DOHA: Based on the directives of the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to provide $9m as emergency aid of medi-cines, medical supplies, food-stuffs and fuel to operate hospital generators in Gaza Strip, Chairman of the National Committee for the Recon-struction of Gaza, Ambassador H E Mohammed bin Ismail Al Emadi, will supervise aid distri-bution in Gaza.

The Emir’s directives that urgent assistance worth QR33m ($9m) be provided, including medicines, medical supplies, foodstuffs and fuel for the oper-ation of hospital generators in Gaza Strip to assist the people of Gaza came in response to the deteriorating humanitarian sit-uation in the Strip and the UN appeals in this regard.

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres and his Special Envoy Nickolay Mladenov expressd their gratitude to the State of Qatar for its prompt and

generous contributions to the urgent UN appeal aimed at averting an imminent humani-tarian catastrophe in Gaza. This contribution will ensure that the vulnerable people of Gaza are able to access life-saving health, water and sanitation services, they said.

As a result of Israeli siege, Gaza’s people are facing the dif-ficult conditions due to the severe shortage of medicines, hospital fuel and other essential materials.

Meanwhile, the Emir yes-terday held via telephone a con-versation with Dr Ismail Haniyah, head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine (Hamas).

The Emir learned during the

telephone talks about the critical humanitarian condi-tions of the people of Gaza and the lack of fuel that resulted in the closure of several hospitals and clinics.

The Emir reaffirmed to the head of the political bureau the State of Qatar’s constant support for the Palestinian people and that it will carry on its recon-struction projects in Gaza and working to provide the nec-essary fuel for the different sectors.

For his part, Dr Haniyah expressed his and the people of Gaza’s gratitude to H H the Emir for Qatar’s constant support for the Palestinian people and for the Emir’s response to the appeal of the people of Gaza.

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Emir directs to provide $9m aid to Gaza StripMOHAMED OSMAN THE PENINSULA

Qatar denies false news about Al Jazeera documentaryQNA

QNA

DOHA: Qatar has denied it has asked Doha-based Al Jazeera channel not to air a documentary on “Israeli lobby in Washington” and called such news reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz as false.

The Foreign Ministry spokes-person H E Lulwah Al Khater said: “The State of Qatar realises that the significance and constructive role of media is conditioned upon media independence. This is pre-cisely why Qatar’s government ensured to create all the right

conditions for Qatar-based media outlets to thrive independently and objectively.

“Accordingly, Qatar denies the false news about requesting the Al Jazeera Network to suspend the airing of the documentary that was produced by the latter.”

Explaining Qatars position, she said: “We see this news in the context of the blockading countries’ tireless attempts to cast scepticism over Qatar’s open and progressive model of governance and to make a case for repeating their demand to shut down Al Jazeera. Shutting down Al Jazeera has been an

objective of the quartet which owns dozens of media outlets but seems unable to compete with Al Jazeera, in what should be a free market of

ideas. It seems like their inability to compete and gain credibility is what is driving these campaigns to defame Qatar and its various positions.”

Al Khater said journalism and media are vital and advanced pro-fessions that have their own codes of ethics, regulations and guide-lines as well as they’re governed, as the situation demands, by both national and international law.

“Should any party have a legit-imate concern based on solid legal grounds, they may proceed with the agreed upon mechanisms in such cases,” she added.

Visitors flock to Qatar pavilion at OIC trade fair

DOHA: Visitors and partici-pants flocked to Qatar’s pavilion at the special edition of the trade fair of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Member States in Kuwait. The pavilion, organised by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce, brought together representatives of Qatar Chamber, Qatar Financial Center and Economic Zones Company (Manateq) along with executives from 13 Qatari private companies.

The Ministry’s participation in the exhibition comes within the framework of its efforts to showcase the investment opportunities in Qatar and highlight the state’s business and investment-friendly climate. The Ministry is also

seeking to enhance the capacity of national com-panies and factories and to support national products in line with its efforts to promote economic development and accomplish the Qatar National Vision 2030.

During the exhibition, the Ministry will provide a detailed explanation of the laws and reg-ulations governing investments in Qatar as well as the incen-tives and advantages offered to investors.

Officials from the Ministry will hold meetings with busi-nessmen and potential investors to familiarise them with investment opportunities in Qatar and efforts for the devel-opment of a safe investment environment.

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Circular issued on commercial use of State’s public names

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Ministry of Economy and Commerce has issued a circular on the commercial use of symbols and public titles in Qatar. The Ministry has recently uncovered the unregulated use of the image of the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani as well as symbols and public titles by some traders, suppliers and malls on commercial goods. (Such as “Tamim Al Majd”, the Arabic for “Glorious Tamim”).

The Ministry explained that the use of a logo or trademark is restricted to lawful uses. The logo and symbol subject of the trademark should be held in high regard as a public symbol and slogan that should not be disrespected or undermined. It is therefore forbidden to use the logo and slogan in a disrespectful manner.

The Ministry urged the public to respect the symbol and slogan as a public emblem that should not be disre-spected or undermined.

The circular comes within the framework of the min-istry’s efforts to ensure the compliance of suppliers with their obligations under Article 8 of Law No. 9 of 2002 regarding trademarks, trade data and names, geo-graphical indicators, logos and industrial designs.

The law prohibits the registration of a trademark if it is one of the State’s public titles, symbols and slogans. The circular also aims at ensuring the compliance of traders with their obligations under Article (14) of Law No. (7) of 2002 regarding the protection of copyright and related rights, which prohibits the depiction or drawing of official figures for commercial use.

Ingushetia President leaves DohaPresident of the Russian Republic of Ingushetia, Yunus-bek Yevkurov, left Doha yesterday after an official visit to the State of Qatar. The President and his accompanying delegation were seen off upon departure from Hamad International Airport by the Minister of Municipality and Environment H E Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi and the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Qatar, Nurmakhamad Kholov.

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres and his Special Envoy Nickolay Mladenov expressd their gratitude to the State of Qatar for its prompt and generous contributions to the urgent UN appeal aimed at averting an imminent humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

The report that Al Jazeera channel was asked not to air a documentary on “Israeli lobby in Washington” is false, says Foreign Ministry spokesperson H E Lulwah Al Khater.

Siege nations trying to distort NHRC work THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Chairman of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), Dr Ali bin Sumaikh Al Marri, criticised the harassment of the blockading countries in an attempt to distort the work of the NHRC and discourage it from continuing to expose their human rights violations. Al Marri called on the global coalition of National Human Rights Institutions to monitor these practices that harm human rights bodies.

Dr Al Marri’s yesterday met in Berlin with Dr Bytha Rudolf, Director General of the German Foundation for Human Rights and Chairperson of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, where he reviewed the Gulf crisis and various efforts and movements of the NHRC to defend the rights of victims of the siege in light of the international laws and regulations of national human rights institutions and “Paris Principles”.

Dr Al Marri called on the German parliament to send an official mission to Doha to investigate the impact of the ongoing siege on Qatar and the serious violations committed against thousands of citizens and residents in Qatar by the siege countries.

The State of Qatar renewed its commitment to support the Palestinian people and move

forward with reconstruction projects in Gaza Strip so as to promote peace and stability.

02 FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2018HOME

Emir issues instruments of ratifications on pactsTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued yesterday several instruments of ratifications approving the ratifications of agreements and Memorandum of Under-standings (MoU) between the governments of the State of Qatar and governments of the Republic of Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Uganda and Chile.

The Emir issued instrument of ratification approving the rat-ification of an agreement between the governments of the State of Qatar and the Republic of Turkey including an agreement on mutual legal support on criminal affairs, which was signed in Doha on November 15, 2017.

The Emir also issued instru-ments of ratifications approving the ratifications of several Mem-orandum of Understandings including a MoU between Qatar Media Corporation and Turkish Radio and Television Corpo-ration (TRT), a MoU on cooper-ation in the field of central banks’ operations between the Central Bank in the State of Qatar and the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey and MoU

in the field of legal and judicial training between the two gov-ernments and a MoU to coop-erate in the tourism field. The Memorandum of Under-standings were signed in Doha on November 15, 2017.

Additionally, the Emir issued an instruments of ratifications approving the ratifications of MoU between the governments of the State of Qatar and the Republic of Indonesia to cooperate in the fields of youth and sports, an MoU between the State of Qatar’s Min-istry of Education and Higher Education and the Republic of Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture to cooperate in the field of education. The Memo-randum of Understandings were signed in Jakarta on October 18,

2017 during the visit of the Emir to Jakarta.

The Emir issued yesterday an instrument of ratification approving a draft agreement on economic, trade and technical cooperation between the gov-ernments of the State of Qatar and the Republic of Uganda, which was signed in Doha on April 19, 2017.

The Emir issued an instrument of ratification approving the ratification of a draft agreement between the governments of the State of Qatar and the Republic of Sin-gapore on encouraging and pro-tecting mutual investments, which was signed in Singapore on October 17, 2017.

In addition, the Emir issued an instrument of ratification on the ratification of an MoU on cooperation in the field of higher education between the govern-ments of the State of Qatar and Malaysia, which was signed in Putrajaya on October 16, 2017.

The Emir also issued an instrument of ratification approving a draft agreement on air transport between the gov-ernments of the State of Qatar and the Republic of Chile, which was signed in Colombo on December 5, 2017.

QU engages students on smoking cessationTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Over 90 health care students and faculty from Qatar University (QU) and other insti-tutes engaged in the fourth occurrence of the annual IPE activity on Smoking Cessation.

These institutes included, colleges of Health Sciences (CHS) and Pharmacy (CPH), Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q), University of Calgary in Qatar (UCQ) and College of North Atlantic-Qatar (CNA-Q).The activity, which was organized by the QU Health Interprofessional Education Committee (IPEC), started with an ice-breaker activity titled “The common ground circle” and aimed to familiarize the students on the concept of inter profes-sional education and how to share the commonalities and dif-ferences of their respective aca-demic disciplines and profes-sional backgrounds.

The program agenda started with a welcoming session by CPH Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and QU Health IPEC Chair Dr Alla El-Awaisi. It was followed by a lecture delivered by CPH Asso-ciate Professor of Pharmacy Practice Dr Ahmed Awaisu, in which he introduced the stu-dents on the topic of smoking cessation, motivational inter-viewing and the importance of

collaboration between health care professionals to ensure a healthier society.

The students were also engaged in addressing the issue

of smoking cessation through an interactive case. The latter involved answering questions related to a heavy 65-year-old smoker who called paramedics

and was admitted to hospital with exacerbation of her chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The students followed the patient from admission to dis-courage and discussed the con-tribution each profession brings to the case study and worked together to make a team decision regarding the management of the case.

Second-year CPH student Dhabya Al Khater said: “I have gained an amazing experience during the IPE event. This activity opens new doors to the future where we, all health care providers, work together to benefit and provide centered care to the patient. I hope that we get the chance to participate in this activity every year to learn more and work in collaboration with new health care providers and new cases.”

“The Interprofessional Edu-cation event was interesting and helped us understand the impor-tance of collaboration between different health professions, with unique professional roles, to improve patients’ outcomes through patient-centered care, said Second-year Public Health student Aisha Khalid A M Alrumaihi.

Fourth-year WCMQ student Zahra Hejji said: “To assist the patient in all perspectives and clearing out the challenges for a well-balanced health, inter

professional collaboration shall exist. Patient will need social support for other non-medical issues for example financial issues, or clarifications on medical needs, or usage of med-ications, or even diet.

As a doctor, we shall know to whom we shall refer our patient as patients who decide to quit smoking will need this collaboration to help them better get through the struggle that could stop them from being suc-cessful quitters.”

UCQ student Rubeena Toufiq said: “I think the IPE event was very beneficial like always. I was very curious about how health care students would collaborate on educating and helping the population in smoking cessation. I have learnt a lot especially about the different methods that could help patients quit smoking adn the event was very inform-ative and actively engaged all the students. I would keep being involved in IPE events because I always learn new things during the event.”

CNA-Q third-year Respi-ratory Therapy student Jesus (MJ) Lecaros said: “I learned that health care system is a collabo-ration of different professions that can provide the optimum care/treatment when effective communication and awareness of each other’s role is practiced.”

Students working in groups at the the annual IPE activity on Smoking Cessation.

Envoy highlights Qatar’s investment opportunitiesQNA

COLOGNE: Qatar’s Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, H E Sheikh Saud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, delivered a lecture to a number of busi-nessmen, economists and representa-tives of German companies at the invi-tation of Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce in Cologne in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Ambassador presented the eco-nomic situation in the State of Qatar, the rich investment opportunities and the secure investment environment it enjoys. He also presented in depth the practical steps taken by the State of Qatar towards diversifying its sources of income, its

steps to increase the competitiveness of its national economy so as to ensure integration into the global economy and compliance with the current developments.

Sheikh Saud highlighted the high attention the government of the State of Qatar gives to investing in human capital, establishing the innovation culture and localising industries.

The Ambassador said the State of Qatar is confidently moving forward in terms of achieving its ambitions, and is smartly and uniquely implementing plans of economic transformation to accommodate the new changes.

After the lecture, he responded to the questions and inquiries of the participants.

Seminar on concept problems between humanities and social sciencesQNA

DOHA: The Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, in cooperation with Free University of Berlin, will hold a seminar on problems of concepts and termi-nology between humanities and social sciences from February 18 to 20.

The seminar is part of a series of specialised workshops between the institute and the Free Uni-versity of Berlin based on the mission of Doha Institute, which aims to promote Arab participation in the production of knowledge locally and

internationally, Doha Institute said Thursday in a statement. A number of Arab and German researchers in the fields of knowledge and cross-disciplinary studies will attend the seminar, which will discuss selected concepts in many fields of knowledge.

The seminar will focus on bringing up these concepts in the system of intellectual, cognitive and cultural challenges facing researchers. Round-tables are scheduled during the seminar to adopt a comparative vision to move these concepts across different disciplines, languages and cultures.

Qatar’s Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, H E Sheikh Saud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and other dignitaries in Cologne.

Several instruments of ratifications approving the agreements and MoUs between the governments of Qatar and governments of Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Uganda and Chile issued.

QNA

CAIRO: The Arab League’s Economic and Social Council started yesterday its 101st ordinary session at the ministerial level at the pan-Arab organisation’s headquarters under the presidency of Sudan.

The State of Qatar is taking part in the session with a delegation led by H E Saif Muqaddam Al Buainein, permanent representative of Qatar to the Arab League.

The agenda of the meeting comprises 20 articles covering dif-ferent economic and social issues, including the secretary general’s report on following up on the implementation of the 100th session’s decisions as well as the general secretariat’s activity in both sessions.

In addition, the agenda touches on the economic and social aspect of the next ordinary Arab summit besides preparation for the Arab developmental economic and social summit in 2019.

Moreover, the agenda follows up on the implementation of the economic and social decisions of the fourth Arab-African summit in Malabo 2016.

The agenda also includes an article on cooperation between the Arab League and the United Nations, while the summit additionally focuses on ways of establishing the Arab trade zone and develop-ments of the Arab customs union, besides touching on investment in Arab countries and discussing a draft Arab charter to develop the small- and medium-sized enterprises sector.

Qatar takes part in Arab League’s meet

Minister, Tunisian Ambassador review ties

Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali with the Ambassador of the Republic of Tunisia to the State of Qatar, Salah Al Salahi. During the meeting, they discussed aspects of joint cooperation between the two countries and ways of boosting them in the fields of culture and sports.

03FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2018 HOME / MIDDLE EAST

Vistors at the OIC trade fair.

Kashmir Solidarity Day observedTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Kashmir Solidarity Day is observed on February 5, every year in Pakistan and by Kashmiri nationalists.

Since partition in 1947, Pakistan has given moral, dip-lomatic and political support to the cause of the Kashmiri people, for their right to self determination, as enshrined in the United Nations resolutions on the issue. The event serves as a reminder to the interna-tional community of their

obligations to the Kashmiri people. The right to self deter-mination, the right to self expression and the protection of human rights are universal rights accepted in modern society and should be available to all. The world has chosen to ignore the plight of the Kashmiris.

“We ask the world to take note and not forget the plight of our Kashmiri brothers and sisters who are fighting for their basic and fundamental rights,” the Embassy statement said.

Shahzad Ahmad, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Qatar, and other dignitaries at the Kashmir Solidarity Day event.

‘My Experience’ event honours participantsTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Ministry of Culture and Sports, the official sponsor of “My Experience” initiative, organised the third meeting at Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU) on Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by Minister of Energy and Industry H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada and a number of officials from the Ministry of Culture and Sports and HBKU. Dr Al Sada honoured at the end of the event the participants including trav-eller Ali bin Tuwar Al Kuwari, artist and phographer Muda Al Hajri, and diver Khalid Hassan Al Hammadi.

Ali bin Tuwar Al Kuwari shared his personal experience in which he turned from student of international relations to trav-eller in order to learn about the cultures of peoples. He started

his travels from Alaska in North America to Latin America, where he visited all its countries as well as the Caribbean Islands.

Al Kuwari documented these trips to start a new journey with the media when he was con-tracted by Qatar Media Corpo-ration through Qatar TV to lead a research team to introduce Qatar to the world.

He added that he took up

other offers from Al Jazeera net-work for other programs.

He ventured into several ini-tiatives to introduce different cultures and visited new coun-tries in Asia and Europe to dis-cover and know more about these countries.

He pointed out that he recently signed an agreement with Qatar Airways to sponsor Qatari travellers to journey to different regions of the world. Every time 15 tourists and trav-ellers are chosen to benefit many young people.

For her part, artist and the photographer Muda Al Hajri described her experience as also an adventure, where she visited Yemen to learn about its ancient civilization. Over the past seven years, she recorded different aspects of the life of Yemeni society, Yemeni geography and its most important and beautiful

features. Qatari diver Khaled Al Hammadi, explained that his diving trips began during his studies in the United States where he received a bachelor’s degree in engineering at the Uni-

versity of Arizona.He pointed out that through

his research in his field of interest, he learned to dive deep in depths of the ocean but faced challenges. At the outset he did

not dive into the depths and the period of diving was short, he said. He said he has a global diving ranking and is the first diving instructor who trained 400 people in Qatar.

Minister of Energy and Industry H E Dr Mohamed bin Saleh Al Sada honouring participants.

Visitors flock to Qatar pavilion at OIC trade fairCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Abdurrahman Abdullah Al Ansari, Chief Exec-utive Officer of Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company, said that QIMC is a local joint stock com-pany comprising 20 different factories in various sectors such as construction materials, infrastruc-ture, petrochemicals and food. “We believe that the Kuwaiti market is key in terms of our import and export activity. We are currently presenting our various high quality products in a bid to access the Kuwaiti market. Through this participation, we are also seeking new sources to import raw materials directly to our factories,” he added.

Saeed Abdullah Al Tawa Al Hajeri, Chairman of Al Ikhtyaar German Upvc Windows & Doors, noted on the other hand, that through his partic-ipation in the exhibition he aims at promoting and introducing Qatari products to participants.

Dr Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Sulaiti, Chairman of Qatar Pharma Factory, said his company’s par-ticipation in the exhibition is aimed at presenting new products that have yet to be exported to Kuwait, highlighting the company’s ownership of patents for products such as Biohair among others.

Shaker Al Ansari, General Manager of Doha Plastic Company, said his partici-pation in the exhibition is in line with the company’s policy of introducing and opening up new international markets for Qatari products. The company statrted producing new agricultural equipment such as drip irrigation pipes as well as manufacturing greenhouses since 2014, in addition to all other green house agri-culture-related products.

Mohammed Maher, Foreign Exhi-bitions Officer at Asak Group, said: “We are participating in the exhibition to present Mona Food Products, which produces a range of Qatari products. “We are participating in the exhibition for several reasons, most importantly to ink export deals, introduce our products in neigh-boring markets and demonstrate the ability of Qatari factories to produce high-quality prod-ucts comparable to their counterparts in the world.”

Faraj Moftah Aman Al Hamad, General

Manager of Bin Aman Plastic Industries, said that through his participation in the exhibition he aims at introducing and opening up new mar-kets for Qatari industries which have demon-strated their success. Such exhibitions provide a platform for Qatari manufacturers to shed light on the quality of Qatari industries, he added.

Minister of Energy and Industry H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada honoured the participants including traveller Ali bin Tuwar Al Kuwari, artist and phographer Muda Al Hajri, and diver Khalid Hassan Al Hammadi.

Sri Lanka mission celebrates 70th Independence DayFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Sri Lankan mission in Doha hosted a diplomatic recep-tion yesterday to celebrate the country’s 70th Independence Day, at the Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention Hotel. Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs H E Dr Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi; Minister of Municipality and Envi-ronment H E Mohamed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi; Director of the Protocol Department Ambas-sador H E Ibrahim Yousif Abdullah Fakhroo and Sri Lankan Ambas-sador to Qatar, ASP Liyanage graced the celebrations.

They were joined by Heads of Missions, representatives of var-ious organisations and members of the Sri Lankan community.

A cake cutting ceremony was

also held as part of celebrations. Further, on behalf of Sri Lankan government, Award of Excellence was presented to Ambassador Fakhroo in recognition of his service. Also two prominent Sri Lankans were honoured during the event in recognition of their contribution to the society.

Addressing the guests, Liya-nage said that bilateral relations between Qatar and Sri Lanka were

further enhanced with the recent visit of President Maithripala Sirisena, during which seven agreements in different areas were signed. “Sri Lanka, under the present government, has built excellent international coopera-tion in all areas...We have devel-oped a strong bond with Qatar,” he said.

He also thanked Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for the opportunities given to Sri Lanka.

A short documentary on the diversity and beauty of Sri Lanka was also screened for the guests.

On February 4, Sri Lanka marked its 70th anniversary of Independence and several events are being held in Doha to celebrate the occasion.

Around 120,000 Sri Lankans are employed in Qatar. The dip-lomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1976.

Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs H E Dr Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi; Minister of Municipality and Environment H E Mohamed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi; Director of the Protocol Department Ambassador H E Ibrahim Yousif Abdullah Fakhroo and Sri Lankan Ambassador to Qatar, ASP Liyanage at the event. PIC: ABDUL BASIT/THE PENINSULA

Death toll tops 220 in 4-day Syria regime assaultERBIN: Syrian regime jets pounded Eastern Ghouta yesterday, sending the death toll for the four-day assault on the rebel enclave on the outskirts of Damascus soaring past 220. Violence also flared in eastern Syria, where the US-led coalition said it killed at least 100 pro-regime fighters to fend off an attack on its Kurdish allies.

The clash marked a fresh escalation between Wash-ington, which has threatened the regime over its alleged use of chemical weapons, and Damascus, which labelled the latest incident in eastern Syria a “war crime”.

The United States threw its support behind a United Nations plea for a ceasefire in Eastern Ghouta. “These attacks must end now,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

In Eastern Ghouta, which lies east of the capital and has been besieged since 2013, residents had no time to mourn their dead or treat their wounded from the pre-vious day’s bombardment. “These are the worst four days that Eastern Ghouta has ever gone through,” said Hamza, an overwhelmed doctor at the Erbin clinic who was treating wounded patients.

Turkey arrests 3 over terror propaganda on social media

ISTANBUL: At least three suspects were arrested in Turkey over charges of spreading terror propaganda on the social media, police sources said. Turkish police arrested Mehmet Zeki Kilic, the co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) Sancaktepe district representation in Istanbul, said a source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on talking to the media.

Kilic is accused of spreading propaganda of the PKK terrorist group on social media.

In the northwestern province of Tekirdag, police arrested two people over terror propaganda against Tur-key’s Operation Olive Branch on social media.

A Turkish court remanded in custody one of the sus-pects, the source said.

Meanwhile, in Turkey’s southeastern province of Diya-rbakir, a court remanded in custody Mehmet Arslan, the co-chair of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) over making terror propaganda on social media and his state-ments on Turkey’s operation in Syria.

He is accused of being a member of an armed ter-rorist organization, the source added.

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Modesty in a cosmetic societySAHAR JAHANI

Ask a Muslim: What is the meaning of Islamic hijab? Why do Muslim women and men adhere to these rules of modesty? “What colour is

your hair? Do you shower with that thing on? Aren’t you really hot wearing that?” These are some of the questions that I have been asked over the years while wearing the Islamic headscarf, or “hijab.” And if you are a Muslim woman living in the west, you have probably encountered similar inquiries as well. Personally, I rarely become offended when I’m mistaken for a nun or asked whether or not I can go swimming with my headscarf, because I know that every question is an opportunity to educate others.

But it was when president Barack Obama mispronounced the term “hijab,” calling it instead a “hajeeb,” in his address to the Muslim world at Cairo University, that really awakened me to the enormity of lack of knowledge that still exists about this Islamic doctrine.

Perhaps his advisors failed to instruct him adequately on this matter, or maybe he just forgot how to say the word, either way, this incident has made me realise that few people are aware of the accurate meaning of “hijab” and what this doctrine entails.

The term “hijab” was originally derived from the Arabic word “hajaba,” which means to “conceal” or to “cover.” The western notion of hijab is most dominantly associated with the veil or headscarf that many Muslim women wear in public, although this concept goes far beyond the average dress code.

All Muslims, men and women, are taught to practice a lifestyle that is adopted with the conception of hijab. This requires Muslims to not only dress modestly but to also behave in a way that promotes humility and respect towards the opposite gender.

Nonetheless, the dominant feature, and perhaps the most obvious practice of hijab is the dressing of Muslim women. With the Islamic dress code comes many assumptions and stereo-types about the way Islam treats women and men.

It is not surprising to hear the mis-conceptions that many associate with Islam, including the notions that “women are oppressed,” and that they are “forced to wear the head scarf” by their husbands or fathers.

Even those who practice Islam often times have a skewed interpretation of the concept of modesty, in which the term “hijab” is continually associated with women only. When witnessing the proper application of these rules how-ever, it is evident that Islam does not intend to limit women or subjugate its adherents to a restricted lifestyle.

As stated in the Qur’an, the holy book revealed to guide Muslims in

everyday life, the hijab requires both men and women to follow a modest dress code. It has commanded, “Say to the believing men [and women] that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that will make for greater purity for them: And Allah is well acquainted with all that they do” (Quran 24:30-31). These rules of modesty have both physical implications and must also be abided by in every day interactions.

For women, the requirements for attire emphasize covering all parts of the body except the face and hands, wearing loose and opaque clothing so as to not reveal the outline of the body, and wearing outfits that would refrain from drawing too much attention. In addition, it is recommended that Muslim women should not appear to dress as men nor should they attempt to attract attention with an excess of extravagance or with the excess of raggedness, so as to draw sympathy.

Muslim men must also adhere to clothing requirements, although to a dif-ferent degree than applies to Muslim women. The hijab requires men to dress from the area of the navel to the knee and to wear clothes that are not too tight or provocative.

These corporal rules are applicable for individuals when they are front of others who are considered “non-mah-rams” or those whom a Muslim would be allowed to marry.

Men must not attempt to dress sim-ilarly to women and they are prohibited from wearing gold or silk.

The rules of behavioural hijab how-ever, have the same implications for both sexes and should be adhered to at all times: having respect for individuals

of the opposite sex by refraining from physical interactions until marriage.

Muslims commonly use the phrase, “lowering your gaze,” in reference to the practice of hijab. This does not mean that men and women are prohibited to interact on a day-to-day basis for school or work; rather Islam sets certain guide-lines for interacting with the opposite gender so as to create a proper environ-ment conducive to maintaining the Islamic hijab.

Although a negative image of hijab may persist for those who are unfamiliar with the practices of Muslims. People see Muslim women portrayed as oppressed in the media and assume that Islam indoctrinates all Muslims to con-trol women. But this lies within the mis-conception that women are oppressed under the requirements of Islamic law.

The hijab itself is not a tool of oppression; what is oppressive is the abuse of power utilised by rouge author-ities to enforce and subjugate a partic-ular kind of practice to further their own political motives. Just because a gov-ernment forces something upon a society does not make the practice itself evil or oppressive.

Muslim women around the world believe that wearing the hijab liberates them from the standards that western society sets for women in terms of beauty and dress. The hijab is most com-monly associated with protection from male scrutiny and physical suppression.

This measure of protection is explained in the Quran as well: Allah the Almighty prescribes for women to cover themselves so that they can live in “con-venience” and not be “molested” by others (Quran 33:59). The hijab, if worn

properly, diverts one’s gaze from phys-ical appearances and allows for a woman to be appreciated for her intel-lect and ideas, rather than the way she looks.

The western notion of beauty, how-ever, lies within the examples that leading actresses in movies and televi-sion, supermodels, and popular singers emit, essentially selling their bodies in order to become famous or to keep up with appearances.

The media feeds into the stereotypes that society has imprinted upon women and what beauty is supposed to mean, so much so that women, especially young girls, are under more scrutiny and pressure to look good and “fit in.” A study done by the National Institute of Mental Health recently observed that 53% of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies.” This grows to 78% by the time young adults reach seventeen.

Researchers estimate that approx-imately 5 million individuals in the United States are affected by eating dis-orders every year as a result of such pressures to look good and to be skinny, in order to fit in with the western notion of “beauty.” Women and men all over the world are compelled by what they see in the media and thus strive to look like the models and actresses that dom-inate the headlines in magazines and in corporate ads that people are bom-barded with all the time. These unreal-istic images that the media portrays of women and beauty have impacted our society at large, so much so that in the 2004 study done by the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, only 2% of women around the world believed that they were actually beautiful.

With all these statistics however, many women in the west still pride themselves with the idea that they are somehow more “free” because they can dress anyway they choose and are thus liberated from the shackles of society that men have imposed upon them through out history.

It is evident however, that women are still subjugated to act and dress the way society desires. Islam, however, has been at the forefront of the battle for women’s right sever since the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in 610 A.D.

In the era of pre-Islamic society, women were considered to have less worth than livestock; it was a time in which parents buried their baby daugh-ters alive simply because they were born the wrong gender and would bring shame and disgrace upon the family. In this era, men had absolute rights over women in marriage, divorce, inherit-ance and essentially every other aspect of life. Islam radically redefined the position of women in society, uplifting them to the status of men immediately: “O mankind, we created you all from a male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may come

to know one another” (Quran 49:13).Islam declares that both men and

women are entitled to human rights equally and that they will both be held accountable for their actions in this life. With this said, the notion that hijab is a tool of oppression is ludicrous to women all over the world who choose to wear the headscarf everyday.

For Muslim women, the ability to wear the hijab not only signifies freedom but it also empowers them with the responsibility of representing Islam at all times. Essentially, it is the women in Islam who carry the flag of the religion that they embody, and for that, they are at the forefront of fighting ignorance and stereotypes.

Perhaps you are still doubtful of the connotations that come with practicing this Islamic doctrine, and maybe you think that the hijab limits daily activi-ties or physical potentials that women reach without wearing the headscarf.

This mentality however, is also a major misconception. Muslim women all over the world are contributing to various disciplines and fields, including athletics, law enforcement and politics.

At the 2004 summer Olympics in Athens, for example, a woman wearing a track singlet and a hijab, its white hood imprinted with the flag of Bahrain, set a national record in the 100-meter qual-ifying heats. So did a woman from Afghanistan, the first to represent her nation in the Olympics, who ran in loose-fitting pants and a T-shirt. In Vic-toria, British Columbia, Constable Maha Sukkar became the first women in the police force to wear the hijab as part of her uniform, going so far as to making a Velcro attachment that would allow her to release the head piece if she were to get into a scuffle.

Muslim women are not only major contributors to societies in the west but also a dominant force in the political arena of nations around the world, including Islamic countries like Kuwait, whose con-stituents recently elected four women to the parliament. Thus, it is evident that Muslim women, especially those who practice wearing the hijab,are just as active and equally contributive to our soci-eties as any other individual.

Many think that wearing a headscarf is the hardest aspect of being a Muslim. For me however, hijab has been the eas-iest practice because it is a now so deeply embedded in my lifestyle that I cannot ever imagine myself without it.

Of course encounters with ignorant people who might ridicule you for wearing a “towel” around your head are unavoidable sometimes, but for the most part, the people I have talked to about the hijab have been amazed at the level of commitment Muslim women have for their faith, and they respect us for having the courage to practice our reli-gion to the fullest.

Source: Alkalima

Turn to Allah for forgivenessNAIMA SHAIKH

Astaghfirullah is the act of seeking forgiveness from Allah. This is

done by repeating the Arabic w o r d s a s t a g h f i r u l l a h , meaning “I seek forgiveness from Allah”.

The Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) was masoum (innocent) and the most virtuous human being alive yet he used to ask Allah for forgiveness more than sev-enty times a day (Sahih Bukhari Volume 8, Book 75, Number 39).

Sometimes we make mis-takes we are not even aware of and at other times in trying our best to help, we cause some kind of harm(s). For example: a doctor in providing a cure for a disease may cause some distress along with the cure such as in surgery or giving a medication that may have adverse effects. In all these situations and more, it is good to turn to Allah for forgiveness.

Astaghfar provides beau-tiful words with which to seek

forgiveness. They are as follow: “I seek forgiveness from Allah, my Lord, from every sin I committed know-ingly or unknowingly, secretly or openly, and I turn towards Him from the sin that I know and from the sin that I do not know. Certainly You, You (are) the knower of the hidden things and the Con-cealer (of) the mistakes and the Forgiver (of) the sins. And (there is) no power and no strength except from Allah, the Most High, the Most Great.”

In Tafseer Al Qurtubi (18/301-302) it says “Ask for-giveness from your Lord, verily, He is Oft Forgiving; He will send rain to you in abun-dance. And give you increase in wealth and children, and bestow on you gardens and bestow on you rivers.”

According to a narration regarding Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and the Baker, Astagh-firullah is beneficial for having all of one’s duas (supplications made to God) come true.

The narration is as follows: Imam Ahmed, may God be

pleased with him, once was traveling and needed to stay somewhere overnight. When he went to the masjid, the guard (not recognising Imam Ahmed) denied him entrance. Imam Ahmed tried numerous times, but the guard did not accept his requests. Frustrated, Imam Ahmed resolved to spend the night in the masjid yard. The guard became furious and dragged him away, despite the old age and frailty of Imam Ahmed.

A baker, whose shop was nearby, watched this scene and took pity on Imam Ahmed. He invited the Imam to stay with him for the night. While there, Imam Ahmed noticed that the baker continually made istigh-faar (asking for Allah’s forgive-ness) while working, and in the morning, the Imam eagerly asked his host about the lat-ter’s continual seeking of for-giveness. The baker said it had become like second nature, and Imam Ahmed then asked whether the man had experi-enced any reward from this practice.

The baker answered: “By

Allah! No duaa (supplication to God) I made except that it was answered but one.” “And what is that duaa?” asked Imam Ahmed.

“To be able to see the famed Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal!” Imam Ahmed inter-jected, “I am Ahmed ibn Hanbal!” He then went on to add: “By Allah! I was dragged to your place so that you can have your duaa/wish come true.”

Thus, constant reciting of astaghfirullah has numerous benefits. Also asking Allah for forgiveness is very pleasing to him, it says in the sahih Bukhari (Volume 8, Book 75, Number 321) narrated by Anas bin Malik Allah’s Apostle said:

“Allah is more pleased with the repentance of His slave than anyone of you is pleased with finding his camel which he had lost in the desert.” So, let’s please Allah and reap the benefits of asking Allah for for-giveness by making it a habit to recite Astaghfirullah as often as possible.

www.islamcity.org

For Muslim women, the ability to wear the hijab not only signifies freedom but it also empowers them with the responsibility of representing Islam at all times. Essentially, it is the women in Islam who carry the flag of the religion that they embody, and for that, they are at the forefront of fighting ignorance and stereotypes.

05FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2018 ASIA

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Khaleda Zia jailed for corruptionREUTERS

DHAKA: Bangladesh opposi-tion leader and former prime minister Khaleda Zia was jailed yesterday for corruption but plans to appeal her five-year term, her lawyer said, as thou-sands of supporters took to the streets to protest her inno-cence.

Khaleda, 72, her son and aides were convicted of stealing 21m taka ($253,000) in foreign donations received by an orphanage trust set up when she was last prime minister, from 2001 to 2006, lawyers said.

“She was given a shorter term considering her health and social status,” Judge Mohammad Akhteruzzaman said, as he passed sentence in a packed courtroom amid tight security.

Khaleda plans to appeal against her conviction, lawyers said, and is likely to be freed on bail during that process.

“We didn’t get justice. We’ll go to the higher court,” Khandker Mahbub Hossain, the

leader of Khaleda’s legal team, told reporters.

After the verdict, Khaleda was escorted to the central jail in the capital, a three-storey red-brick structure with barred windows surrounded by trees, to begin serving her sentence in two rooms set aside for her, jail officials said.

Khaleda’s son, Tarique Rahman, and four others were jailed for 10 years at the end of

a case that lasted nearly 10 years.

Khaleda and her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) say the charges are part of a plot to keep her and her family out of poli-tics. Party leaders said more than 3,500 supporters have been detained over the past few days. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda, both related to former national leaders, have dominated poli-tics in poverty-stricken

Bangladesh for more than two decades, and they have nursed a long and bitter rivalry as they. Hasina’s Awami League came to power for a second consecutive term after a bloody parliamen-tary election that was boycotted by Khaleda’s party.

The renewed tension between them raises the spectre of a long, destabilising spell of unrest for Bangladesh and its economy. Kha-leda is due to run in parliamentary polls set for December and can still do so if an appeal is pending. BNP

senior leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi denounced the sentence, calling it “an attempt to eliminate the opponent”.

Her son Rahman, who lives in exile in London, was convicted in a case of money laundering in 2016. Her party announced a plan for protests on Friday and Saturday against what it called a “biased and compromised” ruling.

“This verdict will deepen the country’s existing political crisis and will damage people’s faith in

the judiciary,” said Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary general of the BNP.

Khaleda’s conviction “proves that Bangladesh has the rule of law and that no one is above the law,” Law Minister Anisul Huq told reporters after the decision. “She can challenge the ruling in the High Court after getting a certified copy of the verdict,” he said. “She can also seek bail.” Five people were injured when police fired rubber bullets at protesters in the northeastern city of Sylhet, witnesses said.

Police charge towards activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party protesting following a verdict against opposition leader Khaleda Zia, in Dhaka, yesterday.Bangladesh opposition leader

and former prime minister Khaleda Zia

Court seeks answers on Taj Mahal protectionNEW DELHI: India’s top court demanded a detailed plan for the future of the Taj Mahal, warning the state government’s “ad hoc” approach jeopardised the centuries-old monument to love. Smog has been slowly yellowing the Taj’s brilliant marble and conser-vationists have long fought to close polluting industries near the 17th-century icon. But years of interventions — including using mudpacks to draw the stain from the stone — have failed to arrest the slow decay of India’s biggest attraction.

Maldives President sends envoys to China and Saudi for supportREUTERS

MALE: The embattled presi-dent of the Maldives has sent envoys to friendly nations such as China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to brief them on a polit-ical crisis in the Indian Ocean nation that spurred the impo-sition of a state of emergency, his office said.

Abdulla Yameen left out key regional power India, which had joined Britain, the United States and the United Nations in calling for the lifting of the emergency and the freeing of two supreme court judges whose ruling against Yameen sparked new instability.

The Maldives, best known for luxury tourist resorts, has become another arena of con-test for India and China after it signed up to Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative to build trade and transport links across Asia and beyond.

India, which has had long-standing political and security ties to the islands about 400 km away, has sought to push back against China’s expanding

presence in the country of 400,000 people, most of them Muslims. Since the crisis erupted, Maldivian opposition leaders have urged New Delhi to intervene.

Yameen sent his economic development minister, Mohamed Saeed, to China, the foreign minister, Mohamed Asim, to Pakistan and farming and fisheries minister Mohamed Shainee to Saudi Arabia, according to a posting on his website late on Wednesday. “Members of the cabinet, on the direction of President Abdulla Yameen

Abdul Gayoom, will visit friendly nations of the Mal-dives and provide updates on the current situation,” it added.

The government wanted to send a special envoy to India as well, said Ahmed Mohamed, the Maldives’ ambassador to India.

The Maldives has been in crisis since last week, when the Supreme Court quashed con-victions ranging from corrup-tion to terrorism of nine oppo-sition figures, including former president Mohamed Nasheed, its first democratically elected leader.

Communist parties poised to take power in NepalAFP

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Communist parties have secured a majority of seats in the upper house of parlia-ment, the election commis-sion said Thursday, paving the way for the leftist alliance to form the next government two months after historic general elections.

The alliance of the main Communist party and former Maoist rebels won a strong majority in the indirectly elected upper house, according to results announced Thursday.

The results of the national vote held late last year have not yet been confirmed, but an incomplete tally suggests the alliance also secured a majority in the directly elected lower house.

Last year’s landmark elec-tions capped Nepal’s rocky 11-year transition from mon-archy to federal democracy after a brutal civil war between Maoist guerrillas and the state.

Gulf, West Asia key priority for India: ModiIANS

NEW DELHI: Ahead of his three-nation tour to the Gulf and West Asia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday that the region is a key priority for India’s foreign policy.

“I will be undertaking bilat-eral visits to Palestine, United Arab Emirates and Oman from February 9 to 12,” Modi said in a pre-departure statement here.

“I am happy to visit the Gulf and West Asian region for the fifth time since 2015. This region is a key priority in our external engagement,” he said, adding India enjoys “vibrant multi-dimensional ties” with its countries.

Modi will leave for Amman today from where he will transit to Ramallah tomorrow in what will be the first ever Prime Min-isterial visit from India to Palestine.

“I am grateful to His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan for facilitating the transit,” he said. “I look forward to meeting him in Amman on February 9.”

Modi said he was looking forward to discussions with Pal-estinian President Mahmoud Abbas and “reaffirming our sup-port for the Palestinian people and the development of Palestine”.

This will be the fourth meeting between Modi and Abbas after their meetings on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in 2015 and at the Paris climate summit later that year and the Palestinian Presi-dent’s visit to India last year.

The visit will reaffirm India’s foreign policy position that its relationship with one country is independent of its ties with a third country and will de-hyphenate Israel and Palestine after Modi’s standalone visit to Israel in July last year.

From Palestine, Modi will reach Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on February 10 evening in what will be his second visit to the nation since his visit in August 2015.

“In UAE, I will hold talks with His Highness Sheikh Mohammed

bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi,” the Prime Min-ister said.

Modi will hold talks with the Crown Prince soon after his arrival following which several agreements will be signed. The next day, he will meet members of the Indian community and lay the foundation stone of a temple via video link.

From Abu Dhabi, Modi will proceed to Dubai where he will deliver the keynote address at the Sixth World Government Summit.

“At the invitation of the lead-ership of the UAE, I will be addressing the 6th edition of the World Government Summit in Dubai, where India is the guest country of honour. “There will be interactions with leading UAE and Arab CEOs in Dubai on the vast economic opportunities in India and what more can be done together to increase busi-ness collaboration.”

From Dubai, Modi will reach Muscat on February 11 in what will be the first prime ministe-rial from India to Oman in 10 years since the visit of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2008.

“Oman is a close maritime neighbour with whom we enjoy excellent relations,” the Prime Minister said, adding that India and Oman have thriving links rooted in centuries old people-to-people exchanges.

Modi will hold talks with Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al Said and also meet Deputy Prime Minister for the Council of Min-isters Sayyid Fahd and Deputy Prime Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Affairs Sayyid Asad.

“We will review bilateral cooperation and steps to further enhance our traditionally strong links,” he said.

“On February 12, I will interact with leading busi-nesspersons of Oman on devel-oping stronger economic and business links with India,” he added.

Indian cabinet okays auction of 60 more small oil and gas fieldsNEW DELHI: The government has approved inviting bids to develop 60 more discovered oil and gas fields under the second round of the Discovered Small Fields (DSF) auction this year, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced yesterday. The Cabinet approved the auction to be held under the DSF second round in order to speedily into production these fields estimated to hold reserves of 195 million tonnes (MT) of oil and oil equivalent gas.

Rafale deal echoes in parliamentNEW DELHI: The Rafale deal echoed in the Indian parliament once again yesterday, with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley claiming the Congress was “manufacturing” allegations on the defence deal, leading to opposition protests and adjournment of the House and cutting short of his reply. Shortly before the House was adjourned, members from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), who had been standing near the Speaker’s podium with placards throughout Jaitley’s reply so far, surrounded his seat to listen to his announce-ments regarding Andhra Pradesh, while members from the Congress raised slogans, and other MPs from opposition parties supported the Congress from their seats.

The under-construction China-Maldives Friendship Bridge is pictured near the city of Male, yesterday.

Khaleda Zia and her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) say the charges are part of a plot to keep her and her family out of politics. Party leaders said more than �,��� supporters have been detained over the past few days.

06 FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2018ASIA

Tougher US strategy brings Afghan gainsREUTERS

JALALABAD: A more aggres-sive U S strategy in Afghanistan has put the Taliban on the back foot, soldiers and police say, but bloody recent attacks in Kabul show the insurgency remains potent and a prolonged stale-mate looms.

President Donald Trump in August unveiled a more hawkish military approach, including a surge in air strikes, aimed at forcing the Taliban to the nego-tiating table.

While Afghan security forces say the impact has been signifi-cant, the Taliban still roam huge swathes of the country and, with foreign troop levels at about 15,000 compared with 140,000 in 2014, there appears little hope of outright military victory.

“The American air strikes have broken their back,” said Nasrullah a soldier in Kunar province on the Pakistani border. “They don’t dare attack in large

numbers because they know they’d all get killed. Without air support we’d be struggling.” The Taliban made gains after Nato withdrew most combat troops in late 2014. Two years later, they were threatening several district centres and even two provincial capitals including Kunduz, in the north, which was captured briefly.

Now the militants no longer threaten the city, said Kunduz police chief Abul Hameed Hamidi.

Air strikes had been a “game changer”, he said, along with a revived campaign of “night raids” aimed at capturing mili-tant leaders, which previous President Hamid Karzai banned because they were so unpopular.

Soldiers and police in dis-tricts outside Kunduz that were contested a year ago said the war had tilted in their favour.

“They can’t face us and instead hide among civilians,

plant roadside bombs and carry out suicide attacks,” said soldier Abdul Karim.

In Helmand province in the south, the Taliban have been pushed back 30km from the pro-vincial capital, Lashkar Gar, said governor Hayatullah Hayat, who also credited air strikes.

There were fears last year that the town could fall.

Helmand policeman Baz Gul said the air strikes had “changed the picture completely” and morale was high.

The “number of weapons released” in US air strikes in

Afghanistan in 2017 shot up to 4,361, according to US data, com-pared with 1,337 the previous year.

Nato’s Resolute Support mis-sion said on Tuesday the air campaign had been expanded in the north with B-52 bombers striking Taliban positions.

“The Taliban have nowhere to hide,” said mission com-mander General John Nicholson, adding that the militants could not win on the battlefield.

A Taliban spokesman denied that air strikes had forced fighters to flee, saying they were still operating in district centres and across the countryside.

According to a recent BBC study, the Taliban are openly active in 70 percent of districts. A spokesman for the Nato mis-sion said the BBC estimate over-stated the militants’ “influence impact” and only about 12 per-cent of the population was under full Taliban control.

Thomas Ruttig of the

Afghanistan Analysts Network think-tank said there were limits to what air power could achieve, while pointing out that the number of civilian casualties had risen, which could be used by the Taliban for propaganda.

“Pushing the Taliban back is not victory over them,” he said. “The Taliban have proven that they are able to adjust and out-wait such campaigns before.” Escalating violence, including clashes with Islamic State militants, forced 360,000 people from their homes in 2017, with more than 2,600 civilians killed, according to the United Nations.

“NO END” Trump rejected talks with the Taliban after a Jan. 27 bomb in Kabul killed 103 people, a week after a raid on a hotel killed some 30 people, including four Americans. But the long-term U S aim remains to force the militants into a set-tlement, a top U S official said later.

US forces attack anti-China militants in AfghanistanREUTERS

KABUL: U S forces in Afghan-istan have attacked networks of anti-China militants in action likely to please Beijing which had called for Western cooperation in its fight against the group it says wants to split off its Xinjiang region.

The strikes in northern Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province destroyed Taliban training camps which support militant operations in Afghanistan as well as oper-ations by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) in the border region with China and Tajikistan, Afghanistan’s Nato-led mission said in a release yesterday.

“The US strikes in support Afghanistan in reassuring its neighbours that it is not a safe sanctuary for terrorists who want to carry out cross-border operations,” it said.

The force gave no more details about the attacks or any estimate of casualties but it said the ETIM was behind attacks both inside and out-side China and two of its members had been involved in a 2002 plot to bomb the U S Embassy in Kyrgyzstan.

“They pose a threat to China and enjoy support from the Taliban in Badakhshan and throughout the border region,” the force said.

The group is drawn from members of China’s Uighur minority, a mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking people who inhabit the Xinjiang region in China’s far west.

China has long been con-cerned that instability in Afghanistan could spill over into Xinjiang.

Hundreds of people have been killed in violence in recent years in Xinjiang. Bei-jing blames the bloodshed on Islamist militants and sepa-ratists, though rights groups say the unrest is more a reac-tion to repressive Chinese policies.

The United States, Britain and the United Nations have listed the ETIM as a terrorist group.

Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain (right) greeting Jordan King Abdullah II at the Chaklala military airbase in Islamabad.

PML-N and PPP intensify efforts for Senate electionsINTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) have finalised their candidates for Senate elections to be held on March 7.

The PML-N and the PPP are trying their best to ensure the win of a maximum number of candidates. For the Senate chairman, the real contest is between the two major political parties.

The target of the two parties is members of the Balochistan Assembly, whose votes have become more important after a political change in the province.

However, the PML-N will have an edge over other parties in Punjab, the PPP in Sindh and the PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in the Senate elections.

Votes of Balochistan and FAT parliamentarians will also play a key role in making the PML-N or PPP candidates suc-cessful. That is why both parties are making an all-out effort to support of FATA and Balochistan Assembly members.

The PML-N can win 11 out of 12 seats in Punjab while the opposition will get only one seat. From Punjab, Ishaq Dar, Asif Kirmani, Kamran Michel, Saood Majid and Syed Mushahid Hus-sain are most likely to get PML-N tickets; however, the party’s parliamentary board will make the final decision.

Ishaq Dar has been a sen-ator and federal finance min-ister since 2003. Earlier, he was

an MNA. He is also father-in-law of daughter of PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif. Senator Kamran Michel was earlier elected an MPA on a minority seat and was made provincial minister and then elected as senator and enjoys the portfolio of federal minister.

Mushahid Hussain Syed has been the PML-Q secretary gen-eral and senator until recently. He has been a close aide to Nawaz Sharif but during the period of the Sharif family’s exile, he was among friends of Pervez Mush-arraf and also served as a federal information.

Now he has rejoined the PML-N after quitting the PML-Q. Mushahid Hussain is playing a key role in Pakistan-China friendship.

Senator Asif Saeed Kirmani is son of Syed Ahmed Saeed Kir-mani, who had been a minister in President Ayub’s cabinet. He is a confidant of Nawaz Sharif. He was elected to the Senate after a seat was vacated by the PPP’s Dr Zahiruddin Baber a few months back.

Senator Saood Majid belongs to Bahawalpur. His father Abdul Majid Chaudhry had been a member of the Punjab Assembly and mayor of Bahawalpur.

He was elected to the Senate after Punjab Governor Malik Rafiq Rajwana vacated his seat. Among women, Begum Ishrat Ashraf and Begum Tehmina Daultana are strong candidates.

Begum Ishrat Ashraf has been the PML-N women wing president. She belongs to a family of seasoned politicians.

Her father-in-law Chaudhry

Iqbal Chilianwala had been elected an MNA many times while her husband Jaffer Iqbal was deputy speaker of the National Assembly. They are among close aides Nawaz Sharif.

His daughter Zaib Jafri is a Member of the National Assembly and son Umer Jaffer is a Member of the Punjab Assembly whereas Begum Teh-mina Daultana is a a Member of the National Assembly.

She belongs to a big political family of Vehari. She is niece of former Chief Minister Mumtaz Muhammad Daultana and daughter of the late MNA Mian Riaz Daultana. She has been elected MNA many times.

Senator Zafarullah Danh-dala belongs to Bhakkar. He was an MNA in 2012 he was elected as a senator for the first time. Ch Muhammad Serwar of the PTI is a former Punjab governor.

He came to Pakistan after giving up his British nationality. He was also a Member of the British Parliament.

PML-Q candidate Kamil Ali Agha was the mayor of Lahore in the first tenure of the PML-N government.

Now he is the PML-Q infor-mation secretary and was elected as a senator in 2012. Pir Sabir Ali Shah belongs to KP. He is an aspirant of a PML-N ticket. He comes from a religious family of Sirikot. He remained PML-N KP president and chief minister.

Rubina Khalid is a hopeful of a PPP ticket from KP. She was close to the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. She is a senator of the PPP.

A Chinese employee investigates the scene of accident after a road collapse in Foshan in China’s southern Guangdong province yesterday.

8 dead, 3 missing after China road collapseAFP

BEIJING: Eight people died and three were missing in southern China after a water leak inside a subway station construction site caused a major road to cave in, author-ities said yesterday.

The sudden leak flooded the underground site and led to the multi-lane road’s col-lapse in downtown Foshan, Guangdong province, on Wednesday night, the city gov-ernment said in a statement.

“A total of nine construc-tion workers were rescued, and... rescue and rehabilitation work is still underway,” the statement said. It was unclear whether the dead and missing were all construction workers.

Pakistan plans to broaden tax baseINTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan plans to use its national identity database to build profiles of potential taxpayers in a renewed bid to broaden its tax base, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said.

In an interview with Bloomberg, he said the plan seeks to plug leakages, encourage correct property

valuation, lower individual tax rates and offer an amnesty programme.

The Bloomberg report pointed out that less than one per cent of Pakistan’s popula-tion of 210 million pays taxes.

Lenders including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have repeatedly shown concern over Pakistan’s tax-to-GDP ratio of about 12 per cent, which is among the

lowest globally, the report said.In the past, it said attempts

to force people to pay taxes have been met with resistance and strikes by businesses, while var-ious amnesty plans announced - including one eight months ago - failed to boost revenues.

Now Abbasi wants officials to build taxpayer profiles through the National Database and Registration Authority, the report added.

Malaysia: No mystery over ‘missing’ MH370 search ship AFP

KUALA Lumpur: Malaysia yesterday quashed rumours swirling after a ship searching for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared from tracking screens, saying it had simply made a refuelling stop in Australia and would resume the hunt.

The Seabed Constructor, hired in January for a fresh search for the missing plane, turned off its location trans-ponder for three days without explanation early this month, sparking a slew of speculation, including that it had gone on a treasure hunt.

“There is nothing to be

worried about. We urge family members not to listen to rumours or fake news,” Trans-port Minister Liow Tiong Lai said. He said the Seabed Con-structor “is doing fine” and that “the search will continue as planned”.

MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people — mostly from China — on board while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

An earlier Australia-led search scoured 120,000 square kilometres of a remote region of the Indian Ocean for 28 months but found no trace of the aircraft, and the hunt was suspended last January.

King Abdullah visits Pakistan

The “number of weapons released” in US air strikes in Afghanistan in 2017 shot up to 4,361, according to US data, compared with 1,337 the previous year.

07FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2018 ASIA

No plan to meet US officials: North KoreaREUTERS

SEOUL: North Korea has no intention of meeting U S officials during the Winter Olympics that start in South Korea yesterday, state media said, dampening hopes the Games will help resolve a tense standoff over the North’s nuclear weapons programme.

However, the North’s high-ranking delegation, including the younger sister of its leader Kim Jong Un, will meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in and have lunch with him tomorrow.

Such a meeting would be the first such event between a South Korean head of state and a member of the Kim family since a 2007 summit meeting of Kim Jong Il and late South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun.

U S Vice-President Mike Pence, who has described North Korea as the world’s most tyran-nical regime, spoke with Moon yesterday ahead of the opening ceremony in the mountain resort of Pyeongchang, just 80km from the heavily armed border with the reclusive North.

Today’s ceremony will be attended by North Korea’s dele-gation, including its nominal head of state, Kim Yong Nam.

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of the North’s leader, and her entourage, will travel by private jet to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport on Friday, North Korea told the South.

“We have never begged for dialogue with the US nor in the future, too,” the North’s KCNA news agency said, citing Jo Yong Sam, a director-general in the North’s foreign ministry.

“Explicitly speaking, we have no intention to meet with the U S side during the stay in South Korea... Our delegation’s visit to South Korea is only to take part in the Olympics and hail its suc-cessful holding.” The United States had not requested talks with North Korea, but Pence left open the possibility of some con-tact although his message for denuclearisation remained unchanged.

In opening remarks during his meeting with Moon, Pence said the United States would never waver in its goal of getting North Korea to give up its nuclear and ballistic missile programme through strong pressure, an aim shared with South Korea.

Pence has said Washington would soon unveil “the toughest and most aggressive round of economic sanctions on North Korea ever” while South Korea wants to use the Olympics to re-engage with the North.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters all sides, not just the two Koreas, needed to work hard and dia-logue between the United States and North Korea should be

expanded for this to happen, Wang said.

“You can’t have it that one person opens the door and another closes it,” he said.

North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North defends its weapons pro-grammes as necessary to counter U S aggression. The South hosts 28,500 U S troops, a legacy of the war.

North Korea marked the founding anniversary of its army with a large military parade in Pyongyang yesterday broadcast by state media, having last month changed the date of the celebra-tion to the eve of the Olympics.

Kim Jong Un, in a black hat and matching coat, saluted troops while his wife walked beside him, television images showed. One of Kim’s close aides, Choe Ryong Hae, and Kim Yong Nam were also in attendance.

The North’s state media also showed what appeared to be intercontinental ballistic missiles on launchers as thousands of North Koreans filled Kim Il Sung Square, named after Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, in Pyongyang.

“We have destroyed the ene-my’s risk-taking provocations at every move,” Kim Jong Un said in a speech. He did not mention the United States, which North Korea considers its main enemy and regularly threatens to destroy in a sea of flames. Analysts said the parade seemed smaller than those of previous years, but was still focused on the North’s goal of strengthening its nuclear mis-sile capabilities.

South Korean supporters wave “Unification flags” as they welcome North Korea’s art performers outside the Gangneung Art Centre in Gangneung, yesterday.

Pyongyang holds military parade on eve of OlympicsAFP

SEOUL: North Korea staged a military parade in Pyongyang yesterday to mark the 70th anniversary of its armed forces, putting its intercontinental ballistic missiles on show just a day before the Winter Olympics open in the South.

The nuclear-armed North is on an Olympics-linked charm offen-sive — sending a troupe of per-formers, hundreds of female cheer-leaders, and the sister of leader Kim Jong Un to South Korea.

But regiments of soldiers goose-stepped in formation through Kim Il Sung Square yes-terday, followed by trucks,

artillery, tanks and finally four giant Hwasong-15 ICBMs — as well as a band forming the Korean word for “Victory”.

Unlike the North’s last parade in April 2017 state tele-vision did not show the event live, instead airing it hours later.

Fireworks went off as leader Kim Jong Un took his place on the rostrum to watch the dis-play, along with his wife Ri Sol Ju and ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam — who will head Pyongyang’s delegation to the Olympics today.

“We... have become capable of showcasing our stature as a world-class military power to the world,” said Kim, wearing a

long black coat and black fedora.

The military should remain on high alert to ensure that invaders could not violate the North’s sovereignty “even by 0.001mm”, he said.

“Long live!” cried the assem-bled troops, their breath con-densing in the subzero temper-atures and some of them in tears at the sight of the leader.

Analysts say that with the dual approach, the North is looking to normalise its status as a “de facto nuclear state”, and could be trying to weaken sanc-tions against it or drive a wedge between the South and its ally the US.

ICC probing alleged crimes in PhilippinesAFP

THE HAGUE: The prosecutor at the International Criminal Court yesterday unveiled two new initial probes focusing on the deadly war on drugs in the Philippines and alleged abuses during Venezuela’s political unrest.

The unprecedented deci-sion to launch two inquiries at once comes after ICC pros-ecutor Fatou Bensouda was petitioned by opposition leaders from the two coun-tries, accusing their hardline governments of crimes against humanity.

Bensouda said she had followed events in the coun-tries closely, and after “a careful, independent and impartial review... I have decided to open a preliminary examination into each situation.”

Both countries have signed up to the Rome Statute, underpinning the ICC, giving the tribunal authority to investigate crimes on their territories.

In the Philippines, Ben-souda’s office would “analyse crimes allegedly committed... since at least 1 July 2016, in the context of the ‘war on drugs’ campaign” launched by Philippine President Rod-rigo Duterte.

She vowed to focus on allegations that “thousands of persons have been killed for reasons related to their alleged involvement in illegal drug use.”

Opened in 2002, the ICC is the world’s only permanent war crimes court and was set up to prosecute the planet’s worst crimes where national courts are unable or unwilling to proceed.

Canada helicopters ‘not for attack’, says ManilaAFP

MANILA: The Philippine mili-tary yesterday denied it planned to use 16 Bell helicopters bought from Canada as attack aircraft against local insurgents, following reports Ottawa was reviewing the deal.

Canadian media had reported overnight on Wednesday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government was reconsidering the sale over fears the aircraft would be used in internal security operations, just hours after both govern-ments had announced it in public.

“They must not politicise the

acquisition,” said Major-General Restituto Padilla, the deputy chief of staff for plans and pro-grammes of the Philippine armed forces, yesterday.

“You must understand that these are utility helicopters, not attack helicopters,” Padilla said.

According to the Philippine defence department, the deal was signed with trade promo-tion outfit Canadian Commer-cial Corp last December, shortly after Trudeau clashed with Pres-ident Rodrigo Duterte during a Manila visit over Philippine drug war killings.

The Philippines employs attack helicopters and planes to support ground troops battling

militants in the Muslim south, as well as against communist guer-rillas in other parts of the mainly Catholic Asian nation.

A Philippine defence depart-ment spokesman said on Wednesday its air force would use the Bell 412EPI aircraft, worth $234.8m, for disaster response and humanitarian missions, but also for “anti-terrorism”.

However, Padilla said yes-terday this did not mean they would be used as “attack helicopters”.

“Not at all. They are purely for utility purposes — ergo, transport purposes especially during HADR operations,” he said, using a military term for

disaster response.“We have separate and ded-

icated attack helicopters.” Apart from armed insurgencies, the Philippines is also regularly bat-tered by typhoons.

Bell Helicopter had said the Philippine military will use the aircraft “for a variety of missions such as disaster relief, search and rescue, passenger transport and utility transport”.

Canadian ambassador to Manila John Holmes said on Wednesday the versatility of the aircraft would improve the “search and rescue and disaster relief capabilities” of the Philip-pines and would be a “real ben-efit” to its citizens. An embassy

spokesman said it did not have a comment to make yesterday.

Trudeau said in November he had called out Duterte over “human rights, the rule of law, and specifically extrajudicial killings”.

Duterte, who has overseen a crackdown that has left nearly 4,000 drug suspects dead at the hands of the police, later described Trudeau’s com-ments as “a personal and offi-cial insult”.

The Philippine government says police only shot the suspects in self-defence and rejects human rights monitors’ descrip-tion of the crackdown as a crime against humanity.

Two earthquake survivors check their belongings at a local detention centre in Hualien yesterday, after the city was hit by a 6.4-magnitude quake late on February 6.

Quake-hit Taiwan city still on edge as rescuers hunt for survivorsREUTERS

HUALIEN, TAIWAN: Scores of aftershocks hampered rescue efforts yesterday as emergency personnel combed through collapsed buildings in search of survivors after a powerful earth-quake killed at least 10 people near Taiwan’s tourist city of Hualien.

The coastal city was hit on Tuesday by a magnitude 6.4 quake just before midnight (1600 GMT) that injured 270 people. Four buildings col-lapsed, officials said, and seven people were still missing.

Rescuers stepped up efforts at one of the worst-hit struc-tures, a 12-storey building that housed apartments and a small hotel, where authorities believe most of those still missing to have been, including several foreigners.

Thick steel girders propped up the heavily leaning structure to keep it from collapsing

further, with the lower floors having already caved in.

“Everyone was surprised,” said Huang Chang Po, the 58-year-old owner of a unit in the building, built in 1994.

“We have strong earth-quakes all the time in Hualien and it’s really bizarre that our building collapsed,” he said.

Up to 100 soldiers, rescuers, police, aid workers and volun-teers scrambled in the cold and rain outside to find survivors, as excavators cleared away debris.

At an emergency meeting on Thursday, other residents and owners raised concerns about possible recent modifications and demanded a structural check by engineers to determine the cause of the collapse.

It was too early to ascertain the cause, however, said Chang Cheng Chen, an engineer from a regional architects’ association.

“It requires a thorough tech-nical inspection, which may take two to three months,” he said,

adding that factors such as the nature of the soil and how quake waves passed through the building could have played a part.

More than 220 aftershocks followed the main quake, including a 5.7 quake late on Wednesday. A witness said people rushed out of a residen-tial building and rescue workers looked up from piles of debris after one such quiver.

Authorities “would not give up” on disaster relief efforts, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen said during her second visit to the quake-hit area yesterday.

“I didn’t really dare stay at home,” said Hualien resident Yang Yantin. “The area around my house is actually not that bad, the houses are all OK but, because of the aftershocks, I don’t really want to stay there.”

Lin Tzu Wei, an official at the Central Weather Bureau, said continued vigilance of seismic activity was needed.

U S Vice-President Mike Pence, who has described North Korea as the world’s most tyrannical regime, spoke with Moon yesterday ahead of the opening ceremony in the mountain resort of Pyeongchang.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has called for concerted efforts by all Gulf countries to make Qatar ���� World Cup a success.

The FIFA chief also reiterated that the ���� World Cup will be held in Qatar four years later and there is no disagreement in this matter at all.

It will be better for the sports in general and the region in particular if the blockading countries set aside their petty jealousies and take pride in the first World Cup to be held in the Arab world.

Qatar is steaming ahead with preparation for the world event and is well ahead of schedule despite the illegal siege by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt.

A few months into the blockade, a UAE official had admitted openly that they had fabricated the Gulf crisis to withdraw the World Cup from Qatar.

The media from these countries had launched many campaigns spreading fake news aimed at ���� World Cup.

The international sporting community saw through the scheming plans by the blockading countries and realised that Qatar is not only ready to host the biggest footballing event but also going to make it a spectacular one.

“We are aiming to make sure that this World Cup leaves a legacy for the people of the Middle East and is an opportunity to transform our region towards a sustainable and stable future,” Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary-General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, had said in an interview.

Just a few days back, the official in charge of the Al-Wakrah Stadium, designed by celebrated Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, had said that the project will be ready by year-end. Al Bayt Stadium is also expected to be completed by December. The Khalifa International Stadium was completed last year. This means Qatar has built almost half of its proposed eight venues with four years to go for the tournament.

All this was achieved despite the blockade, which closed the only land border in a bid to choke the state, as most of the construction materials were coming through the Salwa border.

What the blockading countries didn’t fathom is the way the government bodies and private sector quickly turned around and found multiple suppliers at competitive rates. And Hamad Port played its role as the port of entry.

Qatar’s world-class infrastructure was also praised by another FIFA official, Pierluigi Collina, while attending the FIFA World Cup ���� Referees Workshop. The FIFA Referees Committee Chairman hailed the outstanding facilities provided by Qatar to host the event.

This shows how Qatar is marching ahead with its preparation without any hiccups.

It will be better for the sports in general and the region in particular if the blockading countries set aside their petty jealousies and take pride in the first World Cup to be held in the Arab world.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

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

08 FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2018VIEWS

EDITORIAL

Region’s World Cup

QUOTE OF THE DAYThe Maldives have seen in recent years attacks on political opponents,

on journalists, on civil society and human right

defenders, and what is happening now is

tantamount to an all-out assault on democracy.

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein UN Rights Chief

JAN EGELAND AL JAZEERA

The larger worry is that, with Merkel’s career widely perceived to be in its twilight, the strength of the centrist parties will be further eroded during another joint government.

ESTABLISHED IN 1996 Will 2018 be the year of return to Syria?

Today, in government buildings across Europe and the Middle East, officials debate policies that would return millions of

Syrian refugees to their war-ravaged land. Displaced families sit in refugee tents weighing up the risk of returning home, too; the burden weighing heavier on their shoulders.

Government officials would be unwise to make hasty or reckless deci-sions from the safety and detachment of their faraway offices, without consulting the very people who endanger their lives by returning. Not doing so would risk another series of misguided policies that will lead to more suffering and conflict for Syria.

The brutal seven-year war has taken a colossal toll on human lives. It has dis-placed half the country’s prewar population. More than six million people are displaced inside Syria. Another five million are refugees in neighbouring nations, a million of which have fled to Europe.

When my organisation, the Norwe-gian Refugee Council, speaks with refugees, a clear majority tell us they don’t want to go to Europe or the US. Nor do they wish to stay in Jordan, Lebanon or Turkey — countries who generously opened their borders to host them. They want to go home. This year, many of them likely will.

However, many parts of Syria con-tinue to be torn apart by conflict. Fierce fighting in the northwestern province of Idlib recently forced a quarter of a mil-lion people to flee. This is on top of a million people already displaced inside the province. Further south, in the besieged enclave of Eastern Ghouta, the misery of 400,000 starved Syrians has spiked to an unimaginable level.

Both warzones are among four “de-escalation areas” that were meant to see less violence, more aid and the eventual return of displaced communities. Instead, they have witnessed only death and destruction.

Elsewhere in Syria, suffering is tak-ing place with less global attention. In regions retaken from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in 2017, civil-ians returning home are killed by explosives on a daily basis. On top of that, the movement of these civilians, and that of aid organisations, is often

curtailed and restricted.While many Syrians did return home

last year, a far greater number fled. For every internally displaced Syrian who returned, three were newly displaced. The figures for refugees are equally stark. Some 66,000 refugees returned to Syria in 2017, but neighbouring coun-tries closed their borders to about 300,000 people trying to escape the war.

Among those who did return, evi-dence indicates some degree of force was involved. Other families returned after losing hope that their deteriorating existence as refugees would ever improve.

Much of the Syria that refugees fled, has since been reduced to rubble. About one-third of all homes and schools, and about half of all medical facilities, have been damaged or destroyed in the conflict.

The cost of rebuilding will be as high as $180bn, according to the World Bank. Before any money can be spent, how-ever, complicated political agreements first need to be made between conflict parties and between external donors, to provide the security and investment conditions needed.

Preparing the ground for Syrians to return home must be done carefully. This is where aid organisations can help. For example, many children born during the war do not have legal papers to prove their nationality and risk becom-ing stateless.

In addition, many families who lost deeds to land and property cannot prove they own the homes they want to return to. We can provide legal aid to Syrians who lost, or do not have these civil doc-uments as a result of the conflict, which affects their ability to return.

This year, 2018, can be the year that parties to this conflict finally agree on a better future for Syria. But until they do,

equal attention should be given to refu-gees wishing to stay and wait for peace, as to those who will return. Donors and powers have committed to improving the situation for refugees in neighbour-ing countries — it is high time they honoured those promises. Excessive focus on returning Syrians home cannot justify the rigid closed-door refugee pol-icy of wealthy countries.

A basic principle of international law is that refugees should only return home in a voluntary, safe and dignified way. As humanitarians, we pledge to listen, assist and monitor such voluntary return. We also pledge to the civilians we serve, to fight any decisions that will lead to rushed and involuntary returns.

We need to sit down with politicians and diplomats in Europe and the Middle East before it is too late and agree on how best to assist and protect Syrians. Too many fatal decisions have been made over their heads by others, but ultimately suffered by them.

The writer is secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s foremost task

THE WASHINGTON POST

Germany’s two big parties have finally agreed on a new

government under Chancellor Angela Merkel, which is both good news and grounds for worry.

The announcement comes as a relief for many Germans weary of months of political uncertainty. It is welcome, too, for a European Union hoping for more robust support from Berlin. But it offers more reason for concern about the future of Western liberal democracy: That the German center-left and center-right were forced to renew a coalition that has weakened both of them underlines the growing strength of the political extremes and raises the specter that in Germany, as in other Western nations,

the center ultimately may not hold.

Merkel, chancellor since 2005, has been a stable and effective leader for Germany and Europe and, in the past year, a welcome defender of liberal values, including human rights, in the age of President Donald Trump. Germany’s economy has grown so strong that the new coalition will have a $55 billion budget surplus to redistribute on benefits for families, tax cuts and investments in infrastructure. That will be cheered by critics who for years have urged Berlin to spend more as a way of stimulating southern European economies and better balancing trade flows.

To win over the left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD), Merkel ended up handing the finance ministry as well as the foreign ministry

to SPD appointees. With SPD leader Martin Schulz, a former president of the European Parliament, reported to be headed for the foreign ministry, Germany could become more amenable to proposals for strengthening EU institutions and the euro — to the delight of French President Emmanuel Macron.

The first shadow on this seemingly positive outcome is the possibility it will be rejected by the SPD’s members, who will vote on it in the next few weeks. Notably, the party’s youth wing is strenuously opposed to a new coalition; like leftist young people in Britain and the United States, young German progressives are dissatisfied with the compromises of the center.

The principal opposition to the coalition, meanwhile, will come from the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, whose very name is a rebuff to Merkel’s insistent centrism. The coalition’s answer to the AfD’s strident opposition to immigration is a

cap on refugee admissions of 180,000 to 220,000 a year — far below the approximately some 1 million who arrived in 2015. Having once championed the need for Europe to help people fleeing the carnage of Syria and Afghanistan, Merkel has bowed to the populist backlash against them, though her government will remain more welcoming to refugees than the Trump administration is.

The larger worry is that, with Merkel’s career widely perceived to be in its twilight, the strength of the centrist parties will be further eroded during another joint government. As it is, both received their lowest shares of the vote since the 1940s in last September’s election. If the new coalition falters, the AfD could be the leading beneficiary.

In neighboring Austria, years of right-left coalitions finally led last year to the election of a new government including the far right. Merkel’s most important task will be to avoid leaving such a legacy.

We need to sit down with politicians and diplomats in Europe and the Middle East before it is too late and agree on how best to assist and protect Syrians. Too many fatal decisions have been made over their heads by others, but ultimately suffered by them.

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As regions are cleared of PYD/PKK elements, Turkish aid workers move in to provide basic necessities to the local inhabitants. Usually within weeks, sometimes sooner, local residents who have fled the past seven years’ fighting are able to return and begin rebuilding their lives and communities.

ADAM MCCONNEL ANATOLIA

IN the fashionable Poblenou district of Barcelona, hipsters and entrepreneurs rub shoulders with homeless people and immigrants, as the city authorities

try to reduce digital inequality. The futuristic Media-TIC building is one of several venues around the city where disadvantaged people can sign up for free courses to improve their online literacy skills under a “Barcelona, Digital City” plan launched last year.

The programme, which runs until 2020, is needed because access to technology has

become a “new source of social fracture” for cities in an increasingly computerised world, the council of Spain’s second-largest city said on its website.

Initiatives are springing up around the globe to teach online skills, in an effort to smooth access to jobs and education, and inte-grate people better into society. But questions are being raised about how well such schemes can reach those most in need.

Berlin-based non-profit Kiron Open Higher Education provides free web-based courses for refugees with internet access any-where in the world. In New York, thousands of kiosks offering free Wi-Fi are being rolled out across the city under the LinkNYC scheme to help people of all income levels go online. Meanwhile, Miami-based organisation One

Laptop per Child (OLPC) continues to hand out free laptops to children in developing countries, while Google promised in 2017 to teach online skills to 10 million Africans over the next five years.

The catch with some of these initiatives, however, is that they only work if people are already connected to the internet or own the necessary technology, experts say. “Poor peo-ple are the ones most likely to be left outside of the digital sphere,” said Darrell West, direc-tor of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think-tank.

New Yorkers wanting to use LinkNYC’s pri-vate internet connection, for example, need one of Apple’s latest iPhones. Critics say this excludes low-income users who are most likely to need free Wi-Fi because they cannot afford a home broadband connection. Digital Divide 2.0 The so-called “digital divide” has tradition-ally referred to the gap between those who have access to computers and the internet, and those with limited or no access.

Globally, around 3.2 billion people are using the internet, according to the Interna-tional Telecommunication Union, a UN agency. Of the roughly 4.3 billion people who are not connected, about half live in India and China, according to the Brookings Institution. But dig-ital inequality can no longer be viewed simply as the gap between those with physical access to devices and those without, experts say. In today’s world, there are many different dig-ital divides, they argue — and various ways of trying to overcome them.

Prohibitive connection charges are a major cause of digital inequality, especially in emerging economies, said West of the Brookings Institution. “The problem is that if you provide a free computer but don’t address high telecommunications charges, people are

not going to be able to use the devices,” he added. Not just a laptop OLPC, a US non-profit founded in 2005, provides children in devel-oping countries with a low-cost, low-power computer that is connected to the internet.

More than 3 million laptops have been distributed to children, said Leah Shadle, legal associate with OLPC. “(It) has always been an educational programme, not just a laptop pro-gramme,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Schools are offered teacher train-ing and technical training, among other services, she said. In Uruguay, OLPC’s edu-cation programme has been adopted on a national scale. According to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Car-ibbean, around 60 percent of households in Uruguay are connected to the internet, the highest of any country in the region.

In other, richer parts of the world, the issue of digital inequality is more nuanced than it was a few decades ago, said Mark Warschauer, professor of education and infor-matics at the University of California, Irvine. Amplifying difference In the United States, for instance, most people have a smartphone and a data plan, “and are pretty adept at using that”, even among urban populations with high levels of poorer non-white communi-ties, as in Los Angeles, he said.

The issue is what digital devices people are using — and how. Lower-income fami-lies tend to use smart phones more than laptops, and if they do have a computer at home it may be shared by several family members, Warschauer noted.

Children from wealthier backgrounds are using technology to gain knowledge, whereas children from poorer families focus more on chatting and playing, he added.

Digital media “tends to amplify existing discrepancies” in society, he said.

As the world goes digital, is there a hack for inequality?

SOPHIE DAVIES REUTERS

09FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2018 OPINION

Initiatives are springing up around the globe to teach online skills, in an effort to smooth access to jobs and education, and integrate people better into society.

Turkish and American relations in 2018IN the past 15 years, Turkey

has witnessed a political era every bit as fascinating and fraught as that of the

Renaissance Italian city states. But whereas the Italian peninsula’s alliances were notoriously subject to lightning-quick shifts, Turkey’s most important ally has been the United States for more than 70 years.

Recently, however, Turkish-American relations experienced an unprecedented and dismal string of misfortunes. President Obama’s second term, and the egregious mistakes his adminis-tration made in regard to Syria, turned the positive atmosphere established after his 2009 inau-guration into thinly camouflaged discord.

President Trump’s single year in power has done nothing to mitigate the wrongheaded American attitude towards Tur-key established in the previous four years. On the contrary, rela-tions have continued to deteriorate as Trump purposely eviscerated the State Depart-ment, leaving the Pentagon brass in charge of US foreign policy in Turkey’s region. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson surfaces occa-sionally to smile and glad-hand regional officials, but he is forgot-ten as soon as he departs. Developments in the past year made clear to everyone that the State Department now had little role in developing and imple-menting US foreign policy.

President Trump, for his part, has demonstrated no com-prehension whatsoever of the many problems gripping the Eastern Mediterranean, and no attention span that would ena-ble him to gain some

proficiency. As a result, the worst mistakes of the Obama Administration have only been amplified, tension has increased, and distrust intensified.

The wider reality of current Turkey-US affairs is that the US is no longer the global leviathan. Whether this heralds greater global political equality or, as many political scientists would suggest, international chaos and war, will only become clear in the coming decades. For Tur-key’s region, the decline in US influence means that the US no longer has the capacity to deter-mine outcomes. But the situation is unlike that of Febru-ary 1947, when the British unilaterally handed security responsibilities in the Eastern Mediterranean to the US.

Rather, the disintegration of US power in Turkey’s region has been an extended affair that can be traced back to the George W Bush Administration’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. That incursion was evil, murderous, and rapa-cious from its inception. All knowledgeable actors were aware that Saddam Hussein had no WMDs, but US power made the invasion possible. After-wards, the US struggled to establish political order in the country, and Iraq’s internal poli-tics remain tenuous even today. And Iraq’s disorder began to seep into other regional states.

Barack Obama swerved US policy to the exact opposite course of his predecessor. Stung by the death of a US ambassa-dor in Libya, Obama chose not to involve the US in Syria when that was exactly the type of situ-ation that US power should have

been exercised in: an authori-tarian leader massacring his own citizens when they took to the streets to demand their democratic rights.

President Obama declined to establish a no-fly zone or engage in a serious train-and-equip program for the moderate Syrian opposition, instead opt-ing to join forces with the Syrian branch of the PKK, known as the PYD. The first US weapons and supplies were delivered to the PYD in late 2014, and rela-tions between a Marxist-Leninist militant organ-isation and the US government blossomed into open collaboration.

When Trump occupied the White House, his administration immediately attempted to rees-tablish the US’s traditional working relationships in Tur-key’s region. This meant overtures to Israel and Saudi Arabia as soon as Trump took office. But the region had changed since George W Bush departed the White House in 2009. Russia was now the power broker in Syria; Iran, in addition to collaboration with Russia in Syria, now had more influence and leverage in Wash-ington because of the nuclear deal; in Saudi Arabia, power was shifting to a young, untested prince; The amount of knowl-edge that anyone attempting to formulate official policy for the region needed to master bal-looned to even greater proportions, and that is far beyond the Trump Administra-tion’s apparent capacities.

The US administration’s behavior, both current and pre-vious, all the more frustrating, agonising even. Isn’t the situa-tion that has unfolded in Syria over the past seven years exactly what an ally is for? Isn’t this sort of regional distress a perfect scenario in which Nato could turn to Turkey for its regional expertise and leader-ship, to enable the alliance to adapt and create better policy? Turkey’s performance under the Nato aegis in Afghanistan has been, by all accounts, excellent. Syria even borders Turkey, but the US and Nato, for unknown reasons, have never seen Tur-key’s proficiency and regional knowledge as a vital aspect of dealing with the Syrian conflict.

On top of all of the regional crises, Turkey went through its own serious political distur-bances in 2013-2016,

culminating in the July 2016 coup attempt. Turkey is the region’s only large democracy, but throughout that four-year period, Turkey did not receive the moral support from the US that would normally be expected from an ally. In fact, exactly the opposite of what would be expected occurred as a mounting chorus of both offi-cial and civilian voices — notable mostly for their weak knowledge of Turkish politics, society, and events — emerged to relentlessly excoriate the Turkish government.

To distill the situation to its essence, we can take this per-spective: in 2014 the US began a partnership with a violent mili-tant organisation, designated by the US government as “terror-ist,” that has been targeting the Turkish state and Turkish soci-ety for 30 years, and has caused around 40,000 deaths; since the 2016 coup attempt, the US gov-ernment has made no overt steps to extradite its instigator to Turkey. In the same time frame, the US government and various civilian actors, such as think tanks and journalists, directed harsh, often irrational and mis-/uninformed criticism towards the Turkish government, its elected officials, and Turkish state institutions.

Those developments, plus other incidents in the recent past, have pushed Turkish offi-cials to act on their own. Several weeks ago, when the US announced the formation of a 30,000-man “border force” in north Syria, the foundations and leadership of which would be provided by the PYD/PKK. In this case, however, US decision-makers have displayed neither the prudence nor the humility to see their mistakes, and the past five years have taught the Turk-ish leadership to distrust US intentions. Russia was also obvi-ously disturbed by the US step. With Russian doubts evaporat-ing, the campaign to expel the PYD/PKK from Afrin was given an almost immediate go-ahead.

Operation Olive Branch had been in the works since the con-clusion of Operation Euphrates Shield one year ago. For the past several years, the PYD/PKK has used Afrin as a staging region for slipping militants into Tur-key along the Amanos Mountains. From time to time, they also lobbed missiles into the Turkish towns bordering Afrin, especially Kilis and Rey-

hanli, Hatay.Most of last summer passed with

the expectation that the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) would enter Afrin. Russian opposition seemed to avert the operation at that point, but Turkish forces did move into the Idlib province, south of Afrin and already controlled by Syrian opposition forces, several months ago. That established a southern front.

As regions are cleared of PYD/PKK elements, Turkish aid workers move in to provide basic necessities to the local inhabitants. Usually within weeks, sometimes sooner, local residents who have fled the past seven years’ fighting are able to return and begin rebuilding their lives and communities. Earlier in January, school children in the Euphrates Shield region received their report cards after finishing a school term free of the violence that had blighted their communities in the past years.

Once Operation Olive Branch reaches its conclusion, not only will Afrin’s residents finally be in safe hands, but Turkish society will be cor-respondingly more secure. The next target will apparently be the region on the Euphrates River’s west bank, around Manbij, concerning which the Obama Administration broke prom-ises made to the Turkish government.

Before Turkish forces and the Free Syrian Army turn their attention to Manbij, one hopes that US officials will come to their senses, withdraw US soldiers from that region, and cease providing support to the PKK’s Syrian arm. US officials have already proclaimed that the struggle against Daesh in Syria has only weeks to go before its conclusion, so the excuse for maintaining ties with the PYD, flimsy even in the best circum-stances, is about to disappear altogether.

10 FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2018EUROPE

Roundtable meeting Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May hosts a roundtable meeting with senior representative from Japanese companies at 10 Downing Street in London, yesterday.

EU lawmakers urge review of summer clock changesREUTERS

BRUSSELS: EU lawmakers backed a motion yesterday calling for an assessment of whether Europe should stop moving clocks forward and back between summer and winter time, following a call from Finland.

EU law since the 1990s has coordinated the shift to summer time, laying down that citizens in all 28 EU countries move their clocks an hour forward on the last Sunday in March and switch back to winter time on the final Sunday in October.

Finland, with the most northerly EU national capital, called in January for the EU to scrap clock switches, spurred by

a public petition that secured more than 70,000 signatures.

Critics of the system say it can cause long-term health problems, especially among young children and elderly people. Research has shown that the time change disrupts sleep schedules and can impact pro-ductivity at work.

Supporters say the extra morning daylight in winter and evening light in summer can help reduce traffic accidents and save energy. The European Par-liament voted by 384 to 153 for a motion calling on the Euro-pean Commission to study the effects of switching clocks and, if necessary, to come up with a plan for a revision.

Before the vote, members of

the European Parliament debated the issue, with voices both for and against a change in the law.

French lawmaker Karima Delli said the shift to summer time left people tired, causing traffic accidents.

But Belgian lawmaker Hilde Vautmans argued that elimi-nating the clock change would mean either losing an hour of light at the end of the day for seven months in summer, or sending children to school in the dark for five months in winter.

Outside the EU, a handful of European countries have stopped switching between summer and winter time, including Russia, Turkey, Belarus and Iceland.

Few cheers for new coalition in GermanyREUTERS

BERLIN: Angela Merkel’s German coalition deal with the Social Democrats (SPD) was greeted with more scepticism than joy yesterday, as some said the loveless alliance, born of desperation, showed the conservative chancellor’s time was coming to an end.

The deal, reached in record time to end months of political paralysis after Merkel had failed to form a coalition with two smaller parties, faces its first test when the SPD’s membership vote from February 20 on whether to ratify a deal many never wanted.

But Merkel’s camp was also forced to defend a deal that sees the conservatives cede the cru-cial finance minister post in exchange for a fourth term in office for the woman who has dominated European politics for the past 12 years.

Christian von Stetten, a law-maker from Merkel’s own Chris-tian Democrats (CDU), said the allocation of cabinet posts, notably the finance ministry, had been “a political mistake”.

Both camps had to make sacrifices to secure a deal. The agreement promises an unusual half-time review after two years — already being seen as a pos-sible opportunity for Merkel finally to step down.

“If it happens, the fourth Merkel cabinet will in some respects resemble the last cab-inets of Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt,” wrote Kurt Kister, editor of the Sueddeut-sche Zeitung newspaper. “This government could be captioned ‘Won’t last long’.” SPD MEM-BERS’ VOTE Even that may prove optimistic if SPD leader Martin Schulz fails to persuade his party’s 464,000 members to ratify the deal in a postal ballot, whose result will be announced on March 4.

A survey of 5,127 voters con-ducted by pollster Civey on Wednesday for t-online indi-cated that almost 60 percent of SPD supporters want the par-ty’s members to back the coali-tion deal. But the same poll found that a clear majority of Germans overall wanted party members to reject it.

The centre-left SPD saw its previous four years in “grand coalition” rewarded with its worst result in decades in Sep-tember’s national election, and the slide has continued.

The SPD registered 18 per-cent in a GMS poll conducted before the deal was announced, the lowest reading GMS had ever recorded, and only four points ahead of the far-right Alterna-tive for Germany (AfD). Together, the two grand coali-tion parties, which have between them shaped Germa-ny’s postwar politics, barely scored 50 percent.

Opponents of the deal say Schulz’s team failed to put a left-wing stamp on the programme, which continues to promise the budget discipline that has been the hallmark of Merkel’s three governments. It is unclear if they

will be persuaded by his response that the SPD will con-trol top ministries including finance, foreign affairs and labour.

Schulz’s defenders empha-sise commitments on welfare spending, housing and pensions, and worker-friendly labour law reforms.

An SPD source said law-makers had read out emails from SPD supporters at a party meeting on Wednesday, with some emails saying they had not backed Schulz as party chair only for him to switch to the for-eign ministry, as he plans to do. There was unanimous approval for the coalition contract though, the source said.

Paradoxically, the political right’s dismay could win over more reluctant SPD members. The mass-selling daily Bild said Merkel had sold out. “Chancellor at any price,” Bild wrote on its front page. “Merkel gifts the SPD the government.”

But the ill temper in Ger-many was not matched in other capitals, where news of a pro-spective end to four months of uncertainty was greeted with relief.

SPD bets on first female chair in 154 years to revive fortunesREUTERS

BERLIN: Andrea Nahles, the plain-speaking 47-year-old leader of the Social Democrats in Germany’s parlia-ment, is set to be given the task of re-energising a 154-year-old party that has alienated much of its tradi-tional voter base — workers and young people.

Martin Schulz is stepping aside as leader after his campaign to become chancellor earned the SPD its worst result in the postwar era. If its leadership follow his advice, Nahles will become the party’s first female chairwoman. A former labour minister described by the mass-circulation daily Bild as “the only real guy in the SPD”, Nahles is credited with marshalling sup-port in her party for a renewal of the ‘grand coalition’ with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives that has governed Germany since 2013.

Now she will be leading the charge to win approval of the terms of the deal from the party’s 464,000 mem-bers, many of whom remain deeply sceptical about another tie-up with Merkel. She will face strong oppo-sition from 28-year-old Kevin Kuehnert, the formi-dable leader of the SPD’s more radical youth wing — a job she held in the 1990s. Kuehnert has railed against the coalition for weeks, and on Wednesday accused Schulz of trying to hijack debate about the substance of the agreement with his move on Nahles.

Nahles emerged as Schulz’s heir apparent last month after he made a lacklustre 57-minute speech in which he boasted about having a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron as he urged SPD delegates to agree to let coalition talks proceed.

Then came Nahles. Like a sports coach ripping into her team after a poor first half, she cursed, pounded her chest, thumped the podium and implored — almost ordered — the delegates to back the coali-tion talks. “We will negotiate until the other side squeals!” she screamed to cheers from the delegates, who then voted by 362 to 279 to press ahead with negotiations. Bild wrote that Nahles was the only person in the SPD to show leadership, “while the men around her just watch”. The newspaper Die Zeit lauded her vigour and energy and compared her to US tele-vision star Oprah Winfrey.

She made improving the rights of workers a hall-mark of her tenure in the Labour Ministry in the ‘grand coalition’ of 2009-2013 and spearheaded some of that government’s key projects such as introducing Ger-many’s first nationwide minimum wage. Keen to show she understands the needs of manual workers, Nahles

also reformed the pension system to allow some people to retire at 63 — a project she defended by referring to the shoulder, back and knee problems her father suffered after a lifetime working in construction.

Known as a straight-talker, Nahles grabbed head-lines in September — when the SPD was still hoping to stay in opposition — by bluntly vowing to hit con-servatives “squarely in the jaw” after four years as their junior partner. But she has also won respect from conservatives including Merkel for her expertise and ability to find compromises, not least during the two previous ‘grand coalitions’ since 2005.

Participants in the latest coalition talks said her negotiating prowess had proved a sharp contrast to Schulz’s long-winded monologues. “Andrea Nahles is both a hammer and an anvil - she can dish it out but she can also take it,” Schulz, 62, said as he nomi-nated her, saying the party needed younger leaders to reinvent itself before the next election in 2021.

If she were to run for chancellor then, Nahles would also have the advantage, as a non-member of the cabinet, of not being too closely associated with the new government.

Nahles wrote in her school yearbook that she wanted to be “housewife or chancellor”.

She joined the SPD at 18 and helped found a branch in her small village of Weiler in the hilly Eifel region in western Germany before rising through the party’s ranks, and taking over as its general secretary in 2009.

After September’s election, she became the SPD’s parliamentary floor leader, the first woman to hold that role for the party.

A Roman Catholic mother of one, but separated from her art historian husband, Nahles studied German literature and politics, writing her master’s thesis on the role of catastrophes in love stories. In 2009, she wrote a book with the title: “Woman, Devout, Left-Leaning - What’s important to me”.

Polish spending on healthcare to rise after doctors’ protest

AFP

WARSAW: Poland’s new Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski reached a hard-fought agreement with young doctors calling for increased spending on public health-care. The right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party govern-ment agreed to boost health-care spending to six percent of gross domestic product by 2024 — a year earlier than planned — from the current 4.7 percent.

But the deal falls short of the 6.8 percent of GDP within three years that the doctors had been calling for since October.

In exchange for the increased spending, including on salaries, doctors must remain in Poland to work for at least two years after com-pleting their specialisation.

The measures, which take effect on July 1, are meant to remedy Poland’s medical brain drain, which has seen young doctors move to the West in search of better salaries.

The white-coated pro-testers launched their protest in October with a month-long hunger strike in which some 80 doctors took turns fasting at a Warsaw hospital.

Spain pledges Brexit won’t change daily Gibraltar lifeAFP

MADRID: Spain’s foreign minister pledged that daily life in Gibraltar would not be affected by Brexit, easing fears that Madrid would use Britain’s exit from the EU to gain authority over the overseas territory. Alfonso Dastis insisted however that Madrid and London resolve “small irritating prob-lems” before allowing any post-Brexit deal to be applied to the tiny rocky outcrop nestled on Spain’s southern tip.

Gibraltar has been under British control since 1713 but

Madrid has long wanted it back.As such, authorities in the ter-

ritory fear Spain will influence the complex negotiations between the EU and Britain over its depar-ture from the bloc to try to gain authority over Gibraltar or com-plicate daily life there.

“Nothing will change” after Britain leaves, Dastis said, adding that Brexit would not affect the daily to-and-fro between the two sides, crucial for the livelihood of thousands of workers who make the land crossing to Gibraltar every day, and for the economy of the territory itself. The small

land border between Spain and Gibraltar is a longtime flashpoint in the row. Spain’s dictator Fran-cisco Franco went as far as closing the crossing in 1969, all but stranding inhabitants who had to rely on air and boat links until it was fully reopened in 1985.

Relations have ebbed and flowed since, but the past years have seen a regain in tension under Spain’s conservative gov-ernment, which apart from sov-ereignty claims also bristles at tobacco smuggling across the border and accuses Gibraltar of being a corporate tax haven.

Popular French Minister denies harassment rumoursPARIS: France’s Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot furiously fended off rumours of harassment yesterday two weeks after another member of President Emmanuel Macron’s cabinet was accused of rape.

Hulot, a celebrity green activist who is one of

Macron’s most popular ministers, appeared close to tears in a TV interview as he denied the “shameful” rumours. “It hurts, when it’s wrongful and unfounded. Yesterday my children were in tears,” the 62-year-old said, describing the situ-ation as “a nightmare”.

Head of Social Democratic party Martin Schulz (left) and SPD parliamentary group leader Andrea Nahles.

If she were to run for chancellor then, Nahles would also have the advantage, as a non-member of the cabinet, of not being too closely associated with the new government. Nahles wrote in her school yearbook that she wanted to be “housewife or chancellor”.

Snow-covered ParisThe snow-covered rooftops with the Eiffel Tower in the background in Paris yesterday.

11FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2018 AMERICAS

Congress set to vote to avert shutdownAFP

WASHINGTON: US lawmakers braced for crunch votes yesterday on a deal to keep the federal government open past a midnight deadline, as rebellion simmered among both Republicans and Democrats over the bipartisan budget agreement struck to end the logjam.

Senators were expected to take up and pass the break-through bill later yesterday, and then send it to the House of Rep-resentatives — which will barely have time to debate it before government funding expires at midnight.

The measure’s fate in the House is uncertain, raising ten-sions in Washington as Congress scrambles to avoid what would be a second government shut-down in three weeks.

With party unity fraying in the lower chamber over the deal, House Speaker Paul Ryan appeared to shrug off concerns that several Republicans might oppose the deal.

“I feel good about it,” Ryan said in a radio interview about the upcoming vote. “I think we’re going to be fine.” Earlier Thursday, the Senate voted to block a separate defence spending measure — that also included short-term federal funding — largely because it failed to fund domestic pro-grams along with the military.

So it will now take up a revised six-week temporary spending bill that includes the major budget deal struck on Wednesday between Senate leaders on both sides of the political aisle.

That agreement includes a significant $300bn increase to both military and non-military spending limits for this year and 2019, and raises the debt ceiling

until March 1 next year.That would break the cycle

of showdowns over government funding in time for what is expected to be a bruising cam-paign season ahead of Novem-ber’s mid-term elections.

The bill also provides a mas-sive $90bn in disaster relief fol-lowing deadly 2017 storms in Puerto Rico, Florida and Texas, and funding to address the nationwide opioid abuse crisis.

“Not only will it end this series of... fiscal crises that have gridlocked this body, it will also deliver a large investment in our military and robust funding of middle-class programs,” the Senate’s top Democrat Chuck Schumer told colleagues.

“It’s a strong signal that we can break the gridlock that has overwhelmed this body and work together for the good of the country.” The measure is widely expected to pass the Senate, but could face stiff blowback in the House, where fiscal conservatives may balk at adding billions of dol-lars to the national debt two months after passing a $1.5 tril-lion tax cut package.

On Wednesday, the House Freedom Caucus of far-right Republicans foretold possible roadblocks ahead, officially opposing the budget caps deal.

“We support funding our troops, but growing the size of

government by 13 percent is not what the voters sent us here to do,” the group said on Twitter.

Liberal stalwarts were also in revolt because the deal does nothing to protect young undoc-umented immigrants from deportation.

Democrats have long pur-sued a strategy to link the fed-eral funding debate to a perma-nent solution for hundreds of thousands of “Dreamer” immi-grants who were brought to the country illegally as children.

Top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi highlighted the concerns Wednesday with an extraordinary eight-hour address, the chamber’s longest in more than a century, in which she called on Ryan to take action on immigration. “Our Dreamers hang in limbo, with a cruel cloud of fear and uncer-tainty above them,” Pelosi said.

The Dreamers were shielded from deportation under the Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). But Trump ended the program last Sep-tember, and set March 5 as a deadline for resolving the issue.

Facing tightening numbers for yesterday’s vote, Ryan assured that he was prepared to address the immigration issue head on. “I know that there is a real commitment to solving the DACA challenge in both polit-ical parties. That’s a commit-ment that I share,” Ryan told reporters yesterday.

“To anyone who doubts my intention to solve this problem and bring up a DACA and immi-gration reform bill: do not.” The White House plan — which would put 1.8 million immigrants on a path to citizenship, boost border security, and dramatically curtail legal immigration — has been panned by Democrats.

US President Donald Trump is applauded during the National Prayer Breakfast at a hotel in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Top Trump aide resigns after abuse allegationsAFP

WASHINGTON: White House staff secretary Rob Porter — a near-constant fixture at Presi-dent Donald Trump’s side — has resigned from his post, after two ex-wives publicly accused him of domestic abuse.

The White House said Porter denied the allegations and retains the confidence of Trump and his chief of staff John Kelly, but would be leaving his post at an undetermined time.

His resignation comes after reports in the Daily Mail and The Intercept, in which Porter’s ex-wives Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby docu-mented alleged physical and psychological abuse.

A pair of photos showed

Holderness with a badly bruised eye, which she claimed was the result of being punched by Porter.

The Intercept reported that the FBI became aware of the allegations when conducting background checks for Porter’s security clearance.

Kelly in a statement said he was “shocked” by the allega-tions, saying “there is no place for domestic violence in our society.” “I stand by my previous comments of the Rob Porter that I have come to know since becoming Chief of Staff, and believe every individual deserves the right to defend their reputation,” he said.

“I accepted his resignation earlier today, and will ensure a swift and orderly transition.” Porter is not well known publicly

but is often seen on travels with the president outside Washington and in White House meetings.

In recent weeks, he was closely involved in preparations for Trump’s address to business leaders in Davos, Switzerland.

The Daily Mail had recently suggested he was in a relation-ship with Trump’s communica-tions advisor Hope Hicks. “The President and chief of staff have had full confidence and trust in his abilities and his performance,” Sanders said on Wednesday.

She then read a statement from Porter, in which he said “these outrageous allegations are simply false.” “I took the photos given to the media nearly 15 years ago, and the reality behind them is nowhere close to what is being described.”

Venezuela oppn ponders whether to fight MaduroREUTERS

CARACAS: Venezuela’s opposi-tion was to huddle yesterday and debate whether to participate in a controversial April presiden-tial vote despite the barring of its best two candidates and an electoral board favouring Pres-ident Nicolas Maduro.

Electoral authorities on Wednesday set the election for April 22 after mediation talks in the Dominican Republic between the unpopular leftist government and an opposition coalition col-lapsed, leaving Maduro the favourite for re-election.

The 55-year old former bus

driver and union leader is run-ning despite his widespread unpopularity and a devastating economic crisis that has spawned malnutrition, disease, hyperinflation and emigration.

After surviving months of massive street protests last year, Maduro has consolidated his power by creating a new legis-lative superbody and sidelining opposition parties. His foes are split about whether they should run against him.

Some say participating in what they consider a sham elec-tion will merely lend legitimacy to an authoritarian government. The most popular figureheads

are both unable to run; Henrique Capriles is barred from office while Leopoldo Lopez is under house arrest. Several countries, including major Latin American countries, have already said the vote will lack legitimacy.

But other opposition activ-ists say they have to keep up pressure by voting, and an upset could occur given public disgust at growing national penury.

Opposition leader Julio Borges said the coalition would meet Thursday afternoon. “We’re talking... of hours until we respond to the nation,” he told local radio.

There is a risk the perennially

squabbling opposition will split over strategy, with some boycotting the vote and others backing several dif-ferent candidates.

Maduro, meanwhile, has been reveling in near-daily cam-paign speeches. During hours-long events broadcast on state television, cheering red-shirted supporters sing his campaign jingle “Everyone with Maduro” while he dances salsa with first lady Cilia Flores, whom he calls the “First Combatant.” Maduro has also been distancing himself from his charismatic prede-cessor, the late Hugo Chavez.

He and his allies have exited the Chavez-era party known as

Venezuela’s United Socialist Party (PSUV) to create a new movement called We Are Venezuela. Chavez, who died of cancer five years ago, is also barely featured in Madu-ro’s campaign, unlike in the 2013 election where Maduro pitched himself as the “son” of the former president.

Opposition activists say Maduro’s focus on campaign aesthetics show he is an uncaring tyrant vying to amass power even if it risks pushing Venezuela into a full-blown humanitarian crisis. Maduro, meanwhile, says opposition leaders are feckless right-wing elites who get their orders from Washington.

Trump military parade might not be in WashingtonREUTERS

W A S H I N G T O N : T h e Pentagon yesterday said it was not certain that the Washington-area would host a parade requested by Pres-ident Donald Trump to honour the U S military.

“We don’t know that. There are options and we will explore those and the presi-dent will ultimately decide,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White, adding that the U S Army was taking the lead in creating options for the event.

The White House has asked the Pentagon to explore a celebration of “America’s great service members,” after the Republican president marveled at the Bastille Day military parade he attended in Paris last year.

Critics have argued that a parade could cost millions of dollars, at a time the Pentagon wants more stable funding for an over-stretched military.

When asked who would pay for the cost of the parade, White said the Pentagon was still in the planning phase.

On Wednesday, the Council of the District of Columbia ridiculed the idea of a parade on Pennsylvania Avenue, the 1.2-mile (1.9-km) stretch between the Capitol and the White House that is also the site of the Trump International Hotel. “Tanks but no tanks!” it tweeted.

One option under consid-eration is for a parade on Nov. 11 - which would be the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions (centre) joins with US Navy Admiral Kurt Tidd, SOUTHCOM’s Commander (left) and Anthony Williams, US Drug Enforcement Administration Associate Administrator, during the opening remarks at the US Southern Command Opioid Summit in Doral, Florida, yesterday.

Southern Command Opioid Summit

Ohio delays execution after ex-juror seeks reprieve for death row inmateREUTERS

AUSTRIN: Ohio Governor John Kasich yesterday postponed next week’s scheduled execu-tion of a convicted double murderer in light of a letter from a juror in the man’s trial asking that he not be put to death because the jury was not given information pertinent to his sentencing about his trou-bled childhood.

Kasich, a Republican, issued a temporary reprieve to Ray-mond Tibbetts, moving the exe-cution date from February 13 to October 17 and asking the state’s Parole Board to hold a hearing in the meantime to consider the letter’s contents, the governor’s office said in a statement.

In the letter sent to the gov-ernor on January 30, former juror Ross Geiger said there was no

question Tibbetts committed the murders but that factors about the defendant’s upbringing were omitted or distorted by prosecu-tors in the trial’s sentencing phase.

Tibbetts was convicted of fatally beating and stabbing his wife, Judith Crawford, and fatally stabbing Fred Hicks, a man for whom she provided care.

Geiger said the defense pre-sented only one witness in the sentencing phase, a psychiatrist who testified Tibbetts had a tough upbringing related to inattentive parents and poor foster care.

Prosecutors then told jurors many people with tough child-hoods turn out fine, including Tibbetts’ four siblings, and that placing the convicted murderer in foster care as a child was the best thing for him, the letter said.

With party unity fraying in the lower chamber over the deal, House Speaker Paul Ryan appeared to shrug off concerns that several Republicans might oppose the deal.

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Pen.MagEvery Sunday - Thursday

CHANGE OF NAME

PALLIYIL GOPALAN MURALEEDHARAN.

MOHAMMAD JAVED MAQBOOL AHMAD.

14 FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2018HOME

Committee formed for QIA Champions League 2018 DOHA: The Qatar Indian Asso-ciation for Sports and Games (QIA) has announced the forma-tion of the organising committee for the 2018 edition of its annual QIA Champions League football tournament, which is held in coordination with the Qatar Football Association (QFA).

The tournament aims to cel-ebrate the bond between India and Qatar, while also showing support for Indian expats for Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

EP Abdulrahman (Chairman), Safeer (General Convener), Jenny Antony (Convener - BD) and Sheji Valiyakath (Convener - Finance) have been chosen to oversee various aspects of the

tournament’s organisation, alongside Arman, Hamsa, Nihad, Sippy, Hyder Chungathara, Shaheen MP and Adv Jafar Khan.

V Abdul Aziz, Saeed Naseer, Basheer TK and KC Abdul-rahman are the vice chairmen.

Riyas, Rafeeq C, Marzooq, Shabeer, Arjun, Safwan, Helmi, Muhsin and Ranjith have also been appointed as heads of sub-committees.

Yasir KC, Sathar, Shafeeq Ali, Sadiq C, Shoukath, Aslam, Shareef (Facilities), Shamlan, Kabeer CT, Bassam, Fasal, Ahmed (Media), Shahbaz, Ramees, Junais, Aksar, Sali, Ibra-himkutty, Rajiv and Abbas (Game management) wil l be members.

Expat footballers from all over India will take to the pitch

during the 2018 QIA Champions League, which will kick off on March 8 and go on until May 4. In all, 12 teams representing dif-ferent clubs and organisations will battle it out in the fourth edi-tion of what has become a highly competitive tournament.

The tournament will be played in a league format with a total of 36 matches.

Apart from Kerala, teams representing Goa, Chennai, West Bengal and Maharashtra are also expected to participate in this year’s QIA Champions League.

The opening ceremony for the tournament is slated to be held on March 9 and the organ-ising committee has lined up prominent personalities from India and Qatar to grace the occasion.

THE PENINSULA

DPS-MIS takes part in THIMUN (Q) 2018 THE PENINSULA

DOHA: In all, 83 students from DPS-Modern Indian School participated in the 7th Annual THIMUN (Q) 2018 Conference held recently at Qatar National Conventional Center, Doha. THE Conferences’ theme was on the Fifth Sustainable Develop-

ment Goal (SDG5): Gender Equality and Women Empower-ment.

The DPS MUNers represented the point of views of member states in the United Nations. Stu-dents debated 68 topics across 18 committees to solve present day issues. Delegates learned to make the most of this conference by learning from each other, being

open to new ideas and sharing one’s own opinions. Keynote Speaker for this conference, Tricia Shetty, founder of the Indian non-profit ‘SheSays’, highlighted the need to educate and empower women to stand up to violence in their everyday lives.

Delegates from over 45 national and International schools participated in the conference.

Cultural event marks OPAQ’s 8th anniversaryTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Onattukara Pravasi Asso-ciation Qatar (OPAQ) recently marked its 8th annual celebra-tion on February 2 with colourful traditional programs held at Ashoka Hall, Indian Cultural Center – Doha-Qatar. Over 400 members attended the function.

Onattukara Pravasi Associa-tion Qatar (OPAQ) is a well-known socio cultural

organisation, established in 2010. The association is affiliated with Indian Cultural Center (ICC) under the aegis of Embassy of India, Doha- Qatar. From humble beginnings, it is growing as one of the largest Travancore area organisation having around 400 members by the natives from Taluks of Karunagappally, Karthikappally, Mavelikara, Thiruvalla and Adoor.

Along with its 8th anniversary

celebration, OPAQ organised an annual Cultural Programme called ‘UTHSAV 2018’ on the same day at Ashoka Hall, Indian Cul-tural Center (ICC), Qatar.

OPAQ distributed its Merit Awards to those students who were performed an outstanding achievement during 2017 public examinations. Samreen Sathar, Abhijith Shaji, Amruta Liz Binoy and Haritha Venu received the merit awards.

VILLAGGIO & CITY CENTERCROSSWORD NOVO Pearl Qatar

MALL

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

LANDMARK

ROXY

AL KHOR

ASIAN TOWN

The 15.17 To Paris (2D/Drama) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnightDen of Thieves (2D/Action) 10:30am, 1:00, 2:00, 3:30, 6:00, 7:00, 8:30, 11:00pm & 12:00midnight Winchester(2D/Horror) 10:00, 11:45am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00, 4:45, 6:00, 8:00, 9:45, 10:00pm &12:00midnight All The Money In The World (2D/Drama) 10:00am, 3:30 & 9:00pm Maze Runner: The Death Curve (2D/Action) 12:45, 6:15 & 11:45pm Pad Man (2D/Hindi) 11:00am, 2:00, 5:00, 8:00 & 11:00pm Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle(2D/Action)10:00am, 2:15,6:30&10:45pm Space Chicken (2D) 12:15, 4:30 & 8:45pm Phantom Thread (2D) 11:00am, 3:45 & 8:30pm The Post (2D/Biography) 1:30, 6:15 & 11:00pmBraven (2D/Action) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnightMaze Runner: The Death Cure (2D IMAX/Action) 10:15am, 1:00, 3:45, 6:30, 9:15pm & 12:00midnight

Tholiprema (Telugu) 2:30pm Throne of Elves (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 5:15pm Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2D/Action) 8:45pmPad Man (2D/Hindi) 3:00, 9:00 & 11:30pm Daivame Kaithozham K Kumarakanam (2D/Malayalam) 4:30pm Braven (Action) 7:15pm Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 5:30pmWinchester (Horror) 7:00 & 11:30pm The 15.17 To Paris (2D/Drama) 7:30pm Den of Thieves (2D/Action) 9:15pm Kalakalappu 2 (2D/Tamil) 11:30pm

ROYAL PLAZA

Pad Man (2D/Hindi) 2:30, 6:00 & 11:00pm Throne of Elves (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 4:15pm Daivame Kaithozham K Kumarakanam (2D/Malayalam) 3:00pm Winchester (Horror) 7:30 & 9:15pm Tholiprema (Telugu) 5:00pm Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2D/Action) 8:30pmJumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 6:00pmThe 15.17 To Paris (2D/Drama) 8:00pm Braven (Action) 9:45pm Kalakalappu 2 (2D/Tamil) 11:00pm Den of Thieves (Action)11:30pm

Pad Man (2D/Hindi) 2:30, 8:45 & 11:30pm Throne of Elves (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 5:00pm Daivame Kaithozham K Kumarakanam (2D/Malayalam) 2:15pm Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2D/Action) 4:30pm Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 5:00pmDen of Thieves (2D/Action) 7:30pm The 15.17 To Paris (2D/Drama) 9:45pm Braven (Action) 7:00 & 11:30pm Winchester (Horror) 7:00 & 11:45pm Kalakalappu 2 (2D/Tamil) 9:00pm

Pad Man (Hindi) 1:00, 3:45, 6:30, 9:15pm & 12:00midnight Toli Prema (Telugu) 12:30pm Kalakalappu 2 (Tamil) 3:15, 6:15, 915pm & 12:15amCarbon (Malayalam) 12:30, 6:00 & 11:30pmQueen (Malayalam) 3:15, 8:45pm & 02:00am Daivame (Malayalam) 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00pm & 01:00am

Pad Man (Hindi) 11:30am, 2:30, 5:30, 8:30 & 11:00pm Kalakalappu (Tamil) 11:15am, 2:15, 5:15, 8:15 & 11:15pmWinchester (Horror) 11:00am, 3:15, 7:30 & 11:45pm Braven (Action) 1:15, 5:30 & 9:45pm

Throne of Elves (Animation) 10:30am, 12:30, 2:30, 4:30 & 6:30pm Aadhi (Thriller) 10:30am, 1:30, 4:30, 7:30 & 10:30pm

The 15:17 Paris (Action) 1:20, 3:20, 7:20 & 9:20pm

Pad Man (Hindi) 10:30am, 1:20, 4:20, 7:20, 8:30,10:20 & 11:20pm

Braven (2D/Comedy) 10:30am, 5:20 & 11:20pm

The movie is a comic take on gender role reversal between K Kumar and his wife to experience life of one another, with God’s permission.

15FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2018 HOME

16 FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2018MORNING BREAK

FAJRSHOROOK

04.55am06.13 am

ZUHRASR

11.48 am03.00 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

05.25pm06.55pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 01:00 – 10:15 06:15 – 18:00

Hazy to misty / foggy at places at first be-

comes moderate temperature with some

clouds, cold by night.

WEATHER TODAY

COURTESY: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum

14oC 27oC

Students join Team Qatar in Fun RunTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Independent School children joined Team Qatar to spread spirit of the Asian Games in ‘Fun Run’ around Aspire Park yesterday.

As the countdown to the 2018 Asian Games begins, Team Qatar united with 300 school children and participated in an inspirational Fun Run around Aspire Park. The event organised by the Qatar Olympic Com-mittee (QOC) in coordination with the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) is part of an official Asian Games Fun Run Programme being held across Asia to promote the continent’s biggest sporting event and bring all of its coun-tries together through sport.

Also participating in yesterday’s event was Director General of the OCA, Husain Al Musallam, and QOC employees led by Secretary-General, Jassim Al Buenain.

At the Fun Run event, Jassim Al Buenain said: “It gives me great pleasure to have joined schoolchildren participating in the 2018 Asian Games Official Fun Run in the beautiful Aspire Park today. We witnessed the huge success that Qatar had from hosting the 2006 Asian Games, which was the catalyst for Qatar’s development into the Global Sports Hub that it is today. We are so proud to see this legacy still in action as our young athletes joined Team Qatar to spread the spirit of the Asian Games and contribute to the big-

gest sports gathering in Asia.” “The QOC is honoured to have sup-

ported the OCA in this fantastic initi-ative as we join together with all other Olympic Committees in Asia to unite our continent and inspire our future generations through sport,” he added.

Al Buenain extended his gratitude to the event’s partners by saying:“I would like to pass our sincere thanks to the Aspire Zone for, as always, being a fantastic host and first-class venue for today’s event, to Al Meera Group for their support and contribution, and finally to the Qatar Armed Forces Band Regiment for being a lively addition to our Fun Run.”

The Fun Run comes over 11 years after Doha hosted the 2006 Asian Games, which at the time was the

biggest sporting event ever to be hosted in the Middle East and kick-started Doha’s significant sporting develop-ment on multiple levels.

Examples include the development of state-of-the-art facilities such as the Anti-Doping Laboratory Qatar and Aspetar, the introduction of pioneering initiatives including the Schools Olympic Program and National Sport Day, the hosting of multiple further major sports events, and the produc-tion of a new generation of athletes who are achieving success on the global stage.

Many of Team Qatar’s world-class athletes will be competing in the 2018 Asian Games and looking to build on their excellent success in 2014 when Qatar won 10 gold and four bronze medals, finishing 10th in the overall medals table.

Amongst the Team Qatar athletes in attendance yesterday were Paral-ympian Mohammed Al Kubaisi together with his team-mates, World Champion 3x3 basketball player Yaseen Ismail and members of Qatar’s Fencing team joined them as well, a number of other athletes and coaches including Mubarak Mustafa, Ahmed Khalil, Abdulaziz Hassan, Hussain Al Rumaihi, Majed Mohammed, Abdulla Al Aydan, Yousef Al Nouby, Abdulla Khalil, Wael Jumaa and Ahmed Mubarak. The athletes were a true inspiration to all the children that

participated. “I came here to represent para-

sport, and especially wheelchair racing, and I am keen for everyone to know more about our sport. Most importantly, I was so happy to join our Qatari youth in this great event that was full of joy and energy. The Fun Run was a great opportunity for children to learn more about the Asian Games, and I personally really enjoyed it. I’m excited for further similar events to be organised in Qatar in the future,” said Al Kubaisi after the run.

Doha’s Fun Run was the fourth to be hosted so far following events in Lahore, Dhakar and Dubai. The Fun Run will next travel to the Maldives on February 10th and Lebanon on Feb-ruary 25th. The Asian Games is the second largest multi-sport event in the world with over 10 thousand athletes from 45 countries competing in 40 sports across 462 events. The 2018 edi-tion will take place in Jakarta and Pale-mbang in Indonesia from August 18 until September 2.

Keep up to date with all news and progress on Team Qatar’s preparations for the Asian Games on the Team Qatar social media channels, as well as by signing up to the Team Qatar Club, where you will also have access to exclusive content, offers and compe-titions. It is free and easy to sign up – just head to www.olympic.qa/en/teamqatarclub.

QOC Secretary-General Jassim Al Buenain presenting schoolchildren their medals.

Children in action during the Fun Run.

The event organised by the Qatar Olympic Committee in coordination with the Olympic Council of Asia is part of an official Asian Games Fun Run Programme being held across Asia to promote the continent’s biggest sporting event and bring all of its countries together through sport.

Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra to perform ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’

DOHA: Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra is all set for yet another bravura performance, this time playing music inspired by poetry and paintings featuring award-winning German pianist Christopher Park under the baton of world-renowned Russian maestro Dmitrij Kitajenko.

To be staged at the majestic Katara Opera House, “Pictures at an Exhibition” will shine the spotlight on three great composers of the classical and roman-tic eras including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Paul Dukas and Modest Petro-vich Mussorgsky.

The concert opens with “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” by Dukas –a well-known French composer, music critic and professor of composition whose fame rests on this single orches-tral work inspired by one of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s most famous poems of the same title.

It will be followed by Mozart’s last “Piano Concerto No. 27 in B Flat Major, KV 595” he completed three

weeks before his 35th birthday, and exactly 11 months before his death. Largely lyrical, is said to be the most deeply personal of all the concertos of this musical gen-ius who started his career as a com-poser at a tender age and whose life ended far too soon.

The show climaxes with Mus-sorgsky’s piano suite Pictures at an Exhi-bition, inspired by the death of his friend Victor Hartmann. He took his inspiration from paintings and watercolours by artist-architect Hartmann which were exhibited at the Academy of Fine Arts in St Peters-burg in 1874.

Park is expected to captivate the audience with his ‘fascinating technical mastery, astounding musical maturity, and a particularly intense performance style’ as he was described by the jury by the Stiftung Schleswig-Holstein Music

Festival upon win-ning the renowned Leonard Bernstein Award 2014, in which he joins the ranks of notewor-thy musicians such as Lang Lang, Lisa Batiashvili and Mar-tin Grubinger, who all started their careers with this i nte r n a t ion a l ly sought-after award.

Named Qatar Ph i l h a r mon ic ’s Conductor of Honor in 2015, Kitajenko is one of the great conductors of our

time equally esteemed in eastern and western Europe. He regularly conducts prestigious orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra London and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

Tomorrow’s concert is one of Qatar Philharmonic’s fascinating shows lined up for this month starting with last night’s chamber music concert at Museum of Islamic Art featuring compositions of Antonio Vivaldi and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Other shows this month include “Philharmonic at the Library: Flute with Strings” on February 15 at Qatar National Library, “Kitajenko Conducts Shostakovich 10” on February 17 at Katara Opera House featuring Ger-man cellist Daniel Mueller-Schott, and the critically acclaimed “Video Games Live 2018” which returns to Doha for the third time at Qatar National Con-vention Centre on February 23.

Tickets for “Pictures at an Exhibi-tion” concert are priced between QR75 to QR200 and are available at http://qatar-philharmonicorchestra.org/concerts/purchase_tickets

Dmitrij Kitajenko.

Christopher Park.

RAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

‘Monster fatberg’ goes on public display in LondonAFP

LONDON: History enthusiasts with strong stomachs can now come face-to-face with part of the 130-tonne “monster fatberg” found last year clog-ging a Victorian-era sewer, in a new London exhibit.

The rock-solid mass of food fat and sanitary wipes was found in drains under a major road in Whitechapel, east London, in September, and part of it is to go on show at the nearby Museum of London from today.

“The fatberg tells a story about how modern London is changing,” explained Sharon Robinson-Calver, the museum’s head of Conserva-tion and Collection Care.

“The museum’s collection already contains objects from when London’s Victorian sewer system was built.

“Now, our sewers are threatened by a modern crisis. Eight times every hour a Thames Water customer suffers a blockage caused by items being flushed away or put down the drain which shouldn’t be.” A booming population and oilier diets have made the blockages a persistent problem in recent years, but the 250-metre-long beast shocked even hardened fatberg hunters.

“It’s a total monster and taking a lot of manpower and machinery to remove as it’s set hard,” Matt Rimmer, Thames Water’s head of waste, said at the time. “It’s basically like trying to break up concrete.” The festering exhibit presented a unique set of challenges for museum staff.

Pink Floyd star drums up funds to help charitiesREUTERS

LONDON: Former Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has joined a growing list of celebrities investing in businesses that aim to address social problems — by backing a social media tool that helps charities reach a wider audience.

Mason, 74, a founding member of the British rock group, and retired British racing driver Dario Franchitti have helped provide funding of £4m ($5.6m) for Lightful, a platform aiming to tackle neg-ativity surrounding social media.

“Many charities have been hampered by time consuming tasks and budget con-straints which inhibit progress,” Mason said in a statement.

Franchitti, 44, a four time IndyCar Series champion, said this was needed as media was changing rapidly.\ “It’s vital that charities learn to connect with their audi-ences in a way which is simple, yet effec-tive,” he said in a statement.

Vinay Nair, co-founder of Lightful, said technology was a way to strengthen rela-tionships with people.\ “Charities and social enterprises have some of the best stories to tell, and we are excited that Lightful can help grow the potential of using social media for social good,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.