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WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016 • 18 MOHARRAM 1438 • Volume 21 • Number 6954 thepeninsulaqatar @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatar

Included with today’s edition is a 12-page

supplement onTravel & Tourism

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016

Travel & TourismThe Pearl-Qatar

redefineshospitality…

QA to buy 100 Boeing planes for $18.6bn

PAGE | 5 PAGE | 6-7

MAIN SPONSORMAIN SPONSOR

HOSPITALITYQATAR 201618-20 OCTOBER | 3 .00PM-9.00PM

By Raynald Rivera

The Peninsula

MINISTER of Econ-omy and Commerce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani inaugurated Hos-pitality Qatar 2016

yesterday at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC).

The expo which runs until tomor-row provides the ideal forum for Hotel/Restaurant/Café (HORECA) suppli-ers, hoteliers, buyers, and investors to highlight their newest products and exchange expertise with profession-als in the hospitality sector.

The Minister underscored the vital role the hospitality and tourism sec-tor plays in the Qatari economy. “We have witnessed during the past few years, the development of tourism and hospitality sectors That development

adapted as a roadmap towards devel-oping the tourism industry during the next decades, and transforming Qatar into an international touristic destina-tion proud of its cultural roots”, he said.

Rashed Nassir Sraiya Al Kaabi, Vice-Chairman of Al Sraiya Holding Group, said: “The exhibition features all aspects of the hotel and franchise mar-ket in the Gulf region. We would like to thank all participants who have helped make this event a success, achieving its mission in providing regional and international agents, dealers and buy-ers the opportunity to network in a suitable, professional environment.”

George Ayache, General Manager of IFP Qatar, organizers of the show, said: “During its two editions, Hospital-ity Qatar has proved its role as Qatar’s leading hospitality exhibition, bring-ing together a large number of local, regional and international decision makers and industry professionals. The main reason for the success of this event is the continuous support of the

Minister opens Hospitality Qatar expo

Minister of Economy and Commerce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani and other officials tour at Hospitality Qatar 2016 under way at the

The expo which runs until tomorrow provides the ideal forum for Hotel/Restaurant/Café (HORECA) suppliers, hoteliers, buyers, and investors to highlight their newest products and exchange expertise with professionals in the hospitality sector.

2 Riyals

Minister of Economy and Commerce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani cutting the ribbon to officially open ‘Hospitality Qatar 2016’ at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center, yesterday.

→ See also page 3The Peninsula

DOHA: More than 20 private and public sector entities have so far joined the “Health in the Work-place” programme of the Ministry of Public Health that seeks to raise the employees’ awareness about adopting a healthy lifestyle, a sen-ior official has said.

The ministry intends to expand the programme to all companies and institutions in the country both in the public and private sectors.

Health in the Workplace cam-paign launched in early 2014 aims to encourage people to acquire hab-its and practices in their daily lives – from healthy eating and smoking

cessation, to promoting more phys-ical activity at work and even how to cope with stress and pressure at work.

The Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) was the latest entity to join the ini-tiative. The ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Kahramaa to imple-ment the programme.

“The MoU aims to strengthen cooperation between the Ministry of Public Health and Kahramaa to carry out the events and activities of Health in the Workplace Programme in order to promote the employees’ health and to raise their awareness about adopting a healthy lifestyle,” said a ministry statement yesterday.

The MoU was signed by Sheikha Dr Al Anoud bint Mohammed Al-Thani, Director of Health Promotion and Non-Communicable Diseases at the ministry and for Engineer Abdul Rahman Ali Al Nemaah, Director of Health, Safety and Environment Department at Kahramaa.

Speaking on the occasion Dr Al Anoud said that more than 20 insti-tutions from the public and private sectors have joined the initiative. She added that ministry is target-ing to implement the programme at all public and private institutions.

→ Continued on page 2

By Huda N V The Peninsula

DOHA: An innovative vest, designed by a group of school students could help bring relief to hundreds of labourers working in the open sites here. The light weight garment with its solar powered fan produce air current to help reduce heat.

The project, Friokish, won the award for the best innovative product as part of the recently held Mubadara 2016 . Targeting the labourers who work in open sites during the sum-mer, students of Rabaa Al Adwiyah Independent Secondary School for Girls have designed a cooling vest.

The cooling garment has solar panels which help run small fans attached to the vest, producing air currents to reduce body heat.

“We designed this dress consid-ering the workers who toil under the sun. There is a major problem of heat and heat related illnesses here, which we aim to overcome using the vest. Our project is similar to a vest and it is light, cooling and you can wear it under your clothes,” Nashwa Fayez, one of the project participants, told The Peninsula.

“The solar panel on the garment will run the fans there by help cool the

body. For now we have designed the vest using a lightweight fabric. How-ever, in the future we plan to make the vest out of any material that can hold water, so we can use the fans to cool water which will in turn help reduce body heat. If we make can use drink-ing water to fill the vest, workers could also drink cool water, whenever they need,” she said.

→ Continued on page 4

By Sachin Kumar

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Ministry of Justice has an ambitious plan for the devel-opment of country’s arbitration system and a draft law on arbitra-tion is expected to be issued soon.

Qatar has seen a gradual rise in the number of cases coming up before the arbitration centre. Last year, 275 cases of disputes involv-ing over QR1bn in value came up before the Qatar International Center for Conciliation and Arbi-tration (QICCA).

Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution mechanism where parties to a dispute seek the resolution out-side the courts.

→ Full report on page 2

By Irfan Bukhari

The Peninsula

DOHA: As hunting season is just around the corner with the approaching winter, activities relat-ing to falconry including trade and training of falcons have resumed in the country and Qataris are equip-ping their birds-of-prey for their favourite sport. With mercury going

down, the activities at falcon market in Souq Waqif have gained pace after a long summer lull.

“The hunting season is near. Hence, import, selling and training of falcons have increased. Two exhibitions were recently held in Al Shamal and some are slated for coming weeks,” Riaz, a Pakistani expat employee of a falcon shop told The Peninsula.

He said that two auctions of falcons had also been held at the market last week and the number of

customers had also increased man-ifold. Most of the shops at the market are selling peregrine and Saker falcons. “The price varies with every bird. It may start from as low as QR2000 and can cross QR2m,” a shopkeeper said, adding white falcons usually called “white Horr” in Qatar were always very rare and expensive.

The shopkeeper said that there was a marked sluggishness in busi-ness in summer. “Activities resume every year with the arrival of winter

when hunting season starts and game birds migrate from Russia and East-ern Europe. Generally hunting starts in October and lasts until April,” he added.

Another trader said that not only the import and sale of falcons had increased but the demand for train-ers for wild falcons was also on the rise. “Sometimes the trainers take a fixed fee for the service and some-times, in case the falcon is set to take part in any contest, they strike a spe-cial deal with the falconer.”

Hamad Al Dosari, a Qatari national said that his pastime for birds and hunting had developed into a full-fledged business with the passage of time. “Using my experience and skills I buy birds from the market or in auc-tions; then sell them to falconers with a reasonable profit. At times I sell the wild falcons while others may dispose off the birds after giving them hunting training,” he added.

→ Continued on page 4

Schoolchildren invent cooling vest for labourers

Falconry in spotlight as hunting season approaches

The Peninsula

DOHA: The world’s largest privately-owned res-idential yacht, The World, docked in Doha Port yesterday, marking the beginning of this year’s cruise season in Qatar.

The luxury cruise ship is visiting Doha for the first time and will spend here two days before head-ing to Muscat. It is 196.3m long, with 12 docks, 280 crew numbers and 165 residences. It provides all entertainment facilities including apartments, swim-ming pools and other facilities.

Since the launch in 2002 the floating city has vis-ited more than 900 ports in more than 140 countries while sailing on a continuous worldwide itinerary at a maximum speed of 18.5 knots, said a statement yesterday.

→ Continued on page 3

More firms join initiative on healthy lifestyle

World’s largest cruise ship docks in DohaReuters

SANA’A: Yemen’s Houthi-run administration welcomed a 72-hour ceasefire starting today intended to allow aid to reach areas cut off by months of fighting and in dire humanitarian need.

In its first statement on the truce, a governing council composed of the Iranian-allied Houthi group and powerful local allies demanded a Saudi-backed Arab coalition end mil-itary attacks and lift curbs on air, sea and land transport.

A ceasefire between warring factions will begin at 23.59 local time (2059 GMT) today, the United Nations said, raising hopes of an end

to a war that has killed thousands of civilians and left people starving.

“Hopefully this nationwide cessation will provide humani-tarian agencies and organizations the opportunity to respond in areas that have been cut off or are hard to reach in all of Yemen,” Jamie McGoldrick, the UN’s Yemen Humanitarian Coordinator, said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the truce, announced by UN Yemen special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, required all parties to halt military activities and help facilitate the delivery of humani-tarian assistance. “We reiterate the Special Envoy’s request to allow ‘free and unhindered access for human-itarian supplies,” Kerry said.

Draft law on arbitration on the anvil

Houthis back 72-hour truce; UN & US call for aid to flow

The Ministry of Public Health intends to expand ‘Health in the Workplace’ programme to all companies and institutions in the country both in the public and private sectors.

The World, largest privately owned residential yacht, at Doha Port.

Minister opens ‘Hospitality Qatar 2016’

HOME 02 WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR) Federica Mogherini in Brussels yesterday. They discussed the latest developments in the region and the EU’s position on the crisis in Syria.

FM meets EU official

By Raynald C RiveraThe Peninsula

D0HA: More than 45 youth, major-ity of whom are Qataris, are taking part at the annual Reach Out To Asia (ROTA) Youth Challenge: Leadership Training programme which kicks off next week.

The participants aged 16-26 will undergo months-long training aimed at equipping them with the knowl-edge and skills for enabling them to play an active role in developing their communities.

“We received around 280 appli-cations for this year. We focused on quality of the aspirants conducting personal interviews to select the 50 best candidates to undergo intensive training on leadership,” Abdulla Al Bakri, Community Development

Manager, ROTA, told the media at a press conference yesterday.

Hundreds of young people have already benefited from the pro-gramme since it was launched six years ago.

“This programme started in 2010 and usually we have 50 to 80 candi-dates each year. The invitation was open to everyone but as a Qatari organization we give priority to Qataris and this year we have around 42 Qatari participants,” said Al Bakri.

The first phase of the training programme will take place from October 26 to 29 during which par-ticipants will be given detailed description of the programme, working mechanisms and what will be expected of them during the programme.

The entire training course will run until March next year.

“They will be split into six groups,

do their projects from planning to implementation and finish them by February. In March we will have the Empower Youth Conference in which they will showcase their projects in an exhibition,” he said.

An effective tool for develop-ing and fine-tuning youth skills, the ROTA Youth Challenge helps young people chart their career paths, and prepare them to become qualified ambassadors for Qatar and ROTA at international conventions.

During the Leadership pro-gramme, participants will gain core leadership, project and community service campaign management skills, and leverage their goal set-ting capacities while networking with peers.

“It is vital that we invest in the development of our youth as this will ultimately lead to the success-ful advancement of Qatar, the region,

and world. I am confident that par-ticipants will walk away from the programme feeling confident in their ability to take humanitarian action and offer meaningful solutions to some of the many challenges facing us today,” said Al Bakri.

“Qatar’s youth have the capac-ity to become leaders who can inspire and mobilise others. They just need to be equipped with the right skills and tools to do so,” said Alistair Routledge, President and General Manager for ExxonMo-bil Qatar which is sponsoring the programme.

“We are very pleased to support the ROTA Leadership Training pro-gramme as it builds the professional capacities of youth, providing them with the skills that will allow them to be successful, guiding them to be leaders of social development,” added Routledge.

Nayla Al Nama, Senior Environmental Analyst, ExxonMobil, and Abdullah Al Bakri, Community Development Manager, ROTA, announcing the ROTA ExxonMobil 2016 Leadership Training Programme, held at the Education City yesterday. Pic: Salim Matramkot / The Peninsula

More than 45 youth to participate in ROTA leadership programme

Draft law on arbitration soon

By Sachin Kumar

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Ministry of Justice has an ambitious plan for the develop-ment of the country’s arbitration system and a draft law on arbitra-tion is expected to be issued soon.

Qatar has seen a gradual rise in the number of cases coming up before the arbitration centre. Last year, 275 cases of disputes involving over QR1bn in value came up before the Qatar International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration (QICCA).

“The Ministry has developed an ambitious plan for the development of arbitration and will implement this plan in cooperation with all national partners and centres of arbitration, lawyers and arbitra-tors,” said Minister of Justice H E Dr Hassan Lahdan Saqr Al Mohannadi

yesterday. “The elements of this plan, include strengthening national leg-islative structure in the area of arbitration through the prepara-tion of a new draft law in the field of arbitration in civil and com-mercial matters to keep pace with international standards and related developments. This law is expected to be issued in the near future,” the Minister said addressing the ‘Second World Conference on International Arbitration’ at Westin Hotel.

Arbitration is a form of alterna-tive dispute resolution mechanism where parties to a dispute seek the resolution outside the courts.

The two-day conference is being orgainsed by QICCA at Qatar Cham-ber in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice.

In his speech during the open-ing session of the conference, the Minister presented the Ministry’s vision and strategy in the field of arbitration, saying that arbitration is playing a key and growing role at the local and international level as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism.

“The Ministry of Justice puts arbitration at the forefront of its pri-orities by creating effective national arbitration system that meets inter-national standards in the field of arbitration,” said the Minister.

The Ministry is also planning to conduct training programs to

prepare national cadres in the arbi-tration field through the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Min-istry of Justice, in collaboration with specialised national and interna-tional institutions, said the Minister.

The second edition of the international conference aims to enhance the exchange of experi-ences and good practices in the field

arbitration. The Minister said Qatar has been using the system of arbitra-tion in civil and commercial matters, both at legislative and practical level. At the legislative level, the provisions of Part 13 of the Civil and Commer-cial Procedure Law No 13 of 1990 (amended) regulates arbitration in civil and commercial matters.

At the practical level, Qatar made tangible achievements in the field of arbitration with the launch of QICCA and the establishment of the Qatar Financial Centre.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim Al Thani, President of QICCA and Chair-man of Qatar Chamber said QICCA has managed to take arbitration in Qatar from free arbitration to reg-ulated institutional arbitration that relies on global basics and principles from the rules of United Nations Com-mission on International Trade Law.

He added that the center has helped in achieving a qualitative leap in terms of the consolidation of arbitration in Qatar and contributed to the dissemination of the arbitra-tion culture in the Qatari private sector through seminars and train-ing courses. The conference brought together a number of legal experts, lawyers and specialists in the field of arbitration. The first edition of the con-ference was held in Doha in 2008, with the participation of the heads of com-mercial arbitration centers around the world.

Panellists of the first plenary session on the final day of the conference, discussing the roles and experiences of nongovernmental organisations during wars and conflicts.

The Peninsula

DOHA: The final day of the Doha International Family Institute (DIFI) Conference on Family Research and Policy shed light on numerous top-ics relating to the breakdown of the family structure as a result of wars and conflicts.

Leading local and international researchers and policymakers examined the most effective means of preserving the family unit during times of instability and civil unrest, the experience and changing role of NGOs in war zones, post-war family transition and resettlement of refu-gees in the region.

Azza Abdelmoneium, Senior Associate Researcher, DIFI, focused on the plight of internally displaced children in Khartoum in Sudan dur-ing the ‘Impact of Wars and Conflicts on Women, Men and Children’ par-allel session. “These children are displaced due to several reasons

including migration, breakdown of families, conflicts and natural dis-asters, and are then forced to work under very harsh conditions and are subject to many forms of violence from their employers.”

“Only through raising awareness of these issues, and through further research and education, can we hope to influence and inform future poli-cies to protect the rights of children in conflict areas,” Abdelmoneium said.

Delegates from Save the Chil-dren, Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development and Amel Association International tack-led how the changing nature of both conflict and humanitarian relief has transformed the role of non-govern-mental organisations (NGOs) from the traditional role of mitigating the effects of conflict into performing new roles, including conflict pre-vention and peace building efforts.

In the ‘Health Consequences of Wars and Conflicts’ parallel session, guest speaker Jocelyn DeJong, PhD,

American University Beirut, deliv-ered a presentation entitled ‘Effects of Conflict on Reproductive, Mater-nal, Neonatal, and Child Health – A Case Study’. DeJong explored the lack of data in addressing the health challenges in conflict areas while noting how these can be overcome by encouraging collaborations across humanitarian agencies, government bodies and academic institutions.

An interactive session gave researchers and academics an opportunity to share their experi-ences, discuss the obstacles they have encountered when conducting research on war and conflict zones, and the best practices to advance their research moving forward.

Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN) was DIFI’s official media partner for the Second Annual Conference on Family Research and Policy. The partnership was born as a result of their shared focus on human stories and an awareness of the impacts that wars have on Arab families.

Last year, 275 cases of disputes involving over QR1bn came up before the Qatar International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration (QICCA).

Qatar attends anti-ISIS meetMARYLAND: The State of Qatar has participated in the conference of army chiefs of staff in the interna-tional coalition against ISIS, which was held at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, US.

Chief of Staff of the Qatari Armed Forces Major General (Pilot) H E Ghanim bin Shaheen Al Ghanim

headed the Qatari delegation at the conference. The conference dis-cussed anti-terrorism efforts and strategies and joint mechanisms to fight the ISIS. On the sideline of the conference, Major General Al Ghanim met with the Commander of United States Central Command Gen. Joseph Leonard Votel.

DIFI meet explores ways to preserve Arab families during conflicts

Ambassador of Ukraine to Qatar, Yevhen Mykytenko; General Manager of Katara, Dr Khalid Ibrahim Al Sulaiti; Director General, New Vision Production Gallery, Ukraine, Natalia Manzholii; and other guests viewing the exhibits after the ambassador inaugurated the ‘Art Convergence’, an art exhibition, as part of the annual project ‘Ukraine Days in Qatar’ held at the Katara yesterday. Pic: Salim Matramkot / The Peninsula

Ukraine art exhibition

Programme to promote healthy lifestyle→ Continued from page 1

The success of the programme will contribute to the promotion of a healthy lifestyle among the employ-ees, as well as providing a safe and healthy environment for them, in addition to improving some of their health practices, she added.

“Kahramaa is seeking, through the application of this programme, to encourage the employees to

adopt a healthy lifestyle in their daily life, such as healthy nutrition, physical activity inside and outside the workplace, smoking cessation, in addition to raising awareness about ways to overcome the daily work pressure,” said Engineer Al Nemaah.

In February 2014, coinciding with Qatar National Sport Day, the then Supreme Council of Health (SCH) launched a high-profile aspect of the

campaign – an initiative to encourage staff to use the stairs instead of eleva-tors in the workplace. Since then the programme has gained great impor-tance in light of the need to cope with the modern lifestyle.

It comes as part of the min-istry’s efforts to promote the employees’ health and to build a healthy generation in line with National Health Strategy (NHS-2011-2016) goals.

Minister of Justice, H E Dr Hassan Lahdan Saqr Al Mohannadi speaking at the conference on arbitration at Westin Hotel yesterday. Pic Baher Amin / The Peninsula

HOME 03 WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi at the 43rd session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The meeting discussed the latest developments in Islamic countries, international issues of common concern, the fight against terrorism, disarmament and countering Islamophobia, among other issues. The Minister also met Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Abdyldaev Erlan on the sidelines of the OIC session.

Minister attends OIC session

By Raynald C Rivera

The Peninsula

DOHA: Hundreds of people thronged the launch of the three-day Hospi-tality Qatar 2016 yesterday at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC).

With 132 exhibitors from 10 coun-tries spread on a 7,500sqm space at DECC, this second edition of the Hos-pitality and Hotel/Restaurant/Café (HORECA) show is the biggest gath-ering of buyers and suppliers in the hospitality sector in Qatar.

A number of participants expressed excitement and opti-mism at yesterday’s opening of the trade show.

“This is our second consecutive year participating in Hospitality

Qatar, and we are excited to be part of this show, in particular due to its increasing profile across the region. We have high hopes and expecta-tions that Hospitality Qatar will be the perfect location to showcase our state-of-the-art kitchen products,” said Nadim Solh, Operations Man-ager of INOX Kitchen, which is this year’s Associate Sponsor.

There is great enthusiasm among the participants with regard to this year’s B2B match-ups, which easily brings buyers and sellers together via a dedicated networking mobile app.

“We are proud to be a part of this top-tier exhibition in our industry. There are numerous suppliers and buyers whom we are in contact with through B2B match-ups which we expect will help us achieve our mis-sion of delivering the highest quality five-star hotel and dining experience to residents and visitors of Qatar,” said Pascal Eggerstedt, General Man-ager at InterContinental Doha The City, the show’s official hotel.

This is the first time the show is held at the DECC which is a bigger and more accessible venue and is expected to exceed last year’s 7,346 trade visitors from around the world.

Five countries have their own

national pavilions at the show including Turkey, China, Kuwait, Pakistan and Austria. Other partic-ipating countries include Bahrain, Germany, Egypt, Lebanon and Qatar.

Licensed by the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA), the event is held under the patronage of the Min-ister of Economy and Commerce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, who led yesterday’s opening ceremony.

The event provides a progressive platform for HORECA operators to showcase their latest products and build new business opportunities.

One of the important activities held yesterday was Boecker’s health safety training and tips in imple-menting grading and classification system in the hospitality sector.

The much anticipated Salon Culinaire in which more than 250 chefs from hotels and restaurants in Qatar are taking part kicked off yesterday. They competed in vari-ous categories including signature dish, bread, hors d’oeuvre, terrine/pate and the exciting live vegetable and fruit carving.

Hospitality Qatar 2016 is open today and tomorrow from 3pm to 9pm. Registration is free.

Hundreds visit HospitalityQatar expo on first dayIn all, 132 exhibitors from 10 countries are participating in the second edition of the show.

Participants at the Hospitality Qatar 2016 show held at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC). Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

Cruise passengers can disembarkwithin minutes of arrival at port

→ Continued from page 1

This cruise season, which lasts until April next year, has 32 ships registered to arrive at Qatar’s shores, representing a three-fold increase on last season’s figures. Over 50,000 passengers are expected to arrive aboard these ships. The World is home to 165 residences with patrons from 45 countries living on board as it sails around the world, stay-ing in most ports for several days. Some residents live on board full time while most visit periodically

throughout the year. The luxury cruise ship’s passen-

gers will be the first to avail of Qatar’s new entry procedure, which quick-ens the disembarkation of tourists arriving on board cruise ships. Cruise passengers can now disembark within minutes of arriving and immediately begin enjoying their on-shore excur-sions, the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) said yesterday.

Qatar Port Management Com-pany Mwani Qatar, the exclusive operator of the state’s commer-cial and tourist ports said that the

coordination between the com-pany and its strategic partners (Qatar Tourism Authority, Ministry of Interior, and General Authority of Customs) have contributed to the successful docking of the ship and the ease of the entry of cruise pas-sengers safely and conveniently.

The redevelopment of Doha Port to transform it into a fully-fledged cruise and leisure yacht terminal facility is underway in full swing in coordination with our strategic partners and stakeholders, Mwani Qatar said.

HOME04 WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016

Rise in incidence of breast cancer not unusual: Expert

By Fazeena Saleem

The Peninsula

DOHA: The increase in number of breast cancer cases in Qatar during recent years is similar to other countries, said a senior official yesterday.

Although incidence of breast can-cer has increased in Qatar, the numbers haven’t reached an exceptional level, said Dr Sheikh Khalid bin Jabor Al Thani, Chairman of Qatar Cancer Society.

“Even with all the campaigns we have been conducting and all efforts taken to raise awareness about breast cancer, incidence of the disease is on the rise. Many reasons are behind this, including

population increase in the country, age factor, environmental reasons and eating habits. But still we are within the normal rates, numbers are similar to elsewhere in the world,” he said, addressing a press meet on ‘Breast Cancer Conference’ to be held next week.

The special conference on breast can-cer will be held under the theme ‘present standards and new perspectives’ at Doha Sheraton on October 28 and 29.

The special conference was developed to be of interest to healthcare practition-ers from all specialties, and will provide practical information to enhance patient care in the clinic, delivered by top experts in the field of breast cancer.

Around 3,000 local, regional and international experts will discuss various topics related to breast cancer including latest treatments, technologies, methods of prevention, and future prospects of the disease.

“As of now around 2,500 health care professionals have registered as partic-ipants and we have invited around 200 regional and international experts to take part in this conference. We will discuss about advanced methods of treatment and prevention. Also, two types of work-shops will be held — one will focus on the psychological aspect of the disease and the other will discussion the importance of screening,” said Dr Al Thani.

Accompanying the Breast Cancer Conference will be a specialised health-care exhibition which is an important opportunity for the health care industry companies to keep attendees abreast of latest innovations in the field of breast cancer care under one roof on an inter-national level.

“Only three cases of breast cancer were found among men within the past 15 years,” said Dr Al Thani.

Trend mirrors other countries.

HBKU to raise breast cancer awarenessThe Peninsula

DOHA: In support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Hamad bin Khal-ifa University (HBKU) is organising a number of community outreach initia-tives to shed light on the importance of breast cancer prevention, early detec-tion, and treatment. Two scientists at HBKU’s Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), Dr Manale Karam and Dr Julie Decock, will be holding a com-

munity talk on “Breast Cancer: From Discovery to Biology and Treatment” tomorrow, at 1pm at the HBKU Student Center in Education City.

The University will also set up information booths at the HBKU Stu-dent Center tomorrow, the Gulf Mall on October 21 and 22, and Qatar Uni-versity on October 24, where members of the community can learn more about the prevalence of breast can-cer in Qatar and the region, as well as measures women can take to reduce

risk of the disease.Dr Decock, a researcher investi-

gating breast cancer immunotherapy at QBRI, said: “This awareness-raising campaign helps people better under-stand how diet and environment contribute to the development and pro-gression of cancer, and helps make the public more aware of the benefits of screening and early detection.”

This is very important because in the earlier stages, breast cancer can be relatively easily treated.”

Dr Sheikh Khalid bin Jabor Al Thani. Pic: Kammutty VP/ The Peninsula

A child receives care at a health unit covered by a QRCS programme in Afghanistan.

QRCS opens two schools in Afghanistan’s Paktia provinceThe Peninsula

DOHA: A delegation of Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has vis-ited Afghanistan to inaugurate a number of development projects completed by QRCS’s mission there over the past few months. The projects relate to education, water, and health care.

The delegation comprised Najlaa Al Haj, Head of Interna-tional Development, and Said Tijani, Head of Asia Portfolio.

During the visit, meetings were held with representatives of partners like the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent

Societies (IFRC), the Interna-tional Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Office of the United Nations High Com-missioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the Afghan Ministry of Health (MoH).

Also, the delegation visited Paktia province to open two new schools built as part of a pro-gramme to support education in remote areas of the country.

In partnership with the Ministry of Education and the Afghan Charitable Foundation, educational aid was distributed to several schools in Zurmat and Mirzaka Districts of Paktia.

The $376,780 aid included classroom tents, desks, seats,

textbooks, stationery, and light-ing for the two schools, which together have 2,868 students.

In Khost Province, the del-egation visited two health care units covered by a programme to operate 100 health centres for two years, with a budget of $901,837.

In cooperation with MoH and ARCS, a number of health cen-tres were furnished with medical and non-medical equipment. The medical and assistant staff and medications were also provided.

The centres offer primary health care to patients, referrals to nearby hospitals, and health education campaigns, with a total number of beneficiaries amounting to 249,600 patients.

Ministry recalls

2011-12 Ford

models

QNA

DOHA: The Ministry of Economy and Commerce, in cooperation with Al Mana Motors Company, Ford dealer in Qatar, has recalled 2011-2012 models of Ford Expedition, F-150 and Mus-tang to reprogramme the gear computer.

The ministry said the recall comes within the frame-work of ongoing coordination and follow-up by the ministry to ascertain the extent of car dealerships’ commitment to follow up vehicle defects and repair them to protect con-sumer rights.

The ministry also stressed that it will coordinate with the dealership to follow up main-tenance and repair operations and will communicate with customers to ensure imple-mentation of the procedures to fix defects.

The ministry urged con-sumers to report any abuses or irregularities by commu-nicating with the Department of Consumer Protection and Commercial Fraud Combat which will receive complaints, suggestions and inquiries through its communication channels.

Ashghal to close Lebdaya Roundabout soonThe Peninsula

DOHA: The Public Works Authority, ‘Ashghal’, has announced that it will close the existing Lebdaya Roundabout (known as Sheikh Mubarak Al Thani Roundabout) and introduce a newly built round-about and diversion routes to the southeast of the existing route.

Ashghal will also close the roundabout exit from Huwar Street to Al Rayyan Al Qadeem Street, as shown on the attached map.

The diversion, which has been implemented in coordination with the Traffic Police Department, will be in operation from October 21, 2016 and last for two years.

The diversion is required to enable Ashghal to commence construction of essential multi-level junc-tions as part of the Al Rayyan Upgrade Project C2.

As shown on the attached map, Ashghal has established several alternative routes for road users to follow to reach their respective destinations:

Doha to Al Gharrafa: Road users can turn right at the Lebdaya Roundabout onto Al Beday Street

and travel north before turning left onto the new Al Maqareen Street. Motorists will need to travel along Al Maqareen Street before turning right onto Huwar Street.

Doha to Bani Hajer: Road users can turn left at the Lebdaya Roundabout and travel south before turning right onto Al Rayyan Al Jadeed Road and continuing towards Bani Hajer. Road users travelling from Bani Hajer to Doha will be unaffected.

Students design app to remind people to take medicine

Continued from page 1

Mubadara 2016 saw students showcasing a diverse range of concepts for start-ups. One such people-friendly concept was Dose, a project by student of Al Kawthar Independent Secondary school for Girls.

“Our project Dose involves a medicine box connected to a phone application that reminds patients about their consump-tion time,” said Aqila Khatoon, one of the 11 project members.

Students developed a mobile drug reminder application suit-able for both android and apple phones.

The application is connected to the pill box via bluetooth or other channels.

“Users or carers can set medicine timing and other infor-mation on the mobile app. When it is time to take the medicine, the app will set off an alarm and lights on the concerned pill com-partment will come on. Hence there are less chances of one for-getting to take medicines,” she said.

Students also came up with other people friendly products as WOL, an eye band developed by students from Omar bin Abdulaziz Independent Secondary school for Boys.

The eye band acts as an alarm to help people with hearing disa-bility to wake up.

They also showcased educa-tional tools as Najah from Qatar University, a platform to bridge gap between tutors and students.

Once upon a Time, developed by Al Shaimaa Independent Sec-ondary School for Girls provides a story telling service to children in public areas like shopping centres, when parents are busy. Other business projects include a few online services and acces-sory products.

“Students get to face a real world business situation through Mubadara.

We are impressed and sur-prised at the quality, hard work and dedication of the students. Everything, includ-ing paper work has been done in utmost professional way,” said Fahad Bader, Exec-utive General Manager of International Banking, Com-mercial Bank, who served as a judge at the event.

Falcons imported

from Pakistan,

Spain & Iran

Continued from page 1

All the falcons in air-condi-tioned shops were wearing hoods. “Without hoods they turn aggres-sive and frightened and eventually get their feathers injured. Their price hinges upon their feathers. Therefore, we have to protect them from injuries and fractures,” said Dosari. “In summers, falcons just take rest on the sand in cool climate. No training, no hunting, no other job.”

Falcons at Sauq Waqif are imported from various parts of the world mainly from Iran, Pakistan, Spain and Mongolia. They are fed with meat or other small birds like sparrows and pigeons. “In Qatar, most falconers feed them with chicken legs,” said Dosari.

The Falcons Hospital at Souq Waqif treats ailing birds with ded-icated services. From treating acute yeast infections to con-ducting surgeries, every medical service is available under one roof including a pathological lab. “The charges at the hospital are economical as it operates under government funding,” said a vet-erinary doctor.

Dosari said that as the winter was approaching there would be many exhibitions of falcons across the country. “In January, an inter-national falcons contest will be held. The fastest falcon will be the winner,” said Dosari, adding that the event would be organised by Qatar Hunting Association. He said smaller contests and gath-erings of falconers would start soon and continue until the end of winter.

Sikandar, another salesman from Peshawar, Pakistan, said that only wild falcons were pre-sented for sale at auctions. “Bred falcons cannot be presented in auctions. There are around three breeding centres in Doha.”

HOME 05WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016

Daily QA flights to Seychelles from Dec 12

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Airways will provide travellers with greater access to the idyllic white sand beaches and tur-quoise waters of the Seychelles with daily flights from Doha starting on December 12, 2016.

Travellers wishing to explore the beauty of the Seychelles — one of the world’s most popular tour-ist destinations in the Indian Ocean — will enjoy convenient flights and award-winning service when trav-elling with Qatar Airways.

Residents of the Seychelles will also benefit from the opportunity to connect to the airline’s network of more than 150 business and leisure destinations around the world via the airline’s hub in Doha. The air-line’s expanding global reach and modern fleet will take travellers to exciting places across the globe including the airline’s latest desti-nations launched in 2016: Adelaide, Atlanta, Birmingham, Boston, Hel-sinki, Los Angeles, Marrakech, Pisa, Ras Al Khaimah, Sydney, Windhoek and Yerevan.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said: “Over recent years Qatar Air-ways has seen significant growth, expanding its worldwide footprint to provide more opportunities for global leisure travellers to pre-mium destinations such as the Seychelles. When travelling with Qatar Airways we ensure that our passengers’ dream holiday starts with an extraordinary journey on board, where they truly experi-ence the warmth of Middle Eastern hospitality, world-class service, award-winning cuisine and in-flight entertainment.”

Seychelles Minister of Tourism and Culture Alain St Ange said: “It gives me great pleasure to see Qatar Airways serving the Seychelles. Our partnership has always been a very positive one. I know that the airline is very popular with the local com-munity and we all look forward to many more years of fruitful coop-eration and increased tourism business to our shores.”

Seychelles Tourism Board’s Chief Executive Officer Sherin Naiken, said: “The Seychelles Tourism Board is very happy to welcome Qatar Airways. We are looking forward to building a partnership with the airline that will foster the develop-ment of tourism and growth of local business.”

Passengers flying to the Sey-chelles from any of Qatar Airways’ more than 150 destinations around the world will enjoy a quick and convenient transfer at the airline’s hub Hamad International Airport.

The airport offers more than 100 retail and dining options and many unique services.

Passengers flying to the Seychelles will enjoy a quick and convenient transfer at the airline’s hub Hamad International Airport.

French expatriates who participated in a blood donation campaign at the French Ambassador’s residence.

French expats donate bloodThe Peninsula

DOHA: More than 50 French res-idents, including employees from the French Embassy in Qatar, participated in a blood donation campaign.

The event was held at the French ambassador’s residence.

Eric Chevallier, French Ambas-sador to Qatar, expressed his gratitude to all donors who partic-ipated in the national campaign for blood donation and organ donation.

“I have donated my blood and I am happy to see tens of French resi-dents coming for the same purpose. Blood donation saves lives and con-veys a strong message of solidarity”, the ambassador said.

Supermarket closed down for violationsThe Peninsula

DOHA: Al Khor and Al Dakhira Municipality permanently shut down a supermarket in Um Barakah area for operating without licence and selling expired food.

The violation was detected when an inspector at the Municipality noticed a vehicle transporting food and delivering it at one of the stores belonging to the supermarket.

After taking a written approval for inspection, inspectors found

violations like absence of health certificates of workers, food items without labels to indicate expiry date, and some were not displayed after leaving space of 30cm from the ground. There were some chocolates that had expired three months ago, and some meat did not meet Gulf standards.

The Municipality director has issued the decision of closing the supermarket, and send a report to authorities concerned to complete legal procedures.

The Municipality recently closed down four food outlets working

without licence during the ongoing inspection visits under the name (Your safety is our most important priority).

Doha Municipality on Monday shut down three restaurants, one in South Madinat Khalifa for 10 days, while two others in Al Najma area were closed for 30 days for sell-ing food prepared in unhealthy conditions.

Meanwhile, Al Khor and Al Dakhira Municipality has built her-itage tower at the entrance of Hazm Al Jaltah park to display the history of Al Khor city.

Ooredoo’s Online Safety Campaign a major drawThe Peninsula

DOHA: Early interest in Ooredoo’s Online Safety Campaign dem-onstrates that families in Qatar are looking for ways to ensure a positive experience online for themselves and their families.

The campaign, which is hosted on Ooredoo Community (http://community.ooredoo.qa), has posted on three topics related to online security and recorded more than 13,000 views in the first three weeks, as well as generat-ing momentum via the company’s social media pages. In response to customer requests for more protection from inappropriate content on social media, Oore-doo launched the Online Safety Campaign in September 2016 to ensure that parents and children know how to combat explicit con-tent and stay safe.

The Peninsula

DOHA: As many as 1,866 peo-ple had registered themselves for winter camping until 1pm yester-

day, Environmental Protection, Reserves & Wildlife Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment said in a statement.

Saad Ibraheem Al Kaabi, General Coordinator for winter

camping season said that “registra-tion through the Ministry website and other registration centres is going smoothly” adding that more people had registered for Sealine and Al Mazroua areas.

1,866 people register for winter camping

MIDDLE EAST06 WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016

Egyptians wait in line for subsidised food commodities at a government-run supermarket in Cairo, yesterday.

Waiting for food

AFP

QAYYARAH, IRAQ: Iraqi forces were making gains as tens of thousands of fighters advanced on Mosul yester-day in an unprecedented offensive to retake the city from the Islamic State group.

With the crucial battle in its sec-ond day, Iraqi commanders said progress was being made as fighters pushed on two main fronts against the jihadists’ last stronghold in Iraq.

The US military, which is leading a coalition providing air and ground support, said Iraqi forces even looked “ahead of schedule” but senior West-ern officials warned the battle would be long and difficult.

Advancing in armoured convoys across the dusty plains surrounding Mosul, forces moved into villages defended by pockets of IS fighters after intensive aerial bombardment.

Massive columns of smoke rose from burning oil wells near the main staging base for government forces in Qayyarah, blotting out the horizon.

A soldier at a checkpoint nearby said that IS lit the wells on fire to pro-vide cover from air strikes before the town of Qayyarah was retaken in late August. The fires had been burning ever since.

Heavy smoke was also hang-ing over Mosul itself as the jihadists burned tyres to shield themselves, resident Abu Saif said.

Abu Saif said that while the sounds of air strikes and explosions could be heard coming from outside Mosul, its streets were eerily quiet.

“The streets are empty, the people

have been staying at home since the strikes started yesterday,” said Abu Saif, a 47-year-old former company manager.

“There is this happiness inside us... because we feel that we are about to be rescued,” he said.

“But we are scared that Daesh (IS) can still carry out acts of revenge against the population.”

The long-awaited Mosul offensive was launched on Monday, with some 30,000 federal forces leading Iraq’s largest military operation since the 2011 pullout of US troops.

Agencies

PARIS: French and Russian pres-idents Francois Hollande and Vladimir Putin and German Chan-cellor Angela Merkel will hold a “working meeting” on the Syrian cri-sis today in Berlin, the French leader’s office said.

The meeting will be aimed at “giving the same message to Vladimir Putin on Syria: a durable ceasefire in Aleppo and humanitarian access so that the devastation of this city can

end,” an aide to Hollande said.Meanwhile, the US State Depart-

ment voiced scepticism yesterday over the cessation of Russian and Syrian air strikes on Aleppo ahead of a brief truce, although Washington welcomed the break in the bombard-ment of the war-scarred Syrian city.

“Certainly we›re gratified to hear the reports that there might have been a reduction here in the vio-lence,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told CNN, a day after Mos-cow announced the truce.

“It’s a little too soon to tell how genuine this is and how long it›s

going to last. We’ve seen these kinds of commitments and promises before. And we’ve seen them broken. We›re watching this very carefully,” Kirby said.

“Now we have to see if they can actually put the muscle behind it.”

Russia announced an eight-hour ceasefire in Aleppo commencing at 0500 GMT on Thursday to allow time for Syrian civilians to flee the besieged city and to permit human-itarian workers to deliver aid.

But Moscow said that Russian and Syrian forces had halted air strikes, in what the Kremlin said was a

“goodwill” gesture, amid mounting criticism of Russia for backing the brutal regime of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. The United Nations repeatedly has called for 48-hour weekly pauses in the bombing to allow aid convoys to reach besieged civilians living in Aleppo.

Syria’s second city, held by rebels determined to oust Assad, has come under heavy bombardment since the Russia-backed military announced an offensive in late September to regain control of the east.

Air strikes in the city have flattened numerous residential

buildings and civilian facilities, in a bombing campaign the European Union warned could amount to war crimes.

Meanwhile, the wife of Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad said in an interview her husband’s foes had offered her the chance to flee Syria in order to try to shake confidence in him, but that she had not left the country since the war erupted.

Speaking in English to Russia’s state-backed Rossiya 24 channel, Asma Assad, a London-born former investment banker, did not say who made the offers.

Reuters

DUBAI/WASHINGTON: An Ira-nian court has sentenced an Iranian-American businessman and his elderly father to 10 years in prison on charges of cooper-ating with the United States, the Iranian judiciary’s official news website reported yesterday.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps detained Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman in his mid-40s, in October 2015, while he was visiting family in Tehran. The IRGC arrested his father, Baquer Namazi, a former Unicef official in his early 80s, in February.

“Siamak Namazi and Moham-mad Baquer Namazi have each been sentenced to 10 years prison ... for cooperating with the hostile government of America,” Mizan website said, citing “an informed source”.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the sentences.

Siamak Namazi was most recently working for Crescent Petroleum, an oil and gas com-pany in the United Arab Emirates. He was chosen as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum in 2007.

Baquer Namazi, a former Ira-nian provincial governor, served as Unicef representative in Soma-lia, Kenya, Egypt and elsewhere, and for a time ran Hamyaran, an umbrella agency for Iranian non-governmental organisations.

He has a serious heart and other medical conditions requir-ing special medication, his wife wrote on Facebook in February.

Hamas sentences

alleged spy to death

GAZA CITY: A Hamas-run court in Gaza has sentenced a man to death for allegedly collaborating with Israel.

Officials said yesterday that the sentence raises the number of people on death row to six — half for allegedly spying.

AFP

PARIS: The UN cultural agency yesterday adopted an Arab-spon-sored resolution condemning Israel’s actions at a flashpoint holy site in east Jerusalem that has sparked fury in the Jewish state.

The Unesco resolution on “occupied Palestine” was drafted by Qatar, Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon,

Morocco, Oman and Sudan. It was endorsed yesterday by the exec-utive board after being approved at the committee stage last week. Referring throughout to Israel as “the occupying power,” it condemns Israel for restricting Muslims’ access to the Al Aqsa mosque compound — Islam’s third holiest site.

While acknowledging the importance of the Old City to “the three monotheistic

religions” (Islam, Judaism and Christianity) the resolution refers throughout to the site by its Muslim names, Al Aqsa or Al Haram Al Sharif.

Palestine’s deputy ambassa-dor to Unesco, Mounir Anastas, welcomed the adoption of the resolution, saying he hoped it would pressure Israeli authorities to “stop all their violations”, par-ticularly the excavation of sites in and around the Old City.

AFP

GENEVA: International aid groups including the Red Cross said yesterday they were preparing for the possible use of chemical weapons in the bat-tle for the Iraq city of Mosul.

Iraqi forces backed by an international coalition are making gains in their advance on the city, the last major urban centre in Iraq under the Islamic State (IS) group’s control.

There have been warnings the battle to take Mosul will be a long, bloody affair, with the jihadists expected to fight back with hit-and-run tactics, snipers, booby traps and trenches.

Robert Mardini of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s (ICRC) Near and Middle East division warned: “We cannot exclude the use... of chemical weapons.”

He told reporters the ICRC was preparing by training healthcare workers and providing equipment to health facilities around Mosul “that would be able to absorb the cases of people contaminated and offer decontamination.”

“As we speak, we have a team in Iraq liaising with the health author-ities and working hand-in-hand with health personnel in Iraq in order to develop this response capacity,” he said.

Iraqi forces make gains in push to retake Mosul

AFP

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama warned of a tough battle ahead as Iraqi forces backed by a US-led coalition advance on Mosul to wrest the city from the Islamic State group.

Obama said he was confident the offensive on the northern city, now in its second day, would succeed in driving the jihadists from their last stronghold in Iraq.

“There will be ups and downs in this process, but my expectation is that ultimately it will be success-ful,” he told a joint news conference

with Italian Prime Minister Mat-teo Renzi.

“This will be, I think, a key mile-stone in what I committed to doing when ISIL first emerged,” Obama said, using an acronym for the jihad-ist group.

“We are going to roll them back, and we are going to ultimately drive them out of population centers,” he vowed.

Obama said he was “confident that ISIL will be defeated in Mosul and that will be another step toward their ultimate destruction.”

But the US leader warned of a challenging road ahead.

“Mosul will be a difficult fight. There will be advances and there

will be setbacks,” he said.“Perhaps one million civilians

are still living there,” he added. “In addition to rooting out ISIL, our focus is on the safety and humani-tarian aid for civilians escaping the fight. That will be a top priority for both our governments.”

Obama said he expected “sig-nificant displacement” of civilians from Mosul, and that the US-led coa-lition, in conjunction with the United Nations and major aid organizations was prepared to respond to it.

“We have put together plans and infrastructure for dealing with a potential humanitarian crisis that are as extensive as the military plans,” Obama said.

France, Russia and Germany to hold Syria meeting today

Obama: Mosul will be a difficult fight

Iran sentences two US citizens to 10 years in jail

Red Cross braces for chemical weapons use

With the crucial battle in its second day, Iraqi commanders said progress was being made as fighters pushed on two main fronts against the militants’ last stronghold in Iraq.

Iraqi forces drive a tank as they deploy in the Bajwaniyah village, about 30km south of Mosul, yesterday.

Unesco endorses anti-Israel resolution

ASIA / AFRICA 07WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016

LUANDA: At least eight spectators were killed at a music festival in Angola at the weekend, police said yesterday, with one witness saying that a stampede started at the over-crowded stadium where doors had been locked.

Police in the western city of Benguela issued a statement “announc-ing the death of the eight citizens for reasons that remain to be deter-mined”, adding that an investigation had been launched.

Eight dead in

Angola concert

stampede: Police

Education unrest

DR Congo poll delay ‘not answer’ to crisis: France

Australia denies Nauru

refugees torture claimsAFP

SYDNEY: Amnesty International’s claims that Australia’s detention of asylum-seekers on the Pacific island of Nauru amounts to torture are “absolutely false”, Prime Min-ister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) said yesterday.

Canberra sends asylum-seek-ers trying to reach Australia by boat to Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, but the camps’ con-ditions have been widely criticised by refugee advocates and medical professionals.

Amnesty said in a report Mon-day that asylum-seekers and refugees on tiny Nauru were “driven to absolute despair” and were struggling with an “epidemic of self-harm”, adding that their liv-ing conditions fit international law’s definition of torture.

But Turnbull blasted the allega-tions and said his country’s tough policies stopped people dying at sea on dangerous boat journeys.

“I reject that claim totally. That is absolutely false,” he said. “The Aus-tralian government’s commitment is compassionate and it’s strong.”

“As far as Nauru is con-cerned... there is a very substantial investment there, to improve the circumstances of the people that are there.”

Gordhan will ‘not

seek’ review of

fraud charges

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan reiterated that he will not apply for a review of the decision by the National Prose-cuting Authority (NPA) to charge him with fraud, his lawyers said on Tuesday.

The NPA invited Gordhan to make rep-resentations regarding the charges to its head, Shaun Abrahams.

Gordhan said on Fri-day he considered such a review pointless because he doubted the “ability or willingness” of the NPA to give him a fair hearing.

AFP

PARIS: French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said yesterday that plans to postpone presidential elections in the troubled Democratic Republic of Congo until April 2018 were “no response to the crisis”.

President Joseph Kabila’s

mandate is due to end in December and political tensions already run high in the vast country.

Postponement of the vote was announced Monday during a “national dialogue” in Kinshasa, boycotted by key opposition parties.

“To put off the election until 2018 will not solve the problem,” Ayrault told journalists in Paris.

“There is only one way out of the crisis, for the president to announce that he will not run for office and for a date to be set for the election.”

“The situation in the DRC greatly concerns us. There is a major risk of clashes and bloody demonstrations and repression,” Ayrault said, weeks after dozens died and were injured during protests and a crackdown in Kinshasa.

The main opposition, united in a “Rassemblement” (Gathering) coa-lition, has dismissed the conference

convened by Kabila’s regime as a ploy to keep him in power beyond his second and final constitutional term, which began after he won a disputed election in December 2011.

The Togolese facilitator of the talks, Edem Kodjo, said participants had agreed that “presidential, legis-lative and local elections (will take place) six months after they are con-vened on October 30, 2017.”

Kabila first came to power dur-ing wartime in 2001 after his father was slain by a bodyguard.

The EU on Monday condemned recent bloodshed, called for elec-tions next year and threatened to “use all means at its disposal, includ-ing individual restrictive measures” targetting people accused of human rights violations.

Asked about possible EU sanc-tions, Ayrault said that “nothing is ruled out”.

AFP

BANGKOK: Thais should “socially sanction” those who defame the monarchy following King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s death, the junta’s justice minister said yesterday, as fresh vid-eos emerged of mob justice against people accused of insulting the insti-tution.

The death of the world’s longest reigning monarch has left the nation bereft of its key pillar of unity and seen mass outpourings of grief from black-clad Thais.

But it has also unleashed small but vocal ultra-monarchist forces, including mobs and online crusad-ers scouring the web and bent on

punishing anyone perceived to have insulted the monarchy.

“There is no better way to punish these people than to socially sanc-tion them,” Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya said yesterday, as he vowed to “pursue those people who violate the law”.

His message comes amid a grow-ing number of cases of vigilantism by royalist Thais against people accused of insulting the monarchy.

At 10:30am a video was broad-cast live on Facebook showing a mob kicking and beating a man and forcing him to prostrate himself in apology for allegedly insulting the monarchy.

During the beating, which appeared to take place in Chonburi east of Bangkok, the man cried out:

“I didn’t mean to do it, I love the king! It’s my fault.”

Another video uploaded to social media late Monday showed an eld-erly woman on a Bangkok bus being berated and slapped in the face by commuters in the presence of police over alleged comments.

Thailand’s monarchy is protected by a draconian lese majeste law that outlaws criticism with punishments of up to 15 years in jail for each insult uttered.

Prosecutions have surged under the military which seized power two years ago, and record-breaking sen-tences have been handed down in some cases.

The atmosphere in Bangkok has been overwhelmingly sombre and calm since the death of the king.

The situation in DRC greatly concerns us. There is a major risk of clashes and bloody demonstrations and repression: Ayrault

People holding banners stage a sit-in at the University of Witwatersrand to protest against the militarisation of the campus and racial profiling, in Johannesburg, yesterday.

Sanctions urged against royal critics

VIEWS08 WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016

A brief, unilateral ceasefire announced by Russia in Aleppo - what Kremlin calls a ‘goodwill’ measure - is just an attempt to deflect international pressure as Russia has been accused of committing war crimes with its relentless bombardment of the besieged city.

Moscow announced yesterday that Russian and Syrian forces have stopped bombing the city ahead of an eight-hour truce that would be implemented on Thursday. Though the United Nations and the European Union have welcomed the ceasefire, the world is cautious and sceptical about the Russian motive. First of all, eight hours are too short to plan and deliver aid in a war-ravaged city and with the past experiences of ceasefire violations, aid agencies would be cautious before they take up any work. Moscow itself says the pause in fighting is designed to separate moderate fighters from extremist militants, which means an intensification of the fighting is likely after the

ceasefire. But rebels have rejected any withdrawal from the city, which they consider will be a ‘surrender’.

The world is watching helplessly as Russia’s ferocious onslaught on the Aleppo region continues. The offensive has destroyed hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure and targeted medical personnel, plunging the country into some of the worst violence of the five-year war that has claimed over 300,000 lives. Over 250,000 people are under siege in the city, their lives at risk and livelihoods cut off.

Even after several tenuous ceasefires, there is no hope of a long ceasefire. Talks in Switzerland at the weekend involving foreign ministers from the US, Russia and Syria’s neighbours ended with no consensus on halting the violence.

Syria has become a complex battleground of diverse and conflicting interests of several forces, both domestic and foreign. With every passing day, the stakes are getting higher for these forces, pushing a solution further away.

The immediate task of the European Union, the US and the UN must be to get Russia to stop its war crimes in Aleppo. But the sense of powerlessness and hopelessness is clearly visible. The EU foreign ministers warned that the 28-nation bloc could impose additional sanctions against Damascus, but decided against targeting Russia despite American and British calls to punish Russia as well. With Washington freezing bilateral ceasefire talks with Moscow over the latter’s unwavering support for Bashar Al Assad, the path to peace remains blocked. Meanwhile, Aleppo will witness more death and destruction as Russian-Syrian forces remain determined to bomb the city into submission.

Russian ceasefire

Syria has become a complex battleground of diverse and conflicting interests which is complicating peace efforts.

Quote of the day

I am confident that ISIL will be defeated in Mosul and that will be another step toward their ultimate destruction. Mosul will be a difficult fight. There will be advances and there will be setbacks.

Barack ObamaUS President

E S TA B L I S H E D I N 1996

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

msalim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORHUSSAIN AHMAD

hussain@pen.com.qa

EDITOR IAL

EDITORIAL TEL: 44557741 / 44557743 FAX: 44557746 / 44557758 P. O. BOX: 3488, DOHA, QATAR E-MAIL: editor@pen.com.qaADVERTISING TEL: 44557837 / 780 FAX: 44557870 CLASSIFIED: 44557857 E-MAIL: adv@pen.com.qaSUBSCRIPTION / HOME DELIVERY TEL: 44557809 /839 FAX: 44557819 E-MAIL: info@tawseelqatar.com

The Battle for Mosul (as it will undoubt-edly be known once historians write their books) finally began

in earnest in the early hours of October 17 after months of shap-ing operations around the capital of Nineveh Governorate.

Mosul is one of Iraq’s most historically significant cities that has been the de facto cap-ital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) organisation for more than two years, and this battle is of strategic and also symbolic importance.

However, none should expect it to be quick, easy or even with-out enormous cost.

A cursory glance at Iraq’s bat-tlefield performance against ISIL gives us a clear insight into what is likely to happen in Mosul over the coming months.

Is protecting Mosul minorities an excuse for partition?

I say months, because Mosul will not be taken in a matter of weeks, nor will it be taken with-out the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), Kurdish Peshmerga and sectarian Shia militias paying a hefty price when the time comes to square away the butcher’s bill.

When Iraq set off to recap-ture Tikrit last year, we heard on numerous occasions how ISIL will be rolled back, and that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s hometown will soon be back under Baghdad’s control.

On March 14, 2015, Karim al-Nuri, a fighter and spokesman for the sectarian Iran-backed Badr Organisation, a significant com-ponent of the Shia-dominated Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), said that ISIL fighters were surrounded, mere dozens of them remained and that the city would fall “within 72 hours”.

As it happened, it took not three days, but a month and a half for Tikrit to be cleared. A force of several hundred ISIL fighters managed to hold off

almost 30,000 ISF, PMF and fed-eral police in a battle that could only be described asmilitarily embarrassing.

As a point of comparison, the Iraqi military in 1988 managed to liberate Iraq’s southeastern Faw peninsula from Iranian forces in less than 48 hours.

More recently, it took more than a month for Iraq to regain control of Fallujah, and not with-out significant cost. Not only were battlefield losses high, but the city was reduced to rubble in a manner not too dissimilar from what happened in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s western Anbar Governorate.

PMF militias were also exposed as having committed grave atrocities, such as slaugh-tering Sunni civilians before forcing others to drink the blood of their recently slain fellow prisoners.

If this is what the ISF and its allies can produce operationally on the field of battle, even with extensive Iranian support and US air cover, then how can anyone expect their battlefield perform-ance and capabilities suddenly to improve?

The answer is that we simply cannot, and Iraq’s armed forces have certainly not become a bet-ter military over the past five months.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi is bent on prising Mosul from ISIL’s grip before the end of the year, perhaps to secure his

office against resurgent rivals such as his predecessor, Nouri Al Maliki, who is widely consid-ered to be a virulently sectarian politician.

Why delay doesn’t make sense in Mosul

However, the clock is ticking and he may not be able to make good on his promise as Mosul is no Tikrit, and it is certainly no Fallujah.

Mosul is Iraq’s second largest city, and ISIL has been in control of it for more than two years. It has therefore had more than ample time to prepare defences, and has done this while staying relatively unmolested.

Most of the heaviest fighting against ISIL was in Anbar, Sala-huddin and Diyala, while Kurdish units have maintained a fairly stable line since they snatched Kirkuk and Jalawla from ISIL two years ago.

As such, ISIL will have defi-nitely used this time to prepare for the battle that has now begun. A few weeks ago, reports indi-cated that ISIL had dug a moat

around Mosul and pumped oil into it, ready to create a “river of fire”. Live footage from today shows enormous walls of black smoke completely covering Mosul’s frontage in most areas, creating a smokescreen of gigan-tic proportions.

This stratagem is a larger-scale version of what ISIL did in Qayyarah and Tikrit, where it set oil wells on fire in order to obscure the battlefield and pre-vent close air support in order to force the ISF to engage it on the ground where it is strongest. Aside from burning vast amounts of oil, ISIL has also sabotaged airfield runways, blockaded roads and undoubtedly littered Mosul with mines and IEDs.

With Iraq’s previous battle-field record in mind, as well as the length of time ISIL has had to harden their defences and dig in, we can expect Mosul to be exhaustingly long, bloody and with tragic humanitarian con-sequences for the 1.5 million civilians still in the city.

Tallha Abdulrazaq is a researcher at the University of Exeter’s Strategy and Security Institute and winner of the 2015 Al Jazeera Young Researcher Award.

Mosul will not be taken in a matter of weeks, nor will it be taken without the Iraqi Security Forces [ISF], Kurdish Peshmerga and sectarian Shia militias paying a hefty price when the time comes to square away the butcher’s bill.

Mosul will fall again, but at a great cost

By Tallha Abdulrazaq

Al Jazeera

The battle for Mosul will be long and the city’s remaining 1.5 million civilians will bear the brunt.

Peshmerga forces gather in the east of Mosul to attack ISIL fighters in Mosul, Iraq

OPINION 09WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016

Does Europe’s right want clash of civilisations?

By Salman Al-Azami

Anatolia

The alarming rise of right-wing political parties and their elec-toral successes in an increasingly diverse Europe have led to wor-

ries that the Clash of Civilisations theory is likely to become a reality in this part of the world.

There are striking similarities in the way all these right-wing parties transitioned from their fringe past into mainstream political parties with significant representa-tion in their respective parliaments and an even better presence in the EU parliament.

A snapshot of the current state of these parties will remind the reader why there is so much concern: In France, Marine Le Pen’s Front National has the highest number of French lawmakers in the European Par-liament and has the potential to be the biggest nationalist challenge to Europe’s liberal democratic traditions.

Behind the momentum achieved by the anti-Muslim Pegida movement in Germany, a right-wing political party established just three years ago -- Alternative for Ger-many -- has seats in half of the German state parliaments.

In Italy, the anti-immigration North-ern League made significant gains in local elections last year and is no longer con-fined to its traditional power base. The Netherland’s Party for Freedom -- led by Geert Wilders -- recently surged to the top of Dutch opinion polls.

In Sweden’s 2014 general election, the nationalist Sweden Democrats became the third largest party, winning 13 percent of vote. The situation is worse in Switzer-land where the anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party won 65 of 200 seats in last year’s general election.

The far-right Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer almost became Austrian president in April, while the eurosceptic Danish People’s Party came second in last

year’s election with 21 percent of the vote.Right-wing anti-immigration and anti-

Muslim parties are also in the ascendancy in countries such as Cyprus, Greece, Fin-land, Hungary and Slovakia.

Here in the UK, the right-wing United Kingdom Independence Party is the largest British party in the European Parliament and although it took just one seat in last year’s parliamentary election, it secured 13 percent of the vote, the third largest share of any party.

One may ask why we should worry if a party gains support through democratic means in a democratic country. Of course, we have to accept the will of the people but there is a genuine cause for concern when extremist ideologies receive mass support in societies that pride themselves on possessing liberal, tolerant, peaceful and democratic values.

Despite local differences, almost all these parties are anti-Muslim and anti-immigration, and some even use directly racist and Islamophobic language in their rhetoric. For example, French national-ist leader Marine Le Pen said in 2010 that the sight of Muslims praying in the street was similar to the Nazi occupation of her country.

Frauke Petry, the leader of Alternative for Germany declared that Islam “does not belong to Germany” and called for the border police to shoot illegal migrants if necessary.

It is important to look into the covert

contribution to the rise of these right-wing parties by Western governments and the mainstream media. For a long time, the so-called centrist parties took their voters for granted and overlooked the increasing social inequalities in their communities.

They rightly allowed immigration to grow but failed to convince the people of the benefits to society. When people showed concern over immigration, they either ignored it or capitalized on com-munity tensions for their own political gains. Parliaments began to be filled with career politicians who came from wealthy backgrounds and had enjoyed private educations that gave them little understanding of the struggles of the common people.

With an increasing diverse popula-tion due to immigration, these politicians played little role in facilitating integration between the host and immigrant com-munities. In this situation, right-wing parties and their leaders were able to position themselves as anti-establish-ment and preyed on the population’s anger with nationalism and patriotism.

The media also played a major role in creating divisions.

Anti-immigration and anti-Muslim propaganda in the right-wing media increased community tensions and turned a significant section of working class indigenous communities against immigrants. The media campaign has been such that immigration began to

be blamed for every social problem and Islam was shown to be incompatible with Western values.

If a murderer happened to bear a Mus-lim name, then he is termed as a “terrorist” but when an anti-Muslim racist such as Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway is merely called a “lone wolf”.

Right-wing and racist parties have been the greatest beneficiaries of this anti-immigration and anti-Muslim agenda.

Whether right-wing politicians and their supporters like it or not, immigra-tion is a reality in contemporary Europe and the number is certain to rise in the coming years. The refugee crisis Europe finds itself in at the moment is not going away soon.

Europeans have no other option but to accept a significant increase in the immi-grant population in their countries. What benefits will their hatred bring to society? Ninety-nine percent of immigrants are hard-working and peace-loving people.

What will these politicians achieve by turning their indigenous populations against them? The overwhelming majority of the immigrants are Muslims. What contribution are these politicians making to the society by spreading Islamophobia?

Many believe that Huntington’s theory of a Clash of Civilisations was a key factor behind George W Bush’s so-called War on Terror, which is the root cause of the mess the Middle East finds itself in at the moment.

Huntington argued that after the fall

of the Soviet Union, it would be Islam that would emerge as a threat to the West-ern civilisation. Overnight, millions of Muslims living in Western countries and contributing to every aspect of the society were turned into a threat by this theory.

With terrorist attacks perpetuated by some people calling themselves Mus-lim, the right-wing found an opportunity to present Islam and Muslims as inher-ently violent when not even one percent of the world’s Muslim population indulge in these heinous tasks.

The effect has been catastrophic in some places, with a sharp rise in hate crimes against immigrants and Muslims.

Right-wing politicians and the right-wing media in Europe seem to have brought Huntington’s theory into the heart of Europe. On the one hand, immigration is increas-ing and the population is becoming very diverse and on the other we are seeing an alarming rise in antagonism against immigrants and Muslims.

If right-wing parties continue to gain momentum, societies will surely become more intolerant towards each other. This may even lead to violent conflicts.

Anyone with mainstream Islamic knowledge will agree that there is no clash of civilisations here. In fact, Islam is com-patible with the majority of the positive moral values in the West. Unfortunately, there are few politicians or media insti-tutions ready to pass on this truth to the common people.

Anyone with mainstream Islamic knowledge will agree that there is no clash of civilizations here. In fact, Islam is compatible with the majority of the positive moral values in the West. Unfortunately, there are few politicians or media institutions ready to pass on this truth to the common people.

President of the French far-right party and presidential candidate for the 2017 French Presidential elections Marine Le Pen gestures as she arrives to visit the “Salon Planete PME”, a forum for French small and medium businesses, in Paris, yesterday.

India’s puzzling gender gap will restrict its growth

By Justin Fox

Bloomberg

Of an estimated 2.6bn mobile-phone owners in low- and middle-income countries last

year, 1.4 billion were men and 1.2 bil-lion were women, according to a study conducted for the mobile industry trade group GSMA. Most of that mobile-phone gender gap was concentrated in just one country, India, where 114m fewer women than men had phones.

This leads to a bunch of other big

digital disparities, as Eric Bellman and Aditi Malhotra reported in the Wall Street Journal last week:

“In India around 30% of internet users are female, according to estimates by the Internet and Mobile Association of India. A government survey in 2014 found that only around 9% of females surveyed knew how to do an internet search or send email on a phone or computer, compared with more than 16% of males surveyed.”

The country has close to three men on Facebook for every woman, accord-ing to consultancy We Are Social. In most other parts of the world the ratio is about one to one.

Then there’s the gap that long pre-dated the rise of mobile phones: 79.9 percent of Indian men 15 and older either had paid employment or were looking for a job in 2014, while only 27 percent of Indian women did. That 52.9 percentage point gap is actually a little bigger than it was in 1990, and is surpassed only by a few Islamic countries such as Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and India’s neighbour Pakistan.

India’s other majority-Muslim neigh-bour, Bangladesh, has a female labour force participation rate of 57.6 per-cent (compared with 84 percent for the men). And compared with other major emerging economies, India is a clear laggard in female labour force participation.

The weird thing here is that India is not a country where women are barred from top educational institutions or posi-tions of authority. In the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Global Gender Gap report, India scores ninth in the world (well ahead of France, the UK and the US) for women’s political empowerment. And there are states in India, including quite populous ones such as Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu along the southeast-ern coast, where female labour force participation rates are much closer to global averages.

So what is keeping Indian women out of the workforce? There’s a bur-geoning economic literature on this, much of it written by Indian women. One interesting note is that the decline in female labour force participation

over the past decade may partly be a sign of progress -- Harvard Univer-sity economist Claudia Goldin found in 1995 that the measure tends to fol-low a U-shaped curve as countries develop. First, participation drops as incomes grow, production moves from homes and farms to factories, and girls stay in school longer. Then, it rises as better-educated women enter the work-force. Most of the female participation decline in India has been in rural areas, so that may actually be an indication of increasing affluence there. Mean-while, girls have closed the gap with boys in primary-school enrollment, and reduced it in secondary and uni-versity education. So things could start getting better soon.

Still, India is starting from a ter-ribly low base and is still heading in the wrong direction. One factor that economists bring up is the rigidity of the formal labour market -- people with payroll jobs tend to stay in them, which makes things tough on younger would-be workers. But it seems like cul-tural attitudes are the biggest barrier.

The Wall Street Journal article tells of fathers, husbands and even village lead-ers who argue for keeping phones out of women’s hands to protect their vir-tue. And there’s a long tradition of sons being seen as more valuable to fam-ilies -- and thus a better bet to invest in -- than daughters.

Not that anybody should be look-ing to me, a Western journalist who has been to India just once, for expert diagnosis here. This issue seems impor-tant to focus on, though, because India plays such a big role in any prognosis of global economic growth. Sometime in the next decade it will pass China to become the most populous nation on the planet. With its youngish popula-tion and declining birth rates, India is nearing the demographic sweet spot of a huge working-age population with relatively few youthful and eld-erly dependents. By all rights it should become one of the main engines of the global economy. But as long as most of India’s women are sidelined from the labour market, that engine won’t be running at anywhere near full capacity.

The country has close to three men on Facebook for every woman, according to consultancy We Are Social. In most other parts of the world the ratio is about one to one.

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.

ASIA / PHILIPPINES10 WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016

ZAMBOANGA CITY: The burial of ex-Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos at cemetery for national heroes has once again been placed on hold following petitions from opposition groups, yesterday.

“Magistrates had decided to defer the decision on the con-solidated petitions arguing that former pres-ident Marcos’ burial at the national cemetery would be a ‘grave injus-tice’ to victims of martial rule, which he oversaw as president,” Supreme Court Information Office Chief Theodore Te said recently.

SC keeps hero’s

burial for Marcos

on hold again

UN slams N Korea’s failed missile launchAFP

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council denounced North Korea’s lat-est test of a powerful missile that one leading US expert warned could be put into operational service as early as next year.

North Korea test-fired the medium-range Musudan -- capa-ble of hitting US bases as far away as Guam -- on Saturday.

Although the exercise was a fail-ure, with the missile exploding soon after lift-off, it still represented a breach of UN resolutions prohibit-ing the North’s use of ballistic missile technology.

In a unanimous statement backed by the North’s main ally China, the council “strongly condemned” the test, branding it a “grave viola-tion” of North Korea’s international obligations.

Council members agreed to “closely monitor the situation and take further significant measures,” the statement said.

First unveiled as an indige-nous missile at a military parade in Pyongyang in October 2010, the Musudan has a theoretical range of anywhere between 2,500 and 4,000km

The lower estimate covers the whole of South Korea and Japan, while the upper range would include US military bases on Guam.

The missile has now been tested seven times this year -- but only once successfully.

A Musudan launched in June flew 400km into the Sea of Japan (East Sea), and was hailed by leader Kim

Jong-Un as proof of the North’s ability to strike US bases across “the Pacific operation theater”.

Despite the string of failures, John Schilling, an aerospace engineer specializing in rocket propulsion, said the missile was moving swiftly towards operational deployment.

The aggressive launch schedule, while multiplying the risk of fail-ure, also increases the information gleaned from each test, Schilling said.

“If they continue at this rate, the Musudan intermediate-range ballis-tic missile could enter operational service sometime next year -- much sooner than had previously been expected,” he wrote on the 38North website of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

The latest Musudan test came with the United States and China still thrashing out a new sanctions resolu-tion to punish Pyongyang for its fifth nuclear test carried out last month.

North Korea has been hit by five sets of UN sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006.

After Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test in January, the Security Council adopted the toughest sanctions resolution to date, target-ing North Korea’s trade in minerals and tightening banking restrictions.

The ongoing negotiations on the new sanctions measure are focused on closing loopholes and zeroing in on NorthKorea’s nuclear and ballistic missile technology industry, accord-ing to Security Council diplomats.

Sri Lanka destroys

seized bird nests

destined for soup

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan custom officers yester-day destroyed 45kg of rare bird nests that are considered a delicacy in China and have a street value of nearly half a mil-lion dollars.

The officers burnt the pile of swallows’ nests confiscated mainly from passengers’ airport lug-gage and postal parcels intended for overseas delivery over the past four years.

“We destroyed this stock to demonstrate our commitment to pro-tect endangered species,” customs spokesman Dharmasena Kahandawa said.

Nearly 500,000 evacuated

as typhoon lashes HainanReuters

BEIJING: Typhoon Sarika lashed China’s southern resort island of Hainan yesterday, with torrential rain and winds of up to 162km per hour forcing authorities to evacu-ate almost half a million people and halt transport services.

Rail services were suspended on Monday and 250 flights were cancelled at the provincial capital Haikou’s international airport, state news agency Xinhua said.

The provincial meteorolog-ical bureau expects losses from the typhoon to be “grave” as the storm was expected to be “the most powerful and destructive to

land in Hainan in a decade”, Xin-hua reported recently.

Nearly 500,000 people, including fishermen, tourists and residents in low-lying areas, have been evacuated, the report said recently.

Schools were shut in eight coun-ties and tourist sites were closed to the public, it said.

Once the storm passes Hainan, which China likes to style as its answer to Hawaii or Bali, it will barrel into the southern Chinese region of Guangxi, state television added.

Typhoons are common at this time of year, picking up strength as they cross warm Pacific waters and bringing fierce winds and rain when they reach land.

China may give Filipino fishermen shoal accessReuters

BEIJING: China will consider giving Filipino fishermen conditional access to disputed waters in the South China Sea after the presidents of the two countries meet in Beijing this week, two Chinese sources with ties to the leadership said.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte plans to raise the plight of Filipino fishermen when he meets his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, tomorrow, a Philippine official said.

Duterte arrived in Beijing from Brunei yesterday.

China seized Scarborough shoal - claimed by Beijing as Huangyan island and by Manila as Panatag - in 2012, denying Philippine fishermen access to its rich fishing grounds.

The seizure formed part of a case the Philippines took to the Per-manent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, which in July rejected Chi-na’s territorial claims over much of the South China Sea, including its assertion of a 320 km exclusive economic zone around the disputed Spratly islands.

China immediately declared the ruling “null and void” but said it is time to get talks started again between the countries directly involved in the territorial disputes to reach a peaceful resolution.

“EVERYBODY CAN GO”Beijing is now considering

making a concession to Duterte, whose rapprochement with China since taking office on June 30 marks an astonishing reversal in recent Philippine foreign policy.

“Everybody can go, but there will be conditions,” one of the Chinese sources who speaks regularly with senior officials said, referring to Chi-nese and Filipino fishermen.

Asked what the conditions were, the source said: “The two countries

would have to form working groups to iron out details.”

It was unclear, however, if China would agree to joint coastguard patrols.

The sources did not say what, if anything, China might demand from Manila in exchange for the fishing concession.

“It will be a return to the Arroyo days,” the second Chinese source said, referring to the administration

of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, when fishermen from both countries had access to waters near Scarborough.

If all goes according to script, fish-ery cooperation would be one of more than 10 broad framework agreements the two countries would sign during Duterte’s visit, the sources said, with-out giving further details.

The Philippine foreign ministry said it had “no comment at this time”.

IS-linked

kidnap suspect

shot dead

ZAMBOANGA CITY: A suspected member of an IS-linked group accused of involvement in the kidnapping of Euro-pean tourists has been shot dead during arrest, according to the Philip-pine military.

Major Filemon Tan Jr, Western Mindanao Command spokesman, said in a statement that Ustab Anji had report-edly grabbing a firearm from security forces fol-lowing arrest Monday in Tawi Tawi.

“The scuffle prompted the latter [escort] to fire at Anji which resulted in his instantaneous death,” Tan said.

Filipinos trust US much more than China: SurveyReuters

MANILA: People in the Philip-pines still trust the United States far more than China, an opinion poll showed yesterday, despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent outpouring of anti-American rhet-oric and his sudden overtures towards old rival Beijing.

Though trust in both countries had declined slightly since the last survey in June, a Social Weather Stations poll from Sept.ember 24 to 27 showed 55% of Filipinos had “little trust” in China, versus 11% who had doubts about the US.

Just over three-quarters, or 76%, of the 1,200 respondents had “much trust” in the US, com-pared to 22% who felt the same about China. The poll did not ask respondents to explain their views.

Duterte has railed fero-ciously about the longtime ally and former colonial power and questioned its loyalty. He has complained of being dictated to about his deadly war on drugs by President Barack Obama.

The last SWS poll showed an 81% rating of “much trust” for the United States with just 9% having “little trust”.

Feelings about China were better at that time, with 27% hav-ing high trust and 51% little trust.

People stand near a flooded river after Typhoon Sarika hits Qionghai, Hainan province, yesterday.

Vietnam military helicopter goes missing

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte arrives at a hotel in Beijing, yesterday.

Although the exercise was a failure, it still represented a breach of UN resolutions prohibiting the North’s use of ballistic missile technology.

AFP

HANOI: A Vietnamese army helicop-ter carrying three people disappeared from radar yesterday, the defence ministry said, sparking fears of another deadly military aviation accident in the communist nation.

Eleven people have been killed in army air accidents this year alone, although the country has a strong civil aviation record.

Officials said yesterday they were searching for the helicopter after it disappeared in the southern prov-ince of Ba Ria-Vung Tau with a pilot and two trainees on board.

“During training the helicopter

lost contact northwest of Dinh moun-tain,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.

State media said it was an Airbus EC130 helicopter.

The military has suffered three deadly aviation accidents since June.

In August, a trainee pilot was killed when his L39 fighter jet crashed into a ricefield in the coastal province of Phu Yen.

That accident came just three months after a jet fighter carrying two pilots crashed off the coast of northern Nghe An province, with only one of the pilots rescued.

Days later a military search plane deployed to find the missing pilot lost contact and was later found crashed with all nine people on board dead.

Financer behind Dhaka cafe attack ‘joins IS in Syria’AFP

DHAKA: Bangladesh police said yesterday they have identified three people as financial back-ers of a group blamed for a deadly attack on a cafe, including a doc-tor who joined IS jihadists in Syria.

Gunmen raided the cafe in a smart Dhaka neighbourhood on July 1 and killed 20 mostly foreign hostages, the deadliest in a series of such attacks which have blighted Bangladesh in the last three years.

The IS group claimed respon-sibility for the carnage but the government blamed a new faction

of the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bang-ladesh (JMB). It launched a major crackdown against the local mil-itant group that left 40 members dead.

Dhaka police counter-terror-ism chief Monirul Islam said two suspected militants, including a retired army major, have been identified as funding the JMB. They were killed in police raids.

Islam said a doctor also funded the group, donating $10,000. The ex-army officer gave his retirement benefits and the other militant handed over the proceeds of an apartment sale.

“The doctor has gone to Syria to join the Islamic State. The other

two were killed during anti-mil-itant raids last month,” a Dhaka police spokesman said.

Local media have reported that the paediatrician, who had worked at a state-run children’s hospi-tal, and his family went missing months before the cafe attack.

Police have named former JMB leader Tamim Chowdhury as the mastermind of the attack. Chowdhury, a Canadian citizen of Bangladesh origin, was shot dead in a gunfight in August.

Bangladesh has been reeling from a wave of recent attacks with targets including foreigners, rights activists and members of religious minorities.

PM sends rescue missionReuters

HANOI: Vietnam’s prime minister ordered the military to launch a res-cue mission after a helicopter went missing yesterday during a train-ing flight, the government said, in the latest in a series of aviation set-backs.

The Airbus EC 130 T2 helicopter was carrying an instructor and two trainee pilots when it disappeared off radar screens in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, the gov-ernment said on its website.

The defence ministry issued a statement but did not indicate whether those aboard were mili-tary or civilian.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc instructed the military to find the victims and review procedures to ensure safety and asked rescue units and provin-cial staffs to help.

The incident comes after a succession of deadly accidents involving military planes and heli-copters, at a time when Vietnam is adding to its shopping list as part of its biggest military buildup since the Vietnam War.

PAKISTAN 11WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016

Women shout slogans after attack on Imambargah (Shia mosque) in Karachi, yesterday. A teenager was killed and nine other people were injured, some critically, in the attack on Monday, officials said.

Up in arms

An Afghan health worker administers polio vaccine to a child during a campaign on the outskirts of Jalalabad.

Health vaccine

AFP

ISLAMABAD: More than 350,000 Afghan refugees have returned to their war-torn homeland from Paki-stan this year, UN data show, with the torrent of people crossing the border expected to continue.

Earlier, the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR said the number of docu-mented Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan had soared past 200,000. But this week the body’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan released updated fig-ures that also include the number of undocumented refugees cross-ing the border.

“So far this year, 162,186 undoc-umented returnees and 207,236 registered returnees (369,422) have returned to Afghanistan from Paki-stan,” an OCHA statement said, noting that the majority, some 333,000 peo-ple, have returned since July.

“If that sounds like a lot, it is,” the statement continued.

“Based on current trends, we expect a further 446,000 (both reg-istered and undocumented) Afghans to arrive before year-end.”

“Due to hostilities in Kunduz and intensified fighting across the south we have seen a jump of 37,000 IDPs (internally displaced people) alone—more than 10 percent of the year total in just one week,” Danielle Moylan, a spokeswoman for OCHA, told reporters. The total number of IDPs due to fighting since the start of the year stands at 323,500.

For decades Pakistan has pro-vided safe haven for millions of Afghans who fled their country after the Soviet invasion of 1979.

Pakistan hosts 1.4 million regis-tered Afghan refugees, according to UNHCR figures, making it the third-largest refugee hosting nation in the world. A further one million unreg-istered refugees are estimated to be in the country.

Since 2009, Islamabad has repeatedly pushed back a deadline for them to return, but fears are growing that the latest cutoff date in March 2017 will be final.

A security crackdown against undocumented foreigners in Paki-stan coupled with a UN decision announced in June to double cash grants for voluntary returnees to $400, has also seen a surge in returnees.

OCHA said that the vast majority of undocumented returnees claim they intend to return to the eastern province of Nangarhar. Many also settle in Kabul.

Internews

PE SH AWA R: T he K hyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to amend rules of business to empower itself for disciplinary action against the Pakistan Adminis-trative Service (PAS) officers posted to the province. The rules amend-ments will lead to the development of mechanisms to deal with such cases.

Currently, such powers rest with the federal government leaving

provincial government with only option of repatriating the defiant PCS officers to the centre.

The decision for rules amend-ments was taken at a meeting between Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and representatives of a faction of Pro-vincial Civil Service (PCS) officers, sources said yesterday. The meeting examined issues facing the provin-cial officers.

The CM said a parliamentary committee already working on amendments to the rules of busi-ness under his chairmanship would

also look into the matter. However, a PAS officer insisted the country’s president was ‘appointing authority’ for PAS officers and Establishment Division was their custodian and therefore, the provincial govern-ment had to seek centre’s permission for venturing into matters related to them.

The participants agreed that the post of the Anti-Corruption Estab-lishment (ACE) director would be kept in Schedule II but the police officer could be posted as the direc-tor as happened in the past.

No order to

block identity

of persons on

watch: Officials

Internews

ISLAMABAD: While a number of people in the Fourth Schedule – a list of people on official watch – of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) alleged that their computerised national identity cards (CNICs) have been blocked, none of the officials concerned acknowl-edged that such a direction had ever been issued.

Possibly, because there is no law that allows the government to block CNICs of proclaimed offenders or persons listed on the Fourth Schedule, officials at the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta), the interior ministry and Nadra declined to offer any direct answer to the allegations.

“We want writ of law to be implemented, and it has been written to government, all prov-inces and Gilgit-Baltistan to ensure action is taken against persons on Fourth Schedule in accordance with the law,” Ihsan Ghani, national coordinator for Nacta, said.

“We expect that in the second phase all the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir and Islamabad would take action against pro-scribed persons, including seizure of properties, cancellation of driv-ing and arms licences etc.” When asked about the suspension of their CNICs, he said this question specif-ically related to Nadra.

A similar answer was provided by a senior official in the interior ministry who said either Nadra or the minister would be in a position to say under which law had the CNICs been suspended.

Internews

ISLAMABAD: An audit conducted by Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) has identified several problems with the traffic infrastructure of the fed-eral capital, including faulty traffic signals, misleading signboards and dangerous U-turns due to a lack of fish bellies.

According to a source in the Capi-tal Development Authority (CDA), the ITP this week submitted audit report to Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Ansar Aziz, who is also CDA chairman.

The report says some two dozen traffic signals on some of the busi-est roads in the city are out of order and need to be replaced immediately.

All five signals in Shalimar area which are installed at the G-10 corner, Haideri Chowk, Kazmeen

Chowk, E-11 Margalla Road and F-11 Markaz Chowk, are out of order and need to be repaired, the report says.

It further says all six traffic sig-nals in I sectors, installed at Al-Shifa Hospital Chowk, Education Chowk, 7up and Jawa chowks and one on a service road, are also out of order.

The audit report lists faulty traf-fic signals in Aabpara and adjoining areas, Lal Masjid Chowk and G-6 and GPO chowks, that the one installed in Melody Chowk is functional but needs a control panel while the sig-nals in the main Aabpara Chowk needs cellular inviters.

The timings of the traffic signals at F-8 Exchange and PARC need to be synchronised while those installed at Tramri Chowk, Aabpara and on Kash-mir Highway are also dysfunctional.

The audit found there are few fish belly U-turns in Islamabad and that motorists have to take sharp U-turns.

It highlights the need for con-verting at least 13 of the U-turns into fish bellies to ensure smooth and safe traffic flow and the ITP also suggested closing at least 16 of the U-turns in the city.

The ITP has proposed the marking of zebra crossings at 37 points on vari-ous roads, including at Radio Pakistan Chowk, near Saudi Pak Tower, Aab-para, Melody and near Polyclinic.

The report highlights the short-age of bus bays and proposes the establishment of over 30 bus bays at some of the busier bus stops.

“We submitted a comprehensive report to the CDA,” said SSP Traffic Malik Matloob, adding that the traf-fic infrastructure needs to be updated according to current requirements.

“The current infrastructure is very old, which is causing traffic related problems including accidents,” he said.

According to the report, parking

in city is one of the bigger problems, especially around commercial areas including Blue Area, Jinnah Super, Super Market and various markazes.

Most of the parking lots are under illegal occupation and CDA’s directorate for market and road maintenance recently identified 806 encroachments in various areas.

The ITP’s audit report has sug-gested to widen 11 parking lots, including those in commercial plazas on Nazimud Din Road, Super Market and Blue Area. It highlights the need for establishing parking lots around weekly bazaars, district courts in F-8 and around fruit and vegetable market.

There is no parking space near any of the metro bus stations, which furthers the traffic problem, accord-ing to the report, which also stresses on the establishment of parking lots near the bus stations.

The audit says encroachments

should be removed from various roads and main service roads and that the one from the PWD signal towards the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) building in G-9/2 should be reopened. This road is blocked in front of the FIA office.

It proposes lane marking on over two dozen roads and suggests that over 200 traffic signboards and cat eyes with thrashers be immediately installed on various roads.

When asked, CDA and Metro-politan Corporation of Islamabad spokesperson Malik Saleem said the ITP had conducted the survey on the direction of the mayor, who wants to address all traffic related problems.

When contacted, Chief Metropol-itan Officer and Member Planning AsadMehboobKayani said the ITPs report will be reviewed over the next few days and the suggestions acted on in order to improve traffic flow.

Documentation

for infants of

non-residents

raises eyebrows

Internews

ISLAMABAD: Dr Nazia Zia, who recently arrived from the US, was surprised when an official at National Database and Regis-tration Authority (Nadra) centre asked her to wake her seven-week-old daughter and keep her eyes open for the camera to get a National Identity card for Over-seas Pakistanis (Nicop).

Nicop is a registration docu-ment issued to a Pakistani citizen. Previously, it was only issued to Pakistanis staying abroad for a consecutive period of six months or those with dual nationalities but can now be issued to any Paki-stani citizen.

“On October 14, I went to the Nadra centre in Blue Area to get a Nicop for my child. After getting a token, I waited for almost 45 min-utes and was directed to proceed to one of the counters to complete the process,” Zia says.

“A representative there asked me to wake the child up for a pho-tograph, or the card cannot be issued. I said how can I wake a seven-week-old baby and make her focus on camera. But the rep-resentative did not budge and even misbehaved,” she alleged.

She said after the birth of her baby in the US, she was issued an American passport and that the US authorities did not ask her to wake the baby for the picture.

Ziauddin, grandfather of the child, added it was strange that even babies were required to open their eyes and focus on the cam-era at the Nadracentre.

Zia is not the only citizen with such complaints. A large number of people suffer because of differ-ent reasons given by officials at Nadra and passport offices.

Earlier, Ahmer Naqvi had to make a new CNIC because his pic-tures on passport and the CNIC did not match - with his hair short in the CNIC and long in the passport.

Internews

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan govern-ment is mulling to eliminate subsidy for power consumers with introduc-tion of a uniform tariff throughout the country under a proposed deregulation plan, officials said.

At present, it is providing an annual subsidy of more than Rs 100bn to the power consumers.

It also has a cross-subsidy pro-gramme in place that imposes a higher-than-average tariff on some big consumers, and the amount to be used to subsidise baseline con-sumers and make up for line losses.

Planning, Development and Reform Minister Ahsan Iqbal pro-posed in a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy that the government should allow hous-ing societies to generate up to five megawatts of electricity without seeking any approval. Accordingly, the producers would be free to sell

electricity to the consumers directly.In the meeting, chaired by Prime

Minister Nawaz Sharif, participants argued that the proposal would have serious implications for government revenues as bill-paying consumers could shift to private power producers and consumers in areas with low bill recoveries and those who were highly subsidised would become a liability for the government.

“If the regular bill-paying con-sumers shift to private producers, then the government will have to provide higher subsidy to remaining consumers,” a participant cautioned.

It was also pointed out that with the expected rise in power genera-tion in 2018, its consumption would go up manifold along with subsidy being provided by the government.

Therefore, the participants sug-gested that if the proposed policy was adopted, then government’s interest could be shielded by elim-inating the subsidy and applying a uniform electricity tariff through-out the country.

Over 350,000 Afghan refugees return home: UNPakistan hosts 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees, according to UNHCR figures, making it the third-largest refugee hosting nation in the world.

KP govt to amend rules for action against defiant bureaucrats

Problems in Islamabad’s traffic infrastructure: Police audit

Uniform power tariff across country likely

INDIA12 WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016

State-sponsored terrorism biggest risk: Sushma

IANS

NEW DELHI: In what is an obvious reference to Pakistan’s use of terror-ism as an instrument of state policy, External Affairs Sushma Swaraj yes-terday said that the invitation to member states of the Bimstec group for an outreach summit at the BRICS Summit last weekend showed that these countries “today represent the polar opposite of a terrorism pro-moting polity”.

“The selection of Bimstec as the outreach group for the Goa Summit of the BRICS is also worth reflecting upon,” said Sushma Swaraj while inaugurating the BRICS Media Forum here.

“Members of Bimstec- Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand - today represent the polar opposite of a ter-rorism promoting polity,” she said.

“They are focused on improving the quality of life of their people, on skills and employment, on educa-tion and health, and on the quality

of governance and the deepening of democracy.”

After last month’s cross-border terror attack on an army base at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir that claimed the lives of 19 Indian soldiers, India launched a diplomatic blitz to iso-late Pakistan in the international community. India has blamed the Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed for the Uri attack.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi pulled out of the South Asian Asso-ciation for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) meet that was scheduled to be held in Islamabad in November in protest against Pakistan’s spon-sorship of terrorism.

Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan too followed suit citing the same reason while Sri Lanka held that a Saarc summit would not be possible in India’s absence.

As host of this year’s BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit held in Goa on Octo-ber 15-16, India decided to invite neighbouring countries belong-ing to the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) instead of the Saarc countries.

Pakistan is a member of Saarc but not of Bimstec. Sushma Swaraj said that the Bimstec countries were “actively promoting connectivity, cooperation and contacts amongst themselves”.

Stating the Bimstec nations’ interface with the BRICS has a message in itself, she said: “This is that a world changing in a pos-itive direction as reflected by the BRICS has its regional expression in a community like Bimstec that is able to visualise a prosperous col-lective future.

Suu Kyi seeks support to establish democracyIANS

NEW DELHI: Myanmar State Coun-sellor Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday called on President Pranab Mukher-jee at Rashtrapati Bhavan here and sought India’s support to establish stronger democracy in her country.

Suu Kyi, the Myanmar Foreign Minister, also met Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi at Rashtrapati Bhavan where she was accorded a ceremonial reception earlier.

“India and Myanmar are close neighbours and have a good long standing relationship with each other,” Mukherjee said in his meet-ing with Suu Kyi.

Congratulating her on the land-mark victory in the General Elections held in November, 2015, Mukherjee said India “appreciates the spirit with which the people of Myanmar have responded in the elections and that he was happy that the process of democratisation was being strength-ened in Myanmar”.

He said Myanmar’s transition to full democracy would take time to achieve and “India stands by Myan-mar in this process.”

Seeking India’s support, Suu Kyi said, “Myanmar seeks the

cooperation and support of India as its people look forward to progress and change for the betterment of

their lives.” Suu Kyi, who is on a three-day visit here post the Brics-Bimstec Summit in Goa, also met

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Women and Child Devel-opment Minister Maneka Gandhi.

Four hospital officials arrested for fire tragedyIANS

BHUBANESWAR: Medical Super-intendent Pusparaj Samantasinghar was among the four officials of Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital who were arrested yesterday in connection with the fire tragedy that claimed 20 lives.

The Commissionerate Police also arrested ex-Executive Engi-neer Amulya Kumar Sahu (electrical maintenance), Fire Safety Officer Santosh Das and retired Junior Engi-neer Malay Kumar Sahu (electrical maintenance).

Their arrest on charges of crim-inal negligence, including culpable homicide, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and negli-gence with regard to fire safety, is based on an FIR filed by Fire

Services Department, Police Com-missioner YB Khurania said.

Nineteen persons were killed in the fire in the Intensive Care Unit of the Dialysis Ward on Monday evening. Another 106 were under-going treatment for injuries.

The Fire Services Department lodged the FIR with the Khanda-giri police, alleging negligence of the hospital authorities to adhere to the fire safety norms.

The Directorate of Medical Edu-cation and Training (DMET) had also lodged an FIR against them for not adhering to the fire safety norms and evacuation of patients.

However, the police are yet to take any action on the FIR by the DMET. Meanwhile, the Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) registered a suo motu case over the fire mishap.

IANS

NEW DELHI: In a relief to Union Minister Smriti Irani, a trial court here yesterday dismissed a plea to issue summon against her for allegedly giving false infor-mation about her educational qualifications in her affidavit to the Election Commission of India.

The complaint was filed to harass the Minister, the Patiala House district court said.

Metropolitan Magistrate Harvinder Singh said prayer for seeking summon against Irani “is dismissed”, and observed that the complaint has been filed after delay of 11 years and because the original elections affidavit of 2004 is not available.

The court was hearing a pri-vate complaint filed by Ahmer Khan, who accused Irani of sub-mitting varying details about her educational qualifications in her three affidavits filed before the Election Commission for the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections held in 2004, 2011 and 2014.

“So where the original evi-dence has already been lost due to passage of number of years, the secondary evidence avail-able will probably be not able to withstand test of judicial scrutiny, there is great delay of around eleven years in fil-ing of the complaint, the said delay could be not condoned as complainant is not an aggrieved person,” the court said.

IANS

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court, which was to take a decision on the BCCI’s review petition against the Justice RM Lodha Committee recommendations yesterday, has defferred the issue by two weeks.

The issue will now be heard in chamber of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur two weeks later.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in its review petition had sought that the matter should be heard in an open court hearing.

The Justice RM Lodha Com-mittee appointed by the Supreme Court had proposed several far-reaching changes that could alter the way cricket is administered in the country. The Lodha panel also sought the removal of the entire BCCI top brass, including its pres-ident Anurag Thakur.

The apex court in its July 18 judgment accepted the rec-ommendations of the Lodha Committee on the organisa-tional reforms of the BCCI and had issued these as its directives.

With the BCCI dragging its feet on implementing the changes, the Lodha panel later accused the board of stalling reforms at every stage and violating the directions issued by the apex court.

Complaining that the BCCI ignored orders of the court and its recommendations on several issues, the Lodha panel sought action against the board’s top brass, including BCCI President Anurag Thakur, for violating the apex court’s orders.

Earlier this month, the BCCI’s special general meeting (SGM) decided to accept some of the rec-ommendations put forward by the Lodha Committee although the board also continued to resist the order regarding the removal of the BCCI top brass.

GST: Compensation for states decided

IANS

NEW DELHI: The Goods and Serv-ices Tax (GST) Council, at the end of day one of its meeting here yes-terday, decided on the issue of compensation for states, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told report-ers here.

“One main issue in yesterday’s agenda was to calculate the compen-sation for states and this matter was concluded in the discussions held,” Jaitley, who chaired the session, said here following the third meeting of the council. The meeting is slated to continue for the next two days.

Declaring that 2015-16 has been agreed upon as the base year for calculating compensation, Jaitley said the council has agreed on the parameters to be included in the definition of revenue for compen-sating states.

“The council discussed as to what would be the basis for calcu-lating revenue in the first five years,

that is, the compensation period. It was agreed that a 14 per cent secu-lar rate of growth would be treated as a possible growth rate as far as revenue is concerned.”

The Centre is to compensate the states for revenue losses for the first five years after the imple-mentation of the GST if the states’ revenues come down under the new tax regime.

The council will discuss the cru-cial issue of GST rates on the second day of its meeting today.

“At least five rate structure options were presented to the coun-cil today,” Jaitley said, adding that the final structure will be decided after discussing and analysing all of them.

“The rate structure should be such that it does not lead to fur-ther CPI (consumer price-indexed) inflation. Revenue must be such that states and the Centre are able to dis-charge their functions, putting the least burden on the taxpayer,” he said.

“Once the rate structure is final-ised, the technical group of officers will decide which items will attract which rate,” he added.

The central government is fol-lowing the roadmap to implement the GST by the targeted deadline of April 1, 2017.

The target roll-out of GST will depend on the passage of the Cen-tral GST and the Integrated and GST (IGST) bills in parliament and the respective state GST bills by each state.

After the first meeting, Jait-ley had said the issue of threshold limit in terms of turnover to exempt smaller firms from the system, and the actual rates of taxes on var-ious commodities, needed to be reconciled.

The GST is a single indirect tax that proposes to subsume most cen-tral and state taxes like the Value Added Tax, service tax, central sales tax, excise duty, additional customs duty and special additional customs duty.

SC tells Karnataka to supply 2,000 cusecs daily

IANS

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court yesterday directed Karnataka to continue to supply 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery river water daily to Tamil Nadu till further orders as it commenced hearing on the main-tainability of appeals by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala to challenge the 2007 Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award.

While continuing with its Octo-ber 4 order on the water release, a bench of Justice Dipak Misra,

Justice Amitava Roy and Justice AM Khanwilkar said it would be incumbent upon the governments of both states to maintain peace and harmony.

“People should not become law unto themselves,” the bench said.

Directing for the continued sup-ply of 2,000 cusecs, the bench noted Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi’s contention that both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were in a “state of dire need” of the water. Rohatgi said this referring to the report of the Cauvery Supervisory Commit-tee. The court noted senior counsel

Shekhar Naphade’s stand that Tamil Nadu was in “dire need of water” as well as of senior counsel Fali Nar-iman that “Karnataka too is not in a better state”.

Telling the court that drinking water reserves in Karnataka were shrinking, Nariman — appearing for Karnataka —told the court that situ-ation in the state was “much worse”.

The apex court also took note of Cauvery Supervisory Committee report that both the southern states were in distress situation with their farmers at the receiving end amid a large number of suicides in Mandya.

Free email service supports

eight Indian languagesIANS

MUMBAI: Marking a revolu-tionary transformation in email communication, a company has launched the world’s first free “linguistic email service” in eight Indian languages, under the name ‘DataMail’, an official said here yesterday.

The ‘DataMail’ will also make available email addresses in Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Pun-jabi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Marathi.

The company is also launch-ing email addresses in three international languages, includ-ing Arabic, Russian and Chinese, besides English, said Ajay Data, founder and CEO of Data XGen Technologies Pvt Ltd.

“The linguistic email service will allow people from across the

country to communicate in eight regional languages and in English language to provide ease of con-nect and bridge the digital divide among Indians,” Ajay Data said..

He described the initiative as “reaching the sizeable population which lies outside the ambit of the digital connect” and transform-ing digitisation to the non-English speaking Indian population under ‘Make In India’ and ‘Digital India’ mission.

Gradually, the email service will be available in 22 Indian lan-guages which can be downloaded on any Android or IOS mobile devices under the name ‘DATA-MAIL’, he added.

Citing an IAMAI report, Data said 89 per cent of Indian popu-lation is a non-English speaking segment and Indian languages account for less than 0.1 per cent content on the worldwide web.

Aung San Suu Kyi placing a floral tribute at the samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat in New Delhi yesterday.

Rescue workers trying help victims of a massive fire at the SUM hospital building in Bhubaneswar, yesterday.

Members of Bimstec — Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand — represent the polar opposite of a terrorism promoting polity.

Supreme Court

defers decision

on Lodha panel

Delhi court trashes

fake degree case

against Irani

EUROPE 13WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016

The hearings at High Court closed yesterday and leading judges promised to give judgment as quickly as possible.

Moored boats are seen on Loch Faskally, as autumn leaves are reflected in the water, in Pitlochry, Scotland, yesterday.

Autumn effect

Skopje: Macedonia yes-terday officially called for a snap parliamentary election on December 11 to try to end a seething political crisis, after the vote was delayed twice this year.

All four main parties have confirmed they will take part in the election that had been initially planned for April and rescheduled for June before being delayed again over opposition claims that conditions had not been met for a free and fair vote.

The Balkan state has been in deep crisis since February 2015, when leader of the main oppo-sition Social Democrats Zoran Zaev began releas-ing tapes that appeared to reveal official and widespread wiretapping, including of journalists and politicians.

Belgium charges

four after

terror raids

Brussels: Belgium yes-terday charged four people with involve-ment in terrorism after 15 early morning raids in the northern cities of Ghent, Antwerp and Deinze.

“Those persons have been indicted for partici-pation in the activities of a terrorist group,” a state-ment said.

“Some of them are suspected of recruit-ing people with a view to sending to Syria and joining IS there,” the statement said.

The prosecutor said no arms or explosives were found. In all, 15 people were taken in for ques-tioning initially, but four were charged, the state-ment added.

Macedonia calls

snap election

on December 11

Agencies

LONDON: Britain’s parliament will “very likely” need to approve any official deal with European Union fol-lowing Brexit, a government lawyer told Britain’s High Court yesterday.

James Eadie said the govern-ment believed any such agreement “would be subject to ratification” as he defended Prime Minister’s Theresa May’s right to start negotiations for Britain to leave the EU without a vote in parliament.

Supporters of Britain’s EU

membership launched the High Court bid to challenge May’s assertion that she has the right to use “historic

prerogative powers”—a type of exec-utive privilege—to trigger notification of Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, which would spark two years of negotiations on Britain’s departure from the bloc. The hearings closed yesterday, and the leading judges promised to “take time to consider the matter and give our judgment as quickly as possible.”

The challenge could delay Brexit if successful and set up an unprec-edented constitutional face-off between courts and the government.

Those behind the legal chal-lenge—including an investment fund manager, a hairdresser and an

expatriate living in France—argue Article 50 cannot be triggered with-out a law passed by parliament.

“This is not about whether we should stay or leave—this is actually about how we leave,” Gina Miller, co-founder of investment fund SCM Private, told reporters.

May has accused the claimants of trying to “subvert” the result of the referendum. The British premier has promised to start Brexit procedures by the end of March 2017, a timetable which could be delayed for months if Miller and her fellow claimants win their case.

Meanwhile, May has tasked a

team of ministers with cutting immi-gration, including through a “targeted visa system”, according to a govern-ment document published yesterday.

The immigration taskforce, chaired by May and featuring 12 other ministers including three leading Brexit campaigners Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox, has been asked to deliver annual net migra-tion in the tens of thousands.

That was a target set by May’s pred-ecessor David Cameron, but which the government has failed to meet. Net migration is currently running at more than three times that level.

Setting out the terms of reference

for the taskforce, the government said the target would be delivered by “implementing domestic meas-ures to control migration; ensuring an efficient and targeted visa sys-tem and making it harder for illegal immigrants to stay in the country”.

The taskforce existed under Cameron, but its previous terms of ref-erence did not mention a visa system.

May’s government has so far given little away about its plans for Britain’s future relationship with the European Union following a June vote to leave the bloc, but has been clear that controlling immigration is a key voter demand.

Reuters

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “no wonders” should be expected at talks on a stalled peace plan for eastern Ukraine which she will host today with the leaders of Russia, France and Ukraine.

Other top officials, including Ukrainian President Petro Porosh-enko, also dampened expectations of any breakthrough at the talks in Berlin on ending a conflict in which more than 9,600 people have been killed since 2014.

“One musn’t expect any wonders from tomorrow’s meeting but it is worth every endeavour on this issue to take efforts forward,” Merkel told a news conference yesterday.

Merkel said she and French President Francois Hollande would also discuss what she called the worsening humanitarian disas-ter in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Given this situation, I believe no option — including that of sanctions — can be taken off the table,” Merkel said, adding the first priority was to alleviate human suffering in Syria.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said it was important to maintain pressure on Russia over Syria, a theme echoed by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

“Yes, we want better rela-tions, but not at the price that (the

Russians) don’t stick to the rules,” Schaeuble said in a speech in which he called for European Union states to pool their defence budgets to bet-ter counter the Russian military.

“We don’t want to fall back into the old insanity of reacting to every provocation, but that doesn’t mean we will accept the shifting of bor-ders and power with violence.”

Ayrault said the meeting would aim to establish a timetable for elec-tions in Donbass in eastern Ukraine and discuss further military disen-gagement along the line of conflict.

Poroshenko, speaking in Oslo, cautioned against setting “very high expectations” for the meeting. The Kremlin has criticised Ukraine for not respecting its obligations under the Minsk ceasefire deal.

A ceasefire agreed in Belarus-sian capital Minsk in February 2015 stemmed heavy fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed rebels, but violence routinely flares along a demarcation line.

“Am I very optimistic? Yes. I am very optimistic about future of Ukraine but unfortunately not so much about tomorrow’s meeting, but I would be very happy to be sur-prised,” Poroshenko said.

The talks will take place just over a year after the four leaders last met in the so-called “Normandy Format,” and against backdrop of heightened tensions between Russia, Europe and the US about Moscow’s military role in Syria.

Reuters

BERLIN: A man suspected of an apparent criminal shooting in the western German town of Dueren was found dead by police special forces who also rescued an injured woman believed to have been his hostage, a police spokeswoman said, yesterday.

Police had blocked roads leading

to the town centre after shots were reported at what German media said was a hair salon.

Germany has been on high alert after two attacks this summer claimed by militant group Islamic State.

“Police special forces found the body of a man who was seriously injured and later died of his injuries. They also found an injured woman who may have been his hostage,” the

spokeswoman said.She declined to say if the man had

killed himself or whether he had been shot by police. The local prosecutor’s office, which has taken over the case, could not be reached for comment.

The Aachener Nachrichten news-paper said the man had entered the hair salon, called for a woman and fired shots. He then hid in the building housing the salon, taking the woman with him.

Romanian

technocrat PM

wants to stay

AFP

BUCHAREST: Romania’s techno-crat Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has said that he wants to stay in office after elections on Decem-ber 11 but remain an independent.

“Enriched by experience gained this year, I think the changes under way should continue,” Ciolos, 47, said in his announcement on social media yesterday.

Ciolos became premier last November heading a technocrat government after predecessor Victor Ponta resigned following a deadly blaze in a nightclub that killed 64 people.

The announcement by Ciolos, a former EU agriculture commis-sioner who has high approval ratings, ended months of uncer-tainty about his the intentions.

But he said he would not stand as a lawmaker in the election or be affiliated to any of Romania’s bickering political parties.

Instead he published a plat-form outlining his core political principles and aims. More than 20,000 people have signed an online petition expressing their support. The two main centre-right parties, the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Save Romania Union (USR), have already said that they would put forward Ciolos as pre-mier if they win the election.

AFP

LONDON: British police are investi-gating an allegation of abuse at the Houses of Parliament against an aide to a Conservative Party MP, the pol-itician’s spokesman said yesterday.

London’s Metropolitan Police on Monday announced an investigation into the alleged abuse which is said to have occurred in the early hours of October 14.

“A 23-year-old man was arrested that same day on suspicion of abuse.

He has been bailed pending further enquires to a date in mid-January 2017,” the Metropolitan Police told reporters.

Investigators did not publicly name the victim or the suspect, who was identified by British media as an aide to MP Craig Mackinlay who represents the ruling Conserv-ative Party.

A spokesman for Mackinlay said the politician “was made aware of an allegation against a member of his staff.”

“Following a request made by the police and parliamentary services

he granted full access to his West-minster office.

“Mr Mackinlay is currently await-ing further information from the police,” they told reporters.

A spokeswoman for the Con-servative Party said: “It would be inappropriate to comment while a police investigation is taking place.”

As police enquiries continue the House of Commons staff were work-ing with the authorities.

“We are aware of an incident on the Parliamentary Estate which is being investigated by the Metropol-itan Police Service.

“Parliament is working closely with the police on their investiga-tion and we cannot comment further while this is ongoing,” a spokesper-son said.

London’s Houses of Parliament, also known as the Palace of West-minster, serve both as the centre of British politics and iconic tourist attractions, famed for the Big Ben clock tower.

Designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin, the Houses of Par-liament were completed in 1870 and are now a UNESCO World Her-itage Site.

AFP

LILLE, FRANCE: French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said yesterday the demolition of the “Jun-gle” migrant camp in Calais would take place “within days” after a court rejected a last-ditch bid by charities to block it.

Cazeneuve told parliament that talks with Britain on taking in some of the hundreds of unaccompanied minors living in the camp that want to join relatives across the Channel were “proceeding very smoothly”.

A group of 14 teenagers arrived in Britain on Monday, with dozens more set to follow as French author-ities prepare to bulldoze the camp.

Cazeneuve pledged that all remaining migrants at the site, cur-rently occupied by around 5,700 people according to official figures, would be given “dignified” shelter.

Earlier yesterday, a group of French charities failed in their last-ditch legal bid to block the razing of the camp. A court in the city of Lille rejected their claim that dismantling the Jungle’s maze of shacks and tents was “an attack on the fundamental rights” of the migrants there.

The court ruled that the evac-uation was intended to end the “inhumane and degrading” condi-tions they endured, by moving them to shelters around the country.

Under pressure to relieve pres-sure on Calais, French President

Francois Hollande last month vowed to close down the Jungle by the end of the year. Sources said the opera-tion could start next week.

The camp’s demolition will remove a source of embarrassment for the Socialist government and will be welcomed by truck drivers and the port operator.

Crime has also flourished in the makeshift settlement.

A female interpreter was abused while working with a television jour-nalist in the camp on Monday night, investigators said.

The pair, were attacked by three knife-wielding Afghans, one of whom forced the woman—who is also of Afghan origin, the prosecutor’s office in nearby Boulogne-sur-Mer said.

UK parliament ‘very likely’ to vote on post-Brexit deal

UK cops probe abuse charge at Houses of Parliament

Merkel expects ‘no wonders’ from talks on Ukraine

Calais ‘Jungle’ camp demolition within days: Minister

Two members of unaccompanied minors (right and second right) from the Jungle migrant camp in Calais stand outside an immigration centre after being processed after their arrival in Britain, in Croydon, south London, yesterday.

Man dies after shoot out in Germany

AMERICAS14 WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2016

The Italian Premier complimented the president on his leadership on economic issues and said he’d copied Obama by creating a “jobs act.”

AP

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama praised Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi yes-terday for “bold” and “progressive” leadership that Obama said is exactly what Europe needs at a time of crisis and soul-searching.

Obama also hailed US relations with Italy, saying America has many strong allies around the world but that few are as strong, reliable and

capable as the boot-shaped coun-try. “In good times and in bad, we count on each other,” Obama said.

Standing in the sun-washed Rose Garden after private talks on a range of world issues, Obama said during a news conference with Renzi that he counted his much younger coun-terpart — Renzi is 41, Obama is 55 — among his closest partners and friends on the world stage. He said he’d like to see Renzi stick around.

“I think Matteo embodies a new generation of leadership, not just for Italy but also for Europe,” Obama said.

The admiration was mutual. Renzi complimented the president on his leadership on economic issues and said he’d copied Obama by creating a “jobs act.” He said the initiative had created significant jobs in economically challenged Italy, calling it “at least a first step to leave our difficult situation.”

He credited Obama’s work on climate change and clean energy, and said the US had “shown us the way how to get out of fiscal crisis.”

Hours earlier, Obama said it was a “bittersweet moment” as he and

first lady Michelle Obama welcomed the Italian leader and his wife for an official visit and the final state dinner of Obama’s presidency. “We’ve saved the best for last,” Obama said, grinning.

Obama kicked the White House apparatus into high gear to put the spotlight on a European leader he thinks highly of. The sound of herald trumpets and a full dose of pomp and pageantry on the South Lawn were orchestrated to welcome Renzi, one of the few world leaders to receive such

a reception from the White House.After each leader spoke, they

hugged briefly and patted each other on the back.

White House officials described the two leaders as ideologically shar-ing a great deal of common ground, most notably their belief in the impor-tance of a strongly integrated Europe. Britain’s decision to exit the European Union is testing that vision.

A Deccember 4 referendum in Italy on the government’s proposed

overhaul of the constitution could derail Renzi’s political future if it fails.

Renzi said the referendum is “about a fight against bureaucracy.” He called it “unbelievable” that Italy has changed governments more than 63 times in 70 years. “If we win, Italy will be stronger in debates in EU,” he said of the referendum.

Obama added that Renzi’s pro-posed reforms “are the right ones,” adding: “I am rooting for success.”

Obama tells

Trump to

‘stop whining’

AFP

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama yesterday slapped down Donald Trump’s claim that the 2016 presidential race is rigged, telling the Republican to “stop whining” and get on with his campaign.

In language normally reserved for chastising a stroppy teenager, Obama discarded diplomatic deco-rum and skewered the mogul from the Rose Garden in front of visiting Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

“Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day,” Trump wrote on Twit-ter, without offering corroborating evidence.

Obama shot back: “There’s no evidence that that has happened in the past, or that there are instances in which that will happen this time.”

“And so I’d advise Mr Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes,” he told a news conference.

The withering riposte comes on the Obama also renewed his effort to tether Republicans to Trump’s fal-tering candidacy and described his behaviour as an aberration in Amer-ican democratic history.

“I have never seen in my lifetime or in modern political history any presidential candidate trying to dis-credit the elections and the election process before votes have even taken place. It’s unprecedented,” Obama said.

AFP

MIAMI: Orbital ATK launched its Antares rocket en route to the Inter-national Space Station for the first time since a massive explosion after liftoff two years ago.

The new Antares 230 rocket pro-pelled an unmanned cargo capsule, called Cygnus, toward the orbiting outpost carrying 2,300kg of supplies, food and science experiments.

The white rocket emblazoned with an American flag lit up the clear night sky as it blasted off from Wallops Island, Virginia, at 2345 GMT yes-terday, and was visible to millions of people along the US East Coast from Massachusetts to South Carolina.

The first and second stage portion of rocket separated about five minutes after the launch as planned, and Cyg-nus cargo ship reached orbit shortly after, according to a live broadcast of the launch on Nasa television.

“We have Cygnus spacecraft sep-aration,” an Orbital ATK commentator said amid the sound of applause in mission control.

It is scheduled to berth at the space station early on October 23.

After the Cygnus is unloaded, astronauts will repack it with trash

from the space station. The spaceship will unlatch from the ISS in a month and burn up on re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

The previous Antares rocket exploded in a fireball on October 28, 2014 just seconds after liftoff, destroy-ing the cargo capsule and damaging the launch pad. After an investiga-tion, Orbital blamed the accident on a flaw in the rocket’s AJ26 engines, which had been designed four dec-ades earlier in the Soviet Union, and were supplied by Aerojet Rocketdyne.

The Antares 230 is powered by new RD-181 engines from Russian manufacturer NPO Energomash.

“These engines have flown in slightly different variations on other rockets,” said Frank Culbertson, president of Orbital ATK, in a news conference.

Since the blast, the launchpad has been rebuilt at a cost of $15m, and the rocket has been overhauled to be more powerful.

“So yeah, we are always nervous, but I am extremely confident in this team and in this hardware,” he told reporters.

The launch was initially planned for October 13, but was rescheduled a few times.

A liftoff for Sunday was scratched due to a ground support cable that

“did not perform as expected during the pre-launch checkout,” the com-pany said in a statement.

In December 2014, Orbital resumed cargo missions to space as part of a $1.9bn contract with Nasa.

Instead of the Antares rocket, the company used a United Launch Alli-ance Atlas V rocket to propel the cargo to space from a launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

After the 2014 blast, the Cygnus cargo ship was redesigned to be able to carry a larger payload.

Monday marked the third such flight of a similarly improved Cyg-nus vehicle, with new solar arrays and fuel tanks.

The cargo ship is carrying food and supplies for the six-member astronaut crew in orbit, including sci-ence experiments to test the behavior of fire in space.

In addition to Orbital ATK, US company SpaceX is engaged in a con-tract with NASA to supply the space station, using its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ship.

SpaceX has also suffered explosions after launch, including one in June 2015 that destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ship headed to space sta-tion, and a blast last month that blew up a Falcon 9 rocket and its Israeli sat-ellite during a routine launchpad test.

The Orbital ATK Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, launches from Pad-0A, to deliver a cargo ship for the International Space Station at Nasa’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

US President Barack Obama (right) and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi shake hands during a joint news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington DC, yesterday.

Obama praises Renzi’s bold leadership

Orbital ATK launches Antares rocket

AFP

LIMA: Peru is investigating what killed some 10,000 Titicaca water frogs, a critically endangered spe-cies affectionately known as the “scrotum frog,” in a river that is feared to be polluted, authorities said yesterday.

Hundreds of the large, wrinkly green frogs have been found float-ing on the surface of the Coata river in southern Peru in recent days, prompting the National Forestry and Wildlife Service (Serfor) to launch an investigation.

“Based on local residents’ state-ments and samples taken in the days after the incident, it is believed that more than 10,000 frogs were affected over about 50km,” Serfor said in a statement issued to the media yesterday.

The alert was sounded by an environmental group called as the Committee Against the Pollu-tion of the Coata River. The group accused the authorities of ignoring

the river’s severe pollution.To protest, its supporters brought

100 of the dead frogs to the central square in the regional capital, Puno.

Protest leader Maruja Inquilla urged the authorities to take the dead frogs as a wake-up call.

“I’ve had to bring them the dead frogs. The authorities don’t realize how we’re living. They have no idea how major the pollution is. The sit-uation is maddening,” said Inquilla.

“Why is the state so apathetic? We need a sewage treatment plant now.”

The frogs live only in Lake Titi-caca, South America’s largest lake, and its tributaries.

Known officially as Telmato-bius culeus, they got their nickname from their many folds of skin, which help them breathe in their high-altitude habitat in the Andes mountains.

The species is classified as criti-cally endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which says the population is esti-mated to have declined by 80 percent in the past 15 years.

10,000 endangered frogs die in Peru

Dead wrinkly green frogs collected by a National Forestry and Wildlife Service staff member on the Coata river bank, in Puno, Peru.

ELN rebel dead

in Colombian

army operation

AFP

BOGOTA: The Colombian army said it had killed an ELN rebel and captured four others in an oper-ation days before peace talks between the leftist guerrillas and the government are set to open.

The operation targeted the public order and financial wings of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in the northeastern depart-ment of Casanare, the military said in a statement.

The captured rebels included three commanders, one of whom was wounded, it said.

A separate operation in the western department of Choco resulted in the “demobilisation” of 24 guerrillas, the defence min-istry said on Twitter. The ELN did not immediately comment.

The operations could deal a blow to peace talks due to open in the Ecuadoran capital Quito on October 27 between the rebels and President Juan Manuel San-tos’s government.

Santos is struggling to save a peace deal with a larger rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), after voters rejected it in a referendum.

The FARC and the government have been observing a ceasefire since August 29.

Santos extended it last week until the end of the year while the two sides seek a new deal more palatable to opposition voters who want to see former rebels do jail time.

But there is no ceasefire in place with the ELN.

“The two sides are going to keep fighting each other” as long as that is the case, said political analyst Carlos Medina of Colom-bia’s National University.

The latest operations were not likely to jeopardize peace negotia-tions, he added, but urged the ELN to declare a unilateral ceasefire to reduce tensions in the run-up to the talks.

There had been signs of grow-ing trust between the government and ELN in recent days.

The rebels freed three civil-ian hostages and vowed to release the two others they are still hold-ing before the talks.

And the government agreed to free a group of imprisoned guer-rillas so they could take part in the peace negotiations.

The FARC and ELN have been at war with the state since 1964.

Six found alive

with severed

hands in Mexico

AFP

GUADALAJARA, MEXICO: Five men and a woman were found alive on a road in western Mex-ico with their hands amputated and their foreheads marked with the word “I’m a thief.”

The victims were mutilated by a criminal group linked to drug trafficking, which also left a dead man on the road and two bags with severed hands in Tlaque-paque, near Guadalajara.

“They’re in a delicate state of health,” local police commander Roberto Larios told reporters. “Their stumps were wrapped in plastic.”

The dead man, 39, was appar-ently beaten to death and his hands were not cut off. He was married to the woman, who is 44. The other men are aged between 25 and 43. Authorities suspect that the gruesome crime is linked to drug dealing.

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Shangri-La Doha has designed a special cake in the national colours with a replica of a traditional Qatari building. The last date for placing orders is November 18.

Shangri-La’s gift for Qatar National DayThe Peninsula

DOHA: Shangri-La Doha, already renowned for its marriage of East-ern service values with Arabian hospitality, is marking its second National Day with the launch of a unique, hand-made gift service for Doha residents.

Limited numbers of advance orders on the one-off service will be available only until one month ahead of National Day, in order for each specially designed gift to be crafted in time for delivery to clients’ chosen recipients as part of the cel-ebrations on December 18.

“We wanted to do something special to affirm Qatar’s nature as a dignified, dynamic, generous nation,” said Alex Willats, General Manager of Shangri-La Hotel, Doha. “On December 18, we will simulta-neously celebrate both a birthday and an identity including the deep-rooted Qatari virtue of generosity on a grand scale. So the idea was born to encourage a lucky few of Doha’s residents to delight each other with a spectacular gift which requires spe-cial skills and resources to produce.”

“We have therefore designed an item totally personalised for Qatar by our talented team,” Willats said. “It comprises a delicious cake in

the national colours, symbolising the party atmosphere of the city amid a multitude of joyously wav-ing flags; and a setting against a perfectly modelled replica of a tra-ditional Qatari building, a beautiful and lasting object in its own right, representing all that is enduring and nurturing in the history of our culture.”

“We are proud and delighted to be able to offer this unique expres-sion of the values of Qatar’s National Day,” Willats added.

The last date on which Shangri-La proposes to accept commissions for their QR1,812 gift is November 18, 2016.

Qatar Airways new mobile website available in 12 languagesThe Peninsula

DOHA: The services of Qatar Air-ways are now even more accessible to travellers around the globe with the launch of a new mobile website offering content in 12 languages.

With an innovative range of mobile services, it’s now even eas-ier for Qatar Airways passengers to make big plans on small screens. In its new form, the Qatar Airways mobile website allows travellers across the world to take more control of their journeys on the go, leaving no detail to chance.

Qatar Airways Chief Commer-cial Officer Dr Hugh Dunleavy said:

“More of us are conducting business on the go — reading the newspaper on our smart phones, paying bills via apps, and fitting those personal tasks in when we can. Our travel-lers want the convenience to book and adjust their travel arrange-ments when they want to, in the language they prefer. As we con-tinue to expand our network and destinations around the world, we are proud to offer travellers access to our world-class services in 12 of the most commonly spoken languages in the countries we fly to, through our mobile website. This, of course, is in line with our commitment to pro-vide our travellers with a superior experience from the moment they

book their journey right through to its end.”

Qatar Airways’ new mobile web-site, accessible at www.qatarairways.com through handheld Apple and Android devices including smart-phones and tablets, is available in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, and Turkish. Through the mobile website, passengers can make new bookings, amend the dates and destinations of their existing bookings, check in online, purchase excess baggage, select seat and meal preferences, modify special service requests, redeem Qmiles, and perform a vari-ety of other functions. Close-up of a man holding mobile phone with copy space.

RAF provided aid worth QR3.2m to the poor in Qatar last month The Peninsula

DOHA: Sheikh Thani bin Abdul-lah Foundation for Humanitarian Services (RAF) has spent more than QR3.2m on poor families and indi-viduals (citizens and expatriates) in Qatar last month.

Some 4,500 people benefitted from the largesse. A total of 11 social projects are being implemented by the Social Services Department at RAF to address the problems of peo-ple in Qatar.

The money was used to pay home rents for needy families and school fees for their children. Other funds include repaying debts of loan defaulters, medical bills and

expenditures of day-to-day life for beneficiaries.

The social projects brought great relief to the poor.

More than 309,000 were spent on 58 people for paying their home rents, bills for services and repay-ing their loans.

A total of QR283,000 were given to 40 poor students to pay their school fees.

Eight beneficiary families received home appliances and gadg-ets at a cost of over QR53,000. Nine youths were provided financial sup-port for marriage.

More than QR500,000 were distributed as cash and spent on partial sponsorship of 167 needy people. Medical bills cost

QR226,000 for 42 cases. The beneficiaries were suffering

from ENT, renal, cancer and heart diseases among others.

The social services are continu-ing. To avail the services, the needy people (citizens and expatriates) can approach the Social Services Department of RAF at its newly opened branch in Al Duhail.

The department addresses the requests on an urgent basis. After assessing the needs and situation of the applicants, the necessary sup-port is provided.

RAF urged donors to make their contributions to implement social service projects to meet the requirements of needy families and individuals in the country.

Eid Charity opens medical

centre near Iraq’s MosulThe Peninsula

DOHA: Sheikh Eid Charitable Foun-dation (Eid Charity) has opened a medical centre to provide health services to the internally displaced people from Mosul at Debika Al Malab camp located between Al Mosul and Irbil, capital of Kurdis-tan-Iraq.

More than 6,000 people are expected to benefit from the cen-tre. The project was financed by a donor from Qatar.

The centre was opened amid growing demands for medical serv-ices as more than 700,000 people are expected to flee from Mosul due to the unrest. The move is a precautionary measure taken by Eid Charity to protect the fleeing

residents of Mosul from a humani-tarian crises-like situation.

The centre is the first medical facility opened at Debika Al Malab camp for displaced people. It com-prises four portacabins housing a reception for patients, clinics, lab-oratory and pharmacy.

The centre has specialist clinics to cure women and children suffer-ing from any disease. The laboratory provides different types of medi-cal tests.

Eid Charity urged people in Qatar to extend a helping hand to their brothers in Iraq who are fac-ing a tough time. Donations could be made online through “Eid Dona-tion” mobile app, website or sms to 923324, 920244, 928604 and 928614 for donating QR50, QR100, QR500 or QR1,000 respectively.

Qatar Charity

survey shows

severe shortages

in Yemen city

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Charity (QC) has conducted a survey in the rural areas of Al Hudaydah city of Yemen to assess the needs of the people fighting for survival due to famine.

The move aims to provide food, shelter, water and health services to the citizens.

More than 15 villages and residential communities were surveyed to get first-hand infor-mation about the situation and needs of the families. The survey suggests that there is severe short-age of food and clean water.

Villagers depend on water pumps which is not enough for them. People, especially women, are forced to walk long distances to fetch drinking water on a daily basis.

Disease and epidemics have broken out due to water scarcity and lack of medicines and sup-plies. Children and senior citizens are vulnerable to these diseases. The area also lacks basic serv-ices such as clinics, qualified health staff and proper medical equipment.

The survey also showed that a large proportion of young people face the challenge of unemployment.

Those working cannot earn enough to cover their expenditure.

People living in these areas lack the basic needs of life such as clothes, shoes, beds and good houses.

beIN in deal with

Warner Bros

to acquire

premium content

The Peninsula

DOHA: beIN, the premium entertain-ment market leader in MENA, and Warner Bros International Television Distribu-tion, world’s largest distributors of feature films, television programmes and ani-mation to the international television marketplace, have announced a long-term multi-year deal that will enable beIN to acquire premium content from lead-ing Hollywood studio.

The announcement was made yester-day by Yousef Al Obaidly, Deputy CEO of beIN Media Group, and Jeffrey R Schles-inger, President, Warner Bros Worldwide Television Distribution.

This deal represents one of the most comprehensive content acquisition deals for beIN. Starting this year, beIN will have access to such hit series as “Arrow,” “Gotham” and “Originals,” and will acquire the exclusive 2nd Pay window rights to Warner Bros theatrical features.

From 2019, beIN will become the exclusive home of Warner Bros’ first-run programming, series and 1st Pay window feature films. In addition to acquiring the pay TV window, beIN has acquired catch-up rights as well as access to the rich library of content from Warner Bros.

This is a landmark deal for beIN, which made its foray into entertainment content segment just last year. beIN now boasts one of the most well-rounded pay-TV networks in Middle East & North Africa with over 75 channels broadcasting movies, series, sports, kids and general entertainment content.

Yousef Al Obaidly, Deputy Chief Exec-utive Officer of beIN Media Group said, “I am thrilled that we would be able to feature amazing super-hero movies and franchises on beIN MOVIES.”

INSTAGRAM OF THE DAY

Hospitality Qatar 2016 which took place at DECC. Photo by: @Baher_Amin