In brief

GULF TIMES

published in

QATAR

since 1978

MONDAY Vol. XXXIX No. 11070

January 21, 2019Jumada I 15, 1440 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

Chamber highlights ‘local focus’ in success over the blockade

BUSINESS | Page 1 SPORT | Page 1

Tsitsipas in dreamland aft er shocking Federer

Amir’s attendance ‘saves’ Beirut Arab summit

AgenciesBeirut

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani met with Lebanese President

General Michel Aoun, ahead of the fourth Arab Economic and Social De-velopment Summit at the conference centre in Beirut yesterday morning.

The meeting reviewed the most im-portant topics on the agenda of the summit, in addition to co-operation

between the two brotherly countries and means of promoting them.

His Highness the Amir and the Leba-nese President also exchanged views on the current regional and international issues. The members of the offi cial dele-gation accompanying the Amir attended the meeting. It was attended from the Lebanese side by a number of ministers.

Later the Amir took part in the open-ing session of the summit.

The summit was overshadowed by political rifts. Many Arab heads of state pulled out last minute.

In addition to the attendance of His Highness Sheikh Tamim, Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was also present.

“The Qataris are trying to promote a reconciliatory spirit around the region and reconfi gure relationships follow-ing the siege,” Rami Khouri, a political analyst and fellow at Harvard Kennedy School told Al Jazeera.

Amine Kammourieh, a Lebanese political analyst, said the “Amir’s at-tendance broke the siege imposed on the summit [by Arab leaders], saving

it at the last minute”.Earlier the Amir and the accom-

panying delegation were received on arrived at the Rafic Hariri Interna-tional Airport by the Lebanese Presi-dent, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Gebran Bassil, Minister of State for Presidency Affairs Dr Pierre Raffoul, Arab League Secretary-Gen-eral Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, Qatar’s am-bassador to Lebanon Mohamed Has-san al-Jaber, Lebanon’s ambassador to Qatar Hassan Najem and a number of senior Lebanese officials.

The Amir was accorded an offi cial re-ception ceremony.

After attending the summit, the Amir returned to Qatar.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani is seen with other leaders who attended the fourth Arab Economic and Social Development Summit in Beirut yesterday. Page 20

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani meets Lebanese President General Michel Aoun in Beirut yesterday.

QU to open Qatar’s fi rst dental college6-year course leads to the degree of Doctor of Dental Medicine; classes to start in Sept this year

By Joseph VargheseStaff Reporter

The Qatar University (QU) yes-terday announced the launch of the country’s fi rst dental medi-

cine college. Starting from September this year,

the College of Dental Medicine will off er a six-year programme leading to the degree of Doctor of Dental Medi-cine.

This is the 10th college of the uni-versity and the fourth under QU Health which includes health-related Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy, and

Health Sciences. The College of Dental Medicine is

expected to have an intake of 25 stu-dents annually, and 70% are expected to be Qatari high school applicants.

The launch of the new college was announced yesterday at a press con-ference by Dr Hassan al-Derham, QU president; Dr Egon Toft, vice president and founding dean, College of Medi-

cine; Prof Johann de Vries, former CEO of Dental Services at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and consultant for the development of the proposal for the new college; and Dr Abdul La-tif Mohamed al-Khal, deputy chief, Medical, Academic and Research Af-fairs, Medical Education, HMC and di-rector of Clinical Aff airs at QU Health.

The six-year programme will have a

common First Year programme with all students at QU Health. Years 2 to 3.5 will have an integrated pre-clinical and clin-ical learning across disciplines including simulation training. Years 3.5 to 6 com-prise fi nal clinical phase to prepare com-petent students to provide dental care on graduation. No internship is required following graduation as it is embedded in the undergraduate training.

“We are setting up the new college to provide the community with the neces-sary medical competencies in this im-portant discipline,” Dr al-Derham said.

“We believe human development cannot happen without focusing on health and its diff erent aspects: physical health, psychological health and mental health. For this reason, we established the health cluster in QU in 2017, to be an umbrella for the diff erent schools, phar-macy, medicine, health sciences and fi -nally now, dentistry. To Page 2

Prof Johann de Vries, Dr Hassan al-Derham, Dr Egon Toft, and Dr Abdul Latif Mohamed al-Khal at the press conference to announce the launch of College of Dental Medicine. PICTURE: Jayan Orma

MoTC launches mobile app, unveils new e-servicesThe Ministry of Transport and

Communications (MoTC) yes-terday launched its fi rst mobile

app, and announced 25 new e-services related to maritime transport aff airs, specifi cally for small and large vessels.

Also, the launch event was high-lighted by a signing ceremony between MoTC and Qatar Post for the delivery of the certifi cates and ownership cards for the transactions completed via the new mobile app or MoTC website to their respective individuals and com-panies.

The agreement was signed by Hassan al-Hail, adviser to HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti, and Qatar Post

chairman and managing director Faleh al-Naemi.

Speaking at the event, Noor Shah-dad, director of International Relations and acting director of Public and Rela-tions and Communications at MoTC, said: “This comes in the context of MoTC’s ongoing endeavours to de-ploy e-government system standards nationwide, as well as the objectives of the Qatar Digital Government 2020 Strategy, which aims to better serve in-dividuals and business, create effi cien-cy in government administration and increase government openness.

“The MoTC is set to make all its e-services available on its mobile ap-plication in the future. It plans to add

land transport e-services as soon as the relevant land transport laws and regu-lations are offi cially released.”

Mashal Ali al-Hammadi, director of E-Government Programmes & Stand-ards and acting MoTC Information Systems Department head, said: “The application is now available on Apple and Android stores, making it easier and faster to reach the ministry’s infor-mation, events, news and services pub-lished on the MoTC website.”

She added: “Deploying the best tech-nologies and streamlining e-services were undertaken when designing and developing this mobile application in order to help users access and complete their e-services quickly and smoothly.

“This will make people visit the min-istry’s offi ces less frequently as they are now able to make their requests any-time anywhere around the clock. The application also helps users contact the ministry directly via multiple channels and social media platforms that are available in the app.”

Speaking to Gulf Times on the side-lines of the event, al-Hammadi said with the launch of the new app, the ministry hopes to cut customer footfall in its offi ces by around 50%.

She added that the application is re-liable in terms of cybersecurity, having been tested and verifi ed by the Qatar Computer Emergency Response Team (Q-CERT). To Page 4

Hassan al-Hail and Qatar Post chairman and managing director Faleh al-Naemi shake hands after signing the agreement. PICTURE: Anas Khalid

Qatar pledges $50mn to Kuwait initiative

Following the directives of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the State of Qatar has pledged $50mn for the initiative of the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah to create a fund to

support technology and digital economy. HE the Minister of Finance Ali Sherif al-Emadi made the announcement during the fourth Arab Economic and Social Development Summit held in Beirut yesterday.

QATAR | Offi cial

Amir to meet Pakistan Prime Minister tomorrowHis Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani will meet tomorrow at the Amiri Diwan Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who will arrive in Doha today on an off icial visit. The Amir and the Pakistani Prime Minister will discuss the prospects of developing bilateral co-operation between the two countries in various fields and the latest regional and international developments.

QATAR | Food

Peruvian grapes safefor consumptionThe Ministry of Public Health yesterday said that laboratory test results showed that grapes originating from Peru, which were withdrawn from the market, were safe and in compliance with the requirements of approved standards, including the results of pesticide residue analysis. The ministry had earlier withdrawn the grapes following an international notification of possible contamination with pesticide residues.

QATAR | Weather

Cold conditionscontinue in QatarThe mercury level dropped to 8.6C in Baida Al Gaa, located in southern Qatar, yesterday as cold conditions prevailed around the country.This was tweeted by the Qatar Met department yesterday morning, taking note of the impact of strong northwesterly winds. Page 20

BRITAIN | Controversy

Pro-EU lawmakers trying to ‘hijack’ Brexit A senior minister in Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative government accused pro-EU lawmakers of attempting to “hijack” Brexit yesterday, as a leading eurosceptic urged May to rally the party behind a new version of her rejected deal. Page 12

Arab leadersagree 29-itemeconomic agenda

Arab leaders have agreed a 29-item economic agenda in ad-dition to encouraging the safe

return of Syrian refugees to their homeland at the conclusion of the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit, Al Jazeera News reported yesterday.

The 20 countries taking part in the summit issued a joint statement called the Beirut Declaration, calling for the establishment of an Arab free trade zone and the international community to support countries hosting refugees and displaced people.

Reading out the statement, Hossam Zaki, assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, reminded the international and Arab donor communities to “help alleviate the suff ering of refugees and displaced and to secure funding for de-velopmental projects in host countries”.

In his opening speech, Lebanon President Michel Aoun had called for encouraging the “safe return of dis-placed Syrians”, saying that the process should not be linked to a political solu-tion in the war-torn country.

To Page 8

His Highness Sheikh Tamim also holds talks with Lebanese president

QATAR

Gulf Times Monday, January 21, 20192

QNL renews agreement with international library federation Qatar National Library

(QNL) has renewed an agreement with the In-

ternational Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), which extends its role as the IFLA Regional Centre for Preservation and Conservation (PAC) for the coming three years.

The agreement enables QNL to take a leadership role in co-ordinating preservation and conservation activities among Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

As part of the arrangement, QNL will co-ordinate capacity-building programmes, and pro-mote best practices in preserva-tion and conservation in Qatar and the region. The regional PAC will raise awareness around these issues among leaders in

heritage and precious collec-tions, as well as the wider public.

Stephane Ipert, preservation and conservation manager at QNL, said, “We are delighted to extend our role as the IFLA Regional Pres-ervation and Conservation Centre. This enables us to continue our crucial role in preserving Qatar’s and the region’s heritage in an in-clusive manner. The Library has world-class resources in-house, which allow us to continue rais-ing awareness of the best ways to maintain rare books, documents and manuscripts.”

QNL will undertake several projects to support the preserva-tion of documentary heritage in the Arab region, which includes an 18-month long project in col-laboration with the United Na-tions Educational, Scientifi c and

Cultural Organisation (Unesco). The project focuses on iden-

tifying documentary heritage in Arab countries, and off ers sup-port in capacity-building and professional development to spe-cialists working in this fi eld. QNL will also hold training courses and workshops on preservation and conservation in several Arab countries in the future.

In collaboration with the Na-tional Archives of Morocco, QNL and Unesco, recently concluded a three-day training course en-titled, ‘Practical Methods for the Scientifi c Examination of Library Objects.’ The course, which was organised by IFLA’s Regional PAC Centre at QNL, mainly highlighted technical photography of heritage col-lections and the technique

The agreement extends QNL’s role as the IFLA Regional Centre for Preservation and Conservation (PAC) for the coming three years.

of refl ectance spectroscopy. The PAC centres network sup-

ports libraries around the world to safeguard documentary her-

itage in its diverse forms and formats, and promotes interna-tional cooperation in support of this cause.

CRA engages with IT sector for its 5-year strategy

The Communications Regulatory Author-ity (CRA) will conduct a

focus group discussion meet-ing, under the title ‘Informa-tion Technology (IT) Sector Challenges’, at City Centre Rotana Doha today.

The meeting will be attend-ed by local stakeholders.

In a statement yesterday, the authority said it is holding the meeting “to solicit feed-back from major players in the IT sector as it develops its comprehensive Sector Strat-egy for 2019-2023, which will include CRA’s goals and the mechanisms to achieve them”.

Representatives from around 50 specialised lo-cal IT companies and enti-ties will attend the meeting, where they will discuss their expectations and needs in the fi eld, share their experiences and opinions, and talk about the current challenges that they are facing, the statement notes.

“This meeting is an impor-tant step towards developing

CRA’s IT strategy, as it is an opportunity for CRA to better understand the status of this sector by engaging directly with stakeholders and taking their opinions into account. The strategy is in line with Qatar National Vision 2030, as it supports CRA to enforce its mandate in a transparent and predictable manner, which contributes towards the sec-tor’s sustainable development and growth,” said Mohamed Ali al-Mannai, president, CRA.

The IT Sector Strategy de-velopment will go through multiple steps starting with a sector review carried out by CRA to analyse regional and international trends and best practices in the fi eld, leading to a public consultation where the authority will consider stakeholders’ responses dur-ing the fi nal development of the strategy.

The new strategy is planned to be published alongside a re-lated work plan by the second quarter of 2019.

Mohamed Ali al-Mannai, president, CRA.

Qatar envoy attends Arab ambassadors’ meeting in Brussels

The Qatar ambassador to Belgium and Luxem-burg, Abdulrahman bin

Mohammed al-Khulaifi , head of Qatar’s Mission to the Eu-ropean Union (EU) and Nato, participated in the Arab Am-bassadors’ Council meeting with European Union Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process, Susanna Terstal in Brussels.

The meeting, which was held yesterday in Brussels, discussed a host of topics con-cerning the Palestinian issue and its developments.

The EU offi cial emphasised the importance of joining ef-forts for supporting the Peace Process, affi rming the EU’s continued eff orts to bring the two sides back to the negoti-ating table to reach a lasting peace agreement on basis of the two-state solution.

The Arab ambassadors, in turn, lauded the EU’s support for the Palestinian people, as well as the role played by EU Special Representative Ter-stal’s in supporting the Peace Process and maintaining the two-state solution. (QNA)

QU launches Qatar’s fi rst dental college

From Page 1

“It is an important time to pre-pare a new generation of skilled Qatari doctors, who are connected with their community, the chang-es in society and economy, and the health requirements needed,” added Dr al-Derham.

Dr Toft noted that in close col-laboration with HMC and the PHCC, students will benefi t from early clinical experience in state-of-the-art facilities including a dental simulation clinic and aca-demic dental hospital at HMC, student-tailored elective studies,

community-based education, and research possibilities, which are key elements of the curriculum.

“Subject-oriented learning, mainly during the common fi rst year at QU Health, meets organ-centred modular teaching and clin-ical skills training, achieving a full integration of all relevant knowl-edge and skill domains,” he said.

“The new college will be in di-rect response to meet the demand for dental and oral healthcare due to the comparatively high preva-lence of oral disease in Qatar. The programme will address one of the main recommendations of the

National Oral Health Roadmap, to ‘educate our own’ dental work-force, and in the process provide a sustainable and self-suffi cient solution for dental workforce. It will be a unique programme and a unique one even at the regional level,” Dr Toft added.

The college will follow inter-national best-practice standards by accreditation agencies in the US, Australia and Europe and will closely collaborate with interna-tional accreditors to ensure com-pliance with high quality standards. Students admitted to the college will be eligible for sponsorship.

QATAR3Gulf Times

Monday, January 21, 2019

Khayr Qatarna project boosts food security in QatarNational food security and

sustainability has been boosted with tonnes of

fruit and vegetables grown in school greenhouses run by the Sahtak Awalan – Your Health First’s Khayr Qatarna pro-gramme.

The produce was grown in three greenhouses at second-ary schools in Qatar. Under the Khayr Qatarna initiative, Sahtak Awalan runs the greenhouses and the produce is then sold at local supermarkets. The programme also teaches students about agri-culture, logistics, economics and healthy food. All profi ts are rein-vested in the scheme.

The fruit and vegetables were grown and harvested in the last 10 months, and comprised to-matoes, cucumbers, peppers and beans.

With a further greenhouse now built at seven more schools, this year’s crop is set to increase. The strategic plan is for the scheme to expand across Qatar as the profi ts are ploughed back into the initia-tive. This will see more and more schools being included in the programme, helping to fulfi l Qa-tar National Vision 2030’s goals of sustainability and healthy fu-ture generations.

Nesreen al-Rifai, chief com-munications offi cer at Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar, which runs Sahtak Awalan – Your Health First, said, “The success of the Khayr Qatarna green-houses has been beyond our ex-

pectations. With the invaluable contribution of all our strategic partners, we have helped sup-port national sustainability and provided high school students with lessons about healthy eat-ing, agriculture, economics and logistics.”

Hassan al-Mohamedi, direc-tor, Public Relations and Com-munications Department at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, said, “We are very happy to see growing health awareness among the com-

munity, which is related to the greenhouses in our schools. The collaboration between all of Your Health First’s strategic partners is an indication of the success of Sahtak Awalan – Your Health First. This success manifests it-self in the way our students are taking care of their health and following good habits in order to improve the health of themselves and Qatar.”

Greenhouses are currently sit-ed at Amna Bint Wahab School, Osama Bin Zaid, and Zainab Pre-

paratory School for Girls. The seven new schools to have re-ceived an installation are Audio Complex for Girls, Audio Com-plex for Boys, Roqaya Preparatory for Girls, Khalid Bin Ahmed for Boys, Al Wajba for Girls, Al Razi for Boys, and Moza Bint Moham-med for Girls. All the greenhous-es apart from one have now been planted with new crops – includ-ing strawberries for the fi rst time – and the fi rst harvests of 2019 are expected from the end of this month until mid-March.

Because the greenhouses are climate-controlled, fruits and vegetables can continue to be grown throughout the year, even during the summer months. Khayr Qatarna was offi cially launched last February, with the fi rst harvest in March of last year. Since then there have been two further harvests which have supplied fresh fruit and vegeta-bles to local supermarkets to help improve food security, increase sustainability, and encourage healthy eating.

Produce includes tomatoes, cucumbers and green peppers.

Strawberries are one of the new crops that are being grown.

A greenhouse is installed at the Audio Complex for Boys, teaching students about agriculture, sustainability, logistics and economics.

The produce from the Khayr Qatarna initiative is sold at local supermarkets.

QATAR

Gulf Times Monday, January 21, 20194

HE the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs Dr Ahmed bin Hassan al-Hammadi met yesterday separately with the Italian ambassador to Qatar, Pasquale Salzano, and the Romania ambassador D. Cristian Tudor. Discussions during the two meetings dealt with bilateral relations and ways of enhancing and developing them, in addition to issues of mutual interest.

Secretary-General meets envoys of Italy, RomaniaHMC begins new psychiatric service for adult patientsAs part of Hamad Medi-

cal Corporation’s (HMC) commitment to fulfi lling

the objectives of the Qatar Na-tional Mental Health Strategy, the healthcare provider has in-troduced a new integrated psy-chiatric service for adult patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Down syndrome, and intellectual disabilities.

Under the new programme, specialised mental health serv-ices are being provided to pa-tients with intellectual dis-abilities as part of their ongoing medical care.

Dr Mohamed Eltahir, senior consultant psychiatrist, said HMC’s Mental Health Service runs a number of specialised clinics that address the needs of children and adult patients. “The integrated clinics, which are thought to be the fi rst of their kind in the region, make the service more accessible to adults with intellectual disabilities, enhancing good care outcomes, and patient experience.”

He added, “Many individu-als with behavioural disorders and intellectual disabilities have complex mental health needs and could encounter barriers, including environmental factors, which prevent timely access to appropriate mental health sup-port. The new integrated service aims to provide more accessible community-based care to these patients through delivering

comprehensive psychological, social, and rehabilitative care.”

The psychiatrist said that caring for an individual with an intellectual disability or mental disorder requires a co-ordinated approach across multiple service sectors. “A strong emphasis on family and caregiver

involvement is also required.”The fi rst phase of the new in-

tegrated psychiatric structure involved liaison with services for children and included collabora-tion across a number of organi-sations such as the Child De-velopment Centre at Rumailah Hospital, The Shafallah Center, Sidra Medicine, and a number of other private providers.

“Adjusting services to better meet the needs of patients with intellectual disabilities will not only improve existing services but will also result in the devel-opment of new high-quality mental health services. It will al-

low us to play a more proactive role in meeting the mental health needs of these patients and po-tentially to prevent deterioration of their existing condition,” said Dr Eltahir.

He said providing specialist intervention and support to a person who is experiencing early symptoms of mental illness is not only critical to preventing or reducing the progress of mental illness, but also for improving the patient’s overall health and quality of life.

“We have made great strides in developing more integrated psychiatric services for patients under the age of 18 with intel-lectual disabilities and have now begun providing specialized clinics for our adult patients. As part of the new service, a weekly integrated clinic has been intro-duced at the Enaya Continuing Care Center 2 in Muaither and clinics are being off ered through the Home Healthcare Service. Two weekly dedicated clinics have also been added to HMC’s psychiatry hospital and there are plans to add additional clinics,” added Dr Eltahir.

The National Mental Health Strategy is an important part of the National Health Strat-egy, which emphasises the im-portance of meeting the needs of existing and future genera-tions through an integrated sys-tem that aims to achieve better health for all citizens. (QNA)

Dr Mohamed Eltahir

DIGS, Turkish Bahcesehir university sign MoU

Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DIGS) and Bah-

cesehir University in Tur-key have signed a memo-randum of understanding (MoU) aimed at strength-ening the academic part-nership between the two.

The agreement was signed by Vice President of Administration and Finance at the DIGS Dr Hend al-Muftah, and the president of Bahcesehir University Dr Enver Yucel.

Commenting on the MoU signing, al-Muftah pointed out that the agreement aims to strengthen the academic partnership between the two institutions of higher education in various fi elds, stressing the importance of developing the partnership, including the exchange of faculty members, the ex-change of students, the conduct of research, and the organisation of academic programmes, as well as ex-change co-ordination of summer schools in Istanbul and winter schools in Doha.

Yucel expressed pride in the growing co-operation between the two coun-tries, in commemoration of the 45-year anniver-sary of their diplomatic relations, and said that the Turkish and Qatari peoples are aware that the relations between the two countries are mutually benefi cial, and that these relations are strengthened in the diff erent sectors, as the economic ties between the two countries are growing.

Bahcesehir University’ president added that the third edition of the Expo Turkey in Qatar, with the participation of more than 120 Turkish companies, was concluded on Friday, which indicated the outstanding partnership and close trade relations between Doha and Ankara,

Furthermore, Yucel stat-ed that those who belong to academia believe that the most sustainable links between countries and cul-tures are those that emerge through education. (QNA)

Ooredoo and Manateq join hands to provide 5G infrastructure to logistics parks, industrial zones

Ooredoo has partnered with Economic Zones Company (Manateq)

to provide its world-class 5G infrastructure that is set to transform Qatar’s logistics parks and industrial zones, as well as accelerate the country’s diversifi ed economic growth.

Across Qatar, Manateq is developing logistics parks and industrial zones, which of-fer various sizes of plots of land to the investors to build their own industrial facility along with warehouses, work-shops, offi ces, and worker accommodations.

In line with Qatar National Vision 2030’s economic growth and diversifi cation goals, Man-ateq’s projects are targeting key industry verticals such as plastics, building materials, logistics, maritime, metals,

chemicals, petrochemicals, and warehousing.

Under the agreement, Oore-doo will provide world-class 5G-ready mobility infrastruc-ture that can digitally trans-form Manateq’s customers. With the availability of Oore-doo’s 5G network, organisa-tions can leverage Ooredoo’s Internet of Things solutions to develop digital business in-novations such as drones and augmented reality.

Yousuf Abdulla al-Kubaisi, chief operating offi cer, Oore-doo, said, “Our partnership with Manateq will provide its investors with the latest

digital innovations to boost their global competitiveness and drive Qatar’s diversifi ed economic growth. Our world-class 5G infrastructure has the high speed and low latency for real time operations and digital business innovations that can transform customer experiences.”

Manateq is the latest Qa-tar mega-project, along with Lusail City and Msheireb Downtown Doha, that is lev-eraging Ooredoo’s expertise in telecommunications infra-structure, including advanced fi bre optic and 5G mobile infrastructure.

Hamad al-Naimi, chief operating offi cer, Manateq, said, “Our partnership with Ooredoo affi rms our commit-ment to providing our inves-tors with best-in-class infra-structure to enhance business competitiveness.

“We’re committed to foster-ing international investment, supporting local entrepreneurs, and encouraging Internet of Things innovation adoption to personalise experiences, op-timise logistics, and predict trends.”

Business customers can lev-erage the Ooredoo advantage, making Ooredoo “Best for Business,” thanks to its breadth and depth of talent, best fi xed and mobile networks, broadest portfolio of ICT services and solutions, and trusted partner for 60 years.

The “Sri Warisan” cultural band from Singapore is set to perform at the Katara Amphitheatre from January 25 to 26 as part of the third edition of the Cultural Diversity Festival. The entry-free show starts at 7pm and runs until 8.45pm. The previous weekend witnessed a fantastic performance by a Tunisian and Kazakh cultural bands who entertained the audience with numerous cultural scenes and dances. The prominent Singaporean cultural band “Sri Warisan” was founded in 1997 and performed in many countries around the world such as Belgium, China, India, Holland, Greece and many others and has many contributions to national projects in Singapore.

Singapore cultural band to perform at Katara

MoTC launches mobile app, unveils new e-servicesFrom Page 1

Al-Hammadi said small vessels and jet ski ownership transfers, adding or removing an owner to small vessels, issuing a certifi cate

for small vessel owners and issuing a minimum safe manning certifi cate are among the new e-services re-vealed yesterday.

“The ministry places consider-able attention on developing its

services and making them acces-sible and available anytime, any-where, for the best user experi-ence and highest satisfaction,” she said.

Other maritime transport e-

services include the issuance of ‘to whom it may concern’ certificates, certificates on deletion of a large vessel, certificates of insurance validity, replacement certificates, and rodent-free certificates.

QATAR5Gulf Times

Monday, January 21, 2019

Alfardan Motorcycles organises second ‘Adventure Off -road Training’ event

On the heels of the re-sounding success of its fi rst edition, Alfardan

Motorcycles, in collaboration with Qatar Centre for Motorcy-cles (Batabit) and Losail Circuit Sports Club, organised the sec-ond edition of the two-day event ‘Adventure Off -road Training’, which aims to redefi ne the mean-ing of extreme off -road enter-tainment in Qatar.

The event took place on Octo-ber 18-19, 2018 at the Losail Cir-cuit Sports Club.

The ‘Adventure Off -road Training’ off ered participants the chance to revel in the teachings of professional instructors from BMW TWT-MOTO, Germany, which included Thomas Wein-mayer and Marchent Kenneth Maasdrop.

The professional instructors taught the attendees the basic off -road techniques and skills they require such as gravel and desert riding, as well as safely manoeuvring through water and muddy conditions.

“Inspired by the resound-ing success of the fi rst edition of our Adventure Off -road Train-ing event, we decided to carry out a second edition with special

attendance from highly revered professional instructors from Ger-many,” said Ayad al-Siaidi, general manager — Alfardan Motorcycles.

“Alfardan Motorcycles have always been the pioneers in giv-ing customers the ultimate sat-isfactory experience, and with our Adventure Off -road Train-ing event, we aim to redefi ne the concept of extreme entertain-ment,” he said.

Khalid al-Remaihi, vice presi-dent and general manager, Lo-sail Circuit Sports Club, lauded the club for hosting gargantuan events such as the Adventure

Off -road Training, stating: “The Losail Circuit Sports Club is equipped with the adequate in-frastructure necessary to host such important events success-fully and without a hitch.”

Abdul Aziz Abdullah, director of Finance — Batabit, went above and beyond in organising and overseeing the second edition of the Adventure Off -road Training event up to their standards, as well as following up theoretical and training fi elds and providing logistical support to ensure the success of the work plan of the concerned training course.

Mohamed al-Jundi, director of Public Relations — Batabit, stressed on the importance of organising such events, which bring awareness to motorcycling enthusiasts about the precau-tions and safety instructions re-quired, as well as equipping them with the skills required to drive on steep routes and streets safely.

Alfardan Motorcycles is the lead-ing company that specialises in the retail and distribution of the most exclusive and luxurious brands in Qatar such as Ducati, KTM, Tri-umph, BMW Motorrad, Piaggio, Vespa, Moto Guzzi, and Aprilia.Instructors taught participants basic off -road techniques and skills such as gravel and desert riding.

The ‘Adventure Off -road Training’ off ered attendees the chance to revel in the teachings of professional instructors from BMW TWT-MOTO, Germany.

Ashghal starts upgrade of Duhail Intersection Upgrade expected to

completed in the fourth quarter of 2021

Reduce travel time by up to 90%

New interchange will improve traffic flow in all directions

Partial closure of Duhail Roundabout to facilitate road works

The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has announced the commencement of

construction works on its Duhail Interchange Upgrade Project.

Ashghal anticipates that the completed three-level inter-change, which will replace the existing Duhail Intersection and alleviate traffi c congestion in the area by providing free-fl owing and effi cient traffi c movement in all directions.

A two-phase closure of Du-hail Intersection is necessary in order to start work, the author-ity has said in a statement. The fi rst phase is scheduled to start on January 25 and traffi c move-ment will be impacted: road users travelling from Al Khafj i Street towards Al Gharrafa Street and Doha will not be able to access the roundabout, and road us-ers travelling from Doha towards Al Gharrafa Street or wishing to make a U-turn back towards Doha will not be able to do so via the roundabout.

The second phase will con-

sist of the full closure of Duhail Roundabout. It will start on Feb-ruary 1 and remain in place for two years.

To reduce inconvenience to the public, Ashghal recently opened a 3.5km road parallel to Al Shamal Road linking the Izghawa and Al Gharrafa areas.

The new road extends from Izghawa Street to Al Oyoun Street and provides exit from and access to Al Shamal Road to serve as an alternative route to Duhail Roundabout.

The Duhail Interchange Up-grade Project consists of a three-level interchange, including two

new bridges and 3.3km of main carriageway, valued at approxi-mately QR800mn.

The new bridges will deliver four lanes in each direction, pro-viding free-fl owing connectiv-ity from Al Shamal Road towards Doha and Al Khafj i Street to-wards Al Gharrafa Street.

A new signalised junction un-der Al Shamal Bridge will replace Duhail Roundabout and facilitate the movements that were once possible at Sheikh Faisal Round-about.

In addition, the project will see the construction of an underpass that will allow road users to exit

Al Shamal Road onto the service roads to access the nearby malls.

It will also serve as the con-nection from Al Gharrafa Street towards Al Shamal.

A total of 5.5km of pedestrian and cycle paths will be con-structed parallel to the main car-riageway along the Duhail and Gharrafa areas and Al Shamal Road.

The upgrade of Duhail Inter-section is expected to be com-pleted in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Once completed, it will allevi-ate traffi c congestion and reduce travel time by up to 90%. An artist’s impression of the project.

West Bay to Al Gharrafa: Road

users travelling from West Bay via

Al Khafji Street heading towards

Al Gharrafa have the option of

either taking a right turn on Arab

League Street or Duhail Street

and continue on to Izghawa

Interchange, or utilising the ramp

at Duhail roundabout to access

Al Shamal Road and make an exit

at Exit 5 to reach the same inter-

change. At Izghawa Interchange,

they should take a left on the main

bridge towards Izghawa, continu-

ing straight until they reach the

second set of traff ic signals and

take a left turn to join the newly

constructed road. From this point,

they will be able to access Al Ghar-

rafa and malls in the area.

West Bay to Doha: Road users

travelling from West Bay via Al

Khafji Street heading towards

Doha have the option of taking

a right turn on Arab League

Street or Duhail Street and

continue onto Izghawa Inter-

change, or utilising the ramp at

Duhail Roundabout to access Al

Shamal Road and use Exit 5 to

reach the same interchange.

At Izghawa Interchange, they

should make a U-turn on the main

bridge to Al Shamal Road towards

Doha

Doha to Al Gharrafa: Road users

travelling from Doha heading

towards Al Gharrafa via Al Shamal

Road are to take Exit 5 to reach

Izghawa Interchange. At the

interchange, they should take a

left on the main bridge towards

Izghawa, continuing straight until

they reach the second set of traff ic

signals and take a left turn to

join the newly constructed road.

From this point, they will be able

to access Al Gharrafa and malls in

the area.

Making a U-turn back to Doha: Road users travelling along Al

Shamal Road coming from Doha

who wish to make a U-turn back

to Doha — and would have usually

used the roundabout — will be

required to use Exit 5 to reach

Izghawa Interchange.

At this interchange, they should

make a U-turn on the main bridge

to Al Shamal Road towards Doha.

Partial closure of Duhail Intersection.

An infographic on the Duhail Interchange Upgrade Project.

Barwa Bank’s Thara’a account nets holder grand prize worth QR1mn

Barwa Bank has announced Mercy Pabilona as the win-ner of its QR1mn Thara’a

grand prize. The draw was con-ducted under the supervision of a representative of the qualita-tive license and market control department at the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.

Thara’a off ers account holders the chance to benefi t from cash rewards up to QR1mn. Based on several criteria, Thara’a account holders are eligible for a number of periodic draws for cash prizes.

Totalling QR3.3mn, Thara’a cash rewards are distributed on both a monthly and biannual ba-sis to customers holding a mini-mum balance of QR10,000.

On a monthly basis, there are 21 winners per draw for the cash prize of QR5,000, as well as two winners per draw for the cash prize of QR10,000.

Additionally, twice-a-year

there are two winners per draw for the cash prize of QR25,000 prize, two winners per draw for the cash prize of QR50,000 and one winner per draw for the grand prize of QR1mn. Reward-ing 194 winners in total with cash prizes up to QR3.3mn.

Khalid al-Subeai, Group CEO at Barwa Bank, said: “We would like to extend our congratulations to our One Million Qatari Riyals grand prize winner. Thara’a sav-ings account is a continuation of our eff orts and commitment to provide customers with conven-ient fi nancial solutions.”

Coupled with cash prizes and a reward scheme, Thara’a is a prod-uct full of value-added benefi ts and services. Customers may learn about the many benefi ts of Thara’a savings account by visit-ing Barwa Bank’s website, www.barwabank.com, or by calling the contact centre on 800-8555.

Thara’a grand prize winner Mercy Pabilona receiving her cheque.

HEC Paris Qatar to hold executive programme

HEC Paris in Qatar, one of the world’s leading providers of executive education, will host

‘Leading Leaders through Complexity’ Executive Short Programme on January 28-29 to educate managers on how to become more eff ective leaders in today’s complex and disruptive business envi-ronment.

Prof Michelle Zandvoort, HEC Paris, an expert in the psychological elements of change management and leadership training, will lead the two-day executive short programme that will be held at the HEC Paris campus in Tornado Tower.

This programme is designed to help senior leaders develop new leadership pathways through innovative learning processes with an in-depth refl ective practice.

The programme provides new insights on how leaders can successfully guide their organisation through both evolu-tionary and disruptive changes, how to ‘co-create meaning’ with stakeholders, and the new ways of leading ‘self’ as well as leading others.

“Today’s managers need to be agile and highly adaptive in order to sustain and succeed in tough times. This fast paced digital era demands leaders who are equipped to take disruptive deci-sions and lead the team from the front. Our ‘Leading Leaders through Com-plexity’ Executive Short programme aims to harness these qualities and off er them the ways to infl uence and motivate their team members to drive changes. Additionally, the programme aims at enabling managers to discover new ways of building and maintain-ing resilience in the face of major chal-lenges. Participants will also be learn-ing key concepts and skills to optimise their current leadership style,” said Prof Zandvoort.

Vodafone Qatar to cover Manateq facilities

Vodafone Qatar signed yesterday a landmark agreement to begin deploying its world-class mobile

coverage infrastructure and network across all Manateq projects.

The design, construction, and instal-lation of Manateq’s telecommunica-tions networks will begin immediately, Vodafone said in a statement yesterday.

Eff ective for 10 years, the agreement will provide businesses and customers operating in the logistics parks and in-dustrial zones with high-speed access and connectivity to Vodafone’s net-work, including 5G services.

The project highlights Vodafone Qa-tar’s extensive commitment to date in supporting the development of state of the art infrastructure in Qatar and ac-celerating the country’s progress by bringing the latest technologies and in-novation to the country.

Vodafone said: “We’re extremely proud to be providing our vital telecom-munications infrastructure and services in the Manateq projects – one of the most signifi cant developments in support of Qatar’s continued economic success.

“This latest announcement refl ects the continuous momentum behind the development of our world-class net-work around the country and our com-mitment to moving Qatar towards be-coming one of the most connected and technologically advanced countries in the world.”

Manateq said: “One of the goals of Manateq’s role is to encourage Qatar’s private sector to participate in the eco-

nomic diversifi cation and contribute to the future of our great country, and we are very proud to be working with Vo-dafone to provide the best and latest of technology to our customers.

“This agreement will bring the full benefi t of world-class technology and cutting-edge networks to our projects and we are keen to continue to deliver high quality services, as part of our in-novative and customer service excel-lence.”

Established in 2011, Manateq is a na-tional initiative working to diversify Qa-tar’s economy, deriving from the Qatar National Vision 2030, through the pro-vision of world-class infrastructures within strategically placed economic zones that enables domestic and foreign investors to deliver value added prod-ucts and services to local, regional and international markets.

Qatar Charity introduces automated customer response system

Qatar Charity (QC) has introduced an au-tomated interactive

voice response system at its customer service centre to answer incoming calls, pro-vide instructions to custom-ers, and manage donor rela-tions professionally.

The service, a fi rst-of-its-kind at the level of charities in the region, came to en-hance QC’s communication with relevant individuals and organisations.

According to QC, this sys-tem enables customers to service themselves directly

by selecting the appropriate options to inquire about their contributions (sponsorships or projects), complete dona-tion processes and receive reports automatically.

QC also introduced the fully automated telephone payment service, which al-lows donors to make pay-ment online through a phone.

This system also guides them how to make their pay-ment safely by credit cards without the need for a cus-tomer service employee.

QC maintains the high-est level of confi dentiality,

meeting the ISO standards in this regard.

If a donor inserts his card information incorrectly, he is

given another opportunity to re-enter such details. Then, he receives a special ‘thank you’ message once the dona-tion process is completed.

In case the process was not successfully completed, then the donors’ call is au-tomatically transferred to a customer service employee to complete his donation process.

Benefactors can also make their contributions through QC’s website, mobile apps, and at its headquarters, branches and collections points.

Alternative routes:

QATAR

Gulf Times Monday, January 21, 20196

Qatar Academy pupils get insightinto Islamic banking at QIIBStudents from Qa-

tar Academy spent a “professional day” at

QIIB headquarters at Grand Hamad Street, where they learned about the various aspects of Islamic bank-ing, banking operations, and bank’s services and products.

Dr Abdulbasit Ahmad al-Shaibei, chief executive offi c-er, QIIB, briefed the students about the history of Islamic banking in Qatar and how it developed and achieved its current level and its vi-tal role in serving the Qatari economy through advanced products and services.

He highlighted “the im-portant role played by Qatar

Academy as a leading edu-cational institution, equip-ping future generations with knowledge and education so that they can become an asset to our country and play their role in serving the nation.”

He stressed that QIIB paid great attention to serving the society, particularly in sup-porting education.

Students were also told about career options avail-able in banks and the de-grees and qualifi cations that are required for those who choose to work in the banking sector.

The meeting was also at-tended by Ali Hamad al-

Mesaifri, head of human resources and administra-tive services, and Omar Ab-dul Aziz al-Meer, head of development at QIIB.

An interactive session fol-lowed, during which stu-dents asked several questions about Islamic banking in par-ticular and banking sector in general. The students’ ques-tions were answered in detail, thus satisfying the curiosity of the students who wished to know more about banking operations and the diff erenc-es between conventional and Islamic banking.

The students’ profes-sional-day at QIIB included a visit to a number of QIIB

departments where they were briefed by executives on Islamic banking op-erations, customer service, types of accounts, cheques, bank cards. They also saw the functioning of the main banking hall and the section dedicated to VIP customers at QIIB, and of the services provided by Islamic banks to their customers.

During the tour, students were given the opportunity to ask questions about adop-tion of modern technol-ogy in banking and emerging trends, especially through mobile phones, Internet banking, telephone banking and the call centre. Dr Abdulbasit Ahmad al-Shaibei and senior QIIB executives with students of Qatar Academy.

Qatar Museums to hold annual Teachers Council

Qatar Museums (QM) is set to organise the annual Teachers

Council to inform school teachers about the organi-sation’s upcoming edu-cational programmes and exhibitions for 2019.

The fi rst session for Eng-lish speakers will take place on January 24 while the sec-ond session for Arabic speak-ers will be held on January 31. Both sessions will take place at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) from 9am to 1pm.

In addition to hearing from attendees, museums that fall under QM’s um-brella will also discuss their upcoming activities and ways in which teachers can incorporate the numerous services on off er into their curriculum.

Ahead of the Nation-al Museum of Qatar’s (NMoQ) opening in March, this year’s Teachers Coun-cil will prominently fea-ture the announcement of

NMoQ’s programming and their team will speak about its future activities and educational resources.

Information about the exhibitions, educational workshops and events for the 2018-2019 academic year will be addressed, according to QM.

At the event, the teach-ers will be able to network with their colleagues, mu-seum educators and other professionals, to ask ques-tions and contribute ideas.

The annual Teachers Council is an initiative set up by QM under the pa-tronage of its chairperson HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. It aims to enable teachers to engage more closely with the museums and gather their feedback on QM’s educational pro-grammes and resources as part of ongoing refi nement and improvement of ways of working together.

Homecoming for faculty and students at NU-Q

As part of the year-long celebration of the 10th anniversary,

Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) is joining with its alumni and hosting a homecoming for the fac-ulty, staff , and students.

Homecomings are a tradi-tion in the US for universi-ties to welcome back former students, along with current students, faculty, and staff , to celebrate the institution. The Northwestern Club of Qatar will host the event, being held as part of North-western’s global alumni event – NU Connects.

“We look forward to wel-coming home our alumni as part of NU Connects, as well as hosting our current students, faculty, and staff for a homecoming that will mark and celebrate NU-Q’s development and achieve-ments in Doha over the past 10-years. It is fi tting that our alumni have organised this event as it gives all a chance to celebrate them collectively – and as in-dividuals,” said Everette E

Dennis, dean and CEO.“Our greatest achieve-

ment is our alumni — near-ly 300 of them to date — who rightly make us proud by dint of their individual accomplishments and the role they are playing in Qa-tari society and elsewhere across the globe,” he added.

NU Connects is a pro-gramme sponsored by the Northwestern Alumni As-sociation that gives alumni the opportunity to expand their Northwestern network locally as well as globally through a series of special-ly-coordinated events held on the same night in cities around the world.

NU-Q is celebrating its 10th year anniversary through a series of events over the course of the year, culminating with an Iftar for graduating seniors and family members, along with faculty, staff , stu-dents, and alumni on May 6 at the Four Seasons.

The homecoming event has been scheduled for January 23 at 6pm.

Porsche Panamera models recalledThe Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in collaboration with Al Boraq Automobiles Co, has announced the recall of Porsche Panamera (60 vehicles) models of 2017-2018 over the faulty programming of the electrical steering wheel system.The ministry said that it will co-ordinate with

the dealer to follow up on the maintenance and repair works and will communicate with customers to ensure that the necessary repairs are carried out.The ministry urges all customers to report any violations to its Consumer Protection and Anti-Commercial Fraud Department.

QATAR

7Gulf Times Monday, January 21, 2019

Commercial Bank Toastmasters Club meeting celebrates successThe Commercial Bank Toast-

masters Club kicked off its 11th meeting under the

theme of “celebration”. The club executive committee

and club members celebrated their success in 2018 and celebrated a new start in 2019 in the presence of the Commercial Bank Group CEO, Joseph Abraham, chief hu-man Capital offi cer Sheikh Jassim al-Thani, and Hussain al-Abdulla, executive general manager and chief marketing offi cer.

Toastmasters International is a non-profi t educational organisa-tion that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs.

There are currently more than 60 Toastmasters Clubs in Qatar and Commercial Bank Toastmas-ters Club is the fi rst corporate club in the banking sector in Qatar.

The meeting followed the standard Toastmasters Club ses-sion format, with attendees giv-ing speeches followed by feedback from the club members. At the end of the session, there was a cake

cutting ceremony to celebrate the success of the club.

Abraham said, “Toastmasters

is great initiative as it provides a positive environment to help people communicate clearly and

concisely. The public speaking skills that Toastmasters helps to develop have application not

just in a business environment but throughout our personal lives too. I was very impressed by the speakers participating at the meeting and the organisation of the club and hope that more of our staff will get involved in the future.”

Sheikh Jassim said, “It was a pleasure to attend the Commer-cial Bank Toastmasters Club first meeting in 2019. I was delighted to see so many of our employ-ees taking part in the initiative, which is a wonderful opportu-nity for them to develop their public speaking and leadership skills. I hope that more people at the Bank will join the club this year and I look forward to at-tending more sessions myself.”

The Commercial Bank Toast-masters Club is just one of the ways that the Bank is investing in the professional development of its employees. It has many other initiatives in place for 2019, in-cluding the rollout of the Lead-er-Led training and a range of health and wellbeing activities.

The Commercial Bank Toastmasters Club kicked off its 11th meeting under the theme of “celebration”. The club executive committee and club members celebrated their success in 2018 and celebrated a new start in 2019 in the presence of the Commercial Bank Group CEO, Joseph Abraham, chief human Capital off icer Sheikh Jassim al-Thani, and Hussain al-Abdulla, executive general manager and chief marketing off icer.

QAC’s special off er on Mitsubishi SUVsQatar Automobiles Com-

pany (QAC), the author-ised distributor of Mit-

subishi Motors Corp in Qatar, has extended its special off er on a wide range of Mitsubishi SUVs, including the Pajero, Montero Sport, Outlander and ASX.

According to the off er, the monthly instalment for the Pa-jero is starting from QR2,199, Montero Sport from QR2,799, Outlander from QR1,799 and ASX from QR1,599.

The off er comes with several benefi ts, including one-year free comprehensive insurance and one-year free registration with the option of trade-in, QAC has said in a statement.

Sheikh Faleh bin Nawaf al-Thani, Automotive Operations director at Nasser Bin Khaled Group, said: “In response to our

clients’ demands, Qatar Auto-mobiles Company is pleased to announce the extension of its off er, giving customers more options to own their favourite new car. This clearly refl ects our commitment towards the local community and demonstrates our positive response to them.”

The Pajero is a true off -roader and a legend in its own right.

Powertrain options are either a 3.5-litre V6 mated to a 5-speed automatic, or a 3.8-litre V6 en-gine mated to a 5-speed auto.

The standard package in-cludes ActiveTrac four-wheel-drive with rear-wheel, full-time all-wheel and 4WD high and low range with locked centre dif-ferential. The long-wheelbase model holds seven passengers, with a third-row seat that can be folded into a well in the cargo

area fl oor, or removed entirely.Standard features include an

RV meter showing external tem-perature, time, date, compass, pressure, altitude and mainte-nance intervals.

The Montero Sport is ideal for adventures. Adventure calls from the well-appointed cock-pit, which surrounds the occu-pant with solid craftsmanship, supportive comfort, intelligent features and a wide open view.

From refi ned meters to a so-phisticated fl oor console, every feature is fi ne-tuned to enhance driving pleasure and in keeping the driver in confi dent control.

The 3.0-litre V6 MIVEC gaso-line engine generates all the power one demands of a rugged SUV to accomplish every mis-sion with smooth, effi cient ease.

The Outlander off ers plenty

Qatar Automobiles Company (QAC), the authorised distributor of Mitsubishi Motors Corp in Qatar, has extended its special off er on a wide range of Mitsubishi SUVs.

of room for seven passengers with its standard third-row seating.

One can also quickly change the seating confi guration to meet his or her needs with the quick-folding 60/40 split second row and 50/50 split third row seats.

The 2018 Outlander is equipped with a 166 horsepower, 2.4L MIVEC engine that achieves 30 highway MPG3, or upgrade to GT for even more performance with the powerful 224 horsepower, 3.0L MIVEC engine.

The ASX compact SUV has stacks of storage, super smart technology,

zippy performance and eff ortless style. Available in 2WD and AWD, ASX is built for the time of your life combin-ing the adventurous spirit of a con-fi dent explorer with the considered practicality of a family SUV.

All the cars are now available at the Mitsubishi Motors showroom on Salwa Road. Customers can visit the Salwa Road showroom from Saturday to Thursday, 8am to 9pm, and on Fri-day from 5pm to 9pm. They can also visit the Al Khor showroom from Sat-urday to Wednesday, 8am to 8pm, and on Thursday from 8am to 3pm.

Auto Class Cars extends deal on MG models

Auto Class Cars, the authorised dis-tributor of MG in Qatar, has an-nounced the extension of its special

off er on MG vehicles available now at the Auto Class Cars showroom on Salwa Road.

The off er allows customers to buy the MG ZS for QR899, MG RX5 for QR1,066, MG GS for QR1,235 and MG 6 for QR1,099. Be-sides, customers can enjoy many benefi ts, including one-year free registration, one-year free comprehensive insurance and 0% down-payment, Auto Class Cars has said in a statement.

Sheikh Faleh bin Nawaf al-Thani, Auto-motive Operations director at Nasser Bin Khaled Group, said: “Based on the huge suc-cess of the off er, we are pleased to extend its validity, allowing more customers to benefi t from the options and facilities. Auto Class Cars will continue to off er such great deals to provide a fl exible payment method and allow people to easily own their brand-new car.” The sleek, dynamic profi le of the all-

new MG 6 is boosted by carbon fi bre trim on the front bumper, headlamps featuring a ‘London Eye’ design concept, twin chrome exhaust pipes and a ‘Star Rider’ front grille, which takes inspiration from the brand’s expressive design language. The MG 6 will be equipped with a 1.5-litre turbo engine,

mated to a 7-speed Dual Clutch Transmis-sion with paddle shift option, for smooth, eff ortless performance. This effi cient petrol unit delivers maximum power of 169hp and maximum torque of 250Nm.

The MG ZS is available in three high-value trim levels – 1.5L STD, 1.5L COM and 1.5L LUX. The arrival of MG’s new crossover marks an exciting new era of design for the famous British car brand with the introduc-tion of a totally modern design philosophy. The more expressive design language show-cased by the MG ZS is set to feature across all upcoming models, and emphasises the premium experience and commitment to quality of the ambitious brand.

The MG RX5 will appeal to a range of customers in Qatar, especially younger buyers looking for value for money in a stylish, technologically advanced pack-age that allows them to stand out from the crowd. Equipped with a 1.5T petrol engine and 7-speed automatic gearbox the MG

RX5 is available as entry level standard or mid-range COM models. The more power-ful 2.0T power plant is mated to a 6-speed automatic gearbox and is off ered for either COM or top-of-the-range LUX trim levels, with the latter featuring all-wheel drive. The MG RX5 boasts of an attractive, futur-istic design that is instantly recognisable.

The MG GS is the only British compact SUV in the middle-class market segment that is designed to be stylishly mascu-line. The design is a trendy mix that com-bines sporty mobility with sharp, smooth body lines and swooping fl owing shapes. The MGE2.0TGI direct-injection turbo-charged engine +TST 6-speed wet dual clutch transmission generates an impressive 220HP of power.

The cars are available now at the Auto Class Showroom on Salwa Road. Custom-ers can visit the showroom from Saturday to Thursday, 8am to 9pm, and on Friday from 5pm to 9pm.

VCUarts Qatar book marks 20 years of achievements

Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts

Qatar) has issued Cultivating the Arts, a book commemorating its 20th year in Qatar.

A large number of students and faculty gathered for the book launch at the University’s library. The book is dedicated to the uni-versity’s 642 alumni and to the faculty, staff and administrators who contributed to their educa-tion.

The book details the growth of the University from its early days in 1998 when it was originally called Shaqab College of Design Arts, to 2001 when it became VCU Qatar College of Design Arts, and then in 2002, when it became a branch campus of Vir-ginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, with the fi rst de-grees awarded in 2002, and on to

its notable successes across two decades.

Cultivating the Arts includes messages from Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the co-founder and chairperson of Qatar Foundation, and HE Sheikha Hind

bint Hamad al-Thani, vice chair-person and CEO of Qatar Founda-tion.

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser in her message noted, “The tradition of innovation that led Qatar Foundation to partner

with VCUarts two decades ago is as vibrant as ever.”

In her message, Sheikha Hind highlights that VCUarts Qatar’s alumni “have assumed leadership positions in every sector of Qatar society, from government to retail, infrastructure, entertainment, sport, and media, contributing signifi cantly to the nation’s social, cultural and economic progress.”

Cultivating the Arts includes many highlights from VCUarts Qatar’s 20 years of ground-break-ing achievements by its students, alumni, faculty and staff , such as its annual fashion show, landmark exhibitions and lectures, innova-tive designs and visits by famous artists and designers.

Dr Donald Baker, executive dean of VCUarts Qatar noted, “VCUarts Qatar has been a steady source of innovation and alternative ways of looking at the world and at our-

selves. As it ends its 20th year, the University is proud to showcase the achievements of its faculty, staff , students and alumni. As it looks ahead, the University envis-ages greater integration into the rapidly developing digital world through enhanced and virtual re-ality and artifi cial intelligence, incorporating them into existing programmes and inspiring new programmes.”

The book shows the University’s many and varied roles in innova-tion and in cultivating the arts, its ability to ignite the imagination of its students, and takes a look at alumni who are shaping the future and who have expanded on their education and created new op-portunities for the country. The book closes with 20 Years of Ex-cellence, a summary of the suc-cess of VCUarts Qatar as it closes its second decade.

Dr Donald Baker, executive dean of VCUarts Qatar, signs the book.

REGION/ARAB WORLD

Gulf TimesMonday, January 21, 20198

Bomb blasts rock Damascus, Afrin in SyriaAFP Damascus

A bomb blast hit Damascus yesterday, in a rare attack in the Syrian capital that

has been largely insulated from violence during nearly eight years of war.

The explosion came as an-other bomb in the northern city of Afrin killed three people and wounded nine others, according to a war monitor, on the fi rst an-niversary of a Turkish off ensive on the Kurdish-majority region.

Also yesterday Israel said it intercepted a rocket fi red from Syria after Damascus accused the Jewish state of carrying out air raids on the south of the country.

Syrian state news agency SANA said a “bomb blast” had hit southern Damascus “without leaving any victims”.

“There is confi rmation of re-ports that a terrorist has been arrested,” it said.

The Britain-based Syrian Ob-servatory for Human Rights war monitor reported, however, a “huge explosion” near a military intelligence offi ce in southern Damascus that left a number of people dead and wounded.

“The explosion took place near a security branch in the south of the city,” and was fol-lowed by shooting, said the monitor which relies on a net-work of sources inside the coun-try.

“There are some people killed and injured but we could not verify the toll immediately,” it added.

It was unclear if the blast was caused by a bomb that was

planted or a suicide attack, ac-cording to the monitor.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Syria is locked in a civil war that has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since a brutal crack-down on anti-government pro-tests in 2011 spiralled into full confl ict.

With key military backing from Russia, President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have retaken large parts of Syria from rebels and militants, and now control almost two-thirds of the coun-try.

The regime in May reclaimed a fi nal scrap of territory held by the Islamic State group (IS) in southern Damascus, cementing total control over the capital for the fi rst time in six years.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said yesterday’s blast appeared to be the fi rst attack in Damascus since a car bomb over a year ago that caused no casual-ties.

Damascus has been largely spared the worst of the country’s multi-faceted war, but several bomb attacks have shaken the city.

In March 2017 a double suicide attack claimed by Al Qaeda’s former affi liate in the country killed 74 people, including doz-ens of Iranian pilgrims visiting religious sites in the historic Old City. That was followed a few days later by bombings claimed by IS at a courthouse and restau-rant that killed 32 people.

One of the most high-profi le attacks in the capital saw a bomb kill Assad’s brother-in-law As-sef Shawkat — a top security offi cial — and the minister of defence at a command centre in July 2012.

Since reclaiming control of Damascus and surrounding re-

gions, security forces have re-moved many of the checkpoints that dotted the city.

Government troops have largely pushed remaining rebel and militant forces into the northwestern province of Idlib, while IS holds a few dwindling pockets of territory.

The Afrin blast was the result of a bomb placed in a bus in the centre of the city, according to the Observatory.

Turkish troops and allied rebel groups seized the Afrin region from Kurdish forces in March last year after a two-month air and ground off ensive.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to launch a new onslaught in Syria against the Kurdish Peo-ple’s Protection Units (YPG) — forces Ankara deems “terrorists”.

In a conference call with Turkish troops who participated in last year’s off ensive, Erdogan yesterday said “they will never dissuade us from continuing our fi ght in Afrin”.

Residents in the Kurdish-con-trolled city of Qamishli protest-ed yesterday to mark the anni-versary of the Turkish off ensive on Afrin.

Thousands took to the streets holding photos of fallen Kurdish fi ghters and banners.

Israel meanwhile said a rocket fi red from Syria’s Golan Heights had been intercepted by its “Iron Dome” air defence system.

It came after SANA, quoting a military source, said Syria’s own air defences went into action af-ter Israel yesterday launched air strikes on the south of the coun-try.

The Russian army said Syr-ian air defences destroyed seven Israeli projectiles, after four of the Jewish state’s F-16 military planes “fi red rockets into Syrian territory”.

Blast in the northern city of Afrin killed three people and wounded nine others

Saudi-led air strikes leave three dead in Sanaa: rebelsDPASana’a

Air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition have killed at least three people

in Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa, the Houthi-affi liated Health Ministry said yesterday.

The ministry said in a state-ment the coalition carried out more than 24 air strikes on Sana’a late Saturday in an on-slaught that also injured several civilians and destroyed govern-ment buildings.

The coalition spokesman, Turki al-Malki, meanwhile, said the air strikes targeted Houthi military sites, including a drone facility in Sana’a.

The coalition “has undertak-en all preventative action and

necessary measures to protect civilians and avoid collateral damage among them,” al-Malki was quoted as saying by the of-

fi cial Saudi news agency SPA.The air strikes are the fi rst

on Sana’a since Yemen’s Sau-di-backed government and the

Houthi rebels reached a truce agreement on Yemen’s key port city of Hodeidah at UN-bro-kered peace talks in Sweden.

Yemen has been embroiled in a power struggle between the government and the Houthi rebels since late 2014.

The rebels seized the capital, Sana’a, and other parts of Yem-en in September 2014 before starting to advance towards Aden, the temporary seat of government, which prompted Saudi Arabia to form a coalition in March 2015 to halt the Houthi advances.

Over the past four years, the confl ict has led to displace-ment, food insecurity, and out-breaks of cholera and diphthe-ria across the country as well as damage to the healthcare and education infrastructure.

A man stands amidst the rubble and debris of a destroyed factory after a reported air strike by Saudi-led coalition in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, yesterday.

Civilians inspect the damage at a factory after a reported air strike by Saudi-led coalition in Sanaa, yesterday.

Sudan police confront protesters

as president rejects accusationsAFPKhartoum

Sudanese police fi red tear gas at hundreds of protesters planning to

march on parliament yester-day, as President Omar al-Bashir insisted demonstrators who died in anti-government rallies were not killed by secu-rity forces.

Deadly protests which erupted on December 19 after a government decision to raise the price of bread have turned into nationwide rallies against Bashir’s three decades of iron-fi sted rule.

Yesterday, hundreds of pro-testers attempted to march on parliament in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum, but they were quickly confronted by riot police who fi red tear gas, witnesses said.

Protesters then staged si-multaneous rallies in diff erent neighbourhoods of Omdur-man in an attempt to gather again for the march, a witness said, but they were unable to.

They shouted “Freedom, peace and justice”, the main slogan of the protest move-ment, and “Overthrow, over-

throw”, the witness said.Witnesses said that apart

from Omdurman, protesters staged demonstrations in the capital’s eastern district of Burri — site of clashes on Jan-uary 17 — and in the northern suburb of Bahari.

“The protesters will submit to parliament a memorandum calling on President Bashir to step down,” said the protest organisers, the Sudanese Pro-fessionals’ Association (SPA), which represents several un-ions of doctors, teachers and engineers.

Offi cials say 26 people,

including two security per-sonnel, have died in the past month in protests, while rights group Amnesty International has put the death toll at more than 40. The protests have emerged as the biggest chal-lenge yet to the authority of President Bashir, who swept to power in 1989.

They come with Sudan suf-fering from an economic crisis driven by an acute shortage of foreign currency and soaring infl ation that has more than doubled the price of food and medicines.

Riot police and Sudan’s

feared National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) have led a sweeping crackdown on the protest movement that has seen several opposition leaders, activists, journalists and protesters jailed since the demonstrations erupted.

The government’s tough response has sparked interna-tional criticism, with Amnesty International accusing the se-curity forces of using violence against protesters.

Bashir rejected the accusa-tions at a rally in Al-Kurreida village in the state of White Nile, alleging that groups within the protest movement were behind the killing of demonstrators.

“There are some people among the protesters who are killing the demonstrators,” Ba-shir said in a speech broadcast live on state television, with-out specifying who the cul-prits were.

He said a doctor who died on Thursday in Burri was not killed by security forces.

“The doctor who was killed in Burri was killed by a weap-on that did not belong to the army, or NISS, or police,” said Bashir, dressed in a traditional white robe and turban.

Arab leaders agree on 29-item economic agenda

From Page 1

A key point of contention ahead of the meeting related to the wording of Article 13 in the summit statement.

Lebanon, which hosts hun-dreds of thousands of Syrian ref-ugees, called for their return to Syria after President Bashar al-Assad regained control of most of the country. Other countries had insisted this discussion be linked to a political solution.

The summit had also been marred by divisions among Leb-anese politicians and regional leaders over the reinstatement of Syria into the 22-country Arab League.

While Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil called for Syria’s return to the bloc, its secretary-general Ahmed Aboul Gheit said there was no agree-ment on the proposal yet, adding that it may be discussed during the Arab League summit that takes place in Tunisia in March.

Rami Khouri, a political analyst and fellow at Harvard Kennedy School told Al Jazeera that although normalisation with Syria was inevitable, the process of refugees’ return will take time.

“There’s no sign of a seri-ous breakthrough in a political transition which would allow the safe return of refugees and the reconstruction (of devastated areas). For this to happen, there needs to be a clear sign for a po-litical reconciliation according to UN resolutions,” said Khouri.

Paul Salem, president of the Middle East Institute, agreed

that normalisation will take time. Earlier in the day, Presi-dent Aoun had presented an ini-tiative to establish an Arab bank for reconstruction and develop-ment, which would help rebuild countries torn by confl ict.

Discussion during the summit focused on redevelopment plans in Somalia and Yemen.

The summit was overshad-owed by political rifts. Lebanese media and analysts had called the meeting a “failure” due to poor attendance by Arab heads of state, many of whom pulled out last minute.

In addition to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was also in attendance.

“The Qataris are trying to promote a reconciliatory spirit around the region and reconfi g-ure relationships following the siege,” Khouri told Al Jazeera.

Amine Kammourieh, a Leba-nese political analyst, said the “Amir’s attendance broke the siege imposed on the summit (by Arab leaders), saving it at the last minute”.

A key contribution during yesterday’s meeting was the launch of a $200mn technol-ogy investment fund across the region by Kuwait’s foreign min-ister.

Sheikh Sabah Khalid al-Sabah said Kuwait would contribute $50mn to the fund to allow “in-vestment in the fi elds of tech-nology and digital economy” which the private sector will take part in.

Following the announcement, Qatar’s Finance Minister HE Ali Sherif al-Emadi pledged an equal amount in support of Ku-wait’s initiative.

The League’s secretary-gen-eral Aboul Gheit announced that the next Arab economic sum-mit would be held in Maurita-nia’s capital Nouakchott in 2023, adding that the four-year break would provide time for the sum-mit objectives to be achieved.

UN agency says not aware of plan to close east Jerusalem schools

The UN agency for Palestinian

refugees said yesterday it was

not aware of a reported plan by

Israel to close its schools in east

Jerusalem. Israel’s Hadashot

television news reported on

Saturday night that the country’s

national security council had

taken a decision to close the

schools starting next academic

year. It said the students would

be absorbed by schools run by

Israeli authorities.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-

yahu’s off ice did not confirm the

report to AFP.

The UN agency, known as

UNRWA, said it “was not notified

of any decision to close down

schools it operates in east

Jerusalem.”

“We deliver services and main-

tain facilities in east Jerusalem

since 1950 under our General

Assembly mandate,” it said in

a statement. “This mandate

includes east Jerusalem as part

of our operational area.”

It added that Israel was party

to commitments obligating it to

protect the agency’s operations

in areas under its authority.

Israel has long pushed for UN-

RWA’s closure, arguing it helps

perpetuate the conflict with the

Palestinians.

It criticises its method of clas-

sifying Palestinian refugees

since their descendants are also

eligible for the status.

US President Donald Trump’s

administration has supported

Israel’s stance by cutting aid.

The United States has tradition-

ally been UNRWA’s largest

contributor, providing around

$350mn (300mn euros) a year,

but Trump has cancelled all

support. UNRWA’s activities

include providing education

to some 2,359 students in east

Jerusalem, which was occupied

by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War

and later annexed in moves

never recognised by the inter-

national community. More than

700,000 Palestinians fled or

were expelled from their homes

during the 1948 war surrounding

Israel’s creation.

16 killed after militia clashes in TripoliDPATripoli

Four civilians were among at least 16 people killed in clashes that erupted earlier this week between rival mili-

tias in the Libyan capital Tripoli, the coun-try’s Health Ministry said yesterday.

The fi ghting broke out between a militia linked to the UN-backed government and a rival faction from the town of Tarhouna

south-west of Tripoli on Wednesday, marking the latest bout of violence in the North African country.

The fatalities included a photo jour-nalist, who was killed Saturday while covering the violence. The dead also in-cluded 11 militiamen and one unidenti-fied person.

Some 65 people were injured, accord-ing to the ministry.

Calm prevailed yesterday in the fight-ing zone, witnesses said, with commu-

nity leaders making efforts to end the violence that shattered a UN-brokered truce reached in September.

Libya descended into chaos after the 2011 armed revolt that deposed long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

The country has since become a tran-sit point for economic migrants and asy-lum seekers heading to Europe. Libya is split between two rival governments: one based in Tripoli, and another in the eastern city of Tobruk.

“There’s no sign of a serious breakthrough in a political transition which would allow the safe return of refugees and the reconstruction (of devastated areas). For this to happen, there needs to be a clear sign for a political reconciliation according to UN resolutions”

Sudanese demonstrators burn tyres as they participate in anti-government protests in Omdurman, Khartoum, yesterday.

AFRICA9Gulf Times

Monday, January 21, 2019

DR Congo top court rejects vote challengeReutersKinshasa

Congo’s political standoff deepened yesterday after the top court backed the

contested presidential election victory of Felix Tshisekedi, then his main rival rejected the ruling, called for protests and declared himself leader.

As Tshisekedi’s supporters cel-ebrated the ruling in the streets of Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, runner-up Martin Fayulu said the decision had opened the way to a “constitutional coup d’etat”, raising fears of more vio-lence.

Following the court decision, the African Union postponed a visit by a high-level delegation to Kinshasa that had been scheduled for today to discuss the crisis.

It has previously expressed “se-rious concerns” about the vote and called for the results to be delayed.

Last month’s election was meant to mark the fi rst democratic trans-fer of power in the vast central Af-rican country, where confl icts have regularly destabilised the region.

But monitors pointed to major fl aws in the poll.

Unrest over the vote has already killed 34 people, wounded 59 and led to 241 “arbitrary arrests” in the past week, according to the UN human rights offi ce.

Early yesterday, the Consti-tutional Court ruled that a legal challenge to the result fi led by Fay-

ulu was inadmissible. “Felix Tshisekedi will become

the fi fth president of the republic,” government spokesman Lambert Mende said as he welcomed the judgement.

Fayulu issued statements dis-missing the ruling.

“The constitutional court has just confi rmed that it serves a dictatorial regime... by validating

false results, (and enabling) a con-stitutional coup d’etat,” he said in one.

“I am now considering myself as the sole legitimate president of the Democratic Republic of Congo,” he added in another statement.

He called for people to mount peaceful demonstrations — though the streets of the capital were calm yesterday afternoon.

Fayulu says Tshisekedi and outgoing President Joseph Kabila made a deal to cheat him out of a more than 60% win — an accusa-tion they both dismiss.

The provisional results, an-nounced on January 10, showed Tshisekedi winning with a slim margin over Fayulu.

In a speech, Tshisekedi wel-comed the victory and said he

would seek to mend divisions in the country.

“This is the end of one fi ght and the start of another in which I will enlist all the Congolese people: a fi ght for well-being, for a Congo that wins,” he said.

The Southern African Develop-ment Community (SADC), a bloc which includes South Africa and Angola, congratulated Tshisekedi and called for a peaceful transfer of power.

“SADC calls upon all Congolese to accept the outcome, and con-solidate democracy and maintain a peaceful and stable environment following the landmark elections,” it said.

Independent monitors fl agged major problems with the election, including faulty voting machines and polling stations where many were unable to vote.

The Catholic Church, which had a 40,000-strong team of observ-ers, denounced the provisional result.

A tally from the church reviewed by Reuters from about 70% of polling stations suggested a vic-tory of 62% for Fayulu, a former Exxon Mobil country manager.

Tshisekedi and Ramazani were virtually neck-and-neck in second place with 16.93% and 16.88%, re-spectively.

Congo — which was ruled by dictator Mobutu Sese Seko for 32 years before tumbling into chaos and war in the late 1990s — is a vital source of copper and other metals, including cobalt.

Lawyers representing Felix Tshisekedi celebrate following the pronouncement yesterday of the Constitutional Court confirming Tshisekedi’s victory in the presidential election in Kinshasa.

Zimbabwe crackdown a ‘taste of things to come’By MacDonald Dzirutwe, Reuters Harare

A crackdown last week on protests in Zimbabwe is a foretaste of how the gov-

ernment will respond to future unrest, the president’s spokesman was quoted saying yesterday, fuel-ling concerns that the southern African country is reverting to au-thoritarian rule.

Police say three people died dur-ing demonstrations that turned violent in the capital Harare and second city Bulawayo.

But human rights groups say evidence suggests at least a dozen were killed, scores were treated for gunshot wounds and hundreds were detained.

“(The) government will not stand by while such narrow inter-ests play out so violently,” Presi-dent Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesman George Charamba told the state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper.

“The response so far is just a foretaste of things to come.”

Mnangagwa, who has been on a four-nation European tour and was expected to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos this week to pitch for investment to revive Zimbabwe’s crippled econ-omy, said he was instead returning home.

“In light of the economic situa-tion, I will be returning home after a highly productive week of bilat-eral trade and investment meet-ings.

The fi rst priority is to get Zim-

babwe calm, stable and working again,” Mnangagwa posted on Twitter.

Charamba, who has been ac-companying Mnangagwa on the trip, said the authorities would re-

view some provisions of the con-stitution adopted in 2013, which he said were being abused by pro-ponents of democracy.

Lawyers and activists say hun-dreds of Zimbabweans are in

custody accused of public order off ences, including at least four lawmakers from the opposition MDC party, and Evan Mawarire, a pastor who rose to prominence as a critic of former leader Robert Mu-

gabe and led a national shutdown in 2016.

Local rights groups say security forces, accused of night raids and beating suspected protesters in their homes, were yesterday try-ing to track down people who have gone into hiding.

A partial Internet blackout was still in force yesterday, two days after mobile networks sent mes-sages to customers saying they had been ordered to keep social media sites shut until further notice.

Before winning a contested elec-tion in July, Mnangagwa promised a clean break with the 37-year rule of Mugabe, who used the security forces to quell civilian protests be-fore being forced out in a de facto coup in November 2017.

But the MDC says former Mu-gabe ally Mnangagwa, nicknamed the Crocodile, is now overseeing a reversion to authoritarian rule by using the same tactics.

Charamba said the MDC lead-ership and affi liate organisations would be “held fully accountable for the violence and the looting.”

The MDC denies fomenting un-rest.

UN rights offi cials denounced last week’s crackdown, while an independent inquiry found that the army used excessive force when it stepped in to stop post-election violence last August, during which six people were shot dead.

Zimbabweans, who have seen their purchasing power eroded by soaring infl ation, also say Mnan-gagwa has not delivered on pre-election pledges to kick-start economic growth after Mugabe’s exit.

Backlash in Nigeria as main candidates shun election debateAFPLagos

Nigeria’s President Muham-madu Buhari and his main challenger yesterday faced

accusations of arrogance, disre-spect and elitism, after they failed to turn up for a debate between election hopefuls.

Buhari, of the ruling All Pro-gressives Congress (APC), and Atiku Abubakar, from the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), were supposed to have been among fi ve candidates at the set-piece discussion on Sat-urday night.

But Buhari stayed away, citing his “busy and hectic offi cial and campaign schedules” and because

he had already taken part in a live, televised question-and-answer session.

Abubakar returned from the United States and headed to the venue in Abuja but “at the last second he decided not to appear”, debate moderator Mark Eddo an-nounced.

Abubakar, referred to across Nigeria as “Atiku”, later blamed Buhari, saying the president’s ab-sence was “a slight on all of us and our democracy”.

“We came here for a presidential debate, not a candidacy debate, and I, Atiku Abubakar, cannot challenge or question an adminis-tration where the man at the helm of the aff airs of the nation is not present to defend himself or his policies,” he added.

Nigeria goes to the polls to elect a new president on February 16 in what is expected to be a close race between the two main parties.

The PDP was in power for 16 years from 1999, when democracy was restored after decades of mili-tary rule.

Buhari’s victory in 2015 was the fi rst for an opposition candidate.

The other three candidates at the debate all said Buhari and Abubakar’s absence was not surprising and both were from the old ruling class.

Retired army general Buhari, 76, headed a military government in the 1980s, while Abubakar, a wealthy businessman four years his junior, was vice-president un-der Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 to 2007.

All three are among a number of

ageing politicians to have domi-nated Nigeria for decades in a country where some 60% of the population of more than 180mn is aged under 30.

Oby Ezekwesili, a former educa-tion minister, of the Allied Con-gress Party of Nigeria, said: “I think it’s important for us to ac-knowledge that there is a politi-cal class that simply needs to fade away from our country.”

“The idea that the will of people will be subject to the whims and caprices of our politicians should be a total anomaly,” added the ex-World Bank vice-president.

Fela Oludatore, an entrepreneur and motivational speaker, of the Alliance for New Nigeria, accused Buhari and Abubakar of acting like “rulers (who) don’t explain to their

subjects what they’re going to do”. Kingsley Moghalu, of the Young

Progressives Party, who was a former deputy governor of Ni-geria’s central bank, branded both arrogant and ignorant.

“They’re not here so they can’t answer the questions...They be-long to the old school...with a sense of entitlement but not a record of performance,” he added.

Many ordinary Nigerians ac-cused the APC and PDP candidates of disrespect.

One said he felt “utter disgust” and the only appropriate response for voters was at the ballot box.

Another told the Premium Times website a two-hour live de-bate “requires intellectual stamina and quite frankly, I know both can-not cope so I was not surprised”.

People queue for gas in Harare yesterday.

8 UN peacekeepers killed as gunmen attack base in MaliBy Serge Daniel, AFPBamako

Gunmen yesterday killed at least eight Chadian UN peacekeepers in an attack on one of their bases in northern Mali, multiple sources reported.

The UN spokesman in Mali condemned what he described as a “cowardly” attack and called for a “robust” response.

“According to a new toll, still provisional, at least eight peacekeepers have been killed,” a source close to the MINUS-MA force said. A Malian security source said about 20 people were injured in the attack.

They struck early Sunday at the Aguelhok base 200km north of Kidal and towards the border with Algeria, the source close to MINUSMA added. A diplomat in northern Mali told AFP that several of the attackers had also been killed.

Mahamat Saleh Annadif, the UN’s special representative for Mali, condemned what he called a “vile and criminal” attack. “Peacekeepers of the MINUSMA force at Aguelhok fought off a sophisticated attack by assailants who arrived on several armed vehicles,” he said in a statement. The attack “illustrates the determination of the terrorists to sow chaos”. “It demands a robust, immediate and concerted response from all forces to destroy the peril of terrorism in the Sahel.”

It was one of the deadliest attacks to strike UN forces in Mali. An attack at the same base last April killed two peace-keepers and left several others wounded. The deadliest strike was in October 2014, when nine troops of a Nigerian contin-gent were killed in the northeast. Some 13,000 peacekeepers are deployed in Mali as part of a UN mission.

It was established after Islamist militias seized the north of the country in 2012. They were pushed back by French troops in 2013. A peace agreement signed in 2015 by the Bamako government and armed groups was aimed at restoring stabil-ity to Mali. But the accord has failed to stop violence by Is-lamist militants, who have also staged attacks in neighbour-ing Burkina Faso and Niger.

Earlier this month, both France and the United States criti-cised the authorities in Mali for their failure to stem the wors-ening violence.

On January 16, France threatened to push for more targeted sanctions to be imposed on Mali after hearing a UN offi cial report on worsening violence in the West African country.

Washington renewed its warning that it would push for changes to the peacekeeping mission in Mali, possibly a ma-jor drawdown, if there was no progress.

In August, a panel of experts said in a report to the UN Se-curity Council that inter-communal confl icts in the region were exacerbating existing tensions from clashes between jihadist groups and international and Malian forces.

France’s Defence Minister Florence Parly yesterday told French radio that the G5 Sahel anti-militant force in the re-gion was resuming its operations. They were suspended after an attack on their headquarters in mid-2018.

The G5 force comprises contingents from Mali, Maurita-nia, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad.

Israel, Chad renew diplomatic ties

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday vis-ited Chad for what he called a “historic” trip, as the two countries restored diplomatic ties after a decades-long

break. The Israeli leader said it was the start of a push to re-store his country’s standing in the Islamic world.

Netanyahu and Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno have “announced the renewal of diplomatic relations between Chad and Israel”, a statement from the Israeli premier’s of-fi ce said, shortly after he arrived in N’djamena. Netanyahu on Twitter called the announcement “a historic moment”.

Ties between Israel and Muslim-majority Chad were bro-ken in 1972 at the height of Arab-Israeli tensions. Pressure from Muslim African nations, accentuated by the Arab-Is-raeli wars of 1967 and 1973, led a number of African states to sever relations with the Jewish state.

But in recent years, Israel has held out the prospect of co-operation in fi elds ranging from security to technology to ag-riculture, to improve ties on the continent. Netanyahu’s one-day visit follows Deby’s November trip to Israel.

Deby said that despite the renewal of ties with Israel, “Chad remains attached to the peace process between Israel and Palestine.”

Both sides should prioritise dialogue and negotiation to-wards a lasting peace “in conformity with United Nations resolutions”, he added.

The two leaders yesterday signed defence and security co-operation agreements, but no details were released to the me-dia. They have in the past declined to comment on whether their talks have included arms deals.

But Chadian security sources say the country has acquired Israeli equipment to help battle rebels in the country’s north.

Chad is also one of several African states engaged in West-ern-backed operations against Boko Haram and Islamic State extremists. It forms part of the G5 force fi ghting jihadist fi ght-ers in the Sahel region, along with Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso. Deby is one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.

He took over the arid, impoverished nation in 1990 and won a disputed fi fth term in April 2016 to lead the country of some 15mn people.

AMERICA

Gulf Times Monday, January 21, 201910

US President Donald Trump had conversations about a pro-posed project to build a Trump

Tower in Moscow throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, far later than previously acknowledged, his lawyer said yesterday.

Trump’s conversations with his then-personal lawyer and fi xer, Michael Cohen, who was spearhead-ing the negotiations in Moscow, continued throughout the year un-

til October or November 2016, Rudy Giuliani said.

“It’s our understanding that they went on throughout 2016 – there weren’t a lot of them, but there were conversations,” the former New York mayor said on NBC’s Meet the Press.

“Can’t be sure the exact dates, but the president can remember having conversations with him about it,” he said.

Cohen, who was sentenced to three years in prison for an assortment of felonies, has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in 2017, when he testi-fi ed that the negotiations on Moscow

project had ended by January of 2016.In fact, he later admitted, they had

gone on much longer, until June of 2016, when Trump had become the presumptive nominee of the Republi-can party.

The latest disclosure extends that timeline right up to the presidential elections in November.

The Trump Tower project has been a subject of scrutiny because Trump had denied any business dealings with the Russians.

He has since acknowledged that Cohen pursued a deal with the Rus-sians well into 2016, but has insisted

there was nothing wrong with seeking business opportunities while running for offi ce.

Giuliani said that Trump had fully answered questions about the Trump Tower project put to him by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Mueller is investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with a Rus-sian eff ort to sway the 2016 elections in the Republican’s favour, as well as possible obstruction by the US presi-dent.

Giuliani portrayed Trump’s role in the Moscow negotiations as that of a passive participant who was too busy

running for president to pay much at-tention to it.

“It was Michael Cohen driving the project,” he told CNN in an interview on its State of the Union show.

Candidate Trump, he said, was “tied up 18 hours a day with that (the campaign). If he could devote a minute a day to this, it would be a lot. A minute here, a minute there.

“Your recollection of that is not go-ing to be as strong. The guy running it is going to remember it,” he said.

Cohen is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee on February 7.

‘Trump had talks on Moscow tower up to late 2016’AFPWashington

Giuliani: It’s our understanding that they went on throughout 2016 – there weren’t a lot of them, but there were conversations (about the proposed project).

US President Donald Trump bitterly attacked top Democrat Nancy

Pelosi yesterday, and she again insisted that he end the gov-ernment shutdown before bor-der security talks can begin, but there were hints of possible movement in coming days.

Trump lashed out on Twit-ter a day after Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, dismissed as a “non-starter” his off er to extend temporary pro-tection to about 1mn immigrants in return for $5.7bn for the wall he wants on the Mexican border.

“Nancy Pelosi has behaved so irrationally & has gone so far to the left that she has now offi cial-ly become a Radical Democrat,” the president tweeted. “She is so petrifi ed of the ‘lefties’ in her party that she has lost control.”

“...And by the way, clean up the streets in San Francisco, they are disgusting!” he added, in a seemingly gratuitous aside.

Pelosi’s congressional district overlaps with San Francisco.

Pointedly ignoring his person-al comments, Pelosi on Twitter emphasised the need to end the partial government shutdown, which has infl icted increasing pain around the country as it en-tered its 30th day.

“800,000 Americans are go-ing without pay,” she tweeted. “Reopen the government, let workers get their (paycheques) and then we can discuss how we can come together to protect the border. #EndTheshutdown.”

While Pelosi and other Demo-crats dismissed Trump’s off er, Republicans insisted that it rep-resented actual movement by the president.

Vice-President Mike Pence, who has been leading the ad-ministration’s contacts with Congress, said that the Senate would put the proposal to a vote as early as tomorrow.

He called it “a good-faith compromise”.

The planned vote also refl ects a shift by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

He insisted previously that he would not take up any shutdown bill unless both Trump and Democratic leaders backed it.

“In a very real sense, what President Trump did here was he set the table for a deal,” Pence said on Fox News Sunday.

The bill’s fate was far from clear.

Republicans hope to lure the votes of a few Democrats from Trump-friendly states to reach the 60 votes needed, but they may lose some hard-line con-servatives in the process.

The Trump administration – increasingly blamed by Ameri-cans for the shutdown – is trying to thread a needle between those hard-liners and Democrats who adamantly oppose spending the $5.7bn Trump wants for a wall.

They have off ered something over $2bn for a range of other border security measures.

Democrats assailed Trump’s new off er as cynical, noting that it was the president who – by moving earlier to end the DACA programme protecting 700,000 young immigrants and to expel some 300,000 others in a sepa-rate programme – had placed

in jeopardy many of those for whom he now off ers temporary protection.

However, anti-immigrant voices also attacked Trump’s off er as tantamount to amnesty for the undocumented – a toxic concept for many conservatives.

“No, Amnesty is not a part of my off er. It is a 3 year extension of DACA,” Trump said in anoth-er tweet.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was former president Barack Obama’s programme to shield undocumented immigrants who entered the country as children.

Trump said that there would be “no big push” to remove the 11mn people in the country il-legally, before warning: ‘But be careful, Nancy!”

Still, both sides appeared to be casting about cautiously for a road ahead.

“The vote this week (in the Senate) is not to pass the bill,” said Senator James Lankford, a Republican. “It’s to open up and say, can we debate this? Can we amend it? Can we make chang-es? Let’s fi nd a way to get the government open.”

Representative Bennie Thompson, a Democrat who chairs the Homeland Security

Committee, said that “I would not rule out a wall in certain cir-cumstances”.

He suggested that Democrats were amenable to negotiating if Trump would stop demon-ising the party and its leaders and provide assurances that he would not suddenly shift posi-tions.

“The notion that we have come from a (focus on a) wall to some other thing is moving it along,” he told ABC’s This Week, “but we have to sit down and talk.”

Representative Tulsi Gab-bard, who recently announced plans to seek the presidency in 2020, told CNN that it is urgent that both sides “come together and have a real conversation and hash out the diff erences”.

But Representative James Clyburn, the third-ranking House Democrat, insisted that the government must fi rst be reopened.

“I can’t see us keeping federal employees, 800,000 people, out of work while we go back and forth on negotiations.

“These negotiations could take three or four weeks,” he said on Fox.

Trump, Pelosi row again over shutdown impassePresident attacks top Democrat for rejecting Mexico wall deal

AFPWashington

Pelosi: Reopen the government, let workers get their (paycheques) and then we can discuss how we can come together to protect the border.

Trump: (Pelosi) is so petrified of the ‘lefties’ in her party that she has lost control.

US Coast Guard spouse Rachel Whitlow holds her 15-month-old son Walker as she waits in line to receive free groceries during a food giveaway on Saturday in Novato, California.

An unusual set of celestial circumstances came to-gether yesterday for sky-

watchers in Europe, Africa and the Americas, where a total lunar eclipse may be glimpsed, off ering a view of a large, red moon.

The full moon appeared bigger than normal because it is closer to the Earth – about 222,000 miles (358,000km) away – which earns it the nickname “super Moon”.

Other monikers include a “Wolf Moon”, a traditional way of coining an eclipse in the month of January, and a “Blood Moon” because of its rusty, red colour.

Hence the name for this year’s

event: a “super blood wolf Moon”.At the peak of the eclipse, and

if the night skies were clear of clouds, Venus and Jupiter would be shining brightly in the night sky.

Today at 0334 GMT, or 4.34am in France or 10.34pm in Quebec, the partial eclipse will begin as the moon passes into Earth’s shadow.

In the United States, the edge of the moon will begin to fall into shadow about 7.33pm on the West Coast and 10.33pm on the East Coast, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa).

From 0441 to 0543 GMT – for an hour and two minutes – the moon will be entirely in Earth’s shadow.

But the moon will not be invis-

ible: it will appear tinted in hues of red, orange and pink.

At 0651 GMT, the moon will be completely out of the Earth’s shadow.

Europe and West Africa will have a good view of the eclipse, but not all the way until the end.

Eastern Europe will see the beginning of totality, but not the end.

North Africa and West Africa should see the end of totality, but will miss the fi nal phases of the eclipse.

The entire eclipse should be visible in North America, Cen-tral America and South America, as well as France, Belgium and Spain.

That is, as long as the view is not obscured by clouds.

If conditions are cloudy where

you are, Nasa recommends checking out a live stream of the eclipse at https://www.timeand-date.com/live/

During a lunar eclipse, the moon appears red because the light of the sun no longer di-rectly illuminates it, since Earth is passing in between the moon and sun.

“The colour is due to Rayleigh scattering – where the sun’s blue light is scattered off molecules in Earth’s atmosphere – which also happens at sunsets,” explained the Royal Astronomical Society of Britain.

“The sun’s red light is scat-tered much less by air, and is bent by Earth’s atmosphere in a proc-ess called refraction, travelling all the way through it to light up the moon’s surface.”

Total or partial lunar eclipses happen at least twice a year on average, Florent Delefl ie, an as-tronomer at the Observatory of Paris-PSL told AFP.

It’s just that they are not vis-ible everywhere.

It’s a rare event when a total lu-nar eclipse is visible on so many parts of the Earth’s land mass, as is the case today.

Europeans last saw a total lu-nar eclipse in July 2018.

The next chance for a glimpse at a lunar eclipse will be in 2022.

However, the entire continent won’t be able to see the totality of a lunar eclipse again until years later, in 2029.

North Americans may get their next glimpse of a blood moon in 2021 along the West coast and 2022 on the East coast.

Unusual total lunar eclipse setto woo skywatchers overnightAFPWashington

This image taken on Saturday shows the full moon over Panama City.Overnight from Sunday to today, the first full moon of 2019, and the first lunar eclipse, would be visible.

Diocesesorry over students’conductAFPWashington

A US diocese has apologised and vowed to take ac-tion after videos emerged

showing boys from a Catholic private school mocking an eld-erly Native American man at a rally in the capital Washington, triggering widespread criticism.

The incident occurred on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Friday when the annual anti-abortion March for Life coin-cided with a rally by indigenous communities calling for their rights to be respected.

In footage captured on mul-tiple phone camera videos that swept social media on Saturday, a student from Covington Cath-olic High School in Kentucky wearing a Make America Great Again hat is seen smirking as he stands extremely close to Nath-an Phillips, a Native American Vietnam war veteran, who beats a drum while chanting.

Other teens, many also wear-ing clothing bearing President Donald Trump’s political slogan jeered, jumped and appeared to mock the man.

The Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School issued a statement rebuking the students after their displays drew widespread derision.

“We extend our deepest apol-ogies to Mr Phillips. This behav-iour is opposed to the church’s teachings on the dignity and re-spect of the human person. The matter is being investigated and we will take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.”

Kaya Taitano, a witness to the incident, was quoted by CNN as saying that Phillips had decided to intervene with a “healing prayer” when the school teens got into a verbal altercation with a group of African American youths who had been preaching about the Bible nearby.

An emotional Phillips gave his reaction in a separate video: “I heard them saying, ‘Build that wall, build that wall’. We’re not supposed to have walls here, we never did.

“I wish I could see that energy of that young mass of young men ... into making this country re-ally, really, great. Helping those that are hungry.”

AFPTaipei

Traditional medicine store owner Gu Cheng-pu knows her dispensary can

only stay open as long as her ail-ing father-in-law lives, their careers hostage to a quirk in Tai-wanese law that is killing off the industry.

At the back of her shop in New Taipei City, Gu tips a plate of freshly cut Chinese roots into a wok of boiling honey, the fi rst step in preparing one of her many traditional remedies.

“Chinese herbal medicine stores are a unique cultural icon,” the 36-year-old explains. “They are not just a place where you come when you are sick to pick up medicine.” But shops like hers are dying out — with some 200 closing their doors every year — even though traditional medi-cine remains wildly popular in Taiwan.

Authorities have not issued any new licenses since 1998 and those that exist cannot be passed down to younger generations.

Gu’s father-in-law is the li-

cence owner but he recently suf-fered a stroke and she now fears the worst. “If I am forced to close shop, the biggest regret for me other than losing our livelihood, is losing our tradition,” she la-ments.

The licence shortage stems from an attempt by authorities in the 1990s to better regulate the largely artisanal industry and bring traditional remedies into the purview of the professional medical community.

By refusing to issue new li-censes, authorities hoped pro-fessional doctors would off er traditional medicine options in a more regulated and scientifi c capacity.

“In Taiwan the simultane-ous use of Western and Chi-nese medicine among the public is very prevalent and we need trained medical personnel to make sure they don’t interact with harmful consequences,” Chen Pin-chi, division chief of Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy at the Health and Welfare Minis-try, told AFP.

“We initially hoped that pro-fessionally trained Chinese medicine doctors or pharmacists

might slowly take over the run-ning of Chinese herbal stores,” she added. But things did not turn out as planned.

The lower pay and profi ts struggled to attract young doc-tors and pharmacists while pa-

tients kept going to the mom-and-pop dispensaries they trusted. The average age of a traditional medicine store li-cence holder is now 61 while the number of remaining stores has halved in the last 20 years to just

7,900. Taiwan’s approach con-trasts with that of the China and Hong Kong where authorities have pushed policies to boost and export traditional medicine. According to the Compendium of Materia Medica, the 16th-

century text that is the lodestar for traditional practitioners, there are more than 1,500 diff er-ent kinds of herbs used in Chi-nese medicine.

The average store might stock between 200 and 500 herbs, roots, animal parts and minerals — 355 of which are classifi ed as medicine in Taiwan.

Traditional medicine also per-meates Taiwan’s cooking — the island’s signature beef noodle soup dish usually contains at least eight herbal ingredients — meaning ingredients are just as likely to go in the cooking pot as they are a tincture.

Lee Chia-ling, 42, has worked alongside her father in their fam-ily shop for more than 10 years, learning remedies from him. “It was very hard work in the begin-ning,” she said.

“You need to get your hands dirty. Sorting, washing, chop-ping and slicing, lots of work goes into processing raw herbs and roots ready for use.” she said. “And even now, I am still learn-ing new things from my father,” she added.

Her father Lee Ching-chang, 69, said it takes three to fi ve years

to learn to distinguish the basic ingredients and how they react with each other.

“This is very much a profes-sion where experience counts,” said the older Lee, who entered the trade when he was 15 years old. “If the government will not issue any new licences then the second generation cannot carry on with the shop,” he lamented.

The licence shortage has prompted protests on the streets of Taipei and the government is in talks with industry leaders to try to fi nd a way forward. “The Health and Welfare Ministry is well aware of the urgency of the matter and is actively trying to seek a solution,” Chen Ping-chi said.

“Hopefully we can come up with something soon that would allow Chinese herbal medicine shops to continue to be operated by the younger generation,” she added. Gu is painfully aware the last 20 years have produced no solution and fears a change to the law may come too late for her family. “If this situation contin-ues,” she warned, “there won’t be any Chinese herbal stores left in Taiwan.”

Man held for deadly cafe attack in DhakaAFPDhaka

Bangladesh has arrested a suspected extremist who supplied weapons and

explosives for a 2016 siege that killed 22 hostages, a top police offi cial said yesterday.

Eighteen foreigners were among those shot and hacked to death in the 10-hour standoff at the Holey Artisan Bakery, an upmarket cafe in Dhaka, before military commandos stormed the building and freed some two dozen other people.

Mamunur Rashid was a key “decision-maker” in Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned homegrown militant outfi t blamed for the attack. The 30-year-old was arrested while travelling on a bus outside the capital Dhaka, said Mufti Mah-mud Khan, a spokesman for the elite Rapid Action Battalion.

Rashid “supplied money, arms, ammunition and explo-

sives for the attack,” Khan told reporters. “He hid in a neigh-bouring country and tried to re-organise the group. They were

also planning to rescue their ac-complices from custody.”

A former computer operator and Islamic seminary student,

Rashid also provided logistical support to militants involved in several deadly attacks on re-ligious minorities in the coun-

try’s north, Khan said. A court in Dhaka last month put eight militants on trial over the cafe attack.

Khan said Rashid was one of the two men charged in absentia, while the other six were already in custody.

The Holey Artisan Bakery siege fuelled fears over violent groups in the Muslim-majority nation of 165mn people.

The government also launched a nationwide crackdown against extremists immediately after the attack, killing nearly 100 alleged extremists in gunfi ghts including several top JMB leaders.

The attack marked a violent escalation from a spate of high-profile murders in the coun-try since 2013, with extremists targeting Bangladeshi atheist writers, rights activists, gays, foreigners and religious mi-norities.

Bangladesh last week banned the release of a fi lm based on the cafe attack, saying it would tar-nish the country’s image.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) escort arrested suspected militant Mamunur Rashid (centre) in Dhaka yesterday.

Chinese acrobats and artists perform during the Sri Lanka-China Cultural Tourism Week in Colombo.

Chinese show in Sri Lanka

Australian rallies demand safe streets after student murderReutersMelbourne

Several thousand people marched through major Australian cities yester-

day calling for safety for wom-en after an Israeli exchange student was murdered in Mel-bourne.

The marches, part of the Women’s March rallies held around the world in support of women’s rights, gathered some 3,000 people in Sydney, who in their chants demanded safe streets for women in Austral-ian cities.

Aiia Maasarwe, 21, was killed when walking home after a night out with friends in Mel-bourne, Australia’s second-largest city, earlier this week. A 20-year-old man was charged with her murder.

Maasarwe’s death recharged outrage over violence against women after 22-year-old Eurydice Dixon was killed in Melbourne while walking home after performing at a comedy show in June.

Thousands of people gath-ered at vigils for Maasarwe on Friday and continued to lay

fl owers at the site of her death. A special tram carrying only fl owers late on Friday followed the route of Maasarwe’s fi nal journey.

In Sydney yesterday march-ers held signs paying tribute to Maasarwe and other victims of violence. Television news showed women carrying signs: “For Aiia and for those who suff er silently” and “I wanna walk through the park in the dark”.

“I don’t want my daughter to grow up in a world where she’s unsafe or she can’t pursue the opportunities she wants and I march for my son because I don’t want him to grow up in a world where toxic masculinity is acceptable,” said Samantha Nolan-Smith, one of several hundred protesters in the Aus-tralian capital Canberra, re-ported Australian Broadcast-ing Corp.

In reaction to Maasarwe’s death, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government would announce another “ac-tion plan” to stem violence against women ahead of an election expected by May, on top of A$350mn ($252mn) that has already been committed.

Wild elephant kills woman in Nepal

A wild elephant killed a woman outside her home near a wildlife reserve in south-eastern Nepal, local police said yesterday. The 53-year-old ventured out of her home, even after her neighbours alerted her about an elephant in the locality. The animal fatally trampled her as she tried to escape, said Rajendra Bista, a senior police

off icer of Saptari district in Nepal’s south-east. In the last three months, a man and two women have been killed by wild elephants coming from the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in the district. Under Nepalese law, the victim’s family is entitled to 1mn rupees ($8,800) in compensation for death by a wild animal.

Taiwan’s traditional medicine stores struggle on life support

Traditional medicine store owner Gu Cheng-pu behind the counter at the family’s Chinese herbal medicine store in New Taipei City.

‘World’s oldest man’ dies in Japan at 113AFPTokyo

“World’s oldest man” Ma-sazo Nonaka, who was born just two years after

the Wright brothers launched humanity’s fi rst powered fl ight,

died on yesterday aged 113, Japa-nese media said. Nonaka was born in July 1905, according to Guinness World Records — just months before Albert Einstein published his special theory of relativity. Guinness offi cially recognised Nonaka as the old-est living man after the death of

Spaniard Francisco Nunez Oliv-era last year. “We feel shocked at the loss of this big fi gure. He was as usual yesterday and passed away without causing our family any fuss at all,” his granddaughter Yuko told Kyodo News. Nonaka had six brothers and one sister, marrying in 1931

and fathering fi ve children. He ran a hot spring inn in his home-town and in retirement enjoyed watching sumo wrestling on TV and eating sweets, according to local media. Japan has one of the world’s highest life expectancies and was home to several people recognised as among the oldest

humans to have ever lived. They include Jiroemon Kimura, the longest-living man on record, who died soon after his 116th birthday in June 2013.

The oldest verifi ed person ever — Jeanne Louise Calment of France — died in 1997 at the age of 122, according to Guinness.

ASIA/AUSTRALASIA11Gulf Times

Monday, January 21, 2019

BRITAIN/IRELAND

Gulf Times Monday, January 21, 201912

Prince Philipback to drivingwithout seatbeltAgenciesLondon

Prince Philip has been spo-ken to by the police for driving without a seat-

belt — just two days after the 97-year-old was involved in a car crash.

Images published in Sunday newspapers appeared to show him behind the wheel of a re-placement Land Rover Freeland-er on his wife Queen Elizabeth II’s private Sandringham estate on Saturday.

A Norfolk Constabulary spokeswoman said the force was aware of the photographs and that “suitable words of advice have been given to the driver”.

The advice was “in line with our standard response when be-ing made aware of such images showing this type of off ence.”

Meanwhile, a woman who broke her wrist in Thursday’s crash near the royal country residence in Norfolk, eastern England, has reportedly com-plained about not receiving an apology from the prince even though she could have been killed.

Emma Fairweather, 46, was a passenger in her unnamed friend’s Kia, along with her friend’s nine-month-old baby, when the collision with the Duke of Edinburgh’s car occurred as he pulled out on to the A149 near the Queen’s Norfolk estate.

The baby was unhurt and Fair-weather’s friend received minor injuries. Buckingham Palace said Philip, 97, went to the local hos-pital but was found to have no injuries of concern.

Palace offi cials said contact had been made privately and “well wishes exchanged” but,

in an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Fairweather said she had not received anything resem-bling an apology.

“I love the royals but I’ve been ignored and rejected and I’m in a lot of pain,” the mother-of-two from King’s Lynn, Norfolk, said.

“It would mean the world to me if Prince Philip said sorry but I have no idea if he’s sorry at all. What would it have taken for him and the Queen to send me a card and a bunch of fl owers?”

She said she had only had a cryptic message passed on via a police family liaison offi cer, which said: “The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh would like to be remembered to you.”

Fairweather believes all par-ties were saved from more seri-ous injury by the fact that her friend was driving at no more than 50mph, 10 miles below the speed limit.

“We could see the Land Rover about 150 yards from us at a junc-tion, then it started to move,” she said. “I kept thinking he was go-ing to stop but he didn’t … My friend was braking and seemed so in control but I was terrifi ed.”

She said she was panicking after the incident as everyone fl ocked towards the other car and she feared she would be for-gotten. She said she repeatedly screamed: “Get the baby out.”

Fairweather said she knew straight away that her wrist was broken but feels that reporting of the accident has downplayed her suff ering by describing her inju-ries as minor.

She said that while the talk had focused on Philip’s loss of independence, she had lost hers as she had been signed off from her new job as a support worker for care leavers for two months and her teenage son was having to help her wash and dress.

Buckingham Palace said: “A full message of support was sent to both the driver and the passenger.” Philip allegedly told onlookers that he was daz-zled by the sun but Fairweather cast doubt on his explanation, claiming it was cloudy at the time.

Do not hijack Brexit,Fox warns parliamentReutersLondon

The parliament cannot be allowed to hijack Brexit, Trade Minister Liam Fox

said yesterday, in a warning to lawmakers who want to take more control over Britain’s de-parture from the European Un-ion.

With just weeks to go before Britain is due to leave the EU, Prime Minister Theresa May will return to parliament today to set out how she plans to try to break the Brexit deadlock after her deal was rejected by lawmakers last week.

Time is running out for Brexit, Britain’s biggest shift in foreign and trade policy in more than 40 years, but so far there is little

that unites a divided parliament beyond its rejection of May’s deal that envisages close eco-nomic ties with the EU.

The Labour Party is pressing for a new election and for May to rule out the possibility of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, while others in parliament are lobbying for any-thing from a second referendum to leaving without an agree-ment.

Fox, a Brexit supporter, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that May’s divorce agreement with the EU was still the best basis for a deal and warned law-makers against trying to take more control of Britain’s depar-ture.

“Parliament has not got the right to hijack the Brexit proc-ess because parliament said to the people of this country: ‘we

make a contract with you, you will make the decision and we will honour it’,” Fox said.

“What we are now getting are some of those who were always absolutely opposed to the result of the referendum trying to hi-jack Brexit and in eff ect steal the result from the people.”

Britain voted with a 52% ma-jority to leave the EU in a 2016 referendum that exposed deep divisions across the country, divisions that still split cities and towns, and the country’s parliament, almost three years on.

After seeing her deal rejected by more than 200 lawmakers last week, May has opened talks with other parties to try to fi nd a way to break the deadlock.

But with Labour refusing to take part until May rules out

leaving without a deal, some lawmakers fear those talks will change little and instead have said they will launch attempts next week to force the govern-ment to change course.

Several are trying to make sure Britain does not “accidentally” leave without a deal on March 29, a scenario some businesses say would be catastrophic for the economy.

“What happens when you have a hung parliament is that power does pass from govern-ment...to parliament and that’s what we are seeing play out,” Nicky Morgan, a Conservative former minister, told Sky News.

She said she was backing a bill that would force the government to extend Article 50, which trig-gered Britain’s two-year talks to leave the EU, if it cannot get an

agreement approved by parlia-ment by the end of February.

Dominic Grieve, another Conservative lawmaker, is also looking at ways to stop Britain from leaving without a deal.

With much of the focus now on Labour, its Brexit spokes-man Keir Starmer said there was now only really two options that could fi nd majority support — a future close economic relation-ship with the EU or a second ref-erendum — and that it was in-creasingly inevitable that Article 50 would be extended. “We’ve arrived at phase three and there-fore we need to be realistic about what the options are,” Starmer told the BBC. “Let’s...reduce it to the options that are at least capable of getting a majority and that is a close economic rela-tionship and a public vote.”

Two arrested overN Ireland car bombGuardian News and MediaLondonderry, Northern Ireland

Police in Northern Ireland have arrested two men in connection with Saturday

night’s car bomb in Derry city.The suspects, both in their

20s, were detained early yester-day after what police called an “unbelievably reckless” attack outside a courthouse in the heart of the city.

The New IRA, a dissident re-publican group, was the main line of inquiry, the assistant chief constable Mark Hamilton told a media briefi ng near the scene.

Police said they received an approximate 10-minute warn-ing before the bomb exploded outside a courthouse on Bishop Street at 8.10pm, giving limited time to evacuate hundreds of people from a nearby hotel, the Freemasons’ hall, youth club and other sites. There were no casu-alties.

A pizza delivery vehicle hi-jacked a short time earlier is be-lieved to have been used in the attack. Witnesses said they heard

a loud bang and saw a large plume of smoke.

A police forensics team was examining the scene yesterday, with cordons sealing off access to the charred wreckage of the vehicle.

“At around 7.55pm on Saturday night offi cers on patrol in Bishop Street spotted a suspicious ve-hicle and were making checks when, around fi ve minutes later, information was received that a device had been left at the court-house,” Hamilton said in a state-ment released earlier yesterday.

“We moved immediately to begin evacuating people from nearby buildings, including hun-dreds of hotel guests, 150 peo-ple from the Masonic Hall and a large number of children from a church youth club. The device detonated at 8.10pm.”

The attackers failed to kill or injure anyone, said Hamilton. “The people responsible for this attack have shown no regard for the community or local business-es. They care little about the dam-age to the area and the disruption they have caused,” he added.

No one claimed responsibility

but suspicion fell on dissident Irish republicans opposed to the peace process.

A spate of bomb attacks in Derry in 2015, including a device found under a police offi cer’s car, was blamed on dissident republi-cans. They caused no casualties.

The Northern Ireland Secre-tary, Karen Bradley, expressed concern and urged anyone with information about the attack to contact the police or Crimestop-pers.

Bradley said: “This attempt to disrupt progress in North-ern Ireland has rightly been met with utter condemnation from all parts of the community. The small number of people respon-sible have absolutely nothing to off er Northern Ireland’s future and will not prevail.

“Our voices across the po-litical spectrum are united. This is intolerable violence and we want to look forward and build a peaceful future for all in North-ern Ireland. ” Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, said the attack was an attempt to drag Northern Ireland back into vio-lence and confl ict.

Man, 18, chargedover boy’s murderGuardian News and MediaLondon

Police have charged an 18-year-old man on suspi-cion of the murder of Jaden

Moodie, who was knocked off a moped and stabbed to death in a targeted attack in east London.

Ayoub Majdouline, of no fi xed address but from the Wembley area, will appear at Thames magistrates court today.

Earlier, offi cers said they were committed to hunting down a number of other individuals who they believe were also involved in killing the 14-year-old.

Detectives believe fi ve men were in the black Mercedes that rammed into Jaden in Leyton on January 8, and that three of them stabbed the schoolboy before driving off . Scotland Yard has said Jaden was killed in a frenzied attack lasting 30 seconds, suf-fering at least eight stab wounds infl icted by three male suspects.

Detective chief inspector Chris Soole, from the Met’s homicide and major crime command, who is leading the investigation, said before the suspect was charged: “Although one man has been ar-rested in connection with this

murder, we remain fully focused on locating and arresting others connected to this deadly attack.

“We have a number of inquir-ies that we are pursuing. How-ever, we cannot solve this alone – we need the public to help us.” The savagery of the attack on Jaden, which police say was “targeted”, made the murder stand out among recent homi-cides, according to investigating offi cers.

Last week police revealed there were fi ve people in the Mercedes and all could be culpa-ble of murder, not just the three who stabbed Jaden. Soole said one line of inquiry was that the suspects were connected to the supply of drugs.

The attack happened in an area with a large number of pe-destrians and vehicles passing by, and not all the witnesses have come forward.

Soole said people should tell detectives what they knew, no matter how trivial they might think their information might be. He said anyone who wit-nessed the attack – at 6.30pm on Bickley Road – or had informa-tion about the suspects should not fear passing information to police.

A police forensic off icer inspects the aftermath of a suspected car bomb explosion in Derry, Northern Ireland, yesterday.

Shadow secretary of state for exiting the European Union, Keir Starmer, former secretary of state for exiting the European Union, Dominic Raab, chair of the Brexit select committee Hilary Benn, and pro-EU lawmaker Anna Soubry appear on BBC TV’s The Andrew Marr Show in London yesterday.

HSBC tells Welsh customer not to complain in ‘foreign’ languageGuardian News and MediaLondon

A major bank told a cus-tomer who wrote to it in Welsh to complain that

some services were not available in her language that she should communicate with it in English rather than a “foreign” tongue.

Nia Lloyd, a classroom as-

sistant from Wrexham in north Wales, wrote to HSBC pointing out that online services were not available in Welsh.

Customer support replied that her message was in a “foreign” language and asked her to resend it in English. Both Welsh and English are offi cial languages in Wales.

Lloyd said: “I was shocked that they would respond to my com-

plaint in that way. I thought the bank would have more respect for the Welsh language. They should celebrate all the beautiful cultures and languages of the world.”

The Welsh-language cam-paign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith criticised the bank’s reply. A spokesperson for the group, Tamsin Davies, said: “These comments are insulting, but un-fortunately not unexpected; af-

ter all, banks are disrespecting Welsh speakers every day. There isn’t a single bank that provides online banking in Welsh.”

Lloyd is one of hundreds of people who have written to banks about the lack of online serv-ices in Welsh, Davies said. “We believe people in Wales should have the right to live their lives in Welsh,” she added

Lloyd wrote to HSBC: “I would

like to complain about the fact that your online banking services are not available in Welsh. I, like a large number of other custom-ers, want to be able to bank online in Welsh. With fewer and fewer services provided in branches, and increasing demand for on-line banking services, I believe that you should provide com-plete services in Welsh online. That includes providing an on-

line banking interface that works fully in Welsh. I look forward to hearing your response to this.”

A customer support worker wrote back: “I notice that we have received the message in (a) foreign language. I request you to kindly send the message in Eng-lish and we will be glad to assist you further. I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to you.”

Lloyd replied (in English): “I am based in Wrecsam, Wales, and our language is Welsh, there-fore not foreign in my country.” The bank then did reply in Welsh and said the request should have been forwarded to the Welsh de-partment.

An HSBC spokesman said: “We apologise for any off ence this may have caused Lloyd, that was not our intention.”

“It would mean the world to me if Prince Philip said sorry but I have no idea if he’s sorry at all. What would it have taken for him and the Queen to send me a card and a bunch of flowers?”

EUROPE13Gulf Times

Monday, January 21, 2019

Diggers trying to reach a two-year-old boy who fell into a deep well in south-

ern Spain a week ago saw their progress slowed by harder rock yesterday, though experts still held out hope that he could still be alive.

There has been no contact with Julen Rosello since he fell down the narrow shaft, some

100m (350’) deep, on January 13 while playing as his parents pre-pared a picnic nearby in the town of Totalan near Malaga.

After abandoning an initial plan to reach the boy with an an-gled tunnel because of repeated collapses and landslides, workers turned to a plan to drill a vertical shaft parallel to the well.

But the new eff ort slowed as diggers hit hard granite.

They have so far bored down some 40m, local Canal Sur tel-evision reported.

When they reach a depth of 60m, a team of eight expert min-ers will be lowered down the shaft to start digging a horizontal tunnel to the location where they believe the toddler is.

The authorities are “doing everything that is humanly pos-sible” to rescue the boy, Juanma Moreno, president of the regional government of Andalusia, told reporters.

“But the circumstances are not helping. I hope and trust that tomorrow, Monday, we will

have some positive news. But it will depend on the nature of the ground,” he added.

Rescuers used probes to ex-plore the bottom of the well that came back with strands of hair matching the child’s DNA, as well as a bag of sweets that he was carrying when he went missing, providing confi rmation that he is down the hole.

Experts told Spanish media that there are slim chances that Julen could still be alive, explain-ing that cold weather slows a

body’s metabolism, so it needs less energy and can survive with abnormally low breathing and blood fl ow.

“The cold has a double edge. On the one hand it’s negative, because it can cause multiple consequences.

“But in this case we all hope for its better outcome: with it you gain time to survive because at lower temperatures the human metabolism slows and tissues are preserved,” Ivan Carabano, a paediatrician at Madrid’s Hospi-

tal 12 de Octubre, told the El Pais daily.

There have been cases simi-lar to Julen’s in which a person survived 10 days in a semi-con-scious state that needed less oxy-gen, the head of the Andalusian Federation of Speleogy, Jose An-tonio Berrocal, told reporters in Totalan last week.

Spanish media, which have been covering the rescue opera-tions round-the-clock, have re-ported that Julen’s parents lost another child, aged three, in 2017.

The child had cardiac issues.The well was unmarked at the

time of the accident and regional authorities in Andalusia said the necessary permission had not been sought before it was dug.

This race against time recalls other high-profi le cases.

Alfredo Rampi, an Italian boy, was found dead in a well near Rome in 1981 while Jessica Mc-Clure, an 18-month-old girl, was rescued alive from a well in Texas in October 1987 after more than two days inside.

Spanish diggers struggle to reach boy who fell in wellAFPMadrid

Clashes between police and a group of masked protesters left several

injured in Athens yesterday as tens of thousands demonstrated against a name change deal with neighbouring Macedonia that the Greek parliament is due to ratify in days.

The violence fl ared as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras attempts to face down a political storm over his championing of a landmark agreement with Mac-edonia aimed at ending a 27-year dispute with Athens over the country’s name.

Police estimates put the number of demonstrators at 60,000 at 1200 GMT, while or-ganisers said 100,000 people had arrived for the rally, with hundreds of buses bringing demonstrators, especially from the region of northern Greece that also claims the Macedonia name.

Ten police were injured in the protests, according to the Greek citizens’ protection ministry, while a fi rst aid station said two protesters were hospitalised with breathing diffi culties.

Scuffl es broke out after about 30 masked youths tried to force the closure of the parliament building, throwing stones and other projectiles.

Riot police responded with volleys of tear gas, dispersing the crowd outside the legislature.

The masked youths then set upon journalists at the scene, smashing the equipment of photographers and cameramen, according to an AFP reporter.

According to the government “the incidents were provoked by extremists, members of the Golden Dawn, who attempted to enter parliament”.

“They attacked police with bits of wood and clubs, send-ing dozens of wounded to the hospital,” said a statement from Tsipras.

A wide range of Greek political parties, from the far-right Gold-en Dawn to the Socialists, op-pose the accord to rename Mac-

edonia the Republic of North Macedonia.

The accord, signed by the two governments, unblocks the ex-Yugoslav republic’s desire to join the North Atlantic Treaty Or-ganisation (Nato) and the Euro-pean Union once it is ratifi ed by Greece’s parliament.

However, it could nonetheless be approved by the required 151 deputies in the 300-seat parlia-ment in the coming days.

Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has sought to ac-celerate the country’s bid to join the EU and Nato and to work on resolving the decades-old name dispute with Greece.

Greece had agreed that un-til the name dispute is resolved, its northern neighbour, with a population of about 2mn, could be referred to internationally as “FYROM” – Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

That is the name under which it was admitted to the United Nations in 1993.

Flag-waving demonstrators had created a sea of blue and white on Syntagma square near the parliament, while much of the city centre was closed to traffi c and some metro stations shut as a precaution.

“There is only one Macedo-nia, the Greek Macedonia,” read a sign in Greek and English held by Christina Gerodimoun, in her 30s, at the protests.

“This government is a gov-ernment of traitors,” she said in reference to a coalition led by Tsipras, who brokered the deal with Macedonian counterpart Zaev in June.

“We cannot stomach this deal, to give away our Macedonia, our history,” said pensioner Amalia Savrami, 67, as she waved a large Greek fl ag on Athens’s Syntagma Square. “Macedonia is Greek, period.”

Macedonia declared inde-pendence in 1991, avoiding the violence that accompanied much of the break-up of Yugo-slavia.

Many Greeks believe the name Macedonia implies a territorial claim over their country’s own northern region of that name.

For most Greeks, Macedonia

is the name of their history-rich northern province made famous by Alexander the Great’s con-quests.

The crowd was monitored by nearly 2,000 police, equipped with drones and helicopters, a police source said.

Macedonia’s parliament ap-proved a constitutional revision to change the country’s name 10 days ago.

However, for the deal between the two leaders to go through, the change must also be ap-proved by Greek lawmakers.

Tsipras termed the agreement a “historic step” towards nor-

malising relations between the two countries.

He urged “progressive forces” to support the name change, in an interview with Avgi, a daily published by his Syriza party.

Tsipras’s ruling coalition fell apart over the deal a week ago, but he then narrowly won a vote of confi dence, setting the stage for parliament to vote on its rati-fi cation.

Although political parties did not offi cially take part in the demonstration, a number of legislators turned up to express their individual positions, and Golden Dawn’s website urged

party members to attend.“I came out of patriotic duty,”

conservative representative Fotini Arabatzi from the north-ern district of Serres told Skai radio.

Former Greek premier An-tonis Samaras said the protest was “a demonstration for de-mocracy, for Greece and for our rights”.

Settling the issue would be hailed as a success by Tsipras, whose left-right coalition came to power in 2015.

“The Prespes accord is a his-toric step not only for the two countries and the broader re-

gion, but for Europe as a whole. It cements relations of friend-ship, co-operation and stabil-ity,” Tsipras told yesterday’s Avgi newspaper.

United Nations diplomat Matthew Nimetz, who has me-diated talks between the two countries, said he looked for-ward to Greece’s ratifi cation of the accord after FYROM deliv-ered on related constitutional amendments.

“As in the past, the UN re-mains committed to working with the two parties in fi nally resolving the diff erence between them,” he said in a statement.

Clashes at Athens rally over Macedonia accordAFP/ReutersAthens

Protesters clash with riot police near the Greek parliament in Athens during a demonstration against the agreement with Skopje to rename Macedonia as the Republic of North Macedonia.

Pope Francis has invited Catholics to pray with him online as he unveiled

his own profi le on the “Click to Pray” app, the offi cial app of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Net-work, a statement from the Vati-can said.

He swiped a tablet on Sunday to launch a new app allowing the faithful to pray with him, and expressed his pain over the car bomb blast in Colombia and the latest Mediterranean migrant tragedy.

He presented the Vatican’s latest digital platform, known as the Worldwide Network of Prayer with the Pope, during his traditional Sunday address to tens of thousands of people in Saint Peter’s Square.

The new app, called Click to Pray, will inform the user what the leader of the world’s 1.3bn Roman Catholics is praying for, such as world peace or the popu-

lation of a country hit by a natu-ral disaster, so they can join him.

With the help of an aide hold-ing up a touchscreen tablet, Francis, 82, made a show of us-ing the app.

“Here I will put in ... requests for prayers for the church’s mis-sion,” he said.

Francis, who once said he was a “disaster” with technology, turned to the priest holding the

tablet for him and asked “Did I do it?”

The priest nodded.By clicking on the “Pray with

the Pope” section of the mobile app or website, Catholics can

see the Pope’s monthly prayer intentions, while the “Pray with the network” section is “a space where users (Pope Fran-cis among them) can share their prayers with others”, the Vatican said.

The goal is a platform to allow people “to accompany the Pope in a mission of compassion for the world”.

“Internet and the social net-works are a resource of our time, a way to stay in touch with oth-ers, to share values and projects, and to express the desire to form a community,” the Pope.

Minutes earlier, Francis told the crowd: “Today, I have two pains in my heart. Colombia and the Mediterranean.”

“I am thinking of the 170 vic-tims in the Mediterranean. They were looking for a future for their lives and perhaps they were victims of human traffi ckers. Let us pray for them and for those who are responsible for what happened,” he said.

The migrants were believed to have been lost in the Mediterra-

nean in two incidents involving dinghies that left from Libya and Morocco.

Speaking of Colombia, he called the car bomb at a police academy on Thursday that killed at least 21 and injured dozens “a terrorist attack”.

Colombia’s President Ivan Duque said the rebel group ELN was responsible.

Alongside the Click to Pray profi le, the Pontiff has his own Twitter and Instagram accounts – though the 82-year-old has cautioned repeatedly about the danger of social media use caus-ing a decline in real human inter-action.

Pope Francis will make his fi rst trip to Panama on Wednes-day for the gathering of more than 150,000 young Catholics from across the globe at the World Youth Day festival.

Launched in 2016, Click to Pray is available in Spanish, English, Italian, French, Portu-guese and German, has mobile apps for Android and iOS and is present on social media.

Pope Francis invites Catholics to pray with him via appDPA/Reuters/AFPVatican City/Rome

Pope Francis waves after inviting the faithful to download the ‘Click to Pray’ app, from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican.

Denmark conductscitizenship event withmandatory handshake

ReutersCopenhagen

Afghan-born Sakandar Khan, 30, was among the fi rst nine new Danish

citizens who shook hands with Denmark’s immigration minis-ter under a new law that makes a handshake the fi nal step in the naturalisation process.

“This is a huge thing for me. I am thrilled,” the former practis-ing Muslim dressed in shirt and tie said with a smile.

For Khan, who fl ed Afghani-stan with his family in 2001, shaking the hand of the minister, who happens to be female, was not a problem.

However, the law has been criticised for breaching freedom of religion, as some observant Muslims and Jews avoid touch-ing unrelated members of the opposite sex.

The government says the handshake is an important part of Danish culture and values, and no one who refuses can be Danish.

“If you don’t shake hands, you don’t understand what it means to be Danish, because in Den-mark we have equality and that is something generations before us fought to achieve,” said Immi-gration Minister Inger Stojberg, who led the fi rst ceremony.

The handshake ceremony will be performed by mayors and deputy mayors of the munici-palities where immigrants live.

Not all of them are pleased.“When you can be rejected

because of a handshake we may have gone too far,” Thomas An-dresen, mayor of the town of Aa-benraa, told Danish broadcaster DR.

Danes pride themselves on their ‘hygge’ – a word roughly meaning “to be cosy” – on being among the happiest people in the world and on their progres-sive laws, such as the legalisation of pornography in 1969, long be-fore most of Europe.

But increasingly they are also becoming known for taking an ever harder line against immi-gration in the historically toler-ant Nordic region.

Stojberg’s Liberal Party is part of a three-party minority gov-ernment that depends on the anti-immigration Danish Peo-ple’s Party to pass laws.

Two dead in ski resort fireTwo people died yesterday and 25 more were injured, four seriously, in a fire at the ski resort of Courchevel in the French Alps, off icials said.The pre-dawn blaze forced the evacuation of some 60 resort workers, including foreigners, from a three-storey accommodation building.Firefighters found the two unidentified bodies in a burnt-out area of the building in the upmarket Courchevel 1850 ski station.Three of the four badly injured were flown to hospital by helicopter, the local off icials said.The cause of the fire was not immediately known.The blaze had already devoured the top two floors of the building by the time firefighters arrived, fire service spokesman Emmanuel Clavaud said.

BRITAIN14 Gulf Times

Monday, January 21, 2019

INDIA

Jailed Sasikala givenpreferential treatmentIANS Bengaluru

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (AIADM) jailed leader V

K Sasikala had received prefer-ential treatment in Bengaluru Central Jail, including spe-cially cooked food and access to special cells, a probe report revealed.

“Through the evidence, we get a clear indication of some food cooking activity in the group of fi ve cells made avail-able to Sasikala,” noted the report of inquiry panel led by retired IAS Vinay Kumar.

Though the report was al-legedly submitted to the Kar-nataka government in 2017, its fi ndings were made public only now.

Karnataka’s woman Indian Police Service (IPS) offi cer D Roopa Moudgil, then deputy inspector general (DIG) (pris-ons), through a report in 2017 fi rst exposed the favours and alleged that special treatment was given to Sasikala in Ben-galuru central prison.

Sasikala is serving a four-year sentence since Febru-ary 2017 after the Supreme Court upheld her conviction in a corruption case by a trial court in Bengaluru in Septem-ber 2015.

“My report was not ac-cepted by the government, and instead I was transferred from the post. The independ-ent inquiry panel’s report, led by Vinay Kumar, is in line with my findings,” Moudgil said here.

“I stand vindicated as the panel’s report also says there were serious lapses,” she said.

After submitting her re-port, Moudgil was transferred by then Congress-led state government as the DIG com-missioner for traffi c and road safety, Bengaluru.

Class-A facilities were given to Sasikala, indicating “laps-es”, the independent probe re-port noted.

Questioned about the re-port, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara refused to comment on the issue, saying he was “not aware”.

Sabarimala women visitorlist to be revised after rowIANSThiruvananthapuram

Stung by widespread criti-cism over the numerous errors in the list of women

who visited the Sabrimala tem-ple, the Kerala government has decided to re-prepare the list.

A state government counsel had presented the list in the Su-preme Court on Friday, which reportedly had discrepancies in the age and names of wom-en. The list was taken from the records of the online system, through which visitors register to visit Sabrimala.

The row erupted after fl aws in the actual age of some of the 51 women, whom the coun-sel had referred to in the list as “banned” – on account of them being in the 10- to 50-year age group – who visited the temple.

State police chief Loknath Be-hera on Saturday ordered senior offi cials to revise the list which even included even names of men. Besides, several of the women were above 50 of years of age.

State Devasom (temples) Min-ister Kadakampally Surendran told the media his department had no role in the preparation of the list, while the president of the Travancore Devasom Board, A Padmakumar, said they were not responsible for the list as they do not prepare the statistics of the visitors to Sabrimala.

Kanam Rajendran, state sec-retary of the Communist Party of India – the second biggest ally of the ruling Pinarayi Vijayan government, said the entire re-sponsibility for the fi asco lies with the state government.

However, Industries Minister E P Jayarajan, the closest aide of Vijayan, defended the chief min-ister saying it was not just 51, but many more women had visited the temple.

Kanaka Durga and Bindu Am-mini, both in the “banned” age group of 10 to 50 years, visited the Sabarimala temple sparking clashes across the state.

“The goof-up reveals the ab-ject failure of the way Vijayan is running the state,” said state BJP president P S Sreedharan Pillai.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Hindu traditionalists staged a huge march in the Kerala capital yesterday protesting the state facilitating the entry of young women to Sabarimala temple.

The march also saw Mata Am-ritanandamayi Devi, the hugging saint, jumping on the bandwag-on of some 200 groups repre-senting the caste matrix.

“Temples are pillars of our civili-sation,” she said while inaugurating the rally organised by the Sabar-imala Karma Samithi, or action forum. “If customs are fl outed, our culture will suff er,” she added. At a conference held after the march, organisers read out messages of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and other Hindu leaders supporting their cause.

Addressing the gathering, former state police chief T P Senkumar said the government did not present the case in the apex court accurately.

Organisers claimed more than 200,000 people attended the show of strength and took a vow to defeat any attempts to dilute the age-old customs and tradi-tions of the temple.

PNB offi cials‘sacked forlapses leading to $2bn fraud’ReutersNew Delhi

The government has sacked two executives of state-run Punjab National Bank

for allegedly failing to prevent a $2bn fraud, two sources said yesterday, nearly a year after the country’s biggest bank scam came to light and also dragged the government into the contro-versy.

The fi ring of the two execu-tive directors, whom the federal police have accused of breach-ing central bank guidelines, is the fi rst instance of sacking of the bank’s employees since it said that billionaire diamond jeweller Nirav Modi and his un-cle had for years fraudulently raised billions of dollars in for-eign credit by conspiring with staff at the bank.

Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, who left India before the fraud was discovered, have de-nied the accusations.

In a stock exchange fi ling late on Friday, the country’s second-biggest state bank said the gov-ernment had removed K Veera Brahmaji Rao and Sanjiv Sharan “from the offi ce of executive di-rector” with immediate eff ect.

The fi ling did not give a rea-son.

The government then fi red them because “they failed to use global payments network SWIFT to detect the fraud”, a bank source said.

The sources who had direct knowledge of the matter de-clined to be identifi ed because the reasons for the sacking have not been made public.

“They were not able to super-vise and there was dereliction of duty on their part,” said one of the sources, a government of-fi cial.

Phone calls to PNB chief ex-ecutive Sunil Mehta as well as

to Rao and Sharan went unan-swered.

The 124-year-old bank has in recent months reinstated most of the 21 employees who were suspended immediately after the scam became public because they were not charged by police.

The authorities have issued non-bailable warrants against both Modi and Choksi and Inter-pol red notices are out too, but their continued evading of the law is being used by the main op-position Congress party to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the lead up to a general election due by May.

“Your money, money of our tribal brothers, lower castes, farmers was taken away and you did not even realise,” Congress president Rahul Gandhi said in a state election rally late last year. “Nirav Modi fl ed after taking the money, Mehul Choksi also fl ed with him.”

The BJP, meanwhile, says the fraud began when Congress was in power. Investigations into the case had been slowed by a public spat between the top-two of-fi cials in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), said a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

A CBI spokesman did not have an immediate comment on the matter.

The enforcement directo-rate (ED), which fi ghts fi nancial crime, has seized assets worth millions of dollars of both jewel-lers.

A senior ED investigator told Reuters late last year that they were confi dent both Modi and Choksi would be brought back to the country “soon”. He said the Indian embassies in the UK, where Modi is believed to be in, and the one in Antigua, where Choksi is, were in constant touch with authorities with informa-tion about them.

Participants run along the Bandra-Worli sea link over the Arabian Sea during Tata Mumbai Marathon, in Mumbai, yesterday.

Tata Mumbai Marathon

Opposition alliance ‘is agrouping of corrupt’: PMIANSNew Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday hit out at opposition parties,

terming the ‘mahagatbandhan’ (grand alliance) a grouping of corrupt, negativity and insta-bility and accusing them of misleading the people.

“This alliance is a unique bond. It is the bond of ‘namdars’ (privi-leged), bond of nepotism, bond of corruption and scandals, bond of negativity and bond of instability and inequality,” Modi said.

The prime minister’s remarks came during his interaction with booth level BJP workers from the Lok Sabha constituen-

cies of Hatkanangale, Kolhapur, Madha and Satara in Maharash-tra and south Goa.

“They have an alliance of parties while we have an alli-ance with 1.3bn Indians. We are dedicated to the dreams and as-piration of people while they are trying to promote their sons and daughters. They have the money power and we have the people’s power... They are busy in saving their families while we are work-ing to save the nation,” he said.

Modi slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Ban-erjee, saying the party which was involved in largescale vio-lence even in panchayat (village council) polls in the state was now talking about saving de-mocracy in the country.

“If someone fi les nomination against them even in panchayat polls, they indulge in violence and murder. Today they are talking about saving democra-cy. It is ironical that those par-ties that do not have an iota of democracy within themselves are now forming alliances to tell people about the state of de-mocracy in the country,” Modi said without taking any name.

He also took a jibe at former Janata Dal-United leader Shar-ad Yadav for his Bofors “faux pas” at the opposition rally.

“In Kolkata, the opposition parties were talking about sav-ing the country and democracy. A leader reminded us about the Bofors scandal from the same platform,” he said.

While attacking the Modi government on the Rafale jet deal, Yadav erred by taking the name of Bofors in place of Rafale.

Modi’s attack come a day af-ter 23 political parties, includ-

ing the Congress, came together at a mega rally organised by Tri-namool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and vowed to oust the prime minister in the coming general elections.

Facing condemnation from political opponents and the National Commission for Women (NCW) taking cognisance of the issue, BJP legislator Sadhana Singh yesterday apologised for her disparaging remarks against Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati. Singh, who represents Mughalsarai in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, at a rally on Saturday had called Mayawati “worse than a transgender” and accused her of being an “opportunist” for aligning with once arch rival Samajwadi Party (SP). Singh issued a statement saying she did not intend to insult anyone. Besides the NCW issuing a notice seeking her explanation, Singh came under intense attack from the opposition, including the Congress and SP.

Karnataka Congress legislator Anand Singh was hospitalised yesterday after an alleged brawl with other party MLAs while staying at a resort in Bengaluru, a party leader said. “Singh was taken to hospital after there was a friendly fight between few MLAs at the resort. Everything is all right and Anand is resting at the hospital,” state’s Food and Civil Supplies Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan said. Singh is a legislator from Vijayanagara Assembly segment in Ballari district. He was shifted to a private hospital in the city centre. Details of the attack were, however, not disclosed by the party. Earlier, party leaders, including D K Shivakumar, denied any such attack on Singh.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Balewadi Mandal (block) chief Manoj Thakre was found dead in Barwani, Madhya Pradesh, yesterday. He may have been murdered, police said. Thakre had left his house at around 5am yesterday for a morning walk. His body was recovered later from a nearby farm. It is believed that he was attacked with stones as his body was covered in blood, police said. According to State Home Minister Bala Bachchan, a close relative of the victim may be behind the attack. Earlier, police had named BJP leader Manish Bairagi to be behind the murder of Mandsaur Municipal Corporation chairman and BJP leader Prahlad Bandhwar who died on January 17.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M K Stalin yesterday said opposition leaders who participated in the anti-BJP meet in Kolkata on Saturday did not question him for announcing Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate. Speaking at an event in Chennai, Stalin said the political situation in different states varied. He said the party leaders in Kolkata were of the view that they would voice their view on the prime ministerial candidate post the Lok Sabha elections. According to Stalin, none of the party leaders said he was wrong in announcing Rahul’s name as the prime ministerial candidate.

An unidentified man was mauled to death yesterday afternoon at the lion safari of the Chhatbir Zoo in Punjab’s Mohali district, around 20km from Chandigarh. Zoo officials said the victim, believed to be around 25 years old, was spotted by drivers of the buses that ferry tourists inside the lion safari. There were four lions in the lion safari at the time of the incident. The victim was attacked for around 10 minutes by two lions. Zoo officials said they were trying to ascertain how the man scaled the 12-ft-high wall of the safari enclosure. There is a barbed wire fencing on top of the wall. The lion safari has been closed for the time following yesterday’s incident.

Politician apologisesfor Mayawati remarks

Legislator hospitalised after fight with other MLAs

BJP leader out ona walk found dead

No wrong in proposingRahul for PM, says Stalin

Man mauled to deathinside Punjab zoo

CONTROVERSY ATTACKCRIME COMMENT WILDLIFE

India ‘to be free of Modi tyranny in 100 days’Hitting back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ridiculing the proposed grand alliance of opposition parties, Congress President Rahul Gandhi yesterday asserted the country in the next 100 days the nation will be free of his “tyranny and incompetence”. “Your Highness, the cries for help are the cries of millions of unemployed youth; of farmers in distress; of

oppressed Dalits and Adivasis; of persecuted minorities; of small businessmen in ruin; begging to be freed from your tyranny & incompetence. “In 100 days they will be free,” tweeted Gandhi in response to Modi assertions that the ‘mahagathbandhan’ (grand alliance) was a grouping of corrupt, negativity and instability.

Bollywood actors Ajay Devgn with his wife Kajol Devgn arrive to the launch of the environmental campaign “Start a little Good” during the “Plastic Banega Fantastic” event, in Mumbai.

Green cause

LATIN AMERICA15Gulf Times

Monday, January 21, 2019

Mexico pipeline blast toll rises; focus on fuel theftBy Anthony Esposito, Reuters Tlahuelilpan, Mexico

A blast at a gasoline pipeline in Mexico that killed at least 79 people has put renewed at-

tention on the government’s strategy to stop fuel theft, with some relatives saying fuel shortages stemming from the plan led people to risk their lives.

Fuel thieves punctured the Tula-Tuxpan pipeline a few miles from one of Mexico’s main refi neries on Friday.

Up to 800 people fl ocked to fi ll plastic containers from the 7m gaso-line geyser that ensued, offi cials say. A couple of hours later, it exploded.

Mexican Health Minister Jorge Al-cocer said yesterday the number of dead in the incident had risen to 79 people.

Half a dozen people interviewed by Reuters on Saturday said their rela-tives went to the leaking duct in Tla-huelilpan district in Hidalgo state because they struggled to fi nd fuel elsewhere and were desperate to fi ll up cars to get to work or run their farms.

“A lot of innocent people came here, perhaps their car didn’t have enough gasoline for tomorrow, and they said I’m just going to go for a few litres,” said farmer Isidoro Ve-lasco, 51, who was waiting for news of his nephew Mario Hidalgo, who he believed likely dead.

Late last month, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched a programme to shut down an illegal fuel distribution network that si-phons off about $3bn worth of fuel annually from state oil fi rm Pemex.

The plan, which involves shut-ting off pipelines compromised by gangs who fi t valves to drain fuel, led to widespread gasoline shortages in central Mexico in January, including in Hidalgo, to the north of Mexico City.

On Saturday, most gas stations in Tlahuelilpan were closed.

Polls show the measures have until now enjoyed fairly broad public sup-port, despite the diffi culties and long lines at gas stations.

The disaster in Tlahuelilpan, how-ever, has brought renewed scrutiny of the strategy.

Lopez Obrador has faced repeated questions about the disaster, de-manding he explain why soldiers de-ployed to guard the duct did not chase people away from the leak and how quickly supplies to the duct were cut after Pemex detected the leak.

Pemex chief executive offi cer Oc-tavio Romero on Saturday said a valve had been closed at the pipeline once a drop in pressure from the leak had been noted, but he did not say at what time that happened.

Fuel spurted from the pipeline for around two hours before it exploded, with no visible loss of pressure.

Romero said about 10,000 barrels of high octane gasoline were in the

section of the pipeline between the Tula refi nery and the village when it blew up on Friday.

The defence ministry and Lopez Obrador said there were only 25 sol-diers present and the army did not want to hold back the crowd.

Critics say authorities should have been fi rmer in controlling the crowd and sealing the area, and should have called for reinforcements.

“Part of the blame goes to the peo-ple (at the ruptured pipeline) but the bigger blame lies with authorities who let them go there knowing it was dangerous,” said Velasco, the farmer.

The Tula-Tuxpan pipeline deliv-ers fuel to other central states, rais-

ing the possibility that its closure for repairs after the explosion could worsen fuel supply problems, in-cluding in car hub Guanajuato.

Romero said the pipeline had been out of service since late December as the government tried to secure it from gangs who had hit it 10 times in Tlahuelilpan municipality.

Since they began reopening it on January 16, it had been hit four times he said.

In response to a question about whether cartels present in Hidalgo, which include Los Zetas and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, might have caused the disaster in re-venge for the clampdown, the presi-

dent said all possibilities were being investigated.

However, one federal police source in Hidalgo said he believed the hole in the duct was made by local crimi-nals not major cartels.

Lopez Obrador said the disaster had hardened his resolve to fi ght fuel theft and the government was looking at ways to strengthen ageing pipelines to make it harder to illegal-ly suck fuel from them.

Meanwhile, he said, Mexico was buying more tanker trucks for road distribution.

“Even though it hurts a lot, we have to carry on with the plan, to end fuel theft,” he said.

Firefighters work at extinguishing the fire at the scene of a massive blaze triggered by a leaky pipeline in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state.

Democratic transition in Venezuela seems possibleBy Alina Dieste, AFPWashington

After an election victory slammed as fraudulent by the opposition and inter-

national community, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has begun a new term that will see him in offi ce until 2025, his grip on power seemingly fi rmer than ever.

So why are analysts talking up a hope for political change?

Steps in Juan Guaido, a 35-year-old industrial engineer who took charge of the opposi-tion-dominated National As-sembly on January 5, breathing new life into the body that had been rendered virtually impotent by Maduro’s constitutional ma-noeuvres.

“It’s almost like a rebirth. The opposition has emerged more unifi ed than ever before,” says Geoff Ramsey, vice president for Venezuela at WOLA, a research centre on Latin America based in Washington.

“For the fi rst time in many months...Maduro is on the de-

fensive,” wrote Andres Oppenhe-imer, a noted journalist on Latin American aff airs.

Weeks into his new job, Guaido has managed to get the assem-bly’s opposition majority to of-

fi cially declare Maduro a usurper and denounce his re-election as a fraud, while promising an “am-

nesty” for all military and gov-ernment offi cials that disavow the president.

That achievement eluded his predecessors, who have been ex-iled, imprisoned or disqualifi ed.

Guaido upped the ante in a Washington Post column last Tuesday, invoking articles of Venezuela’s constitution that call on its people to reject regimes that violate democratic values, adding: “I am fully able and will-ing to assume the offi ce of the presidency on an interim basis to call for free and fair elections.”

Michael Shifter, director of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank, agreed Guaido wresting power from Maduro would be in accordance with the law.

“What is happening in Ven-ezuela is not a coup d’etat,” he said. “The National Assembly and its current leader Guaido are totally legitimate, and have the law and Constitution on their side.”

But, he added, the limits of the opposition’s new-found strength are soon to be tested.

Facing a regime-loyalist-dominated Supreme Court that

annuls all its decisions, the op-position has three main path-ways, argues veteran diplomat Michael Matera, director of the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The support of the military, the Venezuelan people and the international community will be essential to allow Guaido to as-sume (offi ce) offi cially as presi-dent and to step into a role that now Maduro is trying illegiti-mately to hold to,” he said.

To that end, the National As-sembly this week boldly ex-tended a hand to the military: it promised to grant amnesty to all those who support a return to constitutional order.

Guaido will also require the support of moderate followers of Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez to break for him, added Ramsey.

International pressure on Ca-racas has been growing since Ma-duro’s reelection last May, but it surged with the arrival in power of the far right in Brazil: new Presi-dent Jair Bolsonaro agrees with his US counterpart Donald Trump that Maduro is a “dictator.”

Bolsonaro, whom Maduro called a modern-day Hitler, on Thursday met at Planalto Palace with Miguel Angel Martin, presi-dent of the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela in exile, ap-pointed by the opposition major-ity Assembly.

A top adviser of Organization of American States chief Luis Al-magro also was present.

Meanwhile, Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo met with Venezuelan opposition members and representatives of the United States and the Lima Group, a bloc of countries criti-cal of Maduro.

After the meeting, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Brazil’s willingness to support a Guaido “interim presidency.”

Though Maduro has a few allies in Latin America and around the world, most of the international community would welcome a democratic transi-tion in Venezuela, according to Shifter.

“This process needs to be managed skilfully and be very clear-eyed about the obstacles that stand in the way,” he said.

Venezuela’s National Assembly president Juan Guaido greets supporters during an open meeting at the Caricuao neighbourhood in southwest Caracas over the weekend.

Two die as 6.7 quake strikes ChileReutersSantiago

A magnitude 6.7 earth-quake hit the coast of north-central Chile

on Saturday evening, the US Geological Survey said, with authorities reporting as many as 200,000 without power and two people dead of heart at-tacks.

The quake struck at 10.32pm about 16km south-southwest of Coquimbo, the USGS said.

The quake, measured 53km below the surface, shook homes, caused landslides in the region’s mountainous ter-rain and initially prompted au-

thorities to begin a mass evac-uation of coastal areas ahead of a potential tsunami.

The Pacifi c Tsunami Warn-ing Center, however, quickly ruled out that threat.

An elderly man and woman died of cardiac arrest thought to be associated with the earthquake, according to po-lice and local media reports.

The quake also knocked out a major power station, but electricity was restored to most of the region overnight.

A witness reported minor damage to older buildings in the coastal city of La Serena, a popular Pacifi c coast beach town about 400km north of Santiago.

“It felt very strong...The tourists were very nervous, but nothing serious happened,” Camila Castillo, a reception-ist at a hotel in La Serena, told Reuters.

Chilean miner Antofagasta Plc said operations were nor-mal at its Los Pelambres cop-per mine.

Chile, located on the Pacifi c ‘Ring of Fire’, has a long history of deadly quakes, including a 8.8 magnitude quake in 2010 off the south-central coast that triggered a tsunami that devastated coastal towns.

But death and destruction tend to be limited due to the adoption of strict construction codes.

People outside their houses are seen along a street after an earthquake in Coquimbo, Chile.

Bogota demands Cuba hand over ELN ‘criminals’ after bombingAFPBogota

Colombia Saturday demanded that Cuba hand over ELN rebels who were in Ha-vana for peace talks, after a deadly car

bombing Bogota blames on the group.Conservative President Ivan Duque urged

Communist-ruled Cuba — a host and one of the guarantors of the peace process — to send home National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels who were in Havana.

On Friday, the government blamed the left-ist ELN for the bombing of a police academy in Bogota that killed 20 people as well as the at-tacker, and dealt a body blow to the peace proc-ess.

Duque then announced that he was reinstat-ing arrest warrants for 10 ELN members who are part of the group’s delegation to the Cuba talks.

The talks — started with his predecessor — were aimed at ending more than fi ve decades of insurgency by the Marxist-inspired insurgents.

Duque said that Cuba must not protect the rebels.

The police academy car bombing “was a crime that violated human rights. And no such act deserves (Cuba acting) to avoid justice be-ing done,” Duque said while giving a speech in Tolima.

Colombia has experienced several years of relative calm since the 2016 peace accord signed by then-president Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) guerrillas.

With the landmark agreement turning the former rebels into a political party, the smaller ELN is considered the last active rebel group in the country.

True to his election promises, Duque has tak-en a hard line against the ELN, including his de-mand they release all hostages as a prerequisite to kick-starting the peace process.

The group is believed to be currently holding 17 hostages, some of them for several years.

22 people killed as Bolivia buses collide on high mountain roadReutersLa Paz

Two buses collided on a winding road in the Bolivian altiplano on Saturday morn-ing, killing 22 and injuring 37, authorities

said.Police said later in the day that the two buses

hit head on, crushing the front ends of both ve-hicles.

They said the crash happened along the road that connects Oruro and Potosi, both high alti-tude cities above 12,000ft (3,657m).

Several of the injured had been transferred to local hospitals, according to police reports.

Such bus accidents have become increasingly common in Bolivia.

Many of the country’s roads, including those that drop down from the capital city of La Paz, are carved from steep slopes of the high Andes mountains and are known to be treacherous.

Another similar bus crash killed 16 in Decem-ber along the route between La Paz and Ach-acachi.

PAKISTAN

Gulf Times Monday, January 21, 201916

Prime Minister Imran Khan has vowed swift action against the personnel of

the Counter-Terrorism Depart-ment (CTD) if they are found guilty by a joint investigation team (JIT) formed to look into Saturday’s “encounter” in Sa-hiwal that left four people dead.

In a series of tweets yesterday, the premier expressed shock at the incident, and said that the state will look after the children whose parents were shot dead by the CTD personnel.

“Still shocked at seeing the traumatised children who saw their parents shot before their eyes. Any parent would be shocked as they would think of their own children in such a traumatic situation.

“These children will now be fully looked after by the state as its responsibility,” he tweeted.

Towards that end, Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat, while addressing a press briefi ng on the Sahiwal “encounter” yes-terday, said that Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar had an-nounced Rs20mn in compensa-tion for the family who lost three

members during the “encoun-ter”.

Basharat also said that the JIT tasked with looking into the “encounter” will present its fi ndings to the Punjab govern-ment within three days.

“The team that took part in this operation has been taken into custody,” he said, adding that the supervisor of the CTD offi cials involved in the incident had also been suspended.

Basharat, who was briefi ng the press alongside members of the cabinet, added that a fi rst information report (FIR) had been registered at the family’s request.

Sixteen CTD offi cials have been booked under terrorism charges for their involvement in Saturday’s “encounter.

The case was registered in Yousafwala police station of Sa-hiwal district yesterday, in re-sponse to a complaint by Jaleel Ahmed, the brother of Khaleel, who was killed during the shoot-out.

The FIR was lodged under section 302 (premeditated mur-der) of the Pakistan Penal Code along with section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

Prime Minister Khan, while lauding the CTD for its fi ght against terrorism, asserted that everyone must be accountable before the law.

“While the CTD has done a great job in fi ght against terror-ism, everyone must be account-able before the law. As soon as JIT report comes, swift action will be taken. The government’s

priority is protection of all its citizens,” he wrote.

Four people, including Kha-leel, his wife and their teenage daughter – were killed while their son received bullet wounds in the “encounter” in Sahiwal on Saturday.

The CTD, in a statement de-tailing its version of Saturday’s “encounter” in Sahiwal, claimed that the “terrorist” driving the car shot at the police when in-tercepted.

CTD personnel reported that they had killed Zeeshan, a local commander of the Islamic State organisation, known locally as Daesh, and three others in the anti-terror operation.

Eyewitnesses, however, dis-puted the claim, and said the people in the car did not fi re at offi cials, nor were any explosives recovered from the vehicle.

In the statement, the CTD

said its Sahiwal team had inter-cepted the vehicle in question.

“When the vehicle was inter-cepted at 12.15 noon [Saturday], it did not stop. The driver started shooting at the CTD team. The car was followed by a motorcycle with two riders.

“They also fi red at the CTD team. The shootout resulted in death of one terrorist Zeeshan and accompanying family mem-bers,” the statement read.

“The vehicle had tinted glass-es, hence children on rear seat were not seen. The family be-came victim of circumstances.

“Zeeshan misused his posi-tion and gave the family a ride to Burewala. In fact, Zeeshan was carrying explosives of terrorists who were travelling on [the] mo-torcycle.

“After dropping the family in Burewala, Zeeshan had planned to drop explosives somewhere in

Khanewal or Multan,” the CTD statement said.

The statement added that the members of the family may not have been “aware of the status of Zeeshan, who had become a ter-rorist. The family was trapped by the terrorists. They became vic-tim of circumstances”.

The CTD further said that when the news of the incident was aired on TV, there were ter-rorists hiding in Zeeshan’s house who saw the news and fl ed from the house.

They were, however, spotted by intelligence surveillance.

The Daesh network in ques-tion had killed three ISI offi cers in Multan, including the nephew of former chief justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, and a police of-fi cer in Faisalabad.

It had also kidnapped Ali Haider Gillani, the son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gil-lani, from Multan, and US na-tional Warren Weinstein from Lahore, the CTD statement said.

On January 13, Daesh mili-tants were spotted in a Suzuki vehicle that was traced to Zee-shan’s house in Lahore’s Chungi

Amar Sidhu, the CTD added.The CTD offi cials involved in

the “encounter” on Saturday have been taken into custody on the orders of Punjab Chief Min-ister Buzdar, a spokesperson said earlier.

The Punjab chief minister gave the directives for the CTD personnel’s arrest after Prime Minister Khan took notice of the incident and demanded a trans-parent probe into the killings.

According to initial fi ndings from a postmortem carried out on the bodies of the deceased, the driver Zeeshan sustained 10 gunshot wounds while the chil-dren’s father, Khaleel, was shot 13 times.

The mother, Nabeela Bibi, was shot four times while 13-year-old Areeba was shot six times.

Their son Umair sustained bullet wounds on his leg, where-as his young sister Muneeba was injured by the shattered glass windows of the car.

The two injured children were being treated at Lahore’s General Hospital, while four-year-old Hadia was discharged from the hospital and taken home.

PM pledges swift action on Sahiwal ‘encounter’

‘Terrorist’ driver started firing at off icers when intercepted, says CTD

Case registered against CTD off icials under terror law

Chief minister announces Rs20mn compensation for Sahiwal ‘encounter’ family

InternewsIslamabad/Sahiwal/Lahore

PTA unit to deal withunlawful onlinecontentInternewsIslamabad

The Pakistan Telecommu-nication Authority (PTA) has established a Cyber-

Vigilance Division (CVD) to handle complaints against un-lawful online content under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016.

In order to handle this role, the PTA has also developed standard operating procedures (SOPs) for lodging complaints and their disposal has been developed ac-cordingly.

All content hosted on unse-cured websites is being currently handled through telecom opera-tors and the PTA itself.

However, any content which is unlawful but hosted on secured website is handled diff erently.

Popular social media web-sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are a few examples of se-cured websites which are hosted outside of the physical bounda-ries of Pakistan.

As per the PTA’s latest report, the authority has developed close liaison with all such plat-forms to honour requests made for removal of content that does not pass the standards of the CVD.

It said that historically, the PTA has been acting under func-tions and powers given by the Pakistan Telecom (Re-organisa-tion) Act 1996.

However, with development and growth of the Internet, the PTA has been entrusted with the responsibility of blocking or removing of any content which is declared unlawful under rel-evant provisions of the law.

This responsibility was hand-ed over to the PTA under the PECA.

Since the promulgation of the PECA, the PTA stands commit-ted to the responsibilities of the facilitation of aggrieved Internet users and stakeholders, includ-ing government organisations, public offi ces, business entities and other agencies.

Under Section 37 of the PECA, content which is “against the glory of Islam, against the in-tegrity, security and defence of Pakistan, public order, contempt of court, against decency and morality and incitement of any offi ces” will be blocked or re-moved.

The complaints received by the PTA against unlawful online resources including anti-state, anti-judiciary content, and blasphemy.

In this regard, the PTA has already blocked 824,878 URLs (uniform resource locaters, commonly known as Web ad-dresses) so far.

Prime Minister Khan: Any parent would be shocked as they would think of their own children in such a traumatic situation.

Two killed in Gujranwala ‘encounter’: CTD

Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) off icials killed two terrorists

during a shootout in Gujranwala, a CTD spokesperson said yesterday.

The suspected terrorists, identified as Abdur Rehman and Kashif Langra,

belonged to a banned outfit and were gunned down in an exchange of

fire, the spokesperson said.

The deceased were said to be wanted for their involvement in attacks on

security forces and kidnapping of local and foreign citizens.

Two of their accomplices were shot dead in another encounter with the

security forces in Faisalabad a few days ago, off icials said.

All in a day’s work

Workers tie a pile of freshly-cut wood loaded on a truck in Peshawar.

Pakistan has introduced the fi rst-ever business ro-bot journalist, who writes

and publishes a comprehensive report on stocks traded at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) within a few seconds after the market’s closure.

“The Pakistan Stock Ex-change is closed at 3.30pm (from Monday to Thursday, and at 4.30pm on Friday) and it gets the daily report published before 3.31pm,” said Anisuddin Sheikh, founder and chief exec-utive of the award-winning tech startup, baseH Technologies.

TheRoboJournalist, also called Dante, had been writing the reports for the past few days, Sheikh said at a signing cer-emony to get seed money from the Elahi Group of Companies for the project at the National Incubation Centre (NIC) at NED University.

Simultaneously, the artifi cial

intelligence (AI)-based content writing software develops a video on share trading and gets it uploaded at YouTube, Sheikh said.

The robot journalist is capa-ble of doing sports and weather reporting as well.

Later, it will be equipped to report on other sectors like health, education, and culture.

The fi nancial sector, espe-cially the securities brokerage houses and asset management fi rms, can also hire the robot to write comprehensive fi nancial reports to seek guidance on tak-ing investment and divestment decisions every morning.

“We have advanced talks with three big media houses in Paki-stan for deployment of the AI technology,” the startup founder said.

“The report is free from hu-man errors and unbiased,” he claimed. “Media houses may feed their editorial policies to the content-writing software before generating such reports.”

It could also help experts and

analysts take better decisions and reduce their workload sig-nifi cantly, at securities broker-age houses, asset management companies and in other sectors in the fi nancial industry, as they had to visit a number of web-sites and read all the newspapers to take their investment and di-vestment decisions before the PSX begins trading at 9.30am on working days, he said.

“TheRoboJournalist writes the report after taking into ac-count the related fundamental analytics, technical informa-tion (like graphs and charts) and gauging prevailing sentiments.

“It also takes into account the development taking place on social media, irrespective of whether the development is true or not to gauge the sentiment,” he said.

The software would signifi -cantly improve the quality of work and effi ciency at a reduced time and a nominal cost, op-erating at media and fi nancial houses.

“It will cut the cost by 10

times and improve effi cien-cy by 400 times,” said baseH co-founder and fi nancial sec-tor expert Khurram Schehzad. “Around fi ve to six fi nancial companies are ready to deploy the software.”

The Pakistani startup had raised seed funding and the ini-tial value of baseH was estimat-ed at over $4mn, he said.

“This is the highest level of initial valuation in the artifi cial intelligence/tech space in Paki-stan fetched by any company so far,” a statement from the com-pany read.

Federal IT Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, who was present at the signing ceremo-ny, said that digital transforma-tion of all functions, companies, communities and economies is an inevitable consequence of the fourth industrial wave tech-nologies.

“I foresee the $4mn tech company becoming a $400mn concern in the next fi ve years,” Elahi Group of Companies chief executive Danish Elahi said.

Pakistan unveils business robot journalistInternewsKarachi

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said yesterday that Presi-

dent Donald Trump should meet Prime Minister Imran Khan as soon as possible to reset long-diffi cult US relations with Paki-stan and push for a peaceful set-tlement in Afghanistan.

The comments, which add to growing signs of improved rela-tions between Islamabad and Washington, come amid eff orts to press on with talks between the Taliban and the United States aimed at an agreement to end 17 years of war in Afghanistan.

“I’ve seen things change here and all in a positive direction,” Graham, a member of the US Senate Armed Services Com-mittee, who has generally been a staunch supporter of Trump, told a news conference in Islamabad.

He said a meeting with Khan, who has declared strong sup-port for a peace agreement in Afghanistan, would leave Trump “far more enthusiastic about the region than he is today”.

“With Prime Minister Khan we have a unique opportunity to change our relationship,” he said.

He called Khan an “agent of change”.

“I’m going to urge him (Trump) to meet with the prime minister as soon as practical,” Graham told reporters, saying he believed Khan and Trump would “hit if off ” because they have “similar personalities”.

“Prime Minister Khan is the agent of change that I’ve been looking for,” he added.

A previously transactional relationship, based on rewards for services rendered, should be replaced by “strategic engage-ment”, including a free trade agreement, he said.

US relations with Pakistan have long been dogged by suspi-cions that elements in the Paki-stani establishment were aiding

the Taliban, a charge that Islam-abad strongly denies.

Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Pakistan’s alleged duplic-ity, saying late last year that Is-lamabad does not do “a damn thing” for the US.

Khan has been equally critical of Trump, saying before 2018’s election in Pakistan that a poten-tial meeting with the US presi-dent would be a “bitter pill” to swallow.

However, relations have ap-peared to improve in recent months amid eff orts to push the Taliban towards a peace deal.

Graham said a meeting be-tween Khan and Trump is vital to carve out a potential deal in Afghanistan.

“They actually need to meet and come up with a agenda that will push a resolution to the war in Afghanistan,” he added.

Trump, who has in the past argued for the United States to withdraw from Afghanistan, has made it clear he wants to see a peace accord reached rapidly al-though the Taliban have so far refused to talk directly with the Afghan government.

Graham’s trip to Pakistan co-incided with a visit by Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special envoy for peace in Afghanistan, and top military commanders including General Joseph Votel, command-er of US Central Command.

Khalilzad left Islamabad with-out announcing a new date for talks with Taliban representa-tives, who have refused further meetings until the US side agrees to discuss a timetable for with-drawing its forces.

The uncertainty has been in-creased by reports that Trump is prepared to order more than 5,000 US troops out of Afghani-stan, a move that would repre-sent a sharp change in course from Washington’s previous pol-icy of stepping up military action against the Taliban.

With Afghan forces suff er-ing thousands of casualties a year and struggling to hold back the Taliban insurgency, the re-ports have caused alarm in Ka-bul, prompting many close to the government to question the US commitment to Afghanistan.

Asked whether there had been confusion over the US message, Graham, who has called for a Senate hearing on Trump’s plans to withdraw US troops from Syria and Afghanistan, said “without a doubt”, but added that he did not believe Washington would stand by and allow a Taliban victory.

“The world’s not going to let the Taliban take Afghanistan over by force of arms. That would be unconscionable,” he told Reu-ters. “Any president who let that happen would go down in history very poorly.”

Top US senator urges meetingbetween Imran and TrumpReuters/AFPIslamabad

Graham: Prime Minister Khan is the agent of change that I’ve been looking for.

Govt to start work on 25,000 housing units soonPrime Minister Imran Khan has been informed that work will commence soon on the federal level for the construction of 25,000 housing units in Lahore and Islamabad.The meeting, held to review progress in the “Naya Pakistan Housing Project”, was also informed that a

special cell has been set up for the housing project at the Board of Investment, to facilitate and assist investors from abroad.The prime minister was updated over the legal and administrative measures meant for the housing project.

PHILIPPINES

17Gulf Times Monday, January 21, 2019

Nearly 2mn to take part in Bangsamoro plebisciteBy William DepasupilManila Times

It’s all systems go for today’s scheduled plebiscite for the ratifi cation of the Bangsam-

oro Organic Law (BOL), accord-ing to the Commission on Elec-tions (Comelec).

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez yesterday said some

2mn registered voters from the Autonomous Region in Mindanao (ARMM), Isabela City in Basilan and Cotabato City in Maguindanao were expected to cast their votes in the plebiscite.

“We have prepared extensive-ly for this. Based on latest report from our people on the ground, everything is ready for tomor-row’s plebiscite,” according to Jimenez.

He said the Comelec expects a 75% turnout.

Jimenez added that the plebi-scite would be manual and the questions only answerable by a “yes” or a “no.”

“Check marks, x-marks and other such marks will not be considered valid votes,” he said.

For the ARMM, the question is: “Do you agree to ratify Re-public Act (RA) 11054?”

RA 1154 is the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barrm). Isabela City and Cota-bato City voters will be asked if they want to include their re-spective cities in the Barrm.

A second plebiscite for the purpose is scheduled on Febru-ary 6, covering the provinces of Lanao del Norte, except Iligan City; the municipalities of Ale-osan, Carmen, Kabacan, Mid-sayap, Pikit and Pigkawayan in the province of North Cotabato; and all other areas contiguous to the Bangsamoro core areas where the local governments, by way of a resolution, asked for the inclusion in the plebiscite, or at least 10% of the registered vot-ers in a local government unit, by way of a petition, asked for inclusion in the plebiscite.

The BOL, a result of a peace deal between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine government, is ex-pected to be voted upon by about 2.8mn people.

Its ratifi cation will lead to the abolition of the existing ARMM, which will be replaced by the Barrm.

The establishment of the Bar-

rm and the determination of its territorial jurisdiction will take eff ect upon the ratifi cation of the BOL by majority of the votes cast in the plebiscite.

In southern Mindanao, Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim, MILF cen-tral committee chairman, said in an interview over Super Radyo dzBB yesterday said authori-ties had not monitored major threats, except some minor ten-sions in Cotabato City, Lanao del Norte and a few other areas.

After the ratifi cation of the BOL, the Bangsamoro Transi-tion Authority, which Ebrahim is expected to head as chief minis-ter, is slated to govern the Barrm until 2022 when its fi rst regular elections would be held.

Ebrahim said majority of the Barrm Parliament would come from the MILF, while the rest would be appointed by Presi-dent Rodrigo Duterte, including those from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Christian and indigenous com-munities.

Col. Romeo Brawner Jr, 103rd Brigade commander based in Marawi City, expressed con-

fi dence that the plebiscite in Lanao del Sur would be peaceful but troops, he said, are ready for any eventuality.

Similarly, Senior Supt. Madz-gani Mukaram, acting direc-tor of the Lanao del Sur Police Provincial Offi ce, said security measures had been put in place for today even as they expect a peaceful plebiscite.

Meanwhile, schools division Superintendents Pharida San-sarona in Marawi City, Normil-lah Pangandaman in Lanao del Sur I and Bairon Disomangcop of Lanao del Sur 2 said all division teachers who would serve in the plebiscite were more than ready.

To encourage people to join the plebiscite, Marawi City Mayor Majul Gandamra off ered free rides to voters from the cit-ies of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan (Lanao del Norte) to vote in Ma-rawi.

City information offi cer Katty Gandamra told Manila Times the pick-up points for the free rides would be at Pangcoga Place, Co-gon, Cagayan de Oro City and Old Gaisano Mall fronting Lugo Building, at the Poblacion, Iligan

City, at 6:30 in the morning.Jeepneys would also be sta-

tioned in Buganga Transitory Shelters, Saduc and Sarimanok villages, to transport voters to Sagonsongan village where the plebiscite would be held, the in-formation offi cer added.

Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo yesterday reit-erated her support for the rati-fi cation of the landmark Bang-samoro Organic Law, which she believed would bring lasting peace to Mindanao.

“Of course, this is the fi rst step in achieving that peace. Histori-cal injustice is said to be the root cause of all confl icts. This is the attempt to correct that notion. This is the fi rst step,” Robredo said in her weekly radio show.

But, lasting peace in Mind-anao is not going to happen be-cause the president is setting a stage for a “bigger armed con-fl ict” through the BOL, accord-ing to exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison.

Sison also yesterday said both the governor and Sultan of Sulu were “openly and strongly”

against the BOL, as well as the leadership of the MNLF under Nur Misuari.

“Thousands of MNLF follow-ers in red shirts and Cotabato City offi cials made it a point to demonstrate at city hall to coun-ter Duterte’s presence and cam-paign for BOL in the vicinity,” he said in a statement.

On Friday, Duterte went to Cotabato City to attend a rally in support of the BOL while on Thursday, his key Cabinet of-fi cials attended a similar rally in Jolo, Sulu, which was hosted by MNLF Chairman Yusof Jikiri.

Defence Secretary Delfi n Lorenzana told reporters, “I am not going to dignify the com-ment of a person who has been away for close to three decades who has clearly lost touch of re-alities on the ground,” referring to the CPP founder.

Gen. Benjamin Madrigal Jr, Armed Forces chief of staff , said in an interview in Marawi City that a group of Maute remnants under Owayda Benito Maro-hombsar alias Abu Dar still posed a threat to the whole of Mindanao.

A streamer is displayed in Marawi City to urge citizens to vote for the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).

Nation cheers Pacquiao’s fi rst win since turning 40DPA Manila

The Philippines yesterday cheered Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao for

his win over American fi ghter Adrien Broner, his fi rst since his 40th birthday last month.

The senator outpointed Broner throughout the 12-round fi ght in Las Vegas, winning by a unanimous decision to retain his World Boxing Association’s wel-terweight title.

Thousands of Filipinos screamed and jumped every time Pacquiao scored against Broner as they trooped to public parks

and gyms where free live view-ings of the bout were sponsored by local officials.

Presidential spokesman Sal-vador Panelo hailed Pacquiao for bringing honour to the country and uniting Filipinos worldwide “with his display of athleticism, power and Filipino pride.”

“While 11 years older than his opponent, the 40-year-old ‘Pambansang Kamao’ (na-tional fighter) displayed his vintage form just like in his heyday and dominated Broner, who went back-pedalling, in full twelve rounds of battle,” he added.

Foreign Secretary Teodoro

Locsin lashed out at the ana-lysts and critics who suggested it was time for Pacquiao to re-tire after he turned 40 in De-cember.

“I told you. The eternal hero. The purest example of pure fi ghter,” Locsin tweeted after the fight. “I will slap anyone who suggests again he retired.”

“Fighters never retire; fight-ing is their oxygen; they ac-cept even permanent damage and blistering defeat as badges of honour,” he added. “Fight, Manny, for country.”

The judges scored the fight 117-11, 116-112 and 116-112, giving Pacquiao his 61st win in 70 professional fights.

Fans of Philippine boxing champion Manny Pacquiao cheer as they watch the WBA welterweight world title boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and US boxer Adrien Broner, on a screen in a basketball court in Manila, yesterday.

Sri Lankan leader seeks cops’ advice on drug warBy Roy NarraManila Times

Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena has paid the Philippine

National Police a visit at its Camp Crame main headquar-ters in Quezon City to consult the PNP on how to deal with the drug menace in the South Asian country.

Sirisena was welcomed by the PNP chief, Director Gen-eral Oscar Albayalde.

A conference meeting was then held with Sirisena and offi cials of the PNP, Depart-ment of the Interior and Local Government and other agen-cies involved in the Duterte administration’s war on illegal drugs. It was the fi rst time that a world leader visited Camp Crame.

Albayalde described the conference meeting with the Sri Lankan president as “fruit-ful” and “very productive.”

“I think he also realised that (the Philippines and Sri Lanka) have the same prob-lem… The president of Sri Lanka was very appreciative of what we presented to and he saw the (Philippine) govern-ment’s approach to the cam-paign against illegal drugs and said he would like to apply it to his country, too,” he said in a chance interview.

Shortly after his arrival on Tuesday in the Philippines, Sirisena cited the local crack-

down as an “example” to the world.

The campaign was initi-ated by President Rodrigo Duterte when he assumed the presidency in 2016.

Albayalde said Sirisena told him that Colombo has adopted some features of the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs.

“He said there are some methods that are already be-ing applied and if there is an-ything to improve their cam-paign against illegal drugs, our presentation to them is a big help,” he added.

Based on the latest figure of Real Numbers PH as of November 2018, there were 5,050 alleged drug suspects killed in anti-drug opera-tions since 2016.

Various human rights groups, however, believe the number of casualties is higher than 12,000.

Albayalde said the PNP al-ready fi led charges against 438 police personnel who commit-ted human rights violations during anti-drug operations.

“That is why we are saying that it (drug campaign) is not perfect because we fi led cases of human rights against our own personnel and that is ini-tiated by us and the Commis-sion on Human Rights (CHR) was still not even in the picture at the time,” he added.

Sirisena is in the Philippines for a fi ve-day state visit.

Sirisena: war on drugs

Bill to lower age of criminal

liability faces criticismBy Glee JaleaManila Times

Despite moves to push through with a bill lowering the age of criminal liabil-ity from 15 years old to nine years old,

a bishop, some lawmakers and children’s ad-vocates over the weekend said legislators are missing the big picture in treating children in confl ict with the law.

“Legislators are misguided in painting a pic-ture of rampant criminality supposedly pri-marily instigated by children. This is a myopic view of the situation that utterly disregards the reasons why children are actually forced in situations where they commit wrongdoing,” Child Rights Network Philippines, an organi-sation advocating for children’s rights in the country, said.

The group added that the consolidated bill is a “brash and unfounded” move against chil-dren who have not reached the standard age of puberty.

The reactions from the lawmakers and the children’s network came after the House Com-mittee on Justice announced that it would come up today with a substitute measure to House Bills 2, 505, 935, 1609, 2009 and 373, which all seek lowering the age of criminal responsibility.

Once approved, the new measure will pro-vide for the amendment of Republic Act 9334 or the “Juvenile Justice Welfare Act,” which currently exempts children 15 years old and be-low from criminal liability.

Committee chairman and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Doy Leachon said it was about time to pass a bill that would protect children from being used by criminal syndicates to evade prosecu-tion and punishment.

Independent group Save the Children said the proposed bill would only push more chil-dren to “discrimination and abuse.”

The Commission on Human Rights said law-makers in favour of the bill should instead focus on facilities and resources that could provide rehabilitation and proper intervention for chil-

dren who commit crime. Bagong Henerasyon party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy, who is among those against the passage of the meas-ure, appealed to the House justice committee to include a provision on creating juvenile courts as part of safeguards to prevent abuse against children.

“The creation of juvenile courts will have original and exclusive jurisdiction over all criminal and civil cases involving youth of-fenders,” Herrera-Dy said.

She also suggested that the Department of Social Welfare and Development should put up protection centres for minors in designated ar-eas, while the Philippine National Police should beef up its local women and children’s desks to protect children in confl ict with the law.

Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo said instead of punishing minors, lawmakers should instead come up with a legislation that would support them while they undergo means of re-form.

“(To our lawmakers, let us look after our children regarding the issue of lowering the age of criminal liability. Instead of punishing them, let us help them, help them build a better life for themselves),” Robredo said in her address to lawmakers in her weekly radio programme.

President Rodrigo Duterte previously urged Congress to lower the age of criminal liability to ensure that “the Filipino youth would accept responsibility for their actions and be subjected to government intervention programmes.”

House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo also sought passage of the proposed bill in sup-port of Duterte’s request.

“Heartless and unchristian” was how a Catholic bishop who has been openly critical of the country’s justice system described the bill on lowered age of criminal liability.

In a post he shared on Facebook, Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David said such a measure was not for a country such as the Philippines because “we cannot even properly hold adults liable for their criminal off ences, now we want to hold nine-year-old children-in-confl ict-with-the-law criminally liable as well?”

Soldier dies in clashManila TimesZamboanga City

An army soldier was killed in a clash with gunmen in the southern Philip-

pine province of Zamboanga del Norte, security offi cials said yes-terday.

Captain Clint Antipala, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division, said policemen, backed by soldiers, were serving ar-rest warrants on a criminal gang leader, Basiran Ahil Mudja, in Sibuco town when the fi ghting erupted over the weekend.

Mudja’s group fought with security forces for about 15 min-utes.

The gunmen managed to es-cape from the troops. Antipala, quoting Colonel Bagnus Gaer-lan, commander of the 102nd Infantry Brigade, said the clash also left a still undetermined number of gunmen dead or wounded.

“Pursuit operations have been conducted to arrest and neutral-ise the armed group who also suff ered casualties based on the bloodstains left in the encounter site,” Antipala said.

He said Mudja has two war-rants of arrest for murder and at-tempted murder in the province, which is also a stronghold of the rebel group Moro Islamic Liber-ation Front (MILF) and bandits.

Antipala did not release the identity of the slain soldier, say-ing his family needs to be in-formed fi rst.

Gulf Times Monday, January 21, 2019

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CHAIRMANAbdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFFaisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka

Deputy Managing EditorK T Chacko

Infrastructure projects on trackdespite blockade

Ashghal, the Public Works Authority, is making impressive strides living up to its motto, ‘Qatar deserves the best’. The effi cient and meticulous manner in which Ashghal has been delivering projects one after another makes the nation proud. It is indeed commendable that the agency has completed 90% of the highways leading to stadiums for the 2022 FIFA World Cup despite the ongoing economic blockade, as reported by Gulf Times the other day. The stadiums will be served by certain highways and most of the construction work for these facilities has been done, according to Yousef al-Emadi, manager, highway projects department at Ashghal.

Of course, the government is providing all the support to Ashghal, but the vision and commitment of the agency’s top management and engineers deserve applause for delivering projects on schedule by overcoming the challenges of the blockade. Given the track record, when al-Emadi says “we can guarantee that we will be able to fi nish all projects even before the country will start hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2022,” there is no need to have even an iota of doubt as Ashghal has been proving its capability time and again. As the offi cial pointed out, Ashghal had accomplished many infrastructure milestones in 2018 and started 2019 with another accomplishment – the partial opening of Qatar’s longest and deepest bi-directional tunnel, which is part of the construction of the Al Rayyan Road upgrade project phase two.

The new tunnel is a major link between Bu Erayen and Lebday Streets, spanning the Al Mokafaha and Lebday interchange. The tunnel is 1.5km long and sits 25m below ground level. At this initial stage, two out of four lanes in each direction will be

delivered, accommodating 8,000 vehicles per hour in each direction. The tunnel forms part of the complex three-level Al Mokafaha interchange. At-grade (ground level) is a signalised junction, which facilitates traffi c movements in all directions, including Al Waab, Bani Hajer and Doha. Beneath is an underpass that allows road users to travel seamlessly between Doha and Bani Hajer. The tunnel is beneath the underpass, both of which replace the old roundabout.

The newly-opened section of the road and tunnel will reduce travel time between Bu Erayen and Lebday Street and Al Luqta and Al Waab by up to 65%, because of increased lane capacity and removal of the existing diversions, and reduce traffi c congestion on 22 February Street, as highlighted by project manager Jumah al-Bader. Motorists have already started experiencing the benefi ts. Ashghal successfully overcame many challenges during the construction. It was necessary to establish multiple traffi c diversions and the construction of two temporary signalised intersections to facilitate the progress of works. Excavating 25m below ground level meant that the project team had to manage extremely large quantities of groundwater.

Last month, a Qatar News Agency report quoted Ashghal president Dr Saad bin Ahmad al-Muhannadi as saying that roads leading to the World Cup stadiums “will be completed by 2020” and construction work along the Al Khor Expressway will be completed by the end of 2019. Thanks to Ashghal, infrastructure projects are on track.

The vision and commitment of the agency’s top management and engineers deserve applause

Minority ethnic Britons face‘shocking’ job discriminationBy Haroon Siddique London

Black Britons and those of south Asian origin face “shocking” discrimination in the labour market at levels unchanged

since the late 1960s, research has found.A study by experts based at the

Centre for Social Investigation at Nuffi eld College, University of Oxford, found applicants from minority ethnic backgrounds had to send 80% more applications to get a positive response from an employer than a white person of British origin.

A linked study by the same researchers, comparing their results with similar fi eld experiments dating back to 1969, found discrimination against black Britons and those of south Asian origin — particularly Pakistanis — unchanged over almost 50 years.

The research, part of a larger cross-national project funded by the European Union and shared exclusively with the Guardian before its offi cial launch, prompted concerns that race relations legislation had failed.

It echoes fi ndings published as part of the Guardian’s Bias in Britain series that people from minority ethnic backgrounds face discrimination when seeking a room to rent.

In a snapshot survey of online fl atshare ads the Guardian found that an applicant called Mohamed was signifi cantly less likely to receive a positive response than an applicant called David.

Professor Anthony Heath, co-author and emeritus fellow of Nuffi eld College,

said: “The absence of any real decline in discrimination against black British and people of Pakistani background is a disturbing fi nding, which calls into question the eff ectiveness of previous policies.

Ethnic inequality remains a burning injustice and there needs to be a radical rethink about how to tackle it.”

The researchers sent almost 3,200 applications to both manual and non-manual jobs — including software engineers, marketing, chefs and shop assistants — advertised on a popular recruitment platform between November 2016 and December 2017.

The study, which will be launched at the British Academy, London, on Friday, included 33 diff erent minority ethnic groups, belonging to fi ve broad groups.

Additionally, two minority ethnic groups — Nigerian and Pakistani — were designed to have suffi ciently large numbers of applications for separate analysis.

Diff erent ethnicity applicants were randomly assigned to diff erent job vacancies — only one application was sent per post — and the number of callbacks/invitations for interview compared.

On average, 24% of applicants of white British origin received a positive response from employers, compared with 15% of minority ethnic applicants applying with identical CVs and cover letters.

All of the minority applications

clearly stated that they were either British-born or had arrived in the country by the age of six and had obtained all their education and training in Britain.

Minority ethnic applicants, including white minorities, had to send 60% more applications to get a positive response from an employer than a white person of British origin.

While applicants originating from western Europe and the US were treated almost as well as the majority group, people of Pakistani origin had to make 70% more applications.

The fi gures were even higher for those of Nigerian, Middle Eastern and north African (Mena) origin, at 80% and 90% respectively.

Dr Zubaida Haque, the deputy director of the race equality thinktank Runnymede, described the fi ndings as shocking.

They demonstrated that “it’s not just covert racism or unconscious bias that we need to worry about; it’s overt and conscious racism, where applicants are getting shortlisted on the basis of their ethnicity and/or name”, she said.

“It’s clear that race relations legislation is not suffi cient to hold employers to account. There are no real consequences for employers of racially discriminating in subtle ways, but for

BME applicants or employees it means higher unemployment, lower wages, poorer conditions and less security in work and life.”

The researchers said the high levels of discrimination from countries with a sizeable Muslim population echoed “strong anti-Muslim attitudes recorded in recent surveys”. Dr Valentina Di Stasio, co-author and an assistant professor at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, said: “The persistent gaps in callbacks found for more visible and culturally distant minorities, regardless of the occupation considered or the information included in the application, suggest that employers may simply read no further as soon as they see a Middle East-sounding or African-sounding name.”

As past fi eld experiments did not include people from Mena countries, it could not be ascertained whether the level of discrimination against them had changed over time.

Additionally, the historical comparison could only be done for non-manual jobs, due to insuffi cient past data on manual jobs.

Nevertheless, the authors described the evidence of enduring discrimination against some minority ethnic groups as striking given the passage of the Race Relations Act 1976 and that many of the earlier studies

included applicants born abroad with some foreign education.

They said that while surveys had found declining racial prejudice among the public, the lack of change in the workplace reflected the continued presence of “employer stereotypes about the linguistic and work-related skills and motivations of minorities”. There were hints that discrimination against applicants of Indian origin may be in decline but the researchers said the sample size of people with Indian names in their study was too small to draw firm conclusions.

Responding to the results, Matthew Fell of the Confederation of British Industry said: “Any bias is bad for business.

Companies must act now to eradicate all forms of discrimination, including any bias in recruitment.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy also stressed the benefi ts of diversity, adding: “Last year, the prime minister launched a series of measures to help employers identify how to tackle ethnic disparities in the workplace, including a new race at work charter and a consultation on mandatory ethnicity pay reporting.”

– Guardian News & Media

On average, 24% of applicants of white British origin received a positive response from employers, compared with 15% of minority ethnic applicants applying with identical CVs and cover letters.

COMMENT

Gulf Times Monday, January 21, 2019 19

Importance of international language of dialogue

Insomnia treatment may help ease depression in women

Foreign-inspired attacks in US have declined steeply

By Mohanna al-Hubail

This is the fi rst article I am writing for readers of Gulf Times Doha.

So, I start with greeting all readers with Salam Alaikum, peace for you, which is a phrase that covers the meaning of greetings, friendship and esteem among all the vast human family; it is our human tribe. Hence comes the signifi cance of reviving the message spread by the Islamic civilisation, as the language of opening international dialogue among the various parts of the Islamic world, and address the whole world civilisations based on partnership and building values.

Here comes one of the most important tasks of the international language of dialogue today; how to create such a language and work for spreading it. This entails the values of co-operation and respect among the components of this new world, where new perspectives, and new multiple ethical and behavioural trends are opening. Some of these are useful and others need philosophical and objective evaluation and correction. Still, others are overcome by the negative implications, as the foundation of contemporary cognitive development is its validity for an ethical patronage of all the human family. In my view, this is the prime ethical question of the world.

It is the question that should be promoted at vivid, free and more independent platforms rather than the political instructions dictated by the members of the UN Security Council, being in a position that resembles the military rulers of the world. Their power was built on a war triumph. Accordingly, can the tasks of the world that seek to spread the values of moderation and tolerance be produced by an equation based on the victory in a war?

The second most important question: can a system of values accrediting social justice in the world be established based on the Western countries’ authority

and interests, or should we as a human family look for the original values in our culture, and build on them a new system that would be mature with the future generation into concepts that enhance real tolerance among the peoples.

Most properly the message of this writer who has been interested in the civilisation of the East presents its view today through its message that the greater East, which includes Indian Asia, East Asia, Turkey, and all the culturally rich content, and through the civilisation concept that includes other areas in the world, based on the actual division between the South and the North. Let me halt here for a moment before going on and ask myself on your behalf: What does it mean? Does it mean that we the oriental nations should go back to create an ethical structure and cultural values away from the Western world?

No, it cannot work like this. I live today in Canada, and have joined such a civilian modern and Western country, and highly appreciates its stands. It has thankfully granted him political asylum, protection and residency. The journey of the development to the civilian state in the West is very dramatic. I have a study that has been going on since January 2016, exploring the question of the possibility of reorganising the intellectual talks between the Islamic civilisation and the Western world under the title: “The Western Islamic relationship... the third way”.

Consequently, we in the East are keen to maintain a common view of values but it is not limited to the desires of the politicians in Europe and America, or the dictatorial rule of the states of the East. Each of them has his own share of responsibility, regarding the spread of religious fanaticism and armed extremism. However, the rules of the international game are in the hands of the West surpassing the capabilities of the East.

That is why I have been keen to explore the relationship between us as

Orientals, and as part of the southern world with the civilian Western world, while appreciating its cultural activities, philosophical view, and its success in the areas of constitution, and the individual rights’ values, even though there are failures on the ethical or philosophical levels or change of these principles, when the West deals with the southern

world through the imperial interests of the West.

This ongoing political confl ict was about to lead to a destructive war and dangerous clashes that would have converted what remains of the GCC stability to a frenzied hell after the US war on Iraq in 2003, and what pursued of ethical and humanitarian degradation

ahead of the political degradation among the peoples of the region because of it. This was about to happen in a passing moment when US President Donald Trump gave the green light to the breaking out of the GCC crisis only due to his consideration of the US national interests, according to the equation of jobs for his citizens or the US companies.

Consequently, the distinction of stands among the peoples and societies of the East and the West, and among the policies of the government is a necessity for the ethical and moral communications to promote a real culture of moderation, not occasional festivals of clamour, held with the regimes rather than the peoples’ thoughts. Therefore, I opted that this article of mine to be both intellectual and political that it may participate towards the return of diff erent communication of civilisations. This argument does not mean rejecting any positive participation in civilisation dialogue by offi cial Eastern or Western organisations. It is not also meant to overshadow the eff orts of the diplomats that believe in the dialogue of civilisations, but it is important that the rule of international justice and ethical balance are the yardsticks.

Today, we are in desperate need to go back to the values of the East to address ourselves in the fi rst place with them. We need to regain the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi and Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi, Edward Said and others of the philosophers of the Orient or those interested in its values of civilisation.

This is to establish a platform to push forward peace and reconciliation among us, and to make our civilized culture an excellent bridge for communication with the Western civilisation, and to build foundations for a convention of values shaped by philosophy, not war decisions and the interests of politicians who prey on the world. Peace is the concept that counteracts war and violence. War should be the fi nal resort for only counteracting injustice, as it was rejected by Allah, the prophets and the philosophers of life, Salam Alaikum, peace for you.

Mohanna al-Hubail is an independent Arab researcher. He is also Director of Oriental Studies Offi ce, Istanbul.

Live issues

By Lisa RapaportReuters Health

Women going through menopause may have fewer symptoms of depression when they

get treatment for insomnia than when they don’t, a recent experiment suggests.

Researchers recruited 117 menopausal women with insomnia for the study and randomly assigned them to three groups. One group received cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). Another group received a component of CBT known as sleep restriction therapy. The third group only received education on so-called sleep hygiene, or habits that can make it easier to fall and remain asleep.

Overall, 4.3% of the women had

moderately severe depression. Both forms of insomnia treatment helped ease depression symptoms for these women, but sleep hygiene education did not.

“We can add targeted cognitive behavioural treatment of insomnia to the current arsenal of treatments available to alleviate menopausal associated insomnia and with this treatment we have the added benefi t of reductions in depressive symptoms which frequently co-occur with sleep disturbance associated with menopause,” said senior study author Christopher Drake of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan.

“We hope to one day show that targeting insomnia symptoms early when depression is mild or yet to develop can prevent depression from ever developing in the fi rst place,” Drake said by e-mail.

Women typically go through

menopause between ages 45 and 55. As the ovaries curb production of the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, women can experience symptoms ranging from vaginal dryness to mood swings, joint pain and insomnia.

CBT can train people to use techniques that address the mental (or cognitive) factors associated with insomnia, such as the “racing mind,” and to overcome the worry and other negative emotions that often accompany inability to sleep. CBT can also help people with poor sleep establish a healthy bedtime routine and improve sleep patterns, previous research has found.

Sleep restriction therapy can be done on its own, or as a component of CBT for insomnia. This intervention is designed to limit how many times people awaken during the night and reduce the total amount of time spent in bed; it doesn’t

aim to restrict the total amount of time people spend asleep.

Women in the study who received CBT completed six face-to-face therapy sessions with a registered nurse specialising in behavioural sleep medicine. Sleep restriction therapy was briefer, and involved two face-to-face sessions as well as three phone sessions.

The control group of patients assigned to sleep hygiene education, meanwhile, got six weekly e-mails with tips on how to create better nighttime routines and information on the connection between sleep and a variety of health problems and lifestyle habits.

Right after insomnia treatment, women with depression who received CBT experienced moderate to large reductions in symptoms of the mood disorder, researchers report in Sleep Medicine.

By Doyle McManusLos Angeles Times

After President Donald Trump warned on January 4 that terrorists were heading towards America

from Mexico, a remarkable statistic emerged: The number of terrorist acts committed by people who had sneaked across the country’s southern border was exactly zero.

Not zero this year; zero since the federal government began keeping records.

Trump administration offi cials insist some suspicious characters have crossed the border, but they have refused to disclose any names or details. About a dozen migrants per year reportedly turn up on watch lists, but if any of them were jihadists, you can bet the White House would have let us know by now.

Those nonexistent terrorists are part of a larger, more important phenomenon – one that Americans should feel free to celebrate (cautiously).

More than 17 years after the September 11 attacks, America is experiencing a dramatic but unheralded decline in foreign-inspired terrorism. Last year saw only one US homicide connected to radicalism. (You probably don’t remember it. A 17-year-old in Florida stabbed three friends after watching IS videos online, and one died.)

Terrorism hasn’t been eradicated,

of course. But even Europe, which has wrestled with a much bigger threat from homegrown militants and those from beyond, has seen the number and scale of deadly attacks plummet.

“If you had told offi cials after 9/11 that in the next 17 years there would be only 104 deaths from terrorist attacks in the United States, they would have celebrated,” Daniel Byman, a former staff member on the 9/11 Commission and a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, told me. “Back then, we were worried that we’d lose that many people in a week.”

It’s impossible to know whether this is a durable trend or merely a lull, he warned. “We could have mass attacks again, we could go 10 years without anything.” But if it’s a lull, it has persisted for more than two years – and that alone is worth noting.

The Trump, Obama and Bush administrations, as well as US allies around the globe, all deserve some credit. Despite horrifying abuses and mistakes, from torture to secret prisons, they have largely destroyed Al Qaeda and its most dangerous off spring. The US-led war against Islamic State has killed thousands of militants and broken the group’s hold on territory in Iraq and Syria.

Domestic law enforcement has monitored extremists at home and interrupted dozens of plots (including some that turned out to be insubstantial). And common-sense security measures have made us less vulnerable; no US plane has been hijacked since 9/11.

Militants are not our only major terrorist threat, at least inside our borders. Since 2016, more Americans have been killed by white supremacists or anti-Semites than foreign militants. That’s not to mention the never-ending death toll from mass shootings in schools and public places.

But US policy hasn’t caught up. When the White House unveiled a National Strategy for Counterterrorism in October, it cited foreign militants as “our principal terrorist enemies” and mentioned “other forms of extremism” only vaguely. (The words “white supremacist” aren’t there.)

Nor has Congress or the Trump administration considered whether the federal government is spending too much on counter-terrorism, or spending it on the right things.

In 2017, the US government spent roughly $175bn on counter-terrorism, including both military and law enforcement spending, according to a study by the Stimson Centre, a nonpartisan Washington think tank.

But the authors warned that they couldn’t be sure that fi gure was right because the government keeps much of its military and intelligence spending secret and has no clear standard for what programmes count as counter-terrorism.

Still, ever so quietly, there are signs that the departments of Defence and Homeland Security are debating whether they can spend less.

The Pentagon’s most recent National Defence Strategy said bluntly

that terrorism is no longer the biggest threat the US faces. “Great power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus,” then-Defence Secretary James N Mattis said.

Homeland Security has been less transparent, but in budget requests to Congress, it has shifted money out of traditional counter-terrorism eff orts such as the Transportation Safety Administration toward the president’s top priority, border security.

That suggests someone thinks the US could get by with less spending on the TSA.

One such move in 2017 drew protests from former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff and other counter-terrorism hawks.

“Paying for border security and (immigration) enforcement by cutting funds to the Transportation Security Administration ... is akin to double-locking your front door, but leaving your side door open,” Chertoff complained.

Politicians hesitate to question Homeland Security spending, because it risks making them sound soft on terrorism. But it’s time for an elder statesman, or even a courageous presidential candidate, to broach the big questions.

Does the US need to spend billions on a wall to stop terrorists who aren’t there? Has it won the war on foreign terrorism – or at least reduced it to a threat small enough that its citizens can spend less time in TSA lines? And isn’t there more the US can do about domestic extremists?

WARNINGInshore : Nil

Offshore : Expected strong wind and high sea till evening

WEATHERInshore : Relatively cold daytime

with some clouds. Cold by night.

Offshore : Partly cloudy at times

WINDInshore : Northwesterly 05-15 KT

reaches 18 KT

Offshrore : Northwesterly 12-22 KT gusting to 32 KT

Visibility : 4-8 KM

Offshore : 3-7/12 FT

TODAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

Maximum Temperature : 210c

Minimum Temperature : 140c

Maximum Temperature : 230c

Minimum Temperature : 140c

Maximum Temperature : 230c

Minimum Temperature : 150c

BaghdadKuwait City ManamaMuscat Tehran

AthensBeirut BangkokBerlinCairoCape TownColomboDhakaHong KongIstanbulJakartaKarachiLondonManilaMoscowNew DelhiNew YorkParisSao PauloSeoulSingaporeSydneyTokyo

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20 Gulf TimesMonday, January 21, 2019

QATAR

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani met with Lebanese President General Michel Aoun ahead of the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit at the conference centre in Beirut yesterday. The meeting reviewed important topics on the agenda of the summit in addition to the relations of co-operation between the two countries and means of promoting them to wider horizons.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani took part in the opening session of the 4th Arab Economic and Social Development Summit held at the conference centre in Beirut yesterday.

Amir participates in 4th Arab Economic and Social Development Summit in Beirut

QSTP renews tie-up with Qatar ShellQatar Science & Technology

Park (QSTP), part of Qatar Foundation Research, De-

velopment and Innovation (QF RDI), renewed its partnership with Qatar Shell Research and Technology Centre (QSRTC) at a signing ceremony yesterday.

Under the agreement, the two parties have committed to renew their decade-long partnership of research and technological co-operation to support Qatar on its journey towards becoming a sus-tainable, diversifi ed economy.

The ceremony, held at QSTP, was attended by distinguished guests and representatives from both entities, with QSTP execu-tive director Yosouf Abdulrahman Saleh and QSRTC vice president Hussain al-Hijji signing the part-nership renewal agreement.

The continued partnership be-tween QSTP and QSRTC signi-fi es their joint resolve and com-mitment to the development and implementation of sustainable and innovative technologies that address Qatar’s energy needs and carry the potential for global im-pact. Qatar Shell, in partnership with QSTP, launched QSRTC as

an anchor tenant at QSTP in 2008 to execute the development of cutting-edge technologies.

Highlighting the importance of the renewal agreement, Saleh said: “I am extremely pleased to renew our partnership with Qatar Shell. In the decade of our part-nership, QSRTC has successfully developed breakthrough technol-ogies which are targeting the core energy and sustainability chal-lenges faced not only by Qatar, but the region and the world.

“The partnership renewal is testament to our commitment to support new technology de-velopment programmes and de-velop innovative new products by forming strong and engaging partnerships with our tenants and regional research institutions. I would also like to commend the whole QSRTC team for their re-markable journey at QSTP and reassure them that we will con-tinue to support them as they join us, along with our other tenants, in helping to foster a thriving re-search, development, and inno-vation ecosystem in Qatar.”

Al-Hijji said: “This continued partnership focuses on devel-

oping and deploying innovative technologies that aim to use Qa-tar’s resource-rich subsurface to its full potential. He added: “As part of this ambition, QSRTC is focusing on technologies that can help to reduce the footprint of Qatar Shell’s Pearl GTL asset – the world’s largest GTL plant – and creating future pathways to further monetise gas streams in Qatar.

For this, QSRTC has an active programme of collaborations with the academic community in Qatar and abroad, which connects local researchers to Shell’s R&D and leading institutions worldwide and trains Qatari leaders in the energy sector. “All this is lever-aged by our presence in QSTP, which provides a world-class fa-cility; proximity to assets, indus-trial knowledge, and academia; and the unique ability to execute pilot projects like our research on wetlands and water distillation.”

QF RDI vice president Dr Ri-chard O’Kennedy said, “Our partnership with Qatar Shell has developed implementable world-class technologies. “Our support for Qatar Shell and QSRTC is

aligned with nationwide eff orts to promote sustainable and di-versifi ed development projects, as refl ected by QSRTC’s exemplary work in effi cient management of hydrocarbons and sustainable use of water – a key challenge for Qa-tar and the region. I am confi dent that the milestones we achieve together will have a remarkable impact on the lives of our current and future generations.”

Qatar Shell managing director and chairman Andrew Faulkner said, “Innovation and technol-ogy are vital to providing more and cleaner energy solutions in a world transitioning to a low car-bon energy system. We consider R&D a fundamental part of Shell’s past and future success. There-fore we are delighted to continue our presence at QSTP.

“It has been important from the beginning that we make a lasting contribution to the growth and sustainability of Qatar’s economy and society. Our R&D activities, in close collaboration with a va-riety of Qatari parties and inter-national universities, will have a positive impact on Qatar in line with Qatar National Vision 2030.”

(From right) QF RDI vice president Dr Richard O’Kennedy, QSTP executive director Yosouf Abdulrahman Saleh, QSRTC vice president Hussain al-Hijji, and Qatar Shell managing director and chairman Andrew Faulkner during the signing ceremony.

QCS launches campaign to raise awareness about cervical cancer

Qatar Cancer Society (QCS) has launched a month-long campaign titled ‘Dar-

bek Khadar 2’ to raise awareness about cervical cancer. Through the campaign, women can do Pap Smear test free in Al Emadi Hos-pital after getting a coupon from QCS.

QCS will organise a closing cer-emony of the campaign on Janu-ary 30 at its headquarters. The ceremony will include a cook-ing show, lectures and awareness workshops. Also present on the occasion will be health educators from QCS to answer questions from the participants. In addition, women who did Pap Smear test will enter the draw and win prizes.

Heba Nasser, head of the Health Education Department at QCS, said that cervical cancer is ranked fi fth among the most common cancers in females in Qatar, as per the statistics from the National Cancer Registry of the Ministry of Health.

Cervical cancer is ranked fourth at the level of prevalence, number of new cases, and death among all cancers in females worldwide ac-cording to World Health Organi-sation (WHO) Cancer Statistics 2018 and one in every 73 women worldwide will develop cervical cancer over the course of her life-time according to WHO statistics 2018.

QCS is holding awareness lec-

tures and workshops involving the country’s diverse sectors to raise awareness of the symptoms of the disease, the factors responsible for it as well as methods of prevention and cure. Nasser noted that cervi-cal cancer is the abnormal growth of the cervical cells, the lower part of uterus. Cervical cancer can af-fect any woman and especially between the age of 20 and 50 and one of most common cancers in women worldwide.

According to Nasser, risk fac-tors for the disease include human papillomavirus infection, smok-ing, recurrent cervical infections, family history, having given birth to three or more children, using birth control pills for a long time

and lack of screening. Cervical cancer often does not show symp-toms until it is in an advanced stage. So it is important to start early detection tests regularly even when one is healthy.

She noted that the Pap test is a simple one and the best time to do the test is 10-14 days from the fi rst day of menstruation. The fi rst Pap test should be done af-ter three years of marriage if the age is 21 years or above. After the fi rst Pap test, women should go for the test every three years until the age of 65. After 65, the test can be stopped if the last three Pap tests are normal. Pap tests can be done in most of the health centres of Primary Health Care Corporation.

Members of the QCS team involved in the awareness drive.

Cruise ship MSC Lirica sailed into Doha Port on its fifth trip during the ongoing 2018/’19 season, carrying a total of 1,985 passengers and 737 crew members, Mwani Qatar tweeted yesterday.

Cruise ship MSC Lirica calls on Doha PortCold conditions to prevail in city

The mercury level dropped to 8.6C in Baida Al Gaa, located in southern Qatar, yesterday as

cold conditions prevailed around the country.

This was tweeted by the Qatar Met department yesterday morning, taking note of the impact of strong northwesterly winds.

People in Doha and other places, including children headed to school, were seen wrapped in woolens as they went about their work after waking up to a chilly morning.

The cold conditions are expected to continue today as well, weather charts show. A number of places re-corded minimum temperatures hov-ering around the 10C mark yesterday. These include Karana at 9C, Al Khor, Batna and Turayna at 10C and Shee-haniyah, Abu Samra and Jumayliyah

at 11C. These were closely followed by the Qatar University area, Wakrah and Mesaieed at 12C, Abu Hamour, Ghuwairiyah and Umm Bab at 13C, and Doha (international airport area), Hamad International Airport and Dukhan at 14C. Shehaimiya recorded a low of 15C and Ruwais 16C.

The maximum, on the other hand, was 20C in Doha, the Qatar Univer-sity area, Al Khor, Mesaieed and Abu Hamour. The lowest maximum tem-perature was recorded in Dukhan and Umm Bab at 16C, followed by Abu Samra, Shehaimiya and Ruwais at 17C.

Today’s forecast says strong winds and high seas are expected in off shore areas until the evening.

Northwesterly winds will blow at a speed of 8-18 knots inshore, going up to 22 knots occasionally. Off shore,

the wind speed (northwesterly) will be 15-25 knots, reaching a high of 35 knots. It will be relatively cold during the day and some clouds are expected in inshore areas. Cold conditions will prevail at night, too. The weather re-port also says it will be partly cloudy at times in off shore areas, with the sea level rising to 12ft before falling to 3-5ft by the evening.

The wind speed (northwesterly) may go up to 18 knots in some inshore areas in the early hours of the day. Off -shore, it may reach a high of 32 knots before decreasing in the evening. To-day, the minimum temperature is ex-pected to be 10C in Al Khor and Abu Samra, 12C in Mesaieed and Wakrah, 14C in Doha and Dukhan, and 16C in Ruwais. The maximum temperature will range from 16C in Dukhan to 21C in Doha and Al Khor.