SPORT | 10BUSINESS | 01

Asian markets eye increased

exports to Qatar

2019: Qatar's year to remember

WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020

6 JUMADA I - 1441

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www.thepeninsula.qaVolume 24 | Number 8123

Enjoy unlimited local data and callswith the new Qatarna 5G plans

Amir exchanges New Year greetingsQNA — DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani exchanged cables of greetings yesterday with Their Majesties, Highnesses and Excellencies the leaders of friendly countries on the occasion of the New Year, wishing them good health and happiness and their

peoples further progress and prosperity. Prime Minister and Interior Minister,

H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, also exchanged cables of greetings yesterday with Their Excel-lencies heads of government of friendly countries on the occasion of the New Year, wishing them health and wellness and their peoples further progress and prosperity.

Shop Qatar to begin on Jan 7RAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC) is gearing up for the launch of the fourth edition of Shop Qatar, the country’s only nationwide shopping festival, which will run from January 7 to 31.

Car and cash prizes in excess of QR2m are in store for bargain hunters and shopaholics who can shop in style while enjoying unbeatable discounts at hun-dreds of outlets at Shop Qatar’s retail partners including Mall of Qatar, Doha Festival City, City Center, Villaggio Mall, Mirqab Mall, Landmark Mall, Gulf Mall, Al Khor Mall, Lagoona Mall, Hyatt Plaza Mall, and The Pearl-Qatar, according to Shop Qatar’s official website.

Apart from big discounts and promotions, this year’s Shop Qatar promises many events and

activities for style savvies including fashion shows and master classes by beauty experts.

Showcasing on the ramp some of the latest designs from around the world, the fashion shows will be top-billed by “Designed by the World” fea-turing creations by Ahmad Talfit, Laith Maalouf, Naja Saade, Amgad Al Adab , Saeed Malas, Baris and Toufic Al Hassan; “Designed by Qatar” displaying collections by Waad, Soliel Abayas, Al Dukan, Fahad Al Obaidly, Modish, Sarmad, Sheen Design, Shaden , Lady Aysha , Tamader Al Sultan and The Black Pearl; and “Designed

by China” featuring designers Grace Chen and Lan yu.

Fashion aficionados can also look forward to the “Ready to Wear Show,” “Haute Couture and Evening Wear Show” and “Kids Fashion Show.”

Well-known names in the beauty world including Hanan Alnajadah, Dalal Al Rifai and Lady Aisha will be among the experts who will be conducting the master classes.

Shop Qatar caters to the entire family with a plethora of shows most of which will be held in par-ticipating malls free to the public. Among the shows which have been lined up are Star Wars, Masha

and the Bear Stage Show, Shaun the Sheep Stage Show, Justice League Parade, Chinese Parade, Aura Entertainment Parade, Con-fetti Show, Bein Family Game Show, and Chinese Dragon Parade.

In addition there are musical spectacles coinciding with the shopping festival such as the concert of Bollywood singer Sonu Nigam at Asian Town Amphitheatre on January 23 and a show by Siwar Choir, Qatar’s leading youth choir, on January 7 at The Pearl-Qatar.

Launched in 2016, Shop Qatar was aimed at enriching the coun-try’s tourism offering while posi-tioning Qatar as a major shopping destination in the region. The fes-tival’s previous editions have suc-ceeded enriching Qatar’s retail sector attracting residents and tourists alike through its variety of offerings combining big pro-motions and spectacular entertainment.

Katara launches Art LaboratoryRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

The Cultural Village Foun-dation (Katara) starts off the year on a high note launching a fresh initiative aimed at enriching Qatar’s art scene, discovering talents and gifted artists, and promoting inno-vation in the art community.

In line with its mission to enhance Qatar’s art landscape, Katara has launched the Katara Art Laboratory – a new pro-gramme offering training courses and workshops which begin today.

Located in Building 18, the Art Laboratory seeks to provide a number of art programmes to support brilliant people of different ages and create a gen-eration of exceptional artists.

“This lab was established on the recommendations of Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al-Sulaiti, General Manager of Katara, with the necessity to launch an art laboratory that sponsors talented and professional artists of different ages is in line with the role that Katara plays to promote art and support genius and creative abilities, whether by training or by organizing art exhibi-tions,” said Amal Al Atham, director of the Katara Art Lab-oratory project.

She added that “the labo-ratory will follow a professional artistic approach with an edu-cational and specialized art programs targeting different arts and groups of society to create a new generation of young artists.” �P4

Qatar Airways celebrates a year of success in 2019THE PENINSULA — DOHA

For Qatar Airways, it was a successful year of strong network expansion, new aircraft deliveries and the unique achievement as the only airline to win the Skytrax Award for the World’s Best Airline for a fifth time.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, H E Akbar Al Baker, said: “2019 was another year of great achievement for Qatar Airways. There have been many highlights during the last 12 months, in particular receiving the highly prized ‘Best Airline in the World’ award from Skytrax at this year’s Paris Air Show. To have won the accolade for a record fifth time for my country and our airline

was a truly special moment.“Our many achievements in

2019 are proof of one immutable fact that Qatar Airways will never deviate from our com-mitment to provide our millions of passengers with the very best onboard experience every time they travel with us. Our growth over the last 12 months, in the face of adversity, has been impressive and going forward we will look to continue to prosper.

“As 2019 comes to an end, on behalf of our management and staff, I give our passengers our absolute guarantee that we will strive to continue to deliver the very highest standards of quality and excellence in the industry. I look forward to another year of

success in 2020.”The airline continued its

strategy of investing in the world’s most technologically advanced aircraft to drive its ambitious route network growth. Through the course of the year, 32 aircraft were delivered to its Doha head-quarters, including its 250th, an Airbus A350-900 in March. By the close of the year, the total combined fleet size of pas-senger, cargo and Qatar Exec-utive (QE) was 259.

In January, the airline announced that it had con-verted 10 of its Airbus A321neo order to the A321LR, a longer range variant which will allow it to connect with new growing markets from Doha. �P4

Msheireb Tram offers eco-friendly transport

Apart from big discounts and promotions, this year’s Shop Qatar promises many events and activities for style savvies including fashion shows and master classes by beauty experts.

Expats impacted by currency fluctuation in 2019SACHIN KUMAR THE PENINSULA

Currency fluctuation during 2019 made expatriates of several countries little richer last year. Among the expatriates in Qatar, the Pakistani nationals emerged as the biggest gainer of currency fluctuation. The Pakistani rupee depreciated around 12 percent in 2019, giving the extra value for their money.

A depreciating currency bodes well for expatriates because they get additional income because of decline while appre-ciating currency is a bad news for

expatriates. The trade tension between United States and China was the biggest factor that roiled currencies across the globe.

For example, one Pakistani rupee was trading at around 37.97 per riyal at the start of January 2019 and it traded at 42.40 per riyal in local market, yesterday. It means that Pakistani expatriate are now getting 4.43 rupee extra, compared to what they were getting at the beginning of 2019.

Nepali and Indian expatriates also ben-efitted from currency fluctuations as their currencies also declined during the year.

Indian rupee depreciated by around 2.4 percent as it started the year at around 19 per riyal and ended the year at 19.45 per riyal.

One Nepalese rupee was trading around 30.48 per Qatari riyal at the beginning of 2019 while the currency closed at 31.15 per riyal yesterday, reflecting a fall of 2.2 percent. Bangladeshi taka weakened to 23.42 per riyal at the start of the year from 23 per riyal at the end of the year, showing a fall of around two percent.

Other currencies have not shown much volatility and delivered a stable per-formance in last year. �P2

Msheireb Properties yesterday launched Msheireb Tram, an eco-friendly, high-tech and accessible means of transport which connects all Msheireb Downtown, which is hoped to encourage more people to leave their cars behind for a more convenient travel around the smart and sustainable city district. �P3

World ushers in New YearFireworks light up

the sky over Sydney Opera House last night

in Australia. World rang in New Year with spectacular fireworks

from Australia to Japan last night.

May Allah make 2020 a year of peace and stability for the world and for #Qatar, stability and security as well as progress and prosperity under our wise leadership.

May Allah make 2020 a year of goodness and blessing, and a new decade of happiness, peace and prosperity.

OFFICIAL NEWS

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held last evening a telephone conversa-tion with President H E Dr. Barham Salih of the sisterly Republic of Iraq.

During the phone call, they reviewed the situation in Iraq, where H E the Iraqi Presi-dent briefed H H the Amir about the latest developments on the Iraqi arena. For his part, H H the Amir affirmed the State of Qatar's keenness that security and sta-bility be established in brotherly Iraq. QNA

Amir holds telephone conversation with Iraqi President

02 WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020HOME

Qatar takes part in Arab League emergency meeting on Libya

QNA — CAIRO

The State of Qatar took part in the extraordinary session of the Arab League Council at the level of permanent representatives to discuss the current developments in Libya, chaired by Iraqi Ambassador in Cairo and Permanent Representative to the Arab League Ambas-sador Ahmed Al Dulaimi at the Arab League head-quarters yesterday.

Qatar’s Permanent Rep-resentative to the Arab League H E Ambassador Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al Sahlawi chaired the dele-gation of the State of Qatar to the meeting.

The meeting discussed the ongoing developments in Libya and the importance of adopting a joint Arab position aiming at restoring stability in Libya through political means.

QNL events to shed light on year-round learningTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

A comprehensive programme of activities is promised at Qatar National Library (QNL) at the start of what is certain to be a memorable year for everyone in the country.

From classical music to games, and from stories to the stars in the night sky, there is something for everyone across the first 31 days of 2020, with the common theme for the month being ‘Light.’

Taking on board this month’s special theme, ‘Sto-rytime at the Library’ takes place every Monday at the Chil-dren’s Library. The sessions will engage children aged 6 to 11 in storytelling and attendees will also have a chance to compose their own narratives.

Classical music enthusiasts

are in for a tuneful treat on January 7 with ‘Light in Clas-sical Music: Richard Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony’. Visitors will have the chance to attend an educational screening of An Alpine Symphony played by the Saxon State Orchestra under the baton of the late great Italian conductor and composer Giuseppe Sinopoli.

On January 8, ‘Games Between Light and Shadow: A Project for Doha’ promises to be both a fun and educational event. This special presentation will explore how light and shadow play on the ground and on walls to reveal images of the Sun and measure the passing of time. Based on these richly illustrated observations, a project will reveal live images of Earth’s nearest star on a selected wall in Doha.

“Learning is a continuous process and it never stops,” said Maryam Al Mutawa, Infor-mation Services Librarian and Acting Head of Program Services and Access at the Library. “Our programmes in January suit the needs of eve-ryone and are designed to build

on the successful learning journey that our visitors had with us over the past year. We hope that these programmes will provide opportunities for members of the community to engage, show their crea-tivity and immerse them-selves in thought-provoking

conversations.” ‘Light Is Hiding the Stars’ on

January 29 is a chance to dis-cover interesting facts about the extraordinary celestial bodies. Participants will learn about the phenomenon of light pollution and the implications of the use of artificial illumination and the deprivation of the view of the starry sky that our ancestors enjoyed.

Other regular events are also on the Library’s pro-gramme in January, including workshops on creative writing skills and photography, an intriguing look at being an astronaut, the Postgraduate Peer Support Network and the Arabic Book Club.

More about the Library’s events in January 2020, can be found in www.qnl.qa/en/events.

Ooredoo launches New Year offers for Shahry and Qatarna customers THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar’s leading telecommuni-cations operator, Ooredoo, has announced special New Year 2020 offers for new and existing Shahry and Qatarna customers.

Both new customers signing up for a new Shahry 5G or Qatarna 5G pack, and existing customers upgrading to a new Shahry 5G or Qatarna 5G pack, can choose an Add-on pack – either extra data, local minutes or international minutes, depending on pack – absolutely free for three months.

New customers signing up for a Shahry 5G Pack will have the choice of the Data Pack 30, the Local Pack 30 or the Inter-national Pack 30 for three months free.

They can enjoy from 2GB to 5GB extra data, 300 to 1000 local minutes or 25 to 100 international minutes extra free per month.

New Qatarna customers will get Data Pack 50 or Inter-national Pack 50 free for three months, giving them from 20GB up to 30GB data or 500 to 1000 international minutes extra free per month.

Offers for new customers must be activated in any of our

Ooredoo shops around town. Existing Shahry customers who upgrade to a new Shahry 5G pack will get the Data Pack 30 – normally priced at QR30 - free for three months, giving them from 2GB to 10GB data extra per month.

Existing Qatarna customers who upgrade to a new Qatarna 5G Pack will get the Data Pack 50 - normally priced at QR50 per month - free for three months, giving them from 20GB to 30GB data extra abso-lutely free. Offers for existing customers will be activated automatically once the upgrade is processed.

Manar Khalifa Al Muraikhi, Director PR and Corporate Communications at Ooredoo, said: “The recent launch of our new Shahry and Qatarna 5G postpaid packs has been extremely popular and we’re delighted to introduce these offers so customers get even better for value for money as well as our awesome service. Whether they have a 5G-com-patible device or not yet, they’ll be able to access the Supernet and stay in touch with loved ones for longer with the free add-ons.”

The New Year 2020 pro-motion runs from today until January 4.

Expats impacted by currency fluctuation in 2019

FROM PAGE 1

According to the report, Euro was trading at 4.23 per riyal at beginning of the year while it ended that at around 4.12, showing a gain of around 2 percent.

The Philippine peso gained around 3 percent as it closed the year at around 13.91 per riyal compared to 14.40 per riyal at the beginning of the year.

Kenyan Shilling was mostly stable as it opened the year at 27.67 per riyal while traded at 27.53 per riyal on the last day of the year.

Texas A&M University workshop focuses on electrical power infrastructure in QatarQNA — DOHA

A two-day workshop organised by electrical engineering faculty at Texas A&M University at Qatar brought together experts and practitioners from the United States, Europe and Qatar to focus on ensuring delivery of electric power in Qatar safely and reliably.

Presented in partnership with VITO Middle East and Energyville, with funding support from the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), the Workshop on Safe and Reliable Electrical Distribution Systems for Qatar shared best practices, lessons learned and new tech-nologies that are ready for application to enhance the safety and reliability of the elec-tricity distribution systems in Qatar.

Workshop chair and asso-ciate professor in the Electrical

and Computer Engineering Program at Texas A&M at Qatar Dr. Robert S. Balog , said that most of the electrical distri-bution system in Qatar is rela-tively new, certainly compared with US and European systems where there are well-known problems due to the aging infra-structure. But as solar energy becomes more widespread and electric vehicles gain traction, what will happen here in Qatar when equipment ages or is pushed beyond its intended design

The workshop aimed to lev-erage expertise at Texas A&M at Qatar and VITO to identify potential problems and develop paths and partnerships to form and implement Qatar-specific solutions.

However, Balog said, more work may be needed to cus-tomize these technologies into solutions specific for Qatar,

thereby necessitating a research ecosystem built around tech-nology transfer to industry and the design, development, deployment and service of these technologies.

Dean of Texas A&M at Qatar, Dr. Cesar Octavio Malave, said, “Texas A&M at Qatar is proud to have a strong partnership with academic institutions and local industry, as well as several gov-ernment entities. Our mission is to play a key role in creating sustainable solutions to real-world challenges by generating new knowledge through research and collaborative part-nerships, and then dissemi-nating that knowledge to the rest of the world through scien-tific publications and workshops such as this one. Texas A&M at Qatar is committed to expanding the human capital of the State of Qatar that is essential to fuel innovation and new thinking.”

Winter vegetable markets sell over half a tonne of honey in Dec

SANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

The winter vegetable markets run by the Agricultural Affairs Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) sold over half a tonne (584kg) of local honey in December.

The local farms are offering large quantity of pure honey from the harvest of last season (November) directly to the cus-tomers through their outlets in winter vegetable markets which operate from 7am to 5pm in Al Sheehaniya, Al Mazrouha, Al Wakrah, Al Khor-Al Zakhira and Al Shamal from Thursday to Saturday every week.

“We are running a

beekeeping facility with over 250 beehives in our agricultural farm. Large quantity of honey was harvested last month,” said Mohamad Absarul Haq, a rep-resentative of a local farm. He said that the outlet of his farm at Al Mazrouha winter vegetable market offers local honey in jars of 250gm, 500gm and 1kg at competitive prices.

Speaking about quality of local honey, Absarul Haq said: “We cultivated flower plants at huge area of our farm which provide nectar to bees. Since we do not use any artificial things to feed bees we can say our products are pure based on flower-nectar.”

Regarding demand and purity of local honey especially

the varieties offered by local farms to customers, he said that customers believe that local farms are supplying authentic product.

Moreover, Absarul Haq said:

“Most customers who use local honey regularly can identify the purity of the product by taste and colour.” He said that even some customers especially senior Qatari citizens can

suggest flower nectar. The winter vegetable

markets also host different fes-tivals featuring different products as honey, flowers, kanar, mulberry and lemon

among others during their season to promote the local products and attract customers to these markets.

The Agricultural Affairs Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment is running a national pro-gramme to increase the pro-duction of local honey. Under the said programme, the Min-istry distributes complete tools and equipment for bee keeping and provided various platforms for marketing the products.

All local farms interested in beekeeping have been provided beehives, dresses, containers for storing and other necessary things free of cost, to encourage them to begin the business.

There are three types of honey in Qatar — Sidr, Samur and Al Rabi according to the seasonal flowers. Sidr honey is being produced in large quantity in Qatar and has the highest demand. Qatari Sidr honey is being produced in desert climate making it special compared to the Sidr of other countries. There are other Sidr honey but GCC Sidr has best quality in test and other specifications.

This file picture shows a customer checking the quality of honey on sale at a shop at the winter vegetable markets run by the Agricultural Affairs Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment.

The local farms are offering large quantity of pure honey from the harvest of last season (November) directly to the customers through their outlets in winter vegetable markets which operate from 7am to 5pm in Al Sheehaniya, Al Mazrouha, Al Wakrah, Al Khor-Al Zakhira and Al Shamal from Thursday to Saturday every week.

Kahramaa opened 32 new electrical transmission stations in 2019QNA — DOHA

The Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) opened 32 new electrical transmission stations and completed cable laying works by spending an approx-imate amount of QR3bn, during 2019.

The year 2019 has turned to be a year of achievements for Kahramaa through imple-menting projects and main-taining quality of service with the highest standards for cus-tomers, Kahramaa said in a statement .

The Corporation completed commissioning of substations for five stadiums of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The last of the

five substations, Ras Abu Aboud Two, was opened in May.

The year also marked the completion of the works of the Doha Metro substations with the last of the five opened at Al Bidda. This is in addition to the completion of the works of the power stations for Qatar Eco-nomic Zones (Manateq).

According to Kahramaa sta-tistics, the production capacity of electricity reached 10,578 MW in 2019. While power gen-eration went up by about 30%, water production increased by 40%.

Kahramaa also raised the efficiency of the electrical network through the imple-mentation of periodic mainte-nance programmes. Corrective

measures in stations, cables and lines resulted in an estimated savings of about QR53mn.

The Corporation also upgraded the emergency control units by installing the latest software and technology and enhancing cybersecurity. The year also saw an increase in the number of consumers while electrical network was expanded into more areas.

As many as 8,116 sub-scribers and 1,500 establish-ments were connected and 1,286 new distribution stations opened. The number of failures in the main network came down by 8% in 2019 while the number of interruptions in the medium voltage network decreased by 17%.

03WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020 HOME

New initiative to restrain high prevalence of urolithiasisFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

In a new initiative to curtail the high prevalence and relapse of urolithiasis among the popu-lation in Qatar, a special committee is set to be formed in January.

It will aim at enhancing per-sonalised, patient-centred care for urolithiasis, said Dr. Tarek Ahmed Amin Ibrahim (pic-tured), Associate Consultant, Urology at Hamad Medical Corporation(HMC).

The unique multi disci-plinary committee will include patients, physicians, and experts across the country, he told The Peninsula yesterday.

“The committee will bring experts from private and public healthcare facilities in the country. It will include multi disciplinary experts will include nephrologists, urologists,

dietitians, lab technicians to help people at individuals with urolithiasis and at the risk of a re-occurrence of the condition,” said Dr. Ibrahim.

Urolithiasis is the formation of stones in the kidney, bladder, and/or urethra (urinary tract). Depending on where a stone is located, it may be called a kidney stone, ureteral stone, or bladder stone.

An average of 2,000 inter-ventions are performed for uro-lithiasis at the Hamad General Hospital (HGH) and approxi-mately 12000 patients seen at clinics in a year.

“Across the world about 10 to 15 percent of people are affected by urolithiasis. There is no specific study about the prevalence of urolithiasis in Qatar but among every 1000 cases seen at the HGH’s Emer-gency Department, 13 were suf-fering from urolithiasis. Around

78% of the operations per-formed by the urology division are because of urinary stones,” said Dr. Ibrahim.

“We also have a high rate of re-occurrence of urolithiasis. About half of people who have a urolithiasis develop the con-dition within 5 to 10 years. Among them about 10 percent

have high level of re-occur-rence of urinary stones,” he added.

According to Dr. Ibrahim, dietary habits, genetic factors and climate, especially Qatar being in the stone forming belt

stretching across the West Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, con-tribute to the high prevalence and re-occurrence rate of urolithiasis.

“People with re-occurrence of urolithiasis also have other medical conditions including kidney diseases, blood pressure and obesity. Therefore the com-mittee with multidisciplinary experts is important to provide holistic approach to patients,” said Dr Ibrahim.

Most advanced techniques in the diagnosis and treatment of urinary stones, including minimally invasive robotic-assisted surgery and dedicated stone clinics are available at HMC’s Ambulatory Care Center (ACC), HGH, Al Wakra Hospital, Al Khor Hospital, Cuban Hos-pital, Hazem Mubarak General Hospital.

A team of surgeons recently performed the first

kidney stone treatment pro-cedure using the Roboflex sur-gical robot at Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital. The state-of-the-art flexible laparoscope technology allows for the effective, non-invasive treatment of kidney stones and the operation.

“Every hospital across HMC complement each other in giving care to individuals with urolithiasis. For example, with the urology services being introduced at the Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital, many patients with urolithiasis are seen there. It has reduced the emergency cases seen at HGH,” said Dr Ibrahim.

“Lithotripsy, a medical pro-cedure that uses shock waves or a laser to break down stones in the kidney, gallbladder is available only at the HGH so patients in need of a Lithotripsy will be seen at HGH,” he added.

According to Dr. Ibrahim, dietary habits, genetic factors and climate, especially Qatar being in the stone forming belt stretching across the West Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, contribute to the high prevalence and re-occurrence rate of urolithiasis.

Tramway connects all of Msheireb Downtown Doha THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Msheireb Properties, the national real estate developer and subsidiary of Qatar Foundation, yesterday launched the much anticipated Msheireb Tram.

The new Tramway connects all Downtown Doha, the world’s smartest and most sustainable city district, and the first sustainable downtown regen-eration project worldwide.

Manufactured by the US-based TIG/m, LLC, Msheireb Tram adopts the latest in eco-friendly transpor-tation technology with options and conveniences that makes it also an accessible method of commuting within the downtown area for people with special needs.

With nine stations, Msheireb Tram interconnects all of Msheireb, making it easier for visitors to move from one spot to the other making the city a truly walkable and environment friendly city. Visitors, residents, and tenants can find a tram car on the loop every six minutes, with a 400-metre hop-on/hop-off zone along the single

2km, closed-loop track system. The self-powered environmen-

tally friendly tramway depot is Platinum LEED certified. It is made up of three one-deck, high-tech, electric streetcars, which are fully air-conditioned, incorporating special light-filtering glass panels which prevent over 90% of the heat from

sunlight.The modern high-tech streetcar

also includes many advanced features making it a convenient and safe method of transportation for pas-sengers, such as: level boarding at all stations; a hop-on-hop-off service in Wadi Msheireb area; Virtual Tram Detection and tram priority at the

traffic signals, tram arrival signs in real-time on the trams and at the pas-senger stations, on-board CCTV, and on-board Wi-Fi.

The Msheireb Tram also includes a unique open-air feature allowing it to be operated as an open-air car by removing the glass panels.

Ali Al Kuwari, Acting Chief Exec-utive Officer, Msheireb Properties said: “It is a great way to end a year full of success, with the launch of the Msheireb Tram. We hope that this

sustainable way of commuting will encourage more people to leave their cars behind. The tramway is very user friendly, cost effective, suitable for everyone, and I am confident that our visitors and residents will find it very convenient.”

Msheireb Tram links all areas of Msheireb Downtown Doha within 18 minutes, with a station at the Central Msheireb Metro Station, where eve-ryone can access Qatar Rail’s all three operating metro lines.

The MDD trams run on standard gauge track (1,435 mm) and are custom designed and handcrafted to the highest standards of excellence while adhering to European Standards for Tramway Safety.

Msheireb Tram goes through nine stations; Sahat Al Nakheel Station, Wadi Msheireb Station, Galleria Station, Msheireb Prayer Station, Her-itage Quarter Station, Al Baraha Station, Sahat Al Masjid Station, Al Kahraba Street Station, and Al Mariah Street Station giving everyone mul-tiple points of access to the tramway.

With nine stations, Msheireb Tram interconnects all of Msheireb, making it easier for visitors to move from one spot to the other making the city a truly walkable and environment friendly city.

04 WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020HOME

Gulf Exchange launches 10th branchTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Gulf Exchange has celebrated the launch of its tenth branch in Ras Laffan in the presence of senior management, accom-plished staff, and distinguished guests.

Ahmad Ali Al Sarraf, Deputy General Manager of Gulf Exchange, has congratu-lated the Ras Laffan Industrial City community on the new year and expressed his appre-ciation for the ongoing support from Qatar Petroleum to join forces in serving such a thriving community that is contributing to the economic development in line with Qatar National Vision 2030.

Mohamed Jawad Al Zaabi, Administration and Human Resource Manager at Gulf Exchange, extended his grat-itude for all stakeholders inter-nally and externally such as

Ooredoo, as their dedication has accelerated the opening of the branch.

He added that Gulf Exchange has invested consid-erably to enhance not only cus-tomer experience, but also employee satisfaction as the company has recently entered into a partnership with SMART GYM to provide special cor-porate rate for annual mem-bership for its staff, whereby the company will contribute 50% of the membership fees.

Customers now enjoy instant money transfer services with Gulf Exchange through Oooredoo Money application to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka, with more countries in the pipeline for such instant services as advised by Raju Ramachandran, Operations Manager. In addition, Gulf Exchange has invested in

streamlining external commu-nication with all stakeholders through launching 7 websites in Arabic, English, Hindi, Bang-ladeshi, Nepali, Turkish, and more recently Swahili to serve the growing community from Kenya and other East African countries.

Further successes have been demonstrated by improving management systems, which have positively contributed to developing a progressive corporate culture. Mohamed Choker, AML & Compliance Manager has shared his excitement for recently passing the audit for ISO 27001 pertaining Infor-mation Security Management System, which comes few months after successfully receiving ISO 9001 certifi-cation for Quality Management System, from a UKAS-accredited certification body.

Gulf Exchange is popular for their instant bank account credit to 31 banks in India and many other banks in Bang-ladesh, Nepal, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka, with many more countries in the pipeline.

Customers enjoy the money transfer and other services at Gulf Exchange across its ten branches located in Doha (Ali Bin Abdullah Street), Al-Rayyan, Al-Ruwais, Al-She-haniya, Al-Wakra (Barwa

Village), Asian Town, Dukhan, Industrial Area, Messaied and the recently launched Ras Laffan branch in addition to Ooredoo Mobile Money with best rates and most compet-itive services.

The senior management staff of Gulf Exchange and guests during the opening of its 10th branch in Ras Laffan.

Students get health education through QRCS programmeQNA — DOHA

Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has held 50 training courses on first aid, health education and risk reduction under the QRCS School Program, with funding from Afif Charity, under a bilateral spon-sorship agreement.

The programme is super-vised by the Ministry of Edu-cation and Higher Education.

Over one month, training courses and lectures were delivered to 2,500 students of primary, preparatory, and sec-ondary levels. Also, there were 300 indirect beneficiaries, including teachers, adminis-trative staff, bus drivers, and parents. The purpose of these events was to build their capacity in first aid, health edu-cation and risk reduction.

They covered a wide range of first aid skills for bleeding, nosebleed, head injury, fracture, burn, epilepsy, and heat stroke. More health-related topics

included protection against injuries, disease prevention, good diet, personal hygiene, communicable diseases, home safety, oral health, and smoking risks.

In a statement, Muna Fadel Al Sulaiti, Executive Director of Volunteering and Local Devel-opment Division at QRCS, said it was a very important pro-gramme designed to create a safe school environment where individuals had the ability to help themselves and others.

“This would translate into lower injury and mortality rates resulting from accidents,” she added. “The QRCS School Program seeks the modern knowledge-oriented society envisaged by Qatar National Vision 2030”.

Al Sulaiti commended this first joint operation with Afif

Charity, which was fruitful in enhancing outreach and com-munity engagement, capital-ising on the youth’s potential, protecting the school and local communities against injuries, building a well-educated gen-eration capable of dealing with risks, and promoting a culture of first aid intervention.

The QRCS School Program is a capacity-building pro-gramme implemented at public and private schools, under an agreement with the Ministry of Education and Higher Edu-cation. It is part of the annual plan of extracurricular activities at Qatari schools.

Over the past three years, the programme was imple-mented at 159 schools, with a total of 11,000 beneficiaries. This reflects how its content and objectives are widely trusted.

Students receiving lesson on first aid during a class held under QRCS’s School Program.

Over one month, training courses and lectures were delivered to 2,500 students of primary, preparatory, and secondary levels. Also, there were 300 indirect beneficiaries, including teachers, administrative staff, bus drivers, and parents.

Qatar Airways celebrates a year of success in 2019FROM PAGE 1

Continuing its proud record of being one of the world’s fastest-growing airlines, Qatar Airways launched a range of new destinations in 2019, namely: Davao, Philippines; Gaborone, Botswana; Izmir, Turkey; Langkawi, Malaysia; Lisbon, Portugal; Mogadishu, Somalia; Rabat, Morocco; and Valletta, Malta, increasing the carrier’s network to over 160 destinations.

The airline also added a host of new increased fre-quencies to dozens of destina-tions including Amman, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kuwait, Larnaca, Manchester, Miami, Milan, Penang and Vienna. Such additions are designed to give more choice and flexibility for both business and leisure passengers as well as offering flexible cargo options.

In addition, the airline signed a number of new or extended codeshare agree-ments with world-class airline partners, including IndiGo Air-lines, LATAM, China Southern, and SriLankan Airlines.

The portfol io and investment strategy of the Qatar Airways Group con-tinued to progress and diversify in 2019. In January, the on-market purchase of certain A shares and H shares of China Southern Airlines Company Limited (“China Southern Airlines”) resulted in an aggregate holding of approximately 5 per cent of the total issued share capital.

A busy summer saw the airline commit to significant new orders for Boeing aircraft, Gulfstream Executive Jets and GE Engines, celebrated with a signing ceremony at the White House.

December heralded the

announcement of an agreement with Republic of Rwanda to develop, invest and operate in a new international airport at a ceremony in Kigali. The airline will own 60 per cent of the new airport with the remainder being held by the Government of the Republic of Rwanda.

Cargo: Qatar Airways Cargo concluded a very suc-cessful 2019, taking delivery of six new Boeing 777 freighters and launching new freighter destinations Almaty, Guadalajara, and Singapore along with capacity increases to several destinations. The airline also added Hanoi and Singapore on its popular and high-demand transpacific route connecting Asia directly to the Americas.

Cargo capacity was also introduced to nine new belly-hold destinations, demon-strating the carrier’s com-mitment to its customers and the growing global trade. For the financial year 2018-19, Cargo revenue witnessed growth of 16.8 per cent with cargo capacity (Available Tonne Kilometres) growing 11.8 per cent annually. Qatar Airways Cargo also placed an order for five more Boeing 777 freighters at the Paris Air Show in June 2019.

The cargo carrier bagged the prestigious ‘Global Air Cargo Airline of the Year’ (STAT Trade Times) in 2019 and was also runner-up for the ‘Global Air Cargo Brand of the Year’ and ‘International Cargo Airline of the Year in Africa’ awards. These awards rec-ognise the carrier’s continued drive and emphasis on inno-vation, customer centricity, and service excellence.

In 2019, the airline added

its multi award-winning, pat-ented Business Class seat, Qsuite, to yet more high-profile routes including Auckland, Bangkok, Boston, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dallas Fort Worth, Delhi, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, Los Angeles, Milan, Montreal, and Tokyo Haneda. Passengers in these cities now have the opportunity to experience the airline’s renowned Business Class product, named ‘World’s Best Business Class Seat’ by the 2019 World Airline Awards, managed by international air transport rating organisation Skytrax.

Corporate social responsi-bility: 2019 showed that Qatar Airways is at the very centre of the communities it serves and at the cutting edge of envi-ronmental responsibility, staff wellness and effective philan-thropic giving. The airline cel-ebrated five years of support

for Educate A Child, a hugely important charity providing primary education to millions of out-of-school children.

In Amman, Jordan, Qatar Airways commemorated the opening of its new ward at the King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC) with a special cer-emony held under the patronage of HRH Prince Talal Bin Muhammad, Special Advisor to HM King Abdullah II. The airline marked a number of international awareness campaigns during 2019, including Autism Month where it host a series of special events throughout April designed to raise awareness of the aut ism spectrum disorder.

Supporting top tier and grassroots sport is an essential part of Qatar Airways’ DNA. To complement the already impressive sponsorship agree-ments with the likes of Bayern

Munich, AS Roma, Boca Juniors, Al Sadd and the Brooklyn Nets, 2019 saw the airline commit to deals designed to bring people together through sport.

As the Official Partner and Official Airline of FIFA, Qatar Airways was proud to bring football fans from around the world to France for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup France.

In December, Doha hosted the FIFA Club World Cup, where as well as being the official airline, Qatar Airways brought tens of thousands of fans from all over the globe to witness European champions Liverpool FC win the trophy for the very first time.

Qatar’s national carrier continued its enviable record of winning awards with a host of accolades during the year. Along with the ‘World’s Best Airline’ prize – for a record

fifth time - it also won ‘World’s Best Business Class’, ‘Best Business Class Seat’, and ‘Best Airline in the Middle East’ at the 2019 World Airline Awards, managed by international air transport rating organisation Skytrax.

The annual Trip Advisor awards gave more cause for celebration with the airline picking up five more prizes, namely the ‘World’s Best Business Class’ by Trip Advisor, ‘Middle East Best Airline’, ‘Middle East Best Major’, ‘Middle East Best Business Class’ and ‘Middle East Best Economy Class’.

In scooping further acco-lades from the Travel Trade Gazette (TTG), Kayak, LinkedIn, APEX, AirlineR-atings, Business Traveller, PAX and Onboard Hospitality, the airline could point to more than 70 international awards received during 2019.

Katara Art Laboratory to promote innovation and nurture local talents FROM PAGE 1

“Distinctively, the Katara Art Laboratory works according to a continuous curricula and educational standards to raise the level of the trainees to the

highest levels of excellence and professionalism,” she stressed.

Al-Atham said that “the lab-oratory programme is rich and diverse, as it will provide various workshops to teach all kinds of arts on a daily ongoing

basis for all ages.”“The laboratory will also

coordinate with schools and contribute to achieving inte-gration with academic curricula and educational arts and crea-tivity programs,” she pointed

out. She explained that the lab-oratory has an open art studio through which the trainees will learn the principles and foun-dations of various drawing such as portraiture, light, clothing and different materials. It is also

equipped with special tools and devices specialized in providing various types of technical workshops.

The Katara Art Laboratory conducts daily its activities in two periods from 9am to 1pm

and from 4pm to 8pm at Building 18.

Find more information on its social media accounts, by e-mail: info@kataraartlab.com or by calling 50111751 and 50111752.

The Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim bin Saif AI Sulaiti; and Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive H E Akbar Al Baker with other officials during the Skytrax Awards ceremony.

05WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020 HOME

QATAR 2019

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

In the last four months of 2019, Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani addressed the General Debate of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, attended global events and met with UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres; President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron; President of the Republic of the Gambia, Adama Barrow; and other a number of prominent world leaders and

held important talks with them.Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin

Hamad Al Thani and the Pres-ident of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, co-chaired on November 25 the 5th session of the Qatar-Turkey Supreme Strategic Committee at the Amiri Diwan.

H H the Amir inaugurated the 24th Arabian Gulf Cup on November 26 with a spectacular ceremony that left a packed Khalifa International Stadium. Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani inaugurated on

September 8 Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) new Trauma and Emergency Center, which is one of the largest centers in the region.

H H the Amir held a session of official talks with the Pres-ident of the Republic of The Gambia, Adama Barrow, at the Amiri Diwan, on September 11. H H the Amir met on September 19 with the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, at the Elysee Palace.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani discussed with

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, the strategic relations and means of boosting cooperation between the two countries in various fields for their mutual benefit on September 20.

H H the Amir took part in the UN Climate Action Summit 2019, which was held by HE UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York on on September 22 , in conjunction with con-vening the 74th session of the UN General Assembly.

H H the Amir met on Sep-tember 24 with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the accompanying delegation, at the residence of the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met on Sep-tember 24 with the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Angela Merkel, and the accompanying dele-gation, at the residence of the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations.

H H the Amir delivered a speech at the General Debate of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly held at UN headquarters in New York on September 24. Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani took part in the opening session of the General Debate of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, which kicked off at the UN headquarters in New York on September 24.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met with the President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on September 24, on the side-lines of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro held official talks at the Amiri Diwan on October 28. HH the Amir inaugurated on October 28 Qatar IT Exhibition (QITCOM 2019), organised by the Ministry of Transport and Communica-tions under the theme “Safe and Smart Cities” in the presence of President of Rwanda Paul Kagame at the Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC).

H H the Amir met on December 2 with H E Minister-President of Lower Saxony in the Federal Republic of Germany, Stephan Weil, and his accompanying delegation at the Amiri Diwan on the occasion of their visit to the country.

H H the Amir on December 8 issued Decree No. (46) of 2019 to ratify a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the field of health and medical science between the government of the State of Qatar and the government of the Republic of Turkey.

HH the Amir and the Pres-ident of Rwanda Paul Kagame attended the signing of three agreements between the gov-ernments of the two countries, on the sidelines of Sheikh

Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award ceremony held at Kigali Convention Centre on December 8.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister of Malaysia, H E Dr. Mahathir Mohamad held an official talks session, at the Amiri Diwan, December 13.

H H the Amir opened on December 14 the high- profile ‘Doha Forum 2019’ at Doha Sheraton Hotel that witnessed the attendance of world’s top decision-makers and policy leaders.

HH the Amir met on December 15 at the Amiri Diwan with the Chairman of the Pres-idential Council of Libya, H E Fayez Mustafa Al Sarraj, who is in Qatar to take part in the Doha Forum 2019.

HH the Amir participated on December 18 in the opening session of the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019, which carries the theme The Role of Development in Achieving National Sovereignty.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued on December 26 Amiri Law No. 27 of 2019 on counter-terrorism. The law is effective starting from its date of publication in the official gazette.

H H the Amir also ratified on December 26 a Cabinet decision No. 41 of 2019 issuing the executive regulations for law No. 20 of 2019 on com-bating money laundering and terrorism financing.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, during a meeting at the 10 Downing Street, in London.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani giving a speech at the 74th session of the UN General Assembly,

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, co-chaired on November 25 the 5th session of the Qatar-Turkey Supreme Strategic Committee at the Amiri Diwan. H H the Amir inaugurated the 24th Arabian Gulf Cup on November 26 with a spectacular ceremony at a packed Khalifa International Stadium.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani handing over the Arabian Gulf Cup to the national football team of the Kingdom of Bahrain, after the final match at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium.

Amir addresses UN General Assembly, meets world leaders

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani delivering the opening speech during the ‘Doha Forum 2019’ at Doha Sheraton Hotel.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with the President of the Republic of Turkey, H E Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the Amiri Diwan.

in Doha.On November 22, Qatar’s

transport sector reached

another key milestone as Qatar Railways Company launched preview service for the Doha Metro Gold Line.

Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kah-ramaa) launched Tarsheed Pho-tovoltaic Station for Energy Storage and Charging Electric Vehicles, first of its kind in Qatar at Kahramaa Complex at Mesaimeer, on November 24.

Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kah-ramaa) commissioned Al Bidaa Metro Power Substation at a cost of QR300m on November 26.

The Aoun project of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) won the Sheikh Salem Al Ali Al Sabah Informatics Award among the best technical projects in its 19th edition on November 28.

The State of Qatar, repre-sented by the Shura Council signed on November 28 a Mem-orandum of Understanding (MoU) with the African Parlia-

mentary Union (APU).H E Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad

Al Thani, President of the Qatar

Olympic Committee (QOC), on December 1 inaugurated the Qatari Diar project in Tunisia, Anantara-Tozeur Resort.

The 2022 building was unveiled at Aspire Zone on December 2 by the Prime Min-ister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani to coincide with Qatar’s winning the bid to host the FIFA 2022 World Cup.

The longest edition of the annual Katara Traditional Dhow Festival launched on December 3 at Katara Beach.

The 16th edition of the International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO-2019) opened on December 4 with a grand ceremony held at Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC).

Qatar’s first ever Hot Air Balloon Festival, which was held from December 7 to 18, witnessed 33 hot air balloons from 13 countries adorn the skies over Aspire Park.

Prime Minister and Interior

Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani participated on December 10 in

the closed session of 40th GCC Supreme Council that was held at the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

On December 9-10, Shura Council of Qatar hosted the 7th Conference of Global Organi-sation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC) in Doha.

On December 10, the Global Organisation of Parliamen-tarians Against Corruption chose Speaker of the Shura Council, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, as its board chair from 2019 to 2021.

Qatar Foundation unveiled the renowned artist Maqbool Fida Husain’s final art instal-lation, the Seeroo fi al Ardh, in Education City, on December 11.

On December 11, Qatar Railways Company launched the preview service for the Doha Metro Green Line.

The country’s first interna-tional literature festival JLF Doha

was held between December 11 and 13, with vibrant sessions on poetry, discussions and perform-ances by renowned authors and artists.

On December 14, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs, H E Dr. Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah and Turkish National Defence Minister, H E Hulusi Akar, inau-gurated the headquarters of the Qatari-Turkish Joint Command at Khalid Bin Al Walid Military Camp.

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, attended on December 15 the con-clusion of the works of the 19th Doha Forum 2019.

The Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA) on December 15 signed the licenses to operate for seven high-value global

companies which will soon start their operations from Qatar’s Free Zones.

Qatar on December 16 announced a surplus 2020 annual budget with a projected QR211bn in revenue and QR210.5bn expenditure.

Hamad International Airport was voted as the “Best Airport in the Middle East” for the third con-secutive year at the 16th Annual Global Traveler’s GT Tested Reader Survey Awards held in in Los Angeles on December 15.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attended the Qatar National Day 2019 Parade on the Doha Corniche, on December 18. All branches of the Qatari Armed Forces par-ticipated in the parade.

Qatar Airways announced on December 16 to expand codeshare cooperation with

SriLankan Airlines, starting from December 23. This new codeshare agreement will strengthen the two airlines’ strategic partnership, first ini-tiated in 2016.

On December 23, Prime Minister and Interior Minister, H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani opened the 44th General Assembly of the Arab Police Sports Federation (APSF) at Sharq Hotel.

In December, with 34 stalls representing local farms and food manufacturing companies, the fourth Mahaseel Festival is the biggest edition yet. On December 23, Katara inaugu-rated the Farmers’ Forum office.

In December, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) celebrated its 40th anni-versary, marking four decades of delivering safe, effective, and compassionate care to Qatar’s population since having been established by Amiri decree in 1979.

Ashghal opened on December 27 the 2.5-km car-riageway of East Industrial Street Extension Project two months ahead of schedule, which includes the second longest bridge in Qatar with a length of 1.7km.

06 WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020HOME 07WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020 HOME

QATAR 2019A year full of achievements

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

In the year 2019, Qatar suc-cessfully continued its march towards glory and accom-

plished many achievements at domestic and global fronts. Dif-ferent ministries and state organ-isations completed numerous strategic projects and laid foun-dation of many others. Qatar’s leadership at international level remained engaged in active, con-structive diplomacy to address different global challenges and the country also contributed gen-erously to many regional, global humanitarian causes.

Here The Peninsula, in last part of the series covers last four months (September 2019 to December 2019) of this eventful year.

Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA) announced on September 1 to have signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with two leading entities in Singapore.

Affiliates of Qatar Petroleum and the Belgian independent natural gas transport company Fluxys Belgium signed a long-term agreement on September 2 for LNG unloading services at the Zeebrugge LNG Terminal.

The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), on September 8 said that it has been admitted to the inter-national standard-setting organ-isation, Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), as an Associate Member.

A Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU) was signed on September 8 between the Shura Council and the Chamber of Dep-uties of the Federal Republic of Brazil.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani inaugurated Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) new Trauma and Emer-gency Center on September 9.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani inau-gurated on September 12 the Mukaynis Meteorological Center in Mukaynis area, and launched an app for the Qatar Meteorology Department called (Q Weather).

Considered the biggest of its kind exhibition in the Middle East, the third Katara Interna-tional Hunting and Falcon Exhi-bition (S’hail 2019) was held from September 3 to 7 at Katara.

Qatar Airways won three out of five global accolades in the 2020 Airline Passenger Experience Association’s (APEX) Passenger Choice Awards, at the APEX/IFSA Awards Ceremony held in Los

Angeles on September 9.The Department of Early

Education at the Ministry of Edu-cation and Higher Education developed a training programme for school supervisors on Sep-tember 9.

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) on September 17 inaugurated the new website “Policeman My Friend”.

Kahramaa, represented by the National Program for Con-servation and Energy Efficiency (Tarsheed), installed eight electric car charging stations free-of-cost to encourage the motorists to adopt electric cars on September 17.

The Minister of Commerce and Industry, H E Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari on September 23 opened the three-day ‘The Big 5 Construct Qatar’ at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center.

On September 25, the Min-istry of Interior inaugurated its overseas Visa Centre in Manila, Philippines, as part of the state’ efforts to facilitate and simplify the recruitment procedures for expatriates into the country.

Qatar National Bank announced on September 26 to have opened its first branch in Hong Kong, as part of its plans to boost international operations.

The World Bank on Sep-tember 27 listed Qatar as one of the top 20 countries in the world in terms of their improvement to the ‘Ease of Doing Business 2020’ score.

The Minister of Education and Higher Education, H E Dr. Mohammed Abdul Wahed Al Hammadi on September 30 issued a Ministerial Decision to open seven new schools in the country to meet the growing demand of seats.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) on Sep-tember 30 launched the first phase of the single window services at the Ministry’s head-quarters in Lusail City.

MEEZA Expansion, the inter-national arm of Qatar’s prom-inent end-to-end Managed IT Services & Solutions Provider, on October 1 announced to enter and gain market share in potential target markets in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (EMEA).

London’s High Court on October 2 confirmed that Qatar Foundation (QF) lawfully termi-nated its £1.9bn hospital contract with a joint venture (JV) of con-struction firms Contrack and London-listed OHL.

The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) opened on October 5 the Tilted Intersection to traffic.

Qatar Airways was named ‘Best Airline’ at the prestigious 2019 Business Traveller Awards, held on October 7 at London’s Royal Garden Hotel in front of 250 industry leaders.

Qatar participated in GCC Financial and Economic Coop-eration Committee meeting on October 7. Qatar announced on October 8 to reduce over 5MTPA of CO2 by 2025. QIIB on October 9 announced that its Chairman Sheikh Dr Khalid has been chosen as ‘Islamic Finance Per-sonality of the Year 2019’.

Ministry of Interior (MoI) made some important announce-ments on October 9 regarding the laws and regulations governing the expatriates and the labor market.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani on October 10 stressed the need for Qatari companies to participate

in the development of the Media City through various services of their companies.

Qatar Development Bank (QDB) on October 13 officially announced a new community partnership between Qatar FinTech Hub and Findec, the Swedish hub for fintechs.

Baladna Food Industries (BFI) on October 17announced to raise about QR1.42bn ($382m) in an initial public offering (IPO) of 1,425,750,000 new shares (the Offer Shares) on the Qatar Stock Exchange, representing 75 percent of the share capital of the Company.

H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, on October 22, attended the ‘Catalyzing The Future’ celebration of the 10th anniversary of Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP).

Qatar ushered in its fourth and largest cruise tourism season with the opening of a new cruise passenger terminal at Doha Port on October 22.

Hamad International Airport announced, on October 23, plans for second phase expansion which will enhance the airport’s capacity to more than 60 million passengers annually.

The Speaker of the Shura Council, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, addressed on October 26 the opening session of the first meeting of the Executive Council of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) currently held in the city of Riza, Turkey.

Qatar Airways announced, on October 28, it became the first airline in the world to use the ‘GE360 Foam Wash’ system after partnering with GE on a three-year trial of the innovative enhanced engine cleaning technology.

On October 29, Prime Min-ister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani and H E Pres-ident Paul Kagame of the Republic of Rwanda inaugurated Smart City Expo Doha.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister, H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani and Vice-President of the Republic of Turkey Fuat Oktay held an official talks session at the pres-idential palace in the Turkish capital Ankara on November 1.

On November 2, Prime Min-ister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani inaugurated the sustainability and development phase of the “Better Connections” program.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdul-rahman Al Thani on November 3 addressed the opening of the Ministerial Meeting of the fifth round of the Qatari-Turkish Higher Strategic Committee.

QFZA on November 3 announced that it is holding $1bn to promote investment and eco-nomic growth.

The King of Malaysia, Al Sultan Abdullah Riayatuddin Al Mustafa Billah Shah, met on November 5 with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs, H E Dr. Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah, met on November 5 with United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.

Ashghal announced on November 9 the construction of three public parks including the development of Rawdat Al Khail Park (Al Muntaza Park), and new parks at Al Gharafa and Umm Al Seneem.

QIIB, on November 9, received the prestigious ‘Strongest Islamic Retail Bank’ and the ‘Most Innovative Islamic Retail Bank in Qatar Awards 2019’, granted annually by the Islamic Retail Banking Awards (IRBA) Committee in collabo-ration with the University of Cambridge to leading banks in the Islamic finance sectors.

The Ministry of Interior launched on November 11 an e-portal to issue visas for those interested in visiting the country.

Hamad International Airport (HIA) received the “Best Pas-senger Experience Initiative” silver award at the Future Travel Experience (FTE) Asia Awards 2019, held in Singapore on November 12.

Some of the best jazz artistes from 13 European countries enthralled music lovers in Doha during the sixth Katara European Jazz Festival which ran from November 4 to 9 at Katara Esplanade.

Qatar Airways (QA) was named as ‘Best Overall in the Middle East’ at the 2020 Airline Passenger Experience Associ-ation (APEX) Regional Passenger Choice Awards, held in Singapore on November 13.

Qatar Airways signed $4bn order for A321neo aircraft engines. The airline announced on November 13 that it had selected CFM International LEAP-1A engines to power its new fleet of 50 A321neo family aircraft, the largest order of A321neo family aircraft in the Middle East.

Hospitality Qatar’s biggest edition was held from November 12 to 14 at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center.

The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) announced on November 16 the completion of works of the reclamation and rehabilitation project in Al Karaana Lagoon, six months ahead of schedule.

Qatar’s first Patient Expe-rience Forum, one of the largest healthcare conferences in the region was held on November 16 and 17 in the presence of Minister of Public Health H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari.

On November 18, Qatar Ports Management Company (Mwani Qatar) signed a container services agreement with the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) to use Hamad Port as a regional hub to manage transshipments for up to 150,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) per year, growing to one million TEUs by 2023.

A compelling slate of 96 films from 39 countries participated in the 7th Ajyal Film Festival held from November 18 to 23.

The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE 2019) held in the presence of H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foun-dation, on November 20 and 21

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, witnesses QSTP 10th anniversary celebration.

The Speaker of the Shura Council, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud after being elected as the Board Chair of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption, in Doha.

Seeroo fi al Ardh, latest art installation of renowned artist M F Husian at the Education City.

An charging Electric Vehicle Charging station at Qatar Scientific Club. It is the eighth electric charging station opened by Kahramaa in the country.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, with the Prime Minister and Interior Minister, H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, in Riyadh.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs, H E Dr. Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah and Turkish National Defence Minister, H E Hulusi Akar, inaugurating the headquarters of the Qatari-Turkish Joint Command at Khalid Bin Al Walid Military Camp.

Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti (left), General Manager of Katara and Chairman of S’hail Organising Committee and other officials and VIPs visit one of the stalls at the opening of the third Katara International Hunting and Falcon Exhibition (S’hail 2019) at Katara Cultural Village.

In the year 2019, Qatar successfully continued its march towards glory and accomplished many achievements at domestic and global fronts. Different ministries and state organisations completed numerous strategic projects and laid foundation of many others.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani on October 10 stressed the need for Qatari companies to participate in the development of the Media City through various services of their companies.

Qatar Airways won three out of five global accolades in the 2020 Airline Passenger Experience Association’s (APEX) Passenger Choice Awards, at the APEX/IFSA Awards Ceremony held in Los Angeles on September 9. Qatar Airways was named ‘Best Airline’ at the prestigious 2019 Business Traveller Awards, held on October 7 at London’s Royal Garden Hotel in front of 250 industry leaders.

President of Kahramaa Eng. Essa bin Hilal Al Kuwari charging an electric car with the newly opened car charging station

Falcons on display at one of the stalls at the third Katara International Hunting and Falcon Exhibition (S’hail 2019) at Katara Cultural Village.

Commuters boarding Doha Metro train.

They were specifically targeting the young and the educated who they viewed as a threat to their authority.

Thousands of young and able Rohingya eager to study, learn and contribute to their society are languishing either in their own villages and towns in Myanmar where there are no schools and universities for them to attend, or in migrant detention centres, refugee camps and other “temporary” accommodation outside Myanmar with no access to education.

08 WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMAN

SHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

DR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFIeditorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITOR

MOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMEDm.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR

MOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

EDITORIAL

AS the year 2019 just retreated into history, the whole world is ushering in 2020 with immense hope for peace, harmony and prosperity. For Qatar, last year has been a year of countless achievements and prosperity and as we step into the New Year, the writings on the walls foresee a year of unprecedented growth and prosperity with much to look forward to in every sector of devel-opment, whether it is health, education, security, infra-structure development or Qatar’s role in the world stage as a harbinger of peace in areas of conflicts.

In the year 2019, Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani paid official visits to several countries and received scores of heads of states and senior ministers and other dignitaries in Qatar. H H the Amir discussed a myriad of issues of international and regional impor-tance during these meetings. H H the Amir attended and addressed several major international conferences such UN General Assembly, Munich Security Conference, Arab Economic and Social Development Summit, Summit of the Council of Arab League and the 140th Assembly of Inter-Parliamentary Union, to name a few. World leaders listened with rapt attention to H H the Amir’s words and Qatar’s strong stance on divergent interna-tional issues such as the unending sufferings of the Pal-estinians, pressing matters of the Muslim Ummah and the hardships of people in conflict areas.

Last year, H H the Amir announced major financial contributions to several world bodies, such as different agencies of the United Nations and poor countries and offered assistance to refugees and internally-displaced people. Qatar’s financial support through Qatar Fund for Development brought in much needed relief to thou-sands of people across the world.

Qatar also witnessed unprecedented development in the fields of health and medicine, education, infra-structure and welfare. Several modern facilities were added to existing hospitals while new hospitals and edu-cation institutions were opened. The opening of the Doha Metro brought in a revolution in the transport sector, while several new roads, bridges and sewage systems were launched. Mega projects like Umm Al Houl Power Station and Water Reservoir began operation.

Qatar won a number of accolades in the sports sector, among them winning the AFC Championship and medals in IAAF were notable. The opening of the Al Janoub Stadium was another momentous event. The state hosted an unprecedented number of world-class sports events also.

Looking back, people may wonder how Qatar could achieve so much in so less a time-frame and the only explanation is nothing but the tenacity and determination of a wise leadership, which will lead t to greater pinnacles of growth and development in the New Year too.

A year of achievements

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Quote of the day

The United Kingdom's departure from the European Union is a test for our country. I will strive to maintain a solid relationship between our two countries.

Emmanuel Macron French President

Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar wait to be let through by Bangladeshi guards along the border.

JN JONIAD AL JAZEERA

In the summer of 2012, when a particularly gruesome episode of anti-Rohingya violence erupted in the capital city of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Sittwe, I was a second-year physics student at the town’s university.

Sittwe’s Buddhist residents were attacking Rohingya homes and businesses with makeshift weapons. Soldiers, who had allegedly been sent to the town to help bring an end to the violence, were shooting at the Rohingya with live ammunition.

As a young Rohingya Muslim, I knew that if I went outside I would be tortured and killed either by angry Buddhist mobs or military troops. So, I hid inside my dormitory room. After spending a week in hiding without any food or other sup-plies, I was informed by the immigration authority that I was no longer a student - I was banned from Sittwe University and denied an education as a result of the racial segregation plan Myanmar authorities imposed in the name of “keeping the peace”.

A few days later, I was for-cibly sent back to my hometown, Maungdaw, which is situated in Rakhine state, near Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh. But I did not find safety there either. Security forces were regularly raiding Rohingya homes and dragging away anyone they found inside. They were specifi-cally targeting the young and the educated who they viewed as a threat to their authority. We later found the dead bodies of some of

the abducted, while others are missing to this day.

As it was not safe for me to go home, I hid in the jungle with my friends for about two weeks. When it became clear to me that I would never be able to safely return home, I decided to leave Rakhine state for good. After a terrifying journey on a small paddle boat with several other Rohingya, I reached Bangladesh. Most of the people I travelled with chose to remain in the safety of Bangladesh’s refugee camps, but I still wanted to live and study in my own country, Myanmar.

I decided to make my way to Yangon, Myanmar’s most pop-ulous and cosmopolitan city, where I had heard Rohingya were allowed to register with the local government and live as tem-porary residents. Since I did not have a passport or any other travel document, I risked my life illegally crossing first from Bang-ladesh into India and then from India back into Myanmar. But when I reached Yangon at the end of my arduous journey, all I found there was more anti-Muslim and anti-Rohingya racism and hatred. The entire country was turning against us.

I eventually had to accept the fact that I was not welcome in my homeland. My plan was to seek refuge in Australia, where I thought I could continue with my education. In February 2013, I fled to Thailand by car, passed through Malaysia and took a boat to Indonesia. From there, I attempted to go to Australia by boat but got caught. I spent a year and a half in the Manado Detention Center in Indonesia. But while there the UNHCR

recognised me as a refugee and I was eventually transferred to International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) community housing in the port city of Makassar in eastern Indonesia.

Since then, I have been stuck in limbo in Indonesia. I spent the last seven years searching for a way to continue my education, but I have not been successful. I know I will never be allowed to integrate into Indonesian society and receive a university education here. I also have no hope for reset-tlement in a third country. Given the increased hostility Rohingya are facing in Myanmar..

And my story is not unique. Thousands of young and able Rohingya eager to study, learn and contribute to their society are languishing either in their own villages and towns in Myanmar where there are no schools and universities for them to attend, or in migrant detention centres, refugee camps and other “tem-porary” accommodation outside Myanmar with no access to education.

Even our small migrant com-munity in Makassar is full of such people. Sajed Durahaman, a 42-year-old Rohingya refugee, was accepted to study geology at Thain lilwin university in Yangon but was stopped by the gov-ernment from taking up his place there. Instead, he was forced to wait three years before he could attend Sittwe University, only to be forced out from the country a few years later. Musa Ahmed, a 25-year-old Rohingya, who grad-uated with a distinction in biology from high school in 2012, was similarly not allowed to attend university in Myanmar.

MARK BUCHANAN BLOOMBERG

Looking back on the year in science, the coolest advances seem to be coming in areas such as gene editing and quantum computing. This is sexy research pointing with confidence to the future. Yet we should remember that some of the most important scientific discoveries take place almost without notice, in seem-ingly boring fields like materials science or chemistry.

Indeed, nearly all of the roughly 5 billion mobile phones now in use run on compact lith-ium-ion batteries, which didn’t exist before 1991. Without this technology - based on subtle advances in chemistry - a light-weight smartphone would feel more like a brick, and the mobile communications revo-lution would never have hap-pened. The scientists behind this battery revolution were

awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry, and their research illustrates just how tricky it is to store chemical energy safely and reliably in compact pieces of matter.

Most cars and trucks today still carry lead-acid batteries, a technology originally invented in 1860. But scientists have long suspected that the element lithium might offer a pathway to smaller, lighter batteries that pack more energy. Lithium is the lightest of all metals, and it has a strong tendency to give up elec-trons to other materials, a useful property for generating voltage.

The key to making lithium work lay in certain solid mate-rials, arranging their atoms in parallel sheets with space in between. In the 1970s, while working at Exxon Corp., chemist Michael Stanley Whit-tingham discovered that one such material - titanium disul-phide, or TiS2 - could

temporarily store lithium ions in the spaces between parallel sheets of titanium and sulphur atoms. With this material making up one electrode of a battery, an electric charge could be put in and later taken out, a reversible process that made the battery rechargeable.

Unfortunately, the TiS2 battery was also prone to short circuits and fires, and Exxon soon abandoned this line of research. In 1980, another chemist, John Goodenough of Oxford University, found that a different material - cobalt oxide, or CoO2 - was even more useful. As with TiS2, CoO2 will take up lithium ions and store them between sheets of cobalt or oxygen. Using this material for the cathode of a battery, Goodenough’s team was able to generate a voltage much higher than that of the TiS2 battery.

But these batteries were still

too dangerous for commercial use. The safety issue was only conquered in the early 1990s by Japanese chemist Akira Yoshino, working at the Asahi Kasei Corp., who found a way to use more stable solid mate-rials. His work illustrates how technology can advance in unexpected ways.

Yoshino first tried to use a recently discovered conducting polymer, and when that didn’t work, he turned to growing materials from carbon fibers. That was also a dead end. He finally began exploring a coal-black byproduct of petroleum refining known as petroleum coke. When treated in the right way with heat, this layered, carbon-based material turned out to have an unusual structure that quite accidentally pro-tected the material’s ability to repeatedly take in and give up lithium ions without being damaged.

We, the Rohingya youth, demand our right to an education

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Nobel for a battery breakthrough was decades in the making

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09WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020 OPINION

Chinese state media so far only confirmed that an interim deal had been agreed on December 13 with the US.

Easing the tension further in mid-December 2018, China suspends tariffs on US cars and auto parts for three months from January 1.

Washington escalates the tension with additional 25% tariffs on another $16 billion of Chinese goods the following month.

Of the 86 million cars sold in the top 54 world markets in 2018, 1.26 million, or 1.5%, were EVs.

VAKKAS DOGANTEKIN ANATOLIA

World’s biggest two economies, the US and China have been mired in a trade and tariff war ignited by US President Donald Trump who accuses the Asian country of stealing intellectual property from American companies and growing expo-nentially at the expense of American national interests.

Trump and his former advisors, including Steve Bannon, a former senior ally who is seen as a major factor in the president’s 2016 election win-- designated China as the coun-try’s main rival since the outset of campaigning for office. They have accused American corpo-rations of contributing to dein-dustrialization trends in the U.S by transferring production facil-ities to China for decades, boosting the East Asian giant’s economy.

The tariff war between the locomotives of international trade, now in its 17th month, has sent shockwaves through global markets.

Brain cramp of TrumpTrump administration mis-

takenly assumed that the US is way more advantageous, taking a quick victory against China for granted.

Trump in his “great and unmatched wisdom” thought that trade wars are easy to win and China would not retaliate at a time when the American market is the most lucrative and the biggest. To his astonishment, not only China but also others, even traditional allies, have retaliated against the US

Trump also assumed that US tariffs on China would pave the way for American companies to

relocate their supply chains back to the US, which also didn’t happen. Most companies pro-tested Trump in favor of China or moved their manufacturing to other affordable South Asian countries.

Last but not the least, the US president in May said the coun-try’s “great Patriot Farmers will be one of the biggest benefici-aries” of his trade policies against China. Yet, the farmers were devastated and farm bank-ruptcies in September surged 24% amid a turbulent year of trade war and bad weather, reaching an 8-year-high, according to data from American Farm Bureau Federation -- the nation’s largest general farm organization.

When the realities of the trade war hit US farmers in Republican states ahead of critical 2020 elections, Trump and his aides looked for ways to delay, pause or cancel further sanctions against Chinese buyers who kept American farms in business.

Additionally, the adminis-tration had to provide $28 billion in federal aid to farmers to prevent traditionally red farm states from feeling blue ahead of the presidential election in November.

Bull in China shopAfter months of negotiations

between trade delegations, US and China have agreed in prin-ciple to “phase one” of a long-sought trade pact that would bring an end to their punishing bilateral trade war.

The current agreement -- not yet finalized on paper -- covers intellectual property, financial services, and China’s com-mitment to purchase up to $50 billion worth of US farm

products.Before Christmas, Trump told

reporters in Florida he would “ultimately” have a signing cer-emony with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

US trade representative Robert Lighthizer earlier in December said phase one trade deal is expected to be signed “in the first week of January,” yet, the Chinese officials have not confirmed any signing date or any meeting between the coun-tries’ leaders, according to South China Morning Post.

Chinese state media so far only confirmed that an interim deal had been agreed on December 13 with the US in prin-ciple, two days before a deadline for additional US tariffs, but added that the text needs further study.

It is no wonder that the Chinese side is trying to max-imize its gains by taking advantage of the Democrat-led impeachment process against the US president, whose hand is weaker in global foreign policy negotiations under domestic pressure.

Timeline of US-China trade war

In early July 2018, the US imposes 25% duties on around $34 billion of imports from China, which retaliates with a 25% tariff on 545 goods origi-nating from the US worth $34 billion.

Washington escalates the tension with additional 25% tariffs on another $16 billion of Chinese goods the following month.

China immediately hits back with 25% tariffs on $16 billion of US goods.

In late September 2018, the US places 10% taxes on $200

billion of Chinese imports, and China responds by placing customs duties on $60 billion of US goods.

On Dec. 1, 2018, Trump and Jinping agree to hold fires at the G20 summit in Argentina, mutually suspending a planned tariff due to come into effect on Jan. 1, 2019.

Easing the tension further in mid-December 2018, China sus-pends tariffs on US cars and auto parts for three months from Jan. 1, and resumes its purchase of soybeans, giving a sigh of relief to American farmers.

But trade negotiations break down early May 2019 and the US raises tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10% to 25%, to which China again loses no time to respond with raised tariffs on $60 billion worth of goods from June 1.

In mid-May 2019, the US Department of Commerce announces that Chinese telecom giant Huawei is added to its “entity list”, which effectively banned the US companies from doing business with the company without approval. In response, China announces that it will come up with a list of its own and raised tariffs on $60 billion worth of products.

In late June, the two presi-dents decide to bury the hatchet once again at the G20 summit in Japan, with the US delaying major new tariffs and easing restrictions placed on Huawei.

On and off negotiations come to a standstill early August, when Trump announces plans to place a 10% tariff on $300 billion of worth of Chinese goods from Sept. 1 and designated China as a “currency manipulator” on August 5. A little over a week later, Trump changes his mind and announces that the planned tax on many of the $300 billion of Chinese products have either been delayed or removed and taxes of 10% on $155 billion of products including phones, laptop computers and video game consoles will be delayed until Dec. 15.

Late August, China announces tariffs of 5-10% on $75 billion of US goods for the period of Sept. 1-Dec. 15, and also says it will reinstate tariffs on the

US cars and car parts starting from Dec. 15.

In September, the US tariffs on more than $125 billion worth of Chinese products begin as expected.

After China announces that it will ease tariffs on certain US products, Trump responds pos-itively and agrees to delay new tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods on Oct.1-15 as a good will gesture to mark the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

Early September, China said it will keep US soybeans, pork, and other farm goods out of additional trade war tariffs.

Following negotiations in early October, US says it will delay a planned tariff raise of 25-30% on $250 billion of Chinese goods due Oct. 15.

On Dec. 13, China and the US finally agree to a phase one trade deal days before a 15% tariff was set to be placed on nearly $160 billion of Chinese goods.

Trump administration also agrees to reduce tariffs on $120 billion of Chinese goods levied in September.

Returning the favor, China also suspends tariffs on US goods due to come into force on Dec. 15.

Trump announced on Tuesday, the last day of 2019, he “will be signing our very large and comprehensive Phase One Trade Deal with China on January 15.”

“The ceremony will take place at the White House. High level representatives of China will be present. At a later date I will be going to Beijing where talks will begin on Phase Two!” he added on Twitter.

Almost 18 months of one step further-two steps back trade negotiations, the economic bilateral relations have eased for the time being, but given the impulsiveness and embedded China aversion of Trump, things might spiral out of control if he is re-elected in November.

Status of US-China economic relationship: Complicated

CHARLES LANE THE WASHINGTON POST

With a new decade starting shortly, it’s time for conscien-tious columnists to undergo their self- administered decennial performance reviews.

I’ll start - and try to keep it focused. For the past 10 years, I’ve waged a quixotic counter-offensive against electric-car boosterism, raining skepticism on the vehicles’ potential to cure cli-mate change, much less to be the clean, green wave of the trans-portation future.

More than a few people (my Tesla-owner friends very much included) have questioned this fixation, and I freely admit it’s an odd one.

I just figured that someone in an otherwise credulous press had to sort through the cloud of wishful thinking, political rhet-oric and sheer commercial hype surrounding this subject, and it might as well be me.

Mass adoption of electric cars, however, cannot occur unless they can do everything

gas-powered vehicles can do - including the ability to go hun-dreds of miles before refueling, and refueling easily - at a com-parable total cost of ownership. Otherwise, electric cars will be a niche product for upper-income folks. And government subsidies for them will be a regressive transfer of social resources in return for little climate benefit, given that the U.S. power grid the cars draw from is 64% fueled by coal and gas.

Nothing happened in the past decade to undermine this basic critique. Government, both

federal and state, subsidized elec-tric-car sales and production to the tune of several billion dol-lars, yet as of March 2019, there were 1.18 million electric vehi-cles on the road in the United States - less than one-half of 1 percent of the total. Households earning $100,000 or more per year own two-thirds of EVs, with many of the owners benefiting from a $7,500 federal tax credit.

Globally, electric-car adop-tion is also modest relative to optimistic forecasts. Of the 86 million cars sold in the top 54 world markets in 2018, 1.26 mil-lion, or 1.5%, were EVs. That’s nowhere near then-Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn’s 2010 prognostication that EVs would account for 10 percent of global sales by 2020.

My biggest error, in hind-sight, was to underestimate the financial staying power of Elon Musk’s cash-burning Tesla Motors, which I thought would exhaust investors’ patience long before it conquered the complex-ities of mass-producing quality vehicles. Tesla’s Model 3 is the

most popular electric car on the market, with 111,000 sold in the first nine months of 2019. Own-ers swear by it.

Tesla’s survival, though, may be the exception that proves the rule. (And we’ll see how it does now that Congress has allowed that tax credit to lapse.) Bally-hooed start-ups such as Coda, TH!NK and Fisker all went bank-rupt before 2015- Fisker after defaulting on an Energy Depart-ment loan at an ultimate cost to taxpayers of $139 million.

Chevrolet discontinued its Volt, a plug-in hybrid, in 2019 after selling only about 150,000 since the car launched in 2011. That same year, President Barack Obama had set a goal of having 1 million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2015.

But wait. What about recent reports that Volkswagen is making big new investments in electrics? Or Ford’s announce-ment of a new all-electric Mustang crossover? GM, Chevy’s parent company, says it, too, is preparing a new generation of EVs.

Established automakers are indeed about to ramp up electric offerings, providing Tesla with its most serious competition yet.

They are doing so, however, more as a response to regula-tory pressure from governments - even after the Trump adminis-tration scaled back fuel-economy sta ndards - than as a response to demonstrated customer demand, which lately has favored gas-powered SUVs and pickups.

The pr oblem, as industry leaders acknowledge in their qui-eter moments, is still the same: getting the total cost of owning an EV down to that of a gas equiv-alent. There’s uncertainty about key variables such as how much more battery costs will fall and the global supply of rare-earth elements.

GM President Mark Reuss recently wrote that EV-gas cost parity may happen “within a decade.” Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo told Automotive News Europe: “I do not believe there will be a dramatic increase in demand for battery vehicles, and I believe this situation is true globally.”

Why electric cars still don’t live up to the hype

Globally, electric-car adoption is also modest relative to optimistic forecasts.

A mid-2018 report by JPMorgan Asset Management noted that the median global forecast by industry experts is 125 million EVs on the road worldwide by 2030, which would be less than 10 percent of the total. “I’m taking the ‘under’ rather than the ‘over,’ “ the report’s author, Michael Cembalest, added.

Me, too. Let’s reconvene in 10 years to see who wins that wager, and to assess the true costs and benefits of the bet that big government and big business have placed on the electric car.

Almost 18 months of one step further-two steps back trade negotiations, the economic bilateral relations have eased for the time being, but given the impulsiveness and embedded China aversion of Trump, things might spiral out of control if he is re-elected in November. US President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping leaving a business leaders event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

10 WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020GULF / MIDDLE EAST

Sultan Qaboos stable, treatment ongoing: State TV

REUTERS — MUSCAT

Oman’s Sultan H M Qaboos bin Said is in a stable condition and continuing a program of medical treatment, state tele-vision said, citing a statement from the sultan’s office. Concern had grown over the Sultan’s health after he spent a week in Belgium undergoing medical treatment this month and Omani authorities said nothing about his health after his return.

In his first comments to the country since returning, the statement from the royal court said H M Sultan Qaboos thanked his people for the good wishes they had sent him.

Iraqi protesters attack US embassy after air strikesREUTERS — BAGHDAD

Protesters and militia fighters enraged by US air strikes on Iraq staged a violent demon-stration outside the US embassy in Baghdad yesterday, torching a security post and hurling stones as security forces and embassy guards hit back with stun grenades and tear gas.

Iraqi officials said the ambassador and other staff had been evacuated but this could not be confirmed with American officials. In Washington, US President Donald Trump accused Iran of orchestrating the violence and said Tehran would be held responsible.

The protesters and mili-tiamen stormed and burned a security post at the entrance of the US embassy but did not breach the main compound, a witnesses said.

They threw stones at the gate while others chanted, “No, no, America! No, no, Trump!”

Iraqi special forces were deployed around the main gate to prevent them entering the embassy. US-trained and -equipped Iraqi Counter Ter-rorism forces later reinforced them.

Medical sources said 12 militiamen were wounded by

the tear gas and stun grenades fired to disperse the crowd.

US planes on Sunday had attacked bases belonging to an Iranian-backed militia — an action that risks drawing Iraq further into a proxy conflict between Washington and Tehran at a time when mass protests are challenging Iraq’s political system.

The attack on the Kataib Hezbollah militia was in response to the killing of a US civilian contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base.

“Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will,” Trump said in a tweet.

“Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the US embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the embassy, and so notified.”

Two Iraqi foreign ministry

officials said the US ambassador and other staff had left, but they did not say when. The Wash-ington Post reported that inside the embassy, US diplomats and staffers were huddled in a for-tified safe room, according to two reached by a messaging app.

A few hours into the protest, tear gas was fired in an attempt to disperse the crowd and some of the militias encouraged pro-testers through loudspeakers to leave. “We have delivered our message, please leave the area to avoid bloodshed,” one announcement said.

Security guards inside the embassy also fired stun gre-nades at protesters outside the gates of the compound. Reuters correspondents heard at least seven loud bangs.

A witness saw blood on the face of one wounded militiamen and on the stomach of the other as their colleagues carried them away from the scene.

Iraqis have been taking to the streets in their thousands almost daily to condemn, among other things, militias such as Kataib Hezbollah and their Iranian patrons that support Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi ’s government.

But yesterday, it was the

militias who protested, spraying “Closed in the name of the people” on the gates of the US embassy and smashed the sur-veillance cameras around the building with bricks and stones.

Qais Al Khazali, leader of the Iranian-backed Asaib Ahl Al Haq militia, and many other senior leaders were among the protesters. “Americans are unwanted in Iraq. They are a source of evil and we want them

to leave,” Khazali said. Khazali is one of the most

feared and respected Shia militia leaders in Iraq, and one of Iran’s most important allies.

Kataib Hezbollah is one of the smallest but most potent of the Iranian-backed militias. Its flags were hung on the fence surrounding the embassy.

Militia commander Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, also known as Abu Mahdi Al Mohandes, and

Badr Organisation leader Hadi Al Amiri were also at the protest.

There are more than 5,000 US troops in Iraq supporting local forces, though Iraq has rejected any long-term presence of additional US forces that crossed its border during an American withdrawal from northern Syria.

Sunday’s air strikes killed at least 25 fighters and wounded 55.

Israeli gunfire martyred 149 Palestinians in 2019

ANATOLIA — RAMALLAH

Israeli forces martyred 149 Palestinians during the year 2019 in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, a Pales-tinian group said.

The National Gathering of Palestinian Martyrs’ Families said the martyrs include 33 children and 12 women.According to the group, the Israeli authorities continue detaining the bodies of 306 martyrs including 15 from this year. Meanwhile, Palestinian group Hamas denied holding any truce talks with Israel.

"We confirm that the siege and sanctions are still ongoing and the Zionist enemy didn't abide by the full entitlements of the previous Egypt-brokered negotiations," Hamas said in a statement. Hamas called on all sides to "assume their respon-sibilities to stop the siege and lift the sanctions imposed on Gaza Strip, whether from Israel or the Palestinian Authority."

Turkey arrests 6 suspects planning terror attacksANATOLIA — ANKARA

Turkish police arrested six foreign national suspects who were allegedly planning terrorist attacks around the time of New Year’s celebrations on behalf of Daesh (ISIS), according to security sources said.

The anti-terror police units during early morning hours

conducted raids at the addresses of suspects in the capital Ankara, said the source who spoke on condition of ano-nymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

While the police arrested five suspects during the raids, another suspect was rounded up later on as part of the ongoing operation.

Each one of the suspects

was allegedly planning a sep-arate terror attack during the celebrations, it added.

It was identified that the suspects were linked to Daesh/ISIS terrorist organisation in the conflict zones of Syria and Iraq. On social media, the sus-pects shared some images, retrieved from the terror organ-isation’s website, of executions and armed training given to

young children, according to the sources.

The police found a number of organisational documents of the terror group during the search at the addresses.

The sources also said the operation was ongoing and the number of detentions could rise.

Turkey recognised Daesh/ISIS as a terrorist organisation

in 2013. Since then, the country has been attacked by Daesh/ISIS terrorists numerous times, including 1 0 s u i c i d e bombings, seven bombings and four armed attacks which killed 315 people and injured hundreds.

In response, Turkey has launched military and police operations inside the country and abroad.

Top court hears case on Netanyahu’s political futureAP — OCCUPIED JERUSALEM

Israel’s Supreme Court began deliberations yesterday on whether an indicted parliament member can form a new government, hearing a petition that could potentially abruptly end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political career after March elections.

If the court decides Netanyahu is ineligible, it could precipitate a constitutional crisis in Israel, and exacerbate the already tenuous ties between the Israeli government and judiciary. The court did not hand down an immediate ruling and gave no indication on whether it would deliberate it further or reject it outright. Given the sensitivity, It may ask for a full panel of the court to convene on the matter. Either way, it was wading into uncharted territory.

Israeli law requires Cabinet ministers and mayors to resign if indicted, but does not specify so for a sitting prime minister.

There are no restrictions on Netanyahu to run in the March 2 election - the third in less than a year - but good governance groups are appealing on whether he could be tasked with forming a new government if he emerges victorious.

“We claimed that the head of the executive authority can’t be a person who is in conflict of interest between his personal interests and the interests that we as the public need,” argued Dafna Holtz-Lechner, the attorney leading the petition.

Given the shaky legal ground, the court could deem the scenario hypothetical and delay the case until the situation presents itself. Avi Halevy, a lawyer for Netanyahu, called it a “political petition.”

“Those deciding in the state of Israel and in democracy who will serve is prime minister, according to any system, are the people and only the people,” he said. “We of course hope it will be Benjamin Netanyahu.”

The hearing comes as

Netanyahu appears poised to seek immunity from the cor-ruption charges against him, delaying the prospect of a trial until the elections when he hopes to have a parliamentary majority coalition that will shield him from prosecution.

The request for immunity is likely to languish under the current parliament. Normally, a request for immunity would need to be approved by a par-liamentary committee and then submitted to a full vote. But the committee charged with han-dling such matters doesn’t exist because a government was never formed after September’s election. The attorney general cannot file the indictment until the question of immunity is settled, delaying any court proceedings.

Netanyahu, who was re-elected leader of the ruling Likud party last week, has long accused judicial and law enforcement officials of trying to drive him from office and has said only the voters can choose

who will lead the country. His allies have issued stern warnings against what they call an “activist” court overstepping its authority and a few dozen pro-Netanyahu protesters con-vened outside the court in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu has been in power for more than a decade and is Israel’s longest-serving leader. He was indicted last month on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust stemming from three cases of trading political and regulatory favors for positive press cov-erage and accepting lavish gifts from wealthy supporters.

Netanyahu has dismissed the allegations as an “attempted coup” and has vowed to battle them from the prime minister’s office. Netanyahu is Israel’s first sitting prime minister to be charged with a crime. His pred-ecessor, Ehud Olmert, was forced to resign a decade ago ahead of a corruption indictment that later sent him to prison for 16 months.

Oman and Iraq hold political consultations

QNA — MUSCAT

The Sultanate of Oman and Iraq held a session of political consultations in Muscat yesterday. The session was co-chaired by Undersecretary of the Omani Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Diplomatic Affairs Sheikh Khalifa bin Ali Al Harthy, and Iraqi Undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry Dr. Abdul Karim Hashim. Talks focused on bilateral relations and means to develop them in different fields

China, Iran foreign ministers criticise ‘bullying practices’AP — BEIJING

China’s foreign minister has decried international “bullying practices” while meeting with his Iranian counterpart yesterday, in the country’s latest crit-icism of American foreign policy under the Trump administration.

Wang Yi reaffirmed the strength of bilateral relations in opening remarks at the beginning of talks with Mohammad Javad Zarif. The Iranian minister’s visit follows a trip to close ally Russia and comes just after the first-ever drills among the navies of the three countries in the northern part of the Indian Ocean.

“We need to stand together against unilateralism and bullying practices,” Wang said. China was a signatory to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and has strongly criticized the US for abandoning it in favor of a campaign of heightened diplomatic and economic pressure.

Without directly mentioning the US, Wang said China and Iran would stand up for their national interests as well as

“uphold multilateralism and norms gov-erning international relations.”

Zarif responded that the two coun-tries were united in “our common effort to fight unilateralism and to promote multilateralism” in 2020.

The 2015 deal among Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. The US withdrew from the accord in 2018 and imposed crippling economic sanctions that block Iran from selling crude oil abroad.

Since then, Tehran has slowly inched toward ceasing its own compliance with the terms of the deal, including launching new operations at a heavy water nuclear reactor. Iran’s moves have been con-demned by Western governments as unwelcome and escalating tensions in the region, while Russia and China have repeatedly blamed the US China has also sharpened its rhetoric against Washington amid an ongoing trade war between the sides and US criticism of China’s human

rights record and policies in Hong Kong and the traditionally Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang.

The four-day naval exercise, launched from the southeastern port city of Chahbahar in the Gulf of Oman on Friday, underscores the informal alliance among China, Iran and Russia in the face

of Trump’s moves to withdraw the US from international agreements.

At a daily briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China would work to maintain the 2015 agreement and accused the US of having “shirked its due international obligations, and imposed extreme pressure on Iran.”

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi (right) shaking hands with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during their meeting in Beijing, yesterday.

Iraq's Hashd Al Shaabi paramilitary fighters setting the US Embassy wall on fire as they protest to condemn air strikes on their bases, in Baghdad, yesterday.

US President Donald Trump accused Iran of orchestrating the violence and said Tehran would be held responsible.

Fatah marks 55 years with West Bank marchesAP — RAMALLAH

Hundreds of Palestinians marched through the West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday to mark the 55th anniversary of the Fatah movement led by President Mahmoud Abbas.

Established by Yasser Arafat in 1965, Fatah led the armed struggle against Israel for decades as the main com-ponent of the Palestine Liber-ation Organization. The PLO recognised Israel in the early 1990s at the start of the peace process, and since then it has been committed to a two-state solution. Around a dozen masked men led the march through Ramallah, firing several rounds of gunfire into the air. Similar marches are planned elsewhere in the West Bank in the coming days.

Fatah has long vied with Hamas for leadership of the Palestinian national struggle.

Algerians protestDemonstrators attending an anti-government rally in Algerian capital Algiers, yesterday.

11WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Tripoli forces repulse attack by Haftar forcesAGENCIES — TRIPOLI

Libya’s UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) said it had destroyed 12 armed vehicles and killed 10 militants of rival Khalifa Haftar forces as fresh clashes hit southern Tripoli.

In April, Haftar’s forces launched a military campaign to capture Tripoli from the internationally recognised government.

GNA military spokesman Mohammed Kanunu said in a statement that they repulsed an attack from the Haftar forces backed by armored vehicles.

Germany, with the support of the international organisa-tions, is seeking to bring together countries concerned with Libya at an international conference in Berlin in an attempt to find a political solution to the conflict.

Since the ouster and death of ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, two seats of power have emerged in Libya: one in eastern Libya supported mainly by Egypt and the UAE, and the GNA in Tripoli, which enjoys UN and international recognition.

Meanwhile Turkish Pres-ident Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey’s latest steps com-pletely foiled the plots to exclude the country from the Eastern Mediterranean.

“The project to exclude Turkey from the Mediterranean has been foiled with the latest steps we have taken,” Erdogan said in his address to the nation.

“With support to the legit-imate Tripoli government, Turkey will ensure implemen-tation of all elements of agree-ments with Libya,” Erdogan added. Turkey’s presidency on Monday submitted a motion to the Parliament Speaker’s Office on sending troops to Libya. The

parliament is set to debate the motion tomorrow.

The senior Turkish sources have said Ankara is also con-sidering sending allied Syrian fighters as part of the deployment.

Meanwhile, the Arab League urged the warring sides in Libya not to do anything that might enable the deployment of foreign fighters in the North African country and worsen its conflict. The Arab League’s council, its top body, met in Cairo after Egypt called for an emergency meeting on Libya, where eastern-based forces led by military commander Khalifa Haftar are trying to seize the capital Tripoli.

Egypt is one of Haftar’s foremost foreign backers. Turkey supports the interna-tionally recognised government in Tripoli.

A statement issued by the Arab League’s council warned of “the gravity of taking any unilateral steps... in a manner that allows foreign military interventions and contributes to the escalation and prolon-gation of the conflict”.

Both sides in Libya have received foreign air support, mainly through drones, and Russian military contractors have been deployed on the front line to help Haftar’s forces in recent months, diplomats and analysts say.

Death toll from tribal clashes in Sudan’s Darfur rises to 24AP — CAIRO

Sporadic tribal clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs continued yesterday in Sudan’s West Darfur province, as the death toll climbed to at least two dozen people, some of them burned to death, according to a local aid group working in the area.

Some of the 24 dead were children, said Adam Regal, a spokesman for a local organi-sation that helps run refugee camps in the area. He said at least 17 others were wounded.

The clashes, which erupted over the weekend, pose a

challenge to efforts by Sudan’s transitional government to end decadeslong rebellions in areas like Darfur. Rebel groups from Darfur have now suspended their peace talks with the gov-ernment in response to the tribal clashes and called for an investigation.

Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising led the military to overthrow longtime autocratic President Omar Al Bashir in April. A military-civilian gov-ernment now rules the country. One if its key priorities has been ending the insurgencies in

Sudan’s far-flung provinces in order to slash military spending, which takes up much of the national budget.

Regal shared footage showing burned properties, as well as graphic images of dead bodies and wounded people with blood-stained clothes. His aid group said looting and destruction of property by militias took place in at least three refugee camps in the town of Genena.

Sudan’s ruling Sovereign Council said on Monday they would deploy “sufficient” troops to the region to help contain the

deadly clashes, which grew out of a skirmish between two people, one of whom, an Arab, was stabbed to death.

Activists and residents said the local government’s nightly curfew was not being followed, and that sporadic clashes in Genena continued Tuesday.

Two Genena residents told The Associated Press that militias, mostly Arabs, roamed the streets in pickup trucks with mounted machine guns. The residents spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Regal accused Sudan’s par-amilitary Rapid Support Forces

of intervening in the fighting on the side of the Arab forces.

The deputy head of the Sov-ereign Council , Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, is also the commander of that paramilitary group. Rights groups say Dagalo’s forces had, over the last decade, burned vil-lages and raped and killed civilians during a series of coun-terinsurgency campaigns.

The Sudanese government and rebel faction signed a peace deal last week. It was hoped that that deal could could pave the way for peace agreements with more rebel groups.

Prominent Ethiopian Oromo activist joins opposition partyAP — ADDIS ABABA

A prominent activist for Ethio-pia’s Oromo ethnic group has announced that he’s joined an opposition party.

Jawar Mohammed’s mem-bership in the Oromo Federalist Congress party comes five months before general elections that will test the popularity of reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in the east African nation of more than 100 million people.

“I have been working with the party as a supporter for a long time,” Jawar said. “I am attracted to the party because of their clear and strong stand on federalism.”

Jawar and the party are expected to call for greater autonomy for Ethiopia’s regional states, including Oromia, which is the largest and most populous.

Bitter ethnic rivalries resulting in violent clashes are

one of the most serious chal-lenges to Abiy’s government. More than 1,200 people were killed and more than 1.2 million others displaced in clashes in the country within the past year, Ethiopia’s Attorney General Office disclosed in Sep-tember. The clashes, most of which took place along ethnic lines, threaten Abiy’s reforms.

Until recently, Jawar was seen as an ally of the prime minister. When he was living in the US many say Jawar played a key role on social media in mobilizing wide-spread protests that led the pre-vious prime minister to resign and saw Abiy rise to power in April, 2018. Last year, Abiy relaxed restrictions on political activists which allowed Jawar and others to return to Ethiopia without fear of arrest.

But recently frictions emerged between Abiy and Jawar. In October Abiy

criticized “media personalities with foreign passports” for causing troubles in Ethiopia, a comment widely seen as crit-icism of Jawar.

A day later, Jawar alleged there were attempts to remove his government-provided security guards and hundreds of his supporters flocked to his residence to offer him pro-tection. Unrest that followed in some parts of the country, mainly Oromia, resulted in the deaths of several dozen people.

Jawar, owner of the Oromo Media Network which has a tel-evision station, website and magazine, has more than 1.7 million followers on Facebook and a large support base in the Oromia region. “I will use my influence, network, and expe-rience to help strengthen the party,” he said, adding that the party will decide what office he will run for in the upcoming elections in May, 2020.

Syria toll for 2019 lowest in civil war: MonitorAFP — BEIRUT

Syria’s nearly nine-year-old conflict which has cost more than 370,000 lives recorded its lowest annual death toll in 2019, a war monitor said yesterday.

A total of 11,215 fighters and civilians were killed in the past year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Of those, 3,473 were civilians including 1,021 children, the Britain-based monitor said.

Fighting has raged on three major fronts in Syria during the past year.

In March, US-backed Kurdish forces expelled Islamic State (IS) militants from their last patch of territory in the country’s far east near the Iraqi border.

Over the summer and in recent weeks, regime forces upped their military campaign against the jihadist-run region of Idlib in the northwest of the country.

The violence over the summer alone killed around 1,000 civilians in the region of some three million people where rebels are also present.

And to the east, Turkey and its Syrian proxies in October launched a cross-border

incursion into Syrian territory to expel Kurdish fighters they view as “terrorists”.

The Observatory relies on a vast network of sources across Syria to document the war that broke out after the brutal repression of nationwide anti-regime protests in 2011.

The Damascus regime has

since 2015 regained large swathes of the country from rebels with Russian military backing.

The death toll for 2017 stood at more than 33,000, but dropped to just above 19,600 people the following year.

The bloodiest year of the conflict was in 2014, when

around 76,000 people lost their lives. That year saw the rise of IS across large swathes of the country and in neighbouring Iraq.

Since early 2011, an average of more than 40,000 people a year have been killed and mil-lions have been displaced from their homes in the war.

A man taking a selfie with pastry chefs in front of a bakery selling cakes in northern Syria’s Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli ahead of the New Year’s eve, yesterday.

Six kidnapped children shot dead after families fail to pay ransomsAFP — ADDIS ABABA

Six children who were kidnapped in northern Ethiopia have been shot dead by their captors after their families failed to come up with ransom money, a state-affil-iated media outlet reported yesterday.

Unidentified “bandits” abducted eight children near the Gondar zone of Amhara regional state on December 20 and demanded that their fam-ilies each pay ransom of 120,000 Ethiopian birr (around $3,700), the Amhara Mass Media Agency reported.

“Failing to secure the ransom money, the kid-nappers tied the children with ropes in pairs and shot the children on December 29,” the report said.

One of the children managed to break free of the rope and flee before the kid-nappers had a chance to shoot him, while another was found alive despite having been shot, it said. The victims were between the ages of 10 and 16.

Police have yet to determine who was behind the killings. Kidnappings and criminal banditry in general are common in Tegede locality, where the crime occurred, but the killing of kid-napped children is considered highly unusual.

Angola court freezes assets held by Africa’s richest womanBLOOMBERG — LUANDA

An Angolan court placed a freeze on assets held by Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman, including stakes in wireless operator Unitel SA and lenders Banco BIC and Banco de Fomento Angola, Diario de Noticias and Lusa reported, citing a statement from the Angolan Attorney- General’s office.

The court order also applies to dos Santos’s husband, Sindika Dokolo, and Mario da Silva. The Attorney- General sought the order, saying the three had engaged in transactions with state-owned companies that led to Angola’s government incurring losses of $1.14bn, according to the reports.

Dos Santos, the daughter of Jose Eduardo dos Santos who served as Angola’s pres-ident from 1979 to 2017, wrote on Twitter a “message of tran-quility and confidence to my teams,” without referring directly to the court action. “The road is long, the truth will prevail,” she said.

Parting Guinea-Bissau president urges stability in tearful speech

AFP — BISSAU

Guinea-Bissau’s outgoing president urged future leaders to guar-antee stability yesterday, in a tearful farewell speech made on the eve of a new president being declared in the unstable West African country.

Jose Mario Vaz, the incumbent, came to power in 2014 on hopes that he would restore normality after a coup two years prior. His rule has been pockmarked by paralysing spats with parliament, however, in a country with a chronic history of assas-sinations and coups.

“We will write a new page in the history of our democracy,” Vaz said during the televised speech, referring to the handover of power.

Guinea Bissau’s electoral commission is due to publish the results of the second round of the country’s presidential election on Wednesday morning.

Two former prime ministers who topped the first round are in the running: Domingos Simoes Pereira from the traditional ruling party, and opposition candidate Umaro Sissoco Embalo.

Vaz was knocked out in the first round after years of political gridlock triggered by his disputes with the parliament.

Speaking through tears at the end of his speech, the president urged “calm while waiting for the definitive results” and also hailed the army for keeping out of politics during his time in office.

He added that he wanted to maintain a “new era of liberty” achieved under his watch, pointing to a strengthening of freedom of expression and a decline in political violence.

Guinea-Bissau gained independence from Portugal in 1974, but has suffered a string of military coups, attempted coups and political assassinations ever since.

A small impoverished country of 1.8 million people, Latin American drug runners have exploited the instability to make Guinea-Bissau a hub along the cocaine-smuggling route to Europe.

Senior military and government figures have been implicated in the trade.

Turkey’s presidency on Monday submitted a motion to the Parliament Speaker’s Office on sending troops to Libya. The parliament is set to debate the motion tomorrow.

12 WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020ASIA

Kerala Assembly passes resolution for scrapping of new citizenship lawIANS — THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The Kerala Assembly yesterday passed a resolution demanding the scrapping of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), amid the countrywide protests against the legislation.

The ruling CPI(M)-LDF and the opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) supported the resolution, while the BJP’s lone MLA and former union minister O Rajagopal’s was the only dissenting voice in the one-day special session.

The House adopted the res-olution moved by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

On the last day of the year, it was a rare moment when the traditional political rivals, the Left Front and the UDF, joined hands to pass the resolution.

The day’s special session had been convened to discuss the CAA.

In the 140-member Kerala Assembly, the BJP has one legislator.

Opening the debate was Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who pointed out that the entire country was shocked and pro-tests were every where against the CAA.

“The world is in aston-ishment when it read through the intricacies of the CAA, where religion has been the benchmark of this division. And seeing this, the Indian diaspora

is in a state of shock. There will be no detention centres in Kerala. India is known for its secularism and that has come under duress. Under no circum-stances can this CAA go forward and hence should be with-drawn,” said Vijayan.

Expressing his strong dissent against the resolution taken up by Vijayan, Rajagopal said that what was happening on the floor of the Assembly was unconstitutional.

“How is it possible for this legislature to pass a resolution against a law, that is the CAA that has already become a law, after going through all the pro-cedures. All this is now being created by a party which in the past had divided the country based on religion. So, this is nothing but to score political brownie points and nothing else,” said Rajagopal.

Leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala pointed out that the CAA has now become the biggest challenge

before the country since Independence.

“India did not surface one fine morning, instead it evolved over years and years of hard work and see what has taken place now. The Constitution is one which was carefully pre-pared. The Indian Citizenship Act came into effect in 1955 and since then six times it underwent changes, but not once was anything done in the name of religion. Now see, in one stroke everything is in

shambles and the country is being sliced and hence this should go,” said Chennithala.

Seven time legislator PC George, who heads Kerala Jan-apaksham, who briefly hob-nobbed with the BJP-led NDA and has since left them, expressed his displeasure in what he termed as “the weak protests by the traditional rival political fronts”.

“I would suggest that the protests against the CAA should be stepped up and the need of

the hour is about five lakh people should sit in protest before the Accountant General’s office here for 10 days so the world takes notice. Meek and mild protests won’t suffice as this is a deadly one and it should be forced to be repealed,” said George.

Incidentally, Kerala was one of the first state to organise a protest when the ruling and the opposition joined hands to stage a four-hour protest, early this month to oppose the CAA.

Demonstrators listening to a speaker during a protest, in New Delhi, yesterday.

Nepalese celebrate New Year

Left out, some MLAs sore after Maharashtra Cabinet expansionIANS — MUMBAI

A day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackery expanded his Cabinet to its full strength, discontent appeared to be brewing among sections of the Maha Vikas Aghadi allies, here yesterday.

Several senior leaders and legislators of Shiv Sena-Nation-alist Congress Party-Congress, who feel left out of the cabinet, have been making disgruntled sounds and at least one has threatened to quit as MLA.

While NCP’s four-time MLA Prakash Solanke from Majalgaon in Beed threatened to quit his seat late on Monday night, claiming he was disgusted with politics and would only concen-trate on social work henceforth.

When contacted, a NCP spokesperson said the party has no such indication from Solanke so far, and said there may be some issues which could be sorted out with discussions.

Similarly, angry supporters of Congress MLA from Solapur City Central Praniti (Sushil-kumar) Shinde also threatened to resign from the party.

However, an unruffled Praniti has assured that she would speak to them and request not to quit and all of them would continue to work for the party as before.

Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut — who played a monumental role in delivering the MVA government — were allegedly sulking as his two-term MLA brother from Mumbai Sunil Raut was not made a minister.

However, both the brothers late on Monday dismissed all media speculation and said there was nothing amiss, and that the party was above any post.

Several senior Sena men like Ramdas Kadam, Ravindra Waikar, Diwakar Raote, Deepak Kesarkar and Tanaji Sawant — all ex-ministers were also dropped this time.

Sanjay Raut attributed this to the limited choices before the party and its inclination to give chance to new and younger faces in the government.

“During cabinet expansion, there are many aspirants and there is also some discontent,” said Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on a sympathetic note.

Other smaller allies like Swa-bhiman Shetkari Sanghatana were also upset that they had been overlooked for at least one ministerial post by the bigger MVA partners.

A Sena leader on Monday said that there was no need for any of the MVA legislators to panic if they have missed a chance to join the state cabinet.

“There are many other opportunities to serve in the gov-ernment, including 75 major state corporations and other important bodies where they could be accommodated, many coming with even ministerial status,” said the leader, requesting anonymity.

Abducted Lankan journalist’s wife says military derailing caseAP — COLOMBO

The wife of an abducted Sri Lankan journalist is accusing the military of trying to derail a court case in which nine soldiers have been charged with her husband’s abduction and enforced disappearance nearly 10 years ago.

Sandya Ekneligoda, who has struggled for years to seek justice for her abducted husband, Prageeth Ekneligoda, said some officers serving in the military intelligence “are trying to destroy evidence and intim-idate the witnesses.” Prageeth went missing in 2010 during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the brother of current President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Prageeth, an analyst and cartoonist, wrote against alleged corruption, nepotism and Rajapaksa’s conduct during a military campaign against ethnic Tamil rebels in ending Sri Lanka’s long civil war.

The case did not make much headway until Rajapaksa was defeated in the 2015 pres-idential election and a newly elected government initiated fresh inquiries.

The Rajapaksa brothers were returned to power again with the victory of Gotabaya Rajapaksa in last month’s pres-idential election. They had been critical of investigations of mil-itary personnel for alleged crimes against journalists.

PMK demands dual citizenship for Lankan Tamil refugeesIANS — CHENNAI

The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) general council yesterday demanded that the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees living in India should be allowed dual citizenship and the government should sign an agreement with the Lankan government in this regard.

According to the PMK, there is a demand in Tamil Nadu that the Lankan Tamils be given Indian citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

Pointing to the Lankan Tamils’ fears that they would lose their Lankan citizenship if they acquired citizenship of some other nation, the PMK said they could be accorded dual citizenship.

The PMK said the Lankan

Tamils living in Canada and Europe have not acquired cit-izenship there, fearing loss of their native citizenship.

According to the PMK, a decision should be taken on the kind of citizenship that Lankan Tamils should be given after ascertaining their wishes.

It said India should enter into an agreement with Lanka to allow them to live in India with dignity.

The PMK also said the National Register of Citizens (NRC) should not be imple-mented in Tamil Nadu as it didn’t share borders with any other country and the Lankan Tamils come here as refugees.

Also, the NRC would create unnecessary tension and fear amongst the people in Tamil Nadu.

Thousands ring in New Year with protests against citizenship lawREUTERS — NEW DELHI

Thousands of Indians are set to ring in the New Year by holding protests against a citizenship law, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempts to dampen demonstrations that have run for nearly three weeks.

India has been rocked by the protests since Dec. 12, when the government passed legis-lation easing the way for non-Muslim minorities from the neighbouring Muslim-majority nations of Afghanistan,

Bangladesh and Pakistan to gain Indian citizenship.

Combined with opposition to a proposed national register of citizens, many Indians fear the move will discriminate against the minority Muslim community and chip away at the country’s secular constitution.

Protesters plan at least three demonstrations in New Delhi, the capital, including the area of Shaheen Bagh, where hun-dreds of residents have blocked a major highway for 18 days.

Poetry recitals and speeches are planned by organisers at a protest outside New Delhi’s Jamia Millia University, which was stormed by police this month.

“New Year’s resolution to defend the constitution,” read the schedule for another protest planned in New Delhi, now in the grip of its second coldest winter in more than a century.

Police said they planned to deploy additional forces in New Delhi on New Year’s Eve, with traffic curbs imposed in some

parts of the capital. “All precau-tionary measures are in place,” said police official Chinmoy Biswal, who oversees the south-eastern part of the city that includes Shaheen Bagh and Jamia Millia University.

“Recently, there have been no incidents. So we hope things will remain fine,” he told Reuters.

In the southern city of Hyderabad, at least two small groups of demonstrators have been organising flash protests, to skirt police restrictions on

larger gatherings. Typically, half a dozen demonstrators pop up in public places, such as malls and coffee shops, holding up placards and encouraging passersby to join in, a member of one of the groups, which has held 11 pro-tests, told Reuters.

“Everyday, we are doing something, somewhere,” said the person, who sought ano-nymity for reasons of security, adding that another protest is planned to be staged on Tuesday night.

Rawat to wear olive green uniform as CDSIANS — NEW DELHI

General Bipin Rawat, who will take charge as the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff today, will wear a new uniform specifically designed for the newly-created post.

The colour of the uniform will remain olive green but it will have all components of the three services’ uniforms.

“The colour of CDS uniform will represent the parent service,” said a senior Ministry of Defence official.

The insignia has two crossed swords, an eagle and an anchor and above it stands an Ashok symbol.

The cap of the Chief of Defence Staff will be different with badges and accomplish-ments to represent the three services.

In place of baton on the shoulder to signify the ranks, there will be a maroon patch with anchor, sword and eagle representing all three services.

Amaravati farmers write to President, seek mercy killingIANS — AMARAVATI

Distressed over Andhra Pradesh government’s three-capital move, farmers of Amaravati yesterday wrote a letter to President of India Ramnath Kovind, seeking ‘mercy killing’.

The farmers, who have been protesting for last two weeks, wrote to the President that they were betrayed on the issue of state capital and if justice can’t be ensured to them they be allowed to kill themselves.

They said Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s decision to have three state capital has thrown them on to the roads.

“There is nobody to hear our voice and police are even booking attempt to murder cases against us,” they wrote.

The farmers alleged that after coming to power Jagan Mohan Reddy changed his stand on the state capital.

They said the decision of YSR Congress Party gov-ernment has put a question

mark on the future of their children. They said though they had been staging protest for 14 days, no one was bothered about their plight.

They also complained that those questioning YSRCP leaders were being targeted.

Farmers of 29 villages, who had given 33,000 acres of land for building state capital in Amaravati in 2015, have been staging protests ever since Jagan Mohan Reddy mooted the idea of three capitals.

An experts’ committee rec-ommended to the government to develop Visakhapatnam as administrative capital and Kurnool as judicial capital while keeping only Assembly and Raj Bhavan in Amaravati.

The government on Sunday set up a high-power committee to study the report of experts’ panel and submit a report in three weeks.

It said a final decision on decentralised development of the state would be taken after receipt of the report.

The ruling CPI(M)-LDF and the opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front supported the resolution, while the BJP’s lone MLA and former union minister O Rajagopal’s was the only dissenting voice in the one-day special session.

The members of the indigenous Gurung community wearing traditional attire taking part in a New Year celebration ceremony known as ‘Tamu Lhosar’ in Kathmandu, yesterday.

13WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020 ASIA

Terror-related fatalities down by 31% in Pakistan: ReportINTERNEWS — ISLAMABAD

Pakistan witnessed a nearly 31 percent reduction in terror and counterterrorism-related fatal-ities in 2019, according to data released by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).

According to the research, only two militant outfits Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) splinter groups and the militant Islamic State (IS) group claimed respon-sibility for 12 and one attacks, respectively, but their own ranks depleted by nearly 30 percent.

Civilian fatalities declined by about 36 percent.

The report observed a 30.71 percent drop in fatalities in 2019 (from 980 in 2018 to 679 in 2019). If Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the former Federally Admin-istered Tribal Areas (Fata) are counted as separate regions, Balochistan still remains most affected by militancy and insurgency.

The largest drop in fatalities was observed in Balochistan (44.2 percent), followed by Fata (39 percent), Sindh (19 percent), and Punjab (11.8 percent). Nearly 370

terrorist attacks were reported in the country in 2019 that left 518 persons dead. It is a 30 percent drop from the 739 fatalities from the nearly 400 terrorist attacks in 2018. Suicide attacks also declined significantly this year, dropping from 26 in 2018 to nine this year.

These attacks also resulted in the loss of life of 295 indi-viduals in 2018, but dropped to 56 persons in 2019.

Although civilians were the most terrorism-affected group, the overall civilian fatalities declined by about 36 percent,

the report said. Government and security officials’ fatalities dropped by 19 percent, while the militants and insurgents had a 30 percent drop in their fatalities.

In 2019, no drone attack was reported as compared to four such attacks in last year resulting in death of 13 suspected mili-tants. This is quite significant, as this marks the first year since 2004 that there have been no drone strikes (as of December 30, 2019), the CRSS said. One of the causes in bringing militancy under control was the

apprehension of the outlaws belonging to various banned outfits during this year.Of the 141 suspected militants arrested, 32 were from the banned TTP, 11 from the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, three from Al Qaeda in the Indian Sub-Continent (AQIS), four from the IS, two from the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and five from the Baloch Republican Army (BRA).

Besides, 24 suspected mili-tants belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad and two from Jamaatud Dawa were also arrested, the CRSS noted.

Youth play a game of snooker at a hall in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Lifestyle of Afghan youth

Pakistan provinces agree on uniform standards for packaged food

INTERNEWS — ISLAMABAD

The provinces in Pakistan have finally agreed over the establishment of uniform standards for food and other consumer items across the country with the condition that enforcement will be the responsibility of respective provincial authorities.

The decision was taken at the Council of Common Interests (CCI) recently.

All provinces agreed to have a uniform standard of food and other consumer products, set by the Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), an attached department of the Ministry of Science and Tech-nology (MoST).

Meanwhile, the federal government has agreed to give up the power of enforcement and monitoring of standards allowing the provincial government and food authorities to implement the standards.

An official of the MoST said further discussions will be held at the CCI to discuss the criteria and terms for enforcement of the standard in its next meeting.

A f t e r t h e 1 8 t h Amendment, provinces — mainly Punjab — initiated the process of formulating their own quality standards by not accepting the role of PSQCA as the sole body for regis-tering, monitoring and imple-menting consumer items.

However, it has been decided that PSQCA would continue to formulate or adopt standard for consumer items and the provinces and their respective food author-ities will enforce them.

There were serious com-plaints from various sectors due to several food standards in the countries as ghee and oil manufacturing industry, dairy industry, packed spices industry and other food processing industries are cur-rently facing supply risks due to absence of harmonised standards across the country.

However, the Ministry of Law, which was looking into the matter, had sent the issue to the CCI though there was absence of consensus for the past two years.

Pakistan’s SC moved against new accountability ordinanceINTERNEWS — ISLAMABAD

After the Lahore High Court, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has been moved against the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2019, on the grounds that it creates an exception by giving relief to civil servants and businessmen.

Journalist Farrukh Nawaz Bhatti filed a petition through Advocate Dr GM Chaudhry requesting the court to suspend the operation of the new ordi-nance till the final disposal of the petition.

On December 26, the gov-ernment had provided relief to the businessmen and bureau-crats by promulgating an ordi-nance to amendment the National Accountability Ordi-nance, 1999.

The new ordinance, the petition argued, allows the public and civil servants to allegedly run the affairs of state according to their whims as the law pro-vides a blanket authority to violate the procedures under the pretext of good faith.

The petition says that it may be argued for the sake of defence there are only a few provisions of the ordinance which were ultra vires of the Constitution whereas some were within it.

But it is difficult to separate such provisions from this ordi-nance as these were vitiating the entire legislative scheme of the ordinance thus making it impos-sible judicial scrutiny and review under Article 8 of the Consti-tution to separate bad parts from the good parts.

The petitioner pleaded that in the interest of justice, equality,

rule of law, due process of law and procedure, end of exploi-tation and discrimination, the ordinance should be declared as ultra vires of the Constitution and void initio.

He has also sought a direction from the apex court for the federal government to dis-charge its constitutional and leg-islative responsibility under Article 212(1)(b) of the Consti-tution regarding enactment of the law.

The petitioner argued that the new ordinance is in violation of different provisions of the fun-damental rights guaranteed in the Constitution against the elim-ination of exploitation provided in Article 3 and also against the rule of law and procedure as contained in Article 4.

He alleged that the new ordi-nance was aimed at dividing the general public and society on “economic class basis”, against the principles of democracy, non-exploitation, non-discrim-ination and “public power and executive authority” as a sacred trust.

When the entire world is having strict regulatory regimes to check and control illegal and exploitative activities of the busi-nessmen who only have loyalty to their businesses, commercial profits and gains the new ordi-nance has done otherwise.

The petition has contended that the federal government, instead of discharging its legis-lative responsibility under Article 212(1)(b) of the Constitution, has failed to perform its constitu-tional duty and going to insulate and save the executive and its collaborators.

People light a fire in a street to warm themselves up on a winter night in Dhaka, Bangladesh, yesterday.

Warming up

Pakistan govt mulls introducing law to curb money laundering INTERNEWS — ISLAMABAD

The government of Pakistan is mulling over options to prom-ulgate another presidential ordinance for introducing heavy penalties against ‘cash couriers’ for the purpose of money laundering/terror financing in a bid to comply with the FATF requirements.

This presidential ordinance will also cover penalties for non-compliance as the FBR plans to impose penalty against those big retailers, restaurants and shopping malls who would refuse to install software known as Point of Sale (POS) at their premises.

“The upcoming ordinance will also include clauses related to government-FBR agreement on different points where they struck agreement in October 2019,” top official sources

confirmed. When contacted, FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi confirmed that the ordinance would be promulgated probably during this ongoing week for imposing penalties against cash couriers and making government-trader agreement effective.

The sources said the federal cabinet had granted its nod on the proposed presidential ordi-nance that is aimed at com-plying with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) require-ments and moving against non-compliant through imposition of penalties.

Pakistani authorities will have to submit replies on 150 questions/clarifications/ points raised by the joint group of FATF till January 8, 2020.

The face-to-face meeting of FATF is scheduled to take place from January 21 to 24 at

Beijing where Pakistani authorities would defend their report.

The final plenary meeting of FATF will be held in Feb-ruary 2020 in order to decide the fate of the country for falling into blacklist or moving from grey to green list or keeping the country on grey list for another extended period of June or September 2020.

The IMF in its latest staff report stated that also, a potential blacklisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) could result in freeze of capital flows and lower investment to Pakistan.

Finally, the global eco-nomic backdrop poses increasing headwinds and weaker than expected activity may affect growth and current account deficit projections.

Hike in fuel prices proposed in PakistanINTERNEWS — ISLAMABAD

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) in Pakistan has worked out minor adjustments in the costs of various imported petroleum products in the range of 1.8 percent to a maximum 3.2 percent for January 2020.

The Finance Division will make the final decision on Tuesday whether to keep the petroleum products prices unchanged largely as a good gesture of the New Year or pass on the raise to end consumers.

The Ogra has worked an increase of Rs2.61 or 2.3 percent in the per litre petrol price. In

case, government approves the increase, consumer price of petrol will go up to Rs116.6 per litre from the existing Rs113.99 per litre.

Most of the vehicles espe-cially passengers are consuming petrol as fuel. Therefore, increase in the price will lead to increase in the transport fares across the country. The consumption of petrol as fuel also increased fol-lowing massive shortfall in CNG availability.

Moreover, Ogra recommends an increase of Rs2.25 or 1.8 percent per litre prices of high-speed diesel (HSD), which is mainly used in transport and

agriculture sectors. With the maximum increase, the HSD price will go to Rs127.26 per litre from the current Rs125.01 per litre.

The increase will lead to increase in the higher input cost of agriculture products as well as increase in fares of goods transports. The government is already providing subsidy on lower tariff to tube wells used for agriculture purposes in Baluchistan.

The regulator proposed highest increase of Rs3.10 or 3.2 percent in the price of kerosene oil for the month of January 2020.

Bangladesh shuts mobile network along India borderAFP — DHAKA

Bangladesh has cut services to millions of mobile phones along its border with India for “security” reasons amid fears a new citizenship law passed by its giant neighbour could prompt an influx of migrants.

The country’s telecom reg-ulator ordered the mobile shutdown late Monday along a one-kilometre (0.6-mile) band along the Indian frontier, the watchdog’s spokesman Sohel Rana said.

The directive was issued

“for the sake of the country’s security in the current circum-stances,” the spokesman said.

Bangladesh shares a 4,000-kilometre border with India and the shutdown would affect some 10 million mobile phone users, according to a top official from one operator.

“A large number of people in the border area will be without internet, voice and other mobile services,” said SM Farhad, a spokesman for an industry association of local telecom operators.

Officials from the

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission said that the move was prompted by fears of fallout from India’s new Citizenship Amendment Act, which accords rights to refugee migrants from neighbouring countries but excludes Muslims.

“We are worried that India’s current condition may prompt many people to enter Bang-ladesh,” said a BTRC official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

At least 350 people had been arrested as they entered western border district of

Jhenidah from India’s West Bengal state in the last two months, an official said, adding they were mostly Bangladeshi Muslims who went to India illegally.

Local border guard com-mander Kamrul Ahsan said the number of people entering Bangladesh from India had risen dramatically as a result of the citizenship law.

Two weeks of protests over the law in India have seen at least 27 people killed and hun-dreds injured after clashes between police and protesters.

The earlier exclusion of nearly two million people from a new list of citizens in India’s Assam state has already triggered fears of deportations to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has said attempts to deport people from India had been thwarted by border guards in recent weeks.

Media reports said hun-dreds of people who have recently entered Bangladesh from India have been detained by border guards.

The largest drop in fatalities was observed in Balochistan (44.2 %), followed by Fata (39 %), Sindh (19 %), and Punjab (11.8 %. Nearly 370 terrorist attacks were reported during 2019 that left 518 persons dead.

14 WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020ASIA

Dangerous bush fires trap thousands on Australian beachesREUTERS — MELBOURNE/SYDNEY

Thousands swarmed to beaches on Australia’s east coast yesterday to escape fierce wild-fires bearing down on several seaside towns, as the government readied naval vessels and military helicopters to aid fire fighting and evacua-tions.

Government officials called for Australian military support and assistance from US and Canadian fire crews as author-ities confirmed two people had died overnight, taking to 11 the total deaths in wildfires since the beginning of October.

The huge bush fires have destroyed more than 4 million hectares (10 million acres), with new blazes sparked into life almost daily by extremely hot and windy conditions in bushland left tinder dry after a three-year drought.

Fuelled by searing temper-atures and high winds, more than 200 fires are now burning across the southeastern states of New South Wales and Vic-toria, threatening several towns and snapping their power, mobile and Internet links.

“This is absolutely one of the worst fire seasons we’ve seen,” S h a n e F i t z s i m m o n s ,

commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service, told a briefing in Sydney.

“It’s going to be a very long, difficult dangerous night still ahead. It’s going to be another difficult day again tomorrow.”

Authorities said the main firefront was moving up the coast and warned those in its path to seek shelter close to the beach.

About 4,000 people in the town of Mallacoota in Victoria headed to the waterfront after the main road was cut off. Those who could not make it there scrambled for shelter in a gym-nasium and other public buildings, as emergency sirens wailed.

Some of those trapped in the town posted images of blood-red, smoke-filled skies on social media. One beachfront photo-graph showed people lying shoulder-to-shoulder on the sand, some wearing gas masks.

Fisherman Steve Casement said he had lost his house in Mallacoota to the fires.

“We are stuck here now,” he said. “Everyone is pretty shocked at the moment, most of my mates are in the same position. “Right now, I am on a trailer watching the town burn down, listening to gas bottles explode at some poor bugger’s home and seeing smoke all around me.” Authorities said that by late afternoon the worst danger had passed.

Several hundreds of kilo-metres north, the Jervis Bay tourist spot famed for having the whitest sand beach in the world, was shrouded in darkness in the afternoon as massive fires burned, with con-ditions expected to worsen.

The blazes were also gen-erating their own weather pat-terns, with erratic winds, dry lightning and a significantly faster spread in different

direction, fire authorities said.The fires have been spread

across four states, with fronts stretching hundreds of kilo-metres in some cases, affecting many towns and rural areas.

The two people who died overnight were believed to have been a father and son protecting

their property near the town of Cobargo in New South Wales, police said, with a third missing, feared dead, while in Victoria, four more were unaccounted for. Bush fires burned on the outskirts of Sydney, cloaking the harbour city in smoke.

Authorities said the

fireworks would go ahead, despite some public calls for cancellation in solidarity with fire-hit areas in the state.

“Many of us have mixed feelings about this evening, but the important thing we take out of this is that we’re a resilient state,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

The remains of burnt out buildings are seen along main street in the New South Wales town of Cobargo yesterday, after bush fires ravaged the town.

China’s Xi urges Hong Kong stability in New Year’s addressAP — BEIJING

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for Hong Kong to return to stability following months of pro-democracy protests.

In a New Year’s address last evening, Xi said a peaceful, har-monious environment was key to the Asian financial hub’s prosperity.

“Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability is the wish of Hong Kong compatriots and the expectation for the people of the motherland,” Xi said in the tel-evised address.

The protests broke out in June over proposed legislation that could have extradited sus-pects in Hong Kong to face trials in mainland China.

Though the legislation was withdrawn, the protests have continued with demands for democratic reforms and an investigation into alleged abuses by police against pro-testers. The often violent dis-turbances have sent Hong Kong’s economy into recession and tarnished the city’s

reputation as one of the world’s safest.

The former British colony was handed over to Chinese rule in 1997 with a promise it could retain its own capitalist economy, legal system and civil liberties.

Xi also reiterated China’s rigid opposition to inde-pendence for Taiwan, the self-governing island republic that Beijing claims as its own ter-ritory. Taiwan will hold elec-tions for its president and leg-islature on January 11, with independence-leaning leader Tsai Ing-wen expected to win a second term.

In his speech, Xi dwelt heavily on economic topics, saying that China’s gross domestic product in 2019 was on track to near 100 trillion yuan ($14.37 trillion), while per capita GDP was likely to reach $10,000.

The coming year will be decisive in China’s battle to alle-viate poverty for rural residents, Xi said. In 2019, around 10 million people were lifted out

of poverty, he said.Meanwhile, Hong Kong

Chief Executive yesterday said the months of pro-democracy protests in the city have brought “sadness, anxiety, disap-pointment and even rage”.

In a News Year’s address, Carrie Lam said that 2019

brought “challenges not seen before,” and that she would “listen humbly” to help bring an end to the protests, which have featured pitched battles between demonstrators and police.

However, Lam also rein-forced the importance of the

“one country, two systems” framework under which the former British colony has been ruled by Beijing since 1997.

“We all want to see an end to this predicament,” Lam said. “The situation has caused sadness, anxiety, disap-pointment and even rage.”

Police conduct a stop and search at a shopping mall in Hong Kong, yesterday.

Death toll from Philippines typhoon hits 50AFP — MANILA

The number of people killed by a powerful storm that pummelled the central Philip-pines over Christmas has risen to 50, authorities said yesterday, making it the nation’s deadliest storm of 2019.

Typhoon Phanfone’s destructive winds and heavy rains brought down flimsy homes and destroyed com-mercial buildings mainly in the central island of Visayas, affecting more than two million people.

At least 80,000 remain in emergency shelters and might have to stay until the New Year, given the scale of destruction.

“We’re sad that some of our countrymen are still in evacuation centres, but we assure them they will continue to receive support until they get back on their feet,” national disaster agency spokesman Mark Timbal said.

South Korea indicts former justice minister for fraud, graftREUTERS — SEOUL

South Korean prosecutors indicted former Justice Minister Cho Kuk yesterday on a dozen charges including bribery, two months after he resigned over a scandal involving family investment and university admissions for his children.

The accusations are a setback for President Moon Jae-in after the liberal leader named Cho, a former top aide, to the cabinet post to lead reform of the prosecutors’ office, which critics saw as being susceptible to political

pressure. The Seoul Central Dis-trict Prosecutors’ Office indicted Cho and his wife yesterday morning over family investment and use of their position to gain the admissions for the children, it said in a statement.

Cho faces a dozen charges, ranging from bribery and doc-ument fraud to manipulation of evidence and violations of public service ethics law, it added.

Together with his wife, Chung Kyung-shim, he is being prosecuted for falsifying docu-ments regarding family invest-ments and efforts to gain uni-

versity admissions.Cho will remain free as he

stands trial. Chung, who is also a university professor, was arrested in October on the same charges.

Cho’s lawyer, Kim Chil-joon, did not immediately respond to telephone calls or a text message to seek comment.

The Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying the pros-ecutors had handed down “a political indictment based on their imagination and fiction”.

Moon’s office called the investigation result “meagre” and said it would deepen

people’s distrust of the prosecutors.

“The investigation shook the president’s authority,” said Yoon Do-han, Moon’s press secretary.

“The result raised questions about the intent of the investigation.”

Cho’s resignation and indictment were a spectacular downfall for the former star legal scholar known for pro-gressive thinking who was one of Moon’s closest political allies and viewed by some as a potent ia l pres ident ia l successor.

Moon came to power in 2017, promising to clean up cor-ruption after weeks of large street protests led to the impeachment of predecessor Park Geun-hye.

Cho stepped down in October after just one month in office, saying the graft scandal around his family had become a political burden for Moon’s government.

His appointment was fol-lowed by street protests for and against the president on a scale not seen since 2017, hitting Moon’s public support ratings.

Participants attending the 5th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea.

North Korea’s Kim calls for ‘military countermeasures’AFP — SEOUL

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for “diplomatic and military countermeasures”, state media said yesterday, ahead of a year-end deadline for Washington to change its stance on stalled nuclear talks with Pyongyang.

His latest comments, made during a meeting of top ruling party officials in Pyongyang on Monday, came ahead of his set-piece New Year speech that could flesh out a threat to seek a “new way” forward after the expiration of the year-end deadline.

He spoke for seven hours during the ruling Workers’ Party meeting, the North’s official KCNA news agency said in a report released yesterday, calling for measures to rebuild its economy and “diplomatic and military countermeasures for firmly preserving the sovereignty and security” of the nation.

The party meeting will continue to review an unspecified “important document”, it added.

Talks on denuclearising the Korean peninsula have been largely deadlocked since the second summit between Kim and US Pres-ident Donald Trump collapsed in Hanoi at the start of this year.

Pyongyang has demanded the easing of international sanctions imposed over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, while Washington insists it takes more tangible steps towards giving them up.

Indonesia files protest over Chinese vessel trespassingANATOLIA — JAKARTA

Indonesia issued a protest against China over violations of its territory by a Chinese coastguard vessel around the disputed Natuna waters, said the country’s Foreign Ministry.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press statement that it had sum-moned the Chinese envoy to Jakarta and filed a protest.

It reiterated that the country does not have over-lapping jurisdiction with China. “Indonesia will never recognise the 9 PRC [People’s Republic of China] dash lines as the drawdown is contrary to UNCLOS [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea] as decided by the 2016 UNCLOS Ruling Tribunal,” it added.

The ministry said that it will continue to coordinate closely with the National Army, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, and the Maritime Security Agency to ensure the law enforcement in Indonesia’s exclusive eco-nomic zone. Natuna waters is located in the southern part of the South China Sea.

China claims nearly all of the 3.5-million-square-kilo-metre South China Sea, overlaps with the maritime claims from Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei.

Fuelled by searing temperatures and high winds, more than 200 fires are now burning across the southeastern states of New South Wales and Victoria, threatening several towns and snapping their power, mobile and Internet links.

15WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020 EUROPE

Musicians of the Paris Opera play during a protest outside the Opera Bastille in Paris, yesterday.

Paris orchestra wails at pension reform plansREUTERS — PARIS

The French capital’s Opera Bastille has been silent for nearly a month because its orchestra is on strike, but yesterday the musicians performed on the steps of the opera house to bring attention to their anger at planned pension reforms.

The orchestra’s string section, out on strike as part of a nationwide protest against the pension plans, performed pieces including Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite next to a banner reading “Paris Opera on strike”.

The national strike action has crippled public transport, and curtailed lessons in state

schools, casting a pall over the holiday period for many French people.

Explaining the thinking behind the outdoor concert, Christophe Grindel, a union representative who works for the opera, said: “It’s our chance to bring in a little touch of pos-itivity, and to show our job is to play music.”

“We’re really unhappy to be on strike for nearly a month and to have cancelled 45 shows.”

He said he wanted the gov-ernment to sit down with unions and reconsider.

Performances washed out because of the strike include the ballet Raymonda, made famous by Russian dancer

Rudolf Nureyev, and the opera Lear, based on William Shake-speare’s King Lear.

F r e n c h P r e s i d e n t Emmanuel Macron wants to replace France’s tangle of mul-tiple state pension systems with a single, points-based mechanism. He says that would be fairer and more financially sustainable.

Unions say the plan would force staff at some state-owned enterprises, who enjoy special privileges, to work longer or else put up with smaller pensions.

Ballerinas in white tutus danced scenes from Swan Lake on the forecourt of the Paris Opera last week to protest against Macron’s plans.

Russia and Ukraine finalise gas transit deal just before deadlineAFP — KIEV

Moscow and Kiev yesterday signed a five-year agreement on the transit of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine, finalising months of difficult talks just ahead of a New Year deadline.

The current deal between the two ex-Soviet countries expired yesterday and ties between them have been shredded since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and supported a separatist insur-gency in eastern Ukraine.

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy dis-cussed the deal by phone and congratulated each other ahead of New Year’s celebrations, a sign that their relations could be on the mend.

The gas deal “creates a pos-itive atmosphere for solving other bilateral problems,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

About 18 percent of the European Union’s annual natural gas consumption comes from Russia via Ukraine, which put pressure on EU officials to help broker the deal.

“Ukraine has signed a five-year transit contract,” Zelenskiy announced in a late-night post on his Facebook page, nearly two weeks after a provisional deal was reached.

A wide range of documents and contracts were involved, and together formed “a package deal which has re-established the balance of interests,” Alexei Miller, the boss of Russian gas giant Gazprom, was cited as

saying in a statement.The documents were signed

after five days of non-stop talks.Gazprom is expected to ship

at least 65 billion cubic meters (2.3 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas via Ukraine next year, and at least 40 billion per year from 2021 to 2024, said Zelenskiy, from which Kiev would earn “more than seven billion dollars”.

The agreement should prevent a repeat of so-called gas wars that previously dis-rupted supplies and in some years caused real energy problems in EU member states.

EU Commission vice-pres-ident in charge of energy, Maros Sevcovic, called the deal “great news for Europe’s energy security” on Twitter, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel thanked Russia and Ukraine.

“Continued gas transit via Ukraine... is a good and important signal for ensuring our European security of gas supply,” she said.

Last year, Gazprom sup-plied Europe with 200.8 billion

cubic metres of natural gas, about 40 percent of which passed through Ukraine for roughly three billion dollars in transit fees.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that Moscow wanted to keep some gas flowing through Ukraine, despite having built several pipelines to Europe since the current deal was agreed a decade ago.

The new agreement comes days after Gazprom paid $2.9bn to Ukraine’s Naftogaz to settle a long-running dispute over transit fees that had blocked the deal. Meanwhile, Russia is pur-suing work on the Nord Stream 2 project that is to be completed by the end of next year and would double gas shipments to Germany.

The United States has long opposed the ¤9.5bn ($10.6bn) project and the US Senate voted last week to levy sanctions on companies working on it.

Washington believes the pipeline will give Russia too much influence over security and economic issues in western Europe.

Transit problems for Russian gas began after the fall of the Soviet Union when inde-pendent Ukraine took control of the pipeline infrastructure.

Several crises followed, with Russia using gas supplies to put pressure on Ukraine by cutting them repeatedly in 1992, 1993 and 1994.

The last gas crisis disrupted supplies to Europe in 2010.

Merkel urges climate action in New Year's messageAP — BERLIN

Chancellor Angela Merkel is telling Germans in her New Year message that “everything humanly possible” must be done to tackle climate change.

Merkel said that there is good reason to be confident about the 2020s in her annual televised message, the text of which was released ahead of its broadcast yesterday. But she pointed to challenges such as the effect of digitisation on peo-ple’s jobs and, above all, climate change.

“The warming of our Earth is real. It is threatening. It and the crises arising from global warming were caused by humans,” she said. “So we must do everything humanly possible to deal with this challenge for humanity. That is still possible.”

Merkel said that was the principle behind a recently agreed German package of measures aimed at addressing climate change, which include a carbon dioxide pricing system for the transport and heating sectors and lowering

value-added tax on long-dis-tance rail tickets.

She acknowledged criticism both from people who are worried about being overbur-dened by the measures and from those who think they don’t go far enough, but said they provide the “necessary framework.”

“It’s true that, at 65, I am at an age where I personally won’t

experience all the consequences of climate change that would arise if politicians didn’t act,” she said.

“It is our children and grandchildren who will have to live with the consequences of what we do or don’t do today,” Merkel added.

“So I am putting all my energy into Germany making its contribution — ecologically,

economically, socially — to getting a grip on climate change.”

That is also a priority of the European Union’s new exec-utive Commission, headed by Ursula von der Leyen, a former German defense minister. Germany will hold the EU’s rotating presidency in the second half of 2020.

“Europe must raise its voice more strongly in the world,” Merkel said, pledging to work for that during the EU presi-dency. She pointed to planned meetings with Chinese and African leaders.

Merkel, Germany’s leader since 2005, has said that her current fourth term as chan-cellor will be her last.

Unlike last year’s, this New Year message contained no ref-erence to infighting in the often-tense coalition gov-ernment of her centre-right Christian Democratic Union and the centre-left Social Democrats.

It remains uncertain whether the coalition will last until the end of the parlia-mentary term in 2021.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel giving New Year’s speech at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, on Monday.

Prince William launches prize for climate REUTERS — LONDON

Britain’s Prince William launched a multi-million pound prize yesterday to encourage the world’s greatest problem-solvers to find answers to Earth’s biggest environmental problems, saying the planet was now at a tipping point.

The Earthshot Prize, described in its publicity as the “most prestigious environ-mental prize in history”, will be awarded to five winners a year over the next decade with the aim of producing at least 50 solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.

“The earth is at a tipping point and we face a stark choice: either we continue as we are and irreparably damage our planet or we remember our unique power as human beings and our continual ability to lead, innovate and problem-solve,” William, 37, said in a statement.

“Remember the awe-inspiring civilisations that we have built, the life-saving tech-nology we have created, the fact that we have put a man on the moon,” he added. “People

can achieve great things. The next 10 years present us with one of our greatest tests — a decade of action to repair the Earth.”

The British royal family have for many years been vocal campaigners on a host of envi-ronmental issues, with Wil-liam’s father Prince Charles

speaking out for decades about the impact of climate change and the importance of conservation.

The Earthshot initiative aims to generate new technol-ogies, policies and solutions for issues of climate and energy, nature and biodiversity, oceans, air pollution and fresh water.

A file photo of Britain’s Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, visiting the Chiatibo glacier in the Hindu Kush mountain range in Chitral, Pakistan, on October 16, 2019.

Spain Parliament to debate PM´s bid to form governmentAFP — MADRID

Spain’s Parliament will on Saturday begin debating acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s bid to form a new government following a November general election which his Socialists won with fewer seats than in April, the assembly said.

Parliament speaker Mer-itxell Batet yesterday informed party representatives that the investiture debate will take place on January 4, 5 and 7, the assembly said in a text message to journalists.

Batet will make the formal call of the debate with details of the exact timings on January 2, it added.

Sanchez needs an absolute majority of at least 176 law-makers in the 350-seat par-liament to take office in a first vote which is expected to take place on January 5.

If he fails this first vote, a simple majority — more yes votes than no — is needed in a second vote that will be held 48 hours later on January 7.

Sanchez’s Socialists won 120 seats in a repeat general election on November 10 — three fewer than it won in April

— and it has signed an agreement to form a coalition government with hard-left party Podemos which won 35 seats.

The Socialists have also secured the backing of several other smaller formations including the Basque Nation-alist Party (PNV) but to be sworn in for another term they still need the backing of Catalan separatist party ERC, which won 13 seats in last month’s polls, Spain’s fourth general election in four years.

The ERC has said it is willing to abstain from voting, which would be enough to allow Sanchez to win the simple majority he needs in the second investiture vote, but the party will only make its final decision tomorrow.

Sanchez first became prime minister in 2018 when he removed his conservative predecessor Mariano Rajoy in a confidence vote.

After April’s general election he failed to get parlia-ment’s backing to form a gov-ernment because his talks with Podemos to form a coalition broke down, sparking the fresh polls.

Russia, Ukraine mulling new prisoner swapAFP — KIEV

Ukraine and Russia are working towards a new prisoner exchange, just two days after swapping 200 captives, Kiev said yesterday after leaders Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke on the phone.

The two countries “agreed to immediately start agreeing lists (of names) for freeing Ukrainians, including Crimeans, who are in Crimea and in Russia, as well as Rus-sians in Ukraine,” the Ukrainian presidency said in a statement.

The news comes after a massive exchange of prisoners on Sunday, with 12 Ukrainian soldiers and 64 civilians flown to Kiev.

Ukraine also handed over people in its custody to pro-Russian separatists, including five riot policemen suspected of shooting protesters during a pro-Western uprising in 2014.

UK had plans to make Russia ‘associate’ Nato memberANATOLIA — LONDON

The British government had a plan to make Russia an “asso-ciate” member of the Nato alliance before Vladimir Putin took over as president in 1999, British archives made public revealed yesterday.

The secret Ministry of Defence documents from 25 years ago revealed the plan, which was based on the coop-erative nature of Boris Yeltsin, Putin’s late predecessor.

The note outlined an opportunity to change the relationship with Russia after the end of the Cold War.

“A possible solution would be to create a new category of associate member of Nato,” then-Defence Secretary Malcolm Rifkind said in his proposal.

“Such a status could not involve article V [collective defence] guarantees, mem-bership of the IMS [Internal Military Staff] or Russian vetoes and would not therefore change the essence of Nato,” he wrote.

“It would, however, give Russia a formal status within Nato, allow it to attend, as of right, ministerial and other meetings and encourage a gradual convergence and har-monisation of policy, doctrine and practice.” Minutes from a Cabinet summit however also show that Ken Clarke, then-chancellor of the exchequer, “was cautious about expansion.”

Rifkind this week said the initiative was “pre-Putin.” He said: “We had Gorbachev and Yeltsin who were very coop-erative and they were genu-inely wanting to become closer to the west. Russia supported action against Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf war.

“They were unhappy about the enlargement of Nato, but didn’t make as much of a fuss about it as you’d expect … So I was trying to find a way to say could we support close coop-eration with Russia, hence my suggestion of it becoming an associate member.” The plans never found enough support to materialize in serious talks over the issue, but Russia was allowed to join in some Nato meetings to further cooper-ation with the country.

But in 2014, Russia’s annex-ation of Crimea ended its coop-eration with the alliance.

The agreement will prevent a repeat of so-called gas wars that previously disrupted supplies and caused real energy problems in EU member states.

16 WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020EUROPE

Putin urges unity in 20th anniversary New Year speechAFP — MOSCOW

President Vladimir Putin (pictured) called on Russians to unite for the sake of the coun-try’s future in a New Year’s address yesterday marking two decades since his ascent to power.

Appearing per longtime tra-dition outside the Kremlin for a message to be broadcast just before midnight, the 67-year-old leader spoke to Russians for the 16th time since Boris Yeltsin’s shock New Year’s res-ignation in 1999.

“We live in an eventful, dynamic and controversial time, but we must do everything to make sure Russia develops suc-cessfully,” Putin, wearing a black coat, said in the message posted in advance by state channel Rossiya 1.

“Only together can we solve the problems ahead for the country, for our society. Our unity is the foundation for accomplishing the highest of goals,” he said.

“Our personal plans and dreams are indivisible from

Russia’s. Its present and future depend on the efforts and con-tributions of each of us.”

Putin said he looked forward to celebrating the 75th anniversary of Russia’s World War II victory in 2020 and thanked veterans.

Moscow is planning to host

world leaders during festivities on May 9th, one of Russia’s biggest official holidays.

Asked for the Kremlin’s view on the parting year’s key accomplishments and failures, spokesman Dmitry Peskov con-ceded that Russians are strug-gling economically, but praised the economy’s “stability”.

An address to the nation from leaders in Moscow has been a tradition since the 1970s and is shown around midnight in Russia’s 11 time zones.

In Moscow, Russians cele-brating on New Year’s Eve watch the speech as they wait for a live broadcast of the Kremlin clock striking midnight and a spectacular fireworks display.

On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin shocked his compatriots as he announced it would be the

“last time” he would be deliv-ering the message and handed power over to Putin, an ex-KGB agent and his then-prime minister.

Yeltsin, who had suffered several heart attacks and battled with alcohol, struggled visibly as he said Russia needed to “enter the new millennium with new politicians” and apol-ogised emotionally for mistakes made in the transition from the Soviet Union.

Putin then appeared seated in front of a decorated tree, vowing there would be no power vacuum in Russia.

Putin has since held a firm grip on the country, staying on as prime minister when his ally Dmitry Medvedev took the presidency in 2008 for four years.

Though he has stopped

short of personal attacks on his predecessor, Putin has lam-basted the 1990s as unruly, while the Yeltsin Centre, a museum about the first presi-dent’s legacy, is a constant t a r g e t o f R u s s i a n conservatives.

The Kremlin yesterday-launched a special website to mark the 20-year anniversary called “Putin. 20 years.”

The website showcases photos of the Russian strongman meeting with various dignitaries and describes what each year meant for him personally, though for the moment only the first four have been uploaded.

The “multimedia album” is meant to feature both happy and tragic moments, and some photos have never been pub-lished before, the website says.

I wouldn't have wasted my time speaking to Trump: Greta ThunbergREUTERS — LONDON

Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg said that talking to US President Donald Trump at a United Nations summit on global warming would have been a waste of time since he would not have paid any attention.

In an interview with BBC radio’s Today programme, for which she was the guest editor on Monday, Thunberg also said she regarded personal attacks on her as funny and that she hoped to go back to having a normal life.

A video of the 16-year-old Swedish campaigner giving Trump what media described as a “death stare” at a UN climate summit in New York in September went viral on social media. Trump has questioned climate science and is pulling the United States out of the 2015 Paris Agrement on global warming.

Asked what she would have said to the president if they had spoken, Thunberg said: “Hon-estly, I don’t think I would have said anything because obvi-ously he’s not listening to sci-entists and experts, so why would he listen to me?

“So I probably wouldn’t have said anything, I wouldn’t have wasted my time,” she said.

This month Brazilian Pres-ident Jair Bolsonaro called Thunberg “a brat”. Trump has said on Twitter she needs to work on her anger man-agement problem.

“Those attacks are just funny because they obviously don’t mean anything,” she said.

“I guess of course it means something — they are terrified of young people bringing change which they don’t want — but that is just proof that we are actually doing something and that they see us as some kind of threat.”

Thunberg came to world attention when she began a grassroots campaign aged 15 by skipping school every Friday to demonstrate outside the Swedish parliament. The pro-tests have inspired millions of young people to take action against climate change.

Thunberg, who was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019, said becoming an activist had helped rescue her from the depression she had previously been suffering.

She also spoke in Monday’s BBC programme with veteran British broadcaster David Attenborough, telling him how his nature documentaries had inspired her.

“You have aroused the world,” the 93-year-old Atten-borough told Thunberg in reply, adding that she had achieved things “that many of us who have been working on the issue for 20 years have failed to do”.

Her father Svante Thunberg, also interviewed, said she had dealt very well with “the fake news, all the things that people try to fab-ricate about her, the hate that that generates” while in the global media limelight.

“Quite frankly, I don’t know how she does it, but she laughs most of the time. She finds it hilarious,” he said.

Middleman gets 15 years for Slovak journalist’s murderAFP - BRATISLAVA An intermediary in the 2018 double murder of a Slovak investigative journalist and his fiancee has been sentenced to 15 years in jail after agreeing to a plea bargain.

Zoltan Andrusko was a businessman and pizzeria owner when he joined the plot to carry out the killings, which triggered mass protests and toppled then premier Robert Fico.

The murders of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova also paved the way for the election of liberal anti-corruption activist Zuzana Caputova as Slovak president in March.

“I consider the 15-year sen-tence to be appropriate,” Judge Pamela Zaleska told reporters after the verdict was announced at the Special Criminal Court in the western city of Pezinok.

Kuciak had been investi-gating Slovak entrepreneur Marian Kocner’s business activ-ities when he and his fiancee were gunned down at home near Bratislava in February 2018.

Andrusko served as a go-between in the murder, allegedly hiring the gunmen on the request of his friend Alena Zsuzsova, who was in turn following orders from

mastermind Kocner. Kocner, Zsuzsova and

alleged gunmen Tomas Szabo and Miroslav Marcek — who are all in custody — will be tried in January. Andrusko will appear as a witness.

According to the indictment, Kocner decided “to get rid of Jan Kuciak physically and thus prevent further disclosure of his (Kocner’s) activities” after

failing to find “any dirt” to dis-credit the journalist.

Kocner, who is also under investigation for his role in several cases of suspected fraud, has a reputation for hos-tility towards journalists.

Investigators have revealed that Kocner exchanged thou-sands of messages with senior government officials from the ruling Smer-SD party.

Former premier Fico remains the party leader and is widely seen as still pulling the strings.

Support for Smer-SD has dropped to a historic low of around 20 percent, but it is still poised to win the February general election.

It might have trouble finding coalition partners however, according to analysts.

Our personal plans and dreams are indivisible from Russia’s. Its present and future depend on the efforts and contributions of each of us: Vladimir Putin

Man charged with ‘Picasso’ art attack in LondonAFP — LONDON

Police in London yesterday said a man was charged with criminal damage after reports of an attack on a Picasso painting at the Tate Modern art gallery.

The Metropolitan Police said a 20-year-old man from northwest London appeared in court on Monday and was remanded in custody until another hearing on January 30.

No other details were released, other than the incident happened on Saturday.

The gallery also did not specify the work in question but said the suspect was “swiftly apprehended” and that conservation experts were assessing the artwork.

The Daily Telegraph said that the painting was torn but there was no immediate confirmation.

Eight abducted from Greek oil tanker in CameroonAFP - ATHENS

Armed men attacked a Greek oil tanker near Cameroon’s economic capital Douala yesterday and abducted eight men including the vessel’s Greek captain, the merchant marine ministry said.

The five Greeks, two Fili-pinos and a Ukrainian were part of a 28-member crew aboard the Happy Lady at anchor in the port of Limbe, the ministry said in a statement.

One crewman, a Greek national, was injured in the ankle by a stray bullet, and taken to a local hospital, port police said in a statement.

“Merchant Marine Minister Yannis Plakiotakis... is fol-lowing developments closely, along with the Greek foreign ministry and the oil tanker’s operator,” the statement said.

The port’s police press office said the ship is owned by Athens-based Eastern Mediter-ranean Athens.

Piracy has disrupted the operations of sub-Saharan Africa’s two main oil producers — Nigeria and Angola — and severely disrupted interna-tional maritime transport essential to the continent, costing billions of dollars.

The Gulf of Guinea, which stretches some 5,700km from Senegal to Angola, has become the new world epi-centre of pirate attacks, lootings and kidnappings for ransom, especially along the Nigerian coast.

The pirates sometimes divert ships for several days, long enough to plunder the cargo and demand huge ransoms before freeing the crew.

From January to Sep-tember, 82 percent of maritime kidnappings in the world occurred in the Gulf of Guinea, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

Few of the attacks are so close to shore as yesterday’s, however.

Armed men raided another Greek oil tanker, the Elka Aristote, in November around 10 nautical miles off the Togolese capital Lome, cap-turing four sailors.

They released three of the men on December 13, but one died in captivity.

An investigation is still under way, but “it appears his death was not a result of actions by the hostage-takers but of illness,” the tanker’s shipbuilder said at the time.

EU criticises Bolivia’s expulsion of Spanish diplomatsREUTERS — LA PAZ

The European Union said yesterday that it was “deeply concerned” about Bolivia’s expulsion of Spanish officials caught up in an escalating diplomatic row between Mexico and the interim conservative administration in La Paz.

Bolivian stand-in President Jeanine Anez said on Monday that her administration had asked Mexican ambassador María Teresa Mercado and several Spanish officials to leave the country within 72 hours.

Anez said Bolivia expelled the Spanish diplomats because masked men posing a “security risk” had accompanied the offi-cials on a visit to Mexico´s embassy in La Paz.

“Expelling diplomatic offi-cials is an extreme and unfriendly measure that should be saved for grave situations,” the European Union said in a statement.

The EU also said that it was “deeply concerned over the increasing diplomatic tension” and has demanded further explanation from the Anez government.

Spain’s foreign ministry responded to the expulsion of its officials with a tit-for-tat move, saying it would expel three Bolivian diplomatic staff.

The row began after Mexico admitted ousted Bolivian Pres-ident Evo Morales as an exile following allegations he had rigged the country´s October presidential election. Morales is now in Argentina.

Mexico’s embassy in Bolivia has given refuge to nine people, including Morales allies whom the Anez administration blames for stirring up violent protests and wants to put on trial.

Bolivia’s disputed October election sparked widespread, often violent demonstrations. Morales resigned last month in the face of growing civil and military pressure.

Jeanine Anez took over by default, and has made sharp policy shifts away from his socialist government, fraying ties with leftist allies in the region.

Morales claimed he was toppled in a right-wing “coup” and many of his allies have rallied behind him with the country headed for new elec-tions in 2020.

A file photo of a woman kneels by a memorial on the first anniversary of the murder of the investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova in Bratislava.

New Year's eve in WarsawPeople walking on a street illuminated with lights before the New Year's eve celebrations at Old Town, in Warsaw, Poland, yesterday.

17WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020 AMERICAS

Trump signs law to reduce robocallsAP — NEW YORK

An anti-robocalls measure signed into law yesterday by President Donald Trump should help reduce the torrent of unwanted calls promising lower interest rates or pretending to be the IRS, though it won’t make all such calls disappear.

The new law gives author-ities more enforcement powers and could speed up measures the industry is already taking to identify robocalls. And when phone companies block robo-calls, they must do so without charging consumers. This should help Americans dodge many of these annoying calls.

“American families deserve control over their communica-tions, and this legislation will update our laws and regulations to stiffen penalties, increase transparency, and enhance government collaboration to stop unwanted solicitation,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said.

The law is a “big victory,” said Consumer Reports’ Maureen Mahoney. “The key is requiring these phone companies to help stop the calls before they reach the consumer and do it at no additional charge.”

The robocall problem has exploded because cheap software makes it easy to make

mass calls. Americans collec-tively get billions of robocalls each month. Such calls have disrupted operations at hos-pitals by diverting staff time to deal with calls faked to look as though they are coming from inside the hospital. Scams con-ducted through such calls have also defrauded people out of millions of dollars. Many people now avoid answering calls alto-gether if they come from unknown numbers.

Under federal law, it’s already illegal to fake numbers on Caller ID to defraud or cause harm. Scams are also pro-hibited, as are automated tele-marketing calls from legitimate

companies that don’t already have written permission. You-Mail’s robocall index says that half of all robocalls today are fraudulent.

But enforcement has been tough. Federal agencies have fined scammers hundreds of millions of dollars, but it’s been difficult to collect. Many of the callers are overseas. It’s hard to throw the fraudsters in jail.

The FCC has clarified that phone companies can block unwanted calls without first asking customers, paving the way to broaden the rollout of call-blocking services. The law says phone companies cannot charge for these services.

Federal judge dismissesimpeachment suit fromformer White House aideAP — WASHINGTON

A federal judge yesterday dismissed a lawsuit from a former White House official who had challenged a congres-sional subpoena in the impeachment inquiry involving President Donald Trump.

Charles Kupperman, a former deputy national security adviser, sued in October after being subpoenaed by House Democrats to testify in their impeachment investigation into Trump’s interactions with Ukraine. He had asked a judge to decide whether he had to comply with that subpoena from Congress or with a con-flicting directive from the White House that he not testify.

Both the House of Repre-sentatives, which withdrew the subpoena, and the Justice Department, which had said it would not prosecute Kup-perman for failing to appear before Congress, had asked the court to dismiss the case as moot.

US District Judge Richard Leon agreed in throwing out the case.

He noted that the House had not only withdrawn the subpoena for Kupperman but had also stated explicitly that it would not reissue one for him.

The judge also pointed out that Democrats had not men-tioned Kupperman by name in

an impeachment article they approved this month that accused Trump of obstructing C o n g r e s s a n d i t s investigation.

“This conduct is of course entirely consistent with the repeated representations that counsel for the House has made to this Court,” Leon wrote. “The House clearly has no intention of pursuing Kupperman, and his claims are thus moot.”

The lawsuit was closely watched since it was a rare challenge of a congressional subpoena in the impeachment inquiry and because of the potential implications it carried for another witness whose tes-timony had been sought by Democrats: former national security adviser John Bolton.

Kupperman and Bolton have the same lawyer. As a senior adviser to the president on matters of national security, Bolton would have had similar

arguments available to him had he been subpoenaed. Bolton had indicated through his lawyer that he would not testify in the impeachment inquiry without a subpoena, and he did not receive one from the House.

Senate Democrats have identified Bolton as among the current and former Trump administration officials they would like to hear from in a trial.

Charles Cooper, a lawyer for Bolton and Kupperman, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Though Leon said he did not need to resolve Kupperman’s case now, he acknowledged that the conflict could poten-tially resurface.

“Have no doubt though, should the winds of political fortune shift and the House were to reissue a subpoena to Dr. Kup-perman, he will face the same conflicting directives that precip-itated this suit,” Leon wrote.

“If so, he will undoubtedly be right back before this Court seeking a solution to a Consti-tutional dilemma that has long-standing political conse-quences: balancing Congress’s well-established power to investigate with a President’s need to have a small group of national security advisors who have some form of immunity from compelled congressional testimony,” the judge added.

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders arrives for a campaign event at NOAH’s Event Venue, in West Des Moines, Iowa, yesterday'

Sanders fit for presidency after heart attackBLOOMBERG — WEST DES MOINES

Bernie Sanders’s campaign for the first time yesterday disclosed information about the severity of the heart attack he suffered in October, but also released letters from doctors describing him as in good health and fit to lead the country.

The Vermont senator’s heart attack was caused by a blockage in the midportion of his left anterior descending coronary artery, Congress’s attending phy-sician, Brian Monahan, said in one of the letters. But since then, his “heart muscle strength has improved” and Sanders doesn’t have symptoms of congestive

heart failure, a life-threatening condition, Monahan wrote. The senator is in “good health currently”.

The Sanders campaign said in a statement that he is “fit and ready to serve as president of the United States.” His cardiol-ogist, Martin LeWinter of the University of Vermont Medical Center, wrote that he had suf-fered “modest heart muscle damage” after the October 1 attack but “has been doing very well since.”

Sanders, 78, would be the oldest person to assume the US presidency if he is elected next year. His campaign has sought to quell questions about his health since his heart attack

and has been slow to reveal details of the episode.

“The fact that he is con-tinuing to engage in vigorous activity makes me comfortable that he should do well,” Steven Nissen, the head of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, said in a telephone interview. “I would tell him to go about his business, take his medications and don’t live in fear of another event.”

He cautioned that the future can’t be predicted and every heart attack survivor is at higher risk for another one. Still, Sanders’s prognosis appears very good based on the infor-mation his doctors released, Nissen said.

The US District Judge noted that the House had not only withdrawn the subpoena for Kupperman but had also stated explicitly that it would not reissue one for him.

Pompeo to Iraq leadership: US will defend its peopleANATOLIA — WASHINGTON

Washington will defend its people in the wake of protests at the US Embassy compound in Baghdad, America’s. top diplomat told Iraqi leadership yesterday.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (pictured) “made clear” that the US “will protect and defend its people, who are there to support a sovereign and independent Iraq,” in separate

telephone calls with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi and President Barham Salih, said State Department spokes-woman Morgan Ortagus in a statement.

“Both Abdul-Mahdi and Salih assured the Secretary that they took seriously their responsibility for and would guarantee the safety and security of US personnel and property,” she said.

Outraged protesters

stormed the embassy com-pound yesterday, protesting Washington’s attacks on armed battalions belong to Iranian-backed Hashd Al Shaabi forces.

At least 25 people were killed last weekend in US air-strikes on positions of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia group, in Iraq and Syria.

Hundreds protesters gathered early yesterday near the embassy to show their anger at the attacks.

The Iraqi prime minister said Baghdad condemns the air-strikes on Iraqi military ele-ments and warned those taking part in funeral marches to stay away from foreign buildings and compounds.

“Iraqi security forces will respond to any act of aggression or harassment against foreign embassies in Iraq, and those responsible will face the full force of the law,” Abdul-Mahdi said on Twitter.

US grants asylum to detained Guatemalan teenAP NEW — HAVEN

A Guatemalan teenager living in Connecticut has been granted asylum in the US after having been detained by immigration authorities for more than three months.

The New Haven Register reported that US Immigration Court judge in Boston granted asylum on Monday to Mario Aguilar Castanon, an 18-year-old student at Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven.

Lawyers for Aguilar said they are waiting to see if Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials appeal the ruling and hope Aguilar will be released from detention whether or not there is an appeal.

Aguilar came to the US from Guatemala in 2018 to flee threats from gangs that tried to recruit him. Teachers and friends at his high school and state and city officials have rallied to protest his detention.

Federal immigration offi-cials took Aguilar into custody in September as he entered Milford Superior Court, where he was scheduled to appear to face charges related to a car crash.

Police said he hit a parked car while driving without a license and no insurance. Aguilar also was charged with driving under the influence, but his lawyers expect him to be cleared of that allegation because there was no sobriety test. His case remains pending.

Texas church gunman grew angry in past over cash requests: MinisterAP — WHITE SETTLEMENT

The man who opened fire inside a Texas church, killing two people before being shot to death, visited the church several other times this year and was given food but got angry when officials refused to give him money, the minister said.

Keith Thomas Kinnunen (pictured), 43, brought a shotgun into the West Freeway Church of Christ in the Fort Worth-area town of White Set-tlement during Sunday services and opened fire, killing church members Richard White and Anton “Tony” Wallace, according to police. Witnesses said he was wearing a fake beard, a wig, a hat and a long coat, which drew the attention of the church’s security team.

Minister Britt Farmer told The Christian Chronicle that he recognised Kinnunen after seeing a photo of him without the disguise.

“We’ve helped him on several occasions with food,” Farmer said in the interview. “He gets mad when we won’t give him cash. He’s been here on multiple occasions.”

Kinnunen was fatally shot by Jack Wilson, a member of the church’s volunteer security team, within seconds of the attack.

“The only clear shot I had was his head because I still had people in the pews that were not all the way down as low as they could. That was my one shot,” Wilson said, adding that several other churchgoers had their weapons drawn as well.

The actions of Wilson and

other armed churchgoers quickly drew praise from some Texas lawmakers and gun-rights advocates. Texas officials hailed the state’s gun laws, including a measure enacted this year that affirmed the right of licenced handgun holders to carry a weapon inside places of worship unless a facility bans them.

“We can’t prevent every incident, we can’t prevent mental illness from occurring, and we can’t prevent every crazy person from pulling a gun, but we can be prepared like this church was,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said.

President Donald Trump tweeted on Monday night and yesterday morning about the attack, both times highlighting the role of armed citizens in stopping the shooter.

“If it were not for the fact that there were people inside of the church that were both armed, and highly proficient in using their weapon, the end result would have been catastrophic. A big THANK YOU to them!” Trump tweeted yesterday.

Tournament of Roses BandfestMembers of the Southern University ‘Human Jukebox’ Marching Band perform during the 40th annual Tournament of Roses Bandfest, in Pasadena, California, yesterday. The event showcases marching bands who will perform in the famed 2020 Rose Parade, a 131-year-old tradition, on New Year's Day.

18 WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020AMERICAS

Opponents push to abolish death penalty in VirginiaAP — RICHMOND

Virginia has executed nearly 1,400 people in its history - more than any other state. But as a new Democratic majority prepares to begin the legislative session, some see an oppor-tunity to end executions in Virginia.

A bill to abolish the death penalty has been filed by Del. Lee Carter, a Democrat from Manassas, and several addi-tional bills are expected.

The push is backed by Vir-ginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, along with some powerful voices: loved ones of murder victims. Thirteen family members sent a letter to the General Assembly in November asking lawmakers to abolish the death penalty.

Rachel Sutphin, the daughter of Cpl Eric Sutphin, who was fatally shot in 2006, said she felt no closure or solace

when her father’s killer was executed in 2017.

“A lot of people, they want families to have this moment that heals them or makes things completed. And for me, it did not,” Sutphin said, describing her reaction to the execution of William Morva.

“It was instead, more hurt,” she said. “I felt, well, now there are two people dead.”

Eric Sutphin, who worked for the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, was shot while participating in a manhunt for Morva, an escaped prisoner

who had shot and killed a hos-pital security guard. Sutphin was shot when he encountered Morva in Blacksburg.

Rachel Sutphin, who was 9 at the time, said she wasn’t aware of Virginia’s death penalty until much later.

In 2016, she wrote letters to then-Virginia Gov Terry McAu-liffe urging him to commute Morva’s sentence to life without parole.

Morva was executed In July 2017. No one has been executed in Virginia since then.

No death sentences have been imposed in the state since 2011, and only three people remain on Virginia’s death row. Since the Supreme Court rein-stated the death penalty in 1976, the state is second only to Texas in number of executions, at 113.

Carter said that the new Democratic majority gives death penalty opponents “the best chance we’ve had in a very

long time,” but he acknowl-edges that entrenched attitudes toward the death penalty in Virginia could make abolishing it difficult.

“Unfortunately, there are still people in both major parties who are still in the mindset of the 1980s, 1990s, tough on crime, more punishment, more punishment, more pun-ishment,” Carter said.

“But if the death penalty worked as advertised — as a deterrent — then we wouldn’t need to use it.”

Even with the slim majority Democrats hold in both the Senate and House of Delegates, the push to abolish the death penalty could have an uphill battle.

Republican Sen Ben Chafin said he thinks it’s unlikely an abolition bill will pass.

“The General Assembly has crafted — over many years —careful categories of crimes that

can potentially receive the death penalty,” Chafin said.

“Those crimes are the most heinous of crimes,” Chafin said. “They’re the unthinkable types of human behaviour that truly those who commit them deserve to receive death and not be incarcerated at the tax-payer’s expense for the rest of their lives.”

Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said 21 states have abolished the death penalty, but it often takes years of drawn-out political battles.

He said repeal could be more difficult in the South, where many states have a long history of executions and ingrained attitudes about the death penalty.

“From a symbolic per-spective, abolition in Virginia would have national signifi-cance because it would be the first of the Southern states to

voluntarily repeal capital pun-ishment,” Dunham said.

“The change in the compo-sition of the legislature brought about by the blue wave may be enough to put abolition over the top. But even then, success is unlikely unless there is a bipar-tisan component of it.”

Republican Del. Rob Bell said he understands the feelings of crime victims’ family members who do not want to see the death penalty imposed. But he said he would not support a blanket repeal of the death penalty.

“The thoughts of the sur-viving family members are always important, and in cases where no family member wants it, the prosecutor could decide not to proceed that way,” he said.

“Here, what’s being pro-posed would take it away from all families, those that want it and those that do not.”

Democracy hangs in the balance: Elizabeth WarrenREUTERS — BOSTON

Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren sought to re-energise her White House campaign in a New Year’s Eve speech yesterday, warning that “democracy hangs in the balance” five weeks before nominating contests begin in early February.

In her home state of Massa-chusetts on the first anniversary of her campaign launch, Warren said President Donald Trump would “try to cheat his way through yet another election” if he is not removed from office after his impeachment by the Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives.

“In the past 12 months, the president has become bolder with his lies and more brazen in his law-breaking,” said Warren, who as a US senator will vote on whether to convict Trump of improperly pressuring Ukraine for political favors. “Meanwhile, the Republicans in Congress have turned into fawning, spineless defenders of his crimes.”

The race for the Democratic nomination remains fluid as the calendar turns to 2020, with 15 Democrats still in the running and a majority of voters telling pollsters that they have yet to

settle on a final choice. The nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire in early February will be critical tests of candidates’ viability.

Warren’s address took place in front of a crowd of nearly 700 people at a church in downtown Boston known as a gathering place for revolu-tionary colonists in the 1770s.

“We are a nation that fights back,” she said. “Fighting back is an act of patriotism.”

Warren remains a top Dem-ocratic candidate in national opinion polls but her standing slipped in autumn after a months-long surge that briefly vaulted her to front-runner status.

She is in third place behind Joe Biden, the former vice pres-ident, and fellow US Senator Bernie Sanders, according to the website RealClearPolitics’s national polling average.

Warren’s momentum stalled under sustained attacks from more moderate Demo-cratic candidates like Pete Butt-igieg, the outgoing mayor of South Bend, Indiana, over her support for Medicare for All, the healthcare overhaul that would eliminate private insurance in favor of a single government-run plan.

In response, Warren has

revised her rhetoric on healthcare, emphasising her intention to phase in Medicare for All over several years to pre-serve “choice” for Americans.

She has also sought to return to the theme of economic populism that animated the early part of her campaign.

Warren, who has sworn off high-dollar fundraisers, argued on Tuesday that other

candidates who “kiss the rings” of the wealthy are beholden to rich donors and corporate interests.

“The billionaires, the cor-porate executives and their favorite presidential candidates have one clear goal: to convince you that everything you imagine is impossible,” Warren said.

While she did not name any rivals, her remarks were likely

aimed at Biden and Buttigieg, whom she has previously crit-icized for holding high-priced fundraisers.

In recent months, Warren has seen a slowdown in her fun-draising pace. The campaign said last week it had raised just over $17m in the fourth quarter with a few days to go, lower than the $24.6m she raised last quarter.

Democratic 2020 US presidential candidate and US Senator Elizabeth Warren arrives to deliver a speech, on the one year anniversary of announcing her campaign, at Old South Meeting House in Boston, yesterday.

Mexico arrests 7 suspects in Mormon family massacreAFP — MEXICO CITY

Mexican authorities have arrested seven suspects in connection with last month’s massacre of nine Mormon women and children in the country’s north, the attorney general’s office said.

A local police chief sus-pected of links to organised crime was among those taken into custody, according to local media.

The victims — six of them

children — had dual US-Mexican nationality and were shot dead on a rural road in a lawless region known for turf wars between drug cartels fighting over lucrative traf-ficking routes to the United States.

Investigators believe the cartel mistook the families for members of a rival gang, but some relatives reject that theory, saying they were delib-erately targeted.

The prosecutor’s office said

in a statement yesterday that three suspects were arrested on December 26 for “probable responsibility” in organised crime. The charges against the other four, arrested earlier, were not specified.

The November 4 killing took place between the states of Sonora and Chihuahua and increased pressure on President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s government to show it was acting against brutal violence by drug cartels.

Following the massacre, US President Donald Trump threatened to designate drug cartels as terror groups, which many Mexicans saw as opening the door to further meddling by the US.

Lopez Obrador met with relatives of the victims earlier this month to report on the investigation.

A second meeting between the family and Mexican author-ities is expected in coming days.

Lee Carter acknowledges that entrenched attitudes toward the death penalty in Virginia could make abolishing it difficult.

‘Blade Runner’ artist Syd Mead dead at 86AFP — LOS ANGELES

Syd Mead, the visual artist behind “Blade Runner” credited with shaping the sci-fi landscape with his futuristic movie designs, has died in California aged 86.

Mead, who worked on films including “Aliens”, “Tron” and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, died on Monday fol-lowing a battle with lym-phoma cancer, his partner Roger Servick told multiple outlets yesterday.

A post on Mead’s Facebook page confirmed the news, with the words “Syd Mead 1933-2019.”

Mead had started his career in industrial design for the car and electronics industries, working for Ford, Chrysler, Sony and Philips, before switching to film. His concept art for a dystopian future Los Angeles in Ridley Scott’s 1982 neo-noir classic “Blade Runner” won widespread acclaim.

He retired in September.News of his death was

mourned by leading figures across the automotive and entertainment sectors.

“Rest in peace Syd Mead. Your art will endure,” tweeted Tesla founder Elon Musk.

“He was one of the greatest designers and futurists of our time,” wrote John McElroy, pub-lisher of the website Autoline.

Art Directors Guild pres-ident Nelson Coates last month called Mead “one of the most influential concept artists and industrial designers of our time.”

Student in US tried to smuggle cancer research to ChinaAP — BOSTON

A medical student from China who US authorities say tried to smuggle cancer research material taken from a Boston hospital out of the country has been held without bail by a judge who ruled he was a flight risk.

Zaosong Zheng, 29, who last year earned a visa spon-sored by Harvard University to study in the US, appeared yes-terday in US District Court in Boston.

Magistrate Judge David Hennessy ruled that evidence suggested Zheng had tried to smuggle vials of research spec-imens in a sock in his suitcase bound for China and granted the prosecution’s request to hold him without bail.

He was arrested December 10 at Boston’s Logan Airport on a charge of making false statements.

Zheng stole the materials

from his lab at Beth Israel Dea-coness Medical Center, author-ities allege.

Some vials contained a col-league’s work he had replicated without the authorization or knowledge of the lab, Zheng told authorities, according to court documents.

Zheng was possibly acting on behalf of the Chinese gov-ernment, the FBI said in affi-davit included in court documents.

Zheng’s federal public defender declined to comment outside court when questioned by the Boston Herald. A voicemail message was left with the defense attorney.

Harvard officials told The Boston Globe that Zheng’s edu-cational exchange visa had been revoked.

Beth Israel, a Harvard-affil-iated teaching hospital, has fired Zheng and is cooperating with authorities, a spokes-woman said.

Winter storm cancels flights in eastern CanadaAFP — MONTREAL

A winter storm in eastern Canada led to the cancellation of nearly 200 flights yesterday, and came too late for a White Christmas.

The mix of snow and freezing rain disrupted both departures and arrivals at air-ports in Montreal, the capital Ottawa, and the country’s largest city Toronto, an AFP count showed.

Worst-affected was Mon-treal-Trudeau International Airport with more than 100 cancellations, mostly to Ontario and the northeast United States, an airport spokesperson said.

Snow accumulations of 15-20 centimeters were expected today in southern Quebec, according to the federa l en viro n men t ministry.

Shooting near Seattle leaves 1 dead, two injuredAP — FEDERAL WAY

A confrontation between police and a man in a car erupted in gunfire early yesterday, leaving two officers wounded and the suspect dead, authorities said.

Both officers were shot and taken to hospitals. They are expected to recover.

The officers had responded to a report of a dispute in a parking lot in the city of Federal Way and spoke to a man in a car, Seattle TV station KOMO reported.

Authorities were still trying to determine exactly what happened but both officers were wounded by gunfire and the man in the car was fatally shot.

NY beefs up security ahead of New YearNYPD officers stand guard on the closed 42th street before the New Years eve celebration, in Times Square in New York City, yesterday.

19WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020 HOME

ICAI Doha holds 5-day certification course on blockchain technology

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Doha Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) conducted a 5-day Certification Course on “Block-chain Technology for Profes-sional Accountants” at Doha Bank Auditorium in collaboration with Digital Accounting and Assurance Board of ICAI New Delhi.

Rukkaiya Pachisa, Chapter Chairperson welcomed the par-ticipants and outlined the impor-tance for finance professionals to be tech-savvy and stay updated in line with the techno-logical evolutions and digital transformation that are affecting the jobs and functions of finance professionals in a significant manner.

Dr. R. Seetharaman, Group CEO Doha Bank, graced the occasion with his presence and explained to the participants the impact of Industry 4.0 and pro-vided insight into new concepts like data analytics, cloud com-puting, Internet of things and blockchain.

The course was conducted by two expert faculties — Hemant

Singh and Narasimhan Elan-govan. Hemant touched upon technical side of the blockchain by explaining essential elements and characteristics of the block-chain: cryptography, peer to peer network, distributed ledger tech-nology, and hash and smart contracts.

He also explained use cases of the blockchain in various finance functions like trade finance, KYC and identity man-agement and reporting to identify its suitability for the organisation. He also demonstrated practical use and functions of the block-chain by explaining the Ethereum and building blocks.

Hemant also illustrated the smart contract and explained

how it differs from the traditional contracts. Narasimhan Elan-govan, touched upon functional aspects of blockchain and com-prehended the areas where the usage of blockchain can result in a substantial cost and time advantage.

He analysed sectoral impact of blockchain on various business segments and assessed blockchain from regulatory, gov-ernance, risk, and control aspects. He also discussed global business scenario and some of the analytical tools of blockchain in an interesting manner. He pre-dicted that while there will be a paradigm shift in the jobs and functions of the accounting field, the emergence of the new

technology will also pave way for many opportunities.

The Vote of Thanks was offered by Nirlep Bhatt, Chapter Secretary, who thanked the members for positive response and enthusiastic participation. He also offered gratitude to ICAI, faculties and Doha Bank for their generous and invaluable support.

The participants, repre-senting diverse spectrum of industries, appreciated rich con-tents of the course, resourceful faculties, interactive learning methodology and an effective brainstorming on various cases. They rated it as a high-quality course with wonderful learning opportunity provided by the chapter.

The Doha Chapter of ICAI is the oldest among the 33 overseas chapters of the Institute of Char-tered Accountants of India. The Chapter is actively involved in enhancing and updating the pro-fessional knowledge of its members, local professionals and non-members. Doha Chapter of ICAI is the first professional membership body to be regis-tered with Qatar Financial Centre.

Dr. R. Seetharaman (sixth left, sitting), Group CEO of Doha Bank, with participants and members of ICAI Doha at the workshop.

The Doha Chapter of ICAI is the oldest among the 33 overseas chapters of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. The Chapter is actively involved in enhancing and updating the professional knowledge of its members, local professionals and non-members. Doha Chapter of ICAI is the first professional membership body to be registered with Qatar Financial Centre.

CROSSWORD

Munthiri Monchan is a feel good urban romantic comedy revolves around Vivek Viswanath, a young marketing guy working in an cinema advertising firm.

MUNTHIRI MONCHAN

MALL ROYAL PLAZA

Hero (2D/Tamil) 2:00pm; Spies In Disguise (2D/Amination) 2:15 & 6:45pm; Frozen II (2D/Ani-mation) 2:00 & 5:00pm Miracle In Cell No. 7 3:45pm;Good Newwz 3 (2D/Hindi) 6:15pm; Jumanji: The Next Level (2D/Action) 4:00pm; Driving License (2D/Malayalam) 8:30 & 11:00pm; Dabangg 3 (2D/Hindi) 8:15 & 11:15pm; El Folous A.K.A The Money (2D/Arabic) 6:15pm; IP Man 4: The Final 2:30pmKettyolanu Ente Maalakha (2D/Malayalam) 8:30 & 11:00pm; Munthiri Monchan (2D/Malayalam) 11:15pm;

Dabangg 3 (2D/Hindi) 10:30am, 1:45, 5:00, 8:15 & 11:30pmHero (2D/Tamil) 11:45am, 5:45 & 11:45pmJumanji: The Next Level (2D/Action) 11:45am, 11:30pm; Thambi (2D/Tamil) 3:00 & 9:00pm; Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2D/Action) 2:30pm; Mamangam (2D/Malayalam) 5:30pm

LANDMARK

AL KHOR

Ruler (2D/Telugu) 12:30pmThambi (2D/Tamil) 3:30pmDabangg 3 (2D/Hindi) 8:30pmGood Newwz 3 (2D/Hindi) 6:15pmHero (2D/Tamil) 9:00pmDriving Licence (2D/Malayalam) 12:30, 3:00, 5:30, 8:00, 10:30, 11;30pmKettyolanu Ente Maalakha (2D/Malayalam) 8:45pmMy Santa (2D/Malayalam) 12:30, 3;15, 8:45 & 11:30pm Valiya Perunnal (2D/Malayalam) 3:00, 9:00pm

ASIAN TOWN

ROXY

FLIK Mirqab Mall

Driving License (2D/Malayalam) 1:10, 3:55 & 6:40pEl Folous A.K.A The Money 4:50, 9:35 & 11:55pmFrozen II (2D/Animation) 10:30, 11:00am & 2:40pmGood Newwz 3 (2D/Hindi) 1:10, 6:40, 9:25pm & 0:10amIp Man 4: The Finale 5:25 & 11:45pm; Jumanji: The Next Level (3D/Action) 10;20am, 12:45, 3:10, 5:35, 8:00 & 10:25pm; Miracle in Cell No.7 (2D/Animation) 11:35, 2:00, 4:25, 6:50, 9:10 & 11:35pmSpies in Disguise (2D/Animation) 10:15am, 12:15, 2:15, 4:15, 7:35, 8;15 & 10:15pm;Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2D/Action) 11:50am, 2:40, 5:30, 8:20, 9:25 & 11:10pm; The Courier 12:40 & 1:20pmTrauma Center 11:20am, 3:20 & 9:40pm

Driving License (2D/Malayalam) 10:30am, 12:30, 1:00, 3:10, 3:40, 6:20, 8:20, 9:00 & 11:40pm; Frozen II (2D/Animation) 11:00, 4:00, 3:15 & 6:00pm; Good Newwz 3 (2D/Hindi) 12:30, 3:15, 6:00 & 11:45pm; Ip Man 4: The Finale 6:00, 9:20, 10:45 & 11:30pm; Jumanji: The Next Level (3D/Action) 110:30am,11:00am, 12:30, 3:30, 6:15, 8;15 & 8:45pmSpies in Disguise (2D/Animation) 2:00, 5:00 & 8:45pm; Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2D/Action) 1:00, 1:20, 2:45, 3:00, 10;45 & 11:15pmThambi (2D/Tamil) 11:00pm; El Folous A.K.A The Money (2D/Arabic) 4:20, 5:50, 6:20, 7:45, 8:00, 8;15, 10:15, 10:30 & 11:10pm

Prati Roju Pandaage (2D/Telugu) 2:00pm;Spies In Disguise (2D/Amination) 2:00pm; Hero (2D/Tamil) 2:15pm; Dabangg 3 4:00pm;Frozen II (2D/Animation) 2:15pm; Valiya Perunnal (2D/Malayalam) 4:00pm; Miracle In Cell No. 7 (2D/Tagalog) 2:30pm; Jumanji: The Next Level (2D/Action) 4:30 & 7:00pm;Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2D/Action) 6:15pm;Kettyolanu Ente Maalakha (2D/Malayalam) 6:45pm; Driving License (2D/Malayalam) 7:00 & 11:15pm; El Folous A.K.A The Money 7:00 & 9:15pm; Ruler (2D/Telugu) 11:30pm;Trauma Center 9:15pm; IP Man 4: The Final 9:30pm Munthiri Monchan (2D/Malayalam) 11:30pm;

Frozen II (2D/Animation) 2:00 & 3:45pm; Spies In Disguise (2D/Amination) 5:30pm; Miracle In Cell No. 7 (2D/Tagalog) 7:15pm; Trauma Center 4:45pm; IP Man 4: The Final 9:30pm; Dabangg 3 11:30pm; My Santa 2:00pm; (2D/Action) 6:30 & 9:00pm; El Folous A.K.A The Money 6:45 & 9:15pm; Ruler (2D/Telugu) 2:00pm; Jumanji: The Next Level 4:45 & &7:00pm; Driving License (2D/Malayalam) 9:00pm; Good Newwz 3 (2D/Hindi) 11:30 Munthiri Monchan (2D/Malayalam) 11:30pm;

20 WEDNESDAY 1 JANUARY 2020MORNING BREAK

FAJR SUNRISE 04.58 AM 06.20 AM

W A L R U WA I S : 18o↗ 23o W A L K H O R : 16o↗ 25o W D U K H A N : 14o↗ 23o W D O H A : 18o↗ 27o W M E S A I E E D 15o↗ 25o W A B U S A M R A 13o↗ 25o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 08:22 – 19:55 LOW TIDE 01:23 – 16:43

Misty at some places at first becomes moderate temperature daytime with some clouds and relatively cold by night.

Minimum Maximum18oC 27oC

ZUHRMAGHRIB

11.37 am04.57 pm

ASR ISHA

02.36 pm06.27 pm

A view of sunset on the last day of the year, at sand dunes near Sealine beach (left) and Al Janoub Stadium, Qatar. PICS: ABDUL BASIT & SALIM MATRAMKOT/THE PENINSULA.

Sun sets on 2019

Lima Mayor says pace, quality of development in Qatar unprecedentedIRFAN BUKHARI THE PENINSULA

Impressed with the pace and standard of urban development of Doha, Jorge Muñoz Wells, Mayor of Peruvian capital Lima, has said that Peru and Qatar can bolster bilateral ties in different sectors due to existing huge bilateral potential.

“I am here to see how Doha is managing different civic issues like traffic, security, envi-ronment etc. I wanted to see how Qatar is preparing itself to host 2022 FIFA World Cup,” Muñoz said in an interview with The Peninsula at the Embassy of Peru.

Jorge Muñoz Wells, who serves as Mayor of Lima, a city of over 10 million people, thinks that the pace and quality of development work in Qatar is unprecedented. “I was invited by the government of Qatar to strengthen relations between Doha and Lima. I see a lot of development and a marked change in the last years,” he added.

He further said: “Qatar is a secure, safe and clean country. It is a place where all people

love to live.” Muñoz during his recent visit to Qatar toured a number of places and met many Qatari officials but in his opinion the thing which impressed him the most was the Doha Metro.

“I have been to several cities around the world but have never seen a metro service like this,” he said.

Muñoz says that Doha Metro is ‘modern, quiet, soft and clean’ and it has been developed with future-oriented vision. “Some stations at the moment are too big to handle the number of present day commuters but after some years particularly during 2022 World Cup they will be serving a purpose and the needs of the people.”

He said that during his visit to Qatar he had a very pro-ductive meeting with H E the Minister of Municipality and Environment in which both sides agreed to enhance cooperation between the two countries in general and the Municipality of Doha and the Municipality of Lima in particular.

He said that in his meetings with Qatari officials they talked about the management of

modern cities and on the existing challenges. “We have many common areas of cooperation. I am here now to learn about civic modernization and the model that Doha has developed.”

The Mayor of Lima said Peru and Qatar could expand existing relations in many spheres like culture, sports, tourism, and trade among others. “As many as four million tourists visit Peru per year and Qatar is also becoming a destination of choice for tourists from around the

world. We can share experiences in this sector and can promote bilateral tourism.”

He said tourists from Peru and across the globe should pay a visit to Qatar even before 2022 World Cup as the country has a lot to offer — like museums, deserts, and food.

Baladna farm is another place visited by Muñoz and he highly praised the way the company established itself as a reliable brand within three years. “This growth of Baladna

is impressive. After meeting domestic needs of dairy products they have now reached a surplus and can now export milk to five countries.”

The Mayor of Lima termed the National Museum of Qatar ‘amazing’. “The desert rose architecture of National Museum of Qatar is incredible.”

Muñoz said Qatar was moving fast towards achieving food sufficiency, adding that Qatar and Peru could cooperate in the food security sector.

“Starting next month two weekly cargo flights are being launched between Qatar and South American countries. Using this opportunity, Qatar can now import more fruits and vege-tables from Peru.”

Muñoz said Qatari investors could invest in real estate, infra-structure development, oil and gas sectors of Peru with full con-fidence. “We are developing our cities; making new roads, tunnels, bridges and Qatar is also going through a mega devel-opment phase. Qatar has the resources, capacity and tech-nology therefore they can take part in Peru’s infrastructure development.”

The Ambassador of Peru in Qatar, Jose Benzaquen Perea, said: “Peru shares the same goals with Qatar, specifically the development in education, health, security, environment conservation, and therefore the compliance of the international principles. Furthermore, Peru supports the dialogue to resolve any international issue, in peace and harmony with all the actors of the diplomatic space and in any region, specifically with Qatar.”

Jorge Muñoz Wells, Mayor of Lima, during an interview with The Peninsula in Doha.

Doha Metro is modern, quiet, soft and clean, and it has been developed with future-oriented vision. I have been to several cities around the world but have never seen a metro service like this."