Qatar-US relations very strong: Amir

QNAWASHINGTON

THE Amir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani and US Defence Secretary Mark T Esper held a meet-ing at the Pentagon on Monday.

At the beginning of the meet-ing, Esper welcomed the Amir, saying the relations between Qatar and the US are stronger than ever. He praised the strategic role played by the Al Udeid Air Base and its support for the American military.

He said Qatar’s willingness to host the US forces for a long time symbolises the close ties between the two countries.

He stressed the importance of these forces in supporting stability in the Middle East, and praised the efforts of Qatar in easing the cur-rent tensions.

As for Qatar’s continued prepa-rations for hosting the 2022 World Cup, he congratulated the Amir on this mega sporting event, describ-ing Doha as a “wonderful city” and stressing that the world will be very impressed by the hospitality of the Qatari people.

For his part, HH the Amir stressed that the two countries have strong strategic relations and will work together to ease tension in the region, which has been going through difficult periods for several years. He said if everyone works to-gether, the region will see de-escala-tion of tensions.

The Amir thanked Esper and said he’s looking forward to hosting Qatar 2022 World Cup and also for the next tournament in 2026 to be hosted by the US.

The meeting discussed the stra-tegic cooperation between the two countries and the means of develop-

ing them, particularly in the fields of defence, military and security. They also discussed regional and interna-tional developments, especially the joint efforts of the two countries to establish peace and stability in the region.

Qatar-US relations very strong: Amir

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHA

THE two-day Intra-Afghan peace talks in Doha, which were co-hosted by Qatar and Germany, ended on Monday with a pledge to reduce vio-lence in Afghanistan.

“We are very pleased for the success of the talks as a first step for peace and we thank them for their support for the ongoing talks in Qatar, which they consider important and positive in ending the con-flict in Afghanistan,” HE Dr Mutlaq bin Majid al Qahtani, Minister of Foreign Affairs’ Special Envoy for Counterter-rorism and Mediation in Con-flict Resolution, said.

He expressed hope that this event would mark the be-ginning of a meaningful pro-cess leading to a comprehen-sive and sustainable peace in Afghanistan.

He expressed his thanks to all Afghan participants for their constructive spirit in the dialogue.

The talks ended with a joint statement pledging a “roadmap for peace” based on the opening of a monitored peace process, return of in-ternally displaced people, and non-interference by regional powers in Afghanistan.

The joint statement in-cluded several important points, most notably a consen-sus among the participants in the conference that sustain-

able peace in Afghanistan will be achieved only through com-prehensive dialogue.

The statement stressed the importance of preventing Af-ghanistan from entering into other wars. It held the Afghan peace dialogue as important and decisive for the different sections of the society and stressed the need for the inter-national community to respect Afghan values.

Intra-Afghan peace talks a success, says Qahtani

Pakistan offers immediate free visas to Qatari passport holdersDOHA Pakistani authorities have decided to grant im-mediate entry visas (tourist/visit) to all Qatari passport holders, for one or several trips and for a period of 30 days which is extendable for an additional 30 days, an of-ficial source at the Consular Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said. The requirements include a valid passport for at least six months, a round trip ticket and cash equiva-lent of $1,500 or a valid credit card. (QNA)

UAE reducing troops in war-torn Yemen (PG 7 )

AMIR TO MEET US PRESIDENT AT WHITE HOUSE TODAY

PM reviews SJC digital transformation plans

QNADOHA

PRIME Minister and Minister of Interior HE Sheikh Abdul-lah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al Thani on Monday directed the concerned bodies in the state to support the plans of the Su-preme Judiciary Council (SJC) on digital transformation.

The PM urged joint efforts of the executive and judicial authorities to achieve the de-sired justice to serve the in-terests of all members of the society and meet the aspira-tions and objectives of Qatar National Vision 2030.

This came as the PM, ac-companied by Minister of Transport and Communications and Chairman of the e-Govern-ment Steering Committee HE Jassim bin Saif al Sulaiti, paid a visit to the SJC headquarters in Lusail City on Monday.

The PM reviewed the achievements made by the SJC and its accomplishments in the digital transformation plan. The PM also reviewed

the efforts at adopting modern technology in judicial work to meet the vision of the state in digital transformation as part of the e-Government Strategy.

During the visit, SJC Presi-dent HE Dr Hassan bin Lah-dan al Hassan al Muhannadi gave a presentation on the most important features of the

digital transformation plan.He reviewed the e-services

developed within the frame-work of the digital transfor-mation plan, which will help speed up completion of the tasks and achieve the desired justice.

Continued on page 2

Continued on page 16

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al Thani at the SJC headquarters in Lusail City on Monday.

The Amir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani and US Defence Secretary Mark T Esper held a meeting at the Pentagon on Mon-day. The Amir arrived in Washing-ton on Monday on an official visit to the US; (right) The Amir was welcomed upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base by Acting Chief of Protocol at the US Department of State Mary-Kate Fisher, Deputy As-sistant Secretary of State for Gulf Affairs Tim Linder King, Ambas-sador of Qatar to the US HE Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad al Thani, and members of the Qatari Embassy and Qatar’s Defence Attache Office in Washington.

Members of the Afghan delegations during the second day of the Intra-Afghan talks in Doha on Monday. (AFP)

Amir’s visit affirms strength of Qatar-US relations

QNADOHA

THE Amir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani began an of-ficial visit to the US on Monday. The Amir will meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday to discuss ways to en-hance strategic cooperation be-tween the two countries in differ-ent fields. They will also exchange views on the latest regional and international developments.

The Amir is also set to meet a number of high-ranking US ad-ministration officials and Con-gress members.

The visit will see the signing of several memorandums of under-standing (MoUs) and agreements between the two countries in the fields of defence, energy, invest-ment and aerial transport.

The White House said the visit would contribute to enhancing economic and security ties, in ad-dition to discussing latest regional developments, security coopera-tion and counter-terrorism issues.

The visit marks a new mile-stone in the strategic ties the two countries enjoy, and will contrib-ute to establishing stability and security regionally as well as on a global level.

The visit also coincides with several regional and international developments that require further consultation and coordination be-tween the two sides.

Qatar-US ties stretch back all the way to 1972, when diplomatic relations were first established fol-lowing the independence of Qatar. Ties developed rapidly in the 90s, in light of the strategic partner-

ship in the economy, investment, defence and culture. The last visit of the Amir to the US was in 2018, when he met with Trump, who stressed on the strength of bilat-eral ties.

The strategic dialogue between the two countries, which has seen two rounds so far, is a reflection of strong bilateral ties in all fields.

A joint statement on the out-comes of the latest round of talks saw both sides expressing their support to expanding bilateral ties and cooperation. The two sides stressed their commitment to enhancing commerce and invest-ment, highlighting the strength of bilateral trade. Qatar highlighted the US as its biggest trading part-ner in terms of import, with 18 percent of Qatar’s total imports coming from the US in 2018.

Qatar-US relations have been strong and well established for more than 45 years.

Qatar has a distinct position on the US relations map as an ally, a strategic partner, and a re-liable friend of the US. These ties have developed significantly since the 1990s, especially in the fields of economy, investment, defence and culture. The two countries have extensive economic ties and the Qatar-US Business Forum was held in Doha last October.

In parallel with the visit of the Amir to the US last April, Qatar organised an economic roadshow in several US cities that resulted in the signing of a number of MoUs and trade agreements establishing effective partnerships and joint in-vestments benefiting both sides.

The two countries will work together to ease tension in the region

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Aster to facilitate neurosurgeryin India for patients in Qatar

CATHERINE W GICHUKIDOHA

ASTER DMH is planning to create a pathway for their patients in Qatar to facilitate their neurosurgery at Aster Medcity in Cochin in India.

Aster Hospital will also provide consultations as well as follow-up after the patients’ return from India in Qatar.

One of the most reputed neurosurgeons in India and senior consultant Dr Dilip Panikar will be visiting Qa-tar for consultations,

Dr Panikar is experi-enced in the field pg neu-rosurgery, neuro-oncology and skull-base surgery, reconstructive surgery for craniofacial deformities, functional neurosurgery and neurovascular surgery.

Speaking at a press con-ference on Monday, Aster DMH Qatar CEO Dr Sameer Moopan said, “We are here to explore opportunities for neurosurgery. For the last six years, we have a neurolo-gist in one of our clinics and we are seeing lots of cases there and treating them. However, we don’t have the

facility for neurosurgery here. So, we thought it was a good idea to support these patients by having continu-ity in treatment.”

He added that there has been a remarkable growth for healthcare in Qatar and Aster Hospital Doha has emerged as a preferred des-tination for patient needs.

Aster Hospital’s Chief Operating Officer Dr Kapil Chib said, “We are planning to start with providing con-sultation. As time goes by, we might graduate to basic surgeries and then venture into wide range of services.”

He said that they will start with consultation ser-vices for the outpatient de-

partment. He added that Dr Pani-

kar will visit Qatar once in a while, noting that initial diagnosis and follow-up can be done here. “Our commit-ment to patient safety and offering world class services has helped us achieve good treatment results and patient satisfaction.”

Dr Panikar said, “We work across the disciplines to offer the best to our patients. We are looking at ways by which we can increase in-volvement of Aster Med-city in Cochin with the Aster Hospital in Doha to offer pa-tients in Doha all advanced kinds of treatments.”

He said that some of the services like surgeries may not be feasible at the Aster Hospital here because it re-quires a huge amount of in-frastructural investment and upgrades.

He added, “What we can offer, however, is a seamless connectivity and transition whereby these procedures can be done at Cochin at Med-city.” He added that the cost of the treatment will be af-fordable.

Contact US: Qatar Tribune I EDITORIAL I Phone: 40002222 I ADMINISTRATION & MARKETING I Phone: 40002155, 40002122, Fax: 40002235 P.O. Box: 23493, Doha.

QNADOHA

THE Speaker of the Shura Council HE Ahmed bin Abdul-lah bin Zaid al Mahmoud on Monday briefed the council on the results of his official visits to Portugal and Geneva recently.

Speaking at Shura Council’s weekly meeting, Mahmoud mentioned the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) be-tween the Shura Council and the Portuguese Republic As-sembly to enhance coopera-tion and his fruitful meetings with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal Augusto Santos Silva and the Chairman of Twelve Plus Group Duarte Pacheco.

Mahmoud led the council’s delegation to Portugal at the invitation of the President of

the Assembly of the Repub-lic of Portugal Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues.

He also briefed the council

on his visit to Geneva where he attended the celebrations of the 130th anniversary of the Inter-Parliamentary Un-

ion (IPU) and met the IPU president, secretary-general and the chairman of the Fed-eration Council of the Federal

Assembly of the Russian Fed-eration.

In his speech on the occa-sion, the speaker also talked about the council’s role in de-veloping the relations of the State of Qatar with sisterly and friendly countries, praising in particular the role of the par-liamentary friendship groups established by the council with various countries in the world.

Meanwhile, the Secre-tary-General of the council HE Fahad bin Mubarak al Khayareenread Decree No 34 for 2019 adjourning the 47th regular session of the Shura Council as of Tuesday 6th of Dhu Al-Qa’dah, 1440, corre-sponding to July 9, 2019.

He also read out the Amiri Decree No. 27 for 2019 extend-ing the Shura Council term for two years, beginning on July 1, 2019 and ending on June 30, 2021.

The Speaker praised the role of parliamentary friendship the council opened with various countries of the world

Speaker of the Shura Council HE Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid al Mahmoud and other members of the Shura Council at a meeting on Monday.

Mahmoud briefs Shura members on positive outcomes of his Portugal and Geneva visits

QGOSM takes part in Codex SessionQNADOHA

QATAR General Organisation for Standards and Metrology (QGOSM) is participating in the 42nd session of the Co-dex Alimentarius Commis-sion (CODEX), being held in Geneva from July 8 to 12, with a delegation led by QGOSM-Chairman Eng Mohammed bin Saud al Musallam.

The session is held under the provisions of the Constitu-tion of CODEX, and is open to member states and associated states of the UN Food and Ag-

riculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organi-zation (WHO).

The meetings will discuss a range of issues related to food safety and quality standards, such as ensuring fair practices in the food industry, and the technical issues related to leg-islation and standards of food and agricultural products. It will also review the reports of the FAO and WHO joint Coor-dination Committees.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission comprises 187 countries and the European Union.

MoEHE advises parents to obtain children’s certificates from service centres

QNADOHA

THE Ministry of Education and Higher Education an-nounced on Monday that par-ents of students from grade 1-12 can get their children’s certificates as well as its copies at government service centres.

The ministry said that the people can obtain the certifi-cates from 10 service centres

at Al Khor, Al Daayen, Al Onaiza, The Pearl, Al Sha-haniya, Umm Salal, Al Wakra, Al Hilal, Mesaimeer and Al Rayyan.

Secondary school students and those seeking certificate equivalency service can ob-tain their certificates from the main building of the depart-ment of Certificate Attestation and Equivalency, located on C Ring Road.

Qatar participates in Arab libraries meeting in Cairo

QNACAIRO

THE first regional conference of the Digital Map for Arab Li-braries and Information Cent-ers was held at the headquar-ters of the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States in Cairo on Monday.

Qatar attended a coordina-tion meeting on Monday at the League headquarters, with the delegation headed by Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the Arab League Ambassador

Ibrahim bin Abdulazizal Sah-lawi.

The Digital Map of Arab Libraries and Information Centers is the first non-profit Arab project to enhance the geographical information awareness of Arab libraries and information centres of all types.

It also aims to identify their locations on the map of the Arab world in order to achieve the goals of sustain-able development in Arab so-cieties.

Silatech, OHCHR join hands for global youth empowerment


THE CEO of Silatech Sabah al Haidoos met the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Michelle Bachelet in Geneva recently and agreed to cooper-ate in a partnership to develop initiatives and programmes for global youth empowerment in alignment with international human rights treaties and agreements.

This partnership is a mile-stone and the outcome of the strategic meeting that took place between Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the founder and chairperson of Si-latech’s Board of Trustees and the high commissioner for hu-man rights on the margins of Silatech’s high-level forum in Geneva.

The partnership between Silatech and UN High Com-mission for Human Rights (OHCHR) will promote the rights of young people and fo-cus on their right to decent work and a decent life in alignment with international human rights treaties and agreements.

The proposed areas of part-nership between Silatech and the UN High Commission for Human Rights are mainly youth

empowerment programmes and initiatives to advocate for global youth issues.

Commenting on this part-nership, Silatech’s CEO Haid-oos stated: “We are very pleased to have this strategic and valu-able partnership with the Unit-ed Nations High Commission for Human Rights represented by the High Commissioner-Mrs Michelle Bachelet. We have agreed to take immedi-ate action to make sure that its deliverables are executed promptly and on a timely basis. Firstly, we have introduced an integrated framework for the partnership that illustrates the theme, ‘Youth empowerment in the light of global human rights system’. This framework will

promote advocacy programmes and initiatives on broader is-sues affecting young people”.

“Silatech has suggested we have a joint initiative to pro-mote youth rights in areas of armed conflict and in fragile states. It will help protect those who suffer from discrimination and grave human rights viola-tions. The initiative aims at reforming national laws, strate-gies and plans that are related to youth”, added Haidoos.

Silatech has recently been actively involved in establishing strategic partnerships as part of its ongoing pursuit to eco-nomically and socially empow-er youth and to achieve some of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

OHCHR’ Michelle Bachelet with CEO of Silatech Sabah al Haidoos.

Aster DMH Qatar CEO Dr Sameer Moopan and other officials at a press conference in Doha on Monday.

PM lauds SJC for digital transformationContinued from page 1

DURING the presentation, the PM was briefed on the digital transformation plan in the SJC and all courts and departments affiliated to it, which aims to provide advanced services.

The digital transformation plan of the SJC includes the pro-vision of electronic services re-lated to the public, lawyers and litigation procedures through the development of electronic systems to manage sessions, the establishment of session rooms equipped with advanced tech-nical means, in addition to the provision of electronic payment services and judicial notices and electronic integration with the relevant government agencies.

The digital transformation plan also includes the cessation

of paper transactions related to the implementation of judg-ments in accordance with devel-oped procedures aimed at pre-serving the interests of litigants and ensuring the privacy of data and providing multiple alterna-

tives to implement the rulings.The PM was also briefed on

one of the initiatives of digital transformation, which is the establishment of an operation room for government liaison to speed up the implementation of

judicial decisions and improve the quality of the implementa-tion of sentences and the de-velopment of their procedures, thus contributing to protect-ing the rights of litigants and achieving justice.

The PM praised the SJC’s achievement in the field of digi-tal transformation and the ad-vanced electronic services pro-vided to all concerned, which contributes to the development of the judicial system.

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al Thani on a visit to the Supreme Judiciary Council on Monday.

“We are here to explore opportunities for neurosur-gery. For the last six years, we have a neurologist in one of our clinics and we are seeing lots of cases there and treating them,” said Dr Samer Moopan.


QATAR Charity (QC) recently organ-ised a roundtable discussion on the ‘Humanitarian and Development Challenges of Internal Displacement in the Arab World’, in cooperation with the Center for Conflict and Hu-manitarian Studies at Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, and Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

The event was part of the collabo-rative efforts between QC and IDMC, which resulted in the publication of the Arabic version of the Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) 2019.

The discussion was held at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and moderated by Professor Sultan Barakat, director of the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies.

The event was attended by Al-exandra Bilak, director of IMDC, Mohammed al Ghamdi, assistant

CEO for Governance & Institutional Development at QC, other partici-pants representing Qatari civil soci-ety organisations, in addition to re-searchers and those interested in the issues of the displaced, refugees and migrants.

The participants discussed the main reasons that lead to internal dis-placement and its effects, especially in the Arab region where large com-munities are suffering due to disasters and conflicts. They also examined the outputs of the annual report of this year 2019 issued by IDMC and the im-portance of its Arabic version, under-lining the need for a universal political will to eliminate the phenomenon of internal displacement.

Bilak presented a summary of GRID 2019, mentioning the most significant conditions of internal displacement across the world. She highlighted the political efforts need-ed to address the effects of internal displacement, stressing that internal displacement had become a chronic problem concentrated in urban set-

tings, which requires concerted do-mestic and international efforts to de-velop policies and improve practices to address the problem.

“The phenomenon of internal displacement is very pervasive in the Arab and Muslim world for several factors, including human factors like internal conflicts and human rights violations in some countries including Syria and Yemen, as well as natural factors like disasters,” said Professor Sultan Barakat, director of the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Stud-ies. “The presence of human factors along with natural factors in an area can ultimately lead to a major human-itarian catastrophe,” he added.

Ghamdi said, “The roundtable came as part of the cooperation be-tween QC, IDMC and Doha Institute for Graduate Studies to discuss the is-sues of the displaced and share ideas with interested people. Efforts should be made to take advantage of the data and information provided in the an-nual report of IDMC and deliver its findings to the decision-makers.”


HAMAD Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Center for Patient Ex-perience and Staff Engagement (CPESE), under the leadership of Nasser al Naimi, deputy chief of Quality, CPESE and direc-tor of the Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute, held a dinner recently to recognise members of its Patient-Family Advisory Councils (PFAC).

The purpose of the dinner was to acknowledge the coun-cil’s members and thank them for their vital contribution.

“In December 2018, we formed PFACs across five of our sites. These PFAC groups meet

monthly to discuss concerns that influence patients’ and family members’ experiences, to prioritise patient experi-ence improvement initiatives, to work with hospital teams to design and implement these initiatives, and to guide HMC

in its future endeavours around the delivery of person-centred care,” said Naimi.

“Working with patients and families as advisors at the organisational level is a criti-cal component of patient and family engagement at HMC.

This person-centric approach to care ensures that the service we provide at HMC best meets the needs, values and preferences of our patients and their family members. Our PFAC members are valuable partners and this celebratory dinner was about

recognising them and their con-tribution to improving health-care,” added Naimi.

PFACs are made up of pa-tients, families and caregivers who collaborate with clinical, administrative and support staff at HMC to provide guidance on how to enhance the patient and family experience.

Around 55 patient and fam-ily members are currently part of HMC’s PFACs, with each council meeting monthly and representing the Ambulatory Care Center, Enaya Specialized Care Center, Communicable Disease Center, Home Health-care Service and the Private Nursing Service. Members of the various councils represent

the patient population and the community at large and include both Qatari and expatriate rep-resentatives.

Naimi said while the PFACs are currently being piloted at five sites, there are plans to form PFAC’s at each of the HMC hos-pitals and facility in the future.

HMC is currently working towards the prestigious Plan-etree Person-Centred Care certi-fication; the only programme of its kind, the certification formal-ly recognises an organisation’s ability to deliver excellence in person-centred care and is de-signed to connect healthcare professionals with the voices and perspectives of patients and their families.

Nation 03Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Qatar, Dominican Republic hold political talks

The Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Qatar and the Dominican Republic held a round of political consultations in Doha on Monday. The Qatari side was led by Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs HE Dr Ahmed bin Hassan al Hammadi, while the Dominican side was headed by Dr Carlos Gabriel Garcia, Vice-Minister for Economic Affairs and Relations with the Dominican Community Abroad. During the political consultations, they discussed bilateral relations between the two countries and the ways of developing them, in addition to a number of issues of mutual concern. (QNA)

Qatar stresses firm supportfor the Palestinian cause

QNADOHA

THE State of Qatar stressed on Monday its firm support to the Palestinian people and their right to establish an independent state based on the borders of 1967, with East Al Quds as its capital.

This came during the statement of Qatar in the general debate held under item 7 of the 41st session of the Human Rights Council, which addresses the human rights situa-tion in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.

The statement was delivered by the Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva Ambassador HE Ali Khal-fan al Mansouri. He stressed the

importance of maintaining item 7 as a main component of the work of the council due to the role it plays in highlighting the crimes and human rights violations committed by the world’s last occupying country.

Mansouri said that Palestine has been suffering over the past decades, which saw wars, peace agreements and negotiations that all did not lead to a comprehensive resolution. He warned that further failure in that regard would have dangerous repercussions for the Middle-East and the entire world.

The ambassador expressed re-gret regarding the deterioration of humanitarian conditions in Gaza as a result of the siege and the bar-baric Israeli military operations. He highlighted in particular the tragic conditions that children and wom-

en live under in Gaza, calling on the international community to take all the necessary measures to end the siege and support reconstruction efforts.

He also called on the interna-tional community to reject all Ju-daisation attempts of Al Quds as well as any attempts to change the city’s historic and legal status, which would be in violation of the UN Se-curity Council resolution no. 2334.

Mansouri concluded the state-ment by stressing that comprehen-sive peace in the Middle-East has to be the strategic choice. He added that the only way to achieve that would be by ending Israeli occupa-tion of Palestinian and Arab land, as well as supporting the rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination.

Ministry raises awareness aboutprotection of endangered species

QNA DOHA

THE Protection and Wildlife Depart-ment at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) organised an event to raise awareness of the im-portance of the Convention on Inter-national Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The event focused on the conven-tion’s components, objectives and contribution to the protection of en-dangered species.

Director of Protection and Wildlife

Department Omar Salem al Nuaimi said the event is part of the ministry’s efforts to implement its commitment to CITES, by ensuring that employees and state ports concerned with the control and entry of endangered spe-cies into the country are informed and provided with the necessary informa-tion to combat illicit trade and focus on the implementation of CITES.

He added that, during the event, they reviewed the mechanism and method of work of Qatar National Plan to combat illegal trade in ivory and explain its implementation with

the authorities concerned in the State.During the event, some ancient

extinct wild species were presented, as well as the current extinct animals, which are included in the convention, in addition to samples of endangered wildlife species, types and forms of ivory and the Qatar National Plan.

The reasons for threat of some ex-tinct species and methods of the inter-national trade in endangered species under the convention were presented.

The event also emphasised the importance of joint efforts to protect wildlife species from extinction.

HMC thanks PFAC members for their contribution to person-centred care

Over 65 people attended HMC’s dinner to recognise members of its Patient-Family Advisory Councils.

QC-hosted roundtable discusses ways toend internal displacement in Arab world

Ministry recalls Ferrari modelsTHE Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI), in coop-eration with Alfardan Sports Motors, dealer of Ferrari in Qatar, has announced the re-call of Ferrari 488 GTB, 488 Spider, 488 Pista and 812 Su-perfast models of 2015-2019 due to a possible defect in the fuel vapour separator which may cause the fuel to evapo-rate or leak.

The ministry said the recall comes as part of its continuous efforts to protect consumers and ensure that car dealers follow up on vehicle defects and repairs.

The ministry has urged all customers to report any violations to its Consumer Protection and Anti-Com-mercial Fraud Department, which processes com-plaints, inquiries and sug-gestions. (TNN)

04 Tuesday, July 9, 2019 Nation

AILYN AGONIADOHA

THE Brotherhood Organiza-tion (TBO), a non-profit Filipi-no group comprising eight dif-ferent fraternities with chapters in Qatar will open the fourth season of its basketball league at the Aspire Ladies Sports Hall on Friday.

The tourna-ment is part of TBO’s mission to promote unity and cama-raderie among different Filipino groups through var-ied sporting events.

The tournament which will be running for about three months will see participation of teams from Alpha Kappa Rho - Qatar (AKP-Q), Confederation of Ilocano Association, Inc (CI-ASI), Scouts Royale Brother-hood Qatar Alumni Association (SRB-QAA), Triskelion State of Qatar (TSOQ), Alpha Phi Ome-

ga Qatar Alumni Association-97 (APO), and the Reformed and United Guardians Brotherhood International Inc (RUGBII).

According to the AKP-Q Chairman Daryl Jan Violenta, TBO was formed in 2013 and since then has been able to

unite the different groups through sports like

basketball, bil-liards, bowling,

darts and board games competi-tions. The up-coming basket-ball tournament

is testament to the commitment

of the mission of the brotherhood.

Aside from Violenta, the other leaders of the TBO member groups are John Pau-lo Soriano of SRB-QAA, Fran-cis Bongco of TSOQ, Aldwin Fernandez of APO, Manny Ca-mato of RUGBII, JoniferLaza of BatangasVarsitarian and Ed Dela Cruz of Alpha Sigma Phi-Qatar.

Filipino teams to slug it out in TBO Basketball League Season 4 TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

QATAR’S leading telecommu-nications operator will spon-sor three exciting live shows coming to Doha this summer, the telecom company an-nounced on Monday.

Ooredoo will be the of-ficial telecommunications sponsor of The Smurfs, Hel-lo Kitty and Blue Man shows, being brought to the Qatar National Convention Centre stage in July and August by entertainment management agency Alchemy Project.

The Smurfs show will run from July18 to 20, Hello Kitty from July 25 to 27 and Blue Man from August14 to 17.

Ooredoo will be run-ning a Twitter contest giving away tickets for the shows.

Customers simply need to watch out for the Twitter post related to the shows, retweet and mention three friends, to get a chance to win free tickets.

ManarKhalifa al Murai-khi, director, PR and Cor-

porate Communications at Ooredoo, said: “We’re very happy to be supporting a host of great summer events happening in Qatar this sea-son.

“We’re also delighted to be working with Alchemy Project to bring such popu-lar shows to Doha, and look forward to enjoying some family-friendly fun on stage this summer.”

Full details and tickets are available at tixbox.qa.

Ooredoo to sponsor summer family shows

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1182-2019THREE YEARS ANNUAL MAINTENANCE CONTRACT (AMC)

FOR PERKIN ELMER INSTRUMENTS FOR WATER UNIT AT CFL - For more information :www.MOPH.gov.qa Announcement

500 10,000Two

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GTC/944/2019Three years Call-Off Contract for Network Devices

km.qaIT Department

7,000 700,000Two

Envelopes25/07/2019

LTC/1327/2018Three(3) Years Call Off Contract for Cleaning of Water Storage

Facilities in Different Locations.km.qa

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1,000 100,000Two (2)

Envelopes 18/08/2019

LTC/1417/2019VMware Enterprise License Support

km.qaIT Department

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Ministry of Municipality and Environment

TC/B/57-1118/2019 Maintenance and Keeping of Plantations and Irrigation Networks, 6th Group, Al Rayyan Municipality for (Public Parks Dept.) 1,600 160,000

2 Envelopes(Technical and

financial proposals)21/07/2019

QMM/100/2019Preventive maintenance and pest control in the Amiri Diwan (Old and New Building), New Maintenance Palace, West Bay Villa and Dukhan

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QMM/101/2019 Provision of 5000 Flags of the State of Qatar 500 22,500One Envelope(Technical and


QMM/102/2019 Execution and installation of digital and multi-format printing on demand for two years 500 20,000



QMM/103/2019 Purchase and supply of back-up repair materials for various types of tanks upon request 500 20,000



QMM/104/2019 Purchase and supply hand trolley for garbage collection 500 23,500One Envelope(Technical and


Ministry of InteriorPurchase Department

1174/2019Bidding

Leasing of (14) sites for installation of ATM Machines at MOI affiliated buildings for (3) years

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to site

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1197/2019 Supply of Sport outfits for the Support Section, Establishments and Authorities Security Dept.

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AHLIBANK, one of the leading financial institutions in Qatar, organised a blood donation campaign at its head office in Al Sadd, in partnership with Ham-ad Medical Corporation (HMC).

The campaign’s objective was to contribute to and sup-port the blood bank in Qatar

and to raise awareness of the importance of donating blood.

Ahlibank’s Deputy CEO - Business Support Services Mohamed al Namla said, “The campaign was very successful and employees were enthusi-astic to participate and donate blood. We are proud of the great response from our staff. This humanitarian awareness cam-paign is part of the bank’s com-

mitment within the community and in line with its Corporate Social Responsibility.”

He added, “I would like to thank Hamad Medical Corpo-ration (HMC) for its contin-ued support for this campaign which aims to support the blood bank reserve in Qatar hospitals and promote employ-ee awareness on the impor-tance of blood donation.

The campaign aims to contribute to and support the blood bank in Qatar and raise awareness of the importance of donating blood.

Ahlibank staff donate blood to help save lives

Nation 05Tuesday, July 9, 2019


QATAR Airways (QA), an Offi-cial Partner and the Official Air-line of FIFA, has congratulated the US on the outstanding win of the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, following a month of football excitement throughout France.

The final took place in Lyon, France on July 7, with medals and individual player awards presented by QA’s cabin crew.

QA Group Chief Executive Akbar al Baker said: “I would like to congratulate Team US on their win against Team Neth-erlands. We now look forward with tremendous anticipation to 2022, when a FIFA World Cup 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.”In May, the airline issued a

new marketing campaign film supporting the competition,

capturing the excitement of fans all over the world who will be watching the tournament as well as the thousands travelling to France to cheer their national team.

QA’s Senior Vice-President Marketing and Corporate Com-munications Salam al Shawa said: “I want to congratulate the US for their exceptional perfor-mance and commend them for showing young women and girls everywhere the heights that they can reach. We are incredi-bly proud to be the Official Part-ner and Official Airline of FIFA, and are looking forward to FIFA World Cup 2022.”

The airline’s partnerships build on its existing sponsor-ship strategy for the most popu-lar sport in the world.

Qatar Airways congratulates Team USA for win at FIFA Women’s WC France 2019


A student at the College of Health and Life Sciences (CHLS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) has re-ceived recognition from the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) for her outstanding research on dia-betes.

Bushra Memon, cur-rently pursuing her PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, was honoured with the ISSCR Abstract Merit Award during the 2019 ISS-CR Conference in Los Ange-les, United States.

Her research examines how human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived pancre-atic beta cell progenitors present a promising alter-native to traditional means of treatment for diabetes.

The research was con-ducted under the guidance of Dr Essam M. Abdelalim, an assistant professor at CHLS and a scientist at the Diabetes Research Center at Qatar Biomedical Re-search Institute (QBRI) – part of HBKU.

Through her research, the HBKU student discov-ered that these novel hPSC-derived beta cell precursors can be used as a promising alternative source of insu-lin-secreting cells for cell therapy for diabetes and studying human pancreatic beta cell development.

Commenting on the achievement, Memon said, “I am grateful to Dr Abde-lalim whose guidance and

support as my adviser not only gave me confidence in my research endeavour but also ensured I had access to a state-of-the-art laborato-ry and was able to tap into his expertise.”

CHLS delivers graduate programmes in biomedi-cal and biological sciences, and in genomics and preci-sion medicine, enriching its students with knowledge and hands-on experience in basic, clinical and transla-tional research approaches.

Dr Abdelalim said, “Dia-betes is a prevalent illness in the region and a key med-ical challenge for Qatar. Through our research, we are committed to promot-ing a deeper understand-ing of the illness so that we may be better equipped to formulate advanced means of diagnosis and treatment. It is a proud moment for all of us to have the work of one of our students rec-ognised and honoured on a global stage.”

Dr Edward Stuenkel, founding dean of CHLS, said: “CHLS is dedicated to offering its students an integrated learning expe-rience where theoretical course work is comple-mented by hands-on re-search. Our strong empha-sis on research ensures that our students graduate with the right tools to address the most pressing chal-lenges in Qatar and further afield.”

CHLS offers five gradu-ate programmes: Master of Science in Biological and Bi-omedical Sciences; Master of Science in Genomics and Precision Medicine; Master of Science in Exercise Sci-ence; PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences; and PhD in Genomics and Preci-sion Medicine.

HBKU’s CHLS student honoured by ISSCR for stem cell research


AL Jazeera Centre for Studies (AJCS) and the Berlin-based Dialogue of Civilizations In-stitute (DOC), under the aus-pices of the Tunisian presi-dency, recently organised an international symposium in Tunis, titled ‘Islam and Eu-rope: Overcoming Differenc-es, Sharing Paths.’

A distinguished group of researchers and experts from several Arab, Islamic and Eu-ropean countries specialis-ing in religion, civilisational dialogue, political and civil rights, political science and social sciences, attended the symposium.

There were four main pan-els at the symposium, followed by focus group discussions among three groups of partici-pants. The first panel chaired by Scherto Gill, executive sec-retary at the Guerrand-Her-mès Foundation for Peace, addressed the topic of Islam’s impact on Europe, looking at three specific issues: social and cultural dimensions, ef-fects on public policies and the prospects for multicultur-al and multi-faith dialogue.

The second panel ad-dressed the influence of the Western culture on Islamic

societies. Chaired by Moham-med Cherkaoui, senior re-searcher at AJSC, the panel approached the issue from three perspectives: influences on Islamic states, influences on Muslims in Europe and prospects for multicultural and multi-faith dialogue.

The first two panels and focus groups helped identify a set of challenges to bridg-ing divides between Europe, European Muslims and the Islamic world and began to lay out an alternative vision

to bring views together and establish practical approaches to facilitate cultural, religious and civilisational dialogue be-tween the two sides.

The third panel, titled ‘The Strategic Foresight’ and chaired by Jean-Christophe Bas, president and executive director of DOC, offered more than 30 participants an open, interactive platform to follow up on the previous discus-sions and exchange views. The discussion spotlighted several issues raised by participants,

including the problem of defining Islam and eschew-ing generalisations to avoid reaching shortsighted, par-tial conclusions. Participants also stressed the importance of remembering the cultural and historical dimensions of the religions of the region’s peoples and supporting the foundations for coexistence, arguing that many of the ide-as about these religions have been influenced more by cul-tural and historical factors than by facts about their reli-

gious and legal structure. Noting that ideas that

were difficult to accept in the past become more acceptable with time, participants said that this is often forgotten in the discussion of current is-sues. While people engaged in such discussions may believe certain issues are impervious to change, the history of ideas shows that acceptance and understanding of these con-cepts may simply be a matter of time.

At the end of the sym-posium, Cherkaoui said in his closing speech that the distinguishing feature of this research gathering is its epistemological approach, which seeks to develop prac-tical tools and mechanisms to apply alternative ideas, vi-sions, and conceptions for acceptance of the other; and to transmit foundations for a shared existence based on mutual understanding and in-terests.

Cherkaoui said that AJCS “as a think-tank in the global South, looks forward to col-laborating with DOC and the presidency of Tunisia, in line with the spirit and vision of the globally-sought trajectory of the dialogue of civilisations in an era of right-wing politics, populism and extremism.

AJCS, DOC meet discusses Islam, Europe, power of cultural dialogue

A distinguished group of researchers and experts participated in the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies and the Dialogue of Civilisation symposium in Tunis recently.

A panel addressed the influence of the Western culture on Islamic societies at the symposium


QATARDEBATE Center (QD), a member of Qatar Foundation (QF), organised the US Debate Building Program to prepare for the upcoming first-ever Arabic Debating Championship for uni-versities to be organised by Qa-tarDebate and hosted by Harvard University in the US in October.

The US Debate Building Pro-gram was hosted by University of Chicago.

Abdulrahman al Subaie, head of Outreach Program, QD, said: “The workshop brings together coaches and team leaders from more than 15 universities across the US to prepare for the upcom-ing first-ever Arabic Debating Championship for universities which will be organized by Qa-tarDebate and will be hosted by Harvard University next October in the USA.”

He pointed out that, on the sidelines of the workshop, QD held a mini forum for academics and participants on the presented proposals to strengthen relations with QatarDebate and the foun-dations of cooperation to develop teams and enable students to learn how to debate in Arabic for Arabic & non-Arabic speakers.

Featuring intensive workshop extended for three consecutive

days, the workshop focused on adjudication skills and training according to QD standards and the trainees’ test to determine their level and developing them in preparation for the champion-ship.

The workshop featured 20 participants from Lindblom acad-emy in Chicago, Western Ken-tucky University, University of Utah, Northwestern University, Georgetown University, New York University, University of Chicago, and DePaul University-commu-nity College in Chicago, Harvard University, Princeton University,

Brigham Young University, and College of Charleston.

The participants emphasised the role of QatarDebate Center through the workshop to establish standards for debate and equip qualified trainers to spread the art of debate in Arabic across the USA. “It was a great experience, and I look forward to passing the knowledge I gained here to the students” Dr Abdallah Shuaibi from DePaul University said.

“One of the objectives of Qa-tarDebate’s outreach programmes is to spread the debate culture in Arabic all around the world” Dr

Noah Forster from University of Chicago said.

“QatarDebate gave me the op-portunity not just to spread the debate culture, but also the Arabic language across North America” Lhousseine Guerwane from West-ern Kentucky University said.

The participants in the “US Debate Capacity Building Pro-gram” expressed their happiness in participating in the workshop, which acquainted them with a great deal of information and ex-tensive experience, underscoring its excellence, demanding its con-tinuation in the long term.

QatarDebate setting stage for first-everArabic debating championship in the US

g g

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The Tender Committee at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 announces the issuing of the following tenders:

IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 PUBLIC TENDER ADVERTISEMENT

Tender documents Fee to be paid in cash at, The Finance Section on the 14th floor of the QOC Building and is non-refundable at all cases.

Collection of Tender Documents from the Tender Committee on the th floor on the QOC Building at the West Bay. (Against submission of copy of C.R. and authorization letter).

Closing Date: At 11:00 AM on the Closing Date specified above. No tenders will be received thereafter. All forms and schedules attached to the Tender Document, including the Tender Form and its appendices, shall be

completed and endorsed as required and shall be returned together with the other sections of the Tender Document including the original + a copy of the same. Tenders are to be submitted following the 2-separate envelope system (technical and commercial) 1 original and 1 copy) along with 2 soft copies (one technical in the technical envelope, one commercial in the commercial envelope).and any tender not complying with this requirement shall be disregarded.

A Tender Bond in the form of a provisional bank letter of guarantee endorsed by a bank operating in the State of Qatar shall be submitted together with the Tender. The bond shall be valid for a period of 120 days after the Closing Date as indicated above and shall be in the same format attached to the Tender Document.

The tender Bond shall be submitted in the envelope enclosing the technical bid. The successful Bidders shall be required to submit a Performance Bond in the value of 10% of the accepted tender

value. The Committee shall have the right to increase or decrease the quantities up to 20% of the Contract Value. The Committee shall have the right not to accept the lowest bid without giving any reason. The Tender shall be valid for a period of 120 days after the Closing Date. Tenders are to be submitted in wax sealed envelopes to the Tender Committee at the 13th floor on QOC Building, along

with a soft copy CD inside each envelope. You are also required to provide a single point of contact (name, email, direct phone, mobile) for any further queries regarding this tender.

For any queries please contact us by email to [email protected] or no. +97444943433

Participants at the QatarDebate organised US Debate Building Program at the University of Chicago in Chicago, USA, recently.

PhD student explores alternative source of insulin-secreting cells to treat diabetes

IT was a fruitful occasion for a group of women who included a m b a s s a d o r s ’

wives, South African expa-triates and Qataris, as celeb-rity South African chef Jenny Morris gave a demonstration on how to make mouth-wa-tering South African gourmet with a modern twist.

Earlier this year, Jenny was in Qatar for the Qatar International Food Festival (QIFF) and took part in Cook-ing Masterclasses at Chef’s Garden with 37 top local and international chefs who showed their culinary skills at the festival.

The chef, who is also known as ‘The Giggling Gourmet’, is a radio and television personality and has excelled in a number of typically South African dishes.

The food they prepared in-cluded bobotie, truffles, and fish ball soup among others.

Speaking to Qatar Tribune, Jenny said, “I am keeping our traditional flavours and tra-ditional dishes but giving them a modern twist.”

According to her, they prepared bo-botie with mince meat, apricots and spices, and instead of bak-ing it as a whole dish in the oven, she decided to use chicken because “it is healthier”; and instead of putting

a custard topping, they made pancake. “We just gave it a

modern twist.”The women were

also enlightened on how to make truf-fles. “Every South African likes truf-fles as a Sunday special, during Christmas and during holidays. Everyone has

their own

truffles at home.”Besides, the women, who

were excited to learn new skills with the chef, also learnt cook-ing fish ball soup.

Jenny said she was happy to see the women happy while she was doing her demonstra-tions. “There is nothing better than a happy woman. I am loving being with them.”

Ask Jenny about her in-spiration and she said it all started at home. Her moth-er, although it doesn’t mean that a woman’s place is in

the kitchen, taught her cook-ing, she said. “We learnt from

our mother how to cook and do the basics. However, my ad-venturous ways in the kitchen comes from my father.”

She said her love for cook-ing started at a young age. “My first dish that I cooked was at the age of seven when I made a curry. My father has always

encouraged us to come to the kitchen to peel or chop some-thing if it wasn’t too dangerous with the knife.”

Currently, Jenny has a number of television shows with the Food Network. She has a series called Jenny Mor-ris Cooks the Rivieras (French and Italian rivieras) and Jen-ny Morris Cooks Morocco, among other many radio and television shows.

She was also a judge in a cooking show, Chopped in South Africa. She has also done a show with Reza Mohammad at Fabulous Food Academy, among many others.

Talking about her experi-ence at the QIFF last March, Jenny said, “I loved it. It was really good. Everyday, I got a chance to showcase my culi-nary skills.”

Talking about the similari-ties between South African and

Qatari dishes, she said, “I think the ingredients are universal. I love the Arab influence, the Qa-tari food. I love taking ingredi-ents from another country.”

According to her, South Af-ricans eat healthy. “We eat very healthily in South Africa. When it comes to food, we are at the top. We have great chefs.”

She said she has cooked with Qatari chefs during the festival but she would love to do more with them. “I would love to partner with them be-cause it will be amazing to take what they have got and vice versa and make a fusion. That would be interesting.”

South African ambassador’s wife Anika Moosa said that Spar, a South African brand, sponsored the event by provid-ing all the required ingredients and they didn’t have to source anything from home. “Spar was one of our big sponsors. We got all the ingredients from Spar.”

Moosa said that bringing the celebrity chef here would help showcase the South Af-rican culture to the people of Qatar. “In South Africa we have a rich culture. The food culture is rich, for instance Chef Jenny made the local South African food like the bobotie with a modern twist to it.”

South African Embassy Counsellor-Political Ketlareng Sybil Matlhako said the show by the chef would help raise aware-ness of South Africa’s cultural diversity. “Food brings people together. People learn culinary art and get to know more about the spices. They get to know how to cook food because we have Mediterranean, local and other tastes. People will get to know more about the tastes. It’s part of the culture.”

David Morris, in Charge of marketing in Giggling Gourmet, said, “Jenny has quite a good following in the Middle East.”

African PanoramaReports by Catherine W Gichuki For events and press releases email [email protected] or call (974) 4000 2222


Renowned Ethiopian artiste to perform in Doha on July 11

RENOWNED Ethiopian artiste Rahel Getu will enthrall audience at the Grand Regal hotel’s Club Fabric, on Thursday, July 11. Music lovers, especially those from the Ethiopian

community, should wear dancing shoes as the show promises a fun-filled evening.

The concert is being organised by Ethiopian Vibes and Selina Entertainment and the doors open at 5 pm.

Currently, Getu is one of the most famous ar-tistes in Ethiopia. Her latest song ‘Tilobign’ got 7.6 million views on YouTube in just four months.

Three Doha-based DJs will be performing alongside the celebrated artiste and will play the best African music for the audience.

Talking about the similarities between South African and Qatari dishes, the chef said, ‘I think the ingredients are universal. I love the Arab influence, the Qatari food. I love taking ingredients from another country’.

Women get tips on making dishes from celebrity South African chef Jenny Morris

Jenny Morris with South African embassy officials, South African expatriates, ambassadors’ wives and Qatari women who participated in the cooking demonstration.

Spar sponsored the event and all items were bought from Spar.South African ambassador’s wife Anika Moosa (in yellow) with other women during the cooking demonstration. Jenny Morris at work.

Jenny gives cooking tips to women attendees.

Chef Jenny Morris

MOGADISHU: Five people, including three civilians, were killed in a gun bat-tle in Somalia on Monday after Al-Shabaab militants opened fire on a checkpoint in the capital Mogadishu, officials said. Al Qaeda-linked Shabaab fighters have been fighting for more than a decade to topple the govern-ment. They have lost many strongholds since 2011, but still control of large parts of rural Somalia from where they launch guerrilla attacks. “Two Al-Shabaab gunmen attacked the security check-point and exchanged fire with the security forces,” said Mohamed Adan, a security of-ficial in Mogadishu. (AFP)

5 killed in Somalia checkpoint gun battle

KANO: Gunmen raided three villages in northern Nigeria’s Katsina state, killing six people, a police spokesman said Monday. The black-clad group, riding on motorcycles, attacked Makers, Dan Sabau and Pawwa villages in Kankara district late Sunday, firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades, Gambo Isah said. “Six people from the attacked villages were killed but we killed many of the bandits in a shootout that lasted for more than an hour,” Isah added. He said police were combing the bushes for the bodies of the assailants. Cattle rus-tling and kidnapping gangs have long operated in this volatile region. (AFP)

Gunmen kill six villagers in Nigeria’s north

News in brief Iran breaches nuke deal’s

uranium enrichment limit

AFPTEHRAN

IRAN on Monday breached a uranium enrichment cap set by a troubled 2015 nuclear deal and warned Europe against taking retaliatory measures.

The move came more than a year after Washington pulled out of the landmark accord be-tween world powers and Teh-ran, which says it has lost pa-tience with perceived inaction by the remaining European partners.

Iran surpassing the cap and reaching 4.5 percent enrich-ment was announced on Mon-day by the country’s atomic en-ergy organisation spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi.

“This level of purity com-pletely satisfies the power plant fuel requirements of the coun-try,” he said, quoted by semi-official ISNA news agency.

Kamalvandi hinted that the Islamic republic might stick to this level of enrichment for the time being, which is well below the more than 90-percent level required for a nuclear warhead.

The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic En-ergy Agency (IAEA), said on Monday that it was aware of Iran’s announcement and was “in the process of verifying this development.”Kamalvandi said that IAEA inspectors “are supposed to take samples” on Monday. The European Union said it was “extremely con-

cerned” by the development and called on Iran to “reverse all activities” inconsistent with

its deal commitments. France, Germany and Britain–the Eu-ropean partners of the interna-

tional deal–on Sunday urged Tehran to halt its advance to-wards breaching the cap.

But Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi warned against any escalatory response. If the Europeans “do certain strange acts then we would skip all the next steps (in the plan to scale back commit-ments) and implement the last one,” he said.

China and Russia, the oth-er deal partners, both blamed the US for the latest step by Iran. Beijing accused Wash-ington of “unilateral bullying”, while Moscow said passing the cap was one of the “conse-quences” of the White House abandoning the deal.

Inside of a reactor at the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran. (AFP)

Tehran warns Europe against retaliatory measures

US ready to protect its interests: PenceWASHINGTON: US Vice President Mike Pence said on Monday that the United States is prepared to protect US personnel and citizens in the Middle East as tensions build with Iran over its nuclear program. Pence made his remarks as Iran threatened on Monday to take major steps away from a 2015 nuclear agree-ment that Washington abandoned last year. “Let me be clear: Iran should not confuse American restraint with a lack of American resolve,” Pence said, speaking to an evangeli-cal Christian group that advocates for support for Israel. “We hope for the best, but the United States of America and our military are prepared to protect our interests and protect our personnel and our citizens in the region,” Pence said. (REUTERS)

US VP Mike Pence.

Britain’s seizing of oil tanker won’t be tolerated: Iran

REUTERSGENEVA

BRITAIN’S seizing of an Ira-nian oil tanker last week was a threatening act that will not be tolerated, Iran’s Defence Minis-ter Amir Hatami said on Mon-day in a speech broadcast live on state television.

Royal Marines impound-ed the tanker in Gibraltar on Thursday on suspicion it was carrying oil to Syria in viola-tion of European Union sanc-tions. Iran denies the vessel was headed to Syria, where the gov-ernment of President Bashar al-Assad is an ally of Tehran.

Authorities in the British territory said the tanker can be held for up to 14 days. An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander threatened to seize a British ship in retaliation.

“These days we witnessed a threatening act from the government of England in the Strait of Gibraltar against a tanker from the Islamic Re-public of Iran,” Hatami said.

“This is an incorrect and wrong action, an action simi-lar to maritime robbery...cer-tainly these kind of robberies will not be tolerated.”

The tanker was not headed to Syria, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday, without specifying the final destination of the vessel.

Hatami said Iran’s downing of an unmanned American air-craft last month sent a message that the Islamic Republic would defend its borders. Washington said the drone was shot down over international waters.

Iran’s Defence Minister Amir Hatami.

64 hurt as 5.7-magnitude earthquake shakes Iran

TEHRAN: A 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck southwest Iran near the border with Iraq on Monday, causing one death due to a heart attack and dozens of injuries, the country’s relief and rescue organisation said.

The quake, whose epicentre was in the Masjed Soleiman area of Khuzestan province, hit at 11:30 am at a depth of 17 kilometres, the national seismological centre reported. The re-gion was rattled by seven aftershocks, the strongest of which measured 4.7 magnitude, it said.

At least 64 people were injured, the head of Iran’s relief and rescue organisation, Morteza Salimi, told state TV. “One citizen at Masjed Soleiman also passed away due to a heart-attack after the earthquake,” Salimi said. (AGENCIES)

UAE ‘reducing troops’ in war-torn YemenAFPDUBAI

THE United Arab Emirates said on Monday it was rede-ploying and reducing troops across war-torn Yemen and moving from a “military-first” strategy to a “peace-first” plan.

The UAE is a key part-ner in a Saudi-led military coalition which intervened in Yemen in 2015 to back the internationally recognised government of President Abe-drabbo Mansour Hadi against Houthi rebels.

“We do have troop levels that are down for reasons that are strategic in (the Red Sea city of) Hodeidah and reasons that are tactical” in other parts of the country, a senior UAE official, who requested ano-nymity, told reporters.

“It is very much to do with

moving from what I would call a military-first strategy to a peace-first strategy, and this is I think what we are doing.” The official however reiterated the UAE’s commitment to the

Yemeni government and the Saudi-led coalition, saying discussions on redeployment have been ongoing for more than a year.

“This is not really a last-

minute decision. This is part of the process and naturally a process within the coalition that’s been discussed exten-sively with our partners, the Saudis,” he said.

Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said both the UAE and Saudi Arabia are committed to achieve their goals in Yemen.

“The United Arab Emir-ates and the countries in the coalition continue to achieve their operations and strategic goals,” he told a news confer-ence in Riyadh in response to a question about the redeploy-ment of UAE troops.

According to a Yemeni military government official, UAE troops fighting the Hou-this have “totally vacated” the military base in Khokha, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of Hodeida.

(File photo) Houthi fighters inspect the site of a reported airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition that targeted Yemen’s presidential palace in Sana‘a.

ICC convicts ex-Congo military leader Ntaganda of war crimes

REUTERSTHE HAGUE

INTERNATIONAL Criminal Court judges on Monday con-victed former Congolese military leader Bosco Ntaganda for atroc-ities including murder, rape and conscripting child soldiers.

Ntaganda, 45, was found guilty for acts committed when he was military operations chief at the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia in east Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002-2003.

His conviction is a rare suc-cess for prosecutors at the ICC, an international court set up in 2002 to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity when member states are una-ble or unwilling to do so. Nta-ganda’s sentence will be deter-

mined at a later hearing. “The chamber ... having heard all the evidence mentioned by the par-ties, finds you as concerns count one, murder as a crime against humanity, guilty,” said judge Robert Fremr, reading a sum-mary of the ruling. The court

then found him guilty on all 18 charges. His lawyers argued Ntaganda had sought to keep order among troops, punishing those who violated rules of war.

Ntaganda, in a dark blue suit, showed no emotion as the sentence was read out. He has 30 days to appeal. In the con-flict in Congo, Ntaganda’s UPC, dominated by the Hema clan, targeted rival Lendu people for expulsion from the mineral-rich Ituri region. Hundreds of civil-ians were killed and many thou-sands were forced to flee.

“This ICC decision com-forts the victims and the whole population of Ituri province, which was bereaved by the atrocities of Bosco Ntaganda’s rebellion,” said Xavier Macky, director of Justice Plus, a rights group based in Bunia.

Rwandan-born Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda.

Hong Kong protesters moot Bank of China ‘stress test’ after latest clashes

AFPHONG KONG

ANTI-GOVERNMENT pro-testers in Hong Kong began circulating plans on Monday to “stress test” the Bank of China in their bid to keep pressure on the city’s pro-Beijing leaders, after five people were arrested in the latest clashes with police.

The finance hub has been plunged into its worst crisis in recent history following a month of huge marches as well as separate violent confrontations with police involving a minority of hard-core protesters.

The rallies were sparked by a now-suspended law that would have allowed extradi-tions to mainland China, but have since morphed into a wider movement calling for democratic reforms and a halt to sliding freedoms in the semi-autonomous territory.

Sunday night saw fresh po-litical violence break out in the

district of Mongkok as police baton-charged small groups of masked, largely young protest-ers who were walking along roads and refused to disperse following another massive, peaceful rally earlier in the day. Police said the group were tak-

ing part in an “unlawful assem-bly” and had been warned that officers would take action.

“Some protesters resisted and police arrested five per-sons for assaulting a police officer and obstructing a po-lice officer in the execution of

duties,” a statement said. An-other protester was arrested earlier in the day for failing to provide identification during a stop and search.

Activists hit out at the po-lice tactics, saying the protest-ers had remained peaceful as they made their way home, and that violence was started by a shield wall of riot officers that had blocked the crowd’s path.

“HKers joined rally peace-fully... against extradition bill result in being beaten and assaulted by HK Police,” de-mocracy activist Joshua Wong wrote in a tweet accompanying pictures of at least two protest-ers with bleeding head wounds.

“Just another example of excessive force used by the police,” he added in another tweet. By Monday morning,

online groups were already planning more protests on en-crypted messenger apps and chat forums that have been suc-cessfully used by demonstra-tors to bring out huge crowds.

Pedestrians cross a street in Mong Kok in the aftermath of an anti-extradition bill march where hundreds of protesters clashed with police after the rally in Hong Kong, China, on Tuesday. (EPA-EFE)

Moscow fumes at obscene anti-Putin tirade by Georgian TV presenter

AFPMOSCOW

RUSSIA on Monday fumed after a presenter in Georgia launched into a live-TV exple-tive-laden tirade against Presi-dent Vladimir Putin, spark-ing the latest row between the neighbouring countries.

Protesters in Georgian capi-tal Tbilisi have rallied over the past weeks after a Russian law-maker spoke in the Georgian parliament, with Moscow re-sponding by tightening restric-tions on wine imports and sus-pending flights to Georgia.

Risking further strain on re-lations, a presenter with oppo-sition Georgian channel Rusta-vi-2, Giorgi Gabunia, began his programme late Sunday by ad-dressing Putin with a string of expletives in Russian.

The channel issued an apol-ogy, and Georgia’s Prime Min-ister Mamuka Bakhtadze called the outburst a “categorically unacceptable” provocation that

could threaten peace in the na-tion. The obscenities directed at Putin provoked a furious reac-tion from the Kremlin. Spokes-man Dmitry Peskov called it “absolutely unacceptable” and a “disgrace for Georgians”.

The disturbance feeds into tensions that have seen law-makers in the Russian parlia-ment discussing curbed imports of Georgian wine and min-eral water, and banning money

transfers between the two coun-tries. “There is constant provok-ing of a conflict with Russia,” said parliamentary speaker Vy-acheslav Volodin.

A ban on flights between the two countries decreed by Pu-tin last month went into effect Monday. It was bound to affect the summer flow of tourists to Georgia’s Black Sea resorts, tra-ditionally popular among Rus-sians seeking seaside sun.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (centre), in the courtyard of Chigi Palace in Rome, Italy, recently. (EPA-EFE)

Gulf / Middle East / World 07Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Fatal Boeing Plane Crash: The Legal Showdown

GEORGE Kabau’s family remem-bers him as a dedicated profes-sional with unflappable geniality, innate warmth, and remarkable resourcefulness.

The 29-year-old was an engineer with General Electric in Kenya and was among 157 people who died on the crashed Ethio-pian Airlines flight in early March. Four months after the plane plunged into a field in Bishoftu town minutes after take-off from Bole international airport, the family says they are yet to reconcile with how their loved one perished. One of five siblings — three lawyers and a banker — George was a source of pride amongst them and had a bright future ahead of him.

In April, the Kabaus became the first Kenyan family to sue Boeing in the US, seeking to hold the manufacturer liable for the crash. The Ethiopian crash, along with the Lion Air plane that fell in Indonesia last October, were both linked to bad sen-sor data triggering an automated anti-stall

system in the Boeing 737 Max model which directs the plane sharply downward.

Through their lawyers, the family said they wanted to force the company to re-lease documents related to the troubled 737 Max 8 model, admit that it prioritised profits over safety, failed to properly in-form pilots about the dangers and risks associated with the MCAS, and call on ju-ries to impose punitive damages.

“This was a deliberate death caused by recklessness,” says Tom Kabau, George’s brother and a lawyer based in Nairobi.

The case is indicative of the legal showdown about to commence between families and the world’s biggest commer-cial aircraft manufacturer. The lawsuits lodged over the Ethiopian Airlines crash also pose a challenge for attorneys, who will have to decide with families whether to face-off with Boeing publicly and seek damages exceeding simple compensation or reach out of court settlements.

There’s also the question of time, and if the proceedings could protract beyond the two-year threshold attorneys expect—especially if Boeing puts a strong defen-

sive strategy against much-publicised cas-es like Kabau’s. There’s also the quandary about how the facts of the cases filed in the early weeks have changed and might need to be amended, especially as new details emerge about the 737 Max’s flaws.

For families of the deceased, this might mean “further court processes, significant delays, and greater expenses,” says Joseph Wheeler, the founder and le-gal practice director of the Brisbane firm International Aerospace Law & Policy Group (IALPG) in Australia.

In late June, Wheeler’s firm filed a class action lawsuit against Boeing on be-half of over 400 pilots from a major inter-national airline they are currently keeping anonymous. The case will be heard in Oc-tober, he said. American families includ-ing those of consumer activist Ralph Na-der’s great niece, have sued Boeing, along with a Rwandan family. Shareholders have also sued Boeing accusing it of concealing safety deficiencies in its 737 MAX planes.

Given the popularity of the Addis Ababa-Nairobi route, and the number of prominent professionals who died on ET

302, many more families are expected to take legal action against the Chicago-headquartered manufacturer too. Pas-sengers from 35 countries were on board the Ethiopian flight. Kenya suffered the largest number of casualties, with the deceased 32 people, including university professors, an ex-sports administrator, hotelier, and business directors.

If Boeing fails to get the complaints out of US territory, as it has succeeded in the past, juries might consider awarding punitive damages. Courts usually grant these hefty damages as a way to tell de-fendants their conduct was so egregious as to shock the conscience.

Yet punitive damages are often una-vailable or limited when it comes to avia-tion lawsuits, says founder of the Chica-go-based aviation law firm PMJ, Patrick Jones. But if plaintiffs can show there was willful or wanton misconduct or reckless disregard for passenger safety, that could warrant compensation. In this scenario, Jones says that could run into hundreds of millions of dollars on top of the basic claims. “I think Boeing is going to be more

entrenched in this case than they ever have been [or] that any defendant has been,” he says.

For Boeing, the severity of the 737 Max grounding, the cancelled orders, dropped shares, reputational loss, besides the de-mands for compensation from airlines over lost revenue only “gives them more fire to defend,” says Kenneth Rukunga, who specialises in compensation law at Slater and Gordon firm in Perth, Australia.

While some cases might be resolved quietly, he says, the planemaker will de-fend against the public litigations and even appeal if they get a decision com-manding them to pay punitive damages.

As they wait for their day in court, George Kabau’s family is establishing a foundation in his name to help youngsters study engineering and science. Through their case, they also hope to push Boeing to change how it operates and be account-able for its actions.

“Our concern here is that business will not override human rights,” Tom Kabau says. “This justice is not only for George but all of us.”

The Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crash could warrant historic punitive damages against the world’s biggest aircraft manufacturer

Opinion

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ON THE OPINION AND ANALYSIS PAGES ARE THE AUTHORS’ OWN. QATAR TRIBUNE BEARS NO RESPONSIBILITY.

THE idea that killer robots will soon be a reality in Southeast Asia may seem far-fetched to some. But this rapidly advancing domain of defence technology is gaining ground in and

around Southeast Asia, and states need to prepare for the arrival of lethal autono-mous weapons systems (LAWS) in the near future. The best way of doing so is to support a growing global coalition ad-vocating for an international ban on their use and development.

This week, the Campaign to Stop Kill-er Robots officially launched in Southeast Asia as a regional coalition of civil society groups held the movement’s first region-al strategy consultations in Bangkok to chart the course ahead. The Campaign ad-vocates for an international ban on LAWS and the weaponisation of artificial intel-ligence (AI). Their principal concern lies in the amplification of the ethical risks in warfare when humans are removed from operating a weapon’s lethal functions.

When discussing LAWS, I’m not talk-ing about Terminator robots kicking off the apocalypse. Instead, consider a drone operating over a large area of engage-ment, using facial recognition technology to search for, identify, and eliminate en-emy combatants and infrastructure, all on its own. Without a human operator to in-terpret the broader context, as well as the removal of human accountability in mak-ing the decision to kill, the risks posed to civilians are hugely expanded.

These risks are easy to comprehend. Yet one of the main challenges identified for the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots will be in making this issue not just rel-evant, but actionable for the governments of the region. Why should the government of the Philippines, for instance, be wor-ried about this seemingly distant pros-pect when it has so many other social and security issues to deal with that are here, right now? Make no mistake – LAWS are here. Israel has already developed the IAI Harpy, a “loitering munition,” which is a drone designed to identify and destroy anti-air defenses. It has been sold to In-dia, China, and South Korea. Within the region, Singapore is exploring how to incorporate AI processes into its defense structure as it seeks to maximise combat effectiveness with minimal manpower.

Southeast Asia is surrounded by su-perpowers, and within the region, states are committed to maintaining a sensitive power balance with their neighbours. Ac-cording to Fred Lubang, a campaigner

from the Philippines, “Asia has been a testing ground for new and advanced weapons throughout the wars of its re-cent past: nuclear weapons in Japan; armed drones in Pakistan and Afghani-stan; Agent Orange in Vietnam, among others.” Thus, the region is highly prone to and threatened by arms races held on uneven grounds. How can Laos or Cam-bodia hope to respond to the emergence of automated arsenals beyond their bor-ders? How can Indonesia and Malaysia

preserve national resources from get-ting sucked into destabilising arms pro-grammes? The answer is by supporting and advancing a universal ban on the use and development of LAWS on the global stage. The states of the region have very little to gain from the arrival of these weapons, but much to lose. Mitzi Austero, the regional campaign organiser, pointed out that the region is still addressing the impact of older weapons like landmines and cluster bombs, not to mention the violence resulting from the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. Adding more advanced weapons systems into the mix will only amplify regional threats.

Furthermore, a universally accepted ban would allow for the development of AI for productive military means that could greatly benefit the security forces of the region without jeopardising regional sta-bility. Consider that Singapore is develop-ing AI systems to scan planes for potential flaws, or that it is developing systems to better police its shores and waterways by identifying and tracking suspicious vessels.

Much could be gained for the national security of ASEAN states if there is a com-mitment to develop AI in the defence sec-tor only for nonviolent means. Drones with self-learning scanning and identifica-tion functions could indeed help countries like Vietnam and the Philippines develop better search and rescue capacities, or po-lice rural border areas and vast stretches of ocean where the trafficking of drugs, firearms, and natural resources thrives.

The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is not opposed to the humanitarian ap-plication of AI systems, especially in a re-gion prone to natural disasters. But there needs to be a commitment by states not to weaponise these applications, otherwise the national and individual security of the region and its inhabitants will be irrevers-ibly compromised.

So far, there is still little international consensus on how to tackle the develop-ment and use of AI for military purposes. According to Yunizar Adiputera, an Indo-nesian advocate, this adds to the confu-sion on how to discuss the ban. But the conversation is happening, and countries and international platforms are increas-ingly releasing ethical guidelines that touch on the issue. Southeast Asia must insert itself into this process, and not rel-egate the major decisions of regulating this technology to those superpowers who have the most to gain from it.

The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, therefore, hopes to stimulate this involve-ment among state actors, and engage the invaluable support of industry, research, and civil society groups concerned with the implications of LAWS. Only through an international ban would Southeast Asia’s security and prosperity be safeguarded.

(Michael Picard is an independ-ent researcher specialising in

arms control and armed violence in Southeast Asia)

Weaponised AI In SE Asia: In Sight Yet Out Of Mind

MICHAEL PICARD TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

There needs to be a commitment against weaponisation of artificial intelligence, otherwise the national and individual security of the

region and its inhabitants will be irreversibly compromised

(Tribune News Service)

LAST month, Santa Monica’s only public recycling buyback centre closed after the City Council declined to renew its

contract with the company that operated it. For decades, the Delaware Avenue centre was the go-to place for locals to turn their recyclables into cash. Now, they will have to find a redemption centre in another city to recover the 5- or 10-cent deposits paid when bottles or cans are purchased.

On the surface, the council’s move may seem shocking for a city that has been at the forefront of trash-reduction efforts. But given the collapse in the market for recycled paper and plastic, it was an understandable decision. Just a couple of years ago, the city earned about $300,000 a year from the sale of paper, plastic, glass and other materials collected at the center and from curbside bins. Under the proposed new contract, the city would have to pay $1 million a year. The reliable cash cow had suddenly become a white elephant.

This is not a story about the end of recy-cling in Santa Monica, which will still have curbside collection for bottles, cans and pa-per. The council will contract temporarily with a company to process the recyclables it collects and may even figure out how to reopen the buyback centre one day. But it is a cautionary tale — one among many play-ing out across the nation — about the end of easy and profitable recycling due to the meltdown of the global recyclables market.

Last year China, the world’s largest buyer of recyclable material, stopped ac-cepting most scrap plastic and paper. That was a particular problem for California, which had sold almost all of its paper and plastic recyclable material to buyers there. For a while, other counties such as Vietnam and Malaysia accepted some of the mate-rial China rejected, but they quickly became overrun and in some cases burned plastic material or dumped it in makeshift landfills.

This is not a problem just for Santa Monica. Local governments across the country are struggling to balance the ris-

ing costs of collecting recyclables — costs passed on to residents through trash collec-tion fees — with the knowledge that much of the stuff they pay to divert from the trash will end up in the landfill anyway. Without demand, much of the material that cities are paying waste companies to process is virtu-ally worthless and not likely to be made into something else.

There’s still a strong domestic market for the cans and bottles collected as part of California’s bottle bill, but not for paper and plastic. For example, mixed paper used to sell for $100 per ton; now it’s bringing in $10 a ton. Some cities, such as San Diego, are sucking up the costs to continue their programmes in the hope that the market will get better. Others have stopped accept-ing material for which they can’t find a buy-er. And at least one city, Deltona, Florida, decided to scrap its recycling programme altogether rather than pay the higher costs. It probably won’t be the only one to do so.

There is a bright light here, though it’s hard to see through all the bales of plastic and paper trash piling up in warehouses. The recycling crisis has exposed this lie: that the ever-growing stream of single-use packaging is manageable if only consumers were more diligent in their recycling efforts. The public has noticed that plastic trash is ending up in the ocean anyway.

Thanks to this awareness, it will be tough-er for lawmakers to avoid taking action to cut off trash at the source. Happily, that’s already happening. This year, New York, Maine and Vermont joined California in banning single-use plastic grocery bags. And California law-makers are considering a radical new law that will fundamentally transform, for the better, how products are packaged in this state; the measure would bar manufacturers from sell-ing products in California that are packaged in containers that can’t be recycled. The time for states to take such measures is now. As Santa Monica’s story shows, the costs of inac-tion are too high — for Californians and for the environment.

Recycling Centre Closure Is A Sign Of What’s To Come

Other US states must follow California’s lead in banning single-use plastic grocery bags, and

support a new measure that would bar products that are packaged in non-recyclable containers

ESTABLISHED SEPTEMBER 3, 2006

HAMAD BIN SUHAIM AL THANI CHAIRMANADEL ALI BIN ALI MANAGING DIRECTORDR HASSAN MOHAMMED AL ANSARI EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ABDI LATIF DAHIR TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Without a human operator to interpret the broader context, as well as the removal of human accountability in making the decision to kill, the risks posed to civilians are hugely expanded


Mitsotakis sworn in as Greece’s new PM

DPAATHENS

KYRIAKOS Mitsotakis, the leader of the conservative New Democracy (ND) party, was sworn in as Greece’s new prime minister on Monday, just 15 hours after voting ended.

In a swift move, the re-sult of Sunday’s elections was formally submitted to Presi-dent Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Mitsotakis was prime minister by 1 pm (1000 GMT).

Mitsotakis was expected to take over office from Alex-is Tsipras at 2:30 pm (1130 GMT) and announce his cabi-net later in the day. His cabinet will face a vote of confidence in parliament on July 21.

In a resounding victory for Mitsotakis and ND, voters showed Tsipras and his leftist Syriza party the door in the first parliamentary elections since Greece emerged from a crippling financial crisis.

The elections reflected the widespread discontent with Tsipras after four years of austerity because of reforms he was forced to implement in return for an international bailout.

ND won an outright ma-

jority of 158 seats in the 300-member parliament, al-lowing Mitsotakis to govern without a coalition partner and to take office immediately. Syriza dropped from 149 to 86 seats. Four smaller parties received at least 3 per cent of the votes and claimed seats in parliament.

On Sunday, Mitsotakis promised to “roll up his sleeves” and “represent all Greeks,” and repeated his pledge to usher in an era of economic growth.

He said parliament will not take its usual summer re-cess, but instead immediately begin working on reforms, with the focus on growth.

LONDON: An unknown dare-devil on Monday scaled The Shard in London -- currently ranked as the tallest building in the European Union -- with-out the apparent assistance of a safety harness or ropes.

Footage published by Brit-ish newspapers showed the man climbing near the very top of the narrow pyramid-shaped building on the banks of the River Thames.

“Police were called at 05:15 hours on Monday fol-lowing reports of a ‘free-climb-er’ on the Shard,” the police department said. “Emergency services attended and the man is now with officers. He was not arrested.” (AFP)

London daredevil scales tallest building in the European Union

News in brief

DPABERLIN

BERLIN has rejected a US re-quest for German ground forc-es to boost the fight against the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria.

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Mon-day that Germany would con-tinue its previous military contributions to the coalition fighting Islamic State, namely providing Tornado reconnais-sance flights, a tanker and in-structors for troops in Iraq.

“When I say that the federal government plans to continue its previous measures within the framework of the anti-Is-

lamic State coalition, it is well known that there are no [Ger-man] ground troops,” he said.

Germany’s Social Demo-crats (SPD), the junior partner in the coalition with Merkel’s conservative Christian Demo-crats (CDU), had already said on Sunday that they would not support the request.

“There will be no German ground troops in Syria with us. I also don’t see our coalition

partner wanting this,” Thor-sten Schaefer-Guembel of the SPD wrote on Twitter.

All the opposition parties in the German Bundestag - the Greens, the pro-business FDP, the far-right AfD and hard-left Die Linke - had also rejected Washington’s request.

The CDU had been the only party to call for careful assessment before passing judgement. However, Ralph

Brinkhaus, parliamentary leader of Merkel’s conservative bloc, said on Monday ahead of a party meeting that he was “very, very critical. And any-way: We don’t have a majority for this in the Bundestag.”

The US special representa-tive for Syria and the anti-Islamic State coalition, James Jeffrey, had asked the German government on Friday during a visit to Berlin for additional support in the fight against the terrorists.

Jeffrey said Washington wanted ground troops from Germany to partially replace US soldiers, in comments to dpa and the Sunday edition of Die Welt newspaper.

Germany rejects US call for ground troops in Syria

AFPLONDON

BRITAIN scrambled on Mon-day to stem the damage to its relations with Washington by finding the leaker of diplomat-ic cables in which the UK am-bassador called US President Donald Trump “inept”.

The confidential telegrams from ambassador Kim Dar-roch created a political fire-storm in London after their publication in the Mail on Sunday.

One of them called Trump’s White House “uniquely dys-functional” while another characterised the US leader as “incompetent” and “insecure”.

Their release came just a month after Trump visibly enjoyed himself during a state visit that included a 41-gun sa-lute welcome at Buckingham Palace and a banquet dinner with the queen.

They also threatened to complicate London’s efforts to strike a new US trade agree-ment that could mitigate po-tential damage from Britain’s withdrawal from the Europe-an Union.

Trump fired back by say-ing that people in his admin-istration were “not big fans” of London’s man in Washington.

“We are not big fans of that man and he has not served the UK well. So I can under-stand it, and I can say things about him but I won’t bother,” Trump told reporters.

UK officials defended Dar-roch as a professional who was carrying out his duties by providing “frank” assessments of the latest developments in Washington.

“Our ambassadors provide honest, unvarnished assess-ments of politics in their coun-try,” a Downing Street spokes-man said. “As you’d expect, contact has been made with the Trump administration set-ting out our view that we be-lieve the leak is unacceptable.”

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the culprit would face “very serious consequenc-es if and when we find out who was responsible”.

His US affairs deputy Alan Duncan later told parliament that the police could launch their own investigation “if evi-dence of criminality is found.

“The most important focus is to establish who is respon-sible for this despicable leak,” Duncan said.

The Daily Telegraph news-paper said such memos are seen by up to 100 people working in

the Foreign Office and other government departments.

“But it would require a sin-gle official or minister to have access to the whole cache, in-evitably casting the spotlight on senior ministers,” it wrote.

The immediate suspicion of the London papers fell on Brexit-backing players in a power struggle within the gov-

erning Conservative Party.British politics are in for

a major revamp once Prime Minister Theresa May ends her three-year spell in power later this month.

Brexit-supporting former foreign minister Boris John-son is the favourite to replace her in a leadership contest against Hunt.

US President Donald J Trump and First Lady Melania Trump return to the White House after spending a weekend at their residence in Bedminster, New Jersey. (EPA-EFE)

Britain hunts culprit behind leak of envoy’s ‘inept Trump’ remark

29 killed as bus plunges off India’s ‘highway to hell’

AFPAGRA

AT least 29 people were killed and 18 others injured when a bus careered off a notori-ous Indian highway after the driver apparently fell asleep at the wheel, officials said on Monday.

The bus was carrying more than 50 people along the Ya-muna expressway — known as the “highway to hell” be-cause of the number of fatal accidents — when it crashed through a concrete barrier and plunged more than 12 metres (40 feet) into a drainage canal.

“It appears that the driver was drowsy,” said Agra district magistrate NG Ravi Kumar, who provided the number of dead and injured.

The bus was travelling from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi when the accident hap-

pened just before dawn, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) near Agra, home of the Taj Mahal.

The 165-kilometre Yamuna expressway was India’s long-est and most modern six-lane highway when it opened in 2012, but about 900 people have been killed on the road since, according to authorities.

Indian media have dubbed it the “highway to hell”.

Local residents said they were woken by the crash and found the mangled bus sub-merged in blackish-grey water. Police said it landed on its roof in a drain, where running wa-ter complicated rescue efforts.

“We rushed out of our homes and saw people scream-ing for help,” one witness told reporters.

“We got into the drain and tried to save some of them. Soon police arrived and quick-ly brought cranes.”

Asia / Europe / United States 09Tuesday, July 9, 2019

New York governor signs bill giving Congress access to Trump’s taxes

DPANEW YORK

NEW York’s governor signed a bill on Monday that opens the door to accessing US President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

The president, who head-ed a real estate empire before his election, has refused to release his tax returns vol-untarily as other presidents have done.

The bill signed by Gov-ernor Andrew Cuomo allows

congressional committees to access state tax returns for any “specified and legitimate legislative purpose.”

“Tax secrecy is para-mount - the exception being for bonafide investigative and law enforcement pur-poses,” Cuomo said.

The bill helps Congress to “fulfill its Constitutional responsibilities, strengthen our democratic system and ensure that no one is above the law.”

As New York state law,

this bill paves the way to ac-cess President Trump’s state finances, rather than his fed-eral tax return.

Trump’s tax returns have been the object of scrutiny by Democrats in Congress since he took office.

Democrats in Washing-ton filed a lawsuit in early July against the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in a bid to get six years of Trump’s tax returns and the accompa-nying administrative files.

India aims inclusive growth with Indo-Pacific initiativeTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

AIMED at making stabil-ity and inclusive cooperation determining factors for re-gional economic growth and welfare, India’s Indo-Pacific initiative is a great effort to create horizontal connectivity between existing regional and sub-regional mechanisms for cooperation.

The term ‘Indo-Pacific’ refers to the maritime space stretching from the littorals of East Africa and West Asia, across the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean, to the littorals of East Asia.

According to the Indian embassy in Doha, the funda-mental principles which are shaping India’s Indo-Pacific initiative is respect for all, dia-logue to resolve differences, to use existing fora like ASEAN-led East Asia Summit (EAS), the Indian Ocean Rim As-sociation (IORA) to establish peace and prosperity for all.

India is respectful of the sovereignty and territorial in-tegrity of all countries in the Indo-Pacific region, irrespec-tive of their size. It is not to offer an alternative to ASEAN or ASEAN-led structures.

On the contrary, India greatly emphasises ASEAN’s

role in the concept of Indo-Pacific initiative. This is why India is maintaining ASEAN centrality, and the identifica-tion of ASEAN-led mecha-nisms like EAS process as pri-mary platforms for leader-led dialogues regarding its Indo-Pacific policy.

In his speech to the Indian parliament in January 2007, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe referred to term Indo-Pacific as ‘Confluence of the Indian and Pacific Oceans’.

In June 2018, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address at the Shangri-La Dialogue elaborat-ed India’s vision for the Indo-

Pacific as a ‘free, open, trans-parent, rule-based, peaceful, prosperous and inclusive re-gion, where sovereignty, ter-ritorial integrity, and interna-

tional law are respected’.India is committed to its

goal regarding multilateral cooperation in the region with Security And Growth for All In the Region (SAGAR) as envis-aged by Narendra Modi.

“We often define regional groupings around landmass-es. The time has come for strong groupings around the Indian Ocean,” Modi said in March 2015.

To serve the aim, India’s Indo-Pacific initiative is to create opportunities for pro-motion of dialogue-based ap-proaches to the resolution of differences, enhance econom-ic cooperation and promotion

of sharing of maritime space and airspace.

As India is moving ahead on its growth trajectory, the extent of its partnerships is also expanding, which now traverse Southeast Asia to East Asia and the Pacific Isles.

Now India’s economic engagement in the region ac-count for more than 60 per-cent of its total trade. For instance, India-ASEAN trade stands at $ 81.3 billion; trade with the I6 IORA countries is $ 105.09 billion and trade with China, Japan and ROK is $126.24 billion.

Trade with Australia is $ 18 billion, with the US, an

Indo-Pacific partner is $74.48 billion, and trade with Russia is $10.68 billion. India is a key member in the ongoing nego-tiations for Regional Compre-hensive Economic Partner-ship (RCEP). All of India’s free trade arrangements are with the countries of South-east and East Asia (ASEAN, Japan, ROK, and Singapore.

India has a historic con-nect with the East and South-ern Africa.

India’s notion of Indo-Pacific initiative is of inclusive nature, both geographically and thematically and it ex-cludes no country or regional grouping.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s larg-est media house has forced three journalists known for criticism of the country’s pow-erful military to deactivate their social media accounts.

The Jang media group, which runs English- and Urdu-language newspapers and the popular Geo television channel, asked two reporters and an anchor to deactivate their accounts. The Twitter accounts of reporters Umer Cheema and Azaz Syed and anchor Wajih Sani were not longer active on Monday. Cheema has more than 1 mil-lion followers on Twitter. (DPA)

3 Pakistani journalists forced to deactivate Twitter accounts

DHAKA: At least two people have been killed in a rain-triggered landslide as a mon-soon left parts of south-east-ern Bangladesh submerged, officials said on Monday.

A 4-year old child and a 25-year-old woman died after their thatched houses were buried under mud from an adjacent hill in Chandrag-hona, said Mamunir Rashid, chief administrator of Ranga-mati district. (DPA)

Rain-triggered landslide kills two in Bangladesh

MAY’S GOVT REGRETS LEAK OF MEMOS LONDON: Britain said on Monday it had contacted Washington to express regret for the leak of confidential memos in which its ambassador Kim Darroch described US President Donald Trump’s administration as “dysfunctional” and “inept”. “Contact has been made with the Trump administration, setting out our view that we believe the leak is unacceptable,” Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman told reporters. “It is, of course, a matter of regret that this has happened.” Trade minister Liam Fox, who is visiting Washington, told BBC radio he would apologise to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, whom he is due to meet. (REUTERS)

When I say that the federal government plans to continue its previous measures within the

framework of the anti-Islamic State coalition, it is well known that there are no German ground troops.Government spokesman Steffen Seibert

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt says the culprit would face ‘very serious consequences’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Ministry issues 475 special licences in JuneTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

THE Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) has is-sued 475 licences for dis-counted prices including 176

for discounts and 299 for festival offers in June 2019, the MoCI said in its special li-cences monthly report. The report shows that a total of 299 licences were issued for offers in June, including promotion-

al offers, special offers, prize draws and ‘swipe and win’.

The report said 49 promo-tional offer licences were issued for companies selling goods in malls and retail shops, while 234 licences were granted for

special offers including new prices; buy one, get one for free; and buy one, get the second one for half the price. The MoCI is-sued 15 licences for prize draws in June, while one licence was issued for ‘swipe and win’.

QNA DOHA

QATAR Chamber Chairman Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim bin Mohammed al Thani met with the President of the Iraqi Chambers of Commerce and Chairman of the Baghdad Chamber of Commerce, Abdel Razzak El Zouhairy and the accompanying delegation, in Doha on Monday.

The meeting discussed ways of cooperation, invest-ment issues in the Qatari and Iraqi private sectors, Qatar Chamber said in a statement.

The meeting also discussed the investment opportunities available in the industrial and

agricultural sectors and ways to enhance cooperation between the Qatari and Iraqi business-men. Both sides expressed interest in further cooperative work in various sectors.

Sheikh Khalifa highlighted the strength of bilateral ties, stressing the commitment to develop them further in busi-ness and commerce.

He noted Qatari and Iraqi businessmen are look-ing forward to exploring op-portunities to establish part-nerships and develop trade and economic interests be-tween them. Sheikh Khalifa stressed the need to increase the trade volume between the two countries.

Qatar, Iraq to enhance trade, investment

Qatar Chamber Chairman Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim bin Mohammed al Thani meets Iraqi dlegation in Doha on Monday.

SATYENDRA PATHAK DOHA

QATARI banks have strong customer bases to support their system wide funding profiles as the country’s bank-ing system has the biggest share of retail and govern-ment-related entities (GRE) deposits in the GCC at about 70 percent, S&P Global Rat-ings has said in a report re-leased on Monday.

“We estimate that expat deposits account for about 30 percent of total domestic de-posits in Qatar. This ratio is higher than our estimate for other GCC countries at 10 per-cent, due to the larger percent-age of expatriates in the Qatari population,” the report said.

“We assess four of the six GCC governments including Qatar as highly supportive of their banking systems. The ability to provide this support is underpinned by the sub-stantial liquid assets available to Qatari government and its very strong track record of support in case of need,” it said.

The most recent demon-stration of this support was seen at the start of the block-ade imposed on Qatar by some neighbouring countries in 2017, the report said add-

ing this triggered outflows of $23 billion but they were more than offset by an injection of $43 billion by the government, related entities, and the Qatar Central Bank.

Foreign deposits have since returned to pre-boycott levels, the report said. Pro-viding a broader economic

scenario in GCC countries in view of the increasing tensions between the US and Iran, S&P Global Ratings said it has not changed ratings of any bank or sovereign in the region.

GCC banking systems should be able to absorb sub-stantial foreign funding out-flows without government

support in a modest stress sce-nario, it said.

“Most GCC governments possess sufficient liquid assets and foreign exchange reserves to be in a position to support banks under our stress scenar-ios,” the report said.

“We also consider that for-eign exchange reserves could

be used to support banks and offset the withdrawal of ex-ternal liabilities, as was the case in Qatar during the 2017 boycott. We estimate that au-thorities possess sufficient re-sources to support their banks under our hypothetical stress scenarios,” the report said.

However, the report said, deploying these assets would be a drain on government as-sets and could weigh on its sovereign fiscal and external assessments, putting down-ward pressure on the ratings.

Governments could also move to shore up confidence in banks by deploying funds in addition to any potential shortfall, further pressuring liquid assets, the report said.

For most banking systems in the GCC, the report said, strong customer bases support their system-wide funding profiles.

At year-end 2018, the loan-to-deposit ratio reached 99 per-cent on average for the six GCC countries. Moreover, about 52 percent of deposits came from retail customers and govern-ment-related entities. While Qatar had the biggest share of retail and GRE deposits at about 70 percent, Bahrain and Oman had the lowest at about 45 percent at the end of 2018, the report said.

According to S&P, the deposits of expatriates account for about 30 percent of the total domestic deposits in Qatar

Strong retail, GRE deposits underpin Qatari banks’ funding profiles: S&P

A view of Bank Street in Doha.

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK DOHA

QATAR Stock Exchange (QSE) CEO Rashid bin Ali al Man-soori met with Shanghai Stock Exchange Chairman Huang Hongyuan in Shanghai.

According to a statement posted on QSE website, a QSE delegation led by Mansoori also met with senior officials from Shanghai Stock Ex-change.

Matters related to mutual cooperation and strategic de-velopments were discussed during the meeting.

The two parties agreed to explore and identify mutually beneficial areas of cooperation to potentially sign a memoran-dum of understanding (MoU) in the near future.

During the visit to Shang-hai, Mansoori presented Qa-tar’s investment case to lead-ing Chinese asset managers and insurance companies during the Shanghai Global Investment Forum held on June 19.

He also met with a number of asset managers and invited them to setup businesses in Qatar.

QSE is actively pursuing a strategy to lure in Asian in-vestments from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and other Asian countries to further di-versify its investor base.

QSE CEO meets Shanghai Stock Exchange chairman

QSE CEO Rashid bin Ali al Man-soori with SSE Chairman Huang Hongyuan, in Shanghai

QNA DOHA

QATAR Financial Markets Au-thority (QFMA) announced on Monday that the split of all 46 companies’ shares and ETFs’ units listed on Qatar Stock Ex-change (QSE) has been com-pleted.

QFMA said the stock split was done as per a scheduled process in coordination with the QSE, Qatar Central Secu-rities Depository (QCSD) and other concerned parties from June 9, 2019 to July 7, 2019 and over 21 trading sessions.

The marketing authority said the stock split proceeded as planned with a joint aware-ness programme implemented by all relevant parties to clarify the split process, mechanisms and objectives

QFMA hailed the coopera-tion of all concerned parties in the success of the stock split, especially QSE, QCSD and the financial services companies for their continuous efforts before and during the imple-mentation period to ensure the fullest implementation.

QFMA also appreciated the role of listed companies and persons in charge of the ETFs’ units for their response and compliance while imple-menting the stock split as per the agreed steps and timeta-ble.

It also praised the role of the various media in following up all implementation stages, stressing that the media have contributed positively to clar-ify the process objectives and delivery the QFMA’s message.

The stock split process was launched on June 9, with shares of Commercial Bank and Qatar First Bank, ending with Qatar Aluminum Manu-facturing Company (QAMCO) and the ETFs’ units.

The nominal value of the shares of all companies and ETFs’ units listed QSE is now QR1.

Stock split of 46 QSE firms complete, says QFMA

GCC banking systems should be able to absorb substantial foreign fund-ing outflows without gov-ernment support in a modest stress scenario, the report said

al khaliji to announce Q2 financial results on July 23 AL Khalij Commercial Bank (al khaliji) announced on Monday that its Board of Directors will meet on July 23 to approve the second quarter financial results end-ing June 30,2019. (TNN)

Matters related to mutual cooperation and strategic developments were dis-cussed during the meeting

Wall St slips with Apple, as hopes of sharp rate cut fade REUTERS NEW YORK

US stocks fell on Monday, pressured by a drop in Apple Inc following a broker down-grade, and as investors toned down expectations of an ag-gressive interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve later this

month.Apple Inc fell 2.1% and was

the biggest drag on all three main Wall Street indexes. Rosenblatt Securities down-graded the iPhone maker’s shares to “sell” from “neutral,” and said it expected the com-pany to face “fundamental de-terioration” in the next six to

12 months.The technology index was

down 0.8%, while the health-care index dropped 0.9%, weighed down by President Donald Trump’s recent state-ment about an upcoming ex-ecutive order that would lower prescription drug prices.

Surprisingly strong US

jobs data on Friday has forced traders to temper hopes of a sharp rate cut at the central bank’s July 30-31 policy meet-ing, even as a reduction is still expected.

“That’s kind of concern-ing the market if just from the standpoint of the market’s done well and now it’s a mat-

ter of, were Friday’s numbers too positive, and might we not get the cuts investors were hoping for,” said Alan Lancz, president of Alan B. Lancz & Associates Inc, an investment advisory firm, based in Toledo, Ohio.

“That’s put a cloud over the market as well.” Inves-

tors might get an opportunity to gauge near-term monetary policy thinking during Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s semi-annual testimony to the US Congress on July 10-11. Also ahead are the central bank’s June meeting min-utes, scheduled for release on Wednesday.

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2019

Axe falls on 18,000 Deutsche Bank jobs PAGE 12

Shanghai Club launches ultimate sunset brunchPAGE 12

DOW QE GOLD

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REUTERSLONDON

BRITISH Airways-owner IAG is facing a record $230 mil-lion fine for the theft of data from 500,000 customers from its website last year un-der tough new data-protec-tion rules policed by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The ICO proposed a pen-alty of 183.4 million pounds, or 1.5% of British Airways’ 2017 worldwide turnover, for the hack, which it said ex-

posed poor security arrange-ments at the airline.

BA indicated that it planned to appeal against the fine, the product of European data protection rules, called GDPR, that came into force in 2018. They allow regulators to fine companies up to 4% of their global turnover for data-protection failures.

The attack involved traffic to the British Airways website being diverted to a fraudulent site, where customer details such as log in, payment card and travel booking details as

well as names and addresses were harvested, the ICO said.

Information Commission-er Elizabeth Denham said: “People’s personal data is just that - personal.

“When an organisation fails to protect it from loss, damage or theft it is more than an inconvenience. That’s why the law is clear - when you are entrusted with personal data you must look after it.” BA’s chairman and chief executive Alex Cruz said he was “sur-prised and disappointed” by the proposed penalty.

BA faces $230 mn fine over data theft


HIGHLIGHTING its commit-ment to providing best-in-market personal finance solu-tions for its customers, Doha Bank has launched an exclu-sive cashback offer on person-al loans, the bank announced in a statement on Monday.

Doha Bank said customers will be eligible to receive up to QR5,000 cashback on loans with a minimum net value of QR100,000 when they sign up for the MetLife Future Protect policy.

Doha Bank’s personal

loans offer highly competitive interest rates starting from 4.50 percent (reducing rate) for NTB and buyout loans.

Customers choosing an insurance policy with a pre-mium of $165 and above can

avail themselves of QR2,500 cashback, while those select-ing $225 or more are in line to receive QR5,000 cashback.

Chief Retail Banking Offic-er Braik al Marri, said, “We are pleased to introduce our new cashback promotion, which makes Doha Bank’s already outstanding personal finance options more attractive than ever. By providing affordable financial assistance to our cus-tomers for a variety of needs, we are helping to put people’s dreams and ambitions within reach.

“We will continue to seek out fresh ways to create added

value for our loyal customers by bringing them an innova-tive, world-class banking ex-perience.”

Customers will receive their cashback within 60 days after their MetLife Future Pro-tect policy has been issued, and also have the opportunity to take advantage of a three-month payment holiday on their loan installments.

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Doha Bank offers up to QR5k cashback on personal loans

Shanghai Club launches ultimate sunset brunchTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

SHANGHAI Club, the au-thentic Cantonese Restau-rant in JW Marriott Marquis City Centre, is launching the ultimate sunset brunch.

With an elevation of 162.3 metres above the ground, on the 43rd level, guests will enjoy a spectacu-lar view of the city’s beautiful landscape, a wide and tasty variety of authentic Asian cuisine and live performance of the tea sommelier.

The new brunch will feature a wide selection of offerings; from chef’s fa-vourites served as soon as the guest arrive to live carving Shanghai BBQ sta-tion serving roasted duck, roasted chicken, hainanese style poach chicken and pe-king duck rolls with differ-ent sauces and condiments and a Kim’s bao station with salad condiments, in addi-tion to popular and favour-ite dishes available a la carte including dim sum and noo-dles to name a few.

The food is complement-ed with unlimited flow of select beverages and a spec-tacular performance by the tea sommelier.

Guests can enjoy the spectacular 360 degree view of Doha at the sunset brunch every Fridays from 15:00 pm to 18:30 pm with unlim-ited food and beverage for QR360.

Shanghai Club also of-fers the guests a post-brunch party with entertainment and special beverage prices from 18:30 pm to 21:00pm at the lounge area.

Shanghai Club has re-cently welcomed a new ex-ecutive chef Ooi Kar Kim, who brings his culinary ex-pertise of 10 years in Chi-nese and Asian cuisines to Doha’s favourite Chinese

restaurant. Together with the res-

taurant’s culinary team, they offer authentic and carefully curated selection of classic and contemporary dishes that are not only fresh and flavourful, but innovative and visually appealing as well.

Shanghai Club’s restau-rant is open throughout the week for dinner from 18:00 pm to midnight. For book-ings and enquiries call 4429 5295.

Alwadi Hotel Doha launches unique four-bedroom suiteTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

THE five-star boutique Alwadi Ho-tel Doha (located within Msheireb Downtown Doha) has launched a unique four-bedroom suite de-signed to create memorable fam-ily and group staycations, the hotel announced in a statement on Mon-day.

The 240 square metre suite is complete with four spacious bed-rooms with MGallery’s propriety king-size cocoon MyBed™ dressed in premium linen, four lavish bath-rooms, a fully equipped modern dining room, a separate, chic living room with a spacious desk, compli-mentary Wi-Fi and high end Nes-presso machine, and a balcony ter-race from which guests can take in magnificent Arabian Gulf and Souq Waqif views.

For flexibility the suite can be

divided into two inter-connecting two-bedroom apartments.

Awadi Hotel Doha General Manager Dominic Arel said, “The apartment suite, which boasts the latest audio-visual and lighting technology, caters to the prefer-ences of local travellers who like to stay with their extended family or for groups of friends who decide to spend leisure time together in an extremely relaxing environment and cosy spacious room.”

He added, “Though thoroughly modern in design, the apartment has bespoke mashrabiya decora-tion touches with carefully crafted Islamic patterns and earth toned colour scheme for a feel of Arabia and familiarity.

“The apartment suite ensures total privacy and comfort in elegant surroundings with great views of the charming Souq Waqif, the stun-ning West Bay skyline and the in-

spiring The Pearl.” The hotel’s four bedroom suite

will be launched this summer with a QR3,200 per night special pack-

age, which runs until September 15, but must be reserved in advance, the statement said.

The package includes compli-

mentary breakfast for four adults and six children or eight adults, which can be taken up until 3pm in the hotel’s Le Colonial Restaurant – Doha’s first authentic breakfast room.

Guests will also get a 20% dis-count on their food and beverage bills and on any of the treatments at the hotel’s M|SPA which combines Arabian oil and healing therapies with modern massage techniques.

Guests also qualify for a 50% discount on laundry services and for a late 3pm check out.

The staycation will be complete with time spent chilling out in the hotel’s temperature-controlled out-door pool with the young ones en-joying their own children’s pool.

The package, which runs up to, through and post Eid al Adha, is designed to deliver the very best of festive family and friends’ memora-ble moments.

A view of a bedroom of Alwadi Hotel Doha

BOOSTING STAYCATIONS

Customers choosing an insurance policy with a premium of $165 and above can avail them-selves of QR2,500 cash-back, while those select-ing $225 or more are in line to receive QR5,000 cashback

Axe falls on 18,000 Deutsche Bank jobsBankers seen leaving offices with boxes in Sydney and London

REUTERS FRANKFURT/SYDNEY/HONG KONG

DEUTSCHE Bank laid off staff from Sydney to London on Monday as it began 18,000 job cuts in a 7.4 billion euro ($8.3 billion) “reinvention” which Germany’s largest lender said would mean yet another an-nual loss, knocking its shares.

In a retreat from a dec-ades-long ambition to make its struggling investment bank, which employs 38,000 peo-ple, a force on Wall Street, Deutsche Bank said on Sunday it would scrap its global equi-ties operations and cut some in fixed income.

Shares in Deutsche Bank, which has almost 91,500 staff around the world, erased early gains and were down 4.1% at 1224 GMT after the bank’s fi-nance chief flagged “significant uncertainty” whether it would break even in 2020.

Chief Executive Christian Sewing told journalists from the bank’s London office, where hundreds of the cuts are expected, that he was “do-ing nothing short of reinvent-ing” Deutsche Bank, which will have been in the red for four out of the past five years as it dealt with a series of setbacks.

At Deutsche Bank’s invest-ment banking headquarters in London, where the bank employs 8,000 people, sev-eral said they were leaving for the last time, though few were keen to talk.

“I was terminated this morning. There was a very quick meeting and that was it,” said one IT worker, who had been working on a project in the bank for more than two years.

The nearby Balls Brothers pub was filling up with now former Deutsche Bank staff.

Bankers seen leaving Deutsche Bank’s Sydney office also said they had been laid off, but declined to be identified as they were due to return later to sign redundancy packages.

Sewing said job cuts would continue in New York.

JP Morgan analysts called the plan “bold and for the first time not half-baked” but ques-tioned the credibility of execu-tion, revenue growth and em-ployee motivation.

Ratings agency Moody’s said there were “significant challenges” to executing the plan swiftly and it would keep its negative outlook on Deutsche Bank.

“It’s a risky manoeuvre, but if it succeeds, it has the poten-tial to bring the bank back on course,” a person close to one of the top 10 biggest share-holders said.

Founded in 1870, Deutsche Bank has long been a major source of finance and advice for German companies seek-ing to expand abroad or raise

money through the bond or equity markets.

Big cuts to its investment bank mark a reversal of a decades-long expansion that began with its purchase of Morgan Grenfell in London in 1989 and continued a decade later with a takeover of Bank-ers Trust in the United States.

The investment bank gen-erates about half of Deutsche Bank’s revenue but is also volatile. Sewing, who flagged the restructuring in May after a failed merger attempt with Commerzbank, wants to focus on more stable sources of rev-enue.

“We are creating a bank that will be more profitable, leaner, more innovative and more resilient,” Sewing wrote in a note sent to staff on Sun-day.

As part of the overhaul, Deutsche Bank will set up a so-called bad bank to wind-down unwanted assets, with 74 bil-lion euros of risk-weighted as-sets, and Sewing will represent the investment bank on the board in a sign of its waning influence.

Deutsche Bank gave no breakdown for the cuts, but said they would be spread around the globe, including in Germany.

In Sydney, Hong Kong and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, where Deutsche Bank used to rank among the top 10 banks in league tables for ECM deals, several bankers said en-tire teams in sales and trading were going.

Deutsche Bank’s Asia-Pacific head of equity capital markets (ECM), Jason Cox, left, and ECM teams were dis-banded in Japan, Australia and most of Asia, people with direct knowledge of matter said, adding that only a few syndicate bankers including the ones working on ongoing deals will remain.

Deutsche Bank had slipped in recent years in Asia, hitting 17th last year and 18th in 2019, Refinitiv data showed. So far this year, it ranks 8th region-ally for M&A activity.

“The new investment bank will be smaller but more resil-ient, with a focus on our financ-ing, capital markets, advisory services and sales and trading businesses,” Asia-Pacific Chief Executive Werner Steinmuel-ler said in a memo to staff.

One laid-off equities trader in Hong Kong said the mood was “pretty gloomy” as peo-ple were called in to meetings. “They give you this packet and you are out of the building,” he said.

Several workers left offices holding envelopes with the bank’s logo. Three employees took a picture of themselves beside a Deutsche Bank logo outside, hugged and then hailed a taxi.

A man carrying a box leaves a Deutsche Bank office in London on Monday. (REUTERS)

Economy & Business12 Tuesday, July 9, 2019

AJAY NAIDUMANCHESTER

INDIA skipper Virat Kohli has been quizzed a lot about Mahendra Singh Dhoni his senior pro, former captain and someone who has served Indian cricket with distinc-tion. Most of the questions centered around Dhoni’s form or his inability to pro-vide the necessary fireworks and be the finisher that he used to be.

And almost every time Koh-li, and other members of the team have backed the senior statesman for what he means to them and also for what he brings to the table in terms of adding value to the team.

There was been an uneasy calm in the way Dhoni has gone about his business in this World Cup. And, there is this feeling that keeps grow-ing that this may well be his farewell tournament, the last time when he is playing in the India colours.

Now that India has made the knock out stage of the World Cup, Virat Kohli and his boys are just two big wins away making history at Lord’s. And one-day cricket being what it is, Tuesday might well be the last time that Dhoni would be playing for India. Or, if things play true to form and reputation, he may well get an extra game.

In fitness of things, a question was asked not about Dhoni the player but the personality that he has been; what he means to his colleagues in the dressing room and generally to Indian cricket.

Kohli, of course, made the evening – when India won the 2011 World Cup – more memorable by coming up with this beautiful tribute to Sachin Tendulkar – “Ten-dulkar has carried the burden of nation for 21 years; it was time we carried him.

“I didn’t prepare for that one in 2011, so I’m certainly not going to write anything down. But yeah, I’m sure everyone, if you asked them about him (Dhoni) they have special things to say.

“And especially for us

who started our careers un-der him. For us that doesn’t change. The respect will al-

ways be there because of the opportunities that he gave us and the faith he showed in us, and the way he’s handled the whole team in transition over so many years.

“And now we are the ones who are taking Indian cricket forward. We understand the importance of that process.

“When a person has done so much for the team you have to appreciate and acknowl-edge what he’s done for In-dian cricket and how he’s han-dled Indian cricket and taken the respect for Indian cricket so high all over the world.

“We are all very grateful for what he’s done for Indian cricket and for us. And he’s always been in a very hap-py, jovial mood all the time whenever we see him and yes-terday again (Dhoni’s birth-day) was a very happy mo-ment for him, for the whole team, to see a smile on his face and he’s in a very com-fortable, very happy space at the moment.

“I’m not thinking of any-thing apart from that because the main focus right now is to do what we need to do tomor-row and then on to another one hopefully and yeah, just have a good World Cup.

“But from the respect point of view for MS, it’s al-ways going to be sky-high, es-pecially in my eyes, because I know how difficult it can be to make a transition of captain-ing also, you know, within the same team, just playing as a player after being cap-tain for so many years and still not being too assertive or too pushy in anything. He gives you space to make your own decisions and to actually discover yourself, so I think that’s been his biggest qual-ity,” said Kohli.

Kohli acknowledges former skipper Dhoni’s contribution

India captain Virat Kohli speaks at the press conference ahead of the semi-final against New Zealand at Old Trafford on Monday. (REUTERS)

Says respect for Indian cricket has grown under him

India’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni kicks a football during a training session at Old Trafford in Manchester on Monday, ahead of the World Cup semis against New Zealand. (AFP)

INDIA OOZE CONFIDENCE

BIRMINGHAM: Australia’s stars walked barefoot on the Edgbaston pitch on Monday in an unusual team bonding session in the build-up to their World Cup semi-final against England. Aaron Finch’s side began their training session at Birmingham venue for Thursday’s England showdown by discarding their socks and trainers. The World Cup holders then took a walk across the playing surface and sat for more than half-an-hour in the same state as they took it in turns to talk to each other about their emotions ahead of the final week of the tournament. The move was inspired by Australia head coach Justin Langer, who last year described himself as “a bit of a hippy”, spending a month a year growing out his beard and walking barefoot. Australia batsman Peter Handscomb has yet to play in the tournament, having joined up as a replacement for Shaun Marsh, but is in line to face England in place of the injured Usman Khawaja. Asked for his take on the walkabout and ‘bonding circle’, Handscomb said: “We had an open and honest conversation and it was great that some of the guys poured their heart out there about what it meant to get to the semi-final. (AFP)

Aussie stars go barefoot in bonding session

DHAKA: Bangladesh cricket authorities on Monday an-nounced they would let go head coach Steve Rhodes after a disappointing campaign in the World Cup. “We have decided to part ways with the head coach by mutual consent. The decision will be effective immediately,” Bangladesh Cricket Board chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury told AFP.

Bangladesh sack coach Rhodes

CUP TALK

COLOMBO: Chandika Hathurus-ingha insisted Monday he would remain Sri Lanka’s cricket coach despite pressure to step down after their World Cup exit. Local media reported on Monday that sports minister Harin Fernando was unhappy with Hathurusin-gha’s performance and that he would be asked to step down. But Hathurusingha said he would still see out his contract. (AFP)

Hathurusingha hopes to stay on

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2019

Attiyah extends Silk Way Rally lead with 2nd stage win in Siberia PAGE 15

Brazil get the better of Peru to lift Copa trophy after 2007PAGE 14

CRICKET WORLD CUP

INDIA VS NZ (12.30PM)

CRICKET WORLD CUP 2019: FIRST SEMI-FINAL – INDIA VS NEW ZEALAND

Play with freedom, Williamson tells Kiwi batsmenREUTERS

MANCHESTER

NEW Zealand captain Kane Williamson encouraged his frontline batsmen to play with freedom in Tuesday’s semi-fi-nals against India to overcome their struggle for rhythm in the Cricket World Cup.

Not surprisingly, William-son is New Zealand’s leading scorer after the group stage with 481 runs from eight matches at a 96-plus average.

The next Kiwi batsman in that list is veteran Ross Taylor, way down with 261 runs and an average of 37.28.

Williamson said his fel-low batsmen had struggled to adjust to diverse English conditions where a winning total can vary greatly accord-ing to the state of the pitch on the day.

“We were cer-tainly expecting that it would be tough. But what we didn’t quite ex-pect coming into the tournament was the large va-riety of conditions that we faced,” W i l l i a m s o n told a news conference at Old Trafford.

“That defi-nitely made

perhaps batting with any rhythm a real challenge for everybody, so being able to adapt with the bat and just try-ing to contribute ... is certainly the most important thing.” “It’s just a great occasion to be a part of. I know the guys are really excited by the opportu-nity to go out and try and try and play with that freedom that when we do gives us the best chance.”

Addressing a news confer-ence before him, India captain Virat Kohli said the “special” Williamson controlled the team’s tempo and would nat-urally be a key wicket for the Indian bowlers.

Williamson denied New Zealand were too reliant on him to give their bowlers a de-cent, defendable total.

“No, I think there’s also been a number of other contri-butions that have been really important for us to get to where we are right now,” he said.

“You never sort of put a number on it. That is why we all practice as hard as we can to try and make those contri-

butions bigger and bet-ter.” That, however, would not be easy against India’s varied pace attack, led by Jasprit Bumrah.

New Zealand’s James Neesham during the team’s nets at the Old Trafford in Manchester on Monday. (REUTERS)

We are all very grateful for what he’s (MS Dhoni) done for Indian cricket and for us. From the respect point of view for MS, it’s always going to be sky-high.India captain Virat Kohli on Mahendra Singh Dhoni

AJAY NAIDUMANCHESTER

A BRIGHT sunny day welcomed the Indian team at the Old Trafford ground on Monday. And indeed the body language of each and every Indian player was joyously positive under-

lining the happy space that the Men in Blue are thanks to their brilliant run in this World Cup.

Apart from that one hiccup against hosts England, Virat Kohli’s team had made light work of the challenge posted by every other opponent. In fact, India are the only side in the com-petition that has lost just one game. All others, including Aus-tralia and England, have lost two or more games.

New Zealand, who ended with 11 points from 9 league matches, must consider themselves distinctly lucky to have en-tered the semi-finals nudging the mercurial Pakistan side out of the race due to a better net run-rate.

While India is brimming with self-belief and confi-dence ahead of the big game, New Zealand are strug-gling to get their act right having lost its last three games to England (119 runs), Australia (86 runs) and Pakistan (6 wickets). The Kiwis had also survived a serious scare against the West Indies, who lost by just 5 runs, while their match against India was a washout.

It was a late twist in the tale that saw the In-dians traveling to Manchester. In the event, the most likely scenario of India vs England and Australia vs New Zealand semi-final line ups went for a toss.

That might as well be a stroke of good fortune for Kohli’s team and the captain did acknowledge that. “The mood is great. Everyone is very relaxed, very confident,” remarked Kohli. “It’s been a long tournament, it’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of intense games. We are really happy that we have made it to the semis. Now there’s only opportunity that lies in front of us and everyone is very excited about it.”

Just as South Africa showed against Australia, form and reputation matter little in limited overs cricket. It is how a team

performs on a given day that matters.Thus, Kane Williamson would be keen to revive his team’s

fortune after the recent slump. The skipper himself is the main stay in the batting department while Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Mitchell Santner will have the tough task of containing the highflying Indian batters most notably Rohit Sharma.

The Indian vice-captain has been in divine form smashing no less than five hundreds so far. K.L. Rahul has finally come to terms as a makeshift opener while Kohli has made his presence felt too scoring five half-centuries.

The Indian bowling too has been pretty impressive with the Jaspreet Bumrah leading the way. Mohd. Shami proved a point or two once he came in bowling with pace and fire. Hardik Pandya too has measured up to expectations. After the mauling they received against England, India’s spinners haven’t looked as threatening. However, Ravindra Jadeja showed against Sri Lanka that he is still handy enough to command a place in the side along with Yuzvendra Chahal.

“Our bowling attack has been up there with the best in the competition. I think the way we have bowled in low-scor-ing games, even coming back into the match when the guys have been hit, I think they have shown a lot of character,” opined Kohli.

Knowing well that they are well on course in this competition to keep their date with des-tiny, Kohli also talked about the big stage and big sense of occasion of playing in a World Cup semi-final.

“This is more similar to the toughest situations you get in Test cricket. You have to be absolutely precise but your in-tent cannot go down. So decision-making will be crucial.

“Whoever handles pressure better is the team that is going to come out on top. We certainly are looking forward to doing that.”

MANCHESTER: Of late, teams win-ning the toss in this World Cup

have ended up winning the match as well. Win

the toss, put runs on the board and defend;

that seems to be the mantra for success in this World Cup.

Another interesting statistic here is that all games played at the Old Trafford in

this World Cup have been won by the team batting first. So how important is the toss and how should India cope with it?

“Well, it comes back to the same point, handling pressure. You make two bad decisions while you are chasing and the game goes away from you. I assume that that is going to be the case because, having been in so many chases, I un-derstand that the pressure can be very

high if you don’t go with the pace of the game,” explained Kohli.

“You can’t predict what is going to hap-pen at the toss. We have to be prepared both ways and we are quite open to do that. And if it is a factor, it’s a factor, so we can’t say if we lose the toss, we have no hope. We should believe enough in ourselves as a side to overcome any kind of a situation.” – Ajay Naidu

Handling pressure, decision-making will be crucial: Kohli

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson.

Rohit Sharma

Will this be another bat first and win game?

What if there’s

Rain?If it rains, the match officials will determine if conditions allow for play to be completed on the original match day.

In the event of poor weather, there are a range of steps taken to be able to finish the match that day e.g. reducing the number of overs down to the minimum of 20 overs per team needed to achieve a result, or by extending the match by up to 120 minutes. If there is still no result on the scheduled match day, play will continue on the Reserve Day, using the same start time and hours of play as the scheduled match day.

The reserve day will be a continuation and not a restart, meaning the score from the original match day will be carried through to the reserve day.

Sports14 Tuesday, July 9, 2019

FRENCH champions Paris Saint-Germain have said they will take action against Neymar after the Brazilian forward failed to report for training on Monday. The 27-year-old is a reported target for Barcelona, whose President Josep Maria Bartomeu said last week that Neymar wanted to leave the Ligue 1 side to return to Spain, but that PSG were reluctant to sell him. Neymar joined PSG from Barcelona for a world record 222 million euros in 2017. “On Monday, July 8, Neymar was due to return to pre-season activities with the Paris St Ger-main senior squad,” PSG said in a statement on their website. “Paris St Germain notes that Neymar was not in attendance at the agreed time and place. This was without the club’s prior au-thorisation. The club regrets this situation and will therefore take appropriate action.” (REUTERS)

PSG to take action after Neymar skips training

BRAZIL coach Tite on Sunday accused Lionel Messi of lacking respect after the Argentina star made accusations of corrup-tion against the Copa America tournament. “He should have more respect, and he should accept it when he loses,” Tite said, adding that Messi should be “more careful” in choosing his words. Messi was harshly sent off after a tussle with Chile’s Gary Medel during the Copa America third-place match on Saturday. Despite his being red-carded just 37 minutes into the match, Argentina won 2-1. (DPA)

Brazil coach Tite slams Messi after ‘corruption’ claims

Quick read

REUTERSRIO DE JANEIRO

BRAZIL’S Gabriel Jesus made one goal, scored another and was sent off in the second half as they beat Peru 3-1 on Sunday to win the Copa America for the ninth time in a pulsating con-test at the Maracana stadium.

The hosts took the lead after 15 minutes thanks to

some brilliant skill from Jesus on the wing. The Manches-ter City forward bamboozled two defenders and crossed for the unmarked Everton to fire home from close range.

“In the last game I was qui-et and I was very disappointed with myself,” said Man of the Match Everton.

“I got it in my head that I had to give everything, in-

dependent of scoring. I had to sweat blood for my team mates. Our team deserves con-gratulations for a great game.”

Peru, who last won the tour-nament in 1975, got an equal-iser a minute before halftime when Paolo Guerrero scored from the penalty spot after Thi-ago Silva handled the ball.

The goal was the first Bra-zil had conceded in six games

at the Copa America but it did not shake their confidence and they retook the lead moments later after a well-worked move from midfield.

Roberto Firmino showed some nice skill on the right touchline before giving the ball to Arthur. The midfielder strode forward and fed Jesus, who coolly slotted the ball past a helpless Pedro Gallese.

Peru pushed forward in the second half and were thrown a lifeline with 20 minutes remain-ing when Jesus was sent off.

He had been felled by Car-los Zambrano a few minutes earlier and when Jesus dealt out his revenge he was imme-diately shown a second yellow to follow a first half caution for a bad tackle.

“I want to apologise,” said Jesus. “I could have avoided it and I also need to grow up a lot.”

But Brazil, playing in front of a 70,000 crowd in Rio de Janeiro, had the final say when substitute Richarlison made it 3-1 with a penalty in the final minute.

It was Brazil’s first major title since they won the Copa America in 2007 and the

first for coach Tite, who took charge three years ago.

They also did it without Neymar, who was injured on the eve of the tournament.

Peru coach Ricardo Gareca recognised Brazil were the su-perior side but said his team, who played at their first World Cup in 36 years in 2018, were competitive throughout.

“It was fair that Brazil won,” he said. “We had our momentum but the second goal...

“They took advantage of their opportunities.

“We came here hoping to win but they were very effec-tive,” he added.

“But looking beyond the pain of the defeat, I think we are on the right path, that is the feeling that I have.”

Brazil’s Dani Alves (centre) and teammates celebrate with the Copa America trophy at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. (AFP)

Brilliant Brazil sizzle to first Copa title in over 10 years

Peru’s fans react in Lima after their team lost the Copa America final. Ten-man Brazil held on to win on home soil despite Gabriel Jesus’s dismissal during their 3-1 victory over Peru. (AFP)

Al Sadd begin training ahead of Al Duhail clashQNADOHA

AL Sadd began their pre-season training session on Sunday. The Wolves will be without players like Saad al Sheeb, Tareq Salman, Akram Afif, Hamed Ismail, Hassan al Haydos, Salem al Hajri, and Abdul Karim Hassan.

These seven players were part of the Qatar squad at Copa America last month.

The remaining squad will be in training in Doha before heading to Barcelona for a training camp from July 14 to 29.

Al Sadd are also prepar-ing for their AFC Champions League clashes against Al Du-hail on August 6 and 13. Al Sadd will also feature in the fi-nal of the Sheikh Jassim Cup on August 17.

At the end of last season it was announced that former Barcelona legend and Al Sadd skipper Xavi will manage the reigning league champions. This will be the Spaniard’s first foray into management.

Al Ahli, Al Khor kick off pre-season trainingAl Ahli have launched their pre-season training at the As-pire Academy football pitches.

The training session on Saturday was headed by coach Ruben de la Barrera who took over the reigns midway through last season from Milan Machala.

The training session saw the participation of most of the squad members.

Al Ahli recently signed Mo-roccan player Nabil Al Azhar who has joined Dutch star Ni-gel de Young and Iran’s Umeid Brahimi.

Al Ahli is expected to com-plete it’s roster of four foreign players in the coming days. A

solid center back is what can serve Al Ahli well in the new season. The training session for the new season will continue at Aspire Academy for a week before the side leaves for the Netherlands on July 15.

The pre-season training camp in Europe will last for two weeks, the club announced.

Meanwhile, Al Khor team also completed preparations to launch pre-season training.

The first training session will be held under coach Omar Najhi, the club has announced.

Most of the squad play-ers are expected to attend the opening training session in Al Khor. The signing four over-seas players are expected to be completed in the coming days.

Al Khor will continue train-ing on their home ground until July 20 when they leave for the Netherlands for a 20-day train-ing camp. The side is scheduled to return to Doha on August 9.

During their Dutch trip, Al Khor will play a series of friendly matches to ascertain the fitness and form of the players.

Al Sadd players during a training session in Doha ahead of the new 2019/20 QNB Stars Legaue season.

AFPLONDON

THE son of Argentina World Cup winner Jorge Burruchaga is starting out on a career of his own – but with a tennis ball rather than a football.

Jorge Burruchaga, who ad-mits he “suffers” watching his son play at Wimbledon, scored the winning goal when Argen-tina beat West Germany 3-2 in the 1986 World Cup final.

He also starred alongside Diego Maradona when Argen-tina infamously beat England in the quarter-finals of the tournament.

More than three decades on, his son Roman is seeking to conquer England in his own way: in the juniors at Wimble-don. The 17-year-old qualifier made his debut on the All Eng-land Club lawns on Monday

in the first round of the boys’ singles, beating the Spaniard Pablo Llamas 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

In doing so, he became the only Argentine junior to make it to the last 32.

In the boys’ second round, Burruchaga will face the Japa-nese eighth seed Shintaro Mo-chizuki, while he also has a shot in the boys’ doubles with Bra-zilian Natan Rodrigues.

“Now let’s see what hap-pens,” the teenager said, de-claring himself pleased with his “first grasscourt tour and first here in England”. “I’m slowly feeling more comfortable on this surface,” he said.

Grass is “a surface where no Argentinian plays”, said Guido Pella, the Argentine men’s 26th seed who was the only singles main draw player from the South American country to make it through to the second

week of Wimbledon.Jorge Burruchaga, 56, was

at Wimbledon to watch his son in action on Court Five, one of four outside courts at the All England Club that has no seating stands – just a few park benches in the shadow of

Centre Court.The proud father was un-

able to see his son play at the French Open in Paris back in May and June, but did not want to miss his debut at Wimbledon.

“He wanted him to come

because he hasn’t seen me in a long time,” said Roman, while Jorge admitted that he “suf-fers” a little watching his son doing battle on court.

Some 33 years ago, Bur-ruchaga senior was a key fig-ure in Argentina’s 1986 World Cup triumph in Mexico. The attacking midfielder played in the quarter-final against Eng-land, which took place just four years after the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina.

The 2-1 victory for Argenti-na will forever be remembered for Maradona’s goals – one a brilliant individual run and the other his infamous “Hand of God” goal punched into the net. Argentina went on to be-come world champions, beat-ing West Germany 3-2, with Burruchaga scoring the winner in the 84th minute, after being played through by Maradona.

Argentina World Cup winner Burruchaga’s son makes dad ‘suffer’ at Wimbledon

Argentina’s Roman Andres Burruchaga returns against Spain’s Pablo Llamas Ruiz during the Boy’s singles first round match of the 2019 Wimbledon Championships on Monday. (AFP)

Zaha strike sends Ivory Coast through to AFCON quarters

AFPSUEZ, EGYPT

WILFRIED Zaha grabbed the only goal to settle a disappoint-ing Africa Cup of Nations last-16 clash as Ivory Coast beat Mali 1-0 in Suez on Monday.

Crystal Palace winger Zaha ensured the Ivorians remained unbeaten against Mali at the tournament as he squeezed home on 76 minutes to book a quarter-final show-down with Algeria.

However, the 2015 cham-pions will need to perform much better if they aspire to a second title in four years as Ivory Coast’s talented attack of Zaha, Nicolas Pepe and Jonathan Kodjia largely failed to fire.

The in-demand Pepe re-turned for the Elephants after sitting out the 4-1 win over Na-mibia along with Kodjia, while Mali recalled a host of regulars having rested key players after qualifying from their group

with a game to spare.Mali had the Ivorians in

trouble early here, although Lassana Coulibaly lost his footing after Moussa Marega attempted to square.

Sylvain Gbohouo had a lucky escape when he flapped at a corner with Abdoulay Di-aby stabbing over before the Ivory Coast goalkeeper tipped behind his curling free-kick.

Mali were seeking a first victory over their fellow west Africans at the Cup of Nations after three losses and a draw,

but Southampton recruit Moussa Djenepo stumbled as he bore in on goal at start of the second half.

Zaha made the break-through with a quarter of an hour remaining when Gbo-houo’s hopeful ball upfield skipped all the way through to the Arsenal target who snuck the ball past Diarra.

Adama Traore created a late chance as Mali sought to send the game to extra time but his stinging drive was kept out by Gbohouo.

Ivory Coast’s Wilfried Zaha scores the winner against Mali during their Cup of Nations Round of 16 clash on Monday. (REUTERS)

Herrera says he ‘feels very lucky’ to join PSG from Utd

AFPPARIS

PARIS Saint-Germain’s latest recruit Ander Herrera said on Sunday that if he had to leave Manchester United one of the only places he could go was “one of the most beautiful cities in the world”.

The 29-year-old midfielder, who signed a five-year contract with PSG after leaving United on a free transfer, talked to AFP the day before his new club be-gins pre-season training.

“When a club with a big pro-ject, in constant growth, located in one of the most beautiful cit-ies in the world, comes to you, it is not very difficult to make a decision,” he said.

“When you leave a big club like Manchester United, the only places you can go are those like PSG: the biggest French club, which has some of the best players in the world.”

“I feel very lucky,” he said.Herrera was part of the

United squad that knocked PSG out of the Champions League in the round of 16 last season.

Asked what he had learned from that encounter, the Span-iard pointed out that PSG were without the injured Neymar and Edinson Cavani but won 2-0 at Old Trafford in the first leg play-ing “extraordinary” football.

He carefully avoided the subject of PSG’s second-leg dis-play as they lost 3-1 at home, by saying “I don’t want to talk about the past again”.

“You know in Europe, there are eight to 10 clubs who want to win it: Juventus, Real Ma-drid, Barcelona, Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham, Munich,” he said.

“But only one can do it. I think we have to continue to be the strongest team in France.”

Herrera said he was im-pressed by the potential at PSG.

“We have incredible play-ers! I will also be there to help them improve, and make them better players.”

DPALONDON

WORLD number one Ashleigh Barty has been eliminated from Wimbledon by American Alison Riske in a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 shock in the last 16 on Monday.

“Tough one to swallow but I lost to a better player,” said Barty, who was on a 15-match unbeaten streak, which start-ed with her French Open win in June. “I think I started well. I was sticking to how I wanted to play. Overall I didn’t play a poor match.”

There were no shocks in the men’s draw as the top three seeds, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, all advanced to the quarter-finals with straight-sets victories.

One consolation for Bar-ty’s exit is that she will keep her number-one status after world number three Karolina Pliskova crashed out with a 6-4, 5-7, 11-13 defeat to com-patriot Karolina Muchova.

Seven-time champion Ser-ena Williams advanced with a dominant 6-2, 6-2 win over Spain’s Carla Suarez-Navarro in 63 minutes to meet Riske in the last eight. Ukrainian eighth seed Elina Svitolina, who dismissed Croatia’s Petra Martic 6-4, 6-2, faces Mucho-va in the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, former world number one Simona Halep has ended Cori Gauff’s sensational Wimbledon run by beating the 15-year-old American 6-3, 6-3 in the last 16. “I wasn’t feeling 100% today,” said Gauff, who asked for a medical timeout in the second set.

“I still tried my best. Si-

mona played really well.” At 5-2 down in the second set, Gauff saved two match points, but she conceded defeat on Halep’s third opportunity as the 27-year-old Romanian se-cured her quarter-final spot after 75 minutes.

Aged 15 years and 122 days, Gauff is the youngest entrant in the fourth round

of a grand slam since Russian Anna Kournikova at the 1996 US Open.

“It’s a huge thing that she’s able to play in the fourth round of Wimbledon. It’s a great per-formance,” Halep commented on Gauff, who will break into the world’s top 150.

“I think, if she keeps going, she will be top 10 soon.”

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova is out after surrendering a first-set lead to fall 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 to British home favourite Jo Konta, who plays another Czech, Barbora Strycova, next.

In the men’s draw, eight-time champion Federer is one result from claiming a mile-stone 100th Wimbledon win

after his 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Italian Matteo Berret-tini. The 37-year-old Swiss has never lost a fourth-round contest at Wimbledon in his record-breaking 17th appear-ance at this stage.

“I think you can always lose a Grand Slam in that first week - but you can’t win it,” said Federer.

“If you get through it with energy in the tank you’re in a good position.” Federer moves on to a Grand Slam quarter-final for a record-extending 55th time and plays Kei Nishi-kori on Wednesday.

The Japanese eighth seed dismissed Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

World number one Djoko-vic is second behind Federer on major quarter-final appear-ances with 45 after the defend-ing Wimbledon champion brushed aside Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.

Two-time Wimbledon winner Nadal eased through to the next phase with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 win over Portugal’s Joao Sousa on Centre Court.

Djokovic will meet David Goffin next after the Belgian dispatched Spain’s Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (11-9), 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Spanish world number two Nadal will face American Sam Querrey next after his 6-4, 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5) tri-umph over compatriot Tennys Sandgren.

Gauff’s success started on the same Court One with a victory over her idol, five-time Wimbledon winner Venus Williams, in the first round.

It was clear that talented teenager Gauff had won the hearts of the British public, es-pecially after she rallied from two match points down in her stunning Centre Court debut against Polona Hercog in the previous round.

Gauff found herself in the same position at 5-2 down in the second set, with Halep afforded two match points. Gasps echoed around Court One as a challenged decision gave Gauff’s quarter-final hopes a slim chance, as its out-come erased the first match point by millimetres.

But, on the next match point, the tears of joy she had shed at the start of her run were replaced by tears of dis-appointment as her final shot of the tournament was a wide forehand. Halep will move on to face China’s Zhang Shuai after she prevailed 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 against Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska.

Kvitova, Gauff also fall; Serena stays smooth

Barty stunned by Riske; Big Three men through


EXCITEMENT for Qatar’s biggest-ever sporting event is soaring as Falah the Falcon has flown in to meet fans ahead of the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha this September.

Making his first appear-ance as the official mascot, Falah met with hun-dreds of children at Aspire Zone’s Summer Camp, posing for photographs and cheering on children as they took part in the sports sessions. The camp has seen youngsters take up athletics in the build-up to the World Championships set to take

place at the Khalifa Interna-tional Stadium from Septem-ber 27 to October 6.

Falah’s job sees him unite communities ahead of the competition which comes to the Middle East for the first time. He will welcome ath-letes from 213 different coun-tries, as they compete for gold medals in an action-packed schedule which will see 128 events take place over 10 days. The superhero mascot also looks to educate children on the values of being an athlete in Team Qatar including be-ing competitive, courageous, fun, helpful and loyal.

F l y i n g t h r o u g h the coun-try over

t h e next three

m o n t h s , Falah will meet sports e n t h u s i a s t s and families

across a number of venues in-cluding sporting camps, malls

and coffee shops, spreading the message of athletics and Qatari values across

all of Qatar’s citizens. Sheikha Asma al Thani,

Director of Marketing and Communications for the Local Organising Committee, com-mented: “Falah is the perfect face of the IAAF World Athlet-ics Championships Doha 2019,

honouring the traditional fal-con while bringing a modern, superhero look to the compe-tition which will see the best athletes in the world bring their superhero powers to Doha.

“Sport is about bringing people together and we feel Falah encompasses this ethos, adding fun to the competition while being popular with fans of all ages. He will be visiting locations across Doha, and I

encourage everyone to share their photos on social media to help generate more excitement ahead of what will be a truly memorable sporting event for everyone in Qatar.”

On Falah’s visit to the camp, Al Anoud Almisnad, Acting Head of Events Section at Aspire Zone, commented: “It was a great opportunity and a nice gesture from the Local Organising Committee of the

IAAF Doha 2019 to have Falah here today. His visit was im-portant to contribute to educat-ing the children more about the event and encourage them to attend the competitions, sup-port our athletes and enjoy the atmosphere of the Champion-ships which will be held for the very first time in Doha and the Middle East,”

She added: “We are very proud that Falah has start-ed his tour from our Aspire Dome which saw excitement and energy from the partici-pating children.”

Students have enjoyed different activities with Falah who showed some of his signature moves, posing in front of the cameras and waving to children.

Rashid al Muhannadi, a six-year-old, loved his experi-ence at Aspire, commenting: “No words can describe how happy I was that I joined Falah the Falcon to learn athletics. Falah taught us about the IAAF World Athletics Champion-ships Doha 2019 and we are happy that it will be hosted in

our capital, Doha.”Another five-year-old

Mohammed al Nuaimi, said: “I was very happy that I met Falah and that he joined us in our athletics activities. He en-couraged us to exercise every day. He also gave us gifts and invited us to go and watch the IAAF World Athletics Cham-pionships 2019 which will be very exciting.”

Fans can keep track of Falah’s appearances through-out Doha by checking out the latest images using #Follow-Falah on social media channels @IAAFDoha2019. News of Falah’s upcoming appearances will be also be available via the official social media channels.

Falah will be at the Khalifa International Stadium for the ten-day competition, meeting fans in the World Athletics Vil-lage at Khalifa International Stadium, as well as inside the venue. Fans can purchase tick-ets for the competition from just 60 QAR, with the easy on-line process found via https://iaafworldathleticschamps.com/doha2019/

Official mascot for IAAF World Championships begins tour

Falah the falcon flies into Qatar ahead of 2019 Worlds

Falath the Falcon, the mascot of the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 flies into Qatar ahead of the meet which will be held from September 27 to October 6..

Overdrive Racing’s Nasser al Attiyah in action in his Toyota Hilux dur-ing the second stage of the 2019 Silk Way Rally between Baikalsk and Ulan-Ude in eastern Siberia on Monday.

Attiyah stretches Silk Way lead with Stage 2 winTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

OVERDRIVE Racing’s Nasser bin Saleh al Attiyah and French navigator Matthieu Baumel extended their overall advantage to 13min and 53sec after a second successive stage win on the timed section of the 2019 Silk Way Rally between Baikalsk and Ulan-Ude in eastern Siberia on Monday.

The second stage of the re-vised rally ran for 207.67km in a day’s route of 409.34km between Baikalsk and the night halt in Ulan-Ude. It ran on gravel tracks through a mountain pass, taiga forests and across various bridges and spectacular Siberian terrain to finish on the steppes plateau.

Attiyah carded a time of 2hrs, 15min, 51sec for the varied special to beat second-placed Chinese driver Lui Kun by 7min, 40sec.

Attiyah said: “I pushed hard on the first stage to gain the advantage, despite the muddy conditions and we found a good pace today and now have a comfortable lead to manage over the coming days. There is a long way to go over many dif-ficult and varied stages.”

But it was a disappointing second stage for the Qatari’s two Overdrive Racing team-mates in their Toyota Hiluxes.

Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed al Rajhi and German navigator Dirk von Zitzewitz began the day in third position after a slow puncture cost them a po-tential second place on Sunday. But the Riyadh driver suffered technical issues on the special and was not able to continue. The Saudi had been running

fastest overall at WP1 (52km) before initially stopping on the track for over 15 minutes and then ceding further time as the stage progressed.

Dutchman Erik van Loon has teamed up with French-man Sebastien Delaunay for the first time in Russia, but transmission problems thwarted their progress on Monday and they face a fight back through the field over the coming days after losing over two and a half hours to the stage winner after 101km of the stage.

Frenchman Jérôme Peli-chet had been running second overall after the opening day and he slipped to third with fellow countryman Matthieu Serradori and China’s Han Wei following closely in the overall car rankings.

On Tuesday, teams tackle a 243-km selective section in a route of 691.35km between Ulan-Ude in Eastern Siberia and the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar (formerly known as Ulan Bator).

Ulaanbaatar is the larg-est city in Mongolia and is lo-cated in the central north of the country in the valley of the Tuul River.

POSITIONS AFTER SS2

1. Nasser bin Saleh al Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 2hrs 45min 15sec; 2. Lui Kun (CHN)/Pan Hingyu (CHN) Hanwei SMG Buggy 2hrs 59min 08sec; 3. Jérôme Pelichet (FRA)/Pascal Larroque (FRA) Optimus 2hrs 59min 14sec; 4. Matthieu Serradori (FRA)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL) Century CR6 3hrs 00min 14sec; 5. Han Wei (CHN)/Liao Min (CHN) Geely SMG Buggy 3hrs 01min 45sec; 6. David Bensadoun (CAN)/Patrick Beaule (CAN) Century CR6 3hrs 02min 12sec; 7.

Denis Krotov (RUS)/Dmytro Tsyro (RUS) MINI John Cooper Works Rally 3hrs 04min 20sec.

2019 SILK WAY RALLY

WIMBLEDON

Britain’s Johanna Konta (right) is congratulated by two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic after losing the fourth round match to her at the All England Club on Monday. (AFP)

MEN SINGLES

Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) bt Ugo Humbert (FRA) 6-3, 6-2, 6-3; David Goffin (BEL x21) bt Fernando Verdasco (ESP) 7-6 (11/9), 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP x23) bt Benoit Paire (FRA x28) 6-3, 7-5, 6-2; Sam Querrey (USA) bt Tennys Sandgren (USA) 6-4, 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/5)

Rafael Nadal (ESP x3) bt Joao Sousa (POR) 6-2, 6-2, 6-2; Kei Nishikori (JPN x8) bt Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Roger Federer (SUI x2) bt Matteo Berrettini (ITA x17) 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.WOMEN SINGLES: Alison Riske (USA) bt Ashleigh Barty (AUS x1) 3-6, 6-2, 6-3; Serena Williams (USA x11) bt Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP x30) 6-2, 6-2; Barbora

Strycova (CZE) bt Elise Mertens (BEL x21) 4-6, 7-5, 6-2; Johanna Konta (GBR x19) bt Petra Kvitova (CZE x6) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4; Elina Svitolina (UKR x8) bt Petra Martic (CRO x24) 6-4, 6-2; Karolina Muchova (CZE) bt Karolína Pliskova (CZE x3) 4-6, 7-5, 13-11; Simona Halep (ROU x7) bt Cori Gauff (USA) 6-3, 6-3; Zhang Shuai (CHN) bt Dayana Yastremska (UKR) 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.

RESULTS (Round 4)

Alison Riske of the U.S. in action during her fourth round match against Australia’s Ashleigh Barty at the Wimbledon in London on Monday. Riske won 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. (REUTERS)

Tough one to swallow but I lost to a better player.World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty

Riske & shock

Sports 15Tuesday, July 9, 2019

The Last Word16 Tuesday, July 9, 2019

‘Now, it’s time for culturally-relevant businesses’


HE WANTS to see his coun-try being self-sufficient. Mo-hammed Rashid al Matwi, the 25-year-old Founder and CEO of ‘The Perfume Fac-tory’ in Doha, and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), a Qatar Foundation (QF) partner uni-versity, is quite clear about it as he says, “I’m proud I’m contributing to that goal.”

While the statement typi-fies the enthusiasm of Qatar’s young entrepreneurs in gener-al, it also reflects QF’s gradu-ates, such as Matwi, who have bucked the trend of starting tech ventures, and chose in-stead to focus on businesses that contribute towards Qa-tar’s cultural self-sufficiency.

“Perfumes are an integral part of Arab culture; the num-ber of shops and home-based businesses that sell perfumes in malls and souqs is proof of this. For decades, perfum-ers who had their own small-scale set up in Qatar imported liquid raw materials to mix

their own scents.” “These chemicals, when

imported by individual busi-nesses, are always expen-sive, and are often from un-reliable suppliers. People in the country were forced to use them as they had no lo-cal supplier. Hence, the end products were always expen-sive and of low quality.

“As a person who could clearly understand just how ingrained perfumes are in our day-to-day life, I wondered if there was anything I could do to help people in Qatar enjoy something that is a part of their identity – at lower costs and higher quality.”

Matwi’s solution was to build a facility to manufacture perfumes with raw materials of the highest quality, sourced from some of the best suppli-ers in Europe. In addition, he would create a first-of-its-kind service: to build a customised perfume business that han-dled the A to Z of perfuming making – from sourcing raw supplies to the manufactur-ing of ready-to-use perfume brands. With persistence, and

some timely support and guid-ance from Qatar Development Bank, he set up the country’s first ‘factory’ dedicated only to perfumes, at the end of 2017.

Situated in Doha’s Indus-trial area, parts of the build-ing resemble a high-end per-fume shop, complete with soft spotlights, elegant furnishing and display cabinets. De-sign studios, a high-security blending lab, and a bottling, storing and dispatching area complete the facility.

The QF graduate’s busi-ness currently caters to a sizeable segment of the local perfumery market. He sells liquid raw materials to lo-cal businesses, in addition to

blending bespoke fragrances, serving different market seg-ments, including those sell-ing perfumes in hypermarkets and high-end perfume outlets.

Across Doha, in one of the high-rises in West Bay, yet another QF graduate – Noora Bu-Helaiqa, founder and CEO of Qommunication, a home-grown Public Relations (PR) company – is on a similar mission to help Qatar’s busi-nesses, organisations and people grow.

“Having worked in the communications depart-ments of reputed organi-sations in Doha, I noticed that all the top-rated and in-demand PR agencies in Qa-

tar were from abroad. And though these international teams were good, there was clearly a gap – the market needed home-grown PR pro-fessionals who had lived here all their lives; experts who could identify better with the cultural nuances of local busi-nessmen, and hence, could effectively communicate Qatar’s culture and achieve-ments to the outside world.”

Bu-Helaiqa decided to do something about it. She quit a high-paying job and attended the incubation workshops at Qatar Business Incubation Center. She started Qom-munication, but realising that she would need a for-

mal, structured training pro-gramme if she wanted to take her plan forward, she joined HEC Paris in Qatar, another QF partner university, to study a postgraduate degree in Strategic Business Unit Management.

“The modules I learnt at HEC Paris in Qatar taught me to read financial reports, discuss budgeting, make in-formed business decisions, and hire the right talents to support me,” she says, adding, “And it paid off! In just over a year, our team was one of the companies who worked on the inauguration of the National Museum of Qatar in March and recently of the Al-Janoob

stadium in Al Wakrah.”According to Bu-Helaiqa,

it also gave her the confidence to get ahead of other PR agen-cies and expand on a trend that was just catching on in the country – that of using so-cial media influencers to pro-mote different areas of inter-est to the public.

“One of the biggest les-sons I learned at HEC Paris in Qatar was to capitalize on resources, by applying them to as many opportunities as possible,” she says. “So, when it came to social media, our team was one of the first to po-sition local social media per-sonalities to promote both in-ternational and local brands, in addition to lifestyle trends and businesses.”

Both Bu-Helaiqa and Matwi point out how their QF education taught them that the emotional needs of a population are inseparable from business and market trends; that they are mutually inclusive.

“I never knew the extent to which a QF education would empower me to directly in-fluence the way people in the country, and abroad, perceive Qatar – its culture, its achieve-ments, its vision,” concluded Bu-Helaiqa.

Mohammed Rashid al Matwi, founder of ‘The Perfume Factory’. Noora Bu-Helaiqa, founder and CEO of Qommunication.

QF graduates help boost Qatar’s self-sufficiency drive through culturally-inclined businesses

QNRF announces 54 grant winners of its research experience programTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

QATAR National Research Fund (QNRF), a member of Qatar Foundation (QF), has announced the winners of its 24th Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) cycle, QNRF’s flagship pro-gramme, co-funded by Qatar Shell.

It is designed to develop research infrastructure in Qa-tar by establishing the basis of scientific research at under-graduate level.

In the 24th cycle, UREP grants were awarded to 54 proposals from student teams across several universities in Qatar, out of the 136 peer reviewed proposals. Of the 54 awards, 37 went to Qa-tar University (QU), while 15 were awarded to teams at QF partner universities – seven to Texas A&M University at Qatar, three to Weill Cor-nell Medicine-Qatar, three to Georgetown University in Qa-tar, and two to Northwestern University in Qatar. The two remaining awards were given to the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar and the Uni-versity of Calgary-Qatar.

The winning propos-als address the various pil-lars of the Qatar National Research Strategy, with 20

awards in Energy and Envi-ronment; 18 in Biomedical and Health; nine in Social Sciences, Arts and Humani-ties; and seven in Computer Sciences and ICT.

Dr Abdul Sattar al Taie, executive director of QNRF, said: “UREP aims to build re-search capacity locally in the country and to foster a self-sustainable and innovative ecosystem, well-aligned with that of Qatar Shell. I am confi-dent that our partnership and collective efforts will advance those goals and deliver excep-tional outcomes to benefit our most promising undergradu-ate students.”

Launched in 2006, UREP

is QNRF’s longest running programme and is designed to develop the research human capital and research infra-structure in Qatar by estab-lishing the basis of scientific research at the undergradu-ate level. To date, more than 3,800 undergraduate students have benefited from the UREP grants and produced insight-ful research while working un-der the mentorship and guid-ance of their professors.

Hussain al Hijji, vice-pres-ident, Qatar Shell Research and Technology Centre, said: “I am very happy that our partnership with QNRF has further increased interest in the program as evident by

the number of applications received. We look forward to providing our technical exper-tise where applicable and shar-ing our R&D facilities. Qatar Shell is committed to fuelling innovation into Qatar’s energy ecosystem by providing more and cleaner energy solutions to support the energy transi-tion.”

Applications for the 25th UREP cycle will be open from July 2 to September 9, 2019. More information if available at https://www.qnrf.org/en-us/Funding/Capacity-Building-and-De-velopment-Programs/Under-graduate-Research-Experi-ence-Program-UREP

Dr Abdul Sattar al Taie, executive director of QNRF, and Hussain al Hijji, vice-president of Qatar Shell Research and Technology Centre, with previous recipients of the Undergraduate Research Experience Program grant.

Forum discusses enhancing role of youths in sustainable development

QNADOHA

THE Doha Islamic Youth Fo-rum discussed on Monday the topic ‘Youth and Bet on Sustain-able Development’. The forum is held within the framework of ‘Doha OIC Capital 2019’ event, under the motto ‘Youth is the Power of the Nation’.

Addressing the first session, Director of Environmental and Municipal Studies Institute of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment Dr Mohammed Saif al Kuwari highlighted the role of youth in achieving sus-tainable development.

He noted that the United Nations has identified 17 goals for development that cover all aspects of life and address the global challenges such as pov-erty, inequality, climate change,

environmental degradation, peace and justice.

Kuwari stressed that these goals can only be achieved with active involvement of the prom-ising youth.

The Director of the Tech-nical Office of the Permanent Population Committee in Qatar Abdul Hadi al Shawi presented a paper entitled ‘Strengthening the Development Capacities of Youth in Qatar’, in which he un-derlined Qatar’s efforts to moti-vate young people to participate actively in sustainable develop-ment of the country.

He noted integration of youth dimension into the first and second National Develop-ment Strategy and in the popu-lation policy for 2017-2022.

Shawi said that a number of achievements have been made in the field of youth empower-

ment, but added that the chang-es in the reality of youth require formation of a central body for coordination on youth issues and formulation of a new na-tional youth development policy.

This policy shall include cross-sectoral youth develop-ment programmes and a com-prehensive and integrated policy framework that ensures roles for the youth in all aspects of social life.

For his part, Commissioner for Peace and Security of the African Youth Union Commis-sion Arif Abdedjalil presented a paper entitled ‘Youth Is the Real Wealth of the Nation’ which dealt with the role of young peo-ple in various activities and in all fields, especially in areas related to the fight against extremism and violence and maintaining world peace and security.

Delegates participating in the Doha Islamic Youth Forum during a photo session.

Wide-ranging Qatar–US economic cooperation exceeds $125 billionContinued from page 1

QATAR’S investments in the US are estimat-ed at tens of billions of dollars in sectors such as technology, media, energy, real estate and others. These investments absorb about one million jobs and the economic cooperation exceeds $125 billion. Both countries seek to double that sum in the coming years.

Qatar Petroleum has announced its in-tent to invest at least $20 billion in the US over the next few years. Qatar Airways has allocated nearly $92 billion to support the US economy by purchasing 332 US-made aircraft, providing more than 527,000 jobs.

Qatar Investment Authority and Doug-las Emmett recently announced a further $365 million acquisition of The Glendon, a residential community in Westwood Cali-fornia. This comes in line with the author-ity’s announcement to extend investments worth $45 billion dollars around the US in the coming years.

The US is the sixth largest trade part-ner of Qatar as the trade between the two countries reached about $6 billion last year. The Qatari market has 650 US com-panies, of which 117 are with 100 percent

US capital and 55 are operating under the umbrella of the Qatar Financial Center, and the rest joint ventures.

Qatar has approximately 15,000 US citizens, of whom about 5,000 are em-ployed in high-skilled jobs within the private sector.

Cooperation between the two countries also includes the educational sector, with Qatar hosting branches of a group of some of the top American universities, such as Weill Cornell Medical College, Texas A&M University, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown and Virginia Commonwealth.

There are more than 1,200 Qatari stu-dents currently studying in various disci-plines and degrees at American universities.

The Qatar-US cooperation was not limited to trade, investment and cul-ture, but also extended to the humani-tarian field. Qatar donated $130 mil-lion to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Harvey, in a sign that the bilateral relations between the two countries are mainly aimed at serv-ing the interests of their people and helping each other overcome the chal-lenges and take advantage of all avail-able opportunities.

Although the areas of cooperation be-tween the Qatari and the US cover many economic, military, security, cultural and other sectors, the visit of HH the Amir to Washington represents a perfect oppor-tunity to review what has been achieved recently, and how to move forward to new aspects of cooperation and partnership, thus providing more fruitful opportunities of mutual benefit to the two countries and their friendly peoples. This will contribute to enhancing peace, security and stability around the world.

AMIR IN US FOR BILATERAL TALKS

Qatar-US relations very strong: Amir

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