Volume 24 | Number 8073 | 2 RiyalsTuesday 12 November 2019 | 15 Rabia I 1441 www.thepeninsula.qa

BUSINESS | 03 SPORT | 11

Sanchez announces squad for Tokyo qualifying event

Qatar and USdiscuss

enhancingtrade relations

Amir meets Crown Prince of Norway

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met yesterday with Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Norway, Haakon Magnus, and his accompanying delegation at the Amiri Diwan yesterday, on the occasion of their visit to the country to participate in the golden jubilee celebration of Qatar Fertiliser Company (QAFCO) and the 50th anniversary of its cooperation with Norwegian Yara International ASA company. They reviewed relations of cooperation between the State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Norway in various fields, ways of enhancing them and a number of issues of mutual interest.

MoI’s new portal offers online visas for eventsSIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

As Qatar is fast becoming a sports hub in the region and also hosting a number of world-class events, people from around the world now can visit Qatar to attend such activities through a simplified online visa portal that was launched yesterday by the Ministry of Interior (MoI).

A new Qatar Visa Portal has been launched by the Visa Support Services Department (VSSD) as a new platform to apply electronically for entry visas to visit Qatar to attend sports tour-naments and other events hosted or organised by the State.

This was announced during a press conference held at the Visa

Support Services Department (VSSD) headquarters.

Director of VSSD at the Min-istry of Interior, Major Abdullah Khalifa Al Mohannadi, said that Qatar hosts many cultural, sci-entific, sports and tourist events all the year round and these events attract a lot of people from inside and outside the country

therefore it required the estab-lishment of a unified platform that receives applications for visas to enter the country.

“The newly launched Qatar Visa Portal not only covers visas of events, but also business visas, investment and visas for other various activities,” he added.

The conference was attended by Director of Security Systems Department at the Ministry of Interior, Lieutenant Colonel Jassim Abdur Raheem Al Sayed; spokesperson of the Security Committee of the Supreme Com-mittee for Delivery and Legacy, Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Jabr Hamoud Al Noaimi; and Assistant Director of Public Relations Department of MoI Major Mubarak Salim Al Bouainain.

The visa portal was opened in collaboration with a number of other entities in the country, including a special body on events, which has all the details of events in the country, allowing the public from inside and outside Qatar to familiarise with all events in the country, he said.

Al Mohannadi pointed out that the launching of this new visa portal was in addition to the list of leading visa projects, which come under the Ministry of Inte-rior’s efforts to develop e-services to the public and to contribute to the strengthening of the State’s growing economic growth in line with Qatar’s National Vision 2030. �P2

Pilot water-saving greenhouse launchedSATISH KANADY THE PENINSULA

Qatar’s first pilot water-saving greenhouse was officially launched yesterday at one of Hassad’s greenhouses in Al Shahaniya, in a ceremony attended by Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon Magnus, Norway’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Torbjorn Roe Isaksen, the Chief Executive Officers of Hassad and Yara, along with other Norwegian and Qatari officials.

Once implemented fully, the pilot greenhouse will be able to increase production by 20 times the

average in Qatar and reduce the water consumption by 90 percent.

The pilot greenhouse was engi-neered by Yara International ASA (Norway) and developed in collab-oration with Hassad Food, Qatar Fertiliser Company (Qafco), Wage-ningen University and executed in partnership with Trane Qatar, Jiffy, Hoogendoorn and MST Holland.

Mohamed Badr Al Sadah, Hassad Chief Executive Officer commented, “It is our pleasure to be part of this partnership, and to jointly conduct this pilot project in one of our green-houses at Al Shahaniya, as we are committed to support the

local agricultural sector”.“When we implement an

innovative water saving system and apply the tailored fertilizer recipes in the pilot greenhouse, we will be able to increase pro-duction by 20 times the average in Qatar and reduce the water consumption by 90 percent, which will certainly contribute to local agricultural devel-opment,” Al Sadah added.

Abdulrahman Al Suwaidi, Qafco Chief Executive Officer, added, “Qafco is proud to support such initiatives in line with Qatar’s Food Security objective”. �P2

Qatar and Nato sign agreement to protect classified informationTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The State of Qatar and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) have signed the Admin-istrative Arrangements for Protection of Classified Infor-mation between the State of Qatar and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) at Nato’s Headquarters in Brussels.

In the presence of Ambas-sador of the State of Qatar to the Kingdom of Belgium, Abdulrahman bin Mohammed Al Khulaifi, the Qatari Defence Attaché Brigadier General Abdul Hadi bin Mubarak Tarihib Al Hajri and represent-atives of the armed forces and state ministries; the Arrange-ments were signed by Brigadier General Abdulaziz Saleh AlSu-laiti, Head of the International Military Cooperation Authority on behalf of the State of Qatar, and Donald Gonneville, Director of Nato Office of Security and Assistant Deputy Secretary General for Security Affairs on behalf of Nato.

T h e A d m i n i s t r a t i v e Arrangements for the Pro-tection of Classified Information is the last step to activate and implement the Agreement on Information Security and the Exchange of Classified Infor-mation that was signed in Brussels in 2018, which pro-vides a framework for the pro-tection of information exchanged between Nato and its partners, as defined by the 29 Nations of the Nato Council.

Most Nato partner nations have signed bilateral security agreements and this agreement enables the activation of all the areas of cooperation defined in the Individual Partnership and Cooperation Program that was signed between the State of Qatar and Nato in 2017, which is the main framework for laying the foundations of cooperation for countries seeking partnership with the Alliance through global initia-tives such as the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative that was signed by the State of Qatar in 2004. �P2

Hospitality Qatar's biggest edition begins todayTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Under the patronage of H E Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Hospi-tality Qatar, the annual global hospitality and HORECA trade show is set to begin its biggest edition today at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center.

Organised by IFP Qatar, the event is being held in partnership with Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC) for the second consecutive year.

On its fifth edition, the event which consists of the exhibition, a CPD-certified conference, cer-tified training sessions, spe-cialised live competitions and B2B matchmaking programmes

will provide top hospitality stakeholders including hoteliers, restauranteurs, café operators and tourism experts with a bigger and wider platform to unlock business opportunities in Qatar’s competitive and ever-growing tourism and hospitality sector, and align the capabilities of experienced hospitality pro-fessionals with the available

opportunities and prospects in the country.

Haidar Mshaimesh, General Manager of IFP Qatar, said: “We are excited to open this year’s edition of Hospitality Qatar and welcome the exhibitors and vis-itors over the next three days as we expand our halls to accom-modate several new additions to the show.” �P2

THE PENINSULA/DOHA

A new Qatar Visa Center (QVC) will be opened soon in Tunisia in order to simplify employment visa procedures and protect workers’ rights. Major Abdullah Khalifa Al Mohannadi, Director of the Visa Support Services Department at the Ministry of Interior said that the next Qatar Visa Center abroad will be opened in Tunisia and currently the department is coordinating with the Tunisian government in this regard.

Al Mohannadi also said that the Qatar Visa Center which was recently opened in Manila, Philip-pines was activated yesterday. “Since Qatar Visa Centers abroad started working, 140,000 visas have been issued by them,” he said. “The rate of services offered at these centers is on the rise and with every passing day the number of visitors is on the rise. Daily, we have 1800 visitors asking different services such as biometric data processing, medical examinations and signing of employment con-tracts,” he said.

The Qatar Visa Portal is a new platform to apply electronically for entry visas to Qatar to attend sports tournaments and other events hosted or organised by the State.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani attended yesterday the golden jubilee celebration of Qatar Fertiliser Company (QAFCO), in the presence of the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Norway, Haakon Magnus. The ceremony was attended by a number of Their Excellencies Ministers, chief executives, senior officials of Qatari and Norwegian companies in the field of oil, gas and energy, and guests of the event. �BUSINESS 01

PM attends golden jubilee celebration of QAFCO

QVC to open soon in Tunisia

02 TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019HOME

Amir sends congratulations to President of AngolaDOHA: Amir H H Sheikh

Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani,

Deputy Amir H H Sheikh

Abdullah bin Hamad Al

Thani and Prime Minister

and Interior Minister, H E

Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser

bin Khalifa Al Thani sent

yesterday cables of congrat-

ulations to President Joqo

Lourenco of the Republic of

Angola on the anniversary

of his country’s Independ-

ence Day. QNA

OFFICIAL NEWS

Amir sends congratulations to President of Poland

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh

Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani

and Deputy Amir H H Sheikh

Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani

sent yesterday cables of con-

gratulations to the President

of the Republic of Poland,

Andrzej Duda, on the anni-

versary of his country’s

Independence Day. The Prime

Minister and Interior Minis-

ter, H E Sheikh Abdullah bin

Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani,

also sent a cable of congrat-

ulations to the Prime Minister

of the Republic of Poland,

Mateusz Morawiecki, on the

anniversary of his country’s

Independence Day. QNA

Qatar condemns bombing in Iraq that wounded five Italian soldiers

DOHA: The State of Qatar

has strongly condemned

the bombing in Iraq which

resulted in the injury of five

Italian soldiers, who were part

of international monitoring

and training mission to assist

the local forces that confront

ISIS. In a statement issued on

Sunday, the Ministry of For-

eign Affairs reiterated the

State of Qatar’s firm stance

rejecting violence and terror-

ism, whatever the motives

and causes. The statement

expressed the wishes of the

State of Qatar for a speedy

recovery of the injured. QNA

Health Minister honours organ donorsTHE PENINSULA.DOHA

Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Qatar Center for Organ Transplantation has honoured sixty organ and tissue donors for their selfless act of organ donation – which saved the lives of 70 recipients in the last year.

During the annual honouring ceremony, which was attended by H E Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, Minister of Public Health, the Medal of Altruism was presented to 36 living kidney donors, 15 stem cell donors, and the families of nine deceased donors.

“Organ donation saves lives and the success of Qatar’s organ donation and transplantation programmes is something which we can be extremely proud of.

We have a single, unified waiting list and have led the way in terms of setting a high standard of care and support for donors and their families. Qatar’s national strategy for organ donation and trans-plantation is not only world-leading in terms of the clinical and ethical standards it applies, but it is also one that is appro-priate to the healthcare needs of our growing and diverse popu-lation,” said Dr Al Kuwari.

Qatar Center for Organ Transplantation Director Dr Yousuf Al Maslamani said the success of HMC’s organ trans-plant program has led to a decrease in the number of patients who are traveling abroad for commercial trans-plantation by around 85% percent. Dr Riadh Fadhil,

Director, Qatar Organ Donation Center, said his organization has worked tirelessly with the Qatar Center for Organ Transplantation to implement the tenets of the Doha Donation Accord, which is marking its tenth anniversary this year.

“HMC’s full commitment to the Doha Donation Accord has seen the number of registered donors increase significantly over the last six years from 2,000 to more than 400,000 today,” said Dr Fadhil.

The annual honouring cer-emony coincided with the third Annual Meeting of the Doha International Academy for Organ Donation and the second gath-ering of the ROOTS Alliance (Reaching Out for Organ Trans-plant Self Sufficiency).

The Minister of Public Health, H E Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, during the honouring ceremony.

Brigadier General Abdulaziz Saleh AlSulaiti, Head of the International Military Cooperation Authority, and Donald Gonneville, Director of Nato Office of Security, signing the agreement at Nato headquarters in Brussels.

MoI’s new portal offers online visas for eventsFROM PAGE 1

He added that the movement of entry and exit in Qatar wit-nesses a rapid growth thanks to the many different programs the country has been adopting, as more than 90 countries get on-arrival visas when they enter Hamad International Airport, which made the State of Qatar one of the most open country in the world.

Al Mohannadi said that the new portal is designed to facil-itate the application process for visitors, through simple and smooth application form that does not exceed one page.

Any user can fill it electron-ically from anywhere in the world within a very short time, and the issuance of a visa does not exceed 48 hours from the date of receipt of the application if it meets the required condi-tions, he added.

He pointed out that the portal provides the electronic visa service and follow-up facility to citizens of all countries in the world, as through entering the platform there is the visa application, which allows the applicants to get the visa to visit the State of Qatar and attend the events hosted by the State.

The applicant has to register

to login with email first, he said, explaining that the application steps include entry of required data and the attachment of all required documents, including a copy of the passport, and his/her photo, a copy of the flight ticket and a copy of the hotel reservation or the applicant’s residence in Qatar. The Qatar Visa Portal can be accessed at http://www.qatarportal.gov.qa/

The applicant then will choose the event he wants to participate inside the country, where he can witness multiple events during the 30-day visa validity period, which can be extended for another 30 days. The applicant can track the status of application on the portal as well.

He said that the applicant can submit for visa within 90 days - 4 days before travel and the passport must be valid for at least six months from the date of entry into Qatar. This service cannot be used to obtain a visa for children registered with their parents’ passports, he added.

Lt. Colonel. Jassim Abdul Raheem, Head of the Technical Affairs Committee of Security Committee at the SC said that the portal was specialized in pro-viding tourist visa services to enter the State of Qatar for attending major events such as the important sport events hosted by Qatar, such as the Arab Gulf Cup and the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup and the most awaited 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar.

Lieutenant Colonel Jassim Abdur Raheem Al Sayed and (right) Major Abdullah Khalifa Al Mohannadi

The Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Norway, Prince Haakon Magnus (second left); Chief Executive Officer of Hassad, Mohamed Badr Al Sadah (third left); Qafco Chief Executive Officer, Abdulrahman Al Suwaidi (left), and other officials planting saplings during the launch of Qatar’s first pilot water-saving greenhouse at one of Hassad’s greenhouses in Al Shahaniya, yesterday.

Pilot water-saving greenhouse launchedFROM PAGE 1

“Such goals will be achieved by employing state of the art crop nutrition and climate man-agement systems that enable precise control of nutrients and greenhouse environment and therefore provide the ideal growth conditions for the crop”, said Ivan De Witte, Head of Yara Middle East at Yara International.

The climate in the green-house is provided by the air con-ditioning system and completely independent of the outside weather. The closed cycle of air

recirculation allows recovery of water from evapotranspiration of the plants through dehumid-ification. Recovered water then will be re-used for irrigation of the plants.

As part of the opening cer-emony, Norwegian and Qatari officials as well as business rep-resentatives planted seedlings of tomatoes in the pilot greenhouse.

The visit to the greenhouse was part of the Norwegian official visit to Qatar to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Qatar Fertiliser Company (Qafco).

“We are celebrating 50 years of our partnership with the State of Qatar through our share-holding in Qafco. Today we are making another important step in our continued commitment. We are very proud with the first results of our collaboration with Hassad and Qafco in developing of this project. We sincerely look forward to demonstrating sig-nificant innovations in knowledge and solutions that will make Qatari agriculture more efficient and sustainable”, said Holsether, President and CEO of Yara International ASA.

Hospitality Qatar’s biggest edition begins today

FROM PAGE 1We are looking forward to

welcome exhibitors and visitors from the local, regional and international hospitality markets and explore the country’s offerings and opportunities for business.”

Organisers are set to introduce several new initiatives during the event which include dedicated exhibition zones — the “Destination Pavillion” zone which is sponsored by Qatar Airways and the “Luxury Tourism” zone which will be run in association with Luxury Trade & Marketing Group (LT&MG).

In addition, the event will also offer for the first time a free of charge Certified Training Program for hospitality profes-sionals to promote leading best practices among industry prac-titioners. Participants will learn more about customer service in ‘Managing People in Big Events,’ time management in ‘Get Organized for Peak Per-formance, and food safety and food hygiene in ‘Making it a Habit’ and ‘Delivering Unique Experiences in the World of Sports and Entertainment.’

The Hospitality Qatar Con-ference, a CPD-certified con-ference, will return this year for the second edition, with fresh outlook on major new develop-ments in the industry and offer insightful knowledge of the sector, new strategies and inno-vations, Some of the themes

include ‘An Overview of Qatar’s Future Tourism Sector Devel-opments,’ ‘Showcasing Qatari Market Opportunities in the Hospitality Sector’ and ‘Hospi-tality Requirements Towards FIFA World Cup 2022.’

This edition will witness as well Hospitality Qatar’s sig-nature events, the Salon Culinaire, organised in part-nership with Qatar Culinary Pro-fessionals (QCP) and supported by the World Association of Chefs Societies for Africa and Middle East. Live cooking com-petitions will once again entice the palates and aesthetic taste of food connoisseurs with mouthwatering signature dishes. The Qatar Barista Champi-onship, sponsored by Corona, will also present the country’s finest baristas with their creative versions of classic and elaborate coffee beverages.

The event expects a total of 228 exhibitors and seven inter-national pavilions from 33 par-ticipating countries, repre-senting the various aspects of the hospitality industry such as hotels and facilities, interiors and design, entertainment and leisure, travel and tourism, resorts and outdoor landscape, HORECA technologies and equipment, ecologically-friendly hotels systems and solutions, and food and beverages.

The three-day exhibition is open daily until November 14 from 1pm to 9pm.

Drama Writers Forum opens with participation of 14 Arab countriesQNA DOHA

The second edition of Drama Writers Forum, organised by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, kicked off yesterday with the participation of academics, artists, writers and critics from 14 Arab countries, including the hosting country Qatar, at Al Messila Hotel.

The Minister of Culture and Sports, H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali, called on writers of drama and artists to enter the depths of the Arab conscience in order to extract the strengths of Arab heritage and culture in their values and morals to reflect it on the reality of Arab

drama. His Excellency stressed that the Arab world is full of intellectuals, writers and artists, especially young people, who can express the cultural dimen-sions and major human percep-tions, the most important of which are freedom, human dignity, social justice, openness to the other. He added that interest in science and literature to be the beginning of the ren-aissance of our Arab societies, through drama works that translate these perceptions, create community awareness, advance Arab conscience and promote human values away from stereotyping or discrimi-nation because of gender, colour, or race.

Qatar and Nato sign agreement

03TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019 HOME

Shura Council holds second meeting, forms committees

QNA DOHA

The Shura Council held yesterday its second meeting within its 48th ordinary session under the presidency of Speaker, H E Ahmad bin Abdulla bin Zaid Al Mahmoud.

The Council began its session by reviewing the speech of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the opening of the 48th ordinary session of the Council last Tuesday.

The Council’s members praised the high speech, stressing that it was comprehensive in clarifying the achievements of the country made despite the unfair blockade imposed on it as well as in determining the requirements of the next stage and the pillars of the State’s internal and external policy, and in affirming its firm positions

towards regional and interna-tional issues.

The members also affirmed their support for the speech and their keenness to act in accordance with His Highness’ directives.

Then, HE the Speaker of the Shura Council directed that the speech be provided to the com-mittees of the Council, each within its competence shall study its guidelines, ideas and visions and come up with specific rec-ommendations to be presented to the Council in order to con-tribute along with the esteemed government in achieving them.

After that, the council formed its five committees. The Legal and Legislative Affairs Com-mittee Members include Rashid bin Hamad Al Maadhadi, Nasser bin Rashid Al Kaabi, Yousuf bin Rashid Al Khater, Nasser bin Khalil Al Jaidah, Abdulrahman bin Yousuf Al Khulaifi, Mohamed Bin Abdulla Al Abd Al Ghani, and Dr Aisha bint Yousuf Al Mannai.

The Economic and the Financial Affairs Committee Members are Nasser bin Rashid Al Kaabi, Yousuf in Rashid Al Khater, Mohamed bin Khalid Al Ghanem, Nasser bin Sulaiman Al Hayder, Abdullah bin Khalid

Mohamed Al Jabor Al Nuaimi, Dr Hessa bint Sultan Al Jaber, Mohammed bin Mahdi Al Ahbabi, Ali bin Abd Al-Latif Al Misnad Al Muhanadi, Nasser bin Sultan Al Hemaidi, Khalid bin Abdullah Rashed Al Buainain, Dr Hind bint Abdulrahman Mohammed Mubarak Al Muftah ,Fahd bin Mohammed Fahd Saad Buzwair, Saleh bin Abdullah Mohammed Ibrahim Al Mannai,Mohammed bin Ali Sultan Al Ali Al-Maadeed, and Reem bint Mohammed Rashid Al Mansouri.

The Services and the Public Utilities Committee Members are Hadi bin Saeed Al Khayareen,

Ismail bin Mohammed Shareef Al Emadi, Yousef bin Ahmed Omaran Al Kuwari, Khalifa bin Ali Al Hetmi, Nasser bin Salmaine Khalid Al Suwaidi, and Mohammed bin Mahdi Al Ahbabi.

The Internal and External Affairs Committee Members are Ibrahim bin Khalifa Al-Nasr, Saqr bin Fahd Al Muraikhi, Nasser bin Ahmed Al Malki, Dr Yousef bin Mohammed Yousef Al Obaidan, Abdulrahman bin Yousef Abdulrahman Al Khu-laifi, Abdullah bin Khalid Mohammed Al Jabor Al Nuaimi, Dahlan bin Jamaan Bashir Al Hamad, Abdulaziz bin

Mohammed Abdullah Al Attiyah, Khalid bin Abdullah Rashid Al Buainain, Abdullah bin Fahd Abdullah Ghorab Al Marri, Abdul Latif bin Mohammed Abdul Latif Al Sada, Dr Hind bint Abdul-rahman Mohammed Mubarak Al Muftah, and Reem bint Mohamed Rashid Al Mansouri.

The Information and Cultural Affairs Committee Members are Rashid bin Hamad Al Meadhadi, Abdulla bin Khalid Al Mania, Ahmed bin Khalifa Al Rumaihi, Mubarak bin Saif Al Mansouri, Khalid bin Mohammed Ajaj Al Kubaisi, and Mohammed bin Mansour Al Shahwani.

The Speaker of Shura Council, H E Ahmad bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, at the second meeting of 48th ordinary session. RIGHT: Shura Council members at the meeting.

The Council began its session by reviewing the speech of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the opening of the 48th ordinary session of the Council last Tuesday.

MoTC holds workshop for cybersecurity service providersQNA/DOHA

The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) organised a workshop for the cybersecurity service providers accreditation programme as part of the ministry’s keenness to strengthen the cyber-security system in the country.

The workshop, which was attended by a large number of representatives of the public and private sectors, aims to raise the efficiency in various parts of the country by activating the joint responsibility between the two sectors.

Director of Compliance and Data Protection at the Ministry Eng. Dana Al Abdullah stressed the importance of working with the National Information Security Standards Framework within the National Cybersecurity Strategy and its role in assisting organ-izations and institutions from all sectors in securing information systems and raising the level of maturity in the applications of information security policies.

She added that accreditation contributes to raising the efficiency of the supply chain in the field of cybersecurity as it enables accredited service pro-viders to build trust and confirms the ability and professionalism of the accredited provider, including all accredited service providers, as this guide pro-vides an updated list of all credits issued by the Com-pliance and Data Protection Department, allowing organizations to verify the validity of accreditation.

The accreditation program is a catalyst for the private sector, as the service provider accredited by the Ministry receives multiple advantages that facil-itate access to new markets for audit services for the system of certificates of compliance. It also provides new marketing opportunities to accredited service providers by including its name in the online platform for the Compliance and Data Protection Department.

The program is divided into several key pathways for accreditation: audit services, advisory services, penetration testing services, cloud services, and cyber security operations center services.

Qatar to host GOPAC conference inDecember: Shura Council SpeakerSACHIN KUMAR THE PENINSULA

The Speaker of the Shura Council, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, met yesterday with the ambas-sadors and heads of diplomatic missions accredited to Qatar, regarding 7th Global Organi-zation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC) Global Conference, which will be held in Doha from December 9 to 10.

The Conference will be attended by parliamentarians from 106 countries and 63 national branches around the world. During the meeting, H E Speaker of the Shura Council explained that Qatar’s hosting of this important international conference comes out of its

belief in the need to work hard to combat the scourge of cor-ruption in the world. Corruption poses a grave danger to the future of nations and their progress and the welfare of people.

He added that the hosting of the conference comes in con-junction with the efforts of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in the field of com-bating corruption and estab-lishing transparency and good governance, where H H the Amir dedicated an international award in the name of His Highness in the fight against corruption.

H E Ahmed bin Abdulla bin Zaid Al Mahmoud expressed his aspiration to receive parliamen-tarians from around the world in Doha at the conference,

stressing the importance of dip-lomatic work in mobilizing par-ticipants and in the success of the conference and its output with the desired results that con-tribute to the fight against cor-ruption, promote transparency, and principles of good governance.

The GOPAC Global Con-ference of Parliamentarians Against Corruption Global Con-ference is a premier event in the anti-corruption calendar. It brings together current and former legislators, government officials, academics, and anti-corruption advocates from around the world. The Global Conference has become a leading venue to discuss key issues and set priorities for both the organisation and the global fight against corruption.

Qatar, Ukraine sign air services protocol QNA DOHA

The State of Qatar and Ukraine have signed a protocol between them to amend some provisions of the air services agreement signed between the two countries.

The protocol was signed on behalf of the Qatari side by the Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority, Abdullah bin Nasser Turki Al Subaie, and for the Ukrainian side by Chairman of the State Avi-ation Administration, Ole-ksandr Bilchuk.

The new protocol allows cooperation in the area of the codeshare between desig-nated carriers and the opening of the flight schedule so that Qatar Airways can reach any point in Ukraine.

The Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority, Abdullah bin Nasser Turki Al Subaie, and Chairman of the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine, Oleksandr Bilchuk, signing the protocol.

04 TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019HOME

Qatar, Rwanda discuss judicial cooperation

The Attorney-General of the State of Qatar, H E Dr Ali bin Fetais Al Marri, met yesterday with the Minister of Justice of Republic of Rwanda, Johnston Busingye. During the meeting, the two sides discussed joint legal and judicial cooperation and ways to enhance bilateral work in this area.

Al Hammadi meets Malaysian FM

The Malaysian Foreign Minister, Saifuddin Abdullah, met yesterday with the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, who is currently visiting Malaysia. During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral cooperation relations, as well as issues of common concern.

Qataris take lead across Ooredoo Group’s companiesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The recent appointment of Mansoor Rashid Al Khater as CEO of Ooredoo Tunisia brings the number of Qatari CEOs heading Ooredoo Group’s oper-ating companies to three, under-scoring the contribution of Qatari business leaders to both Group success and to economies in the countries in which the Group operates.

Al Khater recently took over as CEO at Ooredoo Tunisia, while Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Thani is cur-rently CEO at Ooredoo Kuwait and Ahmad Abulaziz Al Neama was appointed CEO at Indosat Ooredoo in May 2019.

All three gentlemen gained valuable experience at Ooredoo Qatar before moving further afield to continue their careers abroad.

Al Khater joined Ooredoo in 2009, holding several senior roles at Ooredoo Group and Ooredoo Qatar – including Strategy Officer - before his most recent role as Group Chief Strategy Officer. He also serves on the Board of Asiacell Iraq.

Sheikh Mohammed’s career in Qatar included a stint as Director of Financial Operations, followed by promotion to Senior Director, Budget and Decision Support and Deputy Chief Officer, Finance. He is also cur-rently Chairman of Ooredoo Algeria.

Al Neama, prior to his appointment as CEO, Indosat Ooredoo, was most recently Group Chief Technology Officer,

having previously been Chief Sales and Services Officer and Director of Demand and Project Management at Ooredoo Qatar.

He continues his responsibilities on the Board of Directors for both Indosat Ooredoo and Ooredoo Oman.

Sheikh Saud bin Nasser Al Thani, Chief Executive Officer at Ooredoo Group, said of the latest appointment and the growing number of Qatari CEOs across the OpCos: “We’re delighted to see more and more Qatari cit-izens taking up leadership roles across our network of operating companies. We know we have an incredible talent pool amongst our Qatari employees, and we offer amazing opportunities for them to gain valuable experience with Ooredoo Qatar and Ooredoo Group that they can then leverage as their careers advance. We’re incredibly proud of our Qatari citizens leading our OpCos and we look forward to seeing many more taking the helm in the near future.”

FROM LEFT: Mansoor Rashid Al-Khater, CEO of Ooredoo Tunisia; Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Thani, CEO of Ooredoo Kuwait; and Ahmad Abulaziz Al Neama, CEO of Indosat Ooredoo.

QRCS winter campaign extendsreach to expat workers in QatarSANKAR C G THE PENINSULA

Launching its ‘Warm Winter Campaign 2019-2020’, the Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has announced to extend the reach of the campaign to the expatriate workers in Qatar too.

This was announced during a press conference held to share the details of the campaign at QRCS headquarters, yesterday.

It has been 14 years since QRCS launched the campaign and throughout these years the beneficiaries of this campaign were in foreign countries. This is the first time QRCS included Qatar’s expatriate workers in the beneficiary list along with people living in other countries such as Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, Iraq, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia.

Muhsen Abdullah Al Maliki, Director of Communication of QRCS; Dr. Mohamed Salah Ibrahim, Executive Director of Relief and International Devel-opment; and Yousef Mohamed Al Awadi, Director of Financial Resources Development, were present at the conference.

“Qatar is committed to ensuring the welfare of its expa-triate community and we value

their notable services in building the nation. Qatar takes all pos-sible measures to provide them a decent living. This is the sole reason why QRCS has decided, with the support of Qatari gov-ernment, to include the expa-triates in Qatar also in the cam-paign,” Dr. Mohamed Salah Ibrahim told The Peninsula.

The campaign at a cost of QR18m targets winterisation aid for over 250,000 vulnerable ben-eficiaries across the world. The beneficiaries include expatriate workers in Qatar and the victims of disasters, war, storms, and famine in the eight other countries.

“For the 14 consecutive years, QRCS has every year launched a winterisation camp to help the homeless and the displaced during extremely cold winter. There are millions of children,

women, patients, and old persons who suffer too much in the winter. QRCS is there for them, providing them with shelter, clothes, heating, and food,” said Muhsen Abdullah Al Maliki.

“Let’s unite our efforts on this noble humanitarian endeavour, which will save the vulnerable from the wintertime suffering, and ensure ourselves the best reward from God,” he added.

In Qatar, winterisation bags containing gloves, hats, socks, scarves, and blankets, will be dis-tributed to over 2,500 workers at work sites.

Out of Qatar, food parcels will be provided in Palestine, Yemen, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, and Jordan (Syrian and Palestinian refugees). Each parcel contains local food staples in the respective host countries. For a five-member family, a parcel can last for a whole month.

The total number of target beneficiaries exceeds 100,000. Other forms of aid like shelter, nonfood items, winter clothes for adults and kids will also be dis-tributed. The QRCS officials thanked the Regulatory Authority for Charitable Activities and all donors for making this great move a reality.

Muhsen Abdullah Al Maliki, Director of Communication of QRCS; Dr. Mohamed Salah Ibrahim, Executive Director of Relief and International Development, and Yousef Mohamed Al Awadi, Director of Financial Resources Development, announcing the launch of ‘Warm Winter Campaign 2019-2020’ at QRCS headquarters in Doha, yesterday.

This is the first time QRCS included Qatar’s expatriate workers in the beneficiary list of the campaign along with people from other countries like Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, Iraq, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia.

Qatar takes part in Arab Document Day celebrationQNA/CAIRO

The State of Qatar participated in the activities of the annual cele-bration of the Arab Document Day which began at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Arab League yesterday.

Representing the State of Qatar at the ceremony was H E Deputy Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the Arab League Ambassador Hassan bin Ahmed Al Mutawa. Under the title ‘Arab Archives: Reality and Hopes’, the celebration of the Arab Doc-ument Day is being held in coor-dination with the Arab Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (ARABICA) for the seventh consecutive year.

The celebration underscores the historical importance the Arab League attaches to the Arab document, which preserves Arab national rights as the authentic base upon which the identity of nations is founded.

Winter vegetable markets to open on ThursdaySANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

The Director of the Agricultural Affairs Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME), Yousuf Khalid Al Khulaifi, has said that with the participation of 125 local farms, the winter vegetable markets will open on Thursday (November 14) for the season 2019-20.

The winter vegetable markets, located in Al Shee-haniya, Al Mazrouha, Al Wakrah, Al Khor-Al Zakhira and Al Shamal offer farm fresh local agricultural products directly to customers without middlemen at compet-itive prices.

“Over 31 percent of total local agricultural products were sold through the marketing plat-forms provided by the MME and winter vegetable markets shared 11 percent of the total sales,” Yousuf Khalid Al Khu-laifi told The Peninsula on the sidelines of an event yesterday.

He said that the MME will support the markets to offer all agricultural products at compet-itive prices to attract the customers.

Local farms are ready to par-ticipate in the seasonal winter

vegetable markets with its products in large quantity. The farmers said that with the support of the MME they increased their products significantly.

“We are working to produce non-basis agricultural products like quality vegetables including specific capsicum and bens as per the demand of the local market,” Ali Ahmad Saad Mansour Al Kaabi, owner of the Global Farm for Agri-cultural Supplies told The Peninsula.

Al Kaabi who is also a member of the Standing Committee for Farms Affairs, said that the MME provided many marketing plat-forms for the local product within the system of government support, pointing out to provide many inputs for the production of farmers.

“We received seeds, ferti-lizers, boxes and labels for

marketing free of charge, and others forms of support,” said Al Kaabi.

He said that the State provided integrated support to farmers during this year in terms of mar-keting and production inputs, pointing out that the entry of the company ‘Mahaseel’ to the market is an important form of support in marketing.

Yousuf Khalid Al Khulaifi

05TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019 HOME

Dr. Eric Drazan, Consultant Plastic and Reconstruction Surgeon at Al Emadi Hospital said that Dr. Mohammed Al Emadi is the first Bariatric Surgeon in Qatar. We have a lot of patients who are keen to undergo bariatric

surgery. Patients normally have a lot of extra skin around the abdomen or the chest and

there are cases where the arms, thighs and legs too have extra skin. We follow up with our

patients for further surgeries after weight loss to remove the extra skin and make thigh-lift

surgery to reshape them.

06 TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019HOME

Glorious evening of celebration at Rewards and Recognition for Ta’allum staffTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Ta’allum Education staff attended the 5th annual ‘Rewards and Recognition’ ceremony in the auspicious surroundings of the Shakespeare Room at Katara recently.

Some 240 Awards were dis-tributed to staff from the audience of nearly 700 attendees. Award winners had demonstrated excellence in a variety of fields during the aca-demic year 2018-19.

This particular evening took on special significance because during the Academic year all 3 Ta’allum Academies were fully accredited by the Western Asso-ciation of Schools and Com-mission, demonstrating rising

standards and cementing their reputation as the ‘schools of choice’ for the Qatari community.

Guests of Honour at the event included Ta’allum Group

Chairman, Ghanim-Bin-Saad-Al-Saad, CEO Ahmed Al Mannai, Director of Education, Dr Mohammed Saefan and Exec-utive Director of Tarbeya, Dr Shawkat Talha Talafha.

There were moments of for-mality when the CEO, Al Mannai thanked staff and expressed his pride at Ta’allum’s achievements of the past year and Dr. Saefan congratulated all concerned for

the hard work leading to WASC accreditation. Throughout the evening there was also a sense of fun and entertainment.

The ceremony opened in most unusual fashion with a humorous, ‘spoof’ action adventure movie showing Shuja Uddin, AMAB Prin-cipal clinging to his Ta’allum School of Excellence Award trophy from 2018 before a dramatic car chase and various skirmishes resulted in its rightful return to this year’s cer-emony. Staff also sang the now familiar Ta’allum song with gusto and the 48 nationalities of staff rep-resented in the Ta’allum Group were honoured.

Long serving ‘stalwart’ staff clocking up 10 or 15 years’ service received awards for their loyalty. Pride of place must go to Hana Al Mahi and Evangelique

Adriano with a marvellous 16 years of service each.

Teachers whose classes had achieved 100% pass rates in IGCSE and AS exams received awards. Six Ta’allum students had received notification from the Edexcel Board that their IGCSE results were the highest of any student in Qatar and 2 others, Raghad Ibrahim of AJA and Al Dana Al Abdulla of AMAG were awarded the highest marks in the Middle East for Chemistry and Psychology respectively.

Staff of the Best Performing classes in EYFS, Primary and Secondary all received awards. The climax of the evening fea-tured the award of Ta’allum’s Best Performing School. The cer-emonial flag for the Best Per-forming It was a nail biting conclusion.

Ta’allum Education staff during the 5th annual ‘Rewards and Recognition’ ceremony at Katara.

Qatar Post joins ranks of certified government agencies with ISO 27001:2013 for its IT systemTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Post has successfully received ISO 27001:2013 certi-fication for its implementation of Information Security Management System (ISMC), boosting customer confidence with its robust new protective measures of personal and commercial records.

ISO 27001:2013 is an inter-national recognized framework that helps organizations become more resilient and responsive to information security threats.

Faleh Al Naemi, Chairman and Managing Director of Qatar Post, said: “This award is more evidence that Qatar Post is meeting rigorous international standards in ensuring

confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data contained with us. At Qatar Post we under-stand the importance of trust and security, especially when working with personal and com-mercially-sensitive data, both of which require a high standard of information security to uphold those values. I wish to thank the entire IT security team and col-leagues who worked tirelessly to make this achievement possible”.

The ISO 27001: 2013 is pri-marily an information security

standard published and managed by the International Organization for Standards (ISO). It ensures that systems and processes at organizations protect clients from unnecessary risk and exposure through best-in-class data privacy and security standards. With the certification, Qatar Post has joined 38 already certified government agencies in the country.

The formal process of imple-mentation began in June 2018 with a strategic alignment with Qatar Post’s objectives. A new

framework of action was developed around the IT security policies, procedures, guidelines, and standards to support and

govern the information security management within the Qatar Post IT environment. The two-stage certificate audits were

conducted on September 8, 2019 and October 13-17 respectively. Qatar Post received the certif-icate on October 24, 2019.

Qatar Post officials receiving the ISO 27001:2013 certification for its implementation of Information Security Management System.

Faleh Al Naemi, Chairman and Managing Director of Qatar Post, said: “This award is more evidence that Qatar Post is meeting rigorous international standards in ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data contained with us”.

Saudia Group Shop & Win promo raffle draw A representative of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry with Saudia Group’s General Manager, Purchase Manager, Marketing Manager, Branch Managers, Security Manager and Assistant Managers during first raffle draw of Saudia Group-Shop & Win 5 Cars Promotions which was held on November 7, at Saudia Department Store-Plaza Mall, Asian Town.

QC organises ‘My Environment is My Responsibility’THE PENINSULA DOHA

The Women’s Branch of Qatar Charity Center for Community Development in Al Rayyan has organised an event entitled ‘My Environment is My Responsi-bility’ in cooperation with the ‘Greener Future’ initiative.

The event, which was held within the framework of the Qatar Sustainability Week 2019, witnessed the participation of 30 children along with many women and mothers.

The event aims at educating the participants about the importance and role of recy-cling in reducing environ-mental hazards to society, teaching them skills to recycle paper and plastic waste, and encouraging mothers to recycle household items, especially bottles.

The workshop, which was presented by Hamad Saad Al Jabara, an environmental

engineer, included both theo-retical and practical aspects.

The theoretical part of the workshop included the impor-tance of preserving the envi-ronment, encouraging partici-pating children and mothers not to use plastic items, and urging them to use papers and stuffs made of biodegradable and environmentally friendly substances.

However, on the practical side, participants, including children, were trained on how to recycle bottles and make new beautiful things using plastic water bottles, coloured papers, and other materials.

During the workshop, Engineer Hamad Saad Al Jabara spoke on the dangers of items made of plastic, such as con-tainers, bottles, carry bags, high-lighting their negative effects on aquatic animals and the environment.

He also explained these hazards by showing many

pictures of aquatic animals that were badly affected due to plastic water bottles and other plastic items thrown near the beaches of seas and rivers.

“The workshop aims to create a sustainable envi-ronment in the community by developing ideas that can build a generation aware of the dangers of using plastics, encouraging participants to use alternatives other than plastics, namely papers, and guiding the community to shops that sell environmentally friendly products”, Engineer Hamad Saad Al Jab said.

Qatar Charity and the “Greener Future” initiative enjoy a prolonged cooperation, as they have already participated in the program called “Initiatives Chal-lenge” during the holy month of Ramadan, he further said, noting that there would be greater cooperation in other events soon.

WISH highlights Qatar’s role in healthcare innovation THE PENINSULA DOHA

Team from World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) Qatar Foundation initiative has presented recommendations for providing healthcare to conflict-affected populations and high-lights Qatar’s role in encouraging innovation in health at event in Oman.

“The global escalation of con-flict has led to an emerging trend of attacks on healthcare workers and healthcare systems as a whole,” said Maha El Akoum, Head of Content and Research Fellow at WISH. “Targeted attacks on health facilities have been observed in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, South Sudan, and other conflict-affected countries over the past few years. In 2018 alone, there were at least 973 attacks on health workers, health facilities, and health transports in 23 countries in conflict around the world.”

El Akoum, along with Mahmoud El Achi, Head of Inno-vation at WISH, were in Muscat recently to attend the 43rd World Hospital Congress, which focused on People at the Heart of Health Services in Peace and Crisis.

At the event, El Akoum pre-sented a poster depicting healthcare in conflict settings. The poster, based on a 2018 WISH report titled Healthcare in Con-flict Settings: Leaving No One Behind, was one of the Best Poster award winners. It provided an easy-to-use overview of the report content, including the case studies used and the report’s rec-ommendations for providing healthcare to conflict-affected populations.

“The 2018 WISH report emphasized healthcare in conflict as a basic human right. It also pro-vided a framework of available solutions with the aim of

advancing universal health cov-erage amongst conflict-affected populations,” said El Akoum.

At the four-day event, the team from WISH, an initiative of Qatar Foundation (QF), also gave attendees an overview of Qatar’s lead in supporting healthcare innovation to global hospital and health service leaders.

They shared how Qatar has successfully created an envi-ronment that encourages inno-vation across all its key sectors, one of the foremost being healthcare. Delegates learnt how national hubs and incubation centers such as Qatar Science & Technology Park – part of Qatar Foundation Research, Devel-opment, and Innovation – attract the region’s best talent.

“The event in Muscat offered a great opportunity to share success stories from Qatar with a global audience,” El Achi said. “At WISH, we believe that innovation is a key for our future, and inno-vation should be the heart of healthcare. By fostering technology and innovation we can improve our healthcare ecosystem, reduce the cost, increase efficiency and accuracy, and save lives.”

The presentation also touched on WISH’s efforts in bringing together healthcare innovators, policy makers, and investors to share ideas as well as form fruitful partnerships – efforts that have led to the creation of two WISH-led competitions for sector inno-vators, one for startups and one for established companies seeking to scale up.

Additionally, the meeting highlighted the support given by WISH and QF’s Stars of Science to help promote and develop Klens, a surgical laparoscope developed by Kuwaiti Dr. Ahmed Nabeel that automates the cleanup process for surgical tools, reduces time spent on surgeries, and makes operating easier for the surgeon. Other innovations, such as Baseer, an Omani inno-vation that helps visually impaired people to read and write in Arabic and English, and Ten Moons, a Qatari-developed app for pregnant women, were also highlighted at the meeting.

The 2019 edition of the biennial congress of the Interna-tional Hospital Federation was hosted by the Ministry of Health of Oman recently.

Maha El Akoum (right), Head of Content and Research Fellow at WISH, with Mahmoud El Achi, Head of Innovation at WISH, during the International Hospital Federation summit in Oman, recently.

07TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019 HOME

MoPH, partners raise awareness about mental health and well-beingTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in collaboration with partners hosted an event at to raise awareness about mental health and well-being. The event was part of a series of national activities to raise awareness and to change the negative perception and the social stigma associated with mental disorders in the society. Mental Health and wellbeing is one of the seven priorities outlined in the National Health Strategy 2018-2022 therefore raising awareness is an important factor in reducing stigma, which is the goal of the NHS in addition to the awareness of the mental health services available.

Susan Clelland, Acting Director of the National Mental Health Office at MoPH – opened the event by welcoming attendees and outlined the importance of increasing awareness about mental health. A series of short presentations were given by partners high-lighting the mental health services provided.

Dr Samya Ahmad Al-Abdulla Deputy National Lead for Mental Health and Wellbeing and Exec-utive Director of Operations at Primary Health Care discussed the first line screening that is being done. She also informed participants of the mental health services available in PHCC high-lighting the availability of psy-chological therapies within their Support Clinics. Dr Samya said,“Our regional psychology support clinics deliver care closer to the community, playing a lead role in enhancing mental health care services, improving access, quality, and outcomes. The important of integrating mental health services not only improves access but aims to reduce stigma, which allows our

frontline staff to deliver Pre-vention and early detection of Mental Disorders”

National Lead for Mental Health and Wellbeing and HMC’s CEO of Mental Health Services Iain Tully conducted an inter-active exercise with the audience which highlighted the need for mental health awareness and removing the stigma in seeking help.

Following the exercise, Pro-fessor Muhammad Waqar Azeem, Chair of Psychiatry at Sidra Medicine provided an overview of the mental services provided by Sidra Medicine. He emphasized the importance of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and perinatal mental health services to the people of Qatar. He went on to thank the MOPH and partners for promoting awareness about mental health.

The final presentation was provided by Mahmoud Al Afeef, Clinical Educator in Naufar. He highlighted the specialist services provided by Naufar and outlined the referral process. He stated, “the services are medi-cally-led by multidisciplinary teams to address the neurobio-logical basis of addiction, the patients’ relationship with their family, their work, as well as common areas of concern in addiction including chronic pain, depression, anxiety and trauma.”

After the informative pres-entations’ attendees participated in activities associated with the Wheel of Wellbeing. This is a framework, founded on Positive Psychology, which promotes physical activities, healthy nutrition, and social connections with people, looking after the environment, gratitude and appreciation; in addition to med-itation to help us relax. Infor-mation resources and tips for mental wellbeing were also shared with the participants.

The event was part of series of national activities to raise awareness and break the social stigma associated with mental disorders.

Doha Institute reviews personal experiences of selected media professionalsQNA/DOHA

The Doha Institute for Graduate Studies organized a seminar on traditional and contem-porary forms of media during which its students interacted with the successful experiences of selected media professionals in Qatar. The seminar aimed at integrating theory with practice in the students’ university life. The seminar discussed traditional and contemporary forms of media and highlighted personal experiences in order to strengthen the links between field work on the one hand and scientific research on the other.

During the seminar, Al Jazeera journalists spoke about the vision of the channel and the mechanisms of interaction with the public, including new media and how to promote the content in a new way in line with the requirements of the times. They also discussed traditional and contemporary investigative production, explaining a number of constants and variables in the media, including that ethics are the constants of journalism, and that the standards and ethics of the profession draw the line between media and others.

The seminar discussed the presence of women in international and Arab media and highlighted the most important chal-lenges faced by women when thinking of entering the media field, as well as the need to strengthen their presence in the media.

HBKU event highlights AI’s impact on artTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

An event held recently by Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) has highlighted Artificial Intelligence’s Impact on Commercial and Contemporary Art.

Questions including Can Arti-ficial Intelligence (AI) really make Art? Is AI a friend or an enemy of human creativity? were under-pinning a recent talk organized by the College of Science and Engi-neering (CSE) and the Translation and interpreting Institute (TII) at the College of Humanities and

Social Science (CHSS) at HBKU.Is Art Created by AI Really Art?

featured an eclectic mix of speeches, panels, and question and answer ses-sions led by key members of the CSE and CHSS faculties. Proceedings began with a keynote speech in which CSE’s Dr James She outlined how AI and related technologies are helping to develop original, aesthetic and meaningful content for visual artwork and cultural businesses. This provided the context for the first panel session, in which Dr. She and the TII’s Dr Joselia Neves considered the impact that AI now has on estab-

lished definitions of art and culture. The second panel session, led

by Dr Dena Al Thani, looked at how AI is changing audience involvement with art. The panel addressed case studies to show how AI can be utilized by people with disabilities to shape their experience and understanding of contemporary art forms. Discus-sions concluded with the speakers offering their perspectives on the future shape and trajectory of AI’s contribution to the development and consumption of art.

Dr Mounir Hamdi, Dean, CSE,

said, “This event undoubtedly res-onates with our commitment to advancing knowledge and nurturing talent capable of traversing an increasingly sophisticated and fluid technological landscape. Artists, businesses, entrepreneurs and media professionals are increasingly looking at how AI can be utilized to produce visual content like adver-tisements, product designs, and even paintings. These technologies have the potential to make often-complex design tasks simpler without necessarily compromising aesthetics and quality.”

‘Festival of Qatari Farms Products’ launched at Lulu HypermarketSANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

Assistant Undersecretary for Agri-culture and Fisheries Affairs at the Ministry of Municipality and Envi-ronment (MME), Sheikh Dr Faleh bin Nasser Al Thani, inaugurated the ‘Festival of Qatari Farms Products’ under the theme ‘Together We Support National Products’ at Lulu Hypermarket in Al Gharafa yesterday.

The Festival is being organized by the Ministry represented by Agriculture and Fisheries Affairs Sector in cooperation with Lulu Hypermarket. Large quantity of local products including meat, poultry, vegetables, fruits, honey, dates, dairy products among many more are being offered at the Fes-tival. The Festival aims at sup-porting the owners of local farms to showcase their products in the major shopping malls in the country under a major plan of the Ministry to provide marketing platforms to local products.

The opening ceremony was attended by Director of the Agri-cultural Affairs Department, Yousuf Khalid Al Khulaifi; Advisor of Agricultural Affairs and Fish-eries Department, Dr. Mohamed Al Aseer; Director of Lulu Hyper-market Qatar, Mohamed Althaf; Head of Business Relations of Mahaseel, Ahmed Aziz T.T. Al Shamari; and officials from 21 farms participating in the Festival.

Sheikh Dr. Faleh bin Nasser Al Thani stressed that the Festival is part of efforts to support local farm owners to market their products at various marketing platforms. He added that the Ministry had launched two programmes to support local products in order to activate the local market to compete with foreign products.

He pointed out that the

previous programs were launched in the beginning with the partici-pation of only 7 farmers, bringing the number of farms participating during this period to 120 farms.

Director of the Agricultural Affairs Department, Yousuf Khalid Al Khulaifi, said that the Festival aims at supporting local products, raise the self-sufficiency ratio of various local products, market Qatari farm products in major malls in the country, as well as supporting and encouraging other farms to produce and display their products on the market.

Al Khulaifi added that the Min-istry set prices in cooperation with Mahaseel, so that the value of pro-duction is calculated as well as the addition of a suitable profit margin, while maintaining the appropriate price for the public and maintaining high quality.

Mohamed Althaf, Director of Lulu Hypermarket Qatar, said that Lulu Hypermarket Qatar has organised the ‘Festival of Qatari Farm Products’ at all Lulu outlets in Qatar this year as well, thereby creating an opportunity for cus-tomers to identify and experience the richness of Qatari food and non-food products and agricul-tural produce.

Since 2010, Lulu Hypermarket has been organizing the Festival of Qatari Farms Products every year regularly. This year, it has been organized in a big way and will continue until November 17, 2019 at all Lulu Hypermarket stores.

Lulu Hypermarkets have always been an ardent promoter of Qatari food and non-food products and agricultural produce, and almost all prominent Qatari

brands namely Dandy, Al Maha, Baladna, Ghadeer, Qbake, Athba, Rawa, qfm, Rayyan, Qatarat, Qatar Pafki, Pearl, Jawharh, Flora, Gourmet, Jerry Smith, Agrico Qatar, Paramount Agricole, Ocean Fish, Napoli Bakeries, Al Waha, Korean Bakeries, Parline, Ghazlan, Al Manhal, Dana, Aqua Gulf, Safa, Sidra, Lusail, Doha and Napico etc. are on regular display.

Lulu Hypermarket has long-standing close tie up with the local farmers and has been the focal point in marketing the local agri-cultural produce for many years. Although Lulu Hypermarkets have been promoting Qatari products and farm produces for many years, however, since June, 2017 they have been concentrating more in this regard as a social and economic commitment to the nation.

The Assistant Undersecretary for Agriculture Affairs & Fisheries at the MME, Sheikh Dr. Faleh bin Nasser Al Thani (centre right), and Yusuf Khalid Al Khulaifi, Director of Agriculture Affairs, cutting a cake with Mohamed Althaf, Director of Lulu Hypermarkets; and Shanavas P M, Regional Manager of Lulu Group, during the launch of ‘Festival of Qatari Farms Products’ at Lulu Hypermarket in Al Gharrafa, yesterday.

Qatar’s efforts in protecting, promoting human rights highlightedQNA DOHA

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) in cooper-ation with the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), yesterday, organised a press conference highlighting the efforts of the State of Qatar in the protection of human rights, especially the national mechanisms in this regard, and its pioneering experience in the light of the national legal system and international mechanisms and conventions.

The conference was organised on the occasion of the celebration of the Qatari Human Rights Day, which falls on November 11 of each year, and in the context of the technical framework of cooperation between the NHRC and the Department of Human Rights at the Min-istry of Interior on knowledge pro-duction, awareness-raising and joint con-tribution to relevant national, regional and international events.

In his opening remarks, the Assistant Secretary-General of the NHRC Sultan bin Hassan Al Jamali said that the pro-tection of human rights is a national responsibility, as stated in the UN Charter. Al Jamali commended the commitment of the State of Qatar to the human rights system at all levels, whether interna-tional, regional or national.

He stressed that the State of Qatar, since its accession to international pol-icies and conventions concerned with

the protection and promotion of human rights, has been working to translate the requirements of these conventions in its domestic legislation and policies and to create another legislative human rights momentum inspired by the human rights balance provided by our true Islamic religion and supports its national com-mitment to human rights.

For his part, Assistant Director of Human Rights Department at the Min-istry of Interior Colonel Saad Salem Al Dosari said that human rights in the State of Qatar have become a constant stra-tegic choice guiding the action of the State and society, and that the provision of guarantees necessary for their imple-mentation has become an integral part

of the requirements of the state of insti-tutions, the support of the rule of law and good governance. He added that this could be seen in the incorporation of ‘human rights’ into the Constitution, the National Vision 2030, the system of leg-islative instruments, the package of pro-grams, projects and creative initiatives in favour of civil, political, economic, social and cultural human rights.

Colonel Al Dossari pointed out that this year witnessed joint scientific and awareness initiatives by the Human Rights Department and the NHRC on the occasion of International Women’s Day and the Arab Human Rights Day, while appreciating the role of the Human Rights Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in

coordinating the efforts of the concerned authorities in the country to present the national performance in the field of human rights to the international community led by the United Nations, and the great effort of the UN Human Rights Training and Doc-umentation Centre for South-West Asia and the Arab Region in strengthening national human rights capacities.

For his part, Assistant Director of Human Rights Department at the Min-istry of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Yousef Al Thani said that the promotion and protection of human rights is a strategic choice as it forms the backbone of the policy of comprehensive reform and is at the top of the priorities of the State of Qatar.

The officials of MoI during a press conference highlighting the efforts of Qatar in the protection of human rights.

Lebanon and Iraq are ranked amongst the most corrupt countries in the region by anti-graft watchdog Transparency International, with Iraq listed as the 12th most corrupt in the world.

JACKSON DIEHL THE WASHINGTON POST

08 TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019VIEWS

‘Sister protests’: Lebanon, Iraq look to each other

A Lebanese flag flutters in the protest-hit Iraqi capital. More than 900 kilometres (500 miles) away, a revolutionary

Iraqi chant rings out from a bustling protest square in Beirut.

“Don’t trust the rumours, they’re a group of thieves,” sings a group of Lebanese musicians in Iraqi dialect, referring to political leaders they deem incompetent and corrupt.

“The identity is Lebanese,” they continue, reworking the chant by Iraqi preacher Ali Yusef al-Karbalai, made popular during the street movement there. Such recent shows of solidarity have become a common feature of protest squares in the two countries, where corruption, unemployment and appalling public services have fuelled unprecedented street movements demanding the ouster of an entire political class.

They serve to “shed light on simi-larities between the two movements and boost morale”, said Farah Qadour, a Lebanese oud musician.

“The two streets are observing and learning from each other,” said the 26-year-old who is part of the group that adopted al-Karbalai’s chant.

In Leba-non’s southern city of Nabatiyeh, hundreds brandishing Lebanese flags chanted: “From Iraq to Beirut, one revolution

that never dies.”And in the northern city of Tripoli,

dubbed the “bride” of Lebanon’s protest movement, a man standing on a podium waved a wooden pole bearing the flags of the two countries.

“From Lebanon to Iraq, our pain is one, our right is one, and victory is near,” read a sign raised during

another protest, outside Beirut’s state-run electricity company.

In Tahrir Square, the beating heart of Baghdad’s month-old protest movement, demonstrators are selling Lebanese flags alongside Iraqi ones.

They have hung some on the aban-doned Turkish restaurant, turned by Iraqi demonstrators into a protest control tower.

Banners reading “from Beirut to Baghdad, one revolution against the corrupt” could be seen throughout.

Lebanon and Iraq are ranked amongst the most corrupt countries in the region by anti-graft watchdog Transparency International, with Iraq listed as the 12th most corrupt in the world. Public debt levels in both countries are relatively high, with the rate in Lebanon exceeding 150 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

“What’s happening on the streets in Iraq and Lebanon, they’re sister protests,” said Samah, a 28-year-old Lebanese demonstrator.

“They’re the result of an accumu-lation” of years of problems.

One video that went viral on social media networks showed a masked Iraqi protester dressed in military fatigues demanding the resignation of Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, one of the main targets of pro-testers in the small Mediterranean country. In a video released online, a group of young Iraqi men had filmed themselves singing, “Lebanon, we’re with you!”

The two movements also seem to be adopting similar protest strategies.

In both countries, rows of parked vehicles have blocked traffic along main thoroughfares in recent weeks.

University-aged demonstrators wearing medical masks or eye goggles have occupied bridges and flyovers,

refusing to believe pledges of reform from both governments.

The big difference is that in Iraq, the demonstrations have turned deadly, with more than 300 people, mostly protesters but also including security forces, killed since the movement started October 1.

Lebanon’s street movement, which started on October 17, has been largely incident-free despite scuffles with security forces and counter-demon-strators rallying in support of estab-lished parties.

The two movements, however, are united in their anger about the kind of political system that prioritises power-sharing between sects over good governance.

The consecutive governments born out of this system have been prone to deadlock and have failed to meet popular demands for better living conditions.

“We are united by a sense of patriotic duty in confronting this sec-tarian political system,” said Obeida, a 29-year-old protester from Tripoli.

He said he had high hopes for Iraqi protesters because the sectarian power-sharing system there is rela-tively new, having emerged after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

“In Lebanon, it’s more entrenched,” he said of the arrangement that ended the country’s 1975-1990 civil war.

On a Beirut waterfront, dotted with luxury restaurants and cafes, a 70-year-old Iraqi man who has been living in Lebanon for five years looked on as demonstrators laid out picnic blankets on the grass.

With a Lebanese flag wrapped around his neck, Fawzi said the pro-tests looked different but reminded him of those back home.

HASHEM OSSEIRAN & MAYA GEBEILY AFP

QUOTE OF THE DAYWe have decided to go to the legislative

elections first and then the presidential

elections, and they must be held in Gaza and East

Jerusalem along with the West Bank. Without Gaza and East Jerusalem there

will be no elections.

Mahmoud Abbas Palestinian President

Politics of 1930s are still playing out in Eastern Europe

On the night after the Berlin Wall fell, as I watched crowds of delirious East Germans surge down West Berlin’s broad Kur-

fürstendamm street, it didn’t occur to me that history was ending. On the contrary, it seemed that in the former captive nations of Eastern Europe, history was making a comeback.

Soviet-imposed communism, I wrote that night in an article for The Washington Post, had suppressed the politics that drove events in Poland, Hungary, Czecho-slovakia and other East Bloc states before World War II. As the wall fell, those cur-rents were suddenly reappearing, as if awakened from a long sleep. Poland’s Sol-idarity movement was splintering into liberal and nationalist factions that resembled prewar parties. In Yugoslavia, ethnic animosities between Serbs and Croats were resurfacing. Hungary had rediscovered its prewar nationalism in a feud with Romania.

Thirty years later, the politics of the 1930s are still playing out in the former Eastern Bloc. Poland is governed by an authoritarian-minded right-wing gov-ernment closely aligned with a reac-tionary Catholic Church. An uneasy peace prevails in the splintered remains of Yugoslavia after a devastating ethnic war. Hungary, which was ruled by a right-wing authoritarian government before World War II, is now dominated

by the proudly “illiberal” Viktor Orban, who has tried to rehabilitate former strongman Miklos Horthy.

Though these political movements are sometimes lumped in with the modern-day populists of Western Europe, they are, in key respects, more like their 20th-century predecessors. They are authori-tarian and socially reactionary - anti-LGBTQ rhetoric is a favourite theme of Poland’s ruling party. Prewar evils such as irredentism and anti-Semitism are alive in mainstream politics to a degree they are not on the other side of the former Iron Curtain. Just ask emigre Hungarian Jewish financier George Soros, whom Orban cast as his leading opponent in the last national election. What’s surprising to me is the extent to which communist-era pol-itics have also survived. My assumption in 1989 was that Soviet-syle totalitarianism was an alien implant that would vanish from countries closer to Berlin than Moscow. Yet some legacies of communist rule have proved enduring, perhaps because they are all too compatible with the resurgent illiberal movements.

One is the use of state-run national television for political propaganda. After the establishment of democracy, Poland moved to make its government-owned network independent, similar to the BBC. That abruptly ended when the right-wing Law and Justice party came to power in 2015. Now state television glorifies the ruling party and slimes its opponents in a fashion eerily reminiscent of communist times. In Hungary, Orban has gone a step

further, using state resources and friendly businessmen to all but eliminate independent media.

A second legacy is pervasive official corruption. In the morally nihilistic world of Eastern Bloc communism, everyone from traffic cops to Communist Party sec-retaries felt free to exploit the system for private profit. To a disturbing extent, that has not changed. Only a few months ago was Liviu Dragnea, Romania’s most pow-erful politician through the 2010s, finally imprisoned for abuse of power.

In 1989, I predicted that Czechoslo-vakia would revert to the model of dem-ocratic pluralism it had under Thomas Masaryk, its president from 1918 to 1935. It did at first, thanks to Velvet Revolution leader Vaclav Havel. But the president of the Czech Republic today, Milos Zeman, is a sleazy tool of Russian interests; Prime Minister Andrej Babis was until recently under criminal investigation for fraud. Slovakia’s shady prime minister, Robert Fico, was forced to step down last year after the gangland-style slaying of a jour-nalist investigating corruption.

The most insidious communist legacy may be ahistoricism. After the war, while West Germany de-Nazified, East Germans, Hungarians and Poles were told they bore no responsibility for fascism or the Holocaust, which were portrayed as capitalist crimes. Today’s governments follow suit: Poland’s passage of a law criminalizing accounts of the Holocaust that hold Poles accountable is the quintes-sential example.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFIeditorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMEDm.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Easy entry to Qatar

Aiming to ease entry procedures to Qatar, the Min-istry of Interior (MoI) has launched an e-portal to issue visas for those interested in visiting the country,

with a focus on events that are held in the State. Maj. Abdullah Khalifa Al Mohannadi, Director of Visa

Support Services Department at the Ministry of the Interior, said the launching of Qatar Visa Portal was in addition to the list of leading visa projects, which comes under the Ministry of Interior’s efforts to develop e-services to the public and to contribute to the strengthening of the state’s growing economic growth in line with Qatar National Vision 2030.

The Portal not only covers visas of events, but also business visas, investment and visas for other various activities. Al Mohannadi said the movement of entry and exit in Qatar is growing rapidly thanks to the many diverse programs that the country has embraced, including ena-bling citizens of more than 80 countries to obtain imme-diate visas upon entering Hamad International Airport, which made Qatar among the most open countries to the world. Recently, statistics by the Ministry of Interior showed

that the total number of entry and exit traffic through Hamad International Airport in September reached 1,056,027 movements.

Qatar’s aviation hub wel-comed a record-high total of 10.7 million passengers in the third quarter this year, making it the busiest quarter the airport has ever seen. The airport currently serves over 165 destinations from Qatar and annually connects more than 35 million passengers to all corners of the world. The airport is gearing up to welcome a rising number of travellers in the run up to FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and beyond.

The Director of Visa Support Services Department also touched on the issue of Qatar Visa Centers and said Qatar currently has more than 14 visa centers operating in six countries. The next Qatar Visa Center will be opened in the Republic of Tunisia, he said.

The Qatar Visa Portal was launched in collaboration with a number of other entities in the State, including a special body on events, which contains all the details of ongoing and upcoming events happening in the country, thereby allowing the public inside and outside of Qatar to familiarise with all events.

Qatar hosts many different cultural, scientific, sports and tourist events throughout the year. These events attract a huge number of visitors, which require the establishment of a unified platform that receives applications for visas to enter the country. The portal provides the electronic visa service and follow-up facility to citizens of all coun-tries in the world to attend the events hosted by the State like the Arab Gulf Cup and the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup and the most awaited FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

The Qatar Visa Portal includes a special section of events containing all the details of the events held in the country, which allows the public to stay informed of the ongoing events in Qatar.

Flags of Iraq and Lebanon displayed for sale at a street vendor’s stall in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Political differences between left and right began to disappear. The 1990s were the years of the Third Way, or of new centrism, where the objective was no longer to merge democracy with socialism but to move beyond the very concepts of left and right. Politics lost its utopian charge and the left became the technocratic administrator of financial capitalism.

09TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019 OPINION

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Trade wars come andgo. Commerce is ancient

What happened to the Left in Western Europe after 1989?

DANIEL MOSS BLOOMBERG

LORENZO MARSILI AL JAZEERA

The island of Tsushima, halfway between Japan and South Korea, is about as close as you can get to the frontline

of their trade war. Now part of Nagasaki prefecture, waves of Korean cultural, commercial and military influence have crested and receded over the hills of this verdant island

since the Middle Ages.Here it’s apparent that centuries-

old ties between the nations can’t be unwound by political rhetoric spewing from capital cities hundreds of miles away. Economic life crawls along, with a determination to do whatever it takes to weather this moment in Seoul-Tokyo relations. Survival depends on it.

Tension between these two indus-trial powerhouses heated up in July, when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe restricted exports of certain materials vital to South Korea’s technology industry, citing concerns about nuclear-weapons proliferation. Many suspect this was really a response to recent South Korean court decisions that determined some big Japanese companies must pay damages for forced labor during World War II and the occupation. Japan says all claims were covered under a 1965 treaty and faulted Seoul’s handling of the issue.

Then in August, during the peak of

the summer tourist season, Abe removed Korea from a list of trusted export destinations. Korea responded by giving notice it would pull out of an intelligence-sharing pact.

The economic damage has been profound. South Korean visits to Japan fell 60% in September from a year earlier. Exports of some indus-trial gases from Japan have plum-meted to almost zero. The spat has undermined a Korean economy already crunched by the China-US trade clash; and exports have fallen for 11 consecutive months.

In bustling cities like Seoul, Koreans have boycotted Japanese shops and restaurants, and protesters have spilled into the streets. Yet I saw none of this antipathy in Tsushima. About a two-hour ferry ride from Busan, South Korea’s second-biggest city, the island’s lifeblood flows Korean, even if it’s technically inside Japanese waters.

In the town of Hitakatsu, a few feet from Japanese customs and immigration at the wharf, locals turned out with a big banner, written in Korean, welcoming arrivals. It’s a way for residents to show their appreciation for visitors, one greeter said, whose numbers have plum-meted since relations between the two governments soured this summer. The 400-seat boat was almost empty, save a handful of seniors with fishing rods and tackle (some took their catch with them back to Korea). Tsushima is usually buzzing with Korean travelers who come for duty-free shopping, fishing and long weekends in the island’s picturesque hamlets. All that’s over, at least for now.

At noon on a warm, cloudless day,

Hitakatsu was deserted: A car rental place near the dock was shuttered, as were most restaurants. Taxis were neatly parked in their company garage, clean and shiny, waiting for riders who don’t come. Duty-free stores had more staff than customers. The one vendor open was the Chinguya & Kiyo cafe, where my interpreter and I were the only patrons. The barista testified to tough times; business is down about 90% since July, he says.

Business at a nearby restaurant has also collapsed, according to owner Kousaku Nakamura, a Tsu-shima native, who’s been running the place for three decades. Once a Korean television star, Nakamura has been featured on cooking and tourism programs. His eatery dis-plays a blown-up photograph of himself from Korean Broadcasting System, a testimony to happier times. Over lunch of barbecue beef, he noted that the current flare-up is especially unhelpful given the slow-burn demographic crisis in provincial Japan, which I wrote about here and here.

For all the pain of the moment, local Japanese sound philosophical about links between their country and Korea. You can even see the coastline near Busan from a Korean-style pagoda nestled in the hills outside Hitakatsu. The relationship has had ups and downs for millennia, they noted. Better times will return, they said.

Back down at the dock, towns-people have turned out again with a banner in Korean to wave and shout fond farewells to the departing afternoon ferry back to Busan. They sure need us to come back.

In their short pamphlet, The insurrection: A poem dedicated to the Parisians, French poets Joseph Mary and Auguste Bar-

thelemy describe how on July 28, amid the revolution of 1830, people in Paris started shooting at clock towers. It was as if the revolutionaries, who had rebelled against the restoration of the monarchy imposed on them by European powers, wanted to extend the day so their victory against the royal forces would come sooner, so they could hasten the movement of history.

Some 150 years later, the ideo-logical successors of the French revo-lutionaries took aim at the clocks once again, but not to precipitate change, rather - to stop it. After the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 - the most powerful symbol of the collapse of the Iron Curtain that divided Eastern and Western Europe - the political left in the West decided to stop time and participate in estab-lishing an everlasting present of neo-liberal capitalism.

The first 20 years after the fateful events on that cold November day in Berlin brought significant economic growth, mostly sustained by the rapid expansion of speculative finance. Glo-balisation was advancing and the European Union was cruising ahead with the integration of its internal market and the expansion of its borders to include post-communist

Eastern European states. The general mood was of moderate optimism, as the political life of Europe became, on the whole, increasingly pacified.

Indeed, just as the rubble of the wall was cleared from the streets of Berlin, the very idea of political change was removed from Western democracies. However dystopic the state communism imposed on Eastern Europe may have been, and however atrocious the plight of those living under authoritarian regimes, the presence of the Eastern bloc gal-vanised demands for social justice and for a reform of capitalism in the West.

While the Berlin wall still divided socialist countries without democracy from democratic countries without socialism, the European political left dared to dream a daring hypothesis: Democracy and socialism.

The threat posed by the socialist bloc, and the need to contain its influence in the West, pushed European elites towards compromise with the demands of organised labour. It would have been difficult, for instance, to establish the generous European welfare system in the aftermath of World War II without the threat of socialism advancing on the West through the disgruntled working classes.

But the year 1989 marked the end of radical and alternative visions for the future for Western democracies.

The End of History and the Last Man, the famous book by American political scientist Francis Fukuyama, heralded the advent of an epoch free from social and political conflict thanks to the definitive triumph of liberal democracy and the free market.

Political differences between left and right began to disappear. The 1990s were the years of the Third Way, or of new centrism, where the objective was no longer to merge democracy with socialism but to move beyond the very concepts of left and right. Politics lost its utopian charge and the left became the tech-nocratic administrator of financial capitalism.

Left-wing parties were competing for who would privatise the most, who would undermine labour protec-tions most effectively, and who would best empower speculative financial capital. Tony Blair’s New Labour in the United Kingdom, Gerard Schroeder’s Social Democrats in Germany, and the former and very powerful Communist Party of Italy were among the main European ena-blers of financial globalisation during those years.

The disappearance of the Soviet threat and triumph of capitalism further strengthened the hand of eco-nomic elites in extracting ever-greater concessions from workers - without any longer running the risk of a com-munist party winning elections as a result. Inequalities boomed as wealth started to concentrate towards the top. This was the counterrevolution that set up the economic system which so spectacularly broke down during the 2008 global financial crisis.

There cannot be any nostalgia for the world before 1989. But to under-stand our current time it is crucial to appreciate to what extent Europe’s left-wing parties were implicated in the construction of the neoliberal model. It is precisely this implication that made Europe’s progressives radi-cally unprepared to convincingly respond to the 2008 economic crisis.

Indeed, as Europe went from crisis to crisis over the last decade, the left was widely perceived as being part of the problem and not the solution; of being on the side of the few, not the many. After the great neoliberal con-version of the European left after 1989, no one was left to advocate for substantial reforms to an increasingly dysfunctional capitalism. The result was the birth of identitarian nation-alism and powerful far-right dis-courses all over the continent, filling the gap left empty by the demise of the left.

Here it’s apparent that centuries-old ties between the nations can’t be unwound by political rhetoric spewing from capital cities hundreds of miles away. Economic life crawls along, with a determination to do whatever it takes to weather this moment in Seoul-Tokyo relations. Survival depends on it.

Those who were “left-behind”, the squeezed middle classes and all those on the losing end of neo-liberal globalisation had nowhere to turn to for an alternative other than the far right. As trust in the economic system started to dis-appear, the mainstream European left evaporated with it and fascist ideologies made a comeback.

To effectively tackle today’s wave of nationalist populism we need to go back to where it all began in 1989. We need a new gen-eration of politicians, social activists and parties that are able to argue the case for moving beyond a model premised on scandalous ine-qualities and on the destruction of our planet.

There are already signs that the younger generations have woken up to this idea. Initiatives and protests like the Fridays for Future movement, which calls for an overhaul of the global economy to prevent an environmental catastrophe, have set a clear path forward that focuses on environ-mentalism. New democratic socialist forces, and among them the very popular Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are merging calls for a Green New Deal with plans to redistribute wealth.

This is the path the European left must follow if it is not to wither away into irrelevance. Ours is not a time for rest and not a time for cen-trism. It is the time to bring back vision, ambition and utopia to our tired and dramatically inadequate politics. It is the time to restart the clocks of history once again.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is welcomed by European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen ahead of a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, last week.

10 TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019HOME

11TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Four protesters shotdead in Iraq unrestAP & AFP BAGHDAD

The United Nations top envoy to Iraq, seeking support for a roadmap to resolve massive anti-government protests, said yesterday that the country’s most powerful Shia religious leader backs serious reforms but is concerned politicians will not carry them out.

Overnight, four protesters were shot dead and some 130 wounded in renewed clashes between security forces and pro-testers in the southern city of Nasiriyah, a rights group said.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN Special Representative to Iraq, met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf to discuss the series of reforms put forward by the UN a day earlier.

“The marjaiyah made it clear that it supports the conduct of serious reforms in a reasonable period of time,” she said, using the Arabic name for al-Sistani’s authority. “Within that context, it welcomes the proposals of the United Nations, including the

proposal for one consolidated electoral framework.”

“The marjaiyah also expresses its concerns that the political forces are not serious enough to carry out these reforms,” she added.

On Sunday, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq laid out a series of short- and long-term measures aimed at tackling protester demands, including electoral reform and anti-corruption initiatives.

More immediate measures included the release of peaceful demonstrators detained since early October, an investigation into cases of abduction and

punishing those found guilty of using excessive force against protesters.

Hennis-Plasschaert said the UN would monitor the govern-ment’s progress to ensure measures were being “done promptly, swiftly and decisively because this country needs to

move forward.” The casualties in Nasiriyah occurred during confrontations outside the edu-cation directorate as security forces tear-gassed protesters trying to block employees from reaching the building in the city centre.

The semi-official Iraqi High

Commission for Human Rights, which reported the toll, called the violence “regrettable” and added that some of the wounded are in serious conditions.

At least 320 protesters have been killed by security forces since the protests and unrest over living conditions began last month.

Iraqi firefighters hose down the scorched building of the ministry of finance set ablaze by protesters at Baghdad’s Khallani Square during the ongoing anti-government demonstrations, yesterday.

Iran launchesenrichment atFordow site,confirms IAEAREUTERS VIENNA

Iran has begun enriching uranium at its underground Fordow site in the latest breach of its deal with major powers, the UN nuclear watchdog confirmed yesterday, adding that Tehran’s enriched uranium stock has continued to grow.

Iran is contravening the deal’s limits on its nuclear activities step by step in response to Washington’s with-drawal from the accord last year and its renewed sanctions on Tehran. Tehran says it can quickly undo those breaches if Washington lifts its sanctions.

In a quarterly report, the International Atomic Energy Agency policing the deal con-firmed Iran’s announcement last week that it had begun enriching uranium at its Fordow site buried inside a mountain, something pro-hibited by the deal. “Since 9 November..., Iran has been con-ducting uranium enrichment at the plant,” said the confidential IAEA report, obtained by Reuters.

Iran’s stock of enriched uranium has increased, to 372.3 kg, well above the deal’s 202.8 kg cap. The maximum fissile purity to which Iran has enriched uranium so far, however, remains 4.5 %, above the deal’s 3.67% cap but still well below the 20% Iran has achieved before and the 90% required for atomic bomb fuel.

Iran has continued to enrich with centrifuge machines other than its most basic model, the IR-1, which is not allowed under the deal, the IAEA report added. It has enriched with more advanced centrifuges and even installed small numbers of centrifuges not mentioned in the deal, the report showed.

Iran said last week it was working on a advanced pro-totype of centrifuge that could enrich 50 times as fast as the IR-1, deemed by experts as anti-quated and prone to breakdown.

Palestinian martyred in clashes on anniversary of Arafat’s death

AFP HEBRON

Clashes erupted between Pales-tinians and Israeli forces yesterday during demonstrations marking the 15th anniversary of

Yasser Arafat’s death in the occupied West Bank, leaving a Palestinian shot dead, medics and Palestinian officials said.

Demonstrations were held in Ramallah and the Hebron area in the West Bank to

commemorate the legacy of Arafat, revered as a hero by Palestinians.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who succeeded Arafat, laid a wreath at his tomb at a ceremony in Ramallah, where hundreds gathered with pictures and flags for the anniversary.

“Israel says the martyrs are criminals, terrorists and mur-derers,” Abbas said. “We will never agree to give up on our martyrs, our most sacred martyrs.”

Sporadic clashes erupted with Israeli forces, including in the Hebron area, where a Pales-tinian man was shot dead, the Palestinian health ministry and medics said.

Palestinian medical sources identified the man as 22-year-old Omar al-Badawi, who was hit in the chest with live fire at Al Arroub refugee camp before being taken to Ahali hospital in Hebron, where he was

pronounced dead. Medics also reported Israeli use of live fire in clashes at Fawwar, south of Hebron, one of the most tense cities in the West Bank.

Palestinians threw stones at Israeli soldiers in Hebron itself and troops responded with tear gas. The Palestinian Red Crescent reported at least 49 injuries in total, including two from live fire.

Palestine Liberation Organ-isation secretary general Saeb Erekat called on the Interna-tional Criminal Court to inves-tigate the shooting of al-Badawi.

Arafat died on November 11, 2004, at a hospital near Paris from unknown causes at the age of 75.

Palestinians have long accused Israel of poisoning him, charges the Israeli government firmly denies.

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

Palestinians walk past a billboard commemorating the 15th anniversary of the death of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat near his home in Gaza City, yesterday.

Key backer of Syrian ‘WhiteHelmets’ found deadREUTERS ISTANBUL

The British founder of an organ-isation that trained the “White Helmets” emergency response group has been found dead in Istanbul, five years after the group was set up to perform rescue work in rebel areas during the Syrian civil war.

The body of James Le Mesurier, founder of the Mayday Rescue group, was found early yesterday near his home in central Istanbul’s Beyoglu dis-trict, a neighbour said. The Istanbul Governor’s Office said an investigation had been launched.

A security source said it was believed that Le Mesurier had fallen from the balcony of his home office and his death was being treated as suspected suicide.

The White Helmets, known

officially as Syria Civil Defence, have been credited with saving thousands of people in rebel-held areas hit by bombing by government and Russian forces in Syria’s more than eight-year-old civil war.

White Helmets members say they are neutral. Syrian Pres-ident Bashar al-Assad and his backers, including Moscow, describe them as tools of Western propaganda and insurgents.

The Russian Foreign Min-istry said on Twitter on Friday that the White Helmets help “the most dangerous terrorist groups,” and that Le Mesurier was a former British agent with reported “connections to ter-rorist groups.”

Mayday Rescue, a not-for-profit organisation, began its operations in 2014 and estab-lished an office in Istanbul in 2015 to support its Syria project.

Six dead in bombings in Syrian Kurdish cityAFP QAMISHLI, SYRIA

Three simultaneous bombings killed at least six civilians in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria yesterday, a Kurdish security source and a Britain-based monitor said.

There was no immediate claim for the bombings.

In Qamishli, an AFP corre-spondent saw charred cars and smoke rise from the site of the blasts.

Firefighters tried to put out the flames caused by the explo-sions, as rescue workers carried away the victims.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, which relies on sources inside Syria, said two car bombs and an explosives-rigged motorcycle blew up in a market and near a school in the city.

More than 20 people were

wounded in the simultaneous attacks, said the Britain-based monitor said. The blasts come after IS claimed to have killed an Armenian Catholic priest from Qamishli.

The Observatory said the priest and his father were killed by gunfire as they made their way to the eastern province of Deir Ezzor to inspect the resto-ration of a church there.

Security forces and civilians gather at the site of bombings in the Syrian city of Qamishli in Hasakah province, yesterday.

Nigeria urged to ban chaining mental health patients REUTERS LAGOS

Thousands of people with mental health conditions are held in chains in institutions across Nigeria, Human Rights Watch said in a report published yesterday in which it urged the government to ban the practice.

The findings come as authorities have taken action against informal schools and

rehabilitation centres whose inmates have been subjected to widespread physical abuse with many held in chains. Some 1,500 people have been freed in raids since late September.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said its researchers visited 28 mental health facilities in Nigeria’s capital and 8 of the country’s 36 states, between August 2018 and September 2019 during which interviews

were conducted with 124 people.

The researchers found many people were shackled with iron chains, around one or both ankles, to heavy objects or to other detainees.

This was happening in a range of institutions including federal psychiatric hospitals, state hospitals and state-owned rehabilitation centres, churches and Islamic centres.

HRW said staff chained adults and children in 27 out of 28 facilities visited. Some people were chained for a few days at a time as punishment, or for weeks or months to prevent them from moving or leaving.

It said the youngest person chained was a 10-year-old boy and the oldest was an 86-year-old man who had a visual disability.

Some people had been held

for months or years, often in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions, the researchers found.

The Nigerian government should “completely ban chaining”, HRW said, adding that it should “urgently inves-tigate all state and private insti-tutions where people with mental health conditions live... with the goal of stopping chaining and ending abuses”.

US urges early Iraq polls, end to violenceAFP WASHINGTON

The United States urged Iraqi authorities to hold early polls and carry out electoral reforms and called for an end to the violence that has left hundreds of protesters dead.

Washington wants “the Iraqi government to halt the violence against protesters and fulfil President (Barham) Saleh’s promise to pass electoral reform and hold early elec-tions,” the White House said in a statement on Sunday.

“The United States is seri-ously concerned by continued attacks against protestors, civic activists and the media, as well as restrictions on internet access, in Iraq,” it said.

Mass rallies calling for an overhaul of the ruling system have rocked the capital Baghdad and some other areas since October 1, but political forces closed ranks this week to defend the government.

In a televised address last month, Saleh had proposed an early vote after reforms, but the suggestion seems to have been widely rejected by Iraq’s political class.

DRC anti-Ebola radio shuts after threats, murder AFP GOMA, DR CONGO

A local radio station that has been involved in the fight against Ebola in eastern DR Congo said yesterday it was closing down after one of its broadcasters was murdered.

Joel Musavuli, head of Lwemba radio in Mambasa in Ituri province, said that the station had been targeted by armed groups hostile to the campaign to roll back the Ebola epidemic.

“Each of us have received threats since last month. We have now decided to stop broadcasting, Musavuli said, adding that he himself had escaped two kidnap attempts.

“We are victims of our com-mitment to the awareness cam-paign about the spread of Ebola virus disease. We don’t know why the militiamen are tar-geting us.”

Nearly 2,200 people have died since the notorious haem-orrhagic disease erupted in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in August 2018.

The UN mission to Iraq has laid out a series of short- and long-term measures aimed at tackling protester demands, including electoral reform and anti-corruption initiatives.

12 TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019ASIA

Governor invites NCP to form government in MaharashtraIANS MUMBAI

Maharashtra Governor BS Koshyari late yesterday invited the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to form the next government in the state, the partys national spokesperson Nawab Malik said.

“Our delegation has been invited by the Governor and the indication is that a letter of invi-tation will be given to us. Tomorrow we shall discuss with the Congress on the ways and means to form the next gov-ernment,” Malik told newpersons.

Earlier, senior NCP leader and former Deputy Chief Min-ister Ajit Pawar informed the media that he was called by the Governor at 8.30pm and he was proceeding to the Raj Bhavan for a meeting along with half-a-dozen other leaders, but claimed that he had no knowledge as to why he was called.

Malik added that given the short 24-hour time limit, the Con-gress-NCP could not comply with all the requirements to enable the Shiv Sena finalise its claim for forming the government.

“The Governor requires letters

with signatures, names, constit-uency names and the number of all the supporting legislators which was difficult to organise at such a short notice. The Sena sought additional time, but the Governor expressed his inability to grant the extension,” Malik said.

Earlier, on Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party expressed its inability to form the gov-ernment, and on Monday, the Shiv Sena could not produce the letters of support from the Con-gress and the NCP though it has secured ‘in-principle’ support from both the parties. And now, the NCP has been given the opportunity.

The Shiv Sena had earlier yesterday expressed its will-ingness and staked its claim to form the government in the state.

“We were given 24 hours’ time to express our willingness to form the government. We have shown our willingness and also staked our claim. We sought addi-tional time of two days from the Governor, which was declined,” Shiv Sena leader and MLA Aditya Thackeray told a media con-ference at Raj Bhavan last evening.

He said the Governor had accepted the claim, but refused to give extension of time, and that Sena would make another trip to Raj Bhavan soon.

The disappointing devel-opment came after a hectic day in which Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi spoke with Nation-alist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, and a letter of support was faxed to the Shiv Sena, according to sources on all sides.

Earlier, Pawar met Sena President Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai to finalise the under-standing, and later Thackeray spoke with Sonia Gandhi to make a formal request for support.

Meanwhile, before taking a final call over supporting the Shiv Sena to form the government in Maharashtra, a cautious Sonia Gandhi yesterday asked senior

party leaders to again verify the party legislators’s concerns before coming to a conclusion.

Gandhi, who held a crucial meeting with the senior party leaders at her residence here along with the Maharashtra Con-gress leaders for the second time during the day, also received a call from Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray, seeking her party’s report.

At the meeting, she herself asked few of the Maharashtra leaders present as to what they want. She then tasked party General Secretary K C Venugopal to discuss with the

party legislators to know their concerns before saying yes to the Shiv Sena and the NCP on forming the government in the state.

Former Maharashtra Chief Ministers Ashok Chavan, Prithi-viraj Chavan, and Sushil Kumar Shinde, state unit chief Balasaheb Thorat, senior leader Vijay Wat-tediwar, Rajani Patil and others were present in the meeting at Gandhi’s residence.

Besides the Maharashtra leaders, senior party leader Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge and others were also present in the meeting.

The meeting comes in the wake of reports that majority of Congress MLAs of the state favoured supporting Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), as the Congress has to take a final call by Monday itself.

Congress sources had earlier said that a decision of giving outside support or joining the gov-ernment will be taken only after consultation with state leaders.

Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena’s sole representative in the Union Cabinet, Arvind Sawant announced he would quit the government over the Mahar-ashtra fallout.

Aaditya Thackeray, a leader of Shiv Sena, talks to the media after his meeting with Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Governor of Maharashtra, in Mumbai, yesterday.

AIMPLB to discuss SCverdict on November 17IANS LUCKNOW

A meeting of the executive committee of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) will be held on November 17 to discuss whether a review petition is to be filed in the Supreme Court verdict on the Ayodhya title dispute case.

In what will go down in history as one of its most landmark verdicts, the Supreme Court on Saturday granted the ownership of the 2.77 acres of disputed land in Ayodhya to the Hindus, paving the way for the construction of a Ram Temple, and ruled that the Muslims will get five acres of land at an alter-native site.

According to senior lawyer and AIMPLB member Zafaryab Jilani, the meeting will discuss the issue threadbare. The meeting is likely to be held in Delhi where senior lawyers could also be invited to discuss the issue.

Muslim stakeholders in the Ayodhya case have been sharply divided on the issue of going in for a review petition after the apex court verdict gave the entire disputed land for temple con-struction and said that Muslim would be given five acres of land ‘elsewhere’ in Ayodhya.

The apex court clarified that either the Central government can give the five-acre land to the Sunni Waqf Board from the nearly 68 acres of land which it had acquired in 1993 under the Acquisition of Certain Area at Ayodhya Act or the state gov-ernment could hand over the piece of land at a “suitable prominent place in Ayodhya”.

The Chairman of the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board, Zufar Faruqi, has already said that he is not in favour of filing a review petition in the case.

Another plaintiff, Iqbal Ansari, has also ruled out filing a review petition and has said that he respects the Supreme Court verdict.

However, Jilani, said that he respected the SC verdict but was not ‘satisfied’ with it. He announced in Delhi on Saturday that he would study the judgment and then file a review petition.

Condolences pour in over former CEC Seshan’s deathIANS NEW DELHI

Condolences poured in over the death of former Chief Election Commissioner of India TN Seshan, who passed away on Sunday at age 86.

Union Road Transport Min-ister Nitin Gadkari tweeted: “Saddened by the demise of Shri TN Seshan. He was a true legend. His contribution towards election reforms will be the guiding light for years to come. My deepest condolences. Om Shanti!” West Bengal Chief Min-ister Mamata Banerjee said in a

statement: “Saddened to know about the demise of TN Seshan Ji, a stalwart for free and fair elections. His legendary contri-bution to democracy will be always remembered. My condo-lences to his family and many admirers.” Puducherry Lieu-tenant Governor Kiran Bedi tweeted: “Just been informed Mr TN Seshan is no more. I am informed he was ailing for some time.

He was an epitome of a decisive public servant who bel ieved in constant improvement dynamically. He was a very warm hearted person.

One with a tough exterior with a very humane/soft interior.”

Former CEC SY Quraishi tweeted: “Sad to announce that Shri TN Seshan passed away a short while ago. He was a true legend and a guiding force for all his successors. I pray for peace to his soul.”

Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor tweeted: “Sad that former ChiefElectionCom-missioner TN Seshan has passed away in Chennai. He was my father’s classmate at Victori-aCollege Palakkad... a coura-geous & crusty boss who asserted the Election Commission’s

autonomy & authority as no CEC before him had done. A pillar of our democracy.”

Devendra Fadnavis, caretaker CM of Maharashtra, tweeted: “Sad to know about the demise of Former Chief Election Commis-sioner Shri TN Seshan ji. Known for electoral reforms, as a CEC he set a precedent for his successors. India will always remember him as a great administrator. My deepest condolences to his family, friends, followers!”

The IAS Association tweeted: “The man who reformed our Electoral System as we know today is no more. Shri T N Seshan

(1955 TN) - served the nation in various capacities and is a true role model for all of us. His demise is a great loss for the nation & society. Condolences.

“Sad day indeed. We have lost two of our best senior members - TN Seshan (1955) and P S Krishnan (1956). True role models - they set standards of public service we all aspire for. Loss for nation & society. Deepest Condolences to family members,” it posted.

Sheyphali Sharan, the spokesperson of the ECI, tweeted: “The Election Commission of India deeply mourns the passing away of Sh TN Seshan.

Emergency personnel and railway workers try to rescue a worker in the cabin of a surburban rail train after it collided with an intercity express train at Kachiguda Railway Station in Hyderabad, yesterday.

16 injured as trains collide in HyderabadIANS HYDERABAD

After eight hours of gruelling efforts, rescue workers pulled out the loco pilot alive from the mangled motorman cabin of a local train, which rammed into a stationary express train at Kachiguda railway station here yesterday, injuring 16 passengers.

Personnel of National Dis-aster Response Force (NDRF) and Accident Relief Team of the South Central Railway (SCR) cut through the cabin with the help of gas cutters to rescue 31-year-old Chandrasekhar, who was

later shifted to a hospital.The loco pilot spent eight long

hours stuck in the cabin of Multi-Modal Transport System (MMTS), which rammed into Kurnool City-Secunderabad Hundry Intercity Express around 10.30am.

The medical teams were supplying the loco pilot oxygen and saline to ensure that he would not fall unconscious.

The Express train had stopped near the station for the signal when Lingampally-Falaknuma MMTS train entered the same track and collided head-on with it. SCR officials said six coaches of MMTS train

and three coaches of Hundry Express were affected.

Doctors at government-run Osmania General Hospital said 16 injured were brought to the hospital and six of them were discharged.

Telangana Governor Tami-lasai Soundararajan directed Osmania Hospital superin-tendent to provide the best pos-sible treatment to the injured.

Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy visited the accident site in the evening and enquired from the officials about the cause of the collision and the rescue and relief works.

Angry JNU students tauntpolice, confine ministerIANS NEW DELHI

Angry JNU students targeted police with “Tis Hazri, Tis Hazari” slogans after the police allegedly pushed some students, including women, who were holding a massive protest outside the campus gate yesterday, which saw Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal unable to leave the varsity after a convocation event.

The protest began in the morning, against the hostel draft manual and fee hike proposed by the administration, even as Vice President Venkaiah Naidu was addressing the JNU’s Third Convocation Day there. The entire road outside the campus was blocked for hours due to the protest.

While the Vice President was able to leave the campus after his speech, the HRD Min-ister was not so lucky. He had to remain inside the compound for around five hours as angry stu-dents massed outside the gate.

It is only after a delegation of Delhi Police, comprising Special Commissioner of Police (headquarters) R S Krishnia and DCP (Central) Mandeep Singh Randhawa entered the campus, that they were able to escort the minister out safely after 4pm.

In between the police brought in water cannons to dis-perse the students, and kept one on standby for use. The use of water canon angered the stu-dents even more.

While he was confined inside, the HRD Minister met a delegation of students to hear about their demands. However, the students were unwilling to bring in the Minister into the fracas, and demanded that the only way to call off the protest would be by arranging talks with Vice Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar.

In the evening, the pro-testing students appeared in no mood to call off their protest, and began to call more students to support them.

The students also shouted “Shame, Shame” at students who received degrees at the convo-cation ceremony. The protesters demanded that the VC and HRD Minister meet some of the stu-dents outside AICTE Hall.

“This is an urgent appeal for JNU students to join those pro-testing to continue building pressure on VC Mamidala to come out to meet those here at AICTE,” went an appeal.

The ‘Tis Hazari, Tis Hazari’ chant was a taunt aimed at Delhi Police who were last week engaged in a massive scuffle with lawyers at the Tis Hazari courts over a parking row that left many injured, and escalated into a prolonged fight, with police coming out in protest.

Later, when some female constables pushed and shoved the protesting women students, the police were taunted with “Vakil Bualo, Vakil Bulao” (call the lawyers), in a throwback to the police-lawyers scuffle.

Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena’s sole representative in the Union Cabinet, Arvind Sawant announced he would quit the government over the Maharashtra fallout.

13TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019 ASIA

Dropping Sharif from ECL only after NAB clearanceINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The chief spokesperson for the Pakistani government, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, yesterday said that the decision to remove former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s name from the no-fly list will be taken in light of recom-mendations of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the medical board.

“The government itself does not place any individual’s name on the ECL (exit control list). Names are placed on the ECL on the recommendations given by NAB and the courts.

“Now that an application has been filed for the name to be removed, the same process is being followed,” the special assistant to the prime minister on information told the media

after her hearing in the Islamabad High Court in a con-tempt case.

“Hopefully, we will receive NAB’s recommendations soon. NAB is the plaintiff in this case, he (Nawaz) is a suspect in (a case being probed by) NAB and was convicted by an accountability court.

“Secondly, the recommen-dations attached with the appli-cation filed are made by a medical board of Sharif Medical City. The government does not take decisions in light of direc-tions from a private medical

board, it was important to take the opinion of the government’s medical board.”

Awan said that reports from NAB and the medical board were delayed due to the weekend and added that a review committee in the law ministry would “analyse” opinions of both bodies after which the matter would be forwarded to the cabinet.

PML-N spokesperson Mar-riyum Aurangzeb expressed concern over the delay in removing Nawaz’s name from the ECL.

In a statement, Aurangzeb said that the medical board formed by the government had already rec-ommended that Nawaz should be sent abroad for treatment as soon as possible. She said that the medical board had also recom-mended sending him abroad fol-lowing a meeting last night.

Aurangzeb said that once the former premier’s name is removed from the ECL other arrangements, such as arranging an air ambulance and sending the premier abroad, will start.

She said that the delay in removing Nawaz’s name from the ECL poses a threat to his life.

Additionally, Nawaz’s per-sonal physician Dr Adnan Khan said any delay in sending the former premier abroad could increase the risk to his health.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference, Punjab Health

Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid said that an application had been sub-mitted to the Ministry of Interior to permit Nawaz to go abroad for treatment.

Following this, the interior ministry had written to the health ministry asking them to get the opinion of the medical board. In response to this, the board said they had written a discharge summary and had pro-vided all the details of the tests that needed to be carried out, adding that they (interior min-istry) should act as they find suitable.

However, the interior min-istry said they wanted a detailed report particularly regarding whether Nawaz should be sent abroad or not.

She said that the board met last night and based on their analysis, they feel that because

the former premier’s condition isn’t stabilising and there may be tests that can’t be done in Pakistan, they recommend that he should be sent abroad.

Rashid said the health min-istry had written to the medical board informing them that they had found some shortfalls in the report and could not send it to the interior ministry.

They had told the board to provide details of “each test or intervention required with risk factor involved to be specifically mentioned”.

The provincial health min-ister said that they asked the board about which tests can be conducted in Pakistan’s public sector hospitals and which ones cannot. Additionally, they asked which tests can be sent abroad and why Nawaz is a high-risk patient.

Sri Lankan minister slams Facebook over ‘censorship’AFP COLOMBO

A senior Sri Lankan minister accused social media giant Facebook yesterday of censoring comments he made questioning the citizenship of presidential election frontrunner Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

The nationality of Rajapaksa, brother of former strongman president Mahinda, is a key issue ahead of voting Saturday as Sri Lankan law prohibits dual cit-izens from holding elected office.

Communications Minister Harin Fernando asked in a Facebook post on his official ministry page on Sunday whether Rajapakse should be allowed to stand, suggesting he was still a US national.

“Is Mr Rajapakse legally able to contest at a Presidential election in Sri Lanka?” Fernando asked in the now-deleted post.

“If elected, will he able to take oaths and discharge the duties of the office?” Gotabhaya became a US citizen in 2003, giving up his Sri Lanka passport after migrating to Los Angeles following a 20-year military career.

He returned to Colombo in 2005, when he says he reclaimed Sri Lankan citizenship and was appointed defence secretary in his brother’s administration.

Gotabhaya insists he renounced US citizenship in May this year.

Fernando said Facebook took down the post from his official ministry page on Sunday, and he repeated the allegations on Twitter while complaining he had been censored.

The same post was still visible on his private Facebook page, however, including a screenshot of what he claimed was Rajapaksa’s US passport.

“American companies shouldn’t interfere on behalf of an American contesting a SL election. I stand by my every word,” he tweeted.

A Facebook spokesperson said they routinely took down

any posts containing personal or confidential information.

“We remove this content whenever we become aware of it,” the company said.

Last month, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said it

would not censor political speech.

“I don’t think most people want to live in a world where you can only post things that tech companies judge to be 100 percent true,” he said.

A supporter of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s presidential candidate Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, holds election posters at the party’s election office in Biyagama, on the outskirts of Colombo, yesterday.

Myanmar faces genocide lawsuit at top UN courtAFP THE HAGUE

Myanmar faced accusations of genocide in a lawsuit filed by Gambia at the UN’s top court yesterday over the southeast Asian nation’s treatment of Rohingya Muslims, Gambia’s government said.

Gambia said it was acting on behalf of the 57-nation Organi-sation of Islamic Cooperation in bringing the case against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

It accuses Myanmar of

breaching the UN Genocide Con-vention through a bloody mil-itary campaign which has driven hundreds of thousands of people from the Rohingya minority into neighbouring Bangladesh.

In 2017 a brutal military crackdown forced 740,000 Rohingya to flee over the border into sprawling camps in Bangladesh in violence that UN investigators say amounts to “genocide”.

The lawsuit asks the ICJ to “order Myanmar to cease and desist from its genocidal acts, to punish the perpetrators, and to provide repa-rations for the Rohingya victims,”

Gambia’s justice ministry said.It said Myanmar had failed

to meet its obligations to prevent and to punish genocide, accusing it of “wanton acts of violence and malicious degradation with the specific intent of state actors to destroy the Rohingya as a group”.

Mainly-Muslim Gambia said it had “stepped up” to file the case on behalf of the rest of the OIC. Its justice minister Abubacarr Tambadou is a former genocide prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and has visited Rohingya camps in Bangladesh.

Gambia also asked the ICJ to make an urgent interim order while the case is under way “to protect the Rohingya against further harm... by ordering Myanmar to stop all of its geno-cidal conduct immediately.” There was no immediate reaction from Myanmar or the International Court of Justice.

The ICJ previously dealt with a genocide case when Bosnia brought a lawsuit against Serbia over the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

That case ended in 2007 with Serbia being held to have failed

to prevent genocide.Other legal attempts to bring

Myanmar to justice over allega-tions of crimes against the Rohingya have so far stalled.

The prosecutor for the Inter-national Criminal Court — a sep-arate tribunal from the ICJ that investigates war crimes —launched a preliminary investi-gation into Myanmar in 2018 but no charges have been filed yet.

UN investigators have also called on the UN Security Council to refer Myanmar to the Hague-based ICC or to set up a tribunal, but again no action has yet been taken.

People gather to watch a religious dance during the traditional Kartik Dance Festival at Patan Durbar Square in Lalitpur, Nepal.

Kartik Dance Festival in Nepal

Imran takes notice of ‘mishandling, delays’ on Pakistan Citizen PortalINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken notice of the mishandling, non-resolution or delayed response on the complaints registered on the Pakistan Citizen Portal, and directed all the ministries to form a dedicated committee to evaluate the performance of the concerned officers.

According to a letter issued to all ministries and divisions by the Prime Minister’s Office, a performance evaluation of few officers’ dashboard was made which showed that the com-plaints were neither handled according to the instructions nor were they decided at an appro-priate level.

“It was evident from the quality of response to the

citizens that the system was left in the hands of subordinates and majority of the decisions were made by them,” it stated.

The dedicated committee will comprise of a joint secretary who will also be the chairman, administrative focal person of the ministry or division, tech-nical focal person, focal person of attached departments and any co-opted member.

The committee will conduct a performance evaluation of the assigned or selected officers’ dashboards, and identify the loopholes in the sample com-plaints handled, resolved, or dropped so far.

The body will identify the officers responsible for poor per-formance and also those doing the best.

Besides taking corrective measures in complaints identified

with improper handling or reso-lution, the committee will also point out the success stories of the portal.

The ministries and divisions have been given 30 days to furnish the evaluation report.

The PM office pointed out that despite stress on provision of proof to the citizens regarding the resolution, many resolved complaints were found devoid of it.

The complaints were dropped on wrong pleas and many others were decided at irrelevant or unauthorised level.

In the evaluation, it was also found that a citizen was told that he had been granted relief or partial relief but factual position was different besides the mis-leading statements made regarding the resolution.

Turkey expands ultrasound facility in Karachi hospital

ANATOLIA KARACHI

Turkey’s state aid agency has gifted five colour ultrasound machines to Pakistan’s largest public sector hospital, expanding its existing ultra-sound facility.

The colour Doppler machines have been set up at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) to provide free of cost services to the citizens of Karachi — the country’s com-mercial capital.

Kamil Kolabas, adviser to Turkish minister of culture and tourism, and Turkish Cooper-ation and Coordination Agency’s (TIKA) Karachi Coor-dinator Ibrahim Katirci on Monday inaugurated the expanded ultrasound facility at a ceremony at the JPMC.

Speaking at the ceremony, Kolabas said the expansion of the ultrasound facility was a gift from the people of Turkey to their Pakistani brethren.

The Turkish government, and the people, he said, would continue to support Pakistan in efforts to provide better health facilities to its people.

Katirci said the addition of the new machines would not only improve the hospital’s incumbent capacity but also help needy patients ease off the financial burden, and get good health facilities.

Dr Tariq Mahmood, head of the JPMC’s Radiology department, for his part, thanked the Turkish gov-ernment for the donation, which, according to him, would significantly improve his department’s capacity.

“Hopefully, we will receive NAB’s recommendations soon. NAB is the plaintiff in this case, he (Nawaz) is a suspect in (a case being probed by) NAB and was convicted by an accountability court,” the chief spokesperson for the Pakistani government said.

14 TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019ASIA

HK police shoot protester, man set on fire as violence escalatesAFP HONG KONG

A police officer shot a masked protester in an incident shown live on Facebook and a man was set on fire yesterday during one of the most violent days of clashes in Hong Kong since pro-democracy unrest erupted more than five months ago.

Protesters, who had already begun a city-wide day of action aimed at paralysing the interna-tional financial hub, reacted to the morning shooting by ram-paging through train stations, barricading streets and vandal-ising shops throughout the day.

A masked assailant also doused a man with a flammable liquid and set him ablaze during an argument, with the horrifying scene captured on mobile phones and also posted online.

Police said a protester carried out that attack and accused black-clad “rioters” of an array of other violent acts, including throwing a petrol bomb inside a train carriage.

“Continuing this rampage is a lose-lose situation for Hong Kong,” police spokesman John Tse said at a press conference in which he showed the video of the

man being set alight, as well as a fire inside a train.

At the end of the business day Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam held a press con-ference to denounce the violence and vow it would not lead to any government concessions.

“I am making this statement clear and loud here, that will not happen,” Lam said.

The footage of the shooting — broadcast live to Facebook by a bystander — showed a police officer drawing a pistol as he tried to detain a masked person at a junction that had been blocked by protesters.

Another unarmed masked protester then approached the officer and was shot, quickly falling to the ground.

Authorities said he was in

critical condition in hospital.Police chiefs defended the

officer drawing his weapon and firing as a legitimate use of force given his fears for his safety.

But protesters, who for months have accused police of using excessive force and demanded an independent inquiry into their actions, were incensed.

The shooting yesterday was the third time protesters had been hit by live rounds fired by police. None of the shootings have resulted in deaths.

Lam said the man set on fire was in a critical condition. She described that attack as “totally inhumane”.

Protesters ignored her pleas for calm with further rallies in multiple locations across the city at night yesterday.

Online forums used by the largely anonymous and lead-erless movement also carried messages vowing another day of chaos today (Tuesday).

Hong Kong has endured 24 straight weeks of increasingly violent rallies aimed at securing greater democratic freedoms from China, which has ruled the city under a “one country, two systems” framework since its

handover from the British in 1997.

The protesters are desperate to stop what they see as Beijing’s tightening control over Hong Kong, and reneging on its handover commitment to allow greater liberties for the city than those on the mainland. But Beijing has refused to give in.

Tensions in Hong Kong were already high following the death on Friday of a 22-year-old student who succumbed to injuries sustained from a fall in the vicinity of a police clearance operation a week earlier.

After a weekend of clashes and huge vigils, the chaos yes-terday began with small groups

of masked protesters disrupting subway stations and roads during the rush hour commute.

But as footage of the shooting went viral, the protests snowballed.

During the lunchtime break in the Central district, police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters.

People run into a shopping mall after police fired tear gas during an anti-government protests in the Central district of Hong Kong, yesterday.

1MDB-linked case against Najib to move forwardAFP KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysia’s former leader Najib Razak’s first trial linked to the 1MDB scandal will proceed after a judge ruled yesterday that prosecutors had made a suffi-cient case, boosting efforts to bring him to justice over the mammoth fraud.

The former prime minister (pictured) will take the stand next month when his defence begins, in the case related to the theft of billions of dollars from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

His coalition was ousted at the polls last year after six decades in power, largely due to the scandal, and he has since been arrested and hit with dozens of charges linked to the looting of the investment vehicle.

The 66-year-old went on trial for the first time in April

over the controversy, in a case centring on the transfer of 42 million ringgit ($10.1m) from a former 1MDB unit into his bank account. Najib denies any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors finished pre-senting their evidence in August, and on Monday High Court judge Mohamad Nazlan Mohamad Ghazali ruled the case was strong enough to go forward and Najib should enter his defence.

“The accused had enormous and overarching influence” over

the 1MDB unit, SRC International, the judge told the court, adding the prosecution had established Najib has a case to answer for all seven charges he is facing.

“It was under the control of the accused from day one. The accused wielded considerable power.” The alternative would have been to strike out the charges in the case — although Najib is still facing several other cases linked to 1MDB, with his biggest trial over the scandal having opened in August.

The court’s decision will be a relief for Malaysia’s gov-ernment and 94-year-old Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who came to power partly on a pledge to get to the bottom of the 1MDB scandal and bring those involved to justice.

Lawyers for Najib, who is free on bail, said he would take the stand when the defence stage

of proceedings gets underway on December 3.

“I am calm and cool,” the blue-blooded former leader, whose father and uncle were both prime ministers, said after the ruling, giving a smile.

But his lead lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said that Najib was “shocked” by the court’s decision, adding the ex-PM had been confident of being cleared.

And he indicated the legal saga may have some time to run, saying that appeals could push the case beyond Malaysia’s next election — due by 2023 at the latest. Najib is facing four charges of corruption and three money-laundering counts in the trial. Each charge of corruption carries a maximum jail term of 20 years, and each money-laun-dering count is punishable by a term of up to 15 years.

China accuses US of using UN to ‘meddle’ in TibetAFP BEIJING

China has accused the US of using the United Nations to “meddle” in Tibet, as Washington intensifies its bid to prevent Beijing from handpicking the Dalai Lama’s successor.

Last week, Sam Brownback, the United States’ ambassador-at-large for international reli-gious freedom, said the US wanted the UN to take up the

succession issue of the Tibetan spiritual leader.

The choice of the Dalai Lama’s successor “belongs to the Tibetan Buddhists and not the C h i n e s e g o v e r n m e n t ” , Brownback told AFP.

But Beijing responded angrily, saying the US is attempting to “meddle in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of religious freedoms”.

“It is doomed to fail and will certainly be met with opposition

from the international com-munity,” Chinese foreign min-istry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular press briefing in Beijing yesterday.

China — which argues it has brought modernisation and development to the Himalayan region — has increasingly hinted it could name the next Dalai Lama.

The Chinese government has also indicated it is waiting out the Dalai Lama, believing his

campaign for greater Tibetan autonomy will end with him.

At age 84, the spiritual leader who once travelled incessantly has slowed down and earlier this year suffered a chest infection, although he is not known to have serious health issues.

In 1995, the officially atheist government selected its own Panchen Lama and detained a six-year-old identified for the influential Buddhist position — whom rights groups called the

world’s youngest political prisoner.

Mindful of Beijing’s plans, the 14th Dalai Lama has mused about breaking with the cen-turies-old tradition in which wandering monks look for signs that a young boy is the reincarnation.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has said that he could pick his own successor, possibly a girl, or even declare himself the final Dalai Lama.

The burnt-out remains of cars and property are seen following bush fires in Old Bar, 350km north of Sydney, Australia, yesterday.

Australian state declares emergency due to wildfiresAP CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA

Australia’s most populous state declared a state of emergency yesterday due to unprecedented wildfire danger as calls grew for Australia to take more action to counter climate change.

New South Wales state Emer-gency Services Minister David Elliott said residents were facing what “could be the most dan-gerous bush fire week this nation has ever seen.”

Fires in the state’s northeast have claimed three lives, destroyed more than 150 homes and razed more than 1 million hectares (3,800 square miles) of forest and farmland since Friday.

Doctors and paramedics have treated more than 100 people for

fire-related injuries, including 20 firefighters, Ambulance Commis-sioner Dominic Morgan said.

North of New South Wales, wildfires destroyed nine homes yesterday in Queensland state, where air quality plummeted in Brisbane, the state capital, and surrounding cities to the lowest possible rating of “very poor.” Health authorities urged residents not to go outside.

Fire conditions in New South Wales are forecast to be worse on Tuesday than they were on Friday.

The state government announced that more than 600 schools and technical colleges will be closed today because of the fire risk. Australian military personnel are supporting 1,500 firefighters who were battling 60 blazes across the state.

Australian citizen jailed in Vietnam for ‘terrorism’AFP HANOI

Vietnam jailed a dissident with Australian citizenship for 12 years yesterday on terrorism charges, his lawyer said, in the one-party state where anti-government criticism is routinely quashed.

Chau Van Kham, who fought against the communists during the Vietnam War, belongs to the outlawed Viet Tan group and was in Vietnam for a fact-finding mission when he was arrested in January.

The 70-year-old was jailed for “terrorism against the Peo-ple’s Administration” and will be deported after he serves his sentence, his lawyer Trinh Vinh Phuc said.

Kham was jailed alongside Nguyen Van Vien, who got 11 years, and Tran Van Quyen who was sentenced to 10 years, both on the same charges.

“In court Kham said he did not conduct any terrorist acts, his activities were peaceful,” Phuc told AFP after the one-day trial in Ho Chi Minh City.

“Twelve years is too high,” Phuc said, adding that Kham had hoped for a sentence of less than 10 years.

His son said he was “shocked” by the verdict, which could see his father remain in jail until he is over 80 if his appeal is not successful.

“It’s the worst possible outcome,” Dennis Chau told AFP from Britain, where he lives. Kham and Vien were arrested on January 13 in Ho Chi Minh City, two days after Kham entered Vietnam overland via Cambodia. He was in the country to conduct human rights research and meet with activist and civil society con-tacts, Viet Tan said.

Prosecutors accused him of giving money to Vien and spreading information about Viet Tan in Vietnam, according to state media. Kham has been a member of the banned anti-government Viet Tan group since 2010. It is run by members who are mostly overseas since Hanoi designated it a terrorist organisation in 2016, accusing it of “instigating violence”.

Viet Tan denies the claim and says it “advocates for social justice and democratic change through peaceful means”.

Former Googleofficial is runningmate of Taiwanoppn candidateAP / TAIPEI, TAIWAN

The pro-China opposition candidate in Taiwan’s presi-dential election set for early next year has chosen a former Google executive as his running mate.

Chang San-cheng, a political independent, yesterday joined the ticket of Nationalist Party candidate Han Kuo-yu, who lags behind Democratic Progressive Party incumbent Tsai Ing-wen in most polls.

Chang worked as Google’s head of technology in Asia from 2010 to 2012.

The presidential election is scheduled for January 11, along with polls for the legislature.

The masked protester was shot at as he approached a policeman as the officer tried to detain another masked protester. The victim was hospitalised in a critical condition.

15TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019 EUROPE

Brexit Party not to challenge Conservatives in UK voteAP HARTLEPOOL, ENGLAND

In a major shift, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said yesterday his party will not run against Conservative candidates in almost half of the UK seats available in Britain’s December 12 election to make sure it doesn’t split the pro-Brexit vote.

Farage said the party will not put forward any candidates in the 317 seats that the Conserva-tives won in the last election, an announcement that should boost the chances that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives win a majority.

Farage said he was putting country before party by unilat-erally forming a “leave alliance” with the Conservatives at the expense of parties seeking to slow or stop Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.

“If we field 600 candidates, there will be a hung Parliament,” Farage said, adding that an unclear result in the December 12 election could easily lead to a second Brexit referendum that might upend his long-held goal of seeing Britain leave the 28-nation bloc.

Farage has been under huge pressure from Brexit supporters not to run candidates in seats where there is a risk of splitting

the Brexit vote and letting those who want to remain in the EU or hold a new EU membership ref-erendum to seize control.

The move represents a sub-stantial change in tactics, for only last week Farage had threatened to run against the Conservatives in almost every seat in the nation — 650 seats are up for grabs —unless they agreed to team up with his Brexit Party. He vowed to fight the Conservatives in England, Wales and Scotland.

Johnson refused the offer, which included a demand that he drop his Brexit divorce deal.

Over the weekend, several right-wing British newspapers urged Farage to change tack, saying there was a risk that Britain might not leave the EU if the opposition Labour Party comes to power.

Johnson told reporters while campaigning yesterday that he

was “glad that there’s a recog-nition” that only his party can get Brexit done. The prime minister said he had not discussed any deal with Farage, who in turn said he had not been promised anything by the Conservatives.

Labour has vowed to rene-gotiate the Brexit divorce deal with the EU, then hold a new ref-erendum for British voters to decide on whether to leave the bloc on those terms or remain.

Farage said he had been encouraged by recent comments from Johnson ruling out an extension of the Brexit transition period beyond the end of 2020. He said the plan now is “to take the fight to Labour,” which he accused of betraying 5 million of its supporters who had voted to leave the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum.

“The Conservative Party say they want Brexit but have been

taking that in a very questionable direction. But overnight the prime minister signaled a change of direction,” Farage told the AP.

F a r a g e m a d e h i s announcement in Hartlepool, a former shipbuilding town in northeast England that has voted Labour for more than 50 years, but also voted strongly in 2016 to leave the EU. It is one of the Brexit Party’s top target seats in the election.

Businessman Richard Tice, the Brexit Party candidate in Hartlepool, denied that the party’s decision to halve the number of its candidates was a sign of weakness.

“We have made a unilateral, strategically important decision for the country,” he told The Associated Press. Paul Beaumont, a Brexit Party supporter from the Hartlepool area, praised Farage’s decision.

Macron marks Armistice Day, 101 years after WWIAP PARIS

French President Emmanuel Macron marked Armistice Day yesterday by visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under Paris’ Arc de Triomphe, as a giant tricolour flag flew overhead.

Greeted by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, Macron laid a wreath and inspected troops during the ceremony celebrating 101 years since the Armistice that ended the slaughter of World War I.

He also stopped by the nearby tomb of French wartime leader Georges Clemenceau.

Music from a military brass band was slightly muffled by persistent rain for the hundreds of spectators — including former French Presidents Francois Hol-lande and Nicolas Sarkozy — thronging the Champs Elysees avenue. Some waved French flags.

The French leader later inau-gurated a monument for the hundreds of soldiers who died in foreign operations since 1963.

Since the 1960s, 549 French soldiers have died in 17 theaters of conflict including 141 in Lebanon, 129 in Chad, 85 in Afghanistan and 78 in the former Yugoslavia.

Commemorations were also underway in France’s wartime ally, Britain. The Royal British Legion urged the nation to remember the 100th anniversary of the first two-minute silence observed on Armistice Day by shutting out modern technology and all distractions.

“This year we’re asking the nation to pause — mute your phone, close your laptop, switch off the telly — for just two minutes and pay your respects to our Armed Forces community, past and present,” the legion said on its website.

A lone musician at the National Memorial Arboretum played “The Last Post,” as silence fell. People at ceremonies across the country bowed their heads in respect.

In a short break from cam-paigning for the December 12 elections, Prime Minister Boris

Johnson laid a wreath during a service at St Peter’s Square, Wol-verhampton while Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn attended a ceremony outside Islington Town Hall, north London.

Britain’s largest ceremony took place on Sunday. The event in central London is traditionally

held on the closest Sunday to the anniversary of the end of World War I at 11am on November 11, 1918.

Queen Elizabeth II led the nation in remembering the war dead. The queen, dressed in black, watched from a balcony as her son and heir Prince

Charles laid a wreath of scarlet poppies on the Cenotaph war memorial near Parliament.

The 93-year-old monarch, who served as an army mechanic during World War II, performed the wreath-laying herself for most of her 67-year reign, but has cut back on her public duties.

French President Emmanuel Macron inaugurates a memorial for soldiers fallen in foreign conflicts, in Paris yesterday.

Austria conservatives, Greens to enter coalition talksAFP VIENNA

Austria’s Sebastian Kurz announced yesterday that his Conservatives would enter exclusive coalition talks with the Green party, taking a step closer to forming a government following a September election.

In an apparent about-turn after Kurz’s previous adminis-tration with the far-right came crashing down, the 33-year-old said his People’s Party (OeVP) “will enter negotiations with the Greens”.

But he warned of a “chal-lenging process” ahead as the two parties with divergent platforms

try to close gaps. Green party leader Werner Kogler announced Sunday that his party had approved the move to enter formal talks, bringing it closer to a potentially historic entry into government.

The OeVP and the Greens made the biggest gains in a par-liamentary election in late September.

The conservatives emerged as the strongest party, leading to Kurz to be tasked to form another government.

If a coalition were to be formed between the two parties, it would be the first time for the Greens to enter government in Austria at the national level.

Kurz, whose party got 37.5 percent of the vote, said he could not tell how long negotiations would take, saying the two months it took to reach agreement with the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) in 2017 had been “extremely fast”.

“The process won’t be easy because the positions of the Greens and the OeVP are very, very different,” Kurz told reporters, citing his party’s promises to be tough on migration and boost the country’s economy.

Kogler, whose party takes a more liberal line on immigration, has stressed too that any agreement would “necessitate

many compromises”. The OeVP and the Greens previously entered coalition negotiations in 2003 but on that occasion they failed and the OeVP entered gov-ernment with the far-right instead.

Kurz’s previous government with the FPOe was brought down in May when the so-called “Ibiza-gate” corruption scandal engulfed his ally after just 18 months in government together.

The FPOe suffered heavy losses during the September election, while the Greens made big gains due to the environment becoming the top voter concern, securing 13.9 percent of the vote in their best results ever.

Members of Catalan protest group ‘Democratic Tsunami’ block AP-7 highway on the French side of the Spanish-French border, yesterday.

Catalan separatists block Spain-France highwayAFP LA JONQUERA, SPAIN

Catalan separatists blocked traffic on a motorway linking Spain and France, in a fresh protest yesterday against the sentencing last month of nine of their leaders to lengthy jail terms.

Demonstrators cut the AP7 motorway at La Jonquera near the city of Girona in eastern Spain, a day after a general election.

While Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist party emerged as winners but weakened, the far-right party Vox surged to third place on the strength of its hardline stance against separatism.

Dozens of vehicles blocked the motorway — an important

truck route between the two countries — while some 300 people set up a barricade.

Several demonstrators, some of them with their faces covered, held up banners which read “Eve-ryone to La Jonquera” in Catalan. Electronic billboards warned the highway was closed due to a protest. The protest was called by a new organisation called “Dem-ocratic Tsunami”, which said it would last for three days.

The demonstrators were equipped with cooking utensils, gas cylinders, foldable tables, food, coffee and water. Some set up a stage and speakers which they brought to the scene in vans.

Radical separatist group CDR also called on its supporters to head to La Jonquera to block the highway.

Migrant trying to swim from France to UK rescuedAFP LILLE, FRANCE

A migrant wearing a wetsuit was saved by a P&O ferry off the coast of Calais in northern France yesterday as he tried to swim across the English Channel to Britain, maritime authorities said.

The crew of the “Pride of Canterbury” ferry spotted the man in his thirties around 20 kilometres (12 miles) off the French coast. The ferry made a U-turn to “retrieve him from the sea”, the French maritime authorities for the Channel and North Sea said in a statement.

The man, in his thirties, was suffering from “severe hypo-thermia” and was taken by a French navy helicopter to a hospital in Calais, authorities said.

At least four migrants have died so far this year attempting to make the dangerous crossing in the Channel, with its strong currents and very cold waters.

Dublin warns ‘no amnesty’ for soldiers in N IrelandAFP DUBLIN

The Irish government said yesterday that there must be “no amnesty” for British soldiers who committed crimes in Northern Ireland, after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson made historic prosecutions an election campaign issue.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said it was “very concerning” that the British Conservative leader had pledged to end moves to bring criminal charges against army veterans who had served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Campaigning for the December 12 election, Johnson pledged yesterday, timed for the anniversary of the World War I armistice, to amend human rights law to shield servicemen from prosecutions for events before 2000.

The pledge stokes the divisive debate over prosecu-tions for British troops involved in killings during three decades of sectarian bloodshed in Northern Ireland.

More than 3,000 people were killed before the conflict wound down with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, signed with the accord of London and Dublin. British troops were des-patched to the province to but-tress law enforcement in 1969, as Catholics opposed to British rule battled in the streets with Protestants who wanted to remain part of the UK.

Bosnia: Citizens who fought for IS in Syria can returnAP SARAJEVO,

Bosnia yesterday said it will take back the country’s citizens who have been captured while fighting for the Islamic State group and who will face legal proceedings upon return to the Balkan country.

About 260 Bosnian citizens remain in the camps in Syria, including approximately 100 men and 160 women and children, said Security Minister Dragan Mektic.

Mektic insisted that only confirmed Bosnian citizens will be taken in. He said DNA tests will be used as part of the procedure.

“We will accept only those for which we can undoubtedly confirm that they are citizens of Bosnia Hercegovina,” he said. “We are obliged to do that by international conventions.”

Bosnia has introduced prison terms of up to 10 years for its citizens who fight in con-flict abroad or recruit others.

Mektic said women who cooked or cleaned for the Islamic State would be treated as “active members” just like the men who took part in the fighting.

Nine former fighters and a 3-year-old child whose entire family was killed were due back in Bosnia last month, but their return was delayed by the renewed fighting in Syria, Mektic said.

Nigel Farage says his party will not put forward any candidates in the 317 seats that the Conservatives won in the last election, in boost for PM Boris Johnson.

16 TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019EUROPE

Polish President Andrzej Duda taking part in a ceremony near a monument to Marshal Jozef Pilsudski marking Poland’s 101st National Independence Day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in Warsaw, yesterday. RIGHT: People attending a parade marking the National Independence Day in Poznan, Poland.

Swedish police set up task force to combat gang violenceREUTERS STOCKHOLM

Swedish police said yesterday that they would set up a special task force to deal with a wave of shootings and bombings linked to criminal gangs following the fatal shooting of a 15-year old in the city of Malmo at the weekend.

Sweden has long held a rep-utation as being one of the safest countries in the world and while overall crime and murder rates remain low, gang wars in major cities have claimed an increasing number of victims in recent years.

On Saturday, two 15-year-olds were shot outside a pizza restaurant in Malmo in what police said appeared to be a gang conflict over control of the drug

trade in the area. One died immediately and the other is in critical condition.

“The weekend was a black

weekend for Malmo and for the Malmo police,” Malmo police chief Stefan Sinteus said yesterday.

The attack was preceded by a large car bomb about a mile away which police believe was intended to divert their attention.

Following the attack, the police’s Department of National Operations said they had set up a special task force with a nationwide mandate to fight gang activities, to be called Oper-ation Hoarfrost.

Sweden has been hit by a surge in gang violence in recent years with police saying last week that there had been 187 bomb attacks so far this year, up from 152 in the whole of 2018.

The ruling coalition of the Social Democrats and Greens has sharpened sentences for gun crimes and promised extra resources for the police. But opposition parties claim the effort is too litte, too late.

Poland marks 101 years of independence

Ukraine expects US to maintain military aidREUTERS KIEV

Ukraine expects the United States to maintain or even increase military aid to Kiev next year despite the issue being part of a political battle in Wash-ington over the impeachment of President Donald Trump, Defence Minister Andriy Zahorodniuk said.

Trump is accused by his Democrat opponents of freezing nearly $400m in security aid to Ukraine to pressure President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to open investigations into Trump’s main rival for the 2020 presidential race.

T r u m p c a l l s t h e impeachment probe a witch hunt.

The United States has been

Ukraine’s biggest benefactor since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 dragged relations between the West and Russia to their lowest point since the Cold War. It gave $1.5bn in security aid between 2014-2019.

Trump withheld $391m of congressionally approved security assistance to Ukraine in July but says there was no quid pro quo — a Latin phrase meaning a favour for a favour — attached to its release. The aid was unfrozen by September.

Ukraine used the aid to acquire hardware such as Javelin

anti-tank missiles, grenade launchers, radars and night-vision goggles to fight Russian-backed forces in a conflict in the Donbass region that has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014.

Zahorodniuk said the short duration of the aid freeze meant it had no material impact. in an interview that Ukraine expected the same amount of aid, “if not larger” in 2020, and plans to acquire more Javelin missiles.

“There is a general common opinion in both the government and Congress that it should be ramped up,” he said, citing what

he said was Washington’s pos-itive view of Zelenskiy’s reform push.

“We do feel support and it’s there. It’s 100 percent,” he said, when asked if Ukraine still feels it can rely on continued US aid.

Ukraine received two Island-class patrol boats from the United States to bolster its presence in the Black Sea this year, and Zahorodniuk expects three more in 2020.

“I also have to say that this aid has a symbolic meaning. It’s not just the money and it’s not about the equipment,” Zahorodniuk said. “It’s also about the ... show of support from the international community to Ukraine. And that actually has probably for the general popu-lation even more meaningful than the equipment itself.”

The impeachment inquiry into Trump has been an unwelcome distraction for Zel-enskiy, who came to power in April promising to fight cor-ruption and a peaceful end to the Donbass conflict.

Under Zelenskiy’s prede-cessor, Zahorodniuk headed an office under the defence ministry focused on reform but quit in 2017 in frustration at the slow pace of change.

Having rejoined as minister under Zelenskiy, Zahorodniuk wants to make defence pro-curement more transparent and investigate corruption in the armed forces.

Much of what the military buys is a state secret, making it easier for officials to inflate costs or swing deals towards favoured parties.

Denmark to temporarily restore border control with SwedenAP/COPENHAGEN

Denmark will temporarily rein-state controls at its borders with Sweden after a series of violent crimes in greater Copenhagen that Danish authorities say were carried out by perpetrators from Sweden.

The six-month checks, starting today, will take place at the Oresund Bridge between Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmo and also at ferry ports.

Since February, there have a been 13 blasts in Copenhagen. Authorities believe an August 6 explosion at the Danish Tax Agency “was committed by criminals that had crossed the border from Sweden.” Two Swedish nationals are in custody.

Justice Minister Nick Haekkerup has said a June 25 double murder — where two Swedish nationals were gunned down in suburban Copenhagen — “was a showdown between feuding gangs from Sweden.”

Court orders Dutch state to repatriate children of ISAFP THE HAGUE

The Netherlands must “actively” help repatriate children of women who joined the IS militant group in Syria but the mothers themselves need not be taken back, a Dutch court ruled yesterday.

The ruling, by a judge at The Hague’s district court, comes after lawyers representing 23 jihadist women launched a lawsuit last week demanding the Netherlands return them and their 56 children from detention camps in northern Syria.

The Dutch state “must actively commit itself to repat-riate the children”, judge Hans Vetter said in his ruling. “But it also means that the state cannot be forced to do something that’s impossible to do.”

At the same time “the state has to take measures, as far as possible, to protect these Dutch children, even if these children find themselves in another country,” he said.

The government should use all options available, including seeking the help of the Amer-icans, the judge added.

Children in camps such as Al Hol in northeastern Syria were at risk of being killed by shelling of the camps, or being subjected to abuse, and were already suffering from the lack of sanitation, medical care and adequate food, the judge said.

“But they “are the victims of their parents’ actions” and therefore the Dutch gov-ernment did not have a respon-sibility to return their mothers.”

Most of them are younger than six.

Aid is also about the ... show of support from the international community to Ukraine. And that actually has probably for the general population even more meaningful than the equipment itself: Andriy Zahorodniuk

REUTERS MADRID

The head of Spain’s centre-right Ciudadanos quit yesterday after voters deserted his party in droves, potentially easing the way for a Socialist-led government following a national election that produced another fragmented parliament.

The Socialists said they would to act fast to form a gov-ernment after winning the most seats, though they ended on three fewer than they held after finishing first in the previous election in April.

“We will try to keep our promise to form a government as quickly as possible because the country needs it,” said senior Socialist official Jose Luis Abalos, expressing hope that it could

take office before the end of the year.

The party’s leader, acting premier Pedro Sanchez, had gambled on a repeat ballot to try to break the political deadlock that ensued after he failed to agree an alliance with left-wing Unidas Podemos.

Overall, a polarised elec-torate awarded neither right nor left-wing parties enough seats to govern with a majority in Sun-day’s ballot, Spain’s fourth since 2015.

However, the outcome —played out against a tense backdrop overshadowed by a violence-tinged secessionist crisis in Catalonia and a sharp rise in support for far-right Vox — has left Spain’s political land-scape even more fragmented.

The Socialists immediately

ruled out a grand coalition with the conservative People’s Party (PP), which finished second.

But the resignation of Albert Rivera — whose market-friendly Ciudadanos shrank to just 10 parliamentary seats from 57 in April as Vox rose to 52 from 24 —could offer Sanchez a helping hand.

Rivera took a hardline stance against cooperating with him fol-lowing April’s election, but others in his party are more open to cooperation.

“It’s time to unite Spaniards. The political leaders can divide or look (to)... build bridges,” a visibly moved Rivera said in his resignation speech.

The rise of Vox may also con-centrate minds on the left.

Socialist Abalos ruled out another election, which he said

would mean “an institutional failure”, and said Sanchez would start calling other party leaders yesterday, saying Ciudadanos could be a possible support.

To be confirmed as prime minister in a first-round

parliamentary vote, Sanchez would need an absolute majority, implying the support of left-wing Podemos and Mas Pais as well as Ciudadanos and several non-separatist regional parties on top of that.

Spain’s Socialists seek government deal as Ciudadanos leader resigns

Spanish liberal Ciudadanos party leader and candidate for prime minister, Albert Rivera after announcing his resignation as party leader, in Madrid, yesterday.

Man charged with murder after partner’s severed arms found in bagREUTERS MOSCOW

A Russian court yesterday charged a distinguished historian known for re-enacting Napoleonic battle scenes with the murder of his partner after he was found in a river with a rucksack containing her severed arms.

Oleg Sokolov, a 63-year-old history professor at St Petersburg State University confessed in court yesterday to shooting dead Anastasia Yesh-chenko, a 24-year-old post-graduate, with a rifle.

Sokolov told the court he had loved Yeshchenko and that they had been partners for five years. But they argued over his children from another rela-tionship and he had “lost control,” shooting her four times with a sawn-off rifle.

“During the row, we all lost control. I don’t understand how it happened. Something like this has never happened to me before. She attacked me with a knife,” he was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

“I repent,” he said.Investigators suspect

Sokolov, whose expertise on Napoleon Bonaparte earned him a Legion of Honour order of merit from France, of chopping his partner into pieces and of trying to dump them in the river to cover his tracks.

He was hauled from the Moyka River on Saturday with a rucksack containing a gun that fires rubber bullets and the dis-membered arms of a woman, Russia’s Investigative Com-mittee, which handles major crimes, said in a statement.

17TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019 AMERICAS

Trump fumes as public impeachment hearings nearREUTERS WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump seethed yesterday as Democrats in the US House of Representa-tives prepared to enter a crucial new phase — the first public hearings — in their impeachment inquiry centered on his request that Ukraine investigate political rival Joe Biden.

Tomorrow and on Friday, US diplomats William Taylor, George Kent and Marie Yovano-vitch are due to detail in public their concerns, previously expressed in testimony behind closed doors, that Trump and his administration sought to tie $391m in security aid to Ukraine to an investigation of the former US vice-president and his son Hunter Biden.

The public testimony before

the House Intelligence Com-mittee will be carried by major broadcast and cable television networks and is expected to be viewed by millions of people, as Democrats seek to make the case for Trump’s potential removal from office.

The panel’s Democratic chairman, Representative Adam Schiff, has been a target of the Republican president’s attacks since the impeachment probe was launched in September after a whistleblower within the US intelligence community brought a complaint against Trump over his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Democrats, who control the House, have argued that Trump abused his power in pressing a vulnerable US ally to carry out investigations that would benefit Trump politically. Biden is a leading contender for the Dem-ocratic nomination to face the Republican president in the 2020 election. Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma.

Trump has denied there was

a quid pro quo — or exchanging a favour for a favour – in his dealings with Ukraine, defended his call with Zelenskiy as “perfect” and branded the probe a politically motivated “hoax.”

Trump wrote on Twitter yesterday that the inquiry should be ended and the unnamed whistleblower, the whistleblower’s lawyer and “Corrupt politician” Schiff should be investigated for fraud.

Democrats, who control the House, consider the open hearings to be crucial to building public support for a vote on articles of impeachment — formal charges — against Trump. If that occurs, the 100-seat Republican-controlled Senate would hold a trial on the charges. Republicans have so far shown little support for removing Trump from office, which would require two-thirds

of senators present to vote to convict him.

No US president ever has been removed from office through the impeachment process. It has been two decades since Americans last witnessed impeachment proceedings against a president. Republicans, who then controlled the House, brought impeachment charges against Democratic President Bill Clinton in a scandal involving his relationship with a White House intern.

The Senate voted to keep Clinton in office.

The House Intelligence Committee tomorrow will first hear from Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine.

Taylor told lawmakers in closed-door testimony he was unhappy that the administration had held up the congressionally approved aid to help combat

Russia-backed separatists in the eastern part of Ukraine.

Kent, a senior State Department official who oversees Ukraine policy, will appear at Wednesday’s hearing as well.

“I hope everyone who tes-tifies will go do so truthfully, accurately. When they do ... I think America will come to see what took place here,” US Sec-retary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday.

“I was part of America’s Ukraine policy. We were very clear. We wanted to make sure that the corruption that has been existing in Ukraine for an awfully long time was reduced,” Pompeo said.

Republicans on the Intelli-gence Committee will be per-mitted to question the witnesses this week and defend the president.

Trump wrote on Twitter that the inquiry should be ended and the unnamed whistleblower, the whistleblower’s lawyer and “Corrupt politician” Schiff should be investigated for fraud.

Baghdadi successor in US crosshairs: TrumpAFP NEW YORK

US President Donald Trump placed the IS militant group’s new chief in the crosshairs yesterday as he marked Veterans’ Day by celebrating the killing of the jihadists’ former leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.

While US presidents tradi-tionally mark the day by laying a wreath at a vast military cem-etery in Arlington, near Wash-ington, Trump traveled to New York where he made an address ahead of the city’s annual parade of veterans.

Trump was widely criticised after announcing a full with-drawal of US troops from Syria last month, with opponents and even some allies saying it could allow IS group to rebuild as well as leaving US-allied Kurdish fighters vulnerable to a Turkish invasion.

But the US president used his speech in New York to claim that the IS leadership was running scared in the wake of Baghdadi’s death in a raid in the north-western Syrian province of Idlib on October 26.

“Just a few weeks ago, American special forces raided the ISIS compound and brought the world’s number one terrorist leader to justice,” he said.

“Thanks to American war-riors, Al Baghdadi is dead, his second in charge is dead, we have our eyes on number three.

“His reign of terror is over, and we have our enemies running very, very scared. Those who threaten our people don’t stand a chance against the righteous might of the American military.”

After the death of Baghdadi and IS group’s main spokesman, Abu Hassan Al Muhajir, in a raid the following day, the

organisation named the little known Abu Ibrahim Al Hashimi Al Quraishi as its new leader.

Following the uproar over his announcement of a full troop

withdrawal, Trump said that he would leave some troops in the region to protect valuable oil fields.

General Mark Milley,

chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview at the weekend that US troop levels in northern Syria would probably stabilise around 500.

US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump watch during a wreath laying ceremony at a Veterans Day event at Madison Square Park, in New York, yesterday.

SpaceX launches 60 more mini satellitesAP CAPE CANAVERAL

SpaceX launched 60 mini satel-lites yesterday, the second batch of an orbiting network meant to provide global Internet coverage.

The Falcon rocket blasted into the morning sky, marking the unprecedented fourth flight of a booster for SpaceX. The compact flat-panel satellites — just 260kg each — will join 60 launched in May.

SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk wants to put thousands of these Starlink satellites in orbit, to offer high-speed internet service every-where. He plans to start service next year in the northern US and Canada, with global coverage for populated areas after 24 launches.

Last month, Musk used an orbiting Starlink satellite to send a tweet: “Whoa, it worked!!”

Employees gathered at company bases on both coasts cheered when the first-stage booster landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic.

“These boosters are designed to be used 10 times. Let’s turn it around for a fifth, guys,”

company’s launch commentator said.

This also marked the first time SpaceX used a previously flown nose cone. The California-based company reuses rocket parts to cut costs.

Stacked flat inside the top of the rocket, the newest satellites were going to maneuver even higher following liftoff, using

krypton-powered thrusters. SpaceX said there was a potential problem with one of the 60 that could prevent it from moving beyond its initial 280km-high orbit. In that case, the faulty sat-ellite will be commanded to re-enter and burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere. Each satellite has an autonomous system for dodging space junk.

The video grab image shows SpaceX’s first operational Starlink during launch on a reused Falcon 9 on at Cape Canaveral, Florida, yesterday.

Mexico makes arrests in deaths of 9 AmericansREUTERS/MEXICO CITY

Mexico has made an unspec-ified number of arrests over last week’s massacre of three women and six children of dual US-Mexican nationality in the north of the country, Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said.

“There have been arrests, but it’s not up to us to give information,” Durazo told reporters in Mexico City.

The women and children from families of US Mormon origin who settled in Mexico decades ago were killed last Monday on a remote dirt road in the state of Sonora by sus-pected drug cartel gunmen, sparking outrage and condem-nation in the United States.

Durazo said that prose-cutors in Sonora, as well as at the federal level, were in charge of the investigation.

However, a spokeswoman for the state government of Sonora said: “We don’t have that information.”

Donald Trump Jr talk marked by anger over no Q&AAP LOS ANGELES

Donald Trump Jr’s (pictured) appearance on Sunday at a university to talk about his new book on liberals and free speech was marked by an argument between him and the audience over why he would not take questions, the Guardian reported.

Members of the audience of about 450 people at the University of Cali-fornia, Los Angeles, were angry that

Trump and his girlfriend, former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, declined to take questions because of time constraints, the Guardian reported. Trump was at UCLA to promote his new book “Triggered: How The Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us.”

After initially being greeted with shouts of “USA! USA!” members of the audience eventually turned to louder, openly hostile chants of “Q and A! Q and A!” after they were told he would

not take questions.The report said that Trump told the

audience that taking questions from the floor risked creating soundbites that left wing social media posters would abuse and distort. Guilfoyle told audience members that they were being rude.

Shortly thereafter, she and Trump left the stage.

Outside the lecture hall, several dozen protesters organised by the Los Angeles chapter of Refuse Fascism

protested. The Los Angeles Times reports that protesters chanted “UCLA protects fascists” and “humanity first.”

Andy Stein, a supporter of Pres-ident Donald Trump, told the Times that he came to UCLA to listen to Trump Jr because he sees the son as a “chip off the old block” and admires his “feistiness.”

UCLA said in a statement that it was not a university-sponsored event, and allowing someone to speak on campus is not an endorsement of their views.

Snow in Midwest leads to air travel woes in ChicagoAP CHICAGO

Snowfall in the Midwest is taking its toll on air travel in Chicago as one plane trying to land at O’Hare International Airport slid off the runway.

The city’s aviation department said more than 440 flights in and out of the airport have been canceled.

None of the 38 passengers and three crew members aboard an Envoy Air flight from Greensboro, NC, were hurt when the plane slid off the runway at about 7:45am yesterday.

Besides the flights canceled at O’Hare, snow and ice have forced airlines to cancel more than 90 flights at Chicago’s Midway International Airport.

The National Weather Service says is expecting as much as 6 inches of snow in Illinois and up to 10 inches in northwest Indiana and southwest Michigan.

Peter King to exit Congress, adding to GOP exodusBLOOMBERG NEW YORK

Republican Representative Peter King of New York announced his plan to retire from Congress after 14 terms, becoming the 20th member of his party from the House to plan an exit in 2020.

King said in a statement yes-terday that he made the decision to spend more time with his family.

King, a moderate first elected to Congress in 1992, makes clear in his statement that he will vote against any impeachment articles against President Donald Trump, and will be supporting Trump’s re-election.

“I intend to vote against President Trump’s impeachment and will support the President’s bid for re-election,” said King, whose district on Long Island supported Trump in the 2016 election.

King joins an exodus of GOP lawmakers from the House since Democrats took control of the chamber in the 2018 election. So far, the top Republicans on

the Agriculture, Defense, and Natural Resources committees have all announced retirements. In late October, Representative Greg Walden of Oregon, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and former chairman of the panel, became the 19th Republican House member to announce he would not seek re-election. King is the 20th.

Many of those seats are in safe conservative districts, but not all. And King’s district is one of several that has the potential to flip. The large number of retirements may be a sign that Republicans don’t want to lan-guish in the minority party for another two years or longer; the rancorous political climate in Washington, and fear of being swept from office, or even Trump fatigue. Or it could be a combination of these factors.

King is a former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, where he promoted staunch counter-terrorism agenda especially in the wake of the Septemebr 11, 2001 ter-rorist attacks.

18 TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019AMERICAS

Mexico President may free former governor jailed for money launderingBLOOMBERG MEXICO CITY

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that he’s working for the release of a former governor convicted of laundering money for a drug cartel, threatening to cause increased friction with the US.

Mario Villanueva, 71, served as governor of the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, which

includes the resort city of Cancun, from 1993 to 1999. He starting serving a 22-year sen-tence in Mexico in 2017. Yet in May, the state Congress con-cluded that he was falsely accused and didn’t commit the crimes, and that his sentence was part of a political vendetta.

Lopez Obrador said at an event in the state that his gov-ernment is working for Vil-lanueva’s release, while adding

that it also depends on the auton-omous Attorney-General’s office, where there’s an injunction to prevent it.

Lopez Obrador didn’t elab-orate on the reasons behind his position on the specific case, although he mentioned general backing for an amnesty bill for elderly convicts and people whose cases take years to resolve. Jesus Cantu, the information chief of the president’s press office, said

that Lopez Obrador wants Vil-lanueva freed on humanitarian grounds based on his age, a chronic lung disease and the time served on his sentence.

The Villanueva case threatens to cause another irritant in Mex-ico’s relationship with the US just days after President Donald Trump said he’s waiting for Lopez Obrador’s call to “wage war” against drug cartels after an attack killed nine dual citizens.

Villanueva already served time in the US after pleading guilty to laundering bribes from the Juarez drug cartel, and his release probably wouldn’t be well-received by the Drug Enforcement Administration that helped investigate him, said Ale-jandro Hope, a security con-sultant and former official for CISEN, Mexico’s intelligence agency.

“This sends a strong and

terrible signal of impunity,” said Gerardo Rodriguez Sanchez Lara, a professor of national security at the University of the Americas in Puebla. “The US and Mexico have worked together to punish former governors who have been involved with drug trafficking, and this is one of the few cases where there’s been punishment. The president needs to explain very clearly why he’s taking this stance.”

Chile govt set to amend constitutionAFP SANTIAGO

Chile has announced it will move to draft a new constitution and replace one dating back to the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship — a key demand of protesters who have rocked the country for three weeks.

The new constitution will be drafted by a body called a con-stituent assembly and then put to a referendum for ratification, Interior Minister Gonzalo Blumel said.

Blumel made the announcement after meeting with a coalition of centre-right and right-wing parties, which had been reluctant to change the constitution inherited from the era of Pinochet (1973-1990).

The government was in the process of preparing “a draft amendment of the constitution,” President Sebastian Pinera said in an interview published on Sat-urday by the daily El Mercurio.

Among the proposed changes are “a better definition of human rights” and their

means of enforcement, plus clar-ification on “the obligations of the state” and “better mecha-nisms of participation” for cit-izens, added the president.

The current constitution, in force since 1980, has already undergone more than 200 changes in more than 40 articles, Pinera said.

But it does not establish the state’s responsibility to provide education and healthcare — two demands made by millions of Chileans who have taken to the streets.

A police vehicle uses a water cannon during a protest against Chile’s government in Valparaiso, yesterday.

Virginia man pleads guilty in WWII dog tags theftAP COLLEGE PARK

A Virginia National Guard sergeant accused of stealing World War II-era dog tags from the National Archives and Records Administration in Maryland has pleaded guilty to a theft charge.

Robert Rumsby of Freder-icksburg, Virginia, entered a guilty plea to one misdemeanor count of theft, according to Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for US Attorney Robert Hur’s office.

Rumsby is scheduled to be sentenced on January 22 by US Magistrate Judge Thomas DiGi-rolamo at the federal courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland, Murphy said.

Rumsby told investigators he took dog tags that belonged to four US airmen killed in plane crashes in 1944, according to a criminal complaint.

Rumsby said he gave that airman’s dog tags to his wife’s grandmother as a Christmas gift and gave another airman’s dog tags to a relative of that serv-iceman, the complaint says.

Rumsby isn’t the first visitor to be accused of stealing from the National Archives facility in College Park. Antonin DeHays, a French historian and author, was sentenced in April 2018 to one year in prison after pleading guilty to stealing at least 291 dog

tags and other relics, most of which he sold on eBay and else-where for a total of more than $43,000.

The College Park facility stores thousands of dog tags that were seized by the German Luft-gaukommandos, which pre-pared reports on Allied aircraft crashes during World War II.

National Archives staff were investigating possible thefts of artifacts in January 2017 when they discovered that dog tags belonging to WWII aviator The-odore Ream were missing from a box Rumsby had accessed several weeks earlier, according to the criminal complaint. Rumsby’s wife is the great-niece of Ream. Investigators recovered Ream’s dog tag from a shadow box at the grandmother’s home in Chesapeake, Maryland.

In 2015, Rumsby also accessed a box that contained dog tags for three airmen who died in a July 21, 1944, plane crash. When investigators ques-tioned him in April, Rumsby retrieved the dog tags for two of those airmen from a shelf in his home and said he had given the third dog tag to a relative of that airman, the complaint says.

Rumsby was quoted in an April 2018 article in New York Times about civilians volun-teering to identify the remains of soldiers in US military cemeteries.

EU extends sanctions on Venezuela AFP BRUSSELS

The European Union extended sanctions against Venezuela by a year to pressure President Nicolas Maduro’s government as the crisis gripping the oil-rich country rumbles on.

An embargo on arms and equipment that could be used for political repression was extended to November 14 next year, along with asset freezes and travel bans on 25 senior members of the Maduro regime blamed for rights abuses.

The European Council, which groups the 28 member states, said the decision to extend the sanctions was taken “in light of the ongoing political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis”, pointing to “persistent actions under-mining democracy, the rule of law and the respect for human rights”.

“These measures are intended to help encourage democratic shared solutions in order to bring political stability to the country and allow it to address the pressing needs of the population,” the council said.

“The targeted measures are flexible and reversible and designed not to harm the Ven-ezuelan population.”

Power vacuum in Bolivia after Morales resignsAFP LA PAZ

Bolivia’s Evo Morales called on the opposition that ousted him to “pacify the country” after his shock resignation following weeks of protests over his disputed re-election left a power vacuum.

Shops and offices in La Paz were shuttered yesterday in the wake of looting that broke out late Sunday in some parts of the capital and the neighbouring city of El Alto.

“La Paz has experienced a night of terror,” the capital’s mayor Luis Revilla said, adding that 64 buses were destroyed in the disturbances.

Thousands of commuters were forced to walk to work in the morning drizzle as the city’s cable-car network remained paralysed and buses scarce.

The police — largely confined to barracks since riots broke out on Friday, with many units joining the protests — were returning to the streets, police chief Vladimir Yuri Calderon said. “The Bolivian police will be acting.”

However, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced disquiet over the security situ-ation in the country that seemed increasingly rudderless, and the Organization of American States (OAS) called for “peace and respect for the rule of law”.

The Washington-based insti-tution called in a statement for “an urgent meeting” of Bolivia’s Congress “to name new electoral authorities to guarantee a new electoral process.”

The call came after Security Minister Carlos Romero, who has responsibility for the police, took refuge at the Argentine embassy, a foreign ministry source said.

Several of Morales’ ministers and top officials resigned after his announcement — including many who sought refuge at the Mexican embassy — raising the question of who was in charge, given that vice president Alvaro Garcia Linera also resigned.

Under the constitution, power then passes to the pres-ident of the Senate and the speaker of the lower house of Congress, in that order. But they have resigned, too.

An opposition senator, Jeanine Anez, said she would assume the interim presidency, given her position as deputy senate leader.

But Congress will first have to be convened for a vote to take place and that was proving impossible as most lawmakers were in their constituencies and unable to return to La Paz.

Tweeting from the central coca-growing region of Chapare, where he fled on Sunday, Morales called on the opposition to “assume its responsibility” after Sunday’s riots.

He said the opposition lead-ership had a “responsibility to

pacify the country and guarantee the political stability and peaceful coexistence of our people.”

Morales, who was Bolivia’s first indigenous president, said his opposition rivals, Carlos Mesa and Luis Fernando Camacho, “will go down in history as racists and coup plotters.”

Morales announced his res-ignation in a televised address Sunday, capping a day of fast-moving events.

The streets of La Paz imme-diately exploded in celebration, with jubilant Bolivians waving the country’s flag, but violence and vandalism later erupted overnight there and in El Alto.

In the confusion, a group of 20 lawmakers and government offi-cials took refuge at the Mexican ambassador’s residence, and Mexico announced it was offering asylum to Morales as well.

Morales also wrote that “violent groups” had attacked his home.

Morales, a member of the Aymara indigenous community,

is a former coca farmer who became Bolivia’s first indigenous president in 2006.

He defended his legacy Sunday, which includes landmark gains against hunger and poverty and tripling the country’s economy during his nearly 14 years in office.

He gained a controversial fourth term when he was declared the winner of the pres-idential election by a narrow margin.

But the opposition said there was fraud in the vote count and three weeks of street protests ensued, during which three people

died and hundreds were injured. The OAS carried out an audit

of the election and on Sunday reported irregularities in just about every aspect that it examined: the technology used, the chain of custody of ballots, the integrity of the count, and statistical projections.

People take to the streets to celebrate the resignation of Bolivian President Evo Morales, in La Paz, yesterday.

Latin America slams Bolivian President’s resignationANATOLIA BUENOS AIRES

Argentina, Venezuela, Cuba and Mexico decried the resignation of embattled Bolivian President Evo Morales shortly after the head of the military urged him to step down, labeling the process a “coup”.

In a post on Twitter, Argentine president-elect Alberto Fernandez, who will

assume power in December, said a “coup” was staged in Bolivia due to violent protests by civilians, the negligence of the police force and unrespon-siveness of the army.

Fernandez criticised the process that led to Morales’ res-ignation and called on Bolivia to side with democracy.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro urged all social and political groups across the

globe to protest the Bolivian military’s action.

Speaking on Twitter, Maduro said that he condemned the “coup” against Morales and said people in Venezuela would hold protests to defend the rights of the indigenous people of Bolivia, who were “victims” of racism.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez said that the rightists in Bolivia attacked

democracy with a violent and cowardly “coup” and that he stood with Morales, calling on the international community to mobilise for Morales’ freedom.

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said his country would maintain its position of respect for democracy and rejected the ongoing military operation in Bolivia.

“No to coup,” he added.

Evo Morales said that his opposition rivals, Carlos Mesa and Luis Fernando Camacho, “will go down in history as racists and coup plotters”.

19TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019 HOME

WISE launches research reports to tackle education challengesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) has released eight new research reports that provide detailed insights and actionable recommendations to education challenges in Qatar and beyond.

The reports – relevant to edu-cators, policy-makers, school leaders, and parents – include topics such as local learning eco-systems, language policies, well-being of students, educational leadership, global citizenship edu-cation, excellence in higher edu-cation, and student mobility.

Dr Asmaa Al Fadala, Director of Research, WISE – a Qatar Foundation (QF) initiative – said: “We are very pleased to launch these reports that signify strong collaboration with international partners to address timely edu-cation issues. At WISE, we design our research to inform policy and practice, and support efforts to improve educational outcomes in various contexts.”

One of the research studies, conducted in collaboration with the Innovation Unit, UK, focuses on the emerging local learning eco-systems and how these eco-systems support and enhance

student learning. While a team of researchers from Ohio University, sponsored by Josoor Institute of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, have focused on the education challenges that elite athletes encounter during and after their athletic life.

Researchers from North-western University propose a new way to think about educa-tional leadership from a multi-level distributed perspective. This presses us to examine edu-cational leadership systemically by attending to how aspects of the school, system, and sector interact to constitute educational

leadership in practice.Additionally, WISE collabo-

rated with Carnegie Mellon Uni-versity in Qatar – a QF partner university – to produce a report on language policies in globalized contexts where the author advo-cates for collaboration, as opposed to competition, among languages in multilingual environments.

The Institute of International Education conducted a study on the global competition for talent by analysing national strategies for attracting international stu-dents around the world, high-lighting a number of case studies of effective student

recruitment strategies. The wellbeing of students was

addressed in a report by researchers from the RAND Cor-poration supported by both WISE and World Innovation Summit for Health – also a QF initiative – shedding light on a number of suc-cessful initiatives and programs from the Middle East and around the world.

A study conducted in collab-oration with Durham University, UK, focuses on the impact of Global Citizenship Education on students’ attitudes towards equality, diversity, and tolerance.

And, in partnership with senior researchers from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, US, WISE has produced a report on how higher education institu-tions pursue excellence, not by obtaining high positions in inter-national rankings but by effec-tively serving the needs of their local societies.

The official launch of the reports will take place during the upcoming 2019 WISE Summit on November 19 and 21 at Qatar National Convention Centre, where research authors will present to discuss their findings with participants.

The WISE research reports include diverse topics addressing local and global education challenges.

QU’s GPC, ConocoPhillips win 2019 Energy Globe National AwardTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

Qatar University’s (QU) Gas Processing Center (GPC) and Cono-coPhillips Qatar’s Global Water Sustainability Center (GWSC) were honoured with the 2019 Energy Globe National Award for their joint project ‘Sustainable Application of Osmotic Concentration to Reduce Wastewater Disposal Volumes from

Gas Fields’, which is now being tested on a pilot level at the GPC. Dr. Mustafa Nasser represented the GPC, while Dr. Samer Adham and Joel Minier Matar represented the GWSC.

Since 2000, the 2019 Energy Globe Award honours distinguished projects regionally, nationally and globally, where more than 1000 projects from all over the world are submitted each year. Winners are

selected by a panel, which includes members from the United Nations Industrial Development Organi-zation (UNIDO), the World Bank Group (WBG) and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC).

The award ceremony in Qatar was organized by the Austrian Embassy in Qatar and attended by various diplomatic and government dignitaries. Minister of Commerce

and Industry HE Mr. Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari, Secretary General of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) HE Dr. Ahmad bin Hassan Al-Hamadi, Director of Protocol (MOFA) Ambassador Ibrahim Fakhro, Austrian Ambassador to Qatar Dr. Willy Kempel and Pres-ident of ConocoPhillips Qatar J. Todd Creeger all attended the award ceremony.

CROSSWORD

The true story of a British whistleblower who leaked information to the press about an illegal NSA spy operation designed to push the UN Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

OFFICIAL SECRETS

MALL ROYAL PLAZA

Tabaluga: The Last Dragon (2D/Animation) 230pm; Pranaya Meenukalude Kadal (2D/Malayalam) 2:30 & 11:30pm;The Addams Family (2D/Comedy) 4:15pm; Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil (2D/Adventure) 5:00pm;Bala (2D/Hindi) 6:00 & 9:00pm; Doctor Sleep (2D/Horror) 8:30pm; Playing With Fire (2D/Comedy) 3:00 & 7:15pm Kaithi (2D/Tamil) 8:15 & 11:00pm;Bigil (2D/Tamil) 5:00pm

Bala (2D/Hindi) 10:30am, 1:00, 3:45, 6:30, 9;15pm & 12:00 midnight; Playing With Fire (2D/Comedy) 11:00am, 4:15 & 9:30pm; Pranaya Meenukalude Kadal (2D/Malayalam) 11:00am, 5:00 & 8:00pm; Midway (2D/Action) 1:15, 6:30 & 11:45pm; Kaithi (2D/Tamil) 2:00 & 11:00pm

LANDMARK

AL KHOR

Pranaya Meenukalude Kadal (2D/Malayalam) 5:30, 8:15 & 11:30pmBala (2D/Hindi) 6:15 & 11:15pmJabardast Shankara (2D/Tulu) 6:00pmEdakkad Battalion 06 (2D/Malayalam) 8:45pmKaithi (2D/Tamil) 8:45 & 11:30pmBigil (2D/Tamil) 11:30pmThipparaa (2D/Telugu) 6:00pm

ASIAN TOWN

ROXY

FLIK Mirqab Mall

Abigail (2D/Adventure) 12:20, 2:35 & 4:50pmBala (2D/Hindi) 6:40 & 9:35pmDoctor Sleep (2D/Horror) 12:55, 3:45, 4:35, 8:40, 7:25, 10:15 & 11:30pmCountdown 0:05amJoker (2D/Crime) 7:00 & 11:45pmMaleficent: Mistress Of Evil (2D/Adventure) 10:20am, 11:20am, 12:40, 1:40, 3:00, 4:00, 6:20, 7:40, 10:00pm & 0:20amMidway (2D/Action) 8:10 & 10:50pmOfficial Secrets (2D/Drama) 6:00pmPlaying With Fire (2D/Comedy) 10:25am, 11:00am, 12:30, 2:25, 4:20, 6:15, 8:15 & 10:10pmTerminator: Dark Fate (2D/Horror) 10;50am, 1:20, 3:50, 6:30, 9:05 & 11:40pmThe Addams Family (2D/Comedy) 10:40am, 12:30 & 4:10pm

Adithya Varma (2D/Tamil) 1:00, 7:00, 7:15 & 10:30pmBala (2D/Hindi) 11:00am, 1:00, 1:45, 3:45, 4:00, 4:30, 6:30, 7:15, 9:15 & 11:55pm; Doctor Sleep (2D/Horror) 11:00am, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00, 4:00, 4:30, 7:30, 10:30 & 10:45pm; Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil (2D/Adventure) 6:10, 6:30, 8:40 & 9:00pm; Midway (2D/Action) 7:40 & 10:00pmTabaluga: The Last Dragon (2D/Animation) 4:10 & 4:30pm; Pranaya Meenukalude Kadal (2D/Malayalam) 10:30am, 1;15, 4:30 & 10:45pm; Terminator: Dark Fate (2D/Horror) 11:00am, 5:00, 7:00, 11:10 & 11:30pm; The Addams Family (2D/Comedy) 10:30am, 12:20, 12:30, 2:10 & 2:30pm

Bala (2D/Hindi) 2:00 & 6:15pm Pranaya Meenukalude Kadal (2D/Malayalam) 2:15pm; Playing With Fire (2D/Comedy) 4:45 & 6:30pmKaithi (2D/Tamil) 2:15 & 11:30pmMaleficent: Mistress Of Evil (2D/Adventure) 5:00pmTabaluga: The Last Dragon (2D/Animation) 4:30pmMidway (2D/Action) 7:00pm Doctor Sleep (2D/Horror) 8:15pm; Official Secrets (2D/Drama) 9:30pmTerminator: Dark Fate (2D/Horror) 8:45pm; Housefull 4 (2D/Hindi) 11:15pm; Bigil (2D/Tamil) 11:00pm

Housefull 4 (2D/Hindi) 2:00pm; Tabaluga: The Last Dragon (2D/Animation) 2:00pm; Terminator: Dark Fate (2D/Horror) 7:00pm;Playing With Fire (2D/Comedy) 2:30 & 4:15pm; Bala (2D/Hindi) 4:30 & 9:00pm; Doctor Sleep (2D/Horror) 8:45 & 11:30pm; Joker (2D/Crime) 9:15pm; Midway (2D/Action) 6:30pm; Kaithi (2D/Tamil) 8:15 & 11:30pm; Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil (2D/Adventure) 2:30, 4:30 & 6:00pm

20 TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019MORNING BREAK

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum22oC 30oC

HIGH TIDE 04:57 – 15:28 LOW TIDE 11:31 – 23:14

Partly cloudy to cloudy at times with

chance of scattered rain maybe thundery

at places and blowing dust at times.

FAJRSHOROOK

04. 30 AM05. 49 AM

11. 18 AM02.25 PM

04. 49 PM06. 19 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS Ajyal festival to present 22 films made in QatarTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Signalling the vibrancy of a strong national film industry, the 7th Ajyal Film Festival, presented by the Doha Film Institute (DFI), will present 22 captivating films by Qatari directors and Qatar-based filmmakers in this year’s ‘Made in Qatar’ programme presented by Ooredoo.

A highly-anticipated high-light of the festival, ‘Made in Qatar’ serves as a unique platform for aspiring film-makers to showcase their works on a global stage, drawing on the immersive power of cinema to tell their stories and establish a creative dialogue with audiences from around the world.

The films will vie for the ‘Made in Qatar Awards’, chosen by a jury that includes Sudanese filmmaker Amjad Abu Alala; British actor, Kris Hitchen; and Qatari architect and urbanist Fatma Al Sehlawy.

Made in Qatar will once again shine a spotlight on home-grown talents with two film programmes of narratives and documentaries that include the world premieres of recently completed projects from Qatar Film Fund recipients: Ahmad Al Sharif’s End of the Road and Kholood Al-Ali’s Fragile.

Fatma Hassan Alremaihi,

Festival Director and Chief Executive Officer of DFI, said: “Undoubtedly, Made in Qatar holds a special place in the Ajyal Film Festival programme, highlighting our local creative talents and inspiring young filmmakers to find their ambi-tions in Qatar.

“This year’s impressive slate of 22 accomplished films stands out with bold subjects and brilliant narrative styles, and we are proud of the con-tributions of our emerging talents to building a vibrant creative industry in Qatar and inspiring their peers.

“The quality of the films being produced in Qatar

demonstrates an exciting path that our young filmmakers are taking, and we are excited to present films this year that were shot internationally, attesting to the ever-expanding influence of Qatar’s burgeoning film industry.

“Ajyal Film Festival is pleased to celebrate film-making in our country and help audiences find themselves in the stories that form our narrative.”

The 2019 Made in Qatar section at Ajyal once again presents two programmes of shorts that include narratives, thought-provoking documen-taries and reflective essays,

inspired by the values that define the nation — its culture, heritage, people and places.

The first programme will be on November 19 at 8pm at Katara Drama Theatre and November 21 at 8.30pm at VOX Cinemas, Doha Festival City. Films in this programme include Ahmad Al-Sharif’s End of the Road (2019), Tick Tock (2019) by Awad Karrar, The Artist: Yacoub Missi (2019) by Tony El Ghazal, Mariam Al-Dubhani’s In the Middle (2019), Falling Leaves (2019) by Dimitri Yuri, Refuge (2019) by Maha Essid, Abdulanaser Hassan Al Yafei’s F-57 (2018), Socotra – The Invisible Island (2019) by Ching Siew Hua, A.J. Al-Thani’s The Black Veil (2019) and Fragile (2019) by Kholood Al-Ali.

The second programme

will be on November 20 at 8pm at Katara Drama Theatre and November 22 at 8.30pm at VOX Cinemas. It includes Abdulaziz Mohammed Khashabi’s The Unlucky Hamster (2019), Revive the Lira’s Glory (2019) by Ales-sandra El Chanti, Desert Bounty (2019) by Yassine Ouahrani, Sana Al-Ansari’s Batch 10 (2019), Ana Bas (2019) by Tony El Ghazal and Ayah Awartani, Beit Byoot (2019) by Mayar Hamdan, Dhabya AlMu-hannadi’s Maha’mel (2018), Nada Bedair’s Paper Kite (2019), Doubled (2018) by Rana Al Khouli, Ghassan’s Green Door (2019) by Lubna Mohsin and Munera AlDosari, Majdy Naeem Al-Sukhnii’s Oh Ya Maal (2019) and Beyond Boundaries (2019) by Hemanth Madupu.

Stills from Qatari films ‘Paper Kite’ (left) by Nada Bedair, and ‘The Black Veil’ by AJ Al Thani.

“Ajyal Film Festival is pleased to celebrate filmmaking in our country,” said Festival Director Fatma Hassan Alremaihi.

Orchestra reworks Vivaldi’s concertos to ‘make climate change audible’AFP BERLIN

A classical orchestra in Germany aims to “make climate change audible” with a reworking of Antonio Vivaldi’s famous violin concertos “The Four Seasons” using algorithms based on

climate data. The project reim-agining one of the most widely recognised classical works is entitled “For Seasons” and will be performed in Hamburg on Saturday.

A collaboration between musicians, artists and software developers, the composition has

been described by its creators as “ d i s h a r m o n i c ” a n d “uncomfortable”.

“The piece makes the facts of climate change obvious: the climate and our seasons have grown unbalanced,” the organ-isers said on the project website.

Using data relating to species

extinctions, rises in global tem-peratures and extreme weather events, the composers claim to have developed algorithms which can “influence the notes on the original sheet”.

Changes to Vivaldi’s original score from 1725 include a blurring of the lines between

spring and summer and the removal of notes which rep-resent birdsong.

The new work will be pre-miered by the Hamburg Elbphil-harmonie’s resident orchestra.

“Almost everybody in the room will recognise the original, but then quickly think: ‘Hang on,

this sounds different, somehow disturbing’,” said Yuri Chris-tiansen, the orchestra’s solo cellist. Tickets for the per-formance at Hamburg’s modern, waterside concert hall will be free of charge, and the event will also be streamed by regional public broadcaster NDR.