Volume 24 | Number 7887 | 2 RiyalsFriday 10 May 2019 | 5 Ramadan 1440 www.thepeninsula.qa

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BUSINESS | 14 SPORT | 17

Federer saves two match points; Osaka crashes out

BUSI

Ramadan TimingToday's Iftar: 6:12pm

Tomorrow's Imsak: 03:18am

Amir receives phone call from Omani Deputy PMQNA DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani received a telephone call yesterday from the Deputy Prime Minister for the Council of Ministers of the Sultanate of Oman, Sayyid Fahd bin Mahmoud Al Said, during which he congratu-lated H H the Amir on the advent of the holy month of Ramadan.

Awqaf Ministry urges Saudi Arabia to remove curbs on Umrah, Haj pilgrimsQNA DOHA

The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs has called on the concerned authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to remove all obstacles facing Qataris and residents of the State of Qatar who wish to visit the holy sites to perform Umrah during the holy month of Ramadan or to perform Haj as its season approaches.

The Ministry also demanded, in a statement issued yesterday, the Saudi authorities to provide all facilities, similar to those provided to other citizens of the Gulf Coop-eration Council countries and the

Arab and Islamic countries.The Ministry noted some of the

obstacles that prevent the citizens and residents of the State of Qatar from visiting Masjid Al Haram (Grand

Mosque) in Makkah Al Mukarramah, saying that direct flights from Doha to Jeddah are still not allowed for all airlines, and that Saudi Arabia con-tinued to close the only border crossing before people with low income or those who can not travel by air and want to visit Masjid Al Haram.

The Ministry also pointed out that the Saudi authorities do not allow Qatari Umrah and Haj cam-paigns to enter and take the nec-essary licences, similar to the cam-paigns of all other countries, meaning that they cannot ensure health and safety of pilgrims, which is a great challenge, especially in the

case of women, the elderly and patients.

The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs pointed to systematic media incitement against Qataris and the dangers that may ensue, adding what is worrying about this is the contin-uation of the inflammatory media discourse against Qatar and the Qataris, which may pose a threat to their safety.

The Ministry renewed its call on the Saudi authorities to review these discriminatory measures against Qataris and those in the State of Qatar, calling for a heightened sense of religious responsibility and non-politicisation of the religious rituals.

Amir pardons prisoners on occasion of RamadanQNA DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued an Amiri gesture pardoning a number of prisoners, on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan.

NHRC condemns smear campaigns launched by UAEQNA DOHA

Qatar National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) said that it was following and is condemning the smear campaign launched by officials from the United Arab Emirates that is aimed at the committee.

The NHRC said yesterday that the vicious campaigns launched against it by the UAE were a failed attempt to obstruct the work of the committee, which was accredited A status by the Inter-national Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Insti-tutions for the Protection and Pro-motion of Human Rights (ICC), a representative body of national human rights institutions drawn from all regions of the world.

It stressed that these campaigns are part of bigger ones that the gov-ernment of the UAE have strived to launch against protectors of human rights and against international

organisations such as The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch among others. It noted that the UAE had previously made a complaint against the committee to The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) to no avail, as these organisations stressed their support of the NHRC.

The committee also con-demned the recent remarks of Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash, which included accusing the com-mittee of forging documents and international reports. The committee stressed that it has the right to see all legal measures in response to these l ies , in addit ion to approaching the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.�P3

Qatar University celebrated the graduation of a new batch of students of the Arabic for Non-Speakers Center at a ceremony held yesterday in the presence of a number of university officials, faculty members and students of the Center. �P3

60 students graduate from QU’s Arabic for Non-Native Speakers Center

The Ministry renewed its call on the Saudi authorities to review the discriminatory measures against Qataris and those in the State of Qatar, calling for a heightened sense of religious responsibility and non-politicisation of the religious rituals.

Malls, retail outlets can remain open 24 hours during RamadanSACHIN KUMAR THE PENINSULA

Residents in Qatar will be able to shop for longer duration during Ramadan as the Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced yesterday that shopping malls, supermarkets, hypermarkets and other retail outlets can extend working hours throughout the holy month without obtaining prior approval. The Ministry said that malls and other retail outlets can remain open for 24 hours during Ramadan.

“From the beginning of Ramadan 1440 AH until the end of the holy month, all shopping mall and retail outlets (super-markets, hypermarkets and others) could extend working hours to 24 hours per day,” said Ministry of Commerce and Industry in a statement, yesterday.

The Ministry urged all malls and retail outlets to clearly

inform consumers of working hours and schedule. The initi-ative comes within the

framework of the Ministry’s efforts to stimulate trade sectors. Throughout the holy month,

shopping malls, retail outlets and restaurants attract a large number of people who visit these

outlets and restaurants during their opening hours.

Given the unique nature of Ramadan when time is divided between praying, working, commuting, and shopping among other preoccupations, the Ministry urged shopping malls and retail outlets to extend working hours and inform consumers of the new hours so they can better plan their schedule and choose a convenient time for shopping.

The Ministry’s initiative will have a positive impact on the retail sector in Qatar, said experts.

“This move is positive for customers and for malls. For cus-tomers, this step will give them more flexibility in shopping. Many customers prefer to do shopping after Taraweeh prayer. It will ease the rush for late night shopping as malls will be open for longer hours during night,” a senior official of Lulu Hyper-market told The Peninsula.

Sale of items, mainly food items, surges during Ramadan because of organising iftar gath-ering with their relatives and friends.

The initiative, which has been launched in cooperation with major shopping malls will remain applicable until the end of the holy month. According to the list issued yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 503 items will be sold at reduced prices across the country during Ramadan.

During Ramadan it is difficult for me and my family members for shopping because of fasting. In the evening we are mostly busy with iftar and prayers. We get time only after 10 pm after Taraweeh prayer. It is not easy to do shopping in couple of hours, if the malls are open only till midnight because of heavy rush. Extending the shopping hours will be very helpful for customers,” Ibrahim Mohammed Hasan told The Peninsula.

The Lulu Hypermarket on D-Ring Road decorated for Ramadan. PIC: QASSIM RAHMATULLAH/THE PENINSULA

US-Taliban talks end in Doha with ‘some progress’THE PENINSULA DOHA

The United States and Taliban negotiators have wrapped up their sixth round of peace talks with “some progress” made on a draft agreement for when foreign troops might withdraw

from Afghanistan, a spokes-person for the armed group has said, Al Jazeera reported yesterday.

Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s political spokesman in Doha, said in a tweet yesterday that “positive and constructive” negotiations were held during

the talks, adding that both sides would meet again for another round of discussions. “Both sides listened to each other with care and patience,” Shaheen said.

The US Special Represent-ative, Zalmay Khalilzad tweeted yesterday: “We made steady but slow progress on aspects of the

framework for ending the Afghan war. We are getting into the ‘nitty gritty.’ However, the current pace of talks isn’t sufficient when so much conflict rages and innocent people die. We need more and faster progress. Our proposal for all sides to reduce violence also remains on the table.”

Qatar-Switzerland trade rises by 28% to

$3.7bn

02 FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019HOME

ICBF organises Hajikka Memorial Essay Writing Contest 2019THE PENINSULA DOHA

The Indian Community Benev-olent Forum (ICBF), a charitable organisation under the patronage of the Embassy of India, has conducted the Hajikka Memorial Essay Writing Contest 2019, in memory of Late Hajikka at Doha Modern Indian School (Abu Hamour, Doha). Approximately 350 students of Classes 7 to 12 from at least ten prominent Indian schools from Qatar partic-ipated in this contest.

The children from ten prom-inent schools in Qatar, Doha Modern Indian School, Delhi Public School-MIS, MES Indian School, Ideal Indian School, Olive International School, Birla Public School, Bhavans Public School, Shantiniketan Indian School, Noble International School, and Pearl School participated in two

categories Juniors (Class VII, VIII & IX) and Seniors (Class X, XI & XII)

The contest was mainly intended to inculcate the need of benevolence in young minds

to help the needy, as these stu-dents stride the path towards their prospective future. It would also help to spread awareness about ICBF services in Qatar and serve as a source of innovative

young ideas to expand ICBF services in future for the benefit of the society.

Late Abdul Khader Haji was a social and charitable activist who is remembered for his

humanitarian services spanning 40 odd years in Qatar. ICBF has been conducting the Hajikka Memorial Essay Writing Contests since 2014. And every year efforts are being made to include more children to participate in this contest from more schools.

The theme for the contest remained benevolence and humanity depicting the nature of the commemorated person-ality Hajikka.

When M V Abdul Khader Haji, addressed lovingly by people of Doha as Hajikka, passed away at the age of 67 on December 22, 2013, after his 47 years of social service in Qatar, he not only left his wife Zuhra and four children, but also a legacy of life and death with an invaluable message.

He conveyed to his fellow human, that whatever differ-ences life had to offer, death

unites all on a common ground. Irrespective of religion, nation-ality and language, people used to seek his assistance, whenever a dear one passed away, to perform their final rites, to com-plete the legal entanglements and medical formalities and Hajikka used to do it considering it a divine responsibility without expecting any worldly returns.

Though losing him left an irreplaceable vacuum and was mourned by every soul who knew him or who at one time or other had been a subject of his benevolence.

ICBF considers itself for-tunate till date that he worked in association with it as a part of its Death Case Task Force and was honoured to confer this advocate of humanity with the Indian Community Benevolent Forum Humanitarian Award during 2003-2004.

PISQ students display projects at iEARN-Qatar 2019 Open HouseTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The students from Pakistan Inter-national School Qatar (PISQ) displayed their projects during the iEARN-Qatar 2019 Open House hosted by Reach Out to Asia (ROTA) at the Qatar Foundation Student Centre recently.

Every year teachers from Pakistan International School take up iEARN-Qatar projects which aim at teachers’ profes-sional development and benefit students’ educational process. The motto of iEARN is learning with the world not just about it.

While the students work on their projects they collaborate online with schools from 140 countries around the globe. The projects are chosen from a list of iEARN Projects and students research, design activities and set work for producing the Project outcome.

The exhibition featured stu-dents’ projects on environmental initiatives such as gardening and studies on animals in Qatar, science works, embrace other cultures education-related topics like developing writing skills, and other issues with global impact.

This term 106 students from all sections of PISQ participated; Girls’ Wing teachers along with their students unveiled 4 projects. They are 1: My Culture, thy Culture-let’s Embrace other Cul-tures, 2: The Song of Peace (pro-moting peace through mystic music of Pakistan), 3: Promoting Pakistani Culture in a global world, 4: Revival of Folk Games of Pakistan.

Two projects with titles Make our Planet Clean and Green and (let’s know Each Other) were exhibited by teachers and stu-dents from Primary Wing and Kindergarten respectively.

Muhammad Aftab Alam

Hashmi,Ghulam Murtaza,Saif Khal id Khan ,Abdul Waheed,Nazma Naeem ,Irum Samreen and Shazia Samreen were the teachers who designed the projects and activities for their students.

They engaged all students in collaborative projects using the Internet and other new commu-nication technologies. Riffat Tahir and Razia Sardar represented school as iEarn facilitators. All projects from Pakistan Interna-tional school attracted the visitors,students,teachers present there and also highly commended by iearn Facilitaors and organisers.

The iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) is a non-profit organi-sation active in more than 140 countries. ROTA started this ini-tiative in the country to improve the quality of school education in Qatar. The programme is centred

on the pedagogy of project-based learning and involves students in meaningful projects linked to their curriculum while at the same time tackling issues of global importance.

The Ambassador of Pakistan to the State of Qatar, Syed Ahsan

Raza Shah, PISQ Principal Nargis Raza Otho; Afshan Shahid, Vice-Principal Girls’ Wing, also attended the event and greatly appreciated the wonderful display of projects Commenting on the projects.

The iEARN-Qatar programme

helped students and teachers in Qatar improve their skills through experiential learning and online collaboration within the global iEARN network. In the end all stu-dents and their teachers were awarded with the participation certificates.

The Ambassador of Pakistan to the State of Qatar, Syed Ahsan Raza Shah, and the Principal of Pakistan International School Qatar, Nargis Raza Otho, visiting the project displayed by the students.

Ooredoo unveils new Ramadan promotionTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar’s leading telecommuni-cations operator announced yesterday an exciting new promotion for Ramadan that utilises new technology on its app.

The Ramadan Weekend Surprises promotion asks cus-tomers to use their Ooredoo app to scan artwork on its social media pages, on digital screens at Ooredoo shops or on banners and roll-ups around town, in order to receive surprises including data, Nojoom offers and exclusive offers with its partners.

Surprises will change on a weekly basis, so customers are encouraged to scan new artwork as it appears every Thursday, Friday and Saturday during the holy month of Ramadan.

Manar Khalifa Al Muraikhi, Director PR and Corporate Communications at Ooredoo, said of the promotion: “We’re always looking for ways to reward our customers for their loyalty, and Ramadan is the ideal time for us to show our gratitude. We’re also keen to show our customers just how versatile and useful the Ooredoo app is, so this pro-motion is a great way for us to demonstrate the capabilities of the app and reward customers at the same time.”

Customers who do not yet have the Ooredoo app can download it from the App Store or Google Play.

MIA kicks off annual Ramadan programmeTHE PENINSULA DOHA

To mark the Holy month of Ramadan, the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) has kicked off its annual Ramadan programme, which offers community members a chance to take part in art work-shops and events, in addition to family activities from May 8 to May 18.

Community members can join a Calligraphy course in Nasta’liq

starting from May 13, from 10am to 12pm.

For members looking for evening classes after Iftar, a three-day Clay Art workshop for adults will be held from May 12 to 14, from 8:30pm to 10:30pm. On May 13 and 14, another workshop will also be delivered by Qatari pho-tographer Abdulla Al Mannai. This workshop will focus on the impor-tance of light in portrait and land-scape photography.

Given seats are limited,

interested community members are encouraged to register in advance through www.qm.org.qa/education

MIA’s Library is hosting a new exhibition dedicated to the Holy Quran, titled “The Holy Quran in Many Languages”. The exhibition features various displays of his-toric and contemporary copies of Surat al-Baqarah, Verse 183-187 from the Quran in different lan-guages. The exhibition concludes on July 31, 2019.

MIA is also working with the International Artists of Doha (IAD) group, a non-profit group created for artists residing in Doha, where one artist will attend each evening and create pieces of art in the atrium under the theme “Light in Ramadan.” Visitors are invited to come and observe the process and engage with the artist to find out about their inspiration and style.

In addition, MIA is also organ-ising evenings of engaging drop-in family activities, including a

Ramadan Treasure Trail, Card and Bookmark making, Cut Out Ka’ba, Prayer mat paper weaving and lantern making.

All activities are available from 8:30pm to 10:30pm on May 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15.

Evening Ramadan-themed tours will be available for MIA’s visitors every Monday and Thursday at 9:30pm. General tours of the Permanent galleries will be offered on Saturdays and Tuesdays at the same time.

Indian exports to Qatar up by 13% in 2018-19THE PENINSULA DOHA

Minister of Commerce and Industry H E Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari and the Ambassador of India to the State of Qatar, P. Kumaran, inaugurated the India Pavilion at the 16th Edition of Project Qatar Exhibition held at Doha Exhibition & Convention Center (DECC) on April 29.

Later, the Indian Ambas-sador took a tour of the Indian pavilion and was briefed by the exhibitors about their world-class products displayed at the Exhibition.

The Indian Pavilion com-prised of 33 companies and was led by Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO), an apex trade promotion body set up by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Government

of India, to promote trade, com-merce and investments between India and other countries.

India’s participation in the current edition of Project Qatar has doubled in comparison to its participation in the previous edition, which is a testament to the efforts made by the Indian exporters and the Embassy.

It is pertinent to mention that India-Qatar economic and com-mercial engagement has been steadily growing in multiple sectors.

The Indian exports to Qatar have increased by 13 percent during 2018-19 (April-February) over the corresponding previous year.

The presence of Indian products in Qatari market is likely to go up in near future due to rapid boom in the construction sector in Qatar.

Minister of Commerce and Industry H E Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari (centre), and the Ambassador of India to the State of Qatar, P. Kumaran (left), inaugurating the India Pavilion at the 16th Edition of Project Qatar Exhibition held at Doha Exhibition & Convention Center (DECC) on April 29.

The participants at the Hajikka Memorial Essay Writing Contest 2019 pose for a photo.

03FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019 HOME

KUQ celebrates Qatar-India Year of Cultural 2019

Karwan-e-Urdu Qatar (KUQ) recently celebrated the Qatar-India Year of Cultural 2019 by hosting its annual International Urdu Poetry Symposium (Mushaira) and Life Time Achievement Award function. The Chief Guest was Rizwan Ahmed (retd), DGP, Uttar Pradesh, India, and the guest of honours were S R H Fahmi, First Secretary, Indian Embassy, and Col Ghanim Saad Al Kayarin, the Head of Department for External Branches at Community Policing Ministry of Interior-Qatar.

Prof Shehpar Rasool was awarded with the KUQ Life Time Achievement Award and a cheque of Rs100,000 for his services as professor of Urdu in the Urdu Department of Jamia Millia Islamia-New Delhi. KUQ Life Time Achievement Award 2019 was also presented to Hassan Abdulkareem Chougule, who is a prominent personality of Qatar from the last 40 years and is a well-known businessman , educationist and a social worker in India and Qatar.

QU law students, faculty emphasise role of advocacy THE PENINSULA DOHA

The faculty and students from Qatar University (QU) College of Law (LAWC) Legal Skills Department recently emphasized the importance of advocacy and justice by volunteering for a Middle School Model United Nations organised by The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN) Qatar.

QU Clinical Assistant Pro-fessor Melissa Deehring and QU Teaching Assistant Sara A. Al Mohanadi, along with three law students, Farah Yousef AbouZahria, Moza M. Al Mos-allam, and Sharouq S. Bawazir taught local middle school stu-dents the importance of SDG (Sus-tainable Development Goal) 16: Peace, justice, and strong institutions.

During the three-hour service activity, QU law students and faculty taught middle school stu-dents about the role of advocacy in Qatar by explaining legal pro-fessionals’ duties, skills, roles and leadership capabilities. They also taught the young students how to find legal counsel in Qatar if needed, what to prepare as a client when hiring legal counsel and how the local courts function.

Dr Melissa Deehring encouraged a discussion about justice and taught basic ethics, philosophy and social psychology principles while stimulating the students to debate perceptions of justice and how they define what is fair. The activity ended with

middle school students debating issues related to SDG 16 in mini-mock trials.

LAWC Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Studies, Dr Muna Mustafa Al Marzouqi said: “The participation of the College of Law students in the Middle School Model United Nations is a significant step towards ensuring the role of the legal profession in society. The students were given this prestigious opportunity to represent their college and engage with the actual and most important part of society, the youth. They conveyed legal knowledge to the youth from all over the world to spread legal awareness among them, so that they grow up knowing their rights and obligations. Stressing on the rule of law principle in any given community is part of the law degree holder’s social responsibility.”

“We were honoured and excited to participate in this service activity for THIMUN Qatar,” said Dr Melissa Deehring. “Since December, Sara Al Mohanadi and I have been vol-unteering with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on the Education for Justice (E4J) initiative. To be able to teach QU law students the E4J Integrity and Ethics Modules and then collaborate with THIMUN and have QU law students help engage more youth in the com-munity is a wonderful achievement and really speaks to the importance and success of the E4J materials in Qatar.”

Sealine Beach Resort welcomes Ramadan with exciting offersTHE PENINSULA DOHA

With a view to celebrate the festive times together during the blessed month of Ramadan, Sealine Beach, A Murwab Resort, the leading and preferred leisure destination in Qatar, has unveiled an exclusive range of promotional offers at an attractive price. These enticing offers are aimed at allowing its guests and visitors to enjoy the finest Qatari hospitality during the holy month of Ramadan, offering them an opportunity to savour a contemporary cuisine laced with authentic yet innovative taste.

The renowned “Al Odaid” – all day dining restaurant – will welcome its guests, during Ramadan, with elegant interior settings and themes reflecting the spirit of the holy month, which is close to everyone’s heart. Guests and visitors will break their fast during the iftar buffet, which will start from sunset till 9pm with a selection of soups and

indulge afterwards in a wide variety of hot and cold mezzeh and appetisers, an

assortment of Qatari cuisine delicacies, eclectic collection of international

gastronomic selection of main courses, and end their culinary journey with the sweet savouries including oriental and international favours that will satisfy their taste buds.

Moreover, kids under five years old will be able to enjoy this buffet for free and children aged between 6 and 12 can avail a special 50 percent discount on the buffet.

Al Odaid restaurant will also offer its guests, based on pre-booking basis, the opportunity to select from a col-lection of set menus specially curated by the resort’s talented chefs for Suhour, from 11pm till am daily, and include an extensive collection of oriental cold starters, hot mezzeh and soups.

The special iftar menu is priced at QR150 while Suhour menu starts from QR95. The resort’s in-house guests will also be entitled to get special discount on all F&B offers during the blessed month. The resort will also be running a promotional offer at The Edge with a

complimentary coffee and is also pro-viding lucrative offers on group bookings.

Sealine Beach, A Murwab Resort, is pleased to share, with the members of the community, their joy during the blessed month of Ramadan, by offering a range of exclusive offers. The resort is looking to offer a variety of options that suit all the segments of the community and surpass their expectations during the holy month, which is considered the best period to enjoy the upscale services at all its facilities that reflect the authentic Qatari hospitality and create the most memorable moments for guests and visitors alike.

To create an atmosphere of joy during the holy month, Sealine Beach has also introduced competitive rates for stays, starting from QR 500, covering the rooms and the resort’s units, allowing the guests to indulge in the finest Qatari hospitality at one of the most unique resorts in the country.

A view of Sealine Beach, A Murwab Resort.

One of the students receiving the certificate.

60 students graduate from QU’s Arabic for Non-Native Speakers CenterQNA DOHA

Qatar University celebrated the graduation of a new batch of students of the Arabic for Non-Speakers Center at a ceremony held yesterday in the presence of a number of university officials, faculty members and students of the Center. The list of graduates includes over 60 students from 30 nationalities who have received a high standard of education to develop their communication skills in standard Arabic, and listening, reading, writing and speaking courses as well as various cultural aspects.

The Director of the Arabic for Non-Native Speakers Center, Dr. Abdullah Abdul Rahman, said that the Center receives annually 60 to 70 students, among the large

number of applications which may reach up to two thousand applications to join Arabic lan-guage programs from different countries based on partnerships signed by the university with its counterparts around the world.

He predicted that the capacity of the centre will increase during the coming years, thanks to the University’s expansion in its various programs and partner-ships around the world, pointing out at the same time to Qatar’s ini-tiative to teach Arabic to non-Arabic speakers, which was announced during the meetings of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue held in Doha earlier this month.

In his speech at the ceremony, the Director of the Arabic for Non-Native Speakers Center, Dr Abdullah Abdul Rahman, said that the Center has succeeded through

the University in signing more than 30 agreements with many of the world’s leading universities, thus providing opportunities for exchange through a package of study scholarships to its members.

He pointed out that the Center plays a vital role in strengthening relations between the State of Qatar and different countries of the world through its scholarships presented to nationals of these countries and in the interests of the state.

The Arabic for Non-Native Speakers Center offers its pro-grams to students within Qatar and abroad who do not speak Arabic as their mother language. Admission procedures for stu-dents at the Center are imple-mented in the International Stu-dents Section in coordination with the Center.

NHRC condemns smear campaigns launched by UAE

FROM PAGE 1The NHRC said that it was not

surprised by these accusations, given that they came from an official who said that he views the diplomatic moves and the legal process as the logic of the weak.

The committee maintained that these options were the civi-lised ones taken by countries who respect international legitimacy, and the human rights system.

The National Human Rights

Committee stressed that, despite all the failed attempts of the UAE, it will continue its work in line with the Paris Principles and the international human rights standards in order to expose the UAE human rights violations of citizens and residents of Qatar as well as GCC citizens as well, who suffered as a result of the unjust blockade. It added that it will also continue its work of redressing and compensating the victims.

QWSC President praises Aspire Zone cooperationQNA DOHA

The President of Qatar Women’s Sports Committee (QWSC), Lolwa Hussein Al Marri, praised productive and constant cooper-ation between the QWSC and Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF) in all sports and social programs and events for ladies.

Al Marri said in a statement that this cooperation continues

through the Ramadan Sports Fes-tival organised by QWSC in coop-eration with AZF during the holy month of Ramadan.

The festival includes two competitions in handball which started Wednesday and in bas-ketball which will be held next week. The QWSC is also organ-izing Yoga sessions for both AZF and QWSC female employees in the Ladies Sports Hall at Aspire Zone, she added.

My remarks taken out of context, says Al BakerQNA DOHA

The Secretary-General of Qatar National Tourism Council and Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, said that his remarks last week on not welcoming certain nation-alities were taken out of context by the media, explaining that he was speaking with emotion as a passionate Qatari affected by the blockade imposed on the country.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, he said Qatar is a country, which is open to all nationalities including those from the blockading countries.

“We have over 750 Egyp-tians working at Qatar Airways and some of my senior man-agement is Egyptian,” he said.

He pointed out that the media, which took his com-ments out of context, ignored in the same context the openness of the State of Qatar to all countries of the world and its readiness to open to the blockading countries, citing what the Qatari leadership had said that if they the blockading countries come towards us one meter, we will go 1,000km towards them.

UN Chief praises Qatar’s support to PalestineQNA/DOHA

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed his thanks and appreciation for the support provided by the State of Qatar to Palestine.

This came in a statement by Deputy Spokesperson for UN Sec-retary-General, Farhan Haq, in which he said that “the Secretary-General would like to acknowledge with much appreciation the recently announced support of Qatar to Palestine, which will be key in helping address economic and humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people.

“The Secretary-General furthermore welcomes the con-tinued excellent cooperation between the State of Qatar and the UN in implementing critical humanitarian and economic programs in the Occupied Pal-estinian Territory,” he said.

The Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani had directed allocation of $480m for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The support aimed to help the Pal-estinian people to obtain their necessary life needs in the dif-ficult circumstances imposed by the Israeli occupation forces, and the decline in the interna-tional humanitarian support provided to them and to the related UN programs.

04 FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Rubble and debris seen following a reported shelling on the town of Khan Sheikhun in the southern countryside of the rebel-held Idlib province.

Syrian troops capture village from rebelsAP BEIRUT

Syrian government troops captured a northwestern village known for its medieval fortress yesterday as they move deeper toward Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold, activists and pro-government media said.

The latest wave of fighting that began last week is the most serious challenge yet to a cease-fire in the region, brokered by Russia and Turkey in September.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a

war-monitoring group, said gov-ernment forces captured the village of Qalaat Al Madiq after insurgents pulled out. Idlib-based activist Alaa Moadamani con-firmed the village’s capture.

The pro-government Syrian Central Military Media said troops took Qalaat Al Madiq and two smaller nearby villages. Gov-ernment troops had been holding the nearby fortress, which also carries the name of Qalaat al-Madiq.

The village, near the Orontes River, is a gateway to the fertile plain of Al Ghab, a breadbasket for the central province of Hama.

The village was built on the site of the ancient city of Apamea and the fortress overlooking it was built during Muslim rule in the 12th century.

The push came a day after Syrian troops took the nearby village of Kfar Nabudah — which activists called Idlib’s first line of defense The latest offensive, which began April 30, has raised fears of a wider government push on Idlib, which is home to about 3 million people, many of them displaced from elsewhere in Syria.

The UN says over 150,000 people have been displaced recently within the enclave.

EU urges Iran to respect deal, regrets US planAP BRUSSELS

The European Union yesterday urged Iran to respect the interna-tional agreement curbing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambi-tions, and added that the bloc aims to continue trading with the country despite US sanctions.

The EU and major European powers — Britain, France and Germany — also said that they “note with great concern the statement made by Iran con-cerning its commitments” to the nuclear deal, stressing that they “reject any ultimatums” coming from Tehran. The joint statement came as the bloc struggles to pre-serve the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, a day after a new deadline from Tehran on finding a solution to make up for last year’s uni-lateral US withdrawal from the accord and re-imposed US sanc-tions on Iran. “We remain fully committed to the preservation and full implementation” of the deal, endorsed by the UN Security Council, said the EU statement.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised address that signatories to the deal now have 60 days to come up with a plan to shield his country — already labouring under economic hardship — from the sanctions imposed by Pres-ident Donald Trump.

“Iran must remain in this agreement and we must do eve-rything we can to ensure that it

stays in,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters at an EU summit in Romania, where leaders were to discuss the standoff.

Amid the heated rhetoric from Tehran and Washington, Macron urged the agreement’s signatories not to “get caught up in any escalation” and to “jointly watch over our collective security.” In their statement, the EU powers said they “regret the re-imposition of sanctions” by the US and remain “determined to continue pursuing efforts to enable the continuation of legit-imate trade with Iran.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zaris said yes-terday the US has bullied Europe and the rest of the world with its Iran policy. “Instead of demanding that Iran unilaterally abide by a multilateral accord, EU should uphold obligations - incl normal-ization of economic ties,” he wrote on Twitter.

ANC takes strong lead in South Africa electionAFP PRETORIA

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ruling ANC will retain its parliamentary majority after polls but with diminished support, complicating efforts to revive the embattled party and the country’s flagging economy, results showed yesterday.

The African National

Congress (ANC), in power since 1994, surged into the lead with nearly 57 percent after more than half the voting districts were officially tallied following Wednesday’s vote.

Ramaphosa, 66, took over last year after the party forced then-president Jacob Zuma to resign after nine years domi-nated by corruption allegations and economic problems.

Results released by the Elec-toral Commission (IEC) show the ANC’s closest rival, the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) trailing with a distant 22 percent.

The Economic Freedom Fighters, founded six years ago by former ANC youth leader Julius Malema, was in third place with more than nine percent.

Electoral officials said at least

90 percent of the stations should have reported by the end of day yesterday, and final results are expected to be officially certified tomorrow.

A new projection by South Africa’s respected Council for Scientific and Industrial Research forecast the ANC would win with 57 percent — a five per-centage point drop from the last election in 2014.

Jessie Duarte, the ANC deputy secretary-general, said the provisional result was neither a “disappointment” nor a “sur-prise”. “What I think is important to recognise is the deepening of our democracy,” she said at the IEC in Pretoria.

The party that wins the most seats in parliament selects the country’s president, who will be sworn in on May 25.

Palestinian Deputy PM meets Swiss peace envoyQNA RAMALLAH

Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr briefed the Swiss envoy to the Peace Process in the Middle East, Roland Stinger on the peace process on the latest developments regarding the Palestinian issue, especially with regard to the Israeli decision to deduct clearing funds.

Abu Amr stressed the impor-tance of the intervention of the international community to find a solution to the Palestinian issue based on the two-state solution, stressing the rejection of the Pal-estinian leadership for the US so-called ‘deal of the century.

The Swiss envoy to the Peace Process in the Middle East stressed that his country supports the two-state solution in accordance with the rules of international law, and the estab-lishment of a Palestinian state and to end the Palestinian division.

Boys react waiting in line to get bread from a charitable bakery, during the holy month of Ramadan in Sana’a, Yemen, yesterday.

Ramadan in Yemen

Jordan Cabinet reshuffledAFP AMMAN

Jordanian Prime Minister Omar Al Razzaz reshuffled his Cabinet yesterday for the third time in less than year as the kingdom remains mired in economic difficulties.

The new Cabinet took the oath in front of King Abdallah II at the Husseiniyeh Palace west of the capital, the royal court said.

Former Cabinet members had tendered their resignations on Wednesday in anticipation of the shake-up, the third since Razzaz took office in June after his predecessor resigned in the face of widespread economic protests.

The reshuffle saw former interior minister Salameh Hammad return to the position after a two-year hiatus.

Mohamad Ississ, former economic affairs adviser to the king, was appointed minister of planning and international cooperation and minister of state for economic affairs.

Togo changes law on terms of presidentAFP LOME

Togo’s parliament has approved a constitutional change allowing President Faure Gnassingbe, whose family has ruled the small West African country since 1967, to run two more times and potentially remain in power until 2030.

The constitutional change also includes a lifetime immunity for ex-presidents.

In 2005, Gnassingbe suc-ceeded his father, General Gnassingbe Eyadema, who seized power in a coup more than 50 years ago and ruled with an iron fist till his death.

All 90 lawmakers present voted late Wednesday to approve the change. One other lawmaker was absent.

Mugabe’s tractors, trucks to be auctioned to pay off debtsAFP HARARE

Farm tractors, pick-up trucks and combine harvesters from former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe’s dairy farm will go under the hammer to pay off debts, auctioneers announced yesterday.

Mugabe, who ruled Zim-babwe for 37 years, owned several farms despite laws lim-iting individuals to one farm.

He was ousted in 2017 fol-lowing a brief military takeover and succeeded by former ally Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mugabe and his wife Grace were accused of forcing off small-holders off the land to set up the Gushungo Dairy estate in Mazowe outside Harare as the couple built

up a lucrative farming business.Among more than 40 vehicles

to be sold are four Toyota Hilux pick-up trucks, three Scania horse trucks and a Mercedes Benz C-class limousine.

Also for sale are Massey Fer-guson tractors, 13 motorcycles and farm equipment, including four combine harvesters.

“Duly instructed by our most valued client we shall sell by public auction vehicles and farm equipment at Gushungo Dairy Farm on Saturday,” the auctioneer Ruby Auctions said in a news-paper notice inviting bidders to the sale on the farm.

Last month Mnangagwa said Mugabe, 95, was in Singapore for medical treatment and was expected back home mid-May.

Tunisia broadens tourism horizons as industry reboundsAFP TUNIS

As holidaymakers flock to Tunisia once more following a series of attacks, the country’s tourism minister has his sights set on diversifying the industry and taking visitors beyond the beach.

“Practically all the big tour operators here have returned,” said Rene Trabelsi, six months into his ministerial post.

He credits “huge efforts” for making the country safe for visitors again, after attacks in 2015 targeting tourists.

Gunmen killed 21 foreign visitors

and a Tunisian security guard at the cap-ital’s Bardo National Museum, followed by a shooting rampage at a Sousse beach resort which left 38 people dead — mostly British tourists.

Britain, France and other countries have recently eased their travel warnings, deeming most of Tunisia now safe. Two million holidaymakers have visited Tunisia so far this year, according to government figures touted by the tourism minister.

That marks a 24 percent jump on the same period last year, and a 7 percent increase compared to the 2010

industry reference point. But despite tourists returning, revenue has so far failed to reach that of nearly a decade ago. The indebted industry is heavily reliant upon cheap “all-inclusive” hol-idays and the government is trying to diversify the tourism sector, which accounts for around 7 percent of GDP.

“During the high season, Tunisia will be packed, but we’re interested in the low season, from September to March,” said Trabelsi, sitting behind his large desk in the capital Tunis.

The minister wants to attract tourists over the winter months who are also

interested in activities away from the beach.

“We’re negotiating with the tour operators” to offer charter flights after the summer, said Trabelsi who hopes visitors will sign up for golf, spa treat-ments and cultural activities.

“This year already, a lot of hotels which closed during winter after the crisis, want to stay open,” he said.

An electronic music festival in southern Tunisia is due to take place in September, while a jazz festival is planned in Tabarka near the Algerian border.

Whereas half the holidaymakers in 2010 were European, they now make up less than a third of visitors amid an increasing number of tourists from other North African countries and further afield.

The government aims to welcome nine million visitors this year, but Trabelsi said Tunisians still need to tackle “environmental terrorism” to avoid scaring tourists away.

“I’m using that word to shock and alert,” said the minister, warning that poor environmental standards can put tourists off “like when there’s an attack”.

The EU and major European powers said that they “note with great concern the statement made by Iran concerning its commitments” to the nuclear deal, stressing that they “reject any ultimatums” coming from Tehran.

05FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019 ISLAM

Breaking bad habits, engaging in good deeds

Ramadan is the month of miracles and part of those miracles is making changes for the better. Remember Allah, and Allah will keep you in mind. Ask and He will respond. And Allah never goes back on His Promises.

MARIA ZAIN

Ramadan is always the month where people talk about making changes, engaging in good deeds and breaking bad habits, i.e., the non-beneficial

deeds. But does it really work? How does one really engage in breaking those bad habits? Though I am not professor in sociology, and am still selfstudying such behavioural sciences, I do believe in the heartiest of hearts that bad habits can be broken. And this is especially true during Ramadan.

A bad habit is a string of bad deeds that have become repetitive or even addictive. They could be as simple as indulging in front of the television, overeating, over-spending, back-biting, vain talk, instigating quarrels with others, not lowering one’s gaze, and gen-erally engaging in activities that could bring us closer to zina (adultery). Whatever it is, Ramadan is probably the best time to make those changes.

The first step to break an addiction is to cultivate a deep love for Allah and the Quran. In fact, being very aware about the benefits of fasting alone rather than skimming the fast on the surface makes a whole lot of difference when it comes to breaking bad habits.

In the Quran it says: “O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard against evil.” (Al Baqarah: 183).

Guarding one’s self against evil is one of the underlying notions of the fasting month, but this can only be achieved through fasting with sincerity and for the sake of Allah alone. Without that conscientious effort, fasting becomes difficult and full of resentment. But when fasting becomes an integral part of loving Allah, the entire Ramadan becomes light weight and a joy to please Allah and Allah alone.

With this, the determination to worship transposes into determination to break bad habits for the sake of Allah.

While being familiar with the Quran and the hadith, Muslims who want to break their addictions should be able to pin point their bad habits and pay heed to the direction to actually change their ways. So which habit do you really want to break? Is it smoking and/or constant food bingeing? Well, fasting certainly stops one from doing both during the day. Make a resolution to not break the habit after night fall. Remember that Allah says: “Eat of the good things, which we have provided for you.” (Al Baqarah: 173).

In Surah Ar-Rahman, Allah talks about balance and nutrition for good health, so this is a good motivation to break the bad habit of smoking and food

bingeing, when both habits bring more harm than good to one’s body. Accord-ingly, one of the two blessings humans are deluded by is good health. The measure of good health is only noticed when one falls ill – and both smoking and bingeing cause illnesses and downplay the importance of good health in every way.

Is wasting time becoming a bad habit and the feeling of unproduc-tiveness becoming over-whelming? Then recall the important verse in the Quran, (Al Asr), reminding us that time is limited and what we do with our time will be questioned on the Day of Judgment.

Is the habit of quarreling with others, something you want to break? Do you wish to have better control over your temper? Allah has provided ways to conquer temper flares through per-forming ablution and others, such as curbing anger by sitting and then lying down. Saying the Istaghfar is a good way

to keep satan’s reckonings at bay. (This was reported in the ‘Musnad’ of Ahmad).

Remember also that it is the whispers of satan, though he is locked up, that causes us to argue with each other and break apart in disunity.

Is back-biting and vain talk a problem? Surah Al Humazah talks about both bad habits very sternly. And in a narration amongst Imam Nawawi’s Hadith compilation, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) reminds to speak good oth-erwise remain silent.

Is “addiction” to the opposite gender – no matter in what form, leading to zina? There are various “levels” of zina (adultery), and each one is prohibited, lest our lower selves venture out into the more severe stages. Then a fruitful reminder would be in this verse: “Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and be modest.

That is purer for them. Lo! Allah is Aware of what they do. And tell the

believing women to lower their gaze and be modest,” (Annur: 30-31).

In a hadith, the Prophet (PBUH) is reported as having said: “And the eyes commit zina (adultery). Their zina is gazing.” Whatever the habit is, whatever the addiction that is leading to laziness, ignorance and deviation from the Straight Path, it can be broken as long as we are reminded of the injunctions of the Quran and the corresponding hadith narrations.

To read up and search for enlight-enment is a blessing on its own, and searching would lead to understanding, and understanding will lead to practice insha Allah.

Engaging in good deeds will help break bad habits as they will bring us closer to Allah in full sincerity. What is more, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) nar-rated that good deeds wipe out sins, thus should be again a motivation in keeping with the best of intentions, behavior and actions. Surah Hood revealed important

advice from Allah: “And perform Salat (prayer), at the two ends of the day and in some hours of the night (i.e. the five compulsory Daily prayers). Verily, the good deeds remove the evil deeds. That is a reminder (an advice) for the mindful (those who accept advice).” This verse was in response to an incident whereby a man unlawfully kissed a girl and went to the Prophet (PBUH) for help. The Prophet announced that this verse was for all the believers, (Bukhari), thus for Muslims even today, quickly engage in good deeds to wipe out bad inklings or even intentions before they turn into actions. And if one falls into the trap of a bad habit again, quickly repent to Allah and ask for forgiveness with the intention to never go down that path again. Even half a date in charity will save one from Hell-fire (Bukhari).

The Prophet (PBUH): “A good friend and a bad friend are like a perfumeseller and a blacksmith: The perfumeseller might give you some perfume as a gift, or you might buy some from him, or at least you might smell its fragrance.

As for the blacksmith, he might singe your clothes, and at the very least you will breathe in the fumes of the furnace,” (Bukhari & Muslim).

Similarly, the Quran says: “And keep yourself patient by being with those who call upon their Lord in the morning and the evening, seeking His countenance. And let not your eyes pass beyond them, desiring adornments of the worldly life, and do not obey one whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance and who follows his desire and whose affair is ever in neglect,”(Al Kahf: 28).

In all cases, the camaraderie of good companionship resonates throughout Islamic history. It is so important to keep friends who strive to better themselves and the spillover effects of doing so will affect those around them. To break an addiction or bad habit, keep close to those who have similar goals and in turn, the togetherness will infuse collective Love for Allah and enhance the need to engage in good and shun evil.

Ramadan is the month of Miracles and part of those miracles is making changes for the better. Remember Allah, and Allah will keep you in Mind. Ask and He will respond. And Allah never goes back on His Promises. If you are on a mend, keep steadfast to your beliefs; if you want to make a change, go ahead and push forward with all the might you have, if you have a bad habit you want to break, do it and don’t look back. And always remember to ask from Allah through du’a and never give up on His Mercy. Allah provides mir-acles every day of the year, and it happens to those who love Him and whom He loves in return.

www.onislam.net

Tahajjud (the optional late-night prayers) is derived from the Arabic root “hajada” meaning: he

was wakeful in the night.In the silent, dark and tranquil hours

of the night, we seek liberation from the burdens of daily hectic life and focus solely on worship and praise of Allah.

And… we can offer our Tahajjud prayers with calm and serenity.

It is a time for pause and quiet reflection during some uniquely serene moments. The timing of Tahajjud prayers offers an exceptionally spir-itual atmosphere and purity of thought in preparation for the day to begin. It also enhances the concentrating ability of the memory components of the brain and helps us to place the forth-coming duties of the day into their respective compartments by reversing pending improper intentions, if any.

We will need the intimacy, that closeness to Allah in order to express our innermost thoughts, feelings, desires and fears… indeed our whole life history.

The rising by night for Tahajjud prayers is more affirmative and most suitable for understanding and strengthening one’s faith, and also for framing and formulating the wordings of prayer and praise. It kindles the divine flame within us to receive true illumination in the darkness of the night. It opens the window to the heart for light to enter its dark crevices where problems are lurking to be

solved. Just as a person is mirrored clearly in the calm and still waters of a lake, so the mind is reflected in the supplicating words of Tahajjud prayers.

Tahajjud prayers ignite the divine spark that lies dormant within us. It makes us a shining example and a beacon to instill brightness in the lives of those persons we encounter who are still at the beginning of their journey to Allah. We may not be aware of this par-ticular influence of ours in the lives of others whom we meet, which has already been laid down in Allah’s plan and wisdom. Prayers are performed in mosques, where the union and awareness of the unique bond of faith give us many lessons for seeking tran-quility together and drawing lessons for social reconciliation.

Love for Allah grows with time, being a slow process. We pray for for-giveness in the early hours before dawn. We observe that angels and men of knowledge are linked together, according to what the Quran says. The best time for Tahajjud is to delay it to the last third portion of the night, according to Sunnah.

Psychologists assume that the repair of the body takes place during stage 3 and 4 of deep sleep (dreamless sleep), during which memory and learning molecules are also re-syn-thesized in the hippocampus of the brain.

Hence, we can formulate our wordings of petition and others much

better during this period.“Every night, when the last third

of it remains, Allah, our Sustainer, the Blessed, the Superior, descends to the lowest heaven saying, ‘Is there anyone to ask Me so that I may grant him his request? Is there anyone to invoke Me so that I may respond to his invo-cation? Is there anyone seeking My for-giveness so that I may forgive him?’” (Narrated by Muslim.)

According to the Quran, Tahajjud prayers will raise us to a higher status of faith. Those who wake up to pray and call on their Sustainer, in fear and hope, would be rewarded.

From stage 4 of deep sleep, we pass on to stage 5, known as Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, when dreaming occurs.

There are 4 or 5 such periods in every night of restful sleep. The dreams of early morning, say before Tahajjud prayers, are remembered more vividly

and with more accurate details and actions of the main figures, than those dreams of earlier in the night. This is because memory molecules are syn-thesized during stages of deep sleep, which precedes the REM sleep when dreaming occurs.

Moreover, the Morning Prayer around 5am would add a further quota of beneficial effects of this extra physical and spiritual exercise.

We look forward to each day with optimism and enthusiasm, and to prepare in advance in the morning the list of good deeds we are planning to do during the day. During Tahajjud prayers, we can formulate our suppli-cations, which will assist in molding our personality and daily schedule, beginning in the early morning.

When we wake up, our first port of call should be the prayer mat, fol-lowed by priorities in our agenda. Prayer contributes to our tranquility

and peace of mind. However, even the largest ships meet with turbulent waters, and we, as human beings, are liable to come across trials and trib-ulations that we have been destined for.

Although Man has achieved phenomenal success in science and technology, he cannot solve problems of moral nature, violence, discrimination and many other daily situ-ations, locally and world-wide. If Allah needs no praise because He is above all praise and if He needs

no petition because He knows our needs better than we do ourselves, and if His bounties are open without asking, to the righteous and the sinner alike, then why should we pray at all and make du`aa’? In the Quran, Allah advises us to make du’aa and He promises to respond. This is for our own spiritual growth and fulfillment, consolation, success in this life and in the Hereafter, and for a perfected per-sonality with strong will power — all of these through His grace and guidance.

Offering du`aa’ is a constant reminder to us that we are not alone in this world but feel a divine presence. When prayers are followed by mean-ingful action and service to mankind, we upgrade ourselves from being better Muslims to a much higher status and we ascend faster through al-siraat-al-mustaqeem (the correct path of truth) towards Allah, our eventual goal!

Tahajjud prayers and its importance

06 FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019ASIA

Former Navy chief refutes Modi’s claim on Rajiv IANS MUMBAI

A major controversy erupted yesterday over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charge that late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had used naval aircraft carrier INS Viraat for a vacation by his family and foreigner in-laws, with the then Naval Chief L Ramdas refuting the claim and the Congress slamming the PM.

Retired Admiral Ramdas issued a statement, saying Gandhi had gone on an official

trip to the Lakshadweep Islands to chair a meeting of the Islands Development Authority (IDA) held alternatively between Andaman and Lakshadweep Islands.

“The PM is authorised to travel along with his spouse by service aircraft on official duties…” he said, adding that Rahul Gandhi, (who would have been barely 17 then), never accompanied them.

He said the statement was issued after collating responses from his former senior

naval colleagues – Admiral Vinod Pasricha and Vice Admiral Madanjit Singh - who were serving in the Western Fleet during the events nearly 32 years ago, to which Modi referred.

Ramdas insisted that there were no parties held on INS Viraat or any of the other four warships accompanying the now-decommissioned aircraft carrier and no foreigners accom-panied Rajiv Gandhi nor did current Congress President Rahul Gandhi accompany them then.

According to the then Administrator of Lakshadweep Islands Wajahat Habibullah, Gandhi was accompanied by his wife when he received them on the official trip.

At an election rally in Delhi on Wednesday, Modi said Rajiv Gandhi had used INS Viraat as a “taxi” for a 10-day vacation with his family and foreigner his in-laws.

“I would like to state une-quivocally that this was not the case,” Ramdas said.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters attend a rally as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivers a speech during an election rally in Allahabad, yesterday.

National interests above self interest: Modi IANS AZAMGARH, UP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday addressed first time voters and said they must beware of ‘khichdi’ (read coalition) governments that bring anarchy and instability.

The Prime Minister was addressing an election rally in Azamgarh that has over 40,000 first time voters.

He said: “Twenty years ago, the United Front government brought instability and mid-term elections. The UPA governments made India hang its head in shame with a slew of scams.

Such governments cannot face challenges.” The Prime Minister said that parties like the SP-BSP and Congress had promoted vote bank politics which had put the nation in trouble.

“In the past five years, Azamgarh has not been blamed for any terror link. We have checked terror activities that have now been restricted to Kashmir and a few border areas,” he pointed out.

The Prime Minister said that his government had kept national interests above self interests. “Yeh naya Hindustan hai - yeh ghar mein ghus kar marega,” he said.

The Prime Minister said that his government had not differentiated between castes while drawing up various welfare schemes and elec-tricity was not given on caste basis in his regime.

Referring to the Azamgarh BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua, the Prime Min-ister said that Bhojpuri cinema had attained global recog-nition due to artists like Nirahua, Ravi Kishan and Manoj Tiwari.

The Prime Minister con-cluded his speech with ‘Abki baar’ and the people responded with ‘Modi sarkar’.

IANS NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed the plea by families of those killed along with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by an LTTE suicide bomber at Tamil Nadu’s Srip-erumbudur on May 21, 1991, opposing the release of the seven remaining convicts in the case. A bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, said: “All aspects were covered in the earlier constitution bench verdict in the case and, therefore, nothing survives in the case. In view of the above, the writ petition stands disposed of.” As an outcome of the apex court’s decision, Tamil

Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit will take a decision regarding freeing the seven convicts held guilty in the assassination of the former PM and 16 others.

On September 9, 2018, the Tamil Nadu Cabinet passed an order recommending the release of the convicts but the issue has been pending before the Gov-ernor, who is yet to take any decision, as the petition of the victims’ families was pending in the top court. The petition was filed when in 2014, the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa decided to free the convicts, who have already been in jail for 28 years after the apex court com-muted their death sentences to life imprisonment.

Rajiv killing: SC dismisses plea against convicts’ release

Congress President Rahul Gandhi addressing an election campaign rally in New Delhi, yesterday.

SC rejects plea on Rahul’s citizenshipIANS NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed a plea on Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s citi-zenship. A Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna rejected the petition.

“Some company in some form has mentioned Rahul Gandhi as a British citizen, so does he become a British citizen? Dismissed,” CJI Gogoi said.

The court was hearing the petition moved by two activists seeking direction to the Home

Ministry to decide on the matter and it also sought the disqualifi-cation of Gandhi from contesting the Lok Sabha polls.

The Home Ministry issued a notice to Gandhi on April 29 to clarify his nationality within a fortnight after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Subramanian Swamy alleged that he was a British national. Swamy in his representation to the Home Min-istry alleged that Gandhi served as one of the Directors and Sec-retary of the British firm Backops Ltd, which is registered in the UK since 2003, with address 51 Southgate Street, Winchester,

Hampshire.Meanwhile, the Election

Commission yesterday gave another extension till Friday evening to Rahul to respond to its show cause notice issued over his remark that the Narendra Modi government had enacted a new law which permitted tribals to be shot. “With reference to the request received for extension, the commission has given Rahul Gandhi, President INC, time to file the reply by evening of May 10, 2019 in response to the notice issued to him by Election Com-mission dated May 1, 2019,” the poll panel said.

Rafale: Centre says mismatch between CAG report, SC not a big errorIANS NEW DELHI

The Centre yesterday filed another affidavit in the Supreme Court in the Rafale deal against the perjury plea of the petitioners seeking a review, claiming the mismatch between a certain portion of the judgement pronounced on December 14, 2018, about its submissions on the CAG report, is not a major error and that it does not affect the judgement.

The Centre said the

petitioners filed an application of perjury in an attempt to get the case reopened by implying that the court’s order pronounced on December 14, 2018, was based on false statements made by the gov-ernment before the court.

On May 4, the government had filed another affidavit in the top court seeking to dismiss the appli-cation for a review of the deal, informing the court that moni-toring of progress by the Prime Minister’s Office of a government-to-government process “cannot be construed as interference or

parallel negotiations.” A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi is slated to hear the Rafale review petition on Friday. The hearing will focus on the review of its December 14 verdict along with applications seeking perjury action against unknown officials and production of certain docu-ments before the court. The gov-ernment said the mismatch between certain paragraphs (Para 25) of the judgement and the sub-missions of the Centre (given in a sealed cover) in relation to CAG report was sought to be corrected

by filing an application the very next day, December 15, 2018.

“In any case, the mismatch does not in any manner, either directly or indirectly, affect the main judgement and it is not a substantial error as contended since the fact is that there is no fault found in the decision-making processor on pricing as concluded by the CAG in its report submitted subsequent to the judgment,” said the Centre’s affidavit. The Centre’s response is on the application filed by former Union ministers

Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan. It stated that allegations of making false state-ments and suppressing facts from the court were baseless and completely false. Terming the perjury plea as completely mis-conceived, the Centre pointed out that action against unknown public servants for allegedly mis-leading the court during the hearing was not correct, and that some “incomplete internal file notings” cannot be treated as a base for such proceedings.

Meanwhile, three petitioners, former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan, yesterday claimed in the Supreme Court that the Centre played fraud upon the court to obtain favourable order in the Rafale fighter jet case. The petitioners filed a rejoinder stating the December 14, 2018 verdict should be subjected to a review as it was based on “multiple falsehoods and suppression of material and relevant information”.

Activists along with lawyers and law students hold placards during a protest following the Supreme Court decision to dismiss a sexual harassment complain against Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, and the lack of transparency in the proceedings, in Bengaluru, Karnataka, yesterday.

Opposition wants re-poll in entire Tripura WestIANS AGARTALA

The opposition CPI-M and Congress are seeking direc-tions from the Supreme Court against the Elect ion Commission (EC) decision to hold re-polling on May 12 in only 168 polling stations under the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat, instead of in the entire constituency, leaders of these parties said yesterday.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Congress have been demanding fresh polling in the entire Tripura West parliamentary constituency after they alleged large-scale rigging, booth cap-turing, intimidation and attacks by the ruling BJP and their goons during the first phase of polling in the state on April 11.

The BJP, however, has dis-missed the allegations and demanded the removal of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti, accusing him of being a “conspirator”.

“Our lawyers on Thursday have mentioned our election petition in the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. Accepting our petition, the CJI said that the case would not be heared urgently and hence no date of hearing was fixed accordingly,” Left Front Convenor Bijan Dhar told reporters here.

Retired Admiral L Ramdas says there were no parties held on INS Viraat and no foreigners accompanied Rajiv Gandhi nor did current Congress President Rahul Gandhi accompany them then.

Protests over CJI case

Security up for Bengal polls, 602 CAPF companies deployedIANS NEW DELHI

The Centre has decided to step up security in West Bengal for the eight seats going to polls in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections on Sunday with 602 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (the CRPF, BSF, CISF, SSB, ITBP, RPF, RAF) besides that of state armed police being deployed for election duties.

Home Ministry sources said the additional forces are being deployed as the Junglemahal, which covers three Lok Sabha seats of Purulia, Bankura and Jhargram, is Maoist-affected and there have been incidents of vio-lence on the eve of polls as also on the polling day. They said various confidence-building

measures like route marches, long-range patrols, and cordon and search operations are being undertaken in all the eight con-stituencies to instill confidence among the voters. The sources said that steps have also been taken to ensure safety of polling parties, voters, electronic voting machines, candidates, polling agents and other poll-related officials on the day of polling.

All ad hoc commandants and Company Commanders of CAPFs have been briefed about the sensitivity of the constitu-encies and other issues. Besides presence of forces at all polling booths and the mandatory Quick Reaction Teams (QRTs), 547 Quick Action Teams (QATs) and 108 additional QATs have been instructed to be on the move.

07FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019 ASIA

Iran threatens moving arbitration court over gas projectINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Tehran has formally given a notice to Islamabad for approaching the arbitration court for not laying down the pipeline in Pakistan’s territory in stipulated time under the IP gas line project and threatened to invoke the penalty clause of Gas Sales Purchase Agreement (GSPA).

Spokesman of the Petroleum Division, Additional Secretary Sher Afgan also confirmed the development that Iran in Feb-ruary 2019 gave a formal notice to Pakistan mentioning it will move the arbitration court.

Both the countries during the two-day visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to Iran on April

21-22 discussed the issues related to Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline particularly the scenario after the formal notice to Pakistan from Iran.

Earlier in 2018, according to official sources, the authorities in Iran had conveyed to Pakistan that it may move the arbitration court against Pakistan for uni-laterally shelving IP gas line project invoking penalty clause of the GSPA. However, this time Iran formally gave the notice to Pakistan in February 2019

threatening to move the arbi-tration court for delaying the project.

The official sources said that during the visit of Prime Minister Imran to Iran, the top leadership took up the issue of IP gas line and told Pakistan leadership it will take back the notice only if the government of Pakistan extends the construction period of pipeline of 781 kilometres from Iranian border to Nawabshah under signed GSPA.Sources said after coming back

to Pakistan, the Prime Minister asked the Petroleum Division to stay in touch with authorities in Iran and resolve the issue. The agreement was signed in 2009 for 25 years, but since then the project could not get the shape. Also most 9-10 years have elapsed since the signing of the agreement and the construction period for pipeline in Pakistan territory which comprises three years has been wasted.

The Iranian authorities want Pakistan to mutually extend this period under GSPA. Before the formal notice from Iran in Feb-ruary 2019, Pakistan’s legal firm had sent about 15 legal questions to the legal team in Iran asking in the presence of renewed US sanctions against Iran on its nuclear programme how it was

possible to materialise the gas transactions. Iran was of the view that there are no sanctions on gas transactions, as it is exporting gas to some EU coun-tries and importing gas from Turkmenistan. However, Pakistan legal firm had asked for mechanism under which EU and Turkmenistan are materialising the gas transactions.

However, instead of replying to the legal questionnaire, Iran in February 2019 sent a formal notice to Pakistan, saying it was going to move arbitration court. Pakistan wants Iran to take back the notice as Pakistan tried its best for arranging funds required to lay down the pipeline in its territories, but in the presence of the US sanc-tions it failed to get financing from any international agency.

Asia Bibi left country of her own free will, says PakistanINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Asia Bibi left the country out of her own free will, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal told the media yesterday.

Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who was acquitted by the Supreme Court in a blas-phemy case arrived in Canada from Pakistan.

“Asia Bibi has left the country. She is a free citizen and left on her own free will,” Dr Faisal said.

Asia Bibi’s conviction was overturned by Pakistan’s highest court on October 31, 2018 in a landmark decision. She had remained in prison as the Supreme Court’s decision triggered protests in the country from religious groups led by the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan.

Protests were called off when the government agreed to impose a travel ban on Asia Bibi and not to challenge a review appeal against the verdict.

In January 2019, the apex court rejected the petition chal-lenging the decision to acquit Asia Bibi. Following the rejection of the petition, Asia Bibi was moved to a secret location.

Damaged buildings and wreckage at the site of the bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, yesterday.

Nine dead in Taliban attack on foreign NGOANATOLIA KABUL

At least nine people have been confirmed dead in Wednesday’s suicide and gun attack on a US non-governmental organisation (NGO) headquartered in Kabul, police confirmed yesterday.

Four Taliban insurgents stormed the office of the Coun-terpart International in downtown Kabul’s Shahr-e-Nau area following a suicide car bombing.

Clashes between the attackers and the Afghan security forces continued for hours in the heart of the capital’s bustling shopping and dining district.

Interior Ministry spokesman Nusrat Rahimi initially said that nine people were injured in the attack.

However, the Ministry said nine people were killed, including three civilians, four members of the Afghan National

Civil Order Police, one member of the Special Forces and one private security guard of the non-profit group.

Nearly two dozen civilians were injured following the attack in a densely populated area sur-rounded by a number of public and private offices and com-mercial entities.

Rahimi said close to 200 employees of Counterpart were rescued.

Claiming responsibility, Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahed, said in a statement that the organisation was targeted for their alleged “harmful western activities” inside Afghanistan.

The attack has been widely condemned.

A f g h a n P r e s i d e n t Mohammad Ashraf Ghani dubbed it as an “unforgivable crime”. In a statement, he urged the Taliban to respect the calls for peace or “get ready to face the wrath of the

Afghan security forces”.Ann Hudock, the President

and CEO of Counterpart, said in a statement the attack targeted innocent civilians, development professionals who dedicate their

lives to improving the lives of Afghanistan’s most vulnerable, including women, youth, and the disabled.

A number of NGOs have been attacked by insurgents in

Afghanistan over the past many years, but Wednesday’s attack was the first of its kind to target Counterpart that has been serving in Afghanistan for the past 14 years.

Prison riot in Myanmar leaves four deadAFP YANGON

Four prisoners were killed during a riot at a northern Myanmar jail, officials said yesterday, coming on the heels of an amnesty which saw more than 6,000 inmates released - including high-profile Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

The unrest at Sagaing region’s Shwe Bo prison began on Wednesday evening, said chief minister Myint Naing.

“They were demanding for equal rights. They became anarchic,” he said, adding that everything was now “under control”.

Myint did not say how the prisoners died.

Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun said border affairs officials were called in to “control” the situation.

“We heard there was some shooting,” he said, adding that

there were also reports of unrest in jails in Karen and Kachin states.

The violence in Shwe Bo comes days after more than 6,000 people were freed in the

latest round of presidential pardons - part of an annual prisoner amnesty granted by Myanmar President Win Myint.

According to local news-paper Eleven Media, prison department director Min Tun Soe said the riots were triggered over the inmate anger at not being included in the amnesty.

In total, 23,000 prisoners were released in three rounds of pardons since April 17.

The majority of those released are usually serving time for petty drug crimes, but Tues-day’s release included Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were jailed after reporting on the Rohingya crisis in northern Rakhine state.

Myanmar has freed thou-sands since a military junta ceded power in 2011 after five decades of brutal repression.

Former prisoners have denounced conditions in Myan-mar’s overcrowded prisons as abysmal.

Prison department officers arrive to enter Shwe Bo prison after a riot at the prison in Sagaing region, Myanmar, yesterday.

Sri Lanka suspends flight training near biggest air baseREUTERS COLOMBO

Sri Lanka has suspended flight training near its biggest air force base due to security concerns, according to a government directive. Sri Lanka has been on high alert since the multiple suicide bombings on Easter Sunday. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Flight training has been sus-pended at Ratmalana, a suburb in the capital Colombo, the country’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a letter to flying schools and aircraft operators.

Training will only be allowed from the Katukurunda domestic airport, around 35km (22 miles) south of Colombo, and flights

can only fly to the south of that base, according to the letter.

A copy of the letter, , was seen by Reuters. The new rules are effective immediately. Sri Lanka suspended training at Ratmalana during the peak of the civil war with Tamil separa-tists fearing air attacks.

The letter cites new rules “in view of the prevailing security threat to the national defence, lives of public and properties”.

The new guidelines also suspend recreational and leisure flights such as sky diving.

No training flights have been operated for two weeks since the rules came into place due to difficulties in moving training operations to Katukurunda, according to a source.

PTI challenges Maryam’s party positionINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday submitted a petition in the Election Commission of Pakistan against Maryam Nawaz’s appointment as Pakistan Muslim League-N Vice-President.

The petition was submitted by PTI’s parliamentary sec-retary Farrukh Habib, Maleeka Bokhari, Kanwal Shauzab and Javeria Zafar. The petition filed by PTI states the appointment of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz as a PML-N Vice-President was in contra-diction with the constitution and law of the land. The petition further states that Maryam was ineligible to hold any political or public office. Earlier, sources had said, the PTI leadership had reservations against Maryam’s appointment and will challenge the decision in a court.

In a major party reshuffle last week, Maryam was made one of the 16 Vice-Presidents of the party along with Hamza Shahbaz. Former Prime Min-ister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was appointed Senior Vice-Pres-ident, while Ahsan Iqbal was made General Secretary.

Pakistan wants arbitration for resolution of water disputesINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The Foreign Office in Islamabad has urged the World Bank to fulfil its responsibility regarding empanelment of Court of Arbi-tration for resolution of water related disputes between Pakistan and India.

At his weekly news briefing in Islamabad yesterday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal reacted strongly to the recent state-ments of Indian leadership on the Indus Water Treaty.

The spokesperson said both Pakistan and India are sig-natory to the treaty but regretted that New Delhi is vio-lating it. He said Pakistan is involved in the dispute reso-lution mechanism in the World Bank but lamented the matter has not been sorted out.

The spokesperson said Pakistan desires that the Indus Water Treaty remains intact and its dispute resolution mechanism moves forward. The spokesperson reiterated that Pakistan desires better relations with India.

To a question, Dr Muhammad Faisal said that Pakistan has consistently been raising Kashmir dispute at all the international forums to highlight the plight of Kashmiri people.

When asked about terror attacks from the Afghan side inside Pakistani territory, the spokesperson said Pakistan has conveyed its strong res-ervations regarding continued presence of such nefarious elements in Afghanistan. He said we have also urged the Afghan government to take act ion against these elements.

Officials inspecting a Biman Bangladesh airlines plane after it slid off a runway at Yangon International Airport in Yangon, yesterday. Eleven people were injured in the incident amid a storm on Wednesday.

Pakistan wants Iran to take back the notice as Islamabad tried its best for arranging funds required to lay down the pipeline in its territories, but in the presence of the US sanctions it failed to get financing from any international agency.

Plane accident amid storm

The illusions of the “deal of the century” seem only partly born of arrogance and the magical properties of fresh thinking. There is also an element that is purposeful and willful, apparently designed to make it impossible to resurrect hopes for two states for two peoples.

JAPAN NEWS-YOMIURI

08 FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019VIEWS

Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ for Arab-Israeli peace is doomed

There are usually two kinds of speeches in US foreign policy: frameworks for action and substitutes for action. When it

comes to laying out plans for Arab-Israeli peace, the default option has all too often been the latter, offering motion instead of movement.

If President Donald Trump’s “deal of the century” is launched as promised in the coming weeks, against the backdrop of Gaza violence in recent days, it will likely be something altogether different: a eulogy for the two-state solution. In keeping with his disdain for conventional wisdom and his bent for disruption, Trump might bury what is still the only viable plan of action for Israelis and Palestinians, without offering anything resembling a workable substitute.

Neither Trump nor his son-in-law and chief negotiator, Jared Kushner, invented the steady decay of the two-state solution in recent years, or the pathologies of regional leaders con-sumed by their grievances and short-term political concerns. Nor is the White House wrong to question past strategies or tactics. Based on what can be gleaned about the new plan, however, Trump and Kushner appear to be animated by a set of terminally flawed assumptions and illusions.

The first is that they can maneuver over and around Pal-estinians in negotiating a peace deal. The adminis-tration has effectively abandoned dialogue with the Pales-tinian lead-ership and marginalised Palestinian concerns, embracing instead the agenda of the Israeli right.

That can be seen in moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem; closing the East Jerusalem consulate charged with engaging Palestinians; sharply reducing lifesaving assistance pro-grams; condoning settlement expansion; recognising Israel’s sover-eignty over the Golan Heights and

hinting that the administration is pre-pared to do the same in the West Bank.

In 3 1/2 decades of government service, I never saw an American pres-ident concede so much, so soon, for so little.

It is tempting to think that shared animus toward Iran and Sunni Arab terrorists would give some Arab states an interest in working with the current Israeli government and the Trump administration to muzzle Palestinian political aspirations.

The growing intersection of interests between Israel and Arab states is a good thing, and a long-standing objective of US policy. But it is not a substitute for Israelis and Pal-estinians dealing directly with one another.

Whatever the leaders of Arab states might whisper in private, there is zero chance that they would offer serious support for any peace plan that does not include a credible path to Palestinian statehood.

Second, it is a delusion to think that the legitimate hopes of Pales-tinians for political dignity and statehood, even if constrained by legit-imate Israeli security concerns, can be bought off by economic incentives. If this problem could have been reduced to dollars and cents, it would have been solved long ago. Even if money were the solution, neither the United States nor the Gulf Arabs are likely to deliver the enormous funding required.

Third, it is dangerous to assume that time is on our side — that even-tually the Palestinians can be coerced or worn down into accepting some-thing less than statehood, without any lasting costs for Israel. That is a recipe for more unrest and human tragedy. And given demographic realities, with Arabs soon to emerge as the majority

in the land Israel controls from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, it is also a recipe for the erosion of Israel as a Jewish democracy. That in turn could have profound consequences for the US-Israeli alliance and the American public affinity on which it rests.

Finally, the potential for col-lateral damage should not be under-estimated. Jordan, a reliable, mod-erate US partner in a region where reliability and moderation are endangered species, will find itself in a very hard place if the Pales-tinians’ dream of a state of their own dies, and right-wing Israelis revive the old, combustible idea of exporting Palestinian national aspi-rations to the other side of the Jordan River. Autocrats in Egypt and Saudi Arabia would be caught between their own restive popula-tions and a US administration that indulges their repressive habits and expects some degree of support for its peace plan.

The Middle East remains the land of bad policy options for the United States. But there is a difference between having bad options and making bad choices. The illusions of the “deal of the century” seem only partly born of arrogance and the magical properties of fresh thinking. There is also an element that is pur-poseful and willful, apparently designed to make it impossible to res-urrect hopes for two states for two peoples. That is the riskiest propo-sition of all.

The author is president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a former deputy secretary of state and the author of “The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for its Renewal.”

WILLIAM J BURNS THE WASHINGTON POST

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Iraq is keen to establish cooperative

relations with all its neighbours,

its Arab, regional and international

environment.

Adil Abd Al Mahdi Iraqi Prime Minister

Public-private cooperation vital for finely tuned development aid

It is vital that Japan’s official development assistance (ODA) is used effectively to support the

economic growth of devel-oping nations. The scope of the nation’s international contribution should be broadened through cooper-ation between the public and private sectors.

The ODA budget has dropped by about half since its fiscal 1997 peak, hovering between about 500 billion yen and 600 billion yen in recent years. Given Japan’s severe financial situation, the ODA budget is unlikely to change much.

Close cooperation among local governments, com-panies and nongovernmental organizations involved in international assistance activities holds the key to providing more finely tuned support. Harnessing their respective expertise and complementing each other will boost synergies in ODA projects.

From this fiscal year, the Foreign Ministry has started moves to strengthen the financial footing of NGOs. The ministry has increased the proportion of grants that can be set aside for expenses regarding communications, commuting and head office personnel not directly involved in projects.

Japanese NGOs are small compared with US and European NGOs, and their organization is fundamen-tally weak.

This stems from the fact that the culture of individuals giving donations to such groups has yet to take root. It is reasonable for the gov-ernment to support NGOs financially. Government grants must be appropriately allocated after carefully examining the results of these groups’ activities.

Japan has conventionally supported the concept of “human security” that focuses on the lives and dignity of each individual. Grassroots-level interna-tional contributions made through public-private

cooperation should fit nicely with this principle.

There are a rising number of practical examples. The Toyama prefectural gov-ernment is working together with a local pharmaceutical company to convey to Myanmar the okigusuri system dating back about 300 years in which medicine kept at home is paid for only when used. This project not only delivers medicine to farming villages, but it also involves providing techno-logical support for the local production of crude drugs.

This can be described as a project that combines inter-national cooperation with the promotion of a local industry.

It will be important to coordinate with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and devise effi-cient assistance plans.

Strategically providing low-interest yen loans to emerging nations in Asia and elsewhere also will be essential.

These loans should be used to support construction of high-quality infrastructure

such as roads, ports and power plants, and to encourage self-sustaining economic growth.

A recipient nation’s level of development and financial situation will need to be accurately assessed and then suitable steps taken.

It also is crucial that these projects harmonize with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.

These SDGs are objec-tives in 17 fields, such as eradicating poverty, that the United Nations aims to achieve by 2030. Japan should be proactively involved in achieving these goals.

A summit meeting of the Group of 20 major nations will be held in Osaka in June, and the Tokyo Inter-national Conference on African Development (TICAD) will be held in Yokohama in August. Japan must also play a leadership role in multilateral cooper-ation on such issues as financing, boosting and strengthening implemen-tation systems.

The partial launch of Doha Metro, more than year ahead of schedule, is a remarkable achievement and shows how effectively Qatar has overcome the obstacles and is moving ahead at a great pace.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

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

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

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Infrastructure milestone

The preview service of Doha Metro, which opened on Wednesday, has shown how Qatar is going ahead full steam finishing infrastructure projects

much ahead of schedule despite the illegal blockade by the some of the neighbours.

Interestingly, when the siege countries announced their blockade almost two years back, there were expecting Doha to crumble economically and fall into their trap. They overestimated their importance as a source market and didn’t expect Qatar to double down on their efforts to find new markets and allies. Within a matter of days new source markets were ready and new trade routes were set-up. This only made Qatar more resolute and this can be seen from the per-formance of various government agencies and private bodies in the recent past.

The partial launch of Doha Metro, more than year ahead of schedule, is a remarkable achievement and shows how effectively Qatar has overcome the obstacles

and is moving ahead at a great pace.

This will usher in a new way of commuting and once the other lines are open it will be a great option for the thousands of commuters who depend on their cars. Getting private cars out of the main roads will not only reduce the congestion and traffic but will also benefit the environment by reducing the emissions.

The feeder buses oper-ating at the stations will help achieving the goal of keeping private cars out of the roads. The buses operated by Mowasalat solve the last-minute con-nectivity issue, which makes or breaks a railway network. All over the world the connectivity from the station to the neigh-

bourhood is of the utmost important as this makes it an attractive option for the commuters.

The first two days response to the metro from the residents show that it is going to be a roaring success among the officegoers as many people were seen opting to use the metro than their cars in the morning and afternoon peak times.

The metro stations stand testament to the tenacity of the nation to put all roadblocks behind and step on the pedal to achieve all the goals ahead of schedule while maintaining the top international standards.

Qatar Railways Company is aiming to complete two more lines - Green and Gold - by the year 2020.

Like one of the Qatar Rail officials said the country now stands at a turning point as the project shifts from the development stage to the operational stage. And this is just the beginning of many more milestones to come.

A building in Gaza City that was destroyed during Israeli airstrikes.

The truth is, Turkish economy is the perfect showcase for how geo-politics affects economies, or more precisely, how a country’s rejection of subordination in international relations leads to threats of economic sanctions by powerful states.

09FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019 OPINION

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US & China are livingin different universes

Root of Turkey’s economic troubles: US foreign policy

DAVID FICKLING BLOOMBERG

MUSTAFA METIN BASBAY ANATOLIA

Have US and Chinese trade negotiators been meeting with each other in recent months, or with bands of

convincing impostors?You almost have to ask the

question, because media reports about who “ broke the deal” over the past week seem to have been filed from two different universes.

In a Reuters report published on Wednesday and attributed principally to three US government sources, the Chinese had been on the brink of an unconditional surrender before trying to wriggle out of it at the last minute. A nearly 150-page, seven-chapter draft had included binding legal language to change its legislation on intellectual property theft, forced technology transfers, competition policy, currency manipulation and access to financial services, Reuters reported, alongside an enforcement regime similar to those imposed on troublesome countries like North Korea and Iran. Beijing tried to reverse all that in a series of last-minute edits, according to the report.

That backs up an earlier report by Jenny Leonard, Saleha Mohsin and Jen-nifer Jacobs of Bloomberg News citing people familiar with the matter saying that the Chinese went back on promises to include changes to its laws in the text of the deal.

An article in the Wall Street Journal, sourced to “people familiar with the thinking of the Chinese

side,” had a vastly different read. Pres-ident Donald Trump’s tweets about his friendship with President Xi Jinping; praise of China’s economic stimulus; criticism of the US Federal Reserve; and positive statements about planned Chinese purchases of US soy-beans — all were taken as evidence that Washington’s resolve was weak-ening along with its economy, according to the report. Beijing never had any intention of specifying which laws it was prepared to change to get a deal over the finish line, and didn’t take seriously hints from the US that time was running out, it said.

Such starkly differing interpreta-tions of the same event aren’t all that unusual. There’s even a term for the phenomenon: the “Rashomon effect,” in reference to an Akira Kurosawa film in which witnesses give contrasting accounts of a murder. Still, the risks of such misinterpretation are a familiar hazard of diplomacy, espe-cially in discussions between negoti-ators with different languages and cul-tural contexts, so it’s somewhat aston-ishing to see such a gap still yawning between the two sides after all the talking that’s been done over the past year.

What would a more realistic accord look like? As we’ve argued from the start of this process, the two sides are much more evenly matched than Washington’s negotiators appear to recognize - with the odds, if anything, likely to marginally favor China.

Factions in Beijing — including Premier Li Keqiang and Xi himself — have long favored reform around IP and inward investment that would meet many US demands. Indeed, in areas such as foreign investment and patent enforcement, legal changes are already quietly taking place away from the spotlight. But national pride, and a Communist Party ideology grounded in

resisting unequal treaties in the name of free trade, mean that such shifts could never be seen to be done under duress.

As for the more expansive demands from Washington’s trade hawks around reducing the state’s role in the Chinese economy, those have always seemed delusional. A limited agreement, with a few commitments on agricultural and energy purchases dressed up in fancy language, always looked like the most credible path to a pact. Why has this plain reality been so opaque to the political leaders in Beijing and Washington, leading them to drastically miscalculate and overplay their hands?

One explanation is that the infor-mation flow among senior officials hasn’t been structured to communicate difficult realities to the top. In a well-functioning political system, the whims and pride of political leaders should be kept in check by honest advice that keeps their ambitions tethered to reality. When those ties are loosened, decision-making risks becoming lost in a fog of self-aggrandizement.

It’s hardly a surprise that this latter style is now prevalent in both Beijing and Washington. President Trump’s unwillingness to tolerate dissent is well-documented, but even within China’s more inherently dysfunctional authoritarian leadership the centrali-zation of power under President Xi has had a similar effect.

Still, it bodes ill for the prospects of the current round of talks starting Thursday. So far, we’ve only seen denial and anger from both sides; if we want to make it to a deal, we’ll likely have to go through a good amount of bargaining - and depression - first.

The writer is a Bloomberg opinion col-umnist covering commodities, as well as industrial and consumer companies.

Recent fluctuations in the value of the Turkish Lira have placed Turkish economy in the limelight again. Analysts

point at a number of issues, mostly those related to domestic politics or economic management, which may be responsible for the continuation of the economic distress. All these expla-nations have some merit and there is certainly plenty the Turkish adminis-tration should be doing to overcome fragilities.

However, it seems that power relations at the global level and their direct influence on Turkish economy are mostly ignored. I would argue that most of Turkey’s short-term economic troubles are due to the diplomatic conflict with the US over regional issues and continuing threat of sanc-tions against Turkish economy.

A number of critical events in recent years have put Turkey and the US at odds. The parallels between certain turns in Turkish economy and clashes in the US-Turkey diplomatic relations are difficult to overlook.

Most recently, for instance, Pres-ident Erdogan took a strong position against President Trump’s declaration to recognise Israel’s illegal control over the Golan Heights. The very same day, March 22, Turkish Lira depre-ciated by 6 percent within hours. Although it swiftly regained value thanks to the quick reaction of the Turkey’s Central Bank, the incidence has once again started discussions about Turkey’s economic well-being. This alone proves how responsive Turkey’s financial markets are even to minor fluctuations in the Turkey-US relations.

The most important source of tension between the US and Turkey is arguably Washington’s support for the YPG in Northern Syrian. Turkey con-siders the YPG as a terrorist

organization because of its association with the PKK and its previous attacks on Turkish civilians. The US started to openly arm and train the YPG forces in 2014 while their affiliates were still carrying out suicide bombings in Turkish cities. Turkey is fighting the YPG and insists on eliminating them from the region while the US sees the organization as a trustable partner.

Last January, a few weeks after the announcement that the US army is retreating from Syria, President Trump tweeted that the US “will dev-astate Turkey economically…” if Turkey takes further military action against the YPG. President Trump’s tweet saw the Turkish lira lose 1.6 percent value against dollar on the same day, Jan 14. It took a phone call between Erdogan and Trump for the Turkish Lira to regain value next day.

When he was asked to explain the tweet, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “we have applied eco-nomic sanctions in many places, I assume he is speaking about those kinds of things”. So, the threat of sanc-tions is as explicit as it gets.

Actually, the US administration has already imposed sanctions on Turkey. Last year in August, President Trump doubled the tariffs on Turkish steel and iron in order to pressure the Turkish government to release an American pastor who was detained on charges of connection to the failed coup attempt in 2016. Serious claims about US involvement with the coup attempt is also a source of tension between Turkey and the US in general.

Following the announcement of sanctions, a capital outflow took place and the Turkish Lira lost 20 percent value. In order to halt the process, the Turkish central bank was forced to raise its benchmark interest rates from 13.5 percent to 17.25 percent and then to 24 percent. As a matter of fact,

this was the beginning of Turkey’s negative divergence from other emerging market economies.

In response to the threat of further sanctions, last August, Turkish President Erdogan said, “failure to reverse this trend of unilateralism and disrespect will require us to start looking for new friends and allies”, proving that Turkey chooses eco-nomic distress over submission to demands of the US.

Since then, investors have been overly sensitive to the geo-political pow-erplay between Turkey and the US.

Nowadays, the dispute between two countries centered around Tur-key’s deal to purchase S-400 air defense systems from Russia. The US wants Turkey to buy the American-made Patriot missiles instead, but refuses to transfer technological know-how. Turkey is more interested in developing its own military capacity and end its dependency on the US, or any other country for that matter.

Accordingly, Turkey turned to the Russian-made S-400s because of the technology transfer component of the deal. The US, in turn, has suspended sales of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey even though Turkey has invested one billion dollars in the project.

David Satterfield, a nominee for US ambassador to Turkey, speaking at the US Senate on April 11 said, “by moving ahead with its purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system, Turkey puts its participation in the F-35 program at risk and faces potential sanctions under CAATSA.”

Note that CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanc-tions Act) was previously used to impose sanctions on Iran, N. Korea, and Russia. Satterfield also quoted Vice President Pence’s remarks about the issue on April 4 that Turkey must “choose” between Russia and Nato, referring to the S-400 deal. As expected, these statements have cast a chill over Turkey’s financial markets.

The US argues that S-400s are incompatible with the Nato systems. Interestingly, Nato Secretary-General Stoltenberg seems to disagree with Pence. “It’s a national decision for each Nato ally to decide on pro-curement of capabilities,” Stoltenberg said on the same occasion. Fur-thermore, Greece, another Nato ally, already has S-300 missiles. The first delivery of the S-400 missiles will take place in July 2019. Until then, the US is likely to continue to show the stick to Turkey. Investors are watching, of course.

Having such unstable relations with the US imposes a certain level of unpredictability to the Turkish economy, which is why investors are hesitant to return back to Turkey despite favorable investment condi-tions after the steep rise in interest rates and gradually cheapening Turkish assets.

However, following the discus-sions about Turkey’s problems in the international media, one might think that Turkish economy is in perfect

As for the more expansive demands from Washington’s trade hawks around reducing the state’s role in the Chinese economy, those have always seemed delusional. A limited agreement, with a few commitments on agricultural and energy purchases dressed up in fancy language, always looked like the most credible path to a pact.

isolation and the slow-down in economic growth or currency vola-tility is all Turkey’s own doing.

The truth is, Turkish economy is the perfect showcase for how geo-politics affects economies, or more precisely, how a country’s rejection of subordination in inter-national relations leads to threats of economic sanctions by powerful states.

It is much easier to find the real reason why Turkey is facing financial challenges in US foreign policy decisions and Washington’s bullying of its allies rather than Turkey’s domestic politics or eco-nomic management.

This does not mean that there is not a lesson for Turkey to take. Turkey has learned the hard way that political independence comes with economic resilience. Fragil-ities in Turkish economy makes it easier for the US to use the threat of sanctions as leverage in negotiations.

Turkey’s long-accumulated foreign debt, mostly denominated in dollars, has to be dealt with through strong and fast reforms towards productive and export-ori-ented sectors, for which Turkey has already made some progress recently. Furthermore, the choice a country makes between its domestic resources and foreign capital is not merely an economic one. So, Turkey’s savings rate should be boosted.

In the meantime, the gov-ernment in Ankara will continue to confront American diplomatic uni-lateralism and hopefully remind Washington of the geo-strategic importance of Turkey as a critical ally.

The writer an Assistant Researcher at TRT World Research Centre.

10 FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019ASIA

N Korea fires missiles as US envoy visits SeoulAFP SEOUL

North Korea welcomed a US envoy’s visit to Seoul by firing two missiles yesterday, the South’s military said, in Pyongyang’s second launch in less than a week as it seeks to up the ante in deadlocked nuclear negotiations with Washington.

It came after North Korea carried out a military drill and fired multiple projectiles on Sat-urday, with at least one believed to be a short-range missile.

The North had not previously fired a missile since November 2017, shortly before a rapid dip-lomatic thaw eased high tensions on the peninsula and paved the way for a historic first meeting between its leader Kim Jong-Un and US President Donald Trump.

But their second summit in Vietnam in February broke up without an agreement rolling back Pyongyang’s nuclear pro-gramme in exchange for sanc-tions relief or even a joint statement, leaving the North frustrated by the stalemate.

Yesterday’s launch came hours after the US Special Rep-resentative on North Korea, Stephen Biegun, arrived in Seoul late Wednesday for talks with South Korean officials on the allies’ approach towards Pyongyang, in his first visit since the Hanoi summit.

The North “fired what appeared to be two short-range

missiles”, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement, adding they flew eastwards for 270 and 420km and the South Korean and US militaries were jointly analysing them.

It was a “deeply wor-rying” development, said a spokeswoman for the South’s presidential office, “as it is not helping improvement of inter-Korean relations and

efforts to ease mil i tary tensions”.

The JCS earlier said that the launches appeared to originate from Sino-ri in North Pyongan province, 75km northwest of Pyongyang.

One of the North’s longest-running operational missile bases is in the area, which the Centre for Strategic & Interna-tional Studies said houses a reg-iment-sized unit equipped with Nodong-1 medium-range bal-listic missiles.

Biegun met his South Korean counterpart Lee Do-hoon for breakfast yesterday and is due to hold discussions with the South’s foreign and unification ministers today as the security allies — Washington stations 28,500 troops in the South to defend it from its neighbour — work on their approach towards Pyongyang.

With yesterday’s launch, said Hong Min, a senior researcher at

the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification, “North Korea is sending a clear message that it will not be satisfied with humanitarian aid” being con-sidered by Seoul.

“It is saying, ‘We want security guarantees in return for the denuclearisation process’,” he added.

“Kim could have felt he needed to show a strong military posture to ease complaints fol-lowing a joint South-US military drill last month.”

Harry Kazianis of the Centre for the National Interest added that the North had “once again chosen a course of action today that can only worsen already growing tensions.

People watch a television news programme showing file footage of North Korea’s projectile weapons, at a railway station in Seoul, yesterday.

Yesterday’s missile launch came hours after the US Special Representative on North Korea, Stephen Biegun, arrived in Seoul for talks with South Korean officials on the allies’ approach towards Pyongyang.

North Korea not ready to negotiate: TrumpREUTERS WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump said the United States was looking very seriously at North Korea’s latest missile launch and that while North Korea wants to negotiate with the United States, he does not think it is ready to do so.

“We’re looking at it very

seriously right now. They were smaller missiles, they were short-range missiles,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Nobody’s happy about it but we’re taking a good look and we’ll see.”

“The relationship continues ... I know they want to negotiate, they’re talking about negoti-ating. But I don’t think they’re ready to negotiate,” Trump said.

US seizes North’s cargo shipAP WASHINGTON

The Trump administration has seized a North Korean cargo ship used to supply coal to the isolated nation in violation of international sanctions, law enforcement officials said.

The seizure of the vessel, detained last month in Indo-nesia, comes at a delicate moment between the two coun-tries. It was announced hours after the North Korea fired two

suspected short-range missiles in an apparent sign of trouble for nuclear disarmament talks.

It also follows a Pentagon decision to suspend efforts to arrange negotiations on recov-ering additional remains of US service members killed in the North during the Korean War.

The Justice Department said the ship, the Wise Honest, is one of North Korea’s largest bulk carriers and for several years had been used to deliver Russian coal to North Korea.

Four countries challenge Beijing with naval drills in disputed seaREUTERS TOKYO

In fresh show of naval force in the contested South China Sea, a US guided missile destroyer conducted drills with a Japanese aircraft carrier, two Indian naval ships and a Philippine patrol vessel in the waterway claimed by China, the US Navy said.

While similar exercises have been held in the South China Sea in the past, the combined display by four countries represents a fresh challenge to Beijing as US President Donald Trump threatens to hike tariffs on $200bn worth of Chinese goods.

“Professional engagements with our allies, partners and friends in the region are

opportunities to build upon our existing, strong relationships,” Commander Andrew J Klug, the captain of the US destroyer, the USS William P Lawrence, said in a statement.

Japan sent one of its two big aircraft carriers, the Izumo, while India deployed a destroyer, the INS Kolkata, and a tanker, the INS Shakti.

The week of joint drills, which ended on Wednesday, comes after two other US war-ships sailed near islands in the region claimed by China on Monday, prompting a protest from Beijing, which said the a c t i o n i n f r i n g e d i t s sovereignty.

The US Navy said it conducts such freedom of navigation

operations in international waters around the world, even in seas claimed by its allies, w i t h o u t p o l i t i c a l considerations.

China claims almost all of the strategic South China Sea with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam pushing competing claims to parts of the maritime region.Duterte bugged

by cockroach during speechAFP MANILA

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s (pictured) unpre-dictable speeches frequently contain bombshell pronounce-ments, but the surprise this time came in the form of a cockroach ambling along the leader’s shoulder.

The bug popped up on Duterte as he was extolling the virtues of the candidates he has endorsed in next week’s midterm polls at a campaign rally.

An aide tried and failed to scrape the critter away with some papers, but Duterte brushed it aside as the gov-ernment broadcast cut to a smiling but bemused audience in the central city of Bohol.

Duterte, who was nearing the end of his roughly 90-minute address, joked that the insect belongs to the oppo-sition party.

The leader’s critics quickly took to Twitter to mock his close encounter with the roach.

Duterte is on the campaign trail to rally support for his can-didates in next week’s midterm polls, in which some 18,000 seats ranging from local councils to the upper house Senate are up for grabs.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (centre) with members of the media after a press conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia, yesterday.

Mahathir to stay as Malaysia’s PMANATOLIA ANKARA

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has hinted at maximum stay of three years in office, said a media report yesterday, on the first anni-versary of the coalition government in the country.

According to Singapore-based Straits Times, Mahathir told foreign media that he does not seek a full term and that he will “step aside after fixing

problems of coalition”.Mahathir is running a coa-

lition government of Malaysian United Indigenous Party and Anwar Ibrahim-led People’s Justice Party.

Prior to the last year’s election, the coalition had agreed that Mahathir would hand over reins to Anwar, but no timeframe was given.

When reporters asked whether incumbent premier meant that he will be in office for two years in power or from

now, Mahathir replied: “I don’t know whether it is three years or two years, but I am an interim prime minister”.

“We will make most of the corrections within a period of two years and after that I think the others will have less problems to face,” he added.

He listed corruption as one of the main issues his adminis-tration dealt in last 12 months.

“So now I think it is the economy that [we] will focus on this year,” the premier said.

Singapore Parliament outlaws fake newsAP SINGAPORE

Singapore has passed a law criminalising publication of fake news and allowing the government to block and order the removal of such content.

The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill passed on Wednesday night by a vote of 72-9, a lawmaker with the opposition Worker’s Party, Daniel Goh, said on Facebook.

The law bans falsehoods that are prejudicial to Singapore or likely to influence elections and requires service providers to remove such content or allows the government to block it. Offenders could face a jail term of up to 10 years and hefty fines.

Opponents in Parliament said it gave government min-isters too much power to determine what was false and broadly defined public interest.

The Strait Times newspaper reported Law Minister K. Shan-mugam said the orders to correct or remove false content would mostly be directed at technology companies, rather than individuals who ran afoul of the law without intent.

Human Rights Watch

sharply criticised the law. It is a “disaster for online

expression by ordinary Singa-poreans” and a “hammer blow” against the independence of online news portals, said Phil Robertson, the group’s deputy Asia director.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last month defended the proposed law, saying many countries had them and that Sin-gapore had debated the issue for two years.

He rejected criticism the law could further stifle free speech in Singapore, which already has stern laws on public protests and dissent.

“They criticised many things about Singapore’s media man-agement, but what we have done have worked for Sin-gapore. And it is our objective to continue to do things that will work for Singapore. And I think (the new law) will be a signif-icant step forward in this regard,” he said on a visit to Malaysia.

Speaking at the same news conference, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad warned such laws were a double-edged sword that could be abused by governments to stay in power.

Three convicted of terrorism over Australian mosque arson attackAP MELBOURNE

Three men were convicted yesterday of engaging in a terror act by burning down a Shia mosque in the Australian city of Melbourne three years ago.

A Victoria state Supreme Court jury convicted Abdullah Chaarani, Ahmed Mohamed and Hatim Moukhaiber over the fire-bombing of the Imam Ali Islamic Center on December 11, 2016.

Mohamed and Moukhaiber had both denied any

involvement. Chaarani conceded that he was there, but argued he had been part of an act of protest or advocacy, but not terrorism.

Chaarani and Mohamed were also found guilty of attempting to commit a terror act over a failed attempt to burn the

mosque down two weeks earlier on November 25.

The three will appear in court for sentencing next week. They each face a potential maximum sentence of life in prison.

During the trial, prosecutor

Nicholas Robinson argued Chaarani’s involvement was ter-rorism because the mosque was targeted to intimidate Shias.

Mohamed and Chaarani had previously been convicted of planning a terrorist attack on central Melbourne locations

including the Federation Square restaurant and club precinct, St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral and Flinders Street train station on Christmas Day in 2016.

They were among five men found guilty last year after the plot was foiled by police.

11FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019 EUROPE

Montenegro court jails 2016 coup plot leadersAFP PODGORICA

A Montenegro court yesterday handed jail sentences to two opposition politicians and a dozen others, including Russians and Serbians, over an alleged 2016 plot to topple the government and halt its bid to join Nato.

Pro-Russian opposition leaders Andrija Mandic and Milan Knezevic were given five years behind bars for being part of a criminal organisation whose aim was to “violently overthrow” the government and “prevent Montenegro from joining Nato,” judge Suzana Mugosa said.

The heaviest sentences, 12 and 15 years, went to two alleged Russian spies tried in absentia.

Authorities first arrested sus-pects on the eve of October 2016 elections, the night before the group was allegedly planning to stage their takeover.

At the time, the pro-Russian coalition was the main rival against then-prime minister Milo Djukanovic in October 2016 elections.

Djukanovic, who has run the small Balkan state almost con-tinuously since 1991, was later

elected president in 2018.Moscow, which had opposed

the tiny Balkan state’s efforts to join Nato at the time, has rejected allegations of its involvement as “absurd”.

The other people convicted were a Montenegrin and nine Serbians, including a former police general and anti-Nato activist who received eight years in jail.

Since the trial opened a year and a half ago, Montenegro’s opposition has decried it as a government-backed “witch hunt” aimed at destroying their political camp, known as the Democratic Front.

Speaking at his party’s head-quarters after the ruling, Mandic

called the verdict a “complete farce” engineered by the Dju-kanovic family.

“All those who attack us will suffer severe consequences and accountability,” he added.

Knezevic, 39, added that “the judge did not show a single proof against the Democratic Front.”

The politicians are expected to appeal the ruling.

In the years since the alleged coup attempt, Montenegro joined Nato and the government has continued its negotiations for accession to the European Union.

The opposition’s Democratic Front coalition remains weakened.

Political analyst Sergej Seku-lovic noted that prosecutors have recently shifted “in the direction of minimising Moscow’s official role in this case”.

The ruling nevertheless “strengthens the position of the government, which from the beginning has held an identical position to that of the prose-cutor,” he added.

The UK’s foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt continued to point the finger at Moscow.

“Guilty! Conviction of 2 Russian intelligence officers for

failed coup attempt in Mon-tenegro another example of Rus-sia’s outrageous attempts to u n d e r m i n e E u r o p e a n democracy,” he wrote in Twitter.

Observers said the months-long trial still left many questions unanswered.

The weapons that the plotters allegedly planned to use were never shown in court.

According to the indictment, dozens of cases of automatic weapons and three cases of

ammunition were thrown into a lake in a neighbouring country.

Prosecutors later said a Serbian who provided the weapons ultimately destroyed them at the request of Mon-tenegrin justice.

“Without these weapons, the story of a violent overthrow of power is unconvincing,” Dragan Soc, a lawyer and Montenegro’s former justice minister, said ahead of the ruling.

One of the prosecution’s key

witnesses, Serbian national Ale-ksandar Sindjelic, also reversed his testimony about a Russian-funded plot.

In March he told a Serbian television channel that there had been no “plan of violence in Podgorica”, only an anti-Nato “protest”.

The court did not bring him back to the witness stand, saying that his reversal was expressed outside any judicial framework.

Montenegro opposition leaders Andrija Mandic (centre) and Milan Knezevic (right) during a news conference after being convicted by Montenegro court, in Podgorica, yesterday.

EU unveils 10-point blueprint for post-Brexit futureAFP SIBIU

European leaders revealed a broad-brush statement of prin-ciples to guide them into the post-Brexit future yesterday, promising a “new Union at 27 ready to embrace its future as one.”

Britain, the missing 28th EU member, has yet to complete its divorce from the bloc but the other leaders were determined that their summit in the Romanian town of Sibiu would set a five-year agenda for the future.

With European Parlia-mentary elections due in just over two weeks and a new EU leadership team to be named

before he end of the year, the 27 leaders did not make detailed commitments.

But “The Sibiu Declaration” underlined their joint com-mitment that Britain’s departure would not trigger a rush for the exits.

The 10 points are:1) We will defend one

Europe, from East to West, from North to South

2) We will stay united, through thick and thin

3) We will always look for joint solutions

4) We will continue to protect our way of life, democracy and the rule of law

5) We will deliver where it matters most

6) We will always uphold the

principle of fairness7) We will give ourselves the

means to match our ambitions 8) We will safeguard the

future for the next generations of Europeans

9) We will protect our cit-izens and keep them safe

10) Europe will be a respon-sible global leader

After issuing the declaration, the leaders began talks on a second document that will not be finalised in Sibiu but will rep-resent a more detailed strategic agenda.

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council of leaders, was also expected to lay down the procedures for choosing the next head of the EU Commission after the parliamentary vote.

EU leaders to hold summit on May 28 for bloc’s top jobsAFP SIBIU

All 28 leaders of European Union governments will meet on May 28 to launch the process of choosing a new head of the EU Commission and other top posts.

EU Council chief Donald Tusk said after a summit in Sibiu, Romania, that he wanted the leaders to nominate Jean-Claude Juncker’s successor before the end of June.

Tusk said he hoped that the decision on senior commission

posts, which will be made after EU parliamentary elections at the end of this month would be “swift”, adding that it would also have to respect a balance of men and women and between the larger and smaller countries of the union.

“I will not shy away from putting this decision to the vote if consensus proves difficult to achieve,” he said, in a nod to the prospects of political horse-trading between the leaders.

“My intention is for the European Council to nominate the new EU leadership in June.”

Speaking at the party’s headquarters, Pro-Russian oppn leader Andrija Mandic called the verdict a “complete farce” engineered by the Djukanovic family.

Russian President Vladimir Putin shaking hands with military officers after the Victory Day parade at Red Square in downtown Moscow, yesterday.

BBC radio presenter sacked after ‘racist’ royal baby tweetAFP LONDON

Veteran British broadcaster Danny Baker was fired by the BBC after tweeting a picture of well-dressed couple holding hands with a chimpanzee in a suit, tagged with the caption “royal baby leaves hospital”.

Accusations of racism immediately flooded his timeline, as new royal baby Archie has mixed-race heritage through mother Meghan, and he later took down the picture, apologising for the “possible connotations”.

But the BBC announced Baker, 61, would be leaving his job as presenter on Radio 5 Live.

“This was a serious error of judgment and goes against the values we as a station aim to embody,” said the broadcaster. “Danny’s a brilliant broadcaster

but will no longer be presenting a weekly show with us.”

Baker, who made his name as a music writer during the punk era, began his radio career in 1989 and has also presented television quiz shows.

He hit back at his sacking, saying the BBC “threw me under the bus” and that the racial implications of his tweet “never occurred to me because, well, mind not diseased”.

“Would have used same stupid pic for any other Royal birth or Boris Johnson kid or even one of my own. It’s a funny image,” he said.

But ITV news anchor Charlene White said the tweet was “unacceptable”. “To post a pic picturing a 3-day old baby of mixed heritage as a monkey, then claim it was a joke? That’s old-school prejudice and racism at its peak,” she wrote.

Putin on Victory Day: Russian military to be strengthenedAP MOSCOW

Russian President Vladimir Putin told the annual military Victory Day parade at Red Square yesterday that the country will continue to strengthen its armed forces.

The parade marked the 74th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. It included about 13,000 servicemen and 130 pieces of military equipment, ranging from a T-34 tank —renowned for its effectiveness

in World War II — to lumbering Yars ICBM launch units.

For the second time in three years, the parade did not con-clude with an aerial display of helicopters and warplanes speeding above the square. Russian news reports said the cancellation was due to heavy clouds.

Among the guests were recently resigned Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Steven Seagal, the American actor who obtained Russian cit-izenship in 2016 and later was

named a special envoy for humanitarian ties with the US.

Putin said in his speech that “we have done and will do eve-rything necessary to ensure the high combat capability of our armed forces.”

He added: “At the same time, Russia is open for cooperation with all who are ready to resist terrorism, neo-Nazism and extremism.”

Dozens of other Russian cities also held parades for the country’s most significant secular holiday.

Drone sighting halted flights at Frankfurt airport

AFP BERLIN

Frankfurt airport was shut down for nearly an hour yesterday morning as operators halted flights over a drone sighting.

No landings or take-offs were allowed after a drone was spotted over the southern part of the airport area in the early morning, but the all clear was given at 08:15am (0615 GMT) at Germany’s busiest airport.

The aviation authority said 143 take-offs and landings were cancelled and 48 aircraft already in the air were diverted to other airports among a total of 1,500 scheduled flights yesterday.

The drone, which was approximately 1.5 metres in diameter, was spotted by several pilots.

Police are investigating and a helicopter tried to track the remote-controlled device after the latest drone incident to disrupt flights at the airport.

In March, flights were halted for half an hour at Frankfurt airport following a drone sighting, also over the southern part of the site, causing lengthy delays and the cancellation of 60 of that day’s 1,439 scheduled flights.

German air traffic con-trollers registered a total of 158 obstructions to scheduled flights caused by drones in 2018, up around 80 percent on the 2017 figure.

Germany is not the only country to suffer from airborne pests.

London’s Gatwick airport was shut down for three days in December over drone sightings, causing holiday travel misery for tens of thousands.

Asylum seekers on trial over Greek camp protestAFP LESBOS ISLAND

More than 100 asylum seekers went on trial on the Greek island of Lesbos yesterday after protesting against over-crowded camp conditions, an AFP reporter said.

The mainly Afghan asylum seekers stand accused of occu-pying a central square on the island in April 2018.

Along with women and children, they staged a sit-in that

was swiftly attacked by far-right militants who threw stones and flares, with riot police deployed to keep the two sides apart.

“We didn’t do anything. We were attacked by some extreme people. We are innocent,” one of the defendants, Afghan refugee Hadisse Hosseini said.

Among the attackers, 26 have been provisionally iden-tified by police. Their trial date has not yet been set.

Over 70,000 refugees and migrants have been stranded in

Greece following a mass influx from 2015 onwards. Most were fleeing war-torn Syria and want to go to wealthier EU states such as Germany.

Of these, some 15,000 are housed in badly overcrowded camps on Greek islands where living conditions have been repeatedly criticised by rights groups. Conditions are worst on the islands of Lesbos and Samos, where over 10,000 people live in camps built to handle a third of that number.

12 FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019AMERICAS

US Senate intel panel subpoenas Trump JrREUTERS WASHINGTON

The US Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed one of the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, to answer questions about his contacts with Russia, two congressional sources said.

The panel, which along with the Senate is controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, wants to question Trump Jr about testimony he gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2017 which was sub-sequently contradicted in public testimony by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, one of the sources said.

The committee is one of the few in the Senate that has been conducting serious investigations related to Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner has appeared before the panel at least twice.

During his Judiciary Com-mittee appearance, the source said, Trump Jr was asked about the extent of his involvement in a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

“Like I said, I was periph-erally aware of it, but most of my knowledge has been gained since as it relates to hearing about it over the last few weeks,” Trump Jr told the committee, according to an official transcript.

In testimony before the House of Representatives Over-sight Committee, however, Cohen, said he briefed Trump family members “approximately 10 times” about the Moscow Trump Tower project, and that Trump Jr and his sister Ivanka were among the family members he briefed.

Cohen has also told Congress that some reimbursement checks issued to him for hush money payments to an actress who said she had an affair with President Trump were signed by Trump Jr, as well as the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer.

Cohen this week began serving a federal prison sentence for tax evasion and campaign finance violations.

In his report on Russian meddling in the US presidential election in 2016, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team of prose-cutors reported that there was a “reasonable argument” that Trump Jr violated campaign finance laws.

But Mueller’s team con-cluded they did not believe they could obtain a conviction.

Dr. Paul Davis of Findlay shows US President Donald Trump a surprise $17,000 medical bill his daughter received for a routine test, at the White House in Washington, DC, yesterday.

House seeks to restore Central American aidREUTERS WASHINGTON

A Democratic-led US House of Representatives committee moved yesterday toward restoring hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to Central America that was cut off by Pres-ident Donald Trump, setting up a potential showdown with the White House.

A House Appropriations sub-committee released a draft of its bill funding the State Department and foreign aid programmes for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020, that rejects the Repub-lican president’s proposals for steep cuts.

It also seeks to influence

policy, including by prohibiting funds from supporting the sale of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia and removing a Repub-lican-led prohibition on contri-butions to the UN Green Climate Fund, and prohibits the use of funds to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

The Trump administration said in March it would cut aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras after Trump blasted the three countries because thousands of their citizens had sought asylum at the US border with Mexico.

Several lawmakers , including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, rejected that plan. They said it was cruel to cut

off aid to countries grappling with hunger and crime, and the move would more likely increase the number of migrants than decrease it.

The draft bill directs that no less than $540.8m be made available for the Central American countries, and requires that the administration spend money as directed in previous years’ spending bills. Overall, the bill provides $56.4bn in base funding for diplomacy and foreign aid, $2.2bn more than the fiscal 2019 level, or $13.7bn more than Trump included in his budget request.

Lawmakers, again including some of Trump’s closest Repub-lican allies, had rejected his plan

to cut spending on diplomacy and foreign aid by more than 20 percent.

The draft bill could face resistance in the Republican-controlled Senate, as it also seeks to end Trump administration policies restricting funding for a variety of organizations involved in women’s reproductive health.

Those policies include the administration’s expansion of the “Mexico City” policy barring US health assistance going directly or indirectly to organizsations that provide abortions, abortion counselling or referrals.

The House Appropriations State and Foreign Operations subcommittee is due to debate the draft bill today.

Fake German heiress gets jail term for fraudREUTERS NEW YORK

A German woman who posed as a wealthy heiress to scam boutique New York hotels and fashionable friends was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison after a jury in state court found her guilty of fraud last month.

Anna Sorokin, 28, faced up to 15 years in prison on her con-viction of charges stemming from multiple acts of glamorous grifting in 2016 and 2017.

Born in Russia before moving to Germany as a teenager with her family, she was better known to her Man-hattan friends as Anna Delvey, a would-be socialite dressed in expensive clothes whose credit cards came back declined with unnerving frequency despite her talk of having a trust fund.

Prosecutors in Manhattan

district attorney’s office said Sorokin defrauded others of about $275,000 while pre-tending she had $67m in assets.

They said she used forged bank statements to seek a loan of $22m from a bank to fund a private arts club she wanted to open in Manhattan. In the end, she managed to get a $100,000 loan, which prosecutors said she never repaid. She used about $30,000 of that to cover her overdue bills at the fashionable 11 Howard hotel, where she was living.

Prosecutors added that she also deposited bad checks amounting to $15,000 in an account with Signature Bank, managing to withdraw $8,200 in cash before the checks bounced. “She also tricked a friend into covering bills for $62,000 at the end of their six-night luxury trip to Morocco after Sorokin’s card was declined.”

Fake German heiress Anna Sorokin is led away after being sentenced in Manhattan Supreme Court, in New York, yesterday.

The panel wants to question Trump Jr about testimony he gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2017 which was subsequently contradicted in public testimony by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

AFP/WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump rushed to his son’s defence, saying he was “very surprised” by a Senate panel’s order that Donald Trump Jr testify as part of its investigation into Russia election interference.

“I was very surprised,” Trump told reporters about the Senate Intelligence Commit-tee’s subpoena of his eldest of five children.

“My son is a very good person, he works very hard. The last thing he needs is Washington DC. I think he’d rather not ever be involved,” Trump said. “For my son, after being exonerated, to now get a subpoena to go again, to speak again after close to 20 hours after telling everybody that would listen about a nothing meeting? Yeah, I’m pretty surprised.”

Trump ‘very surprised’ by son’s subpoena

House panel votes AG Barr in contemptAP WASHINGTON

The House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Attorney-General William Barr in contempt of Congress, escalating the Demo-crats’ extraordinary legal battle with the Trump administration over access to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia report.

The vote capped a day of ever-deepening dispute between congressional Democrats and

President Donald Trump, who for the first time invoked the principle of executive privilege, claiming the right to block law-makers from the full report on Mueller’s probe of Russian inter-ference to help Trump in the 2016 election.

Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of NY declared the action by Trump’s Justice Department a clear new sign of the presi-dent’s “blanket defiance” of Con-gress’ constitutional rights to conduct oversight.

“We did not relish doing this, but we have no choice,” Nadler said after the vote.

The White House’s blockade, he said, “is an attack on the ability of the American people to know what the executive branch is doing.” He said, “This cannot be.”

But Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said it was disappointing that members of Congress “have chosen to engage in such inap-propriate political theatrics.”

Call to end ‘surprise medical bills’AP WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump called for an end to “surprise medical bills,” the astonishingly high charges insured patients can face when a member of a medical team that treats them is not in their insurer’s network.

“Not a pleasant surprise,” Trump said of bills that arrive in the mail and run to tens of thou-sands of dollars. “A very unpleasant surprise.”

The administration threw its support behind efforts by law-makers of both parties to address the problem, laying out a set of goals for legislation.

With polls showing that voters trust Democrats over Republicans on health care, Trump has been hitting pocket-book medical issues that res-onate with the middle-class, like prescription drug costs. He was joined at a White House event by patients, one who got a $110,000 bill after a heart attack, and another who got a bill for $17,850 for a test her insurer would have paid $100 for.

“So this must end,” Trump said. “We’re going to hold insurance companies and

hospitals totally accountable.” The president said he wants to get it done “quickly,” and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn, chairman of the Health, Edu-cation, Labour and Pensions Committee, said he hoped to deliver a bill in July.

Just before Trump spoke, the Democratic and Republican leaders of a key House com-mittee said they are ready to move on legislation.

“No family should be left in financial ruin through no fault of their own, which is why we have been working together on a bipartisan solution to protect patients that we hope to announce soon,” Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-NJ, and ranking Republican Greg Walden, R-Ore., said in a joint statement. The panel oversees the health insurance industry.

Pallone and Walden are not alone; more than a half-dozen senators and representatives have floated ideas or drafted legislation.

Rep Lloyd Doggett , D-Texas, chairman of the Ways and Means health panel, has a bill. Senators Bill Cassidy, R-La, and Michael Bennet, D-Colo,

collaborated on a bipartisan proposal, and other plans come from New Hampshire Demo-cratic Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen.

White House officials out-lined a set of principles for leg-islation that Trump can back:

—Patients who receive emergency care should not be hit with charges that exceed the amount paid to in-network pro-viders. In an emergency, patients are in no position to check whether their insurers have con-tracted with the surgeons or anesthesiologists who provide care.

— Patients going in for a scheduled procedure should get upfront information about whether their clinicians are in their insurer’s network and what costs they will face. Patients should not get out-of-network bills from a provider they did not pick.

— Fixes should not add to federal health care costs.

States also have been working to protect consumers from surprise medical bills. A survey of states by Georgetown University found that about half have acted to protect consumers.

Students arrested in Colorado shooting appear in courtREUTERS CASTLE ROCK

Two teenage students accused of fatally shooting a classmate and wounding eight others in a suburban Denver school made separate court appearances yesterday, a day after their arrest on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

Douglas County District Judge Theresa Slade, who presided over both proceedings, ordered the two suspects to remain held without bond pending their next court hearings, set for today, when formal charges are expected to be filed.

The two youth are accused of opening fire with handguns

on fellow students on Wednes-dayin two classrooms at the Science, Technology, Engi-neering and Math (STEM) School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, about 40km south of Denver.

They were arrested by police after several students under fire at the school fought back, including a young US Marine recruit, Brendan Bialy, who survived, and 18-year-old robotics enthusiast Kendrick Ray Castillo, who was killed.

The first defendant, Devon Erickson, 18, who prosecutors said they were treating as an adult, sat silently at a small table with his head bowed, hands shackled to his waist, flanked by two defense lawyers as a pair of

sheriff’s deputies stood just behind them.

Slight of build with longish, unkempt black hair partially dyed bright lavender, Erickson wore an orange-red jail uniform.

His 16-year-old accused

accomplice, referred to in court by his lawyer as Alec McKinney, was listed on the court docket by the name Maya Elizabeth McKinney but was addressed by the judge during the hearing as Mr. McKinney.

A man holds his head in his hands during a candlelight vigil at Highlands Ranch High School, in Colorado, yesterday.

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Former Brazil president Temer surrendersBLOOMBERG BRASILIA

Brazil’s former president Michel Temer (pictured) handed himself in to police following a court ruling that’s unlikely to cause upheaval in domestic politics.

Temer turned himself in yesterday afternoon, after federal court judges ordered his detention on charges of corruption, embezzlement, money laundering and con-spiracy. The former head of state was initially arrested on March 21 but released four days later.

Temer’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The 78-year old’s party, the MDB, issued a note condemning the “unreasonable” decision.

Local media reported that the former president said he will appeal the ruling.

“I have always maintained that there is no evidence in relation to these questions,”

he said. “It’s an injustice.”While Temer’s arrest in

March sent shock waves through Brasilia’s political establishment and weighed on Brazilian assets, yesterday’s developments had much less of an effect.

It may increase tension between the government and the ex-president’s allies, but the immediate consequences appear minimal.

“We don’t see a direct impact between Temer’s jailing and the passage of reforms,” said Juliano Griebeler, a political analyst at the Barral M Jorge consultancy, in ref-erence to proposals including a pension reform that are cur-

rently in Congress.Prosecutors accuse Temer of

‘leading a criminal organisation’ that received or was promised more than $471m in funds diverted from several state-owned companies and public works, including construction of Angra 3, an unfinished nuclear power plant in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Michel Temer turned himself in after federal court judges ordered his detention on charges of corruption, embezzlement, money laundering and conspiracy.

Venezuela’s Guaido slams ‘dismantling’ of legislature after deputy’s arrestAFP CARACAS

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido yesterday accused President Nicolas Maduro’s government of “dismantling” the National Assembly legislature he heads following the arrest of his deputy Edgar Zambrano.

“If we can talk about a coup d’etat in Venezuela, here it is: the dismantling of the national par-liament,” Guaido told a news conference, accusing Maduro’s regime of “state terrorism.”

On Wednesday night, Zam-brano was arrested by Maduro’s secret services for supporting a failed April 30 uprising organized by Guaido.

National Assembly speaker Guaido also called for a national demonstration on Saturday to reject measures taken by the Supreme Court against oppo-sition lawmakers.

Venezuela’s top court has indicted 10 opposition deputies, including Zambrano, for treason and conspiracy over their backing for Guaido’s uprising,

in which around 30 members of the armed forces joined him in revolt.

Two others, Richard Blanco and Mariela Magallanes, have sought refuge in the Argentine and Italian embassies in Caracas, respectively.

The others are in hiding, except for Henry Ramos Allup, who has said he is prepared to go to jail.

“To make themselves look strong, to give the impression of a control they don’t have, what is the only tool they’ve used for years?” Guaido said about Maduro’s government.

“Terror, state terrorism,” said Guaido, whose own parlia-mentary immunity has been stripped by the Supreme Court.

“We’re not going to stop, we’re going to stay in the streets. This is a process that will end with Venezuela’s liberty.”

Venezuela has been embroiled in a political crisis since January when Guaido declared himself acting pres-ident in a direct challenge to Maduro’s authority.

A file photo of Juan Guaido (centre), Edgar Zambrano (left) and lawmaker Stalin Gonzalez after Guaido’s swearing-in ceremony, in Caracas.

Man accused of killing new wife added to FBI’s most wantedAP CHICAGO

A Chicago man accused of killing his wife just hours after their 2012 wedding is the latest addition to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List.

The FBI yesterday added Arnoldo Jimenez, 37, to its list, saying he stabbed Estrella Carrera, 26, in his Maserati the morning after their May 11, 2012, wedding at Chicago City Hall and dragged her body into the bathtub of her suburban Chicago apartment.

Carrera was found May 13, 2012, wearing the silver sequined cocktail dress she had on during her wedding reception.

Authorities are asking for the public’s help and are offering up to a $100,000 reward for information leading to Jimenez’s arrest. The FBI believes Jimenez may have fled to Durango, Mexico, specifically around Santiago Papasquiaro.

“Because of this horrific crime, a family has forever lost their mother, daughter, and sister,” said Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Sallet of the Chicago office. “We are now asking for public’s assistance to ensure that Jimenez is swiftly brought to justice.”

Carrera’s sister said in 2012 that the woman’s family received a haunting phone call from a relative of her new husband on May 13, 2012. Jimenez’s sister told them he had called her and tearfully said he had left his bride bleeding after a “bad fight.”

Her body was found after family members became worried they had not heard from her and called police. Investigators tracked Jimenez’s cellphone from Chicago to Tennessee to Arkansas and finally to Texas, according to an FBI affidavit.

Trump vows more hurricane aid for Florida PanhandleAP PANAMA CITY BEACH

President Donald Trump promised a swift infusion of federal aid to the Florida Panhandle seven months after devastating Hurricane Michael as he rallied supporters for his re-election.

Trump addressed a crowd of thousands at an outdoor amphi-theater, looking to rally loyalists in the reliably Republican corner of the swing state as he kicks his 2020 efforts into high gear.

Federal emergency funds to the area hit by the Category 5 hur-ricane and elsewhere have been caught up in a Washington standoff over Trump’s oppo-sition to more hurricane aid for Puerto Rico.

“You’re getting your money one way or another,” Trump promised supporters in Panama City Beach, holding up a chart showing federal emergency aid to Florida, Texas and the island territory, “And we’re not going to let anybody hold it up.”

Trump took a victory lap

after last week’s jobs report showing the nation’s unem-ployment at a generational low, crediting his cuts to taxes and regulations.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who accompanied the president to Florida on Air Force One, said the 2020 election was a refer-endum on whether to allow Democrats to undo Trump pol-icies like tax reform.

“This election is about reversing all of that,” he said. “It’s about going backward on all of that.”

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Friday 10 May 2019

PAGE | 15 PAGE | 15Wall St drops as investors await

outcome of critical trade talks

Billionaire Jeff Bezos to unveil plans for moon presence, sources say

Wi

outc

The meeting reviewed ways of enhancing trade relations and partnership between businessmen of both countries in furniture, jewellery, IT, financial and banking services and automobiles.

Qatar-Switzerland trade rises by 28% to $3.7bnTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Trade volume between Qatar and Switzerland has increased by 28 percent to $3.7bn in 2018 from $2.9bn in 2017, Qatar Chamber’s (QC) First Vice-Chairman Mohamed bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari has said yesterday.

Al Kuwari was speaking at a meeting with a Swiss trade team which was headed by Maya Maria Marberger.

The meeting reviewed ways of enhancing trade relations and partnership between busi-nessmen of both countries in fur-niture, jewellery, IT, financial and banking services and automobiles.

Addressing the meeting, Al Kuwari also said: “The State of Qatar and Switzerland have enjoyed good bilateral relations for more than 40 years. Their economic and trade ties have

seen remarkable development within the past few years. Their combined value of trade exchange hit $3.7bn last year, registering an increase of 28 percent compared to 2017 which reached $2.9bn. Swiss exports to Qatar included premium watches and jewellery”

He also said that there are many Qatari investments in

Switzerland and there are about 9 Swiss companies and 51 Qatar-Swiss companies operating in the Qatari market, noting that Swit-zerland is a prime tourist desti-nation for Qataris and expatriates.

There are a multitude of business opportunities for Qatari companies and their Swiss coun-terparts in all sectors especially in high-tech industries, Al Kuwari added

He called on Qatari and Swiss companies to engage in effective partnerships for the interest of the two economies.

He also called on the Qatari private sector to explore business and investment opportunities available in Switzerland, which is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

On her part, Marberger said that the visit aims to explore the Qatari market and review business opportunities available between Qatari and Swiss

companies. She also called on Qatari businessmen and com-panies to visit her country to explore the investment climate and opportunities in numerous sectors, especially that Qatar has many investments in Switzerland.

Marberger added that there is a large Swiss business

delegation that will visit Qatar in October to meet with their coun-terparts and identify cooperation opportunities.

During the meeting, members of the delegation said that the ongoing siege has con-tributed to attracting more investments to Qatar in light of the efforts made by the Qatari

government in dealing with the crisis.

They Swiss delegates said that Qatar has managed to overcome the siege and has con-tinued its economic growth effi-ciently, noting that Qatar is a great opportunity for all world investors and professionals due to its leading role in the region.

Qatar Chamber’s First Vice-Chairman Mohamed bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari (third right), with the head of the Swiss trade delegation Maya Maria Marberger (centre), and other officials at the QC headquarters in Doha, yesterday.

Opec in the dark on oil supply as Russia, Iran cut exportsREUTERS LONDON

Opec is in the dark on the oil supply outlook for the second half of this year, with Iranian and Russian outages looking increas-ingly significant but Saudi Arabia reluctant to pump more due to fears of a price crash, sources in the organisation said.An oil contamination forced Russia to halt flows along the Druzhba pipeline, a key conduit for crude into Eastern Europe and Germany, in April. The suspension left refiners scrambling to find sup-plies and its duration is unclear.

Iran’s oil exports are likely to drop further in May as the United States tightens the screw on Tehran’s main source of income. Shipments from Venezuela, also under US sanctions, could fall more in coming weeks.

The dearth of information is a headache for Opec and allies led by Russia, which gather in June to decide whether to renew a supply-cutting deal. A panel of ministers

meets on May 19 in Saudi Arabia to discuss the market and make recommendations.

Two delegates from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) said the Russian outage, on top of Iranian and Venezuelan export losses, would be discussed at the Jeddah meeting and it seemed more than a short-term technical glitch.

“It’s potentially significant,” one of the delegates said of the pipeline halt.

Still, the delegate added, the price of Brent crude - close to $70 a barrel, down from a 2019 high of $75.60 last month - suggested traders saw no major risk of any shortage.

Other Opec sources said there were conflicting views on the sig-nificance of the Russian outage, and that the complexity of Rus-sia’s pipeline system meant the issue was not straightforward.

“I’m not quite seeing the impact in terms of supply shortage,” another Opec delegate

said. Analysts at Citigroup saw the Russian export loss as enough to affect the balance between supply and demand.

“While it is still difficult to assess the final impacts on bal-ances, the severity of the problem could mean up to 400,000 bpd (barrels per day) of Russian exports could be pulled out of the market for longer than earlier anticipated,” they wrote.

That would further tighten the market, with Opec signalling even before the Druzhba outage that demand would exceed supply by more than 800,000 bpd in the third quarter. A further cut by Russia would mean producers in the alliance known as Opec + exceed their pledged output reductions by an even greater margin. The full extent of the drop in Iranian exports this month remains to be seen. Tehran’s biggest oil customer, China, has yet to say whether it will keep buying despite the US decision to end waivers that had allowed limited Iranian exports.

A $25bn CLO manager is set to shake up pricing in EuropeBLOOMBERG LONDON

Credit Suisse Group AG’s asset man-agement arm is looking to sell the top-rated tranche of a new European CLO to a group of buyers instead of placing the bonds with an anchor investor, and the deal could disrupt the pricing status quo.

CSAM, with at least $25bn in CLO assets under management, has the potential to set a new precedent for other syndicated transactions to follow. That would call into question the rigid pricing expectations that have helped keep spreads wide on

European CLO triple-A notes, even during this year’s broad credit rally.

The $453m transaction, Madison Park Euro Funding XIV, is being arranged by Credit Suisse with pricing targeted for the middle of this month, according to a person familiar with the matter. A spokesman for the Swiss lender declined to comment on the financing. The knock-on effects of the deal could also reduce the CLO market’s heavy reliance on one powerful investor, Japan’s Norinchukin Bank, and lead to a healthier primary market where pricing is more open to negotiation, managers say.

Europe’s CLO market has bifurcated between managers who are on the approved list for Japan’s anchor investors, and those who are not.

Managers on the list benefit from guaranteed funds at cheaper pricing on the AAA-rated tranche. In return they have to accept conservative terms that favor debt investors, and bespoke restric-tions on how they invest.

Some of them are finding out that the restrictions are too onerous to allow them to manage their deals effectively. That in turn could reduce returns for their equity investors, offsetting the upside of

tighter triple-A pricing. Those not on the list, who syndicate their top-rated notes to a mixed group of buyers, are more sus-ceptible to swings in supply and demand.

These managers have typically paid more for their triple-A notes than the anchored deals, by about 5 to 6 basis points.

This somewhat artificial dual-track market has held European triple-A pricing dynamics almost static since the start of the year: anchored deals have priced at 108 to 108.5 basis points over Euribor while syndicated have ranged between 114 and 117 basis points,

according to data compiled by Bloomberg. CSAM’s deal could be a chance for the broader base of investors to buy paper from a manager that has previously been unavailable to them.

It could also change the status quo if the deal prices at a competitive rate, and if this is then used as a base for the next deal to market off. Arranger Credit Suisse is guiding the top-rated notes at 110 to 112 basis points.

That comparatively tight level could be especially appealing for CSAM and other managers when combined with the other attractions of the syndicated route.

THE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Stock Exchange’s (QSE) benchmark index lost 453.35 points, or 4.33 percent, last week when the bourse closed yesterday at 10,027.17 points.

Trading value during last week decreased by 0.10 percent to reach QR1.124bn compared to QR1.125bn.

T r a d i n g v o l u m e decreased by 31.77 percent to reach 44.10 million shares, as against 64.64 million shares, while the number of transac-tions fell by 9.50 percent, to reach 24,122 transactions as compared to 26,653 transactions.

Market cap fell by 4.74 percent to reach QR558.73bn as compared to QR586.51bn at the end of previous week, reports QNA.

Banking and Financial Services sector led traded value last week with 38.24 percent of the total traded value. Industries sector accounted for 30.81 percent. Consumer Goods and Services

sector accounted for 12.23 percent and Real Estate sector accounted 9.42 percent.

Industries sector led traded volume last week with 42.02 percent of the total traded volume. Banking and Financial Services sector accounted for 24.10 percent. Real Estate sector accounted for 18.19 percent and Tel-ecoms sector accounted 6.90 percent.

Industries sector led traded number of transac-tions last week with 37.72 percent of the total number of transactions. Banking and Financial Services sector accounted for 25.44 percent. Real Estate sector accounted for 17.61 percent and Con-sumer Goods and Services sector accounted for 7.02 percent.

From the 46 listed com-panies eight ended last week higher, while 37 fell and one remained unchanged.

QNB led trading value during last week accounted for 18.8 percent of the total trading value. Qatar Fuel

accounted for 9.77 percent and Industries Qatar accounted for 8.34 percent.

When compared on daily basis, the QSE index dropped 96.23 points, or 0.95 percent, compared to Wednesday’s closing.

The volume of shares traded increased to 9.47 million from 8.82 million on Wednesday and the value of shares increased to QR276.56m from QR230.70m on Wednesday.

From the 49 companies listed on QSE, shares of 45 saw trading yesterday. Of these, 14 companies gained, 29 closed lower and shares of two companies remained unchanged.

Indices of six sectors ended in red zone and one sector ended in green zone yesterday. QSE Total Return Index decreased 0.95 percent to 18,450.84 points and QSE Al Rayan Islamic Index down 0.70 percent to 3,894.90 points. QSE All Share Index lost 1.36 percent to 3,036.29 points.

QSE index closes at 10,027.17 points

15FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019 BUSINESS

Billionaire Jeff Bezos to unveil plans for moon presence, sources sayREUTERS WASHINGTON

Billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos (pictured) was slated to unveil plans late yesterday for missions to the moon tailored to the US government’s renewed push to establish a lunar outpost in just five years, people familiar with the matter said.

Bezos, the world’s richest man and chief executive of Amazon.com, was scheduled to host a rare media event at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) in Washington to provide “an update on our progress and share our vision of going to space to benefit Earth.”

Blue Origin spokeswoman Caitlin Dietrich did not respond to requests for comment.

Kent, Washington-based Blue Origin has been tight-lipped about its lunar strategy. But people familiar with the com-pany’s plans, speaking on condition of ano-nymity, said Bezos is expected to lay out details on lunar missions and a lunar lander spacecraft that the company is developing. Blue has also discussed a human outpost on the moon.

US Vice President Mike Pence in March called on NASA to build a space platform in lunar orbit and put American astronauts on the moon’s south pole by 2024 “by any means necessary,” four years earlier than previously planned. Bezos is likely to frame his strategy to align with that timeline in a bid to attract funds from the US space agency, one of the people said.

One industry source said the company has been working to refine and accelerate its strategy after Pence’s comments.

Wall St drops as investors await outcome of critical trade talksREUTERS NEW YORK

Wall Street’s main indexes were lower yesterday, as ten-sions flared up ahead of a high-stakes US-China trade meeting, potentially prolonging a dispute that has threatened global financial markets and economic growth.

President Donald Trump vowed not to back down on hiking tariffs on $200bn worth of Chinese goods to 25 percent on Friday unless Beijing “stops cheating our workers”.

However, markets pared losses after Trump said he had received a “beautiful letter” from Chinese President Xi Jinping, as the two-day meeting kicks off in Washington later in the day.

“All this macro uncertainty out there is making investors risk-averse, particularly in an environment that isn’t great,” said Michael Geraghty (pic-tured), equity strategist at Cor-nerstone Capital Group in New York City.

“The trade tensions are taking down markets with a broad brush. In all likelihood there is going to be a resolution sometime or it could lead to a showdown,” said Stephen

Massocca, managing director at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco.

The benchmark S&P 500 index fell below its 50-day moving average, a closely watched level of near-term momentum, during the session.

Technology stocks posted the steepest declines among S&P sectors, slipping 0.85 percent, dragged down by a drop in shares of iPhone maker Apple Inc and chipmakers, which get a large portion of their revenue from China.

The Philadelphia chip index declined 1.32 percent, also pressured by a modest profit growth forecast from Intel Corp. The index has fallen 5.9 percent so far this week and is on pace to post its biggest

percentage weekly loss since December 2018.

Trade-sensitive industrial bellwethers were also hit, with Boeing Co, Caterpillar Inc and 3M Co down about 1.5 percent.

The spike in tensions sent investors scurrying towards safe-haven assets, resulting in a fall in US Treasury yields and the dollar losing ground against Japan’s yen.

The CBOE Volatility Index, a gauge of investor anxiety, rose to its highest level in more than three months.

At 12:37 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 185.46 points, or 0.71 percent, at 25,781.87. The S&P 500 was down 13.01 points, or 0.45 percent, at 2,866.41 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 41.24 points, or 0.52 percent, at 7,902.08. In a bright spot, Tapestry Inc jumped 9.7 percent, the most among S&P companies, after the Coach handbag maker beat quarterly profit estimates and announced a $1bn share buyback plan.

Chevron Corp climbed 2.7 percent and was the biggest boost to the Dow, after the oil major said it would not raise its $33bn offer to buy Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

Blackstone sets $25bn limit on buyout fundBLOOMBERG/NEW YORK

Blackstone Group LP set a $25bn cap on its latest flagship buyout fund as investors clamor to get into the offering, according to people familiar with the matter.

New York-based Blackstone has attracted more interest from investors for its eighth private equity fund than it’s willing to handle, said the people. At $25bn, Blackstone would exceed Apollo Global Management LLC’s $24.7bn fund, an industry record. Blackstone and its peers are

benefiting from a robust fundraising market as investors continue to express confidence in the return potential for the asset class. Private equity firms raised $432 bn last year, short of 2017’s record haul. While investors are concerned about high deal prices, many are upping their alloca-tions to the asset class, according to a survey by Preqin Ltd released in April. The survey found that 68 percent of investors were as confident as last year that private equity would deliver in 2019.

A Blackstone spokesperson declined to comment.

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

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16 FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019CLASSIFIEDS

SPORTFriday 10 May 2019

PAGE | 18 PAGE | 19Leclerc maybe faster than Vettel, says Ecclestone

Chaos and comebacks: CL

proves the ultimate in sporting drama

Switzerland’s Roger Federer celebrates after winning a point against France’s Gael Monfils during their ATP Madrid Open round of 16 match, yesterday.

Federer saves two match points; Osaka crashes out

First wave of Tokyo 2020 Olympic tickets up for grabsAFP TOKYO

The first tickets for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics went on sale yesterday, with Japanese residents able to enter a lottery to watch the sport of their choice.

Tickets for the 33 sports range are available from the cheapest general tickets at 2,500 yen ($23) to an eye-watering 300,000 yen ($2,730) for the best seats at the opening ceremony.

Those lucky enough to score the best seats for the showcase men’s 100m final will pay 130,000 yen ($1,200).

But half of all tickets will be priced at 8,000 yen ($73) or less and special tickets priced at 2,020 yen ($18) are available for families resident in Japan with children, senior citizens, and people with impairments.

Prices for domestic residents are “about the same as London 2012 but a little higher than the 2016 Rio Games,” said Yuko Hay-akawa, senior 2020 marketing official.

The lottery -- only for residents of Japan during an initial period -- runs until May 28, with successful applicants notified on June 20 and payment due a fortnight later.

The website saw high demand upon opening with a queue system in place even though tickets are not sold on a first-come first-served basis and everyone entering the lottery by May 28 having an equal chance of scooping tickets.

Overseas applicants will be able to snap up tickets from June 15 via special “Authorised Ticket Resellers” in each country.

Organisers have not offered a precise number of tickets available as various stadium configurations are still being finalised with just less than 450 days to go until the opening ceremony.

But they said it would be roughly the same as the 7.8 million tickets they estimated when bidding for the right to host the Games.

Of these tickets, an estimated 70-80 percent would be allotted to Japanese residents with the rest going to overseas fans.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will run from July 24 to August 9.

Tickets for the Paralympics will become available this summer.

Fans wishing to start planning their applications can access the website at https://ticket.tokyo2020.org/?culture=en-us.

Boxing tickets are not available as the IOC has frozen preparations for the competition amid a spat with the governing body AIBA.

Tickets for the 33 sports range are available from the cheapest general tickets at 2,500 yen ($23) to an eye-watering 300,000 yen ($2,730) for the best seats at the opening ceremony.

Asian Qualifiers: Qatar to begin preparation in JulyQNA DOHA

Eyeing top spot in the home event, Qatar handball team will begin training on July 27 to prepare for the Asian Qualifiers for the Olympic Games in Tokyo

2020, which will be held in Doha from October 17 to 27.

The draw for the men’s Asian qualifiers for the 2020 Olympic Games put the Qatari team in Group A along with the teams of Saudi Arabia, India, and Hong Kong, while the

Group B included Bahrain, South Korea, Iran, and Kuwait.

The first-place winners qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, while the runners-up play a play-off.

It will be the second time in a row that Qatar has hosted the

men’s Asian handball qualifiers for the Olympic Games.

In 2015, Qatar hosted the 2016 Rio Olympics qualifiers, where the Qatar handball team qualified for the Olympics for the first time in the history of Qatari handball.

Qatar’s Cherif Younousse (right) and Ahmed Tijan celebrate during their opening match of the Asian Beach Volleyball Championships against Japan in Mumeng, China, yesterday. The duo recorded a 2-0 win over the Japanese side comprising Ikeda and Charturi.

Qatari duo downs Japanese opponents Mo Farah to defend Chicago title in OctoberAFP LONDON

Mo Farah has confirmed he will defend his Chicago Marathon title, a decision that suggests he has ended his flirtation with a return to the track at this year’s world championships.

The marathon will take place on October 13, just a week after the 10,000 metres at the championships in Doha. That would appear to rule him out of defending his world title.

Four-time Olympic champion Farah turned his back on the track in 2017 to concentrate on long-distance road running. He claimed the European record in two hours, five minutes and 11 seconds when winning his first mar-athon in Chicago last year.

The 36-year-old finished fifth in last month’s London Marathon in a time of 2:05:39, well off the searing pace set by Kenya’s world record-holder Eliud Kip-choge (2:02:37).

“Winning the Chicago Marathon last year was very special for me,” Farah said in a statement issued yesterday.

“It was my first time to win a World Marathon Major and my time was a European and British record. I am looking forward to returning in 2019 to defend my title on the streets of Chicago.”

provin

AFP MADRID

Roger Federer saved two match points to defeat Gael Monfils and reach the Madrid Open quarter-finals yesterday but women’s world number one and top seed Naomi Osaka was dumped out in a last-eight shock.

Federer, playing only his second match of a 2019 comeback to clay after three years away, needed two hours to defeat French showman Monfils 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 (7/3).

Osaka fell for the second time in two months to Federer’s Swiss compatriot Belinda Bencic, exiting 3-6, 6-2, 7-5. Bencic also beat the double Grand Slam winner in March at Indian Wells.

Men’s top seed Novak Djokovic, however, motored into the last eight as he hammered Jeremy Chardy 6-1, 7-6 (7/2).

Federer admitted he struggled to get past the talented Monfils, seeded 15th, before recording his 1,200th career win.

It took a comeback from 4-1 down in the final set after sweeping the first set in 18 minutes, combined with a domi-nating tiebreak for the Swiss fourth seed to advance.

Federer said nothing was decided until the end of a match

played in difficult swirling winds and challenging conditions.

“I had a tough run of five losing games late in the second and into the third,” said the 20-time Grand Slam champion who will face Aus-trian fifth seed and recent Bar-celona champion Dominic Thiem for a place in the semi-finals.

“I just hung in there, saving two match points (to force a final-set tiebreaker).

“It was a very stressful situ-ation. Now that I’m through it, I’m very excited with the win.

“This match gave me a lot of information, it showed how tricky clay can be with the wind and eve-rything. But I tried to take the bad bounces and the rest and just play positive tennis.”

Against an inspired Bencic, Osaka served for the match in the third set leading 5-4, but could not

touch a backhand return winner.“When you play against a good

player, you have to expect that they are going to play great at times,” Osaka said.

“I feel like I was negative on myself, but I tried to fix it in the third set. But my service per-centage was down.”

Djokovic, who now boasts a staggering 66-2 record against French players, said he is slowly lifting his clay game.

“I felt good on the court in general and played well,” Djokovic said.

“Coming into the match I had confidence knowing I’d never lost to my opponent.”

The Madrid champion in 2011 and 2016 is searching for his top clay form as he begins the chase for a fourth straight Grand Slam title when Roland Garros starts in

a little over two weeks.Djokovic next faces ninth seed

Marin Cilic after the Croatian put out Laslo Djere 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, winning 11 of the last 13 games.

Thiem, the 2018 runner-up, defeated Monte Carlo winner Fabio Fognini 6-4, 7-5 while Stan Wawrinka made it a Swiss hat-trick on the day, beating Japan’s sixth seed Kei Nishikori 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).

Two-time women’s champion Simona Halep overcame Ashleigh Barty 7-5, 7-5 to reach her fourth Madrid semi-final.

Romania’s third seed and former world number one will next play Bencic.

“For me, it’s a huge victory, it’s a huge match I played today,” said Halep. “It means a lot that to win. It was on clay so I liked my chances, but still, it was very dif-ficult and every point was important.”

Former US Open winner Sloane Stephens downed Petra Martic of Croatia 6-4, 6-3 in her quarter-final.

It was a very stressful situation. Now that I’m through it, I’m very excited with the win:

Roger Federer

FEDERER’S 1200TH WIN

Men’s Third RoundRoger Federer bt Gael Monfils 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 (7/3).

Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) bt Jeremy Chardy (FRA) 6-1, 7-6 (7/2)

Marin Cilic (CRO x9) bt Laslo Djere (SRB) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2

Dominic Thiem (AUT x5) bt Fabio Fognini (ITA x10) 6-4, 7-5

Women’s Quarter-finalsBelinda Bencic (SUI) bt Naomi Osaka (JPN x1) 3-6, 6-2, 7-5

Simona Halep (ROM x3) bt Ashleigh Barty (AUS x9) 7-5, 7-5

MADRID OPEN RESULTS

18 FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019SPORT

Beckham handed driving ban for using phone at the wheelAFP LONDON

Former England footballer David Beckham was yesterday disqual-ified from driving for six months after using his phone while behind the wheel.

The 44-year-old had previ-ously admitted the offence after being spotted by a member of the public as he drove his Bentley in London on November 21.

At Bromley Magistrates Court, south of London, Beckham was given six penalty points on his licence, fined £750 (868 euros, $975), and ordered to pay £100 to prosecution costs and a £75 surcharge fee.

District Judge Catherine Moore said he already had six points on his licence for previous speeding matters, meaning he reached the 12-point limit which triggers a disqualification.

The ex-Manchester United

and Real Madrid player was present in court. Wearing a dark grey suit and tie, he spoke to give his full name, date of birth and address.

Prosecuting lawyer Matthew Spratt said he had been photo-graphed by a member of the public as he held his phone while driving in “slowly moving traffic”.

Defence lawyer Gerrard Tyrrell said Beckham was trav-elling slowly and has “no recol-lection of the day in question or this particular incident”.

He added: “There is no excuse for what took place but his view is as he cannot remember... he’s going to plead guilty and that’s what he’s done.”

Last year, Beckham drew

criticism after avoiding a charge of speeding because of a technicality.

He accepted he drove at 59 miles (95 kilometres) per hour in a 40 mph zone in London in January 2018.

But the notice of his prose-cution was not received until one day after the statutory 14-day time limit.

Chaos and comebacks: CL proves the ultimate in sporting dramaAFP AMSTERDAM

After all that, why exactly would you want to change it?

Just as moves are being stepped up that threaten to change the Champions League into more of a closed shop than ever, along comes the drama of this week at Anfield and in Amsterdam of a sort possibly unmatched in sport.

On Tuesday, Liverpool stunned Barcelona 4-0 to overturn a three-goal first-leg deficit and go through to their second straight Champions League final.

Twenty-four hours later, Tottenham Hotspur came back from three goals down on aggregate at half-time in their second leg against Ajax to reach their first ever final on away goals.

When Lucas Moura found the net to complete a hat-trick in the 96th minute, the unbridled joy of the Spurs players and fans was in cruel contrast with the pain of the Ajax players, who slumped to the floor in disbelief.

“It was overwhelming. I watched in my life so many football games but I can’t remember many like this,” said Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp on Tuesday.

That is because there have not been many to match it, cer-tainly not in the Champions League. Not until recently anyway.

Deportivo La Coruna’s comeback from losing 4-1 at AC

Milan in the 2003-04 quarter-finals had long been a one-off in the modern era, but in the last two years we have become accustomed to such drama.

In 2017, Barcelona lost 4-0 at Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 first leg, before winning 6-1 in the return.

Last season, there was Bar-celona’s own collapse against Roma.

This season, there were several more, notably Man-chester United losing 2-0 at home to PSG only to go through on away goals thanks to a last-gasp penalty awarded after a VAR review.

UEFA rushed forward VAR’s introduction into the competition from the knockout phase this season, and Video Assistant Ref-erees have only added to the drama, not least when Tot-tenham edged out Manchester City in the quarter-finals.

That apart, the regular sight of two teams going for the jugular makes for chaos on the pitch, and there is an element of unpredictability about these con-tests just when the financial advantage enjoyed by the biggest clubs has made so much about the modern game so predictable.

Meanwhile, Ajax have pro-vided hope to clubs who are underdogs in the modern context. Their lack of financial might means they should no longer really be able to come this far.

Their brilliant young squad will now be broken up, just as

happened to Monaco’s semi-finalists in 2017.

A bit of variety is a great thing though in the decade prior to this season, over half the total slots available in the semi-finals had been taken up by Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

Yet the competition is still skewed to favour the biggest and wealthiest clubs.

Ajax have had a great run, but if they don’t win the Dutch title they will enter next season’s

competition in the second qual-ifying round in July.

UEFA changed the format of the competition ahead of this season to give the top four teams in Spain, Germany, England and Italy direct access to group stage.

Those clubs want more and more of the power and the money, though, which explains the moves to try to reform the competition post 2024.

A new-look tournament would reportedly feature four

groups of eight teams in a pool phase, with the top six in each group qualifying for the fol-lowing edition regardless of where they finish domestically.

“Fans ask us for more European games. And from 2024 the new format will allow that,” Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu told The Guardian.

Aside from the damage that would cause to domestic leagues, there can also be too much of a good thing.

“At the moment we have only ideas and opinions,” UEFA pres-ident Aleksander Ceferin insisted this week, saying “no decisions have been made”.

The power of the Premier League is a problem for leading clubs on the continent, and here we are with two English teams in the final.

Yet, after events on the field this week, it is hard to see how the Champions League in its current format can be improved.

Former England international David Beckham leaves Bromley Magistrates Court in Bromley, south-east of London, yesterday after being disqualified from driving for six months for driving while using a mobile phone.

Man City and Liverpool vie for title in PL finaleAP MANCHESTER

They’ve combined for nearly 200 points, lost only five times between them, and won every single game in the past two months.

Compliments have flowed between their managers, each describing the other’s side as among the best in the world.

They are separated by a single point heading into the final day of the one of the most thrilling title races that English soccer has witnessed.

Both Manchester City and Liverpool would be deserved winners of this season’s Premier League title but only one team will be lifting the trophy at about 5 p.m. on Sunday.

The players of the runners-up will likely sit disconsolately in their locker room and wonder, with some justification, what more it could have done.

City holds all the aces, knowing a win at Brighton on the south coast is guaranteed to secure a fourth league title in eight seasons, a sixth in total and - for the first time - two in a row.

Brighton is in fourth-to-last place, is safe from relegation, is without a win since March 9, and has scored only twice in its last nine games. City, meanwhile, is seeking a 14th straight league win to finish the season and to secure the second trophy - after the English League Cup, won in February - in its bid to become the first team to win all three domestic trophies in a single English season.

The FA Cup against Watford is on May 19.“We have two games to win two titles or to lose two titles,”

City manager Pep Guardiola said. “We are going to go to Brighton and attack them and attack them and attack them to be champions.”

Liverpool, which hosts Wolverhampton Wanderers, faces the prospect of finishing with 97 points - more than any other team has collected in Premier League history, save for last year’s City side (100) - and still not winning the title.

How cruel that would be for a club so desperate to end a 29-year wait for its 19th league trophy.

The Reds have lost only one league game this season, a 2-1 defeat at City on January 3. That could ultimately cost them the title, a century of points, and joining Arsenal’s so-called “Invin-cibles” of 2003-04 in going a full league campaign unbeaten.

“If we are champions, then we are champions,” Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said. “You can’t feel pressure when you do your best.”

Meanwhile Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah is on course to win the Golden Boot as the Premier League’s top scorer for a second straight year but there are three players with a realistic chance of beating him to the prize on the final weekend.

Salah has 22 goals for the season - 10 fewer than his total from last year - and he will get a chance to add more against Wolves if he recovers from a concussion sustained against Newcastle last weekend that ruled him out of the 4-0 win over Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Aguero, Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Salah’s teammate, Sadio Mane, all have 20 goals.

La Liga posts record figuresREUTERS MADRID

Spain’s football league, La Liga, announced yesterday that their clubs had posted a record revenue of €4.479bn ($5.01bn) for the 2017-18 season.

The number marks a 20.6 percent growth from the previous campaign (€3.6bn) and therefore becomes the best in the competition’s history.

Crucially, it has not been bloated by a new TV deal given the figures come from the second of a three-year domestic cycle on audio-visual rights, which will come up for renewal in the 2019-20 season.

The current figure of audio-visual turnover surpassed the €1.5bn mark for the first time in this set of financial results.

Commercial revenue - up 34.1 percent with a €838m turnover - and revenue from player transfers - up €104.3 to €1.02bn - were the two main contributors to the league’s strong annual growth, with higher sums forecast next year.

Liverpool’s Dutch midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum (left) heads the ball to score their third goal during the UEFA Champions League semi-final, second leg match against Barcelona at Anfield, northwest England, on Tuesday. Liverpool won 4-0 for a 4-3 aggregate win.

French footballers stretch during a training session as part of the preparation for the women’s football World Cup 2019 in Perros-Guirec, western France, yesterday.

19FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019 SPORT

England will be ‘better team’ with Archer, says PlunkettAFP LONDON

Liam Plunkett said England would be a “better team” if Jofra Archer made it into their World Cup squad after his fellow fast bowler again impressed on international duty.

Archer continued his late bid for a World Cup berth with a hostile opening spell against Pakistan at The Oval on Wednesday.

He took one wicket and conceded just six runs in four overs before rain meant there was no result in the first one-day international of a five-match series.

The Sussex fast bowler’s display was a rare highlight in a mere 19 overs’ cricket before a day/night fixture was finally called off at 7:11 pm (1811 GMT) local time amid concerns over player safety on a heavily wet outfield.

Pakistan were 80 for two, with Imam-ul-Haq 42 not out and Haris Sohail 14 not out.

Barbados-born Archer was not included in England’s pre-liminary squad for the World Cup but could force his way into their final 15 via his dis-plays in this five-match series.

“He’s obviously a class act,” Plunkett, one of England’s established quicks, told reporters afterwards.

“He showed today, he’s rocked up and bowled really nicely with pace and smashed the right good areas, picked up a wicket in the first few overs, beating the left-hander (Imam) on the outside edge.”

Plunkett, England’s other wicket-taker in a four-over spell of one for 27 on what is now his Surrey home ground, added: “It looks easy for him, he ambles in and bowls 93 mph, he makes it look effortless.”

Questions have been raised about the effect on team morale of catapulting Archer, only recently qualified on res-idency grounds, into England’s World Cup squad.

But Plunkett said: “With him in your squad, you’re going to be a better team.

“Whoever performs best should be in the squad. If it wasn’t Jofra, someone else would be knocking on the door... If they come in and bowl well, they deserve to be there.”

Archer showed glimpses of his ability while making ODI and Twenty20 international debuts against Ireland and Pakistan last week.

On Tuesday, former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff say “anyone” should be dropped to make sure Archer had a place in the World Cup squad.

Archer seized his latest chance after England captain Eoin Morgan won Wednes-day’s delayed toss at The Oval.

He started with a superb maiden over to Imam, gener-ating movement off the pitch at sharp pace.

It was not long before Archer dismissed Fakhar Zaman -- the century-making star of Pakistan’s 2017 Cham-pions Trophy final win over India at The Oval -- for three after he edged to Test skipper Joe Root in the slips.

New batsman Babar Azam (16) struck three boundaries before he edged Plunkett to wicket-keeper Jos Buttler.

“I still don’t feel at my best,” said Plunkett.

“I feel I can be better, but if I’m still picking wickets up I’m happy with that.”

The series continues at Southampton tomorrow, with Plunkett and his team-mates looking to prove their World Cup worth to England selection chief Ed Smith.

“You don’t want the rain, you don’t want it (to) come, but all you can do when (you) get a chance again is be your own selector and perform,” said Plunkett, citing the advice he’d received from former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie, once his coach at Yorkshire but now in charge of Archer at Sussex.

“That’s what ‘Dizzy’ (Gillespie) used to say, ‘be your own selector’. If you’re picking up wickets that’s what you’ll do.”

England’s Jofra Archer celebrates the wicket of Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman during their first ODI.

Archer continued his late bid for a World Cup berth with a hostile opening spell against Pakistan at The Oval on Wednesday.

Bairstow picks World Cup glory over Ashes winREUTERS LONDON

England batsman Jonny Bairstow said he would rather win the 50-overs World Cup than the Ashes series against Australia if he was given the chance to claim only one.

World Cup returns to England and Wales after 20 years and Bairstow said England deserved to win their maiden title after all the hard work they had put in over the past two years to become the number one ranked one-day team.

“I am going (to pick the) World Cup because it’s been so long since we’ve had an

opportunity to win one,” Bairstow told Sky Sports.

“I think that the amount of work that has gone into this group of players over the last couple of years, building and building, I firmly believe we’ve put an amount of effort in that gives us the best chance.

“Guys have worked day in, day out, taking their games to places that they weren’t at 18 months, two years ago. That’s from the vision Morgs (England captain Eoin Morgan) has had and the way we are playing our one-day cricket.”

Bairstow also credited the Indian Premier League (IPL)

for sharpening his skills and improving his form ahead of the World Cup.

The 29-year-old scored 445 runs in 10 matches at an average of over 55 for the Sunrisers Hyderabad fran-chise, forming a formidable opening partnership with Australia’s David Warner.

“You go to the IPL to develop your skills, to put them up against the best in the world,” Bairstow, who smashed one century and two half-centuries during the tournament, said.

“We saw Jos (Buttler) coming back into the test side last summer after a brilliant IPL. The competition over

there can only improve your skills. I genuinely think I’m still learning and improving.”

England begin their World Cup campaign on May 30 when they take on South Africa at The Oval in London.

The first of five Ashes Tests begins on August 1.

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England begin their World Cup campaign onMay 30 when they take on South Africa at The Oval in London.

The first of five Ashes Tests begins onAugust 1.

Jonny Bairstow

Leclerc maybe faster than Vettel, says EcclestoneAFP BARCELONA

Bernie Ecclestone admitted yesterday that he misjudged the potential and speed of Charles Leclerc and hinted that the Ferrari new boy may be faster than team-mate and four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel.

The former commercial supremo of Formula One had been a critic of Ferrari’s decision to bring in Leclerc as a replacement for Kimi Raikkonen.

But, he told La Gassetta dello Sport, he knows now that this was an error of judgement.

“I was wrong, I thought that sending Raikkonen away was not a good move,” said Ecclestone.

“I will have to wait a while before making a final judgement, of course, but at the moment Charles seems to be super-fast.

“He’s got great car control and he is, perhaps, even faster than Vettel. Seb isn’t old though so what’s happening to him now is strange.

“Maybe he had thought he had an easy life and he didn’t realise how fast Charles could be, but now he knows -- and I still believe that Vettel can win the championship.”

Vettel and Ferrari are currently trailing in both the drivers’ and the con-structors’ championships following Mer-cedes four consecutive one-two finishes in the season-opening races.

Charles Leclerc

Brazilian GP moving to Rio from 2020: BolsonaroAFP RIO DE JANEIRO

Next year’s Formula One Grand Prix in Brazil will be held in Rio de Janeiro, ending a three-decade long association with Sao Paulo, President Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday.

“A new motor-racing track is going to be built. The construction will take six to seven months and the Brazil Grand Prix will be held in Rio de Janeiro next year,” Bolsonaro said during a military ceremony in the city.

“There was state assistance (from the local government) in Sao Paulo, with a huge debt. Keeping F1 there was no longer viable, so they turned towards Rio.”

Bolsonaro also signed a memo-randum of understanding for the construction of the new circuit at the Deodoro military base in the west of the city.

Deodoro was used as a venue for some events at the 2016 Olympics, including equestrian, field hockey and modern pentathlon.

Bolsonaro promised the new track would be built “without public money” and that it would generate up to 7,000 new jobs.

The Brazilian race was held in Rio in 1978, and then from 1981 to 1989, before returning to its original home at the Interlagos circuit the fol-lowing year.

According to local reports, rep-resentatives for F1 owners Liberty Media held talks with local officials in Rio last November over a possible relocation of the race from Sao Paulo.

Bucks rout Celtics, become first to reach NBA final fourAFP LOS ANGELES

Milwaukee became the first team to reach the NBA’s final four as the top-seeded Bucks beat the visiting Boston Celtics with a 116-91 series-clinching victory on Wednesday.

The Bucks used balanced scoring and a stingy defense to eliminate the fourth-seeded Celtics in five games, avenging a seven-game first round loss to Boston last season.

The Celtics had reached the NBA semi-finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers each of the last two seasons.

It marks the first time since 1983 that the Bucks have won a playoff series against the Celtics, who won the first game in this year’s series before dropping four consecutive contests.

Milwaukee advances to the Eastern Conference finals, where they will have the home-court advantage over the winner of the other East second round series between the Toronto Raptors and the Phil-adelphia 76ers.

They meet in game six in Philadelphia, with the

second-seeded Raptors holding a 3-2 lead.

Greek giant Giannis Antetokounmpo has had no trouble in this series delivering big points for the Bucks, who will be making their first appearance in the final four since 2001.

Antetokounmpo led seven players in double figures with 20 points and also tallied eight rebounds and a game-high eight assists.

Khris Middleton (19 points), Eric Bledsoe (18), George Hill (16), Nikola Mirotic (10) and Ersan Ilyasova (10) also scored in double figures for the Bucks, who shot 44.7 percent overall.

Milwaukee also outscored the Celtics 45-21 from beyond the arc.

Guard Malcolm Brogdon, returning from a heel injury

that had sidelined him since March 15, scored 10 points in 17 minutes.

Milwaukee has dominated games by throwing a blanket over Boston’s Kyrie Irving, who shot one-for-seven from three-point range on Wednesday.

He was six-of-21 overall and finished with just one assist.

Meanwhile, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson buried 3-pointers on consec-utive possessions late in the game on Wednesday night, allowing the Golden State War-riors to survive the loss of Kevin Durant and hold off the Houston Rockets 104-99 in Game 5 of the Western Con-ference semifinals in Oakland, California.

Top-seeded Golden State’s third narrow victory of the best-of-seven series puts the defending champions one victory away from a fifth straight trip to the West finals.

The Warriors will get their first opportunity to earn advancement in Game 6 of the series tonight in Houston.

Game 7, if necessary, would be played on Sunday in Oakland.

Giannis Antetokounmpo (left) of the Milwaukee Bucks drives against Daniel Theis of the Boston Celtics in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Wednesday. The Bucks defeated the Celtics 116-91.

Eastern ConferenceMilwaukee 116 Boston 91 (Milwaukee win series 4-1) Western ConferenceGolden State 104 Houston 99(Golden State lead series 3-2)

NBA: PLAY-OFF RESULTS

20 FRIDAY 10 MAY 2019MORNING BREAK

FAJRSHOROOK

03. 28 AM04. 52 AM

11. 30 AM02. 58 PM

06. 12 PM07. 42 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum26oC 39oC

HIGH TIDE 06:51 –21:03 LOW TIDE 03:43 – 14:18

Hot daytime and slight dust with scat-

tered clouds and weak chance of light

rain at places.

Ooredoo officials and volunteers distribute Iftar boxes and water to motorists waiting at a traffic signal at Corniche yesterday. PIC: ABDUL BASIT/THE PENINSULA

Ooredoo distributes Iftar boxes to motorists

Indian state using drones for water managementIANS MUMBAI

To make water management in the state more efficient, Maharashtra is updating its decades-old agricultural maps with the help of aerial survey carried out by Terra Drone India, a subsidiary of Japan-based Terra Drone Corp.

Terra Drone India said yesterday it has completed the aerial survey of 4,200 sq km of agricultural land for the Water Resources Department of the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corp (MKVDC) in India.

A total of 1,085 villages and farm bound-aries were identified for surveying using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones.

The survey also helped government offi-cials get a clear picture of the crops sown in 4,200 sq km of land and the type of irrigation being used for the same.

“When we superimposed the aerial images acquired by our drones on the Maharashtra government’s old maps, it was discovered that in some areas, unirrigated land was being used for cultivation purposes, while in others, pre-viously fertile land had been converted into human settlements,” Prateek Srivastava, CEO, Terra Drone India, said in a statement.

Using drones allowed MKVDC to update its archaic maps in half the time of traditional surveying methods.

The survey is in line with MKVDC’s mission of safeguarding the availability of water in tail-end agricultural fields. The state-owned enter-prise manages irrigation projects in western Maharashtra. Despite numerous weather con-straints, aerial data acquisition was completed within two months, the company said.

“Traditionally, governments have used human-centric methods of surveying. These methods not only lack verification and evi-dence, they are also prone to manual errors,” said Polu Sreedhar, Chief Operating Officer, Terra Drone India.

Time to break up Facebook: Co-founderIANS NEW YORK

It is time to break up Facebook - mired in several data scandals and privacy violation cases - as Mark Zuckerberg has yielded “unchecked power” and influence “far beyond that of anyone else in the private sector or in government”, the social network giant’s Co-founder Chris Hughes has stressed.

In an opinion piece in The New

York Times on Thursday, Hughes said the government must hold Mark (Zuckerberg) accountable.

“Mark’s personal reputation and the reputation of Facebook have taken a nose-dive.

“Mark is a good, kind person. But I’m angry that his focus on growth led him to sacrifice security and civility for clicks,” Hughes argued. “I’m disappointed in myself and the early Facebook team for not thinking more about how the News Feed algorithm could change

our culture, influence elections and empower nationalist leaders.

“And I’m worried that Mark has surrounded himself with a team that reinforces his beliefs instead of challenging them,” Hughes added.

Embroiled in users’ data scandals, Facebook is set to create new privacy positions within the company that would include a committee, and external evaluator and a chief compliance officer, an NYT report said earlier this month.

Prince Harry given baby romper at first workday as fatherREUTERS THE HAGUE

Prince Harry was given a baby outfit for his son Archie by Princess Margriet of the Neth-erlands yesterday as the new dad went back to work to mark a year until the 2020 edition of the Invictus Games he founded for wounded military personnel.

Harry, the Duke of Sussex, said he had “no idea” whether his son, whose birth was announced on Monday, would attend the sporting event in a year’s time - but he now has the baby onesie emblazoned with its logo.

Harry held it up to himself admiringly on stage, saying “put it on” and drawing loud applause from the crowd. Harry got his own special outfit too, wearing a jacket with the words “Invictus Family” and “Daddy” on the chest as he cycled during the launch.

He was also given a baby toy, a soft cube with a bell and a mirror, by 7-year-old Daimy Gommers, whose father Paul

has competed for the Nether-lands in the event.

The prince’s trip to The Hague was his first public outing since he appeared before the cameras on Monday to announce the birth.

He and wife Meghan showed off their son before a small group of the media at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.

The couple announced later on Wednesday they had named their newborn, the

seventh-in-line to the British throne, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

Prince Harry’s Invictus Games were first held in London in 2014, inspired by his military service, having

completed two tours in Afghanistan. The games, during which veterans take part in sports including wheel-chair basketball, sitting vol-leyball, and indoor rowing, will be held in The Hague next year. Harry, who was greeted by cheering fans and children, mingled with veterans as they practiced in a gymnasium, stopping at one point to try his hand at archery.

Dutch veteran Ronald van Dort, 37, who lost both his legs when he served in Afghanistan in 2008, told Reuters the presence of Prince Harry and his commitment to the Invictus Games were very important to war veterans. “He has served himself, he knows what it’s like”, Van Dort said. “You can’t explain this to an outsider.” The prince told the audience: “Make these games your own, I chose you for a reason, and it wasn’t just because I like the colour orange,” in a reference to the Dutch royal house. “Thank you all for guarding the Invictus spirit and see you in 2020... good luck with the training.”

Britain’s Prince Harry (right) is watched by Netherlands’ Princess Margriet as he holds a baby clothing item during the presentation of The Invictus Games in The Hague, yesterday.

A brown-throated sloth is pictured while perched on a tree over the Jaraua River at the Mamiraua Reserve, Brazil’s largest protected area, located in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, which hosts the greatest biodiversity on the planet.

Protecting biodiversity

Privacy is no ‘luxury good’, says Google CEO IANS NEW YORK

Privacy cannot be a “luxury good” that’s only available to people who can afford to buy premium products and services, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said.

In an op-ed written for The New York Times, Pichai defended his company’s approach to privacy and users’ data. “Privacy must be equally available to everyone in the world, Google’s approach is to make privacy more democratic,” Pichai wrote on Tuesday.

Google has been facing ques-tions about the collection of its users’ location data.

“People today are rightly concerned about how their infor-mation is used and shared, yet they all define privacy in their own ways. I’ve seen this firsthand

as I talk to people in different parts of the world.

“Privacy is personal, which makes it even more vital for companies to give people clear, individual choices around how their data is used,” wrote Pichai.

Google has announced a slew of additional privacy and security tools for its users across products and platforms. “For everyone” is a core philosophy for Google; it’s built into our mission to create products that are universally accessible and useful. That’s why Search works the same for eve-ryone, whether you’re a pro-fessor at Harvard or a student in rural Indonesia,” Pichai noted. He also called on the US to introduce a new legislation for protecting users’ data. “Legis-lation will help us work toward ensuring that privacy protections are available to more people around the world,” Pichai added.

Source credibility key to curb fake news: StudyIANS NEW YORK

Establishing credibility for news sources is the right policy to combat the spread of fake news and misinformation on social media platforms, say researchers.

Fake news has become a threat to democratic institutions worldwide and false information can have far-reaching effects. Researchers from Cornell Uni-versity now provide new evidence that people’s beliefs about the source of infor-mation affects how they take in that infor-mation, even at the level of their automatic responses.

They also found that new information can modify or even undo existing impres-sions caused by fake news. “We wanted to know whether offering information about the source of news matters for peo-ple’s gut-level, automatic reactions,” said Melissa Ferguson, Psychology Professor at Cornell. “Does knowing that something is fake have lingering pernicious effects that can later shape and influence our thoughts and behaviour toward the person? Our studies suggest that estab-lishing credibility for news sources is the right policy to combat fake news,” Fer-guson emphasised. Researchers conducted seven experiments with more than 3,100 participants to assess how the truth value of new information about others affected both their reported feelings and their gut-level, automatic reactions.