Volume 24 | Number 8010 | 2 RiyalsTuesday 10 September 2019 | 11 Muharram 1441 www.thepeninsula.qa

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In-form Qatar eye home win over India

Bloomberg Media Group announces

agreement with QFC

Amir opens new Trauma and Emergency Center

QNA/THE PENINSULA DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani inaugurated yesterday morning Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) new Trauma and Emergency Center, which is one of the largest such centers in the region.

H H the Amir toured the centre’s facilities, which has the latest medical equipment and technologies in care and diag-nosis fields and oxygen therapy room. His Highness was also briefed on the medical facilities linking the new building with the relevant departments at Hamad General Hospital.

The inauguration was attended by Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, and a number of senior doctors and officials at HMC.

Inauguration of the state-of-the-art Trauma and Emergency Center and the first-of-its-kind new Hyperbaric Therapy Unit, which houses a cutting-edge hyperbaric oxygen therapy

chamber, represents an important milestone in the pro-vision of emergency and trauma care in the country, said the Min-ister of Public Health H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari.

The new Trauma and Emer-gency Center is the largest in the region and marks a significant expansion of trauma and emer-gency services in Qatar. In addition to a new Emergency Department, it also offers trauma, urgent, and critical care services and features a dedicated ramp for ambulance arrivals at Hamad General Hospital.

The Center’s hyperbaric chamber can hold up to 18 people and provide oxygen therapy for a range of medical conditions as well as decompression treatment for diving accidents.

“The inauguration of the new Trauma and Emergency Center underlines our ongoing com-mitment to expanding capacity and improving services. This com-mitment will ensure that the people of Qatar will continue to receive the best possible care delivered in leading-edge facilities,

now and for many years to come. As well as offering the best

possible treatment and care, the new Trauma and Emergency

Center, at four times the size of the former Emergency Department,

also offers a greatly improved patient experience." �P2

Qatar refutes Saudi allegations over unjust blockadeQNA DOHA

The State of Qatar affirmed its commitment to the rule of inter-national law, noting that it has chosen at every turn of the Gulf crisis to cooperate with mecha-nisms of international law to reach a peaceful solution.

In a statement issued yes-terday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “Qatar calls upon KSA to do the same: to have the courage to submit its allega-tions and supposed evidence to the scrutiny of independent

international bodies and to coop-erate with the ongoing Kuwaiti mediation efforts to find an end to this crisis. A resolution to this crisis and the lifting of the illegal blockade imposed upon Qatar since 5 June 2017 will benefit not only Qataris, but Saudis who also have been suffering because of the measures the Government of KSA has taken against Qataris, who are the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, students, and friends of the Saudi people.”

The statement added: “At a time when all parties involved in the GCC dispute should be

cooperating with the Kuwaiti mediation efforts rather than further escalating tensions in the region, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) released a sudden and unfounded press release on 7 September 2019 that continues to regurgitate the oft repeated false allega-tions against the State of Qatar. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the State of Qatar finds itself obliged to respond to this attempt at twisting the truth, and the release of self-serving and untrue statements.

“KSA’s statement alleges

that the coercive measures imposed on Qatar and Qataris merely constitute a cutting of diplomatic and consular ties. However, in reality, KSA’s unlawful coercive measures have been directed at both Qatar and its people, including closing all land, air and sea borders, expelling Qataris from Saudi Arabia with no basis, including the mass expulsion of Qatari pilgrims during the holy month of Ramadan, and continuing to unlawfully dis-criminate against Qatar and Qataris in every way possible,”

the statement added.“In addition, despite KSA’s

claims that it welcomes Qataris to enter the country, several incidents of enforced disap-pearance of Qatari citizens have been reported including the most recent disappearance of a father and son documented by the National Human Rights Committee in Qatar as per the Committee’s Statement No. 6 of 2019, upon which Amnesty International on the 3 Sep-tember 2019 called upon the KSA authorities to reveal their whereabouts.” �P6

Hamad Port enters Guinness RecordsSACHIN KUMAR THE PENINSULA

Hamad Port, one of the largest ports in the region, has accom-plished yet another feat by setting a new Guinness World Records title as the deepest arti-ficial basin ever made on Earth.

Minister of Transport and Communications H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti received the Guinness World Records certificate from the organisation’s represent-atives at a special event held at Ministry of Transport and Commu-nications premises yesterday.

“Hamad Port winning such a universal certificate signals the importance and size of the project. Such an achievement is a new addition to a collection of world records the country set at Guinness World Records. It also emphasises Qatar’s capability of developing

innovative projects in line with highest global standards,” said H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti.

“Hamad Port’s continuing achievements place us before a double responsibility toward our society so as to continue our per-formance according to world standards and our ambitious goals,” he added.

He also noted that since con-struction operations began at Hamad Port the latest technol-ogies have been in use to ensure highly-efficient work progress in line with best global quality standards. The concerted efforts from both staff and partners have always been the key to the port’s milestones, he said.

Hamad Port’s basin is four kilometres long, 700 metres wide and 17 metres deep. Basin construction took about two and a half years of excavation, during

which over 6,900 tonnes of explosives were used to chal-lenge the drafts — with full com-mitment to preserving wildlife and marine life — to extract more than 44.5 million cubic metres of dredged material, which was later used in other construction works at the project, resulting in huge savings.

This new Guinness World Records certificate is an addition to a collection of universal cer-tificates and rankings the port has made recently as it was awarded high commendation in the Coastal Dredging Project of the year category at the inau-gural IHS DPC Innovation Awards. The commendation was

awarded to Hamad Port for the deployment of unique systems in the construction and exca-vation of the port basin, which was built on land in a rare oper-ation of its kind in international ports in addition to its advanced infrastructure that supports the eco-friendly port technologies worldwide. �P3

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani being briefed on the facilities at the new Trauma and Emergency Center. Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani and Minister of Public Health H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari were also present.

The new Trauma and Emergency Center, offers trauma, urgent, and critical care services and features a dedicated ramp for ambulance arrivals in addition to a new Emergency Department at Hamad General Hospital.

Amir reassured on health of Amir of KuwaitQNA DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held a phone call last evening with the Amir of the State of Kuwait, H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah during which His Highness was reassured about the health of H H the Amir of Kuwait after undergoing a medical check-up in the US. H H the Amir wished H H the Amir of Kuwait good health and wellness.

Amir to meet President of Gambia tomorrowQNA DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will meet tomorrow morning, at the Amiri Diwan, with the President of the Republic of Gambia, Adama Barrow, who will arrive in the country today for an official three-day visit.

H H the Amir will discuss with the President, the ways to promote and develop bilateral relations between both coun-tries in various fields.

Also, they will discuss several issues of common interest

HAMAD PORT: QATAR'S GATEWAY TO WORLD TRADE

The length of basin of Hamad Port

The widthof basin of Hamad Port

4 KILOMETERS

700 METERS

17 METERS Depth of port’s basin, making it deepest artificial port basin created on land 7 MILLION

TONNES General and bulk

cargo Hamad Port has handled since

beginning of its operations

2016 Hamad Port

began operations on December 2016

02 TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019HOME

Amir sends

condolences to

President of Mali

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh

Tamim bin Hamad Al

Thani and Deputy Amir

H H Sheikh Abdullah bin

Hamad Al Thani sent

yesterday cables of con-

dolences to the President

of the Republic of Mali,

Ibrahim Boubacar Keita,

on the victims of a build-

ing that collapsed in Mali’s

capital Bamako, wish-

ing the injured a speedy

recovery.

Prime Minister and Inte-

rior Minister H E Sheikh

Abdullah bin Nasser bin

Khalifa Al Thani also sent

a cable of condolences to

the Prime Minister of Mali,

Boubou Cisse, on the vic-

tims of a building that

collapsed in Mali’s capi-

tal Bamako, wishing the

injured a speedy recov-

ery. QNA

OFFICIAL NEWS

Amir condoles

with President

of Burkina Faso

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh

Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani

and Deputy Amir H H Sheikh

Abdullah bin Hamad Al

Thani sent yesterday cables

of condolences to the Pres-

ident of the Republic of

Burkina Faso, Roch Marc

Christian Kabore, on the

victims of the attack on a

convoy and the bombing of

a truck in the Sanmatenga

province, north of Burkina

Faso, wishing the injured

a speedy recovery. Prime

Minister and Interior Min-

ister H E Sheikh Abdullah

bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al

Thani also sent a cable of

condolences to the Prime

Minister of the Republic of

Burkina Faso, Christophe

Dabire, on the victims of the

attack on a convoy and the

bombing of a truck in the

Sanmatenga province, north

of Burkina Faso, wishing

the injured a speedy recov-

ery. QNA

Amir sends

congratulations

to leader of N Korea

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh

Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani,

Deputy Amir H H Sheikh

Abdullah bin Hamad Al

Thani and Prime Minis-

ter and Interior Minister H E

Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser

bin Khalifa Al Thani sent

yesterday cables of congrat-

ulations to the Chairman

of the State Affairs Com-

mission of the Democratic

People’s Republic of Korea,

Kim Jong-un, on the occa-

sion of the founding of the

Republic. QNA

Amir greets

President

of Tajikistan

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh

Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani

and Deputy Amir H H Sheikh

Abdullah bin Hamad Al

Thani sent yesterday cables

of congratulations to the

President of the Republic

of Tajikistan, Emomali Rah-

mon, on the anniversary

of his country’s Independ-

ence Day. Prime Minister

and Interior Minister H E

Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser

bin Khalifa Al Thani also

sent a cable of congratula-

tions to the Prime Minister

of Tajikistan, Kokhir Rasul-

zoda, on the anniversary of

his country’s Independence

Day. QNA

Qatar attends meeting of GCC integrity protection & anti-graft agenciesQNA MUSCAT

The State of Qatar participated in the fifth meeting of the agencies responsible for promoting integrity and combating corruption in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which is being held in Muscat, Oman.

The Qatari delegation was led by the President of the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority (ACTA) H E Hamad bin Nasser Al Misned. The meeting discussed the achievements of the GCC integrity protection and anti-corruption agencies in the past period, which witnessed the preparation of guidelines and a number of GCC initiatives in the areas of integrity protection and anti-corruption. The meeting also discussed the future work plan.

At the outset of the meeting, the ACTA President praised the efforts of the Sultanate of Oman in organising this meeting and enhancing the joint GCC action in various fields, especially the protection of integrity and com-bating corruption.

His Excellency also pointed to the level of cooperation between the bodies concerned with protecting integrity and combating corruption in the Gulf countries, which was reflected in the flow of ideas and initiatives presented by the con-cerned bodies.

He stressed the need to develop a plan of action that takes into account the prioriti-sation of topics and schedules, distributes tasks among national actors, and sets specific imple-mentation mechanisms, so as to maximise the time and resources available and enhance their chances of success and benefit.

His Excellency reviewed the achievements of the State of Qatar in the field of preventing and combating corruption, the most recent of which was the adoption of the National Strategy for Promoting Integrity and Transparency.

He also announced Qatar’s bid to host the tenth session of the Conference of States Parties to be held in 2023, stressing that it is consistent with the legacy of the State of Qatar in upholding the role of the

Convention against Corruption and strengthening its measures in order to continue to support the relevant international effort. He added that hosting the con-ference is in the interest of the Gulf countries in general not only the State of Qatar. It is

worth mentioning that the meeting approved a number of proposals of the ACTA, in par-ticular the Gulf manuals for tenders and auctions, the civil service, asset recovery, and the curriculum for students of the Faculty of Law, which aim to

assist the Gulf States in imple-menting their obligations under the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the Arab Convention, in addition to strengthening and bringing Gulf legal and institutional systems closer together.

The President of the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority, H E Hamad bin Nasser Al Misned, with other members representing various GCC nations during the fifth meeting of the agencies responsible for promoting integrity and combating corruption held in Muscat.

Amir opens HMC’s new Trauma and Emergency CenterAmir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani getting acquainted with the facilities at Hamad Medical Corporation’s new Trauma and Emergency Center, which has the latest medical equipment and technologies in care and diagnosis fields and oxygen therapy room, by the Minister of Public Health, H E Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, and other officials of HMC, after the inauguration yesterday morning.

FROM PAGE 1

“This new facility will serve as a beacon of excellence in our network of emergency services,” said Dr. Al Kuwari.

Hamad Al Khalifa, Chief of Healthcare Facilities, also high-lighted HMC’s commitment to delivering high-quality trauma and emergency care in Qatar.

He said: “HMC continues to expand and improve the care we offer our patients. Today’s opening of the new Trauma and Emergency Center highlights that HMC is not only committed to expansion but is also deliv-ering on this commitment.”

Dr. Abdulla Al Ansari, Acting Chief Medical Officer at HMC, drew particular attention to the key role of clinical teams at the new Trauma and Emergency Center in meeting Qatar’s emer-

gency and trauma care needs. He added, “Not only does

the new centre offer a spacious healing environment equipped with the latest technology, but it also benefits from the delivery of care by the very best doctors, nurses, and other clinical staff. These highly trained profes-sionals have been recruited from across the globe and have spent many months preparing for the opening through a

number of simulation exercises. Their experience and expertise, coupled with our state-of-the-art facility and ultra-modern equipment, will ensure the best possible care experience.”

Speaking about the emer-gency services and technology available at the new Trauma and Emergency Center, Dr. Al Ansari, said, Those in need of urgent medical care can be received and treated through

the Emergency Department on the ground floor and we also have trauma, urgent, and critical care facilities available across the remaining three floors. These all house state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment, including an MRI, ultrasound, and three CT scanners. Our patients will also benefit from a threefold increase in x-ray capacity, compared to the f o r m e r E m e r g e n c y Department.”

The new Trauma and Emer-gency Center will also expand and improve upon HMC’s capacity to care for patients in need of trauma care with the first floor housing the Hamad Trauma Center, Qatar’s major trauma center. Receiving around 2,000 cases annually, it provides care to people with serious injuries from across

Qatar. Its location within the new Trauma and Emergency Center means that patients arriving by ambulance, or hel-icopter, via the helipad on the adjacent surgical service facility, are now able to speedily access trauma services for immediate care, resuscitation, and stabilisation.

The facility also benefits from five trauma and emer-gency rooms which are fully equipped to be converted into mini operating theaters in the event of a mass casualty incident or an accident requiring immediate surgical intervention. Patients can then be rapidly and seamlessly trans-ferred from there to the Trauma or Surgical Intensive Care Units as well as the operating theaters at Hamad General Hospital via the link bridge on the first floor.

The new Trauma and Emergency Center will also expand and improve upon HMC’s capacity to care for patients in need of trauma care with the first floor housing the Hamad Trauma Center, Qatar’s major trauma center. Receiving around 2,000 cases annually, it provides care to people with serious injuries from across Qatar.

03TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019 HOME

Angolan FM: Qatar is a strategic partner

QNA DOHA

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Angola, Manuel Domingos Augusto (pictured), said that Qatar is a strategic partner of Angola, which seeks to take advantage of Doha’s experience in exploiting its natural resources to build a development renais-sance and achieve the well-being of the people.

In an exclusive interview with QNA, the Angolan Minister of Foreign Affairs added that Angola’s ambition to achieve a pioneering development encourages it to cooperate with

the State of Qatar to benefit from its unique experience in exploiting its resources of oil and gas revenues to create a diver-sified and sustainable economy.

He added that President of the Republic of Angola Joao Manuel Lourenco directed his government to work vigorously to strengthen relations of coop-eration with Qatar, and turn the existing diplomatic relations into concrete partnership projects.

The Angolan Minister of Foreign Affairs said that Qatar and his country have agreed to start implementing strategic projects, which their develop-mental benefits will be for both sides and will benefit many

countries on the African con-tinent. He explained that the strategic projects that the parties will start to implement in Angola, represents an important start for cooperation between the two countries, and that the next two years will see other notable steps in the field of fruitful cooperation between the two countries.

The Minister stressed that the visit of President of Angola, Joao Manuel Lourenco, to Doha, during the past days, marked an important step in the process of building distinguished relations between the two sides, especially as the Angolan government has been seeking since taking office in the last two years to implement strategic visions con-cerning the establishment of broad-based cooperation with successful partners in order to achieve the desired growth of the country. He praised Qatar’s suc-cessful history in terms of

economic development, pointing out that the two countries share common commonalities and similar characteristics, as they are important producers and exporters of oil and gas. The dif-ference between them is that Qatar has used its energy inputs extensively and successfully, to become an important global player in this aspect, he added.

He said that trade exchange between the two countries is

negligible except for some limited cooperation between companies in the energy sector, i n d i c a t i n g t h a t t h e announcement of Qatar Airways that it will launch direct flights to the capital Luanda, as of next March, will represent an important impetus and a new stage for the movement of goods and trade exchange between the two countries.

The Minister added that the Angolan President’s visit to the country witnessed several important meetings with Qatari officials and the signing of several cooperation agreements. During these high-level meetings, Qatar expressed read-iness to fruitful partnership with Angola, especially in view of Qatar’s previous experiences in countries within the African con-tinent, he added.

The Minister pointed out that the cooperation between the two

countries can include different sectors, the most important of which are those related to eco-nomic diversification, adding Qatar has an important expe-rience in this field through its relentless endeavour to reduce dependence on its natural resources. Angola also seeks to achieve the same as it has important agricultural land and water resources, as well as other sectors such as diamonds and gold, he noted.

He added that the two coun-tries could make a big difference at the level of those sectors, by bringing in Qatari funding and technology to exploit Angola’s natural resources, which would provide double benefits. Augusto said that the IMF’s grant of $3bn to Angola reflects its faith in the new government and its reforms and financial guarantees related to the free movement of capital outside the country.

The Angolan Foreign Minister pointed out that the cooperation between the two countries can include different sectors, the most important of which are those related to economic diversification.

Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, receiving Guinness World Records certificate from the organisation’s representative at the Ministry’s headquarters, yesterday. PIC: ABDUL BASIT / THE PENINSULA

Hamad Port enters Guinness Records

FROM PAGE 1

Hamad Port was also listed by the Lloyd’s List Global Awards 2018 among the top eight interna-tional ports in the field of innovation and among the top five ports in terms of oper-ations. The port was commended for deploying constructive initiatives and ideas, plus its efficient opera-tional processes and o v e r a l l u n i q u e performance.

04 TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019HOME

King of Malaysia presents order of ‘Commander’ to AGQNA KUALA LUMPUR

The King of Malaysia, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, has awarded the order of ‘Commander’ to Attorney—General H E Dr Ali bin Fetais Al Marri at the Royal Palace in Kuala Lumpur, in recognition of the efforts of the State of Qatar in combating corruption.

Malaysia is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities, which is led by Qatar and it includes more than 100 coun-tries. The two parties cooperate in a number of joint projects, including the academic initiative to include anti-corruption pro-grams within the curricula at the primary and university levels.

The King of Malaysia, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, awarding the order of ‘Commander’ to Attorney—General H E Dr Ali bin Fetais Al Marri at the Royal Palace in Kuala Lumpur, in recognition of the efforts of the State of Qatar in combating corruption.

Qatar-China ties reviewed

Minister of Culture and Sports, H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali, received Zhou Jian, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the State of Qatar, yesterday. During the meeting, they discussed aspects of cooperation between the two countries in the cultural and sports fields and ways to develop them.

Ooredoo propels Lusail smart city development to next levelTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Ooredoo announced yesterday the next level of its partnership with the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company to provide the smart city network to enable Lusail City as one of the world’s leading Smart Cities.

As a flagship project of Qatari Diar, Lusail City is deploying smart systems and citywide sensors with Ooredoo’s next-generation network infra-structure serving as the ICT backbone for the Lusail Smart City end points.

As a result, Lusail City aims to become the region’s first large-scale greenfield Smart City and a model city for smart city living.

This partnership will see Ooredoo’s advanced wired and wireless networks as the foun-dation for a wide range of Lusail City’s secure Smart City services.

Practical examples can include smart operations with integrated SCADA systems, smart traffic to ease congestion, smart lighting to reduce energy usage, smart waste management to optimise collection and routes.

Overall, these Smart City services aim to enhance and optimise experiences within Lusail City, including the support

services for the upcoming major sporting events.

Yousuf Abdulla Al Kubaisi, Chief Operating Officer, Ooredoo Qatar, said: “Ooredoo’s part-nership with Qatari Diar has gone from strength to strength and shows our commitment to enhance the quality of life in Qatar, and specifically Lusail City’s residents. We will design and provide the ICT infra-structure for Smart City services that will allow Lusail City to take its services to the next level, and enhance Qatar’s standing as a global Smart City leader. Our ultra-fast and secure Supernet technology will serve as the foundation for innovative Smart City services to transform expe-riences and support Qatar’s nationwide digital transfor-mation to 2022 and beyond.”

Lusail City will fully adopt Ooredoo’s fixed and mobile net-works, including fibre optic and 5G networks. These will integrate

with citywide sensors to move data at extremely fast speeds and will allow for near real-time insights on city services.

Al Kubaisi added: “Ooredoo is leveraging our network capa-bilities and expertise, that have already brought Qatar fixed and mobile broadband speeds of up to 10Gbps, to provide a network for Lusail City that can handle the capacity, bandwidth and speed requirements of a con-nected city. We are designing the smart city’s network to antic-ipate the increasing number of connected sensors and systems, and to deliver unparalleled levels of efficiency for the city and its citizens.” Business customers can leverage 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.

As a flagship project of Qatari Diar, Lusail City is deploying smart systems and citywide sensors with Ooredoo’s next-generation network infrastructure serving as the ICT backbone for the Lusail Smart City end points.

The Prime Minister of Kingdom of Thailand, Prayut Chan-o-cha, met yesterday with the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Thailand, Sheikh Jassim bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, on the occasion of the end of his tenure in the country. During the meeting, they reviewed the bilateral relations between both countries and ways to boost and develop them.

Thai PM meets outgoing Qatari envoy

Education Ministry develops training programme for school supervisorsQNA DOHA

The Department of Early Education at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has developed a training programme for school super-visors.

The programme will help increase the learning and education

outcomes in the State of Qatar and achieve Qatar National Vision 2030 by providing high quality educational and training opportunities commen-surate with the aspirations and capa-bilities of each individual.

The training programme is designed to train school supervisors to learn how to provide effective feedback and raise their efficiency in

writing classroom visit forms with the quality and standardisation of vision in providing feedback and writing forms, and methods of teaching strategies for each subject.

The training for school super-visors is divided into two parts, the first part is internal, and concerned with the provision of workshops and seminars on the mechanism of

support and follow-up coordinators and teachers and discuss the classroom visit form.

While, the second part of the pro-gramme for supervisors included practical training in Jawaan Bin Jasim Model School, after communication with them and their approval in cooperation with the Department of Early Education.

QRCS provides relief aid to flood victims in KhartoumQNA / DOHA

Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) representative mission in Sudan has completed the implementation of the first phase of the urgent humani-tarian response after the flood disaster that hit 16 Sudanese states.

The QRCS said that this phase, which was implemented in cooperation with its Sudanese counterpart, included the distribution of non-food relief packages. The aid included shelter materials, water conservation, floor mats benefiting 735 families, including 3,675 people from the affected areas, north of the capital Khartoum.

Residents of the districts expressed their happiness with this assistance and expressed their thanks and gratitude to Qatar and QRCS team for the continued support to the people of Sudan. The Director of the Sudanese Red Crescent branch in Khartoum State praised the charitable and developmental role played by the QRCS through its various projects in the Sudanese states.

The head of the QRCS mission in Sudan, said that this relief assistance is only a first batch and the beginning of more emergency interventions, as the coming weeks will see the continuation of the distri-bution of relief materials to the affected people in other Sudanese states.

QYH kicks off ‘Lens of Tourism Competition’QNA DOHA

Qatar Youth Hostels (QYH) announced yesterday the kick off for the “Lens of Tourism Competition” for undergraduate students in order to promote tourism and highlight tourist attractions in Qatar and will run till October 23, 2019.

The competition aims to encourage talented youth to photograph and direct tourist and heritage sites in Qatar, and to give youth a chance to show their talents. It also aims to enhance the tourist side and highlight the tourist and heritage places through photography.

The participation standards

states that participants must express travelling, tourist attrac-tions and archaeological sites in Qatar. Guides can be hired from Qatari museums or travellers as part of the film. Documentary information must be from official sources. The duration of the film does not exceed three minutes.

A number of places have been selected to invite partici-pants to choose one of them to be filmed, which are Umm Sawyah Village, Borouq, Al-Ghariah Village, Moroub Village, Rakiat Village, Thaghab Village, Coot Village and Ayaal Al-Theeb Site. Initial registration for the contest is done via the page: h t t p : / / h i - q a t a r . c o m / a r /

touristlens. Then the movies are to be sent via email (infohi-qatar.com) and attached with the fol-lowing data: full name, uni-versity and college, university ID number, phone number and film name. The judging panel is com-posed of three members and they have 70 percent of the total evaluation and 30 percent is for the administration of Qatar Youth Hostels. The members are: Khalifa Al Merry, Yousif Al Midady and Hamad Abdul-rahman Al Muftah.

Winners will be announced on the same day as the screening of the films. Prizes from first to tenth place will be QR7,000 for first place, QR5,000 for second place, QR3,000 for third place.

05TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019 HOME

QSTP’s AIA empowers budding entrepreneursTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The path to entrepreneurial success can be difficult, as it is filled with unexpected obstacles and challenges. So when Dina Al Hajjar, a Lebanese university student, found she had the opportunity to participate in the inaugural Arab Innovation Academy (AIA) in 2018, it was one that she couldn’t pass up.

Launched by Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) — a part of Qatar Foundation Research, Development, and Innovation —and the European Innovation Academy, the AIA is an annual two-week boot-camp that provides aspiring entrepreneurs with a real-life experience of developing and launching new tech-based ventures.

“Before the AIA, I had many ideas that needed support and guidance, but they had not found the light of the day,” Al Hajjar said.

“When I arrived at Qatar Foundation to take part in the programme, I felt like I was in the right place — a place where innovation is born and where supporting talented young people is a priority.”

The boot-camp sees participants grouped in teams whose members have never pre-viously met each other, each of which is headed by a highly experienced mentor. Once an idea has been determined to be both tan-gible and realistic, the teams are introduced to the project funding and incubation oppor-tunities offered by QSTP that can enable aspiring tech entrepreneurs to realise their goal of commercialising their products.

“In this unique environment, we imme-diately started learning, training, and coming up with ideas. And within two weeks, we had defined our concept and were ready to move towards launch,” Al Hajjar said.

“Connecting with experts from leading global companies — such as Google and Amazon — is a dream come true for every young person looking to further their expe-riences, skills, and training in the innovation sector. During our time at AIA, we learned many soft skills, like persevering when failure is certain, having faith and confidence in our abilities, and thinking beyond limits.”

It was during these two weeks of the AIA that Swiftr was born. An innovative search engine that aims to refine information and

provide a better service for students to com-plete their research projects, Swiftr helps to locate reliable and accurate sources of infor-mation for academic purposes. It emerged from the need to find information that is compatible with the academic level and the field of study in question.

“Online search engines usually provide us with huge and excessive amounts of infor-mation that waste our time and affect the value and quality of our research,” said Al Hajjar, “Swiftr, however, aims to refine infor-mation and provide only what is useful and appropriate, contributing to a better and faster service for students to complete their research projects.”

After receiving special recognition at the conclusion of the boot-camp, Al-Hajjar and her team are now working with experts and investors to further develop the project — with the ultimate aim of taking it onto the market.

“QSTP made me believe in my abilities and become more confident. It has taught me that it is my right to dream, no matter how big the challenges ahead might be,” she said.

“I believe that technological advancement can reach new heights in this region. What we need as young people are high-level educational institutions and a culture of thinking and innovation so that we can turn our ideas into reality.

“I believe that Arab youth have the potential to achieve what they want to achieve. However, they lack support, encour-agement and guidance, and the support needed is often not found in their own coun-tries. My experience has been very important, and I hope to see a QSTP-modelled initiative developed in my country so that we can create an impact — if we have enough con-fidence and support, we are able to make our dreams a reality.”

Dina Al Hajjar, a Lebanese university student, with her team at Arab Innovation Academy, an initiative by the Qatar Science & Technology Park.

Ehsan campaign raises awareness of Alzheimer’s diseaseQNA DOHA

The Centre for Elderly Empow-erment & Care (Ehsan) has launched an awareness campaign in tandem with World Alzheimer’s Day, which is marked on September 21.

The campaign aims at raising awareness about the disease, its causes, symptoms, stages, pre-vention methods and the most

important guidelines for dealing with Alzheimer’s patients.

The awareness campaign, which runs until September 22, includes a series of events and activities aimed at raising awareness, educating the com-munity about Alzheimer’s disease and highlighting the most important guidance and coun-selling awareness to deal with the disease and prevent it.

These activities and events

will coincide with guidance awareness campaign on Ehsan’s social networking platforms that would involve all members of the community in this campaign for greater spread and interaction in order to enhance care and attention to the category of older people, and identify the most important needs and social and health rights.

Executive Director of Ehsan Mubarak bin Abdulaziz Al Khalifa

said that educating the elderly and community members is one of the center’s most important strategic goals, adding that a range of events, activities, work-shops and awareness campaigns are held in this month to achieve this goal.

He also stressed the impor-tance of community cooper-ation as well as the involvement of all individuals and specialists who care for the elderly and

Alzheimer’s patients, including the families of patients, to familiarise them with all aspects associated with this disease and to train and guide them on how to deal with it in various stages in order to provide the best social and health care for them.

There is a real partnership between the institutions and spe-cialists working in them to develop modern methods of

dealing with the elderly in accordance with the latest standards, experiences and global practices, he added.

Al Khalifa added that the campaign will distribute 2,500 copies of the Alzheimer bulletin prepared by the Ehsan center within the Ehsan Awareness Series, adding they will be dis-tributed to the institutions and beneficiaries of the services of the center.

Qatar hosts Induction Days of ALECSO & ISESCO

SIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

In the presence of representatives of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organi-zation (ALECSO) and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), the Ministry of Culture and Sports hosted yesterday the Induction Days of the two organisations.

The event, organised under the supervision of the Qatar National Commission for Edu-cation, Culture and Science, aims to strengthen cooperation and coordination between the Qatari Commission and other organisa-tions including ALECSO and ISESCO, and the means of bene-fiting from these organisations in developing and updating educa-tional, cultural and media policies within the country.

The second day of the event will be held at Cultural Village Foundation – Katara to introduce

the two organisations’ efforts and strategies and ways to cooperate and benefit from the programmes offered by them.

“Qatar was one of the first countries to join the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It established the Qatar National Commission to act as a liaison between UNESCO and the minis-tries and authorities concerned with the sectors of education, science and culture,” said Sec-retary General of the Qatar National Commission for

Education, Culture and Science Dr Hamda Hassan Al Sulaiti.

In her speech on the occasion, Al Sulaiti spoke about the cooper-ation that binds the Commission with international and regional organisations, including ALECSO and ISESCO, and ways to benefit from these organisations in the areas of education, culture and media policies in the country.

In order to benefit from potential as a civilized framework for people around the world and the expertise in development, Al Sulaiti stressed the continuation

in the distinguished relations between Qatar and these organi-sations, pointing out that the coop-eration between Qatar and these organisations gave a positive impact through implementing a number of projects.

Mohammed Al Gamari, Director of the Secretariat of the Executive Council, General Con-ference and Specialized Confer-ences of ISESCO, praised the coop-eration between the ISESCO and the State of Qatar through a number of ministries and national institutions and charitable and

humanitarian organisations in various educational, cultural and scientific fields.

He also stressed that the Directorate of Executive Council will continue to strengthen coop-eration with member states, and seeks in accordance with its new vision to achieve sustainable development and highlight the civilizational model of the Islamic world in the international arena by contributing to international and regional efforts aimed at achieving the development goals of the Islamic world.

Mohammed Al Gamari (fourth left), Director of the Secretariat of the Executive Council, General Conference and Specialized Conferences of ISESCO; Dr Hamda Hassan Al Sulaiti (fifth left), Secretary-General of the Qatar National Commission for Education, Culture and Science; Amin Dahmani, spokesperson of ALECSO; and other officials pose for a group photo during the Induction Days for ALECSO and ISESCO organisations held at the Ministry of Culture and Sports, in Doha, yesterday. PIC: BAHER AMIN / THE PENINSULA

The event — organised by the Qatar National Commission for Education, Culture and Science — aimed to strengthen cooperation and coordination between the Qatari Commission and other organisations including ALECSO and ISESCO.

Hand hygiene decreases school absenteeismFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

Hand hygiene helps to reduce school absenteeism rates due to illnesses by almost 40% studies suggest, said a senior healthcare professional.

While many factors con-tribute to school absenteeism, student illness is believed to be the main driver of student absenteeism.

The transmission of infec-tions within schools can result in infections making students too sick to attend classes, said Dr Mohammed Rahmathulla Shafeeq, Assistant Executive Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Hamad Medical Corporation.

He urged parents and teachers to place special focus on handwashing. “Proper and regular handwashing is essential for children as it ensures hygiene and averts infection,” said Dr Shafeeq.

“Keeping hands clean through improved hand hygiene is one of the most important steps we can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others. Many diseases and conditions are spread by not washing hands with soap and clean, running water. If soap and water are unavailable, use hand sanitiser,” he said.

Diseases such as flu, common cold, vomiting, diar-rhoea, and stomach flu are common diseases that can be positively impacted by more frequent hand hygiene and routine cleaning and disin-fection of commonly touched surfaces.

“Proper and regular

handwashing at school and outside keeps children free of infection. And schools should have proper facilities that help students easily wash their hands and maintain proper hygiene,” said Dr Shafeeq.

“Sinks should be placed in a place that is quite accessible for all students. And we recommend liquid soaps as soap bars cause infection to be transmitted from an infected child to others while it is used for handwashing,” he added.

Dr Shafeeq also said that tissue papers should be made available and children should be asked to make use of them after washing hands. “Possibility of infection is high if the hands remain wet,” he said.

Dr Shafeeq also urged the school authorities to ensure that enough break time is available for all. “Inadequacy of time can create inconvenience for stu-dents and this should be addressed. And all students should be given bathroom break if they demand it during class time,” he said.

He asked parents to teach their children personal hygiene and ensure hygiene is properly maintained in order to ensure that their children are free of infection. “Children should be asked to take regular baths and brushing of teeth. And they should be sent to school with cleaned washed clothes,” he said.

Dr Shafeeq urged school authorities to regularly clean and maintain water cooler dis-pensers and air conditioning units in order to ensure they don’t transmit anything harmful.

QCS organises workshop on patient’s life after treatmentQNA DOHA

Qatar Cancer Society (QCS) organised a workshop on patient’s life after treatment as part of its “Your Smile is Our Life” programme to support and empower cancer patients, recovered patients and their families as well as care providers.

The workshop, which tar-geted women only, discussed the side effects of the disease and treatment. It included several awareness sessions, most notably a session on patient’s life after treatment presented by an oncologist, who reviewed the most important side effects of the disease and how to cure and overcome all stages, in addition to tips to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

During the workshop, a number of stories of those living with the disease were shared, in addition to how they were able to inspire others through the sharing of these stories through all the available means to enhance their moral support and self-confidence, and to emphasise that most of the symptoms are temporary and can be overcome.

06 TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019HOME

HBKU to host lecture on role of Awqaf in Qatari society’s welfare tomorrow THE PENINSULA DOHA

As part of its mission to stimulate intellectual debates on Islam, the College of Islamic Studies (CIS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) is to host a public lecture on ‘The Role of Awqaf in Supporting the Social, Economic and Cultural Welfare of Qatari Society’.

The lecture, to be presented by Dr. Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed Al Thani (pictured), Director-General of the General Department of Awqaf at the Min-istry of Endowments (Awqaf) and Islamic Affairs, will introduce the concept of Waqf, or charitable endowment, and consider how it has contributed to the multi-dimensional development in Qatar, and its key elements to promoting national well-being.

Discussions will focus on the country’s six Islamic financial institutions including: the Waqf

bank for righteousness and piety; Waqf bank for the service of the Quran and Sunnah; Waqf bank for the service of mosques; Waqf bank for family and child welfare; Waqf bank for scientific and cultural development; and Waqf bank for health care, while examining their active presence in society.

The lecture will also discuss the mechanisms of Waqf gov-ernance in Qatar, modern-day

Waqf projects, as well as investment methods and future prospects for the development of the Waqf sector as a key pillar for community advancement.

Dr. Mohammed El Gammal, Associate Professor at CIS, said: “The lecture aims to re-emphasise the foundational importance of Waqf in Qatar, and the effectiveness of current policies that have led to the

increase in the number of Waqfs and financial endowments, as well as their efforts to support the recipients of Waqf. Fur-thermore, the lecture explores the mandates of Qatar’s six endowment banks and their impact in the social, economic and cultural spheres. “

CIS works regularly with Awqaf and Islamic Affairs to support academic debates on the role of Waqf as a mechanism for sustained national prosperity. Last year, the college hosted the CIS-QFC Global Conference on Awqaf to explore the historical and contemporary overviews of Waqf and its socio-economic impacts; Waqf’s models and management system per-formance; and the applicability of Waqf to the blockchain era.

The public lecture will take place from 6.30pm to 8.30pm tomorrow at the auditorium of Minaretein (College of Islamic Studies building).

Jumbo Electronics revamps loyalty programme THE PENINSULA DOHA

Jumbo Electronics, a leading electronics and appliances retailer in Qatar, has revamped its loyalty programme and re-branded it to Mukafa, meaning ‘rewards’ in Arabic.

It was formerly known as ‘Jumbo Digits.’ The new name for the loyalty programme also brings with it a new premium design card for its members.

Earning and redeeming Mukafa points has now become easier. For every one Qatari Riyal spent at a Jumbo showroom, customers can earn one point and every 100 points is equal to one Qatari Riyal. Apart from the new look, Mukafa also comes with a host of other benefits.

Its membership is free and does not involve any joining fees. Customers can also expect priority delivery within 24 hours for their purchases and those shopping on their birthday or anniversary will get a special bonus of 5,000 Mukafa points valid for the same day.

An additional discount of two percent can be availed for all purchases made on JumboSouq.com. During Jumbo’s Mega Pro-motion, members can earn double points. In addition to this, Mukafa card holders are entitled to a 30 percent discount on labour charges and five percent discount on spare parts for any repairs.

“Our loyalty programme goes beyond just earning and redeeming points, it is our way to appreciate and thank our loyal cus-tomers and make efforts to delight them. Hence, we decided to revamp the pro-gramme with a name that aptly reflects this

feeling. Going forward, customers can expect more benefits from ‘Mukafa’ as it is a dynamic loyalty programme,” said Sajed Jassim Mohammed Sulaiman, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Jumbo Electronics.

Mukafa, can also be used for gifting pur-poses and is best suited for corporates and individuals. The membership card can be used to shop from a wide range of electronics

and appliances at Jumbo Electronics. Existing members under the ‘Jumbo

Digits’ loyalty programme will automat-ically migrate to the new ‘Mukafa’ loyalty programme and will be able to avail all its benefits. Customers wanting to reg-ister under Mukafa can simply do so by visiting any Jumbo Electronics, LG Brand shop and Harman House showroom in Qatar.

Sajed Jassim Mohammed Sulaiman (third right), Vice-Chairman & Managing Director of Jumbo Electronics, and C V Rappai (third left), Director & CEO, unveil the new ‘Mukafa’ loyalty card in the presence of Abdul Hameed (second left), a long-standing customer, and other officials of Jumbo Electronics.

The lecture will also discuss the mechanisms of Waqf governance in Qatar, modern-day Waqf projects, as well as investment methods and future prospects for the development of the Waqf sector as a key pillar for community advancement.

Qatar refutes Saudi Arabia’s allegations over unjust blockadeFROM PAGE 1

“It is also unfortunate that KSA insists on reiterating the same baseless accusations around the alleged support of terrorism by Qatar, a country that hosts the Global Coalition Against IS, and is a founding member of the Riyadh-based Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) established in May 2017, one month before the imposition of the unlawful measures referred to in KSA’s statement.”

“While KSA refers to “inter-national law,” it has acted in vio-lation of international law at every turn. While KSA attempt to articulate justifications for its conduct, it has acted to avoid real accountability and justice before neutral bodies of the United Nations. The reason for KSA’s conduct is obvious: when faced with the possibility of a real neutral investigation and analysis of the facts underlying its conduct, it attempts to evade and to obfuscate,” the statement explained.

“For example, in September 2017, Qatar invited the United Nations Office of the High Com-missioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) to dispatch a Technical

Mission to Qatar and cooperated with the Mission to ensure that the truth would prevail. KSA took the opposite course: it ignored an invitation from the Technical Mission to conduct a similar mission in KSA and refused to engage with other UN bodies.

OHCHR, ultimately pub-lished a report in December 2017 which found that the KSA’s coercive measures “consisting of severe restrictions of movement, termination and dis-ruption of trade, financial and investment flows, as well as sus-pension of social and cultural exchanges imposed on the State of Qatar, had immediately trans-lated into actions applying to nationals and residents of Qatar, including citizens of KSA, UAE and Bahrain.

Furthermore, the report states that “many of these measures have a potentially durable effect on the enjoyment of the human rights and funda-mental freedoms of those affected,” the statement pointed out.

The statement further added, “KSA’s approach of denial and evasion has not changed, even as the crisis enters its third year. KSA’s deliberate and conscious

violation of international law, including the protections under the Convention on the Elimi-nation of Racial Discrimination (CERD) led Qatar to submit a complaint before the CERD Committee, an international body of experts charged with ensuring that the CERD is respected by all of the Member States, including KSA, which rat-ified the CERD on 23 September 1997.”

The statement said, “In that complaint, Qatar provided evi-dence of fundamental and deeply disturbing violations of the CERD. Contrary to what the KSA says in its press release,

Qatar has presented actual evi-dence demonstrating that KSA’s “measures have separated young children from parents, husbands from wives, and dis-rupted families throughout the region. They have arbitrarily and indiscriminately interfered with the most basic elements of daily life for many within Qatar, KSA, and the other States, including their ability to practice their religion, to receive medical care, to obtain an education, and to work and own property in order to provide for themselves and their families-simply because they are Qatari, married to Qataris, the children of

Qataris or otherwise linked to Qatar.”

“Although KSA announced that it would take into consid-eration the humanitarian situ-ation of “mixed” families through “hotlines” or other steps, this has proven false. Both the OHCHR and Human Rights Watch have reported that such measures have largely been ineffective, and that in some cases individuals have not resorted to them for fear of ret-ribution or harassment by the KSA Government. KSA also has criminalized certain expressions of “sympathy” for Qatar, including any criticism of or challenges to the KSA’s coercive measures, punishable by up to five years in prison. The crimi-nalization of “sympathy” for Qatar in KSA has curtailed freedom of expression and created a climate of fear for Qataris as well as their non-Qatari friends, relatives, and supporters.”

The statement pointed out, “As a reminder, KSA, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt’s list of unreasonable and unactionable demands included the closure of a number of media outlets which is a clear violation of the international law obligation to

protect and uphold freedom of expression.”

“KSA’s response to Qatar’s evidence was familiar: instead of engaging positively with the CERD Committee and Qatar in an attempt to conciliate the matter and end the suffering of Qataris, it argued that the Com-mittee had no jurisdiction and no competence to deal with the matter.”

The statement explained, “Just a few days ago, on 2 Sep-tember 2019, the CERD Com-mittee released its decision, in which it resoundingly rejected KSA’s objections. In so doing, the CERD Committee stated that contrary to KSA’s arguments, the CERD requires that “State parties shall ensure that ‘non-citizens are not subject to collective expulsion, in particular in situ-ations where there are insuffi-cient guarantees that the per-sonal circumstances of each of the persons concerned have been taken into account,’ and ‘that they shall avoid ‘expulsions of non-citizens, especially of long-term residents, that would result in disproportionate inter-ference with the right to family life.” The CERD Committee con-cluded that KSA’s objections “must be rejected.”

“While KSA refers to “international law,” it has acted in violation of international law at every turn. While KSA attempt to articulate justifications for its conduct, it has acted to avoid real accountability and justice before neutral bodies of the United Nations. The reason for KSA’s conduct is obvious: when faced with the possibility of a real neutral investigation and analysis of the facts underlying its conduct, it attempts to evade and to obfuscate,” the statement explained.

415 building permits issued by municipalities in AugustQNA DOHA

The Planning and Statistics Authority published the 56th issue of the monthly statistics of building permits and building completion certificates issued by all municipalities of the State.

In August 2019, municipality of Al Rayyan came at the top of the municipalities where the number of building permits issued were 115, i.e. 28 percent of the total issued permits, while Doha and Al Wakrah municipal-ities came in second place with 85 permits, i.e. 20 percent each, followed by Al Daayeen munic-ipality with 58 permits, i.e.14 percent, then Umm Slal munic-ipality with 32 permits, i.e. eight percent.

Building permits and building completion certificates data is of particular importance as it is considered an indicator for the performance of the con-struction sector which in turn occupies a significant position

in the national economy. The rest of the municipalities were Al Khor 17 permits (four percent), Al Sheehaniya 14 permits (three percent), and finally Al Shammal nine permits (two percent).

In terms of type of permits issued, data indicates that the new building permits (resi-dential and nonresidential) con-stitutes 48 percent (198 permits) of the total building permits issued during the month of August 2019, while the per-centage of additions permits constituted 50 percent (208 permits), and finally fencing permits with two percent (9 permits).

Villas top the list in resi-dential building category, accounting for 72 percent (118 permits) of all new residential buildings permits, followed by dwellings of housing loans permits by 19 percent (31 permits) and apartments buildings by five percent (nine permits).

Al Daayeen Municipality made 213 inspection visits to food outlets

An inspector of the municipality during an inspection at an outlet.

THE PENINSULA DOHA

The Health Monitoring Department of Al Daayeen Municipality made 213 inspection visits to food outlets to check whether they were complying with the health rules in August.

Under the inspection cam-paign, the inspectors caught four violations of the provisions of

Law No. 8 of 1990 on the regu-lation of food monitoring.

A total of 69 warnings were issued against erring outlets. Six acknowledgments were taken from the shopkeepers to rectify the situation to maintain hygiene regarding to the food.

The department conducted an awareness campaign on the specifications of the general technical requirements for shops and establishments.

07TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019 HOME

Qatari collaboration with University of Northampton for professional trainingTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Sheikh Dr. Saud Al Thani, CEO of beGREEN-Qatar and Professor John Sinclair, Dean of College of Arts, Science and Technology at the University of Northampton, UK, have signed a cooperation agreement to train and certify professionals from Qatar.

beGREEN-QATAR and the University of Northampton cel-ebrated their agreement to train and qualify engineers and pro-fessionals in Qatar. The agreement is purposed to enhance academic and profes-sional development in the field of engineering and sustainable environment.

On the occasion, Sheikh Soud Al Thani, CEO of beGREEN-Qatar, said: “Our aim is to

develop the skills of engineers in Qatar training them on cutting-edge technology instructed and under the supervision of inter-nationally renowned professors in different fields. Initially, we will regularly hold training and professional development courses for engineers and pro-fessionals wishing to know more or specialize in Building Infor-mation Modeling (BIM). These upcoming courses will be accredited by the University of Northampton, granting partici-pants certificates from the Uni-versity after passing the desig-nated exams.”

Sheikh Soud added that the training courses will be con-ducted in coordination with the local authorities and the relevant engineering institutions, societies and associations in Qatar.

BIM is burgeoning field in the Middle East and is one of the most important building tech-nologies in this day and age. The BIM technology develops

two- or three-dimensional models for the construction and infrastructure sector projects. These models allow engineers working in construction projects

greater latitude of flexibility, ease of work, accuracy in execution and speed in completion.

Northampton University is a research university offering a wide range of undergraduate degrees, foundation degrees, diplomas and a variety of post-graduate opportunities up to the doctoral level. The University also patrons continuing technical education, mainly to develop the skills of professionals in several technology and engineering fields. The University of North-ampton regularly holds an advanced ranking as one of the UK’s best “value added” universities.

Course registration will be open soon and will be available year-round. The first training course will be held in November of this year in the presence of

professors from the University of Northampton for several days. It was also agreed to “develop research projects on topics with special importance to the pro-fessional and economic pros-pects of Qatar and the Qatari society, as well as expanding the scope and number of training courses to include various disci-plines all being certified/accredited by the same British university.”

beGREEN-Qatar is a local developer of several technol-ogies with relevance to the sus-tainable development in Qatar; areas such as air conditioning, transportation, and urban planning Vocational training is the latest addition to the com-pany’s operations towards a more sustainable built envi-ronment in Qatar.

Professor John Sinclair, Dean of College of Arts, Science and Technology at the University of Northampton in UK, and Sheikh Dr. Saud Al Thani, CEO of beGREEN-Qatar.

Cloud-based SRM platform receives QSTP’s product development fundTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP), part of Qatar Foundation Research, Development, and Innovation, has awarded its Product Development Fund (PDF) to Waasla, a cloud-based s u p p l i e r r e l a t i o n s h i p management (SRM) platform designed to enhance supplier performance and relations.

QSTP’s PDF assists and encourages small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups – in the priority areas of energy, environment, healthcare, and ICT – to develop innovative products or services that are rel-evant to the needs of the local market.

The funding agreement was signed by Yosouf Abdulrahman Saleh, Executive Director, QSTP, and Ali Al Marri, founder and CEO, Waasla, in a ceremony at QSTP, yesterday.

Waasla’s platform employs Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning to assist busi-nesses in selecting and collabo-rating with suppliers.

The platform covers all aspects of SRM, from initial reg-istration to ongoing performance assessment, offering businesses

a complete view of their supplier relations.

Aysha Al Hamadi, Director of Product Development and Grant Management Fund, QSTP, said, “We are happy to ink another funding agreement, this time providing support for Waasla, a promising startup that aims to play an essential role in boosting business productivity in Qatar.

Through such agreements, we demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the development of the local innovation ecosystem and contribute to the growth of tech startups and innovative technologies.”

Since its launch in 2016, QSTP’s PDF has awarded subsidy grants to 18 SMEs, eight of which have successfully graduated from the program with inno-vative products that range from a smart edutainment app, ‘Haya’, by Al-Doha Link LLC, to an autonomous delivery vehicle,

‘Droid’, by Airlift QSTP LLC; and an ‘Automated Customer Pro-filing Platform’, by iHorizons WLL.

Ali Al Marri, founder and CEO, Waasla, said “We are excited to secure QSTP’s financial support.

Equally important, we look forward to receiving the support of QSTP’s team of mentors,

which will be instrumental in the development and marketing of our product in Qatar and the region.”

To be eligible for the PDF, at least 20 percent of the private sector SME should be owned by a Qatari individual, and the SME should have up to 249 employees.

Qatar-based SMEs that are

successful in securing PDF support may be awarded funds of up to 50 percent of the cost of the product or service proposal.

Currently, five new projects are under evaluation by QSTP’s team of industry managers, and QF’s research, development, and innovation experts.

Waasla’s platform employs AI and machine learning to assist businesses in selecting and collaborating with suppliers. It covers all aspects of SRM, from initial registration to ongoing performance assessment.

Contemporary Arabesque exhibition highlights experience of artist GhaddafTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of the Cultural Village Katara, inaugurated the “Contemporary Arabesque” exhibition by Ali Ghaddaf, held at Katara Art Center.

The exhibition presents 16 large-scale paintings, ranging between the Arab heritage and contemporary art.

The canvases were a great combination between East and West, through which the artist highlighted his ceaseless con-nection with identity and land, and its great influence on the

work he presents.Despite 40 years spent

outside the borders of the Arab world, he is still haunted by the spirit of the East, moving his feathers with strong nostalgia to recover the warmth of sand and shine of Arabic crafts.

Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al-Sulaiti said: “The exhibition offers a rich artistic experience of the artist Ali Ghaddaf not only in its visual dimension but also in its human aspect.”

Dr. Al Sulaiti also added: “Katara Art Center always presents distinctive and rich artistic and human artistic expe-riences, which reinforces

the orientation of the Cultural Village’s activities and exhibi-tions to build bridges of commu-nication between cultures and peoples.

For his part, Ozan Ghaddaf, Manager of the artist, said: “The artist Ali Ghaddaf presents through this exhibition contem-porary abstract works inspired by the mix between the Arab architectural heritage and con-temporary art.

He expressed this through the overlap between color and ancient architecture using a variety of materials”.

The exhibition will run until September 30, Building 5.

Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of the Cultural Village Katara, visits the “Contemporary Arabesque” exhibition by Ali Ghaddaf, at Katara Art Center.

WCM-Q/ACGME launches assessment workshopTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) is running a two-and-a-half-day training course on competency-based medical education for healthcare leaders and educators from, September 19 to 21. The course, titled Assessment in Competency Based Medical Education: A Faculty Devel-opment Program, is open for 40 participants and is intended for physicians only, particularly resi-dency and fellowship programme directors, associate programme directors, and faculty members with responsibility for the assessment of residents/fellows.

The course is being provided through a regional Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) training hub established in Qatar as part of a memorandum of understanding between the ACGME and WCM-Q.

It will feature speakers from ACGME, WCM-Q and Vanderbilt University.

Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to discuss the implications of competency based medical edu-cation, employ tools for effective assessment and feedback, explore key strategies in identifying and remediating a struggling learner, and apply techniques to improve direct observation.

DPS-MIS students shine at PM foundation’s talent searchTHE PENINSULA DOHA

DPS-MIS students have made a mark at the PM Talent Search Examination, conducted by PM Foundation, a Kerala based philanthropic organisation, with an aim to identify the talented young students for the PM Foundation Fellowship Award for UG and PG programmes.

The competition is conducted every year for the pass out batch of Grade X students who score 90 percent or above marks in each subject in CBSE Board Examination.

The shortlisted students Ayisha Shameem K; Hitansh Murgai; Najah Ismail; and Suchitra Senthil have successfully cleared the first round and have won a Certificate of Excel-lence with a cash prize of QR350 and two gift vouchers of QR100 each. The second round of the contest was held in August.

Najah Ismail, after qualifying the online interview, has been nominated to receive the fellowship amount of Rs150,000, after her

completion of her Grade XII Board Exami-nation. The award ceremony will be con-

ducted in Dubai at the end of September 2019.

Ayisha Shameem K; Hitansh Murgai; Najah Ismail; and Suchitra Senthil have successfully cleared the first round of PM Talent Search Examination and have won a Certificate of Excellence.

Ali Al Marri, founder and CEO, Waasla; and Yosouf Abdulrahman Saleh, Executive Director, Qatar Science & Technology Park, during the signing ceremony.

Both British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Italian right-wing politician Matteo Salvini found themselves in corners this week, each in his own way having lost bets that their popularity would carry the day.

THE WASHINGTON POST

08 TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019VIEWS

Johnson and Salvini: Two soaring stars lose big political bets

Who would have bet that two soaring stars of European politics would have gambled so badly

on strategic power plays?Both British Prime Minister Boris

Johnson and Italian right-wing poli-tician Matteo Salvini found themselves in corners this week, each in his own way having lost bets that their popu-larity would carry the day.

Instead, analysts and fellow politi-cians say, both men badly miscalcu-lated the crucial role of democratic institutions like parliament in the age of populist politics and underesti-mated the time-tested tactic of bitter enemies ganging up together in countermoves.

“They confused their popularity with power, and they thought because of their popularity they would be able to ram through their plans,” said Wol-fango Piccoli, an analyst and co-pres-ident of Teneo intelligence, based in London.

The circumstances for each leader in these waning weeks of summer are decidedly different.

In London, the unpredictable Johnson is still in power, although his gambit to sideline Parliament in his iron-clad determination to ensure Britain exits the European Union on

Oct. 31 back-fired. Over in Rome, while trying to trigger early elections so he could become premier, fire-brand Salvini lost his two powerful coalition posts, as vir-ulently anti-migrant interior min-ister and as deputy premier in Italy’s first all-populist government.

In John-son’s case, faced by a feisty Par-liament, where he enjoyed only the slimmest of working majorities, he took a gamble in late August. The prime minister declared that Par-liament would be suspended for weeks in the crucial run-up to the Brexit deadline. But Johnson’s strategy only ended up uniting lawmakers, with the rebels including 21

lawmakers from his own Conservative Party. His move cost him his working majority and left his Brexit strategy in tatters.

One of the lawmakers who was suspended from the Conservative group in Parliament this week after voting against Johnson’s government blamed the prime minister’s mistake on hiring as key advisers those who ran the successful “leave” campaign in the 2016 referendum on EU mem-bership. But those advisers have scant experience in working with Parliament.

“Just maybe they thought they could win over Parliament and they can succeed if they ran things like a campaign,” lawmaker Alistair Burt said. “You can’t. It’s a misjudgment.”

Salvini was riding high, after his nationalist League party triumphed in European Parliament elections in May. Advisers pressed him to pull his League from Premier Giuseppe Conte’s then barely year-old coalition, confident the Italian president would dissolve Par-liament and set elections this fall.

Instead, Salvini spent much of the summer basking in his own glory, working crowds of adoring vaca-tioners at seaside resorts. Back in Rome, in trattorie and party back-rooms, his political rivals, the oppo-sition Democrats and the League’s ill-matched coalition partner, the 5-Star Movement, were strategizing to keep him from power.

“If you are on the beach, getting mojitos and selfies left and right, and everyone’s thanking you for stopping the invasion of Africans, you feel you’re some kind of Superman who can do anything,” said Franco Pavon-cello, professor of political history and president of John Cabot University in Rome. The reference to Africans reflects the contention by Salvini, and much of his voter base, that migrants cause crime and rob work from Italians.

During his “wild, two-week vacation,” Salvini “lost touch with reality to some extent, political reality,” said John Harper, a history professor at Johns Hopkins School of

Advanced International Studies in Bologna.

When Salvini did make his move, yanking his party from Conte’s coa-lition, it proved to be too late. The 5-Stars, co-founded by caustic comic Beppe Grillo, and the Democrats, whose powerbrokers include wily former Premier Matteo Renzi, then cut a deal.

Blindsided, Salvini seemed shocked that Conte on Wednesday formed his second government, again with the 5-Stars but this time with the Democrats while the League is ban-ished to Parliament’s opposition ranks. Until nearly the end, Salvini desper-ately lobbied the 5-Stars to again govern with his League.

“It would have been hard for him to have believed that Renzi and Grillo, bitter enemies, would get together and turn out to be more Machiavellian and more ruthless than anyone expected,” Harper said.

Used to getting his way, Salvini cried foul. But President Sergio Matta-rella reminded the nation that in a parliamentary democracy what matters is whether a coalition com-mands a working majority in the legislature.

Still, “I’m not sure it is the role of Parliament itself that they didn’t take into account,” Harper said. “In both cases, they seemed to underestimate the capacity of their opponents to thwart them and to unite.”

Johnson at times has used populist tactics, such as claiming that out-of-touch politicians are trying to defy the will of the people on Brexit. He is known for surprises and still may win a national election if one is held.

“By Christmas, things can be looking good for him, he could be looking like a strategic genius,” Harper said. But Salvini “has definitely lost this round,” with the new coalition motivated to banish the specter of early elections.

Ultimately, said the London-based Piccoli, “you can do very well in opinion polls, but there are rules, there are institutions that need to be taken into consideration.”

FRANCES D’EMILIO AP

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Climate change is a reality that now

affects every region of the world. The

human implications of currently projected

levels of global heating are catastrophic.

Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for

Human Rights

East Asia’s turmoil, America’s loss

President Donald Trump’s bellig-erent nationalism and his use of trade as a political weapon are being emulated by key

American allies, compounding the damage to US strategic interests. One particularly acute case in point is that of Japan and South Korea, which have become caught up in an escalating feud about 20th-century grievances that animate nationalists in both countries. The result: Japan has restricted key exports to South Korea, and Seoul has announced it will end an intelligence-sharing agreement with Tokyo, even as both countries face a growing threat from North Korea.

This is far from the first time that the two East Asian democracies have feuded over their troubled history, including Japan’s colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945. But Trump has done much to exacerbate the latest spat, first by mod-eling mercantilist tactics and then by doing little or nothing to defuse the conflict.

The flare-up started with a

questionable ruling by South Korea’s Supreme Court, which said Japanese firms must compensate South Koreans used as forced laborers during World War II despite a 1965 treaty settling those claims. In July, the Japanese government of Shinzo Abe, a nationalist who has worked hard to cultivate Trump, responded with a Trumpian measure: restrictions on exports to South Korea, including chemicals vital to its big chip-manufacturing industry.

The previous South Korean gov-ernment, under the conservative Park Geun-hye, had tried to head off the court’s ruling after striking a deal with Abe on another sensitive subject, South Korean women forced to serve as “comfort women” for the Japanese army. But the leftist Moon Jae-in, who suc-ceeded her, chose to play on the easily inflamed Korean resentment toward Japan. Having already dismantled the earlier deal on comfort women, he responded aggressively to the Japanese export restrictions, first announcing the cancellation of the intelligence-sharing and then conducting military exercises near islets claimed by both countries.

All this came as a blow to US dip-lomats who had worked painstakingly to broker the intelligence deal and to encourage the settlement on comfort women.

Yet, other than issuing a statement criticizing the South Korean move on intelligence sharing, the Trump admin-istration has made little effort to repair the rift. This, even though North Korea’s recent testing of several new short-range missilescapable of striking both South Korea and Japan has made coop-eration between them more urgent than ever.

President Barack Obama made it a priority to ease tensions between these vital US allies, even convening a trilateral meeting with Park and Abe to break the ice between them. Trump, in contrast, has publicly complained about the expectation that he should do something. “How many things do I have to get involved in?” he whined after getting a mediation request from Moon in July. Thanks to such thinking, the US strategic position in East Asia is steadily deterio-rating, to the advantage of North Korea and China.

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

Taming extremism

Extremism and violent behaviour by people and diverse groups have become a true global phenomenon. Almost everyday dawns with reports of some kind of terrorist

acts, major or negligible, from practically every country in the world, perpetrated by individuals or groups in bid to take revenge or purportedly to project and promote their version of a particular ideology or to attain certain selfish ends. It had been a practice among the world leaders to ascribe extremism to a particular religion, but now a days they have learnt that terrorism is not an offshoot of any religion, but irrespective of religion, race, colour or country, it is a result of harbouring selfish ideologies, propaganda and more fun-damentally, an inherent mental state which gain a bit of pleasure from seeing the sufferings of others. Whatever the reasons of extremism, the world is collectively paying a huge price for such atrocities committed by a small bunch of miscreants.

The State of Qatar, under the wise leadership of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has been at the forefront of the fight against terrorism, whether it is regionally or internationally, for the past several years. Qatar was one

of the first countries to foresee the phenomenon of terrorism spreading jeopardy across the world and the country has been determined to nip it in the bud. Qatar has been relentlessly hosting international confer-ences, signing Untied Nations’ conventions against terrorism and promptly condemning any act of terrorism in any far corners of the globe.

The latest among these efforts was the recently concluded Inter-national Conference on Studying the Causes of Extremism hosted by Doha. The conference, which has brought together interna-tional experts, intellectuals and policy-makers from 20 countries,

confirmed Qatar’s leading role in confronting extremism.The participants of the conference, organised by the Social

and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI) of Qatar University, agreed to launch the index for measuring extremism leading to violence to make data on this phe-nomenon available to researchers and policy-makers. The bid to create an index on extremism may be a first-of-its-kind effort. The index uses data collected from represent-ative surveys to measure violent extremism in all countries at different times. It will definitely help in unravelling the pattern of terrorism, which can contribute to preempt any repeat of the act and plan better methodologies to stem the spread of terrorism.

The State of Qatar, even though free of the menace of any kind of violent behaviour, is concerned about the suf-ferings of the fellow beings resulting from terrorism in other parts of the world. The country is playing a leading role in tackling terrorism and bringing lasting peace to the world by taking valuable steps to wipe off the blot of extremism from the face of the globe. At the same time, Qatar is also helping the victims of extremism by providing education, means of livelihood and employment across the world.

Qatar was one of the first countries to foresee the phenomenon of terrorism spreading jeopardy across the world and the country has been determined to nip it in the bud.

The Arab states should be reassured that the US continues to share the broad goals of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative: the full integration of Israel into the region and the establishment of a Palestinian state - though that should not mean plunging headlong into a quixotic effort to achieve immediate change.

09TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019 OPINION

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The dynamics of India’s growth recession

There’s still hope for Israeli-Palestinian peace

AMIT KAPOOR IANS

HUSSEIN IBISH BLOOMBERG

The crisis brewing within the Indian economy has gained unanimous acceptance by now. Even the latest annual

report of the RBI for the fiscal year 2018-19 (or FY19) confirmed that the Indian economy has indeed hit a rough patch. The GDP growth rate of the economy has slipped to 5 per cent

in the first quarter of FY20, the lowest in over six years. This is an indication of tougher times ahead. Be it the recent collapse of the automobile sector or the rising number of non-performing assets (NPAs), sluggish consumer demand or failing manu-facturing sector; all have a hand in this deceleration of growth rate.

The spurt in instances of job losses from automobile manufacturers to biscuit makers has led to the general acceptance of the downturn. This is the third instance of an economic slowdown for India in the past decade after the ones that began in June 2008 and March 2011.

The technical term for the same is growth recession. A recession is defined in economics as three consec-utive quarters of contraction in GDP. But since India is a large developing economy, contraction is a rarity. The last instance of negative growth for India was in 1979. A growth recession is more commonplace where the economy continues to grow but at a slower pace than usual for a sustained period, what India has been facing

nowadays. The growth of the Indian economy had been predominated by consumption inclusive of both -- Private Final Consumption Expend-iture (PFCE) as well as the Gov-ernment Final Consumption Expend-iture (GFCE).

Over the last five years, the total consumption expenditure by Indian households had accelerated with an average growth rate of 7.8 per cent compared to an average of 6.1 per cent in 2011-14. But the recent sharp fall in PFCE in the June quarter to 3.1 per cent compared to 7.2 per cent in the March quarter has significantly contributed to the recent slowdown.

That being said, any fall in con-sumption expenditure, as and when it would happen, would escalate the crisis even more. If consumption spending falls, then output and employment levels also fall since con-sumption expenditure directly impacts the other two.

As a consequence, the economy would stagnate, and prices deflate. Lower prices, if unable to recover the costs, would halt the operations of any firm and would initiate the layoff process. This, in turn, reduces earnings further. Hence this vicious cycle keeps on repeating itself until the economy slips into a deeper state of shock.

In addition, another major com-ponent of India’s GDP is investment, induced by both -- private and gov-ernment sectors. It has been a key driver of growth since the liberali-sation of 1991.

Though gross fixed capital for-mation (GFCF), the main constituent of investment in the economy, increased, yet its contribution to growth fell by 6.2 percentage points in 2014-19 than in 2011-14. The slack-ening of investment lowers the level of infrastructure development, causes hesitation in creating small busi-nesses, stop entrepreneurs from investing in research and

development, and thus stagnates technological development. Capital Investments are long-term gains that generate profitability for many years by improving operational efficiency and boosting innovation. It goes without saying that for holistic growth of the economy and to gain compet-itive edge over others, the economy must innovate.

In addition to these factors, the slump in the economy is also affected by the various exogenous factors. A leading dampener is the US-China trade war, which has intensified over time and has contracted world trade and, in turn, Indian exports. Also, high rates of GST, liquidity crisis in NBFCs, and shift in the behavioural pattern of the workforce due to the entry of young people has discouraged savings. When people save less in the economy, it leaves less money for investments.

Recession can be short-lived if corrective actions are taken immedi-ately, failure of which can have a pro-longed effect on the health of an economy.

Amidst the news of slowdown, rise in FDI inflows from $12.7bn (FY19) to $16.3 bn (Q1 FY20) brought respite for the government. In a welcoming move, government revised GST for the automobile sector, opened up FDI in contract manufacturing sector and even announced the recapitalization of the banking sector. Together with these, it should also focus on optimum utilization of funds granted by RBI and direct them to boost investment in the economy both infrastructural and research investment. Further, structural shifts over the long run can be achieved through tapping into the health and education sectors that long for quality improvements. Only such long-lasting structural changes can improve the growth potential of the Indian economy and deter the possi-bility of three slowdowns within the short span of a decade.

US special envoy Jason Greenblatt, a principal designer of President Donald Trump’s promised

Middle East peace plan, resigned last week, having never revealed a word of the mysterious plan or presided over a minute of actual negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. It’s clearer than ever that the admin-istration’s rethinking of US Mideast peace policy has been a crushing failure. The question now is how to move beyond it.

There’s a mess to be cleaned up, to be sure, one that was created by the Trump peace team, headed by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, when it smashed the agreed-upon basis for talks by recog-nizing Israel’s sovereignty in Jeru-salem, without distinguishing between the West and East parts of the city. The team also cut off diplo-matic relations with the Palestinians, leaving the US as the only major

world power without direct ties to one of the key parties. Indeed, the administration cut off all aid to any-thing and everything Palestinian, including security forces, health and education programs, and even people-to-people peace programs.

Worst of all, the White House endorsed Israel’s sovereignty in the Golan Heights, thus encouraging Israel to annex more occupied territories.

Meanwhile, Kushner, Greenblatt and David Friedman, the American ambassador to Israel, made it clear their boss no longer endorsed a two-state solution and would push only for what they have vaguely called Palestinian “autonomy,” presumably within an unequal Greater Israel. That’s obviously a nonstarter, not only for the Palestinians but also for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab countries.

In all this trouble-making, the White House has followed its

Obamacare playbook: Repeal, but don’t replace. Destroy the existing, agreed-upon framework for negoti-ation toward a two-state solution without bothering to propose an alternative.

If the goal is to build a new con-sensus for a Greater Israel, it means open-ended conflict into the fore-seeable future, and it forecloses the prospect of a robust alliance between Israel and Gulf Arab countries against Iran.

But it’s not too late to resurrect America’s commitment to a two-state outcome, even if it has to wait for the next US president.

Washington should begin by clarifying that its recognition of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem applies only to West Jerusalem and not to occupied East Jerusalem, whose status must still be deter-mined by negotiations. It should then re-endorse the 1993 Oslo peace accords, and the United Nations Security Council resolutions - all approved by the US - that call for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The US should especially reiterate its support for Security Council Reso-lution 2334, which demanded an end to Israeli settlement expansion. Israel needs to hear that America will not endorse additional annexations or major settlement activity.

The Arab states should be reas-sured that the US continues to share the broad goals of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative: the full integration of Israel into the region and the establishment of a Palestinian state - though that should not mean plunging headlong into a quixotic effort to achieve immediate change. The building blocks for a peace agreement on both sides need to be carefully developed.

Diplomatic ties to the Palestinians must be restored and the Palestine Liberation Organization mission in Washington, reopened. There’s no need to move the American Embassy back to Tel Aviv from West Jeru-salem, but the US should reopen its consulate in East Jerusalem, its diplo-matic mission to the Palestinians.

It is also important to stop the sit-uation on the ground from further deteriorating. That means selectively restoring aid to Palestinians, tar-geting on-the-ground efforts to

Over the last five years, the total consumption expenditure by Indian households had accelerated with an average growth rate of 7.8 per cent compared to an average of 6.1 per cent in 2011-14. But the recent sharp fall in PFCE in the June quarter to 3.1 % compared to 7.2 % in the March quarter has significantly contributed to the recent slowdown.

improve the quality of life in the West Bank and building civic, social and political institutions. The Palestinian justice system, in particular, needs urgent attention to promote the rule of law.

Also imperative is to seek a solution to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza that doesn’t unduly empower the militant group Hamas.

The crucial truth is that Israeli-Palestinian peace is still possible, despite the terrible situation the Trump administration inherited and the untold additional damage it has done. But it will require that the framework for peace be sal-vaged. The appalling alternative is to wait for another explosion of violence, which is otherwise unavoidable.

A file photo of White House Senior Adviser, Jared Kushner speaking with United States Ambassador to the United Nations and lawyer Jason Greenblatt before a meeting of the United Nations Security Council at UN headquarters in New York.

Aerobatic exercise

10 MONDAY 9 SEPTEMBER 2019MIDDLE EAST

IAEA confirms Iran installing new centrifugesAP BERLIN

The United Nations’ atomic watchdog confirmed yester-daythat Iran is preparing to use more advanced centrifuges, another breach of limits set in the country’s unraveling nuclear deal with major powers.

Iran had already announced the step, its latest violation of the 2015 agreement as it tries to pressure European signatories to find a way to maintain oil shipments and ease the toll of US sanctions on the Iranian economy.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported its inspectors verified the instal-lation of new centrifuges. The agency said all had been “pre-pared for testing” but none yet tested at the time of the Sept. 7-8 inspection.

The nuclear deal was meant to keep Tehran from building atomic weapons — something Iran denies it wants to do — in exchange for economic incen-tives. Its collapse started with the United States unilaterally with-drawing from the deal last year and imposing increased sanctions.

The other signatories - Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, as well as the European Union - have been struggling to salvage the agreement and find a way to

meet Tehran’s demands.To put pressure on them,

Iran has already pushed past limits in the deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, on nuclear enrichment purity and stockpiles of enriched uranium.

A centrifuge is a device that enriches uranium by rapidly spinning uranium hexafluoride gas. The IAEA said the ones its inspectors saw included 30 advanced IR-6 and three IR-6s models, as well as multiple IR-4 and IR-5 models. Under the atomic accord, Iran has been limited to operating 5,060 older model IR-1 centrifuges.

Russia’s permanent repre-sentative to international organ-izations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, downplayed the devel-opment, saying after Iran revealed its step about centri-fuges that the move “shouldn’t be overdramatized.”

“Yes, it’s another deviation from JCPOA, but new activities will remain verifiable by IAEA and reversible,” he said in a tweet. “No proliferation threat, just a strong signal that balance within the JCPOA must be restored.”

IAEA Acting Director General Cornel Feruta, who returned from Tehran Sunday night, told the agency’s board in Vienna yesterday that inspectors on the ground continue “to verify and monitor Iran’s nuclear-related

commitments under the JCPOA.”He said he emphasized to

Iranian authorities “the impor-tance of full and timely cooper-ation by Iran.”

That mirrored a line in a recent IAEA report on Iran that suggested Tehran wasn’t as forthcoming with answering questions as the agency hoped.

“I also stressed the need for Iran to respond promptly to agency questions related to the completeness of Iran’s safe-guards declarations,” Feruta said.

After the report, China blamed the United States for the situation, and called for world powers to stick to the 2015 deal with Tehran.

“The US should abandon wrong practices such as uni-lateral sanctions and maximum pressure on Iran,” Foreign Min-istry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been talking both to Washington and Tehran about a proposal to create a $15bn line of credit for Iran to entice it to remain in the nuclear deal.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Rainer Breul told reporters that Berlin supports the French president’s efforts to resume talks and de-escalate the situation. “There are confidential conversations among the partners about the specific details,” Breul said.

Hezbollah says it downed Israeli drone

REUTERS BEIRUT

Hezbollah said it downed an Israeli drone in southern Lebanon yesterday in the latest flare-up raising tensions between the Iran-backed group and Israel. The drone is now in Hezbollah’s possession, the group said in a statement.

The incident happened a week after Hezbollah and Israel exchanged cross-border fire marking their fiercest shelling exchange since the 2006 Lebanon war.

After last week’s clash the group’s leader said Hezbollah would shoot down Israeli drones in Lebanese airspace.

An Israeli military statement said one of its drones “fell inside southern Lebanon during routine operations”. It did not say why the drone crashed, but said “there is no concern information could be taken from it”. An Israeli mil-itary spokeswoman said it was a “simple drone” without elaborating.

Hezbollah said its fighters had used “appropriate weapons” to bring down the drone on the edge of the southern

Lebanese town of Ramyah. Reporting from the Israel-Lebanon border, a corre-spondent for Hezbollah’s Al Manar tele-vision said the drone had not sustained much damage, and had been in Lebanese airspace for around five minutes.

In a separate statement, the Israeli military said Shia militias operating under the command of Iran’s Quds Force, the overseas arm of Tehran’s Rev-olutionary Guards, fired a number of rockets at Israel from Syria but they failed to hit Israeli territory. The mil-itary said the rockets were launched from an area near Damascus.

Israel, alarmed by Iran’s growing regional influence through militia allies in countries including Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, says it has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria. It wants to stop Iran establishing a permanent military

presence there and has struck against advanced weapon shipments to Hez-bollah. Any new war between Israel and Hezbollah would raise the risk of a wider conflict in the Middle East, at a time when Iran is defying US attempts to force it to renegotiate a 2015 nuclear deal it reached with world powers.

Overnight, war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said strikes by unidentified planes in eastern Syria killed pro-Iran fighters and attacked positions and arms depots belonging to them in Albu Kamal, a town near the Iraqi border.

Israel also raised the stakes last week by accusing Hezbollah with Iranian help of setting up a factory for precision-guided missiles in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley. Hezbollah has denied having production sites in Lebanon, but

says it does possess precision-guided missiles. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whose group fought a deadly month-long war with Israel in 2006, blamed Israel for the drone attack and has vowed to target Israeli drones entering Lebanon’s airspace.

Lebanon’s government has repeatedly complained to the United Nations about Israel, which Beirut con-siders an enemy country, breaching its airspace. Nasrallah said while last Sun-day’s border clash with Israel was over, the episode had launched a “new phase” in which the Iran-backed group no longer had red lines it would not cross.

In that brief clash, Hezbollah said it destroyed an Israeli armoured vehicle, killing and wounding those inside, and broadcast what it said was footage of two missiles hitting a moving vehicle.

Israeli PM’s bid to place cameras at polling stations failsAP JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed yesterday in his eleventh hour bid to legislate that cameras be installed in polling stations to prevent what his supporters claim is voting fraud in Arab districts.

After a stormy session, a par-liamentary committee voted it down before it reached the plenum with Netanyahu’s

backers deadlocked with his opponents.

The deciding, dissenting vote was cast by a representative of former Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, an ally-turned-rival of Netanyahu who forced Israel’s unprecedented second election of the year and is poised to be the kingmaker again in the vote.

With just a week to go to the repeat election, Netanyahu had sought to pass the controversial legislation amid a scorched earth

campaign in which he’s accused his opponents of conspiring to “steal” the election.

Netanyahu responded to the setback by slamming the opposition. “There is no reason for those who really care about the integrity of the election to object to the camera law, which prevents forgeries,” he said in a video message to his followers. “There is only one answer to this: Turn out in masses at the ballot box.”

Netanyahu insists the pro-posal was a matter of trans-parency, but it drew renewed accusations that he was pro-moting racism and incitement against the country’s Arab minority. Critics also said he was preemptively claiming to be a victim of electoral fraud as an alibi, in case he loses.

Mordechai Kremnitzer, a constitutional law expert, wrote in the Haaretz daily that the bill amounted to pointing a “gun at

Israeli democracy’s head.”With his career on the line,

Netanyahu has increasingly been embracing some tactics of Pres-ident Donald Trump.

Netanyahu routinely lashes out at the media, the judiciary, the police and his political oppo-nents, claiming there is a con-spiracy of “elites” to oust him.

In a Facebook video on Sunday, Netanyahu hinted that Arab forgery prevented him from winning the April vote.

Airstrikes on Iran-backed groups in Syria kill 18AP/BEIRUT

Unknown warplanes targeted overnight an arms depot and posts of Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border, killing at least 18 fighters, Syrian opposition activists said. The strikes come amid rising tensions in the Middle East and the crisis between Iran and the US in the wake of the collapsing nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

An official with an

Iranian-backed militia in Iraq blamed Israel for the airstrikes that hit in the eastern Syrian town of Boukamal. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Israel’s Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu said last month that Iran has no immunity any-where and that the Israeli mil-itary “will act — and currently are acting —against them.”

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the airstrikes began late on Sunday and

continued after midnight, killing 18 Iranian and pro-Iranian fighters and also causing extensive damage.

The Sound and Pictures, a local activist collective in eastern Syria, gave a higher death toll and said 21 fighters were killed and 36 wounded. The collective said the strikes targeted posi-tions belonging to Iranian militias and those of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, a mostly Iran-backed Shiite militias, but did not say who the dead and wounded were.

A young Syrian boy who was displaced from the town of Khan Sheikhoun, gazes from a small hilltop, at the makeshift camp where he currently lives, in the northern countryside of the Idlib province near the Turkish border, yesterday.

Saudi detains senior Hamas leader and sonANATOLIA/GAZA

Hamas yesterday said “one of its senior leaders” and his son have been in Saudi custody since April of this year.

In a statement, the group said the Saudi security services arrested Mohammad Al Khoudary, who has been living in Saudi Arabia for three decades, and described the arrest as a “reprehensible action”.

The statement mentioned that Al Khoudary was respon-sible for administering the rela-tions with Saudi Arabia for over the past two decades and he got several leading positions in the movement.

“Hamas kept silent over the past five months of his arrest to allow for mediations efforts but these efforts have yet to bear fruit”, it said.

E u r o - M e d i t e r r a n e a n Monitor for Human Rights, a Geneva-based group, also said that the Saudi authorities detain around 60 Palestinians in its jails. In a statement, the rights group called on Saudi King to order the immediate release of the detainees, especially those who are detained without spe-cific indictments.

US eyeing sanctions over TurkeyREUTERS/WASHINGTON

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said yesterday that the Trump adminis-tration was considering imposing sanc-tions on related to Turkey’s purchase of the Russian-made S-400 air defense missile system, but no decisions have been made.

“We’re looking at that, I’m not going to make any comments on any specific decisions, but we are looking at it,” Mnuchin told reporters outside the White House when asked if the Treasury was considering such sanctions. He did not specify any potential targets.

Turkey’s dollar-denominated sov-ereign bonds,, fell after Mnuchin’s comments.

Ankara and Washington have been

at loggerheads over Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 system, which the United States says is not compatible with NATO defenses and poses a threat to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 ‘stealth’ fighter jet.

Russia delivered a second battery of S-400s last month, according to Interfax news agency, which cited Russian Vladimir Putin. Ankara had received its first shipment in July.

Washington has previously warned Turkey that it will face sanctions over the purchase and removed the country from its f-35 program, but Ankara has so far dismissed the warnings.

The dispute over the air defense missile system is one of several issues straining ties between the United States and Turkey that include the ongoing con-flict in Syria, among others.

Turkish Air Force’s aerobatic demonstration team, ‘SOLOTURK’ and ‘Turkish Stars’ perform during the 97th Independence Day of Izmir, in Izmir, Turkey, yesterday.

An Israeli military statement said one of its drones “fell inside southern Lebanon during routine operations”. It did not say why the drone crashed, but said “there is no concern information could be taken from it”.

Campaigning in Tunisia

11TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

A partially destroyed shop is seen in Johannesburg’s Malvern suburb, yesterday, after South Africa’s financial capital was hit by a new wave of night violence.

S Africa issues warrant for killers of Rwandan ex-spyAFP JOHANNESBURG

South African authorities have issued an arrest warrant for two of the four alleged murderers of an exiled Rwandan ex-spy and critic of President Paul Kagame who was killed in a Johan-nesburg hotel in 2014, the family lawyer said.

South Africa’s National Pros-ecuting Authority (NPA) is also applying for the extradition of two other suspects of Rwandan descent, advocate Gerrie Nel said in a statement.

If granted, the NPA will apply

to Interpol to issue “Red Notices” for the suspects, Nel said in a statement.

Former spy Patrick Kar-egeya, 53, was found strangled in his room in the luxury Michelangelo hotel on January 1, 2014. An autopsy determined he had died the day before.

All four suspects are on the run and their whereabouts unknown. Nel hailed the move to issue the arrest warrants as a “big victory” but slammed the NPA for delays.

“The only feasible con-clusion is that the NPA wanted to avoid a prosecution. We

welcome the current steps and hope that the NPA will continue with the process keenly,” he said.

Under Kagame’s regime, Karegeya took charge of foreign intelligence services for a decade, until he fell into disgrace. He was jailed in 2005 and 2006, and in 2007 went into exile, heading for South Africa on the heels of former army chief of staff, Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa.

According to his family’s legal team, an inquest launched in January 2019 revealed that the NPA could have started to take steps to prosecute on the

grounds of the evidence at their disposal in 2014.

Documents from that January hearing showed South Africa’s prosecuting authority had also found “links” between the suspects and Kagame’s regime. But critics say the pros-ecution had refused to prosecute to avoid diplomatic tensions with Kagame.

Once in South Africa, Kar-egeya became a fierce critic of Kagame, describing the Rwandan leader as a dictator and alleging he had first-hand knowledge of the state killing of Rwandan dissidents abroad.

Xenophobic attacks continue in South Africa; toll at 12AP & AFP JOHANNESBURG

Two people have been killed in Johannesburg, police confirmed yesterday, bringing to 12 the number of deaths since violence against foreign-owned shops erupted last month.

Bands of South Africans launched violent attacks against foreign-owned shops and stalls, looting and burning the small businesses and attacking some of the shopkeepers.

Police spokesman Kay Makhubela confirmed that two people suspected to be foreigners were killed in the violence Sunday night and said that at least 640 people have been arrested since the violence erupted last week.

The nationalities of those killed have not been announced but Nigerians, Ethiopians, Con-golese and Zimbabweans have been attacked, according to local media.

The attacks appear to be spreading throughout Gauteng, the country’s most populous province encompassing the cities

of Johannesburg and Pretoria.Police minister Bheki Cele

yesterday met with executives of major South African businesses, including the retailer Shoprite and MTN, a mobile phone and internet provider, whose opera-tions were targeted in retaliatory attacks in Lagos, Nigeria, last week.

The executives expressed concern that the violence in South Africa is hurting their oper-ations in other parts of the continent.

“The implications of the sit-uation in South Africa are really profound. They have affected us in other countries in which we

operate,” said MTN group CEO Rob Shuter. The MTN group is owned almost 50% by interna-tional investors, some living in London, Boston and New York, he said.

The Nigerian demonstrations forced South Africa’s consular offices in Lagos to close. South Africa’s foreign affairs minister Naledi Pandor is scheduled to meet with African ambassadors in Pretoria Monday as the gov-ernment attempts to put out the diplomatic fallout from the attacks.

N i g e r i a n p r e s i d e n t Mahummadu Buhari is scheduled to visit South Africa on a state visit in October, and the attacks against Nigerian nationals and businesses in South Africa are expected to be on the agenda.

Nigeria has decided to repat-riate about 600 citizens from South Africa this week following a wave of xenophobic violence which sparked sharp exchanges between the two countries, a Nigerian diplomat said.

“They are about 600 now” to be flown back, Godwin Adamu,

17 dead after bus overturns in floodsAFP/RABAT

At least 17 people were killed in Morocco when flood waters over-turned their bus in the kingdom’s southeast, authorities said. Rescuers have been searching for bodies since the accident on Sunday, when the bus flipped on a bridge in a valley near the city of Errachidia, author-ities said. They said a further 29 passengers, with various injuries but in “stable” condition, had been transferred to a hospital in Errachidia. Rescue workers were continuing their search, after six dead passengers were initially found at the site and another 11 in the relief operation. The bus driver, who had at first had been counted among the missing, turned up at the hospital and was being treated under police guard ahead of questioning, local officials said.

Haftar needs ‘guarantees’ to pull out from Tripoli: UNANATOLIA/PARIS

The UN envoy to Libya stated yesterday that Khalifa Haftar, leader of the eastern Libyan forces, requires “guarantees” in order to retreat from the capital Tripoli. “A few weeks ago, the situation became more realistic, and the issue is not only geographical. Haftar requires guarantees for a possible retreat from Tripoli,” said Ghassan Salame, UN envoy to Libya.

Haftar will need “appoint-ments in significant positions in the state,” he said. “In return, some parties are willing to negotiate with Haftar with the condition of the withdrawal of his forces,” he added.

However, according to Salame, “some other parties don’t want to negotiate with him after losing the legitimacy to be a stakeholder in Libya.”

In April, forces loyal to Haftar launched a campaign to capture Tripoli from forces aligned with the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA). Clashes between the two sides since then have left more than 1,000 people dead and about 5,500 wounded, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Libya has remained beset by turmoil since 2011, when long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was ousted and killed in a bloody Nato-backed uprising after four decades in power.

At least 29 killed in two attacks in Burkina FasoAFP OUAGADOUGOU

At least 29 people were killed in two attacks in northern Burkina Faso on Sunday, in a region prone to violence, the government said.

One vehicle transporting people and goods “rode over an improvised explosive device (IED) in the Barsalogho area” leaving at least 15 passengers dead, government spokesman Remis Fulgance Dandjinou said in a statement. A security source said most were traders.

Meanwhile, around 50km away, 14 people were killed

when food vans travelling in convoy were attacked, the spokesman added.

Local sources said many of the dead were the drivers of the three-wheeler vans, which were carrying provisions for people displaced by fighting.

“Military reinforcements have been deployed and a thorough search is under way,” Dandjinou said. A former French colony that ranks among the world’s poorest countries, Burkina Faso has been struggling with a militant revolt since 2015.

The country’s army has been increasingly targeted by mili-tants. Earlier this month, an

attack on a military base in northern Burkina Faso killed 24 in an unprecedented blow to the army in its campaign against militants. The insurgency, which came from neighbouring Mali, began in the north but has since spread to the east.

Since 2015, more than 500 people have died in attacks that have become increasingly violent especially in the north and the east, according to a toll.

The capital Ouagadougou has been attacked three times, including a March 2018 assault on the military headquarters that left eight dead. A summit of regional heads of state is due to

be held in Ouagadougou on Sat-urday to discuss the security situation.

Violence in Burkina Faso has forced nearly 300,000 people to flee their homes and stopped half a million getting access to health care, the UN and the Red Cross said yesterday.

“Nearly 289,000 displaced people are living in shelters,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement, adding that the number of dis-placed had more than tripled this year from 82,000 in January.

The International Committee of the Red Cross in a separate

statement warned that “500,000 people have been deprived of health care since January due to jihadist violence.”

The violence had hit 125 health centres in August, shutting down 60 of them and forcing the other 65 to function only par-tially. “Many health workers have been forced to leave rural zones hit by violence,” it said.

“Famine and malnutrition constitute a major worry with 1.2 million people facing food inse-curity,” ICRC said. It has provided food aid to 22,000 displaced people and medical assistance to 21,000 people in the first half of this year, it added.

Nigerian Consul General in Johannesburg, said.

A first flight will carry 320 Nigerians, he said, adding: “We will have another one immedi-ately after that.”

At least 10 people were killed in the violence and hun-dreds of shops destroyed while more than 420 people were arrested.

More than 100,000 Nige-rians are estimated to live in South Africa, Adamu said.

Foreign workers in South

Africa — the continent’s second largest economy after Nigeria — are often victims of anti-immi-grant sentiment in a nation where almost one in three people are unemployed.

The violence prompted reprisal attacks against South African firms in Nigeria and the temporary closing of South Africa’s diplomatic missions in Lagos and Abuja.

Nigeria last week sum-moned the South African ambas-sador to condemn the violence

while sending an envoy to meet President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The envoy returned to Nigeria over the weekend, the presidency said.

After a week of hardening rhetoric against South Africa, Nigeria pledged to “work as brothers” with Pretoria on Thursday.

“Nigeria does not seek an escalation of the ongoing situ-ation,” a senior aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, told reporters.

Nigeria to repatriate about 600 citizens from South Africa this week following a wave of xenophobic violence which sparked sharp exchanges between the two countries, a Nigerian diplomat said.

Abdelfattah Mourou, vice-president of the moderate Islamist party Ennahda, campaigning in Tunis, Tunisia, yesterday.

South Sudan opposition leader makes return visit to capitalAP/JUBA

South Sudan opposition leader Riek Machar returned yesterday to meet with President Salva Kiir and held talks in preparation for the formation of a coalition government in November. The two men shook hands and said goodnight after an afternoon of discussions at State House, the president’s official residence, in their first face-to-face meeting in the capital, Juba, since October. The talks focused on speeding up the screening and reunification of forces in order to create a united national army ahead of Machar’s expected return in two months, where he’ll once again serve as Kiir’s deputy. South Sudan is slowly emerging from five years of civil war that killed almost 400,000 people and displaced millions.

Sudan looks forward to better ties with USANATOLIA/KHARTOUM

Sudan’s prime minister said yesterday that his country is dedicated to developing new relations with the US. Abdallah Hamdok made the remarks during a meeting with Stephen Koutsis, the US chargé d’affaires in Khartoum. From his side, Koutsis welcomed the formation of the new Sudanese Cabinet and affirmed the US will-ingness to develop its partnership with Sudan. Last Tuesday, Hamdok declared that his country made progress in negotiations with Wash-ington over removingw Sudan from the US list of state sponsors of terror, where it has been since 1993. In October 2017, the Trump administration ended the economic embargo on Sudan which was imposed in 1997.

12 TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019ASIA

Modi bats for more South-South synergy, global action on waterIANS GREATER NOIDA

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday batted for greater South-South cooperation to address the issues of climate change, desertification and land degradation.

Addressing the fourteenth edition here of the Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Modi also pitched for the conception of a global water action agenda, which, he said, is at the heart of achieving Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).

“Going forward, India would be happy to propose initiatives for a greater south-south coop-eration to address the issues of climate change, biodiversity and land degradation,” Modi said.

He stressed that the issue of land degradation is affecting two-thirds of the countries, glo-bally. While addressing the issue of land degradation, the issue of water consumption and scarcity should also be addressed, he

added.“Enhancing water recharge,

retaining moisture of the soil are part of the holistic land and water management. I call upon the leadership of UNCCD to con-ceive a global water action agenda which is central to the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) strategy,” Modi said.

The Prime Minister also set an ambitious target for the country to restore the degraded

land from 21 million hectares to 26 million hectares by 2030.

The UNCCD was adopted in Paris on June 17, 1994, and was ratified by 196 countries and the European Union. India ratified the UNCCD Convention in December 17, 1996.

Modi said that a centre of excellence would be developed at the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education which will promote South-South coop-eration by sharing knowledge, resource and technology and training manpower to prevent land degradation.

India has been able to increase its forest cover, the Prime Minister said.

“Between 2015 and 2017, the country has increased its tree cover by 0.8 million hectares,” he said, elaborating on the various initiatives taken by the country to combat the effects of climate change and land degradation.

It is widely accepted that the world is facing the negative impacts of climate change.

“Climate change is also leading to land degradation of

various kinds, be it due to rise in sea levels and wave action, erratic rainfall and storms, and sand storms caused by hot tem-peratures,” Modi said.

India is focusing on zero-budget natural farming, he said.

“We have also introduced a scheme to determine the soil quality of the farms. We have introduced health cards to farmers which enable them to grow right type of crops, ferti-lizers and the use the right quantity of water. We are

increasing the use of bio-ferti-lisers and decreasing the use of pesticides,” he added.

He drew attention to the issue of single-use plastic, which he stressed will be impossible to reverse if not prevented.

“This is the menace of plastic waste. Apart from having adverse health implica-tions, this is going to render lands unproductive and unfit for agriculture. My government has announced that India will put an end to single-use plastic

in the coming years,” he said.“The real change will be put

forward by teamwork,” he added, calling for the same spirit to put an end to single-use plastic, which was been seen in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

According to the Prime Min-ister, an ambitious New Delhi Declaration is being considered.

“We are all aware that the Sustainable Development Goals have to be achieved by 2030 of which attainment of LDN is also a part,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (centre, right) greets Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, during the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Greater Noida, yesterday.

Terror threat in South India; Army beefs up securityIANS NEW DELHI

The Army said yesterday that security measures have been enhanced in light of perceived terrorist infiltration into the country through the Sir Creek estuary in Gujarat bordering Pakistan for possible attacks in southern India.

According to the Army, a number of abandoned boats had been discovered in the Sir Creek area, raising suspicion about the possibility of armed militants having been used them to enter Indian territory.

Lieutenant General Satinder Kumar Saini, GoC-in-C of the Army’s Southern Command, told media on the sidelines of an event in Pune yesterday that adequate measures are being taken in Sir Creek to avert security threats.

“We have got many inputs that there might be a terrorist attack in the southern part of India and peninsular India. Some boats have been recovered in the area of Sir Creek. We have under-taken capacity building and capa-bility development in the area of Sir Creek keeping in mind the enhanced threat perception. We are taking precautions to ensure that any of the designs of the inimical elements or terrorists are stalled,” said Saini.

The Navy, too, had issued a security alert along the western coast in August following intel-ligence inputs about the possi-bility of militants entering the country using the Sir Creek route. Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Kar-ambir Singh had said in Pune, citing intelligence sources, that Pakistan-based terrorist organ-isation Jaish-e-Mohammed is training militants to carry out underwater attacks on India.

“We have received intelli-gence that the underwater wing of Jaish-e-Mohammad is being trained for attacks. We are keeping track of it and can give an assurance that we are fully alert to foil any such design,” Admiral Singh had said.

Following the Indian Navy’s security alert, Adani Ports had issued an advisory upon its shipping agents and stake-holders to inform their vessels and also to report any suspi-cious activity in the sea.

World not to heed to Pakistan’s noise on J&K: Ex-envoyIANS NEW DELHI

While Pakistan is trying to rake up at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) the question of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir, it is conveniently ignoring the large-scale human rights violations being carried out by its forces in Gilgit-Baltistan, which is a part of J&K under Pakistani occu-pation, as also in Balochistan.

The 42nd session of the UNHRC was slated to begin yes-terday and end on September 27. Pakistan is most likely to move a resolution on Kashmir before September 19, and India is set to counter it.

The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them. It meets at the UN Office at Geneva.

At the session, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is expected to lead the charge against India.

“Pakistan is a desperate nation and their game is up,” said Vishnu Prakash, a retired Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer who has served in Pakistan.

“It (Pakistan) is completely

ignoring human rights violations of minorities within its border. Moreover, it is committing human rights violations in Gilgit-Baltistan, which is a Pakistan-occupied territory (of J&K).” He also referred to atrocities being committed on the Baloch people in Balochistan province.

Ever since the abolition of special status of J&K, granted under Article 370, Pakistan has been attempting to push Kashmir issue at every international platform. It got the issue raised, through its “all-weather friend” China, at the UN Security Council last month but failed to elicit any formal statement from the world body.

Now Pakistan feels UNHRC is a significant platform to rake

up the matter, which India has been maintaining is its internal matter The UNHRC is made up of 47 United Nations Member States. These states are elected by the UN General Assembly.

“Pakistan has been exporting terror to J&K since 1989. The international community will not pay heed to the loud noise it will create on the alleged violation of human rights in Kashmir. India has a strong record, since Inde-pendence, in handling affairs associated with minorities. Pakistan has none,” Prakash said.

Team India will emphasise on the fact that not a single life has been lost in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of the Article 370, especially from

armed forces perspective.He also cited Pakistan’s Prime

Minister Imran Khan Statement in the US where he went on record admitted having 30,000 to 40,000 terrorists on its soil. “Until we came into power, the govern-ments did not have the political will, because when you talk about militant groups, we still have about 30,000-40,000 armed people who have been trained and fought in some part of Afghanistan or Kashmir,” Pakistani prime min-ister had said sometime back.

Prakash, who retired after serving as Indian Ambassador to Canada, said he is very confident that Indian delegation at UNHRC will give a fitting reply to Pakistan.

Fishermen wait on a small boat after casting their net at Dal Lake during sunset in Srinagar, yesterday.

Army to organise start-up facilitation event in J&KIANS NEW DELHI

The Indian Army will organise an event in Jammu and Kashmir later this month to encourage local youth to launch their own start-up business ventures.

The initiative has been taken by the Army wherein a Bengaluru-based private firm — Techstars — will conduct an entrepreneurial experience programme in Jammu and Kashmir.

The firm specialises in the domain of start-up seed accel-eration and will guide partici-pants in resolving basic issues confronting new business ven-tures. The event, in which hun-dreds of aspiring entrepreneurs from Jammu and Kashmir are

expected to participate, will be held in Katra from September 20 to 22.

“There is tremendous potential for start-ups in the region. We want local youth to become job creators rather than job seekers. It is for this reason that the Army has taken the ini-tiative to organise this event,” a senior official said.

Participants will be encouraged to build prototypes, take their ideas to the next stage and learn how to launch their business during the course of this event.

Apart from targeting aspiring entrepreneurs, officials said another workshop will be held on September 21 for those who have been successfully running their start-ups already.

Slowdown hits Telangana, budget slashed by 20%IANS HYDERABAD

Hit by economic slowdown and the resultant slump in revenues, Telangana slashed its budget for 2019-20 by nearly 20 percent and hinted that it may sell government lands to raise additional resources to meet any contingency.

Chief Minister K Chan-drashekhar Rao yesterday pre-sented a Rs1,46,492 crore budget, comprising revenue expenditure of Rs1,11,055 crore and capital expenditure of Rs17,274 crore.

The state has projected fiscal deficit at Rs24,081 crore and esti-mated revenue surplus at Rs2,044 crore.

The government had pre-sented a Rs1,82,017 crore vote-on-account Budget in February, but the economic slowdown and fall in revenues compelled it to revise the proposals. In his budget speech in the state legislative Assembly, Rao said that slowdown has impacted all the sectors.

KCR, as Rao is popularly known, said the government can sell lands worth thousands of

crores freed from land grabbers to raise additional funds.

“The government has decided to transfer these funds to the Special Development Fund (SDF) and to use them to meet any contingency arising in any department for meeting the needs of the people,” he said.

KCR announced that no new works are proposed to be taken up without clearing the pending dues of all the departments.

He told the House that the severe economic slowdown is having serious repercussions in

the country. “The economic slowdown has adversely impacted all the sectors. There is negative growth in many key sectors, which mirrors the pre-vailing economic situation. The official data put out by the insti-tutions connected with these sectors present a gloomy picture,” KCR said.

He said the growth in the state’s tax revenues in the first quarter of 2019-20 was only 5.46 percent against an anticipated 15 percent.

The state recorded an average of 13.6 per cent growth

in commercial taxes for the last five years, but it was only 6.61 per cent in the first four months of the present financial year.

Motor vehicle taxes had an average growth rate of 19 percent for the last five years, but it regis-tered a degrowth of 2.06 percent in the first four months of FY20.

Non-tax revenue too fell to minus 14.16 percent against an average growth rate of 14.9 percent. “In all, the non-tax revenue declined by 29 per cent. This is purely due to the eco-nomic slowdown,” he said.

“Enhancing water recharge, retaining moisture of the soil are part of the holistic land and water management. I call upon the leadership of UNCCD to conceive a global water action agenda which is central to the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) strategy,” Modi said.

13TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019 ASIA

Pakistan urges US, Taliban to resume peace talksINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Pakistan has asked the United States government and the Taliban to immediately resume peace talks to find a lasting solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.

In a statement issued by the Foreign Office (FO) in Islamabad, Pakistan has urged both parties to recognise that there was no military solution to the almost two-decade long war.

The FO said Pakistan would continue to monitor the devel-opments in the region, saying negotiated peace and a political settlement in Afghanistan were only possible if US and Taliban re-engaged.

“Pakistan will continue to monitor the developments. Pakistan reiterates its principled policy stance that there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan,” the statement noted.

“Pakistan urges that both sides must re-engage to find negotiated peace from the ongoing political settlement process and looks for optimised engagement following earliest resumption of talks,” the FO said.

The statement comes after US President Donald Trump abruptly cancelled a secret

summit with Afghan stake-holders last week, as the insur-gents in Afghanistan threatened to inflict greater costs on foreign troops in the country.

In interviews over the weekend, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not rule out a return to talks but said the United States needed a “signif-icant commitment” from the Taliban.

The Foreign Office referred to the cancellation of the Trump meeting, and said that Pakistan had always condemned violence and called on all sides for restraint and commitment to pursue the process.

“Pakistan has been facilitating the peace and reconciliation process in good faith and as a shared responsibility, and has encouraged all sides to remain engaged with sincerity and patience”, the statement read.

Nato’s Afghan focus unchangedAFP/BRUSSELS

The focus of Nato’s mission in Afghanistan is “unchanged”, the alliance said yesterday. after the talks between the US and the Taliban came to a halt.

Nato has some 16,000 troops in Afghanistan to train and advise local forces. “Nato’s focus remains unchanged: to make the Afghan security forces stronger so that they can fight international terrorism and create the conditions for peace,” an alliance official said.

“Nato will stay in Afghan-istan for as long as necessary to ensure the country never again becomes a safe haven for inter-national terrorists.”

Pakistan complies with ICJ’s verdict on alleged Indian spyINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Pakistan has fully complied with the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) verdict by providing consular access to convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, say senior Pakistani lawyers with expertise in international law.

International law expert Bar-rister Taimur Malik said, “Pakistan has complied with the ICJ’s verdict by granting consular access to Jadhav.” He said the fact that India agreed to the terms of the consular access, went ahead with the meeting and didn’t immediately raise any legal issues over the aspects of the meeting showed Pakistan’s good faith,

despite the current environment, and complied with the ICJ judgement.

Another senior lawyer believed that there was no clear provision for giving consular access to Jadhav for the second time as the law was silent in this regard.

Another aspect of the ICJ ruling was to give an “effective review” of Jadhav’s conviction, which would also be a challenge for Pakistan. It is learnt that the government’s legal minds were considering different options to fulfil this aspect of the ICJ verdict.

Senior lawyers believed that the government of Pakistan should itself approach the high court against Jadhav’s conviction

in order to fulfil the ICJ’s direc-tives for an effective judicial review.

It is also learnt that the Indian Embassy in Islamabad had con-tacted a couple of Pakistani lawyers to plead Jadhav’s case before the court of law.

Renowned international law expert Ahmar Bilal Soofi said Pakistan had various options to fulfil its obligation to conduct an “effective review”, adding that a special bench could be consti-tuted to hear the matter while a committee consisting local and international experts might be constituted to ensure a fair trial.

The ICJ in its judgement had directed Pakistan to take all measures to provide an effective

review and reconsideration, including, if necessary, by en act in g “appr o pr iate legislation”.

The court said the obligation to provide effective review and reconsideration could be carried out in various ways and the choice of means was left to Pakistan.

The ICJ asked Pakistan for an “effective review and reconsid-eration of the conviction and sen-tence of Jadhav” so as to ensure that full weight was given to the effect of the violation of the rights set forth in Article 36, Paragraph 1, of the Convention and guar-antee that the violation and the possible prejudice caused by the violation were fully examined.

Likewise, the ICJ had also main-tained stay on the execution of Jadhav till “effective review”.

The court pointed out that respect for the principles of a fair trial was of cardinal importance in any review and reconsider-ation, and that, in the circum-stances of the present case, it was essential for the review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav to be effective.

The ICJ considered that the violation of the rights set forth in Article 36, Paragraph 1, of the Vienna Convention, and its impli-cations for the principles of a fair trial, should be fully examined and properly addressed during the review process.

Pakistani police and paramilitary personnel provide a security cover to Shia Muslims during a procession on the eve of Ashura, in Karachi, yesterday.

Security cordon for Muharram procession

Islamabad has reiterated its stance that there is no military solution to conflict in Afghanistan. It also urged all sides to restrain from hostilities and commit to pursue peace.

Ghani renews calls for peace, demands ceasefireREUTERS KABUL

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani made a renewed call for peace yesterday but insisted the Taliban must observe a ceasefire, as he sought to regain a hold on the peace process following the surprise collapse of talks between the United States and the militants.

Ghani’s comments, to a meeting of mil-itary leaders in Kabul, came amid uncertainty over the future of efforts to end 18 years of war in Afghanistan after US President Donald Trump’s abrupt cancellation of talks with the Taliban at the weekend.

“We are ready for peace talks but if the Taliban think they can scare us, look at these warriors,” Ghani said, declaring that peace could not be unconditional as he repeated demands for a ceasefire that the Taliban have so far refused.

“Peace without a ceasefire is impossible.” Trump’s refusal to meet the Taliban has left it unclear whether talks can be revived or whether the two sides, locked in a broad stalemate, will continue fighting.

The insurgents’ determination to step up both attacks on provincial centres and suicide bombings even as peace talks were taking place was a key factor in pushing Trump to cancel talks days after a US soldier was killed in the capital Kabul.

The end of the talks has fuelled fears of a further increase in violence across Afghan-istan, with heightened security warnings in the Kabul and other centres ahead of a pres-idential election scheduled for September 28. The talks, which had been secret until Trump unexpectedly announced their can-cellation on Saturday, would have brought the US president face-to-face with senior Taliban leaders at the presidential compound in Camp David, Maryland.

Ghani, who was sidelined from months of negotiations between US officials and Taliban representatives, had been deeply

suspicious of the talks, which sought to agree a timetable for a withdrawal of thousands of US troops.

A draft accord agreed last week would have seen some 5,000 US troops withdrawn over coming months in exchange for guar-antees that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militant attacks on the United States or its allies.

Afghan officials had argued for months that it was a mistake for the United States to agree a deal on troop withdrawals separately from a broader peace accord.

The collapse of the talks appears to have strengthened Ghani’s position, in part by removing lingering doubts over whether the twice-delayed election — in which he is favourite to win a second five-year term — would go ahead. Until Saturday’s surprise

announcement by Trump, many politicians and Western diplomats had argued that peace talks should take priority over an election seen as a potential obstacle to a deal with the Taliban. Now officials say there is no excuse for the vote not to be held, with election authorities promising that the problems that dogged parliamentary elec-tions last year will not be repeated.

Ghani, a former World Bank official who came to power after a bitterly disputed election in 2014, has kept up campaigning even as the talks went on, adapting to the worsening security situation by holding “virtual rallies” that address supporters in various provinces through a video link-up.

“Afghanistan is now at a critical juncture because of the election and the peace process,” he said.

Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani addresses a gathering of Afghan military officials in Kabul, yesterday.

Bangladesh halts new SIM card sale in Rohingya campsAFP DHAKA

Bangladesh mobile operators have on government orders stopped selling new SIM cards to Rohingya refugees, officials said yesterday, in a further sign of Dhaka’s impatience following the latest failed repatriation move.

Bangladesh has been hosting around a million Rohingya ref-ugees in vast camps in the south-east since a military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar prompted a huge exodus in August 2017.

There has also been a spike in violence and a rise in tensions with locals, and authorities fear Internet and telephone access

could contribute to further unrest. Bangladeshi security forces have shot dead at least 34 Rohingya over the past two years, mostly for alleged meth-amphetamines trafficking. Rights groups accuse police of carrying out extrajudicial killings.

Bangladesh’s telecommuni-cations regulator on September 3 ordered phone companies to

cut off mobile access in the three dozen refugee camps, citing security grounds.

The four mobile phone oper-ators were given seven days to submit reports on actions they have taken to shut down data connectivity and were ordered to stop selling SIM cards in the camp areas.

“Already, SIM card sale has

been stopped in the camp areas,” SM Farhad, secretary general of the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bang-ladesh, which represents all mobile phone operators, said.

He said high speed 3G and 4G mobile Internet connections in the region has also been sus-pended between 5:00pm and 6:00am every day.

Myanmar Army drops case against religious leaderREUTERS YANGON

Myanmar’s Army said yesterday it had dropped a criminal complaint against a religious leader who told US President Donald Trump the military was oppressing Christians, days after the United States voiced concern about the lawsuit.

Reverend Hkalam Samson, of the Kachin Baptist Con-vention, an organisation based in the northern Kachin state rep-resenting Myanmar’s mostly Christian Kachin minority, took part in a gathering at the White House in July, when victims of religious persecution met Trump and other US officials.

Samson told Trump that Christians were being

“oppressed and tortured by the Myanmar military government” in the Buddhist-majoity country. He also thanked Trump for imposing sanctions against top generals over Myanmar’s crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, saying it was “very helpful”.

A military officer, Lieutenant Colonel Than Htike, then filed a lawsuit against Samson, but a spokesman said yesterday that it had now been formally withdrawn.

“We withdraw the case vol-untarily because it is what we should do,” army spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said, without giving a reason.

Samson called the move a positive gesture towards the Kachin people.

Elephant runs amok in Sri Lanka, 18 hurtAP COLOMBO

An elephant taking part in a pageant in Sri Lanka ran berserk, injuring at least 18 people.

Video on Derana Television of Saturday night’s pageant in Kotte, near Colombo, showed an elephant in a procession suddenly running forward. Ter-rified people scattered, with some running into an elephant at the front of the procession. That elephant became violent and ran, pushing onlookers. A man riding on the elephant fell off and narrowly escaped being trampled.

Officials from two hospitals said yesterday that 18 injured people received treatment and 16 had been discharged. Of the remaining two, one is being observed for possible abdominal damage and the other is being treated for an injured ear, they said.

Ornately decorated ele-phants are a major attraction in Sri Lankan Buddhist pag-eants. Wealthy families own captive elephants as a symbol of their prosperity, pride and nobility and send their ele-phants to participate in pag-eants around the country.

14 TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019ASIA

Hong Kong tells US to stay out; students form protest chainsAP HONG KONG

Thousands of students formed human chains outside schools across Hong Kong yesterday to show solidarity after violent weekend clashes between police and activists seeking democratic reforms in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

The silent protest came as the Hong Kong government con-demned the “illegal behaviour of radical protesters” and warned the US to stay out of its affairs.

Thousands of demonstrators held a peaceful march on Sunday to the US Consulate to seek Washington’s support, but vio-lence erupted hours later in a business and retail district as protesters vandalised subway stations, set fires and blocked traffic, prompting police to fire tear gas.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam agreed last week to withdraw an extradition bill that sparked a summer of protests, but demonstrators want other demands to be met, including direct elections of city leaders and an independent inquiry into

police actions. Protesters in their Sunday march appealed to Pres-ident Donald Trump to “stand with Hong Kong” and ensure Congress passes a bill that would impose economic sanctions and penalties on Hong Kong and mainland China officials found to suppress democracy and human rights in the city.

Hong Kong’s government expressed regret over the US bill, known as the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. It said in a statement yesterday that “foreign legislatures should not interfere in any form in the internal affairs” of Hong Kong and that the city will safeguard its own autonomy.

Lam visited yesterday a subway station vandalised by

protesters in an unusual public appearance. A video distributed by the government showed Lam inspecting damage and telling a commuter she was “heart-broken” to see the destruction.

“I hope Hong Kong will be calm again soon and no more violence,” Lam said.

Beijing has slammed the pro-tests as effort by criminals to split the territory from China, backed by what it said were hostile foreigners.

Trump has suggested it’s a matter for China to handle, though he also has said that no violence should be used.

High school and university students across Hong Kong held hands yesterday, following similar protests last week, forming long human chains that snaked into the streets outside their schools. They were joined by many graduates wearing the protesters’ trademark black tops and masks.

Many also rallied against what they viewed as excessive use of force by police.

Police public relations chief Tse Chun-chung said yesterday that police were doing their best to handle escalating violence, with “radical” protesters attacking police and trying to snatch their weapons. He said 157 people had been detained since Friday, bringing the number of those held since June to over 1,300.

Students, alumni and teachers in the Mid-Levels area taking part in a joint ‘school human chain rally’ in Hong Kong, yesterday.

N Korea willing to resume talks with US in late Sept REUTERS/AFP SEOUL

North Korea is willing to restart talks with the United States in late September over its nuclear programme, a senior North Korean diplomat said yesterday, following a protracted deadlock since a failed summit in February.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had set a year-end deadline in April for the United States to show more flexibility and agreed with US President Donald Trump to reopen working-level talks when they met again in June, but that has not happened.

The latest overture came from Vice North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, who said Pyongyang was willing to have “comprehensive discussions” with the United States in late September at a time and place agreed between both sides.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he hoped to return to denucleari-sation talks with North Korea in the coming days or weeks.

But Choe highlighted that Washington should present a

new approach or the talks could fall apart again.

“I want to believe that the US side would come out with an alternative based on a calcu-lation method that serves both sides’ interests and is acceptable to us,” Choe said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

“If the US side toys with an old scenario that has nothing to do with the new method at working-level talks which would be held after difficulties, a deal between the two sides may come to an end.”

North Korea has carried out a series of weapons tests since late July in protest at joint mil-itary exercises between Seoul and the US.

Pyongyang has also threatened to pull out of talks with Washington and has blasted senior US officials in recent months.

Kim and Trump adopted a vaguely-worded statement on the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula” at their first summit in Singapore in June last year but little progress has since been made ever since in the negotiations.

Taiwan urges Solomons not to switch allegiance to BeijingAFP TAIPEI

Taiwan’s president yesterday urged the Solomon Islands not to switch diplomatic allegiance to China, as the Pacific nation deliberates whether to recognise the far more economically powerful Beijing instead.

The Solomons are among only 17 countries that maintain official ties with Taiwan, but Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has vowed to review the relationship.

Beijing has poached five dip-lomatic allies from Taipei since the 2016 election of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen – part of a wider campaign to isolate the island because her party refuses to accept that Taiwan is part of “one China”.

Taiwan is desperate to stave off losing another diplomatic ally.

Tsai told the visiting Solomons Foreign Minister Jer-emiah Manele yesterday that Taiwan is a responsible partner in the international community. She called for the Solomons’ “continuous support” and said

Taiwan would work with the country to “further enhance bilateral relations”.

Manele later told a press conference that Solomons “appreciates the friendly, rich and progressive relations” with Taiwan, saying the review is part of a broader assessment of its “global posture”.

“Like in any democracy there is no single opinion on this... for us it’s basically trying

to look at what’s in the best interest of our foreign policy going forward,” added Collin Beck, permanent secretary at the Solomons’ foreign and external trade ministry.

“A the moment it’s business as usual for us,” he said.

Taiwan has been run as a de facto independent nation for the last seven decades but Beijing sees as part of its territory awaiting reunification.

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (right) takes part in a press conference with Solomon Islands’ Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele at the Taipei Guest House in Taipei, yesterday.

China slams US remarks on Xinjiang as lies AFP BEIJING

China lashed out at the United States yesterday after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Beijing’s treatment of the coun-try’s ethnic Uighur minority among “the worst stains on the world”.

Speaking at Kansas State University last week, Pompeo said Washington would use this month’s UN General Assembly to rally support for the Uighurs, a mostly Muslim minority that has seen mass incarceration u n d e r t h e C h i n e s e government.

“The lies of American poli-ticians can’t trick people around the world and will only further expose the purpose of their hidden political motives,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.

“We express our strong dis-satisfaction and resolute oppo-sition to these US officials who disregard the facts... and seri-ously interfere in China’s internal affairs,” she told reporters at a press briefing in Beijing.

China has come under international scrutiny over its policies in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where as many as one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are being held in re-education camps, according to the 2018 findings of an inde-pendent UN panel.

In July, Chinese officials announced that “most” indi-viduals have left the camps, without sharing figures — drawing scepticism and anger from the Uighur diaspora, many of whom remain out of contact with relatives and friends in Xinjiang.

“This may end up being one of the worst stains on the world of this century. It’s of that mag-nitude,” Pompeo said on Friday.

“This is fundamentally not about national security for them, this isn’t about Islamic extremism in western China,” he said. “This is about freedom and dignity for individuals.”

Power, transport disrupted as typhoon lashes TokyoREUTERS TOKYO

One of the strongest typhoons to hit eastern Japan in recent years struck just east of the capital Tokyo yesterday, killing one woman, with record-breaking winds and stinging rain damaging buildings and disrupting transport.

More than 160 flights were cancelled and scores of train lines closed for hours, snarling the morning commute for mil-lions in a greater Tokyo area with a population of some 36 million.

Direct train service between Narita airport and the capital remained severely limited into the evening, with thousands of irritated travellers packed into a key transport hub for both the Rugby World Cup starting later this month and next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

“They simply had no contin-gency plan...,” one weary traveler who lives in Tokyo said of the

scene, in which people crowded the exit areas and food ran out in airport stores.

“They let planes land... and thousands of passengers were disgorged into an airport that was cut off — no buses, no JR trains. The only connection was

a private train running every half hour half way to Tokyo.”

Typhoon Faxai, a Lao woman’s name, slammed ashore near the city of Chiba shortly before dawn, bringing with it wind gusts of 207 kmh, the strongest ever recorded in Chiba,

national broadcaster NHK said.A woman in her fifties was

confirmed dead after she was found in a Tokyo street and taken to hospital. Footage from a nearby security camera showed she had been smashed against a building by strong winds, NHK reported.

Another woman in her 20s was rescued from her house in Ichihara, east of Tokyo, after it was partly crushed when a metal pole from a golf driving range fell on it. She was seriously injured.

Some minor landslides occurred and a bridge was washed away, while as many as 930,000 houses lost power at one point, NHK said, including the entire city of Kamogawa. But the number of homes without power had dropped to 840,000 by early yesterday afternoon, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.

Some concrete electric poles were snapped off at their bases, while electricity towers in Chiba were toppled over.

Passengers are stranded after railways and subway operators suspended their services due to Typhoon Faxai, at Narita International Airport in Narita, east of Tokyo, Japan, yesterday.

Two journalists among five Magsaysay awardeesAP MANILA

Five people were honoured yesterday as this year’s winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards, regarded as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize, including a South Korean who helped fight suicide and bullying and a Thai housewife who became a human rights defender after losing her husband to violence in southern Thailand.

The others who received the prize at a Manila ceremony were two journalists from India and Myanmar who advocated independent, ethical and socially relevant journalism and a popular Filipino musician credited with helping to shape modern Philippine musical culture.

The awards are named after a Philippine president who died in a 1957 plane crash. A a foun-dation was established to give out the annual awards to honour “greatness of spirit in selfless service to the peoples of Asia.”

After losing his 16-year-old son to suicide due to bullying in school in 1995, Kim Jong-ki changed from being a suc-cessful business executive to a crusader who has worked for more than two decades to fight school and youth violence in South Korea.

Australia blocks websites hosting NZ attack videosAFP SYDNEY

Australia ordered Internet providers yesterday to block eight websites that published content linked to the Christchurch mosque massacre — a first under new censorship rules.

The overseas websites were blacklisted because they “con-tinue to provide access to the video of the Christchurch ter-rorist attacks or the manifesto of the alleged perpetrator”, said Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety commissioner.

Authorities refused to name the websites — which will be blocked for at least six months - saying it could bring them more traffic.

Several other websites were asked to take down content.

After protesters appealed to Trump for support on Sunday, the Hong Kong government said foreign legislatures should not interfere in internal affairs of the territory.

15TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019 EUROPE

France calls for easing of tensions with RussiaAFP MOSCOW

France said that the time had come to start easing tensions with Russia as senior ministers held four-way talks in Moscow not seen since the crisis over Ukraine broke out.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said there was a “window of opportunity” for resolving the Ukraine con-flict after a landmark prisoner exchange on Saturday, but that it was too soon to talk of lifting sanctions on Russia.

Le Drian and French Defence Minister Florence Parly were in Moscow for talks under the so-called “2+2” format that been suspended since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron has launched a diplo-matic push for a detente in Europe’s relations with Russia.

“The time has come, the time is right, to work towards reducing distrust,” Le Drian told a press conference of the four ministers after the talks. “We have come to suggest... a new agenda of trust and security.”

He said the prisoner

exchange — which saw 35 detainees handed over on each side — had created goodwill that needed to be reinforced.

“It is not yet the deadline for lifting sanctions. It’s a new state of mind, which we have not seen for several years,” Le Drian said.

Lavrov said progress on rebuilding ties with Europe was “possible and necessary”.

He welcomed recent state-ments by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “very, very positive” and described the prisoner exchange as “a good sign” for future progress.

Ties between Russia and Europe have been deeply strained since 2014, when the European Union and United States imposed sanctions over the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Macron embarked on his bid to bring Russia in from the cold

this summer, hosting President Vladimir Putin in southern France last month and renewing high-level diplomatic contacts.

The two men spoke by phone on Sunday, hailing the prisoner exchange as a step forward in peace efforts.

Attempts to resolve the Ukraine crisis have revived since the election in April of comedian-turned-president Zelensky, who has made ending the conflict his main priority.

Macron announced a summit under the so-called “Normandy format” of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine in his talks with Putin, but a date has not yet been set.

The focus of the summit will be reviving the Minsk accords, which Germany and France helped to negotiate but failed to stop the fighting in eastern Ukraine, where more than 13,000 have been killed.

Analysts said Macron is looking to take the lead on Russia in Europe. As head of the G7 and Council of Europe, and with Germany and Britain focused on internal politics, the French pres-ident sees an opportunity.

“Emmanuel Macron is telling himself that if there’s a chance

of doing something on Ukraine, it’s now,” said Florent Par-mentier, a researcher at Sciences Po university in Paris.

“It won’t be easy but it’s not a rash move,” he added, pointing

to France’s “real diplomatic advance” by promoting Russia’s return to the Council of Europe, the continent’s foremost human rights body, last June.

Ruling party suffers losses in Moscow elections

Portugal breaks up counterfeit money ring; five people arrestedREUTERS

LISBON

Portugal has broken up a coun-terfeit money ring that used dark websites to sell fake banknotes in exchange for virtual currency, arresting five people including the suspected kingpin who was extradited from Colombia, police said yesterday.

In its two years of operation, the Portugal-based network produced over 26,000 fake ban-knotes nominally worth more than one million euros and found circulating in France, Germany, Spain as well as Portugal.

The ring was the second largest of its kind discovered in Europe, according to Europol, which assisted Portuguese police in the operation, code-named Deep Money.

In a statement, Portuguese criminal investigation police

said the five people taken into custody were suspected of coun-terfeiting and organised crime.

“Counterfeit notes were advertised in one of the dark-net’s main markets, and orders were received either through private messaging on that market or through encrypted chat platforms,” the statement said.

The term “darknet” refers to networks and sites hidden from most internet users and acces-sible only to those shrouded in anonymity who seek to buy and sell illegal goods ranging from drugs to stolen data and fake IDs.

Police also seized 1,833 counterfeit banknotes worth nearly 70,000 euros during searches around Portugal, as well as objects used in counter-feiting including computers, printers, holographic stickers and ultraviolet inks.

Salvini vows to ‘seriously oppose’ new government after exclusionAFP ROME

The head of Italy’s far-right League party Matteo Salvini yesterday told protesters against the new government from which he is excluded that he will provide serious opposition in and out of parliament.

“We will be a serious oppo-sition, in parliament but also among the people, from north to south, one town after another,” Salvini told demon-strators in Rome as Prime Min-ister Giuseppe Conte addressed parliament ahead of a confi-

dence vote. Supporters of the anti-

migrant League as well as of the extreme-right Brothers of Italy protested close to parliament, with some performing the right-arm fascist salute.

“Today, a part of Italy, I think they’re the majority in the country, took to the streets to demand an election,” Salvini said after taking selfies with supporters.

Dozens of extra police were deployed for the demonstration, during which protesters waved Italian flags rather than party symbols.

Salvini last month effectively brought the government down thinking that snap elections would be called that would make him prime minister.

But the move backfired as Conte and members of former League ally Five Star Movement and the centre-left Democratic Party agreed to form an unlikely alliance which excluded Salvini from government.

As Salvini addressed dem-onstrators, League lawmakers inside the lower house chanted “elections, elections” as the speaker called for quiet.

Former interior minister Matteo Salvini (centre) taking part in a demonstration during the new government confidence vote, outside Palazzo Monte Citorio, the lower house of Parliament, in Rome, yesterday.

French President Emmanuel Macron has launched a diplomatic push for a detente in Europe’s relations with Russia.

REUTERS MOSCOW

Russia’s ruling United Russia party, which supports President Vladimir Putin, has lost one third of its seats in the Moscow city assembly, final polling data cited by Russian news agencies showed yesterday, in an awkward setback for the Kremlin.

However, the party retained its majority in the Moscow assembly following Sunday’s nationwide local elections, and its candidates for regional gov-ernor appeared to have won in St Petersburg and in 15 other parts of the vast country.

The outcome of the local

elections was closely watched in Moscow after the exclusion of many opposition candidates trig-gered the biggest protests there in nearly a decade.

Public anger over more than five years of falling incomes and an unpopular hike in the pension age also helped fuel the Moscow protests, with the Communist Party benefiting most in Sun-day’s polls from the discontent.

Putin’s spokesman told reporters the Kremlin thought United Russia had done well despite the setback in Moscow.

“The party showed its political leadership,” said the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

Prominent opposition

politician Alexei Navalny and his allies saw the Moscow poll as an opportunity to make inroads against United Russia ahead of a national parliamentary election in 2021.

Navalny’s close allies were among those excluded from the Moscow vote and he had advised supporters to vote tactically for the candidates with the best chance of defeating United Russia.

He saw the results as vindi-cating his strategy, though other activists were unhappy that he had asked people to hold their noses and vote for parties that cooperate with the Kremlin.United Russia won 25 of the

Moscow assembly’s 45 seats, final data showed.

In the last Moscow election in 2014, United Russia performed better, winning 28 seats in its own name and a further 10 through independent candidates whom it had backed.

This time round, all of its Moscow candidates rebranded as independents in an apparent effort to distance themselves from their party, whose popularity is at a more than decade-long low.

The Communist Party won 13 seats on Sunday, up from five, at the expense of United Russia, the data showed. The opposition Yabloko Party won four seats, and the Fair Russia Party three.

One dead by frying pan blast at German festAP BERLIN

Police said one woman has died from severe burns sustained during a frying pan explosion that also injured 14 at a village festival in western Germany.

Another five people were in life-threatening condition — four from burns and one who suffered a heart attack during the explosion at the festival in Freu-denberg, the German news agency dpa reported yesterday.

Police told dpa it appears likely that oil inside a big frying pan caused the blast at the local Backesfest Sunday that was attended by about 100 people.

The explosion may have been triggered by raindrops falling into the hot oil, but investigators said it would still take them several days to fully understand what happened.

The Backesfest celebrates the annual start of operations of a traditional old bakery in the village.

Two trapped cavers in Poland die from hypothermia: CourtAP WARSAW

Prosecutors in southern Poland said that two cavers who got trapped by rising water last month have died of hypo-thermia. Their bodies were retrieved last week from the Wielka Sniezna cave in Tatra Mountains.

A rescue operation was launched in mid-August after a group of cavers notified the Tatra emergency service that two of their colleagues got trapped in narrow, uncharted passages. Rescuers reached the bodies in late August.

Prosecutor Jan Ziemka in the southern town of Nowy Targ said that an autopsy revealed that the deaths were a result of hypothermia related to their time in the cold and humid cave.

Woman faces trial in Spain for death of stepsonAFP ALMERÍA

The trial of a Dominican woman accused of murdering her eight-year-old stepson in a case that shocked Spain opened yesterday in the southern city of Almeria.

Gabriel Cruz disappeared on February 27, 2018 after vis-iting his grandmother in Las Hortichuelas, a village near the coast 50km east of Almeria.

His disappearance triggered a huge search involving hun-dreds of volunteers which lasted nearly two weeks.

But on March 11, the police discovered his body in the boot of a car belonging to Ana Julia Quezada, the long-term girl-friend of Angel Cruz, the boy’s father.

His body bore signs of asphyxiation, court documents showed, with a police spokesman saying Quezada had “admitted” to killing him.

Part of the trial will be held behind closed doors at the request of the family.

Quezada arrived at the courthouse in handcuffs. Her lawyers have said it was a case of involuntary manslaughter rather than murder, but prose-cutors have called for a life sen-tence — a minimum of 25 years.

The murder shocked Spain, which has one of the lowest homicide rates in the world.

Before Gabriel’s body was found, his distraught parents had given countless tearful interviews and Quezada was also seen taking part in the search, wearing a t-shirt embla-zoned with his face and speaking to reporters in tears.

Italy’s new govt faces confidence voteAFP ROME

Italy’s new pro-Europe government under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte faced a confidence vote in the lower house of parliament, as protesters from the far-right rallied in Rome.

The coalition of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and centre-left Dem-ocratic Party was expected to

easily win, and will then face another vote today in the upper house.

Demonstrators from the far-right League and smaller Brothers of Italy party protested in front of parliament, with some performing right-arm fascist salutes while others held up banners reading “not in my name”.

The Prime Minister was set to outline the new govern-ment’s 29-point programme,

including potential reforms to Italy’s controversial immi-gration law, brought in by pre-vious, far-right interior min-ister Matteo Salvini.

The most pressing dossier on the table is the 2020 budget.

Conte will visit Brusselsto-morrow to mend ties after the fall of Rome’s anti-EU coalition, and begin negotiations with the European Commission for greater flexibility for debt-laden Italy.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (right) and French Defence Minister Florence Parly (left) with Russian officials arrive for a meeting, in Moscow, yesterday.

16 TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019EUROPE

Parliament Speaker announces resignationREUTERS LONDON

Britain’s House of Commons Speaker John Bercow, who played a key role in the three-year Brexit crisis, said yesterday that he would stand down from the role, issuing a warning to the government not to “degrade” parliament.

Bercow bent parliamentary rules to give lawmakers the chance to challenge government policy, most recently to pass a law seeking to block a no-deal

exit from the European Union.He was given a standing

ovation from many members of the lower house as he announced his plan to stand down in the coming weeks.

A member of parliament since 1997, he has been speaker since June 2009 and has often been a thorn in the government’s side.

“We degrade this parliament at our peril,” he said, with his gaze fixed on the benches in the debating chamber where gov-ernment members sit.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been heavily crit-icised for suspending par-liament for just over a month, only weeks before the country’s most important political decision in decades.

Bercow said he would not contest the next election if par-liament voted in favour of calling one. If, as expected, lawmakers reject the government’s attempt to call an election, he said he would quit on October 31 — the day Britain is currently due to leave the EU.

Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow addressing the lawmakers to announce his resignation, in London, yesterday.

New EU Commission chief forms teamAP BRUSSELS

European Commission Pres-ident-elect Ursula von der Leyen finalised a list yesterday of the people she wants working with her when she takes the helm of the European Union’s executive branch in November.

Von der Leyen’s proposed appointments will give the European Commission 27 members, including her — 14 men and 13 women. The com-mission proposes EU laws and ensures they are put into practice throughout the 28-country bloc.

Her team was based on

recommendations from member nations. The proposed commis-sioners must be approved by the European Parliament — gen-erally a formality — then appointed by the European Council.

Under EU rules, the com-mission should have 28 members, including the pres-ident, one representing each EU member country. Von der Leyen is a former German defense minister.

However, no British com-missioner was on her list due to “the assumption that Brexit will happen on the 31st of October,” European Commission spokes-

woman Mina Andreeva said.“We have been informed by

a letter from the United Kingdom that since they will be leaving on the 31st of October, they would not be sending or suggesting a candidate for commissioner with UK nationality,” Andreeva said.

Von der Leyen plans to give details today on the specific jobs assigned to 27 commissioners.

The appointees include former Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni and Frans Tim-mermans of the Netherlands, who was a contender for the commission presidency before von der Leyen became the con-sensus pick.

European Commission’s president-designate Ursula von der Leyen arrives at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, yesterday.

Swedish govt rejects ‘TRUMP’ vanity licence plate requestAP/COPENHAGEN

Swedish authorities said that a man has been denied a vanity plate with the letters TRUMP because it violated motor vehicle department rules, calling the letter combination “offensive.”

The Aftonbladet, one of Sweden’s largest newspapers, reported that the man said he “was drunk and thought it was

fun to apply” online for a new licence plate with US President Donald Trump’s last name “because the car is American.”

The Swedish Transport Agency confirmed its ruling, saying it doesn’t approve letter combinations referring to politics.

It informed Marcus Saaf, who made the request, that its ruling couldn’t be appealed.

One person dies every 40 seconds from suicide: WHOANATOLIA ANKARA

Worldwide, every 40 seconds a person takes their own life, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report released yesterday.

“Despite progress, one person still dies every 40 seconds from suicide,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who heads the UN agency, was quoted as saying in the report.

“Every death is a tragedy for family, friends and colleagues. Yet suicides are preventable. We call on all countries to incor-porate proven suicide prevention strategies into national health and education programmes in a sustainable way,” he added.

The report underlined that 800,000 people commit suicide across the world.

The report came a day before World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD), whose purpose is

to raise global awareness that suicide is preventable.

According to the report, the number of countries with national suicide prevention strategies has grown in the five years since the publication of WHO’s first global report on suicide.

Suicide rates are highest in high-income countries, and internationally suicide is the second-leading cause of death among young people, age 15 to

29, after road injury, the report added.

“The most common methods of suicide are hanging, pesticide self-poisoning, and firearms,” it said.

Restricting access to the means of committing suicide, educating the media on respon-sible reporting of suicide, pro-grams to help young people build life skills, and early risk identi-fication can help reduce suicides, it said.

Counter-terror official says Britain foiled 22 attacks since March 2017REUTERS LONDON

British authorities have foiled 22 attacks since March 2017, three more than previously reported, Scotland Yard’s most senior counter-terrorism officer said yesterday.

Seven related to “suspected right wing terrorism,” Metro-politan Police Assistant Com-missioner Neil Basu told a con-ference on international ter-rorism in Herzliya, Israel, according to the text distributed by Scotland Yard.

Basu said attacks were becoming easier to carry out and harder to detect. He promoted the merits of “Prevent,” a British counter-terrorism programme involving several government agencies, including social services, which is designed to spot and deter people who might be vulnerable to recruitment or indoctrination by violent radicals.

“Prevent is designed to break the cycle of extremist vio-lence by empowering commu-nities and individuals - to make them resilient to radicalisers and able to spot the vulnerable that radicalisers target and manip-ulate,” Basu said.

“A recent study showed that in the time before most lone-actor attacks, someone close to them knew about their growing ideology and violent intent. Mostly they chose not

to report it,” Basu said.In March 2017, in an attack

police said was motivated by extremism, a man drove a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in London and then fatally stabbed a police officer. Later that year, there were three other attacks police described as terrorism, including one on worshippers near a London mosque.

Potential threats that most concern British officers include returning foreign fighters, lone actors, mentally ill people and a “rising threat” of right-wing terrorism.

Referring to the attacks on mosques in New Zealand by an Australian far-right militant last March, Basu said that while right-wing terrorism was once largely a local threat, it had now become a “global phenomenon as adept at using social media as Daesh,” a term police and some militants use for the IS militant group.

“Christchurch (New Zealand) is the most recent example,” Basu said. “Seven of the 22 attacks we have stopped since March 2017 relate to suspected RWT (right wing terrorism),” Basu said.

He said he could tell stories of 400 people in England and Wales who, “in the same year we were most attacked,” got support from the Prevent pro-gramme which “changed their story.”

MPs block no-deal Brexit as Parliament set to be suspendedREUTERS LONDON

Prime Minister Boris Johnson lost influence over Britain’s with-drawal from the European Union when a law came into force demanding he delay Brexit until 2020 unless he can strike a divorce deal at an EU summit next month.

It was unclear what John-son’s next move in the Brexit crisis would be: while the law will oblige him to seek a delay unless he can strike a new deal, EU leaders have repeatedly said they have received no specific proposals.

As Johnson tries to break the deadlock in London, he will ask parliament a second time for an early general election but is likely to be defeated in a vote. He will then suspend parliament until October 14.

Brexit, the United Kingdom’s most significant geopolitical move in decades, remains in question more than three years since the 2016 referendum, with possible outcomes ranging from an exit on October 31 without a withdrawal agreement to smooth the transition, to aban-doning the whole endeavour.

The bill seeking to block a

no-deal exit, passed into law yesterday when it received assent from Queen Elizabeth, will force Johnson to seek a three-month extension to the October 31 deadline unless par-liament has either approved a deal or consented by October 19 to leave without one.

“I’m absolutely undaunted by whatever may take place in parliament,” Johnson said in Dublin ahead of talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

“We must get Brexit done because the UK must come out on October 31, or else I fear that permanent damage will be done to confidence in our democracy in the UK,” Johnson said.

Johnson took over as prime minister in July after his prede-cessor Theresa May failed to push the Withdrawal Agreement through parliament.

Since then, Britain’s three-year Brexit crisis has stepped up a gear, leaving financial markets and businesses bewildered by a

array of striking political deci-sions that diplomats compare to the style of US President Trump.

Johnson, a former journalist who derided the EU and later became the face of the 2016 Vote Leave campaign, has repeatedly promised to deliver Brexit on October 31 and has said he will not countenance any delay.

Ireland told Johnson yes-terday that he must make spe-cific proposals on the future of the Irish border if there is to be any hope of averting a no-deal Brexit, saying Dublin cannot rely on simple promises.

“In the absence of agreed alternative arrangements, no backstop is no deal for us,” Var-adkar said. “We are open to alternatives, but they must real-istic ones, legally binding and workable and we haven’t received such proposals to date.”

The blunt remarks by Var-adkar indicate the difficulty of Johnson’s gamble of using the threat of a no-deal exit to con-vince Germany and France that they must rewrite an exit agreement struck last November.

“I want to find a deal, I want to get a deal,” Johnson said in Dublin, adding that there was plenty of time to find one before the October 17 and 18 EU summit.

The bill seeking to block a no-deal exit, passed into law yesterday when it received assent from Queen Elizabeth II.

Three shot dead in Dutch family dramaAGENCIES THE HAGUE

At least three people were killed in an apparent family shooting at a home in the southern Dutch city of Dordrecht yesterday evening, police and news reports said.

“The shooter is believed to have been a policeman who also shot himself,” the tabloid newspaper De Telegraaf said, adding a fourth family member was seriously wounded and taken to hospital.

Rotterdam police tweeted that “three people have been killed and another was seri-ously wounded” but did not give any further details.

Photos from the scene showed a large police presence in a residential neighbourhood and at least one ambulance parked in a street as people stood in the street looking on.

“We are at the scene with numerous people to investigate the cause of the incident,” police said, adding that more details would be given later.

Dordrecht’s mayor Wouter Kolff tweeted that he was “very touched and sympathise with everyone involved”.

Dordrecht lies around 25 km (15 miles) southwest of the port city of Rotterdam and is one of the oldest cities in the Dutch province of South Holland.

17TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019 AMERICAS

House steps up Trump’s impeachment probeAFP WASHINGTON

Democrats moved yesterday to intensify their impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump as whiffs of new scandal surrounding the White House emerged related to Trump’s business and his lawyer’s involvement in Ukraine.

While the Democrat lead-ership remains reluctant to go all-in on impeachment, given that the Republican-controlled Senate would vote down any effort to oust Trump, the stepped-up investigation could add further pressure on the embattled president 14 months before the next elections.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler moved to formalise an investigation that had up to now avoided officially declaring the aim to impeach Trump and put him on trial in the Senate.

He laid out new procedures that he said would govern “the committee’s investigation to

determine whether to rec-o m m e n d a r t i c l e s o f impeachment with respect to President Donald J. Trump.”

He also defined the investi-gation along four specific lines: allegations that Trump illegally interfered with the Russia election meddling investigation, that he took part in hush pay-ments to alleged former mis-tresses, that he has used his office to enrich himself, and that he offered pardons to government and campaign officials to protect him.

“No one is above the law,” Nadler said in a statement.

“The unprecedented cor-ruption, coverup, and crimes by the president are under

investigation by the committee as we determine whether to rec-o m m e n d a r t i c l e s o f impeachment or other Article 1 remedies,” he said, referring to the US Constitution’s section on legislative powers.

In recent weeks more than half of the 235 Democrats in the House of Representatives have endorsed impeachment, even as senior party officials, especially House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, continue to resist it.

Pelosi has made clear she believes the party needs to focus its energies on defeating Trump and the Republicans in the November 2020 election.

Nadler’s new rules, which are expected to be passed by the

committee on Thursday, will govern how witnesses will be called and questioned and how Trump’s lawyers will be involved.

They are also expected to provide the committee with a broader ability to subpoena wit-nesses and documents, in the face of resistance by the White House.

“We will not allow Trump’s continued obstruction to stop us from delivering the truth to the American people,” Nadler said.

Meanwhile the Democratic heads of three other House com-mittees announced an investi-gation into alleged efforts by Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani to pressure the Ukrainian government for their

own political ends, including by withholding US security assistance.

They alleged that Trump and Giuliani have pressured Kiev to prosecute Ukrainians who pro-vided evidence against Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort in the Russia meddling investigation.

They also alleged that Kiev was pressured to provide dam-aging information on the son of former Democratic vice pres-ident Joe Biden, who could face Trump in next year’s presidential election.

Hunter Biden worked for a Ukrainian gas company beginning in 2014, while his father was vice-president.

Mass shootings responders honouredAP WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump presented the nation’s highest award for public safety yesterday to six Ohio police officers who responded swiftly to reports of gunfire last month in Dayton, confronted the shooter in under a minute and prevented more deaths.

Trump also recognised five civilians who put themselves at risk after a gunman opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in August.

The twin shootings, hours apart, sparked renewed national discussion of gun control, a topic on Congress’ agenda as it returned to Washington yesterday.

“These incredible patriots responded to the worst violence and most barbaric hatred with the best of American courage character and strength,” Trump said at the White House as he shared a stage at the East Room with the 11 men and women.

“Faced with grave and har-rowing threats, the men and women standing behind us stepped forward to save the lives of their fellow Americans,” he said.

The six police officers each received the Medal of Valor, established in 2001 as the nation’s highest public safety award. Nine people were killed and more than two dozen were wounded in the early morning attack August 4 in a bustling entertainment district.

Since they are civilians, the five individuals from El Paso, each received Certificates of Commendation for “displaying tremendous bravery,” Trump said, and helping others to flee the scene of the August 3 shooting, in which 22 people were killed and many others wounded.

Trump had already recog-nised 14 public safety officers with the Medal of Valor earlier this year.

Attorney-General William Barr, who joined the president at the ceremony, said the law allows him to expand the number of recipients “when exceptional instances of bravery arise.”

“So that’s what we did this year,” Barr said.

US President Donald Trump with Medal of Valor and Heroic Commendation recipients during a ceremony at the East Room of the White House, in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Trump denies anything improper in officials’ use of his hotelsAFP WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump denied anything improper in the use by military personnel and Vice President Mike Pence of his luxury golf resorts while on official travel abroad.

The Air Force announced a review following an uproar over the revelation that the crew of a C-17 transport plane stayed at the Trump Turnberry in Scotland during a layover between Kuwait and Alaska.

Similar questions have been raised over the ethics of Pence and his entourage staying at the Trump family’s Doonbeg golf resort in Ireland this month while on an official visit to the country.

Trump, who has raised eye-brows by integrating his family business empire’s golf courses into his own presidential schedule, said that government officials’ use of his properties was a coincidence.

“NOTHING TO DO WITH ME,” he tweeted about the Air Force use of Turnberry, although he added that the officers “have good taste!”

He also defended the Pence

group’s use of Doonbeg, saying the vice president wanted to visit the town because of family links, even though his official meetings were in Dublin, on the other side of Ireland.

“I had nothing to do with the decision of our great @VP Mike Pence to stay overnight at one of the Trump owned resorts in Doonbeg, Ireland. Mike’s family has lived in Doonbeg for many years, and he thought that during his very busy European visit, he would stop and see his family!”

The Pentagon said in a statement that the Scottish layover “adhered to all guidance and procedures,” but it acknowl-edged that there might be at least an image problem.

“We understand that US Service members lodging at higher-end accommodations, even if within government rates, might be allowable but not advisable,” the military said.

“We must still be consid-erate of perceptions of not being good stewards of taxpayer funds that might be created through the appearance of aircrew staying at such locations,” it said.

“Therefore, we are reviewing all associated guidance.”

Synagogue in Minnesota city gutted by fire

Jerry Nadler moved to formalise an investigation that had up to now avoided officially declaring the aim to impeach Trump and put him on trial in the Senate.

AP DULUTH

Fire officials said a blaze has gutted a historic synagogue in a Minnesota city.

Firefighters responded to the fire at the Adas Israel Con-gregation in downtown Duluth about 2am yesterday.

All that is left among the charred remains are the rem-nants of some structural walls.

Duluth Assistant Fire Chief Brent Consie said it “is pretty much a total loss.”

Authorities said one fire-fighter who was struck by falling debris was taken to a hospital, treated and released.

According to its website, the Adas Israel Congregation is an Orthodox/High Conservative Jewish congregation with a membership of 75 people.

Construction of the syna-gogue was completed in 1902.

US recorded 7 new measles cases last week, lowest of 2019REUTERS WASHINGTON

The United States recorded only seven new measles cases last week, the lowest number so far this year, bringing the total for cases to 1,241 in the worst outbreak since 1992, federal health officials said yesteday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had recorded cases of the highly contagious and some-times deadly disease in 31 states as of September 5.

The weekly increase is the latest indication that the out-break is slowing from the dozens of cases reported per

week earlier this year.The disease was declared

eliminated in the United States in 2000, meaning there was no continuous transmission of the disease for a year. Still, cases of the virus occur and spread via travelers coming from countries where measles is common.

CDC officials have said the country risks losing its measles elimination status if the out-break, which began last October in New York state, continues until next month.

Failure to vaccinate poses a public health risk to vul-nerable people unable to receive the vaccine, health officials have warned.

Peru’s Fujimori back in hospital with heart problems

AFP LIMA

Former Peru president Alberto Fujimori has been taken to hospital again with heart problems, his doctor announced yesterday.Alejandro Aguinaga said the 81-year-old former president was taken to Lima’s Centenario clinic on Saturday night “with cardiac problems.”

“Fujimori was undergoing tests after “suffering atrial fibril-lation” or an irregular heartbeat, as well as from “pancreatic cysts. It was Fujimori’s third hospital-isation “in the last 40 days”.

Fujimori has been serving out a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses in a spe-cially outfitted cell at a police base in Lima. A court ordered him back to prison last year.

Reports show US border detention dropsREUTERS WASHINGTON

About 64,000 people were detained or turned back at the southwest border in August, down 22% from July and down 56% from a high mark in May, US border officials said yesterday, citing greater coop-eration from Mexico in cracking down on Central American migrants.

The total, still the highest for

the month of August in more than a decade, was reported as a US district judge dealt a setback to a new Trump admin-istration rule that sought to block almost all asylum applications at the border.

With President Donald Trump’s hardline anti-immi-gration policy shaping up as an issue in his 2020 re-election campaign, Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection,

announced the statistics at a White House briefing.

Morgan said “unprecedented support and cooperation” of Mexico helped stem the tide, and also credited Central American countries that had come to see mass migration as a regional crisis, not just a problem for the United States.

“The international outreach to the governments of Central American countries is also beginning to yield effective and positive results, particularly the efforts to stem the surge of illegal migrants crossing the southwest border and to disrupt alien smuggling operations.”

Washington received Mexican pledges to cooperate after threatening to impose tariffs on its southern neighbor and major trading partner.

The US government has also been working more closely with Guatemala, Honduras and El Sal-vador, three Central American counties known as the Northern Triangle.

Also ysterday, a federal judge in California ruled that an injunction against a restrictive Trump rule on asylum-seekers should apply nationwide.

A file photo of Central American migrants looking through a border fence as US Border Patrol agents standing guard near the El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico.

Congressional panel to probe US court secrecyREUTERS SAN FRANCISCO

A US House of Representatives subcommittee will hear testimony this month about a lack of transparency in the federal courts, with a focus on judges who routinely keep important evidence secret at the public’s expense.

The hearing comes after a June 25 Reuters investigation detailed how judges have allowed the makers of dozens of consumer products to file under seal in their courts information that is pertinent to public health and safety. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Americans have

been killed or seriously injured by allegedly defective products while evidence that could have alerted consumers and regu-lators to potential danger remained hidden by the courts.

Representative Hank Johnson, a Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said yesterday that court secrecy is a “life and death” issue, and that it causes people to lose confi-dence in the justice system.

It is rare for any party in a lawsuit to push for transparency. Corporations are loath to expose embarrassing internal commu-nications, plaintiffs’ lawyers don’t want to delay resolution for their clients, and judges want

to keep cases moving on a crowded docket.

“Every judge should be aware that it’s not just the parties that are litigating, but there is a public interest involved — even if the only interest is the appearance that justice is taking place,” said Johnson, chairman of the Sub-committee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet, which oversees the federal courts.

A spokesman for the Admin-istrative Office of the US Courts, which manages the federal court system, said: “The judiciary has great respect for Chairman Johnson and always appreciates the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with his committee.”

18 TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019AMERICAS

Bahamas toll from storm at 45, search for bodies continuesREUTERS MARSH HARBOUR, BAHAMAS

Rescue workers wearing white hazard suits carried out a grim search for bodies and survivors in the hurricane-ravaged Bahamas yesterday, as relief agencies worked to deliver food and supplies over flooded roads and piles of debris.

The Royal Bahamas Police Force said at least 45 people died after Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas on September 1, tossing cars and planes around like toys. The death toll is likely to climb.

Dorian was one of the most powerful Caribbean storms on record, a Category 5 hurricane with winds of 200 miles per hour (320 kph). It rampaged over the Bahamas for nearly two days, becoming the worst disaster in the nation’s history.

Large swaths of Greater Abaco Island were destroyed. Reuters journalists saw search crews using geotagging tech-nology to mark the locations of bodies in the hard-hit Mudd section of Marsh Harbour on that island.

One Bahamian rescue worker said it is becoming hard to keep composed when sur-rounded by death.

“If you’re not in touch with yourself then you lose it. You have to be mentally stable because when you’re seeing these things, and when people

who lost loved ones are crying on your shoulder you can’t break down on them,” said one hazmat-suited Bahamian police office who could not give his name.

“These families need this, they need someone to talk to.”

Bahamian officials said 4,800 people had been evac-uated from the archipelago’s several islands, most from Abaco. Free flights will continue to evacuate people who choose to leave the Bahamas, but there are no mandatory evacuations, officials said.

“The plan is not to move eve-ryone out,” said Carl Smith, a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, during a news con-ference yesterday.

Thousands of people poured into the capital, Nassau, where a week after the storm shelters were straining to house evacuees from worse-hit areas. Hundreds more have fled to the United States in search of safety and resources.

Shelters are housing about 1,100 people, the agency said; more are staying with friends and relatives. The agency was asking residents whose homes were intact to open them up to people displaced by the storm.

Some 90% of the homes, buildings and infrastructure in Marsh Harbour were damaged, the World Food Programme said.

Thousands of people were living in a government building, a medical center and an Anglican church that survived the storms, it said, but had little or no access to water, power and sanitary facilities.

Some 70,000 people were in need of food and shelter, the WFP estimated. Private fore-casters estimated that some $3bn in insured property was destroyed or damaged in the Caribbean.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet opened a Human Rights Council session in Geneva yesterday with a minute of silence for hurricane victims.

“Small island nations are among those suffering the most catastrophic effects of climate change, although they contribute very little to fuelling the problem,” Bachelet said.

“Just this past week, yet another devastating hurricane hit the Bahamas, taking a terrible toll on human life and destroying precious development gains.”

Members of the Bahamian Defense Force remove bodies from the destroyed Abaco shantytown called Pigeon Peas, after Hurricane Dorian in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas, on September 8, 2019.

UN rights chief slams Venezuela over extra-judicial deathsAFP GENEVA

The UN human rights chief yesterday slammed continued serious violations in Venezuela, including extrajudicial execu-tions and torture, and voiced concern over moves to crimi-nalise some domestic rights groups.

Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Michelle Bachelet (pictured) detailed a range of ongoing abuses in Venezuela and once again pointed a finger at Vene-zuela’s police special forces (FAES).

In a damning report in July, she had called on Caracas to “dissolve” an organisation sus-pected of carrying out numerous extrajudicial executions. But yes-terday she said her office had continued to document sus-pected extrajudicial killings by

FAES, pointing out that the NGO Victim’s Monitor had identified 57 cases of presumed FAES exe-cutions in Caracas in July alone.

“My office has not received information regarding measures taken to implement the recom-mendation made in my report to dissolve the FAES and prevent extrajudicial executions,” Bachelet said.

“On the contrary, the FAES have received support from the highest level of government.”

In her update on the Vene-zuela situation, Bachelet also cited a range of other grave rights violations in the country, which is caught in an economic crisis and a political standoff between President Nicolas Maduro’s government and National Assembly leader Juan Guaido.

The oil-rich country suffers from hyperinflation and shortages of basic goods from

food to medicine, a crisis that has forced some 3.6 million people to flee the country since 2016.

The UN rights chief reit-erated her criticism of US sanc-tions targeting Venezuela, warning that they were exacer-bating the suffering of an already vulnerable population.

She hailed some advances, after Venezuelan authorities recently released 83 people and provided access to visit a number of others.

She also welcomed that the government had agreed to set up a system for dealing with indi-vidual contested detention cases, adding that her office had already presented “27 priority cases which we hope will be resolved soon.” But she warned that her office had continued to document suspected cases of torture and ill-treatment in detention.

“Conditions of detention do not meet minimum international standards and those detained do not have access to adequate medical attention,” she said.

“I call on the authorities to take action to correct these prac-tices, to allow access to medical care, and investigate human rights violations.”

At the same time, Bachelet said authorities had recently taken steps to criminalise the activities of domestic human rights organisations that

receive funds from abroad.Last month, Maduro’s right-

hand man Diosdado Cabello warned that a bill first proposed under the late Hugo Chavez could soon become law, to “severely sanction NGOs and people who receive imperialist money to conspire against our country.” If the law passes and is applied, this “would further reduce the democratic space,” Bachelet warned.

Bachelet also voiced deep concern over indications that civil society organisations and their representatives that collab-orated with her office in the preparation of her July report had been “victims of public denouncements and threats by senior officials.”

“Reprisals for having coop-erated with the United Nations are unacceptable and I urge the authorities to take preventative measures,” she said.

A demonstrator is detained by riot police during a march marking the 46th anniversary of the 1973 Chile military coup, in Santiago, Chile.

Protest in Santiago against Pinochet era abusesAFP SANTIAGO

Thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets of Santiago on Sunday to honour the victims of General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, in a march that started peacefully but ended in violence.

Although it has been 46 years since the military coup that

brought Pinochet to power, his memory still divides Chileans.

The protest began in central Santiago, with many demon-strators carrying red carnations and holding photos of loved ones who were killed or disappeared during the Pinochet years.

Police at first protectively lined the route as marchers pro-ceeded to a memorial to Pinoc-het’s victims at the city’s General

Cemetery. But pitched battles broke out at the cemetery’s entrance, with protesters hurling stones and police responding with tear gas and water cannon.

There were several arrests, but no immediate reports of injuries. Police confirmed that 4,000 people attended the march, and 23 were detained, while organizers estimated that there were 20,000 attendees.

US envoy says EU becoming ‘resort’ for Venezuela regime AFP BRUSSELS

The US pointman on Venezuela yesterday accused the EU of dragging its feet over sanctions, saying Europe was becoming a playground for President Nicolas Maduro’s cadres and their mistresses and children.

Elliott Abrams, US special representative on Venezuela, said the EU’s reluctance to sanction more members of the Venezuelan regime was “unhelpful”.

He criticised the bloc’s incoming foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell for accusing Wash-ington of behaving like a “cowboy” in the crisis-wracked South American state.

The EU currently has asset freezes and travel bans in place against 18 Venezuelan ministers and officials but Abrams said the bloc needed to do more to put pressure on Maduro and his associates.

“A far greater number of people from the regime are now using Europe as a kind of resort area,” Abrams told reporters in Brussels, where he was due meet

EU officials. “They send their families here, their wives, their mistresses, their children. Their bank accounts are here. We have repeated information about the mansions they buy, the nightclubbing of their teenage children. That should not be happening.”

Abrams said the EU’s refusal to countenance further sanc-tions while talks were going on between Maduro’s government and the opposition was a “miscalculation”.

“On the question of sanc-tions we do think the reluctance of the part of the EU has been unhelpful to the process of negotiations,” he said, arguing that “only pressure” could per-suade Maduro to negotiate seriously.

Borrell, the Spanish foreign minister who will take over as EU diplomatic lead in November, accused the US of acting like “a cowboy” in May for its implicit threat of military intervention in Venezuela.

“We reject the term ‘cowboy diplomacy’ completely and thought it was an unhelpful remark,” Abrams said.

Xi Jinping to visit Brazil in Nov for BRICSREUTERS/SAO PAULO

Brazil ’s Vice-President Hamilton Mourao said yesterday that Chinese Pres-ident Xi Jinping will visit Brazil in November, as the two nations seek to strengthen political and economic ties at a time of global trade tensions.

The visit is expected to take place during a summit of BRICS countries, a grouping of nations including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Mourao said during a conference in Sao Paulo hosted by the Brazil-China Business Council.

The BRICS summit this year, scheduled for November 13-14 in Brasilia, will be hosted in Brazil for the third time. It came to Brasilia in 2010, and the northeastern city of For-taleza also hosted the summit in 2014. “China recognizes in Brazil a key regional partner,” Mourao said, noting that trade between the two countries reached $100bn in 2018.

Bolsonaro says ready for work after surgeryAFP SAO PAULO

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said he would return to work today following lengthy abdominal surgery at the weekend.

A video posted on Twitter yesterday showed the 64-year-old president sitting up in his hospital bed and smiling as he watched a popular Mexican soap on television.

“I’m just resting today, tomorrow I’m going back to work,” he wrote.

Bolsonaro underwent a five-hour operation on Sunday to repair an abdominal hernia.

The procedure at the Vila Nova Star hospital took two hours longer than anticipated. It was his fourth operation since being stabbed in the stomach a year ago at a campaign rally.

Hurricane Dorian rampaged over the Bahamas with winds of 200 miles per hour for two days, becoming the worst disaster in the nation’s history.

US may extend protected status for BahamiansREUTERS WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump said yesterday his administration is talking to a lot of people about possibly extending temporary protected status, granted to people who cannot safely return to their countries, to immigrants from the hurricane-hit Bahamas.

Trump, talking to reporters at the White House, said, however, that the United States must make sure immigrants from the Bahamas are properly

documented.A growing number of law-

makers are pushing the White House to suspend visa require-ments to help reunite Bahamians stranded by Hurricane Dorian’s destruction with their US relatives.

Trump’s administration has sought to severely restrict legal and illegal immigration. On Monday, acting Commissioner of US Customs and Border Pro-tection Mark Morgan told reporters the agency would work to vet all immigrants from

the Bahamas for possible threats to national security.

At a White House briefing, Morgan said there had not been “any formal grant” of temporary protected status for Bahamians. Asked if he planned to discuss it with Trump or other White House officials, he said: “I think so.”

“If the history shows that it’s taken a lengthy time to get the Bahamas back to where these people can return to, I’m sure that that will be a discussion that we’d be having,” he said.

19TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019 HOME

CROSSWORD

It is the story of Rano’s, who wants to go to Canada and Sukha’s, who struggles for a living, dreams and how they arrive at their destinations together.

SURKHI BINDI

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

Porinju Mariyam Jose (2D/Malayalam) 2:00 & 11:30pm; Playmobil The Move (2D/Animation) 2:15pm; Saaho (2D/Tamil) 2:15pm; Trouble (2D/Animation) 5:15pm; Angel Has Fallen (2D/Action) 7:00pm; Welad Rizk 2 (2D/Arabic) 9;15pm; Mission Mangal (2D/Comedy) 4:00pm; IT: Chapter 2 (2D/Horror) 8:00 & 11:00pm; Dora And The Lost City Of Gold (2D/Adventure) 5:00pm; Just A Stranger (2D/Tagalog) 7:00pm; Chhichhore (2D/Hindi) 9:00 & 11:30pm;

Chhichhore (2D/Hindi) 11:15am, 5:30 & 11:45pm; Saaho (2D/Hindi) 10:30am & 5:45pm; Ittymaani (2D/Malayalam) 12:00, 6:00pm & 12:00am; IT: Chapter 2 (2D/Horror) 2:15 & 8:30pm; Brothers Day (2D/Malayalam) 3:00, 9:00 & 11:30pm;Playmobil The Move (2D/Animation) 3:30pm;Just A Stranger (2D/Tagalog) 9:00pm

LANDMARK

AL KHOR

Brothers Day (2D/Malayalam) 7:00, 9:00 & 11:15pm ; Chhichhore (2D/Hindi) 6:30pm; Magamuni (2D/Tamil) 6:30pm;Ittymaani (2D/Malayalam) 8:15, 10:00, 9:30pm & 12:00am;Porinju Mariyam Jose (2D/Malayalam) 10:00pm;

ASIAN TOWN

ROXY

FLIK Mirqab Mall

47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2D/Adventure) 10:30am, 1:10, 2:50, 4:40, 6:30, 8:20, 10:10 & 11:50pmDora And The Lost City Of Gold (2D/Adventure) 10:30am, 2:30, 4:40, 8:30 & 12:30pm; Angel Has Fallen (2D/Action) 4:40, 8:00, 10:00 & 11:30pm; Sesh’s Evaru (2D/Telugu) 10:30am, 1:20, 4:10, 7:00, 9:50, 9:10, 3:30, 6:20pm; Knnedy Club (2D/Tamil) 7:15, 9:00 & 10:40pm; Khayal Ma’ata (2D/Arabic) 12;30, 11:10, 11:00, 3:30 & 11:10pm; Ranarangam (2D/Telugu) 11:00am, 1:40, 4:30, 12:30, 3:20 & 6:10pm; Ready Or Not (2D/Horror) 6:00 & 7:10pmSheep And Wolves 2 (2D/Animation) 4:40, 6:30 & 6:50pmThe Angry Birds Movie 2 2:30 & 12:30pm

47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2D/Adventure) 0:30am; Angel Has Fallen (2D/Action) 11:20, 12:10,1:40, 2:30, 4:00, 4:50, 5:40, 7:10, 8:00, 9:30, 10:50 & 11:50pmDora And The Lost City Of Gold (2D/Adventure) 10;10am, 11:10am & 1:10pm; Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw 3:10; IT: Chapter 2 (2D/Horror) 10;40am, 12:40, 1:50, 3:50, 5:00, 6:00, 7:00, 8:10, 9:10, 10:10 & 11:20pm; Just A Stranger (2D/Tagalog) 5:30, 7;45, 10;00 & 0:15am; Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2D/Comedy) 4:20pm, Playmobil The Move (2D/Animation) 10;20am, 11:30, 12:20, 1:30, 2:20 & 3:30pmReady or Not 10:20pm & 0:20am T-34 (2D/Action) 6:20 & 8:35pm; Welad Rizk 2 (2D/Arabic) 7;20, 9;50pm & 0:25am

Playmobil The Move (2D/Animation) 2:30pm;Ittymaani (2D/Malayalam) 2:15 & 4:15 & 8:15pm; Brothers Day (2D/Malayalam) 5:15 & 11:15pm; IT: Chapter 2 (2D/Horror) 5:30, 8:30 & 11:00pm;The Lion King (2D/Drama) 5:30pm; Chhichhore (2D/Hindi) 3:00 & 9:00pm; The Lion King (2D/Animation) 4:15pm; Just A Stranger (2D/Tagalog) 7:00pm;T-34 (2D/Action) 11:30pm

ROYAL PLAZA

Magamuni (2D/Tamil) 2:00pm; Ittymaani (2D/Malayalam) 2:00, 6:30 & 11:30pm;Brothers Day (2D/Malayalam) 2:30 &11:30pm; Surkhi Bindi (2D/Punjabi) 4:45pmPlaymobil The Move (2D/Animation) 4:45pm; Chhichhore (2D/Hindi) 5:30 & 9:00pm; The Lion King (2D/Drama) 7:00pm; IT: Chapter 2 (2D/Horror) 8:15 & 11:15pm;Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw (2D/Action) 9:15pm

MALL

Summer Programme at Msheireb Museums wraps up with a workshop on genomicsTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Msheireb Museums, the four revived historic Qatari heritage houses in the heart of Msheireb Downtown Doha, concluded its Summer Workshop Programme on Saturday with an exciting children-centric workshop on genomics.

The workshop had children, aged 10 to 18 years old, explore genetics and the basics of genomic medicine in an engaging method that involved role play as potential scientists under the supervision of Qatar Genome (QGP) and Qatar Biobank (QBB), both members of Qatar Foundation.

The children participants wore special sci-entist costumes, used lab equipment to conduct experiments, and visited the Journey to the Heart of Life Exhibition at Bin Jelmood House to learn more about the genetic heritage of the people in the region.

QGP workshop hosts, Dima Darwish and Tasnim Fadl, worked closely with the young explorers to teach them the importance of genetics in precision medicine and to inspire them to consider a future career in healthcare.

Commenting on the workshop, Aisha Ali Al Kuwari, Education Manager at Msheireb Museums said: “This collaborative workshop with Qatar Biobank and Qatar Genome pro-vides scientific educational content on the role played by precision medicine institutes to protect our nation from disease, enhance the health of future generations, and provide trusted precision medicine for each patient.”

Last year, Msheireb Museums, QBB, and QGP announced an agreement to create training workshops and engaging activities for the public, with focus on school students, to raise awareness on the vitality of genetics for our future and Qatar’s advanced efforts on this front.

The genome workshop wraps up the Summer Programme that Msheireb Museums launched early in July in order to reinforce its relationship with the local community and support Qatari talent, providing them with a platform to share their knowledge, passion, and enhance their skills.

The programme covered many areas such as photography, novel writing, architecture

and pattern design, science, and many other fields catering to all age ranges and preferences.

Dr Hafiz Ali, Msheireb Museums Director said; “We work continuously to create pro-grammes that engage our audience by being interactive, relevant, and fun! We are proud of the workshops we have delivered this summer. We received lots of positive feedback from our participants and visitors, and we look forward to a similarly exciting autumn/winter programme.”

Msheireb Museums is consistently trans-forming their practices and offerings to remain closer to the community. As a social history museum, the mission of the four houses goes beyond putting history on display to using it to encourage societal development, establish dialogue between cultures, build bridges, and define a sustainable future for Qatar.

QGP workshop hosts, Dima Darwish and Tasnim Fadl, worked closely with the young explorers to teach them the importance of genetics in precision medicine and to inspire them to consider a future career in healthcare.

The workshop had children, aged 10 to 18 years old, explore genetics and the basics of genomic medicine in an engaging method that involved role play as potential scientists under the supervision of Qatar Genome (QGP) and Qatar Biobank (QBB), both members of Qatar Foundation.

20 TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2019MORNING BREAK

REUTERS LONDON

Hundreds of Margaret Atwood fans in Britain and the United States are to queue at midnight for the first chance to buy the sequel to her best-selling dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” — one of the most hotly-anticipated cultural events of the year.

“The Testaments” has already been shortlisted for one of the literary world’s most prestigious prizes ahead of its launch in London today, which is to be screened in 100 cinemas around the world.

In it, Atwood picks up the story from her 1985 account of a totalitarian future — since made into a popular television series — in which fertile women are forced into sexual servitude to repopulate a world facing environmental disaster.

“Publications of this level are few and far between,” said Bea Carvalho, fiction buyer at the British Waterstones chain of bookstores, which is hosting a midnight launch party in London where the author will read from her new work.

“This is by far the biggest release of the year and one of the biggest cultural moments altogether,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

A number of other book shops in Britain and the United States will also open late for

those hoping to get one of the first looks at the novel.

Canadian author Atwood prompted excitement and speculation when she announced last November that she was working on “The Testaments”, set 15 years after the ambiguous ending of The Hand-maid’s Tale” in the fictional totalitarian state of Gilead. “Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book,” she has said.

“The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.”

The publishers maintained a tight ring of security, with reviewers sent copies with a fake title and cover, but secrecy around the book’s plot was breached after Amazon accidentally sent out a number of pre-ordered copies.

It was announced last week that it had been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, with judges’ chairman Peter Florence praising it as “a savage and beautiful novel that speaks to us today with conviction and power”.

Reviews have been mixed. Many praised as it fast-paced and dramatic, but some have argued it lacks the depth of the original novel.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” has long been hailed as a touchstone for feminist cam-paigners, with Atwood saying that all the acts of repression in the book were based on real-life events. It has shot back up the

bestseller lists after being made into a popular, award-winning television series starring actor Elisabeth Moss.

Volkswagen’s new electric car, the ID.3 model, with a roomy interior, brisk acceleration and battery range of up to 550 kilometers is presented ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show in Frankfurt, Germany, yesterday.

Climate groups call for SUVs to be bannedREUTERS FRANKFURT

Climate groups, including Greenpeace and Deutsche Umwelthilfe, called yesterday for sport-utility vehicles to be banned as part of a wider campaign to curb pollution by the auto industry.

Carmakers should stop developing large, heavy cars and vehicles with internal com-bustion engines, the “Exit” con-sortium said at a news con-ference on the eve of the Frankfurt auto show. “As long as SUVs rather than small electric vehicles dominate auto-motive transport, cars will remain the problem child for us climate activists,” the con-sortium said.

In a debate with the lead spokeswoman from “Sand in the Gearbox” — a coalition of activists who see the automobile as an outmoded form of transport and called for a boycott of the show - Volkswagen Chief Executive Herbert Diess said his company was primarily com-mitted to providing individual mobility and that ultimately, con-sumers decide what they buy.

Volkswagen had developed several frugal and zero-emission vehicles, including the VW Lupo, which had ultimately proven less popular that larger more

spacious cars, Diess said. “SUVs is what the customer

wants,” Diess said while under-scoring Volkswagen’s com-mitment to building affordable electric vehicles as well.

“Owning a car is for many people part of having a higher quality of life. We need to ensure that even middle and lower income families can afford an electric car,” Diess said. Regu-lators have in their power to incentivise buying behaviour, the German executive said, rejecting a call for an outright ban of cars or certain types of vehicle.

Switching to renewable forms of energy and cutting dependence on coal-fired power stations was another way to push climate goals, Diess added. The German automaker is pre-paring to launch a raft of hybrid and electric vehicles to try to leave behind a diesel emissions cheating scandal which has cost the company more than ¤30bn ($33bn) in refit costs and fines. Hybrid vehicles can help cut carbon dioxide pollution, car-makers say. “These fake argu-ments brought forward by the industry are exactly the reason why we are taking to the streets,” said the spokeswoman for Sand in the Gearbox, which has called for a blockade of the Frankfurt show and increased use of bicycles.

Fans to queue for midnight release of Atwood’s The Testaments

IANS/NEW DELHI

Popular short video-sharing app TikTok has collaborated with Suicide Prevention India Foundation (SPIF) to launch #YourLife-Matters, a campaign aimed at spreading awareness around the importance of mental health and curbing suicide rates in India.

In observance of World Suicide Pre-vention Day on Tuesday, the in-app cam-paign encourages everyone to prioritise self-care, practice self-compassion, debunk stigmas attached to mental health issues and seek professional help if required.

According to the World Health Organi-sation, India is in the top 25 countries with the highest suicidal cases. The partnership between TikTok and SPIF aims to curb the increasing suicide rates in India by viewing it as a public health issue, and by leveraging the power of the community. As part of this

initiative, SPIF has been sharing short and relatable videos through their TikTok profile (@spif_in) to empower TikTok users with the necessary know-how to essay the role as “Gatekeepers”.

A “Gatekeeper” could be any individual who is trained to be able to spot someone with suicidal tendencies, be of assistance to such individuals and refer them to a mental health professional.

Since nearly eight out of 10 people con-templating suicide give out verbal or non-verbal signs, trained Gatekeepers can play a major role in helping save lives.

This initiative is aimed to mobilise the online community to play a part in preventing individuals from doing self harm. Addi-tionally, the videos also have suicide sur-vivors sharing their personal stories and motivating users to not lose hope and find the strength to overcome their struggles.

TikTok’s new campaign aims to curb suicide rate in India

NU-Q opens first media museum in regionTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Located in the heart of one of the most advanced media and communication schools in the world, The Media Majlis at Northwestern University in Qatar, which is dedicated to the exploration of journalism, communication, and media in the Arab region has opened at Northwestern University’s campus in Doha.

The Media Majlis features a multi-screen façade, as well as space where exhibition content and technology con-verge. The technology elevates a visitor’s experience by inviting them to participate in a global conversation on a continually changing media landscape.

Drawing its name from the traditional Arab majlis—or gathering place—the museum seeks to be a vital source of interpersonal communication that connects values of local culture to universal and global concerns. All exhibitions are bilingual in English and Arabic, adding to the museum’s global essence and eliminating lan-guage barriers from telling the full story.

“The Media Majlis, a decade in the making, is a space where our students and faculty, as well as the general public, can engage with content that examines media influences and impact,” said Everette E. Dennis, dean and CEO at NU-Q. “The museum’s programming, which will

explore everything from Arab representations in film, to cen-sorship and identity, under-scores the importance of media in society and draws on images and materials from local sources and global collections.”

The Media Majlis was offi-cially dedicated by H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of the Qatar Foundation, along with H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad, vice-chairperson and CEO of the foundation; Morton Schapiro, president of North-western University; Jonathan Holloway, provost; and Dean Dennis.

A group of international media scholars and experts formed a Content Advisory Board that advised the uni-versity as it developed this unique museum where its exhibitions and programs are incorporated into the school’s curriculum and all exhibitions and programming is open to the public.

A member of the advisory board, Lisa Corrin, the director of the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston noted the connection between the mission of the Media Majlis and the academic program at NU-Q.

“The museum’s mission is

to amplify the raison d’etre of Northwestern University – to be a portal through which young minds can learn to think critically about how the vast media landscapes shape our world and in turn how they can use these platforms to have influence in and beyond Qatar,” she said.

Exhibitions at the Media Majlis are curated so that vis-itors can journey through media-centric themes, exploring hundreds of images and films, as well as scores of original interviews – developed in-house – with scholars and professionals who are experts on the

museum’s current exhibition topic.

The Media Majlis’s inau-gural exhibition, Arab Iden-tities, images in film, considers how over a century of film history has shaped and been shaped by notions of Arab identities. The exhibition, which features clips from more than 200 films ranging from the 1880s to the present day, is accompanied by loans posters, lobby cards and drawings from regional private collections in Kuwait and Beirut, as well as interna-tional, including a print from 1851 on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The exhibition will be on view through December.

The Media Majlis is sur-rounded by academic resources and learning spaces. Located in the building that houses Northwestern’s campus in Qatar, it has access to a projection theatre for screening films, a black box for theatrical dramas, and a world-class fully-automated Newsroom, along with an auditorium that seats more than 100.

For the current exhibition, Arab Identities, images in film, programming includes exclusive film screenings with prominent filmmakers such as the director of the Academy Award nominated “Paradise Now,” Hany Abu Assad; Pal-estinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir; and the Syrian directors and sisters Soudade Kaadan and Amira Kaadan.

The Media Majlis at NU-Q is the first university museum in Qatar and the only one in the region dedicated to content on media and communication.

Author Margaret Atwood poses after winning the Academy Board of Directors Tribute award during the Canadian Screen Awards in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in this March 11, 2018 picture.

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum32oC 41oC

HIGH TIDE 02:03 – 15:01 LOW TIDE 07:55 – 22:54

Hot daytime with slight dust to blowing

dust at places at times and some clouds.

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11. 31 AM

02.59 PM

05. 46 PM

07. 16 PM

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MAGHRIBISHA

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