Volume 24 | Number 7905 | 2 RiyalsTuesday 28 May 2019 | 23 Ramadan 1440 www.thepeninsula.qa

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BUSINESS | 17 SPORT | 23

Barshim’s world record ambitions resume

Qatar Shell wins ‘Best Qatarisation

Progress Crystal Award’

Health Minister, WHO officials discuss promoting cooperation

Ministry of Foreign Affairs holds meeting for students studying abroad

Ramadan TimingToday's Iftar: 6:21pm

Tomorrow's Imsak: 03:07am

MME installs 350 greenhouses in 85 local farms to raise productionTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

The Ministry of Municipality and Envi-ronment represented by the Agricultural Affairs Department has imported and installed 350 cool and regular greenhouses in 85 local farms to increase agricultural production.

The Ministry also provided 500,000 packing boxes to 100 farms at the rate of 5,000 boxes per farm. A total of 800 Qatari farms are benefiting from this project.

The Ministry of Municipality and Envi-ronment said that the provision of these greenhouses and equipment is within the support provided to the owners of farms and within its efforts to develop existing local farms to increase their production.

The support focused on supplying cool and regular greenhouses and those equipped with hydroponic system, in addition to the necessary seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and other supplies such as packing boxes of six kg for marketing local vegetables in different sales outlets as well as other requirements for marketing local agricultural products.

The State of Qatar attaches great

importance to the agricultural sector through which it aims to achieve food security as one of the most important current and future priorities. In this regard, the State is keen to support the agricultural sector in order to achieve the highest possible level of self-sufficiency.

The government allocated about QR70m annually to support the agricultural sector over the next five years to increase local pro-duction of vegetables, animals and fish.

A greenhouse is being set up under the project.

Foreign merchandise trade surplus at QR13.1bn in AprilQNA/DOHA

Qatar’s foreign merchandise trade balance, which represents the difference between total exports and imports, showed a surplus of QR13.1bn in April showing a fall of about QR1.7bn or 11.3 percent

compared to April 2018, and decline of nearly QR0.1bn or 0.4 percent compared to March 2019.

The Planning and Statistics Authority yesterday released pre-liminary figures of the value of exports of domestic goods, re-exports, and imports for April 2019.

In April 2019, the total exports of goods (including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) amounted to around QR22.1bn, showing a decrease of 7.8 percent compared to April 2018, and decreased by 2.8 percent compared to March 2019. �P2

Shura Council approves draft law on combating money launderingQNA/DOHA

The Shura Council held its regular weekly meeting yesterday under the chairmanship of the Council’s Deputy Speaker, H E Mohamed bin Abdullah Al Sulaiti. The Council discussed the report of the Legal and Legislative Affairs Committee on the draft law to issue a law on combating money laundering and terrorism financing. The committee recommended that some of the articles of the draft be amended.

The Council approved draft law in its amended version and decided to raise its recommendations thereon to the gov-ernment. The Council discussed the report of the Public Services and Util-ities Committee on draft law amending certain provisions of Law No. 15 of 2010 on prohibiting the housing of workers’ within the residential areas of families. After the discussion, the Council

approved the draft law and decided to raise its recommendations thereon to the government.

The Council also discussed the report of the Internal and External Affairs Com-mittee on the draft law regarding fire-works, which included a recommen-dation to amend two articles of the draft law. After the discussion, the council approved the draft law in its revised version and decided to raise its recom-mendations thereon to the government.

The Council also discussed the report of the Public Services and Utilities Com-mittee on the request for a general dis-cussion on the terrestrial and marine environment. In the report, the com-mittee recommended to hold an awareness campaign through all media outlets and social media platforms to emphasise the importance of preserving the environment as one of the pillars of

Qatar National Vision 2030.The committee recom-

mended to activate laws related to preserving the environment, which works to protect envi-ronmental life, both land or sea, through tightening control over the misbehavior of some, increasing the number of inspectors and finding the appropriate mechanisms for treating environmental waste of all kinds.

Minister of Public Health, H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, met with the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on the sidelines of the meetings of the World Health Assembly, in Geneva. They discussed enhancing cooperation between the State of Qatar and the WHO, in addition to a number of issues of common interest. The Minister of Public Health also met separately with the Assistant Director-General for Data, Analytics and Delivery, Dr Samira Asma; WHO Director for Health and Multilateral Partnerships, External Relations, Gaudenz Silberschmidt; the Deputy Director-General of Emergency Preparedness and Response, Dr Peter Salama and the CEO of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi), Seth Berkley.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has organised the second induction meeting for students studying abroad, in the presence of Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, along with Foreign Ministry Department directors.

Airfares soar ahead of Eid and summer vacationsSACHIN KUMAR THE PENINSULA

Residents who haven't booked tickets yet to visit Europe or other popular destination during Eid holidays are likely to miss the bus because the flights on these routes are ‘almost full’. Situations is not better for summer season as ticket prices have nearly doubled during June to end of August, according to travel agents.

“The flights in popular travel destina-tions are almost full during Eid holidays. This situation is applicable for all the air-lines. Whatever few seats are left are in the highest category of that particular class. For example if someone wants a ticket for Doha-London route in business class, the ticket will be around 50 percent costlier than normal business class ticket,” a senior official of a travel agency told The Peninsula.

The demand for tickets for some des-tinations in Europe and far-east coun-triesincreases during summer vacation. UK, Germany, Switzerland, France, Turkey, Italy, Austria, Thailand, Malaysia are among the most sought after summer vacation destinations for residents.

“Due to high demand, the prices of tickets in these popular routes have gone up by upto 100 percent,” he said.

Starting from June till August is a busy season for travel agents and airlines. Schools are closed during summer which gives residents chance to pack their bags and head for vacations in these three months.

This summer, travelling to home country has become costlier for the Indian expatriates because of cancellation of Jet Airways flights, which was a major player in India’s aviation sector.

India-based Jet Airways halted all flight operations in April after its lenders rejected its plea for emergency funds, that brought the curtains down on what was once India’s largest private airline. The airline has returned the money to customers in Qatar who had booked the tickets for dif-ferent destinations in India. But returning money has not solved problems for many Indians because closing for Jet Airways

has created shortage of seats on Indian routes.

“It looks like we will not be able to go to India this summer because of high prices. I had booked tickets with Jet Airways flight for my vacations starting from July but the airline has returned the money because of cancellation of its flights. I cannot book tickets for summer vacation from my earlier estimated budget because prices of same tickets have now doubled,” an Indian expatriate working as an engineer for a construction firm told The Peninsula.

UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, Turkey, Italy, Austria, Thailand, Malaysia are among the most sought-after summer vacation destinations for residents.

Flights are ‘almost full’ during Eid vacation

Prices of tickets have risen by up to 100%

Cancellation of Jet Airways flights created short-age of seats on Indian routes.

02 TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019HOME

Qatar condemns

Burkina Faso

church attack

Doha: Qatar has strongly

condemned the attack on a

church in the town of Toulfe,

northern Burkina Faso, which

resulted in deaths and inju-

ries.The Ministry of Foreign

Affairs reiterated Qatar’s firm

stance on rejecting violence

and terrorism, regardless of

motives and reasons. The

statement stressed Qatar’s

total refusal of targeting

places of worship and terror-

izing peaceful people.

OFFICIAL NEWS

Qatar condemns

Nepal bombingsDOHA: Qatar has strongly

condemned the bombings

in the Nepalese capital of

Kathmandu, causing deaths

and injuries.The Ministry of

Foreign Affairs reiterated

Qatar’s firm stance reject-

ing violence and terrorism,

regardless of motives and

reasons. The statement

expressed condolences of

Qatar to the victims’ fami-

lies, the government and the

people of Nepal, wishing the

injured a speedy recovery.

Minister of

Culture meets

Argentina envoy

Doha: The Minister of Cul-

ture and Sports, H E Salah

bin Ghanem Al Ali, met yes-

terday with the Ambassador

of the Argentine Republic

to the State of Qatar, Car-

los Hernandez. During the

meeting, they discussed

aspects of cooperation

between the two countries

in cultural and sports fields

and means of developing

them.

HIA celebrates five years of operations THE PENINSULA DOHA

Hamad International Airport (HIA) has celebrated its fifth year of operations yesterday. Qatar’s state-of-the-art airport marked the anniversary by organising a parade in the terminal which aimed at engaging passengers thanking them for their contri-bution and support towards the rapid growth of the airport.

On the occasion, Engr Badr Mohammed Al Meer (pictured), Chief Operating Officer at Hamad International Airport, said: “It brings us great pleasure to witness the remarkable and successful journey of HIA over the past 5 years. Today, we are gathered to celebrate the growth, achievements and success story of HIA redefining the airport experience around the globe for over 170 million passengers to date. We are committed more than ever to provide our pas-sengers with unmatched

five-star services and strive to grow together with their con-tinuous support and loyalty.”

After the airport started its operation on May 27, 2014 by an inaugural flight from Qatar’s national airline, Qatar Airways, HIA has since been on a road to success. The airport has become one of the fastest growing hubs in the world.

Within five years of opera-tions, HIA has started the second phase of its terminal expansion plans to accommodate 53 million

passengers annually at the airport by 2022. The airport will see the construction of an Airport City which will provide significant future investment opportunities, including a free trade zone, an office and business complex, and hotels among others. HIA will also see the construction of a new cargo terminal. This will increase the capacity handled to 3 million tons per year and will help accommodate the expected surge in freight traffic. HIA is set to begin the construction of the

expanded terminal on the second half of 2019.

After the successful com-pletion of the first major phase of its Smart Airport program in 2018, HIA enabled the 5-star home carrier Qatar Airways to process more than 25 percent of its passengers using self-service check-in and bag-drop facilities. This was accomplished by com-missioning 62 next-generation self-service check-in kiosks and 12 self-service bag drops spread across the departures check-in hall. A first of its kind in any major airport worldwide, mobile Automated Visa Document Check has also been imple-mented in the five-star terminal to enable ground services agents to check passengers visa documentation.

HIA is now launching the second phase of its innovative Smart Airport program through facial biometric recognition across all key passenger touch points.

After only 2 years of opera-tions, HIA has joined the chart of the top 10 Best Airports in the World by Skytrax in early 2016. The Doha hub was classified as the first Middle East airport to be listed amongst the world’s most advanced airports. Ever since this achievement, HIA has been rapidly climbing up the ladder. HIA was then ranked as the ‘6th Best Airport in the World’ in 2017. Last year, HIA made its way to join the 5 best airports in the world after being ranked ‘5th Best Airport in the World’.

Along its exciting journey, HIA has established itself as a destination on its own in the world map for art and culture. The airport is home to a consid-erable range of art work that spans across artistic media including paintings, sculptures, electronic and interactive instal-lations from both local and internationally renowned artists.

Al Sulaiti meets Iraqi Ambassador The Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, met yesterday with the Ambassador of Iraq, Omar Ahmed Karim Al Barazanchi. The two officials discussed cooperation relations between the two brotherly countries in the fields of transportation, ports and communications and means of further enhancing them.

JCI accreditation proves credibilityof HMC’s Mental Health Service THE PENINSULA DOHA

An official from Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) said the accreditation of the organisation’s Mental Health Service will help assure patients that care provided at its facilities is of high quality, compassionate, and safe.

Iain Tulley said the accredi-tation of HMC’s Mental Health Service by the Joint Commission International (JCI) is a ringing endorsement of the service’s development in recent years. As part of fulfilling the requirements for accreditation, the service was subject to a thorough evaluation process and has demonstrated that it is achieving high standards in practice, patient care, and patient safety.

“Accreditation from an industry-respected third-party body like JCI is a seal of recognition and demonstrates our com-mitment to providing the highest

standard of care. It is a privilege to work with a team of staff who have been described as ‘highly compas-sionate’ and to be associated with a service that was described, in part, as ‘an example for the world’,” said Tulley, CEO of HMC’s Mental Health Service and the Qatar National Health Strategy 2018-2022 lead for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Dr Majid Al Abdullah, Acting Chairman of HMC’s Psychiatry Department, said: “Choosing to seek care or treatment for a mental health problem is a difficult step for anyone to take. Offering a service that has been assessed and accredited, provides assurance to patients, families and, others that the services being sought are of a high standard and that the treatment offered is both safe and effective.”

In recent years HMC’s mental healthcare service has undergone a significant expansion and now operates from seven sites,

including inpatient and outpatient facilities, consultation/liaison services within the general hos-pitals, residential compounds, a specialized child and adolescent service, services for older adults, and community-based facilities.

As part of the recent assessment which saw 13 HMC facilities and services endorsed by the US-based JCI, HMC’s Hamad Dental Center was also accredited for the first time. Established as an independent facility in 2016, the Hamad Dental Center offers patients access to specialist dental care and is responsible for all aspects of oral healthcare across HMC’s network of hospitals and facilities.

Dr Ghanim Al Mannai, Dental Service Chairman and Senior Con-sultant Endodontics at HMC, echoed the sentiments of Tulley and said the JCI accreditation of the dental service is significant because it is an important part of creating a culture of quality improvement.

Foreign merchandise trade surplus at QR13.1bn in April

FROM PAGE 1

On other hand, the imports of goods in April 2019 amounted to around QR9bn, showing a decrease of 2.3 percent over April 2018. However, on a month on month (M-o-M) basis the imports decrease by 6.1 percent.

The year on year (April 2019 to April 2018) decrease in total exports was mainly due to lower exports of Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons (LNG, condensates, propane, butane, etc.) reaching QR13.9bn approximately in April 2019, a decrease of 2.1 percent, Petroleum oils & oils from bitu-minous minerals (crude) reaching QR3.8bn nearly, decreased by 4.6 percent, and

decrease in the Petroleum oils & oils from bituminous minerals (not crude) reaching QR1.3bn, decreased by 40.7 percent.

In April 2019, South Korea was at the top of the countries of destination of Qatar’s exports with close to QR4bn, a share of 18.1 percent of total exports, fol-lowed by Japan with almost QR3.4bn and a share of 15.6 percent, India with about QR2.7bn, a share of 12.1 percent.

In April 2019, United State of America was the leading country of origin of Qatars imports with about QR1.9bn, a share of 20.9 percent of the imports, followed by China with QR1bn almost, a share of 10.8 percent, and India with QR0.7bn, a share of 7.7 percent.

Woqod opens expansion of Wadi Al Banat petrol stationTHE PENINSULA / DOHA

Qatar Fuel (Woqod) opened expansion of petrol station in Wadi Al Banat area yesterday as part of its ongoing expansion plans to be able to serve every area in Qatar.

Wadi Al Banat petrol station is spread after expansion over an area of 12,650 square meters and the expansion has two lanes with six dispensers additional to the existing 6 dispensers within 3 lanes, which will serve Wadi Al Banat and its neighborhood.

The Petrol Stations offer round-the-clock services to res-idents and include Sidra

convenience store, Manual & Auto Car Wash, Oil Change and Tire Repair, and sale of LPG cyl-inders, in addition to the sale of gasoline and diesel products for light vehicles.

Woqod’s CEO, Saad Rashid Al Muhannadi, said: “We are pleased to open expansion of petrol station in Wadi Al Banat. Woqod aspires to expand its petrol station network in the country to meet the rising demand for petroleum products and achieve the goal of providing customers with access to best-in-class products and services at their convenience and comfort. Woqod has recently

accelerated the process for the construction of new petrol sta-tions to meet the fuel and energy needs of the country. Woqod team would like to extend their gratitude to all concerned gov-ernmental and private entities that contributed to the com-pletion of this project.”

Al Muhannadi added that the opening of the Petrol Station Expansion is included in Woqod planning for the operation of 30 new petrol stations on the current year 2019. He said that as part of its strategic expansion plan, Woqod is targeting the achievement of a total of 134 fuel stations by the end of 2020.

Within five years of operations, HIA has started the second phase of its terminal expansion plans to accommodate 53 million passengers annually at the airport by 2022.

03TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019 HOME

FAJRSHOROOK

03. 17 AM

04. 44 AM

11. 31 AM

02. 56 PM

06. 21 PM

07. 51 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum30oC 39oC

HIGH TIDE 15:36 –23:57 LOW TIDE 08:10 – 16:27

HMC provides advanced care to patients with cardiac rhythm abnormalitiesFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

The Cardiac Electrophysiology Department at Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Heart Hospital provides advanced care to patients with cardiac rhythm abnormalities.

In addition, the process ensures continuous commitment and consistent compliance with international standards in patient care and treatment outcomes, said Dr Nora Al Jefairi, Con-sultant, electrophysiologist and

cardiologist at the Heart Hospital.

“Our Cardiology department offers a unique specialty called Electrophysiology. An electro-physiologist is a cardiologist who sees and treats patients with heart rhythm problems. This type of cardiologist has specialised training in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with heart rhythm problems,” said Dr Al Jefairi, who was the first native Qatari female cardiologist and electrophysiologist. She also a member of the Swiss Society of

Cardiology (SSC) and European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) and conducted several research on Electrophysiology.

“We do Electrophysiology studies to test the electrical activity of the heart to find where an arrhythmia (abnormal heartbeat) is coming from. If a person is identified with any abnormality we provide imme-diate care either with medication or interventions. In critical cases interventions are carried within 24 hours,” she added.

An electrophysiology (EP)

study is a test used to understand and map the electrical activity within the heart. An EP study may be recommended in people with heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias) and other heart problems to understand the exact cause and determine which treatment is most likely to be effective.

“An EP study involves placing diagnostic catheters within the heart and running specialized tests to map the electrical cur-rents. EP studies are done in the hospital and carry a small risk of

serious complications,” said Dr Al Jefairi. “With new technology, enhanced procedures and vis-iting international experts, there has been a marked increase in procedures carried out by the Cardiac Electrophysiology Department over the past years, leading to spectacular results,” she added.

According to her Electro-physiology division annually performs considerable number of electrophysiology procedures and device implementations for heart rhythm disorders and heart

failure. “Electrophysiology problems in Qatar are common among people among the age between 30 and 50 years. But we also find the problem in some in a younger age due to their life-style, nationality and several other reasons,” said Dr Al Jefairi.

Commenting on the role of technology in supporting the department’s improved results, she said to facilitate the devel-opment of the service, the elec-trophysiology laboratory was upgraded to give patients the best possible experience.

Erdogan honours contestantfrom Qatar in Quran contestTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar secured third place in the Turkey International Compe-tition for memorising, explaining and reciting the holy Quran, in which the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs represented the country.

Ali Abdul Rashid Sufi con-tested from Qatar in the cat-egory of memorising the entire holy Quran. The award cer-emony was attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who honoured the winners of the competition including the Qatari contestant, in the presence of the Vice Pres-ident of the Republic of Turkey and a large number of Islamic scholars and ministers.

The contestant Ali Abdul Rahid Sufi had previously won a number of prizes in various competitions of the Holy Quran held international and local levels. Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs participated in a number of international com-petitions of the Holy Quran and secured high ranking. The Min-istry attaches great importance

towards holy Quran and pre-pared citizens well by providing the appropriate atmosphere for competition in these interna-tional forums.

For his part, Malallah Abdul-rahman Al Jaber, Director of the Department of Da’wah and Reli-gious Guidance, praised the con-testant Ali Abdul Rashid Sufi for winning the third place among over 89 contestants from 55

countries of Islamic world. The contestant Ali Abdul

Rashid Sufi thanks to the Min-istry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs for its efforts in preparing the students of the Holy Quran, especially those participating in international competitions of Qatari youth. He stressed that the great efforts exerted by the ministry are in the interest of the learners of holy Quran.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan honours Ali Abdul Rahid Sufi, a contestant from Qatar, for winning a Holy Quran competition.

Education Ministry plans to build schools in Al DaayenTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Dr Mohammed bin Abdul Wahed Ali Al Hammadi has announced that the Ministry has an expansion plan for schools in the region, including the establishment of schools for all stages in Al Daayen area to serve the city of Al Khor and surrounding areas.

The Minister said that the policies related to edu-cation, schools and school curricula are primarily for the benefit of the students, the focus of the educational process.

The policies require cooperation between all parties to the educational process in order to ensure the success and excellence of students, His Excellency added.

This came during the meeting of the Minister with the teachers of Al Khor Preparatory and Secondary Schools for Girls, where he discussed with them the sit-uation of education in the State, how to fill vacancies in schools, and the reasons that led to the formulation of experimental curricula that are under revision in part-nership with schools and society.

In his meeting with the teachers at Al Khor Prepar-atory School for Girls, the Minister said that it is important for teachers to benefit from the use of curricula and focus on competencies, and touched on the role of teacher in using information through seminars to encourage students to research.

The Minister discussed various educational issues, including the school days, the burdens associated with the teaching profession, staying away from unimportant and non-required work, the completion of adminis-trative studies in schools, and the allocation of training workshops on the needs of each teacher according to their performance assessment and professional devel-opment plan.

04 TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019HOME

Ezdan Holding Group hosts annual Iftar gathering

THE PENINSULA DOHA

In order to enhance its role in social responsibility and to encourage its professional staff, Ezdan Holding Group organised its annual Iftar party for all its employees and its three subsid-iaries: Ezdan Real Estate, Ezdan Hotels and Ezdan Malls. It was attended by 500 employees from various departments. The ceremony was held at the luxu-rious Al Massa Hall of the Ezdan

Hotel in West Bay, one of the group’s most exclusive hotels.

For their part, some of the

participating employees expressed their happiness at participating in the ceremony and welcomed the group’s gesture. They thanked Sheikh Thani Bin Abdullah Al Thani, the founder of the Group and Ezdan Hotel staff, for organising a cer-emony of such excellence.

Ezdan West Bay Hotel is one of the largest hotels owned by the group. It is one of the most famous hotels in Qatar and is the ideal destination for visitors to Doha and Qatar, whether they come as guests or on business visits.

The hotel has a capacity of 3,000 hotel rooms, a large capacity suite and comprehensive facilities, making it a perfect expe-rience for luxury.

The hotel has a number of halls to organise various events. Thanks to the enormous poten-tials and sophisticated tech-nology, the hotel has business-meeting rooms with advanced audio and video equipment and is famous for hosting the inter-national sports teams that visit Doha.

Ezdan Holding Group employees pose for a group photo at the annual Iftar event.

Ooredoo supports Qatar national football teamTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Ooredoo announced yesterday its sponsorship of Qatar’s national football team under a two-year contract starting in 2019. Ooredoo will be sponsoring the major upcoming tournaments, including Copa America 2019.

Ooredoo’s sponsorship of the national team follows the victory of the team at the 2019 Asian Cup in an unprecedented achievement for Qatari football.

Speaking of the sponsorship, Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani, Chairman, Ooredoo, said: “As part of our social responsibility strategy and our continuous support to Qatari sports, we’re thrilled to be sup-porting our amazing national football team, who has deservedly won the Asian Cup 2019 and accomplished a historic achievement for our country.”

Sheikh Abdulla added: “In a few days, our national team will be participating in Copa America for the first time and we wish them the best of luck. We’re

confident that the talented team members will do a great job and will honour Qatari football again.”

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, President of the Qatar Football Association, said: “I would like to thank Ooredoo for their great support to the national football team, which highlights our decade-long relationship with the leading telecom brand. We look forward to more cooperation and work with our partner Ooredoo to support Qatari football. This sponsorship demonstrates the company’s committment to support Qatari sports in general, and football in particular.”

Civil Defence distributing over1,000 Iftar meals to driversSIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

The General Directorate of Civil Defence is distributing more than 1,000 free Iftar meals and awareness booklets to drivers in a number of areas of the country.

First Lieutenant Abdul Hadi Ali Al Marri, Officer at Media and Preventive Education Section at the General Directorate of Civil Defence, said that the distribution of Iftar meals to drivers is a humanitarian and social initiative by the administration, in order to strengthen the culture of security and safety through the public.

“We began the campaign on Sunday and will continue until Thursday, and daily we are dis-tributing 250 Iftar meals. Today , we will distribute Iftar meals In Dafna, Al Manaseer and on Thursday we will distribute it in Al Wakra. The distribution of Iftar is in collaboration with Medical Services Department at the Min-istry of Interior,” he said.

The administration is organ-ising many awareness events during the holy month of Ramadan to convey messages of awareness to the public, to raise

their awareness about safety measures, as well as strengthening the bonds of human relations between the police and society, said Al Marri. About the awareness material being given along with Iftar, Al Marri they were distrib-uting awareness booklets which were mainly about home fire pre-vention tips.

The General Directorate of Civil Defence has an annual plan for awareness campaigns at the state level, which instils in people a culture of safety and security. It also conducts inspection drives on projects before they are operated and before the electrical currents are connected to be sure that all

the civil defence conditions shall be applied. The inspection drives are conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment to ensure that the specific fire prevention and fire protection systems for the buildings under construction are met to the conditions.

In accordance with the standards and requirements of the Safety Systems Department of the Prevention Department, the quality and efficiency of the fire resistance and fire fighting equipment shall be determined by examining the specifications and standards and ensuring that they are subjected to tests.

Iftar meals being distributed.

Vodafone donates over 14,000 Iftar boxesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Vodafone Qatar has announced that its Iftar meal donation initi-ative in partnership with Talabat has resulted in the donation of more than 14,000 meals that benefited Qatar Charity’s “Feed the Fasting” programme.

Vodafone Qatar automatically donated an Iftar meal on behalf of customers who made food delivery orders on Talabat from May 16 to 26. The highly successful initiative was open to all those who use Talabat and the messages received by customers confirming their automatic meal donation was

appreciated and shared by cus-tomers on their social media channels.

The initiative was organised as part of Vodafone Qatar’s broad ranging corporate social respon-sibility programme during the holy month under the banner of the Company’s Ramadan campaign #ShukranFromTheHeart.

Mohammed Alyafei, Events & Sponsorship Manager, Vodafone Qatar said: “Vodafone Qatar has a long history of giving back to the community and in this holiest of months we always increase our efforts. We’re proud to have part-nered with Talabat to involve the public in spreading the generous

spirit of Ramadan. We’re also proud of our long term partnership with Qatar Charity that has helped thousands less fortunate.”

Talabat Managing Director for Qatar Francisco De Sousa com-mented, “With this partnership, we are further fortifying our stra-tegic partnership with Vodafone to benefit Qatari society. We’re proud to have had a role in facil-itating this generous donation from Vodafone. Food is a basic human necessity, as well as a gath-ering point for the local com-munity, so this initiative fits per-fectly with the spirit of sharing that Ramadan espouses to us.”

Ali Al Gharib, Director of Local

Development, Qatar Charity, said: “We are very proud of our part-nership with Vodafone Qatar and Talabat through our Feed the Fasting project. This project ben-efits nearly two million people in Qatar and in more than 30 coun-tries around the world.

Vodafone Qatar’s generous donation provided more than 14000 Iftar meals to less fortunate people in Bangladesh. We believe that this three way partnership is a model for all companies and institutions for how to cooperate in the field of philanthropy and community service under the banner of corporate social responsibility”.

Vodafone Qatar and Talabat first formed a partnership in Feb-ruary this year when it was announced that Vodafone’s Red

Postpaid customers would benefit from Talabat Go, Talabat’s own delivery service, to enjoy free and quicker deliveries.

FROM LEFT: Ali Al Gharib, Mohammed Alyafei, Francisco De Sousa.

QC, QRCS sign MoU to enhance cooperationQNA/DOHA

Qatar Charity (QC) and the Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance their cooperation and achieve common goals efficiently and effec-tively in the field of capacity building, resource mobilisation, cooperation in the implementation of humanitarian programmes and projects, and to exchange experiences, information and knowledge between the two parties.

According to the MoU, the two sides agreed to cooperate in the implementation of joint initiatives and exchange of information on relief and human-itarian conditions within the affected areas and crises, as well as to benefit from the capabilities of the two parties and to exchange experiences and

help in the management of institutional work organization.

Qatar Charity’s Executive Chairman Yousef Ahmed Al Kuwari said in his speech that the coop-eration and coordination between the concerned parties and the joint interest at the corporate level is of great importance because both parties will achieve the best results at the level of achieving the desired objectives, the integration of knowledge and experience, and to benefit from their respective preferential advantages, and this agreement will shorten a lot of time and effort.

For his part, the Secretary-General of Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) Ali bin Hassan Al Hammadi, expressed his pleasure of signing the MoU with Qatar Charity in order to further enhance charity works at the internal and external levels.

Ezdan West Bay Hotel is one of the largest hotels owned by Ezdan Holding Group. It is the ideal destination for visitors to Doha and Qatar, whether they come as guests or on business visits.

05TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019 HOME

An Ooredoo volunteer with a patient at Fahad Bin Jassim Kidney Centre during a visit as part of its corporate social responsibility.

THE PENINSULA DOHA

Ooredoo said yesterday that a host of volunteers from its staff spent a day at the Fahad Bin Jassim Kidney Centre, as part of its ongoing corporate social responsibility activity schedule this Ramadan.

The delegation of Ooredoo staff received a warm welcome from nurses, centre staff and of course patients at the centre, who

are undergoing treatment and dialysis there.

Ooredoo’s volunteers, in an effort to alleviate at least some of the potential stress patients could be under due to their illness, spent time chatting to and connecting with the patients and surprised them with gift bags.

Ooredoo has a long history of supporting patients with kidney disorders in Qatar, having donated the Fahad Bin Jassim Kidney

Centre to Hamad Medical Corpo-ration in 2010 to provide dialysis facilities for patients suffering acute and chronic kidney disease. The centre offers a modern, spa-cious environment for patients, with 80 stations and 20 private rooms.

Talking about the visit, Manar Khalifa Al Muraikhi, Director PR and Corporate Communications at Ooredoo, said: “Supporting the local community is a key focus for

Ooredoo as part of our corporate social responsibility strategy, and holy Ramadan is the perfect time for us to find opportunities to show our support in a practical way. We’re delighted to continue our annual tradition of visiting and supporting the Fahad Bin Jassim Kidney Centre again this year; our team of volunteers spent a won-derful time with the patients, and we hope everyone enjoyed their gift bags.”

Ooredoo volunteers visit patients at kidney centre

06 TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019HOME

QAD holds graduation ceremony for Class of 2019THE PENINSULA DOHA

The Qatar Academy Doha (QAD), part of Qatar Foundation’s (QF) Pre-University Education, has held a graduation ceremony for its Class of 2019 at Qatar National Convention Centre.

The event celebrated the graduation of 92 students, including 46 Qataris, bringing the total number of QAD alumni up to more than 1,000. It was attended by members of QF’s leadership, PUE representatives, and QAD board members, as well as school administrators, faculty, and parents.

Cory Carson, Acting Director, QAD, said, “Tonight, we come together, on this most special occasion, to honour the hard work and dedication that has resulted in another 100% grad-uation rate for our senior class.

“The success that has been achieved is undeniably the result of a team effort; dedication and resolution of our students, but also from you, our faculty and parents, who have all worked tirelessly to bring our seniors – your children – to this point in their academic careers. Thank you for all that you have done, and in many cases, all that you will continue to do, in order to

support and challenge our grad-uates to become the best version of themselves that they can be.

“Take the legacy of what you have learned at QAD, carry with you into the future, and help transform our world.”

Sheikha Asma Al Thani, Director of Marketing and Com-munication at Qatar Olympic Committee, and one of QAD’s former students, addressed the students at the ceremony, said, “I have been in your place in the past. I faced challenges, had dreams, and felt what you are feeling now. At that time, I was waiting for this moment – for graduation. Life has just begun

for you. I thank God for giving me the ability to be who I am today. And I thank those who helped and supported me to stand before you today – my teachers, my family, and my friends.

The first Qatari woman to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, as well as the first Qatari to ski to the last

degree of the North Pole, Sheikha Asma stressed the need to per-severe and efficiently manage time in order to achieve goals and ambitions, explaining that, through determination, dreams do come true. She concluded by wishing the graduates a suc-cessful future, noting that they

are all part of Qatar’s renaissance.

This year’s valedictorian, Ziad Thamer Khattab, also addressed the audience, said, “We have all achieved things worth being proud of — each and every person on this stage has a place in college, which is

phenomenal. “We’ve also endured disap-

pointments, but, in the end, we pushed through them and we made it here! I think the key to that is to be honest with yourself about what you did right, what you did wrong, take responsibility, and work on improving yourself.”

Qatar Academy Doha Class of 2019 celebrated their academic achievements during the graduation.

The event celebrated the graduation of 92 students, including 46 Qataris, bringing the total number of QAD alumni up to more than 1,000. It was attended by members of QF’s leadership, PUE representatives, and QAD board members, as well as school administrators, faculty, and parents.

WCM-Q Grand Rounds addresses obesity epidemicTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

Obesity is one of the greatest health challenges of the modern era, explained Professor of Medicine Dr Shahrad Taheri at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar’s (WCM-Q) latest Grand Rounds lecture.

Dr Taheri, an expert on obesity and diabetes, also holds the position of Director of Clinical Research Core at WCM-Q. Speaking at Grand Rounds to an audience of students and fellow health professionals, he said, “We are in a region where we have some of the highest levels of overweight and obesity in the world — 76.6 percent of people are overweight or obese and 42 percent are obese. What is most alarming is the prevalence of obesity in children. The high prevalence of obesity in adults and children in Qatar are com-parable to those observed in some regions of the United States.”

Dr Taheri displayed recent figures showing that 21.5 percent of children in Qatar aged 5-19 years are obese, a level that he says is all the more concerning because research has shown that most children tend not to outgrow obesity, but instead carry it into adulthood.

“We know very clearly that people who are obese lose years from their life. If someone is obese at the age of 40, they will lose six to seven years of life. If they are obese and they smoke it can be estimated that they will likely live 13 to 14 years less than normal weight non-smokers.

“Obesity is one of the greatest health challenges that we are facing as healthcare profes-sionals and as a society,” he said.

Complications of obesity such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer add to the reduced longevity caused by obesity, he said. Dr. Taheri then went on to explain that obesity should be considered a chronic disease that requires lifelong management to keep it under control. He also discussed the most effective means for the management of obesity, including weight loss strategies, weight loss maintenance, bari-atric surgery and various forms of medication. Dr. Taheri stressed that both low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets can lead to signif-icant weight loss of 6-7 kg after 12 months, but also that there was little clinical difference between the results produced by following various different well-known named diets.

BPS celebrates achievement of young mindsTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Management of Birla Public School, senior leadership team, teachers, parents and students gathered to celebrate the achievement of young minds who through their persevering effort had won personal distinction as well as accolades for the Institution.

The event witnessed a unique yet touching gesture of appreciation and encour-agement for all Board Examinees and pedagogues of 2018-19, XII & X grade Batch.

Out of six ranks in Doha, five were from Birla Public School. The top marks increased to 96.8 percent in Senior Secondary School Results, accomplished by Sarthak Behal of the Commerce Stream.

The top marks increased to 98.8 percent in Secondary School Results, achieved by Pragati Biswal, who is also the second rank holder in the Gulf region.

Students were appreciated in three different groups: Those who attained above 95 percent, those who received above 90 percent and students who had shown significant increase of above 40 percent in board

examination when compared with their First Mock internal exam.

The parent representatives Paresh Biswal and Girish Kumar, Former ICC –President, appre-ciated the dynamic Principal, A.P.Sharma who had made extra ordinary note-worthy changes in the Institution leading to this spectacular increase in the Board Exam Results.

They expressed gratitude

towards teachers and recognised their dedicated hard work. They encouraged and blessed all the students in their future endeavours.

This was first of its kind event when parents presented certificate of excellence and gratitude to the teachers and along with them students received the merit certificate with the parents that made them feel nostalgic yet proud.

A P Sharma, Principal, Birla Public School, felicitated Grade X students of 2018-2019 batch, who appeared for the CBSE examination.

ISL Qatar conducts blood donation drive with HMCTHE PENINSULA DOHA

As part of the Global Citizenship & Community Action (GCCA) programme, the Student Council of the International School of London (ISL) Qatar in collabo-ration with Hamad Medical Centre (HMC) organised a blood donation drive in the school’s campus recently. The day long drive was very successful with over 50 members of the school community who signed up to donate for the good cause.

The initiative of the drive was to raise awareness on the signif-icance of blood donation and to save lives. It is an indication of the sense of social responsibility towards the community that the students at ISL Qatar hold.

Hamad Medical Centre appreciated the initiative and enthusiasm of the students and staff who contributed, as well as the demonstration of compassion and empathy.

The Global Citizenship and Community Action progamme at ISL Qatar encourages students to become caring, compassionate, responsible and knowledgeable global citizens, capable of making this a better world for all. GCCA

offer opportunities to apply con-cepts, skills and knowledge, as students explore the complex global community, gain personal insight, develop existing and new skills, and grow in confidence and responsibility as they engage in the ‘real world’ beyond school.

ISL Qatar has an outstanding reputation for high academic standards, prestigious Interna-tional Baccalaureate (IB) pro-grammes and an impressive record of admission to the best universities worldwide. The student body of 1,000 are aged from 3 to 18.

A view of blood donation drive organised by the ISL Qatar with HMC.

Mall of Qatar is home to favourite characters for Eid celebrations THE PENINSULA DOHA

In celebration of Eif Al Fitr, the Mall of Qatar is inviting all the Qatar residence and tourists to join Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and The Flash on a journey to defend the earth from unexpected dangers on a train alongside the Justice League during interactive shows at the Ooredoo Stage during the five days of Eid Al Fitr at 2pm, 5pm and 9pm.

After each show, visitors have a chance to snap a selfie with their favourite Super Heroes during the Meet & Greets and to participate in action-packed games and experiences and test your super hero abilities in activation areas located at the West Gate 2 and East Gate 2. Mall of Qatar will make sure every visitor joins the Justice League Academy to fight to save the world!

Mall of Qatar is also giving visitors the opportunity to sing along with three other famous characters, Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer and Sid and Diego from Ice Age, who will be

performing live from the Ooredoo Stage. Dora will delight little ones at 11am, 3.30pm and 7pm and Ice Age Sid and Diego will captivate the crowd at 11:50am, 4:15pm and 7:40pm, every day during Eid Al Fitr.

“We are very excited to announce our wonderful Eid Al Fitr celebrations. Our enter-tainment programme represents

an opportunity to attract shoppers and its success encourages us to continue bringing more world-class shows to Qatar. We hope that our visitors will enjoy their favourite characters, some of which will visit the Middle East for the first time, as we continue our dedi-cation to creating wonderful memories for the whole family,”

said Stuart Elder, Mall of Qatar CEO. As part of the Qatar Summer Festival organised by National Tourism Council, roaming artists will also entertain kids throughout the mall and shoppers can enter the raffle draws for a chance to win cash prizes and super cars for every QR200 spent at any of the retailers.

Join Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and The Flash in celebrating Eid Al-Fitr at Mall of Qatar.

QC organises Iftar programmes in Indonesia, Kenya and AlbaniaTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

Qatar Charity (QC) organised an Iftar in a mosque of Indonesia, the largest in Southeast Asia; in an open space in Albania, and continued to carried out similar Iftars in ancient mosques of Nairobi.

The implementation of these Iftars came as part of Qatar Charity’s projects for the Holy month Ramadan, which are being observed in 30 coun-tries across the globe.

For the third year in a row, QC has organised an Iftar for fasting persons at the Istiqlal Mosque, the largest mosque in Indonesia and South East Asia, where 6,000 Iftar meals were distributed to 6,000 fasting persons visiting the mosque frequently, which accom-modates 200,000 worshipers in its buildings and yards.

QC’s office in Tirana held the largest Iftar programme in an open space, which was attended by 1,600 fasting people, in addition to many official figures.

07TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019 MIDDLE EAST

Israel faces possible second electionAP JERUSALEM

Israel’s parliament yesterday passed a preliminary motion to dissolve itself. The move further pushed the country towards an unprecedented political impasse, less than two months after elections seemed to promise Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a new mandate.

If the bill receives final passage in a vote scheduled tomorrow, Israel would be forced to hold new elections — sending the political system into disarray. Netanyahu

appeared to have a clear path to victory, and a fourth consecutive term, after the April 9 elections. His Likud party emerged tied as the largest party in the 120-seat par-liament, and with his traditional allies, he appeared to control a solid 65-55 majority.

But he has struggled to form a government ahead of a looming deadline to do so. His prospective coalition has been thrown into crisis in recent days by former Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, an ally and sometimes rival of Netanyahu’s. Lieberman has insisted on passing a new law mandating that young

ultra-Orthodox men be drafted into the military, like most other Jewish males. Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies demand that the draft exemp-tions remain in place. Without the five seats of Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party, Netanyahu cannot muster a majority. “The draft law has become a symbol and we will not capitulate on our symbols,” Lie-berman defiantly said, vowing to press for new elections if his demands are not met.

Netanyahu and Lieberman met yesterday evening in a last-ditch effort to find a compromise. Israeli media said the meeting ended

without any progress, and quoted Likud officials as saying Netanyahu would soon order new elections. Netanyahu’s ruling Likud has tra-ditionally had an alliance with ultra-Orthodox and nationalist parties. But Lieberman, a former top Netanyahu aide, is a wild card. Though stanchly nationalist, he also champions a secular agenda aimed toward his political base of immi-grants from the former Soviet Union. Likud insists Lieberman is motivated by his personal spite for Netanyahu and has launched a vicious campaign against him in recent days.

At least nine dead in Idlib airstrikes AGENCIES BEIRUT

At least nine people were killed and many remain under rubble following Syrian government air raids on a crowded residential area in the rebel’s last stronghold, rescuers and activists said yesterday.

The first responders known as White Helmets said five women and a child were killed. Rescue workers were still searching for survivors under the rubble after the airstrikes hit in the town of Ariha.

Videos from the scene by the White Helmets showed a narrow alley blocked by the debris from a pulverised building. Survivors covered in white dust were among those who lifted a wounded man on a gurney and a young girl into the ambulance.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported six killed.

The scene in Ariha was rem-iniscent of the violence that has hit many rebel-held areas as the government pursued similar military tactics to regain control of territory it had lost to armed opposition. In the last three years, Syrian troops, with support from Russia and Iran, have regained control of most of the country, displacing hun-dreds of thousands, mostly to Hama and Idlib, where rebels

are making their last stand. But this rebel stronghold is home to nearly 3 million people, who have nowhere to run to escape the government offensive.

A cease-fire in place since September, negotiated by Russia and Turkey, has all but collapsed.

UN agencies say more than 200,000 are displaced within the stronghold, moving from the southern tip up north and crowding already packed camps and towns. Most of those dis-placed are living outside of camps, the UN said, while some have sought safety near the Turkish border where they hope no airstrikes would pursue them there.

Some 20 health facilities, three displaced people’s camp and one refugee camp were hit in the violence, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humani-tarian Affairs reported on Friday.

Since the violence picked up on April 30, the Observatory said at least 215 civilians, including 47 children were killed in the rebel stronghold. In adjacent government areas, 21 civilians were killed by rebel fire, according to the Observatory which monitors the war.

Yesterday alone, the Observ-atory said there were more than 100 air raids and as many as 93 barrel bombs dropped on the southern section of the rebel stronghold.

Russia and the government announced last week the opening of two corridors for civilians to exit the rebel-held enclave- another familiar tactic followed to empty opposition areas amid a military operation. The UN said it was not party to discussions for such a corridor and said movement of civilians must be a choice, not forced by violence.

The majority of the civilians living in the last rebel stronghold have either been evacuated from other opposition-held areas that were reclaimed by the Syrian military or are hard-core anti-government critics who refused to return to government control.

Most of the enclave is administered by the Al Qaeda-linked group, Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, which has collaborated with other armed opposition groups to fight government advances.

The first responders known as White Helmets said five women and a child were killed. Rescue workers were still searching for survivors under the rubble after the airstrikes hit in the town of Ariha.

A flight deck crew directs the dry cargo and ammunition ship onto the flight deck of the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during a replenishment-at-sea in Arabian Sea.

US does not seek ‘regime change’ in Iran: Trump

Baghdad sentencesanother French ISmember to deathAP / BAGHDAD

The French former members of the IS group were brought into the courtroom in Baghdad one after the other yesterday and made to sit inside a wooden cage in the middle. As they spoke in French, a government official typed up the translation into Arabic, which immediately appeared on a large screen behind the judge that the court could read. Mustafa Mohammed Ibrahim became the fourth French citizen to be sentenced to death by a Baghdad court for joining IS. Wearing a yellow uniform and plastic flip flops, Ibrahim, 37, told the judge, “I don’t understand the charges.”

AFP TOKYO

The United States does not seek “regime change” in Iran despite mounting Middle East tensions, President Donald Trump said yesterday.

Speaking after summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump seemed at pains to dial down tensions in the world’s two most pressing flashpoints as the US faces increasingly bellicose regimes in Tehran. Iran “has a chance to be a great country, with the same leadership. We’re not looking for regime change, I want to make that clear. We’re looking for no

nuclear weapons,” said the president.

“I really believe that Iran would like to make a deal. I think that’s very smart of them and I think there’s a possibility for that to happen also.” He had earlier opened the door to negotiations with Tehran, saying: “if they’d like to talk, we’d like to talk also.” Washington has decided to deploy 1,500 additional troops to the Middle East amid growing friction with Iran after Trump pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal and later re-instated tough sanctions.

Trump also appeared to give backing to his host Abe to mediate, amid reports

the Japanese prime minister is considering a trip to Tehran to negotiate. “I know for a fact that the prime minister (Abe) is very close with the leadership of Iran... nobody wants to see ter-rible things happen, especially me,” Trump said.

Iran hit out at the US for “causing tensions” after Pres-ident Donald Trump said his government was not seeking regime change and that he would welcome talks with Tehran. The Trump adminis-tration was “hurting the Iranian people and causing tension in the region,” Iranian Foreign Min-ister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on his Twitter account.

It is a new Sykes-Picot that aims to divide and weaken the Arabs once more so that Israel may reign supreme a while longer. But just as British-French colonial designs were rejected, so will Kushner’s deal. In its failure, however, it will likely fuel popular anger and endanger the survival of Arab regimes.

08 TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019VIEWS

Beware of Arab anger

As the announcement of the deal of the century approaches, the Arab world is growing increasingly tense.

Widespread rumours about the con-tents of the proposal have fuelled public outrage across the region.

By now, it is perfectly clear that the deal of the century is not a peace plan, nor was it ever intended to be, despite what its chief architect and White House adviser Jared Kushner has been claiming. It is yet another American imperial undertaking that is driven by the misguided notion that it is in the best interest of the American people that Israel remains the regional hegemon and is enabled to swallow the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories.

It is a new Sykes-Picot that aims to divide and weaken the Arabs once more so that Israel may reign supreme a while longer. But just as British-French colonial designs were rejected, so will Kushner’s deal. In its failure, however, it will likely fuel popular anger and endanger the survival of Arab regimes.

Since the early decades of the 20th century, Palestine has served as a meeting point for all Arabs, a just cause for their collective fight and a rallying cry against western colonialism and its offshoot, the Zionist movement.

Unlike most Arab countries which gained their independence in the mid-

20th century, Palestine remains captive to the very colonial forces that had subju-gated Arabs for decades. The suffering of Pales-tinians under Zionist colo-nialism and occupation remains a bleeding Arab wound and a painful reminder of the collective failure to do away with western dom-ination of the region. Freedom from western colonialism will never

truly be achieved as long as the Pales-tinians continue to endure daily vio-lence, a protracted siege and military occupation.

Although the majority of Arabs today have no recollection of the 1967 war and occupation, let alone the war of 1948 and the subsequent Nakba, they have remained highly conscious of and

sensitive about the suffering of Pales-tinians for two reasons. One, “tahrir falasteen” - the liberation of Palestine - has become a core element of the modern Arab political identity and aspirations; and, two, because the ongoing Israeli injustices, the unre-lenting Palestinian shatat - diaspora - and a determined Palestinian resistance have kept Palestine at the centre of collective Arab political consciousness.

Cognizant of the importance of the Palestine cause to Arab masses, Arab rulers have used and misused the Pal-estinian struggle to achieve a degree of political validation, as their regimes have lacked any democratic legitimacy. Thus, since Israel was established on the ruins of the Palestinian homeland in 1948, freeing Palestine became a common official Arab mantra, widely used by Arab regimes even as they con-spired with the colonial powers against the Palestinians.

But while Arab rulers, one by one, started accepting the status quo of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands and gladly accepted western “rewards” for their “good behaviour”, the Arab streets never followed suit.

According to a 2017 study of public attitudes in 11 Arab countries, 77 percent of respondents believe the fate of Palestinians concerns all Arabs. Interestingly enough, Arab nations whose regimes have official relations or are pushing for normalisation with Israel are most adamant about the issue: 90 percent of Jordanians, 85 percent of Egyptians and 80 percent of Saudis are convinced the Palestinian cause is a pan-Arab one.

At the same time, 90 percent of all respondents indicate that they still see Israel as the greatest threat to the security of their home countries and 87 percent oppose recognition of the Zionist state.

The fact that Arab leaders have been going against the will of their people and engaging with Israel has diminished their legitimacy and fuelled popular anger. In 2011, these senti-ments finally boiled over, as popular uprisings swept through the region. That the neglect of the Palestinian issue was very much part of people’s griev-ances was made evident by the fact that Palestinian flags were raised at protests across the region - in Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Yemen, Syria and elsewhere.

As the uprisings brought short-lived political liberalisation, Arab activists rushed to show solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters and organised aid convoys to Gaza. Mean-while, in Egypt, angry crowds attacked

the Israeli embassy in Cairo, causing all its staff to be evacuated.

Today, Algeria has picked up where other Arab countries left off after a counter-revolution swept through the region. Not a single demonstration has been held in Algiers without the Pales-tinian flags waved high and proud. After all, these are the same people who in 2016 cheered for the Palestinian national team against their own in a friendly football match.

The rest of the Arab world might be silent, plagued by conflict and violent repression, but anger is simmering beneath the surface.

As Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and others are pushing for normalisation with Israel without the issue of Palestinian statehood being resolved, the Arab people outright reject any such concessions.

Just as Britain and France used the moment of chaos the collapse of the Ottoman Empire caused in the early 20th century to enforce their imperial designs on the Arabs, the United States and Israel are using the post-Arab Spring instability to impose a new reality on the region.

Using money, military force and political pressure, they wish to remap the Arab region to advance American-Israeli colonial interests and cement the forceful eviction of Palestinians from their land. All of this will fuel the growing anger and sense of betrayal that Arab nations feel towards their self-serving governments, who are playing into American and Israeli hands to ensure their own survival. However, the Arab peoples should not be so easily dismissed and discounted, for humili-ation can have many unintended consequences.

What the deal of the century will ultimately do is erase what little legit-imacy Arab leaders have left and undermine their corrupt regimes. And just like in 2011, sooner or later, Arab anger will boil over and sweep through the region in yet another wave of uprisings which neither Israel, nor its western and regional allies will be able to control.

Just as decades of US-sponsored “peace process”, political pressure and economic bribery failed to bring a just solution to the Palestinian cause and stability to the region, so will Kushner’s “deal of the century” fail. This is because just like previous US initia-tives, it is completely tone deaf about the state of affairs in the Arab world and the will of its people.

Ramzy Baroud is an interna-tionally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author.

RAMZY BAROUD AL JAZEERA

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The integration movement which

is what the EU has always been about

is dead.

Steve BannonFormer Trump Adviser

Amid fractures, Europe is becoming a single political space

Elections are always a Rorschach test - people look at the results and see what

they want to see. But the European parliamentary elections that took place over the past several days provided an unusually large set of results, upon which an unusually large number of people are placing their con-clusions. Those who wanted to prove a thesis about the inevitable rise of the far right can find examples to work with. Those who think Europe will resist that rise can also find examples to

work with. But what if both of these things are true?

As in nature, so in pol-itics: Every action has a reaction. Across the con-tinent, far-right, nativist, nationalist and populist parties that deploy virulently anti-European and some-times racist language have indeed grown louder, more prominent and more suc-cessful. As I’ve written several times, they are using new social media tools to spread conspiracy theories that make people angry and afraid, and they capitalize on that anger and that fear. But as they have risen in promi-nence, the backlash against them has also grown. As pre-dicted, Liberal and Green parties were big winners, too. Indeed, if there were real losers, they were the old center-right Christian Dem-ocrat and center-left Social

Democrat parties, or at least those that have failed to catch the mood of the moment, adjust their use of social media and change their focus. Those two parties used to dominate the European Parliament and thus European Union institu-tions. No more. Many now worry therefore about frag-mentation, that we will end up with an EU that cannot take decisions because there are too many factions.

In any case, there is an upside to this, too: The European Parliament will now be a place where real politics happen. There will be deals to do, arguments to have. There are now issues, such as ecology and immi-gration, that command pan-European interest and require pan-European solu-tions - and Europeans seem to know it. Not accidentally,

voter turnout rose by double-digit percentages in Spain, Poland, Germany, Romania and Hungary, among others, as people realized that their votes actually mattered. .

Despite itself, the con-tinent is becoming a single political space. The far right in Italy copies tactics from the far right in France. The Greens in France watch the Greens in Germany. Eve-ryone watches everyone else’s elections and uses them to prove points. British Euroskeptics tweeted happily about the Gilets Jaunes protests in France, and French Europhiles in turn have mocked the Brexit crisis in Britain. But in truth, nobody is “winning.” Instead, politics is changing, very quickly, with new parties, new causes, new passions coming to dominate.

The second phase of HIA’s innovative Smart Airport program aims to initiate a major digital transformation of passenger journey through facial biometric recognition across all key passenger touch points.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI

osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIALHIA’s digital strategy

Hamad International Airport has always been at the fore-front in setting the standard for modern day airport experience ever since its launch in May 2014. Stepping

up this experience, Qatar’s aviation hub has launched the second phase of its innovative Smart Airport program which sets to initiate an exciting major digital transformation of the pas-senger journey through facial biometric recognition across all key passenger touch points.

Making the experience fast and seamless, only the passen-ger’s face is required for verification at the self-service bag-drop, automated security gate, and the automated boarding gate. The system, currently under trial, is a central piece of HIA’s digital strategy and combines passengers’ flight, passport, and facial biometric information in a single electronic record at the self-check-in kiosk or mobile app.

The first phase of HIA’s Smart Airport program proved to be hugely popular, with up to 40 percent of passengers trav-elling on Qatar Airways preferring to self-check-in and a further 20 percent opting for self-bag-drop. The swift process vastly improves customer experience and allows more passengers to be managed without physical expansion of the check-in facil-ities. It also empowers HIA passengers by offering total control

of their journey from arrival to departure.

Qatar’s aviation hub has been ranked as the Fourth Best Airport in the World at the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2019. HIA has also once again been ranked as a five-star Airport and was honoured with the title of ‘Best Airport in the Middle East’ for the fifth year in a row and ‘Best Staff Service in the Middle East’ for the fourth year in a row. The awards recognize HIA’s commitment to the highest envi-ronmental standards, responsible business practices, innovative facilities, five-star customer service and state-of-the-art terminal which accommodates more than 30 million passengers annually.

HIA’s Smart Airport program is helping optimize operational proc-esses. The Service Delivery Meas-urement system enables real-time monitoring of passenger wait times,

thus allowing tactical decisions to recover service levels by deploying additional resources when the wait time exceeds targets. The Airport Collaborative Decision Making platform, once fully oper-ational, will enable more effective collaboration between all airport stakeholders to optimise flight turn around processes, further improving HIA’s efficiency and on-time performance.

HIA’s Chief Operating Officer Engr Badr Mohammed Al Meer said: “In line with our vision and strategic plan, we con-tinue to invest in customer-centric innovative technology to provide fast, seamless and enjoyable travel experience to be the airport of choice for our discerning customers. Our approach to identity management is unique and holistic, in that we foresee wide-scale deployment of biometric capability across both man-dated and voluntary passenger touch points while addressing customer data privacy concerns in line with relevant local and international regulations.” Qatar’s award-winning airport remains focused on redefining the airport experience, from its implementation of cutting-edge technology, strategic expansion plan and operational excellence that makes HIA the airport of choice for millions of passengers around the world.

ANNE APPLEBAUM THE WASHINGTON POST

Ultimately, despite Kuwait-US relations remaining strong on the institutional level, growing unease with the unpredictable Trump administration and its policies, from Palestine to Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, unsettle officials in Kuwait City. Russia will likely continue receiving attention from Kuwait as the emirate seeks to continue serving as a regional mediator amidst raging civil wars, deadly insurgencies, and multifaceted political crises throughout MENA states.

09TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019 OPINION

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Incremental reforms a must do for thenext government

Kuwait looks to Russia for help on Yemen war

TAPONEEL MUKHERJEE IANS

KHALID AL-JABER & GIORGIO CAFIERO

As the new government takes office, it is time to reflect on some of the most critical areas that need attention to boost

the investment and business climate in India. While structural reforms around land acquisition and labour laws remain on the top of the agenda, the new government would do well to

focus on implementing incremental policy changes and addressing gaps in the various sectors that would signifi-cantly boost the investment climate.

Incremental reforms refer to a slew of smaller steps that help facilitate investment into the critical areas of financial services, energy, transpor-tation and real estate amongst others.

In an economy of the size, diversity and complexity of India, facilitating change through incremental steps has a significant role to play. Smaller steps will allow the government to gauge the effect of policy changes through a feedback mechanism, which in turn will assist the government in improving and altering the policy, when required, in the right direction. Changes and tweaks to policy in India will have a significant multiplier effect in an economy of the size of India. True that comprehensive structural reforms have the advantage of being “big bang” events, but incremental policy changes can be game changers once their effect is viewed over an extended period. It is vital that incremental is not confused with “small”.

The government must continue on the path of improvement for strat-egies that have yielded positive results over the last few years, like the trans-parent auction mechanism for renewable energy, newly introduced Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) mechanism for fundraising, and auctions to monetise infra-structure assets. These innovative and successful policy changes must con-tinue, and more importantly, the learnings from these must be applied to other sectors.

For instance, can the government bring further clarity around auction rules, revenue sharing, and asset sales to help India boost energy exploration in India, especially in the light of India’s increasing dependence on Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant (POL) imports? Could the first Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) highway auction con-ducted by the NHAI lay a template to boost infrastructure fundraising in other sectors for the government? These are questions worth pondering over by the government.

The government needs to evaluate reasons that might be currently hin-dering the investment process. A slowdown in the investment process is not necessarily a problem if done for the right reasons. But, for instance, in sectors where a slowdown has been seen such as a series of auctions in renewable energy that did not find takers and the liquidity crisis that the NBFC sector is facing, there needs to be a reassessment of existing policy. But the aim must not be to just tide over the current issues but to create mecha-nisms that improve the system to reduce and eventually avoid the problem going forward.

In some cases, such as renewable energy, allowing market-pricing arrangements might be the solution, while in others such as lending markets, transparency might be the solution. Necessarily, adjustments in existing policies to eliminate

bottlenecks must be a government objective to attract and boost investments.

Then, it is essential that as policy changes are implemented, the gov-ernment has its eye on the “rear-view mirror”, primarily, for an under-standing of the impact of the policy change on the ecosystem and the related supply chains which are vital. Most policy changes, if not all, have winners and losers. It is crucial that the overall impact is positive, with the downside reduced significantly, and more importantly, a strategy addresses the stakeholders facing the downside.

Having an eye on the “rear-view mirror” also implies the need for the government to be mindful of the ripple effects that policy changes cause to ensure policy consistency. For instance, whether it is access to credit for businesses and individuals or rapid infrastructure creation, policy changes must try to remain as consistent with the overall objective as possible. If the government considers renewable energy development as a vital area that needs focus, then duties on solar module imports probably need a relook. Primarily, with limited resources, it is challenging to boost all areas. The government, thus, needs to push for policy changes that help boost areas with the maximum multiplier effect.

While large-scale structural reforms can transform economies, in an Indian context, incremental policy changes in the right direction have the potential to yield significant results. While speed is of the essence, speed must not be at the cost of precision. Therefore, gradual but well thought-out policy moves are the need of the hour. In the tortoise-hare story, India would do well to be the patient tortoise even as it dynamically transforms its economy.

Taponeel Mukherjee heads Development Tracks, an infra-structure advisory firm.

After years of failed interna-tional efforts to bring peace to Yemen, the State of Kuwait is now pursuing greater dip-

lomatic involvement from Russia with the hopes that officials in Moscow can help bring a swift end to the civil war. On a visit to Moscow in March, Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khalid al-Jarallah praised “Russia’s distinctive contributions” to the solving conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and working to “find ways to end them and contain their effects.”

Such words help illustrate the extent to which Russian prestige has increased across the Arab world. While Moscow continues exercising its diplomatic leverage over Arab Gulf monarchies as the Syrian civil war gradually winds down, the Russian leadership has made its influence felt in virtually all MENA countries.

For years, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member-states have seen Russia as a logical player in resolving the Yemeni crisis, a role that has been supported by the Kremlin’s mediation efforts in the Qatar blockade, as well as Russia’s culti-vation of a “neutral” image in Libya. Kuwait’s turn to Russia on the Yemeni conflict also highlights Washington’s declining influence across the region. Almost three decades after the “Liber-ation” of Kuwait in 1991, in a much more multipolar world, Russia is con-stantly capitalizing on friction between Washington and many of its

historically close MENA region allies, including Kuwait.

Thus, while Kuwait shows no signs of abandoning its partnership with America, the emirate is sending a message to the US that it is diversi-fying its alliances in a pragmatic manner by investing in deeper ties with Moscow as well as Beijing. Ulti-mately, Kuwait seeks to become increasingly autonomous from the US by effectively balancing the UN Security Council’s permanent members off each other. Also, as Yury Barmin explained, while GCC member-states can “resort to a Russian boogeyman to scare Wash-ington into showing stronger com-mitment to its Gulf allies, the optics of expanding presence in the region help Moscow reaffirm its great power status in the eyes of American counterparts.”

Yet as Kuwait looks to cement a stronger partnership with Russia, an issue involving a prominent Russian citizen behind bars in Kuwait could stand in the way of a healthier bilateral relationship.

Marsha Lazareva Marsha Lazareva was a successful

businesswoman in the MENA region before being convicted in Kuwait’s judicial system of misusing public funds. Her groundless case relied largely on testimony from a single discredited witness from the Kuwait State Audit Bureau who presented forged financial documents. The court issued a verdict without allowing her

legal counsel to present a defense and she is now serving a 10-year sentence, which began almost one year ago, in Kuwait’s Sulaibiya prison. As a Russian citizen, her case has created major concerns in Russia that have trickled up to the highest levels of government.

In March, Russian Foreign Min-ister Sergey Lavrov met with Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed in the Bayan Palace to discuss Yemen, the Lazareva case, and a host of other issues. Although the top Russian dip-lomat’s attempts to secure Lazareva’s release failed during that visit, the fact that Lavrov pressed the Kuwaiti lead-ership to grant her freedom under-scores how the incarcerated CEO’s case has become an issue in Kuwaiti-Russian relations.

Last year, Crowell & Moring LLP, counsel for Lazareva, filed a notice of international arbitration with Kuwait for violating a longstanding bilateral investment treaty (“the Agreement between the Russian Federation and the State of Kuwait on the Encour-agement and Mutual Protection of Investments”) in breach of interna-tional law. The notice alleges that the “erroneous charges” against the Russian national factor into a “coordi-nated campaign to damage her repu-tation… and diminish the value of her investments”. To be sure, the plight of this prominent Russian business-woman will remain a source of tension until her release, especially as a growing number of voices in the global media raise alarm over Laza-reva’s situation in a prison known for being overcrowded while her health continues to suffer.

Future of Kuwait and Russia’s Partnership

With strong historic bilateral relations rooted in the Cold War, when Kuwait was alone among Arab Gulf monarchies in establishing dip-lomatic relations with the Soviet Union as early as 1963, Kuwait City and Moscow maintain deep ties. This relationship has gradually grown strong due to numerous historical events, including Russia’s decision to support UN Security Council resolu-tions on Iraq’s 1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait despite Saddam Hussein’s Cold War era alliance with the Soviet Union. In more recent times, the Kremlin’s full support for Kuwaiti mediation in the GCC’s Qatar rift has given Kuwait more reason to turn to Moscow for help on other regional issues.

Incremental reforms refer to a slew of smaller steps that help facilitate investment into the critical areas of financial services, energy, transportation and real estate amongst others.

There is ample reason to con-clude that geopolitical instability and lingering security threats in the MENA region will give Kuwait and Russia further incentive to explore areas for greater cooperation in terms of a stronger defense part-nership, as well as deeper ties in business, investment, and finance. With Russia both unwilling and unable to single-handedly finance Syria’s reconstruction, the Kremlin seeks reconstruction assistance from Kuwait and other oil wealthy Arabian Peninsula monarchies that are willing to accept the high levels of risk in doing so.

Additionally, the Palestinian question is another issue where Kuwait and Russia’s positions align. Kuwait has expressed open distaste with the Trump administration’s “Deal of the Century” and is cur-rently the GCC’s only member-state that refuses to warm up to Israel. At the same time, Kuwait’s record of serving as a diplomatic bridge between its fellow GCC states and Iran advances Russia’s interests in promoting a détente in Tehran-Riyadh relations.

Ultimately, despite Kuwait-US relations remaining strong on the institutional level, growing unease with the unpredictable Trump administration and its policies, from Palestine to Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, unsettle offi-cials in Kuwait City. Russia will likely continue receiving attention from Kuwait as the emirate seeks to continue serving as a regional mediator amidst raging civil wars, deadly insurgencies, and multi-faceted political crises throughout MENA states.

Dr Khalid Al-Jaber is Director, Gulf International Forum and Giorgio Cafiero is CEO, Founder, Gulf State Analytics.

10 TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019AFRICA

Haftar’s forces push towards Tripoli’s centreAP CAIRO

Heavy clashes have been slowly nearing the centre of Libya’s capital, Tripoli, as forces loyal to the military commander Khalifa Haftar battle to seize power, an official and residents said yesterday.

Haftar opened a military offensive on the Libyan capital of Tripoli in early April despite commitments to move toward elections in the North African country. Libya is divided between Haftar, whose self-styled Libyan National Army controls the east and much of the south, and Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj, who runs the UN-supported government in Tripoli. In recent weeks, the clashes had receded with the start of the holy month of Ramadan when Muslims abstain from food and drink from dawn to dusk. But in the past couple of days, the capital’s siege has

intensified. Haftar’s forces have pushed ahead in Tripoli’s eastern and southern suburbs. The LNA’s media office said they have taken control of areas near the Tripoli International Airport, which was largely destroyed in the civil war following the over-throw of longtime dictator Muammar Al Qaddafi in 2011.

Saraj Al Majbri, an aide to the LNA’s chief of staff, said its forces have also made gains in the area of Salah Al Deen, a few kilometres from the city centre. He claimed the forces march toward the city centre had been

slowed in the past weeks because they did not want to use heavy artillery in populated areas.

Two residents said heavy fighting was taking place along a strategic road linking the capital with the airport, which the LNA already controls. They spoke on condition of ano-nymity for their safety.

Haftar has said he won’t stop his offensive as long as the militias remained in control of Tripoli — and, he claimed, the militias remain in control of Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj’s UN-supported government. Six rounds of talks with the gov-ernment had failed to strike a political deal, he said.

“In the last round of negoti-ations I realised that it’s not him who decides,” Haftar said. “Of course a political solution remains the objective, but to get back to politics we have to finish with the militias.”

Haftar’s comments came in

an interview last week with France’s Journal du Dimanche during his visit to Paris, where President Emmanuel Macron urged the Libyan leader to work toward a cease-fire and a return to the political process. Haftar and the Tripoli government had agreed to hold nationwide elec-tions in the divided country after a Paris meeting in May 2018.

But in the interview, Haftar lashed out at the UN special envoy, saying that Ghassan Salame was no longer impartial.

“He has now taken sides,” he said, before adding: “Par-tition of Libya is maybe what our adversaries want. This is maybe what Ghassan Salame also wants.” Forces loyal to the UN-supported government said

they have hindered LNA advances and cut off supply roads to Hifter’s forces in the southern areas of the capital.

The Tripoli-based gov-ernment said earlier this week that an airstrike by the LNA tar-geted a civilian facility located in a high populated area, where lawmakers in Tripoli used to meet.

Fighters loyal to military commander Khalifa Haftar advancing on a road south of the capital Tripoli.

Saraj Al Majbri, an aide to the LNA’s chief of staff, said its forces have also made gains in the area of Salah Al Deen, a few kilometres from the city centre.

Malawi’s Mutharika wins presidential raceREUTERS BLANTYRE

President Peter Mutharika won Malawi’s presidential election with 38.57% of votes, the elec-toral commission said yesterday, narrowly securing another five-year term after delays over suspected tampering.

Voters in the southern African nation cast ballots for a

president and parliament last Tuesday in a bruising race between Mutharika and two former allies, Lazarus Chakwera and Deputy President Saulos Chilima, with results due at the weekend.

But on Saturday a court granted the opposition an injunction after the electoral commission (MEC) received 147 cases of irregularities, including

results sheets with sections blotted out or altered with cor-rection fluid. Reports of tam-pering sparked protests in some opposition strongholds.

The court lifted the injunction yesterday, and the electoral commission confirmed Mutharika’s narrow victory.

“I hereby declare Arthur Mutharika as the winner of the presidential election held on 21

May,” chairwoman of the MEC Justice Jane Ansah said.

Chakwera, of the opposition Malawi Congress Party, scored 35.41% of the votes, while Deputy President Chilima won 20.24%, the electoral body said.

Former law professor Muth-arika, 78, came to power in 2014 and is credited with improving infrastructure and lowering inflation, but has recently faced

accusations of corruption and of favouring rural regions where his support is strongest.

Malawi won independence from Britain in 1964, and after an initial period of economic and social stability, fuelled in part by tobacco and tea sales, has seen government debt climb and poverty deepen as its reliance on foreign donors increased.

Buhari signs ambitious 2019 budgetAFP ABUJA

N i g e r i a n P r e s i d e n t Muhammadu Buhari signed an ambitious budget into law yesterday, days ahead of the official start of his second term leading Africa’s largest oil producer.

Buhari approved the spending plan worth 8.92 trillion naira — about $29bn based on the official fixed exchange rate of 305 naira to the dollar. Floating exchange rates used by banks put the budget at some $25bn dollars, or ¤22bn. Analysts have crit-icised budgets under Buhari as “unrealistic”, saying they were based on an over-esti-mation of available income amid volatile global crude prices.

“The big problem is that, like in 2016 and 2017, the revenue expectation has been very high,” said economic analyst Nonso Obiliki.

“This year the revenue pro-jection is even higher, even though they didn’t reach the target the previous years.” Nigeria is one of Africa’s biggest economies. The budget is pred-icated on crude oil sale of $60 per barrel, and crude pro-duction of 2.3 million barrels per day.

The economy has suffered difficult times in recent years. After emerging in 2017 from its deepest recession in decades and millions of job losses, Nigeria’s economy returned to growth — increasing by two percent in 2018.

Nine dead in Zimbabwemine collapseREUTERS / HARARE

At least nine illegal gold miners have died in Zimbabwe after they detonated explosives underground and were trapped at a mine owned by unlisted L o n d o n - h e a d q u a r t e r e d Metallon Corporation north of the capital Harare, the company said yesterday.

Metallon put its Mazowe Mine on care and maintenance last September, citing viability problems. One of Zimbabwe’s biggest gold producers, it still operates three other mines.

Metallon said the mine col-lapse happened on Sunday when illegal miners gained access to underground shafts and blasted explosives. “None of these miners were employees of Metallon and all those involved with keeping the mine on care and maintenance have been accounted for,” Metallon said.

Zimbabwe main political opposition leader Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change awaits the beginnings of vote counting in the early hours at the party’s electoral congress held at Ascot Stadium in Gweru, yesterday.

Zimbabwe’s oppn MDC backs ChamisaAFP GWERU, ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party has elected Nelson Chamisa unopposed to remain as leader at its first congress since the death of its founder, Morgan Tsvangirai, the party announced yesterday.

The Movement for Demo-cratic Change (MDC) has been plagued by infighting since Tsvangirai’s death and battered by another election defeat.

Tsvangirai appointed Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri as party co-vice presidents before dying of colon cancer in Feb-ruary 2018.

Chamisa, 41, then took the party helm, becoming its champion in the first presidential elections since the authoritarian Robert Mugabe was ousted.

He lost the 2018 ballot to incumbent Emmerson Mnan-gagwa of the ruling ZANU-PF, an outcome that he says was rigged. “Young leader are taking over in Africa,” Chamisa told party activists in Gweru city after the party also elected new office bearers over the weekend.

“Change is taking place not only in Zimbabwe but across the continent.” Zimbabwe’s economy, which the 76-year-old Mnangagwa has vowed to revive, is once more an explosive issue, with shortages of fuel, a cash crunch and rising inflation.

“We are going to modernise the party,” said Chamisa who

served as information and com-munication technology minister during a power-sharing gov-ernment from 2009 to 2013.

“ZANU-PF has been here for a long time but we want to teach them a lesson. Our simple agenda is transformation. We want to build a nation because we only have one country.”

Formed in 1999, following a con-ference of labour, church and civic society and students groups with trade unionist Tsvangirai as founding leader, the MDC is the largest opposition party the country has known since inde-pendence in 1980.

It is the only party to have posed a sizeable challenge to ZANU-PF’s grip on power, often in the face of violence, but also has a history of internal feuding.

In the 2008 presidential elections, Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the first round but failed to garner enough votes to be declared winner.

He withdrew from the run-off, citing attacks on his sup-porters by ZANU-PF militants and state agents that left around 200 people dead and thousands displaced.

Earlier this month, the high court, petitioned by a party dis-trict official, declared that Chamisa’s appointment as party vice-president by Tsvangirai had been illegal.

The MDC said the ruling was a ZANU-PF strategy ahead of the congress and has lodged an appeal.

Ebola healthworker slainin DRCAFP / KINSHASA

Villagers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) killed a health worker engaged in the fight against a major Ebola outbreak and looted a treatment centre, according to an official report yesterday.

“Part of the population of Vusahiro village, in the health sector of Mabalako (North Kivu province), rose up and attacked the local team fighting back against Ebola,” said the daily health ministry bulletin dated Sunday. “A hygiene agent in the team for the prevention and control of infections died of his injuries during his transfer to the hospital,” health authorities said in the bulletin. “The health centre in Vusahiro was trashed and looted and three village houses were burned down,” the bulletin added.

Push to preserve Shariah in SudanAFP / KHARTOUM

With talks suspended between protest leaders and Sudan’s military over a transfer of power to civilian rule, Islamist move-ments are backing the army in the hope it will keep Shariah law in place.

Hundreds of Islamists have rallied in the capital, warning they would reject any deal that would exclude Shariah — Islamic law — from the country’s political roadmap.

They have also backed the army’s demands that the head of Sudan’s new governing body be a military figure — putting them at odds with protesters who want civilian rule. “We agree with (protesters) that there will be a cabinet of civilian tech-nocrats,” said Hassan Rizk, Deputy Head of the Islamist

Reform Now Movement, a breakaway group from the National Congress Party for-merly led by Bashir. “But the

sovereign council should be headed by the armed forces because there is a security problem.”

Supporters of Sudanese Islamist movements shouting slogans during a rally in front of the Presidential Palace in downtown Khartoum.

Death toll in DR Congo boat disaster rises to 32AFP / KINSHASA

The death toll from a boat disaster in western DR Congo at the weekend rose to 32, while scores more are feared drowned, a local official said yesterday.

The vessel capsised in choppy conditions on Lake Mai-Ndombe on Saturday, in the latest in a string of deadly acci-dents in Congolese waters.

“There are 32 dead, 183 sur-vivors,” Simon Mbo Wemba, mayor of the lakeside town of Inongo, said. “The manifest given to the authorities states there were 113 passengers. But survivors say there were between 350 and 400 people on board,” he said. The boat “was decrepit and unfit” for transport, the mayor said, adding that its

owner had been arrested.Lakes and rivers are widely

used in the Democratic Republic of Congo in preference to a poor highway system. But accidents are common, typically caused by overloading of passengers and cargo and the poor state of the vessels. Tolls are often high because there are often no life jackets and many Congolese do not know how to swim.

The boat in Saturday’s dis-aster was a “baleiniere” or “whaler” — a flat-bottomed vessel with a canoe-like prow that is typically 15 to 30 metres long by two to six metres wide.

In April, at least 167 people died in two accidents, prompting President Felix Tshisekedi to make it mandatory for boat pas-sengers to have lifebuoys.

11TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019 ASIA

First session of17th Lok Sabha likely from June 6IANS NEW DELHI

The first session of the 17th Lok Sabha is likely to be held from June 6 to 15, sources said here yesterday.

This will be followed by the Budget session and the full Budget by the new government is likely to be presented on July 10, the sources said.

The first item on the agenda of the first session would be the oath-taking by the members, for which two days are expected to be allocated.

The oath-taking will be con-ducted by the pro tem Speaker, a temporary Speaker who is usually the senior-most member in terms of the number of times he or she has been elected to the Lower House of Parliament.

The most eligible in this regard are BJP’s Santosh Kumar Gangwar and Maneka Gandhi, who have been elected to the Lok Sabha for the eighth time. However, if they are made min-isters who will be sworn in on May 30, they will not qualify for the post of pro tem Speaker, whose role ends when the full time Speaker is elected by the House.

The next in seniority are Virendra Kumar of BJP and Mulayam Singh Yadav of Sama-jwadi Party, who have been elected for the seventh term.

In Kumar’s case too, if he is included in the Council of Min-isters, then he cannot become the pro tem Speaker.

The election for the Speaker is likely to take place on June 10.

On June 11, the President is expected to deliver his speech and the subsequent days of the session are expected to see a debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address to which the Prime Minister will give a reply.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said that chemistry had managed to defeat arithmetic in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“Elections are all about arith-metic but there is chemistry that

goes beyond arithmetic. This time chemistry has defeated arithmetic,” he said while addressing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers at a thanks-giving function in Varanasi.

“Some people say that pol-itics is all about perception but we do not create perceptions. For us, transparency and hard work scores above everything else,” he said.

The Prime Minister said that he was a BJP worker and fol-lowed the directives of the party.

“I was asked to come here and on April 25 (for a roadshow)

Kashi welcomed me with its ‘Vishwa Roop’ (larger than life image) that had an impact beyond Kashi and Uttar Pradesh. It impacted all parts of the country. Kashi made me PM but I will always remain a worker for you.” Modi said that if he seemed complacent and relaxed during elections, it was because of the love and strength that Kashi gave him. “You asked me not to come again for cam-paigning, so I went to Kedarnath after polling.” The Prime Minister thanked local officials, media persons and even his electoral

rivals. “I thank the workers for not making the election a war and the rival candidates for maintaining the dignity of Kashi. Elections were a festival of democracy that was celebrated by all,” he said. He said that there are many in politics whose profile runs into 50 pages or more but they are not connected to the poorest of the poor. “We are dedicated to such people,” he said. “Uttar Pradesh has elected us in 2014, 2017 and in 2019 and deserves to be lauded for this hat trick which is not a small feat,” he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi waving to supporters at the Trade Facilitation Centre and Crafts Museum, in Varanasi yesterday. Thousands of jubilant supporters cheered Modi as he set about a victory rally in Varanasi after sweeping the general elections.

Bengal: No endto post-poll violence IANS/KOLKATA

At least eight people were injured, houses ransacked, as West Bengal continued to be singed by post-poll violence across districts yesterday.

Two Trinamool Congress workers were injured when unidentified miscreants hurled bombs in Domkol of Mur-shidabad district.

“Two Trinamool workers were injured from splinters. Around four people were involved in the attacked and two of them have already arrested,” an officer of Mur-shidabad’s Domkal police station said.

Initially, the attackers were believed to be miscreants backed by the Congress party, but the police said that both the victims and attackers belong to Trinamool Congress(TMC).

A clash between Trinamool and BJP workers broke out in West Midnapore’s Haripur area.

“Six Trinamool workers were injured after an alter-cation broke out between both parties. Four BJP workers have been arrested,” an officer of Belda police station said.

Also, cases of violence were reported from North 24 Par-ganas, Coochbehar and Hooghly district.

Muslims wait to have their Iftar meals inside a mosque during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Mumbai, India, yesterday.

Former Kolkata top cop Rajeev Kumar dodges CBI, seeks more time IANS KOLKATA

Former Kolkata Police Commis-sioner Rajeev Kumar yesterday skipped the CBI summon in connection with the Saradha cheat fund scam, and instead sought seven days time to appear before the investigating agency, a CBI official said.

Kumar, the Additional Director General (ADG) of Cr iminal Invest igat ion Department (CID) of the state police, was summoned to the

city’s CBI headquarters in CGO Complex at 10.30am for ques-tioning. But he sent a letter seeking a week’s time, stating that he was on leave. Two CID officials went to the CBI office in Salt Lake and delivered the letter.

“He was summoned by the CBI for questioning today, but he did not appear and instead sent a letter stating he was on leave. The agency will decide about the future course of action in the case,” a Central Bureau of Inves-tigation (CBI) official said. The

IPS officer, accused of tampering evidence related to the multi-crore rupees saradha Chit Fund scam, was interrogated by the central agency for five consec-utive days in Shillong back in February. On Sunday evening, the West Bengal government reinstated Kumar as CID Addi-tional Director General, a post from which he was shunted out by the Election Commission and sent on central deputation on May 15.

The state government in a

notification said that Kumar was being reinstated as the model code of conduct had expired.

The CBI on Sunday issued a look out notice against Kumar and directed all the airports and immigration authorities to prevent him from leaving the country and intimate the agency about any such move.

The CBI also served notices on the former top cop at his res-idence and his office summoning him to be present at its Salt Lake office at 10.30am yesterday.

The Supreme Court had on May 17 withdrawn the protection from arrest granted to Kumar by its February 5 order. It, however, had given him seven days time to approach a competent court for relief. Last Monday, Kumar had moved the apex court seeking extension of the pro-tection from arrest in view of the lawyers’ strike in Kolkata, but the court had rejected it. Kumar was heading the Special Investigation Team that probed the Saradha scam before the CBI took over.

SC dismisses relief on arrest in cases on GST evasionIANS NEW DELHI

In a big relief for the Government, the Supreme Court yesterday dismissed a bunch of petitions, challenging power to arrest in cases under GST evasion. Matters involved allegations of evading GST by circular trading and claiming input tax credit (ITC) through fake invoices.

The petitioners had moved the apex court challenging the Telangana High Court verdict that a person can be arrested by the authority concerned in cases of Goods and Service Tax (GST) evasion.

The petitions were listed for hearing before a vacation bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Aniruddha Bose. The court after hearing the initial arguments said it is not willing to interfere with the April 18 judgement of the high court.

“Upon perusing the relevant material, we are not inclined to interfere. The special leave petition is accordingly dis-missed. Pending interlocutory applications, if any, shall stand disposed of,” the court said in its order. The Telangana High Court in its order on April 18, said that it is not willing to grant any relief against arrest to the petitioners in light of summons issued by Superintendent (anti-evasion) of the Hyderabad GST Commissionerate under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

The court did not entertain their plea challenging the summons. The government informed the court that peti-tioners have allegedly incorpo-rated various firms in part-nership, and then on the basis of certain invoices, claimed input tax credit allegedly in the absence of any actual physical receipt depicting the nature of goods. It was alleged that Rs 224.05 crore fraudulent input tax credit has been claimed by these companies. The batch of petitions was filed by some private companies, their top officials and others.

Left has suffered severesetback, admits CPI-MIANS NEW DELHI

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) yesterday admitted that the Left had suffered “a severe setback” in the Lok Sabha battle and said the BJP’s sweeping victory posed “big challenges ahead for the Indian people and our country”.

Admitting that the BJP-led NDA had secured an over-whelming and decisive mandate in the elections, a CPI-M statement said: “The CPI-M and the Left have suffered a severe setback in these elections, par-ticularly in their strongholds.” It said the electoral base of the CPI-M saw a big erosion and added that the politburo dis-cussed some of the issues that led to this state of affairs. “The BJP could successfully shift the

popular narrative away from the multitude of livelihood issues that the last five years of the NDA government had imposed,” the CPI-M said.

“The narrative built around communal nationalist jingoism, along with the issues of fighting terrorism, brushed aside all other issues of day-to-day con-cerns of the people. “This was aided by the build-up of the Modi persona through a combi-nation of factors. These included the effective use of technology and its instruments of messaging to the people backed by big data analytics and micro level social engineering. Only three CPI-M candidates were elected to the Lok Sabha: one from Kerala and two from Tamil Nadu. The statement said soon after the poll results, reports of attacks on minorities had been reported.

Congress in crisis after string of resignationsIANS NEW DELHI

With Congress President Rahul Gandhi insisting that his offer of resignation be accepted in the wake of party’s debacle in Lok Sabha elections, the Congress Working Committee is likely to meet again in the next four days to take stock of the situation and discuss the leadership issue.

The Congress has been in a crisis over Rahul Gandhi’s offer to step down with the CWC expected to discuss his possible successor if he does not relent from his stance of stepping down.

The move to convene the CWC comes in the wake of a string of resignations by

Congress state party chiefs who took moral responsibility of the party’s performance in the Lok Sabha polls.

It is learnt that Rahul Gandhi has conveyed that he has not changed his mind to quit. UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi are also learnt to have come to terms with his view that there should be a change of guard though they have been of the view that the blame for defeat cannot be put on one person.

Sources said the CWC, the party’s top decision-making body, is also likely to look at the structural reforms needed by the party.

There is also a view in the

Congress that Rahul is sending a clear message to the old guard by holding out because there should be full freedom in decision-making.

Sources said Rahul did not give appointment to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in an apparent snub to him. The Congress President was not keen on Gehlot seeking ticket for his son. Rahul is also learnt to have declined other appointments including of newly-elected MPs who wanted to see him.

Various suggestions are floating about how to get over the present crisis and rejuvenate the party. There was a talk in the party circles about a presidium system, a presidium is a com-mittee or a council that

collectively administers alongside an individual president or in place of him and makes important decisions.

During the day, Rahul Gandhi met party treasurer Ahmed Patel and general sec-retary K C Venugopal who are learnt too have persuaded him not to press for his exit from the post.

However, Patel later said that he had gone to meet Rahul for routine administrative work.

“I had sought time before the CWC to meet the Congress Pres-ident to discuss routine admin-istrative work. The meeting today was in that context. All other speculation is incorrect and baseless,” Patel said in a tweet.

Bengal govt reinstates top cops after pollsIANS/KOLKATA

The West Bengal Government has reinstated Anuj Sharma as Kolkata Police Commissioner and other top police officers who were transferred by the Election Commission (EC), according to an official notifi-cation. Sharma who was posted as Additional Director General (ADG) and Inspector General of Police (IGP), Operations, has been directed to take charge from the outgoing officer Rajesh Kumar, it said. Bidhan-nagar Commissioner of Police (CP) Gyanwant Singh, who was replaced by N. Ramesh Babu, has been given back his charge.Rajesh Kumar and Ramesh Babu have been sent on compulsory waiting for further posting orders.

The election for the Speaker is likely to take place on June 10, while the President is expected to deliver his speech to the parliament on June 11.

Breaking fast en masse

12 TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019ASIA

Pakistan, UK sign MoU for Ishaq Dar’s extraditionINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The British government and Pakistan have signed a memo-randum of understanding (MoU) for the formal beginning of process for the extradition former finance minister Ishaq Dar to Pakistan.

The MoU signed this week and case specific to Ishaq Dar provides legal basis in the absence of an extradition treaty. It’s understood that the MoU was signed after Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Adviser on Accountability Shahzad Akbar held talks with British Home Sec-retary Sajid Javid.

On May 23, the Home Sec-retary tweeted: “Pleasure to meet with @ShazadAkbar again this morning to discuss progress on UK-Pakistan efforts to tackle cor-ruption.” The MoU states that the Government of Pakistan and the British government have developed an understanding “for the extradition of Ishaq Dar to the jurisdiction of the government of Pakistan”. The document, signed by Graeme Biggar, the new Justice and Accountability focal person for Pakistan on behalf of Home Secretary Sajid Javid and Shahzad Akbar stated that the MoU means the “surrender to the government of Pakistan of Ishaq Dar for the purpose of prose-cution there for one or more offences and for the purpose of serving a sentence of imprisonment”.

The MoU states that it

provides for “more effective cooperation in combating crime”. It goes on that the MoU is “mindful of the guarantee under the respective legal system which produces an accused person right to fair trial including the right to adjudication by an impartial tri-bunal established pursuant to law”. A source familiar with the development claimed that the MoU means that the UK govt is satisfied that Pakistan is a suitable extradition destination and the UK is ready to consider extraditing the former finance minister once the laws of England and Wales are met.

The source said the principle of dual criminality is met in this case and the offences alleged are extradition offences which include every offence which is imprisonable for more than one year and doesn’t involve death penalty. A PTI government source said that in the next two weeks Pakistani government will send material to the secretary of state for the extradition of Ishaq Dar and it is hoped that the sec-retary of state will accelerate the process.

Pakistan, China sign several MoUs in diverse sectorsINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Pakistan and China have signed several Memorandums of Under-standing for cooperation in different sectors.

The signing ceremony was held in Islamabad which was attended by Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan, official sources confirmed yesterday.

These MoUs include cooper-ation in economic and technical affairs, disaster management and assistance in agriculture sector of Lasbela University.

Meanwhile, the two leaders launched and unveiled the plaques of the four mega devel-opment projects in the fields of energy, technology and edu-cation under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The two leaders also inau-gurated the Confucius Institute at the University of the Punjab. The institute mainly provides Chinese education, cultural pro-motion and cultural exchanges and other projects and activities.

The ceremony also marked the launching of Huawei Tech-nical Support Centre to be

established in Pakistan as part of Chinese tech giant’s

commitment to make massive investment in Pakistan.

The Vice-President of China, Wang Qishan (right), meeting with Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, in Islamabad, on May 26, 2019.

In a first, SC starts hearing cases via video link INTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

For the first time in the history of the country, the Supreme Court of Pakistan yesterday began hearing cases through video link.

A three-member bench under Chief Justice Asif Khosa heard cases through the e-court system, court sources here said.

Utilising the system, lawyers presented their arguments from

Supreme Court’s Karachi reg-istry through video link. Ini-tially, the e-court system will be available in the Islamabad and Karachi registries of the apex court.

Chief Justice Khosa remarked that the e-court system would be instrumental in dispensing swift justice at a low cost.

During the proceedings, the pre-arrest plea for bail of

murder suspect Noor Mohammad was approved.

The suspect was named in a murder case in 2014 in Shad-abpur, said the Chief Justice, adding that he was not involved in the murder.

The top judge said eyewit-nesses said that unknown men carried out the killing.

The Sindh High Court had not made a decision on bail from 2016 to 2019.

Soldier dead in Pakistan militant attackAP/ ISLAMABAD

The Pakistani military said yesterday that militants attacked an army post in a region bordering Afghanistan triggering a shootout that killed a soldier.

It remained unclear who was behind the attack late Sunday on the Makki Garh security post in North Waziristan.

Security officials arrested three suspected militants in two raids in Punjab, foiling possible attacks, the province’s counter-terrorism department said on Sunday. In the first raid, in the district of Dera Ghazi Khan, a man was arrested for suspected links to the Islamic State group, the agency said. Grenades and “funds for terrorism financing” were seized during the oper-ation. In the second raid, two members of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group were arrested.

10 Afghan soldiers, 4 policemen dead in Taliban attacksAP KABUL

A roadside bombing claimed by the Taliban killed 10 Afghan soldiers in the country’s west while insurgent attacks on security checkpoints in northern Afghanistan killed four policemen, local officials said yesterday.

The soldiers were driving back to base after picking up their salaries in the country’s western Farah province. They were travelling in a Humvee when the explosion took place on Sunday afternoon in the Bala Buluk district, said Shah Mahmmod Nahimi, a provincial councilman. “The blast was so intense that no one in the Humvee survived,” he added. Elsewhere, the Taliban targeted several checkpoints in northern Sari Pul province on Sunday

night, killing four members of the security forces and wounding 22, said Zabiullah Amani, the pro-vincial governor’s spokesman.

The attacks took place on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Sari Pul and triggered gun-battles that lasted for hours, he

said, adding that 15 Taliban fighters were also killed.

The Taliban claimed respon-sibility for the Farah attack in a statement on their website but did not make any announce-ments about the Sari Pul attack.

Meanwhile, a sticky bomb attached to a minibus carrying government workers in Kabul detonated on Monday morning, wounding 10 people, said police spokesman Ferdus Faramarz. One of the wounded was in critical condition.

Arab Haidari, from the reli-gious affairs ministry, said all the wounded are ministry’s employees who were on their way to work when the explosion took place. No group immedi-ately claimed responsibility for the attack. Both the Taliban and Islamic State militants regularly stage attacks in Kabul. On Sunday, gunmen shot and killed

a prominent religious scholar, Mawlavi Shabir Ahmad Kamawi, in Kabul, and last week, a mosque bombing killed another religious scholar during Friday prayers, also in Kabul.

Attacks have increased recently as Washington’s peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, presses ahead with talks with the Taliban, who refuse to negotiate directly with the Kabul government.

The talks so far have focused on a timetable for US troop with-drawal as well as Taliban guar-antees that they won’t harbor ter-rorist groups or allow Afghanistan to be used as a staging ground for global terror attacks.

The Defence Ministry alsio yesterday celebrated the gradu-ation of about 3,000 soldiers fol-lowing their three-month training programme with a ceremony at the Military Academy in Kabul.

The completely destroyed bomb-ladened vehicle, targeting the staff of Afghan Ministry of Hajj and Awqaf, after the blast, in Kabul yesterday.

American climber dies on Everest descentREUTERS KATHMANDU

An American climber died on the descent from the summit of Mount Everest yesterday, a Nepalese official said, taking the number of dead or missing mountaineers on the world’s highest mountain to nine on the Nepali side during the current climbing season.

Christopher John Kulish, 61, scaled the 8,850 metre (29,035 feet) peak from the normal Southeast Ridge route in the morning but died suddenly at South Col after descending from the summit, Mira Acharya, a Nepal tourism department official said.

The authorities did not say where he was from in the United States. The cause of his death was unclear.

Most of the deaths on Everest this year have been attributed to exhaustion and tiredness, exacerbated because a crowded route to and from the summit has led to delays. The short climbing season ends this month. The route, also called the South Col route, was pioneered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953. About 5,000 people have scaled the Everest summit so far and about 300 have died on its slopes.

Sri Lanka to relax emergencylaws in a month: PresidentAFP COLOMBO

Sri Lanka’s President yesterday announced he will allow tough emergency laws to lapse within a month because the security situation was “99 percent back to normal” following the Easter bombings.

Maithripala Sirisena told Colombo-based diplomats from Australia, Canada, Japan, the US and European states that security forces were successful in getting at all those responsible for the April 21 bombings.

Sirisena declared a state of emergency giving sweeping powers to the military to arrest and detain suspects a day after the bombings that killed 258 people and wounded nearly 500.

The suicide bombings against three Christian churches and three luxury hotels were blamed on a local militant group, the National Thowheeth Jama’ath which has since been banned under the emergency.

“The emergency was

declared to deal with the imme-diate security situation,” Sirisena’s office quoted him as saying. “However, it will not be necessary to extend this any further.” The emergency can be declared for a month at a time. Sirisena extended the period on May 22 and it will lapse in a month unless he uses his exec-utive power to prolong it.

Sirisena said he, as the min-ister of defence and law and order, was restructuring the security forces to ensure there will be no repetition of the terror attacks that shattered a decade-long peace in the country.

The attacks exposed serious security failures. Sirisena has ordered an investigation into why local authorities failed to act on precise intelligence from neighbouring India that mili-tants were about to hit Christian churches and other targets in Sri Lanka.

Sirisena reiterated to foreign envoys that Sri Lankan security forces have either arrested or killed all those directly involved in the Easter Sunday bombings.

A government source said in the next two weeks, the Pakistan government will send material to the UK secretary of state for the extradition of former Pakistani finance minister.

Kathmandu blasts: 13 Maoist activists heldAFP KATHMANDU

Nepalese police arrested suspected Maoist activists after three deadly bomb blasts in Kathmandu as a general strike disrupted daily life in much of the South Asian nation yesterday, police said.

Amid a high alert after Sun-day’s attacks, which were blamed on an outlawed Maoist group, police blew up several suspicious packages.

The group broke away from the country’s main communist party, which is now in power, and called the general strike to protest against the death of one of its leaders in police custody.

Police said at least 13 officials from the Maoist group had been arrested on Sunday night and early Monday in different parts of the country.

“Security agencies dealt with suspicious objects found in dif-ferent areas, mostly outside the capital,” said police spokesman Bishwa Raj Pokharel.

While some schools and offices remained closed in

Kathmandu, “the effect of the general strike is nominal in the Kathmandu valley but very few vehicles are working outside the capital,” the spokesman added.

Four men were killed and seven people injured in three

explosions in Kathmandu on Sunday. A blast inside a shop killed three people, one died in an explosion at a nearby house, whilst two men carrying explo-sives on a motorbike were amongs those injured.

A member of a bomb disposal team walks back carrying an improvised explosive device after defusing it in Lalitpur, Nepal, yesterday.

13TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019 ASIA

Japan to buy 105 F-35 US stealth warplanes: TrumpAFP TOKYO

Japan plans to buy 105 US-made stealth warplanes, Donald Trump said yesterday, which the US President said would give Tokyo the largest F-35 fleet of any US ally.

Trump, in Tokyo for a state visit, said Japan “has just announced its intent to purchase 105 brand new F-35 stealth air-craft. Stealth, because, the fact is you can’t see them.” “This pur-chase would give Japan the largest F-35 fleet of any US ally,” added the President.

Trump appeared to be refer-encing a deal first announced by the F-35’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, in December.

Japan’s government announced in its latest defence budget in December plans to buy 105 units of the F-35A, which performs conventional take-off and landings.

Local media said at the time that the purchases could total more than one trillion yen ($9.1bn).

The White House could not immediately comment on the

timing of Trump’s comments about the deal yesterday.

The US President also praised North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un in comments made during a historic visit to meet Japan’s new emperor.

Speaking at a joint press con-ference in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump seemed at pains to dial down tensions in the world’s two most pressing flashpoints as the US faces off against Tehran and Pyongyang.

Trump doubled down on his backing for Kim despite two short-range missile tests that sparked renewed concern in the region after a period of relative calm. Asked about the missile tests, Trump said: “My people think it could have been a vio-lation... I view it as a man who

perhaps wants to get attention.” This appeared to be a second put-down of his hawkish National Security Advisor John Bolton, who said on Saturday the launches contravened UN Security Council resolutions.

Kim “is looking to create a nation that has great strength economically,” said Trump, repeating his mantra there is “ tremendous economic potential” in North Korea.

“He knows that with nuclear, that’s never going to happen. Only bad can happen. He is a very smart man, he gets it well,” said the President, who even said he agreed with the North Korean leader’s jibe about the intelli-gence of Joe Biden, who cur-rently leads the pack to win the Democratic nomination to take on Trump in 2020.

“Kim Jong Un made a statement that Joe Biden is a low IQ individual. He probably is, based on his record, I think I agree with him on that,” said the President. For his part, Abe stated the launches were a violation of UN resolutions and reiterated Tokyo’s stance that they were “very regrettable”.

Abe said he had won Trump’s blessing to hold face-to-face talks “without preconditions” with Kim in a bid to resolve the issue of Japanese citizens kid-napped by North Korea decades ago - a burning domestic political issue. Trump said it was a “great honour” to be the first foreign leader visiting Naruhito.

In the morning, Trump and his wife Melania were greeted by the Emperor and his wife Empress Masako at the palace in

Tokyo, inspecting an honour guard and exchanging gifts.

They returned in the evening with Abe and his wife for a lavish banquet featuring six courses, including Trump’s favourite - beef - and a dessert described as Glace Mont Fuji.

The Emperor and Trump praised their countries’ friendship, the US President even sprinkling in a few Japanese words to his address, as he ref-erenced ancient Japanese poetry.

Yesterday marked the start of the official programme after a weekend in which Trump and Abe strengthened their personal friendship with sumo, golf and meals out. Trump said Sunday he was having a “great time.”

On the even tougher trade negotiations with China, Trump suggested there was a “very good chance” for a “very good deal” with China. But he gave no timeline, saying it would come only “sometime” in the future.

Japan’s Emperor Naruhito (right) speaking next to US President Donald Trump during a state banquet at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Japan, yesterday.

4 dead in post-election riots in Indonesia’s Papua regionAFP JAKARTA

A 16-year-old boy was one of at least four people shot dead by police during a riot triggered by dissatisfaction over the election result in Indonesia’s restive province of Papua, an official said.

More than 300 supporters of a legislative candidate who claimed he should have won the seat in the local council attacked a district office in Asmat district.

The candidate, who was not identified, claimed based on the votes he should have won a seat in the city council but his name was replaced with another can-didate’s name.

The protesters, armed with sharp weapons, damaged the district office, local military spokesman Muhammad Aidi said.

Four soldiers guarding a

nearby military post tried to control the protesters but were outnumbered, and one of the officers tried to control the mob by opening fire into the air, Aidi said. “The mob became even more brutal and attacked the officer, in a such threatening sit-uation another officer was forced to open fire and retreat to the post to save themselves,” Aidi said in a statement yesterday.

Four people, including the teenager, were shot dead while one more was injured and has been treated at a local hospital.

The military, local police and the human rights commission have formed a team to inves-tigate the case, Aidi said.

Indonesia’s presidential and legislative election also triggered a riot in the capital Jakarta.

Supporters of presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto have been protesting since the election result was announced

last week in favour of incumbent President Joko Widodo.

Subianto’s supporters claim the election was marred by rampant electoral fraud.

Since the rioting, more than 400 demonstrators have been arrested, according to police, who blamed the violence on “provocateurs” they claimed mixed with the crowd to stir up trouble.

Police said seven demon-strators have died but offered few details on how they died or who was responsible, though earlier said some had gunshot and blunt force wounds.

About 900 people were injured in the riots, according to the Jakarta Health Agency.

Meanwhile, police have arrested six people suspected of plotting to assassinate four state officials during a wave of civil unrest over election results in Jakarta last week, a police spokesman said yesterday.

South Korean soldiers wearing gas masks participate in an anti-terror drill as part of a countrywide civilian-military defence exercise called “Ulchi Taeguk Exercise” in Seoul, yesterday.

North Korea slams ‘war maniac’ BoltonAFP SEOUL

North Korea slammed US National Security Adviser John Bolton yesterday, calling him a “war maniac” and “war monger”, just as President Donald Trump offered a positive outlook on relations with Pyongyang.

Talks between Washington and Pyongyang have been dead-locked since the collapse of a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi in February when

they failed to agree a deal on denuclearisation. The North has since sought to raise the pressure and carried out two short-range missile tests earlier this month.

Bolton said on Saturday that there was “no doubt” they vio-lated UN Security Council reso-lutions against ballistic missile launches, but insisted Wash-ington was still ready to resume talks. A spokesman for the North’s Foreign Ministry dis-missed Bolton’s remarks, saying Pyongyang had never recognised the UN bans on ballistic

technology, which denied the “rights to existence and devel-opment of a sovereign state”.

“His claim is indeed much more than ignorant,” he said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Without referring to the weapons as mis-siles, the statement said the launches did not target or threaten any neighbouring coun-tries. Banning launches using ballistic technology is “tanta-mount to a demand that the DPRK should give up its

self-defensive right,” he said, using the acronym for the North’s official name.

The spokesman went on to denounce Bolton, calling him a “war maniac” who developed various “provocative policies” against the North after the Bush administration designated it part of the Axis of Evil along with Iran and Iraq in 2002. He accused the hawkish official as starting the Iraqi war and leading efforts to scrap the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the US and Russia.

Australian Labor Party picks new leader AFP SYDNEY

Australia’s opposition yesterday anointed Anthony Albanese as its new leader, hoping to win back the working class after a shock election defeat to the conservative government.

The Australian Labor Party unexpectedly lost to incumbent leader Scott Morrison on May 18, despite leading in the polls running up to the election.

Albanese, from Labor’s left faction, replaced Bill Shorten when the former union chief stepped down hours after losing the vote. The 56-year-old will be officially confirmed by the

Labor caucus on Thursday after the uncontested leadership ballot. Albanese vowed to create a “larger, more inclusive party” amid soul-searching within the ranks over the defeat.

“I understand that it is a big mountain that we have to climb,” Albanese told reporters in Sydney, where he holds his lower house seat, on Monday.

“I want to build relationships between the Labor Party and those people who voted for us, but also those people who wanted to vote for us, who were open to vote for us, but who felt like they couldn’t.” Labor’s large and progressive policy reform agenda, which it campaigned

heavily on, as well as Shorten’s unpopularity with voters, have been blamed for the election upset. Morrison successfully cast Labor’s proposals, including tackling climate change, as too risky and damaging to household finances at a time when the national economy is slowing down. The Labor party per-formed particularly poorly in Queensland state, where Shorten was perceived to be lukewarm about a potential large India-backed mine that promises to create thousands of jobs.

But Albanese argued it was possible to grow the economy, and create jobs while still pur-suing a progressive agenda.

Newly elected Australia’s Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese speaks at press conference in Sydney, yesterday.

Pro-army Thaiparty seeks allies to cement powerREUTERS BANGKOK

Two Thai political parties have been invited to join a new government led by military junta chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha as prime minister, a pro-army party said yesterday, more than two months after a disputed election.

A deal with the unaligned Democrat and Bhumjaithai parties would likely sink the opposition Democratic Front coalition’s bid to keep junta members from retaining dom-inance over the government five years after the army seized power in a coup.

“We invited two parties, but did not expect a conclusion today,” Uttama Savanayana, leader of Palang Pracharat, the pro-military party formed last year by members of the junta’s Cabinet, said after Monday’s meeting. “We understand there are internal processes, but it was a very good starting point,” he told reporters.

The two parties would give the pro-army coalition a slim majority in the House of Representatives.

Bhumjaithai said it accepted the invitation and its executive committee would deliberate on policies with a view to forming a government soon.

“Leaders will connect and quickly resolve any issues...so Palang Pracharat will not have any headaches. It’s time we go to work for the country,” party leader Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters.

According to local media reports, the purchases of the combat aircraft fleet could total more than one trillion yen ($9.1bn).

South Korea holds anti-terror drill

Solomons first trip for re-elected Australian PMAFP SYDNEY

Re-elected Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s first foreign trip will be to the Solomon Islands, in a move to cement the Pacific as Canberra’s strategic priority amid growing Chinese influence in the region.

Morrison’s visit to the Solomons next week will come after he elevated the Pacific back to a full ministerial role on Sunday, appointing to the position a close ally who will also serve as assistant defence minister.

“I think the prime minister’s decision to visit the Solomon Islands is an absolute rein-forcement of the importance of our Pacific ‘step-up’,” Foreign Minister Marise Payne told national broadcaster ABC yesterday.

“And... most importantly, saying to our family in the Pacific, our neighbours in the Pacific, this is where Australia lives and this is what is important to us.”

Australia views the Pacific islands as its backyard and there have been ongoing ten-sions between Canberra and Beijing as China flexes its muscle in the region.

14 TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019EUROPE

Tussle for top EU jobs begins after electionsAFP BRUSSELS

The tussle for top EU jobs got under way yesterday after European Parliament elections delivered a fragmented result, with gains for eurosceptic and green parties as the traditional mainstream groups took a hit.

The main centre-right and centre-left groups lost their com-bined majority in the 751-seat parliament in the face of a chal-lenge by eurosceptic and nation-alist forces of Marine Le Pen, Matteo Salvini and Nigel Farage — although the populist wave was less than some had predicted.

There were big wins for the Greens, who posted double digit scores across Europe’s biggest countries, and the Liberals, with both parties likely to play a major role in any future parliamentary coalition.

Each previous EU election since the first in 1979 has seen turnout fall, but figures from across the 28-nation bloc were at a 20-year high of 51 percent, suggesting this year’s culture clash mobilised both populists and those who oppose them.

Boosted by French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renais-sance Movement, the Liberal ALDE group will finish with more than 100 seats and is expected to push hard for Margrethe Vestager to win the plum E u r o p e a n C o m m i s s i o n presidency.

Britain will send a large con-tingent of eurosceptic MEPs to a parliament they want to leave in a few months, after Farage’s single-issue Brexit Party trounced mainstream parties, while Salvini’s League was Italy’s biggest party and Le Pen’s National Rally squeaked ahead of Macron.

Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg bank, said the vote had left Europe “slightly more fragmented and polarised”, and underscored a shift from the two main groups to the liberals and greens, partly owing to the rise of the populist right.

“To simplify a complex picture: whereas some voters care a lot about migration, many others see climate change as the key issue,” Schmieding said.

As the dust settled on the vote, attention turned to landing top EU roles for the next five

years: presidencies of the com-mission and the European Council, the speaker of par-liament, the high representative for foreign policy and head of the European Central Bank.

These jobs will be picked by the national leaders of EU gov-ernments, with the first formal clash set for today, when they will meet for a summit dinner in Brussels.

Macron fired the starting pistol on the haggling as he announced a series of

one-on-one meetings with other leaders before the summit, notably Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez — one of Sunday’s big winners — and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel backs Manfred Weber, the lead candidate of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), which suffered sig-nificant losses but remained par-liament’s biggest bloc with 180 seats.

But Macron is set against Weber — a longstanding MEP

seen as lacking in charisma or appeal beyond EU corridors in Brussels — and other national leaders share his scepticism.

The German suffered another blow as Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told Euronews that Budapest would not support him, accusing him of treating Hungarians as “second league citizens”.

A senior EU official said “it looks difficult for Weber” but warned against writing him off too early.

With the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) projected to win 147 seats, down from 185, the two mainstream parties will no longer have a majority and must reach out to the liberals and greens to pass legislation — and approve a new commission president.

Sebastien Maillard of the Delors Institute said the vote’s mixed result meant no political group was strong enough to force through their pick to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the commission.

“No lead candidate can claim to have a majority, so that opens the game up,” Maillard said.

“A man or woman must be found who has enough broad appeal that they can achieve a consensus between these forces,” he added.

Across Europe, the various populist, eurosceptic and right-wing parties won more than 150 seats between them, but with dif-fering platforms and priorities, form no coherent parliamentary coalition.

The results have had a knock-on effect in domestic pol-itics, with Merkel forced to call crisis talks with her embattled coalition after the Greens beat junior government partner the Social Democrats into second place.

In Greece, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has called early elections after his Syriza party was thumped by the conserv-ative New Democracy party.

A man reading a newspaper with headline that reads “League boom, 5-star collapse” in Milan, yesterday.

UK Interior Minister launches leadership bid to replace MayAFP LONDON

UK Interior Minister Sajid Javid (pictured) became the ninth candidate yesterday to enter the race to replace Theresa May as premier, promising to “deliver Brexit” after repeated delays.

Referring to the drubbing May’s Conservatives received in European Parliament elections, Javid said the new party leader had to restore voters’ trust.

“As last night’s results made all too clear, we must get on and deliver Brexit to make sure there is renewed trust in our democracy,” Javid said in a video message posted on Twitter.

“We must bridge divides to heal communities, reminding us of our shared values as a United Kingdom,” said Javid, whose father emigrated from Pakistan and worked as a bus driver.

Javid did not join several other leadership hopefuls in saying that he would pull Britain out of the EU with or without a deal when the new deadline arrives on October 31.

Conservative Party lead-ership frontrunners, including former foreign minister Boris Johnson, have said they were ready for a so-called “no-deal Brexit,” despite warnings that this may put Britain in economic peril.

May’s party is being pushed further to the right by the strong European election performance of the Brexit Party of anti-European populist Nigel Farage.

His success reflected Con-servative voters’ anger at May’s inability to finish Brexit by its original March 28 deadline, with her deal with Brussels getting rejected by parliament three times.

The Conservatives picked up just nine percent of the vote, their worst election result since 1832.

Farage’s new party won almost 32 percent, and is now demanding a seat at the negoti-ating table with Brussels.

Javid, 49, became the first candidate to declare his can-didacy over social media. He is viewed as a relative long-shot in a field that is expected to grow further in the days to come.

Four arrested over Lyon attackREUTERS LYON

French police have arrested a 24-year-old Algerian computer student suspected of planting a bomb in Lyon last week that wounded 13 people, authorities said yesterday.

Three other people were also arrested in connection with the case, which is being treated as a terrorism investigation.

A man was spotted by security cameras leaving the explosive device, with screws and metal balls packed into a paper bag, in a pedestrian

shopping street in the central French city on Friday a minute before it exploded.

Sources close to the inves-tigation said the Algerian student who is the main suspect did not have police records, while the other three detainees included his mother and younger brother who is a high-school student.

Police found the man thanks to security camera footage, Lyon mayor Gerard Collomb told BFM TV station.

Footage showed a partially masked man wheeling a bike to the scene before leaving a bag

outside a bakery. Police then tracked him to a suburb of Lyon.

DNA traces were found on the remains of the parcel, according to sources close to the investigation.

Another source said judicial police tailed the man yesterday and arrested him as he alighted from a bus in downtown Lyon.

Police searched the suspect’s home but decided not to arrest him there, the source said, for fear there could still be some triacetone triperoxide or TATP, the powerful but unstable homemade explosive used in the attack.

Investigators are seen during a manhunt police operation in Oullins, near Lyon, yesterday.

Moscow court prolongs detention of Ukraine sailorsAFP MOSCOW

A Moscow court yesterday upheld extending the arrest of 24 Ukrainian sailors seized by Russia off Crimea last year, defying an international tribunal that had urged their immediate release.

The Moscow City Court declined an appeal against the extension of the sailors’ detention until July, filed by their lawyers.

Russia in November fired on and seized three Ukrainian navy vessels, capturing two dozen

sailors near the Kerch Strait, as they tried to pass from the Black Sea to the Azov Sea.

It was the first open military clash between Kiev and Moscow since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and a pro-Russian insur-gency erupted in eastern Ukraine.

On Saturday, the Interna-tional Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, based in the German port city of Hamburg, urged Russia to “immediately” release the sailors and return them to Ukraine.

The tribunal was established by the 1982 United Nations Con-

vention on the Law of the Sea.Russian President Vladimir

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov yesterday dismissed the ruling, saying Moscow would continue to “consistently defend its point of view.” He claimed that the convention did not apply in the current case.

Ukraine had taken the case to the tribunal last month.

Russia said it does not rec-ognise the Hamburg-based court’s jurisdiction and did not send representatives to the hearings.

Moscow accuses the sailors of violating its maritime borders.

If convicted, the Ukrainian sailors face up to six years in prison, lawyers have said.

Saturday’s ruling by the international tribunal had been hailed as a victory in Kiev.

Ukraine’s new President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the weekend that if Russia complied with the tribunal’s demand to release the sailors that “could be the first signal from the Russian leadership about a real readiness to end the conflict with Ukraine.”

Some 13,000 people have been killed in the war in eastern Ukraine since 2014, according to the UN.

Masked man injures two in Polish schoolAP/WARSAW

An 11-year-old girl and a woman were wounded when a masked man entered a primary school in central Poland and threw firecrackers and fired a shotgun, police said.

The spokeswoman for police in Bydgoszcz, Monika Chlebicz, said that the girl was injured in the chest and leg by shrapnel and one of the cleaning staff sustained one gunshot wound in the attack by an intruder in Primary School Nr. 1 in Brzesc Kujawski.

“An 18-year-old suspect was arrested. Police have searched his apartment as part of the investigation,” Chlebicz said.

Ukraine President searches for ‘highly moral’ candidates to fight snap electionREUTERS KIEV

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s team yesterday invited applications from members of the public to fight a snap election in July for his new Servant of the People party, betting they can wrench power from a discredited political class.

Candidates, who, like the former comedian, need not have previous political experience, can apply through a website to tout their credentials and

proposals for new laws, officials said at the launch of the party’s campaign.

The applicants would then be screened with the help of inter-national companies. Officials from the party, named after the television show that made him famous, might use a lie-detector to test the candidate’s honesty.

Zelenskiy’s party has no law-makers in parliament. Winning the snap election would allow him to decide the make-up of a new government and implement reforms that might please his

voters and Ukraine’s interna-tional donors.

“Of course our opponents are old-school politicians,” said campaign chief Oleksandr Korn-ienko. “They are currently trying to create the impression that apart from them there is nobody able to run the country.”

“First of all, this person should be highly moral, with deep principles and with a desire to understand and carry out the tasks that Ukrainian society will set for them,” party leader Dmytro Razumkov said.

Sebastien Maillard of the Delors Institute said the vote’s mixed result meant no political group was strong enough to force through their pick to succeed Juncker as head of the commission.

15TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019 EUROPE / AMERICAS

Austria’s Kurz oustedin no-confidence voteAFP VIENNA

Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz yesterday lost a no-confi-dence vote in parliament, removing him and his cabinet from office over a corruption scandal that brought has down his coalition government.

“An application (by the oppo-sition Social Democrats) has been accepted, so he has lost the confidence” of parliament, deputy speaker Doris Bures said.

The move comes just after Kurz celebrated a big win for his conservative People’s Party (OeVP) in Sunday’s European elections, which is projected to gain 34.9 percent of the vote and two extra European parliament seats.

It comes in the wake of the so-called “Ibiza-gate” scandal, which saw FPOe leader and Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache resign from both posts after he was caught appearing to offer public contracts in return for campaign help from a fake Russian backer.

That led to Kurz ending his coalition with the FPOe and

calling early elections for the autumn, but the opposition say the 32-year-old leader must also take responsibility for the scandal.

The no-confidence vote against Kurz and his government took place in a special sitting of parliament with more than half of MPs withdrawing their support, making him the shortest-serving chancellor, as well as the first in post-war Aus-trian history to be removed in this fashion.

Social Democrats (SPOe) leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner accused Kurz of an unprece-dented “uncurbed and shameless power grab” when bringing forward the motion against him. Kurz’s former partner, the FPOe, also supported the motion.

It is now up to President Alexander Van der Bellen to appoint experts to lead the gov-ernment and all the ministries

until the elections.Speaking in parliament

before the vote, Kurz accused the opposition of causing instability with the motion against his gov-ernment, but said if the vote suc-ceeded, he would ensure an orderly transition to whoever is appointed next.

The far-right, meanwhile, seemed to have suffered a setback in Sunday’s vote over “Ibiza-gate”, falling from 19.7 percent to 17.2 percent and losing one of their four MEPs.

The scandal erupted fol-lowing the publication on May 17 of hidden-camera recordings filmed in a luxury villa on the holiday island of Ibiza a few months before Austria’s last par-liamentary elections in 2017.

Amid a welter of embar-rassing comments, Strache appeared to allude to a scheme channelling political donations t h r o u g h F P O e - l i n k e d

foundations in order to avoid legal scrutiny.

After Strache’s resignation, Kurz also sacked FPOe interior minister Herbert Kickl, arguing he could not oversee any pos-sible investigation into his own party’s wrongdoing.

FPOe ministers responded by walking out of the government en masse, leading to Kurz appointing experts to take their place in an interim government.

When he first became

chancellor in late 2017, Kurz was widely hailed on the European right as someone who could suc-cessfully tap into surging anti-immigration sentiment while projecting a polished demeanour.

Since the crisis broke, he has projected himself as a paragon of stability in a turbulent political climate, and analysts say this will be a key message for him to use.

But even before the current crisis, Kurz found himself con-stantly having to bat away crit-icism for alleged extremist sym-

pathies among FPOe members. The opposition has placed

the blame for the current debacle squarely at the feet of Kurz himself for having invited the far-right into government in the first place, saying he had ample warning of the unsuitability of the FPOe for government.

Kurz has trod a fine line in his statements since the crisis broke, admitting he found the FPOe’s antics “hard to swallow” but insisting he had no other choice.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz shaking hands with a supporter following a news conference in OeVP Political Academy, in Vienna yesterday.

Romania’s ruling party chief jailed for graftREUTERS BUCHAREST

The leader of Romania’s ruling Social Democrats Liviu Dragnea began a three-and-a-half year prison sentence yesterday after the Supreme Court upheld a graft conviction one day after his party lost a European election to centrist groupings.

Since coming to power in late 2016, the Social Democrats (PSD) have steadily chipped away at the independence of the judi-ciary, raising sharp criticism from the European Union and triggering Romania’s largest street protests in decades.

On Sunday, voters over-whelmingly backed a refer-endum called by centrist Pres-ident Klaus Iohannis to prevent Dragnea’s party from further weakening the courts.

With Romania’s most pow-erful man jailed, the party will be led in the interim by his protege Prime Minister Viorica Dancila. The PSD and a junior coalition ally retain a fragile majority in parliament, and Dancila rejected calls from oppo-sition leaders to resign.

The Supreme Court found 56-year-old Dragnea, who is also speaker of the lower house of parliament, guilty of keeping two

women on the payroll of a child protection state agency for years even though they were working for his party.

Denying the charges, he appealed against the initial verdict last year and was free until yesterday’s final ruling.

Television stations live-streamed his trip through traffic jams to Rahova prison on the outskirts of capital Bucharest, with several protesters shouting “To jail!” at his vehicle.

“We will make an analysis to see what we did wrong and we will try to win back our elec-torate,” Dancila said at party headquarters at the same time

the prison doors closed behind Dragnea. “I think the best solution would be to continue our governing programme.”

Dragnea, the first PSD leader to come from outside the capital, was already barred from being prime minister by a previous conviction in a vote rigging case.

Graft issues and chronic inaction building up transport and healthcare infrastructure spurred Romanians to sanction the PSD in the European Parliament election, where its support halved to 22.6 percent from the last national ballot in 2016.

Tens of thousands of Roma-nians working abroad were

unable to vote on Sunday after queuing for hours outside con-sulates and polling stations because of bureaucracy and staffing problems.

Analysts said video footage from voting stations across Europe of Romanians chanting “We want to vote” and “Thieves” amplified the ruling party’s loss.

Dragnea, who is also under investigation in a separate case on suspicion of forming a criminal group to siphon off cash from state projects, has repeatedly said he is the victim of a “parallel state” of politically-motivated prosecutors and secret services.

Migrants found hidden in cars at Spanish border

Before the vote, Austria’s Chancellor Kurz accused the opposition of causing instability with the motion against his government, but said if the vote succeeded, he would ensure an orderly transition to whoever is appointed next.

AFP MADRID

Three African migrants, including one who is 15, were discovered squeezed inside compartments under car dash-boards and behind seats at a border crossing from Morocco to Spain, police said yesterday.

Spanish police found a 15-year-old girl and two men aged 20 and 21, on Friday morning when they searched three cars at the border between Morocco and the Spanish territory of Melilla, a spokesman for the Guardia Civil police force said.

Two migrants were found crammed inside tiny spaces installed under car dashboards while a third was hidden in a compartment behind the rear seat of one vehicle, a Guardia Civil statement said.

Two of the migrants required medical attention because they showed “symptoms of asphyxia, diso-rientation and generalised pain in the joints due to horrible way in which they were travelling,” the statement added.

Police arrested the three drivers, all Moroccan men aged 19-31, on suspicion of people smuggling.

Border police also found a 20-year-old migrant on Friday hanging from the undercarriage of a truck at the border crossing.

Spain’s two North African enclaves, Melilla and Ceuta, have the European Union’s only land borders with Africa. They are often used as entry points into Europe for African migrants.

At least two dead in Peru earthquakeAFP LIMA

The death toll from a powerful earthquake that rocked parts of Peru and neighbouring Ecuador rose to two yesterday, with more than 30 people injured, author-ities said.

Sunday’s 8.0-earthquake hit a sparsely populated region of Peru’s Amazon basin region but was felt over a wide area.

Reports were still coming in from remote areas affected by the quake, which also rattled the capital Lima and other cities where frightened residents rushed into the streets.

“We have two dead because of the earthquake. The second victim is a 15-year-old who was

hit on the head” by falling rubble at his home, Civil Defense Coor-dinator Ricardo Seijas said.

The teenager died of his injuries.

The other victim, a 48-year-old man, was reported on Sunday to have been killed by falling debris while he slept at his house in Cajamarca in northern Peru. The quake struck at 2:41 am (0741 GMT).

Seijas said 15 people had been injured, with several hundred buildings destroyed or damaged.

The quake was the most powerful to hit the earthquake-prone country in 12 years, Peru’s President Martin Vizcarra said, adding that it blocked roads, damaged a bridge and knocked

down houses. “It is an earth-quake affecting the entire Peruvian jungle.”

Reports said 15 people had been hurt in Ecuador, where

power-cuts were reported in parts of its Amazon basin region. Peruvian media said the tremor was also felt in parts of Colombia and Venezuela.

Peru lies on the so-called Ring of Fire — an arc of fault lines that circles the Pacific Basin and is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Members of a health brigade unloading equipment from a plane, to be used in areas affected by a quake, in Yurimaguas, in the Amazon region, Peru, yesterday.

Prison guards injured in Ukraine standoffAP MOSCOW

Dozens of inmates in a Ukrainian prison rioted, set a fire and took guards and nurses hostage in an hours-long standoff yesterday that left four guards injured, officials said.

The incident took place in Odessa, a Black Sea port city, where black smoke was seen billowing over the prison com-pound in the morning.

The Ukrainian ombuds-woman for human rights, Lyudmila Denisova, said that several dozen inmates rioted against prison administrators

and took three prison guards and three nurses hostage.

Four prison guards were injured in clashes with the inmates and it took police and investigators four hours to enter the prison and end the standoff, Ukrainian police said.

Denisova said that the riot broke out after the guards started searching the cells for banned possessions such as drugs.

Vyacheslav Abroskin, deputy chief of the Ukrainian National Police, blamed “criminal gang-sters” for inciting the inmates to seize the prison administration building and set it on fire.

Venezuela’s Guaido plays down prospects for mediationREUTERS CARACAS

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido played down the prospects for success at a new round of mediation with the government to be hosted by Norway next week, saying protests would continue until President Nicolas Maduro resigned.

Norway said on Saturday that representatives of Vene-zuela’s government and oppo-sition will return to Oslo next week following an initial round of preliminary talks about how to address a long-running political crisis.

Norway has a tradition of

conflict mediation, including assistance with Colombia’s 2016 peace deal between the gov-ernment and leftist FARC rebels.

“This is not negotiation. This is not dialogue,” Guaido told reporters after a rally in the western Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto, adding that his team was simply responding to an offer from the Norwegian government to mediate.

Guaido reiterated that any solution to Venezuela’s crisis required Maduro to stand down, allowing a transitional gov-ernment to steer the OPEC nation to fresh presidential elections.

“If we have an end to the usurpation (by Maduro), a

transition government and free elections, it will have worked. If not ... we will remain in the streets,” said Guaido, the head of Venezuela’s opposition-con-trolled National Assembly.

Venezuela has been plunged into political turmoil since Guaido invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency in January, dismissing Maduro’s 2018 re-election as a fraud.

More than 50 countries, including the United States and many members of the European Union, recognize Guaido as Ven-ezuela’s legitimate leader.

Maduro, who maintains control over state institutions, calls Guaido a puppet of Wash-ington and blames US sanctions

for a hyperinflationary economic meltdown and humanitarian crisis.

Venezuela’s ruling Socialist Party has endorsed the Nor-wegian mediation, but oppo-sition sympathizers remain skeptical. They argue that Maduro has previously used dia-logue as a stalling tactic to maintain his grip on power while living standards steadily declined in the oil-rich nation.

Last week, opposition law-maker Stalin Gonzalez and two advisors represented Guaido’s side in Oslo, while Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez and Miranda state governor Hector Rodriguez went on behalf of the government.

16 TUESDAY 28 MAY 2019AMERICAS

Hefty donation to Trump’s inaugural faces scrutinyAP WASHINGTON

Real estate mogul Franklin Haney contributed $1m to Pres-ident Donald Trump’s inaugural committee and all he’s got to show for the money is the glare of a federal investigation.

The contribution from Haney, a prolific political donor, came as he was seeking regu-latory approval and financial support from the government for his long-shot bid to acquire the mothballed Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant in northeastern Alabama. More than two years later, he still hasn’t closed the deal.

His tale is a familiar one in Washington, where lobbyists and wealthy donors use their check-books to try to sway politicians.

It’s a world Haney is accustomed to operating in and one that Trump came into office pledging to upend. Yet Trump has left in place many of the familiar ways to wield influence.

Haney’s hefty donation to Trump’s inaugural committee is being scrutinised by federal prosecutors in New York who are investigating the committee’s finances. Their probe is focused in part on whether donors received benefits after making contributions.

Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has

given prosecutors information regarding Haney, his son and business associate, Frank Haney Jr, and the nuclear plant project, according to a person familiar with what Cohen told the author-ities. The person was not authorised to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

Haney had briefly hired Cohen to help obtain money for the Bellefonte project from potential investors, including the Middle Eastern country of Qatar. Cohen is now serving a three-year prison sentence for tax evasion, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations.

Prosecutors also are exam-ining whether foreigners unlaw-fully contributed to the com-mittee. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan issued a subpoena last year seeking a wide range of

financial records from the com-mittee, including any “commu-nications regarding or relating to the possibility of donations by foreign nationals.”

The inaugural committee has denied wrongdoing and said its funds were fully accounted for.

Haney, 79, has previously faced accusations that his political gift giving is aimed at cultivating influence. An inves-tigation by House Republicans in the late 1990s alleged that Haney’s money and his political pull with senior Clinton admin-istration officials helped him to get the Federal Communications Commission to move into an office building that he had a major stake in. Haney denied any wrongdoing and the Justice Department declined to pursue the matter.

But he was charged in 1999 with funneling about $100,000 in illegal contributions to pres-ident Bill Clinton, vice-president Al Gore and other politicians, then acquitted. A federal prose-cutor described Haney as a sophisticated fundraiser who hoped to impress potential business clients with his access to elected officials, like Clinton and Gore.

Haney’s family-owned real estate business donated thou-sands of dollars in 2013 and 2015 to political action committees that supported Alabama Gov Robert Bentley, who later rec-ommended that the nuclear plant Haney wanted to buy be put up for sale. Haney also contributed to a nonprofit created to promote Bentley’s agenda.

The Republican governor

resigned in the year 2017 as he faced impeachment proceedings after an alleged affair with an aide.

In addition to the investi-gation into Haney’s contribution to the Trump inaugural com-mittee, Haney is in an unrelated legal battle with the nuclear plant’s owner, the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Another Haney company, Nuclear Development LLC, has filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the TVA, the nation’s largest public utility, of illegally blocking the plant’s sale to him at the last minute.

The utility has argued it couldn’t complete the trans-action because Haney failed to get the Nuclear Regulatory Com-mission’s approval for transfer of the construction permits.

Trump backers launchconstruction on private border wallAFP SUNLAND PARK

A US military veteran has launched construction on the first section of private border wall between the United States and Mexico, using money crowd-sourced by supporters of Pres-ident Donald Trump.

Sporting a red “Make America Great Again” hat, New Mexico resident Jeff Allen proudly oversaw the ground-breaking last weekend as workers with heavy construction equipment began erecting a tow-ering fence of steel slats on land he co-owns in the city of Sunland Park, across from Ciudad Juarez, in Mexico.

“This is Americans’ way of saying, ‘Congress, you’re worthless, and we’re fighting it. We’re going to build (the wall) ourselves,’” Allen, 56, said. “This is not Europe. This is America. We protect our borders.”

Determined to help Trump to fulfil his promise to build a “big, beautiful wall” on the border, Allen decided to do part of it himself, together with the United Constitutional Patriots, a

right-wing militia that carries out vigilante border patrols.

He said the project was being funded by “We Build the Wall”, a company launched by war veteran and triple amputee Brian Kolfage using millions of dollars in private donations he raised through an online campaign called “We The People Will Fund The Wall.”

The company’s advisory board is chaired by Steve Bannon, the far-right strategist and former Trump advisor.

Kolfage celebrated the new wall yesterday by posting a sleek video of its construction on Facebook.

“WE DID IT!!! First privately funded wall is nearly complete! DONATE NOW to fund more walls!” he wrote.

The new private barrier is being built at the spot where the states of New Mexico and Texas intersect with Mexico, outside El Paso.

It is a spot often used by migrants, mainly Central Amer-icans, to reach the United States. US Border Patrol says 98,052 migrants were detained in the El Paso sector from October to

April. Allen, a Cincinnati, Ohio native who moved here six years ago, said it was also a crossing point rife with crime. Border crossers have tried to kill his dog, slashed his tires and thrown rocks at him, he said.

The wall will be finished within a week, measure 800 metres long, and is being built to the same specifications as gov-ernment border fencing in the area, he said.

The US government has built three sections of fencing in the El Paso-Ciudad Juarez area since 2016, covering around 25 miles.

Trump has struggled to get Congress to allocate the billions of dollars he wants for his wall, leading to a political battle that shut down the US government for more than a month.

A federal judge dealt the president another blow on Friday, issuing a temporary injunction on his plan to use mil-itary funds to build sections of the wall along the more than 3,000km border.

As workers manoeuvred sec-tions of the fence into place behind him, Allen said illegal immigration had cost the US

more than $100bn this year.Allen insisted he had nothing

against immigrants. He is married to a Mexican woman, and his daughter was born in Ciudad Juarez, where he lived for three and a half years.

“This is not about racism. This is about me protecting myself, and America having a secure border. If people want to immigrate, they should go to a port of entry and apply,” he said, calling himself “a patriot,” adding, he also wanted to protect migrants. He declined to say how much the barrier would cost.

A US Border Patrol agent standing next to workers building a border fence in a private property located in the limits of Texas and New Mexico taken from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, yesterday.

Nobel Prize winning physicist Gell-Mann deadAFP WASHINGTON

Murray Gell-Mann, a physicist who theorised the existence of the quark and won a Nobel Prize for his method of classifying particles, has died at age 89, the California Institute of Tech-nology (Caltech) said.

Considered among the most important physicists of the 20th century, the American scientist theorised in the 1960s that sub-atomic particles — protons and

neutrons — were composed of paired subunits he called quarks.

Experiments later confirmed the existence of the particles, which are a continuing subject of study by physicists including those at the Large Hadron Col-lider, the world’s most powerful proton smasher straddling the French-Swiss border.

Amid an explosion of research into what makes up matter in the 1950s and 1960s, Gell-Mann came up with a cri-teria for putting particles in

groups of eight based on char-acteristics like electric charge and spin.

He called it the “eightfold way,” Caltech said, and was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics for the innovation.

Born in New York City on September 15, 1929, Gell-Mann was encouraged to study physics by his father, and earned a doc-torate in the subject from Mas-sachusetts Institute of Tech-nology in 1951.

He taught at Caltech in

Pasadena, California from 1955 until his retirement in 1993.

“Dr Gell-Mann had this clear vision and penetrating insight to look through the large amounts of data that were coming from experiments and make sense of it,” Hirosi Ooguri, a professor at Caltech and director of the school’s Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, said in an obituary published by the university.

“He opened a new paradigm in particle physics.”

The inaugural committee has denied wrongdoing and said its funds were fully accounted for.

Three injured in California log ride malfunctionAP/RIVERSIDE

Authorities said three members of a family were injured, one critically, when they were ejected from the log ride at a Southern California amusement park.

Fire officials said “the ride malfunctioned and one of the log-shaped vessels overturned on Saturday at Castle Park in Riverside,” adding that riders were thrown from the vessel and trapped in the water.

Fire Capt Brian Guzzetta said a woman was hospitalized in critical condition. A man and 10-year-old boy were treated at a hospital for minor injuries.

“A pump apparently mal-functioned, preventing the flow of water onto the track.” He said when the log descended from one of the falls, there wasn’t enough water to slow it down and it crashed.

15 dead as inmates clash at Brazil jailAFP SAO PAULO

Clashes between inmates killed 15 people at a jail in Amazonas state in northern Brazil, the regional prison authority said.

The clashes broke out around 11:00am (1500 GMT) during visiting hours at the facility, located some 28km from state capital Manaus.

“It was a fight between the inmates. There had never been deaths during the visits,” Colonel Marcos Vinicius Almeida told a news conference.

Some of the inmates were stabbed with sharpened tooth-brushes, while others had been strangled, Almeida said, adding that an investigation has been opened to determine the cause of the fight.

He emphasised that author-ities had reacted within minutes to the Sunday violence, pre-venting a potentially worse result.

The same facility was the scene of a prison rebellion that lasted almost 20 hours and left 56 people dead in January 2017.

Brazil has the world’s third largest prison population, with 726,712 inmates as of June 2016, according to official statistics.

The population is double the capacity of the nation’s prisons, which in the same year was esti-mated to be 368,049 inmates.

Along with severe over-crowding, Brazil’s prisons are plagued by gang violence, while riots and breakout attempts are not uncommon.

In September, heavily armed men detonated explosives

outside the gate of a prison in northeastern Brazil and then shot their way inside, killing a policeman and releasing 92 inmates, about half of whom were later recaptured.

The previous April, a mil-itary-style battle erupted between guards and prisoners aided by outside associates, leaving 21 people dead at a prison in Belem, near Amazon

rainforest. The attackers in that case tried to blow up a wall to help the would-be escapees. One policeman was killed alongside 20 prisoners and their associates.

Policemen patrol during a riot in a prison in Brazilian state of Amazonas in Manaus, yesterday.

Mexican govt auctions seized luxury vehiclesAP MEXICO CITY

Seventeen black, bulletproof Chevrolet Suburbans stretched in a neat, polished row outside the onetime official residence of Mexico’s presidents. Nearby stood a 2007 Lamborghini Murcielago and a 2016 Ford Shelby pickup truck with a video camera embedded in the front grill and a hand-held radio next to the driver’s seat.

All were put up for auction by the Institute to Return the Stolen to the People, the new name for a branch of the Finance Ministry that is in charge of selling property seized from purported drug dealers and tax cheats as well as government vehicles and other property that is no longer in use.

Holding the auction outside Los Pinos, a mansion nestled on an edge of capital’s Chapultepec Park, carried extra significance since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador turned the once heavily guarded compound into an open cultural centre when he took office December 1.

Ricardo Rodriguez Vargas, head of the institute, said the goal on Sunday was to raise $1.5m from the sale of 82 vehicles.

“The money is to be sent to two poor communities in the southern state of Oaxaca to improve roads, schools and other infrastructure.”

Argentina airline cancels Wednesday flights due to strikeREUTERS/BUENOS AIRES

Argentina’s government-controlled carrier Aerolineas Argentinas said it would cancel all Wednesday (tomorrow) flights due to a one-day nationwide strike called by labor unions to protest the economic policies of center-right President Mauricio Macri.

The cancellations, which include 330 domestic and inter-national flights, will impact some 37,000 passengers, the airline said in a statement released yesterday.

The strike is expected to shut down public transpor-tation, banks and a number of other services across recession-hit Argentina for 24 hours.