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Volume 23 | Number 7590 | 2 RiyalsTuesday 17 July 2018 | 4 Dhul-Qa’da I 1439 www.thepeninsula.qa

Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani received at the Amiri Diwan office yesterday morning the credentials of Ambassador of the Republic of Argentina Carlos Hernandez. H H the Deputy Amir also received the credentials of four other new Ambassadors to the State yesterday.

→SEE ALSO PAGE 2

Qatar Airways, Boeing sign

$1.7bn pact for 5 freightersTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Airways and Boeing signed yesterday a purchase agreement for final-ising the airline’s order for five 777 Freighters. The deal, valued at $1.7bn at current list prices, was announced as a commitment in April. The agreement signing ceremony was held at the 2018 Farn-borough International Airshow.

The award-winning airline also committed to purchase five new CAE 7000XR Series full-flight simulators and two CAE 500XR Series flight training devices for the Boeing 777X and the 737 MAX from the global leader in training CAE.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker and Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin McAllister signed the agreement at the Boeing chalet.

Minister of Finance of the State of Qatar and Qatar Airways Chairman, H E Ali Sharif Al Emadi; Yousef bin Ali Al Khater, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the United Kingdom; and Hamad International Airport Chief Operating Officer, Engr. Badr Mohammed Al Meer were present during the pur-chase agreement signing ceremony.

“We are delighted to use the platform of the airshow to meet with our friends from Boeing to finalise the commitment we made to purchasing five 777 Freighters earlier this year,” said Al Baker. “Qatar Airways Cargo is growing exponentially year on year and the addition of these aircraft will only serve to further strengthen its already robust performance in the cargo cat-egory. The airshow has also

been an opportunity to meet with CAE to sign an agreement for six new flight simulators, which will give Qatar Airways pilots world-class training with state-of-the-art equipment,” he added.

Qatar Airways was the centre of attention on the first day of the Farnborough Inter-national Airshow, displaying six of its most advanced aircraft, including the Airbus A350-1000 and the Boeing 777-300ER, both of which feature the airline’s award-winning Business Class seat, Qsuite. The airline also dis-played for the first time its Boeing 747-8 Cargo Freighter, as well as Air Italy’s second Boeing 737 MAX 8 in striking new livery, Qatar Executive’s Gulfstream G500 jet and the Jet-SuiteX Embraer 135 jet. Gulf-stream G500 jet will officially join Qatar Executive’s fleet by the end of this year.

“We are tremendously excited to be back at Farnborough

this year, showcasing six of the most technologically advanced aircraft in the sky. The aircraft on display here have set new standards of excellence in the industry, and affirm our com-mitment to providing our pas-sengers with the finest experience possible,” Al Baker added.

Qatar Executive continues to grow its global reach, with an aim of serving worldwide desti-nations. As such, Qatar Executive is set to receive up to 25 new air-craft between now and 2022, a combination of the G500, G600 and G650ER jets, to be able to offer passengers across the world its exclusive and unmatched private jet experience.

“We are proud that Qatar Airways recognises the value of the 777 Freighter and continues to invest in this aircraft to serve its expanding freight operations. We continue to see a resurgence in the air cargo market and we are confident that Boeing’s industry-leading freighter family is well positioned to meet our customers’ requirements,” said Kevin McAllister.

Nick Leontidis, added: “We are pleased to be Qatar Airways’ training partner of choice and to support our airline partner’s growth and training needs for its new Boeing 777X and 737 MAX fleet. The future of aviation and demand for pilot training in the Middle East is on the rise. This new training equipment agreement is a testament to our commitment to provide Qatar Airways with the most compre-hensive training solutions for many years to come. We also look forward to supporting our partner with the entry into service of the new 777X aircraft”.

→SEE ALSO PAGE 2

Anti-money laundering, combating terrorism financing guidance issuedTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Governor of the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) H E Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud Al Thani announced that QCB, Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA) and Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA) have each issued guidance to their financial insti-tutions addressing critical areas of compliance with the regu-lators’ anti-money laundering and combating terrorism

financing (AML/CFT) rules and requirements, QNA reported.

The QCB Governor said, “Qatar’s AML/CFT framework meets international standards and best practice and its effec-tiveness is essential to protecting the integrity of its financial system and the international financial system. The new guidance will ensure that Qatar’s financial institutions understand our expectations and, thanks to the collaboration between the QCB, QFMA and QFCRA,

financial institutions will have a clear and consistent roadmap to best in class compliance.”

The guidance was prepared in collaboration with the QCB, QFMA and QFCRA and its pub-lication delivers clear and con-sistent guidance to all financial institutions in Qatar regarding the steps required to comply with certain critical aspects of the QCB’s, QFMA’s and QFCRA’s existing AML/CFT rules.

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Deputy Amir receives credentials of new Ambassadors

Advisory Council approves draft law on Workers’ FundTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Advisory Council, which met yesterday with Speaker of the Advisory Council H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud in the chair, approved draft law on estab-lishing Workers’ Support and Insurance Fund after discussing the report of the Legal and Legislative Affairs Committee on it.

At the outset of the session, the Advisory Council expressed pride and extended congratu-lation to Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and to Qatar’s people and residents on His Highness’ receiving of 2022 FIFA World Cup hosting.

The Council stressed that this international event came as a natural and logical result of Qatar’s wise policies, prominent role on both regional and inter-national levels, and big successes in the field of hosting major sports events as well as the con-fidence of the countries of the world.

The Council expressed its confidence that the 2022 FIFA

World Cup Qatar will be an important milestone in the history of the World Cup and in the history of international sport, and not only for the State of Qatar but also for all Arabs.

The Council then continued its consideration of its agenda, discussing the complementary report of the Internal and External Affairs Committee on the request for general dis-cussion submitted by a number of members on the harm to the children of divorced Qatari mothers and widows of fathers from the siege States.

The Council also discussed the report of the Legal and Leg-islative Affairs Committee on a

draft law establishing the Workers’ Support and Insurance Fund.

The Council also discussed the complementary report of the Services and Public Utilities Committee on the request for a general discussion submitted by a number of members on the phenomenon of increase in shops rental.

After extensive discussions of the three reports, the Council decided to approve them and to submit its recommendations thereon to the esteemed Cabinet.

Then, the Advisory Council Secretary-General H E Fahad bin Mubarak Al Khayareen read out the Amiri Decree No. 39 for

2018 adjourning the 46th ordinary session of the Advisory Council.

At the end of the meeting, the Council’s Speaker delivered a speech on the occasion of the adjournment of the current session, extending, in his name and on behalf of the members of the Council, thanks and appreciation to Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for His Highness’ great support to the Council in order to achieve its mission and to play its role in serving the citizens and defending the causes of the Qatar.

The Speaker also praised the efforts of the esteemed gov-ernment and its sincere cooper-ation with the Advisory Council, which had a positive impact on the Council’s achievements in the area of legislation in all fields and in issuing many recommen-dations of interest to Qatar and its people.

He pointed out that all the draft laws and decrees submitted to the Council had been com-pleted and submitted to the Government.

7 medicines recalled over cancer fearsTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Ministry of Public Health has recalled seven phar-maceutical products that contain ingredient valsartan, manufactured by Chinese company Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical LT, on the suspicion of containing a carci-nogenic flaw.

The Pharmacy and Drug Control department at the min-istry said it received memos from international organisa-tions on the possibility of a car-cinogenic flaw called n-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in the active substance (Valsartan) manufactured by the company, QNA reported.

The ministry said it withdrew all the pharmaceu-tical products that contain the active substance, once it received the memo. The list of recalled products include Cin-faval and Co-cinfaval manufac-tured by Spanish Cinfa Labora-tories, as well as Diostar and Diostar Plus manufactured by

Jordan’s Pharma International Co.

In addition, Anginet and Co-Anginet produced by the Jordanian United Pharmaceu-ticals Manufacturing Co and Valzaar manufactured by the Indian Torrent Pharmaceu-ticals, were also recalled.

The Ministry revealed that other products that contain the active substance Valsartan manufactured by other com-panies are safe and are not included in the withdrawal process.

Pharmacy and Drug Control department confirmed its keenness for the health and safety of all citizens and resi-dents. It added that it is taking all preventative procedures to stop the circulation of any pharma-ceutical product that does not meet the international standards. The department added that it is in continuous contact with World Health Organisation, institu-tions and other health organ-isation for medicines and pharmaceuticals.

The Advisory Council expressed pride and

extended congratulation to Amir H H Sheikh

Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and to Qatar’s

people and residents on His Highness’ receiving

of 2022 FIFA World Cup hosting pointing out

that event came as a natural and logical result

of Qatar’s wise policies, prominent role in both

regional and international levels.

Qatar Airways

also committed to

purchase five CAE

7000XR Series full-

flight simulators and

two CAE 500XR Series

flight training devices

for the Boeing 777X

and the 737 MAX.

The airline displayed

six of its most

advanced aircraft,

including the Airbus

A350-1000 and the

Boeing 777-300ER,

at Farnborough

International Airshow.

02 TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018HOME

DOHA: The State of Qatar has strongly condemned and denounced the explosion which took place near a ministry in the Afghan capital of Kabul and left several dead and injured.

In a statement yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated Qatar’s firm position rejecting violence and terrorism regardless of motives and reasons.

The statement expressed the condolences of the State of Qatar to the families of the victims and the government and people of Afghanistan, wishing a speedy recovery for the injured.

According to reports, the Taliban stormed a police checkpoint in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province and killed seven policemen, a provincial official. Five Taliban fighters were killed in the attack. There was no statement from the Taliban.

Qatar strongly condemns Kabul explosion

QNA

DOHA: Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani received at the Amiri Diwan office yesterday morning the

credentials of five new ambas-sadors to the State.

H H the Deputy Amir received the credentials of Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa, Faizal Moosa;

Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, Kim Chang-Mo; Ambas-sador of the Republic of Argentina, Carlos Hernandez; Ambassador of Mongolia, Zorigt Chintushig; and Ambassador of

the Republic of Uzbekistan, Bakhromjon Aloev. Their Excel-lencies the ambassadors con-veyed the greetings of leaders of their countries to H H the Deputy Amir and their best wishes for

the Qatari people of further progress and prosperity.

H H the Deputy Amir wel-comed the new ambassadors and wished them success in their missions and the relations

between the State of Qatar and their countries further progress and prosperity. Their Excel-lencies the ambassadors received earlier an official reception cer-emony at the Amiri Diwan.

Deputy Amir receives five new ambassadors

QC-WSSCC pact to enhance cooperation THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Charity and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) of United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), signed a Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU) aimed at enhancing strategic cooperation to implement joint projects, exchange experiences and find funding opportunities for coop-eration and partnership in the field of humanitarian and devel-opment work.

The MoU was signed under the patronage and support of the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) on the sidelines of a high-level political forum on sustainable development held in New York.

The MoU was signed by Yousuf Ahmed Al Hammadi, Advisor to the CEO of Qatar Charity, and Rolf Luyendijk, Executive Director of WSSCC.

The purpose of the MoU is to establish strategic cooperation between both the parties, through which Qatar Charity can

be an implementing partner for WSSCC’s Programmes and projects in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in this MoU. The MoU also aims to exchange experiences and find joint funding opportunities in the field of humanitarian and development work and create opportunities for cooperation in different areas and countries that both parties have interest in and agreed upon.

In collaboration with WSSCC, QFFD organised a high-level meeting to study the impact of health facilities on education and health within the framework of an integrated approach to human development.

Ali Abdulla Al Dabbagh, Deputy Director General for

Planning at the QFFD, who attended the MoU signing cer-emony, stated that, “The part-nership between Qatar Charity and WSSCC will have an important impact on the efforts to advance sanitation at the global level, and increase the synergies with the education and health sectors.”

Yousuf Ahmed Al Hammadi, said, “I am delighted to sign this

MoU, which reflects the strong relationship between Qatar Charity and WSSCC.”

Rolf Luyendijk, said, “Humanitarian disasters and crises taking place today in our world call on humanitarian and development actors for further coordination to combine efforts in the areas of numerous humanitarian crises affecting our world.”

Yousuf Ahmed Al Hammadi, Adviser to the CEO of Qatar Charity, and Rolf Luyendijk, Executive Director of WSSCC, during the signing of MoU.

Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani with the Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa, Faizal Moosa, in Doha yesterday. RIGHT: H H the Deputy Amir with the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, Kim Chang-Mo.

DCMF, Qatar Olympic Academy to cooperate in media trainingTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Doha Centre for Media Freedom (DCMF) signed yesterday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Qatar Olympic Academy to cooperate in the field of media training.

The MoU was signed by the Member of the Executive Committee and Acting Director of DCMF, Abdul-rahman bin Nasser Al Obaidan, and Executive Director of Qatar Olympic Academy, Saif Al Noaimi.

In a speech during the signing cer-emony, Abdulrahman bin Nasser Al Obaidan stressed the importance of partnerships with local organisations to cooperate and develop the sports media field. He also said that he was pleased to sign the MoU, in addition to expressing his appreciation to the important role the Qatar Olympic Academy plays in promoting sports.

Al Obaidan, said: “Sports in our country is no longer a matter of enter-tainment or luxury, but it is now a national bet, in which the government and the sports institutions devote a great deal of attention to it, especially

with Qatar hosting the World Cup 2022, in addition to the development of sports infrastructure accompanying Qatars Vision 2030.”

“DCMF is looking forward to increasing the sports activities in addition to organising seminars and conferences that go around media issues, all of which welcome the addition of journalists and athletes,” he added

For his part, Executive Director of the Qatar Olympic Academy, expressed his pleasure in signing the MoU and enhancing cooperation with DCMF. He also explained the message of the Qatar Olympic Academy, which is mainly promoting sports through partnerships with various civil society organisations including those related to media sectors.

Al Noaimi stressed that the most important objective of the cooper-ation with DCMF is the programmes aimed at serving the society in the sports and media fields, in addition to the development of academic sports, as well as many future joint programs between the Centre and the Academy.

Minister of Finance of Qatar and Qatar Airways Chairman, H E Ali Shareef Al Emadi (centre), and Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker (second right), during the agreement signing event in London yesterday.

Anti-money laundering, combating terrorism financing guidance issued

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Specifically, the newly-published guidance delivers detailed direction for all financial institutions on AML/CFT matters related to customer due diligence, corre-spondent banking, reliance on third parties,

high risk jurisdictions, beneficial ownership issues, legal entity transparency, and the regulators’ expectations for the risk-based systems and controls that financial insti-tutions are required to implement to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.

The Under-Secretary of the Italian Republic’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Manlio Di Stefano, met with State of Qatar’s Ambassador to Italian Republic, Abdulaziz bin Ahmad Al Malki. The meeting discussed bilateral relations and ways to boost and develop them, in addition to topics of common interest.

Qatari envoy meets Italian official The MoU also aims to

exchange experiences

and find joint funding

opportunities in the

field of humanitarian

and development

work.

Qatar Airways, Boeing sign $1.7bn pact for 7 freighters

03TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018 HOME

The Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani met yesterday with the Ambassador of the United Kingdom, Ajay Sharma; Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Hans-Udo Muzel (above); and the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammed Ali Subhani. During separate meetings, they discussed aspects of cooperation between both the countries as well as issues of mutual interest and means of strengthening and supporting them.

PM reviews ties with envoys of Germany, UK, Iran Qatar getting ready for 2022 with firm steps & clear vision QNA

MOSCOW: As soon as referee Nestor Pitana blew the final whistle and the trophy was lifted by Frances Hugo Lloris, the fireworks lighting up the Luzhniki Stadium announced an epic end to the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, and the beginning of a unique journey to Qatar.

The hosts of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, who have been actively working on preparations for the event since 2011, are getting ready to take the World Cup centre stage.

Over the past six weeks, 180 professionals appointed by Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) have been shadowing and observing the 2018 FIFA World Cup operation in the 11 host cities. On top of that, more than 30,000 football fans have already visited the activations managed by the SC in Moscow and Saint Petersburg,

and been given a taste of the atmosphere they can expect in 2022.

The next four years were also discussed in a meeting held on Friday between FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, and the SC’s Man-aging Director, H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani.

Infantino said, “We work very closely with Qatar 2022, and the experience here in Russia made the bonds even stronger. The shad-owing programme provided a fan-tastic opportunity to share knowledge and exchange expe-rience. “Qatar’s public interactions in Moscow and Saint Petersburg

have ignited excitement among the global football community and the reaction has been fantastic, with fans and the general public very keen to engage with Qatari culture and heritage. The activities showcase the fact that Qatar will host a unique tournament one that is compact, welcoming to all and family-friendly.”

SC Secretary General Hassan Al Thawadi said: “This has been an unparalleled learning opportunity for everyone involved in the prep-arations for Qatar 2022. We’ve also had the pleasure of interacting with football fans from all over the world and given them an idea of the kind of hospitality they can expect in four years’ time.”

Al Thawadi added: “We con-gratulate Russia on hosting a mem-orable World Cup and look forward to following this success in 2022 with another fantastic experience for football fans everywhere.”

20 returning expats received care from Bayt Aman: Report THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Hamad Medical Corpora-tion’s (HMC) Bayt Aman, a care facility for expatriate labourers, has hosted 20 expatriate labourers who have been released from hospital and are awaiting return to their home country, since its opening in June 2016.

Among them nine have dis-charged and safely returned to their home countries. “The expatriate workers who are cared for at Bayt Aman no longer need the high level of clinical supervision that is pro-vided at HMC’s rehabilitation and long-term care units, but they do require some support,” said Dr Wafa Al Yazeedi (pictured), Chair-person of the Qatar Rehabilitation

Institute. “The majority of these individuals have sustained a trau-matic brain injury, spinal cord injury, or injuries to multiple body parts and organ systems. While they have recovered from a serious injury and are clinically well enough to leave the hospital or a long-term care facility, they still require support. At Bayt Aman, we are able to provide them with this extra support and assistance,” Al Yazeedi added.

Located in the Al Thumama area, Bayt Aman can accommodate 12 guests at any given time, with most residents spending several months at the facility before returning to their home country. Established in collaboration with Qatar Building Company, Bayt

Aman provides safe and accessible accommodation for workers with disabilities. “Some patients dis-charged from HMC hospitals no longer need hospital-based care but they are not yet ready to return home due to the severity of their injury or the unsuitability of their accommodation. Bayt Aman is staffed 24-hours a day and was created with the vision of providing a space for discharged expatriate labourers to fully recuperate and re-adjust to their daily routine,” said Mahmoud Saleh Al Raisi, Chief of Continuing Care Group.

Juvenile Police Department’s campaign urges students to get rid of all negative behaviours THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Juvenile Police Department yesterday started summer awareness campaign under the theme “safe summer” to raise awareness about the dangers of a number of negative behaviours such as driving without a license and disputes among youth and the disadvantages of using social media networks.

More than 30 students participated in the event which was held yesterday at Al Wakrah Sports Club. “The media awareness plan for 2018 includes a number of awareness programmes about misbehaviour among young people, in cooperation with youth centres and sports clubs. Students from various schools attended the activity,” said first lieutenant Moteeb Al Qahtani, Awareness and Media Officer at Juvenile Police Department.

Al Qahtani pointed out that the lecture

dealt with a number of negative behaviors and how to change them into positive behaviors, and to inform young people how to kill the leisure time in the summer vacation with constructive activities. The lecture focused on topics such as disadvan-tages of using social media and driving without a license.

He stressed in the lecture to take care in dealing with social media, such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter where there are a number of cases in which young people were lured by hackers and blackmail after the capture of their personal data.

He also warned against dealing with strangers through the means of social media. He also provided a number of tips on the dangers of brawls and the problems that can be faced by young people and their families. He also pointed to the danger of driving without a license or driving under the age of 18.

Over the past six weeks,

180 professionals have

been shadowing and

observing the 2018 FIFA

World Cup operation in

the 11 host cities.

04 TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018HOME

Qatar, Italy talk cooperation in ports management

The Minister of Transport and Communications H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti yesterday held talks here with the Secretary-General of the Italian Ports Association (ASSOPORTI), Franco Mariani. The meeting was also attended by the Italian Ambassador in Doha, Pasquale Salzano. The meeting discussed cooperation between Qatar and Italy in the field of ports with a view to opening new horizons for exchange of expertise and investment between Italian and Qatari ports, in addition to establishing cooperation and effective alliances in the field of maritime works. The two officials also discussed cooperation in ports management and operations, personnel training and skill development, exchange of ideas and best practices on ports productivity improvement.

Winners of WISE Awards announcedTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), an initiative of Qatar Foundation (QF), has announced the six winners of the 2018 WISE Awards, recognising and promoting innovative projects from across the world that address global challenges in education.

Projects selected through the annual WISE Awards tackle pressing education issues including girls’ education, early childhood education, the refugee crisis, cultural exchange, citizenship values, youth employment, entre-preneurship in disadvantaged communities, deaf education, enhancing teacher motivation, and stimulating critical and creative thinking.

The projects which won the 2018 WISE Awards are Safe Spaces Clubs for Girls, One Village One Pre-School, Gen-eration, Technology-Based Deaf Education Pakistan, Partners for Possibility and 1001 Nights Life Skills and Cit-izenship Education Program.

Stavros N Yiannouka, CEO of WISE, said, “This year, we received 413 applications for the WISE Awards. These projects demonstrate that there are existing global organ-isations and individuals who share our passion for tackling education challenges through innovative solutions. We are very grateful to our WISE Awards jury members, who did a thorough job in evaluating the projects.”

To be selected as WISE Awards winners, educational projects are required to show that they are established and innovative. The winning projects will be celebrated on Sep-tember 22 at WISE@NY in New York, US. In addition to publicity and networking opportunities, each project will receive $20,000 (US).

Experts examine Generation, one of the projects which won 2018 WISE Awards, during presentation.

MoTC training course helps sharpen national cyber defence capabilitiesTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Ministry of Transport and Communications’ (MoTC) Qatar Computer Emergency Response Team (Q-CERT) has organised a four-day National

Information Assurance (NIA) Policy Implementation training course at its offices in Al Nasr Tower.

Delivered by professional, certified trainers, the course was attended by representatives from

16 critical government and semi-government sectors.

It was part of a series of NIA Policy training sessions planned for this year by the Ministry’s Cybersecurity Sector. “The training is part of our strategic

objectives for building up national capacities in the realm of cybersecurity and MoTC con-tinues holding such training courses to develop and sharpen the national cyber defence capa-bilities countrywide,” said Eng.

Khalid Al Hashmi, Assistant Under-Secretary of Cyber Security at MoTC. “The NIA Policy is the national information security policy and it is man-datory for government entities and critical industries. It helps

organisations to implement an information security man-agement System and, thereby, build a cybersecurity culture within the business and improve their cybersecurity maturity,” he added.

05TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki (right), and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attend the inauguration ceremony of Embassy of Eritrea in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, yesterday.

Iraqi protesters block the road during a protest in south of Basra, yesterday.

Iraqis demand change as protests run into second weekAFP

BASRA: Protests in Iraq continued into their second week yesterday following days of clashes that left eight people dead, with demonstrators rallying to put social problems in the spotlight.

Months after Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State group, attention has turned from the military battle to the fight for jobs and public services.

Thousands of people rallied in fresh protests Monday in the eastern province of Diyala and the southern city of Nasiriyah, according to correspondents.

Iraqis already made their dissatisfaction with their leaders known through massive absten-tions in May’s national elections, and now citizens are taking to the streets to demand they see benefits from the country’s vast oil reserves. “These oil fields

belong to us, yet we get nothing,” said Hussein Ghazi, a 34-year-old protester in the port city of Basra. The oil sector accounts for 89 percent of the state budget and 99 percent of Iraq’s export rev-enues, but only one percent of jobs, as the majority of posts are filled by foreigners.

Officially, 10.8 percent of Iraqis are jobless, while youth unemployment is twice as high, in a country where 60 percent of the population is aged under 24. For the demonstrators, who have taken their campaign to the headquarters of political parties across the southern provinces, setting some on fire and ripping down political posters, corruption is central to their plight.

Following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the country’s new leaders and public servants reaped the ben-efits of public funds and natural

resources, leaving citizens with only basic infrastructure, according to protesters.

“We hear a lot of grand words, but we don’t see any-thing coming,” said Basra dem-onstrator Aqil Kazem, an unem-ployed 27-year-old.

Chronic electricity cuts con-tinue to leave Iraqis without respite from summer tempera-tures, which during the protests have reached 50 degrees Celsius. Iraqis have also suffered from water shortages this year from drought and dams built by neighbouring countries. Since the daily protests began on July 8 in Basra, eight people have been killed in various cities, according to the health ministry.

The ministry did not however give details on the cir-cumstances of the deaths, but according to different sources at least one person was shot dead by security forces in Basra.

Eritrea reopens embassy in EthiopiaAFP

ADDIS ABABA: Eritrea’s Pres-ident Isaias Afwerki reopened his country’s embassy in Ethiopia yesterday, the latest in a series of dizzying peace moves after two decades of war between the neighbours.

The embassy inauguration caps Isaias’s historic visit to the Ethiopian capital aimed at cementing peace less than a week after the former enemies declared an end to the conflict.

State-run Ethiopian Broad-casting Corporation (EBC) showed Isaias raising the Eri-trean flag at the embassy in downtown Addis Ababa and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed handing him keys to the building, filled with dusty fur-niture that appeared untouched for years.

The embassy visit marked the end of Isaias’s three-day stay in Ethiopia which also saw him vis-iting an industrial park and attending dinner and a concert on Sunday evening.

Thousands of Ethiopians packed an exhibition hall, waving Eritrean flags and chanting Isaias’s name as both leaders

pledged commitment to their newfound unity.

“Both nations have chosen peace as opposed to war,” said Abiy, as Isaias also voiced his support, saying: “We won’t allow anyone to stop this from happening.” The 71-year-old Eritrean strongman left Addis shortly after the embassy opening, EBC reported.

Writing on Twitter, Eritrean Information Minister Yemane

Gebremeskel said the trip had “inexorably elevated bilateral ties of both countries to new, promising, heights.”

Once a province of Ethiopia, Eritrea voted to leave in 1993 after a bloody, decades-long independence struggle.

Ethiopia and Eritrea expelled each others’ envoys at the start of a 1998-2000 border war that killed around 80,000 people.

US pullout from Iran deal will hurt Mideast: Aoun

Iran: If Trump wants to talk, he’ll have to call

BEIRUT: Lebanese President Michel Aoun said the US withdrawal from world powers’ 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran would have negative consequences for Middle East stability.

Aoun, a Maronite Christian politician, is a political ally of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hez-bollah. “The unilateral US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement (in May) will have negative repercussions for security and stability in the region,” Aoun wrote on Twitter, his first public comment on the accord. “Lebanon considered (the deal) a cornerstone for stability in the region, helping make it an area free of weapons of mass destruction,” Aoun’s office said in a statement summarising a meeting between him and Iranian foreign ministry official Hossein Jaberi Ansari.

AGENCIES

TEHRAN: Iran says if Pres-ident Donald Trump wants to negotiate after pulling the United States out of the inter-national deal meant to prevent Tehran from devel-oping nuclear weapons, he’ll have to make the call.

The remarks by Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi came after Trump last week said that with the United States increasing sanctions on Iran, “at a certain point they’re going to call me and say ‘let’s make a deal,’ and we’ll make a deal.”

Ghasemi says, however, “maybe someday he will call Tehran and ask for negotia-tions - this is more likely.”

Syrian regime advances fast on rebels in southAFP

BEIRUT: Syrian regime forces backed by Russia made sweeping advances yesterday against rebels holding out in the country’s vital southern zone.

For nearly one month, Syria’s government has worked to capture the provinces of Daraa and Quneitra with a mix of heavy bombardment, ground attacks and surrender deals brokered by Moscow.

Despite an international outcry, government forces have retaken swathes of the area including the border with Jordan and are inching closer to the sensitive frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Regime troops made another “quick advance” against rebels on Monday, according to the Syrian Observ-atory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor which relies on a network of sources inside the country.

“Regime forces took a number of towns in western parts of Daraa province, some through clashes with those refusing to join the handover deals, and others after agree-ments were reached,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

A string of towns — Al Hara, Samlin, and Zimrin — had agreed to fall back into regime control, while troops overran Al Tiha militarily.

“With that advance, the regime holds more than 90 percent of Daraa province,” Abdel Rahman said.

Citing a military source,

Syrian state news agency Sana also said the army had captured new territory, including Al Tiha and Zimrin.

Heavy fighting had been raging over a hilltop known as Tallet Al Hara and held by Al-Qaeda’s former affiliate, Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), said the Observatory.

HTS had refused a sur-render, ushering in a wave of regime and Russian shelling that killed 30 jihadists since Sunday. An HTS ambush then left 12 regime forces dead, Abdel Rahman said.

A photographer there saw a plume of smoke emerging from the sloping hilltop over-looking agricultural plains on Monday. By the afternoon, Syrian state news agency Sana said government forces had captured Tallet Al Hara.

Beyond the hilltop, the sliver of Daraa that still escapes regime control includes the rebel town of Nawa and a small pocket held by an Islamic State group affiliate.

Rebels in Nawa, where tens of thousands of people live, are in talks with Russia for a potential handover deal too, according to the Observatory.

35,000 families displaced in Al Hudaydah:UNANATOLIA

ADEN: Around 35,000 families have been displaced from Yemen’s coastal city of Al Hudaydah amid fighting between government forces and Houthi rebels, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“As of 13 July, approximately 35,000 displaced households have been verified, and 20,000 of them have received RRM assistance,” OCHA said in a statement on Monday.

OCHA said intense artillery shelling and air-strikes in Al Tuhayata and Zabid districts in

Al-Hudaydah continue to trigger displacement and disrupt access to basic services.

Last month, Yemeni government forces backed by a Saudi-led military coalition began a wide-ranging operation to retake the western Al-Hudaydah province -- and its strategic seaport -- from the rebels.

Earlier this month, however, the United Arab Emirates, which is a member of the Saudi-led coa-lition, announced a pause in military operations in the port city. According to the UN office, Al Hudaydah city is relatively calm following an announced pause in military operations by the Saudi-led coalition.

Regime forces took

a number of towns

in western parts of

Daraa province, some

through clashes with

those refusing to join

the handover deals, and

others after agreements

were reached.

06 TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018ASIA

Modi launches blistering attack on Bengal govtIANS

MIDNAPORE: Launching a blis-tering attack on the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday accused it of forming a nexus with the “all-pervading syndi-cates”, murdering Dalit political activists and having no faith in democracy, the Indian consti-tution or the electoral process.

In one of his strongest tirades against the Trinamool Congress government, he told a rally here that none of the forces which perpetrated atrocities in Bengal in the past were spared, and prophesied that the “state will be freed of all crimes and corruptions within months and it is just a matter of an opportunity”.

“Those who do not support democracy, do not believe in the process of election, follow the Constitution and the Government that has to be reprimanded by High Court and Supreme Court, should be careful. This is Bengal, none of them will be spared,” said the Prime Minister, who started his speech in Bengali amid tumultuous applause.

Asking didi (elder sister, as Banerjee is called) to take note of “the strength and discipline” of the people at the rally, Modi urged the people and the workers of BJP to “think together and bravely” to shake the “foun-dation of the syndicate” as was done in Tripura — where the BJP won the assembly polls earlier this year by ending 25 years of Left Front rule.

“The way Tripura’s syndicate was broken, it can be repeated in West Bengal. The resolution from this historic land has never

been in vain.” Refering to the 34 years of Left Front rule in West Bengal that ended in 2011 when the Trinamool came to power, he said while it took time to vote out the communists, it won’t take long this time around.

“People of Bengal saved themselves from the torture of the Left rule with the help of democracy. It took time then. Now Bengal will once again free itself of the wrongdoings and crimes within months. Bengal is waiting for its chance. People of Bengal are waiting for their opportunity.” Taking a swipe at the state administration here, the Prime Minister claimed that the syndicates are controlling eve-rything in Bengal starting from construction to education.

“The people of Bengal have seen the real faces of those who talked about ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’ (Mother, motherland and people - Banerjee’s pet slogan). People know what they have done for the last eight years and also know about their syndicate.

“These are the syndicate for snatching away the profit of the

farmers, for conspiring to murder the political opposition, for torturing the poor and for maintaining their own vote banks to cling to power,” Modi said while addressing the rally at the Midnapore college grounds.

“Syndicate is controlling everything here. Be it building a new school, new hospital or new road, nothing can be com-pleted without satisfying the syndicate,” he said adding that even the fund provided by the centre to the Bengal government is being misused by the syndi-cates here.

“The syndicate is deciding what materials to buy from which shops and who should get the contract for supplying materials. It also regulates the source of cement, sand, brick, woods, tin shades and other building mate-rials...Even for getting admission in colleges, one needs to satisfy the syndicates. Otherwise they do not get admission,” he said.

Referring to the violence and killing centring the recent state rural body elections, Modi con-gratulated the BJP activists for “standing firm” against the ruling party’s attack in spite of several of them being killed and said the victory of the saffron outfit in a number of seats was an indi-cation of Bengal’s “bright future”.

“I bow down my head to salute the people of Bengal who supported the BJP in the last state Panchayat election in spite of widespread violence and attacks on them. Our party activists were murdered one after the other. Many Dalit sons were snatched away from their parents. You did not give up. You stood firm against all the odds,”Modi said.

Supporters of Bhartiya Janta Party stand next to a damaged tent, which collapsed during a public meeting addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a college ground in Midnapore, yesterday.

24 injured as canopy collapses during Modi’s West Bengal rallyIANS

MIDNAPORE: Around 24 persons were injured yesterday when a part of the canopy collapsed while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was addressing a rally in West Bengal’s Midnapore town, police said.

The injured were rushed to the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital in ambulances in the Prime Minister’s convoy and even on motorcycles.

“Around 22-24 people were injured. They were given first aid at the hospital. Some of them have been admitted. But we have no reports of anyone being critical,” a West Midnapore dis-trict police officer said.

The rally was organised by the state unit of the Bharatiya

Janata Party. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh later said: “If it is found that the mishap happened due to any intentional mistake on anybody’s part, then proper action will be taken.” According to informed sources, the canopy structure had weakened due to incessant rain since the morning. It collapsed as a section of the enthusiastic audience tried to climb up to have a glimpse of the Prime Minister who had by then begun to speak.

Modi stopped for a few minutes when the structure col-lapsed to urge the audience to be careful, get off the stage and move to a safer area.

“Those who have climbed up, please get down, all of you... please, climb down. Those standing up there, please get

down. Don’t run,” he said.The Prime Minister was also

seen instructing officials present on the stage to ensure speedy and proper treatment for the injured.

Towards the end of his speech, Modi hailed the audience and said he will remember this incident throughout his life.

“The people of Bengal today showed me what courage means. In spite of constant rain, they gathered here in lakhs and even after a part of the structure col-lapsed, they showed such discipline to take the injured to the hospital while letting the rally continue. I can’t thank you people enough for such positivity,” he said.

“I come from Gujarat. But I can’t think of such courage and discipline. I will never forget this rally in my whole life.”

Supreme Court seeks centre’s stand on plea to ban hoisting green flagsIANS

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court yesterday sought the Centre’s stand on a plea by a cleric seeking a ban on hoisting green flags with a crescent and star, terming it un-Islamic and resembling that of a Pakistani political party.

A bench of Justice A K Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan asked Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, to seek instructions from the gov-ernment on the issue and posted it for hearing after two weeks.

“Take instructions on what’s the stand of the gov-ernment. Sometime it would be difficult for the government... They would be blamed that they are taking mala fide action. Now the matter is with the court, they can take instruc-tions,” the bench said.

The court asked the peti-tioner to serve a copy of the petition to Mehta in order to take instruction from the Centre.

The court was hearing a plea filed by the Syed Waseem Rizvi, Chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Board of Waqfs, allegeding that the flags hoisted resembled the flags of the Pakistan Muslim League, which belongs to “enemy country”.

Senior advocate S P Singh, appearing for Rizvi, told the court that during the petitioner’s visit to Mumbai, Hyderabad, Karnataka and other places in the country, he saw flags on several buildings and religious struc-tures, which were allegedly a cause of tension between Hindu and Musl im communities.

Congress chief urges PM to support women’s reservation billIANS

NEW DELHI: Congress President Rahul Gandhi yesterday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek his support for the passage of the Womens Reservation Bill in Parliament’s monsoon session, claiming that the BJP appears to have had second thoughts on the proposed law even though it was a key promise in its 2014 mani-festo.

The Congress leader said that the bill — passed by the Rajya Sabha in March 2010 — has been stalled on one pretext or the other in the Lok Sabha for over eight years now.

Gandhi said that the bill holds the potential to transform the country’s governance and any further delay will make it impossible to implement it before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“I write to request (for) your support to ensure the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the coming monsoon session,” he said.

The monsoon session is slated to begin on July 18 and will continue till August 10.

“Given the fact that the BJP and its allies have a majority in the Lok Sabha, all this landmark (proposed) legislation requires to become a reality is your support. I am sure it will not be

withheld,” Gandhi said. The bill seeks to reserve one third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies for women.

Gandhi said that when the bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha with BJP support, then Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley called it “historic and momentous”.’ “Since then, while the Congress has been unwavering in its com-mitment to the bill, the BJP appears to have had second

thoughts even though it was one of the party’s key promises in the 2014 manifesto,” Gandhi said.

The Congress chief said that Modi should point out to BJP sceptics opposed to its passage that the experience with gov-ernance at the panchayat and municipal levels has shown that women in leadership positions are more likely to take decisions that further the cause of an inclusive and just society.

Rahul never said Congress a Muslim party: Irfan HabibIANS

NEW DELHI: With the BJP continuing its attack on Rahul Gandhi for his reported remark that the Congress was a party of Muslims, historian S Irfan Habib, a participant in the July 11 meeting, yesterday denied that the Congress President made any such reference.

“He (Rahul) didn’t say that at all. I didn’t hear it. Nobody will say that. BJP, a majori-tarian party, will never say that. No party would ever say that,” Syed Irfan Habib, an Indian historian of science and a well-known intellectual, said.

“...he (Rahul) spoke about the poor sections of society, which have been the strength of the Congress all these years,” Habib added.

He said Rahul agreed that the Congress “got weakened” after losing the support of the poor sections, and that it needed to bring them back to the fold.

“What Congress party has to do, according to him (Rahul), is to win back those

sections — minorities and Dalits,” he said.

“He spoke about the Muslims along with other sec-tions. He said ‘we have to take corrective measures’ to bring these sections back to the party, be more accommo-dative. Nobody is talking about it,” said Habib.

A news report in an Urdu Daily Inquilab had said that Congress’ minority unit chief Nadeem Javed had confirmed that Rahul Gandhi did say that “Congress is a Muslim party” during his meeting with Muslim intellectuals.

Those who met Rahul for their feedback on various issues and for a discussion on “public policy” included M S Farooqui, Amir Mohammad, Syeda Hameed, Ilyas Malik, Rakhshanda Jalil, Junaid Rehman, Farah Naqvi and others.

Earlier in the day, Con-gress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala compared the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government with the East India Company and

rejected Inquilab’s report, s a y i n g J a v e d w a s “misquoted”.

Inquilab Bureau Chief Mumtaz Ali Rizvi told a news channel: “Questions are being raised on their leadership. I challenge that Rahul-ji should tweet to say what I have written in the newspaper was not told by him.” He said Con-gress should come out and say that it is not a party of the Muslims. “In one rhetoric, it will be clear. I will leave jour-nalism,” he said.

Surjewala, however, questioned if a particular newspaper or its represent-ative was present in the meeting that was attended by a select group of individuals. “That’s the first question to be asked and the answer is in the negative,” he said.

On Javed’s interview to the newspaper, the Congress leader said: “I took the liberty of trying to read even the mis-quoted interview that has appeared and I tried to write it in Hindi because I can’t read Urdu, except a few words.”

“Those who do not

support democracy,

do not believe

in the process of

election, follow the

Constitution and the

Government that has

to be reprimanded

by High Court and

Supreme Court,

should be careful.

This is Bengal, none of

them will be spared,”

Modi said.

07TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018 ASIA

Sharif appeals his prison sentence AP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appealed his 10-year prison sentence yesterday, his party spokeswoman said, just days after returning to the country ahead of parliament elections later this month.

Violence has escalated in the run-up to the balloting, with horrific attacks over the weekend killing 153 people, including a provincial assembly candidate during an election rally in southwestern Balu-chistan province.

Sharif was sentenced in absentia on July 6 over his fam-ily’s purchases of luxury apart-ments in London. If the judge grants the appeal, Sharif could be released on bail, pending his retrial.

Maryam Aurangzeb, a spokeswoman for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) party, said the appeal was filed yesterday with the Islamabad High Court. “Our lawyers are seeking to overturn of the verdict against Nawaz Sharif and his family on legal grounds,” she said.

Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Mohammad Safdar were also sentenced in the same trial, to seven years and one year, respectively. On Friday, Sharif and his daughter returned home from London, where Sharif’s wife is critically ill in hospital, following a heart attack last month.

In election-related violence, gunmen on Sunday night opened fire at the election headquarters of the secular Awami National Party in the town of Chaman in

Baluchistan, wounding former senator Daud Achakzai who was campaigning for Zumurak Khan, a contender for a seat in the pro-vincial legislature.

On Friday in Baluchistan’s Mastung district, an Islamic State suicide bomber killed Siraj Raisani, a candidate for the pro-vincial assembly and 148 others during an election rally.

So far more than 170 people have died in election-related attacks, underscoring the security threat ahead of the vote.

Pakistanis will go to polls on July 25 to elect 342 members of the lower house of par-liament, the National Assembly, which is the country’s law-making body, and four pro-vincial legislatures.

Sharif, who was ousted from office by the Supreme Court last July over corruption, is not running in the elections and has been banned from holding any office for the rest of his life. His party is still a leading contender, hoping to win a majority of the seats in parliament and form the next government.

Supporters of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a Pakistani religious parties alliance, gather during an election campaign rally in Karachi, yesterday.

Civil society organisation to monitor polls across PakistanINTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: The Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) — a coalition of over 50 leading civil society organisations — will deploy 19,000 observers across 272 National Assembly constit-uencies to monitor voting and counting processes at 85 percent of the total polling stations to be set up by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for the July 25 elections.

According to a press release issued on Monday, Fafen will deploy 9,884 observers in Punjab, 4,225 in Sindh, 3,549 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (including tribal districts), 1,117 in Balo-chistan and 225 in Islamabad Capital Territory.

Fafen ’s accredi ted ,

non-partisan and trained observers will observe the Election Day environment outside polling stations, inci-dents of electoral and political violence, if any, pre-polling preparations at polling stations, voting, vote counting and ECP forms-filling processes and bar-riers to women voting.

Fafen observers will be trained to gather required data and doc-uments from assigned polling sta-tions to enable the network to conduct parallel vote tabulations (PVTs) in up to 272 National Assembly constituencies.

The PVTs will provide a comparison of a statistically-valid sample of polling stations’ vote-tallies gathered by the observers against official copies of the election forms.

Fafen will also observe vote consolidation process at the offices of returning officers through 272 consistency coor-dinators. Based on its obser-vation, it will release its prelim-inary report on July 27.

Fafen has already been observing the pre-election phase through 272 constituency coordinators and 130 district coordinators to provide an assessment of political envi-ronment and implementation of election-related laws, rules and regulations since January.

The purpose of this obser-vation is to contribute to the evolution of an election process that is free, fair, transparent, accountable and in accordance with the requirements laid out in the Elections Act 2017.

Rights group warns of ‘blatant’ bid to manipulate upcoming electionsAFP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s human rights commission yesterday slammed “blatant, aggressive and unabashed” attempts to manip-ulate the upcoming election, as politicians expressed security fears following one of the coun-try’s deadliest attacks.

A string of attacks has killed 175 people across the country in the past week, and there have been widespread allegations that the powerful military is meddling in the run-up to the July 25 vote.

The Election Commission has vowed to go ahead with the vote “at all costs”.

But the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan warned it was “gravely concerned over what it sees as blatant, aggressive and unabashed attempts to manipulate the outcome of the upcoming elections”.

“While it is critical that the polls are held as scheduled, there are now ample grounds to doubt their legitimacy — with alarming implications for Pakistan’s tran-sition to an effective democracy,” it said in a statement.

A suicide blast at a political rally in the southwestern province of Balochistan last Friday killed 149 people.

It was the second deadliest militant attack in Pakistan’s long battle with violent extremism, surpassed only by an assault on a school in 2014 which left more than 150 people dead.

The attack and others have spurred a surge in criticism of the army. It has overseen a dramatic improvement in security but in recent months has been widely accused of what one think-tank termed a “silent coup”.

“The attacks are taking place because the security agencies are involved in politics and not doing their job,” Mushahidullah Khan, a senior leader with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), said.

“The elections are being con-tested in an environment of fear,” the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, said during a visit to the Balochistan provincial capital Quetta yesterday.

“Security should be the top priority for the government,” he said, adding: “I hope that the election will be held on July 25”.

It’s time to ‘break shackles’, Sharif says in audio messageINTERNEWS

RAWALPINDI: Supremo of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has begun his prison term in Adiala jail, has said the whole country has been turned into a “prison” and the time has come for the people to “break all shackles”.

“Spread my message across

houses, streets, villages (of the country). Come out and defeat those who insult your votes in a way that they will never raise their heads again,” said Sharif in an audio message recorded at an undisclosed place and at an unknown time.

In his message in circulation on the social media, Sharif asked the people to “come out on July 25, holding aloft the flag of ‘vote

ko izzat do (honour the vote)” to celebrate a grand and memorial day of victory”.

Sharif, who returned to the country on Friday after leaving his ailing wife in a London hos-pital, said the people needed to end the game that had been going on for the past 70 years and which had turned Quaid-i-Azam’s Pakistan into a “circus”.

The PML-N supreme leader

alleged that he and his daughter Maryam Nawaz had been imprisoned to keep them away from the masses. But “they don’t know that jails and prisons cannot break my relation with you.

Neither any dictator has suc-ceeded in doing so in the past nor those who are presently pulling the strings can do it,” he said in the two-minute audio message.

Meanwhile, the Punjab gov-ernment has deputed six senior prison officials for security of Sharif and one female deputy superintendent and four officials for his daughter Maryam in Adiala jail.

Sharif has been given Better Class, while Maryam has been imprisoned in a general barrack after she refused to get Better Class facilities.

EU, embassies write to Sri Lankan leader on executionsAP

COLOMBO: The European Union and other diplomatic missions yesterday sought verification from the Sri Lankan government on its stand to resume executions after a rise in crime.

In a joint statement, the EU delegation and the embassies of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Nether-lands, Romania, Canada and Norway said they have written to Sri Lankan Pres-ident Maithripala Sirisena regarding the issue.

There is a rising crime wave in Sri Lanka, including gang-related killings, nar-cotics, robberies and sex crimes, leading to a public outcry demanding executions. The government has responded by saying it will execute prisoners who have allegedly taken advantage of a moratorium on executions to continue their drug trade from prison.

Sri Lanka last executed a prisoner in 1976 and has since maintained a moratorium.

Taliban attack claims 7 lives in eastern AfghanistanAP

KABUL: The Taliban stormed a police checkpoint in Afghan-istan’s eastern Nangarhar province and killed seven policemen, a provincial official said yesterday.

The attack took place the previous night in the district of Ghani Kahil, said the provincial police chief, Ghulam Sanayee Stanikzai. Five Taliban fighters were killed in the attack, he said.

Stanikzai also said that in Khogyani district, also in Nan-garhar province, a government airstrike on Sunday night left 20 Taliban fighters dead.

There was no statement from the Taliban on either the Ghani Kahil attack or the airstrike.

Earlier on Sunday, a suicide bomber on foot struck outside the building of the Rural Reha-bilitation and Development Ministry in the capital, Kabul, killing seven people and wounding 15.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement Monday on its Aamaq news agency, saying it targeted government employees and warning their

attacks will reach “all who help the Crusaders,” a term militants use to refer to foreign forces.

Last month, a suicide bombing near the same min-istry killed 12 people and wounded 31 others, mostly gov-ernment employees.

Yesterday, a would-be suicide attacker was shot and killed by police in Kabul before he was able to get close to a gathering of supporters of the country’s first vice president, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, according to police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai. Dostum is currently in Turkey.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but both Taliban and the Islamic State group have stepped up their attacks in Kabul.

Meanwhile, intense week-long battles have been underway between the Taliban and IS in northern Jawzjan province, according to Gen. Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani, the provincial police chief.

Jawzjani said on Monday that around 70 Islamic State fighters and 54 Taliban insur-gents may have been killed in the fighting in districts of Darzab and Qushtipa.

Maryam Aurangzeb,

a spokeswoman

for the ruling PML-

N, said the appeal

was filed yesterday

with the Islamabad

High Court. “Our

lawyers are seeking

to overturn of the

verdict against

Nawaz Sharif and

his family on legal

grounds,” she said.

During their

meeting, Putin

and Trump

discussed a

host of issues,

including

Moscow’s alleged

meddling in the

2016 US election,

nuclear non-

proliferation and

Syria.

08 TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018VIEWS

Trump, Putin meeting expected to mend strained ties

President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin hailed progress in improving

strained bilateral relations as the rivals grapple with how to address a host of major international issues.

The leaders met for roughly two hours behind closed doors during their summit in Helsinki, Finland in a one-on-one sit-down originally planned for an hour and a half.

“Our relationship has never been worse than it is now. However, that changed as of about four hours ago. I really believe that,” Trump said during a joint press conference with Putin after a working lunch with senior Russian and American offi-cials. “We should have had this dia-logue a long time ago.”

Putin, whose late arrival off-set the original start time, said there is “no solid reason” behind the tensions.

“Today’s talks reflected our joint desire with President Trump to rectify the negative sit-uation in bilateral relations, to outline the first steps to improve them, restore an acceptable level of trust and return to cooper-ation at the previous level on all issues of mutual interest,” Putin said in remarks translated from Russian.

Trump earlier yes-terday faulted “US foolishness and stu-pidity” for the deterio-rated ties in a series of pre-meeting tweets. The Russian Foreign Min-istry was quick to retweet the message with a brief comment of its own.

“We agree,” the ministry said.

During their meeting, Putin and Trump discussed a host of issues, including Moscow’s alleged med-dling in the 2016 US election, nuclear non-proliferation and Syria.

Trump said greater

cooperation between Moscow and Washington “has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives” in the Syrian conflict, stressing that he and Putin have resolved to do so.

“I think that both of us would be very interested in doing that. And we will do that,” he said.

Election meddlingThe US and Russia have been on

opposing sides of the Syrian conflict, with Moscow being the main sup-porter of the Syrian regime on the battlefield and in the international community.

Prior to the summit, both leaders had only met on the sidelines of major international gatherings, increasing the importance of the full-scale bilateral meeting.

Trump said he used the oppor-tunity to ask Putin about what US intelligence officials have described as Moscow’s sweeping campaign to influence the 2016 election in favor of Trump, saying Putin continues to deny any role in the effort.

“I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump said. “He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that’s an incredible offer.”

Trump was referring to the 12 alleged members of Russia’s main

intelligence directorate, the GRU, who were indicted last Friday by a US grand jury on charges related to a hacking campaign that targeted Democratic nominee Hillary Clin-ton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

The charges are the latest to come from Special Council Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation, which Trump has repeatedly fumed about, and which he continued to lash out.

“The probe is a disaster for our country. I think it’s kept us apart. It’s kept us separated,” Trump said, adding “it’s ridiculous what’s going on with the probe.”

Putin acknowledged that he sympathized with Trump’s cam-paign because the then-Repub-lican candidate spoke of improving ties with Russia, but continued to deny any involvement in the election.

“President Trump as a nominee spoke about the need to restore Russian-American relations. Natu-rally, there was sympathy in Russian society for this candidate. And dif-ferent people could show this sym-pathy. Isn’t it natural to have sym-pathy for a person who wants to build relations with our country?,” he said.

Putin further thanked Trump for his praise for hosting of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and pre-sented him with one of the tourna-ment’s official Telstar balls, which Trump said he would give to his son, Barron.

MICHAEL HERNANDEZ & ELENA TESLOVA ANATOLIA

QUOTE OF THE DAYWe all agreed to use

all our channels to urge the parties to

take a step back, stop the violence, prevent

another war and alleviate the situation for the people on the

ground.

Federica Mogherini

EU Foreign Policy Chief

Japan isn’t stepping aside as China steps up

China doesn’t quite have the game sewn up. So bad is the West’s public-rela-

tions standing in the era of Trump and Brexit that it’s easy to see Chinese ascendancy as a welcome stabilizer in markets, finance, economics and trade. Awe at President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initi-ative is a prime example, con-veying the unhealthy notion that democracies can’t do big things anymore and China is sweeping all before it.

The same mythology characterizes China as the only country that matters in Asia. Suddenly in the Western mind, Asia is China and China is Asia. (Never mind that as recently as the 1990s, many people said the same thing about Japan.)

Writing off the rest of Asia overlooks the strength of Jap-anese companies and steps by Tokyo to steer economic policy — not to mention development aid — toward countering Chinese influence.

A secondary theme is the sense that America, Japan’s closest economic and security ally since 1945, is increasingly inward looking and unreliable.

Japan needs to diversify its portfolio. The country wants back in the game and is enlisting partners where it can. India, which feels encircled by China, is eager for an ally. In September, prime ministers Shinzo Abe and Narendra Modi jointly announced plans to build a bullet-train line financed almost entirely by Japan. India gets infrastructure, and Jap-anese companies like Hitachi and Kawasaki Heavy get con-tracts. A few months earlier, the two leaders unveiled the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor, aimed at joint development in Africa. The contest with China, which has made big inroads into Africa, is impossible to miss.

In Southeast Asia, Jap-anese companies are also winning the infrastructure race. Not only are they doing more business than Chinese firms among the 10-member

Association of Southeast Asian Nations, they remain the dom-inant Asian direct foreign investor. Together with the US and the European Union, Japan accounted for more than half the total in 2015.

Chinese companies may catch up. And the Chinese mil-itary may come to dominate Asian security. But Japan isn’t going to acquiesce. Japanese interests haven’t just packed up and headed for their low-growth, low-inflation home turf.

On the contrary, condi-tions at home are partly responsible for corporate Japan’s renewed interest in the overseas markets. Abe and Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda have made concerted efforts to reflate and reinvigorate Japan’s economy. They have met with mixed success. Deflation is no longer pervasive, and capital spending plans look prom-ising, but officials and execu-tives still wrestle with the implications of an aging and dwindling population. Pros-pects for sustained earnings and revenue growth look

stronger away from home.Japanese companies direct

a lot of investment toward China, but here again Japan feels the need to diversify. China’s pace of economic growth is still high by almost any measure, but it’s cooled considerably over the past decade and will probably slow to about 6 percent over the next couple of years.

Japanese companies, like other foreign investors, feel increasingly exposed to diplo-matic tensions. Imagine if a Jap-anese minister makes one offhand remark that displeases Beijing. Next thing you know, that plant in Guangzhou is placed on hold or, as was the case with South Korean con-glomerate Lotte, fire safety rules suddenly become an issue.

It was different when China was building its economy and needed to catch up to the major industrial powers. That era is over. “Made in China 2025,” another signature Xi initiative, may offer opportunities for tech-nology investment, but that program is about making China great. Not anyone else.

According to

the United

Nations statistics,

one-third of

the world’s

population live

in countries with

dry land, and

Drylands account

for 40 percent

of the total land

area and are

spread in more

than 40 countries

around the world,

especially in the

Arab world.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

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

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Contributing to global peace

Several initiatives by Qatar have been winning global praise since past many years. Of the many out-standing initiatives, one such effort is the Global

Dryland Alliance (GDA) which is garnering applause on various platforms.

Recently, Executive Director of Global Dryland Alliance (GDA) Ambassador Bader Omar Al Dafa said that GDA is a global initiative and it has received appre-ciation at various global forums.

This Alliance aims to contribute in making dryland countries food-secure which will ultimately lead to greater stability and peace in the world. The initiative seeks to achieve food security through exchange of knowledge and best practices.

The Alliance is an international organisation, founded on an agreement between a number of dryland countries.

GDA is an initiative put forward by Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani during a speech at at the

68th session United Nations General Assembly in 2013.

Since then, the country has taken may concrete steps in this direction. Qatar has pledged to provide the Alli-ance’s operational budget for two years.

The Alliance has signed a headquarters agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs granting GDA a number of privileges and facilities like those given to similar inter-national organisations. The State also committed to grant the alliance two plots of land to establish a model farm and a research center for dryland.

Qatar has hosted in Doha, and other parts of the world including Rio de Janeiro, New York, Rome, Milan, Mar-rakech and Tunis, a number of conferences, seminars and research forums to present the coalition initiative and to start coordination and con-sultation with its supporting countries and other partners.

The support given by Qatar to GDA would complement other resources derived from member states’ contribu-tions, donations and joint property revenues from research and patent development.

According to the United Nations statistics, one-third of the world’s population live in countries with dry land, and Drylands account for 40 percent of the total land area and are spread in more than 40 countries around the world, especially in the Arab world.

Setting up of the Alliance can be listed as a contri-bution by Qatar to the establishment of an international organisation for the food security in dryland countries. It is also a support for the global effort to promote inter-national peace and security through the eradication of poverty and hunger.

DANIEL MOSS BLOOMBERG

US President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin shake hands as they meet in Helsinki, Finland.

Plastic bottles

are the most

common form of

plastic waste, it

is estimated that

around 480 billion

bottles were sold

around the world in

2016, at a rate of 1

million bottles per

minute, according to

study.

09TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018 OPINION

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Streets deserted as Nicaragua strike beginsafter protest deaths

Plastic waste a nightmare that threatens marine life

AFP

MOHAMMED AL-SULAITI

Banks, markets, gas stations, schools and shops kept their doors locked among deserted streets as Nicara-

gua’s opposition staged a 24-hour general strike, a day after five people were killed in violence sur-rounding protests against President Daniel Ortega.

Opposition supporters claimed the strike was 90 percent respected across the country while official media an-nounced business as usual in several trade zones.

In cities such as Leon and Granada, only state-owned Petronic gas stations remained open.

Mercado Oriental, one of the biggest trade centers in the capital Managua with 20,000 businesses, was a complete wilderness with almost every one closed.

“I’m working out of necessity but the strike is a weapon to put pressure on the government because there is no end in sight to this situation,” Adolfo Diaz, a 67-year-old shoe shiner, told while sitting alone in a hall at the Huembes market in the east of Managua, normally a bustling hub of some 4,500 businesses.

Some streets were filling, though, with Ortega supporters pre-paring to join a planned government procession later in the afternoon from the capital to the opposition stronghold of Masaya, 30 kilometers (19 miles) to the south, to

commemorate a significant event in the president’s coming to power in 1979, known as the “retreat.”

The strike, called by the oppo-sition Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy grouping, comes after the latest bloody episode during three deadly months of anti-gov-ernment protests in the impover-ished Central American country that have left around 270 people dead.

Four police officers and a pro-tester died on Thursday as clashes erupted between opposition activists and government forces and their paramilitary allies in the southeast town of Morrito.

The opposition is demanding either early elections or the resig-nation of Ortega and his wife Vice President Rosario Murillo, accusing both of corruption, despotism and nepotism.

“Let’s empty the streets because we want an end to repression and because we want them to go,” the Civic Alliance said a few hours before the strike began at midnight.

While the will was there to support the civil disobedience action, not everyone has the means to do so.

“If I don’t work, I don’t eat. It’s not a question of not supporting the strike but one of supporting our families. We need this to end so we can work,” said 56-year-old cobbler Nestor Larios.

The strike is part of three days of nationwide protests against the gov-ernment that began on Thursday with a sea of blue and white clad demonstrators marching through Managua and is due to end with a car caravan through flashpoint areas of the capital on Saturday.

But tensions are likely to flare as former left-wing guerrilla leader Ortega performs his annual pro-cession to mark the overthrow of the US-backed right-wing dictator Anastasio Somoza.

The “retreat” happened on June 27, 1979, when thousands of

guerrillas withdrew from Managua to Masaya to regroup before securing victory on July 19 when Somoza fled the country, ending 43 years of family dynasty.

But where the former revolu-tionary leader Ortega was once hunkered down with Sandinista National Liberation Front allies in Masaya fighting against the dicta-torship, the 72-year-old head of state is now the one hated in the rebel heartland.

In Monimbo, an indigenous Masaya suburb, opposition protestors have erected barricades and vowed to pre-vent Ortega’s procession from passing through.

Banners and placards at the bar-ricades are emblazoned with defiant slogans: “We’ll never surrender,” “Monimbo resists today, tomorrow and forever,” and “No to the retreat.”

The government is, however, unbowed.

“To the retreat with Daniel... we are going to win peace,” said Murillo as she called for Ortega loyalists to mobi-lize for the procession.

“The march to victory will not be stopped.”

Political tensions have soared in Nicaragua since protests against a now-aborted pension reform began on April 18 before mushrooming into general opposition to Ortega and his government.

The fatalities occurred as marching protesters, some of them armed, came under attack from police and paramilitaries, and responded with gunfire, said Fran-cisca Ramirez, head of the Civic Alliance.

Police confirmed the death toll but blamed the violence on “ter-rorist groups” that pretended to be carrying out a peaceful march and opened fire on a police station.

Protesters also abducted nine police officers and attacked the Morrito town hall, the police said in a statement.

Oceans cover about 70% of the earth and support a variety of marine life. Due to anthropogenic activities,

oceans expose to a real danger which threatens the health of marine envi-ronment. The ethical responsibility in this issue lies on conserving the marine life for its vital importance in our food chain. Many concerns are being raised in terms of what are the destructive habits being practiced in oceans and which in its role led to severe consequences including over-fishing, ocean acidification, climate change and plastic waste. The last has raised many concerns lately whereas it became rampant phe-nomenon since the last century.

As per article published by BBC that the problem has begun around 70 years ago when the plastic indus-tries has largely increased. It was unimaginable that those industries will end to non-biogradable waste in oceans. The total plastic produced since its start-up is 8.3 billion tons, of which 6.3 tons are form of waste, 79% are buried in the ground. The huge amount of plastic waste is a product of a modern life started from the last century — with appearance of globalization concept and absence of responsibility sense - in which plastic is used in disposable products

including: drinking bottles, plastic toys and food tools.

Scientifically and in laboratories, plastic can be seen from microscopes as chemical bonds that make atoms of their molecules linked to their ways more complex than organic matter.

The scientific fact hides behind that the decomposition of a single plastic bottle takes up to 450 years, whereas the plastic decay falls under non-biological decomposition, which it is known to take longer time than the biological decomposition, as it does not decompose by the action of bacteria.

Plastic bottles are the most common form of plastic waste, it is estimated that around 480 billion bottles were sold around the world in 2016, at a rate of 1 million bottles per minute, according to study.

Plastic waste accumulates in various areas of the ocean, and by the action of wind currents called circular vortices, plastic waste floats on the water surface. The nature of plastic waste lies on its concentration in one area, for example plastic waste is more concentrated in ocean vortices than any other parts of ocean. It shapes as residues made up of small pieces of plastic that remain trapped beneath the surface of the

water. However, due to the durable

nature of most plastic, some mate-rials take very long period time to decompose which makes it inevitable danger for the marine life.

Lisa Syensson the director of ocean at the UN Environment warns that the problem, which concerns the entire planet, threatens to destroy ocean’s ecosystem. She said: “Gov-ernments, firms and individual people must act far more quickly to halt plastic pollution”. She added: “In a few short decades since we dis-covered the convenience of plastics, we are ruining the ecosystem of the ocean.”

The article also shows that around 10 million tons of plastic to end up in the ocean floor each year. In 2010, a group of scientists esti-mated the amount of plastic waste in the oceans to be around 8 million tons and expected to rise to 13 million tons by 2050. Oceanographer Erik van Sebille, who works at Imperial College London and Utrecht Uni-versity in the Netherlands, has shown that due to strong ocean streams known as gyres, huge amounts of plastic end up in patches around the world, the largest one being in the north Pacific.

Concerns were raised around where these plastic waste end to, and the answer comes to disappoint eve-ryone lives on this planet that plastic waste ends to our food chain. A lot of plastic debris in the ocean breaks down into smaller pieces and ingested by marine life.

There is inevitable danger for sea birds and larger marine creatures like turtles, dolphins and seals, the danger comes from being entangled in plastic bags and other debris, or mistaking plastic for food. Some of these creatures cannot distinguish between plastic waste and their own food, as a result, they will start to ingest plastic bags which lead to internal blockages and consequently result in death.

The effects on human of eating fish containing plastic is largely unknown. However, in 2016 the European Food Safety Authority warned of increased risk to human health and food safety “given the potential for micro-plastic pollution

The fatalities

occurred as

marching protesters,

some of them

armed, came under

attack from police

and paramilitaries,

and responded with

gunfire.

in edible tissues of commercial fish”. Such phrases have to be taken seriously, as different studies have previously been con-cluded that there is a clear rela-tionship between cancers and spe-cific types of plastic.

In conclusion, marine envi-ronment risks irreparable damage from a rising tide of plastic waste. We have seen that plastic waste is inevitable danger threatens marine creature, and there is an explicit potential that danger extends to food chain. Britain, for example, is developing free drinking facilities in major cities. Also, Starbucks announce that they are removing straws globally by 2020 reducing more than 1 billion straws per year. In fact, it has amazed me when I wrote this article that in the Port of Amsterdam, a new factory is being built that could revolutionize the way we dispose of plastic waste. Utilizing groundbreaking tech-nology, the facility will use previ-ously unrecyclable plastic to create fuel for diesel powered cargo ships.

Although there are com-mendable endeavors to mitigate the risk of plastic overcon-sumption, it remains only a monocular initiative. Finally, many questions remain unan-swered: To what extent we as nations are responsible for the ongoing crises? Between pro-ducers and consumer under who the ethical responsibility mostly falls? To what extent we have to take a serious-global action to step down plastic waste in oceans?

The writer is Environmental Sci-entist graduated from the Uni-versity of Nottingham.

10 TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018ASIA / EUROPE

Majority of Filipinos oppose federalismBLOOMBERG

MANILA: Two-thirds of Filipino voters remain opposed to Pres-ident Rodrigo Duterte’s (pictured) push to change the constitution and give more power to regional governments, according to a new poll.

The Pulse Asia Research Inc. survey conducted last month found that 62 percent of voters rejected federalism and 67 percent opposed changing the constitution, although 28 percent said they might be open to it in the future.

“Filipinos essentially are wary of constitutional change that smacks of a power grab,” Professor Antonio La Vina, former dean of the Ateneo School of Government in Manila, said in a text message. “Most people do not see our gov-ernance problems as constitu-tional. They see it as problem of leaders.”

The poll is a sign that Duterte faces an uphill battle pushing through the first change to the Philippines constitution since the overthrow of former leader Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, and follows a Social Weather Stations survey showing his popularity falling to its lowest during his two year rule.

With only voters in the southern island of Mindanao, Duterte’s home province, saying they favored his proposal for federalism, the survey also showed that most people had no actual knowledge of the plan’s detail.

“We would like to point out

that only 55 percent of respondents have heard, read, or watched anything about the pro-posals to change the 1987 consti-tution before the survey was con-ducted,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement. “We cannot expect our people to support an initiative which they know only little about.”

Duterte, who has offered to cut his six-year term short to boost support for the reform, has

argued that a federal system would boost economic growth and help quell a decades-long insurgency. Under the plan, the position of prime minister would be created and some restrictions on foreign ownership would be scrapped.

A draft federal constitution was submitted to Duterte last week, but will have to be delib-erated and approved by Con-gress, which is yet to agree on how to amend the constitution.

Opponents of the push, including Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, have warned that a federal system could open the way for public officials to extend their terms in office.

Duterte’s net satisfaction rating fell 11 percentage points to 45 percent, according to a Social Weather Stations survey of 1,200 adults from June 27 to June 30, as inflation climbed to a five-year high.

The biggest declines came from the capital region, among the poor and the young working population.

Another Social Weather Stations survey over same period found that more than 80 percent of people rejected Duterte’s policy of doing nothing to push back against increased Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, which Filipinos call the West Philippine Sea.

According to the poll, net trust in China had fallen to a net rating of minus 35, classified as “bad,” a 42-point decline since the last survey and the lowest since April 2016.

Former Malaysian premier to refile lawsuits against 1MDB investigatorsREUTERS

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian premier Najib Razak will file fresh civil suits against three investigators of a multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB, after he withdrew his earlier applications against them yesterday.

Najib and his family have faced intense scrutiny since a shock defeat in a May election by his former mentor-turned-foe, Mahathir Mohamad, who reopened an investigation into 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) after becoming prime minister.

Najib’s initial suits came days before he was arrested and charged over suspicious trans-actions at SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB. Najib, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing regarding 1MDB and SRC, pleaded not guilty.

The three suits were with-drawn after pretrial hearings to allow Najib to file fresh suits, state news agency Bernama on Monday quoted lawyer Alice Loke Yee Ching, who was acting for the government, as saying.

A spokesman for the law firm representing Najib, Badrul Samad Faik and Co, said it

needed to make changes reflecting recent developments regarding its client’s criminal charges before filing new applications.

In the three civil filings, Najib’s lawyers accused anti-graft chief Mohd Shukri Abdull, police commercial crimes head Amar Singh and Attorney General Tommy Thomas of prej-udice against the former prime minister.

Najib’s law firm had said earlier that it was seeking a court decision whether there was “an element of conflict of interest” among those handling the case.

The poll is a sign

that Duterte faces

an uphill battle

pushing through the

first change to the

Philippine constitution

since 1986, and

follows a Social

Weather Stations

survey showing his

popularity falling to

its lowest during his

two year rule.

Thai cave rescuers given diplomatic immunityREUTERS

BANGKOK: Thailand gave diplomatic immunity to three Australians who helped a boys’ soccer team escape from a flooded cave, in case “something went wrong”, its foreign minister said yesterday.

The 12 boys of the “Wild Boars” soccer team and their coach are recovering from their ordeal and are to be discharged on Thursday from a hospital in the northern town of Chiang Rai.

Dozens of foreign divers and rescue personnel joined the 17-day rescue that captivated

people around the world.But immunity was granted

only to Australian doctor Richard Harris and two medical assistants, said Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai.

“Doctor Richard Harris did his utmost on the medical mission he was responsible for, but if something went wrong he needed protection.”

“We provided this only to Dr. Richard Harris and two medical assistants. Only to the Australian medical team,” he said.

“We knew there were risks involved in this mission...so there was an understanding reached

between the Thai government and the Australian government,” Don added.

“The Thai government would like to thank Dr. Harris.”

A spokeswoman for Aus-tralia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to comment.

The success was tinged with bitterness, however, as Harris learnt his father, Jim, died in Australia shortly after the three-day rescue was completed last week.

Harris, an anaesthetist, went into the Tham Luang cave to assess the boys’ health and was

one of the last rescuers out of the cave after the boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach were brought to safety.

There have been reports the boys were sedated for their trip out through narrow, flooded passageways, though officials said only that some had been given medicine to calm their nerves.

The soccer team was exploring the cave on June 23 when monsoon rains trapped them deep inside the 10km cave complex.

Thai navy SEALs and an international team of

cave-diving experts played a key role in bringing them to safety.

Thais have flooded social media with grateful messages for mission participants, including Harris and the only casualty, Samarn Kunan, 38, a former member of Thailand’s elite SEALs unit.

Samarn, who died after delivering oxygen tanks in the cave, was cremated on Saturday in a ceremony broadcast live on Thai television.

The boys wiped away tears as they signed a portrait of Samarn, in photographs released by the hospital on Sunday.

An Indonesian customs officer during a press conference after they seized cold relief tablets that contained a key ingredient for making illicit drugs at at Ngurah Rai International Airport on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali, yesterday. Some 600,000 tablets of Pseudoephedrine sent from South Korea to Australia were found during a stopover on the Indonesian resort island, they said.

Huge drugs haul intercepted in Bali

Italy allows migrants to disembark in SicilyREUTERS

ROME: Hundreds of migrants finally disembarked in Italy from two ships yesterday after other European Union coun-tries agreed to accept more than half of them, ending a diplomatic standoff that had left them stuck at sea.

The remaining migrants aboard the Italian ship Monte Sperone and the British naval vessel Protector, which had picked up 450 asylum seekers from an overcrowded boat that left Libya on Friday, shuffled ashore at the Sicilian port.

At least eight suspected people smugglers were driven away in police cars, while iden-tification procedures were begun in the port for the other migrants.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who had insisted that EU partners should take them in, said the offer by five coun-tries to accept 50 migrants each had vindicated his hard-line immigration stance.

“Firmness and consistency

pays off,” Salvini, who is leading a high-profile campaign to exclude humanitarian rescue ships from Italian ports, said.

Eight of the migrants in bad medical condition were allowed to land on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Saturday and another 27 had disembarked in Pozzallo on Sunday.

“The next objective, to eradicate all the people-smug-gling mafias, will be to re-accompany the immigrants back where they came from,” said Salvini, who leads the right-wing League.

He was speaking after Germany, France, Malta, Spain and Portugal each agreed to accept a share of the migrants that left the shores of Libya on Friday.Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister in the anti-establishment government that took office last month, insisted on Monday the rules must be changed to allow migrants to be returned to Libya and their asylum requests be processed there.

Call to lift Russian sanctionsAFP

MOSCOW: Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said during a visit to Moscow yesterday that he wanted to see EU sanctions against Russia dropped “by the end of the year”. Salvini said he would use any means possible to convince European partners to scrap sanctions brought in over Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and subsequent activity in the east of Ukraine.

“Vetoes are only a last resort but I am not excluding any-thing,” he told a press con-ference. “Italy is the European country that has suffered the most from these sanctions against Russia.”

He said he wanted to create opportunities for small- and medium-sized businesses in the two countries to work together.

Russia banned most food imports from the EU in 2014 as a counter-measure to the Ukraine sanctions.

Salvini also said Russia’s return to the G7 would be “abso-lutely legitimate”. US President

Donald Trump made a similar suggestion last month.

Italy’s new Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in June that his government favoured a “revision” of economic sanctions against Russia.

Salvini yesterday met rep-resentatives of the state Council for Russian National Security.

They discussed opportu-nities for cooperation between Italy and Russia including in “the fight against Islamic terrorism”

as well as illegal immigration.The day before the Italian

minister attended the World Cup final in Moscow.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was also in Russia for the game, and denounced EU sanctions during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Salvini said the Italian prime minister would travel to Russia to meet Putin “in the second half of October”.

Italian Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini holding a press conference, in Moscow, yesterday.

Scotland to host first UK spaceportBLOOMBERG

EDINBURGH: The lure of commercial riches in space is spurring a variety of plans to help launch all the compo-nents necessary for a fully functioning orbital economy.

The latest to enter this private-sector race is the UK, which announced yester-daythat it plans to construct the nation’s first commercial vertical launch spaceport in northern Scotland. Lockheed Martin Corp was awarded $31m for two UK projects: Establishing vertical launch operations in Sutherland and a development programme slated for Reading to deploy a new “delivery vehicle” to deploy as many as six small satellites.

Orbex Ltd, a London-based firm that develops launch vehicles for small sat-ellites, was awarded $7m to devise a new rocket to use at the site in Sutherland. The deals were announced at the Farnborough Air Show.

The UK is a “geographi-cally strategic location for launch” with its northern lat-itudes, and well-placed to reach polar and near-polar orbits, the UK Space Agency said.

Most commercia l launches today are from Florida and French Guiana, where Nasa and the European Space Agency operate, respectively, due to their proximity to the equator. These offer easier access for satellites bound for geosta-tionary orbit.

Parliament passed the Space Industry Act earlier this year, aiming to help the nation capitalise on the bur-geoning commercial interest in space.

11TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018 EUROPE

Trump and Putin tout

reset in ties at summitAFP

HELSINKI: Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin held a historic summit yesterday vowing their determination to forge a reset of troubled relations between the world’s greatest nuclear powers.

Trump, bent on forging a personal bond with the Kremlin chief despite allegations of Russian meddling in US politics, went into the summit blaming his predecessors for plunging ties to their present low.

“I think it’s a good start: very, very good start for everybody,” the US leader told reporters after meeting Putin for more than two hours with just their interpreters present, and just before they were joined by their national security teams.

Many in Washington were agog at Trump’s decision to sit one-on-one with Putin, a former KGB spymaster, worried about what he might bargain away after previously cosying up to the autocratic leaders of China and North Korea.

Indeed, some domestic critics wanted the Helsinki summit called off entirely after 12 Russian military agents were indicted under a long-running probe into Moscow’s alleged manipulation of the 2016 US elections.

But Trump, convinced his

unique brand of diplomacy can make inroads with Putin, pressed ahead and looked forward to “having an extraordinary rela-tionship” as the pair sat down to discuss everything from Syria, Ukraine and China to trade tariffs and the size of their nuclear arsenals.

Putin, basking in congratu-lations from Trump and other world leaders for the successful staging of the World Cup in Russia, said: “The time has come to talk in a substantive way about our relations and problem areas of the world.”

Trump added: “Frankly, we have not been getting along for the last number of years. And I really think the world wants to see us get along. We are the two great nuclear powers.”

Shortly before the summit opened, Trump was asked if he would press Putin over Russia’s alleged manipulation of the election that brought the mer-curial property tycoon to power 18 months ago. He said only: “We’ll do just fine.”

But there are many points of friction that could yet spoil Trump’s hoped-for friendship with his wily opposite number, who has run Russia for 18 years.

Trump began the day by firing a Twitter broadside at his domestic opponents, blaming the diplomatic chill on the investi-gation into alleged Russian election meddling.

“Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of US foolishness and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” Trump tweeted.

Russia’s foreign ministry tweeted in response: “We agree.”

Trump’s US opponents tried, in turn, to gain traction for the sarcastic hashtag lampooning his reluctance to criticise the Kremlin: #BAF (Blame America First).

After a stormy Nato summit in Brussels last week, Trump was accused by critics of prioritising his ties to Putin over the trans-atlantic alliance.

But over breakfast with Fin-land’s President Sauli Niinisto, he insisted Nato “has never been stronger” and “never been more

together” thanks to his insistence on all allies paying their fair share.

In a weekend interview with CBS News, Trump admitted that Russia remains a foe, but he put Moscow on a par with China and the European Union as economic and diplomatic rivals.

The Kremlin has also played down hopes that the odd couple will emerge from their first formal one-on-one summit with a breakthrough.

Indeed, after the bad-tem-pered Nato summit and a con-tentious trip by Trump to Britain, anxious European leaders may be relieved if not much comes out of the Helsinki meeting.

Those leaders are already fuming over Trump’s imposition of trade tariffs on various coun-tries, including Russia.

Turning the tables, European Union President Donald Tusk said Trump was guilty of “spreading fake news” with his remark about foes, and warned that the trade tensions could spiral into violent “conflict and chaos”.

“Europe and China, America and Russia, today in Beijing and in Helsinki, are jointly respon-sible for improving the world order, not for destroying it,” he tweeted.

“I hope this message reaches Helsinki.”

Protesters have been on the streets of Helsinki to denounce the policies of both Trump and Putin. Greenpeace draped a giant banner down a church tower urging: “Warm our hearts not our planet.”

Trump is also under pressure from Britain to press Putin over the nerve agent poisoning of four people in southern England.

One of the victims, Dawn Sturgess, has died and her 19-year-old son Ewan Hope told the Sunday Mirror newspaper: “We need to get justice for my mum.”

But US allies and many at home fear that Trump will fail to stand up to Putin.

US President Donald Trump (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin during a joint news conference after their meeting, in Helsinki, Finland, yesterday.

UK unveils new Tempest fighter jetREUTERS

FARNBOROUGH: Britain’s Defence Minister Gavin Williamson unveiled a model of the country’s proposed new fighter jet named Tempest at the F a r n b o r o u g h A i r s h o w yesterday, and said it would seek international partners to help develop the project.

The government said $2.7bn had been earmarked to finance the project out to 2025 and that additional funding would be provided by its industrial partners on the project.

The aircraft, which will eventually replace the Typhoon fighter jet, will be developed and built by industrial partners BAE Systems, Britain’s biggest

defence company, alongside UK engine-maker Rolls-Royce, Italian defence firm Leonardo, and European missile maker MBDA.

Williamson was speaking at the Farnborough Airshow in front of a giant screen that was pulled away to reveal the sleek grey life-size version of Tempest, the cockpit window visible in its pointed nose, above a white underbelly.

Britain wants to find an international partner to help develop the jet, and Williamson appealed to the crowd packed with visiting military chiefs who were at the BAE Systems chalet to see the model.

“Our approach hinges on international collaboration,” he

said. “My question to potential partners in the room today is simple, how can you work with us, how can we work with you?”

Air Vice-Marshal Simon Rochelle from Britain’s Royal Air Force said Britain was having discussions with a number of potential partner countries, including Sweden and Japan.

Analysts have said Sweden is seen as the most likely partner, although countries such as South Korea, Japan and Turkey, or Gulf arms-buying nations like Saudi Arabia, are also possibilities.

Under the plans, the new jet will be operational by 2035, ready to replace the Typhoon fleet, which is due to be retired in 2040.

Britain’s Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson during the unveiling of a model of a new fighter jet, a part of Team Tempest, at the Farnborough Airshow, south west of London, yesterday.

Paris renames metro stations in honour of World Cup heroesAFP

PARIS: Six Paris metro stations were temporarily renamed in honour of France’s World Cup winning champions after their 4-2 rollercoaster victory against Croatia.

Among the changes, station Victor Hugo became “Victor Hugo Lloris”, named after the team’s captain and goalkeeper, whose second half mistake gave Croatia faint hopes of a late comeback.

The metro stop at Bercy has become “Bercy les Bleus”, a play on words to thank the team. The station Avron has taken the name “Nous Avron Gagne”, a play on the French to mean “We have won”.

Charles de Gaulle-Etoile was turned into “On a 2 Etoiles”, meaning “We have two stars” — referring to the country’s first World Cup win on home soil in

1998 and Sunday’s victory in Russia.

Notre-Dame des Champs has become “Notre Didier Des-champs”, while Champs-Elysees- Clemenceau has been changed to “Deschamps Elysees-Clemenceau” — both stations pay tribute to the team’s coach Didier Des-champs, who was also a mid-fielder in the 1998 side.

The changes represent “winks” to the team, Paris transport operator RATP said.

It said the squad will use an open top double-decker electric bus to greet fans between the Place de l’Etoile, site of the Arc de Triomphe, and the Elysee Palace.

The players are expected to land at Roissy Airport on Monday afternoon and will be taken directly to the celebra-tions before being received by President Emmanuel Macron.

A metro sign “Champs-Elysees Clemenceau” renamed with France’s soccer coach Didier Deschamps to celebrate his World Cup win is seen at a subway train station in Paris, yesterday.

Boris Johnson returns to old job at newspaperAFP

LONDON: After resigning as foreign minister last week over Prime Minister Theresa May’s compromise plan for Brexit, Boris Johnson is back at his old job as a columnist at the eurosceptic Daily Tele-graph newspaper.

“He’s Back,” the paper said on its front page yesterday.

Johnson was named foreign minister in July 2016 after playing a leading role in the Brexit referendum campaign.

He was forced to give up his regular columns, which a spokesman said were “inap-propriate” for his new role.

In his article yesterday, he appealed for people to take a more positive view of Britain’s prospects outside the EU but otherwise largely avoided the issue, saying he would resist “for now” the temptation to “bang on about Brexit”.

Trump, bent on forging

a personal bond with

the Kremlin chief

despite allegations of

Russian meddling in

US politics, went into

the summit blaming

his predecessors for

plunging ties to their

present low.

Restaurant floor collapses in Romania, 18 hurtAP

BUCHAREST: Romanian authorities said 18 wedding guests were injured when the wooden floor of a restaurant balcony collapsed.

Mihai Mitrea, spokesman for the emergency services, said guests plunged about three metres after the floor of the “Hunter” restaurant col-lapsed Sunday evening at the Durau mountain resort in northern Romania.

Mitrea said that people suffered fractures and bruises, with four people seri-ously injured.

Owner Mihaela Petrescu told the station that the structure was built two years ago and that people were watching the France-Croatia World Cup final at the time of the collapse.

Former British Cabinet secretary seeks new Brexit referendumAP

LONDON: A former UK Cabinet minister from the ruling Conservative Party yesterday called for a new Brexit refer-endum, an idea long assailed by the prime minister.

Former Education Secretary Justine Greening said that Par-liament is “gridlocked” over Brit-ain’s exit from the European

Union. She said that she and other senior Tory lawmakers favor a new vote.

Greening said that she would campaign to keep Britain in the EU if a new referendum is held.

There is mounting pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May coming from both sides of the Brexit debate. Her recent “white paper” outlining plans for a “common rule book” with the EU

over trade in goods has infu-riated those who favour a com-plete break.

May defended her plan as she opened the Farnborough Inter-national Airshow. She said it would safeguard vital jobs in the aviation industry and keep Brit-ain’s tradition as a nation in the forefront of the aviation industry.

The issue is sensitive because Airbus signaled in June that it

would have to consider its long-term plans for Britain if there is no Brexit deal.

May said the plan outlined in the white paper honours the wishes of British voters while protecting industry and security.

Her office has said there will be no second referendum under any conditions. Her authority has been weakened with the resig-nations of major figures Boris

Johnson and David Davis and a series of lesser officials who dis-agree with her Brexit plan.

Parliament will debate aspects of the Brexit proposal today, when May will face efforts by hard-line Brexit backers to use a series of amendments to limit her government’s ability to set up the customs arrangement she seeks - one that would keep close ties with the EU.

Show of solidarity

12 TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018AMERICAS

Ex-FARC leader slams govt forbetrayal, declines Senate seatAFP

BOGOTA: Former FARC rebel leader Ivan Marquez announced yesterday that he won’t take his seat in Colom-bia’s Senate despite the historic peace deal ending decades of armed conflict, accusing the government of “betrayal.”

The former FARC chief negotiator said the 2016 peace deal is being “dis-figured” and that he won’t be starting work as a senator on Friday. In a public letter dif-fused yesterday, Marquez claimed that “insurmountable circumstances are pre-venting” him from taking his seat in the upper house of Congress on July 20, as was negotiated in the deal to transform the former left-wing guerrilla movement into a political party.

Marquez gave three reasons for his decision not to take up one of 10 seats reserved for the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force party as stipulated in the deal: the detention and potential extradition of fellow former FARC leader Jesus Santrich, who is wanted by the United States for drug trafficking; the modification of the pact; and the lack of conditions allowing the “transformation of the armed rebellion into legal politics.”

“It feels like Colombian peace is caught in the net-works of betrayal, and not so much because the pact has not materialized -- which requires time to be put into effect -- but because of the modifications that have been introduced that disfigure the pact,” said Marquez in his letter.

He had already announced after Santrich’s arrest on April 9 that he was suspending his position as a legislator. According to the peace deal, both he and Santrich were due to take up Senate seats.

Violent Nicaragua protests claim another 10 livesAFP

MANAGUA: Nicaraguan pro-government forces launched an operation in the coun-try’s south that left at least 10 people dead and around 20 injured on Sunday, a human rights group said.

The dead included six civilians — among them two children — and four police, according to the Nicaraguan Asso-ciation for Human Rights (ANPDH). The operation by police and paramilitaries tar-geted the city of Masaya, the nearby Niq-uinohomo and Catarina communities and the Monimbo neighbourhood.

“This is a preliminary report,” said ANPDH head Alvaro Leiva, adding that the names and ages of the deceased were still being investigated.

“There are sharpshooters located in different parts of the city. We ask the cit-izens to take shelter in their homes,” said Leiva. Residents and rights groups had earlier said that troops used mechanical shovels in the early hours of the day to clear barricades in at least three areas.

“They are going to destroy Masaya, it is absolutely surrounded,” Vilma Nunez, president of the Nicaraguan Center for

Human Rights (CENIDH), said. “We are being attacked by the National Police and paramilitaries armed with AK-47s and machine guns in our indigenous neigh-borhood of Monimbo,” said Alvaro Gomez,

a resident. “We are resisting with homemade bombs and stones.”

Leiva addressed an urgent call for help to the bishops of the Episcopal Con-ference, the UN High Commissioner for

Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

IACHR chief Paulo Abrao said on Twitter that he was aware of “the violent repression of towns in Masaya.”

The government, he added, seemed to be “ignoring the dialogue” with the opposition.

The semi-official website El 19 Digital said that government forces had “lib-erated” the town of Niquinohomo as part of a “clean-up operation” in several southern towns, including Monimbo.

Monimbo has been a center of resistance against the government of President Daniel Ortega since a wave of protests began April 18 over a since-aborted pension reform plan. Since then, violence has claimed over 270 lives, most of them civilians, according to CENIDH.

The latest violence came a day after some 200 students, besieged by pro-gov-ernment forces for 20 hours in a parish church in Managua next to the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN), were finally allowed to leave fol-lowing the intercession of Catholic bishops. The UNAN was a last bastion of student resistance.

An anti-government protester takes part in a caravan of car and motorcycles to demand an end to violence in Ticuantepe, Nicaragua, yesterday.

A group of women representing WaterAid’s NYC “Walk for Water”, travel through midtown New York, yesterday to show the daily lives of their peers in developing countries, through the busy streets of New York. Each woman, is representing a country where many people do not have clean water close to home, and will carry a yellow bucket that holds 20 litres which is a typical amount of water carried by women in countries where access to water is an issue.

Republicans call Trump remarks shameful, bizarreBLOOMBERG

WASHINGTON: A number of Republican lawmakers harshly criticised President Donald Trump’s performance at a news conference with Russian Pres-ident Vladimir Putin, with House Speaker Paul Ryan saying that Russia must be held accountable for meddling in the election.

Trump’s strongest GOP critics were those who have faulted the president in the past. A handful of Republicans came to his defence.

Senator Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who isn’t running for re-election, said on Twitter: “I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful.”

Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, blasted Trump’s statement that blamed both sides for problems in the US-Russia relationship as “bizarre and flat-out wrong.”

“America wants a good relationship with the Russian people but Vladimir Putin and his thugs are responsible for Soviet-style aggression,” Sasse said in a statement.

The comments came after Trump called Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling a “disaster” yesterday, ques-tioned whether Russia inter-fered in the 2016 election that he won and suggested he equally trusted his national intelligence director and Putin. Trump and Putin spoke at a joint news conference in Helsinki.

Trump also said he didn’t see any reason why Russia would interfere in the election — even after Putin said he favored a Trump victory as a way to improve relations between the two countries.

Ryan of Wisconsin said there’s “no question” that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.

“The president must appre-ciate that Russia is not our ally,” Ryan said in a statement. “The United States must be focused on holding Russia accountable and putting an end to its vile attacks on democracy.”

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, described the news conference

as a “missed opportunity by President Trump to firmly hold Russia accountable for 2016 meddling and deliver a strong warning regarding future elections.”

Representative Elise Ste-fanik, a New York Republican, said on Twitter that the US needs to work with allies to “counter Russia’s influence around the world. I disagree with the Pres-ident’s statement today.”

Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, said Russia inter-fered in the 2016 election and that the US needs to defend itself. He didn’t directly fault Trump.

“From the President on down, we must do everything in our power to protect our democracy by securing future elections from foreign influence and interference, regardless of what Vladimir Putin or any other Russian operative says,” Hatch said.

Some Republicans backed Trump. Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, who isn’t running for re-election, questioned the timing of Friday’s U.S. indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers for computer attacks meant to undermine the Dem-ocratic Party. The indictment, which stems from Mueller’s probe, fleshes out US intelli-gence agencies’ longstanding conclusion that Russia inter-fered with the 2016 presidential race.

“I think for the president to cast doubt is appropriate,” Issa told CNN. “To cast doubt on the validity of various things is fair.” But he went on to criticize Putin: “Putin is an evil man who has killed many people in his own country, there is question at all that Russia is still an adverse entity to the United States.”

Activists collect funds to fly Trump blimpREUTERS

NEW YORK: The blimp portraying Donald Trump as a snarling baby that flew over London last week during the US president’s European tour could soon be in New Jersey’s skies after activists said they had raised enough money to bring it to the United States.

Anti-Trump activists have raised more than $7,000 on GoFundMe.com, more than the $4,500 they said they had needed to get the diaper-wearing helium balloon to Bedminster, New Jersey, home of the Trump National Golf Club that the pres-ident regularly visits.

After meeting the fund-raising goal in two days, organizer Didier Jiminez-Castro urged donors to share any extra funds with @babytrumptour, which intends to take the blimp to US cities including St. Louis

and Austin, Texas as well. “He mention(ed) he does

not feel welcome with the Baby Trump in display and we need to get under his skin as much as we can,” Jiminez-Castro said on the GoFundMe page. “We are the unpaid Resistance.”

During his first official visit to the United Kingdom, Trump said he avoided London due to the blimp and the tens of thou-sands of protesters that took to the streets to decry his admin-istration’s policies.

“I guess when they put out blimps to make me feel unwelcome, no reason for me to go to London,” the Sun news-paper quoted Trump as saying.

Trump yesterday met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the last stop on a European visit in which he crit-icized NATO allies for failing to spend enough on their militaries and embarrassed British Prime

Minister Theresa May by saying she refused to take his advice about Britain’s exit from the EU. He referred to the European Union itself as a “foe” in trade.

Jiminez-Castro told New Jersey media that he expects the blimp to be in Bedminster, a suburb about 56km west of New York City, by mid-August. It’s unclear whether Trump will actually see the blimp since the Federal Aviation Administration places flight restrictions on the airspace over Bedminster whenever the president visits his golf course.

An FAA spokesman referred questions about the blimp to the US Secret Service. Secret Service officials did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

Bedminster Township Administrator Judy Sullivan said there are no local permits required for flying a blimp.

US judge halts deportation of migrant familiesBLOOMBERG

SAN FRANCISCO: A US judge overseeing the reuniting of about 2,500 migrant parents and children separated during a border crossing crackdown ordered a temporary halt to deportations of these families.

US District Judge Dana Sabraw issued the directive

during a hearing yesterday in San Diego after the American Civil Liberties Union complained it was hearing rumors of imme-diate “mass deportations” from the US planned for migrant parents after they’re reunited with their children.

The proposed delay will give parents the time they need to decide whether to take their

children back to their home countries or leave them in the U.S. to seek asylum on their own, the rights group said in a filing .

“Due to their unlawful sep-arations, parents and children have had no chance to have meaningful conversations with one another about the family’s collective options,” the ACLU said in the filing.

Sabraw said he will consider lifting his order after US officials file further legal arguments. Officials told the judge the processing of reuniting children ages 5 to 17 with their parents has begun and that the gov-ernment has matched 2,480 minors with their parents out of 2,551 children potentially eligible for reunification.

The comments came

after Trump called

Special Counsel

Robert Mueller’s

probe into Russian

election meddling a

“disaster” yesterday,

questioned whether

Russia interfered in

the 2016 election that

he won and suggested

he equally trusted his

national intelligence

director and Putin.

Ex-Pinochet colonel captured in ArgentinaAFP

BUENOS AIRES: Argentina says it has captured a former Chilean army colonel convicted of crimes against humanity during the dicta-torship of Augusto Pinochet.

Sergio Francisco Jara Arancibia was “one of Chile’s most wanted fugitives over murders committed in 1973” Argentina’s ministry of security and the nation said, announcing the retired military leader’s arrest in Mar del Plata, some 400km to the south of the capital Buenos Aires.

“The detainee will be extradited to Chile,” said the ministry. Jara Arancibia had been “on the run for more than a year” and was the subject of an international arrest warrant. He was captured through sur-veillance of his son’s travels around various cities.

BUSINESSTuesday 17 July 2018

PAGE | 15PAGE | 14IMF warns of rising

risks to global growth amid trade tensions

EU pushes China on trade, saying it could open up if it wanted

Qatar Financial Centre achieves ISDA recognitionTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has recognised Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) as an effective netting regime and published a positive legal opinion to its members, recognising the QFC as a netting friendly juris-diction.

This is a significant milestone and recognition for Qatar’s financial market infrastructure and the world-class legal framework established by the QFC. This initiative will allow financial institutions and corpo-rates in the QFC and in the State of Qatar, through the QFC, to confidently manage their risk exposure.

ISDA has published a legal opinion prepared by an interna-tional law firm in Qatar, Simmons & Simmons LLP, for its members. The legal opinion con-firms that financial netting arrangements under the ISDA

Master Agreements are enforceable in the QFC.

The QFC Netting Regulations and the supporting provisions in the QFC Insolvency Regulations, provide legal certainty in the QFC as to the enforceability of

close-out netting for financial transactions such as derivative transactions in specified circum-stances, including in the case of insolvency of a party to the transaction.

Yousuf Mohammed Al Jaida, Chief Executive Officer, QFC Authority said: “ISDA’s recog-nition of the QFC’s regime is a vital contribution to the State of Qatar’s financial market infra-structure. In Qatar, the regime will provide the first of its kind recognition for close-out netting to Qatar’s financial institutions, including QFC firms, to benefit from this important risk miti-gating mechanism.”

Nasser Al Taweel, Chief Legal Officer, QFC Authority: “The ISDA recognition should

encourage Qatar’s financial insti-tutions to carry out their financial transactions through special purpose companies in the QFC.”

The QFC netting regime is based on ISDA’s Model Netting Act.

The ISDA Model Netting Act provides a framework that has been adopted by major interna-tional financial jurisdictions that r e c o g n i s e n e t t i n g arrangements.

Close-out netting is com-monly used to manage default risks in derivative contracts in over-the-counter derivatives transactions. It is a legal mech-anism where two counterparties agree to offset their obligations upon default, in priority to the normal application of insolvency

rules which are typically used when a debtor is being wound up.

The QFC Insolvency Regula-tions, including the netting pro-visions, are part of QFC’s com-p r e h e n s i v e l e g i s l a t i v e framework and an important part of its value proposition to corporates and financial institu-tions looking to benefit from the QFC’s netting regime for financial transactions.

The QFC endeavours to promote Qatar as a lucrative business destination. Companies that wish to establish a business in the QFC are guided throughout the process by a dedicated QFC relationship manager who assists them in obtaining a license and operating a business.

QFC Authority officials, Yousuf Mohammed Al Jaida (left), Chief Executive Officer; and Nasser Al Taweel, Chief Legal Officer.

Masraf Al Rayan’s first half net profit grows by 4.5%THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Masraf Al Rayan, a leading bank in Qatar and the region, delivered a net profit of QR1.06bn for the first half of 2018 ( H1, 18), up 4.5 percent compared to the profit in the same period of the previous year.

The bank’s assets continued its growth, increasing by 7.8 percent to reach QR100bn. The asset quality continued to be one of the highest in Qatar and the region, maintaining low non–performing financing ratio (NPF) of 0.67 percent. Masraf Al Rayan continued to lead the banking sector with one of the best oper-ational efficiency ratio of 23.36 percent.

On the profitability indi-c a t o r s , M a s r a f A l

Rayan maintained one of the best annualised return on average assets at 2.10 percent and annualised return on average equity at 16.75 percent, despite the customer depositors’ share of profits increasing by 7.8 percent due to higher cost of cus-tomer deposits at local and inter-national levels.

Commenting on the results, Dr Hussain Al Abdulla, the Chairman and Managing Director of Masraf Al Rayan, expressed his satisfaction over the results, stating that it is within expectations and in line with the positive indicators of the Qatari economy. The positive results were backed by a rise in international oil and gas prices and a strong performance of exports, which constitute an

additional surplus in the State’s budget at a time when financial markets are still suffering from successive disruptions.

Dr Al Abdulla added: “We are focusing our attention in Masraf Al Rayan on the meaningful con-tribution to the national economy through our support to infrastructure projects and projects that add value to the national economy. In order to fulfill Masraf Al Rayan’s respon-sibilities towards its community, we are also working to ensure the success of Qatar’s pioneering experience in hosting the 2022 World Cup, and contributing to the implementation of Qatar National Vision 2030”.

Adel Mustafawi, Masraf Al Rayan’s Group Chief Executive Officer, voiced optimism that the

announced financial results will support the prudent initiatives of the administration to achieve further success in its bid to realize the objectives set by the Board of Directors, which focuses on developing high quality assets, mitigating risks and offering the best services to its customers.

He said the bank’s financing activities reached QR72bn, an increase of 7.0 percent com-pared to QR67.95bn recorded a year ago. Investments reached QR19.6bn, up 0.3 percent com-pared to QR19.6bn as of 30 June 2017. Customer deposits increased to QR62.7bn, an increase of 2.4 percent. Share-holders ‘ equity reached QR 12.26bn.

Masraf Al Rayan’s return on

average assets continues to be one of the highest in the market at 2.10 percent. Return on average shareholders’ equity of the bank reached 16.75 percent. Earnings per share for the period reached QR1.42 compared to QR1.36 for the period ended 30 June 2017. Book value per share reached QR16.35 compared to QR16.29.

Capital adequacy ratio, using Basel-III standards and QCB reg-ulations, reached 18.75 percent compared to 19.43 percent. Operational Efficiency ratio (cost to income ratio) stood at 23.36 percent as Non-performing financing (NPF) ratio reached 0.67 percent, reflecting very strong and prudent credit and risk management policies and procedures.

QDB workshop discusses challenges facing Qatari entrepreneursMOHAMMAD SHOEB THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Development Bank (QDB) yesterday organised a first-of-its-kind workshop on ‘National Incubation Strategy’ and discussed the various gaps and challenges facing the Qatari entrepreneurs.

The workshop also exchanged ideas on initiatives that can cover those gaps. The workshop was as part of QDB’s numerous initiatives to develop and promote SMEs in Qatar to achieve economic diversification through a vibrant and robust private sector.

The QDB’s workshop, which

aimed at enhancing the national strategy for business incubators and business accelerators, was attended by representatives from concerned authorities respon-sible for entrepreneurship and development of SMEs in Qatar.

During the workshop, the main challenges facing Qatari entrepreneurs were discussed, furthermore, appropriate

solutions were developed and opportunities to support emerging projects by establishing a foothold in local, regional and global markets were explored.

This strategy is the first of its kind in Qatar and in the Arab countries. It aims at nurturing business startup companies which help develop the business sector and young established companies who have significant potential to grow.

The strategy aims at assem-bling expertise and competencies to create a state of cooperation and communication among various stakeholders in the country in order to form a strong base for the small and

medium-sized businesses and scale-up projects, while improving their contribution to economic diversification of the nation and encouraging them to expand and divert their activities

and businesses in the fields of industrial, trade and services, and create an investment climate beneficial to their success.

→ CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al Khalifa, QDB CEO, delivering the opening remarks during the National Incubation Strategy Workshop, at Hilton Doha Hotel, yesterday. PIC: BAHER AMIN/THE PENINSULA

The final phase of the

national incubation

strategy is to be

launched by the

fourth quarter of this

year.

US challenges trade war counter-tariffs at WTOAFP

WASHINGTON: The United States yesterday launched challenges at the World Trade Organization to hit back at the major trading partners who have retaliated against Pres-ident Donald Trump’s tariffs on metals and goods from China.

Washington opened sep-arate disputes against China, the European Union, Canada, Mexico and Turkey, chal-lenging the counter-tariffs they have since imposed on American farm exports and machinery, the office of the US Trade Representative said in a statement.

Despite outrage from EU, Canadian and Mexican authorities, the White House says alleged unfair trade by these economies justifies Trump’s stinging tariffs -- but retaliation is not.

“The actions taken by the president are wholly legitimate and fully justified as a matter of US law and international trade rules,” US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement.

“Instead of working with us to address a common problem, some of our trading partners have elected to respond with retaliatory tariffs designed to punish American workers, farmers and companies.”

Lighthizer said the counter-tariffs breached the member states’ WTO obligations.

14 TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018BUSINESS

9,439.97

+99.28 PTS

1.06%

QSE FTSE100 DOW BRENT7,600.45

-61.42 PTS

0.80%

25,039.29

+19.88 PTS

0.079% Dow & Brent before going to press

$68.17

-2.84

MarketWatch

→ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

Abdulaziz Nasser Al Khalifa, CEO of QDB, said: “We at Qatar Development Bank are proud and pleased to be hosting the national strategy for business incubators and business accel-erators workshop, which marks the first of its kind in the region and the entire region as a whole, and is a step forward towards strengthening the development of the growing business sector in Qatar. This strategy was designed as a direct result of rigorous studies that indicated the available opportunities in the various economic sectors in the Qatari market and to identify ways to transform gaps into opportu-nities through innovative projects, which works on implementing and execute innovative ideas that benefit all the sector sectors in the country.”

He added: In addition, QDB will act as a major support for all business incubators and business accelerators, and will be the primary reference for both companies and institu-tions. The national strategy for business incubators and business accelerators will be the road map for the success, growth and prosperity of leading businesses in an appro-priate and encouraging investment climate, contrib-uting effectively to the diversi-fication of the Qatar economy, which is in line with achieving Qatar’s National Vision 2030.”

Furthermore, this strategy aims at developing a plan that will keep pace with the expansion of entrepreneurship in the Qatari and global market by identifying opportunities for developing the system and new business incubation pro-grammes and providing the necessary support to entrepre-neurs by supporting creative ideas in the field of entrepreneurship.

“Today in this workshop we are aiming to discuss the various gaps in the ecosystem that have been experienced and identified to support the SMEs in a more effective manner. We will also be discussing the ini-tiatives that will help covering those gaps,” Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al Mannai, Executive Director for Advisory Services, QDB, told The Peninsula on the sidelines of the workshop.

He said that QDB will be launching the final phase of the national incubation strategy by the fourth quarter of this year in collaboration with all its partners and stakeholders.

Meaningful discussions and participations of various ideas and interpretations were observed during the workshop, after a demonstration offered by the team from QDB. In the same context, global con-sultants and experts, who con-tributed to the development of international entrepreneurial systems, provided valuable information regarding best international practices in leading business incubation.

QDB workshop discusses challenges facing Qatari entrepreneurs

Qatar’s IPI grows by 3.3% in MayTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar’s Industrial Production index (IPI) grew by 3.3 percent or 108.5 points in May, compared to the previous month and 4.7 percent from a year ago, according to data released by Ministry of devel-opment Planning and statistics (MDPS).

The index details the growth of various industrial sectors in an economy such as “Mining”, “Manufacturing”, “Electricity production and “Water pro-duction and desalination”. It is a short-term quantitative index that measures the changes in the volume of productions of a selected basket of industrial products over a given period with respect to that in a chosen

period called the base period. The Mining index showed an increase by 3.6 percent com-pared to the previous month, as a result of the increase in the quantities of crude oil and natural gas produced by 3.6 percent, and the decrease in “Other mining and quarrying” by 0.2 percent.

When compared to the cor-responding month of the pre-vious year (May 2017), the IPI of Mining increased by 6.3 percent.

The Manufacturing index showed an increase of 1.7 percent due to the increase in production of four groups: ‘Man-ufacture of chemicals and chemical products’ by 3.0 percent, ‘Manufacture of basic metals’ by 2.8 percent, ‘Manu-facture of beverages’ by1.6

percent and ‘Manufacture of food products’ by 1.2 percent.

However a decrease was recorded in other four groups: Manufacture of Cement & other non-metallic mineral products’ by 5.5 percent, ‘Printing and reproduction of recorded media’ by 2.5 percent, ‘Manufacture of rubber and plastics products’ by 1.8 percent, and Manufacture of refined petroleum products by 0.8 percent.

The Electricity Index showed an increase of 22.6 percent in the production of ‘Electricity’ group between May 2018 and the pre-vious month, and witnessed a 23.1 percent year-on-year decrease. The Water Index recorded a decrease of 1.2 percent on month-on-month and a 13.1 percent on year-on-year.

IQ, QNB lift QSE index higherSATISH KANADY THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar stocks drifted higher as traders looked toward solid company results yesterday, a day after the official confir-mation that FIFA World Cup will come to Qatar in November 2022. Extending the rally, the QSE benchmark index rose 1.06 percent to reach 9,439.97.

The bellwether Industries Qatar (IQ) surged 4.74 percent to lift the industrials sector by 2.46 percent. IQ’s bottom line is fore-casted at QR1.2bn vs. QR513m YoY, up 73 percent, led by higher petrochemical product prices.

QNB which recorded 7 percent growth for the first half rose by 1.24 percent, as QIB edged up 0.54 percent.

Among the industrials sector, QEWC advanced 1.34 percent. The utility major’s Q2 revenue is expected to grow 13 percent aided by increased availability require-ments during the summer

months. In its Q2 earnings preview of QSE, QNBFS analysts estimated banks under its cov-erage, excluding QNB, is expected to experience a YoY increase of 18.4 percent largely due to a base effect stemming from Com-mercial Bank.

Commercial Bank is expected to contribute positively to the YoY/QoQ profitability per-formance. QNBFS expects Com-mercial Bank to report strong

earnings in 2Q2018 after five weak quarters. The banking sector index gained 0.61 percent yesterday, while Commercial Bank inched lower by 0.5 percent yesterday.

Ezdan Real Estate increased 1.49 percent, lifting the sector index by 0.79 percent.

Vodafone Qatar was the top traded stock with 3.4m shares traded. The telecom stock jumped 3.08 percent. Market believes

Vaodafone should continue its trend of positive earnings in Q2, 2018.

“Top-line should be flattish YoY and down moderately sequentially given Ramadan and summer vacation-related season-ality. Earnings benefit from sig-nificant amortization decrease YoY; quarterly decline is mostly attributed to the modest revenue fall”, QNBFS analysts said.

Foreign institutional investors were the net buyers yesterday. QSE’s recent data showed the first half of 2018 witnessed an upsurge in activity by foreign investors, with buying transactions increasing by 41 percent com-pared to the same period in 2017, reaching QR21.8bn.

Sell transactions increased by 21 percent to a QR17.6bn. Increases were largely attributed to the results of the periodic reviews by FTSE Russell and MSCI at the end of the first half of 2018. The market is 10.75 percent up year-to-date.

Jetmakers see brisk start to UK air showREUTERS

FARNBOROUGH: Planemakers racked up more than $20bn of deals on the opening day of the Farnborough Airshow yesterday, suggesting demand for new passenger jets remains in rude health despite worries over trade tensions and Brexit.

The deal-making came as host Britain tried to convince a sceptical aerospace industry about its plans to leave the European Union, saying supply chains would continue to run smoothly and pledging money for a new fighter jet programme.

European jetmaker Airbus and US rival Boeing have been enjoying an almost decade-long

boom thanks to rising emerging markets growth and a need among Western airlines to upgrade their fleets, and order books are bulging.

Even before the first displays had taken to the skies over a sun-baked southern England, Boeing said delivery firm DHL, part of Deutsche Post DHL Group, had placed a $4.7bn order for 14 777 freighters, and pur-chase rights for seven additional freighters.

It followed that up with a $3.5 bn deal for 30 of its single-aisle 30 737 MAX 8 aircraft with US aircraft leasing firm Jackson Square Aviation.

M e a n w h i l e , A i r b u s announced a memorandum of

understanding (MoU) for Tai-wanese start-up StarLux Airlines to buy 17 of its A350 wide-body planes worth around $6bn at list prices, and another MoU with an unidentified leasing firm for 80 A320neo single-aisle jets worth about $8.8bn.

The Farnborough Airshow is the industry’s biggest event this year.

It alternates with the Paris Airshow and collectively they account for over a quarter of industry order intake each year.

Opening the event south west of London, British Prime Minister Theresa May sought to reassure aviation bosses that her under-fire Brexit plan won’t disrupt their supply chains.

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May (centre) with Airbus CEO Tom Enders (right) on her arrival at the Farnborough Airshow, south west of London, yesterday.

IMF warns of rising risks to global growth amid trade tensionsAFP

WASHINGTON: The global economy is still expected to grow at a solid pace this year, but wors-ening trade confrontations pose serious risks to the outlook, the International Monetary Fund said yesterday.

The IMF’s updated World Economic Outlook (WEO) forecast global growth of 3.9 percent this year and next, despite sharp downgrades to esti-mates for Germany, France and Japan.

The US economy is still seen growing by 2.9 percent this year and the estimate for China remains 6.6 percent, with little impact expected near term from the tariffs on tens of billions of dollars in exports the countries have imposed on each other so far.

“But the risk that current trade tensions escalate further -- with adverse effects on confi-dence, asset prices, and investment -- is the greatest near-term threat to global growth,” IMF Chief Economist Maurice Obstfeld (pictured) said.

The fund warns growth could be cut by a half point by 2020 if

all the tariff threats are carried out. Although the global recovery is in its second year, growth has “plateaued” and become less bal-anced, and “the risk of worse out-comes has increased,” Obstfeld told reporters, and in fact the forecast for this year was revised downward, but was rounded up to 3.9 percent.

How the risks will play out are difficult to determine at this point. The report comes as US President Donald Trump has imposed steep tariffs duties on $34bn in imports from China, with another $200bn coming as soon as September, on top of duties on steel and aluminum from around the world including key allies. He also has threatened to impose border taxes on autos.

China has matched US tariffs dollar-for-dollar and threatened to take other steps to retaliate,

while US exports face retaliatory border taxes from Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

So far the exports hit do not have much impact on economic growth but further steps “and countermeasures and counter-countermeasures if implemented would have a bigger cost,” Obstfeld said.

The IMF said growth pros-pects were below average in many countries and urged gov-ernments to take steps to ensure economic growth will continue and to protect vulnerable populations.

“Governments must also pay more attention to economic equity among citizens and espe-cially protecting the poorest,” Obstfeld said.

Global cooperation and a “rule-based trade system has a vital role to play in preserving the

global expansion.” However, the report said that without steps to “ensure the benefits are shared by all, disenchantment with existing economic arrangements could well fuel further support for growth-detracting inward-looking policies.”

China’s growth also is seen slowing in 2019 to 6.4 percent.

After upgrading growth pro-jections for the euro area in the April WEO, the IMF revised them down by two-tenths in 2018 to 2.2 percent, due to “negative sur-prises to activity in early 2018,” and another tenth in 2019 to 1.9 percent.

Amid rising oil prices and a worsening export outlook, the estimates for Germany, France and Italy were cut by 0.3 points each, with Germany seen expanding by 2.2 percent this year and 2.1 percent in 2019.

France’s GDP is expected to grow 1.8 percent and 1.7 percent.

Meanwhile, Britain is now expected to grow by 1.4 percent this year, 0.2 points lower than the April estimate, and by 1.5 percent in 2019.

Japan’s GDP is seen slowing to 1.0 percent this year, two-tenths less than previously forecast, “following a contraction in the first quarter, owing to weak private consumption and investment.” It should grow 0.9 percent the following year.

India remains a key driver of global growth but the GDP outlook there was cut one tenth for this year and three tenths for next year to 7.3 percent and 7.5 percent respectively.

Brazil saw an even sharper 0.5-point downward revisions from the April forecast, to 1.8 percent this year.

In its Q2 earnings

preview of QSE, QNBFS

analysts estimated

banks under its

coverage, excluding

QNB, is expected to

experience a YoY

increase of 18.4%

largely due to a base

effect stemming from

Commercial Bank.

Industries Qatar

surged 4.74% to

lift the industrials

sector by 2.46%.

Strong auto sales boosts US retail spendingAFP

WASHINGTON: US retail sending forged higher in June, with a second straight month of accelerating auto sales as the summer driving season set in, the Commerce Department reported yesterday. At $506.8bn, retail spending was 0.5 percent higher than in May.

Sales were 6.6 percent higher than June of last year and further fuel for strength-ening GDP growth in the second quarter. Auto sales rose 0.9 percent last month, the biggest jump in three months.

15TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018 BUSINESS

BREAK TIMEVILLAGGIO & CITY CENTERCROSSWORD NOVO Pearl Qatar

MALL

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

LANDMARK

ROXY

AL KHOR

ASIAN TOWN

Ant-Man And The Wasp (2D/Action) 10:00am, 11:00am, 12:30, 1:30, 3:00, 4:00, 6:30, 9:00 & 11:30pm Skyscrapper (2D) 10:15am, 12:00noon, 12:30, 2:40, 2:45, 5:00, 5:30, 5:40, 7:15, 7:45, 8:20, 9:30, 10:00, 11:15, 11:45pm & 12:00midnight Hotel Transylvania 3 3D 10:00am & 2:00pm 2D 12:00noon, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnight Ocean’s Eight (2D/Action) 10:00am, 12:15, 2:30, 7:00, 9:15 & 11:30pm Escape Plan 2: Hades (2D/Action) 4:45pmThe Lullaby (2D) 10:00am, 2:00, 6:00 & 10:00pm Tag (2D/Comedy) 11:50am, 3:50, 7:50 & 11:50pmQalb Omnah (2D/Arabic) 10:00am, 4:30 & 11:00pm Taxi 5 (2D/Action) 12:15 & 8:45pm Loving Pablo (2D/Drama) 2:15 & 8:45pm The First Purge (2D/Horror) 10:00am, 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnight Skyscrapper (3D/IMAX) 11:00am, 1:30, 4:00, 6:30, 9:00pm & 12:00midnight

Hotel Transylvania 3 (2D/Animation) 2:00, 3:45 & 5:00pmKadaikutty Singam (2D/Tamil) 2:15 & 11:30pm Soorma (2D/Hindi) 2:00 & 9:00pm The Incredibles 2

(2D/Animation) 5:30pm My Story (2D/Malayalam) 4:30 & 11:45pm Skyscraper (2D/Action) 7:00, 9:00 & 11:00pmThe Little Witch (2D/Comedy) 7:30pm Ant-Man And The Wasp (2D/Action) 9:30pm The Extraordinary Journey of Fakir (2D/Comedy) 11:30pm

ROYAL PLAZA

Soorma (2D/Hindi) 2:30, 9:00 & 11:30pm Lullaby (2D/Horror) 5:00pmHotel Transylvania 3 (2D/Animation) 2:15, 4:00 & 5:45pmThe Extraordinary Journey of Fakir (2D/Comedy) 5:00pm The Incredibles 2(2D/Animation) 6:45pm Muse (2D/Thriller) 9:30pmKadaikutty Singam (2D/Tamil) 6:45 & 11:30pmSkyscraper (2D/Action) 7:15, 9:30 & 11:15pmMy Story (2D/Malayalam) 11:30pm

Tamizh Padam 2 (2D/Tamil) 2:00 & 11:30pm Soorma (2D/Hindi) 2:30 & 11:15pm Hotel Transylvania 3 (2D/Animation) 3:00, 5:00 & 7:00pmMy Story (2D/Malayalam) 4:30pm The Incredibles 2 (2D/Animation) 5:00pm Skyscraper (2D/Action) 7:15, 9:00 & 11:00pmAnt-Man And The Wasp (2D/Action) 9:15pm Lullaby (2D/Horror) 9:30pm

My Story (2D/Malayalam) 8:45pm & 01:45amKadaikutty Singam (Tamil) 11:15pm Tamizh Padam 2 (2D/Tamil) 6:00, 8:45 & 11:30pm Sanju (2D/Hindi) 5:45pm Soorma (2D/Hindi) 6:00pm

Ant-Man And The Wasp (2D/Action) 12:00noon, 5:30 & 11:00pm Skyscraper (2D/Action) 11:00am, 1:15, 6:30 & 11:45pmMy Story (2D/Malayalam) 3:30 & 8:45pmTamizh Padam 2 (2D/Tamil) 5:30, 8:30 & 11:30pm Kadaikutty Singam 2:30 & 8:00pm

Ant-Man And The Wasp (2D/Action) 10:30am, 4:30, 5:20 & 10:00pm Hotel Transylvania 3 (2D/Animation) 1:00, 3:10 & 7:50pmThe Incredibles 2 (2D/Animation) 10:30am & 5:20pm Kadaikutty Singam 10:30am, 1:30, 7:00 & 10:00pm My Story (2D/Malayalam) 10:30am, 1:30, 4:30, 7:30 & 10:30pm Skyscraper (2D/Action) 10:30am, 12:50, 1:00, 3:10, 5:40, 7:50 & 10:00pm

Years after he fought his way out of an inescapable prison, Ray Breslin has organized a new top-notch security force. But when one of his team members goes missing, Breslin must return to the hell he once escaped from.

FLIK Mirqab

ESCAPE PLAN II

Ant-Man And The Wasp 10:20, 11:55am, 12:45, 2:30, 4:55, 7:20, 8:00, 6:00, 9:10, 10:25, 11:20pm & 12:00midnightHotel Transylvania 3 12:35, 1:30, 2:20, 3:10, 5:00 & 7:05pm Incredibles 2 11:00am, 3:35, 4:30 & 6:05pm Jurrasic World: Fallen Kingdom (2D/Action) 12:20, 2:55 & 5:20pm Maya The Bee 10:40am The First Purge 10:05pm & 12:20am My Story 12:30, 3:25, 6:20, 9:05pm & 12:10am Ocean’s 8 12:15, 7:50, 9:20 & 11:40pm Skyscraper 11:30am, 1:40, 2:20, 3:50, 4:50, 5:35, 7:00, 8:25, 9:45, 10:35, 11:35pm & 12:45am Woman In Times of Blockade 10:20am & 12:45am

EU pushes China on trade, saying it could open up if it wantedREUTERS

BEIJING: China could open its economy if it wished, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said yesterday, with the European Union calling on countries to avoid a trade war even as pressure mounts on Beijing over its industrial policies.

Playing host to Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stressed the need to uphold free trade and multilat-eralism as the United States and China become increasingly mired in a trade dispute, with no sign of negotiations on the horizon.

US President Donald Trump has warned he may ultimately impose tariffs on more than $500bn worth of Chinese goods - nearly the total amount of US imports from China last year - to combat what the US says are Bei-jing’s trade abuses.

China has sworn to retaliate at each step.

Long accused of protectionist tactics that make it a difficult place for foreign firms, China is trying to reverse that narrative amid the escalating trade war by

approving huge investments, such as a $10bn petrochemicals project by Germany’s BASF.

At a joint news briefing with Li and Tusk in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Juncker said that move showed “if China wishes to open up it can do so. It knows how to open up”.

Later, at a business forum, he said, “We need just and fair mul-tilateral rules. The EU is open but it is not naive.” At the business event, Li invited executives from European companies operating in China to share their problems.

Airbus complained about delays in government approvals that had “caused a great loss” for the company, and BMW sought its greater inclusion in the cre-ation of industry standards.

“Let me say we will ensure the implementation of the signed contracts and we will cut the time for approval procedures,” Li told Airbus China president Eric Chen, a pool report said.

Li also asked companies to tell him of complaints they had about the “theft of intellectual property” so that he could take

“great measures”. The pool report did not make clear if any companies came forward.

Tusk urged China, the United States and other countries to avoid trade wars and reform the World Trade Organization, equipping it to combat forced technology transfers and gov-ernment subsidies, complaints underpinning Trump’s tariffs.

“It is the common duty of Europe and China, but also America and Russia, not to destroy this order but to improve it, not to start trade wars, which turned into hot conflicts so often in our history, but to bravely and responsibly reform the rules based international order,” Tusk said at a meeting with Li.

“There is still time to prevent conflict and chaos.” Later, Pres-ident Xi Jinping met the European leaders and said the two sides should “join hands to defend multilateralism and a rules-based free trade system”, Chinese state television said.

Critics of Beijing’s policies say foreign firms compete with Chinese rivals backed by massive, market-distorting sub-sidies and government support, issues not sufficiently addressed under WTO rules.

Both China and Europe have stressed the need for trade dif-ferences to be tackled through the WTO, but the United States has said China’s unfair policies are too urgent and too big for the trade body to handle.

The China-EU meeting pro-duced a communique affirming the commitment of both sides to the multilateral trading system. Leaders failed to find sufficient consensus for such a joint statement after meetings in 2016 and 2017.

The statement said Beijing and Brussels had submitted market access offers for the first time as part of investment treaty talks, adding that the exchange should open a “new phase” in the negotiations that both sides viewed as “a top priority”.

“The EU took note of China’s recent commitments to improving market access and the investment environment, strengthening intellectual property rights and expanding imports, and looks forward to their full implementation as well as further measures,” the statement said.

The two sides also agreed to establish a working group on WTO reforms.

European envoys say they have sensed a greater urgency from China since last year to find like-minded countries willing to stand up against Trump’s “America First” policies.

China’s ambassador to the EU on Sunday wrote in Chinese state media that the annual China-EU leaders’ meeting would focus on how the two sides could become a “standard of stability” amid the “din of uni-lateralism and protectionism”.

The EU, while sharing Trump’s concern over Chinese trade abuses if not his pre-scription of tariffs, has largely rebuffed efforts by China to pressure it into a strong stance against Trump.

There is deep scepticism in the EU about China’s com-mitment to opening its market further, besides concern that it seeks to divide the world’s largest trading bloc with its eco-nomic influence in Eastern Europe.

Nonetheless, European offi-cials suggest that Trump, who has also targeted Europe with tariffs, has created a window of opportunity to show that EU-China relations can be a bulwark for global trade.

China’s Premier Li Keqiang (right) gestures as he calls for action to problems raised by European businessmen, as European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker looks on, during the China-EU Business Roundtable in Beijing, yesterday.

Goldman Sachs could announce new CEO todayAFP

NEW YORK: Goldman Sachs could announce the promotion of President David Solomon (pictured) to chief executive today, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday.

The move, which would also set a departure time-table for

current chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, could come in con-junction with the release of second-quarter earnings from the big US investment bank, the person said.

Goldman previously signaled that Solomon was the likely suc-cessor, announcing in March the retirement of Solomon’s rival as

would-be CEO, Harvey Schwartz. But analysts have been unsure of the timeframe of Goldman’s succession plan.

The New York Times, citing people familiar with the plan, reported late Sunday that the announcement would come “early this week.”

Solomon’s profile differs

from many earlier Goldman CEOs, who have risen through the ranks with a heavy focus on trading. Blankfein, for example, led divisions that covered cur-rency, commodities, fixed income and equities trading.

Solomon, prior to being tapped co-president in December 2016, worked for a

decade as co-head of investment banking.

The appointment of Solomon has been seen as part of a strategic shift at the storied US bank following a period of weaker performance in these trading businesses and as Goldman shifts to greater emphasis in areas such as asset

management and online con-sumer banking.

SPORTTuesday 17 July 2018

PAGE | 17 PAGE | 18French President Macron basks in World Cup glory

Qatar’s Abdulla renews contract with Nissan

French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris holds the trophy as he celebrates with team-mates and icials upon their arrival at the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris yesterday, after winning the FIFA 2018 World Cup final.

Supporters gather on the Champs-Elysees avenue

near the Arch of Triumph (Arc de Triomphe) in Paris yesterday, as they wait for

the arrival of the French national football team.

French stars receive heroes’ welcomeAFP

PARIS: The World Cup-winning French team returned home to a heroes’ welcome yesterday as hundreds of thousands packed the Champs Elysees for their victory parade ahead of a Presidential reception in the evening.

France overcame a determined Croatia team to win 4-2 in Sunday’s final, with teenager Kylian Mbappe applying the coup de grace and cementing his place as a new global superstar at the age of just 19.

Millions of fans in France cele-brated into the night, honking car horns and flying the tricolour flag while the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe were lit up in the national colours of blue, white and red.

Crowds began converging early Monday on the Champs Elysees, the gathering point for all national cele-brations, for a parade by the team atop an electric bus expected to start in the early evening.

The players arrived to a raucous welcome at Charles De Gaulle airport northeast of Paris, including a “water salute” by the fire brigade which sprayed arcs of water over the Air France jet as it taxied to the gate.

Captain Hugo Lloris, flanked by coach Didier Deschamps, was the first to emerge from the aircraft, raising the famed golden trophy before heading down the stairs and onto a freshly laid red carpet.

Commentators have focused on the outpouring of patriotism and sense of national unity created by the multiethnic French team, many of whose stars including Mbappe and Paul Pogba hail from deprived and often overlooked suburbs of Paris.

Laurent Joffrin, editor of the leftwing Liberation newspaper, said they had lived up to the ideal of “the republic that we love: united and diverse, patriotic and open, national without being nationalist”.

After the parade France’s newest idols will be welcomed at the Elysee Palace by Emmanuel Macron, whose office has already promised the Legion of Honour for the victors’ “exceptional services” to the country.

In Paris, the metro system tem-porarily renamed six of its stations in honour of the key players, with the Victor Hugo stop -- named after the famed 19th-century writer -- becoming Victor Hugo Lloris after the team’s goalkeeper.

Two stations were rebaptised in tribute to Deschamps, who captained the national side to its first World Cup victory, won on home soil in 1998.

Alongside Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer, he has become only the third man to win the World Cup both as a player and coach.

Mbappe’s France have quality to emulate Pele’s boysREUTERS

MOSCOW: When teenager Kylian Mbappe netted France’s fourth goal in the World Cup final, thoughts turned to the possibility that the French could go on to emulate the dominant Brazilian teams led by their great striker Pele.

The 19-year-old Mbappe became only the second teenager after Pele to score in a World Cup final as a talent-laden French side overcame resilient Croatia 4-2 to win the sport’s top prize for the second time, 20

years after their first triumph. Pele did it at the age of 17 in 1958, sparking a period of dominance as Brazil won three World Cups in a 12-year period culminating in a one-sided final victory over Italy in 1970.

While there are growing comparisons between Mbappe and Pele, the Parisian still has a long way to go to even come close to matching the achieve-ments of the great Brazilian.

But the precocious Mbappe could be one of the pillars of a French team with the potential to dominate the world game in

the way Pele and his team mates did from the late 50s through to 1970.

A l o n g s i d e A n t o i n e Griezmann, voted man of the match in Sunday’s final in Moscow, in attack, with Paul Pogba in the midfield engine room and the powerful Samuel Umtiti and Raphael Varane in defence, France have a firm foun-dation to build on.

Their World Cup squad had an average age of just over 26 and they have an abundance of world-class players but the way the team negotiated the

tournament with intelligence and fortitude gives even greater cause for optimism for the future.

France were efficient, calcu-lating, clever and in command in most of their matches without showing a huge amount of enter-taining flair.

In all seven games they played in Russia they had an average of 48 percent possession, doing the hard work off the ball.

Tactically they were able to adapt throughout the tournament and show flexibility -- the hallmark of a successful squad.

Their chances of continuing

on a winning path are also increased by the fact coach Didier Deschamps, very popular with his players, is staying in the job

for at least two more years.He has a contract until the

end of the 2020 European Cham-pionship but with such enormous potential to build on he will surely be tempted to extend his reign.

“Today there were imperfec-tions, we did not do everything right but we had those mental and psychological qualities which were decisive for this World Cup,” Deschamps said after the final.

With such qualities, there is legitimate cause to believe there will be more glory-filled days for French football.

The 19-year-old Mbappe

became only the second

teenager after Pele to

score in a World Cup final

as a talent-laden French

side overcame resilient

Croatia 4-2 to win the

sport’s top prize for the

second time, 20 years

after their first triumph.

17TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018 SPORT

AFP

ZAGREB: Tens of thousands of Croatians gave a heroes’ welcome to their team in Zagreb yesterday after the squad returned from Russia following their World Cup final defeat.

A crowd estimated at more than 100,000 thronged the capital’s main

square to see the players, led by captain and World Cup Golden Ball winner Luka Modric, parade through the streets on an open-top bus.

Cheering fans, many waving flags and wearing the famous red and white shirt of Croatia, held up banners celebrating the runners-up after their gallant 4-2 defeat by France.

“This is how Croatia is loved,” read one banner. Another said: “We are few, but we believed and that is enough”.

Many even skipped work to cel-ebrate the team reaching their first ever World Cup final.

“I closed my office to welcome our heroes. I put a sign up reading ‘Today, July 16, 2018’, office closed

due to our Vatreni (‘the Fiery Ones’ in Croatian),” doctor Sanja Klajic said.

Earlier noisy fans awaited their side’s appearance by singing a popular song “Play on my Croatia, when I see you my heart is on fire!” while watching the plane carrying the team progress to the capital on a giant TV screen.

When the plane, accompanied by military jets and emblazoned with the logo “Bravo Vatreni” flew overhead the crowd cheered and chanted “Hands up, hands up!”.

After landing at the city’s airport around 3:25 pm (1325 GMT), the players emerged to shrieks from fans at the terminal.

QNA

KHARTOUM: Senior officials and effective personnel from the sports sector in Sudan said the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani officially receiving the mantle of hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar from Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the presence of FIFA President Gianni Infantino, is a historic event and a new horizon for Arab countries to highlight their innovations in the World Cup.

Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA), they expressed their feeling of pride with the Qatari achievements, which gives Arab countries the golden opportunity to prepare for an honorable appearance this inter-national forum which is held for the first time in an Arab country.

Chairman of the Higher Committee for the National Teams Hassan Bargo said the all of the Arab people are filled with joy not only Qatar.

He added that it has been the best response to those who have doubted Qatar’s capabil-ities and by receiving interna-tional recognition, it confirms Qatar’s transparency and con-firms that it is advancing the world ranks with strong confi-dence towards its objectives to serve world peace in all its aspects.

Bargo valued H H Amir’s invitation to the world on behalf of all Arabs which extends the sense of wisdom and experience Qatar has shown in handling crises, proving to the world that sports overcomes all differences and difficulties.

He added that under the directives of Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, Sudan launched the Sudan Dream Project for Sudan to be strongly present in the World Cup in Qatar.

The program includes all the Sudanese people to sharpen and

unite efforts to take advantage of this opportunity provided by Qatar to the Arabs.

He also highlighted that Qatar’s efforts in supporting sports in Sudan and its qualifi-cation to global levels will result in great success in the upcoming phase.

Especially through the Sport for Peace and Development Ini-tiative in Darfur which follows global standards and has been praised worldwide.

He added that the Sudanese people rely on the State of Qatar

to excel in this regard and is able to do so.

Sudanese Football Associ-ation executive secretary Hasan Abu Jabal said hosting 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar is a great honor to all Arabs.

He added that experiences from 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia will give Qatar strong determination to carry out its major responsibilities towards the mega event in 2022.

He said the higher com-mittee organising 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar will present the

world an honourable image of Arab. He also wished Qatar good luck in hosting the event.

Head of sports sector in Sudan’s Al Hilal Club Dr. Haydar Hassan Haj Al Sidig said as an Arab he feels pride and joy as Qatar hosts the World Cup. He added that Qatar’s success indi-cators were proven by organ-ising large sports events, professionally.

Former Sudanese Minister of Youth and Sports Dr. Abdul Karim Musa said the upcoming four years will witness an intense global movement towards Qatar because it has achieved the Arab dream.

He added HH the Amir’s words that 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar will be for all Arabs is a wise vision from an Arab leader who made sports one of the tools of world peace.

Sudanese sports officials say Qatar 2022 a new horizon for Arab world

Croatians hail returning ‘heroes’

Croatian players shake hands with their French counterparts following the FIFA 2018 World Cup final on Sunday.

President Macron basks in Cup gloryAFP

PARIS: For a President who has travelled the globe for a year telling audiences that “France is back” under his leadership, the country’s World Cup victory couldn’t come at a better time for Emmanuel Macron as he confronts growing challenges on multiple fronts.

The 4-2 defeat of Croatia in Moscow on Sunday by the young French team starring Kylian Mbappe was celebrated by 40-year-old Macron in person, who jumped and pumped his fists with each goal.

He even broke out a “dab” in the changing room -- a type of celebration imported from American football players and rappers -- as the jubilant squad savoured i t s success afterwards.

Beyond the sporting triumph, it will also be cheered in the presidential palace for reinforcing a narrative Macron has promoted abroad since his election: of a young, dynamic France with a more prominent global role.

“This victory will improve France’s image for several years, and almost automatically that of

its leader,” Pascal Boniface, director of the Institute for Inter-national and Strategic Relations, a French think-tank said.

“This win is obviously going

to have a magnifying effect on France,” said Paul Dietschy, a French historian specialising in football at the University of Franche-Comte.

Before attending Sunday’s final, Macron congratulated Rus-sia’s President Vladimir Putin for organising a contest that went off without a hitch -- after years

of growing tensions between Moscow and the West.

“Sports are often just a pretext. Macron’s trips to Russia for the semi-finals and especially

the final, with France victorious no less, may have created the opportunity for a different type of dialogue with Putin,” Dietschy said.

French President Emmanuel Macron centre pose for a photograph with France’s World Cup winning football team before a reception, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, yersterday.

18 TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018SPORT

Qatar’s Abdulla renews contract with NissanTHE PENINSULA

TERUEL SPAIN: Qatar’s Adel Abdulla has renewed his contract with Nissan Qatar and will drive a Nissan Patrol Y62 at this weekend’s Baja Aragón Teruel, round seven of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, and on the subsequent four rounds of the pres-tigious series.

The Doha-based driver currently holds second position in the T2 cat-egory for series production

cross-country vehicles and closed the gap on rival Ahmed Al-Shegawi to 23 points at the recent Italian Baja.

The QX Rally Team driver has also confirmed that personal commit-ments mean that Nasser Al-Kuwari will not feature as his navigator for the rest of the season and Adel is hopeful that French navigator Jean-Michel Polato, who partnered him in Italy and here in Spain, will be able to continue for the remainder of the T2 campaign.

Adel said: “I am delighted to announce that I have renewed my con-tract with Nissan for a third year as a sporting ambassador and as the official driver for Nissan Qatar. I will continue the rest of the season, the remaining five rounds, with my Nissan Patrol Y62.

“I am also running with a new team from Spain. I hope that we can do a good job as a team and we can be successful for the rest of the year. Last year, I won the FIA Trophy here in the T2 and the year before I won

the T2 category. This race is very important for me. It is one of the famous races in Europe. It is long and tough.

“This year I had many mechanical problems with the cars I drove. I lost valuable points as a result. We are 23 points behind the leader and it will not be difficult to take these points.

“I would like to thank Hisham Saleh Al-Mana, the owner of Nissan Qatar, for his support. This is a big national company. I also thank the Qatar Motor

and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) and Ooredoo Qatar for their ongoing support.”

The competitive action gets underway with a timed 13.46km super special stage on Friday evening.

The bulk of the 521.42km of action takes place on revised stages on July 21 and July 22. There are two selective sections of 227.51km and 154.85km on Saturday and one of 125.60km on Sunday before the podium ceremony in Teruel later in the afternoon.

Adel Abdulla in action with a Nissan Patrol in action in this file picture.

Qatar’s Adel Abdulla

Djokovic, Kerber and Serena each made a comebackAP

LONDON: From champions Novak Djokovic and Angelique Kerber, to runner-up Serena Williams, this edition of Wimbledon was all about come-backs of various sorts.

When Djokovic won his fourth title at the All England Club and first at a Grand Slam tournament in more than two years by beating Kevin Anderson 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (3) on Sunday, it was the culmination of what he called a “journey” and a “process” as he returned from surgery to his right elbow.

Kerber collected her first Wimbledon championship with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Williams on Saturday to mark a turna-round from a rough 2017 that saw her slip from No. 1 in the rankings and deal with two first-round exits at majors.

“I’m still sure,” said Kerber’s coach, Wim Fissette, “that we haven’t seen the best Angie.”

And while Williams didn’t win what would have been her eighth Wimbledon singles trophy, her run to the final just 10½ months after a difficult childbirth and complications involving blood clots served as, in Kerber’s words, “such an inspiration for everybody, for all of us, for every person watching you.”

Williams’ loss left her with 23 Grand Slam titles, the most in the half-century of professional

tennis and only one short of Margaret Court’s record.

She can take a crack at that mark at the US Open, which begins on August 27 in New York.

“I didn’t know a couple of months ago where I was, where I would be, how I would do, how I would be able to come back. It was such a long way to see light at the end of the road, kind of,” Wil-liams said.

“So I think these two weeks have really showed me that, ‘OK, I can compete.’ Obviously I can compete for the long run in a Grand Slam.” Here is

what else we learned at Wim-bledon in 2018:

Anderson’s 26-24 victory in the fifth set against John Isner in a semifinal that lasted more than 6½ hours was the second-longest Grand Slam match ever and renewed a debate about the rules: Should Wimbledon adopt a fifth-set tiebreaker?

Currently, the US Open is the only major that decides matches that way. “It absolutely needs to change,” said Anderson’s coach, Brad Stine.

There’s no question the depth in the women’s game is as great as ever and there is a lot more room for trophy-collecting at the majors.

Kerber’s victory ended a stretch in which seven players split the previous seven Grand Slam titles, including first-time champs Simona Halep, Caroline Wozniacki, Sloane Stephens and Jelena Ostapenko.

For the first time since Wim-bledon began seeding players in the 1920s, none of the top 10 seeds reached the quarterfinals. It was also the first time that

happened at any Grand Slam tournament in the Open era.

Men’s tennis is back to having its Big 3 of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic. Federer and Nadal had com-bined to win six majors in a row until Djokovic got back in on the action. Each member of that trio has been counted out in recent years, but they just keep on winning. All can excel on hard courts, Djokovic’s best surface. So the next couple of months should be entertaining.

Djokovic, 31, and Anderson, 32, made this Wimbledon final the first in the Open era with a pair of men older than 30. Add in Nadal, 32, and Isner, 33, and it was the first quartet of thirty-something semifinalists at any major in the past 50 years.

Which means they all deserve kudos, but also raises the question: Where are all the young guys? No up-and-comers reached the quarterfinals. One breakthrough did come from Stefanos Tsitsipas, a 19-year-old from Greece who made it to the fourth round.

Wimbledon Men’s and Women’s singles champions Serbia’s Novak Djokovic (right) and Germany’s Angelique Kerber dancing on stage at the Champions Dinner in central London yesterday.

Serena Williams of the US waves after losing the women’s singles final against Germany’s Angelique Kerber on Saturday.

Suwannapura clinches first LPGA Tour win AP

OHIO: Thidapa Suwannapura’s main focus going into the Marathon Classic was trying to put together four solid rounds that would help her keep her LPGA Tour card.

She doesn’t have to worry about that any longer.

Suwannapura picked up her first win on Sunday, closing with a 6-under 65 and birdieing the first playoff hole to defeat Brittany Lincicome at Highland Meadows.

In the playoff, Suwan-napura converted a short birdie putt after Lincicome hit her second shot into a water hazard and scrambled for par.

“I never expect it was going to be today at all. I’ve just been struggling the whole year,” said Suwannapura, whose previous best finish was seventh at the 2 0 1 4 K i n g s m i l l Championship.

“Finally all my work I’ve been doing has come out and shown up today. After I knocked that last putt in, it just felt like a dream come true.” With the win, the 25-year-old Thai player has an exemption through the 2020 season.

She is also the sixth first-time winner on tour this year Suwannapura picked up three strokes over her final two holes, making eagle on the par-5 17th

and closing with a birdie on the par-5 18th to finish at 14-under 270.

She then had to wait for the final seven groups to finish.

“I did not think or expect that 14 would be good enough, because I know there were two par-5s coming in on 17 and 18, and it’s a good opportunity for players to make birdie,” Suwannapura said.

“I was just chilling in the clubhouse, you know, being silly and stuff, trying to relax, and see what they’re doing. Now, like, ‘Oh, I have to go warm-up and try to win the tournament.’”

Lincicome shot 67. She had a chance to win in regulation, but her birdie putt from about 10 feet did a nearly 360-degree turn around the edge of the cup and stayed out.

Despite having eight career victories, including this season’s opener in the Bahamas, the 32-year-old Lincicome said she was extremely nervous standing over that putt.

“I was shaking so bad. I had to take so many deep breaths. So it’s kind of cool to have those nerves, but learning how to play through them after 12 years of being a pro... 14 years of being a pro, I still haven’t figured it out, so that’s a little disap-pointing,” she said.

Thidapa Suwannapura of Thailand poses with the trophy after winning the Marathon Classic at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio on Sunday.

19TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018 SPORT

Zaman-inspired Pakistan dominate ZimbabweAFP

BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE: An elated Fakhar Zaman cracked a career-best 117 as Pakistan domi-nated with both bat and ball to win the second of five one-day internationals against Zimbabwe by nine wickets yesterday.

Zaman’s hundred was his second in ODI’s after his barn-storming 114 in last year’s Cham-pions Trophy final against India.

The win was also set up by Pakistan’s seam attack, who bowled Zimbabwe out for 194.

Usman Khan took four wickets and Hasan Ali chipped in with three for 32 to bowl the hosts out, Pakistan’s top order batsmen then capping a commanding performance.

Zaman said: “I think I am in the best form of my life.” “I’ve been trying for many games to get another hundred and my coaches were telling me there have been too many games since you last scored a hundred. So I was trying, and today I was lucky.” Zimbabwe opted to bat first on another cold morning and were put under immediate pressure by the new ball, and in particular Khan.

He had both openers caught behind in his first spell, but Zim-babwe briefly rallied during a 62-run partnership between Zim-babwe captain Hamilton Masa-kadza and Tarisai Musakanda.

That was Zimbabwe’s best

stand of the innings, however, and when Khan took two wickets with consecutive deliveries in the 44th over the hosts were 166 for 7 and sinking fast.

Moor cobbled together stands with the lower order to keep his side ticking along, and brought up a third ODI fifty in the 48th over.

But when he fell attempting to up the run rate soon after, Pakistan made short work of Zimbabwe’s tail to bowl them out

four balls short of a completed fifty overs.

“Only playing six batters makes it a bit tough, especially if you lose early wickets because then the guys who come in have to consolidate for a bit,” Moor said.

“They’re always looking to get a wicket, and they keep coming hard at you whether you’re two down or eight down.” Zimbabwe could not match Paki-stan’s precision and menace with

the ball and openers Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq took 54 from the Powerplay without ever giving more than a half chance to the fielders.

They took their opening stand to 119 before ul Haq was run out, against the run of play, for 44.

Zaman raced past a run-a-ball fifty untroubled by the Zim-babwean attack and reached three figures in the 32nd over. With Babar Azam for company, he quickly knocked off the

remaining runs required for victory, sending Pakistan 2-0 up in the series in the process.

The in-from Zaman was named Player of the Series after the T20 tri-series in Harare, and he has now scored a hundred to go with four fifties on this tour.

Pakistan batsman Fakhar Zaman in action against Zimbabwe during the ODI series match at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.

England’s Vince and Billings on standby for final India ODIAFP

LONDON: England opener Jason Roy will have a fitness test before play today to see if he can take part in the third and deciding one-day international against India at Headingley.

If Roy misses out, Hampshire captain James Vince could be in line for his first ODI appearance in nearly two years, although Monday saw England call up Kent’s Sam Billings as additional batting cover for the series finale in Leeds.

Roy sustained a laceration to the little finger of his right hand while fielding during England’s 86-run victory over India at Lord’s on Saturday and a team spokesman said yesterday: “He remains a doubt for tomorrow (Tuesday) and will have a fitness test in the morning at the ground to ascertain whether he’ll be fit to play.” Vince last played a one-day match for England during the tour of Bangladesh in October 2016.

Opener Alex Hales has missed the whole of the series

with India with a side strain while Dawid Malan, his replacement, has already been released to take part in the second-string England Lions’ four-day match with India A.

Vince lost his Test place at the start of the season in one of the first major decisions by new England selection chief Ed Smith.

But he has been in brilliant domestic white-ball form, scoring more than 500 runs during Hampshire’s victorious One-Day Cup campaign.

England may be top of the world ODI rankings but, fol-lowing last year’s Champions Trophy semi-final loss to Pakistan, doubts remain about

their ability to win truly high-stakes games.

Now Durham quick Mark Wood hopes England, who will aim to win a maiden World Cup title when they stage the 2019 edition, will respond well to the pressure if Tuesday’s winner-takes-all contest and lay down a marker head of next year.

“I think this has an impact for the World Cup,” Wood told reporters at Headingley on Monday. “We can use it as a game where it might be (like) a semi-final or a knockout game.

“It’s a series decider here, which will be like a World Cup match -- it’s a must-win,” the England paceman added.

“Luckily, over the past year we’ve managed these situations really well. Hopefully we can carry on that trend.”

India, second to England in the ODI standings, won the series opener by a decisive eight wickets at Trent Bridge only to be equally well-beaten at Lord’s.

“It’s two very good sides -- when they’re on top, they really are on top, you keep your foot on the throat and don’t let oppo-sition up,” said Wood.

“Everyone in the England team will hold their hands up and say in the first game we were absolutely drilled, we were beaten into the dirt. We knew we had to improve for the second game.

Chandimal, officials banned for 2 Tests, 4 ODIsAFP

COLOMBO: The International Cricket Council yesterday banned Sri Lanka skipper Dinesh Chandimal and two top officials for two Tests and four one-day internationals for breaching the spirit of the game.

Coach Chandika Hathurus-ingha, manager Asanka Gurusinha and Chandimal refused to take to the field for two hours during the second Test against the West Indies last month after the skipper was accused of ball-tampering.

Chandimal, spotted by television cameras applying saliva to the ball while sucking a sweet, was subse-quently banned for the third Test and given a fine equal to his match fees, a decision upheld on appeal. Hathurus-ingha, Gurusinha and Chan-dimal pleaded guilty to vio-lating the spirit of the game and the chairman of the ICC Code of Conduct Commission decided on the new sanctions after a six-hour video con-ference on July 11.

The trio were also given six penalty points each. Chandimal already had four penalty points. If he receives two more within the next two years, he could face a further ban of three Tests, or six ODIs or Twenty20s, or a combi-nation thereof depending on which fixture falls first for him.

England’s Moeen Ali during nets at the Emerald Headingley, in Headingley, Britain yesterday.

Kiwi legend Hadlee faces more cancer surgeryAFP

WELLINGTON: New Zealand cricketing great Richard Hadlee will undergo a second round of surgery after cancer spread to his liver, his wife Dianne said yesterday.

Hadlee’s family revealed last month that he had a tumour removed after being diagnosed with bowel cancer and was expected to make a full recovery after a course of chemotherapy. Dianne Hadlee provided an update on the 67-year-old’s con-dition yesterday.

“This week, Richard will undergo further surgery after secondary cancer was dis-covered in his liver,” she said in a statement.

“Medical advice is that it’s still at a very early stage and is operable.” Hadlee is regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time, and was the first to take 400 Test wickets. By the time he retired in 1990, he had played 86 Tests and taken 431 wickets at 22.29.

USA win inaugural athletics World CupAFP

LONDON: The United States of America recorded a compre-hensive victory in the inaugural edition of the Athletics World Cup after dominating the second day of the event in London on Sunday.

It might have lacked the prestige and visibility of foot-ball’s World Cup final earlier in Moscow, hindered by the absence of many of track and field’s most recognisable names and an unfortunate clash of dates with the final of the greatest

sporting show on the planet.Yet reasonable crowds, com-

pared to much of the Diamond League circuit, and a rapid format with audience appeal, is worth extending, according to IAAF president Sebastian Coe, with three nations understood to have expressed interest in staging the next scheduled edition in 2020. “I’ve been very clear that I want new things to be tried,” he said.

“They are not always going to work out from the word go but that can’t inhibit us from going ‘we tried, it didn’t do everything

so we go back to the same old thing’. “There is a lot of work being done on the calendar and the Diamond Leagues. But while we’re working that out, I didn’t want the sport just to stop doing creative things.

“We will figure things out. They’ve already had interest in this from other cities. But I’m really pleased UK Athletics have taken up the challenge.”

The USA were virtually unopposed in landing the platinum winners trophy on a final tally of 219 points.

They were well clear of

Poland in second on 162 with the hosts consigned to third place when their men’s 4x400 relay team were disqualified prior to the concluding event when first leg runner Cameron Chalmers

pulled a hamstring in the warm-up. Holding a 24-point advantage overnight, the Amer-icans kept extending their margin with Paul Dedewo running a personal best of 44.48 seconds to win the men’s 400m.

Kenny Selmon took the men’s 400m hurdles and Vashti Cunningham leapt to a season’s best of 1.96m to reign in the women’s high jump before their triumph was rounded off in the men’s 4x400.

Elsewhere, Jamaica’s Tyquendo Tracey recorded a lifetime best of 10.03 seconds to

win the men’s 100m with South Africa’s Olympic champion Luvo Manyonga scoring victory in the men’s long jump with a leading effort of 8.51m.

However at the conclusion, it was the Americans who took a lap of honour amid the fire-works at the London Stadium which will also host the next leg of the Diamond League circuit next weekend.

And among those in action, there appeared to be a consensus that the Athletics World Cup is an idea that could be replicated or extended in the future.

1. USA, 219 points2. Poland 162

3. Great Britain and Northern Ireland 1554. Jamaica 153 5. France 146

6. Germany 137 7. South Africa 135

8. China 81

HOW THEY FINISHED

ZIMBABWEB. Chari c Ahmed b U Khan ....................................1C. Chibhabha c Ahmed b U Khan ......................... 7H. Masakadza c A Ali b Malik ...............................59T. Musakanda lbw b H Ali .....................................24P. Moor c Malik b H Ali ..........................................50R. Murray b H Ali .................................................... 16D. Tiripano b U Khan ..............................................13L. Roche lbw b U Khan ........................................... 0W. Masakadza run out (H Ali) ............................. 12T. Chatara run out (Zaman) ....................................1B. Muzarabani not out ............................................1Extras (b4, lb2, w4) .........................................10Total (10 wkts, 49.2 overs) .......................194Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Chari), 2-18 (Chibhabha), 3-80 (Musakanda), 4-105 (Masakadza), 5-140 (Murray), 6-166 (Tiripano), 7-166 (Roche), 8-190 (Masakadza), 9-192 (Moor), 10-194 (Chatara)Bowling: Amir 9-0-33-0 (1w); U Khan 10-1-36-4 (2w); Ashraf 6-1-15-0; Ali 8.2-1-32-3 (1w); S Khan 10-0-47-0; Zaman 3-0-11-0; Malik 3-0-14-1

PAKISTANI. ul Haq run out (Muzarabani) .......................... 44F. Zaman c Ali b Plunkett ....................................117B. Azam ll b Jordan ...............................................29Extras (b1, w5) ....................................................5Total (1 wkt, 36 overs) ............................... 195Did not bat: S Malik, S Ahmed, A Ali, F Ashraf, S Khan, H Ali, M Amir, U KhanFall of wickets: 1-119 (ul Haq)Bowling: Chatara 6-0-34-0 (1w); Muzarabani 7-0-28-0; Tiripano 7-0-33-0 (3w); Roche 6-0-38-0; W Masakadza 10-0-61-0

SCOREBOARD

20 TUESDAY 17 JULY 2018MORNING BREAK

On the occasion of

Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022

host’s mantle hand over

His Highness

Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani

Amir of the State of Qatar

And to the honourablecitizens and residents of Qatar & all Arab world

We pray Almighty Allah to bless and grant success to our beloved country and help us organise the FIFA World Cup 2022 gloriously to raise Arab prestige.

We extend our heartiest greetings to

Editor-in-Chiefand staff of