A scintillating show by Royal Air Force Red Arrows aircraft put crowds on cloud nine as the autumn sky over the Doha Corniche came alive with colourful contrails streaking across the firmament yesterday. Pic: Kammutty VP / The Peninsula → See also page 20

Volume 22 | Number 7301 | 2 RiyalsSunday 1 October 2017 | 11 Muharram 1439 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com”

”I express my pride in my Qatari people, alongwith the multinational and multicultural residents in Qatar. #Tamim_almajd

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PM honours ‘diving’ & ‘parachute jumping’ graduates

The Peninsula

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdul-lah bin Nasser bin Khalifa

Al Thani attended the gradua-tion ceremony of diving and parachute jumping courses for the first batch of Police College students.

The ceremony took place

yesterday in the Sealine area. Some 105 students from the

first batch of the Police College participated in the two training courses that were held from July to September.

The ceremony included live parachute jumps by grad-uates from a height of 5,000 feet, as well as paratroopers of the International/ Qatar Search

and Rescue Group.The International/ Qatar

Search and Rescue Group per-formed live parachute jumping holding the image of Tamim Al Majd, along the flag of Qatar, flags of Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya) and the Police Col-lege. At the end of the ceremony, the Prime Minister honoured and gave away the badges of the two

sessions for the graduates, besides honouring the participants.

The ceremony was attended by senior officials and officers of the Ministry of Interior, members of the Supreme Council of the Police College, and parents of graduates.

Meanwhile, the diving course

started on July 23 and is aimed at preparing candidates and training them to swim and dive through intensive and integrated programmes under professional trainers. The parachute jumping course started on September 10 and ended yesterday with the graduation ceremony.

→ See also page 2

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani and other officials with the first batch of students of the Police College that participated in ‘diving’ and ‘parachute jumping’ courses.

Qatar to address education challenges: Al Muraikhi New York

QNA

Qatar has reiterated its commitment to working together with United

Nations agencies, partners and institutions to address the challenges of education in emergencies, economic

uncertainty caused by conflicts, mass migration, increasing inequality, rapid technological development and other factors.

This came in an inaugural speech delivered by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi at a high-level working breakfast organised by the Permanent

Mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations in New York and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) on “Partnership and Means of Cooperation between Governments, Multi lateral Assistance Organizations, United Nations agencies and civil society organisations in educatio,” which

was held on the sidelines of the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs stressed that education in Qatar is a collective need and a right and key to the well-being of societies.

→ Continued on page 6

THE Ministry of Education and Higher Education has announced that the number 109 is the unified government call centre number. It noted that the Ministry of transport and Communications super-

vises this centre in order to achieve the strategy of the Digital Government of the State of Qatar 2020.

→ Continued on page 5

Dial 109 for education enquiries

Enough supply of meat in countrySachin Kumar The Peninsula

There is enough supply of meat in the local market despite the illegal block-

ade on Qatar by siege countries and the availability will remain adequate in the future as Widam Food is look-ing to import meat from new countries. The company, which is the largest provider of red meat in the country, is also planning to expand its branch network to meet the growing demand in the local market.

“We have lot of new mar-kets on the table. We are looking to New Zealand, Bra-zil, South Africa and Turkey and other countries,” said Abdul Rahman bin Mohammed Al Khayarain, CEO of Widam talk-ing to The Peninsula on the sidelines of an exhibition for food and pharmaceutical companies.

“We are the biggest com-pany in Qatar providing meat for 90 percent of the market,” he added.

The company plans to import meat from the new countries in a couple of months. “We expect to import meat from new markets in the next two months,” he added.

Widam provides Australian, Indian, Sudanese, Pakistan and Arab sheep and cows from Aus-tralia, Pakistan and Somalia to the local market.

In order to increase its pres-ence across the country and to get more close to customers, the company is planning to expand its branch network.

“We are opening new branches very fast because of the market demand. We now have 30 branches and we plan to open a lot more in future,” he added.

The efforts by the company will provide a big boost to the country in the field of food sufficiency.

The unjust blockade imposed by the siege countries on Qatar has had no impact as there is no shortage of meat in the local market.

“Our business is going nor-mal. There is no shortage of meat in the local market. Before and after the blockade, our business is as usual and there is no difference. We have a lot of new different countries to bring meat from. Our main sup-pliers are Australia, Sudan, Somalia, Azerbaijan, India and Pakistan,” he added.

The company, in collabo-ration with the Ministry of Economy and Commerce, runs an initiative to provide subsi-dised Arab sheep to citizens. It had launched a new slaughter house in Central Market last year, which is first of its kind in the country for slaughtering camels.

Widam provides Australian, Indian, Sudanese, Pakistan and Arab sheep and cows from Australia, Pakistan and Somalia to the local market. Spaniards

rally for unity ahead of voteBarcelona

AFP

Thousands of flag-wav-ing protesters rallied in cities across Spain,

including Barcelona and Madrid, in favour of national unity yesterday, a day before a banned referendum on independence for Catalonia.

In Barcelona, the capital of the northeastern region, a crowd of several thousand filled a square in front of the headquarters of the regional government which is push-ing ahead with the vote even though the courts have ruled it unconstitutional.

“Catalonia is Spain!” and “We are also Catalans!” they chanted in the rain. “I am tired of this fracture, tired of this anti-democracy, tired of these impositions, of this law-breaking,” said 54-year-old Maria Jose Moreno. Madrid has vowed to stop the refer-endum from going ahead.

→ See also page 17

Emir holds phone talks with ErdoganQNA

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yes-terday held a telephone

conversation with President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The telephone con-versation reviewed bilateral ties between the fraternal countries and discussed cur-rent issues on regional and international fronts.

US lawmakers eager to discuss siege: NHRC Chief

The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) Chairman Dr Ali

bin Sumaikh Al Marri has said that during his meetings with a number of US Congress members, he had noted a strong will to discuss viola-tions of human rights by the siege at the US Congress.

→ See also page 5

Red Arrows perform at Doha Corniche

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Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani and Staff Major General Saad bin Jassim Al Khulaifi, the Director-General of Public Security, and other officials at the graduation ceremony of the diving and parachute jumping courses for the first batch of the Police College students held at Sealine yesterday.

Parachute jumping shows were held by some of the graduates from a height of 5,000 feet, as well as paratroopers of the International/ Qatar Search and Rescue Group holding the image of Tamim Al Majd, the flag of the State of Qatar, flags of the Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya) and the Police College.

The Prime Minister honoured the graduates and distributed badges of the two sessions to the graduates.

The ceremony was also attended by senior officials and officers of the Ministry of Interior, members of the Supreme Council of the Police College, and parents of graduates.

PM attends graduation of diving and parachute jumping course

03SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017 HOME

HBKU and Institut Pasteur signMoU for biomedical researchThe Peninsula

Hamad Bin Khalifa Univer-sity (HBKU) of Qatar Foundation and the Insti-tut Pasteur signed a Memorandum of Under-

standing (MoU) in Paris on Friday, announcing a new partnership to work closely in the field of biomedical research.

The two research intensive enti-ties will collaborate in the fields of academics, research, teaching and knowledge sharing.

The agreement was signed by H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Chairperson of Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Vice-Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation, and Dr Christian Bréchot, President of Insti-tut Pasteur, at a ceremony held in Paris’ on September 29, at Salle des Actes, Institut Pasteur.

Dr Khaled Al Mansouri, Qatar’s Ambassador to France, Dr Ahmad M Hasnah, President of HBKU, along with senior official from both insti-tutions, were in attendance at the ceremony.

Sheikha Hind commented on the new partnership saying,“Hamad Bin Khalifa University has consistently and diligently played a prominent role in promoting and facilitating innovation, scientific research and academic excel-lence, in Qatar with the aspiration of global impact. We firmly believe that our commitment to being a global leader in innovation and education has yielded numerous achievements since our inception.”

“Today, with this new partner-ship with the Institut Pasteur, our researchers, scholars, academics and students will be further emboldened to facilitate ground-breaking discov-eries in healthcare, biomedical sciences, and genomics,” she added.

HBKU’s commitment to being an innovation-driven research univer-sity, addressing the critical challenges

facing the world, has been rapidly ramping up over the years. Being home to research centers like the Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI) and the College of Health and Life Sciences as well as working with local and international partners, the University is aiming to become a key player in healthcare and research in the region.

Named after the renowned Louis Pasteur, the Institut Pasteur brings with it 130 years of breakthrough dis-coveries in preventing and treating infectious diseases. With ten Nobel laureates, the Institute’s contributions to field of medicine and physiology are innumerable. Today, the 130 research units of its Parisian campus site continue to make contributions of global impact to biomedical research.

“As Qatar Foundation’s homeg-rown university, innovation is at the core of HBKU’s values. Inspired by this and driven by the spirit of col-laboration, the University has developed a dynamic ecosystem, contributing to knowledge and sci-ence, with global impact,” Sheikha Hind said.

“One of the Institut Pasteur’s fundamental missions is to bring its expertise to support capacity building in biomedical research through training and education. The Institut Pasteur has been involved one year ago in training

medical professionals from the Qatar ministry of health by organizing an intensive outbreak investigation course in Doha. The signing of the agreement with HBKU enlarges the frame of the partnership to higher education and research institutions led by Qatar Foundation. Hence, it will include in addition to infectious diseases the research on most prev-alent chronic diseases in the region like diabetes, cancer, neurodegener-ative and genetic diseases, particularly in the context of the suc-cessful Qatari genome project,” said Dr Bréchot.

The MoU between HBKU and Institut Pasteur will see a close col-laboration in joint research and academic collaboration in the areas of genomics and precision medicine. The partnership will have students, researchers and scientists between from both entities working together on research projects as early as 2018.

Dr Al Mansouri, said, “Qatar con-tinues to remain steadfast in its commitment towards the country’s human development goals, as laid out in the Qatar National Vision 2030. Qatar aims to enhance its cooperation and partnership with France in differ-ent fields and partnerships such as this one with the internationally recognized Institut Pasteur and HBKU are a testa-ment to Qatar’s role in strengthening its collaborations that foster knowledge sharing and cooperation. We are proud to have our homegrown university partner with the Institut, to work together on the pressing challenges the world faces in the field of disease pre-vention and genomics

Eric Chevallier, Ambassador of France to Qatar said, “The MoU is the achievement of the impulse given by HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Founder and Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, just a few months ago. This partner-ship demonstrates again the strong ties between France and Qatar in the domains of education and research. I

The two research intensive entities will collaborate in academics, research, teaching and knowledge-sharing.

HBKU aiming to become a key player in healthcare and research in the region.

Aiming high

H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Chairperson of Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Vice-Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation, and Dr Christian Bréchot, President of Institut Pasteur, signing the agreement in Paris. BELOW: H E Sheikha Hind with officials at Salle des Actes, Institut Pasteur.

am convinced this partner-ship will enrich both entities with academic experience and innovative research, not only in infectious disease, but also in other domains, such as genomics and genetics. I am proud of this signature because it was a priority of my term in Qatar and because we all have worked hard at the French Embassy for this

project.”The agreement will also

see faculty and PhD stu-dents from the two institutions exercise more mobility between the cam-puses, for teaching and research. Beyond academ-ics, they will actively work towards strengthening the healthcare infrastructure in Qatar, and build towards

achieving the Qatar National Vision 2030. HBKU and Institut Pasteur will organize and facilitate conferences, seminars, workshops and trainings to raise awareness and inspire the coming generations of scientists in the field of genomics and the preven-tion of infectious disease and other research areas.

04 SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017HOME

Sidi Mohammed The Peninsula

The new irrigation system approved by the Depart-ment of Public Parks at the

Ministry of Municipality and Environment has achieved a big success in reducing water con-sumption for irrigation.

It saves 50 percent of water and helps in keeping the plants healthy and green while ensur-ing good level of growth.

The results recorded by technical committee at the Pub-lic Parks Department shows good results of the quantity of water which has been used and

also all categories of plants, whether palm trees, seasonal flowers, etc were not negatively

affected by the new system.An official at the department

said that the “department is using the modern irrigation sys-tem to save water consumption especially in the new public parks, and is also using energy-saving LED lights that replace traditional ones”. The system was tested for over 15 months. It uses half the water traditional irrigation systems consume.

The result of the test was positive, and accordingly, the department has approved the system so that it can be used in the government’s greenery and beautification projects.

The Ministry of Municipal-ity and Environment said in an earlier statement that the imple-mentation of the system took 15 months — from September 2014 to December 2015.

It also said that this outcome will help expand green areas and plantations and will have a positive impact on the environ-ment and will check desertification. The importance of this system came from the need to save more water and not wasting it which will help of sus-tainable development. The system will help of save tens millions of cubic meters per year.

Geneva

QNA

The State of Qatar has par-ticipated in the First meeting of the Conference

of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP1), and the roundtable and high-level meeting on mercury issues from September 24-29, in Geneva, Switzerland.

At the first meeting, the inter-national community celebrated the entry into force of the

Minamata Convention, after seven international negotiations sessions that lasted a decade, and resulted in an international agree-ment on the binding international legal instrument on mercury.

The first meeting entitled “Make Mercury History” to cele-brate the commitment of the international community to the Minamata Convention, as it pro-vides a unique opportunity to raise global awareness of the scope of the Convention and the damage caused by mercury

pollution. In the roundtable events for high-level participants from all over the world, issues related to mercury pollution in air, soil and water, exchange of expe-riences and future visions on mercury and the treatment of adverse effects of mercury and its compounds, and the achieve-ment of the goals of sustainable development 2030 were addressed through the sound management of hazardous chem-icals, together with other relevant international conventions.

Qatar participates in high-level meeting on mercury pollution

New irrigation system found effective in saving water

50% water saved

It saves 50 percent of water and helps in keeping the plants healthy and green while ensuring good level of growth.

The implementation of the system took 15 months — from September 2014 to December 2015.

HMC plans breast cancer awareness eventsThe Peninsula

Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is joining global efforts to increase public awareness

of breast cancer, and specifically the disease’s signs and symptoms, coin-ciding with October the Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The most common symptom of breast cancer is a new lump or mass. Other possible symptoms can include swelling of all or part of a breast, skin irritation or dimpling, breast or nipple pain, nipple retrac-tion (turning inward), redness or thickening of the nipple or breast skin, and nipple discharge (other than breast milk).

Prof. Karl Alexander Knuth (pic-tured), Medical Director at the National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR) stated: “At HMC, we strongly believe in the link between awareness and reducing the incidence of breast cancer. We encourage women of any age to seek medical advice if they notice

changes in their breasts or any unu-sual symptoms. Time is of the essence, and without doubt, breast cancer is most treatable when detected early.”

According to the Qatar National Cancer Registry at the Ministry of Public Health, 16.2 percent of breast cancer cases diagnosed in Qatar are in women aged between 45 and 49 years old. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Qatar and the second leading cause of death in women worldwide.

In recent years, the discovery of new therapies and technologies has provided an almost overwhelming menu of treatment choices for breast cancer, bringing new hope for patients. According to Professor Knuth, while there have been many advancements in breast cancer treatment, particularly in the area of drug therapies, regular breast screenings are essential for reduc-ing one’s risk of breast cancer.

“There has been a lot of good news about breast cancer recently;

treatments keep getting better and people know more than ever before about ways to protect themselves against this disease. When combined together, technology advancements, research developments, and aware-ness programs greatly help to improve all cancer services and reduce the impact and extent of breast cancer,” Professor Knuth said.

The Executive Director of Nurs-ing at NCCCR, Catherine Gillespie, says that while HMC has adopted cutting-edge technologies, includ-ing operating the first PET CT scanner in the region, the focus remains on improving cancer serv-ices and patient outcomes.

“Our focus on improving cancer services – one of the objectives of the National Cancer Strategy (2011-2016) – has seen advancements in cancer diagnostics and treatment options year on year. As a result, the number of people who have sur-vived cancer has greatly increased.”

As part of Breast Cancer Aware-ness Month, which is held annually every October, HMC is reminding the public about the importance of prevention, early detection, and treatment of breast cancer. Throughout the month, it is holding a range of activities aimed at enhancing awareness of breast can-cer risk factors among women and increasing knowledge of lesser-known breast cancer symptoms.

Samsung Galaxy Note8 available at OoredooThe Peninsula

Oo r e d o o announced yes-t e r d a y t h e

Samsung Galaxy Note8 is available for purchase now at Ooredoo shops, and online via the eShop. Ooredoo is offering the new Galaxy Note8 (64GB) device for just QR3,449.

The Samsung Gal-axy Note8 is available in Gold, Black, and Orchid Grey, and offers a host of amazing fea-tures such as a 6.3-inch Infinity Display screen size, wireless charging capabilities, and high-performing 10nm mobile processor and 6GB RAM to make things run smoothly.

The Galaxy Note8 also comes with a dual camera with great low-light capabilities and telephoto lens to give a 2x optical zoom for users to capture images near and far.

The Samsung Gal-axy Note8 will work with Ooredoo’s Cate-gory 9 LTE-Advanced network, enabling download speeds of up to 325Mbps.

Ooredoo is an official partner of Samsung phones in Qatar, and the strong connection between the two compa-nies means that customers can enjoy the latest devices, as well as guaranteed authorised products from the company.

Hundreds join Vodafone’s iPhone 8 & Plus launch The Peninsula

Vodafone has officially launched the highly awaited smartphones,

the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, in the country. An exclu-sive midnight event which saw hundreds of people showing up at the company’s store located at Villaggio Mall, has marked the moment everyone was eagerly waiting for. Those who pre-ordered online and wanted to be some of the firsts to pick up their favourite handset, joined the Vodafone team for the chance to be part of the memorable event.

Customers at a Vodafone outlet for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus phones.

Qatar’s delegation at the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

The new irrigation system.

In addition, to give wider access to other cus-tomers who wished to purchase iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus on the spot, Vodafone this year extended the opening hours of three of its other flagship stores in Mall of Qatar, Landmark and City Center.

Timed with the launch, Vodafone launched great data offers for both Post-paid and Prepaid customers who purchased

iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus. At the event, Vodafone announced that all new and existing Vodafone Postpaid customers will enjoy 8GB a month of local data for 3 months with their new iPhone. Voda-fone Prepaid customers will receive 8GB of local data for 90 days. Further-more, Vodafone offers 2-year warranty with all iPhone purchases.

Diego Camberos, Com-mercial Director at

Vodafone Qatar, said: “We are very proud to have launched the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus in Qatar and we were extremely happy to see a great number of people joining us in cele-brating this event. We have timed the launch with a fantastic data offer to both our new and existing Post-paid and Prepaid customers in order to guarantee a most enjoya-ble experience on our world class network.”

05SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017 HOME

The Peninsula

Qatari owned Dar Al Rayan Investment C o m p a n y h a s announced the first of its kind initiative that

will revolutionise the poultry sector and boost local produc-tion of poultry products in the country.

Committing to significant investments in excess of QR1.6bn, Al Rayan Poultry, a subsidiary of Dar Al Rayan Investment Com-pany, plans to introduce the largest exclusive integrated poul-try farm in the country. “Through Dar Al Rayan Investment Com-pany, we aim to contribute and be a part of vision 2030 by undertaking strategic projects that will support Qatar’s food security programme,” said Sheikh Suhaim bin Khaled Al Thani, Chairman of Dar Al Rayan Investment Company.

“Al Rayan Poultry will be an asset to the country’s future, as it is implemented with a special emphasis on positioning our-selves as the best poultry provider in Qatar and the whole region.”

The project when completed will have a production capacity

of 70,000 tonnes of broiler meat and 250 million eggs per year, making it the largest poultry farm in the country capable of covering current and future mar-ket demand. Al Rayan Poultry has already dedicated more than 15 million SQM of land for the project and is spread across var-ious strategic locations covering the whole of Qatar including the First Agro Cluster in the South and Al Waab farms, Al Dawood-iyah and Al Sidriya farms in the north.

In a major step to boost local production of poultry products in the country, Al Rayan poultry plans to undertake a unique and critical area within the industry, parent stock, which is introduced for the first time in Qatar and will have the capacity to supply other smaller broiler meat producers in the country as well. Moreover, the planned feed mill production

capacity exceeding 90 tons/hour will also cover the need of other producers in the country.

In order to ensure global standards in production and dis-tribution, Al Rayan Poultry have engaged one of the best interna-tional consultants to undertake this project. The company has also appointed innovative glo-bal technology providers for the supply and installation of all the machineries. The project will be completed through implement-ing all the latest technologies and will adopt the highest bio-secu-rity measures.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Moham-med bin Khalifa Al Thani, Vice -Chairman of Dar Al Rayan Investment Company stated, “We want to make Al Rayan Poultry a unique project with global standards that our country and its wise leadership will take pride in. As such, we strive to set very

high standards in terms technol-ogy, hygiene and operational standards.”

Mohammed Hussein Al Ali, said, “Our focus is not just to build a poultry farm, but to cre-ate a whole ecosystem that supports the production of domestic poultry products. Steps like providing parent stock poul-try feed and factory will all support and encourage smaller broiler meat production units in the country. This, in the long run will contribute significantly to the local economy and domes-tic food security.”

On the other hand, Dar Al Rayan Investment Company, through Al Rayan Food Company which is subsidiary of Dar Al Rayan Investment Company, is planning to establish the largest dairy farm in Qatar which will produce all types of dairy prod-ucts, by importing about seven thousand cows that have genetic characteristics to withstand the very hot humid climate in Qatar.

Al Rayan Poultry plans largest farm

Primary Health Care Cor-poration (PHCC) is now providing services at

specialised clinics during the weekend in some of its health-care centres, according to geographical distribution and the number of patients. The PHCC began to open special-ised clinics during the weekend in some healthcare centres since September 16, with a plan to expand it and include more centres.

The Executive Director of Operations at the PHCC, Dr Samia Al Abdullah, said that in addition to the general and dental clinics which were ear-lier operational during the weekend, services such as ophthalmology, otolaryngol-ogy, ophthalmology, ultrasound and physiotherapy are now available on Saturdays.

Also PHCC has increased the number of dental clinics on Saturdays and patients can schedule their appointments to these clinics on Saturdays by calling 107. Dr. Al Abdullah said that 25 percent of the capacity of clinics and special-ised services on Saturday for emergencies and visits on the same day without a prior appointment, and 75 percent of the capacity was allocated for visits by appointment and transfers from other centres.

She also pointed out that

this step comes within the objectives of PHCC aims to achieve within the framework of its development plans, which intend to remove all obstacles that prevent the access of vis-itors to their services fast to align with the pillars of the National Health Strategy and in line with the vision of Qatar National 2030. The specialised clinics are open during the weekend in morning hours on Saturdays, where the ophthal-mology services are available at Rawdat Alkhail, Al Rayyan and Madinat Khalifa , and oph-thalmology, dermatology and physiotherapy services are available at Rawdat Alkhail and Leabaib Health Centre, and for ENT Clinics open at the Raw-dat Alkhail Health Centre, and for Ultrasound services avail-able at Rawdat Alkhail, Mesaimeer and Madinat Kha-lifa Health Centre.

PHCC now providing services at specialised clinics on weekends

Sheikh Suhaim bin Khaled Al Thani (left), Chairman of Dar Al Rayan Investment Company; Sheikh Khalifa bin Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Thani (centre), Vice -Chairman of Dar Al Rayan Investment Company; and Mohammed Hussein Al Ali.

The PHCC began to open specialised clinics during the weekend in some healthcare centres since September 16. It has also increased the number of dental clinics on Saturdays and patients can schedule their appointments by calling 107.

The project, when completed, will have a production capacity of 70,000 tonnes of broiler meat and 250 million eggs per year, making it the largest poultry farm in the country capable of covering current and future market demand.

Continued from page 1

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education said that this gov-ernment call centre number came within the frame-work of joint c o o p e r a t i o n between them and the Ministry of Communications, aims to activate the hotline to be a uni-f i e d n u m b e r capable of support-ing all services and provide the time, effort and costs to government agen-cies , thereby helping to speed up the implementation of the Digital Gov-ernment 2020. The call centre also pro-vides services based on interna-tional standards for customer services and through vari-ous channels including telephone calls, faxes, SMS, e - m a i l s a n d e-conversations.

Dial 109 for education enquiries

The Peninsula

The National Human Rights Com-mittee (NHRC) Chairman Dr. Ali bin Sumaikh Al Marri has said that

during his meetings with a number of US Congress members, he had noted a strong will to discuss the file of viola-tions of human rights by the siege at the US Congress.

Dr. Al Marri met with a number of US House of Representatives members at the Congress including Mike Capuano , Stephen Lynch, David Cicil-line and Nita Lowey, where he gave them detailed explanations of the vio-lations of human rights by the siege countries the deprivation of citizens and residents of Qatar and citizens of the Gulf States (Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain) of their fundamental rights, foremost of which is the right to education, transportation, treatment, family reunification and the perform-ance of religious rites.

The NHRC Chairman said he had noted the remarkable interest of the US Congress members and their deep con-cern over the tragedies faced by citizens and residents of Qatar and the three Gulf States due to the unjust siege.

He also praised their response and keenness to put human rights violations

at the table of Congress debates strongly, in absolute agreement to reject involv-ing citizens and residents in political conflicts, or take them hostage to any political strife.

Al Marri made the remarks at the end of a series of intensive meetings in Washington, DC, with a number of rep-resentatives of the Republican and Democratic parties in the US Congress, which witnessed fruitful discussions, on the repercussions of the siege imposed on the State of Qatar since June 5.

In the context of these meetings, Dr. Al Marri also met with the two US Rep-resentatives Republican Congressmen Trent Franks and Gus Bilirakis, and another discussion session with the Chairman of the “Tom Lantos” Human Rights Commission in the US Congress James McGovern, as well as another meeting with officials of the Foreign Relations Committee of Congress And the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation.

The enormous and intense momen-tum of these meetings with a number of Republican and Democratic legisla-tors reflects the National Human Rights Committee’s keenness to hand over these documented reports on the grave human rights violations caused by the siege imposed on the State of Qatar.

US lawmakers eager to discuss siege: NHRC Chief

National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) Chairman, Dr. Ali bin Sumaikh Al Marri, with Congressman Stephen Lynch.

It was also pointed out that this step comes within the objectives of PHCC aims to achieve within the framework of its development plans, which intend to remove all obstacles that prevent the access of visitors to their services

06 SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017HOME

Amna Pervaiz Rao The Peninsula

As Qatar is marching towards achieving self-reliance in all sectors from food to

construction, local companies too have geared up their efforts in this regard with new initiatives which will ultimately help materialising the goal.

In line with Qatar’s vision of achieving self-sufficiency, Halfen-Moment Group and their Qatari distributor Teyseer Rebar Con-tractors, a division of Teyseer Building Materials, recently held a technical seminar on “Advanced Precast – Connections and Lift-ing” to promote the latest

developments in Qatar.The seminar was conducted

by Gary Connan, Technical and Development Manager at Halfen-Moment Group. The Seminar included a mix of lectures, tech-nical sessions, and case studies through interaction with the participants.

K S Kumar,General-Manager of Teyseer Building Materials and Transport Company told The Peninsula: “Under the motto of self-sufficiency as Qatar envis-aged under Qatar National Vision 2030, Teyseer Group has taken many steps to explore, source and evaluate new business opportu-nities. This seminar is one of many steps taken by Teyseer Group. The

aim of the seminar was to convey the engineers of Doha about Hal-fen Moment products, which help to reduce cost, improve safety and widen precast use such as the recess provided in the lifting clutches and their ‘invisible connections’.”

Discussions in the seminar primarily revolved around lifting and erecting of precast elements; connections for wall panels; con-nections for columns and beams and connections for stair landings in the precast sector. The event was also an opportunity for Hal-fen-Moment Group and Teyseer Rebar Contractors to provide a platform to exchange views on precast technologies in the region.

Seminar held to explore new business opportunities

Fazeena Saleem The Peninsula

The region’s one of the most technologically advanced facilities, equipped with a wider selection of modern

teaching aids that simulate real-world clinical situations, is now available for students at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q). The newly expanded and upgraded state-of-the-art Clini-cal Skills and Simulation Lab (CSSL) was officially inaugurated on Thursday at the campus.

At this modernised facility students will gain practical skills they need in a risk-free environ-ment under the guidance of WCM-Q’s highly trained teach-ing faculty.

Dr. Javaid Sheikh, Dean of WCM-Q, together with Dr. Stella Major, Associate Professor and Director of the CSSL and Lan Sawan, Manager of the CSSL inaugurated the facility during a ceremony held at the campus.

Dr. Sheikh, said, “At WCM-Q we have always been enthusias-tic early adopters of new technologies that enable us to

continuously enhance the stand-ard of education we offer to our students, and the re-Iaunched Clinical Skills and Simulation Lab adheres to this important princi-ple. The -new facility not only brings WCM-Q up to date with the latest innovations in medical education but puts us ahead of the curve, which will be of enormous benefit to both our students and the patients they will care for after they graduate.”

The CSSL is equipped with lifelike medical mannequins that are able to simulate a vast range of symptoms such as a racing heartbeat and dilated pupils, to a swollen tongue or a full-blown seizure and its all controlled remotely by a technician. Stu-dents working with the mannequins can practice responding to an almost limitless array of conditions as if they were in a real ER (emergency room), such as a cardiac arrest, respira-tory infections, heatstroke or even childbirth.

Making it an exciting moment to the guests, Syeda Razia Haider, a third year student assisted a life-size birth simulator mannequin ‘deliver’ a simulator baby.

Sharing her experience Syeda said, “It’s a reflection of what hap-pens in the labour room. The only thing missing was blood, than that it was very realistic. Even the baby has the weight and the cry of a real baby. You feel like you are real in the moment. It pro-jected real emotion in the room.”

“It prepares us to real situa-tions in the clinics or labour room with patients,” she added.

The CSSL at the WCM-C, for-merly known as the Clinical Skills Center, has been expanded from 8,500 to 10,500 square feet and now has 12 clinical examination rooms, up from six previously. Each examination room is fully equipped with diagnostic instru-ments for examining the ears and eyes and measuring blood pres-sure and temperature. Students learn to utilize these instruments under instructor supervision and with the help of ‘standardized patients’ - individuals trained to play the role of patients. Other facilities in the revamped suite include hi-tech training aids for practicing administering joint injections, taking blood samples, inserting intravenous lines and using portable ultrasound

machines. CSSL also a cardiop-ulmonary patient simulator and a variety of 3D anatomical models.

Dr Major, said, “Students now have the chance to practice and perfect a wide range of commu-nication and procedural skills before entering the real world of patient care. While in clinical training the students can also benefit from the center by using it to augment their skills and

address their skill gaps and needs in a safe environment, to attain a very high level of proficiency. This will help them to be extremely well prepared for the demands of modern medicine.”

The CSSL also has a newly updated high-definition audio-visual system with remotely controlled cameras placed in stra-tegic locations.

Enhancing and expanding the CSSL complements the integrated

Six-Year Medical Program at WCM-Q which comprises a Two-Year Pre-Medical Curriculum and a Four-Year Medical Curriculum, both of which place more empha-sis on the attainment of practical physcianship skills than tradition medical curricula. Upon gradua-tion, students receive the same M.D. degree awarded to students at the Weill Cornell Medicine campus in New York.

Simulation-based training to hone skills of WCM-Q pupils

Dr. Javaid I Sheikh, Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar; Dr. Stella Major, Director of Clinical Skills and Simulation Lab; and Lan Sawan, Manager of Clinical Skills and Simulation Lab with other officials cutting a cake to mark the official inauguration of the lab. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

Sanaullah Ataullah The Peninsula

The Kahramaa’s ongoing National Program for Con-servation and Energy

Efficiency (Tarsheed) does not have any impact on the conven-ience of citizens and expatriates, said Kahramaa Chief.

“The programme aims at reducing the consumption of utility by cutting the wastage enabling consumers to enjoy their life with comfort,” said the President of the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corpora-tion (Kahrama), Issa bin Hilal Al Kuwari in a video footage posted on social networking sites of Kahramaa.

Al Kuwari said that produc-tion of a square meter water costs about QR9.5 as per the prices of gas in the international markets but it is being provided to citizens and expatriates at subsidised prices.

“The state provides electric-ity and water to citizens and

expatriates at subsidised prices in a bid to provide them high standard life. And the subsidy policy also aims at providing basic needs to consumers with-out putting any additional burden on them,” said Al Kuwari.

The President said that the cost of utility production is very high but with the help of state support and modern technol-ogy we successfully created balance in the cost, he added.

“Tarsheed programme does not require from consumers to reduce the consumption of util-ity from their need but it asks them to stop the wastage. The unnecessary uses of air condi-tioning and lightening are itself wastage of money for citizens and expatriates,” said Al Kuwari.

The programme educates the consumers how to bring effi-ciency in the consumption of utility so they could lead a com-fortable life without wasting it.

The basic goal of Tarsheed programme is to preserve the

natural resources as natural gas is being used for the production of electricity and water. And the Qatar’s National Vision 2030 also aims at preserving resources of the country for next generation.

The President said that so far, Tarsheed programme helped in saving the per capital consumption of electricity and water about 18 percent and 20 percent respectively that is a great achievement.

Another purpose of the util-ity conservation drive is to reduce the carbon emission in a bid to protect the environment.

Electricity sector represents 17 percent of total emissions of the country and we reduced about seven percent that is a bid figure for the protection of the environment, said Al Kuwari.

Tarsheed programme was launched in 2011 as a five year goal. First goal was achieved and second goal will be accom-plished in 2020.

Kahramaa Chief urges consumers to reduce utility wastage

Gary Connan, Technical and Development Manager at Halfen-Moment Group, with other officials from Teyseer Rebar Contractors during the seminar at Radison Blu,

The Peninsula

The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs has announced to participate

in an international competition for memorising Holy Quran in Croatia in which Qatar bagged first prize last year.

Croatia whose capital is Zagreb is located in Central and Southern Europe, on the Adri-atic Sea.

A delegation from the Reli-gious Calling and Guidance Department at the Ministry will move on Thursday to Croatia for the participation of the fourth edition of the International Holy Quran Contest in Croatia, said a release.The delegation will com-prise with candidate Abdullah Hamad Bu Sahridah and super-visor Yusuf Mohamad Hashi.

The candidate from Qatar Abdul Aziz Abdullah Al Hamiri

got first prize in the competition of memorising Holy Quran com-pletely held last year.

The Qatari candidate Abdul-lah Hamad Bu Sahridah has been excellent candidate from Qatar and bagged a number of prizes in the international Holy Quran competitions organized in all over the world in the past.

Bu Sahridah bagged first

prize in an international Holy Quran memorizing contest organized in Khartoum, capital of Sudan. He also obtained first prize in the International King Abdul Aziz Holy Quran compe-tition at Mecca, second prize in the International Holy Quran Contest at Algeria and third prize at the International Holy Quran Contest in Malaysia.

Qatar to participate in Holy Quran contest in Croatia

The members of the delegation from Qatar getting ready to participate at the International Holy Quran contest in Croatia.

Continued from page 1

In this regard, he referred to the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), which will focus on coexistence and part-nership in the promotion of education during its 2017 Ses-sion, to be held in Doha from 14-16 November, HE the Minis-ter noted.

The high-level working breakfast provided an opportu-nity to bring together Member States, relevant United Nations agencies, education institutions, civil society organizations and the private sector to promote partnership in the implementa-tion of the fourth objective of

sustainable development goals for investment in the education sector.

It also reviewed the success-ful elements and models of existing, multisectoral and inno-vative partnerships in education and highlighted the challenges to cooperation among various development actors, including government aid and multilat-eral development banks.

Participants also discussed the role that national govern-ments can play in education. The high-level working breakfast was held in the presence of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kenya HE Amina Mohamed, the Executive

Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) HE Anthony Lake, Director-General of the United Nations Educa-tional, Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO) HE Irina Bokova, and the High Rep-resentative of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations HE Nasser bin Abdulaziz Al-Nasr. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Education Above All Fahd Al Sulaiti, and Director General of Qatar Fund for Development Khalifa bin Jassim Al-Kuwari, as well as a number of promi-nent international experts and personalities involved in edu-cation took part in the discussions.

Qatar to address education challenges: Al Muraikhi

07SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017 HOME

The Peninsula

Lulu Group, in continuation of its patriotism to the his-torical land of oryx, has once

again organised ‘We Love Qatar’ promotion campaign at all Lulu outlets in Qatar.

Through this promotion, Lulu Group meant to make the cus-tomers identify and experience the richness of Qatari food prod-ucts and agricultural produce, thereby shed light into the herit-age of the country. Lulu Group has been organising this unique pro-motion campaign every year since 2010.

Mubarak Feraish M Salem, Member of Central Municipal Council and Head of Finance Committee 15th District, has inaugurated the promotion cam-paign by cutting the ribbon yesterday at Lulu Hypermarket, Al Gharrafa, in the presence of Mohamed Althaf, Director of Lulu Group International, dis-tinguished Qatari nationals and dignitaries from various public and private sector departments/organisations and senior officials from Lulu Group Qatar Region.

Lulu Group has always been an ardent promoter of Qatari food products and agricultural produce, and almost all promi-nent Qatari brands namely Dandy, Al Maha, Baladna,

Ghadeer, Qbake, Athba, Rawa, qfm, Rayyan, Arwa, Qatarat, Qatar Pafki, Munah, Pearl, Jawharh, Flora, Gourmet, Jerry Smith, Agrico Qatar, Paramount Agricole, Ocean Fish, Napoli Bakeries, Al Waha, Korean Bak-eries, Parline, Ghazlan, Al

Manhal, Dana, Aqua Gulf, Safa, Sidra, Jannah, Lusail, Dallah, Doha, Napico and Qatar Pharma TDM etc. are on regular display.

Lulu Group has long-standing close tie up with the local farmers and has been the focal point in

marketing the local agricultural produce for many years. Although Lulu Group has been promoting Qatari products and farm produces for many years, however, after June 5, they have been concentrat-ing more in this regard, as a social commitment to this great nation.

Lulu starts ‘We Love Qatar’ campaign

Mubarak Feraish M Salem, Member of Central Municipal Council and Head of Finance Committee, 15th District, inaugurating the ‘We Love Qatar’ Promotion Campaign at Al Gharrafa branch of Lulu Hypermarket in the presence of Mohamed Althaf, Director of Lulu Group International, many distinguished Qatari nationals, dignitaries from various public and private sector and senior officials from Lulu Group Qatar Region. Pic: Salim Matramkot / The Peninsula

Dr Rabeea bin Sabah Al Kuwari, Assistant Professor of Journalism at Qatar University

A serious issue, which should not be tolerated, is happening today at a

time when we must be united against the true enemies of the nation.

With the onset of the siege against Qatar, the issue of spreading hatred through social media sites has emerged in the GCC region. Everyone, while expressing opinion, defends the position of his country in a manner that the truth is absent instead of giving his own fair opinion on the issue.

Now the crisis has become an issue to polarise the people into various parties instead of uniting them and the people of each country are expressing opinion from the point of view of the state they hold their nationality or in a racist man-ner. Even if they are right or wrong, the disaster occurred here.

The social networks were developed to breathe freely and freely express the views avail-able to all. However, this attitude has transformed these networks from platforms meant to spread credibility and objec-tivity in the presentation of views to platforms of fabrica-tion and invention of false news

and dissemination of rumours to damage countries and polit-ical symbols and mainstream media.

It turned the websites to spread insults in away seems to be far from the high values and ethics of the societies where brothers are insulting their cousins in other countries, and neighbours have began to stab their nearest neighbours and brothers as if the World War III has begun.

The blockading countries Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, have contributed to spreading sedition and promoting hatred against Qatar so that no one can trust his brother or his relative after all these negative impacts of the crisis, even after it ends.

Whatever is being circu-lated on social networking sites are being published on news-papers and their websites today. The electronic media - TV Channels - of siege countries are still airing fake news, reports and talks in an exagger-ated manner in a bid to spread rumours, fabricated pictures and footage purposely to tar-nish the image of Qatar and those supporting its standing.

Notably, there are thou-sands of bogus accounts on social media that are working with extreme hostility among our countries (GCC) unneces-sarily. And the first and last loser is the GCC citizen who was sidelined in this crisis and con-tributing in spreading this culture of hate among us unexpectedly.

There are many negative impacts of electronic media on GCC citizens in the absence of rationality fuelled by mislead-ing information obviously from blockading countries and their silence on this problem that led to break the social fabric of GCC countries. The GCC states were united but the differences were created among the people with-out any benefit.

Siege: Social media becomes platform for spreading hatred

Amna Pervaiz Rao The Peninsula

Popular Indian singer Bad-shah will be performing live in Qatar on October

13 at Doha Marriott”, event organisers said during a press conference here.

The event is organised by Red Apple Events and Media in association with Prime Wealth Creators (PWA). The press con-ference was moderated by Jassim Mohammed, CEO of Red Apple Events and Media, and Atul Kumar Singh, Business Development Director at PWC.

Jassim Mohammed, CEO of Red Apple Events, told The Peninsula during the press con-ference, that, “Badshah is performing for the first time in

Doha and he is quiet excited to perform here. He has been per-forming all around the Middle East. This will not be a regular concert, we call it an audio video experience, many video walls will be placed on the back of the stage. In Doha, this experience will one of its kind. We tried to do similar in our previous con-certs. People will enjoy the concert and the atmosphere which is developed by us. The venue is beautiful and is located in Marriot. We have finished our early-bird promotion on our tickets. The venue’s maximum capacity is 4,000.”

About the event details, he said: “First opening act of con-cert will be performed by Pakistani singing sensation, Tahir Naeem. Badshah is being

accompanied by Astha Gill, who recently sung ‘DJ wale babu’, which was a hit. As per the cur-rent situation in Doha, we want to show people around the world that nothing odd has hap-pened here and we are leading a normal life.”

“For the first time, we are doing an international setup, the VIP area is located on the same height of stage which will be very close to the artist, this VIP ticket is for QR5,00, then we have a regular standing category which is worth QR1,00, gold cat-egory is worth QR2,50. It is a family friendly event, Kids gold circle is worth QR1,25 and kids regular ticket QR50,”unveiling the ticketing price as per their categories, Jassim added.

Red Apple Events has a

reputation of mega shows in the past giving Dohaites a totally new experience in every event. They are known for their signa-ture Rang Barse event that attracts over 4,000 people every year. Doha Marriott also has been host to big events in the past and Badshah live in Doha promises to be one of its kind.

The event is organised by Sony Music and the crowd will be treated to a full on audio visual experience. The event arena will be decked to look like a concert arena with ele-vated VIP seating, massive video walls and team of 11 musicians from India who will ensure Doha remembers this event for a long time. Tickets for the concert are available at major restaurants all over

Doha and online at www.q- tickets.com. For more details on the concert people call the hotline 33033103. The event is

sponsored by MTC, 7st by Mumbai Spices, Zaffran Cafe, Parex Group, AI Maya Trading, Prism and Mega Mart.

Indian singer Badshah performs live on October 13

Atul Kumar Singh (left), Business Development Director at PWC, and Jassim Mohammed, CEO of Red Apple Events and Media, during a press conference, on Badshah’s live event, yesterday. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

The Peninsula

A training course on “Com-mercial Arbitration”, organised by the Qatar

International Center for Concil-iation and Arbitration (CICIT) in collaboration with the Centre for Continuous Education at the University of Qatar, to be launched today.

Dr. Thani bin Ali Al Thani (pictured), Board Member of the Qatar International Center for

Reconciliation and Arbitration, said that the Center is honoured to cooperate with the Center for Continuous Education at QU, which has made significant con-tributions to the educational field in Qatar. .

The training programme has come as a result of the positive cooperation between the two centres following the signing of a cooperation agreement last month with aim of implement-ing training programmes in the field of law, investment, bank-ing and international trade for the academic year 2017-2018, Dr. Thani added.

The programme aims to pro-vide the participants with necessary professional knowl-edge improving their skills of

arbitrations and related legal issues in order to preserves the rights of commercial companies when they sign contracts with other companies. The five-day training course focuses on the importance of arbitration as one of the alternative means of dis-pute resolution. It reviews the various alternative means of dis-pute resolution, highlighting the advantages, characteristics, types of arbitration, the legisla-tive framework for arbitration and practical examples of the arbitration agreement in com-mercial contracts.

Thani praised the great efforts being exerted by the Cen-tre linking Qatar University and society providing general and specialised training programmes

that meet the needs of the Qatari community in general and busi-ness sector in particular. He pointed out that the commercial arbitration course will enhance the skills of the arbitrators and the law with the latest methods. Participants includes lawyers, legal advisors, legal and admin-istrative leaders in public and private sector companies, legal departments in ministries and government institutions, banks and financial institutions, heads and members of boards and directors of companies, business owners, contractors, commer-cial agents, arbitrators and experts in the field of commer-cial disputes, engineers and accountants, lawyers who are undergoing and law students.

Training course on ‘Commercial Arbitration’

08 SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

South Sudan’s capital goes thirsty as costs soarJuba

Reuters

When Jimmy’s parents finally pulled their son out of the churning

river, his body was already life-less and limp, heavy in the arms of his father.

But the eight-year-old’s death – and that of three other boys – could have been easily prevented, had it not been for the price of drinking water in South Sudan’s capital Juba – costing a third of a family’s monthly income. The only school the fam-ily could afford was on the other side of the river, and, with no bridge, Jimmy had to wade through its turbulent waters each day. “My brother drowned on his way to class,” said his

18-year-old sister Mary Irene, who has just graduated from high school.

The pain of losing her brother this past May is still fresh.

“Jimmy was always scared of the raging stream, but facing his fear was the only way for him

to receive an affordable educa-tion. My family struggles to survive. We spend most of our money on water.”

South Sudan, home to the Nile, is not considered to be a water-scarce country. But civil war and hyperinflation have cre-ated a water crisis. For an average family, spending a third of their earnings on water, the cost relative to income is six times greater than the interna-tionally recognised five percent that the World Health Organisa-tion suggests families should be spending on water.

In Khor William, a hilly sub-urb of Juba with red mud roads and small brick houses almost hidden by grasses and maize plants, Jimmy’s family is not the only one forced to make sacri-fices since water prices began to rise in recent years.

Many families, especially government employees, haven’t received their salaries lately and live on less than 1,000 South Sudanese Pounds a month – a mere $8 - even as prices rise with

rampant inflation.“We survive by selling home-

made cake and bread. I haven’t received my wages in several months. Water comes first... Some people have died because they couldn’t afford medical treatment and others only eat maize flour and okra,” said Rose Johnson, a social worker, mother of five and one of Mary’s neighbours.

“When someone in our com-munity falls ill, all we can do is hope and pray for the best.”

Providing clean drinking water is complex in the lush, green country that won its inde-pendence in 2011 but descended into civil war two years later.

Water is available, but facil-ities and resources to purify it for drinking are lacking.

Pipe infrastructure built dur-ing British colonial rule in 1937 serves just 17 percent of Juba’s permanent population of about 370,000 and is in need of repair and upgrading.

The rest of the city depends on supplies from almost 700

mostly privately owned water tankers, but in times of economic crisis, their prices have risen steeply.

A litre of petrol costs 700 South Sudanese Pounds ($5), but only limited imported supplies are available and the country’s

oil production has largely ground to a halt in the conflict.

Chlorine and alum for water treatment are imported by road from Uganda, a dangerous jour-ney through an area prone to attacks and lootings, pushing up transport prices. Aid agency Oxfam told the Thomson Reu-ters Foundation that in previous years tankers were operating on a profit margin of 45 percent, but those profits have turned to sharp losses.

“It’s one of the reasons why an increasing number of tankers pump water straight from the river, instead of getting it from a treatment plant,” said Oxfam’s water and sanitation adviser Mariana Matoso.

“The businesses are scram-bling to survive and some might therefore sell dirty water that they pumped for free.”

After fighting erupted in Juba in July 2016, a

Japanese-funded project to build the city’s biggest water treatment plant was suspended. Work is yet to resume.

Iraqi Kurds face heat after referendumArbil

AFP

Iraq and Iran have turned to economic weapons in retaliation for Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence referendum, with Bagh-

dad closing the Kurds’ airspace to international flights and Tehran freezing trade in fuels.

After the autonomous Kurdish region’s controversial “yes” vote for independence, neighbouring Iran announced joint border drills with Iraq and the fuel trade ban.

A day after Baghdad cut international air links with the region, Iran’s state broadcaster said all transport companies and drivers have been ordered to stop carrying fuel products between Iran and Iraqi Kurdis-tan “until further notice”.

Diesel is one of Iran’s key exports to the oil-rich region, mainly for power plants and vehicles, while the Kurds rely almost exclusively on crude and fuel oil exports to raise revenues.

Iraqi Kurds overwhelm-ingly voted for independence in Monday’s non-binding ref-erendum, which has sent regional tensions soaring.

Tehran, which strongly opposes independence for Iraq’s Kurds, fearing it will pro-voke separatists among its own Kurdish minority, also announced a joint military exercise with Iraq in response to the referendum.

“A joint military exercise between Iran’s armed forces

and units from the Iraqi army will be held in the coming days along the shared border,” Ira-nian armed forces spokesman Masoud Jazayeri told reporters in Tehran.

The drills will take place at several crossings on Iran’s bor-der with Iraqi Kurdistan, he said. He said that at a high-level meeting of Iranian command-ers, “necessary decisions were taken to provide security at the borders and welcome Iraq’s central government forces to take position at border crossings”.

To head off any military concerns, Iraq’s premier, whose country has also staged joint exercises inside Turkey, moved quickly to try to assure his country’s Kurds.

“To our people in the Kurdistan region: we defend our Kurdish citizens as we defend all Iraqis and will not allow any attack on them,” Abadi tweeted in English.

Tehran has accepted a request by Baghdad for an Iraqi army presence at frontier crossings.

Displaced Iraqis, who fled the northern city of Hawija due to the government forces military operation, arriving in Al Dibis, near Kirkuk, yesterday.

Macron invites Iraqi PM to Paris to discuss Kurdish voteParis

AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron has invited Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-

Abadi to visit Paris on Thursday, saying the aim is to calm ten-sions after the deeply divisive Kurdish independence referendum.

In a statement, the presi-dency said France wanted to “help Iraq to stop tensions from setting in” following the vote tomorrow, which saw Iraqi Kurdistan overwhelmingly sup-port secession.

In a phone call on Wednes-day, “Macron stressed the importance of preserving the unity and integrity of Iraq while

recognising the rights of the Kurdish people. Any escalation must be avoided,” the presi-dency said in the statement late Friday.

“Faced with the priority of fighting Daesh and the stabili-sation of Iraq, Iraqis must remain united,” it added, refer-ring to the Islamic State group.

The office of Abaadi, how-ever, on Saturday denied that Macron’s invitation had any link to the crisis with Iraqi Kurdis-tan. “There is no relation between the invitation and the crisis caused by the unconstitu-tional referendum,” it said.

“The visit aims to reinforce bilateral relations and to focus on the fight against terrorism in the region in which Iraq has achieved

enormous victories,” it added. Iraqi forces ousted IS from the northern Nineveh province on August 31, and is now fighting to retake the jihadist group’s last footholds in the country.

Abadi’s office stressed the invitation was first made when French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defence Minister Florence Parly visited Baghdad on August 26. It said Macron had made no mention of “the need to recognise the rights of the Kurds or stopping an escalation by Baghdad”.

“On the contrary, there was a condemnation of the insist-ence of the Kurdish leadership to hold this referendum and expose the region to instability”.

Anti-IS ‘sheikh sniper’ dead in battle for Iraq’s HawijaBasra

AFP

A veteran fighter known as “the sheikh of snip-ers” has been killed in

Iraq’s battle to retake the town of Hawija from the Islamic State group, his par-amilitary force announced yesterday.

Abu Tahsin al-Salhi, who took part in conflicts dating back to the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and said he had gunned down at least 320 IS jihadists, died on Friday. He was killed as he advanced on Hawija in northwest Iraq, said Ahmad al-Assadi, spokesman for the Hashed al-Shaabi alliance mostly of Shiite militias fight-ing alongside government forces against the last jihad-ist bastions.

At his funeral yesterday near the southern port city of Basra, close friend Ahmad Ali Hussein said the marksman was widely known by com-rades as “the sheikh of snipers” or “hawk eye”.

A grey-bearded hulk of a man who drove an offroad motorbike and wore a black-and-white chequered scarf and fingerless mittens, Abu Tahsin was inseparable from his Austrian-manufactured Steyr rifle.

At least 11 dead as DR Congo army plane crashesKinshasa

AFP

A transport plane chartered by the Congolese army crashed near Kinshasa

yesterday, killing at least 11 peo-ple, military and airport sources said.

The Antonov transporter had just taken off with “several dozen people” onboard, head-ing for the eastern region of Kivu, where the army is fighting

militia groups, an airport offi-cial said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The plane went down at N’sele, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the source said.

A local official in the area of the crash said there were “no survivors”.

Reporters saw that the coun-try’s Republican Guard had

erected a barrier around the crash site, in an uninhabited area that formerly housed an agro-industrial complex.

The plane, which had a Rus-sian crew, was carrying “two vehicles and weapons” as well as military personnel, a source at the army’s headquarters said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

He said there were “between 20 and 30 people” on board when it took off from Kinsha-

sa’s Ndjili airport. However, a commander at

the airport, George Tabora, said that “there were no passengers onboard.”

“There were only crew members because it’s a cargo plane,” he said, without saying how many were onboard, or their nationality.

Army and government spokesmen were unavailable for comment.

A witness at the crash site

said he had seen the plane “fall-ing” out the sky shortly before 9:00am but said there was no sign of any smoke coming from the aircraft. But another witness, an army lieutenant, contradicted that account, saying that the air-craft caught fire in mid-air before crashing and that there was a series of explosions on the ground.

A woman whose house is less than 500 metres (yards) from the crash site said.

Iraqi Kurds overwhelmingly voted for independence in Monday’s non-binding referendum, which has sent regional tensions soaring.

South Sudanese refugees at the Bidi Bidi camp in Uganda.

09SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

A crowd outside a telecommunications company headquarters in Kuwait City to purchase the new Apple iPhone 8, yesterday.

High demand for iPhone 8 in Kuwait City

Airstrikes in Syria safe zone claim 28Beirut

AFP

At least 28 civilians were killed in air strikes on north-western Syria where a planned

safe zone has been overshad-owed by a bombing campaign against jihadists, a monitor said yesterday.

Four children were among the dead in the overnight strikes on the town of Armanaz, in Idlib province near the Turkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based watch-dog had earlier reported 12 dead in the strikes on the town in Harem district around 20km northwest of the provincial capital Idlib.

An AFP correspondent who toured Armanaz yesterday morning said entire apartment blocks had been flattened by the bombardment.

The Observatory said it could not immediately deter-mine whether the strikes had been carried out by warplanes of the Syrian government or its ally Russia.

But they are the latest in an intensifying air campaign car-ried out by the two governments against jihadist fighters who control most of the province and are not party to a safe zone deal brokered by Rus-sia, Turkey and Iran.

The surge in bombing raids

has forced hospitals in the province to close, medical char-ity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Friday.

They were triggered by an offensive by jihadist fighters led by Al Qaeda’s former Syria affil-iate launched against government-held villages in neighbouring Hama province on September 19.

The jihadists control nearly all of Idlib province after driv-ing out Islamist former allies earlier this year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed on Thursday to step up efforts to establish a safe zone in Idlib as part of a wider agreement struck in May.

Three other safe zones have already been set up — in East-ern Ghouta near Damascus, parts of the south and some areas of the central province of Homs.

11 dead in Cape Town shootingsCape Town

AFP

Eleven people were killed in a series of overnight shootings in a Cape

Town township, police said yesterday, including four vic-tims shot dead when gunmen opened fire in a restaurant.

Extra police officers were deployed to the Philipi district of Cape Town, a city that suf-fers from regular gang violence and armed clashes between rival criminal groups.

“We have deployed teams comprising specialist detec-tives, high-risk units and intelligence operatives,” police spokeswoman Novela Potelwa told the News 24 website.

“We already executed search operations that are set to continue throughout the day. The police are doing their best to arrest those responsible.”

Tens of thousands of peo-ple live in informal shack settlements in Philipi, located in the notoriously crime-rid-den Cape Flats area of the city. Four people were shot dead at a restaurant Friday evening, with three other bodies found by police nearby. Another four more people were killed elsewhere in the district.

“Regardless of the cir-cumstances, these mass murders — related or not — are criminal acts which must be punished using the full might of our law,” party spokesman Zizi Kodwa said in a statement.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) speaks during the opening ceremony of Erzurum Metropolitan Municipality Fairground and MNG Shopping and Wellness Center in Erzurum province, yesterday.

Israel behind Kurdistan referendum: ErdoganIstanbul

AFP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency played a role

in Iraqi Kurdistan’s independ-ence vote, proved by the waving of Israeli flags during celebra-tions of the overwhelming “yes’ vote.

Ankara fiercely opposed the referendum and has threatened sanctions against the region, reflecting its worries about its own sizeable Kurdish minority.

During a televised speech, Erdogan claimed that Turkey had been saddened to see some Iraqi Kurds acclaiming the inde-pendence referendum with Israeli flags.

“This shows one thing, that this administration (in northern Iraq) has a history with Mossad, they are hand-in-hand together,” Erdogan said in Erzu-rum, in eastern Turkey.

Iran and Iraq’s central gov-ernment in Baghdad have also expressed alarm over the refer-endum last Monday, and have refused to recognise its validity. Israel has been the only country to openly support an independ-ent Kurdish state, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backing “the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to attain a state of its own.”

Erdogan has derided the Israeli support.

“Are you aware of what you are doing?” Erdogan said in an appeal to Iraqi Kurdish leaders. “Only Israel supports you.”

Ankara has threatened a

series of measures to punish Iraqi Kurds, including shutting the land border between Turkey and the region and halting the transit of oil from Iraqi Kurdis-tan to the southern Turkish port of Ceyhan, an economic lifeline. On Friday, the Turkish carriers Turkish Airlines, Atlas and Pegasus suspended their flights to Iraqi Kurdistan for an unspec-ified period of time.

Erdogan yesterday vowed that Iraqi Kurdistan “will pay a price” for the “unacceptable” independence referendum, without elaborating.

“An independent state is not being founded in northern Iraq, but on the contrary a continu-ously bleeding wound is being opened,” he said.

“To ignore this reality ben-efits neither us, nor our Kurdish brothers in Iraq,” he said,

calling on Iraqi Kurds to “wake up from this dream” of independence.

Ankara had previously refused to engage in official con-tacts with Iraqi Kurds, fearing that any actions that could encourage the creation of an independent Kurdish state could embolden its own Kurds.

But as Turkey’s economy has boomed, Erdogan has moved to forge trade ties with Iraq’s Kurdistan region, helping make Iraq the second-largest market for Turkish exports last year, after Germany.

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani has also become a fre-quent visitor to Turkey. Business sources quoted in Turkish media have warned that the closure of the Habur border gate could harm $7bn of trade between Ankara and Arbil.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed on Thursday to step up efforts to establish a safe zone in Idlib as part of a wider agreement struck in May.

Turkey opens military base in MogadishuMogadishu

AP

The Turkish government has opened a military training base, its largest

in Africa, in the Somali capi-tal, Mogadishu.

The Turkish chief of staff Gen Hulusi Akar and Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire inaugurated the facil-ity yesterday. Khaire thanked Turkey for “unwavering” sup-port to help Somalia rebuild its fractured army and stabi-lise the war-torn country.

Two hundred Turkish military officers will train 10,000 Somali soldiers at the base which includes army dormitories, training grounds and prisons.

Iraq will defend Kurds from attack: AbadiBaghdad

AFP

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi yesterday said he would defend the country’s

Kurds from attack as internal and regional tensions soared over a controversial independ-ence referendum.

“To our people in the Kurdistan region: we defend our Kurdish citizens as we defend all Iraqis and will not allow any attack on them,” he tweeted in English.

An Abadi adviser, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the premier was refer-ring to either an internal or external attack.

“We will not allow any harm to you and we will share our loaf of bread together,” Abadi said in another tweet.

Iran yesterday said it would hold a joint military exercise with Iraq on Iran’s border with Iraqi Kurdistan in response to Monday’s “i l legit imate referendum”.

Iraqi soldiers on Tuesday also took part in a Turkish mil-itary drill close to the Iraqi frontier.

Inside Iraq, Hadi Al Ameri, head of the powerful Iran-backed Badr organisation, has

vowed to defend the country’s unity, warning that the poll could trigger civil war.

Baghdad has demanded the annulment of Monday’s non-binding referendum, which resulted in a huge “yes” vote, and has suspended interna-tional flights to and from the region.

Washington has said it does not recognise the “unilateral” referendum. Turkey, Iran and Syria — which have their own sizeable Kurdish communities — have also rejected the vote for independence in the oil-rich region.

Yesterday, Abadi explained Baghdad’s wish to better con-trol all of Iraq’s oil revenues.

“Federal government con-trol of oil revenues is in order to pay KR employee salaries in full and so that money will not go to the corrupt,” he tweeted.

In 2014, after a dispute over oil exports, Baghdad suspended payments to the Kurdish region of 17 percent of Iraq’s national budget.

Wages, including those of Kurdish peshmerga fighters, were slashed after the end of those transfers, which were worth around $12bn annually and made up 80 percent of the region’s budget revenues.

Cameroon city deserted ahead of ‘independence’ declaration Buea

AFP

The main city in a restive English-speaking region of Cameroon was a virtual

ghost town yesterday, with armed police patrolling the streets on the eve of an expected — but symbolic — declaration of independence from the French-speaking country by anglophone separatists.

In Buea, the chief city in Cameroon’s Southwest Region, shops were closed, streets were almost deserted and the nor-mally bustling university campus was lifeless after resi-dents left, apparently fearing

violence. On Thursday, the authorities announced a tem-porary curb on travel and public meetings across the Southwest Region, adding to a curfew in the neighbouring Northwest Region, also English-speaking.

The majority of Cameroon’s 22 million people are French-speaking, while about a fifth is English-speaking.

The legacy dates back to 1961, when a formerly British entity, Southern Cameroons, united with Cameroon after its independence from France in 1960.

The anglophone minority has long complained about dis-parities in sharing out

Cameroon’s oil wealth.They are also angry about

perceived discrimination, espe-cially in education and the judicial system, where they say the French language and tradi-tions are being imposed on them, even though English is one of the country’s two official language. Tensions have surged, leading to marches and a clamp-down ahead of what is expected to be a symbolic declaration of independence on October 1 — the anniversary of the 1961 amalgamation.

University dormitories in the district of Molyko were empty and armed police patrolled the avenues.

Turkey hails Palestine in Interpol

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry “welcomed” earlier yes-terday Palestine’s full

membership of the global polic-ing network Interpol, despite heavy opposition from Israel, reports Anatolia.

“We welcome admission of the State of Palestine to Inter-pol as a new member during the 86th meeting of the General Assembly, held in Beijing,” said the Turkish Foreign Ministry statement.

Donald Trump’s latest version of the controversial travel ban, forbidding citizens of seven countries from travelling to the United States citing national security reasons, is being challenged in

court. Human rights organisations announced on Friday that they are suing the Trump administration over the ban. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), along with other rights organizations, have submitted a letter to the US District Court in Maryland seeking to amend an existing lawsuit they already filed.

Under the latest ban unveiled by the White House on Sunday, citizens of Yemen, Syria, Libya, Iran, Somalia, North Korea and Chad are all banned from entering the US. For the last three months, the administration used an executive order to ban citizens from six Muslim countries with some exceptions. But after October 18, the new restrictions will begin. And unlike the previous ban, which limited travel for 90 days, the new restrictions are indefinite and “conditioned based, not timed based.”

Will the new ban make Americans safer? According to all publicly available information, the answer is a resounding no. National security and safety is a convincing and easy excuse for imposing the ban, but security experts and those in the know are convinced that it’s an excuse meant to fool the public. The US visa system all over the world is already efficient enough to

weed out suspicious applicants and there are systems in place, with the huge security and intelligence network at Washington’s disposal, to vet the applicants effectively. As ACLU Director Anthony Romero put it, the new ban “is still a Muslim ban at its core, and it certainly engages in discrimination based on national origin, which is unlawful”. Trump is fulfilling his election promise of implementing ‘a total and complete

shutdown’ of Muslims entering the United States, a provocative action which is against the constitution of this great country and the great values it has been promoting all over the world.

It’s also interesting to note that opposition to the ban from ordinary Americans has diminished compared to the fury and protests that accompanied the first ban. Trump is determined to push his agenda and such determination is difficult to be defeated. All hopes are now on the ACLU lawsuit. The courts must overturn the ban as it discriminates against millions of Muslims who are law-abiding citizens of their respective countries, and also because the ban is against the principles of justice and equality enshrined in the American constitution. This is a political ban that will only help exacerbate the current divisions and hatred in the world and will hugely satisfy the xenophobes who support Trump, goading them to spread more hatred and Islamophobia.

10 SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017VIEWS

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

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

msalim@pen.com.qa

New travel ban

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The correct direction must be upheld in developingChina-US relations. Both countries common interests far outweigh our disputes, and cooperation is the only correct choice for both sides.

Xi JinpingChinese President

As the American Civil Liberties Union Director Anthony Romero puts it, the latest version of Trump’s travel ban “is still a Muslim ban at its core”.

When right-wing Jewish organi-sations in the United States and Israel embrace white national-ists and neo-Nazis - and support an American president who

makes open appeals to them - they reveal the inherent flaws in their argument that the BDS (Boy-cott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians is anti-Semitic. Even worse, these hardliners may have more in common ideologically with white nation-alists than they care to admit.

Sebastian Gorka, a real-life Nazi and Islam-ophobe who until recently worked in the Trump White House, was the keynote speaker at a counterterrorism conference near Tel Aviv, speaking alongside Israeli cabinet ministers such as Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman. As The Forward reported, Gorka has been accused of having ties to Vitezi Rend, an anti-Semitic Hungarian political party whose leader report-edly handed over hundreds of thousands of Jews to the Nazis in the Second World War.

Yair Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister’s son, found common cause with neo-Nazis and white supremacists when he posted on Face-book a meme laden with anti-Semitic imagery including George Soros, a reptile and a sinister Illuminati figure. Former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke retweeted the meme, and the post drew praise from the neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer, calling Yair Netanyahu “a total bro” and posting an article entitled, “Netanya-hu’s Son Posts Awesome Meme Blaming the Jews for Bringing Down his Jew Father”. Fol-lowing the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, Yair Netanyahu equated the white supremacists and neo-Nazis with the anti-fascist protesters, and said he was far more concerned with the far-left “thugs of Antifa and BLM who hate my country (and America too in my view) just as much” and “are getting stronger and stronger and becoming super dominant in American universities and public life”.

Zionist Organisation of America (ZOA) has invited Breitbart chief and former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon to speak at its Novem-ber 12 gala in New York. The White House overthrow of Bannon — who has been accused of making anti-Semitic statements — was hailed by mainstream Jewish-American organisations such as the Anti-Defamation League, the Reform movement and J Street.

Described as the oldest pro-Israel organisa-tion in the US, ZOA has in recent years engaged in “anti-Muslim extremism”, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Supportive of expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank, ZOA was the first Jewish group to meet with President Trump. ZOA has associated with anti-Muslim extremists such as Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, and actor Jon Voight, who said “Obama founded ISIL” and would cause “a civil war”, and black people would vote for Trump “if they can be educated”.

Morton Klein, ZOA president, has said that “everyone knows that blacks are, on average,

Right-wing Zionism, white supremacy and the BDSDavid A LoveAl Jazeera

are better dancers than other people”, that “Jews are better businessmen”, and “most people know” that Asians “are smarter on average than other people in America”. Writing an op-ed recently in Breitbart, Klein, who like Trump, supports the profil-ing of Muslims, said “Creating a truly peaceful Palestinian Arab State living in peace with the Jewish State is thus an impossible-to-achieve deal”, adding, “It would only strengthen the ability of the Palestinians to promote their terrorist goals of murdering Jews and destroying the Jewish State”.

Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, the organisation’s top funder, is also one of Trump’s largest campaign donors, and a supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu. Adelson has raised millions of dollars to combat BDS on US campuses, with defamatory posters calling Students for Justice in Palestine “Jew hat-ers”. Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, BDS is a Pales-tinian-led global movement to bring an end to the Israeli occupation, on the grounds that Palestinian Arabs deserve freedom, justice and equality, and are enti-tled to their fundamental human rights.

The BDS movement, which reflects America’s proud legacy of civil rights boy-cotts, is designed to apply economic pressure on the Israeli government and end its colonial settlements on Palestinian land, and a military-enforced apartheid system. BDS enjoys support from progres-sive Jewish groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace. JVP also boycotts the Adelson-funded Birthright Israel programme, which sends young Jews on free 10-day trips to Israel to strengthen their cultural identity, while Palestinians are not allowed to return to their own homes. Other Jewish human rights organisations, which oppose the occupation in earnest and uphold Pal-estinian rights, either do not support BDS or refuse to take a stand on the issue.

Conservative pro-Israel lobby groups such as AIPAC, however, have sought to criminalise BDS in Congress, while ZOA has characterised the move-ment as anti-American and anti-Semitic. Jewish organisations ranging from the ADL and the American Jewish Commit-tee to T’ruah and J Street have criticised

a law passed in the Knesset banning entry to any foreigner who supports the boycott of Israel and its

settlements.Meanwhile, ZOA’s Klein insists that

both Gorka and Bannon are lovers and defenders of Israel and the Jewish people who “fight against radical Islamic terror-ism”. Klein also insists the neither the alt-right nor Breitbart include racists or neo-Nazis, and Bannon is a victim of a campaign by far-left groups and the media to defame friends of Israel.

Yet, ZOA chooses to target liberal, pro-gressive and antiracist voices and paint them as anti-Semites and anti-Israel, at a time when white American reactionaries brand as “racist” those who bring attention to the continuing prevalence of racism in society. The organisation labelled British musician and Pink Floyd founding mem-ber Roger Waters an “unabashed anti-Semitic bigot” for supporting BDS, while the Simon Wiesenthal Center called Waters “an open hater of Jews”.

Klein accused MSNBC host Joy Reid of displaying “hostility” towards Israel after she tweeted a joke about Gorka’s alleged Nazi ties. Alan Dershowitz, who spoke at last year’s ZOA gala, has defended Bannon against anti-Semitism charges but has accused Black Lives Matter of anti-Semitism. The Movement for Black Lives platform accuses Israel of genocide against the Palestinians and supports BDS based on Israeli policies such as 50 discrimina-tory laws against Palestinians, the Israeli detention of Palestinian children as young as 4 years old without due process, the bulldozing of Palestinian homes to make way for illegal Israeli settlements, a US-funded “apartheid wall” and military checkpoints. ZOA opposed a Black Lives Matter week in the predominantly black and brown Philadelphia public schools over fears the curriculum would contain anti-Semitic material.

It is problematic that certified white supremacists would be received with open arms by some Jews and Israelis, as BDS is branded as anti-Semitic, even criminalised for employing free speech to bring about positive social change and an end to the racism and human rights violations in Israel and Palestine.

The pro-Israel right lacks integrity in this regard, and this is just as problematic as any Jewish support for the Trump adminis-tration, which recently reversed DACA, a programme that protects young immigrants who entered the United States illegally as minors. US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who could hardly contain his glee while announcing the reversal of this programme was inspired by the US Immigration Act of 1924, which was promoted by white supremacists and eugenicists and was designed to keep Jews, Italians and other so-called “morally defective immigrants” primarily from Eastern and Southern Europe out of the country. In a 2015 Breit-bart radio interview with Bannon, Sessions said the 1924 law “was good for America”.

David A Love is a Philadelphia-based freelance

journalist and commentator, and adjunct

instructor at the Rutgers University School of

Communication and Information.

Defining pro-Israel as pro-occupation and anti-Arab, stalwart defenders of the Israeli occupation provide an opening to whitesplain and rehabilitate neo-Nazis as friends of Israel and unjustly paint BDS as the real anti-Semites.

ED ITOR IAL

11SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017 OPINION

The Social Democrats, who’d been in coalition with the CDU/CSU, were pounded too. Their share fell to just 20.5 percent — and, wounded by the experience, they’ve said they’ll now move into opposition. AfD’s 12.6 per-cent put them in third place, obliging Merkel to seek a new coalition with the right-of-center Free Democrats, on 10.7 percent, and the left-of-center Greens, on 8.9 percent. Forming a government could take weeks or even months.

Support for the AfD is best seen as a protest vote. The party managed to attract an unruly mix of first-time voters, conservatives abandoning the CDU/CSU, and voters from eastern states under economic stress. Roughly one- sixth of the party’s sup-porters switched from backing leftist parties in the past. Ideologically,

they’re divided, and the splits wid-ened in their moment of success. A politician of Merkel’s skill should be able to exploit this weakness.

Uniting her new coalition will probably be harder. Granted, Germa-ny’s economy is thriving: Unemployment has declined to 3.7 percent from over 11 percent in 2005, growth is healthy, and the govern-ment’s budget is in surplus. This was the core of Merkel’s case to the elec-torate. Yet areas of neglect demand attention, ranging from poor digital infrastructure to lack of competition in services. Building cross-party sup-port for programs to address those issues won’t be easy.

Germany’s role as a leader of the European Union poses an even greater challenge. Monetary union remains incomplete and closer

cooperation on fiscal policy will be needed to ensure long-term stability. The Free Democrats in particular are skeptical of further integration and want a less centralised EU. Without the backing of the Social Democrats, it will be harder for Merkel to make the case for the larger fiscal transfers that a successful union will require.

To be sure, the prospect of a fourth Merkel term is good news. And the setback posed by the AfD, though disappointing, is being exag-gerated. The party is still marginal: It has no more support than hardline nationalist parties elsewhere in Europe and, deftly handled, it won’t sway policy. Merkel’s real test in the next few years will be forming and leading a new coalition to grapple with Germany’s, and especially Europe’s, pressing demands.

What can actually trigger war on the Korean Peninsula?

In the coming days, there are three possible triggers for war with North Korea that need to be carefully watched.

The first possible trigger is a declaration of war by North Korea, especially since the

United States has made clear it has not declared war. The idea that countries would formally declare war against each other, before commenc-ing hostilities, is a relic of the early 20th century. Although remnants of the practice remain, it was largely outdated by the second world war as the military advantages of surprise as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and the Nazi attack on Soviet Russia, made clear.

After the second world war, the United Nations hoped that all members would refrain from the threat or use of force against the territo-rial integrity or political independence of any state, to which Declarations of War by individual states would become redundant. However, when the North Korean armed forces advanced over the 38th parallel on June 25, 1950, without a dec-laration of war, it was shown how in vain this hope was.

The response to this act of aggression by North Korea was the 84th resolution (pdf) of the Security Council (when the Soviet Union was absent from the vote) to defend South Korea under the UN flag but with the leadership of the US.

Today, the situation is even more complicated as the North Korean rhetoric of declaring war is not uncommon. Following the 2013 sanctions (pdf) approved by the Security Council against North Korea for their nuclear test, Kim Jong-un promised a pre-emptive strike against the US with nuclear weapons. This was followed by a “Full War Declaration Statement”. This was all part of their assertions that North Korea had

scrapped the armistice that ended the first Korean War in 1953.

To show their determination in 2013, North Korea also cut the hotline that enabled direct communication between North and South Korea. Although the hotline was reconnected a few months later, when South Korea closed down the joint Kaesong industrial complex following Kim Jung-un’s fourth nuclear test in early 2016, North Korea condemned the act as a Declaration of War, and then cut the hotline again.

Cutting the hotline is more dangerous than the rhetoric. Hotlines prevent accidental war. South Korea, which has a hotline to China, has been try-ing to have its hotline to North Korea reconnected. However, the line that is really needed is one between North Korea and Wash-ington. Such best practice has been evident since 1963, following the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the two superpowers recognised the necessity to be able to talk directly, at short notice, whenever required so as not to stumble into nuclear war.

Possible detonation of a nuclear deviceThe second possible trigger to watch for is the

North Korea threat of a possible detonation of a nuclear device in the atmosphere over the Pacific. Although the aesthetics of such an act would shock the world as humanity has not seen a

nuclear airburst since that done by China in 1980, this would not be the beginning of hostilities. Such an act would violate international environ-mental law, not the laws of war and peace. Kim will start a war if he detonates his device over or within someone else’s territory, including the ocean spaces that they control, such as with the American land and ocean territory of Guam.

However, if he exploded it in international territory, such as the high seas, he faces different rules, such as when Australia and New Zealand took France to the International Court of Justice after French atmospheric testing caused radiation pollution to fall on them, downwind. It was for this reason of pollution that most of the global community concluded an international agree-ment prohibiting such atmospheric nuclear testing. Although North Korea is not a signatory to this agreement, the same international rules about not causing significant environmental damage to other nations still apply.

Shooting down an aircraftThe third possible trigger to watch for is the

North Korea threat to shoot down aircraft in international airspace (as in, mirroring the terri-torial sea, 12 nautical miles/22.2km out from the land). Previously in 1969, North Korea did shoot down an American spy plane, killing all 31

Angela Merkel’s victory gives her a fourth term as Germa-ny’s chancellor and should be seen as a remarkable achieve-ment — one that few would

have predicted back in 2015, when her popularity slumped during the worst of the refugee crisis. Merkel’s resilience, based on a careful blend of principle and pragmatism, deserves to be celebrated.

To be sure, this success is marred, and the future of German politics somewhat clouded, by the strength of support for the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD). Yet dealing with this newcomer to the national parliament is unlikely to be Merkel’s toughest chal-lenge. Building and leading a new kind of coalition government will be a greater test of Merkel’s abilities.

Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union won 33 percent of the vote, down from 41.5 percent in 2013.

Merkel’s top challenge is building a new coalition

A file photo showing North Korean People’s Army soldiers marching in a military parade at Kim Il-Sung Square in Pyongyang.

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members aboard when it was operating in international air-space. At that point, President Nixon did not respond with vio-lence due to a fear of how the Soviet Union and China would react.

Today, as the over 60 times that Russian military aircraft have flown close to Alaska or down past the edge of Western Europe in the past 10 years have shown, no matter how unpleas-ant such acts may be, such planes may be intercepted and followed, but they may not be shot down if they do not cross into territorial airspace.

To ensure that no mistakes are made in this carefully chore-ographed sabre rattling, certain rules need to apply — primarily, the planes should not be invisi-ble. Where possible, transponders and radios should be on, and (as the US appears to be doing) flight plans disclosed in advance.

If Kim decides to take down one of the American planes flying in international airspace, as his grandfather Kim Il-sung did in earlier times, he would be gam-bling against the odds that President Trump will not respond with violence.

The author is professor of interna-

tional law at the University of

Waikato, New Zealand. His research

focuses on laws of war and armed

conflict. He is the author of the

three-volume set “A History of the

Laws of War” and the three-volume

set “The Causes of War”.

Alexander GillespieAl Jazeera

Kim will start a war if he detonates his device over or within someone else’s territory, including the ocean spaces that they control, such as with the American land and ocean territory of Guam.

Bloomberg

Uniting her new coalition will probably be harder. Granted, Germany’s economy is thriving: Unemployment has declined to 3.7 percent from over 11 percent in 2005, growth is healthy, and the government’s budget is in surplus. This was the core of Merkel’s case to the electorate.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Lower Saxony’s Christian Democratic Union’s (CDU) top candidate Bernd Althusmann wave after a regional election campaign in Hildesheim, Germany.

12 SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017ASIA

Modi urged citizens to get inspired from festivalsNew Delhi

IANS

Vijaya Dashmi, or Dussehra, marking the victory of Rama over Ravana and symbolising the tri-

umph of good over evil, was celebrated with fervour across the country yesterday.

In New Delhi, before burn-ing the effigy of Ravana at the Subhash Maidan opposite Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted the citizens to see festivals as source of inspiration to do something positive for soci-ety as he underlined their social relevance.

In Punjab and Haryana, a festive spirit prevailed at all places including Amritsar, Ludhi-ana, Patiala, Bathinda, Jalandhar and Gurdaspur (all in Punjab); Ambala, Hisar, Rohtak and Kar-nal (all in Haryana) and in Chandigarh where the burning of Ravana effigies was organised.

Interestingly, effigies of babas or self-styled king were included among the effigies of Ravana and others at some

places this time to highlight the wrong-doings of these babas who take people for a ride in the name of religion.

On some of the effigies of godmen, the photograph of Gur-meet Ram Rahim Singh, the disgraced chief of Dera Sacha Sauda sect who was recently convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for rape of two female disciples, was put up.

In Haryana, the tallest Ravana at 210 feet was put up at Barala near Ambala, about 65 km from Chandigarh.

In West Bengal, devotees thronged marquees and commu-nity pujas to bid farewell to

Durga on Vijaya Dashami, the last day of the Durga Puja festi-val. With anticipation of the homecoming of the deity next year, married women decked in the ritualistic red-and-white saris marked the event with the customary “Sindoor Khela” or smearing each other and the idols with red vermillion to pre-pare Durga and her four children — Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartik — for their return to their heavenly abode on Mount Kailash.

As part of the observances, enthusiasts cutting across reli-gious and age barriers indulged in “dhunuchi naach” -- dancing to the beat of the ‘dhaak’ (drums) holding aloft earthen bowls laden with incense and camphor.

In Assam, lakhs of people thronged different Durga Puja pandals since morning, braving rains and inclement weather, to bid adieu and celebrate ‘Vijoya Dashami’ -- the last day of the four-day Durga Puja festival. Men, women and children gath-ered in puja pandals and took part in the rituals performed by the priests and took blessings.

In Karnataka’s cultural capi-tal Mysuru, about one million people from across the country gathered for the victory parade to mark the culmination of the Dasara festival, as it is called locally. With the Karnataka

government hosting the fest as the state festival, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah flagged off the 407th procession, to celebrate the triumph of good over evil, from the gates of the royal Amba Vilas Palace.

Fifteen caparisoned ele-phants, horse-drawn carriages, around 2,000 artists, cultural troupes and 40 tableaux marched five km to the Banni-mantap Grounds through the city.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi talking with former prime minister Manmohan Singh at an event marking the festival of Dussehra in New Delhi, yesterday.

Dussehra fest

Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted the citizens to see festivals as source of inspiration to do something positive for society as he underlined their social relevance.

DMRC defends fare hike proposal

Rail Minister Goyal orders safety upgrades

President Kovind appoints five new Governors

Defence Minister visits Siachen

New Delhi

AFP

The Delhi Metro Rail Cor-poration yesterday defended its decision on

another fare hike saying its input costs have gone up over the years, and the increase is on par with other city metro rails. In a statement issued here, the DMRC said it has been operating in the city since 2002, and is presently carrying around 27 lakh pas-sengers everyday.

“To continue to provide a world class service, it is essen-tial to operate as a healthy organisation. Keeping this in view, the provision has been made for the periodic revision of fares through a Fare Fixa-tion Committee (FFC) in the Delhi Metro Operations & Maintenance Act, 2002,” the statement said.

“However, since 2009, there has been no fare increase whereas the input cost for DMRC has increased by over 105 per cent in Energy, 139 per cent in staff cost and by 213 per cent for repair and maintenance”.

“In addition, the DMRC has taken a huge loan from the Japan International Coop-eration Agency (JICA) and a payment of Rs26,760 crore is still outstanding which has to be paid back,” it said.

The statement said DMRC has to provide for deprecia-tion and replacement of various assets.

Mumbai

AFP

India’s railways minister yes-terday told station managers “to spend whatever is neces-

sary” to ensure passenger safety as the death toll from a stam-pede on a railway footbridge in Mumbai rose to 23.

Railway officials said the accident happened after hundreds of people took shelter Friday on the station footbridge to escape a heavy downpour.

Most of those killed were crushed to death, some suffocated and others fell from the narrow bridge. Around three dozen injured were also rushed to nearby hospitals.

The accident has raised new safety questions about one of the world’s biggest rail networks, which is struggling to upgrade infrastructure and safety after a

series of deadly crashes in recent years. Railways Minister Piyush Goyal yesterday announced steps to assess and improve safety on the Mumbai suburban network, which carries millions of people around the country’s financial hub every day.

Goyal said all Mumbai stations would be inspected within a week and new footbridges were being approved for overcrowded stations.

“To eliminate bureaucracy and delays, I have empowered GMs (general managers) to spend whatever is necessary on safety,” he said on Twitter.

“Additional escalators sanctioned at crowded Mumbai suburban stations and thereafter for all high traffic stations,” the minister said after chairing a meeting of top railway department officials.

Goyal, who was appointed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month to replace the previous railways minister following a series of accidents, has pledged to invest billions of dollars to make the network safer.Nearly $8bn has been promised to upgrade the suburban trains in Mumbai that are a lifeline for city’s 20 million people.

Some 7.5 million passengers commute in nearly 2,500 trains daily but hundreds die every year due to losing their grip on the doors, falling while trying to get into packed compartments and hitting electric poles outside. Official figures say some 3,400 people died in 2016 either from falling off the trains or while crossing the tracks of what is the world’s most overcrowded suburban rail network.

New Delhi

IANS

President Ram Nath Kovind yesterday appointed new Governors for five states,

including Tamil Nadu, which got its first full-time Governor in a year amid the continuing polit-ical crisis. Banwarilal Purohit, Congress-turned BJP leader, will occupy the Raj Bhavan in the southern state.

According to a Presidential statement, BJP leader Satya Pal Malik will hold charge in Bihar, where Kovind was Governor before he became President, former Delhi BJP MLA Jagdish

Mukhi is Governor in Assam, Bihar BJP leader Ganga Prasad in Meghalaya and Brigadier (retd) B.D. Mishra, a war veteran, in Arunachal Pradesh. Former Navy chief Admiral (retd) D.K. Joshi was named as the new Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nico-bar islands.

Purohit, a former national Vice President of the BJP, will be taking over as Governor at a time when Tamil Nadu is going through a political crisis due to infighting in the ruling AIADMK.

There has been demand for a full-time Governor in the state where Maharashtra Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao was holding

additional charge since K. Rosaiah retired in August last year.

Purohit - a long-time social and political activist from Vidar-bha in Maharashtra - was elected to the Lok Sabha thrice from Nagpur. He won the elections twice on a Congress ticket in 1984 and 1989 and once as a BJP member in 1996.

Last year, Purohit was appointed Governor of Assam, where he is being replaced by Jagdish Mukhi, veteran BJP leader. Mukhi was earlier Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nico-bar islands.

Admiral Joshi, who takes

over in the Union Territory, had resigned in the middle of his ten-ure as Navy chief after a fire broke out aboard Kilo-class sub-marine INS Sindhuratna on February 26, 2014. He was to retire in August 2015.

Bihar also got a full-time Governor in Satya Pal Malik - a former Janata Dal MP from Ali-garh and BJP Vice President.

Bihar politician Ganga Prasad, the new Governor of Meghalaya, had been part of BJP’s national executive after Amit Shah took over as party President. He has been a mem-ber of Bihar’s legislative council for 18 years.

Srinagar

IANS

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman yesterday visited the Siachen Gla-

cier, the world’s highest and coldest battlefield, and also some other forward posts in the Ladakh region to review the security situation in the area.

“During her visit she was accompanied by the Chief of the Army Staff General Bipan Rawat, General Officer Com-mander-in-Chief, Northern Command Lieutenant General Devraj Anbu and Corps Com-

mander of the Ladakh Corps. “The minister interacted

with the soldiers in the remote areas of Siachen Glacier and conveyed her best wishes on the auspicious occasion of Dussehra,” a Defence Ministry statement said.

Sitharaman also inaugu-rated a bridge on river Shyok on the road between Durbuk and Daulat Beg Oldi.

“During her visit to Leh, she interacted with Indian Air Force personnel,” the state-ment added.

This is Sitharaman’s first visit to Jammu and Kashmir as Defence Minister.

Meanwhile, A 14-feet-long tunnel, dug from from the Pakistan side across the inter-national border, was discovered yesterday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Jammu district, the BSF said.

The tunnel from which, the Border Security Force (BSF) troopers said they have recov-ered war-like stores, was discovered a day after the its field commanders and those of Pakistan Rangers held a flag meeting in which it was mutu-ally agreed that peace and tranquility would be main-tained on the international border by both sides.

NEWS BYTES

NEW DELHI: The death sentence handed to 15 Indians in Kuwait has been commuted to life imprisonment, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said yesterday as she thanked the country’s ruler for the gesture. “The Emir of Kuwait has been pleased to commute the sentence of 15 Indian nationals from death to life imprisonment,” Sushma Swaraj tweeted. “The Emir further directed reduction in sentence of 119 Indian nationals. We are grateful to the Emir for this kind gesture,” she said. “The Indian Mission in Kuwait will provide all pos-sible assistance to the Indian nationals who are awaiting release from prison,” the Minister added.

Kuwait commutes 15 Indians’ death sentence to life term

Amit Shah to take part in Kerala rally

Dalai Lama to visit Manipur

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BJP National President Amit Shah will participate in a ‘padyatra’ in Kerala, which will see him walk past the home of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the latter’s hometown in Kannur district on October 5, as a mark of protest against the ruling CPI-M’s “political violence” and also against growing jehadi terrorism, a BJP official said here yesterday. V. Muraleedharan, coordinator of the state-wide ‘yathra’ of state BJP president Kummanem Rajasekheran, said the padyatra was conceived in August, after the killing of Rash-triya Swayamsevak Sangh office bearer E. Rajesh on July 29 here. The yathra will also see a campaign against the recent trend of jehadi terrorism promoted by Islamic fundamental-ists, he told the media. “The state-wide yathra would be flagged off by Shah from Payanur in Kannur district on October 3. He will walk for three days, and on October 5, he will walk past the home of Vijayan at Pinarayi.

IMPHAL: The Dalai Lama is to visit Imphal, the capital of Manipur, on October 17 to participate in an international peace conference. This was disclosed yesterday by Yumnam Khem-chand, the Speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly during a brief public function. Khemchand said that the Tibetan spiritual leader will grace a peace conference on October 18 which will be attended by religious leaders from some coun-tries. The Speaker said that during his last meeting with the Dalai Lama in the national capital sometime ago he had requested him to visit Manipur, which was readily accepted.

India’s Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurating a bridge on river Shyok on the road between Durbuk and Daulat Beg Oldi, yesterday.

13SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017 ASIA

Nepali Hindus dancing during the tenth day of Dashain festival in Bhaktapur on the outskirts of Kathmandu, yesterday

Festive mood

2,000 Rohingya mass in

Myanmar to join exodusYangon

AFP

More than 2,000 Rohingya have massed along Myanmar’s coast this week after

trekking from inland villages in Rakhine state to join the refugee exodus to Bangladesh, state media reported yesterday.

They follow more than half a million fellow Rohingya who have emptied out of northern Rakhine in a single month, flee-ing an army crackdown and communal violence the UN says amounts to “ethnic cleansing”.

The journey to Bangladesh is fraught with danger for the state-less Muslim minority, who have faced decades of systematic oppression in mainly Buddhist Myanmar.

After fleeing burning villages they say were set alight by sol-diers and Buddhist mobs, more than 100 Rohingya have drowned in the scramble to cross the Naf river that divides the two countries.

The latest boat capsize on

Thursday has left some 60 feared dead, with 23 bodies -- mainly of children -- brought to shore as dozens more remain missing. The crowds building up along Rakhine’s coast hail from the same inland area -- Buthidaung township -- as many of those who perished in the boat tragedy.

“Starting on Tuesday, they left their region, claiming that they felt insecure to remain because they were now living in a sparsely populated area, as most of their relatives had left

for Bangladesh,” the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported.

More than half had gathered on a beach near Lay Yin Kwin village, the report said, with pho-tos of women and children clustered together on the sand as security officers looked on.

It was not clear if or how they would complete the journey to Bangladesh, where the unprec-edented influx of refugees has unfurled a separate humanitar-ian crisis as aid groups struggle to meet their vast needs.

The report said officials tried to assure the Rohingya of their safety in Myanmar but villagers said they “would still like to go to Bangladesh of their own accord”.

Chris Lewa from the Arakan project, which closely tracks developments in Rakhine, said economic deprivation and ten-sions with Buddhist neighbours appear to be the main forces driving the recent movements of Rohingya out of Buthidaung, as opposed to fresh outbreaks of violence.

Crucial aid deliveries have

been cut off from the impover-ished area since August 25, when Rohingya militant raids on police posts triggered the military back-lash that plunged northern Rakhine into crisis.

“The majority are mostly poor who are leaving and have nothing to eat,” said Lewa.

“The Rakhine (Buddhist) vil-lages nearby, they are treating

them very badly and because of that people are afraid to go out ... they feel they cannot get out of their village to do any liveli-hood.” The UN has previously reported that increasingly iso-lated Muslim communities in Rakhine are receiving regular threats from ethnic Rakhine Buddhists to leave the area.

yanmar denies ethnic

cleansing is under way and instead blames Rohingya mili-tants for whipping up the violence, which has also dis-placed tens of thousands of Rakhine Buddhists and Hindus.

The crisis has inflamed already blistering religious ten-sions and fuelled a dizzying array of claims and counterclaims from different ethnic groups.

Islamabad

Internews

Ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Shar-if’s wife Kulsoom

Nawaz, who is undergoing cancer treatment in London, has been discharged from a hospital here and her further treatment, including chemo-therapy, would start next week.

Nawaz underwent a third operation for lymphoma, for which she was diagnosed last month, on September 21.

“Shukar Alhamdulillah, Ammi (Kulsoom Nawaz) is bet-ter, discharged from the hospital and back home. Her further treatment including chemotherapy starts next week.” her daughter Maryam said in a tweet on Friday night.

Speaking to Geo News, her son Hussain Nawaz said his mother’s condition was better now. “There do come ups and downs during ailment and it took a couple of days for my mother’s condition to improve.”

The wife of the former pre-mier won the Lahore NA-120 by-poll last week. The seat had fallen vacant after Sharif’s dis-qualification by the top court in the Panama Papers case on July 28.

Islamabad

AFP

Pakistan’s broadband subscriber base, including both wireless

(3G/4G) and wireline users, broadened to over 46.9m by August 2017 from around 45.6 million till a month ear-lier, mainly driven by a striking rise in the usage of mobile data services, Paki-stan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) reported yesterday.

“The major contribution came from the mobile oper-ators in the shape of 3G/4G subscribers, which reached 44.5 million by August,” the PTA said.

“The number of broad-band subscribers in other technologies included DSL reached 1,549,688, HFC 51,065, Wimax 160,519, FTTH 51,097, EvDO 565,709, while the users of other technologies hit a figure of 9,264.”

The PTA also revealed that country’s largest mobile phone operator, Jazz, over-whelmed its competitors as a premier 3G/4G provider.

“Jazz mobile broadband subscriber base reached 13.2 million and 1.24 million for 3G and 4G respectively in the period under review,” the PTA numbers disclosed.

PML-N to hold general council meet tomorrow

Kulsoom Nawaz discharged from London hospital

Broadband user base widens in Pakistan

Islamabad

Internews

The Oil and Gas Regula-tory Authority (Ogra) of Pakistan yesterday rec-

ommended Rs2.17 and Rs2.35 per litre increase in the price of high-speed diesel (HSD) and pet-rol, respectively, effective from October 1. It also recommended Rs19.32 and Rs14.09 per litre rise in kerosene and light diesel oil (LDO) rates, respectively.

As such, if the regulators’ cal-culations are accepted, the price of kerosene would go up by 44 per cent, followed by 32pc of LDO. The price of petrol would increase by 3.3pc and that of HSD by 2.8pc.

The government is, however, expected to pass on partial increase recommended by the regulator, an official said.

In a summary sent to the government, Ogra said the adjustment in diesel and petrol prices was required to pass on the impact of increase in the international market during September. An official said the regulator on the basis of exist-ing tax rates and imports made by Pakistan State Oil (PSO) in September, revised upwards the new ex-depot price of HSD to Rs79.40 for October from Rs77.40 per litre. Likewise, it worked out the ex-depot price of petrol at Rs73.85 Rs71.50 per

litre. It proposed Rs19.32 (almost 44pc) increase in kerosene price to Rs63.32 per litre from Rs44. For LDO, it recommended a Rs14.09 (32pc) per litre hike to Rs58.09 per litre from Rs44.

For the past many months, the Ministry of Petroleum and Ogra have been recommending a substantial increase in the prices of kerosene and LDO to minimise the huge price differ-ential with petrol.

The ministry believed that a Rs30 per litre price differential between petrol and the two other products was encourag-ing dishonest market operators to mix kerosene with petrol for higher profits. This is resulting

in adulterated and poor quality petrol in the market instead of higher grade being charged to consumers.

The government has been rejecting these calls in the past, saying it wanted to protect poor people. Interestingly, Prime Min-ister ShahidKhaqan Abbasi has maintained the status quo despite personally being an advocate of using prices as a tool to end adulteration in the past.

Kerosene is the only regu-lated petroleum product. However, it is unavailable at fixed rates anywhere in the country while all other products are deregulated and are availa-ble reasonably.

Lahore

Internews

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will convened a meeting

of its general council tomorrow and October 3 to formally begin the process of re-electing ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif as the party president.

PML-N central information secretary and Minister for Cli-mate Change Mushahidullah Khan said on Saturday that Sharif was unlikely to leave for London till he was re-elected as the party chief.

He added that separate meetings of the PML-N’s cen-tral working committee (CWC)

and general council a 1,600-strong electorate had been summoned to elect the party’s central leadership.

The first meeting of the council would be held at the Islamabad Convention Centre on Oct 2 after a meeting of the CWC earlier in the morning to amend the PML-N constitution that also barred a disqualified person from holding any party office, he said, adding that the second session would be held on Oct 3 to elect a new party president.

He insisted that all legal hurdles in the way of Sharif re-assuming his role as party chief would be removed by Oct 3, and he would take over his former role.

Roadside bombs leave two dead in HeratKabul

AP

At least two people includ-ing a police officer were killed by roadside bombs

in Afghanistan’s western Herat province, a provincial official said yesterday.

Gelani Farhad, spokesman for Herat’s provincial governor, said another officer was wounded when a police vehicle triggered the explosive in the Adraskan district.

In a separate incident,

Farhad said a civilian motorcy-cle hit a roadside bomb, killing one civilian and wounding another in the Shindand district.

In yet another report from northern Kapisa province, at least nine civilians were wounded when a bicycle bomb exploded in a bazaar, said Qais Qaderi, spokesman for the pro-vincial governor. Two small children were among the wounded, including one who was in critical condition, he said.

No one immediately claimed

responsibility for the attacks in Herat or Kapisa.

In a separate report from southern Kandahar province, a woman was killed after a civil-ian vehicle came under attack by unknown gunmen, said Nia-mat Khan, director of the regional Kandahar hospital. He said five others were wounded in the attack that took place in Shah Wali Kot district.

Late on Friday, the Islamic State group on its Amaq news agency claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside

a Shiite mosque in Kabul after Friday prayers. It said Zaid al-Khorasani, an Afghan, carried out the attack in which author-ities say at least five people were killed and 29 others wounded.

Najib Danish, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said three people suspected of being involved in the attack have been arrested, and an investigation was underway.

The attack took place two days before the Muslim holy day of Ashura, but Afghanistan has faced a series of large-scale

attacks in recent months target-ing minority Shiites. Last month, militants stormed a packed Shi-ite mosque in Kabul during Friday prayers in an attack that lasted for hours and ended with at least 20 worshippers killed and another 50 seriously wounded many of them children. IS claimed it was responsible.

Additional police forces have been deployed by the Interior Ministry, especially around the Shiite mosques in different prov-inces of the country, ahead of the Ashura holy day Sunday.

Ethnic cleansing

They follow more than half a million fellow Rohingya who have emptied out of northern Rakhine in a single month, fleeing an army crackdown and communal violence the UN says amounts to “ethnic cleansing”.

Rohingya refugees walking on the Bangladeshi shoreline of the Naf river after crossing the border from Myanmar in Teknaf, yesterday.

Petrol & diesel prices to go up in Pakistan in October

14 SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017ASIA

Beijing

Reuters

A 5.5 magnitude earthquake rattled southwestern Chi-

na’s Sichuan province yesterday, part of the country frequently struck by temblors, with initial reports of only minor damage. The quake struck 78km west of Guangyuan city, the United States Geological Survey said, with a depth of 10km.

People close to the epicentre said on Chinese social media that they felt shaking, and some posted pictures of people rush-ing outside of buildings.

State media showed pictures of tiles having fallen off walls, bottles toppled over and in one rural area some rocks having fallen onto roads and what appeared to be a small collapsed barn.

The official Xinhua news agency said there were no reports yet of any injuries or deaths.

The Sichuan govern-ment said several rail services had been sus-pended for safety checks, but that it had not received any reports of power being cut off in any parts of the province.

It also showed pic-tures from Qingchuan county, the quake’s epi-centre, with everything looking as normal and with no damage. The quake hit a mountainous area between the cities of Guangyuan and Mian-yang. Sichuan is often struck by tremors. A huge quake there in 2008 killed almost 70,000 people. In August, a 7.0-magnitude earth-quake struck a remote part of the same province near a popular tourist area, killing 20 people and injuring around 500, many of them in landslides.

Quake rattles southwestern China causing minor damage

Bali urges people who fled volcano to returnKlungkung

AP

Authorities were try-ing to convince more than half of the 144,000 people who fled a menacing vol-

cano on the Indonesian island of Bali to return home yesterday, saying they left areas that are safe. The Mount Agung volcano on Bali, a tourist hotspot known for its lush interior, Hindu cul-ture and beguiling beaches, has been at its highest alert level for more than a week, sparking an exodus from an official danger zone and areas farther away.

Authorities say the no-go zone, which in places extends 12km from the crater, is the area at risk of lava, lahars and sear-ing hot clouds of ash, gases and rock fragments if there’s a pow-erful eruption.

“Those who live outside the danger zone, we urge them to go back home and carry on with their daily lives,” said Putu Wid-iada, head of the disaster mitigation agency in Klungkung district south of the volcano

where some 22,000 people have fled. “We are trying to identify those who lived outside the dan-ger zone.”

Bali’s governor has warned that people leaving what the gov-ernment classifies as safe villages have become a “burden” on gen-uine evacuees and the temporary shelters set up to receive them.

Agung’s last eruptions in 1963 produced deadly clouds of searing hot ash, gases and rock fragments that traveled down its slopes at great speed. Lava spread for several kilometres and people were also killed by lahars — rivers of water and volcanic

debris. About 1,100 people died in total.

Archive footage of the 1963 eruption shows buildings with roofs shredded by falling debris, a massive plume of ash gushing sideways from the crater and children in a row of hospital beds with their arms and legs bandaged.

Government volcanologists last week warned Agung could erupt at any time following a dramatic increase in tremors from the mountain.

“I will stay here for as long as it takes,” said Suryani, a mother of two living with extended family in a tent on the grounds of a public sports cen-tre that’s the main camp in Klungkung district.

Inside the centre, families whiled away the time on mat-tresses, watching a giant TV screen, while cheerful music blared in the background.

“They are treating us well. I don’t want to go home if the mountain hasn’t exploded yet,” said Suryani, who goes by one name and is from a village inside the danger zone.

She said she sympathised with people who’d fled from areas designated as safe by offi-cials. “If it’s not safe yet, they should allow them to stay,” she said. “We can stay here together so they’re not in danger.”

At another smaller tempo-rary camp, officials said a dozen people had left of their own accord after the Bali governor’s statement and they were in the process of identifying others who can go home but wouldn’t com-pel them to.

Widiada, the disaster official, said longer-term plans for evac-uees from the so-called red zone are still being worked out. “This is a temporary shelter so it’s not as comfortable as your own house but we are trying to make it as good as we can by provid-ing entertainment, counsellors, a school for the children.”

Agung, about 70km to the northeast of the Kuta tourist mecca, is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia. Another volcano, Mount

Sinabung on Sumatra, has been erupting since 2010.

Officials say tourists on Bali, which had nearly 5 million visi-tors last year, are not in danger but they have prepared evacua-tion plans if ash fall from an eruption forces the closure of the island’s international airport.

Indonesia, an archipelago of thousands of islands, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its loca-tion on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

Evacuees stay at a temporary shelter in Kubu, Karangasem Regency on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, yesterday.

Fear driving Cambodian opposition MPs abroadPhnom Penh Reuters

Around half the opposition members of Cambodia’s parliament have left the

country in fear of a crackdown by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government, a deputy party leader said.

The leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), Kem Sokha, was arrested on September 3 and charged with treason for an alleged plot to take power with US help.

The government has said there could be more arrests linked to the alleged plot, which the opposition says is just a ploy to ensure Hun Sen keeps his more than three-decade hold on power in next year’s general election.

Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has a slim majority in the 123-member par-liament, which voted on September 11 to allow the pros-ecution of Kem Sokha in a vote boycotted by opposition mem-bers. “About half are out of the

country in fear,” Mu Sochua, one of three deputies to Kem Sokha said. “I’m taking my chances. We cannot live in fear and let the fear paralyse us.”

She said the party was still in contact with those members out-side the country as the opposition tries to rally interna-tional pressure on the government. A spokesman for the ruling party said it was an internal issue for the CNRP if its members were abroad. Spokes-man Sok Eysan said the CPP believed in a culture of dialogue

but Kem Sokha’s “criminal act” had destroyed it. “The ship has left the port so it’s already too late,” said Sok Eysan.

The government has said Kem Sokha’s party could be dis-solved if it doesn’t drop him as its leader, something the CNRP has said it will not do.

While Western countries have condemned the arrest of Kem Sokha and called for his release, Hun Sen has support from his close ally China, by far the biggest donor to one of Southeast Asia’s poorest

countries. Mu Sochua said she was still hopeful that Western countries would take stronger action against the government, but did not specify what.

“A statement alone is not going to help,” she said.

The evidence presented against Kem Sokha so far is a video from 2013 in which he tells supporters that he has support from unidentified Americans for a plan to gain power.

The opposition says it is evi-dence of an election strategy, not a coup plot.

Tokyo Governor Koike’s party threat to Abe: Poll

Tokyo

AFP

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s (pictured) lead in next month’s election has shrunk

as the popular Tokyo governor pushes to unite opposition forces, a survey by Japan’s top-selling daily indicated yesterday.

Thirty-four percent of Jap-anese plan to vote for Abe’s conservative Liberal Demo-cratic Party (LDP) while 19 percent favour a party formed this week by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, according to the poll in the Yomiuri Shimbun.

It also showed one quarter of those polled were still unde-cided on how vote in the October 22 election.

The findings suggest Abe’s path to victory may not be as easy as earlier believed.

The poll was taken on Thursday and Friday, right after the main opposition Demo-cratic Party made a surprise move to join forces with Koike’s

newborn “Party of Hope”.Koike is also talking with

smaller opposition groups to explore possibilities of cooperation.

A survey in the leading business daily Nikkei last week-end had showed 44 percent of Japanese plan to vote for the LDP while only eight percent favoured the Democratic Party.

Abe on Monday called the snap election, seeking a fresh term at the helm of the world’s third-largest economy.

He hoped to capitalise on a weak and fractured opposition to sweep back into power, as polls had shown him regaining ground for his hawkish stance on rising tensions with nearby North Korea.

But Koike stole his limelight by launching her party with the criticism that the pace of much-needed reforms under Abe’s government is too slow.

The Yomiuri conducted the survey on which party voters plan to cast their ballots for under the proportional repre-sentation system. A total of 465 seats are up for grabs in the lower-house election on Octo-ber 22, of which 289 are to be elected from single-seat dis-tricts and 176 by proportional representation.

Both Yomiuri and Nikkei surveys were telephone polls that covered more than 1,000 eligible voters across the nation.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks during a reception on the eve of China’s National Day, which marks the 68th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, yesterday.

Study capitalism but Marxism remains top: XiBeijing

Reuters

Communist Party members should study contempo-rary capitalism but must

never deviate from Marxism, Chinese President Xi Jinping said, offering a clear signal there will be no weakening of party control weeks ahead of a key Congress opening.

The party brooks no chal-lenge to its rule, and Xi has overseen a sweeping crackdown on civil society since assuming power almost five years ago,

tightening the party’s grip over the internet, media and security infrastructure, and locking up rights lawyers and dissidents.

Speaking at a study session of the Politburo, one of the par-ty’s elite ruling bodies, Xi said that while times are changing and society is developing, the basic tenets of Marxism remain true, state news agency Xinhua said late Friday.

“If we deviate from or aban-don Marxism, our party would lose its soul and direction,” Xi said. “On the fundamental issue of upholding the guiding role of

Marxism, we must maintain unswerving resolve, never wavering at any time or under any circumstances.”

Xi said the party should bet-ter integrate the basic tenets of Marxism with the “reality of contemporary China and learn from the achievements of other civilisations to create and develop Marxism”, Xinhua added.

“Xi also asked Party mem-bers to study contemporary capitalism, its essence and pat-terns,” the report added, without elaborating.

The Mount Agung volcano on Bali, a tourist hotspot, has been at its highest alert level for more than a week, sparking an exodus from an official danger zone and areas farther away.

15SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017 ASIA

Beijing

AFP

Chinese President Xi Jin-ping told US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

yesterday that he expected President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to be “wonder-ful”, as ties appear warmer following tensions over how to handle North Korea.

Xi smiled as he greeted Tillerson at the imposing Great Hall of the People across Tiananmen Square for talks expected to focus on North Korea and Trump’s Novem-ber visit. Xi recalled that he and Trump have spoken on the phone several times and that they already met at the US leader’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in April and the G20 summit in Hamburg in July.

“I have enjoyed each and every one of those engage-ments and we have made considerable efforts to push for the development of China-US relations,” Xi said.

“The two of us have also maintained a good working relationship and personal friendship,” he said, adding that he believed Trump’s visit “will be a special, wonderful and successful one”.

Trump has touted his friendship with Xi but he has also prodded the Chinese leader in recent months to exert more pressure on North

Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile activities.

The Trump administration angered Beijing this summer by slapping sanctions on Chi-nese companies accused of supporting North Korea’s weapons programme. But China, which accounts for 90 percent of North Korea’s international trade, has since backed a slew of additional United Nations sanctions against its neighbour.

A senior US official said this week that China appears to be on board with the plan to squeeze Pyongyang. “This is a relationship that contin-ues to grow and mature on the strength of the relationship between yourself and Presi-dent Trump,” Tillerson told Xi.

“And we look forward to advancing that relationship at the upcoming summit.”

Tillerson also met with China’s top diplomat, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi to lay the groundwork for Trump’s trip, which will include stops in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Phil-ippines between November 3 and 14. “Let us concentrate on cooperation and properly manage our differences in the spirit of mutual respect and mutual benefit so that we can keep moving the China-US relationship forward in the right direction,” Yang said.

Xi touts Trump ‘friendship’ in talks with Tillerson

US probes North Korea’s willingness to talkBeijing

AFP

Washington has opened chan-nels to North Korea to find out if the

regime is ready to talk about giv-ing up its nuclear weapons, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said yesterday. Speaking after a day of talks with China’s Presi-dent Xi Jinping and top diplomats, Tillerson told report-ers that US officials are in touch with Pyongyang.

The disclosure follows an escalating war of words between US President Donald Trump and North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Un, and Tillerson issued a call for calm.

Asked how he could know whether the North would even contemplate responding to new sanctions by coming to the table, the US envoy said: “We are prob-ing, so stay tuned.”

Washington has no diplo-matic ties with Kim’s autocratic regime, and has been leaning on Beijing to rein in its neighbour’s behaviour through tougher sanc-tions. But Tillerson said US diplomats do not rely on China as a go-between in overtures to North Korea, and have them-selves talked directly through “our own channels.”

“We ask,” he said. “We have lines of communication with Pyongyang. We’re not in a dark situation, a blackout, we have a couple, three channels open to Pyongyang.”

“We can talk to them, we do talk to them,” he said.

The US has not ruled out the use of force to compel Pyongyang to halt missile and

nuclear tests, and last week Trump threatened to “totally destroy” the country.

But privately senior figures admit the military options do not look promising, with ally South Korea’s densely populated cap-ital Seoul in range of the North’s artillery.

Tillerson, meanwhile, has been a proponent of a campaign of “peaceful pressure”, using US and UN sanctions and working with China to turn the screw on the regime. But his efforts have been overshadowed by an extraordinary war of words, with Trump mocking Kim as “little Rocket Man” and Kim branding the US leader a “dotard”.

Even as Tillerson met Xi and China’s top diplomats State Councillor Yang Jiechi and For-eign Minister Wang Yi, the North’s propaganda agency fired a new barrage of insults.

The statement proclaimed

Trump an “old psychopath” bent on the “suicidal act of inviting a nuclear disaster that will reduce America to a sea of flames”.

North Korea’s rhetoric has been backed by a provocative series of ballistic missile tests and on September 3 it conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. In the decade since the North’s first nuclear explosion it has made rapid progress in developing the kind of missile technology that would allow it to hit US targets.

Tillerson said that decision would be up to Trump alone and that “as far as I know the com-mander in chief has issued no red lines.”

Tillerson instead called for calm, singling out Pyongyang’s missile tests for criticism, but not rushing to defend Trump’s own heated rhetoric and bellicose tweets. “The whole situation is a bit overheated right now. I think everyone would like for it to calm down,” he said in response to a question about Trump’s threats. “I think if North Korea would stop firing all the missiles, that would calm down things a lot,” he said.

Tillerson, who was in Beijing to plan for a summit that Xi will host for Trump in November, welcomed recent measures taken by China to crack down on its neighbour.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (left) with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, yesterday.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with China’s top officials in Beijing to discuss efforts to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and prepare President Donald Trump’s November visit. Tillerson said US officials are in touch with Pyongyang to find out if the regime is ready to talk about giving up its nuclear weapons.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un visits a Farm No. 1116 of KPA Unit 810 in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang.

Pyongyang seen moving missiles from development centre Seoul

Reuters

Several North Korean missiles were recently spotted moved from a rocket facility in the capital Pyongyang, South

Korea’s Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) reported late Friday amid speculation that the North was preparing to take more pro-vocative actions.

The report cited an unnamed intelli-gence source saying South Korean and US intelligence officials detected missiles being transported away from North Korea’s Mis-sile Research and Development Facility at Sanum-dong in the northern part of Pyongyang. The report did not say when or where they had been moved.

The missiles could be either interme-diate range Hwasong-12 or intercontinental ballistic Hwasong-14 missiles, according to the report, though the missile facility at Sanum-dong has been dedicated to the production of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

A source from South Korea’s defense ministry said he could not confirm details of the report or whether there has been any unusual activities in the area men-tioned. South Korean official have voiced concerns that North Korea could conduct more provocative acts near the anniver-sary of the founding of its communist party on October 10, or possibly when China holds its Communist Party Congress on October 18.

US carrier navigates crowded South China SeaSouth China Sea Reuters

As the commanders of the largest US warship in Asia seek to maintain operational readiness amid pro-

tracted tensions over North Korea, they find themselves keeping one eye on China, too. Yesterday, as F-18 Super Hornet jet fighters roared from the deck of the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier during rou-tine drills deep in the South China Sea, two Chinese frigates maintained a con-stant line-of-sight vigil.

Officers on the Japanese-based Rea-gan described frequent close quarter surveillance from the ships of the Peo-ple’s Liberation Army Navy in international waters.

Sometimes, they said, Chinese ves-sels steam in to check out the carrier en route to other destinations. Other times, Chinese frigates linger for days within the screen of US ships and planes that pro-tect the Reagan — Washington’s only carrier based outside America.

At times, the carrier crew, to ensure safe passage, will alert their uninvited Chi-nese escorts, should the Reagan sharply alter course, officers said.

“We’ve had no issues. They’ve been very professional,” said Rear Admiral Marc Dalton, commander of the Reagan’s strike group, as well as the larger battle forces of the US Seventh Fleet. “We see them on a regular basis,” he said.

As Dalton spoke, the midnight blue waters beyond the flight decks made for a crowded scene, with a US and an allied Japanese destroyer also visible as the Rea-gan manouvered some 400 nautical miles (748km) from the Chinese coast.

It provided a window into the strains of increased deployments and exercises by regional militaries, in part as they respond to the threat posed by Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear and mis-sile programmes.

North Korea has staged an apparent hydrogen bomb test and fired two ballis-tic missiles over Japan in recent weeks.

The situation has unfolded as US naval chiefs review operations to draw lessons from four significant accidents within the US Pacific Fleet this year.

A report this month by the US Gov-ernment Accountability Office highlighted a host of training and maintenance prob-lems as the navy strove to expand overseas deployments and improve

operational readiness. Dalton will soon lead the carrier to a port call in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong — the first such visit in three years after a stop by another car-rier was denied in 2016.

China, which claims much of the dis-puted South China Sea, has long objected to US military operations off its coasts, even in areas Washington insists are free to international passage.

An F/A-18 Super Hornet lands on the deck of the USS Ronald Reagan in the South China Sea, yesterday.

Philippines won’t allow foreign interventionZAM BOANGA CITY: Philip-pine President Rodrigo Duterte addressed the concerns, raised by the 39-member states of the United Nations to the thou-sands of killings during his war on drugs by saying there is no culture of impunity in the country and it will not allow foreign dictation.

Duterte’s bloody drug war has been repeatedly crit-icised by the UN and other rights groups globally. The Netherlands, UK, Ukraine, and United States expressed concern, “about the thou-sands of killings and climate of impunity associated with the war on drugs” in the Philippines.

“While it is true that 39 countries have expressed concern over drug-related killings, the fact remains that the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the highest peer review body in the world on all matters of human rights, unanimously accepted and commended the Outcome Report on the Phil-ippines’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR),” according to statement of Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella.

“Unfortunately, it still appears that some parties refuse to understand certain aspects of our human rights efforts. So let us be clear. There is no culture of impu-nity in the Philippines. The State is investigating all cred-ible allegations of human rights violations by all its agents and will continue to do so, consistent with our Constitution and laws, and in compliance with the spirit of our national traditions of liberty and democracy,” Abella added.

16 SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017EUROPE

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (centre) watches a helicopter lands on deck as he visits the French BPC Mistral amphibious assault ship with French Defence Minister Florence Parly (right) at sea off Toulon navy base, southern France, yesterday.

French PM at navy base

May faces new tensions in Conservative partyLondon

AP

British Prime Minister Theresa May is facing fresh tensions within her Conservative Party over how to

manage Britain’s departure from the European Union, distracting her from efforts to shift attention toward economic issues ahead of the party’s annual conference.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in comments pub-lished yesterday that a transition period to ease the impact of Brexit must not last “a second more” than the two years May proposed during a key speech in Italy last week.

Johnson also said Britain must not pay for tariff-free trade with the EU, or agree to imple-ment the bloc’s rules in order to gain such access, according to an interview with the Sun newspaper.

“There can be no monkey-ing around” with the transition period, Johnson said.

The comments mark the sec-ond time in less than a month that Johnson, often mentioned as a successor to May, has chal-lenged the prime minister’s efforts to make the government appear both strong and united.

May’s performance at the party conference, which begins today in Manchester, may be piv-otal for her administration after a disastrous election campaign

that saw the Conservatives lose their majority in the House of Commons in June.

The prime minister faced calls to discipline Johnson ear-lier this month after he laid out his own vision of Britain’s future outside the EU in a 4,000-word article for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. Johnson called for Britain to adopt a low-tax, low-regulation economy outside the EU’s single market and customs union.

The latest intervention by Johnson comes as May seeks to re-establish her hold on power and turn attention toward the British economy.

“Yes, we have to get the best Brexit deal — but we must also take action here at home to make this a fairer place to live for ordi-nary working people,” she said. “The social contract in our coun-try is that the next generation should always have it better than the last.”

In the months since March,

when Britain triggered a two-year countdown to leave the 28-nation EU, negotiations have made little progress. The EU is demanding that Britain resolve so-called separation issues before moving onto questions about the future relationship between the two sides. Those separation issues include the

status of the Ireland-Northern Ireland border and the amount Britain must pay to settle its financial commitments to the bloc.

Some leading Conservatives are suggesting Britain should end talks with the EU as early as Christmas if there is no concrete progress. Senior figures in the

Leave Means Leave group say the government could instead allow World Trade Organization rules to take effect on the day Britain leaves the EU in March 2019.

“Brussels cannot be allowed to boss Britain around,” said Richard Tice, the group’s co-founder. “It’s time we showed how ready we are to walk away.”

Workmen attach a hording displaying Conservative party logos onto the perimeter fence surrounding the Manchester Central convention centre in Manchester, ahead of the Conservative party annual conference, yesterday.

The latest intervention by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson comes as May seeks to re-establish her hold on power and turn attention toward the British economy.

Billionaire carves up Czech politics by shunning extremists Prague

Bloomberg

The Czech billionaire whose upstart party shook up the establish-

ment four years ago now wants to realign the political middle ground on his own terms.

Andrej Babis, who’s almost certain to become the Czech Republic’s prime minister after next month’s elections, said he wouldn’t partner with parties on either extreme of the polit-ical spectrum. It’s less obvious for Babis, however, where his ANO party will find its natural allies. “Common sense and problem-solving” is how Babis, 63, defines his agenda. “I don’t know, maybe we will be in the opposition,” he said in an inter-view in Prague this week.

The second-richest Czech is taking a different tack from other leaders in Europe, who’ve at times sought compromise with political outliers. In Swe-den, the biggest opposition party opened itself up to coop-e r a t i o n w i t h a n anti-immigration party with neo-Nazi roots. The junior coa-lition partner in Bulgaria is a loose alliance of nationalist par-ties. Babis, himself no stranger to anti-immigration rhetoric,

said ANO, the overwhelming favorite to win elections on Oct. 20-21, won’t accept the Com-munists or the anti-immigration Freedom and Direct Democracy party -- known by its Czech acronym SPD — as a coalition partner. The latest poll pub-lished shows the two parties garnering almost a fifth of the vote, with the Communists fin-ishing third and SPD clearing the 5 percent threshold to enter parliament.

SPD’s leader, Tokyo-born lawmaker Tomio Okamura, has urged voters to harass Muslims by walking dogs and pigs by mosques and to stop buying kebabs because they fund Islamic movements. The viru-lent campaign has made inroads in the European Union member of 10.6 million, despite the country having a tiny Mus-lim community.

The Communists have never officially renounced the crimes of the Soviet-dominated Czechoslovak regime and want the country to leave the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Meanwhile, Babis is look-ing to protect his political flanks and bend the mainstream to his liking after rising to popularity among Czechs by channelling anti-EU sentiment.

At least 20 detained ahead of right-wing rallyCOPENHAGEN: Swedish police say they have detained some 20 people, mostly foreigners, ahead of a right-wing demonstration in Sweden’s second-largest city.

Police in Goteborg, about 400km southwest of Stockholm, say those arrested included one person accused of kicking an officer in the face and two oth-ers for carrying knives.

Authorities say the Nordic Resistance Movement expects some 1,000 people to march while as many as 10,000 peo-p l e c o u l d counter-demonstrate.

Thousands march in Dublin against Irish lawsDublin

AFP

Thousands of demonstra-tors marched in Dublin yesterday in favour of lib-

eralising Ireland’s tight abortion laws ahead of a planned refer-endum on the fiercely-debated issue.

Protesters chanted, “My body, my choice” and waved placards reading “Not the church, not the state: women should decide their fate”, as they headed through the capital towards the parliament.

Linda Kavanagh, a spokes-woman from the Abortion Rights

Campaign which organised the rally, said: “The message today is ‘time to act’ because we’ve waited for a long time for a change. “We want full repeal. We can’t support exceptions and only a hundred people allowed to get access to abortion.”

Keishia Taylor, a spokes-woman for the organisation ROSA (For Reproductive Rights, said: “I think today is going to be a huge turnout, a turning point.”

Campaigners were expect-ing 30,000 to attend, but the police declined to give a crowd estimate. Abortion has always been illegal in Ireland and in 1983 an eighth amendment was

added to the constitution after a referendum, giving equal rights to the life of the unborn child and the mother.

The law was changed three decades later to allow termina-tions when the mother’s life is at risk, following public outrage at the death of a pregnant woman in 2012 who was refused an abortion. In the face of mount-ing public pressure, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on Tues-day announced plans for a referendum on the issue to be held in May or June 2018, ahead of a visit by Pope Francis in August. Ireland is still deeply divided over the issue.

A recent poll by Ipsos/MRBI found 67 percent of respondents were opposed to abortion in general but that 76 percent were in favour of legalising it cases of rape. Varadkar, who trained as a doctor, has called the current laws “too restrictive”.

Varadkar has said he would support abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities but is not s u p p o r t i n g w i d e r liberalisation.

Thousands of Irish women currently travel abroad for abor-tions every year, mainly to England. A “March for Choice” took place in London outside the Irish embassy yesterday.

The Nordic Resistance Movement members march in central Gothenburg, Sweden, yesterday.

Moscow denies that it

left troops in BelarusMoscow

Reuters

Russian troops that took part in war games in neighbouring Belarus

have returned to their bases, a Russian general said yesterday.

“As for units of Russian forces that took part in a mutual strategic military exercises ‘Zapad 2017’, they all returned to their permanent disposition,” TASS news agency quoted Major-General Igor Konash-enkov as saying. “Zapad” is the Russian word for “west”.

Konashenkov spoke after Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief

Viktor Muzhenko said Russia had left troops behind after staging the war games despite promising not to.

Relations between Kiev and Moscow nosedived after Rus-sia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and sup-ported the outbreak of a separatist insurgency in east-ern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,000 people.

Muzhenko said that Russia had withdrawn only a few units from Belarus and had lied about how many of its soldiers were there in the first place. Konash-enkov said Muzhenko’s remarks on Russian troops in Belarus were a fantasy.

Russian soldier who murdered 3 comrades shot deadMOSCOW: Officials in far east Russia say a soldier who opened fire at other service-men during drills has been tracked down and killed.

The military says the sol-dier, who killed three and wounded two other soldiers, offered resistance to arrest and was shot dead early Sat-urday following a massive manhunt. During the incident, the soldier fired his Kalash-nikov rifle at his comrades waiting to have target prac-tice at a base outside the town of Belogorsk near the border with China and then fled.

17SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017 EUROPE

President of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes council, Vice-President of the French right-wing Les Republicains (LR) party, and candidate for the LR presidency, Laurent Wauquiez delivers a speech yesterday at the “Fete de la Violette” (Violet Festival), a political gathering organised by Guillaume Peltier at Souvigny-en-Sologne, Central France.

Anxiety running high as Catalan vote loomsMadrid

AFP

Frustration and anxiety mounted across Spain yesterday in the face of Catalonia’s determina-tion to defy Madrid and

hold a banned independence ref-erendum for the wealthy northeastern region.

In the run-up to today’s vote, which the courts have ruled unconstitutional, more red and yellow Spanish flags have appeared on balconies in Madrid, Seville and other cities in support of national unity.

“Before this summer the Cat-alan question was not a worry,” said Lluis Orriols, a political sci-ence lecturer and expert on public opinion at the University Carlos III in Madrid. “The latest polls show 75 percent of Spaniards oppose the referendum, for fear of secession,” he said.

The anxiety has been fuelled by the media’s focus on the issue, Orriols added, since “in reality 55 percent of Catalans reject separa-tion even if a majority want to vote.”

The apprehension is especially strong in Catalonia’s neighbour-ing regions of Aragon to the west and Valencia to the south. “The economy and daily life of the peo-ple of Aragon would be hugely impacted if a border went up,” said Spanish author Sergio del Molino, who is from the region, which in medieval times ruled Catalonia.

“The Aragonese do not under-stand the demands of such a rich region and feel abandoned,” added Del Molino, whose book “Empty Spain” examines the effect of mass migration to major economic cen-tres like Madrid and Barcelona.

In the village of Traiguera in the coastal region of Valencia, Amador Peset, who produces olive

oil from centuries-old olive trees, said the dominant feeling was one of “sadness, because we are neighbours”.

“We are taking a step back-wards. My family in Barcelona thinks it’s madness. Catalans crit-icise Madrid but they forget the rest of the country. My bottles, my labels, come from Catalan com-panies, and I need them for my exports,” he said.

Bordered by the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean, Catalonia — which is roughly the size of Belgium — accounts for 16 percent of Spain’s population and 19 per-cent of its economic output. The economic consequences of seces-sion are also a worry in the eastern region of Extremadura, one of Spain’s poorest regions, which is known for the cherries of its Jerte Valley region.

Thousands rally for Spanish unityMadrid

AFP

Thousands of people, many waving red and yellow Spanish flags, rallied in

Madrid in favour of Spanish unity yesterday, a day before a banned referendum on independence for Catalonia.

The demonstrators gathered in the central Plaza de Cibeles, in front of the capital’s town hall, chanting “Catalonia is part of Spain!” and “I am Spanish, Span-ish, Spanish!” — a cry usually heard during national team foot-ball matches.

Some of the demonstrators called for Catalonia’s pro-inde-pendence president, Carles Puigdemont, to be jailed.

Puigdemont has vowed to push ahead with the independ-ence vote for Catalonia, a wealthy northeastern region that is home to about 7.5 million peo-ple, even though a Spanish court has ruled that the vote is unconstitutional.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government has also said the referendum is illegal and has vowed to do eve-rything in its power to stop it.

“The state needs to explain the benefits of remaining united, instead of repeating all the time that the referendum is illegal. But there is no leader in Spain,” said Rafael Castillo, a 59-year-old engineer at the rally, wearing a scarf with the Spanish flag around his neck.

Beside him stood Fernando Cepeda, a 58-year-old engineer, who said Catalonia and Spain’s northern Basque Country already enjoyed more powers than Ger-man regions. “We should not have come to this. We have reached a point of no return,” said Cepeda, a Spanish flag tied around the waist.

Maite Lopez Sanchez, 55, who came to the protest with her daughter, said Spanish institu-tions should “explain better what they are doing to enforce the constitution”.

Protesters unfold a Spanish flag during a demonstration against independence of Catalonia called by DENAES Foundation for the Spanish Nation Defence in Madrid, yesterday.

People sing inside the occupied Miquel Tarradell High School, one of the designated polling stations, a day before the banned independence referendum in Barcelona, yesterday.

MADRID: Spanish police have sealed off more than half of schools earmarked as polling stations for a banned referendum on Catalonia’s breakaway from Spain, according to officials. Separatists in the northeastern region on Friday evening and Saturday morning started occupying voting stations in a bid to ensure the poll, which has been declared illegal by Spanish authorities, goes ahead. The central government in Madrid said that 1,300 of 2,315 designated voting stations have been sealed off by police, who have been mobilised in the thou-sands in the region. Enric Millo, the highest-ranking Spanish official in Catalonia, said parents and students were found to be occupying 163 schools and holding activities when police were sealing off facilities. Police have been ordered not to use force, but to vacate the schools by 6am (04:00 GMT) today, ahead of the scheduled opening of polls at 9am (07:00 GMT).

Most potential voting stations for Catalan vote closed: Govt

Merkel allies fret over former East Germany’s rightward shiftBerlin

Reuters

The premiers of two regions where the far-right Alternative for

Germany (AfD) party made big gains in the national election warned that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives must change course to stop the former East Germany’s right-ward drift.

Merkel’s Christian Demo-crats (CDU) suffered big losses across much of Germany in the election, in which the AfD, with its anti-immigration message, became the first far-right party in the national parliament in over half a century.

The calls for a rightward shift add to the challenge Mer-kel faces as she tries to assemble an already tricky three-party coalition including the left-wing Greens, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and her own increasingly frac-tious party.

The AfD’s surge prompted much soul-searching within the conservative camp, with many blaming Merkel’s 2015 decision to open the doors to over a mil-lion migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa for the far-right’s surge.

The conservative premiers of Saxony, where the AfD topped polls, and of Saxony Anhalt called for the CDU to move to the right to stem the losses. “People want Germany to stay Germany,” said Stanis-law Tillich, premier of Saxony, in an interview with the Funke newspaper network. “They don’t want parallel societies

and rising criminality.”Rainer Haseloff, premier of

Saxony-Anhalt, echoed this, telling newspaper Die Welt: “People want to know how Ger-many will preserve its identity.”

These calls align the two influential state leaders more closely with the CDU’s Bavar-ian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), which wants a hard immigration ceiling.

While both premiers stuck to Merkel’s line that a firm upper limit would be imprac-tical, their calls for the state to take a firmer hand with immi-grants could strengthen the CSU’s hand as the sister parties attempt to thrash out a com-mon position ahead of coalition talks with the FDP and Greens.

Some warn that a black (CDU)-yellow (FDP)-Green “Jamaica coalition”, risks heightening a sense of aliena-tion among voters in the former East Germany.

Given the losses all three parties had suffered in the East, “a Jamaica coalition would be seen as a West German coali-tion in the east,” Green MP Canan Bayram said.

But Merkel, in a podcast released yesterday, warned against treating Germany’s poorer east as a homogenous bloc.

“We see these fears of glo-balisation, of anonymity, about old-age care everywhere, including in the west,” she said. “We have to get people listen-ing, to win people over by solving their problems. That’s my task.”

Germany arrests suspected baby food poisonerFRANKFURT AM MAIN: German police announced yesterday the arrest of a 55-year-old man “strongly suspected” of poisoning baby food and threatening to con-taminate other products in stores nationwide and across Europe.

The man was detained by officers near Tubingen, south of Stuttgart, following infor-mation received from the public, police and prosecu-tors said in a joint statement. Police on Thursday had alerted the public to the risk of food being poisoned, say-ing a blackmailer was demanding millions of euros in cash.

Authorities released sur-veillance footage of the suspect, then described as being aged around 50 and who was wearing glasses and a white cap, which ultimately led to the arrest.

To press the demand, the blackmailer had poisoned five baby food products and last week alerted police to the store they were placed in, in the southern city of Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance.

The food — which had been laced with ethylene gly-col, a chemical found in anti-freeze and brake fluid — was successfully removed.

But it prompted the nationwide appeal for infor-mation on the suspect and a warning about further food tampering.

Through the video sur-veillance of the stores where the baby jars were identified, police were able to obtain images clearly showing the face of the 55-year-old man, who has not been named.

Oxford removes Suu Kyi portraitLondon

AFP

The Oxford University col-lege where Aung San Suu Kyi (pictured) studied said

it had taken down a portrait of the Myanmar leader, a decision that follows widespread criticism of her over the Rohingya crisis.

The portrait, which was on display in the main entrance of St Hugh’s College, has been placed in storage and was replaced on Thursday with a new painting gifted by Japanese artist Yoshihiro Takada.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi studied at St Hugh’s, graduating in philosophy, poli-tics and economics in 1967

before completing a masters in politics in 1968. “We received a new painting earlier this month which will be exhibited at the main entrance for a period,” the college said in a statement.

“The painting of Aung San

Suu Kyi has meanwhile been moved to a secure location.”

The university did not say whether the removal was linked to the ongoing crisis in Myan-mar’s western Rakhine State.

The United Nations describes the situation as “eth-nic cleansing”.

The removal of the 1997 portrait by the Chinese artist Chen Yanning comes a few days before new students arrive at the college to start their courses.

The portrait belonged to Suu Kyi’s husband, the Oxford aca-demic Michael Aris, and was bequeathed to the college after his death in 1999. St Hugh’s also counts British Prime Minister Theresa May among its alumni.

Violet Festival political gathering

18 SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017AMERICAS

Washington

Reuters

US Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price (pictured) resigned under pressure from

President Donald Trump late on Fri-day in an uproar over Price’s use of costly private charter planes for gov-ernment business.

His abrupt departure was announced an hour after Trump told reporters he was disappointed in Price’s use of private aircraft and did not like the way it reflected on his administra-tion. “Secretary of Health and Human Services Thomas Price offered his res-ignation earlier today and the president accepted,” the White House said in a statement.

Trump named Don Wright to serve as acting secretary. Wright is currently the deputy assistant secretary for health and director of the office of disease preven-tion and health promotion. “I’m not happy. OK? I’m not happy,” Trump told report-ers on the White House South Lawn.

Candidates to succeed Price included Seema Verma, who is admin-istrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and who is close to Vice President Mike Pence, and Scott Gottlieb, a physician who serves as com-missioner of the Food and Drug

Administration, according to industry analysts. Several sources saw Gottlieb as a clear front runner. They said he got along well with the White House and is viewed favorably there.

Price’s resignation leaves Trump with a second Cabinet position to fill. He has yet to pick a secretary for homeland security after hiring former Secretary John Kelly as his White House chief of staff.

It was the latest blow to the Trump

White House, which has struggled to get major legislative achievements passed by Congress and has been embroiled in one controversy after another since Trump took office in January.

Price, a former congressman, was instrumental in the Trump administra-tion’s policies aimed at undercutting Obamacare, as well as working with governors across the country to slowly begin unraveling parts of the law.

In a resignation letter, Price offered little in the way of contrition. He said he had been working to reform the US healthcare system and reduce regula-tory burdens, among other goals.

“I have spent forty years both as a doctor and public servant putting peo-ple first. I regret that the recent events have created a distraction from these important objectives,” he said.

Trump, currently trying to sell his tax cut plan and oversee the federal response to devastation wreaked by three hurricanes, saw the Price drama as an unnecessary distraction and behind the scenes was telling aides “what was he thinking?,” a source close to the president said.

Price promised on Thursday to repay the nearly $52,000 cost of his seats on private charter flights. “The taxpayers won’t pay a dime for my seat on those planes,” Price said. But that was not enough to satisfy Trump.

Trump told reporters that the “optics” of Price’s travel were not good, since, as president he was trying to rene-gotiate U.S. contracts to get a better deal for taxpayers. “Look, I think he’s a very fine person. I certainly don’t like the optics,” Trump said.

Price had also been seen in the White House as having been ineffective in getting Congress to pass healthcare reform legislation, an effort that has fiz-zled on Capitol Hill.

Price was one of a handful of senior officials in Trump’s administration put on the defensive over reports about their use of charter flights and government aircraft, sometimes for personal travel, when they could have flown commer-cial for less money.

The White House issued an order

late on Friday saying use of private planes required approval from White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and that the commercial air system was appro-priate even for very senior officials with few exceptions.

The Washington Post on Friday reported that Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin attended a Wimbledon ten-nis match, toured Westminster Abbey and took a cruise on the Thames this summer during a 10-day trip to discuss veterans’ health issues in Britain and Denmark.

Shulkin, who traveled on a commer-cial airline, was accompanied on the trip by his wife, whose airfare was paid for by the government and who received a per diem for meals, the Post said, not-ing that the Department of Veterans Affairs said she was traveling on “approved invitational orders.”

His six-person traveling party included an acting undersecretary of health and her husband as well as two aides. They were accompanied by a security detail of as many as six people, the Post said. Washington news media outlet Politico has reported that Price had taken at least two dozen private charter flights since May at a cost to US taxpayers of more than $400,000. Polit-ico also reported he took approved military flights to Africa and Europe costing $500,000.

Blow to Trump as Price resigns as health secretary

Washington

Reuters

The US National Security Agency would need to begin winding down what

it considers its most valuable intelligence program before its expiration at year-end if the US Congress leaves its reauthori-sation in limbo, the agency’s deputy director said.

The possibility the US gov-ernment may begin losing access to the surveillance authority even before it would officially lapse on December 31 is likely to increase pressure on lawmakers to quickly renew the law. “We would have to be looking to work with our mis-sion partners in the government as well as the companies to start scaling down in advance,” George Barnes, the deputy director of the NSA, said at the George Washington University Center for Cyber & Homeland Security event.

“We would, definitely. The last thing we would want to do is conduct any operation ... if we did not have an active statute in place,” Barnes said. “We would have to work the dates backwards to make sure we didn’t cross the line.”

Asked about the remarks by Barnes, an NSA spokesman said the agency fully expects Con-gress to reauthorise the

program. The law, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence

Surveillance Act, allows US intelligence agencies to eaves-drop on, and store vast amounts of, digital communications from foreign suspects living outside of the United States.

It is considered a critical national security tool by US officials, who say it supports priorities ranging from coun-terterrorism to cyber security.

But the program, classified details of which were exposed by 2013 by former NSA contrac-tor Edward Snowden, also incidentally scoops up commu-nications of Americans for a variety of technical reasons, including if they communicate with a foreign target living overseas. Those communica-tions can then be subject to searches from analysts without a warrant.

The scenario articulated by Barnes resembles one that occurred two years ago, when portions of a separate law, the Patriot Act, that allowed the NSA to collect bulk domestic phone metadata were expiring.

Gridlocked over whether to enact reforms, US lawmak-ers briefly let that Patriot Act lapse. The NSA said it had to begin winding down the pro-gram about a week before its expiration.

New York Reuters

An Iowa mother who left her four young chil-dren alone to go on an

11-day European trip was jailed on child endangerment charges, authorities said.

Erin Lee Macke, 30, traveled from Johnston, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines, to Germany on Sept. 20 without arranging child care for her children, two aged 12 and the others 6 and 7, Johnson police said. The children also had access to a gun in the house.

“The police have seen times when people have left their children to go some-where, but to go to another country is completely differ-ent,” said Janet Wilwerding, a spokeswoman for the city of 22,000.

The news attracted head-lines in England, where the Daily Mail newspaper called Macke “America’s worst mom,” as well as comments on Macke’s Facebook page.

Police on Sept. 21 discov-ered the children at the house, notified child protective serv-ices and then called Macke in Germany, ordering her to return. She had planned to return on Sunday.

Social media posts sug-gested it was a social trip, Johnson Police Lieutenant Lynn Aswegan said. Macke was arrested Thursday on four counts of child endan-germent, police said. She is also charged with one count of making a firearm availa-ble to a person under age 21, because there was an unse-cured gun in the home the children knew about.

It could not immediately be determined if Macke had an attorney. The children were placed in the custody of family members, police said.

The children are from two biological fathers who do not live in the home, Aswegan said. One of the fathers who lives in Texas discovered they had been left alone and called police. Iowa state law does not specify any age or time limit for leaving children alone, but par-ents must provide for their children’s safety, said Amy McCoy, spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Human Services.

Havana

Reuters

Cubans said they were both heartbroken and enraged by the United States’ deci-

sion on Friday to stop processing visas at its embassy in Havana that would further tear at the seams of families already divided by the Florida Straits.

The United States said it was cutting its diplomatic presence in Cuba by more than a half because of mysterious “attacks” against its embassy personnel and was therefore halting regu-lar visa operations.

“To think you can’t go see your family is a terrible thing,” said pensioner Xiomara Irene Louzado, 74, who had been plan-ning a visit to the United States to see her sister and nephews.

Louzado said she also wanted to visit the graves of her sister and mother. She has traveled there regularly but now she simply no longer knew when she next could. “This is unnec-essary and inhuman,” said Laura Hernandez, a Cuban student who had been hoping to move to live with her father in the United States. “With so many families to reunify... why?”

While Cuba numbers a pop-ulation of 11.2 million, there are an estimated 2 million Cuban Americans in the United States. It remains unclear which visas the US Havana embassy will still be processing and what other recourses Cubans will have.

“We have suspended most visa processing in Havana,” a notice on its website read. “Cuban applicants for non

immigrant visas may apply at another US embassy or consu-late overseas.” The United States has one specific deal with its former Cold War foe to issue 20,000 visas a year to Cubans seeking to emigrate there, agreed after the 1994 rafter exodus to prevent them from taking to the sea illegally in makeshift crafts.

Short of an effective third coun-try workaround for those visa applications, Friday’s measure would likely ensure it violates that agreement, said Michael Bustama-nte, an assistant professor of Latin American history at Florida Inter-national University. The Cuban government has denied any involvement in the alleged attacks on diplomats in Havana and warned the Trump administration against politicizing them.

Twenty-one US embassy

employees in Cuba have been injured and reported symptoms such as hearing loss, dizziness, headache, fatigue, cognitive issues, and difficulty sleeping, the State Department said.

Several Canadian diplomats have complained of similar symptoms to their American counterparts but Canada said on Friday it had no plans to reduce staff at its embassy in Havana.

Many Cubans on Friday said they felt they were once more collateral damage of the war between the anti-Castro lobby in the United States and Cuba.

US President Donald Trump, a Republican, had in June said he wanted to partially roll back the detente agreed with Cuba under his predecessor, Demo-crat Barack Obama. “Politics always ends up affecting the

poorest, the people, and not the government,” said Jessica Aguila, 38, an office employee who had been planning to visit her fam-ily at Christmas.

“In a few months, all the advances between the two coun-tries have been turned to dust.”

Washington on Friday also warned US citizens against visit-ing the Caribbean island, a move that will likely hurt many Cubans working in hospitality.

That sector is one of the few that had been thriving amidst a gloomy economic outlook, although it took a beating earlier this month from Hurricane Irma that wrought havoc on much of the island’s infrastructure. “(Trump) is already an imminent danger for us, said Magdalena Hernandez, 67, “worse than a Cat-egory 5 hurricane.”

NSA may scale down spying program

Iowa mom jailed after leaving4 kids alone for European jaunt

Cubans angry they can’t seek US visas in Havana

Private jet use

His abrupt departure was announced an hour after Trump told reporters he was disappointed in Price’s use of private aircraft and did not like the way it reflected on his administration.

Price’s resignation leaves Trump with a second Cabinet position to fill. He has yet to pick a secretary for homeland security after hiring former Secretary John Kelly as his White House chief of staff.

19SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017 AMERICAS

Street performer Jose, 83, performs in Caracas, Venezuela. Jose says he has been performing for 15 years.

Street performer

San Juan

Reuters

US President Donald Trump blamed Puerto Ricans yes-terday for failing to do enough to dig out

from damage caused by Hurri-cane Maria, saying criticism leveled at his government for the slow response was driven by politics.

Ten days after the devastat-ing storm wiped out power and communications systems, more than half of the 3.4 million peo-ple who live on the island do not have access to drinking water, and 95 percent remain without power, the Pentagon said.

Trump, who was spending the weekend at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, fired off a series of angry tweets early yesterday complaining that media coverage of the suffering was unfair, and took aim at the mayor of San Juan, the island’s largest city.

On Friday, Carmen Yulin Cruz criticized Trump’s Republican administration and begged for more help, pleas that received widespread television coverage in the mainland United States. “Such poor leadership by the Mayor of San Juan and others in Puerto Rico who are not able to get their work-ers to help,” said Trump, who is slated to visit the island on Tues-day. “They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.”

Maria, the most powerful storm to strike Puerto Rico in nearly 90 years, has destroyed roads, making it difficult to get food, water and fuel around the island. The hurricane has killed at least 16 people, according to the official death toll.

Cruz, who has been living in

a shelter after her home was destroyed in the hurricane, said municipal employees were working as hard as they could. She also said her complaints had resulted in more food and water being provided.

“Actually, I was asking for help - I wasn’t saying anything nasty about the president,” Cruz said on MSNBC. “I am not going to be dis-tracted by small comments, by politics, by petty issues.” Trump’s comments drew swift condemna-tion on the mainland.

“The tweets this morning are despicable, are deplorable, are not statesman-like at all,” said New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a Dem-ocrat born in Puerto Rico. “He needs to be in charge, he needs to take control, he needs to dem-onstrate some level of empathy over what is happening,” Mark-Viverito said on CNN.

Trump was scheduled to speak by telephone to the gov-ernor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rossello, and other officials from the region. US Vice-President Mike Pence visited the Federal Emergency Management Agen-cy’s headquarters in Washington for a briefing.

At a news conference, Rossello declined to comment on Trump’s tweets, which he said he had not seen. “Let me stress this: I am

committed to collaborating with everybody,” he said. “This is a point where we can’t look at small differences and establish differ-ences based on politics.”

The Trump administration has given Puerto Rico’s govern-ment “whatever we ask for” in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, Rossello said. But he warned that the U.S. Congress would need to help rebuild the island, which is home to 3.4 mil-lion Americans.

“If Congress doesn’t take action with a significant package, then we are looking at a possible humanitarian crisis,” he said. “What are the effects of falling into that predicament? Massive exo-dus without a doubt.”

The insurance industry has begun to tally the mounting costs of Maria, with one modeling company estimating that claims could total as much as $85 bil-lion. Puerto Rico has incurred most of the damage. Police offic-ers, firefighters and National Guardsmen loaned by other states were beginning to arrive to help local officials, Rossello said.

The US business community was rallying to donate cash, with more than $24m donated to relief charities as of Friday, said Marc DeCourcey of the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

Mayaguez

Reuters

Few people in Puerto Rico have suffered more from the devastation of Hurricane

Maria than the elderly and the infirm. Isolated from their fami-lies due to phone blackouts, short of fuel and water and at the mercy of nationwide power cuts, the old and those in need of care have seen their problems multiply since Maria shattered basic infrastruc-ture across the US island.

Elevators, dialysis machines and a host of life-saving medical devices no longer offer the same guarantees because rationing of resources has forced hundreds and thousands of people to adjust to days whose effective span falls well short of 24 hours. Hooked up to a ventilator during the day, Adeline Vazquez needs an arti-ficial oxygen supply to cope with severe respiratory problems, but

her building in the western city of Mayaguez does not have the fuel to run a generator 24 hours.

“I’m a ticking time bomb on the verge of exploding,” the 53-year-old said with a laugh as she rasped through the ventila-tor in a housing block she shares with about 60 other people.

Federal and municipal authorities have vowed to step up distribution of essential sup-plies, but long lines for fuel and cash still snaked around main roads of the city on Friday.

Every night since Maria downed power cables across the island of 3.4 million people, Vazquez has faced the possibil-ity of running out of oxygen when the electricity goes off in her building after 10pm.

“The electricity needs to come back on,” she said on a bed beneath two still fans and sign reading “loving you” on the wall. “Then I could have the machine

to let me breathe. Because the worry is you’ll end up like a fish that jumps out of the fish tank. It’s like crossing the Niagara by bicycle every day.”

One floor down from Vazquez, Santos Medina rested his head on his left hand as he sat in a rusted wheelchair, empty medicine vials strewn on the table at his elbow. Legally blind and suffering from diabetes and hepatitis B, he has had both legs amputated in the last two years

Medina, 64, said he needed kidney dialysis three times a week. After Maria, he failed to go for treatment for an entire week for the first time, in part because it had become exhausting and too difficult. Water shortages were interfering with dialysis and forced the local hospital to pare back the time it could pro-vide it, he said, and fuel bottlenecks had made it harder to get buses to see specialists.

Maria response: Trump blames Puerto Ricans

Power outage puts old and vulnerable at risk

Washington

AFP

The American Civil Liber-ties Union called on US military authorities Fri-

day to release details on a captured American Islamic State fighter and to transfer him to the civilian justice system.

In a letter to Defence Sec-retary Jim Mattis and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, ACLU director Anthony Romero warned the man—apparently being held in Iraq—should not be designated an “enemy com-batant,” the term the US used in the 2000s to hold terror sus-pects without charge or representation.

“If the reports about the US citizen are accurate, his ongoing military detention is unlawful as a matter of domestic law, and his constitutional rights to habeas corpus and to a lawyer must be respected,” Romero said. “If the government has legitimate grounds to suspect the citizen fought with ISIS, he should immediately be transferred to the federal criminal justice system for criminal charges.”

On September 14 the Pen-tagon confirmed that they were holding a US citizen who had been fighting for the Islamic State group and surrendered to the allied Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria days earlier.

Since then, no details have surfaced about the person’s identity or status. A Pentagon spokesman, Air Force Major Ben Sakrisson, said Friday that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had been invited to meet with the detainee. “The disposition of the

detained unlawful enemy com-batant will be deliberated with the appropriate agencies; in the interim, the individual remains in DoD custody,” he said, refer-ring to the Department of Defence. ICRC spokesman Marc Kilstein confirmed that the group was notified, and said they are now trying to set up a visit which will aim to ensure the man’s detention conditions adhere to the law.

“We anticipate being given timely access,” he said. The case will be a test of President Don-ald Trump’s administration’s stance toward the legal rights of terror and battlefield detainees.

Although no official policy is set, the administration has sug-gested a willingness to send new detainees in the fight against jihadist groups to the US mili-tary’s Guantanamo Bay, Cuba prison compound, which former president Barack Obama had sought to shut down.

Romero said there were no legal grounds to send the Syria detainee to Guantanamo, which has been reserved in the past for foreign nationals captured in the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Wyn Hornbuckle, a spokes-man for the Justice Department, declined to comment on the specifics of this case. But he said the department “recognizes the wide range of tools and author-ities that the President possesses to protect our national security and to defeat our terrorist adver-saries. All options remain on the table, and the Justice Department will continue to use every law-ful investigative and prosecutorial tool to achieve these objectives”.

Washington

Reuters

The United States will admit a maximum of 45,000 ref-ugees during the 2018

fiscal year, President Donald Trump said in a memorandum to Secretary of State Rex Tiller-son and released by the White House on Friday. The cap, the lowest in decades, was proposed by the administration in a report to Congress on Wednesday.

Refugee advocates say the lower limit ignores growing

humanitarian crises around the world that are causing people to flee their native countries in greater numbers, and represents a departure from US global leadership.

The Trump administration says the lower cap is necessary so that U.S. officials can address a growing backlog of people applying for asylum inside the United States, and to do better vetting of refugees. In its report to Congress, which was reviewed by Reuters, the admin-istration said it may assess

refugees on their “likelihood of successful assimilation and con-tribution to the United States.”

An assimilation standard for refugees would be a departure from recent practice but on its face is not inappropriate, said Joseph Cassidy, a fellow at the Wilson Center and former State Department official.

“The particular concern is that assessments could be made, not on the basis of individual cases, but might be biased against certain religions or nationalities,” Cassidy said.

Washington

AFP

Human rights organi-zations announced they are suing the

Trump administration over the latest version of the pres-ident’s controversial travel ban, continuing a long-run-ning legal battle over the restrictions.

At the forefront of the challenge is the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which along with partner organizations submitted a let-ter to the US District Court in Maryland seeking to amend an existing lawsuit they already filed. The new travel ban, unveiled by the White House late on Sunday, forbids citizens of seven countries from travelling to the United States — citing national secu-rity reasons.

Under the ban, citizens of Yemen, Syria, Libya, Iran, Somalia, North Korea and Chad are all prohibited from entering the US.

Also suspended are cer-tain Venezuelan government officials and their families, due to what the US called poor security and a lack of cooperation with American authorities.

The new ban “is still a Muslim ban at its core, and it certainly engages in discrim-ination based on national origin, which is unlawful,” ACLU director Anthony Romero said.

ACLU presses Pentagon over captured American IS fighter

Rights groups sue Trump administration over travel ban

US will admit up to 45,000 refugees next year

Children walk next to hurricane-damaged furniture, in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, yesterday.

Ten days after the devastating storm wiped out power and communications systems, more than half of the 3.4 million people who live on the island do not have access to drinking water, and 95 percent remain without power, the Pentagon said.

20 SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017HOME

The Peninsula

Thousands of people watched in admiration as a Qatar Air-ways aircraft flew in formation over Doha with the world-famous Red Arrows

aerobatic display team, an event tak-ing place as the airline celebrates its twentieth anniversary.

The event, hosted by the British Ambassador to the State of Qatar, Ajay Sharma, and Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, included a number of other ambassadors as well as Qatar’s Minister of Municipality and Environment, H E Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi, and Chairman of Qatar’s Civil Aviation Authority, H E Abdullah bin Nasser Turki Al Subaey.

Many representatives of the Qatar British Business Association were also present to celebrate the auspicious occasion, which included an incredible display over Doha’s sweeping Corniche from the Sheraton Grand Doha Resort and Convention Hotel, which offered ideal views of the fly-by.

The thrilling display took place in the skies above Doha as a state-of-the-art Qatar Airways Airbus A350, for which the airline was the global launch customer, flew in formation with the British Royal Air Force’s (RAF) iconic Red Arrows. Their distinctive fleet of Hawk jets were on hand to display the speed, agility and precision of the RAF and fly in their trademark diamond nine formation to join in the salute to Qatar Airways and its 20 years of operations.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Execu-tive, Akbar Al Baker, said: “It has been an honour to have one of Qatar Airways’ Airbus A350 aircraft join forces with the world-famous Red Arrows and take part in today’s historic fly-by over the impressive Doha skyline.

“The Red Arrows have helped Qatar Airways celebrate in style with a thrill-ing display to mark our twentieth anniversary. In just two decades, Qatar Airways has exceeded all expectations, to rise from humble beginnings to become one of the world’s leading and most admired airlines. This year we were named Airline of the Year by Sky-trax, which is the fourth time we have won this prestigious award.

“I am very proud of all that Qatar Airways has achieved in the past 20 years and as we embark on the next 20 years I look forward to continuing to demonstrate the passion, innovation and award-winning customer service that we have become renowned for.”

Ajay Sharma, said: “I am delighted

with the welcome that the UK’s Red Arrows have received during their visit to Qatar this weekend. Residents and visitors alike have come out in force to see the air display, demonstrating the close relationship between our two countries. I am glad that the Red Arrows’ visit coincides with Qatar Airways’ twentieth anniversary celebrations. Qatar Airways is an important partner for us and plays a key role in moving UK-Qatar relations forward.”

The fly-by and special aerobatics display had been carefully planned in advance by Qatar Airways and the Red Arrows, working in partnership the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA). Also involved in the careful prepara-tions were the Ministry of Defence, the Emiri Guard and Qatar Civil Defence representatives.

Qatar Airways’ flight operations experts produced a special flight plan that enabled one of the airline’s Airbus A350 aircraft, capable of carrying up to 283 passengers, to fly empty in close formation with the Red Arrows Hawk jets. The highly-agile jets can fly at speeds of up to 1,028 km per hour or Mach 0.84. Qatar Airways Chief Flight Operations Officer, Captain Konstanti-nos, was at the helm of the A350 to fly the state-of-the-art aircraft through-out the impressive display.

The nine-strong fleet of Red Arrows aircraft and their pilots visited Qatar as part of an extensive global tour, acting as ambassadors for the United King-dom to promote ‘the best of British’ goods and services. Since they were formed in 1965, the Red Arrows have performed over 4,700 displays in 56 countries worldwide.

Also on display was a Rolls Royce

Trent XWB engine used on the Qatar Airways Airbus A350.

Following its re-launch in 1997, Qatar Airways has become one of the fastest growing carriers in the history of aviation with unprecedented expan-sion averaging double digit growth year on year. Now the 2017 Airline of the Year, as awarded by Skytrax, has a host of exciting new destinations planned for the remainder of this year and 2018, including Canberra, Australia, Chiang Mai, Thailand and Cardiff, U.K. to name just a few.

As well as being voted Skytrax Best Airline by travellers from around the world, Qatar’s national flag carrier also won a raft of other major awards at the ceremony, including Best Airline in the Middle East, World’s Best Business Class and World’s Best First Class Airline Lounge.

Spectacular air show marks QA anniversary

Minister of Municipality and Environment H E Mohamed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi at the Royal Air Force Red Arrows, VIP reception at Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention Hotel, yesterday.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker (left), and other officials watching the air show at Doha Corniche.

Mike Ling (centre) of Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, with Qatar Airways staff.

Views from the air show of the world-famous Red Arrows held to mark the twentieth anniversary of Qatar Airways at Corniche, yesterday. Pics: Salim Matramkot, Abdul Basit and Kammutty VP / The Peninsula

FAJRSHOROOK

04.10 am

05.26 am

ZUHRASR

11.24 am

02.48 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

05.23 pm

06.53 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 01:15 – 14:00 LOW TIDE 06: 15 – 21:30

Hazy to misty / foggy at places at

first becomes hot daytime with

some clouds.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

30oC 38oC