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BUSINESS | 17 SPORT | 23

Nebras Power launches solar plant

in Jordan

WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016 • 11 MOHARRAM 1438 • Volume 21 • Number 6947 thepeninsulaqatar @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatar 2 Riyals

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani received a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin, dealing with bilateral relations and issues of common concern, particularly the situation in Syria and the embattled city of Aleppo, and the need to find a solution to the Syrian crisis. The message was conveyed by Russia’s Special Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev during a meeting with the Emir at the Emiri Diwan, yesterday.

Qatar’s Boualem Khoukhi (left) fights for the ball with Syria’s Omar Kharbin during the 2018 World Cup qualifying football match at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, yesterday. Qatar defeated Syria 1-0. → See also page 24

Emir receives message from Putin

Qatar edge Syria to keep World Cup dream alive

QNA

BEIJING: H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari, Cultural Adviser at the Emiri Diwan and Qatar’s candidate to the post of Director-General of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), began a visit to China yesterday to introduce his electoral programme under the them ‘Towards a New Start for Unesco.’

The visit which lasts several days in response to the invitation of Chinese Minister of Culture Luo Shugang, Al Kawari will meet a number of senior Chi-nese officials in the fields of culture and education. He will also meet a number of academ-ics and intellectuals.

Opec, key producers

to discuss oil deal

ISTANBUL: Opec will hold talks with non-member oil produc-ers today in a bid to hammer out details of a global agreement to cap production for at least six months as Russia lent its support for the plan.

Ministers from Opec members embarked on a flurry of talks at an energy conference in Istanbul to shore up support for the Opec-deal they agreed in Algeria last month hoping to adopt it at the end of November. Representatives of some Opec members and non-Opec countries including Russia, Azerbaijan and possibly Mexico will hold a round-table meet-ing on the sidelines of the World Energy Congress.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar is preparing to host the biggest competition for top winners of Quran contests world-wide, organised by Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin Thani Holy Quran Contest.

The ten-day “Winner of Win-ners” contest will begin from

November 27 until December 6. The winner will receive QR1m — the highest ever prize in the history of Quran contests.

The contest is coinciding with the celebration of the National Day of Qatar in a true merge of religious and national dimensions as envisioned by the founder, Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin Thani, and in continuation of the firm dedication of the wise

leadership of Qatar to serve the Noble Quran and honour its holders.

Thirty-nine contestants from different countries who were top winners in the Quran contests worldwide are expected to take part in the first session.

This contest considered the most prominent event in the Doha cultural scene as it features the broadest cat-egories and highest rewards.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday issued Law No. 10 of 2016 on the control of tobacco and its derivatives, which stipulates fines up to QR3,000 for smoking in closed public places. Those smoking while driving in the presence of children aged under 18 years also face similar punishment.

The law has stipulated stricter measures to curb the import and use of tobacco products and its derivatives and a ban on electronic cigarettes, “sweika” and other chewing tobacco. Those violating the relevant articles face jail not exceeding six months and fines not exceeding QR100,000.

The law bans smoking in closed public places and stipulates fines not less than QR1000 and not more than QR3,000 for smoking or using tobacco products and their

derivatives in such areas. Permit-ting others to smoke in such places is also an offence punishable with a similar fine.

The court can order confisca-tion, destroying or re-exporting of tobacco products and their deriv-atives, seized for violating the law, irrespective of the quantity.

Any form of promotion or adver-tising for tobacco and its derivatives with the aim of encouraging smok-ing is banned. It is also not allowed to use them in advertisements of other products.

The law bans sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to those aged below 18 years. Ignorance of age is not an excuse and traders must confirm the age from custom-ers’ ID. Selling such products in areas at a distance of less than 1km from schools and other educational and training institutions is also banned.

The law has banned farm-ing, manufacturing or processing tobacco and its derivatives in the country, whether preparing it or mixing with other material, in what-ever form and purposes.

The law bans import, trading, displaying for sale, distribution and manufacturing of chewing tobacco in all forms and under any name.

The importer will be given 30 days period to return or replace the quantities found violating the law and the relevant decisions.

→ Continued on page 2

By Sachin Kumar

The Peninsula

DOHA: Total remittances by expatri-ates from Qatar were around $10.4bn in 2015 with South Asian countries being the main recipients of this out-flow. Remittances flow are likely to be steady in future as Qatar contin-ues with implementation of mega

infrastructure and rising inflow of workers in the country, said a sen-ior official of UAE Exchange.

“Qatar accounted for more than $10.4bn in remittances in 2015, with South Asian countries receiving 70% as per the World Bank. Volatil-ity in the global currency markets coupled with socio-political condi-tions influenced the currency value,” said Promoth Manghat, Chief Exec-utive Officer, UAE Exchange Group

yesterday in a press conference at City Center Rotana Hotel.

Strengthening of US dollar against major currencies helped in boosting the remittances.

“Stronger US dollar further weak-ened the other currencies, impacting remittance positively. Oil price slump did not affect the remittance flow from the GCC countries much and the GCC area was the largest remitting region last year. This was possible

due to the diversification of the econ-omy, which the Governments did to reduce the dependency on oil,” said Manghat.

“Initiatives like Football World Cup in Qatar, Expo2020 in the UAE, various major infrastructure projects across the region are further attract-ing migrant talent, especially from the South Asian and Arab countries. These can help the remittance flow to be steady,” he added.

He said the cost of remitting money from Qatar and GCC region to some countries is one of the lowest in the world. Qatar-UAE Exchange, a subsidiary of UAE Exchange, recently opened 10th branch in Asian Town. The company is looking to fur-ther strengthening its presence in Qatar by offering new services to its customers.

→ Continued on page 4

By Sanaullah Ataullah

The Peninsula

DOHA: Popular toyshops and com-mercial outlets in Doha have stopped selling hoverboards over safety con-cerns. Some shops, however, are still selling them, even increasing their varieties to attract more customers.

The hoverboard is a battery-powered two-wheeler device that navigated by pressure from the user’s feet and weight distribution. Also known as smart wheel, balance wheel or smart scooter, the device became popular overnight when it hit the local market last year.

With growing demands, hov-erboards became available at toyshops, major outlets and

shopping complexes across the country. When the local and inter-national media raised questions on the safety of hoverboards, some popular toyshops and commercial complexes withdrew the products as a precaution to save their names in case of any untoward incident.

Media reports suggest that the battery of hoverboard is not safe and it could explode. Some airlines have banned the product onboard. Another safety issue is that it is very difficult for the users to balance posing great risk on their bodies.

The Peninsula tried to approach to the local authorities concerned for their comments on the safety of hoverboards available in the mar-ket but to no avail.

→ Continued on page 2

QR1m first prize for Quran contest

Remittances by expats in Qatar hit $10.4bn in 2015

Up to QR3,000 fine for smoking in closed public places

Dr Al Kawari begins China visit

Some shops still selling hoverboards

AFP

WASHINGTON: The United States threatened yesterday to retaliate for a missile attack that missed a pair of US warships in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen.

“Counterstrike, retaliatory strike: I can tell you that those things are things that we are looking at,” said Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Defense Department spokesman.

The US Navy has said the mis-siles, which fell short of the USS Mason, a destroyer, and the USS Ponce, an amphibious warfare ship, were fired within an hour of each other on Sunday from territory in Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels. “We want very much to get to the bottom of what happened,” said Davis. “We’re going to find out who did this and we will take action accordingly.”

“We will make sure that any-body who interferes with freedom of navigation and puts US Navy ship at risk understands they do so at their own peril,” he said.

The United States backs a Saudi-led coalition that is fighting the Houthi rebels and the forces of former Yemeni president Ali Abdallah Saleh. The US military provides intelligence and air-refu-eling for Arab coalition aircraft conducting air strikes against the rebels. But US air forces are not directly involved in air strikes in Yemen.

US threatens

retaliation after

Yemen missile fire

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday issued Law No. 10 of 2016 on the control of tobacco and its derivatives.

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HOME 02 WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud met the Prime Minister of Thailand Prayut Chan-o-cha on the occasion of his visit to the Thai capital Bangkok as the head of the Qatari delegation participating in the Second Summit of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue.

Deputy PM meets Thai PMQA aims to boost tourism to Nordic region

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker yester-day revealed the airline’s plans for the Nordics and beyond at a press

conference following the arrival of the airline’s first flight to the Finn-ish capital Helsinki.

Qatar Airways is the first Mid-dle Eastern carrier to serve all four Nordic capitals and is committed to bringing more visitors to Hel-sinki, boosting tourism to Finland and its neighbouring countries. The new route will also give the people of Finland the opportunity to con-nect to more than 150 destinations on the airline’s global network via its hub, Hamad International Air-port, in Doha.

“Helsinki has long been on our

list of destinations to add to our route map and I am proud that we are here today to celebrate this important milestone in the history of our air-line. We are here to serve the people of Finland with a world-class serv-ice connecting them to business and leisure destinations on our global network. It is also our pleasure to promote Finland and the whole Nor-dic region to our passengers around the world,” said Al Baker.

Qatar Airways, already one of the fastest growing airlines in the history of aviation, flies daily to Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo and now Helsinki. This will give Finnish passengers the opportunity to travel seamlessly to destinations such as Krabi and the Seychelles, which will launch in December, and Auckland, which will launch on February 5, 2017, with many more new desti-nations to come.

Finavia President and Chief Executive Officer Kari Savolainen, said: “We want to express our warmest welcome to Qatar Air-ways and its new route between Helsinki and Doha. We welcome tourists from Doha to enjoy Hel-sinki, a city full of amazing Nordic experiences. At the same time Hel-sinki Airport is also an excellent gateway to Lapland.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker (centre) at the press conference in Helsinki with Finavia President and Chief Executive Officer Kari Savolainen (left) and Qatar Airways Senior Vice-President for Europe, Jonathan Harding.

Qatar Airways flies daily to Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo and now Helsinki.

Demand for hoverboards high among kidsContinued from page 1

“We pulled hoverboards off our shelves six month ago,” a salesman at a famous toyshop in Al Saad told this daily.

“We did not receive any circular from the local authority to withdraw the products. It was our own initia-tive to pull them off shelves when parents and guardians of children raised concerns over the safety of the products,” he said.

Some major shopping complexes were spotted posting notices at their entrance banning the use of hover-board inside their premises.

“We have a variety of hover-boards, all made in China. Their price ranges from QR390 to QR690,” said a salesman of a famous shop-ping centre at Freej bin Imran.

“The device has pretty good demand but I cannot give the exact figure. We sell some units daily and sales increase during weekends,” he said.

The salesman added: “There is no warranty for electronic devices such as hoverboards. Once the cus-tomer leaves the shop the warranty is over. The products are not bad though they are made in China. We receive very few complaints all related to breakdown — most of them caused by mishandling but none of them related to battery explosion.”

“The device has a manual which users must follow for their own and others’ safety,” said the salesman.

The hoverboards are also spotted on the shelves of a famous shopping complex in Al Dafna being sold for QR399. A sales notice reads the device

could be replaced within one week, however the warranty for repair is a month from the date of purchase.

“My daughter has been ask-ing me to buy a hoverboard since she saw one of her friends use one but I was so reluctant because I thought that she was too little and underweight for this device,” said a European woman.

It was the woman who took a test ride of the device, not her daughter, for safety concerns.

“My son has been asking for a hoverboard for a long time. I kept rejecting his request on the grounds that the product was not available in the local market and he was not of the right age for using it,” said a father.

“I am worried about safety. I do not think my son will wear safety helmet on every ride. Then what will happen when he forgets or purposely does not wear it?” he added.

“I think this device makes chil-dren lazy,” said a mother of two.

Violating tobacco outlets face closure Continued from page 1

Any outlet violating the law may face closure for one month in the first instance, two months for a repetition and up to three months if the offence is repeated again. The shop must make arrangements if a partial clo-sure is required, if its structure does not allow that. The owners of out-lets, facing punishment, can lodge a

complaint with the Minister of Public Health in 10 days after the action was taken. Five percent of the customs fees on tobacco products will be allocated to health awareness programmes.

Importers of cigarettes and other tobacco products and their deriv-atives must inform the Ministry of Public Health in a written form at least a week before arrival of the shipment for checking whether they

fulfill the required specifications.The law bans import of such

products without a written permis-sion. The Minister of Public Health will issue a decision on the permit-ted quantity of nicotine in cigarettes. Each packet or box of cigarette and other tobacco products must carry the expiry date and graphic warn-ings about the harmful effects of using such products.

Workshop on electronic building permitsThe Peninsula

DOHA: The Ministry of Munici-pality and Environment organised yesterday a workshop about electronic system for building per-mits at the officers Club at Civil Defence.

The workshop was aimed at exchanging opinions and ideas about the programme of elec-tronic building permits, and to evaluate the performance in the building permits system.

The workshop was attended by Staff Brig Abdullah Al Suwaidi, Director General of the General Administration of Civil Defence, a number of civil defence offic-ers and some Municipality directors.

HOME 03 WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

Domasco’s new logo emphasises driving innovationThe Peninsula

DOHA: Al-Futtaim’s Doha Marketing Services Company WLL (Domasco), Qatar’s leading multi-brand com-pany, has unveiled its new logo and visual brand identity. The new logo emphasises the company’s for-ward-thinking with an objective to achieving sustainable growth, driving innovation and focusing on customer engagement.

Domasco has a diversified port-folio representing some of the world’s most visible and award-winning brands such as Honda, Volvo, GAC, CMC, MasterGas, Carrier, Aftron, Raymond Weil, Titan, Police, Gant, Casio and many more. Al-Futtaim, UAE’s leading regional trading house with significant interests across the

world including in Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australasia and Europe, is present in 31 countries, enhancing and enriching the lives of millions every day. By combining Domas-co’s brand equity in Qatar with the Al-Futtaim “arrowhead’s” global rec-ognition we look to continue to offer our customers the best of both.

Domasco’s decades-long associ-ation with Al-Futtaim has fostered forward-thinking business practices with integrity and a spirit of collab-oration. The company has grown to become an integral part of Qatar’s daily life, with its top quality products and services, offering a better retail experience for customers. The idea behind having a unitary brand is that it will help create a coherent iden-tity that communicates the company values and unifies the brand identity

across all group companies.In the new logo, the ‘D’ has been

replaced by the Al-Futtaim arrow-head and reflects the modernised brand while maintaining its rich his-tory. The new identity incorporates the blue colour of Al-Futtaim and features a modern, material design.

“Through Al-Futtaim’s inherent customer-centric approach and con-tinued focus on business excellence, we add significant value to creating longstanding relationships based on loyalty and mutual trust,” said Colin Cordery, Regional Managing Director. “Our new logo better communicates what Domasco as part of Al-Fut-taim, stands for today. It is part of the corporate rebranding effort that sup-ports the purpose, values and culture for the future of Al-Futtaim.”

Faisal Sharif, Managing Director

at Domasco, said: “We can better serve our customers by leveraging the combined resources and assets of a strong, unified business under one corporate identity as it clearly strengthens our association to Al-Futtaim’s core values.” He added: “Even as we are part of the global

change towards innovation and value creation we have embarked upon, customer satisfaction and quality remain our top priorities. Doing busi-ness with Domasco and its brands will continue to be a great experience and we will always leverage our tech-nological edge to serve them better.”

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani received the credentials of Kuwaiti Ambassador to Qatar Hafeez Mohammed Salem Al Ajmi. The Minister wished the envoy success in his work and hoped for more progress in bilateral relations. The Minister also received credentials of Indian Ambassador to Qatar Kumaran Periasamy.

Minister receives credentials of Kuwait envoy

Emir transfers ambassadors to Foreign Ministry HQQNA

DOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday issued Emiri Decision No 45 of 2016, transferring extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors to the headquarters of the Foreign Ministry.

The Emiri decision stipulates that the following ambassadors are transferred:

1. Abdulrahman Mohammed Suleiman Al Khulaifi, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Federal Republic of Germany.

2. Adel Ali Mohamed Al Khal Fakhroo, ambassador extraordi-nary and plenipotentiary to the

Republic of Portugal.3. Ibrahim Mohammed Abdul-

rahman Al Abdullah, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Republic of Kenya.

4. Sheikh Ali bin Jassim bin Thani bin Jassim Al Thani, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Belgium.

5. Saad Mohammad Saad Al Kubaisi, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Romania.

6. Salim Abdullah Sultan Al Jaber, ambassador extraordinary and plen-ipotentiary to the Republic of South Africa.

7. Abdulla Hussein Mohammed Jaber, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Hungary.

8 . A b du l r a z a k A b du l-jalil Abdulghani Al Abdulghani,

ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Spain.

9. Abdullah Mohammed Ibrahim Mohammed Al Derbasti, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Republic of Paraguay.

10. Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin Saud Al Abdulrahman Al Thani, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Bahrain.

11. Ali Khalfan Ali Al Mansouri, ambassador extraordinary and plen-ipotentiary to the Republic of Austria.

12. Abdullah Nasser Abdullah Al Humaidi, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Tunisian Republic.

13. Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Thani, ambassador

extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the French Republic.

14. Khalid Fahad Fahad Al Khater, ambassador extraordinary and plen-ipotentiary to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

15. Mohammad Jaham Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, ambassador extraordi-nary and plenipotentiary to the United States of America.

16. Faisal Abdullah Hamad Abdullah Al Henzab, Qatar’s per-manent representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva.

17. Saud Abdullah Zaid Al Mah-moud, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Russian Federation.

The decision is effective from its date of issue and is to be published in the official gazette.

Qatar to participate in GCC Health Ministers meetingQNA

DOHA: The State of Qatar will participate in the third GCC Health Ministers Committee meeting and its pre-paratory one, set to take place in Riyadh.

Qatar will also participate in the 80th GCC Health Ministers meeting.

The meetings will take place today and tomorrow. Minister of Public Health H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari will head Qatar’s delegation participating in the meetings.

The third Health Ministers Committee meeting will discuss a number of topics, including develop-ing a financing system to achieve a higher health coverage among Gulf Cooperation Council member states.

It will also examine strategic cooperation between GCC members with Jordan and Morocco in the health fields.

Mental health ‘first aid’ key in care strategy

The Peninsula

DOHA: Mental health ‘first aid’ can be an important technique helping the public to identify and under-stand the illness, said an expert.

This first aid covers psychologi-cal and social support which can be provided not just by trained profes-sionals but by anyone who may be in a position to offer support to some-one in need — a teacher, community worker, police officer, paramedic or perhaps a counsellor employed by large firms to help support staff.

“Hamad Medical Corpora-tion (HMC) is working tirelessly to increase awareness and knowl-edge of mental health and illness and supports initiatives that help to build a general understanding of mental health conditions and care options,” said Professor Peter Woodruff, Chair and Medical Direc-tor of HMC’s Mental Health Service.

“Similar to learning the basics of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) to provide first aid to someone having a heart attack, Mental Health First Aid

can be an important technique help-ing the public to identify, understand and respond appropriately to signs of mental illness including knowing when to refer them to Mental Health Services. We urge anyone interested in this field to learn more about men-tal health conditions.”

“Psychological first aid is not a substitute for treatment and psy-chological problems and mental illnesses are very complex and not obvious to the untrained eye so people should not delay in seeking specialist care. The sooner some-one is seen and treated the sooner they can recover. Delays to such treatment tend to reduce the over-all outcome, so people should not delay seeking professional help,” added Prof Woodruff.

Mental Health ‘first aid’ for all is a core element of this year’s World Mental Health Day event theme.

Dr Suhaila Ghuloum, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at HMC’s Mental Health Service said that there is a growing realisation in healthcare sectors around the world that a better understanding of men-tal health among other staff outside the mental health field, results in better care for patients.

“The skills included in Mental Health First Aid training are valu-able for all healthcare professionals who may be called upon to assess the mental health condition of a patient who sought help for some other reason. Mental health is inte-gral to a person’s overall health.”

Mental Health ‘first aid’ for all is a core element of this year’s World Mental Health Day event theme.

QTA figures show events spurred

tourism during off seasonBy Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

DOHA: The Eid in Qatar Cel-ebrations and Qatar Summer Festival have substantially contributed to spurring tour-ism during the off-peak season from July to September, Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) fig-ures revealed.

The three most anticipated nationwide events on QTA’s calendar, which lasted for 43 days, have again proved effec-tive in attracting huge number of tourists from neighbour-ing countries as shown by the increase in visitor arriv-als which generated positive impact in the hospitality and retail sectors.

Tourist arrivals in July and August saw a 4.6 per-cent increase compared to the same period last year. The Eid Al Adha celebrations were held from July 6 to 12 fol-lowed by the Qatar Summer Festival which ran the entire month of August. These events

witnessed unique mall shows for the entire family, live enter-tainment, an entertainment park, promotions and raffle draws, among others.

In August, during which the Summer Festival was held, the number of visitors that Qatar welcomed was 2 per-cent higher than the number received in the same month last year.

The 29,000sqm Enter-tainment City, which was the biggest and among its edi-tions and the highlight of the festival, witnessed 150,000 visitors.

In addition, a total of 4,450 people attended the summer festival live shows.

In September, the country received 255,805 visitors, most of whom were GCC nationals. Majority of these visitors were Saudi nationals (106,014) who were attracted by the week-long Eid Al Adha celebrations.

Benefitting from the events are hotels and retail outlets which both saw brisk busi-ness during the period.

The hotel sector saw its highest occupancy rate which was 74 percent. Fifty-six hotels, which was double the number of participants last year, took part in the sum-mer festival offering attractive packages.

Shopping promotions throughout Qatar Sum-mer Festival also generated a positive impact on mem-bers of the retail sector. The number of coupons entered into the weekly raffle draws reached 100,000 by the end of the festival and reflects an estimated expenditure of more than QR21m in partic-ipating malls. According to a survey conducted by the QTA, 91 percent of the participants were satisfied of the festivals.

This was revealed during an appreciation event held at the St Regis Doha yesterday to recognize QTA’s valued part-ners in these summer events consisting of representatives of government ministries and agencies, sponsors, media, participants and volunteers.

Vodafone Qatar opens 26th storeThe Peninsula

DOHA: Vodafone Qatar has rolled out another global retail store concept at its new store located in Ummslal Mohammed area, taking its nationwide retail footprint to a total of 26 outlets.

The company’s Ummslal store features a complete retail transformation to reflect Vodafone’s world-class look and feel and offer customers a vibrant and delightful retail ambience besides the ease and sim-plicity that is in line with any other store Vodafone customers will visit across the world.

Vodafone’s Ummslal store that is located beside Khreitiyat Q-Post Branch in front of Tea Time will be easily acces-sible to the residents of Al-Kheesa and Ummslal Ali as well.

Speaking at the official opening of the store, Hamad Al Thani, Enterprise Sales Director at Vodafone Qatar, said: “It’s diffi-cult to imagine our everyday lives without telecommunications and yet many peo-ple are confused by the complexity of the products and services in the telecom-munication sector. That’s why it’s very important for us to provide customers with a telecommunications experience that is based on the interaction between consumers, staff and products is a crucial element of this.

Our new stores are designed as a

“customer journey’’ and aim to give our customers a brand new shopping experience based around convenience, transparency, simplicity and speed. We have also thoroughly improved all features of the in-store model to deliver single-mindedly the best advice and service we can provide. We have further plans to con-tinue to grow our presence and roll out more stores across the country to ensure

true differentiation.” With a clear and sim-ple setting, Vodafone’s store at Ummslal Mohammed boasts some unique fea-tures such as an Iconic Top 10 Table with a choice of the latest best-sellers, a Hero Product zone, and an accessory panel featuring the latest mobile and tablet accessories. Moreover the store’s Tech Zone and consultation pods provide cus-tomers with advice and support.

GCC Ministers of Culture hold 22nd meetingQNA

RIYADH: The Ministers of Cul-ture of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for Arab States held their 22nd meeting here yesterday.

The Minister of Culture and Sports, H E Dr Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali headed the State of Qatar’s delegation to the meeting.

During the General ses-sion, GCC Secretary-General Dr Abdullatif Rashid Al Zayani said that the current circumstances in the region require more vig-ilance and earnest work to address various political, social and cultural challenges and problems.

The new Vodafone Qatar store at Ummslal Mohammed.

HOME04 WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

Secretary-General of the Foreign Ministry H E Dr Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi met yesterday with a delegation from the defence committee of the German parliament currently paying a visit to the country. They discussed bilateral relations and ways of developing the prospects for cooperation.

Foreign Ministry official meets German delegation

Wellcare Group to support QCS activitiesThe Peninsula

DOHA: As part of activities related to social responsibility, Wellcare Group has signed an agreement to support Qatar Cancer Society (QCS) activities.

Wellcare Group signed a part-nership agreement with QCS aimed at cooperation in the field of cancer prevention and supporting QCS and its various activities and contributing to spreading aware-ness on behalf of QCS in Qatar.

Under the partnership agree-ment between Wellcare Group and QCS, there is an attempt to establish an effective partnership between the two sides and create long-term cooperation in the field of cancer awareness to the Qatari society through events organised by QCS. To disseminate the infor-mation in different languages in

the community, QCS will educate wellcare pharmacists about can-cer awareness and its prevention.

Wellcare pharmacies will facilitate a system in which cus-tomers can donate any amount from their change which will be reflected in their purchase invoice to help QCS raise awareness by

organising several events about cancer and ways to prevent it by a healthy lifestyle and healthy food which will help raise awareness about the disease, which sup-ports Qatar Vision 2030 in human development and increases public awareness.

Maryam Hamad Al Nuaimi,

General Manager of Qatar Can-cer Society said: “I would like to express my deep apprecia-tion to Wellcare Group for their efforts in fighting cancer by sup-porting us and our activities. Statistics show that cancer inci-dence rates are on the rise both in Qatar and the Middle East, which shows the importance of launch-ing awareness programmes on a large scale, focusing not only on treatment, but also on preven-tion through healthy lifestyles and exercise.”

Asharaf K P, Managing Direc-tor of Wellcare Group, said: “We are delighted to support QCS initi-atives aiming at raising awareness of cancer prevention through the several events that QCS will organise through the next year. We would like everyone to join in to support this very worthy cause for a fit and healthy society.”

Wellcare Group and Qatar Cancer Society (QCS) officials.

Honda Qatar announces exciting offers on motorbikesThe Peninsula

DOHA: As the riding season gains momentum, Honda Qatar has announced thrilling offers which, it promises, will turn your dreams of owning a Honda Motorbike into reality. Customers can benefit from amazing cash back deals and a free Galaxy S7 Edge smartphone & Sam-sung Gear VR virtual reality headset with every new purchase.

Honda has always worked to pro-duce motorcycles and scooters that

inspire dreams and expand horizons. Adding an engine to two wheels

creates a machine that connects the rider to true emotion, excitement and a world full of adventure and experience.

In the wide range of Honda, from touring to cruiser, off-road to sport, and scooter to ATV, there is a bike for everyone to begin their own adventure.

This year’s new addition to the range is the much anticipated Africa Twin. The CRF1000L Africa Twin is an impressive bike that sets new

standards for adventure bikes with its unique, light and agile combina-tion of power and handling.

Faisal Sharif, the Managing Director at Domasco, said, “Right in time for the riding season, we are offering these incredibly addict-ing machines with an amazing cash back offer. Coupled with the fun ride, we are presenting an immer-sive mobile virtual reality experience to our customers. With Samsung Gear VR virtual reality headset and Galaxy S7 edge smartphone, they can now enjoy endless hours

of entertainment.” Talking about Domasco’s special offer, Greig Rof-fey, Head of Sales & Marketing Honda said, “We offer a wide range of Honda motorbikes, each with unique styling, and they all are sales lead-ers in their respective categories. Come into our showroom this sea-son to discover the models that best suits your lifestyle’’

Doha Marketing Services Com-pany WLL (Domasco) is a leading multi-brand company in Qatar with a diversified portfolio representing some of the world’s most visible brands. The range of Honda motorbikes.

RAF aid for schooling kids in Iraqi city

The Peninsula

DOHA: Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Foundation for Humanitarian Serv-ices (RAF) has provided QR2m to create educational opportunities for 500 children from displaced fam-ilies who dropped out or could not attend schools due to poverty in Al Ramadi city of Iraq.

The project was financed by the Endowment Fund of Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani. It is being implemented in the areas housing poor displaced families in Al Ram-adi and Kirkuk. The beneficiary areas are Banja Ali, Maskar Kha-lid and Al Wasti.

The initiative is part of the ongo-ing project ‘Al Ghaza W Al Nur (Food and Light)’ being executed by RAF, in collaboration with Unicef and UN World Food Program (WFP). The local partner of RAF in Ram-adi is Help the Needy Charitable Trust (AAN).

The plan is to provide basic food items to needy families on monthly

basis so that they could send their children to school.

RAF provided food baskets, school supplies including bags, stationeries and uniforms to bene-ficiary children and their families. More than 400 displaced families were provided basic foodstuffs so they could let their children go to schools.

The project also aims to build two primary schools in Al Ram-adi comprising 12 classrooms with a capacity of 50 students per classroom. The project will meet the growing demands of seats in schools. There is severe shortage of school facilities because almost all primary schools were destroyed in this area.

Most displaced people are fight-ing for survival. They do not have the basic needs so it is hard for them to send their children to school. In addition, most of the schools were destroyed and those left behind needed support for running classes.

“Food & Light” initiative pro-vides needy families with basic food items on a monthly basis for one year so they could send their children to school.

Hundreds of small develop-ment projects will also be launched to provide livelihood for needy families.

RAF had allocated QR60m from its Endowment Fund of Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani for its “Food & Light” initiative. The project would contribute to the education of 45,000 children in 15,000 families from 20 of the poorest countries.

ROTA in deal for youth education programmesThe Peninsula

DOHA: Reach Out To Asia (ROTA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AFIF Charity aimed at engaging children and youth in quality education pro-grammes.

The MoU, which extends for three years, establishes a framework for cooperation between ROTA and AFIF with the aim of supporting margin-alised communities and crisis-prone countries with low educational indicators.

Joint action will include the organisation of educational activi-ties and fundraising events as well as the promotion of knowledge sharing and analytical work among other aspects of mutual coopera-tion in a bid to improve the quality of education.

ROTA’s Executive Director, Essa Al Mannai, said: “The agreement reflects our keenness to cooper-ate with partners, volunteers, local communities and non-governmen-tal organisations to find effective solutions to the challenges facing

disadvantaged communities.”“ROTA works closely with part-

ners as well as local charities and non-governmental organisations in addition to other stakeholders in order to provide quality educa-tion for all children in primary and

secondary schools. At ROTA, we achieve this goal by meeting the real needs of beneficiaries, taking advantage of available local exper-tise, encouraging the exchange of best practices, equipping people with the required skills and applying innovative, practical and sustaina-ble solutions to address the obstacles that prevent young people from accessing quality education during crisis periods,” he added.

Engineer Ibrahim bin Ali, CEO of AFIF Charity, said: “At AFIF we seek to establish strategic partnerships that support the most vulnerable groups. ROTA is one of the most distinguished organisations, par-ticularly in the field of education, that can assist AFIF in establishing an integrated educational system and finding alternative solutions to pro-vide disadvantaged children access to education.”

ROTA’s Executive Director, Essa Al Mannai (centre) and Engineer Ibrahim bin Ali, CEO of AFIF Charity (right) sign the MoU as Mohammed Al Naama, Acting Executive Director, ROTA looks on.

Ministry recalls Honda

Pilot 2016 model carsQNA

DOHA: The Ministry of Economy and Commerce has announced the recall of Honda Pilot vehicles 2016 mod-els, due to a defect in the speedometer and fuel gauge.

The Ministry said that the move comes within the framework of the Ministry’s continuous coordination and follow-up to ascertain the commitment of car deal-erships to follow up and fix vehicle defects in order to protect the rights of consumers.

The ministry said it will coordinate with the agent to follow up the maintenance and repair of the defect, and will communicate with customers to ensure the implementation of the procedures and the repair of defect in the cars.

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce urged all consumers to report any irregularities by communi-cating to the Consumer Protection Department, which receives complaints, suggestions and inquiries through its channels of communication.

Continued from page 1

“Qatar-UAE Exchange has always progressed along with the country. Our new outlet will help us extend convenience and provide customised finan-cial solutions across traditional and digital platforms to the resi-dents of Asian town,” said Mathai

Vaidian, Country Head, Qatar-UAE Exchange. “Also, with the country gearing up ahead for the FIFA 2022 World Cup, we are expecting the region to remain a destination of choice for interna-tional talent, propelling a robust remittance growth from Qatar,” he added.

The company, that began

operation in Qatar in 2007, launched ‘online remittance channel’ in December last year that saw a good response from customers. The digital portal wit-nessed a remittance volume of close to $20m as on June 30 and at present has around 25,000 active digital customers. “With digital being the future, we are treading

aggressively towards digitis-ing our product offerings for our customers in Qatar,” said Vaidian. “Qatar is gearing up ahead for the FIFA 2022 World Cup and we are expecting the region to remain a destination of choice for interna-tional talent, propelling a robust remittance growth from this country,” he added.

Qatar-UAE Exchange digital portal has 25,000 members

Project being implemented in areas housing poor displaced families in Al Ramadi and Kirkuk.

HOME 05WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

Minister of Economy and Commerce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani honoured the director of his office, Hamad Ali Al Ramel Al Mannai, who was relieved from his post upon his request. The Minister lauded Al Mannai for his work and for successfully chairing several committees. Al Mannai was replaced by Mohammed bin Hassan Al Saadi.

Minister honours official

By Irfan Bukhari

The Peninsula

DOHA: A thematic philatelic exhi-bition showcasing stamps on environment and nature from Arab countries opened at the Arab Postal Stamps Museum, Katara, yesterday.

Abdullah Shlash Al Hajri, CEO, Human Resources and Services, Qatar Post, inaugurated the exhi-bition titled “Stamps Exhibition on the Environment in the Middle East”.

The exhibition will continue until October 16.

Waleed Abd Alhadi Alyafei, Head of Public Relations, Ministry of Municipality and Environment, was also present.

“We are organising the exhi-bition in collaboration with the Ministry of Municipality and Envi-ronment to promote the cause of protection of environment. We hope this event will spread the message of preservation of envi-ronment among residents,” said Al Hajri told The Peninsula.

Hundreds of stamps depict-ing nature from all Arab countries are on display. The flowers, plants, desert animals and sea life of the Arab world attracted visitors with a

message to protect the nature from man-made destruction.

“Keep your environment clean is the simple message behind this exhi-bition,” said Khalid Rustom, Head of Arab Postal Stamps Museum, Katara.

The message, he said, behind the exhibition was to motivate people to protect the environment like plants, animals, desert, sea and everything Allah created for human beings. He further said that Arab Postal Stamps Museum was attracting thousands of visitors every year, particularly in the months from November to April.

Rustom said that Q-Post, with the help of Ministry of Education, was also arranging trips for school

children to the philatelic museum showcasing Arab world’s postal stamps. “Foreigners, especially from Western countries, are show-ing a keen interest in this museum,” he added.

The exhibits include stamps of Qatar with images of desert deer, desert insects and fish. The stamps from Mauritania depicted pictures of sea seal, colourful birds and there are images of desert fox and flow-ers on the Moroccan postage stamps. Those from Kuwait had pictures of camels and fish while snakes of dif-ferent colours were the images from Somalia.

“Holding this thematic philatelic

exhibition is really a commendable move of Qatar Post as treasures from the nature of the Arab countries are on a display under one roof. I have come here alone to visit the exhi-bition and will bring my family to see these stamps before the exhibi-tion ends on October 16,” said Saleh Muhammad, an Arab expat.

Visitors were seen taking pic-tures and selfies with the stamps. “I am taking these pictures to preserve the memory of visiting the phila-telic exhibition and I appreciate the Q-Post management for organising such an informative and eye-catch-ing event,” said Ibrahim, an Egyptian expat.

Philatelic exhibition opens at Katara

RAF receives QR275,000 from LuluThe Peninsula

DOHA: Sheikh Thani Bin Abdulla Humanitarian Services Founda-tion (RAF) has received a cheque for QR275,000 raised through Lulu Hypermarket Group Qatar Region’s ‘Buy and Donate’ campaign run dur-ing Ramadan season. The cheque was handed over to the CEO of RAF Dr Mohammed Salah and Ahmad Yousef, Executive and Development Manager, by Shaijan M O, Regional Director and Shanavas P M, Regional Manager of Lulu Group.

Lulu Group has been associat-ing with RAF Charity for three years to support the activities of the charity

and had signed an agreement to donate up to 10 percent of the sales proceeds of selected 400 food and non-food items during the Holy month of Ram-adan and the campaign was running at all Lulu outlets in Qatar Region. Lulu identified this as a great opportunity to accelerate its continuous efforts towards corporate social responsibil-ity and humanitarian services. Last year, they had donated QR250,000 to RAF during Ramadan.

Dr Mohammed Salah Ibrahm, CEO of Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah for Humanitarian Services, expressed his delight in partnership with Lulu Hypermarket Group and said that “we are always striving to find new projects that serve charitable and

humanitarian sector in the Qatari society and pushing to hold more partnerships with companies that are operating in State of Qatar, with a view to promote the authentic values of the State of Qatar. Ahmad Fakroo, Executive Devopment Man-ager of RAF said, “Lulu-RAF example has now become a role model to other commercial organizations”.

Mohammed Althaf, Director for Lulu Group International said: “Buy and Donate” Campaign, which is run-ning for the third consecutive year got overwhelming response from the customers. Lulu Group will continue to strengthen the cooperation with RAF Charity .”

By Sidi Mohamed

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar University College of Law (QU-LAWC) yesterday held a roundtable on Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act - JASTA - and its implications in the region.

Professor of Public Interna-tional Law Dr Ibraheem Al-Anani said that the law encroaches into other countries’ sovereignty. States are not responsible for the actions of its citizens unless coun-tries are behind these actions, he added.

It is also difficult to put a country under trial with another country’s law. He stressed that the definition of terrorism is very broad and makes it difficult to specify punishments.

“JASTA is against judicial justice, and the most dangerous thing is that it was placed only for political purpose, because it states that the lawsuit can be stopped in case there are some talks or negotiations with another country, which means its purpose is political.”

“JASTA law was first pre-sented by a Texas senator last year, and was approved by the US Senate in May this year and brought to the House of repre-sentatives, and is considered the only law which has been

approved by all senators due to its humanitarian aspect which is sympathising with the vic-tims. However, the secret behind the approval of the law was the election campaign, which con-tributed to the speeding up of its adoption, although other financial and political reasons are there in the minds of Amer-ican legislators,” said Director and LAWC Associate Professor of Constitutional Law Dr Has-san Al-Sayed.

The discussion was held in conjunction with the Gulf Stud-ies Center (GSC) at QU College of Arts and Sciences (QU-CAS).

GSC Director Dr Abdul-lah Baabood said, “This event aligns with GSC’s mission to address issues that are related to changes at the regional and international level, and which

have an impact on the Gulf countries.” He noted that the approval of JASTA law by the US Congress came at a time when the region undergoes geopoliti-cal tensions and challenges.

The event aimed to raise com-munity awareness on the basic principles of international law, and to identify the various frame-works of international relations at the regional and international level. It brought together academ-ics, practitioners, researchers and students to discuss the adequacy of the provisions of JASTA law with the rules and principles of international law.

The programme featured an introductory session on ‘High-lights of the JASTA Law’ by LAWC Teaching Assistant and Extern-ship Programme Coordinator Fatma Almesleh. It also included

discussion sessions moder-ated by LAWC Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of International Law Dr Yasser Alkhakailah.

They discussed issues related to ‘Bending legal force of JASTA law in International law perspective’ and ‘JASTA Law from Constitutional law perspective.’

Other topics included ‘Sov-ereign immunity theory and its importance in international law,’ ‘Legal binding effect of JASTA law in light of international law pro-visions,’ ‘Waiver of sovereign immunity and its consequences,’ ‘JASTA law and constitutional procedures,’ ‘JASTA law and its conformity with international obligations’ and ‘The impact of JASTA law on alliances in the region (political view)?’

QNA

DOHA: Qatar Red Crescent Soci-ety (QRCS) and a delegation of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) explored opportunities for further cooperation and discussed issues of common concern.

During a meeting with the MSF delegation headed by President Dr Meguerditch Terzian at QRCS

headquarters yesterday, Executive Director Fahad bin Mohammed Al Nuaimi gave an overview of QRCS relief and development interven-tions done jointly with MSF in several countries like Syria and Iraq.

The talks also covered ways to strengthen the partnership.

QRCS has already worked with MSF-Holland to open a paediatric department at QRCS surgical hos-pital in Tell Abyad, Syria.

Qatar Post official inaugurates the exhibition titled “Stamps Exhibition on the Environment in the Middle East”.

Khalid Rustom (left) Head of Arab Postal Stamps Museum, Katara, gives a briefing about stamps to Abdullah Shlash Al Hajri (centre), CEO, Human Resources and Services, Q-Post, and Waleed Abd Alhadi Alyafei (right) Head of Public Relations, Ministry of Municipality and Environment, after the inauguration of the exhibition. Pic: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

QRCS & MSF discuss cooperation

Lulu and RAF officials at the ceremony.

Speakers at the round-table on Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

QU-LAWC holds discussion on JASTA

HOME / MIDDLE EAST06 WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

Dr Rajiv Kumar Gupta (fourth right), Principal Secretary, Labour & Employment, in the western Indian state of Gujarat and MD of Gujarat NFC, shakes hands with K M Varghese, President of IBPN, on sharing information about upcoming biennial event ‘Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2017’, in Doha, yesterday. The delegation accompanying Gupta briefed about the investor-friendly policies, the robust industrial ecosystem and single window clearance procedures that Gujarat offers. Pic: Kammutty V P/The Peninsula

Meet on ‘Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit’

Reuters

ANKARA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Iraq’s prime min-ister he should “know his limits” after he criticised Turkey’s military presence there and said the Turkish army, shaken by a failed coup bid, had not lost so much standing as to take orders from him.

Nato member Turkey shares a 1,200km border with Syria and Iraq and faces threats from Islamic State militants in both. But it is concerned that international efforts to destroy the radical Islamists will leave new dangers in their wake.

The Turkish army, its senior ranks purged following a failed military attempt to overthrow Erdogan in July,

launched an incursion into Syria in August to push back Islamic State and prevent US-backed Kurdish militia fighters from seizing territory.

Ankara is wary of Washington’s support for what it sees as a hostile Syr-ian Kurdish force. Erdogan suggested Turkey could take a similar attitude in

Iraq, where expectations are growing of an assault to drive Islamic State out of the northern city of Mosul.

“We will approach the operation in Iraq, the operation that will be in Mosul soon, with the same attitude,” Erdogan told a meeting of Islamic leaders in Istanbul in televised

comments. “Turkey cannot inter-vene against the threats right next to it? We will never accept this ... We don’t need permission for this, and we don’t plan on getting it.” The main point of contention is the presence of Turkish troops in Iraq, mainly at the Bashiqa camp in the north of the

country, training Sunni Muslim and Kurdish Peshmerga units which Tur-key wants to take part in the battle for Mosul.

However, the Shi’ite-led gov-ernment in Baghdad is keen that its forces be in the forefront of the offen-sive on the city, the largest under Islamic State control.

Turkey’s parliament voted two weeks ago to extend the deployment of an estimated 2,000 troops across northern Iraq by a year to combat “terrorist organisations” — a wording

broad enough to refer to Kurdish mil-itants as well as Islamic State.

Iraq condemned the vote, and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi warned Turkey risked triggering a regional war.

His government has requested an emergency United Nations Secu-rity Council meeting to discuss the issue, and both countries have sum-moned each other’s ambassadors in a mounting diplomatic stand-off. “The Iraqi prime minister is insulting me, first know your limits,” Erdogan said.

AFP

SANA’A: The World Heath Organi-sation said Tuesday it had confirmed 11 cases of cholera in Yemen’s capi-tal Sana’a, after the UN announced an outbreak of the disease last week.

“So far, we have 17 suspected cholera cases, and 11 that are con-firmed,” WHO expert Amro Saleh told reporters in the rebel held cap-ital. All confirmed cases came from one neighbourhood, Saleh said, adding that no deaths had so far been reported from the disease.

Saleh also said that “143 cases of severe diarrhoea” were admit-ted to hospitals in other provinces, including 49 in southwestern Taez and 42 in Hodeida, by the Red Sea.

All those cases have tested negative for cholera, according to another WHO expert present at Tuesday’s press briefing. Saleh said he was “confident that the epidemic will remain under control.”

The WHO and the UN’s children agency Unicef said on Friday that cholera cases had been reported, with eight cases recorded by health authorities in Sana’a.Unicef Yemen representative Julien Harneis said

that the outbreak “adds to the misery of millions of children in Yemen.” The WHO warned that the scarcity of drinkable water has worsened the hygiene situation in Yemen, fuelling a marked increase in cases of severe diarrhoea, in par-ticular among people displaced from their homes in the centre of the country.

Unicef said that cholera, a dis-ease that is transmitted through contaminated drinking water and causes acute diarrhoea, could prove fatal in up to 15 percent of untreated cases. The agency says nearly three million people in Yemen are in need of immediate food supplies, while 1.5 million children suffer malnu-trition, including 370,000 enduring very severe malnutrition that weak-ens their immune system.

The conflict between Yemen’s government and Iran-backed rebels escalated last year with the inter-vention of a Saudi-led Arab coalition in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

The UN says more than 6,700 people have been killed and more than three million displaced by fighting in Yemen since March 2015, when the coalition launched its campaign.

AFP

MUSCAT: An Omani court has released two journalists pending an appeal after they were given jail sentences for undermining the state, a colleague said yesterday.

Azamn newspaper Editor-in-Chief Ibrahim Al Maamari and his deputy Yousef Al Haj — each sentenced to three years in jail — were freed late on Monday, said Zaher Al Abri, a third defendant who had already been released.

They paid 2,000 rials ($5,195) each to be bailed pending the hearing on November 7, he said.

Paris-based media rights group Reporters without Borders (RSF) said the court had reduced the bail amount from 50,000 rials ($130,000) each. Abri was jailed for one year and fined 1,000 rials ($2,600), but he was released on bail in August, according to RSF.

Their newspaper remains shut after the court last month upheld a government order to permanently close it.

The trio were arrested in con-nection with their coverage of a case of alleged judicial corrup-tion, RSF said.

Based on the charge sheet read out in court, the journalists were convicted of disturbing the public order, undermining the prestige of the state and misus-ing the Internet, sources said.

Haj was convicted for pub-lishing an interview with a senior judiciary official even after being ordered not to do so.

Maamari was the first of the three to be arrested on July 28, two days after the newspa-per published an article which accused public officials of corrup-tion and interference in judicial decisions.

AFP

CAIRO: Egypt has invited tenders to meet its refined oil products needs for October after Saudi Ara-mco halted the expected delivery of 700,000 tonnes for this month, the petroleum ministry said yesterday.

The move by the Saudi oil giant was a surprise as Riyadh has been one of the main regional backers of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and had agreed to finance Egyptian imports from Aramco for five years in a $23bn deal reached in April.

“The Saudi Aramco company verbally informed the General

Petroleum Corporation earlier this month that it would halt its sup-plies for October, without offering any reasons,” ministry spokesman Hamdy Abdel Aziz said.

Egypt has invited “tenders in international markets to supply the amount needed for October and we have opened credit lines with the central bank and will reach a deal soon.”

Egypt angered its ally on Sat-urday by voting in favour of a Russian-drafted resolution on the conflict in Syria which Saudi Ara-bia had strongly opposed.

Riyadh had backed a French text, which was vetoed by Moscow, that would have demanded an end to air

strikes on rebel-held areas of Syr-ia’s battleground second city Aleppo.

But Abdel Aziz insisted that Aramco’s decision came before the Security Council vote and was unconnected.

“Aramco told us about the issue before the Security Council meeting. This is a commercial issue and not political. It is normal for some ship-ments to be late,” he said.

Abdel Aziz did not elaborate on when he expected Aramco to resume shipments but insisted: “The deal with Saudi is ongoing.”

Saudi Arabia has provided Egypt with billions of dollars in aid and credit since Sisi overthrew Islam-ist president Mohamed Mursi when

army chief in 2013 and King Salman visited Cairo in April.

The two governments have had some differences over the Syrian conflict and over Egypt’s unwilling-ness to send ground troops to join the Saudi-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen. But Saudi Arabia’s ambassa-dor to the United Nations, Abdullah Al Muallimi, expressed hurt at Sat-urday’s UN vote by Egypt.

“It was painful for the Senegalese and Malaysian positions to be closer to the Arab consensus than that of the Arab representative,” he told Al-Jazeera television.

“This obviously was painful. But obviously the question should be directed to Egypt’s ambassador.”

Anatolia

GAZA CITY: The political gap between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip has widened after the Palestinian Supreme Court ruled last week that municipal polls would not be held in the latter, according to a senior Hamas official.

Basem Naim, a former health minister in Gaza’s Hamas-run gov-ernment, said the decision — in which Gaza’s courts were deemed “illegitimate” — had further eroded chances for reconciliation between the two territories.

“The decision of the court is a real catastrophe,” said Naim, who heads the Gaza-based Council on Interna-tional Relations.

“Before the decision of the court, there was a division between Gaza and Ramallah — but it was a polit-ical division,” he asserted. “Today, after the court’s decision, it’s not only a political division — it is a political plus a legal division.”

He went on to say that the Supreme Court’s description of courts in Gaza as “illegitimate” would lead to “social chaos”, because it would effectively render redundant all deci-sions made by courts in Gaza over the last decade of Hamas rule — includ-ing on domestic issues like marriage

and divorce. Though the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) has said polling should eventually go ahead as planned in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Naim said he no longer expects elections to be conducted at all.

Elections, he said, should not be called in the first place until a degree of reconciliation is achieved between Hamas, who runs the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, which leads the Palestine Lib-eration Organization (PLO) and is led by President Mahmoud Abbas.

But the notion of reconciliation between the rival factions — which have been at odds since Hamas won legislative polls in 2006 then took control of Gaza in 2007 — now seems

more distant than ever, according to Naim.

“Before the decision of the court, there was no confidence between the different parties,” he said. “Today this situation has deepened. Confi-dence is weakened; the public… is disappointed.” The process of recon-ciliation, he lamented, “is becoming more difficult”.

While Naim said that Fatah had used the court ruling as a means of stopping elections in which it feared it would suffer losses, former PLO minister Ghassan Khatib said the PA had been happy to go ahead with the polls — until courts in Gaza excluded Fatah candidates.

“Courts in Gaza are politicised…

that decision [to exclude Fatah can-didates] was motivated by attempts to weaken the chances of Fatah to win elections in Gaza — especially as Hamas is not that popular in Gaza, while it’s relatively popular in the West Bank,” said Khatib, who is now a professor at Birzeit University in the West Bank.

Unlike Naim, Khatib said he did not believe the election controversy would cause any further damage to reconciliation efforts, since the two sides were already a long way from achieving any degree of unity.

“The split is already deep enough... we cannot keep using the deepening of the split as an excuse to avoid doing things,” he said.

11 cholera cases confirmed in Yemen

We have right to combat threats in Syria & Iraq: ErdoganAnatolia

ANKARA: Turkey’s parliament yesterday ratified a planned extension of the country’s state of emergency to run for three more months from October 19. The Turkish cabinet last week decided to extend the state of emergency for 90 more days, with parliament’s approval.

National Security Council had earlier advised extending the emer-gency measures, first brought in five days after the failed July 15 coup plot which martyred more than 240 people and injured nearly 2,200 others.

According to the Turkish Constitution, a state of emergency can be declared for a maximum period of six months, but can also be extended if needed. Parliament must ratify states of emergency; Turkey’s ruling Jus-tice and Development (AK) Party has a comfortable majority for doing so.

Saudi Arabia halts fuel deliveries to Egypt

Two Omani journalists bailed pending trial

20 dead in air strikes in Aleppo and shelling in southBEIRUT: Air strikes on rebel-held parts of the northern city of Aleppo killed at least 14 people yesterday, while the shelling of a government-held neighborhood in southern Syria hit a school, killing at least six, including children, opposition activists and state media said.

Syria’s official news agency Sana also reported rare shelling of neigh-bourhoods in the capital, Damascus, including several mortar shells fired by opposition groups based on the edge of the city that landed in the res-idential Qasaa district and close to the Umayyad Mosque, wounding an unspecified number of people.

Election delay widens West Bank and Gaza rift

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Head of the Religious Affairs Directorate Mehmet Gormez attend the opening ceremony of 9th Eurasian Islamic Council in Istanbul, Turkey, yesterday.

Emergency extended for 3 more monthsNato member Turkey shares a 1,200km border with Syria and Iraq and faces threats from Islamic State militants in both.

ASIA / AFRICA 07WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

Belgian royals in Japan

France deplores Burundi ban on UN investigators

Reuters

PARIS: France said yesterday it deplored a decision by Burundi to ban three UN investigators from its territory, saying the east African country was losing credibility over promises to respect human rights.

In a brief letter from For-eign Affairs Minister Alain Aime Nyamitwe (pictured), Burundi on Monday blacklisted the investigators linked to a report which identi-fied officials suspected of ordering political opponents to be tortured or killed.

“France deplores the deci-sion by the Burundi authorities to declare personae non gratae the three members of the independent

experts mission on the human rights situation in Burundi,” Foreign Min-istry spokesman Romain Nadal said.

“This decision harms the cred-ibility of Burundi’s commitment to respect human rights.”

The African country has been gripped by political strife since President Pierre Nkurunziza sought and won a third term in 2015, which opponents said violated the consti-tution and terms of a peace deal that ended civil war in 2005.

The UN Human Rights Coun-cil agreed last week to set up a commission of inquiry to identify perpetrators of killings and torture in Burundi, and to ensure they are brought to justice. Burundi rejected the move.

Nadal called on the central Afri-can country to reverse its decision and cooperate with the UN.

AFP

BANGKOK: A controversial and col-ourful former guerilla fighter long accused of playing a key role in the Golden Triangle drugs trade was arrested during a sting operation yesterday, Thai police said.

Laota Seanlee was allegedly

caught trying to sell 20kg of crystal meth to undercover officers from his home in a village on Thailand’s bor-der with Myanmar.

The rugged hills of northern Thailand form part of the notorious Golden Triangle drug-producing zone that includes parts of Myan-mar and Laos.

Its cartels are some of the most prolific drug producers in the world,

trafficking heroin, methampheta-mine and other synthetic drugs.

Yet high profile arrests are rare.Compared to their counterparts

in Central and Latin America, hit hard by infighting or law enforce-ment successes, Golden Triangle cartel leaders have remained rela-tively unmolested for decades.

Police arrested Laota and 13 others, including family members,

yesterday morning, parading them in front of local media.

Laota sat with his arms behind his back as police laid out cash, pis-tols, shotguns and plastic wrapped blocks of the drugs.

“We followed and investigated and we did a sting operation,” Police Major General Sommai Kongvisa-isuk said. “Laota took our money and returned 20kg of crystal meth to us.”

Police sting nets alleged Golden Triangle drug kingpin

AFP

JOHANNESBURG: South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan (pictured) will be prosecuted for fraud, officials said yesterday, in a move that sent the rand tumbling over concerns about political in-fighting and the country’s fragile economy.

Gordhan, an internationally-respected technocrat, was appointed only last year to calm panicked investors after President Jacob Zuma sacked two finance ministers within four days.

Since then, Gordhan has regu-larly clashed with Zuma loyalists when vowing to battle poor govern-ance and graft in a government that has been engulfed by regular cor-ruption scandals.

Gordhan was summoned to appear in court in Pretoria on November 2.

Shaun Abrahams, head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), told reporters that Gordhan would be prosecuted for alleged mis-conduct over a retirement package paid to a colleague in 2010.

Gordhan and two others “must be prosecuted and arraigned” for fraud, Abrahams said.

Abrahams repeatedly denied that the NPA was being politically influenced, and he lashed out at crit-icism that it was not independent.

“The days of non-accountability and not holding senior government officials accountable are over,” he said.

The NPA said the case focused on allegations that Gordhan illegally authorised the retirement payment for a colleague at the tax collection department, which Gordhan headed between 1999 and 2009.

Gordhan, who first served as finance minister from the year 2009 to 2014, is widely seen as engaged in a months-long battle within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party over control of the treasury.

He has often clashed with Zuma and senior ministers over alleged excessive spending, particularly at cash-bleeding state-run entities such as South African Airways.

“I received a phone call from my family that someone had come to my house to issue the summons this morning,” Gordhan, 67, told an

economics forum in Johannesburg, according to local media.

“South Africans must ask who the Hawks (police) are really serving,” he added, pointing to sug-gestions of political interference.

The New York-based Eurasia Group consultancy said the court summons “would appear to signal the intent of the patronage network around the president to remove Gordhan.”

“This is a political witch-hunt,” Mcebisi Ndletyana, professor of political science at the University of Johannesburg said.

“The charge is flimsy and it has dire consequences on the economy.”

Zuma has previously said he backs Gordhan, who has also been targeted by investigators over a so-called «rogue unit» set up to probe top politicians when he headed the tax service.

South Africa›s economy has been struggling with record unemploy-ment, drought and political scandals surrounding Zuma.

Growth is set to be flat this year, and the country risks a damaging credit ratings downgrade to junk status.

Abrahams yesterday said he believed that Zuma, who is cur-rently visiting Kenya, knew about the prosecution.

“Because this matter affects a sit-ting cabinet minister... I deemed it prudent for the (justice) minister to inform the president,” he said.

South African finance minister to be prosecuted for fraud

Zuma forms team to resolve varsity crisisReuters

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has formed a ministerial team to help bring an end to weeks of clashes at university campuses between police and stu-dents demanding free education, the presidency said yesterday.

The government, grappling with a budget deficit equivalent to nearly

4% of economic output, says educa-tion subsidies should not be paid for at the expense of other sectors of the economy such as health and housing.

It has also said 2017 university fees may rise by up to 8 percent.

Police clashed sporadically with student protesters yesterday at the University of the Witwatersand (Wits), Talk Radio 702 said. Wits was hit by violence on Monday after reo-pening following angry protests that forced its closure last week.

The team set up by Zuma con-sists of eight ministers including Higher Education minister Blade Nzimande and Minister of Police Nathi Nhleko, and is tasked with resolving the crisis.

Government has said it will con-tinue subsidising university costs for the poorest students but could not afford free education for all.

The Wits Student Representative Council said that they would be con-tinuing the struggle for free education.

Fear grips

western Myanmar

as troops pour in

AFP

YANGON: Fear gripped Myan-mar’s Rakhine state yesterday as troops hunted attackers behind recent deadly raids on police, ratcheting up tensions in a res-tive region scarred by religious violence between Buddhists and Muslims.

Troops started pouring into the area around Maungdaw, a town in the north of the state, after nine police officers were killed during attacks near the border with Bangladesh on Sunday.

At least four people were killed Monday as soldiers searched for the attackers and weapons stolen during the raids, which officials said were carried out by mobs armed with knives and homemade slingshot-style weapons.

The latest unrest has stoked fears of a repeat of 2012, when more than 100 people were killed in waves of sectarian vio-lence that drove tens of thousands of Rohingya into displacement camps.

Several ministers and army top brass flew into Sittwe yesterday in a bid to ensure calm in the camps surrounding the city, while other lawmakers held talks in the capital.

Reports of killings and mass arrests have spread like wildfire on social media, stoking fear, but details have proved difficult to confirm in the remote and tightly controlled area.

One local teacher said she had been hiding in a house along with some 20 other school staff and students in a village near one of Sunday’s attacks, too scared to come out because of the sound of gunfire.

The decision harms the credibility of Burundi’s commitment to respect human rights: Minister

Masked students from the Witwatersrand University engage in stone throwing with South Africa anti-riot policemen, in Johannesburg, yesterday.

Ethiopia PM seeks to reform electoral system after protestsAFP

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said yesterday his government wants to reform an electoral system which has excluded the opposition, in response to months of bloody protests.

Hailemariam met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel just days after declaring a six-month state of emergency following a protest move-ment against his one-party regime, which is accused of marginalising the country’s largest ethnic groups.

“We want to reform the electoral system so the voices of those who are not represented can also be heard in

the parliament,” Hailemariam said.“Because of this electoral system

51 percent of votes is enough to win all the seats.”

Under Ethiopia’s current system, Hailemariam’s ruling coalition took every one of the 546 seats in parlia-ment during last year’s election.

His regime currently faces its big-gest challenge in the 25 years since coming to power.

When he succeeded Ethiopia’s former Marxist rebel-turned-leader Meles Zenawi, who died in 2012, Hailemariam said he was committed to opening up the country’s political system to allow more space for oppo-sition parties.

However, international rights organisations regularly criticise

his government for cracking down on dissenting voices, keeping a stranglehold on the media and intim-idating the opposition during election campaigns.

“Our democratisation process is still nascent. It’s fledgling... We want to go further in opening up political space and engagement with civil society groups,” said Hailemariam recently.

Merkel, who is on a three-nation Africa tour aimed at fighting terror-ism and stemming the migrant influx to Europe, told Hailemariam that a “vibrant democracy needs opposi-tion, it needs free media. People want to express their views”.

Since the state of emergency was announced on Sunday, Ethiopia has

restricted access to internet, which is used by protesters to organise themselves.

The country’s Oromo and Amhara communities -- which together make up 60 percent of the population -- have been protesting for nearly a year against marginali-sation by a government largely made up of minority Tigrayans, which con-trols power and the economy.

Merkel called for “open talks” with the opposition and offered Ethiopian police training from the German interior ministry in the use of appropriate force.

Rights groups say hundreds of protesters have been killed in a police crackdown on demonstrations.

“I offered that we have a dialogue

via our ministries of interior on how police can be trained so that not so many die when there are such riots,” said Merkel.

The protests, which first began in November 2015, threaten Ethi-opia’s reputation as an oasis of political stability, as well as its dou-ble-digit growth, a magnet for foreign investment.

The latest surge in violence came after police fired tear gas at protest-ers attending an Oromo religious festival on October 2, sparking panic in a massive crowd and triggering a stampede that left over 50 dead.

Protesters have turned their anger against foreign-owned compa-nies, torching several farms, factories and tourist lodges in the past week.

Belgium’s King Philippe and Queen Mathilde attend a welcoming ceremony with Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, yesterday.

VIEWS08 WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

Sterling is plunging. Immigrants are worried. Top bankers are warning that they could start moving staff outside London as early as next year if the current uncertainty persists or gets worse. As Britain wobbles its way to Brexit, confusion and nerve-racking anxiety

are reigning supreme. What is conspicuous by its absence is clarity and clear-headed thinking. Interestingly, amidst this gloom, excitement has gripped the Conservative party’s grassroots, supported by Theresa May’s euphoric remarks about the imminent exit from the European bloc.

The Brexit vote in June, which triggered the deepest political and financial turmoil in Britain since World War Two and the biggest ever one-day fall in sterling against the dollar, is continuing to divide the British community. The sky hasn’t fallen in after the Leave decision, the Brexit camp claims, feeling encouraged by some data that showed the economy was doing

well. But wait, we haven’t left yet – the anti-Brexit camp announces. If the current market turmoil is any indication, the worst is yet to come, and will definitely come – is their verdict.

But one thing is certain. Sterling is not enjoying a Brexit. It has fallen 28 cents since the night of the vote. The past four days have been the worst for the British currency since June and shed one percent to trade below $1.23 yesterday with possibilities for further falls. Tourists are benefitting immensely from a weak pound and visitor numbers are skyrocketing. But the joy on tourists’ faces is not reflected on ordinary people’s faces.

As imports become more costly, prices are expected to increase. For example, motorists will have to brace for more expensive petrol and diesel due to the double impact of rising oil prices and weakening exchange rates. The manufacturing sector is likely to receive a boost, but according to a columnist, the British manufacturing sector is ‘a bag of bones’ with only a few international brands.

Adding to the worries of the anti-Brexit camp, leaked Treasury documents paint a devastating picture. Newspapers have reported, quoting the documents, that Britain will lose up to £66bn a year if it pursues the so-called ‘hard Brexit’and the country’s GDP could fall by as much as 9.5 percent.

Even as Britain grapples with the pros and cons of a Brexit, or rather a hard Brexit, the European Union isn’t feeling injured from the Brexit vote as expected. Instead of triggering an anti-EU sentiment, people in many smaller states are said to be developing a greater sense of the EU’s worth.

Brexit trouble

As Britain wobbles its way to Brexit, confusion and nerve-racking anxiety are reigning supreme.

Quote of the day

We want to reform the electoral system so the voices of those who are not represented can also be heard in the parliament.

Hailemariam DesalegnEthiopian Prime Minister

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In the space of just one year, the West has twice made Russian President Vladimir Putin an offer too good to refuse. Or so it thought. In

February 2015, under the auspices of the OSCE, negotiators in Minsk overlooked Russia’s annexation of Crimea in order to reach a cease-fire agreement for the Donbas region of Ukraine. One year later, in February 2016, US Secretary of State John Kerry sidestepped questions over Bashar Al Assad’s future in return for a cessation of hostilities deal for Aleppo. In effect, the United States and its allies offered Putin Crimea and a rump Syria in return for peace. Sensing weakness, the Russian president pocketed both offers and promptly violated the agree-ments, most egregiously in Syria.

Over the past year, Putin has focused on re-imposing Assad’s control over so-called vital Syria, stretching from Damascus to Aleppo. In the process, he has transformed the strategic land-scape of the Middle East for the worse.

In Latakia, Putin has estab-lished bases that include game-changing strategic weap-ons. In close coordination with Iran and Hezbollah, Russia has secured the Damascus to Lata-kia corridor, including from Homs up to the north Hama plains, and squeezed the opposition around Damascus. Now, the alliance is besieging Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, under the motto: surrender or starve.

Spurned, the Obama admin-istration is hoping that Russia will fail in its attempt to decide the war by force - pushing Putin back onto the diplomatic track. As Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken explained over a week ago after the collapse of the latest agreement, “The leverage is the consequences for Russia of being stuck in a quagmire that is going to have a number of profoundly negative effects.” Unfortunately, there is little evidence to sug-gest that Russia is being bogged

down by its involvement in Syria. In fact, through only an expedi-tionary force, Russia has driven the Sunni rebel opposition from the coast and surrounded eastern Aleppo. If Aleppo falls, the regime may very well attempt to push the rebels into manageable pockets in the countryside, leaving them to wither away and die.

Reportedly, President Barack Obama may convene an NSC meeting in the coming days to discuss Syria now that Secre-tary Kerry has pronounced the latest agreement with Russia a dead-end. Ordinarily, this might constitute a crucial inflection point - the beginning of a last dash effort to stave off the fall of Aleppo. For that to occur, how-ever, the president will need to gain newfound appreciation for a key lesson of the past decade - that Sunni extremism thrives in the shadow of Shia sectarianism.

As Russia, Iran, and Assad besiege the rebel opposition in the north and drop bunker bombs on Aleppo, Sunnis are turning to Islamists as the only viable anti-Assad force. If the United States is to extinguish the Islamic State (IS) - not just the group, but any successor organization as well - it cannot simply conduct coun-terterrorism operations around Mosul and ignore the contest for regional power unfolding in Aleppo.

For far too long, the United States has focused on combatting IS in the eastern Syrian steppe, from the Turkish border to Raqqa, while only meekly supporting the moderate rebels fighting Assad in Homs, Idlib, and Aleppo. Unless the United States helps shape a new regional order that

empowers these moderate Sunni Arabs against Shia domination, we are condemned to a perpetual game of terrorist whack-a-mole across the region.

It is not too late. In a sense, Russia’s most recent refusal to work with the United States speaks to the enduring strength of the moderate rebels. There is an enormous reservoir of Sunni manpower in the northern coun-tryside-the closer to the Turkish border, the stronger. If all that remained in these areas was Jab-hat Al Nusra or the Islamic State, Russia might be less inclined to snub the United States. But so long as an acceptable moderate alter-native to Assad exists, Russia will seek to bomb the opposition into submission.

Luckily for us, the key actor in northern Syria is a Nato ally, Turkey. Since August, Ankara has intervened in northern Syria to forestall a Syrian Kurdish brea-kout-an impressive feat coming little over a month after the failed coup attempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Obama administration should aggressively back Tur-key’s support of the Free Syrian Army in the Aleppo countryside.

At the same time, it should seize on the recent formation of the Free Idlib Army as a rare chance to support moderate opposition elements in a province rife with extremists. If properly resourced, the Free Idlib Army might even project power into neighbour-ing Aleppo, Latakia, and Hama provinces. Moreover, it can draw off regime troops from the siege of Aleppo, as hardliners have already done in the north Hama countryside.

As far back as February, Sec-retary Kerry was criticizing the Russian air campaign and Assad. “This has to stop. Nobody has any question about that,” the secretary of state solemnly intoned. “But it’s not going to stop just by whining about it.” In May, he escalated the point by warning, “So either some-thing happens in these next few months, or they are asking for a very different track.” Privately, Secretary Kerry now laments that he “lost the argument. I’ve argued for the use of force.”

If the president is rejecting Kerry’s counsel, the secretary of state should resign. Assad now ranks as perhaps the worst killer since Pol Pot brutalized Cambo-dia in the 1970s while Putin has revealed himself as an insatiable revisionist intent on exploiting American weakness.

Far better for Kerry to exit the stage in a burst of honor than vainly travel the world like a modern-day Falstaff perpetually humiliated by Putin. It is past time for the U.S to end the diplomatic track and impose meaningful costs on Russia, Iran, and Assad. The future of the region and the defeat of the Islamic State depend on it.

Pushing back on Putin is the best way to defeat ISIS

By Peter Rough

The Washington Post

The Obama administration should aggressively back Turkey’s support of the Free Syrian Army in the Aleppo countryside.

Russian President Vladimir Putin during a news conference in Istanbul.

OPINION 09WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

All thoughts and views expressed in these columns are those of the writers, not of the newspaper.All correspondence regarding Views and Opinion pages should be mailed to the Editor-in-Chief.

Europe’s unprecedented backlash against TrumpBy Griff Witte, Anthony Faiola and Michael Birnbaum

The Washington Post

The man who stands a reason-able chance of becoming the next president of the United States is “a hate preacher.” He is “unfit to hold the office”

because of his “stupefying ignorance.” His pattern of reckless behaviour inspires “a retching feeling.”

Those are not the words of Republi-can nominee Donald Trump’s domestic political opponents, eager to take him down in the rancorous home stretch of an almost incomprehensibly acid Amer-ican election.

Instead, they are the sentiments of Washington’s closest allies, who, gaz-ing across the Atlantic, have broken with decades of precedent that calls for stu-dious silence and openly taken sides in a US presidential election.

From the Baltic Sea to the Mediterra-nean coast, the prospect of Trump taking control of the world’s greatest power has triggered widespread anxiety in Euro-pean capitals. It has also brought periodic outbursts from leaders who no doubt hope, perhaps in vain, that the views of America’s foreign friends will some-how make a difference among American voters.

But what Trump’s rise hasn’t done is prompted European allies to get ready for the possibility that he could actually win.

“They are taking it seriously,” said Xenia Wickett, head of the Americas program at the London-based think tank Chatham House. “But I don’t think they’re preparing for it.”

That lack of preparation leaves Europe dangerously exposed should Trump find a way out of the maelstrom generated by his vulgar comments in a 2005 video and pull off an unexpected victory over Democratic nominee Hil-lary Clinton in next month’s vote.

Europe is already at a vulnerable moment even without a White House res-ident who has called the most basic tenets of the trans-Atlantic alliance into ques-tion, and whose coziness with President Vladimir Putin comes as Russia has made a habit of menacing its weaker European neighbours.

Across the continent, populist move-ments that share much with Trump’s

nativist nationalism are on the rise. Britain is on its way out of the European Union. The continent’s ability to hang together amid problems ranging from the refugee crisis to terrorism is being tested daily.

But a Trump victory could be the big-gest challenge of all, forcing European nations to bind together to compen-sate for a likely American turn toward isolationism.

Even if Trump opted to maintain the traditional US role as guarantor of Euro-pean security, his extreme positions may prove so anathema that Europe would have little choice but to distance itself from Washington, said Wickett, a former US National Security Council official under President George W Bush.

“America would no longer be a coun-try that you would necessarily want to be partnered with,” she said.

That shift has already been tele-graphed through the scathing words of top European officials - words that could make it difficult to reconcile with Trump if he wins.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in August called Trump a “hate preacher” who had much in common with Brexit backers and with the German far right. He said they were linked by their exploitation of fears to achieve political goals. This was “incendiary for society,” Stein-meier said.

Steinmeier’s boss, Chancellor Angela Merkel, has been more circum-spect, though she has left little doubt about her true feelings. She has heaped praise on Clinton’s “strategic thinking” and commitment to the trans-Atlantic partnership.

“Whenever I had a chance to work with Hillary Clinton, it has been a great pleasure,” Merkel told the German

newspaper Bild.As for Trump, all she would say was

that she doesn’t “know him personally.”Neither, presumably, does French

President François Hollande. But that didn’t stop him from saying that Trump’s “excesses” had given him “a retching feeling.”

Britain’s Parliament has even gone so far as to debate whether Trump should be banned from the nation’s shores. The January session yielded no action, but did exhaust the thesauruses of dozens of lawmakers who struggled to creatively convey just how much they disliked the real estate tycoon.

“Demagogue,” “buffoon” and “wazzock” - a semi-obscure British-ism meaning, roughly, “twit” - were among the insults that echoed off the drafty stone walls in the mother of all parliaments.

There’s little evidence that Trump’s reputation in Britain has improved since then, even though he, unlike Clinton or President Obama, backed the win-ning side in the country’s June Brexit referendum.

Trump has called himself “Mr. Brexit,” an apparent allusion to his belief that he can shock the world with victory much in the way anti-EU activists did in the referendum.

The most bombastic of those activists, longtime UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, has become a highly visible Trump ally. Farage spoke at a Trump rally in Mississippi in August, and was Trump’s guest at Sunday’s debate.

Trump has found other friends in the ascendant populist movements of Europe, including Hungarian Prime Min-ister Viktor Orban.

Orban, who built a razor-wire fence along the country’s southern border to block refugees and migrants from

entering the country last summer, has hailed Trump’s proposals to crack down on terrorism. “I myself could not have drawn up better what Europe needs,” Orban said in July.

But Orban’s stand places him firmly in the minority among European lead-ers. For other nations, particularly the four Nato members that border Russia, Trump is the source of deep, almost exis-tential anxiety.

The Republican nominee has gone back and forth over whether he would come to the aid of US allies if they were attacked, even as Russia has staged pro-vocative military drills and air incursions in the two years following its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Three of Russia’s Nato neighbours - the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia - are together smaller than Missouri and stand no chance of defending themselves in the event of a Russian invasion. In that context, comments from top Trump adviser Newt Gingrich that “Estonia is in the suburbs of St. Petersburg” shook many in the region who have long counted Republicans as their staunchest advocates.

Concern over Trump runs so deep that Latvian lawmakers have started to reach out to Republicans in Congress, eager to build support among a constituency that might be a forceful counterweight to the would-be president’s isolationist impulses.

Ojars Kalnins, chairman of the Latvian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said Latvian lawmakers were in talks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., to lead a delegation of Baltic politicians that hopes to speak in front of a Senate committee during the lame-duck session of Congress.

“The Trump comments and the

Gingrich comments did prompt us,” Kalnins said. “It was a realization that people aren’t as attuned to the Baltic states as they used to be.”

But those modest steps are about as far as Europe has gone to prepare for a Trump presidency. The prevailing strategy for many diplomats and politicians is to hope he doesn’t win, and if he does, to simply wait and see what he will actually do, given his often-contradictory statements.

Some European analysts believe Trump’s foreign policy ideas are so radical that he would have trouble stocking the government with enough people committed to carrying them out.

“We expect there would still be cadre diplomats, a lot of people who are not showing the opposition flag to Trump but who are the safe tier of professionals,” said Juri Luik, a former Estonian foreign and defense minister who runs the International Center for Defense and Security in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

But Luik also cautioned that Europeans “shouldn’t kid ourselves” and noted that in the United States, the president calls the shots on security policy.

Indeed, far from being reassured, European leaders have often gone out of their way to stress just how worried they are.

“Trump is not only a problem for the EU, but for the whole world,” European Parliament President Martin Schulz recently told the German weekly Der Spiegel.

“If a man is sitting in the White House . . . with no clue and describes expert knowledge as elitist nonsense, a critical point has been reached: Then an apparently irresponsible man is in a position which requires the highest sense of responsibility.”

Republican candidate for US President Donald J Trump greeting supporters at a rally at Ambridge Area Senior High School.

We still don’t know what will become of Afghanistan

By Stephen Carlson

The Washington Post

On September 9, 2001, a famed Tajik commander and war hero named Ahmad Shah

Massoud was approached for an interview by two individuals claiming to be journalists. A bomb concealed in a video camera carried by one of them exploded, and Massoud died while being evacuated to a nearby hospital.

He was known as “the Lion of Panjshir,” named for his leadership against the Soviet Union’s invasion during the 1980s, and had been the most formidable leader of the North-ern Alliance against the Taliban. Al Qaida is the most likely suspect for his assassination, and his death removed a potentially strong ally for the United States, just before the attacks on September 11, 2001.

Massoud has been lionized since his death. His courage in fighting the Red Army is well remembered, and portraits of him on billboards can be seen in northern Afghanistan to this day. Karzai’s government declared him an official Hero of Afghanistan, and the reverence shown during his funeral explains why:

I deployed to Afghanistan with the US Army five years later in 2006, right when the war was already being described as the so-called forgot-ten war, just like the Korean War. The surge in Iraq was about to be in

full gear. Most Americans no longer cared about Afghanistan, even as thousands of young men and women felt like they were stuck at the end of the world there. What was once a righteous crusade against Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of Sept. 11 became a footnote in the news in a matter of months.

The scattered mountaintop out-post I knew might as well have been on the far side of the moon as far as the public was concerned. I spent 16 months of my life there, and few Americans could point to it on a map.

When I went back to Afghani-stan in 2009 for another year, this time in Wardak province, things had changed.

No longer was it a few brigades stuck out in some dusty outposts on a mountaintop. Now we were deep in central Afghanistan, trying to pacify districts that had been written off by previous military commanders.

Even though we had logistics and

manpower that could only have been dreamed of before, Nerkh Valley was a tough nut to crack.

By then, Afghanistan had its own surge, and the war in Iraq was com-ing to an official end. We enjoyed the wonders of building new fortifica-tions and trying to dodge improvised explosive devices while imple-menting a policy that never had the slightest chance of succeeding.

Suddenly there were more than 100,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and resources beyond the imagination of just three years ago during my first tour on the Pakistan border. The “forgotten war” suddenly became important again.

Fifteen years later, the United States still has more than 8,000 men and women in Afghanistan, not counting private contractors. Just this week, a Special Forces sol-dier named Adam S. Thomas, a friend of my old platoon leader, was killed by an improvised explosive device

in Nangarhar Province. He was 31.This is an election year, but it’s a

rare occurrence when either pres-idential candidate even mentions Afghanistan.

Donald Trump’s campaign has claimed that Afghanistan is ‘Obama’s War,’ with a distinct lack of knowl-edge concerning time and space. As far as Hillary Clinton goes, during her years as secretary of state, it is diffi-cult to think of a single issue she has impacted there.

It is the same old story: Every Joe knows that no politician is going to come and save you.

I was just 23 when I deployed, and I had no idea what I was getting into. I can understand why no one else knows what is going on there, because after 15 years and two tours I still don’t know.

Massoud said before his death, “We will never be a pawn in some-one else’s game. We will always be Afghanistan.”

Trump is not only a problem for the EU, but for the whole world. If a man is sitting in the White House . . . with no clue and describes expert knowledge as elitist nonsense, a critical point has been reached: Then an apparently irresponsible man is in a position which requires the highest sense of responsibility.

Most Americans no longer cared about Afghanistan, even as thousands of young men and women felt like they were stuck at the end of the world there. What was once a righteous crusade against Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of September 11 became a footnote in the news in a matter of months.

ASIA / PHILIPPINES10 WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

Well-wishers

JAKARTA: A British man and an Australian woman accused of violently bludgeoning a policeman to death on a popular Indonesian tourist strip will soon stand trial for his murder, an official said.

David Taylor and Sara Connor face three sepa-rate charges of murder, torture and assault leading to the death of policeman Wayan Sudarsa, who was fatally bashed on a beach in Bali in August.

Police have finalised their case against the pair, meaning their trial can proceed, Taylor’s law-yer Haposan Sihombing said. “The police dossier is now complete.”

Foreigners to

stand trial over

Bali cop murder

China & Russia slam THAAD deploymentAFP

BEIJING: China and Russia blasted Washington yesterday for its deci-sion to deploy a missile defence system in South Korea in response to Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

Speaking at the 7th annual Xiangshan regional defence forum in Beijing, top military officials from the countries said the move by Seoul and Washington represented a threat to regional stability and was a step towards a new global arms race.

The US and South Korea agreed

to install the system, known as THAAD, this summer following repeated nuclear and missile tests by Beijing’s wayward ally Pyongyang.

Washington was using the North’s

actions as a pretext to gain military superiority over China, Chinese gen-eral Cai Jun said.

Deploying the system in South Korea, he said, was “not condu-cive to the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula”, he said, adding “it has increased the risk of military conflict in the region”.

Beijing fears that THAAD could be used against its own missiles, effectively undermining its nuclear deterrence capabilities against the US.

From a global perspective, Cai said, the US’s insistence on develop-ing its missile defence programme

could trigger “an arms race at a high level, even to outer space.”

Speaking on a panel during the forum, Russian deputy defence min-ister Anatoly Antonov also slammed the agreement.

“We are concerned about the attempts of certain nations to exploit the complex situation in the Korean peninsula. The decision has “aggra-vated regional tension” and “adds problems to solving the situation.”

North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test last month, drawing international censure and a push to put further sanctions on the isolated country.

Yesterday’s meeting -- themed on “building a new type of interna-tional relations” -- followed a year of growing tension in the region, prima-rily centred on Beijing’s actions in the strategically vital South China Sea, where it has built islands capable of supporting military facilities.

China’s defence minister Chang Wanquan opened the forum with a thinly veiled criticism of recent US involvement in Asian trouble spots.

Addressing the forum, former Australian Prime Minister Robert Hawke warned that the disputes, if not properly managed, could become “a flashpoint for US-China conflict.”

Body of new-born

baby found on

plane in Indonesia

JAKARTA: The body of a new-born baby has been found in the toilet of a plane after it arrived in Indonesia from Doha, with police waiting to question a female pas-senger, an official said yesterday.

The grim discovery was made late Sun-day by cleaners as they moved through the Qatar Airways flight after its arrival at the main inter-national airport serving Jakarta.

The foetus was esti-mated to be between five and seven months old, airport police spokesman Endang Sutrisna said. Staff found it wrapped in tissue paper in a toilet.

Seoul vows greater force on illegal fishingAFP

SEOUL: South Korea’s coast-guard warned yesterday of a “more aggressive” firearms policy towards Chinese fishing boats illegally oper-ating in its waters, following a clash that sank one of its vessels.

Disputes over illegal fishing have dogged relations between South Korea and China for years, and there

have been numerous skirmishes between the coastguard and Chi-nese crew members.

In the latest incident on Sunday, a coastguard vessel capsized and sank after being rammed by a Chi-nese trawler that then sailed away.

There were no casualties but the South Korean foreign ministry sum-moned the Chinese ambassador in Seoul to lodge a stern protest and demand “swift action to investigate, arrest and punish those responsible.”

Meanwhile, the coastguard called a press conference to con-demn the incident and warn of eased restrictions on the use of weapons -- ranging from ship’s cannon to crew sidearms -- during such altercations.

“So far, we have been very cautious using such crew service weapons but now... we will take a more aggressive stance in using them when our officers are in dan-ger,” senior coastguard official Lee Chun-Jae said.

Philippines set to roll out

tough anti-smoking law

China and New Zealand clash over sea row interference

Thai junta calls for calm after car bomb plot alert

AFP

BANGKOK: Thailand’s junta chief appealed for calm yesterday after police warned of a plot to target Bangkok with car bombs, spark-ing a security alert across the capital including at airports.

An unusually detailed police memo was handed to reporters on Monday warning that an unidenti-fied group was planning to target Bangkok between October 25-30.

The memo said “areas such as malls, car parks and tourist attractions” were at risk and ordered police to be extra-vigilant.

In the last year, Thailand has been rocked by blasts hitting its crucial tourist sector, a rare bright spot in an otherwise lacklustre economy.

The junta has refused to label the assaults terrorist attacks and has played down suggestions tourists are being deliberately targeted.

“Let officials carry out their jobs and please be confident in their work,” Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, who seized power in 2014 said.

He said the bomb plot was an “ongoing warning” and an inves-tigation was underway but told people not to panic.

Security was stepped up at Bangkok’s main airport Tues-day and police were deployed to search cars parked in some of the capital’s luxury malls.

For more than a decade Thailand has had a notoriously turbulent domestic political scene and a festering Muslim Malay insurgency in its far south.

Duterte to visit BeijingAFP

MANILA: Philippine President Rod-rigo Duterte said yesterday he would soon visit China and hoped also to travel to Russia, as he again criti-cised longtime ally the United States for “arrogance”.

The mission to China will be Duterte’s first outside of Southeast Asia since assuming the presi-dency on June 30, in a symbolic move highlighting the importance he places on improving ties with Beijing that soured over compet-ing claims to the South China Sea.

“China has repeatedly invited me. I have accepted the offer,” Duterte said in a speech at the pres-idential palace.

He gave no specific dates for the visit, but said it would take place before he went to Japan from Octo-ber 25 to 27.

Duterte said he had originally

planned to visit Japan, the Philip-pines’ biggest source of foreign aid, ahead of China.

However, he explained that Japan offered a “definite” date, then China told Duterte there was a “vacancy” earlier and so he accepted.

Duterte also said that, after Japan, “probably I will go to Russia”.

Duterte has looked to build closer ties with China and Russia, while launching repeated tirades against the US, the Philippines’ former colonial ruler and defence ally.

He has described Chinese leader Xi Jinping as “a great president”, and praised China and Russia for showing respect in not criticising his crime crackdown.

He has launched negotiations with China over the dispute, a tac-tic rejected by Aquino.

China has welcomed Duterte’s overtures.

Reuters

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is set to sign a regu-lation this month banning smoking in public across Southeast Asia’s second-most populous country, rolling out among the toughest anti-tobacco laws in the region.

Public health campaigners who have long battled against the coun-try’s hefty tobacco lobby welcomed the push to end smoking in pub-lic places and said they believed Duterte, with his tough anti-vice record, was the man to do it.

Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial said yesterday she hoped the president would sign the ban, which expands the defini-tion of public places, into law before the end of October and that it would come into effect next month.

She was quoted by newspapers as saying that no smoking would be allowed in public places, whether indoor or outdoor.

“Parks, bus stations, and even in vehicles. All these are considered public places,” she said, according to media. She later clarified the law would apply only to public vehicles.

Designated smoking areas will

be set up, at least 10 metres outside buildings, according to a draft of the executive order.

Around 17 million people, or nearly a third of the adult popu-lation, smoke in the Philippines, according to a 2014 report by South-east Asia Tobacco Control Alliance.

Nearly half of all Filipino men and 9 percent of women smoke and experts say the habit costs the econ-omy nearly $4bn in healthcare and productivity losses every year.

The proposed smoking ban rep-licates on a national level an existing law in Davao City, where Duterte ruled as mayor for 22 years.

Penalties for breaking the anti-smoking law in Davao can include a $103 fine or four months in prison.

When Duterte was in Davao, he once personally forced a man to stub out his cigarette and eat it after he refused to stop smoking in a restaurant, according to media reports.

A government spokesman Ernesto Abella declined to comment on the incident but said: “Certainly in Davao, the sentiment and busi-ness establishments support a smoke-free Davao. The president sees it as something that’s not ideal for health...and this is part of the public well-being.”

Reuters

BEIJING: China rebuked New Zea-land’s defence minister at the opening of a high-profile security forum in Beijing yesterday, criticising his stance on tensions in the disputed South China Sea, saying countries “not involved” should not interfere.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion worth of trade passes each year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.

An international tribunal in the

Hague ruled in July that China had no historic title over the waters and had breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights there. That decision infuriated Beijing, which dismissed the court’s authority.

We “hope that countries who are not involved in the disputes respect the countries who are having the dis-putes to ... work among themselves,” Fu Ying, chairwoman of China’s foreign affairs committee for parlia-ment, said at the Xiangshan Forum, which China styles as its answer to the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore.

“Outside involvement, I think the developments have shown,

interferences, can only complicate the differences and sometimes even add to the tension,” Fu, a former dep-uty foreign minister said.

Fu, who was chairing the session, made her comments immediately after New Zealand Defence Minis-ter Gerry Brownlee spoke at the start of the forum.

“We oppose actions that under-mine peace and erode trust and would like to see all parties actively take steps to reduce those tensions,” Brownlee said.

“As a small maritime trading nation, international law and, in particular, the United Nations Con-vention on the Law of the Sea, is

important for New Zealand. We sup-port the arbitral process and believe that countries have the right to seek that international resolution,” he said.

In February, New Zealand urged Chinese restraint after Beijing’s apparent deployment of an advanced missile system on a South China Sea island, while Beijing said New Zea-land’s proposal was “unconstructive”.

Brownlee yesterday honed in on the issue of China’s building of artifi-cial islands in the territory, including new airstrips, which has rattled nerves around the region.

“A particular cause of ... heightened tension has been the rec-lamation and construction activity

and deployment of military assets in disputed areas,” he said.

China says much of the building and reclamation work it has been doing in the South China Sea is to benefit the international commu-nity, including improving civilian maritime navigation.

After Fu’s response, Brownlee said it was reasonable for New Zea-land to express its concerns, which represent smaller countries as well, as all parties are able to have a say.

Chinese Defence Minister Chang Wanquan said that China and Asean would hold maritime drills next year, adding China was willing to “man-age disputes”.

Chinese fishing boats captured by South Korean coast guard are seen at a port in Incheon, South Korea.

Well-wishers hold portraits of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej as they pray for his health at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, yesterday.

Deploying the system in South Korea was ‘not conducive to the peace and stability’ of the Korean peninsula: Official

PAKISTAN 11WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

AFP

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government has imposed a travel ban on a leading journalist after he sparked an uproar by reporting that civilian officials had clashed with the military over its covert support for militants.

Cyril Almeida, an assist-ant editor at Dawn, the country’s oldest and most prestigious English daily, announced that he had been placed on the “Exit Control List”.

His report published on Thursday prompted threats on social media and was denied three times by the office of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

“I am told and have been informed and have been shown evidence that I am on the Exit Control List,” he tweeted, followed a short time later by “I feel sad tonight. This is my life, my country. What went wrong.”

In his report, Almeida said leading civilian officials had warned the powerful army to renounce covert support for proxy fighters such as the Haqqani net-work allied to the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks — or face isolation.

Citing sources present at a high-level meeting, Almeida said the civilian government had issued a blunt warning to the military as part of a new high-stakes strategy: do not interfere with the police when they take action “against mili-tant groups that are banned or until now considered off-limits for civilian action”.

Govt bans

journalist from

leaving country

Islamabad to change building laws for skyscrapers

Internews

ISLAMABAD: The city managers of Islamabad have decided to bring changes to the CDA by-laws to facil-itate construction of skyscrapers in

the capital. Currently, because of ambiguities and the lack of uniform by-laws the civic agency is dealing with most of the constructions on a case-to-case basis. There have been violations of the by-laws by owners of several high-rise buildings such as Grand Hyatt Hotel, Centaurus and Safa Gold Mall.

Their cases are being investi-gated by different agencies after CDA officers were accused of giving undue favour to the owners by tak-ing advantage of the ambiguities in the by-laws. “The building control by-laws will be modified in consul-tation with all stakeholders to allow the construction of skyscrapers,” said Mayor Sheikh Ansar Aziz, who also heads the CDA.

He was speaking to mediaper-sons at the inauguration of Club

House in Sector F-6. “High-rise build-ings will add to the beauty of the city,” the mayor said, adding the Munic-ipal Corporation Islamabad (MCI) was taking steps for the provision of healthy and recreational facilities to the residents of Islamabad.

Recently, an inquiry committee constituted by the CDA detected vio-lations of by-laws in the construction of Safa Gold Mall and recommended the demolition of the illegally built three storeys of the building.

However, the mayor ordered a fresh inquiry saying the committee had recommended action against only two officials but there were apprehensions that other officers were also involved in giving undue favour to the owner of the mall. The CDA chief said he was in favour of high-rise buildings but there was a

need for a uniform policy.“We are going to make new regu-

lations to facilitate developers. There should be no bar on the construc-tion of high-rise buildings but there should be a uniform policy for all.”

Taking advantage of the loop-holes in the existing by-laws, he added, the CDA officers gave per-mission for the high-rise buildings mostly on a case-to-case basis.

“I came to know that CDA auc-tioned two plots in Blue Area but issued allotment letters of separate natures. Corrupt elements in the CDA took full advantage of the loopholes in the existing policy,” he said, add-ing his team had started working on formulating the new by-laws.

The construction of the Club House started in 2009 to provide rec-reational facilities to the residents.

However, the project faced an inor-dinate delay. The club comprises ground-plus two storeys having facil-ities of men’s gym, a conference hall, dining hall, kids play area, sports shops etc. Meanwhile, the CDA chief presided over a meeting of the board for the first time after taking over the charge. Sources in the CDA said at least three members appointed by the federal government should have been present at the meeting.

However, without having the three permanent members, the CDA chief held the meeting to discuss var-ious issues such as the auction of plots, construction of a culture com-plex, IT University and the Senate standing committee’s recommen-dations on housing societies.

Currently, the CDA has only two permanent members — Member

Engineering Shahid Sohail and Mem-ber Finance Fahad Aziz.

The posts of member planning and design and member admin are vacant. A source said the board approved the auction of 28 com-mercial plots in various sectors while other items on its agenda were deferred.

Asked about the legitimacy of the board meeting, the mayor said since he was appointed as the head of the civic agency by the federal govern-ment, there were already two other permanent members.

“Today, we three appointees of the federal government were present in the meeting besides officers who are temporarily working in place of the member planning and member administration. So the quorum was complete,” he said.

Taking advantage of the loopholes in the existing by-laws, officers give permission for high-rise buildings mostly on case-to-case basis.

Hundreds of troops deployed in Lashkar Gah after attackAFP

LASHKAR GAH: Afghanistan has deployed hundreds of commandos backed by Nato air strikes in Lashkar Gah to drive Taliban insurgents from the southern city after the militants killed 14 people in a coordinated attack, officials said yesterday.

The assault marked the insur-gents’ latest attempt to seize the capital of Helmand province, under-scoring unravelling security as they expand their foothold across the opium-rich province. “More than 300 commandos... have been deployed to the city to prevent Taliban advance-ment,” said Abdul Jabar Qahraman, government special envoy for secu-rity in Helmand.

Provincial spokesman Omar Zwak said the commandos were sent from Kabul and neighbouring provinces to launch a “clearance operation” in Lashkar Gah after the attack, which killed 10 policemen and four others.

“Soon the security forces will clear the whole city from Taliban,”

Zwak said. “US enablers are in the area and will support as needed. Yesterday there were two air strikes in Helmand, both of these were in support of ANDSF (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces) strategic operations,” a Nato spokesman said.

The Taliban have waged an insur-gency against the western-backed Kabul government since being top-pled from power by a US-led invasion in 2001. They have intensified attacks across the country in recent months, pressuring Afghan forces on multi-ple fronts.

Around 30,000 people have been displaced in Helmand in recent weeks and most have fled to Lashkar Gah. But the city is practically besieged, with roads from neighbouring dis-tricts heavily mined by the insurgents.

The intervention in Helmand has fuelled the perception that foreign powers are increasingly being drawn back into the conflict as Afghan forces struggle to rein in the Taliban.

The assault also underscored the Taliban’s sustained push into urban centres, coming a week after they briefly stormed into Kunduz in the north before being repelled

by Afghan forces. The attack began with a car bombing in an attempt to break through the security belt around Lashkar Gah and enter the city, according to officials and local residents.

Mohammad Radmanish, a defence ministry spokesman, said security forces had managed to repel the attack and push back the insur-gents, but it was feared they would return.

“We have enough forces on the

ground now. Afghan air force and Nato’s air support is also helping our forces,” he said.

On Saturday General John Nichol-son, the Nato military commander in Afghanistan, flew with the Afghan defence minister to Lashkar Gah to assure provincial elders that the city would not fall.

The Taliban effectively con-trol or contest 10 of the 14 districts in Helmand, the deadliest province for British and US troops over the

last decade and blighted by a huge opium harvest that helps fund the insurgency.

In August Washington deployed some 100 troops to Lashkar Gah, the first major US deployment to the city since foreign forces withdrew in 2014. In recent months the militants have attempted to overrun other provincial capitals, from Kunduz and Baghlan in the north to Farah in the west, but Afghan forces have managed to repel the attacks.

An Afghan family waits for help from the government and aid organizations in Takhar yesterday after fleeing their homes in neighbouring Kunduz.

Afghan women to

get ‘fair share’ in

property rights

Reuters

LONDON: Afghan women should benefit from a project to issue property titles to homeown-ers in Kabul, where more than two-thirds of the houses have no formal planning approval, the head of the government’s land authority said yesterday.

Disputes over land and ille-gal property ownership are major challenges for the government of President Ashraf Ghani, which is leading efforts to protect citizens’ property rights and modernise the process of registering property.

The Afghanistan Independent Land Authority (ARAZI) launched a pilot project this month to regis-ter properties in Kabul that were built before 2001 without plan-ning permission, as part of a drive to secure land rights for residents.

In conservative male-dom-inated Afghanistan, properties are usually registered to men but ARAZI plans to issue joint own-ership rights to married couples. “Our goal is to give the women their fair share in the property,” ARAZI Chief Executive Officer Jawad Peikar said. “Up to 70 percent of residential homes are unplanned constructions in all major cities of Afghanistan,” he added.

Without legal protection, resi-dents risk eviction or having their unregistered assets stolen from them by powerful interests, and are deprived of collateral for loans and investment, land rights cam-paigners say.

Sharif family to maintain grip in party pollsInternews

ISLAMABAD: Sharif family will maintain their firm grip over the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the intra-party elections scheduled to be held on October 18 for the simple reason that they have made it the most popular political force and are unchallengeable in it.

No surprise is expected to be sprung in the smooth exercise except the possible elevation of Hamza Shahbaz, who may be elected as

president of the Punjab chapter of the PML-N.

He has to his credit effectively running campaigns for all the by-polls held in the province over the past three years and winning them.

Apart from the powerful canvassing, he has also been suc-cessfully bringing together local influential figures in the districts where the by-elections were held so that the PML-N nominees carry the day.

If the PML-N decides to raise his status in the party, he will replace his father, Punjab Chief Minister

Shahbaz Sharif, who has been head-ing the provincial branch for many years.

The previous intra-party elec-tions in the PML-N were held in July 2011 when Nawaz Sharif was re-elected its president, a post he has held since its founding. Under his leadership, the party has won a number of parliamentary polls.

Fresh election was a legal requirement that the PML-N has decided to meet. The Election Com-mission of Pakistan (ECP) has refused to allot the poll symbol to the PML-N without intra-party process.

Amir Muqam is a strong con-tender for the post of the president of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chapter of the ruling party.

Former KP governor SardarMe-htab Ahmad Khan is another leading candidate for this slot but two-year ban on him to take part in political activities is still in place.

He resigned this office in Febru-ary this year, which means that the embargo will go in February 2018, shortly before the next general elec-tions. Pir Sabir Shah is yet another prominent aspirant. In the past, he had headed the provincial chapter.

No forgiveness for brother who murdered Qandeel: ParentsAFP

ISLAMABAD: The father of mur-dered Pakistani social media star Qandeel Baloch (pictured) has vowed no forgiveness for his son, who killed his daughter on the pretext of “hon-our”, after her death cast a global spotlight on the practice.

Pakistan last week passed long-awaited legislation aimed at closing loopholes which allowed murder-ers like Baloch’s brother Waseem to walk free, with hundreds of women killed in defence of the family “hon-our” in the conservative country each year.

Rights activists, who for years called for tougher laws to tackle vio-lence against women, have praised the move as a step forward though

lawyers criticised the amendments for not going far enough. “There is no pardon from our side,” Baloch’s father Muhammad Azeem said, calling for his son and the three men accused with him to be punished “at the earliest. They should get life impris-onment or death — I will feel happy.”

He and his wife, Baloch’s mother

Anwar Mai, said they had been una-ware of the change in the law, which came three months after their daugh-ter’s death sparked revulsion in Pakistan and abroad.

Their son, Mai said, had not understood the repercussions the murder would have.

The death of Baloch, judged by many in the country as infamous for selfies and videos that by West-ern standards would appear tame, reignited polarising calls for action after her brother admitted killing her.

“I am not embarrassed at all over what I did,” he told media at a defi-ant press conference in July, calling his sister’s behaviour “intolerable”.

His mother said this weekend that he had thought his parents would become the only complainants in the case, which under previous legislation would have allowed him

to escape punishment if his family had forgiven him.

Waseem thought he would be imprisoned for just “two to three

months and then after he will be free, he was not aware that this would become a high-profile case,” Mai said.

Mother Anwar Bibi and Mohammad Azeem, father of social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch in Muzaffargarh.

INDIA12 WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

Will decimate terrorrism & its backers: Modi

IANS

LUCKNOW: In an obvious refer-ence to Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said the time had come to uproot terror and those who patronise terrorists.

Addressing a massive Dusse-hra gathering at the Aishbagh Ram Leela ground here, Modi said terror-ism in all forms was anti-humanity and Ram represented all that was human.

It was the Prime Minister’s first public speech after the Septem-ber 29 surgical strikes by the Army at terror launch pads in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

He made no direct reference to the surgical strikes or to Pakistan that killed an unspecified number of terrorists but made it more than clear which country he had in mind.

“Those who spread terrorism need to be annihilated and those who aid terrorism will not be spared either,” Modi said in a speech laced with references to Hindu religion.

Modi said India was a country that respected both Krishna who led the Pandavas in the war of Mahab-harata and Mahatma Gandhi who propagated non-violence.

“We are the people who go from yuddha (war) to Buddha (peace). Sometimes war is necessary, but our path is not that of war, but that of Buddha. “We create balance... I hope the path shown by Buddha will be our final path,” he said.

The Prime Minister invoked Ramayana and asked people to keep a vigil against terror and fight it the way the vulture Jatayu fought Ravana in a desperate bid to try rescue the abducted Sita from the demon. “We may not be able to become Ram, but we can all try and be Jatayu and give a befitting reply to the nefarious designs of terror-ists,” he said. “If a country of 1.25 crore keeps an eye on every ter-rorist activity, terrorists will never succeed,” Modi said to loud cheers.

He said decades ago when India discussed terrorism, nobody paid heed. The BJP veteran recalled how during a visit to the US years ago, American officials argued that terrorism was a law and order prob-lem. But all this changed after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US and the 2008 Mumbai carnage that left 166 people dead. “Terrorism knows no religion, no boundaries.”

Modi earlier arrived to a grand welcome at the sprawling ground in the heart of Lucknow, the capi-tal of election-bound Uttar Pradesh.

Accompanied by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh Gov-ernor Ram Naik and other state BJP leaders, Modi performed ‘aarti’ of the characters playing Ram and Sita and was later felicitated by the city Mayor Dinesh Sharma, the convenor of the 70-year-old Ram Leela.

The Prime Minister was gifted a silver mace, an arrow and a bow. A turban was tied on his head.

Modi said effigies of Ravana had been burnt for centuries on this day but “we should rededicate ourselves today to demolish the evils within us as well”.

Dussehra, Modi said, also meant to do away with 10 evils within humans and kill the Ravana within that raises its head in the forms of dishonesty, greed, filth, blind faith and ego. He urged people to fight against female foeticide. “If for bringing dishonour to one Sita, Ravana can be burnt for ages, why not fight against killing girls in wombs.”

It was Prime Minister’s first public speech after the surgical strikes by the Army at terror launch pads in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

People watch an effigy of Ravana, stuffed with fire-crackers, burn in Amritsar yesterday on the occasion of the festival of Dussehra.

RSS chief disputes Modi and says cow vigilantes not anti-socials IANS

NAGPUR: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat yesterday backed cow vigilantes and asked the government not to equate them with anti-social elements, con-tradicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stand on the Hindu bovine activists.

“There are some people who are dedicated to cow protection. It is part of the Directive Principles of State Policy,” Bhagwat said in his annual speech on Vijay Dashmi, marking the 91st foundation day of the RSS — the ruling Bharatiya Janata Par-ty’s (BJP) ideological mentor.

“Gau rakshaks operate under the law. Administration must keep (this) in mind. Those who break the law shouldn’t be compared to gau rakshaks,” the RSS chief said at its headquarters in Nagpur.

Bhagwat’s remarks contradict Modi’s August speeches when he said that 70-80 percent of them would be found involved in anti-social activi-ties which no society can approve of.

Modi in his two speeches — in Delhi and Telangana — advised states to act against such activists after a nationwide outcry over high-handedness by cow vigilantes on Dalits in many states, including in Modi’s home state Gujarat.

Bhagwat didn’t quite agree. He said cow, revered by Hindus, was to be protected by the law and “gau rakshaks perform an important service”. He called cow protection a “sacred mission” that would “con-tinue and gather momentum” despite “grave provocations”.

The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh chief also spoke at length on various issues including Kash-mir and the army’s surgical strikes in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

He said Pakistan was encour-aging separatists in Jammu and Kashmir and demanded strict action against those indulging in violence in the valley, which is battling over three months of the deadliest unrest in years.

Bhagwat also expressed concern over social inequality and casteism, saying an ongoing RSS survey in

this regard had thrown up alarm-ing findings.

For instance, he said, a detailed survey of 9,000 villages in Madhya Pradesh had shown that in 40 per-cent of them, backward castes and Dalits face discrimination on temple entry, in 30 percent villages they are not allowed access to water sources and in 35 percent villages they are barred from using the crematorium.

“The Swayamsevaks are work-ing on this. They have started helping our SC/ST brethren to claim the ben-efits guaranteed to them under the Constitution and ensure that the government and administration dis-burse the funds allocated for their welfare,” Bhagwat said.

He said it was shameful if people were insulted or subjected to phys-ical torture “because of one’s wrath over a trivial issue or one’s supe-riority complex” — a reference to anti-Dalit incidents in the country.

“It also facilitates the divisive forces to tarnish the country’s image and slow down the momentum of good social welfare activities being carried out all over.”

Socialite and

philanthropist

Parmeshwar

Godrej dead

IANS

MUMBAI: Well known socialite and philanthropist Parmeshwar Godrej, wife of Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej, passed away in a private hospital here.

She breathed her last late on Monday night at the Breach Candy Hospital where she was admitted recently for treat-ment of some lung ailments, but details are not available. She was 71 and is survived by her hus-band Adi Godrej and their three children, Nisaba Godrej, Pirojsha and Tanya Dubash. The last rites of Parmeshwar were performed in Mumbai yesterday.

Parmeshwar started her career as one of the first air-hostesses of national carrier Air India, before she married Godrej and became a prominent figure in the city’s glam and celeb circuits.

She was renowned for her work in combating AIDS through the Heroes Project which she launched in 2004 along with Hol-lywood actor Richard Gere and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Clinton Glo-bal Initiative and also served on the board of several major inter-national foundations and trusts.

A popular socialite with the signature beret, and once a Page 3 regular, Parmeshwar had hosted a party for international talk show queen Oprah Winfrey in 2012.

IANS

CHENNAI: Ending sus-pense and speculations over Tamil Nadu’s govern-ance, the portfolios held by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who is currently in hospital, have been allocated to state Finance Minister O Pan-neerselvam, a Raj Bhavan statement said yesterday.

According to the state-ment, GovernorVidyasagar Rao has, under Clause (3) of the Constitution’s Article 166, allocated the subjects hitherto dealt with by Jay-alalithaa to Panneerselvam on her advice.

Jayalalithaa held the portfolios of Public, Indian Ad m i n ist r at ive Ser v-ice, Indian Police Service, Indian Forest Service, Gen-eral Administration, District Revenue Officers, Police and Home. Panneerselvam will also preside over the cabi-net meetings.

“This arrangement has been made as per the advice of Hon’ble Chief Minister and will continue until the Hon’ble Chief Minister Selvi J Jayalalithaa resumes her duties. Selvi J Jayalalithaa will continue to be the Chief Minister,” the Raj Bhavan statement said.

The 68-year-old Jayala-lithaa was admitted to the hospital on September 22 for fever and dehydration.

The doctors later said she needed a longer stay at the hospital as she was suffering from infection and put her on respiratory support.

The ruling AIADMK has ruled out the need for an acting or temporary chief minister. Panneerselvam has earlier served as Chief Minister when Jayalalithaa had to step down in wake of her conviction in a corrup-tion by a Bengaluru court. She had returned to the post after the Karnataka High Court acquitted her.

Panneerselvam

gets portfolios

of Jayalalithaa

Fight between holed-up militants & forces continues in KashmirIANS

SRINAGAR: The standoff between security forces and militants holed-up inside a government building near Pampore town in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district con-tinued for the second day yesterday even as reports said one militant had been killed but there was no official confirmation yet.

Security forces kept on pounding the hostel of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) where militants armed with rockets, gre-nades and automatic gunfire have been holding the security forces at bay for over 24 hours now.

While parts of the multi-storey building caught fire, militants kept on changing position inside the building while using their ammu-nition sparingly, police said.

Reports said in the evening, one militants had been killed in the oper-ation and his body was lying inside the building. Defence sources here said they would confirm the death only after the body was recovered.

“Although the entire complex has been illuminated with floodlights, there is complete darkness inside the building this time. “We don’t want to take any unnecessary casualties. The operation will be resumed with the first light tomorrow (on Wednes-day),” a defence sources said.

Security forces had resumed the operation yesterday morning with rockets and heavy automatic weapons being used against the ensconced militants.

Two security personnel and a policeman were injured as the mil-itants fired from inside the hostel building of the EDI after they entered

the building. The 70-room, seven-storey building is located at Pampore on the banks of the river Jhelum and 12 km from the Srinagar city centre.

Paramilitary troopers look towards a building where militants are hiding on the second day of a gunfight between the army and militants in Pampore yesterday.

Telangana map redrawn adding 21 new districtsIANS

SIDDIPET: Nearly two-and-half years after it came into existence as the country’s 29th state, Telan-gana’s map was redrawn yesterday with the creation of 21 new districts.

As a Dasara gift to people, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government unveiled the new districts with an aim to improve administration at the grassroots level. This has taken the total number of districts in India’s young-est state to 31.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao formally inaugurated Siddipet district at 11.13 am, the auspicious time set by astrologers.

Siddipet is the home district of the Chief Minister and carved out of Medak district.

Before unveiling the plaque, Rao unfurled the national flag and per-formed religious rituals.

Simultaneously, 20 other new districts were inaugurated by his cabinet colleagues. Telangana, which has a population of 3.5 crore, was carved out of Andhra Pradesh and it came into existence as 29th state on June 2, 2014.

Telangana Assembly speaker S Madhusudhana Chary inaugurated Jayashankar district while Council Chairman K Swamy Goud launched Jangaon district. Both these districts are being carved out of existing Warangal district.

Warangal Rural, another dis-trict being carved out of existing Warangal, was inaugurated by

Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari.

Another Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mahamood Ali inaugu-rated Jagitial district, created out of existing Karimnagar district.

Sixteen other districts inaugu-rated were; Yadadri, Peddapally, Kamareddy, Medak, Mancherial, Vikarabad, Rajanna, Asifabad, Suryapet, Kothagudem, Nirmal, Wanaparthy, Nagarkurnool, Maha-bubabad, Jogulamba and Medchal (Malkajgiri).

Barring Hyderabad, the exist-ing 10 districts have been split into three or four districts.

The government has also cre-ated 25 new revenue divisions, 125 new mandals, four new police commissionerates, 23 new police subdivisions, 28 new circles and 91 police stations. The government last month issued draft notification for creating 17 new districts but later decided to create four more dis-tricts in view of strong demands from various sections.

Though the protests were on for creation of more districts in different parts of the state, the gov-ernment made it clear that there will be no further addition.

On an average, each district will have population of two to four lakh families, except Hyderabad where the number is much large.

TRS, in its election manifesto, had promised to create 14 new districts but the demands from various regions forced it to increase the number. The Chief Minister›s reorganisation of districts was another step towards sustainable development and crea-tion of golden Telangana.

EUROPE 13WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

The Russian President had been due in Paris on October 19 to inaugurate a spiritual centre, but Hollande had insisted his Russian counterpart also took part in talks with him about Syria.

A woman with a stroller walks by a Armoured Personal Carrier (APC) during the opening of the International Specialised Exhibition “Weapons and Defence-2016”, in Kiev, yesterday.

Military might

BRUSSELS: European Union ministers agreed to cuts in Baltic cod catch quotas for next year that fall well short of calls by scientists worried about the stock’s eventual collapse.

The fisheries ministers agreed early yesterday to reduce catches of western Baltic cod by 56 percent in 2017, despite calls by sci-entists for a 90-percent cut they say is needed to sustain stocks in Danish and German waters.

EU fisheries commis-sioner Karmenu Vellu said the commission, the bloc’s executive, had pro-posed a reduction of 88 percent “to bring back the stock to sustainabil-ity as soon as possible,” but had to accept a com-promise to reach a deal among all member states.

Spain arrests 2

‘IS recruiters’

MADRID: Spanish police have arrested two men on suspicion of seeking recruits for the Islamic State group, the interior ministry said yesterday.

The two men, arrested in separate operations, were both “fully inte-grated” into infrastructure of jihadist group and were “encouraging terrorist acts,” the statement said.

It was not clear if the two were in touch with each other, but both had clearly expressed support for IS in online postings.

EU move on

Baltic cod

fishing draws ire

AFP

PARIS: Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured) yesterday cancelled a visit to France in a furious row over Moscow’s role in the Syrian conflict.

The announcement from the Kremlin came a day after French President Francois Hollande said Syrian forces had committed a “war crime” in the battered city of Aleppo with the support of Russian air strikes.

Putin had been due in Paris on October 19 to inaugurate a spiritual centre at a new Russian Orthodox church near the Eiffel Tower, but Hollande had insisted his Russian counterpart also took part in talks with him about Syria.

Russia has been waging a

punishing aerial bombing campaign in Syria for more than a year in sup-port of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, part of a multi-front war that

has claimed some 300,000 lives and seen Moscow further estranged from the West.

The French president had admit-ted he was agonising over whether to meet Putin, but the Kremlin

yesterday called off the visit.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry

Peskov said Putin was “ready to visit when it is comfortable for President Hollande”, adding that Moscow would “wait for when that comfortable time comes”.

Hollande responded that he was prepared to meet Putin “at any time... to further peace”.

Speaking in Strasbourg, Hol-lande said France and Russia had had a “major disagreement” over Syria.

“It is necessary to have dialogue with Russia but it must be firm and frank,” Hollande told the parlia-mentary assembly of the Council of Europe rights body.

On Saturday, Russia blocked a draft French UN resolution calling for an end to the barrage of air strikes on the rebel-held east of Aleppo that have escalated in the last month,

leaving hundreds of people dead, including dozens of children.

It was the fifth time that Russia used its veto to block UN action to end the five-year war in Syria that has sent millions fleeing and triggered the biggest migration crisis in Europe since World War II.

In the aftermath of that decision, Hollande described the bombing of Aleppo as a “war crime”.

He said in a TV interview on Mon-day: “Those who commit these acts will have to pay for their involvement, including at the International Crim-inal Court.”

Yesterday , at least 12 civilians were killed in the heaviest Russian bombardment in days of Aleppo, a monitoring group said.

Despite cancelling his visit to Paris, the Russian President is still considering travelling to Berlin on

October 19 for a meeting on the conflict in Ukraine, one of his aides told Itar-Tass on Monday.

German Chancellor Angela Mer-kel proposed the meeting along the lines of the so-called Normandy format, bringing together Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine, with the possible participation of Hollande.

But it is uncertain whether Ukrainian President Petro Porosh-enko is prepared to take part.

It is not the first time in recent years that Moscow’s foreign pol-icy has strained relations between France and Russia.

The outbreak of the Ukraine crisis in 2014 eventually prompted France to cancel the delivery to Rus-sia of two Mistral assault ships and repay almost €950m ($1.1bn).

The ships were subsequently sold to Egypt.

AFP

MADRID: Spanish police said yes-terday they seized nearly 20 tonnes of hashish in a boat heading to Libya, as part of a global operation targeting financing of armed groups in North Africa and the Middle East.

With help of Europe’s police agency Europol and air support from Italian police, Spanish forces intercepted the boat registered under the Panama flag off the coast of Almeria in Spain’s southeast on September 23.

They said all crew members were detained — 11 Ukrainians and one Uzbek. The Guardia Civil police force said the boat was intercepted as part of an operation launched by Spanish, Moroccan, French, Italian and Greek authorities, with support from US Drug Enforcement Agency.

A total of seven boats have been caught in the multi-country opera-tion, two of them carrying weapons and five full of hashish. They had all departed from Turkey. Investigators believe the drugs would have been used to buy weapons.

“This trafficking is being used to finance insurgents in existing con-flicts in North Africa and Middle East,” Javier Rogero, lieutenant colo-nel at Guardia Civil, told reporters.

He would not be drawn on which groups the drugs and weap-ons were benefiting, but said police were “convinced... that they also finance jihadist terrorism.”

Of the two boats intercepted with weapons on board, one of them was sailing under the Boliv-ian flag and the other was registered in Togo. Altogether, they carried 11,400 long guns, more than a mil-lion cartridges and ten tonnes of ammonium nitrate.

AFP

ROME: Italian Prime Minister Mat-teo Renzi (pictured) sought to avoid a rift in his Democratic Party over an upcoming referendum on con-stitutional reforms. The changes are aimed at increasing political stability in a country which has had 63 gov-ernments since 1945, with Renzi’s future riding on the outcome of the December 4 plebiscite.

For months the centre-left Dem-ocratic Party has been split on the issue, with a minority of lawmak-ers deeming the mooted reforms and the new electoral law which would accompany them to be dangerous to democracy.

In a bid to assuage the reforms’ opponents within his own party, Renzi proposed a party committee be set up, including at least one member of the dissenting minority, to propose

a new electoral law, but only after the December 4 referendum.

However one of the main voices among the naysayers, Gianni Cuperlo, warned that he would still vote against the proposed constitu-tional amendments unless changes are made ahead of the poll.

Cuperlo added he would resign from the parliament if the plans

were not changed. Like other “rebels” he also warned of a possible split in the Democratic Party’s ranks.

“If you win (the referendum), you will be left with a field of rub-ble,” he said, in comments aimed at Renzi, accusing the prime minister of causing tension by angering dep-uties further to the left.

The proposed reforms—deemed the most important in Italy since World War II—would streamline parliament and the electoral system in the hope of bringing the country badly-needed political stability.

But the vote is shaping up as a referendum on Renzi’s two-and-a-half years in office. He initially promised he would quit if the meas-ures are voted down at a referendum.

Since then, Renzi has repeatedly nuanced those words, saying he had “committed a mistake by personalis-ing” the vote but had merely sought to convey “a message of seriousness and responsibility.”

The reforms, already approved by the two chambers of parliament earlier this year, would bring an end to the existing system whereby each law must be adopted by both cham-bers in the same terms—a process that can take years.

Other Democratic Party heavy hitters have, like Cuperlo, already said they will vote “No” in December. These include former party secretary Pier Luigi Bersani and former prime minister Massimo D’Alema.

Renzi believes the majority of his party is behind him and described the referendum row as an excuse used by the minority in a bid to oust him.

The compromise proposed by the prime minister was adopted unan-imously, as his party detractors did not take part in the vote. Opinion polls on referendum suggest a tight vote with the “No” camp just ahead.

All the opposition parties are campaigning against the constitu-tional reform measures.

Greece needs a

year to properly

shelter migrant

children

AFP

ATHENS: Greece will need a year to provide adequate shelter for 2,200 unaccompanied migrant children on its soil, even if it has improved its response, the coun-try’s migration minister said yesterday.

Yannis Mouzalas said there were now no more than 25 minors held in Greek police stations and 1,000 hosted in various special-ised facilities.

But most of the unaccom-panied migrant children, some 1,200, are still staying in camps scattered across Greek islands in the eastern Aegean sea.

“It would be lying to say a solution will be found in under six months. We think a year is neces-sary,” Mouzalas said during the opening of shelter for 100 such children in Paiania, a suburb of Athens. The minister said top pri-ority was to provide “safe places” for the children where they enjoy a minimum of protection against threats such as traffickers, the minister said.

In September, the EU and human rights organisations called on Greece to improve shelter for unaccompanied migrant childen, saying many were held in squalid conditions. Also in September, the EU announced €115m in extra funding for Greece’s response to migrants on its soil, following a damning report on conditions migrants face.

The new shelter in Paiania, which is jointly managed and funded by the International Organisation for Migration and the NGO Medecins du Monde, is supposed to serve as a model for future ones, with around 30 spe-cialised staff and on site schooling.

AFP

THE HAGUE: The Duchess of Cam-bridge made her first solo official trip abroad yesterday with a day-long visit to The Netherlands, seen as part of a British charm offensive after the Brexit vote.

Kate, the wife of Britain’s Prince William, first met with Dutch King Willem-Alexander for lunch at the royal residence in Wassenaar, an exclusive leafy suburb just outside The Hague.

“Welcome, welcome, very nice to see you,” the king said, as he greeted his guest for the first visit by a Brit-ish royal to the Dutch kingdom in three years.

Kate looked chic in a long-sleeved light blue two-piece with a peplum jacket. Her hair was tied back in a neat chignon bun, showing

off pearl earrings in an apparent subtle nod to the famous Dutch 17th century painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer.

The masterpiece hangs in the historic Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague’s city centre, where Kate later viewed 22 paintings by Dutch masters on loan from the British Royal Collection as part of a cur-rent exhibition.

Crowds lined the streets as Kate arrived outside the museum just steps from the Dutch parliament, parts of which date back to the 13th century.

She was greeted by the muse-um’s director Emilie Gordenker, and stopped to chat briefly with some excited children waving Dutch and British flags, who were lined up in front of three traditional red Brit-ish telephone boxes erected for the exhibition.

The popular British royal then

met with a local institute to discuss mental health and addiction issues at the ornate British ambassador’s residence.

Later, the 34-year-old Kate trav-elled to the southwestern port city of Rotterdam to visit a commu-nity initiative that provides a public workspace for local residents and children.

Kate was in the country only a day after British Prime Minister Teresa May met late Monday in The Hague for talks with her Dutch coun-terpart Mark Rutte.

Rutte said it was “a good time for an exchange of views” adding that after the Brexit vote “we are in uncharted waters.”

The Duchess’s visit also comes after the Dutch king warned last month at the opening of parliament about uncertainty in Europe follow-ing the June vote and that it could trigger Dutch job losses.

Putin cancels France visit amid diplomatic tensions

Spain intercepts boat with 20 tonnes of drugs

Referendum: Renzi seeks to avoid party split

Britain’s Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (right), arrives to view the exhibition “At Home in Holland: Vermeer and his Contemporaries from the British Royal Collection”, at the Mauritshuis Art Museum in the Hague, the Netherlands, yesterday.

Kate charms Dutch on first solo foreign trip

People wait for the bus in front of graffiti on the closing day of a weekend graffiti festival in Mexico City, Mexico, yesterday.

Graffiti festival

AMERICAS14 WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

The Republican presidential nominee went after House Speaker Paul Ryan after the congressional leader effectively abandoned him in a private call with fellow Republicans.

AP

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump unleashed a torrent of Twitter attacks yesterday on the party he hopes to lead to the White House, threatening to plunge Republicans into an all-out conflict with just four weeks remaining until Election Day.

Declaring himself unshackled, the billionaire businessman went after House Speaker Paul Ryan after the congressional leader effectively abandoned Trump in a private call with fellow Republicans. The series

of Twitter posts appeared designed to stem the flow of GOP lawmak-ers who’ve said they won’t vote for Trump or have urged him to exit the race since last week’s release of a tape showing him using predatory language regarding women.

Disloyal Republicans “are far more difficult” than Democrat Hil-lary Clinton, Trump lamented.

“They come at you from all sides,” he tweeted. “They don’t know how to win — I will teach them!”

According to people on tele-phone conference call, Ryan said he would no longer campaign with Trump, focusing instead on ensuring Clinton doesn’t get a “blank check” with a Democratic-controlled Con-gress. Ryan received both support and criticism from House members, reflecting Republicans’ disunity and the disarray of their election strat-egy with less than a month to go.

Assailing Ryan, Trump said yes-terday that members “went wild” at the disloyalty of the “very weak and ineffective” speaker.

“It is hard to do well when Paul Ryan and others give zero sup-port!” Trump tweeted, declaring inaccurately that every poll had him winning the weekend’s second presidential debate against Clinton.

One tweet complained that Democrats are “far more loyal to

each other than the Republicans!” Another was celebratory: “It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me and I can now fight for America the way I want to.”

While Trump’s candidacy has long exposed party’s divisions, GOP leaders had hoped to prevent an all-out civil war until after the election. But House and Senate candidates fear Trump’s 2005 comments about women will drag down their own electoral prospects, if not stain the Republican brand for a generation. Others see no way for Republicans in some races to win without the backing of Trump’s loyal supporters.

Brendan Buck, Ryan’s spokesman, offered a muted response to Trump.

Ryan is “focusing the next month on defeating Democrats and all Republicans running for office should probably do the same,” he said.

Forty Republican senators and congressmen have revoked their support for Trump — with nearly 30 of them urging him to quit the race altogether. Few of these were ever passionate Trump supporters. The head of the Republican National Committee has stuck by the GOP nominee, declaring his full coor-dination with Trump’s embattled campaign.

Trump apologised during Sun-day’s debate but also dismissed his comments about women.

The explanation failed to end the

controversy, and Trump’s attacks on Ryan yesterday threatened to distract from what Republicans want to be his main message: Going after Clinton.

Ryan’s pressing goal over next month is preventing Republicans from losing control of the House, a scenario that seemed remote just a week ago. They hold a wide 246-186 seat majority.

Trump supporters in Congress are furious that Republican leaders would turn their backs on their cho-sen candidate. In the conference call with Ryan, California Representa-tive Dana Rohrabacher called GOP leaders “cowards,” according to one participant. The participant wasn’t authorised to be quoted by name.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump arrives on stage during a rally at Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Hillary proposes

tax relief for

families with

young kids

AP

DES MOINES, IOWA: Continuing her policy focus on children and families, Hillary Clinton is pledg-ing more tax relief for families with young kids. The Democratic presi-dential nominee announced a plan yesterday to double the Child Tax Credit and to increase the amount that low-income families could get back in refunds.

Clinton said she is trying to help families struggling with cost of child care, health care and college. She said the “new tax credit will make their lives a little bit easier and help restore fairness to our economy.”

Clinton has made women and families a central priority of her campaign. The latest proposal is in keeping with that. Currently, the Child Tax Credit is $1,000 per child under 17. Clinton would increase it to $2,000 per child up until the age of 4.

Clinton would also increase the amount that low-income families could get back in refunds under the programme. Families with young children would see the most benefit.

Clinton’s campaign said the plan would cost between $150bn and $200bn and would be paid with higher taxes on the wealthy.

As with the current Child Tax Credit, it would phase out for higher income families.

AP

WASHINGTON: Newly leaked emails show consternation among those closest to Hillary Clinton about how Bill Clinton’s business dealings might damage his reputation and poten-tially affect her presidential hopes.

The emails, posted early yester-day by WikiLeaks organisation, also give insight into tension and turmoil within the Clinton Foundation while Clinton was serving as secretary of

state. The chief operating officer of the family charity was reported to be threatening to commit suicide over the stress.

WikiLeaks began releasing on Friday what it says are years of mes-sages from the accounts of Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta. Podesta has acknowledged his emails were hacked, but warned the mes-sages may have been altered or edited to do political damage to Clinton.

The emails that circulated among Podesta, Chelsea Clinton and former Bill Clinton aide Doug Band detail

internal tensions that simmered inside Clinton Foundation and appear to have played a role in Band’s depar-ture from the family charity.

Internal concerns among Clin-ton family intimates about Band and private corporate advisory firm he co-founded, Teneo Holdings, have been previously detailed in several media accounts. But the new emails provide raw glimpses of an apparent power struggle between Clintons’ daughter and Band.

In an email exchange from December 2011, Chelsea Clinton

tells Podesta and others — including Clinton adviser and current Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe — that she’s increasingly concerned about Teneo.

The email includes a forwarded news article that alleges that Bill Clin-ton had collected $50,000 a month through Teneo from MF Global, the commodities brokerage formerly run by former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, while MF Global was pre-paring to file for bankruptcy.

Chelsea Clinton told Podesta and others that two people separately came up to her at a London event

for the Clinton Foundation to raise concerns that someone representing Teneo clients had been calling mem-bers of British Parliament “on behalf of President Clinton” without her father’s knowledge. Chelsea Clinton said the calls had people in London “making comparisons” between “profit motiva-tions” of former president and former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

“Which would horrify my father,” Chelsea Clinton wrote.

Band wrote in an email that Chel-sea seemed more concerned about critical news coverage about MF

Global, a derivatives broker, and Band’s advisory firm, Teneo, than published reports about Bill Clinton’s infidelity.

“I realise it is difficult to confront and reason with her but this could go (too) far and then we all will have a real serious set of other problems,” Band vented in an exchange sent to Podesta. “I don’t deserve this from her and deserve a tad more respect. ... She is acting like a spoiled brat kid who has nothing else to do but create issues to justify what she’s doing because she, as she has said, hasn’t found her way and has a lack of focus in her life.”

Missing Florida

girl recovered

in Tennessee

AP

LAKELAND, FLORIDA: A missing 4-year-old central Florida girl was recovered in Tennessee, and the man who took her is in custody, authorities said. Rebecca Lewis and West Wild Hogs, 31, were located in Memphis, the Tennes-see Bureau of Investigation said.

Memphis police spokes-woman Karen Rudolph said police received a call from the Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis. A security official at the hospi-tal told police that an employee recognised the man and the girl mentioned in the Amber Alert out of Florida, Rudolph said.

When police pulled up to the hospital, they saw the car men-tioned in the Amber Alert pulling out of the parking garage, Rudolph said. Officers stopped the car in the parking lot and found the man and the girl inside.

The man was detained, and the girl was recovered. Neither had apparent injuries.

“She seemed to be ok,” Rudolph said. Police did not know why the man and girl were at the hospital. Rudolph referred questions on pos-sible charges to the FBI.

Polk County, Florida, sher-iff Grady Judd said that Hogs took Rebecca Lewis on Saturday. They were previously spotted on surveillance video footage at a convenience store in Nashville early Monday morning.

Earlier, Judd pleaded with the public to help search for the girl.

AP

NEW YORK: A young Russian woman who put former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer back in the tabloid headlines last winter when she told doctors he had choked her at a Manhattan hotel has been arrested for trying to extort money from him, police said.

Svetlana Zakharova, 26, was arrested yesterday in New York City.

Zakharova left the US in Feb-ruary after she was treated at a hospital and interviewed by police following an encounter with Spitzer in her room at The Plaza Hotel.

Spitzer, a Democrat who resigned in 2008 acknowledged having been with the woman, but said through his attorney the assault allegations were false and created by someone with “emotional difficulties.”

Months later he filed a lawsuit against the woman, saying he had been paying her money to keep the matter quiet. In the suit, he claimed she had demanded hundreds of thousands of dollars and trips to Paris, or she would “ruin his life.” He also claimed Zakharova had contacted one of his daughters on social media.

Spitzer’s lawyers withdrew the lawsuit in September, just two months after it was filed.

Zakharova was charged with extortion.

Adam Kaufmann, an attor-ney for Spitzer, said yesterday that prosecutors had notified the lawyer about the arrest on “extortion-related crimes against Mr Spitzer and others,” but said he had no fur-ther details. Spitzer will cooperate with the investigation “if called upon to do so,” he added.

Spitzer and Zakharova met up at The Plaza Hotel in February while she was travelling from Califor-nia, where she had been living, to her native Russia, Kaufmann said at the time.

“They had a brief and amicable conversation, and then Mr. Spitzer left,” Kaufmann said. But she called a few hours later and asked that he return to the room, where she had become “highly emotional and was threatening self-harm,” he said.

The woman called 911, saying she had cut herself and was distraught and having a breakdown, two law enforcement officials with knowl-edge of the case told reporters in February. She called back and tried to cancel emergency call but police were already en route, they said.

When police arrived, they noticed the woman had a cut on her arm and took her to a hospital. There, she told doctors that Spitzer had choked and shoved her, the offi-cials said.

She did not want to press charges, and left on a flight to Rus-sia the next day, one official and Kaufmann said.

AP

MINNEAPOLIS: A strike that kept thousands of regular nurses from five Minnesota hospitals for five weeks could be coming to an end after governor announced a tentative agreement early yesterday between the nurses’ union and hospital oper-ator Allina Health.

The deal “will allow (nurses) to resume quality health care that

Minnesotans need and deserve,” Governor Mark Dayton said in a statement after a 17-hour mediation session at his residence in St. Paul.

The 4,800 nurses represented by Minnesota Nurses Association have been on strike at five Allina Health hospitals in the Minneapo-lis-St. Paul- area since Labour Day over issues including health insur-ance and workplace safety.

Rank-and-file association mem-bers are expected to vote on the deal tomorrow. The nurses rejected a

different agreement last week.“Nurses have shown remark-

able strength and courage to earn improvements in workplace safety, nurse staffing policies, and multi-year contributions to accounts that will ease their transition from their contract health insurance plans to Allina core plans,” nurses association Executive Director Rose Roach said.

Allina President Penny Wheeler said in an email yesterday the agree-ment is “fair to our nurses and sustainable for our organisation.”

Trump escalates fight with party leaders

Leaked emails show tension inside Hillary inner circle

Striking nurses reach tentative agreement

Woman arrested for trying to extort money from former Governor

AMERICAS 15WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

Both sides have committed to doing everything in their power to create an environment favourable to peace.

AFP

C A R AC A S: The Colombian government and the country’s sec-ond-largest rebel group, the ELN, announced they would launch nego-tiations on October 27 in Ecuador’s capital, with President Juan Manuel Santos predicting “total peace”.

Both sides have committed to doing everything in their power to “create an environment favourable to peace” once the talks begin, accord-ing to a joint statement delivered at the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry in Caracas.

The move comes as welcome news for Santos, fresh from his Nobel Peace Prize win but still reeling from voters’ rejection in a referendum of

a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s largest rebel group.

“We’ve been seeking negotiations with the ELN for almost three years to end the armed conflict with them as well... Now that we’re moving for-ward with the ELN, we will have total peace,” Santos said in Bogota.

The ELN freed a civilian hostage, the International Committee of the Red Cross said, ahead of what the rebels had billed as an “important announcement” on potential peace talks with the government.

It was the third hostage release in two weeks by the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN).

Colombia and the ELN agreed in March to launch peace talks, in parallel with the government’s nego-tiations with the FARC.

But the government has said negotiations with the ELN cannot begin until the group frees all its hostages.

In the text presented in Caracas, the ELN vowed to “initiate the process to free hostages before October 27”.

The Red Cross said ELN fighters had handed over the latest hostage, who it did not identify, in a remote area in the department of Arauca, on the Venezuelan border.

The ELN is still believed to be

holding at least one hostage, former congressman Odin Sanchez. But the text announcing peace talks spoke of “two cases,” without giving fur-ther details.

Sanchez handed himself over to the rebels in April in exchange for the release of his brother, Patrocinio Sanchez, a former governor who had fallen ill after nearly three years in captivity.

The ELN is estimated to be about one fourth the size of the FARC, with some 1,500 fighters.

After nearly four years of talks with the FARC in the Cuban capital Havana, the government and rebels signed a peace deal on September 26 — only for the Colombian people to unexpectedly vote against it six days later, sending both sides back to the drawing board.

Meanwhile, FARC leader Timo-leon “Timochenko” Jimenez tweeted that the ELN could “count on our mil-itant support and solidarity. Many successes in this process that has now started”.

Formal peace talks with the ELN would mark another victory for San-tos, who has staked his legacy on ending the oldest armed conflict in the Americas.

Separately, a United Nations mis-sion sent to Colombia to oversee the

FARC’s disarmament—part of the now-sidelined peace deal—said it would ask the Security Council to “adjust” its mandate so it can monitor

a ceasefire as negotiators try to hash out a compromise.

“We think the conditions are in place at this time for the Council

to continue its solidarity with the country,” the head of the UN mis-sion in Colombia, Jean Arnault, told a press conference.

Reuters

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama (pictured) said yesterday he would help send people to Mars as soon as 14 years from now, pledging to work with private companies “to build new habitats that can sustain and transport astronauts on long-duration missions in deep space.”

“We have set a clear goal vital to next chapter of America’s story in space: sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and returning them safely

to Earth, with the ultimate ambi-tion to one day remain there for an extended time,” Obama said in an

opinion piece for CNN. Obama’s comments come ahead

of a meeting planned by the White House in Pittsburgh this week aimed at teaming up scientists, students and others to further efforts to develop commercial space market, accord-ing to the piece.

While private companies are already working on missions to space, including to the International Space Station, humans have yet to travel to Mars, Earth’s neighbour some 56 million km away at their closest point in orbit, according to Nasa. Like Earth, the so-called Red

Planet also has seasons, and a 2012 Nasa mission found conditions there once supported microbial life.

It would take about nine months to get there, depending on rocket velocity, some Nasa experts have said. A high-speed trip could take as little as 130 days, they said on the agency’s website.

It has been decades since the United States sent astronauts to the moon in 1969, and efforts to fund the space programme have faltered in recent years over concerns about government spending and fiscal priorities.

AP

CHICAGO: Relieved parents dropped their children off at Chi-cago schools yesterday morning after the Chicago Teachers Union and the nation’s third-largest school district averted a strike with a late-night tentative contract agreement.

Chicago Teachers Union Pres-ident Karen Lewis said at a news conference eary yesterday that after more than a year of negotia-tions, the two sides had hammered out an agreement that isn’t perfect but is good for students, teachers and the city. The deal still must be approved by the union’s House of Delegates and all roughly 28,000 members, a process that could take weeks.

“It wasn’t easy, as you all know ... We’re very pleased we were able to come to this tentative agreement,” she said.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the proposal ensures that the teachers are respected and “appropriately rewarded,” while strengthening CPS finances and reassuring parents and taxpayers that the two sides are able to work together. There was no immediate information about how much the deal would cost or how the finan-cially struggling district would pay for it.

As part of the deal, the city has agreed to divert about $88m from a $175m surplus of the city’s at-times controversial special taxing districts — known as tax increment financing, or TIF, funds — to public schools, Emanuel spokesman Adam Collins said yesterday.

However, some of the parents and others dropping off children yesterday morning at Ronald E. McNair Elementary on Chicago’s west side worried there’s still a pos-sibility of a strike.

“I just think that this is a tem-porary fix and I believe that the solution coming out is temporary,” said Keisha Smith, whose grand-daughter is a first-grader.

“We have to remain mindful that this is something for now ... like a Band-Aid and the issue is not resolved.”

Michael Cleveland, whose 6- and 8-year-old daughters go to McNair, said he’d been convinced that there would be a strike. He said he was still angry with the city officials — including Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool.

“They know there are kids involved and they know the teach-ers do all they can,” Cleveland said, adding that he felt the politicians were putting teachers “through this for no reason.”

The four-year proposal includes cost-of-living increases of 2 percent in the third year and 2.5 percent in the fourth year.

It doesn’t require current teachers to pay more toward their pensions — a change CPS had been seeking and the union rejected ear-lier this year — but future CPS hires would have to pick up that addi-tional pension cost.

The tentative agreement also addresses class sizes for younger grades by assigning an assistant to any class with more than 32 students.

CPS has nearly 400,000 students.

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands (right) and Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra are seen during a meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, yesterday. Queen Maxima is in her native Argentina to give a talk on inclusive development finance, a cause she champions as a UN special advocate.

Championing a causeTruck plows

through crowd

during Columbus

Day protest

AP

RENO, NEVADA: The founder of a Native American rights group that was rallying in Reno, Nevada, when a pickup truck plowed through peo-ple at Columbus Day protest, the police said.

One woman remained hos-pitalised yesterday with non-life threatening injuries. Four others suffered minor injuries in what one witness described as a hate crime.

A Facebook Live video of the protest shows a pickup truck revving its engine in front of the crowd in Reno’s downtown. Sev-eral protesters confronted the driver and passenger before the truck drives through the crowd.

The driver stopped several blocks away and called police “to provide his account of the events,” Reno Police Sgt. James Pitsnogel said yesterday. The driver and a passenger were interviewed and are cooperating, he said.

Mike Graham, founder of Oklahoma-based United Native American Association, said he planned to meet Reno police to find out more about the incident.

“We are truly upset that he is not in custody. He left the scene of an accident,” he said.

“It was a hate crime,” Quanah Brightman, executive director of San Francisco-based United Native Americans Inc., said. The protesters were speaking out against the Dakota Access Pipe-line in North Dakota when the truck approached, she said.

Graham was in Reno for the protest but wasn’t present when the truck drove through. “Every-thing that I’ve gathered from the people who were there is that the individual knew what was going on,” Graham said yesterday.

AP

LES CAYES, HAITI: People through-out Haiti’s devastated southwest peninsula formed makeshift bri-gades yesterday to clear debris and try to regain some semblance of their pre-hurricane lives as they grew increasingly angry about delay in aid for remote communities more than a week after the Category 4 storm hit.

A community group that formed in the southern seaside community of Les Anglais began clearing tree limbs from streets and placing them into piles while others gathered scraps of wood to start rebuilding homes destroyed by Hurricane Matthew.

Carpenter James Nassau donned a white construction helmet as he rebuilt a neighbour’s wall with recy-cled wood, hoping to earn a little

money to take care of 10 children, including those left behind by his brother, who died in the storm.

“My brother left five kids, and now I’ve got to take care of them,” he said. “Nobody has come to help.”

The scene repeated itself across small seaside and mountain villages dotting the peninsula, where people pointed out helicopters buzzing over-head but questioned why they haven’t received any help.

Israel Banissa, a carpenter who lives near the tiny mountain town of Moron, said a Red Cross assessment team stopped outside his village to ask people questions but did not leave any supplies.

“There’s no aid that’s come here,” he said as he sawed wood to help rebuild his home and dozens of oth-ers. “I don’t think they care about the people up here.”

Some Haitians opted to travel to

the capital of Port-au-Prince and stay with relatives until the situa-tion slowly improved.

The UN humanitarian agency in Geneva has made an emer-gency appeal for nearly $120m in aid, saying about 750,000 people in southwest Haiti alone will need “life-saving assistance and protection” in the next three months.

In the western seaside village of Dame Marie, 300 patients with fes-tering wounds lay silently on beds at the main hospital waiting for medi-cine a week after the storm hit.

Among the injured was Beauvoir Luckner, a cobbler and farmer who walked 12km in three days after a tree fell on his house, crushing his leg and killing his mother. The leg might have to be amputated, but all doctors can do is clean his wounds because the hospital has run out of everything, including painkillers.

Colombia to launch peace talks with ELN rebels

Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos receives indigenous Guambianos of Cauca supporting the peace process with the FARC-EP in Bogota.

Obama sees human missions to Mars by 2030 Chicago teachers & district

agree to avert strike

Residents of devastated Haiti get angry over aid delays

People stand next to their destroyed house in Les Cayes, Haiti, following the passage of Hurricane Matthew.

HOME16 WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2016

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Minister of Administrative Development and Labour and Social Affairs H E Dr Issa bin Saad Al Nuaimi (seventh left) and Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani (sixth left), Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mental Health Friends Association ‘Weyak’ with officials who were honoured at an event held yesterday to mark the World Mental Health Day at Sheraton Grand Doha Resort and Convention Hotel. Pic: Kammutty VP/The Peninsula

Officials honoured

Security monitoring for Road World Championships up

The Peninsula

DOHA: As the State of Qatar hosts the Road World Championships from October 9 to 16, the champion-ship operations room is working in full swing by linking it to the security patrols through 4G LTE network of the Ministry of Interior.

The network provides very high-speed impenetrable data transfer

(voice, image and video) safely and confidentially as well as it is well-equipped to provide unlimited services that fit the needs and requirements of the security authorities including the tracking of security patrols, serv-ice calls, live broadcasting for patrols along with media exchange between patrols and systems.

First Lieutenant Engineer Amir Abdul Hadi Al Soufan Al Ahbabi stated that the Communications Department has prepared a number of bikes and

other vehicles of Lekhwiya and Traf-fic department with 4G LTE network of the Ministry of Interior to utilise for security monitoring of the champion-ship and follow up the cycling routes. Besides that a number of mobile sta-tions have been setup to avoid any interruption in the network.

First Lieutenant Engineer Rashid Fahad Al Ali, from Security Systems Department at the Ministry of Interior said that the department is working round the clock to ensure security of

all by monitoring the event through its latest surveillance cameras and con-trol rooms.

He added that as part of the “Talaa” project the department has supplied and installed surveillance cameras with the latest technology specifi-cations and connected to National Command Centre, in collaboration with Central Operations Department and Traffic, to monitor major streets and observe crimes and violations.

Cyber security summit emphasises strengthening of digital securityBy Irfan Bukhari

The Peninsula

DOHA: The information technol-ogy experts from both government and private sector yesterday empha-sized the need of strengthening cyber security systems primarily focusing on GCC countries.

“It has become increasingly important for the public, private and academic sectors to collabo-rate in dealing with cyber threats,” said Khalid Al Hashmi, Assistant

Undersecretary of the Cyber Secu-rity Sector at Ministry of Transport and Communications, in his opening talk at the two-day 9th Cyber Defense Summit. “The Cyber Defense summit serves a critical purpose in bringing together stakeholders with the nec-essary skills and industry insights to truly tackle the many nuanced cyber security challenges facing Qatar today,” Al Hashmi added.

The summit was attended by lead-ing thought-leaders and over 100 chief information officers (CIOs), chief information security officers (CISOs) and heads of cyber security of various

companies from across the world.Under the theme “Protect. Detect.

Mitigate”, high-level cyber security stakeholders reinforced the impor-tance of cyber security in Qatar, highlighting the need for capacity building, collaboration and knowl-edge-sharing. As many as 14 leading information and cyber security com-panies showcased the latest in cyber security solutions and technology in the summit as well.

Shaik Abdulkhader, Chief Tech-nology Security Officer (CISTO) at Vodafone Qatar, said that interna-tional voice calls revenue had dropped

by 50 percent year by year in the last three years.

Hussam Sheikh Ali, Regional Sales Director at Scope, (the firm which has dealership rights of French cyber-security company Stormshield) said that Stormshield had around 50 cli-ents in Qatar mainly from banking and oil and gas sector. “GCC coun-tries are facing cyber threats and have suffered attacks therefore these coun-tries in particular need strengthening of their existing systems,” he added.

Ahmad TELLO, another mar-keting officer from Bitdefender, a Romanian cyber security company,

said that Bitdefender was providing cyber attack protection to around 500 million users. A panel discussion was also held on the partnership between Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and importance of making cyber security everybody’s business. Sami Al Shammari, IT Director at the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy; Shaik Abdulkhader, CISTO at Vodafone Qatar and Edward Ganom, Chief Information Security Officer at Commercial Bank of Qatar were among the panelists.

Majid Wani, Country Manager

Qatar at Fortinet discussed “cyber security and third platform technol-ogies” while Sameh Sabry, Associate Vice President at Spire Solutions gave a presentation on “threat hunting – leveraging intelligence and analytics for proactive security”.

On the second day, a large number of young IT and cyber security enthu-siasts from around Qatar participated in the summit. Over 100 post-graduate and graduate students from Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar Uni-versity, College of North Atlantic and more witnessed a series of security talks and live hacking demonstrations.

QRCS holds training session on first aid at CCCThe Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Red Crescent Society’s (QRCS) Medical Affair Sector held a training session for children at Katara’s Childhood Cultural Center (CCC) to mark the World First Aid Day.

The day is being observed by the international community under the global theme of “First Aid for and by the Children”.

The event was attended by 50 students and 10 teachers of Al Duhail and Al Rashad Primary Schools, as well as some employees of the Childhood Cultural Center .

In the first part of the session, the children received a lecture on basics of first aid to save lives and control complications.

Among the taught skills were (1) how to dial the emergency number

properly to ensure quick arrival of medics; (2) helping cases of fainting, suffocation, wound, burn, fracture, and nosebleed; (3) prevention of road accidents; (4) first aid for facial and jaw injuries; and (5) first-aid kit.

The second part of the session involved a practical demonstration of how to perform cardiopulmo-nary resuscitation (CPR); emergency number dialing; and mutual first aid for suffocation, choking, and nosebleed.

The students were also trained in the content and use of first-aid kit.

Instructional first aid printouts, first-aid kits, and gifts were handed over to the students.

The course’s team thanked CCC management for their cooperation, which embodied part-nership towards the common goal of developing children’s skills and promoting a culture of safety and security.

A Doha Municipality inspector checking one of the shopping centres in Al Najma area, where food items were stored in the basement in unhealthy conditions. The inspectors also caught selling food items unfit for human consumption at a restaurant in Al Saad. Legal actions will be taken against the violators.

Municipal inspections

Children being educated about first aid at a session organised by Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) at Katara’s Childhood Cultural Center.

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