habib qassem salman al khalifa, the late amir. risky romance · cence to palmex, a professional...

UAE crypto firm wins CBB’s regulatory sandbox licence

• A regulatory sandbox is a framework and process that facilitates the development of the financial technology (fintech) industry in a safe and calculated way.

TDT|Manama

The Central Bank of Bah-rain (CBB) has granted a regulatory sandbox li-

cence to Palmex, a professional digital asset exchange powered by ArabianChain Technology.

The move, effective July 15, according to the Dubai-based

blockchain startup, also makes it the first and only cryptocurrency exchange in the Middle East and North Africa to receive a regulatory sandbox licence.

A regulatory sandbox is a framework and process that facilitates the development of the financial technology (fintech) industry in a safe and calculated way.

Commenting on the mile-stone, ArabianChain founder and CEO Mohammed Alse-hli said: “ArabianChain will start with a limited number of select users to test and op-timise the process and then expand to the rest.”

Whilst in the regulatory

sandbox, companies are re-quired to adhere to CBB regu-lations including Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Fi-nancing of Terrorism, as well as follow appropriate disclosure, protection and compensation requirements related to their customers.

Alsehli added: “The wild fluc-tuations and phenomenal surge in valuation of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have continued to drive exponential growth in de-mand to trade and issue digital assets. The region has been ea-gerly waiting for a regulator-ap-proved platform that makes it possible for them to buy and sell in a secure environment.”

02Diversification key for growth

03Tobacco tax revenue up by 74pc

05‘Allergic reaction not cause of girl’s death’

10

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ArabianChain will start with a limited number

of select users to test and optimize the process and then expand to

the rest. ALSEHLI

Sandbox provides a virtual space for companies to test their technology-

based innovative solutions, and is open to

existing CBB licensees and other local and foreign

firms. The testing duration is nine months, with a maximum extension of

three months.

KNOW

DID

Ex-minister Habib Qassem passes away TDT|Manama

Habib Ahmed Qassem, former Minister of Commerce and Agricul-

ture, and one of the most prom-inent businessmen in Bahrain passed away yesterday.

One of the highly successful businessmen in the Kingdom, Habib Qassem started his career as an English language teacher at the Ministry of Education.

He later discovered his pen-chant for business and contrib-uted towards the establishment of many leading companies in-

cluding Al Mahd Investment Company, Bahrain Steel Mixing Company, Bahrain Electricity Supply and Distribution Compa-ny, Capital Growth Management Company and Quality Wire Products Company.

He was Chairman of the Al Mahd School. The Minister of Commerce and Agriculture from 1976 to 1995, he also served as a member of the Advisory Body of the Supreme Council of the Cooperation Council for the Arab Gulf States from 1997 to 2007.

A file picture shows Habib Qassem receiving a honour from HH Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the late Amir. Habib Qassem

Risky romanceTrump-Kim summit ends with promise, light on substance

• The joint statement said Trump “committed to provide security guarantees” to North Korea.

• Kim said after the summit he and Trump had “decided to leave the past behind”.

Singapore

US President Donald Trump made a stunning concession to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un yes-

terday about halting military exercises, pulling a surprise at a summit that baf-fled allies, military officials and lawmak-ers from his own Republican Party.

At a news conference after the historic meeting with Kim in Singapore, Trump announced he would halt what he called “very provocative” and expensive regular military exercises that the United States holds with South Korea.

That was sure to rattle close allies

South Korea and Japan. North Korea has long sought an end to the war games.

The two leaders promised in a joint statement after their meeting to work toward the “denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula, and the United States promised its Cold War foe security guar-antees. But they offered few specifics.

The summit, the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader, was in stark contrast to a flurry of North Korean nuclear and missile tests and angry exchanges of insults between Trump and Kim last year that fueled worries about war.

Noting past North Korean promises to denuclearise, many analysts cast doubt

on how effective Trump had been at obtaining Washington’s pre-summit goal of getting North Korea to undertake com-plete, verifiable and irreversible steps to scrap a nuclear arsenal that is advanced enough to threaten the United States.

Critics at home said the US president had given away too much at a meeting that gave international standing to Kim. The North Korean leader is deeply isolat-ed, his country accused by rights groups of widespread human rights abuses and under UN sanctions for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

If implemented, the halting of the joint military exercises would be one of the most controversial moves to come from the summit. The drills help keep US forc-es at a state of readiness in one of the world’s most tense flashpoints.

“We will be stopping the war games which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the fu-ture negotiation is not going along like it should. But we’ll be saving a tremendous amount of money, plus I think it’s very provocative,” Trump said.

His announcement was a surprise even to President Moon.

Trump meets Kim Jong-un in a carefully choreographed encounter in Singapore yesterday.

Blocs announce alliance in Iraq Baghdad

Nationalist cleric Mo-qtada Al Sadr and Ira-

nian-backed militia chief Hadi Al Amiri, who won first and second place re-spectively in Iraq’s May parliamentary election, an-nounced yesterday an alli-ance between their political blocs.

The announcement came at a joint press conference in the Shiite holy city of Na-jaf, state television said.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said he opposed any repeat of the May 12 parliamentary election, and warned that anyone who tried to sabo-tage the political process would be punished, after al-legations of electoral fraud raised tensions.

Greece-Macedonia name row ends Athens

Greece has reached a deal on the name of its

northern neighbour, which called itself Macedonia at the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

After 27 years of talks - and many protests - they have settled on the name Republic of North Macedo-nia, or Severna Makedonija in Macedonian.

Greece had objected to the name Macedonia, fear-ing territorial claims on its eponymous northern re-gion.

It had vetoed the neigh-bour’s bid to join Nato and the European Union.

The new name will now need to be approved by the Macedonian people and Greek parliament.

02WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2018

Diversification key for growth

HRH the Premier receives Newsweek journalists

• Tackling the latest regional and global developments, HRH the Premier said that the world is living in an era of great blocs, which requires strengthening the international community’s ability to face threats.

Manama

The Kingdom aims to diversify its revenue channels for the overall economic growth, said

HRH the Premier yesterday. His Royal Highness Prime Minister

Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa was receiving a delegation from the

US Newsweek magazine when he made the remark.

The delegation conducted a compre-

hensive interview with HRH Premier on the kingdom’s achievements in various fields, as well as on his visions towards

the challenges to the region and the world.

HRH the Premier stressed the depth of the extensive contacts between Bahrain and the US on various de-velopment fields, lauding the steady progress of bilateral relations which, he said, embodies the two friendly countries’ shared desire to constantly bolster their cooperation to achieve their common interests.

The Prime Minister asserted that under the leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the kingdom had launched a develop-ment approach based on a strategy aimed at attaining maximum eco-nomic growth.

HRH the Premier highlighted the

government’s keenness to develop and support everything that would consol-idate the kingdom’s economic standing and competitive potentials, noting that Bahrain is witnessing rapid changes leading to sustainable growth in vari-ous fields.

While referring to the kingdom’s

development efforts which entitled it to rank high in international eco-nomic indicators, the Prime Minister said that Bahrain has a distinguished experience in human and sustaina-ble development, and is resolved to continue its march to attain more achievements.

Tackling the latest regional and glob-al developments, HRH the Premier said that the world is living in an era of great blocs, which requires strengthening the international community’s ability to face threats and challenges that are difficult to be faced unilaterally.

“The settlement of international con-flicts of any kind can only be achieved through dialogue and negotiations, and this is a necessary condition for peace and stability to prevail in the world, and for everyone enjoys their benefits,” HRH Premier said.

Newsweek will issue a special report on Bahrain, the first of its kind about a country in the Middle East region throughout the magazine’s 80-year

history.

KNOW

DID

The settlement of international conflicts of any

kind can only be achieved through dialogue and

negotiations, and this is a necessary condition

for peace. HRH THE PREMIER

Call to maintain national unity Manama

His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa

has lauded unity characterising the Bahraini community, de-scribing it as a source of pride in facing challenges to the national march and development.

HRH the Premier was speaking as he received members of the royal family and senior officials at Gudaibiya Palace yesterday.

He paid tribute to the Bah-raini people for their patriotic stances throughout their nation-al march, stressing that those stances will remain carved in the national memory.

He also praised the pioneering

role of the Bahraini people in fast-tracking development, af-firming the importance of foster-ing constructive communication

between all social components to bolster unity and dedication.

HRH the Prime Minister as-serted that the door is open for

every national development ef-fort, pointing out the govern-ment’s keenness on optimising services for citizens.

HRH the Premier receives Royal family members and senior officials.

Crown Prince offered condolences Manama

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa,

the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister yesterday received condolenc-es from members of the royal family, Chairman of the Shura Council, senior officials, dip-lomats, community leaders, and citizens at Riffa Palace following the sad passing of Her Highness Shaikha Hala bint Duaij Al Khalifa.

The Crown Prince also re-ceived Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, who of-fered his condolences.

HRH the Crown Prince ex-pressed his gratitude to all those who paid their respects and offered condolences.

Separately, HH Shaikh Isa bin Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and HH Shaikh Mo-hammed bin Salman Al Khal-ifa yesterday received Shaikh Fahad Nasser Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah at Riffa Pal-ace.

Shaikh Fahad extend -ed condolences to HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, HRH Prince Khalifa bin Sal-man Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister, HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Su-preme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, HE Shaikh Khalifa bin Duaij Al Khalifa, President of the Court of the Crown Prince, HE Shaikh Salman bin Duaij Al Khalifa and to the Royal Family following the sad de-mise of HH Shaikha Hala.

Deputy Premier Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa received the outgoing German Ambassador to Bahrain Alfred Simms-Protz. Shaikh Mohammed lauded the ambassador’s role in bolstering bilateral relations of friendship and cooperation, wishing him every success in his future duties.

US Ambassador to Bahrain Justin Siberell yesterday visited the Expat Protection and Assistance Centre in Sehla, where he was received by CEO of Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) and Chairman of the National Committee to Combat Trafficking in Persons (NCCTP) Ausamah Al Absi. Mr Siberell offered his country’s support to the Kingdom to combat human trafficking.

Delegations from UAE, Kuwait offer condolences Manama

Her Highness Shaikha Shamma bint Zayed Al Nahyan, Her High-

ness Shaikha Shamma bint Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahy-an, Her Highness Shaikha Maryam bint Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Her Highness Shaikha Shamsa bint Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan yesterday arrived from the United Arab Emir-ates.

Their Highnesses extend-ed condolences to HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Min-ister, HRH Princess Sabeeka bint Ebrahim Al Khalifa, wife of HM the King and Presi-dent of the Supreme Council for Women, and to the Royal

Family on the passing of the HH Shaikha Hala bint Daij Al Khalifa.

Shaikha Hessa Subah Al Sa-lem Al Sabah, Shaikha Amal Subah Al Salem Al Saban and Shaikha Futooh Nasser Subah Al Ahmed Al Subah yester-day arrived from the State of Kuwait.

Shaikha Hessa, Shaikha Amal and Shaikha Futooh extended condolences to HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, HRH Prince Sal-man bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, HRH Princess Sabeeka bint Ebrahim Al Khalifa, wife of HM the King and President of the Supreme Council for Women, and to the Royal Family on the passing of the HH Shaikha Hala bint Daij Al Khalifa.

03

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• According to studies by the World Health Organisation (WHO), a 10pc rise in the price of tobacco will lead to 8pc reduction in the number of smokers.

TDT|Manama Abbas Al Muganni

The Kingdom’s tax revenue from tobacco saw an in-crease of 74 per cent last

year when compared to 2016. Finance Ministry data reveals that the Government earned $76 million in 2017 against $44m in 2016.

Economists and financial ex-perts say the tax revenue will rise to record levels in 2018 as the Government introduced sin (selective) tax early this year.

Speaking to Tribune, Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry member Ahmed Al Sal-loum said, “In 2017, the Gov-ernment was levying two taxes on tobacco. A special tax other than the normal tax was in place. The special tax was based on the purchase bill from the exporting country.

“In 2018 this special tax was replaced with 100 per cent se-lective tax. The difference is very simple. Special tax is on based on the money spent by the trader to buy a product from a foreign country, whereas selec-tive tax is based on the selling price in the local market. Nat-urally, the selective tax would bring in more revenues for the Government.”

Meanwhile, it is alleged that many tobacco traders in the Kingdom are looting their cus-tomers by charging exorbitantly high prices. Taha Al Hamer, a

resident of Al Dair village in Muharraq, said, “The price of

Omani tobacco is BD12 per kilo, but many traders are selling it for BD20 taking advantage of less stocks in the market.”

A owner of a pipe-selling shop, who doesn’t want to be identi-fied, said, “Some traders have huge quantities, in fact thou-sands of tonnes, stocked in their stores in Bahrain, but they are waiting for new quantities to enter, so they could sell the old stock at new prices.”

“Some traders have stocks for next two years. Think of the money they are going to make by selling old stocks for new price.”

Bahrain increased the import

duty levied on tobacco from 100 per cent to 200pc in the begin-ning of 2016 as part of efforts to boost State revenues as well as in efforts to plug a substantial budget deficit.

According to studies by the World Health Organisation (WHO), a 10pc rise in the price of tobacco will lead to 8pc re-duction in the number of smok-ers. The Ministry of Health has been pushing the Government to keep on increasing the taxes to reduce the number of smok-ers in the Kingdom in line with WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Bahrain joined the framework in 2007.

His Majesty issued a decree in 2009 against

smoking and use of tobacco products. In the same year a

National Committee for Combatting Smoking

and Tobacco of All Kindswas constituted.

KNOW

DID

Traders accused of selling old stocks for new price

Tobacco tax revenue

up by 74pc

In 2017, the Government was

levying two taxes on tobacco. A special tax other than the normal tax was in place. The special tax was based on the purchase bill

from the exporting country.

MR AL SALLOUM


TDT|Manama Muhannad Mansour

Three ministers attended the last weekly session of the Council of Representatives

during the Holy Month of Ramadan yesterday to personally reply to MPs’ queries.

The ministers were Industry, Com-merce and Tourism Minister Zayid Al Zayani, Housing Minister Bassim Alhamer and Electricity and Water Affairs Minister Dr AbdulHussain Mirza.

Mr Al Zayani was present to dis-cuss his reply to the queries of MP Ahmed Qarata on the fees imposed by the ministry on commercial, in-dustrial and tourism activities since 2012, in addition to the questions of MP Adel Hameed on the complaints recently received by the Consumer Protection Directorate in the min-istry.

As for Dr Mirza, he replied to the queries submitted by MPs Dr Majeed Al Asfoor and Mohammed Al Amma-di on the ministry’s strategies to pro-mote renewable energy consumption

and preserving and rationalising the consumption of electricity.

On his part, Mr Alhamer briefed the MPs on the numbers of requests for housing units submitted by citi-zens and the list of pending housing requests.

The session was chaired by the council’s Speaker Ahmed Al Mulla. It was later chaired by the First Deputy Speaker Ali Al Aradi and MP Adel Hameed for almost an hour, before Mr Al Mulla returned to his position.

The parliamentarians passed, re-jected and decided to withdraw a

number of legislations and proposed laws and amendments during the session. This included passing a pro-posed amendment with regards to referring the public budget to the Legislative Authority for studying and approval. The MPs rejected a bill to criminalise the acts of luring or inciting minors to abuse narcotic drugs. They also voted for withdraw-ing several proposals, such as draft laws to amend the public security forces Law, the military retirement law and the pensions law of public sector employees.

Ministers attend session, offer replies to lawmakers’ queries

Minister Al Zayani

Minister Alhamer

Dr Mirza speaks at the session.

Language barriers hindering legislative process, complain MPs

TDT|ManamaMuhannad Mansour

A couple of lawmakers yesterday blamed language barriers for de-laying the approval and studying

of legislations referred to the Council of Representatives.

This was mentioned by MPs Adel Al Assoomy and Ali Al Ateesh during the council’s weekly regular session, while a discussion was ongoing with regard to amending some provisions of a treaty signed between Bahrain and the Phil-ippines last year. Both MPs sparked a heated debate while the council debated the amendment of a draft protocol on the agreement on regulating air transport services between both countries.

The MPs criticised the Government and accused it of disregarding the council’s repeated requests to translate the agree-ment and the proposed amendment.

Additionally, they justified their rejec-tion to the modification of the agreement

because they didn’t understand it.Mr Al Assoomy chairs the council’s

Public Utilities and Environment Com-mittee, which rejected the government’s request to ratify the amended version of the agreement. He said the committee’s reviewing of the agreement was hindered because of the unavailability of an Arabic version of the text.

“We have requested the Foreign Affairs Ministry twice to provide us with the Arabic translation of the agreement. After many days, we were simply informed that no Arabic version of the text is available. Because of this lack of cooperation we decided to reject this amendment. We’re not against the interests of Bahrain, but our rejecting decision comes because of the ministry’s disregard to our requests,” Mr Al Assoomy stated.

The angry MP also quoted Bahrain’s constitution, which stipulates in its sec-ond article that “the religion of the state is Islam, the Islamic Sharia is a principal

source for legislation and the official language is Arabic”.

After spending few minutes in explain-ing other reasons that drove the com-mittee to reject the modification of the agreement, Mr. Al Assoomy criticised Foreign Affairs Ministry once again for not providing the committee with an Arabic translation of the agreement.

“We’re concerned about avoiding any mistakes while discussing such impor-tant international agreements. We don’t want to be blamed for any mistakes in the future because of this issue. Don’t they have 6, 000 translators at their ministry? Why don’t they cooperate with us?,” Mr Al Assoomy added.

As for Mr Al Ateesh, he commented, “We usually talk about the cooperation between the council and the govern-ment, but this cooperation is missing in this case.”

“The agreement was referred to the council in English and no translated

versions were provided, despite urgent requests of committee members, in ad-dition to the fact that the official lan-guage of the State is Arabic. I support the committee’s decision to reject the amendment of this agreement due to the absence of cooperation between the council and the government,” MP Al At-eesh remarked.

No barrier Responding to the MPs remarks in the

session was Shura and Representatives Councils Affairs Minister Ghanim Al Buainain. The minister insisted that the language barrier isn’t a valid reason to reject the modification of the agreement.

He commented further saying, “The agreement must be signed in both lan-guages to oblige the ministry of providing the council with the Arabic version. But this agreement was originally signed only in English. If the Arabic version,

signed by both parties, is available, then it must be provided to the council by the ministry. Otherwise, the text could be translated at any translation firm. “

Mr Al Buainain also said, “This is not the only agreement signed by Bahrain in English language. There are many other agreements that’re only available in English and Bahrain signed on them in the past. This could be verified by re-viewing the archives of the international agreements and treaties signed by Bah-rain. Any delays in the implementation agreements would harm the Kingdom’s interests.” Representatives of Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Transportation and Telecommunications Ministry also commented on the agreement, without referring to the unavailability of a trans-lated version of it.

Other MPs also discussed it before the majority of the MPs voted for returning it to the committee for more studying and reviewing.

The religion of the state is Islam, the Islamic Sharia is a principal source for legislation and the official language is Arabic. MR AL ASSOOMY

We usually talk about the cooperation between the council and the government, but this cooperation is missing in this case. MR AL ATEESH

If the Arabic version, signed by both parties, is available, then it must be provided to the MPs. Otherwise, the text could be translated. MR AL BUAINAIN

• The parliamentarians passed, rejected and decided to withdraw a number of legislations and proposed laws and amendments during the session.

• The MPs also voted for withdrawing several proposals, such as draft laws to amend the public security forces Law, the military retirement law and the pensions law of public sector employees.


STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS

Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Al AmerChairman

Shaikh Nasser Bin Mohamed Al Khalifa Acting General Director

The Financial Statement were approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Directors on 29 March 2018

2017BD

2017BD

2017BD

2016BD

2016BD

2016BD

Financial statement for the year ended 31 December 2017

ASSETSNon-current assetsProperty and equipment 642,518 768,295Trade receivables 680,637 -Total non-current assets 1,323,155 768,295

Current assetsTrade and other receivables 2,478,000 427,404Cash and bank balances 21,417,610 19,324,701Total current assets 23,895,610 19,752,105Total assets 25,218,765 20,520,400

ACCUMULATED FUNDSAND LIABILITIES

Accumulated FundsAccumulated surplus 11,828,765 9,266,875Total accumulated funds 11,828,765 9,266,875

Non-current liabilitiesEmployee benefits 14,791 30,372Deferred income 10,036,347 9,032,826Total non-current liabilities 10,051,138 9,063,198

Current liabilitiesTrade and other payables 3,338,862 2,190,327Total current liabilities 3,338,862 2,190,327Total liabilities 13,390,000 11,253,525

Total accumulated fundsand liabilities 25,218,765 20,520,400

INCOMELicense fees 2,371,547 2,891,943Frequency and spectrum fees 5,644,089 5,614,413Numbering fees 1,068,212 1,027,439Other regulatory income 7,440,635 -Other income 471,433 532,376Total income 16,995,916 10,066,171

EXPENSESStaff costs (2,255,663) (2,417,835)General and administrativeexpenses (1,097,946) (758,675)Consultancy and legal fees (1,287,961) (895,312)Advertising and publicity (85,744) (183,371)Impairment loss on tradereceivables (151,199) -Depreciation (288,638) (70,748)Recovery on impaired tradereceivables - 80,173Total expenses (5,167,151) (4,245,768)

Surplus for the year 11,828,765 5,820,403Other comprehensive income - -Total surplus for the year 11,828,765 5,820,403

OPERATING ACTIVITIES

Surplus for the year 11,828,765 5,820,403

Adjustment For: Depreciation 288,638 70,748 Provision for employees’ benefits 8,038 7,341 Impairment allowance on trade receivables 151,199 - Recovery on impaired trade receivables - (80,173) Other income - (25,624) Amortisation of deferred income (936,760) (936,760) 11,339,880 4,855,935 Working capital changes:

Increase in trade and other receivables (2,882,431) (180,553)Increase in trade and other payables 1,148,534 1,266,017Increase in deferred income 1,940,281 870,000Employees’ benefits paid (23,619) -

Net cash generated from operationsactivities 11,522,645 6,811,399

INVESTING ACTIVITIES

Purchase of property and equipment (162,861) (659,908)Decrease / (increase) in term depositswith banks 1,813,984 (665,417)Increase in security deposit (1,131,342) (1,270,731)Net cash generated from / (used in)investing activities 519,781 (2,596,056)

FINANCING ACTIVITIES

Transfer made to the Ministry of Finance (9,266,875) (13,000,000)Net cash used in financing activities (9,266,875) (13,000,000)

Net increase / (decrease) in bank balance 2,775,551 (8,784,657)Bank balance at 1 January 3,624,701 12,409,358Bank balance at 31 December 6,400,252 3,624,701

as at 31 December 2017 for the year ended 31 December 2017 for the year ended 31 December 2017

• When contacted, Thanusree’s parents said they haven’t recovered from the shock, requesting more time to speak on the incident.

• Thanusree Sivaraman, a nine-year-old girl and a Class IV student at Bahrain Indian School died on Monday after suffering a medical condition.

TDT|Manama Mohammed Zafran

A leading hospital in the King-dom has dismissed social

media rumors that the death of a nine-year-old girl was caused due to allergic reaction.

Thanusree Sivaraman, a nine-year-old girl and a Class IV student at Bahrain Indian School died on Monday after suffering a medical condition.

Social media was rife with rum-

ors which said the girl’s death was from an allergic reaction caused by an injection administered to her at the hospital.

“The girl was suffering from asthma and fever for the past one week. Though she was tired, she remained active throughout the week. On Monday evening, she came back from school com-plaining of stomach pain and was taken to the hospital. The doc-tors there gave her antibiotics injection leading to a complica-tion, which later resulted in her death,” a viral message circulated on WhatsApp said.

Dismissing the rumors, the hos-pital administration said it will make a detailed statement soon. “There is absolutely no truth in these rumors.”

Meanwhile, a reliable source said the child was brought to the hospi-tal with fever and vomiting. “The

child was in a shock and the doc-tors at the hospital tried to revive her when she had a cardiac arrest. The cause of death has not been made public by the hospital. She is said to be a smart and energetic student.”

When contacted, Thanusree’s parents said they haven’t recov-ered from the shock, requesting more time to speak on the incident. The girl’s death sent shockwaves across the expat community in the Kingdom.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved student Tha-nusree Sivaram of grade IV. It is a difficult time for BIS family. Our heartfelt condolences to the be-reaved family at this tragic time. We also pray that God gives the family strength and courage to put up with this irreparable loss. May her soul rest in peace,” school prin-cipal Saji Jacob said in a message.

Allergic reaction not cause of girl’s

death, says hospital Thanusree

There is no truth in these rumors going

viral on social media.

We will release a detailed

statement soon.HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION

We are deeply saddened by the

loss of our beloved student Thanusree Sivaram of grade IV. It is a difficult

time for BIS family. Our heartfelt

condolences to the bereaved family

at this tragic time. We also pray that

God gives the family strength and

courage to put up with this irreparable

loss. May her soul rest in peace

SAJI JACOB


• Case falls within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce as the owner is not licensed to run car parking services.

TDT|ManamaHarpreet Kaur

A private contracting company has been allegedly running an illegal parking service in the capital for

over a year. Sources say the people behind this

illegal parking service on Road 433, near Bab Al Bahrain, charge customers on an hourly basis.

“The land near the famous Haji Res-taurant, belongs to a private owner. The contracting company, which runs the illegal parking service, could not make payment despite agreeing to buy the land. Though cheques for more than BD80,000 got bounced with various banks, the company started using the land for illegal parking services.”

“The parking business is flourishing without any commercial licence and they are charging on hourly basis. The two expats who handle the parking space were hired by the owner and are on free visas.”

The sources added that the contract-ing company has more than 30 court cases against it and its labourers held a protest march to the Labour Ministry office over the non-payment of salaries.

Tribune visited the car parking facil-ity and the staff there gave a token slip before charging 300 fils for one hour.

Speaking to Tribune, Capital Secre-tariat Vice-Chairman Mazen Ahmed Alumran said the Ministry of Industry and Commerce should take immediate action to end this illegal business.

“The case belongs to Ministry of In-dustry and Commerce as the owner is not licensed to run car parking services. It is not mentioned in their commercial registration. The council will issue an official letter to the real owner as well the general manager or the contracting company and necessary legal action would be taken against all such illegal businesses,” he added.

The contracting company officials could not be reached for a comment.

Flourishing business

at ‘illegal’ parking lotCustomers charged 300 fils per

hour for parking a car The illegal parking space allegedly offered by the contracting company

The council will issue an official letter to the real owner

as well the general manager or the

contracting company and necessary

legal action would be taken against

all such illegal businesses.

MR ALUMRAN

Travellers urged to report early at airport Manama

Bahrain Airport Compa-ny (BAC), the operator

and managing body of Bah-rain International Airport, has advised all passengers travelling during Eid’s hol-iday, to arrive at the airport three hours prior to their departure time to avoid any potential delays. “In ad-

dition to the existing Car Park “D”, which is located behind Movenpick Hotel, the Overflow Car Park is also available, located north of the runway with-in the airport’s premises on Galali Road. Passengers can reach the Over Flow Car Park either through the Dry Dock Highway or Arad Highway,” the BAC said in a statement.

Bahrain Polytechnic receives 3,000 applications Manama

The application period for the upcoming academ-

ic year has ended and July 2 will be the final day for the entry tests, said Ahmed Malalla, Registry Director of Bahrain Polytechnic. Mr Malalla confirmed that almost 3,000 applications were received ever since the application period started on last April. He pointed out that the adoption of the on-line application process has contributed to the increase the number of applicants significantly.

200 doctors attend meeting on new licence system Manama

Two hundred Bahraini doctors attended a

meeting organised by Bah-rain Medical Society to in-troduce the new medical licence examination system. During the meeting, head of health profession regulation at the National Health Reg-ulatory Authority (NHRA) Dr Lina AL Qassim present-ed detailed explanations of the new medical licence examination system for the first time in Bahrain; im-plemented by a specialised international organization accredited in most coun-tries of the region and the world. “For the past years, the medical licence exam-inations were coordinated by NHRA committee where the required pass was 53 per cent. Now the system has changed, the examina-tion is being conducted by the international organisa-tion and supervised by the NHRA,” she said.

Credit card fraudster’s jail term reduced on appeal TDT|Manama

The High Criminal Ap-peals Court has re-duced the sentence

issued against an Asian man convicted of purchasing mobile phones using coun-terfeit credit cards.

According to court de-tails, the defendant went on a buying spree using fake credit cards, purchas-ing devices at a total price of BD550 at one shot from a mobile shop in the GOSI complex.

Police launched investigations into his crime after a credit card company reported the use of the counterfeit cards.

He was arrested after he went back to the

same shop in the GOSI com-plex. “He used to come here with strangers and buy de-vices, but only using credit cards,” the owner of the GOSI complex shop told officers af-ter the defendant got arrested.

During questioning, the Asian man said that a friend had given him the credit cards and asked him to use them to purchase mobile phones in return for a com-mission. However, he didn’t

reveal the identity of his accomplice. He was charged with fraud. The High Crim-

inal Court had earlier sentenced him to five years in prison, but the Appeals Court cut it to three years. He will be deported upon completion of his jail term.

5years sentence was

reduced to three years by the High Criminal

Court.

Union leader seeks quick remedy to salary issues • About 200 workers took part in the march on Monday to protest against the company. According to him, the workers initially planned to walk to LMRA building in Sanabis but lost their way.

• Ministry of Labour officials have met with the workers as well as the management of the company and are confident of solving the issue.

TDT|ManamaMohammed Zafran

Workers having to protest in order to receive their salaries is a regrettable state of affairs, said General Federation of Bahrain Trade

Unions (GFBTU) General Secretary Hasan Alhalwachi responding to Monday’s protest when 200 labourers

of a contracting company held a march to protest non-payment of their salaries.

He said it is really bad that the help-less workers were forced to take such measures during Ramadan when many of them were fasting. “In the holy month of Ramadan when everyone should be feeling the grace it is unacceptable to have hundreds of people living without any income. All companies are strongly urged to respect their commitments towards the labourers’ rights,” he told Tribune yesterday.

“We believe that those 200 workers are some of the many hundreds that have been deprived of income for months. Migrant workers come here to feed their families, who are waiting for their money back home.”

“We urge the Ministry of Labour and all concerned authorities to make all employ-ers accountable before the rules and regu-lations of the labour law which is very clear

and precise as far as payment of salaries is concerned. GFBTU reminds that Bahrain is a member state of international labour conventions related to fundamental rights at work and have to make all employers respect those rights, in particular the right of salary payment on time,” he said.

About 200 workers took part in the march on Monday to protest against the company. According to him, the workers initially planned to walk to LMRA building in Sanabis but lost their way. “They were walking to LMRA but they didn’t know the exact road and lost their way, and reached near American mission hospital where they were stopped by police,” he said.

Ministry of Labour officials have met with the workers as well as the manage-ment of the company and are confident of solving the issue. A ministry official told Tribune that the company is cooperat-ing with the Ministry and has agreed to pay all pending salaries.

Man ‘hides nephew under cot’ to escape policemen TDT|Manama

A Bahraini man was arrested for hiding his brother-in-law’s son who was con-

victed in several criminal cases, it has been revealed.

The fugitive was wanted for his involvement in security-re-lated crimes, for which he was handed-down a total of 16 years behind bars.

The man was arrested follow-ing a tip-off that revealed his un-cle had sheltered the convict at his apartment in Samaheej.

He allegedly fed him and pro-vided all the necessities. Accord-ing to court files, the convict was hiding under a cot when police team raided the apartment.

However, the Bahraini man de-

nied knowledge that the fugitive was present at the apartment.

“I am wanted in several criminal cases and I agreed with my grand-father to hide in his house, in which my grandmother and aunt were also living. My mother was visiting me once in a while,” the convict told police officers.

“This situation remained for one year, and my grandfa-ther passed away and my aunt got married. My grandmother then knew about me, but my aunt and her husband didn’t know that I was hiding in the apartment,” the fugitive told prosecutors in a bid to clear the charges.

Both of them were put on trial and the High Criminal Court will hear their case on September 2, 2018.

GFBTU reminds that Bahrain is a member state of

international labour conventions related

to fundamental rights at work and have to make all

employers respect those rights.

MR ALHALWACHI

In addition to the existing Car Park

“D”, which is located behind Movenpick

Hotel, the Overflow Car Park is also

available

CIBAFI - UAB Forum in SudanTDT | Manama

The General Council for Islamic Banks and

Financial Institutions (CI-BAFI) & The Union of Arab Banks (UAB) are jointly or-ganising a Forum titled: “UN Development Goals and Is-lamic Finance: A Focus on Africa”.

The two-day forum will be held in Khartoum, Su-dan from 25 - 26 September 2018, under the patronage of Hazim Abdegadir Ahmed Babiker, Governor of the Central Bank of Sudan.

The real estate and con-struction sector makes up approximately 9 per

cent of Bahrain’s GDP, and this figure is only set to rise in the near future. Further, the intro-duction of ‘Bahrain 2030 vision’ has brought about a new impe-tus to the infrastructure and real estate development in Bahrain. With the advent of Value Added Tax (VAT), there is bound to be a significant impact on the real estate sector in Bahrain, as is evident from the introduction of VAT in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The real estate sector faces distinct challenges in both juris-dictions (i.e., KSA and UAE), due to the different tax treatment and VAT compliance for different types of properties – residential, commercial, bare land, etc. Ac-cordingly, there are a unique set of issues which a taxpayer might face, depending on the type of property, and the nature of the contract which has been entered into. The following table broadly illustrates the tax treatment of different kinds of properties in KSA and UAE, in the hands of real estate developers or companies:

The table here clearly show-cases that even though the GCC Agreement is the base for VAT

laws in the GCC region, there are varying tax treatments and provisions adopted by the two nations that have implemented VAT. The VAT laws and Regu-lations are tailored as per each nations’ individual economic needs and industry policy. Ac-cordingly, it has to be seen what tax treatment Bahrain will adopt for the real estate sector.

With the rise in infrastruc-ture and construction projects in Bahrain, it becomes impera-tive to bear in mind some of the key issues which have plagued the real estate sector in the GCC region so far. By treating the sale of the residential property as taxable under VAT (as done in

KSA), the real estate price will increase, and this will be det-rimental for the growth of the sector, especially in such trying times. The developers will be in dilemma to pass this cost to customers, i.e. higher prices for the residential units or take a hit on their profit margins.

On the other hand, the real estate sector will flourish if Bah-rain chooses to adopt the UAE model by treating the first sale or lease of the residential real estate to be zero-rated. This will not only benefit new projects but also the conversion of the commercial real estate into a residential building(s). Such a move would greatly bolster the real estate sector, thereby having an overall positive impact on the economy.

It is pertinent to note here that caution must be exercised while incorporating another nation’s tax model into one’s own. To il-lustrate, in the UAE the first sup-ply of a residential real estate is

zero-rated if the supply is made within three years of the build-ing’s construction. Though this method seems straight-forward and beneficial at first glance, it fails to take into consideration two key factors: (i) the manner and point in which the real es-tate developers or companies can claim input tax deduction; and (ii) reversal of input tax de-duction in the event a residential unit is not supplied within three years of its construction. Tack-ling these issues while Bahrain introduces its VAT law would greatly benefit the real estate sector, providing certainty and clarity in the mind of the taxpay-er as well as the public at large.

The other issues that will crop up if the real estate sector is ex-empted:

• If residential real estate is exempted, in the case of mixed development projects (i.e., buildings wherein both com-mercial and residential units are supplied), the companies

or developers would internally have to come up with a meth-od for apportioning the input tax deduction related to taxable (commercial property) and ex-empt (residential) activity. If the supply of residential real estate were to be zero-rated, this issue would not persist, as the entire VAT borne by the companies or developers could be recovered, as opposed to going through the tedious process of individually ascertaining which expenses/procurements can be claimed by input tax deduction.

• Impact on ongoing real estate projects, especially where developers/companies are una-ble to recover the tax from the buyers of the units. Does the contract with buyer support charge of new taxes or increased cost on inputs (if real estate is exempted)?

Lastly, from a customers’ or tenants’ stand-point the intro-duction of VAT might require significant changes in the lease/

tenancy agreements. This need arises since additional facilities provided alongside the accom-modation, such as furniture, maintenance, recreational facil-ities, etc. may be subject to VAT. This issue is wide open in KSA and UAE with different compa-nies taking a different stand on the matter – some are splitting and applying a tax on addition-al services. Such a levy will in-crease the effective rent by the tenants.

From our discussion thus-far it becomes evident that there is a growing need for players in the real estate sector to make representations before the ap-propriate Government Author-ities to address their concerns. At this juncture advocacy and representations become vital, as the VAT law is yet to come into existence, thereby giving the Government time to be mindful of how VAT treatment might im-pact the industry at large.

Seeing as how the real estate sector plays a crucial role in Bahrain’s economy, it would be in the best interest of both the industry and the Government that steps are taken to ensure that there is no adverse effect on the sector post-introduction of the VAT.

(About Authors – Gaurav Khurana is a veteran VAT expert and is heading

WTS Dhruva Bahrain (a boutique Tax services firm). Ameya Pant is a VAT

specialist with significant experience of VAT and Indirect taxes. For any

queries, discussion, please write to [email protected]

or call at +973 16631921)

07

business


V A T I N B A H R A I N

Aramco in expansion moodAramco plans to raise its refining capacity to between 8 million and 10 million barrels per day

• Entered a 50 per cent joint venture with three Indian refiners

• Working with ADNOC towards securing a partnership.

• Taking a 50pc stake in Petronas’ huge RAPID project

• Plans to build a 300,000-bpd refinery with China’s Norinco.

Reuters | Dhahran

Saudi Aramco plans to boost investments in refining and petrochemicals to secure

new markets for its crude, and sees growth in chemicals as cen-tral to its downstream strategy to lessen the risk of a slowdown in oil demand, ahead of an initial public offering next year - the largest IPO in history.

The state oil giant is moving ahead with multi-billion-dol-lar projects in China, India and

Malaysia and aims to finalise new partnerships this year, Ab-dulaziz al-Judaimi, Aramco’s senior vice president for down-stream, told Reuters.

Aramco plans to raise its re-fining capacity to between 8 million and 10 million barrels per day, from some 5 million bpd now, and double its petrochemi-cals production by 2030, he add-ed. Aramco pumps around 10

million bpd of crude oil.“Our strategy is very simple.

We want to be at 8 to 10 million barrels per day of participated (refining) capacity ... (and) we are going forward by trying to be a top leader in chemicals by 2040,” Judaimi said.

“The market that we want to grow in ... has to be growing, a strong market, with good de-mand and of course these as-

sets have to be integrated to the whole value chain of the down-stream,” he said in an interview at Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran.

To help it reach these targets, Aramco has entered a 50 per cent joint venture with three Indian refiners to build a $44 billion, 1.2-million-bpd refinery integrated with petrochemical facilities on India’s west coast.

Judaimi said Aramco was working with Abu Dhabi Na-tional Oil Co (ADNOC) towards securing a partnership. Apart from India, Aramco is also tak-ing a 50pc stake in Petronas’ huge RAPID project in the south-ern Malaysian state of Johor.

Aramco is strengthening its refining role in China. It has a refinery joint venture with Sin-opec and Exxon Mobil and is in talks with CNPC to finalise the purchase of a stake in a 260,000-bpd refinery in Yunnan.

Aramco plans to build a 300,000-bpd refinery with Chi-na’s Norinco. Judaimi said he expects to finish front-end engi-neering for the Norinco project by mid-2019, following which the company will take its final investment decision.

General view of Aramco tanks and oil pipe at Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal in Saudi Arabia

Egypt hikes electricity prices

AFP | Cairo, Egypt

Egypt is further cutting electricity subsidies,

raising average prices , ef-fective July 1. Up to 1,000 kilowatt/mnt, there is a subsidy, while it would be abolished for higher usage.

Prices for domestic con-sumers will rise by an av-erage 24.8 per cent, while factories will see a rise by almost 42pc. Average in-crease for all users will not exceed 26.6pc.

Sl. No. Type of Property / Services

Nature of Supply Tax treatment in KSA

Tax treatment in UAE

1. Residential First Lease* Exempt Zero-Rated First Sale* Taxable @ 5% Zero-Rated Other Lease/License Exempt Exempt Other Sale Taxable @ 5% Exempt

2. Commercial Sale Taxable @ 5% Taxable @ 5% Lease/License Taxable @ 5% Taxable @ 5%

3. Bare Land Sale Taxable @ 5% Exempt Lease/License Taxable @ 5% Exempt

4. Construction work Real estate related Services Taxable @ 5% Taxable @ 5%* within 3 years of completion of construction of property

Vat impact on real estate sector in Bahrain

(Mustafa Akyol, a contrib-uting opinion writer and a

10mbarrels per day is what

Aramco aims achieve as it refining capacity

GAURAV KHURANA / AMEYA PANT


Turkey-Europe ‘Energy Silk Road’Turkish President opens gas pipeline linking Azerbaijan and Europe for the first time

• Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project costs $8.5 billion

• The entire project is known as the Southern Gas Corridor

AFP| Istanbul, Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yester-day opened a new gas

pipeline that will pump Caspian gas from energy-rich Azerbaijan across Anatolia to Europe for the first time.

The $8.5 billion Trans-Ana-tolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) is one of several mega projects being showcased by Erdogan as he heads to keen-ly-fought elections on June 24.

The TANAP pipeline connects with the South Caucasus Pipe-line which pumps gas from the vast Azerbaijani Shah Deniz 2 field in the Caspian, via Azer-baijan and Georgia, to Turkey.

The pipeline is then to link to the west with the Trans Adriatic

Pipeline (TAP) which will pump the gas through Greece and Al-bania to Italy.

Taken together, the entire pro-ject is known as the Southern Gas Corridor which is costing some $40 billion to build and was inaugurated in late May.

The system -- backed by the EU and United States -- will al-

low Azerbaijan for the first time to pump its gas direct to Europe while bypassing Russia.

Erdogan inaugurated the pipeline at a ceremony attend-ed by leaders including Azer-baijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, Ukrainian President Petro Po-roshenko and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in the Turkish

region of Eskisehir southeast of Istanbul, one of 20 provinces in Turkey the pipeline passes through.

“TANAP is the latest fruit of a shared vision,” Erdogan said at the opening ceremony, describ-ing the pipeline as part of a new “energy Silk Road”.

The leaders then watched as

the final section of the pipeline was lifted into place and then turned a wheel to allow the gas to flow. A majority 58 percent in the TANAP project is owned by Azerbaijan through state energy firm SOCAR. Turkish state ener-gy firm Botas and British energy giant BP have minority stakes of 30pc and 12pc respectively.

Erdogan making a speech during the opening ceremony of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) in Eskisehir

The 1,850 kilo-metre (1,150 mile) TANAP will initial-ly pump 2 billion cubic metres of gas annually for

use in Turkey, rising to 6 billion. By 2019 another 10 billion cubic

metres of gas will be delivered into Greece for use in

Europe

KNOW WHAT

Iraq accuses others of exceeding quotasAFP | Baghdad, Iraq

Iraq on Monday accused o t h e r o i l - p ro d u c i n g

countries of extracting more barrels of crude than agreed by OPEC and its part-ners, ahead of a meeting of the cartel next week.

“Producers who are or are not members of OPEC have not respected the set tar-get... and the price of petrol has not reached the desired level,” said Oil Minister Jab-bar al-Luaibi.

In order to “reach a fair and consistent price, we need more support, stabili-ty and engagement from the producing countries for the agreement” reached in early 2017, he said in a statement.

Facebook’s user review, bans for advertisersReuters | Washington

Facebook Inc said yes-terday it would allow

users to review businesses that advertise on the social network and possibly ban those that receive the most negative feedback.

The move is aimed at cracking down on business-es whose ads mislead us-ers into buying low quality goods or services or firms that fail to deliver products in their stated shipping time.

Facebook users can leave feedback for their viewed ads under the “Ads Activity” tab, the company said in a blog post https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/06/im-proving-customer-service.

Recalled cars already slated for updates: DaimlerFrankfurt

A large part of vehicles that Daimler has to re-

call over unauthorised soft-ware defeat devices were already slated to undergo voluntary service measures, a Daimler spokesman said on Tuesday.

Germany ’s Transport Ministry said on Monday that 774,000 Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Europe had been found to contain unau-thorized software defeat de-vices and ordered Daimler to recall more than 200,000 cars in Germany.

Thales, Microsoft in cloud deal for armed forcesWashington

French defence electron-ics group Thales is part-

nering with Microsoft to jointly develop a common defence cloud solution for armed forces, the compa-nies said. Based on Micro-soft’s Azure Stack platform, the “flexible cloud applica-tion platform” will allow armed forces to keep sen-sitive data inside their own infrastructures.

Ivanka Trump, Kushner made $82 million last year: reportsAFP | Washington

President Donald Trump’s daughter and son in law

made at least $82 million in outside income while serving as senior White House advisers last year thanks to investment deals from companies they had previously led, news reports said Monday.

Ivanka Trump reported $3.9 million from her stake in the Trump International Ho-tel in Washington, as well as more than $2 million in sev-erance pay from the Trump Organization, the Washington Post said, citing financial dis-closure forms released Monday.

Her husband Jared Kushner earned more than $5 million in income from the Kushner Cos. apartment complex Quail Ridge in New Jersey.

Kushner declared income from dozens of companies linked to his family’s real estate company. In all, he took in at

least $70 million, the Post said.In July 2017, the couple re-

ported joint income of at least $19 million from business ven-tures and another $80 million in real estate and other revenue between January 2016 and early 2017.

Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner (Courtesy of New York Times)

The Post esti-mated Kush-

ner’s assets at $179 million to

$735m last year, compared to

between $55.3m and $75.6m for

Trump

KNOW WHAT

Saudi to supply Asian refiners full volumes Reuters | Singapore/ Tokyo

Saudi Arabia has informed five Asian refiners that it

will supply full contractual volumes of crude oil in July, five sources with knowledge of the matter said yesterday.

The world’s top crude ex-porter has also reinstated con-tracted volumes of the Arab Heavy crude to one buyer after cutting supplies in the previ-ous month, one of the sources said.

Three other refiners in Asia said they have not received their July allocation. Saudi Ar-amco could not be immediate-ly reached for comment.

Last month, the state oil gi-ant maintained full contrac-tual supplies to Asia for June supplies by replacing Arab Heavy with Arab Light. The Arab Heavy was redirected

to domestic power plants to meet the increased demand for electricity for summer cooling needs.

The Arab Heavy supply cut, combined with a drop in Venezuelan crude exports and robust demand in Asia, pushed up medium and heavy sour crude prices in Asia last month although light grades were lower because of ample supplies.

Saudi Aramco raised the official selling prices for all crude grades for its Asian cus-tomers in July, with flagship Arab Light rising to the highest in four years.

Saudi Arabia has told OPEC that it raised oil output to a little more than 10 million bar-rels per day (bpd) in May, a source familiar with the mat-ter said on Monday, but still within its agreed target.

Trump fires another volley of tweets at NATO alliesTrump said he decided to back out of the G7 communique after watching Trudeau’s closing summit

Reuters | Singapore

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday kept up his feud

with America’s closest allies over trade, saying he could not allow them to continue taking advantage of the United States.

Trump’s comments after a his-toric summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were the president’s most extensive on the matter since he tweeted that Trudeau was “very dishonest and weak” and raised the prospect of tariffs against auto imports, a move that would

imperil the Canadian economy.“We are being taken advan-

tage of by virtually every one of those countries,” Trump told a news conference on Tuesday. “Look, countries cannot con-tinue to take advantage of us on trade.” Trump took time at his news conference to explain a photo that went viral from the G7 summit. It showed a seem-ingly glowering German Chan-cellor Angela Merkel and several other leaders appearing to con-front a seated Trump.

“I know it didn’t look friend-ly,” Trump said. “I know it was

reported sort of nasty both ways – I was angry at her, or she. But actually we were just talking, the whole group, about something unrelated to everything, very friendly.”

Trump said he decided to back out of the G7 communique af-ter watching Trudeau’s closing summit news conference, at which he warned that Canada would not be pushed around on tariffs. “He’ll learn that’s going to cost a lot of money for the people of Canada. He’ll learn, he can’t do that,” Trump said.

“Not fair to the people of

America! $800 billion trade deficit,” he tweeted on Monday.

In the same set of tweets, Trump said: “Justin acts hurt when called out!”

On Tuesday, Trump said: “We have a big trade deficit with Canada ... it’s close to $100 bil-lion a year deal loss.”

Canadian off icials have stressed the two countries’ ex-tensive trading relationship and pointed out that Canada is the top export destination for 35 US states and that 9 million jobs in the US depend on trade with its northern neighbour.

We have a big trade deficit with Canada ... it’s close to $100

billion a year deal lossTRUMP

Gulf markets end mixedStock markets struggled to keep up momentum two days before the start of the holiday

• Dubai falls on profit-taking

• US and North Korea deal seen as a positive signal for Asian growt

Reuters | Dubai

Gulf stocks ended mixed yesterday, with the Sau-di market supported by

higher oil prices while Dubai and Qatar fell on profit-taking amid slack trade ahead of Eid.

Markets struggled to keep up momentum two days before the start of the holiday, with the Dubai index easing by 0.6 per cent to 3,079 points, weighed down by property, banking and logistics stocks.

Emaar Properties, Dubai’s big-gest developer, lost 0.8pc while Commercial Bank of Dubai and courier company Aramex fell by 4.7pc and 2.4pc respectively.

Abu Dhabi’s index was little changed at 4,734 points, with First Abu Dhabi Bank’s 0.7pc

gain helping to keep the bench-mark from going into negative territory. Etisalat, which holds the largest weighting on its home index, was down 1.4pc.

Some United Arab Emirates stocks are also moving ahead of index benchmarker FTSE’s

emerging markets index rebal-ancing on June 16, said Moham-med Ali Yasin, chief executive of FAB Securities, the brokerage arm of First Abu Dhabi Bank.

Yasin said that the rebalancing is smaller than the MSCI rebal-ancing at the end of May but

that low trading volumes in UAE markets mean that any positive movement should help to con-solidate recent gains.

The Saudi index rose 0.3pc, helped by gains in property and financial stocks. Property com-pany Jabal Omar rose 1.8pc and

Dar Al Arkan was up 2.7pc.A political reapprochement

between the US and North Ko-rea as seen as a positive signal for Asian growth, which will translate to greater imports of oil from Gulf states and poten-tially higher oil prices, said Tariq Qaqish, managing director of the asset-management division at Mena Corp.

In Qatar, the index lost 0.4pc, weighed down by a 1.5pc drop in Qatar National Bank and a 3.2pc slump for Qatar Gas Transport Company.

Egypt’s market firmed by 0.1pc to 15,938 points, led by banks and property firms.


Closing BellSAUDI 0.3% » 8,270

DUBAI 0.6% » 3,079

ABU DHABI » 4,734

QATAR 0.5% » 9,161

KUWAIT 0.6% » 4,781

BAHRAIN 0.5% » 1,288

OMAN 0.1% » 4,598

EGYPT 0.1% » 15,938

Chinese electric carmaker Byton raises $500 mnWashington

China-based electric car startup Byton has raised

$500 million as it ramps up efforts to take on rivals like Tesla.

Byton’s new capital is led by from FAW Group, Tus-Holdings, CATL and others, a statement from its North American head-quarters in California said Monday.

“The success of this fund-ing round highlights how diversified strategic inves-tors will further expand By-ton’s circle of friends and broaden our development opportunities,” said presi-dent and co-founder Daniel Kirchert.

“Byton is establishing a new benchmark for auto startups with four essential ‘must haves,’ namely tech-nology, product, capital and factory.”

Byton is led by former ex-ecutives from Tesla, BMW, Apple and Google, and ex-pects to launch in China by 2019 and in the United States and Europe by 2020.

Trump’s fin advisor suffers heart attackWashington

US President Donald Trump’s top economic

advisory Larry Kudlow has suffered a “very mild” heart attack and is being treated at a military hospital just outside Washington, the president and the White House said late Monday.

The heart attack comes just days after Kudlow raised eyebrows by claiming Justin Trudeau “stabbed us in the back” after a G7 sum-mit hosted by the Canadian leader ended in acrimony.

In a subsequent state-ment, the White House de-scribed the event as a “very mild” heart attack.

Germany recalls Dutch eggs over fipronil fearsFrankfurt am Main

German authorities have pulled some 73,000

Dutch eggs from supermar-ket shelves after they were found to be contaminat-ed with fipronil, the same insecticide that sparked a huge food scare last year.

The agriculture ministry of Lower Saxony said the batch of tainted eggs had come from an organic firm in the Netherlands.

The amount of fipronil detected was above the legal limits set by the EU but re-mains “far below a level that would constitute a health risk”, the ministry said.

Tesla to cut 9pc jobsWashington

Tesla Inc is planning to cut about 9 per cent of

jobs across the company, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The cuts will not affect ability to reach Model 3 production targets.

Fuel prices push annual US inflation to 6yr highAFP | Washington

Sharp increases in the prices for gasoline, fuel oil, shelter

and medical care helped send a key measure of annual US inflation to a six-year high in May, according to new data Tuesday.

The Consumer Price Index, which tracks costs in house-hold goods and services, rose 2.8 per cent year-over-year, the highest since February 2012.

Compared to April, however, CPI rose only 0.2pc, under-shooting analyst expectations, according to the Labor De-partment report.

The Federal Reserve later Tuesday is due to begin a two-

day policy meeting which is widely expected to end with the second interest rate in-crease of the year, as it works to stay ahead of rising infla-tion.

Outside volatile energy pric-es, costs for other goods and services, such as prescription drugs and hotel stays, posted steady gains as well, lending support for the Fed’s plans to raise benchmark lending rates to remove stimulus from the economy.

Meanwhile, inflation also showed signs of eating into hourly worker wages, which were flat in May compared to the same month last year when adjusted for inflation.

Oil eases; OPEC projects uncertain market outlookOPEC, together with partners including Russia, has cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) since January 2017

• The group is scheduled to meet from June 22-23

• Russian production reportedly climbed to 11.1 million bpd in early June.

Reuters | London

Oil fell yesterday, reversing earlier gains, although volatility subsided to its

lowest in three weeks. The Organisation of the Pe-

troleum Exporting Countries released its monthly report on Tuesday, in which it cited the high degree of uncertainty hang-ing over the global oil market this year. Brent crude futures fell

35 cents to $76.11 a barrel by 1347 GMT, while US West Texas Inter-mediate crude futures traded 13 cents lower at $66.23.

“The market has been range-bound for two weeks and that is likely to remain the case,” Ole

Hansen, senior manager at Saxo Bank, said.

With US sanctions threatening to cut Iranian exports and the potential for more declines in Venezuelan production, Saudi Arabia and Russia have indi-

cated they would be willing to raise output to make up for any supply shortfall.

In the United States, output has risen by almost a third in the last two years, to a record 10.8 million bpd. OPEC said yesterday the outlook in the second half of the year is highly uncertain even though the oil producer

group’s figures show a global glut is gone, suggesting export-ers will be in no rush to fully relax output curbs next week.

“Recently, crude oil futures have lost some momentum amid uncertainty as traders prepare for potentially more supply returning to the market,” the group said.

“I feel that if they would like to be a responsible swing pro-ducer for the global oil mar-ket, based on their (demand) numbers, they should increase production by at least 1 million bpd from the current level,” PVM Oil Associates strategist Tamas Varga said.

Crude remained in a tight trading range, in line with the broader financial markets, which were largely unruffled by a US-North Korea summit aimed at the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

Investors are seen at the Dubai International Financial Market, in Dubai

Oil tanker is seen at sunset anchored off the Fos-Lavera oil hub near Marseille, France

Recently, crude oil futures have lost some momentum amid uncertainty

as traders prepare for potentially

more supply returning to the

marketOPEC

Trump accused of accepting illegal payments in hotel caseAFP | Washington

Lawyers for the US state of Maryland and the capital

Washington accused President Donald Trump on Monday of accepting illegal payments from foreign officials through his ho-tel in the US capital.

But a lawyer representing the president contended that such payments are perfectly legal, as long as Trump does not offer anything in return.

The plaintiffs say Trump is guilty of having conflicts of interest. After becoming US president in January 2017, the real estate magnate entrust-ed his two sons with running

his commercial interests, but retained all his shares in the Trump Organisation. The result has been that foreign dignitar-ies seeking to curry favour with the White House have chosen to stay at Trump International Hotel, according to Karl Racine,

the attorney general for Wash-ington and his counterpart for Maryland, Brian Frosh.

Commenting on the De-partment of Justice’s position, which states that Trump is not guilty of violating the clause because he did not explicitly offer a quid pro quo, Eisen add-ed: “Our view is that this is way too narrow.

“That’s not how founders defined emoluments, not how US government has generally defined it, and makes no sense as matter of logic, would permit too much corruption.”

Federal Judge Peter Messitte is expected to give his ruling by the end of July.

Donald Trump (Courtesy of Fortune)

NOTHING IS EASIER THAN TO DENOUNCE THE EVILDOER; NOTHING IS MORE DIFFICULT THAN TO UNDERSTAND HIM. FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

QUOTE OF THE DAY


Stereotypes abound in the de-scription of the sport, as if the tendencies of a football team

might express the soul of a nation — the robust efficiency of the Germans, for instance, or the swaying samba of the

Brazilians.

Hon. Chairman Najeb Yacob Alhamer | Editor-in-Chief Mahmood AI Mahmood | Deputy Chief Editor Ahdeya Ahmed | Chairman & Managing Editor P Unnikrishnan | Advertisement: Update Media W.L.L | Tel: 17579900, Fax 17256470, Email: [email protected] | Newsroom: Tel: 17579911, Email: [email protected] & circulation: Tel: 38444692/17579877 | Email:[email protected] | Website: www.newsofbahrain.com | Printed and published by Al Ayam Publishing

KANISHK THAROOR

In June of 1930, a coup d’état in Romania brought to power the quixotic King Carol II. He

swiftly turned his sights on the very first World Cup, set to take place just more than a month later in Uruguay. The soccer competition was a chance to show to the world a new Romania under his rule, while kindling in Romanians a sense of their global prowess. King Carol pushed a very late bid for his coun-try’s entry into the tournament and encouraged his country’s football association to cobble together a squad.

This was not a simple task. Long before today’s millionaire soccer stars, many footballers worried that it would not be worth it — literally — to play in the World Cup. The rigors of transcontinental travel re-quired them to spend three months abroad, an awkward interruption in the lives of men who often worked in factories or oil refineries and feared, with good reason, that representing Romania in Uruguay would cost them their jobs. So King Carol issued a royal decree guar-anteeing that all players selected for the national team would be given time off by their employers and have their positions restored upon their return. By force of the king’s will, a mostly urban team

was plucked from the industrial centers of Bucharest and Timisoara and bundled off to Genoa, Italy, where they boarded an ocean liner and sailed three weeks across the Atlantic to compete in Montevideo.

Times have changed. None of the teams in this year’s World Cup in Russia will prepare by jogging between decks on a ship. Nor will the very wealthy professionals rep-resenting their countries fret about missing shifts on the assembly line. King Carol’s enthusiasm, however, for the potential national glories of the World Cup remains palpable in both big and small footballing countries. When Panama qualified for the first time last year (at the expense of the United States), the country erupted in festivities and its president declared a national holiday. Four-time champion Italy failed to qualify after having been at every tournament for the past 60 years, only deepening the mood of gloom and frustration in the coun-try that would in March elections jettison establishment parties.

Though much enlarged, the World Cup is still at its core what it was in King Carol’s day: a pageant of nation-states. The tournament was conceived in an early-20th-century Europe when nations (including Romania) were emerging from the wreckage of foundering empires, when Woodrow Wilson’s gospel of national self-determination spread far and wide, and when new forms of media, including radio, expanded the reach of the sport. Along with a flag and an anthem, a soccer team gave a country a tangible form, trac-ing the contours of a people in the

collective striving on the field. The memorable stories of each World Cup are often ones of national apotheosis and national calamity.

But if soccer helped give nations meaning, so too has it transcend-ed them in tapping the globalizing currents of more recent times. The 21st-century World Cup is something of a paradox. The success of this festi-val of nations relies a great deal on en-ergies that cross borders and remove people from their national roots. It suggests that there is actually a false dichotomy between “globalism” and “nativism.” In both soccer and life, it is perfectly possible to be a proud representative of your nation while being helplessly, incurably global.

Take, for instance, the players who will compete in Russia this year. In early iterations of the World Cup, national teams tended to draw their players from within their own borders. A journey to the World Cup was in all respects a journey.

With scattered exceptions, play-ers crossed from the familiar to the unfamiliar, coming to strange places, facing unknown players and encountering different styles and tactics of play. The tournament served as a meeting ground of dis-tant peoples and cultures.

That is no longer the case. For one, the average footballer at the World Cup is already a globe-trot-ter. According to the CIES Football Observatory, 65 per cent of the play-ers selected for this year’s World Cup play professionally for clubs outside their home countries. Un-surprisingly, many of these athletes ply their trade in the wealthiest and most influential domestic com-petitions of Western Europe: the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A. But they also came from leagues in places as disparate as Mexico, Turkey and China.

Stereotypes abound in the de-scription of the sport, as if the ten-dencies of a football team might express the soul of a nation — the robust efficiency of the Germans, for instance, or the swaying samba of the Brazilians. But as domes-tic leagues grow more diverse and players gain exposure abroad, the notion that particular countries have indigenous styles of play be-comes more difficult to sustain.

England won the World Cup in 1966 on home soil by playing a brand of direct football, privileging courage and work ethic over skill and guile. But that stereotypical “English football” now can be dif-ficult to find in England, where the top Premier League clubs are

managed by a cosmopolitan array of foreign coaches and where the rosters brim with foreign players. What is true of soccer at the club level is also apparent at the inter-national level. A Portuguese coach manages the Iranian national team, an Argentine the Egyptian team, a Dutchman the Australian team.

The tournament is not so much an exhibition of different national identities as it is a reminder of how casually ideas and tactical fashions in football cross borders. Though soccer spread globally before any-one used the word “globalization,” it is so much easier in the age of YouTube highlights and viral GIFs on Twitter to study and, more im-portant, love how others play.

Many national teams today re-flect decades of migration, the way diaspora has distended the nation. Four out of five African sides, for example, have stocked their rosters with players born in Western Euro-pean countries like France, Belgium and the Netherlands, where they benefited from better resources and training. More than 60pc of the Moroccan team was born outside of


In both soccer and life, you can be a proud representative of your home country while being incurably global.

Rigged elections, unwelcome verdicts Legitimate election monitors must be invited into Latin American countries, and candidates should pledge to respect the rulings of these groups.

To reverse this dangerous slide of trust of independ-

ent election observers, multilateral institutions and governments in the

region must stop turning a blind eye to the illegitimate

groups that lack basic professionalism.

CHRISTOPHER SABATINI

Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, peo-ple have lost confidence

in elections and politicians. And just as voters are questioning the democratic process, the tra-ditional watchdogs of electoral integrity — multilateral groups like the United Nations and the Organisation of American States and others — are being undermined by governments throughout the hemisphere on both sides of the ideological spectrum.

The twin pressures of de-clining trust in elections and support for those who guar-antee voting integrity create a

problem: Who is left to credibly judge what may be controversial elections in the coming months in two of the region’s biggest countries, Mexico and Brazil?

Over the past 30 years, elec-tion observer groups have helped establish internationally respected standards for free and fair elections, protected voters’ rights in those elections and de-fused political upheaval when sore losers have tried to steal elections or contested results. This happened in the Domin-ican Republic in 1994, Peru in 2000, Mexico in 2006 and Ec-uador in 2017.

The power of neutral observ-ers to defend free elections rests on a commitment from a gov-ernment holding an election to the idea that these organizations have the right and authority to determine whether the voting was fair. That commitment is under assault.

In November of last year, the

Trump administration rushed to embrace the contested re-elec-tion of President Juan Orlan-do Hernández of Honduras, an American ally, even after observers from the European Union and the Organization of American States raised concerns about the integrity of the vote

counting.And last month, President

Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela thumbed his nose at the inter-national community by refusing to invite independent observers into the country before a na-tional election that the Euro-pean Union and 14 countries in the hemisphere denounced as a sham.

Instead, Maduro invited bo-gus election monitoring groups like those from the Union of South American Nations and the Latin American Council of Elec-toral Experts — groups that have been called “zombie election monitors” — to “accompany” or certify the process but with no pretense of objectivity.

Organizations like these were created and supported by au-thoritarians like former Presi-dent Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua to give their elections a veneer of legitimacy and to

counter the power of legitimate, internationally recognised elec-tion observers.

The silence of many Latin American heads of state as au-thoritarians have undermined election observers or stolen elections has compounded the problem. In one glaring exam-ple, President Evo Morales of

Bolivia rejected the results of a referendum that denied him standing to run for a fourth term even though international ob-servers had certified the integ-rity of the vote. The region’s governments failed to call out Morales’ efforts to distort the results.

Just as electoral standards

NOTHING IS EASIER THAN TO DENOUNCE THE EVILDOER; NOTHING IS MORE DIFFICULT THAN TO UNDERSTAND HIM. FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

QUOTE OF THE DAY


Stereotypes abound in the de-scription of the sport, as if the tendencies of a football team

might express the soul of a nation — the robust efficiency of the Germans, for instance, or the swaying samba of the

Brazilians.


KANISHK THAROOR

In June of 1930, a coup d’état in Romania brought to power the quixotic King Carol II. He

swiftly turned his sights on the very first World Cup, set to take place just more than a month later in Uruguay. The soccer competition was a chance to show to the world a new Romania under his rule, while kindling in Romanians a sense of their global prowess. King Carol pushed a very late bid for his coun-try’s entry into the tournament and encouraged his country’s football association to cobble together a squad.

This was not a simple task. Long before today’s millionaire soccer stars, many footballers worried that it would not be worth it — literally — to play in the World Cup. The rigors of transcontinental travel re-quired them to spend three months abroad, an awkward interruption in the lives of men who often worked in factories or oil refineries and feared, with good reason, that representing Romania in Uruguay would cost them their jobs. So King Carol issued a royal decree guar-anteeing that all players selected for the national team would be given time off by their employers and have their positions restored upon their return. By force of the king’s will, a mostly urban team

was plucked from the industrial centers of Bucharest and Timisoara and bundled off to Genoa, Italy, where they boarded an ocean liner and sailed three weeks across the Atlantic to compete in Montevideo.

Times have changed. None of the teams in this year’s World Cup in Russia will prepare by jogging between decks on a ship. Nor will the very wealthy professionals rep-resenting their countries fret about missing shifts on the assembly line. King Carol’s enthusiasm, however, for the potential national glories of the World Cup remains palpable in both big and small footballing countries. When Panama qualified for the first time last year (at the expense of the United States), the country erupted in festivities and its president declared a national holiday. Four-time champion Italy failed to qualify after having been at every tournament for the past 60 years, only deepening the mood of gloom and frustration in the coun-try that would in March elections jettison establishment parties.

Though much enlarged, the World Cup is still at its core what it was in King Carol’s day: a pageant of nation-states. The tournament was conceived in an early-20th-century Europe when nations (including Romania) were emerging from the wreckage of foundering empires, when Woodrow Wilson’s gospel of national self-determination spread far and wide, and when new forms of media, including radio, expanded the reach of the sport. Along with a flag and an anthem, a soccer team gave a country a tangible form, trac-ing the contours of a people in the

collective striving on the field. The memorable stories of each World Cup are often ones of national apotheosis and national calamity.

But if soccer helped give nations meaning, so too has it transcend-ed them in tapping the globalizing currents of more recent times. The 21st-century World Cup is something of a paradox. The success of this festi-val of nations relies a great deal on en-ergies that cross borders and remove people from their national roots. It suggests that there is actually a false dichotomy between “globalism” and “nativism.” In both soccer and life, it is perfectly possible to be a proud representative of your nation while being helplessly, incurably global.

Take, for instance, the players who will compete in Russia this year. In early iterations of the World Cup, national teams tended to draw their players from within their own borders. A journey to the World Cup was in all respects a journey.

With scattered exceptions, play-ers crossed from the familiar to the unfamiliar, coming to strange places, facing unknown players and encountering different styles and tactics of play. The tournament served as a meeting ground of dis-tant peoples and cultures.

That is no longer the case. For one, the average footballer at the World Cup is already a globe-trot-ter. According to the CIES Football Observatory, 65 per cent of the play-ers selected for this year’s World Cup play professionally for clubs outside their home countries. Un-surprisingly, many of these athletes ply their trade in the wealthiest and most influential domestic com-petitions of Western Europe: the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A. But they also came from leagues in places as disparate as Mexico, Turkey and China.

Stereotypes abound in the de-scription of the sport, as if the ten-dencies of a football team might express the soul of a nation — the robust efficiency of the Germans, for instance, or the swaying samba of the Brazilians. But as domes-tic leagues grow more diverse and players gain exposure abroad, the notion that particular countries have indigenous styles of play be-comes more difficult to sustain.

England won the World Cup in 1966 on home soil by playing a brand of direct football, privileging courage and work ethic over skill and guile. But that stereotypical “English football” now can be dif-ficult to find in England, where the top Premier League clubs are





In both soccer and life, you can be a proud representative of your home country while being incurably global.


To reverse this dangerous slide of trust of independ-

ent election observers, multilateral institutions and governments in the

region must stop turning a blind eye to the illegitimate

groups that lack basic professionalism.

CHRISTOPHER SABATINI

Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, peo-ple have lost confidence

in elections and politicians. And just as voters are questioning the democratic process, the tra-ditional watchdogs of electoral integrity — multilateral groups like the United Nations and the Organisation of American States and others — are being undermined by governments throughout the hemisphere on both sides of the ideological spectrum.

The twin pressures of de-clining trust in elections and support for those who guar-antee voting integrity create a

problem: Who is left to credibly judge what may be controversial elections in the coming months in two of the region’s biggest countries, Mexico and Brazil?

Over the past 30 years, elec-tion observer groups have helped establish internationally respected standards for free and fair elections, protected voters’ rights in those elections and de-fused political upheaval when sore losers have tried to steal elections or contested results. This happened in the Domin-ican Republic in 1994, Peru in 2000, Mexico in 2006 and Ec-uador in 2017.

The power of neutral observ-ers to defend free elections rests on a commitment from a gov-ernment holding an election to the idea that these organizations have the right and authority to determine whether the voting was fair. That commitment is under assault.

In November of last year, the

Trump administration rushed to embrace the contested re-elec-tion of President Juan Orlan-do Hernández of Honduras, an American ally, even after observers from the European Union and the Organization of American States raised concerns about the integrity of the vote

counting.And last month, President

Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela thumbed his nose at the inter-national community by refusing to invite independent observers into the country before a na-tional election that the Euro-pean Union and 14 countries in the hemisphere denounced as a sham.

Instead, Maduro invited bo-gus election monitoring groups like those from the Union of South American Nations and the Latin American Council of Elec-toral Experts — groups that have been called “zombie election monitors” — to “accompany” or certify the process but with no pretense of objectivity.

Organizations like these were created and supported by au-thoritarians like former Presi-dent Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua to give their elections a veneer of legitimacy and to

counter the power of legitimate, internationally recognised elec-tion observers.

The silence of many Latin American heads of state as au-thoritarians have undermined election observers or stolen elections has compounded the problem. In one glaring exam-ple, President Evo Morales of



1944World War II: Germany launch-es a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England. Only four of the eleven bombs strike their targets.

1971Vietnam War: The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers.

2000President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea meets Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit, in the northern capital of Pyongyang.

2002The United States with-draws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

TODAY DAY IN

HISTORY


TOP

4TWEETS

04

02

03

01

Amazing how accord-ing to Twitterworld,

when you praise Trump, you’re a Trump sycophant who has “sold out,” and when you criticize him, you’re a cowardly an-ti-Trumper. How about we just hold to a conservative standard, and let the chips fall where they may?

@benshapiro

This is the first time the US acknowledges what

would be a huge concession to North Korea, stopping the annual military exer-cises that the US has long regarded as defensive and NOT provocative. Trump just went with the North Korea line and called them provocative #breaking

@elisewho

This day 2 years ago 49 people where murdered,

a little less then 2 years later 17 were shot and killed at my high school. As a result of our politicians refusing to take ac-tion. Now we must vote this Novmber for those that no longer can to get morally-just leaders elected. #VTO

@davidhogg111

President Trump is in for a long flight back to

Washington on Air Force One, which he says has “about 20 televisions.” He likely won’t see the cover-age he wants or expected — as questions are being raised about what the U.S. gave up vs. what it got out of this sit down.

@kaitlancollins

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

editorial stances)

Wide Angle

Trump-Kim Summit: What’s in it for the world?

Just a couple of months ago, they were at one another’s throats.

Now, they are shaking hands, beaming at cameras, and shimmering in flashes of photography.

Just a couple of months ago, some news-headlines about them had frightened us.

The headlines had said, “Trump declares that Little Rocket Man is on a Suicide Mission” and “Kim Jong Un calls Trump a mentally deranged U.S. dotard”.

There were even headlines which said, “Donald Trump threatens to ‘totally destroy’ North Korea in UN speech.” And “North Korea’s Kim Claims Nuclear Weapons Can Reach All Of United States”.

It was a serious war of words. And a real war of weapons seemed impending and imperative. After all, these two were leaders of nations which actually possessed weapons of mass destruction.

But, thankfully, the harsh words of bigger nucle-ar buttons, and of mad man’s missiles, have slowly simmered down. From hoarse shouts to smooth dis-

course. From a provocative stand-off to an appreciative tête-à-tête.

And we can see this Trump-Kim meet as ‘progress’ - in a vague sort of way.

While all of us may agree that this Singapore Summit has been a great event for photo-ops, and for showing us it’s a harbinger of peace, we must not forget that the meeting’s ultimate outcomes are more critical for global well-being.

In the best case scenario, the world would move towards peace because - in the joint statement of the United States of America and the Democrat-ic People’s Republic of Korea – they promise “to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula” and “to work towards complete denu-clearization of the Korean Peninsula”.

But in the worst case scenario, it could only show Kim in good light to his own country. An excellent political benefit for him. He can now go around, legitimately recognized as a fellow leader, with Trump, of a powerful nu-

clear state. Not of a rogue nation. As it was being portrayed to us, so far.

Only time will tell us – as teams on both sides work out denuclearization plans – if this USA-DPRK Sum-mit, at Singapore’s Sentosa Island, will indeed turn out to be a great initiative for world peace.

Especially because ‘denuclearization’ is still a vague term. And that is why some foreign policy analysts say that Kim has actually not brought anything substan-tial to the table. And that he seems to be just using this event to gain legitimacy and political mileage for North Korea; and for himself.

On CNBC news website, Andrew Gilholm, the direc-tor of North Asia analysis at Control Risks, said about the joint statement that it was “brief and vague, and lacked any detail or new commitments.”

“We don’t yet know, and I don’t think that this declaration contains an actual definition around what denuclearization means and a convergence on that from both sides,” said Parag Khanna, a senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy to CNBC.

In other words, we should not be celebrating as if peace has already arrived, when it is still on the way.

A line in the joint agreement which says, “Reaffirm-ing the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work towards complete denuclear-isation of the Korean Peninsula”, is also very critical and problematic, according to Justin McCurry, the Tokyo correspondent of ‘The Guardian’.

McCurry says, “it does not meet Washington’s long-stated goal of complete, verifiable and irrevers-ible dismantlement (CVID) of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, but simply restates Kim’s position after his summit with Moon”.

Simply put, this small step, by these two, should not be perceived as a giant leap for all mankind’s peace.

It is ‘a step forward’, nevertheless.

In the worst case scenario, it could only show Kim in good light to his own country. An excellent political benefit for him. He can now go around, legitimately recognised as a fellow leader, with Trump, of a powerful nuclear state. Not of a rogue nation. As it was being portrayed to us, so far.

JOEL INDRUPATI




Morocco, and some of those play-ers are more comfortable speak-ing French, Flemish or Dutch than Moroccan Arabic. At the same time, European national teams embody the changing demographics of their countries. Nearly a third of Portu-gal’s and Switzerland’s squads, for example, were born elsewhere.

The greatest transformation, however, is the way the tourna-ment has become a televised global spectacle, an eventuality King Carol could not have conceived of in 1930. Though the World Cup takes place in a different country every four years, it is experienced everywhere, watched in 2014 by more than 3 billion people (if FIFA’s figures are to be believed). More than half of the nearly $5 billion in revenue gen-erated by the 2014 World Cup came from the sale of TV rights. Hun-dreds of millions of people watched every match, a prospect a long way removed from the first TV trans-mission of the tournament in 1954, when one semifinal was dropped from the European feed in favor of an agricultural fair in Copenhagen.

Interest in the tournament of-

ten has little to do with following your national team. Many World Cup spectators hail from countries that are rarely (if ever) involved. In 2014, nearly a quarter-billion peo-ple watched in China, 103 million in Indonesia, 85 million in India. For the doyens of the international game, these populations are lucra-tive markets for licensing and com-mercial revenue. But their love for a tournament where they are not represented points to something else altogether. I’m always amazed at how whole streets of Kolkata, India, for instance, become fes-tooned with the colors of beloved South American sides Argentina and Brazil. The World Cup isn’t just a crucible for nation-making, for nations to live out collective dreams and tragedies. It offers a universal theater, turning national identities into signs of longing for the wider world.

(Kanishk Tharoor is the author of “Swim-mer Among the Stars,” a short story col-

lection, and the presenter of the BBC radio series “Museum of Lost Objects”. Kanishk is the son of famous writer turned Indian

politician Sashi Tharoor)




are fraying, citizens’ trust in elections and their outcomes is plummeting. According to Vanderbilt University’s Ameri-casBarometer, from Canada to Argentina, citizens’ confidence in their electoral processes has dropped to 39 per cent in 2016-17 from 61pc in 2004, and trust in political parties has sunk to about 17pc from a high of about 24pc in 2010.

The lack of trust in electoral systems is stark in Brazil and Mexico.

Mexicans will elect a new president on July 1, yet only some 26pc of its citizens trust elections. In Brazil, which will have its first round of presiden-tial elections on October 7 — and, if no candidate receives more than 50pc of the vote, — which looks likely, a second round on October 28 — only 23pc of its citizens trust the electoral process.

In Mexico, the populist An-

drés Manuel López Obrador, who has a sizable lead in the polls, will make a third attempt at the presidency next month after his loss in 2006 ended in street protests in which he had himself sworn in as the legiti-mate president. And Brazil is confronting one of its most frac-tious and polarized elections in its 33-year democracy.

Who will be in Mexico and Brazil to help calm political cha-os should any candidate contest the results in these deeply polar-ized countries?

To reverse this dangerous slide of trust of independent election observers, multilateral institutions and governments in the region must stop turning a blind eye to the illegitimate groups that lack basic profes-sionalism and objectivity and denounce their efforts to hi-jack the professional, stand-ards-driven field of election observation.

The international commu-nity — including the European Union and the United Nations — should put pressure on Latin American countries facing elec-tions this year to support the ef-forts of legitimate international election observers.

Legitimate monitors must be invited into Latin American countries. Candidates and gov-ernments, including the United States, should pledge ahead of balloting to respect the judg-ments of these groups. Unless candidates and governments are willing to take these steps, electoral standards and voters’ rights will continue to decline and with them citizens’ confi-dence in the most basic of dem-ocratic processes: voting.

(Christopher Sabatini is a lecturer of international and public policy

at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and executive director of Global

Americans.)

12

world

MAY LIKE IT


Casualties as twin suicide attack hits LibyaAFP | Benghazi

Two suicide bombers yesterday hit forces

loyal to Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar who is lead-ing an offensive against ex-tremists in an eastern town, a spokesman for his forces said.

The explosions were heard across Derna as the bombers hit the Chiha district in the south of the town, spokesman Khalifa Al-Abidi said.

Abidi did not give a toll for the attacks but said civilians were among the casualties as the roof of a family home collapsed.

On Monday night, anoth-er suicide attack killed two fighters of Haftar’s Libyan National Army and wound-ed three, the spokesman said.

Over the past month, the self-styled LNA has been engaged in an offensive to take Derna, the only east-ern town outside Haftar’s control.

Turkish military destroys 12 targets in IraqReuters | Istanbul

The Turkish military destroyed 12 targets

in northern Iraq belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in overnight air strikes, it said yester-day, as the army steps up operations against militant targets in the Qandil region.

The targets, in northern Iraq’s Qandil, Hakurk and Avasin-Basyan regions, included shelters and am-munition depots, it said. Turkey’s army has recently ramped up strikes against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, which has bases in the Qandil moun-tains.

12 killed as monsoon rains hit BangladeshReuters | Dhaka

Landslides and related incidents triggered

by pre-monsoon rain in southeast Bangladesh have killed at least 12 people since Monday, including two Rohingya Muslims, and the government said it was moving fast to relo-cate tens of thousands of people.

The deaths happened in the districts of Cox’s Ba-zar and Rangamati - both bordering Myanmar from where hundreds of thou-sands of Rohingya have fled a military crackdown - due to incessant rain over the past three days, government officials said yesterday.

Life-size copycat Sphinx reappears in China• Egypt had previously asked the fake Sphinx to be torn down in 2014

• Egypt has reportedly called the replica ‘an insult to its cultural heritage’

Daily Mail | Beijing

A full-size replica of the Great Sphinx of Giza has reappeared in a theme

park in north China, reigniting fury from Egypt.

Egypt had reportedly called the replica an insult to its cul-tural heritage and demanded it be torn down when it was first erected in Hebei province in 2014.

Dismantling work did not take place until April 2016, but only the head was separated from the 20 by 60-metre (65 by 196-feet) statue.

However, the head of the fake

Sphinx has been re-attached to its body last month, sparking an uproar from Cairo, according to Chinese news website Guancha.cn.

The Egyptian government has reportedly filed a complaint to Unesco, the world heritage agency, saying that the structure

violated international conven-tions as it was being used as a film and TV filming location, according to the Telegraph.

The replica Sphinx meas-ures almost the same size as the original, with its appear-ance resembling closely to the world-famous limestone statue

currently standing on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile.

The model belongs to Hebei Great Wall Film Studios and is located in Shijiazhuang. Chinese media previously reported that the statue had been built as a film set in the theme park.

The company also constructed replicas of the Temple of Heaven and the Louvre Pyramid.

At the time, a manger from the park said the fake Spinx was a prop built for a film production and would be demolished once filming had been completed, according to the Chinese report.

But it unlike the original - which was carved from lime-stone - the Chinese version ap-pears to have been built using reinforced concrete.

In its May 2014 complaint to Unesco, Egyptian authorities asked to have the replica torn down, saying that they should have been notified of its creation was to shoot film and TV, in line with international conventions.

In addition, Egyptian officials believed that the copycat dif-fered greatly to its original and may give people a false inter-pretation of its country’s an-tiquities, according to previous reports.

There were also concerns that it could affect the tourism, film and shooting industries in Egypt.

The replica of Great Sphinx of Giza is under reconstruction at a theme park in Shijiazhuang city, north China’s Hebei province on May 15. It was previously dismantled in April 2016

Saudi to screen ‘The Message’ four decades after ban

• The cinema epic, which chronicles the life of Prophet Muhammad, has undergone extensive restoration

AFP | Dubai

“Th e Me s s a g e ” , Sy r i -an-American director

Moustafa Akkad’s epic film about Prophet Mohammed, will be screened for the first time in Saudi cinemas on Thursday -- four decades after an initial ban.

“Knowing that there were so many difficulties... , now that they’re showing it in the thea-tres I couldn’t be happier,” Ak-kad’s son said.

The 1976 film has been wide-ly-watched in the Arab world since its release.

The film caused controversy when it was released in 1976 and was banned across much of the Arab world.

“It caused a lot of controversy

and there were a lot of obstacles put in its way,” said Akkad’s son, Malik Moustafa Akkad, noting it remains banned in Kuwait.

Saudi Arabia lifted a long-

standing ban on cinemas last year, part of an easing of so-cial restrictions pushed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Moustapha Akkad shot two versions of

the film simultaneous-ly — one in Arabic and one in English. The Ar-abic version featured some of the biggest

stars of Arab cinema, including Abdullah

GaithStills from “The Message” which has now undergone extensive restoration

Indian fan paints house in Argentina coloursAFP | Kolkata, India

A die-hard Argentina fan in India has painted his house

in the team’s blue and white col-ours ahead of the football World Cup, saying his love for Lionel Messi’s men knows no bounds.

Kolkata resident Shib Shankar Patra’s passion for Argentina be-gan during the 1986 World Cup when Diego Maradona helped the team win the coveted trophy.

“For me Messi is an extension of Maradona. Everyone in my family loves Messi. We love his behaviour, we love everything about him,” Patra told AFP.

Patra who sells tea from a shop on the ground floor of his building wanted to travel to Rus-

sia to see his football heroes in person but ran short of money.

“I had saved 60,000 rupees ($890) but it was not enough for the trip. I will now watch Argen-tina’s games on TV and cheer for my favourite footballers.”

The family has also made elab-orate plans for Messi’s birthday which will fall during the World Cup on June 24.

“We will cut a cake and dis-tribute T-shirts among kids with Messi’s face embossed on them,” said Patra, a father of two.

Patra has even decorated the walls of each room in his house with life-size posters of Messi.

Shib Shankar Patra, a diehard Argentina fan from India, has painted his house in the Latin American teams colours

SMILE

The family has also made elaborate plans for Messi’s birthday

which falls during the World Cup on June 24

Taliban kill Afghan officials as ceasefire kicks inReuters | Kabul

Taliban fighters killed a district governor in

northern Afghanistan and kept up the pressure to seize control over some parts of Faryab province, ignoring the temporary ceasefire announced by the govern-ment that came into effect yesterday.

Last week Afghan Presi-dent Ashraf Ghani had an-nounced for the first time an unconditional ceasefire with the Taliban, coinciding with the end of the Muslim fasting month.

In response, the Afghan Taliban announced a sur-prise three-day ceasefire over the Muslim Eid holiday in the middle of June.

Captain blamed in Russian boat crashReuters | Moscow

Inve st i g a t o r s ye st e rd ay blamed a drunk captain for a

boat crash that killed 11 people on a river cruise in the Rus-sian city of Volgograd, which is hosting matches in the soccer World Cup.

A pleasure craft carrying 16 people collided with a tugboat on the Volga River, about 250 meters from the riverbank, kill-ing 11, rescue services said.

Russia’s Investigative Com-mittee, said the boat’s captain, who also owned the vessel, was

drunk and likely to blame for the crash.

The vessel, which had not been registered with authori-ties, was overloaded and there were only six life jackets on-board, all of which were un-used, the committee added in a statement.

Five people were rescued, and three of the survivors were in hospital, according to the website of regional governor Andrei Bocharov.


11people were killed

and five others were rescued after the boat crashed in the Russian

city of Volgograd

Chinese vase found in attic sells for 16.2 million euros• The vase was made for the Qing dynasty Emperor Qianlong

• The vase was found by chance among dozens of other pieces of Chinoiserie in the attic of a house in France

AFP | Paris

An 18th-century Chinese vase forgotten for dec-ades in a shoe box in a

French attic sold for 16.2 million euros ($19 million) at Sotheby’s in Paris yesterday -- more than 30 times the estimate.

Experts at the auction house said the exquisite porcelain ves-sel was made for the Qing dynas-ty Emperor Qianlong and had set a guide price of a much more modest 500,000 euros.

“This is a major work of art, it is as if we had just discovered a

Caravaggio,” Olivier Valmier, the Asian arts expert at the auction house, told reporters before the sale.

The vase, which was in perfect condition, “is the only known example in the world bearing such detail,” he added.

Rare porcelain from the Qian period has been going for astro-

nomical prices recently. A bowl made for Qianlong’s grandfather sold last April by Sotheby’s in Hong Kong went for $30.4 mil-lion dollars.

The vase -- which is decorated with idealised images of deer and cranes from the imperial summer hunting grounds at Mu-lan in northern China -- was

found by chance among dozens of other pieces of Chinoiserie in the attic of a house in France earlier this year.

‘We didn’t like it much’ The family -- from near Paris -- had acquired it at the end of the 19th century but it lay un-loved in a shoe box in the attic

for decades.“We didn’t like the vase too

much, and my grandparents didn’t like it either,” said owner of the piece, who only got in touch with Sotheby’s in March.

It was still in the shoe box when it was presented to Sothe-by’s experts for authentication.

The staggering price paid by a young Chinese collector, who was at the auction himself, is the highest ever recorded by the auction house in Paris.

The man, who was wearing a jogging top, beat off bids from other Chinese collectors, mostly over the phone. The collector, who has not been named, also did the bidding himself -- a rar-ity at this level of auction.

The polychrome vase with its idyllic landscape of mist-topped mountains and pine trees also carries a six-character “reign mark” on its base.

The only other “yancai ruyi” vase that has so far come to light is in the Guimet museum of Asi-atic arts in Paris, though it does not have the cranes.

The rare Imperial Qianlong porcelain vase (18th century) is displayed at Sotheby’s auction company in Paris

MAY LIKE IT

The animals and plants on the vase are

all highly symbolic. The deer is a marker

of happiness and prosperity, cranes represent age, the

pines eternal life, and the lingzhi mushroom

immortality

Man holds two people hostage in Paris: policeReuters | Paris

A man took two people hostage at a small busi-

ness in the centre Paris yes-terday and demanded that he be put in touch with the Iranian embassy to deliv-er a message to the French government, police sources said.

The area around the inci-dent in the 10th arrondisse-ment of Paris was ringed off by police. Special units and fire services were at the scene.

“Officials will be trying to start a negotiation with the man,” police union official Yves Lefebvre told BFM TV, which reported that the in-cident did not appear to be terrorism-related.

A police source said the hostage-taker initially hit one person who was able to escape. The attacker, who appeared to be brandishing a fake weapon, had doused his remaining two hostages in petrol, the source said.

Moscow urges locals not to drive ahead of World CupAFP | Moscow

Moscow authorities are pleading with locals

not to drive in the runup to Thursday’s World Cup opening match to avoid causing gridlock in the city.

The Russian capital of 12 million people is creaking at the seams as it starts receiv-ing hundreds of thousands visitors for the month-long football final.

Fans from the 32 partic-ipating nations will almost all either be based in Mos-cow or fly in and out of the sprawling and chronically congested megalopolis to the other 11 host venues.

Moscow officials had in-sisted for months that they had planned everything out to make sure the city func-tioned like clockwork once the games begin.

They sounded less confi-dent yesterday.

Avicii laid to rest in private funeralAFP | Stockholm

Swedish superstar DJ Av-icii has been buried in a

private ceremony with just his family and close friends present, his agent said yes-terday.

The musician, whose real name was Tim Bergling, “was buried Friday at the Skogskyrkogarden ceme-tery in Stockholm”, Ebba Lindqvist told AFP.

“Only his family and clos-est friends were present.”

Avicii was found dead on April 20 in Muscat, the capital of the Gulf sul-tanate Oman, where he had been on holiday with friends.

In an open letter pub-lished several days after his death, his family said he “wanted peace” and “could not go on any longer”.

Kim, Trump signatures show ambition: experts Reuters | Singapore

Kim Jong Un’s distinctive signature, penned on a his-

toric agreement with US Presi-dent Donald Trump yesterday, indicates his ambition and crea-tivity, handwriting experts said.

Trump’s signature, by con-trast, indicates a more guarded personality, they said.

Graphologist Koo Bon-jin said Kim’s signature suggest-ed an ambitious man who is “intuitive, rather than rational and logical”.

“He also writes very fast, which indicates he’s quick-wit-ted and impatient,” Koo added.

Kim’s signature contrasts with Trump’s angular, close-ly packed autograph, said Ka-ren Leong, a body language expert and director of Singa-pore-based consultants Influ-ence Solutions.

“There is tremendous space between each character, which indicates a creative individual who is open to taking on new ideas, to evolving,” Leong said of Kim’s signature. “It indicates a confident person with big dreams and ambitions.”

Trump’s signature, which Le-ong said looked like “arrows or

skyscrapers”, points to people who “tend to wear a mask to hide their true nature”.

“While both signatures are very different, as both men real-ly have different personalities, both in their own way want to make their mark,” she added.

Ahn Chan-il, a former North Korean military officer who heads the World Institute for North Korea Studies in Seoul, said Kim’s slanting signature was similar to those of his fa-ther and grandfather.

US President Donald Trump shows the document, that he and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un signed at their summit in Singapore

While both signatures are

very different, as both men really have different personalities,

both in their own way want to make

their markKAREN LEONG

Merkel-Trump G7 face-off photo headed for history booksAFP | Berlin

An official photo posted by the German government

showing a determined Angela Merkel standing up to an in-transigent Donald Trump ap-pears destined for the history books, summing up the deep fractures left by a disastrous G7 summit.

The already iconic picture by Berlin’s official photogra-pher at the gathering in Can-ada, Jesco Denzel, set social media alight when it appeared on Saturday, hours before Trump ripped up the hard-fought summit conclusions in an angry tweetstorm.

The image, which drew com-parisons to a Baroque painting, shows Merkel standing at the centre of the image leaning across a table before a seated Trump, his arms crossed in defiance.

Merkel, looking focused or exasperated depending on the viewer’s interpretation, is flanked by British Prime Min-ister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron, their faces largely obscured. Shinzo Abe of Japan looks on

with a world-weary expres-sion.

Many saw a distillation of a crisis of the West in the pho-tograph.

Like virtually all German media, Berlin’s daily Tagess-piegel ran the picture promi-nently and said Trump’s caus-tic tweets upending the sum-mit conclusions had “shaken the West”.

Trump “uses Twitter to snub American’s partners in Europe and the world - is the G7 fin-ished?” Other observers hailed a triumph for the spin doc-tors in Berlin eager to present Merkel as the leading defend-er of the rules-based global order.

“A hands-down public rela-tions triumph for Germany,” news weekly Der Spiegel said on its website of the picture that for most of the weekend seemed to capture the world’s imagination.

“In politics it’s not just con-tent that counts but images too.” - ‘1:0 for the US president’.

A winner, however, is of course in the eye of the be-holder.

This photo posted by the German government showing a determined Angela Merkel standing up to an intransigent Donald Trump appears destined for the history books


Mobile 33571173

CLASSIFIEDS

Size :192X 160CmTecnical: Oil And Acrilic On Canvas

Title : VenusPainter : Leonardo Tonioni

Marbella 2011

MARBELLA 2010OIL AND ACRILIC ON CANAVA

SIZE 161CMX101CM CARRERA DE GALGOS 35PAINTING OF LEONARDO

TONIONI

Rome 2017_Size 200X200cm_oil Painting On Canava_title ..The Gange River _ Navona

Square Rome Italy_ Painting Leonardo Tonioni_ The Famus

Fontain By Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

SIZE 80 X150 CM TECNICAL ACRILIC

ON CANVAS_ THE BIRTH´S AND THE EGG_

MARBELLA 2000 ARTIST LEONARDO TONIONI

Les Abeilles, Napoleon bee motif, Les Abeilles, The Bees - this pattern originates from Napoleon 1st era. The bee was one of the two symbols of the Empire and because of the rarity of honey

represents wealth and prosperity. The greatest strength, high concentrations of gold and traditional hand polishing give the work an unmatched depth and clarity that is second to none.

Size : 190X130cmTecnical Oil And Acrilic

Color On CanvasTitle : Miguel Servet Portrait.

Marbella 2011Artist : Leonardo Tonioni

SIZE 190X130CMTECNICAL ACRILIC AND

COLLAGE PAPER ON WOOD,MALAGA 2009

PAINTER LEONARDO TONIONI

Comes in this wooden chest.Made in Paris 1970s.

A new villa of 2 & 1/2 floorsLocation: Jabalat Habshi 3 large bedrooms, 2 halls, 2 kitchens, maid room, laundry room, roofed park for 2 carsHigh quality building materials Crystal white Turkish marbleElevator from Intl Elevators Co of SpainPlanted gardenLand: around 2,700 square feet Built Area: around 500 square meters Price: BD 210,000 negotiable Shaker 39290072Ali 38411077Shinu 33186252A.Hameed 39604605

This property is for sale for USD80,000.000 As its 600.000 m2 with almost 1 km of beach front.

Its perfect for a compound.Access to International airport is only

10mins ride by car. South Spain, Near Gibraltar.

Mobile 33571173

This property is for sale for BD 70,0003 Bedroom FlatEasy Access to Bahrain airportMobile 36142245

Size 180X320_tecnical_acrilic Painting On Wood_title Nilo River_painter Leonardo Tonioni_rome 2001

USD600,000

USD80,000.000

The Swiss house on Lake Geneva USD7,000,000

USD100,000

USD50,000

USD180,000

USD180,000

USD180,000

USD200,000

USD250,000

USD120,000

PROPERTIES

Flat at Amwaj For sale

PAINTINGS FOR SALE ORIGINAL LIMOGES SET

CHRISTOFLE SILVER 84KG 331 PIECE SET

BD 210,000

Mobile 33571173

14 mafi mushkila

BD 225,000/= . At Kangarappady, Ernakulam, Kerala, India Contact: 0091-98 46 14 42 80

15

entertainment


C R O S S W O R D

S U D O K U

Across

1- Pen name; 4- Property claims; 9- Scottish landowner; 14- Powdery residue; 15- Playground retort; 16- Computer key; 17- Certain Ivy Leaguer; 18- Fish with a net; 19- Analyze a metalic compound; 20- Foosball and billiards place?; 23- “___ Tu”: 1974 hit; 24- Hotel offering overnight accommodation; 25- Of the backbone; 28- OPEC units; 30- Trauma ctrs.; 33- Ready ___...; 34- Give a ring; 35- Brainchild; 36- In spite of; 39- Singer Ste-fani; 40- Panama and bowler; 41- Radii neighbors; 42- Camera type, briefly; 43- Nothing more than; 44- Takes by theft; 45-

B E E T L E B A I L E Y

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION

How to playPlace a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

Y O U R S T A R T O D A Y

AriesToday you might feel as if you’re walking around in a daze, but it’s a good daze. Your imagination and artistic abilities are sharp. Your intuition is especially attuned, and the thoughts and feelings of others are more apparent to you than they realize.

TaurusA group with which you’re affiliated with could sud-denly seem to grow closer, and a family feeling could develop among its members. One of the members could suddenly appear to you in a new light, and a ro-mantic attraction might develop. Whether you pursue it or not depends on your situation, but you’ll still feel closer to your friends now.

GeminiFamily members might want to get out in the world today, perhaps to attend a festival or rally. This is an excellent day to do this sort of thing. You should be feeling especially energetic and enthusiastic, and you’re likely to attract some interesting new people your way.

CancerFamily members who live far away might be planning a visit, and you could discuss it at some length today. A lot of phone calls or emails could be exchanged. You might be considering a move to another state or coun-try, but you aren’t likely to make definite plans now.

LeoInsights shared by a family member could lead to possible ways to increase your income. Expect to handle a lot of paperwork regarding money, but this is a positive development and definitely should leave you feeling good about your situation. This is a great day to do in-depth research.

VirgoIf you need to execute legal papers of any kind, you couldn’t find a better day to do it. Relationships, par-ticularly romantic ones, should be especially warm, supportive, and rewarding. New and interesting peo-ple could cross your path. You might feel an instant bond with at least one of them.

LibraHome and family are apt to be your primary focus today. Work around the house might take up a lot of your time. You might want to spruce up the place and make it more beautiful. Gardening could be especially rewarding now. If you’ve wanted to try some recipes from a new cookbook, this is the day to do it.

ScorpioToday a strong sense of destiny could lead you to someone new - either a potential close friend or pro-spective romantic partner. You’re apt to feel especially protective toward this person, and even though he or she is new to you.

SagittariusVolatile emotions may come to the surface among the members of your household today. This could prove irritating for you, but try to avoid becoming involved in others’ quarrels. At times like this, a lot could be said that shouldn’t be said, and apologies won’t necessarily wipe it out.

CapricornSomeone distraught or angry, perhaps a relative, might phone you today expecting a sympathetic ear and soothing words. You’ll be more than able to provide them. This is a great day for writing, whether a letter to a friend or the first chapter of a novel. Your ability with words is operating at a high level.

AquariusA lost possession could be recovered today. A gift, either money or a long-desired item of some kind, could bring tears to your eyes. Your sense of self-worth should be high at his time, and could cause you to feel nurturing towards everyone around you who doesn’t have your self-confidence.

PiscesToday should prove to be a wonderful day. Your physical energy is good, and you should be looking and feeling wonderful. Though you’ll probably want to spend most of the day at home, you’re likely to at-tract lots of interesting people in intriguing fields into your aura. Your ability to express your feelings is also high, so expect some stimulating conversations about whatever strikes your fancy. Enjoy your day.

Dinghy thingy; 46- Teri of “Tootsie”; 47- Unyielding; 54- Snob; 55- Shake awake; 56- Actress Vardalos; 57- Units; 58- Annex; 59- Giant Mel; 60- We’re Off ___ the Wizard; 61- Intended; 62- Itty-bitty;

Down1- Boxer Max; 2- “Cast Away” setting; 3- Stylish; 4- Clerisy; 5- Sharon’s land; 6- Les ___-Unis; 7- ___ lay me...; 8- Go it alone; 9- Discovers; 10- Baseball Hall of Famer Cap; 11- Wishing won’t make ___; 12- Paper quantity; 13- Boring; 21- Fame; 22- Nabisco’s ___ Wafers; 25- Pop pieces; 26- Go about stealthily; 27- Part of ICBM; 28- Moisten while cooking; 29- Diner orders; 30- Minneapolis suburb; 31- Related to the kidneys; 32- Wise ones; 34- Blacken; 35- Loafers; 37- Unit of heat; 38- Nourishing; 43- ___-tung; 44- Bib-lical strongman; 45- Carol start; 46- Dutch treat; 47- Golden rule preposition; 48- Turndowns; 49- Baby carriage; 50- Got on; 51- ___ pronounce you...; 52- Evening, informally; 53- Movable barrier; 54- Take a load off;

W O R D O F T H E D A Y

epithetDefinition:1 : a characterizing word or phrase accom-panying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing2 : a disparaging or abusive word or phrase3 : the part of a taxonomic name identifying a subordinate unit within a genus

Did You Know?Nowadays, epithet is usually used negative-ly, with the meaning “a derogatory word or phrase,” but it wasn’t always that way. Ep-ithet comes to us via Latin from the Greek noun epitheton and ultimately derives from epitithenai, meaning “to put on” or “to add.” In its oldest sense, an epithet is simply a descriptive word or phrase, espe-cially one joined by fixed association to the

name of someone or something (as in “Peter the Great” or the stock Homeric phrases “gray-eyed Athena” and “wine-dark sea”). Alternatively, epithets may be used in place of a name (as in “the Peacemaker” or “the Eternal”). These neutral meanings of epi-thet are still in use, but today the word is more often used in its negative “term of disparagement” sense.

16 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2018

JUNE Ramadan Day Imsak Fajr Sunrise Dhuhr Asr Maghrib Isha13 28 WED 03:01 am 03:11 am 4:45 am 11:38 am 03:03 pm 06:31 pm 08:01 pm

Method1. Place the steel

cut oats, wa-ter, apple, rai-sins, butter, c i n n a m o n , brown sugar, and vanil la extract into a slow cook-er, and stir to combine and dissolve the sugar. Cover the cooker, set to Low, and allow to cook 6 to 7 hours (for firm oats) or 8 hours (for softer texture).

Ramadan cooking

Slow Cooker Oats

The Indian Ladies Association (ILA) organised Ramadan night at the Ramee Grand, Seef, where more than 90 members were present. It was an evening full of fun, music, games, spot prizes and Ramadan Bazaar. Event was sponsored by bwallet and Ramee Grand.

Businessman and Social Worker Rohil Hashmi (Chairman Hashmi group of company) arranged an Iftar Dinner in honour of Pakistani and Indian community members at D 9 Restaurant Riffa .

Shukat Ali (Chairman Arain Welfare Foundation Bahrain - AWFB) arranged an Iftar dinner in honour of leading c o m m u n i t y m e m b e r s. Traditional meal was served to all who turned up for the gathering. The members of the community praised the club for holding the Iftar as such traditional Islamic community gatherings serve to strengthen the bond of relationships.

Ingredients• 1 cup steel cut oats• 3 1/2 cups water• 1 cup peeled and chopped apple• 1/2 cup raisins• 2 tablespoons butter• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon• 2 tablespoons brown sugar• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

As part of its social responsibility programme, Solidarity Bahrain employees distributed Ramadan Iftar Boxes at Seef Area. The campaign was aimed to facilitate those who work outdoors to break their fast and promote safer driving.

The National Bank of Bahrain (NBB), in keeping with its long- established tradition of community care, announced the distribution of Eid coupons to Friendship Society for the Blind Kindergarten, Saudi Bahraini Institute for the Blind, Child Care Home and Bahrain Mobility International in celebration of the Eid Al -Fitr holiday. The coupons distribution is part of NBB ongoing donation and contr ibut ion program. Through this initiative, the Bank seeks to spread the joy of the Eid with those charities and to meet their needs and requirements for this occasion as part of its duty towards the community and its promise to be closer to them.

Ariana Grande, Pete Davidson engagedIANS | Los Angeles

Singer Ariana Grande and comedi-an Pete Davidson reportedly got

engaged after several weeks of dating.“It’s a recent engagement. They’re

just two people who found love quick-ly and make each other happy all the time. They both started talking about it this past weekend. It’s nothing they’ve been hiding,” a source close to the couple told people.com.

Grande tweeted an emoji-filled message moments after the news went public on Monday.

“I love you,” she wrote, flanked by

laughing monkey faces. She contin-ued by writing “sm” (presumably “so much”) before adding more monkey faces and signing off with “ok bye”.

The pair have been using social me-dia to express their affection.

‘Incredibles 2’ set to break more records

AFP | Los Angeles, United States

After a glut of lucrative box office juggernauts from its Marvel Cinematic Universe, Disney is

looking to break more records with “Incredibles 2,” the long-awaited re-turn of a quirky animated superhero family. The film -- which comes out Friday, a full 14 years after “The In-credibles” -- looks set to score the highest debut ever for an animated film at the North American box office.

Experts are predicting a $140 mil-lion-plus opening weekend for Brad Bird’s sequel to his own hugely popu-

lar original, which would surpass the $135 million debut of its Disney-Pixar stablemate, “Finding Dory” (2016).

“For a very long time, people have been wanting this film,” Samuel L. Jackson, who returns as superhero Frozone, told reporters at last week’s glittering premiere in Hollywood.

In the latest adventure, Parr family matriarch Helen (Holly Hunter) is called upon to help bring the world’s hiding superheroes back into the open, while husband Bob (Craig T. Nelson) navigates the day-to-day heroics of being a homemaker.

17 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2018

KAALA ( TAMIL / ACTION / CRIME )

Rajnikanth, Eswari Rao, Nana Patekar

DANA CINEMA 10:45,13:45,16:45,19:45,22:45SEEF (I) 10.30 AM + 10.45 AM + 11.15 AM + 1.30 + 2.00 + 2.30 + 4.30 + 5.00 + 5.30 + 7.45 + 8.15 + 8.45 + 11.00 + 11.30 PM + 12.00 MNAL HAMRA 11.15 AM + 2.30 + 5.30 + 8.45 PM + 12.00 MN

KAALA ( TELUGU / ACTION / CRIME )

Rajnikanth, Eswari Rao, Nana Patekar,

DANA CINEMA 10:30,13:30,16:30,19:30,22:30SEEF (I) 1.00 + 4.15 + 7.30 + 10.45 PM

KAALA ( HINDI / ACTION / CRIME )

Rajnikanth, Eswari Rao, Nana Patekar,

DANA CINEMA 11:00, 14:00, 17:00, 20:00, 23:00CINECO (20) 10.30 AM + 1.45 + 5.00 + 8.15 + 11.30 PMSEEF (II) DAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 2.00 + 5.15 + 8.30 + 11.45 PM SAAR 7.45 + 11.00 PM WADI AL SAIL DAILY AT: 7.45 + 11.00 PM

PARMANU ( HINDI/ ACTION/ DRAMA/ HISTORY )

John Abraham, Boman Irani, Diana Penty

DANA CINEMA 10:45,13:15,15:45,18:15,20:45,23:15CINECO (20) 1.30 + 6.30 + 11.30 PM

VEERE DI WEDDING (HINDI/ACTION/DRAMA/HISTORY)

John Abraham, Boman Irani, Diana Penty

DANA CINEMA 10:45,13:00,15:15,17:30,19:45,22:00,00:15CINECO (20) 11.15 AM + 1.45 + 4.15 + 6.45 + 9.15 + 11.45 PMSEEF (II) DAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 1.15 + 3.45 + 6.15 + 8.45 + 11.15 PM SAAR 8.45 PM WADI AL SAIL DAILY AT: 8.45 + 11.15 PM

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM – 3D (ACTION/ADVENTURE/SCI-FI)

Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeff Goldblum

DANA CINEMA 11:00,13:30,16:00,18:30,21:00,23:30 10:45,13:15,15:45,18:15,20:45,23:15CINECO (20) 12.45 + 3.30 + 6.15 + 9.00 + 11.45 PM DAILY AT (IMAX 3D): 1.00 + 3.45 + 6.30 + 9.15 PM + 12.00 MN DAILY AT: 12.15 + 3.00 + 5.45 + 8.30 + 11.15 PM DAILY AT (VIP II): 12.30 + 3.15 + 6.00 + 8.45 + 11.30 PM DAILY AT (VIP I): 12.00 + 2.45 + 5.30 + 8.15 + 11.00

SEEF (II) DAILY AT: 11.45 AM + 12.45 + 2.30 + 3.30 + 5.15 + 6.15 + 8.00 + 9.00 + 10.45 + 11.45 PM DAILY AT (3D): 12.15 + 3.00 + 5.45 + 8.30 + 11.15 PM SAAR 7.45 + 8.45 + 10.30 + 11.30 PMWADI AL SAIL DAILY AT: 8.00 + 9.00 + 10.45 + 11.45 PM DAILY AT (3D): 8.30 + 11.15 PM

SHOW DOGS (ACTION / ADVENTURE / COMEDY)

Alan Cumming, Natasha Lyonne, Will Arnett

DANA CINEMA 11:00,12:45,14:30,16:15,18:00,19:45,21:30,23:15,01:00CINECO (20) 11.45 AM + 1.45 + 3.45 + 5.45 + 7.45 + 9.45 + 11.45 PMSEEF (II) DAILY AT: 11.15 AM + 1.15 + 3.15 + 5.15 + 7.15 + 9.15 + 11.15 PM

E.MA.YAU ( MALAYALAM / COMEDY )

Chemban Vinod, Dileesh Pothan, Vinayakan

DANA CINEMA 10:45,13:00,15:15,17:30,19:45,22:00,00:15SEEF (I) 11.15 AM + 1.45 + 4.15 + 6.45 + 9.15 + 11.45 PM

LAST RAMPAGE : THE ESCAPE OF GARY TISON ( CRIME / DRAMA / MYSTERY )

Robert Patrick, Heather Graham, Bruce Davison

DANA CINEMA 10:45,12:30,14:15,16:00,17:45,19:30,21:15,23:00,00:45CINECO (20) 12.00 + 2.00 + 4.00 + 6.00 + 8.00 + 10.00 PM + 12.00 MNSEEF (II) DAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 1.30 + 3.30 + 5.30 + 7.30 + 9.30 + 11.30 PM

DEADPOOL 2 (18+) (ACTION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY)

RYAN REYNOLDS, JOSH BROLIN, MORENA BACCARIN

CINECO (20) 11.30 AM + 2.00 + 4.30 + 7.00 + 9.30 PM + 12.00 MNSEEF (II) DAILY AT: 12.30 + 6.00 + 11.30 PMSAAR 11.15 PMWADI AL SAIL DAILY AT: 9.00 + 11.30 PM

AVENGERS: INFINTY WAR (PG-15) (ACTION/ADVENTURE)

KAREN GILLAN, ROBERT DOWNEY JR., TOM HOLLAND

CINECO (20) 11.30 AM + 2.30 + 5.30 + 8.30 + 11.30 PM SEEF (II) DAILY AT: 3.00 + 8.30 PM

RAMPAGE (PG-15) (ACTION/THRILLER/SCI-FICTION)

DWAYNE JOHNSON, JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN, WILL YUN LEE

CINECO (20) 10.30 AM + 12.45 + 3.00 + 5.15 + 7.30 + 9.45 PM + 12.00 MN

BREAKING IN (PG-15) (THRILLER/CRIME)

GABRIELLE UNION, BILLY BURKE, RICHARD CABRAL

CINECO (20) 11.15 AM + 1.15 + 3.15 + 5.15 + 7.15 + 9.15 + 11.15 PM

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (PG-15) (ACTION/ADVENTURE/FANTASY)

ALDEN EHRENREICH, WOODY HARRELSON, EMILIA CLARKE

CINECO (20) 12.30 + 3.15 + 6.00 + 8.45 + 11.30 PM

PETER RABBIT (PG) (ADVENTURE/COMEDY/FAMILY)

ROSE BYRNE, DOMHNALL GLEESON, SAM NEILL

CINECO (20) 11.00 AM + 1.00 + 3.00 + 5.00 + 7.00 + 9.00 + 11.00

LIFE OF THE PARTY (15+) (COMEDY)

MELISSA MCCARTHY, GILLIAN JACOBS, JULIE BOWEN

CINECO (20) 12.30 + 2.45 + 5.00 + 7.15 + 9.30 + 11.45 PM

A QUIET PLACE (15+) (THRILLER/HORROR/DRAMA)

EMILY BLUNT, JOHN KRASINSKI, NOAH JUPE

CINECO (20) 11.30 AM + 1.30 + 3.30 + 5.30 + 7.30 + 9.30 + 11.30 PM

MASHA & THE BEAR (G) (ANIMATION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY/FAMILY)

ANGELICA KEAMY, BORIS KUTNEVICH

CINECO (20) 11.15 AM + 4.00 + 8.45 PM

RAAZI(PG-15) (HINDI/THRILLER/DRAMA)

ALIA BHATT, VICKY KAUSHAL, JAIDEEP AHLAWAT

CINECO (20) 1.15 + 6.00 + 10.45 PM

TOMB RAIDER (PG-15) (ACTION/ADVENTURE)

ALICIA VIKANDER, HANNAH JOHN-KAMEN, WALTON GOGGINS

CINECO (20) 11.00 AM + 4.00 + 9.00 PM

SID & AYA: NOT A LOVE STORY (PG-15) (FILIPINO/ROMANTIC/DRAMA) NEW

ANNE CURTIS, DINGDONG DANTES

SEEF (II) DAILY AT: 11.45 AM + 1.45 + 3.45 + 5.45 + 7.45 + 9.45 + 11.45 PM

ABATTOIR (18+) (HORROR/THRILLER/CRIME) NEW

JESSICA LOWNDES, JOE ANDERSON, LIN SHAYE

SEEF (II) DAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 1.00 + 3.00 + 5.00 + 7.00 + 9.00 + 11.00 PM

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‘Incredibles 2’ Which comes out Friday 14 years after ‘The Incredibles’

Gal Gadot to star with Dwayne JohnsonIANS | Los Angeles

“Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot will star

opposite Dwayne Johnson for the upcoming movie “Red Notice”.

Rawson Marshall Thurber is directing the film from his original script. Its shooting will begin in April next year in Europe and it will release worldwide on June 12, 2020, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

Thurber flew to London for less than 30 hours just to pitch Gadot in person for the role.

The film’s log line is being kept under wraps, but it is described as a globe-trotting, action-comedy, heist thriller designed as a three-hander

between Johnson, Gadot and another male star who will soon be set. Gadot plays a brilliant and mysterious figure in the art world.

“Red Notice” will mark Gadot’s first starring role outside the DC universe since she joined the A-list on “Wonder Woman”. She is currently shooting “Won-der Woman 2”, reuniting with director Patty Jen-kins.

She recently aligned with Sue Kroll for “My Dearest Fidel”, a fact-based tale that is a potential star vehicle for her.

Rawson Marshall Thurb-er is directing the film

from his original script. Its shooting will begin in April next year in Europe and it will release world-

wide on June 12, 2020

KNOW WHAT

Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson

Rose indicted on drug chargeIANS | Los Angeles

Actress Rose McGowan was in-dicted in Virginia on one count of

cocaine possession.The charge is to do with a Janu-

ary 2017 incident in which she left her wallet on her seat after a United Airlines flight into Washington DC’s Airport. Police said two bags of co-caine were discovered inside, reports deadline.com. It carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Accord-ing to a radio station WTOP, the court will set a trial date on Tuesday.

“Rose steadfastly maintains her in-nocence. These charges would have never been brought if it were not for her activism as a voice for women everywhere. I assure you, this selec-

tive prosecution will be met with a strong defense,” McGowan’s attorney Jose Baez said in a statement.

McGowan, who has been in the spotlight for coming forward to accuse Harvey Weinstein, was arrested in November, 10 months after her flight from Los Angeles to Washington DC.

Rose McGowan

18

sports


I am happy at the way the

organisation works. The

way fighters are treated is amazing. The fighters are valued and respected

BRYAN CREIGHTON

Monaco’s Glik set for late entryAFP | Warsaw, Poland

Monaco defender Ka-mil Glik will miss Po-

land’s two opening World Cup matches as he recovers from shoulder injury, the country’s team doctor re-ported yesterday.

The 30-year-old set piece specialist will not be avail-able for the games against Senegal on June 19, and Co-lombia five days later.

But he will be in conten-tion to face Japan in Po-land’s final Group H match in Volgograd on June 28.

“After a series of tests I’ve decided that Kamil Glik will go to the World Cup in Rus-sia,” said the squad’s doctor Jacek Jaroszewski.

Honeymoon on hold as Risdon targets World Cup blissAFP | Kazan, Russia

There’s only one thing b e t t e r t h a n t h e

post-wedding bliss of a re-laxing honeymoon: playing at the World Cup, says Aus-tralia defender Josh Risdon.

“I guess there’s no better place to be, except for the honeymoon, after a wed-ding,” Risdon told media yesterday at the Socceroos’ training camp in Kazan.

Pogba can shine at World Cup: SagnaReuters | Moscow

France midfielder Paul Pogba can put an un-

derwhelming season at Manchester United behind him and make an impact at the World Cup, according to former Arsenal defender Bacary Sagna.

“Paul is a special charac-ter and he’s very important for the team,” Sagna, who played for France 65 times, told Sky Sports.

“He had a so-so season with Manchester United because he got a lot of crit-icism... People have to re-member he is only a holding midfield player and he has orders from the manager.

Ball girls selected for opener in Russia

Reuters | AGRYZ, Russia

A group of 14 Russian girls will act as ballgirls

in the opening match of the World Cup on Thursday, the first all-female group to do so. The girls, aged 13 to 16, from Agryz, a small town of 19,000 people some 800 km east of Moscow, were select-ed by the Russian national team after making a spon-sor’s shortlist of “inspiring entrants” to a national jun-ior football tournament.

Brave CF announces performance bonus• The reward system is announced on top of the win bonus which is already provided to the athletes

TDT | Manama

Brave Combat Federation has announced the per-formance bonus for fight-

ers in Belfast. Brave 13: Europe Evolution

had embraced the concept of performance bonus to reach out to more athletes than the tradi-tional concepts set by promo-tions such as fight of the night, submission of the night and knockout of the night.

In the first edition where the concept is introduced, Brave Combat Federation shortlist-ed Aidan James, Cian Cowley,

Chad Hanekom and Rodrigo Cavalheiro.

The reward system is an-nounced on top of the win bo-nus which is already provided to the athletes.

“Rewarding athletes aptly is necessary for the growth of the sport as well as to sustain the fighters. So we hope that this movement will benefit the fighters. Apart from motivation,

this will lead the fighters to be competitive and to deliver qual-ity performance. I am glad that we are bringing such changes that has a positive impact in global mixed martial arts,” said Mohammed Shahid, President of Brave Combat Federation.

Cian Cowley from SBG Ireland won the performance bonus for his fight in Brave Combat Federation

KNOW WHAT

In the first edition where the concept

is introduced, Brave CF shortlisted Aidan James, Cian Cowley, Chad Hanekom and Rodrigo Cavalheiro

Lopetegui to take Real Madrid job

• Lopetegui and the Spain squad are currently at their training base

AFP | Madrid, Spain

Real Madrid yesterday announced the appoint-

ment of Spain’s Julen Lo-petegui as their coach from next season, stunning the national team ahead of the start of the World Cup.

“Real Madrid announce that Julen Lopetegui will be the coach of the first team during the next three seasons,” the Champions League winners said in a statement, adding that the 51-year-old “will join the club after Spain’s participa-tion in the World Cup”.

Lopetegui will replace Zinedine Zidane as coach at the Santiago Bernabeu, after the Frenchman quit on May 31 in the wake of their Champions League final win over Liverpool in Kiev.

The news comes as a jolt for Spain, just three days before their opening game at the Russian World Cup against Iberian neighbours Portugal in Sochi. Lopetegui and the Spain squad are cur-rently at their training base in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar. The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) confirmed that Madrid will pay compensation to get Lopetegui out of the two years he has remaining on his contract.

Spain’s coach Julen Lopetegui

Creighton aims to extend contract with Brave

• Bryan Creighton is currently training at the HAMMA MMA Academy

TDT | Manama

Bryan Creighton made a splash at Brave 13: Europe

Evolution hosted in Belfast with a submission victory over Andy Young. Creighton locked in a Guillotine Choke in the second round to bring down Young.

The bout showcased intense action between the two fly-weight fighters. Brave Combat Federation had earlier stated to focus on every division in the promotion and flyweight division had been gaining sig-

nificant attention. In 2018, the Bahrain based

global promotion signed 10 times IBJJF World Champion Bruno Malfacine and IMMAF

Gold Medalist, Hussain Ayyad to boost the division.

It was then the prospect from Liverpool expressed his interest to be a part of the roaster of Brave Combat Federation on a long term basis. He is currently training at the HAMMA MMA

Academy which is noted for training fighters who have se-cured 36 British titles.

“I am happy at the way the organisation works. The way fighters are treated is amazing. The fighters are valued and re-spected,” said Creighton.

Bryan Creighton in action

Brave 13: Stephen Loman’s mother praised for historic supportTDT | Manama

The main event of Brave 13: Europe Evolution wit-

nessed Conor McGregor and his team arriving in support to Frans Mlambo. However Ste-phen Loman’s mother reached to Belfast to support her son during his first title defence. Through out the week, Naty Nabehet was a part of the fight team that helped Loman to pre-pare for his title defence.

During the bout even the support from Conor McGre-gor wasn’t able to overcome Loman who was supported by his mother from the audience. The bout ended up with Loman defending his championship by unanimous decision.

The support, determination and bravery of Naty Nabehet was hailed and praised as she joined the main stage celebrat-ing the victory of her son.

Stephen Loman is the young-est fighter from Philippines to defend his championship in

the United Kingdom and the youngest fighter in Brave Com-bat Federation to win a cham-pionship. “I am so proud of my son. Because he made a choice and did followed it through. And he is a good fighter,” said Naty Nabehet Loman.

Naty Nabehet alongside her son Stephen Loman, Bantamweight champion of Brave Combat Federation

Hearn calls Wilder’s bluff on Anthony Joshua title fightAFP | London

American Deontay Wild-er will have a contract in

front of him by the end of this week for a world heavyweight unification bout with Britain’s Anthony Joshua, the latter’s promoter Eddie Hearn said yesterday.

Hearn told Sky Sports News it is the only way to find out if the WBC titleholder Wilder is serious about fighting Joshua even though reports out of the United States on Monday sug-gested he had accepted a two fight deal with the 2012 Olym-pic champion and now holder of the WBA, WBO and IBF belts.

Complicating matters is that Joshua is already due to take on WBA mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin.

“We’ve got to get to the bot-tom of it today, but one thing I can tell you is that by the end of this week Deontay Wilder will have a contract in front of him and we’ll see if he’s real,” said Hearn. “I think Wemb-ley is where Anthony Joshua wants it to take place. He had a brilliant night there against Wladimir Klitschko.”

Anthony Joshua

Portugal camp quiet on mounting Sporting crisisAFP | Kratovo, Russia

Portugal midfielder Joao Mario deflected questions

on the crisis engulfing Sport-ing Lisbon that has seen four national team players at the World Cup rescind their con-tracts with the troubled club.

William Carvalho, Gelson Martins, Bruno Fernandes, as well as Dutch striker Bas Dost, all filed notice with Portuguese authorities on Monday to say they were breaking their con-tracts with Sporting, claiming “just cause”.

Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio had already walked out of the club before flying to

Russia amid the fallout from last month’s horrific gang at-tack on players and coaches.

“Everything that has to do with questions not related to our national team are not going to be discussed because we are all focused on our games for Portugal and the match with Spain,” Mario told reporters at the team’s base camp on the outskirts of Moscow.

“It’s not a question that should be raised now, we are focused on the game against Spain,” added the former Sporting midfielder, who spent the second half of last season on loan at West Ham from In-ter Milan.

“Everything that doesn’t have to do with the World Cup should be postponed un-til later.”

Several first team players were attacked on May 15 by disgruntled fans wearing bal-aclavas after they invaded the club’s training complex at Al-cochete, outside Lisbon.


KNOW WHAT

Egypt has the region’s best chance of victory Two-thirds of young Arabs say they will closely follow the World Cup competitionTDT | Manama

With a record four Arab national teams com-peting in the FIFA

World Cup this year - Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia - ASDA’A Burson-Mars-teller’s 10th annual Arab Youth Survey reveals that young peo-ple across the region think that Egypt has the best chance among the Arab nations of pro-gressing through the tourna-ment.

Two in three young Arabs (65 per cent) say they will closely follow the World Cup compe-tition, which kicks off in Rus-sia, with the Saudi Arabia team playing the hosts of the World Cup; and young Arab women (60 pc) are nearly as likely to follow the competition as young Arab men (70 pc).

Among those who will follow the competition, 14 per cent say that Germany will be crowned the FIFA World Cup 2018 cham-pions, 13 pc say Brazil has the best chance to win, while anoth-er 12 pc expect Argentina to win.

Among those who will follow

the competition, 11 per cent say they will support Egypt, making the Egyptian team as popular as Argentina (12 pc) and Germany (10 pc).

Egypt is the clear fan favorite in the GCC countries, with 24 pc of GCC youth saying they will

support Egypt in the compe-tition.

When asked specifically about the four Arab nations taking part in the World Cup, Egypt is the favourite with a third or respondents (34 pc) saying Egypt will outperform

other Arab countries in Russia, followed by Morocco (22 pc), Saudi Arabia (21 pc), and Tuni-sia (19 pc).

Sunil John, founder of AS-DA’A Burson-Marsteller and President, Middle East, Burson Cohn and Wolfe, said: “The FIFA World Cup is going to be a major event for youth in the Middle East and North Africa. With the highest ever participation from Arab national teams, it’s not sur-prising that two in every three young Arabs will be following the competition closely. The FIFA World Cup encourages a sense of unity among supporters in the Arab world, and brings feelings of hope and excitement across the region.”

The FIFA World Cup encourages a sense

of unity among supporters in the

Arab world SUNIL JOHN

Portugal’s midfielder Joao Mario attends a press conference

England’s stars prepare for their pre-WC photoshoot• The players changed into the £413 M&S navy three-piece suits, light blue shirts, silk stripe ties and black leather brogues

Mailonline | London

England jet out to Russia for the World Cup yesterday

and they certainly looked smart in their matching Marks and Spencer suits.

Gareth Southgate’s side posed for their official pre-tour-nament squad photograph on Monday before departing their St George’s Park base in Staf-fordshire for their World Cup base in Repino, near St Peters-burg.

And a set of behind-the-scenes photographs captured the England players getting suited and booted as they pre-pare for the biggest event in world football.

The players changed into the £413 M&S navy three-piece suits, light blue shirts, silk stripe ties and black leather brogues before assembling for the photograph.

The Three Lions enter the tournament with spirits boost-ed by friendly wins over Nige-ria and Costa Rica in the past 10 days, though expectations of success remain pretty low following recent tournament failures. They open against Tunisia in Volgograd on Mon-day before playing Panama in Nizhny Novgorod on June 24 and Belgium in Kaliningrad on

June 28. Should England make it through the group stage, they’re likely to face Poland or Colombia in the last-16.The squad depart St George’s Park for Birmingham Airport yes-terday morning, taking a direct flight to St Petersburg, where they will board a coach and make the hour-long journey to their base at the ForRestMix Club in Repino.

They will continue their build-up with an open training session at the Spartak Zele-nogorsk stadium - a 10 min-ute drive from the hotel - on Wednesday morning.

Southgate and his players appeared in good spirits as they enjoyed their final few hours on these shores this week

Hvala snips Messi ‘headshot’ for fansNovi Sad, Serbia

Looking for a new haircut to celebrate the World Cup in

style? A hairdresser is clipping ‘portraits’ of stars Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo onto the back of heads in soccer-made Serbia.

Mario Hvala gives his crea-tivity free rein as he shaves and snips away on a headshot “hair tattoo” in his Novi Sad salon ahead of Thursday’s World Cup

kick-off. It all began nine years ago, he says, with a suggestion to a customer, “to do something different”.

That ended with a tarantula sculpted with a cut-throat razor into the hair on the back of the man’s head.

And it’s turned into some-thing of a local fashion in Ser-bia’s second largest city Novi Sad. “The portraits are the most complex when doing the ‘hair tattoos’,” Hvala said.

Portugal goalkeep-er Rui Patricio had already walked out of the club before

flying to Russia amid the fallout

from last month’s horrific gang attack

on players and coaches

Serbian hairdresser Mario Hvala creates a hair tattoo showing the portrait of Argentinian football player Messi on the head of a football fan

Group H: Poland head wide open group

TEAMS:Poland: FIFA ranking: 8best achievement: 3rd place 1974, 1982Coach: Adam Nawalka

Senegal : FIFA ranking: 55Best achievement: Quarter-fi-nals 2002Coach: Aliou Cisse

Colombia : FIFA ranking: 16Best achievement: Quarter-fi-nals 2014Coach: Jose Pekerman

Japan: FIFA ranking: 61Best achievement: Round of 16 2002, 2010Coach: Akira Nishino

KEY GAMEPoland-Colombia (24 June 2018, Kazan Arena, Kazan)

The clash between Poland and Colombia could prove piv-otal, in terms of who will ad-vance to the knockout stages.

Both sides possess an array of talent that have the potential to set the tournament alight, and this match-up at the Kazan Arena may provide the platform for a memorable individual or team display.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOWEarning the last automatic qual-ification spot in South America, Colombia will be keen to bet-ter their performance at Brazil 2014 when they reached the last eight. Radamel Falcao and James Rodriguez will be key players for Los Cafeteros.

Senegal’s previous lone ap-pearance at the world finals was a memorable one. Their maid-en campaign included victo-ries over then world champions France in the group stage and

Sweden in the Round of 16.Having edged Saudi Arabia

and Australia to top Asian zone Group B in qualification, Japan will be aiming to have their best campaign at a global finals in Russia. The Samurai Blue’s best achievement was reaching the Round of 16 as co-hosts in 2002 and at South Africa 2010.

Hosts have point to prove in openerMoscow, Russia

Host nation Russia are un-der enormous pressure

to perform as they head into Thursday’s World Cup cur-tainraiser against Saudi Arabia in a contest between the two lowest-ranked nations in the tournament.

Stanislav Cherchesov’s side will walk out onto the pitch at the 80,000-capacity Luzhniki stadium, the historic cruci-ble of Russian sport, ranked a lowly 70th in the world, three spots below Group A rivals Saudi Arabia, and without a victory in eight months.

A 1-1 draw in Moscow with Turkey last week made for-mer national team goalkeeper Cherchesov the first Russian or Soviet manager to go winless in seven consecutive games. Russia has spent more than $13 billion on preparations for the big event, and President Vladimir Putin called on the team to pull themselves to-

gether as they look to progress from a section.


P L A Y E R O F T H E D A Y

Jefferson FarfanAlthough he is now 33, Farfan proved himself to be as important as ever to the Peruvian cause during Russia 2018 qualifying. The experienced forward contributed vital goals, most notably in the win over Paraguay and the play-off victory over New Zealand and is now looking forward to his first World Cup.

16 the number of goals that Poland’s Robert

Lewandowski scored in ten appearances to top

the European qualifying scoring charts

Inui, Kagawa lift Japan • Japan open their campaign on June 19 against Colombia

Reuters | Tokyo

Japan ended their World Cup warm-up on a high, coming from behind to

defeat Paraguay 4-2 in Austria yesterday in a game that burst into life in the dying minutes.

Akira Nishino’s team man-aged just three shots at the Tivoli-Neu stadium in Inns-bruck, yet finished with four goals, courtesy of a brace from Takashi Inui, an own goal by Paraguay’s Federico Santander and a stoppage-time effort from Shinji Kagawa.

Eibar’s Inui had set up the victory with two second-half goals, both assisted by Borussia Dortmund’s Kagawa, after Os-car Romero had given the South Americans a 32nd-minute lead.

Richard Ortiz pulled one back for Paraguay on 90 minutes be-fore Kagawa crowned an influ-ential performance with Japan’s fourth a minute later.

The result ensured a bright finish to Japan’s preparation for the World Cup in Russia, following 2-0 defeats to both Switzerland and Ghana.

They open their campaign in Group H on June 19 against another South American side, Colombia, in Saransk before taking on Senegal and Poland.

1 day to go……

(L-R) Japan’s midfielder Gaku Shibasaki, goalscorer Japan’s midfielder Takashi Inui and Japan’s midfielder Hotaru Yamaguchi celebrate after the first goal

© GRAPHIC NEWS*Per match

WORLD CUP RECORD

178

151.651.18

WinsDrawsLosses

Goals for*Goals against*

S. Arabia1993 4-2

Group A, June 14Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow

70Host nation

67W12 D3 L3

FIFA rankQualifying

229

0.692.46

HEAD-TO-HEAD Russia 0

Draws 0

S. Arabia 1

Recentmeetings

Russia

FIFA World Cup 2018FIFA World Cup 2018Russia v Saudi Arabia

Neymar is star attraction as fans swarm to trainingAFP | Sochi, Russia

Brazil attracted an army of excited youngsters -- in-

cluding one who managed to get onto the pitch for a selfie -- as they held their first training session on Russian soil ahead of the World Cup yesterday.

Around 5,000 locals turned out to watch the relaxed ses-sion at the Yug-Sport Stadium, next to the Brazilian squad’s hotel in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi. Tuesday is a national holiday in Russia and many fans opted for vantage points along the road leading to the stadium, while others filled the stand in blazing sunshine.

One young boy broke through security barriers and managed to get close to a group of Brazil players including Neymar, tak-ing a photograph before being led away.

However, most fans content-ed themselves with chanting the name of the world’s most expensive player, who arrived with his teammates in Russia in the early hours of Monday fresh

from scoring in a 3-0 friendly win over Austria in Vienna.

The 222-million-euro ($261 million) Paris Saint-Germain

forward made his first start in that game since undergoing surgery on a foot fracture at the start of March. He had come off the bench to score in the win over Croatia in Liverpool a week earlier.

“Neymar is doing great, thanks to God. I think the way the whole process has been dealt with was perfect. He has fully recovered,” goalkeeper Alisson told reporters.

“It’s logical that, at first, when he started kicking the ball again.”

Fans take photographs of Brazil’s Neymar after a training session

Neymar is doing great, thanks to God, He has fully

recoveredALISSON

Socceroos ready for France test Kazan, Russia

Australia talisman Tim Ca-hill may have to settle for

a World Cup cameo role while captain Mile Jedinak could start on the bench but the Soc-ceroos say team changes will not hurt their campaign.

Bursaspor defender Aziz Be-hich said team selection will make little difference to a Soc-ceroos side aiming to punch above their weight and shock Group C opponents France at Kazan Arena on Saturday.

“We’re not here to make up numbers, that’s for sure,” Bur-saspor’s Behich said on Tues-day.

“It’s going to be a good game, a good test for us. It’s 11 versus 11, so we’re not afraid of any-body.”

While France are among the favourites in Russia, Australia’s main objective is to get past the group stage -- a feat they have achieved only once, in 2006, under Guus Hiddink.

The Socceroos are now un-der the stewardship of another Dutchman, Bert van Marwijk, who led the Netherlands to the 2010 final. He has shown no fear when it comes to shaking

up Australia’s established order.Aston Villa midfielder Jedi-

nak, on the verge of losing the skipper’s armband to Jiangsu Suning defender Trent Sains-bury, was an unused sub-

stitute in a 4-0 friendly win against the Czech Republic and came off the bench in the second half of a 2-1 win over Hungary.

After two training sessions in Kazan it appears Queens Park Rangers midfielder Massimo Luongo will get the nod over Jedinak to play alongside Hud-dersfield Town’s Aaron Mooy in the centre of midfield.

Yet the likely changes, said Hertha Berlin winger Mathew Leckie, will not shake Austral-ia’s collective resolve.

© GRAPHIC NEWS*Per match

WORLD CUP RECORD

281219

1.801.20

WinsDrawsLosses

Goals for*Goals against*

FranceAustralia

20132001

6-01-1

Group C, June 16Kazan Arena

7W7 D2 L1

22W14 D6 L2

FIFA rankQualifying

238

0.852.00

HEAD-TO-HEAD France 2

Draws 1

Australia 1

Recentmeetings

AustraliaFrance

FIFA World Cup 2018FIFA World Cup 2018France v Australia

KNOW WHAT

Australia are now under the stewardship of Dutchman, Bert van Marwijk, who led the Netherlands to the

2010 final

Poland’s Robert Lewandowski

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