@bahrainnbr stars of the nation...2019/06/17 · preet singh kashmir. he was employed as a...

Saudi, US air forces carry out exercise over Arabian GulfRiyadh

Royal Saudi Air Force aircraft and F-15C Ea-gle fighter jets belonging

to the US Air Force flew in for-mation over the Arabian Gulf yesterday, supported by both Saudi and US air-to-air refuel-ling aircraft.

The aim of the exercise was to continue to strengthen mil-itary relations between the two countries.

US officials have recently said that there has been a surge in intelligence pointing to Iranian

preparations for attacks against US forces and interests in the Gulf region.

In response to those intelli-gence warnings, the US on May 5 announced it was accelerating the deployment of the USS Abra-ham Lincoln aircraft carrier bat-tle group to the Gulf region.

It also sent four nuclear-ca-pable B-52 bombers to Qatar and has beefed up its defences in the region by deploying more Patriot air defence systems.

02Sixth Princess Sabeeka Women Advancement Award launched

04Four Asians face trial for illegal shrimping

05Ministry urged to probe unlawful fees increase by private schools

8

Indonesian YouTube stars get chance for university place 7WORLD

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Daniel Craig preps for ‘Bond 25’ following injuryDaniel Craig is back in the gym after sustaining an injury on the sets of the ‘Bond 25’ film. The James Bond star, who underwent minor sur-gery following an ankle injury while filming the movie last month, is already prepping for the shoot next week. P14

MONDAYJUNE 2019

200 FILS ISSUE NO. 8145

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Stars of the nation His Majesty receives National Athletics Team; hails their success

• His Majesty said that the nation is looking forward to attaining more accomplishments at various regional and international sports gatherings.

• Bahraini athletes extended deepest thanks, appreciation and gratitude to HM the King for his constant support and encouragement.

Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa yes-terday received, in the

presence of HM the King’s Rep-

resentative for Charity Work and Youth Affairs and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports (SCYS), HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa and the First Deputy Chairman of the SCYS and President of the Bah-rain Olympic Committee (BOC), HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, members of the Bahrain National Athletics team.

HH Shaikh Khalid introduced to HM the King members of the team, which won the third Asian Athletics Championship in Doha, where they clinched 22 medals – 11 gold, seven silver and four bronze.

HM King Hamad expressed thanks to the champions of Bah-rain, and congratulated them on their honourable achievement, dedication and distinguished performance throughout the tournament.

HM the King stressed that sports associations in Bahrain

have attained multiple achieve-ments during the “Year of Gold”, thus reflecting Bahrain’s youth’s ambition and keenness to suc-ceed in various fields, adding that the nation is looking forward to attaining more accomplishments at various regional and interna-tional sports gatherings.

HM King Hamad lauded the successful efforts exerted by HH Shaikh Nasser to support the youth and sports movement in the Kingdom through putting in

place all success requirements for Bahraini youth to achieve outstanding results and honour the Kingdom at various sports gatherings.

HM the King also commended HH Shaikh Khalid’s constant follow-up, efforts aimed at serv-ing Bahraini sports and honour the Kingdom at various gath-erings and youth-supporting initiatives.

HM King Hamad also praised the efforts of the Bahrain Ath-letics Association’s president and members, as well as all athletes for the outstanding results they had attained at various competi-tions and championships, stress-ing his interest in the youth and sports sector, and wishing Bah-rain’s national teams and clubs further success.

HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad expressed deep pride in HM the King’s reception of the mem-bers of the Bahrain National Ath-

letics team, stressing the royal kind gesture reflects the King’s constant keenness to provide all kinds of care for Bahraini youth.

He affirmed that HM the King’s constant support has contributed to the Kingdom’s various hon-ourable achievements at various continental and international championships.

“The Royal audience is the great success that crowns all ef-forts. It will motivate us to dou-ble efforts in order to translate HM the King’s directives into the ground,” HH Shaikh Khalid said, pledging to carry on effort to develop sports in Bahrain in order to attain more landmark achievements and consolidate the Kingdom’s standing on the world’s sports map.

Bahraini athletes extended deepest thanks, appreciation and gratitude to HM the King for his constant support and encour-agement.

His Majesty, HH Shaikh Nasser and HH Shaikh Khalid with members of the National Athletics Team.

22medals were won by the members of the

National Athletics Team at third Asian Athletics Championship in Doha.

Royal Saudi Air Force aircraft and F-15C fighters belonging to the US Air Force fly in formation over the Arabian Gulf.

The United States is going to make sure that we take all the actions necessary, diplomatic

and otherwise that achieve that outcome.

POMPEO

Hong Kong sees largest protest Hong Kong

Nearly two million people have taken part in a mass

protest in Hong Kong against a controversial extradition bill, organisers say.

If confirmed, it would be the largest protest in Hong Kong’s history. Police said turnout was 338,000 at its peak.

The masses turned out de-spite the suspension of the bill - which would allow ex-tradition from Hong Kong to mainland China - on Saturday.

See Page 6

Expat found hanging in Riffa TDT | Manama

An expatriate was found hanging at an aban-

doned house in Eastern Riffa yesterday.

T h e d e -ceased was identified as Indian na-tional Gur-preet Singh Kashmir.

H e w a s e m p l o y e d as a carpen-ter with a

private firm. More details were unavailable until the Press time.

Gurpreet Singh

02MONDAY, JUNE 17, 2019

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Sixth Princess Sabeeka Women Advancement Award launched

Award granted to ministries/institutions for efforts to support Bahraini women

Manama

The Supreme Council for Women (SCW) yesterday announced the launch of

the sixth edition of Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa Award for the Advancement of Bahraini Women.

The biennial prize is granted to ministries as well as public and private institutions for their distinguished efforts in support-ing active Bahraini women and adopting strategies to integrate their needs in development and equal opportunities.

The announcement was made

at a press conference held yes-terday, which was attended by SCW Secretary General Hala Al Ansari, the Head of the jury, and members of the jury.

Ms Al Ansari pointed out the importance of the royal order to develop the name of the award and broaden the scope of its cat-egories in tune with growing par-ticipation of Bahraini women in national development.

She also stressed the role of the project at the local and in-ternational level as a diplomatic tool to project the kingdom’s suc-cessful experience as a think-tank in women empowerment and integration of their needs in the

development process. She described the award as an

essential part of the “equal op-portunities” theme included in the national strategy for the em-powerment of Bahraini women

which adopts many initiatives to meet the Economic Vision 2030.

The SCW Secretary General said Bahrain has been able to mend 62 per cent of the gender gap by promoting participation of Bahraini women in deci-sion-making and economic de-velopment.

She added the award aims principally to benchmark and highlight the national women empowerment efforts, ensure sustainability of gender balance, promote the culture of “equal opportunities”, exchange experi-ences and encourage innovation in mapping out policies to boost women’s participation and inte-

grate their needs. She also revealed that the new

edition of the award will take into consideration engaging more sectors and relevant parties con-cerned with achieving equal op-portunities and the advancement of Bahraini women.

Ms Al Ansari presented a de-tailed account on the award’s in-dices and criteria and the mech-anism of participating in it.

She thanked President of the Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC) Abdulrahman Jawahari for the company’s sup-port to the development efforts of the award to achieve forecast goals.

Ms Al Ansari speaks at the Press conference.

The award is an essential part of the

“equal opportunities” theme included in the national strategy for the empowerment of

Bahraini women. MS AL ANSARI

400 students to take part in summer activity Manama

Northern Governor, Ali Al Asfoor, has inaugurated

the Governorate’s summer activity, themed “Our Na-tion and Our King Bring Us Together”.

Held at the Zainab Inter-mediate Girls’ School from June 16 to July 18, the event aims to enable students to take full advantage of the summer holidays.

During the opening cer-emony, attended by the Northern Governorate Police Director-General, Brigadier Abdulla Al Jiran, MP Fatima Al Qatari and municipal councillor, Dr Sayed Shubbar Al Wadai, the governor conveyed greetings and appreciation from Interior Minister, General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa to those present.

He said that the North-ern Governorate has been keen to ensure that the programmes of its summer activity feature diversified events aimed at strengthen-ing belonging to the nation, consolidating the citizenship values and honing the partic-ipants’ skills and talent.

The governor paid tribute to the Ministry of Education for its fruitful cooperation with the Northern Gover-norate through hosting the events at schools’ halls.

‘FDPM Fellowship aims to create best decision-makers’

• Mr Al Hammadi concluded the meeting by encouraging the FDPM fellows to take advantage of the opportunities that the programme offers, and wished them every success in their future endeavours.

Manama

The Adviser for Com-munication Affairs at the Court of the

Crown Prince, Isa bin Ab-dulrahman Al Hammadi, welcomed the fourth intake of the First Deputy Prime

Minister (FDPM) Fellowship for a roundtable discussion, at Gudaibiya Palace yester-day.

During the meeting, Mr Al Hammadi stressed that the FDPM Fellowship reflects His Royal Highness the Crown Prince’s vision of strengthen-ing the leadership and man-agement skills of Bahrainis, in order to increase their contribution to the King-dom’s far-reaching strategic goals.

He indicated that the FDPM Fellowship is a unique pro-gramme that aims to equip the fellows with the skills they need to be part of the government’s decision-mak-ing process, noting that the Fellows will contribute their newly acquired skills to-wards the enhancement of Team Bahrain.

Mr Al Hammadi went on to

review best practices in the communications field, and stressed the importance of media in helping secure the successful implementation of government projects. He also highlighted the importance of media in shaping positive social awareness and culture, noting the significance of new technological tools and platforms in this regard.

He pointed out that, in or-der to have a positive impact, media must work on the basis of a strategic approach that ensures accurate informa-tion, efficient work streams, and a unified narrative.

Mr Al Hammadi concluded the meeting by encouraging the FDPM fellows to take ad-vantage of the opportunities that the programme offers, and wished them every suc-cess in their future endeav-ours.

Mr Al Hammadi with winners of FDPM Fellowship.

MONDAY, JUNE 17, 2019

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Four Asians face trial for illegal shrimping

Nine boxes filled with 395kg shrimp were seized from suspects’ boats TDT | Manama

Four Asian men will stand trial for charges related to violating the ongoing

shrimping ban and using prohib-ited fishing methods that harm the marine environment, it was announced yesterday.

Ministries and Public Bodies Prosecution Chief Prosecutor Ahmed Al Ghatam said in a press statement issued yesterday that the Prosecution has begun in-vestigating into a case of catch-ing shrimp using trawls, which is an illegal fishing and shrimping method in the Kingdom, con-

sidering its dangerous effects on the marine environment.

Mr Al Ghatam confirmed that the prosecution was notified about the incident, which in-

volves four Asian men, by the Coast Guard Command within the Interior Ministry.

He said nine ice boxes filled with 395kg of shrimp were con-fiscated from the suspects’ boats, in addition to illegal fishing nets and trawls.

“The Prosecution has interro-gated the suspects and ordered their detention pending further investigations.

“They have been accused of possessing prohibited trawls and using it in violation of the provi-sions of the law, in addition to vi-olating safety conditions by not operating the ship identification

device,” the Chief Prosecutor added.

Mr Al Ghatam’s statement came a day after the Coast Guard Commander announced that the Coast Guard patrols had arrested four individuals on-board a boat and seized 400kg shrimp that was under their possession.

The commander said the four were shrimping during the ban season and added that legal pro-ceedings are being taken to refer the case to the Public Prosecu-tion, which will refer the sus-pects to the criminal court once the investigation is completed.

Devji-BKS Balakalotsavam 2019 winners named TDT | Manama

Devji-BKS Balakalotsavam 2019 awards have been an-nounced by the organisers.

The titles of Kalathilakam, Kalaprathibha, Balathilakam, Balaprathibha, Natyaratna, Sangeetharatna, Sahityaratna, Chithrakalaratna and Group Championship awards along with three special awards were declared by Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam President P V Radhakrishna Pillai and General Secretary M P Raghu.

The organisers congratulated all the winners and their parents for the achievements.

“In this year’s Balakalotsavam, more than 550 children took part in about 150 events conducted at five different venues from April 10th to June 6th, which also in-cluded individual and group events,” Mr Pillai said.

This year’s Balakalotsavam also saw a high influx of participants compared to previous years, the organisers said.

“Famous dancers Geetha Pad-makumar, Dr Mini Pramod and Manju V Nair, who arrived from India, were the judges for the dance events.”

Trophies and certificates for all winners and participants will be distributed by the distinguished guests at the grand finale and award night to be held on June 20 at 7pm.

Flowers TV MD and famous In-dian television presenter and host Sreekandan Nair will be the chief guest while Prakash Devji, CEO, Devji Group of companies will be the guest of honour at the event, the organisers added.

The suspects are accused

of possessing prohibited trawls

and violating safety conditions and ongoing ban.

PROSECUTORS

Court acquits man in SIM fraud case

TDT | Manama

The Civil Court yesterday acquitted a man who’s accused of cheating his

friend and counterfeiting ap-plication forms to get nine SIM cards under his name.

The case came to light when the accuser was shocked to find out that he was obliged to pay a total of BD23,000 in telephone bills for the SIMs that were is-sued under his name, despite claiming that he didn’t use any of them.

The court decided to acquit the defendant as there was no proof provided by the plaintiff supporting his claims that the accused forged the forms or used a fraudulent method.

The plaintiff has in fact will-ingly signed the forms to get the SIM cards issued, as shown in the court documents.

The defendant was initially accused by the Public Prosecu-tion of forging documents (the

application forms) and cheating.According to court files, the

incident took place on Febru-ary 5, 2019, when both the men got nine SIM cards issued along with a Wi-Fi device from three telecommunications companies operating in the Kingdom.

However, it was later proved that the plaintiff acknowledged that he was willingly signing to get the postpaid SIM cards, as argued by the defence attorney Essam Al Tayeb.

Mr Al Tayeb pleaded that his client is innocent, claiming that he didn’t commit any of the crimes mentioned in Articles 270 and 391 of the Kingdom’s Penal Code.

As the plaintiff didn’t com-mit any of the aforementioned crime, he was acquitted of the charges of forging the docu-ments.

The accused was also acquit-ted of fraud as he didn’t commit any of the crimes mentioned in Article 391 of the Penal Code.

Father’s Day song released TDT | Manama

Paying tribute to all sweet fathers, a Bahrain resi-dent Shelin Chacko has

released his song titled ‘Baapu Teri…Papa, the Unsung Hero’.

Mr Chacko known for his in-stant stage compositions is a singer, composer and song writ-er. He is also the lead singer and founder of Indorock.

“The song is a dedication to all fathers all over the world

whose pain, struggles and ef-forts to raise children often go unnoticed.”

“From painting nail polish on the hands of his daughter to watching his son ride his first bike, the song very palpably describes various aspects of a father’s journey in life,” he added.

While Abhimanyu Saharajan performed the music for the song, Najeeb Khan did the cin-ematography. One of the posters of the album.

Shauryaa Sreejit Hima Ajithkumar Sreedaksha Sunilkumar Padmapriya Priyadarsini Aiden Chris Danthy

Shreya Muralidharan Aritro Ghosh Amreen Unnikrishnan Pavithra Padmakumar Menon

Jeon Biju Manakkal

Anagha S. Lal Simran Sreejit Nakshatra Raj C. Jaahnavi Jia Sannidhyu Chandra

Youth to be empowered through

digital camp

TDT | Manama

The NGN Training and De-velopment Centre has announced the upcom-

ing launch of the ‘Summer Boot Camp’, a unique summer camp, which will provide the youth with valuable skills- the first of its kind in the Kingdom.

CEO of NGN Centre, Yaqoob Al Awadhi, stated that the camp is in line with the digital trans-formation efforts in the King-dom through the development of the youth’s skills in the field of modern technology.

“The camp will further en-hance their contribution to the implementation of Bahrain’s Economic Vision 2030, which focuses on building a highly knowledgeable economy,” said Mr Al Awadhi.

The camp will be geared to-wards high school students be-tween the ages of 16 and 18 and will be held at the NGN Cen-tre headquarters at the World Trade Centre. “We decided to conduct the camp during the summer in order to facilitate the ability of these students to attend and enhance their aca-demic competitiveness. During the camp we will also guide them in the process of choosing the course of education and career which should suit their goals and abilities later in life,” he said.

The camp’s agenda will focus on advanced technology topics including coding skills, virtual safety, virtual reality experienc-es and Qin Block Technology

and other advanced technology issues. “The camp will also fo-cus on building team commu-nication and critical thinking skills which are vital in this digital age,” he stated.

Awareness sessions, knowl-edge-building exercises and practical applications will also be included in the agenda of the Summer Boot Camp. The camp also includes business projects and a dialogue forum to discuss differences about the dangers and advantages of the digital age.

The camp is being organised in close cooperation with lo-cal technology institutions to provide the best experiences to participants, and will be con-ducted in two 10-day sessions next month.

Students are encouraged to register for the camp. Regis-tration fees will cover course materials, training experts and certification among other as-pects. “ Building digital organ-izations is not merely about adopting the latest technolo-gy. It is as much, if not more, about people’s capabilities to manage the technologies, and more importantly, about peo-ple’s mindsets and the cumu-lative organizational culture,” said Mr. Al-Awadhi.

“A cultural shift to dig-ital-first can only be accom-plished when the workforce adopts certain characteristics. It is therefore of paramount importance to prepare and arm the youth for such a culture shift,” he concluded.

We decided to conduct the camp during the summer in order to facilitate the ability of these students to attend and enhance their academic competitiveness. MR AL AWADHI

Mr Pillai along with Mr Raghu and other BKS officials at the Press conference.


Ministry urged to probe unlawful fees increase by private schools

Lawmaker says he has been receiving many complaints over the alleged fee hike

• The law states that private schools can only raise the fees by five per cent once in every three years.

• The assessment and approval of QQA and the MoE is required for the schools to hike the fees.

TDT | ManamaMohammed Zafran

A parliamentarian has urged the Ministry of Education to carry out a

probe into allegations of unlawful fee rise by some of the private

schools. According to MP Mohamed

Buhamood, many private schools in the Kingdom are overburden-ing the parents by exorbitantly charging the students.

“The fees at some private schools have increased so much over the years that parents are not able to afford it anymore,” he said.

The lawmaker said that he has received a legion of complaints from parents, who claimed that schools that their children attend have increased fees by a huge margin.

“Many parents now struggle to send their children to schools owing to this unlawful fee hike.”

He said that some of the schools even disregard the law, which states that the schools can

only raise the fees by five per cent once in every three years.

Urging the Ministry of Educa-tion to carry out a probe into the allegations, he said: “The reasons for such increases must be inves-tigated. Are there steps taken by the ministry against schools that make such increases?”

“I have received many com-plaints that schools have been in-creasing fees by more than 5pc.”

Last year, a planned fee hike at some of the private schools was halted after a royal order was issued against it.

Following the order, the minis-try issued a circular to schools di-

recting to terminate the planned increase.

Private school managements in the Kingdom, which wish to mod-ify the fee structure are required to provide a clear explanation to the ministry, according to law.

Moreover, according to exist-ing laws, private schools are only allowed to increase the fees if they are ‘high performing’.

The criteria, which came into effect last year states that only schools rated “good” or “excel-lent” can increase fees and the in-crease in fee should not be more than 5pc.

The assessment and approval of Quality Assurance Authority for Education and Training (QQA) and the Education Ministry is required for the schools to hike the fees.

Meanwhile, a study done by the Boston Consulting Group showed that the Kingdom is ex-pected to witness an increase in the number of private schools in the next five years.

The private education market is projected to grow from the current $400 million to $700m by 2023, according to the study.

The fees at some private schools have increased so much over the years that parents are not able to afford it anymore. MR BUHAMOOD

400million American dollars is the estimated current

value of the private education sector in the

Kingdom.

Bahraini youngster dies on soccer ground

TDT | ManamaMohammed Zafran

A Bahraini youngster died yesterday after collaps-ing on a football ground

in Marqoban village in Sitra. The deceased identified as

Hussain Mohammed Al Radhi, from Sitra, was preparing with his friends to play a match when he felt a convulsion, according to sources.

Friends rushed him to Sal-maniya Medical Complex only to learn that Hussain had died a few minutes ago, sources add-ed.

The cause of death is unclear. The news of death sent shock-

waves among Hussain’s family members and friends as he was not suffering from any chronic

medical conditions. Sources said Hussain was the

son of a retired English teacher and he had just returned to the Kingdom after completing his studies in the US.

Authorities haven’t officially confirmed the death until the press time.

The deceased Hussain

Encouraging awareness and action for the protection of environment, the Indian School Riffa campus celebrated World Environment Day in conjunction with the Lions Club of Riffa. Thirty neem trees were planted in the campus as part of the event. ISB executive committee members Mohammad Khursheed Alam and Ajayakrishnan V, Lions Club President Sanjay Gupta, Riffa Campus Principal Pamela Xavier, Lions Club members, ISB prefect council team and staff attended. The trees and manure were donated by the Lions Club.

‘Travel safe’ campaign launched TDT | Manama

In line with the objectives of the national plan to strengthen national belong-

ing and consolidate patriotism values, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched the aware-ness campaign ‘Travel Safe’.

The campaign includes travel guidelines to ensure safety of citizens while travelling abroad.

It comes under the frame-work of the national plan “Our Bahrain” to preserve national identity and values to meet na-tional aspirations of a secure and stable life.

The travel guidelines range from travel planning to being in the country to be visited, ways to preserve the security, safety and properties of citizens during their travel in a way that contrib-utes to spreading the required awareness and decreasing the risks citizen may face, in addi-tion to strengthening the role of the diplomatic missions of the Kingdom abroad, communi-cating with citizens and locating the closest missions to them.

“The campaign also clarifies ways to communicate with the concerned authorities in case of any inquiries or issues, in addition to facilitating com-munication with travellers and co-ordinating their return in case of disasters.”

The Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs recommends downloading “Wejhaty” app as it offers many services for travellers and can be downloaded online (App Store/Play Store) or through www.bahrain.bh/apps, the ministry said in a statement issued.

Vital power transmission line is inauguratedTDT | Manama

Chief Executive Officer of the Electricity and Water Authority Shaikh Nawaf

bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, inaugu-rated the vital power line link-ing the Seef and Prince Salman City districts yesterday.

Shaikh Nawaf said that the 12km-long 220kV line is con-sidered the main feeder for the Prince Salman City because of the importance of increasing the reliability and safety of the electrical network.

He said this contributes to providing power to the North-ern Province in general and the Prince Salman City in particular. “It also helps private developers’ projects with the required relia-ble source of energy.”

He said that this electrical line is of exceptional and vital importance in securing the re-quirements of the electrical con-nection between the electricity network in Bahrain and the GCC electrical grid in relation to the exchange of electrical energy, especially in emergency situa-tions, and as an important factor in enhancing the reliability of

Bahrain’s electrical grid.He said this is another project

package to connect fifteen 220 kV substations and forty-eight 66 kV substations for the devel-opment of a 220 kV and 66 kV transmission network with high voltage cables, at a total cost of BD 473 million.

ALS Korea, a leading compa-ny, manufactured and supplied electrical cables and installed them along with several Bah-raini contracting companies, while the implementation of

this package was supervised by the Irish International Electric Company.

The Chief Executive said the project is part of the main plan set up by the Electricity and Wa-ter Authority to develop and expand electricity transmission networks in Bahrain accord-ing to the guidelines of the wise leadership to provide electricity and water services and meet the growing demand for users.

He said this would assist in development and urbanisation

as well as provide a better ser-vice for citizens and residents in Bahrain and attract foreign investments.

He said that in light of the high consumption of power during peak periods and high temperatures, this project has contributed to increasing the reliability of the transmission network.

With the launch of this power line, he added, the transmission of power between the Bahrain and the Gulf countries is easier and at the full 1200 megawatts capacity, it is learnt.

Mission green

Shaikh Nawaf reviews the preparations after inaugurating the line.

The project is part of the main plan set up by the Electricity and Water Authority

to develop and expand electricity

transmission networks according to the

guidelines of the wise leadership.

SHAIKH NAWAF

The campaign aims to decrease the risk citizens may face while

travelling abroad.

KNOW

DID

06

world


Personally I think she can no longer govern Hong Kong, she has lost the public. She has

pretended not to hear or see our troubles or the injured protesters, and even called them rioters

-- this makes us Hong Kong residents furious

DAVE WONG, A 38-YEAR-OLD PROTESTER WHO WORKS IN FINANCE

Massive demonstration chokes Hong Kong

Hong Kong, China

Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in cen-tral Hong Kong Sunday

against a reviled extradition law, the latest huge demonstration to pile pressure on the city’s embat-tled leader, despite her weekend climbdown.

The enormous show of force saw protesters chanting “Scrap the evil law!” as they marched through the streets calling for the resignation of chief exec-utive Carrie Lam, who paused work on the hugely divisive bill Saturday after days of mounting pressure, saying she had mis-judged the public mood.

Throngs of black-clad protest-ers snaked their way through the city’s streets in dense crowds heading to the city’s parliament -- a repeat of a record-breaking demonstration a week earlier that organisers said more than a million people attended.

Critics fear the Beijing-backed law will entangle people in Chi-

na’s notoriously opaque and politicised courts and damage the city’s reputation as a safe business hub.

Although Lam, a pro-Beijing appointee, offered a rare con-cession on Saturday, she stopped short of committing to perma-nently scrapping the unpopular law.

Her gesture was swiftly reject-

ed by protest leaders who called on her to resign, shelve the bill entirely and apologise for police using tear gas and rubber bullets earlier in the week.

“Personally I think she can no longer govern Hong Kong, she has lost the public,” Dave Wong, a 38-year-old protester who works in finance, told AFP.

“She has pretended not to hear or see our troubles or the injured protesters, and even called them rioters -- this makes us Hong Kong residents furious,” added demonstrator Calvin Wong.

Anger at police

The international finance hub was rocked Wednesday by the worst political violence since

before its 1997 handover to China as tens of thousands of protesters were dispersed by baton-wielding riot police.

Many placards in the crowd Sunday accused police of using excessive force.

“You’re supposed to protect us not shoot at us,” read one banner.

“The police should not use rubber bullets, tear gas, and bean bag rounds to deal with the stu-dents,” protester Ben Choi told AFP.

Nearly 80 people were injured in this week’s unrest, includ-ing 22 police officers, with both sides showing a willingness to escalate their behaviour to lev-els unseen before in the usually stable business hub.

One man died late Saturday when he fell from a building where he had been holding an hours-long anti-extradition pro-test.

He had unfurled a banner say-ing: “Entirely withdraw China extradition bill. We were not rioting. Released students and

the injured”.Huge queues formed outside

the high-end Pacific Place mall with flowers and written trib-utes piling up as demonstrators paid their respects.

‘Restore calm’The extradition furore is just

the latest chapter in what many see as a battle for the soul of Hong Kong.

For the last decade the city has been convulsed by political tur-bulence between the pro-Beijing authorities and opponents who fear an increasingly assertive China is stamping on the city’s unique freedoms and culture.

But opposition to the extra-dition bill has united an unusu-ally wide cross-section of Hong Kong from influential legal and business bodies, to religious leaders.

Lam’s decision to ignore those warnings, and press ahead with the bill even after last weekend’s massive rally, has placed her administration under pressure from both her opponents and

her own allies.Advisers and pro-establish-

ment lawmakers urged her to delay the bill after Wednesday’s violence while Beijing began to distance itself from her admin-istration.

Her climbdown was also a rare example of the city’s unelected leaders caving to demonstra-tions, something more recent administrations have been in-creasingly unwilling to do.

Two months of protests in 2014 calling for the right to di-rectly Hong Kong’s leader won no concessions from Beijing and key figures from that movement are now in jail.

But anger over the extradi-tion law has reinvigorated Hong Kong’s democracy movement.

Estimates of Sunday’s crowd size will not be available until the evening but huge amounts of people were still joining the start four hours after the rally set off.

Police opened up more roads than usual with demonstrators packing four major arteries on their way to parliament.

This overhead view shows thousands of protesters marching through the street as they take part in a new rally against a controversial extradition law proposal in Hong Kong

Flowers pile up for dead HK protester

Hong Kong, China

Bouquets of white flowers, written tributes and ori-

gami cranes piled up Sunday outside a high-end Hong Kong shopping mall, where a young man plunged to his death pro-testing against a controversial extradition bill.

The man had hung a banner off the roof of Pacific Place, which overlooks the site of vi-olent clashes this week between police and demonstrators angry at a proposed law that would allow people to be sent to main-land China.

A video circulating on social media shows the man falling from rooftop scaffolding as fire-fighters tried to grab him on Saturday evening.

They clutch at his clothes and he slips through their hands, missing a jump raft that had been inflated on the ground below.

He had unfurled a banner saying: “Entirely withdraw Chi-

na extradition bill. We were not rioting. Release students and the injured”.

Thousands of mourners, mostly young people dressed in black, joined enormous queues along busy roads to leave trib-utes and pay their respects, some crying and bowing as they offered sticks of incense.

Next to a large pile of white flowers were hundreds of hand-written messages and gifts, including a bottle of sin-gle malt whiskey and a white hard hat with the word “hero” written across it.

“The flowers are white for purity and so we can show our respect for the dead. When I get there, I will offer these and say a prayer for him,” said 18-year-old Travis.

“He walked a bloody road, I admire his energy, I admire his bravery,” said a man named Yung, aged 26. Signs reading “Help Hong Kong. No extradi-tion to China. RIP” have been posted at the site.

Mourners place flowers and offer prayers at the site where a protester died falling from the top of a building in central Hong Kong

Hong Kong leader apologises

Lam’s office put out a statement late Sunday admitting that shortcomings in how her administration handled the law

had “led to a lot of conflict and disputes” and “disappointed and distressed many citizens”.

“The chief executive apologises to the citizens and promises to accept criticism with the most sincere and humble attitude,” it said.


It’s sad it was beaten to death.

We need to conduct further investigations to find whether it

travelled in a packANWARUL ISLAM, A ZOOLOGIST AT

DHAKA UNIVERSITY

Indonesian YouTube stars get chance for university place

Jakarta, Indonesia

An Indonesian universi-ty is offering would-be

students a novel way to gain admission to the faculty -- be-come a YouTube star first.

Through a special admission scheme, the National Devel-opment University Veteran Jakarta (UPNVJ), is offering places to YouTubers who have a channel with at least 10,000 subscribers and have created original content that has been viewed more than 100,000 times.

Those who meet the criteria will be further tested by hav-ing to create a new video of between three to five minutes duration.

University places are highly competitive in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, with over 260 million people.

Social media websites are also wildly popular across the archipelago, with research showing people spend an av-erage of over three hours a day online -- one of the highest rates in the world.

The university offering the novel admission package said places were only open for those planning on studying economics, social and political science, law, engineering and computers.

“YouTube is a great media to convey positive messages,” rector Erna Hernawati told the Jakarta Post, adding the university wanted students to “influence society”.

The country’s biggest You-Tube stars -- Atta Halilintar and Ricis -- have more than 15 million subscribers each.

UPNVJ university already of-fers special admission schemes for athletes and Koran recital specialists.

Representative picture

Rare wolf killed in Bangladesh after first appearance in decades

Dhaka, Bangladesh

The first Indian grey wolf to be seen in Bangladesh in

eight decades has been beaten to death by farmers after prey-ing on their livestock, wildlife experts said Sunday.

The grey wolf was last seen in Bangladesh in 1949, accord-ing to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Locals in a town near the Sundarbans -- the world’s biggest mangrove forest that straddles India and Bangla-desh -- captured and killed the wolf because it had attacked their livestock.

“With the images we con-firmed that the animal is an Indian grey wolf,” Y.V Jhala of the Wildlife Institute of India said.

There are still about 3,000 of the animals in India, some in captivity, but they disappeared from their habitat in north and northwest Bangladesh in the 1940s, he said.

Anwarul Islam, a zoologist at Dhaka University, collected DNA samples from the animal as his team looks for signs of more Indian grey wolves in the region.

The wolf was killed in early June but was only identified when photos of its corpse were sent to experts.

A host of animals -- includ-ing the striped hyena, swamp deer and black buck -- have disappeared from Bangladesh over in recent decades.

A Bangladeshi man measuring the corpse of an Indian grey wolf, the first to be seen in the region in eight decades, at Taltali town near the Sundarbans mangrove forest.

‘Run OJ Run’25 years since the world’s most famous police chase

Los Angeles, United States

It was the car chase that brought a nation screeching to a halt.

On June 17, 1994, a white Ford Bronco containing a fugitive OJ Simpson led a convoy of police cars down southern Califor-nia’s freeways -- and 95 million Americans couldn’t take their eyes off it.

Coverage of massive sport-ing events like the NBA finals and US Open was interrupted with footage of the chase, while Domino’s Pizza reported record delivery orders from viewers unwilling to miss a single mo-ment.

Twenty-five years later that moment captured by hovering TV helicopters and breath-less newsmen, and broadcast around the world, remains an obsession.

But for one viewer, it held a particular fascination.

“We were all huddled around and watching, no one was breathing -- we just stood there in complete awe and fascina-tion,” recalls Kim Goldman, in a new podcast.

“It was weird because there (were) people hoping that he would kill himself ... And my dad and I just didn’t -- we want-ed him to be brought in and held accountable.”

Five days earlier, Goldman’s brother Ron had been stabbed to death alongside Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.

In her 10-part podcast “Con-fronting OJ Simpson,” launched on the anniversa- ry of the

kill-

ings, Goldman sets out why she feels justice has not been served.

Simpson was famously ac-quitted in 1995 by a Los An-geles jury in a case decried by

many as a media circus which became known as the “Trial of the Century.”

The former football star and Hollywood actor’s acquittal was greeted with disbelief by many Americans, with opinion on the black athlete’s guilt divided sharply along racial lines.

Simpson was later found lia-ble for the deaths in a 1997 civil suit and ordered to pay damages to Goldman’s family totaling $33.5 million. The majority re-mains unpaid.

‘Waiting for the collision’Simpson maintains his inno-

cence and has always denied he was trying to flee during the famous Bronco chase, even though he ignored a police deadline to turn himself in.

He told a LAPD detective over the phone during the slow-speed pursuit to “let them all know I wasn’t running,” but rather visiting Nicole’s grave.

A duffel bag containing Simp-son’s passport and cash -- as well as a gun -- found by police in the car led many to question

this, but was never submit-ted as evidence by the prosecution.

For Geoffrey Alpert, a professor at University of South Carolina who studies police chases,

Simpson’s celebrity heightened a

deep-rooted fascination

with the idea of a dan-gerous p u r -suit.

“We’re waiting for the colli-sion. No one wants anyone to die but we certainly like to see some mayhem,” he told AFP, comparing televised chases to wildly popular Nascar races.

“The media has a broader fas-cination with that kind of event in the States than anywhere else,” he added.

“It goes back to the days of horseback riding when some-one would rob a bank and the sheriff would jump on his horse and chase him.”

The car itself, owned by Simp-son’s friend Al Cowlings who was driving during the pursuit, is on display in a Tennessee crime museum.

A Los Angeles tour company reportedly explored the idea of offering rides in the vehicle up and down the same freeways.

To the disappointment of fans who gathered on overpasses along the chase route that day with signs saying “Run OJ Run” and “Go OJ,” Simpson eventual-ly surrendered.

But for Goldman, that has not led to any closure.

Simpson, now 71, was re-leased from jail in 2017 after serving nine years behind bars for an unrelated armed robbery. He lives in Las Vegas, where he is regularly spotted playing golf.

“People routinely every time I get interviewed say, ‘Are you OK now?’” Goldman said.

“And I look at them and say ‘I know you want me to say yes, and I’m never going to say yes.’ Because it’s never going to be true.”

A white Ford Bronco containing a fugitive OJ Simpson led a convoy of police cars down southern California’s freeways

In this file photo taken on December 4, 2008, OJ Simpson speaks in court prior to his sentencing as his attorneys Gabriel Grasso (L) and Yale Galanter listen at the Clark County Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Simpson and co-defendant Clarence “C.J.”

On June 17, 1994, a white Ford Bronco containing a fugitive OJ Simpson led a convoy of police cars down southern California’s freeways -- and 95 million Americans couldn’t take their eyes off it.


Hon. Chairman Najeb Yacob Alhamer | Editor-in-Chief Mahmood AI Mahmood | Chairman & Managing Director P Unnikrishnan | Advertisement: Update Media W.L.L | Tel: 38444692, Email: [email protected] | Newsroom: Tel: 38444680, Email: [email protected] & circulation: Tel: 38444698/17579877 | Email:[email protected] | Website: www.newsofbahrain.com | Printed and published by Al Ayam Publishing

RAGHIDA DERGHAM

There are no signs yet that Iran’s policy of strate-gic recklessness is being

abandoned. In Tehran’s calcu-lations, escalation is preferable to continued US-led economic strangulation, which has dealt a heavy blow to its economy and is threatening the survival of the regime and its regional projects.

All mediation offers, by anyone from Japan to Russia, Germa-ny and Iraq, have been met with rejection by Iran’s hardliners. For his part, President Trump is resisting being lured into a mil-itary confrontation, unless Iran directly attacks US interests.

According to sources quoting high-level officials, such a mili-tary confrontation would force the US president to withdraw from the G20 summit in Osaka on June 28. In that case, all the key issues expected to be raised there by world leaders will have to be postponed. There has been talk about a possible meeting between the US and Iranian presidents at the summit, yet how that would be achieved remains to be seen.

President Recep Tayyip Erdo-gan of G20 member Turkey in-tends to request a meeting with Mr Trump to discuss US threats over Mr Erdogan’s refusal to can-cel the S-400 missile deal with Russia. Informed sources say Mr Erdogan will receive a firm re-sponse from Mr Trump, who will insist that Nato interests override any issue that could represent a threat to the alliance’s security.

Meanwhile, the meeting with Mr Trump that Russia’s Presi-dent Vladimir Putin wants to be an extensive “workshop” with a clear agenda, will likely end up being carried out “over a cup of tea”, as one source put it. Given the wide chasm between the two powers’ positions on many issues, the US is said to be considering further sanctions against Mos-cow.

For his part, Chinese President Xi Jinping finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place, with Mr Trump’s trade war on the one hand and the Chinese party and military establishment, which wants him to remain reso-lute, on the other. In turn, he may have to miss the Osaka summit instead of venturing into an un-predictable confrontation.

What we can expect either way at the summit is further manoeu-vring and attempts to impose new givens, such as the military provocations taking place in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz.

Two weeks ago, I mentioned in this column that the US in-tends to impose new measures against Turkey coupled with an

ultimatum to Mr Erdogan, if he continues to dig in his heels over the S-400 deal, and suggested a possible role for the Turkish mil-itary in reasserting the nation’s Nato membership.

This week, the US Congress unanimously approved a reso-lution demanding that Turkey cancel the deal with the Rus-sians. Washington suspended the training of Turkish pilots in the F-35 programme, while Patrick Shanahan, acting de-fence secretary, told his Turk-ish counterparts the pilots may remain in the US until the end of July, which represents a two-month ultimatum. The Trump administration is considering sanctions against Turkey, which would further batter the coun-try’s economy, while the US mil-itary could signal to its Turkish counterpart that the future of Turkey’s Nato memberships is in the hands of its generals.

In a televised speech, Mr Er-dogan said on Wednesday that he was hoping to convince Washing-ton not to suspend Turkey’s par-ticipation in the F-35 programme. Feigning incredulity, he said he

would seek answers about why Turkey had been pushed out without “legitimate” or “logi-cal” reasons. But this approach will do little to help his cause in Congress, where everyone is de-termined to suppress any threat of Russian infiltration of Nato.

Concerning Iran, accusations against Mr Trump of warmon-gering have receded, after the president made it clear that his endgame is negotiations with Iran and that he was willing to meet with President Hassan Rou-hani. Mr Trump also lent sup-port to the mediation initiative launched by Japan’s Prime Min-ister Shinzo Abe, who made an unprecedented visit to Tehran this week, where he held talks with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In truth, Mr Trump’s strategy has proceeded on two parallel tracks: intensifying sanctions while opening the door to ne-gotiation. But Iran continues to refuse to deal with Mr Trump, until he freezes further sanctions and rolls back existing ones.

Ayatollah Khamenei told Mr Abe that he had no response to

a message from Mr Trump. This snub is a clear indication of the current Iranian policy. Mr Abe also met with President Rou-hani, carrying an invitation to Tehran to “play a constructive role in the Middle East”. Mr Abe said no one wanted war in the region, and hoped his country would be able to play a leading role in de-escalating tensions in the Gulf between the US and Iran. Mr Rouhani said that once the US economic war on Iran stops, “we would see a very positive

development in the region and the world”.

There has talk about a poten-tial meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in September in New York, and about a possible earli-er meeting in Osaka this month. Some sources say these efforts may succeed, especially since the US president seems adamant about avoiding military confron-tation with Iran. Others say the meetings will prove impossible because of recent events and the difficulty of making practical ar-rangements for the meeting at the G20 summit.

Mr Abe would not be able to give Mr Rouhani a front-row seat, as these are usually exclusive to member states. Mr Abe may have considered organising a special session that Mr Rouhani would address in order to facilitate a meeting, but the attack on an oil tanker bound for Japan blamed by the US on Iran has poured cold water on Tokyo’s push to mediate between the US and Iran.

The attack on the Japan-bound oil tanker, which coincided with

Mr Abe’s visit, carries its own implications and political mes-sages. The civilian wing of the Iranian regime, represented by the president and foreign min-ister, denounced accusations of Iranian responsibility made by US secretary of state Mike Pompeo. However, nations such as the US suspect that is the military wing of the regime, represented by the supreme leader and the hardlin-ers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is responsible. It is precisely that wing that is now resisting calls by the US president to negotiate. One reason is that they see the purpose of such talks as being an attempt to contain the project of the regime inside and outside Iran, which poses a threat to its raison d’etre. In this context, a message was issued to Japan, its gist being a rejection of its mediation efforts.

Last month, I described Iran’s decision to adopt “strategic reck-lessness”. The strategy is based on attacking oil interests and oth-er Gulf assets to bring about a US military response.

I put forward the theory that Iran is wagering that Mr Trump would either be forced to aban-don his economic strangulation plan because he is loath to engage in a military confrontation, or be forced to respond militarily and thus rally the Iranian people around the regime. In that case, the next step for the Iranian re-gime would be to claim victory, then engage in secret bilateral negotiations with Washington, focusing on the nuclear issue, while again removing Iran’s re-gional projects from the table.

Unclaimed attacks were made against four ships in the Strait of Hormuz, near Fujairah, three weeks ago, followed by the re-cent attacks in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday. Houthi rebels in Yemen have also attacked a num-ber of Saudi oil installations and airports.

The US secretary of state Mike Pompeo officially accused Iran of responsibility for Thursday’s attacks. However, no threats have been issued against Iran that are comparable to those of a “swift and decisive US response” made by Mr Pompeo in May.

For now, Mr Trump seems to have halted any bid to respond militarily to Iranian provoca-tions, and instead wants to nudge Iran into a deal. Yet, Iran refuses to talk unless its conditions are met.

On the surface, there isn’t enough common ground between the two positions to facilitate a deal, and there are no signs ei-ther side is willing to back down. For this reason, the prospect of military confrontation remains wide open.

THE TRUTH IS YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TOMORROW. LIFE IS A CRAZY RIDE, AND NOTHING IS GUARANTEED. EMINEM

QUOTE OF THE DAY


The summit is set to be held in Osaka later this month, at an increasingly complex time for international relations

On the surface, there isn’t enough common ground

between the two positions to facilitate a deal, and

there are no signs either side is willing to back down. For this reason,

the prospect of military confrontation remains wide

open.



RAGHIDA DERGHAM

There are no signs yet that Iran’s policy of strate-gic recklessness is being

abandoned. In Tehran’s calcu-lations, escalation is preferable to continued US-led economic strangulation, which has dealt a heavy blow to its economy and is threatening the survival of the regime and its regional projects.

All mediation offers, by anyone from Japan to Russia, Germa-ny and Iraq, have been met with rejection by Iran’s hardliners. For his part, President Trump is resisting being lured into a mil-itary confrontation, unless Iran directly attacks US interests.

According to sources quoting high-level officials, such a mili-tary confrontation would force the US president to withdraw from the G20 summit in Osaka on June 28. In that case, all the key issues expected to be raised there by world leaders will have to be postponed. There has been talk about a possible meeting between the US and Iranian presidents at the summit, yet how that would be achieved remains to be seen.

President Recep Tayyip Erdo-gan of G20 member Turkey in-tends to request a meeting with Mr Trump to discuss US threats over Mr Erdogan’s refusal to can-cel the S-400 missile deal with Russia. Informed sources say Mr Erdogan will receive a firm re-sponse from Mr Trump, who will insist that Nato interests override any issue that could represent a threat to the alliance’s security.

Meanwhile, the meeting with Mr Trump that Russia’s Presi-dent Vladimir Putin wants to be an extensive “workshop” with a clear agenda, will likely end up being carried out “over a cup of tea”, as one source put it. Given the wide chasm between the two powers’ positions on many issues, the US is said to be considering further sanctions against Mos-cow.

For his part, Chinese President Xi Jinping finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place, with Mr Trump’s trade war on the one hand and the Chinese party and military establishment, which wants him to remain reso-lute, on the other. In turn, he may have to miss the Osaka summit instead of venturing into an un-predictable confrontation.

What we can expect either way at the summit is further manoeu-vring and attempts to impose new givens, such as the military provocations taking place in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz.

Two weeks ago, I mentioned in this column that the US in-tends to impose new measures against Turkey coupled with an

ultimatum to Mr Erdogan, if he continues to dig in his heels over the S-400 deal, and suggested a possible role for the Turkish mil-itary in reasserting the nation’s Nato membership.

This week, the US Congress unanimously approved a reso-lution demanding that Turkey cancel the deal with the Rus-sians. Washington suspended the training of Turkish pilots in the F-35 programme, while Patrick Shanahan, acting de-fence secretary, told his Turk-ish counterparts the pilots may remain in the US until the end of July, which represents a two-month ultimatum. The Trump administration is considering sanctions against Turkey, which would further batter the coun-try’s economy, while the US mil-itary could signal to its Turkish counterpart that the future of Turkey’s Nato memberships is in the hands of its generals.

In a televised speech, Mr Er-dogan said on Wednesday that he was hoping to convince Washing-ton not to suspend Turkey’s par-ticipation in the F-35 programme. Feigning incredulity, he said he

would seek answers about why Turkey had been pushed out without “legitimate” or “logi-cal” reasons. But this approach will do little to help his cause in Congress, where everyone is de-termined to suppress any threat of Russian infiltration of Nato.

Concerning Iran, accusations against Mr Trump of warmon-gering have receded, after the president made it clear that his endgame is negotiations with Iran and that he was willing to meet with President Hassan Rou-hani. Mr Trump also lent sup-port to the mediation initiative launched by Japan’s Prime Min-ister Shinzo Abe, who made an unprecedented visit to Tehran this week, where he held talks with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In truth, Mr Trump’s strategy has proceeded on two parallel tracks: intensifying sanctions while opening the door to ne-gotiation. But Iran continues to refuse to deal with Mr Trump, until he freezes further sanctions and rolls back existing ones.

Ayatollah Khamenei told Mr Abe that he had no response to

a message from Mr Trump. This snub is a clear indication of the current Iranian policy. Mr Abe also met with President Rou-hani, carrying an invitation to Tehran to “play a constructive role in the Middle East”. Mr Abe said no one wanted war in the region, and hoped his country would be able to play a leading role in de-escalating tensions in the Gulf between the US and Iran. Mr Rouhani said that once the US economic war on Iran stops, “we would see a very positive

development in the region and the world”.

There has talk about a poten-tial meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in September in New York, and about a possible earli-er meeting in Osaka this month. Some sources say these efforts may succeed, especially since the US president seems adamant about avoiding military confron-tation with Iran. Others say the meetings will prove impossible because of recent events and the difficulty of making practical ar-rangements for the meeting at the G20 summit.

Mr Abe would not be able to give Mr Rouhani a front-row seat, as these are usually exclusive to member states. Mr Abe may have considered organising a special session that Mr Rouhani would address in order to facilitate a meeting, but the attack on an oil tanker bound for Japan blamed by the US on Iran has poured cold water on Tokyo’s push to mediate between the US and Iran.

The attack on the Japan-bound oil tanker, which coincided with








THE TRUTH IS YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TOMORROW. LIFE IS A CRAZY RIDE, AND NOTHING IS GUARANTEED. EMINEM

QUOTE OF THE DAY



On the surface, there isn’t enough common ground

between the two positions to facilitate a deal, and

there are no signs either side is willing to back down. For this reason,

the prospect of military confrontation remains wide

open.

C I V I L I A N ’ S T R I B U N E


TOP

4TWEETS

04

02

03

01

Dear citizens and res-idents keep safety

devices and tools at your homes and avoid putting inflammable liquids near fire sources, heat and electricity.

@moi_bahrain

Maduro has grossly mismanaged Vene-

zuela’s resources. In May, while hundreds of thou-sands of Venezuelans went hungry, Maduro gave Russia $209 million for a defense contract to buy their continued sup-port. Venezuelans want true democratic leader-ship, not repression.

@AmbJohnBolton

We, the NDA family look forward to ful-

filling the dreams of 130 crore Indians, who have reposed unparalleled faith in our alliance. We shall fulfil regional aspirations and work untiringly for national progress. Here are glimpses from the NDA meet in New Delhi.

@narendramodi

Re p. G re g Pe n c e, brother of Mike

Pence, reported spending more than $7,600 in cam-paign funds on lodging at the Trump Internation-al Hotel in the first few months after his election, although lawmakers are supposed to pay for their own housing in D.C.

@kylegriffin1

Disclaimer: (Views expressed by columnists are personal and need not necessarily reflect our

editorial stances)








1992A “joint understanding” agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II).

1994Following a televised low-speed highway chase, O. J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

2015Nine people are killed in a mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

2017A series of wildfires in central Portugal kill at least 64 people and injure 204 others.

TODAY DAY IN

HISTORY

JUSTIN THOMAS

As Earth tilts her face to-wards the Sun, tempera-tures rise. Last week the

hottest place on the planet was Mitribah, a province in north-ern Kuwait, where it reached 51.4C. Some parts of the UAE were not too far behind, either. This rise in temperature brings obvious health risks, such as heat exhaustion, sunburn and heatstroke. It can also have sur-prising impacts on our psycho-logical wellbeing.

If, like me, you grew up in a relatively cold, wet climate – the north-west of England, in my case – the idea of summertime sadness sounds crazy. My child-hood drawings typically in-cluded an anthropomorphised Mr Sun, who always sported a beaming grin. Summer was smiles, warmth, long days, ice cream, and trips to the seaside. How could such a season ever be associated with anything other than positivity and emo-tional wellbeing?

It turns out that some people experience recurring depressive episodes that routinely arise during the summer months. The American Psychiatric Associ-ation officially recognised this condition as seasonal affective disorder (SAD) in 1987. In Eu-rope and North America, the most common pattern for SAD is for depression to appear in autumn or winter. There are, however, a small minority of patients whose depressive ep-isodes regularly arrive in the spring or summer. When the disorder follows a summertime pattern, it is typically termed summer SAD.

Summer and winter SAD differ in terms of their typical symptom profiles. Summer SAD is associated with insomnia, ag-itation, reduced appetite and weight loss, while winter SAD is characterised by hypersomnia

(sleeping too much), lethargy, fatigue and weight gain – kind of like a wintertime hibernation.

Summer SAD has received far less research attention than its wintertime counterpart, and we know far less about what might cause it. One idea, however, is related to body clock distur-bance, or to use the technical term, circadian rhythm disrup-tion. It is suspected that the ex-tended hours of daylight and the shorter nights, characteristic of summertime in the northern hemisphere, play havoc with some peoples’ sleeping patterns, leading to insomnia and sum-mertime depressive episodes. Another current idea is that summer SAD is connected to allergies, with some allergens, such as pollen, being more com-mon in the spring and summer.

None of these ideas, though, would explain summer SAD in

the Middle East region. For one, the nation is relatively close to the equator, so daylight length doesn’t vary much between winter and summer – in tech-nical terms, the photoperiod is relatively stable. Similarly, con-cerning the allergies idea, in the

region it is the cooler months when the pollen count tends to be higher.

Another possible explana-tion for summer SAD that does work for countries like Bahrain is that the condition is relat-ed to low levels of vitamin D, brought on by sun avoidance. If we are heat-averse or don’t like too much sunlight on our skin, then we might avoid the sun-shine as much as possible in the hot summer months. Our own research at Zayed University, carried out over a number of years, confirms a link between vitamin D deficiency and de-pression. There also appears to be a pattern that worsens in the summer and improves in the winter.

For one of our studies titled, “Sunshine, Sadness and Season-ality” and published in the In-ternational Journal of Mental

Health Promotion in 2011, we followed 197 Emirati college students over a year, assessing vitamin D levels and depressive symptoms in the winter and the summer. Vitamin D deficiency and depressive symptoms were linked, and both were signifi-cantly worse in the summer.

Sun on the skin is the greatest source of vitamin D, but when the mercury is rising, we might automatically opt for the cool and calm of the great indoors. In the absence of adequate sup-plementation, following this path makes us likely to end up deficient in vitamin D. When we feel depressed, we tend to become withdrawn and inactive and, therefore, even less likely to get outside for the limited spells where it is possible at the height of summer. In these circumstances, it is easy to see how vitamin D deficiency and depression could make each other worse.

In another of our studies, pub-lished in 2017 in the Communi-ty Mental Health Journal, we worked with a group of Emirati college students who had se-vere depressive symptoms and severe vitamin D deficiency. We developed a 12-week behaviour-al intervention, which involved making minor lifestyle changes ensuring they got regular and safe sun exposure. By week 12 of the study, all of the participants had significantly improved, showing both increases in vi-tamin D levels and decreases in depressive symptoms.

The challenge of preventing summer SAD in the UAE might lie in finding a healthy balance between getting safe sun and avoiding the health risks asso-ciated with high temperatures and UV exposure. It’s a difficult balancing act, but definitely manageable. After all, people have lived in this region for thousands of years before the invention of air conditioning.

Is Iran trying to trigger a regional war?

The new attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman and the mis-

sile strikes on the Saudi civil-ian airport in Abha come after a couple of weeks when pundits suggested that both Tehran and Washington were trying to calm tensions, following a dangerous escalation last month, includ-ing a similar pattern of attacks against commercial ships in the Arabian Gulf, which most ex-perts attributed to Iran.

Around the same time, US in-telligence was raising the alert about Iran placing missiles on small boats in Gulf waters; Rou-hani was announcing the partial withdrawal from the nuclear deal; and Qassim Soleimani was

instructing proxies in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon to prepare for war and ready themselves to target Western interests along with a number of other notable provocations.

These hostile Iranian moves at first sight make very little sense; because anyone with any understanding of the global bal-ance of power knows that the re-gime would be utterly destroyed if it provoked the US and its allies into all-out-war. However, some observers suggest that Ayatollah Khamenei has realised that Iran cannot withstand two years of intensified US sanctions, so he feels that the only option is to go on the offensive.

He may be comforted by the

clear signals that Trump him-self obviously doesn’t want a confrontation (even if some of his senior officials perhaps think differently). Thus, Khamenei may be gambling on the pros-pect that in the face of intense Iranian aggression, Trump will back down and offer conces-sions.

The idea of Trump being will-ing to lose face to Iran seems very unlikely. Thus, after a false start last month, there is a real danger that we are seeing the beginning of an escalatory pro-cess towards an actual regional war, which wouldn’t just drag in Israel and America’s Western allies, but could engulf the entire region.

Tehran’s Ayatollahs are essen-tially cowards. They do not want war to come to their doorstep. Therefore, their strategy will be based on seeing the entire Middle East region going up in flames via their proxies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen – and perhaps even Bahrain. It is these non-Iranian allies who are likely to be on the frontline, as well as escalating this pattern of attacks against civilian shipping, with the aim of making oil prices go sky high and threatening the West with economic meltdown.

Iran’s last proper war against Iraq lasted for nearly eight years. It is unlikely that a new conflict would go on for so long, but Iran wants to ensure a scorched earth

policy across the whole region. If the Ayatollahs regime is to go down in flames, they will try to drag us all down to hell with them.

Although we would all like to see an end to the Islamic Re-public, none of us want to get dragged into a regional war. Thus measures should be taken to neutralise Iran’s paramilitary assets across the Gulf and the wider region and protect Gulf waters from agents of this evil empire. GCC nations will need to be proactive in insulating them-selves from Iranian efforts to bring war to the Arabian Pen-insula.

Citizens for Bahrain

Make sure you don’t get summer sad Staying out of the sun completely can leave us deficient in

vitamin D and prone to depressive symptoms

The challenge of preventing summer SAD in the UAE

might lie in finding a healthy balance between

getting safe sun and avoiding the health risks

associated with high temperatures and UV

exposure. It’s a difficult balancing act, but definitely

manageable.



10

business


It brings me immense pleasure to announce

the introduction of our very latest initiative;

our Customer Care WhatsApp service

FATEMA ALALAWI, HEAD OF THE RETAIL BANKING DEPARTMENT OF AL BARAKA

ISLAMIC BANK-BAHRAIN

ASRY signs agency deal with UQP at Europe’s Largest Expo • The accord, effective from 12 June 2019, will assign UQP as the exclusive representatives of ASRY within the Norwegian market

TDT | Manama

ASRY, the Arabian Gulf ’s leading maritime repair and fabrication facility,

signed an agreement with Ulrik Qvale & Partners (UQP) at this

year’s Nor-shipping exhibition in Oslo to strengthen its rep-resentation in the territory.

Magdy Sharkawy, ASRY Ship Repair General Manager, con-firmed the positive impact the deal will have on ASRY’s reputa-tion in Norway. “UQP represents over 25 companies, across differ-ent maritime sectors, and we’re confident this mix will expand our business in the important Norwegian market.”

Oivind Qvale, UQP Managing Director, commented, “Adding ASRY to our portfolio of clients allows us to offer our wide cus-

tomer base of ship owners and managers a leading yard in the Middle East as an option in their repair strategies.”

This year, Nor-shipping has set a new record by filling the entire 22,500 sqm exhibition floor space that the Oslo-based exhibition hall has to offer. With over 30,000 delegates visiting more than 1,000 exhibitors, the show offers ASRY an ideal plat-form to connect with clients from Northern Europe, as well as other global customers that descend upon the Norwegian city every two years.Officials during the deal signing

Asmaa Al Bazzaz wins MyHassad Weekly $25K prizeTDT | Manama

Ahli United Bank (AUB) has named Asmaa Isa Ali Al

Bazzaz as the weekly winners of MyHassad draw with a prize of USD 25K.

Asmaa commented on this occasion by saying: “I was very happy when I was contacted to inform me that I was the lucky winner of the weekly USD 25,000 prize draw, and the entire family was very excited about the winning”.

When asked about her plans for the prize money, she said:

“The prize came at the right time, as I have two daughters at university, and I plan to use the money to support their studies”.Asmaa Isa Ali Al Bazzaz - the winner

Gulf Air resumes Salalah route

TDT | Manama

Gulf Air celebrated its in-augural summer ser-

vice to and from Salalah yesterday.

Gulf Air’s flight GF548 was welcomed into Salalah Inter-national Airport with a cel-ebratory event that saw the attendance of various airport officials.

Gulf Air’s Chief Commer-cial Officer Vincent Coste said:

“We are happy to resume our flights to Salalah as we cater to the summer demand for this sought after destination. Many of our regional passengers pre-fer to spend this season in Sala-lah as it enjoys significantly lower temperature than the rest of the GCC. From now until mid-September, we will be fly-ing 3 weekly flights and I invite our passengers to experience this summer destination and enjoy its nature and pleasant weather”.

During a welcome ceremony

Al Baraka launches all new WhatsApp Customer Care TDT | Manama

Al Baraka Islamic Bank (Al Baraka – Bahrain), h a s a n n o u n c e d t h e

introduction of its all-new Customer Care WhatsApp service.

The service, which is cur-rently live, allows customers access to a digital helpdesk for quick and real-time solutions as well as transactional informa-tion from anywhere across the world. The service is available Saturday to Thursday from 8 am to 6 pm Bahrain time.

Speaking on the occasion, Fatema AlAlawi, Head of the

Retail Banking Department of Al Baraka Islamic Bank-Bahrain, said, “At Al Baraka Islamic Bank, we realized that the next best way to serve our customers is by giving them the opportunity to address their every enquiry on the go.”

“And what better way to do that than through the use of the most preferred messenger app in the world right now, WhatsApp!”

To access the service, save the number 13300400 to phone directory and open the chat from any device in-cluding tablets, laptops and PCs.

Since its inception, MyHassad has offered cash prizes exceeding BD67 million Bahrain

for more than 16 thou-sand winners from its

customers

US Federal Reserve leans toward a cut; don’t expect one this weekWashington, United States

As President Donald Trump’s trade wars drag on, and the

global economy weakens, the US Federal Reserve is inching closer to its first interest rate cut in more than a decade.

But investors hoping to see the benchmark lending rate be-gin to drop this week are almost certain to be disappointed.

After preaching patience and leaving rates untouched since December, financial markets will be watching closely for a

change of tone from the cen-tral bank and its chairman, Je-rome Powell, and a sign the Fed is ready to step in to boost the economy.

Policymakers will hold two days of deliberations starting Tuesday, and for now are ex-

pected to keep the key interest rate in a range of 2.25-2.5 per-cent. The Fed raised rates nine times in the last three years as the economy recovered and put millions of Americans back to work, and officials repeatedly said they expected the growth to continue.

But Trump’s aggressive tariff policies have shaken confidence, and some central bankers have begun to acknowledge a chill in the air.

The consensus is that the Fed is poised to switch directions

and begin cutting rates. The only question is when.

James Bullard, president of the Fed’s St Louis regional branch, was the first to make the move, saying early this month that a rate cut could be needed “soon.” Just days later, Powell himself opened the door to a possible move, saying the Fed would do whatever necessary “to sustain the expansion” -- a noticeable shift in posture.

Then Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida added to the mix the possibility of “insurance cuts” --

preemptively lowering rates just in case the economic outlook starts to deteriorate.

Wall Street welcomed this dovish talk, which drove a re-covery in stocks after the rout in May. Futures markets as of Friday were forecasting as many as three cuts for this year, in July, September and December.

“In the old days, we’d have used the language the Fed has an easing bias,” John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics, said.

“They are predisposed to cut.”

The consensus is that the Fed is poised to

switch directions and begin cutting rates. The only question is when.

China prepared for long trade fight with the USReuters | Shangahi

The United States has un-derestimated the Chi-

nese people’s will to fight a trade war and Beijing is prepared for a long eco-nomic battle, an influential Chinese Communist Party journal said yesterday.

China would not give way on major principles in its negotiations on ending the dispute, the commentary in journal Qiushi, or Seeking Truth, said.

The editorial represent-ed “a further mobilization of Chinese society” in the struggle against US trade pressure, wrote Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of Global Times newspaper.

“China will not be afraid of any threats or pressure the US is making that may escalate economic and trade frictions. China has no choice, nor escape route, and will just have to fight it out till the end,” the com-mentary said.

I am the alternative to Johnson, says Jeremy HuntReuters | London

British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said he

was the alternative to Boris Johnson, the frontrunner in the race to replace PM The-resa May, saying he would strive to win a Brexit deal from the European Union.


From apples to almonds, India hikes tariffs• India is by far the largest buyer of US almonds, paying $543 million for more than half of US almond exports in 2018

• Import duty on walnut has been hiked to 120pc from 30pc

• Duty on chickpeas, Bengal gram (chana) and masur dal will be raised to 70pc

New Delhi

India yesterday imposed higher tariffs on 28 items imported from the US, in re-

taliation to Washington’s recent withdrawal of trade privileges for New Delhi.

The increased duties apply to products including almonds, apples and walnuts, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Cus-toms said.

India would “implement the imposition of retaliatory duties

on 28 specified goods originat-ing in or exported from (the) USA”, it said in a notification.

The list initially included 29 goods but artemia, a kind of shrimp, has been removed from the list.

India is the number two mar-ket of California almonds and Washington apples.

The trade tensions come de-spite efforts from Washington to

boost ties with India as a coun-terweight to China, and asser-tions made by both US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about their good relationship.

The stage for the row was set last year after Washington refused to exempt India from higher steel and aluminium tar-iffs, in keeping with Trump’s decision to act against countries

with which it has a large trade deficit.

India responded by saying it would raise import taxes on a slew of US goods.

But it delayed raising tariffs several times, hoping for nego-tiation to tackle the sticky trade issue.

However Trump’s decision this month to strip New Delhi of its preferential trade status

appears to have prompted the latest Indian move.

While import duty on walnut has been hiked to 120 per cent from 30pc, duty on chickpeas, Bengal gram (chana) and masur dal will be raised to 70pc, from 30pc currently. Levy on lentils will be increased to 40pc.

The duty on boric acid and binders for foundry moulds would be hiked to 7.5pc, while that on domestic reagents will be increased to 10pc.

The other products on which duties will be hiked include certain kind of nuts, iron and steel products, apples, pears, flat rolled products of stainless

steel, other alloy steel, tube and pipe fittings, and screws, bolts and rivets.The trade row is likely to be taken up when Trump and Modi meet at the G20 summit on June 28-29 in Osaka.

It is also likely to figure during talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who is set to visit India later this month.

US goods and services trade with India stood at an estimat-ed $142.1 billion in 2018. The US trade deficit with India was $24.2 billion, according to offi-cial data.

Washington is already en-gaged in a full-blown trade war with India’s regional rival China.

India, which yesterday imposed higher tariffs on 28 items imported from the US, is the number two market of California almonds and Washington apples

G20 set to agree on plastic pollution deal

Tokyo, Japan

The Group of 20 major econ-omies were set to agree a

deal on reducing marine plastic waste at a meeting in Japan Sun-day where they also discussed energy security following the oil tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman.

Japan “proposed a workable framework” on marine plastic waste that involves emerging and less developed countries, and was welcomed by mem-ber countries, environment minister Yoshiaki Harada told reporters late Saturday at the G20 environment and energy ministers’ meeting.

Plastic pollution has become an increasing international concern, particularly after bans imposed by China and other countries on the import of plas-

tic waste from overseas.Many countries, including Ja-

pan, have seen plastic waste pile up in the wake of the ban.

Among the many concerns is the issue of microplastics, the tiny pieces of degraded waste that are difficult to collect once they enter the water.

Microplastics tend to absorb harmful chemicals and accumu-late inside fish, birds and other animals.

The proposal, made at the two-day meeting in the central mountain resort of Karuizawa, would be the first-ever frame-work to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean, and is expected to be included in a joint com-munique by the G20 ministers later Sunday.

Under the expected agree-ment, G20 members would

commit to undertaking efforts to reduce the amount of plastic waste that ends up polluting oceans and to reporting their progress on a regular basis, ac-cording to Japanese media.

If an international frame-work on reducing marine plas-tic waste is agreed, it would be “the first step toward resolving the issue,” Hiroaki Odachi of Greenpeace Japan told AFP.

“But given the critical situ-ation of ocean pollution with plastics, it is urgently needed to set up legally binding action plans with clear timelines and goals,” he added.

With only an estimated nine percent of plastics ever pro-duced recycled, campaigners say the only long-term solution to the plastic waste crisis is for companies to make less and

consumers to use less.Japanese industry minister

Hiroshige Seko, who is co-chair-ing the discussions with Harada, said late Saturday that Japan would aim to require businesses to charge for disposable shop-ping bags by as early as April to help reduce waste.

Many countries in the world already charge for single-use bags or ban them outright.

On energy security, Seko said Tokyo “is watching with grave concerns at the attacks on oil tankers by someone.”

“From a viewpoint of global energy security, it is necessary for the international communi-ty to jointly deal with the act,” Seko told the meeting.

The ministers agreed on the importance of securing stable energy supplies, he said.

A child swims in a pool filled with plastic bottles during an awareness campaign to mark the World Oceans Day in Bangko

Saudi committed to Aramco IPO, says crown prince

• Saudi Arabia plans to sell up to five percent of the world’s largest energy firm

Riyadh

Saudi Arabia remains com-mitted to selling shares in

national oil conglomerate Ar-amco through an initial public offering but only at the right time, Crown Prince Moham-med bin Salman has said.

“We are committed to the IPO of Saudi Aramco based on appropriate conditions and at the right time,” Prince Mo-hammed told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in an interview published yesterday.

He reiterated his earlier expectations that the IPO of Saudi Aramco “will take place in (late) 2020 or the start of 2021,” almost two years later than expected.

Saudi Arabia plans to sell up to five percent of the world’s

largest energy firm and hopes to raise up to $100 billion.

Prince Mohammed said it was still premature to an-nounce where the IPO will be held, adding that many re-quirements for the sale to go through had been successfully completed.

Riyadh has taken a number of key procedures in prepa-ration for the IPO including issuing a law for hydrocarbons tax, appointing a new board for Aramco and allowing an inde-pendent auditing of the king-dom’s oil reserves, the crown prince said.

Aramco has also opened its accounts books for the first time to international ratings agencies, declared the size of its profits and transformed into a public shareholding company, he said.

The IPO -- expected to be the world’s largest stock sale -- forms the cornerstone of a reform programme envisaged by Prince Mohammed to wean the Saudi economy off its reli-ance on oil.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman


This is a virtual act of Treason by a once great paper so

desperate for a story, any story, even if bad

for our Country

DONALD TRUMP

LIC Q1 Premium income jumps

TDT | Manama

LI C I n t e r n a t i o n a l a n -nounced recording a pre-mium income of US$ 117.03

million in the first quarter of 2019 as compared to US$28.53 million in last year 2018.

An amount of US$ 118.91 mil-

lion has been paid out as claims to customers during Q1 as com-pared to US$ 56.47 million paid during the corresponding period of last year.

The total investment income was US$ 22.56 million and the surplus generated during the quarter was USD 15.83 million as compared to US$ 8.02 million

during the corresponding period of last year.

This was announced dur-ing the 106th Board Meeting of the Board of Directors of LIC (International) BSC held on 13th June 2019 at The Diplomatic Radisson Blu, Bahrain.

LIC International is a joint

venture Company of India’s life insurance Company LIC and Bahrain’s prestigious business house ‘Internation-al Agencies Company Ltd. (Intercol).

LIC has been providing life in-surance services to its customers since year 1989.

M.R. Kumar, Chairman, LIC of

India, Abdulrahman Ali Alwaz-zan, Director, Intercol and Sunil Kumar Thakur, CEO & Managing Director were present for the meeting.

A detailed review of New Business Performance, includ-ing the operating performance for the quarter of 2019 was pre-sented in the meeting.

106th board meeting of the LIC (International) BSC (c) was held on Thursday in Bahrain. M.R. Kumar, Chairman of the Board, Abdulrahman Ali Alwazzan, Director, Intercol, Sunil Kumar Thakur, CEO & Managing Director and other Officials from LIC (International) were present

Massive power outage hits Argentina, Uruguay: power companiesBuenos Aires, Argentina

A massive outage blacked out Argentina and Uru-

guay yesterday, leaving both South American countries without electricity, power companies said.

By mid-morning, streets were largely empty in a rainy Buenos Aires although some stores were open, op-erating with generators, while Montevideo, the Uru-guayan capital, was almost entirely without power with only some traffic lights working.

Uruguay’s system went down at 7:06 am (1006 GMT), according to the Uruguayan power compa-ny UTE, which attributed the outage to “a fault in the Argentine network.”

“The causes are being in-vestigated and have not yet been determined,” Argen-tina’s secretariat of energy said on its Twitter account, adding it would take “some hours” to restore.

Times’ Russia report is ‘virtual treason,’ Donald Trump saysWashington

US President Donald Trump on Saturday accused The

New York Times of “a virtual act of treason,” after it report-ed the US is stepping up digital incursions into Russia’s electric power grid.

Current and former govern-ment officials have described the classified deployment of American computer code inside Russia’s power grid and other targets, the Times reported.

The action is intended partly as a warning but also to leave the US poised to conduct cyber-strikes in the event of a major conflict between the US and Rus-sia, the newspaper said.

Trump tweeted that the accu-sations were “NOT TRUE,” calling the media “corrupt” and repeat-ing accusations that journalists are “the enemy of the people.”

“Do you believe that the Fail-ing New York Times just did a story stating that the United States is substantially increas-ing Cyber Attacks on Russia,”

he wrote. “This is a virtual act of Treason by a once great paper so desperate for a story, any story, even if bad for our Country.”

The Times report came after an investigation by US special counsel Robert Mueller of al-

leged hacking by Russia’s GRU intelligence agency and social media manipulation by Russia’s Internet Research Agency to benefit Trump’s election cam-paign.

Mueller detailed a disturb-ing number of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia ahead of the 2016 poll.

Trump claimed the report cleared him of wrongdoing. On the question of obstruction of justice, the report did not con-clude Trump committed a crime, but Mueller wrote that “it also does not exonerate him.”

In its Saturday report, the Times described “broad hesi-tation to go into detail with Mr

Trump about operations against Russia for concern over his reac-tion -- and the possibility that he might countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials.”

The Times also cited Nation-al Security Council officials as saying they had no security con-cerns about the newspaper’s re-porting on the digital incursions, perhaps indicating that some of the intrusions were meant to be noticed by the Russians.

The New York Times, Washing-ton Post and other publications have issued numerous investi-gative reports into Trump and his administration, with probes also under way by Congressional committees.

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger has said President Donald Trump’s attacks on the press are “dangerous”

Regional markets extend losses• Gulf stocks reverse early gains

• Saudi banks mostly down despite SABB-Alawwal merger

• Pioneers Holding soars in Egypt on potential unit sale

Reuters | Dubai

Stock markets in the Gulf extended losses yesterday reflecting a cautious mood

among investors following last week’s oil tanker attacks.

The attacks on the tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday raised fears of a military con-frontation in a vital shipping route for global oil supply and heightened tensions between Iran and the United States, which have been in a standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme.

The Saudi index had dropped 1.6 per cent on Thursday and fell a further 0.6pc on Sunday after slight gains in early trade.

Most Saudi banks were down, despite Sunday’s announcement by Saudi British Bank that its merger with Alawwal Bank was completed.

The two banks have com-bined to create the country’s third largest lender, becoming a single listed company after reg-ulatory approvals. SABB’s shares shed 0.1pc.

Alinma Bank, however, gained 0.4pc, and was one of the stocks registering the highest trading volume on Sunday.

In the UAE, the Dubai and Abu Dhabi indexes fell 0.7pc and 0.2pc, respectively.

The Dubai market had risen earlier in the day, boosted by DAMAC Properties and Union Properties, which closed up 2.2pc and 0.5pc, respectively.

But heavyweight Emaar Prop-erties – the largest developer in the emirate – fell 2.5pc, weigh-ing on the index.

Dubai’s telecom operator Du (Emirates Integrated Telecom-munications Co) shed 0.4pc, re-versing earlier gains, after it said the UAE sovereign wealth fund Emirates Investment Authority had increased its stake by buy-ing 463.3 million shares from Mamoura Diversified Global Holding and General Invest-ments.

In Abu Dhabi, blue chip com-panies Aldar Properties, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company for Dis-tribution were down 1.7pc, 0.1pc and 0.4pc, respectively, dragging down the main index.

The other Gulf markets were all in the red, except for the Bah-rain index, which rose slightly.

In Egypt, the index gained 0.2pc, boosted by a 4.5pc gain by Pioneers Holding Company for Financial Investments.

The company said on Sunday one of its divisions – Arab Dairy Products – had received a letter of intent from a Netherlands based company about a plan to buy it.

Closing Bell SAUDI 0.6pc to 8,887 pts

ABU DHABI 0.2pc to 4,955 pts

DUBAI 0.7pc to 2,614 pts

QATAR 0.3pc to 10,480 pts

EGYPT p 0.2pc to 14,210 pts

BAHRAIN p 0.1pc to 1,450 pts

OMAN 0.1pc at 3,915 pts

KUWAIT 0.6pc to 6,352 pts

Traders on the floor of Bahrain Bourse (file)

Netanyahu’s wife admits misuse of state fundsReuters | Jerusalem

Israeli Prime Minister Benja-min Netanyahu’s wife, Sara,

appeared in court yesterday to admit criminal wrongdoing over the misuse of state funds to order catered meals, in a plea bargain carrying no jail time.

Under the agreement, a fraud charge was reduced to a lesser offense and she will pay the state 45,000 shekels ($12,490) in reimbursement and a 10,000 shekel ($2,775) fine.

According to the original indictment, Sara Netanya-hu, along with a government employee, fraudulently ob-tained from the state more than $100,000 for hundreds of meals supplied by restau-rants, bypassing regulations that prohibit the practice if a cook is employed at home.

Smiling broadly, Netanyahu faced a phalanx of cameras in the courthouse before the session got under way.

At the hearing, a judge rat-ified the plea deal, convicting her of the criminal charge of intentionally exploiting an-other person’s mishandling of

state money for her own ben-efit, after prosecutors dropped the more serious offense of fraud.

“Do you understand what you admitted to?” the judge asked Netanyahu, 60.

“Yes, I do,” she replied.Israel’s YNet website pub-

lished a photograph of what it said was a note from her hus-band, who was not in the court, that was passed to her dur-ing the session. “We will get through this, too. Be strong!!”, it said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, arrives in to the magistrates court

At the movies, John Travolta used to be a valuable commodity—a good actor, versatile, talented

and resourceful. Why he has spent most of his adult career dedicating his life to making rotten movies nobody wants to see is anybody’s guess. It took three directors to get his latest, a dog called The Poison Rose, completed, and not one of them got it right.

Travolta plays Carson Philips, a washed-up Hollywood private eye cov-ering routine cheating wives, missing persons, and other similarly cliched cases from old film noirs about sleuths called Philip Marlowe, Bulldog Drum-mond and Philo Vance. He rarely goes out of town on a case, mainly because he can’t afford the plane fare, but when a client hires him to find her miss-ing aunt in Galveston, Texas, he can’t resist the opportunity to visit his old hometown.

He’s been gone for 20 years, but some people still remember him from the good old days when he was the town’s star quarterback. All of them have a get-even reason to run him out of town. Everyone has a different accent, not one of which sounds authentically Texan.

Making matters doubly implausible, Galveston is played by Savannah, Geor-gia (although a couple of scenes were shot in Rome).

The missing person he’s trying to lo-cate is an old lady whom he believes is held against her will in a sanitarium run by a pulchritudinous replica of what

used to be Brendan Fraser. He plays a crooked doctor who runs a methadone lab and kills off half the town with bad drugs. The other folks Travolta’s char-acter runs into during his search for clues include Morgan Freeman, who owns a bar; Famke Janssen, looking sexy and bored as Jayne Hunt, the old

girlfriend he dumped decades earlier; Robert Patrick as the sheriff; and Ella Bleu Travolta, the star’s daughter, as Jayne’s daughter Becky, who is married to the town’s newest football hero.

When the new quarterback is myste-riously murdered and his wife emerges as the chief suspect, Carson abandons

the case about the missing old lady and turns his attention to the dead athlete, whose wife Becky turns out to be Car-son’s own daughter Jayne never told him about. The plot of this dull, aimless, motion-free whodunit plods on, inter-mittently laced with a line screenwriter Richard Salvatore, adapting his own novel, considers clever. Carson, to his old girlfriend Jayne: “You’re hard as nails.” Jayne: “Nails get rusty.”

Nothing makes much sense here, including the title. There are no poison roses, although The Poison Rose would have been aided immensely by even one poison daffodil.

13 MONDAY, JUNE 17, 2019

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10-VIRUS (PG-13) (MALAYALAM) NEW*-KUNCHACKO BOBAN, ASIF ALI, TOVINO THOMAS

FROM FRIDAY 7TH ONWARDS DAILY AT: 12.15 + 3.15 + 6.15 + 9.15 + 12.15 MN

11-ALADDIN (PG) (ADVENTURE) *- WILL SMITH, NAOMI SCOTT, MENA MASSOUD

DAILY AT: 12.00 + 2.30 + 5.00 + 7.30 + 10.00 + 12.30 MNDAILY AT (KIDS CINEMA): 4.30 + 11.00 PM + 1.30 AM

CITYCENTRE1-JOHN WICK 3 - PARABELLUM (15+) (ACTION/THRILL-ER/CRIME) NEW*-KEANU REEVES, HALLE BERRY, IAN MCSHANE

FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH ONWARDS DAILY AT: 9.00 AM + 11.45 AM + 2.30 + 5.15 + 8.00 + 10.45 + 1.30 AMDAILY AT (VIP I): 10.00 AM + 12.45 + 3.30 + 6.15 + 9.00 +

11.45 PM + 2.30 AM


FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 8.00 AM + 11.00 + 2.00 + 5.00 + 8.00 + 11.00 + 2.00 AM


FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 9.45 AM + 12.30 + 3.15 + 6.00 + 8.45 + 11.30 PM + 2.15 AMDAILY AT (IMAX 3D): 11.45 AM + 5.00 + 10.15 PMDAILY AT (VIP II): 9.15 AM + 12.00 + 2.45 + 5.30 + 8.15 + 11.00 PM + 1.45 AM


FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH ONWARDS DAILY AT: 8.15 AM + 8.45 AM + 10.45 AM + 11.15 AM + 1.15 + 1.45 + 3.45 + 4.15 + 6.15 + 6.45 + 8.45 + 9.15 + 11.15 + 11.45 PM + 1.45 AM + 2.15 AMDAILY AT (IMAX 3D): 9.15 AM + 2.30 + 7.45 + 1.00 AM


FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH AT 8.00 PM ONWARDS DAILY AT: 9.45 AM + 11.45 AM + 1.45 + 3.45 + 5.45 + 7.45 + 9.45 + 11.45 PM + 1.45 AM


FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 9.00 AM + 11.15 + 1.30 + 3.45 + 6.00 + 8.15 + 10.30 PM + 12.45 MN + 3.00 AM

7-SABIE AL BOROMBA (PG-13) (ARABIC/COMEDY) NEW*-RAMEZ GALAL, BAYOUMI FOUAD, JAMEELA AWAD

FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 8.00 AM + 10.00 AM + 12.00 + 2.00 + 4.00 + 6.00 + 8.00 + 10.00 PM + 12.00 MN + 2.00 AM


FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH ONWARDS DAILY AT: 9.00 AM + 11.00 AM + 1.00 + 3.00 + 5.00 + 7.00 + 9.00 + 11.00 PM + 1.00 AM + 3.00 AM

9-RASHID & RAJAB (PG) (ARABIC/COMEDY) NEW*-MARWAN ABDULLAH SALEH, SHADI ALFONS, SHEEMA

FROM EID DAY

DAILY AT: 12.30 + 6.30 + 12.30 MN


DAILY AT: 9.00 AM + 11.30 AM + 2.00 + 4.30 + 7.00 + 9.30 + 12.00 MN + 2.30 AM

11-MA (15+) (THRILLER/HORROR) *-OCTAVIA SPENCER, MISSI PYLE, DIANA SILVERS

DAILY AT: 8.30 AM + 10.30 AM + 2.30 + 4.30 + 8.30 + 10.30 PM + 2.30 AM

12-AVENGERS: ENDGAME (PG-15) (ACTION/ADVEN-TURE) *- BRIE LARSON, ROBERT DOWNEY JR., KAREN GILLAN

DAILY AT: 8.00 AM + 11.30 AM + 3.00 + 6.30 + 10.00 PM + 1.30 AM

SEEF (II)1-JOHN WICK 3 - PARABELLUM (15+) (ACTION/THRILLER/CRIME) NEW*-KEANU REEVES, HALLE BERRY, IAN MCSHANE

FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH ONWARDS DAILY AT: 10.00 AM + 12.45 + 3.30 + 6.15 + 9.00 + 11.45 PM + 2.30 AM


FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH ONWARDS DAILY AT: 11.45 AM + 2.15 + 4.45 + 7.15 + 9.45 + 12.15 MN + 2.45 AM


FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH AT 8.00 PM ONWARDS DAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 1.00 + 3.00 + 5.00 + 7.00 + 9.00 + 11.00 PM + 1.00 AM(ARABIC DUBBED)DAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 1.00 + 3.00 + 5.00 + 7.00 + 9.00 + 11.00 PM + 1.00 AM


FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 12.45 + 3.00 + 5.15 + 7.30 + 9.45 PM + 12.00 MN + 2.15 AM

5-SABIE AL BOROMBA (PG-13) (ARABIC/COMEDY) NEW*-RAMEZ GALAL, BAYOUMI FOUAD, JAMEELA AWAD

FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 1.00 + 3.00 + 5.00 + 7.00 + 9.00 + 11.00 PM + 1.00 AM + 3.00 AM


FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH ONWARDS DAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 12.45 + 2.45 + 4.45 + 6.45 + 8.45 + 10.45 PM + 12.45 MN + 2.45 AM

7-RASHID & RAJAB (PG) (ARABIC/COMEDY) NEW*-MARWAN ABDULLAH SALEH, SHADI ALFONS, SHEEMA

FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 12.30 + 4.30 + 8.30 PM + 12.30 MN

8-BLOOD BOUND (15+) (HORROR/THRILLER) NEW*-TIMOTHY HUGHES, EDEN BROLIN, ROSA ARREDONDO

FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 2.30 + 6.30 + 10.30 PM + 2.30 AM


DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.30 + 6.00 + 8.30 + 11.00 PM + 1.30 AM

SEEF (I)1-BHARAT (PG-13) (HINDI/DRAMA) NEW*-SALMAN KHAN, KATRINA KAIF, DISHA PATANI

FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 10.00 AM + 11.00 AM + 1.00 + 2.00 + 4.00 + 5.00 + 7.00 + 8.00 + 10.00 + 11.00 PM + 1.00 AM + 2.00 AM


FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 11.45 AM + 2.30 + 5.15 + 8.00 + 10.45 PM + 1.30 AM

3-CHHALAWA (PG-15) (URDU/COMEDY/ROMANTIC/DRAMA) NEW*-MEHWISH HAYAT, AZFAR REHMAN, ZARA NOOR ABBAS

FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 4.15 + 9.00 PM + 1.45 AM

4-WRONG NO.2 (PG-13) (URDU/COMEDY/ROMANTIC/DRAMA) NEW*-SAMI KHAN, NEELAM MUNEER, MEHMOOD ASLAM

FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 1.45 + 6.30 + 11.15 PM


FROM FRIDAY 7TH ONWARDS DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 1.30 + 4.30 + 7.30 + 10.30 PM + 1.30 PM

SAAR1-JOHN WICK 3 - PARABELLUM (15+) (ACTION/THRILL-ER/CRIME) NEW*-KEANU REEVES, HALLE BERRY, IAN MCSHANE

FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH ONWARDS DAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 2.15 + 7.30 + 10.15 PM + 1.00 AM


FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 12.30 + 3.30 + 6.30 + 9.30 PM + 12.30 MN


FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 11.15 AM + 2.00 + 4.45 + 10.00 PM + 12.45 MN


FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH ONWARDS

DAILY AT: 6.30 + 8.45 + 11.00 PM + 1.15 AM


FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH AT 8.00 PM ONWARDS DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 12.30 + 2.30 + 4.30 PM


DAILY AT: 10.00 AM + 5.00 + 7.30 PM

AL HAMRA1-BHARAT (PG-13) (HINDI/DRAMA) NEW*-SALMAN KHAN, KATRINA KAIF, DISHA PATANI

FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 9.00 AM + 12.00 MN


FROM FRIDAY 7TH ONWARDS DAILY AT: 12.00 + 9.00 PM + 3.00 AM

3-CHILDREN’S PARK (PG-13) (MALAYALAM) NEW*-DHRUVAN, VISHNU UNNIKRISHNAN, SHARAFUDHEEN

FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH ONWARDS DAILY AT: 3.00 PM

4-KOLAIGARAN (PG-15) (TAMIL) NEW*-VIJAY ANTONY, ASHIMA NARWAL, ARJUN SARJA

FROM THURSDAY 6TH AT 3.00 PM ONWARDS DAILY AT: 6.00 PM

WADI AL SAIL1-JOHN WICK 3 - PARABELLUM (15+) (ACTION/THRILL-ER/CRIME) NEW*-KEANU REEVES, HALLE BERRY, IAN MCSHANE

FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH ONWARDS DAILY AT: 11.15 AM + 2.00 + 4.45 + 7.30 + 10.15 + 1.00 AM






FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH ONWARDS DAILY AT: 11.45 AM + 2.00 + 4.15 + 6.30 + 8.45 + 11.00 + 1.15 AM


FROM WEDNESDAY 5TH AT 8.00 PM ONWARDS DAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 12.45 + 2.45 + 4.45 PM


FROM EID DAY DAILY AT: 6.45 + 9.00 + 11.15 + 1.30 AM


DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.30 + 6.00 + 8.30 + 11.00 + 1.30 AM

M O V I E R E V I E W

A scene from ‘The Poison Rose’

The Poison Rose: Travolta’s noir can’t transcend cliches

John Travolta tries out a Texas twang in this predictable noir

from director George Gallo

KNOW WHAT

14 MONDAY, JUNE 17, 2019

The Embassy of India, Bahrain invites reputed law firms for their “Expression of Interest” for rendering legal assistance to Embassy of India, Bahrain on contractual basis.For details, please check the Tenders page of the Embassy’s website at http://eoi.gov.in/bahrain or send email to [email protected]

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

Geri Horner apologises for quitting Spice GirlsLos Angeles

Spice Girls singer Geri Horner has apologised

to her bandmates and fans for leaving the group abruptly in 1998.

Ac c o rd i n g t o B B C, Horner said she “was be-ing a brat” when s h e q u i t t h e band.

“I need t o s a y s o m e -t h i n g I should have said a long time ago. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I left... It is so good to be back with the girls that I love, “ she told fans and her bandmates at Wembley Stadium where the group played the last gig of their reunion tour.

Horner, aka Ginger Spice, left the band at the peak of their fame 21 years ago.

Daniel Craig preps for ‘Bond 25’

following injuryLos Angeles

Daniel Craig is back in the gym after sustaining an injury on the sets of the

‘Bond 25’ film.The James Bond star, who

underwent minor surgery fol-lowing an ankle injury while filming the movie last month, is already prepping for the shoot next week.

On Saturday, the official James Bond Twitter account shared a monochrome pho-tograph which showed Craig working out with a cast on his leg.

“#007 Daniel Craig hit-ting the gym hard @pine-woodstudios, prepping for shooting next week! #Bond25 Photo cred-it: @GregWInsight,” the tweet read.

I t w a s a n -nounced in May that the actor, who is return-ing as the icon-ic British spy for fifth and final time, would be undergoing minor ankle surgery after he fell while sprinting on

the film’s sets in Jamaica and was flown to the US for X-rays.

The film has had a tough jour-ney.

Earlier this month, a crew member was injured after a “controlled explosion” on the

sets of ‘Bond 25’ damaged the

film’s stage at Britain’s iconic Pine-wood Stu-dios.

Simon West to direct Chinese tomb-raid film ‘Legend Hunters’Los Angeles

“La ra C ro f t : To m b Raider” helmer Si-

mon West is set to co-direct Chinese tomb-rading film “Legend Hunters”.

“The Legend Hunters” is the next instalment in the “Mojin” universe based on the popular fantasy novel series “Ghost Blows Out the Light”.

A c c o r d i n g to Variety, screenwrit-er Li Yifan is co- di-r e c t i n g t h e f i l m along side West.

The film, produced by Zhang Wang, will hit the theatres next July.

Starring actors Zhang Ha-nyu, Jiang Wu and Celina Jade, is currently shooting at the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis.

The shoot is expected to wrap in Russia in mid-Au-gust.

The project is backed by Wanda Pictures and Bei-jing-based Saints Entertain-ment.

Ashley Tisdale and Vanessa

Hudgens serve as bridesmaids at Kim Hidalgo’s

weddingLos Angeles

American actresses Ashley Tis-dale and Vanessa Hudgens served as bridesmaids for

the ‘Pretty Little Liars’ star Brant Daugherty and actress Kim Hidal-

go’s wedding in Northern California.Ashley posted a Boomerang vid-

eo right before the ceremony com-menced along with Vanessa and other

bridesmaids. All the six girls wore almost match-

ing vintage-style, beaded lavender gowns.“We’re ready for

you @kimhidalgo!!” the actress and singer

wrote alongside the video she posted.

Earlier she also posted a beautiful snap of the

bride, expressing her excitement of being her “fairy friend’s”

bridesmaid.

Jessica J opens up about her relationship with Channing Tatum

Los Angeles

American singer-songwriter Jessica J opened up about her bond with boyfriend Channing Tatum and joked about getting him to open her forthcoming tour.

“Oh, I am very happy on 21 Jump Street! I always look for a guy with a good sense of humor and good morals. And hygiene. A man who showers is very important,” Us Weekly quot-ed Jessica from an interview with The Times.

The ‘Bang Bang ’ singer also joked about renaming h e r u p c o m i n g tour and having Channing do a “strip-per” act to open the tour for her.

“ I ’ m t h i n k i n g about calling my next tour ‘Mag-ic Mike and I’ and having Chan open for me as a stripper. He’d do it too! That would sell some tickets, eh?,” she said

The singer also accepted the fact that the two got papped even before they got into a re-lationship.

Kim, Kourtney Kardashian celebrate daughters’ birthdays with candy theme

Los Angeles

Sisters Kim and Kourt-ney Kardashian hosted a joint birthday party for

their daughters North West and Penelope Disick on Sat-urday.

According to US Weekly, the theme for the celebra-tions was a candy land where everything including the de-cor, the cake, and the dress code was in accordance.

The 38-year-old beauty mo-gul shared a series of pictures from the birthday celebra-tions which will tempt you to pop a candy. She even posted videos that showed how her backyard was transformed into a real-life version of the Hasbro board game, complete with a colorful, winding track, gingerbread houses and tons of sugary treats.

“Candy Land is the theme of

today for North’s party,” said the KUWK star as she strolled past huge gumballs. She also posted a video of huge layers of cake and frosted cupcakes with the words “Happy B-Day Penelope and North.”

Kourtney shared a video of her daughter who turned 7 re-cently where the birthday girl can be seen eyeing the mul-ti-colour layered cake filled with sprinkles and candy.

Last year, the theme for the celebrations was a unicorn, while previous years fea-tured a Moana party and a mermaid-themed celebration.

Extending her sweet wishes for her daughter, Kim earlier wrote on Instagram, “Happy Birthday my sweet girl! The last 6 years have been the best of my life raising you and seeing you grow up. Mom-my loves you forever and be-yond!”

Meghan Markle, Prince Harry share first picture of newborn on Father’s DayLondon

This Father’s Day was very special for the

Duke of Sussex Prince Harry as he celebrated it with his newborn Prince Archie Harrison-Mount-batten Wind- sor.

T h e Duke and D u c h e s s of Sussex off ic ia l ly shared the first picture of their little bundle of joy on Sunday which is the cutest thing on the Inter-net today.

In the picture, the little one can be seen in Prince Harry’s arms wide awake, grabbing on to his father’s finger.

Emma Stone meets her music idol Emily Bunton

Los Angeles

Ac t o r E m m a Stone met one of her music idols,

Spice Girls’ Emily Bun-ton, in person on Satur-day.

Bunton posted a pic-ture with Stone on In-stagram with a caption

that read, “When Emma met Emma. #2become1.” She posted the picture before her next stop at the Wembley Stadium for the Spice Girls Reunion tour, which was announced last year, Enter-tainment Weekly reported.

Bunton rose to prominence with the pop girls group, Spice Girls, and was nicknamed “Baby Spice” in the early 1990s.

Geri Horner

Meghan Markle and

Prince Harry

Simon West

Channing Tatum

Kim Hidalgo

Ed Harris to star in Broadway’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’Los Angeles

Four-time Oscar nomi-nee Ed Harris is set to

play lawyer Atticus Finch in Broadway’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” after the departure of Jeff Daniels.

Daniels left the show in November 2018, at the end of his year-long run in Aaron Sorkin’s me-ga-selling stage adapta-tion.

According to The Hol-lywood Reporter, pro-ducer Scott Rudin con-firmed Harris’ casting following a report in The New York Times.

Kim and Kourtney Kardashian

Daniel Craig

15

sports


Colombia stun Argentina • Colombia’s late blitz sees off dominant Argentina at Copa America

• Substitutes Roger Martinez and Duvan Zapata see off rivals

AFP | Salvador, Brazil

Roger Martinez and Du-van Zapata put a dent in Lionel Messi’s hopes of

finally landing a major interna-tional title as Colombia began their Copa America campaign with a 2-0 win over Argentina on Saturday.

Martinez struck a stunning opener on 72 minutes and fel-low substitute Zapata sealed the win three minutes from the end after Argentina had dominated the second half of this Group B encounter in Salvador.

It had been 20 years since Co-lombia last beat Argentina at the Copa America.

“We knew it had been many years, I’m delighted but the Copa isn’t finished,” said Zapata. “We’re going to enjoy this win.”

This was supposed to be World Cup quarter-finalists Colombia’s hardest group test with matches against Paraguay and Asian champions Qatar to come.

Argentina haven’t won a ma-jor tournament in 26 years and were beaten finalists in the last two editions of the South Amer-ican showpiece, as well as the 2014 World Cup.

“The players know there is a long way to go and we have two

matches left,” said Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni.

“The important thing is to stay on the right path and correct our mistakes.”

On paper at least, this prom-ised a thrilling attacking spec-tacle between two star-studded forward lines.

For Argentina, five-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi was joined by Sergio Aguero and An-gel Di Maria, while Colombia could count on James Rodri-guez, Radamel Falcao and Juan Cuadrado.

But it was two players who began the game on the bench that took the chance to steal the headlines.

“The most important thing is that we all put in a huge effort, it’s a great day for everyone,”

said James.It was a fast and furious open-

ing that proved too helter skelter to produce any genuine chances.

Colombia were the first to threaten on 16 minutes when Falcao laid off a Cuadrado cross for Martinez, whose shot was deflected behind.

Argentina gifted Colombia an opening with time running down in the first period as goalkeeper Franco Armani and center-back Nicolas Otamendi played themselves into trouble deep inside the area.

Falcao robbed Otamendi and tried to tee up James but Guido Rodriguez got back to nick the ball off the talented playmaker’s toes.

Moments later, Martinez wriggled free down the right and picked out Falcao but his shot was blocked.

Colombia had been much the better side, dominating posses-

sion and chances, with a sub-dued Messi, as so often for his country, a peripheral figure in a goalless first half.

Decisive substitutes “I think we were a bit nervous

in the first half because it was the first match of the tourna-ment,” admitted Messi.

Argentina created their best chance so far in the opening minute of the second period as Leandro Paredes let fly from 30 yards, sending the ball whistling past the post with goalkeeper David Ospina scrambling to his right.

Messi briefly came to life, nutmegging Davinson Sanchez to burst into the area, but the tireless Wilmar Barrios got back to crowd out the Barcelona su-perstar.

Argentina had their tails up and Paredes thrashed in a shot from an angle that Ospina did well to punch clear.

What had been a petulant af-fair threatened to boil over when Cuadrado was booked for a foul on Messi that sparked a brief melee of pushing and shoving.

Colombia were in danger of losing their heads and Cuadrado was quickly withdrawn by Por-tuguese coach Carlos Queiroz.

Argentina were by now well on top and Ospina made a smart low save to deny Otamendi’s header, before Messi headed the rebound wide.

But against the run of play, Colombia struck a hammer blow to Argentina and Messi’s Copa hopes.

James spread a delightful crossfield ball out to Martinez, who cut in from the left wing and thumped a stunning right footed shot into the far corner.

Colombia substitute Duvan Zapata, second left, scores against Argentina goalkeeper Franco Armani

KNOW WHAT

Argentina haven’t won a major tournament in 26 years and were

beaten finalists in the last two editions of

Copa America, as well as the 2014 World Cup

Al Nusuf vows to back athletesTDT | Manama

Bahrain Olympic Commit-tee (BOC) secretary general

Mohammed Al Nusuf has ex-tended his support to Bahrain’s prominent athletes and help them promote their success sto-ries to inspire young athletes to similar successes.

This statement was an-nounced at Al Nusuf meeting with a group of Bahrain’s hero athletes at the committee prem-ises in Seef. They were former Arab short-distance athletics champion Ruqaya Al Ghasra,

football skipper Mohammed Salmeen, handball ace Saeed Johar, basketball veteran Nooh Najaf and bodybuilding ace Sami Al Haddad.

Al Nusuf commended the efforts and hard work of the athletes, and their dedica-tion to raise the Bahrain flag high at various regional, con-tinental and international competitions.

He also reviewed ways to car-ry out the directives of Supreme Council for Youth and Sports (SCYS) First Deputy Chairman

and BOC President HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa to enable these hero athletes become an inspiration mod-el for the next generation of Bahraini athletes in different sports.

On their part, the visiting ath-letes presented their own pro-posals and suggestions to im-plement the initiative of Shaikh Khalid, as well as their efforts in this regard to promote their re-spective stories of success with the support of overseas brokers to run their campaign.

BOC congratulates MMA team TDT | Manama

Bahrain Olympic Commit-tee (BOC) secretary general

Mohammed Al Nusuf has con-gratulated the Bahrain mixed martial arts team on topping the IMMAF-WMMAA world rankings recently.

Al Nusuf also congratulat-ed Supreme Council for Youth and Sports (SCYS) First Deputy Chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) President HH

Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who is also honorary president of Bahrain Mixed Martial Arts Federation, on the resounding achievement.

He stressed that this result would not have been possible without the support of HH Shai-kh Khalid and his commitment to this sport, which brought Bahrain to the top of the world and created several heroes, who raised the nation’s flag high.

Al Nusuf added that mixed martial arts in Bahrain has been rapidly developing and evolving, thanks to the sharp vision of HH Shaikh Khalid, and wished them progress.

It’s worth noting that Bahrain surpassed Kazakhstan, Sweden, Russia, and New Zealand with positive results in the Asian and African Open tournaments, which saw them top the mixed martial arts world ranking.

Shaikh Khalid expresses delight Bahrain tops MMA ranking

TDT | Manama

HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa,

First Deputy President of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Presi-dent of Bahrain Olympics Committee and Honourary President of Bahrain MMA Federation expressed his utmost delight after seeing Bahrain topping the latest MMA ranking issued by IM-MAF - WMMAA.

This came thanks to Bah-rain’s national MMA team’s victory in the IMMAF Af-rica Open Championships which took place in May and finishing as runners up in the IMMAF-WMMAA Asian Open Championships in Thailand.

HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Repre-sentative of HM the King for Charity and Youth Af-fairs and President of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports also hailed the achievement

Fuglsang wins Dauphine in Tour de France boost

AFP | Champery, Switzerland

Denmark’s Jakob Fuglsang won the eight-day Crite-

rium du Dauphine yesterday, the Astana rider underlining his status as one of the favour-ites for next month’s Tour de France.

Ineos rider Dylan van Baarle of the Netherlands won eighth stage on a day in which Brit-ain’s Adam Yates pulled out sick with less then 50km to go while in second place overall.

The 34-year-old Fuglsang has been in hot form this sea-son, winning the Liege-Bas-togne-Liege ‘monument’ (one of the four toughest one day races on the calendar) and

getting on the podium in two classics. Fuglsang also won this race in 2017 after overtaking Australia’s Richie Porte on the final day.

He took the overall lead on Saturday on a hilly run con-tested in a deluge that caused a host of overnight pull outs.

British Tour de France hopeful Adam Yates pulled out sick late during yesterday’s stage when still in with a great chance of victory.

Trailing by a mere eight sec-onds and with less than 50km to go on the eight-day event, seen as a key form gauge for the Tour de France, Yates was keeping pace with his chief rivals when he pulled out.

Jakob Fuglsang (C) celebrates his overall leader’s yellow jersey past second-placed Tejay Van Garderen (L) and third-placed Emanuel Buchmann

Spain’s Marquez storms to Catalan MotoGP victory

AFP | Montmeló, Spain

Spain’s Marc Marquez, on a Honda, stretched

his lead atop the standings after streaking to victory in yesterday’s Catalan MotoGP.

It was five-time world champion Marquez’s first victory on his home region Montmelo track since 2014 and came hot on the heels of that of his younger brother Alex in the Moto2 class ear-lier in the day.

“All the team did a very good job and I congratulate them for that,” said Marc Marquez. “It was a great race.”

French Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo, just 11 days after undergoing sur-gery on his arm, started from pole in the seventh MotoGP of the season and eventually came in second, 2.66sec off Marquez.

Marquez, on 140 points, benefitted from a fall by Ital-ian rival Andrea Dovizioso to consolidate his lead in the world championship rank-ings and is now 37pts clear.

Dovizioso was brought down along with Yamaha pair Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales by Honda rider Jorge Lorenzo.

Marc Marquez rides during Catalunya MotoGP race

• Rohit Sharma’s century was the centrepiece of India’s 336/5 at Old Trafford

AFP | Manchester

Rohit Sharma scored his second hundred in three innings as India main-

tained their unbeaten record against Pakistan at the World Cup with an 89-run win under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method on Sunday.

Sharma’s 140 was the centre-piece of a total of 336-5 that also featured captain Virat Kohli’s 77.

Victory in this rain-curtailed clash saw India, who have now won all seven of their World Cup matches against Pakistan, re-main unbeaten after four pool games at this year’s edition.

Pakistan, whose only 2019

pool win so far was a shock de-feat of hosts England, were nev-er truly up with the rate in the showpiece match of the 10-team round-robin stage.

They still had hope at 117 for one even though the most made by any side batting second to win a World Cup match is Ireland’s 329 for seven against England at

Bangalore in 2011.But Kuldeep Yadav then

struck twice to spark a collapse that saw Pakistan lose four wick-ets for 12 runs in 18 balls as they slumped to 129 for five in 27 overs -- long past the 20-over cut-off point needed for a result under D/L.

A third rain stoppage came

with Pakistan 166-6 off 35 overs.The match then descended

into something of a farce when play resumed under leaden skies, with Pakistan requiring an outlandish 136 more runs in five overs to reach a revised victory total of 302 in 40 overs.

That target which, eventually became 94 off the last six balls, unsurprisingly proved beyond them as Pa-kistan finished on 212-6, dealing a major blow to their semi-final hopes as India took the bragging rights yet again.

Worryingly for India, paceman Bhuvneshwar Kumar limped off in the fifth over of Pakistan’s chase with a hamstring injury that sidelined him from the rest of the match.

But Vijay Shankar, completing the over, struck first ball when he had opener Imam-ul-Haq lbw for seven.

Fakhar Zaman (62) and Babar Azam (48) repaired the damage with a century stand, before they both fell to left-arm wrist-spinner Yadav as they tried to up the tempo.

Babar was bowled be-tween bat by a superb deliv-ery before Zaman miscued a sweep to short fine leg.

All-rounder Hardik Pandya then took two wickets in two balls.

M o h a m m a d Hafeez was c a u g h t a t deep square leg before

S h o a i b Malik played on for his second successive duck -- a wicket greet-ed with huge roars by the massed ranks of India fans in a ca-pacity crowd, with an estimated one billion watching on television.

Earlier, Kohli became the quickest player to 11,000 one-day international runs, getting there in 222nd innings com-pared to compatriot Sachin Tendulkar’s previous record of 276 innings.

Team Played Won Lost Tied No result Run rate PointsAustralia 5 4 1 0 0 0.812 8New Zealand 4 3 0 0 1 2.163 7India 4 3 0 0 1 1.029 7England 4 3 1 0 0 1.557 6Sri Lanka 5 1 2 0 2 -1.778 4West Indies 4 1 2 0 1 0.666 3S Africa 5 1 3 0 1 -0.208 3Bangladesh 4 1 2 0 1 -0.714 3Pakistan 5 1 3 0 1 -1.933 3Afghanistan 4 0 4 0 0 -1.638 0

Cricket World Cup 2019 standings


West Indies vs Bangladesh

» West Indies stormed to victory in their opening game but defeat to hosts Eng-land mean they have lost both completed matches since.

» Bangladesh also won their opening game but have failed to win since, losing most recently to England - though their last game was a washout against Sri Lanka.

» Bangladesh won all three matches they played against West Indies in their pre-tournament warm-up, the Ireland Tri-Nation Series.

West IndiesWest Indies opened the World Cup 2019 in fine style, bowling Pakistan out for 105 to win the opening game by seven wickets.They have not managed to back that up yet, however. Their bowlers impressed again as they bowled Australia out for 288 – though it could have been even better. They were made to rue the late Australian runs too, as West Indies could only post 273/9.

BangladeshBangladesh announced themselves on this tournament by winning their first game against South Africa, posting 330/6 on their way to way to a 21-run win. Their second game, against New Zealand, saw them bowled out for 244 and lose by two wickets, however.Hosts England were next up and, after being asked to chase 387 to win, the Ti-gers only managed 280 all out. Their most recent game, against Sri Lanka, was aban-doned without a ball being bowled.

Chris Gayle, Shai Hope (wk), Darren Bra-vo, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Jason Holder (c), Carlos Brathwaite, Fabian Allen, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas

Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Moham-mad Mithun, Mahmudullah, Mossadek Hossain, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mashrafe Mortaza (c), Mustafizur Rahman

A fine start to the day is expected, with early sunshine, followed by partly cloudy intervals thereafter. With the sun expected to stay

out for the most part, and the boundaries at Tauton featuring short dimensions, a high-scoring game could be on the cards.

Probable XI

Probable XI

PITCH REPORT

The Cooper Associates County Ground – Taunton 12:30pm

Today’s match

IndiaK. Rahul c Babar b Riaz 57R. Sharma c Riaz b Hasan 140V. Kohli c Sarfaraz b Amir 77H. Pandya c Babar b Amir 26MS Dhoni c Sarfaraz b Amir 1V. Shankar not out 15K. Jadhav not out 9Extras (b1, lb1, w9) 11Total (five wickets, 50 overs) 336

PakistanImam-ul-Haq lbw b Shankar 7Fakhar Zaman c Chahal b Yadav 62Babar Azam b Yadav 48Mohammad Hafeez c Shankar b Pandya 9Sarfaraz Ahmed b Shankar 12Shoaib Malik b Pandya 0Imad Wasim not out 46Shadab Khan not out 20Extras (lb1, nb1, w6) 8Total (six wickets, 40 overs) 212

Australia are content and relishing extra rest dayReuters | London

Australia are happy to be sitting atop the World Cup standings and are

relishing the prospect of an extra day off, captain Aaron Finch said after their convincing win over Sri Lanka on Sat-urday.

Finch’s superb innings of 153 in-spired the defending champions to an 87-run victory at The Oval and they have won four of their first five games as they bid to lift the trophy for the sixth time.

Australia have beaten Afghanistan, West Indies, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, with defeat by India the only blot on their record as thoughts turn to the next match against Bangladesh in Notting-ham on Thursday.

“I think we would have taken it, no doubt at the start of the tournament,” Finch said.

“You want to win every game but it’s unrealistic at times to think that you’re

just going to walk in and win every game in a tournament in conditions like this,” he added.

“We’re happy where we’re sitting but definitely time to sit back and assess where we can improve and what we can do over the next couple of weeks to give ourselves the best chance to be standing on the Lord’s balcony on the 14th of July.”

Finch said his players would relish an extra day’s rest after a hectic start to the tournament.

“When you’re playing really good cricket, it’s nice to be playing all the time and it feels like the back-to-back games are really good because you just get on a roll. You get into playing mode,” Finch told a news conference.

“But I think the boys do need that ex-tra day. It will do a world of good in the next few days, just to mentally refresh as much as anything, because it’s been a lot of time on a bus and a lot of time in a cricket changing-room.”

India and Pakistan fans show their support

India’s Kuldeep Yadav (L) celebrates with India’s captain Virat Kohli after the dismissal of Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman

Australia’s Aaron Finch celebrates his century

140runs were scored by Rohit

Sharma off 113 balls

Starc keen to pitch up at every World Cup gameReuters | London

Preserving the fitness of Mitchell Starc has been

a national obsession since he bowled Australia to the World Cup title in 2015, but the left-arm paceman has no intention of putting his feet up in England.

Having not played a one-day match since November, Starc has returned from a pectoral muscle injury to the same devastating form that earned him the Player of the Tournament award in 2015 and now sees him leading the wickets in England with 13 scalps.

With Australia top of the standings after their 87-run victory over Sri Lanka on Saturday, selectors may be inclined to ease Starc’s work-load and play it safe with a bowler who has a long record of stress injuries.

But the pace spearhead said it would be wrong to break up

a winning combination.“If I’m fit , I ’d like to

(play every game),” said the 29-year-old. “Ultimately it’s not up to me, but it’s a World Cup.

“I think you’ve got to play your best XI, depending on conditions and the team we play.

India’s Rohit Sharma celebrates after scoring a century

India outclass rivals PakistanRohit Sharma’s majestic ton helps India extend winning streak against hapless Pakistan

Shakib Al HasanNicholas Pooran

@bahrainnbr stars of the nation...2019/06/17 · preet singh kashmir. he was employed as a...

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