GULF TIMES

published in

QATAR

since 1978

MONDAY Vol. XXXIX No. 11000

November 12, 2018Rabia I 4, 1440 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

In brief

QATAR | Visit

President of Ghana toarrive in Doha todayThe President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, will arrive in Doha today for an off icial visit to the country. His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani will meet him at the Amiri Diwan tomorrow to discuss bilateral relations and the prospects of developing them, as well as issues of mutual concern.

QATAR | Offi cial

Amir congratulatesPolish presidentHis Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and His Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani yesterday sent cables of congratulations to Poland’s President, Andrzej Duda, on the anniversary of his country’s Independence Day. HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani sent a similar cable to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani attended the opening of Paris Peace Forum at the Grand Halle de la Villette in Paris yesterday.

His Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani attended the graduation ceremony of the 41st batch (2018) of Qatar University students yesterday. The ceremony was attended by HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani and a number of their excellencies Sheikhs and ministers.

Deputy Amir graces QU graduation ceremonyHeld under the patronage of

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani

and in the presence of His Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani, Qatar Univer-sity (QU) marked the graduation of its 41st batch of male students yesterday.

Certificates were handed over to 808 graduates in various disciplines at the ceremony held at the new Sports & Events Complex at QU, QNA said.

A total of 2,562 female students will graduate today for the academic year of Fall 2017 and Winter, Spring and Summer 2018.

The ceremony was attended by HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani and a number of their excellencies Sheikhs and ministers, along with members of

the university’s administration and faculty and students’ parents.

His Highness the Deputy Amir presented the certificates to some of the meritorious students while Dr Hassan bin Rashid al-Derham, president of QU, gave certificates to other graduates.

Dr al-Derham congratulated the graduates and addressed the gather-ing that included students, parents and friends of the graduates as well as a large number of invited guests. He highlighted the achievements of QU in the recent years as well as the improvement in international rank-ings of the university as well as the number of international accredita-tions for various departments of the university.

“As we celebrate today this batch of distinguished graduates, we are wit-nessing an important milestone in the

history of our beloved homeland. The people of Qatar and its residents have shown a unique loyalty and show of solidarity to our wise leadership, who led the country amid the unjust siege that sought to hijack the prosperity of our country,” said Dr al-Derham.

He said QU is working in partner-ship with various sectors to bring about a qualitative leap in the edu-cation standards. “Qatar Univer-sity is a national university in which Qatari society is witnessing a revi-talisation. This shift coincides with the international trends and the Qa-tar National Vision 2030. In recent years, the university has achieved a high place in the list of the best uni-versities in the world. QU continues to be ranked first in the Interna-tional Outlook indicator in the over-all Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings list for

Sport should have primacy over politics, says CoeSebastian Coe said yesterday that sport should take precedence over politics and urged nations locked in a diplomatic dispute with Qatar not to boycott next year’s world athletics championships in Doha.The IAAF president was speaking in the Qatari capital as organisers launched ticketing arrangements for next year’s event, the first athletics world championships to be held in the Middle East.“I fully expect a full contingent of federations to be there,” said Coe, a double Olympic gold medallist.“And it’s very important that inter-national sport consistently and continually makes the point that we have primacy over politics and that is very important.”Saudi Arabia and its allies including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain

and Egypt have imposed a block-ade on Qatar for the past 17 months.Coe said next year’s champion-ships, which run for 10 days and begin on September 27, was “very important” as it would give athlet-ics a “footprint” in the region.The event will see several innovations, including evening-only sessions, a marathon held at midnight, and mixed-race world championship relays for the first time. It will also mostly be held in an air-conditioned venue, Doha’s Khalifa Stadium.The IAAF announced that stadium ticket prices will begin at QR60 ($16, 14 euros).It also said it would not introduce a new qualification system for athletes for these championships. — AFP (Sport Pages 1, 2)

Amir attends opening of Paris Peace Forum

AgenciesParis

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani yesterday attended the opening

of Paris Peace Forum, held at the Grand Halle de la Villette in Paris, at the invi-tation of French President Emmanuel Macron.

The session was attended by a number of heads of state and gov-ernment, heads of delegations and a number of representatives of interna-tional organisations and civil society.

The Paris Peace Forum, conceived by Macron, is intended to highlight the importance of international institu-tions in helping resolve confl icts, avert wars and spread prosperity.

Macron opened the inaugural Paris Peace Forum, which seeks to promote a multilateral approach to security and governance and ultimately avoid the errors that led to the outbreak of World War I.

The aim of the forum, organised to coincide with the global commemora-tions marking 100 years since the end of World War I, is to show that there are lots of forces in the international system — states, NGOs, foundations,

intellectuals, companies — who believe we need a world of rules, an open world and a multilateral world, chief organ-iser Justin Vaisse told AFP.

Merkel said the forum showed that “today there is a will, and I say this on behalf of Germany with full conviction, to do everything to bring a more peace-ful order to the world, even though we know we still have much work to do.”

World leaders gathered under driv-ing rain in Paris to lead global com-memorations marking 100 years since the end of World War I, at a time of growing nationalism and diplomatic tensions.

Around 70 leaders including US and Russian Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin marked the centenary of the 1918 Armistice in the French capital at 11am local time (1000 GMT).

Macron delivered a near 20-minute speech that called on his fellow lead-ers not to forget the lessons of the past and the hopes of people worldwide for peace.

His Highness the Amir left the French capital yesterday evening, af-ter taking part in the opening of Paris Peace Forum.

The Amir was accompanied by an of-fi cial delegation. Pages 2, 3,19

the fourth time in a row,” he noted.“We, at Qatar University are work-

ing on developing social and hu-man sciences in our academic pro-grammes, in our study plans, as well as in the development of scientific

research methods and research cen-tres. We are making these efforts so that the University can address the issues of the Qatari society and the challenges it faces due to the rapid economic and social developments.

The University also strives to promote values of work, competence, excel-lence, values of belonging and iden-tity, with intellectual openness and innovation,”explained the president. Page 28

More rains forecast for todayThunderstorms brought heavy

rains and strong winds to Doha and other parts of the

country yesterday, and similar con-ditions have been forecast for today as well.

Some areas of Qatar received al-most half-a-year’s worth of rainfall in just a few hours as thunderstorms struck, AFP reported, citing the Qa-tar Meteorology Department.

According to a rain chart issued by the department, Shehaimiya in the northwestern part of Qatar received nearly 31mm of rainfall yesterday, compared to the annual rainfall of 77mm in the country.

On their part, the authorities concerned said eff orts had been

stepped up to clear rainwater from diff erent parts of the country.

Rain emergency teams started removing accumulated rainwa-ter right after the downpour in the State to ensure traffi c fl ow on high-ways and streets and in residential areas, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment tweeted.

The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) said it has put in place a number of short- and medium-term plans and measures to protect the main areas that had witnessed rainwater accumulation recently. “To ensure the safety of students, parents and teachers, tankers and pumps were distributed near schools that witnessed rainwater

accumulation recently,” it said in a post on Twitter.

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education said technical reports revealed the readiness of schools to receive students and staff today, as yesterday’s rains did not cause any damage.

Meanwhile, the forecast says thundershowers are expected in the country today along with strong winds in some places. Similar con-ditions and high seas are forecast in off shore areas.

The wind speed may go up to 40 knots today in off shore areas and 30 knots inshore during thundery rain, with the sea level rising to 15ft. Page 6

Waterlogging in front of Fanar, Doha, yesterday. PICTURE: Jayan Orma

QDB conference highlightsentrepreneurship role inQatar’s economic growth

BUSINESS | Page 1 SPORT | Page 8

Hamilton wins Brazilian Grand Prix

AMIR ATTENDS PARIS PEACE FORUM

Gulf Times Monday, November 12, 20182

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani yesterday attended the opening of Paris Peace Forum, held at the Grand Halle de la Villette in Paris, at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, in the presence of a number of heads of states and governments, heads of delegations and representatives of international organisations and civil society.

Fallen heroes of World War I honoured in Qatar

Several diplomats serving in Qatar and Qatari defence and other offi cials paid

glowing tributes to the millions of people who lost their lives in World War I (WWI), at a solemn ceremony held at Lycee Francais Bonaparte (French School Doha) in West Bay yesterday.

The ceremony, organised by the French embassy, was held to mark the centenary of the end of WWI. It was observed in memory of the signing of the First World War Armistice on November 11, 1918.

At the gathering yesterday, the ambassadors of a number of countries - including Franck Gel-let of France - and a senior offi cial from the Austrian embassy laid fl oral wreaths in honour of those

who were killed in the war.A number of other ambassa-

dors and diplomats represent-ing various countries were also present at the event.

The ceremony coincided with the ongoing Paris Peace Forum in the French capital, attended by heads of States of more than 70 countries from across the world - including His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani - and representatives of many international forums.

Besides the singing of the French national anthem by stu-

dents of the French school, a minute’s silence was observed in memory of those killed in the war. The ceremony also included the formal reading of letters written by French soldiers during the war.

One of the letters, penned by a brigadier identifi ed as Taupiac to his friend a few months after the war began in 1914, narrated some of the horrifying experiences he and other soldiers encountered during the war.

Towards the end, French am-bassador Gellet read out a mes-sage for the centenary of the armistice from the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.

In Paris, President Macron led tributes to the millions of sol-diers killed in WWI yesterday, using an emotional ceremony in Paris attended by scores of world leaders to warn against nation-alism a century on from the con-fl ict.

By Ramesh MathewStaff Reporter

Franck Gellet arriving to lay a wreath in honour of the fallen heroes. PICTURES: Ram Chand

French ambassador Franck Gellet reading out French President Emmanuel Macron’s message at the ceremony yesterday.

The ceremony, organised by the French embassy, was held to mark the centenary of the end of WWI. It was observed in memory of the signing of the First World War Armistice on November 11, 1918

AMIR ATTENDS PARIS PEACE FORUM3Gulf Times

Monday, November 12, 2018

Diplomats and senior Qatari defence off icials observing a minute’s silence in memory of those killed in WWI. PICTURE: Ram Chand

World War I heroes remembered at solemn ceremony in Doha

HEC Paris contributes to human capacity development in Qatar

HEC Paris in Qatar is contribut-ing signifi cantly to the human capacity development in the

country through its programmes.HEC Paris has been a member of

Qatar Foundation since 2010, provid-ing executive education in Qatar and the region.

“We are really proud of our achieve-ments since the launch of our execu-tive degree programmes.

Since 2012, we have seen over 400 graduates enhance their leadership and management skills, blending them with their existing capabilities to ben-efi t their organisations and wider soci-ety.

One of our achievements is to at-tract a high calibre of participants from around the region, from senior

executives in governmental and pri-vate organisations, to entrepreneurs and aspiring managers,” said the dean and CEO of HEC Paris in Qatar, Dr Nils Plambeck.

“We have a deep understanding of Qatar Foundation’s mission and we share the objective to support Qatar in its journey towards the National Vision 2030 goals to transform the country in to a knowledge-based economy by un-locking human potential.

The strong bond we have with Qatar Foundation continues to grow and we have renewed our agreement for a fur-ther fi ve years,” said the dean.

“At HEC Paris in Qatar, we con-stantly adapt our programmes to re-fl ect the evolving economic landscape and the digital age.

This approach ensures that we equip participants with relevant, up-to-date skills that are necessary to succeed.

With the skills to become suc-

cessful leaders, the participants can make significant contributions towards the National Vision 2030 objectives for a diversified, knowl-edge-based economy,” explained Dr Plambeck. The official also pointed out that more and more organisa-tions in Qatar are reposing their trust in the institute to educate their leaders and employees in cus-tom programmes.

“More and more organisations have trusted us to work with future leaders or senior executives.

It is important to notice that we have not only collaborated with compa-nies but also with semi-governmental and governmental organisations in Qatar, for example with the Ministry of Transport and Communications,” noted Dr Plambeck. “For designing the programme, we engage in intensive discussions with the clients, which al-lows us to develop programmes that

fully match the objectives and needs of the client.”

The Specialised Master’s Degree of HEC Paris in Qatar is constantly en-hanced to suit to the needs of the pro-fessionals in the ever evolving nature of the market. “In that regard, we have added a new track to the programme, Entrepreneurship & Business Devel-opment, which allows participants to further personalise their learning jour-ney to suit their career goals and the needs of their organisation.

The 10-day track has been designed

to develop the skills that are necessary to be successful in starting a business or developing an existing venture,” continued the offi cial.

As one of the world’s leading provid-ers of Executive Education, HEC Paris in Qatar off ers a complete portfolio of management programs, including Qatar’s “fi rst-of-its-kind” and now ranked #6 by the Financial Times, In-ternational Executive MBA (EMBA), a Specialised Master’s Degree in Stra-tegic Business Unit Management, as well as non-degree management pro-grammes for executives, in the form of Executive Short Programs.

These programmes offer a vari-ety of routes into extending learning journeys through executive educa-tion and include crucial topics such as Leadership, Effective Manage-ment, Finance, Marketing, Decision Making, Negotiation Skills and HR Management.

The next intake of the EMBA is in February 2019 and will help successful applicants develop the leadership acu-men to become the leaders of tomor-row.

The next intake for the Specialised Master’s Degree is in January 2019.

“As we continuously evolve our pro-gramme portfolio, we will be off ering two new Executive Short Programmes for 2019.‘Mastering Strategic Nego-tiations’ delivers a comprehensive grounding in the art of negotiation strategy that will equip participants with advanced negotiation skills in just three days.

Meanwhile, the programme ‘Facing Fintech Disruption Challenge’ focuses on emerging platforms and decentral-ised technologies that provide new ways of transferring value, analysing information, improving connectivity and reducing costs of fi nancial activi-ties,” added the dean.

By Joseph VargheseStaff Reporter

Qatar makes its mark on French equestrian sceneIt was in 2008 that the

‘Qatar’ name was fi rst emblazoned at Long-

champ in Paris for what is considered Europe’s most prestigious race meeting — Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

The Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club (QREC) signed the fi rst deal with France Galop, the govern-ing body for horse racing in France, for fi ve years, before it was extended for another 10 years, with the partner-ship now running till 2022.

One of the fi rst things that changed is that the prize mon-ey doubled to €4mn. Today, with a total prize pot of €5mn for the feature race, it is the continent’s richest turf race.

The prize pot and the stature of the race have at-tracted some of the best horses from around the world vying for honours in the iconic race.

Take for instance, Treve, a fi lly owned by Al Shaqab Racing, that captured the imagination of an entire nation and the larger horse racing universe when she raced on the Longchamp turf for the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

The Criquette Head-Maarek-trained fi lly had failed to sell at an auction and the Head family retained the horse, before HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani bought her. The fi lly won the big race at Longchamp for two straight times – in 2013 and 2014 – the fi rst time a horse had done so since 1978.

She made an unprec-edented hat-trick attempt in 2015, and even though she lost to a colt almost half her age, she had earned a fan fol-lowing like no other. Ahead of her hat-trick eff ort, the streets of Paris had seen a spectacular laser show that showed her galloping along, besides a social media cam-paign ‘#FollowTreve’.

This year’s edition saw Frankie Dettori ride John Gosden-trained Enable to her second straight victory to emulate Treve. And to then demonstrate the qual-

ity of the competition at the Qatar-backed Arc, the fi lly then crossed the pond to add the Breeders’ Cup Turf to her resume. It was the fi rst time ever that a horse had annexed the dream double.

Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Tri-omphe not only attracts the best horses and the best trainers, it has also won ac-colades. The 2,400m race was named Longines World’s Best Horse Race in 2017, the second time it had won the award in three years.

The Arc weekend, as it has been called for years, now includes 11 Group level races, including seven Group 1s. And that’s just for the Thoroughbreds.

The weekend had tradi-tionally been a Thorough-breds racing event, but with the Qatari interest in Pure-bred Arabians, the weekend saw additions to the card.

The Qatar Arabian World Cup, one of two Group 1s for the Arabians held over the weekend, is the richest race for Purebred Arabians with a total prize pot of a million euros.

Qatar Arabian World Cup is also the second leg of the Doha Triple Crown, which carries a million dol-lar bonus to the horse that will win three of the biggest Arabian races in the world — Qatar International Stakes (Gr1 PA) at the Qatar Good-wood Festival, Qatar Arabi-an World Cup (Gr1 PA) dur-ing the Arc weekend and HH The Amir’s Sword (Gr1 PA) in Doha — in a single season.

So far, the prize has not been won by any horse,

which has only added to the allure of the crown.

Qatari colours have done well in the Qatar Arabian World Cup since it was fi rst started in 2008. Six Qatari-owned horses have won the 2000m Group 1 race for Purebred Arabians eight times since 2008.

His Highness Sheikh Ab-dullah bin Khalifa al-Tha-ni-owned General and Al Shaqab Racing’s Al Mourta-jez are both two-time win-ners of the Qatar Arabian World Cup.

Talking about hosting the Qatar Arabian World Cup during the Arc weekend, QREC chairman Issa al-Mohannadi this year said, “Having the Qatar Arabian World Cup run just before the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe race has brought several benefi ts. It guaran-tees a larger turnout at the race, which Qatar is keen to have, given Qatar’s commit-ment to its great heritage of Purebred Arabians. In the coming years, we will con-tinue this tradition.”

Over the years, many Qa-tari companies have part-nered with QREC to sponsor races at the race meeting. This year’s renewal also saw Qatar Airways and Man-ateq partner with the QREC in sponsoring the event. “Their presence was strong and active, and contributed to the event. In addition, thousands of people were at ParisLongchamp, which is also in the interest of the organisations who partner with us in this sponsorship,” al-Mohannadi said.

Longchamp is an iconic Parisian track that had needed an overhaul of sorts to keep up with the chang-ing times and the mod-ern needs of horse racing. Qatar’s partnership with France Galop enabled that.

France Galop closed down the track for two years, while the Arc action moved to Chan-tilly. Earlier this year, Long-champ opened, rebranded as ParisLongchamp, to some en-couraging feedback.

According to The Guard-ian, the two-day fi xture also a commercial success, with France-Galop reporting to-tal revenues of €2mn, said to be four times the equivalent fi gure for previous years.

QREC is also involved with various events in the run up to the weekend, in-cluding an Arabian horses’ sale, including two races for Purebred Arabians at Saint-Cloud the Friday before the Arc weekend.

When the Arc returned to a renovated Longchamp this year, after a two-year stint at Chantilly, al-Mohannadi was understandably pleased. “This year’s edition has been a huge success, especially as it returned to ParisLong-champ. The renovation has made the racecourse ideal. It can accommodate a larger number of race-goers now and it looks much better, which in turn is in the inter-est of the event sponsored by Qatar over the years,” he said.

Qatar Equestrian Federa-tion president Hamad bin Abdulrahman al-Attiyah added: “The ParisLong-champ has seen a great de-velopment. This has been, for sure, due to the part-nership between Qatar and France Galop as well as the keenness of the French side to invest this partnership in to better organisation and facilities. ParisLongchamp has become a world-class racecourse in the full sense of the word. We are happy with this development be-cause this is in the interest of the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in future.”

QATAR

Gulf Times Monday, November 12, 20184

Hospitality Qatar 2018 draws more than 7,000 visitorsHospitality Qatar 2018,

which hosted the fi rst-ever conference on the

‘Future of Tourism in Qatar’ in partnership with the National Tourism Council (NTC), con-cluded on a high note with the attendance of more than 7,000 visitors, the organisers said.

The ‘Future of Tourism in Qa-tar’ conference explored design, innovation, and smart tech-nologies within various sessions comprising six panel discus-sions, eight presentations and interactive talks, with the par-ticipation of senior Qatari offi -cials, tourism industry leaders, international experts, guests, and celebrities from around the world, as well as several leading government and private entities in Qatar.

Industry analysts noted that the show has managed to give a strong boost to the local tourism and hospitality industry, which is viewed as one of the major pillars and drivers for economic growth and as an essential ele-ment to the country’s eff orts to-wards economic diversifi cation,

Chefs participating in an event at Hospitality Qatar.

falling in line with the agenda of Qatar National Vision 2030.

Industry experts noted that this edition further reaffi rmed Hospitality Qatar’s position as a strategic platform for business and networking opportunities for the hospitality and hotel/restaurant/café (Horeca) indus-

try in the Middle East, with over 400 B2B meetings held dur-ing the event, and the launch of new products - from food serv-ice equipment for the manu-facturing sector to a wide range of ready to use products for the consumer market brought in by over 20 countries.

IFP acting general manager Haidar Msheimesh said, “It is a proud moment for all of us as we closed another successful edi-tion of ‘Hospitality Qatar’ to add to the many successes we have achieved this year.

“The event has undoubt-edly become the highlight of the

hospitality sector’s calendar in Qatar and refl ects the country’s status in the global hospitality industry. We highly commend the professionalism and creativ-ity of all our partners and exhibi-tors, and wish them even more successes and accomplishments in the coming editions.”

More than 188 local, regional and international Horeca com-panies and hospitality profes-sionals, participated in the ex-hibitions, while over 300 chefs from more than 50 hotels and restaurants took part in ‘Sa-lon Culinaire’, one of the main features of the event.

This year’s edition also fea-tured a new initiative for young chefs that eff ectively put a spot-light on the country’s emerging talents. Live cooking of signature dishes, creative presentations of celebration and wedding cakes, Arabic mezza and Qatari festive foods, and barista and bartender mocktail competitions were also among the activities that took place during the three days and culminated with an awarding ceremony.

Over 45 students attend Rota Youth Challenge training

Education Above All (EAA) Foundation’s pro-gramme, Reach Out To

Asia (Rota), has concluded its four-day Rota Youth Chal-lenge training at Hamad Bin Khalifa University.

The Rota Youth Challenge aims to enhance the capabili-ties and potential of the youth, thus creating an enabling en-vironment for eff ective citi-zenship and leadership to con-tribute towards the progress and prosperity of their nation and the world.

More than 45 male and fe-male students in universities and high schools between the age of 16 and 26 years attended the Youth Challenge training. The 42 chosen participants went through a learning jour-ney that enabled them to dis-cover their voice and build their knowledge, skills, and experiences, towards creating a positive change for them-selves and their communi-ties, as well as ultimately be-come active leaders in their societies.

The training will be fol-lowed by a project from Oc-tober 2018 until March 2019, where the participants will furthermore master the skills they learnt during the training period, until the

inauguration of Empower 2019. Mohamed A Saleh, national

programmes director of Rota, said: “The youth are the back-bone of every society and de-termine its future. Nowadays, they have great responsibili-ties towards their community and must aim to create posi-tive and impactful change. Therefore, our youth were invited to invest and harness more of their time, energy and eff orts to make the most out of this unique and empow-ering event that has enabled them to become capable and productive citizens to tackle the challenges faced in their communities”.

The Rota Youth Programme supports EAA’s mandate of Quality Education through creating the suitable environ-ment and platform for young people in Qatar to experience an interactive and participa-tory educational experience to learn about sustainable development and global citi-zenship. The programme empowers young people as learners, contributors, deci-sion makers, and citizens, by giving them special attention; and forges future leaders who take on active leadership roles through innovative projects and ideas.

The Rota Youth Challenge aims to enhance the capabilities and potential of the youth.

GBI and Vodafone Qatar sign agreement

Gulf Bridge International (GBI) signed yesterday a new long-term agreement on top of its ex-

isting partnership with Vodafone Qatar that will provide the telecommunica-tions company with IP transit service, International SDH and Global Ethernet from Qatar to Europe and Asia.

The latter has the ability to grow further with the increase in consumer and enter-prise demand, capitalising on GBI’s strate-gic connectivity corridors. This agreement is set to enhance the strategic business alli-ance between the two companies.

The GBI solution will off er Vodafone Qatar’s consumers and businesses secure connectivity that will serve Vodafone Qa-tar’s high Internet and data demand local-ly and globally. The GBI network enhances reliability and business continuity and the north route guarantees access to European content. This is all supported by GBI’s 24/7 Network Operation Centre.

Abdulla al-Ruwali, executive di-rector and managing director of GBI said, “We are excited to be extend-ing our partnership with Vodafone Qatar and working closely together

on delivering value to our customers. “As demonstrated by this agreement,

we are looking forward to building sus-tainable, long-term partnerships with global leaders, with the ultimate goal of bringing the experience to our part-ners and end-users with the unique GBI network spread.”

Vodafone Qatar CEO Sheikh Hamad bin Abdulla al-Thani said, “Today’s an-nouncement with GBI is another solid step in our constant strives to deliver a world-class experience to both our mobile and broadband customers.

Vodafone Qatar CEO Sheikh Hamad bin Abdulla al-Thani and GBI executive director and managing director Abdulla al-Ruwali shake hands after signing an agreement.

HEC Paris EMBA programme ranked 6th by Financial Times

HEC Paris has announced that the Financial Times has ranked its International Executive MBA (EMBA) #6 worldwide. It is the first time that the International EMBA programme is submitted for ranking.The HEC Paris International EMBA is composed of the English modular and Doha tracks. It is run in English, in a part-time format and off ers the possibility of complete mobility between tracks. The Financial Times Executive MBA ranking is based on two sources. First, each school provides factual data about the programme, the faculty and the school in general (this accounts for 45% of the overall ranking). Feedback is then gathered from EMBA alumni who graduated three years earlier (this accounts for 55% of the overall ranking). Moreover, alumni who answered the survey have received, on average, a 68% salary increase three years after graduation and HEC Paris programme is #3 in the career progress ranking. HEC Paris has been ranked one of the world’s leading providers of Executive Education programmes for the past eight years by the Financial Times, and The TRIUM Global Executive MBA joint programme with NYU Stern and LSE, is ranked #2. Dr Nils Plambeck, dean and CEO of HEC Paris in Qatar, said: “This ranking is a recognition of the strength of our International Executive MBA programme. The programme is supported by world-class faculty, off ering an innovative curriculum and is backed by an outstanding alumni community. This ranking also reflects our commitment to deliver the best in-class management practices to current and future leaders and equip them with the skills to face the changing global market dynamics. As a member of Qatar Foundation, HEC Paris can bring world-class education to Qatar and thereby support the Qatar National Vision 2030”.The EMBA part-time programme also has a strong global element, with its modules available in diff erent locations. It off ers a special focus on strategy, leadership and the global business environment to ensure that participants gain comprehensive, innovative, and applicable knowledge and skills that they can adapt to their specific roles and which will benefit their organisations.

QATAR5Gulf Times

Monday, November 12, 2018

QFFD signs grant pact with QRCSto help RohingyaThe Qatar Fund for Development

(QFFD) and Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) have signed a

grant agreement of about QR4mn to deliver primary and secondary health-care for the Rohingya refugees forced to move to Bangladesh, and to provide shelter for internally displaced people in Rakhine State of Myanmar.

The agreement was signed by QFFD country programmes manager Sultan bin Ahmed al-Aseeri and QRCS execu-tive director Youssef Abdullah al-Sada.

Al-Aseeri praised the eff ective role played by Qatar in helping needy peo-ple around the world, adding that the Rohingya refugees are suff ering on a daily basis to reach the most basic means of living, “as their lives are con-stantly threatened by poverty, hunger, disease and displacement”. This assist-ance, he said, represents a new hope for them, particularly as providing primary healthcare and shelter will ensure a long-lasting impact for those in need.

“Health sector projects are consid-ered a priority for QFFD, as it is one of the sustainable development’s goals,” said al-Aseeri.

Al-Sada deeply hailed QFFD for this generous support to QRCS’s relief ef-forts for Rohingya people, both inter-nally displaced people in Myanmar and refugees in Bangladesh.

He also referred to the previous co-operation between the two sides in re-sponse to the humanitarian crisis with $500,000 contribution to provide them with shelters, food and nonfood aid, water and sanitation.

He reaffi rmed the importance of the strategic partnership between QRCS and QFFD, pointing out that this re-

fl ects Qatar’s constant determina-tion and wise leadership in support-ing the vulnerable and aff ected people everywhere.

“Qatar has always been and will always remain a defender of human rights,” he said, adding that as an auxiliary to Qatar in its local and international humanitar-ian endeavours, QRCS is fi rmly commit-ted to its mission of saving lives and pre-serving human dignity.

Under the agreement, the relief pro-gramme will involve improving the living conditions at shelter camps in Myanmar, by constructing shelters for the displaced in Sittwe and Kyauk-taw townships of Rakhine State. To be constructed in co-operation with local partners and community-based committees, the new shelters will help protect 6,720 direct benefi ciaries, as well as 33,600 indirect benefi ciaries, mainly women, children, elderly peo-ple, and the poorest households.

As for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, the fi eld hospital of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) at the Palong Khali camp in Cox’s Bazar, will be developed and op-erated to off er primary and secondary healthcare for around 800,000 refu-gees and host communities.

In addition, the international medi-cal professionals will be replaced with local personnel. Nine medical and ad-ministrative personnel from QRCS will be assigned to supervise the project for one year, and 90 local medics will be qualifi ed through training workshops to run the medical facility.

An agreement will be signed with IFRC, the Finnish Red Cross, and Bang-ladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) as funding and facilitation partners in the project, as well as the implementa-tion of some infrastructure projects and other related issues. (QNA)

Sultan bin Ahmed al-Aseeri and Youssef Abdullah al-Sada shake hands after signing an agreement.

Workshop on combating torture in law and practice beginsA training workshop on combating torture in law and practice opened in Doha yesterday.The four-day workshop is being organised by the human rights department at the Ministry of Interior, in co-operation with UN Center for Training and Documentation in the Field of Human Rights.The workshop will be attended by a number of experts from the United Nations and local and international bodies. A number of off icers and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs, the Public Prosecution, the National Human Rights Committee, Qatar Foundation for Social Work and Hamad Medical Corporation will participate in the workshop.The workshop aims at raising the awareness of the right to physical integrity and the prohibition of torture in Islamic law. It also seeks to inform the participants of the Convention against Torture in 1948 in particular, as well as

the international and national monitoring mechanisms for the protection of human right to be free from torture and the skills and expertise in detecting and reporting cases of torture.Brig Abdullah Saqr al-Muhannadi, director of the human rights department at the Ministry of Interior, said that the establishment of this workshop involves several vital signs, foremost of which are developmental, cultural, social and legislative changes at the national level.He noted the importance of the workshop as the promotion and protection of human rights has become a stable strategic option for the State and the society in light of these legislative transformations.He highlighted the reforms to the legal framework governing the rights of expatriate workers, the promulgation of the law on asylum, domestic employment, permanent

residence, the regulation of entry and exit of expatriates and their residence, the fund for the support and protection of migrant workers and others.He added that the presence of the National Human Rights Committee, the Department of Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs, the Department of Human Rights at the Ministry of the Interior and the UN Center in the opening session of the workshop and their participation in some of its work is an embodiment of the relationship between national institutional mechanisms on human rights and their common interest in promoting human rights and its value in Qatar.He noted that the workshop also comes in the context of the eff ective partnership between the Ministry and the UN Center which has been implementing a joint programme since 2011, referring to many joint events between the two sides. (QNA)

QATAR

Gulf Times Monday, November 12, 20186

‘80% of depression and anxiety patients recover’

Depression and anxiety account for 17.5% of mental health disorders diagnosed in Qatar, but a health specialist at Hamad Medical

Corporation (HMC) says up to 80% of such pa-tients are able to recover with treatment.

According to Dr Mohamed Ali Siddig Ahmed, di-rector of HMC’s Community Mental Health Services, most patients diagnosed with depression and anxi-ety are classifi ed as mild to moderate cases. He says around 20% of patients are diagnosed with severe de-pression and notes that those between the age of 30 to 40 are most at risk of severe depression and anxiety.

“Anxiety and depression can aff ect anyone, at any time and can aff ect diff erent people in diff er-ent ways. Just like a physical illness, mental ill-ness can be treated. Mental illnesses are manage-able conditions and recovery is possible. As with physical health conditions, early diagnosis and support are key to successfully treating mental illness,” said Dr Ahmed.

While HMC is the main provider of specialist mental healthcare in Qatar, the healthcare provider works alongside Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) and private sector clinics and hospitals to deliver mental healthcare in a variety of settings, according to the needs of individual patients.

“Primary healthcare physicians are trained to treat some forms of mental illnesses and many patients with depression and anxiety are eff ectively treated at PHCC health centres. HMC and the PHCC work to-gether very closely to ensure patients receive the right care. It is an integrated service and we work together to diagnose and treat patients with mental health disorders,” said Dr Ahmed.

Dr Fatema Musa, head of the Mental Health Pro-gramme at PHCC, said HMC and PHCC are working together to provide more integrated care for mental

health patients. She says mental health services are available across all PHCC centres. “Upwards of 20% of people will have a common mental illness such as depression or anxiety at some point in their life. At PHCC, we have ensured that common men-tal illnesses are identifi ed and treated as a routine part of our clinical practice,” said Dr Musa.

Two years ago, HMC opened a community-based mental health facility in Muaither which provides specialist outpatient and inpatient mental health services. The facility works alongside HMC’s exist-ing hospital-based services and receives patients referred from 10 PHCC health centres in the western region. According to Dr Ahmed, to date around 1,200 patients have been cared for at the facility in Muaith-er and he says about half of those were treated for depression and anxiety.

Iain Tulley, national health strategy lead, Mental Health and Wellbeing and CEO of Mental Health at HMC, said it is essential to consider physical and men-tal health together. “One in four of us will suff er from a mental health condition at some point in our life. Fail-ure to address this can impact negatively on our physi-cal health,” he said. “Looking after mental health, being able to talk openly about our feelings of anxiety, stress or depression is key to our physical well-being.”

Iain Tulley Dr Mohamed Ali Ahmed

National Mental Health website launchedThe Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday launched Qatar’s first National Mental Health website sehanafsia.moph.gov.qa (Your Mind Matters), in collaboration with key partners, Primary Health Care Corporation, Hamad Medical Corporation, Sidra Medicine and Naufar.The website is an initiative of the Qatar National Mental Health Strategy (2013-2018), to bring mental health awareness to the wider community within Qatar, in both Arabic and English.A key aim of the website is to raise public awareness about mental health and reduce stigma associated with mental illness. This online resource will provide public information on well-being, mental health conditions, and how to access services in Qatar.The National Mental Health Website is a regulated and

trusted online platform that hosts credible and latest information on mental health to ensure the general public in Qatar can access reliable information on mental health and well-being in one place.Health Aff airs Assistant Minister HE Dr Salih Ali al-Marri stated, “In line with the National Mental Health Strategy pledge to deliver mental health information resources, the initiative was to develop an online, reliable and culturally sensitive bilingual resource that will provide the wider public, in Qatar, with accurate information on mental health and services available in Qatar.”Susan Clelland, acting executive director of the National Mental Health Programme, said: “Launching the website signifies a key milestone as it supports the delivery of the strategy’s vision for good mental health and well-being for the people of Qatar.” (QNA)

Making a splash on a Doha road yesterday. PICTURE: Shaji Kayamkulam

Ashghal lines up plans to deal with rainwaterThe Public Works Authority (Ashghal)

yesterday said it has put in place a number of short- and medium-term

plans and measures to protect the main ar-eas that had witnessed rainwater accumu-lated recently, as part of its preparations to cope with rains.

Ashghal underlined that it would con-tinue to implement a number of projects to fi nd permanent solutions to absorb rainwa-ter. The projects are expected to be com-pleted in the next few years.

In the past two weeks, Ashghal has built more ponds to collect larger amounts of rainwater, after the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) and Qatar Founda-tion provided lands to dig these ponds. The authority also increased the number of tur-bines and pumps responsible for rainwater withdrawal to more than 500, in order to ac-celerate the withdrawal of rainwater and re-duce its collection in diff erent areas.

Ashghal noted that the short-term plans it has developed in this context include works that have been completed recently and others that will be fi nished within a week. These plans include increasing the number of pumps and maintaining them, as well as increasing the number of ponds to discharge larger amounts of rainwater and reduce its collection in a number of areas. Pumps have been distributed in the vicinity of schools

that had witnessed rainwater accumulation in the past, in order to ensure the safety of students, parents and staff of schools.

The authority added that it has put in place plans for another three to six months in prepa-ration for the next rainy season. The plans will focus on areas with limited drainage networks or lack of rainwater drainage networks so far.

Ashghal identifi ed the most vulnerable points for rainwater pools based on reports of the past few years, and developed interim plans to absorb rainwater in those areas un-til the completion of a permanent drainage network. The interim plans proved their success during the current season in the absorption of rainwater, it noted.

The mentioned solutions will remain temporary until completion of the imple-mentation of the Mesaimeer tunnel for the discharge of surface water (rainwater) and groundwater, which is expected to be com-pleted by the end of 2021. The tunnel will link existing and future drainage networks in the areas it passes through.

The tunnel is expected to absorb surface water from diff erent locations, estimated at 170sq km, which will reduce rainwater col-lection, particularly in various tunnels. The Mesaimeer tunnel is connected to rainwater drainage networks in 22 tunnels.

Ashghal also noted the ongoing inte-grated infrastructure projects, which will

cover all parts of the country, will need to be completed between fi ve and 10 years and constitute permanent solutions for rainwa-ter drainage in Qatar.

In this context, the authority noted the recent award of integrated infrastructure projects in Al Ebb and Leabaib in addition to three projects in Muaither and Al Mear-ad, which will enjoy a complete network in the future. Further, Ashghal said next year will see the launch of eight projects, some of which are under construction, includ-ing two projects in Al Ebb and Leabaib, two projects in Al Kharaitiyat and three projects in Al Wukair, which will serve 5,000 hous-ing units in the country.

The authority said it works during the rainy season in co-ordination with its partners at the MME, National Control Centre and the Civil Aviation Authority, focusing on priorities such as the safe management and operation of the main treatment plants, pumping stations and drainage networks at the State level in order to avoid any fl ooding during heavy rainfall, in addition to ensuring that water does not accu-mulate on main roads and bridges and in tun-nels, and ensuring the smooth fl ow of traffi c.

Ashghal said it will continue the moni-toring of all road and drainage networks in the country round the clock through the deployment of technical staff to vital sites in the country. –QNA

Shehaimiya in northwestern Qatar topped the rain charts yesterday with 30.9mm, followed by Dukhan with 16.8mm, Batna with 15.9mm and the Doha airport area with 15.3mm, according

to data from the Met department. Other places that received good rains yesterday include Wakrah with 14.4mm, Ghuwairiyah with 13.6mm and Hamad International

Airport area with 11.3mm.The Met department warned residents to stay indoors ahead of the rain and “to take extra care during thunderstorms”, AFP reported.

Thunder, lightning and a downpour

People make their way through a waterlogged road. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil

Moderate to heavy showers were reported from diff erent parts of Qatar yesterday, accompanied by strong winds blowing at 48 knots in Dukhan with visibility dropping below 1km, the Met department tweeted.From the western areas, the thunderstorms moved towards the central and northern parts of Qatar and later aff ected Doha and the eastern coast as well.“Please stay indoors during thunderstorms and avoid open areas,” the Met department said in view of the situation and advised people to stay safe.It almost felt like evening around noon yesterday as the skies turned dark even as lightning and thunder illuminated the sky. This was followed by a spell of moderate to heavy rain, accompanied by strong winds and poor visibility in some places. The showers left a number of roads waterlogged but the authorities stepped up their eff orts to clear the roads. No major congestion was reported as roads and tunnels remained open.The Ministry of Interior issued an advisory on how to drive safely in adverse weather conditions.

Training of Trainers (TOT) Academy will take place from today till Thursday. The workshop will be organised and hosted by QatarDebate Center, a member of Qatar Foundation, at the Student Center, Education City. Some 26 international trainers from 22 Arabic-speaking and non-Arabic speaking countries will come together to attend training in debating skills, public speaking, critical thinking, argumentation, motion analysis and case building. Participants are from Bangladesh, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, Poland, Serbia, Somalia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.

QatarDebate’s TOT Academy begins today

QATAR7Gulf Times

Monday, November 12, 2018

Huawei launches newfeatures-packed phones

New learningapp for DohaBank employees

By Joseph VargheseStaff Reporter

The latest series of Huawei Mate 20 and the Mate 20 Pro have hit the Qatari

market, heralding a new era of smartphone technologies.

Huawei is holding a roadshow at Doha Festival City from today until November 20 where peo-ple will be able to experience the premium features of the new phones, especially the Mate 20 Pro.

With its stunning look, out-standing display and unique features, Huawei Mate 20 Pro, claimed by Huawei as ‘the king of smartphones’ stands out as something very special and unique in many ways.

With a 6.39 inch OLED dis-play screen, dual nano SIMs, 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage (expandable), chipset Hua-wei Kirin 980, operating sys-tem EMUI 9.0 (Android 9) and weighing 189g, the Mate 20 Pro offers superfast performance among several other unique features.

The Mate 20 Pro comes with an in-screen fingerprint scan-ner and sports a Leica-pow-ered triple-lens camera system with the flash on the rear. The cameras comprise a 40-meg-apixel wide angle, 20-meg-apixel ultra-wide angle, and 8-megapixel telephoto while the front camera is a 24-meg-apixel 24mm wide sensor. Leica ultra-wide angle lens doubles as a macro lens that can land a focus on an object as close as 2.5cm from the lens. The phone with such great lenses offers an

ultimate pleasure for photo en-thusiasts.

Another great attraction of the phone is its super-fast charging, better battery life and the reverse wireless’ charging technology. Huawei Mate 20 Pro’s 4200mAh battery is one of the biggest smartphone batteries available in the market and according to Huawei, the new Huawei 40W adapter is the fastest wireless charger in the world. It has the ability to charge the phone so quickly that it only takes 10 min-utes to get to 25% and 30 min-utes to get to 70%.

As for the reverse wireless charging facility, users will be able to use this phone as a powerbank and recharge other phones wirelessly pro-vided that those phone are compatible with this par-

ticular feature (Qi supported ones).

Another noteworthy feature is its fingerprint sensor which is hidden under the display. Users can place the finger on the screen itself and a prompt will appear, recognise the fin-gerprint and unlock the phone in 0.5 seconds. It is quick, fluid and feels a lot more natural,

leaving the phone completely buttonless.

An alternative way of unlock-ing the phone is the 3D Face Un-lock feature. Mate 20 Pro uses the 3D Depth Sensing Camera to identify the facial features in under 600ms and unlock the phone. According to Huawei, with a false match rate below one in a million, this new feature is

highly secure, effi cient and quite impressive.

With a stunning hardware, great 3D face unlock, excellent camera, super-fast 40W charg-ing, outstanding display and long battery life, the Mate 20 Pro is something that fascinates eve-ryone and is priced at QR3,299 while the Mate 20 is available at QR2,499.

Doha Bank recently launched a new applica-tion for its employees,

Taeleem, which aligns the hu-man capital development and learning strategy that the bank follows with its employees.

In addition to its internal ‘Learning & Development’ portal for employees, Doha Bank continues with the Taeleem mobile learning app, which is the fi rst mobile learn-ing application for bank em-ployees in Qatar.

The app aligns with digital learning advantages and is an education instrument for Doha Bank’s employees globally. They can experience a unique opportunity for anytime learn-ing programmes, which is part of the bank’s digital transfor-mation strategy.

Taeleem is a learning man-agement tool that will not only provide employees with up-to-date information on their learning opportunities, it will also allow everyone to ac-tively engage with the Learn-ing & Development Team and participate in the interactive yearly learning calendar.

All employees can download their learning content in the form of videos, courses (Eng-lish and Arabic), and reference materials onto Android or iOS smart devices. This mobile app will provide unparalleled access to information, to sup-port continuing professional development and enhancing employee knowledge, skills, and abilities at the bank.

The app will assist team members by providing access to micro learning, supple-menting on the job develop-ment and bank instructor lead programmes. It will reinforce

knowledge with 24/7, 365-day access.

Group CEO Dr R Seetharaman said: “Taeleem is the offi cial Doha Bank mobile learning feature, which enables bank employees to access learning content, any-time, anyplace and anywhere. We are an organisation which truly believes in providing their employees with opportunity and tools to develop themselves and be part of a continuous learning environment.

“Doha Bank is committed to supporting the state of Qatar’s drive to develop a comprehen-sive knowledge-based society that will drive future sustain-ability. The bank considers that such technology platforms are a key investment that both public and private sector organisations should make, to help build this knowledge base, and support business growth plans.”

He added: “We believe in technology and business con-vergence to provide maximum automation and maintain high-est standards in service. As an organisation, we have been at the forefront of building our human capital and we will con-tinue to give opportunities to our employees, to improve their skill sets, and achieve their pro-fessional goals.”

A shot of some of the buildings at Doha Corniche taken by Huawei Mate 20 Pro.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro.

8 Gulf TimesMonday, November 12, 2018

QATAR

Oryx GTL lauds career of Dr Ken MacLeodOryx GTL has recog-

nised the 40-year education career

of outgoing College of the North Atlantic - Qatar (CNA-Q) president Dr Ken MacLeod, with a special rec-ognition ceremony held at the college. Oryx GTL chief administrative offi cer Mo-hamed al-Enazi was on hand to present Dr MacLeod with a certifi cate of appreciation.

“Oryx GTL has a long, proud history with CNA-Q. That is due in large part to the excellent relationship that has been forged through Dr Ken MacLeod,” said al-Enazi. He is an esteemed educator who deserves to be recognised for what he has done for the people of Qa-tar during his eight years as the head of CNA-Q. We also held a meeting today with

the new college president, Prof Khalifa al-Khalifa, and very much look for-ward to strengthening our partnership even further.”

Al-Enazi said his com-pany is the sponsor the Oryx GTL President’s Medal for Academic Excellence

gala evening, which recog-nises the highest achiev-ing graduates at CNA-Q, each spring, as well as four scholarships at the Reward-ing Excellence Awards, held each fall at CNA-Q. The President’s Medal for Academic Excellence has

been awarded since the College’s inception, and it became a gala event fi ve years ago when Oryx GTL became the offi cial sponsor.

“It is an important part of Oryx GTL’s corporate social responsibility pro-gramme to recognise these

outstanding young stu-dents,” said al-Enazi.

“We are honoured to be associated with these ini-tiatives at CNA-Q, and we are pleased to be assist-ing Qatar’s future leaders as we move towards Qa-tar National Vision 2030.”

Since its inception in 2002, CNA-Q has grown to off er 30 diploma and certifi -cate programmes, graduat-ing thousands of students from full-time programmes who have populated the workforce in Qatar or pur-sued further education.

This year marks the 17th year that CNA-Q has been providing high-quality ex-periential technical edu-cation in Qatar to support the State’s strategic vi-sion to educate, develop and retain young Qataris.

Off icials at the special recognition ceremony.

Salam Stores launches Happy Chopard

Salam Stores has announced the launch of new Happy Chopard fragrances. The Maison Chopard presented the new Happy Chopard Eau de Parfum Collection:

Felicia Rose and Lemon Dulci, during a chic afternoon at the Salam showroom, The Gate Mall, recently.

Felicia Rose and Lemon Dulci are a “sensory ode to the joie de vivre inspired by nature’s infi nite beauty”, according to a press statement from Salam Stores.

Both fragrances combine a selection of precious natural ingredients and essential oils known to generate uplifting emotions through their scent.

“Lemon Dulci delivers an extraordinarily uplifting shot of powerful citrus and leaf energy. Felicia Roses signals light-heartedness and exuberance, fi lling the heart with optimism and self-love,” the statement notes.

“Whimsical, light-hearted and adventurous, these crea-tions reveal surprising combinations and a very personal signature, fully inspired by the values of a bohemian gen-eration of young women, sensitive to the new sustainable values of luxury and positive living,” the statement adds.

“Thus, the new Happy Chopard fragrances unleash a sense of well-being that captures the positive spirit of our days: the capacity to look at life through fresh eyes, with a mantra of happiness, health and green living.”

Joyalukkas brings joy with gold bar giveaway this festive season

Thousands of people visited Joyalukkas showrooms across the

GCC, Singapore, Malaysia, the UK and US to participate in the Celebrate Big Winnings promotion, the leading jewel-ler said in a press statement issued in Doha. In this regard, the fi rst draw for winning up to 1,000 gold bars across the showrooms has been con-ducted.

“Joyalukkas geared up to celebrate this year’s festive season with off ers like never before. All Joyalukkas show-rooms across the world have been adorned with the latest collection of jewellery and the staff prepared to handle the festive rush. The celebration of success is passed on to pa-trons with irresistible off ers.” This year’s edition was made more special by the launch of a limited-edition collection of gold and diamond jewellery.

“The response to Celebrate Big Winnings has been over-whelming, with more patrons participating than we could have expected,” said Joy Aluk-kas, chairman and MD, Joy-alukkas Group. “I thank our loyal customers for their con-tinued support and congratu-late the winners for a win they defi nitely deserve.” Joyaluk-

kas’s Celebrate Big Winnings promotion saw winners go home with gold bars via raffl e draws across the GCC, Sin-gapore, Malaysia, the UK and US. Apart from the raffl e cou-pon, customers will get a 10% cash-back voucher on pur-chase of diamond and polki jewellery and 0% deduction on gold exchange.

Joyalukkas’s Celebrate Big Winnings promotion saw winners go home with gold bars via raff le draws across the GCC, Singapore, Malaysia, the UK and US.

‘Half Pay Back’ promotion back at LuLu

LuLu Group has announced that it is again hosting a ‘Half Pay Back’ promotion at its stores across the region after a short interval

of a quarter. The ongoing campaign will continue until December 3.

Except lingerie, all items under the category of garments, saris, churidars, baby accessories, footwear, ladies bags and selected sunglasses, etc, will come under the umbrella of the promotion, LuLu Group has said in a statement.

The promotion features extensive summer and winter collections from a number of international brands, including Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Al-len Solly, Arrow, Reo, John Louise, Peter England, Oxemberg, Zero, Dash, Sin, Ruff , Cortgiani, Eten, Debackers, Lee, Wrangler, Liberty, Killer, Nike, Reebok, Crocs, Josef Seibel, Woodland, Liberty, Sketchers, Filanto, Anta, Dickies, Ray Ban, Po-lice, Lacoste, Guess, Roberto Cavalli, CK and Tom Ford, etc.

Customers can buy any of the above items irre-spective of the brand, and in turn get a gift vouch-er worth QR100 on every purchase of QR200. LuLu Group has launched another promotion in the Toys category under the title ‘Toy Carnival’,

which gives the “best deals on a wide array of toys and bicycle products, the statement notes. The customers will be entitled to get a gift voucher worth QR50 when they buy any toy or diff erent varieties of toys for a total worth of QR150. This off er will continue until November 17.

Nestle Qatar, in co-operation with LuLu Hy-

permarkets, has launched a promotion on Nestle products. Customers who buy any of the Nestle breakfast products worth QR50 will be entitled to get entry in an e-raffl e draw whereby they will have the opportunity to win 35 gold coins each weighing 8gm. This promotion will run until No-vember 25.

The ongoing campaign will continue until December 3.

Ministry announces recall of Corolla models

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in collabo-ration with Abdullah Ab-

dulghani & Bros Co, dealer of Toyo-ta vehicles in Qatar, has announced the recall of Toyota Corolla models of 2001-2003 over a potential de-fect in the passenger side airbag in-

fl ator. In a statement yesterday, the ministry said the recall campaign came within the framework of its ongoing eff orts to protect consum-ers and ensure that car dealers fol-lowed up on vehicle defects and repairs.

The ministry has said it will

co-ordinate with the dealer to fol-low up on maintenance and repair works and communicate with cus-tomers to ensure that the necessary repairs are carried out.

It has urged all customers to report any violations to its Con-sumer Protection and Anti-Com-

mercial Fraud Department, which processes complaints, inquiries and suggestions, through the call centre: 16001, e-mail: info@mec.gov.qa, Twitter: @MEC_Qatar, Instagram: MEC_Qatar and the ministry’s mobile app for Android and iOS: MEC_Qatar

The launch of Happy Chopard fragrances at Gate Mall .

QATAR9Gulf Times

Monday, November 12, 2018

Ooredoo brings live streaming of Suzuki Cup to Myanmar

Ooredoo has announced that it is bringing live streaming of the Suzuki

Cup for the fi rst time to Myan-mar, enabling football lovers in the country to support the My-anmar team playing in the tour-nament.

This is available exclusively on My Ooredoo App. To avail of it, one has to download My Oore-doo App from Google Play Store or Apple App or dial *565# to re-ceive the download link so that they can enjoy the Cup.

Users can watch all the games live and support the country through My Ooredoo App with no subscription fee. They do not have to worry about missing the matches while stuck in the traf-fi c or else, and can now watch the games on their phone or any device with Ooredoo’s SIM, the company has said in a statement.

Another good news is that Ooredoo customers can buy the aff ordable data packs, ‘A Lan Sar Data Packs’, to enjoy Suzuki Cup

live streaming on the “fastest and widest” Ooredoo 4G network by dialling *140# to buy their fa-vourite pack, the statement notes.

In addition, if it is a new Oore-doo SIM, users wanting to enjoy the Suzuki Cup action can enjoy 1GB of data bonus to watch all the live football games during the Cup as a special off er.

The Myanmar football team will play their fi rst match today. The Suzuki Cup is organised by the Asean Football Federation.

Ooredoo upgrades its Dawli prepaid cards

Ooredoo has announced that Dawli Card custom-ers can now enjoy more

international allowance than ever thanks to a new single destination calling feature from Ooredoo.

All Ooredoo prepaid custom-ers can enjoy the boosted allow-ance by purchasing a Dawli 10 or Dawli 20 physical scratch card from any Ooredoo shop or dealer and activating it by following the simple instructions on the back, the company has said in a state-ment.

The new Dawli allowance can be activated via the Ooredoo app or by dialling *120# after activation of a Dawli Card, then selecting the single calling destination of choice.

Thanks to the launch, Ooredoo customers can now stock up in-

ternational minutes allowance for less, enabling everyone to connect to home, the statement notes.

Dawli 10 customers can now enjoy up to 350 minutes to India, 80 minutes to Nepal, 80 to the Philippines, 80 minutes to Bang-ladesh and more for QR10.

Dawli 20 customers will get 720 minutes to India, 200 min-utes to Nepal or 120 minutes to Pakistan for QR20.

The new allowances for the nine popular destinations in Dawli 10 will be for seven days and Dawli 20 will be for 14 days with the recharge day.

To fi nd out more about the of-fer, one can visit www.ooredoo.qa

Envoy, Italian offi cials laud success of two-day air showBy Peter Alagos Business Reporter

The two-day air show, organised by the Italian embassy in Doha and Italy-based aerospace and defence company

Leonardo, has showcased the achievements of Italian technology, according to ambassa-dor Pasquale Salzano.

In a statement to Gulf Times, Salzano said: “Italy showcased the best of its aircraft production: the T-346 A and Eurofi ghter Typhoon, thanks to aerospace and defence company Leonardo.

“The breathtaking stunts we had the chance to admire have proved the extraordinary re-sults the Italian technology can achieve, as it is based on a unique combination of research and innovation, know-how and expertise.

“I want to thank again the Italian Air Force Flight Test Wing and Frecce Tricolori for this extraordinary air show. They fl y the Italian creativity and ‘Made in Italy’ innovation, enchanting adults and children and bring-ing the spirit of the Italian fl ag around the world.”

Qatari businessman Farhan al-Sayed, who described the event as “the spirit of Italy in Qa-tar”, said: “The air show is the strongest state-ment made by Qatar and Italy on their friend-ship through this beautiful and memorable acrobatic display.”

Lt General Settimo Caputo, deputy chief of staff of the Italian Air Force, said: “The Italian Air Force and Qatar Amiri Air Force have been co-operating for many years in the fi eld of fl ight training.”

He said the T-346 A, whose aerobatic ma-noeuvres was one of the highlights of the show, is a state-of-art trainer system based at the Lecce-Galatina Air Base, the home of the 61st Flight Training Wing.

“After the excellence in the naval and heli-copter sector, we wanted to give to Qatar the chance to know our latest aeronautics tech-nologies,” said Valerio Stella, Leonardo’s general manager in Qatar, referring to the defence deals signed in the last two years between Qatar and Italian companies.

The air show featured dazzling displays by the Italian Air Force and Qatari Display Team.

The air show in progress yesterday. PICTURE: Jayan Orma

The Frecce Tricolori during the air show yesterday. (Picture courtesy: Italian Air Force)

QATAR

Gulf Times Monday, November 12, 201810

Grazia Style Awards recognise Qatari talentThe annual Grazia Style

Awards, now in its third year, concluded recently

at The St Regis Doha with over 15 awards presented to Qatari and Qatar-based talent in fashion, art and education.

The winners included Woman of the Year Sheikha Asma al-Thani for becoming the fi rst Qatari to ski to the North Pole; Italian ambassador to Qatar Pasquale Salzano, named Man of The Year for the contribu-tion he has made in encouraging dialogue and co-operation be-tween Italy and Qatar over the past 12 months; and Aisha al-Naama, Yasmian al-Sharshani and Nada Zeidan for Grazia Cover of the Year.

Also, the inspirational Dana al-Anzy was named Youth Advocate of the Year for her work with Edu-cation Above All.

Grazia Arabia’s editor-in-chief

Bianca Brigitte Bonomi said: “The awards are all about off ering a plat-form to emerging and established names in the worlds of fashion, art, and culture, and honouring those individuals that have made a tan-gible impact on our experience here in Qatar – enriching our lives with their inspired thinking and shed-ding light on new facets of culture.”

Highlights this year included an art installation, curated by Fa-had al-Obaidly, which showcased the link between fashion and art; a ‘majlis’ featuring Aldo Coppola, Maison 21, L’Occitane, and N Bar Qatar; and a Salam Stores fashion forward activation showcasing AW18 highlights, as well as gor-geous fl oristry courtesy of top Qa-tari fl orist HENKS.

The theme of the event was Celebrating Qatar. Bonomi told guests at the event: “It’s a theme

we are passionate about because at Grazia, we celebrate Qatar in every issue, every month. From inspi-

rational Qatari women achieving huge feats to Qatar-based design-ers and creatives breaking bounda-

ries, Grazia’s DNA is about putting female achievement fi rst and plat-forming women with something to say. These women may speak in diff erent languages and operate in diff erent fi elds, but our voices have something in common. We are speaking in unison to an interna-tional audience and showing them what Qatar has to off er.”

The Grazia Style Awards wel-comed guest of honour Reem Acra, who fl ew from New York courtesy of Qatar Airways for the event.

Arriving in style with Grazia’s editor-in-chief in a Rolls-Royce Phantom, courtesy of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Doha, the renowned international designer known for her ready-to-wear and bridal collections received the Lifetime Achievement Award for services to fashion from Dana Alfardan, last year’s Woman of the Year.

A moment from the Grazia Style Awards.

Century 21 Qatar presents photo-op at ‘Upside-Down’ kiosk

Century 21 Qatar has brought a “unique opportunity” for social media enthusiasts in

Qatar – the ‘Upside-Down’ kiosk at Al Mirqab Mall.

“An offi ce space that looks up-side-down, the kiosk presents a great photo opportunity that is sure to amaze your followers and generate instant likes on social media platforms.

All you have to do is snap, fl ip, tag and post,” the real estate and professional property management company has said in a statement.

“Nowadays, having something unique to share on your social me-dia timeline is gold.

And what better way to turn your pictures viral than at an up-side-down offi ce? You can pose like Spiderman or hang from the table or even type on the upside-down laptop... express your per-sonality in endless ways and click

that one-of-a-kind photo that will have everyone amazed,” said Cen-tury 21 Qatar’s marketing offi cer, Leo Tabilog.

The kiosk does not just give one a memorable photograph to wow friends, but also a chance to win the latest iPhone XS Max.

Visitors will have to use #AlMir-qabMall and #Century21Qatar on their post and tag and follow Cen-tury 21 on Facebook and Instagram to compete.

Winners will be chosen based on the number of likes and will be awarded a new iPhone XS Max.

Counting of votes will end on November 22 and the winner will be announced on November 24.

“The objective behind the unique kiosk comes as part of Century 21 Qatar’s commitment to off er unique work-life enhancing properties than just another com-mercial real estate.

An ‘Upside-Down’ offi ce cam-paign — a concept that puts life into offi ces and makes going to routine work a fun experience, en-hancing productivity and overall better business performance,” said Century 21 Qatar’s general man-ager, Akif Saghir.

“Having an offi ce located inside Mirqab Mall, one of Qatar’s new upscale community malls, has a plethora of advantages — including not having to worry about parking space ever again either for you or your visitor,” the statement notes.

The mall provides multiple op-tions to meet clients in various cafés or conduct business lunch meetings at its various restaurants.

The campaign will run for two weeks, until November 24, at Al Mirqab Mall, giving visitors am-ple time and opportunity to take unique photographs with their friends. The Upside-Down’ kiosk at Al Mirqab Mall.

Abuissa signs MoU with CMU-Q for joint research

Abuissa Holding (AIH) and Carnegie Mellon Univer-sity in Qatar (CMU-Q) have

signed a memorandum of under-standing (MoU) to co-operate in the fi elds of scientifi c research and strategic studies.

During the signing ceremony, Ashraf Abu Issa, chairman and CEO of Abuissa Holding, said: “We are very pleased to have formalised our co-operation with Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. The exchange of knowledge and re-sources will help facilitate the pro-fessional growth of both CMU-Q students and the Abuissa Holding team. By enriching the abilities and talents of our human capital, we further support the economic development of Qatar.”

The agreement includes the provision of scholarships, intern-ships and employment for CMU-Q students; co-operation in the edu-cation of the AIH executive leader-ship; sharing of professional ex-pertise, scientists and researchers; and organising specialised confer-ences, seminars and workshops, a

press statement noted.The dean of CMU-Q, Michael

Trick, added: “The partnership

with Abuissa Holding brings to-gether academia and the business sector in the spirit of learning and

co-operation. Abuissa Holding of-fers our students the opportunity to learn in a real-world setting; at

the same time, we will share our wealth of information and exper-tise to help Abuissa team members learn and develop. We look forward to many years of fruitful collabora-tion with Abuissa Holding.”

AIH is one of the most diversi-fi ed and progressive organisations in Qatar. It owns and operates over 70 global networks of market-leading businesses across 11 sec-tors, and employs more than 4,000 people.

It is internationally recog-nised as a leader in facilitating the growth of innovative new busi-nesses, and as one of the fastest-growing entrepreneurial incuba-tors in the global community, the statement adds.

Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar delivers select programmes that contribute to the long-term development of Qatar.

Approximately 400 students from 38 countries study at CMU-Q in the areas of biological sciences, business administration, compu-tational biology, computer science and information systems.

Abuissa Holding and CMU-Q officials at the agreement-signing ceremony.

MTM Active Ladies awarded Qatar’s Best Fitness Centre

MTM Active Ladies was recently awarded as Qatar’s best fi tness

centre during the recently held 2018 Ohlala Spa & Wellness awards.

The facility in Duhail is a one-stop fi tness club where women “can enjoy every fi tness and wellness service in one place”, according to a press statement.

The facility has “state-of-the-art gym equipment for every kind of training, while unlimited fun and exciting fi tness classes are off ered for women who enjoy variety in their training”.

Classes are tailored for women of all fi tness levels – from be-ginners, intermediate and ad-vanced, ensuring that every lady is welcome to join, the statement notes.

After a strenuous workout, members can rejuvenate in the Jacuzzi and sauna. There is also

a deluxe lounge where women can enjoy refreshing juices and healthy snacks.

The fi tness club also off ers one-on-one personal train-ing for ladies who prefer private training sessions. To accelerate and maximise fi tness results, the nutrition department provides customised food plans as an ad-ditional service.

More than just a gym, a luxu-rious spa will be opening soon where both members and non-members can come in for a re-laxing session, the statement adds.

“MTM Active Ladies is truly the newest home for fi tness-ori-ented ladies to gather and share the same passion and love for fi t-ness,” said Najat Khana of MTM Active Ladies.

MTM Active Ladies is located between Landmark and Tawar malls.Members of the MTM Active Ladies team at the awards ceremony.

QATAR11Gulf Times

Monday, November 12, 2018

Filipino supermarket chain opens fi rst store in DohaBy Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

Amana Puregold super-market opened its fi rst branch in the Gulf region

in Doha last week, off ering an array of items for all residents, especially Filipino products that are available in Qatar for the fi rst time.

Amana Group Holding chair-man Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim MA al-Thani and Global Food Trading and Amana Puregold COO Peter Mathews, along with other company offi cials and guests, attended the event, which drew a large number of Filipino expatriates on the out-let’s inaugural day on Thursday.

“What we have seen is that many Filipinos are coming to Qatar so we thought of doing something and this new Amana

Puregold store will benefi t the community,” Mathews told Gulf Times.

“We have been doing a lot of distribution business in Qatar on Filipino foods, so we thought - ‘why don’t we expand our op-erations?,” he said.

Amana Group is also planning to open fi ve more outlets as part of its expansion in the near future to meet the growing demand for Filipino products, according to Mathews.

He noted that these outlets will serve residents in various loca-

tions in the country while it is also considering an outlet outside Doha “but not at this time.”

The 500sqm outlet has 70% Filipino food products in its shelves while local items and a number of brands from other countries are also on display.

Vegetables and fruits, (from salted eggs to ‘calamansi’, banana, pineapple and mangoes), and canned goods, as well as non-food items such as cosmetics (Ever Bilena), are among the popular items on off er for Filipino expatri-ates in Doha at reasonable prices.

“If we will open another store it will be as big as this one but we are not limited to this size and if things come our way we might open bigger projects,” said Math-ews, stressing that their focus now is to establish fi ve to six outlets in Qatar “very soon”.

Many Filipinos, especially those who live in the Al Sadd area, stand to benefi t from the newly-opened Puregold outlet, fi nding it more convenient for them to buy Philippine products they like.

Sheryline C, who went for the store’s opening day, said she was delighted to see salted eggs at Puregold as she often asks her compatriots who take their va-cation back home to buy her at least a dozen when coming back to Doha.

Amana Puregold plans to open five more branches in Qatar

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim MA al-Thani and Peter Mathews lead the ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the first Amana Puregold in the region in Doha. PICTURES: Jayaram

A large number of Filipino expatriates in Doha thronged the opening day of Amana Puregold last week.

Genesis’ GV80 concept SUV

showcase at

Doha Festival City

Skyline Automotive, a Jaidah Group company and offi cial distribution

partner of Hyundai Motor Company and its luxury brand Genesis for Qatar, has an-nounced that it is bringing the Genesis GV80 concept SUV to Doha Festival City throughout the month of November.

The Genesis GV80 concept SUV is the only “one of its kind” in the Middle East and Africa, Skyline Automotive has said in a press statement.

The GV80 concept, with its futuristic design and innova-tive technology, was one of the highlights of this year’s Qatar Motor Show (QMS) 2018. The unveiling of the car on the fi rst day of QMS marked its fi rst public appearance in the Mid-dle East and Africa.

“As a result of the massive popularity the concept SUV received from the motor show, Genesis has decided to expand the presence of the GV80 in Qatar for one more month,” the statement noted.

The Genesis booth at Qatar Motor Show, set up by Skyline Automotive, attracted thou-sands of visitors, including key stakeholders in Qatar and major local, regional and Asian media outlets. More than 50 test drives were also organised for Genesis’ other cars on dis-play at the motor show.

These included the G70, G90, G80 and G80 Sport. The arrival of Genesis’ latest sedan brought to life the vision of the

Genesis brand to create prod-ucts which combine elegance, practicality and fi erceness, meeting the needs of a motor-ist looking for a unique experi-ence on the road.

“Skyline Automotive has made a strong name for itself after fi rst entering the market in 2017. Since then, it has con-tinued to bring various invest-ments and product fi rsts to Qatar,” the statement added.

Mohamed Jaidah, Group executive director of Jaidah Group, said: “Jaidah Group has been an active participant in Qatar Motor Show for years, fi rst with Jaidah Automo-tive, and more recently with Skyline Automotive, the of-fi cial distributor of our luxury brand, Genesis. From what we’ve seen during our par-ticipation, Qatar Motor Show has been marvellous year after year, and we’re very proud to have been a part of it.”

Johan Madarasz, marketing manager of Skyline Automo-tive, added: “We’ve been very pleased with the attendance rate to our booth at Qatar Mo-tor Show. People’s interest in the car has encouraged us to extend the lease of the GV80 in Doha for another month so we can display the car at Doha Festival City, to give more peo-ple a chance to see it, in case they haven’t been able to at the motor show.”

For more details on the Gen-esis GV80, visit http://www.genesis.com/

Genesis’ GV80 concept SUV is being displayed at Doha Festival City throughout the month of November.

REGION/ARAB WORLD

Gulf TimesMonday, November 12, 201812

Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar held talks with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in Benghazi yesterday, one of his off icials said ahead of talks aimed at stabilising the war-torn North African country, although Rome later denied the visit. Lib-ya’s key political players are to meet international leaders in Palermo, Sicily, today in the latest bid by major powers to kickstart a long-stalled political process and stage elections. A senior off icial from Haftar’s self-proclaimed Libyan National Army said that Conte travelled to Benghazi, 650 kilometres east of Libya’s capital Tripoli, to discuss the “latest developments on the Palermo conference”.

Protesters holding signs reading “I will face my rap-ist” lined the course of Beirut’s Marathon yesterday to call for tougher action against sexual abusers. The campaign in the Lebanese capital also sought to challenge perceptions in Lebanese society that often blame victims rather than attackers. Dozens of solemn-faced campaigners, many dressed in black, took their places along the seaside course of the race. They held up signs bearing slogans in Arabic and English that read: “Today, I will not run: I will face my rapist” and “Judge the rapist, not the victim”. The campaign, under the hashtag #ShameOnWho, was organised by NGO Abaad.

Iranian special courts set up in a drive against eco-nomic crime have sentenced two people to death, state media said yesterday, as the country faces renewed US sanctions and a public outcry against profiteering and corruption. The fast-track religious revolutionary courts were set up in August after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for “swift and just” legal action to confront an “economic war” by foreign enemies. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, quoted by news web-site Mizan, said the courts had handed down death sentences on two defendants after convicting them of “spreading corruption on earth.”

A Cairo criminal court has added the group Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya as well as 164 of its leaders and members to a list of terrorist entities, Egypt’s off icial gazette said yes-terday. The group waged a bloody campaign against Egypt’s security forces in the 1990s but later gave up violence and entered mainstream politics. In an Oct 28 ruling, the Cairo court said that following the 2011 uprising that toppled former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, “many leaders and members of Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya renounced their previous initiatives to stop violence”, according to the off icial gazette. Travel bans and asset freezes are automatically imposed on those included on the terrorist list.

Italy denies PM visit to Libya strongman

Campaigners use marathon to urge action on rape

Two get death sentence in fight against economic crimes

Egyptian court adds group to terrorism list

DIALOGUEDIPLOMACY RIGHTS TRIAL LEGAL

Clashes reach residential streets in Hodeidah cityAFP Hodeidah

Fighting for control of Yem-en’s rebel-held city of Ho-deidah reached residential

streets yesterday, as the Houthi insurgents mounted fi erce re-sistance to government forces backed by Saudi Arabia, military sources said.

Fears for civilian safety have been rising since November 1, when the loyalist forces renewed an operation to take Hodeidah.

The Red Sea port city has been in the grip of Yemen’s Houthi rebels since 2014.

Mariam Aldogani, Save the Children’s fi eld co-ordinator in Yemen, said that the people in Hodeidah are living in a “state of fear”.

“There is ongoing fi ghting, and the situation is very bad,” she said on the phone, as strikes were heard in the background.

“There is a lot of fear among residents, and some fear keeping their (loved ones) in hospitals as battles intensify,” said Aldogani, about a kilometre away from the port.

Health facilities in Hodei-dah are receiving an increasing number of wounded civilians, she added.

Troops entered residential streets in eastern Hodeidah yes-terday with the aim of “purging them of insurgents”, according to a pro-government military offi cial.

Rebels entrenched in the streets and positioned on rooftops battled to keep loyal-ist fi ghters out of a neighbour-hood located between two ma-jor landmarks in Hodeidah, the city’s main hospital and vegeta-ble market, both essential to the daily lives of civilians.

Residents south of the site of yesterday’s clashes said they could hear gunfi re and shelling throughout the night.

“We had three people from our neighbourhood hospitalised over the weekend for shrapnel wounds,” said Marwa, who asked that her name be changed.

“We’re really tired. It’s not safe. We have no money. This time no one is leaving. We can’t aff ord it, and it’s too dangerous.”

Battles yesterday intensifi ed in the southwestern part of the city as pro-government forces advanced along the coast to-wards the port, military offi cials said.

Yemenis across the city have reported seeing snipers sta-tioned on rooftops and rebel-run tanks fi ring artillery in Ho-deidah, home to the country’s

most important port.Saudi Arabia and its allies fi rst

launched an off ensive to take Hodeidah in June, sparking an exodus from the densely popu-lated city.

The operation was temporar-ily suspended amid UN eff orts to hold peace talks, which failed to materialise.

The United Nations is now pushing for talks by the end of the year.

Yemen’s foreign minister said yesterday that his government, which is recognised by the UN,

was committed to the peace talks.

“The government is commit-ted to supporting the UN special envoy’s eff orts...to hold a round of talks by the end of this year,” Khalid al-Yamani was quoted as saying by the state-run Saba news agency.

Pro-government fi ghters moved into the neighbourhood between the May 22 Hospital — the largest in Hodeidah — and Sanaa Road, which links the port city to inland Yemen.

Fighters clashed around the

Al-Waha (Oasis) Resort hotel complex, closing in on a civilian district located south of the hos-pital and north of Sanaa Road.

Hodeidah’s docks, while un-der blockade, were not yet im-pacted by the fi ghting, according to a local offi cial.

“We cannot predict what will happen in the future, but at the moment there are no problems,” said Yahya Sharafeddine, deputy director of Hodeidah port.

Hodeidah is a vital lifeline for Yemenis across the war-torn country, as the majority of im-

ports and humanitarian aid enter through its port.

Around 14mn Yemenis are at risk of famine and many more are dependent on international aid, according to the UN.

Hodeidah port has been blockaded by the Saudi-led al-liance since November 2017 over what the coalition says is arms smuggling from Iran to the Huthis.

Tehran denies the charge.Sanaa international airport,

held by the rebels, is also under blockade by Saudi Arabia and its allies who control Yemen’s air-space and maritime borders.

In the fi rst defection from Sanaa, where the rebels run a parallel government not recog-nised by the UN, Houthi minis-ter Abdul Salam Ali Jaber yester-day announced he had deserted the insurgency.

More than 400 combatants have been killed in 10 days of clashes in Hodeidah.

Medics yesterday said at least 61 fi ghters had been killed over the course of 24 hours, with doz-ens of wounded taken to hospi-tals outside the city.

Medics in Hodeidah city re-ported 43 Houthi rebels and nine loyalists were killed in clashes over the same period.

Another nine loyalist fi ghters were killed and their bodies tak-en to a hospital in government-held Mokha, south of Hodeidah, medics said.

Dozens of wounded rebels were transferred to hospitals in the provinces of Sanaa and Ibb, further inland, a source at the Hodeidah military hospital said.

In 2014, the Houthis over-ran the capital Sanaa and swept though much of the rest of the country, triggering the Saudi-led intervention the following year.

The rebels have since been driven out of virtually all of the south and much of the Red Sea coast, with the exception of Ho-deidah.

Both parties in the Yemen confl ict stand accused of acts that could amount to war crimes.

The Saudi-led coalition has been blacklisted by the United Nations for the maiming and killing of children, including an attack that killed at least 26 chil-dren south of Hodeidah.

The United States on Saturday said it halted a controversial re-fuelling arrangement for coali-tion aircraft engaged in Yemen.

The World Health Organisa-tion estimates nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the war since 2015, while rights groups believe the toll may be fi ve times as high.

A Yemeni child suff ering from severe malnutrition is weighed in a hospital in the northern district of Abs in the northwestern Hajjah province, yesterday.

Displaced Yemenis from Hodeidah province eat food in a camp in the northern district of Abs in northwestern Hajjah province.

Palestinians mark anniversary of Arafat’s deathAFP Ramallah

Palestinians yesterday marked 14 years since the death of iconic leader Yass-

er Arafat, with their campaign for statehood still deadlocked and beset by internal divisions.

Arafat, who for decades em-bodied the struggle for inde-pendence, died aged 75 in a French hospital on November 11, 2004, with fellow Palestinians accusing Israel of having poi-soned him.

The Israeli government fi rmly denies the allegation.

His body was exhumed in 2012 for tests but a subsequent French investigation found no proof of poisoning.

Swiss experts, however, said

they found high levels of radio-active polonium on his personal eff ects.

Arafat’s successor, Palestinian

president Mahmoud Abbas, laid a wreath at his tomb in Ramal-lah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank yesterday, fl anked by sen-ior offi cials of his Palestinian Authority. After paying tribute to “the leader of the nation and the leader of the martyrs”, Ab-bas went on to accuse Israel and the United States of seeking to sabotage Palestinian statehood through a nascent peace plan that President Donald Trump calls “the ultimate deal”.

“There is an American con-spiracy through the ultimate agreement and the Israelis are conspiring to implement it,” he said.

Abbas suspended diplomatic contact with Washington fol-lowing Trump’s 2017 recognition of the disputed city of Jerusalem as capital of Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas lays a wreath at the tomb of late leader Yasser Arafat inside the Mukataa compound, in the the West Bank city of Ramallah.

US-backed force says resuming anti-IS assault in eastern SyriaAFP Qamishli

A Kurdish-led force backed by a US-led anti-militant coalition

said yesterday that it was re-suming its off ensive against the Islamic State group in eastern Syria.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an Arab-Kurd-ish alliance, had announced it was suspending its operation on October 31 after Turkey shelled Kurdish militia posts in northern Syria.

The SDF said the resump-tion followed “intensive con-tacts” with the international coalition and “strong diplo-matic activity” to defuse the crisis.

“The leadership of the Syr-ian Democratic Forces has decided to resume military operations against the Islamic State group, and work towards its defi nitive defeat,” the force said in an online statement.

“While it remains deter-mined to chase down terror-ism, (the SDF) also confi rms its determination to protect the northern border of Syria,” it added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the operation had not yet restarted, although SDF reinforcements had been sent to the area.

However it said the inter-national coalition had con-tinued to conduct air raids on the area, killing dozens of militants as well as civilians.

The Britain-based moni-tor, which relies on a network of contacts across Syria, has reported near-daily Turk-ish shelling in Kurdish ar-eas since late October, which

killed five Kurdish fighters.But yesterday it said coa-

lition officials had assured Kurdish forces that Turkey would cease its shelling, add-ing that there had been no bombardment there since Friday.

Ankara views the Kurd-ish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which forms the backbone of the SDF, as a “terrorist” group linked to Kurdish rebels who have waged a decades-long insur-gency inside Turkey.

The Turkish government has long opposed the estab-lishment of a de facto au-tonomous Kurdish area in northeastern Syria, fearing it could embolden separatists at home.

But its Nato ally Washing-ton has backed the Kurdish fighters in the battle against IS.

After the SDF announced it was halting its operation, Washington said it was in communication with both sides to push for de-escala-tion.

In an attempt to defuse tensions, Turkish and Ameri-can troops launched joint patrols in the northern Syr-ian city of Manbij earlier this month.They also carried out patrols in Kurdish territories shelled by Turkey.

Backed by the interna-tional coalition, the SDF launched its assault on the IS enclave around the Euphrates valley town of Hajin on Sep-tember 10.

After making progress against the militants, it suf-fered a major setback last month when IS fighters launched a series of deadly counter-attacks using the cover of sand storms.

Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), carry the coff in of a fellow fighter, killed during a military mission, in the Kurdish-controlled city of Qamishly in northeastern Syria, yesterday.

A photo provided by the Kuwaiti news agency Kuna yesterday, shows Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, meeting with Iraq’s President Barham Salih in Bayan Palace in Kuwait City.

Hamas commander killed in Gaza

Israeli security forces killed a com-

mander from the Hamas group in

the Gaza Strip yesterday Palestin-

ian off icials said. They said a group

of Hamas men were fired at from

a passing car. Local witnesses

also said Israeli planes fired over

20 missiles into open areas in the

area where the incident took place.

The Israeli military said in a brief

statement that: “During IDF (Israel

Defence Forces) operational activ-

ity in the Gaza Strip, an exchange

of fire evolved.”

AFRICA13Gulf Times

Monday, November 12, 2018

Nigeria’s new minimum wage might be a big askBy Sophie Bouillon, AFPLagos

On the campaign trail for re-election in Febru-ary, Nigeria’s President

Muhammadu Buhari may have spoken too soon when he backed an initiative to hike his country’s minimum wage by a whopping two thirds.

Buhari, who had been ad-vised on the wage by a negotiat-ing committee made up of union representatives, the government and the private sector, praised the “patriotic and professional” members.

The recommendation to hike

the minimum wage to 30,000 naira ($82) from 18,000 was “realistic, fair and implementable” and would be studied by the executive “within the shortest possible time”, before being returned to parliament for fi -nal approval, he said.

The unspoken agreement was that Nigeria’s unions, which had threatened to paralyse Africa’s largest economy of more than 180mn people with a massive, open-ended strike, would deliver their members’ vote to Buhari in a presidential poll set for February 2019 in return for the pay hike.

But the very next day the in-formation minister poured cold water on the idea, claiming that the Nigerian government had in

no way acceded to the 30,000 naira demand and said this “rec-ommendation should fi rst be studied”.

Standing in the way of Buhari’s strategy to win the popular vote with the wage promise are the 36 state governors who say they are already struggling to pay civil servants and public offi cials with the current wage.

David Umahi, governor of southeast Ebonyi state, warned this week that the 30,000 naira minimum wage for public serv-ants couldn’t work.

“Many states are experiencing various problems and cannot pay salaries,” he told reporters after Buhari’s remarks.

Even if it went through, a high-er wage would still be modest given that a 25kg bag of rice costs nearly 10,000 naira.

“It is very low considering the cost of living,” Charlie Robertson, Renaissance Capital economist and Nigeria specialist, told AFP.

But attempting to do more would be unrealistic because Ni-gerian businesses already have high overheads, and many work-ers are unqualifi ed, making a pay hike hard to justify, he said.

Nigeria’s patchy power supply is another factor undermining the competitiveness of business-es, and therefore their margin for any wage increase.

“Nigeria’s diffi culty on the

minimum wage is that because its electricity, literacy are less than most countries, its wages must be less too. Or it will attract no foreign investments,” Robert-son said. “30,000 is a sensible compromise but still debatable.”

Ivory Coast, for example, has a higher minimum wage than Ni-geria but its good energy network still allows it to stay competitive with its West Africa neighbours.

In contrast, electricity is al-most non-existent in most of Ni-geria and the literacy level of the adult population is close to 60%, a number that falls to less than 50% in the predominantly Mus-lim north.

Nevertheless, it will be hard

to explain to voters that Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil exporter pro-ducing more than 2mn barrels per day can neither aff ord a modest minimum wage for its civil serv-ants nor provide a decent level of education and infrastructure to attract investors.

Several months ago, a sena-tor caused a scandal by reveal-ing lawmakers’ salaries: 14.25mn naira a month with bonuses, making it one of the highest sala-ries of politicians in the world.

At 30,000 naira, it would take 35 years for a Nigerian worker to earn what deputies make in a month, and 68 years at the cur-rent minimum wage level of 18,000 naira.

Life expectancy in Nigeria is barely above 53.

There is hardly a better refl ec-tion of the staggering inequality in Nigerian society.

On the eve of a presidential election and after two years of painful recession beginning in 2016, voters are demanding ac-countability.

“Where are you going to fi nd the money to pay the salaries?” asked Gbenga Omotoso, a col-umnist in the normally pro-gov-ernment newspaper The Nation.

“Reduce these outrageous wages, force the rich to pay their taxes, pursue the corrupt and en-gage the economy in a real pro-gram of diversifi cation.”

Dirty business: the soil-hunters eating Zimbabwe’s habitable landBy Jeff rey Moyo, Reuters Harare

At a makeshift Pentecostal church in one of Harare’s poorer western suburbs,

dozens of congregants dance during the Sunday service, their hymns echoing off the corrugat-ed iron roof.

But close by — so close, in fact, that some of the roof’s support posts are teetering — lies a 4m-deep pit.

Its existence in the suburb of Warren Park is testament to un-ceasing digging in and around Zimbabwe’s capital by soil hunt-ers, the fl y-by-nighters who whisk away earth for sale to the construction industry.

As the pits and gullies creep closer, local resident Hector Chi-wonde, 59, is worried.

“My land here where my home stands will soon be swallowed up by these people digging. Already land that was good enough for building more homes or other community facilities has been

destroyed,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Denford Ngadziore, a lo-cal councillor with the opposi-tion Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) — which controls most of Zimbabwe’s urban coun-cils — blamed the problem on high unemployment.

The International Labour Or-ganization said Zimbabwe’s un-employment rate was 11.3% as of 2014.

However, experts say the real fi gure is signifi cantly higher.

“People have no jobs, and there is money in soil digging,” Ngadziore said, adding that 16mn tonnes of soil was dug up in Harare province alone between 2016 and mid-2018.

The irony is not lost on Ngadzi-ore that many of the homes built over the years in his ward, which is adjacent to Warren Park, used soil taken from there.

“With the huge pits now form-ing in several places across towns and cities...I should guess mil-lions of tonnes of soil have been taken off from habitable land

countrywide,” he said.A stone’s throw from Chi-

wonde’s home, a security guard manning the local authority’s 4mn litre water-tank premises smiled as he pocketed cash from people in trucks and pickups tak-ing soil.

“If I don’t befriend these peo-ple, how will I survive from my small wage?” said the guard, who refused to give his name for fear of losing his job.

Nearby, local authority police-man Admire Manenji was wav-ing down trucks carrying soil to check their permission papers.

“There is corruption in the council offi ces, and that’s why you see this land being sliced away,” he said, adding that some operators paid off council offi -cials to ensure safe passage.

“They will be armed with signed documents purporting to be coming from my bosses to permit them in to dig the soils,” he said. “(But) they carry no re-ceipts of the said payments.”

It is not just residents of War-ren Park who are concerned.

Ibrahim Omar, a developer, said the stealing of land was a se-rious problem.

“If government doesn’t take action to end (it)...we will soon run out of land to develop homes to accommodate growing urban populations,” he told the Thom-son Reuters Foundation.

Omar said more than 200 hec-tares of land he was set to develop had been excavated, leaving him unable to build homes.

For his part, soil trader Dick-son Mhope pointed out that the trade was legal and brought im-portant benefi ts.

“We do what we do with the blessing of local authorities,” he said, adding that his workers do not simply dig anywhere, and his business generates revenue for local government.

It is by all accounts a lucra-tive trade: 53-year-old Eric Mu-rambwi, who is based in Gweru, a city 225km southwest of Harare, said he earned $350 a day by sell-ing three tonnes of soil.

Some operators extract soil legally, said Michael Chideme,

Harare’s corporate communica-tions manager.

“There are companies that have been given mining rights for sand and gravel soil extraction for sale, on the condition that they reclaim the land after extraction so that it can be used for other purposes,” he said.

The authorities’ dilemma, he said, was balancing the needs of the environment with coun-trywide requirements for more infrastructure — and that often requires earth and gravel.

“People are crying (out) for good roads, and at the same time crying (out) for the protection of the land,” he said.

“So how do we achieve both? There has to be controlled and licensed centres of gravel soil ex-traction in the city, which is why you see from time to time there are arrests of (people) that are il-legally mining,” he said.

Operators were meant to cover the pits in the areas that they ex-cavated, he said, with local au-thorities responsible for ensuring pits were closed.

Transgressors were tracked and fi ned, he said.

Joseph Tasosa, who heads the Zimbabwe National Environ-ment Trust, a non-profi t, said soil digging causes siltation that aff ects dams and lakes, “which will certainly disappear under the siltation in the not-so-dis-tant future”.

“When rains come, the ar-eas dug by gravel soil hunters get soaked up, washing away soils downstream and subsequently causing siltation in water bod-ies,” he said.

Environmental activist Kudakwashe Makanda said there was a link to politics.

“Soil poachers are youths aligned to the ruling ZANU-PF party, protected by their political leadership, and thus it’s diffi cult to remove or stop them,” he said.

Land expert Marshall Mu-tambu said “there is a direct link between urban expansion and land degradation”, and blamed local authorities and the Envi-ronmental Management Agency (EMA) — whose job it is to pro-

tect the environment and ensure resources are used sustainably — for not acting.

Both were “folding their hands as the situation continues to de-teriorate”.

And, he said, it was not just habitable land that was being lost. “The environmental im-pacts...leave much to be desired as the activity leaves pits that are dangerous to both humans and animals,” he said.

Liberty Mhara, an environ-mental offi cer at the Ministry of Environment, said offi cials on the ground were watching ex-tractors “and fi ning those that don’t restore the environment after digging up soils”.

Back in Warren Park, as the pits and gullies expand, residents like Chiwonde despair that any-thing will be done.

“Our municipal authorities and environmental government offi cials working for EMA are equally useless, because they have not resolutely showed their muscles in controlling soil dig-gers,” he said.

Rebels kill 6, kidnap 5 in east DR CongoAFPBeni

Suspected Ugandan rebels killed six people, hacking one woman to death, and kidnapped fi ve

others — mostly children — in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s res-tive east, offi cials said yesterday.

Offi cials blamed the two attacks in Beni near the country’s border with Uganda on the Ugandan Allied Demo-cratic Forces (ADF), one of several armed movements operating in the region.

“They entered Beni in the night be-

tween Saturday and Sunday and killed fi ve people and looted the shops and the homes,” Donat Kibwana, local Beni ad-ministrator, told AFP, blaming the ADF.

During separate attack by the same group in another Beni neighbourhood, a woman was hacked to death by ma-chete and fi ve people, including four children were kidnapped, Kizito Bin Hangi, a Beni civic leader, told AFP.

“We thought the military had a se-curity cordon around the town, but nothing was done. It’s deplorable to leave the town defenceless,” Kizito said.

Soldiers were pursuing the rebels

after they came under attack in Mayi-Moya and Beni, an army spokesman said.

The Beni area has for the last four years been under siege from the ADF, an Islamist armed group that has killed hundreds of people since 2014.

The ADF was blamed for killing 15 Tanzanian UN peacekeepers a year ago in eastern DRC.

Unrest in eastern regions is running in parallel with another DRC confl ict in central Kasai, casting a shadow over the country’s ability to stage presiden-tial elections next month to replace Joseph Kabila.

Congolese locals look at a car that was hit by a mortar after an alleged attack by rebels in Beni.

Gabon admits Ali Bongo is seriously illAFPLibreville

Gabon’s presidency yesterday admitted for the fi rst time that President Omar Bongo, hospi-

talised for nearly three weeks in Saudi Arabia, is in a serious condition but said his health is improving.

The 59-year-old leader was taken to hospital in the Saudi capital Riyadh on October 24 but his condition has now “greatly improved” and he is “recover-ing most of his functions,” presidency spokesman Ike Ngouoni said.

Lack of offi cial news — along with memories of the secrecy-shrouded death of Bongo’s father Omar Bongo in 2009 — had sparked numerous ru-mours, including suggestions he was incapacitated or dead.

Following discomfort and “persistent vertigo...the fi rst tests revealed bleeding which justifi ed medical surgical care in a highly specialised sector,” according to a medical bulletin from doctors treating Bongo, quoted by Ngouoni.

Ali Bongo “was treated with appro-priate and thorough support that has so far signifi cantly improved his gen-eral condition,” it said.

A foreign source close to Bongo and his France-born wife Sylvia told AFP last Wednesday that Bongo had had a stroke.

The Bongo family has governed the oil-rich West African nation for fi ve decades and long maintained close ties with former colonial master France under a system known as “Francafri-que”.

Relations cooled after Ali Bongo was elected in 2009 following his father’s death and French authorities launched a corruption investigation into the family’s assets.

Gabon ranks 117 out of 180 on Transparency International’s Corrup-tion Perceptions Index.

“According to the medical team,” Bongo is “gradually beginning a very encouraging phase of physical recov-ery,” Ngouoni said without specifying Bongo’s ailment.

The “head of state continues to perform his duties” and “the institu-tions of our republic are functioning perfectly in strict compliance with the constitution,” the spokesman added.

Gabon’s offi cial media watchdog on Friday said it had suspended a news-paper for three months for an article saying the country was on “autopilot”

because of Bongo’s hospitalisation.L’Aube (Dawn) newspaper had run

a story headlined “Gabon on (very dangerous) autopilot” and suggested that Prime Minister Lucie Mboussou would be appointed interim president. The paper’s editor, Orca Boudiandza Mouelle, was also banned from work-ing for six months.

Ali Bongo served as foreign and de-fence minister during his father’s rule, and after his death was elected head of state in August 2009.

He was narrowly re-elected in 2016 after beating opposition challenger Jean Ping by a few thousand votes following a presidential poll marred by deadly violence and allegations of fraud.

The opposition claimed the vote had been rigged and demanded a recount, which the country’s constitutional court rejected.

The country has large oil, mineral and tropical timber resources, and its per capita national income is four times greater than that of most sub-Saharan nations.

But about a third of its population of 1.8mn still live below the poverty line — the result, say experts, of inequality, poor governance and corruption.

At least 10 stowaways dead as DR Congo train derailsAt least 10 stowaways were killed and

24 were injured when a freight train

derailed in the eastern Democratic

Republic of Congo, a local off icial said

yesterday.

Rehema Omari, stationmaster in the

town of Samba near where the accident

occurred on Friday, said the toll was

provisional.

“The brakes gave way when the train

was going at top speed,” she told AFP,

adding that the driver had fled.

A migration service off icial said how-

ever that he saw “at least 30 mangled

bodies and others under the cars” of

the train.

State rail company SNCC’s director

general for Lubumbashi, Ilunga Ilunkam-

ba, said experts were on the scene to

determine the final toll and investigate

the causes of the accident.

SNCC is headquartered in Lubum-

bashi, the DR Congo’s mining capital,

where the train had been headed from

the central city of Kindu when it derailed

near Samba some 280km to the south,

Omari said.

Rail accidents in the sprawling former

Belgian colony are frequent and often

deadly because of decrepit track and age-

ing locomotives dating from the 1960s.

In November 2017, 35 people, many

of them clandestine passengers, were

killed when a freight train carrying 13 oil

tankers plunged into a ravine in south-

ern Lualaba province.

Hundreds fl ee Boko raid in northeast NigeriaAFPKano

Hundreds of villagers fl ed their homes in Nigeria’s northeast late on Saturday after an attack

by Islamist militants from the Boko Haram group, militia offi cials and wit-nesses said yesterday.

No casualties were reported but the raid highlighted fragile security in Nigeria’s northeast, where the army is still battling to end a confl ict that erupted in 2009.

Militants arrived in trucks in Jimmi, 5km from Maiduguri city, and opened fi re, setting homes ablaze and also at-tacking an informal refugee camp.

“Boko Haram terrorists this evening attacked Jimmi village,” militia leader in Maiduguri Musa Ari said. “They burnt homes in Jimmi and tents in the camp.”

Military authorities scrambled re-inforcements and fi ghter jets to repel the attack, said militia leader Ibrahim Liman. Panicked villagers from the area fl ed to nearby Maiduguri, capi-tal of Borno state which along with

neighbouring Yobe state has been at the centre of the insurgency.

“We left our village to escape Boko Haram who attacked our neighbours in Jimmi,” said Bale-Shuwa village resident Suleiman Balarabe.

He said villagers saw military jets fl ying overhead towards Jimmi.

“The sounds of guns coming from Jimmi terrifi ed us and made us leave our homes because we were afraid they were going to attack our neighbour-hood,” said Sanda Gini, a resident of Jiddari-Polo area on the outskirts of Maiduguri.

AMERICA

Gulf Times Monday, November 12, 201814

Grisly search for dead as California fi res rageBy Josh Edelson and Robyn Beck, AFPParadise, California

Search teams yesterday scoured the carnage of California’s most destructive ever wild-

fi re, with the state-wide death toll climbing to 25 as high winds and tinder-dry conditions hampered the eff ort to save lives.

Firefi ghters took advantage of a brief calm overnight to make head-way against the multiple blazes, but conditions were expected to be hell-ish yesterday with winds reaching as high as 110kph.

In fi re zones north and south, acrid smoke blanketed the sky for miles, the sun barely visible.

On the ground, cars caught in the blaze were reduced to metal carcass-es, while power lines were gnawed by the fl ames.

The largest inferno — the so-called “Camp Fire” in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains north of Sacramento — has destroyed 6,700 homes, business and other buildings in the town of Paradise, ef-fectively wiping it off the map.

Local sheriff Kory Honea told a news conference late Saturday 14 more bodies had been found in and around the devastated community of 27,000 people, bringing the number of dead to 23.

Only two wildfi res have claimed more lives in California, the most recent more than a quarter-century ago.

Further south, where the “Wool-sey Fire” is threatening mansions and mobile homes alike in the celeb-rity redoubt of Malibu, the bodies of two people were found inside a vehi-cle in a long driveway, Deputy Aura Sierra of the Sheriff ’s Information Bureau said.

Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for more than 250,000 people across California.

Rescuers spent Saturday collect-ing bodies around Paradise and plac-ing them in a black hearse.

Charred body parts were trans-ported by bucket, while intact re-mains were carried in body bags.

At the Holly Hills Mobile Estate the mobile homes had been reduced to smouldering piles of debris.

Yellow police tape marked spots that were tagged “Doe C” and “Doe D,” suggesting that bodies had been collected.

Locals fl ed the danger, but police told AFP some farmers returned to check on their cattle.

Fanned by strong winds, the “Camp Fire” has so far scorched 105,000 acres and is 20% contained, the California Department of For-estry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said.

So far, three of the more than 3,200 fi refi ghters deployed have been injured.

They estimate they will need three weeks to fully contain the blaze.

Local power authorities told state offi cials that an outage occurred near the spot where the fi re erupted, The Sacramento Bee reported, but there is no offi cial cause of the blaze.

Concerns over looting were meanwhile growing, with two so far arrested in Ventura County near LA.

“If you come into these aff ected areas to try and take advantage of

the destruction and the suff ering of these residents, you will be arrested, charged and we will take you to jail,” Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Chief John Benedict said.

President Donald Trump, in France for World War I commemora-tions, drew criticism for an unsym-pathetic reaction to the devastation.

“There is no reason for these mas-sive, deadly and costly forest fi res in California except that forest man-agement is so poor,” Trump tweet-ed, threatening to withdraw federal support.

Brian Rice, the head of the Cali-fornia Professional Firefi ghters, slammed the tweet as “ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to those who are suff ering as well as the men and women on the front lines.”

He said the president’s claim that forest policies were mismanaged “is dangerously wrong.”

The tweet also drew political criticism. Republican Senator Cory Gardner told ABC News on Sunday: “I don’t think it’s appropriate to threaten funding.

“That’s not going to happen. Funding will be available. It always is available to our people wherever they are, whatever disaster they are facing.”

In southern California, the Wool-sey Fire engulfed parts of Thousand Oaks, where the community is still shell-shocked after a Marine Corps veteran shot dead 12 people in a country music bar on Wednesday.

It has consumed around 83,000 acres, destroyed at least 177 build-ings and was 5% contained, Cal Fire said late Saturday.

The blaze reached Paramount Ranch, destroying the Western Town sets used for hundreds of produc-tions including HBO’S sci-fi western

Westworld, network offi cials said.Keegan Gibbs, 33, was crushed to

fi nd that his Malibu childhood home had been consumed by fl ames.

“Malibu is a really small commu-nity and gets a bad rap for being this kind of elitist, snobby place, and it’s exactly the opposite,” Gibbs told the Los Angeles Times.

Firefi ghters got a respite from the strong winds on Saturday, and Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said aircraft were deployed to drop fi re retardants to strengthen the fi re lines.

Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen however had a warning: “Don’t be lulled by a false sense of security.”

Winds of over 90kph are expected through tomorrow across the region, strong enough to quickly spread fl ames in unexpected directions, of-fi cials said.

A deer looks on from a burned residence in Paradise, California.

US marks 100th anniversary of end to WWI with poppies, Bells of PeaceBy Barbara Goldberg, Reuters Washington

Americans yesterday marked the 100th an-niversary of the armistice that ended World War I on Sunday with celebrations ranging

from high-tech light shows to sombre gatherings in honour of the country’s military veterans.

More than 100,000 Americans died in World War I, after the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, driving the nation into a global confl ict.

Although the United States entered the war in the later stage, many Americans had disagreed with the decision to join allies Britain, France and Russia, some viewing it as an endless fi ght be-tween old European rivals.

The confl ict erupted in 1914 after a teenage Bosnian Serb assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdi-nand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife in Sarajevo. That lit the fuse for a war that would rewrite the world order, spell an end to empires, and claim the lives of more than 9mn soldiers.

Lessons learned from World War One are more relevant than ever today, said Dr Matthew Nay-lor, President and CEO of the National WWI Mu-seum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri.

“In a world of increased globalisation, radi-calisation and national tensions, it’s clear that the lessons of the Great War endure to this day,” Naylor said in a statement.

“The world today is more like the world of 1914 than it has been for the past 104 years. As we mark the 100 years since the Armistice, it is es-sential that we not sleepwalk into catastrophe,” said Naylor, who did not elaborate.

World War I, also known as the Great War, ended when world leaders at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month signed an armistice ending four years of bloody battles.

The 100th anniversary of the peace agree-ment lends an extraordinary look to this year’s commemorative ceremonies around the United States, where wreaths are placed on memorials and bells toll to ring in harmony.

In Washington, the National Cathedral was due to hold an interfaith worship service to re-member the 4.7mn Americans who served in World War I and honour the US military’s work preserving peace and liberty since then.

During the service, the Cathedral will lead a national tolling of bells called the Bells of Peace, in what organisers called the spirit of tradition, honour and remembrance.

One of the most striking events is at the muse-um in Kansas City where a massive light installa-tion appears to cover a memorial in 5,000 poppies.

The fl owers signify remembrance after Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae saw them growing in a battle-scorched fi eld in War-egem, Belgium and was inspired to write the poem In Flanders Fields. The illumination covering the memorial in poppies ran for nine consecutive eve-nings through Veterans Day to recognise the 9mn soldiers worldwide who died during World War I.

Republicans escalate Florida fraud claims amid recountBy Brian Knowlton, AFPWashington

Senior Republicans yes-terday doubled down on claims by Donald Trump

that Democrats were attempting to steal last Tuesday’s razor-thin senatorial race in Florida, accus-ing both the incumbent and elec-tion offi cials of fraud.

The intensifying feud comes 18 years after the Sunshine State found itself at the heart of a bat-tle for the US presidency, when George W Bush prevailed over Al Gore after recounts were halted by the Supreme Court.

Republican Rick Scott, the state’s governor until January when his term expires, yesterday launched into his rival Bill Nelson in his most direct terms to date, accusing him of orchestrating “fraud to try to win this election” as the contentious vote headed to a recount.

The theme was echoed by prominent Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, escalating a campaign led by the president who said Saturday on Twitter: “Trying to STEAL two big elections in Florida! We are watching closely!”

Democrats for their part have accused Republicans of attempt-

ing to prevent votes from being counted, and pointed to the fact law enforcement has not found any evidence to substantiate rig-ging claims.

Nancy Pelosi, who is expected to be the Speaker of the House when the new Congress begins it term in January, hit back.

“There’s no election fraud,” she told CBS News, adding: “My experience with the president is any time he charges somebody with something he’s just pro-jecting what he might have done himself.”

Florida produced some of the nation’s closest results in Tues-day’s midterm voting, including

apparently narrow victories by Scott over Nelson and, in a gu-bernatorial race, by Republican Ron DeSantis over Democrat An-drew Gillum.

But with late-counted ballots narrowing Scott’s lead to some 12,000 of the 8mn votes cast — an edge of less than half a per cent — state law mandates a recount.

The governor’s race has also gone to a recount.

Scott had earlier accused Democratic election offi cials in two large counties of “rampant fraud,” but speaking on Fox News Sunday, he accused his rival by name.

“Senator Nelson is clearly try-

ing to commit fraud to try to win this election,” he said. “That’s all this is.”

Scott added: “Somehow they came up with 93,000 votes after election night. We still don’t know how they came up with that.”

That number apparently in-cluded many mail-in and provi-sional ballots, typically among the last counted.

Speaking on CBS, Senator Graham denied Republicans had launched a campaign to under-mine the integrity of the election.

“I think what undermines election integrity is Broward County can’t get their act to-gether,” he said.

“The problem is not with President Trump’s rhetoric, it is the incompetence and mischief of Broward County.”

Nelson’s lawyers say local canvassing boards have wrongly rejected ballots when signatures did not precisely match those on record.

They said in a court fi ling that this led to the “disproportionate rejection of (mail-in) and pro-visional ballots cast by ethnic and racial minorities, as well as young, fi rst-time voters.”

Those groups tend to lean Democratic. Scott has asked state law enforcement authorities to investigate.

Scott also accused Nelson’s team of saying that a non-cit-izen should have the right to vote.

But that allegation apparently referred to only a single disputed ballot, which ultimately was not counted — and which Nelson’s aides later said should not have been counted.

Another recount is under way in neighbouring Georgia, where Republican Brian Kemp, the sec-retary of state, holds a slim lead over Democrat Stacey Abrams, a state legislator.

If the recount brings his total down to below 50%, the state will hold a runoff election.

Yellow roses are placed on the 9/11 Memorial in New York by the individual names of those killed on 9/11 who served in the United States military.

Remembered ... Democrats urge Whitaker to step aside from Russia probe

ReutersWashington

Top Democrats yesterday stepped up pressure on acting US Attor-ney General Matthew Whitaker

to step aside from overseeing a special counsel probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, vowing to order him to testify early next year.

Representative Jerrold Nadler, the ex-pected incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said yesterday the committee plans to subpoena Whitaker to testify next year as its fi rst witness.

“He should recuse himself. He has expressed total hostility to the investi-gation,” Nadler said on the ABC News show This Week. “His appointment is simply part of an attack on the investi-gation by Robert Mueller.”

In a letter to the Justice Department’s chief ethics offi cer, Senate Democratic

leader Chuck Schumer, House Demo-cratic leader Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats asked whether any ethics at-torneys at the Justice Department have advised Whitaker to recuse himself and demanded details on any ethics guid-ance Whitaker has received.

“Allowing a vocal opponent of the investigation to oversee it will severely undermine public confi dence in the Jus-tice Department’s work on this critically important matter,” the letter said.

Democrats have increasingly ex-pressed alarm since last week, when President Donald Trump ordered Attor-ney General Jeff Sessions to resign and replaced him with Whitaker, Sessions’ chief of staff .

Sessions’ ouster paved the way for Whitaker to take over oversight of Muel-ler’s investigation from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller in May 2017 after Sessions rec-used himself from the probe.

Prior to working at the Justice De-

partment, Whitaker made multiple negative comments about the Mueller investigation and its scope.

In addition, Whitaker is also a close friend of Trump’s 2016 election cam-paign co-chair Sam Clovis, who has since become a witness in Mueller’s in-vestigation.

“Mr Whitaker’s relationship with Mr Clovis, who is a grand jury witness in the special counsel investigation, as well as Mr Whitaker’s other entanglements, raise additional concerns about his ability to supervise the investigation independ-ently and impartially,” the letter said.

Kellyanne Conway, a counsellor to Trump, defended Whitaker’s oversight of the probe when asked about it on ABC’s This Week.

“Comments that Matt Whitaker made as a private citizen on cable TV does not disqualify him from being fair and impartial by overseeing this in-vestigation.” She added that Trump is “100% behind Matt Whitaker.”

ASIA15

Gulf Times Monday, November 12, 2018

Bangladesh opposition to contest pollAn alliance of opposition

parties in Bangladesh, including the Bangladesh

Nationalist Party (BNP), said yesterday it plans to contest the December 23 general election, despite the ruling Awami League rejecting a series of its demands.

The BNP, which has been one of the two main parties in the country since 1978, boycotted the last election in 2014.

In particular, the Jatiya Oikya-front, a 20-party alliance led by 81-year-old politician and law-yer Kamal Hossain, had wanted a caretaker government to take over in the weeks heading into the polls.

The BNP says a caretaker government is essential for free and fair elections as otherwise it claims the Awami League will use the machinery of govern-

ment to support its campaign. The Awami League says the demand is unconstitutional.

The BNP, which is in disarray following the jailing on corruption charges of its chief, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, had also pressed for a caretaker government at the 2014 election and pulled out after the demand was not met.

The last election was marred by deadly violence and shunned by international observers as fl awed.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasi-na and Khaleda, who between them have ruled Bangladesh for decades, are bitter rivals and the BNP says its leader has been jailed on trumped-up charges to keep her out of politics.

Hasina is seeking to be re-elected for a third successive term.

“With the aim of rescuing de-mocracy and a continuation of the movement to sustain a dem-ocratic process, Jatiya Oikya-

front decided to participate in the election,” Hossain said in a statement, following days of deliberation with alliance members.

The alliance will fi ght for all 300 directly elected seats in par-liament. Hossain has said he will not be seeking public offi ce so it is unclear who would become prime minister if the alliance were to win the election.

Hasina’s government has won global plaudits for let-ting in hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fl ed persecution in Myanmar, but its critics have decried Hasi-

ReutersDhaka

Members of Jatiya Oikyafront, an opposition alliance, hold a news conference at the National Press Club to confirm their participation in the upcoming parliamentary election in Dhaka yesterday.

na’s increasingly authoritar-ian rule. In particular, they have attacked her for the govern-ment’s heavy-handed handling of student protests this year and its crackdown on free speech.

The opposition says that it has been told it will be able to hold public meetings but alliance of-fi cials say that in practice they fear that their applications for assemblies will be rejected or the gatherings disrupted.

Hossain said that mass de-tentions of activists ahead of a meeting had been one such

disruptive tactic used by the authorities.

Although, freedom of assem-bly is a right in Bangladesh’s constitution, the authorities of-ten prevent protests and meet-ings from taking place in the in-terests of national security and maintaining public order.

Hossain asked the government to delay the election by a month to give it more time in which to campaign but the request is un-likely to be granted.

Hasina and the Awami League have the backing of most media

in Bangladesh, including all the major TV stations.

Mahbub-Ul Hanif, joint gen-eral secretary of the Awami League, dismissed the opposi-tion’s concerns about public as-semblies, saying it had already held two such gatherings.

He said there could be delays in granting permission while safety and security is assessed.

He said that the election schedule is in the hands of an in-dependent Election Commission.

The Oxford-educated Hossain served in Bangladesh’s fi rst post-

independence government be-tween 1972 and 1975 as law, for-eign and energy minister. He also led the process that produced the nation’s constitution.

He has fallen out with Hasina and the Awami League and runs the Gono Forum (‘Forum of the Masses’) party.

He has been highly critical of Hasina’s human rights record and has defended in court jailed photographer Shahidul Alam, who was arrested for comments he made on social media during the student protests.

“With the aim of rescuing democracy and a continuation of the movement to sustain a democratic process, Jatiya Oikyafront decided to participate in the election”

Bangladesh to blame if Rohingya return delayed: Myanmar

Myanmar’s govern-ment yesterday in-sisted any delays to

the repatriation of Rohingya refugees would be the fault of Bangladesh, just four days ahead of the controversial planned start date.

After repeated setbacks, the neighbouring countries declared that the fi rst of more than 2,200 Rohingya refugees would be repatriated on No-vember 15, even though inter-national NGOs and the United Nations have said conditions are not yet in place for a safe return.

More than 720,000 Ro-hingya Muslims fl ed Myan-mar’s western Rakhine state in a military crackdown in August last year.

Survivors brought with them testimony of wide-spread murder, rape, torture and arson and are fearful of going back to Rakhine state without guarantees of safety, freedom of movement and citizenship.

Myanmar and Bangladesh signed the deal last Novem-ber but the UN has repeat-edly said that any repatriation must be “safe, dignifi ed and voluntary”.

“We are ready,” declared Social Welfare Minister Win Myat Aye to reporters in Yangon yesterday.

Provisions at a transit camp will include clothes and food rations and the refugees will also be provided with money to help them rebuild their

homes in one of 42 locations, he added.

But he was unable to con-fi rm who would be in the fi rst group to return, insisting that it was down to Bangladesh to make sure they meet the deadline this week.

“It depends on the other country (Bangladesh) if the repatriations will start on November 15,” he said.

Both governments have been pushing ahead with this fi rst large-scale repatria-tion eff ort, pledging to bring back a total of 2,251 Rohingya at the rate of 150 individuals a day.

This has prompted criticism from a group of 42 aid agencies - including Oxfam, WorldVi-sion and Save the Children - who say that it would be dangerous for them.

UN investigators have called for the country’s top military brass to be prosecuted for genocide at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the crackdown.

Myanmar vehemently re-jects the court’s jurisdiction over the country and in-sists the military campaign was justifi ed to defend itself against Rohingya terrorists.

The UN fact-fi nding team also said that civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s govern-ment - in a power-sharing agreement with the mili-tary - were complicit in the atrocities against the Ro-hingya through their “acts and omissions”.

She is due to speak to busi-ness leaders at a regional Asean forum in Singapore today.

AFPYangon

Activists call for action on transgender rights law

As more than 1,000 Viet-namese joined Hanoi’s Gay Pride parade yester-

day in a rousing show of support for the LGBT community, activ-ists called on the government to make a long-tabled transgender rights law a reality.

Vietnam in 2015 changed its civil code to allow transgender people who have undergone sur-gery to be registered and recog-nised by their new gender.

But a long-promised trans law that would cover a wide range of issues has stalled and activ-ists are pushing for more rights and services, including making gender reassignment surgery and hormone therapy legally available to its citizens - and also allowing gender changes without surgery.

The community says without such a law in place they still face discrimination and have trou-ble accessing banking and other public services.

“There is a high demand for a change in gender recognition in Vietnam but the demand cannot be met now. We don’t know how and when things will be more re-alistic,” Vuong Kha Phong, sec-retary of Hanoi Pride 2018’s or-ganising committee, said.

“The LGBT community is waiting in limbo as they have rights in theory but the rights cannot be realised,” he said. “We want to tell (the authorities) to please make or realise the laws so that we can live our lives accord-ing to our gender identity.”

People in the parade yesterday were all smiles as they rode col-ourful bicycles and waved rain-bow fl ags, marching down Ha-noi’s tree-lined streets. Beaming bystanders waved at drag queens dressed in fl oor-length gowns, who were ferried in rickshaws with the parade.

But a woman said that having a body fi t her identity of a man would be a “dream”.

“I don’t have much money to go abroad (to do the surgery). I don’t know how long I have to wait to realise my dream,” said the woman, who identifi ed herself as Lan.

Another sticking point for participants is the lack of a law allowing for same-sex marriage.

While lesbian and gay couples are no longer fi ned for symbolic unions, they were still unable to get a legal marriage certifi cate, rendering them ineligible for rights like joint property owner-ship or adoption opportunities.

AFPHanoi

Rajapakse, 44 ex-MPs split from party led by president

Sri Lanka’s new prime minister Mahinda Ra-japakse and 44 former

lawmakers have defected from the party led by President Maithripala Sirisena, split-ting with the president barely two weeks after he installed Rajapakse in offi ce.

Sirisena dissolved parliament on Friday night and called a gen-eral election for January 5 in a move that has drawn internation-al criticism as it is likely to deepen the country’s political crisis.

An intense power struggle has erupted in Sri Lanka in the past two weeks following Sirisena’s sudden sacking of Prime Min-ister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the appointment of former leader Rajapakse, a pro-China strongman, in his place.

Rajapakse and 44 former lawmakers of the Sirisena-led centre-left Sri Lanka Free-dom Party (SLFP) yesterday joined Sri Lanka Podujana Per-emuna (SLPP), a political party

formed in 2016 by Rajapakse’s younger brother Basil, a former economy minister.

An SLPP source said 65 out of 82 former SLFP MPs will even-tually join the new party.

Namal Rajapakse, an ex-law-maker and son of Rajapakse, said the SLFP’s policies had not been pursued by Sirisena in the coali-tion government with the Wick-remesinghe-led centre-right

United National Party (UNP).“We all decided that this is

the right time to join the SLPP,” he said.

The SLPP recorded a land-slide victory in local polls in February after Rajapakse backed it. He did that while re-maining in the SLFP.

Sirisena’s allies have told Re-uters that he wants a SLFP-led government. However, the de-

fections will weaken Sirisena’s more than seven-decade old party, they say.

Rohana Piyadaya, the SLFP secretary-general declined to comment on the defections.

Sirisena’s move to sack the parliament has drawn international criticism.

Farhan Haq, the spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, said in a statement that Guterres has un-derlined the utmost importance of respecting democratic proc-esses and institutions and resolv-ing diff erences in accordance with the rule of law and due process.

“He renews his call on the Government to ensure peace and safety for all Sri Lankans and up-hold its commitments to human rights, justice and reconciliation,” the spokesman said.

Sirisena previously defected from the SLFP, then led by Ra-japakse, in 2014 to join an op-position coalition that ousted Rajapakse.

Later Sirisena rejoined the SLFP, took over its leadership and formed a national government with Wickremesinghe’s party.

ReutersColombo

Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapakse, right, leaves the off icial residence in Colombo yesterday.

President Sirisena usurped powers of lawmakers, says Lanka speaker

Sri Lanka’s parliamentary Speaker yesterday accused President Maithripala Sirisena of “usurping” the rights of legislators and asked public servants not to carry out his “illegal orders”.Karu Jayasuriya in a hard-hitting statement said Sirisena’s actions since October 26 to sack Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and dissolve parliament

undermined the freedoms of the people.“I have watched over the last two weeks as the executive branch has seized the rights and usurped the powers of members of parliament who were elected to represent the people.“I call upon all public servants to refuse to execute any illegal orders they may receive, no

matter from whom.”“Since the president has prevented parliament from ruling on the legitimacy of the president’s actions, it will be up to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of these actions,” Jayasuriya said.He was concerned about claims by the “purported foreign minister” who said parliament was sacked because Jayasuriya

was planning to prevent an address by the president when the House reconvened on Wednesday.“I wish that the purported minister (Sarath Amunugama) had proposed a more honest and plausible excuse for the actions of his colleagues, that would have drawn less ridicule to our country on the world stage. (AFP)

Living on edge: Vietnam’s ‘black canal’ dwellers

On the banks of Ho Chi Minh City’s Xuyen Tam canal the houses come

in many forms. Short or tall, pieced together from scraps of wood, or metal or plastic. Some tilt precariously over the polluted water’s edge.

The makeshift homes are set to be demolished under long-promised government plans to redevelop the city’s “black ca-nals” - nicknamed for the dark-ened hue of their waste-strewn waters - where thousands live with no legal title to the land.

That worries grandmother

Nguyen Thi My, who for the past 28 years has lived on the downtown Xuyen Tam canal, eking out a living selling snacks.

“It’ll be a pity to move. I know this area well... and it’s good for business,” she told AFP from her busy home where she lives with family.

It’s a familiar woe in the city where land fi ghts frequently fl are up between residents and a government seen to be in the pockets of powerful developers.

My’s is one of 20,000 remain-ing households on Ho Chi Minh City’s serpentine waterways slat-ed to be demolished by 2020 as part of the city’s massive renewal project that promises to replace some of the polluted canal banks

with Parisian-style riverside promenades, paved roads,

modern shops and buildings.Around 36,000 homes along

the city’s canals have already been cleared, forcing residents to move to the outskirts or ac-cept compensation that is often lower than soaring market rates.

Some canal dwellers like Le Thi Thanh are fed up with the trash - and stench - and say they’d happily move.

“People just throw trash and defecate in the canal, so we have to live with the pollution,” 61-year-old Thanh, who has been on Xuyen Tam canal for 20 years, said.

Thanh runs a boarding house, mostly for rural migrant labour-

ers, and sells lottery tickets from the slanted porch of her home pieced together with old wooden doors and metal sheets.

The canals of Ho Chi Minh City have not always been so coveted.

Under the French, they were the city’s main arteries used to move goods and people around, but as roads modernised and as the population boomed with war refugees in the 1960s, they became places to illegally settle.

Today, the tide may be turning again.

“There’s a new elite that’s emerging that’s retransform-ing (canals) into an aesthetic place where you might sit and capture cool breezes and have

By Kao Nguyen, AFPHo Chi Minh City

This aerial photo shows houses along the Xuyen Tam canal in Ho Chi Minh City.

views,” said Erik Harms, author of Luxury and Rubble, about development in the city, said.

The relocations have not been easy for some former canal residents like Nguyen Van Muc, who said he was forced to move

into government housing three years ago.

His new house, though outfi tted with ceramic tiled fl oors and plas-tered walls, is half the size of his old clapboard model on Nuoc Len canal - and 20km (12 miles) away.

16 Gulf TimesMonday, November 12, 2018

ASIA/AUSTRALASIA

North, South Korea begin destroying border postsAFPSeoul

The two Koreas began de-stroying 20 guard posts along their heavily-for-

tifi ed frontier yesterday under a plan to reduce tensions on the border. Under an agreement made between their generals in late October, North and South Korea agreed to each remove 10

posts and preserve one on either side of the frontier. The mili-taries yesterday began destroy-ing the 20 border guard posts in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas after withdraw-ing troops and equipment from them, Yonhap news agency re-ported, citing Seoul’s defence ministry.

South Korea has around 60 such posts along the rest of the border while the North has

about 160, Yonhap said. The border truce village of

Panmunjom — or the Joint Se-curity Area (JSA) — is the only spot along the tense, 250km frontier where soldiers from the two Koreas and the US-led UN Command stand face to face. But as part of the latest recon-ciliatory gesture, the two Koreas last month removed all fi rearms and guard posts from the area, leaving it manned by 35 un-

armed personnel from each side. The moves come as a diplomatic thaw between the former war-time foes gathers pace. Under doveish South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Seoul has pursued a policy of engagement with its isolated, nuclear-armed neigh-bour, in contrast with the US which insists pressure should be maintained on Pyongyang un-til it denuclearises. Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-

un agreed on a broad plan to ease tensions along the border during their third summit in Pyongyang in September.

The two nations technically remain at war after the 1950-53 Korean War that sealed the divi-sion of the peninsula and ended with a ceasefi re instead of a peace treaty. But ties improved markedly this year as Moon and Kim took a series of reconcilia-tory gestures.

S Korea sends mandarins to North

South Korean President Moon Jae-in yesterday had 200 tonnes of mandarins sent to North Korea as a gesture of friendship, his off ice said. The move comes as part of their arrangements to end military hostilities on the Peninsula. The mandarins were delivered from South Korea’s southern Jeju island — a popular holiday resort — and were shipped in response to the 2 tonnes of mushrooms that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent across the border after the Pyongyang inter-Korean

summit in September. According to the South Korean president’s off ice, the fruit will be transported on planes in 20,000 boxes. The deliveries are expected to arrive by today. Mandarins are currently in season in South Korea, but diff icult to come by in the North. The two countries on Saturday also withdrew guards and weapons at 11 locations at the border as part of a military agreement signed by the two sides’ defence ministers at the summit in September.

Fiji poll to test PM’s jump from coup chief to crusaderAFPSuva, Fiji

Fiji’s former military strong-man Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama is over-

whelming favourite to win an election in the Pacifi c island na-tion this week, after transform-ing himself from coup leader to climate change campaigner.

While many, including rights group Amnesty International, question the nature of Fiji’s de-mocracy under Bainimarama, there is no denying the radical makeover his image has under-gone in recent years.

The 64-year-old was de-nounced as a dictator by Australia and New Zealand after seizing power in a bloodless 2006 coup, resulting in sanctions and Fiji’s suspension from the Common-wealth and the Pacifi c Islands Forum. Fast forward 12 years and the naval offi cer is presi-dent of the UN’s COP 23 eff orts to mitigate climate change, with Hollywood action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger hailing him on the issue.

Canberra and Wellington now court the one-time pariah in a bid to limit China’s growing in-fl uence in the Pacifi c and his ap-proval rating is running at 68% as Fijians enjoy a period of sustained economic growth.

“He’s done exceptionally well in terms of positioning Fiji inter-nationally and changing percep-tions,” developmental historian Robbie Robertson of Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Tech-nology told AFP. “He refused to kowtow to Australia and New Zealand (after the coup) and when they threatened to cut his funding he said ‘we’ll go to China’.

“He’s played the international scene exceedingly well.”

The softening of Bainimara-

ma’s strongman persona has been a key element in his road to inter-national acceptance, with credit partly going to Washington-based public relations fi rm Qor-vis. Bainimarama hired the spin doctors in 2011 when his govern-ment was still facing interna-tional isolation and their website boasts of how they prepared him for the COP 23 role. Rather than the “fi nger pointing and blame laying” of previous climate talks, it says, Bainimarama promoted “a process of open, constructive and respectful dialogues” to promote global action.

Critics say Bainimarama does not extend the same consensus approach to domestic politics, where his FijiFirst party domi-nates with 32 representatives in the 50-seat parliament. The largest of the fi ve opposition par-ties running against Bainimarama

is SODELPA, led by former prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka — a controversial choice who himself led two coups in the 1980s. Rab-uka has faced corruption charges in the lead up to the election, echoing charges laid against op-position fi gures ahead of the 2014 poll — a pattern which has raised questions over judicial independ-ence.

Opposition parties have also alleged during the campaign that FijiFirst is using government re-sources to try to win over voters. “He has scant regard for other people’s views and he doesn’t like criticism,” Robertson said. “But he hasn’t blown it, he’s kept it together on the campaign trail.” A military man to his bootstraps, Bainimarama joined Fiji’s navy as an ordinary seaman aged 21 and earned a commission after two years, receiving training in New

Zealand, Australia, the United States and Malaysia. He served two stints as a UN peacekeeper in Sinai on his way to becoming commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces in 1999.

At the time of the 2006 coup, he said the army was the only in-stitution disciplined enough to usher in real reform, describing it as a long overdue “clean up”. It was Fiji’s fourth coup since 1987 and Bainimarama insisted he was determined to stop insta-bility and stamp out corruption. Supporters say he achieved that and introduced a constitution in 2013 granting equal rights for In-dian-Fijians, a sizeable minority brought in to work on sugar plan-tations during British colonial rule. They also point to improved living standards through policies such as cheap education and im-proved spending on rural roads.

A resident passing election posters in the Fijian capital of Suva. Fiji’s former military strongman Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama is the overwhelming favourite to win the election in the Pacific island nation on November 14, after transforming himself from coup leader to climate change campaigner.

Supporters of mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung from the opposition Kuomintang party attend a campaign rally in Taipei yesterday. The island-wide vote on November 24 is seen as a crucial barometer for Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen as she battles against a backlash on domestic reforms and concerns over relations with China, which have become increasingly tense since she took off ice in 2016.

Campaign rally in Taipei

Australia, NZ mark armistice centenaryAFPSydney

Australia and New Zealand launched global commem-orations yesterday to mark

the centenary of the end of World War I, combining a “roaring cho-rus” of peace and hope with som-bre ceremonies to remember the more than 80,000 of their na-tionals who died in the carnage of the trenches on the other side of the world.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke of their ultimate sacrifi ce, describing scenes of devastation at Fromelles in northern France where bodies littered the bat-tlefi eld. “For our tomorrows, they gave their today. In silence, we commit ourselves to stand-ing by those who have returned home,” he told thousands of people gathered at the Remem-

brance Day national ceremony in Canberra. Of the more than 400,000 of the young Australian federation’s citizens who enlisted, more than 300,000 served over-seas and almost 62,000 died in the trenches. More than 10,000

servicemen from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) died during the abortive Gallipoli campaign on the Turkish peninsula. Although the off ensive failed in its military objectives, it gave rise to the legacy of courage

and close friendship between the two countries and is regarded as a “coming of age” moment in both nations.

The New Zealand commemo-ration followed two minutes of silence at 11am on November 11, when the armistice took eff ect. There was a 100-gun salute on the Wellington waterfront, while nationally people cheered, church bells rang, emergency services sounded their sirens and ship and car horns blared.

“The carillon and roaring cho-rus has recaptured the wave of spontaneous jubilation and hope which swept New Zealand when news of the Armistice broke,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a service at the National War Memorial in Wellington.

Thousands of people, many wearing poppies on their chests, turned out at commemorations around the country.

New Zealand Army howitzer cannons are fired during a 100 gun salute in a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, in Wellington yesterday.

Woman charged over Australia strawberry needle scare

A woman has been charged after a “complex” investigation into an Australian strawberry scare where needles were found stuck into the fruit, police said yesterday, in a crisis that sparked nationwide panic. Queensland state authorities off ered a large reward

and the national government raised jail terms for such crimes after sewing needles were found in plastic boxes of the fruit sold in supermarkets in September. Since the first case came to light when a man was taken to hospital with stomach pains after

consuming strawberries, more than 100 alleged incidents of pins and needles found in fruit, mostly strawberries, were reported in September around the country. One incident was also reported in neighbouring New Zealand. Police said a 50-year-old woman

was arrested and charged yesterday with seven counts of contaminating goods “following a complex ... and extensive investigation”. She faces up to 10 years’ imprisonment and is due in a Brisbane court today.

Melbourne terror attacker ‘inspired by Islamic State’AFPSydney

A Somali-born Australian who went on a deadly knife rampage in the

country’s second-largest city Melbourne was inspired by Is-lamic State terror outfi t but did not have a direct link to the mili-tant group, the government said yesterday.

Hassan Khalif Shire Ali stabbed to death well-known local cafe co-owner Sisto Malaspina and injured two oth-er men in Bourke Street in the heart of Melbourne on Friday afternoon before he was shot and killed by police.

The 30-year-old had gone to the bustling city in a utility vehicle fi lled with gas cylinders before setting it alight. Islamic State (IS) said via its propaganda arm that Shire Ali was an “Is-lamic State fi ghter and carried out the operation”, but provided no evidence to back its claim.

“In relation to his connec-tions with ISIL (another name for IS) or with any terrorist group... there’s not, as I’m ad-vised, a membership of an or-

ganisation or a defi nite link to ISIL,” Home Aff airs Minister Peter Dutton told reporters in Brisbane.

“The working theory is at the moment a case where this person has been downloading information or receiving mes-sages in his own mind about what he should be doing. It’s in-spired as opposed to affi liation or membership.”

Shire Ali, known to the Aus-tralian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), had his passport revoked in 2015 on fears he was trying to travel to Syria to join IS. But he was also assessed by authorities as not being a domestic threat. Dutton defended the actions of ASIO, saying they had more than 400 investigations and people of interest to monitor. “Police did not have intelligence in relation to this person that he was about to commit an act,” he added.

“The fact is that many peo-ple, particularly where there is a low level of sophistication, where you have someone who can grab a knife from a kitchen drawer... it is impossible for au-thorities to cover every one of those circumstances.”

Dutton’s comments came as Melbourne’s Herald Sun re-ported yesterday that Shire Ali had drug and alcohol problems, and had split from his wife and become distanced from his fam-ily. Melbourne’s The Age raised questions about his mental health, quoting a local imam as saying Shire Ali told him he was being “chased by unseen people with spears”.

Meanwhile, more than A$50,000 (US$36,000) has been raised on GoFundMe for a bystander dubbed “trolley man”, who was hailed as a hero for try-ing to stop Shire Ali by knocking him over with a shopping cart. The man, named in local media as Michael Rogers, is homeless according to the GoFundMe page creators.

Authorities say more than a dozen terrorist attacks have been prevented in recent years, but several have taken place, in-cluding a cafe siege in Sydney in 2014 where two hostages were killed. Shire Ali’s brother will go on trial next year on sepa-rate terror-related charges — accused of trying to acquire a fi rearm and kill people in a New Years’ Eve crowd.

BRITAIN17Gulf Times

Monday, November 12, 2018

Second Brexit vote still anoption, Labour MPs toldGuardian News and MediaLondon

The shadow foreign secre-tary, Emily Thornberry, has attempted to calm La-

bour dismay at Jeremy Corbyn’s announcement that “we can’t stop Brexit”, by insisting the op-tion of campaigning for a second referendum was still on the table.

The senior Labour politician said the vote to leave the EU “ought to be abided by” and that there were still “several stages” before the party backed a “peo-ple’s vote”, but that “all the op-tions remain on the table”.

Corbyn angered Labour MPs and supporters when he said Brexit could not be halted in an interview with German newspa-per Der Spiegel on Friday in which he also urged the entire country to recognise why people voted to leave.

The Labour leader then ruled out backing a second referendum when asked on Saturday whether he agreed with the former Con-servative minister Jo Johnson,

who quit over Brexit last week demanding a fresh vote. “We can’t stop it. The referendum took place. Article 50 has been triggered. What we can do is rec-ognise the reasons why people voted leave. The issue now has to be how we bring people togeth-er,” he said.

Labour has reached an un-easy internal truce on Brexit after members who supported Remain left open the possibility of backing a second referendum if it could not force a general election.

However, Corbyn and his sen-ior shadow ministers have long held more eurosceptic views, with deep concerns over state aid rules among other issues, while two-thirds of Labour MPs rep-resent seats that backed Leave at the referendum.

Thornberry told the BBC’s An-drew Marr Show: “Theresa May is simply giving us a devil in the deep blue sea – she’s saying you can either fall off a cliff or get on this bridge to nowhere, and you’re going to have to vote on that.

“That’s not a meaningful vote.

That’s not an injection of de-mocracy. We say if you’re going to give us that, we refuse to play that sort of game and, frankly, if you can’t come up with a decent suggestion then we should have a general election.

“If we don’t have a general elec-tion then yes, of course, all the op-tions remain on the table and we would campaign for there to be a people’s vote. There are several stages before we get there.”

The shadow foreign secretary reiterated that Labour would not back Theresa May’s deal unless it passed the party’s six tests, underlining once again how the challenge of getting her Brexit agreement through parliament – including past her own back-benchers – could be May’s big-gest of all.

She told the prime minister: “You cannot simply come to the House of Commons with a bit of nonsense that makes no sense. You cannot expect the Labour party to save you from your own back-benchers who are saying this deal makes no sense – and everybody knows it doesn’t make sense.”

Talks moving slowlytowards deal: JunckerReutersParis

European Commission presi-dent Jean-Claude Juncker said progress is being made

towards a defi nitive Brexit deal but that it is slow.

“I have the impression that we are moving slowly but surely towards a defi nitive Brexit deal which should be concluded in the weeks to come,” Juncker told France 24 in an interview broad-cast yesterday.

Meanwhile, Britain’s armed forc-es are making contingency plans for how they could support the country if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal, senior defence offi -cials said yesterday.

Asked what role the armed forces could play if there was a ‘no deal’ Brexit, Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood said: “The armed forces stand ready to support Brit-ain on a practical basis.

“There are contingency plans being made, there are discussions being held behind the scenes as to what support our armed forces will do,” Ellwood said on the ‘Ridge on Sunday’ television programme.

“With the transition from Brexit, if there is a requirement to provide assistance we’re looking right across the full spectrum of requirements to make sure that we are prepared.”

Earlier, the chief of defence staff General Sir Nicholas Carter said the armed forces were making “sensible” contingency plans on Brexit and other issues.

Asked if the army was making preparations for a no deal Brexit, Carter said: “What we always do is make sensible contingency plans for all sorts of eventualities....at this stage, I think people are con-fi dent there will be a deal, if there’s not one then we stand ready to help in any way we can.”

Prime Minister Theresa May was yesterday under growing pressure to change her plan for Britain to leave the European Union to avoid defeat in a parliamentary vote.

With both Britain and the EU suggesting an agreement is close, eurosceptic lawmakers and a lead-ing member of a small Northern Irish party that props up her Con-servative government made new threats to vote against the terms of the deal she is working on with Brussels.

Leadsom ‘sticking in govtto fi ght Brexitcustoms plan’Guardian News and MediaLondon

Theresa May’s attempts to get her Brexit deal through Cabinet this week are fac-

ing another hurdle after the lead-ing Conservative Brexiter Andrea Leadsom said she was “sticking in government” to make sure the UK did not end up trapped in a customs arrangement.

The Commons leader’s re-marks follow suggestions that about 10 Cabinet ministers are opposed to the prime minister’s idea for an independent exit mechanism that could allow the UK to quit a temporary customs arrangement if Brexit talks col-lapsed.

Leadsom’s rejection of such a key feature of May’s plan, which would give the EU a joint-say in the UK’s departure, raises the prospect of yet further resigna-tions in the days ahead as the prime minister attempts to win her Cabinet’s backing.

Cabinet sources suggested they thought disgruntled minis-ters would stop short of quitting over the exit mechanism plan, but even if they were “bounced” into agreeing to the deal, May would still face a serious chal-lenge getting it through the Commons.

Leadsom told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I am working towards get-ting a deal that does not require the UK to be stuck, trapped in a customs arrangement. I’m stick-ing in government to make sure that’s where we get to in the end.” She added: “The UK cannot be held against its will in a customs

arrangement. It must be capable for the United Kingdom to decide to leave that customs arrange-ment and it cannot be something that the European Union can then hold us to.

“And, frankly, it’s because that would be to then fail to fulfi l on the will of the people expressed in the referendum and I very much doubt that we would get it through parliament.”

The prominent leaver also rejected the option of an inde-pendent body overseeing the UK’s departure from the mecha-nism after the EU suggested this would have to be enforced by the European court of justice

Cabinet Brexiters have pushed for a unilateral exit mechanism, with the International Trade Sec-retary, Liam Fox, the fi rst to say publicly that the power to leave the backstop should rest with the “sovereign” British government.

The Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, warned the EU would not accept the UK being able to end the backstop alone. “If you have too hard a line about saying, ‘well, we must just have a totally unilateral exit, or there’s an absolutely fi xed, hard end date’, that is very, very unlikely that is going to be negotiable with the other side,” he said.

The Cabinet minister, who backed remain, urged an alliance of Conservative hard Brexiters and the DUP, who have warned they will join forces to vote down May’s withdrawal plans, to “think about the alternatives”.

As the prime minister strug-gled to keep her Brexit plans on track, Hinds said there would be “trade-off s” in any deal and the

fi nal agreement would not give all sides everything they wanted.

“It is not necessarily going to be something everybody is going to think is absolutely perfectly what they want,” he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show. “But that’s the nature of these things. There are some trade-off s.”

He added: “They need to think about what the alternatives are as well. It is no good just not lik-ing individual aspects. If you’re going to take that view, you have got to have in mind a realistic, viable, deliverable alternative. I think people are going to be get-ting behind this deal and saying ‘yeah, let’s get on with it’.”

May also faces a growing re-bellion from the Remainer wing of her party with rumours that four more pro-Europe ministers are on the brink of resigning af-ter the departure of the transport minister Jo Johnson, who quit on Friday calling for a second refer-endum.

It comes after Steve Baker, the deputy of the European Research Group (ERG) of hard Brexit Tory MPs, and Sammy Wilson, the DUP’s Brexit spokesman, said they would oppose any agree-ment they thought threatened the union and could lead to a trade border in the Irish Sea.

“We share the prime minister’s ambition for an EU free trade agreement, but not at any price, and certainly not at the price of our union,” they wrote. “If the government makes the historic mistake of prioritising placating the EU over establishing an in-dependent and whole UK, then, regrettably, we must vote against the deal.”

Spanish nurse and anti-Brexit campaigner Joan Pons Laplana poses for a photograph in front of an EU flag outside the Houses of Parliament in London.

Brexit discussions laid bare in BBC Foreign Offi ce documentaryGuardian News and MediaLondon

The candid thoughts of some of Britain’s most senior dip-lomats on how the country

is viewed around the world follow-ing the Brexit vote are revealed in a BBC series capturing life inside the Foreign Offi ce.

The three-part documentary, fi lmed over more than a year fol-lowing last year’s general elec-tion, shows the diplomatic serv-ice grappling with sometimes diffi cult international relations

during the Brexit negotiations, a task described by the Foreign Offi ce’s chief civil servant, Sir Simon McDonald, as “the biggest thing we have ever undertaken in peacetime”.

The series captures one meet-ing earlier this year attended by senior diplomats in which the British ambassador to Brazil, Vi-jay Rangarajan, says the Brazilian government “don’t understand Brexit … (but) they think, bluntly, that we will be so desperate for a trade deal we will sign up to a trade deal on their terms”.

McDonald tells those present that

while some are trying to stop Brexit, “my judgment is this is a failing course … I think the course is set”.

Dame Barbara Woodward, Brit-ain’s representative in China, says there is active discussion there of the possibility of a second refer-endum. “The Brexit debate is very, very live in China, and the world has changed around us, because the China-US relationship has be-come much more important.”

The documentary covers the period of Boris Johnson’s time as foreign secretary and his resigna-tion and replacement by Jeremy Hunt in July. Filmed on his min-

isterial plane en route to a visit to Lisbon and Paris last October, Johnson asks civil servants why the French were acting tough during the Brexit negotiations.

Caroline Wilson, the Europe director, tells the then foreign secretary: “We think they may feel that they could contribute to work with us on the global stra-tegic issues, while seeking to get advantage on economic issues, possibly, in the near future.”

“We need to be realistic,” says Johnson. “They won’t cut us any slack, we should be prepared to walk away.”

“You can be prepared to walk away, foreign secretary,” replies Wilson.In a discussion with em-bassy staff in Portugal, Johnson says of Brexit: “I’ve never known a bigger apple of discord be thrown into British life. It’s just been … aaaargh.”

But while there was always go-ing to be “a slightly scratchy period while we worked out how to do this, it will be fi ne once it’s done”.

In an implicit criticism of his colleagues conducting the Brexit negotiations, Johnson says: “To be honest, it hasn’t helped this sense of division that it’s taken so

long to get going. That is bad. We need to move on.”

The fi lm captures the annual gathering at the Foreign Offi ce of all of Britain’s ambassadors, dur-ing which McDonald compares Britain’s position in the Brexit negotiations with that of Ger-many in 1919 after World War I and France at the end of the Na-poleonic wars in 1815.

“What those things have in common is a major European power troubling other European powers, and those powers having to do something about it.” The role of the diplomatic service was

to help convince other European countries not to “exploit the full strength of their position” in re-lation to Britain, he tells them, and to be “generous” with the UK. “I hope you agree that is an interesting challenge to have.”

The work of the Foreign Of-fi ce will become more diffi cult following Brexit, McDonald tells the fi lmmaker Michael Wald-man, because “we will no longer be in the room when EU member states are deciding the big issues. So we are going to be doing this work by ourselves. And we will be working harder.”

Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Emily Thornberry appears on the BBC’s Marr Show, in London yesterday.

EU nationals facing a dilemma

EU nationals who have settled

in Britain are facing a dilemma

as Brexit looms: pack their bags,

apply for citizenship or stay

put and hope for the best. In

Manchester, northwest England,

German national Melanie Mo-

erbe has just become a British

citizen at an off icial ceremony.

“I felt quite emotional,” said

the 38-year-old, who arrived in

Britain in 2003 to study nursing

and now cares for people with

psychological disorders.

“I love Britain and my whole

life and my best friends are all

here. I am planning on staying,”

she said. A few months ago, she

discovered that Germany does

not accept dual nationality with

a country outside the European

Union - as Britain will become

after March 29.

“If I didn’t get my British citizen-

ship before the off icial Brexit

date... I would have to give up

my German passport to get the

British one,” said Moerbe.

Chasing the dream Romeo

Manciu, 37, is full of optimism

and is also planning to seek Brit-

ish nationality one day. “I came

to follow my dream: to work in

an airport,” said the Romanian,

who arrived in August.

“Where is the biggest airport in

Europe? Heathrow! It had to be

Heathrow,” he said, with a big

grin on his face.

Despite having no experience,

he quickly found a job as an

airport ramp agent: the people

who direct planes after they

have landed, and remove the

luggage. Manciu wants to bring

his family to settle permanently

in London. “Brexit is not a prob-

lem,” he said. “Everyone that

comes here before March 29

can apply for pre-settled status,

that is the reason I came before

Brexit.”

Joan Pons Laplana, 43, is a

Spaniard who works in Britain’s

National Health Service. He has

received job off ers from other

countries, but his children –

aged 16, 13 and seven – don’t

want to leave their homeland.

“That’s why I’m still here and I’m

fighting to stop Brexit,” he said.

“I hope this madness stops and

common sense returns.” He has

been in Britain for 18 years and

lives in Leeds.

He fears losing some of his

rights after Brexit. “As things

stand, I will no longer be able

to vote in local elections. I have

been paying taxes for many

years, but I am going to become

a second-class citizen,” he said.

18 Gulf TimesMonday, November 12, 2018

BRITAIN

Camilla clueless onCharles birthday giftDaily MailLondon

What do you buy the man who has eve-rything for his 70th

birthday? Even the Duchess of Corn-

wall is scratching her head when it comes to choosing a gift for her husband Prince Charles.

With just days to go until his birthday on Wednesday, Camilla admitted: “Peo-ple keep asking me if I have brought him a present and I haven’t. He is the worst per-son. He has a list (containing porcelain and items for the garden) and I’ve learnt through 13 years of being married that it is better to stick to the list. He has a lot of things, but he knows what he likes and if you give him a present, he says, ‘Oh that’s lovely,’ when he doesn’t think it’s lovely at all.”

The Duchess, 71, spoke ex-clusively to the Daily Mail ear-lier this week after a gruelling morning on the couple’s West African tour, where she under-

took several engagements in Ghana, including a meeting as patron of WOW, the Women of the World Festival. She praised a group of young Ghanaian campaigners looking to bring the concept to their country as they spoke about the issues aff ecting them most, from so-cial justice to sport, women’s rights and enterprise.

Reminded of how she told the Mail on his 65th birth-day that her one wish for her workaholic husband was for him to slow down, she said: “As the French say, plus ca change! It doesn’t get any bet-ter. In fact, the older he gets, the more driven he gets.

“I remember my father, who was a very wise man, always saying to me, ‘As you get older, the one thing you have to do is pace yourself.’ So I’ve tried to get that over to my husband, but I’m afraid to say it’s fallen on deaf ears. He thinks, ‘I’ve got so much to do. I’ve got to cram it into these years!’ Sud-denly you get to 70 and a sense of mortality hits you. I just think he wants to get every-thing done and dusted.”

End pay bonanza forheads, academies toldDaily MailLondon

Academy schools must curb ‘excessive’ fat cat salaries or face govern-

ment intervention, the educa-tion secretary has warned.

Damian Hinds ordered all academy trusts handing out large pay packets to provide written justifi cation ahead of a crackdown next year.

He said that while generous salaries can be justifi ed to attract the ‘best people’, they must be ‘proportionate’ to ensure value for money for the public purse.

Figures released on Friday show the number of trusts pay-ing salaries of £150,000 or more has risen to 125. The education secretary’s warning signals a tightening of reins on academies, which for two decades have had freedom over their spending, leading to a rise in senior pay.

The salaries have drawn sharp criticism, especially at a time when head teachers are team-

ing up with Labour to accuse the government of starving schools of funding.

Hinds said while he wants academies to retain ‘freedom and leeway’ on fi nances, this should also be ‘subject to a rec-ognition that it is public money’.

He told the Daily Mail: “It is right that we have freedom for multi-academy trusts to be able to hire the best people to run schools. I think also that’s what parents would want. And some trusts these days are very big complex organisations and it’s like running any other large organisation – and I think it can be justifi able to have high salaries. I think it’s also right that we have transparency and that people are able to justify if there is high pay, why there is.

“And there is a legitimate public and taxpayer interest in making sure that money isn’t being excessively spent.”

Hinds said getting to grips with senior pay is “important for the integrity of the system” so parents can see the return on their taxes. “I’m urging people

to make sure that pay is propor-tionate to the size and complex-ity of the job,” he added.

“People need to think about how pay fi ts in with other peo-ple’s pay, including teaching staff pay and other staff pay in the organisation – £150,000 is a lot of money, and compared to the average income it is a great deal of money.”

In July, the government’s edu-cation and skills funding agency wrote to all academy trusts pay-ing at least one person a salary of over £150,000, or two or more salaries of over £100,000.

It demanded information about the ‘rationale’ for setting salaries at this level, and about the responsibilities the staff have.

Any academies ignoring the request face being penalised in a new ‘fi nancial capability assess-ment’ due to be launched next year or 2020 at the latest. The new rules will strengthen the ‘fi nancial oversight’ criteria and make it easier to clamp down on academy trusts that waste money.

Fracking fi rmsays it does notexpect to causeserious quakesGuardian News and MediaLondon

A senior executive at the fracking company Cuad-rilla privately said this

summer it did not expect to cause earthquakes that would be serious enough to force it to halt opera-tions.

But despite that confi dence, the company has triggered 37 minor quakes since it started fracking for gas at its Preston New Road site in Lancashire three weeks ago.

Two of those have been power-ful enough to exceed a regulatory threshold that requires fracking to stop, and on a third occasion the company voluntarily ceased op-erations when it neared the limit.

Cuadrilla has said such tremors are to be expected from fracking, which involves pumping water, sand and chemicals 2km under-ground at high pressure. Under government regulations, frack-ing must stop if a 0.5-magnitude earthquake is registered.

But during a tour of the site in June, Matthew Lambert, the government and public aff airs director at Cuadrilla, said: “Be-cause we are managing that risk I don’t really accept that we are likely to cause seismicity above that level (an apparent reference to 0.5-magnitude) and we will not be causing seismicity which will damage property.” He described the system of monitoring seismic-ity as “highly regulated” and said the company had to “manage that risk” of causing tremors, a record-ing of the discussions shows.

The Green party said the com-ments, made months before earthquakes that breached the regulatory limit, showed Cuad-rilla was “obviously in way over their heads”.

Jonathan Bartley, the co-leader of the Green party, said: “They

were unaware they would cause tremors anywhere near this strong, and they evidently don’t know how to stop them.”

He said he felt it was unambig-uous that Lambert was referring to the 0.5 limit with his reference to “above that level”.

Francis Egan, the chief execu-tive of Cuadrilla, last week urged the government to relax the regu-latory threshold or risk stifl ing shale gas exploration. The Energy Minister, Claire Perry, rejected such calls, saying only a “very foolish politician” would do so at this point. The Green party accused Cuadrilla of trying to “strong arm” the government into changing the limit.

Bartley said any relaxation of the rules would be “unacceptable for residents who are concerned about the security of their homes”.

Cuadrilla has been fracking daily this week but has not trig-gered any tremors since Novem-ber 4, when a 0.7-magnitude quake was registered. As it hap-pened at a time when fracking was not under way, it did not register as a “red light” on the traffi c light system of regulation.

That has not reassured Labour and Conservative MPs in north-west England, who wrote to the Business Secretary, Greg Clark, last week over their concerns about the tremors.

Lambert said: “Cuadrilla is op-erating within the traffi c light sys-tem managed by the Oil and Gas Authority. The micro seismicity that has been detected at our ex-ploration site in Preston New Road is way below anything that can be felt at surface and a very, very long way from anything that would cause damage or harm.

“This is what my quote refers to. In line with regulations, seis-micity will continue to be closely monitored by Cuadrilla and the relevant regulators.”

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Prince Andrew, Duke of York and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, lay wreaths at the Cenotaph during the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph on Whitehall in central London yesterday.

Nation falls silent to markArmistice Day centenaryAgenciesLondon

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier became the fi rst German leader to

take part in Britain’s national service of remembrance yester-day, 100 years since the end of World War I.

He laid a wreath at the Ceno-taph war memorial in central London alongside Prime Min-ister Theresa May, who chose not to join other world leaders marking the centenary of the Armistice in Paris.

Across Britain, individu-als and communities held two

minutes of silence at 11am (1100 GMT) to remember the end of the four-year conflict which claimed around 18mn lives.

In London, the moment was marked by the chiming of Big Ben, which has been largely si-lent since renovation work be-gan in August 2017 but which still sounds for important na-tional events.

Prince Charles laid the first wreath of red poppies at the Cenotaph on behalf of his mother Queen Elizabeth II, who watched from a nearby balcony.

The Palace announced yes-terday morning that the Duke of

Edinburgh could not attend the service and a wreath was laid on his behalf by an equerry.

Steinmeier followed with his wreath, in a unique and highly symbolic act marking the rec-onciliation between the once warring nations.

Later yesterday, the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duch-ess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will attend a special service at Westminster Abbey, alongside Steinmeier.

Senior royals, diplomats, military leaders and politi-cians also paid their respects at the memorial to all British and

Commonwealth service per-sonnel who have died in combat since 1914.

They were followed by the traditional march past by mili-tary veterans, their medals glinting in the sunshine, as a crowd of thousands looked on.

“It’s really, really poignant being here,” said Sarah Bligh, a lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy who attended the commemorations.

“My great-grandfather served in World War I along with his three brothers, so I’ve just been thinking about them a lot.”

Toby Foster, a British army captain with 4th Battalion The

Rifl es, said he would also be thinking about his grandfather and great-grandfather, who were navigators in Lancaster Bombers in World War II.

“But (I) also pause to think about those guys who are still on operations today and just hoping that they’re staying safe wherever they are,” he said.

The ceremony culminated with a procession by 10,000 people past the Cenotaph.

They were allocated spaces on “The Nation’s Thank You” march through a public ballot, and many were direct descend-ants of those who served in the war.

Camilla: Charles ‘worst person to buy gift for’

Ex-soldiers get 1,300 letters from MoD over Ulster deathsDaily MailLondon

The ministry of defence has sent more than 1,300 letters to former soldiers

seeking information on deaths in Northern Ireland.

The army veterans – many in their 60s and 70s – are potential murder or manslaughter sus-pects over killings at the height of the IRA’s terror campaign.

They have been contacted over around 40 incidents dat-ing back to the 1970s, including

Bloody Sunday. Critics claim it is fresh evidence of a “witch-hunt” against troops who served during the Troubles.

The Police Service of North-ern Ireland has sparked anger by re-examining every British army killing. There is outrage that hundreds of elderly ex-soldiers – many suff ering serious ill-nesses – are being put through another ordeal.

The Daily Mail has long cam-paigned for an end to the hound-ing of the troops. A freedom of information request by the Belfast Telegraph newspaper re-

vealed the MoD had sent at least 1,381 letters to veterans since 2013 on behalf of the PSNI.

The total will be higher be-cause the MoD did not disclose fi gures for cases where fewer than 10 letters were sent. Some 386 letters relate to Bloody Sun-day, when 13 people were shot dead after members of the Para-chute Regiment opened fi re on demonstrators in Londonderry in 1972. Another died later.

The letters relate to inquests, ongoing criminal probes and investigations by the PSNI’s former Historical Enquiries

Team. Ex-soldier Alan Barry, of the group Justice For Northern Ireland Veterans, said: “This is a fi shing exercise looking for in-formation. Our advice to veter-ans remains that they should put these letters in the bin and not co-operate in any shape or form.

“Men being called upon to give evidence in an inquiry are in their late 70s. Their memories might be fading or it may have been a traumatic incident that they were involved in. The next thing is that they will be brought forward as part of a criminal in-vestigation.”

Ex-soldier, Dennis Hutch-ings, 77, from Cornwall, has been accused of attempted murder in connection with a fatal shooting of a man he sus-pected of being an IRA member in Northern Ireland in 1974. He has been cleared by two previ-ous investigations.

Philip Barden, of Devonshires Solicitors in London, who rep-resents British troops, said: “Former soldiers are asked to re-call events and when they can’t it is suggested they are lying. The whole process is unreliable. I don’t think this is about a quest

for the truth – it is about revenge and using the criminal process to that end.

“Soldiers who were investi-gated and released should not be re-investigated in the absence of new material and reliable evi-dence. That should be a line that isn’t crossed.”

Campaigners are angry that army veterans are being probed while IRA terrorists who commit-ted atrocities get off scot-free. A total of 187 on-the-run paramili-tary suspects received ‘comfort letters’ from Tony Blair’s govern-ment which told them they were

not being sought by police.One was John Downey, 66,

who escaped prosecution for the 1982 Hyde Park bombing, which left four soldiers dead, because he was given a guarantee he was immune from prosecution. He has always denied involvement but was this week arrested in a probe over the murder of two soldiers in Northern Ireland.

The MoD said: “The welfare of our personnel and veterans is of the utmost importance.” It stressed it had a legal obligation to assist with investigations and inquests.

EUROPE19Gulf Times

Monday, November 12, 2018

United in the rain, world leaders walked slowly up the Champs-Elysees in

Paris to mark a century since the end of World War I – but there were two notable absences, Don-ald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

The line of black-clad lead-ers was reminiscent of another moment of unity: after the 2015 Charlie Hebdo religious extremist

attack, when senior offi cials from more than 40 countries marched through Paris to denounce ter-rorism.

But yesterday both the US and Russian presidents arrived sepa-rately for the solemn ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe, skipping the bus ride and symbolic walk with other leaders.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Trump, who wore a cornfl ower – France’s war remembrance fl ower – in his lapel, had arrived separately “due

to security protocols”.His trademark bright red tie

stood out among the dark coats in the front row as he and Putin stood either side of Macron.

Putin said he had a brief but good conversation with Trump at World War I centenary events in Paris, Russian media reported.

When journalists asked Putin whether he managed to speak to Trump, he said “yes”, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Asked how it went, Putin re-

plied “well.” He did not provide details.

The ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe, to remember the mil-lions who died in the war, includ-ing colonial troops fi ghting for European powers, had a deliber-ately international fl avour.

The superstar Chinese-Amer-ican cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed alongside Beninese singer Angel-ique Kidjo and a European youth orchestra led by a Russian con-ductor.

High-school students read

letters from soldiers at the front in English, French, German and Chinese.

“Am I dreaming?” read one letter from a French soldier upon learning that four years of brutal trench warfare were coming to an end in November 1918. “I’m so happy, I can hardly believe that the news is true.”

Another letter, from a British soldier, read: “My darling par-ents, today has been perfectly wonderful. We got news of the armistice at 9.30 this morning

... The streets were packed with wildly cheering civilians.”

The crowds who braved the rain for the ceremony along the famed Champs-Elysees boul-evard in Paris also came from far afi eld.

Nevan Lancaster, a 47-year-old from New Zealand, extended a work trip to Europe to pay his respects to a grandfather who fought in the war. “I’m here for him. He didn’t speak about the war – it was his job, it was his duty.”

Keith Evans, a 70-year-old Scot, said he had come “to re-member the sacrifi ce, and the cost” of a confl ict that claimed up to 20mn lives.

“I hope that with this event, the leaders here will learn the lesson of what President Macron has just said,” Evans said, a re-membrance poppy pinned to his raincoat.

“We should do better for peace,” he added.

“Will we ever learn? I hope so,” Evan said.

US, Russian presidents absent for symbolic walkAFPParis

French President Emmanuel Macron made an appeal for peace and co-operation

yesterday to some 65 world lead-ers gathered in Paris to mark the centenary of the armistice in 1918 that ended World War I.

Peace, however, was short-lived and two decades later Nazi Germany invaded its neighbours.

Warning of “ancient demons” and new ideologies that were threatening peace and co-exist-ence, Macron urged his guests to act together to “banish the spec-tres of climate change, poverty, hunger, illness, all the inequali-ties and every ignorance”.

“Patriotism is the exact oppo-site of nationalism. Nationalism is its betrayal,” he said.

German Chancellor An-gela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin,

Turkish President Recep Tayy-ip Erdogan, and US President Donald Trump were among those assembled at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe for the solemn cer-emony.

Macron and his wife, Brigitte, Merkel, and King Mohamed VI of Morocco walked side by side up the Champs-Elysees in the rain as bells rang out across Paris to mark the moment at 11am on November 11, 1918 when the guns fell silent on the Western Front.

Trump and Putin arrived sepa-rately shortly afterwards.

Putin, who was last to arrive at the ceremony, gave Trump a brief thumbs up as he greeted them.

Minutes earlier, a protester had vaulted barriers on the Champs-Elysee and run towards the US leader’s cortege before a gen-darme caught up with her and wrestled her away.

Activist movement Femen claimed the protest on its Twitter account.

Femen leader Inna Schevchenko wrote that “re-establishing world peace with those responsible for ongoing aggression is particularly hypo-critical”.

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner later said Trump’s security had “in no way been threatened”.

After the leaders took their places, Macron reviewed troops and the French army’s bugle call for the dead sounded, followed by a minute of silence and then the French national anthem.

Secondary school students from the Paris suburbs read out extracts from letters and texts by French, British, Chinese, US and German soldiers and civilians re-counting their experience of the armistice.

Macron spoke for just under 20 minutes, paying tribute to the dead of World War I, which claimed the lives of 9mn soldiers as well as millions of civilians.

“Each of them is the face of that hope for which a whole gen-

eration of youth was willing to die, that of a world given over to peace, a world where friendship between peoples would over-come warlike passions,” he said.

Franco-German co-operation and the construction of the Eu-ropean Union were what em-bodied that hope in Europe, he added, a day after his historic joint visit with Merkel to the spot where both the armistice and France’s surrender to German in World War II were signed.

“History is at times threaten-ing to return to its tragic course, and to compromise the heritage of peace that we had thought was

sealed with the blood of our an-cestors,” Macron warned.

“Let us once again take this oath of nations, to place peace above all, because we know its price, we know its weight, we know what it demands,” he urged.

Merkel’s attendance drew some criticism from the far-right opposition back home.

“I think it is wrong to rewrite history and to retrospectively take part in the victory celebra-tion of the Allies,” Alexander Gauland, head of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) told German TV broadcaster ZDF (see accom-panying report).

“But we can’t switch sides to support the victors after the historical fact and start walking through the Arc de Triomphe alongside Mister Macron,” he said.

Yesterday’s ceremony ended with the relighting of the fl ame on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Tri-omphe and the laying of a wreath.

Most of the leaders – though not Trump – attended a peace forum summoned by Macron to commemorate the end of the confl ict.

Trump visited a US war cem-etery outside Paris, after calling

off a similar visit the previous day due to what the White House said were weather and logistical issues amid rain across much of northern France.

Elsewhere, ceremonies in New Zealand, Australia, India, Hong Kong and Myanmar began a day of remembrance services around the world for a confl ict that in-volved millions of troops from colonised countries in Asia and Africa.

The leaders of Commonwealth nations – whose forces were de-ployed under British command 100 years ago – also delivered messages of peace.

“This was a war in which India was not directly involved yet our soldiers fought world over, just for the cause of peace,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter.

“For our tomorrows, they gave their today,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told people gathered at a ceremony in Canberra.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and Prince Charles, stand-ing in for Queen Elizabeth, at-tended a separate remembrance event in London where thou-sands of well-wishers also paid their respects to fallen soldiers.

Macron makes appeal for peace at WWI centenaryDPA/Reuters/AFPParis

Putin meets descendants of WWI participants after the flower-laying ceremony marking the centenary of the Armistice Day, at the monument to soldiers of the Russian Expeditionary Force who fought in France in WWI, in Paris.

Leaders and representatives of international organisations at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to attend a ceremony as part of commemorations marking the 100th anniversary of the November 11, 1918 Armistice, ending World War I.

Right: Macron delivering a speech at the opening session of the Paris Peace Forum.

President Donald Trump paid tribute to the “great warriors” who died in

World War I as he visited a US cemetery in France, a day after drawing fi re for cancelling a sim-ilar trip due to bad weather.

Speaking at Suresnes military cemetery in the western Paris suburbs, Trump hailed the “great warriors who gave everything for family, country, God and free-dom”.

Trump, who was in Paris to attend a ceremony marking 100 years since the end of the war, also praised the courage of the French and other Allied troops

killed in “one of the bloodiest confl icts in human history”.

Singling out the “American and French patriots” who served in the war, he said: “It is our duty to preserve the civilisation they defended and to protect the peace they so nobly gave their lives to secure one century ago.”

More than 1,500 US soldiers who fought in World War I are

buried at the hillside cemetery in Suresnes.

Trump’s visit had been much anticipated after he called off a trip to the Belleau Wood battle-fi eld in northern France on Sat-urday due to the rain, a decision for which he was widely criti-cised.

Some 2,289 others are buried at the Aisne-Marne American

Cemetery next to Belleau Wood.Yesterday Trump shrugged

off the continuing wet weather to remember those who braved “rain, hail, snow, mud, poison-ous gas, bullets and mortar” fi re in pursuit of a “great, great” Al-lied victory.

Speaking on an open-air po-dium, without an umbrella, he named a group of World War II

veterans present and thanked them each in turn.

Addressing one veteran, he joked: “You look so comfortable up there under shelter as we’re getting drenched. You’re very smart people!”

Earlier, Trump and his wife Melania joined dozens of other leaders in marking the centenary of the Armistice at the Arc de

Triomphe war monument on the Champs-Elysees.

“It was very beautiful, so well done” was Trump’s verdict on the ceremony, at which his host, French President Emmanuel Ma-cron, delivered a stinging indict-ment of nationalism.

After the cemetery visit Trump left for Orly airport to fl y back to Washington.

Trump pays tribute to America’s ‘great warriors’ in visit to cemeteryAFPParis

Trump: It is our duty to preserve the civilisation they defended and to protect the peace they so nobly gave their lives to secure one century ago.

Germany has no place in WWIceremony: AfDGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel should not have taken part in a ceremony in France yesterday marking the centenary of the Armistice as it is an event for the “winners” of World War I, said the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).Germany lost the war and Merkel’s participation in a ceremony for the former allies amounted to an attempt to rewrite history, AfD co-leader Alexander Gauland said.“We can’t put ourselves in a historical situation that clearly favours the winner and walk alongside Mr Macron through the Arc de Triomphe,” he said, referring to the famous Paris monument.Gauland’s comments stood in marked contrast to the themes of reconciliation and the need for vigilance against resurgent nationalism which characterised the off icial commemorations in London and Paris for the millions killed during World War I.The anti-Islam AfD entered the German parliament for the first time last year, drawing support from a broad array of voters angry with Merkel’s decision in 2015 to welcome almost a million, mainly Muslim, asylum-seekers.Its leaders have been rebuked for comments that appear to belittle the Nazi dictatorship or suggest that history books should be re-written to focus more on German victims.

Memory of WWI a ‘stern warning’DPAVatican City

The memory of World War I should inspire every-body to “reject the culture

of death and seek all legitimate means” to end current confl icts, Pope Francis said yesterday.

Delivering his Angelus mes-sage, the Pontiff said: “The his-torical events of the fi rst world war are a stern warning to all to reject the culture of death and seek all legitimate means to put an end to the confl icts which still bloody several regions of the world.”

Pope Francis recalled that his predecessor, Benedict XV, who led the Catholic Church from 1914 to 1922, had called World War I a “useless massacre”.

Last month the Pope, the Ar-gentinian son of Italian immi-grants, recalled learning about the “sorrows of war” from his grandfather, who fought for the Italian army during World War I.

Yesterday he also noted that November 11 is St Martin’s Day, which celebrates a famous Cath-olic saint who cut his cloak to give half to a naked beggar, and who repudiated military life to become a monk.

“May [St Martin’s] act of hu-man solidarity show to every-body the path to build peace,” Francis said.

EUROPE

Gulf Times Monday, November 12, 201820

Poland’s eurosceptic lead-ers marked a century of national independence

yesterday as around 200,000 people marched through the capital in a parade involving far-right groups and neo-fascist ac-tivists from Italy.

The march is a focus of debate about whether the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) tacitly encourages groups with roots in the fascist and anti-Semitic movements.

The party won power in 2015 and Poland has since become increasingly isolated in Europe amid accusations of a tilt to-wards authoritarian rule.

Some marchers in Warsaw chanted “Away with the EU”, but there was no sign of white su-premacist banners visible at last year’s march.

Government offi cials walked at a distance from the main marchers, away from any overt displays of nationalism, and they were kept separate by secu-rity forces.

“Thank you for coming here, for Poland, and for bringing the white and red (Polish) fl ag which saw our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers spill their blood,” President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, said at the start of the march.

“There is space for everyone under our fl ags,” he added.

Several hundred metres be-hind the government column, participants held banners saying “God, Honour, Homeland” and launched red fl ares.

Some chanted: “Pride, pride, national pride” and “Poland should be national not red or rainbow-coloured”, in a refer-ence to the red fl ag of the So-viet Union and the symbol of gay pride.

Warsaw’s city mayor sought to ban a far-right march held on November 11 annually for almost

a decade but a court overruled her.

The government then agreed with organisers after last-minute talks to hold a joint event to mark a 100 years since Po-land’s 1918 declaration of inde-pendence after an 18th century partition by Russia, Austria and Germany.

Last year, the annual far-right march was dotted with racist banners such as “pure blood, clear mind” and “Europe will be white or uninhabited”.

Those slogans fuelled concern about the rise of xenophobia in Poland at a time when other Eu-ropean countries are also grap-pling with a resurgence of the far-right.

PiS says it rejects anti-Semitism and racism but critics accuse it of quietly siding with the far-right.

Since its election in 2015, the party has seen Poland increas-ingly isolated in Europe amid accusations of a tilt towards au-thoritarian rule.

It promises more Catholic values and patriotism in pub-lic life and more state say in the economy.

The party taps into frustration with liberal values and anti-es-tablishment sentiment that has galvanised far-right voters in other parts of Europe.

“Remember the shameful slogans of last year’s November 11 march?” centrist lawmaker Marcin Kierwinski said on Twit-ter on Saturday. “A year later, their authors are meeting with the president and prime minis-ter, instead of a prosecutor.”

The United States embassy in Warsaw issued a security alert ahead of the march.

Before the late-night agree-ment with the government on Friday to hold a joint event, or-ganisers had said they expected the march to be the biggest far-right event in Europe in years.

“The organisers of the Inde-pendence March ... are great patriots. In our times, the youth wasn’t this patriotic,” said Ter-

esa Radzikowska, a 70-year-old retiree from central Poland who attended the march.

On November 11 Poles com-

memorate the establishment of the second Polish republic in 1918 from territory seized by its eastern and Western neigh-

bours in the 18th century, made possible by the defeat of Russia, Germany and Austria in World War I.

Poland marks 100 years ofindependence ReutersWarsaw

European Council President Donald Tusk looks up during the wreath-laying ceremony at the monument of Marshal Jozef Pilsudski in Warsaw on the centennial observances marking 100 years of Polish independence. Tusk is a former prime minister of Poland.

Left: President Andrzej Duda delivers a speech before the off icial start of a march in Warsaw marking the 100th anniversary of Polish independence.

Below: People carry flags of Italian far-right party Forza Nuova and Polish far-right movement National Radical Camp (ONR) during the march in Warsaw.

Voters in rebel-held east Ukraine chose new lead-ers yesterday after Rus-

sia defi ed Western calls not to sabotage peace talks and Kyiv urged fresh sanctions against the Kremlin.

In the Donetsk and Lu-hansk “People’s Republics” in Ukraine’s industrial east, voters headed to polling stations after a top rebel was killed in a cafe bombing in August.

Wary of possible violence, separatist authorities tightened security, with soldiers deployed to ensure order.

Campaign posters around the Donetsk rebel stronghold called on people to vote “with Russia in your heart”.

Washington and Brussels had asked Russia not to hold what they call “illegal” polls, saying that they will further hamper eff orts to end a confl ict that has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014.

Kyiv urged the West to punish Russia for violating a 2015 peace agreement, while President Petro Poroshenko called on east Ukrainians to snub the vote “at gunpoint”.

“Do not participate in fake elections!” he said on Saturday.

But Russia and local authori-ties rejected the appeals, saying that people deserved a chance at a normal life and stressing that the turnout was high.

“There was mortar shell-ing again yesterday. I was even afraid of going to vote,” Natalya, who declined to give her name, told AFP at a polling station on the outskirts of Donetsk, a few kilometres from the frontlines.

The 61-year-old retiree, who lives in a building with boarded-up windows, said all she needed was peace and a better pension.

Another voter, Lyudmila Sharakhina, said she wanted her rebel region to join Russia.

“Of course, we would like to become (part of) Russia, like Crimea did,” the 60-year-old said.

In 2014, Russia annexed Cri-

mea and supported the outbreak of an insurgency in eastern Ukraine in what Kyiv sees as punishment for its pivot to the West.

While heavy fi ghting is over, the confl ict regularly claims lives.

Four soldiers died over the past two days, Kyiv said.

Peace negotiations have reached deadlock and Western-backed accords agreed in 2015 are largely moribund.

Many analysts say the polls are a way for Moscow to strengthen its grip on around 3% of Ukrainian territory where 3.7mn people live.

The US embassy in Ukraine said the “sham ‘elections’ will benefi t only Russian proxies in eastern Ukraine”, while the North Atlantic Treaty Organi-sation (Nato) added that the elections “undermine eff orts towards a peaceful resolution of the confl ict”.

But Moscow, which denies funnelling troops and arms across the border, says the polls are necessary to fi ll the power

vacuum after the assassination of rebel Donetsk leader Alexan-der Zakharchenko.

While several candidates are running in each of the two regions, Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik, the acting Donetsk and Luhansk leaders, were expected to sail to victory.

“We are choosing our future,” said Pushilin, a 37-year-old former operator of a notorious Russian Ponzi scheme and suc-cessor to Zakharchenko.

Local authorities pulled out all the stops to encourage a high turnout, setting up food stalls near polling stations and off er-ing lottery tickets to those who voted.

Besides new leaders, voters are also choosing lawmakers.

Kyiv’s Western backers say that in order to settle the blood-iest European confl ict since the Balkans in the 1990s, Russia should withdraw troops from eastern Ukraine and agree to a UN peacekeeping mission there.

The last separatist elections were held in 2014 despite pro-tests from the West and Kyiv.

Ukraine’s rebel-held regions elect leadersAFPDonetsk, Ukraine

A serviceman guards voters at a polling station in Donetsk, in the rebel-held area of eastern Ukraine.

Thousands of Bulgarians demonstrated across the country yesterday against

high fuel prices, blocking traffi c in around 20 cities and on key highways to Greece and Turkey.

Protesters clashed with po-

lice in Burgas, where traffi c was backed up around 10km (six miles) at several entry points to the Black Sea town, public radio BNR reported.

In the capital Sofi a around 1,000 demonstrators rallied outside the government offi ces shouting “Rubbish” and “Re-sign”.

“How can they sell petrol here

at the same prices as in Spain and Luxembourg when we are the poorest country in the Eu-ropean Union?” asked taxi driver Ivan Naydenov.

A litre of petrol or diesel fuel costs around 2.40 leva ($1.13/€1.20), or $5.15 per gallon, after rising 5% from August to October, in a country where the average salary is €575 per month.

Motorists are also paying higher taxes on polluting vehi-cles and higher prices for heat-ing fuel.

Three major motorways and many smaller roads were closed for hours, impeding traffi c in the southwest towards Greece, in the south towards Turkey and in the north of the country.

The police union issued a

statement yesterday in support of the protests.

Ruling party lawmaker Emil Dimitrov accused the socialist opposition of being behind the protests organised through so-cial media.

The head of the federation of distributors of petrol and gas, Andrei Delchev, said yesterday that prices would start to go

down in line with global trends.“Expectations that inter-

national prices will rise after the imposition of US sanctions against Iran are unjustifi ed,” he said.

Protesters say the Russian company Lukoil has a near mo-nopoly as the owner of the only oil refi nery in Bulgaria, and is in control of fuel depots.

Clashes as thousands protest petrol price hikes in BulgariaAFPSofia

German minister Seehofer to quit party leadershipGerman Interior Minister Horst Seehofer will leave his role as leader of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), party sources told DPA.The minister, a long-time ally turned critic of Chancellor Angela Merkel, informed leading members of the conservative CSU about his decision in Munich yesterday, according to politicians involved in the discussions.He is expected to give a public statement on his resignation in the coming week, with a new leader to be elected at a conference early next year.Firebrand Seehofer’s very public spat with Merkel over migration has been widely blamed for plunging popularity for all three governing coalition parties: his CSU, Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the centre-left Social Democrats.He has faced repeated calls to step down as interior minister.CDU support plummeted by over 10 percentage points in elections for the Bavarian parliament last month, causing the party to lose its absolute majority.It also performed poorly in the general election in September 2017, losing ground to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Trump discussed Khashoggi with Erdogan: off icialUS President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have discussed how to respond to the killing last month of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, a White House off icial said yesterday.The conversation took place during a Saturday dinner with heads of state gathered in Paris to mark the World War I Armistice centenary.Khashoggi, a critic of ruling Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, was murdered at the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate by a team sent from Riyadh.Saudi authorities have acknowledged that the killing was premeditated, but his body has not been found.Erdogan revealed on Saturday that audio recordings of the killing had been given to the US, French, German and British governments, adding that the operation had been ordered at the “highest levels” of the Saudi government.Trump expects to form a “much stronger opinion” by next week on Khashoggi’s killing and Washington’s response, he said on November 7.

Belgian workers get extra €30,000 each in pay gaff eWorkers at a Belgian steel plant got more than they bargained for – €30,000 ($34,000) each, in fact – when their employer accidentally paid them too much.The company Thy-Marcinelle in the Belgian city Charleroi told local media at the weekend that it planned to demand the money, which was intended for bonus payments, be returned today.The total amount that was falsely allocated comes to around €7mn.The employees who received the bonus money usually only earn around €1,600 a month.“I know this money doesn’t belong to us and that’s why I didn’t touch it,” one employee told the broadcaster RTBF. “But I know some of my colleagues weren’t as cautious. I know at least one guy went to the casino.”Legally, there is no question as to what should happen to the money under Belgian law: whoever wrongfully receives money is obligated to pay it back.

Smoke forcesAir France flight to divert to SiberiaAn Air France flight carrying 282 passengers from Paris to Shanghai made an unexpected stop in Siberia yesterday after smoke and a bitter smell filled the cabin, the company said.No passengers were hurt and they were put up in a hotel near Irkutsk airport in eastern Siberia, Air France told AFP.“The crew of AF116 on a Boeing 777 from Paris to Shanghai decided to divert to Irkutsk in Russia after an acrid smell and light smoke appeared on board,” the French carrier told AFP. Air France said the flight could continue to Shanghai after technical clearance.

New rail link in Mumbai opensIANSMumbai

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra

Fadnavis yesterday inaugurated phase I of the 12.4km Nerul-Belapur-Seawoods-Kharkopar suburban railway.

The new line between Nerul, Belapur and Kharkopar will aug-ment the Harbour rail network that will allow expansion of suburban local trains till Raigad district.

The entire 26.7km Nerul-Be-lapur-Seawoods-Uran suburban line, once completed, will bene-fi t the people of Navi Mumbai by providing direct access between Uran town, Jawaharlal Nehru Port and the newly-developed area of Mumbai Metropolitan re-gion as well as Greater Mumbai.

The new line will allow com-muters coming from both Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Panvel to go up to Kharkopar.

The two leaders also laid the foundation stone for Umbermali and Thansit, two new suburban

stations on Kalyan-Kasara line, and dedicated various other pas-senger amenities on the subur-ban section of Mumbai Division of Central Railway.

Goyal said the Pen-Panvel electrifi cation work had been completed nine months before the schedule of July 2019.

He congratulated the Central Railway and City and Indus-trial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO) offi -cials for working in tandem to complete the Nerul/Belapur-Kharkopar (Phase 1) of Nerul/Belapur-Uran line, thereby con-necting the Kharkopar area to Mumbai city.

The work on the remaining 14.3km stretch from Kharkopar to Uran is under progress and is likely to be completed by 2020, an offi cial said.

“This will connect newly ris-ing suburbs of Ulwe, near which the Navi Mumbai airport is un-der construction,” the offi cial said.

A total of four bridges, fi ve road overbridges, 15 road un-derbridges and one track under-bridge will be developed between the Nerul-Kharkopar section.

Miners gouge hills worsening Delhi’s pollution problemsReutersSirohi

A sandstone quarry near the village of Sirohi, on the outskirts of New Del-

hi, is a reminder that it’s not just fi reworks and crop burning that are causing the capital’s pollu-tion problems.

The site was previously part of the Aravalli mountain range, that stretches nearly 700km through northern and western India.

That was until hundreds of workers hollowed out one of its hills, mining for rocks and sand for construction.

It is the same in many other parts of the Aravallis, which used to protect Delhi from dust rolling in from the nearby Thar Desert.

Beginning in October, stub-ble farmland around Delhi, along with vehicle and indus-trial emissions, and the lighting of fi recrackers during festivals combine to create a toxic haze that can hang over the city for months.

Environmental experts say the dust blowing in from surround-

ing areas, which are becoming increasingly arid due to rising temperatures and shrinking for-ests, also plays a role in Delhi’s pollution woes.

In May and June, the capi-tal was hit by huge dust storms that forced residents indoors and cancelled fl ights, worrying authorities in a period that out-side the main “pollution season” between October and December.

“Mines are making forests shrink, and the mountains used to block sand from other areas,” said Kailash Bidhuri, founder of Save Aravalli, an environmen-tal group attempting to stop the mining of the hills around Delhi.

“What you see now is the re-sult.”

The fast disappearance of the hills has also started to worry the Supreme Court.

In a long-running case brought by environmental activists against several defendants, the court re-cently heard evidence from the government’s Forest Survey of India, which said it conducted a study of 128 hills and found that nearly a quarter of them had dis-appeared.

The court said last month rampant mining was making Delhi’s already-toxic air even worse, and ordered an immedi-ate halt to illegal mining in one small section of the range.

But it’s doubtful the limited ban will have much impact.

Similar bans over the years have been ignored.

Government studies of mining areas in the Aravallis have found signifi cant increases in cases of asthma and silicosis, an incur-able respiratory infection caused by the dust the mines kick up.

Compounding the problem, at many mining sites, workers dig below the permitted levels, pol-luting water supplies, Bidhuri said.

“There were rules and pro-tocols that were not followed,” Bidhuri said.

The hill at Sirohi has been dug out, broken up and hauled away, and the mine bosses have moved on to begin again on an-other hill.

Left behind are villagers who miss the old days, despite the health dangers, both for them and for Delhi’s residents.

Raman Singhlocked in directfi ght with his former mentorIANSRajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh

The Congress, out of pow-er in Chhattisgarh since 2003, is exploiting the

name of Bharatiya Janata Party’s iconic leader and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to take on Chief Minister Raman Singh on his home turf Rajnand-gaon that goes to the polls today.

Raman Singh, the longest serving chief minister of the BJP, is locked in a direct fi ght with his former mentor Karuna Shukla, niece of the late Vajpayee.

The 68-year-old Shukla, a former BJP Lok Sabha MP, ended her 32-year-long association with the ruling party in 2014 and joined the Congress.

The down-to-earth Shukla is known to have a clean image and she had rejected the BJP’s re-peated eff orts in the recent past to shed her anger against the saf-fron party.

The Congress cleverly fi elded her against the BJP’s most popu-lar face in Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh, to deny him a walkover.

“Voters in Rajnandgaon are in a dilemma as they have great aff ec-tion and regard for Raman Singh but Shukla is a simple and sober woman and most importantly she is seeking votes in the name of late Vajpayeeji rather than the Congress or (party president) Rahul Gandhi,” says Tejindar Bhatia, who owns a grocery shop at Gurunanak Chowk in the heart of Rajnandgaon town.

A mobile telephone shop own-er, Raju Sahu admitted that Ra-man Singh would win because of his “deep bonding and strong connect” over the years with vot-ers while Shukla is a “parachute candidate” who had been used by the Congress to scare the BJP.

The Congress camp is also

encouraged by the huge turnout of locals at a roadshow carried out by party chief Rahul Gandhi on November 9 in Rajnandgaon town with Shukla and state Con-gress chief Bhupesh Baghel.

Sensing that there is a fi ght on Raman Singh’s home turf, BJP president Amit Shah staged a road show in Rajnandgaon town hours before campaigning ended on Saturday.

The BJP show of strength was dubbed one of the biggest elec-tion road shows in Chhattisgarh and Shah advised voters to en-sure Raman Singh wins by not less than 70,000 votes.

“You need to double the vic-tory margin this time for Raman Singh. In 2013 he won by a little over 35,000 votes, this time the margin should be above 70,000,” Shah told voters in the presence of the chief minister. Chhattis-garh has 90 assembly seats.

Meanwhile in Kolkata, Tri-namool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee said the BJP was not making much headway in West Bengal and its desperation was similar to that of a turtle turned upside down.

Chatterjee charged that the BJP, in its desperation, was mak-ing provocative statements in or-der to gain a foothold in the state.

His comments came a day after West Bengal BJP women’s wing chief Locket Chatterjee warned that those trying to stop the party’s scheduled ‘rath yat-ras’ in the state will be “crushed under the wheels of the chariot”.

“Be it Locket Chatterjee, Dilip Ghosh (state BJP chief), or Rahul Sinha (BJP national secretary), they always make such destruc-tive comments. Their condition is like that of a turtle turned up-side down. It keeps throwing its limbs in the air but that is of no use,” said Chatterjee, who is also the state education minister.

Chhattisgarh goes topolls amid rebel attacksIANSRaipur

Amid threats of Maoist vi-olence, 18 of the 90 con-stituencies in Chhattis-

garh go to the polls today to elect a new assembly in the fi rst phase of a battle in which the Congress is desperate to end 15 years of Bharatiya Janata Party’s rule.

The election, widely seen as a ‘semi-fi nal’ ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha polls, will also see a formidable third factor in an al-liance stitched by Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party with the Chhattisgarh Janata Congress of former chief minister Ajit Jogi and the Communist Party of In-dia.

The BJP, ruling the state since 2003, has 49 seats in the outgo-

ing assembly, the Congress 38 and the BSP one.

A total of 190 candidates are in the fray in the 18 constituencies spread over eight districts where Maoists have been active for over a quarter century.

Polling in 10 seats will start at 7am and end at 3pm while in the remaining eight seats voting will take place from 8am to 5pm.

The 10 seats where early vot-ing is being held are Narayan-pur, Dantewada, Bijapur, Konta, Mohla-Manpur, Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Kanker, Kes-hkal and Kondagaon.

The rest of the constituencies – Khairagarh, Dongargarh, Ra-jnandgaon, Dongargaon, Khujji, Bastar, Jagdalpur and Chitrakot – will see polling from 8am.

Chief Minister Raman Singh is seeking a fourth consecutive term

and his main opponent is BJP-turned Congress leader Karuna Shukla, a niece of late prime min-ister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

In the high stakes battle, Shukla, a former BJP Lok Sabha member, has taken on Raman Singh at his home turf Rajnand-gaon.

The other constituencies that will see voting are Khairagarh, Dongargarh, Dongargaon, Khu-jji, Mohla-Manpur, Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Kanker, Kes-hkal, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Bastar, Jagdalpur, Chitrakot, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta.

Twelve of them are in the in-surgency-hit Bastar region and six in Rajnandgaon district.

A total of 4,336 polling booths have been set up for the fi rst phase of the state polls.

There are 31,80,014 vot-

ers, including 15,57,435 males, 16,22,492 females and 87 of the third gender.

Nearly 100,000 security personnel, including paramili-tary forces, have been deployed across the state for the fi rst phase.

These are in addition to the existing paramilitary person-nel and 200 companies of state forces engaged in anti-Maoist operations in the tribal-domi-nated state.

Helicopters of the Indian Air Force and the Border Security Force have also been pressed into service.

The Maoists, who have asked people to boycott the elections, have triggered several attacks in the last few days killing several people including a BSF trooper yesterday.

The campaign which ended on Saturday witnessed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and Ut-tar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath raising the pitch for the saff ron party.

Leading his party’s charge, Congress president Rahul Gan-dhi attacked the BJP over cor-ruption, agrarian distress and unemployment.

The second phase of the Chhattisgarh election will be held on November 20 and the votes will be counted on De-cember 11 along with the assem-bly polls of Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Rajas-than.

Pundits are viewing this round of assembly polls as a ‘semi-fi -nal’ before the country plunges into the Lok Sabha battle.

Farmers burn rice straw after harvesting the paddy crops in a field on the outskirts of Amritsar yesterday.

Eight captive-reared vultures with tracking devices to be releasedIANSPinjore, Haryana

Eight critically endangered white-backed vultures reared in captivity are set to

take wings early next year for the fi rst time in India since the vulture conservation centre near Haryana was set up in September 2001.

The Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre on the edge of the Bir Shikargaha Wildlife Sanctuary is a joint project of Haryana and the Bombay Natu-ral History Society (BNHS) with

the British government’s Dar-win Initiative for the Survival of Species Fund to investigate the massive decline of three criti-cally endangered Gyps species of vultures in India.

Six captive-bred vultures and two rescued from the wild will be tagged with a 30g device for satellite telemetry each with a battery backup of three to four years and this will help in un-derstanding their behaviour and survival instincts in the wild, BNHS Principal Scientist Vibha Prakash told IANS.

He said the vultures would be

released most probably by March-April next year in the Bir Shikar-gaha sanctuary where the BNHS is working to declare it as vulture safe zone, which extends trans-boundary into Himachal Pradesh where the wildlife awareness among the villagers is quite high.

“If any of the released vulture dies or gets injured, we can re-cover them. Satellite telemetry will help us to know the cause of death and prevent other vultures dying from that cause.”

The satellite tags will also be useful in discovering whether the captive-bred birds behave

normally in the wild with other closely-related species.

In the fi rst event of its kind in South Asia, the government of Nepal and national and inter-national conservation organisa-tions released critically endan-gered white-backed vultures in the wild on November 9, 2017.

India is home to nine species of vultures. Three of these spe-cies, the white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vul-tures, underwent catastrophic population declines of greater than 90% in the mid-1990s.

The birds are now listed as

critically endangered. The vul-ture, a nature’s scavenger, cleans the environment of animal car-casses. Villagers rely on them to dispose of cattle carcasses.

According to biologists, the reason for bringing the vul-tures to the brink of extinction in South Asia is mainly to the extensive use of diclofenac in treating cattle. Vultures that ate the carcass of animals treated with diclofenac died with symp-toms of kidney failure.

The Indian government banned its veterinary use in 2006.

BNHS scientist Prakash said

“if there is no toxicity-related death of these eight birds in two years, then we will go for release of 20-25 birds each year”.

“We are planning to intro-duce 100 pairs each of the three species of white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed in the wild in the next 10 years. Before that, fi ndings from the fi rst pro-posed release batch will be cru-cial in the future programmes.”

The long-billed and slender-billed vultures will be released in Madhya Pradesh and Assam, respectively.

Offi cials admit the fl ight to

freedom of these endangered vultures is still caught in bu-reaucratic delays in the Haryana Forest Department, which has been authorised to procure 10 platform terminal transmitters or satellite telemetries through global bidding.

“These birds have been shifted to the pre-release aviary for over a year-and-a-half. Twice their release was postponed last year. The only hurdle is the procure-ment of satellite telemetries and that too is bogged down by bu-reaucratic delays,” an offi cial, re-questing anonymity, told IANS.

Aam Aadmi Party leaders including Delhi minister Gopal Rai (centre) release the party’s manifesto for Chhattisgarh assembly elections, in Raipur yesterday.

INDIA21Gulf Times

Monday, November 12, 2018

Karnataka’s mining baronReddy held inPonzi scam

Drink driving cases on therise in Delhi, say police

AgenciesBengaluru

Karnataka’s former minis-ter and mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy was

arrested and jailed for allegedly shielding two suspects in a mul-ti-billion rupee Ponzi scheme, police said yesterday.

“Based on the evidence and statements, Reddy has been arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy,” Addi-tional Commissioner of Po-lice Alok Kumar told reporters here.

Later, Additional City Metro-politan Magistrate Jagdish sent Reddy to a 14-day judicial cus-tody till November 24.

The City Crime Branch (CCB) police earlier took Reddy to state-run Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru for a check-up.

The CCB charged Reddy with shielding a man and his son, both accused in the Rs9.54bn Ponzi scheme, from being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged money laun-dering in violation of the For-eign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

Reddy’s arrest comes a day af-ter he drove to the CCB offi ce on Saturday evening in response to a summons.

“Reddy has been lodged in the central jail. We will ap-ply for bail in the same court tomorrow for his release,” his lawyer Chandrashekar told re-porters.

Reddy was questioned on Saturday by CCB offi cials led by Alok Kumar, Deputy Commis-sioner of Police S Girish and As-sistant Commissioner of Police Venkatesh Prasanna.

The CCB also arrested Red-dy’s aide Ali Khan, who had allegedly struck a Rs180mn deal with the suspects – Syed Ahmed Fareed and his son Syed Afaq Ahmed of Ambidant Marketing Ltd, a Bengaluru-based company that ran the Ponzi scheme and duped about 15,000 investors by laundering their money from Dubai.

The company promised peo-ple 40% returns on their invest-ments.

Many people fell into the trap and invested money but never got any returns. The Enforce-ment Directorate took over the case as the complaint was regis-tered and a look-out notice was issued for Fareed.

Fareed allegedly told the po-lice that he had given Reddy 57kg of gold worth Rs180mn after the Ballari mining baron promised to help him in the investigation launched by the Enforcement Directorate.

Reddy, 51, a former Bharatiya Janata Party minister in Kar-nataka (2008-11), however, denied his involvement in the case.

“I have no role in the Ponzi scheme. The police have no evidence to prove my involve-ment in it. They are misleading the media and the public,” said Reddy in a video clip released to local news channels before his interrogation on Saturday.

Refuting allegations by police that he was on the run, Reddy said he had been in Bengaluru.

One of the three brothers who wield enormous power in Karnataka’s mining district of Ballari, Janardhan Reddy was disowned by BJP chief Amit Shah during campaigning for the assembly elections held in

the state in May.His two brothers, Gali Karu-

nakara Reddy and Gali So-mashekhara Reddy were given tickets by the party. Janardhan Reddy had campaigned for them, as well his aide Sriramulu, who won the election from Ballari.

However, after Sriramulu re-signed as the Ballari Lok Sabha MP, the Congress won the seat in last week’s by-election.

The police have said there was no political connection to the probe and they were working on the case for the last 20 days, but waited till November 3 for the by-elections to be over for further action, so that it was not politicised.

Reddy had been arrested by the Central Bureau of Inves-tigation in 2011 over alleged multi-billion illegal mining scam and granted bail three years later. He had reigned su-preme in what was then infa-mously called the “Republic” of Ballari.

In a Ponzi scheme, an invest-ment firm fraudulently col-lects huge amounts of money from depositors promising high interest rate but uses it to pay heavy interest on deposits raised earlier from another set of investors.

“In a Ponzi scheme, investors are made to believe that they earn high interest on their de-posits from profi ts the company makes through lucrative busi-ness than from their own depos-its, which are recycled,” said an ED offi cial.

Reacting to Reddy’s arrest and imprisonment, former Karnata-ka chief minister Siddaramaiah said that nobody was above the law.

AgenciesNew Delhi

At least 33,000 people were caught driving in an in-ebriated state on Delhi’s

roads this year, around 27% higher than last year, data from Delhi traffi c police shows.

The fi gures show an upward trend of drink driving cases in the last few years.

In 2017, a total of 26,008 peo-ple were fi ned, while the year be-fore it was 23,393.

This year, till November 8, a total of 33,033 people were fi ned for drink driving by the traffi c police in Delhi.

Senior traffi c offi cials said the rampant cases of driving under the infl uence of alcohol have led them to organise regular drives to catch violators.

Since violations generally

spike during the festival season, special drives are conducted during these months, senior traffi c police offi cials said.

This year too, the drive was intensifi ed between Dussehra and Diwali.

The fi gures show that in the 20-day period between Octo-ber 19 and November 7 this year, over 2,143 people were prosecut-ed for driving under the infl u-ence of alcohol.

Joint Commissioner of Po-lice (Traffi c) Alok Kumar said an analysis of drink driving cases over the last few years shows that most incidents are reported either late at night or during the early hours of the morning – be-tween 1am and 4am.

“At night, around most popu-lar markets with pubs and night-clubs we have set up pickets to check for cases of drink driving. We take such off ences very seri-

ously, by drinking before getting behind the wheel you are not just risking your own life but are also endangering the lives of those around us,” said Kumar.

In 2015, the Delhi traffic po-lice drew up a map based on the areas in the city most prone to the cases of driving under the influence.

Hauz Khas, Connaught Place, Rajouri Garden and Nehru Place were found to have recorded the most number of such cases.

The survey also showed that out of all the violators who were caught during the drives, at least 40% were people below the age of 30.

“When you are young you think you can handle drinking and driving together. But what-ever your age, alcohol dulls your refl exes and increases the possi-bility of getting into a fatal acci-dent,” Kumar said.

22 Gulf TimesMonday, November 12, 2018

INDIA

The wife of a Kerala minister yesterday quit her post in the state university following criticism that her husband played a role in getting her the job. Jubilee Navaprabha, wife of Public Works Minister G Sudhakaran, told reporters that a section in Kerala University was out to malign her husband after she applied and was selected for the post. “I retired as vice principal of S D College at Alappuzha. I saw the advertisement and applied. Then our detractors said the post was tailor made for me,” she said. “My husband has a very clean track record and we have been together for the past 36 years. After hearing all the allegations, I decided to quit. After she retired as vice principal, Navaprabha was appointed the director at the Directorate of Management Technology and Education that oversees the functioning of autonomous colleges under Kerala University.

Himachal Pradesh Governor Acharya Devvrat yesterday expressed concern over the rise in drug addiction, particularly among the youth in the state, and called for concerted eff orts to tackle the menace. “Eff ective steps have been taken by the government and police administration, but we all need to work together in this direction,” he said at the inauguration of the centuries-old Lavi Fair in Rampur town, which was once a centre of barter trade with Tibet. He called upon the people to promote natural farming. The state government has made a provision of Rs250mn to promote natural or organic farming to produce chemical-free food. The 400-year-old Lavi Fair has undergone a sea change with the rural folk’s changing lifestyles and aspirations, resulting in a greater sale of gadgets and automobiles than traditional items such as farm implements, livestock and dry fruits.

In what could be a worrying sign for the Goa Bharatiya Janata Party, former state Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Subhash Velingkar, an arch rival of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, yesterday announced his plunge into electoral politics. The announcement comes at a time when the the state BJP as well as the BJP-led coalition government in Goa are facing immense flak over the continuance of Parrikar who is suff ering from advanced pancreatic cancer. “I will be actively working for the Goa Suraksha Manch,” Velingkar told reporters in Panaji. Asked if he would contest the upcoming by-elections in Goa’s Shiroda and Mandrem constituencies, Velingkar said a decision would be taken at “the appropriate time”. He also said that considering the political chaos in the state, the Goa Assembly would be dissolved and fresh polls would be announced along with Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

A married woman was allegedly beaten to death following a dispute over dowry in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district yesterday, police said. “Tanaya Mondal was declared dead in hospital. There were external injury marks on the body,” a police off icer said. Tanaya had been married for eight years to Sujoy Mondal and had a six-year-old child. Family members of the woman claimed she was beaten to death by her husband and in-laws as she failed to bring the money demanded by them, the off icer said. “According to Mondal’s family members, she was often harassed and beaten by her in-laws as they could not provide the amount of dowry demanded during her marriage,” he said. “We have arrested the mother-in-law of the deceased based on the complaint. However, the husband and other three family members are on the run,” he added.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu yesterday expanded his cabinet with the induction of two ministers. Governor E S L Narasimhan administered the oath of off ice and secrecy to N M D Farooq and Kidari Sravan at a ceremony attended by Naidu, his cabinet colleagues and senior off icials. Farooq is a member of the Legislative Council, the upper house. He had earlier served as a minister in the cabinet of N T Rama Rao and Chandrababu Naidu in undivided Andhra Pradesh. Sravan is the son of Kidari Sarveswara Rao, who was gunned down by Maoists in Visakhapatnam district in September. Sarvesawara Rao was a member of the state assembly from Araku. With this expansion, Naidu has given representation to Muslims and tribals in the cabinet, seven months before assembly elections.

Kerala minister’s wife quits job after allegations

Drug addiction a matter of concern: governor

Former Goa RSS chief takes political plunge

Woman beaten to death over dowry dispute

Andhra CM inducts twoministers in cabinet

CONTROVERSY MENACEPOLITICS CRIME GOVERNMENT

Widow to move courtagainst policeman

IANSThiruvananthapuram

A woman whose husband was allegedly fatally pushed by a police of-

ficer yesterday said she would approach the Kerala High Court seeking a Central Bu-reau of Investigation probe into the case.

B Harikumar, a deputy su-perintendent of police in Ne-yattinkara on the outskirts of the state capital Thiruvanan-thapuram, has eluded arrest since November 5 when he, after an altercation pushed Sanal Kumar, who fell on the road and was crushed by a speeding car.

The 32-year-old electrician’s widow Viji, 26, told reporters here that the Crime Branch was trying to turn a murder case into a road accident case.

“I don’t have faith in the Crime Branch probe. We have been waiting for almost a week now and the offi cer is yet to be even arrested,” she said.

“So tomorrow (Monday) we are fi ling a petition before the Kerala High Court seeking either a CBI probe or a court-moni-tored probe.”

The incident occurred in Ney-attinkara when Harikumar in ci-vilian dress was reportedly visit-ing a woman friend.

Sanal Kumar was trying to take out his parked vehicle, lead-ing to a row with the police of-fi cer.

Harikumar and his aide es-caped from the scene and since then both been on the run.

He has been suspended from the police force.

What has caused widespread anger is that the police took a badly injured Sanal Kumar to hospital only after dropping off a police offi cer at his station.

With valuable time lost, Sanal Kumar died on way to the Medi-cal College Hospital.

Kerala court to hearBJP leader’s bail pleaBy Ashraf Padanna Thiruvananthapuram

The Kerala High Court will tomorrow consider an appeal by Bharatiya

Janata Party leader P S Sreed-haran Pillai seeking anticipa-tory bail over his speech in-stigating people to violate a Supreme Court order allowing women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala temple.

Police had launched crimi-nal proceedings against Pillai for his address to his follow-ers with “intent to incite one community against another,” which could land him in jail for three years.

Pillai, a leading criminal lawyer, is the president of the Kerala unit of the BJP, which is at the forefront of the “Save Sabarimala” cam-paign.

In his speech at a meet-

ing of the party’s youth wing Bharatiya Yuva Morcha early this month, Pillai had said if women of all ages enter the temple breaking its tradition and the chief priest closes its entrance, it would not amount to contempt of court.

“The tantri is not alone, we are all with him,” Pillai had said, which the police see as aimed at inducing the devotees to defy the court verdict.

He had also said the priest, Kandararu Rajeevaru, had called him and sought his legal opinion.

A day later, Rajeevaru denied contacting him, after which Pillai changed tack and said someone had called him but he not sure who it was.

In his petition, Pillai said he had not made any statement with an intention to cause fear or alarm among people and incite violence but called for a peaceful protest.

Karnataka’s former minister Gali Janardhana Reddy gestures as he is taken by police to a jail, in Bengaluru yesterday.

A woman sells bamboo baskets at a market ahead of the forthcoming ‘Chhath Puja’ festival in Siliguri, West Bengal yesterday.

Getting ready for Chhath Puja

“I don’t have faith in the Crime Branch probe. We have been waiting for almost a week now and the offi cer is yet to be even arrested”

LATIN AMERICA23Gulf Times

Monday, November 12, 2018

Duque urgesaction againstVenezuelan‘dictatorship’AFPLeticia, Colombia

Colombian President Ivan Duque has stressed the need for international ac-

tion to halt Nicolas Maduro’s “dic-tatorship” in Venezuela, which he blames for a “massive humanitar-ian crisis” and a migration wave.

“The real cause of this migra-tion shock is the dictatorship,” the right-wing leader said. “We must use all the diplomatic mecha-nisms, all the multilateral mecha-nisms available to allow this dicta-torship to end.”

Duque, who has been in pow-er since August 7, arrived on an two-day offi cial visit to France yesterday. He took part in yester-day’s Forum for Peace organised by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Duque urged the need for coun-tries worldwide to fi ght drug traf-fi cking, in a wide-ranging inter-view that also touched on peace talks with Colombia’s last active guerrilla group and the election of an extreme-right leader in Brazil.

Duque accused Maduro — lead-er of Venezuela, where economic woes began in 2014 with the crash in the price of crude — of “clinging to power and exacerbating patri-otic feelings in his favour.”

Maduro’s government has been slapped with a range of sanctions over its crackdown on the opposi-tion and civil society critics.

The Colombian president said its neighbour’s “huge humanitar-ian crisis” is leaking over the bor-der: “We have received nearly a million migrants in less than two years.”

“Colombia is facing a diffi cult situation,” he said, calling on the international community to help with “signifi cant means to face this challenge.”

He echoed the need for interna-

tional co-operation on the issue of drug traffi cking: “All countries of the world must strengthen their policies to prevent consumption,” he said.

“The fi ght against drugs must be a shared struggle.”

Illegal coca plantations in Co-lombia reached record levels last year following a 17% increase from 2016 to around 423,000 acres, ac-cording to the United Nations.

Colombia, the world’s leading producer of cocaine, is just emerg-ing from over a half century of civil war waged by guerrillas, paramili-taries, armed forces and drug traf-fi ckers.

Asked about 2016’s peace agreement between the ex-rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), now a political party, and the government, Duque emphasised that he “never cam-paigned saying that we are going to destroy the agreements.”

Duque has vowed to fi x “fl aws” in the agreement negotiated by his predecessor, Nobel Peace Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos.

He has in particular criticised the Farc deal as being too lenient in allowing former rebels accused of atrocities to serve as lawmakers.

Duque said the “most impor-tant issue is... to ensure that those holding political representation mandates, tried by transitional justice and whose human rights violations are upheld, receive pro-portionate sentences and leave political offi ce.”

Concerning Colombia’s last ac-tive guerrilla rebels, the National Liberation Army (ELN), Duque reiterated his position that he is “ready to sit down and speak with them if, and only if, they release all the hostages” and halt all criminal activities.”

“If that does not happen, we will have to act...fi rmly” he con-tinued. “In a dissuasive and off en-sive way.”

Residents work to clear rubble, as rescuers search for survivors in an area aff ected by a landslide due to heavy rains, in Niteroi, metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

10 dead in Rio mudslide,search on for survivorsAgenciesRio de Janeiro

Rescuers are searching for survivors from a Brazil-ian landslide that killed

10 people, including at least one child.

The incident happened in Rio de Janeiro state in the early hours of Saturday, following two days of heavy downpour.

A boulder slid down a slope and hit a group of houses in the city of Niteroi, according to the

local fi re service. Volunteers have joined fi refi ghters and law enforcement, creating a bucket chain to clear mud and debris.

The Globo news network said the group was working in silence so they could hear any victims that might be under the earth.

Rescuers have been work-ing without pause for at least 24 hours. Local media said at least 11 people have been res-cued so far, including at least two children. The major-ity were reportedly found with

the help of sniffer dogs.A number of homes and a

pizzeria are said to have been hit by the landslide, local media reported.

Landslides and fl oods are prone to happen in Brazil – the most deadly was in 2011, when whole hillsides collapsed after heavy rain, killing almost 1,000 people in Rio de Janeiro state.

Roberto Robadey, the head of Rio’s civil defence department, told the Globo TV network that the mudslide was caused by heavy downpours.

“It rained a lot over the past two days and a state of alert was declared for Niteroi,” he said. “People were advised of the sit-uation and were recommended to move to safer locations.” But Claudio dos Santos, president of the Boa Esperança residents’ association, said several fami-lies “refused to leave”.

The Rio fi re department said the dead included a three-year-old boy, two elderly women and a middle-aged man. It did not give any more information about the victims.

Rosemary Caetano da Silva, a resident of Boa Esperança, said her eight-year-old grand-daughter was buried under-neath the rubble. She also said she managed to rescue her grandson, who was taken to a hospital.

Heavy storms are common during the Brazilian spring and summer. Landslides can often be fatal due to terrain and irreg-ular construction on hillsides.

In 2010, around 300 land-slides in the hills of Rio killed more than 250 people.

Ex-army chief guilty of Pinochet-era crimes

Returning Cubans boost island’s real estate market

ReutersSantiago

A Chilean judge convicted the country’s former army chief for complicity in the

deaths of 15 people during the early days of Augusto Pinochet’s military regime.

Juan Emilio Cheyre, 70, was sentenced to three years and a day under house arrest following an enquiry by an investigating mag-istrate.

Cheyre is the most senior fi gure so far to be held accountable for abuses committed after Pinochet overthrew former Chilean presi-dent Salvador Allende in a military coup in 1973. Cheyre became em-blematic of the national transition from dictatorship to democracy that began in 1990.

As commander in chief of the armed forces between 2002 and 2006, he was the fi rst to ask for-giveness for the military’s past ex-cesses. But his tenure was clouded by an investigation into his in-volvement with Chile’s notori-ous “Caravan of Death” military committee, which traversed the country in the months following

the coup, killing and ordering the murder of leftists.

Cheyre’s conviction follows those of more than 1,000 former agents, soldiers and collaborators of the Pinochet regime for human rights abuses despite an initial ret-icence on the part of the authori-ties to reopen old wounds.

Pinochet himself died in 2006 without ever being convicted of human rights abuses.

Mario Carroza, the investigat-ing judge designated by Chile’s Appeal Court to lead the inves-tigation, told reporters that the conviction of a former army chief illustrated the “egalitarian” justice system Chile now enjoys.

“It has been an extensive and complex investigation, above all because we did not have the co-operation of those implicated,” he said.

Following Allende’s overthrow, Cheyre served as adjutant to the commander of the infantry regi-ment for the coastal city of La Ser-ena, 470km north of Santiago.

There he witnessed the murder of 15 people by fellow offi cers on the orders of the Caravan, which arrived in the city the month after the September 1973 coup.

AFPHavana

In shorts and wearing shoes but no socks, Mauricio Garcia could pass for a tourist as he

strolls around Old Havana.But he’s as Cuban as a Cohiba

cigar, and his return after 16 years abroad is part of the demographic behind Communist-run Cuba’s emerging real estate market.

An estimated 40,000 Cu-bans like him have returned from

abroad since 2013, lured home by government migration reform that made it easier for expat Cu-bans to come home and buy prop-erty.

Once derided as the lowest of low “worms” for having left Cuba, now — fl ush with cash — they are being welcomed home with open arms as “mariposas,” or butterfl ies, by the cash-strapped government.

Garcia made the move home in 2016. “The decision was down to the fact that you are allowed to do

business. And instead of mooch-ing around the world, it’s better to be here, in your own country,” said the 41-year old, who owns a tour-ist restaurant near the port.

Garcia has been able to take ad-vantage of another reform in 2011 which authorises only Cubans to buy and sell real estate.

Previously, they alone were al-lowed only to exchange property.

Real estate sales took off for a country of just 11mn with a state-led economy: 45,000 in 2012, 88,000 in 2013 and 100,000 in

2014, before falling back slightly in 2015, said planning offi cial Car-los Garcia Pleyan, a Spaniard from Catalonia who has spent over half a century in Cuba.

The market remains “very ac-tive” however, according to prop-erty specialist Armando Portela, in an interview with Miami-based Cuban magazine Cuba Geogra-fi ca despite having to “overcome many setbacks, such as weak ac-cess to technology, the lack of public information....fi nancial tools, legislative delays.”

Havana, with its colourful buildings and old world charm, will celebrate its Quincentenary in 2019, and the government of President Miguel Diaz-Canel is trying to make up a shortfall of some 700,000 housing units in the city, by boosting construc-tion from the current 20,000 to 50,000 units a year.

It’s a tall order when the obsta-cles against the government are not just fi nancial.

Cuba’s location in the Carib-bean places it directly in the path

of destructive weather patterns.Hurricane Irma destroyed

30,000 dwellings in one night in September 2017.

Meanwhile, returning Cubans are buying and renovating old buildings to make restaurants or tourist apartments, and money, out of them. It’s exactly what 35-year-old translator Maykel Galindo did.

After living in Belgium for 16 years, he used his European sav-ings to buy a 150 square metre ruin in Havana’s historic old quarter.

With his family’s help, he reno-vated the building and divided it into rooms to let. “I discovered that inside Cuba there exists an-other Cuba, which has been cre-ated to a certain extent by the private sector,” said Galindo. “And I, as a Cuban, found that this side of Cuba was the one I wanted to be on.”

He remembered that at the time he bought the house in 2015, “prices were ridiculously low” since when they have skyrocketed eightfold.

Argentina recession ‘tobottom out next year’ReutersBuenos Aires

Argentina’s shrinking economy will bottom out in the fi rst three months

of next year and start to recover in the second quarter, an Inter-national Monetary Fund offi cial said.

The fund last month upped the size of its standby fi nancing deal with Argentina to $56.3bn after negotiating tougher fi s-cal measures that have already dented the popularity of Presi-dent Mauricio Macri ahead of his 2019 re-election bid.

“The bottom of the reces-sion, the fl oor, will be hit the fi rst quarter of 2019, and in the second quarter we are going to see a recuperation,” IMF mis-sion chief for Argentina Rob-erto Cardarelli told reporters at a press briefi ng in Buenos Aires.

The revamped IMF agreement calls on the Macri government to deepen spending cuts and raise taxes to bring the primary fi s-

cal defi cit, projected at 2.7% of gross domestic product in 2018, to zero next year.

Cutting the defi cit during a presidential election year is almost unheard of in Argen-tina, where wide swathes of the population have come to rely on welfare programmes and sub-sidies that helped the country recover from a 2002 economic

crisis that tossed millions of middle-class Argentines into poverty.

Government spending reduc-tions are being made all the more painful by a recession that began earlier this year after a drought wrecked the country’s main cash crop, soybeans. The fund expects Latin America’s third biggest economy to contract by 2.8% this year and by 1.7% in 2019.

“Average growth for the year will be negative, particularly because the end of this year will be nega-tive. There will be a ‘carry over’ eff ect,” Cardarelli said.

Analysts forecast 2018 infl a-tion at about 47.5% and the peso has lost about half its value this year. “Current fi scal and mon-etary policy is a policy of stabi-lisation. Macro-economic sta-bilisation has a cost.

“We believe this cost will be paid over the short term, and that the recession will not last long,” Cardarelli said. “It should last two or three quarters and in the second quarter of next year we should see a recuperation of economic activity.”

The run on the peso was sparked in April by doubts about the central bank’s ability to roll over its short-term debt. Inves-tors dumped Argentine paper in favour of safe-haven US dollar assets bolstered by the Federal Reserve, which has hiked inter-est rates three times this year and is widely expected to do so again in December.

Central American migrants – mostly families with children – taking part in a caravan to the US, queue along the highway to get a ride to Irapuato in the state of Guanajuato yesterday after spending the night in Queretaro in central Mexico.

Waiting for a ride

“The bottom of the recession, the fl oor, will be hit the fi rst quarter of 2019, and in the second quarter we are going to see a recuperation”

PAKISTAN

Gulf Times Monday, November 12, 201824

Amid rising unilateralism threatening multilater-alism, Pakistan has un-

derscored the role of the United Nations as the best vehicle for cre-ating a peaceful world order.

“A rules-based order with the UN at its core remains an abiding and fundamental element of my country’s foreign policy,” Ambas-

sador Maleeha Lodhi told the UN Security Council.

Speaking in a debate on the role of multilateralism, the Paki-stani envoy said that UN Charter principles of sovereign equality of states, non-interference, and peaceful settlement of disputes are critical.

As true multilateralism means that decision-making bodies must be fully representative of the aspirations of all Member States – small, medium and large – Pa-

kistan embraces Security Council reform for those purposes.

“There is no better vehicle than the United Nations to achieve the goals of advancing modern civi-lisation to a new and higher level, assure a life of dignity for all peo-ple, and create a just and peaceful world order,” Lodhi added.

The Pakistani envoy, praising the accomplishments fostered by the United Nations in the pursuit of internationally-shared goals for the common good, said that

today multilateralism is under as-sault.

“Driven by forces of illiberal-ism and protectionism, jingoism is gaining ascendancy over rea-son, intolerance over acceptance and bigotry over humanity,” Lodhi stated.

Listing the complex challenges faced by the world, she said that consensus-building and compro-mise is being viewed by some not as virtues of strength, but as signs of weakness, with the pursuit of

narrow national aims being pro-moted as the sole determinant of world aff airs.

She added that long-standing legal norms are being eroded, UN resolutions and its binding de-cisions fl outed with impunity, force being threatened all-too-frequently, and political brink-manship and power-plays being threatened to turn strategic inter-ests into clashing ambitions.

“These trends are not just re-gressive; they expose a rules-

based international order to new dangers,” Lodhi said.

Stressing the need for interna-tional co-operation, she said that during the last seven decades the UN has promoted the internation-al community’s shared goals of peace, security and development.

“The 2030 Development Agen-da, Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustaining Peace Agenda are recent affi rmations of this col-lective approach for the common good and our shared destiny.”

Pakistan highlights UN’s role for peaceful worldInternewsIslamabad

Lodhi: There is no better vehicle than the UN to achieve the goals of advancing modern civilisation to a new and higher level.

The performance of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) remains dismal even

in “Naya Pakistan” (New Paki-stan), leading Prime Minister Imran Khan to warn that he may abolish the authority and create a new organisation.

The premier issued the warn-ing during a meeting, sources said.

The FBR’s top management had been called for a briefi ng on the board’s performance in rela-tion to revenue collection and tax dodgers.

Sources said that after seeing poor results, the prime minister asked whether the FBR could be reformed, or a new institution be established.

FBR spokesman Dr Mohamed Iqbal did not comment on de-tails of the meeting, but he said the prime minister emphasised the need for reforms, and asked about improvement of the au-thority’s performance and integ-rity.

The FBR offi cial said that the

prime minister stated that re-forming the FBR is critical to meet the government’s goal of providing social justice and relief to the masses.

Khan’s comments indicate his displeasure with taxmen, as he has declared that the govern-ment would double tax revenues from the Rs3.842tn collected in the previous fi scal year.

To press on with the plan, the prime minister had picked Je-hanzeb Khan as FBR chairman.

Jehanzeb Khan is an offi cer of the Pakistan Administrative Service.

The FBR comprises a more than 20,000-strong workforce of the Inland Revenue Service and Customs Service.

Sources said that the Prime Minister Khan was dismissive of the presentation prepared by the FBR showing an apparently rosy picture of the tax aff airs.

Finance Minister Asad Umar has already expressed dissatis-faction with the FBR’s perform-ance.

In spite of the diffi culties, Prime Minister Khan reiterated his confi dence in the FBR chair-man.

He also defended Jehanzeb Khan’s appointment during an interaction with the media two months ago.

The FBR could collect only Rs1.1tn in taxes in fi rst four months of the current fi scal year, falling short of the revised target by Rs68bn.

The growth in revenue collec-tion was less than 7%.

For the current fi scal year, the government has already revised downwards the annual target to Rs4.398tn, and it seems that if the situation does not improve, the FBR may face a shortfall of between Rs150bn and Rs175bn by the end of the year.

On Thursday Minister Umar said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s suc-cess or failure hinged on the FBR’s performance.

The poor tax collection and its implications for the budget defi -cit turned out to be the biggest concern for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during on-going technical-level talks.

Due to the shortfall in tax rev-enues, the budget defi cit is ex-pected to widen to around 1.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the fi rst quarter.

Sources said that there is talk of whether to continue with the existing FBR chairman or bring in a new chief.

However, blaming the FBR chief alone for the poor perform-ance would not be justifi able, as the authority has always been re-sistant to reform.

For the past over one and a half year, FBR personnel have op-posed the implementation of ad-ministrative and policy reforms proposed by the Tax Reforms Commission.

The FBR has resisted even the simplest things like the installa-tion of a trace and tracking sys-tem in industries that are prone to high tax evasion, for example,

cigarette manufacturers.Also, despite the fi nance min-

ister’s instructions, the FBR has not developed a simple one-page income tax return form for the salaried class.

The FBR has developed a new return form for the salaried class but it is still too complicated for many.

The FBR has also resisted the appointment of technically-qualifi ed people on the board of Pakistan Revenue Automation Private Limited, a subsidiary of the FBR that is responsible for using information technology for tax collection.

There are nearly 3.8mn Na-tional Tax Number (NTN) hold-ers in Pakistan, but only 1.4mn of them fi le income tax returns.

The FBR has not been able to catch even these 2.4mn people who have the NTN but are not fi ling returns.

Eff orts have also not been made to improve audit functions, with an almost negligible work-force assigned the audit task.

The FBR has issued advice to the State Bank of Pakistan to re-lease sales tax refunds amount-ing to Rs8.7bn to facilitate ex-ports.

The payment will benefi t 739 claimants from fi ve zero-rated export-oriented sectors – textile, carpet, leather, sports goods, and surgical instruments.

The refund will be made against 4,117 refund payment orders issued up to November 8, 2018.

The tax refunds will be trans-mitted electronically to respec-tive bank accounts of the claim-ants by the State Bank by the close of banking hours today (November 12).

The payments will be made to all those claimants who have provided their bank account de-tails in the IBAN (International Bank Account Number) format.

Imran warns tax body to buck upInternewsIslamabad

Prime Minister Imran Khan has sought a report on the performance of

his federal ministries during the fi rst 100 days of the Pa-kistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

He has also sought a report on austerity measures.

During a party meeting, the prime minister inquired about progress on the various plans featuring his government’s 100-day plan and directed his ministers to submit an evalua-tion report.

He said that it is imperative to share the government’s per-formance with the public.

The ministers will also have to issue notifi cations on any public money saved by adopt-ing austerity measures.

The report is to include the initiatives taken to provide re-lief to the public and the degree of commitment to the govern-ment’s manifesto.

The report is also to men-tion measures undertaken by ministers to curb corruption in their respective departments.

The ministers with promis-

ing reports will receive recog-nition.

The PTI-led government launched a website last month to apprise the public of the PTI’s 100-day agenda.

Adviser to the Prime Min-ister on Establishment Mo-hamed Shehzad Arbab said that the website – pm100days.pmo.gov.pk – has been created for the public and the media to track progress on the “100 Days Agenda”.

After a visit to China, Khan is due to leave for Malaysia soon.

“We want to be transparent … we are accountable to the public. So we have launched a website to help people keep track of our performance,” said Arbab.

On May 20, ahead of the general elections on July 25, the PTI chairman unveiled his government’s 100-day plan.

He had promised that his party would utilise the valuable experience they gained by gov-erning Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province if elected to lead the country after the elections.

Khan had promised policies to make education, employ-ment and other basic needs ac-cessible to the common man.

Performancereport sought from ministersInternewsIslamabad

The website – pm100days.pmo.gov.pk – has been created for the public and the media to track progress on the government’s 100-day agenda. On May 20, ahead of the general elections on July 25, the PTI chairman unveiled his government’s 100-day plan.

He is the only man ever to have scaled K2 three times, but Fazal Ali’s

achievements have gone largely unrecognised, like those of many of his fellow porters who risk life and limb on Pakistan’s highest peaks.

As one of the few elite porters in the country specialising in high-altitude expeditions, the 40-year-old has spent nearly two decades on Pakistan’s dead-liest slopes – plotting routes, lugging kit, and cooking for pay-ing clients.

At 8,611m (28,251’), K2 is not quite as high as Mount Everest, which stands at 8,848m.

However, its technical chal-lenges have earned it the nick-name “the Savage Mountain”, and dozens have lost their lives on its treacherous, icy fl anks.

Ali conquered K2 in 2014, 2017 and 2018 – all without additional oxygen.

“He is the only climber with this achievement,” said Eberhard Jurgalski from Guinness World Records.

While foreign climbers have won plaudits for their feats, Ali and his colleagues are over-looked, even among the moun-taineering community.

“I am happy,” Ali told AFP. “But I am also heartbroken be-cause my feats will never be truly appreciated.”

He is one of many high-alti-tude porters who work on for-eign expeditions to northern Pakistan, a remote region that

is home to three of the highest mountain ranges in the world, the Himalayas, the Karakoram, and the Hindu Kush.

Chosen for their endurance and knowledge of the extremely diffi cult terrain, the porters trace the route for climbers and fi x

ropes for their ascent.They also carry food and sup-

plies on their backs and pitch their clients’ tents.

However, once the mountain-eers return home, the porters – indispensable during expeditions – often feel forgotten.

“When they arrive, they are full of goodwill, they make many promises,” Ali said. “But once they’ve achieved their goals, they forget everything.”

One incident in particular left Ali with a bitter taste in his mouth: he arrived at the summit of K2 with a Western mountain-eer, but instead of taking a pic-ture together, she posed alone with a fl ag in her hand.

“She ordered us to take a pic-ture and stay at a distance,” he said, adding the episode led to a dispute between the climber and a Nepali porter who was also there.

Ali, like many Pakistani high-altitude porters, was born in the remote Shimshal Valley in the country’s north, near the Chi-nese border.

Home to just 140 families, Ali’s village has produced many of the country’s greatest moun-taineers, including Rajab Shah, the fi rst Pakistani to scale all fi ve 8,000-metre peaks in the coun-try.

Rehmatullah Baig, who con-quered K2 in 2014 while taking vital geographical measurements and installing a weather station, also hails from Shimshal and shares Ali’s resentment.

“I should be happy, but I’m not,” he said. “If I were recog-nised, if the mountaineers from ... Pakistan were recognised, or

if they enjoyed a bit of recog-nition or fi nancial assistance, they would climb all the 8,000m peaks of the world.”

Baig’s father was the fi rst from Shimshal to pursue the deadly pursuit of mountaineering, but he now tells his children not to follow in his footsteps.

A major source of resentment among Ali and his colleagues is their belief that they are treated worse than their Nepali counter-parts.

In the event of an accident, Pakistani porters are rarely enti-tled to helicopter rescues by their employers.

In Nepal, local guides are eli-gible for approximately $12,700 in life insurance from the gov-ernment, after mountain work-ers successfully lobbied for an increase following an avalanche in 2014 that killed 16 sherpas on Mount Everest.

High-altitude porters in Pa-kistan meanwhile are lucky to get life insurance policies worth $1,500, according to the Alpine Club of Pakistan.

Mountaineering experts agree that there is a disparity and believe the Pakistani workers should be better trained and sup-ported by the government.

German mountaineer Chris-tiane Fladt, who wrote a book on Shimshal, says that the Pa-kistani porters “should organise

themselves in a union in order to put stress on their fi nancial de-mands”.

In 2008, two Shimshal porters were among 11 people who died on the same day in the worst dis-aster to hit K2.

One of them, Fazal Karim, fell alongside the French mountain-eer Hugues d’Aubarede as they descended from the summit.

Karim’s body was never found.His widow, Haji Parveen, said

she tried her best to dissuade him from going on an expedition.

“I told him, ‘We have a good life here and we have enough to live’, but he did not listen to me,” she said softly.

Karim was a skilled worker, owner of a sawmill in the village, where he had also opened a shop for his wife.

After his disappearance, his widow had to sell the mill to fi -nance the education of their children.

According to Parveen, neither the expedition company nor the foreign mountaineers on the trip gave her any assistance.

Now her eldest, who is study-ing in Karachi, wants to become a porter like his father.

“He talks about it every time he comes home and says he wants to be like his father.

“But we scold him because we hate the mountain: it’s useless, nothing at all.”

Pakistani porters: unsung masters of the mountainsBy Gohar Abbas, AFPShimshal, Pakistan

In this picture taken on May 5, Fazal Ali, who has climbed K2 mountain three times, walks near his house in Shimshal village of Hunza valley in northern Pakistan. He is the only man ever to have scaled K2 three times, but Ali’s achievements have gone largely unrecognised.

96,000 Pakistanis with foreign accounts identifi ed

Pakistan’s Minister of State for Finance, Revenue and Economic Aff airs

Hammad Azhar has informed the National Assembly that the Federal

Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected data on Pakistanis having bank ac-

counts abroad.

During question and answer session, he said that “we have collected data

of 96,000 account holders from abroad and the government is deter-

mined to take action on this”.

Opposition member Abdul Akbar asked the minister to provide “reasons

for not taking any action” against those individuals who were named in the

Panama Papers for allegedly owning off shore assets.

The minister told the assembly that so far 294 individuals had been issued

notices under “relevant sections” of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001.

About 150 people could not be traced due to “incomplete particulars”,

while 12 people are deceased, the minister added.

He further said that audit proceedings had been finalised in 15 cases, and

36 cases are being heard.

Meanwhile, 242 cases are being “pursued to initiate proceedings”.

Asia Bibi wants to leave for Germany

The woman at the centre of a blasphemy case has said that she would like to leave the country for Germany, her lawyer said in published remarks yesterday.Asia Bibi “would be happy if she could leave for Germany with her family”, attorney Saiful Mulook told German Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag.She was released from the women’s jail in Multan in Punjab province late on Wednesday amid tight security, a week after the Supreme Court suspended her death sentence.Bibi was sentenced to death by a district court in 2010 for allegedly committing blasphemy during a row with Muslim women while working on a farm.A Supreme Court tribunal led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar ordered her immediate release on October 31.The judgment triggered protest rallies in several cities for three days.The Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) group called off its protests after the government agreed to not oppose a review petition and to take steps to “bar Bibi from leaving the country”.Mulook, who has left the country for the Netherlands amid safety fears, said that time is running out to get Bibi to safety.

Repatriation of Afghans halted

The repatriation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan will be suspended for three months, during the winter season, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) announced yesterday.“Repatriation of Afghan refugees will remain suspended from December 1 to February 28 due to cold weather,” said Qaiser Afridi, a UNHCR spokesperson in Islamabad.The announcement was made in advance in order to inform the refugees, he said.The UNHCR is currently overseeing the voluntary repatriation of around 1.4mn Afghans, most of whom have been living in Pakistan since their country was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1979.According to the government, there are more than 2.5mn Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

PHILIPPINES

25Gulf Times Monday, November 12, 2018

Duterte to hold talks with communist group offi cialsBy Ralph VillanuevaManila Times

President Rodrigo Duterte has said he may meet with two members of the Na-

tional Democratic Front (NDF) despite the collapse of peace ne-gotiations between the govern-ment and the communist group.

Duterte said Luis Jalandoni and Fidel Agcaoili will fl y to the Philippines despite the possibil-ity that they may be captured.

The president made the an-nouncement on Saturday night during the fi rst Subaraw biodi-versity festival in Palawan.

“Agcaoili and Jalandoni — I will not keep it a secret. They will go here and they want to talk with me. Their problem is, they might be captured,” Duterte said.

“I said, I will catch you. He said, they want to talk with me. So, I called for a cluster mili-tary meeting. So, what do you think?” Duterte said.

“They said, maybe. Maybe. It’s not a very big margin there. But that is still unsure. So, when I go back after Papua New Guin-ea and Singapore, I will make the announcement. So, we just talk,” he added.

Duterte will go to Papua New Guinea and Singapore this week to attend the Asia-Pacifi c Eco-nomic Co-operation and Asso-ciation of South East Asian Na-tions summit.

Jalandoni was the NDF’s former chief negotiator while Agcaoili was the chairman of the peace panel.

Agcaoili yesterday confi rmed his planned trip to the Philip-pines this month.

He said he would be joined by Jalandoni and his wife, Consuelo Ledesma.

In a statement, Agcaoili said they will be fl ying to Manila to discuss their work as compo-nent members of the joint moni-

toring committee under the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (Carhrihl).

“We welcome the opportunity to meet with the president, un-less he does not want to or his military is against it,” he said.

Agcaoili said they were also invited to meet with Norwegian Ambassador to the Philippines Bjorn Jahnsen.

In November last year, Duterte terminated peace negotiations with the NDF and the Com-munist Party of the Philippines (CPP) after a series of verbal wars with exiled CPP founder Jose Maria Sison, the chief po-litical consultant of the NDF.

Shortly after, the president signed a proclamation declaring the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, as terrorist groups.

In April this year, Duterte said he wants to give the communists another chance. Peace negotia-tions were supposed to resume in June in Oslo, Norway but the

president suddenly pulled out, saying peace talks should be held in the country and all agree-ments with the NDF/CPP should be reviewed.

This decision again incensed Sison, who said Duterte was not serious in pursuing peace talks.

On Saturday, the president again called on communist rebels to give up and at the same time kept hope for the peace talks alive.

“You (New Peoples’ Army)… It’s time for you to surrender. I have said, nothing is absolute. By the grace of God, in two years we may have peace,” Duterte said.

The Armed Forces of the Phil-ippines had earlier proposed the creation of a task force to squash the communist insurgency in the country. Last month, Duterte ordered the military to neutralise NPA members.

Defence Secretary Delfi n Lorenzana had expressed op-position to reviving the peace talks with the communist rebels, saying they plotted to oust the president.

Xi’s visit set to enhance ties with China: ArroyoManila TimesManila

The visit of Chinese Presi-dent Xi Jinping to the Philippines this month

will further strengthen rela-tions between Manila and Bei-jing, according to House Speak-er Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In her keynote speech at the Boao Forum for Asia (BYA) Summit 2018 held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibi-tion Center over the weekend, Arroyo said Philippine-China ties had a deep foundation over the past administrations and continue to be “favourable” un-der President Rodrigo Duterte.

Xi is scheduled to arrive in the country on November 23 after the Asia-Pacifi c Economic Co-operation (APEC) meeting in Papua New Guinea.

“I expect President Xi’s visit to further strengthen relations between our two countries,” Arroyo told delegates to the summit.

“Our evolving relationship is part of a history that dates back to previous leaders of our two countries, so it has a deep foun-dation. Now, the current status continues to be favourable, be-cause President Rodrigo Duterte is a friend of China,” she said.

Arroyo, a member of the Boao Forum Asia board, added that keeping a good relationship with Beijing is important to the Philippines because of China’s geographical location, trading partnership, proven capability in infrastructure development and “dynamic and fast-grow-ing economy.”

“China is increasingly in-volved not only in bilateral dealings, but also collectively, such as through the Associa-tion of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which the Philip-pines is an active member,” she said. “China’s economy remains

the most dynamic and fast-growing among the major na-tions, and will soon become the largest economy in the world, so of course, it is good to be friends with China,” Arroyo added.

She cited Xi for pointing out the need for greater co-opera-tion and commitment to build-ing an open economy.

Arroyo said the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a proposed mega free trade agreement between member-states of the Asean, including the Philippines, and six Asia-Pacifi c states, includ-ing China, will provide the im-petus for trade expansion

The BFA Youth Summit is held annually and convenes political leaders and scholars across Hong Kong, mainland China and other countries to discuss Asian economic trends and innovations.

Arroyo brought 10 young Fil-ipinos to the summit for them “to gain valuable insights on China’s growth.”

A joint oil exploration by China and the Philippines in the South China Sea will top the agenda of Xi’s visit, accord-ing to foreign relations experts based in Manila.

Li Meiting, assistant profes-sor of International Relations

at the Department of Politi-cal Science of the University of the Philippines-Diliman in Quezon City, said the joint oil exploration will defi ne future co-operation between Beijing and Manila.

“The question is who will take the major responsibility and who will command bigger infl uence. However, the joint oil exploration will bring in more economic development both to the Philippines and China,” she told a forum on Philippine-China relations, particularly the geopolitical perspective and realities, held recently at Miri-am College in Quezon City.

Meiting, who previously worked at Xiamen University and earned her doctorate at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, said other ar-eas of co-operation have been lined up for discussion between Xi and Duterte in the wake of the signing of more than 27 memoranda of understanding during the Philippine leader’s visit to Beijing early this year.

Alvin Camba, a doctoral stu-dent at the Johns Hopkins Uni-versity and a fellow at Boston University, said huge capital is needed for the joint explora-tion.

He noted that China has big

investments in off shore gam-ing in the Philippines, including planned casinos in Boracay.

Camba blamed local busi-nessmen and politicians for delaying completion of infra-structure projects of Chinese fi rms in various parts of the country.

“Local elites and politi-cians are delaying the projects,” he said, citing much delayed bridge projects over the Pasig River.Camba added that sev-eral Chinese projects, such as a proposed reclamation in Davao City, had been shelved because of strong opposition.

Allan Ortiz of the Philippine Council on Foreign Relations said China’s Belt and Road Ini-tiative (BRI) has joined suppos-edly failed Chinese investments in Djibouti, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, among other countries.

“The BRI is dead in the water, including that one in Myanmar. China (does not have many) friends. So, it better be kind to us Filipinos. We should be geo-graphically friends,” Ortiz said.

He said the South China Sea should be jointly declared by claimant countries as a peace and neutrality zone.

Aside from the Philippines and China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei Darus-salam also contest parts of the South China Sea.

Francois-Xavier Bonnet of France said his country’s claim to the Paracel Islands in the dis-puted sea has been dropped but that to the Spratlys remains.

Herman Joseph Kraft, anoth-er professor from UP-Diliman, said Philippine-China relations are constantly changing but that being pro-China does not equate to being anti-America.

The forum was organised by the Philippine Association for Chinese Studies based in Miri-am College and led by its presi-dent Rommel Banlaoi.

Filipino, US veterans honoured at World War I anniversaryBy Bernadette E Tamayo Manila Times

United States Ambassa-dor to the Philippines Sung Kim yesterday

expressed hope that his coun-try and the Philippines may continue to “walk the path of freedom” to protect both their citizens and promote peace and prosperity for all.

Kim led American and Fili-pino veterans in commemorat-ing the 100th anniversary of the end of World War 1 at the Manila American Cemetery in Taguig City.

The ceremony began at 11am to commemorate the time that “major hostilities of World War 1 formally ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.”

“Exactly 100 years ago, the guns of World War 1 fell silent and those who fought in the terrible conflict began gather-ing their fallen and returning home to rebuild their relations and lives.

Those who lived on those

days called it the ‘great war,’ or the the ‘war to end all wars.’ They gave thanks for peace and for those who served their sac-rifice to bring that peace. They hoped that their lives will move on,” Kim said.

“We can never fully repay our veterans for all their sacri-fice for us. But we can show our profound appreciation, respect on this day. The Philippines is our oldest treaty alliance in Asia and our strong bond will remain unbreakable,” he added.

“We honour the service of all living and dead to set aside safety and a comfortable life to guard freedom for all of us. We commemorate not just the fall-en but also those who served and lived. Those who placed their country and loved ones above themselves,” the ambas-sador said.

“There are many great exam-ples. My favourite is the service and sacrifice of (retired] gen-eral and [former] president Fi-del Ramos. General, thank you and we celebrate your life every single day. And he is of course a proud graduate of West Point

Class of 1950,” he added.Armed Forces Chief of Staff

General Carlito Galvez Jr en-joined everyone “to remember

the courage and bravery of our heroes, fallen or living for we are forever indebted to them.”

“On this day, I’m greatly

honoured and privileged to stand here and give my salute to our heroes and veterans who valiantly fought for the demo-

cratic institutions that we have. May their valour transcend to inspire generations and spark the spirit of nationalism and

patriotism among each and everyone of us,” he said.

“Let their sacrifices inspire us to keep on fighting for de-mocracy that we long held and for the integrity of national territory.

Today, the lives and memo-ries of our veterans shall re-kindle our passion to serve not only our individual core inter-ests but our collective aspira-tion for freedom, peace and love of humanity and global good,” Galvez added.

Gen. Robert Brown, com-manding general of the US Army Pacific, also honoured the veterans.

“We can never, we can never forget their sacrifice. Veterans Day reminds us of our respon-sibility to those who have sac-rificed for our way of life,” he said.

“To recognise, remember and honour those who, in the words of (United States Presi-dent) Abraham Lincoln, gave the last full measure of devo-tion. We honour them today and with the way we live our lives everyday,” Brown added.

US Ambassador to Manila Sung Kim stands at attention as members of the military off er a wreath at the Manila American Cemetery in Taguig City.

Rodrigo Duterte: ready for dialogue?

Gloria Arroyo: hopeful of stronger ties

Investigators probe illegal drug den over blaze in Lapu-Lapu city

Arson investigators are looking into reports that an abandoned house being used as an illegal- drug den could have caused the blaze that gutted at least 38 houses in Barangay Pajo, Lapu-Lapu City yesterday morning, Manila Times reported. Senior Fire Off icer 2 Climaco Salisid, of the Lapu-Lapu City Fire Department, said they received the alarm at about 9:30am and it was soon raised to a third alarm. The fire was declared out at about 10:55am.Salisid said the fire originated from the abandoned house of Rizza Moises, located at the seaside in Sitio Kitchen, and it spread to the adjacent houses mostly made from light materials in Sitio Paradise.The blaze happened eight months after a huge fire hit Sitio New Paradise on March 16 that gutted

353 houses and killed two young children, aged one and three. “We are looking into illegal drugs because according to witnesses, the abandoned house (of Moises) served as a drug den but this needs to be validated,” Salisid told Manila Times.He added that residents in the area are possibly illegal settlers because they lived near the sea and had no permit from the Department of Environ-ment and Natural Resources. Estimated damage was placed at P160,000. No one was reported hurt or injured. On March 20, a fire also razed at least 270 houses and displaced 2,500 people in Sitio Santo Niño in Barangay Basak. It was the second biggest reported by the Lapu-Lapu City Fire Department.

Imelda partied despite convictionManila Times Manila

Hours after former fi rst lady and now Ilocos Norte representative Im-elda Romualdez Marcos was found

guilty of graft, she went to the birthday party of her daughter Imee.

In a Facebook post by Mike Acebedo Lopez on Saturday, Marcos, 89, was seen in photos with government offi cials, among them House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada and former Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile.

Lopez, who claims to be “a Romualdez relative,” confi rmed to Manila Times that the photos were taken at Imee’s birthday celebration at the old residence of the Mar-coses in San Juan.

He said “Marcos seemed unperturbed” by the bad news on the night of the party.

“Happy to see Auntie Meldy (Imelda’s nickname) unperturbed by the bad news of yesterday, a judgment issued by Noynoy

Aquino appointees in the same Sandigan-bayan Division that exonerated a Liberal Party (LP) congressman, Teddy Baguilat, because he was supposedly denied his right to speedy disposition of cases,” Lopez said in his post.

Noynoy is former President Benigno Aquino 3rd.

“(Baguilat’s) case was fi led in 2009 (ten years ago).Auntie Meldy’s was fi led in 1991–27 years ago–and yet the same Sandi-ganbayan Division with majority Noynoy Aquino appointees convicted her.

What of her right to speedy disposition of cases, a right they extended to Baguilat when they acquitted him?” he said.

Some lawmakers castigated the former fi rst lady for not showing up in court during the promulgation of the decision.

“She (Mrs Marcos) should have instead prepared for her promulgation day instead of partying. Perhaps she was confi dent that she will be acquitted of her crime (against) the Filipino people? The Marcoses should be ashamed!” ACT Teachers party-list Rep.

France Castro told reporters in a text

message. “Despite the Sandiganbayan’s guilty verdict and issuance of a warrant of arrest against her, Imelda Marcos has the gall to attend her daughter’s birthday cel-ebration and go partying.

This is a mockery of the Filipino peo-ple who had fought a decades-long uphill battle to bring the Marcoses to account for their crimes,” Anakpawis party-list repre-sentative Ariel Casilao said.

The anti-graft court had ordered Mrs Marcos to explain why she did not show up on promulgation day.

Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo echoed the sentiments of most government offi cials, especially against her political ri-val Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, who, along with the rest of the Marcos family, has repeatedly denied allegations of corruption under his father’s regime.

“This only proves that fi rst and foremost, there really were crimes committed under the Marcos regime. Especially during elec-tion season, they would always deny this,” Robredo said yesterday in her weekly radio show.

Gulf Times Monday, November 12, 2018

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Centre-right set to remain top in EU parliament

The European People’s Party will remain the biggest group in the European Parliament come elections in May, giving the centre-right EPP’s lead candidate Manfred Weber a shot at succeeding Jean-Claude Juncker as EU chief executive, according to a Reuters analysis of polls.

Weber, who leads the EPP in the EU legislature, easily won a party congress ballot to be its “Spitzenkandidat”, or offi cial nominee to be president of the European Commission -- although many EU member state leaders say they will not be bound by May’s election results in choosing Juncker’s successor.

The analysis is based on polls in the 27 EU states or actual election results where these are more recent. Where available, the polls used are those collected by the European Parliament in its monitoring of national political trends .

The analysis indicates that the EPP would remain the biggest party, extending its lead over the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D), whose Spitzenkandidat is Juncker’s Dutch deputy Frans Timmermans. But refl ecting recent national trends, the two mainstream groups would together drop below half the seats as anti-EU nationalists and a range of other small parties do well.

Most countries use simple proportional representation in EU elections, so calculating seats from votes is straightforward. Regional voting in Italy, Ireland and Belgium entails making some assumptions to

project seats from voting percentages. The polls make varying claims of accuracy and the

analysis provides only a rough snapshot of sentiment; it is a method used by some EU offi cials internally - including at the EU assembly itself - to get a sense of the shape of the next parliament.

According to the Reuters analysis, the EPP stands to gain about 177 of the total 705 seats, down from 219 in the current 751-seat chamber. The parliament is shrinking next year because Britain is leaving the EU in March.

The S&D would still be second with 141 seats, down from 189. An informal “grand coalition” with the EPP would be short of a majority, however, suggesting the new Commission head will have to build broader support to steer legislation through.

The Greens, doing well in Germany, are set to hold steady in the EU legislature. Latest polls show them winning 23 of Germany’s 96 seats, or 48 seats in total, down from 52.

The liberals of ALDE, assuming an eventual alignment with President Emmanuel Macron’s new centrist En Marche party in France, would become the third largest party with 83 seats, overtaking the ECR group, which will lose out from the departure of its founders from Britain’s ruling Conservative party.

The far-right EFDD and ENF groups, aided by the popularity of the now ruling League and 5-Star in Italy, stand to gain 20 seats, to a total of 98, despite the departure of Brexit campaigners the UK Independence Party.

Though the future line-up in the parliament of anti-immigration parties including France’s National Rally and the Dutch Freedom Party is unclear, the broad far-right bloc could grow to 14 percent from 10 percent.

That could challenge the established parties and crack open internal divisions after Britain leaves the bloc next March.

The analysis indicates that the EPP would remain the biggest party

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CHAIRMANAbdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFFaisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka

Deputy Managing EditorK T Chacko

By Will Hutton London

It has been a dark two years in Britain and the US. The future had seemed to be captured by the worst of the Anglo-American

right, a populist, anti-foreigner, anti-EU, ultra-libertarian, anti-common decency alliance that extended from Donald Trump via Nigel Farage to Jacob Rees-Mogg. They were the masters now. If you believed in anything progressive, forget it.

Tuesday’s midterm elections in the US did not lift the pall, or so it seemed at fi rst glance. Trump insisting on “a near-complete victory” in the hours after the polls had closed when the Republicans had lost control of the House of Representatives was vainglorious overclaiming, but it was not wholly stupid.

The immediate consensus was that the hoped-for Democrat wave had turned out to be little more than a ripple. They had not won as many seats in the House of Representatives as they hoped, while the Republicans seemed to have consolidated their grip on the Senate. Where Trump had campaigned hard, the Republicans had won. The odds of him being re-elected in 2020 had shortened. Progressive politics was dying.

But look again a few days later and the story is very diff erent. More Americans turned out to vote in 2018 than in any midterm election since 1966

– and more than 10mn more of them voted Democrat than Republican. As the late counts come in, the Democrat tally of gains in the House will top the targeted 30, including what seemed like improbable wins in Republican strongholds in well-heeled suburbs. This is the strongest rebound in recent decades and in an election year when the economy is booming.

The picture in the Senate is also much more mixed than it seemed on Wednesday morning. The Democrats held Montana when it seemed lost, they took Nevada and at the time of writing are ahead in Arizona. In Florida, the race is so tight both for the governorship and Senate that there will be a manual recount. Sherrod Brown won Ohio, a state that went for Trump in 2016, by a stunning 10% margin. The three states that handed Trump the presidency – Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan – now all have Democrat governors. Texas, one of the most conservative states, was only narrowly held with Beto O’Rourke falling just short against the Republican incumbent. For Trump to call this a near complete victory is fatuous.

O’Rourke’s campaign was particularly illuminating about what is happening in the US. He’s an across-the-board progressive with openly liberal commitments: universal healthcare; an assault on misogyny; pro-immigration (it makes the US strong); for accountable capitalism and gun control. He was even against the militarism of US foreign policy.

His cause seemed hopeless. He spoke in favour of black American NFL football players who had taken the knee when the national anthem was played (“There is nothing more American than to peacefully stand up, or take a knee, for your rights”), courage of a high order in Texas.

But from an unpromising start – a couple of friends and a rented car – his candidacy caught fi re. He campaigned in every one of Texas’s 254 counties and through his website portal ActBlue raised a stunning $70mn. By the end, he had recruited 25,000 volunteers; 71% of 18- to 29-year-olds voted for him, along with 39% of “Anglo women” – the most conservative in the US. He made liberalism popular in Texas of all places and came within a whisker of winning.

It is a pattern refl ected across the US. Symbolically, Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the confederacy and the ultra-conservative city, fell to the Democrats. Almost every city and large town in the US is now controlled by Democrats; 60% of women voted Democrat. The rightwing view is to mock as liberal fads “political correctness”, the #MeToo movement, greens, climate change, the young’s embrace of the view that gender is a continuum, respect for other cultures, the growing trend for vegetarianism.

But the message of the midterms is that this is not what the vast majority of Americans believe in or want. The majority culture so far has been denied its full expression by the US electoral

system. Rural conservative states such as Wyoming and North Dakota, with fewer than a million voters, return the same number of senators as urbanised California with 40mn people.

Add the gerrymander of creating artificial districts with Republican majorities and suppressing the votes of blacks and ex-prisoners and the pro-conservative bias is near complete.

Yet the nearest the US has to a national election where those preferences can be expressed is in the House of Representatives. It now looks more like the US than ever – emphatically controlled by O’Rourke-style liberals with a record number of women, of whom two are Muslim. California and New York are now fi ercely Democrat, as are the young, African Americans and Latinos. They enlist social media, not in centralised hothouses and data farms, but in myriad individual networks. They are the future, rejecting wholesale Trump’s rhetoric and values. They and O’Rourke’s charisma could carry the country, making inroads into the rural and smalltown US that its political system so privileges.

As in the US, so in Britain. This is where British culture is settling too, masked by our overwhelming rightwing media. Brexit, contrary to Jeremy Corbyn’s defeatism, can be stopped. A “people’s vote” would capitalise on the same trends and save Britain. All we need is the Labour party to wake up – and back it. - Guardian News Service

A new, progressive US is slowly taking shape

Elections off icials work at counting machines as they were calibrated prior to the start of a recount of all votes at the Broward County Supervisor of Elections Off ice yesterday in Lauderhill, Florida. A statewide vote recount is being conducted to determine the races for governor, Senate, and agriculture commissioner.

COMMENT

Gulf Times Monday, November 12, 2018 27

Doctors not pushing smokers with artery disease to quit

Polluted Delhi air akin to death sentence: doctors

Live issues

By Lisa RapaportReuters Health

Smokers with narrowed blood vessels in their legs would do well to quit smoking, but many doctors may not be giving

them enough support to do it, a recent study suggests.

Smoking can dramatically increase the risks of peripheral artery disease (PAD), which restricts blood fl ow to the extremities and can lead to mobility limitations, amputations and heart attacks. For the current study, researchers examined data on 1,272 patients in Australia, the Netherlands and the US with new or worsening PAD symptoms in their legs and ankles.

Overall, one-third of patients were current smokers, but fewer than one in fi ve were referred to smoking cessation counselling and just one in 10 were prescribed a medication to help them quit.

“Patients with PAD need to be more aware of the long-term risks of smoking associated with their disease because it not only leads to worsening of their disease, but also increases their risk of losing limbs from the disease and having heart attacks and strokes,” said lead study author Dr Krishna Patel of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

“Treatments for PAD such as

stents and bypass surgeries often fail if patients continue to smoke,” Patel said by e-mail. “Quitting smoking is diffi cult, but doing so will help halt the progression of their PAD disease and may even reverse some of these risks.”

The study off ers fresh evidence of just how diffi cult smoking cessation can be.

Researchers checked with patients on their smoking status when they started the study and again after three, six and 12 months.

After three months, the smokers’ odds of quitting were just 21%.

Among smokers who hadn’t quit at that point, their odds of quitting over

the next nine months ranged from 11 to 12%.

Slightly more than one-third of people who initially managed to quit relapsed and started smoking again, the study also found.

And at 12 months, 72% of smokers continued to smoke.

The study wasn’t designed to prove whether or how more physician support might directly impact smokers’ odds of successful cessation.

One limitation of the study is that researchers relied on patients to accurately report on any smoking history or cessation eff orts, and

it’s possible some people provided incorrect information, the authors note in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers also lacked data on what factors might have infl uenced doctors’ decisions about whether to recommend counselling or medications to smokers to aid with cessation.

There are many reasons doctors might not intervene to help smokers quit, said Dr Joseph Ladapo, a researcher at the David Geff en School of Medicine of the University of California, Los Angeles, who wasn’t involved in the study.

Sometimes, smoking cessation is not high on the physician’s priority list for the patient, and other times doctors may not know or may not ask a patient about current smoking habits, Ladapo said by e-mail. Other times, doctors might not realise that counselling patients in the offi ce can be eff ective.

“They may feel that their eff orts to help a patient quit smoking are futile,” Ladapo said.

“Doctors have access to evidence-based therapies that signifi cantly boost a person’s chances of successfully quitting, but they may not prescribe them if they are not prompted, as this study shows,” Ladapo added. “So this is something that patient’s really need to take the lead on,” and ask for help.

AFPNew Delhi

Yogesh Kumar wheezes after life-saving surgery to remove a diseased lung, but his doctors wonder how long

he can last outside hospital breathing some of the world’s dirtiest air.

Smog is blamed for the deaths of more than 1mn Indians every year and Delhi — which last week had emergency pollution levels more than 35 times the World Health Organisation safe limit — has the worst air of any global capital.

Every November, hospital wards fi ll with gasping patients as the tell-tale thick grey haze which hit on Monday shrouds the city of 20mn.

“Delhi air is like a death sentence for him,” said Srinivas K Gopinath, a thoracic surgeon at Sir Ganga Ram hospital in the Indian capital where 29-year-old Kumar was treated.

Gopinath fears for his patient, who survived tuberculosis but is now at the mercy of another invisible killer.

As cooler air traps pollutants close to the ground, Delhi’s levels of PM2.5 — particles so tiny they can enter the lungs and bloodstream — soar dangerously.

One of the worst times is around the Hindu festival of Diwali as smoke from millions of crackers set off by festive revellers mingles with car exhaust, factory emissions, construction dust and smoke from crop fi res in nearby states.

Pollution readings can reach so high they do not register on scientifi c instruments.

In the Anand Vihar suburb, the PM2.5 level rocketed to 908 last Monday.

The WHO sets 25 as its recommended average safe level.

Kumar was due to be discharged from hospital around the time of the festival which was celebrated last Wednesday.

“Inside (the hospital) the air quality is maintained, but once he steps out the bad air will start aff ecting him,” Gopinath said.

“His resistance is weak. He has only

one lung which is now really precious. Imagine having to cope up with such bad air with only one lung.”

But Kumar is far from alone.Children, the elderly and those with

respiratory ailments like asthma suff er the most from Delhi’s smog, which lingers until late February.

Exposure to toxic air kills hundreds of thousands of children every year, the WHO said in an October report.

Children breathe more rapidly than adults, taking twice as much polluted air into their tiny bodies.

It has devastating eff ects on children in Delhi, say doctors.

“A child who is born in Delhi is taking in gulps of bad air which is equivalent to smoking 20 to 25 cigarettes on the fi rst day of his life,” said Arvind Kumar, a prominent Delhi lung surgeon.

For years the surgeon has tirelessly campaigned to raise awareness about the dangers of air pollution, which the WHO last month likened to the tobacco epidemic.

On hospital grounds this weekend

Arvind Kumar ordered the installation of giant, artifi cial lungs fi tted with fi lters to demonstrate the damaging eff ects of smog.

Many of the patients he sees already bear physical scars from breathing a lifetime of Delhi air.

“These are non-smokers, but even they have black lungs,” he told AFP.

“Even teenagers have black spots on their lungs. This is frightening.”

Despite Delhi’s smog reappearing every winter, offi cial eff orts to combat it have been ineff ectual.

Emergency measures such as banning construction, cutting down traffi c and prohibiting the use of diesel generators have had little eff ect.

More long-term solutions remain elusive.

State governments have refused to co-operate on root causes of the crisis, such as farmers using fi re to clear their land on the outskirts of Delhi.

Surgeon Kumar said pollution needed to be tackled at its source.

“Everything else is just eyewash,” he said.

Winter is coming to the UKBy Harold JamesPrinceton

The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union is rapidly unravelling. The “Chequers

plan” upon which British Prime Minister Theresa May has based her negotiating strategy is dead on arrival. It has been rejected not just by the EU and the opposition Labour Party, but also by enough Conservative MPs to ensure that it would fail a parliamentary vote.

Accordingly, the May government’s only option has been to delay and hope that something turns up (also known as kicking the can down the road). But while the current impasse could simply mean that May’s negotiating strategy was fl awed, it also could mean that the underlying logic of Brexit is incoherent.

For its part, the Chequers plan relies on a series of uneasy compromises. The UK would maintain a customs relationship with the EU, but it would not be in the EU customs union. Instead, both UK and EU courts would enforce a common “rulebook,” and the UK would be able to diverge from EU trade rules when making agreements with third parties.

But even if this customs-union fudge were palatable to both sides, there would still be the question of the Irish border. Specifi cally, there would either have to be a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (which will remain in the EU), or between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. The fi rst scenario would threaten the Irish peace process; the second would destroy the UK.

Brexit is based on the belief that national sovereignty is the only rational basis for international order. Academics would refer to this as

“realism,” which holds that states are driven by clearly defi ned and articulated interests that perpetually collide with one another at the global level. A popular non-academic rendering of this doctrine can be found

in the HBO series Game of Thrones, which combines Shakespearean elements with fantasy.

For many viewers, “GOT” has become a lens for understanding contemporary reality. At this year’s

International Monetary Fund-World Bank Annual Meeting in Bali, Indonesian President Joko Widodo channeled the main theme of the series when he warned that, “Winter is coming.” As the “great houses” of the

United States and China compete for control of the “iron throne,” a global crisis that will spare no one becomes increasingly likely.

By portraying a world of treachery and broken alliances, GOT serves as the perfect fable for our current moment of international uncertainty. It is also a must-watch among Brexiteers. Michael Gove, one of the leaders of the “Leave” campaign, has identifi ed the mastermind underdog Tyrion Lannister as his favorite character on the show.

According to GOT-style realism, the EU makes no sense institutionally, because it is based on an impossible premise: the transcendence of nationalism and state interests. One of the driving forces behind Brexit was the belief that Europe was breaking apart under the weight of insurmountable debt and uncontrolled migration. The UK was simply escaping from a burning house before it collapsed.

The problem with this interpretation is that it ignores all of the ways that EU institutions, regulatory authorities, and legal frameworks hold the house together. To be sure, there are always some people in some countries who dislike some rules. Northern and southern Europeans had very diff erent perspectives on the euro crisis; eastern and western Europeans have very diff erent views on refugees. But the main political divides are within, not between, societies, and the prospect of an exit would most likely intensify them.

After all, a new order brings new divisions, as is now apparent in the UK. The City of London is torn between banks that are worried about losing their European clients and markets, and hedge funds that are looking forward to being free of European regulations. Some farmers are worried about losing EU subsidies, while

others think that a new framework could allow them to practice more sustainable agriculture. And some Brexiteers want more social spending, while others would like to become a deregulated paradise that competes with Singapore. Everyone wants a better world, but few can agree on what such a world would look like.

In continental Europe, the diffi culty – if not impossibility – of formulating viable national exit strategies is now widely known. When Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front (now called the National Rally) suggested a referendum on euro membership during the French presidential campaign in early 2017, she lost support. The same dynamic is now playing out in Italy, where the two populist parties in power have had to backpedal on past Euroskeptic remarks to make clear that “Italexit” is not on the table.

As the continental populists are learning, disengagement makes impossible demands of leaders. In the realist framework, a government must represent the country’s interests perfectly. But national interests in a pluralist democracy are subject to constant debate and disagreement. The last time that realism made sense as a mode of interpreting the world was in the 1930s, when democracy was in crisis, and only authoritarians could act as the theory implied.

During the campaign for the June 2017 general election, May promised that she would lead a “strong and stable” government. But because she cannot rule as an autocrat, “strong and stable” is no longer an option, thanks to Brexit. – Project Syndicate

Harold James is professor of History and International Aff airs at Princeton University and a senior fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation.

The underlying logic of Brexit is incoherent.

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QNADoha

Qatar University this week is graduating 3,370 stu-dents, increasing the to-

tal number of graduates since its establishment in the 1970s to 43,000, 30,000 of which are Qataris. The decree of estab-lishing QU was issued on June 8, 1977, under Law No 2. In 1974, the name suggested for the uni-versity before it was established was the Green Book of the Gulf University; the book includes a thorough study of higher educa-tion, its plans and stages in Qatar.

The commencement of study at the College of Education was advertised in the academic year 1973-1974; two school buildings were made ready for students, the fi rst building was for the Teacher Training College (males) while the second was the Teacher Training College (females).

The college started off ering various scientifi c majors such as Chemistry, Physics, Mathemat-ics, Biology, Geology; students were granted a bachelor degree in science and education. These programmes were the basis on which the College of Sciences was established later on.

Non-Scientifi c majors were also introduced beginning with Geography, History, English and Arabic Languages, Sociology and Community Service.

Students were granted a bach-elor degree in Arts and Educa-tion; similarly, these majors turned to be the basis of the sub-sequent College of Humanities in addition to the Islamic Stud-ies major, which was the basis for establishing the College of Shari’a and Islamic Studies.

After the issuance of the Uni-versity Establishment Law in December 1977, there appeared what was known as a “Blue Book”, which is a study of the QU history outlining the QU plans until the end of the 1990s. Then, planning to have permanent buildings began with the forming of the Foundational Committee whose designs and studies were fi nalised in 1977 and construc-tion works began since then until they were completed in 1985.

Since its launch it has become Qatar’s premier higher educa-tion institution, providing qual-ity education and is the fastest growing research centre in the region. QU has been the pulse of the community, centre for en-lightenment and has contributed providing the society with quali-fi ed alumnus, who hold senior positions and are elite scientists, consultants and researchers from all disciplines.

Throughout the years, the uni-versity has been interacting with the community and contributing to its development using its aca-demic and research expertise. It has been expanding its colleges, departments and academic pro-grammes to meet the needs of achieving Qatar National Vision 2030.

Today, QU comprises nine col-leges: Arts and Sciences; Busi-ness and Economics; Education; Engineering; Health Sciences; Law; Medicine; Pharmacy; and Shari’a and Islamic Studies. Over the years, the University has con-tinually expanded its wide range of new programmes ensuring they are aligned with the grow-

ing needs of the labour market and the aspirations of the society it serves.

QU is committed to provid-ing quality education in nearly 84 undergraduate and post-graduate programmes, includ-ing 41 graduate programmes, eight PhD programmes, four di-ploma programmes, 27 master’s programmes and a pharmacy degree under the name of Doc-tor of Pharmacy. Recently, the university has shifted from the development phase to a trans-formational phase, as per its new fi ve-year strategy (2018-2022), a shift based on a clear vision that refl ects the orientations of the wise leadership of Qatar and the Board of Trustees of the Univer-sity.

The vision of QU is to be re-gionally recognised for distinc-tive excellence in education and research, an institution of choice for students and scholars and a catalyst for the sustainable so-cio-economic development of Qatar.

This transformation promotes what can be defi ned as the QU model, which works to portray the university as a national uni-versity, distinct from the rest of the educational institutions and has a leading role in the qual-ity of education, and strengthen its path as a community partner catalyst in national development. The university aims to provide academic programmes and re-search projects based on interna-tional and international stand-ards, whilst taking into account elements of Arab and Islamic culture and identity, and prepar-ing a generation of distinctive national leaders.

QU has developed seven core strategies which are Teaching and Learning Strategy, Student Experience Strategy, Research and Knowledge Advancement Strategy, Institutional Excellence Strategy, Engagement Strategy, Digital Transformation strategy and Entrepreneurship and Inno-vation Strategy. These strategies have resulted in 34 objectives, causing 122 strategic initiatives undertaken by the university is committed to implement throughout 2022.

In its quest to excel interna-tionally and under the manage-ment of national cadres, Qatar University has set as its priority the preparation and construction of a second row of leaders, Qatari academics as well as, who are set to continue the march in the future, especially after it has be-come a well established founda-tion. In this context, Qatar Uni-versity has recruited more than 130 new Qatari faculty members over the past four years and cur-rently has more than 100 Qatari youth of both sexes who have been carefully selected and sent to the world’s best universities to return back equipped with new and diverse scientifi c expe-riences. In the area of scientifi c research, which is a central part of the process of international assessment of universities, Qa-tar University began to defi ne its research objectives, which consists of three main elements namely building research capac-ity; ensuring quality in research projects and being able to com-

pete and infl uence the global sci-entifi c research movement and to contribute to building a knowl-edge economy.

The University of Qatar’s sci-entifi c research is experiencing a remarkable boom, with the total funding received by the univer-sity from the National Priorities Programme for Scientifi c Re-search has reached $207.3mn in addition to a grant of $4.5mn in the special proposals category.

In the academic year (2017-2018), the University received 80 research projects funded by

Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF). QU also has research partnerships with 332 local and international institutions. Qatar University has also succeeded in increasing the number of re-search papers by 422% between 2010 and 2017.

Researchers at the university have been able to publish more than 1,400 research papers in 2017. The university currently has 13 patents, registered during the period 2013-2018.

Qatar University’s scientifi c research sector has made many

achievements over the past years, including that when the Univer-sity’s scientists and researchers developed a modern open-air cooling technology to success-fully be used in Khalifa Interna-tional Stadium. The technology is expected to be used in agri-cultural greenhouses. Research-ers from Qatar University have also succeeded in converting 200 strains of micro-algae extracted from the local environment into useful products, such as eco-friendly biofuels, supplements, and organic fertiliser additives.

In addition, the University has recorded a major international success after a number of its sci-entists, together with scientists from international universities, have developed live artifi cial heart valves that can function as natural heart valves and grow af-ter implantation into the human heart.

On the level of international ranking, the University has been keenly concerned with what is known as the international rank-ing of universities. It has also endeavoured to achieve the aca-demic accreditation for many of its faculties and programmes in order to guarantee the qual-ity of the education provided. The University climbed 17 posi-tions in the QS Universities rank-ing from the previous ranking to reach the 332 position globally and seventh position among Arab universities.

With regard to the classifi ca-tion of universities in the emerg-ing economies (BRICS), Qatar University ranked 35th in the ranking of Times Higher Educa-tion (THE), which is a signifi cant progress from the result of the previous year.

At the level of academic de-partments, the department of electrical engineering came in the category of 176-200 at the level of the world’s universities according to THE, which is another achieve-ment added to the achievements of Qatar University.

With regard to academic ac-creditation, which is the second element of academic quality measurement, a number of Qatar University’s colleges and pro-grammes have been accredited by international accreditation insti-tutions, covering a large propor-tion of the programmes and dis-ciplines at the university.

In terms of infrastructure, Qatar University is developing

its infrastructure, according to its Master Plan, to the highest standards, and establishing new buildings for students, colleges, research centres, administrative services and parking.

This year, the 22,000sq m College of Pharmacy building is expected to be inaugurated. The 26,600sq m sports and event building will be also inaugurated in addition to the building of a dynamic wind research centre, as well as the medical biomedi-cal laboratory of the third level of safety. With regard to car parks, the current parking area is cur-rently being developed near to the male student activities build-ing, increasing its area to accom-modate 504 cars instead of the previous (168 cars only).

The university plan includes a number of buildings to be op-erational this year (2018-2019), including the administrative offi ce building project and the establishment of a water distri-bution network. There are many new buildings to be built in the coming years, including the buildings of College of Medicine and Health Sciences, College of Shari’a and Islamic Studies, the students testing centre, and the chemical warehouses.

The university is progressing in a balanced way. Its academic success is matched by research success which contributed to the rise of the university’s ranks among international universi-ties, in addition to the signifi cant infrastructure progress that re-sponds to expansion plans in the scientifi c, research and academic fi elds.

The university also seeks to attract the most qualifi ed scien-tists, academics and researchers from Qatar and other countries in order to form a true success story in the process of higher education in Qatar.

28 Gulf TimesMonday, November 12, 2018

QATAR

Qatar University playing a key role in national development

Since its inception in the 1970s, it has become the country’s premier institution providing education to more than 40,000 students and is the fastest growing research centre in the region

A group photograph of the graduates.

Deans of the colleges at QU.

QU president Dr Hassan bin Rashid al-Derham addressing the gathering.

His Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani honours a graduate.

A section of the graduates