Iftar distribution

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Volume 23 | Number 7542 | 2 RiyalsWednesday 30 May 2018 | 14 Ramadan I 1439 www.thepeninsula.qa

RAMADAN TIMINGTodays Iftar: 6:22 pm

Tomorrow’s Imsak: 03:06 am

→PAGE 14 →PAGE 15 →PAGE 15

Amir hosts Iftar banquet for members of ruling family and dignitaries

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani hosted an Iftar banquet for Their Excellencies members of the ruling family and dignitaries on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan, at the Amiri Diwan yesterday. The banquet was attended by H E Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Khalifa Al Thani, H H Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Personal Representative of the Amir, H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani, H E Sheikh Jassim bin Khalifa Al Thani, and a number of Their Excellencies sons of H H the Father Amir.

Brisk sales ahead of Garangao nightAMNA PERVAIZ RAO THE PENINSULA

DOHA: As Garangao celebrations will be marked tonight across the country with traditional enthusiasm, the sales of Garangao related sweets, nuts and other accessories are witnessing a huge rise.

Almost all malls, hypermarkets and other shops at traditional souqs, par-ticularly Souq Waqif, saw a big number of customers yesterday and the sales are likely to touch their peak before Iftar today.

Not only citizens and residents are buying sweets and other stuff for dis-tribution among kids tonight (Ramadan 15), various organisations and malls have also lined up colourful events to celebrate the event with full fervor.

Qatar Foundation (QF) is set to

celebrate Garangao on Friday, June 1, at Al Shaqab in Education City, with an array of fun and exciting games and cul-tural activities.

Garangao is a popular children’s festival traditionally celebrated across the Arabian Gulf region midway through Ramadan. On this night, children sing the special ‘Garangao song’, wear tra-ditional clothes, and collect nuts and sweets.

Machaille Al Naimi, President of Community Development, QF, said: “Qatar Foundation is delighted to host this year’s Garangao celebrations at Al Shaqab. The holy month of Ramadan is an occasion for contemplation, social interaction, and engaging in good deeds. Garangao provides a wonderful oppor-tunity for the whole community to come together, and we look forward to wel-coming families and children of all ages

and nationalities to Education City.”As part of the festivities, young vis-

itors to the event at Al Shaqab’s indoor arena will have the opportunity to meet Rashed and Nora, their favorite char-acters from ‘Siraj’, QF’s animated edu-cational TV series that teaches the Arabic alphabet in a fun and educational way.

Additionally, a number of QF centers will mark this year’s celebra-tions by also organizing activities, such as sack races, pony rides, 3D jigsaw puzzles, football games, storytelling ses-sions, and the chance for children to make their own paper lanterns.

Garangao Night at Hyatt Plaza will be held today from 8 -11 pm with games, traditional dances, Garangao bags dis-tribution and many other activities.

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Luxury hotels lead hospitality marketSACHIN KUMAR THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Luxury hotels are domi-nating in Qatar’s hospitality market. Around 50 percent of hotel rooms in the country belonged to five-star hotels at the end of 2017. Four-star hotels have the second biggest share in Qatar’s growing hospi-tality market which had over 22,900 rooms at the end of last year.

“Total supply of hotel room keys (not including hotel apart-ments) at year end was 22,921, contained within 98 properties. Of these, 49.7 percent were cat-egorised as 5-star, while 37.6 percent were categorised as 4-star,” said a report by real estate consultancy firm DTZ Qatar.

Qatar’s hospitality market is unexpected to witness any drastic change in the near future as the dominance of four and five-star hotels is likely to continue. The supply of new properties in the country suggest that luxury hotels will continue their reign in the local market in coming years.

“Current supply is heavily weighed in favour of expensive luxury hotel establishments, however the recent opening of good quality mid-market hotels such as the Holiday Inn, Premier Inn and Millenium Plaza have started to redress this balance,” said the report assessing the development during the first quarter of 2018.

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QDB launches Doha Tourism ProjectTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Development Bank (QDB) yesterday announced the launching of Doha Tourism Project on a 79,000 square metre area as a tourist desti-nation on Qatar’s seafront and offers 100 investment opportunities for entrepreneurs.

QDB’s Project Management Office Planner Hamad Rashid Al Naimi said that the project offers entrepreneurs to obtain shops with a competitive lease of contracts ranging from one to three years, explaining that the area of the shop ranging from 25 square meters to 200 square meters.

Al Naimi added the applying for Doha Tourism Project will begin on Sunday, through QDB’s website, and lasts until Sep 10, noting that the winners of the projects will be revealed in early November, and the project will kick off at beginning of 2020.

He noted that the activities available in the project would range from shops selling fishing equipment, diving equipment, maintenance of boats and ports, and other crafts and souvenirs

as well as art galleries, photography exhibitions, and food and beverage outlets such as coffee, spices, dates and so on.

Al Naimi pointed out that to benefit from the project requires the achievement of three condi-tions, the first being that the submitted idea in connection with the heritage of Qatar, linked to marine life, and distinctive or creative. He explained that the evaluation and selection of shops will start on Sep 10 as the applications will be sorted and meet the shortcomings then the personal interviews of the qualified, who will be given more than a year to prepare shop design, equipment and employment, in addition to choose the appropriate funding, whether from QDB or from another bank.

A young Qatari distributes Iftar packs to motorists on the Corniche yesterday. PIC: ABDUL BASIT / THE PENINSULA

Doha Tourism Project, on a 79,000 sq metre area as a tourist destination on Qatar’s seafront, will kick off in 2020 and offers 100 investment opportunities.

DOHA: Education Above All (EAA) Foundations programme, Reach Out to Asia (ROTA), has launched its Ramadan 2018 Project "Sharing Hope", bringing together volunteers to support vulnerable commu-nities in Qatar.

→SEE ALSO PAGE 5

ROTA Ramadan project 'Sharing Hope' launched

02 WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018HOME

Amir hosts Iftar banquet for members of ruling family and dignitaries

QRCS inks MoU with Sudeanese charity to serve needy peopleTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) and Sudan’s Zinorain Charity Foundation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which represents a legal framework for joint cooperation in various humanitarian fields serving the needy in the Republic of Sudan.

QRCS Secretary-General Ali bin Hassan Al Hammadi and Sec-retary-General of Zinorain Charity Foundation Emadeddin Bakri Abuharaz signed the MoU.

Al Hammadi highlighted the deep relations between the State of Qatar and the Republic of Sudan, especially in the field of humanitarian work to serve the communities in Sudan. He pointed out that QRCS mission is overseeing many projects in various sectors of the humani-tarian work, especially the sectors of water, sanitation, food security, sustainable devel-opment, livelihood support, the establishment of peace and social harmony.

QRCS Secretary-General added that this agreement is a reflection of the vision and objec-tives of the two parties and the basic principles of the interna-tional humanitarian movement,

with the aim of achieving the common desire to provide humanitarian, voluntary and urgent relief services within the framework of cooperation with national and regional organiza-tions in the same field on the basis of mutual trust.

Abuharaz welcomed any joint activity that would serve vulnerable groups in Sudan and contribute to raising their standard of living, stressing that such actions and initiatives are not new to QRCS and the State of Qatar, which has an hon-orable record of historical cooperation with the Republic of Sudan in various fields and at all levels.

The agreement provides for the cooperation of the two parties in areas of common interest through providing the necessary support to reach the common humanitarian objec-tives, exchanging information related to the joint projects and the relief and humanitarian conditions, in addition to exchange of invitations to attend cultural, humanitarian and educational activities, organize workshops, training and conferences as well as the exchange of expertise, advice and trained human cadres.

Sidra signs MoU to exchange knowledge and expertiseTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Sidra Medicine signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI) for the mutual exchange of knowledge, expertise, research and studies.

Sidra Medicines Chief Exec-utive Officer Peter Morris said: “We are very proud and delighted to collaborate with Doha Institute through this MoU in supporting the development of professional capacity and leadership in professional dis-ciplines which so crucial to the delivery of patient and family centered health care. We have an excellent opportunity to realize these goals and to share and exchange ideas for

implementing the latest and best practices. So this collaboration is a very important milestone. It supports the continuous improvement and innovation in healthcare and the delivery first class care for our patients and families”.

The MoU is the first part-nership to stem from Sidra Med-icines new “Externship Program” with the aim of supporting the healthcare organizations medical education and learning and development strategies. DI will nominate students to join the specially designed program that will support the students training and internship require-ments as part of their curriculum.

The program is currently

applicable for students form DIs School of Psychology and Social Work. Dr. Kholode Al Obaidli, Chief Learning Officer at Sidra Medicine said, “As an academic healthcare organization, we are committed to strengthening avenues of partnership with leading educational centers such as the Doha Institute to inspire young minds and cultivate the advancement of the healthcare sector. Our externship program with DI, has been developed to provide training, educational and workplace opportunities to a new generation of upcoming psychologists and social workers.”

The MoU will also provide Sidra Medicine clinicians and researchers to consider

voluntary faculty appointments and teaching opportunities within the fields of Psychology and Social Work at the Doha Institute.

Dr Soleman Abu-Bader, Dean of the School of Psychology and Social Work at the Doha Institute said, “This MOU with Sidra Medicine is a move that will open doors for collaboration between the institutions in various areas, including exchange of knowledge, research, teaching, service, and practice. In addition, it will provide our students, in both psychology and social work, onsite professional experience and field placement/practicum in health and mental health service provision in Qatar.”

Shoppers buying sweets at a shop in Souq Waqif. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT/THE PENINSULA

Brisk sales ahead of Garangao nightCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Yesterday, the sales of Garangao baskets and other sweets and nuts were extraor-dinarily high from Souq Waqif to nut shops at Najma and Matar Qadeem. Some customers bought nuts and sweets in bulk quantity to make gift pouches themselves while other opted to buy ready-made packs con-sisting of sweets, chocolates, nuts etc. The rates of different packs varied as per content and quantity.

Different malls also installed stalls at their entrances to sell Garangao sweets and packs Dar Al Salam has installed a stall for kids and families which includes garments, goody bags, small stylish boxes and huge boxes.

The municipalities across the country also launched crackdown on shops selling nuts and sweets ahead of Garangao festival which falls on mid of

Ramadan.“The inspection drives aim

at ensuring shops are complying to the health rules,” said the Min-istry of Municipality and Envi-ronment in a statement.

Demands of nuts and sweets

surged ahead of the festival because citizens are buying it in large quantity to distribute among children who visited door-to-door singing traditional Garangao songs to celebrate the festival.

Symposium on hosting Doha IAAF World ChampionshipsDOHA: The Sport Science Program (SSP) at Qatar University College of Arts and Sciences (QU-CAS) recently organised a symposium titled “The Doha IAAF World Cham-pionships in 2019: interdisci-plinary perspectives”.

The event brought together experts from Aspetar, Aspire Academy, and the Anti-Doping Lab Qatar, as well as athletes from Qatar Athletics Feder-ation: Qatar’s Ambassador of the Doha IAAF World Cham-pionships, sprinter and mul-tiple national record-holder Mariam Farid; Head of Sports Physiology at Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence Prof Marco Cardinale; Doping Analysis Lab Director at the Anti-doping Lab Qatar Dr Costas Georgakopoulos, etc.

MEC recalls Dodge Ram 2010 modelDOHA: The Ministry of Economy and Commerce, in collaboration with United Cars Almana, dealer of Dodge vehicles in Qatar, has announced the recall of Dodge Ram model of 2010 because the fuel tank strap may detach due to the frame bracket corroding which may cause a fuel leak. The ministry said the recall campaign comes within the framework of its ongoing efforts to protect consumers and ensure that car dealers follow up on vehicle defects and repairs. The Ministry said that it will coordinate with the dealer to follow up on the maintenance and repair works and will commu-nicate with customers to ensure that the necessary repairs are carried out.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani hosted an Iftar banquet for Their Excellencies members of the ruling family, and dignitaries, on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan, at the Amiri Diwan yesterday. The banquet was attended by H E Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Khalifa Al Thani; H H Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, Personal Representative of H H the Amir; H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani, H E Sheikh Jassim bin Khalifa Al Thani, and a number of Their Excellencies sons of H H the Father Amir.

03WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018 HOME

Ooredoo extends managed services globally to support competitivenessTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Ooredoo, one of the region’s leading ICT providers, yesterday extended its managed services that aim to support Qatar’s business competi-tiveness for Qatar’s public and private sector organisations with international locations.

As part of the new capabil-ities, Ooredoo and its partners are offering its business cus-tomers with the most advanced Global Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) and Managed Router services for Global Con-nectivity requirements.

Using the new services, Qatar’s organisations can rely on Ooredoo to manage their networking, inside and outside Qatar end-to-end. As a result,

business customers can increase their revenue, and boost their productivity and business competitiveness.

Yousuf Abdulla Al Kubaisi, COO Ooredoo, said: “Ooredoo’s cost-effective, reliable, and secure connectivity solutions support real-time dashboards for organisations to monitor and optimise their network traffic. High bandwidth connectivity is vital for mission-critical business applications and next-generation technologies, and will enhance Qatar’s standing as a global digital hub”.

Ooredoo’s new and expanded global connectivity solutions provide versatile, secure, and reliable connections, across three main layers of network infrastructure: Private

Leased Circuit, Global Ethernet, and Global IP Virtual Private Network (VPN) services.

Yousuf Abdulla Al Kubaisi added: “Ooredoo offers cost-effective and reliable designs for complex connectivity needs of bandwidth intensive new gen-eration technologies. All industry verticals can subscribe to services running on our fully-resilient network, both in-country and outside of the country”.

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

Myanmar President receives outgoing Ambassador of QatarTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The President of the Republic of Myanmar, Win Myint, met yesterday with the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Myanmar, Hassan bin Mohammed Rafei Al Emadi, on the occasion of the end of tenure in the country.

The President of Myanmar praised the efforts of the Ambassador of Qatar during his term, which contributed to enhancing the bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries, wishing him success in his new duties.

The President of Myanmar stressed that Ambassador Emadi contributed to developing and strengthening the relations between the two coun-tries, expressing his country’s aspiration to con-tinue cooperation and coordination with the State of Qatar on issues of common concern.

For his part, the Qatari Ambassador thanked the Government of Myanmar for the support accorded to him during his tour of duty in the country, and expressed his sincere wishes of further progress and prosperity to the Government and people of Myanmar.

QA celebrates universal language of football in World Cup campaignTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: There’s nothing quite like the World Cup on the horizon to put a spring into everybody’s step. This sense of fun and anticipation is perfectly captured in Qatar Airways’ first World Cup campaign, which features a re-recording of the classic song ‘Dancing in the Streets’ with singer and TV star Nicole Scherzinger – best known as judge on both the UK and US’s X-Factor. The result is an upbeat and infectiously fun-filled ‘musical’ style TV commercial.

The World Cup is set to bring fans from all over the world together in Russia this summer, and this new anthem from Qatar Airways will unite them as never before.

The catchy and uplifting song expresses the airline’s firm belief that sports is a universal language which has the power to inspire and encourage people to follow their dreams.

Qatar Airways Group Chief

Executive, Akbar Al Baker, said: “Our latest commercial expresses our excitement in being part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup RussiaTM, one of the most anticipated events on the global sports calendar. And we are delighted to have partnered with the extremely talented Nicole Scherzinger on this com-mercial. Nicole’s voice truly conveys the excitement we all feel in the run-up to the FIFA 2018 World Cup Russia, and captures our own enthusiasm about sports, as well as the power of an event like this in bringing people together”.

“Music is a force for good,” said Scherzinger. “Historically, it is one of the most powerful forces for uniting humans because it transcends language barriers. This particular song that we’re working on is so powerful and it has a strong message – it celebrates and unites”.

In May 2017, Qatar Airways announced a groundbreaking sponsorship deal with FIFA,

which saw the award-winning airline become the Official Partner and Official Airline of FIFA until 2022. The part-nership, one of the biggest sporting sponsorships in the world, gives Qatar Airways extensive marketing and branding rights at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia and the 2022 World Cup Qatar, with an expected audience reach of more than two billion people per tournament.

Qatar Airways Senior Vice-President Marketing and Cor-porate Communications, Salam Al Shawa, added: “Like mil-lions of fans around the world, we are getting ready for the best summer of football ever. We want fans to feel the fun-filled vibe that we have created with our new commercial and celebrate with us in the run-up to the World Cup. Our goal is to inspire people to dance, dream and be happy as they come together from around the world for this celebration of football”.

MEC conducts inspection campaigns across QatarTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Ministry of Economy and Commerce has launched surprise inspection campaigns targeting a number of retail outlets specialised in selling sweets, nuts and Garangao accessories in Souq Waqif and across Qatar in order to monitor the compliance of shops with the provisions of law number 8 of 2008 on consumer protection.

The inspection campaigns come within the framework of the Ministry’s Ramadan initia-tives under the theme #Aqal_Min_Al_Wajeb.” The ministry traditionally intensifies its inspection campaigns before and throughout the holy month of Ramadan as part of its efforts to monitor markets and com-mercial activities in order to uncover and crack down on vio-lations and protect consumer rights.

The campaign resulted in 8 penalties for violations including missing price tags, failing to announce the products’ data in Arabic, missing Arabic invoices, weight differences and missing product descriptions.

Violations of Law No. (8) of

2008 on consumer protection can result in administrative closure and financial penalties ranging from QR3,000 to QR1 million.

The Ministry stressed that it will not tolerate any violations of Consumer Protection Law and its regulation. The ministry said it will refer those who violate laws and ministerial decrees to competent author-ities, who will in turn take appropriate action against per-petrators in order to protect consumer rights.

The MEC officials conducting inspection at one of the shops.

Qatar, India review ways of strengthening relationsPrime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani with the Ambassador of the Republic of India to Qatar, P Kumaran. They reviewed bilateral relations and ways of developing and strengthening them.

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce has launched inspection campaigns targeting a number of retail outlets specialised in selling sweets, nuts and Garangao accessories in Souq Waqif and other parts of the country.

The President of the Republic of Myanmar, Win Myint (right), with the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Myanmar, Hassan bin Mohammed Rafei Al Emadi.

Community Police launches awareness campaignTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: In order to enhance the security sense and security measures at shops and among shoppers, the Community Police Department launched recently an awareness campaign at Al Gharafa market.

The drive urged shops owners to comply with the standards and requirements set by the Ministry of the Interior in order to reduce crime rates and negative trends.

It includes restaurants and shops of mobile phones and electronic devices and other shops.

The aim of the drive is to guide them about all negative trends in order to maintain security, safety of private and public property.

Colonel Ghanim Saad Al Khayarin, Head of the External Branch at the Department said that the awareness campaigns are carried out in coordination with the security departments. “They cover various places in the country and aim to educate and

guide the public on all negative phenomena and p r o v i d e a w a r e n e s s suitable for each category. These c a m p a i g n s organized by the C o m m u n i t y P o l i c e D e p a r t m e n t from time to time have bene-fited the owners of shops, restau-rants and other shops in terms of the application of safety.”

H e a l s o added that Ram-adan’s programs and activities continue throughout the holy month, and include participation of commu-nities, workers and charities, in order to emphasize the human communication between the c o m p o n e n t s o f t h e community.

For his part, Major.

Mohammed Fahad Al Dosari, officer of the external branches and supervisor of Ramadan cam-paigns, said that the community policing programs aim to reduce crime rates and negative phe-nomena and raise the awareness of the community regarding the security and safety procedures in public places.

Al Dosari pointed out that among the aims of the drives conducted by the Department is to highlight the humanitarian role by the Ministry of Interior in general and Community Police Department in particular and also appreciated the citizens and residents response and deal with the campaigns.

The Community Police Department holding a campaign at Al Gharafa market.

Luxury hotels lead hospitality market

→CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1“There are currently in the region of 17,000 hotel keys and

serviced apartments at various stages of planning and construction in Qatar, with the majority expected to be delivered to 4-star or 5-star specifications,” it added.

The total number of hotels and hotel apartment developments currently operating in Qatar was officially recorded at 122 in Qatar Tourism Authority’ (QTA) end of year report for 2017. These prop-erties provide a total of 25,167 keys, including hotel rooms suites and hotel apartments.

With various measures taken by the authorities in the past, Qatar hospitality market is set to welcome strong inflow of tourists in the coming years. Qatar, in September last year, witnessed the launch of the Next Chapter of its National Tourism Sector Strategy 2030, which charts the next five years of the tourism sector’s growth in Qatar.

The Next Chapter aims to attract 5.6 million visitors to Qatar annually by 2023, double the number which the country wel-comed in 2016. It also aims to achieve a 72 percent occupancy rate across all hotel establishments, through a combination of increasing demand and diversifying the country’s tourist accommodation offering.

Also by 2023, the strategy aims to have increased tourism’s direct contribution to Qatar’s GDP from QR19.8bn in 2016 to QR41.3bn, representing a direct contribution to the GDP of 3.8 percent compared to 3.5 percent in 2016.

Qatar also announced the expansion of visa free entry to 80 countries and the introduction of the e-visa platform.

04 WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018HOME

Sweet shops doing brisk business in Ramadan: Al AkerSAFA RAMADAN AL SAWWAF THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The impact of the siege lasted only for eight hours due to the strategy adopted by the government to stand with private sector in providing all facilities to meet the requirements of local market, said a market player.

“The government assured the busi-nessmen of stability therefore no busi-nessman stopped his project or transferred his money abroad,” said Mahmoud Basem Hamdi Al Aker, General Manager of Al Aker Sweets, a famous chain of sweet shops in the country, in an interview with The Peninsula.

Al Aker further said that the Ministry of Economy and Commerce communi-cated with businessmen and documented the damages and losses caused by the blockade adding that the government also stood by the consumers subsidising goods so the prices should remain unchanged after the siege rather the prices of some products went down.

“Qatar Airways played key role in transporting commodities and goods from other countries,” said Al Aker adding that Al Ruwais Port reduced shipment time to three days from 7 days before blockade.

“Port of Jebel Ali was a corridor for our goods coming from the exporting

countries. From the beginning of the blockade, we were told that nothing would be delivered to us from this port therefore the goods were returned to the country of origin. Immediately alternative solution was introduced which proved more secure and faster. The goods which used to pass from the Port of Jebel Ali took 7 days to reach Qatar, today these goods through Al Ruwais Port are reaching Qatar within three days.”

Al Aker stressed on importance of the role of the consumers in dealing with the siege adding that the consumers preferred Qatari products which encouraged the produces to increase the quality and quantity of local products.

Regarding the contribution of Qatari products to local market, Al Aker said that in the year of siege, the share of local pro-duction reached 55 percent. “Local com-panies are producing milk, cheese, dates, and other products.”

“Blockading countries are suffering huge losses due to imposing siege on Qatar. For example, we were importing many food items like milk, dates, spices and nuts worth QR50,000 per month from Saudi Arabia but now these imports are stopped.”

Regarding the operation of Al Aker Sweets, General Manager said: “Our branches are spread throughout Qatar on

the principle to reach the consumers before they reach us and the number of branches is on constant increase.”

He said that the branches of Al Aker Sweets are at Midmac, Salwa Road, Ben Mahmoud, Umm Salal, B Square Mall, Al Gharafa, Al Wakra Market, Souq Waqif and Al Khor in addition to mobile shops called “Al Aker Mobile” roaming from one city to other. Regarding the consumption of commodities for making sweets in the

Holy month of Ramadan, Al Aker said that 50,000 kg cheese, five to seven tonnes of nuts and five tonnes pistachios are used in this month. “In addition, 300 to 400 liters milk, 200 to 250 kg cream, 50 kg sugar and 50 kg flour is required per day,” he added.

Speaking about special Ramadan sweets, Al Aker said that cream (Al Qishta Al Baladi) which is called Ramdaniat is one of the most important component for

Ramadan sweets adding that Al Qatayef is very famous Ramadan sweet. Qatayef have various varieties and Asafiri is one of them which is being served fried and non-fried.

He pointed out that the Qatari citizens are on top list of buyers of all kinds of sweets from Al Aker Sweets throughout the year, especially in Ramadan.

He said that there was a kind of fear that the siege might affect the sale of sweets in Ramadan, but the highest sales were recorded at Al Aker sweets this Ramadan compared to past six years adding that the sales increased four times in Ramadan compared to the normal days.

Regarding social responsibility, Al Aker stressed that through the profits of Zakat, Al Aker Sweet pay annually the expenditures of 10 students pursuing higher education through an announcement on social networking site (Facebook) under certain terms and con-ditions. He said that Al Aker Sweet is also contributing to Tafreej Karba donation program run by Qatar Charity , which is now called Taraweeh and is broadcast via the Holy Quran Radio. “We also have ini-tiatives to donate full-day sales amount to affected people in Islamic countries in case of any emergency like what hap-pened in the Gaza War of 2014,” said Al Aker.

The customers at the shop.

Ezdan Holding Group hosts cancer awareness eventTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: As part of awareness campaigns organised by Ezdan Holding Group to its employees, the Group has recently hosted a lecture, in cooperation with Qatar Cancer Society, on cancer threats, means of prevention and the importance of early diag-nosis, which contributes effec-tively to recuperation.

The lecture, delivered by Rahef Wasfi, a health educator at Qatar Cancer Society, focused on the information about cancer causes and means of prevention, as well as the methods of periodic cancer detection exam-ination and their effectiveness in early diagnosis of cancer.

“Globally, cancer is one of

the most serious diseases, so we are keen to launch regular awareness campaigns to fight the disease in Qatar, which address all community groups,” said the representative of Qatar Cancer Society, during the lecture delivered to the employees of

Ezdan Holding Group and its subsidiaries.

Moreover, she pointed out that there are other risk factors for developing cancer, including tobacco smoking, the presence of family history with cancer, exposure to radiation, sunlight and obesity, and non-com-pliance with early cancer detection examination.

For his part, Aali Kassi, Public Relations and Communication Department Manager at Ezdan Holding Group, said, “The running of cancer awareness lecture, which was attended by a number of employees, stems from our deep belief in social responsibility and the Group’s role in creating a culture as well as practices that promote healthy

life style. Also, it is quite important to increase health awareness and edify people about serious diseases that any human may suffer from in addition to the information about their symptoms at an early stage,

which in turn will impact effec-t i v e l y i n c o m p l e t e convalescence.”

Stemming from its belief in being an integral part of the Qatari society and all its seg-ments, Ezdan Holding Group is

striving hard to consolidate this concept through its engagement with all forms of support in com-munity events and initiatives that may serve citizens and expa-triates and contribute to the progress of Qatar.

The participants at the awareness campaign.

National Museum of Qatar launches Youth Ambassadors ForumTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ) has launched its Youth Ambassadors Forum.

The Forum allows the museum to work in collaboration with young people between the ages of 16 and 21 to facilitate informal discussions and work-shops about what kind of engaging programmes young people would like to see at their national museum.

Qatar Museums has dedicated significant resources to engaging young people across the country to nurture creativity and appre-ciation for art through a myriad of education programmes ranging from school visits to teacher training. Gathering insights from NMoQ Youth Ambassadors for how these programmes can better serve them is an extension of this approach. NMoQ is set to give voice to the country’s rich heritage and history whilst celebrating its

future. Exhibitions will combine historic objects and contemporary influences, opening up a dialogue around the impact of rapid

change. Innovative presentation techniques will excite audiences. Those who wish to become part of the story of Qatar and add their

names to the NMoQ Youth Forum mailing list may email their name, age and contact details to nmo-qyouth@qm.org.qa

The participants at the Youth Ambassadors Forum.

HEC Paris partners with Nama and Takatuf for ‘Ruwad’ THE PENINSULA

DOHA: HEC Paris, one of the world’s leading providers of executive education, has collaborated with human capital solutions specialist Takatuf and Oman’s Nama Group to launch the second cohort of the leadership programme ‘Ruwad’ created to meet Nama Group’s commitment to sustainable development in human capital.

Batch 2 of the programme, launched following a suc-cessful cohort 1, was inaugu-rated by Eng. Omar Al Wahaibi, Nama Group CEO, at a cer-emony attended by Eng. Zahir Al Abri, CEO of Mazoon Elec-tricity Company (MZEC) and Eng. Ali Shamas, CEO of Dhofar Power Company (DPC) at Mil-lennium Resort Musanna.

‘Ruwad’, launched in 2014, is one of the developmental initiatives rolled out across Nama Group companies. The key objective of ‘Ruwad’ is to identify employees showing high performance and potential and develop them to become future leaders.

The programme also aims to develop individuals’ capa-bilities and competencies, who are the most promising talents in the Group’s subsidiaries, and to take leadership roles across

the structure.Dr Nils Plambeck, Dean

and CEO, HEC Paris in Qatar, said: “It is an honor for us to be trusted to work with the future leaders of Nama Group.” During this batch, Nama Institute for Competency Development (NICD), member of Nama Group, will execute the programme in partnership with Takatuf, Oman’s leading Human Capital solutions, and HEC Paris.

The objective of part-nership is to offer unique cus-tomised and powerful lead-ership programme and learning experience that includes case studies with real business challenges. The Pro-gramme will run on modules until October 2018.

Sheikh Ibrahim Al Harthi, Takatuf Managing Director, said “Takatuf is very proud to be part of this partnership which is a strong step forward toward achieving Nama vision to become a leading reference in the region.

The curriculum for this training programme was designed, keeping in mind the needs and objectives of Nama and aims to meet the same by focusing on leadership com-petencies and skill devel-opment of their next gener-ation leaders.”

Mwani Qatar holds daily Iftar for workersQatar Ports Management Company, Mwani Qatar, in cooperation with Qatar Charity, has set up a Ramadan tent to serve daily Iftar for workers in Hamad Port as part of its social responsibility initiatives and continuing efforts to develop local communities. Fast-breaking meals will be served to more than 200 people. Mwani Qatar’s Iftar gathering, which is being organised for the second consecutive year, reflects its commitment towards humanitarian and charitable causes to strengthen social values.

Ezdan Holding Group has recently hosted a lecture, in cooperation with Qatar Cancer Society, on cancer threats, means of prevention and the importance of early diagnosis.

05WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018 HOME

Qatar Executive unveils stand at Europe aviation show THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Executive, the private jet charter division of award-winning Qatar Airways, this week unveiled a brand new stand at Europe’s leading business aviation show EBACE (stand #B089) at Palexpo, Geneva, in order to welcome the hundreds of guests expected to visit and hear about its latest developments. It was started yesterday and will continue until tomorrow

The division, the largest operator of Gulfstream G650ER aircraft in the world, has wit-nessed a dramatic surge in

growth over the last year as it caters to a growing private, cor-porate and celebrity client base around the world with its wholly-owned fleet of luxurious business jets, featuring some of most technologically advanced aircraft in the sky.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, said: “We are delighted to once again take part in EBACE, Europe’s leading business aviation show, this year with a brand new stand to welcome our guests and highlight our rapid expansion plans. Over the last year, our private jet charter division, has witnessed

significant growth in response to increased demand from clients who demand the very

best, supported by the world’s most modern and efficient air-craft, and complemented by

luxurious interior fittings and a world-leading service, both on the ground and in the air”.

The private jet division will also promote its growing fleet of G650ER aircraft, the world’s fastest ultra-long range business jet and the technolog-ically most advanced aircraft in its category, which Qatar Exec-utive first received in 2015 as Global Launch Customer. Qatar Executive is set to receive another two G650ER aircraft before end 2019, in addition to a further seven G500 jets.

This will bring the Qatar Executive Gulfstream fleet to a total of 13 aircraft, out of a

complete fleet of 21 state-of-the art jets.

Qatar Executive will also highlight its growing product offering across air charter services, aircraft management, maintenance and Fixed-Based Operation services, as it opens two dedicated offices this year in both Shanghai and Moscow. In addition, the division will speak of its growing markets around the world, specifically Asia, Russia and Europe, sup-ported by a seamless and pas-senger focused service, and the reassurance the world over of a dedicated maintenance support unit.

ROTA launches Ramadan 2018 Project THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Education Above All (EAA) Foundation’s programme, Reach Out to Asia (ROTA), has launched its Ramadan 2018 Project “Sharing Hope”, bringing together male and female local volunteers to support vulnerable commu-nities in Qatar, in line with the principles of community service and giving back during the holy month of Ramadan.

ROTA Ramadan 2018 Project builds eleven years of supporting members of the local community through activ-ities that connect volunteers with the wider community and give them the opportunity to learn new skills and increase their awareness of the value of community service and volunteerism.

This year’s project theme “Sharing Hope” was inspired by its main initiative that focuses on renovating HOPE Qatar, a school in Al Maamoura in Doha serving children with special needs.

ROTA Volunteers will

scrape and paint the border wall and exterior of the building then assist contractors to install artificial grass, playground equipment and sun shades. The project aims to give the school a much needed facelift and con-tribute to creating a child-friendly and conducive learning environment.

From its end, “HOPE Qatar” will introduce ROTA volunteers to the school and provide the opportunity to engage with stu-dents and enjoy a practical edu-cational experience. ROTA will also take the partnership further as ROTA-EAA Volun-teers plan to provide a unique Garangaou experience for a group of 25 children from “HOPE Qatar”.

Established in 2005, “HOPE Qatar” delivers education to children living with a variety of disabilities. The mission of HOPE is to provide help, oppor-tunity, participation, and edu-cation (HOPE) to differently abled children and young adults, enabling them to enhance their abilities to overcome their challenges; a

vision shared by ROTA which believes in engaging young people and other community members in addressing educa-tional and development chal-lenges both at home and abroad.

“The holy month of Ramadan is a very special time of the year for ROTA volunteers. Our annual holy Ramadan project reflects the true spirit of this holy month in providing

practical help to various seg-ments in the community, while demonstrating the importance of volunteering and the value of making a meaningful contri-bution to a better society”, said Mohammed Saleh, Director of National Programmes at ROTA.

In addition to the HOPE Qatar school renovation, ROTA will also hold several Iftar gath-erings for various community partners.

Participants during a session at the launch of ROTA’s Ramadan 2018 Project “Sharing Hope”.

QIC hosts corporate Suhoor event THE PENINSULA

D O H A : Q a t a r Insurance Group, Qatar’s leading insurer, recently hosted a corporate Suhoor event to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan.

The event that was held at Sheraton in West Bay was attended by staff of QIC Group, Beema and their family members. The event was graced with the attendance of senior management.

The Suhoor which is a regular feature of QIC’s cal-endar of events serves an excellent platform to strengthen relation between employees and share the spirit of Ramadan. Offering tribute to its Qatari lineage, QIC Group’s annual Suhoor highlights Qatar’s rich heritage, hospitality and traditional Ramadan cele-brations that have been

preserved and are followed for generations.

The event also featured a lucky draw which gave the attendees a chance to win exciting prizes.

Ali Fadala (pictured), Senior Deputy Group President & CEO QIC Group, stated: “At QIC the annual corporate Suhoor helps to connect and enhance our relation with our multinational staff and their family members. We celebrate and share good times, build on our team spirit and enjoy the festivities in full swing.”

06 WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018HOME

Class X CBSE examination results Birla Public School

MES Indian School

Ideal Indian School

DPS-Modern Indian School

Doha Modern Indian School

Noble International School

Shantiniketan Indian School

DOHA: Class X results were announced by the CBSE yesterday and as usual Birla Public School has earned hundred percent pass. The eleventh batch consisted of 377 students. Karunya Jayavel emerged as the topper of the school by scoring 97.60% and Riya Mahajan is second with 97.20% and Rithika Pillai stood third with 97.00%.

DOHA: MES Indian School produced record breaking results in the Class X CBSE Examination held in March 2018 with top score of 98.2%. A total of 594 students appeared for the Board Exami-nation and the school has secured 100 percent pass. Mary Gloria and Kalyani Mohan Kumari Thankam scored 491 (98.2%) to emerge as school toppers, closely followed by Anjana C K with 487 (97.4%) and Gaadha Vinukumar with 486 (97.2%) for the second and third positions respectively.

DOHA: Ideal Indian School consistently recorded hundred percent success in the Class X CBSE examinations held this year. As many as 170 students out of 324 who appeared for the examination got a distinction (75% and above) and 109 students scored First Class (60% and above).

DOHA: Another outstanding performance from DPS students in Class X CBSE Examinations (2017-18) with 100 % pass result. Malika Satyendra Dikshit topped the CBSE Class X Board Exam in DPS-MIS with 99% aggregate percentage followed by Olima Faisal Konath securing 98.4 %, Najah Ismail securing 97.6%, Muhammad Hamzah securing 97% and Suchitra Senthil securing 96%.

DOHA: Shantiniketan Indian School has attained a 100% pass percentage with 15 students securing 90% and above in all subjects; 41 students securing 80% and above; 70 students scoring 70% and above in aggregate. SIS high achievers are: Hamna Muslihuddeen (95.20%), Shazia Shanavas (94.20%), Kevin Kurian Alex (94%), and Kaniz Fathma Sinethyah (93.60%).

DOHA: As many as 23 students out of the 80 students, who appeared for the exam, scored 90% and above.

DOHA: The first batch of Noble International School, Doha came out with an applaudable result in the 10th board examination of CBSE. Most of the students of Noble secured glorious results by scoring the best marks and A1 grades.

BPS TOPPERS

IIS TOPPERS

DPS-MIS TOPPERS

DMIS TOPPERS

MES TOPPERS

MES TOPPERS

SIS TOPPERS

SIS TOPPERS

Kalyani Mohan Kumari Thankam

Fathia Ashraf

Shazia Shanavas

Acksa Raichel Joseph

Mary Gloria

Mohammed Shamim

Hamna Muslihuddeen

Somya Joshi

Saanvi Sudesh

Anagha Dileep

Muhammad Hamzah

Saad Bin Safeer

Rithika Pillai

Nouman Imran

Najah Ismail

Charisma Kausar

Riya Mahajan

Gaadha Vinukumar

Olima Faisal Konath

Kaniz Fathma Sinethyah

Karunya Jayavel

Anjana C K

Malika Satyendra Dikshit

Kevin Kurian Alex

07WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

The Director of the National Youth Service (NYS), Richard Ndubai, is handcuffed following preliminary hearing in the Milimani Court in Nairobi, yesterday, after he and the principal secretary of the youth ministry, as well as 18 others were arrested the day before in dawn raids.

Smoke billowing in the background following an Israeli air strike on the Palestinian coastal enclave in Gaza, yesterday.

Tensions soar as Israel hits dozens of Gaza targetsAFP

GAZA CITY: Israel said it struck dozens of militant targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in response to a barrage of mortar and rocket fire from the Pales-tinian enclave in the most severe military flare-up since a 2014 war.

Separately yesterday morning, Palestinians launched boats from Gaza to protest Israel’s blockade of the strip in what they said would be a peaceful demonstration.

Israeli forces later stopped and seized the main protest boat as it approached the blockade limit at nine nautical miles, while others were said to have turned back.

Yesterday’s incidents came after weeks of deadly unrest along the Gaza-Israel border.

Three Israeli soldiers were wounded in the day’s violence, one moderately and two lightly, according to the army. There were no immediate reports of any casualties in Gaza.

Early in the day, some 28 mortar shells were fired towards Israel from the Gaza Strip, with Israel saying most were inter-cepted by its air defence systems but leaving residents in the area on high alert and remaining close to bomb shelters.

One mortar shell exploded near a kindergarten building, a

military spokesman said, causing damage to the structure. No children were there at the time.

It was the largest barrage fired from Gaza targeting Israel since a 2014 war, and Israel’s response would also be the biggest since then.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a forceful response after the initial mortar barrage.

“Israel takes a grave view of the attacks on it and its commu-nities by Hamas and Islamic Jihad from the Gaza Strip,” he said.

“The IDF will respond to these attacks powerfully,” he added during a conference in northern Israel, referring to the Israeli army.

Shortly after Netanyahu spoke, Israel’s military began carrying out air strikes in Gaza. Explosions shook the Palestinian enclave and smoke rose from areas targeted.

At least one base belonging to Hamas and four for Islamic Jihad, an allied group, were struck, security sources in Gaza

said. Later in the day, further rockets or mortar rounds were intercepted by Israel from Gaza, the army said. It alleged some of the mortar rounds fired throughout the day were sup-plied by Iran.

Israel’s military said it responded by hitting more than 35 “military targets” throughout the day, including a tunnel that stretched into its territory, weapons storage facilities and militant bases.

Israel’s military said it was not seeking an escalation, but warned Hamas, with whom it has fought three wars since 2008. “They have the ability, the control and the power to escalate or to deescalate the sit-uation, to rein in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and their own extremist factions in Hamas or to escalate the situation,” said military spokesman Jonathan Conricus.

There was no claim of responsibility for the mortar fire, but there was speculation they were fired by Islamic Jihad in revenge for a recent incident that left three of its members

Early in the day, some 28 mortar shells were fired towards Israel from the Gaza Strip, with Israel saying most were intercepted by its air defence systems but leaving residents in the area on high alert and remaining close to bomb shelters.

dead. Islamic Jihad is the second-largest armed group in Gaza after Hamas, which controls the enclave. Conricus alleged Hamas was also involved.

Hamas said in a statement “what the resistance carried out this morning comes within the framework of the natural right to defend our people”.

“The Israeli occupation bears full responsibility for any upcoming escalation.”

Yesterday’s incidents came after weeks of deadly demonstra-tions and clashes along the Gaza-Israel border, beginning on March 30. The protests have called for Palestinians who fled or were expelled in the 1948 war sur-rounding Israel’s creation to be

allowed to return to their former homes now inside Israel.

They peaked on May 14, when at least 61 Palestinians were killed as tens of thousands of Gazans protested and clashes erupted on the same day of the US transfer of its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Demonstrations and clashes have continued at a low level since then. At least 121 Pales-tinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the unrest.

Israel says its actions are nec-essary to defend its borders and accuses Hamas of encouraging thousands of Palestinians to break through the border and attack Israelis.

But Israel has faced

international criticism and calls for an independent investigation over its use of live fire during the protests and clashes along the border. No Israelis have been killed. The Gaza Strip has been under Israeli blockade for more than a decade, with Israel saying it is necessary to prevent Hamas from obtaining means to attack.

One of the organisers of the boat protest, Issam Hamad, said before the departure that “we are sending a clear message to Israel and the rest of the world that the siege must be lifted.”

“Gazans are fed up with the lives they live,” he said. “This is an absolutely peaceful action. It is not against Israel.”

Kenya civil servants brought to court in handcuffs to face theft chargesREUTERS

NAIROBI: Kenyan authorities brought 24 civil servants and business people to court in handcuffs yesterday to hear charges against them amid an investigation into the theft of nearly $100m of public funds.

The suspects who included the public service ministry’s principal secretary pleaded not guilty to magistrate Douglas Ogoti of charges that relate to stealing at the government’s National Youth Service (NYS).

It is rare for prosecutors to bring such a large group of public officials to court to answer corruption charges. President Uhuru Kenyatta pledged to stamp out graft when he was first elected in 2013 but critics say he has been slow to pursue top officials and ministers. The chief

prosecutor Noordin Mohamed Haji on Monday named 54 people, 40 of them government officials, as due to face charges on counts including abuse of office and conspiracy to commit an eco-nomic crime. Some of those charged remained at large.

The NYS is the state agency that trains young people and deploys them to projects ranging from construction to traffic control. Haji said the investigation by his office and the police revealed that funds were stolen through fictitious invoices for goods such as firewood and stationery and multiple payments on one supplier invoice. “Investigations reveal that there was no procurement whatsoever,” he said, adding that the next stage of the investi-gation would target the alleged role of banks in facilitating illicit cash transfers.

Libyan rivals agree to Dec 10 pollsPARIS: Four Libyan parties agreed on finalizing and adopting a constitution by Sept 16 and on holding presidential and parlia-mentary elections on Dec 10, 2018. Taher el-Sonni, an adviser to the head of Libya’s Tripoli-based UN-backed unity government Fayez al-Sarraj made the announcement on his Twitter account following a UN-sponsored international summit, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, to help resolve the political deadlock in Libya. Sarraj, eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar and the heads of two parliamentary assemblies attended the talks, which aim to draft a roadmap towards elections. The parties also vouched to support the Cairo initiative to “unify Libya’s military”.

Israel seizes control of boat in Gaza blockade protestAFP

GAZA CITY: Israeli forces stopped and seized a Palestinian protest boat yesterday, the army said, as those aboard sought to demonstrate against the Jewish state’s blockade of Gaza.

The boat, carrying sick Gazans and those unable to find work, was stopped

by Israeli forces several miles out at sea. “The Israeli Navy apprehended a

Palestinian boat with approximately 17 Palestinians that attempted to breach the legal naval blockade,” the army said in a statement, saying the incident took place “without exceptional events”.

The boat will be searched and taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod, it added.

Those on board will be questioned and then returned to Gaza, the army added. Protest spokesman Adham abu Salmiya estimated the boat was several miles beyond the nautical blockade imposed on Gaza when it was inter-cepted. “This is the first Palestinian ship to reach this distance since the Oslo Accords,” he said.

Under the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s, fishermen are supposed to be allowed to fish up to 20 nautical miles off the coast. But Israel has restricted that to a maximum of nine miles (14.5 km) in recent years, citing the threat of Gaza’s Islamist rules Hamas.

Organisers said they were seeking to highlight the impact of the blockade

on Gaza’s two million residents. In 2010, Israeli commandos killed

nine Turkish activists when they raided a six-ship flotilla trying to reach the Gaza Strip in defiance of the blockade. Another activist died years later.

The botched raid angered Turkey and saw it cut off ties with Israel until 2016.

Iraq’s Sadr heads to Kuwait for unannounced visitANATOLIA

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Shia political leader Muqtada Al Sadr, whose Sairoon bloc dominated Iraq’s May 12 parliamentary polls, left Iraq for an unannounced visit to Kuwait, where he is expected to meet with senior Kuwaiti officials.

According to a statement issued by Al Sadr’s office, the visit is aimed at “improving relations” between the two countries. The statement did not provide any additional details.

In Iraq’s May 12 polls, Al Sadr’s Sairoon bloc won 54 seats in parliament, followed by a Hashd Al Shaabi-linked coalition (47 seats) and Prime Minister Haidar Al Abadi’s Victory bloc (42 seats).

While this isn’t enough to allow Al Sadr to unilaterally draw up a government, it means the firebrand Shia cleric — known for his oppo-sition to both the US and Iran — will likely play a key role in selecting the country’s next prime minister.

Unlike Iraqi Shia leaders with close ties to Iran, Al Sadr maintains good relations with the Arab Gulf States, which he frequently visits, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

A political source close to the Sairoon bloc told Anadolu Agency that Al Sadr hoped to foster an Iraqi foreign policy based on maintaining a balance between Iran and the Arab Gulf States.

Nigeria to lower age limits for elected officialsLAGOS: Nigeria’s president says he will soon sign a law to lower the age qualifications for elected officials. President Muhammadu Buhari says in a nationwide broadcast to mark the country’s Democracy Day that the new law will lower the minimum age qualification for president from 40 to 35. The age limit for governors and senators will be lowered from 35 to 30. In a country where a majority of citizens are 30 years old or younger, there has been growing clamor for more inclusion in politics.

The president says the law will be signed in a few days.

Syria’s new law discourages return of refugeesAP

BEIRUT: The Syrian government is passing laws to allow itself to seize private property, displace residents, and discourage refugees from returning, Human Rights Watch said in a new report published yesterday.

The New York-based group says a 2018 property law, known as Law 10, empowers author-ities to confiscate property without compensating the owners or giving them an opportunity to appeal.

The Syrian Government passed Law 10 in April to create “redevelopment zones” to rebuild property damaged in seven years of civil war.

In an interview with the Greek newspaper Kathimerini

this month, President Bashar Assad said the law allows authorities to “re-plan the destroyed and the illegal areas,” and said it does not “dispossess anyone.”

A third of Syria’s housing has been destroyed in the last seven years, according to Human Rights Watch. The World Bank says Syria has suffered close to $300 billion in material damage through its war. The government has responded to the challenge in part by authorising local gov-ernments to create public-private partnerships to take ownership of damaged neigh-borhoods and redevelop them.

Under law 10, residents have just 30 days to prove they own property in the redevelopment zones in order to receive shares

in the projects, or the ownership will be transferred to the local government.

Human Rights Watch says there are numerous obstacles keeping residents from making claims to their properties in the 30-day window. It says many owners are displaced Syrians or refugees and cannot return to their local districts for fear of arrest. Many lack the identifi-cation documents that would allow relatives to make claims on their behalf. Only about half of Syrian property was regis-tered with authorities before the war, and many registries were destroyed in the fighting. More than 11 million Syrians have been displaced by war, including more than 5 million who fled across the country’s borders.

Raqqa is exceptionally isolated from the rest of the country, even by the standards of a war that has partitioned Syria among the factions fighting over it.

08 WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018VIEWS

Journey to Raqqa, the former ISIS stronghold in Syria

Raqqa city was once a bus-tling capital of the verdant province of the same name, fought over intensely by the

major players in Syria’s ruinous seven-year civil war.

During that time, Raqqa has changed hands three times; wrested from the Syrian government by rebels first, then taken from the rebels by Islamic State militants, who declared it their capital city. And now, Kurdish and Arab fighters, calling themselves the Syrian Democratic Forces and backed by heavy American air power and Special Forces, routed the militants and, in the process, leveled the city.

Now, none but Raqqa’s people seem to want it. Raqqa is excep-tionally isolated from the rest of the country, even by the standards of a war that has partitioned Syria among the factions fighting over it.

There are no working phone lines and no emergency mobile phone towers in the city.

The people responsible for running Raqqa, a civil council aligned with the SDF, are mostly based nearly two hours away in a town called Ain Issa. It is the admin-istrative center for a city whose resi-

dents can barely afford the costs of traveling there. Members of the council can only com-municate with their counter-parts in Raqqa by meeting in person — driving four hours back and forth, sometimes daily.

Even for me, a well-resourced foreign reporter, the daily journey into Raqqa from

the Kurdish city of Kobane was physically taxing and filled with anxiety, particularly at every security checkpoint. It is a nearly four-hour drive, with Ain Issa marking the halfway point.

For the average resident of

Raqqa, for years confined to the city by the Islamic State’s occupation, the trip is as arduous and as wondrous as going to the other side of the planet.

The mostly Arab residents of Raqqa must endure intense bureaucracy to get permission from the Kurdish-dominated authorities to leave it. Then there’s the drive out of the city, which can be prohibi-tively expensive for people without a car or the means to hire one.

For those able to put it all together, exiting Raqqa can invite culture shock.

Yehia Al Hayoun, a 60-year-old patriarch of a 22-member family, sold everything they owned to raise $25,000 to rebuild their home and restaurant. The kebab spot, called Abu Hayoun, had been in the family for 50 years, and Yehia was deter-mined to bring the two-story res-taurant back to life. All he was missing was some construction materials not available in Raqqa.

He spent weeks securing the paperwork he needed to leave the city and head to Kobane, where a friend had prepared the materials he needed. During the rough, four-hour drive, Yehia watched the land-scape change from the dusty heaps of rubble and twisted metal in Raqqa to the rolling green hills sur-rounding Ain Issa.

Farther east, toward Kobane, he marveled at the bucolic villages visible from the roadway, nestled in valleys where herds of sheep and camels grazed peacefully. The only reminders of the war were the car-avans of American special forces driving along the highway in sand-colored SUVs with huge antennas.

“It was a different world,” he told

me. “In my world, we would sell five or ten kilos of kebab — then shut down for the day because of an air-strike nearby. We got so used to war, we just assumed everyone in the country was living the same way.”

Though cut off from the outside world by the Islamic State’s strict restrictions on satellite television and the Internet, Yehia knew from the Islamic State’s propaganda news bulletins that there had been an “epic” battle in Kobane in 2015. He expected to see something familiar there: rubble and destruction.

He was stunned by what he found. Despite the intensity of the fight in Kobane, the city had picked itself up and put itself back together. The typical markings of war, such as bullet-pocked buildings and cratered roads, didn’t exist.

For years, all we heard was ‘Kobane, Kobane, Kobane’ and here it is. Like nothing happened.”

After 10 days in and around Raqqa, we started our two-day drive to the border between Syria and Iraq. The farther we drove northeast, the more removed our surroundings became from the conflict. The hilly expanses were dotted by farms and busy oil pumps.

But once we reached the border, waiting for a boat to cross the Tigris River from Kurdish Syria into Kurdish Iraq, there was a jarring reminder of yet another one of Syria’s myriad conflicts.

The author is The Washington Post’s Baghdad bureau chief. Before joining The Post in 2017, he covered the Middle East for the Wall Street Journal, focusing on North Africa and Iraq.

TAMER EL GHOBASHY THE WASHINGTON POST

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Democracy is not only about one side enforcing its insults,

swearwords, and lies, but is also about taking

into consideration other side’s opinions

and sensitivities.

Mevlut Cavusoglu Turkey’s Foreign Minister

Gains from Japan-Russia ties must lead to progress in talks

It is vital to squarely look at the reality in which no progress has been made in Japan-Russia territorial

talks despite a political agreement earlier reached between the two nations regarding the matter. Tangible achievements should be accu-mulated in this respect through multifaceted efforts.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin have held talks in Moscow. Their meeting fol-lowed similar talks last November, and it was the first of its kind since Putin was re-elected in the presidential election. The recent talks were the latest of a total of 21 meetings that they have held.

The two leaders agreed that private business operators engaged in such operations as the cultivation of marine products will be selected in connection with joint eco-nomic activities on the northern territories, followed by a plan to dispatch a research team there this summer.

They also agreed that former island residents and

others will visit graves there by plane this year, too. Such visits were realised for the first time last year.

“We have renewed our resolve to steadily advance toward a peace treaty,” the prime minister said at a joint press briefing.

The prime minister sought to draw a road map for resolving the territorial row at a summit meeting in December 2016. However, the reality is that there has been no smooth progress as desired since then.

The two nations face a stalemate regarding a “special system” on which joint eco-nomic activities will be based, because Russia has persisted in applying its domestic law to these activities. Accepting Russia’s assertion means acknowledging its sovereignty over the northern territories - something Japan cannot accept.

The special system was proposed by Japan, which suggested creating a new scheme by studying an agreement that permits Jap-anese fishing operations in waters near the four islands and applying it to land-based activities.

It may be advisable not to apply the system to the islands as a whole, but to consider devising a method by which the two countries would lay down a legal system regarding each project.

The current decline in US-Russia relations is also throwing a shadow over the situation. Russia is wary about a situation in which US forces may be stationed on the islands after the terri-tories are returned to Japan. It is necessary for the gov-ernment to convince Russia that the issue is a matter of Japanese sovereignty and gain understanding from that country.

By showing achieve-ments that can be gained through bilateral cooper-ation, the prime minister must continue to persistently tell Russia that settling the territorial matter and con-cluding a peace treaty will benefit Russia.

Two years have passed since the prime minister pro-posed an eight-point eco-nomic cooperation plan, the central pillar of which would seek such goals as industrial promotion in the Russian Far

East. A rehabilitation center has been completed in Vladivostok.

At the press briefing, Putin said, “Cooperation with Japan is smoothly developing.” It is important to promote confi-dence-building between the two nations through steady cooperation.

Russia has been subject to European and US sanctions over such issues as its annex-ation of the Crimean Peninsula. Japan should urge Russia to act responsibly as a member of the international community.

North Korea’s denucleari-zation is an extremely important issue to Japan and Russia.

It was significant for the prime minister and Putin to agree on a policy of supporting a summit meeting between the United States and North Korea. The prime minister called on Putin for cooper-ation in resolving the abduction problem, and he gained understanding from the president.

Japan and Russia must continue to facilitate recip-rocal communication in dealing with these issues.

Qatar in fact has become a role model in the region when it comes to human or workers rights. For years, Qatar has been introducing multiple reforms and new laws to safeguard rights of migrant workers

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

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

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

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

International recognition

Qatar’s sincere and consistent steps, taken both by introducing new pieces of legislations and implementing them, regarding safeguarding

migrant workers rights are winning international rec-ognition. In the recent years Qatar has introduced a number of new laws to protect the welfare of migrant workers who are either engaged in country’s dozens of mega infrastructure projects or doing any job in any capacity in Qatar.

A delegation of visiting Indonesian senators have appreciated Qatari government for introducing a new labour law to safeguard the migrant workers in Qatar. They expressed their appreciation in a meeting with Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs, H E Dr Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi in Doha the other day.

Qatar in fact has become a role model in the region when it comes to human or workers rights. For years, Qatar has been introducing multiple reforms and new laws to safeguard rights of migrant workers and raising country’s existing standards to meet international

standards for the protection of rights of foreign workers.

In April this year, the International Labor Organ-ization (ILO) office was opened in Qatar, which was the first step in imple-menting the technical coop-eration agreement signed between the government of the State of Qatar and ILO in October 2017.

T h e t h r e e - y e a r agreement aims at pro-moting labour laws in the country and build gov-ernment officials’ capacity to implement them and ensure that recruitment practices are in line with b e s t i n t e r n a t i o n a l practices.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the office, the Minister of Administrative

Development, Labour and Social Affairs, H E Dr Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi had said that the State of Qatar held a pioneering position in the region with regards to labour rights. “The technical expertise and directives that the ILO will provide will be of high importance, especially that Qatar is in transition to adopt a modern work system that meets the best standards, not only among the GCC countries, but also around the world,” he had said.

In October 2017, the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs had signed 36 bilateral agreements and five Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with the countries sending labor, in order to provide basic legal protection for expa-triate workers before bringing them to the State of Qatar.

The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, Qatar Foundation and other organisations has also taken numerous steps for the welfare of migrant workers and the world is praising those steps.

THE JAPAN NEWS

With about 15 months until the next election is due, the 43-year-old leftist leader has already timed Greece’s exit from its third international bailout for this summer in the hope that this will start to bolster his currently poor poll ratings.

09WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018 OPINION

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Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed &survival of ruling EPRDF

With eye on re-election, Greek PM rolls dice on Macedonia

YOHANNES GEDAMU AL JAZEERA

RENEE MALTEZOU REUTERS

Over the last three years, pro-testers across Ethiopia have been demanding political and economic changes and

voicing their frustrations with gov-ernment policies. Earlier this year, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Dem-ocratic Front (EPRDF), the coalition that has been ruling the country for 27 years, finally realised that this latest episode of popular unrest will not settle without the government introducing major changes.

Thus, the coalition unveiled a reform agenda focusing on the need to broaden

the political space, to release political prisoners, and listen to voices of oppo-sition. As a show of commitment to the demands of the people to end the political violence and pave the way for the implementation of the reform agenda, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced his resignation on February 15.

After a month of suspense and uncertainty, Abiy Ahmed, a young tech-nocrat from the establishment took his seat. Ahmed’s ascent to political power ensued amid visible intra-party tensions that exposed the deep divisions in the otherwise secretive EPRDF coalition.

In the absence of a strong and credible opposition — due to the EPRDF’s decades-long repression of political dissent — Ethiopians pinned their hopes on the new premier and his broad political appeal even though he himself is part of the ruling coalition they have long been protesting against.

Ahmed came to power with huge fanfare. Although the regional state of Oromia and the party that administers the region, the Oromo Peoples Democratic Organisation (OPDO), are considered to be the new premier’s main political power base, Ethiopians from the country’s second-largest region, Amhara, and its administrators from the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), also pro-

vided their full support to Ahmed.The OPDO and the ANDM are two of

the political parties that make up the four-party ruling coalition, and they enjoy massive political capital that comes with the responsibility of admin-istering the two most populous and resourceful regions in the country’s federal arrangement.

Until recently, however, these two political parties were unable to exercise their political power at the federal level. The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a political party that led the way in the creation of the EPRDF, was instead dominating the ruling coalition and con-trolling the security apparatus of the state.

For a long time, the OPDO and the ANDM were blamed for failing to foster unity between Oromos and Amharas. Recently, however, they united their efforts to bring an end to the TPLF’s domination of the ruling coalition and are now lauded for reigniting the once weakened Ethiopian nationalism among their supporters.

By working together, the political elite within these two parties managed to garner wide popular support. Ahmed’s rise to political power was the direct result of the change in attitude within these two political parties.

Understanding the rising ethnic ten-sions and mistrust between regional elites that became evident in the last two decades, the new premier adopted a reconciliatory tone. Through these dis-cussions, Ahmed has managed to further reinvigorate Ethiopian nation-alism and utilise it as a uniting force. For many Ethiopians who were disillu-sioned by the divisive ethnic politics of the last two decades and even ques-tioned the fate of the nation, his nation-alist rhetoric has aroused new optimism.

Since taking office, Ahmed has also secured the release of thousands of Ethi-opians imprisoned — a move that attests to his commitment to revive Ethiopian nationalism and protect citizens wherever they are. However, Ahmed is still not immune to criticism.

Ethnic Amharas remain targets of brutal killings and evictions in a region known as Benishangul Gumuz. The fate of tens of thousands of ethnic Oromos, who have been internally displaced since they were evicted from Ethiopia’s Somali region, is still unclear as there are no signs for a return to normalcy.

Ahmed has condemned these injus-tices, but he is yet to take concrete steps to address them. Perpetrators of these crimes are still enjoying impunity, as none of them has been brought to justice or even questioned.

Furthermore, despite the relative calm in the country, extrajudicial killings of people still continue. Ahmed’s admin-istration still has a long way to go in reassuring citizens and investors alike that calm is fully restored in Ethiopia.

Despite the cautious optimism that Ahmed’s assumption of the prime min-ister’s post brought, Ethiopia has still not embarked on a true transition to democracy.

To this day, the most important goal of the ruling EPRDF is its own survival. Under late-Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the EPRDF survived internal divisions stemming from the way the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea ended.

The coalition also survived an elec-toral defeat in 2005. It did so by impris-oning the leaders of the opposition parties which won the vote and by clamping down on protests.

After Zenawi’s death in 2012, many in Ethiopia once again questioned the EPRDF’s chances of survival. But the coalition managed to stay in power even after Zenawi’s passing, thanks to what they referred to as “the emergence of collective leadership”.

Having Ahmed assume the position of prime minister is yet another survival strategy by the EPRDF. What the years of protests and opposition activism managed to achieve was have the four political parties within the EPRDF come to a consensus that limiting the domi-nance of the TPLF within the coalition is key to their collective survival.

Unfortunately, this would not neces-sarily translate into efforts to broaden the political space in the country at large. Reforms enacted by the gov-ernment thus far, the release of notable political prisoners and talks with the weakened opposition groups do not necessarily indicate that a roadmap for democratisation will emerge. Although some Oromo political leaders from the diaspora have returned home, others haven’t and the gov-ernment has not taken the initiative to engage them.Ahmed needs to make good on his promises and invite the opposition leaders in the diaspora back home.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is taking a big gamble in trying to settle a decades-old name dispute

with neighbouring Macedonia which could backfire in a pre-election year among voters already jaded by his economic austerity policies.

With about 15 months until the next election is due, the 43-year-old leftist leader has already timed Greece’s exit from its third interna-tional bailout for this summer in the hope that this will start to bolster his currently poor poll ratings.

Despite trailing the main oppo-sition conservatives by up to 20 percentage points in polls, Tsipras has now also opted to go where all his predecessors have failed, by personally reviving efforts to resolve the name dispute with Macedonia. “He is determined to solve it,” said a government official.

Athens rejects Macedonia’s right to use that name, saying it amounts to a territorial claim on a northern Greek province of the same name and also represents an attempt by the tiny ex-Yugoslav republic to appropriate Greek history and culture.

Successive Greek governments have blocked Macedonia’s bid to join NATO and the European Union over the name dispute, which is of existential importance to Greek nationalists.

In February, hundreds of thou-sands of Greeks took to the streets of Athens over the issue, a bigger turnout than even the biggest pro-tests held to oppose painful aus-terity measures imposed by Tsipras under pressure from Greece’s creditors.

“If a deal is done it would be a bonus. He will say ‘I pulled you out of bailouts, I settled the Skopje question’. That way he might make up for other losses,” an official from

his Syriza party told Reuters on con-dition of anonymity.

Skopje is the capital of Mace-donia, a mainly Slavic state with a large ethnic Albanian minority which won its independence from Belgrade in 1991 as Yugoslavia dis-solved into civil war.

Cracking the Macedonia riddle would earn Tsipras kudos in the European Union and the United States, long impatient with what they perceive as Greek obduracy over the name, which they see as destabilising for the Balkans. Clearing Macedonia’s path into Nato and the EU would also help check growing Russian influence in the region, they say.

The clock is ticking towards an EU summit in late June where most member states want to extend a formal invitation to Macedonia to start accession talks, and a Nato summit in early July, where Greece’s allies also back Macedonian membership.

However, political analysts say it would be a big risk for Tsipras, whose Syriza party has already seen its support slide amid harsh fiscal reforms, record unem-ployment and pension cuts which have left a third of all Greeks living in poverty.

“There is still a zero-sum men-tality (among Greeks) on this name issue,” said Kostas Ifantis, an asso-ciate professor of international rela-tions at the Panteion University in Athens.

“It’s an issue which involves history and symbols, and ... a com-promise is very difficult in this case,” he said.

Among compromise names pro-posed over the years are Nova (new) Macedonia, Vardar Macedonia (named after a river), Upper Mace-donia and, most recently, Ilinden Macedonia, but most Greek political parties reject any use of the name Macedonia, even with descriptive tags.

Those parties include both

In the absence of a strong and credible opposition — due to the EPRDF’s decades-long repression of political dissent — Ethiopians pinned their hopes on the new premier and his broad political appeal even though he himself is part of the ruling coalition they have long been protesting against.

Tsipras’s coalition partner, the Independent Greeks, and the main opposition New Democracy party, currently tipped to win most votes in the 2019 election.

New Democracy was also burned by the Macedonia issue when in power in the mid-1990s. A split between moderates and hardliners toppled the gov-ernment of then-Prime Minister Constantinos Mitsotakis, and many of those who broke ranks then are now back in the party fold.

Now led by Mitsotakis’s son, Kyriakos, the party takes an uncompromising public stance on the name issue, but observers say the same divisions which existed in the 1990s persist.

Some analysts even suggest Tsipras is primarily motivated in his name diplomacy by a desire to split New Democracy.

“It is a gamble which was not taken with the aim of closing an open diplomatic problem that troubles the country but as a tool to divide, at least initially, the opposition,” Ifantis said.

In weekend consultations over the name, Tsipras failed to secure the support of any opposition party for the ‘Ilinden Macedonia’ proposal.

But for all the risks, a reso-lution of the name dispute could still ultimately help to boost Tsipras’s popularity, said Costas Panagopoulos, head of the Alco polling agency.

“There will be reactions from the opposition, regardless of the name, this is clear,” said Pan-agopoulos. “But in the long-term, a solution, despite the opposition and the initial protests... could not hurt Tsipras.”

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addresses lawmakers during a parliamentary session in Athens, Greece.

10 WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018ASIA

IANS

NEW DELHI: Top India and Pakistan army commanders yesterday spoke over a special hotline contact and committed to peace on the borders in Jammu and Kashmir amid persistent crackling of gunfire and mounting casualties on both sides.

“The hotline mechanism was initiated by Pakistan Director General Military Oper-ations (DGMO) Maj. Gen. Sahir Shamshad Mirza at 6pm with his Indian counterpart Lt.Gen. Anil Chauhan.

“Both the DGMOs reviewed the prevailing situation along the Line of Control and Inter-national Border in Jammu and Kashmir,” an army spokes-person said.

Lt.Gen. Chauhan, the spokesperson said, “agreed with the proposal (from his Pakistani counterpart) to undertake sincere measures to improve the existing situation to ensure peace and avoidance of hardships to the civilians along the borders”.

They agreed to “fully implement” the 2003 ceasefire agreement “in letter and spirit” and ensure the truce was not violated. “It was also mutually

agreed that in case of any issue, restraint will be exercised and the matter will be resolved through utilisation of existing mechanisms of hotline contacts and border flag meetings at local commanders’ level.”

The Pakistan Army in an identical statement said a special hotline contact was established with the Indian DGMO “to ensure the ceasefire will not be violated by both sides”.

The latest DGMO level talks came after repeated ceasefire violations on the borders in Jammu and Kashmir that caused many civilian casualties earlier this month.

Similar talks were held between the two countries on April 27.

India, Pakistan armies discuss peace on border

A firefighter works to douse the fire inside a warehouse caused by a truck in New Delhi, yesterday. The fire broke out in a truck which was loaded with plastic material near the rubber godown, no casualties have been reported according to an official.

Wreaking havoc

IANS

NEW DELHI: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) yesterday said it was sending a fact-finding team to Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu to probe the circumstances in which 13 protesters demanding the closure of the Sterlite copper smelter plant were killed in police firing on May 22.

The NHRC move come after a petition by advocate A Rajarajan before the Delhi High Court on May 25, seeking the

intervention of the commission in probing the death of civilians in police shooting.

The NHRC’s Director General, Investigation, was asked to depute a team headed by an officer, not below the rank of Senior Superintendent of Police, assisted by three more officers of the rank of Deputy SP and Inspectors from its investi-gation division.

The team will record state-ments of witnesses including family members of the victims and submit a report to the

Commission. The Commission has observed that its instant direction in the matter is inde-pendent of the directions already given by it to the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu after taking suo motu cognizance of the incident on the basis of media reports.

They have been asked to submit detailed reports in the matter along with status of the treatment being provided to the persons who were injured in police firing within two weeks.

NHRC to probe Thoothukudi firing

IANS

BENGALURU: Karnataka film distributors and exhibitors have decided not to screen Rajinikanth-starrer “Kaala” in theatres across the state to protest the superstar’s stand on the Cauvery River water row with Tamil Nadu, said a Kannada film industry official yesterday.

“In view of the public outrage

over Rajinikanth’s recent remarks on the setting up of a Cauvery Management Board, distributors and exhibitors have decided not to screen any version his movie ‘Kaala’ in any theatre in the state, and we welcome it,” Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) President, Sa Ra Govindu, said.

Clarifying that the Kannada film industry was not against

Rajinikanth, who hails from Ben-galuru, Govindu said there was no ban on the new Tamil film.

But the fraternity had decided to support the decision not to screen it to avoid precipitating the issue and respect public sen-timent against his views on the inter-state river water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, he said.

“Though the distributors and

exhibitors would have invested a lot in buying the rights of the film months before its release, we appreciate their decision not to screen it in the largest public interest and to maintain peace in the state,” said Govindu.

The film has been dubbed in Telugu and Hindi for an all-India release on June 7 and its trailer has received over 2 million hits and views already. Many

pro-Kannada organisations have also urged the KFCC to prevent the film’s release in the state, especially in Bengaluru, which has a sizeable Tamil population, as Rajinikanth’s political stand on the Cauvery issue was against Karnataka’s interest.

They have been making calls to boycott films of Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan, another Tamil superstar, in the state ever since

they began airing their views on the Cauvery issue in favour of Tamil Nadu. “We will not allow release of any old or new films of Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan until they apologize and withdraw their remarks, which are against our interests in the sharing of the Cauvery water with Tamil Nadu and other states,” Kannada Cha-luvali Vatal Paksha President Vatal Nagaraj told reporters here.

Rajinikanth’s ‘Kaala’ won’t be screened in Karnataka

Railway officials and policemen inspect a damaged carriage after a fire incident took place in a long distance train parked at the yard of Chatrapati Shivaji Terminal (CST), in Mumbai, yesterday.

IANS

NAGPUR: In a freak incident, a wheel of the speeding Gora-khpur-Yashwantpur Express broke into two pieces near here yesterday morning but alert railway staff averted any tragedy, officials said.

The incident came to light after some unusual sounds ema-nated from the wheels and the

driver stopped the train, but by then, it had already run a few kilometres before coming to a safe halt, said Central Railway spokesperson Sunil Udasi.

There are no casualties in the incident, he said, adding that the alert rail staff have been felicitated for their work.

“The affected coach was dis-connected, the passengers deboarded and accommodated

in an alternative coach before the train departed for its onward journey,” Top officials described the incident as “unheard of” in Indian Railways.

“This is the rarest cases of wheel defect. It’s a matter of detailed investigation and lab-oratory test of materials has been ordered,” said Railway Board’s Director, Media, Ved Prakash

Accident averted after wheel of express train breaks into pieces

Storms leave at least 47 dead; temperatures mountAFP

NEW DELHI: Fierce storms which swept across northern India have killed at least 47, taking the death toll from freak weather over the past month to several hundred, officials said yesterday.

The storms and lightning strikes toppled walls and power pylons or electrocuted victims, as temperatures in India rose as high as 48.6 Celsius (119.5 Fahrenheit). Dis-aster management officials in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand said 47 people had died in night-time storms that swept across the region.

Bihar was the worst hit, pounded by strong winds and thunderbolts.

“At least 19 people have been confirmed dead. 11 of them due to lightning,” Yoginder Singh, a Bihar state disaster management official, said. The wild weather extended into neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, where winds of up to 70km an hour buffeted India’s most populous state.

“Fifteen people were killed by overnight lightning and high-speed winds,” said T P Gupta of the Uttar Pradesh dis-aster management department.

Another 10 people were injured, some with burns after being struck by lightning, he added.

Many people in rural India sleep outdoors in summer to escape the searing heat, making them more vulnerable to storms.

Nearly 200 people have died in Uttar Pradesh this month in powerful sandstorms. Scores have died in other states.

In Jharkhand east of Bihar, 13 people died and six were injured in violent weather overnight, said Sushil Kumar, the head of the state’s disaster management department.

The Indian Meteorological Department has warned that more storms and heavy rain could hit Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the next two days.

Extreme heat has also gripped many parts of India, with a high of 48.6 degree Celsius recorded Monday in Khajuraho in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

In Delhi and much of northern India, daytime tem-peratures have been above 40 Celsius for the the past week.

Weather experts said there would be some respite this week after the annual monsoon season began in the southern state of Kerala on Tuesday. The monsoon will gradually move north.

Storms are customary during the summer months but the intensity and death toll has been higher than normal this year.

IANS

JAKARTA: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here to a ceremonial welcome on the first leg of three-nation tour of Southeast Asia that will also see him visiting Malaysia and Singapore.

Styating that reinvigor-ating ties with a maritime neighbour, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted that Modi was accorded a cere-monial welcome on his first ever visit to Indonesia.

“India and Indonesia share millennia old contacts driven by merchants and reli-gious figures sailing across the Indian Ocean during monsoon,” Raveesh Kumar said. In a pre-departure statement in New Delhi on Monday, Modi said he was “confident that my visit to Indonesia, Malaysia and Sin-gapore will provide a further boost to our Act East Policy and enhance our relations and engagements with all the three countries”.

Modi will hold a bilateral summit with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on May 30. He will also address members of the Indian com-munity in Indonesia.

On May 31, Modi will make a brief stopover in Malaysia on his way from Indonesia to Singapore to meet newly elected Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Modi arrives in Indonesia

IANS

NEW DELHI: An undertrial gangster was injured yesterday when a juvenile from a rival gang opened fire at him at the crowded Tis Hazari court here, police said. The accused was taken into custody and the weapon recovered.

“The accused belongs to Tillu gang. Riding on a scooty, he came with his gang member to attack the under-trial, Dinesh, from Gogi gang,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police, North, Jatin Narwal, adding the age of the accused was being verified.

“He fired one shot at Dinesh around 1.15pm when the latter was sitting in a Haryana Police bus parked in the area of the lock-up vehicles near Gate Number 2 of the court,” said Narwal.

The accused, he said, was apprehended after being chased on the road outside the court but his partner ran away. Dinesh was brought to the court from Rohtak jail to be produced in the court in a robbery case.

“It was a result of an inter-gang rivalry. The inves-tigation in the case is on,” the officer said. Delhi Bar Asso-ciation President Naresh Chand Gupta said that while an inquiry was ordered in the case, however, “such inci-dents keep happening.”

Gangster injured in firing at Delhi court

Parked train catches fire

The Pakistan Army in an identical statement said a special hotline contact was established with the Indian DGMO “to ensure the ceasefire will not be violated by both sides”.

11WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018 ASIA

INTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: Days before handing over power to an interim government, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has stressed the revival of the economy as his party’s legacy.

Giving an overview of what his party inherited five years ago with latest economic conditions at a news conference along with Finance Minister Miftah Ismail yesterday, Abbasi said the $231bn national economy had a 3.68 percent growth rate in 2012-13 which increased to $313bn in 2018 with latest

growth rate of 5.8 percent. The growth rate of industry stood at 0.75 percent five years ago com-pared to 5.8 percent now while the large-scale manufacturing was growing at 3.53 percent in 2012-13 against 5.9 percent now.

The Prime Minister said the agriculture sector recorded a 13-year high growth of 3.81 percent this year compared to 2.68 percent in 2012-13 while 9-month agriculture credit improved from Rs259bn in 2012-13 to Rs736bn in 2017-18.

The production of wheat, rice, maize and sugarcane increased significantly while cotton production dropped in five years.

The prime minister said cotton ginning had posted a decline of 2.9 percent in 2012-13 while it grew at 8.72 percent during current year while inflation was down from 7.75

percent to 3.77 percent at present with all its components on the down side at present.

Abbasi said the export sector faced challenges over the past four years but got back to $20.6bn mark this year compared to $20.55bn of 2012-13. The remit-tance had increased from $11.75bn to $16.26bn, up 40pc, FDI jumped from $860m to $2.2bn and foreign exchange reserves were now at $16.23bn compared to $11.62bn five years ago.

The prime minister said that the capital markets suffered after reaching a historic high because of political events, but still managed to grow

considerably and stood at 42,000-point compared to 19,000-point five years ago. He said the FBR collection almost doubled to Rs2.919 trillion com-pared to Rs1.515tr.

Asked as to how the gov-ernment be able to foot a heavy bill with three-month basic salary to all federal government employees, the prime minister said all previous governments used to extend such facilities, three honoraria to one ministry, two to another division and six to yet another but we have allowed a uniform 3-month honoraria to all.

Miftah Ismail later tried to

explain that by this the prime minister did not mean three-month salary to all the federal government employees but a few selected ministries and divi-sions and then hastened to add that since the prime minister’s approval alone was not enough, and the economic coordination committee of the cabinet (ECC) would take a formal decision and bring clarity.

He said secretary of finance had moved a summary seeking different honoraria for finance ministry officials and about 150 members of the FBR who worked day and night on budget.

Pakistan PM claims revival of economy under his govt

Afghan mourners carry the coffin of one of the nine people killed during an overnight raid by Afghan forces in Chaparhar district of Nangarhar province, yesterday.

Nine civilians dead in Afghanistan REUTERS

JALALABAD: At least nine civilians were killed in a night operation by Afghan security forces in the eastern province of Nangarhar late on Monday, officials said, as fighting continued across Afghanistan.

The incident underlines the daily risks facing Afghan civilians as fighting has inten-sified since the Taliban launched its annual spring offensive last month.

The victims included rela-tives of the speaker of the Senate, Fazl Hadi Muslimyar, the

office of the provincial Governor said. Eight people were injured, in addition to the nine killed in the operation in Chapahar dis-trict, outside the provincial capital of Jalalabad, it said. Some local people put the death toll at 12, with 28 wounded.

The latest figures from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan show 763 civilians were killed and 1,495 wounded in the first three months of the year, a similar level to the corresponding periods of the two previous years. The violence has spread across Afghanistan in recent

weeks with heavy fighting in provinces from Badakhshan, Baghlan and Faryab in the north to Farah in the west, where the Taliban briefly threatened to overrun the provincial capital, and Ghazni in the centre.

Yesterday, officials said a district centre in Uruzgan province, on a key transit route from the drug producing regions of Helmand and Kandahar, was under serious threat. Security forces in Chora district in the middle of the province had abandoned the governor’s com-pound and police headquarters but fighting continued.

A Pakistani zoo employee hoses down an elephant on a hot summer day in Islamabad, yesterday.

INTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on the direction of its Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has decided to seek the symbol of ‘sword’ from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The hearing on the appli-cation of the PPP to get a symbol of ‘sword,’ which was submitted by Secretary General PPP Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari will be held in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The PPP is in alliance with the PPP Parliamentarians (PPPP) for the upcoming election and have a symbol of ‘arrow’ for contesting the general election.

INTERNEWS

L A H O R E : Addit ional Advocate General (AAG) Asma Hamid has been appointed as first-ever woman advocate general of Punjab (AGP) in Pakistan since Shakilur Rehman Khan tendered his resignation as the principal law officer the other day owing to expiry of the provincial government’s constitutional term on May 31.

Sources in the advocate general office confirmed that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif approved a summary to this effect yesterday evening. Shakilur Rehman Khan, son of retired Justice Khalilur Rehman Khan and appointed as AGP on March 7, 2016, served for two years.

Sources said it would be up to the forthcoming care-taker set-up in the province whether to sustain the appointment of Hamid or appoint a new incumbent during the interim gov-ernment as per the con-vention. Hamid is a daughter of former Punjab governor Shahid Hamid and niece of former federal law minister Zahid Hamid. She was appointed as assistant advocate general in January 2014.

Drought threatens millions of Afghans with hunger: UNREUTERS

AFGHANISTAN: Millions of Afghans face hunger after a drought decimated crops in the war-ravaged country, UN offi-cials said yesterday, calling for an extra $115m to help families buy food.

Two thirds of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces have been hit by a lack of rain or snowfall since late

last year, said a bulletin from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Some rivers and water points have totally dried up, and the last wheat harvest has been “com-pletely lost”, according to the Food and Agriculture Organi-sation. “Six months down the road, millions of people could be in a situation of untenable

hunger without knowing where their next meal will come from,” said Toby Lanzer, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan. Already, the drought has forced 21,000 people to leave their homes and settle on the outskirts of the western city of Herat, said OCHA.

The UN hopes to distribute cash to enable families to buy food and try to prevent further

migration. “People prefer cash, which allows them to buy what they need most,” he said. “We prefer not to truck food across the country, also because doing so is expensive and can disrupt markets.” The U.N. is revising its humanitarian appeal for 2018 because of the drought, and says it needs an extra $115 million to help 1.4 million of the hardest-hit people. Only one quarter of

the $430m the UN requested for 2018 was funded as of May 23.

The drought has also hurt nomadic herders known as Kuchis, as pasturelands have dried up in some areas, including the northeastern provinces of Badakhshan and Kunduz. Prices for sheep have fallen by as much as 40 percent, but many Kuchis are selling them out of desper-ation, according to a report.

Former Australian deputy PM criticised for paid interviewREUTERS

S Y D N E Y : Austra l ia ’ s scandal-hit former deputy prime minister was widely criticised yesterday for agreeing to a paid tell-all television interview about an affair, threatening further disharmony in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s government.

The move is unusual for an elected official — Barnaby Joyce is now a backbencher in the Liberal— National coalition gov-ernment - and prompted calls from his own party for a ban on payments for media appearances by serving politicians.

The payment, which media said was A$150,000 ($112,950), provoked critical comment on social media and again raised the hackles of Turnbull, who this year lambasted Joyce’s “shocking error of judgement over the affair with his media adviser. “It has been very widely criticised,” Turnbull said. “It is certainly not a course of action I would have encouraged him to take, I will put it that way.”

New Zealand to kill 150,000 cows to end bacterial diseaseAP

WELLINGTON: New Zealand plans to slaughter about 150,000 cows as it tries to eradicate a strain of disease-causing bacteria from the national herd.

Politicians and industry leaders announced the ambitious plan. They say it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and, if successful, would be the first time an infected country has eliminated Myc-oplasma bovis.

Farming is vital to the economy in New Zealand, whose isolation has helped protect it from some diseases which affect herds elsewhere.

Last July, Mycoplasma bovis was found in the country for the first time. Found in Europe and the US the bacteria can cause cows to develop mastitis, pneumonia, arthritis and other diseases. They are not considered a threat to food safety, but do cause production losses.

Ayaz, Bilawal played key role in deciding caretaker PMINTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq played a pivotal role in ensuring that the prime minister and leader of opposition reach consensus on name of caretaker Prime Minister.

Informed sources said that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto too has asserted himself and extended his complete support to Syed Khursheed Shah for an agreement on a name which was not included in the panel of the PPP but was suggested by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

Like NA Speaker, the PPP Chairman was also clear in his mind that the decision of the Caretaker Prime Minister must be taken by Abbasi and Shah instead of letting the matter go out of the hand of Parliament and to the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Sources said that Speaker Ayaz Sadiq is the man, who has been in regular contact with Prime Minister Abbasi and Leader of the Opposition Khur-sheed Shah for the last several days to help them reach con-sensus which even till yesterday (Sunday) was not looking pos-sible. Sadiq has also been in contact with the PPP and

PML-N top leaders to make them realise that Parliament’s failure to decide the matter at its end will not serve the democracy well.

The sources said that only on Sunday last Ayaz Sadiq sep-arately spoke to the prime min-ister and the leader of the oppo-sition more than thrice.

Yesterday morning, Ayaz Sadiq had a meeting with Khur-sheed Shah following which both went to meet Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. The meeting held around 10:30am and suc-ceeded in ending the deadlock as Syed Khursheed Shah agreed to the name of Justice ® Nasirul Mulk.

From within the PPP, there were some powerful voices which were not agreeing to any name other than the three sug-gested by Khursheed Shah.

Although Khursheed Shah had recommended the names of Salim Abbas Jillani, Jalil Abbas Jilani and Zaka Ashraf cleared by Asif Ali Zardari, the Leader of the Opposition too was inclined not to let the matter go outside Parliament.

Khursheed Shah got a decisive support from Bilawal Bhutto who instead of being rigid wanted the matter to be decided by Abbasi and Shah. Bilawal view point even pre-vailed in his party.

Bhutto’s PPP to seek symbol of sword for polls

First-ever woman AG appointed in Punjab

Cooling down

Abbasi said the $231bn national economy had a 3.68 percent growth rate in 2012-13 which increased to $313bn in 2018 with latest growth rate of 5.8 percent.

12 WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018ASIA / EUROPE

North Korean official visits US for talksREUTERS

SEOUL: A senior North Korean official is headed to New York to discuss an upcoming summit, US President Donald Trump said yesterday, the latest indication that an on-again-off-again meeting between Trump and North Korea’s leader may go ahead next month.

“We have put a great team together for our talks with North Korea,” Trump said in a Twitter post. “Meetings are currently taking place concerning Summit, and more. Kim Young (sic) Chol, the Vice-Chairman of North Korea, heading now to New York. Solid response to my letter, thank you!”

Kim Yong Chol, vice-chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee and formerly head of a top North Korean military intelligence agency, was scheduled to fly to the United States today after speaking to Chinese officials in Beijing, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said, citing an uni-dentified source.

The talks indicate that planning for the unprecedented summit, initially scheduled for June 12, is moving ahead after Trump called it off last week in a letter to the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un.

A day later, Trump, who fre-quently exchanged insults with Kim Jong-Un before they began talking about a summit, said he had reconsidered and officials from both countries were meeting to work out details.

Kim Yong Chol will be the most senior North Korean official to meet top officials for talks in the United States since Jo Myong Rok, a marshal, met then-Pres-ident Bill Clinton at the White House in 2000.

Kim Yong Chol coordinated the North Korean president’s two meetings with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in April and May. He and Kim Jong Un’s sister were the only North Korean offi-cials to attend the first inter-Korean summit in April alongside the North Korean leader.

Analysts believe the United States is trying to determine whether North Korea is willing to agree to sufficient steps toward getting rid of its nuclear weapons to allow a summit to take place.

Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser to Trump, said a summit might not take place on the date originally set but perhaps shortly after.

North Korean leader Kim’s de facto chief of staff, Kim Chang Son, meanwhile, flew to Sin-gapore, the scheduled site of the meeting, via Beijing late on Monday, Japanese public broad-caster NHK reported.

At the same time, a “pre-advance” US team was in Sin-gapore to meet North Koreans.

North Korea has faced years of isolation and economic sanc-tions over its nuclear and missile programmes since it conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.

But events have moved quickly since Kim Jong-Un made a conciliatory New Year’s address at the end of last year, following months of sharply rising tension and war-like rhetoric between Trump and Kim.

Kim and South Korean Pres-ident Moon Jae-in held a surprise meeting on Saturday at the border village of Panmunjom, during which they agreed the North Korea-US summit must be held.

On Sunday, the US State Department said American and

North Korean officials had met at Panmunjom. Sung Kim, the former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and current ambassador to the Philippines, led the US del-egation, an official told Reuters.

Sung Kim will meet North Korean Foreign Ministry official Choi Sun Hee again on Wednesday on the border, Yonhap reported, citing a diplo-matic source, adding that the agenda for the Trump-Kim summit would be roughly worked out.

While likely substantive, those discussions could be upstaged by any talks between Kim Yong Chol and officials in the United States, said Evans Revere, a former senior diplomat who dealt with North Korea under US President George W Bush.

The future of North Korea’s nuclear programme, which has been a source of international tension for decades, US security guarantees and coordination for a Trump-Kim summit are likely to be at the top of the agenda, analysts said.

In Kim Jong-Un and Moon’s first meeting on April 27, they agreed to seek the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula but did not define what that meant or how that would proceed.

Suspected China ship spotted next to N Korea tankerAP

TOKYO: Japan’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday that a Japanese navy surveillance aircraft has spotted a suspected Chinese-flagged ship appar-ently transferring fuel to a North Korean tanker on the open seas.

A ministry statement said that the two vessels were sus-pected of engaging in offshore ship-to-ship transfers banned under UN Security Council resolutions.

It said Japan has informed the UN Security Council of the May 19 sighting of the North Korean-flagged tanker, Ji Song 6, moored alongside the ship carrying a flag believed to be Chinese in open seas in the East China Sea.

Four photos taken by the Maritime Self-Defense Force were released, including two showing the ships alongside each other, connected by a hose.

The UN has blacklisted the North Korean tanker.

The disclosure of the alleged offshore transfer comes as prep-arations for an expected summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un appeared to be in their final stages.

Turmoil as Italian caretaker premier assembles Cabinet

Poland to probe blazes at landfillsAFP

WARSAW: Poland’s prime minister yesterday asked justice and security author-ities to look into dozens of blazes at landfills this year amid allegations that a “mafia” has boosted garbage imports after China banned them.

“The Internal Security Agency has been notified and... I asked the prosecutor general to take decisive action to investigate the matter,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said as several blazes sent up thick, toxic smoke near residential areas in various parts of Poland in recent days.

Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski said he believed the blazes were “clearly linked with China’s decision to close its own garbage market” this January.

Opposition urges EU to slap sanctions to Ukrain leaderAFP

THE HAGUE: Ukrainian oppo-sition leader Mikheil Saakashvili yesterday urged European leaders to slap sanc-tions on President Petro Poro-shenko, whom he accused of violating his human rights by expelling him from the country three months ago.

Saakashvili, 50, was thrown out of Ukraine in mid-February when masked men abducted him from a downtown Kiev res-taurant and swiftly deported him to Poland. He is currently living in the Netherlands with his Dutch wife and two sons.

Now, his lawyers said Kiev trampled on the rights of the maverick politician, but any lawsuit — for instance at the Luxembourg-based European Court for Human Rights — could take years to pursue.

Instead, Saakashvili called upon European leaders to slap sanctions on Poroshenko and

his political allies to force the Ukranian president to allow him back into the country.

Ukraine is due to hold par-liamentary and presidential polls next year which Saa-kashvili has vowed to contest.

“I will return to the Ukraine, but in the meantime I’ll keep busy to ensure that special sanc-tions are being put into effect against Poroshenko,” Saakashvili said during his first press con-ference since arriving in the Netherlands in February.

His British lawyer Geoffrey Robertson said his client decided to call on European leaders to impose sanctions against Poroshenko because a possible lawsuit “would still take years.”

“The challenge, I think, is now to the states of Europe... to take diplomatic action... that must be used as a lever to actually influence Ukraine and its president to do the right thing,” Robertson said.

AFP

ROME: Italy’s caretaker prime minister worked to assemble a Cabinet yesterday to save the country from political turmoil in the face of resistance from far-right and anti-establishment parties.

Financial markets plunged into a frenzy as Carlo Cottarelli was left in charge after efforts to end months of political deadlock hit their latest setback.

President Sergio Mattarella on Monday blocked a Cabinet proposed by the anti-immigrant League and their allies in the Five Star Movement (M5S).

That left Cottarelli, a former IMF economist known as “Mr Scissors”, tasked with naming a technocrat government. He was expected to present his cabinet to Mattarella within hours.

Five Star and the League, who hold a majority in both houses of parliament, have vowed to reject Cottarelli’s pro-posed technocrat government.

New elections could be held as early as September as the most likely outcome of the political saga sparked by an

inconclusive poll in March.On Sunday evening, the

president vetoed the League-Five Star pick for economy min-ister, eurosceptic Paolo Savona. The populists cried foul and abandoned their joint bid for power.

The fresh uncertainty in the eurozone’s third largest economy caused alarm on financial markets.

Mattarella’s veto and subse-quent nomination of Cottarelli as caretaker prime minister sparked angry calls for the pres-ident’s impeachment, since most lawmakers backed Savona.

Mattarella said that an openly eurosceptic economy minister was counter to the parties’ joint promise to simply “change Europe for the better from an Italian point of view”.

Savona has called the euro a “German cage” and said that Italy needs a plan to leave the single currency “if necessary”.

League leader Matteo Salvini said his side’s joint plan for a government failed because of pressure from the “powers-that-be, the markets, Berlin and Paris”.

“This isn’t democracy, this isn’t respect for the popular vote. It’s the latest slap in the face,” Salvini said, from those that say “Italy should be a slave, scared and precarious”.

Five Star chief Luigi Di Maio called on party supporters to attend a rally in Rome on Sat-urday, the anniversary of Italy’s transformation into a republic in the year 1946, after what he called “Italian democracy’s

darkest night”.Cottarelli, 64, was director

of the International Monetary Fund’s fiscal affairs department from 2008 to 2013.

He said that should his tech-nocrat government win parlia-mentary approval, it would stay in place until elections at the “start of 2019”.

But if parliament fails to approve his government, a new election would be held “after

August” — the most likely outcome given the populists’ strength in parliament. Only the centre-left Democratic Party has announced that it would vote in favour.

Salvini and Di Maio furiously denounced the presidential veto, blasting what they called med-dling by Germany, debt ratings agencies, financial lobbies and even lies from Mattarella’s staff.

Designated Prime Minister Carlo Cottarelli (right) and Italian President Sergio Mattarella during their meeting at the Quirinale Palace, in Rome, yesterday.

Mike Pompeo (left) and Kim Yong Chol

The talks indicate that planning for the unprecedented summit is moving ahead after Trump called it off last week in a letter to the North Korea’s leader.

Ten hurt after man claims bomb on Indonesia planeAP

JAKARTA: At least 10 passengers on a flight preparing to take off from Borneo island were injured, most of them with broken bones and head wounds, after panicked ensued when a man claimed there was a bomb on board, Indonesian police said yesterday.

Passengers overheard the 26-year-old man, Frantinus Nirigi, telling a flight attendant there was a bomb on the Lion Air Boeing 737, which was to carry 189 pas-sengers to Jakarta on Monday night, said West Kalimantan police spokesman Nanang Purnomo. An eventual inspection of the plane found no explosives.

After Nirigi made the bomb claim, another pas-senger broke open the emer-gency exits, enabling pan-icked passengers to flee the aircraft, Purnomo said. He and Nirigi were both arrested.

Purnomo said eight pas-sengers were hospitalised with broken bones and head wounds, while two others had minor injuries.

Arson attack commemorationPeople pray during a silent remembrance commemorating the 25th anniversary of an arson attack killing two Turkish women and three girls by right-wing extremists in Solingen, Germany, yesterday.

13WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018 EUROPE

Three dead in suspected Belgian terror attackAP

LIEGE: A knife-wielding man stabbed two female police officers in the Belgian city of Liege, stole their service weapons and shot them and a bystander dead in an attack yesterday that prosecutors fear could be terror-related.

Justice Minister Koen Geens said the assailant, who was later killed by police, was released from prison on a two-day leave on Monday. Geens described him as a multiple repeat offender who had been incarcerated since 2003.

Liege Police Chief Christian Beaupere said at a news con-ference that the slain officers were 45-years-old and 53-years-old, the latter the mother of twins. Four other officers were wounded in the attack, one of them seriously with a severed femoral artery.

State broadcaster RTBF iden-tified the suspect as Benjamin Herman. Herman, a Belgian national born in 1982, had a criminal record that included theft, assault and drug offenses, RTBF reported.

The federal prosecutor’s office declined to comment.

Earlier, Liege prosecutors’

spokesman Philippe Dulieu said the man crept up on the two officers from behind carrying a knife and stabbed them several times.

“He then took their weapons. He used the weapons on the officers, who died,” Dulieu said. The two police handguns had a total of 17 bullets.

Dulieu said the attacker then shot dead a 22-year-old man in a vehicle that was just leaving a parking place outside a nearby high school. The attacker then took a woman hostage inside the school.

“Liege police intervened. He came out firing at police, wounding a number of them, notably in the legs. He was shot dead,” the spokesman said.

A senior official at the federal prosecutor’s office said that “there are indications it could be a terror attack.”

Despite this, Belgium’s crisis center said it saw no reason to raise the country’s terror threat alert for now.

When asked about the report that the attack was terror-related, Liege city hall Michel Firket spokesman said: “I know nothing formal about that. The police is doing its investigation. There are no formal

conclusions.”A spokeswoman for the city

mayor’s office, Laurence Com-minette, said that the children at the school were all safe.

Belgium’s King Philippe, Prime Minister Charles Michel and the country’s justice and interior ministers traveled to Liege to confer with local officials.

“I want to offer my govern-ment’s support for the victims, for the victims’ families,” Michel said.

Yves Stevens of Belgium’s federal crisis center said that security in Liege is under control, and that there was no reason yet to raise the national terror threat level.

“There is absolutely no con-firmation yet that the incident is terror-related.”

Video posted on Twitter by a person claiming to be a witness showed people running in the area. About six gunshots could be heard.

Belgian police and military

have been on alert since suicide bombers killed 32 people at the Brussels airport and subway system in 2016.

It’s not the first time Liege has been hit by a similarly violent attack. In December 2011, a man with a history of weapons and drug offenses left home with hand grenades and guns before he lobbed the grenades into a square filled with holiday shoppers and fired on those who escaped. Five were killed, including the assailant.

Police and forensic officers working on the scene of a shooting, in Liege, Belgium, yesterday. RIGHT: A man is taken away by police officers after crossing the security zone on the scene of a shooting.

Hungary to jail migrant helpersREUTERS

BUDAPEST: Individuals or groups who help migrants not entitled to protection to submit requests for asylum or who help illegal migrants to gain status to stay in Hungary will be liable to jail under a new bill submitted to parliament yesterday.

The legislation is part of right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban government’s campaign against George Soros, a Hungarian-born US financier known for funding liberal causes.

The text of the legislation, known as the “Stop Soros” bill which was posted on parlia-ment’s official website said:

“Those who provide financial means ... or conduct this organ-isational activity on a regular basis will be punishable with up to one year in prison.”

“We need an action plan to defend Hungary and this is the STOP Soros package of bills,” the interior ministry said in the legislation.

It said there were interna-tional and also Hungarian organisations helping the entry of illegal migrants to Hungary and “sanctioning these is justified.”

The ministry did not name any groups.

In power since 2010, Orban has increased his control over the media and has campaigned

on a platform of fierce hostility to immigration for years — pol-icies that have put him at odds with the European Union, which funds Hungary with billions of euros a year.

Soros was publicly vilified during Orban’s campaign for April elections which Orban won in a landslide, securing a third straight term in office. His anti-immigration stance is particu-larly popular with voters in rural Hungary.

He has accused Soros and the NGOs funding him of plotting to undermine Hungary’s Christian culture by flooding it with immigrants, an allegation which Soros has repeatedly denied.

A file photo of government billboard is seen displaying George Soros in monochrome next to a message urging Hungarians to take part in a national consultation about what it calls a plan by the Hungarian-born financier to settle a million migrants in Europe per year, in Budapest.

UK calls for global chemical weapons conferenceAFP

LONDON: Britain yesterday called for a special conference of the global chemical weapons watchdog next month to “strengthen and protect” non-proliferation rules following a series of recent incidents.

“The world came together in 1997 to outlaw the development, stockpiling and use of these vile substances through the Chemical Weapons Convention,” Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in a statement.

“We call on all right-thinking

states to come together next month to take action to reaffirm and defend the ban on chemical weapons, and to strengthen the organisation which we have entrusted with overseeing it.”

The Hague-based Organi-sation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was set up in 1997 to rid the world of toxic arms and prevent new ones being manufactured. There are now 193 signatories to Chemical Weapons Convention.

Britain said 10 other coun-tries supported its request for a special conference and a total of

64 supportive responses were required for the conference to go ahead.

The head of the OPCW, Ahmet Uzumcu, last week called for his organisation to be given a mechanism to identify the per-petrators of attacks.

“I don’t think we can afford to continue to maintain this sit-uation in the absence of an attri-bution mechanism to investigate, to identify the perpetrators,” Uzumcu said at the Chatham House international affairs think-tank in London. “The international community does

need to address this gap.”Uzumcu said the use of nerve

agents in poisoning attacks in Kuala Lumpur in 2017 and Salisbury this year, as well as the use of toxic gas in the conflict in Syria, required global action.

Britain has accused Russia of being behind the attack in Salisbury in western England on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Moscow has firmly denied this and has challenged Britain to produce evidence for this.

The incident led to a diplo-matic stand-off between Russia

and Britain at the OPCW, as well as tit-for-tat expulsions of embassy staff between Russia and several Western countries.

In his talk last week, Uzumcu also pointed to the precedent of the “joint investigative mech-anism” set up by the UN Security Council in 2015 to probe chemical attacks in Syria.

It was disbanded last year after Russia vetoed the renewal of its mandate at the UN.

Uzumcu said the mechanism had proved effective, and “found responsibility of use at the level of states” as well as by IS militants.

Justice Minister Koen Geens described the assailant, who was later killed by police, as a multiple repeat offender who had been incarcerated since 2003.

French govt vows to ban weedkiller by 2021AFP

PARIS: The French government reiterated yesterday a campaign pledge by President Emmanuel Macron to ban glyphosate-based herbicides by 2021, after senators refused to enshrine the pledge into law.

The weedkiller, introduced in the 1970s by US agro-giant Monsanto under the brand name Roundup, is suspected by some scientists of causing cancer, with a 2015 WHO study determining it was “probably carcinogenic”.

Last November, a majority of EU member states voted to renew the licence for the product for five years, rebuking French efforts to limit the approval to just three years pending

“The president’s com-mitment to forbidding glyphosate within three years is clear,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux

told Franceinfo radio yesterday.

“We have said that we are going to work with everyone involved, that we will charge the INRA (National Agriculture Research Institute) with finding alternative solutions for glyphosate,” he said.

Senators rejected late Monday amendments that would have given the pledge the force of law, though Griveaux rejected claims the government was ceding to pressure from farm lobbies.

“Have a little bit of confi-dence, don’t always think that constraints, sanctions are the only ways of pursuing efficient public policies,” he said.

“(Environment Minister) Nicolas Hulot is working with all players and with INRA, and if we find industrial and scien-tific solutions allowing France to stop using glyphosate in three years, then everyone will have won,” he added.

‘No new clues’ in case of missing British toddlerAP

BERLIN: The British military says it’s wrapping up a renewed investigation into the decades-old cold case of the disappearance in Germany of a soldier’s 2-year-old daughter after finding no new evidence.

The British military said yesterday the Royal Military Police’s search of the Alme river banks, in the western city of Paderborn, turned up no new leads on what hap-pened to Katrice Lee.

Excavation of the river bank started in early May and was scheduled to take five weeks, but the military said investigators were able to conclude work faster than planned.

Lee vanished on her second birthday on November 28, 1981, on the outskirts of Paderborn, near the British military base where her father was stationed.

A review of the evidence had concluded the riverbank was “significant and of interest.”

France to beef up emergency alert system on social mediaAP

PARIS: France’s Interior Ministry announced plans to beef up its emergency alert system to the public across social media.

The ministry said in a statement that from June during imme-diate threats of danger, such as a terror attack, the ministry’s alerts will be given priority broadcast on Twitter, Facebook and Google as well as on French public transport and television.

The statement said that Twitter will give “special visibility” to the ministry’s alerts with a banner.

In a specific agreement, Facebook will also allow the French government to communicate to people directly via the social net-work’s “safety check” tool, created in 2014.

Polish historian banned from entering RussiaAFP

WARSAW: Poland yesterday asked Russia to explain why it had refused entry to the head of the EU and Nato country’s Institute of interna-tional affairs, the Polish foreign ministry said, marking the latest of a string of tensions with Moscow.

Authorities at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport told Sla-womir Debski that his visa had been cancelled and that he had been banned from entering Russia until March 2021, Polish foreign ministry spokesman Artur Lompart said. Debski was then put on a flight to Frankfurt.

A political scientist and historian, Debski was due to participate in an international conference organised by the Moscow-based Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations.

14 WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018HOME

15WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018 AMERICAS

Russia probe meddling in polls: TrumpANATOLIA

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump claimed yesterday without presenting evidence that the special counsel investigation looking into Russia and possible Trump campaign collusion will seek to interfere in this year’s midterm elections.

It is unclear what, if any, information Trump is basing his claim on, but it fits into his and his administration’s efforts to discredit Robert Mueller’s probe.

Trump continued to deny any collusion between his cam-paign and the Russian effort US intelligence officials have called a multi-faceted effort to bolster Trump and undercut his Demo-cratic challenger ahead of the November 2016 election.

“The 13 Angry Democrats (plus people who worked 8 years for Obama) working on the

rigged Russia, will be MEDDLING with the mid-term elections, especially now that Republicans (stay tough!) are taking the lead in Polls. There was no Collusion, except by the Democrats!” he wrote on Twitter.

Speaking to CNN yesterday, Rudy Giuliani, the public face of Trump’s legal team dealing with

the Mueller investigation, acknowledged that part of their effort to combat the special counsel probe is to discredit it in the court of public opinion while claiming that the basis on which Mueller was appointed is “illegitimate”.

“They’re giving us the material to do it. Of course, we have to do it in defending the president. To a large extent, remember Dana,

what we’re doing here, it is the public opinion, because eventually the decision here is going to be impeach or not impeach,” Giuliani said.

Trump travelled to Ten-nessee yesterday to take part in an election rally aimed at bol-stering the electoral prospects of Republican congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, who is seeking to replace outgoing

Senator Bob Corker. The Senate hopeful is facing

stiff competition from Demo-cratic former Tennessee Gov-ernor Phil Bredesen.

The race is critical to Repub-lican chances of maintaining their slim one-seat majority in the Senate, as Trump seeks to ensure the chances of his legis-lative agenda making its way through congress.

US President Donald Trump reacts next to Vice-President Mike Pence as he leaves the White House for a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, in Washington, DC, yesterday.

It is unclear what, if any, information Trump is basing his claim on, but it fits into his and his administration’s efforts to discredit Robert Mueller’s probe.

Venezuela accused of crimes against humanityBLOOMBERG

VENEZUELA: A panel of experts enlisted by the Organization of American States accused the Venezuelan government under President Nicolas Maduro of committing crimes against humanity, setting the stage for a potential investigation by the International Criminal Court.

After spending months reviewing evidence and listening to witness testimonies, the experts said the socialist regime

was involved in multiple murders and at least 12,000 cases of imprisonment and arbi-trary detention. It also accused the authorities of torture, rape, political persecution and enforced disappearances.

Maduro’s administration has pursued a “massive assault on the rule of law in Venezuela,” the panel said in an over 400-page report published yesterday. Moreover, widespread attacks on the judiciary have prevented any “genuine legal proceedings

to investigate the crimes against humanity.”

The experts recommended that the OAS General Secretary, Luis Almagro, submit the report to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC, which could trigger an investigation of Venezuela’s gov-ernment by the international court.

“Frankly, I’ve never been as morally affected as I have by the cases of torture we have found” investigating this report, said Manuel Ventura Robles, one of

the panelists and a former judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, at the OAS head-quarters in Washington DC. “Cases of torture against women, men, it’s all incomprehensible that this continues to occur in our continent.”’

The OAS, which includes the US, has become one of the most strident critics of Maduro’s administration, with Almagro demanding the international community isolate and punish a government it says has

systematically trampled basic rights. Maduro won reelection earlier this month in a vote the Trump administration derided as a “sham” after the opposition’s biggest parties and most popular candidates were banned from the ballot.

The report could fuel calls for harsher sanctions on Maduro’s regime at a time when the economy is already reeling from hyperinflation and rampant shortages of food and medicines.

2 arrested for illegal border crossingAP

DERBY LINE: A man and woman from Mexico who illegally entered Vermont from Canada were appre-hended several miles away from the border while asking people for help to make a phone call, federal investi-gators said.

Border Patrol agents were called Saturday morning after local shop owners reported the young couple was seeking help about 10km away from the border in the city of Newport, an affidavit filed in federal court in Vermont said.

The couple later told agents they had entered the US illegally from Canada the day before. The area in Derby Line is a common location for illegal border crossings.

A separate document filed in court on Friday said agents were called earlier that day to a spot near the elementary school in Derby Line after receiving a report someone might have entered the United States illegally from the Canadian community of Stanstead, Quebec.

A man later identified as a UScitizen originally from Ecuador was spotted by agents driving a car with mul-tiple people in it. The car was later stopped and only the driver was found in the vehicle.

A short time later a third Mexican citizen was found hiding in the bushes. All three told agents they had entered the country illegally.

The man caught in the bushes told agents he had made arrangements in Toronto to be smuggled into the US and he agreed to pay $4,000 upon arrival in New York.

16 WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018MORNING BREAK

FAJRSHOROOK

03. 16 AM

04. 44 AM

11. 31 AM

02. 56 PM

06. 22 PM

07.52 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 04:15 – 18:15 LOW TIDE 00:15 – 10:45

Hot daytime with some clouds at times.

Misty at places at first becomes fine.

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum 30oC 41oC

Katara opens exhibitions on science & cultureTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The ancient traditional Chinese medicine is featured at “Breath and Life” exhibition which opened on Monday at Gallery 2 of Katara Cultural Village Building 18.

Presented by Katara in cooperation with Sheng Events Company, the show features paintings that depict some of the most famous experts in the Chinese medicine 3,000 years back. It showcases the Chinese culture by raising awareness among vis-itors on this important branch of knowledge.

Visitors to the gallery have a chance to get free diagnosis from Chinese experts in this field of med-icine using traditional methods.

“Breath and Life” is open to the public every day from 10am until 11.55pm.

Meanwhile, Qatari artist Sara Al Muhannadi launched her first solo exhibition “Blows from the Past” at Katara Building 13.

The exhibition delves into the Batoola – a tradi-tional face covering usually worn by Bedouin women-as a significant object in Qatari culture.

“This is my first exhibition and I aim to reflect the wonderful memories we had in Qatar in the olden days,” said the artist.

She explained that she based her works on display on old photos taken in Qatar, especially those from the book “Canadian Expedition in Qatar” as well as other photos posted on social media by amateur photographers.

The exhibition was launched on Monday by Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of Katara, and Yousef Al Sada, President of Qatar Fine Arts Society.

Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti (right), General Manager of Katara, and Yousef Al Sada (left), President of Qatar Fine Arts Society at the launching of “Blows from the Past” exhibition at Katara Building 13, on Monday.

Starbucks shuts US stores for anti-bias trainingAP

WASHINGTON: Starbucks closed more than 8,000 US stores for a few hours yesterday to conduct anti-bias training in the company’s latest step to deal with the fallout over the arrest of two black men at one of its shops in Philadelphia.

After the incident last month, the coffee chain’s leaders apol-ogised and met with the men but also scheduled an afternoon of training for 175,000 employees.

“We still aspire to be a place where everyone feels welcome,” Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz said in an open letter yesterday. He said the instruction will become part of how Star-bucks trains all its workers.

According to a video pre-viewing the session, Starbucks executives and rapper-activist Common were to deliver recorded remarks. From there, employees were to “move into a real and honest exploration of bias” where, in small groups, they can share how the issue comes up in their daily work life.

Developed with feedback from the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Per-ception Institute and other advocacy groups, the four-hour

session was designed to give workers a primer on the history of civil rights from the 1960s to the present day. The agenda included a short documentary film.

Training in unconscious, or implicit, bias is used by many corporations, police departments and other organisations. It is typ-ically designed to get people to open up about prejudices and stereotypes.

The Perception Institute, a consortium of researchers con-sulting with Starbucks, defines implicit bias as attitudes —pos-itive or negative — or stereotypes someone has toward a person or group without being conscious of it.

A common example, according to some of its studies, is a tendency for white people to associate black people with criminal behaviour.

Many retailers, including Walmart and Target, said they already offer some racial bias training. Target says it plans to expand that training. Nordstrom has said it plans to enhance its training after apologising to three black teenagers in Missouri who were falsely accused by employees of shoplifting.

In the Philadelphia incident,

Rashon Nelson and Donte Rob-inson were asked to leave after one was denied access to the bathroom. They were arrested by police minutes after they sat down to await a business meeting. The incident was recorded by cellphone and went viral.

Nelson and Robinson settled with Starbucks for an undisclosed sum and an offer of a free college

education. They also reached a deal with the city of Philadelphia for a symbolic $1 each and a promise from officials to establish a $200,000 programme for young entrepreneurs.

Starbucks said the arrests never should have occurred. It has since announced anyone can use its restrooms, even if not buying anything.

Calvin Lai, an assistant

professor of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, said people should not place high expectations on this one day.

“We find that oftentimes diversity training has mixed effects, and in some cases it can even backfire and lead people who are kind of already reactive to these issues to become even more polarised,” Lai said.

A Starbucks employee gives change to a patron in a Center City store, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania US, yesterday.

‘Maleficent II’ starts filmingAFP

LOS ANGELES: Production has begun on the sequel to smash hit “Maleficent,” Disney announced yesterday, with Elle Fanning and Angelina Jolie reprising their roles as Sleeping Beauty and her conflicted surrogate mother.

The movie is being filmed at Pinewood Studios, near London and in locations around Britain, the world’s largest movie studio said in statement.

“It’s bring your mom to work day on the Maleficent2 set,” 20-year-old Fanning (“Trumbo,” “The Beguiled”) joked in an Instagram post that had been shared a quarter of a million times within an hour.

Alongside the message, she posted a picture of her in front of a laughing Jolie, who was in the famous “Maleficent” horns, as well as a pair of sunglasses and a tow-eling bathrobe.

“Maleficent,” a modern retelling of the life of Sleeping Beauty’s arch-nemesis, cast an instant spell on audiences in 2014, deb-uting at the top of the North American box office and going on to gross more than $750m worldwide.

Joining Fanning and Jolie for the latest adventure are Oscar nominees Michelle Pfeiffer (“Dangerous Liaisons,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp”) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years a Slave,” “Doctor Strange”).

Disney also confirmed that the

acclaimed British stage and screen actor Robert Lindsay (“Wimbledon”) would be among the newcomers to join the cast, while Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple and Lesley Manville return from the original movie.

In the sequel, directed by Joachim Ronning (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”), Disney’s most noto-rious villain continues to explore her complex relationship with Princess Aurora, the soon to be queen, as they form alliances against new adversaries.

Fan reaction on social media was mostly positive, with much of the excitement being generated over the addition of screen legend Pfeiffer, 60, to the cast.

Disney began scouring its back catalog in the 1990s for animated classics that it could turn into live-action remakes — a strategy that has so far netted several billion dollars.

Tim Burton’s “Dumbo,” Guy Ritchie’s “Aladdin” and Jon Favreau’s “The Lion King” are all due for release next year, while “The Little Mermaid” will see Lin-Manuel Miranda of “Hamilton” fame collaborating with legendary Disney composer Alan Menken.

Two remakes of “Peter Pan” are in the works along with new versions of “Fan-tasia,” “Pinocchio,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “The Sword in the Stone.”

Three ISS astronauts to return to Earth on June 3IANS

WASHINGTON: Three astro-nauts aboard the International Space Station are set to return to Earth on a Russian Soyuz spaceship on June 3, NASA has said.

When the three crewmates land in Kazakhstan, about three-and-a-half hours after undocking, the trio will have spent 168 days in space and conducted one spacewalk each, the US space agency said in a blog post.

The three homebound station crew member are NASA astronaut Scott Tingle, Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai and Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov.

They will be replaced by three new Expedition 56-57 crew members who are scheduled to launch to space on June 6.

Nasa astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor and Alex-ander Gerst of European Space Agency (ESA) will take a two-day ride to the space

station with Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev inside the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft for a six-month mission aboard the orbital laboratory, the US space agency said.

The home-bound Japanese astronaut earlier this year sparked a row when he declared on Twitter that he had grown 9cm while in space, the media reported.

He also said that the increase in height made him a little worried that he might not be able to fit in the Soyuz seats for his return to Earth.

He, however, later apolo-gised for the “terrible fake news” which resulted from a “mis-measurement”.

“It appears I can fit on the Soyuz, so I’m relieved.”

Most astronauts “grow” during protracted space mis-sions because their spines extend in the absence of gravity, but the gains are usually limited to a couple of centimetres and disappear once they are back on the ground, the Guardian reported on January 10.

‘Harry Potter’ star Matthew Lewis marries Angela JonesIANS

LONDON: Actor Matthew Lewis, who essayed Neville Longbottom in the “Harry Potter” films, married actress Angela Jones in Italy.

Lewis, 28, announced the news on his Instagram account with a photograph in their wedding attire, joking that his new wife made him miss the Arctic Monkeys show to get married instead, reports etonline.com.

“Not only did I miss Arctic Monkeys in Los Angeles but they were performing in Italy at the same time we were there and my wife made me get married instead. Fuming,” he tweeted.

According to the report, the pair met 11 months before the proposal, while he was appearing at a Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction.

Lewis and Jones were engaged in December 2016.

Fans, followers and friends rushed to congratulate them.