Volume 23 | Number 7811 | 2 RiyalsSaturday 23 February 2019 | 18 Jumada II 1440 www.thepeninsula.qa

BUSINESS | 14 SPORT | 16

Al Attiyah off to a flying start on opening day

Brent hits new 2019 high on

US-China trade talk hopes

The Aquatic Research Center stretches over 101,000 sqm in Ras Matbakh comprising of a marine fish hatchery, a marine shrimp hatchery, scientific laboratories and administrative buildings.

Aquatic Research Center at Ras Matbakh soonSANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment, represented by the Fish Wealth Department, is preparing to open Aquatic Research Center at Ras Matbakh soon.

The planned research center annexed with hatcheries and laboratories is expected to begin providing fish seeds to private fish farming projects. The center will start delivering services to farms within next six months.

“The Aquatic Research Center will open very soon as now we are making preparations for its inauguration,” Mohammed Mahmoud Al Abdullah, Director of Aquatic Research Center told The Peninsula.

He said that the center has partnered with local and inten-tional companies to operate fish production part of the project.

Al Abdullah said that the fish seeds will be provided to private fish farming projects in a bid to

support the private sector. “The fish seeds will also be released to the sea for stock enhancement of fish,” said Al Abdullah. He said that stock assessment of fish in sea is part of the research work of the Center. “If any shortage in the stock of any types of fish is found in the assessment, we will produce that specific types of fish seeds and release them into the sea,” he added.

He said that the strategic reserve of fish in Qatari sea is safe. The fish production of Qatar by fishing boat is about 15,000 tonnes annually,” said Al Abdullah. �P2

Amir visits 16th Doha Jewellery and Watches ExhibitionQNA/DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday visited the 16th Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition, currently taking place in the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center.

During the visit, H H the Amir toured the exhibition’s pavilions to view the latest designs of Qatari and international companies for jewellery, watches, and precious stones.

H H the Amir also visited the pavilion of Qatari jewellery designers to view their latest innovations in that regard.

Shura Council Speaker confirms Qatar’s commitment to preventive diplomacyQNA NEW YORK

Speaker of the Shura Council, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, said that the State of Qatar has attached great impor-tance to preventive diplomacy in view of the growing role of this strategy in the achievement of international peace and security.

His Excellency also stressed, during a parliamentary hearing held at the United Nations in New York, that the State of Qatar sought to mediate some conflicts that were threats to international peace and security in the Middle East, such as resolving the crisis in Lebanon, the conflict in Darfur, relations between Sudan and Chad and between Dji-bouti and Eritrea, as well as in Afghanistan.

He noted that the State of Qatar has pro-posed to host an international conference on preventive diplomacy, given the impor-tance of a preventive diplomacy strategy.

He also noted that the international com-munity faces real challenges that pose a threat to international peace and security, adding that they were challenges that could give the United Nations a true test of its success in achieving peace.

H E Speaker of the Shura Council stressed the importance of the roles parliaments can play in the world in order to achieve inter-national peace and security, by supporting the strategy of preventive diplomacy.

His Excellency pointed out that peace does not simply mean the absence of war, but goes beyond that to respect for legitimacy and for human rights, and to addressing ten-sions arising from conflicts that are yet to be resolved in a fair and equitable manner.

He stressed in this context that the Shura Council in Qatar believes that peace can only be achieved by justice and balancing the interests of different countries, regardless of the size of their wealth or geographical area, and that the world will not enjoy peace

without respect for international legitimacy and without resolving disputes through dialogue.

His Excellency pointed out that failure to resolve conflicts around the world has affected the people’s confidence in the ability of the international community to provide solutions, leading to further division.

He wondered what the role of parliamen-tarians is in encouraging both countries and the United Nations to rely on preventive diplomacy, in order to realize the vision of a world living peacefully.

H E the Speaker of the Shura Council and his accompanying delegation are currently participating in a parliamentary hearing held at the United Nations on the parliamentary response to the challenges resulting from multilateralism.

The Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations, H E Sheikha Alya bint Ahmed Al Thani attended the session along with members of the Shura Council.

Heritage Library: A treasure of resourcesFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

The Heritage Library situated in the heart of Qatar National Library has a rare collection of the most valuable and expensive books, manuscripts, historical photographs which talk about Qatar the Arabian Peninsula and the Arab, Islamic civilization.

The Heritage Library designed as a archaeological site, symbolizes the connection between the past and present. It is one of the most amazing parts that any visitor to the Qatar National Library shouldn’t be missing.

“Unfolding the Arab history is the main focus of the Heritage Library. Everything at the Her-itage Library are digitalized. Public or researchers can access to the entire collection at the reading room with a library membership,” said Aysha Hassan Al Ansari, Head of the Heritage Collections, QNL.

The Heritage Library wel-comes visitors with the word ‘Iqra’ meaning ‘read’ in Arabic on its front door symbolizing the importance of reading for

knowledge and enlightening.The Heritage Library consists

of more than 26,000 printed books; 4,000 manuscripts; 70,000 photographs; and 1,400 maps, as well as numerous atlases, globes, travelers’ instru-ments, historical items related to Arabic cinema, and extensive archival materials.

The Qatar National Library’s one-millionth book, a rare 843-year-old manuscript copy of Sahih Al Bukhari, is also part of the Heritage Library.

The oldest document at the Heritage Library dates back to the 7th century A.D. One of the oldest manuscripts in the collection is a set of four parts of Sahih Al Bukhari which was written in Spain in the 6th century AD.

The Heritage Library exhi-bition area features space to display more than 400 items, giving visitors an opportunity to learn more about the history and culture of the Islamic world and Qatar. One of the major attractions is the Diwan of the founder of modern Qatar, Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, which was printed in 1907 in Mumbai. �P3

DJWE receives huge responseAROOSA KHALID THE PENINSULA

As Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition (DJWE) has become a destination of choice for fashion and style lovers of Qatar, the glit-tering expo received huge response in terms of number of visitors yesterday due to weekend.

The Exhibition, since its official inaugu-ration on Wednesday, welcomed huge number of visitors on the weekly holiday.

The exhibition offers almost all interna-tionally-renowned brands of watches and jewellery to showcase their exquisite mas-terpieces under one roof and it also provides the shoppers with an opportunity to buy after going through a wide variety of items. Along international brands, some Qatari brands are also there winning appreciation from the visitors. Papillon Jewelry is one of them.

Papillon Jewelry is a Qatari concept born from the passion of Noora Al Ansari, a ‘woman who believes in the beauty that comes from the simplicity of natural ele-ments’ like diamonds, pearls and precious stones. Talking about a pearl necklace with a ruby butterfly on it, Noora said: “I have this papillon (French word for a butterfly) with the pearls and it is specially designed for Qatar because the pearls represent our culture.”

Papillon means butterfly in French and it is the symbol of the boutique logo as well. “I wanted to combine culture with the name of our brand this year. Also, I have created some smaller versions of the papillon espe-

cially for this exhibition.”In Amiri Gems pavillion, Swiss-Turkish

brand, Adler, had a lot of pieces of artistic jewellery to pull the crowd. Talking to The Peninsula, Karen Adler, the the owner of Adler said: “Adler’s Haute Joaillerie crea-tions are timeless, exquisite masterpiece. They reflects enchanted world of precious stones mingled with the very finest materials.”

Christine Rabbaa, deputy manager of Bvlgari in Qatar, said: “We are displaying only high-end creations inspired from the heritage of Rome. Basically, we have unusual combi-nation of colours and materials which repre-sents our DNA in terms of jewellery.” she added.

Rabbaa added: “We have Serpenti iconic collection dragon. One can see the skull of

the serpenti on the neck and on the wrist its a combination of yellow gold brushed with diamonds and rubies.”

Luxurious jewels from the house of Amrapali (Jaipur) is also available at Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition. Elegant jewellery pieces personify the heritage of India with a modern touch.

Commenting on a traditional necklace showcased at the stall of Amrapali, Arif, manager of the brand, said: “It is a recreation of many older pieces we had in our collection which is quite popular in terms of all the dif-ferent pendant attachments. We have made a whole necklace with emerald, polki-cut diamonds. It is an antique piece to make one feel outdated but at the same time with its pearls it brings you in the 21st century.”

A collection of precious jewellery on display at DJWE. PIC: BAHER AMIN / THE PENINSULA

Speaker of the Shura Council, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, during a parliamentary hearing held at the United Nations on the parliamentary response to the challenges resulting from multilateralism, in New York, yesterday. The Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations, H E Sheikha Alya bint Ahmed Al Thani and members of the Shura Council are also seen.

SSLSD celebrates Sri Lankan Independence Day

President of Gambia meets Attorney-General

02 SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2019HOME

Qatar University hosts Doha-Cologne International Development WeekTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Doha-Cologne International Development Week under the theme ‘International Development, Natural Resources and Sustaina-bility’ took place last week.

It is a joint activity between the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) at Qatar University (QU) and the Institute for Technology and Resources Management in Tropics and Subtropics (ITT) of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (TH Köln) in Germany.

The week is hosted by Qatar University and jointly organized and co-sponsored by the ITT and the Centers for Natural

Resources and Development (CNRD). The CNRD is an excel-lence network supported by the German Ministry for Interna-tional Development (BMZ) through the German Exchange Service (DAAD) of universities working on natural resources, e n v i r o n m e n t a n d development.

The event was the first Doha event to kick-off common work and prepare a long and prom-ising collaboration between CAS from QU, and the ITT from TH Köln on joint education and research related to environment, sustainable development and natural resources.

The Doha-Cologne Inter-national Development Week is

divided into a public con-ference, an invitation-based symposium with local stake-holders, several curricula development workshops and public student-organized events. Furthermore, several off-program activities for guests are organized.

Professor Gamal Abdo, Dean of Engineering in University of Khartoum; Professor Abdin Salih, Member in UNESCO Executive Board; Dr Talal Al-Awadhi, Head of Geography, Sultan Qaboos University; and Ali Abdullah Al Dabbagh, Exec-utive Director of Corporate Strategy, Qatar Fund for Devel-opment (QFFD), attended the event.

QNA DOHA

The Ministry of Munici-pality and Environment (MME) has launched two new electronic services available on smart and mobile devices: request for the fencing of farms and tenders and auctions services. These services are within the framework of the Ministry’s project to automate all services provided to the public and the sectors benefiting from its services.

The first service allows the owner of a farm to request a permit to erect a fence for his farm as he must obtain the permit before the construction of the fence. The Ministry’s competent department will examine the request and inspect the farm before building the fence to determine the boundaries on which the fence will be erected.

The second service includes information about tenders and auctions offered by the MME, whether it open or only being offered. The MME recently launched several electronic services such as consideration of a rental dispute, registration and documenting the Real Estate Lease Contracts, and the advertising license service and others. A number of new e-services will also be launched in the near future.

Youth Forum crowned champions in two-day sports extravaganzaTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Cultural Forum’s two-day sports extravaganza, ‘Expats SportEv 2019’ concluded on February 15 with a colourful ceremony dubbed as SportEv Fiesta at Qatar Sports Club (QSC) that saw mesmerising performances by artists and singers.

Expats SportEv 2019, held under the patronage of Qatar Sports for All (QSFA), federation at the Ministry of Culture and Sports, took off at QSC officially on the National Sport Day with a spectacular march past attended by over 1000 partici-pants from 16 teams.

Youth Forum won the overall championship in the fiercely contested sports meet, with Calicut Sports Club bagging the first runner-up position and Man-jappada Qatar finishing as the

second runner up. In the women’s category, Calicut Sports Club won the overall championship, with Youth Forum and Qatar Knanaya Cultural Association (QKCA) winning the first and second r u n n e r s - u p p o s i t i o n s respectively.

Different individual champi-onships were won by Mohammed Mahroof (Youth Forum) in the Men’s category 20-29 years, Kannan Chemban (Youth Forum) in the Men’s category above 30 years, and Ajitha Sreevalsam (Youth Forum) in the Women’s category. The best disciplined team trophy was won by Q-Team Tirur and the best team manager’s prize was bagged by Shaheer of SKEA-Qatar.

The massive sports event, which was participated by 16 community teams in 16 items under four categories, was the

largest event organized by the expatriate Indian community in Qatar on the occasion of Qatar’s National Sport Day.

Over 3,000 people gathered at QSC to witness the con-cluding and prize distribution ceremony and they were treated to a mesmerising rendition of Qatari patriotic songs by the popular Qatari singer, Ali Abdul-Sattar. Children performed tra-ditional Qatari and Indian dances and Zumba while a martial arts team performed breath-taking numbers to the awe of the audience.

Ali Abdulla Al Khater, Chief Communications Officer at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Capt. Badi Jouhar Saeed Abdulla, Head of Administration at Qatar Police Sports Feder-ation, and Dr. Taj Aluva, Pres-ident of Cultural Forum, addressed the gathering. Youth Forum team members celebrate after winning the overall championship in Expats SportEv 2019.

A S P Liyanage (second left), Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Qatar, and Roshan Balasooriya, Chairman of Stafford Sri Lanka School Doha (SSLSD,) with other officials during the Sri Lanka Independence Day Celebrations held at the School in Doha yesterday. PIC: BAHER AMIN/THE PENINSULA

Qatar Foundation opens up access to Art Trail programTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The latest edition of Qatar Foun-dation’s (QF) Art Trail program is well underway, with the next tour set to take place today at the QF headquarters.

Open to the public, the tours, which take place periodically throughout the year, are led by QF art specialists and aim to showcase some of the artwork displayed across Education City.

Catering to different age groups and interests, the initi-ative strives to inspire creativity among Qatar’s community, while increasing artistic appre-ciation and awareness and also providing opportunities for social interaction and discussion.

Previous tours organised through the current edition of the Art Trail initiative have included Qatar National Library and the Minaretein Building (Education City Mosque), which featured a modern prayer rug exhibition that recently concluded.

Showcasing the work of stu-dents from QF partner university Virginia Commonwealth Uni-versity School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar), the exhi-bition was divided into two sec-tions—the finalists of the VCUarts Qatar Materials Library Modern Prayer Design Compe-tition in 2017, and MFA in Design students and faculty members who attended a week-long workshop in the Netherlands in 2018.

Rabab Abdulla, one of the exhibitors who took part in the workshop in the Netherlands, said: “Art is a form of commu-nication, and the exhibition at Minaretein gave us an oppor-tunity to show the public the meaning and significance of prayer rugs.

“It allowed us to tell our story, present our ideas, and convey our thinking – and, ulti-mately, it facilitated learning, encouraged information sharing, and opened doors for future col-l a b o r a t i o n s a n d opportunities.”

QF strives to serve as a platform for local and regional artists and designers to showcase their work, and is home to many arts and cultural centers and galleries including Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art and VCUarts Qatar.

Upcoming Art Trail tours will take place at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar on March 9; the VCUarts Qatar Gallery on March 14; and Sidra Medicine on April 6. Those wishing to join can register by emailing qftrail@qf.org.qa

Open to the public, the tours, which take place periodically throughout the year, are led by QF art specialists and aim to showcase some of the artwork displayed across Education City.

President of the Republic of the Gambia, Adama Barrow, met yesterday with United Nations Advocate for the Prevention of Corruption and Qatar’s Attorney-General, H E Dr Ali bin Fetais Al Marri. They discussed a number of projects that the two sides can cooperate on, the most prominent of which is to develop and build the capabilities of judges and prosecutors in Gambia, in order to enhance the independence of judiciary and the rule of law. The meeting was attended by Gambia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mamadou Tangara, and Minister of Justice and Attorney General Abubacarr Tambadou.

MME launches two new e-services

Aquatic Research Center at Ras Matbakh to open soonFROM PAGE 1

Mohammed Mahmoud Al Abdullah said that the Ministry of Municipality and Environment issued licence to a private company for fish farming project with the help of floating cages in sea to produce about 2,000 tonnes of fish per year. “We have another project of farming prawns which is yet to be launched,” said Al Abdullah, adding that the project will cover 100 percent need of shrimp in local market. He said that more projects of fish farming will be launched gradually to meet the rising demand of local market. He added that the fish production in all over the world is depended in big way on aquaculture.

“About 70 percent of world production of fish comes from aquaculture. The fish farming projects aim at reducing pressure on fish stock caused by over-fishing due to high demand,” said Al Abdullah. The Aquatic

Research Centre stretches over 101,000 sqm in Ras Matbakh comprising of a marine fish hatchery, a marine shrimp hatchery, scientific laboratories and administrative buildings. It is expected that the production capacity of the fish hatchery unit will reach 2.4 million fish seeds

through four seasons of hatchery per year. The production capacity of the shrimp hatchery unit is expected to reach 2 million shrimp seeds through four hatchery seasons per year and the final production of shrimp is six tonnes per year per season.

Mohammed Mahmoud Al Abdullah, Director of Aquatic Research Center. PIC: ABDUL BASIT/THE PENINSULA

03SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2019 HOME

Second DJWE Forum draws broader Qatari and international participationTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The second Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition (DJWE) Forum at the Marriot Marquis City Center on Thursday brought together international jewellery and watch designers, leading experts, as well as local and inter-national influencers.

The event featured an exciting programme of seminars curated by acclaimed brands and international watches and jew-ellery experts and Qatar-based academics.

Hosted and moderated by Qatari designer and artist Fahad Al Obaidly, this year’s Forum offered 100 guests an insider per-spective with sessions on watch collecting, natural pearls, the history of jewellery in Qatar,the influence of Indian designs, and a session with Alex Popov, Chairman of the World Diamond Museum.

Ahmed Al Obaidly, Qatar National Tourism Council official commented: “Since its launch, the Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition has been keen to develop events that enhance the

status of the exhibition and its prestigious position within the international calendar of jew-ellery and watches.”

“On the learning side and the exchange of experiences among different pioneers, DJWE has highlighted the country’s out-standing talent and the history of the pearl and jewellery industry in Qatar, as well as inspiring success stories both locally and interna-tionally. We are thrilled to have hosted this outstanding elite group of speakers from Qatar and from across the world, and look forward to providing more in the coming years,” added Al Obaidly.

Representing the new gener-ation of regional emerging jew-ellery designers in a special session, “Young Jewellery Designers”, Qatari designer Nada Al Sulaiti (Hairaat Fine Jewellery); Iraq designer, Rima Mardan (Rima Mardan Fine Jewellery) and Dima Nawbar (Atelier Nawbar) from Lebanon revealed the fas-cinating stories behind the pieces they create, and where they draw their inspiration from.

One of the key sessions in the Forum was the history of jew-ellery making in Qatar with a

presentation by Dr. Jochen Sokoly, Professor of Islamic Arts and Civilization, and Dr. Najla Ismail, expert in Qatari jewelry at the Qatar National Museum. They shared their vision and spe-cialized knowledge of art and architecture of the Islamic world.

Aisha Alfardan, prominent Qatari businesswoman and 24th on the Forbes list of the 50 Top Businesswomen in the Arab World, shared fascinating details about her family’s collection of pearls - one of the largest private collections of natural pearls in the world.

Alex Popov, Chairman of the Board of the World Diamond Museum, spoke about the collec-tions of diamonds and diamond jewellery, including famous stones housed at The World Diamond Museum in Moscow, and their deep history and significance. Popov also spoke about the similar heritage shared by Qatar and Russia. In June 2018, the World Diamond Museum hosted the highly acclaimed exhi-bition, Qatar Pearls: Treasures from the Seas and the Rivers, as part of the Qatar-Russia Year of Culture.

Offering an international per-spective on the successful pres-ervation of craftmanship, From

Ahmed Al Obaidly of Qatar National Tourism Council opens the second DJWE Forum at Marriott Marquis City Center Doha.

Mandarin Oriental Doha opens hotel at Msheireb DowntownTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Minister of Commerce and Industry H E Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari officiated the ribbon cutting ceremony of Mandarin Oriental Doha, together with Msheireb Properties Board Members, Eng Saad Al Muhannadi and Dr Abdulla Al Kubaisi, and Acting Chief Commercial Officer of Msheireb Prop-erties (developer and owner of the hotel), Jamal Al Kuwari.

The ceremony was also attended by James Riley, Chief Executive Officer of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and Martin Schnider, General Manager of Mandarin Oriental, Doha, in the presence of a representation of high level officials, business leaders, and distinguished local and international guests.

Jamal Al Kuwari, in his opening remarks, said that Mandarin Oriental, Doha is the first hotel to open in Msheireb Downtown Doha, which is the most sustainable and smartest fully-built city district in the world.

“This collaboration with Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group indicates our success in winning the confidence of prestigious international companies and demonstrates our commitment to making Msheireb Downtown Doha an authentic destination for tourism,

living, leisure and business in the region,” said Al Kuwari.

The opening ceremony was a cel-ebration of tradition which featured ‘ardha’, a Qatari cultural dance and a Chinese lion dance, a Chinese tradition to bring good luck and prosperity. Fol-lowing the ribbon cutting ceremony, guests were escorted on an exclusive tour to preview some of the hotel’s facilities which was followed by a reception at IZU restaurant, over-looking the majestic Barahat Msheireb, the largest covered open-air square in the Middle East.

Mandarin Oriental, Doha will offi-cially open to public on March 9 when the hotel will unveil its bespoke fan, an iconic symbol unique to each Man-darin Oriental hotel. To celebrate the opening, the hotel has launched a Blossoming in Doha stay package.

Mandarin Oriental, Doha is an intimate and stylish urban retreat located in the centre of Msheireb Downtown Doha, the new destination for leisure, living and business in the heart of this vibrant city. The hotel blends chic and contemporary design with touches of Qatari heritage, bringing new levels of luxury to Qatar. Designed by the world-renowned David Collins Studio, the hotel’s 128 rooms, 30 suites and 91 serviced apartments fuse an elegant, contemporary design with subtle elements of traditional Qatari heritage.

The hotel’s nine dining outlets offer an inviting culinary experience, intro-ducing unique flavours from destinations around the world, as well as focusing on

classic local dishes and delicacies.Inspired by renowned Chef Izu Ani’s

travels, the restaurant IZU showcases an interpretation of modern Mediterranean cuisine with surprising layers of flavours. Facing the beautiful Barahat Msheireb, the restaurant features three seating areas, comprising of an indoor ground and mez-zanine level and an outdoor terrace.

Mosaic allows guests to embark on a culinary journey with nine open kitchens offering an eclectic collection of the world’s most sought after classic dishes cleverly served to allow sampling and sharing. Mandarin Lounge and Baraha Lounge celebrate the elegant joy of Afternoon Tea and are ideal for relaxed get togethers or business meetings with

the finest selection of bespoke blends of tea, as well as coffee, small bites and delicacies.

Unique flavours of homemade gelato and frozen desserts await at Gelato, a col-ourful and lively outlet situated on the town square for a treat to takeaway or dine-in. Lastly, Ambar is a stylish bar inspired by the desert landscape and the amber glow of the setting sun which pro-vides an intimate venue for guests to socialise, unwind and relax over drinks.

The Spa at Mandarin Oriental Doha occupies 3,030 square metres and fea-tures six private treatment rooms, a cou-ple’s suite, two VIP suites and extensive heat and water experiences which includes two indoor pools.

Minister of Commerce and Industry H E Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari and other dignitaries during the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Mandarin Oriental Doha at Msheireb Downtown Doha.

QA denies reports Doha-Lagos flight survived disasterQNA DOHA

Qatar Airways denied yesterday reports from some media outlets outside State of Qatar that passengers on its flight from Doha to Lagos, Nigeria, survived a disaster due to a technical malfunction. The route conversion of the flight to Khartoum was preventive and routine action, Qatar Airways said in a statement.

The Qatar Airways flight QR1409, flying from Doha to Lagos, was subjected to a minor technical malfunction on Thursday. As a result, the flight was diverted to Khartoum and the plane landed safely.

Qatar Airways said that one of its planes at Khartoum Airport was preparing to take off to Doha on flight QR1324. It was diverted to Lagos with the aim of ensuring that passengers on the QR1409 flight arrive at their destination with a delay of 3 hours and 50 minutes. Qatar Airways has stressed that pas-senger safety is its top priority.

The company called on eve-ryone to investigate the accuracy of the report, noting that any press releases are through its own site or social networking platforms.Generation Amazing opens second pitch in India

THE PENINSULA DOHA

Generation Amazing has opened a second pitch in India, as it continues to build on its commitment to help develop the social and human legacy of the 2022 FIFA World Cup across Asia.

The programme, launched by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) in 2010, to build infrastructure which helps to develop a young generation of community leaders. A total of 28 pitches have already been built in the Middle East and Asia, with the goal of providing children and youth from disadvantaged com-munities with safe spaces to play, enabling football for development programmes to be carried out and achieving a long-term impact on the pitches’ host communities.

Gabriella Shirwar and Shubham Patil are Generation Amazing Youth Ambassadors who joined the programme in 2018 and have been heavily

involved in the development and implementation of the project.

Shirwar explained the pitch would have a huge impact on the local community and expressed her excited for her developing role. She said: “For both Shubham and myself, it is really great to be part of the committee that will plan and supervise the use of the pitch. It really feels like we have a role to play as youth leaders in our community.”

Patil added: “This is a great project that will enable a lot of young people to play sports. Being involved in the devel-opment and implementation of this project has been a fantastic learning experience and has given me the opportunity to see from the beginning the impact that the pitch will have in the community.”

The new Generation Amazing Pitch is located on the grounds of

Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar School Kamptee in Maharashtra, which will help deliver increased sports activities in the surrounding areas. Activities on the pitch will also take place beyond school hours in order for the entire community to profit from these new facilities.

The infrastructure project was implemented in cooperation with Generation Amazing local partner Slum Soccer, a football for development organisation carrying out programmes in Nagpur and surroundings.

Founded in 2001 by Vijay Barse, a retired sports teacher from Nagpur, the organisation has since positively affected the lives of nearly 70,000 men, women and children in over 63 districts all around the country.

The new pitch will also serve as an asset and will allow the organisation to continue expanding its football for devel-opment programmes in Kamptee. In order to manage the use of the pitch and ensure

as many people from the com-munity as possible benefit from it, Slum Soccer – a partner organisation which uses football as a vehicle to bring unity and education to impoverished com-munities – and Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar School have created a supervisory committee com-posed of representatives from Slum Soccer, the school and Generation Amazing Youth Ambassadors and other members of the community.

Generation Amazing has reached over 250,000 benefici-aries to date across 7 countries: Qatar, Nepal, Pakistan, Jordan, Lebanon, Philippines and India.

The programme targets vul-nerable and displaced people, and will empower new generations of young leaders to transform their communities through football and create sustainable programmes which generate exciting social development opportunities long after the last ball has been kicked in 2022.

Jaipur to the World, Tarang Arora, Creative Director and CEO of Amrapali Jewels, shared the journey of Amrapali Museum of Jewellery in Jaipur, India.

Robert Punkenhofer, founder of the hybrid agency ART&IDEA, spoke on the legacy and craftsmanship of the Aus-trian luxury watch brand Carl Suchy&Söhne. Punkerhofer, who successfully revived the 196-year old brand in 2016, adviced up-and-coming inde-pendent niche brands to focus on outstanding handcraft and

daring creativity.Geoffroy Ader, Artcurial’s

international expert on modern and vintage watches, gave attendees insights into the star brands and models which drive the current vintage watch market. He spoke on how col-lectors perceive the value of w a t c h e s , a n d t h e “nicknames”that are given to timepieces. Members of the Qatar Watch Club shared their passion for watch collecting, and encouraged watch collectors to expand their knowledge.

Designed by the world-renowned David Collins Studio, the hotel’s 128 rooms, 30 suites and 91 serviced apartments fuse an elegant, contemporary design with subtle elements of traditional Qatari heritage.

Students and officials during the launch of the pitch at Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar School Kamptee in Maharashtra.

Heritage Library: A treasure of resourcesFROM PAGE 1

It is a collection of poems written by Sheikh Jassim, the founder of Qatar and contains a number of Nabati poems, a colloquial form of Arabic poetry.

The exhibits include pages of the Blue Quran which has been called one of the most extraordinary luxury manu-scripts ever created. The first printed maps ever mentioning Qatar, pages of ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ in various lan-guages, traveler’s instruments, tools and historical photo-graphs are also worth seeing.

The Heritage Library con-tains medical, pharmacological and astronomical texts, along with famous works produced by Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, and Ibn Sina, famous Muslim scientists from 9th and 10th centuries AD.

04 SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2019MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Palestinian Muslims enter the Golden Gate near Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City, yesterday.

15-year-old shot dead as Palestinians protest in Gaza and Jerusalem

Algerians protest President’s bidfor fifth termREUTERS ALGIERS

Thousands of young Algerians took to the streets of the capital yesterday to protest against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s plans to seek a fifth term.

The 81-year old, in office since 1999, has said he will contest the April 18 presi-dential election, despite con-cerns over his health. He has been seen in public only a handful of times since suf-fering a stroke in 2013.

“No to Bouteflika and no to Said,” a crowed chanted while marching through the centre of Algiers. The president’s youngest brother Said Bouteflika is a pres-idential adviser.

The protest was peaceful

despite a heavy security presence. “We and the security are brothers,” some protesters chanted.

The protest came after mosque preachers had warned in Friday prayers against dem-onstrating, warning of violence. Bouteflika’s re-election bid comes after the ruling FLN party picked him as its official presi-dential candidate. Several political parties, trade unions and business organisations have already said they would support his re-election.

He is expected to easily win the vote as the opposition remains weak and divided.

But many young people feel disconnected from an elite made up of veteran fighters from Alge-ria’s 1954-1962 independence

war with France.His re-election would

provide short-term stability for the FLN, the army and business tycoons, and postpone a poten-

tially difficult succession. Bouteflika remains popular

with many Algerians, who credit him with ending a long civil war by offering an amnesty to former

Islamist fighters. Algeria is a key gas supplier

to Europe and an ally of the US in the fight against militants in the Sahel region of North Africa.

Algerian demonstrators hold a placard with the symbol of a man on a wheelchair, during a demonstration against Algeria’s president’s candidacy for a fifth term, in Algiers, yesterday.

9 civilians dead, 13 injured in YemenAFP DUBAI

Nine civilians were killed and at least 13 wounded earlier this week in attacks in the provinces of Hodeida and Hajjah in war-torn Yemen, the UN said.

In Hodeida, eight people were killed and 10 were wounded on Tuesday when an artillery shell hit a market to the west of the Tuhayta district, according to a statement by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The statement added that unconfirmed reports indicated a woman was killed and three children injured the next day when a house was hit in the northern province of Hajjah.

“These attack are uncon-scionable,” said the United Nations’ humanitarian coordi-nator for Yemen, Lise Grande.

Syria force evacuates women, children from IS holdoutAFP NEAR BAGHOUZ, SYRIA

US-backed fighters trucked out civilians from the last speck of the Islamic State group’s dying “caliphate” in Syria yesterday, eager to press on with the battle to crush the jihadists.

More than four years after IS overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq, and declared a “caliphate”, they have lost all of it but a tiny patch in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border.

More than 40 trucks carrying men, women and children left the enclave yesterday.

Most were women and children, their clothes caked in dust, but the passengers also included men with their faces wrapped in chequered scarves.

Women clung to the railings of the trucks, while the hair of younger girls blew in the wind, as they left enclave in the second such large-scale evacuation in three days. On the back of one of the trucks, three men covered

their faces with their hands, apparently not to be caught on camera. One woman raised the index finger of her right hand in an Islamist gesture signifying “There is no god but God”.

Asked what the situation was like inside the last IS scrap, a young man replied: “Not good”.

SDF spokesman Adnan Afrin said more than 2,000 people were estimated to still be inside the pocket, and more trucks were expected to bring them out.

Once the evacuations have

ended, the jihadists will have to decide whether to continue defending the less than half a square kilometre (a fifth of a square mile) they still hold, he said. “They will be faced with a choice: war or surrender,” Afrin said. Earlier yesterday, SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali said he hoped civilian evacuations could be completed by Saturday.

The SDF evacuated 3,000 people on Wednesday — mostly women and children — but trucks left near empty on

Thursday. Bali said that screening had determined that most of those evacuated on Wednesday were foreigners.

“The majority are Iraqi and from countries of the former Soviet Union, but there are also Europeans,” he said. David Eubank, the leader of the Free Burma Rangers volunteer aid group, said they included “many French women”, as well as others from Australia, Austria, Germany and Russia, and one woman from Britain.

Nigeria finally goes to vote todayAP KANO

A voting card and a metal rod for self-defence are both close at hand in Chris-topher Obiorah’s tiny bookshop but he hopes to use just one of them when Africa’s largest democracy goes to the polls today, one week after a surprise delay.

Four years after one of Nigeria’s most peaceful elections, heated rhetoric in a tight race threatens a return to vio-lence along fault lines as ancient as this city, the oldest in West Africa. North-erners versus southerners, farmers against herders, the corrupt savaging the poor. “This is Nigeria. Anything can happen,” the 45-year-old Obiorah said, casually mentioning that his family has machetes at home. “We are ready for them. We are many here. We have done it before.”

Nigerians have waited impatiently for the election that was delayed because of logistical “challenges,” just hours before polls were set to open. It echoed the abrupt power cuts of daily life, with the grind of generators marking the sound of Africa’s most populous country forever revving its engines. The delay is costly in several ways, Nnamdi Obasi with the Interna-tional Crisis Group explained. Faith in

the electoral commission is shaken. Fewer people might vote, dispirited or broke after rescheduling their lives to travel to their registered location. Mon-itoring could suffer as “numerous organizations, particularly Nigerian ones, may be reluctant or unable to do it all over again.”

President Muhammadu Buhari, an ailing 76-year-old former military dic-tator, this week threatened death to anyone found disrupting the election, then told Nigerians on Friday they would be able to vote without fear. In the latest political violence, at least two people died as supporters of the two main parties clashed with machetes and clubs on Thursday outside Kano, witness Ahmed Garba said.

Buhari seeks a second term after widely seen as failing to deliver on key issues of security, the economy and fighting corruption. Extremists are making a deadly resurgence. Scores of people were killed last week alone in farmer-herder clashes. The oil-dependent economy is still weak after a recession, with unemployment now over 23 percent.

Buhari’s main challenger is 72-year-old former vice president and billionaire Atiku Abubakar, who promises to tap his business success to

“Make Nigeria Work Again” but has not managed to shake corruption allegations.

Many Nigerians are underwhelmed by the choice between the two Muslims from the north, who between them have run for president nine times.

“I feel as a people, we don’t realise how bad things are and that we have the right to demand better,” said author Abubakar Adam Ibrahim. He was 5 when Buhari was toppled in 1985, then watched his 5-year-old son cheer at Buhari’s win in 2015. “We are essen-tially not going anywhere,” Ibrahim said.

The rise of young contenders in a country where the majority of voters are between 18 and 35 has been limited by the high costs of running.

Salisu Mubarak Muhammad, a 35-year-old who is running to be Kano state’s governor, said his family refused to donate to his campaign, seeing it pointless when top parties are believed to spend far in excess of campaign limits and vote-buying is widespread.

Buhari and Abubakar’s parties have sniped at each other over the election delay that the electoral commission blamed in part on the weather, alleging it was orchestrated to create space for vote-rigging.

Toll from South African mine blast rises to 18 as 13 bodies recoveredREUTERS JOHANNESBURG

Rescuers have retrieved another 13 bodies from a disused South African coal mine following a gas blast there around two weeks ago, police said yesterday, raising the confirmed death toll to 18.

More than 20 people were trapped underground in early February when a gas pipe exploded after they entered the mine to steal copper wire that supplies power for lighting and ventilation. Rescuers had to abort their mission yesterday after bringing 13 bodies to the surface due to the presence of thick smoke, police spokesman Leonard Hlathi said.

Trump will keep about 200 US troops in SyriaBLOOMBERG WASHNGTON

The US plans to leave a contingent of “peace-keeping” troops in Syria even after the with-drawal ordered by President Donald Trump, in a step back from his initial pledge to bring home all US forces there.

“A small peacekeeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for a period of time,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Thursday night. Sanders didn’t say how long the contingent is expected to remain in Syria, which has been devastated by eight years of civil war.

An administration official, who asked not to be identified, said the contingent will operate in northeastern Syria and doesn’t include a con-tinuing US presence at a small base at Al Tanf in the south, which US and Israeli officials view as important in constraining threats from Iran and the Hezbollah militants it backs.

The announcement came hours after Trump spoke by telephone with Turkish Pres-ident Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Immediately after the call, the White House said in a statement that the two leaders had “agreed to continue coordinating on the creation of a potential safe zone.” The US had deployed about 2,000 troops to Syria as part of the mission to defeat Islamic State, which had overtaken large swaths of country.

AP JERUSALEM

Israeli gunfire killed a Palestinian teenager at a protest along Gaza-Israel border fence, Gaza officials said yesterday, as thousands in contested Jerusalem descended on a section of a flashpoint holy site that has been closed by Israeli court order for over a decade.

The Health Ministry said 15-year-old Youssef Al Dayya died at a hospital shortly after he was hit with a gunshot in the chest.

The circumstances of his death were not immediately known, but it occurred when thousands of Palestinians participated in pro-tests along several sections of the frontier, with dozens approaching the heavily guarded barrier. The ministry added that 30 protesters were wounded by Israeli live fire in the weekly Gaza march.

The protests in Gaza are mostly against the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory. Citing security con-cerns, Israel and Egypt imposed tight restrictions on movements of people and

goods in and out of Gaza after the militant Hamas group wrested control of the ter-ritory in 2007.

Hamas has arranged weekly demonstra-tions since last March to protest the blockade and demand the return of Palestinian ref-ugees to land in what is now Israel. Close to 190 Palestinians, mostly unarmed, have been killed by Israeli fire in the protests, and one Israeli soldier was killed by a Palestinian sniper last July.

In Jerusalem, the eastern part of which Palestinians claim as their future capital, pro-testers streamed into a sealed-off area of Al Aqsa Mosque during Friday prayers. Israeli police said the crowds that gathered dis-persed peacefully after prayers.

Tension at the shrine has escalated in recent days. Similar protests turned into scuffles with police earlier this week. Antic-ipating unrest, police arrested 60 Palestinians overnight. Israel blocked off a structure near the mosque, known as the “Gate of Mercy,” in 2003 because it was home to a heritage organisation allegedly connected with an Islamic group.

Iran adhering to terms of nuclear deal: IAEAAFP VIENNA

Iran has been adhering to a deal with world powers limiting its nuclear programme, the UN atomic watchdog said yesterday, as diplomatic wran-gling continues over the future of the accord.

The latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iran was still complying with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with global powers under which Tehran drastically scaled back its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

The IAEA’s latest report showed that over the past three-month period, Iran’s stock of heavy water had risen from 122.8 to 124.8 metric tonnes and that it held 163.8kg of enriched uranium, up from 149.4kg in November. Both levels are within the limits foreseen by the JCPOA.

Last week, European nations rejected a call from US Vice President Mike Pence to follow the US lead in with-drawing from the Iranian nuclear deal. Israel has wel-comed the US withdrawal from the deal, claiming that Iran is harbouring a secret atomic warehouse.

Without naming specific countries, in January IAEA chief Yukiya Amano rejected pressure on the agency, saying: “If our credibility is thrown into question, and, in particular, if attempts are made to micro-manage or put pressure on the Agency in nuclear verification, that is counter-productive and extremely harmful.”

In May, US President Donald Trump dramatically withdrew from the JCPOA. This was followed by sweeping new American sanctions on Iran in November.

Despite the fear the stray attacks have created, fortunately leading to no death, thousands of Kashmiris continue to live amid the rest of the population across the country, but with a tinge of fear.

05SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2019 ASIA

Act against terrorism, Modi tells global communityIANS SEOUL

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said here that the time has come for the global com-munity to “come together” and “go beyond words” to act against terrorism, as he expressed his gratitude for South Korea’s support in the wake of the Pulwama attack.

Addressing the media on the second day of his two-day visit after his talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Modi said: “I express my gratitude to Pres-ident Moon for his condolences on Pulwama attack last week and his support against terror.” He said the Memorandum of Under-standing signed between India’s Home Ministry and South Korea’s National Police Agency will further forward the counter-ter-rorism agenda.

“Time has come for the global community to come

together and go beyond words to act against terrorism,” he said.

Modi said both New Delhi and Seoul are committed to strengthen their mutual and global cooperation to combat terrorism. He said the defence sector is an important part of the country’s growing partnership with South Korea. “And induction of K-9 Vajra artillery gun in Indian Army ia an example of this friendship.

“To increase cooperation with South Korea in the defence sector, we have agreed to make a roadmap for defence technology and co-production,” he said. He also welcomed the partnership of South Korean companies in the defence industrial corridors being built. The bilateral relations between the two nations have reached new heights, he said, adding that the special strategic partnership that New Delhi-Seoul shares is “very significant” even for the world.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) shakes hands with South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in during talks in Seoul. Modi is on a two-day visit to South Korea as part of an effort to strengthen ties between the two countries.

PM conferred with Seoul Peace PrizeIANS SEOUL

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred the Seoul Peace Prize here yesterday. He dedi-cated the Prize to the people of India and donated its amount to the Namami Gange Fund.

Expressing his gratitude, Modi said, “I believe that this award belongs not to me but to the people of India. It belongs to the success India has achieved in the less than five years powered by the strengths and skills of 1.3 billion Indians and on their behalf, I humbly accept the award and express my gratitude.”

Donating the award money to the Namami Gange fund, Modi said: “I would like to contribute the monetary award of $200,000 (Rs1 crore 30 lakh) to the fund for our efforts to clean river Ganga, which is not just the economic lifeline of millions of people but is also held sacred by us.”

Take steps to end attacks on Kashmiris: Supreme CourtIANS NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court yesterday directed the Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police (DGPs) in states and union ter-ritories to take prompt action to prevent threats, assault, intimi-dation and boycott targeted at Kashmiris, especially students, in the wake of the February 14 Pulwama terror attack.

“The Chief Secretaries, the Directors General of Police of all the States and the Union Terri-tories including the Commis-sioner of Police, Delhi are directed to take prompt and nec-essary action to prevent inci-dents of assault, threat, social boycott and such other egregious acts against the Kashmiris including students... and other minorities,” the court directed.

It also issued notice to the Central government and 11 states on a public interest litigation (PIL) by Tariq Adeeb that urged for attention to the incidents, including a call for boycott of Kashmiris by Meghalaya Gov-ernor Tathagata Roy, in the aftermath of the deadly attack on a Central Reserve Police Force convoy that left 40 troopers dead.

Besides the Centre, the states that were issued notice included Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand.

“The Supreme Court direction for safety of Kashmiri students is a welcome decision. What now needs to be done is that all those involved in attacks on our children be brought to justice,” Noor Muhammad, a retired bank officer, said in Srinagar.

“The Supreme Court order has come as a big relief for all of us. Our children went outside the state to pursue their studies proving that their first priority is education,” he said. “Pushing these innocent children to the wall does not suit anyone other than those who want to alienate Kashmiris further.”

“Violence against children speaks of a mindset in which no moderate and right thinking person has any space,” said Ghulam Nabi, a parent living in Srinagar’s old quarters.

Most incidents of violence have been blamed on rightwing Hindu activists. But despite the fear the stray attacks have created, fortunately leading to no death, thousands of Kash-miris continue to live amid the rest of the population across the country, but with a tinge of fear.

The most recent assault occurred in Yavatmal in Mahar-ashtra when Kashmiri students of Dayabhai Patel College of Physical Education were pounced upon in Waghapur Road area on Wednesday. They were intercepted outside their home by activists allegedly from the Yuva Sena, the youth wing of the Shiv Sena. They were slapped, kicked, punched and threatened with dire consequences.

In Kolkata, where thousands of Kashmiris live, one Kashmiri doctor who has lived in the city for the past 22 years, is married to a Bengali and whose two children study in an upmarket school was threatened last week but vowed to stay put.

Hundreds of Kashmiri stu-dents studying in institutions in Haryana and Punjab had been living in fear of a backlash fol-lowing the Pulwama attack. In Jammu, Sikh neighbours in par-ticular came out in support of Kashmiri Muslims when mobs vandalized their property.

Punjab Chief Minister Ama-rinder Singh has said that there were around 4,000 Kashmiri students studying in institutions in Punjab and their safety would be ensured.

A teacher from the Kashmir Valley in a private university near Punjab’s Jalandhar city said that he was “forced” to resign after a social media post linked him to comments on the Pulwama attack. Salman Shaheen, who was Assistant Pro-fessor of English at Lovely Pro-fessional University, alleged that a photo of his Facebook status was distorted to create an impression that he had written something objectionable about the suicide bombing.

In Himachal Pradesh, a court in Kasauli on February 17 sent a second year civil engineering student from Kashmir to judicial custody till February 28 for allegedly posting a comment “glo-rifying” the Pulwama killings.

A court at Anekal in Ben-galuru Rural District sent three Kashmiri students to 14-day judicial custody on February 17 for allegedly posting anti-India and anti-Army remarks on Facebook.

The British Yakovlevs aerobatics team performs during a flying display on the third day of the five-day Aero India 2019 Airshow at the Yelahanka Air Force Station in Bengaluru yesterday. The air show ends on February 24.

HAL delivers 3 Dhruv copters to ArmyIANS BENGALURU

State-run defence behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) yesterday delivered three Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH Dhruv Mk-3) to the Indian Army as part of its contract for making 22 of these.

“We have handed over the documents of the first three of the 22 ALH MK-3 to the Indian Army,” HAL said at the Aero India Airshow. HAL Chairman and Man-aging Director R Madhavan was present.

The city-based aerospace major in August 2017 signed a Rs 6,100-crore con-tract to supply 40 ALHs to the Indian Army, including 22 ALH Mk-3 and 18 weaponised ALH Mk-4 Rudra, and one ALH to the Indian Navy.

“Of the 22 helicopters, 19 have been produced and will be delivered in due course,” the company said. The ALH Dhruv Mk-3 is a multirole new generation copter designed and developed by HAL.

Parliamentary panel to summon Facebook, WhatsApp besides TwitterIANS NEW DELHI

Besides Twitter, the Parlia-mentary Committee on Infor-mation Technology (IT) will also summon Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram to hear them on alleged bias towards certain type of posts, panel chief Anurag Thakur said yesterday.

“The Parliamentary Com-mittee on IT will examine the issue of ‘Safeguarding citizen rights on social/online news media platforms’,” tweeted Thakur, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh.

“The following will present their positions: Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram,” he added. Twitter has already con-firmed that Colin Crowell, its global Vice President of Public Policy, would face the

Parliamentary Committee on IT on February 25. Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram top brass may be summoned in the first week of March.

In a statement given to IANS, the micro-blogging platform said the 2019 Lok Sabha election is a key priority for Twitter.

“We thank the Parliamentary Committee for its invitation to hear Twitter’s views on ‘Safe-guarding citizen rights on social/online news media platforms’,” said a Twitter spokesperson.

“These are issues for all Internet services globally. Colin Crowell, global Vice President of Public Policy for Twitter, will meet with the Committee on Monday,” the spokesperson added.

The government has accused Twitter of being “slow” in removing “objectionable content” and “political bias” from its platform.

The House panel had earlier summoned Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey over measures taken to ensure the safety and security of the users and allegations that the social media site was discrimi-nating against “nationalist” posts on its platform.

In the absence of Dorsey, Crowell will represent Twitter during the 31-member parlia-mentary panel hearing.

In an earlier statement, Crowell said that India is one of its fastest-growing audience markets globally.

“We are committed to sur-facing all sides of the conver-sation as we enter the election season in this extraordinarily diverse cultural, political and social climate,” noted Crowell.

According to him, Twitter does not review, prioritise or enforce its policies on the basis of political ideology.

ED questions Vadra for 7 hoursIANS / NEW DELHI

The Enforcement Directorate yesterday questioned Robert Vadra, the brother-in-law of Congress President Rahul Gandhi, for over seven hours in a money laundering case, for the fifth time. The case relates to overseas ownership of undisclosed assets worth £1.9m. Vadra arrived at the ED’s Jamnagar office in central Delhi at 10.30am and left the agency’s office at 7.20pm. He was allowed to go out for lunch for over an hour. He was questioned under sections of Pre-vention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Robert Vadra, who is the husband of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has faced more than 34 hours of questioning so far. He was earlier questioned on February 6, 7, 9 and 20.

EC lodges police complaint over fake NRI voting newsIANS / NEW DELHI

The Election Commission (EC) yesterday lodged a police complaint against unknown persons for spreading “fake news” about non-resident Indians (NRIs) being allowed to vote online in the coming Lok Sabha elections. In a letter to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), New Delhi district, the EC said that publication of such fake news using the logo of the EC was causing “severe confusion in the public, thereby creating public nuisance and mischief”. “The unau-thorised use of EC logo and the completely false statement regarding online voting seems to be done with a deliberate intent to cause mischief and mislead the public,” the EC complaint read. The poll panel said it has already asked Twitter and WhatsApp to remove this fake news from their platforms.

Two suspected JeM terrorists held in UPIANS LUCKNOW

Two terror suspects from Jammu and Kashmir were arrested from Saharanpur dis-trict in Uttar Pradesh yesterday, Director General of Police O P Singh said.

The two, both in their early 30s, were caught by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh Police on the basis of intelligence inputs. The ATS has procured a two-day transit remand of the two sus-pected terrorists.

He said the arrested persons owed allegiance to Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

The two have been iden-tified as Shahnawaz from Kulgam district and Aquib from Pulwama district, both in Jammu and Kashmir.

IUML gets one Lok Sabha seat from DMKIANS/ CHENNAI

The DMK and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) yesterday reached an electoral agreement whereby the latter gets to contest in one seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. In a statement issued here, the DMK said an agreement has been reached with IUML after talks. As per the agreement, IUML will contest in one seat from Tamil Nadu. On Thursday, DMK and the Congress inked a deal so that the latter would contest in nine seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone Puducherry seat.

Abusive trolling of journalists slammedIANS / NEW DELHI

The Editors Guild of India yesterday condemned the ongoing tirade of abuse and intimidation of mediapersons, especially women jour-nalists, in the wake of their reporting and commentary in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. As much of these attacks came in the form of trolls on social media, the Guild called upon these platforms, pri-marily Twitter, to initiate action against those responsible. The Editors Guild of India’s statement signed by President Shekhar Gupta and two other office-holders, urged corporations owning these social platforms that they need not be reminded about “not allowing unlawful behaviour”.

06 SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2019ASIA

5 children die of food

poisoning in Karachi

KARACHI: Pakistani

police say five children have

died of suspected food poi-

soning after their family

had dinner at a restaurant

in the country’s south.

Police official Ameer

Shaikh said yesterday that

the family of eight, from

the southwestern city of

Quetta, arrived in the port

city of Karachi the previ-

ous night.

He says they had dinner at

a restaurant in Karachi’s

business district. Shaikh

says the five children were

2 to 9 years of age. Their

mother and her sister are

in hospital, critically ill. The

restaurant was shuttered

and food samples were

taken for an investigation.

IN SHORT

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar:

A French national appeared

in court yesterday in Myan-

mar after being arrested

two weeks ago for allegedly

flying a drone close to the

country’s vast parliament

complex.

Arthur Desclaux faces a

charge under the Illegal

Export-Import Act and could

be jailed for up to three

years if convicted. He was

driven in the back of a police

vehicle past waiting media

into the court compound to

be officially informed of the

charge.

A French consular official

told reporters outside the

court that Desclaux said he

had been well-treated, but

expressed disappointment

that the 27-year-old was still

kept in custody.

“He didn’t have any bad

intention to do this and I

wish the judge will believe

that he was doing it unin-

tentionally and he would be

released as soon as possi-

ble,” said Frederic Inza. “We

regret he is still in prison.

We were hoping for a rapid

solution.” The court in the

capital Naypyitaw set its

next hearing for February

27, when witness testimony

is expected to begin.

French national faces

Myanmar court on

drone flying charge

Don’t mess with Pakistan, India is told amid tensionREUTERS RAWALPINDI

Pakistan will respond to any attack by India with “full force”, the army said yesterday amid heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours, as Islamabad said it took over the base of a militant group that claimed a deadly bombing in Kashmir.

Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor was speaking a week after a Paki-stani-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed claimedf responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack that killed 40 Indian paramilitary policemen in the Himalayan region dis-puted between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan late yesterday announced a takeover of Jaish’s headquarters in a southern Punjab province district bor-dering India.

Authorities took over Jaish’s headquarters in Bahawalpur and appointed an administrator to look after its affairs, a gov-ernment statement said. It said the headquarters and an attached seminary has 600 stu-dents and 70 teachers.

India’s top military com-mander in the region has alleged

Pakistan’s main Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency was involved in the attack.

“We have no intention to initiate war, but we will respond with full force to full spectrum threat that would surprise you,” Ghafoor told reporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. “Don’t mess with Pakistan.”

The army’s response came two days after Prime Minister Imran Khan urged India to share any actionable evidence, offering full cooperation in investigating the blast.

He also offered talks with India on all issues, including ter-rorism, which India has always sought as a pre-requisite to any dialogue between the two arch-rivals.

India and Pakistan have

fought two wars since inde-pendence in 1947 over Kashmir, which both the countries claim entirely.

Ghafoor also reiterated the talks offer. “Kashmir is a regional issue,” he said. “Let us talk about it. Let us resolve it.”

India blames Pakistani Islamist militant groups for infil-trating into its part of Kashmir to fuel an insurgency and help separatist movements.

Washington and Delhi allege that the Pakistani army nurtures the militants to use them as a foreign policy tools to expand power in neighbouring India and Afghanistan. The army denies that.

One such group is Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which India blamed for attacks in Mumbai in 2008 which killed 166 people, saying its founder, Hafiz Saeed, was the mastermind.

The United States has offered a $10m reward for information leading to his conviction over the Mumbai attacks.

Pakistan has put him under house arrest several times and banned his Islamist groups, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), which the United States and the United Nations say are terrorist fronts for the LeT.

“We have no intention to initiate war, but we will respond with full force to full spectrum threat that would surprise you,” Ghafoor told reporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. “Don’t mess with Pakistan.”

US Afghanistan Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad meets Russian counterpart Zamir Kabulov in Ankara,Turkey, yesterday.

US, Russian envoys discuss Afghan peace in TurkeyAP ANKARA

The US peace envoy for Afghan-istan has met his Russian coun-terpart in the Turkish capital for talks on efforts to end the 17-year war in Afghanistan.

The Russian Embassy in Ankara announced on Twitter

yesterday that it was hosting a meeting between Washington’s peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Zamir Kabulov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy for Afghanistan.

Khalilzad has stepped up efforts to find a peace deal for Afghanistan and held several rounds of direct talks with the

Taliban. He will hold another round on Monday. The two sides have focused their talks on the withdrawal of US troops and measures to prevent Afghanistan again becoming a staging arena for terrorists to attack the United States. Russia has also emerged as an influential player by hosting Afghan talks.

Police investigating negligence in deadly Bangladesh fireAP DHAKA

Bangladesh police said yesterday that they were seeking up to a dozen suspects in connection with a fire in the oldest part of the capital and could charge them with negli-gence over the blaze that killed at least 67 people.

The case involves between 10 and 12 people wanted on sus-picion of “causing death through negligence” in the Wednesday night fire in Dhaka’s Chawk-bazar district, said Ibrahim Khan, a deputy commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police. He declined to give details.

“Upon investigation we will be able to disclose everything,” he told reporters.

Relatives of a 19-year-old killed in the blaze have filed a separate case with police accusing the owners of a building where chemical products were stored and that caught fire of “death by negli-gence, sabotage and damage of goods,” Abdul Halim, a police investigator in Chawkbazar, said. He said no arrests had been made. Workers were removing charred vehicles, twisted bits of metal and other debris from Chawkbazar yesterday, while others hosed down the road to clean ashes as investigators inspected the burned buildings to determine what caused the blaze.

The area in what is known as Old Dhaka is crammed with apartments, shops and ware-houses and firefighters struggled to reach the fire because of the

neighbourhood’s narrow alleyways. Officials and activists have suggested the storage of flammable materials as well as overcrowding played a part in the blaze.

“Cans of deodorant and lighter refilling fuel were stored in the buildings. These are flam-mable chemicals that helped spread the fire quickly,” Lt. Col. S M Julfiqar Rahman, a director of the Fire Service and Civil Defense, told reporters.

Meanwhile, authorities were collecting DNA samples from family members searching for missing relatives.

Of the 67 victims, 21 remained unidentif ied, according to Rumana Akter, an officer in the Dhaka police’s criminal investigations unit.

Forensic doctors and lab technicians at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital took blood and cheek swabs in a crowded room outside the hospital morgue to be compared to teeth, hair and other samples taken from the dead.

Mohammed Razu Ahmed, 19, gave a blood sample hoping it would help find his father, Jafar Ahmed, a plastic supplier who went to Chawkbazar to pick up raw materials. Several family members including Ahmed examined 30 bodies but none of them was him.

“We have been calling on his phone since Wednesday night,” Ahmed said. “They told us they will let us know.” A team of civil engineers, members of Dhaka’s fire department and government officials were expected to suggest ways to prevent similar tragedies.

Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi arrives at the Rakhine State Investment Fair at Ngapali beach in Thandwe, Rakhine, Myanmar, yesterday.

Suu Kyi woos investors to crisis-hit Rakhine, decries ‘negative’ focusREUTERS NGAPALI BEACH, MYANMAR

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi called for investment in the crisis-hit western state of Rakhine yesterday, saying the world had “focused narrowly on negative aspects” in the state from which some 730,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled since 2017.

On a rare visit to Rakhine, Suu Kyi emphasised responsible business practices as she addressed an investment fair sponsored by Japan in the coastal state’s tourist hotspot of Ngapali beach.

But she made only a brief reference to the conflicts that have roiled areas several hundred kilometres to the north and did not mention the Rohingya. As well as those stuck in Bangladesh, hundreds of

thousands of Rohingya and other Muslims remain trapped in camps and villages in Rakhine, where their movements and access to services are restricted.

“For too long the interna-tional community’s attention has been focused narrowly on neg-ative aspects related to problems in north Rakhine rather than on the larger picture that shows the immense potential of this state for peace and development,” Suu Kyi said.

Her government recognised the “grave challenges” it faced in Rakhine and was doing its utmost to address them.

She has pledged to make Myanmar more investment-friendly as her government attempts to reverse a drop in foreign investment and tourism from the West. A UN fact-finding mission last year said the 2017 military campaign that pushed

out the Rohingya was orches-trated with “genocidal intent”. Myanmar denies allegations of mass killings, and says its offensive was a legitimate response to an insurgent threat and that it is welcoming the ref-ugees back.

The investment fair was attended by Myanmar officials, UN staff and investors and dip-lomats mostly from Japan, South Korea and elsewhere in Asia.

Domestic and foreign investment could play a crucial role in the state, Suu Kyi said, but warned against irresponsible investments like “unchecked expansion of commercial fishery projects” that could damage Rakhine’s coastal mangrove forests. Some experts warn a focus on economic solutions to Rakhine’s problems could cement the marginalisation of the mostly stateless Rohingya.

INTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad will arrive in Islamabad on March 22, to grace the annual Pakistan Day celebrations as chief guest.

The visit comes after Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is a

self-confessed Mahathir fan, had invited the Malaysian leader to attend the March 23 ceremony in Islamabad.

The two countries are expected to hold meetings and sign Memorandum of Under-standing (MOU) in investment and trade sectors.

Imran led a delegation to

Kuala Lumpur in November last year, during which the two sides agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in trade, privati-sation, foreign direct investment, food, and tourism.

“We look up to him [Mahathir] a leader who trans-formed his country. We have fol-lowed Malaysia’s progress and

my party [Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf] wants to learn from your leadership.

How Malaysia transformed its economy, developed and raised per capita and gross domestic product,” said the premier in a joint press con-ference with his Malaysian counterpart.

Noting that the two leaders had acquired mandate cam-paigning on an anti-corruption platform, PM Imran said both the governments were faced with a similar situation: the crisis of unprecedented debt. He added that the discussion revolved around dealing with and coming out of the present crisis.

Malaysian PM to be chief guest on Pakistan Day ceremony

07SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2019 ASIA

Cambodia on global

money-laundering

watchlist: Report

JAKARTA: A global

money-laundering watch-

dog placed Cambodia on

its watchlist yesterday

because of concern the

country, which has never

prosecuted a money-laun-

dering case, is vulnerable to

the concealment of illegally

acquired money. Cambo-

dia inclusion on a “grey list”

drawn up by the Financial

Action Task Force (FATF)

could curtail international

financial, investment and

trade flows to and from the

Southeast Asian country.

The FATF is an inter-gov-

ernmental organisation

that underpins the fight

against money laundering

and terrorist financing. FATF

president Marshall Bill-

ingslea said Cambodia had

“significant deficiencies”.

“It really runs the gamut,”

he said, added that Cambo-

dia had made a “high-level

political commitment” to

address the problem.

IN SHORT

Chinese-Australian

billionaire wins

defamation suit

CANBERRA: Chinese-

Australian billionaire Chau

Chak Wing was awarded

$200,000 in damages yes-

terday by an Australian judge

who ruled he was defamed

by a media report that insin-

uated he bribed a former

United Nations general

assembly president.

The businessman, philanthro-

pist and generous political

donor sued Fairfax Media

and journalist John Garnaut

over an online story pub-

lished in October 2015 under

the headline: “Are Chau Chak

Wing’s circles of influence

in Australia-China ties built

on hot air?” Garnaut later

became a China analyst who

was commissioned by the

Australian government to

write a classified report that

found the Chinese Commu-

nist Party for a decade had

tried to influence Australian

policy, compromise political

parties and gain access to all

levels of government.

The report led to Parliament

passing laws forbidding cov-

ert foreign interference in

domestic politics.

Rebels named leaders of Philippine Muslim territory AP MANILA

Some of the fiercest Muslim rebel commanders in the southern Philippines were sworn in yesterday as administrators of a new Muslim autonomous region in a delicate milestone to settle one of Asia’s longest-raging rebellions.

President Rodrigo Duterte led a ceremony to name Moro Islamic Liberation Front leader Murad Ebrahim and some of his top commanders as among 80 administrators of a transition government for the five-province region called Bangsamoro.

About 12,000 combatants with thousands of firearms are to be demobilised starting this year under the peace deal. Thou-sands of other guerrillas would disarm if agreements under the deal would be followed, including providing the insur-gents with livelihood to help them return to normal life.

“We would like to see an end of the violence,” Duterte said. “After all, we go to war and shoot each other counting our victories not by the progress or devel-opment of the place but by the dead bodies that were strewn around during the violent years.”

About 150,000 people have

died in the conflict over several decades and stunted devel-opment in the resource-rich region that is the country’s poorest. Duterte promised ade-quate resources, a daunting problem in the past.

The Philippine and Western governments and the guerrillas see an effective Muslim autonomy as an antidote to nearly half a century of Muslim secessionist violence, which the Islamic State group could exploit to gain a foothold.

“The dream that we have fought for is now happening and

there’s no more reason for us to carry our guns and continue the war,” rebel forces spokesman Von Al Haq said.

Several commanders long wanted for deadly attacks were given safety passes to be able to travel to Manila and join the cer-emony, including Abdullah Macapaar, who uses the nom de guerre Commander Bravo, Al Haq said. Known for his fiery rhetoric while wearing his cam-ouflage uniform and brandishing his assault rifle and grenades, Macapaar will be one of the 41 regional administrators from the Muslim rebel front.

Duterte would pick his rep-resentatives to fill the rest of the Bangsamoro Transit ion Authority, which will also act as a regional parliament with Murad as the chief minister until regular officials are elected in 2022. Members of another Muslim rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front, which signed a 1996 autonomy deal that has largely been seen as a failure, would also be given seats in the autonomous government.

Disgruntled fighters of the Moro National Liberation Front broke off and formed new armed groups, including the notorious Abu Sayyaf, which turned to ter-rorism and banditry after losing its commanders early in battle.

The Abu Sayyaf has been black-listed by the United States as a terrorist organisation and has been suspected of staging a sus-pected January 27 suicide bombing that killed 23 mostly churchgoers in a Roman Catholic cathedral on southern Jolo island.

Under the peace deal

brokered by Malaysia, the rebels gave up their goal of a separate state in exchange for broader autonomy. The 40,000 fighters and at least 7,000 firearms that Murad’s group has declared would be demobilised in three phases depending on progress in the agreement’s enforcement.

Bangsamoro replaces an existing poverty-wracked auton-omous region with a larger, better-funded and more pow-erful entity. An annual grant, which could reach more than $1bn, is to be set aside to bolster development in a region deeply scarred by decades of fighting.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gives a peace sign with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chairman Murad Ebrahim during the Ceremonial Confirmation of the Bangsamoro Organic Law Plebescite Law Canvass Results and Oath-taking of Transition Authority at the Malacanang palace in Manila yesterday.

About 12,000 combatants with thousands of firearms are to be demobilised starting this year under the peace deal. Thousands of other guerrillas would disarm if agreements under the deal would be followed, including providing the insurgents with livelihood to help them return to normal life.

North Korea warns of food crisis, slashes rationsREUTERS UNITED NATIONS

North Korea has warned that it is facing a food shortfall of some 1.4 million tons in 2019 and has been forced to almost halve rations, blaming high tempera-tures, drought, floods and United Nations sanctions in a memo.

The release of the undated two-page memo by the North Korean mission to the United Nations comes ahead of a second summit next week between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on denucleari-sation of the Korean peninsula.

Washington has been demanding that North Korea give up a nuclear weapons pro-gramme that threatens the United States, while North Korea has been seeking a lifting of punishing sanctions, a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War and security guarantees.

The 15-member UN Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and bal-listic missile programs.

“The DPRK government calls on international organisations to urgently respond to addressing the food situation,” read the North Korean memo,

which the country’s UN mission described as a follow-up to joint assessment with the World Food Programme between November 26 and December 7, 2018. The official name for North Korea is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The memo said North Korea’s food production last year was 4.951 million tonnes, 503,000 tonnes down on 2017. The United Nations confirmed these figures as official gov-ernment data provided at the end of January and said North Korea’s food production included rice, wheat, potatoes and soy beans. North Korea said it would import 200,000 tons of food and produce about 400,000 tons of early crops, but that it would still be left with a gap and from January would cut daily rations to 300 grams per person from 550 grams.

UN officials and aid groups were consulting the government to “further understand the impact of the food security sit-uation on the most vulnerable people in order to take early action to address their human-itarian needs,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. He said the United Nations and aid groups were only able to help one third of six million people estimated to be in need last year due to a lack of funding.

Howard X, an Australian-Chinese impersonator of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russell White, who is impersonating US President Donald Trump, pose for a photo outside the Opera House, ahead of the upcoming Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, yeserday.

Vietnam announces traffic ban on possible route of Kim for summit REUTERS HANOI

Vietnam will ban traffic on the road North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is expected to take from a train station on the Chinese border to the capital, Hanoi, ahead of his summit next week with US President Donald Trump, state media reported yesterday.

Vietnam has been preparing for Kim to arrive by train for the February 27-28 summit in

Hanoi, two sources with direct knowledge of security and logistics planning said.

Kim’s train will stop at the border station of Dong Dang where he will disembark and proceed 170km to Hanoi by car, the sources said. Vietnamese police have stepped up security at the station in anticipation of an “important event”.

Traffic on that route will be partially banned from 7pm on February 25 and fully banned from 6am to 2pm on February

26, the ruling Communist Party’s Nhan Dan paper reported, citing the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam. Kim Jong Un will arrive in Vietnam on February 25, three sources with direct knowledge of his schedule said. In a statement issued late yesterday, the People’s Committee of Lang Son province, where Dong Dang station is located, said it would tighten security on the road. Roadworks there will be sus-pended from February 24 until 28, the statement said.

China: Stop asking women about marriage, babiesREUTERS KUALA LUMPUR

Chinese authorities have urged employers not to ask women about their marital status or childbearing plans in job inter-views, in the latest step to tackle discrimination at work and boost female participation in the labour force.

Women’s rights cam-paigners have highlighted what they called widespread sexism in recruitment among Chinese firms, which routinely favours men or specifically bars women applicants.

In a notice, nine gov-ernment agencies, including the education and human

resources ministries, said gender bias is not allowed when it comes to hiring.

This includes refusing to hire women or restricting their employment due to gender, or asking them about their marital or childbearing status. Pregnancy tests as part of the recruitment process is also barred. “Gender equality is our country’s fundamental policy,” said the notice posted on a government website on Thursday.

“ P r o m o t i n g e q u a l employment for women would help to enhance their wider participation in social and eco-nomic activities,” it added.

China, the world’s second

largest economy, has one of Asia’s highest rates of female participation in workforce but that has declined in recent years and the government is keen to keep women at work as its population ages rapidly.

About 61 percent of women aged 15 and above were in work in 2018, compared to 73 percent in 1990, World Bank data shows.

In the wake of the global #MeToo movement last year, Chinese women have spoken out against physical har-assment in schools and the workplace, and the need for more robust rights.

Lawyer Lv Xiaoquan from the Beijing-based Qianqian law

firm, which offers legal aid on women’s rights cases, said the notice did not go far enough to provide legal protection.

“This is a good step to show the government is serious in tackling gender equality issues but our concern is that it is a guideline, it’s not legally binding,” he told journalist by phone yesterday.

Major Chinese tech firms including Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent last year pledged to address gender bias in recruitment after a report by watchdog Human Rights Watch which found pervasive sexism. The New York-based group said firms lured appli-cants with the promise of

working with “beautiful girls” in job adverts, while nearly one in five ads for Chinese gov-ernment jobs last year were for “men only” or “men preferred”.

Human Rights Watch’s China researcher Yaqiu Wang said yesterday the new notice was a step forward.

“We hope the government will vigorously enforce the new measures, as enforcement of existing anti-gender dis-criminatory laws and regula-tions has been fairly poor so far,” Wang said in an emailed statement. China was ranked 103 out of 149 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2018 Gender Gap Report.

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the US troops withdrawal from Syria at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month, she expressed concerns also held by some US officials: “Is it a good idea for the Americans to suddenly and quickly withdraw from Syria? Or will it once again strengthen the capacity of Iran and Russia to exert their influence there?”

AFP

08 SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2019VIEWS

Why Trump is suddenly going back on his promise to withdraw all US troops from Syria

When nations declare victory over terror groups, there are often three stages: a full-blown

victory announcement, followed by gradually mounting doubts and even-tually the acknowledgment that things might be a bit more complicated than assumed.

On the Islamic State, President Donald Trump has gone from stage one (“After historic victories against ISIS, it’s time to bring our great young people home!”) straight to an early stage 3 within only two months. In a sudden, partial reversal, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders announced Thursday that “a small peacekeeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for some time.” The extended mission still appears to be temporary, but Sanders’ announcement was a far shot from the certainty of imminent and long-term victory conveyed by Trump in December. Initially, all US troops

were expected to have left the country by the end of April.

So, what has changed?

The threat posed by the Islamic State: The area con-trolled by the Islamic State has con-tinued to shrink in recent months. Two parts of Syria are con-trolled by the militants, but almost all of it is essen-tially unin-habited. In reality, the ISIS territory has now shrunk to a tiny part of the village of

Baghouz, which is expected to fall soon, as well.

Despite the territorial advances, the last two months have shown that claiming back the group’s territory doesn’t automatically result in victory over the group itself. Thousands of Islamic State fighters are still believed to be in Syria and Iraq, and the US decision to withdraw has raised

concerns that this number may even grow further once again. So far, Kurdish fighters in Syria were able to rely on their ally, the United States, to hold their own territory (highlighted in green in the map above) and watch over hundreds of Western Islamic State detainees arrested as the group lost its territory.

Feeling abandoned by Wash-ington, the Syrian Kurds are now threatening to release the ISIS fighters they have so far held, as they focus on a potential battle for their own existence. That Kurdish response should not have come as a surprise, but neither Europe nor the United States appear to have had a plan for what’s next.

Much to US allies’ dismay, Trump subsequently urged Europe to take back its ISIS fighters - even though he himself on Wednesday stopped the return of an Alabama woman who had joined the Islamic State. The reasons for prevailing hesitancy among the US government and its European coun-terparts in taking back their citizens are largely the same: they fear that courts may not be able to sentence returning fighters because of a lack of evidence, allowing former ISIS fighters to roam the streets of Paris, London or New York City instead of being sent to jail.

As few nations are willing to repat-riate their citizens, there are few viable options out of that dilemma except a continuation of the approach they’ve pursued so far - with troops inside Syria.

Plans for a “safe zone” in north-eastern Syria: The repercussions of Trump’s announcement of a full with-drawal in December also led to con-cerns that two US allies might fight each other immediately after the American departure. The United States

is both allied with NATO member Turkey and the Syrian Kurds. Turkey, meanwhile, considers the Syrian Kurds as being allied with Kurdish militants on its own soil and has vowed to attack them once US forces have withdrawn.

To prevent such an escalation, a “safe zone” between Turkey and ter-ritory held by Syrian Kurds has been proposed. But a full US withdrawal would make such a safe zone almost impossible, given that the two remaining powers who could patrol it - France and Britain - have warned Trump that they won’t stay behind if he follows through on his pull-out.

Concerns over growing influence of Iran: Other nations are more willing to fill the power vacuum this would create, with Iran being positioned especially well as a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Syrian mil-itary forces have in recent years worked hand in hand both with Ira-nian-commanded militias and Russian troops. All three nations would be eager to expand their sway over the northeastern parts of the country, cur-rently held by the US-backed Kurdish fighters.

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the US troops with-drawal from Syria at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month, she expressed concerns also held by some US officials: “Is it a good idea for the Americans to suddenly and quickly withdraw from Syria? Or will it once again strengthen the capacity of Iran and Russia to exert their influence there?”

Thursday’s announcement to keep some troops in the country suggests that waiting to find out the answer to that question appears to be an increas-ingly risky bet to the Trump adminis-tration, too.

RICK NOACK THE WASHINGTON POST

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Maduro closing borders to humanitarian

aid while innocent Venezuelans suffer is

disgusting and wholly unacceptable. The

blocking of any aid is inhumane, it must be

allowed in. Venezuelans have suffered enough.

Jeremy Hunt British Foreign Secretary

Submarine deal shows France-Australia ties in ‘new phase’

A giant submarine deal between France and Australia is the latest sign of deepening relations between the two

countries, which are being driven together by mutual concern about China and Britain’s changing role in the world, analysts say. Australia announced last week that it had finalised a $35bn deal to buy 12 attack-class submarines from the Naval Group consortium, partly owned by the French state.

The contract had been under dis-cussion for years -- a preliminary deal was signed in 2016 -- but the final sig-nature capped a period of intense dip-lomatic activity propelled by French President Emmanuel Macron.

“France and Australia have entered a completely new phase. We’ve never been this close,” Aus-tralia’s ambassador to France, Brendan Berne, said.

“It’s more than a contract; it’s a partnership based on trust. Through this project the French are entrusting us with key elements of sovereignty.”

Although ties between Paris and

Canberra were improving even before Macron’s election in 2017, Berne said the 41-year-old leader “sees Australia through new eyes”.

Macron made his first official visit to Australia in May last year, when he proposed strengthening the axis of democracies between India, Australia and France in what was billed as a major foreign policy speech.

Underpinning the relationship is a concern about the future of the Indo-Pacific region which stretches from the east coast of Africa to the west coast of the Americas, and includes the disputed territories of the East and South China Seas. As Admiral Phil Davidson, com-mander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, said in January during a speech in India, “the future for pros-perity — not only for the United States, but all nations of the region — is res-ident in the Indo-Pacific.”

It hosts vital international trade routes and abundant natural resources, which many nations have an interest in claiming — above all regional superpower China.

France has a major stake through its colonial-era Pacific territories — French Polynesia, New Caledonia,

Reunion, Mayotte, and Wallis and Futuna -- which are home to more than 1.6 million citizens.

Because of the scattered terri-tories, France possesses the world’s largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EZZ) of nearly nine million square kilo-metres (3.5 million square miles).

As Berne points out, France’s biggest maritime border in the world is with Australia, and the capital of New Caledonia can be reached by just a two-hour flight from Brisbane.

Both nations have also been alarmed by increased Chinese assert-iveness, particularly in the South China Sea, where Beijing is building up its military presence in a bid to claim the strategic seaway as its own, ana-lysts say.

“For France, because it has the largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world, respect for the law of the sea isn’t an abstract concept,” said Philippe Errera, an advisor at the French foreign ministry.

“If the law of the sea is not respected today in the China Sea, it will be threatened tomorrow in the Arctic, in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Indian Ocean,” he said.

There is no doubt that by introducing smart systems at Hamad International Airport, country’s sea and land borders and inside the country, the security officials have successfully made Qatar a safest place to live in.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI

osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Performance wins pride

The Ministry of Interior not only through its number of advanced initiatives and smart technologies is protecting peace and security of the country but has

also won pride for the country when it recently received awards for its smart security innovations.

The Ministry of Interior last week won top places and a gold medal in the field of smart security innovations at the 11th International Inventions Exhibition in the Middle East held in Kuwait.

Four innovative devices of the Ministry of Interior won honour for the country including Smart Security Investi-gator; Security Robot; Automatic Detector for Explosives and Drugs; and Smart Vest which shows Ministry’s com-mitment to its duty and dedicated professionalism.

There is no doubt that by introducing smart systems at Hamad International Airport, country’s sea and land borders and inside the country, the security officials have successfully made Qatar a safest place to live in.

Qatar recently retained its global distinction as the safest country among Arab countries and globally by winning first place in terms of safety and security among

118 countries, according to the annual report of the crime index 2019 issued by ‘Numbeo’ the world’s largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries worldwide last month.

Numbeo provides current and timely information on world living conditions including cost of living, housing indicators, health care, traffic, crime and pollution.

Qatar scored a total of 13.26 points in crime index, being the lowest scorer of the points starting from zero to hundred points. According to this classification the State of Qatar came in the forefront of the safest countries with a score of (86.74) points in safety index during the current year.

Back to recent achievement of winning awards for smart security innovations, the Smart Security Investi-gator of the Ministry of Interior contributes to enhancing security within Hamad International Airport and other ports of the state, to uncover the prohibited things and facilitate the work of airport security personnel in securing vital facilities.

Similarly, the Smart Security Robot can detect sus-pects at the airport and identify the faces of those wanted through fingerprint. It also helps for detection of weapons and explosives and the detection of counterfeit currency and fake credit cards. The robot recognises suspicious people by measuring the heartbeat if it exceeds the normal limit giving a signal to the security man.

The invention, which won the gold medal, was a ‘smart jacket’ that cools the body of the worker working in the external hot sites. This jacket features an intelligent system that measures the body’s vital signals, such as heart impulses and breathing times, and draws its energy through a solar cell fitted with a jacket.

Military vehicles with the US-backed coalition against the Islamic State group are pictured during an operation, in the countryside of the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, yesterday.

Today Vietnam is one of Asia’s fastest growing economies and counts the US and South Korea among its closest allies — two countries technically still at war with North Korea.

09SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2019 OPINION

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Eastern Europe feedson a shrinking Ukraine

North Korea’s forgotten fighters in Vietnam

LEONID BERSHIDSKY BLOOMBERG

TRAN THI MINH HA AFP

One of the issues compli-cating the Ukrainian presi-dential election at the end of March is that no one,

including pollsters, knows how many people still live in the country. Waves of Ukrainians have been emigrating and counting them isn’t easy.

Official statistics are deceptively

detailed. The latest population count, from December 2018, is 42,177,579. According to the Ukrainian State Sta-tistical Service, there was a sharp drop in population between 2014 and 2015, when Ukraine lost Russian-annexed Crimea and couldn’t run counts in the eastern regions of the country, controlled by Russian proxies. But in recent years, there has been no sharp population decline.

That, quite likely, is inaccurate. Government statistics show a slight population increase in the first 11 months of 2018, though the number of internal refugees from the areas controlled by pro-Russian forces - the biggest source of inbound migration in recent years -- did not grow during this period. The giveaway is that data from neighboring countries show that large numbers of Ukrainians are moving, especially to eastern Europe, and more have been tempted to do so since the EU introduced visa-free travel in June 2017.

Europe’s official statistical service, Eurostat, is slow to release migration data; the latest available are for 2017. But even those data suggest that something is wrong with the official Ukrainian numbers. Eurostat says 662,000 Ukrainians, more than any other nationality, received EU residence permits in 2017. Meanwhile, according to the Ukrainian government, only 430,290 people migrated out of Ukraine that year.

Most of the inflow went to Poland which, according to Eurostat, issued 585,439 residence permits to Ukrainians in 2017. Ukrainians were also the biggest group of permit recipients in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Lithuania. It’s hard to miss the irony here:

These are all countries with anti-immigration governments, which openly fight or quietly boycott the EU’s attempts to redistribute asylum seekers throughout Europe on the grounds that they are too poor to pay for big integration efforts or that the Middle Eastern and African Migrants are too culturally dissimilar from them.

These are, however, also coun-tries with tight labor markets - the result of big population outflows to wealthier nations. Poland has sim-plified procedures for employing for-eigners, used mainly for Ukrainians, which allow companies to hire people on the basis of “employment intention declarations.”

In 2017, such declarations were issued for 1.7 million Ukrainians, in addition to almost 200,000 work permits. The rules were slightly tightened in 2018 to improve com-pliance with EU regulations, and in the first half of last year, 820,000 declarations were filed, most of them benefiting Ukrainians. It’s uncertain how many people actually took up the jobs, but it’s likely that their number in Poland alone is higher than Eurostat’s residence permit count.

Other countries, too, try to lure Ukrainian workers. The Czech Republic has a simplified employment program for them, and earlier this year, the government doubled the fast-track employment quota for Ukrainians to 19,600 per year. Ukrainians are already the biggest community of legally resident foreigners in the Czech Republic - 117,000 out of a total population of 10.5 million.

Ukrainian communities are growing fast in the Baltic states too, where a worker can make far more than in Ukraine. In Lithuania they’re the largest group of resident for-eigners and their number increased 55 percent last year. In Estonia, a record inflow of Ukrainians was reg-istered in 2018. Russia, which many

consider to be in a state of war with Ukraine, issued 77,000 residence permits to Ukrainians; 81,000 became Russian citizens.

It’s still hard to get a complete picture of the emigration because of unofficial and semi-official seasonal employment. In 2017, 11,000 Ukrainians were found to be illegally present in EU countries - but that’s only a fraction of those who work in Europe without obtaining any official permits. With the visa-free regime, it’s not easy to track those who do so on a seasonal basis.

Migrant remittances, which last year amounted to 13.8 percent of Ukraine’s economic output, according to the World Bank, are perhaps the best measure of the Ukrainian popu-lation outflow.

Judging by a 35 percent jump in remittances in 2018, the biggest one-year increase since 2007, a growing number of Ukrainians are working outside their home country, and their number is likely higher than the 5.9 million estimated by the United Nations in 2017.

This is politically important. The loss of the relatively pro-Russian populations of Crimea and eastern Ukraine has boosted the election chances of pro-EU, pro-North Atlantic Treaty Organization politi-cians. But it’s often the most active and enterprising Ukrainians who seek their fortunes overseas; the effect of emigration may help tip the balance toward unpredictable popu-lists. (While non-resident Ukrainians can vote, turnout is low as few bother to travel and line up at local embassies or have faith that the outcome will change much.) The current leader of the race, Volodymyr Zelensky, is a comedian and TV pro-ducer without any political expe-rience or a coherent program.

The Ukrainian emigration is sig-nificant for Europe, too. The eastern European resistance to accepting refugees isn’t anti-immigrant sen-timent per se: it’s anti-Muslim and often racist, and it’s based on a common perception that immigrants from outside Europe won’t want to work or blend in. Such discrimi-nation is deeply ingrained, but to combat it, Western European coun-tries could work harder to improve their own records on integrating immigrants.

A caretaker tends to the head-stones of 14 North Koreans killed fighting in the Vietnam War, carefully sweeping

around the plaques honouring Pyongyang’s little-known contri-bution to Hanoi’s anti-American crusade.

The bodies of the 12 fighter pilots and two technicians were buried here before they were repatriated in 2002 but the rarely-visited graveyard, bor-dered by rice paddy fields, remains a symbol of an era when Hanoi relied on Pyongyang for help.

Today Vietnam is one of Asia’s fastest growing economies and counts the US and South Korea among its closest allies — two countries techni-cally still at war with North Korea.

Hanoi also maintains ties with Pyongyang and will next week host the second summit between US Pres-ident Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

There is no word on whether Kim plans to visit the small, tidy memorial that caretaker and former soldier Duong Van Dau has looked after since 2000.

“They are martyrs who died for our country, so I have the responsi-bility to protect them,” Dau said, standing before the headstones in northern Bac Giang province.

He sometimes visits the site to light incense or clean the headstones, all of which face northeast toward the fighters’ homeland.

Pyongyang sent about 80 fighter pilots to support North Vietnam during the war between 1966 and 1969, when American bombers were pounding the north as part of the Rolling Thunder campaign.

The North Koreans never came face-to-face with any of the estimated 300,000 South Koreans -- including several dozen taekwondo specialists -- fighting alongside the Americans in

the south. But they dispatched psy-chological warfare personnel and propaganda experts, some of whom targeted South Koreans with anti-American leaflets.

“South Korean soldiers in Vietnam! Seek hundred, thousand vengeances against the American imperialist aggressors!” read one.

Though the North Koreans are believed to have shot down several American planes, their overall con-tribution to the conflict was marginal and they gained a reputation for being tough but not especially effective.

“They fought very bravely in the aerial battles, (but) they were gen-erally too slow and too mechanical in their reactions when engaged which is why so many of them were shot down by the Americans,” said Viet-namese pilot Vu Ngoc Dinh, cited in Istvan Toperczer’s book “MiG-21 Aces of the Vietnam War”.

Though Vietnam today quietly honours Pyongyang’s wartime contri-bution, leader Kim Il Sung’s reasons for joining the fight in the aftermath of the Korean war were not totally selfless.

“By sending North Korean pilots and other elements to Vietnam, he was helping Vietnam stay in the fight and to keep the American forces tied down,” Jiyul Kim, assistant history professor at Oberlin College, told AFP.

As the war started winding down, relations began to sour.

Pyongyang initially resented North Vietnam’s willingness to nego-tiate with the US, and the allies con-tinued to grow apart as Vietnam grad-ually embraced the West.

Relations hit a low in 1992 after Hanoi established diplomatic ties with Seoul, followed by a quarrel in 1996 over an unpaid rice shipment from Hanoi to North Korea at the height of its famine.

It took decades for either side to public acknowledge North Korea’s wartime contribution.

For Vietnam, ignoring this little-

The latest population count, from December 2018, is 42,177,579. According to the Ukrainian State Statistical Service, there was a sharp drop in population between 2014 and 2015, when Ukraine lost Russian-annexed Crimea and couldn’t run counts in the eastern regions of the country, controlled by Russian proxies. But in recent years, there has been no sharp population decline.

known chapter offered a more cou-rageous narrative.

“It’s much more glorious to have beaten the Americans alone,” Balazs Szalontai, an expert on North Korean studies and Cold War history, said.

It was only around 2000 that news of North Korea’s help in the war emerged and later that year a senior North Korean official visited the memorial during a trip to Vietnam. The bodies were brought back two years later and remain in a war cemetery in North Korea along with others who fought in the Vietnam War.

In the years since diplomatic ties have gradually grown closer — though trade trickled under UN sanctions — a once-isolated Vietnam now stands as a potential economic model for Pyongyang.

Some Vietnam veterans hope the memorial will keep the memory of North Korea wartime involvement alive.

“When we are gone, the young ones won’t know anything about what the North Koreans did for us,” said 90-year-old Tran Van Nguyen, who lives near the site.

A welcoming banner with images of US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hangs at a South Korean restaurant ahead of USA-DPRK summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.

10 SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2019EUROPE

Ninth MP quitsLabour Party in another joltAFP LONDON

A ninth lawmaker resigned from Britain’s main opposition Labour Party yesterday, blaming leader Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of accusations of anti-Semitism within its ranks.

Ian Austin’s resignation adds to a mounting rebellion against Corbyn after the defections earlier this week of eight Labour MPs over the issues of anti-Semitism and Brexit.

Austin said he was “appalled at the offence and distress Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party have caused to Jewish people” and that he had become “ashamed” of its conduct under the left-wing opposition leader.

“It is terrible that a culture of extremism, anti-Semitism and intolerance is driving out good MPs and decent people who have committed their life to mainstream politics,” he told the Express & Star, his constitu-ency’s local newspaper.

The hard left is now in charge of the party, they’re going to get rid of lots of decent main-stream MPs and I just can’t see how it can return to the main-stream party that won elections and changed the country for the better.”

Earlier this week, eight Labour MPs, and then three from the governing Conservative party, formed a new centrist block in parliament, in the biggest split in British politics since 1981.

The Conservative rebels

cited opposition to what they see as their party’s increasingly hardline euroscepticism for their departures, while the Labour lawmakers blamed quitting on both its Brexit policy and its anti-Semitism issues.

They now sit in the House of Commons as an independent group and have signalled plans for a new centre-ground party.

However Austin, an MP since year 2005 who has said Britain’s 2016 EU referendum result should be honoured, indi-cated that he would not be joining the new faction imminently.

Britain’s two main parties are badly divided over Brexit and the tensions have come to a head as the March 29 deadline for the country’s departure from the bloc looms.

Labour has been plagued by claims of anti-Semitism ever since Corbyn, a lifelong euro-sceptic and supporter of anti-Israel groups, became its leader in 2015.

Austin said he was “appalled at the offence and distress Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party have caused to Jewish people” and that he had become “ashamed” of its conduct under the left-wing opposition leader.

UK appoints new top cop as anti-slavery chiefREUTERS LONDON

One of Britain’s most senior police officers was appointed as country’s new anti-slavery chief, about 10 months after the inau-gural commissioner resigned expressing frustration about government interference in his role.

Sara Thornton, head of the

National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) since 2015, will take up the position on a three-year con-tract in May, Britain’s interior ministry (Home Office) said.

Kevin Hyland was appointed as the inaugural independent anti-slavery commissioner in 2014 as part of Britain’s landmark Modern Slavery Act, but he resigned last May and left the post in August, saying his

work been hindered by gov-ernment meddling.

Hyland was widely hailed for helping to champion the world-first law and pushing the United Nations to adopt a target to end slavery by 2030 among a set of global goals agreed in 2015.

“Good progress has been made in recent years and I am committed to build on that and do what I can to consign this

crime to history,” Thornton said in a statement.

Thornton came under fire while chief constable of Thames Valley police in southern England for the force’s handling of a major child abuse scandal, for which she later apologised.

Britain’s interior minister, Sajid Javid, said Thornton would provide “valuable insight and advice” as the commissioner.

“The fact modern slavery still exists in the shadows of our com-munities is totally unacceptable,” he said in a statement.

Thornton will be expected to push for better identification and protection of victims, drive efforts to prevent slavery and trafficking, work with companies to push for slavery-free supply chains, and cooperate with other nations, the Home Office said.

Family of IS teen to appeal UK’s citizenship moveAFP LONDON

The family of a London teenager who joined the IS militant group in Syria said it would challenge the British government’s decision to revoke her citizenship.

Shamima Begum travelled to Syria in 2015 aged just 15 but has now fled the crumbling “caliphate” and says she wants to come home, after giving birth in a refugee camp last weekend.

A letter to interior minister Sajid Javid written by Begum’s sister Renu on behalf of her family also called on the gov-ernment to help bring her newborn son to Britain.

The fate of the 19-year-old has triggered fierce debate in Britain, with the government

telling her family this week that it was revoking her citizenship.

“We hope you understand our position in this respect and why we must, therefore, assist Shamima in challenging your decision to take away the one thing that is her only hope at rehabilitation, her British citi-zenship,” the family’s letter said.

Renu Begum’s letter also asked Javid to help “in bringing my nephew home to us”.

It said Shamima Begum’s status would now be a matter for British courts to decide.

International law prevents a government from rendering a person stateless, but Britain reportedly believes that Begum also has Bangladeshi citizenship due to her parents, although she was born in Britain.

The Bangladeshi government said there was “no question” of her being allowed to enter, and there is legal argument about whether simply having Bangal-deshi parents bestows citizenship.

Begum’s baby was born before she was told of the decision to revoke her citi-zenship, and is therefore British and has a right to return.

The teenager said she was “shocked” by Britain’s decision, saying “if you take that away from me, I don’t have anything. I don’t think they are allowed to do that.”

She has mentioned the pos-sibility of applying for citizenship in the Netherlands because her husband, an IS fighter believed to be held by Kurdish forces in

Syria, is a Dutch national.Public sentiment hardened

against Begum after she showed little remorse in initial interviews from the refugee camp.

Her family said yesterday they were “shocked and appalled” at the “vile comments” she made in the media.

“I have watched Shamima on our televisions open her mouth and set fire to our nation’s emo-tions,” said her sister’s letter.

“These are not represent-ative of British values, and my family entirely reject the com-ments she has made, but... we as her family cannot simply abandon her.”

The family argued that it made “every fathomable effort” to prevent her from joining mil-itant group.

Artist Harry Parker explains his drawings to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as she attends a service to mark the 100th anniversary of the Royal Army Chaplains’ Department’s ‘Royal’ prefix, at Wellington Barracks in London, Britain, yesterday.

Detained migrant rescue ship leaves ItalyAFP ROME

Migrant rescue ship Sea Watch 3 has been given permission to leave Italy three weeks after it was detained for breaching safety and environmental laws, the coastguard said yesterday.

The Dutch-flagged ship was blocked in the port of Catania at the start of February for “a series of non-compliances concerning both navigation safety and com-pliance with rules protecting the marine environment”.

“The vessel has been given permission to sail”, Italy’s coast-guard said, adding that its des-tination was the port of Marseille.

Some of the issues have been resolved, while others will be dealt with when the ship docks in France, it said.

The Sea Watch 3 was held after it disembarked dozens of people it had saved from the Mediterranean sea.

The crew had said at the time that it expected the vessel to be detained or impounded as a

show of strength from Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who says charity rescue boats aid illegal migration.

Salvini is looking into whether it is possible to ban charity rescue ships from Italian waters.

He accuses them of sailing straight for Italy rather than taking the migrants back to Libya. Rescuers argue that they cannot return people to the crisis-hit North African country as it cannot be considered a safe port under international maritime law. Woman dies after eating at

Michelin-starred restaurantAFP MADRID

A woman who died after eating at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Spain may have suffered food poisoning, a local court said yesterday.

The 46-year-old woman died on Sunday after dining with her family at the RiFF restaurant in the coastal city of Valencia.

The woman’s husband and 12-year-old son suffered food poisoning after eating at the res-taurant but “they have made a good recovery”, the court said in a statement.

Another 29 people who ate at the restaurant in the three days before her death also developed food poisoning, it said.

But “their symptoms were very mild, including mostly vomiting” and they made a good recovery, it said. “The investi-gating magistrate is waiting for a forensic report and test results from the autopsy.”

RiFF has been closed “until the causes of what happened are established”, the restaurant’s founder, German chef Bernd H. Knoller, said in a statement yesterday.

He said initial tests found the restaurant “complied with all health regulations” and that the restaurant was cooperating with authorities to carry out further tests.

RiFF was opened by Knoller in 2001 and awarded a Michelin star in 2009.

Four arrested in Catalonia amid general strikeANATOLIA MADRID

Police in Spain arrested four people in connection with a general strike called by pro-independence Catalan non-govern-mental organizations, trade unions and political parties.

In protest of the trial of 12 Catalan leaders in the country’s capital, Madrid, strikes brought several major Catalonian cities to a halt, including Barcelona, Girona and Tarragona.

At least 46 people were injured in dem-onstrations after clashes broke out with security forces, including 16 police officers and a Spanish journalist caught among the Catalan protestors.

A large demonstration was held in

Barcelona calling for “independence” and “freedom for political prisoners”.

Spain dissolved the Catalan par-liament after the Catalan government held an illegal independence referendum in October 2017.

Shortly afterward, then Spanish Premier Mariano Rajoy implemented Article 155 of Spain’s constitution which allows Madrid to intervene in the internal affairs of the country’s autonomous regions.

Ousted Catalan President Carles Puig-demont then fled Spain to Belgium before being briefly held in Germany for 12 days under an European Union arrest warrant

He returned to Brussels after his release, where he has been living in exile ever since.

German governmentdenies 2016 market attack cover-upAP BERLIN

The German government has rejected media reports claiming authorities sought to cover up the involvement of a second man in the 2016 truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market by deporting him.

German weekly Focus reported that Bilal Ben Ammar was arrested days after the attack and deported to Tunisia a month later, despite having contacts with the attacker.

Tunisian asylum-seeker Anis Amri killed 12 people in the market attack. Amri died in a shootout with police in Italy.

Interior Ministry spokes-woman, Eleonore Petermann, said deportations “are carried out according to the rule of law and certainly not in order to cover anything up.”

People walk by the entrance of Riff restaurant, in Valencia, yesterday.

Man holding a placard that reads, “Free political prisoners” during a strike day against the trial of former Catalan separatist leaders, in Barcelona.

N Macedonian prison chief fired for assaultAP SKOPJE

The head of North Macedonia’s main prison in the capital of Skopje has been fired after two former government ministers being held in pre-trial detention were assaulted in the prison yard by other inmates.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev demanded the resignation of Gjoko Kotevski yesterday, a day after the attack in which one ex-minister was injured. The victim launched a hunger strike to protest the attack.

The labour and con-struction ministers in the coun-try’s former conservative gov-ernment, in power from 2006-2016, have been ordered jailed for 30 days pending trial in con-nection with the violent storming of parliament in 2017.

The jail attack, in which the former ministers were punched and kicked, took place late Thursday, a day after they entered prison. Both have been moved to a more secure prison area.

Royal visit

11SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2019 EUROPE / AMERICAS

Russia extends detention of alleged US spyREUTERS MOSCOW

A Russian court yesterday ruled that Paul Whelan, a former US marine accused of spying, should be held in a pre-trial detention facility for a further three months to give investigators more time to look into his case.

Whelan, who holds US, British, Canadian and Irish pass-ports, was detained in a Moscow hotel room on December 28 and accused of espionage, a charge he denies. If found guilty, he could be imprisoned for up to 20 years.

The case has put further

strain on already poor US-Russia relations as has that of another detained American, private equity chief Michael Calvey.

Russia’s Federal Security Service detained Whelan after an acquaintance handed him a flash drive containing classified infor-mation. Whelan’s lawyer says his client was misled. Whelan had met the same person in the town of Sergiev Possad in May last year where they visited the town’s mon-astery and other tourist sites, the lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, told reporters yesterday.

When Whelan returned to Russia again in December to

attend a wedding, the same acquaintance unexpectedly turned up and gave him a flash drive containing what Whelan thought were photographs of the earlier trip, the lawyer said.

“Paul and I consider this was a provocation and a crime by his acquaintance,” said Zhere-benkov, saying Whelan had known the man, whom he did not name, for several years.

Whelan yesterday appeared in court in a cage and looked downcast when he spoke briefly to reporters before masked security officials cut him off.

“I could do with care

packages, food, things like that, letters from home,” Whelan said.

The court said Whelan would be held in pre-trial detention until May 28, extending an earlier ruling to keep him in custody until February 28.

According to US embassy in Moscow a consular official had visited Whelan in custody on Thursday, adding that it was unable to provide further infor-mation as Whelan had not been allowed by investigators to sign a privacy act waiver (PAW) that would legally allow the US gov-ernment to release information about the case.

Teen activist brings climate protest in ParisAFP PARIS

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg brought her class-boycott campaign to Paris yesterday, hoping to encourage more French students to hit the streets with demands for bold efforts to combat global warming.

Yesterday’s protests that the 16-year-old Swede launched in August have gained little traction so far in France, where the landmark COP21 international accord on cutting emissions was signed in 2015.

After urging the EU in Brussels to move more aggres-sively on greenhouse gas cuts on Thursday, Thunberg then trav-elled to Paris where she met up with young activists from France, Belgium and Germany for a march which was also joined by French actress Juliette Binoche.

“I never thought it would get so big and I think it’s amazing,” she said of her campaign, speaking to journalists ahead of the march.

“We, children, we should not

have to do this, adults should be taking responsibility.”

A crowd of around 1,000 people took part in the protest in central Paris, one of dozens planned in cities across Europe as part of her “Fridays For Future” movement.

But outside Paris, only two other class-cutting marches have been organised — one in

Beauvais just north of Paris and one in the southwestern city of Dax.

Last Friday, only around 200 students protested outside the environment ministry in Paris.

“I don’t know why young people mobilise massively in some countries and not others,” Thunberg said in an interview with Le Parisien.

“France, the country of COP21, needs to do what it says it will,” she added.

Under the 2015 Paris deal to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the 28-nation EU has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030, com-pared to 1990.

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg (centre), 16, and Anuna De Wever (second left), a Belgian climate activist, taking part in a protest, in Paris, yesterday.

Sweden jails man for crown jewels heistAFP STOCKHOLM

A Swedish court yesterday jailed a 22-year old man for four-and-a-half years for stealing 17th century crown jewels from a cathedral in broad daylight in July.

The Eskilstuna district court found Nicklas Backstrom guilty of stealing two 1611 gold burial crowns and an orb from a locked display in Strangnas Cathedral, located 100km west of Stockholm, fleeing the scene in a motorboat.

The items, valued $6.9m, were originally interred with King Carl IX and his wife Queen Christina, but were later exhumed and put on display.

Backstrom’s trial opened in January, and was briefly sus-pended when the jewels sud-denly turned up in a dumpster outside Stockholm. One of the

crowns had been damaged, the court said in its verdict.

Backstrom’s DNA was found on the items, and he confessed to the robbery.

He was also found guilty of attempted robbery for three other royal objects left behind in the cathedral valued at 26.5 million kronor, though he denied those charges.

The prosecution had called for the maximum sentence of six years, while Backstrom’s lawyer had pushed for three years.

On July 31, 2018, two thieves nabbed the crown jewels in broad daylight and dashed from the cathedral toward a motorboat waiting on Lake Malaren.

Two other people — friends of Backstrom’s, according to media — have been arrested in the case and are under investi-gation for possession of stolen goods, but so far Backstrom is the only one to have been tried.

NY district attorney preparing charges against Manafort: ReportREUTERS WASHINGTON

The Manhattan district attorney is preparing to file state criminal charges against Paul Manafort (pictured), President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, in case the president pardons him for his federal crimes, the New York Times reported, citing sources.

The Times reported that Dis-trict Attorney Cyrus Vance is expected to seek charges whether or not Trump pardons Manafort.

Manafort, 69 was convicted last August of bank and tax fraud. He is due to be sentenced in a federal court in Virginia on March 8, and faces up to 24 years in prison and a fine of up to $24m.

Manafort is also due to be sen-tenced on March 13 in a parallel federal case in Washington.

He is one of the first people in Trump’s orbit to face criminal charges stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inves-tigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. Both Trump and Russia have denied any election meddling.

The US president can issue pardons for federal cases only, and Manafort could still face prison if found guilty of any state charges. There are strict provi-sions in the US Constitution against “double jeopardy,” with the Fifth Amendment saying a person cannot be tried multiple times for the same alleged crime.

Some of Manafort’s New York property loans have also

been investigating by Vance, sources have said. The local prosecutor issued subpoenas last year to lenders including Federal Savings Bank of Chicago, a small bank that provided millions in loans to Manafort, Reuters reported last year.

It is unclear whether Vance will pursue charges over the loans. A spokesman for Vance declined to comment.

Brazil seeks arrest of senior Vale executive after dam disasterREUTERS RIO DE JANEIRO

Brazilian federal prosecutors are seeking the arrest of a Vale SA senior executive, authorities said yesterday, following the collapse of a dam holding mining by-products that is believed to have killed over 300 people.

This is the first time that prosecutors are seeking to detain a senior-level executive, although several mid-level employees were arrested after the disaster in the town of Bru-madinho. Eight employees are still being held.

The executive, Director of Ferrous Metals Peter Poppinga, has not been arrested after a judge declined to issue a warrant. But prosecutors said

they are still seeking his arrest in an appeal of the judge’s decision.

“Poppinga represented a risk to the public order and his freedom could hurt the enforcement of criminal law,” said prosecutor Gustavo Oliveira in the arrest request originally filed on February 11.

The prosecutor said in the arrest request that Vale and par-ticularly its Ferrous division were ultimately responsible for the Brumadinho disaster. The causes of the dam collapse are still being investigated.

A federal judge disagreed, saying in his decision that the fact that Poppinga continued as an executive director at Vale did not pose a risk to the public or economic order.

Two dead amid aid standoff in VenezuelaBLOOMBERG CARACAS

Venezuelan soldiers killed two members of the indigenous Pemon community who were trying to stop a convoy blocking humanitarian aid from crossing the border with Brazil.

Members of the Pemon stopped anti-riot troops and their vehicles about 6am as they tried to assert control over the remote area around Gran Sabana, about 1,260km southeast of Caracas. Soldiers opened fire, leaving more than a dozen indigenous people injured, some seriously, said Americo de Grazia, an oppo-sition member of the National Assembly.

“The military began to shoot,” he said. “They didn’t use tear gas or pellets. But they had to withdraw because the indig-enous community came out to protest in a rage, maintaining control of the area.”

The violence came as Vene-zuela prepares for a weekend of spectacle and danger as the opposition tries to open the borders of the hungry nation for

shipments of food and medicine.

In the border town of Cucuta, Colombia, a concert will raise money and try to inspire oppo-nents of the autocratic socialist regime. Volunteers are preparing to don white garb today morning and walk across international bridges to bring food and med-icine to their compatriots.

On the Venezuelan side, President Nicolas Maduro said the aid is a pretext for a US inter-vention and has locked down his nation.

Authorities hindered the movements of opposition law-makers and National Assembly leader Juan Guaido, who is trying to rally the world as he attempts

to break Maduro’s grip on the military.

Guaido’s primary weapon is tons of donated food and med-icine being stockpiled in Colombia, Brazil and the island of Curacao. Maduro’s gov-ernment said the ravaged country has no need for help, while US President Donald Trump has said all options are open if Venezuela continues to block the supplies.

Traditional aid groups have shunned the effort, saying basic human needs shouldn’t be tied to politics.

Near Cucuta, Venezuelans streamed across border crossings by foot yesterday under a scorching sun. On the interna-tional bridge in Urena, concert-goers wore white and tricolour caps. Many said they had come out for the day. Others said they planned to stay in Colombia to support Guaido.

“The concert is only the beginning,” said Katerine Vega, a 31-year-old nurse from the Andean town of Colon. Vega said she volunteered to help distribute food and medicine today. “We

don’t know how yet, but one way or another the aid is getting in.”

Cucuta’s Aid Live concert was organised by Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson and promises a bill of Latin super-stars such as Luis Fonsi, Juanes and J Balvin.

Branson told the crowd yes-terday morning he hoped “that the soldiers do the right thing and let much-needed medical help that has been donated from many, many South American

countries, food, across the bridges, across the rivers to people who desperately need it.”

Organisers expect tens of thousands on the site, an expansive pasture that they said can contain 300,000 — almost half the city’s population. The concert opened with song by Reymar Perdomo, who fled Ven-ezuela to become a busker on Lima’s buses. She became famous when her song “Me Fue” _ “I Left” — became an anthem

for the diaspora.Opposition supporters

passed out flyers urging people to camp out after the show, before arising to cross the bridge, one of three in that area of the border. It has been blocked for days by trailers the Maduro regime placed there, and Colombian authorities said yes-terday they had been welded to the ground. Opposition officials said they would bring in heavy equipment to move them aside.

Brazilian soldiers pile humanitarian aid after unloading it from Brazilian Air Force plane, at Ala 7 air base in Boa Vista, Roraima state, Brazil in the border with Venezuela, yesterday.

President Nicolas Maduro said the aid is a pretext for a US intervention and has locked down his nation.

12 SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2019AMERICAS / CLASSIFIEDS

US ambassador to Canada emerges as favourite for UN postAP WASHINGTON

US Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft is emerging as the front-runner to be the next US ambas-sador to the United Nations.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is backing Craft for the post, and she also has the support of Sec-retary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. They say President Donald Trump has been advised that Craft’s confirmation would be the smoothest of the three can-didates he is considering to fill the job last held by Nikki Haley.

Craft, a Kentucky native, was a member of the US dele-gation to the UN General Assembly under President George W Bush’s administration. She is also friends with McCon-nell’s wife, Transportation Sec-retary Elaine Chao, and thanked Chao for her “longtime friendship and support” at her swearing-in as ambassador.

As US ambassador to Canada, she played a role in f a c i l i t a t i n g t h e

US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, a revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Trump’s first pick to replace Haley, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, withdrew over the weekend.

Trump is also considering US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell and former US Senate candidate John James of Michigan for the post.

Nauert’s weekend with-drawal from consideration came amid a push within the admin-istration to fill the position given a pressing array of foreign policy concerns in which the United Nations, particularly the UN Security Council, is likely to play a significant role. From Afghan-istan to Venezuela, the admin-istration has pressing concerns that involve the world body, and officials said there had been impatience with the delays on Nauert’s formal nomination.

Trump said that he would pick the former Fox News anchor and State Department spokeswoman for the UN job, but her nomination was never formalised. Nauert’s nomination had languished in part due to the 35-day government shutdown that began on December 22.

Democrats move to block Trump’s border emergency

AFP WASHINGTON

US Democrats yesterday rolled out their measure aimed at blocking President Donald Trump from circumventing Congress to seize federal dollars for construction of his controversial southern border wall.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber will vote next Tuesday on the so-called disap-proval resolution aimed at termi-nating the national emergency that Trump declared last week, an exceptional step that sparked fierce political and legal battles.

The legislation is expected to clear the Democrat-held House of Representatives, then head to the Senate where it is guaranteed a vote under the rules. Its fate is anything but assured in the upper chamber, which is controlled by Trump’s Republicans, however.

“There is no evidence to support the president’s false claim

of a crisis on the border,” Pelosi told a conference call from Laredo, Texas, where she and fellow lawmakers were preparing to visit a bridge connecting the US and Mexico.

Trump announced the emer-gency last week in order to bypass Congress, which did not approve the $5.7bn he wanted for his wall, a longstanding promise from his 2016 presidential campaign. The spending bill, which he reluctantly signed in order to avert a gov-ernment shutdown, included appropriations of just $1.4bn for fencing and other barriers along the border, but specifically not for Trump’s proposed wall. Demo-crats — and some wary Repub-licans — condemned Trump’s unilateral move as an effort to

usurp the powers of the purse, which under the US Constitution are reserved for Congress.

“We do not have a monarch, we have a separation of powers in our country,” Pelosi said, adding she was urging Repub-licans to join Democrats in pushing back against the pres-ident. The call to action comes as Trump and the White House press on with plans to repurpose some $6.6 billion from other sources, mostly already-allocated funds in the Defense Department budget.

Trump has repeatedly declared that rampant illegal immigration is fuelling a crisis along the border, leading to higher crime and strains on public services such as health care.

US President Donald Trump greets attendees during a White House reception in honour of National African American History Month in Washington, DC.

California couple plead guilty to torturing their 13 childrenREUTERS NEW MEXICO

A Southern California couple accused of beating, shackling and starving their 13 children held captive in the family’s home pleaded guilty yesterday to multiple charges including torture, child abuse and false imprisonment.

David Turpin, 57, and his wife Louise Turpin, 50, who were arraigned in Riverside County Superior Court, made the plea as part of a deal with prosecutors to serve sentences of 25 years to life in prison, Riv-erside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said.

They will not go to trial and will serve life sentences, unless granted parole after 25 years imprisonment, for crimes that convulsed their suburban, palm-tree-lined community of Perris. “This is among the worst, most aggravated child abuse cases I have ever seen,” Hestrin told a televised press conference.

The couple initially pleaded not guilty to the charges. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The children are in the care of child and adult pro-tection agencies.

Colombia demolishes former Escobar fortressAFP MEDELLÍN, COLOMBIA

Authorities in Colombia carried out a controlled explosion yesterday to demolish the former fortress of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in Medellin.

A crowd of 1,600 people including some families of Escobar victims, watched as just before midday a loud detonation was heard and the eight stories of white concrete crumbled to the ground, leaving behind a cloud of smoke that lingered for several minutes.

In its place will be erected a memorial to the victims of Esco-bar’s reign of terror that ended

when he was killed by police in 1993.

While some elements of society criticised the move, claiming it was erasing history, authorities insisted they were merely “transforming” the nar-rative to focus on the victims rather than the perpetrator.

The demolition of the osten-tatious building, which had once drawn crowds of curious sight-seers, “signifies the defeat of the culture of illegality,” said Colombia President Ivan Duque.

“It signifies that history won’t be written from the perpetrator’s perspective.” Duque made a flying visit to the demolition site before heading to Cucuta, on the

border with Venezuela, to attend a concert organised by British billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson to raise money for humanitarian aid for Venezuelans.

Cucuta is the site of a col-lection center where tons of mostly US aid has been piling up for two weeks ahead of an attempt by Venezuela’s oppo-sition leader Juan Guaido to bring it into the country, despite the border being blockaded by the military.

Escobar may be dead but Colombia remains the biggest producer of cocaine in the world, much of which is bound for the US.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber will vote next Tuesday on the so-called disapproval resolution aimed at terminating the national emergency that Trump declared last week.

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