The plan was found in the task folder of an email account belonging to UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef Al Otaiba and subsequently obtained by The Intercept.

Volume 22 | Number 7341 | 2 RiyalsFriday 10 November 2017 | 21 Safar 1439 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

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Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani visited the Emiri Guard buildings at the Barzan Camp yesterday morning. During the visit, the Emir was briefed on the various facilities at the camp and listened to a detailed explanation about the technical equipment that it contains.

Emir visits Emiri Guard buildings at Barzan Camp

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani performed the Istisqaa (rain-seeking) prayer at Al-Wajbah prayer ground yesterday

morning.H H Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, Per-

sonal Representative of H H the Emir; H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani and H E Sheikh Jas-sim bin Khalifa Al Thani took part in the prayer.

A number of Their Excellencies Sheikhs and Ministers, Speaker of the Advisory Council, his Dep-uty and members of the Council, as well as a gathering of citizens also performed the prayer.

In a sermon after the prayer, Dr. Sheikh Thaqeel Al Shammari urged the worshippers to repent, ask Allah for forgiveness, avoid sedition and make sup-plication to Almighty Allah for rainfall.

→ More pictures on page 2

Emiri order issued

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued yesterday Emiri

Order No. 3 of 2017, assigning Minister of Justice H E Dr. Has-san Lahdan Saqr Al Mohannadi to assume the duties of the Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs in addition to the duties of his post, and to annul Item 2 of Article 1 of Emiri Decision No. 4 of 2013. The order is effective starting from its date of issue and is to be published in the official gazette.

Emir invites Advisory Council to convene on November 14

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued yesterday Decree

No. 88 of 2017, inviting the Advisory Council to convene its 46th ordinary session on Tuesday (Safar 25, 1439H), corresponding to November 14, 2017. The decree is effective starting from its date of issue and is to be published in the official gazette. → See also page 2

QNA

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani visited yesterday the headquarters

of the Ministry of Transport and Communica-tions, and inspected a number of projects and the progress of work in them.

The Prime Minister toured the Government Contact Center (109) and reviewed the new upgrades and developments at the center in order to support all e-government services in the country and help the quick implementation of the objectives of Qatar e-Government 2020 Strategy.

→ Continued on page 2

Emir performs Istisqaa prayer

The Peninsula

Leaked documents have exposed a plan of the United Arab Emirates to wage financial war against Qatar and steal the 2022 World

Cup from the country, said news organization- The Intercept. The plan was found in the task folder of an email account belonging to UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef Al Otaiba and subsequently obtained by The Intercept.

One of the plan’s stated aims is forcing Qatar to share soccer’s 2022 World Cup, according to the outline. The strategy laid out in the document calls for using a public relations cam-paign to point the international soccer body FIFA to Qatar’s dwindling cash reserves, which they expected to fall, and making a case that the country can’t afford to build the necessary infrastructure.

The outline concludes with the hope that the economic war will make it harder for Qatar to continue build-ing stadiums and other assets needed to host the games: “If Qatar now spends its reserves on protecting the currency and domestic credit mar-kets, there is less dry powder to fund the infrastructure spending.” The UAE, according to the document, hopes to make a push for the Gulf Cooperation Council to host the premiere global sports event across the member nations, rather than in Qatar alone.

→ Continued on page 3

PM reviews projects at MoTC headquarters

Exposed: UAE planned to wage financial war, steal FIFA 2022

UAE planned to force Qatar to share 2022 World Cup, according to the outline. The plan calls for using a public relations campaign to point the international soccer body FIFA to Qatar’s dwindling cash reserves, making a case that the country can’t afford to build the necessary infrastructure.

The economic war will make it harder for Qatar to continue building stadiums and other assets needed to host the games.

The UAE, according to the document, hopes to make a push for the GCC to host the premiere global sports event across the member nations, rather than in Qatar alone.

The economic warfare involved an attack on Qatar’s currency using bond and derivatives manipulation according to a plan by Banque Havilland.

The outline, laid out a scheme to drive down the value of Qatar’s bonds and increase the cost of insuring them, with the ultimate goal of creating a currency crisis that would drain the country’s cash reserves.

Plan says about creating a new offshore investment fund constructed to obscure its links to the UAE. The fund would hold Qatari bonds already owned by the UAE, as well as additional debt the fund could buy.

The plan seeks to ramp up the “PR machine” in order to slam Qatar internationally, pointing to its weakening financial situation. “Focus on the prospect of restricted access to US Dollar and now-doubtful stability of the coun-try,” the plan reads. “And … continue to increase positions.”

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani visiting the headquarters of the Ministry of Transport and Communications yesterday.

HMC opens annual Sealine Medical Clinic

Three new helipads built to land LifeFlights. The Ambulance Service

ensures 24-hour coverage of the area by providing ambulances and paramedics throughout.

→ Full report on page 16

Pic: Qassim Rahmatullah/

The Peninsula

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02 FRIDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2017HOME

H H the Emir performs Istisqaa prayer

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani performed the Istisqaa (rain-seeking) prayer at Al-Wajbah prayer ground yesterday morning. Personal Representative of H H the Emir H H Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani and H E Sheikh Jassim bin Khalifa Al Thani took part in the prayer. A number of Their Excellencies Sheikhs and Ministers, H E Speaker of the Advisory Council, his Deputy and members of the Council, as well as a gathering of citizens also performed the prayer.

Emir reconstitutes Advisory CouncilQNA

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued yesterday Emiri Deci-sion No. 22 of 2017, renewing the

membership of some Advisory Council members and appointing new members to the council.

The first article of the decision stipu-lates that the following members shall have their membership renewed:

1. Rashid Hamad Al Farhoud Al Maadhadi

2. Nasser Rashid Seraei Al Kaabi3. Youssuf Rashid Youssuf Al Khater4. Mohammed Khalid Abdulaziz Al

Ghanim Al Maadheed5. Ibrahim Khalifa Ibrahim Al Nasr6. Nasser Suleiman Haider Moham-

med Al Haider7. Mohammed Abdullah Youssuf Al

Sulaiti8. Hadi Said Abdulhadi Heleit Al

Khyareen9. Abdullah Khalid Mohammed Al

Mana10. Nasser Khalil Ibrahim Youssuf Al

Jaidah11. Saqr Fahd Saqr Al Meraikhi12. Nasser Ahmed Mohammed Al Malki

Al Juhani13. Ahmed Khalifa Meteeb Rashid Al

RumaihiThe second article stipulated that the

membership of Advisory Council mem-bers whose names weren’t mentioned in the first article shall be terminated.

The third article of the decision stipu-lated that the following names shall be appointed members of the Advisory Council:

1. Youssuf Mohammed Youssuf Al Obaidan

2. Ismail Mohammed Shareef Al Emadi3. Ahmed Abdullah Zaid Al

Mahmoud

4. Abdurrahman Youssuf Abdurrah-man Al Khulaifi

5. Youssuf Ahmed Ali Omran Al Kuwari6. Abdullah Khalid Mohammed Al Jaber

Al Nuaimi7. Mohammed Abdullah Abdulghani

Nasser Al-Abdulghani8. Dahlan Jamaan Basheer Al Hamad9. Hessa Sultan Jaber Mohammed Al

Jaber10. Khalifa Ali Khalifa Al Hetmi11. Aisha Youssuf Omar Al Hamad Al

Mannai12. Abdulaziz Mohammed Abdullah Al

Attiyah13. Nasser Salmeen Khalid Al Suwaidi14. Mohammed Mahdi Ajyan Moham-

med Al Ahbabi15. Ali Abdullatif Mohammed Al Misnad

Al Mohannadi16. Nasser Sultan Nasser Al Humaidi17. Mubarak Saif Hamdan Musif Al

Mansouri

18. Khalid Mohammed Ajaj Al Kubaisi19. Mohammed Mansour Khalil Al-

Khalil Al Shahwani20. Khalid Abdullah Rashid Al Buainein21. Mohammed Ali Jaber Hamad Al

Henzab22. Abdullah Fahad Abdullah Ghorab

Al Marri23. Abdullatif Mohammed Abdullatif

Al Sada24. Hend Abdurrahman Mohammed

Mubaral Al Muftah25. Fahad Mohammed Fahad Saad

Buzweir26. Saleh Abdullah Mohammed Al Ibra-

him Al Mannai27. Mohammed Ali Sultan Al Ali Al

Maadheed28. Reem Mohammed Rashid Al Ham-

moudi Al MansouriThe Emiri decision is effective starting

from its date of issue and is to be published in the official gazette.

Emir greets King of Cambodia

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent yesterday a cable

of congratulations to H H King Norodom Sihamoni of the Kingdom of Cambodia on the anniversary of his coun-try’s Independence Day. Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani also sent a similar cable of congratulations. Prime Min-ister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani sent a cable of congratula-tions to Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Hun Sen, on the anniversary of his country’s Independence Day.

Qatar succeeds in resolving disputes through ‘mediation diplomacy’Athens

QNA

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi affirmed the success of the State of

Qatar in resolving many national and regional conflicts and disputes through the development of the “mediation diplomacy” between the parties.

The Minister said at the EU-Arab World Summit “Towards a Solid Alliance”, which began yesterday in Athens and concludes today, that working to resolve disputes and conflicts at its home country, achieves sta-bility and thus reduces the flow of refugees.

Al Muraikhi said that this meeting is proof of the collective conviction of the importance of Arab-European dialogue and the importance of building on what has been established in the past, as well as working

towards its development towards a wider horizons and the necessity of coordination between the two sides, particularly due spir-itual, historical, cultural and other levels

both sides share. He added that this conference is being held while the world is facing many regional and international challenges, which necessitates us to redouble efforts to improve the framework and level of cooperation between the Arab countries and the European Union (EU).

Al Muraikhi said that Qatar appreciates the continuity of the organisation of the “EU-Arab World Summit” as well as the choice of its motto “Towards a Solid Alliance” and the focus of its deliberations, as this slogan has important implications in view of the common challenges facing the

world. He noted the world today is no longer as it was yesterday, which necessitates the need to build strong and effective alliances, because the effects and consequences of

local issues in any country or continent of the world affect everyone as in Europe and the Arab world.

The Minister stressed that the challenges faced by the Arab region, whether on the Palestinian issue or the Syrian crisis or the interference of regional and international powers or instability in Yemen, Libya, Iraq and the counter terrorism, are no longer confined in their geographic space or in their cultural orbit but it has become a trans-boundary, a cross-border and cross-cultural barriers, which confirms the reality of the common destiny of humanity as a whole.

He pointed out that building a strong alliance between the Arab world and Europe is not only a moral responsibility towards the peoples of the two regions, but a prac-tical commitment and humanitarian duty towards the world peacemaker and the col-lective building of the future between the Arab world and Europe.

Continued from page 1The Prime Minister also

reviewed the ministry’s Dig-ital Business Incubator and listened to a presentation about the incubator and its efforts to promote innovation and creativity in the field of technology, and the services it provides for young entre-preneurs to help them develop their ideas and projects and transform them into viable products.

The Prime Minister watched a presentation on Tasmu Smart Qatar and the progress of its initiatives.

PM reviews projects at MoTC headquarters

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi at the EU-Arab World Summit in Athens.

03FRIDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2017 HOME

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met yesterday with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Kuwait H E Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al Hamad Al Sabah during his visit to the fraternal State of Kuwait. The meeting discussed bilateral relations and ways of strengthening and developing them, in addition to the latest developments in the region. Kuwait News Agency mentioned that the meeting was attended by Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al Jarallah, Assistant Foreign Minister for the First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister’s Office Ambassador Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser Al Mohammad Al Sabah, Assistant Foreign Minister for Protocols, Ambassador Dhari Al Ajran and several other senior officials of the Foreign Ministry.

Aspire Lake Festival begins with a visual feast Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

A diverse group of artistes unleashed a stunning vis-ual feast enjoyed by

thousands of people who thronged the opening night of the Aspire Lake Festival yesterday.

The dazzling interplay of light and music paralleled with the brilliant performance of the artistes in their elaborate cos-tumes resulted to a spectacular show which left the audience in absolute delight.

A first-of-its-kind show in Qatar, the show, which combined cultural and artistic elements, exuded an Italian vibe as per-formers staged a sensational show on gondolas along the lake involving state-of-the-art design and effects. Making the hour-long show unique was the use of ele-ments of nature including air, fire and water as effects, making the

performances truly spectacular.Singers, acrobats, and fire

artistes some of whom were garbed in costumes to resemble fantastic land and sea creatures performed on a stage set up on Aspire lake and on over a dozen gondolas cruising on the lake.

Performers dressed as but-terflies flapped their wings glittering with a multitude of lights and fire artistes played with fire as a singer belted power bal-lads during the performances which earned ovations from the audience.

A number of gigantic jellyfish emitting celestial lights floated in the air, while vibrant music played and spotlights flashed in all directions during the show.

The 1,400 capacity seating area was filled in no time during the first of the two shows of the

night with hundreds more in queue, while others stood around the lake to witness the show.

“We knew that many people will watch the show since this is the first time in Aspire so we made sure to come early to secure seats,” said Intas, who came with

his entire family for the show.“It was a great show for eve-

ryone. All of us enjoyed it especially with the nice weather. Aspire should organise this every year,” said Ahmed, who watched with his friends.

With a wide variety in their menus, 12 food trucks spread across the venue attracted many customers looking to enjoy food while watching the show.

The festival is presented by Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF) in partnership with Katara and Ooredoo in line with its commit-ment to boosting the tourism and leisure sectors in Qatar by intro-ducing new activities to attract and excite visitors. Due to this innovative approach, Aspire Park has become one of the most pop-ular destinations for both recreational and sporting events.

The festival runs until tomor-row with two free-to-the-public shows at 7.30pm and 9.30pm.

Qatar to use atomic energy technique for food securitySanaullah Ataullah The Peninsula

Qatar is implementing a research project in collab-oration with the

+International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in which peaceful atomic energy will be used to grow plants faster to ensure food security.

The project is entitled “Using Nuclear Techniques to Enrich Agricultural Research for Sustain-able Food Security in Qatar”.

“The importance of the project in which the Agricultural Research Department at the Min-istry of Municipality and Environment, in collaboration with IAEA, use atomic energy peacefully and safely in food security through the use of scien-tific techniques that could lead to a new method to grow plants faster”, said Hamad Saket Al Shamari, Assistant Director of the Department.

Al Shamari was talking to the media persons on the sideline of a press conference held yester-day to announce a workshop to train the employees for the imple-mentation of the project.

He said, the duration of the project is three years, expressing hope to keep the agreement going, especially since the prelim-inary results of the project were tangible and clear and have pos-itive impact on the environment as well as wild and edible plants in Qatar.

Al Shamari said the depart-ment is seeking cooperation in this context with other

international organisations such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in addition to effective coopera-tion with a number of regional organisations.

Aisha Dasmal Al Kuwari, head of genetic resources division at ministry’s agricultural research department, said the ministry adopts several projects, agricul-tural and environment programmes to protect the Qatari environment and develop and sustain its genetic resources, which are considered a wealth for future generations.

Al Kuwari said one of the pro-grams and projects the genetic resources department is estab-lishing in cooperation with the IAEA is to enrich genetic diversity and conserve plant genetic resources in Qatar using nuclear and other related technologies.

Al Kuwari revealed the main goals of the project is preserving the plant genetic resources in the country, inspect some plant

species resistant or tolerant to salinity and breed wild plants to produce plants with desirable agricultural or desirable forage.

She added that there are more than 620 plant inputs in the genetic resources unit for more than 3,500 samples, as well as a seed bank with more than 450 plant inputs from wild plants in the country, and seeds for many endangered plants and other important plants in Qatar.

Dr Abdelbaqi Mukhtar Ali Ghanim, IAEA expert and project official of Qatar on the uses of atomic energy to improve genetic diversity in cultivated and wild plants, said goal of the project is to build capabilities of the Qatari experts and train them to use atomic energy peacefully to develop some types of wild crops and trees. Al Ghanim said that, through this project, the agency aims to develop laboratories in the country and support it with equipment and required chemi-cal materials.

Artistes perform at the Aspire Lake Festival at Aspire Park yesterday. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

Continued from page 1

On October 20, several weeks after The Intercept first obtained the document outlining the plan, a well-funded Twitter campaign launched with the goal of taking the World Cup from Qatar, com-plete with a slickly produced video.

“An appeal to FIFA will be to display football as a tool to stabi-lise the region,” the document reads. “The GCC can petition FIFA to grant the tournament to the region as a whole.” If Qatar rejects the idea, the plan contends, “they will be seen unwilling to work with their GCC partners” — one of which would have just launched a surreptitious finan-cial attack against the country.

The plan of economic war-fare involved an attack on Qatar’s currency using bond and deriv-atives manipulation. The plan, laid out in a slide deck provided to The Intercept through the group Global Leaks, was aimed at tanking Qatar’s economy, according to documents drawn up by a bank outlining the strategy.

The outline, prepared by Banque Havilland, a private Lux-embourg-based bank owned by the family of controversial Brit-ish financier David Rowland, laid out a scheme to drive down the value of Qatar’s bonds and increase the cost of insuring them, with the ultimate goal of creating a currency crisis that would drain the country’s cash reserves.

Rowland has long had close relationships with UAE leader-ship, particularly with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, known as MBZ.

The bank is currently in the process of creating a new finan-cial institution in cooperation with the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala, according to contracts and correspondence obtained by The Intercept outlining the terms of the deal. That project is sepa-rate from the Qatar operation, but it reflects the close relationship between the bank and the UAE.

The Qatar debt project would be grandiose in its ambitions, reported The Intercept. “Control the yield curve, decide the future,” reads the planning document, referring to a standard financial-industry graph showing a country’s borrowing costs for debt that is due at different dates. The height and shape of the yield curve is thought to be a reflection of how healthy an economy is and influences what financing options are available to a country.

The Intercept reached Edmund Rowland, David’s son and CEO of the UK branch of Banque Havilland and asked about the status of the plan to short Qatar on behalf of the UAE,

referencing the document. “We’ve never done anything,” Rowland said. Asked for more details, Row-land responded, “I can’t make any comment,” and hung up.

After the call with Rowland, Herbert Kozlov, a lawyer with the firm Reed Smith, reached out to The Intercept and said on behalf of the bank that it had not traded in Qatari bonds or credit default swaps, the financial products the plan proposed to use. “Banque Havilland does not trade in bonds, securities, CDS, or any other instruments of Qatar and it has no plans to do so,” Kozlov said, reading a statement. As for the plan to take down Qatar, he said, “The bank is a prestigious private banking group and will not be drawn into or make comments on what are political storylines.”

Documents marked “secret and confidential” outlining the plan for the financial attack against Qatar were being circu-lated between Banque Havilland and the Emirati embassy in Washington as recently as late September.

A Private financial institution like Banque Havilland would be very familiar with the first step of the plan as laid out in the outline: creating a new offshore invest-ment fund constructed to obscure its links to the UAE. The fund would hold Qatari bonds already owned by the UAE, as well as additional debt the fund could buy. The fund would also buy credit default swaps, which would rise in value as Qatari debt sank.

The plan then calls for pre-cipitating a run on the debt through a series of sham trans-actions to drive down the price of Qatar’s bonds – a manipulation technique known as “painting the tape,” where players swap instru-ments back and forth to create the false appearance of a high vol-ume of trades.

The hope is to get other trad-ers who aren’t in on the plan to see the high volume on the “tape” — the market ticker — and think that, since volume is high in a period of political turmoil, some-thing important must be happening, prompting them to sell. The sales, if the technique goes to plan, would drive the price of the bonds down, creating more panic and more selling. Accord-ing to the plan, the UAE, having bought credit default swaps against the debt, would see the value of that insurance rise as Qatari debt tanked.

The document outlining the scheme puts the bond trading proposal in print: “Establish a crossing transaction arrangement whereby another affiliated party sells the same bond holdings back to the original seller and thereby creates additional downward pressure.”

The hope is to spark a run by bond investors who think every-body else is selling, so they better get out quickly.

Falling debt prices and rising costs of the default swaps would signal a fresh crisis to the mar-kets, putting pressure on Qatar’s currency. The Qatari riyal is pegged to the US dollar, so as its offshore value falls, the country would be forced to spend billions of dollars from its reserves to push it up. As the document notes, at the end of the operation — if it’s successful — it will be difficult for the UAE to unload its Qatari bonds because the attack would have largely weakened Qatar finan-cially. If all goes according to the plan, the next move would be to force Qatar to blow through its cash to prop up its currency. “Maintaining the peg requires extensive use of central bank for-eign exchange reserves,” reads the outline’s mission statement. The idea would be that as the Qatari bond market tanks, so will the country’s currency. And as holders of Qatar’s currency sell it off and exchange it for dollars, the country’s dollar reserves plum-met. The third stage of the plan would be to ramp up the “PR machine” in order to slam Qatar internationally, pointing to its weakening financial situation. “Focus on the prospect of restricted access to US Dollar and now-doubtful stability of the country,” the plan reads. “And … continue to increase positions.” In other words, keep the market cornered and feed fears about falling prices with manufactured bad news. The public relations effort also calls on other countries for help — presumably UAE allies, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia

The documents were pro-vided to The Intercept by an opaque group that calls itself Glo-bal Leaks.

UAE planned to wage financial

war and steal FIFA 2022

FROM LEFT: Dr Abdelbagi Mukhtar Ali Ghanim, Plant Breeder Geneticist at Seibersdorf Laboratory; Dr Rajbir Sangwan, Director of UNIDO; and Nada Siddig Mustafa, biotechnology expert; during the press conference. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

The outline, prepared by Banque Havilland, a private Luxembourg-based bank owned by the family of controversial British financier David Rowland, laid out a scheme to drive down the value of Qatar’s bonds and increase the cost of insuring them, with the ultimate goal of creating a currency crisis that would drain the country’s cash reserves.

Foreign Minister meets Kuwaiti counterpart

04 FRIDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2017MIDDLE EAST

A Gazan farmer picks the pineapples at a greenhouse in Gaza City, yesterday. Farmers started production of pineapples which doesn’t require much water, with the purpose of saving water due to blockaded on Gaza.

Beirut

Reuters

Syria’s army declared victory over Islamic State (IS) yesterday, saying its capture of the militant’ last town

in the country marked the col-lapse of their three-year, hardline reign in the region.

The army and its allies are still fighting Islamic State in desert areas near Albu Kamal, the last town the militant group had held in Syria, near the border with Iraq, the army said.

But the capture of the town ends Islamic State’s era of ter-ritorial rule over the so-called caliphate that it proclaimed in 2014 across Iraq and Syria and in which millions suffered under its hardline, repressive strictures. Yet after ferocious defensive battles in its most important cities this year, where its fighters bled for every house and street, its final col-lapse has come with lightning speed.

Instead of a battle to the death as they mounted a last stand in the Euphrates valley towns and villages near the border between Iraq and Syria, many fighters surrendered or fled.

“There’s some fighters left but they’re few. Small numbers is all I can say,” said a Syrian army commander of the remaining militants near Albu Kamal. “Some were killed and some ran away. They went towards eastern or northern villages.”

In Albu Kamal, the jihadists had fought fiercely, said a com-mander in the pro-Syrian government military alliance. But it was captured the same day the assault began.

This sealed “the fall of the

terrorist Daesh organisation’s project in the region”, an army statement said, using an Arabic term for Islamic State.

The fate of its last com-m a n d e r s i s s t i l l unknown—killed by bombard-ment or in battle, taken prisoner but unidentified, or hunkered into long-prepared hideouts to plot a new insurgency.

The last appearance of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared himself caliph and heir to Islam’s historic leaders from the great medieval mosque in Iraq’s Mosul, was made in an a u d i o r e c o r d i n g i n September.

“Oh Soldiers of Islam in every location, increase blow after blow, and make the media centres of the infidels, from where they wage their intellec-tual wars, among the targets,” he said.

Mosul fell to Iraqi forces in July after a nine-month battle. Islamic State’s Syrian capital of Raqqa fell in October to the Syr-ian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed alliance of Kurd-ish and Arab militias, after four months of fighting.

But all the forces fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq expect a new phase of guerrilla warfare, a tactic the militants have already shown themselves capable of with armed opera-tions in both countries.

Sana’a

AP

The United Nations and more than 20 aid groups said yes-terday that the Saudi-led

coalition’s tightening of a block-ade on war-torn Yemen could bring millions of people closer to “starvation and death.”

The UN’s humanitarian chief warned a day earlier that unless the coalition lifts its blockade, Yemen will face “the largest famine the world has seen for many decades, with millions of victims.”

The coalition closed all ports and halted aid shipments after Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a bal-listic missile over the weekend that was intercepted near Riyadh. Saudi Arabia blamed the strike on Iran, which supports the Houthis but has denied arming them.

The US has also accused Iran

of supplying ballistic missiles to the Houthis, charges denied by the rebels, who insist they pro-duced the missile used Saturday on their own.

The coalition, which is allied with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, has been at war with the rebels since March 2015. The Houthis con-trol most of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.

About two-thirds of Yemen’s population relies on imported supplies, said the aid groups, which include CARE, Save the Children and Islamic Relief. Over 20 million people need humanitarian assistance, includ-ing 7 million facing “famine-like” conditions, they said. Food supplies are expected to run out within six weeks while vaccines will last only a month.

They urged an “immediate

opening” of all air and seaports.

“If I have to compare Yemen to a person, I would say that this person is very sick, this person is very weakened, and is being drip-fed, so if you want to keep the patient alive, we need to reactivate drip-feeding as soon as possible,” Robert Mardini, the Middle East director for the International Committee of the Red Cross, told The Associated Press.

The blockade has already led to a fuel crisis in the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, where hundreds of cars lined the roads Wednesday after the Houthis ordered the closure of fuel sta-tions. The rebels said they closed the stations after merchants refused to fix prices. The price of fuel has risen by 50 percent since the coalition tightened the blockade.

Beirut

AFP

Lebanese Foreign Minis-ter Gebran Bassil yesterday demanded the

return of Prime Minister Saad Hariri from Saudi Arabia, where he announced days ago his shock resignation. “Today we demand the return to the nation of our Prime Minister Saad Hariri,” tweeted Bassil.

The foreign minister is the son-in-law of Lebanese Pres-ident Michel Aoun, who has not yet accepted Hariri’s res-ignation and is awaiting his return before taking any deci-sion. Hariri announced in a televised speech from Saudi Arabia on Saturday that he was stepping down, citing Iran’s “grip” on Lebanon and threats to his life.

The shock announcement raised fears that Lebanon —split into rival camps led by Hariri and the Iranian-backed movement Hezbollah — could once again descend into vio-lence. It also raised questions about the fate of Hariri, who also holds Saudi nationality, as it coincided with the announce-ment in Saudi Arabia of an anti-corruption purge in which dozens of princes, ministers and businessmen have been rounded up.

Al Akhbar newspaper, which is close to Hezbollah, has suggested that Hariri was being held “hostage” in Saudi Arabia. “We have no informa-tion (concerning Hariri). We just want him to return” home, Moustapha Allouch, a member of Hariri’s Al Mous-taqbal (Future) party said, commenting on that report. The party itself issued a state-ment yesterday saying Hariri’s return was “necessary” and essential for “total respect of Lebanon’s sovereignty”.

Harare

AFP

Zimbabwe freed yesterday a 25-year-old American journalist charged with

subverting President Robert Mugabe on account of an alleged tweet that described the ageing leader as “selfish and sick”.

Martha O’Donovan had been charged with attempting to overthrow Mugabe as well as undermining or insulting the veteran leader, now 93.

The arrest of O’Donovan and

the seizure of her laptop in a dawn raid at her apartment last Friday came just weeks after the government appointed a cyber-security minister tasked with policing social media.

“Ms Martha O’Donovan has been granted $1,000 bail and ordered to reside at a given address, surrender her pass-port... and report twice a week” to detectives, said O’Donovan’s lawyer Obey Shava, speaking outside Harare’s High Court.

Prosecutors say that on October 11, O’Donovan tweeted

on her @matigary account: “We are being led by a selfish and sick man.” The tweet was illus-trated with a photo showing the Zimbabwean president with a catheter device.

The judge sided with the defence and accepted that the state had failed to justify the rea-son for remanding her in custody. O’Donovan works for Harare-based Magamba TV, which describes itself as a lead-ing producer of cutting-edge political satire and comedy. Its content is uploaded to YouTube.

Uganda’s president boosts military unit as rural support slips awayBUSHENYI: When Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni returned to his home region to throw an Independence Day party last month, the uniformed security outnumbered the small crowd of bored spectators. Museveni slowly drove past the crowd, a mix of schoolchildren and farmers, in a top-of-the-range pick-up truck, giving them a wide smile and a thumbs-up, the ruling party symbol. He was met with blank stares. The apathy - on a continent where strongman rulers are tradition-ally feted in their home areas - reveals the slow leaching away of political support from one of Africa’s longest-serving rulers. Now, as his party plans to extend his rule, the president is increasingly reliant on a military unit from his home area, the Special Forces Command, to quell dissent over collapsing pub-lic services, corruption, growing poverty and brutality by security services. “We’ve had enough of him,” said butcher Steven Rutu-rukirira bluntly.

Nigerian police in shoot-out with gangWARRI: Nigerian police investigating the kidnapping of four British missionaries said yesterday that they had arrested two people suspected of involvement while a third was killed in a shoot-out at the gang’s hideout. The Britons, from a Christian medical charity providing free healthcare in villages in Delta state, in Nigeria’s oil-rich south, were abducted on October 13. The foreign ministry in London announced Monday that three of the hostages were released and returned home safely while a fourth was killed in captivity, without giving further details. Delta state police spokesman Andrew Aniamaka said that two suspects were arrested in the oil hub of Warri on Wednesday. After questioning, they led officers to their hideout, about 40km to the north in the town of Sapele.

Blogger’s death penalty cut to 2 yearsNOUAKCHOTT: A Mauritanian appeals court yesterday reduced the death penalty for a blogger accused of blasphemy to a two-year jail term, a legal source said, after a case that had drawn protests from rights watchdogs. Cheikh Ould Mohamed Ould Mkheitir, who will be released as he has been in custody since January 2014, was also fined 60,000 ougui-yas ($169) by the court in northwestern Nouadhibou, the source said.

Lebanon FM demands return of Hariri from Saudi Arabia

Syria declares victory over IS

Yemen: UN and aid groups warn of starvation and death

Ankara

AFP

Turkish police detained 111 Islamic State sus-pects in a vast

anti-terror operation in the capital Ankara yesterday, the latest round-ups in a widen-ing crackdown against the extremist group.

A total of 1,500 police officers took part in the raids across the Turkish capital after authorities issued arrest warrants for 245 suspects, state-run news agency Ana-dolu said.

The raids took place at 250 addresses where docu-ments and digital material were found, the agency said, without giving further details.

In the western city of Bursa, 27 suspects including Syrians were also detained in anti-IS raids, Anadolu said.

Turkey has been hit by a series of attacks blamed on IS jihadists in the past two years, including the killing of 39 people in an elite Istanbul nightclub over the New Year by Uzbekistan-born Abdul-gadir Masharipov.

He has previously con-fessed to the attack and will go on trial in Istanbul on December 11.

The group began to tar-get Turkey from late 2015 onwards after Ankara allowed the US military to conduct air strikes on IS tar-gets in Syria via Turkey’s southern Incirlik air base from August 2015.

Over 110 detained in anti-IS raidsin Ankara

Zimbabwe court grants bail to US citizen charged with subversion

NEWS BYTES

The capture of Albu Kamal town ends Islamic State’s era of territorial rule over the so-called caliphate that it proclaimed in 2014 across Iraq and Syria and in which millions suffered under its hardline, repressive strictures.

Yemenis wait next to empty gas cylinders amid increasing shortage of cooking gas, in the capital Sana’a, yesterday.

Harvest time

05FRIDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2017 ISLAM

Muslims plead to be guided to the straight path at least seventeen times a day while reciting Surat Al-Fatihah (the first chap-

ter of the Qur’an) in the five daily prayers. How many of us have reflected on the nature of this guidance and the path that we are supposed to be upon?

“Guide us” (Ihdina)In Arabic the word hidayah does not

simply mean guidance, but it means to guide gently. The word “gift” (hadiyyah) in Arabic also comes from the same root letters as the word for guidance (hidayah). Religious guidance is the greatest gift that a person can possess. It is also something that we do not control or own, but rather it is bestowed upon us in an act of infinite mercy and grace of Allah (Exalted is He). Notice how it is in the plural- not ‘guide me’ but “guide us”. This instills in us a sense of brotherhood by making this request on behalf of fellow Muslims, especially as we stand in prayer as a group.

Hidayah mentioned in the QuranThere are four types of hidayah

mentioned in the Quran, according to (Ibn Al-Qayyim).

1- General hidayah that is given to all creation. This type of guidance and knowledge is given by Allah to all cre-ated things. By this guidance, animals, plants and even inanimate objects ful-fill the purpose for which they were created. This also includes the general intellect, wits and inherent intuitive knowledge given to all responsible beings regardless of their faith. This is referred to in the following verse:

He said, “Our Lord is He Who gave each thing its form and then guided (it)”. (Ta-Ha 20:50)

2- Hidayah that is in the form of explanation and education by way of defining the two paths of good and evil. It is when someone guides you by explaining that which is good and warns you from that which is evil according to Islam. This is the type of hidayah referred to in this verse: And indeed, (O Prophet), you guide to a straight path. (Ash-Shura 42:52)

3- Hidayah that is tawfiq (a specific type of divine guidance) and inspiration (ilham) from Allah to be guided to the truth of iman (faith), Islam (submission), etc. The following verses refer to this type.

…Thus does Allah leave astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills. (Al-Muddaththir 74:31)

No disaster strikes except by per-mission of Allah. And whoever believes in Allah He will guide his heart. And Allah is Knowing of all things. (At-

Taghabun 64:11)4- Hidayah that is in the next life, by

which one shall be guided to Paradise.And We will have removed what-

ever is within their breasts of resentment, (while) flowing beneath them are rivers. And they will say, “Praise to Allah, who has guided us to this”. (Al-A`raf 7:43)

Each one of the above types of hidayah has a sequential connection and relationship. Without the first level of guidance you will not have the capac-ity to attain the second and without the second you cannot attain the third and fourth levels.

We have absolutely no power to guide anyone using any of the above types of guidance except for the second type of hidayah that is explanation and education. This type of guidance is what is referred to in the following verses.

And indeed, (O Muhammad), you guide to a straight path. (Ash-Shura 42:52)

You are only a warner, and for every people is a guide. (Ar-Ra`d 13:7)

The remaining types of guidance, particularly the third type which is taw-fiq from Allah to have iman, are what are referred to in the following verse of the Quran, again addressing the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him):

Indeed, (O Prophet), you do not guide whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills. And He is most know-ing of the (rightly) guided. (Al-Qasas 28:56)

In other words even the Prophets cannot guide whom they choose to become believers in the sense of actu-ally putting faith in a person’s heart. They can only guide in terms of expla-nation, exhortation, clarification and instruction regarding the truth.

The first lesson here is that we should seek guidance in every matter with Allah first and foremost before turning to others. Secondly, it should humble those of us who are inviting or ‘guiding’ others to Islam to acknowledge

and internalise the fact that we have no real power over this matter, and that true guidance is the sole dominion of Allah, the ‘turner of the hearts’.

However, that should not make us despair of the work we do, for which our reward is with Allah. But rather it should increase our confidence in invit-ing others knowing that the result is not dependent on ‘my da`wah’ or speech, which is full of weakness and defects, but is in the hands of Allah Who can instantly change the hearts of the most wicked and tyrannical into the most pure and righteous.

The ten levels of guidanceA Muslim may question why he or

she has to ask for guidance at least sev-enteen times a day whilst they have already been guided to Islam. Scholars have explained that it is because firstly we ask for constancy (thabat) on guid-ance and secondly because there are so many levels and aspects of guidance that we are in need of in every detail of our daily life. The following will help to clar-ify. For example, there are a further ten levels of guidance that need to be attained for one to be truly guided. (Ibn Al-Qayyim)

Therefore one should bear in mind when asking for guidance that one is asking Allah to:

1- Be granted guidance of knowl-edge and clarity, in order for one to know and reach the truth.

2- For the capacity to be guided3- Make one desirous of guidance4- Make one act upon the

guidance5- Make one remain steadfast on

guidance6- Remove all barriers and obstruc-

tions that impede guidance7- Be granted a distinctive and

detailed level of guidance on the path itself and its stations

8- Be granted sight of one’s ultimate goal along the path, to be alerted to it so that one can perceive it on the journey,

catching sight of it without being blocked from seeing it.

9- Make one aware of one’s own destitution and desperate need for guid-ance (from Allah) over and above all other necessities.

10- Make one see the two misguided paths that veer off from the path of guid-ance; firstly the path of the people of wrath- those who intentionally, out of rebellion, turned away from following the truth; secondly the path of the people of misguidance- those who turned away out of ignorance and misguidance. One then sees the straight path upon which are all the Prophets and Messengers (peace be upon them) along with their followers from the truthful (siddiqeen), the martyrs and the righteous. We are instructed by Allah to ask for guidance to the straight path (as-sirat al-mustaqim). What then is the nature of this path?

Description of the straight pathIn the language of the Arabs a path

(sirat) needs to possess five qualities for it to be called a sirat. The path needs to be:

1- Straight2- Easy to travel upon3- A familiar well-trodden path4- Wide and spacious5- Leading one to the desired

destinationSince the path that we are asking

guidance to is Islam itself, notice and reflect on how these qualities apply to Islam. Islam is straight in that it is a cor-rect and firmly established way, pure and protected from any crookedness or deviation from the truth. Allah describes those who want to block people on the path of Allah:

…Who averted (people) from the way of Allah and sought to make it (seem) deviant while they were, concerning the Hereafter, disbelievers. (Al-A`raf 7:45)

Islam is also easy as Allah has said:Allah intends for you ease, and does

not want to make things difficult for you, (Al-Baqarah 2:185))

and as the Prophet said, “The deen

(Islam/religion) is easy…” (Al-Bukhari).Allah does not burden a soul beyond

its capacity. There will be challenges, temptations and difficulties in living as a Muslim but they are things that we ulti-mately have the capacity to bear. Everything in Shariah (Islamic law) ben-efits us or wards off harm for us in this world and/or the next.

Islam, which is submission to the commands of Allah, is also a familiar and well-trodden path, the path of all the Prophets and their followers. As Allah says:

And whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger – those will be with the ones upon whom Allah has bestowed favour of the prophets, the steadfast affirmers of truth, the martyrs and the righteous. And excellent are those as companions. (An-Nisaa’ 4:69)

The final, universal revelation of Islam is wide and spacious and accom-modates all, regardless of color, race or social status. It is us with our parochial attitudes that restrict the vastness of this path to our favorite ‘saved’ group, way of thinking, sheikh or a specific allegiance that excludes others that Islam hasn’t excluded. Ibn Majah records that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “I have left you on a (wide, spacious) clear (white) path, its night is like its day, whoever devi-ates from this after me will be destroyed….”

Indeed, the path of Islam leads to the desired destination, which is Allah’s Pleasure gained by obeying Him. Allah says: So those who believe in Allah and hold fast to Him – He will admit them to mercy from Himself and bounty and guide them to Himself on a straight path. (An-Nisaa’ 4:175)

You will also notice that the word as-sirat (path) in the surah (chapter) has the definite article “Al”. The definite arti-cle is close to the meaning of ‘the’ which renders it ‘the straight path’ in English and has several possible meanings in Arabic. Here it is said that it denotes something definite which is in the mind as well as in reality.

For example, when students wait-ing for their teacher to arrive say ‘the teacher is late.’ The teacher they are referring to is known amongst them and in their minds they know exactly who they are referring to. In that sense, gram-matically, ‘the teacher’ is a definite noun phrase and not an indefinite one. They would not say a teacher is late in this case. Similarly, in this case, it is a spe-cific and definite known path that we are seeking guidance to. It is the path that Allah has ordained for the people that He has favored, the path that leads to His Pleasure and His Paradise, which is in fact His deen (religion) – besides which nothing is acceptable to Him.

It is said that it is also the path that we intuitively know in the deepest core of our hearts that must exist because as human beings we were affirmed, when we were created, that Allah is our Rabb (Lord). All praise is to Allah Who has gently guided us to the straight path, described to us with crystal clarity its features and guided us to pray for it every day of our lives.

Source: suhaibwebb.com

Islam: Guidance to the straight path

Yusuf Rios

Those who wish to under-stand what Islam is and who was Prophet Muham-

mad (peace be upon him) let him resort to what the Quran said about the Prophet (PBUH). Almighty Allah says: “And we have not sent you except as a mercy to all of Creation.” (Al-Anbiya’ 21:107)

The single verse mentioned illustrates in detail his mission and identity. The Arabic words of this verse are much richer in meaning. Arabic is the language of the revelation and the oldest living language on the earth. There are other tongues like San-skrit older than Arabic but most of them are dead languages, no longer spoken. Given this real-ity we wish to expound upon this verse from its original language so that the most meaning can be derived from it. Let us begin to ponder on the meaning of the

verse as it is traditionally done in the Arabic language.

An analytical view1. “And We”.In these two words, the mes-

sage related is that it is the one and only Allah, the Exalted, who commissioned the Prophet (PBUH). So, the origin of the Pro-phetic teachings and message is not the wisdom of a wise man or an ascetic, but rather it is Divine.

Sometimes, Allah uses the singular first person “I” referring to Himself and sometimes uses the royal “We”. In many lan-guages, there is a mechanism for one to speak in the plural giving the meaning of elevated status. For example, a chief of an Arab tribe might address his people as “We” when talking to them. Of course, after the revelation and the conversion of Arabia to Islam this became restricted to the Quran, Islam urges people to be humble.

2. Have Not Sent You except as a Mercy.

This part of the verse is very profound and deserves the most possible attention. Here, Almighty Allah is declaring why He commissioned the Prophet (PBUH). The Arabic reflects a restrictive meaning as it reads as such -the Prophet was sent for no other purpose except to be a means for humankind to attain Allah’s Mercy. There is an emphasis on the role of the Prophet as a vehicle of mercy sent from Allah, in addition to the point that this mercy is to be shared with all of humanity.

The mission with which Allah sent the Prophet (PBUH) is not restricted to a particular audi-ence but rather it is an inclusive message. It is a message to all humanity. In other words, Islam is a message for all of humanity. It is comprehensively character-ised by mercy for all of humanity and all of creation, thereby

inclusive of the eco-system. This Mercy even applies to those who choose not to believe in it.

To understand the Quranic verse better, it is necessary to key in on the notion of “mercy” in this verse. Mercy here means that Allah (glory be to Him) sent the Prophet (PBUH) with “guidance to a meaningful existence”. He was sent to teach humankind the path to a communal and social life which is pleasing to Allah. He taught respect and love in a way that grants all the right to co-exist and lead a full life. This understanding of mercy is a path to a peaceful existence in this world and a path to a blissful eternity after death. Also, this can only be understood in the con-text of Allah having created the human being to lead a purpose-ful life, a life of worship and a life in which the purpose of existence is fulfilled by living a committed and profound relationship with the Creator.

It is the Prophet (PBUH) who guided us to understand the nature of our life and taught us the path to self-fulfillment and how to be humane not only to fellow human beings but also to fellow creatures. This was not merely done by wise sayings but it was through his lived exam-ple. The thousands of authentic narrations related about his life (known as Hadiths) were; state-ments, actions or tacit approvals.

3. To All of CreationThis part of the verse makes

clear that the message of Islam is universal and directed at all peoples in all walks of life and from all backgrounds without any kind of discrimination.

In fact this part of the verse is a declaration that Islam calls humanity to brotherhood and cooperation and rejects tribal, nationalistic and racist thinking. Islam considers all humanity as brothers, and promotes mutual

sense of brotherhood. Islam declares that the unity of human-ity lies in recognising Allah’s Mercy as presented by all Proph-ets. The noble Prophets of Allah all taught that even though life is not free of hardship, it has meaning and that existence is not haphazard. The aim of life is to contemplate our origin and our end and to reflect on the deeper order of Creation. It is through reflection upon the life of the Prophet, being sent as “a mercy to mankind”, this issue can be more firmly grasped and better understood.

Prophet Muhammad: A mercy for all creation The mission with which Allah sent the Prophet (PBUH) is not restricted to a particular audience but rather it is an inclusive message. It is a message to all humanity.

Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity. There will be challenges, temptations and difficulties in living as a Muslim but they are things that we ultimately have the capacity to bear.

06 FRIDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2017ASIA

Maharashtra Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao (left) and his wife Vinodha (second left) welcomes Belgium’s King Philippe and his wife Queen Mathilde at the Governor House in Mumbai yesterday.

Himachal polls

see record

74pc turnoutShimla

IANS

A record over 74 per cent, highest in four decades, of Himachal Pradesh’s 50.25 lakh electorate on Thurs-

day exercised their franchise in the assembly elections where the ruling Congress and the BJP were locked in a straight contest.

“The percentage is expected to go up further. This is the high-est poll percentage recorded by the hill state in assembly polls,” Dilip Sharma, Director General, Election Commission, told reporters in New Delhi.

Election officials said the polling was peaceful and no major untoward incident was reported from the 68 seats.

However, there were reports of malfunctioning of EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines at a few polling booths, which led voting contin-uing at these booths even after the polls officially closed at 5pm.

Voters across the state could be seen reaching polling stations even before polling started at 8 a.m. despite the cold in the

single phase election. Higher reaches witnessed mild rain and snow later in the day. “Despite minor hiccups as EVMs devel-oped snags at some places, there was no report of any delay in starting the poll process,” an electoral officer said.

In the first two hours, the state recorded 13.72 percent poll-ing but by 4pm, nearly 64 percent of votes were cast.

A total of 337 candidates, 19 of them women, are in the fray. There are 112 Independent can-didates. The main contest is between the ruling Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Congress has projected incumbent Virbhadra Singh, 83, as its Chief Ministerial candidate, while former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, 73, is the BJP’s. Both are contesting the

elections. Both Singh and Dhu-mal cast their votes along with family members at their home-towns Rampur and Samirpur respectively.

Union Health Minister J P Nadda and Congress leader and former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma cast their votes in Bilaspur and Shimla towns.

“The BJP has made false promises, run fake campaigns in the state to lure the voters,” Sharma told reporters.

After casting his votes, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who is try to get at the helm for the

seventh time, said he was con-fident of the Congress getting a majority. On the other hand, two-time Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Dhumal said the BJP was aiming to get 60 plus seats this time.

Women, who form 19 lakh of the over 50 lakh voters, turned out in strength in the rural areas.

The Congress and the BJP have fielded candidates on all 68 seats, while the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist have fielded 42 and 14 candidates respectively.

Shyam Sharan Negi, 100, the

first voter of India, cast his vote for the 15th time in the assembly polls at Kalpa in Kinnaur district. Elections official provided him a vehicle for his transportation to the polling booth from his home. For the first time, the Elec-tion Commission used VVPAT machines to ensure secrecy of the votes.

The highest polling station in the state was been set up at an elevation of over 15,000 feet at Hikkam in Lahaul and Spiti dis-trict. It has 194 electors and saw an 85 percent turnout despite snow in the evening.

Shyam Saran Negi (centre), arrives to vote in Himachal Pradesh state elections in Kalpa, around 145 miles from Shimla, yesterday. The 100-year-old Negi walked the red carpet to the polling booth to retain his record of voting in every election since independence.

Modi to attend Asean, East Asia SummitsNew Delhi

IANS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Sunday leave on a three-day

visit to the Philippines where he will attend the Asean and East Asia Summits and hold a bilateral meeting with Presi-dent Rodrigo Duterte, it was announced yesterday.

This will be Modi’s first official visit to the Philippines.

“He will be going there to attend the 15th Asean-India Summit and the 12th East Asia Summit,” Priti Saran, Secretary (East) in the External Affairs Ministry, told the media.

With this, India would have undertaken high-level visits at the level of President, Vice President and Prime Minister to all 10 Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) members - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sin-gapore, Thailand and Vietnam - in the last three years.

“This shows the impor-tance India attaches to its relations with the Asean,” Saran said. “It symbolizes India’s commitment to deep-ening relations with Asean member states in particular and with the Indo-Pacific region in general within the framework of our Act East Policy.”

Arunachal integral part of India: GovtNew Delhi

IANS

After China expressed anger over Defence Minister Nirmala Sith-

araman’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh earlier this month, the government yestserday reas-serted that the northeastern state is an integral part of India.

“As you all know, Aru-nachal Pradesh is an integral part of India,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in his weekly media briefing here.

“Indian leaders have all the right and freedom to visit Arunachal Pradesh as they have to visit any other part of India,” he stated.

Solar probe report indicts former Kerala CMThiruvananthapuram

IANS

Former Kerala Chief Minis-ter Oommen Chandy yesterday said he does not

rule out foul play in preparation of the solar judicial probe report in which he has been indicted. The 1,000 page report was tabled at a special session of the state assembly. Chandy added that the final victory would be his when the case is finally disposed of.

The report by Justice G. Sivarajan (retd) includes four

volumes in English and one in Malayalam.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan tabled the report in the Kerala Assembly yesterday morning and copies of it were given to all the legislators and also to the media.

The allegations regarding the multi-crore solar energy invest-ment fraud that rocked the then Chandy government in 2013 were led by Saritha Nair and her live-in partner Biju Radhakrishnan.

The findings of the report indict Chandy and his office and the way his three office staff had

close links with Saritha Nair.In his hour-long press con-

ference at the state party headquarters here, Chandy said that certain things that have sur-faced after the report was submitted last month arouse suspicion.

“I feel there has been lack of transparency on the part of the Left government after the report was submitted. We know the general norm in any commission once it submits its report is that it has to be signed on all the pages. But in this case, it has come to light that one volume

was signed by the commission later after the report was sub-mitted,” said Chandy.\ The report has recommended for action against Chandy for involving in corruption and also sexually exploiting Saritha Nair.

The Congress leader said the commission also in its report has included the same letter of Saritha Nair in two volumes and “one suspects if this was a Solar commission or a Saritha com-mission”. It is in this letter that Saritha Nair accuses Chandy and several of his party leaders of sexually exploiting her.

“The letter that was included is not the 21-page letter which she had written in jail as was seen by the then Jails Director General of police Alexander Jacob. Even Saritha herself had testified before the commission that my name does not figure in the letter. But things have changed and now we see a 25-page letter that has been put in the commission report. How did this happen?” asked Chandy.

Chandy pointed out that never before has any commis-sion report been kept so “secretive” like this one.

Kolkata-Khulna train flagged offKolkata

IANS

Taking their close ties and connectivity links further, India and Bangladesh

yesterday opened a new rail line between Kolkata and Khulna with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee jointly flag-ging-off the ‘Bandhan Express’ via video-conferencing.

The dignitaries also inau-gurated the International Passenger Rail Terminal, End-to-End Immigration and Customs Clearance Facilities (for passengers of Maitree Express and Bandhan Express) at Kolkata station, under the India-Bangladesh Cooperation in Railways.

Rail bridges over river Titas and Bhairabh in Bangladesh were also launched, to speed up connectivity between Dhaka and Chittagong.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj joined in from New Delhi, and her Bangladesh counterpart A H Mahmood Ali from Dhaka.

Prime Minister Modi said that

India takes pride in being a “reli-able partner” in Bangladesh’s development and that the two bridges, built at a cost of $100m out of India’s Line of Credit, would help strengthen the rail network of Bangladesh.

He said development and connectivity are linked to each other and the ties between India and Bangladesh, partic-ularly between West Bengal and Bangladesh, are decades old. He said yestrerday’s launch was aimed to further cement-ing the close bilateral bonds.

“With the inauguration of the new International Passen-ger Terminus and launch of a new train service passengers will be benefitted,” he said.

The Prime Minister said he was happy that work on the $8 billion concessional finance of the project was on track.

Emphasising on good ties with neighbours, Modi said, “I have always thought that rela-tions with neighbours should be like neighbours. So that when-ever there is a need to talk there should be talks and visits, and between all these protocol issues should not come in.”

He said the most important aspect of connectivity is “peo-ple to people connectivity”.

Delhi declares pollution emergencyNew Delhi

Reuters

The Indian capital declared a pollution emergency yes-terday as toxic smog hung

over the city for a third day and air quality worsened by the hour.

Illegal crop burning in the farm

states surrounding New Delhi, vehi-cle exhaust emissions in a city with limited publictransport and swirl-ing construction dust have caused the crisis, which arises every year. The problem has been com-pounded this year by still conditions, the Met office said.

A US embassy measure of tiny particulate matter PM 2.5

showed a reading of 608 at 10am when the safe limit is 50.

An hour before it was 591.Residents complained of

headaches, coughs and smart-ing eyes. “Waking up with a headache, breathlessness & throat irritation every day,” Bha-vani Giddu wrote on Twitter.

Many people stayed home

and restaurants in some of the city’s most crowded parts were deserted. “I’d like to assure peo-ple that the central government shall do everything possible to bring about improvement in air quality in Delhi and the Nation Capital Region,” federal environ-ment minister Harsh Vardhan said.

For the first time, the Election Commission used VVPAT machines to ensure secrecy of the votes.

Court may let Karti go abroadNew Delhi

IANS

The Supreme Court yes-terday indicated that it may allow Karti

Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, to go abroad for four or five days as it studied documents submitted by the CBI to oppose his application.

Karti Chidambaram is seeking the apex court’s nod to travel to Cambridge in con-nection with the admission of his daughter.

Welcome to Mumbai

07FRIDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2017 ASIA

Nato vows more troops for AfghanistanBrussels

Reuters

Nato’s pledge to send more troops to Afghanistan still falls short of commit-m e n t s , U S

commanders said yesterday, concerned that fewer reinforce-ments could threaten the already precarious security situation in the country.

At a meeting of Nato defence ministers, commanders said that nearly three months after Pres-ident Donald Trump announced his “South Asia strategy,” the promised troop numbers do expand the Nato training

presence but not by as much as hoped. “We have made it very clear to the allies that we really need their help in filling these billets that we have identified,” said General John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghani-stan and head of the Nato training mission.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this week that Nato allies and the United States would split the burden of pro-viding some 3,000 more troops, an increase that would take Nato’s training mission to about 16,000 troops.

Two diplomats said that at this stage, the United States is likely to provide 2,800 troops, while non-US Nato allies and partners will

send an additional 700 troops, potentially making up a 3,500-strong personnel increase.

Germany, one of the main European troop contributors, said it was not increasing its con-tribution for next year.

Part of the concern,

Nicholson said, was that the United States would again be put in a position where it would have to fill the shortfall.

The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated in recent months, 16 years after the United States invaded Afghani-stan to topple the Taliban government that gave Al Qaeda the sanctuary where it plotted the September 11, 2001, attacks.

“We fought ... at the lowest year level of capability that we have ever had in the 16 years. So it was the lowest level of capa-bility and the highest level of risk we have faced in this time,” Nicholson said.

Prior to the meeting of Nato ministers, US officials said about

80 percent of the troop commit-ments had been met by the allies. They declined to say what per-centage had been filled after the meetings, but acknowledged that there was still a shortfall.

The number is based on a constantly changing Nato docu-ment known as the combined j o i n t s t a t e m e n t o f requirements,.

“Coming out of today, it won’t be at a 100 percent... but we are still in discussion with more than a few nations that are looking at increasing... so I’m encouraged,” said Army General Curtis Scaparrotti, who is the top US military official in Europe and also Nato’s Supreme Allied Commander.

Pakistani assemblies to complete tenure: ECPIslamabad

Internews

All the five elected assemblies of Pakistan will complete their

constitutional tenures in the last week of May 2018, says the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Some media reports have been suggesting that the National Assembly will complete its tenure on June 5 and the general elections may be held by August 5 to meet t h e c o n s t i t u t i o n a l requirement of holding the polls within 60 days after expiry of the term of a house.

“The five-year constitutional term of the National Assembly and the Punjab Assembly is ending on May 31 while those of the Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies, on May 28,” said ECP Director-General (Elections) Yousuf Khattak.

He, along with ECP additional secretaries Zafar Iqbal Husain and Dr Akhtar Nazeer and other officers, was briefing the media on the recently-passed Election Act 2017 and the rules prepared by the Commission under it here yesterday.

Khattal disclosed that under the new ECP rules all the officials from district returning officer to election assistance and security staff to be deployed in and around polling stations for 2018 vote would be made to take oath before the polls that they would remain impartial and won‘t violate the code of conduct.

Under the new powers conferred on the ECP by the Election Act 2017, the election staff would be under direct control of the Commission.

Husain said that under the new law election petition may be directly filed with the election tribunal, whose decision could be challenged only in the Supreme Court and not in high courts.

Trump criticises unfair China tradeBeijing

AP

President Donald Trump sought to present a united front with Chinese Presi-

dent Xi Jinping following two days of meetings yesterday, despite lingering differences over trade and North Korea.

On trade, Trump criticised the “very one-sided and unfair” trade relationship between the US and China. But he stopped short of castigating Xi, saying he doesn’t blame the country for having taken advantage of the US in the past.

Trump said China “must immediately address the unfair trade practices that drive” what he said is a “shockingly” large trade deficit, along with barriers to market access, forced tech-nology transfers and intellectual property theft. “But I don’t blame China,” he said. “After all, who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its cit-izens?”\ To applause, Trump said: “I give China great credit.”

His Secretary of State Rex

Tillerson offered a blunter assessment of China’s trade sur-plus with the United States, which in October widened by 12.2 percent from a year earlier, to $26.6bn. The total surplus with the United States for the first 10 months of the year was $223bn.

“I think the best way to char-acterise it is that while we appreciate the long hours and the effort that our Chinese coun-terparts have put into those trade discussions, quite frankly in the grand scheme of a $3- to 500bn trade deficit, the things that have been achieved are pretty small,” Tillerson told reporters in Beijing.

He said that, that, “in terms of really getting at some of the fundamental elements of why this imbalance exists, there is still a lot more work to do.”

Tillerson also acknowl-edged that there were differences “tactics and the timing and how far to go with pressure” on North Korea. But he insisted that the two coun-tries were on the same page. “There is no disagreement on North Korea,” he said.

North Korea remained a

focus of the talks. Before arriv-ing in China, Trump had delivered a stern message to Bei-jing, using an address in South Korea to call on China to do more to confront and isolate the antagonistic nation. That included urging China to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions aimed at depriving the North’s government of

revenue for its nuclear and bal-listic missile programmes.

Trump yesterday appeared far more conciliatory, thanking China for its efforts and saying he’d been encouraged by his conversations. ”China can fix this problem eas-ily. And quickly. And I am calling on China and your great president to hopefully work on it very hard,” Trump said.

Before the meetings, China rolled out the red carpet for Trump, treating him to an elab-orate welcome ceremony on the plaza outside the Great Hall of the People.

Trump looked on approv-ingly as a Chinese honor guard played the national anthems of both countries, cannons boomed and soldiers marched.

US President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping arrive at a state dinner at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, yesterday.

Suggestions for new UNSC seats rejectedGeneva

Internews

Pakistan has rejected what it termed “dysfunctional” suggestions for creation

of new permanent seats in the so-called reformed Security Council as projected by certain self-appointed pretenders for a permanent seat on the most powerful organ of the world body.

During a debate on the expansion of the Security Coun-cil, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Maleeha Lodhi said that “permanent seats are contrary to the universally agreed prin-ciples of democracy, a c c o u n t a b i l i t y a n d transparency”.

“After all, permanent mem-bership remains at the core of much that is flawed about the existing Security Council,” she said, adding “it is, therefore, counter-intuitive to us that an expansion in the council could be advocated as a means to address its inherent dysfunc-tional ties”.

Drawing the attention of the 193-member General Assembly to the growing and complex challenges to global peace and security, Ambassador Lodhi said this warranted a firm and clear action by the Security Council.

“An enlarged permanent

membership, operating on the basis of the least common denominator, will erode the standing of the council and not strengthen its role as some argue besides compromising its efficiency and effectiveness,” she said.

The ambassador criticised the position taken by a hand-ful of countries demanding a permanent seat in the Secu-rity Council saying these states sought a privileged and une-qual status for themselves, anchored in power politics, which was in sharp contradic-tion to the modern democratic spirit.

“Even more telling, while they remain firmly wedded to their own positions, they ask others to be flexible,” she noted.

She argued that it was not a lack of will on the part of the many, but a lack of will on the part of a few that remained the most persistent stumbling block in the way of achieving a more representative, transparent, accountable and effective reform of the Security Council.

Lodhi argued for an expan-sion in the non-permanent category of membership, based on equitable geographic distri-bution and a system of fair rotation and said that this solu-tion was both fair and just, and was supported by all member states and groups.

Pakistan shuts MSF facility in tribal beltislamabad

Reuters

Pakistan yesterday told medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres’ (MSF) to

shut its last remaining facility in the impoverished tribal belt bor-dering Afghanistan, the health organisation said.

The closure ends MSF’s four-year stint in the Bajaur region of the Federally Administered

Tribal Areas (FATA), where healthcare access is limited, and hits 120 staff working there.

The move comes seven weeks after the medical charity was ordered to shut down two health facilities it ran for 14 years in the nearby Kurram district, plagued by militancy over the past decade.

“Healthcare services are very limited in the area and most of our patients cannot afford to pay even for basic medical care,”

Azaad Alessandro Alocco, the group’s representative in Paki-stan, said in a statement.

“As the only major hospital providing free, quality health-care in the area, the closure of MSF’s activities will leave a major gap and have serious neg-ative implications for the health of people living in Bajaur.”

No reason was given for the closure order, it added.

Foreign nationals and groups working in the sensitive region,

plagued by some of Pakistan’s poorest healthcare and lowest literacy rates, require no-objec-tion certificates from the government, but their renewal has been denied to MSF.

The interior ministry, responsible for the issue of the documents, did not respond to a request for comment.

Large swaths of land in the region have been ravaged by militant groups for the better part of a decade.

3 policemen dead in Quetta attackAuetta

AFP

A suspected suicide bomber killed a senior police official and two of

his colleagues in the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta yesterday, officials said.

Officials said the attack hit the vehicle of Quetta’s Deputy Inspector General of Police Hamid Shakil.

“Hamid Shakil, his driver and an assistant sub-inspec-tor were martyred when a suspected suicide bomber struck his motorcycle with his vehicle,” senior police official Naseeb Ullahsaid.

The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated in recent months, 16 years after the United States invaded Afghanistan to topple the Taliban government.

Officials inspect the scene of a bomb blast which killed a senior Pakistani police official and two of his collegues on their way to work in Quetta, Pakistan, yesterday.

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meet in Vietnam brings together three major world leaders who probably have close to a third of the world population and more than half of the land area in their countries.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump, and China’s Xi Jinping are among the leaders who will attend the 21-member summit. Xi and Trump are to talk on the future of global trade as they participate in a meeting that will see sensitive issues like the South China Sea dispute, the trans-Pacific partnership, and the Rohingya problem discussed.

Trump and Putin face each other the second time after the real estate tycoon took power in January this year. The two have between them a large number of issues, besides one which has put Trump on a virtual notice of sorts. The Cold War rivals have to discuss trade, diplomacy and security that always call for attention in a unipolar world given to geopolitical vicissitudes.

All eyes will be on the meeting between Trump and Putin. The intransigent Trump has been accused of colluding with the Kremlin to influence the US Presidential election. The controversy has spawned talk of an unprecedented upheaval in the US establishment with anti-Russia hawks claiming Trump’s scalp. A major probe into Trump’s alleged collusion is on as Putin and the US president meet on

the sidelines of the summit. Though Apec is largely

an economic gathering, political issues sometimes take centre stage. Problems between US and Russia have spawned geopolitics and the eastward expansion of the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has been a sticking point.

Russia has been eager to spread its influence in its former sphere of influence with smaller states like Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia often feeling

intimidated by Moscow’s might. In the same way, China has been trying to spread its footprint by claiming a group of islands in the South China Sea and building an artificial one somewhere else, much to the chagrin of states like Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea.

Moreover, hosts Vietnam will get an opportunity to improve ties with China as the summit unfolds. What is of concern is the public skepticism that Hanoi displays. The Communist Party of Vietnam can work to change the image of China among the public. Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang’s visit to China to attend the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in May was seen by observers as a move towards reaching out to Beijing. Xi’s visit to Vietnam is likely to bring the two nations together.

The Apec Summit is likely to be a key witness to many key global issues and attempts at their resolution. It is hoped bilateral problems do not scupper attempts at forging a regional mechanism for trade and economic relations.

08 FRIDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2017VIEWS

E S T A B L I S H E D I N 1 9 9 6

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

Eyes on Apec

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The EU‘s principle of respect for the rights of itscitizens will cease to be an empty one only when the debate about the future of the European Union takes place with the participation of all concerned, not in three or four capitals.

Beata SzydloPolish Prime Minister

The meeting between Trump and Putin should not overshadow the multilateral nature of Apec.

In late October, the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation was set to vote on the “Greater Jerusalem” Bill. If it had passed, it would have been pre-sented before the Knesset floor for

several readings, before a vote on whether or not to legislate it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously stated that he would support it, giving it serious political force and backing. The vote has now been postponed following requests for clari-fication on various aspects of the bill from the US administration.

The bill, as suggested by its title, would expand the municipal boundaries of Jerusa-lem to include four major illegal settlements and many more smaller ones under the municipal jurisdiction of Jerusalem. The set-tlements, Ma’ale Adumim, Givat Ze’ev, Betar Illit and Efrat, are part of the Gush Etzion settlement block that stretches from Jerusa-lem to Hebron. Although legislators claim that these areas will not be under full Israeli sovereignty, this move would certainly amount to de facto annexation.

This is part and parcel of a “facts on the ground” strategy Israel has been pursuing since 1967, when it occupied the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights, annexing East Jerusalem and declaring the whole of Jerusa-lem as the capital of Israel.

Israeli settlement building in the territo-ries occupied in 1967 is undeniably illegal under international law which forbids the transfer of the occupying power’s population into territories it has acquired during war or conflict. However, as of today, no Israeli government has ceased its expansion in the West Bank and the population of illegal set-tlers today is well over half a million.

The annexation of East Jerusalem is also unequivocally recognised as unlawful. Under the two-state framework, East Jerusalem would constitute the capital of a Palestinian State and its colonisation is continuously condemned by much of the international community.

Yet this has had little effect and today there are over 200,000 Israeli settlers living in East Jerusalem, with demolitions of Pales-tinian homes and appropriation of Palestinian land being a daily occurrence.

The bill’s supporters are motivated by an Israeli obsession with demographics. Their idea is to ensure that Jewish Israelis maintain a dominant majority in every part of historic Palestine.

In Jerusalem, this approach is specifically being used to counter the international dis-course that the city belongs both to Palestinians and Israelis and to assert that Jerusalem is the “undivided capital of the Jewish people”.

Minister of Transport and Intelligence Israel Katz who has been heavily promoting the bill, stated that this was a move to “ensure a Jewish majority” in the city.

Indeed, the proposed bill will also exclude the Palestinian neighbourhoods of Kufr Aqab, Shuafat refugee camp and Anata that currently exist beyond the separation wall. Placing them under a sub-municipality, it would remove them from the census and

Legalising annexation of Jerusalem

Yara HawariAl Jazeera

statistically reduce the Palestinian pop-ulation of “Greater Jerusalem” by 100,000.

Beyond the gerrymandering, this bill would yet again make a clear state-ment that international law does not apply to Israel.

For Palestinians, this is simply a continuation of their lived reality of an accelerating settler colonial project. Palestinians in East Jerusalem are already subjected to an oppressive

regime in which they are considered permanent residents but not citizens.

Their status as residents is dependent on whether or not they can prove that their centre of life is in Jerusalem. This means that they are at constant risk of having their residency permits revoked, not to mention the denial of citizenship and therefore full rights.

The potential repercussions for residents of the Palestinian neigh-bourhoods that will be downgraded to sub-municipalities are not clear, but should the bill pass, the situation for them would undoubtedly worsen.

It is not surprising that Israel is attempting to annex more land in the West Bank. Perhaps what is surpris-ing however, is the continuous demand by the international commu-nity that Palestinians put their faith in international law, its institutions and processes.

Israel continuously flouts interna-tional law with no repercussions or sanctions. Indeed, the word “sanctions” can barely be whispered in diplomatic and policy circles before accusations of bias towards Israel are made.

The question for Palestinians thus remains: How far is too far? The West Bank has been under belligerent occu-pation for over 50 years, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights have been annexed for just as long, Gaza has been placed under a crippling siege for more than 10 years, while the refugees have been in exile for nearly seven decades and the Palestinian citizens of Israel continue to be subjected to sys-tematic oppression. Palestinians reached “too far” a long time ago; it is time for the international community to catch up.

The writer is the Palestine Policy Fellow of

AlShabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.

The annexation of East Jerusalem is also unequivocally recognised as unlawful. Under the two-state framework, East Jerusalem would constitute the capital of a Palestinian State and its colonisation is continuously condemned by much of the international community. Yet this has had little effect and today there are over 200,000 Israeli settlers living in East Jerusalem, with demolitions of Palestinian homes and appropriation of Palestinian land being a daily occurrence.

ED ITOR IAL

A car drives along a road near the Israeli barrier in the Palestinian town of Abu Dis in the West Bank, as Jerusalem is seen in the background.

09FRIDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2017 OPINION

shoppers in the US — I would not expect much in the way of anti-trust concerns.

Apple has already bought back shares of stock in excess of $200 billion. A purchase of Netflix would require swapping about 1 1/3 shares of Apple stock for each share of Netflix (which closed Monday at $174.25 and $200.13 respectively). Google’s purchase of YouTube Inc. and Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods Market Inc. led both companies’ stocks to surge in excess of the purchase price, making the buys practi-cally free. I doubt we will see that here, as Netflix is a much larger and more expensive buy. Wall Street also historically misunderstands what Apple does and won’t see how valuable the con-tent deal is to Apple; recall the pushback on the original iMac, iPhone and iPad rollouts.

Outside of phones and tablets, Apple has not been competing well, especially in content. Its software is starting to become sloppy; it has ceded a giant lead in voice to Amazon; Apple TV has fallen behind video-streaming services Google Chromecast and Amazon Fire Stick (not to mention Amazon Prime video as well).

Apple TV has fallen well behind Roku and Fire Stick for innovation. Apple TV charges a premium over its competitors, but the sales numbers have made clear that Apple TV is no iPhone. (I have both the Fire Stick and Apple TV and almost exclusively use the Fire Stick.)

Oh, and one other thing: The latest smart TVs have web services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix and HBO Go built right into them, so you no longer need the separate hardware to cut the cord and stream video. Take these new TVs out of the box, sign in with your user name and pass-word, and voila! You’re watching your favorite shows. The advantages are many:

• Apple acquires a library of content that would instantly make it competitive with Amazon.

• Netflix adds $10 billion in annual revenue; Apple should be able to scale that fairly quickly, doubling or even tripling it over the next five years.

•The acquisition would immediately make Apple the world’s leading internet television net-

I try not to give unsolicited advice to billionaires or corporate managers on what they should do with their money. Warren Buffett and Apple both have done rather well for

themselves and their investors without my help. Today, I violate my own rule : Apple should buy Netflix in an all-stock deal for about $100 billion.

Let’s unpack this flight of fancy. In this scenario, Apple would be wildly overpaying for Netflix. However, the world’s most valuable company has a not-so-secret weapon: its own wildly expensive currency. Apple, whose stock price has surged 50 percent this year, is worth almost $900 billion. It is on its way to becoming the first trillion-dollar company.

A merger — technically a takeover—- provides each company with a solution to challenges both face. Apple has learned that film and television are very different industries than music.

Its video content offerings have not caught up to those offered by competi-tors Netflix and Amazon.com Inc. Netflix is spending billions per year to acquire or create new content, money that it may not have in the future. A deep-pocketed partner would ensure the lead it has built does not disappear.

And both companies are well aware that the mightiest competitor they face these days is Amazon. A tie-up creates a competitor that would equal the Jeff Bezos juggernaut.

Given the fierce competition in the space — Prime now has 90 million mem-bers, reaching 63 percent of all Amazon

Why Apple should take the plunge and buy Netflixwork with over 90 million members in 190 countries.

• Tim Cook has a fairly deep bench, but some fresh management ideas in the form of Reed Hastings could help keep Apple from becoming too stodgy.

• Netflix can stop worrying about how it is going to access capital to pay for its original content.

• Spending $10 billion or even $20 billion a year on content acquisition would hardly dent the $300 billion stockpile of cash Apple has accumulated.

• The team at Netflix can help Apple revamp its streaming video product.

• Apple TV sales could be juiced by including free Net-flix memberships for six to 12 months with each new purchase.

• Netflix has broad expertise in native internet infrastructure.

There are some obvious arguments against:• At $100 billion, Netflix would not be a small or inex-

pensive purchase.• Apple has purchased lots of small firms for their

expertise and engineers, but it has no experience making big purchases. Beats Music LLC was its largest acquisition at $3 billion.

• Netflix’s annual $10 billion revenue won’t move the needle much for Apple, which does that much in sales about every two weeks.

• Netflix has not been especially profitable, earning $1.26 per share, trading at over 200 times earnings.

• Any change to culture at either successful company will always be a risk.

• Making a large acquisition like Netflix is potentially a huge distraction to Apple’s core business -- namely, mak-ing insanely great hardware and software.

The upsides for Apple are fairly obvious; the biggest downside is the cost. If anything, it might spare us the boring quarterly routine of analysts expecting soft iPhone sales and then being shocked when the company beats to the upside.

If Apple passes on Netflix, don’t be surprised if Ama-zon does not. That alone is reason to make the purchase.

The writer is a Bloomberg View columnist. He founded Ritholtz

Wealth Management and was chief executive and director of

equity research at FusionIQ, a quantitative research firm. He

blogs at the Big Picture and is the author of “Bailout Nation:

How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook

the World Economy.”

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Trump’s limited appeal a warning sign for Republicans

Democratic election victories in Virginia and New Jersey showed Republicans losing more ground in suburban areas, where President Donald Trump’s unpopularity could cost them dearly in

next year’s congressional races.The results from Tuesday, particularly in Vir-

ginia, suggest that Trump’s strategy of playing to a loyal but limited base has not enabled him to broaden support for his presidency or his party.

Democrats were delighted, believing that con-trol of the US House of Representatives, and perhaps even the Senate, now both controlled by Republicans, might be up for grabs in next year’s elections.

Some Republicans shared that view after their party’s candidates did poorly among independent, college-educated, women, and minority voters in suburban areas. “Unless we get our act together, we are going to lose heavily,” Republican Senator John McCain said on Wednesday.

Democrats would need to pick up 24 seats next year to retake control of the House. Should that happen, Trump’s policy agenda would be effec-tively dead and the administration would come under greater scrutiny.

The win by Democrat Phil Murphy in New Jer-sey’s governor’s race came as no surprise because of the unpopularity of outgoing Republican Gover-nor Chris Christie. But Ralph Northam’s 9-point victory over Republican Ed Gillespie for governor in swing-state Virginia was larger than expected.

Trump quickly tried to distance himself from

Gillespie’s poor showing, saying on Twitter that the Republican candidate “worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for.”

Still, Trump’s leadership record appeared to motivate. Democrats to vote in record numbers in Virginia, with exit polls showing that many came out simply to express their displeasure with the president.

“Trump is turning off more voters than he’s bringing in,” said Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist in Washington. “His base is strong, but it isn’t growing.”

During his first year in office, Trump has con-sistently played to a base of passionate supporters, many of them older white men who live in rural areas declining in population, and has shown little inclination to reach out to the majority of voters who disapprove of him.

Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster based in Vir-ginia, said the party was on a risky track. “Republicans have traded fast-growing upscale suburban counties for slow-growing or declining rural areas. That is not a formula for long-term suc-cess.” There also may be signs of slippage in Trump’s political base.

In Virginia, Gillespie campaigned hard on immi-gration and crime — two hot issues with the president’s supporters — but did worse than

expected in some rural and suburban areas that Trump easily won last year.

In rural Dickenson County, considered to be the heart of Trump country in Virginia, Gillespie’s mar-gin over Northam was almost 7 percentage points less than Trump’s margin of victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton last year.

Trump won the city of Virginia Beach in 2016 by 3 points, but Gillespie lost to Northam there by 5, a swing of eight points.

More critically, Gillespie was blown out by Northam in northern Virginia’s populous suburbs, where Trump also struggled in the presidential race. “The suburbs came out in full force,” said Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist. “They appear to be very motivated to try and deliver a message to Trump.”

In growing Loudoun County, outside of Wash-ington, Democrat Barack Obama barely edged out Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race. On Tuesday, Northam buried Gillespie there by almost 20 points.

“I’m worried,” Ari Fleischer, a former White House spokesman for Republican President George W Bush, told Fox News on Wednesday. “Democrats came out in huge numbers yesterday in the races and if they have that kind of enthusiasm going into 2018, it’s going to be very tough sailing for

US President Donald Trump greets supporters as he departs for Bedminster, New Jersey, from the White House in Washington DC in this file photo.

Republicans.” Gillespie, a longtime Washington insider and lobbyist, tried to keep his distance from Trump personally even as he adopted some of his more combat-ive campaign rhetoric.

It was a strategy that failed and Mackowiak said the result reflected Trump’s historically low approval rating. “I don’t think the White House was worried about that before, but now I think they have to be.”

The five-day Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll has Trump hovering around 35 percent approval nationally, with close to 60 per-cent of respondents disapproving of his performance in office.A per-son familiar with Trump’s political operation dismissed the election results on Tuesday as having any-thing to do with the president, noting that both New Jersey and Virginia were won by Clinton in 2016.

Andrew Surabian, an adviser to the pro-Trump political group Great America Alliance, said Gillespie lost because he was exactly the kind of establishment Republican that Trump voters have rejected.

“Ed Gillespie’s campaign went down in flames because he failed to fully embrace the president or his agenda,” Surabian said, “and without a coherent message and an authentic messenger, Republi-can candidates will not be successful moving forward.”

The writer is a White House corre-

spondent for Reuters.

James Oliphant Reuters

During his first year in office, Trump has consistently played to a base of passionate supporters, many of them older white men who live in rural areas declining in population, and has shown little inclination to reach out to the majority of voters who disapprove of him.

Barry Ritholtz Bloomberg

Students climb the Berlin Wall memorial in Bernauer Strasse, as Germany marks the 28th anniversary of the fall of the wall in Berlin, yesterday.

28th anniversary of Berlin Wall collapse

10 FRIDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2017EUROPE

May names Brexit campaigner to replace Priti PatelLondon

AFP

British Prime Minister Theresa May yesterdya promoted a junior minister to replace ousted aid secretary Priti Patel, avoiding a major personnel

shuffle and maintaining the delicate Brexit balance in her cabinet.

The Conservative leader named Penny Mordaunt, a minister in the wel-fare department and a strong supporter of Britain’s withdrawal from the Euro-pean Union, as her new international development secretary.

On Wednesday evening, Patel became the second minister to quit within a week, after a row over unauthorised meetings she had during a holiday to Israel in August, including with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Patel is a prominent Brexit supporter, and some Conservative MPs had pressed for a replacement that would maintain the political — and gender — balance.

Mordaunt had initially been tipped to replace Michael Fallon as defence sec-retary when he quit on November 1 following allegations of sexual harass-ment, but that job went to one of May’s close aides, Gavin Williamson.

“The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of Penny Mor-daunt MP as secretary of state for international development,” a statement from Downing Street said.

Mordaunt, a 44-year-old Royal Navy reservist, is the MP for the English naval town of Portsmouth, and served as a jun-ior defence minister before becoming minister for disabled people last year.

Elected in 2010 after a career in busi-ness and media, including as head of foreign press for George W Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign, Mordaunt has cut a rather different path from many of her fellow MPs. She took part in a celebrity television diving show in 2014, giving her

appearance fee to a local swimming pool.She also delivered a bizarre speech

in the House of Commons in 2013 about Easter and poultry, reportedly a response to a bet by navy colleagues.

Prominent Brexit supporter and Con-servative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg had earlier called for a replacement for Patel who was enthusiastic about leaving the European Union.

“As long as it’s somebody who has accepted that Brexit is happening and will support it properly... I don’t think there will be a problem,” he told the BBC.

But leading pro-European lawmaker Chuka Umunna, of the opposition Labour party, tweeted: “This is the same minis-ter who falsely claimed Turkey was about to join the EU (during the referendum). Words fail me.”

Britain’s newly-appointed International Development Secretary, Penny Mordant leaves 10 Downing Street in London yesterday, after being appointed to the position.

IRSN suspects nuke accident in RussiaParis

Reuters

A cloud of radioactive pol-lution over Europe in recent weeks indicates

that an accident has happened in a nuclear facility in Russia or Kazakhstan in the last week of September, French nuclear safety institute IRSN said yesterday.

The IRSN ruled out an acci-dent in a nuclear reactor, saying it was likely to be in a nuclear fuel treatment site or centre for

radioactive medicine. There has been no impact on human health or the environment in Europe, the IRSN said.

IRSN, the technical arm of French nuclear regulator ASN, said in a statement it could not pinpoint the location of the release of radioactive material but that based on weather pat-terns, the most plausible zone lay south of the Ural mountains, between the Urals and the Volga river.

This could indicate Russia or possibly Kazakhstan, an

IRSN official said.“Russian authorities have

said they are not aware of an accident on their territory,” IRSN director Jean-Marc Peres said. He added that the insti-tute had not yet been in contact with Kazakh authorities.

A spokeswoman for the Russian Emergencies Ministry said she could not immediately comment.

It was not immediately pos-sible to reach authorities in Kazakhstan or the Kazakh embassy in Moscow.

Reject separatist ‘poison’: Juncker Madrid

Reuters

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker yesterday called on Europe to stand up against sep-aratism at a time when the Catalan independence

push has deeply divided Spain.The standoff between Madrid and supporters of Cata-

lan independence, triggered by a banned October 1 referendum splitting with Spain, has stirred separatist feel-ings far beyond Spanish borders.

“Nationalisms are a poison that prevent Europe from working together”, said Juncker in a speech at a university Spanish city of Salamanca, where he received an award.

“We cannot stay with our arms crossed because it is time for us to do what needs to be done. I say ‘no’ to any form of separatism that weakens Europe and further wid-ens the existing fissures.”

Juncker’s comments will further disappoint deposed Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, who went into self- imposed exile in Belgium last week after Spain’s central government responded to an independence declaration by firing his administration.

Puigdemont had ambitions to garner support for his independence campaign in the heart of the European Union and has appealed for EU intervention, which so far has not been forthcoming. The secessionist drive has dragged Spain into its worst political crisis since the return of democracy four decades ago.

The European Union is also currently facing a huge challenge to its unity in Britain’s impending exit from the bloc. The Spanish dispute also bears some similarities with the battle for Scottish separation, which culminated in a 2014 referendum that narrowly rejected independence.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was with Juncker in Salamanca, thanked him for his support “in such

difficult times.” “Juncker has supported the Spanish gov-ernment’s actions, has expressed his respect for our constitution, our laws and our legal system,” he told stu-dents and professors at the event.

Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borisov (left) and Jean Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, shake hands during a joint press conference following their meeting in Brussels.

Speaker: Independence declaration not legally binding Madrid

Reuters

The parliamentary speaker who enabled Catalonia’s declaration of independence said yesterday

the document was not legally bind-ing, sources said, in a comment that could undermine the region’s seces-sionist push.

Carme Forcadell, a vocal critic of the central government’s takeover of the region that the declaration trig-gered, made the remark in an appearance before Spain’s Supreme Court. She and five other lawmakers were answering charges of rebellion and sedition for their leading roles in the independence drive.

Court sources said they told the hearing that the October 27 declara-tion, which followed a referendum banned by Madrid, was not legally binding. The concession might also increase their chances of being con-ditionally released, which would enable them to campaign freely for regional elections on December 21.

The Catalan independence push has deeply divided Spain, dragging it into its worst political crisis since the return of democracy four decades ago and fuelling anti-Spanish sentiment in Catalonia and nationalist tenden-cies elsewhere. The Supreme Court, which handles cases against defend-ants with parliamentary immunity, will decide whether to remand her and

the other five legislators in custody while an investigation into the charges against them continues, or release them under certain conditions.

The same court decided yesterday to take over two other cases against Forcadell and the lawmakers currently overseen by the Catalan High Court, suggesting judges were looking to cen-tralise all legal proceedings involving the independence vote in one court.

The Spanish High Court is hear-ing a case against eight former members of the Catalan government and the leaders of the two main pro-independence grassroots groups, who are in custody awaiting trial on sedi-tion charges for their involvement in the referendum.

German nurse may have murdered over 100 patientsBerlin

AP

A nurse who is already serving a life sentence for two murders may

have killed more than 100 patients over several years at two hospitals in northwestern Germany, prosecutors said yesterday.

Investigators have com-p l e t e d t o x i c o l o g i c a l examinations on patients who died during Niels Hoegel’s time as a nurse in hospitals in Old-enburg and Delmenhorst, prosecutors and police in Old-enburg said.

They found a further 16 cases in which he is suspected.

In late August, they said they had determined that he might have killed at least another 84 patients beyond the ones for whose murder he is already serving time.

At the time, they said that they were awaiting toxicology results on another 41 fatalities, which have now been concluded.

Prosecutors reiterated in a statement that they expect to file additional charges against Hoegel early next year.

Additional convictions could affect Hoegel’s possibil-ity of parole, but there are no consecutive sentences in Germany.

Hoegel was convicted in

2015 of two murders and two attempted murders at a hospi-tal in Delmenhorst and was sentenced to life in prison.

During his trial, Hoegel had said he intentionally brought about cardiac crises in some 90 patients in Delmenhorst because he enjoyed the feeling of being able to resuscitate them.

He later told investigators that he also killed patients in Oldenburg.

Hoegel worked at the Old-enburg hospital from 1999 to 2002 and in Delmenhorst from 2003 to 2005.

Prosecutors said he is now suspected in 38 cases in Olden-burg and 62 in Delmenhorst, but that in five of those cases further examinations are needed. It isn’t clear when those will be concluded.

As part of a wider investi-gation involving both hospitals, police and prosecutors reviewed more than 500 patient files and hundreds more hospital records. They also exhumed 134 bodies from 67 cemeteries, and questioned Hoegel six times.

Police have said if local health officials hadn’t hesitated in alerting authorities, Hoegel could have been stopped earlier.

Authorities are already pur-suing criminal cases against former staff at the two medical facilities.

Row in Greece over two-day leave for extremist assassinATHENS: A political row erupted in Greece after a key far-left assassin implicated in deadly attacks on US, British, Turkish and Greek targets was given a two-day leave from prison.

Dimitris Koufontinas, 59, a senior member of the November 17 extremist group, was granted leave from Kory-dallos Prison for the first time in 15 years. Koufontinas, dubbed “Poison Hand” by Greek media and serving multiple life sentences, must report to a police station twice a day.

The former mathemati-cian and beekeeper emerged smiling from the top security prison, greeted a few friends and made no comments to journalists gathered outside.

The shadow November 17 group, named after an anti-junta student uprising, was behind the 1975 killing of the CIA’s Athens station chief Richard Welch, and claimed responsibility for assassinat-ing 23 people in scores of attacks on US, British, Turk-ish and Greek targets between the 1970s and 1990s.

US ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt condemned the leave approval, calling it an insult to the victims and their families. “I add my voice to those from across Greece’s political spectrum deploring prison council decision to release a convicted terrorist, murderer & N17 leader,” Pyatt said on Twitter.

11FRIDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2017 AMERICAS

Washington

AFP

The US state of Texas on Wednesday executed a Mex-ican convicted of murdering

his teen cousin, sparking condem-nation from President Enrique Pena Nieto and adding to tensions between the two countries.

Ruben Cardenas Ramirez, 47, received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 10:26pm (04:26 GMT yesterday) despite last-minute intervention by his lawyers and concerns raised by the United Nations.

“I will not and cannot apol-ogize for someone else’s crime, but, I will be back for justice!” Ramirez said in a written final statement. He was found guilty of the 1997 kidnap, rape and

murder of a 16-year-old cousin, Mayra Laguna.

In his statement, he thanked “every government official” who tried to assist him. The Mexican president expressed his “strong-est condemnation” of the execution on Twitter, saying it violated a ruling by the Interna-tional Court of Justice.

Mexico abolished the death penalty in 2005 and had asked the United States not to carry out the execution. The case came alongside tensions over Presi-dent Donald Trump’s plan to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it as part of his administration’s broader efforts to restrict the flow of immigrants and refugees.

Trump has also threatened to scrap a free trade pact

between the US, Mexico and Canada if renegotiation doesn’t work. One of Ramirez’s lawyers, Greg Kuykendall, had filed in vain a series of last-minute appeals, including to the US Supreme Court, in hopes of a stay of execution. Mexican officials insist that Cardenas was not promptly given access to an attorney or the consular assist-ance that is allowed under the 1963 Vienna Convention.

“For the government of Mex-ico this is not an issue about culpability or innocence, but about respect for human rights and due process,” said Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez, the Mexican consul gen-eral in the Texas capital Austin.

Since the start of the case Cardenas “was denied the right to due process of law, as he was not

granted prompt access to consu-lar assistance,” he wrote in an opinion piece in the Austin-Amer-ican Statesman newspaper.

UN human rights experts had also urged the US government not to carry out the execution. “The US government will have implemented a death penalty without complying with inter-national human rights standards,” wrote Agnes Cal-lamard and Elina Steinerte, two UN human rights experts.

“(Cardenas) did not have access to a lawyer for the first 11 days of his detention,” they said. “Some of the statements he made during this period were relied on by prosecutors during the trial.” Neither was Cardenas informed of his right to seek consular assistance, the experts said.

In 2004 the UN’s International Court of Justice found that the United States had “breached its obligations under international law by not notifying Mexican authorities about the arrest of 51 of its nationals,” including Carde-nas, “thus denying them the right to consular assistance from their government.”

Washington at the time rejected the court’s ruling. For the family of Laguna, the mur-dered high school sophomore, the execution of Ramirez brought “true peace,” her sister said in a statement.

Fifty-four Mexican nation-als have been condemned to death in the United States and another 75 are being prosecuted for crimes that could result in a death sentence.

Washington

Reuters

Rival Republican tax-cut plans were emerging in the US Congress yesterday that differed on issues

such as cutting the corporate income tax, the deduction for state and local taxes and the tax on inheritances paid by the rich-est Americans.

As the House of Represent-atives’ tax committee put the finishing touches on its bill, momentum behind a Republi-can push for the biggest US tax-code overhaul in decades was shifting to the Senate, where a separate proposal was set to be unveiled.

President Donald Trump, who took office in January and is still looking for a major legis-lative success, has made tax cuts a top objective, and congres-sional Republicans are aiming to pass the legislation by the end of the year.

The Senate plan, like the House version, would cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, but would delay this by one year until 2019, said Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a member of the tax-writing Finance Committee.

Cassidy added that a repeal of the requirement under the Afford-able Care Act, or Obamacare, that individual Americans obtain health insurance will not be

included in the Senate plan being unveiled on Thursday.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said he would like to get rid of this so-called individual man-date, which is a key part of the healthcare law that Republicans have tried but failed to repeal, “any way I can.” There were dis-cussions about whether to include the provision in the House tax proposal, he said.

The Senate plan was expected to add less to the fed-eral deficit and to be more appealing to moderate Republi-cans in that chamber, setting up the possibility that it, not the House plan, could become the version most likely to be passed ultimately by Congress, said ana-lysts and lobbyists.

Wins by Democrats in state and local elections in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere on Tuesday increased the urgency for Republicans, who control both the White House and Con-gress, to make good on their campaign promises on taxes.

“We’re going to get this over the finish line,” Ryan said. The House bill would repeal a deduc-tion on federal income tax that Americans can now take for state and local income and sales taxes, but preserve the deduction for business owners. It would cap the deduction for state and local property tax paid at $10,000.

The Senate plan was expected to repeal the state and local tax (SALT) deduction entirely, said analyst Henrietta Treyz of Veda Partners LLC. Either way, curtailing the SALT provision would hit taxpayers hardest in high-tax, typically Democratic-leaning states such as California, New York and New Jersey. Lawmakers are looking at measures such as this to offset the revenue losses that would result from tax cuts. Treyz also said the estate tax on inheritances — affecting only the wealthiest taxpayers - would be maintained by the Senate, not repealed grad-ually as the House proposes.

The Senate plan would close

a loophole that allows private equity fund managers and other wealthy Wall Street financiers to pay the capital gains tax rate on their “carried interest” income, instead of the higher wage income rate, she said.

Republicans will need to pre-vent defections in their own ranks to get legislation approved given that Democrats are so far united in opposition, blasting the Repub-lican proposals as giveaways to large corporations and the rich.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said repeal of the SALT deduction and other pro-visions would hurt middle and upper-middle class Americans.

“Passing this plan won’t help Republicans climb out of the hole they are in, it will bury them deeper ... this bill could be your political doom,” he said on the floor of the Senate, where Republicans will need to be especially tightly united given their slim 52-48 majority.

The SALT issue could be piv-otal. There are enough

Republicans from higher-tax states in the House to torpedo the tax bill. In the Senate, Republicans may also need support from Dem-ocrats to pass their version.

Ryan indicated that the House will not simply pass what-ever the Senate approves in order to get the bill to Trump, saying a House-Senate confer-ence committee will have to work out differences between the two versions. The resulting compromise would need to be passed by both chambers before going to Trump to sign into law.

White House economic adviser Gary Cohn defended the Republican tax agenda as a model for trickle-down eco-nomic growth, saying it was aimed at boosting wages.

“We create wage inflation, which means the workers get paid more, the workers have more disposable income, the workers spend more. And we see the whole trickle-down through the economy, and that’s good for the economy,” Cohn told CNBC.

Rival Republican tax-cut plans emerging in US Congress

Mexico condemns Texas execution of its citizen

Washington

Reuters

Most Americans oppose the use of a lottery sys-tem for giving

immigrants permanent US res-idence, but a majority support allowing immigrants to obtain green cards through sponsorship by US employers, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.

The poll, released yester-day, found that only 25 percent of Americans support allowing immigrants to obtain U.S. green cards or permanent resident status through a lottery system, while 60 percent oppose it.

The green card lottery, also called the “diversity visa” pro-gram, aims to diversify the U.S. immigrant population by allot-ting 50,000 immigrant visas each year to citizens of coun-tries that do not send many people to the United States.

The program has long been criticized by immigration hard-liners in Congress, and came under renewed attack by Trump and some Republicans after Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbek national who came to the United States on a diversity visa in 2010, was charged in an attack last week in New York City that killed eight people.

Trump has urged Congress to kill the diversity visa lottery, which has drawn fire for being vulnerable to fraud and for pos-ing national security risks. A 2013 bipartisan effort to reform immigration would have done away with the program, but was

killed by the Republican-led House. The recipients of the visas are chosen randomly by lottery, though they have to go through standard security checks before they are granted permission to enter the United States.

Seventy percent of all adults support allowing foreign spouses of U.S. citizens to obtain green cards, and 61 percent support allowing immigrants to obtain permanent resident status through their work for U.S. businesses.

Though 60 percent of all adults said they opposed allow-ing immigrants to obtain green cards through a lottery, a smaller percentage, just over half, said they would support a proposal to end the program.

The Trump administration has targeted both legal and ille-gal immigration. An April executive order by Trump called for reforming the pro-gram awarding H-1B visas for skilled workers, and the admin-istration has challenged applications for the visas more often than at nearly any point in the Obama era.

Chrystal Wilkins, 54, said she disagreed with ending the green card lottery. Wilkins, a Democrat, is married to a Sen-egalese immigrant who is now a US citizen. Her husband did not come through the visa lot-tery but has a friend who did, she said. The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in Eng-lish throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 1,278 adults.

Washington

Anatolia

The US yesterday continued to tighten economic penal-ties on Venezuela,

sanctioning 10 current and former government officials for what it called efforts to suppress the pop-ular will in the country.

The blacklisted individuals are involved in “undermining electoral processes, media cen-sorship, or corruption in government-administered food programs”, the Treasury Depart-ment said in a statement.

They include Sandra Oblitas Ruzza, the vice president of Ven-ezuela’s National Electoral Council; Elvis Eduardo Hidrobo Amoroso, the Second Vice Pres-ident of Venezuela’s Constituent

Assembly; and Venezuelan envoy Julian Isaias Rodriguez Diaz, who the Treasury listed as the former vice president of the assembly. The head of the country’s National Telephone Company, Manuel Angel Fernandez Melendez, was also blacklisted.

“We will maintain our vig-orous efforts to sanction Venezuelan government offi-cials who are complicit in Maduro’s attempts to undermine democracy, violate human rights, inhibit the freedom of expression or peaceful assem-bly, or engage in public corruption, unless they break from [President Nicolas] Madu-ro’s dictatorial regime,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said.

All of the assets held by the blacklisted individuals subject

to U.S. jurisdiction have been frozen as a result of the new designations. Americans are also prohibited from doing business with them.

They are the fifth round of US sanctions this year as Presi-dent Donald Trump seeks to ramp up pressure on Maduro and his government.

Maduro was sanctioned in late July ahead of the election of a national assembly with the power to rewrite the country’s Constitution. The US has warned the assembly is an effort to undermine Venezuela’s democracy.

The unusual move to sanc-tion a head of state was later followed by a series of sanctions aimed at piling up pressure on Maduro’s inner circle.

Poll: Most Americans oppose visa lottery

President of the Venezuelan opposition-controlled parliament Julio Borges (centre), speaks during a press conference in Caracas, yesterday.

US sanctions 10 Venezuelan officials

Buenos Aires

AFP

Former Argentine presi-dent Cristina Kirchner yesterday rejected

charges she engaged in money laundering.

Kirchner, who won a seat in the Senate last month that protects her from going to prison if convicted, submit-ted a written request to Judge Julian Ercolini asking that the case be dismissed.

The leftist former presi-dent faces money-laundering and bribery charges in the so-called Hotesur case, named after a Kirchner family hotel business in Patagonia, the suspected source of the alleg-edly laundered funds.

“There are at least seven firm judicial decisions which, after analyzing the same acts, have ruled out the existence of any type of illicit activity,” Kirchner wrote.

Saying she wanted to avoid a “media show,” Kirch-ner asked her supporters not to gather outside the court-house as they have several times in the past. She arrived at the courthouse in Buenos Aires some 90 minutes before the start of the hearing to deliver her letter but declined to respond to reporters’ ques-tions. Kirchner’s children, Maximo, 40 and Florencia, 27, have been summoned to tes-tify in the same case next week. On Twitter, she described the case as a “new chapter of judicial persecu-tion order” by President Mauricio Macri, who suc-ceeded Kirchner in 2015.

In her letter to the court, she said she was “aware that the explanations provided will not even be considered and that the fate of this instruction has already been decided a long time ago.”

Several prominent mem-bers of her former government have been detained on corrup-tion charges in recent weeks, including ex-public works minister Julio De Vido and Amado Boudou, Kirchner’s vice-president from 2011-2015. Kirchner won a seat in the Senate for Buenos Aires prov-ince in last month’s legislative elections. She takes up her seat on December 10.

In Argentina, parliamen-tary immunity protects against arrest but does not prevent judicial cases from going ahead.

Former Argentina president rejects charges of money laundering

President Donald Trump, who took office in January and is still looking for a major legislative success, has made tax cuts a top objective, and congressional Republicans are aiming to pass the legislation by the end of the year.

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AL KHOR

Yesterday's answer

Murder On The Orient Express (2D/Crime) 10:30, 11:00, 11:30am, 1:00, 2:00, 3:30, 4:15, 4:30, 6:00, 7:00, 8:30, 9:00, 9:30, 11:00pm & 12:00midnightThor: Ragnarok (2D/Action) 10:10, 10:30am, 12:45, 1:00, 1:30, 3:30, 6:00, 6:15, 6:45, 8:30, 9:00, 11:00, 11:30 & 11:45pmBoo: 2 A Madea (2D/Horror) 10:15am, 2:30, 6:45 & 11:00pm Jigsaw (2D/Horror) 12:30, 4:45 & 9:00pmThe Giant King (2D/Animation) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00&6:00pmAn Ordinary Man (2D/Thriller) 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnightDarkness Rising (2D/Horror) 10:00am, 2:00, 6:00 & 10:00pm Escape Room (2D/Thriller) 12:00noon, 4:00, 8:00pm & 12:00midnightThe Battleship Island (2D/Action) 10:15am, 3:15 & 8:15pmThank You For Your Service (2D/Drama) 1:00, 6:00 & 11:00pmThor: Ragnarok(3DIMAX/Action)10:40am, 1:20, 4:00, 6:40, 9:20&12:00midnight

Qarib Qarib Singlle (2D/Hindi) 2:00 & 11:30pm Sherlock Toms (2D/Malayalam) 2:30pm C/O Surya (Telugu) 2:30pmThe Giant King (2D/Animation) 4:15pmThank You For Your Service (2D/Drama) 5:00 & 9:30pmEscape Room (2D/Thriller) 6:00pm Seven Sundays (2D/Tagalog) 7:15pmMurder On The Orient Express (2D/Crime) 7:30pmThor: Ragnarok (2D/Action) 7:45pm Omar El Azrak (Arabic) 9:30pmDarkness Rising (2D/Horror) 10:00pm Aramm (2D/Tamil) 11:30pm The Battleship Island (2D/Action) 11:30pm

C/O Surya (Telugu) 2:15pm The Giant King (2D/Animation) 2:15 & 3:45pm Sherlock Toms 2:15 & 9:00pm Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana (2D/Hindi) 4:45pm Escape Room (2D/Thriller) 6:15pm An Ordinary Man 4:30pm Thor: Ragnarok (2D/Action) 5:30 & 9:15pm Murder On The Orient Express (2D/Crime) 7:45 & 11:45pm The Battleship Island (2D/Action) 11:30pm Thank You For Your Service (2D/Drama) 9:45pm Darkness Rising (2D/Horror) 7:45pm Ippadai Vellum (2D/Tamil) 11:30pm

The Giant King (2D/Animation) 2:15 & 4:00pm Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana (2D/Hindi) 2:30 & 5:00pmSherlock Toms (2D/Malayalam) 3:00pm Escape Room (2D/Thriller) 6:00pm Seven Sundays (2D/Tagalog) 5:30pm An Ordinary Man 7:45pm Thank You For Your Service (2D/Drama) 9:30pm Murder On The Orient Express (2D/Crime) 7:15pm Thor: Ragnarok (2D/Action) 7:45pm Ippadai Vellum (2D/Tamil) 11:30pm Darkness Rising (2D/Horror) 10:00pm On The Wings of Eagle 11:30pm The Battleship Island (2D/Action) 9:15pm Secret Superstar 11:30pm

Aramm (Tamil) 12:30, 5:30 & 10:30pm Ippadi Vellum (Tamil) 3:00, 8:00pm & 01:00am Villain 1:00, 3:45, 9:00pm & 01:00am C/O Surya 6:30pm Sherlock Toms 1:00, 3:45, 6:30, 9:15pm, 12:00midnight Qarib Qarib Singlle 12:30 & 5:30pm Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana 3:00 & 8:00pm Ramaleela 10:30pm

Thor Ragnarok 10:30am, 12:30, 3:30, 6:00, 8:45 & 11:30pm Villain 10:30am Murder On The Orient Express 1:15, 6:30 & 11:45pm Ippdai Vellum 3:45pm Aramm 9:00pm Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana 3:15 & 8:45pm Qarib Qarib Singlle 1:00, 6:15 & 11:30pm

The Giant King (2D/Animation) 12:00noon, 2:00 & 4:00pm Escape Room 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00 & 8:00pm Murder On The Orient Express 12:00noon, 2:30, 5:00, 7:30 & 10:00pm Sherlock Toms 12:00noon, 3:00, 6:00, 9:00 & 11:55pm Thor Ragnarok 12:20, 6:00, 8:40 & 11:20pm Aramm (Tamil) 9:00pm

16 FRIDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2017HOME

FAJRSHOROOK

04.28am

05.47 am

ZUHRASR

11.18 am

02.26 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

04.50 pm

06.20 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 09:45 – 22:00 LOW TIDE 01:45 – 18:00

Hazy at first, becomes mild

temperature daytime with scattered

clouds.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

25oC 34oC

The Peninsula

A highly-charged epi-sode of Stars of Science saw one more

hopeful innovator exit the competition this week. Audi-ences witnessed pharmacy student Hassina Bacha, who vowed to help improve the lives of children through her ‘Automated Eye Testing Spectacles’, bow out. Hassi-na’s exit makes way for Meshal Alshahrani and Was-sim El Hariri, who both passed the test with flying colours.

In the coming two epi-sodes, the remaining six innovators will enter a cru-cial phase of the Qatar Foundation initiative, when their prototypes are tested and judged by a group of potential customers.

Meshal breezed through the jury’s questions about his ‘Haj Navigation Bracelet’. His innovation uses Bluetooth and GPS technology to ensure pilgrims can find their way around Makkah. “The Haj is not only the fifth pillar of

Islam, it also brings pilgrims from all over the world together,” he said. “The different languages, ethnicities, and cultures truly reflect the universal nature of the religion. My device aims to accommodate this unique spiritual expe-rience in the most sacred city in Islam.”

P e r s u a s i v e , patient, and keen to succeed, Wassim ticked all the boxes and more, explaining his ‘Hospital Patient Food Delivery Robot’ to the jury. The practical droid automat-ically delivers meals to patients in hospital beds using advanced robotics technology. “My innovation will save hospital staff tre-mendous energy and time. They can dedicate this pre-cious time to improving the health and well-being of patients, giving the best treat-ments and service possible,” he said.

From an initial nine

young Arab innovators deter-mined to win this season’s Stars of Science at the start of the prototyping rounds, only six remain.

Airing this weekend, six of the Arab world’s finest innovators will allow their inventions to be tested by potential users during the first of two customer valida-tion rounds. Jurors will evaluate them in part based on the assessment of the cus-tomers . Af ter this

nerve-wracking and exciting stage, four will make it to the final and have a shot at win-ning a share of $600,000 in seed funding for their idea.

Tune in for the first cus-tomer validation round on November 10 and 11 to find out if your favourite inno-vator makes it to the final on this season’s Stars of Sci-ence. For a full broadcast guide or to catch up on epi-s o d e s v i s i t w w w .starsofscience.com

Venus will be approaching Jupiter over Qatar sky

Next Monday, two plan-ets of our solar system planets will be

approaching on dawn sky; where giant planet “Jupiter” will be at less than half degree southern third brightest lumi-nary “Venus”. Qatar Calendar House (QCH) announced.

This phenomenon will be appearing over Qatar and all Arabic area region skies. Qatar Residents will be see-ing and observing Jupiter very close to Venus over eastern horizon of Qatar sky during dawn time of Monday from time rise of Jupiter until before sunrise time; where Jupiter will be rise over Doha sky at 4:48 Am, while sunrise time will be at 5:49 Am Doha local time. Astronomer expert Dr Beshir Marzouk said.

This astronomical phe-nomenon is very important because it’s good chance to can seeing and observing Jupiter &Venus very close by naked eyes, moreover, it’s guide for amateur astronomers to know map of sky and validates astro-nomical calculations.

As known, Jupiter is fifth planet far from the Sun, and largest planet in our Solar System, moreover it’s sur-rounded by more than 69 moons, while the four largest moons discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610: Europa, Cal-listo, Ganymede and Io.

On the other side, Astron-omers called Venus is morning and evening star, where it is the first luminary can see after sunset when it’s over western horizon, and it’s the last luminary can see before sunrise when it’s over eastern horizon, moreover, Venus is the brightest plant of our solar system planets.

6 innovators reach Stars of Science semis

Fazeena Saleem The Peninsula

With the winter camp-ing season starting, Hamad Medical Cor-poration (HMC) yesterday officially

opened its eighth annual Sealine Med-ical Clinic, to provide specifically emergency medical services for the people visiting the area.

The clinic operated during the weekend is equipped with medical equipment and medication to treat simple injuries and emergency cases, while critical trauma cases will be referred to hospital by ambulance or LifeFlight helicopters. It is staffed with a physician and two nurses 24 hours a day. The Ambulance Service ensures 24-hour coverage of the area by pro-viding ambulances and paramedics throughout.

A helipad is been built next to the clinic to facilitate transportation of seriously injured patients to hospital on helicopters, called LifeFlight. Also an additional three helipads are built in the Inland Sea area.

“We will receive patients with minor health concerns, as well as emergency cases. The main aim of this clinic is to provide first aid or in critical cases to stabilize the patient before transferring to a hospital for further treatment,” Dr Hamid

Ghareeb, Consultant at HMC’s Medi-cal Administration Department and Medical Supervisor of the Sealine Med-ical Clinic, told The Peninsula.

“The clinic will operate every weekend during the camping season, starting from Thursday at 3pm and remain open until 5pm on Sunday. It will be available for approximately 25 weeks until the end of April,” he added.

In addition to its regular round-the-clock emergency coverage in the Sealine area, the Ambulance Service has added two ambulances and two 4x4 emergency vehicles which will be permanently stationed in the area. Ali Darwish, Assistant Executive Director of the Ambulance Service said the Ambulance Service is ready to trans-port emergency cases from the sand dune area to the clinic or to the heli-copter landing area, as required. During weekends, the number of ambulances onsite will be increased.

“Every year we cover the Sealine area during the camping season start-ing from the bridge of the Mesaieed city until the last point of the Inland Sea with our regular ambulances, 4x4 emergency vehicles and the life flight. This year we are creating three more helipads for landing inside Inland Sea in order to airlift patients from the area easily. Soon we will display signs indi-cating the life flight ambulance service landing sites and requesting people to keep a distance,” said Ali Darwish.

He also said that on Fridays the number of regular ambulances will be increased from eight to 12 and 4x4 emergency vehicles from three to five, as its considered the peak time that accidents and other medical emergen-cies occur in the area. This is the eighth consecutive year that the HMC is oper-ating the clinic, which began receiving patients last weekend.

The ceremony to officially open the clinic was attended by Ali Abdullah Al Khater, Chief Communications Officer at HMC and Chair of the Healthcare

Communications Committee, and Saleh Hasan Al Kuwari, Director of the Nat-ural Reserve Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment. A number of senior leaders and admin-istrators from HMC attended the event.

Al Khater, who is also Project Man-ager for the Sealine Medical Center, said HMC operates the clinic in the Sealine area each year to ensure med-ical services, and specifically emergency medical services, are available for residents during the busy camping season.

Stars of Science innovator Hassina Bacha and her ‘Children’s Automated Eye Testing Spectacles’ invention.

Wassim El Hariri presents his ‘Hospital Patient Food Delivery Robot’ to the Stars of Science jury.

Meshal Alshahrani pitching his innovation, ’Haj Navigation Bracelet’, on Stars of Science.

HMC opens annual Sealine Medical Clinic

Ali Darwish, Assistant Executive Director, Ambulance Services HMC, during the official opening of Sealine Medical Clinic, located in the Sealine area, yesterday. Pics: Qassim Rahmatullah / The Peninsula