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Dollar rises on comments by

Fed’s Rosengren

SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016 • 22 DHUL HIJJA 1437 • Volume 21 • Number 6929 thepeninsulaqatar @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatar 2 Riyals

QNA

LOS ANGELES: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attended a reception ceremony hosted by Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, at Getty House in Los Angeles, California, yesterday.

The reception, in which a number of Qatari institutions and agencies took part, was attended US figures including heads of companies and businessmen.

Talks dealt with areas of cooperation and means of promoting and developing them as to open wider horizons of ties in future.

The Emir also attended a dinner banquet hosted by the Mayor of Los Angeles in honour of the Emir and the accompanying delegation.

The banquet was attended by senior officials and businessmen in California.

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with the Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, at Getty House in Los Angeles, California, yesterday. → More pictures on page 2

Emir holds

talks with

LA Mayor

By Sanaullah Ataullah

The Peninsula

DOHA: More affordable nurseries (crèches) have begun opening across the city to cash in on the increas-ing demand from low and middle income families.

The new daycare facilities have become a boon for many parents, enabling them to find a seat for their kids not far away from their local-ities. However, some parents have raised concern over the quality of their services. Most operators of the crèches say that they have enough seats to offer for new candidates.

Demand for affordable daycare facilities have gone up after more women have joined the job mar-ket, earning relatively low salaries to support their spouses in meeting the rising cost of living.

The registration charges differ from one crèche to another ranging from QR500 to QR1,000, The Penin-sula has learnt. The monthly fee at several newly opened middle range crèches range from QR1,000 to QR1,500. The fees at most high-end

nurseries are not less than QR2,500 per month. Some nurseries charge extra for additional hours. Most high-end nurseries are located in Doha downtown and some posh areas like Dafna and West Bay. Several middle range daycare facilities have opened in the city’s outskirts like Al Murra, Al Aziziya and Muaither.

“We have seats vacant. Regis-tration started early this month,” manager of a daycare facility in Al Aziziya near Wathnan Mall said.

“We charge QR500 for registration and QR5,400 for the first term extending from this month to year-end,” she added. A similar fee will be charged for the second term stretching from January 1 to May 1, 2017.

If the parents cannot afford to pay the charges in two instalments then they have to pay QR1,800 per month as per the policy of the school. Onetime lump some payment will save pretty good money for parents because in this case they will have to pay only QR1,350 per month. The working hours of the crèche is between 7am to 3pm, said the manager.

Another daycare facility run by an Indian management at Bin Mah-moud area has opened its doors to children aged up to four years.

“We charge as per the age of the children; QR1,000 per month for a child of one year and above and QR1,200 for children aged two months to one year,” said its manager . “We also charge QR500 as onetime registration fee and QR400 for stu-dent kit. We work between 8am to 12 (noon) from Sunday to Thursday. We provide additional hours with extra charges”, she added.

→ Continued on page 3

Demand for affordable creches soars

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) will mark this year’s World Tourism Day (WTD) celebrations with a five-day social media com-petition in which residents stand a chance to win exciting prizes. QTA is inviting people living in Qatar to join the contest by discovering the country through the eyes of a tourist.

Tour operators will offer spe-cial rates while hotels will give discounted packages in celebration of the global event under the theme Tourism For All – Promoting Univer-sal Accessibility.

For the social media competi-tion, life-size photo frames will be installed at eight landmarks around Qatar, through which participants

can take a photo to upload on social media, using the hashtags #WTD2016 and #ShowcaseQatar for a chance to win prizes which include weekend stays at a local five-star hotel.

Participants can increase their chances of winning by visiting and uploading photos of as many of the eight locations as they can. The loca-tions will be announced on QTA’s social media accounts: @VisitQatar and @QTACorporate.

The competition will run from September 27, the day set aside in the UN calendar to celebrate WTD 2016, until October 1.

Throughout this time, special packages at discounted prices will be available at local tourist establish-ments, courtesy of partnering hotels and tour operators. The packages include discounted bed and break-fast, spa treatments, and lunch

buffets, in addition to special rates for desert safaris, dinner dhow cruises, fishing trips and overnight camping.

The participating tour opera-tors are Qatar Ventures, Arabian Adventures Qatar, Gulf Adven-tures and Qatar International Adventures.

The participating hotels are Ramada Encore Doha, Al Sultan Beach Resort, Ezdan Hotel & Suites, Concorde Hotel Doha, Movenpick Hotel Westbay, Grand Hyatt Doha, Movenpick Doha, Amari DohaHotel, The St. Regis Doha, Intercontinental Doha The City, Mercure Grand Hotel, Adagio Premium Aparthotel, Al Liwan Suites, Best Western Plus Doha, Retaj Al Rayyan Doha, Retaj Royale Hotel, Retaj Residence Al Cor-niche, Oryx Rotana Doha, Saraya Corniche Hotel, Radisson Blu Hotel

Doha, Marriott Marquis City Cen-tre, The Avenue – A Merweb Hotel, The Torch Doha, Grand Regal Doha, Melia Doha, Westin Doha Hotel & Spa, Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention Hotel, City Centre Rotana, The Royal Riviera Hotel, W Doha, Hilton Doha, Four Seasons Hotel Doha, Marsa Malaz Kempin-ski, The Pearl, Corp Executive Hotel.

For details on each establish-ment’s WTD offer, those interested may contact the hotels and tour oper-ators directly.

“This year’s World Tourism Day is particularly significant for us as we are gearing up to host the offi-cial UN celebrations for WTD 2017, which will be fittingly held under the theme Sustainable Tourism – A Tool for Development.” commented Saif Al Kuwari, Director of PR and Com-munication at QTA.

‘ShowcaseQatar’ contest on social media

By Sidi Mohamed

The Peninsula

DOHA: More than QR16m have been collected at the fourth online auction of 25 fancy car plates which concluded on Thursday night.

The bidding witnessed strong competition among participants, especially in last hours. Plate number 311113 fetched the high-est price which was QR2,304,000, followed by plate number 322223 which fetched QR2,010,000. Plate numbers 313131 and 322222 fetched more than QR1.5m each.

The lowest price was for plate number 363633 with QR190,000.

The bidding launched by The General Directorate of Traffic at the Ministry of Interior was done through Metrash 2 and continued for three days from Tuesday 12 noon to Thursday late night.

The General Directorate of Traffic announced, as per rules the bidding would start from QR100,000 and participants were required to make a deposit of

Online fancy car plate bids fetch over QR16m

QR20,000 as insurance. The total collec-tion of the first day was more than QR4,6m, while on the second day it crossed more than QR7m.

Three-year multiple

entry visas for Qataris

visiting Japan

DOHA: Qatari citizens visiting Japan will be eligible for multiple entry visas for three years start-ing from next month.

“Multiple entry visas for three years will be issued for the holders of Qatari passports from Octo-ber, announced Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The move aims to strengthen bilateral rela-tion in several sectors especially in economic, trade and investment, Al Sharq reports.

Hadi vows to

liberate Yemen

UNITED NATIONS: Yemen Pres-ident Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi vowed at the United Nations to “extract Yemen from the claws of Iran” as he accused Tehran of impeding peace by intervening in the country. A Saudi-led Arab coa-lition has been fighting Iran-allied Houthi rebels since March 2015 in a bid to restore the internationally-backed Hadi to power after rebels took over the capital Sana’a.

AFP

ALEPPO: Missiles rained down on rebel-held areas of Syria’s Aleppo yesterday, causing widespread destruction that overwhelmed res-cue teams, as the army prepared a ground offensive to retake the city.

Nearly 30 civilians including several children were killed and

dozens wounded in the raids by Russian warplanes and regime aircraft, said the Syrian Observ-atory for Human Rights.

A high-ranking military source confirmed that the bom-bardment was preparation for a ground assault. “We have begun reconnaissance, aerial and artil-lery bombardment,” he said. “This could go on for hours or days

before the ground operation starts. The timing of the ground opera-tion will depend on the results of the strikes and the situation on the ground.”

The conflict in Syria has cost more than 300,000 lives and dis-placed over half the country’s population since March 2011.

→ See also page 3

Syria army readies for ground assault

Damaged aid supplies are seen after an airstrike on Tuesday on the rebel-held Urem Al Kubra town in the western Aleppo city in Syria, yesterday.

The new daycare facilities have become a boon for many parents, enabling them to find a seat for their kids not far away from their localities. However, some parents have raised concern over the quality of their services.

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HOME 02 SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attended a reception ceremony hosted by Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, at Getty House in Los Angeles, California. The reception, in which a number of Qatari institutions and agencies took part, was attended by several US leaders and officials including heads of companies and businessmen.

Turkey stronger after failed coup: Official

By Mohammed Osman

The Peninsula

DOHA: Turkey wants to become among the top five exporters to Qatar, a senior Turkish official has said.

“Our exports to Qatar currently stand between $480m to $500m, while our trade exchange is more than $1bn,” said Mehmet Buyuke-ksi, Chairman of Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM), which is the apex organisation of exporting firms in Turkey. “This figure does not reflect the huge potential of the two

countries and there are encourag-ing conditions to increase trade and raise the volume of economic coop-eration,” said Buyukeksi.

He emphasised that there are no obstacles to expansion of economic cooperation, pointing out that this was one of the issues discussed during the meeting held with Qatari officials. “We need to maximise the volume of trade exchange to the level of our political ties with Qatar and we expressed to our Qatari partners that we look for-ward to play a role in boosting exports to Qatar,” said the TIM Chairman.

On the sidelines of the joint meet-ing held between Qatari businessmen and their Turkish counterparts at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Wednesday, Buy-ukeksi told The Peninsula that Turkey emerged from the failed coup attempt on July 15 much stronger and there was no adverse impact on the economy. He stressed that the clearest evidence of it is the fact that “our exports increased by 7.3 percent last August”.

“We are here in a delegation chaired by Minister of Development Lutfi Elvan, which comprises rep-resentatives of different business

sectors and representatives of polit-ical parties to assure the Qatari businessmen and investors that the situation in Turkey has become more stable and encouraging to invest-ment” said Buyukeksi.

There are more than 60 Turkish companies investing more than $12bn

and mostly involved in infrastructure projects and projects related to FIFA World Cup 2022. Turkish construction companies seek to have more projects in Qatar and this will positively impact the import of construction materials like steel and cement, which means an increase in trade volume, said Buyukeksi.

He added that the same applies to other GCC states where there is huge trade potential, such as invest-ment funds and financial institutions. “We could have good benefits if we manage to sign free trade agreements with these countries.”

TIM, which has a member-ship of more than 65,000 export companies under 60 unions, with over three million employees, has managed to boost Turkish export volume to $144bn last year and its target this year is $150bn, the chair-man of TIM told this daily.

He explained that Qatari invest-ment in Turkey amounts to $20bn, and there are many more potential areas for Qataris to invest in. Talking about the trade exchange between the two countries, Buyukeksi said: “Qatari

exports to Turkey include gas, alu-minium, plastic and petrochemical products while Turkish exports include iron, electronic devices, motor vehi-cles, marine equipment, furniture, garments and food products.

Asked about the impact of the failed coup attempt on investments in general, Buyukeksi said everyone knows that the coup attempt was carried out by a terrorist organisation which killed within hours more than 240 people, and injured more 2,000. The attempt failed because Turkish people stood united against the ter-rorists defending the democratic system, and the elected government.

“I would like to assure that Tur-key is a big country and has economic and political institutions and Turk-ish people have the ability to settle their own problems and that is why the country came out of the coup attempt stronger than ever and now is cleaning its institutions from the members of this organisation to avoid similar attempts in the future. This has created in Turkey a conducive environment for business and invest-ment,” he emphasised.

Woqod working to addressshortage of fuel stationsBy Irfan Bukhari

The Peninsula

DOHA: As the issue of shortage of fuel stations in Qatar has come to the fore again after the end of summer vaca-tion, Woqod (Qatar Fuel) is speeding up efforts to solve the problem.

Waqod has deployed several mobile fuel stations across the city to cater to increased demand from motorists after the reopening of schools. Woqod recently deployed two mobile fuel stations at Al Wukair to meet the demand created due to the demolition of an old petrol sta-tion in the neighbourhood to give way to the ongoing expressway project.

Construction work on Woqod’s two new permanent fuel stations in Al Wukair is almost 50 percent complete.

“Soon, these fuel stations will start functioning and will contribute a lot to addressing the shortage of fuel stations in Al Wukair and Al Wakrah,” said an expatriate working with a mobile fuel station in Al Wukair. A fuel station near the Hamad International Airport is set to be inaugurated soon as its work is almost complete.

Despite Woqod’s mobile fuel sta-tions, motorists still have to suffer the pain of waiting in long queues in the city. At Teyseer fuel station at Al Hilal, this reporter witnessed long queues and worried motorists.

“This whole area has only two fuel stations while the number of

vehicles is increasing every day. The opening of schools has also increased the rush manifold,” said the manager of a fuel station.

He said Teyseer’s four fuel sta-tions out of seven had been shut down. “Now we are operating only three. There is some respite only on Friday being a holiday. Otherwise the number of motorists on working days is countless,” he added.

The fuel stations have not only been shut down due to cancellation of licences of private parties, some were demolished for development projects, particularly for road networks and metro project like the ones previously working in Al Rayyan, Najma and Al Wukair nighbourhoods.

Recently, to avoid rush, long hoses

were introduced at several Woqod fuel stations but this too failed to address the problem. Long hoses were meant to refill both right-sided and left-sided fuel tanks swiftly. But some are still operating with the short hoses.

Woqod’s fuel station at Abu Hamour still has short hoses. “Motor-ists with tanks on left side still face problems at this petrol station,” said a

motorist. He further pointed out that there was no fuel station on F-Ring Road. “Though Woqod has deployed two mobile petrol stations in Al Wukair, one has to wait for at least 15-20 minutes to get to his turn,” said Rupesh Kumar, a motorist waiting in the queue in Al Wukair. He said the only solution to the problem was set-ting up of dozens of new fuel stations.

“We need to maximise the volume of trade exchange to the level of our political ties with Qatar.”

Mehmet Buyukeksi, Chairman of Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM).

Motorists stuck in long queues at Woqod’s mobile fuel station in Al Wukair. Pic: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

Emir’s greetingsto Saudi King on National DayDOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday sent a cable of congratulations to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia on the occasion of Saudi Arabia’s National Day.

Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani also sent cables of congratulations to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques on the occasion.

NHRC concludestraining courseon human rights

DOHA: Qatar National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) con-cluded on Thursday a training course on national mechanisms for protecting human rights.

The two-day training work-shop was attended by members of non-governmental organisa-tions like voluntary groups and non-profit organisations managed by citizens at local or international level.

The aim was to build the capacities of the members of these organizations, raise awareness about the safeguards to ensure respect for fundamental rights of man and freedom.

The training programme covered two major aspects in six sessions. The first was proce-dures or measures to be taken at the level of the state, and the sec-ond was the means of protection at the international level.

Both were complementary and served the same goal, and were based on the same prin-ciple which is recognition and respect of human rights in its global sense.

The training programme high-lighted several topics concerning the general outlook of national mechanisms for the protection of human rights.

Emir attends reception in Los Angeles

HOME/MIDDLE EAST 03 SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at an event on digitisation of United Nations documents, organised by the Permanent Mission of Qatar to the United Nations in New York. Qatar has pledged a total project cost of $5m, to preserve the institutional memory of the UN and the historical legacy of more than 70 years. RIGHT: The Minister of Foreign Affairs with Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord of Libya, Fayez Al Sarraj, on the sidelines of the 71st Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Foreign minister meets UN Chief and Libyan leader

Reuters

NEW YORK: The ‘Quartet’ of Middle East peace mediators said yesterday it was strongly opposed to Israel’s ongoing settlement activity, warn-ing that it risked ending the chance of a two-state solution with the Pal-estinians.

Peace talks, envisaging a Pal-estinian state in territory Israel captured in a 1967 war, collapsed two years ago after nine months of largely fruitless discussions spon-sored by the United States.

The acid political climate between Israelis and Palestini-ans makes progress unlikely. Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Pres-ident Mahmoud Abbas showed no signs of a rapprochement during their speeches at the annual UN gathering of world leaders.

“The Quartet emphasised its strong opposition to ongoing settle-ment activity, which is an obstacle to peace, and expressed its grave concern that the acceleration of set-tlement construction and expansion ... (is) steadily eroding the viability of the two-state solution,” the Quar-tet said in a statement after meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

The group, which comprises the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, issued a report in July calling on Israel to stop its policy of building settlements on occupied land and restricting Palestinian development, but the activity has shown no signs of abating.

The Quartet also condemned a resurgence of violence. It urged both sides to de-escalate tensions and show restraint.

With US efforts to broker a deal frozen, France and Egypt have tried to revive interest, warning that letting the matter drift even during a US election year was counterproductive.

After outlining for the Quartet efforts to bring the two sides back to the table by year-end, Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said that while the path to peace was nar-rowing, it still existed.

“It’s true that listening to Abbas and Netanyahu’s speeches at the UN, you can’t say their views are con-verging ... but we can’t accept the fait accompli. That would lead to despair and violence,” he said.

AP

AMMAN: Election officials released the results of Jordan›s parliament election, and the opposition Muslim Brotherhood said its electoral bloc won 15 of 130 seats, roughly in line with its own predictions.

The number of female legislators rose to 20, from 18 in the outgoing legislature, according to the Inde-pendent Election Commission.

In Tuesday’s election, about 1.5 million Jordanians cast ballots for competing lists of candidates in 23 districts under a new proportional system. The Muslim Brotherhood’s

political arm, the Islamic Action Front, had boycotted elections in 2010 and 2013 to protest the previ-ous system, which it said unfairly favoured pro-monarchy tribal rep-resentatives. The IAF competed this time, forging electoral alliances with Christian, ethnic minority or tribal candidates in some areas.

The IAF-led alliance won 15 seats, the party announced yester-day, after final results were released.

The alliance will be the largest voting bloc in the new parliament, enough to serve as a vocal opposi-tion, but likely too small to challenge establishment legislators.

In the new parliament, 15 seats were reserved for women, nine

for Christians and three for ethnic minority Chechens and Circassian.

The total number of female leg-islators in the new parliament will be 20, including five who won com-petitively, outside the quota, election officials said.

Salma Nims, who heads Jordan›s quasi-governmental National Com-mission for Women, said she was encouraged by the increase. “It shows that the quota (system) is an opener for women,” she said.

The female lawmakers can try to build consensus on some issues, such as labor laws, even if some are sec-ular and others devout Muslims, she said. One of the newcomers is Huda Etoum, a 52-year-old high school

principal from the central city of Jerash. Etoum, one of three women in the IAF-led electoral bloc, will be the second lawmaker to wear a face veil.

She said in a phone interview that she has been in public service for more than two decades and that the face veil, or niqab, was never an issue.

“It is not my mind that is covered, it is my face,” she said. “Covering my face won›t hinder my public serv-ice or dealing with men in any of my activities.”

Etoum said she would seek to reverse recent education reforms which she felt removed too many religious references from school books.

Brotherhood bloc wins 15 seats in Jordan vote

Settlements big threat to Mideast peace: Quartet

Reuters

BEIRUT: Warplanes bombed Aleppo yesterday with what residents described as unprecedented feroc-ity after the Russian-backed Syrian army declared an offensive to fully capture Syria’s biggest city, killing off any hope of reviving a ceasefire.

Video images filmed by residents showed a young girl screaming as rescuers frantically dug her out of rubble, pulling her out alive.

Another showed rescuers digging out a toddler with their bare hands, shouting “God is Great” as they lifted him from the debris. The boy showed no signs of life as he was rushed off in a rescuer’s arms.

The apparent collapse of U.S.-backed peacemaking may mark a turning point in the five-year civil war, with the government and its

Russian and Iranian allies now seemingly determined to crush the rebellion in its biggest urban stronghold.

“Can you hear it? The neigh-bourhood is getting hit right now by missiles. We can hear the planes right now,” Mohammad Abu Rajab, a radiologist, said. “The planes are not leaving the sky, helicopters, bar-rel bombs, warplanes.”

Hamza Al Khatib, head of a hos-pital in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, said that 91 people had been killed in yesterday’s bombardment while the Civil Defence rescue group that operates in opposition areas said 40 buildings were destroyed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring body gave an initial death toll of 27.

Ammar al Selmo, the head of the Civil Defence, said the rescuers themselves were targeted, with three of their four centres in Aleppo hit.

“What’s happening now is anni-hilation in every sense of the word,” hesaid. “Today the bombardment is more violent, with a larger number of planes.”

The bombing came after the Syrian army announced overnight that it was launching an operation to recapture the rebel-held sector of the city.

Yesterday, a Syrian military source denied the army was tar-geting civilians, saying it was accurately targeting “terrorist posi-tions” in Aleppo. Western diplomats fear a bloodbath if the government unleashes a full-blown assault to capture the besieged opposition-held zone, where 250,000 civilians are still trapped.

“The only way to take east-ern Aleppo is by such a monstrous atrocity that it would resonate for generations. It would be the stuff of history,” one Western diplomat said.

Fierce air strikes on Aleppo after army declares offensive

AP

ROSETTA, EGYPT: The bodies of 162 people had been pulled from the waters off the Egyptian coast by yesterday, two days after a boat car-rying hundreds of migrants capsized in the Mediterranean while attempt-ing to head to Europe.

Dozens more are feared dead, said Mohammed Sultan, the gover-nor of Beheira, who provided The Associated Press with the latest fig-ures. He also said that the search operation is still ongoing. Many of them are believed to be children and women who were unable to swim away when the boat sank.

Wahdan el-Sayyed, the spokes-man of the Nile Delta province of Beheira, told The Associated Press that the search operation was ongoing.

→ Continued from page 1“I pay about 50% of my salary as fees for my child going to a nurs-

ery,” lamented an assistant teacher working with a private international school.

“This is not fair. The schools should provide daycare facilities for chil-dren of their women staff either free or at affordable charges,” she added.

“Working mothers would feel more comfortable when their small chil-dren stay close to them,” said another teacher of a school, also stressing the need for nurseries at workplaces.

“I have put my child in a nursery in Dafna and pay QR2,500 per month,” said Umm Abdullah, a businesswoman supplying toys.

“It is a little bit expensive but to tell the truth their services are worth it,” she added.

Expensive nurseries follow international curriculum, mostly British or American. They hire qualified teachers and caretakers from abroad, paying high salaries.

When the child enters third year, they start teaching colours, num-bers, phonic, sound and shape. Children also learn music and dance. Such nurseries have bigger space for children to play different types of games.

The most important thing is hygiene that only professional staff could maintain. They are trained on how to handle toddlers and small children properly.

“I had some bitter experience with a cheaper daycare facility my elder son used to go. Sorry to say that I often found his diaper full, unchanged. So I opted for the expensive one for my younger child,” said the businesswoman.

Expensive nurseries provide better services

162 bodies retrieved

after migrant boat

capsizes off Egypt

Israel’s ongoing settlement activity risked ending the chance of a two-state solution with the Palestinians, warns the group, which comprises the US, the UN, the European Union and Russia.

DAR ES SALAAM: A Tan-zanian lecturer has been charged with insulting President John Magufuli in a WhatsApp message, a senior police official said, bringing the number of people charged under a tough new cybercrimes law to 10.

Magufuli, nicknamed “the bulldozer” for push-ing through his policies, has won some praise from Western donors for anti-corruption drives.

Insulting the presi-dent was made a criminal offense in Tanzania under a cybercrimes law passed last year, punishable by up to three years in jail, a fine of around $3,000, or both.

Tanzania indicts

lecturer for

WhatsApp insult

ASIA / AFRICA04 SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

Hard labour

Mali leader warns UN about terrorist gainsReuters

UNITED NATIONS: Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita warned the United Nations yesterday that the failure to fully implement a nation-wide peace accord was helping Al Qaeda and Islamic State-affiliated groups spread their influence in the country.

UN peacekeepers are deployed across northern Mali to try to sta-bilise the vast region, which was

occupied by separatist Tuareg rebels and Al Qaeda-linked Islam-ist militants in 2012 before France intervened in 2013. Tit-for-tat vio-lence between rival armed groups has distracted Mali from fighting Islamist militants and the country has become the deadliest place for UN peacekeepers to serve.

“We have to admit that several factors are contradicting our will and effort,” Keita told a high-level meeting on Mali at the annual United Nations General Assembly.

“In particular the extension of

terrorism and banditry in the cen-tre of our country which is even putting into question the stability and security of neighbouring coun-tries because of the desire of terrorist groups affiliated to Al Qaeda and Islamic State seeking to expand.”

Keita said Islamist militants were using the slow implementation of peace accords to “manipulate” and “destroy” links between different ethnic groups in Mali.

A clash in the north this week between pro-government Gatia militia and the Tuareg separatist

Coordination of Azawad Movements highlighted the fragility of a UN-backed deal signed last year between the government and northern armed groups meant to end a cycle of uprisings.

“We must redouble our efforts,” Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra, whose country leads mediation efforts in Mali, told the meeting. “It’s terrible that signato-ries of the accord are involved in the fratricidal killings.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, whose country has

thousands of troops spread across West Africa to hunt down militants, said the security situation was “in general satisfying despite asymmet-ric attacks.”

On Thursday the international mediation team, which includes the UN, European Union, African Union and regional bloc ECOWAS said it believed the situation could not continue without compromis-ing the agreement. It threatened international sanctions on those responsible for blocking the deal’s implementation.

No evidence MH370 jet

‘debris’ exposed to fire

Possible debris from missing passenger jet MH370 handed over by a US amateur investigator, which was not ‘exposed to heat or fire’ amid speculation it was blackened by flames.

Kenya charges

cleric’s widow

over police attack

MOMBASA: The widow of a radical Muslim preacher was charged of helping three other women attack a Kenyan police station.

In what the first inci-dent in Kenya to be claimed by IS, the women entered Mombasa’s cen-tral police station on September 11 under the pretext of reporting a sto-len phone.

They stabbed one officer and set fire to the building with a petrol bomb before they were all shot dead.

A Kenyan court charged Hania Said Sagar with withholding infor-mation that could have prevented the attack.

AFP

SYDNEY: Possible debris from miss-ing passenger jet MH370 handed over by a US amateur investigator was not “exposed to heat or fire”, Australian authorities said, follow-ing speculation it was blackened by flames.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which is coordinat-ing the search for the Boeing 777 Malaysia Airlines plane that disap-peared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 carry-ing 239 passengers and crew, added that it was not yet able to link the pieces to MH370.

American Blaine Gibson brought the two recently recovered items from Madagascar to Australia to be forensically investigated by the ATSB on September 12 and told local media then that one piece appeared to show “some signs of melting... as you see when something is exposed to fire”.

But Australian Transport Min-ister Darren Chester said after an initial examination of the fibreglass-honeycomb composite debris that “what is known is that contrary to speculation there is no evidence the item was exposed to heat or fire”.

“With the agreement of the government of Malaysia, the ATSB examined the items but found no manufacturing identifiers such as

part numbers or serial numbers that provided clues as to the items’ ori-gins,” Chester added in a statement.

“At this stage it is not possible to determine whether the debris is from MH370 or indeed even a Boe-ing 777.

“Further work will be under-taken in an attempt to determine the origin of the items, specifically whether they originated from a Boe-ing 777 aircraft.”

It is not yet known why the jet went down. No trace of the plane has been found in the current 120,000-square-kilometre search zone in the southern Indian Ocean, fuelling speculation it may have crashed outside the area.

Several pieces of debris linked to the flight have been discov-ered along western Indian Ocean shorelines. The first piece found was a two-metre wing part known as a flaperon that washed up on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion in July 2015.

The ATSB said in its report on the two pieces recovered near Sainte Luce on the southeast coast of Madagascar that a dark grey col-ouration on most of both sides of the items were due to “an applied resin and was not the result of exposure to heat or fire”.

The larger piece had three small marks “resulting from localised heating”, but there was “no evi-dence of overall gross heat damage”.

Reuters

NEW YORK: More than 6 mil-lion people in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon face severe hunger, including 1 million on the edge of famine, as a result of Boko Haram violence, aid agencies said yesterday as they appealed for more money to tackle the regional crisis.

The Islamist group’s seven year insurgency to create an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria has killed 15,000 people and forced 2.4 mil-lion to flee their homes.

More than 65,000 people are liv-ing in famine in pockets of northeast Nigeria, and over one million oth-ers are “one step away” from famine, a coalition of 15 aid groups includ-ing Oxfam, the International Rescue Committee and Catholic Relief Serv-ices said.

“What we are seeing is families teetering on the edge of famine,”

Yannick Pouchalan, country director for Nigeria for Action Against Hun-ger, said. “We see families who have not eaten for days, many are beg-ging for food.”

In some areas of Nigeria’s Borno state, more than half of children under five suffer acute malnutrition - similar to the rates seen in Somalia in 2011, when the scale and severity of hunger led to a declaration of fam-ine, the aid groups said.

They said the conflict and coun-ter-insurgency operations had led to farmlands, rivers and lakes being cut off from communities in and around the Lake Chad area that rely on agriculture and fishing to feed themselves.

“Civilians have paid a high price for policies of cutting off Boko Haram›s food and supplies,” said Oxfam’s Lisa Bay in a statement.

“We have seen hugely generous communities welcome people who have fled their homes - but now they have nothing to give. They too are

hungry and need access to aid.”The coalition appealed for

money to respond to the emer-gency, noting that a UN appeal for $740m to help those displaced by Boko Haram violence was less than a quarter funded.

It called for $90m by the end of the year on top of $53m received this year.

On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama said he and Nigerian Pres-ident Mohammadu Buhari had discussed ways of countering the militant group.

Nigeria is battling Boko Haram on the ground and with air strikes. A multi-national joint task force - comprising troops from Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin - is also fighting the militants.

In New York, representatives of the countries affected by Boko Haram violence said humanitarian priorities included healthcare, food, drinking water and shelter.

6 million battle famine in NE Nigeria

Myanmar to probe child ‘slavery’ caseReuters

YANGON: Amid unprecedented public outrage over its handling of a child abuse case, Myanmar’s National Human Rights Commis-sion (MNHRC) is facing scrutiny from the government after the office of President Htin Kyaw said it was reviewing its actions.

Lawyers, activists and politi-cians are calling for commission members to stand down after they allegedly failed in their duty when told about the abuse of two girls employed at a tailor shop in Yangon.

The girls, aged 16 and 17 said they were held against their will for five years and denied wages. Photographs showed they had suf-fered burns and their arms were lined with scars from knife wounds.

The office of President Htin Kyaw said it was monitoring the case.

“It is studying the MNHRC’s measures in connection with this incident, and is also watching developments arising from this incident.”

The commission is the main organisation addressing the rights abuses that monitoring groups still frequently report in Myanmar.

The case has also drawn crit-icism of the police, who failed to act for some three months after a reporter tipped them off about the case, the commission has said.

When the reporter went to the commission, its response was to negotiate a financial settlement, allowing the suspected abusers to escape prosecution by paying about $4,000 to the victims and their families.

A man rests on his cart after unloading plastic jugs near a shop at a main market in Colombo, yesterday.

Gabon braces for court’s ruling on disputed pollReuters

LIBREVILLE: Gabon’s Constitutional Court said it would issue a ruling on Friday (yesterday) on an election that opposition leader Jean Ping said was rigged to give President Ali Bongo victory.

The court’s nine judges held a hearing on Ping’s election complaint on Thursday, a witness said.

They are expected to announce a recount of ballots cast in the August 27 vote or final results.

The election has drawn unwel-come scrutiny on Bongo, whose family has ruled the oil-producing country for almost half a century. France has called for a recount and the European Union questioned the integrity of the results.

Six lawyers for Bongo and two for Ping sat at tables about five metres apart in the glass-domed court-room. All wore black robes and

white cravat-style collars. At least 12 armed security personnel stood guard outside the courthouse.

The top document on a pile stacked on the opposition’s legal table was titled Province Haut-Ogooue, a stronghold region for Bongo who won 95 percent of the vote there on a 99.9 percent turnout, according to electoral commission results.

Ping has said that result was rigged. At least six people died in clashes after the result was announced.

“What we are asking for is a con-firmation of the voting tallies. Why not make this comparison? I think that this (court’s) analysis doesn’t conform to reality,” Ping’s lawyer Jean Remi Batsantsa told the court in an animated speech.

Ali Bongo’s lawyer said recently the court should reject Ping’s com-plaint, in part because it was wrong to single out one province for a recount.

Bongo became president in 2009 on the death of his father, who ruled for 42 years.

Ping has said that he has no faith in the court because of its ties to the president.

Lawyers Eric Moutet (left) and William Bourdon, hold a press conference in Paris after two complaints were filed in France following the violence in Libreville after the presidential election and the victory of Ali Bongo.

Militants were using the slow implementation of peace accords to “manipulate” and “destroy” links between different ethnic groups: Keita

ASIA / PHILIPPINES 05SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

Abe meets Castro; seeks Cuba’s helpReuters

HAVANA: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the first Japanese leader to visit Communist-ruled Cuba, called for a strong and unified international response to North Korea’s nuclear programme in rare talks with former Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Thurs-day.

Cuba is one of North Korea’s few diplomatic allies, along with China,

and a fellow member of the non-aligned movement formed in 1961 by states wanting to avoid siding with the United States or the Soviet Union.

“The PM pointed out the necessity (for) the international com-munity to respond to this rigorously in unity,” Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Yasuhisa Kawamura said after Abe’s 70-minute meeting with Fidel Castro, the predecessor and elder brother of Cuban Presi-dent Raul Castro.

Fidel Castro visited the site of the

world’s first atomic bombing Hiro-shima in 2003 and left a message in the guestbook saying “May such bar-barity never happen again”. He told Abe the issue of Pyongyang’s nuclear programme should be resolved peacefully through dialogue, Kawa-mura said.

Abe met Raul Castro later in the evening to discuss how Japan and Cuba could deepen bilateral relations, in particular in the com-mercial and economic spheres, Cuban state media reported.

S Korea questions North’s right to UN membership

Reuters

UNITED NATIONS: South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se (pictured) accused North Korea on Thursday of “totally ridiculing” the authority of the United Nations through its nuclear and missile tests and said it was time to reconsider whether it was qualified for UN membership.

In an address to the annual United Nations General Assembly, Yun said the UN security Council should adopt “stronger, compre-hensive” sanctions on North Korea after its fifth nuclear test on Septem-ber 9 and close loopholes in existing measures.

“North Korea’s repeated vio-lations and non-compliance of Security Council resolu-tions and international norms is

unprecedented and has no parallel in the history of the UN,” Yun said recently.

“North Korea is totally ridicul-ing the authority of the General Assembly and the Security Coun-cil,” he said.

“Therefore, I believe it is high time to seriously reconsider whether North Korea is qualified as a peace-loving UN member, as many countries are already questioning.”

Yun said recently North Korea had not only advanced its nuclear and missile capacity, but publicly threatened to use those weapons preemptively. He said it was the “last chance” to put a brake on its nuclear ambitions.

Yun also called for action against North Korea’s violations of the rights of its own people, and said there should be greater focus on North

Korean workers abroad and the possible diversion of their wages to weapons programmes.

Discussions are already under way on a possible new UN sanctions resolution on North Korea after its latest nuclear test.

Analysts and diplomats say much depends on China’s attitude.

China is North Korea’s main ally, but has been angered by its repeated missile and nuclear tests and backed tough UN sanctions on Pyongyang in March.

At the same time, it has repeatedly called for a return to international talks to resolve the issue, in spite of the skepticism of other world powers.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told the General Assembly on Wednesday countries must remain committed to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, while seeking a solution to the North Korean nuclear issue through dialogue.

The United States said Li and US President Barack Obama agreed in New York on Monday to step up cooperation in the UN Security Council and in law enforcement channels.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday the threat posed by North Korea was “substan-tially more serious” than in the past and demanded an “entirely distinct” response.

HANOI: A well-known-Vietnamese political blogger and his assist-ant lost their appeal on Thursday when a higher court upheld their jail terms and reaffirmed they had abused their freedom and hurt the state’s interests.

The two were found guilty for “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to infringe upon the interest of the state”, the presiding judge said,

Vietnam upholds

jail terms for

political bloggers

Reuters

BANGKOK: Three Thai policemen were killed and two wounded yes-terday in a bomb and gun attack in the southern province of Yala where Muslim separatists have been wag-ing a simmering insurgency against the state.

The attack came just over a month after a series of bombs in three of Thailand’s main tour-ist towns killed four people and wounding dozens and raised fears the insurgents were expanding their fight to tourist targets.

Police were traveling in two pick-up trucks when the first vehicle was blown up by a road-side bomb, police Lieutenant Colonel Chamnan Bhutpakdee said.

“The assailants detonated the bomb when the truck was passing over, instantly killing the three offic-ers,” he said.

Insurgents then opened fire on the second vehicle, wounding two officers, Chamnan said.

One of them was in critical condition.

Yala, along with Pattani and Narathiwat, are Muslim-majority provinces in mostly Buddhist Thai-land’s deep south.

Insurgency has plagued the eth-nic Malay region for decades but it

intensified in 2004. Since then, more than 6,500 people have been killed, according to the Deep South Watch monitoring group.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank warned in a report this week that the August attacks showed “a clear shift, and appar-ent decision to expand the conflict” that has been largely confined to the three southern-most provinces.

Military personnel inspect the site of a bomb attack at Krong Pinang District in the troubled southern province of Yala, Thailand, yesterday.

Anatolia

ZAMBOANGA CITY: The Philip-pines’ military insisted yesterday that offensives against IS-linked militant group would continue despite a fugi-tive Moro rebel leader’s request for their suspension during negotiations for the release of hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf.

The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebel group -- which is engaged in a peace process with the government -- has been facilitating

negotiations which resulted in the release of a Norwegian and four Indonesians over the past week in the troubled southern island prov-ince of Sulu. The Norwegian and three Indonesian fishermen freed over the weekend were hosted by the MNLF’s Nur Misuari.

Brig Gen Restitution Padilla, Armed Forces Philippines spokes-man, underlined yesterday the importance of the military pushing through with its operations against the Abu Sayyaf despite ongoing efforts for the release of more than 10 remaining hostages.

“We have not agreed with Mis-uari. It is important to continue the operation. It happened before that the request becomes the root of escape,” he said yesterday.

“Just continue the operations. Just give space for the turnover and transfer. We’re not withdrawing the forces,” he added.

Five additional battalions of security forces, consisting of 2,000 to 3,000 men, have recently been deployed to Sulu’s capital Jolo to maintain pressure on the Abu Sayyaf.

Since 1991, the group -- armed with mostly improvised explosive

devices, mortars and automatic rifles -- has carried out bombings, kidnap-pings, assassinations and extortion in a self-determined fight for an inde-pendent province in the Philippines.

It is one of two militant groups in the south to have pledged allegiance to IS, prompting fears during the stalling of a peace process between the government and MNLF-break-away group the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that it could make inroads in a region torn by decades of armed conflict.

In 2013, Misuari’s MNLF faction laid siege to the majority-Christian

southern city of Zamboanga to pro-test a peace process by the rival rebel group, which Misuari claims leaves Muslims in the country’s south shortchanged in comparison to an earlier MNLF peace deal.

Last month, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered security forces not to arrest the MNLF founder by saying, “If Nur Misuari comes out from where he is right now in Jolo, Sulu, escort him and bring [him] to where I am.”

On Thursday, the Philippine mil-itary announced the surrender of 21 members of the Abu Sayyaf militant group.

Duterte plans visits to Japan and China

Three Thai police officers die in ambush

Philippine military rejects Misuari call to halt offensives

Tourist dies in

jet-ski accident

in Australia

Reuters

MANILA: Diplomats in the Philip-pines are in talks with counterparts in Japan and China to arrange visits by controversial President Rodrigo Duterte at the end of next month, officials in Manila said yesterday.

Dates were still being worked out for the proposed trips by the

outspoken leader, several officials said, remaining anonymous because they were not authorised to speak to media.

A Japanese foreign ministry official confirmed plans were being made. China’s Foreign Ministry did not confirm the trip, but reiterated its invitation for Duterte to visit “at an early date”.

The Philippines’ relations with Japan are warm but those with China

have long been frosty over territo-rial wrangles in the South China Sea.

Duterte has repeatedly said con-flict was pointless and he wants to get along and do business with Beijing.

Some analysts believe Duterte’s uncharacteristic verbal restraint towards China, in contrast to his stinging rebukes of the US, United Nations and European Union, shows he is hedging in pursuit of his goal of

an independent foreign policy and reducing reliance on former colonial ruler Washington.

China and the Philippines are trying to find a way to break the ice after a verdict by an arbitral court in The Hague in July invalidated China’s claims to most of the South China Sea.

During a speech on Thursday, Duterte said he would go to China this year and told Chinese business-men: “You will see me often”.

SYDNEY: A Japanese tourist died after she lost control of her rented jet-ski and hit a moored boat in northern Australia on Thursday.

The 27-year-old woman was riding with her husband and an instructor in Cairns, northern Queensland, when she hit the side of the tourist boat, the Seven Network said.

She was pulled from the water by witnesses but paramedics were unable to revive her.

North Korea is totally ridiculing the authority of the General Assembly and the Security Council: Official

Cuba’s former president Fidel Castro (right) and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meet in Havana, Cuba.

UN agency snubs Taiwan

amid impasse with China

Reuters

MONTREAL/TAIPEI: A UN avia-tion agency has snubbed Taiwan by not inviting it to its assembly in Canada, the latest sign of pressure China is bringing to bear on the new independence-leaning government of an island it views as a renegade province.

Diplomatically isolated Tai-wan is not a member of the UN, which recognises “One China” cen-tred on Beijing. China, in turn, sees self-ruled Taiwan as fit to be taken back by force if necessary, partic-ularly if it makes moves toward independence.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said arrange-ments for the assembly, scheduled for September 27 to October 7 in Montreal, did not follow the pat-tern ahead of a meeting in 2013,

when China had asked for Taiwan to be invited.

“ICAO follows the UN’s ‘One China’ policy,” the agency’s commu-nications chief, Anthony Philbin, said.

“While arrangements had been made for their attendance at the last (38th) session of the assembly, there are no arrangements for this one.”

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said it had approached China about the issue in early August with a “pragmatic and positive” attitude, but was “flatly rejected”.

“We solemnly call on China to open its heart and think seriously as it may face serious consequences for its one-sided actions.”

Taiwan Foreign Minister David Lee said diplomacy had never been an easy task for Taiwan, formally known as the “Republic of China”.

“In the foreseeable future, I am not expecting this to change sub-stantially,” he said.

Taiwanese Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee attends a news conference after Taiwan was not invited to the assembly meeting of a United Nations aviation agency, in Taipei, yesterday.

PAKISTAN06 SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

Govt to attendanti-tobacco meet in India

ISLAMABAD: Despite the heightened tensions between India and Paki-stan, Islamabad is all set to participate at an inter-national anti-tobacco meet to be held in New Delhi later this year.

The participants of the seventh Conference of Parties (COP7), along with other agendas, are going to devise an International Plan of Action 2017-18 for the implementation of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) along with its budget. The meet is expected to be held between November 7 and 12.

The Ministry of National Health Serv-ices, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC) has nominated Direc-tor Tobacco Control Cell Muhammad Waqas Tarar to represent Pakistan at the mega conference.

Pakistan ranked

149th in UN

health goals

KARACHI: Pakistan has been ranked 149th among 188 countries in the first global assessment of countries’ progress towards the United Nations’ health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Titled the Global Bur-den of Disease Study, the analysis was launched at a special event at the UN General Assembly in New York and published in The Lancet on Friday. The study evaluates coun-tries by creating an overall index score on a scale of zero to 100. Pakistan shares the score of 38 with Bangladesh and Mauri-tania - six places behind India and way behind Iran.

“These analyses are critically important for Pakistan as they can help set a baseline based on recent performance and also set a trajectory for achieving the health and health-related SDGs,” said Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta, Founding Director of the Aga Khan Universi-ty’s Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health and co-author of the study. The analysis shows that expanded health cov-erage, greater access to family planning, and fewer deaths of newborns and children under the age of five are among sev-eral health improvements contributing to progress toward achieving SDGs. However, Hepatitis B, childhood obesity, violence and alcohol consumption have worsened.

Internews

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani defence forces have made an operational plan ready to give a befitting response to any misadventure from war-mongering India and in case of a surgical strike from the enemy, even targets in India have been selected for an immediate quid pro quo.

Defence sources said, “Paki-stan is fully prepared to meet any military challenge from India. Our operational plan is ready, quid pro quo targets are finalised and forces have been dedicated,” a source said, adding that Pakistan would not digest any aggression from India,These sources said, “India is well aware of our capabilities and also knows the fact that despite the Pakistan Army’s participa-tion in internal security issues, a

military balance is well maintained to meet any challenge from across the border.”

“Whether it is a Cold Start or hot pursuit, we are ready,” a defence source said when asked about India’s reported preparations to attack selected targets in Pakistan under the Cold Start war doctrine.

The defence sources said that neither will any air space violation nor will any ground attack be toler-ated. In case of surgical attack from India, these sources said that Paki-stan would immediately respond for which targets had already been set. According to a source, in view of Pakistan’s defence capabilities and knowing well how Pakistan could respond, India might not get beyond the war hysteria it had created. The source said that there were reports that India might go for a terrorist attack in Balochistan through its proxies while using the Afghan soil.

Tensions between the neigh-bouring nuclear Pakistan and India have raised after the latter prema-turely and without any evidence blamed the former for the recent Uri attack in occupied Kashmir in which 17 Indian forces personnel were killed.

Without holding any investiga-tion into the attack, India pointed the finger at Pakistan. Such had been the irrational and irresponsi-ble reaction of India that its leading Director General Military Opera-tion (DGMO), who is a Lieutenant General, had announced that the attackers had Pakistani arms.Fol-lowing the Pathankot incident, Pakistan sent its Joint Investigation Team, which was not given enough space to probe the matter.

Defence forces ready for any ‘misadventure’

Pakistani Kashmiris walk with their horses in the border town of Chakot.

Walking in the rain

Reuters

ISLAMABAD: Former Cold War-era rivals Pakistan and Russia are due to hold their first ever military exercise this month, Pakistan’s military said yesterday, in another sign of shift-ing alliances in South Asia.

During the Cold War, Pakistan spent a decade helping the United States funnel arms and fighters into neighbouring Afghanistan to help insurgent groups fight Soviet sol-diers following their 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.

At the time, the communist

Soviet Union was closely aligned with Pakistan’s arch-enemy India, while the United States was a staunch supporter of Pakistan.

Pakistan’s top military spokes-man, Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa, said a “contingent of Russian ground forces” arrived in Pakistan for a two-week exercise beginning today. About 200 military personnel from both sides would be involved in the exercises, Pakistan’s Tribune Express newspaper said, citing mil-itary sources.

Pakistani media last year reported Islamabad had bought four Mi-35 attack helicopters from Rus-sia in a first military deal of its kind

between them.While ties between Russia and

Pakistan are growing closer, Paki-stan’s relations with the United States have cooled. Washington accused Islamabad of harbouring Afghan Taliban fighters, something that Pakistan denies.

The United States has also improved ties with India, which Pakistan views warily.

Pakistan’s relations with its steadfast, “all-weather” ally China have developed over the past year or so with a plan for $46bn in Chinese investment in a road and rail energy corridor linking western China with Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coast.

First joint military exercise with Russia starts today

Ethnic Afghan Hazara children return home on a donkey to their village on the outskirts of Bamiyan, located in central Afghanistan.

Home ride

Reuters

WASHINGTON: The Afghan gov-ernment’s peace deal with a notorious Islamist warlord is an “encouraging” step in the effort to resolve the country’s conflict, the commander of US-led international forces in Afghanistan said yesterday.

Afghan officials signed a peace deal on Thursday with a party led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a move that inspired both hope and fear as it dredged up tensions dating back decades. The militant faction of Hezb-i-Islami, led by Hekmatyar, has been battling to establish an Islamic state in Afghanistan.

“This is positive in the sense that this represents a group that is resid-ing largely outside of Afghanistan that is now reaching a reconciliation agreement with the government which will eventually involve a reintegration into Afghan society,” Army General John Nicholson told reporters at the Pentagon.

“This is one of the most

important steps we see towards an eventual resolution of the conflict in Afghanistan,” Nicholson said.

Compared to other militant groups like the Taliban or Islamic State, however, Hezb-i-Islami has played a relatively small role in the insurgency recently, and analysts say the accord is mostly symbolic.

Peace talks with the Taliban, the largest insurgent group, have yet to get off the ground, but both sides have said they are open to the idea.

Nicholson said about 10 per-cent of territory in Afghanistan was controlled or influenced by the Tal-iban, with up to another 25 percent being contested. He added that he was concerned about the high level of casualties among Afghan forces and had been working with Afghan leaders to adjust tactics to reduce them. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford told a US Senate hearing this week that the security situation in Afghanistan was at a “stalemate” amid concerns about the Afghan security forces’ capabilities.

Internews

ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan’s Paki-stan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) yesterday approached the Chief Election Com-missioner (CEC) seeking legal action against ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for purport-edly creating in Punjab what it called a ‘militant wing’ with the name of Janisran-e-Nawaz Sharif.

“It has been widely reported and highlighted in the electronic and print media that the members of this force have been recruited on the instruction of the PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and State Minister Abid Sher Ali, MPA Zaeem Qadri and oth-ers are leading this criminal activity at his behest.

“It is also reported (that) they (the

PML-N workers) are being trained in different parts of Punjab,” the PTI claimed in its letter addressed to CEC Justice (retd) Sardar Muham-mad Raza.On September 30, the PTI is scheduled to hold ‘anti-corruption’ protest march towards Raiwind.

The Punjab government has announced that it will provide secu-rity to participants of the march.However, some second-tier leaders of the ruling party had been issu-ing threatening statements against the protest rally till the last few days.

Citing media reports the PTI’s Deputy Secretary General Farrukh Habib said the PML-N, by creating Nawaz Janisar force, has violated the mandatory provisions of the Political Parties Order 2002 as well as article 256 of the constitution of Pakistan.

“This force has been established to target and promote hatred and

animosity specifically against the PTI and its members,” Habib said as he asked the CEC to take legal action against PML-N.Meanwhile, the Elec-tion Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has warned the PTI chief Imran Khan against making speech in Tax-ila today (Friday) as part of election campaign for his party’s candidate for Punjab Assembly’s constituency PP-7.

In a letter to the PTI chief, the district election commissioner said as per the ECP’s code of conduct public office holders, ministers and members of national and provin-cial assemblies cannot campaign for candidates in by-elections.

Falling under NA-53, the pro-vincial assembly’s seat in PP-7 had fallen vacant due to the death of the PTI lawmaker Saddiq Khan, younger brother of Ghulam Sarwar Khan.

PTI approaches election commission

against ruling PML-N’s militant wing

“Whether it is a Cold Start or hot pursuit, we are ready,” a defence source said when asked about India’s reported preparations to attack selected targets in Pakistan under the Cold Start war doctrine.

Afghan peace deal an

encouraging step: US

Internews

PESHAWAR: Rukhsana Habib has a thing of history. Every day, she spends hours pouring over the old manuscripts and historical material in the Islamia College lib-erary in Pakistan’s northwest city of Peshawar with the passion of a researcher.“Reading old books is my favourite pastime and this library is the only place in the city that affords me historical books and a great envi-ronment for study,” said Rukhsana, who teaches political science at the Islamia college.

In the time between classes, Rukhsana can be found in the

gloomy interiors of the city’s oldest library, reading or searching the library’s online archives for books to borrow.“I have been to every library in the city and university depart-ments and this is the only one where you can search the digital archives yourself,” Rukhsana told News Lens.The Islamia College’s 100 year old library has been digitized in 2015, making available its 90,000 books and 1261 historical manuscripts to students and researchers at just a click of the keypad.

For a college whose establish-ment in 1913 laid the foundation of education in the province then known as the Northwest Frontier Province under the British Raj in United India the central library is

among its precious assets.It is one the oldest in Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa, containing rare books and manuscripts dating back hundred of years.

It is also one of the biggest. The building of library consists of two large halls and nine adjacent rooms. One hall and four rooms were added to the library in 1972.Tehseen Ullah Khan, the librarian, told News Lens that the library was first in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that had scanned thousands of rare books and made them available to the students with full text, through its online digital archives.

“The online system initiated this year has made searching books very easy for students,” said Khan.

Peshawar’s 100-year-old library digitised

SC gives Subrata

Roy time frame

to surrender

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court yesterday gave Sahara chief Subrata Roy time till September 30 to surrender. The court had earlier yesterday morning recalled its interim order granting him parole.

The bench headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur also said that they will hear an application moved by Sahara on Sep-tember 28.

Karnataka Council

opposes Cauvery

water to TNBENGALURU: The Karna-taka Legislative Council yesterday unanimously decided not to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, saying the water was needed for drinking purposes in the state.

A special session of the house was convened to discuss the impact of the Supreme Court’s September 20 order to Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of water daily till September 27.

The Council passed an unanimous resolution that the water in the dams would be used for drink-ing purposes in the state and that the water can’t be released to TN.

Forces fire at

protesters in

J&k; one dead SRINAGAR: One person was killed and dozens of others wounded yes-terday when Indian government forces fired live ammunition and shotgun pellets to stop protests against Indian rule in the disputed Hima-layan region of Kashmir, police said.

A police officer said the man died in the north-western Sopore area after soldiers fired at protest-ers who attacked an army convoy with stones.

Top cops under

probe in Kerala

bar scam case

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The infamous bar scam case of 2014 saw yet another twist to the tale yesterday, with a local court here ordering a preliminary probe into the role played by two Vigilance Department officials, who were part of the scam investigation.

Based on a petition filed by a social worker P. Nawaz, who saw a con-certed move to thwart a free and fair probe into the scam, the Thiruvanan-thapuram Special Court ordered the Vigilance Director to submit a pre-liminary report within 45 days.

SC to hear plea on

helicopter deal

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear a plea by politi-cal organisation Swaraj Abhiyan for a CBI/SIT investigation into the alleged wrongdoings in the purchase of helicop-ters by Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattis-garh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.

INDIA 07SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

IANS

NEW DELHI: India yesterday signed a deal with France to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets to meet critical operational requirement for a multi-role combat aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian signed the agreement in this regard here.

The deal was preceded by tough negoti-ations over the price and is expected to cost India some ¤7.87bn. The deal also has a provi-sion for transfer of technology through offsets.

Soon after the deal was signed, Parrikar said in a tweet: “Will significantly improve India’s strike and defence capabilities.”

The tough price negotiations led to a delay in the finalisation of the deal, which covers delivery of 36 planes, spares and weapons.

The fighter plane will be equipped with

Meteor, a beyond-visual range air-to-air mis-sile expected to considerably advance IAF’s capability in aerial combat.

The Rafale aircraft would have advanced features like advanced electronically scanned array radar, mid-air refuelling and advanced electronic warfare equipment.Informed sources said the jets would arrive in India in batches, with the first two coming in the next few months. A team from France was camping in New Delhi for some weeks for negotiating the deal. India had decided to ink the deal for 126 Rafale jets in 2012 during the previ-ous United Progressive Alliance government. The deal was estimated to cost $10.2 bn and the plan was to acquire 18 aircraft in fly-away condition and manufacturing the rest in India.

However, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi›s visit to France in April last year, India conveyed that it would like to acquire 36 Rafale

Deal signed to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (left) and his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar shake hands after signing the deal in New Delhi, yesterday.

The fighter plane will be equipped with Meteor, a beyond-visual range air-to-air missile expected to considerably advance IAF’s capability in aerial combat.

jets in fly-away condition as quickly as possible in view of the IAF’s critical operational neces-sity for the multi-role combat aircraft.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with France in January this year for the purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft.

A file picture of a Rafale fighter jet performing during the Aero India air show at Yelahanka air base in Bengaluru.

IANS

RAIGAD: Multiple security agen-cies continued their hawk-eyed vigil yesterday to apprehend the five-or-six masked persons sighted in Uran village here by some students early on Thursday with the Maharashtra Police releasing sketches of two sus-pects, officials said.

Security at all critical instal-lations and sensitive locations in Mumbai and adjoining Raigad, Navi Mumbai has been beefed up with police road blocks, fishermen keeping a lookout in Arabian Sea and

aerial-surface combing operations underway in different parts.

At least two to four schoolchil-dren had reported spotting some unidentified persons - ranging from one to five - wearing masks, Pathan suits and carrying weapons around 7am on Thursday. They informed their teacher, who in turn alerted the police and the entire security apparatus swung into action within hours.

Schools, colleges, shops and establishments in Uran and sur-roundings remained shut for the second day today as security offi-cials continued their search to locate the potential mischief makers.

Returning from a trip to the US late Thursday night, Chief Minis-ter Devendra Fadnavis appealed to the people not to panic as adequate security arrangements were in place in Uran, around 50 km on the main-land from Mumbai.

Navi Mumbai Police Commis-sioner Hemant Nagrale said that police and other security agencies have launched operations to trace out these suspects. Security has been intensified at Raj Bhavan, Chhatra-pati Shivaji International Airport, the BARC, DAE, Mantralaya and sur-rounding VVIP areas, key railway termini and stations and prominent beaches.

Suspects’ sketches out after

gunmen sighted; vigil on

IANS

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Navnir-man Sena (MNS) yesterday gave a 48-hour ultimatum to all Pakistani cine and television artistes here to quit India or face consequences.

The Mumbai police promptly responded, saying foreign artistes holding valid documents need not worry.

MNS Chitrapat Sena chief Ameya Khopkar told the media that there was “an anti-Pakistan” wave across India after the September 18 terror attack that left 18 Indian soldiers dead at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir.

“The MNS calls upon all Pakistanis working in Indian tele-serials, films and other shows to leave the country within 48 hours. If they fail to do so, we shall deal with them in our own style,” Khop-kar warned.

The party also warned it would not permit the release of any Bolly-wood films having Pakistani actors, including the upcoming “Aye Dil Hai Muskhil” and “Raees”.

The MNS order would also apply to sportspersons and singers, the party added.

Among the Pakistani actors and singers known to be based in Mumbai or frequenting the city are Fawad Khan, Ali Zafar, Atif Aslam, Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Salman Ahmad, Mahira Khan and Ali Azmat.

MNS Vice-President Shalini Thackeray said that wherever shooting for films or teleserials with Pakistani actors was on after the deadline, MNS activists would go and stop them.

“This is not a veiled threat. This is a direct challenge to producers like Karan Johar who promote Pakistani artistes. We are writing to all production houses, asking them not to give work to Pakistani artistes,” Thackeray said.

Another party Vice-President, Vageesh Saraswat, said the party had issued similar warnings in the past and always stuck by them.

“Now, we have given them a specific deadline. Their countdown has begun. If they don’t pack up and leave in 48 hours, we shall chase them away,” Saraswat declared.

However, the Mumbai police yesterday said that all foreign nationals, including Pakistanis who are in Mumbai with valid doc-uments provided by the government of India, need not worry.

“We will provide adequate pro-tection as and when required,” Joint Police Commissioner (Law and Order) Deven Bharti said follow-ing the MNS threat.

In the past, the MNS and the Shiv Sena have adopted an aggres-sive stance against Pakistani personalities visiting Maharashtra.

Pakistani ghazal singer Ghu-lam Ali’s scheduled concerts were cancelled in Mumbai and Pune in October 2015 and a public engage-ment axed in January this year.

MNS tells Pakistani

artistes to leave

within 48 hours

An electrician hangs decorative lights at a pandal, a temporary platform, for the upcoming Durga Puja in Kolkata, yesterday.

Festival lights

IANS

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court yesterday issued notice to Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav and criminal-turned-politician Moham-mad Shahabuddin as to why an FIR cannot be filed against them for allegedly sheltering an accused in journalist Rajdeo Ranjan’s murder.

Justice Dipak Misra and Justice C Nagappan sought a response from Yadav -- the son of Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad -- on a peti-tion by the journalist›s widow Asha Ranjan who sought a first informa-tion report against the two men.

On her plea for the transfer of the murder case trial from Bihar to

Delhi, the bench issued notice to the Bihar government for its response.

Asha had said that if the inves-tigation and trial in the case took place in Siwan district, the accused will terrorise the witnesses and she would not get justice.

The apex court also directed the Siwan Superintendent of Police to provide police protection to the petitioner and her family. By this, the court said: “A lady in distress shall feel protected.”

Petitioner Asha had said that two main culprits in her husband›s murder -- Mohammad Kaif and Mohammad Javed -- were allegedly seen in the company of Tej Pratap and Shahabuddin.

A photograph in which Kaif was allegedly standing besides Tej Pratap

had gone viral on social media last week. Earlier, Kaif was seen in pho-tographs and videos standing beside Shahabuddin after his release from Bhagalpur jail on September 10.

The court referred to the mur-der of Rajdeo Ranjan (on May 13) and subsequent developments in Siwan district and said Asha Ranjan was living in a «state of continuous fear».

Referring to the saying that cour-age is the mother of all virtues and a man with courage can always sus-tain his or her dignity, the bench said:

“But sometimes, situations are created by certain powerful protag-onists which instil fear in the mind of a citizen and that fear has the potentiality to usher in atrophy to the sense of dignity.”

SC notice to Lalu’s son & Shahabuddin

IANS

NEW DELHI: India yesterday urged BRICS nations to help meet the supply-demand gap in pulses and edible oils in the country.

India will like to seek cooper-ation from other BRICS member countries (Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa) to meet production shortfall in crops like pulses and oilseeds, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said at a two-day con-ference of Agriculture Ministers of BRICS nations that concluded here.

Singh said there is ample scope

for cooperation in agricultural trade among these nations. This, he explained, will open better “business opportunities” for BRICS countries. “All must work together to enhance trade among our countries by resolving market access issues”.

The minister said innovative working models must be developed, like contract farming and leasing of surplus land. Officials said the central government had started importing pulses through state-run Metals and Minerals Trading Cor-poration and even entered into an arrangement with Mozambique for long-term supply of lentils.

Govt seeks BRICS support

for pulses & oilseeds

VIEWS08 SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators has delivered another stinging rebuke to Israel with its warning that Tel Aviv risked ending the chance of a two-state solution with its brazen continuation of the settlement activity in Palestinian territories. The group, which comprises the

United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, had expressed its concern before, and the latest statement shows that it’s not willing to forget the issue and let Israel pursue its illegal actions without censure. “The Quartet emphasized its strong opposition to ongoing settlement activity, which is an obstacle to peace, and expressed its grave concern that the acceleration of settlement construction and expansion ... (is) steadily eroding the viability of the two-state solution,” the Quartet said in a statement after meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

While this stance is commendable, how far is the group willing to go to prove that it’s serious? Unfortunately, this powerful bloc

has failed miserably to fulfill its agenda of pushing peace. Its rebuke and condemnation of Israel has been proven to be an insincere rant due to its unwillingness to support its words with action. It’s a measure of the Quartet’s powerlessness and lack of interest that Israel continues its settlement expansion with the announcement of several huge projects on Palestinian land. That the Israeli settlement construction is the biggest obstacle to peace is an internationally acknowledged fact, but the world powers haven’t done anything to persuade Israel to stop the activity.

Israel believes that the status quo is sustainable and wants to kill the peace process by refusing to leave the land it has confiscated at the time of future talks. According to reports, about 371,000 Israelis

live in settlements scattered across the West Bank, and their number is growing phenomenally. Relocating such huge numbers of settlers will be nearly impossible for any Israeli government as part of any peace deal. The fact that the Quartet made its statement after meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly is also telling. The UN gathering failed to address the Israeli aggressions. And both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas showed no signs of an agreement during their speeches at the annual gathering of world leaders.

The Palestinian issue is getting scant attention as the world remains preoccupied with other crises. America is preparing to elect a new president and whether it’s Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, US-Israel relations are expected to remain rock-solid. Barack Obama’s tenure will be known for his friction with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but he failed to advance the cause of an independent Palestinian state.

Quartet silence

Despite its criticism of Israeli settlement expansion in Palestinian land, the Middle East Quartet is unwilling to follow up its words with action.

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WITHIN five days, black men were shot dead by police in two major

US cities, with the incidents captured on video. But the reac-tion on the streets in each was vastly different. In Tulsa, Okla-homa, demonstrators marched peacefully following the kill-ing of Terence Crutcher, who was unarmed at the time of the shooting.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, two nights of riots followed the death of Keith Scott, 43, on Tues-day, who refused orders to drop a gun he was holding, according to police. His family says he was holding a book, not a firearm. The response in each city may be related to how quickly officials released information in the case, policing experts said.

The Charlotte police chief has so far chosen not to release the video publicly despite calls for transparency in the wake of con-troversial police shootings across the United States.

“The more information that is released, the less opportunity for rumors to spread,” said Eric Schneider, an urban and crime historian at the University of Pennsylvania.

The list of US cities that have struggled with racial tensions fol-lowing police killings has grown as social media has made foot-age of incidents readily available.

And although broader social issues like anger over income inequality and mistrust of law enforcement contribute to the tension, experts agree the speed with which authorities react is crucial to containing violence.

Following killings in New York City and Charleston, South Caro-lina, for instance, protests were largely peaceful. In other cities, including Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, demonstrations turned dangerously violent.

“(In Ferguson) they just weren’t prepared. It was almost like they didn’t know how to respond. It never crossed their minds that anything like that would happen,” said David Carter, a Michigan State University pro-fessor who authored a critical US Justice Department review of that city’s response to the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager.

Past fatal police shootings hold lessons for CharlotteBy Joseph Ax and Chris Prentice Reuters

Experts in policing tactics say the varied responses offer crucial lessons for cities like Charlotte, including the need to communi-cate quickly with the public and use force sparingly in response to protests.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said again yes-terday that he would not release any footage at this time. Later, a lawyer for Scott’s family said relatives had viewed two videos of the incident, but that they left them with “more questions than answers.” The family asked offi-cials to allow the public to see the videos “as a matter of the greater good and transparency”.

Robert Taylor, a professor of criminology at the University of Texas and an expert in commu-nity policing, urged the chief to release the footage. “It’s going to come out no matter what,” he said. “If it’s highly inflammatory, the chief has an opportunity to explain what it shows and to say, ‘You have to give me a chance to investigate.’”

Some experts warned that videos do not always have all the answers. The Tulsa video, for instance, does not show whether Crutcher was reaching into his car at the time, as the officer who shot him has said.

But they also stressed that in the absence of video evidence, people might simply adopt whatever narrative fits their per-ception of the truth.

Max Geron, a major with the

Dallas police department who has studied police responses to protests, said officials should generally release as much infor-mation as possible.

“I think you’ve seen prob-lems across the country with departments that have been slow to adapt with the demand for increased transparency,” he said.

The exploding use of social media has made it imperative for officials to communicate with the public right after a police shoot-ing, experts said, especially if it erupts into a national controversy. “You need to get out in front,” Carter said. “Acknowledge the incident.”

In North Charleston, for example, officials immediately charged an officer with murder after a released video showed him shooting an unarmed black man in the back.

By contrast, Chicago author-ities refused requests to release footage showing the police kill-ing of Laquan McDonald for more than a year until a judge ordered it. Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with murder on the same day the video was made public.

In Baltimore, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was criticized for what was seen as a slow response after the death of Freddie Gray, prompting riots in the city. Gray suffered a fatal neck injury while handcuffed in the back of a police transport van.

Experts also said police must avoid overreacting to protests

with an unnecessary show of force.

“It’s almost the first response to call out the guys with the heavy-duty weapons,” the University of Pennsylvania’s Schneider said. “That should, in fact, be the last response. The most egregious example was, of course, in Ferguson, where police showed up in military gear.”

The decision was widely seen as inflaming tensions, as police snipers were stationed atop military vehicles even before demonstrations turned violent.

Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts announced a midnight curfew on Thursday evening, hoping to stem the violence. The curfew was generally not enforced, with officers watching as peaceful protests dwindled by early Friday.

Many in Charlotte may still remember the 2013 fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man seeking help from police after a car crash. Jonathan Ferrell was shot 10 times by Officer Ran-dall Kerrick, whose trial resulted in a deadlocked jury in 2015.

In the end, experts agreed the best way to prevent violence is to improve police-community relations.

“It’s really hard to try to alle-viate distrust and problems after an incident,” the University of Texas’ Taylor said. “What police departments need are years and years of building trust with their communities.”

Protesters walk in the streets over the police shooting of Keith Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina.

OPINION 09SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

All thoughts and views expressed in these columns are those of the writers, not of the newspaper.All correspondence regarding Views and Opinion pages should be mailed to the Editor-in-Chief.

Wanted: A fighter for global health to lead the WHO

By Kate Kelland

Reuters

THE view outside the office of the head of the World Health Organisation daz-zles, stretching across Lake Geneva to Alpine peaks. The view inside is less inspiring:

dated furniture and listless pot plants dot the seventh-floor office of Marga-ret Chan, the WHO’s Director-General.

Understated decor suits her style. “I am an international civil servant,” she told Reuters in an interview. “I am here to facilitate countries to discuss and find solutions.” Chan’s low-key, consensual approach has held sway at the organi-sation for nearly a decade. A Chinese former teacher and doctor, she says it has brought lasting results - such as progress towards universal health coverage and improved pandemic preparedness.

“If you want to be successful in glo-bal public health ... you need to bring all partners together,” she said. Quoting what she said is an African proverb, she added: “If you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, you go together.”

But as her second five-year spell at the top heads towards a close, numerous public health experts say consensus is no longer enough. In May, 10 influential glo-bal health specialists wrote to the British Medical Journal (BMJ), saying of the WHO: “Business as usual cannot continue; trans-formative leadership is called for.” The UN agency requires strategic reform, they said, and needs a bold new director general who can command the world stage.

Reuters has spoken to eight more spe-cialists who voiced similar views. Jeremy Farrar, director of global health charity the Wellcome Trust, says whoever takes over from Chan has to “inspire a sense that the organisation knows what it’s doing, inspire confidence in the mem-ber states, and inspire the best people to

want to work there.” In their view, the WHO is losing influence, and at risk of losing more. Despite being a global body, the WHO’s spending power is relatively modest: $4.3bn over two years compared to almost three times that at the US Cen-tres for Disease Prevention and Control.

Other organisations are attracting big funding from global health philan-thropists and making strides in key fields outside the WHO. They include GAVI, the alliance created to improve access to vac-cines for children in poor countries, and the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. More recently, the task of tackling antimicrobial resistance - the global spread of superbugs that are not susceptible to antibiotics - is being led not by the WHO but by an independent team headed by Jim O’Neill, a well-con-nected former Goldman Sachs economist.

Much will depend on the WHO’s next leader. Richard Horton, editor of the influential medical journal The Lancet, said: “The WHO needs a director general who can speak truth to power.” He said he is “very optimistic” about what could be done at the WHO by the right sort of personality at the top. “If you have the right person, it’s a fantastic opportunity,” he said. “If you have the wrong person, then it’s paralysis and failure.”

Chan said it was necessary to “listen and reflect” on what the WHO’s critics say, but that “it doesn’t mean I agree with all the criticism.” She added: “In any job there are barriers to what you can do. Having worked in the WHO now for 13 or 14 years, I understand what you can do and what you can’t.”

Changing the WHO, which has 7,000 staff spread across 150 offices worldwide,

won’t be easy. Some member states, such as those in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, have vastly different health systems to those in richer Western countries. The result:

Local political interests can get in the way of global health priorities. Against that background, the WHO has gained a reputa-tion for electing directors general who are risk-averse. Talk WHO history with senior figures in global health, however, and the name of one leader stands out: Gro Har-lem Brundtland. A former prime minister of Norway, Brundtland was elected WHO director-general in 1998.

Chris Murray, a professor of global health at the University of Washington and director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said of Brundt-land: “She was the sort of visionary, highly-principled leader who always did what she thought was needed for the world, whether or not that was politically convenient.”

David Heymann, who was previ-ously executive director of communicable diseases at the WHO, describes how he awoke to a phone call on March 15, 2003, from the WHO’s infectious disease duty officer. It was to alert him to an outbreak of what later became known as SARS or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

Within hours, Heymann’s team had gathered evidence of cases in Canada, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore. They assessed it and informed Brundtland. This prompted Bruntland, who declined to be interviewed for this article, to issue a global outbreak alert the same day and a call for authorities worldwide to work together to halt the disease’s spread.

In contrast, in 2014 the WHO watched for eight months as Ebola infections

and deaths in West Africa rose before declaring the outbreak a global health emergency. The deadly viral disease raged for over a-year-and-a-half, claim-ing lives in six countries, and was only narrowly stopped from taking hold in Lagos, Africa’s largest city.

Chan said there was no doubt that during the Ebola crisis “we all could have done better,” though she gave no specifics. She pointed out that the two outbreaks occurred in different contexts: SARS in developed countries with good health systems, and Ebola in poverty-stricken countries with poor health surveillance.

Nevertheless, some experts were critical of the WHO’s handling of the epi-demic. They noted that the international medical charity Doctors Without Bor-ders warned early on that the epidemic was “unprecedented” and “exceptional”, but that the WHO failed to recognise the seriousness of the outbreak, describing it as “relatively small still.”

When the Harvard Global Health Institute and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine reviewed the response to Ebola, their report found the disease had “exposed WHO as unable to meet its responsibility for responding to such situations.” Its report set out 10 rec-ommendations for reform, including developing a strategy to monitor national capabilities, strengthening incentives to report outbreaks of disease and ensur-ing the next director general has “proven high-level political leadership.”

To be sure, the WHO has already made some changes since Ebola. Chan has established a new programme to manage health emergencies, with sur-veillance and preparedness at its core.

When the Zika virus emerged as a threat in early 2016, the WHO responded more swiftly, and won plaudits for doing so. But some experts believe more could and should be done to improve the WHO’s performance.

Peter Sands, a former chief execu-tive officer of Standard Chartered Bank and now a senior fellow at Harvard with an interest in health, argues that more attention should be paid to the economic impacts of global health. The WHO and its leader would gain clout if they better highlighted the economic costs of poor health systems and infectious diseases, he said.

Sands is chairman of the Commis-sion on a Global Health Risk Framework for the Future, which estimates that pandemics have the potential to inflict economic losses of more than $60 billion a year. He suggests one way to get gov-ernment ministers to take more notice of the WHO would be to publish objective assessments of each country’s “public health core capabilities” - things such as disease surveillance, laboratory testing, and research capacity.

Just as countries are influenced by reports on their economies by the Inter-national Monetary Fund and World Bank, WHO rankings could spur countries to improve their health systems, Sands said.

Chan disagrees, saying her job is to help countries, not judge or rank them. She likened her style to a parent seek-ing the best from her children: “When you encourage and motivate then, they do better. But when you keep hammer-ing them, they get down and withdrawn.”

In a bid to be more transparent about how it chooses its director general, the WHO has introduced a new selection system. Previously, the 34 members of the WHO’s Executive Board considered various candidates and chose one. That candidate was then rubber-stamped by the 194 member states that make up the World Health Assembly (WHA).

The system lent itself to horse-trading between blocks of countries who would band together behind a series of promised deals to push their preferred candidate to the front. This time, the Executive Board will select three candidates to go forward to the full WHA, which will vote on the final choice. The three shortlisted can-didates will work alongside Chan from January 2017, with the final selection made by the WHA in May 2017.

When nominations closed this week, six candidates had been put forward to succeed Chan. They were Ethiopia’s foreign minister Tedros Adhanom Ghe-breyesus; Flavia Bustreo of Italy, an assistant director general at the WHO; Philippe Douste-Blazy, a French former minister of health; Sania Nishtar, a former minister of education and training in Pakistan; Miklos Szocska, a former health minister for Hungary; and David Nabarro, a British public health and nutrition expert with long experience of working at the WHO and the United Nations. He was appointed the UN secretary gener-al’s special envoy on Ebola in the midst of the Ebola crisis.

The WHO is losing influence, and at risk of losing more. Despite being a global body, the WHO’s spending power is relatively modest: $4.3bn over two years compared to almost three times that at the US Centres for Disease Prevention and Control.

Young migrants in Greece feel camp like ‘prison’

By Idyli Tsakiri

Anatolia

“WE have no permission for go out. Now we are prison [sic],” a 17-year-old Pakistani migrant texted, along with a sad emoji face, locked inside a

refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. Just under a hundred minors aged 12 to 17 find shelter in the rooms reserved for them. “We have beds, air conditioning, and showers, but we cannot go out,” the teenager, who goes by the pseudonym Dilawari Ali and has been living there since June 15, told Anadolu Agency.

At ages when children are

supposed to be exploring life and running free, the minors stranded at Moria camp, Lesbos, can take a walk outside the camp once a week for six hours and that is it, Ali explained.

But he is grateful for the security the camp provides him and his peers. “We are safe, if they [Greek authori-ties] feel any problems coming they take us out of Moria,” he said.

That was, indeed, the case Mon-day night, when clashes broke out in the camp between migrants of var-ious ethnic backgrounds, and as the violence escalated, fires set by the migrants themselves burned down almost half of the camp.

Immediately the minors were transported to another camp, Les-vos Solidarity (formerly known as PIKPA), which generally accom-modates “vulnerable cases,” Efi Latsoudi, a member of the volunteer NGO which runs the camp, told Ana-dolu Agency. The minors spent two days at the camp and were returned to Moria on Wednesday morning.

“It was an emergency situation. They were in danger because of the fire, because of the racist attacks in Moria, and they took them out,” Latsoudi said of that night.

“It was like breathing,” she said, describing the minors’ response to their short break from Moria. “They were very happy, they were kiss-ing us, telling us thank you.” Asked which camp he liked better, Ali wavered. “At PIKPA they have not any facilities for us like Moria, but PIKPA has freedom,” he said.

“I like both,” Ali concluded in a text message interview, as he was not allowed outside Moria camp and jour-nalists are not allowed inside. “It is a closed place only for minors, but it is kind of a prison,” Latsoudi described the center for minors in Moria. “But for us this is no way to treat minors. Minors should be in an open shelter, not in prison,” she added.

As for the night when the chil-dren were taken to Lesvos Solidarity, Latsoudi said, “They felt freedom and human contact with other people.”

“There is an effort now in Moria to have activities, to have volunteers, to have a staff to do things with the kids. But I think that the fact that it is a prison and it is a camp, it creates the felling that they are excluded, they are in a separated place,” she added.

At Moria, regular staff accom-pany the minors daily, said Ali, and

some schooling is provided. “Every day five or six teachers come for us,” Ali said. They teach them Greek, English, and math. Even though Ali heard from his friends who were relocated to centers in Athens that the camp in Moria is superior, he still asks to be moved to the Greek capital. “I can’t stay here. I’m responsible for my family. I have to go there,” he said.

Ali’s family sold off their entire fortune in Punjab, Pakistan, holding on only to their house, so Ali could afford the trip to Greece, he said. In total, Ali said he gave 3,000 euros to smugglers, a price tag that made it impossible for any other family member to travel with him.

Now that he made it, Ali wants to move to Athens and work as a baker with his uncle, who has been living there for the past six years.

“I came here just to make money and do [sic] better conditions for my family,” the 17-year-old told Anadolu Agency, explaining that his parents and his two younger brothers back in Punjab depend on him.

Thanasis Voulgarakis, member of the Lesvos Solidarity group, sug-gested that the minors be relocated to buildings in Lesbos so that they can

live under more humane conditions. “I see so many empty buildings in

Mytilene. If the authorities were willing to do it, they could have rented a large building to accommodate them,” he said, adding that even though no one building could house 100 people, they could be split into smaller groups and hosted in a number of facilities.

Ali arrived in Lesbos on March 31, almost a week after the EU-Turkish deal blocked migrants and refugees from going farther into Europe on their own. Under the deal, migrants who illegally enter Greece have to remain at their point of arrival until a decision is made on their asylum request.

According to official data pro-vided by Athens, out of the almost 60,000 refugees and migrants cur-rently living in Greece, more than 3,500 are unaccompanied minors.

The 96 stranded minors of Moria will gradually be relocated when appropriate facilities are established to accommodate them. So far a few have moved to camps in the Greek capital but are not satisfied with the condi-tions, Ali said. As for Ali’s plans once he reaches Athens, his final destination, he said: “I will go to my uncle’s home. Make and eat Pakistani spicy food.”

At ages when children are supposed to be exploring life and running free, the minors stranded at Moria camp, Lesbos, can take a walk outside the camp once a week for six hours and that is it.

World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan listens to a reporter’s question during a news conference in Seoul, South Korea.

EUROPE10 SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

Merkel’s party and the Bavarian Christian Social Union have spent the last year locked in the dispute, which now centres on latter’s demand to cap the number of migrants coming into Germany at 200,000 a year.

Campaigners pose with ‘Stop Trump’ signs in front of the Brandenburg Gate to urge Americans living abroad to register and vote in Berlin, Germany, yesterday.

Anti-Trump protest

LONDON: The brother of former US presidential candidate Bernie Sand-ers says he’s running for the seat in Parliament vacated by former Prime Minister David Cameron.

Larry Sanders says he was inspired by his broth-er’s success and is the Green Party candidate for the Witney constituency in Oxfordshire — a safe Conservative Party seat.

The 82-year-old Sanders, a retired social worker, says his younger brother “showed that if you can get a hearing and make a clear case, that many more people than expected will listen.”

Girl bicycles to

Poland to see

grandmother

BERLIN: German police say a missing 14-year-old girl has turned up safe and sound in Poland, after bicycling and hitch-hiking some 400 km to see her grandmother.

Lueneburg police said the girl, identified only as Nikola, set off from her rural town in northern Ger-many on Tuesday with her bicycle and a backpack.

Police searched the whole region, but found no trace of her until she appeared on Thursday at her grandmother’s house in western Poland.

She was picked up by her parents there.

Norwegian freed

in Philippines

returns home

STOCKHOLM: A Norwe-gian man who was freed by militants in the Philip-pines has returned home after a year of jungle captivity.

Kjartan Sekkingstad, 57, arrived in Oslo yester-day, six days after being released by Abu Sayyaf extremists who had kid-napped him along with two Canadians who were later beheaded and a Fili-pino woman.

He told reporters he had experienced “a year of terror,” with little food, long jungle treks and a constant fear of being killed.

Six in fray for

next WHO leader

LONDON: Six international health experts, includ-ing four from Europe, are to compete to become the next director gen-eral of the World Health Organisation (WHO) after its current leader Marga-ret Chan ends her tenure next June.

Nominations for the position, announced yes-terday, include Britain’s David Nabarro - who was the UN’s’ special envoy for Ebola during the crisis in 2014/15 - and Ethiopia’s foreign minister, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Also nominated are Sania Nishtar, a former minister in Pakistan’s gov-ernment; French former health minister Philippe Douste-Blazy; Italy’s Fla-via Bustreo - currently an assistant director general at the WHO; and a former health minister of Hun-gary, Miklós Szócska.

Sanders’ brother

running for UK

parliament seat

Reuters

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s veteran finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, jumped to the defence of her conservatives’ Bavar-ian sister party in the latest twist in a row over migrants that is damag-ing her re-election prospects.

Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) have spent the last year locked in the dispute, which now centres on the latter’s demand to cap the number of migrants coming into Germany at 200,000 a year.

Merkel has refused to agree to such a limit. But the allies know they must reach a compromise soon that allows them both to save face and

focus on next year’s federal election.Schaeuble defended CSU leader

Horst Seehofer, a significant inter-vention from a senior conservative after other Merkel allies blamed the Bavarians’ relentless attacks on her open-door refugee policy for the CDU’s poor showing in the Berlin vote.

“It is an outrage to insinu-ate that Bavarian premier Horst Seehofer is against the dignified treatment of refugees,” the finance minister told weekly magazine Wirtschaftswoche.

“In Bavaria, there are fewer far-right attacks on refugees than elsewhere,” added Schaeuble, who is not close to Merkel but used his pop-ularity in their party to help her win backing for financial aid to Greece during the euro zone crisis.

Merkel, Seehofer and senior figures from their parties had a “constructive” meeting in Berlin to try to narrow their differences, according to sources familiar with the meeting. No decisions had been expected on the migrant cap.

The conservatives did agree to tackle a new distribution of finances between the federal government and the states, a topic that has proven divisive in the past.

Schaeuble could be a CDU candidate for chancellor should Merkel not seek re-election next year, though he brushed off ques-tions about whether he could seek the office or even the German pres-idency in a television interview last week.

AP

WARSAW: Poland’s conservative prime minister said yesterday she will make changes in her government next week because some ministers are “not coping” and things are not “fully working as they should.”

Prime Minister Beata Szydlo told Polish state Radio 1 the changes were needed because her ruling Law and Justice party vowed to bring a new quality into politics and to protect interests of ordinary people. The

party won last year’s election largely because it criticised previous centrist government, saying it was focused on economic growth and on European Union values but their efforts were leaving poorer Poles behind.

Among the party’s main promises were those of high ethical standards, transparency and humility in follow-ing voters’ expectations.

Szydlo said some ministers have failed to bring vital changes to their sectors. She did not name them, but said she will announce per-sonnel and structural changes next week, without naming the day. The

Cabinet holds its weekly sessions on Tuesdays. “We are not free from mistakes,” Szydlo says. “But we don’t sweep them under the carpet, we draw conclusions and we continue with our work.”

She did praise Family and Labour Minister Elzbieta Rafalska and her own policy aide, Henryk Kowalczyk.

Last week, Szydlo fired Treasury Minister Dawid Jackiewicz, say-ing he fulfilled his role of phasing out the ministry that is to be closed this year. She is also under pressure from the opposition to fire Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz, after

it was revealed that his deputy and close aide, Bartlomiej Misiewicz, 25, was sitting on supervisory boards of two state-owned companies without proper qualifications. Misiewicz has since left the boards.

Szydlo said after 10 month in power, the time has run out for “building strategies, plans and pro-grams, and for talking about them. Now we need action.”

Observers stress that party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski is its actual pol-icy maker, pulling the strings, and suggest that Szydlo herself may one day be replaced.

Man admits to

smuggling arms

to Paris on eve of

Islamist attacks

Reuters

MUNICH: A Montenegrin caught in Germany with a car full of weapons a week before Novem-ber’s Islamist attacks in Paris confessed at the start of his trial yesterday to acting as a gun run-ner, but denied knowing what was planned with the arsenal.

The man in his early 50s, named by prosecutors only as Vlatko V, was stopped by police on November 5 on the motorway between Salzburg and Munich. His navigation system showed he had come from Montenegro via Croatia and Slovenia, and was heading to an address in Paris.

Police found an arse-nal of weapons hidden in his Volkswagen Golf, including eight Kalashnikov assault rifles, pis-tols, hand grenades, explosives and detonators.

Vlatko V is charged with transporting the weapons to Paris for use in a serious but unspeci-fied act of violence.

On November 13, Islamist militants killed 130 people in the French capital in a series of coor-dinated gun and bomb attacks. At least some of the weapons they used originated from the con-flicts that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia, possibly brought from the Balkans along well-established smuggling routes.

Andrea Titz, spokeswoman for the Munich court, said the defendant’s lawyer had said in court that his client had known he was smuggling weapons, but that he had no knowledge of their intended use.

Titz said the number of weapons found led prosecutors to believe that they had been intended for a specific attack.

“Whether there is a link to the attacks on November 13 is ques-tionable,” she added. “At present no link can be established.”

Due to his confession, Vlatko V is likely to receive a reduced jail sentence of between three years and nine months and four years and three months, Titz said.

Germany and

France hit back

at Johnson’s

‘baloney’ jibe

Reuters

BERLIN: Germany and France brushed aside comments from British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson suggesting there was no link between the EU’s principle of free movement and access to its single market, saying they could send Johnson a copy of the Lisbon Treaty and even travel to London to explain it to him in English.

Johnson told Sky News tele-vision on Thursday that the EU’s position that there was an auto-matic trade-off between what access to the single market and free movement was “complete baloney.”

Asked about the remarks at a news conference in Berlin, Ger-man Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and his French coun-terpart Michel Sapin shot glances at each other before the German host responded. “We just looked at each other because we’re used to respecting foreign ministers a lot,” Schaeuble said.

“If we need to do more, we will gladly send her majesty’s foreign minister a copy of the Lis-bon Treaty. Then he can read that there is a certain link between the single market and the four core principles in Europe,” he added.

German minister defends ally in row on migrants

AP

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin named his top politi-cal strategist to serve as the speaker of the newly elected parliament yes-terday after an election that saw the main pro-Kremlin party strengthen its grip on the lower house.

Putin nominated Vyacheslav Volodin, the Kremlin’s deputy

chief of staff who oversaw the vote, as the State Duma’s speaker. Volodin replaces Sergei Nary-shkin, whom Putin appointed new chief of Russia’s Foreign Intelli-gence Service a day earlier.

Volodin has been widely seen as the main architect of the Kremlin’s domestic policies, including a slew of laws that introduced tough punish-ment for taking part in unsanctioned protests and new restrictions on non-government organisations.

The September 18 vote gave United Russia, the party supporting Putin, 343 seats in the 450-seat lower house, more than 100 seats above the two-thirds majority. While the three parties posture as opposition, their fealty to the Kremlin was at full dis-play yesterday when Putin met with parliament leaders. They all hailed Volodin’s candidacy and pleaded with the president to allow them to keep the committees they led in the old parliament.

Putin names Volodin as Speaker

Polish PM announces govt reshuffle

Reuters

MOSCOW: A Russian toddler who went missing in the Siberian taiga was found three days later, alive and healthy, Russian media and the emergencies ministry reported.

Three-year-old Tserin disap-peared from his home in a village in Tyva in southern Siberia last week.

Left unattended, he had chased after his dogs, who led him into the taiga - a forest between the tundra and the steppes populated by wild animals ranging from bears and wolves to lynx and foxes.

Three days of searches by more than 100 police and rescue workers, sniffer dogs and a helicopter yielded no result. Eventually, the boy heard his uncle calling and replied. He was just a few kilometres from his house.

The first thing he asked for was his toy car, a rescue worker said.

Tserin probably survived because he didn’t panic, a local emergency worker was quoted as saying. The first thing he did after he got lost was finish some choco-late in one of his pockets. Then he laid down in a dry spot under a larch tree and fell asleep. Quite predicta-bly, he has already been nicknamed Mowgli.

A rescuer carrying a three-year-old boy Tserin, who went missing in the Siberian taiga area.

Lost toddler survives three days in Siberian taiga

AMERICAS 11SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

MIAMI: Tropical Storm Karl is forecast to pass just east of Bermuda early today.

Karl’s maximum sus-tained winds yesterday morning have increased to near 97 kph. The US National Hurricane Center says additional strength-ening is expected and Karl could become a hur-ricane as it moves away from Bermuda today.

As of 11 am EDT yes-terday, Karl was centered about 410 km south of Bermuda, where a tropical storm warning is in effect.

Morales accuses

Chile of restricting

access to ports

GENEVA: Bolivian Presi-dent Evo Morales told the United Nations Human Rights Council yesterday that Chile had restricted access to ports on its coast in violation of free passage treaties, in the latest flare-up of tensions between the traditional rivals.

“Hundreds of testimo-nies of affected Bolivian men and women - poorly treated and victims of recurring violations of their human rights - tell a story of racist and dis-criminatory practices,” Morales said. Chilean authorities denied they had impeded transit by Bolivians to the ports.

Tropical Storm

Karl to pass just

east of Bermuda

Reuters

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump yes-terday named US Senator Mike Lee as a potential Supreme Court nominee, turning to an ally of former rival Ted Cruz in an apparent gesture to con-servative Republicans who have been

wary of the Republican presidential candidate.

Lee was included on a new list of 21 potential Supreme Court justices that Trump would consider for the high court if he is elected over Demo-crat Hillary Clinton in the November 8 election.

“This list is definitive and I will choose only from it in picking future justices of the United States Supreme Court,” Trump said in a statement.

The list Trump announced included 10 new names and 11 conservative jurists from a list the New York busi-nessman had announced in May. Lee’s brother, Thomas Lee, an associate jus-tice of the Utah Supreme Court, was on the initial list and remains on Trump’s expanded list.

Trump’s listing of Mike Lee amounted to a gesture to US Sena-tor Cruz of Texas, a conservative who fought Trump fiercely as a rival for the Republican presidential nomina-tion and who has refused to endorse Trump.

Trump’s bombastic style and proposals breaking with some con-servative orthodoxies such as support for free trade agreements have sparked unease among traditional conserva-tive Republicans.

Mike Lee, in a statement, said he appreciated being considered.

“Right now I’m focused on my job in the Senate, where I’m in a good position to defend the Constitution by fighting against government overreach. Both lists that I’ve seen from the Trump campaign are fantastic.

“While my brother and I might dis-agree as to which list is better, they’re both great,” he quipped.

The death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia on February 13 left the court with a four-to-four tie between right-leaning and left-leaning justices.

Democratic President Barack Obama has nominated Merrick Garland, chief judge of the US Court of Appeals in Washington, but the Republican-controlled US Senate has refused to consider confirming him.

Trump said his list was based on who would follow constitutional prin-ciples on the high court. The possibility of Republicans ceding control of the court to the Democrats has been one of his main rallying cries at campaign events.

Others on Trump’s list include Keith Blackwell, a justice on the Supreme Court of Georgia; Charles Canady, a Florida Supreme Court jus-tice; Neil Gorsuch, a judge of the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Cir-cuit, and Edward Mansfield, an Iowa Supreme Court justice.

Other names included Federico Moreno, a judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida; Margaret Ryan, a judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces; Amul Thapar, a judge of the US District Court for the East-ern District of Kentucky; Timothy Tymkovich, chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Cir-cuit; and Robert Young, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Michigan.

Reuters

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama awarded 24 American giants of the arts and humanities with med-als, lauding their accomplishments - and sharing some laughs.

Comedian Mel Brooks, who Obama has said he admires for his over-the-top Western satire “Blazing Saddles,” looked as if were dropping down to receive a knighthood after a citation for “a lifetime of making the world laugh.” In fact, Brooks, 90, was miming.

Obama laughed, shook Brooks’ hand, and warned that he would catch him if he tried to sell his National Medal of Arts on eBay.

Obama also joked with Broadway star Audra McDonald, whose citation

was misplaced, and admired the spiked sneakers of poet Louise Glück.

“I do think Mel Brooks kind of set the tone for this thing,” Obama said afterward. “Historically, this has been a much more staid affair.”

Also among the honourees: Motown producer Berry Gordy and composer Philip Glass as well as authors Sandra Cisneros, Ron Chernow, Rudolfo Anaya and James McBride.

“We believe that the arts and the humanities are in many ways reflec-tive of our national soul. They’re central to who we are as Americans: dreamers and storytellers and inno-vators and visionaries,” Obama said.

“They’re what help us make sense of the past — the good and the bad — and how we chart a course for the future,” he said.

Obama gave a medal to Spanish

celebrity chef Jose Andres, whose restaurants have been favourite haunts during his time in Wash-ington, and who has worked with the White House on immigration reform issues.

Left unmentioned: Andres’ battle with Republican presidential candi-date Donald Trump, who sued Andres for backing out of a deal to open a restaurant in his new Washington hotel after Trump made dispar-aging comments about Mexican immigrants.

Actor Morgan Freeman was hon-oured, but was a no-show. Obama deadpanned that Freeman, who has been involved with the foundation raising money for his presidential library in Chicago, “undoubtedly is off playing a black president again.”

“He never lets me have my moment!” Obama quipped.

AP

WASHINGTON: Hundreds of for-profit colleges could close, leaving up to 600,000 students scram-bling to find other schools, after the Education Department withdrew recognition of the nation’s largest accreditor of for-profit schools.

The Accrediting Council for Inde-pendent Colleges and Schools said it would appeal the decision to Educa-tion Secretary John B King Jr.

In a statement, ACICS Interim President Roger Williams said the council would “continue diligent efforts to renew and strengthen its policies and practices” to meet the department’s criteria for accreditors.

The accrediting agency has been accused of lax oversight of its schools, which included those once

owned by now-defunct Corinthian Colleges Inc. and the recently shut-tered ITT Technical Institute. .

In a letter to the council, Emma Vadehra, King’s chief of staff, wrote that “ACICS’ track record does not inspire confidence that it can address all of the problems effectively.”

Vadehra said the department found fundamental problems with the council’s work as an accreditor. Her decision followed staff and advi-sory panel recommendations to sever ties with the council.

If ACICS loses its appeal, hun-dreds of schools would be forced to find a new accreditor within 18 months or lose their ability to par-ticipate in federal financial aid programs, such as student loans and Pell Grants. About 600,000 students attend ACICS-accredited institutions, Williams said.

While the appeal is pending,

ACICS retains its federal recognition and remains determined to fully exe-cute its accreditation responsibilities in a professional manner, he said.

The decision was met with praise from Democratic lawmakers.

“Accreditors are supposed to be watchdogs, but this negligent agency rubber-stamped shady institutions like ITT and Corinthian for years, right up until the moment they col-lapsed,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

But Steve Gunderson, president of Career Education Colleges and Uni-versities, an industry lobbying group that represents for-profits, said the decision will have “horrible ramifi-cations for hundreds of thousands of students, thousands of dedicated faculty and staff, and hundreds of communities and employers that rely on institutions accredited by ACICS.”

Republican Representtative John

Kline of Minnesota, chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, echoed those con-cerns. “Hundreds of colleges will be forced to scramble to find a new accreditor so students don’t lose their aid and everything they’ve been working toward,” Kline said.

Advocacy groups, lawmakers and others have long complained about the council. It has been accused of continuing to accredit schools under investigation for falsifying job place-ment rates and claims for federal aid, illegal recruiting practices and mis-leading marketing claims.

The council allowed Corinthian Colleges, one of the largest chains of for-profit colleges, to continue to receive accreditation even while it was under investigation for fraud. Corinthian sold many of its cam-puses, closed others and filed for bankruptcy protection last year.

Cheers erupt as

Puerto Rico

slowly emerges

from blackout

AP

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO: Cheers erupted as lights slowly began to flicker back on across Puerto Rico overnight as the US territory struggled to emerge from an island-wide blackout following a fire at a power plant that caused the aging utility grid to fail.

About 75 percent of 1.5 million homes and businesses served by the power utility had electricity restored by yesterday morning.

“We’ve surpassed our expec-tations,” Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said. “We’re work-ing hard to restore power to our other customers ... I understand the annoyance of being without electricity.” He anticipated that the majority of Puerto Ricans will likely have power by today , more than 72 hours after the island-wide outage.

The lights went out briefly dur-ing yesterday’s press conference at the emergency operations center, provoking a laugh from government officials addressing reporters. Gar-cia said temporary power outages would still occur in upcoming days given the growing demand for elec-tricity as more and more customers became reconnected.

The blackout hit the entire island of 3.5 million peo-ple Wednesday afternoon and prompted Garcia to activate the National Guard and declare a state of emergency. Public schools remained closed yesterday, and heavy storms that hit the island on Thursday knocked out power to some areas where electricity had been restored. Meanwhile, some 205,000 people remained without water.

AP

MARBLEHEAD, MASSACHUSETTS: One of the world’s largest package delivery companies is stepping up efforts to integrate drones into its system. UPS has partnered with robot-maker CyPhy Works to test the use of drones to make commercial deliveries to remote or difficult-to-access locations.

The companies began testing the drones, when they launched one from Marblehead. The drone flew on a pro-grammed route for 3 miles over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver an inhaler at Children’s Island.

The successful landing was

greeted by jubilant shouts from CyPhy Works and UPS employees on the island to witness the test.

“I thought it was fantastic,” said John Dodero, UPS vice president for industrial engineering.

CyPhy Works founder Helen Greiner said the drone tests with UPS allow her company to gather engineering and cost information and then work with UPS to look at where drones can add the most value to UPS’ extensive network. Still, the robot-maker doesn’t see drones replacing delivery trucks, bikes, bug-gies or gondolas anytime soon.

“Drones aren’t going to take the place of all delivery, but there are places where you have inaccessible location, an emergency situation

where the infrastructure is down, you want or need the package quickly — these are the areas where drones will be the best way to get a package to a location,” Greiner said.

It’s not all clear skies for drones, though.

Newly revised federal aviation regulations don’t permit commercial drones to fly over people not involved in their operations and require them to remain within line of sight of their operators at all times, effectively rendering commercial deliveries impossible. But those restrictions aren’t keeping drone-makers and their partners from racing to develop technology suitable for commercial deliveries while they work with reg-ulators to tweak existing rules.

Obama awards arts medals to Brooks, McDonald & Berry Gordy

US President Barack Obama awards the 2015 National Medal of Arts to actor Audra McDonald (left) at the White House in Washington.

Trump names Lee as possible Supreme Court justiceMike Lee was included on a new list of 21 potential Supreme Court justices that Trump would consider for the high court if he is elected in the November 8 election.

A statue of the movie boxer Rocky stands near the stage entrance as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a rally with supporters in Aston, Pennsylvania.

Govt severs ties with for-profit colleges accreditor

UPS testing drones for use in its package delivery system

Helen Greiner (left) and John Dodero talk about the CyPhy Works drone which carried a UPS package to Children›s Island off the coast of Beverly, Massachusetts.

AMERICAS12 SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

The New York Times posted the video, recorded by the wife of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, who was shot dead.

Workers transfer a shipment of electoral material for the October 9 elections at Toussaint Louverture international airport tarmac in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Electoral exercise

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (right) and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang walk in the Hall of Honour on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Chinese Premier in Canada

AP

CHARLOTTE: Video of a deadly encounter between Charlotte police and a black man shows his wife repeatedly telling officers he is not armed and pleading with them not to shoot as they shout commands to drop a gun.

The New York Times posted the video, recorded by wife of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, yesterday. The two-and-half minute video does not show the shooting, though gun-shots can be heard.

His wife tells officers at the scene that he has a traumatic brain injury. At one point, she tells her husband to get out of the car so that police don’t break the windows. As the encounter escalates, she tells them repeatedly:

“You better not shoot him.”After the gunshots are heard,

Scott can be seen lying on the ground while his wife says “he better live.” She continues recording and asks if an ambulance is called as offic-ers stand over Scott. It is not clear if they are checking Scott, who appears to be laying on his chest, for weapons or attempting to render aid.

The video was posted after a third night of protests over the shooting gave way to quiet streets as a curfew enacted by the city’s mayor ended yesterday.

The largely peaceful Thursday night demonstrations watched over by rifle-toting members of National Guard, called on police to release video that could resolve wildly dif-ferent accounts of the shooting of a black man earlier this week. Char-lotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said yesterday that there is footage from at least one police body camera and one dashboard camera.

The family of Keith Lamont Scott was shown the footage of his fatal shooting and demanded that police release it to the public. The video recorded by Scott’s wife had not been previously released.

Demonstrators chanted “release the tape” and “we want the tape” while briefly blocking an intersection near Bank of America headquarters

and later climbing the steps to the door of city government center. Later, several dozen demonstrators walked onto an interstate highway through the city, but they were pushed back by police in riot gear.

Thursday’s protests in Charlotte lacked violence and property damage of previous nights, and the curfew encouraged a stopping point. Local officers’ ranks were augmented by Guard members carrying rifles and guarding office buildings against the threat of property damage.

Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts signed documents to be in effect from midnight until 6 am each day that the state of emergency declared by the governor continues.

After the curfew took effect, police allowed the crowd of demon-strators to thin without forcing them off the street. Police Capt. Mike Cam-pagna told reporters that officers would not seek to arrest curfew vio-lators as long as they were peaceful.

So far, police have resisted releas-ing the footage of Scott’s death. Putney said yesterday that releasing it could inflame the situation and dam-age trust in the community. He has said previously that the video will be made public when he believes there is a “compelling reason” to do so.

Roberts said during that same news conference that “I do believe

the video should be released. The question is on the timing.”

Earlier in the week, the Charlotte protests turned violent. On Wednes-day, demonstrators attacked reporters and others, set fires and smashed windows of hotels, office buildings and restaurants in the city’s bustling

business district.Forty-four people were arrested

after Wednesday’s protests, and one protester who was shot, died at the hospital; city officials said police did not shoot 26-year-old Justin Carr. Putney said yesterday that video led investigators to a suspect who was

arrested, but he provided few other details. Police have said Scott was shot to death by a black officer after he dis-regarded repeated warnings to drop his gun. Neighbours, though, have said he was holding only a book. Police chief said a gun was found next to the dead man, and there was no book.

Kosovo hacker

who aided IS

gets 20 years jail

AP

ALEXANDRIA: A computer hacker who helped the Islamic State by providing names of more than 1,000 US government and military workers as potential targets was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison.

The sentence was much higher than the 6-year term sought by defence lawyers, who argued that their client, Ardit Ferizi, meant no real harm and is not a true sup-porter of the IS.

“He was a nonsensical, mis-guided teenager who did not know what he was doing,” said public defender Elizabeth Mullin. “He has never embraced ISIL’s ideology.”

Ferizi, 20, a native of Kosovo who was arrested last year in Malaysia, is the first person con-victed in the US of both computer hacking and terrorism charges. He admitted hacking a private com-pany and pulling out the names, email passwords and phone num-bers of about 1,300 people with .gov and .mil addresses. The IS published the names with a threat to attack.

At yesterday’s sentenc-ing hearing, Ferizi struggled to explain why he did it, when asked directly by US District judge Leo-nie Brinkema for an explanation. He said that it all happened very quickly.

“I feel so bad for what I did,” he said in Albanian-accented Eng-lish. “I am very sorry for what I did, making people feel scared.”

Prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence of 25 years.

AP

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CALIFORNIA: Another wildfire, likely sparked by a downed pow-erline, broke out and forced the evacuation of buildings on a large central California military base where another blaze has been burn-ing all week, officials said.

The new fire broke out on the north side of the coastal, mostly unde-veloped Vandenberg Air Force Base is unrelated to the older, larger fire that’s on the south side, base officials said.

The new blaze, which had grown to at least 100 acres, brought the evacuation of administrative buildings, but was not yet a threat to any of the housing or key facili-ties on the base.

Southward winds sent smoke over Lompoc, a city of 40,000 peo-ple at the edge of the base, though the flames themselves were not threatening the city.

A preliminary report says a downed powerline sparked it.

Resources were being diverted from the earlier fire that broke out over the weekend in a remote can-yon and forced the postponement of a satellite launch. It was 70 per-cent contained and had burned about 49 square kilometers of rug-ged land.

A firefighter died and another was hurt when the water truck they were in overturned on a highway outside city of Lompoc.

Ventura County firefighter Ryan Osler was killed, and Adam Price was injured. There were no other occupants in the truck.

AP

UNITED NATIONS: With the Paris Agreement on climate change poised to take effect, diplomats now head to Morocco to hammer out the difficult details of how to make it work and raise the $100bn needed each year to meet its ambitious goals.

Morocco’s Foreign Minister Sala-heddine Mezouar said he expects to announce that countries accounting

for over 55 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions have formally joined the treaty — the threshold needed to trigger the land-mark agreement — when he presides over 22nd UN Climate Conference in Marrakech that starts on November 7.

“Once the treaty takes effect, the next steps will require con-crete actions on parts of world governments to start implementing concrete policies in order to adapt,” said Mezouar.

Mezouar said he expects India,

accounting for around 4.5 percent of emissions, to ratify the agreement by the end of October and that European Union, responsible for about 12 per-cent, to ratify by the end of the year.

On Wednesday, UN Secretary Gen-eral Ban Ki-moon announced that 60 countries accounting for nearly 48 percent of emissions had joined the agreement — just short of what is needed for the treaty to take effect.

Ban, who has made climate change a top priority since he became secretary-general nearly 10 years

ago, said he also expects the Paris Agreement into force before he steps down at the end of the year.

US diplomats are also pushing other countries to accelerate their ratification efforts so that the deal can enter into force before President Barack Obama leaves office.

Mezouar says developed coun-tries are expected to come up with $100bn in climate financing each year with half of that going to help countries adapt to green energy and the other half to mitigating the effects

of climate change. He said he hoped that money would attract twice as much in private investment.

“The more commitments are clear, the more access to financing is simplified, the cheaper the technol-ogy becomes and we will out bet on the future through the Paris agree-ment,” Mezouar said.

Mezouar says because the commitments are voluntary, trans-parency will be essential in order for the international community to hold countries to their commitments.

AP

SALT LAKE CITY: People across Utah were reeling yesterday after storms ripped through the state, including two tornadoes that dam-aged more than a dozen buildings hundreds of miles apart.

Thousands of people remained without power after the severe weather that also flooded streets and dropped golf-ball-sized hail.

No serious injuries have been reported, but at least 12 homes were badly damaged by a tornado in northern city of Washington Terrance.

Resident Gaelynn Sewell’s home was destroyed in the storm, leaving her without even a toothbrush or clean clothes. “We lost things that can never be replaced,” Sewell said.

A garage was lifted from its foun-dation, trees were ripped from the ground and cars were dented by hur-tling chunks of debris. Authorities say the cleanup is just beginning, but could take days or weeks.

Classes were cancelled yester-day at several area schools. A group of students from the Utah Military Academy were nearly caught in the twister while running a 5K race.

Pelted by flying debris, the group tried to hang onto trees, but then they began to snap in half.

“If felt like there was a huge, almost like a slingshot bringing you back toward the tornado. It was pretty much like trying to run away from a huge vacuum cleaner,” Jacob Hite said. They managed to escape into a nearby store.

Another twister tore roofs off buildings in the southern Utah town of Panguitch, marking the sec-ond touchdown there in less than a month, officials said.

Severe weather also caused extensive flooding in southern Utah and dropped hail near the Great Salt Lake. In the town of Roosevelt, sev-eral homes were affected by the rising water, which also filled part of State Street.

Video shows encounter between cops and black man

Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts answers questions next to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney during a news conference regarding the police shooting of Keith Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina, yesterday.

Wildfire breaks out at

California military base

UN ready to implement climate deal in Morocco

Residents reeling after tornadoes and flooding rip through Utah

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By Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

DOHA: The Alliance of Filipino Jour-nalists in Qatar (AFJQ) – the first and only organization of Filipino journal-ists and media practitioners in the country– yesterday gathered pho-tography enthusiasts for a charity photoshoot at Philippine School Doha (PSD).

The “Shoot for a Cause” event, which saw the participation of 54 pho-tography professionals and enthusiasts from seven organisations , had a two-fold purpose.

“The purpose of this event is to raise funds for World Vision Philip-pines and help in the construction of

PSD’s new building. We may have more events like this in the future to help other charitable organizations,” AFJQ Vice Chairman Alvin B Abainza told The Peninsula.

World Vision Philippines is consid-ered the world’s largest international children’s charity that has been active in various rural and urban poor com-munities in the Philippines .

“We invited all the photography clubs to give them the chance to have a photoshoot with Justine Mae “Jaya” San Jose, who was crowned Mutya ng Pilipinas-Tourism International 2016,’ said Abainza.

This is Doha resident San Jose’s homecoming after her victory at a major beauty pageant in Manila over a month ago which gives her the oppor-tunity to represent the Philippines in

the Miss Tourism International 2016 scheduled in December in Malaysia.

Wearing a glittering crown on her head, the Filipina beauty queen looked stunning in her gold and green gown by Doha-based designer Celso Col-lado Dahil.

Apart from charity events, AFJQ has lined up events and activities aimed at honing the skills of stu-dents and professionals in the field of journalism.

“We have already established the timeline for our projects which includes the continuation of our jour-nalism seminar in which students of PSD and Philippine International School in Qatar (PISQ) will be join-ing,” explained Abainza.

A conference for professional jour-nalists to be delivered by prominent

journalists from the Philippines is also in the works.

“We are planning to invite jour-nalists to share global trends. This will help local journalists to upgrade and enhance their skills in the field whether in broadcast, print or other areas. We are still planning on how to have this our flagship programme,” he said, adding that regular lectures on specific aspects in journalism will also be held for AFJQ members.

“As a group, it is our goal to train and inspire students as well as encour-age practitioners to really hone their skills,” he stressed. Documentary filmmaking, which will shine the spot-light on Overseas Filipinos in Qatar, is another possible project which AFJQ is mulling in collaboration with other Fil-ipino organizations, he added.

Justine Mae “Jaya” San Jose posing for photographs during a charity event organised by AFJQ at Philippine School Doha yesterday. Pic by: Qassim Rahmatullah / The Peninsula

Photographers pick up lens for Philippine charity event

Reuters

NEW YORK: A chunk of the Berlin Wall and a pair of cowboy boots that belonged to late US President Ronald Reagan sold for 10 times their esti-mated value at a New York auction that brought in more than $5.7m.

Christie’s auctioneers said yes-terday that more than 1,200 bidders from all over the world registered for the two-day sale of items from the private collection of Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

The 25 inch (63 cm) long, graffiti-covered fragment of the Berlin Wall,

signed by Reagan, sold for $277,500 to an undisclosed buyer. It had been expected to fetch up to $20,000.

The wall fragment was consid-ered to have particular significance because of Reagan’s 1987 speech in West Berlin, in which he famously urged then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”

Nancy Reagan died in March of congestive heart failure at the age of 94, 12 years after Ronald Reagan, one of the most popular US presi-dents, succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease.

Their personal items were sold by the family trust to bene-fit the Ronald Reagan Presidential

foundation and library in California.Reagan’s cowboy boots, a gift

from Western movie actor Rex Allen, sold for $199,500 compared to a pre-sale estimate of $20,000, while at $319,500, the top lot was a Bulgari diamond, sapphire and ruby ring inspired by the Stars and Stripes national flag that Nancy Reagan wore on July 4, 1986.

“The market’s response to this landmark collection sale has been remarkable, with the over-all results far exceeding pre-sale expectations,” said Brook Hazel-ton, president of Christie’s America.

The auction continues online through Sept. 28.

A graffiti-covered fragment of the Berlin Wall signed by the late US President Ronald Reagan is shown in this image released by Christie’s Auctions in New York, yesterday.

Reagan auction items sold

IANS

LONDON: Using data from the European Space Agency’s Planck sat-ellite, researchers have confirmed what cosmologists have assumed all along - our universe expands the same way in all directions.

Most current cosmological studies assume that the universe behaves identically in every direction. If this assumption were to fail, a large number of analyses of the cosmos and its content would be flawed.

“We’re very glad that our work vindicates what most cosmol-ogists assume. For now, cosmology is safe,” said study first author Daniela Saadeh from University College London.

The new study, published today in the journal Physical Review Letters, studied the cosmic microwave background (CMB) which is the remnant radiation from the Big Bang.

“The finding is the best evidence yet that the universe is the same in all directions,” she said.

“Our current understanding of the universe is built on the assumption that it doesn’t prefer one direction over another, but there are actually a huge number of ways that Einstein’s theory of relativity would allow for space to be imbalanced. Universes that spin and stretch are entirely possible, so it’s important that we’ve shown ours is fair to all its directions,” she explained.

The team used measurements of the CMB taken between 2009 and 2013 by the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite.

The spacecraft recently released information about the polar-isation of CMB across the whole sky for the first time, providing a complementary view of the early universe that the team was able to exploit.

The researchers modelled a comprehensive variety of spin-ning and stretching scenarios and how these might manifest in the CMB, including its polarisation. They then compared their findings with the real map of the cosmos from Planck, searching for spe-cific signs in the data.

“We calculated the different patterns that would be seen in the cosmic microwave background if space has different proper-ties in different directions. Signs might include hot and cold spots from stretching along a particular axis, or even spiral distortions,” Saadeh noted.

“We then compare these predictions to reality. This is a serious challenge, as we found an enormous number of ways the Universe can be anisotropic,” collaborating author Stephen Feeney from Imperial College London added.

Universe has no

direction: Scientists

Reuters

LONDON: Actor and director Terry Jones, (pictured) a founding member of Britain’s zany Monty Python comedy team, has been diagnosed with a form of demen-tia that restricts his capacity to speak, his representative said.

Jones, 74, is a member of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” formed in the late 1960s with John Cleese, Eric Idle, Gra-ham Chapman, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam.

A spokesperson for Jones said the comedian had been diagnosed with pri-mary progressive aphasia, which is a variant of frontotemporal dementia.

“This illness affects his ability to com-municate and he is no longer able to give interviews,” the representative said in a statement on Thursday. The National Aphasia Association describes primary progressive aphasia as a neurological disorder of language that commonly progresses to a near total inability to speak. It is not a form of Alzheimer’s disease. “Most people with PPA main-tain ability to take care of themselves, pursue hobbies, and, in some instances, remain employed.” the association says on its website.

Jones went on to direct the team in the irreverent Python films “Life of Brian,” and “The Meaning of Life.”

Actor-director Terry

Jones diagnosed

with dementia

Libyan sovereign fund recovers $127m from Western firms

PAGE | 18 PAGE | 19

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Reuters

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia has offered to reduce oil production if rival Iran caps its own output this year, four sources familiar with the discus-sions told Reuters as Riyadh seeks an Opec deal to curtail supply and boost prices.

The offer, which has yet to be accepted or rejected by Tehran, was made this month, the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Opec holds an informal meeting next week in Algiers, which non-Opec Russia will also join. The group, which produces a third of the world’s

oil, will also have a formal gathering in Vienna at the end of November.

Riyadh is ready to cut out-put to levels seen early this year in exchange for Iran freezing produc-tion at the current level, which is 3.6 million barrels per day (bpd), the sources said.

“They (the Saudis) are ready for a cut but Iran has to agree to freeze,” one source said. Three more sources confirmed the offer was presented to Tehran. A source familiar with Ira-nian thinking declined to comment

on details of the proposal but did not rule out a compromise next week: “Let them all talk face to face.”

There was no official comment from Saudi Arabia or Iran. A source familiar with Saudi oil thinking said: “Our goal is to reach a consen-sus and look at different scenarios for the production levels of the Opec countries.” “We are looking forward to a credible and transparent solu-tion which would lead to market stability,” that source said, add-ing that the informal Opec meeting

would hopefully help build consen-sus before the formal gathering in November.

Saudi output usually drops in winter and spikes during hot summer months, hence Iran could dismiss the proposed reduction as an attempt by Riyadh to present a natural decline as a cut.

Iran has been promising to boost output to 4 million bpd, although production has stagnated in the past three months at around 3.6 million bpd, indicating the new push might

be difficult without additional invest-ments. The first source did not say by how much Riyadh would cut if Iran agreed to a freeze. The Algerian oil minister said this month that OPEC would need to reduce supply by around 1 million barrels per day to help rebalance the market.

Riyadh’s production has spiked since June due to summer demand, reaching a record high in July of 10.67 million bpd and edging down to 10.63 million bpd in August. From Janu-ary to May, Saudi Arabia produced around 10.2 million bpd.

Previously, the Saudis have refused to discuss a production cut. OPEC officials from Saudi Arabia and Iran met this week in Vienna. According to sources, they did not discuss the Saudi proposal, focus-ing instead on baseline production figures.

The meeting produced no break-through, the sources said. The source familiar with Saudi thinking said it would nevertheless help build con-sensus. Two sources said Saudi Arabia’s Gulf Opec allies the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait were expected to contribute to any output reduction.Saudi Arabia, by far the largest producer in Opec Coun-tries, will shoulder the biggest cut, the sources said.

Saudi Arabia sets terms for oil output cut

European Union seeks to save Canada trade deal Reuters

BRATISLAVA: EU ministers took steps yesterday to approve a conten-tious free trade deal with Canada, while a growing number said talks towards a similar agreement with the United States should stop.

Both deals have triggered pro-tests by unions and environmental and other groups who say they will spark a ‘race to the bottom’ in labour and public health standards and allow big business to challenge governments across Europe

After a first session devoted to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) struck with Canada two years ago but still awaiting approval, ministers agreed the two sides would put together a declaration spelling out the limits of the pact to dispel public concerns.

The ministers themselves are expected now to convene an extraordinary meeting on October 18, allowing the deal to be signed during the visit of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Brus-sels on October 27. It could enter force next year. “There was a great willingness to sign the agreement in October ... There are still some things to do, but it was a very good debate,” Sigmar Gabriel, Ger-many’s economy minister and

vice-chancellor, told reporters. Gabriel on Monday overcame left-wing resistance to the deal within his Social Democrats, the junior coalition partners in government.

However, lingering doubts remain elsewhere, notably in Aus-tria, where Chancellor Christian Kern’s Social Democrats have grave concern, and Belgium, where not all regions back the deal.

Reinhold Mitterlehner, Austria’s Christian Democrat vice chancel-lor, said a declaration making clear that public services and labour and environmental standards were not under threat and that a special court would not allow big business to dictate public policy should allay concerns.

Mitterlehner also argued again for a fresh start to be made to the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks, which have been going on for the past three-and-a-half years.

He said they should be ended and relaunched after the U.S. pres-idential elections with greater transparency, clearer goals and a different name“In our view, and this is also the view of other countries, the current procedure will not lead to success,” he said. Washington and Brussels are officially com-mitted to sealing this deal before President Barack Obama leaves office in January.

Reuters

NEW YORK: The dollar index edged higher yesterday, reversing earlier selling, after Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren (pictured) said he believed US short-term inter-est rates should be raised now and warned a decline in the jobless rate below sustainable levels could derail economic recovery.

Rosengren was one of three members of the Federal Open Mar-ket Committee to dissent at this week’s policy meeting that left rates unchanged at a range of 0.25 to 0.50 percent.

Rosengren was joined in his dis-sent by Kansas City Fed President

Esther George and Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, and his was the first public comment from the three who expressed favor for raising rates.

”Given the lack of information and the lack of news in the market, you hear (from Rosengren) and it’s enough to move markets a bit,” said Douglas Borthwick, managing direc-tor at Chapdelaine Foreign Exchange. “We’re dealing with a market today that’s very quiet.”

Borthwick added that the dol-lar’s rise may also be due to investors squaring positions ahead of Mon-day night’s US presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

The dollar index was last up 0.1 percent at 95.531. It had earlier fallen

as low as 95.340 and was on track for its worst week in a month.

Sterling fell 1 percent against the dollar, sliding below $1.30, weighed by further Brexit uncertainty after comments from UK Foreign

Secretary Boris Johnson, who said Thursday that the government was in talks to leave the European Union as soon as next year.

The pound had jumped back over $1.31 on Thursday, after Bank of Eng-land policymaker Kristen Forbes said she saw no case for a further cut in interest rates, after the Bank slashed them to a record low of 0.25 percent last month.

Sterling hit a three-decade low below $1.28 in the wake of Britain’s shock Brexit vote but had climbed about 5 percent as of early September as data showed the economy holding up relatively well. That uncertainty is making it easier for investors to bet against sterling, said Vassili Serebri-akov, FX strategist at Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank.

Bloomberg

NEW YORK: CtW Investment Group, which speaks for a consortium of retirement funds managing more than $200bn, urged Wells Fargo & Co’s lead director yesterday to appoint new board members and claw back executive pay.

It joins US lawmakers and other labor activists demanding senior-level accountability after the bank opened accounts without customers’ authorisation. Wells Fargo should

recover at least some money paid to Carrie Tolstedt, who oversaw the retail banking division before agree-ing to retire this year, CtW wrote in a letter to lead director Stephen Sanger, who also sits on the board’s human resources committee. That panel is weighing whether and how to hold top executives accountable.

“The board erred in allowing Tolstedt to retire in July without requiring her to surrender some por-tion of these payments,” wrote CtW Executive Director Dieter Waizeneg-ger. “Wells Fargo managers clearly understood for several years that the

considerable pressure on front-line service workers and their managers to hit sales goals had led to the crea-tion of false accounts.” Mary Eshet, a bank spokeswoman, declined to comment.

Authorities fined Wells Fargo $185m for potentially opening about 2m deposit and credit-card accounts without approval. The debacle escalated this week, when Senate Banking Committee members including Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren urged Chief Exec-utive Officer John Stumpf to return compensation and resign.

Wells Fargo urged to alter board

Dollar rises on comments by Fed’s Rosengren

VW emissions

inquiry finds no

evidence against

Audi CEO

Reuters

BERLIN: An investigation com-missioned by Volkswagen into its emissions test cheating scandal has found no evidence against the head of its Audi luxury car divi-sion, three people familiar with the matter said.

Audi Chief Executive Rupert Stadler was questioned earlier this week by US law firm Jones Day, which is conducting the investi-gation, about when he found out about the use of test-cheating software, the people said.

The findings are due to be discussed by Volkswagen’s (VW) supervisory board on Friday, they added.

Audi and VW declined to com-ment, while Jones Day’s German office did not respond to a request seeking comment. Audi, the main contributor to VW group profit, has admitted its 3.0 litre V6 diesel engine was fitted with emissions-control software, deemed illegal in the United States where VW’s diesel emissions scandal broke a year ago.

The questioning of Stadler, who has led Audi since 2007, coin-cided with media reports that the brand was more deeply entangled in the VW scandal than previously thought. Audi has declined to comment on those reports. ”Noth-ing burdensome against Stadler was found,” a source close to VW’s supervisory board said yesterday.

Two sources close to Audi also said the questioning by Jones Day had yielded no evidence against Stadler, who joined VW group’s nine-member executive board in 2010. Three US states alleged in their civil lawsuits against VW published in July that senior exec-utives had covered up evidence about rigged US emissions tests for years.

Riyadh is ready to cut output to levels seen early this year in exchange for Iran freezing production at the current level, which is 3.6 million barrels per day.

The logo of Opec at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

BUSINESS18 SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

Global rally sputters as stocks fall with bonds

Bloomberg

SINGAPORE: The rebound in glo-bal markets sputtered as stocks slid around the world and German bonds retreated.

The MSCI All-Country World Index of shares declined for the first time in five days, with weak

economic data weighing on Euro-pean stocks, while US equity-index futures pointed to a lower open. Ger-man bonds pared their best week since May as a rally fueled by cen-tral bank policy decisions in the US and Japan ebbed. Longer-dated Treasuries were on course for their biggest weekly advance since July. Crude fluctuated as Saudi Arabia was said to have offered to cut output, although no deal has been reached.

Stocks, bonds and commodities climbed this week and the dollar lost ground versus almost all of its major peers as the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and scaled back plans for increases in 2017 and beyond. Investor sentiment also got a lift as the Bank of Japan strengthened its commitment to reviving inflation, while Indonesia and Turkey cut inter-est rates and New Zealand’s central bank signaled further easing.

“Underlying concerns were ignored in the excitement about the Fed postponing a rate hike so we saw a bit of a rally,” said Ralf Zim-mermann, a strategist at Bankhaus Lampe in Dusseldorf, Germany. “But

in reality, whether the fed hikes in September or December doesn’t make any fundamental difference, so it’s not surprising that now inves-tors are taking a step back.”

The MSCI All-Country World Index fell 0.3 percent as of 1:38 pm in London. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index retreated 0.9 percent as Pur-chasing Managers Index data showed the pace of growth in the euro-area economy slipped to a 20-month low at the end of the third quarter.

European shares are still heading for their best weekly performance in more than two months with a 2.1 percent gain. A measure of European share volatility dropped 0.2 percent, on course for its lowest level since December 2014.

CaixaBank SA was among the biggest decliners as banks tumbled. The Spanish lender lost 3.6 percent after selling shares to fund its take-over of Portugal’s Banco BPI SA. Commodity producers fell from a six-week high, led by a 7.6 percent plunge in Polymetal International Plc after two investors said they will sell 13 million shares of the miner.

Nestle SA slid 1.8 percent, the most since June, after analysts said that a presentation by the world’s biggest food company indicated that organic sales growth may be lower than currently anticipated by the market.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index fell 0.2 percent after the US benchmark rose to a two-week high on Thurs-day. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index closed at a record peak. Regional Fed chiefs for Atlanta, Phil-adelphia and Cleveland’s Loretta Mester- who voted against this weeks decision - may comment on US

monetary policy when they appear as panelists at a conference yesterday.

Facebook Inc lost 2.2 percent in premarket New York trading after saying it gave advertisers an erro-neous metric for the average time users spent watching a video, a mis-calculation earlier reported in the Wall Street Journal.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index of shares retreated 0.1 percent, par-ing a weekly gain to 3.9 percent - still its biggest since July 15. Seven of 11 industry groups in the index declined, led by financial stocks and utilities.

Exchange-traded stock and bond

funds focused on emerging markets registered $20.5bn of uninterrupted inflows in the past 16 weeks as shares from Johannesburg to Istanbul gained and currencies rallied. Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed, headed for a 0.9 percent weekly loss after the Fed’s decision. The kiwi dropped 0.7 percent yesterday amid speculation that New Zealand’s cen-tral bank will cut interest rates at its next policy meeting in November.

South Africa’s rand rose 0.5 per-cent, extending the biggest gains in September among 31 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg to 8.4 percent.

The MSCI All-Country World Index of shares declined for the first time in five days, with weak economic data weighing on European stocks, while US equity-index futures pointed to a lower open.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York City.

Brookfield to buy stake in Petrobras’ natural gas unitBloomberg

LONDON : Brookfield Asset Man-agement Inc, Canada’s largest alternative asset manager, and its partners agreed to buy a 90 per-cent stake in a Brazilian natural gas distribution network owned by Petroleo Brasileiro SA for $5.2 bn.

The buyer group is being led by Brookfield’s publicly-traded subsidiary, Brookfield Infrastruc-ture Partners LP, and includes CIC Capital Corp and GIC Private Ltd, the company said in a statement yesterday.

Brookfield Infrastructure’s investment will be at least about 20 percent the transaction, or about $825m payable on closing, according to the statement. The remainder will be owned by insti-tutional partners.

“This is unique opportunity to invest in a large-scale, high qual-ity utility business and participate over time in Brazil’s growing gas industry,” said Sam Pollock, Brook-field Infrastructure chief executive officer.

Petrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based company is known, is selling the stake in Nova Transportadora

do Sudeste in southern Brazil after it became the center of the country’s biggest corruption scandal and as it struggles to recover from billions invested in unprofitable refineries. Petrobras set a $15.1-bn asset sale target for the two years through 2016 to reduce the heftiest debt load in the industry.

The sale of the stake in the 2,048-kilometre (1,270-mile) pipeline system yesterday is Petro-bras’ largest to date, according to Bloomberg data. The network pro-vides natural gas for Brazil’s most industrialized and populated states in the south-central region of the country, and the bulk of the assets were installed within the last dec-ade, the company said.Brookfield has been actively pursuing acqui-sitions in Brazil.

Pollock said last month that while the country is experiencing political turmoil and severe eco-nomic downturn, it is an economy with significant growth potential, solid underlying fundamentals and strong democratic regime that is well-positioned for a good recov-ery in the medium-term.

The deal will need to be approved by Petrobras shareholders and Brazilian regulators, Petrobras said in a separate statement.

Fed rate hike to ‘lift animal spirits everywhere’: VitorReuters

WARSAW: The European Central Bank is looking to the US Fed-eral Reserve for confirmation that extraordinary monetary stimulus works.

“If indeed the Fed feels confident enough, say in December, to raise rates,” it would prove that “monetary policy can do it,” ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio (pictured) said during a panel discussion in Frank-furt yesteday. “I hope if and when it happens, it will lift animal spirits everywhere. So we are looking for-ward to that one.”

Constancio’s comments come at a key point for both central banks. The ECB is trying to figure out how it can keep its bond-buying pro-gram going for long enough to revive euro-area inflation, while the Fed is gauging how cautious it can afford to be in raising borrowing costs.

The US central bank left its pol-icy rate unchanged on Wednesday to await more evidence of progress on inflation and employment amid slowing global trade, though sig-naled an increase is still likely by year-end. Two weeks earlier, the ECB kept its rates and pace of bond purchases unchanged as it gave its technical committees a “full man-date” to propose redesigns for the quantitative-easing program.

Constancio said the ECB’s measures are taking longer than expected, in part because of inadequate govern-ment support.

“We all hoped that the reac-tion of the economy would have been much quicker as a result of the expansionary monetary poli-cies that were put in place,” he told the panel. “It would be nice if mone-tary policy would be helped by other policies in trying to achieve a quicker close of the output gap and a quicker normalization of the inflation rate.”

As central banks have delved further into extraordinary measures to hit their mandates, and generally fallen well short of their inflation targets, they have also stepped up

their calls for governments to do more with targeted fiscal stimulus and structural reforms. The refrain is that monetary policy cannot be the only game in town, and inves-tors are taking note.

Just days after the Bank of Japan said it will actively manage bond yields to reach its inflation goal of 2 percent, yields on longer-term debt have jumped.

That’s a sign BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has failed to convince traders he has the tools to achieve his goal. Even so, gover-nors at the Frankfurt conference said they’re confident of success. “They are trying to do as best as they can in terms of getting inflation up in Japan.

Bloomberg

LONDON: Officials intend to beef up the foreign-exchange market’s new code of conduct through a process of public declarations and are considering introducing a quality certificate, according to Chris Salmon (pictured), Bank of England executive director for markets.

Policy makers and industry leaders under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) are developing an attesta-tion form for market participants, Salmon said in a speech published yesterday.

They are also considering some form of industry kitemark assessment by a third party and a link to the Senior Managers Regime, under which managers would have to certify the good conduct of those reporting to them.

The code, crafted by 40 rep-resentatives drawn from market makers, money managers and trading venues, has drawn crit-icism since its unveiling in May. While industry leaders are look-ing to improve standards after attracting billions of dollars of penalties last year for manip-ulating benchmark rates at the expense of clients, the guidelines remain voluntary.

Adherence will be driven by central banks, though officials have said stricter rules will follow if that doesn’t work. “Firms should be able to demonstrate publicly that their behavior and practices in the FX market are in line with the Code’s principles,” Salmon said in the speech, which was ini-tially delivered to a gathering of the ACI Financial Markets Asso-ciation in London on Wednesday. “The widespread use of a com-mon public attestation could be a powerful tool in this respect. It would provide a strong signal of a firm’s commitment to following good practices and help focus the mind of the firm’s senior manage-ment,” he said.

BIS plans quality certificate

Bloomberg

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple Inc is press-ing ahead with the development of an Echo-like smart-home device based on the Siri voice assistant, according to people familiar with the matter.

Started more than two years ago, the project has exited the research and development lab and is now in prototype testing, said the people, who asked not to be identified dis-cussing unannounced Apple projects. Like Amazon Inc’s Echo, the device is designed to control appliances, locks, lights and curtains via voice activa-tion, the people said. Apple hasn’t finalized plans for the device and could still scrap the project.

If a product reaches the market, it would be Apple’s most signifi-cant piece of new hardware since the company announced the Apple Watch in 2014. Echo has been a surprise hit, even to Apple engi-neers working on their competing project, and is already being baked

into smart-home systems made by a range of companies. Meanwhile, Alphabet Inc. is working on its own device, Google Home. Besides taking on the competition, Apple is looking for a new hot seller to augment the iPhone.

The company is attempting to dif-ferentiate itself from Echo and Google Home with more advanced micro-phone and speaker technology, two people said. Some of the prototypes in testing include facial recognition sensors, another person said. Apple has acquired the facial recognition startups Faceshift and Emotient over the past two years, which may help the device act based on who is in a room or a person’s emotional state.

Besides serving as a controller for other smart-home devices, the speaker would theoretically be able to process many of the Siri com-mands available on the iPhone. For example, users may be able to ask the device to read e-mails, send text messages and Tweets, and stream content from Apple Music. Apple

has also considered integrating map-ping information into the speaker, another person said, potentially allowing the device to notify a user when it’s time to leave the house for an appointment.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment. Before setting its sights on a standalone speaker, Apple attempted to integrate the func-tionality of an Amazon Echo-like device into the Apple TV, three peo-ple said. This would have allowed users to shout commands from the couch to the TV box. Those efforts were abandoned in favor of putting the voice-command features into a remote control when the latest set-top box shipped in October 2015.

Apple began showing its inter-est in the smart-home field with the launch of HomeKit in 2014, which allows third-party smart-home accessory makers to integrate with Siri. That same year, Apple began testing early versions of Siri-driven speakers with proprietary surround sound technology. The company

worked on two versions, a larger and a smaller model similar to Ama-zon’s current line-up, and even set up a small home theater to test proto-types. But those early efforts may not translate into a final product.

The work on the speaker is a collaboration between the Cuper-tino, California-based company’s hardware division and its Siri team, which last year was re-organised by the division’s vice president, Bill Stasior. The division now consists of four main development groups: web search, proactive assistance, speech recognition, and the Siri application itself, two people said.

The web search team focuses on Apple’s efforts to circumvent Google search by pushing query sugges-tions via Apple’s own servers, while the speech recognition group pow-ers how Siri understands its users. The proactive assistance team devel-ops functionality such as the iPhone feature that alerts users to appoint-ments, while the application team engineers the voice assistant. Now

that the device has entered the pro-totype stage, Apple engineers have begun secretly testing it in their homes, one of the people said. While not an indicator of the speaker’s launch timeline, Apple Chief Exec-utive Officer Tim Cook has said he tested the iPad at home for roughly six months before its introduction. By contrast, Apple employees began testing the latest Apple TV with Siri about a year before it went on sale, one of the people said.

Following successive year-over-year quarterly drops in sales, Cook is looking for new ways to generate revenue for a company that some analysts have said has reached its peak. Apple relies heavily on the iPhone, which accounted for about 66 percent of its revenue last year, and an iPhone-connected speaker would be another way for the company to boost its smartphone sales via its ecosystem. The Information earlier reported that Apple is working on an Amazon Echo-like speaker, which CNET said would include cameras.

Apple to step up plans for Echo-Style Smart-Home Device

Reuters

LONDON: Gold edged back towards the previous session’s two-week highs yesterday and stayed on track for its biggest weekly gain in two months, after the Federal Reserve sounded a cautious note on the pace of interest rate hikes.

The Fed signal led an increasingly careful approach to future rate hikes after a policy meeting on Wednesday, reassuring investors who had feared the US central bank could move more quickly to tighten monetary policy. Gold is highly sensitive to rising US

interest rates, as these increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion, while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.

Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,337.83 an ounce at 1140 GMT, and was nearly 2 percent higher on the week. ING analyst Hamza Khan said the Fed had been following a pattern of talking up a rate cut ahead of its policy meetings, but failing to deliver.

“That’s the sort of environment where gold will flourish, because it creates uncertainty, and it keeps rates low,” he said. “The rest of the world has also been quite healthy (for gold) -- we’ve had dovish signals from the Bank of Japan, and we’ve seen ETF holdings beginning to recover.”

Holdings of the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, New York-listed SPDR Gold Shares, rose another 6.5 tonnes on Thursday, data from the fund showed.

A steadier tone to the dollar after hefty losses earlier this week pulled gold back from the previous session’s peak of $1,343.64, however.

The dollar stabilised against a basket of currencies.

Stock markets, despite some weakness yesterday, were also on course for their biggest weekly gain in two months after a week of central bank meetings that left investors still unconvinced of US policymakers’ intent to put an end to an era of ultra-low interest rates.

“The ongoing strength in the global equity markets and some signs of stabilisation in the dollar could both start chipping away at gold’s underlying strength,” INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir said in a note. US gold futures for December delivery were down $3.10 an ounce at $1,341.60. Silver was 0.1 percent lower at $19.82, but was the biggest riser this week among the main precious metals, climbing more than 5 percent, the most since the week ending July 1. Palladium was up 0.2 percent at $694.25, after rising 1.5 percent on Thursday. Platinum was 0.3 percent higher at $1,055.50 an ounce. On a weekly basis, it was up 4 percent, snapping seven straight weeks of losses.

BUSINESS 19SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

Gold heads for best in 2 months as Fed fears fade

Libyan sovereign fund recovers $127m from Western firmsReuters

LONDON: Libya’s $67bn sovereign wealth fund has recovered $73m from the bankrupt Lehman Brothers and $53.8m from Cornhill Capital after lengthy legal battles, the fund said in a statement.

The Libyan Investment Author-ity (LIA) is involved in a number of disputes with Western firms, not least its $3.3bn claims against investment banks Goldman Sachs and Societe Generale, which are being pursued in London courts.

The dispute with Lehman stems from the collapse of the Wall Street giant in 2008. The LIA invested at least $200m in a Lehman struc-tured product at a time when the country was still ruled by Muam-mar Gaddafi. After Lehman filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, the LIA attempted to recover as much as possible of its investment.

As part of the process of receiving funds back from the administrators, some $73m has now been recovered, paid in instalments to an LIA account.

Lehman’s administrators attempt to make payouts to differ-ent tranches of Lehman creditors via applications to the courts.

The LIA has also recovered $53.8m after a three-year battle with UK-based Cornhill Capital over an investment in the latter’s Bermuda-domiciled Cornhill Nat-ural Resources Fund. In October 2013, the LIA tried to withdraw what remained from an initial investment of $100m, a person with knowledge of the situation said.

However, Cornhill Capital delayed making a redemption on

the grounds that to do so would violate international sanctions, the LIA said in a statement. The United Nations Security Council had imposed an asset freeze on the LIA in 2011 to prevent the country’s wealth being spirited away after the fall of Gaddafi.

A substantial portion of the LIA’s assets remain frozen, but the redemption proceeds from Cornhill have now been paid into a sanc-tioned account, the LIA said in the statement.

Cornhill Capital declined to comment.

The leadership of the LIA is con-tested by multiple individuals. One of these, AbdulMagid Breish (pic-tured), who was appointed LIA chairman in June 2013, said the decision in the Cornhill case was “an encouraging result”.

He added that the LIA would continue to press for greater recov-eries from Lehman.

The LIA is awaiting a judgment in its case against Goldman Sachs, which ran for seven weeks in June and July. The trial date for the law-suit against Societe Generale was pushed back until April 2017 under a judge’s ruling in July.

Gold bracelets on display as a woman makes choices at a jewellery showroom in Kolkata.

Deutsche Bank’s woes said to stir German concern on financesBloomberg

BERLIN: Deutsche Bank AG’s finances, weakened by low profita-bility and mounting legal costs, are raising concern among German pol-iticians after the US sought $14bn to settle claims related to the sale of mortgage-backed securities.

At a closed session of Social Democratic finance lawmakers this week, Bank’s woes came up alongside a debate over Basel finan-cial rules, according to two people familiar with the matter. Partic-ipants discussed the US fine and the financial reserves at Deutsche Bank’s disposal if it had to cover the full amount, according to the peo-ple, who asked not to be identified.

While the participants -- mem-bers of the junior party in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government -- didn’t reach any conclusions on the likely outcome, the discussion signals that the risks have the attention of Ger-many’s political establishment. The German Finance Ministry last week called on the US to ensure a “fair

outcome” for Deutsche Bank, citing cases against other banks where the government settled for reduced fines. A spokesman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

Pressure on Germany’s biggest lender has increased since German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schae-uble told Bloomberg Television on February 9 that he has “no concerns about Deutsche Bank.”

The Bank was already ranked among the worst-capitalized lend-ers in European stress tests before US demanded $14bn during initial talks to settle a probe into how it handled mortgage securities dur-ing the 2008 financial crisis. The announcement led the bank’s risk-iest bonds to plunge.

“It would certainly help Deut-sche Bank in their negotiations to get some political involvement,” said Dieter Hein, an analyst who follows German and Swiss financial firms at Fairesearch-Alphavalue in Kro-nberg near Frankfurt. “BNP Paribas for example was also well advised to get some political help with litiga-tion in the past.” Italy’s banks have added to concern about the stability

of European lenders. Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA is turning to private investors to strengthen its balance sheet after the nation’s longest recession since World War II left companies and households struggling to repay debt.

PM Matteo Renzi’s government has backed a series of measures, including the creation of a €4bn bank rescue fund. Since February, Bank’s shares have dropped to record lows amid investor concern that the lender is running out of options to boost capital. It’s struggling to sell Postbank, its German retail unit, and the disposal of its British insurance business has been drawn out by a regulatory inquiry.

At $14bn, the US claim would cost the bank more than twice the €5.5bn it’s set aside for litigation. The bank has said it doesn’t intend to pay anywhere near that amount. Deutsche Bank declined 2 percent to €11.40 at 1:44pm in Frankfurt. The bank has lost 48 percent of its market value this year, giving it the lowest price-to-book value of the top 10 global investment banks.

Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,337.83 an ounce at 1140 GMT, and was nearly 2 percent higher on the week.

Ruble rallies

in emerging

markets

Bloomberg

MOSCOW: The ruble rallied the most in emerging markets as oil climbed and Bank of America (BoA) recommended buying the Russian currency, citing a pos-itive outlook for crude prices.

The ruble is heading for its strongest weekly advance since May as speculation global cen-tral banks won’t rush to roll back stimulus fanned appetite for emerging-markets assets. The ruble rose 0.4 percent to 63.4750 per dollar by 2:08pm in Moscow.

Russia seized on the US Fed’s decision to keep rates on hold, selling Eurobonds for the second time this year as bond yields dropped. The BoA’s Arko Sen says investors should pounce on any ruble weakness to buy it as oil is set to gain next year, while expectations OPEC will agree to coordinate output at next week.

Bloomberg

LONDON: The euro-area econ-omy saw its pace of growth dip to a 20-month low at the end of the third quarter, highlighting the chal-lenge facing policy makers to build momentum.

IHS Markit said its monthly com-posite Purchasing Managers Index declined to 52.6 in September from 52.9 in August. Services weakened

and manufacturing improved, with all three measures staying above the 50 mark that divides expansion from contraction.

The slowdown in September was largely due to Germany, where the services sector barely eked out any growth. Markit said the euro-zone PMI indicates growth of “close to” 0.3 percent in the third quarter, lit-tle changed from the pace recorded in the three months through June.

The report also showed that average selling prices at companies

rose for the first time in more than a year, but only barely, and inflation-ary pressures are still “muted.”

It’s “clear that the economic upturn is still fragile and failing to achieve any real traction,” said Rob Dobson, a senior economist at Markit in London. “The door remains open for policy makers to provide fur-ther policy support later in the year if they see economic conditions mod-erate further.” In Germany, Europe’s largest economy, the PMI showed a loss of momentum this month. The

composite gauge dropped to 52.7, a 16-month low, from 53.3 in August.

“Weak demand continued to curb inflows of new business and companies reported a lack of work outstanding, boding ill for output growth in coming months,” Oliver Kolodseike, an economist at Markit, said of the German numbers.

In France, the composite PMI rose to 53.3 from 51.9 in August, Markit said earlier, with the meas-ures for both manufacturing and services improving.

EU sees no traction as Germany loses momentum

BoE uncertainty ‘a problem on policy outlook’Bloomberg

LONDON: The Bank of England (BOE) has admitted an uncertainty problem that could have implica-tions for its policy outlook.

In an interview with Bloomb-erg News this week, official Kristin Forbes said the central bank may be double-counting unpredictability effects following Britain’s decision to quit the European Union.

How wide-ranging these mis-calculations are and how the data evolves before the BOE updates its forecasts in November could be key to new growth projections and the odds of another rate reduction.

One problem is a lack of informa-tion. Governor Mark Carney and the Monetary Policy Committee have already faced criticism from pro-Brexit lawmakers for doing too much, too soon, after they cut the key interest rate to 0.25 percent in August and unleashed a broader package of stimulus.

The move coincided with the BOE’s biggest ever downward revision to its forecasts, made with very little hard data. While initial reports have shown signs of resil-ience, officials won’t get an official reading of how the economy per-formed in the third quarter until the end of October. As Dan Hanson, an economist at Bloomberg Intelli-gence, says much is left to judgment.

“When you’re faced with a shock that hasn’t been faced by anywhere else in the world, it’s very difficult. I wouldn’t expect them to move away from that immediately, but as the shape of the shock becomes clearer, and that only happens with data, they’ll undoubtedly refine the way they look at it.”

So Forbes’ comments don’t nec-essarily take further loosening this year off the table.

A majority of the nine-member MPC have signaled a willingness to back another rate reduction, unless their outlook changes markedly, and while economists in a Bloomb-erg survey see a lower probability of a recession, most still predict another rate cut will come in 2016.

Earlier this month, the BOE said third-quarter growth will prob-ably be stronger than it initially thought. Still, much depends on the outlook for next year, when officials see expansion of just 0.8 percent, which would be the worst perform-ance since 2009.

Kallum Pickering, an econo-mist at Berenberg, said that after downgrading its forecasts so mark-edly, the BOE would probably have to revise them up in a hefty way to rationalize standing pat.

“To take out a November rate cut they’d have to revise up the fore-cast to about 1.2 percent or higher. I’m not sure they’d feel justified to do that after one quarter of better data.”

A war memorial is seen in front of the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain.

BUSINESS VIEWS20 SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

‘Trust’ is gaining as a fudge factor in economicsBloomberg

The legendary economist Robert Solow once joked that every discus-sion about the relative performances of European economies “ends up in

a blaze of amateur sociology.” The joke has an element of truth. Economists are fond of invoking “culture” to explain large-scale outcomes they don’t understand. This often comes up in discussions about Japan, whose macroeconomy defies every standard text-book theory. Culture, I often hear, is at the root of all the mysteries.

But “culture” is just one of many large-scale fudge factors that economists are tempted to fall back on. There’s also “tech-nology,” which macroeconomists often invoke to account for inexplicable produc-tivity changes. Or “power,” which some left-leaning economists use as a rationale for outcomes that benefit the rich.

Now “trust” is in fashion and has earned a place on the fudge-factor list.

Before I criticize the use of “trust” to explain economic outcomes, let me admit that I am absolutely guilty of it. In a recent

article, I worried about decreasing trust in US institutions. Though I think my worry is legitimate, it’s also easy for me and other writ-ers and economists to take the trust thing too far. There are good reasons to think that trust, in some sense of the word, really matters for economic outcomes. In many interactions in markets and elsewhere, various forms of trust can help achieve results that are better for everyone involved. If buyers and sell-ers trust each other not to cheat, they can do more deals. If insurers trust drivers not to be reckless, they can insure them more cheaply. Cooperation -- between employees in a company, for instance -- is also depend-ent on trust. The famous prisoner’s dilemma describes a situation in which trust can lead to much better outcomes for everyone -- as long as the game is repeated many times. In open-ended relationships, where the number of interactions is uncertain, trust helps people cooperate repeatedly instead of just betray-ing each other over and over.

It’s tempting to take this realization and start using as it an excuse to invoke “trust” to explain lots of things in the world around us. And so there is a boomlet in citing trust to explain things like happiness and economic

development. But we should resist this temp-tation, for at least three reasons.

First, trust is hard to measure. The typical indicator of social trust comes from surveys. For example, the World Value Survey asks people whether they believe that “most peo-ple can be trusted,” or whether one “can’t be too careful.” But this doesn’t necessarily tell us about the kind of trust that matters in eco-nomic models.

Let’s suppose that in one country, peo-ple have very close, trusting relationships with business partners, but distrust stran-gers on the street. That country might have the kind of trust needed to facilitate eco-nomic exchange, but might still rank low on the World Value Survey’s measure. Trust is also relative. There could be a country where everyone trusts each other a lot compared to other countries, but because the culture has such a high standard for saying you “trust” someone, people respond negatively to the World Value Survey’s question. This kind of problem crops up a lot in economists’ sur-veys of self-reported happiness in different countries, so it’s reasonable to expect it to rear its head here as well.

A second, related problem with trust is

that there are different kinds. Although the World Value Survey asks about attitudes toward “most people,” other surveys ask about trust in institutions, or the government. But there may be yet more forms of trust that the surveys don’t tease apart. Trust in businesses may be more important than trust in strangers or trust in family. Alternatively, how quickly people build up trust with new people might be more important than how much trust they have in the people in the town they grew up in. There is just no automatic correspondence between survey measures and the objects in economists’ models.

The third problem is the most insidious of all. Because trust is a concept that most peo-ple deal with in their daily lives, economists are naturally tempted to think they know how it works. For example, we may assume that because we trust people at our church, religious homogeneity produces social trust. We may therefore jump from the theoretical and survey literature on trust to the conclu-sion that nations should encourage religious homogeneity in order to make themselves richer and happier. But this kind of intui-tive leap, though tempting, isn’t supported by hard evidence.

By Noah Smith

Bloomberg

“The corporate world is a boys’ club, and it’ll always be a boys’ club,” said a banker who

struck up a conversation with me a few years ago in a coffee shop near the university where I once taught. “Male managers are always going to hire men over women, because they feel more comfortable around men.”

“Aren’t there some managers who just hire whoever’s best for the job?,” I asked.

“Yeah, there are some,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going on with those guys.”

Gary Becker might have had an idea of what was going on. For decades in the mid-20th century, the future Nobel-winning econ-omist wrote about the economics of discrimination. His theory was, in a nutshell, that the people who make hiring decisions at compa-nies are bigoted -- they’d rather work with people of their own race or gender. Essentially, this is the same explanation that the banker gave me in the coffee shop. According to Becker, big-oted employers will pay lower salaries to the people they don’t like, resulting in gender and racial wage gaps.

But Becker also made a sur-prising claim that enraged many who had themselves suffered discrimination. He said that com-panies run by bigots would be driven out of the market by com-petition. In a perfectly competitive market, companies that don’t pay employees what they’re really worth will be outcompeted for tal-ent by unbiased companies, and eventually driven out of business.

Obviously, that doesn’t hap-pen in real life and there is lots of evidence that discrimination still exists. Becker was commit-ting a common sin of economists

-- using an overly simplistic model to make grand, definitive claims. In reality, there are many factors affecting corporate performance other than the pure competition for talent. But just because Becker wasn’t totally right doesn’t mean he was totally wrong. Economic competition might not eliminate entrenched bigotry in society, but it could help erode it over time. There’s evidence suggesting that this is the case.

A couple of studies in the late 1990s by economist San-dra Black, of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, showed how increased competition in the

US manufacturing and bank-ing industries was followed by a shrinking of the gender gap in those businesses. In manufactur-ing, that competition was largely international amid the increase in foreign trade during the late 20th century. Black showed that concentrated industries, which were probably more insulated from competition to start with, saw more of a reduction in their gender wage gap when they were also affected by trade. In other words, when foreign competitors from places such as Japan and Europe forced US manufacturers to up their game, competing for female talent -- and giving women a much-deserved raise -- was one way they did so. Black also finds that deregulation in the banking industry had similar effects.

More recently, the evidence has multiplied. In 2013, econo-mists Fredrik Heyman, Helena Svaleryd, and Jonas Vlachos found that companies that get bought out in a takeover tend to increase their percentages of female employees. In older, established industries, it’s likely to be the less success-ful businesses that get bought out, so this implies that these compa-nies were suffering in part because of their refusal to hire enough women. And in 2014, economists Andrea Weber and Christine Zulehner found that companies with fewer female employees than the industry average tend to have lower survival rates.

An interesting new piece of evidence comes from a sociolo-gist -- Harvard University’s Devah Pager. Back in 2004, Pager con-ducted a field study of companies in New York City to find out which ones engaged in more racial dis-crimination. Research assistants of various racial backgrounds were sent out with identical resumes to apply for jobs at companies. Over-all, white and Latino applicants got far more callbacks than their black counterparts. So discrimina-tion was fairly widespread.

Pager then kept track of which companies discriminated the most, and checked back with them in 2010, after the financial crisis. She found that companies that had showed signs of racial discrimina-tion were almost twice as likely to have gone out of business. That was true even after controlling for things like company size.

Conclusion: Discrimination doesn’t pay. Although Becker wasn’t right when he claimed that competition would quickly drive all discrimination out of the market, he was right that bigotry represents an albatross around a company’s neck.

Companies that discriminate fail (eventually)

Sunoco Logistics tops US crude spill charts

By Krisztina Than

Reuters

Sunoco Logistics, the future opera-tor of the oil pipeline delayed this month after Native American pro-tests in North Dakota, spills crude more often than any of its compet-

itors with more than 200 leaks since 2010, according to analysis of government data.

The lands of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sit a half mile south of the proposed route of the Dakota Access pipeline. The tribe fears the line could destroy sacred sites during construction and that a future oil spill might pollute its drinking water.

A tribal protest over the $3.7bn project drew broad support from other Native American tribes, domestic and international environmental groups and Hollywood celebrities.

In response to the tribe’s objections, the US government earlier this month called

for a temporary halt to construction along a section of the 1,100 mile line in North Dakota near the Missouri River.

While environ-mental concerns are at the heart of the Stand-ing Rock Sioux protest, there is no reference to the frequency of leaks by Sunoco or its parent Energy Trans-fer Partners in a legal complaint filed by the tribe, nor has Sunoco’s spill record informed the public debate on the line. Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II told the tribe was aware of the safety record of Energy Transfer, but declined to elaborate.

Sunoco Logistics is one of the largest

pipeline operators in the United States. Energy Transfer is constructing the Dakota Access pipeline to pump crude produced at North Dakota’s Bakken shale fields to the US Gulf Coast. Once completed, it will hand over the pipeline’s operation to Sunoco.

Sunoco acknowledged the data and told it had taken measures to reduce its spill rate.

“Since the current leadership team took over in 2012, Sunoco Pipeline has enhanced and improved our integrity management program,” Sunoco spokesman Jeffrey Shields said by email.

This significantly cut the amount of bar-rels lost during incidents, he said.

The US Department of Justice did not make any reference to the company’s spill rate when it decided to stall the project. It highlighted the need for reform in the way companies building infrastructure consult with Native American tribes.

Spokespeople for the Departments of Justice and the Interior, and the Army Corps declined to comment on whether they were aware of Energy Transfer’s leak statistics when they jointly decided to halt construction of the line. Analyzed data that companies are obliged to disclose to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) when they suffer spills and found that Sunoco leaked crude from onshore pipelines at least 203 times over the last six years.

PHMSA data became more detailed in 2010. In its examination, tallied leaks in the past six years along dedicated onshore crude oil lines and excluded systems that carry natural gas and refined products. The Sunoco data include two of its pipeline units, the West Texas Gulf and Mid-Valley Pipeline.

That made it the operator with the highest number of crude leak incidents, ahead of at least 190 recorded by Enter-prise Products Partners and 167 by Plains All American Pipeline, according to the spill data reported to PHMSA, which is part of the US Department of Transportation.

Enterprise said it has comprehensive safety and integrity programs in place and that many spills happened at its terminals.

Sunoco and Enterprise both said most leaks take place within company facilities

and are therefore contained. Plains All American did not respond to a request for comment. Sunoco’s spill rate shows protes-tors may have reason to be concerned about potential leaks.

The main option that was considered for routing the line away from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe reservation was previ-ously discarded because it would involve crossing more water-sensitive areas north of the capital Bismarck, according to the project’s environmental assessment.

To be sure, most pipeline spills are small and pipelines are widely seen as a safer way to move fuel than alternatives such as rail.

Sunoco and its units leaked a total of 3,406 net barrels of crude in all the leaks over the last six years, only a fraction of the more than 3m barrels lost in the largest spill in US history, BP Plc’s Macondo well disas-ter in 2010. Sunoco said it found that crude lines not in constant use were a significant source of leaks, so it had shut or repaired some of those arteries.

In 2015, 71 percent of pipeline incidents were contained within the operator’s facil-ity, according to a report by the Association of Oil Pipe Lines, a trade group.

While total pipeline incidents have increased by 31 percent in the last five years, large spills of 500 barrels or more are down by 32 percent over the same time, the report said.

Sunoco accounted for about 8 percent of the more than 2,600 reported liquids pipeline leaks in the past six years in the United States. The company has made pre-vious efforts to improve safety, a former Sunoco employee who declined to be iden-tified said. It overhauled safety culture after a spill in 2000, and did so again another in 2005 that dumped some 6,000 barrels of crude into the Kentucky River from its Mid-Valley Pipeline.

Sunoco acknowledged that some of its pipeline equipment dates back to the 1950s.

A 2014 corrective measure regulators issued for Sunoco’s Mid-Valley Pipeline cited “some history of internal corrosion failures” as a potential factor in a leak that sent crude into a Louisiana bayou near an area used for drinking water.

The lands of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sit a half mile south of the proposed route of the Dakota Access pipeline. The tribe fears the line could destroy sacred sites during construction and that a future oil spill might pollute its drinking water.

“Culture” is just one of many large-scale fudge factors that economists are tempted to fall back on. There’s also “technology,” which macroeconomists often invoke to account for inexplicable productivity changes. Or “power,” which some left-leaning economists use as a rationale for outcomes that benefit the rich.

Signs left by protesters demonstrating against the Energy Transfer Partners Dakota Access oil pipeline sit at the gate of a construction access road where construction has been stopped for several weeks.

Reuters

TORONTO: Russia claimed a do-or-die 3-0 victory over Finland on Thursday to advance to the semi-finals of the World Cup of Hockey and set up a mouth-watering show-down with arch-rivals Canada.

Canada, who stormed through preliminary round play unbeaten to grab top spot in Group A, faced Rus-sia yesterday while Sweden, winners of Group B, take on Team Europe tomorrow.

Needing a win to clinch a spot in the last four, Russia got second period goals 79 seconds apart from Vladimir Tarasenko and Ivan Tel-egin, then rode the netminding of Sergei Bobrovsky to victory as they dashed Team North America’s hopes of advancing.

Evgeni Malkin added a pow-erplay goal in the third while Bobrovsky stopped all 21 shots he faced for his first shutout of the tournament.

Canada-Russia is hockey’s most storied rivalry and yesterday’s semi-final shaped up as another classic with Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin, the sport’s two biggest names, set to lead their respective teams into battle.

“It’s Canada verses Russia, it’s not two players,” said Ovechkin, who set up Russia’s first goal. “Two teams with a great history, it’s going to be tough, it’s going to be hard playing here in Canada, but it is also going to be fun.

“Tomorrow we are going to think how we beat Canada. The opportu-nity is huge.”

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia’s status as a hockey superpower has faded, causing the rivalry to lose some of its heat but none of the animosity.

Canada have won gold at three of the last four Winter Games while

the once unstoppable Big Red Machine has sputtered along, lim-ited to a single bronze. Finland, who had knocked Russia out of the Sochi Olympics in the quarter-finals, looked ready to be the Russian bogeyman once again after a score-less opening period.

But Russia broke the dead-lock early in the second when Tarasenko took a nifty goalmouth feed from Ovechkin and redirected into an open net. Just 1:19 later, Tel-egin added an insurance marker by stickhandling across the goalmouth

and sliding the puck past a sprawl-ing Tuukka Rask.

“The first period was kind of asleep, kind of a boring game. We didn’t want to make a mistake and give them an opportunity to take the lead,” said Ovechkin.

“They hit the crossbar and then we scored two goals right away. It kind of gave us some breathing room.”

In the late game, the US fell to the Czech Republic 4-3 to close out the group stage of the competition.

Both teams were already

eliminated heading into the con-test and the Americans suffered yet another defeat as goaltender Ben Bishop was pulled after giving up four goals on 20 shots through two periods. The US finished tournament 0-3-0, finishing seventh of the eight teams.

“None of us with the US team here from head to toe is happy with what’s happened here,” coach John Tortorella told reporters.

“We come up short but I think some guys gave some really true efforts. We just didn’t find a way to win the hockey game.”

21SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

Russia blank Finland to set up Canada clashWinless USA exit after loss to Czech Republic as Sweden face Europe in semi-final of World Cup of Hockey

NFL: Steelers face Eagles in battle of the unbeaten giants AP

PHILADELPHIA: Here come the unbeaten Pittsburgh Steelers, cross-ing Pennsylvania to meet intrastate rival, the unbeaten Philadelphia Eagles.

They play only every four years, but how cool is it that each is 2-0 and looking strong when they meet in the NFL tomorrow?

Even without star running back Le’Veon Bell and emerging receiver Martavis Bryant - Bell finishes his three-game league suspension this weekend, while Bryant is suspended for the entire season - Pittsburgh’s offense has hummed. DeAngelo Wil-liams leads the NFL in rushing in his 11th pro season, Antonio Brown is the game’s most dangerous wideout, and Ben Roethlisberger is making big plays.

“They don’t ask for a birth cer-tificate before the game,” Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz says of the 33-year-old Williams.

“They don’t give you nine yards (to gain a first down) if you are over 30. You’ve still got to get 10. He’s a patient runner, he’s compact, and he’s strong. He can test every area of your run gaps.”

The Steelers don’t have many run gaps; their rush defence ranks

second. So the Eagles might need to rely once more on rookie quar-terback Carson Wentz. He’s drawn comparisons to Aaron Rodgers, Pey-ton Manning, and Roethlisberger for being so impressive in the first two games, but they were wins over Cleveland and Chicago, and Pitts-burgh isn’t anything like those two bottom-feeders.

Roethlisberger, who started off 13-0 in his rookie season in 2004, shares an agent with Wentz, and likes what he sees.

“He’s doing a really good job of just kind of letting the game come to him,” Big Ben says of Wentz. “He’s not forcing it. You see him throw-ing balls away and not trying to make too many crazy throws down the field, and using his legs when needed.”

On Monday, there’s a rematch of the biggest regular-season game in New Orleans Saints history, their return to the Superdome after being displaced for the entire 2005 season by Hurricane Katrina.

A blocked punt by Steve Gleason — there’s a statue outside the sta-dium honoring it — sparked a 2006 win over Atlanta, and the Saints wound up in the playoffs. The Falcons are back for the 10th anniversary.

“There’s a lot of symbolism in that game,” Saints coach Sean

Payton says. “That idea of rebirth. ... You have this event that coincides with the reopening of an arena that was used to shelter people. There were a ton of things that were some-what unreal about it. ... Obviously that was an emotional night, and it was loud.”

Only a handful of players remain from the 2006 Saints squad, and their motivation is different. Back then they were playing for fans struggling through disaster recov-ery. Current realities are different, says veteran right tackle Zach Strief, who was a rookie when the dome reopened. This team is winless, and “guys are tired of losing, and there’s a lot of prideful people in here.”

The Denver Broncos hit the road for the first time, and they’ll be hitting anything that moves in a Cincinnati Bengals uniform. Den-ver’s defense is hellacious once more, especially against the pass, ranking second. Super Bowl MVP Von Miller already has four sacks.

On the other side, Cincinnati is dead last in rushing defense, and Broncos running back C.J. Ander-son leads the NFL with seven runs of at least 10 yards.

Cincinnati opened with two road contests and now tries to get its run-ning game in gear at home. Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard have com-bined for less than 100 yards rushing

in the first two games. The San Fran-cisco 49ers haven’t won in Seattle since late in the 2011 season.

Seattle can’t find its offense and

has some hobbled players in running back Thomas Rawls (shin), receiver Doug Baldwin (knee) and receiver Tyler Lockett (knee).

All are expected to play, and Rawls rushed for 209 yards and a touchdown in the previous game vs the 49ers.

Coleman out for 4-6 weeks with a fractured handAgencies

CLEVELAND: Cleveland Browns wide receiver Corey Coleman will be out 4-6 weeks with a fractured hand.

Coleman participated in Wednesday’s practice but visited a hand specialist following an X-ray, which revealed a non-displaced fracture. Coleman, the Browns’ first-round pick selected 15th overall in April, caught a pass in practice and, when someone landed on his hand, he was injured.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is featured on the latest cover of Time magazine after generating headlines and contro-versy with his actions during the US national anthem. On Thursday, Time tweeted its cover for its upcoming edition. It shows Kaepernick kneel-ing during the national anthem, as he has done in the past two regu-lar-season games in protest of racial inequality in the United States.

The headline on the cover reads, “The Perilous Fight,” and the subhead reads, “National anthem protests led by Colin Kaepernick are fueling a debate about privilege, pride and patriotism.”

Vikings running back Adrian Peterson underwent knee surgery and will begin rehabbing imme-diately. Whether the 31-year-old

returns to the Minnesota roster ever again is unclear.

The Vikings announced that Peterson, diagnosed with a torn meniscus and lateral collateral lig-ament, had surgery in Minneapolis four days after leaving the team’s win over the Green Bay Packers on Sun-day with the injury.

Vikings defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd had arthroscopic surgery to clean out cartilage in his right knee.

The 25-year-old will miss tomor-row’s game at the Carolina Panthers (1 p.m. ET) and likely a few more after that. Floyd sat out four games last season after having cartilage removed from his knee last October.

Washington Redskins veteran wide receiver DeSean Jackson returned to the practice field, one day removed from sitting out prac-tice with foot and ankle injuries.

Jackson was listed as a limited participant for the Redskins (0-2), and his status for Sunday’s game against the New York Giants remains uncertain.

Chicago Bears wide receiver Alshon Jeffery missed practice as he nurses a knee injury. Jeffery was listed as a limited participant in Wednesday’s practice, and the 26-year-old’s absence the following day calls into question his availabil-ity for the Bears (0-2) in their road game against the Dallas Cowboys tomorrow.

Bucks’ star Middleton suffers hamstring injuryAgencies

MILWAUKEE: The Milwaukee Bucks are reeling after receiving word that their leading scorer Khris Middleton will miss approximately six months due to a hamstring injury.

Middleton tore his hamstring in a workout earlier this week and is slated to undergo surgery next week.

Middleton, 25, averaged a career-best 18.2 points, 4.2 assists and 1.7 steals last season.

“We’re obviously disappointed for Khris and our team, but inju-ries are an unfortunate part of the game,” Bucks general manager John Hammond told reporters.

“We’ll rely on our overall ros-ter depth to help us while Khris is out for a significant period of the

season.” The Bucks acquired for-ward Michael Beasley from the Houston Rockets in exchange for guard Tyler Ennis.

Beasley was signed by Hou-ston late last season and averaged 12.8 points and 18.2 minutes in 20 games.

Ennis averaged 4.5 points and 2.1 assists in 46 games last season.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are working on a buyout for Kevin Garnett that would end the for-ward’s second stint with the team.

Minnesota opens training camp on Tuesday and would like to have a solution before it starts, prefer-ably with the 40-year-old Garnett electing to retire.

Garnett is entering the final season of his contract and has not given the Timberwolves an answer on which direction he is leaning. He has spent 13 1/2 of his 21 NBA sea-sons with Minnesota.

Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham is tackled by Chicago Bears cornerback Tracy Porter during the first quarter of their NFL game at Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois on Thursday. The unbeaten Philadelphia Eagles will meet unbeaten Pittsburgh Steelers at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania tomorrow.

Team Czech Republic defenseman Tomas Kundratek (left) takes out Team USA forward Kyle Palmieri as they battle for the puck during preliminary round play in the 2016 World Cup of at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Thursday.

SPORT22 SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

NZ make strong reply on rain-hit day

Reuters

KANPUR, INDIA: Captain Kane Wil-liamson and opener Tom Latham led a strong New Zealand reply with unbeaten half-centuries before rain washed out the final session of the second day of the first test against India yesterday.

The pair shared an unbroken 117-run stand to take New Zealand to 152 for one at tea before it started drizzling at Kanpur’s Green Park Stadium and no further play was possible.

Having bowled out the hosts for 318, New Zealand lost Martin Gup-till (21) before lunch but the left-right combination of Latham and Wil-liamson negated the home spinners with aplomb.

Latham was unbeaten on 56 with Williamson on 65 as New Zealand trailing India by 166 runs with nine wickets in hand.

“We were disciplined, we stuck

to the gameplans. When the Indian bowlers missed, we jumped all over,” New Zealand batting coach Craig McMillan told reporters.

“The way they rotated the strike, their left hand-right hand combina-tion throughout the partnership was crucial.”

Guptill could not convert the start he got and was trapped lbw by a full, swinging delivery from Umesh Yadav.

Latham and Williamson, how-ever, looked comfortable against the spinners who did manage a few leg-before appeals but could not sep-arate them.

The batsmen brought up their individual fifties in successive overs,

but not before Latham had survived a scare.

He went for a sweep shot against Ravindra Jadeja and the deflec-tion hit his boot and popped up for Lokesh Rahul to take the catch at short leg.

The decision was referred to the third umpire who ruled in the bats-man’s favour after replays suggested the ball had touched the chin strap of Rahul’s helmet.

According to regulations, parts of protective gear must not come into play while taking a catch.

India’s batting coach Sanjay Bangar said an early wicket was all the home team needed when play resumes today.

Morris ruled out of Australia ODI seriesReuters

CAPE TOWN: South Africa all-rounder Chris Morris has been ruled out for up to two months with a knee injury and will miss one-day internationals against Ireland and Australia, Cricket South Africa said yesterday.

Morris has been struggling with a tendon problem for the last eight months.

“The injury has flared up con-siderably over the last two weeks leaving us with no option but rest and rehabilitation to allow the knee time to fully recover,” team manager Mohammed Moosajee said in a statement.

Morris had been named in the squad for the one-off match against the Irish on Sunday and five home ODIs against Australia starting on September 30.

Uncapped all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius has been called up as a replacement for the Australia matches.

Captain Williamson and opener Latham hit unbeaten fifties in reply to India’s 318 all out

New Zealand’s Tom Latham and Kane Williamson run between wickets during the second day of the first Test against India in Green Park Stadium Kanpur yesterday.

Johnson leads at Tour ChampionshipReuters

MIAMI: Top seed Dustin Johnson continued his “good mojo” to earn a tie for the first-round lead with Kevin Chappell and Hideki Matsuyama at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Thursday.

The power-hitting US Open champion continued to make a fickle game look easy, compiling five birdies in a seemingly-effortless four-under-par 66 in ideal conditions at East Lake.

“I felt like I had good mojo going all day and swung it very nicely,” Johnson told Golf Channel. “I hit a lot of great shots with the irons and

drove it nicely. That puts together a good score.”

Johnson, fellow American Chap-pell and Japan’s Matsuyama headed Australian world number one Jason Day, South Korean Kim Si-woo and American Kevin Kisner by one stroke in the elite 30-man field.

Day continued to feel occasional twinges of the back pain that forced him to pull out of the previous play-off event, the BMW Championship, after three rounds.

The season-ending Tour Champi-onship is the only event on tour that hands out two trophies -- one to the tournament winner and another to the winner of the season-long Fed-ExCup points race.

The FedExCup champion will

receive $10m and Johnson, a three-time winner this season, is in pole position. He will win the FedExCup if he also wins the tournament, as would the next four seeds -- Patrick Reed, Day, Adam Scott and Paul Casey.

Casey made a 30-foot eagle putt at the par-five 18th for two-under 68, while Scott finished poorly with two late bogeys for a 69 and Reed strug-gled to a 73.

Johnson hit a couple of wayward drives, but was otherwise a model of consistency.

His sole bogey came at the par-four 13th, his drive there ending up behind a pine cone from where he could advance the ball only 30 yards.

Four holes later, Johnson’s drive almost struck Sky Sports on-course reporter Wayne Riley, a former pro-fessional who took his on-course role a little too literally by wandering down the fairway instead of staying in the rough.

Johnson’s drive landed within a couple of paces of a surprised Riley, who came in for some light-hearted ribbing by his fellow commentators.

Joint leader Matsuyama, mean-while, made a nice start on the more difficult front nine and picked up two more shots on the inward half.

0“I was a little bit lucky on that front nine but got into a good rhythm,” said the world number 18. “I putted well today and that’s what made the difference.”

Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland returns a ball to Monica Puig of Puerto Rico during the Pan Pacific Open women’s singles quarter-final match at the Ariake Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan, yesterday.

Radwanska in semis of

Pan Pacific Open title

Agencies

TOKOYO: Defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska made light work of Olympic gold medallist Monica Puig, beating the Puerto Rican 6-2 6-3 in the quarter-finals of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo yesterday.

The 27-year-old Pole served up eight aces, hit 16 winners and made just 10 unforced errors during the one hour and 16 minute encounter.

“I was serving well and keep-ing the ball very well... I just felt like John Isner for a little bit there,” Radwanska, who is eyeing her third Pan Pacific Open title, said in an on-court interview.

World number four Radwanska will take on former world number one Caroline Wozniacki, who also put in a strong performance on Fri-day to beat Magda Linette 6-4 6-3.

Naomi Osaka of Japan beat Belarus’ Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-3 7-6(6) to set up a semi-final match against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, who upset world number three Gar-bine Muguruza 6-2 4-6 6-3.

The 18-year-old Osaka was 5-0 down in the second set but clawed

her way back to reach her first semi-final at the Pan Pacific Open.

Svitolina and Osaka have played twice before, with each winning once.

Meanwhile, Serena Williams has withdrawn from the Wuhan and China Opens due to a persist-ent shoulder injury and is targeting a return to action in next month’s WTA Finals in Singapore, the world number two said on Friday.

The 34-year-old American, 22-times grand slam singles champion, has played only eight tournaments this year and lost her spot at the top of the world rankings to German Angelique Kerber.

“I am disappointed that I will not be able to compete at the Wuhan Open or the China Open due to continuing issues with my right shoulder,” the 34-year-old said in a statement.

“I have been practising and playing but my shoulder is still not fit for tournament play. I am focused on getting ready to compete at the WTA Finals in Singapore.”

Williams has won two titles this year, in Rome and at Wimbledon, and finished runner-up in three tournaments.

McIlroy plays ideal Ryder Cup a week too early

Reuters

MIAMI: Rory McIlroy’s roller-coaster opening round at the Tour Championship on Thursday was not ideal for stroke play but just about perfect for the match play format of next week’s Ryder Cup.

Northern Irishman McIlroy is the only member of the European Ryder

Cup team in the 30-man field at East Lake in Atlanta, where eight players from the United States lineup are in action ahead of next week’s show-down in Chaska, Minnesota.

The former world number one had consecutive double-bogeys mid-way through his round, preceded by three straight early birdies and fol-lowed by an even better late run of four successive birdies.

“When I get it going, I can really

run with it and then when it goes the other way I struggle to get out of it a little bit but that’s the nature of the way my game is right now, and how it has been for most of the year,” McIlroy told reporters after carding a two-under 68 that left him two strokes off the lead.

“I’m seeing more good, which is great, and holing some putts, mak-ing birdies ... as long as I continue to do that, I should be okay.”

Patrick Reed (left) greets Dustin Johnson (right) after playing the first round during the 2016 Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club yesterday.

India (I innings)L Rahul c Watling b Santner 32

M Vijay c Watling b Sodhi 65

C Pujara c&b Santner 62

V Kohli c Sodhi b Wagner 9

A Rahane c Latham b Craig 18

Ro Sharma c Sodhi b Santner 35

R Ashwin c Taylor b Boult 40

W Saha b Boult 0

R Jadeja not out 42

M Shami b Boult 0

U Yadav c Watling b Wagner 9

Extras (B-5 LB-1) 6

Total (all out, 97 overs) 318

Fall of wickets: 1-42 ,2-154, 3-167, 4-185,

5-209, 6-261, 7-262, 8-273, 9-277, 10-318

Bowling: T Boult 20 - 3 - 67 - 3, N Wagner 15

- 4 - 42 - 2, M Santner 23 - 2 - 94 - 3, M Craig 24

- 6 - 59 - 1, I Sodhi 15 - 3 - 50 - 1

New Zealand (I innings)M Guptill lbw b U Yadav 21

T Latham not out 56

K Williamson not out 65

Extras (B-8 LB-1 NB-1) 10

Total (for 1 wickets, 47 overs) 152 Fall of wickets: 1-35 M Guptill

Bowling: M Shami 8 - 1 - 26 - 0; U Yadav 7 - 2

- 22 - 1; R Jadeja 17 - 1 - 47 - 0(nb-1); R Ashwin

14 - 1 - 43 - 0; M Vijay 1 - 0 - 5 - 0

SCOREBOARD

European Tour European Open scores

Scores from the European Tour Euro-

pean Open at the par-71 course on

Thursday in Bad Griesbach

-9 Alexander Levy (France) 62

-8 Bernd Wiesberger (Austria) 63

-7 Jason Scrivener (Australia) 64

-6 Renato Paratore (Italy) 65

Ross Fisher (Britain) 65

-5 Lee Soo-Min (Korea) 66

Justin Walters (South Africa) 66

Jean Hugo (South Africa) 66

Oliver Fisher (Britain) 66

Stephen Gallacher (Britain) 66

Adrian Otaegui (Spain) 66

Matthew Southgate (Britain) 66

Lucas Bjerregaard (Denmark) 66

Steve Webster (Britain) 66

Daniel Im (U.S.) 66

Paul Dunne (Ireland) 66

Mikael Lundberg (Sweden) 66

Michael Jonzon (Sweden) 66

-4 Francesco Laporta (Italy) 67

Michael Hoey (Britain) 67

Graeme Storm (Britain) 67

Prom Meesawat (Thailand) 67

Max Rottluff (Germany) 67

Nicolo Ravano (Italy) 67

Marcel Schneider (Germany) 67

Tom Lewis (Britain) 67

Florian Fritsch (Germany) 67

Joakim Lagergren (Sweden) 67

Raphael Jacquelin (France) 67

Maximilian Kieffer (Germany) 67

Matthew Baldwin (Britain) 67

Ben Evans (Britain) 67

Richard Bland (Britain) 67

Richard Green (Australia) 67

Magnus Carlsson (Sweden) 67

Thomas Rosenmueller (Germany) 67

Michael Lorenzo-Vera (France) 67

Martin Kaymer (Germany) 67

SPORT 23SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016

Wenger implores Gunners to avoid red against Blues

Reuters

LONDON : Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has urged his players to avoid being drawn into needless confrontations with their Chelsea opponents when the London rivals meet at the Emirates Stadium today.

Arsenal were beaten home and away by Chelsea in the Premier League last season, and had three play-ers sent off over the two games, with Chelsea’s com-bative striker Diego Costa involved in two of the three incidents.

“In the last two games we played with 10 men so for the result tomorrow it’s important the way we play football but also the way we behave,” Wenger told a news conference on Friday. “We have to be cold blooded and respect the rules of the game.”

When the teams met last September, Arsenal centre back Gabriel was dismissed for scuffling with Costa and although the red card was later rescinded, the defender was given a one-match ban

for failing to immediately leave the pitch.

Costa, who has scored twice in three games against Arsenal, was retrospectively banned for his involvement in the incident, and Arsenal ended the 2-0 defeat with nine men after midfielder Santi Cazorla picked up a second yellow card late on.

Arsenal then lost 1-0 to Chelsea when the teams met in January, a game in which defender Per Mertesacker was shown a red card for a foul on Costa.

Wenger, whose side have not beaten Chelsea in nine league encounters, urged his team to channel their emo-tions in the right way.

“Discipline and results are strongly linked -- and the regrets we have from the last two games are that we couldn’t play 11 v 11,” said the Frenchman, who will com-plete 20 years in charge of Arsenal on Oct. 1.”

Wenger confirmed that striker Olivier Giroud was back in training after a toe injury but had less positive news on Wales midfielder Aaron Ramsey, who is out with a hamstring injury.

“Aaron Ramsey is still struggling with his ham-string,” Wenger said, while ruling the midfielder out until after the international break which ends on Oct. 14.

“He has a small grade one (tear) hamstring but he is not completely free to push at the moment and he has a little bit of pain. He is in the last days of his rehabilitation.”

Arsenal’s French manager Arsene Wenger attends a training session at Arsenal’s training ground at London Colney, north of London, England in this file Photo.

Costa’s attitude under the spotlight as Arsenal target a better record against Chelsea

Barcelona must manage

Messi’s playing time: Bauza Reuters

MADRID:Barcelona should manage Lionel Messi’s playing time better, Argentina coach Edgardo Bauza has said following the forward’s latest injury.

Argentina captain Messi has started in five of Barca’s six games this season, but was forced off in Wednesday’s 1-1 home draw against Atletico Madrid with a groin injury that will keep him out of action for three weeks.

The 29-year-old will miss Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers in Peru on Oct. 6 and at home to Par-aguay five days later, the Argentina Football Association (AFA) said in a statement.

“We all have to look after Lionel because he is at a stage where you have to manage his playing time,” Bauza told Spanish radio Cadena Cope. “He has played five games in the last two weeks.

“Barcelona, who had the player most of the time, need to manage his time more.

“The reality is that Lionel has played one game for the national team in the last four months and that was against Uruguay.”

Prior to the Uruguay game on Sept. 1, Barcelona had warned Argentina that Messi had a left adductor problem, but he played in the World Cup qualifier and scored the game’s only goal. He was then left out of the Argentina side that drew 2-2 in Venezuela five days later after Bauza decided to rest him on the advice of the club. e returned to Barcelona, however, and played four club games in 11 days, the last of which was against Atletico.

“He should have played against Venezuela,” Bauza said. “However, I opted to look after him and rest him following the recommendations given by Barcelona’s medical team.

“Now he has gotten injured. I don’t want to fight with Barcelona.

“We just want Lionel to recover and return to play for Barcelona and for the national team.”

Argentina are third in the South American World Cup qualifying standings, one point behind lead-ers Uruguay after eight games.

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi sits on the field after suffering from an injury as Atletico Madrid’s players Gabi Fernandez (right) and Diego Godín (left) look at him during their La Liga match at Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain on Wednesday.

Mourinho feud is ‘prehistoric’: Ranieri Reuters

MANCHESTER: Claudio Ranieri (pictured) has become the latest Pre-mier League manager to bury the hatchet with Jose Mourinho, with the Italian describing his feud with the Manchester United boss as “prehis-toric” ahead of Leicester City’s clash with Manchester United at Old Traf-ford today.

The Portuguese called Rani-eri “a loser” when he replaced him at Chelsea during his first stint in England, and their relationship dete-riorated further when they were

both managing in Serie A. Ranieri, who led rank outsiders Leicester to a title triumph last season, insisted the past was dead and buried. “It’s prehistoric,” Ranieri told reporters at a news conference. “It was a long time ago. It’s normal (now)... if he offers, I will go out for a drink with him after the game.”

Mourinho’s third stint in the English top flight has already seen a cessation of personal hostilities with Manchester City’s Pep Guardi-ola and Watford’s Walter Mazzarri.

Guardiola and Mourinho’s rela-tionship stretched to breaking point when they were in charge of Barce-lona and Real Madrid respectively,

while the Portuguese described Mazzarri as a hard-working don-key when the two were rivals in Italy.United go into the Leicester game after suffering consecutive league defeats. Ranieri, whose team trail seventh-placed United by two points, also defended Mourinho’s public criticism of his players in the wake of United’s 3-1 defeat at Wat-ford last Sunday.

“Every manager has his (rule) book and sometimes you need to do this (criticise),” he said.“Sometimes, maybe not here, but at another team, also I push to provoke the reac-tion of the player. There’s always a psychology.”

Pochettino backs Janssen

to fill Kane void for Spurs

Reuters

LONDON: Tottenham Hotspur man-ager Mauricio Pochettino has urged forward Vincent Janssen to make the most of injured Harry Kane’s absence in today’s Premier League clash against Middlesbrough.

Dutch forward Janssen, who joined from AZ Alkmaar in July, has featured in all five league games this season and scored his first goal for the London club in Wednesday’s League Cup win over third-tier Gillingham.

“It’s not only his responsibility now. It’s a team responsibility and he needs to feel free to play and try to help the team. It’s a big opportu-nity for him to show his real skill. He needs to enjoy the game,” Pochet-tino told reporters yesterday.

“He has nothing to show - he

just needs to play football. Always with a striker, they need to feel con-fidence and feel the net. It was a good opportunity for him to score his first official goal with us and that is always important.”

Kane, who ended last season as the league’s top scorer with 25 goals, was carried off with an ankle injury against Sunderland last weekend.

“Kane is out, we need to assess him every day - he’s very positive, we need to do another scan and see how long,” Pochettino added.

The former Southampton boss was unsure of the fitness of defender Danny Rose and midfielders Mousa Dembele and Eric Dier for the game at the Riverside Stadium.

Rose suffered a hamstring injury on England duty this month while Dembele and Dier left the field early against Sunderland. Tottenham lie third in the standings with three wins from five games.

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino (centre) with his staff members before their midweek League Cup Game match against Gillingham at White Hart Lane in London, England on Wednesday.

Real Madrid’s keeper Navas fit to return Reuters

MADRID: Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas is fit to play for the first time this season at Las Palmas today, coach Zinedine Zidane said.

Navas, whose last game was the Champions League final triumph on penalties over Atletico Madrid on May 28, required surgery to resolve chronic tendinitis in his left foot.

“Keylor is back with us and in the squad,” Zidane told reporters yesterday. “He is a key player for us.

“Kiko (Casilla) has done very well and I will talk to the two of them to see what we can organise (playing time).”

Navas missed the Copa America with Costa Rica and Real’s opening five La Liga games as well as the 2-1 triumph over Sporting Lisbon in their Champions League group opener.

Real, unbeaten and two points clear of Sevilla at the top of La Liga, missed out on a league record 17th successive win when they drew 1-1 with Villarreal on Wednesday.

Left back Marcelo and mid-fielder Casemiro have joined

defender Pepe on the sidelines due to injuries.

Marcelo has a calf muscle strain while Casemiro has fractured a bone in his leg.

“Losing two starters is a concern but we can’t do anything about it,” Zidane said. “We don’t have a player that plays like Casemiro. It will be different but it’s not a problem.

“We have a big squad and we will make changes.”

Real Madrid are are three points ahead of last season’s Champions Barcelona

Real Madrid’s goalkeeper Keylor Navas in action during the Champions League in this file photo.

Wenger implores Gunners to avoid red against Blues

PAGE | 22 PAGE | 23

Radwanska in semis of Pan Pacific Open

SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016 • 22 DHUL HIJJA 1437

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

@peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatarthepeninsulaqatar

Al Rayyan, Umm Salal in goalless stalemate

The Peninsula

DOHA: Defending Qatar Stars League champions Al Rayyan were held to a goalless draw by Umm Salal in their second round fixture played at Al Sadd Stadium yesterday.

Skipper Rodrigo Tabata was looking to build up on his last week’s heroics but both teams failed to score.

The Lions, who registered a record breaking 11 wins from the start of the last season to claim the QSL falcon shield, were expecting nothing more than three points from yesterday’s game,

Umm Salal were also looking to pull off an early season shock against the defending champions.

However, despite both teams showing some exciting skills dur-ing the game, the ball did not find the back of the net, offering the first stalemate of the new QSL season.

It was an entirely different story at the Al Arabi Stadium on Thursday evening, when El Jaish ran out 4-3 winners against Al Arabi in a pul-sating QSL tie.

Two goals in ether half includ-ing a stoppage time winner from Romarinho snatched the points away from a spirited Al Arabi side who fought their way back into the tie from two goals down.

Jaish started the tie on the front foot, and laid down early marker on the fifth minute when Captain Sei-dou Keita whipped a free kick just wide.

It was the Malian midfielder’s only significant contribution of the match as he was promptly sub-stituted after a knock on the 8th minute; much to the concern of Jaish head Coach Sabri Lamouchi.

The Solders bossed the early exchanges, and deservedly opened

the scoring on the 21st minute. Uzbeki winger Sardor Rashidov was dangerous on the wing and delivered a defensive splitting pass to Magid Mohammed who master-fully evaded his marker Mustapha Sall for a simple tap in.

Al Arabi looked shell shocked and defended for their lives against the consistent Jaish attacks. Dream team defender Omar Al Amadi man-aged a long distance shot, which was easily saved by Jaish keeper Khal-ifa Ababacar.

Sabri Lamouchi’s side thun-dered into a two goal lead on the 38th minute, a perfect cross from Mohammed Yazeedi found Hamza and the young attacker headed past Arabi stopper Rajab Hamza for his first goal for El Jaish.

On the stroke of half time Arabi where handed a lifeline, after the referee pointed to the penalty spot after midfielder Omar Al Amadi was knocked down in the area. Captain

Boualem Khoukhi stepped up and slotted away first time, only for the referee to spot an infringement in the area meaning the spot kick had to be retaken. Boualem stepped up again blasted into the bottom left hand side of the goal, with El Jaish going into the break with a 2-1 lead.

Sabri Lamouchi’s substation in the second half could have paid off in the 50th minute when Romar-inho was bundled down in the box after a surging run; however the penalty claim was turned down by the referee.

Al Arabi found an equalizer on the 60th minute courtesy Moham-med Jumma. The defender’s well placed shot from outside the box evaded keeper Khalifa Ababacar and nestled into the back of the net, leaving the Dream Team faithful in raptures.

After the goal Al Arabi kept pos-session well, probing for a winning goal as El Jaish seemingly tired.

Arabi grabbed a third on the 76th minute after a moment of magic from winger Imoh Ezekiel. The Nigerian international exchanged passes on the right wing, beating two El Jaish defenders in the process and pulled it back for Yusef Ahmed who tapped in for his second goal of the season.

Jaish pushed hard for an equal-izer and where deservedly rewarded with five minutes to spare, Sardor Rashidov unleashed a powerful shot from outside the box. Unfortunately the effort rebounded off Arabi mid-fielder Ahmed Fatehi and into the back into the net.

El Jiash completed the turna-round with a fine individual run from substitute Romarinho in injury time gave Sabri Lamouchi’s side the winner. The jinxing run from the mercurial attacker evaded several Arabi defenders to calmly slot into the bottom corner, to give the sol-diers a famous 4-3 win.

Gharafa look for perfect start against favoutites Lekhwiya The Peninsula

DOHA: Al Gharafa faces off against one of the Qatar Star’s League’s top class teams and title favourites Lekhwiya in a crunch encounter at the Al Gharafa Stadium today.

Al Gharafa lost their opening game of the league to Al Ahli 4-2, and they will put everything on the line to get the three points against Lekhwiya.

Pedro Caixinha, the head coach of Al Gharafa believes that Lekhwiya are one of the best sides in the QSL, “There is no doubt that we are about to face the best team in Qatar at the moment. They have proven this with the level of their performance, in there last match.”

Speaking about the last game Caixinha said that, “We made a lot of mistakes in the last game; we didn’t defend well however we will try and

come back in this game. This will be the first home game for us and we go into it knowing we are going to play the best team in Qatar but in football the best team doesn’t always win.”

“Our first objective is clean sheet and score first and that’s always our plan,” added the Portuguese tacti-cian as he laid out his plan for the upcoming encounter against a tough opponent.

Lekhwiya have made a dream start to the season first by winning the Sheikh Jassim along with a com-prehensive 4-0 win in their opening match of the season. The Cops will be aiming for another strong perform-ance against the Cheetah’s.

Djemal Belmadi, the head coach of Lekhwiya believes that Gharafa will fight back after their defeat. Our second against Gharafa will be tough and with a lot of international play-ers in both teams. I know they lost the first game but this is more dangerous

because they have a lot of tough play-ers who can give a strong reaction.”

Speaking about his Qatari goal scorer, Almoez Ali , Belmadi said, “It was important to bring Moez back to the team as he is a great profes-sional and I believe that he will be a key player for the national team. He is a hard worker and I love that in a player.”

“Yousef Al Arabi needs no intro-duction. He played in La Liga and

he is a top scorer in Granada team he came here with a lot of ambition and his national team is going to qualify for the world cup and he will also play in the AFCON cup and I am sure he will score a lot of goals this season and we were missing this type of player,” added the Algerian head coach.

Meanwhile, at Al Wakrah Stadium, Al Wakrah will meet Al Kharitiyat in their round two encounter this afternoon.

Both teams are reeling of losses in their opening game of the season and will be eager to amends.

Al Wakrah fought a close a match against El Jaish but ended up losing 2-1. They will try to fix their mistakes and show a stronger performance in their second match.

Mauricio Larriera, the head coach of Al Wakrah wants his team to learn from mistakes made in the last game, “We lost but we did well. There are some things we need to concentrate on but we know that El Jaish are a very competitive team who are one of the best in the league.”

“Kharitiyat is a competitive team and unfortunately they lost towards the end of the game. They lost against one of the biggest team in the league in Al Sadd. We don’t know how they are preparing for us but we saw that they tried against Al Sadd but couldn’t succeed,” added the Uruguayan head coach at a press conference on

Thursday. “Ahmed Fadal is one of the most important players he knows what the coach wants and what he can do to help.”

“Last season he played a lot with the national team and I wanted to play him in the team. This season he started on the bench but that doesn’t mean he will play or not play I have to wait for the right time to play him,” added Larriera when asked about his young Qatari midfielder.

Kharitiyat had a disappoint-ing outing against Al Sadd as they slumped to a 4-0 defeat. They need to get their mojo back and they will have an opportunity to do so against Al Wakra. Amar Osim, the head coach of Kharitiyat, said that they need to bounce back from their defeat, “We have to prepare because we lost 4-0 and it’s not easy for the players to digest this. We shouldn’t think too much about this defeat and we have to learn from this game.”

- -

AL WAKRAH vs AL KHARAITIYAT

At Al Wakrah Stadium Kick off at 5.30pm.

AL GHARAFA VS LEKHWIYA

At Al Gharafa Club StadiumKick off at 8.00pm.

Orange Fortress keep Tabata away from scoring as defending champions fail to keep the momentum going

Al Rayyan skipper Rodrigo Tabata (right) and Umm Salal’s Ali Mohammad Bazmandegan vie for the ball possession during their Qatar Stars League match played at Al Sadd Stadium yesterday. Pictures by: Baher Amin/The Peninsula

QATAR STARS LEAGUE RESULTS & FIXTURES

RESULTSAl Rayyan 0 Umm Salal 0

Al Sadd 2 Al Ahli 1

Today’s FixturesAl Wakrah vs Al Kharaitiyat

at Al Wakrah Stadium, 5.50pm

Al Gharafa vs Lekhwiya

at Al Gharafa Club Stadium, 8.00pm

Action from the Qatar Stars League match between Al Rayyan and Umm Salal at Al Sadd Stadium yesterday.