Volume 22 | Number 7416 | 2 RiyalsWednesday 24 January 2018 | 7 Jumada 1 | 1439 www.thepeninsula.qa

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BUSINESS | 17 SPORT | 32

Economy Minister meets Snap’s Chief Strategy Officer

Minister of Economy and Commerce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani meeting with Imran Khan, Chief Strategy Officer of US leading social media company Snap Inc. on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, yesterday. Discussions touched on the prospects for joint cooperation across numerous fields as well as investment opportunities in Qatar. The Minister also met with Levent Cakiroglu, CEO of Turkish Koc Holding, in Davos.

JubilationA falconer lifted by his supporters as he celebrates after being qualified for the next round in the 9th Hudud Al Tahaddi Championship at Qatar Falcons and Hunting Festival at Sabkhet Marmi in Sealine. A total of 25 falconers have qualified for the next round of the falcon competition, which will continue until January 27.

Emir to patronise Al Zaeem Air College graduation todayQNA

DOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will patronise today the grad-uation ceremony of the fifth batch of students of Al Zaeem (leader) Mohamed bin Abdullah Al Attiyah Air College in Al Udeid Air Base.

DOHA: The Ministry of Education and Higher Education will announce today the results of the general and specialised Secondary School Certificate (SSC) for the academic year 2017-18.

The Ministry said in a statement yesterday that the results will be available on the website: https://nateeja.edu.gov.qa/default.aspx.

SSC results to be announced today

DOHA: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs H E Dr Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah made a phone call to Nurettin Canikli, the Defence Minister of the Republic of Turkey.

During the telephone conversation, the two sides discussed the latest updates of the operation “Olive Branch” launched by the Turkish armed forces in Afrin.

The Deputy Prime Min-ister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs assured the Qatar’s support to Turkey in its efforts to counter terrorism.

The two sides also emphasised the close rela-tions between the two countries.

Defence Minister holds talks with Turkish counterpart

Texting, chatting on mobiles while driving to attract finesSIDI MOHAMED

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The General Directorate of Traffic will soon begin a campaign against motorists who send messages, play games, and chat on cellphone while driving, a source at the General Direc-torate of Traffic told The Peninsula.

“Now, any kind of engagement with mobile will be considered a violation like playing games, text messages and check other mobile appli-cations. Earlier, only speaking over cellphones was considered a violation,” he said. The vio-lation in this case is QR500 and includes addition of 3 negative points. Before starting this drive, we will conduct awareness

campaign to inform people about the dangers of using mobiles while driving. The cam-paign will be conducted through newspapers and social media.

Earlier, the traffic law banned talking on mobile while driving, but that clause has now changed and it includes any kind of engagement with mobile that distracts motorists, he added. “We have noticed that many drivers engage in video games, text chatting and other mobile applications, and some are busy in checking social networking sites, which may sometimes lead to a sudden accidents,” he noted.

The Ministry of Interior earlier said that the traffic patrols register the traffic vio-lations directly against the users of mobile while driving. Using

mobile while driving is con-sidered a misconduct that poses a serious risk to the life of the driver and other drivers. It is one of the most common causes of serious traffic accidents caused due to lack of concentration and preoccupation with mobiles.

The source said: “The General Directorate of Traffic found that many traffic accidents happened not just because of over-speeding but drivers’ engagement with mobile phones while driving. Now department will take new measures to reduce the accidents which is caused by using mobiles”. “We asked the author-ities to increase the violations fine but they rejected, and they changed the violation to mean any kind of engage with mobile and not only talking,” he stressed.

Siege termed as strategic failureSACHIN KUMAR

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: A recent report by a global think tank has termed the siege imposed on Qatar as a ‘strategic failure’. The report written by Gabriel Collins of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said the siege against Qatar ‘grinds toward strategic failure’.

The report said that the blockade against Qatar is likely to weaken as time progresses.

“The worst of the post-blockade capital flight is likely over, the country is rebuilding its trade links and food supply chain to bypass imports previ-ously obtained via Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and LNG exports remain robust, underpinning Qatari cash flow,” said the report authored by Gabriel Collins, JD, who is the Baker Botts Fellow in Energy & Envi-ronmental Regulatory Affairs for the Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies.

The report added that Qatar could very likely withstand the effects with decreasing impact each year as it increasingly emphasises economic relation-ships outside the Gulf region.

According to the report financial markets recognise Qatar’s fundamentally strong position, and traders are pricing a future that sees Doha success-fully resisting the blockade.

Credit default swap prices for five-year Qatari sovereign debt, which had spiked in early July 2017 immediately after the siege, have fallen significantly, said the report. It shows investors trust on Qatari economy.

The report adds that Qatar’s trade patterns bolster its siege resistance. In 2016, slightly more than 15 percent of Qatari imports came from the block-ading countries, a small enough share that building new trade networks to replace those lost imports in a fairly short time is a realistic possibility. The ‘rapid rebuild’ thesis is enhanced by the fact that much of what Qatar imports from its neigh-bours—food and basic material supplies—are highly fungible and can be procured from many other sources.

As per the report, less easily replaceable goods —such as gas turbines and critical technology components for liquefied natural gas (LNG) liquefaction plants — are sourced outside the Gulf region and generally lie beyond the reach of the anti-Qatar coa-lition. “Qatar’s key LNG buyers lie outside the Gulf region, and those that can supply advanced technology goods—such Japan, China, and South Korea — all have compelling strategic interests in seeing Qatar remain a stable baseload global energy supplier,” added the report.

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THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The State of Qatar has reaffirmed its support for the efforts of the Republic of Turkey to maintain its national security in the wake of the breaches and terrorist attacks carried out inside Turkish territories.

Speaking to QNA on Monday, Spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry H E Lulwah Al Khater said the Turkish army’s launch of Operation Olive Branch on Saturday was driven by legitimate concerns related to its national security and securing its borders, as well as protecting the territorial integrity of Syria from the danger of secession. Al Khater said that the operation comes as the Turkish territories were subjected to several infiltra-tions and terrorist attacks.

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Qatar reaffirms support to Turkey’s effort for security

Sri Lanka seeks more jobs for skilled workers in QatarFAZEENA SALEEM

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Sri Lanka is seeking more job opportunities in Qatar for skilled workers in different sectors and it would organise an employment promotion event tomorrow.

“Employment Promotion in Qatar”, being organised by Embassy of Sri Lanka in collaboration with Qatar Chamber, will gather 200 private, gov-ernment, and semi government com-panies from various sectors, ASP Liy-anage, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Qatar told The Peninsula. The event will be held at the Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention Hotel. Also, a 55 member delegation including senior officials from the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment and representa-tives of different Sri Lankan recruitment agencies will participate in the event.

The event will seek increase in number of skilled-workers coming here. “It will provide an opportunity to the companies to learn about the man-power which we could cater, and the

employment and recruitment agency representatives to know the existing opportunities,” said Liyanage.

Labour migration from Sri Lanka has grown during the last several decades. Sri Lanka has sent abroad some two million workers, nearly 10 percent of its population. Around 120,000 Sri Lankans are employed in Qatar.

LP Dulip Jayawardane, Counsellor Employment and Welfare at Embassy of Sri Lanka in Qatar said, “Although skilled and semi skilled workers coming to Qatar has increased, we have seen a slight drop in companies recruiting Sri Lankans. Therefore, we take the oppor-tunity to attract companies which have hired less Sri Lankans.” The even is also being held under the guidance and support of Sri Lanka’s Minister for Justice and Foreign Employment Tha-latha Athukorala.

According to the country’s Bureau of Foreign Employment, remittance by overseas workers is over $5bn annually of which about 60 percent are from Middle East.

The report said that Qatar could very likely withstand the effects with decreasing impact each year as it increasingly emphasises economic relationships outside the Gulf region.

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) will embark on a second traffic change on Mesaimeer Intersection (Leabidly Roundabout) on E-Ring Road where it will shut the junction roundabout and install a light signal to provide an alternatively seamless traffic leading to Rawdat Al Khail

Street, E-Ring Road, Industrial Area Road and Doha Expressway.

Ashghal has stated that the first Leabidly Roundabout diversion announced by Ashghal on January 10 is still effective.

The detour, designed in col-laboration with the General Directorate of Traffic, com-mences on January 27 (Saturday)

and continues for a period of two years to enable the recon-struction of Leabidly Round-about into a multi-level junction.

Also, the Leabidly Round-about Bridge will remain shut to traffic coming from E-Ring Road towards Industrial Area.

During the diversion, motorists travelling from Rawdat Al Khail Street towards Industrial Area can use the new light signal and turn left towards E-Ring Road and turn right at the next light signal onto the newly built route towards Industrial Area Road.

Motorists travelling from Rawdat Al Khail Street towards Industrial Area can turn right at the new light signal towards the next light signal then perform a U-turn onto the new route towards the Industrial Area Road, as illustrated on the map.

Doha-bound traffic from Industrial Area will be detoured right prior to Leabidly Round-about to a newly built road towart and Doha Expressway.

Road users travelling from Doha Expressway towards Industrial Area, E-Ring Road or Rawdat Al Khail Street can take right prior to Leabidly Round-about onto the recently built road towards Industrial Area Road, and turn left at the next new light signal to join E-Ring Road.

Commuters travelling from E-Ring Road towards Industrial Area ought to take left at the light signal before Leabidly Round-about onto the new route towards Industrial Area Road.

Commuters travelling from E-Ring Road ought to drive through the light signal before Leabidly Roundabout and take right onto Rawdat Al Khail Street or continue straight towards Doha Expressway.

Ashghal will install road signs providing motorists with advance notice of the new road layout. The Public Works Authority requests all road users to abide by the new speed limit and follow the road signs to ensure their safety.

02 WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018HOME

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Doha Film Institute’s (DFI) co-financed film, Loving Vincent, has been nominated for Best Animated Feature section at the 90th Academy Awards.

This is the fifth Oscar nomi-nation for DFI in the last four years. In 2015 Timbuktu received an Oscar nomination, while Theeb and Mustang made it in 2016 and The Salesman in 2017.

Loving Vincent was screened at the recent 5th Ajyal Youth Film Festival where it received Best Feature Film award in the Bader category at the festival.

The world’s first fully painted feature film, Loving Vincent is a cinematic ode to the remarkable life of legendary artist Vincent van Gogh.

The other films nominated in Best Animated Feature cat-egory are The Boss Baby, The Breadwinner, Coco, and Ferdinand.

Loving Vincent brings the

paintings of Vincent van Gogh to life to tell his remarkable story. The Doha Film Institute has been a long-term partner on the project since the early stages of production.

The film is written and directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, and produced by Academy Award-winning studios, Poland’s BreakThru Films and UK’s Trademark Films. Each of the 65,000 frames of the film is an oil-painting hand-painted by 125

professional artists who trav-elled from across the world to the studios of Loving Vincent in Poland and Greece.

The film was first shot as a live action film with actors, who worked either on sets specially constructed to look like Van Gogh paintings or against green-screens. The footage from the live action shoot then becomes the reference for painting ani-mators. The final effect is the interaction of the performance of the actors playing Vincent van Gogh’s famous portraits and that of the painting animators, who bring the characters into the medium of paint.

Co-produced by City of Wroclaw – European Capital of Culture 2016, Odra-Film/The Lower Silesian Film Fund and CeTA, the film is supported – in addition to the Doha Film Institute – by Silver Reel, RBF Productions, Sevenex Capital Partners, The Polish Film Institute, MEDIA, and Unibail-Rodamco.

Minister of Transport and Communications H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti with other officials during the forum.

Al Sulaiti attends International Cyber Security Forum in ParisTHE PENINSULA

FRANCE: Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, headed State of Qatar’s delegation to the 10th International Cyber security Forum, which opened in Paris on Monday.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani had earlier received an invi-tation from his French coun-terpart to take part in the Forum.

On behalf of Prime Minister and Interior Minister, who is also the Chairman of the National

Cyber Security Committee (NCSC), Minister of Transport and Communications led the delegation.

Attended by several min-isters and decision makers, the event aims to bolster collabo-ration and exchanges between government agencies, institu-tions and private business in Europe. It also aims to enhance global collaboration in responding to cyber attacks and develop reliable industrial partnerships.

The 10th International Cybersecurity Forum is a key pan-European event on cyber security and information

security defence. It aims to promote a pan-European vision of cyber security as well as to strengthen the fight against cyber crime.

The Forum and its exhi-bition has attracted over 7,000 visitors from 50 countries and some 300 industry partners and corporations, including French Network and Infor-mation Security Agency (ANSSI), French Ministry of Defence and 40 foreign dele-gations from around the world.

Qatar’s Ambassador to France Dr Khalid bin Rashid Salem Al Mansouri attended the Forum’s opening ceremony.

DFI co-financed film gets Oscar nomination

Loving Vincent is the fifth Oscar nomination for DFI in the last four years. In 2015 Timbuktu received an Oscar nomination, while Theeb and Mustang made it in 2016 and The Salesman in 2017.

Gulf crisis will pass, says Arab League officialTHE PENINSULA

TUNIS: Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League and President of the Tunisia Centre Dr Abdullatif Obaid underlined that the Gulf crisis will pass and can only be solved through dialogue, stressing that the links of broth-erhood that bring together the Arab world in general and the Gulf coun-

tries in particular, are deeply rooted and based on belonging to one identity, which is the Arab Islamic identity.

In statements to Al Sharq, Obaid said that the GCC countries are particularly capable of over-coming what has happened thanks to the dialogue, which will deepen further and further, and thanks to the good Arab medi-

ation, especially by Kuwaiti.He noted that the Arab

League was established to achieve a high level of cooperation and solidarity among the Arab coun-tries and has succeeded in estab-lishing cooperation in all fields such as education, culture, security, military affairs, trade, and economy. However, this cooperation is still inadequate.

QNA

DOHA: The Police Training Institute celebrated the graduation of the police officers in the first obligatory leadership course, with the attendance of Director General of Public Security Saad bin Jassim Al Khulaifi.

Held at the Ministry of Interior (MOI), the course was attended by 21 officers from dif-ferent departments in the Min-istry. The course aims to prepare distinguished senior leaders and provide them with the knowledge and skills of admin-istrative, legal and technical police leadership that enable

them to perform the tasks given to them efficiently.

The two-week course touched on building strategic vision, contemporary leadership strategies, empowerment skills, time and priority management skills, excellence management systems, the concept and types of crises and how to manage them, as well as the code of conduct and practical crisis and disaster man-agement scenarios.

The institute also saw the graduation of 28 officers from MoI who completed the oblig-atory medium course number 26. This course was held at the Officers Club at the Directorate

General of Civil Defence. Assistant Director of the Police Training Institute Major Ali Saud Al Hanzab, handed the certifi-cates to the officer graduates.

The course aimed at pro-viding participants with the knowledge and skills that qualify them for strategic planning, crisis management methods and evaluation of police per-formance to ensure the quality of security work outputs.

The content of the three-week middle course covered topics related to leadership skills, planning principles, formulation of strategic objectives, how to develop staff performance,

building scenarios for security crisis management and negoti-ation skills. It also covered the ways to deal with new crimes (cybercrime, trafficking crime and control mechanisms) police behaviour with regards to public meetings, field visits, practical applications and sports training.

The Police Training Institute adopted a comprehensive devel-opment for the training courses through the rehabilitation plan of the Ministry of the Interior for this year, by introducing sce-narios and practical applications in the planning courses, in addition to the operational and field courses.

Police Training Institute celebrates graduation of leadership course

A view of the new mosque.

Ministry of Awqaf opens new mosque in Al Ghanim Al AteeqQNA

DOHA: The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs opened a new mosque in Al Ghanim Al Ateeq, which can accommodate about 500 worshipers, as part of the Ministry’s plan to increase the number of mosques and develop them in all areas, and to keep pace with urban and population growth, in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030.

The new mosque includes a praying area for women, a spacious place for ablution in

addition to parking spaces with dedicated parking lots for people with disabilities, as well as residences for the Imam and the Muezzin.

The ministry said that the designs take into consider-ation the different sizes of the lands, the requirements of green and sustainable buildings, the sustainable preservation of electricity and water and the aesthetics of the designs in a way that reflects the Qatari and Islamic her-itage according to the highest standards.

Second traffic change on Mesaimeer Intersection

03WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018 HOME

RAYNALD C RIVERA

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Twelve famous designers from around the world are expected to turn heads with a stunning showcase of their latest collections at Shop Qatar’s Inter-national Fashion Show tonight at Mondrian Doha.

Adding glitter to the fashion event are well-known Pakistani movie stars Imran Abbas, who will wear an Alejandro Resta cre-ation, and Maya Ali, who will don a Maria B design.

World renowned award-winning Spanish designer Resta will showcase 15 pieces from his ‘Candy’ collection he created in memory of his late grandmother who recently passed away and was of great influence on his pur-suit for a career in fashion.

“I dedicate this whole collec-tion to my grandmother who passed away last month. Her

name is Candy and she intro-duced me to fashion teaching me how to sew. She was from Anda-lusia in southern Spain which is historically very much related to the Arab world,” Resta told the media on the sidelines of a press briefing at Ritz-Carlton Doha yesterday.

In deciding on what to show-case for his Doha debut, Resta said he had two options: to show a new completely different fashion style or bring the tradi-tional Spanish fashion culture to Qatar. He decided to follow the latter bringing a slice of Spanish traditional fashion chiefly Anda-lusian to Qatar.

“I’m trying to bring Andalu-sia’s traditional fashion to Qatar through a demi-couture quin-tessential Spanish design collec-tion which is very flamenco in style,” he explained.

As an important part of Shop Qatar offerings, Resta also

conducted a three-day fashion design masterclass for fashion connoisseurs in Qatar. He expressed utter satisfaction for the level of interest and appre-ciation from the participants coming from various ages and backgrounds.

Lebanese designer Fouad Sarkis, one of the most recog-nised names in fashion in the Arab world, revealed he would be displaying couture glamour-retro collection comprising 16 looks.

“I had a fashion show here five years ago. I have more than 40 shops around the world, two of which are here in Doha,” said Sarkis.

Another Lebanese designer taking part at tonight’s event is Nour Fathallah, who will be showcasing ten pieces from her S18 collection.

“My collection is simple yet refined with distinct cuts which

can’t be found in many dresses. I worked with different fabrics and soft unique summer colours for this glamour demi-couture collection,” said Fathallah.

Sarkis and Fathallah have their production house in Turkey and their designs are present in Arab countries as well as USA and France, among others.

Meanwhile, organisers are optimistic this year’s Shop Qatar

will be better than last first edi-tion with the huge interest gen-erated by the various activities in the past two weeks.

“It’s progressing really well. There are many activities this year with high public engage-ment. The level of interest among the people is evident in the high attendance at the activities during the Bollywood Week,” Alshaima Alshaikh, Head of

Tourism Events and Festival Organisation Section at Qatar Tourism Authority told the media.

The fashion shows and con-certs in the past two weeks have seen high attendance and tomorrow’s concert of Grammy Award-winning EDM pop duo The Chainsmokers is no excep-tion with tickets almost sold out.

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: As the school term break approaches and residents begin making travel plans, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is offering advice and tips to avoid travel-related illnesses.

Dr Mohamed Abu Khattab, Consultant, Communicable Dis-eases and Travel Medicine at HMC, is advising residents who plan to travel during the coming weeks and months to consider visiting the Travel Clinic at HMC’s Communicable Diseases Center, or another health center that provides travel medicine services.

“Visiting a travel clinic and meeting with a travel medicine expert should be part of your vacation planning process. Trav-ellers should plan to visit a travel clinic at least four to six weeks prior to their scheduled travel date to receive appropriate vaccinations.

This advice is especially important for individuals with pre-existing health conditions, in particular, chronic diseases. Patients with chronic diseases will need to discuss potential modifications or changes to medication routines and will also need to ensure they have

enough medication for the dura-tion of their vacation. This is par-ticularly important for diabetics using insulin,” said Dr Abu Khattab.

He added that recom-mended vaccines and drugs can vary from one country to another, depending on the type of prevalent diseases.

He also highlighted the importance of obtaining health insurance to cover any med-ical treatment expenses that could be incurred abroad and advised travellers to research the road conditions and traffic laws in the country they are visiting.

He also recommended that travellers limit their exposure to theft by not carrying valu-able belongings or walking in remote areas. Caution when

consuming food and drink was also recommended.

Travellers are also advised to take the necessary clothing to avoid communicable diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, Dengue fever, and the Zika virus being transmitted through mos-quito stings.

Experts recommend wearing colourful long-sleeved clothing, applying anti-insect creams (containing a 30-50 percent DEET concentration), and using anti-mosquito nets during sleep. Exposure to influenza and men-ingitis can be limited by avoiding overcrowded areas, where possible.

Travellers who experience abnormal symptoms within one month of returning from their trip are advised to visit the Travel Clinic at the

Communicable Diseases Center. Symptoms or signs of certain diseases can develop weeks after travel and some travel diseases may have an incubation period of one month.

Assessments will vary from patient to patient and depend on the traveller’s age, the nature of the diseases enquired about, the destination country, purpose of travel, planned activities, and the provision of necessary vaccinations.

Travellers may be provided with certain medications such as travel-related diarrhoea drugs (antibiotics, anti-stomach cramps, and vomiting) and anti-malaria drugs, if needed. To book an appoint-ment for a travel assessment, the Travel Clinic can be con-tacted on 4025 4003.

Over 1,000 workers attend SC’s nutritional eventTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: As part of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy’s (SC) nutritional programme, executed in part-nership with Weill Cornell Medi-cine-Qatar (WCM-Q), more than 1,000 construction workers of 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar attended an educational activa-tion session at Al Khor Sports Park.

The event was part of phase two of the nutritional programme,

launched last year by SC’s Workers’ Welfare Department and the renowned WCM-Q.

It included health screenings as well as a wide variety of interactive activities, including light exercise, cricket and football matches, healthy cooking demonstrations and healthy takeaway meals.

The objective of the second part of the three-phased nutritional pro-gram was to educate the workers, as well as their employers, about the benefits of healthy lifestyles and bal-anced diets.

The activities follow the pro-gramme’s first phase, during which detailed health checks were conducted for the same sample of workers. The assess-ment findings from phase one formed the basis of a series of recommendations for the next two phases including training and awareness sessions.

SC Workers’ Welfare Depart-ment Executive Director, Mahmoud Qutub, said the educational activa-tion session had been a resounding success. “The event at Al Khor Sports

Park was a great example of reaching out to workers to talk about the importance of nutrition,” he said.

“We have worked hard since the launch of this program to educate workers about eating properly and the benefits a healthy lifestyle can bring. It was a great opportunity for workers to hear a bit more about food preparation and intake, and the impact it can have on their health,” he added.

WCM-Q Professor of

Medicine and Assistant Dean for Clinical Investigations Dr Shahrad Taheri expressed hap-piness about the outcome of the event. “It raised awareness around the importance of a good diet and healthy lifestyle. We used the day to carry out further health checks and track progress and improvements to workers’ health since phase one. We also demonstrated some of the food options that would make a big difference to their diet.”

The health screenings of the

first phase of the programme, carried out by WCM-Q’s team of clinical researchers, monitored a wide variety of workers’ health indicators such as blood pres-sure, blood glucose, kidney func-tion, hydration, body mass index and respiratory parameters.

In the final phase of the pro-gram, WCM-Q will collaborate with contractors and catering suppliers to recommend revised nutritional food options for the workers within their work-sites and accommodation.

12 designers set to turn heads at Shop Qatar fashion show

FROM LEFT: Lebanese designer Nour Fathallah; Carlos Sánchez Caballero, Alejandro Resta’s fashion brand director; Spanish designer Alejandro Resta and Lebanese designer Fouad Sarkis at Shop Qatar’s International Fashion Show press briefing at Ritz-Carlton Doha yesterday.

HMC expert advices residents to avoid travel-related illnesses

QNA

WASHINGTON: Attorney-General H E Dr Ali bin Fetais Al Marri delivered a lecture at Georgetown University Law School on the legal implications of the events and developments in the region.

Dr Al Marri reviewed the legal and constitutional devel-opment in the State of Qatar since its independence until today, especially the adoption of the permanent constitution of the country, which provides equality and establishes the principles of justice and sepa-rates the authorities in the state, while respecting the different religious values and judiciary independence.

He also spoke about the qual-itative achievements in the State of Qatar, which were accompa-nied by a renaissance in legal leg-islation and which dealt with var-ious aspects of life.

The Attorney-General stressed that since the adoption of its permanent Constitution, the State of Qatar has taken firm steps towards the estab-lishment of the rule of law, the independence of judiciary, the establishment of institutions as well as ensuring the use of jus-tice in all levels of litigation, which provides adequate guar-antees for the stability of soci-eties and the establishment of all freedoms.

In his lecture to George-town University law students, the Attorney General noted that the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani established the principle of the rule of law, and the state did not overlook other

factors such as state-building, infrastructure and integration with the international community.

Dr Al Marri also talked about the Gulf crisis and the unjust siege imposed on the State of Qatar since June 5, reviewing in this regard the successes and achievements of the state after the siege by relying more on the energies of its people.

During the lecture, he stressed that the State of Qatar is far from supporting ter-rorism, adding that Qatar is a state of law and seeks religious freedom. He noted that the issue of terrorism is closed, and Qatar’s interest is focused the two issues of justice and fighting corruption.

Meanwhile, Dr Al Marri met with Dr Blake Morant, dean of the George Washington Univer-sity Law School on the occasion of his visit to the United States.

The two sides discussed possibilities of cooperation in the academic field, especially with regard to international criminal legal work, exchanging experiences, developing skills, organizing conferences, work-s h o p s a n d t r a i n i n g workshops.

During the meeting, Dr Morant reviewed the main activities of George Washington University in the field of com-bating corruption, money laun-dering, skills available at the Law School, pointing to the prospects of cooperation between the University and the Rule of Law and Anti-Corrup-tion Center in Doha.

Al Marri sheds light on Qatar’s legal system

Dr Mohamed Abu Khattab

Hamad Medical Corporation’s Communicable Disease Centre.

04 WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018HOME

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Ministry of Economy and Commerce, in collaboration with Alfardan Premier Motors, dealer of Jaguar vehicles in Qatar, has announced the recall of Jaguar XF, XE, XJ and F-PACE models of 2016-2018 because the virtual display instru-ment cluster (IC) has been going blank intermit-tently. The Ministry said the recall campaign comes within the framework of its ongoing efforts to protect consumers and ensure that car dealers follow up on vehicle defects and repairs.

The Ministry said that it will coordinate with

the dealer to follow up on the maintenance and repair works and will communicate with cus-tomers to ensure that the necessary repairs are carried out.

The Ministry urges all customers to report any violations to its Consumer Protection and Anti-Commercial Fraud Department, which processes complaints, inquires and suggestions through its channels suchas Call Center: 16001, Email: info@mec.gov.qa, Social media accounts: Twitter: @MEC_Qatar, Instagram: MEC_Qatar, Ministry of Economy and Commerce mobile app for Android and IOS: MEC_Qatar.

MEC recalls Jaguar XF, XE, XJ and F-PACE models

QA & Qatar Airways Holidays offer packages for FIFA 2018THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Bookings for Qatar Airways and Qatar Airways Holidays’ exclusive travel pack-ages, offering the ultimate FIFA World Cup experience, are selling out fast. Football fans now have only days to beat the clock to secure the experience of a lifetime before the January 31, 2018 deadline.

There are still unbeatable travel packages available through the end of the month, offering fantastic flights, great hotels and official match tickets to the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia. These seamless travel packages are the best way to book a front row seat for all the incredible football action, set to take place in Russia from June 14- July 15, 2018.

Fans looking to experience the world’s most thrilling foot-ball tournament live are urged to act fast to secure their pre-ferred travel experience, with Qatar Airways Holidays travel packages still available for Group matches, the Semi-Final and Final for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia by visiting: www.qrfootballpackages.com.

The ultimate FIFA World Cup™ experience is also being offered to members of Qatar Airways’ frequent flyer pro-gramme, Privilege Club, the Official Frequent Flyer Pro-gramme for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.

Right up until the January 31, deadline, Qatar Airways Holi-days are offering a fantastic range of travel packages, tailor-made to ensure the world’s most highly-anticipated sporting event of the year is also the eas-iest to take part in.

A specially designed and intuitive booking platform fea-tures an easy to understand online brochure, providing details of all available travel packages, clear prices and what they include. Prices vary depending on match ticket cat-egory, chosen hotel type and flight origin. Qatar Airways Hol-idays travel packages for key group stage games and the final phases are available to buy on a first-come, first-served basis until January 31, 2018.

Qatar Airways Senior Vice-President Marketing and Cor-porate Communications, Salam

Al Shawa, said: “There is no sub-stitute to enjoying a front row seat at one of the world’s greatest sporting events and watching the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia in person. We urge all football fans to act now and beat the deadline to book one of Qatar Airways Holidays’ unbeatable travel packages, which will give you the ultimate FIFA World Cup experience”.

“Thanks to the start of new daily direct flights to St. Peters-burg, and an additional third daily flight between Doha and the Russian capital, Moscow, we have made it even easier to be a part of the best football the world has to offer. All fans have to do is book one of our amazing FIFA World Cup experiences by January 31 to get closer to the action,” she added.

Qatar Airways recently launched flights to the cultural capital of Russia, St Petersburg, doubling the number of Russian routes operated by the five-star carrier.

Qatar Airways now operates its daily St. Petersburg service with an Airbus A320 aircraft, which features 12 flatbed seats in Business Class and 120 seats in Economy Class. Travellers who book their match packages with Qatar Airways will also enjoy the airline’s award-win-ning in-flight entertainment system Oryx One, which offers more than 4,000 incredible entertainment options.

Football fans now have only days to beat the clock to secure the experience of a lifetime before the January 31 deadline as travel packages are selling out fast. Prices vary depending on match ticket category, chosen hotel type and flight origin.

Children enjoying activities at the Fun Fair at the Mall of Qatar. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT / THE PENINSULA

Mall of Qatar fun event offers entertainment to visitorsAMNA PERVAIZ RAO

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Hundreds of children along with their families flocked to the ‘Fun Fair’ being held in front of Al Rayyan Hotel Doha to expe-rience new thriller rides.

The Mall of Qatar (MoQ) family fun event, in partnership with QSports, is offering unique entertainment to mall visitors, which started on January 15 and will end on April 15.

For three months, MoQ is set to excite shoppers with more than 15 different activities such as paint-balling, wind-tunnel, and trampoline park “so even the big-gest of kids can have plenty of fun”.

Talking to The Peninsula, an official from QSports said: “Due to unique rides available at the Fun Fair, people have started to have real thriller experience. Weekends brought more than 500 hundred people here while on weekdays families arrive after 6pm.”

“First time at the Fun Fair families are able to enjoy with their kids. Game prices start from QR20 to QR30. Paintball for QR90 per person, wind tunnel is categorised with respect to time limit starting from two minutes for QR195, four minutes for

QR350.” “The trilling experience of wind tunnel also comes in family package which is for ten minutes/ten family members worth QR800. Wind tunnel friends package is of 20 minutes/ten friends worth QR1,500. The most enjoyable rides are the new ones which include wind tunnel, trampoline park and giant slide,” he added.

People at the Fun Fair enjoyed food stalls along the rides. Most of the families left kids under the supervision of their care-takers at Fun Fair and enjoyed shopping at Mall of Qatar. Par-ents call it a new destination for kids during their school spring break. “I always come along my kids to such Fun Fair and events to enjoy to the fullest. I am happy to see the new addition of rides at Fun Fair. We experienced the rides together, the most favourite ride was ‘Wind Tunnel’. The instructor gave us instructions which helped us a lot enjoying the wind tunnel. My younger son enjoyed the shark surfing the most,” mother of three sons, Yezenia Navarro, said.

Several local families enjoyed the family package of wind tunnel. New thriller rides have attracted a lot of expatri-ates and the winter season has made the pleasure double.

A Qatari mother, Ayesha said: “We enjoy such family-friendly events that take place in Doha. We always find these events coming with new innovative ideas. The new rides like paint-ball, trampoline park, football, dart game and many more have attracted our kids to this Fun Fair. Weather has made it more delightful for kids and families.”

“These rides really make my sons happy because they do not have to wait in long queues. Buying tickets is much easier,” said Faisal, a Pakistani expatriate who was enjoying Fun Fair with his wife and two sons.

The family also had the opportunity to visit Mall of Qatar, where special discounts are being offered on several brand shops. He said many families wanted to enjoy such events during the winter season. “We prefer going to such fun-filled events being held during winters because chil-dren enjoy it more due to pleasant weather,” he added.

The one-of-a-kind event is taking place in front of Al Rayyan Hotel Doha every day of the week. Visitors looking for a thrill can enjoy the indoor wind tunnel that will run till March 15, to be fol-lowed by another exhilarating activity. The tickets are available at the venue of Fun Fair.

Dialogue between all faiths stressed

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: As part of cultural communication to enhance dialogue with various Christian churches, the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) received Father David Kesterton, Priest in Charge at Parish of All Saints w St Peters Luton in the Bolton suburb, which is predominantly Muslim suburb of London.

Father Kesterton was accompanied by Father Ian Nicholson, Director General of the Anglican Center in Doha.

Dr Ibrahim bin Saleh Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the DICID, received the visiting delegation and appreciated the efforts of the Anglican Church in its endeav-ours to cooperate with the DICID on many occasions in Qatar and its efforts to strengthen the rela-tionship between the Christian communities and with the Mus-lims in Qatar.

The Chairman of the DICID

pointed out that the 13th Con-ference on Inter-religious Dia-logue, to be organised by the Center under the theme of “Reli-gions and Human Rights”, will be a platform for all concerned parties. Dr Al Nuaimi called on all to participate and cooperate to make the world a safer and more peaceful place.

He stressed the importance of dialogue between all faiths and races, and discourse must be brought up to replace fanat-icism and hatred based on the lowest instincts. “We are all

capable to do so if we cooper-ated” he added.

For his part, Father David Kesterton pointed out that the Bolton suburb, where the Parish of All Saints is located, is char-acterised by the presence of Muslims as the majority of the population. They are in harmony with their community. There are many joint activities being con-ducted by the Muslims and Christians together. The father Kesterton said he is keen to share this excellent experience with DICID and the Christian

Congregation, because this rep-resents an example of coexist-ence and cooperation among different religious communities he stressed. Father David Kes-terton tweeted by the end of his visit to Doha and about meeting the Chairman of the DICID saying, “Spending a week in Doha with my friend Fr Paul and learning about what interfaith means here. Lots to reflect on and also grateful for the estab-lished grassroots work we do in Luton and how we easily take it for granted”.

Author Lilas Taha to speak at GU-Q todayTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Critically acclaimed writer Lilas Taha (pictured) will be discussing her award-winning book, Bitter Almonds, at an upcoming event at Geor-getown University in Qatar (GU-Q). The public talk, which will be held today, will be followed by a book signing and reception.

Bitter Almonds (published by HBKU Press) is a captivating work of historical fiction which tells the story of a family of Pal-estinian refugees who fled to Syria from Jerusalem in 1948. The book follows the lives of Omar and Nadia as they con-front the challenges posed by war, societal expectations, and injustice to find love and their own place in the world.

The novel was selected as the focus of this year’s ‘One Book, Many Conversations’ pro-gramme for its relevance to the GU-Q community and the high quality of the writing. During her time in Qatar, Taha will also host a creative writing work-shop with the GU-Q commu-nity and conduct research for her next book.

“One Book, Many Conver-sations is an annual GU-Q library reading and discussion programme that encourages everyone to read the same book at the same time to create a GU-Q community-wide book

club,” explained Director of the Library, Donna Hanson. “The aim is to promote a reading habit, foster a sense of commu-nity, and engage readers in the thoughtful reading of a text by a major international author.”

Taha was born in Kuwait to a Syrian mother and a Pales-tinian father and immigrated to the United States following the Gulf war. She holds a mas-ter’s degree in Human Factors Engineering from the Univer-sity of Wisconsin- Madison and brings her professional inter-ests and Middle Eastern back-ground together in her novels. Bitter Almonds is Taha’s second book and won the best multi-cultural fiction award at the International Book Awards last year. An Arabic translation of Bitter Almonds has recently been released.

Dr Ibrahim bin Saleh Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the DICID, Father David Kesterton, Priest in Charge at Parish of All Saints w St Peters Luton in the Bolton suburb, and Father Ian Nicholson, Director General of the Anglican Center in Doha.

Dr Ibrahim bin Saleh Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the DICID, stressed the importance of dialogue between all faiths and races, and discourse must be brought up to replace fanaticism and hatred based on the lowest instincts.

05WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018 HOME

Plans to set up new skin care subspecialty clinics FAZEENA SALEEM

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Department of Dermatology and Venereology at the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), as a centre-of-excellence for skin care, will establish new out-patient clinics for all impor-tant subspecialties this year. It aims to provide the best medical service at world-class standards and has enhanced its services recently and provides a holistic approach to patients, says a senior official.

An experienced team of der-matologists provide a high level of care and a wide range of der-matology health services at an international standard to patients with mild to severe skin condi-tions, said Professor Dr Martin Steinhoff, Chairman of the Depart-ment of Dermatology and Vener-eology at HMC, with services at Rumailah, Al Wakra, Al Khor and Cuban hospital.

Skin diseases are among the frequent medical conditions such as eczema, skin allergies, psoriasis, acne, vitiligo, skin infections, urti-caria, genetic skin conditions or skin cancer, for example.

Recently improved under-standing of disease mechanisms and modern technologies help to provide a more disease-specific care with new medications or treatments in eczema, skin cancer,

autoimmune disease, genetic skin conditions, psoriasis, eczema, skin infections, and several other immune and allergic processes and other skin manifestations in adults and children. “We are happy that with the support of HMC we have made extensive progress in the last year to invest in new technologies, diagnostic tools, and novel therapies,” Dr Steinhoff told The Peninsula.

“Consequently, we were able to introduce around 16 new sub-specialty clinics on the wide spec-trum of Dermatology and Vener-e o l o g y , p h l e b o l o g y , dermato-surgery and immu-nology in the department. Our aim as a centre-of-excellence for skin care at HMC will be to provide the best medical service at world-class standards. Therefore, we will establish in 2018 new out-patient clinics for all important subspe-cialties, so no patient needs to go abroad for any skin condition.”

“If necessary, we will work together with world-class centers

in dermatology around the world to provide the best possible treat-ment to our patients for any skin condition,” he added.

The Department of Derma-tology and Venereology includes clinics for general complex con-ditions, emergencies, follow-up clinics, and subspecialties for der-matological surgery, laser medi-cine, phototherapy, allergies, eczema, psoriasis, vein diseases, STI clinic, acne, vitiligo, genetic skin conditions like ichthyosis or epidermolysis bullosa, for example, autoimmune diseases or skin cancer.

The department also works

closely with other medical depart-ments like surgery, internal med-icine, rheumatology, allergy and the wound center at HMC in order to provide a holistic and optimal therapeutic plan for each patient.

“We also work closely together with primary healthcare center (PHCC), SIDRA derma-tology and private healthcare facilities in order to direct our patients to the right place for diag-nostic and therapy”, says Dr Stein-hoff. “At the moment, the waiting time in Rumailah hospital is around one to two weeks for a new appointment and one week for a follow-up appointment. In

our emergency clinic we are trying to accommodate severe cases so that no patient needs to wait longer than necessary. So patients will be assessed for the emergency of the case,” Dr Steinhoff added.

“The new patient clinic has helped us catering about 25% more patients than seen last year. However, we continuously try to expand and optimize the patient service, safety and quality of treat-ment for our patients,” Dr Stein-hoff mentioned.

One of the prevalent problems in Qatar is atopic eczema and con-tact eczema. Atopic eczema has an estimated prevalence of 12-20 percent in children and six to eight percent in adults, which is at least as high as in most countries in the world with high disease occur-rence. “Because it is a life-long skin condition, but can be con-trolled well if treated adequately, it is very important to see a der-matologist for eczema in order to treat and prevent new flare ups,” noted Dr Steinhoff. “Often fami-lies are desperate and frustrated about the situation for their chil-dren or an adult family members. But the good thing is that with the new diagnostic tools and novel treatments options, we can help those patients now much better than in the past. I have observed many patients which under new therapies experienced a signifi-cant improvement in their

quality-of-life. Also, a detailed education program by specialized nurses help the patient to learn how to avoid itching and scratching, and exacerbating trigger factors,” said Dr Steinhoff.

He also noted that together with the primary health care centers and SIDRA, the HMC der-matology department is very active to optimize the patient service for all patients with skin conditions.

Many chronic genetic skin conditions affect children, often life-long. Therefore, the Depart-ment of Dermatology and Vener-eology at HMC also provides spe-cialized services for genetic skin diseases. “Because of the high demand, this sub-specialty clinic is expected to serve on daily basis in order to improve the service for those cases in Qatar,” said Dr Haya Al Mannai, Consultant for Derma-tology and Venereology at Rumailah Hospital, HMC.

“In close collaboration with SIDRA pediatric dermatology and other colleagues we want to pro-vide an overall approach to diag-nose and treat all genetic and acquired skin conditions in Qatar,” Dr. Haya Al-Mannai noted.

“Beside a detailed treatment and follow up plan family educa-tion is of significant importance to help in a holistic approach,” Dr Haya added.

New skin care out-patient clinics for all important subspecialties aim to provide the best medical service at world-class standards.

Prof Dr Martin Steinhoff, Chairman of the Department of Dermatology and Venereology at HMC. PIC: BAHER AMIN / THE PENINSULA

Contracts signed for 3rd stage of Darfur reconstruction QNA

KHARTOUM: Contracts for the projects of the third stage of Darfur reconstruction were signed on Monday in the pres-ence of Sudanese presidency representative and Minister of Federal Government Chamber, Faisal Hassan Ibrahim; Darfur Peace Office Chairman, Magdi Khalfalla, the State of Qatar’s Ambassador to Sudan, Rashid bin Abdulrahman Al Nuaimi, commissioners of Darfur peace commissions, leaders of mili-tant groups that signed the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, presidential negotiation official Amin Hassan Omar, National Liberation and Justice Party Chairman Tijani Sese, a number of federal ministers and governors of Darfur prov-inces, and representatives of international organizations.

The presidential represent-atives reaffirmed that President Omar Al Bashir has fulfilled all the commitments of the govern-ment in terms of fully

completing the requirements of the Doha Document for Peace Darfur, pointing out that Presi-dent Al Bashir ordered the pay-ment of the third and fourth phase of the commitments of the government by including them in the budget of 2018 and fol-lowing up the implementation process.

The presidential represent-ative highlighted the stances of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in support of Sudan and the peace and stability of Darfur.

He said that the State of Qatar’s contribution to Sudan remains a testament to the strength of relations as Doha offered, sponsored and achieved peace on the ground and pushed it to wider horizons.

In turn, Khalfalla reiterated the determination of the state and society in Darfur to elimi-nate all factors of instability and security threats to ensure the best conditions for launching reconstruction and development projects, stressing that without

the strength of the Qatari gov-ernment’s commitment to the peace process by exerting max-imum efforts to make the peace process in Darfur succeed and the generous development sup-port, it would have been difficult for the Sudanese people to be moving forward today steadily and confidently towards the completion of the third phase projects.

He said that the progress of implementation of the obliga-tions of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur on the ground has now reached 90 percent, stressing the strength of the gov-ernment’s commitment to enable the agreement to transform the society of Darfur into a cohesive one and make the region the forefront of the revival process in the country.

The presidential represent-ative honoured the ambassador of the State of Qatar to Sudan in recognition of the Qatari role and Doha’s efforts in promoting peace and strengthening rela-tions with Khartoum.

Brisk business at Flower Festival-2018SANAULLAH ATAULLAH

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Flower Festival is doing brisk business as a total of 4,900 seasonal flower plants and 1,000 seedlings of vegetables and herbs from Qatari farms have been sold at a cost of QR36,575 in the second week (from last Thursday to Saturday), said the Ministry of Municipality and Environment.

The festival is offering various varieties of locally produce flowers, seedlings of vegetables and herbs at about 25 percent low price compared to what are avail-able at other places in the market, a trader told The Peninsula.

After a successful experience of two winter markets Al Mazr-ouah (near Umm Salal), Al Khor-and-Al Dhakhira during past two weeks, the festival is scheduled to be held in Al Wakrah winter veg-etable market for three days starting from tomorrow, said the Ministry in a statement.

The ‘Flower Festival-2018’ is being organised by the Ministry of

Municipality and Environment represented by the Agricultural Affairs Department to promote locally produce flowers.

The festival aims at providing platform to local farmers to sell their flower produce directly to customers in a bid to get suitable yields for their investments and hard work.

“The festival is showcasing many other items with flowers and flower plants like seedlings of veg-etables and herbs and beautiful flower pots at reasonable prices,” Humraaz Rizvi from a partici-pating farm — Al Sulaiteen Agri-cultural and Industrial Complex

— one of the largest farm in Qatar, said.

Speaking on the varieties of flower, Rizwi said that most of the flowers produced by his farm are available at the festival including petunia, vinca antirrhinum, celosia, thmophelea, marigold, dahlia, culious, dainthus, jarbera and lilly among many others. “We also offer seedlings for various types of vegetables and herbal plants like mint and aloe vera,” said Rizwi.

Speaking on the prices, Rizwi said that the flower plants and other produce are available at wholesale rate at the festival because they are being offered by farmers directly to the customers.

He said that the produce showcased at the festival are cheaper about 25 percent com-pared to the market price.

“Small flower plants like petunia, vinca and marigold are available at QR1 per plant how-ever, lilly is being sold at QR5 per plant. Chrysanthemum is

available in a big pot at QR15 per plant,” said Rizwi, adding that some medium plant like rose, chrysanthemum and gypsophila are being sold at up to QR15.

He said that herbal plants like mint and aloe vera are being offered in hanging basket at QR15 per piece. Regarding the life of flower plant, he said that the plants

would keep producing flowers till the end of the season in April.

Beautiful flower pots are also available at the festival. “We offer ceramic flower pots imported from Vietnam in the range of QR100 to QR500,” said Rizwi.

The festival is offering various varieties of locally produce flowers, seedlings of vegetables and herbs at about 25 percent low price compared to what are available at other places.

Flowers and plants displayed at the ‘Flower Festival-2018’.

06 WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018HOME / MIDDLE EAST

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: After attracting more than 40,000 visitors in its first year, Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF) is preparing to host the second Aspire International Kite Festival, a three-day event due to take place in Aspire Park from March 6 till 9, this year.

Teams of professional kite flyers will gather in Doha to com-pete in a range of individual and team kite events including syn-chronised kite performances and kite flying art displays. The coun-try’s first kinetic wind decora-tions have also been set up in Aspire Park to captivate the event’s visitors.

Speaking about the event, Kholoud Al Hail, Chairperson of the event’s organising com-mittee, said: “We’re delighted to see the return of the Aspire Inter-national Kite Festival for the second consecutive year, and we hope this year’s event builds on last year’s huge success. After year-long planning, this year’s Festival will witness more coun-tries and schools taking part at the competitions. And we’ve many more surprises yet to be

announced – so stay tuned.” Al Hail added: “AZF’s outdoor

activities are the ideal combina-tion between sports, culture and entertainment. They provide a great opportunity for all commu-nity members to enjoy Qatar’s weather this time of the year. This year’s Festival will also enable people who are interested to learn new skills to do so, by getting involved in the various kite flying workshops that are being organised around Qatar.”

PROFESSIONAL KITE COMPETITIONS

THE teams will be assessed by a professional judging panel based on the creativity of their design, the craftsmanship, ability and duration of the kite flight. Last

year’s professional competitions were split into individual and team categories. In the individual category, the gold medal went to French participant Richard Debray, whilst his fellow coun-tryman Roger Tessa-Gambassi bagged the silver. Malaysian participant Adam Ahmad won the bronze.

In the Pairs & Teams cate-gory, Andesky from Colombia won the gold, Ex-Grads from the UK won silver and Paire’Spire from France won the bronze.

This year will mark Qatar’s first participation in the compe-titions. In preparation, the Sec-retary of the International ASEAN Kite Council, renowned Singa-porean trainer, Gadis Riyadi, will organise a series of workshops for Qatar’s team members this Friday and Saturday, January 26-27 from 9:30am until 6:00pm in the Ladies Sports Hall in Aspire Zone.

INTER-SCHOOL COMPETITIONS

IN addition, amateur enthusiasts and young children will be able to design and decorate their own

kites and take part in inter-school competitions that are organised by AZF as part of the main event in March. Children from Grades 1-6 can enter the competition with a maximum of ten students per team.

In the run up to this year’s inter-schools competitions, AZF organised a three-day workshop series for 60 teachers from 15 schools last November. The especially designed workshops were organised to provide inspi-ration and ideas for how to build

and decorate a kite, as well as tips and tricks for flying them and easy to follow explanations of kite aerodynamics.

The workshops were deliv-ered by acclaimed Canadian trainer, Robert Trépanier. Trépanier’s airborne portraiture has had a huge impact on the art of kite flying. His own kite fea-tures caricatures of everyday people with distinguished, some-times dark and often humorous features. In his workshops, Trépanier addressed topics such

as kite history, the science behind kite flying, and different techniques for of kite making, tailored to de easily understood and implemented by young chil-dren. First-place school team winner will walk away with QR50,000, whilst second-place winner will take home QR30,000, and third-place winner QR10,000. Last year’s winners were Muaz bin Jabal School, Gheras International School and Birla Public School respectively.

More countries to take part in second kite fest

A file picture of stilt walkers during the first Aspire International Kite Festival at Aspire Park last year.

QNA

DOHA: Best Buddies Initiative Qatar, a non-profitable NGO, under the umbrella of Qatar Foundation for Social Work, has announced the launch of the Career Development Program for qualifying people with disa-bilities and developing their abil-ities and potentials to suit the labour market.

Executive Director of Best Buddies Qatar, Laalei Abu Alfain, in an open meeting with the

parents of the members of the Initiative, said that the Career development program, which will be launched on February 4, aims at exploiting and devel-oping the abilities and capabili-ties of persons with disabilities and employing them to the max-imum extent to achieve func-tional, social and economic inde-pendence, as well as empowering them, integrating them into society and enhancing their self-confidence through planning and implementing

appropriate programs for their needs.

She pointed out that the year 2018 will see many activities and programs and events aimed at the integration of people with disabilities functionally in the community in cooperation with all the authorities in the country. She pointed that raising the level of community awareness and correcting the negative concep-tions towards the capabilities and potential of these people is one of the main objectives of the

initiative in the coming period.Abu Alfain urged parent to

support and participate in the programs and activities and to encourage their children to join them because of the great impor-tance in the process of integra-tion with the community as an active component of the com-prehensive development wit-nessed by the State of Qatar.

Director of Rehabilitation and Integration Department, Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Sayyed, said that the Initiative

sought to provide all the means of success to start a career devel-opment program for its members.

The program features a number of training and rehabil-itation workshops covering func-tional, life and communication skills and professional and social behaviours desired in the work environment in addition to workshops on arts, drama and sports.

Best Buddies Qatar is a non-profitable governmental

organization under the umbrella of Qatar Foundation for Social Work which aims to enhance life of people with and without intel-lectual and developmental dis-abilities through one-to-one long lasting meaningful friendships and their social integration. Besides, the organization intents to serve as a link among families and other social institutions to update them with the latest development and best practice in the field of disabilities.

Best Buddies to launch programme to hone up skills of disabled

AFP

BENGHAZI: A car bomb blast killed at least four people and wounded 10 others near a mosque in the Libyan city of Benghazi yesterday night, security and medical officials said.

The explosives-rigged vehicle blew up in front of a mosque in the central neigh-bourhood of Al-Sleimani, a security source said.

The mosque is known to be a base for Salafist groups which fought jihadists in the eastern port city alongside forces loyal to military strongman Khalifa Haftar.

The death toll was expected to mount, according to a source at Benghazi’s Al-Jala hospital.

Libya has been rocked by chaos since a 2011 uprising that toppled and killed dic-tator Moamer Kadhafi, with two rival authorities and multiple militias vying for control of the oil-rich country.

Military strongman Kha-lifa Haftar in July announced the “total liberation” of Beng-hazi, three years after his forces launched a military operation to seize the city from jihadists who had made it a stronghold following the revolution.

But clashes and attacks in the city have continued, including against diplomatic facilities and security forces.

Haftar supports a parlia-ment based in the far east of Libya.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The Turkish government saw some of which to be connected to the security and military com-ponent present on the Turkish-Syrian border, which the ISIS group and combating it played a role in its formation, the

Foreign Minister spokesperson added.

She noted that Qatar, while backing the efforts of Turkey to maintain its security, expresses its full support for the right of the states to defend their national security, which is guaranteed by international conventions,

including Article 51 of the UN Charter.

The Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson said that Turkey, a main member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), has always been a sta-bilising and balancing factor in the region, adding that Qatar is

fully confident of Turkey’s keen-ness to maintain the safety of civilians and the territorial integ-rity of Syria.

Al Khater noted that the war on the criminal ISIS group is nearing its end, so all actors in the Syrian crisis must reach per-manent solutions that take into

account achieving justice for the Syrian people and holding accountable those who com-mitted crimes against it, in addi-tion to addressing the interests and concerns of all those affecting and affected by the crisis as guaranteed by interna-tional law.

Qatar reaffirms support to Turkey’s effort for security

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The report noted that many of the same countries embargoing Qatar are also blockading Yemen, and after more than two years they have still been unable to force a decisive strategic resolution, despite intensive use of mili-tary force. The evidence sug-gests that even blockade lasting multiple years would likely still fail to coerce Qatar into making the concessions desired by the embargoing countries.

The report said that Qatar will be able to withstand the effect of blockade as it is diversifying its economic rela-tions with other countries. Qatar is net self-sufficient in steel production (including rebar critical for construction as it prepares for the 2022 World Cup).

“The new Hamad Port — capable of storing enough cereal grains to satisfy mul-tiple years of local

consumption, able to handle more than 3.5 million 40-foot shipping containers per year, and able to accept 1.7 million tonnes per year in general cargo — is already replacing import trade that formerly came by land from Saudi Arabia and by sea from the UAE,” said the report.

“To the extent that incre-mental supplies of cement, certain steel products, and other goods may be needed for World Cup 2022 and other projects, seaborne supplies procured from India, Iran, and Turkey — among other poten-tial partners — can very likely fill any gaps left by the cessa-tion of land shipments from Qatar’s neighbours,” added the report.

As the embargo continues, diplomatic and political rela-tionships between many Arab countries will likely suffer fur-ther damage, and Iran’s rela-tive influence in the region will likely rise as a result, noted the report.

Siege termed as strategic failure

Four dead in Benghazi car bomb blast

Ski resort People ski at Hesarek Ski Resort in Bingol, Turkey.

ANATOLIA

TURKEY: Security forces held at least 374 undocumented migrants in northwestern Edirne and southern Hatay provinces yesterday, according to a secu-rity source.

A total of 311 foreigners were held in northwestern Edirne

province during security checks. Among them were Afghans, Pakistanis, Iraqis, Iranians, Syr-ians and Bangladeshis.

Another 21 undocumented migrants from Pakistan, Iran and Syria were held in Edirne during a road check while they tried to illegally cross the Turkish border. In southern Hatay province,

security forces held 42 undocu-mented migrants during a road check. The migrants were later referred to provincial migration authorities. Turkey has been the main route for migrants trying to cross into Europe using illegal routes, especially since the beginning of the civil war in Syria.

Over 370 undocumented migrants held in Turkey

The second Aspire International Kite Festival, a three-day event, is due to take place in Aspire Park from March 6 till 9, this year.

07WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

AFP

JERUSALEM: US Vice-Presi-dent Mike Pence visited Jeru-salem’s Western Wall yesterday while Palestinians held a general strike after denouncing his fervently pro-Israel speech the previous day as “messianic”.

The devout Christian’s speech to the Israeli parliament on Monday laden with biblical references was praised by Israelis as perhaps the best they could ever hope for from a US administration, but Palestinians saw it as confirming some of their worst fears.

Pence proudly reaffirmed US President Donald Trump’s December 6 declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and pledged to move the embassy to the disputed city by the end of 2019.

The vice president said “the

friendship between our peoples has never been deeper. And I am here to convey a simple message from the heart of the American people: America stands with Israel.”

Yesterday, as he wrapped up his trip, Pence, who was boycotted by the Palestinians, visited one of the holiest sites in Judaism, the Western Wall.

The site lies in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the sector the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state, and many Israelis are likely to interpret it as Pence further backing their claim over the entire city.

“Very inspiring,” Pence said after the visit during which he was not accompanied by Israeli government officials.

Pence followed in the foot-steps of Trump, who became the first sitting US president to visit the Western Wall in May.

Pence visits Western Wall after pro-Israel speech

AFP

ABUJA: Nigeria’s former presi-dent, Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday called on the country’s current leader not to seek a second term of office.

Obasanjo, who headed a military government in the 1970s and was Nigeria’s first president when civilian rule was restored in 1999, said Muhammadu Buhari needed a “deserved rest”.

With a nation increasingly

divided, insecure and in an eco-nomic slump, to ask Nigerians to vote for Buhari for another four years was “unrealistic,” Obasanjo argued.

It “will only sentence Nigeria to a prison term of four years, if not destroy it beyond the possi-bility of an early recovery and substantial growth”, he added.

Buhari’s wife, Aisha, has pre-viously indicated she will not support him if he seeks re-elec-tion and in recent days has

retweeted videos of opposition lawmakers criticising the government.

Buhari, 75, spent the most part of last year receiving treat-ment in London for an unspec-ified illness, leading many to wonder whether he is fit enough to serve another four-year term.

Elections are due to be held in February next year.

In 2015, he became the first opposition candidate in Nigerian history to unseat a sitting

president, defeating Goodluck Jonathan at the polls.

Obasanjo, now 80 and still an influential political figure, ripped up his membership card of Jonathan’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party just before the last election.

He claimed Jonathan was trying to stay in power “by hook or by crook”, questioned his fit-ness to govern and said he was surrounded by corrupt cronies and “greedy hangers-on”.

Buhari urged not to seek second term

AFP

HASSA: The Turkish army was yesterday engaged in intense clashes with Kurdish militia inside Syria as the United States voiced alarm over Ankara’s operation could endanger attempts to bring peace to the conflict-torn country.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed at the funeral of the first Turkish soldier to be killed in the cross-border cam-paign that Ankara would emerge victorious from the campaign.

Turkey on Saturday launched operation “Olive Branch” aimed at rooting out the Kurdish Peo-ple’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara sees as a terror group, from its Afrin enclave in northern Syria.The campaign has caused ripples of concern among Turkey’s Nato allies, especially the United States which is still working closely with the YPG to defeat Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria and fears the offensive will be a distraction.

In his strongest comments yet on the offensive, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis called for Turkey to show “restraint”.

He warned the offensive “disrupts what was a relatively stable area in Syria and distracts from the international effort to defeat” IS, on a visit to Indonesia.

Turkish artillery yesterday pounded targets of the YPG inside Syria, the state-run Ana-dolu news agency said. Mean-while, Turkish drones were also carrying out attacks, state tele-vision said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said “fierce clashes” were continuing especially north and southwest of Afrin.

As well as the artillery and air strikes, Turkish ground troops and Ankara-backed Syrian rebels have punched over the

border several kilometres (miles) into Syrian territory, taking sev-eral villages, according to state media.

After intense exchanges, Tur-key’s forces took control of the hill of Barsaya, a key strategic point in the Afrin region.

The Observatory said 25 Ankara-backed rebels and 26 Kurdish fighters had been killed in the fighting so far. It has also said 24 civilians have been killed on the Syrian side but this is vehemently rejected by Turkey which says it is only targeting militants.

A Turkish soldier was killed on Monday on the third day of the offensive, the first Turkish military fatality of the operation. Sergeant Musa Ozalkan, 30, was laid to rest yesterday with full honours in a ceremony attended by the Turkish leadership including Erdogan.

“We will win and reach vic-tory in this operation together with our people, together with Free Syrian Army,” Erdogan assured mourners, referring to the Ankara-backed rebels.

“We have full confidence,” he added. The campaign -- which Erdogan has made clear

has no fixed timetable — is fraught with risks for Turkey.

Two civilians have been killed inside Turkey in border towns in the last two days by rocket fire from Syria blamed on the YPG.

In Afrin, residents queued at bakeries and cars were on the streets as residents braced them-selves for any violence, a witness said.

The offensive against the YPG is also fraught with

diplomatic sensitivities with Western capitals particularly concerned that it will take the focus away from eliminating IS.

France and the European Union have made similar com-ments to those made by Mattis.

Turkey clashes with Kurdish militia

Turkish forces are seen near Mount Barsaya, northeast of Afrin, Syria, yesterday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed at the funeral of the first Turkish soldier killed in the cross-border campaign that Ankara would emerge victorious from the campaign.

US Vice-President, Mike Pence, meets Israeli President, Reuven Rivlin, in Jerusalem, yesterday.

AFP

KANO: Six people were killed last weekend when cattle herders battled farmers in northeast Nigeria, a state government offi-cial said yesterday, in violence that has piled pressure on the government.

The clashes happened on Sunday in the Numan district of Adamawa state, where militia from the ethnic Bachama farming community killed at least 30 Fulani herders last November.

“Six people were killed and many others were injured in attacks on two villages, Kikan and Lauru,” Adamawa state informa-tion commissioner Ahmad Sajo said.

“A group of Fulani attacked Kikan, which is a Bachama vil-lage, killing three people, injuring many and carting away cattle.”

AFP

MONROVIA: New Liberian Pres-ident George Weah has appointed the first members of his cabinet, all of them men, largely naming party allies but picking a foreign minister close to former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Ex-international footballer Weah was sworn in on Monday at a stadium surrounded by ecstatic supporters, and filled some key ministerial posts later the same day.

In his inaugural speech, Weah vowed to crack down on entrenched corruption and encourage the private sector.

But the picks from his party

come from outside the establish-ment and do not have significant government experience, poten-tially setting up a struggle with entrenched interests in the national congress.

The lack of women so far in the cabinet may also raise eye-brows after 12 years under Sirleaf, who pushed for women to enter public life and strengthened pro-tections against abuse and female genital mutilation as her final act in office.

Weah’s right-hand man is the chairman of his Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) party, Nathaniel McGill, who becomes minister of state and chief of staff.

He guided the president

through a bruising electoral cam-paign last year and was already his top aide. Senior CDC figure Samuel Tweah becomes finance secretary, while Liberian lawyer Charles Gibson, a friend of Weah’s, becomes Justice Minister. Sam Mannah, the president’s press aide from his years as a sen-ator, becomes his press secretary. Outgoing president Sirleaf has left her mark, however, with the appointment of former Unity Party senator Gbehzohngar Findley to the key post of foreign minister. Findley began 2017’s presidential campaign supporting Sirleaf’s vice-president, Joseph Boakai, who lost to Weah in December.

Weah makes first cabinet appointments

Six dead in latest violence in Nigeria

Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee has rightly called upon the world community to come forward and play an active role in pushing blockading countries to end over seven-month

unjustified siege against Qatar.The world community has not endorsed

baseless allegations leveled against Qatar by Saudi-led quartet, it has also condemned human rights violations committed by the siege countries. The world nations have also been calling upon the blockading countries to end ongoing Gulf crisis through constructive dialogue. It is time for the international community particularly the super powers to adopt pro-active diplomacy to protect the rights of the victims of the unjust siege.

National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) Chairman Dr Ali bin Sumikh Al Marri has recently called for immediate action to end the siege against the State of Qatar. In his meetings, held recently, with officials at the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office on his fourth European tour, he said that governments remaining neutral regarding the issue is a violation in itself of the rights of those abused by the siege.

He added that remaining neutral also is an encouragement for the siege countries to continue their act of collective punishment. He also stressed that the official report from the UN, which condemned the measures taken by the siege countries, should also be the signal that countries can no longer be neutral.

During his visit, Al Marri highlighted that Qatar remains in contact with all international human rights organisations and encourages them to visit Doha to meet those affected directly, unlike the siege countries which continue to operate behind closed-doors and prevent all international regulatory bodies and rights organizations from sending fact-finding missions on the implications of the seven-month siege.

Al Marri stressed that the countries of the blockade, contrary to their media propaganda, continue to

undermine the stability and unity of the social fabric of the Gulf region, because of its arbitrary measures that caused the separation of families, especially after Saudi Arabia’s final closure of the only border port linking Qatar to the world, as well as the broadcast of hate speech recorded in the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Participants of Doha Regional Dialogue on Sustaining Peace, held recently, also emphasized on the importance of finding political settlements for conflicts as they discussed the importance of finding new approaches to peace in the world through preventing conflicts, and finding solutions before the start of the conflict.

The Middle East has already been passing through troubled times and confronting numerous challenges to its security and stability with terrorism on the top and under such conditions the region cannot afford Gulf crisis for a longer period. Therefore, international community and organisations must step up their efforts to end the existing stalemate, which will bring the unending human sufferings created by the siege to an end.

WHETHER you welcome or dread progressive policies, their time has come. Conditions

are better for lefty priorities than they have been for a generation. As Democrats return to power, as they just have in New Jersey, they’d be wise to seize their moment.

Often, but not always, progressive policies act as a tax or a reduction on economic activity. Higher taxes disincentivise working or production. Higher minimum wages beyond a certain point lead to less hiring. Stricter environmental regulations lead to a combination of higher prices and less production of fossil fuels. Deficit-financed government spending when the economy is at full capacity crowds out private sector activity. So all else equal, if you’re in favor of progressive policies, you’d want to enact them at a time when they’re likely to do the least harm to the economy.

Which is basically now. The unemployment rate is at its lowest level in a generation. Fossil-fuel prices have recovered somewhat since their early 2016 lows, but shale energy supply

should stave off any shortage. The US economy continues to move away from the energy sector, and solar energy is booming. Corporate profitability is high, particularly in the tech sector. Outside of the housing sector, where prices are high and supply is constrained, most pockets of the economy are well positioned to absorb the costs of progressive legislation.

We’ve gotten a couple data points to this effect in recent days. Germany enacted laws mandating that Facebook monitor its content in the country, and now, despite having only 1.5 percent of Facebook’s total users, Facebook is devoting 16 percent of its content monitors to German content. The company’s profit margins are astronomical, so it’s well positioned to absorb any regulatory burden put on it by policymakers.

Last week Walmart announced it was raising its minimum wage to $11 an hour from $10 an hour in response to the Republican tax cuts. Another factor may have been that California’s minimum wage went up to $11 an hour on January 1 — so why not roll out the minimum wage nationwide? Especially for companies dealing with labor shortages.

Conditions were not nearly this

favorable when Democrats had control of government in 2009-10. It was the worst labor market in decades -- not exactly the best time to raise the minimum wage. The price of a barrel of crude oil shot up to $80 at the end of 2009, as plentiful shale supply had yet to come online. Solar energy capacity was a fraction of what it is now. And political capital had been spent on bailouts of the financial and auto sectors.

Democrats tend to do better electorally when the economy is bad: Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected during the Great Depression, and each of the last three Democratic presidents was elected during or in the aftermath of an economic shock.

At the moment the party controls only a handful of states right now, and while they’re likely to pick up some more statehouses and governor offices in 2018, the White House won’t be theirs again until 2021 at the earliest.

There’s no guarantee the environment will be as favorable for progressive policies three years from now, but it might be more favorable for Democratic candidates. In any case, campaigning has become a 365-day-a-year sport, so Democrats are already making their progressive pitch.

Al Marri stressed that the countries of the blockade, contrary to their media propaganda, continue to undermine the stability and unity of the social fabric of the Gulf region.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

08 WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018VIEWS

EDITORIAL

Neutrality is no option

QUOTE OF THE DAYWe’re working very

hard to make sure that our neighbour tothe south recognises

how good Nafta is and that it has

benefitted not just our economy but his

economy and the world economy.

Justin Trudeau Canadian Prime Minister

True eradication of Islamic State requires its starvation of cash

This is the moment for progressives’ policies

RENAD MANSOUR &

HISHAM AL HASHIMI

FOREIGN POLICY

AS the Islamic State lost one of its last villages in Iraq, Brett McGurk, the US special envoy to the coalition battling the

group, took to Twitter for a victory lap. The organisation’s “phony ‘caliphate,’” he wrote, is “coming to an end.”

It is true that the Islamic State has lost the vast majority of its territory, which at its peak in 2014 included about one-third of Iraq and half of Syria. Once dubbed “the world’s richest terrorist organisation” by the United Nations, it has also lost an estimated 80 percent of the funds it acquired by conquering territory and mimicking the functions of a state, collecting taxes and tariffs from the citizens under its control.

Rumors of the Islamic State’s demise, however, have been greatly exaggerated. For all of the victories that the Iraqi government and its international allies have won on the battlefield, they have so far been unable to deal similar damage to the jihadi organisation’s financial capabilities. Indeed, the corrupt war economies of Iraq and Syria will allow the Islamic State to continue on and finance a dangerous insurgency. If the caliphate is to be truly eradicated, its opponents must find ways to starve it of cash.

The Islamic State has smuggled an estimated $400 million out of Iraq and Syria during its recent retreat, according to an Iraqi legislator who sits on a parliamentary committee to gather facts on Mosul’s fall and who is close to figures in the organisation. With that cash, the Islamic State has both smuggled money

out of Iraq and invested in local Iraqi markets.

The Iraqi government’s failure to exert control over the country’s informal economy predates the US-led war in 2003. In the 1990s, grueling international sanctions on oil and gas exports led Saddam

Hussein’s regime to expand smuggling networks across the borders with Turkey, Syria, and Jordan.

The Islamic State understood Baghdad’s lack of control over the

informal economy —and exploited it. It seized the old smuggling routes when it rampaged across Iraq and Syria in 2014, making $1 million or more per day from the war economy. The organisation trafficked priceless antiquities, gold, and oil - and took a cut from every sale. Evidence points to the complicity of political parties and well-connected individuals from Iraq and neighboring countries in fueling this black market.

As the Islamic State returns to its insurgent roots, it has invested at least $250 million in legitimate businesses. Both in Baghdad and in recently liberated areas, it is relying on middlemen who are inspired not by the Islamic State’s ideology but by the prospect of economic gain. Many of the middlemen are tribal leaders or businessmen who have clean records and can hide their links to the terrorist organisation. They are given a lump sum of cash to invest in a given business, and the Islamic State then takes a cut from the profits.

These front companies include car dealerships, electronics shops, and pharmacies — but the business of choice is currency exchanges. According to the Central Bank of Iraq, hundreds of small Islamic State-linked exchange houses now operate in Baghdad. Such businesses allowed the group to convert their Iraqi dinars into American dollars — a currency that will have further reach across the globe. In 2014 and 2015, the Islamic State participated in the Iraqi Central Bank’s currency auctions, which provide banks and currency exchange houses with access to US dollars in cash and help Baghdad stabilise the exchange

rate. Yet it took the Iraqi government roughly a year to prevent the group’s participation.

The Iraqi ministries of interior, defence, finance, and foreign affairs; the central bank; the prime minister’s office; and the counterterrorism service are all trying to block the financing of terrorism— but they remain institutionally weak and rarely cooperate with each other. Coordination has been hobbled by political rivalries and corruption among the political elites. Members of this elite class personally profit from the black market — a member of parliament who belongs to an anti-corruption committee once opined that “everybody is corrupt,” including himself - so they lack any incentive to crack down on it.

For the Islamic State’s leaders, the structural economic problems that afflict Iraq represent a lifeline. They will continue to profit from the trade of illicit drugs, antiquities, and arms, and also turn to kidnappings as a source of revenue — a tactic they relied on heavily in the organisation’s early days more than a decade ago. They are banking on the fact that the country’s thriving black market, if left unchecked, will allow them to transform their organisation from a pseudo-state into a vicious insurgency.

It’s time for Iraq and its allies to prove them wrong. The battle to defeat the Islamic State is, at the end of the day, a struggle to build an Iraqi state that is no longer hobbled by corruption and economic weaknesses. If the Trump administration really wants to bring the Islamic State to its knees, it not only must help Baghdad kill terrorists but also bankrupt them.

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

CONOR SEN

BLOOMBERG

The battle to defeat the Islamic State is, at the end of the day, a struggle to build an Iraqi state that is no longer hobbled by corruption and economic weaknesses.

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Anyone who has gone thorough the immigration process knows that US immigration is not only class-based, but underhandedly racist, too: After all, Trump himself remarked, in that same infamous policy meeting, that immigrants from Asia should be favoured over those from Haiti and Africa.

M NEELIKA JAYAWARDANE AL JAZEERA

FOR most immigrants in the United States, the year that has passed since President

Donald Trump’s inauguration has been one in which their new country has become an increasingly frightening place to live.

Those of us who are visible as an “other” — having black or brown skin, bearing names that show we are Muslim or Hispanic, wearing clothing that mark us as somehow “different” — are repetitively evoked in the president’s public speeches, private policy meetings, and barrages of tweets.

Trump tweeted earlier this month that he plans to make immigration more “merit-based” to attract “highly skilled” workers and followed these plans up by calling potential and existing immigrants from Haiti and all of Africa, in particular, people from “shithole countries” during a policy meeting.

Part of why Americans are susceptible to this violent, xenophobic, and nativist rhetoric is not because they are exceptionally thick, but because of how the national mythology of the US — one constructed on Puritan ideals of egalitarianism, “hard work” and perseverance against adversity — is constructed.

Americans are told, since childhood, that hard work and

perseverance not only build character, but allow them to overcome obstacles, and achieve their goals and dreams. Because this powerful myth is repetitively drummed into their heads — be it through apocryphal narratives of kids who came from impoverished backgrounds who went on to become multimillion-dollar earning athletes, or women who beat the odds and attained positions of leadership in fields dominated by men — they learn to believe that their country is a meritocracy.

Anyone who has gone thorough the immigration process here knows that US immigration is not only class-based, but underhandedly racist, too: after all, Trump himself remarked, in that same infamous policy meeting, that immigrants from Asia should be favoured over those from Haiti and Africa.

So it baffles me why legislators and pundits are suddenly calling on immigration reforms to reflect the desire for skilled workers, when it is clear, from even a cursory glance at H1B and Greencard application documents, that it is already so.

As an immigrant who was born in a small island in South Asia (Sri Lanka) and grew up in a Southern African country (Zambia), and who now lives and teaches in the US, I make a point of incorporating my own narrative of immigr-ation — the cost, the paperwork, the lawyers’ fees, the networks of fellow immigrants who helped me, and the (often difficult to identify) factors and existing privileges in my personal history that allowed me to be a “successful” immigrant - into how I teach my global literature classes.

“It’s about money and existing privilege,” I laugh. “America sure didn’t want any tired and poor immigrants.” Most of my American students are surprised — unless they, too, have come from recent-immigrant families.

We all know this to be true, if we are recent immigrants to the US. But we become defensive against racism, and prefer to align ourselves with American rhetoric of being exceptional. And because US immigration policy already selects immigrants who come from privileged social class, caste, and educational backgrounds, this group is used to being seen as elite; certainly, these immigrants do not want to align themselves with workers in the service industries or the undocumented.

I was dismayed, but not surprised, therefore, by the defensive rhetoric used by my fellow immigrants when “Shithole-gate” hit the national and international fans. On Twitter and Facebook, immigrants brought out the weaponry of respectability to prove that racists were wrong about them. Since Haiti and Africa were on the “shithole” list this time, they listed the exceptional African and Haitian immigrants who invented amazing things and discovered incredible surgical techniques that no doubt saved the lives of countless American racists who hated immigrants.

Others touted how so few immigrants, statistically, are involved in any crimes. Articles, like this one in the LA Times, rushed to assure frightened Americans that while many are refugees, and “beneficiaries of the ‘diversity visa programme’ aimed at boosting immigration from underrepresented nations…African immigrants are better educated than people born in the US or the immigrant population as a whole”.

The African Studies Association’s Board of Directors released the following statement: “[In the] US Census Bureau report, Africans account for only 4 percent of the total foreign-born population in the United States, but the educational attainment of that 4 percent

far exceeds the average of all of those born outside of the US. Indeed, 41 percent of African residents in the US hold bachelor’s degrees or higher. Nigerians, who have been singled out by the president on previous occasions, are among the most educated group in the US, with some 61 percent holding bachelor’s degrees and 17 percent masters degrees.”

All this is true. But this rhetoric only serves to boost the myth of merit, and further the erroneous belief that only the “deserving” and exceptional — who are mostly exceptional because of existing class, family, political, and educational privileges — should be in the US.

As critic Steven Salaita explained in a Facebook post, cases like that of 57-year-old Palestinian-American business owner, Amer Othman Adi - who has been unjustly held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is currently on hunger strike, “gives lie to the conservative (and often liberal) narrative that ‘good’ immigrants are welcome … By all accounts, including those of a mayor, a business community, and a congressman, Adi was the ideal arrivant.

So, even by the insidious standards of model minority discourse (fuelled by anti-Black racism and Native dispossession), Adi isn’t worthy of freedom and dignity. What is left to conclude? That people from certain countries — shitholes — are never acceptable no matter how much they conform to the state’s chauvinistic mythologies.”

These are some of the few moments in which I have felt that I have communicated something of importance about how structures in the US work - creating at least some doubt about powerful and pervasive mythologies that serve only to blame those who cannot claw their way out of circumstances meant to make them fail.

The truth is, anyone who

A Brazilian appeals court will rule today whether to overturn a corruption conviction against ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da

Silva, effectively deciding if he can run in this year’s election.

Lula was sentenced in July to 9.5 years behind bars after being convicted of corruption in Brazil’s huge “Car Wash” graft scandal. All eyes are now turning to the court in Porto Alegre which said it will rule on his appeal on January 24.

That could decide whether Lula — hugely popular during his two-term presidency from 2001-2010 — can take part in the October 2018 presidential elections, in which he is currently the frontrunner.

The Workers’ Party (PT) he founded has organised hundreds of buses to transport supporters to Porto Alegre and has also scheduled events in Sao Paolo, where the 72-year-old will await the verdict.

Right-wing groups will hold demonstrations against Lula, whose appeal is only one of nine legal cases against him, the majority for corruption.

With tension around the case rising, and the stakes so high, Porto Alegre’s mayor has called on the army to provide extra security in the city, alarmed at the recent rhetoric of PT chairman Gleisi Hoffmann.

“To stop Lula they’re going to have to stop a lot of people, but, more than that, they’re going to have to kill people,” Hoffmann, a senator, warned in an interview last week.

Magistrates’ groups have also expressed concern at threats proliferating on social media against the three judges of Federal Regional Court No. 4, who are tasked with delivering the verdict.

Darling of the left Lula was Brazil’s first democratically

elected leftist president and is credited with helping lift 30 million Brazilians out of poverty.

He was hugely popular during his 2003-2010 two-term presidency, but his reputation was damaged by steep economic decline under his handpicked successor Dilma Rousseff — who was impeached in 2016 for breaking budget rules.

Rousseff told AFP in an interview last week that any government that emerged from the 2018 elections “will not be able to govern the country” if Lula is banned from contesting the vote.

A court convicted Lula in connection with Brazil’s “Car Wash” graft probe, after what began as a money laundering investigation led investigators to a web of corruption involving much of the country’s political and economic elite.

The former union leader says he is the victim of political persecution.

“The notion of a coup d’etat has become more sophisticated, tanks and soldiers are no longer needed, it’s enough to tell lies that the media reproduces as truth, lies that have anesthetized the population,” Lula told a meeting of supporters last week in Rio de Janeiro.

Slim chance of successThe chances of Lula emerging

unscathed in today’s ruling are slim, however.

Among the hundreds of appeals so far, the vast majority were increased or confirmed and only a score watered down — sometimes by only a few months — or cancelled.

The court “will probably uphold the conviction,” said Eurasia analyst Silvio Cascione in a note.

But even a unanimous ruling by the three judges “would not close the door on new appeals,” he added.

“Uncertainty will run high over the next months, probably until the early stages of the electoral campaign in August. Even if there is a unanimous 3-0 conviction against him, Lula will retain some options to keep his presidential dream alive.”

The court is also giving its ruling on six others involved in the case.

One of the original defendants was Lula’s wife, Marisa Leticia, who died in February last year.

At her funeral, Lula promised to fight so that his accusers “can someday have the humility to ask for forgiveness” for what he described as the “dirty tricks” used against her in the case.

Whatever the verdict, the court decision will constitute a new test for Brazilian democracy.

“If Lula can’t run, the election is very uncertain and we would have five or six candidates with the possibility of reaching the second round, which would make the 2018 elections the most unpredictable since the restoration of democracy (in 1985),” political scientist Mauricio Santoro of the Rio de Janeiro State University told AFP.

In the most recent survey by Brazilian pollsters Datafolha, at the beginning of December, Lula had 34 percent of voter intentions, followed by the right-wing deputy Jair Bolsonaro, with 17 percent.

The very American myth of exceptional immigrants

Day of destiny looms for Brazil’s Lula

JORGE SVARTZMAN

AFP

09WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018 OPINION

In the most recent survey by Brazilian pollsters Datafolha, at the beginning of December, Lula had 34 percent of voter intentions, followed by the right-wing deputy Jair Bolsonaro, with 17 percent.

plots, schemes, saves, and works to the point of exhaustion — sometimes only with the hope that the next or even the third generation will benefit —in an economically and politically powerful nation like the US has to be exceptional, in some way. It is obvious that (white) Americans need to be disabused of the notion that the US’s white population is special, and deserving, somehow, of privilege; it is time to get over the belief that they only received their privileges from having worked for it.

But just as importantly, those immigrants of more privileged backgrounds — those who are currently touting the percentage of people from their national group who have college and post-graduate degrees, as if waving these statistics and their material possessions are ways of proving that they are not, in fact, deserving of Trump’s racism — also need an antidote for their misplaced smugness.

It is time that Asian immigrants in particular — who benefit from the Civil Rights Movement and the efforts of African Americans towards changing and challenging racist immigration laws that excluded Asians, and who have, as a group, been favoured since American immigration began moving towards a merit-based system — also stop imagining themselves as more special and deserving than US minorities of non-recent immigrant backgrounds.

Our class snobbery, carried over from our old countries, and defensive superiority, developed against the racism of our new country, has only aided white supremacists who couldn’t care less about how exceptional we are.

The chances of Lula emerging unscathed in today’s ruling are slim, however. Among the hundreds of appeals so far, the vast majority were increased or confirmed and only a score watered down — sometimes by only a few months — or cancelled.

10 WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018ASIA

Trial in Kim Jong Nam’s murder resumesKUALA LUMPUR: The high-profile trial in Malaysia of two women

accused of killing the estranged half brother of North Korea’s leader

resumed yesterday after a seven-week recess, with witnesses taking

the stand to verify the authenticity of security camera videos cap-

turing the attack.

Indonesia’s Siti Aisyah, 25, and Vietnam’s Doan Thi Huong, 29,

are accused of smearing VX nerve agent on Kim Jong Nam’s face in

a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur last February 13. They

pleaded not guilty to murder charges when their trial began on Octo-

ber 2. The two are the only suspects in custody, though prosecutors

have said four North Koreans who fled the country were also involved.

Prosecutors, who last year showed the security videos to the

court, called four employees of the airport and airport hotel to the

stand to explain how they extracted the relevant images from the

main computer server and copied them to discs. This was to enable

the court to accept the videos as formal evidence.

The court heard that the original videos in the main server were

automatically deleted after 30 days.

Prosecutor Muhamad Iskandar Ahmad told the court they will call

four more witnesses and that the defense will cross examine a pre-

vious witness, the chief police investigator, before prosecutors wrap

up their case. So far, 29 witnesses have testified.

“Their whole case is based on the CCTV footages and VX, so the

admissibility of the footages is very important. But they are taking

a very simplistic approach and have failed to examine if the women

have any motive,” said Gooi Soon Seng, the lawyer for Siti Aisyah.

Bangladesh forces detain Rohingya leaderCOX’S BAZAR: Bangladesh security forces have detained a Rohingya

leader during a sweep in a refugee camp, police said, as tension grows

over plans to repatriate the displaced Muslims to Myanmar.

The Rohingya representative, Mohibullah, was held in Cox’s Bazar

district as local authorities broke up a protest Monday against the

controversial repatriation deal signed by Bangladesh and Myanmar.

He was handed over to Bangladesh’s elite security force and then

local police who are still holding him for questioning, Cox’s Bazar police

chief Abul Khair said. Two other Rohingya men were also detained

for their role in the protests, another officer added.

Mohibullah, who goes by one name, has mobilised Rohingya in

recent weeks to protest against returning the persecuted Muslims

to Myanmar. Bangladesh had been due to start the huge process of

repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Tues-

day, after agreeing a two-year timescale with Myanmar.

But the process was delayed when Bangladesh said neither side

was ready for the huge undertaking. Myanmar later blamed its neigh-

bour for its lack of preparation.

NEWS BYTES

REUTERS

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: India’s Supreme Court yesterday rejected bids by two states to reinstate a ban on the release of controversial Bollywood film “Padmaavat”, saying it stood by its previous ruling clearing the way for the movie to be shown in theatres.

Groups critical of the project have accused its director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, of distorting his-tory by portraying a Muslim ruler as the “lover” of Queen Padmavati of the Hindu Rajput warrior clan, a charge the film makers deny.

The government of the northwestern state of Rajasthan had argued it wanted to avoid public unrest by banning the film. On Monday Rajasthan and the central state of Madhya Pradesh, both run by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), asked the court to reconsider its earlier ruling.

“We are not going to modify our earlier order,” the three-judge bench of the Apex Court, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said on Tuesday.

“States must ensure that law and order must prevail,” Misra added. The film, due to be released on Thursday ahead of the Republic Day long weekend, has opened for advance book-ings in the rest of the country, but theatres in the two states have yet to list it.

The court had issued its ini-tial ruling last week at the behest of the film’s producers after four states, including Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, had sought to ban the film, despite clearance by a film certification panel. Despite the court ruling, theatre owners in the two states, which are among India’s biggest film markets, said they were wary of releasing the film without more explicit support from their state governments.

“We want to release the film,

but have no support from the government. When we approached the local police, we were told that we should show the film at our own risk,” San-deep Jain, who owns seven the-atres in Madhya Pradesh, told Reuters over the phone.

The top administrative officer in the district of Gurgaon, about 30km from capital New Delhi, imposed a ban on car-rying firearms or other article capable of causing injury, raising slogans and exhibiting placards within 200 metres of cinema halls and multiplexes from 23-28 January.

Conservative Hindu groups, such as the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, held protests this week against the film’s release, including blocking traffic in parts of the country.

A Rajput community group, Sarwa Kshatriya Mahasabha, in the central state of Chhattisgarh said they will continue their pro-tests despite the court’s order.

India’s top court rejects bid to reinstate ban on film

IANS

MUMBAI: In a major decision, India’s Shiv Sena yesterday decided to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections independent of its ally, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), besides spreading its wings nationally.

The Shiv Sena National Executive resolved to fight the next round of state and central elections and all future elec-tions separately, its Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said here.

Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray also announced that henceforth the party would broaden its horizons beyond Maharashtra to contest elec-tions in all states.

“Be prepared for the next elections. It may be announced simultaneously in December 2018 or may be held sepa-rately,” Thackeray goaded his party leaders in his presiden-tial speech at the National Exec-utive meeting held at Worli.

He said that over the years the party had consciously refrained from fighting in other states — barring a few attempts in some states like Gujarat and Goa — to prevent a split in the Hindutva votes.

“Now, we shall contest elections in every state and that too on the Hindutva plank. It is immaterial whether we win or are vanquished but our Hin-dutva will never be aban-doned,” Thackeray said in a hard-hitting speech targeting the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This is the second time in four years that the Shiv Sena has decided to go it alone in Maharashtra.

In the October 2014

assembly elections, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance had broken down and both parties fought the elections independently. However, barely six months before April 2014, both parties had contest the Lok Sabha polls as allies with spectacular results.

Later, the BJP emerged as the single largest party while the Shiv Sena sat as the main opposition party for a month and then joined the ruling BJP.

During the February 2017 BrihanMumbai Municipal Cor-poration polls, the Shiv Sena contested separately and emerged as the single largest party to capture the country’s biggest and richest civic body, pushing back its NDA ally to the second slot.

At that time, many leaders campaigned on the need to contest all future elections sep-arately, which after nearly 11 months got a formal stamp of approval at the National Executive.

The day also marks the 92nd birth anniversary of the Shiv Sena founder-supremo, the late Bal Thackeray, who passed away on November 17, 2012.

Chinese projects akin to land grab: Former Maldives leaderAP

COLOMBO: The exiled former leader of the Maldives said that this year’s presidential election could be the last chance to extricate his country from increasing Chinese influence, which he described as a land grab in the guise of investments in island development.

Mohamed Nasheed said in Sri Lanka’s capital that cur-rent President Yameen Abdul Gayoom has opened the doors to Chinese investment without any regard for pro-cedure or transparency. “A large emerging power is busy buying up the Maldives,” Nasheed said, referring to China.

China is “buying up our lands, buying up our key infrastructure and effectively buying up our sovereignty,” he said. China considers the Maldives a key cog in the Indian Ocean in its “One Belt One Road” project along ancient trade routes through the Indian Ocean and Cen-tral Asia.

AFP

KATHMANDU: A former Gurkha soldier who lost both his legs in Afghanistan hit out yesterday at new rules by the Nepal government that ban double amputees from climbing its mountains, dashing his Everest dreams.

Hari Budha Magar, 38, had been training hard in hopes of becoming the first above-the-knee double amputee to scale Mount Everest until his plans were scuppered by the law intro-duced in December. The rules ban double amputee and blind climbers, a move that has drawn criticism from disability rights groups around the world.

Magar slammed the new rules as “unfair” and

“discriminatory”. “I agree that the government needs to bring rules to minimise risks but such ban is not the answer,” he said.

Magar lost his legs after he was hit by an improvised explosive device while serving with the Brigade of Gurkhas — a unit of Nepalis recruited into the British army — in Afghanistan in 2010. His legs were ampu-tated above the knee and he had to learn how to walk using prosthetics.

Magar wears specially designed crampons attached to shortened prosthetics to climb, and has successfully summited Nepal’s Mera Peak as well as the highest peak in the Alps, Mont Blanc. The father of three, who wears shorts regardless of the

weather to show off his tita-nium legs, was on a training expedition in remote central Nepal when he heard about the ban. “I had heard rumours but didn’t think it would happen. I was very surprised and shocked,” he said. Magar grew up in the foothills of the Himalayas in western Nepal and describes summiting Everest as a childhood dream. He has been lobbying the Nepal government to have the ban overturned and is confi-dent he will succeed, paving the way for him to attempt Everest in 2019.

“The law could have instead looked into what safety measures such people can take for mountaineering. But you cannot ban and dis-criminate against anyone like that,” said Sudarshan Subedi,

Double amputee banned from Everest slams Nepal govt rules

Former Gurkha soldier Hari Budha Magar.

IANS

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court yesterday permitted the NIA to continue its probe into any criminality in the marriage of Hadiya, a Hindu woman from Kerala who converted to Islam, with Shafin Jahan but not intrude into their marriage.

Observing that the probe into the criminal aspect has to be segregated from the marriage, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud said “...oth-erwise we will be creating a bad precedent in law”.

“We can’t go into the marriage. Whether the person she is married to is good human being or a bad human”—the bench observed, noting that Hadiya is 24 years old and has made an inde-pendent decision and choice to marry. Hadiya was known as Akhila Ashokan before she converted. Making it clear that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has to stay away from the marriage of Hadiya with Shafin, the court observed that the agency could probe into “all other aspects except her marriage”.

Hadiya was set free and allowed to pursue her studies in the last hearing of the matter on November 27 as she had told the court that she wanted to pursue her intern-ship in the Sivaraj Homeo-pathic College and Research Institute in Salem in Tamil Nadu. Having told the NIA not to intrude into their marriage, the court said that the only question it was concerned with is whether the High Court could have annulled the mar-riage of Hadiya with Shafin in the wake of a habeas corpus petition, a concern the court had expressed in earlier hear-ings also.

Shiv Sena to go solo in 2019 elections

NIA can’t probe legitimacy of Hadiya’s marriage: SC

Members of the Rajput community shout slogans during a protest against forthcoming Bollywood film ‘Padmaavat’ in Ahmedabad, yesterday.

DiplomacySingapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (left), shakes hands with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena in Colombo, yesterday.

president of Nepal’s National Federation of the Disabled, which has been supporting Magar in talks with the government.

During the February 2017 Mumbai Municipal Corporation polls, the Shiv Sena contested separately and emerged as the single largest party to capture the country’s biggest and richest civic body, pushing back its NDA ally to the second slot.

11WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018 ASIA

Pakistan Islamist claims doing nothing illegalREUTERS

LAHORE: A founder of a Pakistani Islamist group blacklisted by the United Nations for alleged terrorism said yesterday that he had filed a court petition to halt government plans to seize control of his charities. Hafiz Saeed is the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), or Army of the Pure, blamed by the United States, India for four days of shootings and bombings in Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people.

LeT, Saeed and charities that he controls are all included on ter-rorism blacklists by the UN Secu-rity Council and the United States. He denies any role in the Mumbai attacks and says he and his char-ities have no links to militants.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Monday that his government will push ahead with a plan to take control of charities linked to Saeed.

Pakistan’s government placed Saeed under house arrest a year ago, but he was released in November after a court ruled

there was no evidence to hold him. Under pressure from the United States, United Nations and international institutions to crack down on terrorist financing, Paki-stan drew up secret plans in December for a “takeover” of charities linked to Saeed.

The United States calls Saeed’s charities—Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and the Falah-e-Insaniat Foun-dation (FIF) -- “terrorist fronts” for LeT, which Saeed co-founded in 1987. Pakistan’s plans to seize the assets were drawn up ahead of a

UN Security Council team visiting Islamabad this month to review the country’s progress against blacklisted groups.

“We have filed a writ petition in the high court regarding these news which are going on in the media about the government’s measures (against us) or the United Nations delegation arriving here,” Saeed said in a press con-ference in the eastern city of Lahore where his charities are based.

He said any government moves against him would be car-rying out the will of the United States and India.

Saeed’s freedom in Pakistan, where he holds public rallies, has been a thorn in Islamabad’s rela-tions with India and the United States. Saeed said the charities broke no laws, and offered to allow the UN team to visit projects they run.

“Any delegation from any corner of the world can visit there,” he said. “All of our work across Pakistan can be checked. We are not doing anything illegal.”

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said his government will push ahead with a plan to take control of charities linked to Saeed.

Kabul attack stirs debate on private security firmsREUTERS

KABUL: A bloody Taliban raid on a high-end hotel guarded by a private company in the Afghan capital has stirred fresh debate about the role of security firms in the violence-plagued county.

Five gunmen dressed in army uniforms made their way through two checkpoints before getting in to the hilltop Hotel Intercontinental on the weekend, killing at least 20 people, including 13 foreigners.

Many details of what hap-pened remain unclear.

Yesterday, security offi-cials were meeting in the hotel, as guards of the Kabul Balkh Safety and Security Organisation (KBSS) stood outside, with rifles slung across their chests.

KBSS won the contract to guard the hotel three weeks ago, the government said.

The company’s presi-dent, Sayed Rahimi, issued a statement saying it was “too early to come to con-clusions as to how this occurred” and expressing condolences to the bereaved.

“We will fully cooperate with the government in the investigation. I don’t have anything else to say,” Rahimi told Reuters when contacted by telephone.

The company has been operating since 2004, pro-viding security services to numerous clients including businesses, the government and foreign forces, Rahimi said in his statement.

A senior government security official involved in the investigation said the guards had offered little resistance.

“There were 15 guards on duty at time of the attack and none of them engaged the attackers,” said the offi-cial, who declined to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

“They were either watching the whole thing or hiding.”

Pakistan police arrest key suspect in child murder caseAFP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani police yesterday arrested the key suspect accused of raping and murdering a young girl in a case that enraged the country and stoked fears a serial killer was preying on children in the city of Kasur.

The killing of six-year-old Zainab Fatima Ameen—the 12th child found raped and murdered in Kasur within a two-kilometre radius in the last two years—sparked riots, with thousands swarming police stations and set-ting fire to politicians’ homes, accusing authorities of inaction.

Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister for Punjab province where Kasur is located, announced the arrest of Imran Ali in a press conference late yesterday.

“The killer of Zainab has been arrested, his name is Imran, he is 24 years old and a resident of Kasur, he is a serial killer,” Sharif said. Sharif added that authori-ties conducted DNA testing of 1150 people and the DNA of Ali “100 percent’ matched the evi-dence collected from the crime

scene. “Then in a polygraph test, the culprit confessed all of his wrong doings, we have the video recording,” said Sharif.

Police said preliminary find-ings found DNA connecting Ali to Zainab’s murder. Investigators also found the same DNA on six of the 12 victims, according to medical officials.

“Ali lived on a street next to Zainab,” a police official in Kasur told AFP. Another senior police official said Ali had been arrested days after the killing but was later released by authorities after he denied involvement. “The accused was apprehended as a suspect in a door-to-door raids,” said the officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“He fled the city and went to other cities for some days without knowing he was under observa-tion,” he added, confirming his confession. The murder of Zainab sparked fury across Pakistan with two people killed in riots in Kasur and the hashtag #JusticeForZa-inab trending on social media, as celebrities, opposition politicians and ordinary citizens demanded action.

Philippine volcano spews lava; over 40,000 fleeAP

LEGAZPI: The Philippines’ most active volcano continued to spew fountains of red-hot lava and massive ash plumes yesterday in a dazzling but increasingly dangerous eruption that has sent 40,000 villagers to shelter in evacuation centres.

Lava fountains gushed up 700 meters (2,300 feet) above Mount Mayon’s crater and ash plumes rose up to 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) at night and before daybreak, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcan-ology and Seismology. An explosive eruption at noon Monday was the most powerful since the volcano started acting up more than a week ago.

Authorities warned a vio-lent eruption may occur in hours or days, characterised by more rumblings and pyroclastic flows — superheated gas and

volcanic debris that race down the slopes at high speeds, vaporizing everything in their path.

After Monday’s huge explo-sion, officials raised Mayon’s alert level to four on a scale of five, and the danger zone was

expanded to 8 kilometres (5 miles) from the crater, requiring thousands more residents to be evacuated, including at least

12,000 who left their homes and then returned during gentler eruptions.

Authorities struggled to pre-vent villagers from sneaking back to check on their homes and farms and to watch a cock-fight in an arena in Albay’s Santo Domingo town despite the risks and police patrols and check-points, said Cedric Daep, a pro-vincial disaster-response official.

In a sign of desperation, Daep told a news conference that he has recommended electricity and water supply be cut in com-munities within the no-go zones to discourage residents from returning.

“If pyroclastic flows hit people, there is no chance for life,” Daep said. “Let us not vio-late the natural law, avoid the prohibited zone, because if you violate, the punishment is death penalty.”

A view of Mayon Volcano as it erupts anew in the town of Daraga, Albay province, Philippines, yesterday.

Singapore reviewing primary anti-graft lawREUTERS

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s anti-corruption watchdog said it is reviewing the country’s primary anti-graft law.

The review is taking place in the wake of high-profile rev-elations of criminal wrongdoing at companies in the city-state, though a spokeswoman for the island-state’s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said the move was “not con-nected” to those events.

Keppel Corp, which counts state investor Temasek Hold-ings as its largest shareholder, has agreed to pay more than $422m to resolve probes by US, Brazilian and Singapore authorities on charges it bribed Brazilian officials.

The Keppel case was fol-lowed by the disclosure of extensive oil theft at Shell’s big-gest refinery, leading to charges against employees of the Sin-gaporean subsidiary of the oil giant and people who worked for one of Singapore’s biggest marine fuel suppliers.

The cases have dented Sin-gapore’s squeaky-clean image. It is ranked seventh-least cor-rupt nation in the world according to Transparency International, the global anti-corruption coalition based in Berlin.

Legal experts say that Sin-gapore’s Prevention of Corrup-tion Act (PCA), the primary anti-graft law enacted in 1960, is outdated and inadequate in punishing and deterring wrong-doing in the corporate sector and needs to be bolstered.

The bureau, which investi-gates corruption in the public and private sectors, added it would be “premature to com-ment on the specific details at this point of time.”

CPIB and the country’s Attorney General’s office said in late December they were investigating individuals related to Keppel’s Brazil bribery case.

For the PCA to be updated, experts on the country’s fight against corruption suggest raising the law’s financial pen-alty, currently a maximum of S$100,000 ($75,800) per offence. This month, Indranee Rajah, Senior Minister of State for Law and Finance, said in parliament any penalty for Keppel under Singapore law would have been far less than what it was now liable for under the global resolution. The company was fined nearly eight times the value of the alleged bribes of $55m.

Under the US Foreign Cor-rupt Practices Act, companies can be fined up to $2m per violation.

6.0 magnitude quake jolts Java; buildings sway in capitalAP

JAKARTA: A moderately strong earthquake shook the Indonesian island of Java yesterday, damaging buildings near the epicenter and shaking office buildings in the country’s capital.

There were no immediate reports of injuries and no tsunami was generated.

According to the US Geolog-ical Survey, the magnitude 6.0 quake was centred off western Java at a depth of about 43 km.

The epicentre was about 153 km southwest of Jakarta, the capital. Zainal, who heads Banten prov-ince’s search and rescue agency, said the quake damaged houses and other buildings in Lebak dis-trict, including a high school and hospital, and a mosque in Pande-glang district collapsed.

Buildings in the capital swayed for 10 to 20 seconds and some ordered evacuations, sending streams of people into the streets. TVOne television showed workers and shoppers running

out of a mall in central Jakarta in panic. Witnesses told TVOne that houses were damaged in coastal areas of West Java, where many people ran to higher ground, fearing a tsunami. Indonesia’s Department of Meteorology, Cli-mate and Geophysics said the quake didn’t have the potential to generate a tsunami and no warning was issued. Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, straddles the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

A resident stand on his damaged house after an earthquake at Megamendung village in Bogor, Indonesia, yesterday.

NEWS BYTES

NORTH Korea said yesterday it had a “powerful and reliable” nuclear deter-rent to thwart any attack and accused the US of deploying military assets nearby under the pretext of ensuring security at the Pyeongchang Winter Olym-pics. North Korea is developing missile and nuclear tech-nology amid regular threats to destroy the US and Japan and in defiance of UN Secu-rity Council resolutions.

N Korea has “powerful & reliable” deterrent

POLICE in Pakistan say gunmen have shot and killed a former police officer who was fired over the 2011 killing of five Chechen women in Quetta.

Naseebullah Khan, a senior police officer says two gunmen riding a motor-cycle opened fire on Fazlur Rehman outside a car showroom on Sunday. The Pakistani Taliban claimed attack, saying it was revenge for the killing of the women.

Former cop shot dead in Quetta

12 WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018EUROPE

Flood in ParisSubmerged cars are seen along the flooded banks of the Seine river, in Paris, yesterday. Heavy rains have contributed to the Seine river’s rising level, causing minor flooding in low-lying areas of Paris.

May rebukes Johnson after Brexit funds bidREUTERS

LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May slapped down her foreign minister yesterday after he demanded more funding for Britain’s public health service, telling him any discussion of money saved from Brexit should be kept private.

Boris Johnson, whose prom-ises that Britain’s departure from the European Union would boost funds for the National Health Service (NHS) helped persuade many voters to back Brexit, raised his demands at a regular meeting of her top min-isters after publicly calling for an extra $140m a week.

But the response was swift. May, trying to reassert her authority, said any money saved from Brexit would be spent on her priorities, including health, and that ministers should not air discussions outside her cabinet meetings.

“The prime minister and a large number of cabinet minis-ters made the point that cabinet discussions should take place in private,” her spokesman said, describing the hour-long discus-sion on the NHS as “constructive”.

“As regards the future, and how the return of any EU con-tribution would be spent, the prime minister reminded cab-inet that the government has consistently said that we will spend money on our priorities such as housing, schools and the NHS.”

May is under pressure over the state of the health service from the opposition Labour

Party, which says healthcare is being put “recklessly” at risk by ministers unable to tackle bed shortages and thousands of can-celled operations.

Under fire from some law-makers in her own party for lacking direction on some of the most pressing concerns in Britain, May is also trying to keep the warring factions of her cabinet of top ministers united as she negotiates Brexit.

But divisions over the so-called Brexit dividend - the funds that will be freed up when Britain stops paying into EU cof-fers - are deepening, with the ministers for health, education and defence and others bidding for more funds for their departments.

Shortly after Johnson made his demand, finance minister Philip Hammond fought back by saying he had already increased payments to the NHS. May has repeatedly said that funding is at record levels.

“Mr Johnson is the foreign secretary,” Hammond said.

“I gave the health secretary an extra 6 billion pounds at the recent budget and we’ll look at

departmental allocations again at the spending review when that takes place.”

The row is yet another head-ache for May, whose weakness since losing her party’s majority at an election last June was underlined by a botched reshuffle of her top team of min-isters earlier this month.

With the Conservatives increasingly concerned that Labour is setting the political agenda in Britain by focusing on health, housing and education, many members of the ruling party say it needs to show more clearly what they hold to be the benefits of Brexit.

Johnson and other Brexit supporters said during the cam-paign for the 2016 referendum on leaving the EU that Britain pays 350 million pounds a week to the bloc and promised to spend the money on the NHS instead if Britain voted to leave.

The figure was challenged by critics who said it did not rerlect Britain’s rebate and payments made into Britain by the EU.

Mindful of that promise, some Conservatives are calling for the government to increase funding.

Others went further, saying May had to do a lot more to win over younger voters and chal-lenge Labour’s leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has a loyal following in many cities.

“They must have really sound reasons to vote Conserv-ative. We really need to get on with this #wherestheboldand-brave sofaritsdulldulldull,” Con-servative lawmaker Nicholas Soames said on Twitter.

After Johnson made his demand, finance minister Philip Hammond fought back by saying he had already increased payments to the NHS. May has repeatedly said that funding is at record levels.

German SPD wrangles over coalition talksREUTERS

BERLIN: Suffering a further loss in support, Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) bickered yesterday over their leader’s role after party delegates at the weekend narrowly backed coali-tion talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives.

As allies of SPD leader Martin Schulz tried to shut down an internal party debate about his role, Merkel allies pressured the Social Democrats to move quickly to conclude formal coa-lition negotiations - expected to begin on Friday.

Germany has been gripped by political deadlock since a Sep-tember 24 national election. The coalition negotiations promise to move Europe’s economic powerhouse closer to a stable government.

“After more than 100 days, the citizens of a democracy are entitled to the parties reaching an agreement,” said Andreas Scheuer (pictured), Secretary General of Merkel’s CSU Bavarian allies.

Volker Kauder, who leads conservatives in parliament, added: “Every day that passes without a new government does not exactly increase trust in the parties and democracy.”

Kauder called for a conclu-sion to the talks in two to three weeks.

For Merkel, a re-run of the conservative-SPD Grand Coali-tion that has governed Europe’s economic powerhouse since 2013 is her best shot at securing a fourth term as chancellor.

But Schulz is in a bind partly of his own making: he needs to deliver on a pledge to SPD del-egates on Sunday to wring con-cessions out of Merkel - a mis-sion made tougher by waning support for his centre-left party and questions about his role.

A survey by pollster INSA conducted on Monday, a day after the delegates’ vote, showed a dip in support for the SPD to 18% from 18.5%. A new RTL poll conducted on Monday showed the party’s support had dropped a point to 17%.

The SPD is marred in an internal debate about its stra-tegic direction after slumping in September’s election to its worst result since Germany became a federal republic in 1949.

Wolfgang Tiefensee, an SPD politician from the eastern state of Thuringia, said Schulz should make clear he will not serve as a minister in a cabinet led by Merkel - as he first said after September’s election. Many in the SPD believe Schulz wants to be foreign minister.

“A 180-degree pivot on this issue would shatter the credi-bility of Martin Schulz,” Tiefensee told Die Welt newspaper.

Ralf Stegner, one of the SPD’s deputy leaders, shot back: “I think nothing at all of public pro-posals for the party leader.”

Adding to Schulz’s woes,

mass-selling daily Bild said it was an impassioned speech to delegates on Sunday by the SPD’s parliamentary party leader, Andrea Nahles, that secured their 56% vote in favour of coalition negotiations.

“He knows: Andrea Nahles did his job,” Bild wrote.

Sunday’s narrow victory margin - and continued opposi-tion by the party’s youth wing - puts pressure on Schulz to secure further concessions from con-servatives on immigration, healthcare, and labour rights that conservatives have rejected.

The close SPD vote is also a problem for the conservatives because Schulz has promised that the SPD’s 443,000 members will be allowed to vote on a final deal. If he fails to deliver for them, the whole coalition project risks collapsing.

Cranberries singer laid to rest in home townREUTERS

BALLYBRICKEN: Cranberries lead singer Dolores O’Riordan was laid to rest at a private funeral in her home town yesterday, remembered as someone who rescued people from “the dark-ness of depression”.

O’Riordan, 46, whose distinctive and powerful Irish voice helped fuel The Cranberries’ rapid rise in the early 1990s, was found dead in a London hotel last week during a recording trip ahead of a planned tour.

Her mother, three children and bandmates Noel Hogan, Mike Hogan and Fergal Lawler attended the service at Saint Ailbe’s Church in the small rural County Limerick town of Bal-lybricken in the south-west of Ireland.

Candles lit the streets of Ballybricken late on Monday, as her coffin was brought to the church where McNamara said she once sang and played keyboard in the local choir.

Czech leader to re-appoint premier after resignation

Teen arrested for stabbing classmate to deathAFP

BERLIN: German police arrested a 15-year-old who yesterday allegedly killed a schoolmate, with the motive still unclear.

Media reports said the teen-ager did not resist when police tracked him down through a hel-icopter search and arrested him.

Prosecutors said preliminary investigations suggest that the boy was not planning a rampage at the school in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Police added that they were unable to give details of the wounds that caused the 14-year-old victim’s death.

“The investigation is ongoing,” added police of the killing at the Kaethe Kollwitz high school with 1,000 students.

German media said both boys were German citizens, with the suspect also holding Kazakh nationality. According to Bild daily, the suspect stabbed the

victim in the neck with a knife in front of his mother.

A minute’s silence will be held today at midday in the

school and at the city hall of Luenen.

REUTERS

PRAGUE: Czech President Milos Zeman will re-appoint Andrej Babis as prime minister regardless of whether he wins a new presidential term, he said, preventing a potential new head of state making his own appointment.

Babis, a billionaire busi-nessman and leader of the ANO party which won parliamentary election in October, resigned as prime minister last week after losing a confidence vote in par-liament where he does not command a majority.

Zeman reiterated in a tele-vision debate that he would give Babis another chance to form a government, possibly giving him months to find part-ners to form a majority.

This could coincide with the end of Zeman’s mandate on

March 7, when Zeman will leave office if challenger Jiri Drahos wins the election this weekend. Final opinion polls this week gave Zeman and Drahos roughly equal chances to win the election.

Zeman said he would speed up the appointment of Babis if he were to lose the election.

“Mr Jiri Drahos will not have the opportunity to make the nomination,” Zeman said yesterday.

If Zeman wins, he would postpone with the appointment until Babis finds enough par-liamentary support.

Drahos, a lifelong academic, has said he would advise Babis not to seek premiership while he defends himself from a police charge that he hid own-ership of one of his firms to qualify for EU subsidy a decade ago.

COPENHAGEN: Danish

inventor Peter Madsen tied up

and abused Swedish journal-

ist Kim Wall before murdering

her on board his home-built

submarine, according to

the indictment published

yesterday.

Madsen planned the

murder by bringing a saw,

screwdrivers, strips and pipes,

which were used to hit, cut

and stab Wall while she was

alive, the prosecutors said.

The cause of death is yet

to be determined, but the

prosecutors said she died

by strangulation or cutting

her throat.

NEWS BYTES

Submarine owner faces another charge

BERLIN: Four people were

killed yesterday when a small

plane and a helicopter collided

in southwestern Germany,

police said.

The two aircraft crashed

in the skies above the town

of Philippsburg, close to the

French border, a German

police spokesman said, add-

ing that he was unable to say

if there may be other victims.

The cause of the collision

also remains unclear, and the

area where the planes came

down has been cordoned off.

Collisions between air-

craft in the sky are rare. In

a case in 2002 in Germany,

a freight plane struck a pas-

senger flight, killing dozens

of people.

Four dead in aircraft collision

Police officers and pupils of the Kaethe-Kollwitz school stand in the schoolyard, in Luenen, western Germany, yesterday

13WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018 AMERICAS

New Chile mining minister appointedChilean President-elect Sebastian Pinera shakes hands his new mining minister, Baldo Prokurica, during the presentation of his presidential cabinet for his term 2018-2022 in Santiago, Chile, yesterday.

US lawmakers scramble on migration dealREUTERS

WASHINGTON: US lawmakers yesterday sought a way forward on an immigration deal including protection for “Dreamer” immi-grants and border security before federal funding runs out again next month.

On Monday, the Republican-led Congress passed a measure signed into law by President Donald Trump to fund the fed-eral government through Feb-ruary 8 following a three-day shutdown. But they will have to return to thorny budget issues that have now become inter-twined with contentious immi-gration policy.

“We don’t have a lot of time in which to get it done,” Repub-lican US Senator Mike Rounds said.

Trump himself has vacillated on immigration between tough rhetoric demanding a US border wall and a softer tone urging a “bill of love” for Dreamers, prompting Democrats and some Republicans to call him an unre-liable negotiating partner.

“Nobody knows for sure that

the Republicans & Democrats will be able to reach a deal on DACA by February 8, but eve-ryone will be trying,” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter, refer-ring to when government funding would next run out.

“The Dems have just learned that a Shutdown is not the answer!” Trump added, after calling for “a big additional focus put on Military Strength and Border Security.”

As federal employees returned to work yesterday they faced a new furlough in 17 days if lawmakers and Trump do not find another short-term fix or a longer term budget.

A funding bill easily passed

after Senate Democratic leaders accepted a pledge by Republi-cans to hold a debate later over the fate of the Dreamers and related immigration issues.

Many Republicans have said they want to help Dreamer immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children.

Trump canceled former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, programme that shielded them from depor-tation. Without congressional action, the program will end in March.

Rounds, along with US Sen-ator Angus King, an independent often aligned with Democrats, said any immigration solution was likely to focus on Dreamers and extra border security.

“We can’t try to do compre-hensive immigration in three weeks,” King said, adding that lawmakers were likely to pass another stopgap bill to fund the government.

Trump’s budget director Mick Mulvaney, however, indi-cated the White House might be looking for a bigger deal.

“We want a large agree-ment. We want a big deal that

solves the reason that we have a DACA problem in the first

place,” Mulvaney said yesterday.

Attorney General questioned in Russian probeREUTERS

WASHINGTON: US Attorney General Jeff Sessions (pictured) was questioned last week by the special counsel’s office investi-gating potential collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump’s 2016 presiden-tial campaign, the US Justice Department said yesterday.

The interview marked the first time that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office is known to have interviewed a member of Trump’s Cabinet.

The interview with Sessions, who served as an advisor to

Trump’s campaign before the president appointed him as the top US law enforcement official, is another serious development

in an investigation that has hung like a cloud over Trump’s year-old presidency.

Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Russia probe last March after media outlets reported he had failed to disclose several 2016 meetings with Russia’s ambassador.

His recusal paved the way for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the No. 2 official in the Justice Department, to appoint Mueller as special counsel in May 2017.

His involvement in Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey is likely to be one

area of interest for Mueller’s team as it looks at potential obstruction of justice by the Republican president.

Ian Prior, a Justice Depart-ment spokesman, confirmed that Sessions met with Mueller’s team last week, but did not provide any additional details. An attorney representing Sessions could not immediately be reached for comment.

Trump fired Comey last May after both Sessions and Rosen-stein penned a memo recom-mending his ouster over his prior handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary

Clinton’s use of a private email server.

Clinton was the Democratic presidential candidate who lost to Trump in 2016.

Sessions had previously tes-tified he was unaware of any contact between campaign asso-ciates and Russians.

However, after news of Mueller’s criminal charges against Papadopoulos became public, he later testified before Congress that he did now recall the meeting. In that testimony, he said he pushed back against Papadopoulos’ suggestion of a Putin meeting.

AP

ANCHORAGE: A powerful earthquake struck off an island in the Gulf of Alaska, prompting a tsunami threat that sent the state’s residents along the southern coast and western Canada fleeing for higher ground just after midnight yesterday.

After a few intense hours, the tsunami warning was can-celed, allowing people to return home from shelters. There were no immediate reports of damage, not even on Kodiak Island, the closest land to the epicenter of the magnitude 7.9 quake.

For Alaskans accustomed not only to tsunami threats but also to regular drills, the early

morning alert that made cell-phone alarms go off still cre-ated some fretful moments. The phone message read: “Emer-gency Alert. Tsunami danger on the coast. Go to high ground or move inland.”

Keith Perkins got the phone alert and later heard the sirens going off in his southeast Alaska hometown of Sitka.

He said people on Facebook were chattering back and forth about whether this was real or not and what they should do.

Given the magnitude of the earthquake, Perkins said he thought it best to head to the high school, a tsunami evacu-ation point, even though in the past he felt his home was at a “high-enough spot.”

One dead in Kentucky high school shootingREUTERS

FRANKFORT: One person was killed and several others were wounded in a shooting yesterday at a high school in western Kentucky, where the lone suspect was arrested shortly after the violence erupted, state police said.

The shooting occurred around 8am at Marshall County High School in Benton, Ken-tucky, a town about 210km northwest of Nashville, Ten-nessee, according to Kentucky State Police posts on Twitter.

The bloodshed marked the latest episode of gun violence

that has become a regular occur-rence at schools and college campuses across the US over the past several years.

Official details were initially sketchy, but state police said the person who opened fire was apprehended within 15 minutes of the shooting.

“The scene is secured, (and) the suspect is in custody,” police said. The state police’s initial Twitter alert reported there were “multiple victims,” one of whom had been pronounced dead.

Local television station WPSD-TV said the person killed was a student. No confirmation regarding this report yet.

Four of the wounded were flown by helicopter to Vander-bilt University Medical Center in Nashville, but no information was immediately available on their conditions, hospital spokesman Craig Boerner said by email.

A Marshall County sheriff’s deputy took the shooter into cus-tody, Sergeant Josh Lawson, a state police spokesman, said by phone. Lawson said he had no further details about the assailant or regarding how many people were wounded and how serious their injuries were.

A state police official who did not identify himself told

reporters awaiting a news con-ference at the Marshall County Board of Education that author-ities “have one person in custody and we don’t have any reason to believe” anyone else was responsible.

School officials and the county sheriff could not imme-diately be reached for further details.

The school in Benton, the county seat, has an enrollment of 1,146 students in grades 10 through 12.

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin called the shooting a “tre-mendous tragedy” in a statement posted on Twitter.

Toll from yellow fever in Brazil triples: WHOREUTERS

RIO DE JANEIRO: The number of confirmed cases of yellow fever outbreak in Brazil has tripled in recent weeks, with 20 deaths since July, the World Health Organ-ization (WHO) said.

Of 35 confirmed cases, 20 were in Sao Paulo state, which includes South Amer-ica’s largest city, Sao Paulo. Earlier this month, a case of the disease was confirmed in the Netherlands for a traveler who had recently been in that state.

The WHO recommended last week that foreign trave-lers get vaccinated before visiting.

But Brazil’s Health Min-istry has said the recommen-dation, coming just weeks before Carnival, a holiday event in which tens of thou-sands of tourists descend on Brazil, would not cause it to change its advisory that only travelers going to rural areas be vaccinated.

Last week, Brazilians lined up for hours to get yellow fever vaccinations in the country’s largest states, alarmed by the increase in the number of fatal cases of infection and a warning from the WHO to tourists visiting parts of the country.

Yellow fever is a viral disease transmitted by mos-quitoes in tropical regions and is still a major killer in Africa.

It had largely been brought under control in the Americas.

Trump himself has vacillated on immigration between tough rhetoric demanding a US border wall and a softer tone urging a “bill of love” for Dreamers.

DACA recipients and supporters protest for a clean Dream Act outside Disneyland in Anaheim, California, yesterday.

Tsunami warning called off after Alaska quake

Mexico murder rate surges to highest in decadesAP

MEXICO CITY: Mexico posted its highest homicide rate in decades, with the government reporting there were 29,168 murders in 2017, a 27 percent increase over 2016.

The number is the highest since comparable records began being kept in 1997 and is also higher than the peak year of Mexico’s drug war in 2011, when there were 27,213 killings.

The Interior Department, which posted the number, reported the country’s homicide rate was 20.5 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017, compared to 19.4 in 2011.

But Mexico security analyst Alejandro Hope said Mexico’s murder rate is probably higher than the Interior Department sta-tistics show, because the department does the per 100,000 count based on the number of murder investigations, not the number of victims, and a killing may result in more than one victim. Hope says the real homicide rate is probably around 24 per 100,000.

Despite US President Donald Trump’s tweet last week claiming Mexico is “now rated the number one most dan-gerous country in the world,” there are several nations in Latin America with higher rates.

14 WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018HOME

VILLAGGIO & CITY CENTERCROSSWORD NOVO Pearl Qatar

MALL

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

AADU 2

LANDMARK

ROXY

AL KHOR

ASIAN TOWN

12 Strong (2D/Action) 10:30, 11:30am, 12:00noon, 1:00, 2:00, 2:45, 3:30, 4:30, 5:30, 6:00, 7:00, 8:30, 8:15, 9:30, 11:00, 11:15pm & 12:00midnightThe Commuter (2D/Action) 10:00, 10:30am, 12:15, 12:45, 2:30, 3:00, 4:45, 5:15, 7:00, 7:30, 9:15, 9:45, 11:30pm & 12:00midnightJumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 10:00am, 12:20, 2:40, 5:00, 7:20, 9:40pm & 12:00midnight The Post (2D/Drama) 10:30am, 12:45, 3:00. 5:15, 7:30, 9:45pm & 12:00midnightDownsizing (2D/Comedy) 10:00am, 12:40, 3:20. 6:00, 8:40 & 11:20pmThe Pirates Of Somalia (2D) 10:00am, 2:45, 7:30pm & 12:10amlnsidious: The Last Key (2D/Horror) 12:30, 5:15 & 10:00pm12 Strong (2D IMAX/Action) 11:00am, 1:30, 4:00, 6:30, 9:00 & 11:30pm

Nirdosh (2D/Hindi) 2:30 & 9:30pm Diwanji Moola (2D/Malayalam) 4:30pm Addu 2 (2D/Malayalam) 2:15 & 11:30pm Bunya And Babe (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 4:00pmDownsizing (2D/Comedy) 5:00 & 7:00pm Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 5:30pmThe Post (2D/Drama) 7:30 & 9:30pm The Pirates Of Somalia (2D/Drama) 7:30pm 12 Strong (2D/Action) 9:15 & 11:30pm Gulae Bhaghavali (2D/Tamil) 11:30pm

ROYAL PLAZA

Diwanji Moola (2D/Malayalam) 2:30 & 11:15pm Gulae Bhaghavali (2D/Tamil) 2:30 & 11:00pm Bunya And Babe (2D/Animation) 3:00 & 5:00pmJumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 5:00pmAadu 2 (2D/Malayalam) 5:00pm The Commuter 9:30pmDownsizing (2D/Comedy) 6:30pm The Post (2D/Drama) 7:00 & 9:00pm The Pirates Of Somalia (2D/Drama) 7:15pm 12 Strong (2D/Action) 9:00 & 11:00pm

Aadu 2 (2D/Malayalam) 2:15 & 11:30pm Bunya And Babe (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 5:00pm Gulae Bhaghavali (2D/Tamil) 2:30pm Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 4:00pm The Commuter 7:00pm Diwanji Moola (2D/Malayalam) 5:00pm Downsizing (2D/Comedy) 6:00 & 9:15pm The Pirates Of Somalia (2D/Drama) 7:15pm 12 Strong (2D/Action) 8:30 & 11:00pm The Post (2D/Drama) 9:00 & 11:00pm

Aadu (Malayalam) 6:45, 8:15, 9:30 & 11:00pm Nirdosh (Hindi) 5:45pm Sketch (Tamil) 11:15pm Gulae Bhaghavali (2D/Tamil) 6:00pm Diwanji Moola (2D/Malayalam) 5:45, 8:30 & 11:15pm

Aadu (Malayalam) 11:15am, 2:15, 5:15, 8:15 & 11:15pm The Post (2D/Drama) 10:30am, 4:00 & 9:30pm 12 Strong (2D/Action) 12:45, 6:15 & 11:45pm Ferdinand 10:30pm Thaana Serndha (Tamil) 1:00, 6:30pm & 12:00midnight Downsizing (2D/Comedy) 3:30 & 9:00pm

Bunya And Babe (Animation) 10:30am, 12:30, 2:30, 4:30 & 6:30pm Diwanji Moola (Malayalam) 1:00, 4:00, 7:00 & 10:00pm12 Strong (Action) 10:30am, 1:10, 3:50, 6:40 & 9:20pm

Aadu 2 (Malayalam) 10:30am, 1:40, 4:50, 8:00 & 11:20pm The Pirates Of Somalia (Drama) 8:30, 10:30 & 11:00pm

Shaji Pappan and his gang try to redeem their arts club through a game of tug-o-war. Chaos erupts as the half-witted gang gets entangled in a bigger conspiracy.

CADD Arabia concludes Connecting Dots eventTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: CADD Arabia concluded their event Connecting Dots, a Psychological Entertainment, and Motivational Talk Show with a highly positive note from the crowd at the Nashira Ball-room in Hilton, Doha on January 20. The show featured Mohamed Rafi, Behavioral Scientist and Nipin Niravath, Inspirational Speaker whose performances created a wow factor among the audiences.

Nipin Niravath is considered to be one of the greatest inspi-rational speakers in India. He is also a famous psychological entertainer, illusionist, mind reader and motivational speaker.

He has been putting on breathtaking performances for the past two decades through

his shows on stage, television, private events, and corporate shows.

CADD Arabia’s Connecting Dots turned out to be yet another mind-blowing perform-ance by Nipin Niravath show-casing his skills in mind reading, psychological manipulation, and hypnosis.

He left the stage giving the crowd an amazing performance and the crowd.

Mohammed Rafi can bring transformation through his Innovative Coaching programs and Motivational Speeches using the most modern scientific peak performance coaching tools to those who wish to excel in any area of their lives including sports, business, personal rela-tionships, and health.

During the event, Mohammed Rafi gave the crowd

an inspirational talk on various aspects of life, leaving them to ponder about how they could use it as tools to better themselves.

He provided a demonstra-tion on the Ultimate Peak per-formance state of mind for the first time in Qatar, juggling with multiple visual and sound dis-tractions from a huge audience of around 300 people and 3 of them at 2 feet.

The staff and management put all their efforts with CADD Arabia team to make it a suc-cess. We saw a participation of more than 300 guests, including the public, entrepreneurs, busi-ness partners and business executives from various com-panies and more than 100 Stu-dents and Professors from dif-ferent schools and colleges across Qatar.

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts announces new mobile appTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts yesterday announced the new and enhanced Shangri-La Mobile App and is intro-ducing an exclusive loyalty programme offer from Golden Circle.

The bonus points promo-tion, valid from January 22 to April 30, invites travellers to “Unlock the World of Shangri-La” at over 100 hotels and resorts across the Shangri-La, Kerry Hotels, Hotel Jen and Traders Hotels brands.

Fast and intuitive to use, the new Shangri-La App is avail-able for iPhone and Android platforms. It can be down-loaded from www.Shangri-La.com/App, iTunes and Google Play, as well as via QR code at

any of the group’s hotels world-wide. Based on consumer research, the key functionali-ties include: Fast and Easy Booking; Mobile Check-in/Check-out; Manage Golden Circle Account; and Redeem Rewards. The Shangri-La App invites guests to join the Golden Circle programme and instantly take advantage of member ben-efits and promotions.

By downloading the App, members can earn: Triple GC Award Points for each booking made via the Shangri-La App and Mobile Check-In/Check-Out is used, double GC Award Points for each Golden Circle booking made via the Shangri-La App and get 100 GC Award Points for download and sign-in to the new Shangri-La App (once per device)

With an intuitive interface, the Shangri-La App’s key func-tionalities are enhanced by offering: Best available rates and promotions, special corpo-rate rates, hotel search by name or destination, key information and content about each hotel, destination information with l ive maps and local information.

Click-to-call a Shangri-La hotel’s local reservation agent

Newly developed function-alities will continuously improve the guest experience.

Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, one of the world’s premier hotel man-agement companies, currently operates over 100 hotels in 22 countries and 76 destinations under the Shangri-La, Kerry, Hotel Jen and Traders brands.

Nipin Niravath, an acclaimed inspirational speaker from India, performs at Connecting Dots by CADD Arabia.

An image depicting Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts’ new mobile app on an iPhone.

15WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018 HOME

FAJRSHOROOK

05.00am

06.20 am

ZUHRASR

11.46 am

02.51 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

05.14pm

06.44pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 09:15 – 23:00 LOW TIDE 02:15 – 16:45

Hazy to misty/foggy over most areas at

first becomes mild daytime,

cold by night.

WEATHER TODAY

COURTESY: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum 16oC 24oC

16 WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018MORNING BREAK

Mercury at furthest distance from the Sun tomorrowD O H A : T h e smallest planet of solar system Mercury will be reaching at Aphe-lion point (furthest point from the Sun) in its orbit around the sun at 2pm Qatar time tomorrow where Mercury will be at 70 million Km a p p r o x i m a t e l y from the sun’s centre, while it was at 46 million km approximately from the sun’s center on December 12, 2017, Qatar Calendar House (QCH) announced.

Astronomer expert at QCH, Dr Beshir Marzouk, said Qatari and Arabic area residences will have a good chance to seeing and observing Mercury on dawn sky; where Qatar residences will be observing Mercury since 5:27am until before sunrise time at 6:20am.

Mercury (and all planets) moves in its orbit around Sun on Ellipse (elliptical) orbit, so that Mercury’s dis-tance from the Sun’s centre varies, where Mercury’s distance from the Sun’s center is 46 million km at per-ihelion (nearest point), while it’s become 70 million km at aphelion (outermost point), the average distance between Mercury and Sun is 58 million km approximately.

Mercury reaching to Aphelion point (outermost point) in its orbit around the sun every 88 days, where it was reached Aphelion point last time on Sunday October 29, 2017. It will reach Aphelion point again during this year on Monday April 23. Dr Beshir Mar-zouk added.

Mercury is the nearest planet from the Sun and it’s the smallest planet.

REUTERS

NEW YORK: Self-driving car pioneer Sebastian Thrun (pictured), has shifted his gaze to the skies, as his Silicon Valley online school Udacity launches what it calls the first “nanodegree” in flying car engineering.

With companies from Airbus and Amazon to Uber throttling up development of their own autonomous aerial vehicles, Thrun believes “in a few years time, this will be the hottest topic on the planet.”

As usual, Thrun intends to be on the cutting edge of this emerging technology.

The 50-year-old PhD computer scientist and former Stanford Uni-versity professor, co-founded Udacity in 2012 and says the online school’s self-driving car pro-gram has attracted 50,000 applicants since 2016.

He expects the new flying car curriculum, which opens in late February and begins taking applications yesterday, to draw at least 10,000.

Udacity is offering two 12-week terms, at $1,200 each, including a course in Aerial Robotics and one in Intelligent Air Systems, that provide an online certification in a fraction of the time of a traditional degree course.

In an interview, Thrun said his motivation in creating the flying-car programme was sim-ilar to what drove the school’s widely publi-cised self-driving car course.

Thrun said “it’s almost impossible to hire qualified people” to design and engineer future

vehicles - both terrestrial and aerial - that employ advanced technology, including robotics, artifi-cial intellience and machine learning.

“There is a huge shortage of engineers. There are plenty of smart people - the missing link is educa-tion,” said Thrun, who headed the team that launched Google’s self-driving car project, since renamed Waymo.

Thrun remains an advisor to Google parent Alphabet Inc and retains close ties to Alphabet CEO and co-founder Larry Page.

Page is an investor in Kitty Hawk Corp, a two-year-old startup based in Mountain View, California, whose stated mission is “to make the dream of personal flight a reality.” Thrun is chief executive of Kitty Hawk and a co-owner.

Kitty Hawk’s first prototype, dubbed the Flyer, is not exactly a flying car, but more of a one-person drone that is capable of vertical takeoff and landing and does not need wheels.

“’Flying car’ might be a bit of a misnomer - more of an attention grabber,” admits Thrun, who said he has been working with Page and others to develop autonomous aerial vehicles.

“It feels like science fiction now,” Thrun said. “But with Google and Amazon moving in, there is going to be enormous activity around this in the next year or two.”

REUTERS

LOS ANGELES: “Wonder Woman” failed to conquer Oscar voters yesterday despite riding to one of the biggest box office hits of 2017 on a wave of female empowerment, making it one of the biggest snubs for Hollywood’s highest honors.

The Warner Bros. movie, featuring Gal Gadot as the sword-wielding Wonder Woman, was the first stand-alone female superhero film since 2005 and earned some $825m globally, making its filmmaker Patty Jenkins, 46, the highest-grossing female director in Hollywood.

But at yesterday’s Oscar nominations, Jenkins was left off the director’s race and the film was snubbed in the best picture category, despite nods for other movies about women and made by women.

Instead, it was Guillermo Del Toro’s surreal fantasy

romance “The Shape of Water” that led the Oscar nominations with 13 nods.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have traditionally disdained big action and superhero movies in favor of smaller art-house fare, like last year’s Oscar champion “Moonlight” and this year’s dark comedy “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” which landed seven nods.

Since 1990, only the 2003 fantasy epic “Lord of the Rings; The Return of the Kings” snapped that trend to win the top Oscar honour. Sci-fi movie “Avatar,” still the biggest box office movie of all time, received a best picture nomination in 2010 but lost out to “The Hurt Locker.”

This year’s surprises include four nominations in key categories for Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” in which an African-American man finds himself trapped at his white

girlfriend’s house with her strange family. The $5m horror movie from Universal Pictures became a box office success with more than $250m globally and became a talking point for modern day race relations in America.

Veteran actor Christopher Plummer, 88, was also a sur-prise contender in the sup-porting actor race for Sony Pictures’ Getty kidnapping film “All the Money in the World.” Plummer boarded the movie a month before its release, replacing actor Kevin Spacey because of sexual mis-conduct allegations.

James Franco was excluded from the best actor race for “The Disaster Artist” after facing accusations of sexual misconduct earlier this month following his Golden Globe win. Franco said the accusations were “not accu-rate.” He lost out on Sunday at the Screen Actors Guild awards to Gary Oldman for “Darkest Hour.”

“The Disaster Artist,” a

comedy about the worst Hol-lywood film ever made, received early awards atten-tion but yesterday, only landed one Oscar nomination, for adapted screenplay.

Other snubs included Steven Spielberg in the directing race for press freedom movie “The Post,” and its star Tom Hanks. “Mud-bound” was left out of best picture and filmmaker Dee Rees was also excluded from the directing race, but she landed a nod for adapted screenplay.

German film “In The Fade,” which won the Golden Globe for best foreign lan-guage film and received praise for its lead star Diane Kruger, was left out of the Oscar for-eign language race.

AFP

MIAMI: Vaping, or smoking battery powered devices known as e-cigarettes, may encourage youths to start smoking but may also help adults quit, said a US review of scientific research out yesterday.

The report by the US National Acad-emies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is based on more than 800 peer-reviewed scientific studies on the health effects of electronic cigarettes.

It was compiled at the request of the US Congress, amid a growing

international debate over whether e-cig-arettes are safe or harmful.

E-cigarettes, which have gained popularity in the last decade, are hand-held devices that heat up a nicotine-con-taining liquid so users can inhale the vapors. They contain “fewer numbers and lower levels of toxic substances than conventional cigarettes,” said the report.

But they are also addictive. The amount of nicotine they deliver

can vary, but experienced adult e-cig-arette users tend to get “a comparable level of nicotine as conventional ciga-rettes” — leading to “symptoms of

dependence” in those who use them.Reviewed evidence suggests that

e-cigarettes are “likely to be far less harmful than tobacco products,” said David Eaton, chair of the committee that wrote the report.

“In some circumstances, such as their use by non-smoking adolescents and young adults, their adverse effects clearly warrant concern,” said Eaton, dean of the graduate school of the Uni-versity of Washington, Seattle.

Young people are more likely than adults to use e-cigarettes, and the report found “substantial evidence” that vaping

increases the risk of smoking conventional cigarettes. But when adult smokers use e-cigarettes to quit smoking, “they offer an opportunity to reduce smoking-related illness,” said Eaton. The report found “conclusive evidence” that substituting e-cigarettes for conventional cigarettes “reduces users’ exposure to many tox-icants and carcinogens present in con-ventional cigarettes.”

Switching from regular cigarettes to e-cigarettes also “results in reduced short-term adverse health outcomes in several organ systems.”

But their long term effects remain

unknown. The report found “no avail-able evidence whether or not e-ciga-rette use” is associated with cancer in people. Animal studies however suggest that long-term e-cigarette use “could increase the risk of cancer.”

Researchers also declined to cate-gorize e-cigarettes as a positive or neg-ative influence on public health.

“More and better research on e-cig-arettes’ short- and long-term effects on health and on their relationship to con-ventional smoking is needed to answer that question with clarity,” said the report.

Vaping may be bad for kids, good for adults: Study

Oscar nominations: Wonder Woman stumbles

Heroine of the ‘Rosie the Riveter’ poster dies at 96WASHINGTON: American Naomi Parker Fraley, who inspired the iconic World War II-era “Rosie the Riveter” poster that later became an enduring feminist symbol, has died. She was 96 years old.

The wartime propaganda poster in punchy primary colors shows a young woman in blue coveralls and a red-and-white polka dot bandana, her sleeve rolled past her elbow to show off her bicep under the slogan “We Can Do It!” The image pro-moting the work of women during the Second World War was briefly posted in US factories in 1943 to combat absenteeism and discourage calls to strike.

Nominees for the 90th Oscars, Best Director Awards (from left): Jordan Peele, Greta Gerwig, Christopher Nolan, Guillermo del Toro and Paul Thomas Anderson.

Self-driving car expert offers online degree in ‘flying cars’

FROM LEFT: US actor Richard Jenkis, US actress Octavia Spencer, British actress Sally Hawkins and Mexican director Guillermo del Toro pose during a photo call for ‘The Shape of Water’ during the 74th Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy. The movie has received 13 nominations for the Oscars 2018, among them the Best Movie, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Actress in a Supporting Role.