Volume 22 | Number 7398 | 2 RiyalsSaturday 6 January 2018 | 19 Rabia II I 1439 www.thepeninsula.qa

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Rublev, Monfils in Doha showdown

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December 2017

BUSINESS | 19 SPORT | 24

Qatar donates $1m to Costa RicaAmbassador of the State of Qatar to Republic of Costa Rica, H E Mohammed bin Kurdi Taleb Al Marri, presenting a cheque of $1m to Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica, Manuel Gonzalez Sanz. → Report on page 2

Shopping festival at 13 malls begins tomorrowRAYNALD C RIVERA

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Shop Qatar 2018, a festival dedicated to showcasing the country’s vibrant retail sector, is all set to launch tomorrow at 13 malls with an Arabian-themed week filled with entertainment, promotions, and exciting activities.

A stunning fireworks display near Al Hazm Mall tomorrow at 8.20pm will mark the beginning of the biggest shopping festival in Qatar. With the theme ‘Brand New Tradition’, Shop Qatar returns for its second edition offering 31 days of discounts and promotions as well as pop up stores, workshops, master-classes, fashion shows and con-certs. Participating malls include

Al Khor Mall, City Centre Doha, Doha Festival City, Gulf Mall, Hyatt Plaza Mall, Lagoona Mall, Landmark Mall, Mall of Qatar, Tawar Mall, The Gate Mall, Vil-laggio Mall, Ezdan Mall and Dar Al Salam Mall.

Big discounts and promo-tions and up to QR4m cash and car prizes are in store for shoppers at various outlets of the participating malls. For every QR200 purchase shoppers will get a voucher for a chance to win attractive prizes during the weekly raffle draws, the first of which will be held on Thursday at Mall of Qatar and will give away 13 cash prizes worth QR500,000, one BMW 730 Li and one BMW 530i.

This year’s shopping festival has been divided into distinctly

themed weeks including Arabian Week (January 7 to 13), Bollywood Week (January 14 to 20) and International Weeks (January 21 to February 7).

Pop up workshops this week comprise Moroccan ceramic painting, Syrian wooden mosaics, decorative wooden dhows and Syrian hand painted pottery. These free workshops which will be alternating in par-ticipating malls will highlight live demonstrations and product sale. A highlight of this week is an Arabian fashion show to be staged at Mondrian Doha fea-turing breathtaking creations on the runway by top designers from the Middle East.

Arabic music sensations Yara and Joseph Attieh will ser-enade their fans on Friday, 8pm at Doha Exhibition and Con-vention Centre. Attieh is a multi-award-winning singer who was the first Lebanese artist to win the TV show Star academy, while Yara is a well-known Leb-anese singer in the Arab world who shot to fame after winning the music competition Kass el-Nojoum in 1998.

Concert tickets are priced QR95 (Regular), QR145 (Premium) and QR245 (VIP). Renowned celebrity makeup artist Hanan Al Najada will be holding a certified course and tutorial on Saturday, 4pm at Ritz Carlton Doha. Local businesses including SME’s supported and i n c u b a t e d b y Q a t a r Development Bank will be offering their products at 30 pop up shops located in Mall of Qatar.

In addition, participating retail partners will also host exclusive in-mall entertainment and roaming mall shows to bring fun for the whole family.

The festival also features outdoor activities at the ongoing Souq Waqif Spring Festival which has over 60 attractions and activities including over 30 amusement rides and games, live entertainment and more than 20 food stalls.

QNA

DOHA: The State of Qatar expressed strong condem-nation of the explosion on police in the Afghanistan’s capital Kabul and left a number of people killed and injured. In a statement issued yesterday, the Foreign Ministry reiterated Qatar’s firm stance in rejection of violence and terrorism no matter what the motives and causes were. The statement voiced the Qatar’s condo-lences to the families of victims as well as the government and people of Afghanistan. It also wished speedy recovery to the injured.

Inactive farms to start producing vegetablesSANAULLAH ATAULLAH

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Non-productive farms covering a total area of 600,000sqm are expected to start producing vegetables from next agricultural season under an initiative “IKTAFA” launched recently by Hassad Food to increase the local production.

“The company has received overwhelming response from the owners of inactive farms, as farms measuring 600,000sqm are all set to get benefit from phase one project that will be implemented under the initi-ative,” said Deputy CEO of Hassad Food Company, Ali bin Hilal Al Kuwari while speaking in a talk-show of Al Rayyan TV.

He said that now Hassad

Food is about to complete the procedures for making contracts with targeted farm-owners of first phase in a bid to start the project by the beginning of coming agricultural season.

“We have approached some owners of non-productive farms to know the reason for not pro-ducing agricultural products. We met them and launched the ini-tiative to encourage them to start production,” said Al Kuwari.

He said that Hassad con-ducted feasibility study for the farmers and helped them to get bank finance.

Other supports of being pro-vided by the company include helping the farms with agricul-tural inputs, provision of seeds, fertilizers, necessary equipment and establishing shades.

Under the initiative, the agri-cultural engineers and experts from Hassad will also monitor the crops to ensure the quality of the products.

He said that marketing of the products for these farms was the

most important aspect for farmers, therefore, Hassad Food within the agreement of the ini-tiative will buy all vegetables pro-duced by these farms and sell them through its own ways.

By the beginning of blockade,

Arab Qatari Agricultural Pro-duction Company ‘Qtfa’ of Hassad started acquiring more spaces of free land for cultivating vege-tables, said Al Kuwari.

He said that the company had added 40,000 sqm with the help of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment to its existing agricultural farms and readied them to cultivate, adding that the Ministry also initiated providing another 80,000 sqm land to the company for agricultural purpose.

Hassad Food does not compete with private companies rather encourages them to implement the projects.

“We created opportunities for private companies and are standing behind them to establish their own firms,” said Al Kuwari.

The shopping festival to open with a stunning fireworks display near Al Hazm Mall at 8.20pm

Big discounts and up to QR4m cash and car prizes to be offered to shoppers at the participating malls.

IRFAN BUKHARI

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Offering an opportunity to boost further existing bilateral economic cooperation, as many as 150 Turkish companies repre-senting seven different sectors will showcase their products and services in Qatar in three-day Expo Turkey by Qatar 2018 from January 17 to 19.

The three-day event is being held from January 17 to 19 at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC). The Expo will present a range of Turkish com-panies highlighting the best in real estate, furniture and food, as well as health and construction.

Expo Turkey by Qatar 2018 is a general trade show organized with the purpose of furthering diplomatic relations between Turkey and Qatar.

The first edition of Expo Turkey by Qatar was realized in Doha last year from April 19 to 21.

In the Expo, companies rep-resenting seven sectors including real estate; con-struction and construction materials; furniture and deco-ration; health tourism; infor-mation technology; food; machines and equipment will participate. The expo’s visitors will include representatives of

Qatar’s private sector; pur-chasing delegations; investment authorities; leading local and regional businessmen; distrib-utors among others.

According to organizers as many as 3000 professional vis-itors and 10,000 visitors are likely to visit the three-day expo. Last year, 154 Turkish com-panies and 10 Qatari institutions and organizations participated in the expo while around 1000 one-on-one business meeting were held during Expo Turkey by Qatar 2017.

The upcoming event will boost economic, trade relations between two countries opening new opportunities for Qatari investors to invest in Turkey as well as develop business part-nerships between business entities of both countries.

→CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Expo Turkey by Qatar to boost ties further

Banners about Shop Qatar festival displayed at different malls.

150 Turkish companies representing seven different sectors will showcase their prod-ucts and services in Qatar in the three-day expo from January 17 to 19.

Qatar condemns deadly explosion in Afghanistan

The company has received overwhelming response from the owners of inactive farms, as farms measuring 600,000sqm are all set to get benefit from phase one project that will be implemented under the initiative.

DOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent a cable of congratula-tions to H M Sultan Qaboos bin Said of the Sultanate of Oman, on the occasion of Oman’s winning the 23rd Arabian Gulf soccer cup .

Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani and the Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani have also sent cables of congratulations to H M Sultan Qaboos bin Said on the occasion of Oman winning the 23rd Arabian Gulf soccer cup.

Oman won the 23rd Arabian Gulf soccer cup yes-terday, beating the UAE 5-4 in penalty shoot-out. This is the second time Oman wins the cup.

Emir sends greetings to Sultan Qaboos

02 SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018HOME

Spring of activities Various activities as part of the Spring Festival at Souq Waqif, yesterday.PIC: BAHER AMIN / THE PENINSULA

RAYNALD C RIVERA

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: A visiting zoologist and falcon researcher has lauded Qatar for its efforts in preserving falcons and falconry as an essential element of its heritage.

“Qatari people are giving more importance to falcons because they are an important element of their heritage. Now-adays, Arabs are breeding falcons as well as houbaras, a migratory bird which is a favourable prey of falcons whose population is also now becoming low. Arabs especially Qatari people breed them artificially and release them to the wild to increase their population,” Dr. Zubair Medammal told The Peninsula.

The first Asian scientist to win a doctoral degree in falcon studies, Dr. Medammal, who hails from the southern Indian state of Kerala and teaches at Calicut University has done 25

years study on falcons in the Middle East.

He recently visited the ninth Qatar International Falcons and Hunting Festival (Marmi 2018) as part of his research.

“I’ve been doing research on falcons for more than two decades in the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait. I come yearly to participate in falcon festivals all over the Middle East and I went to Marmi to get infor-mation about the competition and the hunting capacity of the different species of falcons,” he said, while lauding the festival.

“The festival is important in

educating people, especially nationals and residents from Arab countries, on the signifi-cance of falcons and falconry which can be found in The Holy Quran and Arabic literature. They are important historically and in the current situation and must be preserved,” he stressed.

Falcons may soon become endangered as a result of food shortage, accidents and effect of pesticides, he said.

“Falcons are now becoming endangered because of pesti-cides, illegal logging and mis-management and the deficiency of knowledge on how to handle these royal birds,” he said.

About 35 percent of falcons die after eating prey that has been exposed to pesticides, Dr. Medammal claimed.

He said that the birds of prey were used originally by Bedouins to hunt game, providing an important addition to their diets. In Qatar today, the tradition of

falconry remains a major sporting activity during the hunting season from October to March.

Dr. Medammal has done a documentary and a book on falcons in English and Arabic

which are yet to be released.Completely shot in the

Middle East including Qatar, the 25-minute long documentary can be a useful material that can be shown for students in schools, colleges and universities in

Qatar, he said.The book, which was more

than two decades in the making, has been translated to Arabic in Qatar. He is currently looking for a publisher for the book which is intended for degree students.

Pesticides pose threat to life of falcons: Expert

Dr. Zubair Medammal with a hunting falcon at Marmi Festival 2018 at Sabkhat Marmi in Sealine. PIC: SAIF / QNA

About 35 percent of falcons die after eating prey that has been exposed to pesticides, claims Dr. Zubair.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“Expo Turkey by Qatar is a general trade show organised with the purpose of carrying the strong diplomatic relations, between Turkey and Qatar which were developed by Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, into a trading framework,” says expoturkeybyqatar .com, official website of the event.

Recently, Turkish pharma-ceutical firm CinnaGen also signed a $6m deal with Qatar’s leading drug company Ebn Sina Medical. Ferhat Farsi, Chief Executive Officer, CinnaGen, speaking with Anadolu at a signing ceremony in Doha said: “Our firm aims to raise Qatar’s accessibility to biotech medi-cation under the agreement with Ebn Sina. Currently, Turkey’s pharmaceutical exports to Qatar are about $1.2m. With our $6m deal, we will increase our coun-try’s drug exports to Qatar five-fold,” Farsi said.

Expo Turkey by Qatar to boost ties further

AFP

NABI SALEH: Israel yesterday released a Palestinian woman on bail after she was charged with assaulting an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank following a viral video of the incident.

Nour Tamimi, 20, was released early on Friday from a military prison after a court rejected the prosecution’s appeal against her release, her father Naji Tamimi said. She was arrested on December 20, day after her cousin Ahed Tamimi, 16, was detained in the wake of a viral video showing them slapping and kicking two soldiers the previous week.

Ahed and her mother Nariman Tamimi remain in custody.

Nour was allowed to return to her home in the village of Nabi Saleh, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, after posting a bail of 5,000 shekels ($1,450, 1,200 euros). A guarantor vouched that she would show up for her court pro-ceedings, set to begin on February 12, her lawyer Gaby Lasky told AFP.

She was welcomed home by family and friends and the governor of Ramallah, Laila Ghanam.

“The first day (in prison) was the hardest because it was a new experience for me. I had no idea what was going to

become of me,” Nour said in Arabic.“It’s true that my father used to tell

me so many stories, but going through something new always has an impact on you.” She said her Israeli interrogator threatened to have her father and brother arrested and the family home demolished unless she answered his questions.

“He bullied me, he would slam his fist on the table,” she said. “He told me, ‘speak or I’ll blow up your house’.”

The military appeals court ruled Nour would also have to sign in at an Israeli police station every Friday at noon.

On Sunday, a military court charged Nour with aggravated assault of a soldier and disturbing soldiers carry out their duties. Ahed’s family says the December 15 incident that led to the charges occurred in the yard of their home in Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah.

The scuffle took place during a day of protests against US President Donald Trump’s controversial recognition of Jeru-salem as Israel’s capital.

Relatives say that a member of the Tamimi family was shot in the head with a rubber bullet during those protests.

Israel’s military said the soldiers were in the area to prevent Palestinians from throwing stones at Israeli motorists nearby. A video that was shared widely

on social media shows the cousins approaching two Israeli soldiers and telling them to leave before shoving, kicking and slapping them.

The heavily armed soldiers do not respond in the face of what appears to be an attempt to provoke rather than seri-ously harm them. They then move back

after Ahed’s mother Nariman becomes involved. On Monday, Ahed was charged with 12 counts, including assault. Her mother faces five charges, including incitement. Ahed has been lauded as a hero by Palestinians who see her as bravely standing up to Israel’s 50-year occupation of the West Bank.

Israel grants bail to Palestinian woman in ‘slap video’ case

Nour Tamimi (right), is welcomed home by a relative in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh yesterday, after being released from a military prison.

QNA

DOHA: The Qatar Fund for Development has supported the Republic of Costa Rica with $1m to alleviate the damage caused by Hurricane Otto, which resulted in extensive damage to infra-structure including many roads, bridges and water channels.

The Qatar Fund for Devel-opment said in a statement yes-terday that this amount will be used in the reconstruction of the areas affected by the cyclone. The statement added that the delivery of the support value was made at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the presence of HE Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Republic of Costa Rica Mohammed bin Kurdi Taleb Al Marri,and HE the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica Manuel Gonzalez Sanz.

The Minister Manuel Gonzalez Sanz expressed thanks to Qatar, represented by the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for this support and expressed his gratitude to the government and people of Qatar for their honourable positions and assistance to the Costa Rican people in their ordeal.

Hurricane Otto, which struck Costa Rica last November, killed 10 people and left a great deal of damage to property and public facilities.

Qatar donates $1m to Costa Rica

03SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018 MIDDLE EAST

Music in museum An Iraqi band plays music at Baghdad’s folklore museum which exhibits wax figures showing how Iraqis lived in the past, yesterday.

REUTERS

BEIRUT: Rapid advances by the Syrian army into rebels’ largest remaining stronghold, Idlib province, have brought it closer to a key insurgent-held military airport and displaced tens of thousands of people struggling to find shelter in winter weather.

Supported by Iran-backed militias and Russian air power, President Bashar Al Assad’s forces have taken territory in northeastern Hama and southern Idlib provinces since beginning an offensive in late October.

The fighting and air strikes have forced more than 60,000 people to leave their homes since November 1, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

In recent days the offensive has escalated, with forces pro-gressing towards the strategic Abu Al Duhur military airport, to which rebels laid siege in 2012 before completely ousting Assad’s forces in September 2015.

A commander in a military alliance fighting in support of Damascus has said the army and its allies intend to capture the air

base. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday the Syrian army and its allies had taken around 84 villages since October 22, including at least 14 in the past 24 hours.

The Britain-based war mon-itor said the rapid advance this week was made possible by intense air strikes which caused rebels to withdraw.

The Syrian army lost Idlib province, which borders Turkey, to insurgents when the provin-cial capital fell to insurgents in 2015. It became the only prov-ince fully under opposition con-trol. Tahrir al-Sham, spear-headed by al-Qaeda’s former branch in Syria formerly called the Nusra Front, is the main rebel

force in the province.A Syrian military source said

the Nusra Front and its allies are the target of the military opera-tion in northeast Hama and southeast Idlib provinces.

“The army’s operations there are continuing and the army is achieving advances. The terror-ists (are facing) big losses in the area,” he said. Idlib is part of Rus-sian-engineered “de-escalation zones” meant to reduce fighting in western Syria. Turkish troops are also present in northern Idlib under the de-escalation deal struck with Assad’s allies Russia and Iran.

“De-escalation zones do not cover the Nusra Front at all, and the Nusra Front is in reality the one fully controlling Idlib,” the military source said.

Tahrir al-Sham is simultane-ously under attack from Islamic State, which has been expanding a small pocket of territory in northeastern Hama on the edge of the Idlib enclave since the Syrian army ousted it from cen-tral Syria in October last year.

Mustafa al-Haj Yousef, head of Idlib’s Civil Defence, rescuers who work in opposition-con-trolled areas of Syria, said:

“If martyrs, the displaced, the injured, are on the rise, col-lapsing the houses, striking civil-ians, targeting civilians? It’s as if there’s no de-escalation.”

The United Nations said the situation of civilians newly

displaced by the fighting in Idlib was “dire”, with humanitarian agencies struggling to meet their needs. Yousef, of the Civil Defence, said that even after fleeing heavy frontline air strikes and shelling, people face an air

campaign deeper inside the province. He said there are not enough camps to cope with the flows, warning that if the army pushes up to Abu al-Duhur and beyond, “the displacement will double, it will multiply”.

Syrian govt presses Idlib offensive

Displaced people from a village in southern Idlib head on the Damascus-Aleppo motorway towards the northern part of the rebel-held province, yesterday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday the government army and its allies had taken around 84 villages since October 22, including at least 14 in the past 24 hours.

AFP

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia yesterday intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen into the king-dom’s south, as Riyadh and its allies said the attack “proved” Iran’s support for Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The Riyadh-led military coa-lition fighting the rebels in Yemen in a statement said Saudi air defences intercepted the mis-sile at around 0500 GMT, but reported no casualties.

The Houthis, who are locked in war with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, earlier said they had fired a missile at Saudi Arabia’s southwestern province of Najran in a statement tweeted

by their Al Masirah television channel. Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia has repeatedly accused its regional rival Iran of arming the Shia Houthis, but Tehran denies the allegations.

Yesterday, coali t ion spokesman Turki Al Maliki said the foiled missile attack served as further proof that Iran armed the rebels.

“This hostile act by the Iran-backed Houthis proves the Ira-nian regime remains implicated in supporting the armed Houthis,” Maliki was quoted by Saudi state news agency SPA as saying. Maliki said the attack “deliberately targeted densely populated civilian areas” and had caused minor damage to the

property of a Saudi citizen.The United States, a longtime

ally of Saudi Arabia, has said Iran manufactured a missile fired by the Houthis towards Riyadh’s international airport in November. In December, US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley presented what she called “undeniable” evidence that the missile was Iranian-made. Tehran rejected the evidence as “fabricated”.

A confidential report to the UN Security Council the same month said UN officials had examined debris from missiles fired at Saudi Arabia that pointed to a “common origin” but could not conclude whether they came from an Iranian supplier. The

Huthis have increased their rocket attacks on the kingdom since November.

The Saudi-led coalition joined the Yemeni government in its fight against the Houthis in March 2015, after the rebels seized control of the capital Sanaa. Despite the coalition’s superior firepower, the rebels still control the capital and much of the north of the country.

More than 8,750 people have been killed since the coalition’s intervention in Yemen, according to the World Health Organization.

The country is also now facing what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Saudi intercepts Yemen ballistic missile

AFP

TEHRAN: Iranian ministers should be punished if they deliberately failed to censor online content by “trouble-makers and enemies”, said the head of the country’s cybercrime committee yesterday.

“The order to block all channels on encrypted mes-saging service Telegram, that

in recent days incited the population to violence and trouble, was transmitted by judicial officials to the tele-coms ministry a long time ago, but unfortunately nothing was done,” said Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, according to local media reports.

“If it is proven that offi-cials voluntarily refused to take the necessary measures

to prevent the activities of trouble-makers and enemies, they must be punished,” added Khoramabadi, who is also deputy to Iran’s chief prosecutor.

Telegram and Instagram were blocked shortly after protests began on December 28, and officials also moved to shut down privacy soft-ware widely used to get round online restrictions.

Iran ministers criticised over cybercrime

ANATOLIA

BAGHDAD: Hundreds of former army and police personnel who were sacked after Daesh overran much of the country in 2014 demon-strated in Baghdad yesterday to demand their jobs back.

In mid-2014, Iraqi gov-ernment forces retreated as the terrorist group overran vast territories in northern and western Iraq, including the city of Mosul.

Yesterday, hundreds of former army and police per-sonnel — sacked for allegedly cutting and running before the Daesh onslaught — gath-ered in central Baghdad’s Tahrir Square amid a heavy security presence. In late 2014, Iraq’s interior and defence ministries dismissed tens of thousands of security personnel in the Nineveh, Saladin, Anbar and Diyala provinces amid dereliction-of-duty allegations.

Participants in Friday’s demonstration in Baghdad shouted slogans demanding their reinstatement in the Iraqi security apparatus.

In 2016, Iraq’s then-Defence Minister Khaled Al Obeidi said his ministry had dismissed more than 100,000 military personnel accused of cutting and running before Daesh’s 2014 onslaught.

Sacked Iraqi officials stage protest in Baghdad ANATOLIA

SANA’A: Yemen’s army chief-of-staff was injured yesterday when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the country’s northern Al Jawf province, according to a local mili-tary source.

Speaking anonymously due to restrictions on talking to media, the source said Army Chief-of-Staff Taher Ali Al Auqaili had been inspecting army forces deployed in Al Jawf’s Al Khab and Al Shaaf directorate when the incident occurred. Al Jawf Governor Amin

Al Ukaymi, who had been accom-panying al-Auqaili at the time, emerged from the incident unscathed, the source said. The same source went on to describe al-Auqaili’s injuries as “light”.

The Al Khab and Al Shaaf direc-torate, which accounts for some 85 percent of Al Jawf province, has seen fierce fighting between Yemeni government forces and Shia Houthi militiamen. Impoverished Yemen has remained dogged by violence since 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.

Army chief hurt by roadside bomb in northern Yemen

ANATOLIA

ANKARA: Forty-two media activists were killed and 47 others injured mostly by the Bashar Al Assad regime in Syria in 2017, according to a recently released report.

London-based Syrian Net-work for Human Rights (SNHR) said in December 2017 alone two reporters were killed and four others were arrested.

The report said the Assad regime forces killed 17 media activists, Daesh killed 10 and the Russian forces killed four.

Among the injured, 29 were attacked by the regime forces. During the year, 93 cases of

arrests, abductions and release were recorded.

Daesh-linked Tahrir al Sham was involved in 19 cases of arrests, of which 18 were released.

The Assad regime arrested six and 11 others were arrested by terror groups including the PKK/PYD.

The report added: “Serious quick steps must be taken to save media activism in Syria.”

It condemned all violations against media activism regard-less of the perpetrators. It called on the Independent Interna-tional Commission of Inquiry to conduct investigations on the targeting of media activists.

Over 40 media activists dead in Syria in 2017

04 SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

At least 7 dead in fresh violence in NigeriaWARRI, NIGERIA: Gunmen killed at least seven people at a farm in

the Nigeria’s Rivers State, police said, the latest violence to hit the oil-

rich southern region. The attack, believed to have been carried out

by criminal gangs, came three days after gunmen described as “ban-

dits” and “cult” members, killed 16 churchgoers as they were returning

from a midnight New Year church service on Monday.

Zaki Ahmed, police commissioner for the Rivers state, confirmed

Thursday’s attack on a farm in Emohua without giving a death toll.

“The attackers arrived on a motorcycle and shot at people, before

fleeing as quickly as they arrived,” he told reporters.

A source at the Elele Police station said: “Information from our

men on site has it that seven have been confirmed dead.”

Rivers State, a region blighted by poverty despite a wealth of oil, is

home to several powerful gangs that often engage in violent turf wars.

Such gangs, known as “cults” in Nigeria, began as university con-

fraternities decades ago before evolving into powerful armed groups

that now rule the streets of the destitute region.

Manslaughter case in S Africa train crashKROONSTAD, SOUTH AFRICA: South African police say a truck driver

could be charged with manslaughter after his vehicle collided with a

train, killing 18 people and injuring about 260 others.

Police official Motantsi Makhele said that “a case of culpable hom-

icide has been opened” following the crash Thursday in Free State

province. Authorities say the truck driver erred by allegedly trying to

cross the tracks just ahead of the oncoming train. Part of the train

burst into flames after the collision, trapping some passengers in

carriages. Makhele says a final death toll cannot be announced until

a forensic investigation including DNA testing is complete. Workers

were checking under the carriages for any other remains.

The train with 429 passengers aboard had been traveling from

Port Elizabeth to the country’s commercial hub, Johannesburg.

2 dead in clashes on Libya-Tunisia borderTUNIS: Clashes erupted yesterday between armed groups loyal to

Libya’s UN-backed unity government and Libyan border officials in the

town of Ras Ajdir on the Tunisian border, according to local sources.

At least two people were killed — and a handful of others injured

— in the melee, the same sources said. Some of the border officials

involved in the clash reportedly fled across the border into Tunisian

territory. The reasons behind armed clash remain unclear.

Since 2011, when Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted

and killed in a bloody uprising, rival groups have fought for control

of the strategic Ras Ajdir crossing.

NEWS BYTES

AFP

TEHRAN: Pro-regime rallies were held around Tehran yesterday with authorities seeking to put the recent violent unrest to bed, as Washington slapped fresh sanctions on Iran and called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting.

Iranian officials blamed a plot by the CIA, Israel and Saudi Arabia for the unrest that con-vulsed much of the country for five days — part of the increasing tensions playing out between Iran and its neighbours since President Donald Trump came to power.

For a third straight day, there were large pro-government ral-lies, this time in 40 locations around Tehran province and several cities including Tabriz and Kerman after Friday prayers, as authorities declared the unrest over.

“We are here to show that we can solve our problems our-selves, and will never allow Saudi Arabia, the USA and Israel to intervene... and we are behind the revolution until our last drop of blood,” Mohsen, an IT engi-neer in the crowd, said.

The US imposed sanctions against five Iranian firms alleged to have been working on an illegal ballistic missile pro-gramme, linking the move to the protests.

On the streets of Tehran, a heavy police presence lingered though there were no reports of fresh protests overnight.

There were some reports of small anti-government demon-strations in provincial towns, but these could not be verified.

Police asked people to send photos and videos of “trouble-makers”, local media reported, and to identify a number of sus-pects already caught on camera.

It remains difficult to gauge who was involved in the unrest that began December 28, claiming 21 lives—mostly pro-testers — and leading to hun-dreds of arrests.

President Hassan Rouhani’s supporters have blamed con-servative rivals for stoking anger over economic issues, which quickly grew out of control and saw attacks on security forces, government buildings and sym-bols of the regime.

The conservatives deny the accusations and say Rouhani must do more to help the poor, with parliament already moving to repeal an unpopular fuel tax hike in his recent budget.

The United Nations Security Council was set to hold an

emergency meeting on the issue on Friday at the request of the

United States. Chief prosecutor Mohammad

Jafar Montazeri blamed the unrest on a plot dating back four years by the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“The main architect of this plan is Michael D’Andrea,” Mon-tazeri said, referring to the head of the CIA’s Iran desk.

“They launched (social media) campaigns with the theme of ‘no to high prices’, ‘no to paying bills’,” he said, adding that the plan was to start unrest in the provinces before moving on Tehran.

Montazeri also claimed there were efforts to infiltrate the Islamic State group into the country.

“Eternal bedfellows #KSA (Saudi Arabia) and #ISIS — fol-lowing Trump’s lead — all endorse violence, death and destruction in Iran. Why are we not surprised,” tweeted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Many officials have nonethe-less recognised the genuine eco-nomic grievances of many Ira-nians, particularly a jobless rate

at close to 30 percent for young people.

Iran’s economic growth rebounded to more than 12 per-cent last year after sanctions were lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, but ana-lysts say much of the windfall has come from renewed oil sales that generate few jobs. Interior Min-ister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said 42,000 people had taken part in the unrest nationwide.

It was higher than a previous figure of 15,000 given by the head of the Revolutionary Guards, but still far below the hundreds of thousands that took to the streets during the last major protest movement in 2009. While the US has piled pressure on Iran, both Russia and Turkey have jumped to its defence.

Moscow criticised Wash-ington for calling the UN Secu-rity Council meeting.

“The United States continues to interfere both openly and cov-ertly in the internal affairs of other countries. They do so shamelessly,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, quoted by Interfax news agency.

US President Donald Trump must decide next week whether to continue waiving nuclear-related sanctions suspended under the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

Under the deal, Trump must actively lift certain sanctions every few months and the next deadline falls on January 12.

Trump repeatedly tweeted his backing for the protesters during Iran’s unrest, at one point saying: “Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government”. That was rebuffed by marchers yesterday. “Mr Trump passed laws against Iranians such as the immigration ban, and he called Iranians ‘savages’... and suddenly he is sympathising and sup-porting Iranians and it is ridicu-lous,” said Khalili, a government worker in Tehran.

Pro-govt rallies in Tehran as US slaps sanctions

AFP

ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the United States and Israel on Friday of meddling in Iran after Turkey’s neighbour was gripped by several days of deadly unrest.

A total of 21 people died and hundreds were arrested in the week-long protests which were the biggest challenge to the Islamic regime since the 2009 mass demonstrations.

“We cannot accept that some countries -- foremost the US, Israel -- to interfere in the internal affairs of Iran and Paki-stan,” Erdogan told reporters before heading on a trip to

France. “It is turning the people against each other in these countries. It’s a shame that we have seen this done in many nations... We saw this in Iraq.”

Erdogan did not expand on the nature of the alleged meddling in Pakistan but on Thursday the US announced a freeze in deliveries of military equipment and security funding until Pakistan cracks down on the militants.

The Turkish president then referred to problems in “Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia” and in African countries including Sudan and Chad.

He claimed a “game was being played” in certain

countries, which he noted were all Muslim-majority nations.

“They are taking steps towards making the plentiful underground riches in all these countries their own resources,” he said. “Sorry, these realities should be known by our people and all people,” he said.

Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke on Wednesday in a call in which the Turkish leader gave his support for the return of “peace and stability” to Iran.

Erdogan on Friday praised Rouhani’s statements that the street protests were the people’s “democratic right”, saying this had helped normalise the situation.

Erdogan slams US, Israel of meddling in Iran and Pakistan

AFP

KHARTOUM: Sudan recalled its ambassador to Egypt for “consultations” after renewed tension between the two neigh-bours following last month’s visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Khartoum.

Ties between Khartoum and Cairo have deteriorated since Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al Bashir last year accused Egyptian intelligence services of supporting opposi-tion figures fighting his troops in the country’s conflict zones like Darfur.

Officials from both countries

have engaged in high-level dip-lomatic initiatives to improve their relations, but Erdogan’s visit to Khartoum in December delivered a new blow to Cairo-Khartoum ties.

“Sudan has called its ambas-sador to Cairo, Abdelmahmoud Abdelhalim, to Khartoum for consultations,” the Sudanese for-eign ministry said in a brief statement on Thursday without offering details.

The Egyptian foreign min-istry said Sudan had informed it about recalling the ambassador, adding that Cairo was “exam-ining” the situation.

Ties between Turkey and

Egypt have remained tense since the Egyptian military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in 2013, a close ally of Erdogan. Erdogan denounced Mursi’s ouster and called it a “coup”. Mursi’s Islamist Muslim Brotherhood is outlawed in Egypt but members of the group have sought refuge in Turkey.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who as then army chief ousted Mursi, accuses Turkey of interfering in his country’s internal affairs.

Other reasons for the dete-rioration of relations between Cairo and Khartoum include the construction of Ethiopia’s

controversial Grand Renaissance Dam on the Nile river.

Khartoum sees the dam aiding its agricultural sector while Cairo fears it will hit its water supplies.

Egypt’s occupation of the Halayeb triangle, which lies near the Red Sea in a mineral-rich border region, is another bone of contention.

Khartoum says Halayeb has been part of its sovereign terri-tory since shortly after inde-pendence in 1956.

Last May, Sudan banned imports of Egyptian agricultural and animal products, delivering a blow to bilateral trade.

Sudan recalls envoy to Egypt

AP

LUXOR: A hot air balloon carrying foreign tourists over Egypt’s ancient city of Luxor crash-landed Friday, killing a tourist from South Africa and injuring at least 12 others, Egyp-tian officials said.

Strong winds forced the balloon, which was carrying 20 tourists, off course above the southern city, home to some of Egypt’s most famous pharaonic temples and tombs. The balloon took off around sunrise and flew about 45 minutes at an altitude of 450 meters (1,500 feet) before the pilot lost control over a mountainous area, the offi-cials said, adding that the pilot was also injured.

They said other balloons had taken off around the same time but landed safely. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line

with regulations.An official statement from the

Luxor governorate confirmed that 12 people were injured. The balloon passengers included South African and Argentine tourists. It was unclear whether the governorate included the pilot among those injured.

The state-run MENA news agency, citing Egypt’s health min-ister, said all those wounded have been treated expect for three who have undergone operations. Tour-ists from Australia, France and Brazil were among those injured, it said, citing an unnamed medical official.

The agency quoted Hany al-Adawy, head of the civil aviation authority, as saying that the crash was “accidental” and that balloon flights would continue operating as usual.

Tourist dead as hot air balloon crashes over Egypt’s Luxor

Iranian pro-government protesters take part in a march held after the Friday prayers in central Tehran.

For a third straight day, there were large pro-government rallies, this time in 40 locations around Tehran province and several cities including Tabriz and Kerman after Friday prayers, as authorities declared the unrest over.

The remains of a hot air balloon are seen on the ground near the ancient city of Luxor after a fatal crash, yesterday.

05SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018 ASIA

Ice festivalVisitors look at ice sculptures on the opening day of the annual Harbin Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in Harbin, in China’s northeast Heilongjiang province, yesterday.

IANS

JAMMU: Indian and Pakistani soldiers yesterday traded heavy gunfire on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, officials said.

Defence Ministry sources said the clashes began after the Pakistan Army resorted to heavy firing on Indian positions in Shahpur area.

“We retaliated strongly and effectively. No damage or casualty has been reported from our side,” an official said.

On Thursday, the Border Security Force (BSF) foiled an attempt by militants to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan on the inter-national border in Arnia sector of Jammu district.

One intruder was killed by the BSF. Police said the unarmed victim could have been a guide to the infiltrating militants who pulled back into Pakistan. The BSF also said it destroyed two mortar pickets of Pakistan on Thursday.

Frustration as Nepalis await new governmentKATMANDU: Students in Nepal have been taking to the streets to demand the outgoing government swiftly hand over power to a leftist alliance that swept to victory in national elections last month.

The landmark post-war poll had raised hopes that it would bring much-needed stability to the impoverished country.

Yet, several weeks after the defeat of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s Nepali Congress, elation has given way to frustration as Nepal remains caught in a political deadlock.

With the establishment of a new government still not in sight, protesters have been rallying for days in the cap-ital, Kathmandu, to call for Deuba’s immediate exit.

IANS

NEW Delhi: With the Rajya Sabha adjourned sine die yesterday, the contro-versial triple talaq bill was pushed to the budget session that begins on January 29.

Government sources ruled out any possibility of an ordinance on the bill, stuck in the Rajya Sabha.

The bill, already cleared by the Lok Sabha, could not be passed in the upper house due to a deadlock over opposition’s demand seeking its reference to a Select Committee for close scrutiny.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said he hoped that the Congress and other opposition parties would agree on passing the Muslim Women (Protec-tion of Rights in Marriage) Bill, 2017. The legislation proposes to criminalise instant triple talaq and suggests up to three years in jail as punishment for a Muslim hus-band who divorces his wife by uttering “talaq” thrice.

Asked about a possibility of bringing in an ordinance till the bill cleared, Ananth Kumar parried a direct reply and said: “The dates for the budget session have already been announced.

“We hope the Congress will under-stand the public opinion on the issue, reconsider their stand and pass it in the budget session. There is anger among people on this issue.”

The minister slammed the Congress for stalling the bill. He said they were against the empowerment of Muslim women in India.

He said the government was com-mitted to passing the legislation, also opposed by various Muslim groups.

“The intention of the (Narendra) Modi government is clear. We want equality and respect for the Muslim women, and the Congress is opposing it. They have just shown their double standard.

The Budget will be tabled on February 1. President Ram Nath Kovind will address

a joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on January 29. The Economic Survey will also be tabled on the same day. The session will go on a break on February 9. The second part of the Budget Session will start on March 5 and con-clude on April 6, the Minister said.

AP

SEOUL: The rival Koreas will sit down for their first formal talks in more than two years next week to find ways to cooperate on the Winter Olympics in the South and to improve their abysmal ties, Seoul officials said yesterday. While a positive sign after last year’s threats of nuclear war, the Koreas have a long history of failing to move past their deep animosity.

The announcement came hours after the United States said it will delay annual military exer-cises with South Korea until after the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next month. The exercises infuriate North Korea, which claims they are an invasion rehearsal, although South Korea and the United States have repeatedly said they are defensive in nature.

Yesterday morning, North Korea sent a message saying it would accept South Korea’s offer to meet at the border village of Panmunjom next Tuesday to dis-cuss Olympic cooperation and how to improve overall ties, according to South Korea’s Uni-fication Ministry, which handles North Korean matters. Pan-munjom is where a North Korean soldier dashed across the border into the South in November. He

is recovering after being shot five times by his former comrades.

Unif icat ion Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said he expects the two Koreas will use a recently restored cross-border communication channel to try to determine who will head their respective delegations next week.

Any dialogue between the Koreas is seen as a positive step. But critics say the North’s abrupt push to improve ties may be a tactic to divide Seoul and Wash-ington and weaken international pressure and sanctions on Pyongyang. In his New Year’s address Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he was willing to send a delegation to the Winter Olympics but he also said

he has a “nuclear button” on his desk to fire atomic weapons at the United States. President Donald Trump quickly responded that he had a bigger and more powerful “nuclear button” of his own.

Past breakthroughs to ease Korean tensions have often ended with renewed animosities. It’s likely the North will refrain from provocations during the Games. But tensions could return after-ward because the North has no intention of abandoning its weapons programs and the United States will not ease its pressure on the country, analysts say. China’s foreign ministry applauded news of possible talks between the rival Koreas.

“We welcome the recent pos-itive turn of events in the penin-sular situation,” spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular briefing.

Geng expres sed hope “all rel-evant parties” would take advan-tage of the Games to “bring the issue back to the correct track of peaceful settlement through dia-logue and consultation.”

The Trump government on Thursday said its springtime mil-itary drills with South Korea will be held from March 8-18 fol-lowing the Feb. 9-25 Olympic Games. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis insisted the delay was a practical necessity to

Rival Koreas to hold talks next week

accommodate the Olympics, not a political gesture. The White House said Trump approved the postponement in consultation with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who said he sug-gested the drills’ delay to the United States.

Moon, a liberal, has been pushing to improve strained ties and restore stalled cooperation projects with North Korea since his inauguration in May, though he joined U.S.-led international efforts to apply more pressure and sanctions on the North.

Moon’s government wants North Korea to take part in the Winter Olympics. But North Korea is not strong in winter sports and none of its athletes have been qualified to compete

in the Games. It needs to acquire additional quotas by the Inter-national Olympic Committee to come to South Korea. Baik said North Korea is expected to hold talks with IOC officials next week.

The Trump administration has said all options are on the table to end the North Korean nuclear standoff, including mil-itary measures, but Moon has repeatedly said there cannot be another war on the Korean Peninsula. Critics say these dif-ferences may have led Kim to think he can drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington as a way to weaken interna-tional pressure on the country.

The United States stations about 30,000 troops in South

Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. North Korea has cited the U.S. military presence and its reg-ular drills with South Korea as proof of American hostility that compels it to pursue nuclear weapons.

Last year, North Korea car-ried out its sixth and most pow-erful nuclear test and test-launched three intercontinental ballistic missiles as part of its push to possess functioning nuclear missiles capable of striking the US mainland. The repeated weapons tests earned the North toughened U.N. sanc-tions, and Kim and Trump exchanged threats of nuclear war and crude personal insults.

Indian, Pakistan troops trade heavy fire on LoC

Triple talaq bill pushed to budget session

IANS

NEW DELHI: In a strongly worded report a Parliamentary Standing Committee has condemned the recent incident when a passenger was manhan-dled by Indigo Airline staff, adding that airlines need to become passenger friendly and its staff should learn to say “please” and “Thank you”.

“The Committee noted that recently there were many incidents of manhan-dling, discourteous and rude behavior by airlines staff, both ground staff and cabin crew. Some of them were reported in the media and a large number of them went unreported. While narrating some of the incidents of misbehavior in air-lines, especially in Indigo, majority of the Members opined that the attitude of air-lines staff is very condescending, often

unco-operative and on many occasions, downright rude.”

The 26-page report “Issues related to improving consumers’ satisfaction of airlines” was done after consulting with Civil Aviation officials and various industry stakeholders.

The Committee said that merely taking strictest action against the employees does not absolve the airline of its guilt of the incident.

“The Committee observes that the problems affecting the airlines are not personal; it is institutional. An institution like Indigo has to develop a consumer friendly approach in dealing with their passengers. The Committee believes that being a leader in market share, Indigo needs to look inward and find out the reasons for the discourteous attitude and rude and indifferent behavior of their

employees, whether it is their cabin crew or the ground staff. The Committee emphasizes that the arrogant behavior of employees should stop.”

The Committee had detailed inter-action with the CEOs of various airlines on various trainings imparted to different categories of officials and employees.

The Members of the Committee unanimously emphasized upon the need for providing proper training to the air-lines staff especially on soft skills and passenger handling

“The crew should be trained to be more polite than saying ‘please’ or ‘thank you’. The passengers expect a civilized behavior from the cabin crew and the ground staff as the salaries to the cabin crew and ground staff are paid from the income earned from the pas-sengers,” the report added.

Parliamentary panel slams Indigo staff

North Korea’s government officers take part for this year’s first weekly Friday’s labour workday at a farm near Pyongyang.

ANATOLIA

DHAKA: There is nothing more tragic than seeing a young child snuffing the life out of himself through drugs. And yet this has become a common sight in the Bangladeshi capital where most people have become so used to the unfolding tragedy in front of them that they simply just ignore it.

Milon is one such 12-year-old boy who is living rough on the streets of Dhaka. When Anadolu Agency found him, he was sniffing glue, the drug of choice for most children, on the foot-path of a busy road. He was sur-rounded by three boys like him. It appeared that they were enjoying the harmful substance, but then appear-ances can be deceiving.

The young boy said it had already been four years since he left his house. He said it became unbearable for him at home after his father died and his mother remarried. According to the head of Association for the

Prevention of Drug Abuse (MANAS), Arup Ratan Chaudhury, an estimated more than 2.5 million children were drug addicts in Bangladesh. Street children, who are said to number 3.4 million, are the primary targets of drug dealers. The Bangladesh Children Rights Forum (BSAF) also estimated that 85 percent street children in the country are suffering from drug abuse. The Dhaka-based nongovernmental organ-ization said 19 percent of such children use heroin, while 28 percent took tablets and another 8 percent injected drugs.

Cannabis, heroin, stimulant or sleeping pills, glue and gasoline sniffing are popular among such chil-dren in Bangladesh, the BSAF added. According to the Department of Nar-cotics Control, children aged 8 to 10 were taking cannabis, cigarettes and glue sniffing while children aged between 12 and 18 were using phensedyl – compound found in com-monly used cough syrups — and heroin.

Drug use among Bangladeshi children at alarming level

North Korea sent a message saying it would accept South Korea’s offer to meet at the border village of Panmunjom next Tuesday to discuss Olympic cooperation and how to improve overall ties, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.

06 SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018ASIA

AP

ISLAMABAD: Asghar Khan, veteran politician and the first Pakistani air force chief after the country gained independ-ence from Britain, has died. He was 96.

Khan was born in Kashmir

in northern India in January

1921. He joined India’s Air

Force in 1940, then moved to

Pakistan where he became the

first Pakistani air force chief.

Before him, British officers

held top military posts in

newly independent Pakistan.

Khan entered politics but

his centrist Tahrik-e-Istaqlal

party did poorly in the 1970

polls. He emerged as top rival

to Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali

Bhutto in 1977 but alleged poll

rigging led to a public upris-

ing and subsequent military

takeover by General Ziaul Haq.

Asghar Khan, known for his

humble demeanor, left politics

in 2012. Pakistan’s military and

civilian leadership expressed

condolences over his death.

NEWS BYTESEx-air chief, veteran politician dies

Pakistan assails US military aid suspensionAFP

I S L A M A B A D : P a k i s t a n denounced Washington’s deci-sion to suspend hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance as “counterproduc-tive” yesterday, in a carefully-worded response to the frus-trated Trump administration’s public rebuke over militant safe havens.

The United States has been threatening for months to cut aid to Islamabad over its failure to crack down on groups such as the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network, which it says operates from bases in Pakistan’s northwest.

The US rhetoric has raised hackles in Islamabad and fears the row could undermine Paki-stan’s support for US operations in Afghanistan.

On Thursday, the State Department announced a dra-matic freeze in deliveries of mil-itary equipment and security funding until Pakistan cracks down on the militants.

The announcement ignited some small protests in Pakistan yesterday, including in Chaman, one of the two main crossings on the border with Afghanistan where several hundred people gathered to chant anti-US slogans.

”We don’t need any type of aid. Almighty Allah is with us and

he is giving us everything,” pro-tester Mohammad Saleem told this news agency, adding that he had a message for Donald Trump: “Don’t threaten us.”

But Pakistan’s foreign min-istry issued a cautious statement in which it said it was “engaged” with US officials and awaiting further details.

Without referring to the deci-sion directly, it warned that “arbitrary deadlines, unilateral pronouncements and shifting goalposts are counterproductive in addressing common threats.”

Emerging threats such as the growing presence of the Islamic State group in the region make cooperation more important than ever, it added.

Pakistan has fought fierce campaigns against homegrown Islamist groups, and says it has lost thousands of lives and spent billions of dollars in its long war on extremism.

But US officials accuse Islam-abad of ignoring or even

collaborating with groups that attack Afghanistan from safe havens along the border between the two countries.

In September last year, the US suspended $255m in funding to help Pakistan buy high-tech weaponry from American manufacturers.

Now, the Defence Depart-ment has been instructed to stop making payments from “coali-tion support funds” set aside to refund Pakistani spending on counter-terrorist operations.

There will be exemptions, and officials refused to put a figure on how much Pakistan will lose out on if it fails to cooperate.

But the National Defence Authorization Act permits the US military to spend up to $900 mil-lion in the 2017 financial year and $700 million in financial 2018.

State Department spokes-woman Heather Nauert said the security spending would be sus-pended until Pakistan takes “decisive action” against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network. The move, which US officials had hinted at for months, was greeted optimistically in Afghanistan.

”We have been saying for years that neighbouring Pakistan is providing safe haven to ter-rorist groups, and they were also funding the terrorist groups,”

Nasrat Rahim, deputy interior ministry spokesman, told reporters in Kabul. ”We wel-come this announcement.”

Privately, US diplomats insist the relationship is not in crisis. They say Pakistan is not refusing to fight the Haqqani network, but that the two capitals disagree about the facts on the ground.

Pakistan insists safe havens

have been eradicated, but US intelligence says it is still seeing militants operating freely.

Nauert was at pains to point out that the frozen funds had not been cancelled, and would be ready to be disbursed if Pakistan takes action to prove its commit-ment to the fight. ”The United States stands ready to work with Pakistan in combating all

terrorists, without distinction,” Nauert said. On Thursday, the US State Department also tweeted that it has placed deeply con-servative Muslim Pakistan on a special watch list for severe vio-lations of religious freedom.

Pakistan, whose religious minorities have long been mar-ginalised and targeted, has not responded to the move.

Pakistani demonstrators shouting anti-US slogans at a protest in Quetta, yesterday.

The US rhetoric has raised hackles in Islamabad and fears the row could undermine Pakistan’s support for US operations in Afghanistan.

Relatives carry coffin of a victim of a boat accident in Palembang, South Sumatra province, yesterday, after a boat carrying 55 people hit a large wave and sank amid bad weather.

Second boat accident in a week in Indonesia; 13 deadAFP

PALEMBANG, INDONESIA: At least 13 people died after a passenger boat capsized off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, two days after another ferry accident in the archipelago killed at least nine, police said yesterday.

The boat was carrying 55 people along the Musi river when it hit a large wave and sank amid bad weather Wednesday, South Sumatra water police chief Robinson Siregar said.

He said the police were still

searching for the captain, who reportedly survived but went missing.

”His assistant has been detained for questioning to find out, for example, whether or not the boat was seaworthy or there was negligence by the crew,” Siregar said.

Bodies were found along the riverbank, with one discovered by locals an hour’s walk from the accident site.

It was the latest deadly mar-itime accident in the vast Indo-nesian archipelago, which relies heavily on boats to ferry people around its 17,000 islands, but

has a patchy safety record. On New Year’s Day , at least

nine people died after a pas-senger boat capsized when trav-elling from the city of Tarakan to Tanjung Selor on Borneo island.

Last July, eight people drowned in a boat accident on the same route.

On New Year’s Day in 2016, at least 23 people died when a tourist boat from Jakarta burst into flames.

It was carrying about 250 local holidaymakers to celebrate the New Year on Tidung island near Jakarta.

Philippines probes 14 deaths amid vaccine furoreAFP

MANILA: The Philippines is investigating if the deaths of 14 children had any link to a dengue vaccine whose use the government has suspended due to health concerns, officials said yesterday.

The country stopped the sale and distribution of Dengvaxia last month after Sanofi, the French manufac-turer, warned it could worsen symptoms for people who had not previously been infected with the virus. Sanofi has main-tained the vaccine does not kill people, but did not comment on the health department’s new announcement.

The government has assigned an independent panel of experts to review the cases and expects their findings in one or two weeks, Health Sec-retary Francisco Duque said. ”We asked them the question, number one: what they think is the cause of death, and then second, do they think it is related to the vaccination,” Assistant Health Secretary Enrique Domingo told reporters.

More than 800,000 school-children received the vaccine last year in the world’s first public dengue immunisation programme. Dengue was blamed for only four of the 14 deaths being probed, Duque said, with lupus and meningo-coccemia named as the cause of the others. But now the panel of experts will verify those reports, the officials said.

”We need to watch out for 837,000 students who have been vaccinated and to us this is paramount,” Duque added. He also said the government wants to return unused Dengvaxia stock worth 1.5bn pesos ($30m) to Sanofi and get a refund. In November last year, Sanofi released findings of a new study that said showed Dengvaxia could lead to severe infections for vaccinated people who caught dengue for the first time.

The company also urged the Philippine government not to suspend the vaccine’s use, saying it was a crucial tool in fighting the deadly disease. However, the disclosure trig-gered a public furore, with some parents blaming the vac-cine for their children’s deaths and with a number of legisla-tors accusing the health depart-ment of endangering public health.

In a move unrelated to the Friday announcement, the department this week sus-pended a government clear-ance for Dengvaxia for one year and fined Sanofi 100,000 pesos (about $2,000). It ruled that Sanofi did not comply with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, a finding that the company disputed yes-erday. The company said that it had complied with local reg-ulations and FDA requirements. ”Sanofi Pasteur will continue to cooperate in full transpar-ency with the Philippines FDA and is committed to comply with the Philippines laws.

Myanmar overrun rebel camps as fighting intensifiesAFP

YANGON: Myanmar’s military has used heavy weapons to overrun remote rebel camps in northern Kachin state, the army said yesterday, as a seasonal offensive ramps up the long-running conflict.

A separate military campaign in Rakhine state, which has forced 655,000 Rohingya

Muslims over the border into Bangladesh, has dominated global attention. But the conflict in Kachin, a mainly Christian state in the Buddhist-majority country, has rumbled on away from international headlines and fighting is again intensifying now that monsoon rains have ended.

The army — or Tatmadaw—said it had gained the upper hand after seizing 22 camps of the

Kachin Independence Army (KIA) since mid-November and blocking off a key timber smug-gling route to China.

Heavy weapons were used Thursday to attack hillside camps as the army killed “some enemies” and seized arms and ammunition, according to a statement from commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing office. ”Tatmadaw columns are in hot

pursuit of fleeing terrorist insur-gents,” the statement added. The rebels and the army trade alle-gations of abuses, while observers accuse both sides of trafficking timber, jade and drugs to fund the fighting.

After a 17-year ceasefire, the KIA restarted its fight for autonomy in 2011 resulting in unrest that has killed hundreds and displaced more than

100,000 people.KIA confirmed the renewed

hostilities were “very serious” and that military was using air strikes and heavy artillery against its positions. ”Our ethnic groups didn’t launch the offen-sive. It was the military. We are only fighting back,” KIA spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Naw Buu said, denying involve-ment in illegal timber trade.

INTERNEWS

KARACHI: Cooking expert Zubaida Aapa, a household name in Pakistan, passed away yesterday. She is survived by a son and a daughter. Funeral prayers

for her was offered in

Defence Housing Authority

after Friday prayers, her

brother and writer Anwar

Maqsood said. Zubaida Aapa,

She had been unwell for

some time. Aapa was famous

for her handy culinary and

housekeeping hints or totkas.

She did numerous culinary

shows on TV channels. and

wrote cookbooks. On her

Twitter account TotkaAapa-

Zubaida (@ZubaidaAapa),

she wrote: “Ask me quick

solutions to your domestic,

social, political problems.

Born on April 4, 1945, in

Hyderabad, India, Aapa came

from family of renowned

literary personalities.

Culinary expert laid to rest in Karachi

07SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018 EUROPE

‘No progress’ on Turkey’s EU bidAFP

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that political devel-opments in Turkey were effec-tively blocking its EU accession bid, suggesting a “partnership” instead of full membership.

At a testy joint press confer-ence following talks in Paris, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turks were sick of waiting to join the European Union after half a century.

“For relations with the Euro-pean Union, it is clear that recent developments and choices allow no progress in the process,” Macron said.

“I’d be lying if I said we could open new chapters,” he said in reference to the accession process.

Ankara was hoping to warm frosty relations with Europe during Erdogan’s trip, but the talks were overshadowed by concerns over Turkey’s huge post-coup crackdown and the arrest of journalists.

Neither Macron nor Erdogan hid their pessimism over the

state of Turkey’s long-running bid to join the EU.

“We have had a very honest discussion on this subject,” Macron told reporters, saying both sides needed to leave “hypocrisy” behind in pretending the process was moving forward normally.

“I hope we can take up a peaceful dialogue that would allow us to build a relationship which is essential in my eyes, both for ourselves and for the region,” Macron added.

Turkey has been seeking to join the EU for decades, but leaders both at home and in Europe have expressed increasing doubts over the progress fol-lowing mass arrests and sackings after the failed coup in 2016.

Over 140,000 people have been sacked or suspended,

accused of links to the movement run by US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused by Ankara of orchestrating the attempted coup.

More than 55,000 officials, security force members, judges, academics, journalists and activ-ists have been arrested since the coup, which has been accompa-nied by a crackdown on pro-Kurdish activists.

“Democracies must fully respect the rule of law,” Macron warned Erdogan.

For his part, Erdogan said the wait for EU membership was becoming “exhausting” for Turkish citizens.

“This is seriously exhausting us and seriously exhausting our nation. Maybe this will force us to take a decision,” he said, without specifying what that might be.

“Turkey has been waiting in the EU antechamber for 54 years. When it comes to saying why, the EU is not really capable of giving reasons.”

Turkey is currently blocked on 35 “chapters”, or policy areas, of the negotiations, he added.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turks were sick of waiting to join the European Union after half a century.

Oppn slams Macron’s anti-fake news plansREUTERS

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to legislate against fake news are running into opposition.

Twitter users have propelled “InventYourFakeNews” to a top trending topic, opposition law-makers warn of a risk to civil lib-erties and experts say a law might not be the best tool.

Macron’s announcement on Wednesday was the latest attempt by a government to find ways to handle the worldwide spread of disinformation on social media—“fake news”, as US President Donald Trump calls it.

His plan would allow judges

to block a website or a user account, in particular during an election, and oblige internet plat-forms to publish the names of those behind sponsored con-tents. That raises more questions than answers, critics said.

“Only authoritarian regimes try to control what the truth is,” said senior conservative senator Bruno Retailleau. Freedom of expression carries risks, but that’s better “than the tempta-tion to control minds,” he said.

Twitter users in France made up their own fake news with the hashthag #InventeDesFakeNews (or InventYourFakeNews), which ranged from seeing corporate executives donate money to cut

France’s debt load to seeing dead singers alive. Meanwhile, Macron’s opponents across the political spectrum slammed the plan.

“Is France still a democracy if it muzzles its citizens? This is very worrying!” National Front leader Marine Le Pen said on Twitter.

Attempts to regulate speech online walk a fine line, which critics says can amount to cen-sorship. A similar law in Ger-many led authorities to briefly block a satirical magazine’s Twitter account on Wednesday after it parodied anti-Muslim comments.

Major internet platforms

Facebook and Google declined to comment directly on Macron’s announcement, instead pointing out initiatives where they attempt to self-regulate or coop-erate with local media, including in France, to track fake news

“Any regulation should be thought through together with the industry,” internet legislation lawyer Christelle Coslin said. She noted that an 1881 law already allows prosecution for the publication of fake informa-tion. It would be crucial, she said, to make sure that any ruling by a judge would be technically enforceable.

“The real question is who can say what is a true or fake infor-

mation?”, Coslin said.Macron has a solid majority

in parliament and could get a bill approved without support from the opposition.

Concern about fake news arose after accusations of Rus-sian meddling in the US presi-dential election in November 2016 and in last year’s French presidential election. Macron’s team complained then that his campaign was targeted by a “massive and coordinated” hacking operation.

The European Commission has opened a wide-ranging con-sultation on how to cope with fake news; its results are expected in the coming months.

Cyprus court rules factory chemical caused cancerAP

NICOSIA: A court in Cyprus has found the government negligent for allowing a factory to emit for years a chemical that experts say caused cancer in nearby resi-dents, a lawyer who repre-sented the victims said.

Loukis Loucaides said that in its ruling, the court also held the owners of the Astrasol factory responsible over dichloromethane emis-sions. The emissions were found to cause a variety of cancers to the Nicosia sub-urb’s residents.

Loucaides said it’s the first time a court accepts expert testimony saying that the sol-vent caused cancers like brain and prostate cancer, Hodg-kin’s and leukaemia.

He said over 80 cancer cases appeared in a cluster within a 500 metre radius of the factory that used dichlo-romethane to manufacture shoe soles when it operated between 1976 and 2009 in the suburb of Latsia.

“You would have expected a state to have stopped the factory’s opera-tion, conducted an investiga-tion and made absolutely sure that it was safe for neigh-bours,” Loucaides said.

It took nearly a decade for the slow-moving Cypriot jus-tice system to deliver a ruling in a single, pilot case. But Loucaides praised the judge for what he called his “integ-rity and impartiality.”

1993 UK murderer charged for indecent children photosAFP

LONDON: One of Britain’s most notorious killers, who in 1993 murdered two-year-old James Bulger when he was only 10 himself, has been charged over indecent images of children, state prosecutors said yesterday.

Jon Venables was released in 2001 with a new identity after serving eight years in prison for the torture and murder of the toddler in the northwest English city of Liverpool.

He was returned to prison in November after allegedly being caught with child abuse images, and will now face trial in private at an unnamed court.

“The man formerly known as Jon Venables has been charged with offences relating to indecent images of children and will appear in the Crown Court,” the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement.

“In order that justice can be done, no further details are being released at this stage and the proceedings are subject to reporting restrictions.”

In a case that shocked the country, Venables and his friend Robert Thompson, who was also 10 years old at the time, abducted Bulger from a shopping centre.

The pair were granted life-long anonymity upon their release from jail in 2001, for fear of reprisals.

Seehofer seeks eastern allianceAP

SEEON, GERMANY: Bavaria’s conservative governor said yesterday he wants a closer cooperation with the countries of central Europe, praising Hungary in the face of criticism from the European Union for Budapest’s refusal to take in migrants.

Speaking at a meeting of his Christian Social Union party, Horst Seehofer said he plans to launch a “central European alli-ance,” saying Germany’s neigh-bours to the east are bigger trading partners for Bavaria than France or Britain.

Seehofer also praised

Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, who attended the meeting, saying “without a doubt (Orban) stands upon ground made up of the rule of law.” Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic are being sued by the European Commission for refusing to accept their share of refugees to be reset-tled among the block.

Seehofer’s comments stand at odds with the stance of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose conservative party he is allied with and who has repeatedly demanded a fair distribution of refugees among all EU member states.

Orban said he didn’t want

to meddle in Germany’s domestic politics --” currently in limbo as the German Chan-cellor, Seehofer and their Social Democratic rivals consider extending their governing coa-lition --” but reiterated his gov-ernment’s call for illegal migrants to be deported from Europe.

Bavaria was the entry point for hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers who came to Germany in 2015.

The numbers have since declined steeply, but Seehofer’s party is eager to be seen to be taking a tougher line on migrants ahead of this fall’s state election in Bavaria.

Court refuses to free Catalan leaderREUTERS

MADRID: Spain’s Supreme Court ordered yesterday that Catalan separatist leader Oriol Junqueras must remain in custody after over two months in prison while authorities investigate his role in the Spanish region’s independence movement.

In a written ruling, the judges said there was a risk that Junqueras would again commit an offence if he were released as there was no evidence to show he had abandoned “the path followed so far.” He is being held on allegations of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.

A December 21 election gave

separatists a slim majority in the regional parliament in a blow to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who had hoped it would quash the Catalan independence movement and resolve Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

The court’s decision will probably prevent Junqueras from being sworn in at the opening session of the new Catalan parliament on January 17 and complicates the sepa-ratist parties’ search for a leader who is neither jailed nor abroad.

Junqueras’s Esquerra Republicana (Republican Left) party emerged from the elec-tion as the second largest sepa-ratist group, a few seats behind

former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont’s Junts per Cat-alunya (Together for Catalonia) party.

Market-friendly unionist party Ciudadanos (Citizens) won the most seats but other unionist parties did not secure enough votes to form a majority.

Puigdemont remains in self-imposed exile in Brussels, though he has said he would return to Catalonia if the Spanish government gave him certain “guarantees”, likely a promise not to arrest him.

After the Supreme Court’s ruling, Puigdemont tweeted: “There is a conflict between Catalonia and Spain that must be resolved. We have always opted for peace and dialogue”.

Turkey urges ‘fresh start’ with GermanyANATOLIA

BERLIN: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu yesterday emphasised on the need for a new phase in rela-tions between Turkey and Germany, which have been strained since the 2016 defeated coup.

In an article penned for Germany’s Funke Media Group, Cavusoglu called for friendly cooperation between the two countries. “Through the lenses of common interests, it is time to adopt new approaches in Turkey-Ger-many relations,” he wrote.

Underlining the effect of Turkey-Germany relations on regional peace, Cavusoglu said: “What is rational [is] that we should retain our ties [in a] friendly [manner] and in a cooperation-oriented [envi-ronment] as we have since three centuries. As a beginning, we should agree on forming a frame for a new understanding to break the current crisis gyre in our relations.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) with French President Emmanuel Macron during an official welcome ceremony at Elysee Palace in Paris, yesterday

Protesters hold banners during a demonstration demanding the release of jailed former vice-president of Catalonia, Oriol Junqueras, in front of the Sant Vicenc dels Horts City Hall, near Barcelona.

THE WASHINGTON POST

In late January 2017, President Donald Trump’s first travel ban made for a brash start to the young

administration: an aggressive assertion of executive power in service of one of Mr. Trump’s most incendiary campaign promises. Almost a year later, the president’s promised ban on Muslim entry into the United States is more a story of weakness than of strength. Judge after judge blocked the order from going into effect after finding it likely unlawful. The administration is now battling in court to defend a third, watered-down version of the ban that bears little resemblance to Mr. Trump’s original policy, though it remains equally useless and cruel.

The Supreme Court may finally weigh in on the ban’s legality in the new year. The high court allowed the order to fully go into effect in early December while federal judges in the US Courts of Appeal for the 4th and 9th Circuits considered whether to halt enforcement of the ban’s third iteration. Just before Christmas, the 9th Circuit decided that

the executive order went beyond the president’s power to control the flow of immigration.

Earlier court rulings cited Mr. Trump’s anti- Muslim comments as evidence that the travel ban violated constitutional guarantees against religious discrimination. As a matter of policy and morality, those judges were right - but the courts also moved out ahead of settled law by pointing to Mr. Trump’s statements from the campaign trail. The 9th Circuit’s recent decision takes a more cautious route by focusing instead on whether Congress granted Mr. Trump the authority to issue his latest travel ban.

The third executive order indefinitely limits entry into the United States from five of the majority Muslim countries included in the original ban, along with travel from two non-majority-Muslim countries (Venezuela and North Korea) and one country with a significant Christian minority (Chad). Ninth Circuit judges found that the potentially permanent nature of the barriers to entry went against the statutory scheme laid out by Congress in the Immigration

and Nationality Act.What’s more, the court held that the

president failed to meet the act’s requirement of “finding” based on reason or evidence that travel from the eight countries would harm the United States - rather than simply declaring it to be so. The administration has presented nothing to suggest a connection between a person’s nationality and the likelihood of his or her being a threat. In other words, even the weakest version of the travel ban is still vulnerable because Mr. Trump drafted an ideological order by fiat instead of going through the normal processes of governing.

Despite the Supreme Court’s request that the 4th and 9th Circuits decide the case briskly, the former court has yet to issue an opinion. Once it does, that may open the door for the Supreme Court to hear arguments on the ban’s legality. It’s not clear how the justices might rule. What is clear is that the ban is bad policy made poorly. As the 9th Circuit wrote of the order’s effect on American Muslims: “It cannot be in the public interest that a portion of this country be made to live in fear.”

The Qatar Stock Exchange started off on a positive note with investors’ wealth rising to QR477.77bn in the first week of the year.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

08 SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018VIEWS

EDITORIAL

The wealth of investors on Qatar Stock Exchange is rising. The stock market continued to enjoy the country’s expansionary budget announcement.

Investors are also increasingly betting on Qatar’s proposed law to permit expatriates to own properties. Qatar stock market had started off 2018 on a positive note and the benchmark index gained 1.23 percent to end the first week of the year at 8,630.67 points. Investors’ wealth rose by 1.07 percent to reach QR477.77bn. Qatar companies that rely on the strength of the economy for their businesses staged strong performance as traders bet that an economy recovery will continue and boost the valuations.

Fund managers from the region predict a strong market recovery. 2018 is going to be the year, when earnings start kicking up with the

aggressive government spending, they say. A synchronised global growth is also going to influence the local market. Oil prices are spiking up. There will not be any major macro concern for Qatar in 2018, analysts point out.

Also, 2018 is expected to be the comeback year for real estate and banking sectors on the exchange. Real estate shares jumped a huge 35.32 percent in December. Banks are expected to remain the

key beneficiaries of the government’s huge project spending this year. The 2018 state budget charts out infrastructure spending that continues to average $500m a week. Heightened infrastructure spending will benefit the banking sector who will be called upon to fund a significant proportion of the new infrastructure.

Rashid Ali Al Mansoori, CEO of the QSE, when asked about the performance of the stock market as recently as November, said that the Qatari capital market is stable. It has passed the shock of the blockade and QSE is now operating normally like before the announcement of the siege. “Now we have come out of the impact of the blockade. If you see the number of transactions and trade value, they are stable and same like we registered before June 5.” Al Mansoori noted that the stock exchange is working very efficiently and attracting more investors from all around the world. “Over 100 new foreign funds have begun investing in Qatar since the blockade was imposed in early June.” He said the QSE is negotiating with many Arab and Asian countries to arrange dual listings of foreign stocks in Qatar.

The Qatar Stock Exchange, the second largest bourse in terms of market capitalisation in the GCC, is committed to improving sustainability, transparency and good governance to become the largest and most sustainable bourse in the region.

Investing in future

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Terror doesn’t form by itself. Terror and terrorists

have gardeners. These gardeners are those

people viewed as thinkers. They water ... from their columns on newspapers.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkey’s President

Trump should not embrace the MEK

Still cruel, still indefensible

DR. KHALID AL JABER &

GIORGIO CAFIERO

SSINCE unprecedented protests erupted across major Iranian cities last month, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, or the

Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), has sought to capitalise on such complicated developments to push Donald Trump’s administration more in favor of the group’s regime change agenda. Whereas Republicans were quick to criticize former US President Barack Obama’s diplomatic overtures to Iran and decision to avoid overtly supporting any factions in Iran pushing for the Islamic Republic’s overthrow during the 2009 protests, voices on both sides of Washington’s partisan divide have urged Trump to embrace a new approach towards Tehran.

A host of pundits are calling on Trump to support the MEK as a viable, democratic, pro-Western, and secular alternative to the Islamic Republic, despite the fact that the State Department designated the faction a terrorist organization from 1997 to 2012 for its “past acts of terrorism, including its involvement in the killing of US citizens in Iran in the 1970s and an attack on US soil in 1992.” Nonetheless, since Trump won the 2016 presidential election, scores of former US officials have sought to convince him to open up discussions between his administration and the MEK.

Although, thus far, Trump’s administration has been quick to distinguish itself from Obama’s by assertively condemning the Iranian regime and expressing solidarity with Iranian protesters, it is not clear if the administration will heed advice in favour of supporting the MEK. Andrew Peek, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran, stated that the administration will not pursue regime change in Tehran, but instead seek to pressure the Islamic Republic into changing its conduct.

The administration, however, is still issuing thinly veiled threats suggesting that

regime change might be in the cards. At Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ first brief of 2018, she said that the Trump administration is “keeping a lot of options on the table at this time”. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert asserted that sanctions are only one part of

Washington’s “tool kit” and that “there are a range of options that we have going forward.” In June, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson affirmed at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that Washington’s Iran policy is based on supporting “elements inside of Iran” in pursuit of a “peaceful transition of that government”.

Unquestionably, Washington turning to the MEK to promote the overthrow of Iran’s regime would signal even more of a departure from Obama’s strategy towards Tehran. But doing so entails high levels of risk. To be sure, the White House backing the MEK would emboldened the Iranian regime’s narrative that the unrest in the country’s major cities is orchestrated by Tehran’s “enemies” including the MEK, as well as the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.

Regardless of how unrealistic it is to imagine the MEK having the means to topple Iran’s regime, any effort to trigger the Islamic Republic’s collapse could fuel a major escalation of violence throughout the Middle East. In light of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s assertion in May 2017 that any military confrontation between Riyadh and Tehran would take place “inside Iran, not in Saudi Arabia”, coupled with Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud’s endorsement of the MEK two months later, tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran have reached a dangerously high level that would likely impact Tehran’s response to any foreign-sponsored efforts to topple the regime.

Of course, Iran’s ability to retaliate against any of Washington’s efforts to decisively back the MEK could create major dilemmas for the US military’s various bases around the region. Having

spent years expanding its influence throughout the Levant and Arabian Peninsula, Iran is in a position to order Tehran-backed militias to carry out violent attacks against US installations in numerous countries near Iran. In Iraq and Syria, where various actors are seeking to make themselves shareholders in the future of both countries, Iran has extensive clout that can be directed against Washington in the aftermath of the Islamic State’s defeats last year. Put simply, as the majority of Americans favour diplomacy towards Iran, such actions against the regime could drag the Trump administration into new conflicts and quagmires in the Middle East that would likely be highly unpopular among the US public.

It is important for the Trump administration to react to protests in Iran carefully, without taking actions that could further undermine US interests in the country and elsewhere in the region. Given that there is widespread opposition to Trump across Iran’s political spectrum—largely due to his opposition to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and his administration’s inclusion of Iran on last year’s travel ban, it remains to be seen how Trump’s expression of solidarity with Iranian protestors will pan out on the ground in Iran.

In any event, support for the MEK, a group that carries much baggage in Iran for its history of collaborating with Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war, would almost inevitably fuel greater opposition and anger towards Trump and the US on the part of both Iranians who are supportive of their regime and those calling for Iran to transition away from the Islamic Republic nearly four decades after its establishment.

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

In any event, support for the MEK, a group that carries much baggage in Iran for its history of collaborating with Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war, would almost inevitably fuel greater opposition and anger towards Trump and the US.

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Ramaphosa knows that he needs to get rid of President Zuma as quickly as possible, preferably before South Africa’s political year starts in February 2018 with the annual State of the Nation address by the state president, if he wants to restore waning public and investor confidence in the ANC.

WILLIAM GUMEDE

AL JAZEERA

CYRIL Ramaphosa, the newly elected president of South Africa’s governing

African National Congress (ANC) is in a race against time to unite, renew and rebuild trust in Africa’s oldest liberation movement before the country’s 2019 national elections. This is going to be a hard task following the ANC’s decisive 54th conference where the party emerged as almost two separate parties.

The ANC under President Jacob Zuma, weighted down by corruption, scandals and government failure, have fractured, and lost electoral support in key cities and traditional constituencies. It is in danger of losing the next national elections in just over 12 months.

At last month’s conference, ANC leaders successfully managed to prevent the party from formally splitting into two, following the bruising party leadership contest between Ramaphosa and his losing opponent Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the former African Union head and former wife of South African President Jacob Zuma. In 2018, the big challenge for Ramaphosa and the ANC will be to overcome the deep divisions between these factions.

Differences over whether

to get former ANC President and current South African President Jacob Zuma out of the state presidency early in 2018 - as Ramaphosa wants to do - rather than let him complete his term - as the Dlamini-Zuma/Zuma group wants - is going to be the first obstacle the new party leader will be facing in the new year.

Ramaphosa knows that he needs to get rid of President Zuma as quickly as possible, preferably before South Africa’s political year starts in February 2018 with the annual State of the Nation address by the state president, if he wants to restore waning public and investor confidence in the ANC. Ramaphosa also needs to quickly take full control of the government, appoint his own Cabinet team and introduce his priority policies to restore public and investor confidence ahead of the 2019 elections.

However, because the pro-Zuma group has such a powerful grip on the ANC, Ramaphosa would not be able to fire Zuma immediately, but will have to negotiate an exit settlement, which may be protracted, as Zuma and his allies may want to secure safeguard guarantees. Furthermore, Dlamini-Zuma allies, given their strength, may demand they co-govern with Ramaphosa - meaning sharing

appointments to Cabinet, government and state-owned companies. This may force Ramaphosa to appoint incompetent Dlamini-Zuma allies to key positions to maintain party unity, which may undermine his reform agenda.

If he wants to win back the declining support for the ANC, Ramaphosa needs to be seen tackling rampant corruption in 2018. However, he is likely to find this difficult to achieve without facing fierce resistance from Zuma and his allies. This may even cause the party to split in two, as Zuma allies still control at least half of the party.

The very first priority for the ANC will be to institute a commission of inquiry to investigate corruption, following a recommendation late last year by former South African Public Protector Thuli Madonsela. President Zuma has previously promised to do so, but has delayed setting it up.

What the commission of inquiry into state capture, if set-up in 2018, will investigate, will also determine whether the ANC will enter the 2019 elections even more divided than it is now. It is very likely that in order to unify the factions, party leaders from both groups will try to make the terms of reference of the commission as wide as possible, to also include corruption among South Africa’s white business community. This would give President Zuma a “dignified” way out of the myriad corruption probes currently involving him.

Resuscitating South Africa’s distressed economy should be another priority for Ramaphosa if he wants to restore the ANC’s fortunes

In 2018, Ramaphosa is likely to try to build a social partnership between government, business and trade unions, where each of the groups agree on a set of minimum obligations that would boost investor confidence. This is likely to be

based on the blueprint created early last year, when Ramaphosa managed to unite business, labour and government to agree on a minimum wage.

However, it may be more difficult for Ramaphosa to convince ANC’s two main competing factions to agree on policies, as it is clear that Ramaphosa and Dlamini-Zuma/Zuma camps already differ deeply over core policies.

For example, at the ANC’s conference, the two groups clashed over a proposal to amend the constitution to allow expropriation of land without compensation. The dispute almost caused the collapse of the ANC conference. Pro-Ramaphosa groups rejected it, but it was eventually carried forward with the support of pro-Zuma/Dlamini-Zuma groups.

Although Ramaphosa at the end of the conference endorsed the expropriation of land without compensation - to honour the ANC conference resolution - many of his own supporters still believe that such an approach will undermine investor confidence, desperately needed to create jobs. Just a few months ago the ANC rejected a call by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to amend the constitution to allow for this kind of expropriation of land without compensation.

To amend the constitution to allow for expropriation of land without compensation before the 2019 national elections, will need a two-thirds majority in the Parliament. Even if the EFF vote with the ANC to help secure such a two-thirds majority, a vote is likely to split ANC MPs, as many pro-Ramaphosa MPs still oppose the measure. This means that the ANC may fail to secure the necessary two-thirds majority even with the EFF’s support.

Another 2018 battle between the Ramaphosa and

A curious side effect of American political polarisation may be the decline of Canadian anti-Americanism. Though

conceptualizing Canadians as a people who are, before anything else, “not American” is a centuries-old tradition, over the past 40 years this contrarianism has congealed around a narrower notion that Canadian not-Americanness is (or should be) defined through Canada’s embrace of policies and politicians to the

left of American norms - stricter gun control, government-run health insurance, etc. It’s a conclusion assuming a high degree of national homogeneity - that Americans all basically think one way and Canadians another. If 2017 has demonstrated nothing else, however, it’s that neither nation is so easily generalised.

2017 saw Bernie Sanders travel to Toronto and lavish praise on a Canadian health-care system that polls suggest the majority of Democratic voters want to copy. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau became a global celebrity thanks to a giddy fan base of American progressives. Canadian liberals are used to being fetishized by a certain sort of American, but 2017 proved that the love is becoming far more mutual, as when thousands of Canadian women joined street protests against a freshly inaugurated President Donald Trump. I grew up hearing smug Canadian leftists sneer that the “most liberal Democrat is still to the right of a Canadian Conservative.” No one says that

much anymore.More significant, however, is the fact

that so much of North American political debate now focuses far less on government policy and programs than social-cultural trends, most of which are not exclusive to one side of the continent. Canada’s American-bashers have traditionally made their case playing up weirdness in American government because it’s the easiest distraction from the vast cultural similarities of the two nations. That task is much harder when politics becomes less about congressmen and prime ministers, and more about lived experiences that transcend country.

The #MeToo movement, for instance, which Time magazine declared the most newsworthy phenomena of 2017, can hardly be regarded by Canadians as some exotic “American” thing. In a recent poll, a majority of Canadian working women reported that they had experienced sexual harassment, at rates little different from those found by American pollsters. Though not part of the domino effect that followed the Harvey Weinstein allegations, recent years have seen the standing of once-powerful Canadian men toppled overnight by allegations of misconduct, most notably radio host Jian Ghomeshi, two members of parliament, and, last fall, the head of Montreal’s acclaimed Just for Laughs comedy festival. When Canadian-born Hollywood stars such as Rachel McAdams, Ellen Page and Sarah Polley spoke publicly about harassment, they spoke only as women - with no attempt to frame their experiences as something foreign. The Canadian entertainment industry, for its part, has promised to create an industry-wide code of conduct to fight what the president of the Toronto actors’ union called a “prevalent” problem.

The United States’ renewed interest in racial justice has been similarly mirrored across the border. All big Canadian cities now have their own branch of Black Lives Matter, and viral phenomena, like Kendall Jenner’s tone-deaf Pepsi

commercial or football players taking a knee, reliably provoke national conversations in Canada as well. “Racism is not just an American problem, it’s a Canadian problem too,” concluded a local story on Black Lives Matter Calgary.

But the backlash to all this has also transcended borders.

University of Toronto psychologist Jordan Peterson was easily one of the most prominent Canadian celebrities of 2017, earning continent-wide acclaim in conservative circles - and disdain in progressive ones - for his passionate denunciations of contemporary left-wing causes, particularly gender fluidity. When Google employee James Damore was fired last August after his infamous memo on gender differences, it was to Peterson’s sympathetic ear that he gave one of his first extended interviews, recognizing the professor’s reach.

Legions of young Canadian men blog and meme-war about Trump with little sense that it’s a foreign fight; the president’s crusade against his stock enemies - political correctness, “globalists,” the “fake news” media - is one in which they find common cause. Canadians such as Stefan Molyneux, Faith Goldy and Lauren Southern have become major figures in the immigration-bashing alt-right counterculture, a movement that, paradoxically enough, tends to demonstrate its “nationalism” by elevating transnational concepts like “whiteness” or “the West” above patriotism for any particular nation-state.

The pervasiveness of Canadian anti-Americanism has always been one of history’s more unlikely phenomena, given the two countries have always been deeply integrated at the cultural, economic and familial level, while bigotries tend to be fueled by ignorance and isolation. The most common explanation has been that Canadians crave a distinct sense of self, but as the most powerful identities of North American life become more personal and tribal, expect this motive to fade as well.

A tough year ahead for South Africa’s ANC

The decline of Canada’s anti-Americanism

J J MCCULLOUGH

THE WASHINGTON POST

09SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018 OPINION

The pervasiveness of Canadian anti-Americanism has always been one of history’s more unlikely phenomena, given the two countries have always been deeply integrated at the cultural, economic and familial level, while bigotries tend to be fueled by ignorance and isolation.

Dlamini-Zuma/Zuma group will be over education. A day before the ANC conference, in an attempt to boost Dlamini-Zuma’s presidential campaign, Jacob Zuma proposed to make higher education free for poor and working-class students. The conference endorsed Zuma’s proposal, resolving that this measure must be “speedily” implemented. A special commission appointed by Zuma last year to investigate whether free higher education was financially feasible ahead of the conference said it was not viable at this moment and proposing alternative models should be investigated.

The National Treasury has said the proposal would be financially impractical right now, given the lack of public resources available, drop in tax revenue and public sector belt-tightening measures that were recently introduced. The Dlamini-Zuma/Zuma group would want to get the no-fee proposal implemented before the 2019 elections because it is a potential vote spinner among the poor - they would not care whether it undermines public finances and investor confidence.

This year, in order to maintain the unity of the ANC and to make sure that the party enters the 2019 national elections as a single body, Ramaphosa may need to slow down the organisational renewal of the ANC and the implementation of reforms that would tackle corruption and increase investor confidence in the party..

10 SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018EUROPE

Rescue underwayMembers of Paris Fire Brigade intervene in the river Seine next to the Pont Saint-Michel (Saint-Mochel Bridge) near Notre-Dame Cathedral, in Paris, yesterday, after a member of the Paris Waterway Police unit disappeared in the river Seine during an exercise late yesterday morning.

Austria rejects EU alliance talkAP

SEGGAUBERG: Austria’s new chancellor yesterday rejected suggestions that his government will align with eastern European Union nations that have clashed with the bloc over migrants and other issues.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz leads a coalition with the tradi-tionally euroskeptic Freedom Party that took office just before holiday. Both Kurz’ conservative People’s Party and the Freedom Party have taken a hard line against migration.

The position has generated speculation that Austria could move closer to the Visegrad group of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia than to its western EU allies.

Kurz, Europe’s youngest leader, warned yesterday against “over-interpreting things.”

“There are measures and ini-tiatives where we have goodwill in western European countries,” he told reporters after a meeting of the new Cabinet. “There are others where we will perhaps get applause from the Visegrad countries, and still others where

we agree with all other 27 EU member states.”

Kurz plans to visit Paris and Berlin in the coming weeks. He said he expects a “good exchange” with German Chan-cellor Angela Merkel, stressing that “Germany is our biggest neighbour, our most important economic partner.”

Of French President Emmanuel Macron, who has championed efforts to reform the EU, Kurz said: “It is clearly pos-itive for all of us in the European Union that there is a French president who aspires to change something in the EU”

Kurz called for an EU that is strong on “big questions” such as border security but leaves many policy decisions to indi-vidual countries and regions.

Austria will hold the EU’s rotating presidency in the second half of this year, when the bloc

should be finalising the terms of Britain’s departure.

“I very much hope that we succeed in organising an orderly departure by the British,” Kurz said, arguing that a failure to do so would hurt both sides.

Speaking alongside Kurz, Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache downplayed comments in an interview with public broadcaster ORF in which he appeared to raise the idea of housing asylum-seekers in mil-

itary barracks.Strache, the Freedom Party

leader, said Friday his comments had been taken out of context and “no mass accommodation is planned” for asylum-seekers in military facilities.

There are measures and initiatives where we have goodwill in western European countries. There are others where we will perhaps get applause from the Visegrad countries, and still others where we agree with all other 27 EU member states, say Sebastian Kurz.

Moldova court suspends president’s power againRoyal family expecting another baby

REUTERS

LONDON: Zara Tindall, the granddaughter of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, is pregnant with her second child, her spokeswoman said on Friday.

“The queen and members of the royal family were very pleased to hear this news,” a spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said.

Zara, who is married to former England rugby union captain Mike Tindall, gave birth to the couple’s first child, Mia Grace in January 2014, but lost a previous baby in 2016.

The queen currently has five great-grandchildren,

however grandson Prince Wil-liam and his wife Kate, offi-cially known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are expecting their third child next April.

No date was given for when the Tindalls’ new baby was due. Their second child will either be 18th or 19th in line to the throne depending on when the Cambridges’ baby is born.

Zara, 36, the daughter of the queen’s only daughter Anne, won an equestrian silver at the London Olympic Games in 2012 while her 39-year-old husband was part of the Eng-land team that won the rugby World Cup in 2003.

AFP

CHISINAU: Moldova’s Consti-tutional Court yesterday suspended pro-Moscow Pres-ident Igor Dodon (pictured) for the second time this week for vetoing new media laws expected to crack down on Russian broadcasts.

Dodon has refused to sign the legislation, dubbed the “laws on Russian propaganda” by its supporters.

Moldova, a former Soviet republic, is divided between supporters of closer links to Moscow and those—including members of the current gov-ernment—who want integra-tion into the European Union.

The new laws would ban the broadcasting of “informa-tional, political and military shows of countries that have not signed the European con-vention of transnational television”.

The Constitutional Court ruled yesterday that the presi-dent’s “temporary suspension” is necessary to “unblock” laws approved by parliament so they can enter into force.

Dodon’s opponents appealed to the court after he vetoed the laws for a second time. The court ruled the pres-ident had the right to veto a given law “only once”.

It decided that “the

president had consciously refused to fulfil his constitu-tional responsibilities” and announced his “temporary ina-bility to fulfil his duties.”

The media laws will be signed into force by parliamen-tary speaker Andrian Candu.

Dodon slammed the deci-sion, saying he would “not for a second give in to the regime”—a reference to his pro-Europe rivals.

“The current acts of the ruling regime supported by the Constitutional Court will not be without consequence. After this year’s parliamentary elec-tions, we will need to change a lot. In the government, in parliament and in the Consti-tutional Court,” the 42 year-old president wrote on his Facebook page.

He has called the media laws “an encroachment on the freedom of Moldovan citizens to receive information.”

Former England rugby union captain Mike Tindall and Zara Tindall

Greece extradites two Macedonian wiretap suspectsAP

THESSALONIKI: A Greek court ruled yesterday that two Macedonian men arrested on an international warrant issued by their country on charges related to a wiretap-ping scandal should be extra-dited.

Court documents had described the two men, aged 35 and 51, as being members of Macedonia’s counter-intel-ligence services. They were arrested at the airport of the northern Greek city of Thes-saloniki in October after allegedly being found with forged Bulgarian travel documents.

Their lawyer, Konstantinos Chadziioannou, filed an appeal against the verdict with Greece’s Supreme Court. No date for the hearing was imme-diately set. The two denied the charges against them.

They also face a separate trial in Greece, set for May, on charges related to the use of forged documents.

The extradition hearing for the two, who have not been publicly named, was held behind closed doors at their request. Chadziioannou said he had submitted 17,000 pages of documents as evi-dence in their defence.

“We believe in the court and the justice system of the Republic of Greece and the democratic capabilities of the court,” said Peter Vasilev, the Macedonian lawyer for the two, adding they had hopes the decision would be over-turned by the Supreme Court.

Saakashvili sentenced to jailREUTERS

TBILISI: A Georgian court sentenced former leader Mikheil Saakashvili in absentia to three years in prison yesterday for seeking to cover up evidence about the murder of a Georgian banker when he was president - a verdict which he denounced as illegal.

Georgia said it would seek the extradition of Saakashvili, who was president from 2004-2013, from Ukraine where he is

an active opposition figure and has had violent brushes with authorities.

A court in the Georgian cap-ital Tbilisi found Saakashvili guilty of abusing his presiden-tial powers by trying to cover up evidence about the 2006 murder of banker Sandro Girgv-liani and pardoning four men convicted of the killing.

Saakashvili called the ver-dict illegal. “The ‘verdict’ of the Georgian court ... against me is completely illegal and

contradicts all international, national norms and common sense,” Saakashvili wrote on his Facebook page yesterday.

Ukraine said it would con-sider Georgia’s extradition request though legal procedures would have to be followed.

“Prosecutors are in the process of arranging a date for Saakashvili’s questioning due to Georgia’s request to extradite him,” Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian prosecutor general, said.

Sharp drop in migrant arrivals to EuropeREUTERS

GENEVA: Slightly fewer than half as many migrants reached Europe by sea in 2017 than 2016, the International Organ-ization for Migration (IOM) said yesterday, with curbs finally cutting traffic on the deadly route from Libya to Italy.

Two years after more than a million people entered the EU, mostly fleeing war in the Middle East and poverty in Africa, the IOM recorded 171,635 arrivals by boat in 2017. The 2016 figure was 363,504.

Reducing traffic has been slower on the other main route, across the central Mediterra-nean from North Africa to Italy, where thousands of people have died at sea. But numbers finally started coming down sharply in the second half of last year.

Arrivals by boat in Italy

accounted for most of the 2017 arrivals: 119,310 in total, down by a third compared to the pre-vious year, the Italian Interior Ministry said on December 31.

“We can tell you with con-fidence that the numbers from North Africa to Italy this year are under 120,000...That’s the lowest in the last four years for arrivals in Italy,” IOM spokesman Joel Millman said

“The same can be said for the arrivals in Greece with 29,595 for 2017, absolutely the lowest in the four years we have been keeping numbers on Greece,” he said.

In 2016, some 173,614 migrants arrived by sea in Greece, according to IOM figures.

Some 21,663 migrants arrived in Spain as of December 28 last year, while 1,067 landed in Cyprus, preliminary figures show.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (centre left) and Deputy Chancellor Heinz Christian Strache (centre right) with government members during a work retreat in Seggauberg, southern Austria, yesterday.

AP

SAN JUAN: Puerto Rico’s

governor has vetoed three

highly criticised bills that

would have imposed stricter

measures on juvenile offend-

ers in the US territory.

One of the bills would

have allowed minors to be

charged as adults in certain

cases.

Opponents also argued

that the measures recently

approved by the island’s

Senate and House of Repre-

sentatives would have made

it harder to resolve cases

through mediation.

Gov Ricardo Rossello said

that he is seeking a more

fair and responsible law to

address criminal cases involv-

ing minors.

NEWS BYTESGovernor vetoes bills on juvenile offenders

11SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018 AMERICAS

‘Unprecedented demand’A copy of the book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” by Michael Wolff on display at a bookstore in Washington, DC, yesterday. The book was rushed into bookstores and onto e-book platforms four days ahead of schedule due to what its publisher called “unprecedented demand” -- and after Trump’s bid to block it failed.

Deal on young migrants still ways off: RepublicansREUTERS

WASHINGTON: Congressional Republicans yesterday down-played the likelihood of a deal soon with Democrats on saving 700,000 young, undocumented US immigrants from being kicked out of the country in March, a possibility created by President Donald Trump.

Trump in September ordered an Obama-era programme that provided the young “Dreamer” immigrants with work permits and prevented them from being deported to end in six months.

The programme is known as Deferred Action for Childhood

Arrivals, or DACA.Despite his order, the Repub-

lican president has vacillated in his view of the Dreamers.

Young people brought to the United States as children illegally and raised and educated in the country, most of them have little or no experience of their parents’ homelands in Latin America, Asia, Africa and elsewhere.

Saving the Dreamers is a high priority for Democrats, but the issue has been swept up in other debates, including one on the wall that Trump wants to build along the US-Mexico border.

Republican Senator John

Cornyn, in a tweet yesterday, accused Democrats of trying to force a deal on Dreamers by doing a “slow walk” on efforts to approve critical disaster aid and defence spending.

Two other Republicans late on Thursday said both sides remained far apart. “Our discus-sions on border security and enforcement with Democrats are much further apart, and that is key to getting a bipartisan deal on DACA,” senators Thom Tillis and James Lankford said in a statement.

Democrats have said they are open to tying DACA to additional funding for border security

technology. But they oppose Trump’s wall, projected to cost over $21bn.

The struggle over the Dreamers carries political weight for both parties heading into the November 2018 midterm con-gressional elections. Most of the Dreamers came from Mexico and Hispanics tend to vote for Dem-ocrats, who hope to gain seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Republican lawmakers met with Trump at the White House recently and initially emerged saying they were optimistic that they could find a legislative fix for DACA.

This weekend, Trump and senior Republican congressional leaders are also likely to discuss the issue at a conference held at Camp David, the US president’s mountain retreat in Maryland.

A meeting between leaders of both parties was set for Tuesday.

Cornyn, in an interview on Fox News said that Trump would demand that an immigration deal address the current visa lot-tery system and chain migration that unites family members.

“Those are things that he’s insisted upon,” and Democrats would have to embrace them along with border security.”

REUTERS

WASHINGTON: Veteran

former US talk show host David

Letterman will return to tele-

vision on January 12 in a new

Netflix show where his first

guest will be former US pres-

ident Barack Obama, Netflix

Inc said yesterday. The com-

pany’s shares rose as much

as 2% to a record of $209.72.

Called “My Next Guest

Needs No Introduction with

David Letterman,” the six-epi-

sode series will also feature

interviews with actor George

Clooney, rapper Jay-Z, radio

shock jock Howard Stern,

comedian Tina Fey and Paki-

stani education activist and

Nobel Peace Prize winner

Malala Yousafzai, the stream-

ing service said.

Obama first guest on new Netflix show

AP

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration imposed sanc-tions yesterday on four senior Venezuelan military officials for alleged corruption and repres-sion, in a bid to raise the pres-sure on President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

Among those targeted in the Treasury Department’s action are Rodolfo Marco Torres, a retired general who is now Aragua state’s governor, and Francisco Rangel Gomez, another former general and previous governor of Bolivar state.

The Associated Press last year collected documents and testimony from business owners describing Marco Torres, a former Venezuelan food minister, as a key figure involved in fraudulent food imports.

The others affected by the sanctions are Fabio Zavarse

Pabon, a division general of the Bolivarian National Guard, and Gerardo Izquierdo Torres, an Army major general who holds other senior positions.

Maduro has named many military officials to high-pro-file government positions.

“President Maduro and his inner circle continue to put their own interests above those of the Venezuelan people,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

“This action underscores the United States’ resolve to hold Maduro and others engaged in corruption in Ven-ezuela accountable.”

Any assets held by the men under US jurisdictions are now frozen. Americans are banned from doing business with them.

Those sanctioned are in addition to the dozens of cur-rent and former Venezuelan officials the US already has targeted.

Russia probe: Call to oust Trump’s counselREUTERS

WASHINGTON: A top House Democrat called for the imme-diate dismissal of White House counsel Don McGahn (pictured) yesterday after a report that President Donald Trump asked McGahn to urge Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the investigation of Russian election meddling.

US Representative Jerrold Nadler said the incident, reported in the New York Times, was a clear effort to obstruct the Russia probe and he expected McGahn

to volunteer to testify before the Judiciary Committee.

The Times said Trump directed McGahn to stop Ses-sions, who was a chief adviser in Trump’s 2016 presidential cam-paign, from removing himself from a Justice Department probe

into whether the campaign worked with Russians to sway the 2016 election.

McGahn failed to persuade Sessions to remain involved and Trump erupted in anger in front of a number of White House offi-cials, saying the attorney general needed to protect him, according to the Times, which cited two people with knowledge of the episode.

Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said the attorney general’s job was to uphold the law, including rules on conflict of interest.

“Either Mr. McGahn knows this and decided to interfere with the Russia investigation anyway, or he doesn’t,” Nadler said in a statement. “Neither case is acceptable and he should be removed from his post immedi-ately.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Nadler’s call for McGahn to step down.

After Sessions recused him-self in March, the Justice Depart-ment appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to lead the inves-tigation into possible collusion and whether Trump tried to

obstruct the FBI’s Russian inquiry. Republicans have attacked Mueller’s probe as polit-ically motivated, prompting con-cerns among Democrats that Trump would fire him.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal urged lawmakers on Friday to support legislation pro-tecting the special counsel, citing the Times report.

“Explosive evidence of obstruction - and imminent danger to Special Counsel. White House Staff need to testify before grand jury,” Blumenthal wrote on Twitter.

Covered in white flakesA snowed in vehicle is left parked the day after the region was hit with a “bomb cyclone, in the Dorchester neighbourhood of Boston, Massachusetts, yesterday. Schools and businesses throughout the Boston area get back to work today after the city received over a foot of snow during the fast moving storm.

US hits four Venezuelan generals with sanctions

GOP Rep runs for Florida governorAP

TALLAHASSEE: A congressman who recently won President Donald Trump’s tweeted endorsement for the job of Florida governor entered the race yesterday, saying he wants to “drain the swamp in Talla-hassee.”

Ron DeSantis joins a crowded field seeking to replace Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who leaves office in 2019 due to term limits. Trump tweeted last month that DeSantis is a “bril-liant young leader” who “would make a GREAT governor. He loves our Country and is a true FIGHTER!”

DeSantis made his announcement on Fox News and made sure to mention the Trump endorsement.

“With the support of the president, I’m in a position to exercise the leadership that can build on the great work that Governor Rick Scott has done to advance economic opportunity, reform education and drain the

swamp in Tallahassee, which needs to be drained just like Washington,” DeSantis said.

While a popular line during the Trump campaign, there isn’t the same frustration with Tal-lahassee as there is with Wash-ington -- at least among Republicans.

Republicans have controlled the Legislature and governor’s office since 1999, when Jeb Bush was sworn into office. Since then there have been several laws passed on ethics and lobbying, including a lobbyist gift ban, a ban on lawmakers lobbying state agencies for two years after leaving office, a law requiring lobbyists to provide more details on the money they receive from clients and greater transparency in campaign finance reporting.

DeSantis hasn’t been shy about his support for Trump. He introduced the president at a rally in Pensacola last month and praised him.

“I see the results, I see him working hard, and this is a pres-ident, mind you, who is facing

unprecedented opposition from the Democrats, from the media ... from the bureaucracy in Washington, from the lobbyists, from the other swamp dwellers.”

DeSantis, 39, was a history major at Yale University, where he graduated with honors and was captain of the baseball team. He received his law degree from Harvard Univer-sity. He served as a Navy lawyer in Iraq and worked as a federal prosecutor before being elected to Congress in 2012.

He is a favourite of conserv-ative political groups and was a 2016 candidate for Senate before dropping out of the race when Republican Senator Marco Rubio decided to run for re-election.

DeSantis filed his paperwork yesterday and will make a formal announcement later this month.

A third Republican candi-date, state Senator Jack Latvala, resigned his seat after a Senate investigation found probable cause that he inappropriately touched a woman.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal urged lawmakers yesterday to support legislation protecting the special counsel.

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AL KHOR

lnsidious: The Last Key (2D/Horror) 10:00am, 12:10, 2:20, 2:30, 4:30, 6:40, 7:15, 8:50, 11:00, 11:40pm & 12:00midnightJumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 11:00, 11:30am, 12:00noon, 1:30, 4:00, 4:20, 4:45, 6:30, 8:50, 9:00, 9:30 & 11:30pm Tadeo 2(Animation) 3D 10:00am, 1:20 & 4:40pm 2D 11:40am, 3:00, 6:20, 8:00&9:40pmFerdinand (2D/Animation) 10:00am, 12:10, 2:20 & 4:30pmPitch Perfect (2D/Comedy) 6:40, 8:50 & 11:00pmThe Humanity Bureau (2D/Action) 10:30am, 2:40 & 6:50pm Bleeding Steel (2D/Action) 12:30, 4:40, 8:50 & 11:00pm Loving Vincent (2D/Crime) 10:00am, 2:00, 6:00 & 10:00pm Disaster Artist (2D/Comedy) 12:00noon, 4:00, 8:00pm & 12:00midnight Molly’s Game (2D/Drama) 10:00am, 12:45, 3:30, 6:15, 9:00 & 11:45pm Alaa Wadaakh (2D/Arabic) 2:00, 6:50 & 11:15pm The Greatest Showman (2D/Drama) 11:00am, 4:15, 9:30 & 11:45pm Star Wars: The Last Jedi 2 (2D IMAX/Action) 1:15 & 6:30pm

Chupan Chupai (2D/Comedy) 2:30pm Disaster Artist (2D/Drama) 5:00pmTadeo Jones 2 (Animation) 2:30 & 4:00pm The Humanity Bureau (2D/Action) 7:15pm Tiger Zinda Hai (2D/Hindi) 5:00 & 11:30pm Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 5:30 & 7:30pmMasterpiece (2D/Malayalam) 2:15, 8:00 & 11:00pm Molly’s Game (2D/Drama) 9:00pm Insidious: The Last Key (2D/Horror) 9:30 & 11:30pm

Loving Vincent (2D/Animation) 2:30pm Masterpiece (2D/Malayalam) 2:30, 8:30 & 11:15pm Tadeo Jones 2 (Animation) 3:00 & 4:30pm Tiger Zinda Hai (2D/Hindi) 5:30 & 8:15pm Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 4:00 & 6:00pmAana Alaralodalaral (2D/Malayalam) 6:00pm The Humanity Bureau (2D/Action) 8:00pm Insidious: The Last Key (2D/Horror) 11:00pm Disaster Artist (2D/Drama) 9:45pm Molly’s Game (2D/Drama) 11:30pm

Aana Alaralodalaral (2D/Malayalam) 2:30pm Tadeo Jones 2(Animation)2:30 & 4:15pm Loving Vincent (2D/Animation) 2:45pm Masterpiece (2D/Malayalam) 6:00, 8:45 & 11:30pm Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 6:30pmDisaster Artist (2D/Drama) 4:30pm Tiger Zinda Hai (2D/Hindi) 8:30 & 11:00pm Molly’s Game (2D/Drama) 5:00pm The Humanity Bureau (2D/Action) 7:30pm Insidious: The Last Key (2D/Horror) 9:15 & 11:15pm

Velaikkaran (Tamil) 12:30pm Vimanam (Malayalam) 3:30pm Masterpiece (Malayalam) 1:30, 3:30, 4:30, 6:30, 7:30, 9:30, 10:30pm

Tiger Zinda Hai (2D/Hindi) 12:30pm

Aana Alaralodalaral (Malayalam) 12:30, 3:00, 5:30, 8:00, 10:30pm

Masterpiece (Malayalam) 12:00noon, 3:00, 6:00, 9:00pm & 12:00midnight Molly’s Game 11:00am, 4:00 & 9:00pm Insidious 1:45, 6:45 & 11:45pm Tiger Zinda Hai (2D/Hindi) 12:30, 6:00 & 11:00pm Jumanji 3:30 & 9:00pm

Tadeo Jones 2 (Animation) 10:30am, 12:30, 3:30 & 6:30pm Disaster Artist (2D/Drama) 10:30am, 12:45, 3:00, 5:15 & 7:30pm

Insidious: The Last Key 10:30am, 5:45, 8:00, 10:15pm & 12:30am

Masterpiece10:30am, 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 9:45 & 10:30pm

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (Animation) 12:45, 3:15, 8:30 & 11:00pm

15SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018 HOME

FAJRSHOROOK

04.59am06.21 am

ZUHRASR

11.40 am02.39 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

05.01 pm06.31 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 08:15 – 20:15 LOW TIDE 00:30 – 15:30

Hazy at places at first becomes moder-

ate temperature daytime with some colds.

cold by night.

WEATHER TODAY

COURTESY: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum 16oC 26oC

16 SATURDAY 6 JANUARY 2018MORNING BREAK

REUTERS

TOKYO: In the final New Year’s auction at Tokyo’s famed Tsukiji fish market yesterday, the owner of an international sushi restaurant shelled out more than $300,000 for a prime bluefin tuna and said he was “very happy” with the result.

The world’s largest fish market, one of Tokyo’s most popular tourist sites, is set to relocate later this year to clear the way for a road needed for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Hiroshi Onodera, President of LEOC Co. Ltd which owns the “Ginza Onodera” restaurant chain, paid 36.45m yen ($323,195) for a 405-kg (890 lb) premium Pacific bluefin tuna - around 90,000 yen per kg.

The price was just over half that of last year’s winning bid of 72 million yen and well below the record 155 mil-lion yen paid in 2013.

“I’ve tried to win in the auction since last year, so I’m really happy,” said Onodera, whose company has res-taurants in New York and Singapore as well as in Japan. “This is especially true because it’s the last year in Tsukiji.”

Tuna is prized around the world for its use in sushi, but experts warn growing demand has made it an endangered species.

“The high price paid today for a single Pacific bluefin tuna should not

distract from the dire status of the spe-cies, which has been depleted by more than 97 percent by years of over-fishing,” said Jamie Gibbon, a Pacific bluefin tuna expert for the Pew Char-itable Trusts, in a statement.

“If countries continue to exceed

their catch limits...the very survival of the species will be threatened.”

The 80-year-old Tsukiji market draws tens of thousands of visitors a year to its warren of stalls with exotic species of fish and fresh sushi, part of a tourism boom that is a key part of

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic revival plan.

“This will truly be the final auction here, so I made sure I came to watch,” said Mitsuko Yamaguchi, the 61-year-old owner of a seafood store, during an interaction.

Tuna goes for $323,000 at Tokyo auction

AFP

CASABLANCA, MOROCCO: “Teaching young people to dream again” is the vision of a Moroccan cultural centre in a rundown Casablanca district, once home to a group of suicide bombers who killed 33 people in 2003.

Based in a white building next to a tramline and opposite a mosque, the Stars Cultural Centre in Sidi Moumen regularly hosts more than 300 young people for classes in music and music theory, classical dance, hip-hop, English and French.

“When we tell young people that violence is not a means to express themselves, we must find them other means,” said film-maker Nabil Ayouch, who co-founded the centre with artist Mahi Binebine.

Ayouch’s connection with the district began with his film “Horses of God”, which looked at how young people in the neighbourhood were becoming radicalised. When he organised a screening of the film in Sidi Moumen, Ayouch realised some-thing: “Even in an area without rights, there is the right to hope.”

That seed of an idea

eventually led him to set up the centre in the district that was home to 12 suicide bombers, who carried out the May 2003 attacks in Casablanca.

Yacine, 14, is studying piano and music theory and hopes that one day he can become a con-cert musician and perform with an orchestra.

“The training is much better than at the Casablanca Con-servatoire,” he said.

Students’ families pay for the lessons but those on limited means receive subsidised rates.

The centre offers free film screenings, hosts foreign artists and gives shows that attract spectators from far and wide.

“Back in 2014, there was nothing -- no culture, no cinema,” said the centre’s assistant manager, Soumia Errahmani.

But funded by private dona-tions and foreign cultural insti-tutes, the centre has shown that “there are also stars and not only terrorists” in the district, she said.

The 24-year-old, her hair covered with an Islamic head-scarf, said the project had taught her that “if you want, you can”.

She herself signed up for a class because she had “always

dreamed of playing guitar and percussion”. She put together a band, Africa Vibes, and stayed. Now she manages student reg-istrations at the centre and works to “reassure parents”.

In Morocco’s conservative society, “the relationship with art in general, and with dance in particular, is very difficult,” she said.

But today, “parents come to see the shows, they are proud of their children,” she said. “Mothers, who were worried about seeing their daughters dancing, come to ask for advice, some borrow books.”

Performances and lessons at the centre take breaks around Muslim prayer times.

Ayouch, who grew up among the tower blocks of the working-class Paris suburb of Sarcelles, said the centre aims to break down the “invisible walls” both mental and geographical, which “confine culture to the city centre”.

In November, he opened a similar centre in the Beni Makada district of Tangiers, a neglected, over-crowded neighbourhood known for drug dealing and police raids. Director Annafs Azzakia Ben Sbih told AFP the

centre aimed to “show that there are also young talents” and change the way people see a neighbourhood many would pre-viously have avoided.

Further centres are planned in disadvantaged districts of

Marrakesh and Fes.Ayouch said the idea is to

create “a network with similar programmes and shared pro-grammes, with passionate teachers who are trained and rewarded, who can make

openings for young people to jump into”, Ayouch said.

It was through the centre that Meriem, 21, became a rapper. She is working on a new record, “What belongs to girls,” and dreams of going on tour.

A creative outlet for Casablanca’s deprived youth

Local Moroccan children attend a music class at the Stars Cultural Centre in Casablanca’s northeastern suburb of Sidi Moumen, yesterday.

A 405kg bluefin tuna (centre) is seen at a shrine outside Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, Japan, yesterday.

AFP

ATHENS: The usually media-shy partner of Greece’s prime minister said in an interview out yesterday there is a bit of a problem with the Wikipedia online profile of her: it’s someone else.

Betty Baziana (pictured) , life-long partner of Greek leader Alexis Tsipras, said the profile gets her place of birth and political affilia-tion wrong.

“Using the profile of a relative with the same name and surname, Wikipedia... describes me, but it’s not me,” Baziana told Efimerida ton Syntakton daily.

She claims the online encyclo-pedia, which is written collabora-tively by users, has been of little help in clearing up the matter, despite her repeated complaints.

She said the response has been: “’This is you, since this is what is written about you, and it cannot be changed’” “Producing ID was

not enough... I’ve given up,” she added. In the four-page interview, Baziana also praised Greece’s “proud” confrontation with EU-IMF creditors in 2015 that nearly pushed it out of the euro-zone and regrets not having met Fidel Castro.

Wikipedia stresses that it is not responsible for content manage-ment on the website, which is entrusted to volunteer editors.

It did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on Baziana’s complaints. A mother of two, Tsipras’s lifelong partner shuns publicity and rarely speaks to the media. “I believe I have waged a conscious battle against gossip coverage, and I have won,” the computer engineer said.

AFP

GENEVA: “Gaming disorder” will be recognised as a disease later this year following expert consensus over the addictive risks associated with playing electronic games, the World Health Organization said yesterday.

The disorder will be listed in the 11th edition of the International Clas-sification of Diseases (ICD), to be pub-lished in June, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.

WHO is leading the process of updating ICD-11, which includes input from global health practitioners.

The current working definition of the disorder is “a pattern of gaming behaviour, that can be digital gaming or video gaming, characterised by impaired control over gaming, increased priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests,” Jasarevic said.

Other symptoms include “the con-tinuation and escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences”.

The provisional guidelines say that an individual should demonstrate an abnormal fixation on gaming for at least a year before being diagnosed with the disorder, which will be clas-sified as an “addictive behaviour”, Jas-arevic said. Anecdotal evidence sug-g e s t s t h a t t h e c o n d i t i o n disproportionately effects younger people more connected to the ever-expanding online gaming world.

But the WHO spokesman cautioned that it was premature to speculate on the scope of the problem.

“Gaming disorder is a relatively new concept and epidemiological data at the population level are yet to be generated”, he said.

Despite the lack of hard data, “health experts basically agree that there is an issue” and that official inclu-sion in the ICD is the next appropriate step, Jasarevic said.

“There are people who are asking for help”, he said to reporters. He also added that noting that formal recog-nition of the condition will help spur further research and resources com-mitted to combatting the problem.

WHO: Addictive gaming to be recognised as disease

‘It’s not me’: Greek PM’s partner disputes Wiki profile