the ral-ly and so had not provided security to Raisani, beyond the bodyguards in his security detail.

“The death toll of Mastung car-

nage is now 149,” senior police offi -cial Qaim Lashari told Reuters, add-ing that more than 180 people were wounded and the dead included nine children.

Violence in Pakistan has ebbed since the military began major op-erations against Taliban militants along the border with Afghanistan following a shocking 2014 attack on a Peshawar school that killed 153 .

Death toll in election rally bombing rises to 149ReutersIslamabad

Transgender poll candidate vows to tackle challengesMaria Khan, a transgender and independent candidate for PK-31 Mansehra in northwest Pakistan, has sought action against those tearing up her posters and banners from streets and bazaars.“The supporters of rival contenders are tearing up my posters and banners. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should take notice of this and those involved should be taken to justice,” Khan told reporters yesterday.Khan made it clear that she would not withdraw from election race, but her rivals are afraid of her and spreading rumours that she is no more in the race.

Civil society organisation to monitor process at poll stationsThe Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) – a coalition of over 50 leading civil society organisations – will deploy 19,000 observers across 272 National Assembly constituencies to monitor voting and counting processes at 85% of the total polling stations to be set up by the Election Commission of Pakistan for the July 25 elections.According to a press release issued yesterday, Fafen will deploy 9,884 observers in Punjab, 4,225 in Sindh, 3,549 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (including tribal districts), 1,117 in Baluchistan, and 225 in Islamabad Capital Territory.Fafen observers will be trained to gather required data and documents from assigned polling stations to enable the network to conduct parallel vote tabulations (PVTs).

PHILIPPINES17Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Majority of Filipinos oppose shift to federal system: surveyDPA Manila

A majority of Filipinos oppose eff orts to amend the Philippines’ 1987 constitution and to shift to a federal form of government from

the presidential system, a survey showed yesterday.The poll, conducted nationwide on June 15-21,

found that 67% of Filipinos believe that the consti-tution should not be amended at this time, Manila-based pollster Pulse Asia Research Inc said.

Of the 67%, 37% said the constitution should not be amended “now or any other time,” while 30% said the constitution may be amended “sometime in the future.”

Only 18% expressed support for amending the constitution, while 14% were undecided, Pulse Asia added. The survey also found that 62% of the 1,800 respondents do not favour the proposed shift to a federal form of government, while only 28% agree with the switch and 10% undecided.

President Rodrigo Duterte has been pushing for the shift to a federal system to decentralise power and wealth from Manila, empower regional gov-ernments, and avoid neglect of remote areas.

The change would also support the implemen-tation of a 2014 peace agreement with the largest rebel group in the southern region of Mindanao, which calls for the creation of a new autonomous

entity. But Filipinos are generally wary of any moves to amend the constitution, which late dic-tator Ferdinand Marcos had used in the 1970s to prolong his stay in office.

Critics have warned that the current push for charter change could also be a way for Duterte and other politicians to stay in power beyond the end of their term in 2022.

But the 73-year-old leader has repeatedly de-nied wanting to be president longer, and even noted that once the new form of government was in place, he would step down even if his term was not yet over.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the public’s reaction highlighted the need for the gov-ernment to raise awareness about the proposals, noting that the survey also found that only 55% of Filipinos were familiar with the issues.

“We cannot expect our people to support an initiative, which they know only little about,” he said in a statement.

“We will therefore exert even more effort to inform and educate our citizens about federalism since the approval of the proposed changes in our current charter ultimately lies in the hands of the Filipino people,” he added.

Last week, a committee formed by Duterte to review the constitution submitted their recom-mendations, which included removing a single-term limit for president and vice president.

Rain forces suspension of classes in Luzon regionBy Francis Earl CuetoManila Times

Classes were suspended yesterday in diff erent ar-eas in Luzon, due to the

heavy rains brought about by tropical depression Henry.

In Barangay Dampalit, Mal-abon City, classes in Dampalit Integrated School, Dampalit were suspended, after majority of the streets had been fl ooded since the weekend.

Floodwaters started to sub-side late yesterday afternoon.

Even the barangay hall had gutter-deep fl oodwaters while it was knee-deep in other areas.

Barangay offi cials said the fl ooding this weekend was caused by water that over-fl owed from the dike built with more than 6,000 sandbags.

“Heavy rains since Thursday had started the overfl ow and eventual breaking of the dike,” Carlo Dumalaog, Brgy. Damp-alit chairman said.

Among the aff ected areas were Sitio Dona Juana, Sitio Rodriguez One and Two, and Merville Subdivision.

Classes in all levels in Abra de Ilog, Mamrubao and Sablayan in Occidental Mindoro were suspended.

Children living on houses erected on the sea wall of Manila Bay play with waves caused by the tropical depression Henry that brought heavy rains in Metro Manila and the northern part of Luzon, yesterday.

A man collects recyclable materials among waste and water lilies washed up on Manila Bay caused by the tropical depression Henry that brought heavy rains in Metro Manila and the northern part of Luzon.

Duterte, Mahathir agree to boost defence, security co-operationManila TimesManila

President Rodrigo Duterte and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mo-

hamed agreed yesterday to strengthen their defence and security co-operation at the bi-lateral and regional level.

“President Duterte expressed appreciation for Malaysia’s sus-tained support for the quest for just and lasting peace and de-velopment in Mindanao,” Mala-canang said in a statement after the two leaders met privately at the Prime Minister’s Offi ce in Putrajaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

“Both leaders stressed the importance of working closely together bilaterally and at the Asean to achieve shared aspira-tions of greater peace, progress and prosperity for the Philip-pines and Malaysia, and greater stability and security in the re-gion,” the statement read.

The statement added that Duterte pointed out the need to strengthen and address terror-ism and violent extremism in the Southeast Asian region.

These include transnational crimes, such as piracy, armed robbery at sea and the illegal drug trade.

The statement also said that Duterte and Mahathir renewed

and reaffi rmed the long-stand-ing brotherhood and friendship between the Philippines and Malaysia.

Duterte said he wanted to visit Malaysia to congratu-late Mahathir, who became the world’s oldest head of govern-

ment at 92-years-old last May when he came out of retirement to run and defeat re-electionist Najib Razak.

Mahathir previously ruled Malaysia for 22 years from 1981 to 2003. The bilateral meeting yesterday happened a day af-

ter the two leaders watched the fi ght of Sen. Manny Pacquiao and Argentine Lucas Matthysse in Kuala Lumpur. Pacquiao beat Matthysse via technical knock-out in the seventh round for the World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight title.

President Rodrigo Duterte meets with Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed in Putrajaya, yesterday.

Graft charges sought against Aquino over vaccination projectBy Llanesca T PantiManila Times

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has asked Ombudsman Con-

chita Carpio-Morales to fi le technical malversation and graft-related charges against former president Benigno Aqui-no and 18 other government offi -cials over the nationwide imple-mentation of the P3.5bn dengue immunisation project that was later deemed unsafe.

Aside from Aquino, former health secretaries Janette Garin and Paulyn Ubial, former budg-et secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad and 15 others were also in-cluded in the complaint that was fi led on July 13 but released to re-porters only yesterday.

The NBI said that Aquino ap-proved the realignment and eventual release of P3.5bn budg-et for Dengvaxia, the anti-den-gue vaccine, on December 29, 2015 from the Miscellaneous and Personnel Benefi ts Fund based on Garin and Abad’s recommen-dations.

The NBI said that realign-ing the MPBF fund was illegal since the immunisation project was not provided under the 2015 national budget and the vaccine procured even if its manufac-turer, French fi rm Sanofi Pasteur, had not secured a certifi cate of product registration.

“There is technical malver-sation because government funds amounting to P3bn in-tended for the 2015 Miscella-neous Personnel Benefit Fund (MPBF) of the Executive De-partment was utilised for the procurement of Dengvaxia under the health department’s school-based immunisation programme. Although the source of fund was declared as savings by the chief ex-ecutive, its intended purpose failed as there is no existing programme, activity or project for dengue procurement and immunisation,” the NBI said in its 55-page complaint.

Under the law, the crime of technical malversation is com-

mitted when a public offi cer applies public funds under his administration not for his or another’s personal use, but to a public use other than that for which the fund was appropriated by law or ordinance.

“MPBF may only be obligated and disbursed before the end of the validity of appropriations on December 31, 2015. Hence, its release in 2016 is unlawful,” the NBI said.

The NBI also accused Aquino, Garin and Abad of allegedly con-spiring with government offi -cials and Sanofi executives since the budget for Dengvaxia has been released before it was listed by the Food and Drug Adminis-tration.

Aquino: facing charges

Heart disease, diabetes are ‘top killers in nation’

By Ed VelascoManila Times

No n - c o m m u n i c a b l e diseases (NCDs) such as heart ailments and

diabetes accounted for 68% of deaths in the Philippines since 2012 due to poor lifestyle, heavy smoking and alcohol consumption, according to the Department of Health (DoH).

Speaking at the opening day of the Asian Develop-ment Bank (ADB)-sponsored Innovations and Actions against NCDs forum, Health Undersecretary Eric Domin-go described the dilemma as “disturbing” because many NCD-related deaths are sud-den, thus causing severe pain to family members.

The top killers are heart diseases, diabetes, cancer and

aneurysm. Domingo said 68% of deaths in the country from 2012 to 2017 are related to these diseases. He said that based on Noncommunicable Diseases Progress Monitor 2017, 29% of the country’s 105mn popula-tion will not reach the age of 70 because of unhealthy lifestyle.

“The rising cases is also attributed to too much con-sumption of salt, rice and sug-ar,” Domingo said. Unhealthy lifestyle, which is characterised by lack of exercise, smoking and alcohol consumption, are trig-gers of these diseases, he added.

In the entire Southeast Asia, NCD-related deaths reached 7.9mn in 2015, Domingo said.

The offi cial said the DoH is trying its best to help Filipinos combat NCDs through health fi nancing, health service deliv-ery, health regulation and good governance.

Army arrests wife of militant in south

Philippine soldiers arrested the

wife of a top leader of a pro-Islamic

State group, and killed a suspected

bomber in separate raids in a

southern city, the army said yester-

day. Nafisa Pundog, who had been

in hiding for two years since her

escape from prison, was arrested

in General Santos City, said army

spokesman Major Ezra Balagtey.

Her husband Human Abdul

Najib, alias Abu Dar, is the new

leader of the pro-Islamic State

Maute group, which seized the

lakeside town of Marawi for five

months last year, he added. “She

did not resist arrest,” Balagtey

told reporters, adding that materi-

als to make improvised bombs

were seized from her hideout.

Before the arrest, soldiers killed

Najib Pundog, a suspected bomb

maker, not far from the hideout.

”He chose to shoot it out with

soldiers who tracked him down in

his safe house,” Balagtey said. Both

individuals, who are not related,

despite a shared surname, were

on a list of those President Rodrigo

Duterte ordered to be arrested.

Gulf Times Tuesday, July 17, 2018

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France have the quality to rulefootball for years

There is nothing swashbuckling yet about this France side, no “carre magique” — or magic square — of the team of the 1980s, when Michel Platini, Alain Giresse, Luis Fernandez and Jean Tigana were performing football conjuring tricks in midfi eld.

Neither have they yet reached the stature of players such as Zinedine Zidane, Laurent Blanc, Robert Pires or Marcel Desailly from among the many big names of the 1998 World Cup winners. Yet the joint-second-youngest squad of the World Cup in Russia has left the tournament as world champions after defeating Croatia 4-2 in the fi nal in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.

Les Bleus have a second star to sew on their national team jersey. Players in their early 20s — or younger in the case of 19-year-old Kylian Mbappe — now already have a World Cup medal. That is a feat three-time Ballon d’Or winner Platini never achieved in an era when France were considered one of the most attractive teams of all time, but were twice beaten in semi-fi nals by West Germany — once on penalties in the fi rst-ever World Cup penalty shoot-out — either side of a Euro 1984 title.

Players in the current France squad under Didier Deschamps, the 1998 captain, have emerged even stronger from their Euro fi nal defeat two years ago against Portugal.

The future appears to be theirs. “I had a very young group, 14 of them (not at Euro 2016) were on a discovery journey in

the World Cup. But the quality was there,” Deschamps said.

The 49-year-old former captain has a wealth of individual talent at his disposal. Some quality players from leading European clubs did not even make the squad. But the coach has constantly emphasised the collective. Organisation and playing as a disciplined unit are the key for the pragmatic Deschamps, with the likes of Manchester United midfi elder Paul Pogba — the 2014 young player award winner — sacrifi cing their usual attacking instincts to the team ethos.

Their progress through the tournament has often been workmanlike, with the occasional fl ourishes of attacking fl air, notably through Mbappe and Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann, who both scored four times in Russia.

Mbappe became the second-youngest goalscorer in a World Cup fi nal, after Pele, arguably the greatest player of all time, who was 17 when he scored for Brazil against Sweden in the 1958 World Cup fi nal. Most commentators believe he and Les Bleus are destined for even greater things, as the team and its individual players can only get better. Former Germany striker and coach Juergen Klinsmann, commentating for the BBC on the maturity of the teenage Mbappe, said he looked like he had been playing in France’s team “for 10 years.”

Praise can get to a young star’s head but Mbappe played it down saying he still has a long way to go before he could be considered a great.

But there’s no doubt that he would be the most followed star in the years to come.

Mbappe became the second-youngest goalscorer in a World Cup fi nal, aft er Pele

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Deputy Managing EditorK T Chacko

By Scott Cowen New Orleans

No matter how much chaos and disruption US President Donald Trump causes – to trade, business, and

even America’s core alliances – his supporters regularly insist that Trump is a leader who gets things done.

While Arkansas Senator and almost-CIA director Tom Cotton regards Trump as an “active, engaged, and eff ective leader,” former speaker of the US House of Representatives Newt Gingrich has gone so far as to describe Trump as “stunningly eff ective.”

Given these accolades, I was curious about what the undergraduates in my course on leadership theory and practice think of Trump’s eff ectiveness, so I organised a student debate.

One side was tasked with defending the motion that Trump is an “eff ective leader.” They portrayed him as a decisive go-getter, and marvelled at his “chutzpah” in moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Among Trump’s accomplishments, they pointed to the tax-reform legislation that he signed in December 2017, the airstrikes against Syrian chemical-weapons facilities in April 2018, the recent engagement with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and the evolution of trade policy towards China.

The team arguing against the motion focused on the personal attributes usually associated with eff ective leaders: a moral compass, balanced reasoning, and a disciplined and principled approach to decision-making.

Needless to say, they emphasised that Trump comes up short on all counts.

In the end, the debate boiled down to the question of whether eff ective leadership is about action and intention, character, or both.

For example, at one point, a debater arguing for the motion was asked whether morality, trust, and integrity are relevant to eff ective leadership. “No,” he answered. Eff ectiveness is morally neutral: if you announce your goals and then achieve them, you are eff ective, whatever the goals happen to be.

It’s a short hop from here, of course, to Machiavelli, and then to contemporary strongmen like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.

One source of confl ict in the debate was over the timeframe for determining leadership eff ectiveness.

The word “eff ectiveness” often implies immediate actions and results.

Yet “leadership” suggests a capacity to deliver principled decisions and durable outcomes over the long term, usually through a robust process grounded in facts and informed by ethics.

Another area of disagreement, expressed vividly in the aforementioned debater’s one-word answer, is that morality and decisive action run on separate tracks.

In other words, a leader’s morals can be regarded as “private,” with no real-world relevance.

Missing from the discussion was the fact that corrupt motives – such as self-aggrandisement, contempt for others, and indiff erence to the public good – produce corrupt results.

Policies that seem eff ective in the short term can end in spectacular

failure when they are driven primarily by a leader’s self-interest and pursuit of power.

Many US presidents have become embroiled in scandals of their own making.

Andrew Jackson had his genocidal “Trail of Tears,” which entailed the ethnic cleansing of the Cherokee and other Indian tribes from the southeastern US.

Warren G Harding had the Teapot Dome scandal.

And, of course, Richard Nixon had Watergate.

All of these presidents’ legacies were tarnished not by any single act – which might very well have looked “eff ective” at the time – but by habits of corruption and a disregard for ethical guidelines.

Trump bears some resemblance to these ignoble examples.

In his rush to enrich himself and consolidate power, while abandoning all civility and decorum, he has shown contempt for the separation of powers, the freedom of the press, the norms of governance, and the rule of law.

And, as with his predecessors, his administration will probably be remembered more for its scandals and mistakes than for its achievements, especially over the long run.

“Over the long run” is a necessary proviso, because only time can deliver the fi nal judgement.

Jimmy Carter is often remembered as a mediocre president.

But a new book by Stuart E Eizenstat, President Carter: The White House Years, shows that the establishment of formal diplomatic ties between China and the United States probably owes as much to Carter as to Nixon, despite the latter’s historic visit there in 1972.

Or consider George W Bush, who famously stood in front of a “Mission Accomplished” banner early in the Iraq War, and praised the inexperienced and incompetent director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for doing a “heck of a job” just after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans.

In both instances, the long run arrived rather quickly to render judgement on sheer folly.

As for Trump, it remains to be seen if his tax cuts and trade wars will save the middle class.

His dealmaking with North Korea and his “no deal” with Iran may or may not end badly.

But both history and leadership theory suggest that his lack of emotional intelligence, preoccupation with showmanship, and indiff erence to facts will lead to unambiguous failures.

Interestingly, when my students were asked which team had delivered the more convincing arguments, they overwhelmingly voted for the affi rmative team, even though 90% expressed personal scepticism about Trump’s ultimate eff ectiveness.

Therein lies an important lesson: The glare of the daily news cycle can make us lose sight of the essential role of moral leadership in sustaining the US in the years to come.

Without it, the “successes” of today can easily become the disasters of tomorrow. – Project Syndicate

Scott Cowen is President Emeritus of Tulane University, where he teaches an undergraduate course on leadership, and the author of Winnebagos on Wednesdays: How Visionary Leadership Can Transform Higher Education.

Is Donald Trump an ‘eff ective leader’?

US President Donald Trump has shown contempt for the separation of powers, the freedom of the press, the norms of governance, and the rule of law.

COMMENT

Gulf Times Tuesday, July 17, 2018 19

Lung disease risk high for people with Type 2 diabetes

European Union’s Dublin conundrum

We need a food revolutionBy Bob Geldof London

In 1984, I gathered the most successful musicians of the time to form a “supergroup” called Band Aid to raise money for

famine relief in Ethiopia.The next year, an even larger

grouping was formed for Live Aid, a major benefi t concert and music-based fundraising initiative that continues to this day.

At last month’s International Forum on Food and Nutrition, held by the Barilla Foundation, the enduring – and increasingly urgent – need for eff orts to strengthen food security could not be more obvious.

The fate of the Easter Islanders illustrates the world’s current problem.

Sometime in the 12th century, a group of Polynesians found their way to a remote volcanic island where dense forests provided food, animals, and the tools and materials to build hundreds of complex and mysterious stone sculptures.

But, little by little, the people destroyed those forests, ultimately committing social, cultural, and physical suicide.

Today, in relative terms, we collectively have only a small swath of forest left – and we are rapidly destroying it.

We are running out of land to farm, and the desert is spreading.

The food we produce is often wasted, while almost a billion people do not have enough to eat – a reality that leaves many with little choice except to migrate.

Most media coverage focuses on refugees fl eeing armed confl ict (think Syria) or migrants seeking better economic opportunities than they have at home (think Nigeria or Pakistan). But the link between food scarcity and

migration is stronger than it might seem to those who are not among the hungry.

For example, the Arab Spring uprisings of 2010-2011, which produced a massive wave of refugees, were triggered by a rise in wheat prices, which led to widespread bread riots that morphed into broader political revolutions.

In fact, many armed confl icts, and the mass displacement they cause, can be traced back to food insecurity.

While the poor South starves, the rich North gorges.

More than 2bn of us are overweight, puff ed up by low-energy sugars and mass-produced processed foods rich in fat.

According to the Food and

Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, just one-quarter of the food we throw out or squander each year would be enough to feed 870mn hungry people.

Worldwide, one-third of all crops are wasted.

Like the Easter Islanders of the past, we are setting ourselves up for self-annihilation.

Moreover, human-driven climate change threatens to intensify existing pressures aff ecting food supply and migration.

In a report published last December, the European Commission’s European Political Strategy Centre predicted that ever-more frequent droughts and floods will “dwarf all other drivers of migration,” with as many as 1bn people displaced globally by 2050.

Even the lowest estimate of 25mn climate-change migrants, the report warns, “would dwarf the current levels of new refugees and internally displaced persons.”

To be sure, some steps are being taken to address food waste and scarcity.

For example, this year, the European Commission proposed cuts in farm subsidies, which contribute to overproduction.

But this approach – framed in terms of “evolution,” rather than the “revolution” that is needed – is not even remotely adequate.

The European Union’s common agricultural policy has long been highly problematic.

The CAP authorised tax money to be spent on growing surplus food, which was then warehoused (at further cost) and ultimately destroyed (at still further cost). The system has improved somewhat over the years, but not nearly enough.

The farm bill in the United States – the federal government’s primary agricultural and food policy tool – is similarly wasteful.

What is needed is not just a politically tolerable adjustment to existing policies, but rather root-and-branch reform that emphasises real results.

Unfortunately, it is not clear whether there are any politicians up to the task, whether in the erratic and polarised

US or in the ineff ectual European Parliament and Commission.

The time to step up was yesterday; the time to adopt a new approach is now.

We can discuss the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – which include targets like “halving per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer level, and reducing food losses along production and supply chains by 2030” – until we are blue in the face.

What matters are well-designed, effective, and comprehensive policies, implemented in a sustained manner.

And those are nowhere to be found.The Earth is 45mn centuries old, but

our century is unique, because it is the fi rst in which a species could destroy the entire basis of its own existence.

Yet we latter-day Easter Islanders seem unaware of this existential threat, preferring to build statues rather than sustainable systems for survival.

Will we acknowledge our predicament only when our land becomes a desert, when our health systems collapse under the strain, when even the wealthy are facing food shortages, when freshwater becomes scarce, and when our national shorelines are breached? By then, it will be too late, and our fate will be sealed.

The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.

Each of us must recognise the seriousness of our situation and demand real action to change it.

That means you. – Project Syndicate

Bob Geldof is an Irish singer-songwriter, author, and political activist. He is the founder and chairman of the Band Aid Trust for famine relief in Africa, and a member of the Africa Progress Panel.

Live issues

QNABerlin

People with type 2 diabetes may be at a signifi cantly higher risk of suff ering from breathlessness and restrictive

lung disease (RLD), a study has found.RLD is a category of respiratory

diseases that restrict lung expansion, resulting in a decreased lung volume. The study, published in the journal Respiration involved 110 patients with long-term type 2 diabetes, 29 patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, and 68 patients with pre-diabetes and 48 non-diabetic patients (controls).

Researchers from Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany examined the participants for metabolic control, diabetes-related complications, breathlessness, and lung function. “Increased

breathlessness, RLD, and interstitial lung anomalies can be associated with type 2 diabetes,” said Stefan Kopf from the University Hospital Heidelberg.

It was found that people with type 2 diabetes are signifi cantly more likely to suff er from breathlessness and RLD, than the control group. RLD was found in 27 percent of patients with

long-term type 2 diabetes, in 20 per cent of patients with newly diagnosed diabetes, and in 9 per cent of patients with pre-diabetes.

There were also diff erences in the morphological analysis of the lung tissue of subjects with and without diabetes. Patients with diabetes had increased pulmonary fi brosis.

In addition, the study showed that RLD is associated with albuminuria. In the disease, urinary albumin levels are elevated. This may be an indication that lung disease and kidney disease may be associated with diabetic kidney disease (nephropathy).

“In this study, the prevalence of RLD was 20 to 27% in patients with diabetes. Moreover, the radiological and histological analyses suggest an association with fi brosing interstitial lung anomalies,” said Professor Hans-Ulrich Kauczor from University Hospital Heidelberg.

By Daniel GrosBrussels

Tensions over immigration continue to dominate European politics. In Italy, Interior Minister Matteo

Salvini, a populist fi rebrand, is monopolising the public’s attention with almost daily outbursts against immigrants. Likewise, Salvini’s German counterpart, Horst Seehofer, created a crisis in the governing coalition in order to secure new measures against asylum seekers trying to enter Germany from Austria. With their countries having been left to fi ght illegal immigration on their own, Salvini and Seehofer claim, they must focus on national, not European, solutions. They are wrong.

The truth is that the European Union has been instrumental in reducing the fl ows of irregular arrivals, which have declined considerably since the massive infl ux of Syrian refugees, via Greece and Hungary, in 2015. Thanks to the agreement that the EU reached with Turkey in March 2016, very few people are now crossing into Greece. Likewise, the number of arrivals in Italy is a mere fraction of the total just last year. Overall, illegal crossings into the EU have been reduced to about 100,000 annually, compared to the estimated more than 1mn who arrived in 2015.

Given the EU’s population of over 500mn, that number is eminently manageable. Nonetheless, politicians

continue to exploit the migration issue, with some highly visible arrivals – in particular, the large number of migrants who have been rescued off the coast of Libya – keeping the issue in the news.

The real issue that needs to be resolved, however, is which country should be responsible for those who have already entered EU territory. The EU’s failure to answer this question in a way that satisfies all sides is now threatening the survival of the Schengen Area of border-free travel.

On paper, the EU has clear rules on the matter: under the so-called Dublin Regulation, the fi rst EU country that asylum seekers enter is responsible for examining their applications. But countries with external borders, such as Greece and Italy, naturally complain that this puts an unfair burden on them.

Asylum seekers themselves also resist this rule. Given unfavourable labour-market conditions in southern border countries, many make a beeline for northern Europe to apply for asylum. That is why Germany, which has no external border, receives more asylum applications than Italy. Many such cases have already been registered on the EU asylum database EURODAC.

According to the Dublin Regulation, Germany has the right to ask other member states to “take charge” (the legal term) of these cases. But there are many exceptions to the fi rst-country-of-arrival rule. For

example, if an asylum seeker already has family in a diff erent country (in this case, Germany), that country may be responsible for processing the application. Or if an asylum seeker manages to leave the country of arrival for three months, the initial application can be withdrawn and a new one submitted in a diff erent EU member state.

These exceptions give asylum seekers ample room to contest Dublin transfers in court. Moreover, national authorities have a strong incentive to object to incoming transfer requests on formal or substantive grounds, while trying to send abroad as many as possible. About 160,000 “take charge” requests were lodged in 2017, though only about 20,000 were actually implemented. These factors, together with discrepancies among EU member states’ legal systems and administrative procedures, have largely nullifi ed the Dublin Regulation.

It was this reality that lay at the root of recent tensions within Germany’s coalition government. Of more than 60,000 take-charge requests lodged by German authorities in 2017 under the Dublin Regulation, fewer than 15% were actually implemented, resulting in just 7,100 transfers to other member states.

Yet in 2016, Germany implemented close to 30% of the 27,000 incoming requests it received, meaning that it took charge of about 8,700 people. Germany has thus become a net recipient of Dublin transfers, despite lacking an external border.

Given this, Seehofer wants to prevent asylum seekers who have been registered elsewhere on EURODAC from ever entering Germany. But he is far from alone in his frustration: the upshot of the gulf between legal principles and reality is that no member state is satisfied with the current system. While border countries continue to insist that the Dublin Regulation is unfair to them, northern countries complain that it is not being implemented properly.

An asylum system in which more than a dozen national bureaucracies try to pass applicants around like hot potatoes cannot work. The European Asylum Support Offi ce (EASO) should be made responsible for interpreting the rules for assigning refugees – deciding, for example, which country is responsible when member states disagree in individual cases. Providing fi nancial incentives for accepting refugees – say, a lump sum for each one – would also help.

These two measures will not satisfy the populists. Opposition to refugees and migrants – and even demonisation of them and their supporters – is their political bread and butter. But strengthening EASO and boosting fi nancial support should go some way toward alleviating today’s tensions, at least until a radical reform of Europe’s asylum system can be contemplated. – Project Syndicate

Daniel Gros is Director of the Center for European Policy Studies.

From right: Bob Geldof, Mark Knopfler and Freddie Mercury performing at the Live Aid concert.

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BaghdadKuwait CityManamaMuscat Tehran

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QATAR

Gulf Times Tuesday, July 17, 201820

Professionals predict very ‘exceptional’ 2022 FIFA World CupQatar will host an exceptional

FIFA World Cup in 2022, surpris-

ing the world with its state-of-

the-art and exquisite stadiums,

a number of Qatari senior

professionals have stressed.

They point out that the

country has allocated huge

resources for the event to make

it an inspiration for all countries

keen to host the World Cup in

the future, by off ering sophisti-

cated infrastructure and high-

quality services to visitors and

spectators, according to local

Arabic daily Arrayah.

After the conclusion of the

2018 World Cup in Russia on

Sunday, the focus will now

be on Qatar with the persons

concerned closely following the

developments in Doha in this

respect, the report states.

Lawyer Sheikh Mohamed bin

Khalifa al-Thani said Qatar is one

of the most secure countries

in the world and the relevant

security departments in the

country are taking all necessary

measures to ensure a safe and

secure event at the highest level.

Besides, he expects the event

to further promote the country

around the world by contribut-

ing significantly to the growth in

the country’s tourism sector.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Mo-

hamed al-Thani, another lawyer,

stressed that the country enjoys

an atmosphere of stability and

prosperity and all relevant

reports aff irm that 90% of the

necessary infrastructure will be

ready by next year. These are all

positive indicators of the suc-

cess of the mega event in 2022.

Engineer Khalid al-Nasr

said the entire infrastructure

required for the 2022 World Cup

will be ready in 2020, and will

be tested over two years ahead

of the event. He noted that

Qatar is keen to ensure a highly

successful event and will spare

no eff ort to make this happen.

Further, he said the limited

size of the country is an advan-

tage as visitors will not have to

travel a lot to go from one match

venue to another, thereby saving

their time and eff ort.

Saeed Rashid al-Hajiri, mem-

ber of the Central Municipal

Council (CMC), said Qatar’s

hosting of the coming World

Cup will be a historic event for

the country and the region.

Jassim al-Malki, another CMC

member, expressed confidence

that the country will organise

a highly distinguished and

successful event as all relevant

indicators point towards this.

Businessman Adel al-Hail said

the 2022 World Cup has encour-

aged growth across all economic

sectors in the country, including

infrastructure, healthcare, edu-

cation, tourism and sports, as

well as other development and

services sectors, creating abun-

dant investment opportunities.

Countdown to 2022 starts as curtains ring down on 2018 Qatar Fan ZoneMore than 70,000 fans welcomed at Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena throughout month-long tournament

More than 70,000 fans thronged Qatar Fan Zone (QFZ) at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena

from June 14, when it opened its doors to the public for free, until July 15, to enjoy a taste of what is to come in 2022 when Qatar hosts the FIFA World Cup, the organisers have said.

QFZ wrapped up the carnival-like activities following a month of intense football fever.

Thanks to its giant screens, visitors were able to enjoy live screenings of all 64 matches, including simultaneous matches in the group stage in a stadi-um-like atmosphere.

In addition, QFZ’s visitors were treat-ed to entertainment shows and live mu-sic performances by stars from across the Arab world.

A special feature of QFZ was the Qatar-Russia Portal, which used in-novative live streaming technology to connect QFZ’s visitors to portals placed across football fan hotspots in Moscow and St Petersburg.

Qatar Fan Zone was organised by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), Ministry of Culture and Sports and Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA). Nasser al-Khater, assistant sec-retary-general for Tournament Aff airs at the SC, said: “We’ve been delighted to give people here in Qatar a real taste of what’s to come when we host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The atmosphere at the Fan Zone has been incredible and provided just a glimpse of what it will be like in just over four years’ time.

“The biggest sporting event in the world will soon be upon us and we can’t wait to bring Qatar’s communi-ties, and the world, on our incredible

journey along the road to 2022”.Qatar Fan Zone has been a highlight

of this year’s Qatar Summer Festival, which kicked off on the fi rst day of Eid al-Fitr. Organised by QTA, the 11-week festival is a nationwide celebration of the country’s diverse retail and hospi-tality off erings, complemented by a host of entertainment and sports activities.

Rashed al-Qurese, chief Marketing & Promotion offi cer at QTA, said: “We are very grateful for the unique input our partners at the Supreme Commit-tee and Ministry of Culture and Sports have brought to this highly successful fan zone. We look forward to continue working with our partners across mul-tiple sectors to implement the Next Chapter of Qatar National Tourism Strategy 2018-2023, which identifi es sports tourism as a priority sub-sector for strengthen Qatar’s position as an at-tractive tourism destination.”

Saud Aldolaimi, director of PR and Communication at the ministry, noted:

“I would like to thank all of those in-volved in putting on such a magnifi -cent event, and especially the teams at the SC and QTA. Qatar Fan Zone’s success is an example of what can be achieved with the collaborative eff orts of the country’s diff erent organisations. Events like these really bring to life the country’s passion for culture and sport and I’m looking forward to working with both bodies as we get ready to wel-come the world in Qatar in 2022.”

QFZ, presented by Qatari stand-up comedian Hamad al-Amari, off ered an array of international cultural perform-ances throughout the tournament, in-cluding a Moroccan band performance, Russian folk dances, Pixel Poi and Di-abolo shows, roaming parades and LED drummers.

Qatar Fan Zone was powered by Vo-dafone Qatar as the offi cial telecom-munications partner and supported by W Doha Hotel & Residences, the offi cial hospitality partner.

QFZ has wrapped up the carnival-like activities following a month of intense football fever.

SC, HIA successfully wrap up airport Fan ZoneThe Supreme Committee

for Delivery & Legacy (SC) and Hamad International

Airport (HIA) have wrapped up a month of activities held at the airport’s football Fan Zone throughout the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

The fan zone was a “huge suc-cess with 50,000 active par-ticipants enjoying the exciting matches in three beautifully themed areas, which were set up as a living room, a stadium and a majlis – a traditional Ara-bic seating area where guests are received”, according to a press statement.

As part of the festivities, the SC and HIA also launched a ‘digital portal’, providing foot-ball fans travelling through the airport with an interactive ex-perience by allowing them to view live streams of the diff erent landmarks in Russia during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, including Kamergersky Lane, Revolution-ary Square, Tsvetnoy Boulevard in Moscow, and Bolshaya Mor-skaya Street and Dvortsovaya Square in St Petersburg.

Football fans in Russia also had the opportunity to view the iconic yellow Lamp Bear at HIA through the portal.

The SC’s director of Com-munications, Fatma al-Nuaimi, said: “It’s now just over four years until Qatar welcomes the world to the fi rst World Cup to be

held in the Middle East, and the fi rst in the Arab world. It’s been fantastic to be able to give fans at HIA a real taste of things to come. We look forward to welcoming them all back for what we hope will be the best World Cup yet. Finally, I’d like to thank every-one involved in the Fan Zone and I look forward to working closely with HIA in the coming years.”

“Hamad International Airport

is truly a gateway to the world and the World Cup excitement this past month as we brought the action of 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia to our airport, ensur-ing that travellers never missed a moment of the worldwide foot-ball phenomenon. As the next FIFA World Cup destination, we wanted to bring the World Cup spirit to life by merging our world-class facilities, hospita-

ble culture and love for football,” said Abdulaziz al-Mass, vice-president Commercial and Mar-keting, HIA.

The entire terminal displayed a World Cup spirit with roaming entertainment, including football freestylers and jugglers, as well as impromptu football matches.

Pop-up activations with foos-ball games and virtual football were also available through-

out the month and fans had the chance to have their faces paint-ed with their favourite country’s fl ag. The airport Fan Zone wel-comed as many as 2,600 active participants on a single day, the statement noted.

In the spirit of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, offi cial memorabilia were also on sale at Qatar Duty Free stores. Shoppers had the opportunity to take selfi es with

the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia mascot, as well as take personal selfi es by the Lamp Bear area, which was transformed into a large football pitch.

The airport Fan Zone is the lat-est step in HIA’s preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. HIA, awarded ‘Best Airport in the Middle East by the Skytrax World Airport Awards for three years in a row, is instrumental in giving

the warmest welcome to thou-sands of football fans travelling from across the globe to Doha.

Qatar’s airport is aiming to provide seamless connectiv-ity for fans of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and working towards smoothly handling more than 50mn passengers per year and as many as 96,000 arriving pas-sengers per day during the World Cup period.

Fans pose for a group photo at the Fan Zone at HIA. Passengers watch a World Cup game at the Qatar Fan Zone at HIA.