In brief

GULF TIMES

published in

QATAR

since 1978THURSDAY Vol. XXXX No. 11331

October 10, 2019Safar 11, 1441 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

BUSINESS | Page 1

QNB Group posts 4% jump in 9-month profi t to QR11.2bn

Sons of expatriates willsoon be allowed to workunder family sponsorship

By Shafeeq AlingalStaff Reporter

Sons of expatriates in Qatar would soon be able to work in the private sector without changing their

family sponsorship, according to a new proposal announced by the Ministry of Interior (MoI) and Ministry of Admin-istrative Development, Labour and So-cial Aff airs (MADLSA).

Two more proposals – granting of temporary work visas in some profes-sions for up to six months and reduc-ing the fees for MoI’s online services by 20% – were also announced at a press conference held at the Offi cers Club of the General Directorate of Civil De-fence yesterday.

These measures, which pertain to work and residency permits and the country’s labour market, will be imple-mented soon.

The press conference was ad-dressed by Maj Gen Mohamed Ahmed al-Ateeq, Director-General of Pass-ports; Mohamed Hassan al-Obaidli, Assistant Undersecretary for Labour Affairs at the MADLSA; and Lt Col Ahmed Abdullah al-Harami, Assist-ant Director of the MoI’s Legal Affairs Department.

Maj Gen al-Ateeq said the fi rst meas-ure was based on Qatar’s intentions regarding the utilisation of the work capacities of the sons of expatriate residents in the country. He noted that several proposals were studied in co-ordination with the relevant authori-ties on how to use the work capacities of the sons of residents in various fi elds of work in the private sector without being obliged to transfer their spon-sorship to those bodies. Accordingly, it was decided to take legislative meas-ures to implement the proposal in view of its advantages.

The offi cial said work was under way to develop a legislative tool for this pro-posal through an amendment of Article 17 of Law No. 21 of 2015.

The amendment will allow all mem-

bers of expatriate families to work with any employer in the private sector without changing their sponsorship, Maj Gen al-Ateeq explained. Currently, only the daughters of expatriates are allowed to work with any employer while being under the sponsorship of their family.

On the introduction of a new tempo-rary work visa in some professions and jobs, the offi cial said this visa will be granted to private companies, commer-cial establishments and other licensed work entities in the State to allow them to undertake emergency, temporary or seasonal work that requires the work-force for a specifi c period, season or occasion.

Meanwhile, the proposal to reduce the fees for services rendered and com-pleted electronically comes within the framework of the MoI’s policy of facili-tating procedures and off ering services to benefi ciaries in the best way possi-ble, he stressed.

“The MoI is looking to achieve its goal of becoming paperless by devel-oping electronic systems and high-quality automated programmes. The e-government system, MoI website and Metrash2 help people complete appli-

cations faster and accurately with min-imum eff ort,” he said, adding that the 20% fee reduction is aimed at drawing applicants to avail of the ministry’s services without visiting the govern-ment services centres.

On his part, al-Obaidly said the proposal to allow the sons of expa-triates to work in the private sector without changing their sponsorship has a number of advantages that will positively reflect on the labour mar-ket and all sections of the Qatari so-ciety, including both citizens and residents, by utilising this untapped workforce. This will also help achieve the Qatar National Vision 2030 goals and realise the country’s develop-ment strategies.

He said these benefi ts include re-cruitment of the surplus workforce in the labour market, reducing the cost of recruitment and housing expenses for the employer, benefi ting from the familiarity of such individuals with the customs and traditions of the Qatari society and the possibility of utilising their qualifi cations and competencies to work temporarily or permanently under internal employment contracts in private companies. To Page 12

Qatar announces 3 reforms in work and residency laws Temporary work visas for up to six months to be issued 20% reduction in fees when MoI services availed online

Send kids to licensed nurseries only: offi cialBy Ayman AdlyStaff Reporter

Unlicensed and unregulated home nurseries will not be tol-erated by the Ministry of Ad-

ministrative Development, Labour and Social Aff airs (MADLSA) and such cen-tres will be dealt with strictly according to the law.

The ongoing awareness campaign “Eyalak Amana” (Your Children are Precious), launched by MADLSA last month, to combat the spread of such nurseries has been actively instructing people on the risks involved in send-ing kids to ‘illegal’ nurseries as they are operating outside the law and could not be monitored by the authorities con-cerned.

Bothina al-Mohannadi, senior in-spector of nurseries, pointed out that MADLSA offi cials normally have no ac-cess to such illegal home nurseries, as

they operate outside the law. However, she stressed that when any report of such centre is received by the MADL-SA, it is referred to the authorities con-cerned and the security department at the Ministry of Interior handles the issue by conducting proper investiga-tions and taking all necessary action.

Al-Mohannadi pointed out that the awareness campaign, which now reaches more people in the country through the various means of the media including the social media, has made positive results in achieving the desired targets.

“The campaign aims to stress the fact that the unlicensed nurseries cannot be trusted with kids as they normally are not equipped or prepared to handle this vocation and there is no mechanism to ensure that the children are safe and well-taken care of ,” she said.

In the meantime, she pointed out that MADLSA inspectors pay at least one surprise visit a month to every li-censed nursery in the country, where

all the features of safety, security and health of the kids are checked, besides the other necessary regulatory and administrative issues. Minor admin-istrative and paperwork violations are sometimes seen during such visits, where the inspector gives notice to cor-rect the situation.

These legal nurseries are supposed to conduct an evacuation drill for the kids at least once a month to enhance the safety of the children.

According to Law No.1 for 2014 regu-lating the activities of nursery schools, and MADLSA regulations in this regard, each nursery should be operating from a separate stand-alone and dedicated building approved by the Civil Defence, the Traffi c Department and other enti-ties concerned based on its compliance with certain safety and security stand-ards. Surveillance cameras are often in-stalled in classrooms and parents have the right to monitor the well-being of their children. Such features are often

lacking in unregulated and illegal nurs-eries as they are often run from homes with no qualifi ed or trained staff .

Al-Mohannadi said that nursery in-spectors at MADLSA are keen to ensure that children are in safe hands. Among the main conditions for running a nurs-ery are employment of qualifi ed nan-nies and teachers in proportion to the number of children, besides a full-time licensed nurse and a visiting physi-cian, who conducts health checks of the children once a month. Also, the nursery should maintain a health fi le for every kid.

Currently, there are 191 licensed nurseries across the country and the MADLSA encourages the private sec-tor to open more in the external areas. There are two nurseries at Al Shehani-yah and Al Ruwais.

It has been learnt that the awareness campaign has encouraged an increas-ing number parents to avoid unlicensed home nurseries.

Demonstrators clash with riot police in Quito, as thousands march against Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno’s decision to slash fuel subsidies, yesterday. Page 23

Fuel price clashes in Quito

Flag handed over to Qatar for Expo Doha 2021

Qatar has off icially received the flag for organising the International Horticultural Expo Doha 2021 from China, the host country of the just-concluded 2019 edition of the event. HE the Minister of Municipality and Environment Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki al-Subaie received the flag at a ceremony held to mark the conclusion of the Beijing Expo. Expo Doha 2021 will be held from October 2021 to March 2022 under the title ‘Green Desert, Better Environment’. It is expected to attract 3mn visitors from more than 80 countries and will be held at Al Bidda Park. Pages 6, 17

Maj Gen Mohamed Ahmed al-Ateeq, Mohamed Hassan al-Obaidli and Lt Col Ahmed Abdullah al-Harami at the press conference yesterday. PICTURE: Nasar K Moidheen

QATAR | Offi cial

Amir holds phone callwith Turkish presidentHis Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani held a telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday evening. During the phone call, they reviewed the strategic relations between the two brotherly countries and ways to promote and enhance them, as well as the latest regional and international developments, in particular the recent developments in Syria.

QATAR | Diplomacy

Qatar affi rms its support to SudanQatar has aff irmed its readiness to provide all it can to support and assist the government and people of Sudan and to use its regional and international relations to provide all assistance for peace, stability and security in Sudan. “Sudan is facing major challenges, most important of which are stopping the war and achieving peace and stability.” Page 4

Global Competitiveness Report ranks Qatar 29th

Qatar was ranked 29th globally and second in the Arab world, according to the Global Com-

petitiveness Report 2019, published annually by the World Economic Forum (WEF), in collaboration with the Qatari Businessmen Association (QBA) and Qatar University’s Social and Economic Survey Research Insti-tute (Sesri).

The report indicated that Qatar ranked 29th worldwide and second in the Arab world out of the 141 countries assessed this year, up one rank from last year’s 30th place, refl ecting Qatar’s continued global competitiveness.

Qatar has preceded several coun-tries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, which ranked 36th place, Bahrain (45th), Italy, Turkey, Russia, India, Poland, and Argentina, most of which belong to the G20 group as the world’s largest economy.

Oman witnessed a decline of six ranks to place 53rd, while Kuwait showed “remarkable progress” of eight ranks to reach 46th, as well as

Egypt placed 93rd this year, up one notch from 2018.

Qatar is also leading in many indi-cators, according to a statement from the QBA. The report’s 12 main pillars that assess the status of the economy are divided between institutions, infrastructure, ICT adoption, mac-roeconomic stability, health, skills, product market, labour market, fi -nancial system, market size, business dynamism, and innovative capability.

In areas where Qatar achieved in-ternational top ranks, the country was placed fi rst in the Arab world and among the top 10 countries globally in many indicators.

For example, in the Institutional Pillar, Qatar moved two ranks up from last year to reach the seventh globally in the ‘Effi ciency of the Legal Frame-work in Challenging Regulations’ in-dicator and ranked sixth in the ‘Gov-ernment’s Responsiveness to Change’, and also ranked eighth in the ‘Gov-ernment Long Term Vision’. To Page 12

3Gulf TimesThursday, October 10, 2019

QATAR

Cabinet approves draft decision on

parking space for trucks and trailersQNADoha

The weekly Cabinet meeting, chaired by HE the Prime Minister

Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani yester-day approved a draft decision by the Minister of Interior to specify parking places for trucks, tractors, trailers and semi-trailers.

Giving details of the meeting, which took place at the Amiri Diwan, HE the Minister of Justice and Act-ing Minister of State for Cabinet Aff airs Dr Issa Saad al-Jafali al-Nuaimi said the draft decision aims to main-tain public order, identify special parking places for such vehicles, and prevent the use of public roads or empty lands for the pur-pose, spoiling public land-scape and obstructing the fl ow of traffi c.

The decision is based on Article 78 — Law no 19 of 2007 on the Traffi c Law, which states that trucks, tractors, trailers and semi-trailers, as specifi ed by a decision by the minister, are prohibited from parking in places other than those au-thorised by Ministerial de-cision, in conjunction with the competent authorities.

Later the Cabinet re-viewed topics on its meet-ing’s agenda as follows:

The Cabinet approved a draft law amending some provisions of Law No 2 of 2011 on offi cial statistics.

The draft law includes the amendment of some of the provisions of the referred law to comply with the pro-visions of the Amiri Deci-sion No 70 of 2018 on the establishment of the Plan-ning and Statistics Author-

ity, and to provide the re-quirements for the success of statistical operations.

The cabinet also ap-proved a Draft Decision by the Minister of Interior to amend some provisions of Decision No 7 of 2012 on determining private secu-rity services and licensing controls for private security services companies and on regulating their work.

The amendment aims to codify the services provided by private security services companies in guarding and the protection of ships.

The Cabinet also ap-proved a Draft Decision by the Minister of Commerce and Industry to amend some provisions of the decision of the Minister of Economy and Trade No 61 of 2017 on the general and special requirements to be met in commercial, industrial and similar public shops.

The Draft Decision in-cludes the addition of some requirements that car wash shops in public and private parking must follow.

The Cabinet also approved the entry into force of the provisions of Law No 24 of 2002 on Retirement and Pen-sions for Qatari employees at Rheinmetall Barzan for Ad-vanced Technologies.

Moreover, the Cabinet took the necessary meas-ures for the ratifi cation of the Arab Convention on regulating the transplanta-tion of human organs and tissue and preventing and combating their traffi cking, the Arab Convention for the Prevention and Com-bating of Human Cloning, the Arab Protocol to Pre-vent, Suppress and Punish Traffi cking in Persons, es-pecially Women and Chil-dren (supplementing the Arab Convention against

Transnational Organised Crime), and the Arab pro-tocol for the prevention and control of maritime piracy and armed robbery (supple-menting the Arab conven-tion against transnational organised crime).

The Cabinet also ap-proved a Draft Agreement on Exemption of Visa Re-quirements for Diplomatic, Special and Offi cial Pass-port Holders between the governments of Qatar and the Dominican Republic, a Draft Memorandum of Understanding for Co-op-eration in the fi eld of cul-ture between the govern-ments of Qatar and Mali, a Draft Working Agreement between the General Au-thority for Civil Aviation of Qatar and the European Aviation Safety Agency on the collection and exchange of information on aircraft safety in accordance with the European Union Ramp Inspection Programme, and a Draft Memorandum of Understanding for Co-operation in the exchange of fi nancial intelligence ex-change concerning trans-actions suspected of being linked to money launder-ing, terrorist fi nancing and related criminal activities between the Financial In-formation Unit of Qatar and the Financial Monitoring Department of the National Bank of Tajikistan.

The Cabinet then re-viewed the results of the meetings of the Commit-tee of Ministers of Labour of the Gulf Co-operation Council States, the Com-mittee of Ministers of Social Aff airs, and the joint meet-ing between the two Com-mittees, held in Muscat in September 2019, and took the appropriate decision.

HE the Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani

4 Gulf TimesThursday, October 10, 2019

QATARQatar-Sudan bilateral relations discussed

General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, Member of the Sovereign Council of Sudan, has met Dr Mutlaq bin Majid al-Qahtani, the Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Aff airs for Combating Terrorism and Mediation in Dispute Resolution, during his current visit to Sudan. During the meeting, they reviewed co-operation between the two countries and the achievement of peace and stability in Sudan, in addition to issues of common concern.

Qatari-French joint higher military

panel’s fi rst strategic seminar opensQNADoha

The fi rst strategic sem-inar of the Qatari-French Joint Higher

Military Committee’s ac-tivities for 2019 opened here yesterday under the patron-age of HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Aff airs, Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah, and in the pres-ence of HE the Chief of Staff of the Qatar Armed Forces Lieutenant-General (Pilot) Ghanem bin Shaheen al-Ghanem.

The seminar is being held in partnership with the Di-rectorate General for In-ternational Relations and Strategy (DGRIS).

In his opening speech, Di-

rector of the Directorate of International Studies Briga-dier (pilot), Rashid Hamad al-Naimi, said that the sem-inar is a cornerstone for the development of long-term

strategic relations between the two countries and that it contributes to the promo-tion of bilateral interactions between the two military institutions.

He added that the stra-tegic intellectual consensus between Qatar and France, especially on regional issues, will serve the strategic and security environment in the

region in a way that promotes security and prosperity.

The seminar was attend-ed by a number of senior of-fi cers of the Qatari Armed Forces.

HE the Chief of Staff of the Qatar Armed Forces Lieutenant-General (Pilot) Ghanem bin Shaheen al-Ghanem and other dignitaries attending the seminar yesterday.

‘Global piracy will burst media rights bubble’QNALondon

CEO of beIN Media Group Yousef al-Obaidly said yes-

terday: “Global piracy will burst media rights ‘bubble’.”

Speaking at the Lead-ers Week Sport Business Summit in London, Al-Obaidly warned the au-dience that the “glorious media rights bubble” is about to burst.

BeIN’s sport channels have been the hardest hit by the emergence of pirate outfi t beoutQ that pirates all

major sports events.Al-Obaidly said: “While

most people here think they have got their house in or-der, the truth is that our industry is completely un-prepared.”

“I’m here to tell you how the endless growth of sports rights is over,” he said. “Not only that, but in certain cases, rights values are go-ing drop off a cliff , and the very economic model of our industry is going to be re-written.”

“If you don’t get your house in order and quick-ly, the sports rights mar-ket will disintegrate be-

yond recognition.In fact, winter is already

here,” he said.“I am also confi dent that

other broadcasters — of all shapes and sizes — will make similar devaluations, while many once-premium rights will remain unsold”, Al Obaidly stressed.

Al-Obaidli pointed out that studies conducted by the BBC last year showed that 50% of the fans in the UK have watched the Premier League matches through unoffi cial service providers.

Moreover, one-third of the fans did not know that

this was illegal, and this kind of daily theft of com-mercial revenue is now seen as a behaviour acceptable to consumers.

Throughout this time, an illegal sports economy is being fi nanced, in which organised criminals are get-ting richer and their grass-roots base is getting poorer.

Al-Obaidly also pointed out that the beIN Media Group has invested more than US $15bn to obtain the rights to broadcast sports tournaments including the English Premier League and other football competitions and major tournaments

around the world.Al-Obaidli called for the

recruitment of special-ised teams to combat pi-racy and provide the neces-sary resources and budgets for this, and that there is co-operation between the various parties to carry out major legal reforms, includ-ing the establishment of full copyright in the broadcast signal.

Al-Obaidli concluded that pirates must also be aware that they will pay for their piracy, stressing co-operating with governments that help pirates must be stopped.

6 Gulf TimesThursday, October 10, 2019

QATAR

Education ministerattends meetingin Muscat

Qatar participated in the Ninth Consultative Meeting of Ministers of Education in the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS), which was held yesterday in the Omani capital Muscat.The delegation was headed by HE the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohamed Abdul Wahed Ali al-Hammadi.The meeting discussed a number of important topics on its agenda.

Shura Council toattend conferencein France

The Shura Council is participating in a joint conference of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to be held today and tomorrow in the French city of Strasbourg under the title ‘combating terrorism and new technology: from prevention to prosecution at national and international levels and the need to support parliamentarians’.HE the Shura Council’s member Nasser bin Khalil al-Jaida will represent the council at the conference.

Kazakhstan waives entry visas forQatari citizens

An Off icial source from the Department of Consular Aff airs at the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs stated that the authorities in Kazakhstan have decided to exempt the citizens of Qatar from obtaining entry visa as of September 30, and that Qatari nationals can stay in the Kazakhstan for a period of 30 days.

Qatar receives fl ag of InternationalHorticultural Expo Doha 2021QNABeijing

Qatar has offi cially re-ceived the fl ag of the In-ternational Horticultural

Expo Doha 2021 from China, the host country of the current edi-tion.

HE the Minister of Munici-pality and Environment Abdul-lah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki al-Subaie received the fl ag during a spectacular ceremony held to mark the conclusion of the Expo Beijing 2019.

The event was attended by the Premier of the State Council of China Li Keqiang, and heads of participating governments, sen-ior offi cials, representatives of the International Bureau of Ex-hibitions (BIE), the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) and commis-sioners of the pavilions.

Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA), HE al-Subaie expressed his happiness at of-fi cially receiving the fl ag of the Expo Doha 2021, stressing that the confi dence in Qatar’s organi-sation of such an event comes as a continuation of the successes achieved by the country in all fi elds at home and abroad under the wise leadership of His High-ness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

HE al-Subaie thanked the BIE and the AIPH for their confi -dence in Qatar’s organisation of Expo 2021.

He also thanked China for the well organised Expo Beijing 2019, which was a great success and attracted a huge number of visitors from all over the world.

The minister explained that

Qatar’s hosting of Expo Doha 2021 stems from its support for a greener and sustainable envi-ronment through its relentless endeavour to preserve the envi-ronment, and its acknowledge-ment that climate, water and soil are indispensable resources, which are threatened and de-pleted.

“Our goal is to enhance in-ternational co-operation in en-vironmental and cultural issues and to address the global com-mon challenge of climate issues,” he said.

He pointed out that Qatar is the first country with a desert climate in the Middle East and North Africa to host the expo, expecting that this will have a profound impact on the experience of Qatar and other Gulf states, the region and other countries, especially with the growing international awareness in relation to global warming and global climate change.

Expo Doha 2021 will be held

from October 2021 to March 2022 under the title “Green Desert, a Better Environment”. It is expected to attract 3mn visi-tors from over 80 countries and will be held in Al Bidda Park, lo-cated in the heart of Doha.

Expo Doha 2021 aims to in-spire and inform people about innovative solutions and reduce desertifi cation, and will support the themes of modern agricul-ture, technology and innovation, environmental awareness and sustainability and to host the fi rst horticultural exhibition in a desert climate region.

On Monday, Qatar concluded its participation in Expo Beijing 2019. The total number of visi-tors to Qatar’s pavilion reached 20,000 a day. The pavilion won the grand award of the Expo’s organising committee for the best foreign pavilion and also the grand award of the AIPH, the most prestigious awards for foreign pavilions participating in the exhibition.

Meanwhile, Acting Secretary

General of Expo Doha 2021, En-gineer Jamal Sherida al-Kaabi has said that Qatar’s success in Expo Beijing 2019 is the result of the eff orts and aspirations made by the country to create more sustainable development, pre-serve the environment and en-hance eff orts in this area, adding it proved the excellence of the country in all its international participations and its achieve-ment of prestigious positions as a result of its contributions to international forums.

In a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA), Engineer al-Kaa-bi said that the eff orts exerted by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment and the pavilion’s organising committee resulted in this win, and introduced the world to Qatar’s eff orts in the fi eld of horticulture, agriculture and environmental conservation as well as to the country’s history and heritage. Through its par-ticipation, Qatar has also gained experience and developed pro-posals to host the event in Doha 2021, he said.

Qatar will host Expo 2021 from 14 October 2021 to 17 March 2022. The 155-day-long expo is part of the Qatar Na-tional Vision 2030 and would contribute to the achievement of its economic, social and en-vironmental pillars, he said.

On the challenges facing Qa-tar to host the Expo, he said that the time factor is the most important challenge, stressing that this necessitates more ef-forts to prepare the venue for this huge event, in addition to co-ordinating daily and week-ly events suitable for visitors who will attend from different countries of the world.

He added, “We have two years to complete all the projects and preparations associated with hosting the Expo Doha 2021, in addition to the implementation of all the requirements set by the International Bureau of Exhibi-tions (BIE), and the Internation-al Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH).”

Meanwhile, HE al-Subaie yesterday met the president of the International Associa-tion of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) Bernard Oosterom, and the AIPH Secretary General Tim Briercliff e.

During the meeting, Bernard and Briercliff e congratulated

the Minister on Qatar Pavilion’s winning of the association’s grand award and the grand award of Beijing International Horti-cultural Exhibition (Expo Beijing 2019), wishing Qatar success in hosting the International Horti-cultural Expo Doha 2021.

HE al-Subaie thanked the president of the association and its secretary general for the ef-forts made by the AIPH to make this important event a success and for its confi dence in Qatar to be the organiser of this event in 2021.

The meeting also dealt with Qatar’s preparations to host Doha Expo 2021.Engineer Jamal Sherida al-Kaabi

Expo Doha 2021 will be held from 14 October 2021 to 17 March 2022 under the title ‘Green Desert, a Better Environment’

Off icial

Qatar’s participation wins praise

Secretary General of the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH), Tim Briercliff e, praised Qatar’s participation in the Expo Beijing 2019 and pointed out that Qatar’s Pavilion won the two awards with great merit.In a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA), Briercliff e said that the Qatar Pavilion was distinctive and exceeded expectations, and that it was unique compared to the other pavilions that were participating in the activities and events, adding that this reflects Qatar’s eff orts in the field of agriculture and horticulture, and the elimination of desertification and increasing green areas.The secretary-general appreciated the eff orts of the organising committee of the Qatar Pavilion, noting that they

are very serious and significant.He pointed out that the pavilion showcased plants and trees grown in the Qatari environment, and eff orts for aff orestation and preservation of the environment and combating desertification, whether by modern technology and scientific creativity or by traditional methods, in addition to the outstanding eff orts to achieve food security for future generations.On the readiness of Qatar to host the Horticultural Expo 2021 in Doha, the secretary-general said that he expects the edition to be outstanding, and Expo Doha will be a strong and global figure which will demonstrate Qatar’s ability to transfer knowledge in agriculture, horticulture and desertification control to future generations.

7Gulf TimesThursday, October 10, 2019

QATAR

HE the Minister of Justice and Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Aff airs Dr Issa Saad al-Jafali al-Nuaimi met the Prosecutor-General of Tajikistan Rahmon Yusuf Ahmadzod in Doha yesterday. During the meeting, they reviewed areas of co-operation between Qatar and Tajikistan in various legal fields, in addition to the exchange of judicial expertise in training and rehabilitation, and discussed issues of common interest.

HE the Chairman of the Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC) and the President of the Court of Cassation Dr Hassan Lahdan Saqr al-Mohannadi met the Prosecutor-General of Tajikistan Rahmon Yusuf Ahmadzod and his accompanying delegation, currently visiting Qatar. During the meeting, they discussed topics of mutual interest and ways of enhancing legal and judicial co-operation between the two sides.

Justice minister, SJC chairman meet Tajikistan’s prosecutor-generalClinical health coach training programmeto be held

QNADoha

The Ministry of Pub-lic Health and Hamad Medical Corporation

(HMC) are partnering with Iowa Chronic Care Consortium to offer a comprehensive train-ing in clinical health coach-ing. Forty Patient Educators will participate in the Clinical Health Coach training pro-gramme and develop sustain-able patient coaching compe-tence.

An orientation session took place lately to introduce partici-pants to the programme.

This first round of training is designed to equip health-care professionals with tools necessary to transform the conversation with patients, partnering with them in a new way.

This will enable clinical teams to further motivate pa-tients to build self-care skills, improve health behaviour and inspire accountability. This Clinical Health Coach training programme combines 26 hours of online learning and health coaching skills practice with two full days of on-site train-ing at the Ministry of Public Health.

“We are very excited to be launching the Clinical Health Coach programme for the fi rst time in Qatar. This programme builds on the recommendations of the National Continuing Care Strategy and refl ects strong col-laboration between the diff erent public health sector organisa-tions with the aim of enhancing patient outcomes” said Chair of the National Integrated Clini-cal Care Network and Chief of Continuing Care at Hamad Medical Corporation, Mahmoud al-Raisi.

Mental health one of the ‘main pillars’ of NHRC’s strategy

Daam and Sidra Medicine hold forum to promote adolescent mental health

QNADoha

NHRC Secretary-General Maryam bint Abdullah al-Attiyah has stressed

that attention to the mental health of citizens and residents in Qatar remains one of the main pillars of the strategy of the Na-tional Committee, which was proactive in demanding the de-velopment of a mental health law, and providing feedback be-fore its issuance.

She stressed that the NHRC is keen that all citizens and residents in Qatar get the right to psychological treatment, and accordingly, legal experts from the committee regularly visit mental health institutions to investigate and follow up on

the quality of mental health services they provide, and to present the necessary consul-tations to address problems, and complaints are received by the committee, whether at its headquarters, or via hotlines, and various other communica-tion channels.

Al-Attiyah said in a press state-ment on the occasion of the World Mental Health Day, which falls on October 10 every year, that the National Human Rights Com-mittee has monitored the eff orts of Qatar to develop psychological care services through the inau-guration of more hospitals and health centres and the increase of specialised medical personnel.

Al-Attiyah expressed confi -dence that the authorities con-cerned in Qatar will continue their eff orts to ensure the development

of psychological care for patients, including the development of services provided by public and private health institutions.

She explained that psycho-therapy is a right for all seg-ments of society and has been guaranteed by international conventions and international humanitarian laws, adding that psychiatric services must also take a social path through pri-mary healthcare centres.

The NHRC secretary-gener-al stressed the commitment of NHRC to defend the rights of vic-tims of the unjust blockade who have been subjected to serious violations of their basic rights, especially the right to health and treatment, which has resulted in health and psychological damage that is diffi cult to redress for many years.

QNADoha

Social and Sport Contri-bution Fund (Daam), in collaboration with Sidra

Medicine, yesterday organised a forum to promote the mental and behavioural health of ado-lescents on the occasion of the World Mental Health Day, in the presence of a number of special-ists and parents.

The Director General of So-cial and Sport Contribution Fund (Daam), Rashid Mo-hamed al-Hamda al-Nuaimi said in his speech that the mental and behavioural health of adolescents is as impor-tant as their physical health and well-being and the Cen-tre considered organising this forum to discuss the facts and

realities of mental health of adolescents, the risk factors and protection in the field of mental health and its relation to physical health, as well as presenting the possible and practical mechanisms for pro-viding services to adolescents in Qatar and discussing all challenges facing the social, health and educational sec-tors in providing integrated services for adolescents.

Al-Nuaimi added that through this forum, participants seek to identify risk factors in dealing with adolescents in the areas (so-

cial, health and education) and to identify the problems that prevent the achievement of high-qual-ity services for adolescents and fi nd solutions, and ultimately to achieve real and eff ective commu-nity development.

The Director of Community Awareness Department at Daam, Jawaher Abu Alfi n, stressed that the forum aims to promote the mental health of adolescents and improve their protection, which helps them gain the fl exibility to deal well with all situations fac-ing them.

The specialist at Sidra Medi-cine and the Project Co-ordina-tor, Aisha al-Neema said that the forum will cover the physical, behavioural, social and psycho-logical aspects through provid-ing fl exible, fast and compre-hensive services for adolescents between 12-18 years.

Through this forum, participants seek to identify risk factors in dealing with adolescents in the social, health and education areas

8 Gulf TimesThursday, October 10, 2019

QATAR

Qatar Charity opens Al-Shaimaa Secondary School for Girls in Gaza

Qatar Charity marks World Teachers’ Day with various competitions

Qatar Charity (QC) celebrated the opening of Al-Shaimaa Secondary School for Girls in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, in co-operation with the Palestinian Ministry

of Education and Higher Education. The school was built with financial support from “Qatar Cyclists” and many Qatari companies at the cost of QR5.4mn.

The 5,000sqm school has 36 rooms, of which 24 are classrooms and the rest is used as laboratories and management offices. The secondary school is expected to benefit some 1,920 female students.

The inaugural ceremony was attended by Khalid Al-Yafie, Project Manager at Qatar Charity, a team of “Qatar Cyclists”, many local government officials, representatives of civil society organizations, dignitaries and prominent figures, who expressed their happiness with the school opening.

Speaking at the ceremony on behalf of Qatar Charity, Khaled Al-Yafie said this project would demonstrate the depth of brotherly relations between Qatar and Palestine, affirming Qatar Charity’s commitment to supporting the needs of the Palestinian people.

“Education is one of the most important sectors that we focus on, as we have implemented many educational projects to support schools and universities within the last few years in Gaza,” added Al-Yafie.

He also said that Qatar Charity has garnered the support for the school project, in partnership with the Qatar Cyclists Club and under the umbrella of Qatar’s Ministry of Culture and Sports. He pointed out that the project came, as part of the “Cyclists for Education” initiative to provide quality education to female students in the north of Beit Lahia and surrounding areas.

For his part, Dr. Mohammed Jeham Al-Kuwari, President of the Qatar Cycling Federation, expressed his pleasure at the opening of the school, indicating the keenness to support the education sector in various places.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Ziad Thabet, thanked the Emir, Government and people of Qatar for supporting the people in Gaza and Palestine in the fields of education, health, infrastructure and other sectors.

Mohammed Abu Haloub, director of Qatar Charity’s office in the Gaza Strip, said, underlined the importance of opening the school in such a remote area lacking educational facilities, hoping that it would create a healthy and educational environment suitable for its students and provide quality education to them.

The Ministry of Education suffers from a shortage in schools and needs 30 schools to be built across the Gaza Strip due to the increase in the number of male and female students.

It is worth mentioning that Qatar Charity has already implemented the construction of the Kamal Al-Ahoud Primary School in the Ezbet Abed Rabbo neighborhood, north of the Gaza Strip, in addition to providing the public schools in Gaza with scientific laboratories. Another project was implemented to offer alternative energy in about 60 schools in view of power outages in the Gaza Strip.

Qatar Charity (QC) celebrated the opening of Al-Shaimaa Secondary School for Girls in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, in co-operation with the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education. The school was built with financial support from “Qatar Cyclists” and many Qatari companies at the cost of QR5.4mn.

The 5,000sqm school has 36 rooms, of which 24 are classrooms and the rest is used as laboratories and management offices. The secondary school is expected to benefit some 1,920 female students.

The inaugural ceremony was attended by Khalid Al-Yafie, Project Manager at Qatar Charity, a team of “Qatar Cyclists”, many local government officials, representatives of civil society organizations, dignitaries and prominent figures, who expressed their happiness with the school opening.

Speaking at the ceremony on behalf of Qatar Charity, Khaled Al-Yafie said this project would demonstrate the depth of brotherly relations between Qatar and Palestine, affirming Qatar Charity’s commitment to supporting the needs of the Palestinian people.

“Education is one of the most important sectors that we focus on, as we have implemented many educational projects to support schools and universities within the last few years in Gaza,” added Al-Yafie.

He also said that Qatar Charity has garnered the support for the school project, in partnership with the Qatar Cyclists Club and under the umbrella of Qatar’s Ministry of Culture and Sports. He pointed out that the project came, as part of the “Cyclists for Education” initiative to provide quality education to female students in the north of Beit Lahia and surrounding areas.

For his part, Dr. Mohammed Jeham Al-Kuwari, President of the Qatar Cycling Federation, expressed his pleasure at the opening of the school, indicating the keenness to support the education sector in various places.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Ziad Thabet, thanked the Emir, Government and people of Qatar for supporting the people in Gaza and Palestine in the fields of education, health, infrastructure and other sectors.

Mohammed Abu Haloub, director of Qatar Charity’s office in the Gaza Strip, said, underlined the importance of opening the school in such a remote area lacking educational facilities, hoping that it would create a healthy and educational environment suitable for its students and provide quality education to them.

The Ministry of Education suffers from a shortage in schools and needs 30 schools to be built across the Gaza Strip due to the increase in the number of male and female students.

It is worth mentioning that Qatar Charity has already implemented the construction of the Kamal Al-Ahoud Primary School in the Ezbet Abed Rabbo neighborhood, north of the Gaza Strip, in addition to providing the public schools in Gaza with scientific laboratories. Another project was implemented to offer alternative energy in about 60 schools in view of power outages in the Gaza Strip.

Qatar Charity (QC) marked the World Teachers’ Day themed “Young Teachers: The future of the Profession” by organizing various completions, in which 90 teachers

representing various Asian schools of Qatar took part. It celebrated the teaching profession, in recognition of roles played by teachers in raising and educating generations.

The World Teachers’ Day celebration came under the supervision of the Friends Cultural Centre (FCC), a Qatar Charity community development center for Asian expatriate people

residing in the State of Qatar and falls within Qatar Charity’s interest in educational activities, as it attaches an important attention to the improvement of education worldwide.

As part of the World Teachers’ Day celebration, FCC conducted many completions for participating teachers from Asian schools in Doha, which included reciting poem, giving public speech, and mimicry, in addition to organizing a table topic session that gave contestants a subject to speak on for between one and two minutes.

On this occasion, the teachers shared ideas, experiences,

skills, and knowledge with each other during the event, which furnished a platform for them to exhibit their hibernating talents and showcase their entertaining talk show capabilities.

At the end of the event, Shantiniketan Indian School, Bhavans Public School, and DPS Modern Indian School were declared as first, second, and third winners, respectively, in the quiz competition. However, Noble International School, DPS Modern Indian School, and MES Indian School won the first, second, and third places, respectively, in the poster designing competition for

the theme “Young Teachers The Future of Profession”. At the end of the ceremony, mementos were granted to

representatives of all participating schools, and prizes were distributed to the winners in the various competitions.

Teachers expressed happiness with their participation in the activities held on the World Teachers’ Day that brought them together to share joy and exchange constructive ideas, thanking Qatar Charity for organizing such a special event for them.

“Today, I feel extremely honored being a teacher and I am very glad to take part in such a great and meaningful competitions

organized by Qatar Charity for us as teachers to celebrate our teaching professions and our roles in building generations,” said Saima Wazeer un Nisa, a teacher at the Shantiniketan Indian School in Doha, Qatar. Also, Sancheeta Banerjee, a teacher at the Birla Public School in Doha, expressed her pleasure that teachers have an unique international day to celebrate.

However, Amir Khan, a teacher at the Delhi Public School emphasized the importance of the event that motivates teachers to build self-confidence and learn something new, hoping such events

should periodically be conducted to increase the knowledge level of teachers belonging to different schools of Doha, develop their communications skills, and provide them with an opportunity to interact with each other.

It is worth mention that World Teachers’ Day, also known as International Teachers Day, is an international day held annually on October 5 to celebrate the great teaching profession, in recognition of the role of teachers in raising and educating generations.

The secondary school is expected to benefit

some 1,920 female students.

The 5,000sqm school has 36 rooms,

of which 24 are classrooms and the

rest are laboratories and management

offices.

9Gulf TimesThursday, October 10, 2019

QATAR

HE the Attorney-General Dr Ali bin Fetais al-Marri met Ivory Coast’s Minister of African Integration and Ivorians Abroad Ally Coulibaly, in Doha yesterday. They exchanged views on issues of common concern, and discussed ways to further promote co-operation in the legal field.

Al-Marri meets Ivory Coast minister Pact signed to promote Qatar-Jordan legal tiesQNADoha

The National Committee for International Human-itarian Law of the Minis-

try of Justice signed yesterday a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Com-mittee for International Hu-manitarian Law in Jordan for optimal application of the rules of international humanitarian law and promotion of legal co-operation between Qatar and Jordan, including the exchange of experiences between the spe-cialised committees of the two countries.

The MoU was signed by HE the Undersecretary of the Min-istry of Justice and President of the National Committee for In-ternational Humanitarian Law, Sultan bin Abdullah al-Suwaidi, and Chairman of the National

Committee for International Humanitarian Law in Jordan Mamoun al-Khasawneh.

The MoU aims to ensure the optimal enforcement of inter-national humanitarian law by raising legal awareness about it, training and raising the ca-

pacities of target groups in civilian and military educa-tional institutions, proposing new legislative texts, or mak-ing appropriate amendments to existing laws and providing guidance to interpret humani-tarian norms to ensure better

protection for victims of armed conflict.

The MoU also affi rms the committees’ keenness to ensure respect for international hu-manitarian law and to broaden its understanding at the national level.

HE the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Justice and President of the National Committee for International Humanitarian Law, Sultan bin Abdullah al-Suwaidi, and Chairman of the National Committee for International Humanitarian Law in Jordan Mamoun al-Khasawneh exchange documents after signing the MoU.

Qatar reaffi rms commitment to combating organised crimeQNAVienna

Qatar has reaffi rmed its commitment to combat-ing crime and strength-

ening criminal justice systems worldwide.

This came during a meet-ing in Vienna between HE the Adviser to the Minister of Inte-rior, Chairman of the Follow-up Committee on the Implementa-tion of the Global Programme of the Doha Declaration Major General Dr Abdullah Yousuf al-Mal and the Executive Director of the United Nations Offi ce on Drugs and Crime Yuri Fedotov.

During the meeting, they dis-cussed ways to strengthen re-lations between Qatar and the United Nations Offi ce on Drugs

and Crime, particularly with regard to the progress made in the projects of the Global Pro-gramme for the implementation of the Doha Declaration issued at the end of the 13th United Na-tions Conference on Crime Pre-vention and Criminal Justice in Doha in April 2015, and funded by Qatar and which benefi t more than a hundred countries, most-ly developing and least devel-oped countries.

During the meeting, HE Ma-jor General Dr Abdullah Yousuf al-Mal stressed the commitment of Qatar to continue combating transnational organised crime and related crimes such as terrorism, violent extremism, drugs, corrup-tion and money laundering and strengthening criminal justice systems in the world.

For his part, the Executive

Director of the United Nations Offi ce on Drugs and Crime in Vi-enna, expressed the appreciation of the United Nations and its gratitude for the generous con-tributions of Qatar in providing programmes for youth and qual-ity education to promote socie-ties and make them more just and fair and to achieve the goals of sustainable development and prevent crime and corruption.

The Qatari delegation, which met with the Executive Direc-tor of the United Nations Of-fice in Vienna, included HE the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr Ahmed bin Hassan al-Ham-madi, and HE the Permanent Representative to the United Nations and international or-ganisations in Vienna, Sultan bin Salmeen al-Mansouri.

Qatar reiterates condemnation of all forms of terrorism

QNANew York

Qatar has reiterated its strong condemnation of all forms of terrorism

committed by anybody, any-where and regardless of its jus-tifi cations.

Qatar also renewed its sup-port for holding a high-level conference under the auspices of the United Nations, in order to adopt a unifi ed international position on counter-terrorism, including an agreed defi nition of terrorism.

This came in Qatar’s state-ment delivered by HE the Sec-ond Secretary of the Permanent Delegation of the State of Qatar to the United Nations Sheikh Mohamed bin Hamad al-Thani before Sixth (Legal) Committee of the United Nations General Assembly at its 74th Session on

“Measures to Eliminate Interna-tional Terrorism”.

HE Sheikh Mohamed bin Ha-mad al-Thani said that Qatar will continue to work within the framework of the United Nations to reach a comprehensive agree-ment on international terrorism that will include a specifi c defi -nition of terrorism without link-ing it to religion, race or culture, stressing the need to distinguish between terrorism, legitimate resistance against foreign oc-cupation, self-defence and the right of self-determination of people under occupation.

He pointed out that linking terrorism to a particular religion, creed or race provides a platform for terrorist organisations to support their extremist rhetoric and gain sympathy for their slo-gans.

In line with its fi rm policy of commitment to international co-operation in facing com-

mon challenges, particularly the fi ght against terrorism, and for being a party to all relevant in-ternational conventions, Qatar continues to work actively with United Nations entities and with the Global Counterterrorism Fo-rum, and has also entered into several bilateral counterterror-ism agreements, he said.

He added that Qatar is an ac-tive partner in the Global Coun-terterrorism Forum and it is at the forefront of regional eff orts to combat the fi nancing of ter-rorism, noting that it continues to update its national legislation in line with international eff orts in combating the phenomenon.

Based on the important role of national legislative and judicial institutions in combating ter-rorism, the National Counter-Terrorism Committee and the National Anti-Money Launder-ing and Terrorism Financing Committee in Qatar continue

to co-operate and co-ordinate with regional and international judicial institutions concerned with counter-terrorism, as well as the strict and eff ective imple-mentation of the relevant inter-national obligations issued by the Security Council, including assets freeze, travel ban or arms embargo against individuals and entities designated by Security Council Committees on coun-terterrorism, he said.

HE Sheikh Mohamed bin Ha-mad al-Thani said that in order to support the United Nations counter-terrorism bodies and increasing the resources avail-able to them, a partnership agreement was signed between the government of Qatar and the UN, represented by United Nations Offi ce of Counter-Ter-rorism, on December 16, 2018. Under the agreement, Qatar has provided $75mn over fi ve years to support the latter’s programmes.

10 Gulf TimesThursday, October 10, 2019

QATAR

MoI wins hearts by securing IAAF 2019By Shafeeq AlingalStaff Reporter

With the successful con-clusion of the IAAF World Athletic Cham-

pionships, the Ministry of Inte-rior (MoI) is upbeat. The ministry ensured security and safety for athletes, offi cials and spectators and smooth traffi c fl ow during the 10-day mega event both in-side and outside Khalifa Interna-tional Stadium.

The MoI had put in place strong and advanced security and traffi c plans ahead of the prestig-ious event, a fi rst for the Middle East. Security operations were closely monitored through the control room while control of the stadium was linked to the main operating room of the National Command Centre (NCC) that communicated with all security units at the site of the event.

The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) Secu-rity Committee deputy chairman Brig Gen Abdulaziz bin Faisal al-Thani observed that advanced security techniques and team spirit helped the committee achieve its goal.

Surveillance cameras, secu-rity robot, remote-guided air-craft (drone) and multiple task vehicles were used for security operations. Besides, the operat-ing rooms were equipped with advanced equipment and other technical devices and, according to the offi cial, the Security Com-mittee showed high effi ciency in carrying out its tasks and provid-ing safety for all participants.

A multi-stage entry system was in place. The fi rst stage in-cluded seven security tents ad-jacent to the entrance gates. The tents were opened for spectators two hours before the competi-tions started.

The second stage was the se-curity inspection at the entrance where spectators were allowed inside through 28 gates.

The fi nal stage was inside the stadium where volunteers checked the tickets and ensured spectators got the right seats in a bid to ensure competitions are watched without interruption. Security offi cials and volunteers,

during the inspection, prevented the spectators from taking any prohibited material inside the stadium.

The prohibited items included fi reworks material, glass bottles, small strollers, in addition to sharp tools, pets and other solid objects. A list was on display at the security checking tents.

Security Systems Depart-ment’s Lt Col Jassem al-Sayed and Khalifa International Sta-dium’s director of security Cap-tain Burhan Saleh al-Turki also praised the collective eff orts by security personnel both inside and outside the venue.

He recalled that security per-sonnel were deployed at the venue ahead of the inaugural day and they could ensure a fl awless conduct of the event by ensuring spectators were properly seated.

Apart from Khalifa Interna-tional Stadium, special attention was paid towards the Corniche area where marathon and walk-ing competitions were held, in addition to the training area at Qatar Sports Club.

Accommodation venues of athletes, offi cials, delegates, the media centre and the fans area were also under security.

Captain al-Turki, who praised the co-ordination between the traffi c patrols and patrols Fazaa and Lekhwiya force, explained that traffi c patrols were in place since the opening day of the event in order to maintain the

smooth fl ow of traffi c in all plac-es that hosted competitions of the championship. Besides, spe-cial patrols were deployed on the important streets and the roads leading to the stadium and the Corniche.

The women police at MoI and the Lekhwiya played a crucial role in ensuring safety during the Championships. Policewomen trained by MoI in co-ordination with the Police Training Institute were deployed at the site.

Spectators undergoing security checks at Khalifa Stadium.

A security robot seen outside Khalifa International Stadium.

Security personnel keeping a watch inside Khalifa International Stadium.

Doha 2019 positioned Qatar’s

hospitality sector on world mapBy Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

The recently-held IAAF World Athletics Cham-pionships 2019 has posi-

tioned Qatar’s hospitality indus-try on the world map, Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Conven-tion Hotel general manager Belal al-Kadry told Gulf Times.

With a large number of del-egates from various countries attending, the prestigious sports competition positively impacted the hotel’s performance and oc-cupancy around the city.

“The infl uence of the World Athletics Championships ena-bled Sheraton Grand Doha (of-fi cial hotel) to achieve an occu-pancy average of 100% over the duration of the event,” al-Kadry noted.

The Championships was held between September 27 and Oc-tober 6, welcoming around 2,000 athletes from more than 200 countries competing in 49 sports disciplines.

Al-Kadry observed that such

events also provide a huge op-portunity for many hotels to pro-mote Qatar as favourite tourism destination in the region, as well as contribute in making them successful.

He said hotels can deliver and extend a curated product and service to all guests, enabling memorable experience “that be-fi ts the culture of the city and the expectations of the event.”

“Initiatives such as recogni-tion of milestones, anniversaries and birthdays are key contribu-tors to impressing guests and leaving with them with a sense of appreciation and admiration

to the country and the hotel,” al-Kadry added.

It is learnt that Qatar’s hos-pitality and retail sectors got a further boost during the Cham-pionship, with a surge in hotel and restaurant bookings and rev-enues for three weeks.

Al-Kadry said the World Ath-letics Championship has been a great platform for Doha to be part of the world sporting stage, where millions of people wit-nessed Qatar’s capability to host such complex events.

This also opened the pathway to future (major) competitions such as the 2022 FIFA World Cup, he said. Qatar will again welcome around 2,000 athletes and ac-companying representatives from various countries for the ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019, which will take place from October 12 to 16 in Doha.

“The door is now open to the world to access Qatar for all its off erings and its abilities to at-tract other major events, such as conventions, congresses, confer-ences and many more,” the gen-eral manager added.

Belal al-Kadry

IAAF 2019 creates positive impact on hotel industry

By Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

The 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships, held from September 27 to October 6 in Doha, created a positive impact on Qatar’s hospitality sector, boosting revenues of hotels, Ezdan Group Hotels general manager Wael Telbani has said. “Ezdan Hotel has a total of 3,000 rooms. For this event alone, we welcomed participants from diff erent parts of the world, a record breaking in the history of Ezdan in terms of number of guests and number of rooms booked for a one specific event,” he told Gulf Times, noting a significant increase in bookings.The hotel, which accommodated 2,000 athletes and accompanying representatives for the World Athletics Championships in Doha, is set to host about 2,000 athletes and sports teams participating in the ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019, which will take place from October 12 to 16 in Doha. For Ezdan Hotels, Telbani noted that the World Athletics Championships is considered the biggest so far in terms of guest influx and revenue during the duration of the competition.“This event gave us the opportunity to showcase Qatari hospitality to the world – the culture and its people and the resiliency of the diverse community working together

as one,” he said. About helping to contribute in making international events in Doha memorable and successful, the general manager underscored the importance of preparing for such prestigious event. “These include physical preparations of the hotel rooms and all its facilities, the physical and mental preparation of the staff in handling our valued guests and their needs,” Telbani said.“Here at Ezdan, we ensure guests’ stay to be a memorable one by providing not only the best accommodation, facilities, and best food, but most importantly the highest level of hospitality service by the dedicated and highly trained and smiling staff ,” he added.The general manager also lauded country’s successful hosting of major international sporting events, and its eff orts to attract more foreign visitors from diff erent countries around the world saying that Qatar has become a premier sports hub in

the region. Prior to the World Athletics Championship, he noted that Qatar hosted other major sports events such as the World IPC Championship, World Swimming Championship, World Handball, and World Boxing Championship, among others. “The preparation is from A to Z. From welcoming the guests at the airport, handling logistics and the amazing opening ceremony that awed not only the whole community and the participants, but the whole world as well,” Telbani said. “Qatar leaves a very good mark, a legacy that will surely attract foreign visitors from diff erent parts of the world to visit the country often.”“And as the biggest attraction – the 2022 FIFA World Cup – is fast approaching, there is no doubt that this international event will be another huge success,” he stressed. Telbani said that by end of the ANOC World Beach Games 2019, Ezdan Hotels would have hosted nearly 4,000 athletes participating in two successive international tournaments in less than one month. “This reflects the hotel’s substantial readiness and capacities which qualified it to be the most favoured destination during the events,” he stressed. “Ezdan Hotels takes this opportunity to congratulate Qatar’s Champion, Mutaz Barshim, on his gold medal win and wish him and all Qatari athletes a continuous success.”

Wael Telbani

IAAF 2019 has enhanced Qatar’s image as global sports destinationBy Ayman Adly Staff Reporter

The successful hosting of the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships has further enhanced the image of Qatar

across the world as a safe and secure tourist destination with a lot to off er for diff erent visitors.

Mashhoor al-Refai, general manager of Concorde Hotel Doha, said that the success of this event has given a clear image on the readiness of the country to organise grander events such as the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Besides, the 2019 IAAF was accompanied by various tourist and recreation activities that introduced the guests to various desti-nation of the country. It helped to further in-troduce the great culture, sports and tourist potentials of the country to the world.

He said that some hotels in the country experienced almost 100% occupancy rate during for 20 days around the duration of the event. In addition to tourism and sports, he saw the event as an excellent opportunity for foreigners from diff erent world countries to explore the multiple business opportunities in diff erent sectors across the country.

Chinese ambassador to Qatar Zhou Jian congratulated Qatar for the splendid Doha IAAF World Championships. He said that “this sports gala has greatly promoted the de-velopment of international sports, and fos-tered deep friendship between Qatar and rest of the world, including the Chinese people. It has also shown to the world Qatar’s national image, which is an impressive warm-up for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.” He pointed out that “at this year’s IAAF Championship, the Chinese delegation was one of the largest, with more than 100 athletes participating.

They fought hard and have won gratifying results and friendship. Their achievements have boosted the development of Chinese athletics, and contributed the exchanges and friendship between our two peoples. We hope to work closely with our Qatari friends in the future, to strengthen co-operation in the fi eld of sports, so as to deepen our strategic ties.”

Vietnamese ambassador Nguyen Dinh Thao stressed that “Doha has become a pop-

ular destination for key sports events, making the country a household name among young people around the world.”

He said that “the successful organisation of the recently concluded 2019 IAAF Champi-onships has further enhanced the good repu-tation of the country regarding its capabilities to organise large-scale global sporting events. It also gives preliminary indications on the expected magnifi cent performance of Qatar at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.”

The envoy expected that “the attractive destination of Qatar would further draw more foreign businesses and tourists to come and explore the country. The stability and securi-ty prevalent in Qatar has become well-known worldwide and its success at these sporting events helps to contribute to the overall sta-bility of the whole region.”

The ambassador expressed his wish that, “Vietnam is also keen to maintain higher lev-els of bilateral co-operation with Qatar on all levels, including in cultural and sports fi elds.”

Vietnam ambassador Nguyen Dinh Thao

Concorde Hotel Doha general manager Mashhoor al-Refai

Chinese ambassador Zhou Jian.

IAAF championships ‘a glimpse

of successful 2022 FIFA games’By Peter AlagosBusiness Reporter

The staging of the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha

has provided a preview of how Qatar would host a “successful” 2022 FIFA World Cup, according to the president of the Qatar-In-donesia Business Council.

Speaking to Gulf Times yes-terday, Farhan al-Sayed stressed that the international event not only placed Qatar in the global sport and tourism map, but also created economic benefi ts among many sectors of the country.

“In terms of business, the ho-tel, telecommunications, food and beverage, and transport sec-tors, as well as the airline indus-try also did well and benefi ted a lot from this 10-day event; Qatar was very busy even after the event as many delegations stayed to see other destinations in the country.

“For the tourism industry, the event also brought in around 2,000 athletes from more 200 countries, participating in 49 athletics events, so you could just imagine the growth in foot-fall experienced by many estab-lishments across Doha, al-Sayed pointed out.

Al-Sayed said Qatar’s “eco-nomic consumption grew” because of the infl ux of many

visitors during the staging of the events, specifi cally in the malls, restaurants, and retail establish-ments in the souqs, which wit-nessed brisk business from the presence of many tourists.

“Major players in the transport industry also made good busi-ness; and this arrival of many tourists and commuters has opened the doors for Qatar fur-ther because now a lot of people would want to visit Qatar as the athletics event put the country under the international spotlight.

“Qatar is on a roll because not only because the country hosted the 2019 IAAF World Athlet-ics Championships, but it is also

the venue of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) World Beach Games Qa-tar 2019 from October 12 to16,” al-Sayed said.

With some of the world’s best athletes from all fi ve continents competing later in the week, al-Sayed said the infl ux of many del-egations will again cause a trickle down eff ect to many business es-tablishments across Doha.

“This is an eye opener for the Qatar Olympic Committee and other sports federations that were watching how things were held during the event. I congratulate all the organisers involved in this for a superb job they have accomplished,” al-Sayed said.

“With the all stations in the metro coming online during the World Cup, many athletes and their fans will experience how world-class Qatar is in terms of its transport industry because of the careful preparations gov-ernment has taken to make this world-class sporting event a suc-cess,” al-Sayed noted.

He noted that the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships “will drum up further interest” among Qataris and expatriates to take up athletics aside from other sports, such as football.

“The games served as an eye opener for the younger genera-tion,” he added.

Farhan al-Sayed.

QATAR11Gulf Times

Thursday, October 10, 2019

IAAF success is testament to

Qatar’s FIFA 2022 capabilityBy Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

The recently-concluded 2019 IAAF World Athletic Championships in Doha

underlines the country’s rigor-ous preparations as it antici-pates the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar, according to Ziad Mallah, director of Sales and Marketing at Sharq Village & Spa, a Ritz-Carlton Hotel Doha.

“These championships are serving as a healthy build-up to not only the reputation for the destination but also a business base for the hospitality sector that is a large contributor to-wards revenue being generated,” he told Gulf Times.

Mallah said Qatar provided suffi cient accommodation for delegates from various countries around the world – a testament of its preparedness in hosting an event of such magnitude, com-plementing the demand dur-ing that period. He added that the World Athletic Champion-ships served as an opportunity for luxury hotels in particular to capitalise on increasing vis-ibility for their brand to some of the visitors, “which necessar-ily constitute as ambassadors of their (respective) countries, thereby increasing positive re-views for the hotel through

word-of-mouth.”The prestigious event was

held between September 27 and October 6 in Doha, welcom-ing around 2,000 athletes from more than 200 countries com-peting in 49 sports disciplines. “The city business has seen close to ‘sell-out’ dates through this duration and food and bev-erage revenues too have soared signifi cantly at most hotels,” Mallah noted, highlighting the positive impact of the competi-tion to Qatar’s hospitality and retail sectors.

Apart from having a varied portfolio with a range of select and full service to ultra-luxury brands in the market, Mallah said a big factor that hotels can adopt in making these international events memorable for visitors is to infuse the rich local herit-age of Qatar in every aspect to suit their guest profi le. “Ranging

from a warm traditional ‘wel-come’ to arranging personalised guided city tours for visitors to imbibe the sights and sounds of the destination fully,” he said. “Impressing with a memorable personalised amenity reminis-cent of their stay to regional and international options at din-ing venues, customised to the guests’ liking.”

Mallah stressed that guests travelling for these kinds of events need to be shown a touch of the local fl avour, without for-getting their adaptability capac-ity at the same time. “Hotels in Doha must endeavour to make ‘a home away from home’ for these special guests.”

He described Qatar as “a bold nation with a very strong global voice”, resonating with its deci-sion to open doors and host an event of such a large magnitude to be attended and viewed by millions of people from all over the world.

“It is this vision and for-ward-thinking practice that has shaped the country into a modern traveller’s delight, with all the treasures of the past safeguarded at the same time,” Mallah said. “From a tourism standpoint, every aspect of in-frastructure and visa service fl exibility is in favour of making inbound travel a much smoother process in the current scenario.”

Ziad Mallah

IAAF big boost for Qatar’s retail sectorBy Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

The recently-held 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha

has signifi cantly and positively impacted Qatar’s retail sector, particularly destinations such as Doha Festival City (DHFC), the mall’s general manager Robert Hall has said.

“The event contributed to a business performance which was 22% over 2018 and 16% ahead of our forecast projections of guests attending the mall,” he told Gulf Times.

Hall noted that the event also attracted more than 4,000 chil-dren who took part in DHFC’s lead athletics experience events, creating a memorable experience for young mall-goers from Sep-tember 5 to October 3.

He said DHFC was delighted to be part of this major internation-al sporting competition through sponsorship and collaboration in making athletics accessible to children residing in Qatar and to visitors from abroad. It is learnt that many of the shops and bou-

tiques, restaurants, and coff ee shops, among other outlets at DHFC, as well as other malls in Doha, received more custom-ers during the event, which saw around 2,000 athletes from more than 200 countries competing in 49 sports disciplines.

Many food trucks operating within the venue also had the opportunity to off er various op-tions, from meals, snacks and drinks, for athletes, delegates,

and athletics fans. Highlighting the importance of contribut-ing to make international events such as the World Athletics Championships in Doha memo-rable and successful, Hall said: “We strongly believe that there is a synergy between sport and athletics in particular, with our brand Festival City.”

“The Centre features an out-door events area and running/cy-cling track to support the health of the nation and the facility is enjoyed on a regular basis by our local residents,” he said. “The mall is widely used by residents to walk and socialise and en-joy the feeling of happiness and well-being.”

“The engagement of the mall in bringing elements of the games, if only from a children enrolment perspective, created many positive comments from our visitors, and indeed, one member of the IAAF ambassa-dors team commented that they wish they had seen such oppor-tunity in other malls across the world,” Hall added. The general manager lauded Qatar’s success-ful hosting of major international sporting events in the previous

years and its eff orts to attract more foreign visitors from diff er-ent countries around the world.

He quoted IAAF president Lord Sebastian Coe’s earlier statement on Qatar’s handling of the Championship and observed that Qatar excelled in bring-ing the event to the Middle East for the fi rst time in history. The games, according to Coe, pro-duced an outstanding perform-ance from so many participants, with world records, national records, personal and season best achievements – the stand out achievement being medals won by Qatar national athletes.

“The vision, some fi ve years ago, to bring this event to the people of Qatar and for the gov-ernment to be so supportive of entry visas to new nations great-ly encouraged the attendance of a new audience and of course a worldwide celebration of the event itself,” Hall said.

“DHFC was delighted to be given the opportunity as sponsor of this international event and to share in the delight of the na-tion in the successful hosting of the IAAF World Championships 2019,” he added.

Robert Hall

QF talk focuses on empowering more women to be researchers

Women who are at the centre of science, re-search, development,

and innovation in Qatar dis-cussed yesterday how the nation is breaking down gender barriers in education, industry, and the workplace.

During a Qatar Foundation (QF) panel event at Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP), ti-tled ‘How To Create More Female Leaders in RD&I’, four women with key roles in driving inno-vation, developing technology, making scientifi c discoveries, and improving healthcare aired their views on nurturing a new generation of female role models.

Part of the ‘Catalysing The Future’ campaign, highlighting QSTP’s eff orts and achievements over the past decade and the im-portance of research, develop-ment, and innovation to Qatar, the discussion also saw speak-ers talk about the importance of encouraging more women to be-come scientists, researchers, and tech entrepreneurs.

While female participation in STEM fi elds in Qatar is dou-ble that of the US, according to the Qatar-America Institute’s Women Leadership Factsheet published in November 2018, women working in these fi elds are still facing obstacles. How-ever, according to the speakers, the provision of learning oppor-tunities within Qatar is helping to counteract these challenges, with education playing a ma-jor role in shaping future female

leaders in the STEM industry. Dr Jehan al-Rayahi, attending pae-diatric neuroradiologist at QF member Sidra Medicine, and one of the panel speakers, said, “You have to start at a young age. If you have a cool science teacher, you will love science and will want to go into science.

“I am thrilled with pro-grammes like those at QF’s Qatar Academy for Science and Tech-nology, as this is one place you can send your children where they will get excited about sci-ence.”

Opportunities for self-de-velopment for women also exist beyond the school and university environment in Qatar, as Dr Sara Abdulla, research fellow, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute,

explained. “One of the things that helped me, in terms of edu-cational support, was the Qatar Science Leadership Programme – now known as the Qatar Re-search Leadership Programme,” she said. “It was a brand new concept, and I knew that getting into such a rigorous programme would challenge me even fur-ther.”

Support within the workplace is also pivotal to success, accord-ing to Hayfa al-Abdullah, direc-tor of Innovation, QSTP. “Fif-teen years ago, it was harder for a woman to join engineering or IT sector,” she said. “I was female, in a male-dominated sector, and the youngest team member. However, I managed to become a section head in this sector by the

age of 28, and that was because of the belief and support I received from my management.

“Today, I am proud to say that I am part of a team with 50% fe-male representation, not just ad-ministrative staff , but experts in energy, environment, and health sciences.

“At QSTP, we are a supportive organisation; we empower peo-ple to create technology startups, and we empower women to en-gage in such sectors.”

Lana Khalaf, country general manager, Microsoft, spoke about its policy of intentional hiring that females are considered for every role.

“This doesn’t mean we are be-ing biased,” she said. “It is the same HR process for everyone – we hire on qualifi cations and who fi ts best – but it means there should be fair opportunities.”

Equality within the workplace is also imperative to economic success, continued Khalaf, who stated that when there is equal representation between females and males, profi tability within an organisation increases by 6% and that as much as $12.5tn could be added to global GDP by 2025.

“Today is the time. It is our job to make sure we instil the confi -dence, we instil the empower-ment, we provide the right train-ing, and the right culture to make sure that these women continue to be the change, lead the change, and demand and create motions that lead to other females joining them,” she added.

Education is playing a major role in shaping future female leaders in the STEM industry.

‘Destination Germany’ roadshow in DohaThe German National Tourist Office – Gulf countries (GNTO) is hosting a roadshow in Doha on October 20 as part of its continued efforts to increase the number of Qatari travellers to Germany. The B2B roadshow, in partnership with Qatar Airways and hosted by German ambas-sador Hans-Udo Muzel, aims at introducing Qatari travel trade professionals and key opinion leaders to the latest tourism at-tractions, which make Germany a preferred destination for Qatari travellers. Emphasising the importance of the Qatari market, Nicole Zaspel, Sales and Market-ing manager for the Gulf coun-tries at GNTO, an affiliate of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB), said: “Qatar offers huge potential for the German tourism industry, and we are delighted to showcase some of leading German tourism partners to the local travel trade industry in order to facilitate business and

to inspire visitors to travel to our wonderful country.” Ten key GNTO partners will join the road show, introducing the Qatari market to vibrant local destina-tions, tour operators, deluxe ho-tels, medical tourism institutions and luxury shopping outlets. The high-end shopping complexes feature Breuninger Department Store; OutletCity Metzingen and Ingolstadt & Wertheim Village, while the outstanding hotel operators cover Excelsior Hotel

Ernst and Hotel Bayerischer Hof Munich. The tour and incentive operators include DMC (destina-tion management companies) and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) Germany and Studiosus Incom-ing Munich, while the medical tourism providers cover Sana Hospital Group and Schoen Clinic. Furthermore, the Cologne Tourist Board will promote the biggest city on the Rhine to the roadshow attendees.

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Qatar takes part in GCC tourism undersecretaries meeting in Muscat

The GCC tourism undersecretaries held yesterday a preparatory meeting in Muscat to prepare their recom-mendations to the fourth meeting of the ministers responsible for tourism in the GCC countries for presenta-tion and adoption. Qatar was represented at the preparatory meeting of tourism undersecretaries by HE Faleh al-Ajlan al-Hajri, adviser to HE the Minister of Culture and Sports. The meeting comes as a continuation of the eff orts to upgrade the tourism sector in the GCC countries. The meeting discussed the report of the implementation of the decisions of the third meeting of the ministers responsible for tourism and the sum-mary report on the implementation of the executive plan of the comprehensive vision of joint tourism work between the GCC States. (QNA)

Qatar participates in GCC culture undersecretaries meeting in MuscatThe GCC culture undersecretaries held a preparatory meeting in Muscat yesterday, ahead of the meeting of Their Excellencies the Ministers of Culture of the GCC countries, due to be held today. HE Adviser to the Minister of Culture and Sports Faleh al-Ajlan al-Hajri represented Qatar in the meeting. The meeting reviewed a number of cultural topics, most importantly the cultural strategy of GCC states 2020-2030, the establish-ment of a translation and Arabisation centre, and promoting the co-operation with countries and cultural institutions. A ceremony to honour the Gulf creative individuals will be held on the sidelines of the meetings of the GCC Ministers of Culture today. The ceremony is held in conjunction with the annual ministerial meet-ings. The ceremony honours two individuals from each country. The Ministry of Culture and Sports selected Qatari writer Dr Mariam al-Nuaimi and artist Ghazi Hussein to be honoured during the ceremony. (QNA)

Tafawoq holds high-level safety workshop for Ashghal engineers

Qatar’s project management centre of excellence, the Tafawoq programme, has de-

livered a high-level safety workshop for engineers who recently joined the Public Works Authority (Ashghal).

The three-day workshop, titled ‘HSSE Leadership,’ brought together 25 engineers to discuss best practices in the fi eld of safety. The workshop emphasised the importance of em-bracing a safety culture, and touched on the roles and responsibilities of engineers in this regard.

Others topics on the agenda in-cluded the impact of internal and ex-ternal factors on safety performance, and the use of safety tools and obser-vation systems.

Ashghal President Saad bin Ahmad al-Muhannadi noted that the work-shop’s objectives fall in line with the institution’s commitment to the de-velopment of Qatar.

“Promoting a culture of safety and employee welfare will bolster pro-ductivity, which will ultimately fast track the development of major in-frastructure projects in Qatar in line with our national vision,” al-Muhan-

nadi said. The workshop comes at an important time for Ashghal, the highest authority in charge of man-aging Qatar’s major infrastructure projects, as the country undertakes key developments in preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Delivered by consultancy fi rm, JMJ Associates Middle East, the work-shop also introduced participants to behaviour-based safety and the ben-efi ts of adopting an integral safety model.

Sabu Joseph, managing consult-ant at JMJ Associates, and Sandy Schreiber, a senior consultant, led the workshop in the presence of Alan Palmer, a partner at the fi rm.

Tafawoq, which is Arabic for “ex-cellence,” is a partnership initiative between Qatar Shell, Qatar Petro-leum, and Hamad Bin Khalifa Uni-versity.

In addition to providing project management training courses, Tafa-woq also hosts custom-tailored workshops to address specifi c organ-isational needs. Since its inception in 2012, Tafawoq has graduated close to 1,000 professional students. Ashghal President Saad bin Ahmad al-Muhannadi and other dignitaries during the safety workshop for engineers conducted by Tafawoq.

QATAR

Gulf TimesThursday, October 10, 201912

MoTC reveals sponsors for Qitcom 2019

The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) announced yes-

terday the key sponsors for the ‘Qatar IT Conference and Exhi-bition’ (Qitcom 2019), which will be held under the theme ‘Safe, Smart Cities’ from October 29 to November 1 at the Qatar Nation-al Convention Centre (QNCC).

The strategic sponsors for Qitcom 2019 are Qatar Free Zones Authority, Ooredoo, and Qatar National Bank, while the Mwani Qatar, Supreme Com-mittee for Delivery and Legacy (SC), Microsoft, Qatar Rail Cor-poration, Hamad International Airport (HIA), and Vodafone Qatar are the offi cial sponsors. Qatar Airways is the sponsor of the Gala Dinner and the Qatar Digital Business Awards.

Other sponsors include Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), Meeza, IBM, Dell Technologies, Intel, Malomatia, GBM, Huawei, SAP, and Milaha as Pearl sponsors. Mowasalat, Cisco, and Al Man-nai Corporation are Gold spon-sors, while Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Q-Termi-nals, BI.Zone, Qatar Develop-ment Bank (QDB), Deloitte, and Thales are silver sponsors.

The participation of these sponsors, a total of 28 local and international sponsors, refl ects their confi dence in the event, and their support will have posi-tive impacts by generating more interests and attracting footfall to Qitcom 2019, especially in view of the various programmes lined up at the event aimed at empowering entrepreneurs and SMEs in line with Qatar’s vision of a diversifi ed economy.

Reem al-Mansoori, assist-ant undersecretary for the Dig-ital Society Development sector, said, “We are proud to announce that Qitcom 2019 is being spon-sored by 28 local, regional, and

international companies and en-tities, that we at Qitcom, appre-ciate their support in building a knowledge-sharing platform for local and global technology ex-perts in order to reach our goal – a Smart Qatar.

“Qatar is at the frontlines of a global transformation towards ‘Safe, Smart Cities’ and we have been investing heavily in emerg-ing technologies to build safer, smarter cities. Our sponsors will help enhance the status of Qitcom as a global platform for the discussion of new ideas and trends in the digital world, as well as policies that will enhance Qatar’s status as a vibrant digital society.”

Qitcom 2019 will welcome international delegations, lo-cal participants, and exhibitors from around the world. The fi fth edition is particularly signifi cant because it will host Qatar’s fi rst Smart City Expo Doha (SCED), in partnership with the organ-isers of Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC), Fira de Bar-celona.

At the two-day conference, local and international speak-ers will address topics related to smart cities namely, cybersecu-rity, entrepreneurship, artifi cial intelligence, and urban plan-ning.

Qitcom will also accompany the Munich Security Confer-ence’s main group meeting and the roundtable meeting on cy-bersecurity at the QNCC, which will bring together high-level

representatives from govern-ments and institutions, busi-ness, academic, and military communities to discuss regional and global security issues and raise awareness about cyberse-curity issues. Featuring over 100 speakers, 300 technology ex-hibitors, 100 startups, and 300 innovators and entrepreneurs, Qitcom 2019 will be a one-stop-shop for participants to showcase disruptive smart tech-nologies and exchange next-generation knowledge. Qitcom 2019 will connect smart cities ecosystem at a national, region-al, and global level through an integrated approach.

MoTC has launched a special application for Qitcom 2019 on smartphones with the aim of facilitating communication be-tween exhibitors and visitors. The app contains all the infor-mation about the event includ-ing the activities and sessions in addition to providing a feature that allows the possibility of di-rect broadcasting of events.

Occupying up to 25,000sqm, Qitcom 2019 will enable partici-pants to review the latest smart technology solutions and share knowledge.

It also has a range of activi-ties and events to support en-trepreneurship and innovation in the Entrepreneurship Zone, including fi ve key platforms that combine diverse digital sectors: Startup Hub, CodeCamp, Make the Deal, IdeaCamp, and Inno-vation Theatre.

The participation of a total of 28 local and international sponsors, reflects their confidence in the event

Ooredoo as strategic sponsor to display latest ICT digital solutions

Ooredoo announced yes-terday that it is support-ing the Qatar IT Confer-

ence and Exhibition (Qitcom 2019) as Strategic Sponsor for the event slated from October 29 to November 1 at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC).

Qitcom 2019 is Qatar’s big-gest digital event, bringing to-gether a diverse ecosystem of stakeholders from the technol-ogy sector to exchange ideas,

best practices, and experience to progress towards achieving the aim of a “Safe Smart Qatar,” in line with the goals of Qatar National Vision 2030 to build a knowledge-based, technology-driven economy.

Ooredoo will be showcasing its latest ICT digital solutions for smart cities at the event, as well as highlighting advance-ments in existing portfolios. Solutions on show will include Internet of Things and managed

security for a range of indus-tries, such as transport, logis-tics, environment, agriculture, and sports.

Manar Khalifa al-Muraikhi, director of PR and Corporate Communications, Ooredoo Qatar, said: “We’re proud to be supporting one of the biggest digital events in the region, bringing together industry ex-perts and stakeholders from the technology sector with the aim of advancing digitali-

sation and working towards creating safe smart cities in Qatar.

“Supporting such events is an integral part of our strategy, as well as a key element of our business development plan. The event will be a prime op-portunity for us to showcase Ooredoo’s contribution to this progress and to Qatar National Vision 2030, and we’re looking forward to a successful event for all.”

QIB’s CSR initiative in schools enters second yearQatar Islamic Bank (QIB)

has kicked-off the sec-ond year of its three-

year fi nancial literacy pro-gramme ‘How money works?’ for the 2019-2020 academic school year.

In partnership with Injaz Qatar, QIB’s key Corporate So-cial Responsibility (CSR) pro-gramme educates school and university students on fi nancial techniques to manage money sensibly by budgeting, saving, and investing.

The fi rst four sessions for this year were recently completed – two at Qatar University, one session at the Qatar Banking Studies and Business Admin-istration School, and another at Rawdat Rashid Secondary School for Boys. More than 140 students benefi ted from the programme. Additionally, three more sessions will take place at Qatar University by the end of 2019.

Mashaal Abdulaziz al-Der-ham, assistant general manager, head of Corporate Communi-cations & Quality Assurance at QIB, said: “We believe in the potential of our youth and therefore we are committed to helping our future leaders acquire and develop the right banking habits that will help

them thrive in the future. “We know from research that

there’s a lack of understand-ing of basic fi nancial concepts amongst the youth, and there-fore we recognise that it is es-sential to empower them with fi nancial knowledge. We are pleased to be working alongside Injaz Qatar to give the Qatari youth the necessary skills and tools they need to make sound fi nancial decisions today and in the future.”

Injaz Qatar Programmes manager Said Kariman Mah-moud added: “After last year’s successful launch of ‘How Money Works?’, we are now looking forward to an even more successful second year. We are

extremely pleased to have Qatar Islamic Bank as our exclusive partner for this impactful pro-gramme.

“Financial education is very important because it equips the youth with the knowledge and skills they need to man-age money eff ectively. With-out these skills, the fi nancial decisions and the actions stu-dents take will lack an informed foundation to maximise their success. I would like to thank QIB and their amazing staff for volunteering and visiting class-rooms to deliver the programme and share their experience with tomorrow’s leaders. They are role models.”

Mustafa Faraj Ali Ibrahim, a

Qatar University student, said: “We thank QIB and Injaz for the amazing programme. It is informative and entertaining simultaneously. The important information was given in an interactive manner. I wish the programme will be given again in the University.”

QIB and Injaz Qatar signed an agreement in May 2018 to deliver the fi nancial literacy programme to 1,250 students in Qatar. The programme targets students across the country aged between 15 to 19 years old.

The sessions are delivered by QIB employees who volun-teered to share their expertise, along with Injaz Qatar volun-teers who trained QIB employ-ees during orientation sessions on applying modern education-al methods to students across Qatar.

During the academic year 2018-2019, ‘How Money Works?’ was successfully de-livered to 366 students from six diff erent institutions with the help of dedicated QIB vol-unteers. A survey conducted by Injaz before and after the ses-sions showed a signifi cant in-crease in fi nancial understanding from students and 100% realisa-tion of the importance of fi nan-cial planning and budgeting.

Manar Khalifa al-Muraikhi, director of PR and Corporate Communications, Ooredoo Qatar, joins Reem al-Mansoori, assistant undersecretary for the Digital Society Development sector at the Ministry of Transport and Communications during a press conference held yesterday.

Expats’ sons will soon be allowed to work under family sponsorship

From Page 1

Among the conditions for al-lowing family members to work in accordance with the current proposal is a written approval by the head of the family and obtaining a work permit from the competent authority at the MADLSA after paying the re-quired fees, he explained.

With regard to the issuance of temporary work visas to accom-modate the needs of the labour market in some professions and temporary jobs and facilitate and diversify the recruitment process for employers and com-panies, the MADLSA offi cial said the proposal was studied with a view to creating a suit-able environment for domestic and foreign investment. There

was also co-ordination between the authorities concerned at the MoI, MADLSA and the relevant authorities, upon which it was agreed to put in place guide-lines, conditions and require-ments for this visa and deter-mine the duration and fees.

Al-Obaidli said the issuance of the proposed visa will only be con-sidered by the competent authori-ties when the relevant department at the MADLSA confi rms the ex-istence of a (temporary) employ-ment contract between the worker and the employer in accordance with what is needed in such cases, and in line with the provisions of Labour Law No. 14 of 2004 and its amendments and resolutions im-plementing it.

He said the contract will be re-viewed and approved in a manner

that does not contravene an off er of work submitted to the worker, as well as passing the necessary medical examination through the Qatar Visa Centres located abroad. In case such centres do not exist in the country of the worker, such a person is required to carry out these procedures im-mediately upon entering Qatar in the same way as other catego-ries of expatriate workers do in accordance with the applicable procedures.

Meanwhile, Lt Col al-Harami asserted that these proposals have been studied and com-pleted and work is under way to develop a legal tool and leg-islative procedures to fi nalise it and then complete the pro-cedures for their application. (With inputs from QNA)

GCR ranks Qatar 29th, second in Arab world

From Page 1

As for the ICT Adoption Pil-lar, Qatar remains among the top 10 economies globally, ranking eighth. Qatar is also the first globally in the ‘Internet User’ indicator. In the ‘Skills Pillar’, Qatar ranked eighth glo-bally in the ‘Skillset of Gradu-ates’ indicator and third in the ‘Ease of Finding Skilled Em-ployees’ indicator, and sixth in the ‘Skills of Future Workforce’. In the ‘Financial System Pillar’, Qatar ranked fourth globally in the ‘Financing of SMEs’ indi-cator and fifth in the ‘Venture Capital Availability’.

In addition to 23 indicators,

Qatar ranked 10th and 20th globally in terms of property rights, public sector perform-ance, quality of infrastructure in transport in terms of road connectivity, quality of roads, efficiency of air transport services, and efficiency of sea-port services, as well as in the ICT services, skills of current workforce, quality of vocation-al training, domestic competi-tion, entrepreneurial culture, and growth of innovative com-panies. Business Page 14

New regulations will benefi t Indian community

P Kumaran, Indian ambassador to Qatar: “I am happy to hear that the Government of Qatar has made some important modifications to its visa and labour regulations today. I think it will be beneficial to the large Indian community, and indeed other expatriate communities in Qatar, to be allowed to have their adult children continue to work on the sponsorship of their parents. “Many such youngsters have grown up in Qatar and have completed their education here. They would find it much easier under these new regulations. “The second reform, namely permission for businesses to bring in workers on short-term temporary visas, will allow greater flexibility and efficiency, for short business and contract-management visits, without the need to go through the more complex and time-consuming process of applying for full-fledged work visas. We would welcome these new moves and hope that the rights of such temporary employees will also be protected under the recent reforms introduced to labour laws in the State of Qatar.”

As for the ICT Adoption Pillar, Qatar remains among the top 10 economies globally, ranking eighth

Qatar Cancer Society has launched ‘Blossom Campaign’ to raise awareness about breast cancer throughout October, marked as the breast cancer awareness month. The national campaign targeting all categories of the society aims to emphasise the importance of periodic examination for early detection, a healthy lifestyle as well as highlight the health services available in Qatar.

QCS launches ‘Blossom Campaign’ for breast cancer awareness

Participants in the ‘How Money Works?’ financial literacy programme during one of the sessions.

QATAR13Gulf Times

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Ghadeer Abuoda and Dr Ahmed Elmagarmid at the seventh Heidelberg Laureate Forum.

GU-Q startspostdoctoral fellowship for QatarisBy Joseph Varghese Staff Reporter

Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) has an-nounced the launch of

a new postdoctoral fellowship programme to support ad-vanced research by Qatari na-tionals.

“The aim of this new ini-tiative – one of its kind by the university – is to prepare out-standing junior Qatari schol-ars for university teaching and research careers. To begin, we are starting with one fellowship this year,” Dr Ahmad Dallal, dean of GU-Q, said yesterday.

He was speaking at a press conference to announce de-tails of the programme aimed at “supporting career devel-opment of recent Qatari post-graduates.”

The fellowship is open to Qatari nationals who received their PhD or DPhil degree in the humanities or social sciences after January 1, 2015 or who will have passed the dissertation defence no later than January 1, 2020.

Interested applicants should apply before December 31, 2019 and the programme will start from next Fall semester starting from August 2020.

“We are offering a one-year paid position for PhD graduates

who have graduated within the last five years. They will work closely with GU-Q faculty and will gain valuable experience in research and teaching among other areas,” Dallal said.

“By growing postdoctoral opportunities, GU-Q will also advance its core aims of sup-porting research that is relevant to Qatar’s development goals, strengthening fruitful mentor-ship collaborations between established and emerging scholars, and contributing to the development of the higher

education sector in Qatar,” the dean said.

The programme will provide emerging Qatari scholars an opportunity to produce aca-demic publications, refine their research agenda, and gain valu-able teaching experience, while building their academic and professional network in Qatar and beyond.

He also said that the post-doctoral programmes are an important source of support in the transition from doctoral student to working profes-sional.

A Qatari PhD holder from any university can apply for it.

“The GU-Q postdoctoral fel-lowship is designed to support research in a variety of disci-plines, including political sci-ence, history, philosophy, lit-erature, comparative religion, economics, social and cultural anthropology, sociology, po-litical theory, and international relations. GU-Q’s regional and international reputation for research strength in a range of fields in the social sciences and humanities makes the uni-versity an ideal host for Qatari postdoctoral candidates,” Dal-lal said.

The selected candidates will be in residence for one academ-ic year, integrating fully into the teaching and research environ-ment at GU-Q.

HBKU student takes part in Heidelberg Laureate ForumAs part of its mission to

build the country’s in-novation and technology

capacity, the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) and Qa-tar Computing Research Insti-tute (QCRI), under Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), re-cently saw the participation of one of their aspiring students at the Seventh Heidelberg Laure-ate Forum.

Ghadeer Abouda, a PhD stu-dent in Computer Science and Engineering, who is jointly mentored by QCRI’s senior research director Dr Ashraf Aboulnaga, attended the forum as one of this year’s qualifying researchers.

Joining her was QCRI’s ex-ecutive director Dr Ahmed El-magarmid.

Initiated by Germany’s Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the annual event brings together 200 care-fully selected young researchers to spend the week with the most exceptional mathematicians

and computer scientists of their generation. The platform con-nects Forum laureates with the researchers in a bid to heighten their scientifi c knowledge and expose them to ample network-ing opportunities.

The 2019 forum saw the at-tendance of reputable laureates including Caucher Birkar, Yosh-ua Bengio, Whitfi eld Diffi e, and Martin Hairer, among others. Previous years saw the involve-ment of Sir Tim Berners-Lee and John F Nash in acclaimed and internationally focused meet-ups.

This year’s Heidelberg Lau-reate Forum brought together 23 laureates of mathematics and computer science to dis-cuss some of the most funda-mental issues facing science and humanity at large. These were tackled through a series of lectures, workshops, institute visits and other activities. The forum also provided student participants with valuable op-

portunities to interact with the laureates in less formal settings.

Dr Elmagarmid said: “The Heidelberg Laureate Forum has quickly become one of the most esteemed platforms for expert discussions on math-ematics and computer science. Its commitment to encouraging the next generation of leading academics and scientists is as refreshing as it is inspiring. To have an HBKU student among the 200 participants invited to this year’s Forum also shows how far the Qatar Computing Research Institute has come over the past nine years. We’re of course determined to con-tinue being at the cutting edge of relevant debates, as well as innovations in research and de-velopment.”

Refl ecting on her trip, Ghadeer noted: “The forum brings together laureates of computer science and math-ematics – including the ACM Turing Award, ACM Prize, Abel

Prize and Fields Medal win-ners – and promising young researchers from around the world with the goal of inspiring the next generation of scien-tists. I am happy and confi dent to say that it has served its in-tended purposes. I am fortu-nate and grateful to have been selected for this year’s Forum, and I would highly encourage HBKU’s capable students to fol-low in similar footsteps.”

Dr Aboulnaga said “the fo-rum is a great educational and networking opportunity for our researchers, enabling them to get a broad overview of state-of-the-art concepts in math-ematics and computer science from some of the best minds in the fi eld, and form professional connections with the laureates and their counterparts within a hand-picked group of at-tendees. I am very happy that Ghadeer was able to attend this year and benefi t from these op-portunities.

Jaidah Automotive renews partnership with BE Basketball

Jaidah Automotive, the offi cial distributor of Chevrolet in Qatar, has announced that it

has renewed its partnership with BE Basketball for the second year in a row.

The partnership is part of an ongoing commitment by the company to choose community engagement partners on the ba-sis of the unique off ering they bring to the people of Qatar, in-cluding the long-lasting impact they create, Jaidah Automotive has said in a statement.

The news highlights “the com-pany’s commitment to backing a wide range of programmes and activities that are making a posi-tive diff erence in people’s lives”.

Jaidah Automotive’s commu-nity engagement programme is inspired by Chevrolet’s vision

to help customers “Find New Roads”.

“The company is committed to such eff orts in order to drive community development and participation by diversifying the number and types of activities available to residents in Qatar,” the statement notes.

BE Basketball is a dedicated sports programme designed to train and educate people of all ages and abilities using funda-mental and dynamic training techniques. This unique pro-gramme includes many transfer-able multi-sports skills cater-ing to every age, ability, gender, background and level of sports interest. BE Basketball has been recognised for building the foun-dation for structured and com-petitive opportunities within the

country through in-school bas-ketball programmes.

As part of the partnership, Jai-dah Automotive and Chevrolet will sponsor all future events and competitions in addition to co-hosting awards ceremonies for the participating children.

Commenting on the an-nouncement, Jaidah Automotive marketing manager Johan Ma-darasz said: “As a local business, being close to the community is one of our key priorities. Sports, in particular, is a very impor-tant sector as Qatar continues to invest heavily in promoting a healthy and active lifestyle among people in the country. We look forward to several col-laborations with BE Basketball that will benefi t the larger com-munity.”

Tamuq team develops natural gas processing technology

A novel process developed by Texas A&M Univer-sity at Qatar (Tamuq) re-

searchers could help Qatar proc-ess its natural gas while reducing the country’s carbon footprint.

Developed in Qatar, CARbon-GENerator (Cargen) reactor tech-nology was conceived and de-signed by Prof Nimir O Elbashir and his research team at Tamuq campus in collaboration with Prof Mahmoud M El-Halwagi and his co-worker Dr Debalina Sengupta from the Artie McFer-rin Department of Chemical En-gineering at the main campus in College Station, Texas.

This technology is believed to be the fi rst of its kind that proc-esses natural gas and captured carbon dioxide to produce both syngas, a valuable precursor to numerous hydrocarbon feed-stocks that drive Qatar’s econo-my, and high-quality solid car-bon nanotubes.

Elbashir’s research focuses on converting natural gas into valuable hydrocarbon products, including ultraclean fuels or use-ful chemicals, in a process called gas-to-liquid conversion, or

GTL. A major drawback of GTL processing is that it produces a lot of CO2, which increases Qa-tar’s carbon footprint.

Elbashir and researchers at both campuses have focused on how to reduce CO2 emissions and reduce Qatar’s carbon foot-print.

The Cargen technology was developed to advance the dry reforming of natural gas, which is especially attractive as it con-verts methane and CO2 through a reactor to produce syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen that is then processed to make liquid hydrocarbons and ultraclean fuels.

This process, however, re-quires a lot of heat to drive the chemical reactions. This heat usually comes from burning fuels which emits even more CO2.

Elbashir’s team has designed the novel Cargen reactor, a sec-ond reactor added to the reform-ing process, along with a catalyst to drive the chemical reactions to produce expensive carbon nano-tubes and syngas from CO2 and methane.

These high-quality carbon na-

notubes can be used in several in-dustries in Qatar, including steel and cement, while the syngas can be turned into ultra-clean fuels

and value-added products. The process can be driven by either electric or solar power, elimi-nating the need to burn fuel and

thereby resulting in much lower CO2 emissions than convention-al technologies.

“We are making Qatar CO2

emissions into two products that are important to the economy in Qatar and will broaden the role of hydrocarbons in Qatar’s manu-

facturing facilities,” Elbashir said.

“CNTs are very expensive and extremely versatile, and can be used to manufacture products such as computers and other high-quality materials. And at the same time, we are also pro-ducing syngas, which can then be used to make the chemicals Qa-tar’s processing industries rely on.”

The Cargen reactor is a result of a nearly $5mn Exceptional Proposal grant from the Qatar National Research Fund’s Na-tional Priorities Research Pro-gramme, said PhD student Mo-hamed Sufi yan Challiwala, who has been a signifi cant contribu-tor to the project.

Dr Hanif Choudhury, a re-search scientist in Elbashir’s re-search group, said: “The Cargen concept of CNT generation has been validated at the micro-, milli- and gram scales, with the quality of the carbon nanotubes controlled and preserved at every scale.”

The next step is partnering with industry collaborators to scale up the technology further.

Prof Nimir O Elbashir and his research team at work at Tamuq.

Off icials pose for a photo after renewing the partnership.

Dr Ahmad Dallal

Gulf Times Thursday, October 10, 201914

WellbeingHOL STIC

By Ghanim al-Sulaiti

As ‘The Year of the Vegan 2019’con-

tinues, four countries have taken a

huge step for the industry by unit-

ing to form an alliance, known as

the ‘Vegan World Alliance (VWA)’.

The alliance aims to promote vegan

values on a global scale. The VWA

consists of four activist groups

from The Netherlands, New Zea-

land, Canada, and Australia.

The alliance envisions a world

in which all people agree that all

animals (human and non-human)

are or maybe sentient beings that

are subjectively aware of, and

able to value their own lives. VWA

says “Everyone understands that

animals therefore should not be

treated as property and that every

form of use or exploitation of, or

harm to, animals is morally wrong.”

The countries will work together

on the promotion of veganism,

thereby supporting the creation of

a vegan world.

One of its first initiatives is a

standard for food labels suitable

for vegans. The organisation notes

that many countries have no legal

definition of what vegan food is.

As a result, the alliance has already

begun to work on drafting a

standard with regards to foods suit-

able for vegans. Across the globe

there are conflicting definitions of

‘vegan’, which creates confusion for

consumers and vegan food makers.

In addition, in many countries there

is no legal definition of the word

vegan, which leaves some products

claiming they are vegan, despite

the product not being genuinely

vegan.

Providing clarity around this issue

through “International Organiza-

tion for Standardisation” is an

important first step for vegans

around the world and will lead to

more trust when purchasing plant-

based products.

New Zealand, a member of the

alliance, released a report from

the Ministry of Health last August

suggesting the entire health sector

should adapt plant-based menus to

cut carbon emissions. Similarly, the

Canadian government updated the

nation’s food guide at the start of

the year, emphasising plant-based

protein as part of a healthy diet and

nearly scrapping dairy entirely.

Making it easier to go vegan is in

the best interest of the Earth. A

broadly healthier diet could save

five million lives a year, a vegetarian

diet seven million; but a vegan diet

would have the biggest impact, pre-

venting eight million deaths from

chronic diseases, scientists studies

have shown. A vegan future would

also free up space and resources

for growing food.

Driven by the need to tackle

climate change, rising obesity and

diabetes, even the Chinese govern-

ment have firmed new guidelines

aimed at getting the nation’s 1.3

billion people to reduce their meat

consumption by 50 percent by

2030 — a ‘vision 2030’ that should

be adopted in several countries,

including Qatar, as it’s in the best

interest of the people, and the

planet.

The author is an expert in vegan wellbeing and health. Instagram handle: @Ghanim92

Countries form ‘Vegan World Alliance’

Wellness Meal Plan

Low Carb Lemon Cookies

Ingredients: 1 and 1/2 cup of almond flour

1/4 cup of coconut flour

1 tsp of baking powder

2 tbs of coconut butter

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 lemon

3 tbs of honey or maple syrup

Method: Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and melt the coconut butter with

the lemon juice and honey in another bowl. Now mix the wet ingre-

dients with the dry ingredients and mix well until you form a dough.

Roll the dough, wrap with paper and then refrigerate for 1 hour. Now

slice the dough and form your cookies in any shape you like. Bake

for 30 minutes in a preheated oven on 200C.

Allow the cookies to cool. Meanwhile, heat the lemon juice with

honey until the mixture starts to caramelise. Now add the coconut

flour and keep mixing. Top your cookies with the lemon and honey

glaze, sprinkle some lemon zest on top and ENJOY THE TASTE OF

EATING HEALTHY!

By Shefa Ali

This week on my Insta-gram live show Swalif (chit chat in Arabic), we

talked about staying balanced so you can avoid burning your-self out. It seems we are living in crazy busy times, so much to do, so little time and not enough energy. We have more technol-ogy that is supposed to make our lives easier, but somehow it just ends up stressing us out even more.

So many of us live our lives on autopilot, out of touch with our body and soul, do we even know what burnout feels like? Is it possible to become immune to stress and its signs?

Burnout can show up in many ways; lack of interest, diffi cultly in sleeping, excessive worrying, low energy and exhaustion, a lack of appetite, high stress and anxiety. You may even notice yourself being more negative than usual.

It is important to recognise your breaking point. A lot of people will tell you it’s impos-sible to unplug, so burnout is almost inevitable. However, it’s important to know when you’re close to or at a burnout stage. Something as simple as taking a day off , or having a fun night out with friends can help to take the edge off .

Balance has been a buzzword for a while now and it’s great, it’s really important, but what I strive for is harmony. I value fi nding passion and harmony

in my life and work by being connected to and caring for my clients, family and friends and making a diff erence in their lives. I would burn out way faster working fi ve hours a day at a job that was hurting my soul than I would working 15 hours a day at a job that’s feeding my soul.

It’s also a great idea to sched-ule free time. I write out my weekly schedule every Saturday afternoon, these days I am very mindful about scheduling free time on my calendar, just like I would schedule a meeting and I am mindful about sticking to it. It’s crucial to take the time we need for ourselves, even if it’s just 30 minutes a day. You’ll get back to work and life feeling recharged and inspired, chances

are, you’ll accomplish a lot more than you would if you worked straight through the day.

I also make it a point to fi ll my day with joy, and that could look like laughter with a friend, talking to my nephews, yoga, meditation or simply enjoying a homemade lemon grass and ginger tea in my favourite cup.

Prioritising also is a crea-tive strategy, when I make my-self a priority; I fi nd I function better in the other areas of my life. When you create harmony within the diff erent areas of your life, it’s hard for burnout to creep in.

The author is a consultant and coach. Instagram handle: @miss_shefa, Website: missshefa.com

Balance vs Burnout

For the glaze you need: 1 tbs of coconut flour

3 tbs of honey or maple syrup

Juice of 1 lemon

Lemon zest

REGION/ARAB WORLD/AFRICA

15Gulf Times Thursday, October 10, 2019

Zimbabwe govt quadruples electricity tariff as crisis deepensAFPHarare

Zimbabwe yesterday quadrupled electric-ity tariff s amid crippling

power shortages which have plunged parts of the country into darkness for up to 18 hours as the economy lurches deeper into crisis.

Zimbabwe’s economy is caught in a major downturn with shortages of fuel, medi-cine, and currency as well as hyperinfl ation which has seen many families living on a single meal a day.

Citing “the depreciation of the local currency,” the Zim-babwe Energy Regulatory Au-thority (ZERA) said the price of electricity would jump to around 162 Zimbabwe cents (11 US cents) per kilowatt hour up from 38 Zimbabwe cents.

It was the second tariff hike in two months.

In August authorities im-posed price increases of up to 400%. The ZERA said despite the August tariff hike the com-pany was still unable to supply enough power, leading to long hours of outages commonly known as load-shedding.

The latest increase should result in “a signifi cantly im-proved electricity supply, re-duced load-shedding hours and improved reliability of sup-ply” as the Zimbabwe authori-ties will import electricity from

neighbouring countries, ZERA said. Zimbabwe imposed roll-ing electricity power cuts in May due to low water levels at the Kariba hydro-power station — where production fell to less than 20% of capacity.

The most recent energy price hike came days after the gov-ernment increased the price of fuel by more than 25%, the latest in series of regular in-creases.

Most Zimbabweans are struggling with the spiralling living costs.

Angry at the latest electric-ity tariff increase, fruit ven-dor Reason Magashu said: “It looks like the only agenda of these people in government is to make life diffi cult for us the poor.”

“This steep hike is bound to have a far-reaching impact on the economy...(putting) more pressure on our infl ation num-bers,” Harare-based economist Prosper Chitambara said.

“We are going to see workers agitating for wage reviews as the cost of living is pushed fur-ther up,” he said.

Some 1,800 doctors from state hospitals have been on strike for more than a month for better pay saying they can neither aff ord transport to work nor decent meals on their cur-rent salaries.

President Emmerson Mnan-gagwa, who took over from long-time ruler Robert Mu-gabe, who died in September,

has promised to revive the economy, but Zimbabweans say conditions in the country have gotten worse.

The economy has declined even further, with goods prices skyrocketing and annual infl a-tion peaking at 176% in June, before government stopped publishing infl ation statistics.

The International Monetary Fund said Zimbabwe’s August infl ation rate accelerated to 300% and some economists estimate that the real rate may be double that fi gure.

In January, Mnangagwa an-nounced a more than 100% hike in fuel prices triggering widespread protests which left at least 17 people dead and scores injured when soldiers opened fi re on the crowds.

The US dollar had been the national currency since 2009 when the country dropped its own currency following hyper-infl ation of as much as 500bn %. But in June, Zimbabwe end-ed the use of US dollars and re-placed it with two local parallel currencies — “bond notes” and electronic RTGS dollars, which would combine to become the new “Zimbabwe dollar”. The new “Zimbabwe dollar” does not yet exist in paper form.

Around 7.5mn people — around half of the population — in both rural and urban areas would require food aid between by March next year due to a se-vere drought, according to gov-ernment statistics.

Morocco announced a cabinet reshuff le yesterday, reducing the number of jobs to 23 but keeping the foreign, finance and interior ministers in their posts.King Mohamed VI approved the list of new ministers submitted by Prime Minister Saad Dine El Otmani, state news agency MAP reported, after having asked him in the summer to arrange a reshuff le.The tourism, housing, youth and culture, employment, justice and health ministers were changed, but the interior, religious aff airs, agriculture, energy, trade and industry and education minis-ters stayed in place. El Otmani’s moderate Islamist PJD party has seven cabinet posts in the newly configured government, while the liberal RNI led by business tycoon Aziz Akhannouch has four.

Thirty-eight people were killed when a boat sank in eastern-central Nigeria, the government said. President Muhamadu Buhari referred to the incident as “a devastating tragedy” late Tuesday. Only two of the 40 passengers survived the accident, which oc-curred on the Kirfi River in Bauchi State on Monday, said local off icial Bappah Abdu Badara. A group of people tried to cross the river in an old boat, despite the fact that it was overflowing due to heavy rainfall, according to Badara.

Morocco reshuff les cabinet, keeps foreign and finance ministers

38 people drown in Nigerian boat accident

POLITICS

TRAGEDY

A group of activists demonstrate against unemployment in Nairobi, Kenya yesterday. A lack of jobs, especially for youth, has slowed down the economy to a point where unemployed adults depend on the small working class group that is stretching family resources and consuming savings for future investments.

Protest over unemployment

Botswana rhinos risk wipeoutAFPGaborone

Nine Botswana rhinos have been poached since April, the gov-

ernment said yesterday, an unprecedented rate of one per month that could see rhinos wiped out in the southern Afri-can country by 2021.

The thousands of rhinos that

once roamed Africa and Asia have been culled by poaching and habitat loss. Very few are found outside national parks and reserves, where they re-main threatened.

Botswana is home to just un-der 400 rhinos, according to Rhino Conservation Botswana, most of which roam the grassy plains of the northern Okavango Delta. A ministry of environ-ment statement said two rhinos

were poached within fi ve days in the Okavango late last month, raising the total number to nine since April.

“We have been losing about a rhino a month to poaching,” said Mmadi Reuben, rhino co-ordinator for Botswana’s wildlife department in the statement. “If the poaching continues at this rate there will be no rhinos in Botswana in a year or two, espe-cially the black rhino.”

Iraqi premierannounces cabinet reshuffl e after week of bloody protestsReuters Baghdad

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi yesterday an-nounced a cabinet reshuffl e,

declared three days of national mourning and said those who shot protesters would be pun-ished as he sought to quell an-ti-government unrest that has roiled Iraq for days.

Authorities fear that violence, which has killed more than 110 people, mostly protesters angry at government corruption, could spiral, leading war-weary Iraq towards more civil strife.

Protests erupted in Baghdad last week and soon spread to southern cities.

Abdul Mahdi’s government has sought to address demon-strators’ grievances.

However, a package of reforms announced by the government — including more job opportu-nities, subsidies and housing — is unlikely to satisfy Iraqis; nor is a cabinet reshuffl e, likely to feature many of the same faces despised by protesters as an out-of-touch political elite.

“We will ask parliament to vote tomorrow on changes to ministries,” Abdul Mahdi said at a news conference, adding that the government would be refer-ring the names of hundreds of

corrupt offi cials to the judiciary for investigation.

Abdul Mahdi’s government will seek to weather the storm, however, backed by powerful armed groups and political fac-tions determined to preserve the status quo.

Authorities have used an In-ternet blackout, arrests of pro-testers and targeting of reporters to try to stem further unrest.

At least 110 people have been killed and more than 6,000 wounded in the capital and the south, since the security forces started cracking down on dem-onstrators.

Reuters journalists have wit-nessed protesters killed and wounded by shots fi red by snip-ers from rooftops into the crowd.

Abdul Mahdi said that the government did not give orders to shoot. “We gave clear orders not to use live fi re but there were still victims of shooting,” Abdul Mahdi said, adding that it was wrong to damage the country.

Much of the unrest has been at night, but yesterday morning there were no reports of serious violence overnight.

Authorities yesterday reo-pened the road leading to Bagh-dad’s Tayaran Square, scene of bloody protests in recent days.

However, the security forces pressed on with their crack-down, arresting protesters after

nightfall on Tuesday in eastern and northwestern parts of Bagh-dad, police sources told Reuters.

Police carried recent pho-tographs of protesters to iden-tify and arrest them, the sources said.

Iraq’s semi-offi cial High Commission for Human Rights also said about 500 people had been released from the 800 de-tained last week. Intermittent access to Internet returned yes-terday morning, and protesters continued to upload video and photos from the demonstrations. The government shut down cov-erage almost immediately as protests began, according to an order by the prime minister seen by Reuters.

The offi ces of local and inter-national media were attacked last week, and journalists have said they were warned not to cover the protests.

With the Internet down, there was little coverage of the pro-tests on television.

Ministers met provincial gov-ernors, to address grievances across the country, which in-clude crumbling infrastructure, toxic water and high unemploy-ment.

But proposed reforms, some of which have been recycled from a package of proposed re-forms after protests in 2015, are unlikely to ease public anger.

Erdogan says military operation contributes to peace in SyriaQNAAnkara

Turkish President Re-cep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the military

operation in east of the Syr-ian Euphrates will contribute to peace and stability in this country.

This came in a telephone conversation between Er-dogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, yesterday, ac-cording to a statement issued by the Turkey’s presidential communications office.

The statement pointed out that Erdogan stressed that the Turkish operation will pave

the way for a political solution in Syria, stressing that the protection of the rights and interests of the Syrian people is a key element for Turkey, noting that Ankara values the

constructive role of Russia at this stage.

Meanwhile, Operation Peace Spring is being carried out in accordance with inter-national law, Article 51 of the

UN Charter and UN Security Council Resolutions on fight against terrorism, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Ca-vusoglu said yesterday.

“This operation is being carried out in accordance with international law, Article 51 of the UN Charter and UN Secu-rity Council Resolutions on fight against terrorism,” Mev-lut Cavusoglu said on Twitter.

With the operation, the re-gion will be cleared of terror-ists, Syria’s border security and territorial integrity will be guaranteed, displaced people will be able to return safely to their homes and peace and safety will prevail in the re-gion, he added.

N-weapons ‘forbidden for Iran’AFP Tehran

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday that Iran could have taken the step to develop nuclear weapons but will not be-

cause their use is forbidden in Islam.“Although we could have taken steps on this

path, based on Islamic ruling we fi rmly and bravely said we won’t take this path,” Khamenei said.

“Both building and stockpiling it is wrong, as us-ing it is haram,” he told a group of academics in a video posted on his offi ce’s Twitter account.

“If we had a nuclear weapon, it would have been obvious that it would have been impossible for us to use anywhere,” said the Iranian leader.

“Under Islamic principles it is defi nitely haram.” Iran vehemently denies having ever sought an atomic bomb and says its nuclear programme is for peaceful energy production and medical purposes only.

Turkish civilians wave at an army convoy driving towards the Syrian border near Akcakale in Sanliurfa province, yesterday.

UN Security Council to discuss Syria today

The United Nations Security Council will meet on Syria behind closed-

doors today, diplomats said, after Turkey launched a military operation

against Kurdish fighters in the northeast of the country.

The discussion of the situation in Syria by the 15-member Security

Council was requested by the five European members, Britain, France,

Germany, Belgium and Poland, diplomats said.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, announcing the start of the military

action yesterday, said the aim was to eliminate what he called a “terror

corridor” on Turkey’s southern border.

The move came just days after US troops pulled back from the area.

Red Cross urges states to take back fi ghtersReuters Geneva

Countries must reclaim their citizens held in camps in northeast Syria, a senior offi cial of the International

Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Re-uters yesterday, as Turkish forces launched an incursion.

An estimated 100,000 people — defeated fi ghters of Islamic State and their families — are held in and around camps in the region, including 68,000 in Al-Hol camp, Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC regional director for the Near and Middle East, said.

They are captured Islamic State fi ghters

— Syrian, Iraqi, and foreigners from dozens of other countries — as well as their wives and children, under the custody of Syr-ian Kurdish forces since US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) took the militant group’s last enclave. Two-thirds are chil-dren.

“Their parents were either killed or wounded and they are today in a place which is really not made for kids. So you can imagine the trauma those kids have suf-fered, are still suff ering,” Carboni said a day ahead of World Mental Health Day.

Few countries have seemed willing to take back their citizens, who may be hard to prosecute, and the issue has led to fi erce debate in their home countries where there

is little public sympathy for the families of militants. “It is obviously a big concern, this probable increased violence in northeast Syria because this camp is in a very fragile environment, the condition of the people in the camp is also fragile,” Carboni said, re-ferring to al-Hol.

World powers fear an incursion could open a new chapter in Syria’s war and wors-en regional turmoil. The “status quo” was not an option for the 100,000, Carboni said.

“So our message to all states that have citizens in those camps is take responsibil-ity, to be courageous.

Because we know it’s a major political and security challenge,” he said, describing the situation as “complex”.

AMERICAS

Gulf Times Thursday, October 10, 201916

Rolling blackouts aff ecting up to 800,000 customers began yesterday in parts of California as a utility company switched off power because of hot, windy weather that raises the risk of wildfires. Pacific Gas & Electric, which announced the three-phase deliberate power outage, is working to prevent a repeat of a catastrophe last November. This is peak wildfire season in California. PG&E said the severe weather incident prompting the precautions this time — hot, dry conditions and winds gusting at up to 110kph — is expected to last through mid-day today. Some 800,000 customers actually means millions of people will be aff ected.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union’s top negotiator in talks with General Motors to resolve a more than three-week strike said late on Tuesday a key issue separating the two sides is job security. “We have made it clear that there is no job security for us when GM products are made in other countries for the purpose of selling them here in the USA.,” UAW vice president Terry Dittes wrote in a letter to UAW off icials on the 23th day of the strike. “We believe that the vehicles GM sells here should be built here. We don’t understand GM’s opposition to this proposition.” GM declined comment on the UAW letter, which the union released to the media.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a conservative Democrat who supports gun rights, is fighting for a second term in a conservative-leaning state, with President Donald Trump set to rally with the leading Republican contenders ahead of Saturday’s vote. Edwards is the only Democratic governor of a Deep South state. Trump, seeking to end that anomaly, is asking voters to choose either Eddie Rispone, a businessman, or US Representative Ralph Abraham. Tomorrow, Trump will appear with both men for a rally in Lake Charles. “Keep Democrat Governor Edwards under 50%, force a runoff , and have a great new Republican Governor!” Trump wrote this week on Twitter.

The founder of a food and beverage packaging company and his wife were each sentenced to one month in prison on Tuesday for their roles in what prosecutors say is the largest college admissions scam uncovered in the United States. Gregory and Marcia Abbott received lighter sentences than the eight-month terms sought by federal prosecutors in Boston after they admitted to paying $125,000 to have a corrupt test proctor secretly correct their daughter’s answers on college entrance exams. The couple’s sentence by US District Judge Indira Talwani also includes a requirement that they each pay a $45,000 fine. Lawyers for the Abbotts did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Leader of Canada’s Conservatives Andrew Scheer campaigns yesterday for the upcoming election in Hemmingford, Quebec.

Blackouts hit thousands as Calif. targets wildfires

Union pushes GM to boost domestic auto production

Blue governor fights for re-election in red state

Wealthy couple jailed in college admissions scam

WEATHER WOES STRIKEPOLITICS JUSTICE WOOING VOTERS

Fat Bear contest crowns Holly ‘Queen of Corpulence’By Yereth Rosen, Reuters Anchorage, Alaska

A rotund and furry grandma bear has been crowned the fattest of them all. Fat

Bear Week for Alaska’s grizzlies has become a national Inter-net sensation, pitting individual bears against each other in an online voting contest.

This year’s champion fat fan favourite is Holly, organisers of the event said late on Tuesday, with the winner selected by pop-ular vote based on photos dis-played on Facebook.

“All hail Holly whose healthy heft will help her hibernate until the spring. Long live the Queen of Corpulence!” Katmai Nation-al Park and Preserve said on its Facebook page, which featured photographs of salmon-fattened Katmai brown bears.

Katmai, in southwestern Alas-ka, is known for its brown bears, which grow to massive sizes by gorging on salmon.

Holly, who did not have cubs this year to distract her, had an especially big fi nish to the season.

“She’s just a great bear. When she doesn’t have cubs, she looks like the Michelin Man,” said Naomi Boak, a Katmai Conserv-ancy media ranger who has been managing this year’s Fat Bear Week event.

Holly, who won in a fi eld of 12 contenders, has been single-minded this year in her pursuit of salmon at Brooks Falls, the park’s best-known bear-gathering spot.

“She doesn’t stop fi shing. It was really hard to get pictures of her because she just doesn’t get out of the water,” Boak said.

Fat Bear Week, an event that combines tongue-in-cheek com-

petition with science education, highlights the Katmai bears’ prep-aration for winter hibernation.

Bears typically lose a third of their body weight during their winter sleep, so the body fat they accumulate in summer and fall is crucial to survival.

Thanks to Katmai’s bounty of salmon, along with its abundant berries, the park’s male bears can eat their way to more than 1,000 pounds and females to about two-thirds that weight before they retreat to their hibernation dens in the mountains.

Even before this year’s Fat Bear Week, Holly was well-known to fans of Alaska wildlife.

She has been a regular to mil-lions of viewers who watch foot-age from the livestream “bear cam” at Brooks Falls that was set up and is operated by the site Ex-plore.org.

Holly was already famous for

adopting a yearling cub that had been abandoned by its mother.

Adoption is “very, very unu-sual” among brown bears, Boak said, prompting Holly’s bear-cam followers to dub her “Super-mom.”

Although she had no cubs this year, Holly has off spring, includ-ing another adult female with cubs of her own.

The three generations spent much of the summer at Brooks Falls, Boak said.

As well as the bears’ bodies, Fat Bear Week’s following also swelled this year.

There were about 187,500 on-line votes cast in the 2019 com-petition, more than three times as many votes tallied in last year’s Fat Bear Week.

The event gained a following in schools across the United States, after teachers incorporated Kat-mai’s fat bears into lesson plans.

‘Holly’ rests while looking for migrating salmon to help fatten up for the winter hibernation in Katmai National Park, Alaska last month.

US Army vows more funds and measures to fi x housing hazardsBy Joshua Schneyer and M B Pell, Reuters Washington

Pledging to overcome a housing crisis on its installations, the US Army is outlining new steps it is taking to provide better housing

for families of service members while demanding accountability from private landlords and Army commanders.

In an interview, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said private real estate fi rms operating housing on military bases have already committed some $500 mn to address substandard conditions like those documented in a Reuters series ‘Ambushed at Home’.

McCarthy, confi rmed by the US Senate last month as the Army’s senior civilian offi cial, said more money is needed to build new housing on Army bases and renovate thousands of existing units.

In the coming months, McCarthy said, the Army will consider a broad “recapitalization” of its housing program with its private partners.

The Reuters series documented housing haz-ards including shoddy construction, mould and pest infestations, the presence of lead-based paint and others.

Already this year, the Army has moved 1,800 families into temporary housing while repairing their homes, it said.

It has been sending military personnel to in-spect each home in its 87,000-unit portfolio for environmental threats, and, with its partners, has spent an extra $68mn addressing maintenance delays, the Army added.

Going forward, the Army will require regular home inspections for safety hazards including peeling lead paint, mold and asbestos, it said.

In addition, the Army has hired 100 new hous-ing inspectors and is requiring private landlords to create phone apps so residents can track the progress of maintenance work, it said.

“There was a breakdown over the last decade,” McCarthy said. “These are hard lessons learned, but we’re trying to dig out quickly.”

McCarthy added, “Behaviors have changed.”Starting in January, McCarthy said, the Army

will change the way it approves incentive fee pay-ments to its private landlords to ensure that fi rms do not profi t from homes left in disrepair.

The Army has placed four-star General Gus Perna, who heads the Army Material Command, in charge of personally approving all incentive fees paid to the housing partners, which can be worth millions of dollars each year.

“I have one metric: Make sure our families live in the best base housing possible,” Perna said.

Housing problems also have plagued US Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force bases, often stemming from landlord neglect, shoddy construction and lax military oversight.

A recent Reuters report described how an Air Force landlord falsifi ed maintenance records to help it win incentive fees.

Since the late 1990s, nearly all family hous-ing on domestic US military bases has been pri-vatised. Developers and property managers who oversee the homes hold 50-year contracts worth billions of dollars.

But the privatisation programme gave families little recourse to challenge landlords, who can deduct rent from military paychecks of service members.

Trump seeks to discredit entire impeachment bidBy Sebastian Smith, AFPWashington

Donald Trump yesterday again called for outing the whistle-blower behind the impeach-

ment inquiry threatening his presi-dency and sought to transform the entire scandal into a boost for his 2020 re-election campaign.

Trump began his attempt to crush impeachment on Tuesday with a breathtaking show of defi ance to Congress. In an eight-page letter signed by the White House coun-sel, the administration bluntly an-nounced it would not co-operate with the Democratic-led House of Representatives, calling its im-peachment push illegitimate.

Democrats responded by accusing Trump of stonewalling and obstruc-tion. “No one is above the law, not even President Trump,” the Demo-cratic majority leader in the House, Steny Hoyer, said yesterday.

Now Trump is demanding that the whistleblower, who reported the president’s alleged pressure on Ukraine to dig up dirt on Democratic election rival Joe Biden, be exposed.

The identity of whistleblowers is protected by law.

On Twitter, which Trump is using to bombard the public with conspir-acy theories about a secret “deep state” trying to remove him from power, the president argued that the whistleblower had been shown to be partisan and inaccurate.

“The Whistleblower’s facts have been so incorrect about my ‘no pres-sure’ conversation with the Ukrain-ian President, and now the confl ict of interest and involvement with a Democrat Candidate, that he or she should be exposed and questioned,” Trump tweeted.

In another tweet he dismissed the impeachment process as a Demo-

cratic bid to infl uence the election, saying “their total focus is 2020, nothing more.”

Trump, who broke with precedent by campaigning for re-election al-most from the moment he took of-fi ce in 2017, is himself pouncing on the impeachment as the new cor-nerstone of his 2020 eff ort.

He and the Republican Party have pushed hard to raise funds off the back of their accusation of un-fair treatment from the Democratic lower house in Congress.

Today and tomorrow, Trump will

take that message to his core sup-porters when he holds campaign ral-lies in Minneapolis and in Louisiana.

— Even if the House impeaches Trump, it remains unlikely that the Republican-led Senate would con-vict him in the subsequent trial.

However, Trump’s already turbu-lent presidency would be forever as-sociated with the impeachment.

The former real estate salesman’s furious response is in keeping with his established style of never admit-ting to being wrong and doing what-ever it takes to fi ght back.

“The good news is that WE WILL WIN!!!!” he exclaimed in one of his tweets early yesterday.

But the point blank refusal to accept the House’s authority to investigate his alleged abuse of office puts the legislature and executive branches on a collision course that will strain the consti-tution, if not lead to a full-blown constitutional crisis.

“This is a historic showdown and, I would say, a struggle for the soul of American democracy,” Chris Edelson, who teaches gov-

ernment at American University, said. He predicted that even if the White House stalls, refusing to an-swer requests for documents and witnesses, the House will go ahead with an impeachment vote in the coming months.

Pelosi formally launched the im-peachment inquiry last month af-ter revelations Trump pressured Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Ze-lensky in a July 25 phone call.

In the call, Trump asked Zelensky to look into what the US leader said were corrupt business deals involv-ing Biden.

Democrats say that Trump tried to coerce Zelensky by holding back US military aid to Ukraine.

Trump says there was no quid pro quo and that his only desire is to combat corruption.

He subsequently said publicly that he would also like China to in-vestigate Biden, something crit-ics say bolsters the allegation that Trump is seeking foreign help to discredit opponents.

On Tuesday, the Trump adminis-tration blocked a potentially major witness, ambassador to the Euro-pean Union Gordon Sondland, from testifying before Congress. Demo-crats then slapped Sondland with a subpoena to appear on October 16.

“The failure to produce this wit-ness, the failure to produce these documents” was “additional strong evidence of obstruction,” House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said.

Lawmakers want to hear tomor-row from another key witness: former US ambassador to Kiev Marie Yovanovitch, who is sched-uled to appear before the House In-telligence Committee.

US media has reported that Trump removed her from her post because she opposed his eff orts to get Ukraine to investigate Biden.

US President Donald Trump awards former attorney general Edwin Meese with the Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the Oval Off ice at the White House in Washington, DC on Tuesday night.

Biden campaign rips Facebook for allowing ‘debunked’ Trump adJoe Biden’s campaign yesterday

lashed out at Facebook for refus-

ing to block an ad from President

Donald Trump which the Democratic

candidate said included “definitively

debunked conspiracy theories” on

Biden.

The Biden campaign responded

after an exchange with Facebook over

a Trump ad which accused Biden of

improper dealings with Ukraine while

he was vice president.

“It is unacceptable for any social

media company to knowingly

allow deliberately misleading

material to corrupt its platform,”

Biden spokesman T J Ducklo said

in a statement.

“Donald Trump has demonstrated

he will continue to subvert our

democratic institutions for his own

personal gain, but his shortcomings

are no excuse for companies like

Facebook to refuse to do the right

thing.”

The comments from Biden high-

lighted a growing controversy over

social platforms’ decision to steer

clear of fact-checking political ads or

comments by politicians.

The Trump ads states that “Biden

promised Ukraine $1bn if they fired

the prosecutor investigating his son’s

company.”

A letter from Biden’s campaign to

Facebook, obtained by AFP, said this

statement had been “demonstrated to

be completely false.”

The letter said Trump and the Re-

publican Party have used this ad “that

spreads false, definitively debunked

conspiracy theories regarding Vice

President Joe Biden” and urged Face-

book to take it down.

The ad was rejected by CNN, but

has aired on other cable stations and

broadcast networks as well as on

YouTube and Twitter, according to

media reports.

Facebook, which released its

response to Biden’s request, said

its policy requires that any claim

“directly made by a politician” be

“considered direct speech and ineligi-

ble for our third-party fact checking

program.”

The leading social network has said

it has not changed its policy on politi-

cal speech but recently clarified that

it would steer clear of fact-checking in

such cases.

“Our approach is grounded in

Facebook’s fundamental belief in free

expression, respect for the democratic

process, and the belief that, in mature

democracies with a free press, political

speech is already arguably the most

scrutinised speech there is,” Facebook

public policy director Katie Harbath

said in the letter to Biden’s campaign.

AFPBeijing

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced visa curbs on Chinese offi -

cials, urging China to cease its “campaign of repression” in Xinjiang.

Beijing yesterday decried the US decision to restrict visas and called on Washington to with-draw the measure. The United States has stepped up its criti-cism of China’s treatment of Ui-ghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in the western region, where rights group say more than 1mn are held in internment

camps. Washington earlier this week announced the blacklisting of 28 Chinese entities involved in rights violations in Xinjiang, which China has said was based on “groundless” claims.

China had until recently de-nied the camps existed, but later described them as “vocational education centres” where peo-ple learn Mandarin and job skills as necessary counter-terrorism measures.

The US is “disregarding the facts, slandering and smearing China on Xinjiang-related is-sues,” foreign ministry spokes-man Geng Shuang said at a regu-lar press conference yesterday, where he said the US actions were

guided by “sinister intentions”. Geng also took issue with the Eu-ropean Parliament for nominating Ilham Tohti — a Uighur scholar serving a life sentence on separa-tism charges for advocating the rights of Uighurs — to a shortlist for the Sakharov Prize for human rights. “Under the pretence of human rights, this institution is whitewashing such a separatist supporting violent and terrorist acts,” Geng said.

Last month the Council of Europe awarded its Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize to Tohti for “giving the entire Uighur people a voice”, drawing bitter criticism from the Chinese authorities, who said that even nominating

him was eff ectively “supporting terrorism”. In 2017, Xinjiang au-thorities passed sweeping “an-ti-extremism” regulations that banned a wide range of behav-iours and customs — formalising a regional crackdown on certain Muslim practices.

Growing “abnormal” facial hair was included in the govern-ment’s list, as well as wearing robes that cover the whole body and face.

An AFP investigation in June found that at least 30 mosques and religious sites have been de-stroyed in Xinjiang since 2017. And in just two years, dozens of cemeteries have been destroyed in the northwest region, accord-

ing to a new AFP investigation with satellite imagery analysts Earthrise Alliance. Pompeo in his statement also criticised “pervasive, high-tech surveil-lance” as part of “highly re-pressive” Chinese policy in the region.

Xinjiang authorities have rolled out a sweeping surveil-lance system in the region. A mobile app called the Integrated Joint Operations Platform col-lects information from multiple sources, including facial-recog-nition cameras, Wi-Fi sniff ers, and home visits in the region, according to Human Rights Watch. The entities sanctioned by the United States include

video surveillance company Hikvision and artifi cial intelli-gence fi rms Megvii Technology and SenseTime.

The blacklist also includes 18 public security bureaus in Xin-jiang, a police college and eight businesses. Geng called the US moves “completely futile” and warned China would take “fi rm” action against violations of its sovereignty. He also said Chi-na’s commerce ministry would “soon” release its own entity list, which has been in the works for months.

China’s policies are “widely supported by the 25mn people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang”, Geng said. The heightened US

pressure on China’s policies in Xinjiang comes at a tense time for the two countries, which have been locked in a trade war for more than a year. Trade talks are set to resume today, with Beijing’s top trade envoy Liu He due to meet US Trade Rep-resentative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Asked whether the visa re-strictions could impact the talks, Geng said: “We hope that the US can work together with China, meet halfway with us, and push forward consultations in order to make progress, on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefi t.”

A park where a Uighur cemetery used to be located in Kuche in the region of Xinjiang. China is destroying burial grounds where generations of Uighur families have been laid to rest, leaving behind human bones and broken tombs in what activists call an eff ort to eradicate the ethnic group’s identity in Xinjiang.

ASIA/AUSTRALASIA17Gulf Times

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Protests fl are in Bangladesh over killing of university studentBy Ruma PaulDhaka, Reuters

Hundreds of students pro-tested across Bangladesh yesterday calling for po-

litical groups to be banned from campuses days after a student was killed, allegedly by activ-ists from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling party.

The protests started in Dhaka after Sunday’s killing of 21-year-old Abrar Fahad at the dormitory of the Bangladesh University of

Engineering and Technology (BUET), where he was a second-year student. He had written a Facebook post criticising a gov-ernment water deal with India.

Responding to the protests, Hasina said the government would not interfere if any uni-versity decided to ban political groups. She said she had ordered her party’s student wing to expel anyone involved in the “extreme-ly cruel” killing.

“I can feel the pain of the par-ents who lost their child,” Hasina told a news conference at her of-

fi cial residence. Protests spread across the country yesterday, with many teachers joining stu-dents, who chanted slogans de-manding justice.

Police said they had arrested 13 leaders of the Chhatra League — the student wing of Hasina’s Bangladesh Awami League — whose members have been ac-cused of beating and killing Fa-had by his fellow students and family.

“My son was innocent. He had his own opinions,” said Barkat Ullah, Fahad’s father. “They beat

him for six hours and killed him.”Fahad’s body was found on a

stairway at the university dormi-tory in the early hours of Mon-day. An autopsy showed that he had been bludgeoned with blunt objects and had extensive bruises on his hands, legs and back. In an Oct 5 post on Facebook, Fa-had had criticised a government move to share water with India, after Dhaka and New Delhi an-nounced the signing of several deals, including allowing India to draw water from Bangladesh’s Feni river.

“Chhatra League did not give any instructions to beat any stu-dent,” said Lekhak Bhattacharya, the League’s acting general sec-retary. He demanded strong pun-ishment to the killers, but said he did not support banning student political groups.

The United Nations yesterday condemned the killing and called in a statement for an independ-ent investigation.

“Freedom of speech is a hu-man right,” the UN said, add-ing “nobody should be harassed, tortured or killed for exercising

it”. The British High Commis-sion in Bangladesh tweeted it was “shocked and saddened by events at BUET”.

The students are demanding that political groups be banned from campuses. “We want a complete ban on party-based politics on the campus. We won’t tolerate it anymore after the kill-ing of our fellow,” said Sanim Rahman, a student at BUET.

“We’ll continue our protests until we get justice.”

Mahmood Uddin Chowdhury, a Dhaka University teacher tak-

ing part in the protests, said eve-ryone on campus was shocked. “We are speechless. This is not acceptable for the students, for the parents, for the society,” he said.

Hasina, who has been ruling Bangladesh for nearly a decade, came to power for a third straight term following elections in De-cember 2018 that opposition parties denounced as rigged in her favour. Her government has faced criticism for curbs on free speech and crackdown on dis-sent.

US imposes visa curbs on Chinese offi cials for Uighur repression

Performers dance at the closing ceremony of the 2019 International Horticultural Exhibition in Beijing yesterday.

Closing ceremony

Dutch, Australian PM pledge to pursue justice for MH17 victimsDPA Canberra

Australia and the Nether-lands “will not rest” until justice is served for the

families of those killed in the downing of Malaysian Airlines fl ight MH17, the prime ministers of the two countries have said.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, during his offi cial two-day trip to Australia, discussed the MH17 disaster, among other things, with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison yester-

day in Sydney. The MH17 fl ight en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was targeted over eastern Ukraine by a surface-to-air missile that a Dutch-led international team of investiga-tors believes came from Russia. All 298 people aboard, including 27 Australians and 193 Dutch na-tionals, were killed.

The territory over which it was shot down was held by a pro-Russian separatist group.

Russia has denied involve-ment. International arrest war-rants have been issued for the four suspects — three Russians

and a Ukrainian — who have been charged for murder. “There is no guarantee at this moment that people can get jailed if that is the conclusion out of the court case,” Rutte told reporters along-side Morrison.

“But I can guarantee you one thing: that we will not rest before that court case is closed in a way in which we all feel a sense that justice has been done.”

“That could take more years than we like.” Morrison said the two countries “stand shoulder to shoulder and ... continue to pur-sue justice on this matter for as

long as it takes.” “We won’t rest. That is the very least we owe to those who were murdered on that night and all of their fami-lies who have survived,” Morri-son said.

The Dutch parliament sepa-rately demanded an examination into the role of Ukraine in the in-cident.

The Dutch government should determine why Kiev did not close the airspace in the east of the country to civilian planes, the House of Representatives unanimously decided on Tues-day evening.

Malaysian MPs vote to repeal

controversial ‘fake news’ lawAFPKuala Lumpur

Malaysian lawmak-ers voted to repeal a controversial law yes-

terday that punished spread-ing “fake news” with up to six years behind bars and which critics said was aimed at sti-fl ing dissent.

As well as hefty jail terms, those who disseminated what authorities deemed false news — via any medium, from print to social networks — could be fi ned up to 500,000 ringgit ($120,000). It was the second attempt by the lower house to overturn the law after MPs voted to repeal it last year only for the opposition-controlled upper chamber to block it. But the upper house is only able to block a bill once, mean-ing the legislation will now be scrapped.

Malaysia is one of several countries in Asia that have turned to such legislation re-

cently, emboldened by US President Donald Trump’s ful-minations against “fake news”, but activists warn authoritar-ian regimes will use the laws to target opponents.

The legislation was pushed through in Malaysia last year by the former, scandal-tainted regime in the run-up to a hotly contested general election, sparking a storm of anger.

Political opponents said it was a crude tool aimed at si-lencing criticism of the then-government and its leader Najib Razak, particularly over the corruption mega-scandal surrounding sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

However Najib and his long-ruling coalition unexpectedly lost the landmark 2018 elec-tions that brought to power a reformist alliance which had pledged to abolish the law. Charles Santiago, an MP from the ruling Pact of Hope coali-tion, welcomed yesterday’s move which came after two days of debate.

He told AFP the legislation had been aimed at helping “cover up the former govern-ment’s abuse and corruption”.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, added that repealing the law “was really the only way forward to protect free-dom of expression in Malaysia.

“The anti-fake news law was a huge threat that would have devastated press freedom in Malaysia if it had ever been im-plemented.”

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who ousted Najib at last year’s polls, was inves-tigated for allegedly spreading fake news days ahead of the election. He was an opposition leader at the time. Malaysia is one of several countries in Asia that have turned to such legis-lation, but activists warn au-thoritarian regimes will use the laws to target opponents.

Last week, a law to combat fake news came into eff ect in Singapore despite criticism from tech giants and activists.

Pollution app back in Vietnam aft er online abuse ‘campaign’

A leading pollution-monitoring app returned to Apple and Google Play stores in Viet-nam yesterday, days after it was removed having been bombarded with negative com-ments online. The Swiss-based company AirVisual said this week it was the target of a “co-ordinated campaign” of abuse after publishing data showing several days of “unhealthy” pollution levels in Hanoi. The data prompted a blitz of nega-tive comments on AirVisual’s app and Facebook pages from Vietnamese users accusing the company of publishing mis-leading data to sell its products. Online abuse is rampant in Vietnam, where state-aligned

netizens frequently attack activists and sites deemed anti-government. The app and AirVisual’s Face-book page were taken down, but the company said yester-day the service was back up in the country after its pages were flooded with positive mes-sages from Vietnamese users instead. The support showed the “strength and resolve of the community in Vietnam to raise awareness about the environ-ment and tackle the air pollu-tion problem”, the company said in a statement.“Eff orts to suppress open and free air pollution data, rather than address the emission sources... have created the

problem,” it added. “Great app! Thank you for your contribu-tion to the world community for awareness of air pollution issues,” said Tam Dam on AirVisual’s Vietnam Facebook page. Like much of Southeast Asia, Vietnam’s major cities have been plagued with smog in recent years linked to the rapid rise of coal-heavy industries, agricultural burning and vehicle emissions. Last week the capital city’s air quality index reached above 150 — the threshold for “unhealthy” for several days in a row, prompting the government to warn vulnerable groups to stay inside.

Coleen Rooneyaccuses Vardy’swife of leaking stories to SunGuardian News and MediaLondon

Coleen Rooney has claimed to have caught another footballer’s wife passing

her private information to the Sun, after apparently running an elaborate sting operation that in-volved placing false stories in the tabloid newspaper.

Rooney, an online infl uencer who is married to the former England international Wayne Rooney, said she was forced to act after a series of posts on her private social media account appeared in the media. She has publicly accused Rebekah Vardy, the wife of fellow England foot-baller Jamie Vardy, of being the individual who was leaking the private information.

Vardy, a former contestant on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, has denied any involve-ment and suggested someone else may have had access to the password for her Instagram ac-count. The Sun has not disputed Rooney’s suggestion that Vardy was the source but has now amended all the disputed stories on its website to note that they could have been fabricated.

Coleen said in a statement: “For a few years now someone who I trusted to follow me on my personal Instagram account has been consistently informing the Sun newspaper of my pri-vate posts and sto-ries. There has been so much information given to them about me, my friends and my family – all with-out my permission or knowledge.

“After a long time of trying to fi gure out who it could be, for vari-ous reasons, I had a suspicion. To try and

prove this I came with an idea. I blocked everyone from viewing my Instagram stories except one account. (Those on my private account must have been won-dering why I haven’t had stories on there for a while.)

“Over the past fi ve months I have posted a series of false sto-ries to see if they made their way into the Sun newspaper. And you know what, they did! The story about gender selection in Mex-ico, the story about returning to TV and then the latest story about basement fl ooding in my new house.

“It’s been tough keeping it to myself and not making any com-ment at all, especially when the stories have been leaked, howev-er I had to. Now I know from cer-tain which account/individual it’s come from.

“I have saved and screenshot-ted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It’s … Rebekah Vardy’s account.”

In response, Rebekah said she had never spoken to journalists about Rooney, even though many had called her.

She also appeared to imply that her Instagram account may have been improperly accessed by a third party: “If you thought this was happening you could have told me and I could have changed my passwords to see if it stopped.

“Over the years various peo-ple have had access to my Insta and just this week I found I was following people I didn’t know

and have never followed my-self. I’m not being funny but I

don’t need the money, what would I gain from selling

stories on you? I liked you a lot Coleen and I’m

so upset that you have chosen to do this, espe-cially when I’m heavily pregnant. I’m disgusted that I’m even having to deny this.”

PM could be summonedby assembly over ArcuriGuardian News and MediaLondon

Boris Johnson could be summoned by the Lon-don assembly after failing

to provide details of his contact with a US businesswoman and explain how any potential con-fl ict of interest was addressed.

The assembly’s oversight committee gave Johnson 14 days to explain how grants and privi-leged access to trade trips were awarded to Jennifer Arcuri dur-ing his time as mayor. Johnson’s confi dential response was sent to the watchdog on Tuesday

night an hour after the initial deadline.

The letter was marked “confi -dential and not for publication” but a spokeswoman for the com-mittee said: “It doesn’t answer any of our questions”.

The committee chair, La-bour’s Len Duvall, has asked for legal advice about whether the watchdog can discuss the letter at an open meeting next Wednesday.

The meeting is also expected to decide whether the committee should use its powers to summon the former mayor to answer ques-tions in person as it did over his failed garden bridge project.

And it could even decide to force Johnson to hand over pri-vate text messages and e-mails he sent to Arcuri. Duvall said the committee planned to take the matter further.

“We remain focused towards next Wednesday’s meeting where we will be outlining the way for-ward in respect of the allegations in the public domain,” he said.

The committee was alarmed by revelations in the Sunday Times that Arcuri was awarded thousands of pounds in pub-lic money, including £11,500 by the mayor’s promotional agency London & Partners.

Johnson’s offi ce also inter-

vened to give her a place on trade missions to New York and Tel Aviv with the then mayor, after she was initially turned down because she failed to meet the criteria.

This week, Arcuri confi rmed she shared a “very close bond” with Johnson and he visited her east London fl at up to 10 times, but she insisted she was not giv-en favourable treatment by the then mayor or his offi cials.

Last month, Duvall wrote to Johnson asking for details and a timeline of all contact with Ar-curi throughout his mayoralty.

He also asked for an explana-tion of how his “alleged rela-

tionship was disclosed and taken into account in any and all deal-ings with the GLA (Greater Lon-don Authority) and other parts of the GLA family”.

It is understood Johnson’s confi dential response failed to provide those details.

The prime minister has insist-ed “full propriety” was followed and he has no interest to declare over Arcuri.

Meanwhile, the Independent Offi ce for Police Conduct is ex-pected to make a decision before the end of the month on whether to launch an investigation into allegations of misconduct in public offi ce.

Mum wins payout overDown’s syndrome babyGuardian News and MediaLondon

A mother whose son’s Down’s syndrome went undetected is to receive

damages from the NHS.Edyta Mordel, 33, sued her

NHS trust over its failure to diag-nose the condition.

She claimed she had asked for a screening and would have un-dergone further tests to confi rm the diagnosis if it had detected signs of the syndrome.

Although she is now devoted to four-year-old Aleksander – born January 2015 – Mordel and her partner, Lukasz Cieciura, said they would have terminated the pregnancy if they had known he would have the condition.

The Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust contended that Mordel had declined the initial test but later regretted her deci-sion.

But, giving judgment at the high court in London, Justice Jay ruled in Mordel’s favour – paving

the way for her to receive a pay-out. The size of the payout was not mentioned in the ruling but it is likely to be a six-fi gure sum.

The judge said Mordel had booked for all tests, including the initial screening for Down’s syndrome, at an appointment in June 2014.

However, when asked by a sonographer the following month if she wanted the screen-ing, she declined. The sonogra-pher then carried out the rest of the scan without the initial test for Down’s syndrome.

Aleksander was diagnosed with the condition hours after his birth and medical records noted his parents were “angry and upset”. Giving evidence at a hearing in July, Mordel, of Read-ing, said she was sure she always wanted the screening and had booked it for herself. She said in her witness statement: “I knew someone from work with Down’s syndrome. I saw how diffi cult his life is and I would not have con-tinued my pregnancy.

Cieciura said in his evidence

that if the screening had been carried out and showed a risk of Down’s syndrome, they would have opted for further tests. He added: “If, following these fur-ther tests, we’d found out that Aleksander had Down’s syn-drome, we would have terminat-ed the pregnancy.

“We would have discussed it and thought that termination was right. We would have known that the problems that Aleksand-er has now he will have for the rest of his life.”

Justice Jay found that Mordel – who is originally from Poland – had misunderstood the sonog-rapher’s question when she de-clined having the test.

The judge concluded that both the sonographer and a midwife who conducted a follow-up ap-pointment ‘failed to discharge their duty’ to Mordel by not que-rying her apparent refusal to have the test, in light of her earlier in-dication that she wanted it.

He said the trust amended its policy relating to screening fol-lowing Aleksander’s birth.

Whale found deadin River ThamesReutersLondon

A 33-feet humpback whale spotted in the River Thames earlier this week

has been found dead just east of London and will now be handed over to scientists for an autop-sy.

The whale was found dead in shallow water at Greenhithe in Kent and towed late at night from below the QE2 Bridge to a Port of London Authority facility at Gravesend.

“It is incredibly sad — I was literally two feet from this dead whale,” said Martin Garside, a spokesman for the Port of Lon-don authority who helped tow the whale.

“It was both poignant and a bit eerie really — road traf-fi c was thundering overhead on the busiest motorway in Britain and oblivious to all the people in the cars and lorries there was a 10-metre long beautiful whale fl oating dead beneath them.”

The whale was so large that the patrol boats struggled to tow it.

“It was bigger than the patrol

boat I was in, no doubt about it, and it was getting on for the length of the bigger patrol boat so I would say minimum 10 me-tres,” Garside said.

The Zoological Society of London has a Cetacean Strand-ings Investigation Programme which will investigate why the whale entered the area and why it died.

“At this stage it’s too early to do more than speculate on why this may have happened,” the programme manager, Rob Deav-ille, said in a statement. Two other humpback whales have previously been recorded in the Thames and its wider estuary region, one in 2009 and one in 2013.

Both of those animals died.The humpback whale found

at Greenhithe was the fi fth of its species to be recorded stranded on the UK coast so far this year, compared with an annual aver-age of one to two.

Deaville said it was hard to generalise about stranding numbers because diff erent spe-cies faced diff erent threats, and strandings could occur for a wide variety of reasons.

Catherine visits Natural History Museum

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, views a sample of pond life at the Natural History Museum during a visit to the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity to hear how it is championing and helping protect threatened UK wildlife, in London yesterday.

Trump fi rm ‘refusing to pay’ legal bill for windfarm caseGuardian News and MediaLondon

Donald Trump’s family fi rm is refusing to accept a legal bill worth tens of

thousands of pounds after he lost a lengthy court battle against a windfarm near his Aberdeenshire golf course, according to the Scottish government.

A Scottish court ruled in Feb-ruary this year the Trump Organ-isation had to pay the Scottish government’s legal costs after his

attempt to block an 11-turbine windfarm in Aberdeen Bay ended with defeat in the UK Supreme Court in 2015.

The Scottish government has said Trump’s firm has refused to accept the sum it had put forward or reach an agreement on costs, so the case is now in the hands of a court-appointed adjudicator.

“As the amount of expens-es has not been agreed, we are awaiting a date for the auditor of the court of session to determine the account. We expect payment

when this has been completed,” a government spokeswoman said.

The case is expected to be heard quickly. Sarah Malone, executive vice-president of the Trump golf resort, said claims the fi rm had refused to pay the sum sought by the government are incorrect. “This is not in our control,” she said. “The matter is in the hands of the auditors of the court of session and the Scottish ministers.”

Trump launched his campaign against the Aberdeen Bay wind-farm in 2012 after claiming the

“monstrous” project, a scheme to test wind turbine technolo-gies, would ruin the view from his golf resort at Menie, north of Aberdeen, and dissuade guests from playing there.

He took his battle to the Scot-tish parliament, claiming the country’s heavy investment in onshore windfarms would ruin its tourism industry. In one fa-mous exchange with MSPs, Trump insisted the committee did not need to call any witnesses to verify his claims.

“I am the evidence,” he said.

“I’m an expert in tourism. I have won many, many awards … if you dot your landscape with these horrible, horrible structures, you will do tremendous dam-age.” Trump fell out with Alex Salmond, the then fi rst minister, who had championed Trump’s claims the economic benefi ts of his Aberdeenshire resort justi-fi ed bulldozing a very rare dune habitat he was building it on, as well as overriding local planning rules.

After Trump lost the Su-preme Court case in 2015, Sal-

mond branded him a “loser” and Trump retaliated by describing the then former fi rst minister as a “has-been”.

Trump alleged Salmond prom-ised him the windfarm would never be built when the pair met for dinner in New York in 2007, before Trump won planning per-mission for the resort. Salmond denied doing so.

Trump made good his promise to fi ght the windfarm, which was backed by the Scottish govern-ment, the European Union and prominent major business lead-

ers in Aberdeen who had previ-ously championed his golf resort application, by launching a court challenge against it in 2013.

Trump’s lawyers alleged in court in 2014 that Salmond had illegally interfered with the windfarm project to ensure it was approved. Those claims were rejected by Scottish civil court judge Lord Doherty. Trump had also tried but failed to become a party in a separate legal battle to stop the Viking wind project, in-volving 107 turbines, being built on Shetland.

18 Gulf TimesThursday, October 10, 2019

BRITAIN

Grieving parent

Tim Dunn, father of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn who was killed in a collision with a car, arrives for a meeting with Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State Dominic Raab at the Foreign and Commonwealth Off ice in central London yesterday. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged the US to reconsider granting immunity to a diplomat’s wife suspected of killing a teenager in a road crash.

Britain, EU tohold last-ditchBrexit talks asdeadline loomsAFPLondon

Britain and the European Un-ion yesterday agreed to hold last-ditch talks aimed at se-

curing a Brexit deal with just days left to thrash out an agreement, as each side trades accusations of a failure to compromise.

Brexit Secretary Steve Bar-clay will meet his EU counterpart Michel Barnier in Brussels today in an attempt to break the impasse before an October 17-18 summit.

“We’ve put forward serious proposals and have been willing to be fl exible. Now it’s time for the EU to do the same,” Barclay tweeted.

But Barnier appeared more downbeat, playing down hopes of a breakthrough before EU leaders meet, even as he promised to work around the clock to the deadline.

He said the EU could not accept Britain’s proposals as they stand, arguing they would undermine peace and weaken the European single market.

“As I speak to you now, we’re not on the point of envisioning and fi nding a deal,” he told the Eu-ropean Parliament.

Britain is due to leave the EU on October 31, more than three years after a landmark referendum that has dominated domestic politics and divided the nation.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to take the country out of the bloc after nearly fi ve decades of integration — with or without a withdrawal agreement.

On Tuesday, Downing Street sources broke diplomatic proto-col by leaking details of a private

conversation between Johnson and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel was alleged to have said a deal was “overwhelmingly un-likely” without further UK com-promise on its plans to keep open the border between EU member Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland.

Berlin declined to give details of the call but an irate European Council chief Donald Tusk ac-cused Johnson of playing a “stu-pid blame game” and jeopardis-ing the future of both Britain and the EU.

Johnson will meet his Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar today, with few signs Dublin is prepared to move on its position about bor-der arrangements.

Finding a way to keep the fron-tier between north and south open without Northern Ireland being tied to EU trade rules has long been the main sticking point in talks.

The prospect of a hard bor-der has raised fears that it could reignite unrest between pro-Irish republicans and unionists that killed thousands over three dec-ades from the late 1960s.

Ireland on Tuesday announced it had set aside 1.2bn euros ($1.3bn) in its 2020 budget as a contingency for no-deal, which has been seen as a sign of its pes-simism about the talks.

Varadkar said it would be “very diffi cult to secure an agreement by next week”.

Barnier said Britain’s propos-als “would replace a practical, operational and legal solution with a solution that is hypotheti-cal and provisional”.

Anti-Brexit campaigners in Britain believe Johnson, who took over as PM from Theresa May in July, is using the EU talks to play a political game to cement his credentials as a eurosceptic leader.

Arron Banks sorry fortweet targeting MerkelGuardian News and MediaLondon

Arron Banks has apologised after Leave.EU tweeted a xenophobic meme of An-

gela Merkel that invoked Britain’s world war victories to target the German chancellor.

The image was condemned by cross-party MPs and later deleted by the pro-Brexit cam-paign group, but the business-man and Leave.EU co-founder initially defended it. The meme, which was reminiscent of war-time propaganda posters, said: “We didn’t win two world wars to be pushed around by a Kraut,” alongside a photo of Merkel stood with her arm aloft.

It was accompanied by a comment saying: “Angela Mer-kel’s demand that Britain leaves Northern Ireland to rot inside the customs union is reprehensible and shows the true colours of our supposed ‘European allies’.”

The furore came after a No 10

source said Merkel’s demands for Northern Ireland after Brexit had made a deal “essentially impos-sible”, leading to accusations that Boris Johnson was trying to play a “stupid blame game”.

In the Commons on Tues-day, the Independent Group for Change MP Chris Leslie criti-cised the “deliberate dog-whistle briefi ng” and warned of its con-sequences.

“It has sparked a series of frankly racist attacks against the Germans, from Leave.EU and others,” he said. “This is an ex-tremely dangerous course for the government to embark on, and I want to hear – right now – the minister condemn and distance himself from it.”

Michael Gove, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, disso-ciated himself from “any sort of racist or demeaning language to-wards Germany” and said he had reaffi rmed the UK’s commitment to friendship at a German day of national unity event at the coun-try’s embassy last week.

“The Germans are our friends and our allies, and Germany is a great country,” he told MPs, after politicians from across the spec-trum had earlier criticised the image.

The Labour MP David Lammy tweeted: “Dear Germany and the EU, please accept our apologies and do not be fooled into think-ing Leave.EU’s xenophobic bile is representative of the UK. A clear majority of Brits now op-pose Brexit in all its forms. A vast, young and vibrant pro-EU movement in Britain stands with you.”

The Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson, Tom Brake, said the advert was “insulting and of-fensive”.

“Language such as this is stok-ing divisions within our society and should not be considered ac-ceptable,” he said. “EU citizens are our neighbours, friends and family. This demonstrates the depths that Leave.EU will go to as they try and tear our country apart.”

Guardian News and MediaLondon

Tony Blair has warned the Labour leadership against using the union as a bar-

gaining chip and accused Boris Johnson of putting the future of the UK at risk over Brexit.

During a visit to Edinburgh, the former prime minister said it would be a “big mistake” for Jeremy Corbyn to enter into “horse-trading about the union”, when he was asked if the Labour leader should grant a Section 30 order – which gives the Scottish National Party the necessary le-gal powers to hold a second inde-pendence referendum – in order to secure their support at West-minster in the event of another hung parliament.

Speaking to the Scottish Par-liamentary Journalists’ Associa-tion, Blair described such a move as “a major category error, both in principle and politically”, say-ing: “I don’t think that Labour should give any indication at all that it’s prepared to put the un-ion on the table as some form of bargaining chip.”

The former Labour leader added: “Is Boris Johnson putting the union at risk because of Brex-it? Yes, of course it does put the union at risk, it puts Northern Ireland at risk, it puts Scotland at risk.” Blair wrote in Sunday’s Observer that Johnson’s Brexit strategy risked undermining the peace in Northern Ireland that he had helped to broker.

Citing Labour’s 2015 election campaign, when the Tories used the possibility of a pact with the SNP to undermine Ed Miliband, Blair said: “The question of whether there is another inde-pendence referendum has to be decided completely separately from questions of who forms the government of the UK.”

Blair repeated warnings that a general election focusing on Brexit was an “elephant trap”, insisting a referendum was the only way to resolve the issue.

Labourwarnednot to letSNP holdnew vote

BRITAIN

Gulf Times Thursday, October 10, 2019

19

An anti-Brexit activist protests near the European Parliament in Brussels yesterday.

PM may face contempt action if he fails to adhere to Benn ActGuardian News and MediaLondon

Pro-Remain campaigners are preparing to launch contempt proceedings

against Boris Johnson if he at-tempts to renege on promises to seek an extension to Brexit.

Jolyon Maugham QC has sought legal advice on starting court proceedings for contempt next week in the Scottish courts, after senior judges in Edinburgh delayed a decision on ordering the prime minister to comply

with the Benn Act.Lord Carloway, Scotland’s

most senior judge, has already cleared time for an emergency hearing in the court of session at noon on October 21 where he could issue court orders forcing Johnson to send a letter to the EU asking for an extension to Article 50 until January 31.

The government’s lawyers promised the court that Johnson would honour the requirements of the European Union (With-drawal) (No 2) Act by sending the letter if he fails to get Commons support for Brexit by October 19.

The government also promised that neither the prime minister nor any other minister or offi cial would try to frustrate the Benn Act by sidestepping it or under-mining its provisions, despite Johnson’s repeated pledge the UK would leave the EU on October 31 come what may.

But Maugham, who took the court action against Johnson along with Dale Vince, the millionaire owner of the Ecotricity green en-ergy company and Joanna Cherry QC, a Scottish National Party MP, said he believed the prime minister was still trying to do so.

He confi rmed he had asked a leading Scottish QC to prepare a civil action for contempt against Johnson, which would be lodged with the courts next week if there was fresh evidence the prime minister planned to obstruct moves towards an extension of Article 50.

“It would be a terrible mistake for the prime minister to imag-ine such a gross contempt would go unpunished,” Maugham said after yesterday’s ruling. “This is serious. This isn’t some trivial administrative breach. This is a deliberate defi ance of the will

of parliament and the will of the court.

“If he is in breach of the law there will be very serious conse-quences for him personally.”

Maugham, Vince and Cherry included a proposal to the court last week that Johnson could be jailed or fi ned for breaching the act. That was not formally pro-posed in last Friday’s court hear-ing before Lord Pentland but remains part of their legal sub-missions.

It became clear yesterday that Johnson’s hopes of securing a last-minute deal with the EU

were doomed after the collapse of talks with the German gov-ernment and disclosure from the Irish government there was no prospect of a deal before October 31.

Johnson has asked for a rare Saturday sitting of the Commons on October 19 for emergency de-bates and votes – the fi rst time since the Falklands war in 1982 that parliament has sat on a Sat-urday.

In a highly unusual but sig-nifi cant ruling, Carloway, sitting with Lord Drummond Young and Lord Brodie, said the court

needed to wait to see what hap-pened next week before deciding whether they had to enforce the Benn Act.

The three judges agreed with Pentland, who ruled on Monday there was no proof that Johnson was actively taking steps to un-dermine the Benn Act and that the government was entitled to have political arguments about its Brexit strategies.

Carloway said the situation was very fl uid and if Johnson did try to thwart or sidestep the act that would become clearer after midnight on October 19.

Corbyn insists on heading govt if Johnson falls

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted that he must be the one to lead any caretaker government to steer Britain away from a no-deal Brexit if Prime Minister Boris Johnson is forced out of off ice. Johnson’s Conservative government is still in discussions with EU off icials about a possible Brexit deal but he has insisted that Britain must leave the bloc on October 31, with or without a deal. Corbyn and other opposition leaders are expected to table a no-

confidence motion in Johnson this month. They have met several times since August but disagree on who should lead a planned caretaker government to secure a delay to Brexit pending an election or a second Brexit referendum, if Johnson is forced out. “A caretaker government would be one appointed on the basis that the government has collapsed and the leader of the opposition is (customarily) invited to form an administration,” Corbyn said.

1.8mn EU nationalsseek UK settled statusAFPLondon

Nearly 1.8mn EU nation-als have applied to stay in Britain after Brexit, ac-

cording to fi gures out yesterday. Some 1,759,400 applications had been received from European Un-ion nationals by September 30, the Home Offi ce interior ministry said, of which 495,700 were re-ceived last month alone.

The countries with the most applicants were Poland with 347,300, Romania (280,600), Italy (200,700), Portugal (162,500) and Spain (115,700).

Launched in March, the online system allows EU, wider European Economic Area and Swiss citizens residing in Britain to obtain, free of charge, settled status or pre-settled status.

They have until December 2020 to apply. The fi gures are provi-sional, but show the surge in ap-plications in September as the Brexit deadline approaches.

Britain is due to leave the Euro-pean Union on October 31, without a divorce deal unless an agreement or a third delay can be negotiated

in the remaining three weeks.Nicholas Hatton, who founded

The3Million, which campaigns for the post-Brexit rights of EU citi-zens in Britain, said the spike re-fl ected heightened worries among Europeans.

“When you frighten people, they get worried and they try to guarantee their status, and the government has really scared them with the risk of no deal,” he said.

He added it was unclear what the consequences would be for people who do not apply by the deadline. “The government is still refusing to say what will happen,” he said.

Of the applications received, 1,524,500 have been concluded, with 61% gaining settled status and 38% holding pre-settled sta-tus.

People who have lived in Britain for fi ve years can get settled status; those who have not can get pre-settled status until they reach the fi ve-year mark.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “EU citizens have made a huge contribution to this country and will play a key role in cementing Britain’s status as an outward-looking, global leader after Brexit.”Arron Banks: controversial tweet

EUROPE

Gulf Times Thursday, October 10, 201920

Belgium’s advertising regulator said yesterday it has clocked up hundreds of complaints over a viral hamburger ad showing a comic-book version of a man punching a woman for handing him the wrong sandwich. Consumers and politicians called the online ad “sickening” and “irresponsible”, saying it went directly against public campaigns denouncing domestic violence. The ad, published on Facebook, aimed to publicise a Belgian hamburger brand, Bicky Burger. The ad depicts a man in a suit swinging his fist to violently hit a woman carrying a fast-food container. Belgium’s regulatory Advertising Council said it had received 300 complaints from the public in 24 hours.

Poland, which generates most of its electricity from coal, is planning to triple its solar energy capacity this year, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told Polish radio yesterday. Facing a general election on Sunday, the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) has maintained support for coal, a key industry in the Silesia region where Morawiecki’s constituency of Katowice is located. However, with awareness of air quality issues growing domestically and pressure from the European Union to cut carbon emissions ramping up, it has also pledged investment in photovoltaic, off shore wind and nuclear power to cut emissions.

Certain varieties of wild mushroom in Bavaria are continuing to show traces of radioactive caesium-137, more than 30 years after the Chernobyl disaster, radiation monitoring off icials reported yesterday. The Federal Off ice for Radiation Protection (BfS) listed the varieties aff ected as the sweet tooth, or hedgehog, mushroom, the woodwax and the bay bolete among others. “In extreme cases, a single meal of these mushrooms contains more caesium-137 than that consumed from other agricultural foodstuff s in an entire year,” BfS President Inge Paulini said. She urged mushroom gatherers to avoid mushrooms from badly aff ected regions.

Portugal’s president on Tuesday night charged incumbent Prime Minister Antonio Costa with forming a new government after his Socialist party fell just short of a parliamentary majority in elections. “The most important question is that of stability,” Costa, the former mayor of Lisbon, said after meeting President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Tuesday night. The announcement came after Rebelo de Sousa met the leaders of smaller parties earlier in the day. The Socialists strengthened their position in parliament in Sunday’s polls, winning 106 seats in the 230-seat assembly, up from 86 seats but still 10 shy of an outright majority.

The prior of the mausoleum where Spanish dictator Francisco Franco is buried said yesterday he would prevent the dictator’s remains from being exhumed from the grounds, even though the courts and the Church have approved the project. In a letter sent to Socialist Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo, the prior of the Benedictine monks who manage the vast mausoleum near Madrid said “this abbey does not authorise access to the basilica to access a ‘res sacra’ (sepulchre).” Santiago Cantera invoked “moral and religious principles” and the “inviolability of places of worship” and graves for his refusal to allow the government to exhume Franco’s remains.

Woman ‘punched’ in burger advert, Belgium outraged

Poland plans to triple solar energy capacity this year

Mushrooms still radioactive 33 years after Chernobyl

Portugal’s PM tasked with forming new government

Cleric at Franco mausoleum refuses to allow exhumation

SICK PICK ENERGYPOLLUTION POLITICS CONTROVERSY

Pioneers of lithium-ion battery win Chemistry NobelBy Pia Ohlin, AFPStockholm

Three researchers yesterday won the Nobel Chemistry Prize for the development

of lithium-ion batteries, paving the way for smartphones and a fossil fuel-free society.

John Goodenough of the Unit-ed States — at 97 the oldest per-son to be awarded a Nobel prize — Britain’s Stanley Whitting-ham, and Japan’s Akira Yoshino will share the 9mn Swedish kro-nor ($914,000) prize equally, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sci-ences said.

“This lightweight, recharge-able and powerful battery is now used in everything from mobile phones to laptops and electric vehicles...(and) can also store signifi cant amounts of energy from solar and wind power, mak-ing possible a fossil fuel-free so-ciety,” the jury said.

“Lithium batteries have revo-lutionised our lives since they fi rst entered the market in 1991,” and were “of the greatest benefi t to humankind”.

Over two-thirds of the world’s population own a mobile device, nearly all of which are powered by rechargeable lithium-ion bat-teries, Paul Coxon of the Univer-sity of Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science and Metal-lurgy told AFP.

Seeking an alternative source of power during the oil crisis of the 1970s, Whittingham discov-ered a way to harness the poten-tial energy in lithium, a metal so light it fl oats on water.

He constructed a battery part-ly made of lithium that utilised the element’s natural tendency to shed electrons, thereby transfer-ring energy.

However the battery was too unstable to be used.

Goodenough built on Whit-tingham’s prototype, substitut-ing a diff erent metal compound and doubling the potential en-ergy of the battery to four volts.

This paved the way for far more powerful and durable bat-teries in the future.

In 1985, Yoshino instead used a carbon-based material that stores lithium ions, final-ly rendering the battery com-

mercially viable.The culmination of the trio’s

research resulted in the most powerful, lightweight and re-chargeable battery ever seen.

“This is such a wonderful thing, and I am very surprised,” Yoshino told reporters in Tokyo.

He said he had only got a cell phone in recent years.

“I have long felt a bit of rejec-tion towards mobile phones, so I have never had one until recently.

I know the lithium-ion battery really benefi ted mobile phones,” he said, adding he did “not real-ly” feel that he had helped make a product that benefi ted his life.

For Yoshino, a good scientist needed two qualities.

“One thing is that you have to have a fl exible brain. Flexibility. The other is tenacity. You stay persistent and never give up.”

Goodenough, who was in Lon-don when he received the news,

said he, like Yoshino, didn’t expect to be honoured, but ex-pressed more pride in the world-wide impact of his work.

“I’m extremely happy that my discovery has been able to help communication through the world. We need to build rela-tionships, not wars. I am happy if people use this for good, not evil,” he told reporters during a press conference.

Whittingham, 77, said he was

“overcome with gratitude at re-ceiving this award”.

His research “has helped ad-vance how we store and use en-ergy at a foundational level, and it is my hope that this recogni-tion will help to shine a much-needed light on the (US) nation’s energy future,” he said on the website of Binghamton Univer-sity in New York where he is a professor.

Yoshino, 71, works at the Asa-hi Kasei Corp in Tokyo and is a professor at Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan, while Good-enough holds the Cockrell Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

The trio will receive the prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversa-ry of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testa-ment.

Last year, the honour went to US scientists Frances Arnold and George Smith and British researcher Gregory Winter for developing enzymes used for greener and safer chemistry and

antibody drugs with fewer side eff ects.

Arnold was just the fi fth wom-an to clinch chemistry’s most prestigious honour since Marie Curie in 1911.

This year’s Nobel season kicked off on Monday with the Medicine Prize, followed by the Physics Prize on Tuesday.

The Literature Prize will fol-low today, with two laureates to be crowned after a sexual harass-ment scandal forced the Swedish Academy to postpone the 2018 award, for the fi rst time in 70 years.

Names creating a buzz ahead of this year’s literature prize in-clude Canadian poet Anne Car-son, Kenyan writer Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Romanian poet and novelist Mircea Cartarescu and Polish writer and activist Olga Tokarczuk.

Tomorrow, the action moves to Norway where the Peace Prize is awarded, with bookies predicting a win for Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg.

The Economics Prize will wrap up the Nobel prize season on Oc-tober 14.

(From left) American professor John Goodenough, British professor Stanley Whittingham and Japanese chemist Akira Yoshino.

Cybersecurity risks from state-backed entities: EUReuters Brussels

The European Union yes-terday warned of in-creased cyber attacks by

state-backed entities and groups from outside the EU, saying it was crucial to assess the risks posed by telecoms equipment suppliers with a signifi cant mar-ket share in the bloc.

The comments came in a re-port prepared by EU member states on cybersecurity risks to next-generation 5G mobile net-works whose timely launch is crucial to the bloc’s competi-tiveness in an increasingly net-worked world.

While the report does not name any country or company, observers have frequently cited China and the world’s biggest telecoms equipment vendor, Huawei Technologies, as poten-tial threats.

“Among the various potential actors, non-EU states or state-backed are considered as the most serious ones and the most likely to target 5G networks,” the European Commission and Fin-land, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said in a joint statement.

“In this context of increased exposure to attacks facilitated by suppliers, the risk profi le of individual suppliers will become particularly important, including the likelihood of the supplier be-ing subject to interference from a non-EU country,” they said.

The US government wants Eu-rope to ban Huawei’s equipment because it says this can be used by Beijing for spying, something the Shenzen-based company has repeatedly denied.

Huawei, which competes with Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson, welcomed the EU’s report and said it stood ready to work with its European partners on 5G network security.

“This exercise is an important step towards developing a com-mon approach to cybersecurity and delivering safe networks for the 5G era,” a Huawei spokesman said.

“We are pleased to note that

the EU delivered on its commit-ment to take an evidence-based approach, thoroughly analysing risks rather than targeting spe-cifi c countries or actors.”

Fifth-generation networks will hook up billions of devices, sensors and cameras used in fu-turistic ‘smart’ cities, homes and offi ces.

With that ubiquity, security becomes an even more pressing need than in existing networks.

EU members have diff ered on how to treat Huawei, with Britain, a close US ally, leaning towards excluding it from critical parts of networks, while Germany is cre-ating a level playing fi eld in which all foreign 5G vendors should prove they are trustworthy.

The report warned against over-dependence on one tel-ecoms equipment supplier.

“A major dependency on a single supplier increases the ex-posure to a potential supply in-terruption, resulting for instance from a commercial failure, and its consequences,” they said.

“It also aggravates the poten-tial impact of weaknesses or vul-nerabilities, and of their possible exploitation by threat actors, in particular where the dependency concerns a supplier presenting a high degree of risk.”

Many European network oper-ators already have multi-vendor strategies, which they say reduc-es the security risks that might arise from relying too heavily on a single provider.

“The Commission’s 5G assess-ment recognises security isn’t just a supplier issue,” said Alex Sinclair, chief technology offi cer of the GSMA, a global mobile-industry trade group.

“We all have a role to play — from manufacturers to operators to consumers — and we are tak-ing responsibility for our part in the security chain seriously.”

The EU will now seek to come up with a so-called toolbox of measures by the end of the year to address cybersecurity risks at national and EU level.

The European Agency for Cy-bersecurity is also fi nalising a map of specifi c threats related to 5G networks.

2 killed in shooting at Germany synagogueReuters Halle, Germany

Two people were killed yesterday in shooting attacks on a syna-gogue and a nearby kebab shop in

the eastern German city of Halle and one suspect was arrested, but two others fl ed in a hijacked a car, offi cials said.

The violence occurred on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the calendar in Judaism.

Broadcaster n-tv reported that two people were seriously injured in the at-tack, in addition to the two killed.

The two suspects on the loose headed out on a motorway that leads to Munich in the country’s south, according to the mayor of the town of Landsberg, adjacent to Halle.

Gunfi re was also heard in Landsberg, Focus Online reported.

A spokeswoman for the Halle mu-nicipal government said one shooting took place in front of the synagogue on Humboldt street and its accompanying cemetery, while a second burst of gunfi re targeted the kebab bistro in the city in the province of Saxony.

Max Privorozki, Halle’s Jewish com-munity chairman, described how a gun-man tried to shoot his way into the city’s synagogue.

“We saw via the camera system at our synagogue that a heavily-armed perpe-trator with a helmet and a gun tried to shoot open our doors,” he told the Stutt-garter Zeitung newspaper.

“The man looked like he was from the special forces...But our doors held. We barricaded the doors from inside and waited for the police,” he said, adding that about 70-80 people were inside the Humboldt street synagogue celebrating Yom Kippur.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government voiced outrage over the at-tack on Yom Kippur and urged tougher action against anti-Semitic violence.

“That, on the Day of Atonement, a syn-agogue was shot at, hits us in the heart,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wrote on Twitter. “We must all act against anti-Semitism in our country.”

The federal prosecutors offi ce said it had taken over the investigation from lo-cal police, a procedural step under Ger-man law indicating suspicions of terror-ism committed by political extremists.

Anti-Semitism is a particularly sen-sitive issue in Germany, which during World War II was responsible for the gen-

ocide of 6mn Jews in the Nazi Holocaust.Around 200,000 Jews live today the

country of around 83mn people.Another Halle city spokesman said an

emergency situation had been declared and all residents had been advised to stay at home.

He said that emergency services and police were evacuating people from the synagogue.

Rifat Tekin, who worked at the kebab outlet, said he was making a kebab for two construction workers when a perpe-trator threw an explosive at the restaurant before shooting.

“He was very calm, like a professional,” Tekin told n-tv television.

“He didn’t say anything. He just kept coming and shooting...I was hiding be-hind the salad counter.”

Another witness, Conrad Roesler, said that when the kebab bistro attacker start-ed fi ring, “I hid in the toilet.”

Broadcasters showed images of an al-leged perpetrator dressed in combat garb including a helmet.

An unnamed witness told local media the assailant at the synagogue also threw several explosive devices into the cem-etery.

Regional broadcaster MDR aired im-ages of a man in combat clothing fi ring shots along a street from behind a car.

“Our forces have detained one per-son,” local police said on Twitter. “Please nonetheless remain vigilant.”

Earlier, police tweeted: “According to initial fi ndings, two people were killed in Halle. There were several shots.”

The identities of the dead and injured were not immediately known.

National rail operator Deutsche Bahn said the main train station in Halle had been closed.

In Berlin, the state interior senator ad-vised police to step up security at Jewish institutions in the German capital.

Despite comprehensive de-Nazi-fication in the post-war era, fears of resurgent anti-Semitic hatred have never completely gone away, whether from fringe, far-right neo-Nazis or more recently from Muslim immi-grants.

Occasional past attacks have ranged from the scrawling of Nazi swastikas on gravestones to fi rebombings at syna-gogues and even several murders.

In recent years, cases of assault or ver-bal abuse, in some cases directed against people wearing traditional Jewish skull-caps, have raised an outcry.

In this screenshot taken from a video by ATV-Studio Halle, a man fire a gun yesterday in the streets of Halle an der Saale, eastern Germany.

Victor the eagle’s bird’s eye view of the Alps raises climate change awarenessBy Johnny Cotton and Cecile Mantovani, Reuters Chamonix, France

Victor, a nine-year-old white-tailed eagle, set

off this week on a mission to raise aware-

ness of climate change in the Alps, which

have already been hard hit by the rise in

global temperatures.

Equipped with a 360-degree camera

mounted on his back, Victor soared above

Mont Blanc and is to take in five countries in

five days, filming some of the world’s most

spectacular scenery.

Victor is part of the Alpine Eagle Race

project, which aims to raise awareness of

melting glaciers and other eff ects of global

warming through the combined eyes of the

eagle, a photographer and a scientist.

“It is the first time that we can really see

nature from the perspective of an eagle

and we hope that (through) people seeing

how beautiful our nature is, we can really

raise awareness and actually give them a

little reason to do something to reduce our

impact on the climate,” said Ronald Menzel,

a co-founder of Eagle Wings, a foundation

that aims to protect the Alps.

White-tailed eagles are Europe’s biggest

eagle.

While they are ranked as “least concern”

on a list of endangered species drawn up

by the International Union for Conservation

of Nature, they are now sparse in western

Europe.

Dependent for their survival on water

resources, which glaciers provide, the

eagles disappeared from France altogether

200 years ago and only a few remain on the

Swiss side of the border.

“Unfortunately today glaciers are the

main problem because we can see clearly

that they’re melting at an incredible speed,”

said Jacques Olivier Travers, a co-founder of

Eagle Wings and one of Victor’s falconers.

“So we need to protect this environment

first to be able to bring these eagles back

into the wild,” he said.

Researchers say Alpine glaciers are melt-

ing at an alarming rate with before and after

photographs showing them retreating up

valleys over the last century.

“Around the world we have had over the

last 50 years an increase of temperature

of around 0.8 degrees (Centigrade). In the

Alps, an average of 1.5 degrees. And here...

in Mont Blanc, it is two degrees. So (it has)

already (reached) the worst prediction that

scientists gave for climate change in the

next century,” said Menzel.

Parties shunfi rst Kashmir elections sincestatus changeAgenciesSrinagar

India’s main opposition Con-gress said yesterday it would boycott local elections in

Jammu and Kashmir, joining two other parties in a setback for government eff orts to restart po-litical activity after it revoked the state’s special status two months ago.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has faced international condem-nation for his handling of the sit-uation in Kashmir, particularly over communication restrictions and the detention of hundreds of people including politicians that accompanied the withdrawal of its autonomy in August.

The government says nor-malcy is slowly returning to the Muslim-majority territory and was hoping that the elections to sub-district councils set for October 24 would help bolster its case that ordinary Kashmiris wanted faster economic devel-opment.

But the Congress party state chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir said with scores of members de-tained, an election was pointless.

“We have decided to stay away from the polls which should have been deferred taking into con-sideration the prevailing situa-tion in the state as was demand-ed by all the opposition political parties”, Mir, who himself was under house arrest till last week, told reporters in Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar.

Authorities detained hundreds of separatists fi ghting for Kash-mir’s secession from India as well as local politicians for fear of large-scale protests over the decision to withdraw Kashmir’s decades-old special rights and divide the state into two federal territories.

Many have since been re-leased.

Two other regional parties

– National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party – whose leaders are still detained, will also stay out of the polls.

“They (the government) want to give the impression that there is normal political activity but there is nothing normal about the situation,” a source with knowledge of the PDP leader-ship’s thinking said.

On Sunday, National Confer-ence leader Hasnain Masoodi said that unless political leaders were released, elections were fu-tile.

“As of now there is no ques-tion of any democratic process and given the atmosphere that is around, the BDC elections seem irrelevant,” he told reporters in Srinagar, referring to what lo-cally are known as block devel-opment councils.

Both parties also boycotted the village-level polls in the Kashmir Valley last year, leading to the election of heads for only around 60% of village councils, accord-ing to offi cial data.

In another development yesterday, the federal cabi-net, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the inclusion of 5,300 displaced families settled in Kashmir in the prime minister’s fi nancial assist-ance scheme announced in 2015.

The approval will enable such families to become eligible to get one-time fi nancial assistance of Rs550,000 under the existing “Prime Minister’s Development Package 2015 for Jammu and Kashmir” scheme, and in turn, be able to get some sustained in-come which the existing scheme is aimed at, said a cabinet state-ment.

The rehabilitation package was approved by the cabinet on November 30, 2016.

The 5,300 displaced families who initially opted to move out of Jammu and Kashmir to other parts of the country were not in-cluded in the package earlier.

PM-Xi informal summit‘meant to stabilise ties’ReutersNew Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will welcome Chi-nese President Xi Jinping

at an informal summit this week, the Indian foreign ministry said yesterday, their talks coming at a time of strained ties over Jammu and Kashmir.

The two-day meeting in Chennai starting tomorrow is aimed at enhancing the rapport the leaders built when they met in the Chinese city of Wuhan last year to help stabilise ties after a standoff in another contested section of their long border, far

removed from Kashmir.But India’s decision in Au-

gust to withdraw special status for Kashmir drew sharp con-demnation from Pakistan and its old ally, China, which took the matter to the UN Security Council.

During a meeting with Paki-stan Prime Minister Imran Khan in Beijing yesterday, Xi said that he was watching the situation in Kashmir closely, the offi cial Xin-hua News Agency reported.

Xi said that the right and wrong of the situation was clear and India and Pakistan should resolve the dispute via peaceful dialogue, according to Xinhua.

India says its revocation of

the special status of Muslim-majority Kashmir, which was accompanied by a crackdown on dissent by the security forc-es, is an internal matter aimed at developing the territory more quickly.

India will make clear that any change to its Jammu and Kash-mir state is an internal aff air if the Chinese side were to raise the matter in the forthcoming talks, a government source said.

China’s close security ties with Pakistan have long been a matter of concern in New Delhi and in recent years India has drawn closer to the United States to help balance China’s rising weight across the region.

“The forthcoming Chennai Informal Summit will provide an opportunity for the two lead-ers to continue their discussions on overarching issues of bilat-eral, regional and global impor-tance and to exchange views on deepening India-China Closer Development Partnership,” the Indian ministry said in a state-ment.

China said it believed India and Pakistan must refrain from taking unilateral action in Kash-mir and has expressed concern over human rights violations there.

India has dismissed those concerns.

Srikanth Kondapalli, profes-

sor of Chinese studies at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Uni-versity, said it was important for the nuclear-armed neighbours to stabilise relations as both dealt with domestic and regional issues.

“The second informal meet-ing as such is signifi cant given these ominous signals at bilat-eral, regional and global levels,” he said.

During Xi’s visit, Modi is ex-pected to raise economic issues, including India’s $53bn trade defi cit with China in 2018/19, and the smaller presence of In-dian companies in China com-pared with that of other major economies.

Hundreds of Kashmiri detainees sent far from home No notice given of

transportations — families Moves required to prevent

law and order problem — off icials

Public Safety Act allows for detention without trial for up to two years By Devjyot Ghoshal, Fayaz Bukhari and Alasdair Pal

ReutersSrinagar

One is a 19-year-old con-struction worker charged with aiding militants

against troops, the other is one of Kashmir’s most prominent law-yers, accused of being “an incor-rigible secessionist”.

Despite their diff erent back-grounds, Uzair Maqbool Malik and Nazir Ahmad Ronga have some-thing in common: they are among hundreds of people who have been detained without trial by Indian authorities following a crackdown in Kashmir and moved to jails far from home.

Kashmir Valley has been under lockdown since the region’s state-hood and autonomy were revoked on August 5.

Authorities have cut off mo-bile communications in the val-ley and detained nearly 4,000 people, many of whom have since been released, according

to the government.At least 300 people have been

arrested under the Public Safety Act (PSA), which allows for deten-tions of up to two years without trial, the government said.

Most have been sent to jails across the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Many are young men like Malik, a high-school dropout who works in construction.

But there are others like Ronga, a former head of the bar association in Kashmir, and dozens of other lawyers, academics and leaders of political parties.

Indian offi cials say the policy of transporting detainees, which started last year but has snow-balled since August, is required to cut off militants from their net-works.

The transportations are often conducted without warning, and families say they are allowed little contact with detainees once they fi nd them.

Proving innocence is diffi cult even for those with resources given the communications situ-ation in Kashmir and the number of cases.

Sanjay Dhar, the registrar gen-eral of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, said two judges in Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar were handling around 300 appeals against PSA detentions fi led since August 5.

Malik, 19, grew up in Shopian, a town of around 16,000.

As a child, he was friends with two boys who joined a militant group fi ghting Indian rule in Kash-mir. That childhood association forms the basis of the case against him, according to court docu-ments.

In the documents, Malik is ac-cused of assisting the two militants “in letter and spirit” and giving them “logistic support”.

They also say he participated in protests and an operation against security forces, between February 2018 and July 2019.

“You not only yourself indulge in stone pelting but instigate oth-ers,” one document said.

Malik’s family deny the charges and say they have not seen the boys who joined the militants since they left. They said he participated in protests in 2016 and was hit in the eye by a metal pellet fi red by secu-rity forces, partially blinding him.

Malik dropped out of school and his family had to sell land to pay for surgery. “He hasn’t done anything since,” his mother

Haseena Malik said.“He has made no mistake.”Dilbag Singh, chief of police for

Jammu and Kashmir, said people detained under the PSA had been involved in subversive and terror-ist activities, or disturbing public order.

“All required procedural re-quirements under law are followed while executing detentions under PSA,” he said.

Singh said some individuals had been moved due to lack of space in Kashmir’s jails. He said authorities were “checking the specifi c details” regarding the detentions of Malik and Ronga but had no additional informa-tion on their cases.

For almost two weeks after he was arrested, Malik’s family vis-ited him twice a day, and offi cers repeatedly told them he would be released soon.

When his family went to check on him, they were told he had been moved to a jail in Agra, in Uttar Pradesh, with 84 other Kashmiris.

The jail is one of at least six fa-cilities in Uttar Pradesh where

Kashmiris have been moved, offi -cials said. Reuters followed several families, including the Maliks, as they travelled to Agra last month to visit detained relatives.

Around a dozen relatives and friends of four men held in Agra said they were not informed about the transfers, and that prohibitive travel costs and limited visiting hours meant they had little contact with those detained.

On September 17, Malik’s father, Mohamed, and his brother Danish managed to meet him after waiting for several hours.

“He was telling us not to worry, to take care of the family.”

Even infl uential Kashmiris like Ronga, a 67-year-old criminal lawyer who once headed the Jam-mu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, have been targeted in the crackdown.

He was detained in Srinagar on August 9 .Ronga was detained to help prevent “violence, strikes, economic adversity and social indiscipline” according to court documents laying out his deten-tion order.

Crusader in molestation victim’s case now in Haryana poll battleIANSPanchkula

She fought against the mighty state and its top po-lice offi cials to get justice

for Ruchika Girhotra, a molesta-tion victim who ended her life at a young age.

At 70, lawyer-activist Madhu Anand Prakash is now fi ghting a diff erent battle against the sys-tem to ensure justice for all.

The Swaraj India candidate from Panchkula assembly seat in Haryana is riding high in an e-rickshaw on the waves of popu-

larity as a crusader against the high and mighty.

“I want to serve society. Too many people have been coming to me for long for some sort of help, but I can’t do much justice with them without any author-ity,” said a confi dent Madhu, who lost her husband and fellow cru-sader Anand Prakash in January last year.

The lawyer couple fought the case of Ruchika, their daughter Aradhana Gupta’s friend, for 26 years.

Ruchika was molested by then director general of police S P S Rathore at his home which seved

as the Haryana Lawn Tennis As-sociation offi ce, on August 12, 1990.

Three years after the crime, budding tennis player Ruchika committed suicide.

Aradhana’s testimony and a long legal battle by the lawyer cou-ple led to Rathore’s conviction in the trial court.

The conviction was later upheld by the Supreme Court in 2016.

“Yes, people are recognising me from that unfortunate case. Even if I am telling them about myself, they feel elated to meet me,” said Madhu, who spent half her life in Panchkula.

She said this is her maiden con-test in any election.

With her family members and a small bunch of friends and well-wishers, a team of 25 people fan out daily across the area visiting vil-lages and slums where people are still deprived of basic amenities.

“We start our day early in the morning in fi ve groups by visiting the city’s parks with the focus to interact with the walkers in order to change their mindset towards the politicians. Later in the day we visit markets and public places and hold small meetings and ‘nukkad’ interaction sessions over a cup of tea,” she said.

Leaving behind her car, Madhu and her team prefer to ride on an e-rickshaw to visit places.

For her, joining politics was a tough decision.

“When initially Swaraj India people contacted me, I resisted entering politics. Later, I was con-vinced that politics too need good people to wage a war against the money power. So I fi nally took a decision to jump into politics to do social work and to fi ght against in-justice,” she said.

For her, lack of infrastructure development in education and health are among the prominent issues. Unemployment and the

poor plight of slum-dwellers are the issues core to her heart.

“There is one hospital to cater to the entire Panchkula city and that is too overcrowded,” she said.

She said party president Yo-gender Yadav and rebel Aam Aadmi Party’s former MP Dhara-mvira Gandhi would campaign for her.

>> Self-proclaimed cow vigi-lante Naveen Dalal, who claimed to have attacked former Jawa-harlal Nehru University stu-dents’ union leader Umar Khalid in 2018, has a new role and new name, too.

Facing charges for attempted

murder and rioting, Dalal, who has never fi led Income Tax re-turns, is in the Haryana poll fray for the October 21 assembly elec-tions as a Shiv Sena candidate.

Dalal says he joined the party six months ago.

He fi led his nominations as Naval Naveen and is contesting from Bahadurgarh in Jhajjar dis-trict.

Hailing from Mandauthi, a vil-lage in Bahadurgarh known as the “nursery of wrestlers”, the 29-year-old said he joined the Shiv Sena because of its ideology on “nationalism and cow protec-tion”.

INDIA

Gulf Times Thursday, October 10, 2019 21

Commuters drive past a welcoming board for China’s President Xi Jinping in Chennai yesterday, ahead of a summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the World Heritage Site of Mahabalipuram.

Danish Maqbool Malik waits to board a train at a railway station after meeting his brother Uzair Maqbool Malik in a central jail, in Agra.

INDIA

Gulf Times Thursday, October 10, 201922

Rahul shouldnot have quit as party chief, says KhurshidIANSNew Delhi

The debate over Rahul Gandhi’s resignation as Congress president

continues more than four months after he took the step in the wake of Lok Sabha poll debacle with senior leader Salman Khurshid suggesting yesterday that he should have continued in the post.

“Despite our request, Ra-hul Gandhi stepped down. Many people requested him to continue but he chose to step down. This was his deci-sion and we should respect it,” Khurshid said.

His comments come at a time when questions are be-ing asked about Gandhi going abroad just head of crucial as-sembly elections in Mahar-ashtra and Haryana.

According to reports, Gan-dhi has gone to Cambodia for “meditation”.

The Congress, which faced a major debacle in the Lok Sab-ha polls in May, is yet to re-cover from that setback, with the leadership not able to get a firm grip of the party even two months after Rahul’s mother Sonia Gandhi took over as its interim president.

There has been a spree of defections by its leaders, sig-nificantly in the poll-bound Maharashtra and Haryana.

In 2014, when the Congress could win only 44 out of 543 Lok Sabha seats, the party had set up a committee headed by former minister A K Antony to assess the reasons.

Its report is yet to be made public even as the party suf-fered a second successive de-bacle in this year’s Lok Sabha polls, bagging only 52 seats.

The only thing in public do-

main is that Antony attributed the defeat in 2014 to too much of minority appeasement by the Congress.

However, after this year’s Lok Sabha poll results, no fact-finding committee was formed analyse the cause of its dismal performance.

“We haven’t really got to-gether to analyse why we got defeated. Our biggest prob-lem is our leader has walked away,” NDTV channel quoted Khurshid as telling Associated Press news agency.

“It’s kind of left a vacuum. Sonia Gandhi stepped in, but there is more than an indication that she is treating herself as a stop-gap arrangement. I wish it wasn’t so,” Khurshid said.

Congress spokesman Pawan Khera, reacting to the remarks, said: “People should avoid making such side comments and should actually expose this government for its follies which are plenty.”

Meanwhile, former Hary-ana finance minister Sampat Singh, who quit the Congress on Monday, yesterday joined the Bharatiya Janata party in the presence of Home Minister and party president Amit Shah at a public meeting in Meham.

Singh had said he quit the party after realising he was not needed there.

“Either I am not fit for the Congress, or the Congress is not fit for me. I am quitting the Congress,” he had said in Hisar.

Singh said he had helped the Congress form the govern-ment in Haryana in 2009, but he was not given his due.

He said he was upset with former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for not intervening in ticket allo-cation in Hisar district.

According to him, at least

40 strong party candidates were ignored at the time of ticket allocation.

In 2009, Singh had resigned from the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and joined the Congress.

The 90-member Haryana Assembly will go to the polls on October 21, while the re-sults will be declared on Oc-tober 24.

Hooda meanwhile took a dig at Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s slogan of ‘75 plus’ seats in the Octo-ber 21 assembly polls.

He said the BJP would not cross the 75-mark, but onions and diesel had crossed the (Rs) 75-mark.

Khattar’s slogan ‘Mission 75’ got louder after the BJP’s stellar performance in the Lok Sabha polls.

In the 2014 Haryana as-sembly polls, the BJP won 47 seats, while the INLD and the Congress got 19 and 15 seats, respectively.

The BJP’s ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bahu-jan Samaj Party won one seat each and independents five.

Congress general secre-tary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra yesterday accused Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath government of cheating the state’s debt-ridden farmers in the name of loan waiver and failing to compensate them for their crop loss due to excessive rain.

“The UP government has devised many ways to harass farmers. It cheated them in the name of loan waiver. Threw them into jails in the name of electricity bills. And there is no compensation for crop loss due to flood and rains. The BJP government in UP only remembers farmers in adver-tisements,” Vadra tweeted.

AAP slams central govt for not allowing CM to attend summitIANSNew Delhi

Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party yesterday slammed the central government

for not granting permission to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to attend the C-40 Climate Sum-mit in Copenhagen, saying it was “disrespectful” to the people of the national capital.

The AAP’s reaction came after Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said the permission was not given as the summit was only for “mayor-level” partici-pants.

The Delhi government yester-day received the central govern-ment’s fi nal communication not granting permission for the chief minister’s visit.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP San-jay Singh said even former chief minister Sheila Dikshit had at-tended the conference while in offi ce.

“It is a very lame excuse given by the Centre that the summit was for mayors and Kejriwal is a CM,” Singh said at a press con-ference. He said in the past few years due to the relentless work of the Delhi government, pollu-tion levels in the city have come down by 25%.

“Delhi CM was going to this summit to talk about how Delhi worked to achieve such trans-formation through various steps. But the Centre did not grant per-mission to his visit and this is a disrespect to the people of Del-hi,” Singh said.

Singh earlier Delhi Educa-tion Minister Manish Sisodia and Health Minister Satyendar Jain were also denied permission to go to abroad to talk about the achievements of the Delhi gov-ernment.

“This is not the first time the Centre has done this, earlier the same thing happened with Sisodia and Jain. The model of Delhi’s education revolu-

tion is being discussed across the world but Sisodia was not granted permission to present that model to the world. The same thing happened with Jain when he was supposed to talk about Mohallah Clinic project – one of the most discussed health models all over the world,” said Singh.

“Why is the BJP scared of the work done by the Kejriwal gov-ernment? In the last few years, the Delhi government has done a remarkable job by improv-ing the quality of education and health. Now, every government school has good infrastructure, swimming pool, happiness class, and world-class hockey fi eld for students but the Centre does not want us to tell the world about these achievements. This way the BJP is not allowing the Delhi government to hold the fl ag of India high in front of the world,” Singh said.

He said a minister in West Bengal “applied for the same one

week before and got permission but CM Kejriwal did not get per-mission.”

Singh also gave the examples of various meetings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi which took place abroad.

“When our prime minister goes abroad he also meets people from various fi eld and it’s natu-ral because that is how meet-ings should take place. The PM doesn’t meet only the heads of the states but he meets everyone and that is the way it happens, then why should not the same happen with the AAP govern-ment?” he asked.

Singh also said that the party will take this issue to the people of Delhi while campaigning for the next assembly election.

“The election is coming and the AAP will take this issue of not granting us permission to present our good work to the world to the people of Delhi. We will show the ill-motive and mindset of the BJP to the people,” said Singh.

Alleged family serial killer linked to three more deathsIANSKozhikode, Kerala

A woman accused of killing six family members over 14 years is likely linked to

three more deaths, it emerged yesterday.

Reports have also surfaced that Jolly Thomas was planning to kill two children.

Elsamma, the wife of the uncle of Jolly’s fi rst husband Roy Tho-mas, told reporters that she sus-pects the woman’s involvement in two deaths in her family - that of her son Sunish who died in a bike accident in 2002 and his cousin Vincent who was found hanging.

Doubts have also been raised over the death of Ramakrishnan, a Congress worker, by his son and the police have tagged this case along with the fi ve other deaths that took place in Jolly’s family between 2002 and 2016.

Superintendent of Police K G Simon who is leading the probe, yesterday said the state police chief will decide on taking for-ward the scientifi c investigation.

“With regards to the reports of the intent of Jolly to eliminate two more children, at the moment I cannot say anything. All the mur-ders will be investigated by sepa-rate teams,” Simon said.

Kerala police chief Loknath Be-hra said he is determined to un-ravel the case.

“First, let us get the custody of Jolly and then things will be de-cided,” said Behra.

She and her two accomplices, who helped her by supplying cya-nide, have been arrested for plot-ting the murder of Jolly’s husband Roy Thomas. The police are yet undecided on registering cases in the remaining fi ve deaths that took place between 2002 and 16.

While primary forensic evi-dence suggests that Jolly poisoned

the six family members by serving them food laced with cyanide, her friends and close relatives feel she is ‘innocent’ and is being framed.

According to the police, the fi rst poisoning was of her moth-er-in-law, who died in 2002 af-ter eating mutton soup. In 2008, her-father-in-law died, followed by her husband in 2011, who the police said died after eating rice and curry. An autopsy conduct-ed on his body at the time con-fi rmed poisonous substances in his stomach, but police treated his death as suicide.

Her husband’s uncle was then allegedly given coff ee laced with cyanide as punishment for insist-ing that a postmortem be carried out on his nephew.

In 2014, police said Jolly killed the two-year-old daughter of her dead husband’s cousin, Scaria Shaju. The cousin’s wife was then killed in 2016. A year later Jolly and Shaju married.

DNA shuts down print editions, goes digital

IANSNew Delhi

After a 14-year run, Daily News and Analy-sis (DNA) newspaper

yesterday announced it was shutting down its last run-ning Mumbai and Ahmedabad editions, and was planning to go digital owing to “changing reader preferences”.

Diligent Media Corporation Ltd (DMCL) that was incorpo-rated in 2005 as a joint venture of two media conglomerates – Essel Group and Bhaskar Group – said the newspaper will move to a digital-only format with immediate effect and the print publication of the Mumbai and Ahmedabad editions will be ceased from today.

“The decision has been tak-en by the company in order to optimise cost and reduce the losses. DNA is an integral part of DMCL’s news media offer-

ing and the company has al-ways invested immense time, resources and energy in enrich-ing it as a news platform, mak-ing it relevant and immensely informative for its readers, and will continue to do so,” the company said.

“The steps taken by the com-pany is to further sharpen the news platform and enhance its offerings keeping the audi-ences’ consumption patterns in mind,” it added.

Earlier, in an editor’s note in the newspaper, the newspaper said “in this rapidly evolving market, a very thin line re-mains between the print and digital”.

The DNA started operations from Mumbai in July 2005 – a year that saw some big play-ers entering the financial capital with a bang, including The Hindustan Times and The Times Group’s Mumbai Mirror that later diversified into sev-eral cities.

The Madhya Pradesh government has come under fire over its plan to split the Bhopal Municipal Cor-poration (BMC). Due to rising population, the state government has decided to divide the BMC into two to provide better facilities. As part of the exercise, the Kolar Municipality would be merged into the BMC and the merged entity would be split into two. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party has criticised the move. “The Congress, which has been dividing the country on the basis of caste, religion and community for the last 70 years, is now preparing to divide Bhopal on the basis of religion – Hindu and Muslim. We are yet to understand how the BMC’s bifurcation would benefit people,” said BJP legislator Rameshwar Sharma. Bhopal Mayor and senior BJP leader Alok Sharma also slammed the move.

The voice samples of former minister Chinmay-anand and a student who has accused him of rape were taken at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Lucknow yesterday. Chinmayanand and the law student were brought to Lucknow from Shahja-hanpur by two separate police teams for their voice tests. Three men arrested on extortion charges were also brought along with the student. On October 4, Chief Judicial Magistrate Omvir Singh had ordered recording of the voice samples of Chinmayanand, the student and three others. Chinmayanand, who was arrested by a Special Investigation Team (SIT), has been booked under Section 376C of the Indian Penal Code, a charge short of rape, on the basis of a complaint filed by the 23-year-old woman who stud-ies at a college run by his ashram.

Authorities have launched a hunt in Ban-dipur reserve forest in Karnataka’s Cha-marajanagar district for a tiger which has killed two people, an official said yesterday. “We are on the hunt to locate and trap the killer tiger,” state’s Conservator of Forests T Balachandra told IANS. The tiger killed 80-year-old farmer Shivappa to death on Tuesday, two months after the 4- to 6-year-old feline claimed its first victim identified as Shivamadaiah. He was returning to his village with two bullocks from another village when he was attacked. “Shortage of tranquilisers and veterinary doctors is ham-pering our efforts to sight and neutralise the tiger,” Balachandra said.

A court sentenced Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Dhullo Mahto to 18 months in jail in a 2013 case. The BJP legislator from Baghmara was convicted for helping a person flee from police custody. The incident happened on May 12, 2013 when Rajesh Gupta was arrested on the court’s order. Mahto along with his supporters reached the police station and took Gupta away after attacking the police there. The police lodged an FIR against Mahto and five others. The Sub-Divisional Magistrate Court of Shikha Agrawal convicted Mahto and four others and acquitted one person. Mahto has several criminal cases lodged against him in Dhanbad. On Sunday, an attempt to rape case was also lodged against him.

The Grub Fest, a top food and entertainment festival, is all set to take place in New Delhi next month. It will travel to Kolkata, Bengaluru and Mumbai, before concluding again in New Delhi. The well sought-after festival, produced by BookMyShow, will bring ethnic neighbourhood restaurants, inspired chef creations, food brands, and special dishes and cocktails, a statement said yesterday. Among the cuisines will be Indian regional foods, along with Lebanese, Oriental, European, Asian and Italian. The festival highlights include a central park, food trucks, masterclasses by celebrity chefs and a juke box, apart from an experimental ‘Grub Theatre’, cocktails, a picnic zone, arcade gaming, live music and a ‘grub market’. The festival takes place from November 1 to 3 in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

Move to split Bhopal local body sparks criticism

Voice samples of rapeaccused, student taken

Hunt for killer tiger inKarnataka reserve forest

BJP MLA convicted, gets 18-month jail term

‘Grub Fest’ set to enthralNew Delhi next month

CONTROVERSY INVESTIGATIONWILDLIFE JUDICIARY EVENT

Andhra Pradesh Transport Minister Perni Venkataramaiah travels in an auto-rickshaw as he undertakes a tour of his Machilipatnam constituency to stock of various development activities, yesterday.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visits Safran company which makes engines for Rafale fighter jets, in Paris yesterday. India on Tuesday received the first of 36 Rafale fighter jets ordered from France in 2016 in a multi-billion dollar deal.

Auto ride

Minister at Rafale engine-making facility

LATIN AMERICA23Gulf Times

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Strikes raisepressureon defiantMorenoReutersQuito

Indigenous-led protesters be-gan a national strike in Ecua-dor yesterday after President

Lenin Moreno refused to step down or overturn anti-austerity measures that have triggered the worst unrest in a decade.

Streets were empty of traf-fi c and businesses were closed in Quito and other cities at the start of the shutdown, in Latin America’s latest fl ashpoint over structural economic reforms.

Security forces fi red teargas to block hundreds of protesters marching near the presidential palace in downtown Quito, the highland capital.

Violent demonstrations erupted in the Andean nation of 17mn people a week ago when Moreno cut fuel subsidies as part of a package of measures in line with a $4.2bn International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan.

“What the government has done is reward the big banks, the capitalists, and punish poor Ec-uadoreans,” said Mesias Tatam-uez, head of the Workers’ United Front umbrella union. “We call on all those against the IMF, which is responsible for this cri-sis, to join the strike.”

Manuel Hoyos, a 34-year-old taxi driver and father-of-two, said the price of fi lling his fuel tank had jumped about 50% from last week to $19. “Moreno is a traitor... he said there would not be an economic package, and look at the dreadful package he’s brought in,” Hoyos said.

The main indigenous group CONAIE, which has mobi-lised some 6,000 members to Quito from outlying areas, said

Moreno’s government was be-having like a “military dicta-torship” by declaring a state of emergency and setting an over-night curfew.

Protesters again barricaded roads yesterday morning with debris, while security forces themselves blocked a ma-jor bridge in the coastal city of Guayaquil to thwart demonstra-tions.

Moreno, 66, who succeeded leftist leader Rafael Correa in 2017, has relocated his govern-ment to Guayaquil where the un-rest has been less than in Quito. He stood by his economic meas-ures and defi ed calls to quit.

“I don’t see why I should if I’m making the right decisions,” Moreno said arguing that Ecua-dor’s large debt and fi scal defi cit meant belt-tightening reforms were unavoidable.

For days, protesters have been marching and barricading roads with burning tyres. Masked youths have hurled stones at se-curity forces, who have responded with tear gas and water cannon.

“Our fl ag is red, like the blood

of the working class!” chanted the marchers in downtown Qui-to, waving red banners.

Authorities have arrested nearly 700 people in a week of unrest, and dozens of police of-fi cers have been injured.

One man died after he was hit by a car and an ambulance could not reach him amid the chaos, while another two people fell off a bridge during protests, with some un-confi rmed reports that they died.

The government is hoping the United Nations or Roman Cath-olic Church can help mediate the crisis.

Moreno has accused former friend, mentor and boss Correa of seeking a coup with the help of fellow socialist President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

Moreno had enthusiastically backed Correa during his decade-long rule, serving as his vice-pres-ident, but broke with him after winning election and moved eco-nomic policies to the right.

From Belgium where he lives, Correa has been applauding the demonstrators but scoff ed at ac-cusations of seeking a coup.

A demonstrator throws back a tear gas canister during a protest against Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno’s austerity measures in Quito, Ecuador, yesterday.

Drug trade ‘damagingCentralAmerica’s forests’

Thomson Reuters FoundationBogota

Drug traffi cking and or-ganised crime are fuelling deforestation in protect-

ed tropical forests and national parks across Central America, causing substantial economic losses, researchers said.

Traffi ckers are cutting down trees to build roads and airstrips to transport cocaine and are en-croaching ever further into more remote forest areas to evade anti-narcotics operations, ac-cording to two separate studies on the problem.

“Narco-deforestation now aff ects large tropical forests in Guatemala, Honduras (and) Nicaragua, and is beginning to aff ect Costa Rica as well,” Jen-nifer A Devine, assistant geog-raphy professor at Texas State University and co-author of the studies, said in a statement.

Protected mangrove and wet-land areas in coastal parts of Honduras and Costa Rica are “attractive for supplying mari-time routes and warehousing cocaine”, researchers wrote.

Environmental degrada-tion caused by drug trafficking leads to losses of about $215mn annually in natural and cul-tural resources across Central America’s protected forest are-as, showed estimates by report co-author Bernardo Aguilar-Gonzalez.

“That is more than double the conservation budget the re-gion’s governments allocate to the forest areas,” noted Aguilar-Gonzalez, who heads Funda-cion Neotropica, a Costa Rican non-profi t that promotes com-munity management of natural resources.

Ensuring forest communi-ties have secure land tenure, including collective land titles, and allowing them to decide how their land should be man-aged could help deter traffick-ing and slow deforestation, re-searchers said.

Areas that are managed by communities record “very low forest losses”, they added.

A turtle covered in oil is treated by biologists from the Aquasis Marine Mammal Rehabilitation Centre (CRMM) in the municipality of Caucaia, Ceara State, Brazil.

Oil on beaches likelyfrom Venezuela: BrazilReutersBrasilia

Thick petroleum sludge that has been mysteriously washing up on beaches in

Brazil is “very likely from Ven-ezuela,” Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said yesterday, cit-ing a report by state-run oil fi rm Petroleo Brasileiro SA.

Salles told a congressional hear-ing that it appeared a foreign ship navigating near Brazil’s coast caused an oil spill “accidentally or not” that is “enormously diffi cult to contain.”

Venezuela’s information minis-try and state oil company PDVSA did not immediately reply to re-quests for comment.

For more than a month, Bra-zilian authorities have been in-vestigating oil of unclear origin washing up across hundreds of kilometers of beaches in nine

northeastern states.On Monday, Salles said that

more than 100 tonnes of oil had already been collected from the coastline since September 2.

The comments from Salles yes-terday came as he made the case for Brazil to institute better mech-anisms to control oil spills, while defending eff orts by environmen-tal authorities, the military and other agencies to clean up and in-vestigate the spill.

More than 130 beaches in north-eastern Brazil have reportedly been hit by the oil spills.

Tamar, a group dedicated to the protection of sea turtles, said the oil spills were “the worst environ-mental tragedy” it has encoun-tered since its formation in 1980.

The patches of oil began appear-ing in early September and have now turned up along a 2,000km stretch of Atlantic coastline.

Brazil’s state oil company Petro-bras is taking part in the cleanup.

“The coastal ecosystem of northeastern Brazil is very frag-ile, with mangroves, rocky coves and coral reefs,” Maria Christina Araujo, an oceanographer at Fed-eral University of Rio Grande do Norte, said.

“In the mangrove, an environ-ment with exceptional biodiver-sity, it is virtually impossible to remove oil. The damage could be irreparable and the ecosystems will take years to recover.”

She also warned that the spills could harm the region’s economy. “We can already see that tourists no longer want to go to the beach-es,” Araujo said.

On Saturday, President Bol-sonaro ordered a swift investiga-tion to “establish the causes and determine the responsibilities” for the spilled oil.

The federal police announced last week that they were investi-gating the spills as an “environ-mental crime.”

US senators for probe into Brazil meatpackerReutersBrasilia

Two US senators called on the US Treasury to open an investigation into the

world’s largest meat processing company, Brazil’s JBS S.A., due to alleged ties with the Venezuelan government of leftist President Nicolas Maduro.

President Donald Trump’s gov-ernment has imposed sanctions on dozens of top Venezuelan offi cials as well as state oil company PDVSA.

Senators Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez sent a let-ter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asking for the Commit-tee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review transactions by JBS, which has bought several American meat companies in recent years, Rubio’s press offi ce said on Twitter.

“This meat-processing con-glomerate has engaged in illicit fi -nancial activities and has business

ties with the Maduro regime,” the Twitter post said.

In a statement, JBS said it had always co-operated “transparent-ly” with US authorities regarding “passed events” in Brazil.

It had improved the management of the companies it acquired in the US, delivering “solid results” that contributed to farm sector growth, JBS added, and continues to provide opportunities to farming and cattle-raising families.

Venezuela’s information minis-try did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In August, Washington froze all Venezuelan state assets in the US and threatened sanctions on any company continuing to do busi-ness with the government.

In their letter to Mnuchin, made public on Tuesday, the senators said CFIUS should investigate the busi-ness transactions among JBS, the Venezuelan Corporation of Foreign Trade (CORPOVEX) and Diosdado Cabello, a powerful ally of Maduro who is under US sanctions.

Mexico vows labour rights with eye on new US trade dealReutersMexico City/Washington

A US Democratic lawmaker said a meeting with Mexi-can offi cials geared at

speeding up ratifi cation of a North American trade deal was “excel-lent,” after Mexico’s president vowed union freedoms, higher wages and other labour rights.

US Congressman Bill Pascrell, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee delegation that

met with Mexican President An-dres Manuel Lopez Obrador, sug-gested all sides were getting closer to an agreement.

“We’ve all got to get our act to-gether, and we’re moving, we’re making progress,” he said after the meeting.

The USMCA, which would re-place the $1tn North American Free Trade Agreement, risks get-ting bogged down in the 2020 US presidential election race if US lawmakers do not ratify it soon.

Democrats controlling the US

House of Representatives hold the key to ratifying the deal, negoti-ated last year after President Don-ald Trump said the existing North American Free Trade Agreement was unfavourable to US workers and businesses.

Lopez Obrador called for rati-fi cation as soon as possible in his morning news conference ahead of the meeting and pledged to enforce a labour reform enacted by his left-leaning government.

“The reform is so that...workers can freely choose their representa-

tives, and so there is union democ-racy and better wages,” he said.

After the meeting Jesus Seade, Mexico’s deputy foreign minister for North America, said he expect-ed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to move ahead with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (US-MCA) by early November.

Seade has been leading nego-tiations with US offi cials seeking to placate Democratic concerns about enforcement of tougher labour and environmental provi-sions in the new deal.

Senate fi nance committee chairman Chuck Grassley and Representative Kevin Brady, top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, urged Demo-crats to move quickly on the trade agreement.

“With election year politics upon us, time isn’t on our side. But the window of opportunity hasn’t closed yet. Democrats must act now,” they said in a joint state-ment.

Mexico’s Congress has already approved the deal. It also needs

ratifi cation from Canadian law-makers.

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard called the meet-ing with the delegation of House Democrats, led by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rich-ard E Neal, “eff ective.”

He told reporters the next three weeks would be a “decisive phase” for the pact, and that offi cials would send US lawmakers a docu-ment next week detailing the is-sues discussed, including Mexico’s labour reform.

An impeachment inquiry into Trump, which could delay passage of the USMCA, was not discussed with the delegation, Seade said.

Meanwhile US trade groups pressed lawmakers to approve the deal and not allow the inquiry to postpone it.

Ann Wilson, chief lobbyist for the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association, said the industry had delayed key investments given con-tinued uncertainty over the agree-ment a year after it was signed by the three countries’ leaders.

Correa to run in elections ‘if necessary’Ecuador’s leftwing former presi-dent Rafael Correa yesterday said he was prepared to run in any early elections “if it is necessary” as protests over fuel price hikes gripped his nation. “If it is necessary to be a candidate, I will be one,” Correa told reporters in the capital of Belgium, where he has been living in self-imposed exile with his family since leaving power in 2017 at the end of his third mandate. Correa is wanted in his homeland on suspicion of

ordering the kidnapping of a political opponent while he was president. Because Ecuador has passed a law that would pre-vent him again becoming head of state, Correa said he was ready to run as vice president. “They (Lenin’s government) are looking to see how they could prevent me running,” he added. The protests in Ecuador have gone on for days, triggered by the end of fuel subsidies to secure International Monetary Fund loans.

Offi cial leadinggovt’s anti-graftfi ght suddenlyshuns mediaInternewsIslamabad

The Imran Khan govern-ment’s Sherlock Holmes – legal eagle barrister Shah-

zad Akbar who has been leading the campaign to sniff out corrup-tion by big fi sh and bring them to account – is missing from the me-dia for two months.

Otherwise fond of addressing press conferences and attending TV talk shows frequently, the bar-rister has not addressed any press conference for the last several weeks, and is rarely seen even in talk shows, a special report in The News claimed yesterday.

Akbar is Prime Minister Imran Khan’s special assistant on ac-countability. Soon after coming into power, the PTI government had established the Asset Recov-ery Unit (ARU) to retrieve assets hidden overseas.

The man leading ASU – which was created to bring back the $200bn allegedly stashed by Pa-kistanis in banks abroad – in the prime minister secretariat is also not attending mobile calls. He does not respond to messages ei-ther. Akbar’s staff in the PM secre-tariat, when approached, said that the barrister has gone outstation, and is busy in meetings.

In his absence, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman Shabbar Zaidi has stated more than once that it is hard to bring home, what he quoted, $190bn illegally gotten money of Pakistanis stashed abroad.

There is no explanation coming from the barrister side to justify the very existence of the unit after the government has admitted that it can’t bring back Pakistanis’ bil-lions of dollars from abroad, the report noted.

The ARU comprises of offi -cials from the State Bank of Pa-kistan (SBP), Federal Board of Revenue, National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investiga-tion Agency (FIA) and intelligence agencies.

In one of his initial press confer-ences, Akbar had said that mem-bers of the ARU had already got details of over 10,000 properties abroad.

He had complained that details of at least half of the 10,000 prop-

erties were previously available, but no action taken. But now the Imran Khan government is also found realising that it can’t bring money back from foreign coun-tries.

Until a few months ago, the bar-rister was also seen keenly digging out cases against the opposition leaders in close co-ordination with NAB. He used to hold press conferences quite frequently to talk about the alleged corruption of Sharif and Zardari families.

Akbar in his last press confer-ence in August issued a complete charge-sheet against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and her cousin Yousaf Abbas in the al-leged Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) money laundering case. The very next day, NAB had arrested both Maryam and Yousaf.

Media record shows that Ak-bar’s last several press conferences were organised squarely to discuss the alleged corruption cases of Sharif family. Sometimes the press conferences discussed the cases of former president Asif Zardari’s al-leged corruption.

In July Akbar held at least four press conferences. In all these conferences, the ARU head had discussed Sharif family and their alleged corruption. Newspaper record of the last several months hardly show the barrister discuss-ing even once what has been the prime objective of the ARU.

As per the offi cial claims, the ARU has so far recovered Rs530mn which was illegally sent abroad.

Only last week FBR chairman Shabbar Zaidi said that actually a total of $6bn was remitted out from Pakistan per annum in last 20 years out of which 85% was sent out legally so it could not be brought back.

“The practice of sending money abroad is still continuing as many wealthy Pakistani possesses assets and property abroad,” Zaidi was quoted as saying while addressing a seminar on economic prosperity and role of enterprises here.

He added that the wealth was remitted out substantially from Pakistan during the 90s and in-vestors also settled in other for-eign countries. All this seems contrary to the mission and claims espoused by Akbar who has now disappeared. – Internews

China’s Xi voices supportfor Pakistan over KashmirReuters/AFPBeijing/Islamabad

Chinese President Xi Jin-ping said yesterday he was watching the situa-

tion in Kashmir and would sup-port Pakistan in issues related to its core interests, the offi cial Xinhua News Agency reported.

Tensions over the disputed region of Kashmir have risen sharply since August, when In-dia revoked the autonomy of the portion of the territory control-

led by it.Xi told Pakistani Prime Min-

ister Imran Khan during a meet-ing in Beijing that the rights and wrongs of the situation were clear, the report said.

“China supports Pakistan to safeguard its own legitimate rights and hopes that the rel-evant parties can solve their disputes through peaceful dia-logue,” Xi said, according to Xinhua.

A joint statement added that China “opposes any unilateral actions that complicate the situ-

ation” while the dispute “should be properly and peacefully re-solved based on the UN Charter, relevant UN Security Council resolutions and bilateral agree-ments.”

The Chinese and Pakistani leaders also highlighted discus-sion around how to speed up progress on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the $60bn infrastructure pro-gramme China launched as part of its fl agship “Belt and Road” project.

Some offi cials and observers

have said momentum on CPEC is slowing, in part due to con-cerns over the size of Pakistan’s debt, which led Islamabad to turn to the International Mon-etary Fund for a $6bn bailout package in July.

“The two sides expressed de-termination to speedily execute CPEC so that its growth poten-tial can be fully realised making it a high-quality demonstration project for BRI,” the govern-ments said in a joint statement.

Khan said that his government was setting up a “CPEC Author-

ity” to expedite projects, and making arrangements to help Gwadar Port, a deep sea port in Pakistan’s southern Balochistan province, become a regional trade hub.

Khan did not provide details on the plans, but earlier in the day Pakistan’s media reported that the maritime minister had announced China Overseas Ports Holding Company, which operates the port, would get a 23-year tax exemption for in-stallation of machinery and oth-er equipment at the port.

Twitter assures govton account suspensionInternewsIslamabad

Social networking website Twitter will no longer uni-laterally suspend or termi-

nate user accounts originating from Pakistan, according to a statement made to the press by the government.

On August 19, the government, in a letter to Twitter vice-presi-dent, trust and safety, Del Har-vey, had said accounts of users from Pakistan were shut down without warning or prior notice.

The letter further said that suspending such accounts had caused massive unrest, resent-ment and anger among the gen-eral public. The government asked Twitter to amend their policy this regard.

The chairman of the National IT Board, Shabahat Ali Shah, met with Twitter offi cials recently in which important issues between

the Twitter administration and the government were discussed.

The government statement further revealed that Twitter will no longer unilaterally suspend the accounts of Pakistani users and will contact the government in case of any complaint before-hand.

During the meeting, the issue of suppressing the voice of Pa-kistani Twitter users by Indians also came up for discussion, in which Twitter offi cials were told that hundreds of Pakistani Twit-ter accounts were suspended for raising their voice for Kashmiris.

Twitter offi cials were told that after India’s annexation of Indi-an-administered Kashmir, there had been an increase in Indian bullying through Twitter. Twit-ter said it will change the way accounts were suspended hence-forth.

Many Pakistani users had complained that Twitter had suspended or restricted their ac-

counts when they expressed their support with the people of Indi-an-administered Kashmir.

The platform was used by thousands of Pakistani and Kashmiri users to heap praise on Prime Minister Imran Khan for raising the Kashmir issue and exposing the Indian govern-ment’s crackdown. Following the speech, social media users posted thousands of tweets to eulogise their leader by using the hashtag “Voice of Kashmir”, which became a global trending topic.

Soon, Pakistani Twitter ac-counts using the hashtag were suspended. To record their pro-test, thousands of Pakistani users started posting tweets under the hashtag #IndiaHijackedTwitter.

A large number of users also tagged Twitter CEO Jack Patrick Dorsey in their messages, accus-ing the portal of attempting to suppress their voice against In-dian atrocities.

Govt plans fl at powerrate to lift uptakeInternewsIslamabad

The government plans to in-troduce a relatively cheap-er fl at rate for electricity

consumers in the winter months to encourage higher power con-sumption.

The move comes amid declining electricity consumption as ‘peak hours’ in summer turn into ‘lean hours’ in winter and power com-panies are unable to utilise the fuel the government orders for running power plants.

As a result, consumers suff er the double whammy of making capacity payments to the plants without actually consuming elec-tricity and gas pipelines face the risk of exploding due to extreme line-pack pressure.

This is a repeat of the move of late 1990s when the govern-ment started promoting higher consumption as it had surplus power. Barring these exceptions, the government and its companies have been promoting the slogan of “save electricity, for yourself and

for the country”.Power Secretary Irfan Ali told

the senate standing committee on power this week that the govern-ment would introduce a fl at tariff scheme in November under which cheaper power would be off ered to consumers.

He said the ministry of energy was working on the scheme that would be fi nalised during the cur-rent month. The scheme would be launched by November, he said.

“Looking at our revenue re-quirements, the government will introduce uniform rates in winter.”

Currently, the government is applying two diff erent rates for peak and off -peak hours which in-crease the end-tariff for consum-ers. For example, a normal rate for consumption of over 300 units per month is around Rs10 per unit, which goes beyond Rs18 per unit for peak hours (normally 6pm to 10pm or 7pm to 11pm).

During summer, people usu-ally consume more electricity in peak hours than off -peak hours because of maximum commercial activities and use of other electric equipment like air conditioners.

Special centre to resolve expat issues set upInternewsIslamabad

The government has set up a citizen facilitation centre in Islamabad for citizens and a special counter for

non-resident Pakistanis off ering a one-stop solution to redress public issues in-cluding vehicle verifi cation, provision of driving licences and issuing a copy of the First Information Report (FIR) lodged in any police station.

“Four more citizen facilitation cen-tres will be established in the capital

city to ensure speedy redressal of public issues through a one-window solution,” Federal Minister for Interior Ijaz Ahmad Shah said.

Inaugurating the special desk for overseas Pakistanis at the Police Facili-tation Centre, Islamabad F-6, the min-ister lauded the eff orts of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police for set-ting up the unit on modern lines.

“The materialisation of such initia-tives depict that we are moving in the right direction under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been strong proponent of public wel-

fare,” he remarked.Special assistant to the prime min-

ister on overseas Pakistanis, Zulfi kar Bukhari, said the special desk for ex-patriates was set up in the facilitation centre to ensure speedy resolution of overseas Pakistanis’ problems.

He said offi cials of the Overseas Pa-kistanis Foundation had been deputed to the special desk to establish a strong connectivity among the departments concerned to resolve expats’ com-plaints in a speedy manner.

The move is part of eff orts made by the government to assist expatriates,

besides encouraging their investments in real estate sector of the country, he added. In response to the high number of land grabbing complaints lodged by Pakistani expatriates on the Prime Minister Performance Delivery Unit (PMDU) and Call SarZameen app, he said the ministry planned to set up the facility in police stations in every city after its success in Islamabad.

Bukhari said the ministry had drafted rules for setting up fast-track courts in Islamabad that would help resolve the property disputes of the overseas Paki-stanis within months.

LATIN AMERICA24 Gulf Times

Thursday, October 10, 2019

PAKISTAN

Climate protest

Climate activists having their lips taped hold placards as they take part in a ‘Global Rebellion Extinction’ protest in Islamabad yesterday, as part of a planned series of protests around the world by the Extinction Rebellion movement.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan talks to Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing yesterday.

Warning over delay in bin Laden doctor appeal

A court in Pakistan yesterday warned a government prosecutor about seeking to adjourn the appeal of a doctor who helped the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) trace Al Qaeda’s founding chief Osama bin Laden, off icials and a lawyer said. The Peshawar High Court adjourned the hearing into Doctor Shakeel Afridi’s appeal until October 22, with a warning that no further delay would be tolerated, his

lawyer Qamar Nadeem said.Afridi is accused of running a fake polio vaccination drive in the northern Pakistani city of Abbottabad to confirm the presence of bin Laden in a compound. It was after the confirmation by Afridi that US Navy SEALs stormed the hideout in a night raid to kill bin Laden in 2011, ending one of the longest running manhunts in history.

PHILIPPINES

25Gulf Times Thursday, October 10, 2019

Illegal structures in Bilibid prison razedAgencies Manila

Authorities yesterday or-dered the demolition of “kubols” or luxury cot-

tages and illegal structures at the New Bilibid Prison.

Bureau of Corrections Direc-tor General Gerald Bantag, Po-lice Maj Gen. Guillermo Eleazar and Maj. Gen. Amando Empiso led the demolition of the illegal structures within Bilibid’s Max-imum Compound, Philippine Star reported.

Eleazar is director of the Na-

tional Capital Region Police Of-fi ce while Empiso is chief of the elite police Special Action Force.

SAF are stationed at the Bili-bid in an effort to curb illegal drug activities inside prison walls.

The BuCor, in a statement, said that the operation started at 5am and involved 1,800 per-sonnel from law enforcement agencies and from the De-partment of Public Works and Highways.

Demolition equipment from the DPWH, fire trucks from the Bureau of Fire Protection and two police armoured person-

nel carriers were also used in the demolition. According to the bureau, there are 18,000 prisoners detained inside the maximum security compound, which houses those who are considered highly dangerous or pose high security risks.

The bureau said that the il-legally built structures “breed corruption” since prisoners pay personnel to allow con-struction materials in.

“It was noted that, in the past, the roving personnel find it hard to conduct custo-dial functions because of these shanties thus, empowering the

convicts or Persons Deprived of Liberty to continue their un-lawful activities,” BuCor said.

Bantag earlier said in an in-terview with GMA that brib-ery of officials continues at the NBP. He said drug lords continue paying prison offic-ers, despite the change of lead-ership at the bureau. Early in October, Bantag relieved more 300 jail guards at the Maximum Security Compound of the New Bilibid Prison.

“We have a directive coming from the president for a to-tal revamp and to clean up the BuCor. There are allegations

of irregularities, so we relieved them,” BuCor spokesperson Wena Fe Dalagan said.

Asked for comment, Jus-tice Secretary Menardo Gue-varra said Bantag has “per-sonal knowledge of facts on the ground.”

The Justice chief added that moneyed inmates would con-tinue to “buy convenience, luxury, and freedom to engage in nefarious activities while in detention.”

Eradicating corruption in the country’s penitentiaries is Bantag’s challenge, Guevarra added.

Former investigation agency offi cial claims Albayalde got ‘small share’ of seized drugsBy Bernadette E TamayoManila Times

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Oscar Albay-alde “joked” about getting

a small share of the shabu (meth) seized by his men during a drug operation when he was the Pam-panga police director, according to former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) deputy chief Rudy Lacadin.

Albayalde and Lacadin at-tended the resumption of the Senate investigation on “ninja cops,” policemen who recycle seized illegal drugs, yesterday, wherein the PNP chief reiterated that no charges had been fi led against him with regard to his alleged link to ninja cops’ drug traffi cking activities.

Albayalde was Pampanga po-lice chief when 13 police offi cers, led by Police Maj. Rodney Ray-mund Baloyo Jr., were accused of conducting an illegal buy-bust operation in Mexico, Pampanga in 2013.

Lacadin claimed that Albay-alde phoned him to confi rm if he indeed investigated them.

“He called me up. I cannot re-call the conversation but as far

as I remember he said, ‘He said, ‘Sir, you investigated us? And I said, ‘Yes, Oca. I did not inform you that we’re conducting an in-vestigation because this is just a validation,” Lacadin said.

“Actually, sir, I only got a small share,’” Lacadin added.

Albayalde denied this. “I really do not know what is the conspir-acy here. But it seems that eve-ryone is ganging up on me,” he told senators.

Former CIDG chief now Ba-guio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong said that some of the alleged members of Baloyo’s group had sent feelers to tell the truth. But they backtracked when they learned that the case against Baloyo was weak.

“That was why I keep on say-ing, admittedly, we have no hard evidence against Gen. Albay-alde. Again, someone is lying. And I’m pretty sure it’s not Gen. Lacadin. It’s not me. It’s not the other offi cers, or someone else. It’s him,” Magalong said, point-ing in Albayalde’s direction.

Meanwhile, Sen. Panfi lo Lac-son moved to have SPO1 Ronald Santos cited in contempt for his failure to attend previous Senate inquiries even after being sub-poenaed. Santos was among the 13 police offi cers tagged for grave misconduct in a controversial anti-drug operation in Novem-ber 2013.

He was allegedly the fi nance offi cer who prepared the sup-

posed marked money amounting to P100,000 used in the alleged controversial buy-bust opera-tion. “Is Ronald Santos here? We have been looking for him. We had issued subpoena for him. He is very important in this case but he has not been showing up. The Chair orders his arrest, so he can be presented here,” said Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights who led the inquiry.

Lacson questioned the in-tervening events surrounding the downgrading of the penalty against the 13 from dismissal from the service to demotion, including why only one motion for recon-sideration was fi led for all the re-spondents, instead of them fi ling a motion individually.

“I think we should work on the timelines, the period be-tween March 14, 2016 when the motion for reconsideration was fi led by Baloyo and 12 men; and Oct 17, 2017, when the dis-missal order issued by then RD Petrasanta on Nov 14, 2014 was resolved by (current CIDG chief Maj) Gen. Amador Corpuz, is far too long not to think that there were intervening events here,” Lacson said.

Seven cadets and fi ve offi cers face charges over hazing deathBy Dexter A See Manila Times

Seven cadets and fi ve of-fi cers of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA)

have been charged with mur-der and violation of the anti-hazing law in connection with the death of Cadet 4th Class Darwin Dormitorio.

Dexter Dormitorio, older brother of Darwin, fi led the 34-page complaint against Cadets 3rd Class Shalimar Imperial, Felix Lumbag Jr, John Vincent Manalo, Julius Carlo Tadena and Rey David John Volante; Cadet 2nd Class Christian Zacarias; and Cadet 1st Class Axl Rey Sanopa be-fore the Baguio City Prosecu-tor’s Offi ce on Tuesday.

Also charged were tacti-cal offi cers Maj. Rex Bolo and Capt. Jeff rey Batistiana, as well as medical personnel Capt. Flor Apple Apostol, Capt.

Maria Ofelia Beloy and Lt Col Cesar Candelaria. The fi ve PMA personnel are facing charges for dereliction of duty.

“I would like to tell my brother, this is just part one of the battle. We will not stop until everybody is prosecuted,” Dexter said.

The complaint was substan-tiated by affi davits of some 14 cadets and three PMA person-nel who said they witnessed how Dormitorio was maltreat-ed by his upperclassmen.

In a phone interview yester-day, Baguio City Police Offi ce Chief Col. Allan Ray Co said all those charged had direct par-ticipation in the maltreatment of Dormitorio.

“They have direct partici-pation in the case, thus they were charged,” he told Manila Times.

Sanopao reportedly ordered Lombag to maltreat Dormi-torio over a missing pair of boots. Tadena tasered the vic-tim while Volante kicked him in the head.

Dormitorio died on Sept 18, 2019 after being discharged from the PMA hospital where he was diagnosed with urinary tract infection.

Co also confi rmed that the seven cadets were under the custody of the PMA.

PMA authorities expressed their readiness to turn over to

the Baguio City jail the seven cadets once the City Prose-cutor’s Office found probable cause and an arrest warrant was issued against them.

PMA officials said the in-cident was an “isolated case” despite reports that several other cadets were also mal-treated and hospitalised.

“This is not the rule, this is an exception, this is an iso-lated case and it should never happen again in the Acad-emy,” PMA spokesman Major Reynan Afan said.

But newly appointed PMA Commandant Brig. Gen. Romeo Brawner admitted that a “culture of silence” has been observed in the acad-emy.

“Definitely some prac-tice that culture of silence,” Brawner told reporters.

Former senator Heherson Alvarez lamented that hazing is like a “virus” that should be eliminated to save the youth.

“We have put legislation, even finally convicted of-fenders, the rules have even been tightened to terminate this grave social misconduct but it continues the violent destruction of the lives of our youth. From the great uni-versities, to military institu-tions and provincial schools, hazing should be viewed like a virus contamination from whence our young must be spared,” he said in a state-ment.

“The institutions that rear the hope of the Motherland must do better: expel the of-fenders and the justice sys-tem must quickly respond to punish the guilty,” he added.

Instead of violent haz-ing rites, Alvarez, founder of Earthsavers and chairman of Unesco Dream Center, said fraternities should practice “constructive” rituals such as cleaning the esteros, planting trees and doing community service.

“Our schools must inculcate respect for the gift of life and unveil the deception of a ritual of passage that strips the neo-phyte of human dignity.

Withstanding the rigours of physical assault is not heroic nor the symbol of chivalry.

The fi rst blow to the last blow cumulatively kills the man,” he added.

Manila mayor orders closure of mall over violationsManila TimesManila

Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso yesterday ordered the closure of a mall for

violating city ordinances but was not re-voking its license to operate, providing it with an opportunity to reopen once it has complied with the requirements.

“Can you imagine, a simple problem, the skeletons in the closet came out. It’s a simple compliance issue, so this is what

happened to them. We had no choice,” Domagoso said after Isetann Mall in Recto ceased to operate after 31 years.

In a memorandum released by the Manila Bureau of Permits, Tri-Union Properties Inc, which owns Isetann, and Trans Orient Management Services Inc., the operator, violated section 118 of City Ordinance 8331 that required “any en-tity to secure necessary permits prior to business operation.”

Tri-Union has a business permit as a shopping centre valid until Dec 31, 2019, but did not have a business permit as a

lessor as the mall had rented out several stalls, said Domagoso.

Trans Orient has a business permit for one cinema but is operating four, said Domagoso.

Domagoso also pointed to its “ques-tionable number of employees” and its mall area, saying that it is far fetched from what Isetann Recto Mall is now.

“Under its valid business permit, there is a declared area of 1,000 square metres with 10 employees/personnel,” he said.

“I hope this will serve as a lesson to all

businessmen who are trying to get away in the city of Manila,” he said.

In a statement released by the mar-keting group of Isetann, it said that it “fully supported” the mayor’s decision.

Isetann said that its Carriedo, Cubao, P. Tuazon, and Sta. Mesa branches re-mained open for business.

Aside from leasing stalls to vendors who sell stolen phones, a gambling area disguised as an arcade, was raided by authorities.

Isetann Cinerama Complex on Recto Avenue first opened in 1988.

Teams (bottom left) take a break after heavy equipment was used to demolish illegal structures set up and used by inmates inside the maximum security New Bilibid Prison in suburban Manila, yesterday.

Water service provider warns

of ‘exponential’ rate hikeBy Jordeene B LagareManila Times

Manila Water Co Inc. warned of an “ex-ponential” rate in-

crease and horrendous traf-fic gridlocks if the Supreme Court (SC) ruling upholding the almost P2bn penalties slapped on water concession-aires for violating the Clean Water Act is implemented.

The Ayala-led utility said water companies may im-pose a 780% increase in water rates — or as much as P26.70 per cubic metre — if the high tribunal will not reverse its order.

“If the concessionaires were to compress into five years as the SC ruling wants what was planned as a 40-year project, the hundreds of billions of pesos required would lead to an increase in the water bill of subscribers, leaving them less money for other necessities and trigger-ing higher inflation,” it said in a statement.

Manila Water also warned of “worse traffic in Metro Manila” since hundreds of

kilometres of roads in the East Zone concession area would have to be dug up all at the same time.

“The daily loss of P3.5bn caused by existing traffic congestion could balloon sig-nificantly,” it added.

The Supreme Court af-firmed with modifications the decision of the Court of Ap-peals which found the Metro-politan Waterworks and Sew-erage System (MWSS), Manila Water and Maynilad Water Services Inc. guilty of violat-ing Section 8 of Republic Act (RA) 9275 or the “Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004.”

The MWSS and the two water firms were found “jointly and severally liable” and ordered to pay a penalty amounting to P921,464,184.

The agency and Maynilad were also levied the same fine covering the period of May 7, 2009, the date of promulga-tion, five years after the en-actment of the Clean Water Act.

The fine shall be paid with-in 15 days from the finality of the Supreme Court decision.

If the MWSS and the two water concessionaires failed

to adhere to Section 8 of RA 9275, they have to pay a fine of P322,102 per day, subject to a further 10% increase every two years until their full com-pliance. A 6% interest will be imposed on the total amount of the fines should there be a delay in its payment, the ver-dict reads.

Both Manila Water and Maynilad have appealed the high court’s decision.

In its appeal, Manila Water said the Supreme Court ruling had no basis.

It said Section 8 of RA 9275 simply required MWSS, Ma-nila Water and Maynilad to interconnect the “existing” water lines of households, condominiums, subdivisions, among others, to the “avail-able” sewer lines of the con-cessionaires. Manila Water claimed that the said provi-sion did not call for the com-pletion of the entire project, only the interconnection.

The company said it had interconnected 61,000 out of 63,000 subscribers to its sew-er trunk. The rest could not be interconnected because the “available” sewers would be compromised if overloaded.

Police chief Oscar Albayalde faces questions at the Senate.

By Ethan HwangLos Angeles Times

Imagine an affi rmative action 200-metre dash. If you’re African American, you get a fi ve-second head start. If you’re white, you take

off when you hear the starter pistol. If you’re an Asian American high school student, as I am, you have to wait fi ve seconds after the starter pistol before you can go.

This might sound ridiculous, but that’s how it sometimes feels, especially in light of the ruling handed down recently in a 2014 case brought against Harvard University by Students for Fair Admissions. The suit alleged that Harvard’s admissions policies used race as a predominant factor in evaluating applicants and in so doing set a higher bar for Asian students. Judge Allison D Burroughs rejected those arguments and said the school’s affi rmative action policies were fair.

Harvard has said its affi rmative action programme increases diversity and gives disadvantaged students a better chance of getting in. But every system that gives one group an advantage ends up putting another at a disadvantage.

The problem isn’t that Asian Americans aren’t well represented at elite universities. At Harvard, for example, the most recent class admitted is about 25% Asian American.

The problem is that the admittance rate for Asians – the rate at which they are accepted compared to the rate at which they applied – is lower than for any other race or ethnicity. According to the Harvard Crimson, about 5.6% of the Asian Americans who applied in 2017

were admitted, compared to 7% of white applicants, 6.8% of African American applicants and 6.1% of Latinos.

A 2013 analysis by Harvard, later cited in the lawsuit, examined admissions data to see what would happen if admissions offi cers judged students only by academic achievements and test scores. Under such a standard, the analysis found, Asian Americans would make up 43.4% of the admitted class, compared to their actual 18.7% share. Even when all an applicants’ attributes were considered – extracurricular activities, personal ratings, etc. – Asians were still found to be sorely underadmitted.

Many Asian American students are immigrants themselves, or the children or grandchildren of immigrants. Our families generally came to the US seeking greater opportunities, and they almost all faced high barriers to socioeconomic mobility. They worked hard and broke barriers, only to fi nd their descendants punished by Harvard and other elite schools because of their success.

Both my parents grew up in Taiwan before coming to America to pursue their master’s degrees. My dad often tells me how poor he was after he graduated from university and got a job. His wages were so low he slept in his offi ce at night on a Murphy bed that he nailed together with scraps from Home Depot and lived on instant noodles.

He struggled to save money for a down payment on a house, knowing he would have to rent out rooms to make the mortgage payments. But he was determined to achieve his piece of the American Dream.

My parents encouraged me to

succeed too, never suspecting that I’d be punished in the college admissions process for meeting their expectations. Even though I spend a majority of my free time focusing on academics and activities that put me at the top of my class, I may very well never make it to an Ivy League university because of my skin colour.

It’s not that I can’t understand the other side. Universities want to build classes that refl ect the diversity of the United States. And I know that America is still working to overcome the legacy of slavery, which has condemned many black students to poverty and inferior schools. I also understand that many Latino students have faced similar kinds of deprivation and discrimination.

But in higher education today, Asian Americans also experience textbook discrimination: Some of us are denied admission because of our skin colour. We are not admitted to top universities in the numbers our achievements would justify.

The most galling thing of all is that, even as Asian Americans are punished for their achievements, less accomplished children of wealthy alumni and big donors get favoured treatment in admissions. How can this possibly be justifi ed?

Another huge problem with admissions policies toward Asian Americans is that they tend to lump us all into a single category of “model minority,” when we are in fact a diverse group. Yes, some of us have grown up privileged, but many others have not. They have grown up poor, sometimes facing the insecurity of uncertain immigration status for their parents or themselves, or struggling to learn English.

Like many stereotypes, the model

minority trope does have some basis in fact. I am Taiwanese American, a group with some of the highest household incomes and one of the lowest crime commission rates of any ethnicity. We even have a Wikipedia page highlighting our successes.

But the stereotypes have negative implications too. As a group, we’re not considered creative. We’re thought to be followers rather than leaders. These things are absurd, of course, as we’re individuals with a range of talents. But I worry that it is easier for admissions officers thousands of miles away to assume such stereotypes are accurate.

The fact that we aren’t rewarded in proportion to our achievements only serves to worsen competition among my Asian peers, undermining our mental health and straining parent-child relationships. Many of us set unrealistic standards, and we tell ourselves that because of our skin colour, we must have the highest GPAs and test scores. I witnessed the downside of that kind of striving fi rst-hand when Palo Alto experienced a suicide cluster in 2008. Six teenagers took their own lives and devastated our community.

I know of cases in which Asian American students have tried to circumvent affi rmative action. They change their last names or lie about their race on college applications. No one should have to deny his or her heritage to get a fair break. — Tribune News Service

Ethan Hwang is a junior at Palo Alto High School, where he is a staff writer for his school’s journalism publication, the Paly Voice.

Gulf Times Thursday, October 10, 2019

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Portugal election result cements modest recent gains for centre-left

Portugal’s Socialists won Sunday’s general elections but fell short of an absolute majority, leaving Prime Minister António Costa needing to negotiate a delicate new alliance with the far-left parties that backed him last time around.

Cementing a modest and partial recovery for Europe’s centre-left after a disastrous few years of fallout from the 2008 financial crisis, the Socialists won 106 seats, up from 86 in the previous parliament, against 77 for the opposition centre-right Social Democrats (PSD), their worst result since 1983.

The result left Costa 10 short of a majority in the 230-seat assembly and the prime minister, who since 2015 has led a minority government with the support of the Left Bloc and the Communists in an unlikely alliance known as the geringonca or “odd contraption”, said he was likely to “renew the experience”. On Tuesday Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa charged Costa with forming a new government.

The Left Bloc, which held the 19 parliamentary seats it won four years ago, and the unreconstructed Portuguese Communist party, which won 12 seats, five fewer than in the last vote, said they were prepared to back the Socialists again – but laid down demands for wage increases, greater public spending and improved labour laws.

Alternatively, Costa could seek a tie-up with the People-Animals-Nature party, which rode a wave of increasing environmental concern to capture four seats, and Free, an eco-socialist breakaway from the Left Bloc, which elected a

single MP.These negotiations could be more complex than four

years ago when the pact on the left was cemented by their common goal to unseat the right.

A strengthened Socialist party has, in any event, a wider array of options to get laws approved in parliament. This is an incentive for it to govern alone, by seeking ad hoc agreements for specific votes rather than sealing a formal alliance.

The result reinforces something of a recent upturn for Europe’s centre-left. After Sweden’s Social Democrats managed to remain the country’s largest party last year and – a greater challenge – to form a government afterwards, the centre-left came first in Finnish elections for the first time in 20 years.

Voters returned the third left-leaning government in a year to the Nordic region as Denmark’s Social Democrats claimed victory in parliamentary elections in June, while in Italy the Democratic party finds itself unexpectedly back in government after a strategic blunder by the leader of the far-right League, Matteo Salvini.

After finishing second in the 2015 election and cobbling together his geringonca, Costa reversed unpopular austerity measures, including cuts to public sector wages and pensions, introduced by the previous PSD-led government while still managing to bring Portugal’s budget deficit down to nearly zero.

He has won praise at home and in Brussels for combining fiscal discipline with successful measures to stimulate the economy, which is growing faster than the EU average helped by rising exports and a booming tourism industry that attracted more tourists to Portugal last year than it has inhabitants.

Polls had suggested Costa might win an absolute majority, allowing the Socialists to govern alone, but his lead was eroded by a series of scandals, including the former Socialist defence minister, José Azeredo Lopes, being charged with abuse of power and denial of justice over his role in the alleged cover-up of a 2017 arms theft.

The result left Costa 10 short of a majority in the 230-seat assembly

The Asian American admissions handicap

Supporters attend the “Rally for American Dream – Equal Education Rights for All”, ahead of the start of a trial in a lawsuit accusing Harvard University of discriminating against Asian-American applicants, in Boston on October 14, 2018.

COMMENT

Gulf Times Thursday, October 10, 2019 27

Can the US and China make a deal?By Kevin RuddNew York

Now that the celebrations marking the 70th anniver-sary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China

are over, it is time to direct attention back to the Sino-American trade war. That confl ict may well be about to enter its endgame. Indeed, the next round of negotiations could be the last real chance to fi nd a way through the trade, technology, and wider economic imbroglio that has been engulfi ng both countries.

Failing that, the world should start preparing for its rockiest economic ride since the 2008 global fi nancial crisis. There is a real risk that America will slide into recession, and that the global economy will experience a broader decoupling that will poison the well for Sino-American relations far into the future. There is also a widening window of opportunity for nationalist constituencies in both countries to argue that confl ict is inevitable.

Thus far, the trade war has gone through four phases. Phase one began last March, when US President Donald Trump announced the fi rst round of import tariff s on Chinese goods. Phase two arrived with the “Argentine reset” at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires last December, when Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that they would conclude an agreement within 90 days. That truce imploded in early May of this year, with each side accusing the other of demanding major last-minute changes to the draft agreement.

Phase three could best be described as the “summer of our discontent”: the United States imposed a fresh round of import tariff s, and China retaliated in kind, while also unveiling its answer

to the US “entity list.” In response to the blacklisting of Huawei and fi ve other Chinese tech companies, China’s poetically titled “unreliable entities list” threatens to target US fi rms for exclusion.

Given these developments, why should anyone expect the next round of talks to succeed?

For starters, the US and Chinese economies are both in trouble. In the US, recent poor manufacturing and private-sector employment fi gures have reinforced pessimism about the economy’s prospects. If conditions were to deteriorate further, Trump’s bid for re-election in November 2020 would be endangered. Likewise, Xi would be weakened by any signifi cant slowdown on the eve of the Communist Party of China’s centenary celebrations in 2021, which will be a prelude to his bid for an already controversial third term starting in 2022.

Each side says publicly that the trade war is hurting the other side more. But, of course, it is hurting both, by destabilising markets, destroying business confi dence, and undermining growth. Each side also claims to have the economic resilience needed to ride out an extended confl ict. On this question, it is unclear who has the stronger argument. America is certainly less trade-dependent than China; but China, though weakened by poor domestic policy choices enacted before the trade war, still has stronger fi scal, monetary, and credit tools at its disposal.

In any case, both sides recognise that they are each holding an economic gun to the other’s head. Hence, despite the political posturing, both Trump and Xi ultimately want a deal. Moreover, they need it to happen by the end of the year to prevent further damage from big tariff hikes currently scheduled to take eff ect on December

15. That timeline requires that both sides start taking symbolic and substantive steps immediately.

As a fi rst step, China should propose an agreement using the same text as the previous 150-page draft, but with revisions to satisfy its three “red lines.” Specifi cally, China should remove the US provisions for retaining tariff s after the agreement is signed, and for unilaterally re-imposing tariff s if the US concludes that China is not honouring the agreement. And it should add a commitment that China will execute the agreement in a way that is “consistent with its constitutional, legislative, and regulatory processes.”

Second, China should improve its original off er of a $200bn reduction

in the bilateral trade defi cit over time. This negotiating point is based on lousy economics, but it is important to Trump personally and politically.

Third, while China will want to avoid banning state subsidies for Chinese industry and enterprises, it must retain the draft agreement’s existing provisions on the protection of intellectual property and the prohibition of forced technology transfers. Moreover, it may be possible to have each country declare its position on state industrial policy in the offi cial communiqué accompanying the signing of the agreement. Such a statement could even specify the domestic and international arbitration mechanisms that will be used to enforce all relevant

laws on competitive neutrality.Fourth, both sides must create a

more positive political atmosphere. In recent weeks, there have been signs that this may happen, including reports of renewed Chinese purchases of American soybeans in September. Though purchases are still well below historical levels, this increase will help Trump to placate angry farmers in his base. The US, meanwhile, has already deferred a 5% tariff hike that was originally scheduled for October 1. It could also issue exemptions for some US fi rms to sell non-sensitive inputs to Huawei.

Fifth, both sides should regard the November 14-16 Asia-Pacifi c Economic Cooperation Summit in Santiago as the last chance for

signing a deal. Following high-level negotiations between Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer this month, outstanding problems should be agreed in Beijing in early November. Getting the deal done before Thanksgiving will be critical to undergird US business and consumer confi dence for the Christmas season.

I am one of the few commentators who have argued all year that, despite the political fi reworks, Trump and Xi’s underlying interests make a deal more likely than not. But the recently announced impeachment proceedings against Trump could throw a wrench into this process. A weakened Trump may be emboldened to take a tougher line against China than US economic interests demand. On balance, however, Trump still cannot aff ord the risk of a 2020 recession, meaning that a deal remains more probable than not.

Nonetheless, a failure to manage the next two critical months could still cause the entire process to collapse. Both sides have already spent much time preparing a Plan B for 2020: to let loose the dogs of economic war, foment nationalist sentiment, and blame the other side for the ensuing damage. Should that happen, the risk of recession in the US, Europe, and Australia next year will be high, though China would seek to soften the domestic blow through further fi scal and monetary stimulus.

The choice now facing the US and China is stark. For the rest of the world, the stakes could not be higher.

This commentary is based on a recent address to the US Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. – Project Syndicate

Kevin Rudd, a former prime minister of Australia, is President of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York.

Diabetics can reduce heat illness from exercise

The Eurozone’s 2% fi xation

Live issues

By Lisa RapaportReuters Health

Diabetes can make people more prone to heat stroke when they exercise on hot days, but two studies suggest there are

things diabetics and others can do to lower their risk of heat-related illnesses.

Exercising in the heat may get harder with age because older adults don’t sweat as easily to help reduce body temperature. This risk may be even greater when people have diabetes because of diminished blood fl ow in the skin and reduced ability to get rid of excess heat by sweating, researchers note in JAMA.

One of the two studies published in the journal confi rms that physically active people with diabetes sweat less, reach a higher body temperature and raise their heart rate more when

exercising in the heat than counterparts without diabetes. But this study also found that one week of supervised exercise training in the heat could help diabetics sweat more and maintain a lower body temperature and heart rate.

“These fi ndings are important because exercise is widely used to manage type 2 diabetes, and because there are many workers who have type 2 diabetes and are engaged in physically demanding jobs in hot environments,” said Glen Kenny, senior author of the study and a researcher at the University of Ottawa in Canada.

This study tested an exercise training programme in 34 middle-aged and older men who typically got at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a week, half of whom had diabetes. All of the participants completed exercise tests with three 30-minute bouts of cycling at increasing temperatures, once at

the start of the study and again about a week later.

After the fi rst exercise test, 10 men with diabetes and 8 men without the disease participated in a week-long exercise programme to help them acclimate to exertion in the heat, doing 90 minutes of cycling a day in conditions similar to the exercise test.

In the second set of tests, people with diabetes who did the exercise training program improved their ability to shed body heat more than those without diabetes.

These results suggest that diabetics who are already physically active may benefi t from doing a similar week-long programme to prepare for workouts during the hot summer months, Kenny said by email. Even regular exercisers still need to be careful, however.

“Our study fi ndings indicate that caution should be used when performing strenuous exercise

especially in the heat,” Kenny said.“Individuals should consider

exercising indoors in a cool and or dry and well-ventilated environment if it is hot outdoors,” Kenny added. “When performing activities outdoors in the heat, try to limit the activities to the early or later hours of the day when temperatures are at their lowest.”

A separate study in JAMA off ered another strategy to help diabetics manage exercise in the heat. This study found that wetting the skin with a cool sponge on the chest, arms, back, legs, and face may help reduce sweating and thermal discomfort during workouts in the heat.

“Applying water to the skin enables it to evaporate, which takes with it quite a lot of thermal energy from the body,” said Ollie Jay, senior author of the study and director of the Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory at the University of Sydney in Australia.

By Daniel GrosBrussels

Economic policy discussions in Europe used to be dominated by the number three, namely the 3%-of-GDP upper limit

on national fi scal defi cits. Although the fi scal rules enshrined in the Maastricht Treaty were in fact much more complex, public debate tended to focus on the 3% fi gure, especially when defi cits ballooned during the euro crisis nearly a decade ago.

Today, however, the number two holds sway over economic policymakers, in the form of the European Central Bank’s 2% infl ation target. Although the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union does not defi ne price stability, the ECB, whose sole offi cial task is to ensure price stability in the eurozone, itself decided some years ago that it means infl ation “below, but close to, 2%” over the medium term.

The ECB regards this goal as sacrosanct. But it has not been able to achieve its target in a long time. That hardly makes it unique: infl ation has remained stubbornly below 2% in most advanced economies for almost a decade. Moreover, the persistence of below-target infl ation does not seem to have had adverse economic consequences. Eurozone employment has been steadily increasing, and unemployment has fallen to record lows. But the ECB fears that its

credibility is at stake, and regards abandoning its infl ation target as out of the question.

The ECB has highlighted the looming threat of a eurozone downturn, or even a mild recession, as a further argument for using all available policy instruments to make its stance even more expansionary. This view appears reasonable at fi rst. But, given that the ECB should look only at medium-term price stability, not at the business cycle, the imminent risk of a downturn is not an argument for loosening monetary policy – especially in view of the fact that the business cycle no longer seems to have an impact on prices.

With infl ation stuck at around 1%, and no prospect of it reaching “close to” 2% anytime soon, the ECB has increasingly called on national governments in the eurozone to do their part by loosening fi scal policy. This is somewhat surprising, because the Maastricht Treaty assigns the responsibility for ensuring price stability to monetary, not fi scal, policy. Calling for higher defi cits is also diffi cult to understand in light of the continued strength of the eurozone’s labour market. Moreover, although ECB offi cials are usually careful to add that any fi scal expansion should be within the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact, they implicitly seem to encourage policymakers to set aside those constraints.

In fact, the idea that the ECB’s 2% infl ation target supersedes all other

rules seems to be gaining ground. For example, most eurozone member states have constitutionalised budget rules in accordance with the so-called “fi scal compact,” which prescribes a cyclically-adjusted defi cit of not more than 0.5% of GDP. But the average cyclically-adjusted defi cit across the eurozone is now about 1% of GDP, implying that member states overall are already not observing the compact. Any increase in the average budget defi cit would thus imply an even more serious violation of the existing fi scal rules.

True, Germany is currently running a budget surplus even on a cyclically-adjusted basis, and would thus have room for fi scal expansion under the compact. But most other large eurozone member states already have defi cits well in excess of 0.5% of GDP. Correcting these imbalances to comply with the compact would more than off set any expansion that Germany might still undertake within those rules.

The logic behind the argument that achieving the infl ation target overrides all else is simple: low infl ation can indicate the presence of some (possibly hidden) economic slack. Policymakers can then use this logic to justify expansionary fi scal and monetary policies even when growth is satisfactory and unemployment is falling.

But the argument is rather weak, because the relationship between economic slack (including

unemployment) and infl ation has broken down almost everywhere in recent years. True, increasingly sophisticated econometric analysis, which incorporates other variables such as infl ation expectations, seems to confi rm that the so-called Phillips curve still works – that is, that unemployment or other forms of economic slack have some downward impact on wages and infl ation. The ECB has been very active in pursuit of this dynamic. But the relationship is less simple than before, making it harder to justify the argument that policymakers should have their foot on the accelerator just because infl ation is below 2%.

However, the expansionist view is gaining broad traction. In particular, it jibes with the widespread feeling, especially in Europe, that after years of perceived austerity, governments have fi nally found a reason to spend more.

Central bankers second this argument. They may not say so publicly, but, by calling for more active fi scal policy, they are implicitly admitting their inability to reach their own infl ation targets.

In the longer term, this policy drift will increase levels of public debt. And although ultra-low interest rates are likely to make this sustainable for some time, history suggests that high debt levels lead to a fi nancial crisis sooner or later. It remains to be seen whether this time really is diff erent.

Daniel Gros is Director of the Centre for European Policy Studies.

US President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping shaking hands ahead of their bilateral meeting during the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 29, 2019.

WARNINGInshore : Nil

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first becomes relatively hot daytime with slight dust at times and some clouds, relatively humid by night

Offshore : Slight dust at times with scattered clouds and a weak chance of light rain at times

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easterly 05-15 KTOffshore : Northwesterly 03-13 KT Visibility : 4-8/3 KM

Offshore : 1-3 FT

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14/09

33/21

20/12

29/24

29/24

28/24

22/17

31/24

34/26

17/15

32/25

10/07

33/21

17/12

18/12

27/17

20/09

32/26

17/12

26/16

Weather

today

P Cloudy

P Cloudy

S T Storms

P Cloudy

P Cloudy

M Sunny

S T Storms

T Storm

M Sunny

M Sunny

T Storm

Sunny

M Cloudy

S T Storms

Rain

Sunny

S Showers

P Cloudy

P Cloudy

Cloudy

P Cloudy

M Sunny

Clear

Max/min

28/19

28/24

33/26

17/14

34/21

21/13

29/24

31/25

29/24

23/17

33/24

34/25

18/12

32/25

11/07

33/21

16/13

20/13

30/19

26/13

31/26

16/12

24/18

Weather

tomorrow

P Cloudy

P Cloudy

T Storm

S Showers

Sunny

Cloudy

T Storm

S T Storms

M Sunny

P Cloudy

S T Storms

Sunny

S Showers

I T Storms

S Showers

Sunny

S Showers

P Cloudy

P Cloudy

Sunny

P Cloudy

Showers

Cloudy

Fisherman's forecast

Three-day forecast

QATAR

Gulf Times Thursday, October 10, 201928

Barahat Msheireb off ers visitors an enjoyable environment year-roundBarahat Msheireb, sup-

ported by innovative cool pool systems for circulat-

ing chilled air, will off er custom-ers the ability to dine outside even during the hottest summer months as well as throughout the year.

Located at the heart of Msheireb Downtown Doha – the world’s smartest and most sus-tainable fully built city district, developed by Msheireb Proper-ties, the square will off er visitors an enjoyable environment year-round.

Barahat Msheireb takes its name from the word ‘Al Baraha’, which means in Arabic an open space for socialisation and net-working.

It is developed to be the cen-tre point of the district offer-ing 11 niche retail and Al fresco casual and fine dining options, anchored by the Cultural Fo-

rum building and the luxurious Mandarin Oriental, Doha hotel.

This piazza-style square is the largest open-air covered square in the Middle East, featuring the biggest retractable roof in the region.

Barahat Msheireb is a fan-tastic destination for every-one to stroll and bask in the glory of this historic location in Doha.

Outlets have started opening their doors, as last week wit-nessed the soft opening of “Sas-sana”, a restaurant presenting authentic Qatari dishes with a modern edge.”

With a total area of almost 7,000sq m, Barahat Msheireb is designed to host lively events in collaboration with private and public organisations, attracting people once again to enjoy life at the heart of Msheireb Down-town Doha.

Barahat Msheireb, a piazza-style square, is the largest open-air covered square in the Middle East, featuring the biggest retractable roof in the region.

The open-air night view of Barahat Msheireb.

Qatar Post launches nation-wide education campaign to celebrate World Post Day

Qatar Post yesterday shared its multifaceted programme aimed at familiarising the gen-eral public with the various functions of the

postal sector, its products and services, as well as at raising awareness about the history and evolution of the company.

This came on the occasion of World Post Day, celebrated annually on October 9.

Qatar Post chairman and managing director Faleh al-Naemi said: “Since its inception, Qa-tar Post has made a continuous effort to evolve and modernise its products, services and offer-ings. Driven by an ambitious vision to expand our reach globally, our efforts have been geared toward cementing Qatar Post’s position in the region as a hub for postal and logistical services.

“It is this ambition that guided our product and service innovation throughout our history; we launched state-of-the-art e-services and e-commerce platforms at scale to keep pace with the evolving needs of our customers and online shop-pers in Qatar and expanded and modernised our national network at scale.

“Today, Qatar Post leads by example as an or-ganisation that is deeply rooted in the local com-munity and fuelled by a global ambition to innovate and bring the best of the world to Qatar through its products and services.”

World Post Day marks the anniversary of the Uni-versal Postal Union (UPU), a United Nations spe-cialised agency.

The Union was founded in 1874 in Bern, Swit-zerland, and effectively declared World Post Day as an annual celebration during the World

Conference in Tokyo in 1969.The UPU aims to raise global awareness on the

signifi cant role postal services play in the day-to-day lives of individuals, companies and institutions across all sectors.

Additionally, it aims to shed the light on the con-tributions of postal services in the realm of social and economic development.

On World Post Day, countries around the world celebrate the occasion with the launch of new prod-ucts and services, employee reward programmes, and exhibitions and auctions for limited-edition stamp collections.

In addition to conducting seminars, workshops, conferences, cultural, sporting and entertainment events, many companies worldwide select high-ranked cadres to speak on their organisation’s his-tory, evolution and achievements.

Students participate in ‘Qatar Beautifi cation and Our Kids Planting Trees’ campaign

The ‘Qatar Beautifi cation and Our Kids Planting Trees’ campaign has start-

ed to gain momentum. A group of 25 students from Qatar Academy, Doha, a member of Qatar Foun-dation, yesterday planted 20 trees on roads developed as part of Khalifa Avenue Road Project by the Public Works Authority (Ashghal).

The event was attended by Ashghal Projects Aff airs director engineer Yousef Abdulrahman al-Emadi, Supervisory Commit-tee of Beautifi cation of Roads and Public Places in Qatar chairman engineer Mohamed Arqoub al-Khalidi, Qatar Academy middle school assistant principal Nicole Anderson, a number of other of-fi cials from Ashghal and staff from the academy.

As part of the campaign that will continue until the end of 2021, trees are to be planted every week by students from various educational institutions across Qatar. At the event, Supervisory

Committee of Beautifi cation of Roads and Public Places in Qa-tar secretary engineer Amna al-Bader said that trees that suit the environment of Qatar such as Al Sidr trees (Ziziphus spina-christi) and Sumur trees (Acacia

tortilis) will be planted.The Committee carries out the

campaign with the aim of raising awareness among school stu-dents about the importance of planting trees and instilling en-vironmental values in them, and

emphasising that protecting and preserving the environment is the duty of everyone in the com-munity, thus encouraging stu-dents to participate in achieving the goals of the country and carry out voluntary work to preserve the environment in Qatar.

Nicole Anderson, who ex-pressed her happiness to see the students’ participation in plant-ing trees in Qatar, said the in-volvement of children in such ac-tivities at early ages makes them good citizens who strive to serve their country and work hard for its development and prosperity.

The students expressed their interest in observing the daily growth of the trees they have planted.

The Khalifa Avenue project includes planting 6,830 trees across 312,000sq m of green ar-eas, 780 light poles, about 400 seats, 35 wooden pergolas, 14km of pedestrian and cycle paths and a 256m pedestrians and cyclists’ bridge.

Students with off icials of Ashghal and Supervisory Committee of Beautification of Roads and Public Places in Qatar.

Students taking part in ‘Qatar Beautification and Our Kids Planing Trees’ campaign.

Snapshots from the World Post Day celebrations.

Spanish ambassador Belen Alfaro is joined by HE the Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Aff airs Yousef bin Mohamed al-Othman Fakhro, HE the Minister of State for Foreign Aff airs Sultan bin Saad al-Muraikhi, and HE the Minister of State Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kuwari in cutting a ceremonial cake at the Spanish National Day celebrations yesterday at Marsa Malaz Kempinski as Ministry of Foreign Aff airs chief of protocol Ibrahim Yousif Abdullah Fakhro and Eritrean ambassador and dean of the Diplomatic Corps Ali Ibrahim Ahmed look on. PICTURE: Thajudheen

Celebrating Spanish National DayKatara Prize for Arabic Novel to kick off on SundayQNADoha

The fi fth edition of Katara Prize for Arabic Novel will kick off next Sunday,

featuring several programmes and activities over four days.

Speaking at a press confer-ence on Tuesday, General Man-ager of the Katara Cultural Vil-lage Foundation Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim al-Sulaiti said that a novel lab, which is expected to be inaugurated during the fi fth edition of Katara Prize for Ara-bic Novel, will provide support to novelists in Qatar under the supervision of professors and specialists in the fi eld of Arabic novel and criticism.

Katara narrative magazine and other activities will also be

launched, he added.Al-Sulaiti underlined that

Katara Prize for Arabic Novel, since its inception in 2014, adopted the mission of Katara Cultural Village which aims at supporting the Arab cul-tural scene and launching a real dialogue that contributes to strengthening the cultural co-existence in the world, and strives to achieve intellectual diversity in the Arab world.

He believed that Katara Prize for Arabic Novel has achieved all its objectives in promot-ing and supporting the Arabic novel, and the formation of a platform to serve as a forum for creators to enrich cultural awareness, noting the role of the Prize and its accompanying events in introducing Arab nov-elists and critics and highlight-

ing their role in enriching hu-man culture in general and the Arabic literature in particular.

Al-Sulaiti noted that late Tuni-sian writer and intellectual Mah-moud Messadi was selected to be the Person of the Year, as part of the events accompanying the Ka-tara Prize for Arabic Novel, within the framework of an annual tradi-tion of the Prize Committee to cel-ebrate famous fi gures in the Arabic literature who made outstanding contributions to the service of the Arabic language.

Katara has also selected the former Education Minister and linguistics expert Dr Mohamed Abdel-Rahim Kafoud to receive the “Al Dhad Shield” award for 2019, in recognition of his sig-nifi cant contributions to the advancement of the Arabic lan-guage in Qatar.

Barahat Msheireb’s state-of-the-art sound and light equip-ment makes it also a prime loca-tion for national celebrations and public and private events.

Previously, the Barahat Msheireb was lit up in the col-our blue to celebrate World Au-tism Dayand a breath-taking sound and light show took place

in the square last December in celebration of Qatar National Day.

More events are planned over the next upcoming months.