Volume 23 | Number 7678 | 2 RiyalsSaturday 13 October 2018 | 4 Safar I 1440 www.thepeninsula.qa

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Qatar affirms universal jurisdiction mechanismTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The State of Qatar has affirmed that universal juris-diction is a rule of law mech-anism to ensure fair justice, combat impunity for serious crimes, and prevent violations of international law, interna-tional humanitarian law and human rights.

This came in Qatar’s statement before the UN sixth committee on “scope and appli-cation of universal jurisdiction”, delivered by Sheikh Faisal bin Mohammed Al Thani, member of Qatar’s delegation taking part in the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly.

At the outset of his speech, Sheikh Faisal bin Mohammed Al Thani expressed the Qatari dele-gation’s welcome for the con-tinued discussions by the sixth committee to the issue of uni-versal jurisdiction and his support for the formation of the working group in implementation of the resolution of the 72nd session of the General Assembly.

Sheikh Faisal said the State of Qatar, in its interest in the issue of universal jurisdiction and its application, regards the jurisdiction as an additional legal tool to prevent the impunity of perpetrators of exceptionally serious crimes.

He pointed out that legal gaps must be filled in order to put an end to impunity and protect the rights of victims, in the light of the international consensus on the importance of

cooperation to rid humanity of these atrocities.

“In line with this vision, which we share as Member States, the State of Qatar stresses the importance of achieving the right balance between the need to end impunity and the need to avoid misuse of the principle of uni-versal jurisdiction that should therefore be exercised in good faith, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other applicable norms of international law.”

While affirming that the principle of jurisdiction is one of the basic tools for ensuring the prevention, suppression and criminalisation of serious

violations of international humanitarian law, Sheikh Faisal stressed that the State of Qatar considers that universal juris-diction is an application of the four Geneva Conventions, which provides that States parties shall have the responsibility for searching for persons accused of committing or issuing orders to violate the four Geneva Con-ventions and its Protocol I, which is considered a serious offense, and for bringing these persons, regardless of their nationality, before their courts or extradite them to another State Party for prosecution.

He continued to say that the legislative instruments in force in Qatar are applied in accordance with effective leg-islative controls.

Sheikh Faisal said that the importance of universal juris-diction has become obvious to address crimes committed in the context of many conflicts when the national judiciary was unable to take responsibility or was unable to assume legal responsibility for the cessation and prosecution of crimes com-mitted in its territory.

Sheikh Faisal concluded by saying that the identification of the scope of universal juris-diction is extremely important to apply to the most serious international crimes, to bring the perpetrators to justice, to administer justice to the victims, and to send a message to eve-ryone that no one is above the law.

President of the Republic of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, met yesterday with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, during his visit to South Africa. The Deputy Prime Minister conveyed greetings of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to the President and his wishes of further progress and prosperity to the people of South Africa. They discussed bilateral relations and means to promote them in addition to a number of topics of mutual interest. The President praised the bilateral relations, expressing his aspiration to promote the level of partnership. The Deputy Prime Minister stressed the depth and strength of bilateral relations.

Qatar and South Africa review bilateral relations

Blockade a catalyst for change: QFC Chief CxecutiveTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Yousuf Al Jaida, Chief Executive of the Qatar Financial Centre, has said that the blockade against Qatar has been a catalyst for change for the entire nation.

“We are seeing a shift in Qatar economics and the entire region. As you know, Qatar is currently going through a blockade from neighbouring countries but that

hasn’t been all that bad,” Al Jaida told CNBC.” It’s been a catalyst for change for the entire nation,” Al Jaida added. As a result of the blockade, Qatar’s government was working to attract more foreign direct investment.

“We’ve allowed 100 percent foreign ownership across all sectors, we’ve allowed visas from 80 dif-ferent nations and (allowed citizens) to get visas on arrival, which hasn’t

happened in the past ever before, and we’re at looking at also doing things differently,” Al Jaida said.

“It’s difficult to travel to Qatar from neighbouring blockade coun-tries so we’re taking advantage of this and we’re creating our own ‘hub’ model for friendly nations, if you will, between Qatar and Turkey, Oman, Kuwait and South-East Asia.

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MME local dates expo to open tomorrowSIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Agriculture Affairs Department of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment is gearing up to organise Local Dates Exhibition tomorrow at Souq Waqif.

Over 40 local farms as well as some local companies will participate in the exhibition.

“The aim of organising this exhibition is to support local farms by marketing the dates produced by these farms and encouraging farmers to grow palm trees to benefit econom-ically,” the Ministry of Munici-pality announced on its official Twitter account.

In order to promote local production of fruit, the Ministry had earlier launched “palm trees in homes competition” at the Third Local Dates Festival which took place in July this year. The Festival had also been organised at Souq Waqif.

The exhibition will continue till October 22 at Souq Waqif from 10am to 9pm.

Qatar is working to achieve 100 percent self-sufficiency in dates in few years. The Ministry said that the total number of

farms registered in the State of Qatar is 1,310, of which 916 are active farms, most of them grow palm trees and produce dif-ferent types of dates.

Last years, in order to encourage people to plant the palm tree seedlings on their own, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment offered seedlings to people at low prices. Every citizen was allowed to purchase maximum five seedlings.

The farmers are now pro-ducing fruit varieties that were not present in Qatar. The focus now is on producing the most demanded dates like Khalas dates.

The types of dates that were imported from Saudi Arabia in high prices are now produced locally and are available in the market at reasonable price.

The Agriculture Affairs Department at the ministry is keen to provide support for the cultivation of dates locally through spreading awareness and using modern technologies that will contribute of increasing and developing the quality of dates.

The total cultivated area of palm trees is about 2,350 hec-tares, and the total production of dates is about 30,000 tonnes per year.

Global media, top investors pull out of Saudi investment forumTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Saudi Arabia’s high-profile “Future Investment Initi-ative” (FII) conference suffered a major jolt with a number of global media organisations and top investment experts announcing their decision to drop out of the event over the ‘disappearance’ of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The global media giants like The Financial Times, New York Times, CNN, Bloomberg and CNBC have announced that they will no longer participate in the event.

Among those high-profile investment and business minds who have said they are keeping away from the conference are World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, British business magnate and Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi, Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish, AOL co-founder Steve Case, Economist Editor-in-Chief Zanny Minton Beddoes and CNBC anchor and New York Times business journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin.

“What has reportedly hap-pened in Turkey around the

disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, if proved true, would clearly change the ability of any of us in the West to do business with the Saudi Gov-ernment. We have asked for more information from the authorities in Saudi and to clarify their position in relation to Khashoggi,” Sir Richard said.

“While those investigations are ongoing and Khashoggi’s whereabouts are not known, I will suspend my directorships of the two tourism projects. Virgin will also suspend its dis-cussions with the Public Investment Fund over the pro-posed investment in our space companies Virigin Galactic and Virgin Orbit,” Sir Richard said in a statement issued yesterday.

Billed as the “Davos in the Desert”, the much anticipated investment conference is scheduled to be held between October 23 and 25. The New York Times announced it has pulled out of the event as a media sponsor. The Financial Times which said it was reviewing its involvement as a media partner earlier, announced later it will not be

participating in the investment conference.

“World Bank President Jim Yong Kim will not attend a Saudi Arabian investment conference later this month”, Reuters quoted a World Bank official as saying yesterday, “citing a scheduling conflict.” Kim had been listed as a speaker at the three-day event.

Financial Times editor Lionel Barber tweeted: “The Financial Times will not be partnering with the FII conference in Riyadh while the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi remains unex-plained. “Bloomberg will no longer serve as a media partner for the Future Investment Initi-ative. As we do with every major event in the region, we plan to cover any news from our regional news bureau,” the business-news provider said in a statement. Khos-rowshahi said he was ‘very troubled by the reports and that he would not attend the con-ference unless a substantially dif-ferent set of facts emerge. AOL co-founder Steve Case said he had put his plans on hold.

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�SEE ALSO PAGE 4

"The State of

Qatar stresses

the importance of

achieving the right

balance between

the need to end

impunity and the

need to avoid misuse

of the principle of

universal jurisdiction

that should therefore

be exercised in good

faith, in accordance

with the Charter of

the United Nations

and other applicable

norms of international

law.”

Qatar condemns aggression on Great March of Return in GazaQNA

DOHA: The State of Qatar expressed its strong condem-nation of the brutal repression and the use of live bullets by the Israeli occupying forces against the ongoing Great March of Return protests on the eastern border of the Gaza Strip, which led to the martyrdom of six Palestinians and injuries to dozens more.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the Israeli escalation was a violation of international laws and conventions, calling on the international com-munity and the UN Security Council to assume their responsibility in containing the Israeli war machine and its collective punishment policy directed against the Palestinian people.

It highlighted the State of Qatar’s firm support to the Palestinian cause and the struggle of the Palestinian people in order to guarantee the establishment of an inde-pendent Palestinian state with the 1967 borders and Jerusalem as its capital.

02 SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER 2018HOME

Amir sends congratulations to King of SpainQNA

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent yesterday a cable of congratulations to King Felipe VI of Spain on the occasion of his country’s National Day.

Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani also sent a cable of congrat-ulations to King Felipe VI of Spain on the occasion of his country’s National Day.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani sent a cable of congratulations to Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Spain Pedro Sanchez on the occasion of his country’s National Day.

Deputy PM sends written message to Ethiopian FM

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, has sent a written message to Minister of Foreign Affairs of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Dr Workineh Gebeyehu (right), pertaining to bilateral relations and means of supporting and developing them. The message was delivered by Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Ethiopia, Hamad bin Mohammed Al Dosari, during his meeting yesterday with the Ethiopian Foreign Minister.

Katara to host exhibition on Palestinian novelist Ghassan KanafaniTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Katara Cultural Village will organise an exhi-bition featuring the life and works of renowned Arab novelist Ghassan Kanafani during the Katara Festival of Arabic Novels to be held from October 15 to 18.

The exhibition at Gallery 1 of Building 18 will showcase 32 works introducing the life and literary journey of Kanafani, the Palestinian rev-olutionary novelist, from his birth in Acre on April 1936 until his assassination by Israeli intelligence agencies in Beirut on July 8, 1972.

The exhibition will shed light on his life in exile, as his family first moved to Lebanon when he was 12 years old and then to Syria, where they settled. There Kanafani obtained his secondary cer-tificate in 1952 and enrolled in the Department of Arabic Literature in the University of Damascus. In 1955 he moved to Kuwait where his literary career flourished. He served as editor in one of the news-papers in Kuwait, writing under the name “AbulIzz.”

In 1962, his novel, Men in the Sun (Rijal fi-a-shams), considered to be one of the most admired works in modern Arabic fiction, was published to great critical acclaim. Return to Haifa (A’idllaHayfa) which came out in 1970 is the story of a Pal-estinian couple living in the Palestinian town of Ramal-lahwhich was occupied in the Six-Day war. In Umm Sa’ad (1969), Kanafani creates the portrait of a mother who encourages her son to take up arms as a resistance knowing well that it would eventually lead to his death.

The exhibition will also showcase critical studies on the novels of Kanafani and his novels that were converted to films, dramas and TV produc-tions. In the previous editions of the Festival, Katara Festival for Arabic Novels had organised similar exhibitions featuring the life of two acclaimed Arab nov-elists Naguib Mahfouz and Tayeb Salih.

Alongside the exhibition, a seminar on Kanafani will be held with participation of Dr Khaled Al Huroub, Pales-tinian writer and acade-mician, QassimHoul, Iraqi film producer and friend of Kanafani, Jordanian novelist Samiha Khrais and Pales-tinian writer and academic Dr Rami Abu Shihab.

The Festival on the second day will see two sem-inars on literary criticism at Hall 15 at Katara with partic-ipation of prominent writers and critics.

HWW holds ‘Breast Cancer Awareness’ sessionDOHA: How Women Work (HWW), in association with Dana Ladies Club, conducted a ‘Breast Cancer Awareness’ event on Thursday.

The programme was open to all lady members and friends. The event included lectures by the experts from the breast and bowel screening programme, a part of ‘Screen for Life’ initiated by the Ministry of Public Health under Qatar’s National Cancer Programme. Another lecture was delivered on ‘A Healthy Mind is a Healthy Body’ by Evridiki Iliaki, head of HWW. The event also featured a 15-minute yoga session by Coach Cecilia.

Qatar Rail holds tour for Ehsan Club membersTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: In cooperation with Qatar Rail, Ehsan (Elderly Care Centre) held a visit for the members of Ehsan Elderly Club to Qatar Rail to raise awareness among them about the national projects.

Ehsan Center has organized a series of educational events for the elderly members to raise their awareness about benefits of national projects and for the participation of elderly people in urban development.

The introductory tour was to show members the state-of-the-art landmarks in the country. Thajiba Al Sulaiti, Public Relations Officer at Qatar Rail gave a detailed explanation of the most important stations to be opened and the services provided to the elderly members of the country.

This fruitful cooperation with Qatar Rail is an extension of the relationship with the community, where the elderly

people are an integral part.Qatar Rail project aims to

boost the Qatari economy and is considered one of the most

important attractions in the light of the availability of modern means of transport. This project also contributes to ease traffic congestion and raise traffic safety levels and reduce accidents.

The project is considered one of the largest infrastructure projects in Qatar. Qatar Rail, established in 2011, is respon-sible for designing, developing, maintaining and running coun-try’s rail network, as soon as it is completed. The project con-sists of three pilot stations, two of which are underground and the third above ground.

At the end of the tour, members of Ehsan Elderly Club thanked Qatar Rail’s man-agement for the provision of adequate information and the provision of all kinds of support to provide comfort for the elderly.

Ehsan Club members during Qatar Rail introductory tour.

DFI seeks over 400 volunteers for 6th Ajyal Film FestivalTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: As the countdown to the sixth edition of the Ajyal Film Festival begins, Doha Film Institute (DFI) is seeking over 400 volunteers to get involved and contribute to one of the region’s major cultural events that brings the entire community together to cele-brate the transformative power of film.

A unique demonstration of the community spirit fostered by DFI, the Ajyal volunteers will be exposed to the inner workings of a major cultural event, interact with Festival guests and jurors of many nationalities, gain valuable industry experience, and receive a participation certif-icate to honour their involvement. Interested candi-dates aged 18 and above can register at www.ajyalfilm.com/volunteer.

Fatma Al Remaihi, Festival Director and CEO of the DFI, said:

“The Volunteer programme of Ajyal Film Festival is designed to further foster the community spirit that truly rep-resents the multicultural fabric of Qatar. Through their hard work, selfless service and ded-ication, the Ajyal volunteers ensured the seamless conduct of the festival, and have played a significant role in the success of the previous editions. We are once again looking forward to the participation of an enthu-siastic team of volunteers to put

together one of the most exciting events on the city’s social calendar.”

During the week-long event, from November 28 to December 3, volunteers will be on hand to support different Festival events and venues located within the Cultural Village Foundation - Katara, and assist with all aspects of the Festival’s operations including those of venue operations, Ajyal Jury, transportation, marketing, guest registration, Geekdom Exhibition, hospitality among others.

Ajyal Film Festival is an annual celebration of film, pre-sented by DFI. The Festival presents daily public screenings, special presenta-tions, in-depth discussions through the Ajyal Talks series, among others.

During the week-long

event, from November

28 to December 3,

volunteers will be

on hand to support

different Festival

events and venues

in Katara, and assist

with all aspects of the

Festival’s operations

including those of

venue operations, Ajyal

Jury, transportation,

marketing, guest

registration, Geekdom

Exhibition, hospitality

among others.

Blockade a catalyst for change

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“We are allocating funds to that to enable multinationals to take Qatar as a hub for their expansion in the greater Middle East and South East Asia.” Al Jaida said FDI was the most prioritized item on the Qatari government’s agenda. FDI to Qatar increased 4 percent in 2017, he said, and the Qatar Financial Centre saw a sharp uptick in new firms being licensed to operate in Qatar, up 66 percent from the previous year.

“Companies that used to service Qatar from outside the country can no longer do that so they’ve been relocating to Qatar to service their clients, which means more FDI, more companies on the ground and more jobs being created because of the blockade. So it’s a very interesting dynamic that’s happening during the blockade and we expect this to con-tinue all the way to 2022,” he said.

Al Marri: Siege countries continue attempts to hack NHRC websiteTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Chairman of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), Dr Ali bin Smaikh Al Marri, stressed that attempts by the siege countries to hack the NHRC’s website as well as to spy on the mobile phones of human rights activists and journalists in Qatar are still ongoing with aim to restrict and obstruct their work.

In a related context, Dr Al Marri called on the European mechanisms concerned with freedom of religion or belief to act promptly and investigate violations by the Saudi author-ities of the right to practice Haj and Umrah rituals by pilgrims from Qatar.

This came during two sep-arate meetings held by the NHRC Chairman with UN Special Rapporteur on the Situ-ation of Human Rights Defenders Michel Forst, and Ambassador Aud Marit Wiig, Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, on the sidelines of the Thirteenth National Human Rights Institu-tions Conference entitled “Expanding the civic space and promoting and protecting human rights defenders, with a specific focus on women: The role of national human rights institutions”.

During his meeting with Forst, Al Marri called for conducting

extensive investigations into the violations and harassment of human rights activists and jour-nalists since the beginning of the siege on Qatar.

He noted that the UN Rap-porteur on the situation of human rights defenders has a legal and moral responsibility to protect this category and promote their rights, pointing out that the NHRC prepared

reports documenting these violations.

“We are ready to make all the facilities for a visit by the Special Rapporteur on the situ-ation of human rights defenders to the State of Qatar to meet the victims of the violations by the siege countries including activists, media figures and humanitarian organizations of Qatar,” he said.

Chairman of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), Dr Ali bin Smaikh Al Marri (right), with UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Michel Forst, in Marrakesh, yesterday.

03SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER 2018 HOME

Al Waab Health Centre to promote holistic well-being of communityFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Primary Health Care Corporation’s (PHCC) newly opened Al Waab Health Centre will not only provide high standards of patient care but also has been designed to promote holistic well-being of the community.

“The environmentally-friendly building also provides a warm and inviting atmosphere to patients,” Musallam Mubarak Al Nabit, Assistant Managing Director for Administrative and Finance Services at PHCC, told The Peninsula.

“Qatar is investing thought-fully with an aim to provide quality health care and address the growing need for more com-prehensive patient-focused medical services. The decision to implement green practices at PHCC begins with a vision and commitment to improve health and wellness of people, while reducing negative impact on the environment,” he said.

“Modern healthcare facilities

are large consumers of energy and resources. We have taken efforts to make a change and reduce the consumption of resources,” he added.

The health centre in Al Waab is built in an area of 8,000 sq metres comprising of clinics, allied health, a radi-ology section, pharmacy and other facilities. The car park area distributed in the two basements can accommodate 407 vehicles at a time.

“It is a state-of art-building

in terms of architectural aspects. It has adopted the local architec-tural principles. The building has natural light filtered inside. It is very specious and has clear sep-aration between all different function areas,” said Niki Georgiou, Executive Director, Facilities and Engineering Directive, PHCC.

“A special attention is given for people with disabilities. There are designated parking for them closer to entrances as well as vertical circulation via elevators.

Most importantly, room signage has the braille system to help patients with impaired vision,” she added.

The double storey building of the health centre in Al Waab has a total of 57 clinics for dif-ferent specialties, including 18 for family medicine. With a com-prehensive range of services, the health centre will be running a family medicine model.

“This is the ninth new health centre PHCC has opened. The 10th health centre will open by the end of the year. So it’s a very ambitious programme. We

believe it will provide better and easier access to patient care, because of the larger geo-graphical coverage and clinical expansion,” said Georgiou.

The building is designed and built to comply with Global Sus-tainability Assessment System (GSAS), the first performance-based system in the MENA region, developed for rating the g r e e n b u i l d i n g s a n d infrastructures.

Residents of Waab Zone 55 area, Azizya, Freej Al Soudan 55 and 54, Mehairja will be mainly at the Al Waab health centre.

Similar to other health centers, the new facility was delivered by Ashghal - the Public Works Authority. A period of four years invested for designing and building the facility.

“It required three to six months for mobilization: For final commissioning of the building, testing systems, installing all medical equipment and furniture, training doctors for medical equipment.

With the opening of Al Waab Health Centre, PHCC operates 26 health centers in the country.

Al Waab Health Centre building with natural light filtered inside. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT/THE PENINSULA

Musallam Mubarak Al Nabit

Qatar stresses commitment to protecting children’s rightsQNA

DOHA: The State of Qatar affirmed yesterday its commitment to protecting the rights of children at the national, regional and international levels.

Qatar will also spare no effort in providing the necessary support to the protection of children in all circum-stances and by all means, in order to help ensure their development and education take place in safe and healthy conditions.

This came in the statement read by the State of Qatar in one of the meetings on the sidelines of the 73rd UN General Assembly on enhancing and protecting the right of children. The statement was read by member of the Qatari delegation participating in the 73rd UN General Assembly Mariam Ali Al Mawlawi. She added that the State of Qatar signed an agreement with the Office of the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict on September 28 of 2018 to open a center for children and armed conflict in Doha, which will contribute significantly to strengthening knowledge and skills for the protection of children affected by armed conflict in the region.

She also stressed that the State of Qatar has made great strides in pro-moting and protecting the rights of children by taking a number of

legislative and executive measures in various fields and sectors, such as edu-cation, health, social protection and family policies.

The Qatari official also highlighted the country’s effort in preventing vio-lence against children, noting that the State has developed a system for early detection of child abuse and neglect through increasing the number of social workers in schools, developing their knowledge and skills on the subject, developing an awareness program for students about violence and protection, establishing a hotline for schools to report cases of violence.

“There are also other programmes, such as the one run by Hamad Medical Corporation to detect and report sus-pected cases of violence, provide care for abused children and promote a safe environment for children at home. The Social Rehabilitation & Protection Center (AMAN), a civil society organization, carries out awareness-raising activities in schools to develop the skills of teachers and social workers for early detection and response to peer abuse.” Al Mawlawi stressed that the issue of protecting the right to education is of great importance in the implementation of Qatar’s policy in the field of interna-tional cooperation and its development and relief programs.

Qatar calls for intensifying efforts on disarmament and proliferation of weaponsQNA

DOHA: The State of Qatar has called for intensified efforts to prevent and resolve conflicts and crises and abide by inter-national law through the imple-mentation of international conventions on disarmament and proliferation of weapons, including those related to nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

This came in the statement of the State of Qatar during the meeting of the second com-mittee of the 73rd UN General Assembly, read out by Second Secretary of Qatar’s Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations Talal bin Rashid Al Khalifa. The meeting was a general discussion on the disarmament and Proliferation of weapons and maintaining international security.

Al Khalifa stressed the com-mitment of the State of Qatar to disarmament, as part of being a partner in the international efforts to achieve international

peace and security and as part of its efforts to ensure the success of the committee.

He noted that it was a cause for concern that the continuation of these crises and armed conflicts was closely linked to the prolifer-ation and use of weapons by the conflicting groups. He added that the threat of the use of conventional weapons was not limited to armed conflicts, but had evolved into an increase in the use of chemical weapons and the threat of using nuclear weapons. “Eliminating such dangers requires strong interna-tional cooperation in that regard,” he added.

The Qatari official stressed that the security and prosperity of societies is a top priority for the international community, adding achieving this goal is dependent on the elimination of the current tensions in the world, noting that this in turn requires actors at the international level to engage in a dialogue on all issues concerning nuclear weapons, and other issues that threaten security and stability.

Al Khalifa said that the State of Qatar believes in the impor-tance of prevention when it came to crises, as in investing in that can save many human and financial resources that are being spent on weapons at a time of increasing tensions.

The second secretary of the Permanent Delegation of the State of Qatar to the United Nations Talal Rashid Al Khalifa said that in spite of the positive results achieved in the field of disarmament and its impact on peace, security and stability in many regions of the world, the Middle East still lacks security and stability, expressing the deep concern of the delegation of Qatar at the lack of significant progress towards the Middle East nuclear disarmament, the failure to implement the commitments resulting from the 1995 Review and Extension Conference and the steps taken at the 2000 Review and Extension Conference and the 2010 Plan of Action, as well as the failure of the 2015 NPT Review Conference.

Kyrgyzstan President rceives credentials of Qatari envoyPresident of the Kyrgyz Republic, Sooronbay Jeenbekov, yesterday received the credentials of Abdullah Ahmed Al Sulaiti, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Kyrgyz Republic. The Ambassador conveyed the greetings of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to the President of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, and the wishes of His Highness to the President health and happiness, and the government and people of the Kyrgyz Republic progress and prosperity. For his part, the President of the Kyrgyz Republic conveyed his greetings to H H the Amir and his wishes to the Qatari people for more prosperity and progress, wishing the envoy success in his new duties and work to strengthen the friendly relations and cooperation between Qatar and the Kyrgyz Republic.

The health centre

is built in an area

of 8,000 sq metres

comprising of 57

clinics for different

specialities, including

18 for family medicine.

The car park area

distributed in the

two basements can

accommodate 407

vehicles at a time.

Global media, top investors pull out of Saudi investment forum

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Former US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said on Wednesday that he had suspended his role on the board of Saudi Arabia’s planned mega business zone NEOM until more is known about what happened to Khashoggi.

Meanwhile, the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he would attend he investment conference, despite mounting crit-icism over the disappearance of Khashoggi. Speaking CNBC at the IMF World Bank Meeting in Bali, Mnuchin said that while the While House was concerned about the status of Mr Khashoggi “I am planning on going at this point.”

“Whilst it is disappointing that some speakers and partners have pulled out, we are looking forward to welcoming thousands of speakers, moderators and guests from all over the world to Riyadh from October 23-25,” Reuters quoted a conference spokesperson as saying. Saudi suffered a shock collapse in inward investment last year, according to newly published data from UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), raising serious question about the prospects for the economic reform agenda being pursued by the country.

The UNCTAD World Investment Report, published on June 7, 2018, foreign direct investment (FDI) into Saudi Arabia last year amounted to just $1.4bn, down from $7.5bn the year before and as much as $12.2bn in 2012, Forbes reported.

04 SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER 2018MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Israeli forces massacre six Palestinians in GazaGAZA CITY: Six Palestinians were killed in new clashes along the Gaza-Israel border yesterday, the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave said.

It said the six men, ranging from 17 to 29 in age, had been killed as thousands of protesters approached the heavily-guarded Israeli border.

Four were killed along the frontier east of Al Bureij in the centre of the coastal territory, while another died east of Gaza City and one near Rafah in southern Gaza, a ministry spokesman said.

The Israeli army said approx-imately 14,000 demonstrators had gathered at various sites along the border.

A statement said troops “spotted a number of assailants who climbed the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip”.

It said they planted an “explosive device” which blew up and “set the security fence on fire”.

The assailants subse-quently approached an Israeli border post and were shot,

the statement said. “The assailants were killed,”

it said, without giving a number. At least 204 Palestinians

have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since protests began on March 30.

The majority were killed during border demonstrations, though others have died in air-strikes and tank shelling. One Israeli soldier has been killed.

The protesters are demanding to be allowed to return to lands now inside Israel, from which their families fled or were displaced during the 1948 war surrounding the creation of the Jewish state.

They are also calling for Israel to end its crippling blockade of the strip.

Israel accuses the enclave’s Islamist rulers Hamas of leading the protests and using them as a

cover for attacks. There had been hopes the protests would ease after a UN-brokered agreement to ease the strip’s

energy crisis took effect this week. However, thousands again gathered yesterday in sites along the border. They added that

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya also attended the protests east of Gaza City and hailed the ongoing demonstrations.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah flashes the victory sign at the Israel-Gaza border, east of Gaza city, yesterday.

Nigerian opposition candidate chooses running mateLAGOS: The main opposition challenger to Nigerian Pres-ident Muhammadu Buhari in next year’s elections has selected a former governor from the southeast of the country to be his running mate, the candidate’s spokesman said. Atiku Abubakar, a former vice pres-ident who will stand as the candidate for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 2019 vote, chose Peter Obi, formerly governor of the southeastern state of Anambra.

Turkey court frees pastor after crisis with USAFP

ALIAGA, TURKEY: A Turkish court yesterday freed an American pastor held for the last two years, in a case that sparked a crisis in Turkey’s ties with the United States and trouble for its economy.

The court in the western town of Aliaga convicted Andrew Brunson on terror-related charges and sentenced him to three years, one month and 15 days in jail.

However, he was freed taking into account time served and his good conduct during the trial, with the court lifting his house arrest and overseas travel ban, the correspondent said.

“This is the day our family has been praying for — I am delighted to be on my way home to the United States,” Brunson said in a statement released by the American Center for Law and Justice, a group that works on Christian legal cases and which represented Brunson.

US President Donald Trump, who has publicly pressed for Brunson’s released, tweeted that

he “will be home soon”.The pastor was swiftly driven

to his home in the nearby city of Izmir once the hearing was con-cluded. But it was unclear when he would head to an airport for an eventual flight back to the United States.

Brunson, who was first detained in October 2016 faced up to 35 years in jail on charges of aiding terror groups and espi-onage. Prosecutors then demanded a sentence of up to 10 years.

He was convicted on charges

of aiding terror groups while not being a member of them. Brunson and US officials insisted he is innocent of all charges.

“I am an innocent man. I love Turkey,” he said in his final defence. When the verdict was read out, Brunson wept and hugged his wife Norine.

Brunson’s detention since 2016 caused not just one of the worst diplomatic rows of recent times between Nato allies Turkey and the US, but also led to a crash in the Turkish lira which exposed the country’s economic fragility.

Turkish judicial authorities repeatedly denied requests for the release of Brunson, who was moved from prison to house arrest in Izmir in July.

But analysts warned that Brunson’s release alone would not resolve the troubles between Turkey and the United States.

“The clamp has now been removed, which opens the way for bilateral negotiations to address other sources of disa-greement, but Washington and Ankara still have to navigate through a minefield,” Anthony

Skinner, director of Middle East and North Africa at the Verisk Maplecroft consultancy, said.

He pointed to the order by Turkey of Russian S-400 missile defence systems which has riled its Western allies and Ankara’s determination to do business with Iran in defiance of US sanctions.

The new hearing also came as Turkey braces for potential fines from US authorities over Iran sanctions busting by Turkish lender Halkbank, which has already seen the jailing of its deputy director general in the United States.

The US is also watching the case of Nasa scientist Serkan Golge, a dual US-Turkish national, who was jailed for seven-and-a-half years in Feb-ruary on terror charges, a term reduced to a five years last month.

And Turkey is still holding two Turkish employees of US diplomatic missions in jail. One of the suspects, former Adana consulate staffer Hamza Ulucay, was yesterday denied release in a separate court hearing.

At least 34 dead after Uganda landslideAFP

KAMPALA: At least 34 people were killed after a river in eastern Uganda burst its banks, sending thick sludge and rocks barrelling into homes, disaster officials said yesterday.

Rescue teams were picking through the rubble, looking for survivors and victims of the dis-aster which took place on Thursday in the town of Bukalasi in the Bududa district. An unknown number of people were still missing.

“I can confirm 34 people are

dead. We have to wait for our assessment to be completed before we can say how many are missing,” said Uganda Red Cross spokeswoman Irene Nakasiita.

On Thursday she shared photos on WhatsApp of the scene of what she described as a “massive landslide”, including images of dismembered corpses caked in mud laid out by the river.

“The cause was the river bursting its banks upstream fol-lowing heavy rain. When the water flowed down it brought a number of big stones with it that

destroyed people’s houses,” Nakasiita said.

“Our search and rescue team is still on the ground evac-uating people and removing them from the rubble.”

She said the Red Cross was sending relief supplies to the area, such as tarpaulins, blankets and water purification tablets. Nathan Tumuhamye, director of an organisation that helps communities recover from natural disasters and conflict, said that “four to five villages”, and possibly a primary school had been affected.

Washington Post: Turkey has proof Saudi writer was killedAP

ANKARA: Turkey’s government has told US officials it has audio and video proof that missing Saudi Arabian writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the Wash-ington Post reported yesterday.

The newspaper, for which Khashoggi is a columnist, cited anonymous officials as saying the recordings show a Saudi security team detained the writer when he went to the consulate on October 2 to pick up a document for his upcoming wedding.

Saudi Arabia has called the alle-gation it abducted or harmed

Khashoggi “baseless.” However, it has offered no evidence to support its claim he left the consulate and vanished despite his fiancee waiting outside.

Anadolu Agency said the dele-gation would hold talks with Turkish officials over the weekend. It did not provide further details. On Thursday, Turkish presi-dential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Turkey and Saudi Arabia would form a “joint working group” to look into Khashoggi’s disappearance.

The 59-year-old journalist, who was considered close to the Saudi royal family, had became a critic of the current government and Crown

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 33-year-old heir apparent who has introduced reforms but shown little tolerance for criticism.

Khashoggi had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since last year. As a con-tributor to the Washington Post, he has written extensively about Saudi Arabia, including criticism of its war in Yemen, its recent dip-lomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of women’s rights activists after the lifting of a ban on women driving.

Those policies are all seen as initiatives of the crown prince, who has also presided over a roundup of activists and businessmen.

ANKARA: A Saudi delegation has arrived in Turkey for talks on missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, officials said yesterday, with Riyadh and Ankara sharply at odds over how he disappeared last week from the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.

The case risks hurting not just fragile Turkish-Saudi relations but also damaging the image of the kingdom and its ties to the West as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman promotes a reform drive at home. Big names from media and business have already cancelled

appearances at a major conference in Riyadh this month.

Saudi journalist and Washington Post contributor Khashoggi vanished on October 2 after entering the consulate to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage.

The Saudi delegation, whose composition was not immediately clear, is expected to meet with Turkish officials at the weekend, state media said.

The Turkish leadership has so far stopped short of accusing Saudi Arabia.

Saudi delegation in Turkey for talks

US pastor Andrew Brunson arrives at his home after his trial in Izmir, Turkey, yesterday.

Nigerian militia frees over 800 childrenAP

JOHANNESBURG: The United Nations children’s agency says a self-defense militia in Nigeria has freed more than 800 children from its ranks as it combats Boko Haram extremists.

The agency calls this the first formal release by the Civilian Joint Task Force, which had been listed in an annual U.N. report on children and armed conflict.

The statement on Friday says 1,469 boys and girls associated with the militia group have been identified in Maiduguri, the capital of northeastern Borno state, alone.

Maiduguri is the birthplace of Boko Haram, which continues to carry out deadly attacks in the Lake Chad region. The Islamic extremist group has killed or kidnapped tens of thousands over nearly a decade and sent millions fleeing.

Boko Haram also has seized and indoctrinated children as suicide bombers.

Israeli court upholds ban on entry by US studentJERUSALEM: An Israeli court yesterday upheld the barring of an American student from the country over her alleged activities in support of an international boycott campaign by pro-Palestinian groups.Lara Alqasem, 22, had filed an appeal with Tel Aviv District Court after being refused entry upon flying into Israel last week on a student visa. She has been held in an airport detention centre.

The six men, ranging

from 17 to 29 in

age, had been

killed as thousands

of protesters

approached the

heavily-guarded

Israeli border. At least

204 Palestinians have

been killed by Israeli

fire in Gaza since

protests began on

March 30.

32 Syrians rescued at sea off LebanonBEIRUT: The Lebanese navy and a UN force have rescued 32 Syrian refugees whose boat broke down as they attempted to reach Cyprus, the navy said.The United Nations peace-keeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said it found the craft on Thursday morning after receiving reports of a missing boat.

05SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER 2018 ASIA

Give answers on Rafale instead of ‘whataboutery’: CongressIANS

NEW DELHI: Dismissing the ruling BJPs latest bid to defend the Rafale deal, the Congress yesterday demanded that the Modi government give “factual answers about irregularities in the deal instead of indulging in whataboutery”.

Soon after Railways Minister Piyush Goyal accused Congress President Rahul Gandhi of “spreading falsehood and lies” over the deal with France to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets, the party ques-tioned why the NDA government was shying away from a Joint Par-liamentary Committee (JPC) probe.

The Congress also sought answers over the issues of “cor-ruption and irregularities” in the

deal announced by Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi in April 2015.

“One after the other, BJP ministers keep coming up with different justifications without answering any of the basic ques-tions that the Congress has been raising since the deal was announced. Instead of giving factual answers to our questions they indulge in whataboutery,”

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera told the media here.

“The country doesn’t want adjectives for Rahul Gandhi or what his father did or his mother did. The country wants answers on the Rafale deal, which the BJP and the government has been unable to give,” said Khera.

Ridiculing Gandhi’s Thursday charges of corruption against

Modi, Goyal called him a “serial liar”.

The Union Minister’s remarks came in the wake of Rafale-maker Dassault Aviation’s CEO Eric Trappier saying that the company’s joint venture with Reliance repre-sents only about 10 percent of the offset obligations in the jets deal and it was in negotiations with about a 100 Indian companies.

Khera said that the BJP was trying to “defend the indefen-sible” and reiterated its demand for a JPC probe.

“They keep coming with one or the other justification. Every time, their lies are exposed. They continue to hide behind the con-fidentiality clause when the fact is that both Dassault and Reliance, in their annual reports,

have revealed the price of the jets.

“They denied any hand in the ouster of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) from the deal but were exposed again when Trappier said that their agreement with HAL was on track. Further, HAL ex-chief T S Raju too said that the Indian aircraft maker had entered into a work-share agreement with Dassault,” said Khera.

“Why does the government shiver over a JPC. Let them submit to it all the questions which we and the country have been raising. Their lies have been exposed every time but they con-tinue to refuse to give factual answers to any of the questions raised,” added Khera.

The Congress has twice peti-tioned the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for a special and forensics audit and also moved the Central Vigilance Commission seeking a probe and seizure of deal documents.

Besides questioning the “inflated” price of the jets, the Congress has also been targeting the Centre over the propriety of a newly-founded private company getting the Rs30,000-crore Rafale offset contract at the cost of the state-owned HAL.

Following fresh revelations in the French media over the choice of offset partner, Gandhi on Thursday called Modi “corrupt” and asked him to quit if he failed to respond to the charges.

A firefighter is covered with Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) as he tries to control a fire that broke out in a thinner manufacturing plant on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, yesterday.

In the line of duty

Reliance will deliver only 10% of obligations: Dassault CEOIANS

NEW DELHI: Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier has said that the company’s joint venture with Reliance in Nagpur repre-sents only about 10 percent of the offset obligations in the deal to purchase 36 fighter jets from France and it is in negotiations with about a hundred Indian companies to meet the require-ments under the Defence Procurement Procedure of the Indian government.

“In full compliance with this regulation, Dassault Aviation decided to set up the DRAL joint venture with Reliance and build a plant in Nagpur, which should enable us to meet about 10 percent of these offset obliga-tions. We are in negotiations with about a hundred Indian companies and partnerships

have already been concluded with about thirty of them,” Trappier said in an interview to AFP.

He again made it clear that Dassault Aviation, which man-ufactures the Rafale jets, chose its offset partner.

“The reference is the contract we signed and which is called ‘offset contract’. With regard to the staff and trade union organ-isations, Dassault Aviation uses the term ‘obligation contractuelle d’offse’ or ‘obligation contrac-tuelle de compensation’.

“Signing an offset contract is a requirement of Indian law (Defence Procurement Pro-cedure). The implementation of offsets is an obligation and, under the Indian regulation, the choice of the partners belongs to us,” he said.

Trappier said Dassault

Aviation decided to establish a long-term presence in India through Dassault Reliance Aer-ospace Limited (DRAL), a joint enterprise in which governance is provided by an Indian Chief Executive Officer and a French Chief Operating Officer.

He said Dassault Aviation exercises technical and indus-trial control over the operations, applying its standards and its flexibility.

“This JV will produce parts for the Falcon 2000 and Rafale. The choice of the Nagpur site, in central India, was dictated by the availability of land with direct access to an airport runway,” he said.

Asked about the contro-versies in India surrounding the deal, Trappier said controversies are always unfortunate “but we remain calm”.

Air India Express plane hits wall in Trichy airportIANS

TRICHY/MUMBAI: All 130 passengers and six crew members on board an Air India Express flight to Dubai had a miraculous escape early yesterday when the aircraft’s wheels scraped the airport’s outer wall during take-off in Trichy in Tamil Nadu.

“The aircraft hit the air-port’s instrument landing systems (ILS) and then the com-pound wall,” Trichy Airport Director K Gunasekaran said.

Although parts of the Boeing B737-800’s undercarriage were damaged, the pilots, unaware of the accident, continued to fly until the airport staff alerted them. The plane was then diverted to Mumbai and landed there four hours later around 5.40am.

The flight IX-611, with 130 passengers and six crew, had taken off at around 1.20am.

“We informed the pilot about the mishap,” Gunasekaran said. “The pilot said nothing was

wrong with the plane as the systems were functioning nor-mally. But we found some parts of the plane like an antenna on the ground.” An Air India statement said officers of the Directorate General of Civil Avi-ation (DGCA) had reached Trichy and so had Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau officers.

Pending investigation, the airline has derostered both Captain D Ganesh Babu, who has flying experience of 3,600 hours on Boeing 737 including 500 hours as commander, and co-pilot and First Officer Captain Anurag, who has flying expe-rience of around 3,000 hours.

Authorities began a probe while technicians in Mumbai examined the damaged aircraft.

“Air India has constituted a Sub-Committee of the Board headed by an independent director for looking at all safety related issues within the organisation including subsidiaries,” an Air India statement said.

Sikkim’s organic farming wins FAO awardIANS

UNITED NATIONS: Sikkim has won the UN Food and Agri-culture Organisation’s (FAO) Future Policy Gold Award for its achievement in becoming the world’s first totally organic agri-culture state.

T h e 2 0 1 8 a w a r d announcement yesterday said: “Sikkim is the first organic state in the world. All of its farmland is certified organic. At the same time, Sikkim’s approach reaches beyond organic production and has proven truly transforma-tional for the state and its

citizens.” Uniquely, the state has totally banned the sale and use of chemical pesticides.

“Sikkim sets an excellent example of how other Indian states and countries worldwide can successfully upscale agr-oecology,” the announcement said.

Nicknamed the “Oscar for best policies”, the award is co-organised with the FAO by The World Future Council (WFC) and IFOAM — Organics Interna-tional, and recognises “the world’s best laws and policies promoting agroecology”.

Sikkim beat out 51 other nominees from around the

world for the award.Brazil, Denmark, Quito and

Ecuador shared the Silver award.

Prem Das Rai, the Sikkim Democratic Front MP who was here as a member of the Indian delegation to the General Assembly, said: “The people of Sikkim have to be congratulated for staying the course and sup-porting the organic farming pol-icies to make them a success.” “Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling framed the policies with great foresight and led from the front to make Sikkim 100 percent organic,” he added.

State Bank of Mauritius recovers 90pc of lost moneyIANS

MUMBAI: The State Bank of Mauritius (India) yesterday said it has recovered around 90 percent of the approxi-mately Rs190 crore that was lost in a major cyberattack on October 2.

An official spokesperson said that the SBM lost the amount through fraudulent SWIFT payments.

“Based on proactive and prompt measures, we have managed to recover around 90 percent of the lost amount. As of today, the lost amount is limited to Rs 19 crore,” the SBM India said.

Even this loss will get further reduced after claiming insurance, while necessary measures have been initiated to prevent any further damage, the bank spokes-person said.

“One after the other, BJP ministers keep

coming up with different justifications without

answering any of the basic questions that the

Congress has been raising since the deal was

announced. Instead of giving factual answers to

our questions they indulge in whataboutery,”

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said.

06 SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER 2018ASIA

Pakistani judge removed over rare criticism of ISIAFP

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani high court judge who publicly accused the country’s powerful intelligence service of manipu-lating judicial decisions to influence the last general election was removed from his post.

A notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice said the country’s president had removed Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui from his office with immediate

effect. The role of the military and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in politics is rarely discussed openly in Pakistan due to fear of repercussions.

But in a public speech delivered days before the July elections, Siddiqui had accused the ISI of being “fully involved in manipulating judicial process”, including the selection of judges, and conspiring to keep ousted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif behind bars during the polls.

In his speech to lawyers in Rawalpindi, Siddiqui said the spy agency was “involved in corrupt practices including providing aid in the commission of offences and receiving their share from crime money”.

He added: “People from ISI approached my boss and said ‘We do not want to let Nawaz Sharif and his daughter come out [of the prison] until elections’”.

Siddiqui had urged the mil-itary’s top brass to rein in the intelligences service to protect

both its reputation and that of the country at large.

The military asked the supreme court to probe Sid-diqui’s allegations.

On Thursday, the Supreme Judicial Council — the country’s top body of judges — said Sid-diqui had “displayed conduct unbecoming of a judge of a High Court and was thus guilty of misconduct”.

Also in July, Siddiqui had chided ISI and the police over alleged abductions.

Supporters of Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan chant slogans as they march during a protest in Rawalpindi, yesterday, demanding death penalty for a blasphemy convict woman Asia Bibi.

Protest in Lahore ahead of blasphemy ruling AFP

LAHORE: Several thousand Islamist hardliners protested in Lahore yesterday as Pakistan awaits a pivotal ruling in blas-phemy case, that of a Christian mother who has been on death row since 2010.

The rally, organised by anti-blasphemy party Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), was the biggest of several in cities across Pakistan, with a few hundred protesters also demonstrating in the southern port city of Karachi, and in Rawalpindi,

which neighbours Islamabad.The Islamists demanded the

execution of Asia Bibi be carried out, days after Pakistan’s Supreme Court heard her final appeal.

The court said it had reached a judgement at the hearing on Monday, but that it would not release it immediately for “reasons to be recorded later”, and told media they could not publish comments on the inflammatory case.

Successive appeals against Bibi’s conviction have failed. If the Supreme Court upholds it,

the only recourse she will have will be a mercy petition to the president. Also yesterday the Islamabad High Court said it had ruled on a petition that would put Bibi on the no-fly list if she is released. It did not immedi-ately announce its judgement.

Calls for reform to Pakistan’s colonial-era blasphemy laws have been rejected and met with violence.

Politicians including new Prime Minister Imran Khan invoked blasphemy during this summer’s election, vowing to defend the laws.

Passwords issued to 7,364 Pakistani voters abroad INTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) yesterday sent passwords to 7,364 overseas voters to use it for I-voting process for by-elec-tions in 35 constituencies of national and provincial assem-blies scheduled for tomorrow.

The passwords have been sent at the email addresses pro-vided by the voters at the time of their online registration.

On polling day, the voter shall log in to the website using his/her user name and password and enter the voter pass emailed to him/her earlier. This will direct the voter to reg-istered constituencies of national and provincial assem-blies to enable him/her to cast the vote.

A designated list of candi-dates of the selected constit-uency would then be displayed by the system and the voter shall select the election symbol of the candidate to cast the vote. Upon successful submission of the vote, a “confirmation” message would be displayed on the screen.

The ECP had already uploaded on its website sep-arate video tutorials in Urdu and English languages, as well as step-by-step help materials to guide voters through the reg-istration and voting process.

An ECP official explained that originally the number of registered overseas voters was 7,419 for 37 constituencies of national and provincial assem-blies, it but come down to 7,364 after unopposed elections in PP-296 (Rajanpur) and PP-87 (Mianwali).

He said the overseas voters would be able to cast their votes using the password from 8am to 5pm (Pakistan Standard Time) on polling day. The cam-paign to register overseas Paki-stanis for Internet-voting in the

by-polls evoked a lukewarm response, with only 7,419 expa-triates out of the total 632,000 registering to avail the facility offered to them for the first time in the country’s electoral history.

The process of registration of overseas Pakistanis from the constituencies where by-elec-tions are to be held had started on Sept 1.

According to the statistics, as many as 1,353 voters from NA-243, 1,126 from NA-131, 698 from NA-69, 641 from NA-53, 567 from NA-60, 510 from NA-124, 321 from NA-63, 312 from NA-63, 312 from NA-65, 304 from NA-35, 230 from NA-55 and 68 from NA-103 had registered themselves as voters.

For provincial assemblies’ elections, 253 voters registered from PP-27, 185 from PK-44 and 117 for PP-201. In the rest of the constituencies, the number of registered voters is below 100. In one of constitu-encies in Khuzdar, only one voter has registered himself.

Many believe that it will be known to all, to whom he/she casted his/her vote, something that might invite trouble for his/her family members in areas like Khuzdar.

Pakistan frees woman rights activist after arrestISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities yesterday released a Pashtun rights activist after holding her for several hours upon her arrival in the country.

Gulalai Ismail was detained as soon as she arrived at an Islamabad airport from London.

London-based rights group Amnesty International called for her immediate release saying she was being “detained solely for her peaceful human rights work.” Ismail is a critic of the Paki-stani military’s operations in the country’s tribal regions.

Serial child murderer to be executedLAHORE: A Pakistani judge has signed the execution order for a serial child killer convicted of killing eight children in eastern Punjab province.

Mohammad Imran was sentenced to death in Feb-ruary after a Lahore court convicted him of killing the children, including a 7-year-old Zainab Ansari whose abuse and murder shocked Pakistan.

China opposes Malaysia’s release of 11 Uighur MuslimsREUTERS

BEIJING: China said yesterday that it resolutely opposed Malaysia’s decision to release 11 ethnic Uighur Muslims from detention and send them to Turkey, disregarding China’s request to hand them to Beijing.

China was in the process of verifying details with Malaysia and hoped that the Southeast Asian nation would “attach great importance” to its con-cerns, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a faxed statement.

“These people are all Chinese nationals. We reso-lutely oppose them being deported to a third country,” it said. Prosecutors in Muslim-majority Malaysia dropped charges against the Uighurs on humanitarian grounds and they arrived in Turkey after flying out of Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, their lawyer, Fahmi

Moin, said. The Malaysian gov-ernment has yet to comment on the matter. The Uighurs in Malaysia were part of a group of more than 200 detained in Thailand in 2014.

Although they identified themselves as citizens of a foreign country, more than 100 were forcibly returned to China in July 2015, sparking interna-tional condemnation. The Uighurs were detained and charged with illegally entering Malaysia after breaking out of the Thai prison last November by punching holes in a prison wall and using blankets as ladders.

Malaysia’s move is likely to strain ties with China, already tested since Mahathir Mohamad became prime minister after a stunning election victory in May and cancelled more than $20bn worth of projects awarded to Chinese companies.

On polling day, the

voter shall log in to

the website using

his/her user name

and password and

enter the voter

pass emailed to

him/her earlier.

This will direct the

voter to registered

constituencies

of national and

provincial assemblies

to enable him/her to

cast the vote.

Afghan employees of the Independent Election Commission charges power bank devices at a warehouse in Kabul.

Eight dead in Taliban attacks in Afghan’s north AGENCIES

KABUL: An Afghan official says attacks by the Taliban in the country’s north have killed eight people — four soldiers and four civilians.

Military spokesman Hanif Rezaie says the troops died in Kunduz province when the Taliban attacked a military outpost in the district of Archi yesterday morning. He says six were wounded in the assault.

Rezaie says the civilians were killed on Thursday, when a car bomb targeting an election campaign headquarters in Faryab province exploded prematurely.

He says several Taliban fighters died in both incidents.

Afghanistan is holding par-liamentary elections on October 20. The campaign has already been marred by violence.

On Tuesday, a suicide bomber struck the home of an election candidate in the city of

Lashkar Gah, in Helmand province, killing the candidate and seven others.

The Taliban have reinstated a security guarantee in Afghan-istan for the International Com-mittee for Red Cross (ICRC), two months after withdrawing safe passage for the neutral human-itarian agency, the militant group and an ICRC official said

yesterday. A meeting in the Tal-iban’s political office between its leaders and agency officials ended with the renewal of a pact allowing the agency to continue to provide, and expand, medical aid to all parties harmed by warfare.

“The security agreement...is once again reinstated and calls on all mujahideen to grant

access...and provide security for the personnel and equipment of this organisation,” the Taliban said in a statement, referring to its members. The Taliban lead-ership discussed the humani-tarian situation and security concerns before renewing the pledge, said Andrea Catta Preta, the ICRC’s spokeswoman in the Afghan capital.

“We told the Taliban leaders about our support to all pris-oners in Afghanistan jails, we explained our medical pro-grammes,” she added.

“Finally, we reached an understanding.” In August, the Taliban had accused the Red Cross of failing to provide ade-quate medical aid to prisoners on a hunger strike in Kabul’s Pul-e Charkhi prison and withdrew the security cover. The decision forced the ICRC to suspend several emergency pro-grammes in Afghanistan, where it has had a presence for three decades and about 1,000 staff.

Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina takes aim at photographer REUTERS

DHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says she is convinced that jailed photog-rapher Shahidul Alam instigated trouble by spreading what she describes as “false news” about protests against her rule in August.

In an exclusive interview, Hasina described Alam, who is known as one of South Asia’s

preeminent photographers, as “mentally sick” and blamed his behaviour on his family back-ground. Alam’s great uncle was on the opposing side to Hasina’s father in Bangladesh’s war of independence from Pakistan.

She offered no evidence for her accusations, which Alam’s family and lawyer reject.

Alam was arrested in August, hours after criticising the

government’s response to wide-spread student protests.

His detention has been widely seen as a test for freedom of speech in the country and has sparked worldwide demands for his release.

Hasina, who was returned unopposed in 2014 after the oppo-sition boycotted the poll, is seeking a third term in an election at the end of December against a

backdrop of growing dissent at what critics believe is her increas-ingly authoritarian government. “You are now guilty until proven innocent — we have a reverse system,” said Ataur Rahman, a professor of political science at Dhaka University. “People don’t want to be engaged in debates in case they end up like Shahidul.” Alam’s family said the gov-ernment had already decided on

his guilt before a trial can be held. “It shows they have already made their judgment,” said Alam’s niece, Dilruba Karim. She added that Hasina’s comments “are hugely cruel and don’t befit the leader of a so-called democracy”.

Anisul Huq, a cabinet minister who handles legal affairs in Hasina’s government, said the country’s judicial system has “full independence and freedom”.

Alam, a long-term critic of Hasina’s Awami League, is being investigated under a controversial section of the Information and Communication Technology Act, which Human Rights Watch says has been used by Hasina’s gov-ernment in a number of arbitrary detentions of government critics and is one of several laws that have been used to stifle free speech.

07SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER 2018 ASIA

Seoul urges US to declare end to Korean WarBLOOMBERG

SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Kim Jong-Un’s denuclearisation pledge “includes everything” — even giving up his existing arsenal —but the North Korean leader needed corresponding measures from the US to move forward.

Moon made the remarks yes-terday ahead of a trip to Europe. The South Korean president, who held his most recent of three summits with Kim last month in Pyongyang, said North Korea was committed to giving up nuclear weapons to achieve eco-nomic growth, according to a transcript released by his office.

“He said he would give up

nukes for economic devel-opment,” Moon said.

“It starts with stopping addi-tional nuclear and missile tests, halting the production of nuclear weapons, scrapping facilities that develop missiles and getting rid

of the currently existing nuclear weapons and nuclear material. It includes everything.”

How committed Kim is to surrendering a nuclear deterrent that his family spent decades acquiring has been a key area of uncertainty since he initiated talks with Moon and US Pres-ident Donald Trump earlier this year.

A vague agreement signed by Trump and Kim during their his-toric first meeting in June included an undefined pledge to “work toward complete denu-clearisation on the Korean Peninsula,” something that could be read as to include US nuclear umbrella over South Korea.

Another point of contention

has been Kim’s demands for a declaration ending the Korean War, that was never formally resolved after an armistice was signed in 1953.

The US has resisted the request, which could raise ques-tions about American military presence on the peninsula, including the 28,000 troops sta-tioned there.

Moon said that it was “only a matter of time” before such a declaration was agreed to, according to the transcript.

He voiced optimism about a second summit between Trump and Kim sometime after the US congressional election in November, saying he hoped the two leaders made a “big decision

and agree on a timetable for North Korea’s denuclearisation that comes comes with responsive measures from the United States.”

The South Korean president also brushed aside speculation of rift between the two sides. Trump had tersely said that Seoul did “nothing without our approval” in response to ques-tions about South Korean discus-sions about relaxing unilateral sanctions.

“ P r e s i d e n t T r u m p ’ s comment is a general statement that we (South Korea) must work closely with the US,” Moon said, adding that South Korea was only preparing for the possibly of building

economic ties with its northern neighbour.

“Actual economic cooper-ation would be possible only after sanctions are eased and exemptions are allowed.”

Moon said that human rights in North Korea could only be improved through inter-Korean exchanges, not international pressure.

“The most practical way to improve the North Korean resi-dents’ human rights is through South-North cooperation, and North Korea’s cooperation with the international society, and North Korea becoming a normal country after walking down the road of opening up,” he said recently.

South Korean

President Moon Jae-in

said North Korea was

committed to giving

up nuclear weapons

to achieve economic

growth.

Philippines & Vietnam discuss sea boundariesAP

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Vietnam’s prime minister have discussed efforts by their countries to delineate their maritime boundaries in the disputed South China Sea, most of which is claimed by China.

Duterte said yesterday, without elaborating, that he told Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in a meeting in Indonesia that such boundary talks may take longer because the Philip-pines is still establishing its con-tinental shelf limit, or the coun-try’s outermost boundary.

“I told him that in due time, but we will take a longer period for we have to establish even our continental shelf limits,” Duterte said he told Phuc in a meeting on the sidelines of a gathering of Southeast Asian leaders on Indonesia’s Bali island.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia, which belong to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), along with China and Taiwan have been locked for decades in territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Tensions flared after China turned seven disputed reefs into islands which it later equipped with surface-to-air missile defense systems, in moves that

triggered alarm and protests.“Vietnam is our Asean

brother and they have been supporting us in many ways and we have been supporting them,” Philippine Foreign Sec-retary Alan Peter Cayetano said.

“But they’re also claimants like us. They also have features that are inside our EEZ,” Cayetano said, referring to the stretch of waters in which a coastal state enjoys interna-tionally recognised rights to exclusively fish and extract oil and gas in the seabed.

Carl Thayer of the Uni-versity of New South Wales, Canberra, said China would oppose the Philippine-Vietnam talks because Beijing claims most of the strategic waterway where the two Southeast Asian neighbors want to define their maritime boundaries.

Efforts by the two Southeast Asian nations to define their maritime boundaries are sig-nificant because Asean and China are negotiating a regional code to prevent clashes arising from overlapping claims. China, however, has not clearly defined its sweeping claims, Thayer said.

Some Southeast Asian countries have successfully forged agreements to delineate their overlapping exclusive eco-nomic zones and continental shelves in the past, he said.

Duterte names new foreign affairs secretaryREUTERS

MANILA: The Philippines’ ambassador to the United Nations was named the coun-try’s new foreign secretary yesterday, the first of several cabinet changes expected ahead of mid-term elections next year.

President Rodrigo Duterte said he asked ambassador

Teodoro Locsin to replace Alan Peter Cayetano, who planned to seek a seat in the lower house of Congress. Cayetano was a three-term congressman and a two-term senator before he joined the cabinet last year.

“Can you please call Teddy Boy Locsin and ask him if I can mention his name here,” Duterte said to an aide during a news

conference in Manila.Locsin, a former three-term

congressman and a newspaper publisher, tweeted later yes-terday: “I was asked. I said yes.”

Candidates began registering on Thursday for the mid-term elections scheduled for May 2019 and seen as a referendum on Duterte’s administration.

Five more cabinet members

are expected to quit and run for elective positions, including the ministers for agriculture and agrarian reform, a political adviser and a special assistant.

Duterte’s press spokesman Harry Roque is also leaving to run for public office next year, the president’s office said. Roque was replaced by the president’s lawyer, Salvador Panelo.

Indonesian quake toll reaches 2,088ANATOLIA

JAKARTA: The death toll from last month’s earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia has climbed to 2,088, officials said yesterday.

The National Disaster Management Agency officials said the research and rescue missions halted as of yesterday, but the state of emergency will continue until October 26.

The officials added that a total of 680 people are believed to be missing and the number of injured people receiving treatment in hos-pitals are up to 4,612.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the National Disaster Management Agency, said on Thursday that most of the deaths, 1,663, occurred in Palu, mainly because of the tsunami.

Catalans march for unity on Spain’s National Day

Train catches fire in Germany

AFP

BARCELONA: Tens of thou-sands of Catalans who want their region to remain part of Spain marked national day yesterday, marching through Barcelona in protest against leaders who brought the region to the brink of independence last year.

Waving both Spanish and Catalan flags and cheering Spain’s king, the demonstrators made their way along the elegant Passeig de Gracia, home to some of the city’s most luxu-rious hotels, to the central Placa de Catalunya square.

Organisers said some 300,000 people took part in the demonstration. Municipal police put turnout at 65,000 people.

“It is not so much about asserting of feelings of being Spanish. We came to demand unity, the unity of Spain and Catalan society which is more and more divided,” Cristian Rod-riguez, a 21-year-old student, said.

Polls and recent elections show the Catalonia’s 7.5 million residents are roughly equally divided by the secession question.

While supporters of inde-pendence have staged massive rallies in recent years, those who want the wealthy northeastern

region to remain a part of Spain have remained largely silent.

But that changed after Cata-lonia’s regional government in October 2017 pressed ahead with a banned referendum on secession and the regional par-liament then declared the region’s independence to no effect.

Spain’s central government responded by sacking the region’s government, led at the

time by Carles Puigdemont, dis-solving its parliament and calling early regional elections.

Sixteen Catalan separatist leaders, including Puigdemont who is in self-imposed exile in Belgium, are facing trial over their role in the separatist push. The trial is expected to start in early 2019.

“I ask that the judges who will have to issue sentences soon not be intimidated,” said Javier

Megino, the vice president of the group which organised the dem-onstration, “Spain and Catalonia”, in an address to the crowd.

“Puigdemont to prison,” the crowd chanted in response.

Puigdemont was replaced by Quim Torra as Catalonia pres-ident following snap polls in the region in December 2017 which saw separatist parties once again win an absolute majority in the regional parliament.

People waving Spanish and Catalan flags during an anti-separatist demonstration for the unity of Spain marking the Spanish National Day, in Barcelona, yesterday.

Italy opposes EU plan to impose sanctions against foreign hackersREUTERS

BRUSSELS: Italy is resisting a European Union push to impose sanctions on states who carry out cyberattacks, a move that appears in line with Rome’s calls to de-escalate tensions with Russia but that could alienate Italy from its EU allies.

Diplomats said the sanc-tions plan is meant to strengthen EU defences and deterrence against cyberat-tacks, in particular from Russia, which has been in recent months at the centre of allega-tions of elections meddling in various Western states as well as security breaches conducted through electronic means.

But Italy has opposed the idea of a new penalty regime, a confidential EU document shows. The plan has broad support among EU states except for Italy, according to the document.

Italy has repeatedly urged a relaxation of the sanctions against Russia, which has been the target of a wide range of EU economic penalties since the 2014 Ukraine crisis.

This position has been opposed by large majority of EU

states that have regularly renewed sanctions regime against Moscow because of annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and continuing support for pro-Russian separatist rebels there.

The proposals for sanc-tioning cyberattacks were dis-cussed in meetings this week in preparation for an EU summit that will take place next week in Brussels.

“Responding to large-scale cyberattacks from foreign actors, in particular when they are aimed at our elections, is vital,” EU Security Commis-sioner Julien King said, adding that sanctions should be con-sidered “where appropriate”.

Britain, France, Estonia, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland called for the introduction of sanctions, the document shows.

Belgium, Finland and Sweden support a “gradual response” to future attacks that could include a number of measures before sanctions, the document shows. Rome has long said that existing sanctions are damaging Italian firms trading with Moscow.

Firefighters working inside an Inter City Express (ICE) train of Germany’s Deutsche Bahn that caught fire near Montabaur, yesterday.

Over the past

year and nine

months, Haley

happily led

the Trump

administration’s

vicious efforts

to undermine

the Palestinian

struggle for

rights and self-

determination,

spewing

hatred against

Palestinians

and singing

the praises of

Israel at every

opportunity she

got.

BLOOMBERG

08 SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER 2018VIEWS

Nikki Haley will not be missed in Palestine

The abrupt resignation of the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, on October 9 has provoked much

speculation about her motivation to do so and her political ambitions. But for Palestinians - and certainly, for many other small nations targeted by Haley’s angry diplomacy for the last two years - the news brought about a momentary feeling of relief.

Over the past year and nine months, Haley happily led the Trump administration’s vicious efforts to undermine the Palestinian struggle for rights and self-determination, spewing hatred against Palestinians and singing the praises of Israel at every oppor-tunity she got. There can be no rational explanation for Haley’s absurd resentment of Palestinians and love of Israel, other than sheer opportunism.

In his bestselling book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Michael Wolff describes Haley as an “opportunist” who is as “ambitious as Lucifer”. And judging by her career path, she likely is.

Haley was almost completely unknown, even nationally, when Pres-ident Donald Trump selected her to be the face of American diplomacy at the UN early last year. Born into an immi-

grant Indian family, Nimrata “Nikki” Haley’s career as an accountant took several unexpected turns leading to her being the governor of the state of South Carolina for two terms. If she was arguably suited to that post, she was most cer-tainly unqualified to become the top US foreign policy emissary at the world’s most important international institution.

As soon as she was confirmed to her new position, she developed a dis-position that would be remembered by Palestinians as the most aggressive and arrogant among all US envoys to the UN since the establishment of Israel and destruction of Palestine in 1948. It could be argued that Haley’s

anti-Palestinian behaviour at the UN was the natural outcome of deepening US support for Israel.

True, the US-Israel pact at the UN is as old as Israel itself. But the last two decades have taken this relationship to new heights. The already slanted US position on Israel’s occupation of Pal-estine and its brazen use of its veto power to shield Israel from interna-tional criticism reached their zenith during the term of George W Bush’s ambassador to the UN, John Negro-ponte (2001-2004).

The “Negroponte doctrine” - the instant rejection, and if necessary, vetoing of any UN Security Council resolution critical of Israel - remained a staple in US foreign policy until today, with the notable exception of Resolution 2334.

On December 23, 2016, the Obama Administration abstained from voting on a resolution that condemned Israel’s construction of illegal Jewish settlements in the Occupied Pales-tinian Territories. Obama’s final act, although feeble and ineffective, vio-lated the main tenet of US diplomacy at the UN. Expectedly, Resolution 2334 enraged Israel and its supporters in the new Trump administration.

Soon after, Haley arrived in New York with a clear and urgent mandate: to right that “wrong” and reaffirm the US’ unconditional support for Israel at the UN. Eager to reassure Israel that it has not been abandoned by Wash-ington, Haley launched her pro-Israel campaign at the annual policy con-ference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in March 2017, using bizarre, tactless language.

“There’s a new sheriff in town,” she announced before 18,000 con-ference attendees, intoxicated with excitement.

“I wear heels. It’s not for a fashion statement,” she declared. “It’s because if I see something wrong, we’re going to kick ‘em every single time.”

By “something wrong”, Haley was referring to any censure of Israel, or demand of accountability and respect for international law at the UN, as in

Resolution 2334, which she described as a “kick in the gut.”

The US doesn’t “have a greater friend than Israel,” she affirmed.

Haley stayed true to her words. She turned the UN into a platform for defending Israel and demonising Pal-estinians and their supporters within the international community.

The “Haley doctrine” went even further than Negroponte’s, as the latter was largely confined to blocking resolu-tions critical of Israel. Haley, on the other hand, stood up for Israel at every opportunity, and, along with Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, she conspired to punish countries and UN agencies, including UNESCO and UNRWA, for recognising Palestinian rights or providing aid to Palestinian ref-ugees. Haley, therefore, tried to manage the UN from within - rewarding and punishing as she saw fit - to end what she strangely perceived as the organisa-tion’s systematic targeting of Israel.

Haley recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and called for the relo-cation of her country’s embassy before the Trump Administration officially did so in December 2017.

“The capital should be Jerusalem and the embassy should be moved to Jerusalem,” she told the right-wing Christian Broadcasting Network during an interview in May 2017.

In a visit to Israel in June 2017, she accused the UN in a press conference held jointly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “bullying” Israel. “If there’s anything I have no patience for, it’s bullies - and the UN was being such a bully to Israel because they could,” she said.

The notion, that of the UN’s sup-posed unfairness to Israel, was at the heart of Haley’s skewed discourse. A few months later, in November 2017, she spoke about why she visited Israel:

“I went to Israel to see firsthand the country the United Nations spends half its time on. Unfortunately, I’m not kidding - it’s ridiculous. It seems like the rough breakdown at the UN is half the time on Israel and half the time on the other 192 countries.”

RAMZY BAROUD AL JAZEERA

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Declaring the end of the war is a political

declaration that the US would end decades of

hostile relations with the North. Moving towards

such a process is the corresponding measure

the US should take.

Moon Jae-in

South Korean President

Saudi Arabia must say what happened to missing journalist

It’s been more than a week since Jamal Khashoggi, the prominent Saudi columnist and exile, entered his country’s consulate in

Istanbul and disappeared. Turkish authorities believe he was tortured and killed by a team flown in from Riyadh. The Saudi government has denied this, but the drip-drip of lurid detail leaked to the press has led to ever-louder calls for a more thorough and transparent investigation into the disappearance of a man known for his criticism of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Now a bipartisan group of senators have added their voices to the outcry, pressing President Donald Trump to order a probe.

It is past time for the crown prince to act. In an interview with Bloomberg News last week, he said he believed Khashoggi had left the

consulate shortly after entering it. His government’s official position is that nothing happened, and that there’s nothing further to add. This won’t do. The prince must seek - and make public - a full accounting of what happened.

Every day without clarity about Khashoggi’s fate deepens suspicions of a cover-up. Turkish authorities have not distinguished themselves by leaking selectively, but it is the credi-bility of the prince - already worn thin by a widespread crackdown on dissent at home, and overreaction to criticism from abroad - that is at stake.

Saudi inaction is already dam-aging relations with the United States. Sen. Rand Paul is calling for a vote to bar US arms sales to the kingdom. In 2017, his proposal to block $110 billion in sales to Saudi Arabia over its involvement in Yemen’s civil war narrowly failed. He may find it easier to get the

necessary support now. President Donald Trump has said he wouldn’t support a block on arms sales, but has allowed that the Khashoggi episode is “a terrible thing and it cer-tainly would not be a positive” for US -Saudi relations.

The Saudi leader can ill afford a strain on ties with his country’s most important ally, and Trump is not shy about the leverage he enjoys: He recently boasted that the prince’s father, King Salman, would “not be there for two weeks” without US support. That leverage is best deployed not to score political points but to guide the prince’s behavior and rein in his autocratic tendencies.

The prince has said he wants to transform Saudi Arabia into a modern, outward-looking country. How he and his government respond to the Khashoggi affair, and to the interna-tional reaction, will be a test of his sincerity.

Qatar Fund For

Development

(QFFD) under

directives of

Amir H H Sheikh

Tamim bin Hamad

Al Thani has

announced $150m

in emergency

aid to alleviate

the humanitarian

crisis in the

besieged Gaza

Strip.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

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

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

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

A laudable act

In the times when United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has repeatedly expressing serious concerns over possible halting of its educational and healthcare

operations for Palestinian refugees due to severe shortage of funds, Qatar Fund For Development (QFFD) under direc-tives of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has announced $150m in emergency aid to alleviate the human-itarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip.

In the last week of September 2018, UNRWA that sup-ports Palestinian refugees had said schools and health centres were at risk if the agency was unable to plug a $185m funding gap needed to keep operating until the end of the year. “Currently we have money in the bank ... will last I presume somewhere into ... mid October,” said Pierre Kra-henbuhl, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in New York, where world leaders were attending the annual UN General Assembly.

“But it’s clear that we still need approximately $185m to be able to ensure that all of our services, education system, health care, relief and social services and our emergency work in Syria and Gaza in particular can continue until the

end of the year,” Krahenbuhl had said.

QFFD announced on Wednesday that in compliance with the directives of H H the Amir, QFFD would work urgently to activate $150m package of assistance through the United Nations Development Program and the concerned international bodies.

This support comes within the context of alleviating the suf-fering of the brotherly Pales-tinian people, who lost many of their children, youth and women either in confrontations with the Israeli occupation forces or because of poor living conditions and poor health care. Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has also expressed his deep appreciation for the State of Qatar’s contri-bution to provide fuel to the Gaza

Strip to generate electricity in order to help reduce human suffering and respond to public health needs.

“The Secretary-General expresses his deep appreci-ation to the Government of Qatar for its $60m contribution, which made this delivery of the fuel possible and provide a welcomed supply of electricity in the Strip for the coming months,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement in New York few days ago.

Separately, Minister of Education and Higher Education, H E Dr Mohamed bin Abdulwahed Al Hammadi said on Thursday that the aid provided by the State of Qatar to the Palestine from 2010-2017 was QR3.872bn, in addition to non-governmental support from 2010-2016 that reached QR2.345bn. The Minister said that those large sums were directed towards humanitarian, developmental, healthcare, social services, wages, as well as the financing of public agencies. He was speaking at the 13th Session of the General Conference of ISESCO in the Moroccan capital Rabat.

Many conservative

politicians are deeply

wary of China, as are

many Japanese voters.

A survey published on

Thursday showed 86

percent of Japanese had

a “bad image” of China.

A tough line on

China helped Abe to

regain office in 2012

during a row over

tiny East China Sea

isles that put ties in

a deep chill. Now,

Abe hopes to build

on a rapprochement

welcomed by

Beijing, which

is locked in an

escalating trade war

with Washington.

09SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER 2018 OPINION

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All thoughts and views expressed in these columns are those of the writers,not of the newspaper.

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Macron too busy to rush French govt reshuffle

Abe pursues China thaw as US-Beijing ties in deep freeze

SYLVIE CORBET & JOHN LEICESTER AP

LINDA SIEG REUTERS

Emmanuel Macron won’t be rushed. The 24-hour news cycle? The French leader isn’t interested. At least, that’s

what he wants people to think.France’s president is turning a

government reshuffle into a soapbox against the time-pressures of modern politics and wall-to-wall news

coverage.Behind the scenes, Macron’s gov-

ernment is struggling to quickly plug the gap left by the sudden resignation last week of his interior minister, Gerard Collomb.

But Macron and his aides are spinning the delay in appointing a replacement. The message from his office: Relax everyone.

“He makes no apologies for taking time in order to do this famous reshuffle,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said, just before Macron set off Wednesday afternoon for an overseas trip to Armenia that will further postpone the appointment of a new minister at least until the president’s return on Friday.

Collomb’s resignation, to free him up to re-run as mayor of the south-eastern city of Lyon, initially appeared to blind-side Macron, who tried but failed to get the minister to recon-sider. His departure was so sudden that when U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and European interior

ministers gathered for a long-planned meeting to discuss anti-terrorism and other issues this week, Macron’s prime minister had to be dispatched to greet them, standing in temporarily in the absence of a French interior minister.

Opposition leaders quickly argued that not swiftly replacing Collomb was symptomatic of a government in dis-array. Guillaume Peltier of the right-wing Republicans asked if France “still has a captain.” A “mess,” sniffed far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon.

Sometimes proudly sporting a made-in-France watch, on a red-white-and-blue wrist-strap, Macron likes to describe himself as the “master of the clocks.” But he is almost always late -even at meetings with other heads of states. As the days without a reshuffle have stretched beyond a week, Macron has sought to use the mini-saga to signal that his schedule is his own and that he won’t be pushed around.

Usually, reshuffles take a few days, at most. One reason this one is taking longer may be that Macron has equilibriums to maintain. Recruiting more men than women to his admin-istration would violate his promise of equality between the sexes. Recruiting too heavily from the left or right wings of French politics would risk tilting his government too far from its centrist, middle-way axis. And background checks have to be conducted to ensure that candidates don’t have legal or other skeletons in their closet that could soil Macron in the same way that ugly scandals undermined previous French administrations.

In short, Macron is far too busy to be rushed.

“He takes responsibility for breaking with usual practices when some were changing the minister of so-and-so within a few hours, moving

him from one ministry to another,” Griveaux said. “He said, with his own words, that ministers were not objects on shelves but people with whom it was necessary to have an extensive dialogue before deciding to give them the important mission we have started of transforming the country.”

So hold the presses.As 24-hour news channels have

breathlessly speculated about who might be shuffled to which ministry and talked of a possible split between Macron and his prime minister over candidates, the French leader took a sunset stroll on Tuesday evening along the banks of the Seine River, where lovers have long hoped that time will stand still.

A journalist who seemingly hap-pened to luck across the unusual scene snapped Macron walking ahead of his bodyguards, a mobile phone glued to his ear . “Crisis? What crisis?” the image seemed to say.

Macron has even coined a phrase - the “tyranny of immediacy” - to describe his manifest refusal to become enslaved by the tick-tock, tick-tock of the right-here, right-now. Defending the right to take one’s time all seems very French, fitting with France’s fondness for leisure, for two-hour lunches and slow food.

It’s a far cry from the famously frenetic style of one of Macron’s recent predecessors, Nicolas Sarkozy. He was so in a hurry as president that he dared to remove cheese from pres-idential palace menus so meals would go quicker. That anecdote came courtesy of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who lamented the axing of fromage at the Elysee Palace.

Sooner, or later, there’ll be a new minister, probably more than one if the reshuffle concerns several portfolios.

But all in good time.

While US President Donald Trump appears to wage a trade “Cold War” on China, Japanese Prime

Minister Shinzo Abe will promote a thaw with Beijing at a summit this month where business ties will be in the spotlight.

A tough line on China helped Abe to regain office in 2012 during a row over tiny East China Sea isles that put ties in a deep chill. Now, Abe hopes to build on a rapprochement welcomed by Beijing, which is locked in an esca-lating trade war with Washington.

Japan shares US concerns about Beijing’s maritime assertiveness and is extending its military reach to counter China. Japanese firms worry also about Chinese violations of intel-lectual property rights and technology theft.

Still, business ties with China, the world’s second largest economy, are vital for Japan.

“To ensure that Japan has sus-tainable economic growth, you cannot ignore economic relations with China,” said a Japanese foreign min-istry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Abe has met Chinese President Xi Jinping many times since their first chilly conversation in 2014 on the sidelines of an Asia leaders’ summit in Beijing.

Abe’s Oct. 26 meeting with Xi, offi-cially confirmed on Friday, will be the first full-scale Sino-Japanese summit since 2011. Both sides hope more mutual visits will follow.

The thaw has been linked to a shift in Beijing’s diplomacy since late 2017 and increasing US -China friction over trade.

Japanese firms want to see ties normalised so they can compete with US and European rivals.

An executive at automaker Toyota, speaking on condition of ano-nymity, said the mood had changed from the “China risk” theme of the past few years. “The sentiment...is shifting very fast, leading to more for us to do in China,” he said.

China is Japan’s biggest trading partner. Japan is China’s second largest trading partner, after the United States, and fourth biggest investor. Japan’s direct investment in China rose in 2017 for the first time in five years, a trend that continued in the first eight months of 2018, the Japan External Trade Organization said in a report that also flagged growing Japanese exports to China.

A highlight of Abe’s visit is expected to be a forum attended by up to 1,000 executives and trade officials to discuss China-Japan economic cooperation in third countries.

China expects Abe to make a

relatively supportive statement on its Belt and Road initiative, a vehicle to fund and build global transport and trade links in more than 60 countries.

“We really hope that Japan on this issue is not in vicious competition with China,” said Wang Yiwei of Renmin University in Beijing. “It could be positive competition or even coop-eration.” Belt and Road has come under fire for saddling poor nations with unsustainable debt through big projects that are not economically viable. Beijing rejects the criticism.

Japanese participation could help Belt and Road’s image and allay the fears of debtor nations, experts and officials said.

Abe may, however, shun the Belt and Road label. Japanese defence offi-cials are wary of its military implica-tions, and Tokyo is pushing its Free and Open Pacific Strategy to promote free trade and infrastructure across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Japan wants to ensure joint projects with China are transparent, open, economically viable and fiscally sound for debtor countries, officials said. “This is not ‘support’ for Belt and Road. We will not ease global standards,” a Japanese trade official said.

Several non-binding agreements, known as MOUs, are expected from the forum, including one on a project in Thailand, a Japanese source involved in the forum planning said.

Such agreements “would be a symbol of improving ties,” said Koji Sako, a senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute.

Japan is involved in efforts to forge a Regional Comprehensive Eco-nomic Partnership among 16 nations including China, as well as in talks on a China-Japan-South Korea free trade pact. Tokyo would thus balk at the sort of “poison pill” found in a new US -Canada-Mexico free trade pact, Jap-anese officials said.

The provision effectively gives Washington veto power over any free trade deal with China. US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has said they might seek a similar clause with other countries.

Abe and Trump have agreed to start talks on a new Japan-US trade deal that Washington hopes will cut its trade deficit, while Tokyo aims to avert higher tariffs on its auto exports.

“I can’t imagine a situation in which we’d accept such a course,” said another Japanese government source when asked about the poison

France’s president

is turning a

government

reshuffle into a

soapbox against the

time-pressures of

modern politics and

wall-to-wall news

coverage.

pill provision.The US State Department and

White House declined to comment when asked about the coming Abe-Xi summit.

A US push to get Japan to join efforts to isolate China would present Tokyo with a dilemma, although officials said Abe could tell Trump that Japan was taking a different approach with the same goal - convincing China to play by global rules. Such US pressure could find support inside Japan.

Many conservative politicians are deeply wary of China, as are many Japanese voters. A survey published on Thursday showed 86 percent of Japanese had a “bad image” of China.

“There are some in Japan who think the security relationship with the United States takes precedence over Japan’s economic issues,” said Kiyoyuki Seguchi, research director at the Canon Institute for Global Studies.

“But if one...asks whether eco-nomic development is possible without cooperative development with China, the answer is ‘No’.”

10 SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER 2018EUROPE

Bulgarian reporter’s murder suspect awaits extraditionAFP

BERLIN: A German court said yesterday that a man suspected of the rape and murder of Bulgarian television journalist Viktoria Marinova would be extradited to Bulgaria in the coming days.

“The extradition of the accused can be expected soon,” the superior regional court in Celle said in a statement.

It added that the

20-year-old suspect, who was arrested on Tuesday on a European warrant, had said during questioning “that he did not want to kill the victim and denied raping her”.

“The arrested man admitted to the court that he had a verbal argument with the victim on October 6, 2018,” it said.

“He was under the strong influence of alcohol and drugs and punched the woman in the face, at which point she fell

down. He then picked her up and threw her in a bush but said he then left the scene.”

Under an expedited pro-cedure requested by prosecutors and agreed to by the accused, he must be extradited within 10 days of the court’s ruling, made on Thursday.

Bulgarian prosecutors have said that the killing does not appear linked to the victim’s work as a journalist.

The body of 30-year-old

Marinova — who presented a current affairs talk programme called “Detector” for the small TVN television channel — was discovered on a riverside path in the northern Bulgarian town of Ruse on Saturday.

Authorities said she died from blows to the head and suf-focation. She was also raped.

Bulgaria’s chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov named the suspect as Severin Krasimirov, born in 1997.

19 face charges in football fraud probeAGENCIES

BRUSSELS: Belgian prose-cutors have charged 19 suspects and detained nine in a massive fraud and match-fixing scandal that has mired Belgium’s elite league in scandal, they said yesterday.

The charges came after police on Wednesday carried out a massive operation in Belgium, arresting 29 people, 10 of which were released without charges.

Among the detained were at least three players’ agents, a referee, and a top executive from a major football club, a statement from prosecutors said.

Mogi Bayat, portrayed in the media as Belgium’s most pow-erful sports agent, was charged with money laundering and conspiracy, the statement said.

Bayat was detained pending his next hearing, as were fellow agents Dejan Veljkovic and Karim Mejjati, who were ques-tioned this week as part of the operation targeting Belgium’s football elite.

Referee Bart Vertenten was also charged with conspiracy and arrested, while former Ander-lecht club lawyer Laurent Denis was charged for both conspiracy and money laundering.

On Thursday, another referee, Sebastien Delferiere, was charged but was immedi-ately released on parole.

Vertenten and Delferiere were suspended on Thursday with immediate effect by the Belgian Football Federation.

The charges against ref-erees are part of a probe into suspected match-fixing by Veljkovic in a failed effort to save formerly top-tier KV Mechelen from relegation to the second division.

Club Brugge coach Ivan Leko, whose team is playing in the Champion’s League, was charged with money laundering on Thursday and released.

Hearings before the judge were held throughout night with former Anderlecht boss Herman Van Holsbeeck released without charges.

The operation led to a total of 60 police searches on Wednesday, including head-quarters of leading clubs in the Belgian first division, with Club Brugge, Anderlecht, Standard Liege and Genk among them.

The huge operation took place simultaneously in Belgium and six other European countries, including France and Serbia, where an agent was arrested Thursday and awaits extradition.

The charges filed against 19 people include belonging to a criminal organisation, match fixing, money laundering, and corruption, said federal prose-cutor’s spokeswoman, Wenke Roggen.

Royal weddingBritain’s Princess Eugenie of York (right) and Jack Brooksbank walk back down the aisle of the Quire hand in hand at the end of their wedding ceremony at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, in Windsor yesterday.

Germany extends border controls with Austria, cites migration influxAFP

BERLIN: Germany said yesterday it was extending by another half year border controls with Austria, which were reintro-duced in several places in the passport-free Schengen zone in response to the migrant influx.

German Interior Ministry spokeswoman Eleonore Petermann said the new measure would begin on November 12 and apply for six months.

“It is important to say in this context that it is still our aim to return to a Schengen without borders, without border

controls,” Petermann said yesterday.

“Travel without border con-trols is one of the greatest achievements (of the European Union). But we still see problems with the protection of the EU’s external borders and we still have high numbers for illegal

secondary migration” between member states.

Since 2015, several countries in the 26-nation Schengen zone have reintroduced border con-trols due to the largest migrant crisis since World War II —effec-tively suspending its principle of open-borders travel.

European Union rules say countries in exceptional circum-stances can reintroduce border controls for up to two years, in periods of up to six months at a time.

Petermann said that more than 7,000 people crossed the German-Austrian border

illegally this year until August, of whom nearly 4,000 were turned back.

The decision was ordered by Germany’s hardline Interior Min-ister Horst Seehofer, whose con-servative party is facing a tough election in the border state of Bavaria tomorrow.

Nasa to continue using Soyuz rocketsAFP

MOSCOW: Nasa chief Jim Bridenstine yesterday praised the Russian space programme and said he expected a new crew to go to the International Space Station in December despite a rocket failure.

“I fully anticipate that we will fly again on a Soyuz rocket and I have no reason to believe at this point that it will not be on schedule,” he said.

The Nasa administrator spoke to reporters at the US embassy in Moscow a day after a Soyuz rocket failure forced a two-man crew to make an emer-gency landing in Kazakhstan.

It was the first such incident

in Russia’s post-Soviet history — an unprecedented setback for the country’s space industry.

Bridenstine, who is visiting Russia and Kazakhstan for the first time since his appointment as Nasa head this year, observed the launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Rogozin.

He said he was “confident” that a new manned mission to the ISS would go ahead as planned in December, praising the “wonderful relationship” between the Russian and US space agencies.

The next Soyuz launch had been scheduled to take a new crew to the ISS on December 20.

The Russian space agency

said yesterday it may bring forward the launch of the next mission to the ISS.

Looking at times emotional, the Nasa chief praised “the resil-ience” of the Soyuz rocket.

“Not every mission that fails ends up so successful,” he said.

He added he had discussed the accident with US Vice-Pres-ident Mike Pence but not with US President Donald Trump.

He said he had also spoken to US astronaut Nick Hague who appeared in high spirits despite the ordeal. “He was very funny,” he said.

The Nasa chief played down tensions between the two coun-tries, saying space remained an area of cooperation.

Nasa astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin disembark after landing at the Krayniy Airport, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

Optimism rises

for Brexit deal

next weekAP

BRUSSELS: With just days to go before a key Brexit summit next week, optimism is growing that a deal can be reached to ensure a smooth transition for Britain’s exit from the European Union.

European Union Commis-sioner Guenther Oettinger said yesterday that he sees room for a breakthrough in the talks next week, when leaders from the 27 EU nations meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Oettinger confirmed reports that progress was being made on the difficult issue of the border on the island of Ireland.

“It does appear possible there will be a breakthrough,” he said.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he spoke to May by phone yesterday and added that “we hope that next week at the European summit, if at all pos-sible, the first results emerge.”

“I am cautiously optimistic that we can take steps next week but a lot depends on the talks happening in the coming days”.

Even if the negotiators themselves agree on a deal, it is not the end of the matter. The EU leaders must also back the deal and then so must the British and EU parliaments.

May in particular is likely to have a tough time selling a deal

to the House of Commons, which is divided on the issue of Brexit and on what terms to leave the EU.

The UK is slated to leave the EU on March 29. If there is no deal on future relations by then, widespread chaos on the borders is expected. Tariffs could go up on trade, customs checks could delay goods, and planes could not have permits to fly across the borders, among other things.

EU leaders have a two-day summit starting on Wednesday to assess the progress in the talks and if there is no break-through there, another summit could be planned for November.

In London, British Brexit negotiator Dominic Raab cau-tioned not to be too optimistic and warned against a com-promise that would give away too much.

EU Commissioner

Guenther Oettinger

confirmed reports

that progress was

being made on the

difficult issue of the

border on the island

of Ireland.

Belgian warplane accidentally opens fire at F-16 jetREUTERS

BRUSSELS: A Belgian air force mechanic servicing a warplane at a base in the south of the country opened fire and destroyed another F-16 jet fighter on the tarmac, public broadcaster VRT said, citing unidentified sources.

An investigation has been opened into incident and the commander of the Florennes airfield said the inquiry would look at whether there was any wrongdoing.

“You can’t help thinking of what a disaster this could have been,” said Colonel Didier Polome, who flew back from Baltic where Belgian F-16s are policing Nato’s frontier.

In the air base incident, US-built warplane was damaged and two mechanics were treated for hearing loss caused by the blast, the Belgian armed forces said in a statement.

Prosecution calls for life sentence in Monaco heiress murderer trialAFP

AIX-EN-PROVENCE: French prosecutors called for the maximum life sentence for Poland’s former consul in Monaco who is on trial for ordering the murder of a billionaire heiress over an inheritance dispute.

Helene Pastor, 77, and her driver, were gunned down in her car by two hitmen in the southern French city of Nice on May 6, 2014 in a crime that shocked the wealthy com-munity on the French Riviera.

Wojciech Janowski, the main defendant suspected of ordering the death, is a former partner of Pastor’s daughter, Sylvia. He was Poland’s honorary consul at the time of the hit.

Janowski is accused of paying the hitmen with money he siphoned from the allowance that Pastor gave her daughter.

Investigators believe he was driven to act because he feared that Sylvia, ill with cancer at the time, might die before she inherited her mother’s fortune, cutting off his cashflow.

Prosecutor Pierre Cortes also called for life sentences for the two hitmen in a trial that has gripped the French Riviera and made headlines throughout the country.

11SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER 2018 AMERICAS

Melania dismisses media report on marriageAFP

WASHINGTON: Melania Trump dismissed yesterday the wide-spread talk about her husband President Donald Trump’s alleged affairs with a movie star and others, saying she has “more important things to think about.”

In an interview, excerpts of which were broadcast early yes-terday at ABC News, the US first lady did not deny her husband’s alleged history of affair with movie stars. But Melania Trump insisted she doesn’t dwell on it.

“It is not a concern and focus of mine,” she said in the interview. “I’m a mother and a first lady, and I have much more

important things to think about and to do.”

“I know people like to spec-ulate and media like to speculate about our marriage,” she added.

“It’s not always pleasant, of course, but I know what is right and what is wrong and what is true and not true.”

Asked whether she loved her husband, she answered: “Yes, we are fine. It’s what media spec-ulate, and it’s gossip. It’s not always correct stuff.”

ABC conducted the rare interview of the Slovenia-born 48-year-old former model and the president’s third wife while she was in Africa last week.

After living in the White

House for nearly two years in the shadow of one of the most con-troversial and scandal-tarred presidents of modern times, she appeared confident but also con-trolled, keeping her answers to difficult questions short.

Sitting in stretch jodhpurs with a safari pith helmet at her side, Trump gave a wry smile when asked about comments about her marriage from the president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani had said in June that the first believes her husband’s denials about an affair a decade ago with movie star Stormy Daniels, and “knows it’s untrue.”

“I never talked to Mr Giuliani,” the first lady said.

ABC said the full interview will air today, with Trump dis-cussing her trip to Africa, her campaign against bullying and the controversies swirling around the president.

She gave a surprise answer to why she chose to fight against cyberbullying with her “Be Best” campaign.

“I could say I’m the most bullied person in the world,” she said, or “one of them, if you really see what people are saying about me.”

Trump has predecessor who as American first ladies suffered gossip about their husbands’ alleged affairs.

John F. Kennedy, president

from 1961 to 1963, was another serial cheater on wife Jackie, though his affairs were kept out of the news by a compliant media.

But talk of President Trump’s alleged relationship with and then paying hush money to models and movie stars has been non-stop since he took office.

Mysterious and impene-trable, Melania is constantly scrutinised for her reaction: Is she holding his hand? Why aren’t they together much? Will she move back to New York with their son Barron?

She scoffed at such talk in the C interview. “I am enjoying it. I really love to live in Washington and the White House,” she said.

Search underway for

victims of HurricaneAFP

MEXICO BEACH: Rescue teams using sniffer dogs carried out a grim search for victims of Hurricane Michael yesterday amid fears that the death toll from the monster storm — which currently stands at 11 — could rise.

“When you have that type of damage it takes some time to get in and actually go through and do the search and rescue,” said Brock Long, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

“We hope to have 100 percent of the initial search and rescue done in Florida today,” Long said.

The Florida Panhandle town of Mexico Beach was pulverized by the Category 4 storm which crashed ashore on Wednesday, razing many homes to their foundations with 250 kph winds and several feet of storm surge.

A mandatory evacuation was issued for the town of 1,000 on the Gulf of Mexico coast, but how many residents actually heeded the warning is unknown.

“You hope that somehow at the last minute a bunch of people got up and left or went some-where else,” Florida Senator Marco Rubio said.

But judging from the number

of homes reduced to “sticks,” he said “my sense is they are going to find more victims.”

Rubio added: “I truly pray I’m wrong, but common sense tells you that if you were in that house when that happened you did not make it.”

Search-and-rescue teams were using sniffer dogs as they sifted through the rubble looking for victims.

Bob Tenbrunson, a Mexico Beach retiree, rode out the storm at his daughter’s house in nearby Panama City and returned to survey the damage to his home.

“I was going to stay here until it turned to a Cat 4,” he said. “So I followed the mandatory evac-uation order and left with my wife.

“Luckily we did not get a

surge,” Tenbrunson said of his home. “I’ve got two trees on the roof and a couple of holes on the roof. I have been trying to patch it up the best I can.”

The rest of Mexico Beach did not fare as well, and most of the beachfront homes, restaurants and stores were obliterated by the storm.

“I spent my life savings and retirement to stay here so I cant’ sell it now,” Tenbrunson said. “I just have to be hopeful that (the town) will be rebuilt and fixed.”

At least four deaths from the storm have been confirmed in Florida, five in Virginia, one in Georgia and one in North Carolina.

Hundreds of thousands of people remain without electricity in Florida, Georgia and Virginia, and officials said it could be weeks before power is fully restored.

Hurricane Michael made landfall in Mexico Beach on Wednesday as a Category 4 storm.

Long, the FEMA chief, said Michael was the most intense hurricane to strike the Florida Panhandle since record keeping began in 1851.

Many of the damaged Florida buildings were not built to with-stand a storm above the strength of a Category 3 hurricane on the

five-level Saffir-Simpson Hur-ricane Wind Scale, Long added.

About 5,000 US servicemen were deployed to help with relief and recovery efforts, the Pentagon said, using 100 heli-copters and 1,800 high-water vehicles.

Tyndall Air Force Base, home to the F-22 stealth fighter, suf-fered extensive damage, according to aerial photos of the coastal facility.

The base was evacuated ahead of the hurricane and the costly fighter planes were flown to other installations out of the path of the storm.

Texas Democrat raises over $38m fund in Q3BLOOMBERG

AUSTIN: Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke said yesterday that he collected more than $38.1m from donors in the third quarter for his bid to topple Republican Senator Ted Cruz, an extraor-dinary amount of money flowing into what remains a long-shot campaign.

The total is more than three times the roughly $12m Cruz has said he raised during the quarter for the final stretch of campaigning before the November 6 election and is likely to make O’Rourke the top fundraiser for the quarter among all Democratic congres-sional candidates.

O’Rourke’s campaign said the fundraising was ‘powered by 802,836 individual contri-butions and without a dime from (political action com-mittees), corporations or special interests’ and that the ‘majority’ of the money came from Texas donors.

While O’Rourke has made the race surprisingly close in heavily Republican Texas, polls over the past few weeks showed Cruz with a significant lead over the representative from El Paso.

The O’Rourke haul may be

the top national example of Democratic donors funneling cash to long-shot candidates with strong personal appeal sometimes at the expense of lower-profile races that will be more pivotal to party efforts to win the House and Senate.

O’Rourke is a rising Demo-cratic Party star who’s drawn national attention to his cam-paign, and money has poured into the Texas race as party donors look for ways to channel their anger with President Donald Trump.

Yet O’Rourke faces major hurdles. Republicans control all statewide offices in Texas, both houses of the Legislature and a Democratic presidential can-didate hasn’t carried the state since 1976. In the March 6 primary, 1.3 million Repub-licans turned out to vote for Cruz compared with 641,000 Democrats who cast ballots for O’Rourke.

Democrats are fighting to flip at least 23 Republican-held House seats in November to win a majority. The party will have a tougher time gaining control of the Senate, where they have 26 seats to defend, compared with just nine for Republicans, who have a 51-49 edge in the chamber.

Hundreds of

thousands of people

remain without

electricity in Florida,

Georgia and Virginia,

and officials said

it could be weeks

before power is fully

restored.

St Louis man found guilty in murder spree AP

ST LOUIS: A St Louis man who fatally shot three adults and critically injured a young child in June last year has been found guilty of murder.

Jerome Leon Buress Jr was convicted on Thursday of two counts of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder, one count of assault and four counts of armed criminal action.

Prosecutors said Buress walked up to a car and shot 24-year-old Jessica Garth and 27-year-old Derrick Irving in front of their daughters. He then fatally shot 37-year-old Julian Hayes as he tried to escape and shot 7-year-old Deniya Irving in the head. She survived but suffered brain damage. Her 5-year-old sister was not injured.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Brock Long (centre) during a briefing on Hurricane Michael at FEMA headquarters in Washington, DC, yesterday. BELOW: Damaged homes are seen after Hurricane Michael passed through the area in Mexico Beach, Florida, yesterday.

Up for auctionA diamond tiara created for Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria is displayed along with other jewellery during a press preview ahead of the upcoming auction “Royal jewels from the Bourbon Parma Family” at Sotheby’s in New York City, New York, yesterday.

Argentina court confirms jail sentence for former leaderAP

BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s top criminal court has confirmed a prison sentence against former President Carlos Menem.

Friday’s ruling ratifies a 2015 sentence of 4 1/2 years for embez-zlement. It also confirmed a sen-tence of 3 1/2 years against former Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo for his role in illegal

payments to staffers that were authorized by Menem during his 1989 to 1999 presidency.

Menem is currently a senator and that status as a lawmaker protects him from being arrested.

Menem said he’s a victim of political percussion. Cavallo also denies any wrongdoing.

Both Menem and Cavallo are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Illinois teen sent to juvenile prison for shootingAP

CHARLESTON: An Illinois high school student accused of shooting a classmate last year has been sentenced to juvenile prison, with the possibility of adult prison if he commits other crimes.

It was that the 15-year-old boy was sentenced on Thursday by Coles County Circuit Judge Matt Sullivan.

The judge said he didn’t care whether the shots the teen fired were intentional or acci-dental. He said it only mattered that he took a gun to school planning to shoot someone.

12 SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER 2018AMERICAS / CLASSIFIEDS

19 student filmmakershonouredAP

BEVERLY HILLS: Nineteen student filmmakers got the opportunity to “thank the academy” at the actual Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences yesteday

The winners of the 45th Student Academy Awards are eligible to compete for a 2018 Academy Award in the ani-mated short, live action short and documentary short cate-gories. They join an esteemed list of Student Academy Award alumni like Pete Docter, Cary Fukunaga, Spike Lee, Trey Parker, Patricia Riggen and Robert Zemeckis.

During the presentation in the storied Samuel L. Goldwyn theater, presenters like “The Big Sick” star and co-writer Kumail Nanjiani and “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke introduced a fascinating array of short films ranging in subject from an ani-mated raccoon trying to handle a flashlight somewhat clumsily to a teenage girl who showcases a suicide confessional in her high school film class and a docu-mentary about dust.

Seven hundred film academy members sifted through 1,582 entries from 400 schools (278 domestic and 122 international) to arrive at the final winners, who hail from locations including China, India, Switzerland, Mongolia and France. Categories recog-nized include narrative, docu-mentary, animated and alter-native productions by American and international college students.

Maduro says US trying

to assassinate himREUTERS

CARACAS: Socialist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused the Trump adminis-tration yesterday of seeking to assassinate him, as relations strain between the ideologically opposed nations.

Asked about Maduro’s com-ments, a spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council said: “US policy pref-erence for a peaceful, orderly return to democracy in Vene-zuela remains unchanged.”

Venezuela’s opposition says Maduro lobs ludicrous accusa-tions at enemies to deflect from his own incompetence.

Almost 2 million Vene-zuelans have fled the ailing oil-rich nation since 2015, driven out by brutal food and medicine shortages, hyperinflation, and violent crime.

Washington has imposed sanctions on Venezuela, denouncing Maduro as a

dictator who has quashed human rights and triggered an economic meltdown.

The White House accused Maduro’s government on Wednesday of involvement in the death of a jailed Venezuelan politician whom authorities say killed himself but whom oppo-sition parties say was

murdered.Maduro, a former bus driver

and union leader, said in a tel-evised broadcast on Thursday night the United States had asked the government in neigh-boring Colombia to kill him.

“They have given the order from the White House that Maduro be killed,” said Maduro, flanked by workers. He vowed that “they will not even touch a single hair of mine.”

Maduro did not give an expla-nation for his accusations and did not provide any evidence. Vene-zuela’s Information Ministry did not respond to a request for further information.

Maduro contends that he is the victim of an “economic war” led by U.S.-backed adversaries. He denies limiting political freedoms, insisting that Wash-ington-supported opposition leaders have plotted assassi-nation attempts and sought to overthrow him through violent street protests.

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro attends an event with workers in Caracas, yesterday.

Asked about

Maduro’s comments,

a spokesman for

the White House’s

National Security

Council said: “US

policy preference for

a peaceful, orderly

return to democracy

in Venezuela remains

unchanged.”

Brazil presidential candidates seek to soften imagesAFP

RIO DE Janeiro: Two weeks before a run-off to decide Brazil’s presidency, the dueling far-right and leftist candidates are trying to soften their images to appeal to polarized voters.

Rejigged campaigns were launched yesterday with new TV ads from the two — Jair Bol-sonaro, 63, and Fernando Haddad, 55 — attacking the other and each claiming they stood for all Brazilians.

Frontrunner Bolsonaro, a populist former paratrooper vowing a robust law-and-order regime, eased gun laws and tougher immigration restric-tions if he wins, rejected the extreme-right label in a media conference.

“I’m not far-right,” he insisted. “Point out to me an act

of mine that is far-right.” He declared himself an

“admirer” of US President Donald Trump and said: “He wants a great United States— I want a great Brazil.”

In his ads, he put emphasis on his family, and hinted at his anti-crime stance as being “firm.”

Haddad for his part dis-tanced himself from former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whom he replaced last month as the Workers Party candidate. His ads portrayed him as defending democracy and social inclusion.

He has removed pictures of Lula from his campaign flyers, and dropped the party’s signature red color for Brazil’s green-and-gold motif.

The October 28 run-off is Bolsonaro’s to lose, polls suggest.

Brazil’s right-wing presidential candidate for the Social Liberal Party (PSL) Jair Bolsonaro (centre) during a press conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, yesterday.

13SATURDAY 13 OCTOBER 2018 CLASSIFIEDS

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PRAYER TIMINGS Award-winning pianist performs at QNCC tonightRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Fresh from his victory winning first prize at the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition, American pianist Eric Lu is set to impress hundreds in the audience tonight as he performs together with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC).

Twenty-year-old Lu was the youngest among the 68 piano virtuosi from 27 countries who competed last month in the triennial event regarded as one of the most coveted prizes in the musical world.

A native of Boston Massachusetts, Lu is hailed for his distinctive musical voice and enormous potential on the international stage, bagging prestigious prizes around the world such as first prize at the 2015 US National Chopin Competition in Miami, fourth prize at the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Warsaw, and first prize at the Moscow International Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in 2014, among others. He has performed in world renowned venues like the Carnegie Hall, Auditorio Nacional de

Madrid, Beijing Concert Hall, Seoul Arts Center and Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre.

Tonight, he will be playing Johannes Brahms’ Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, one of the best-loved and most frequently performed piano concertos in the world. Also in the repertoire is Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major, a pastoral symphony which one of the leading composers of the Romantic era completed in the summer of 1877.

Often referred to as one of the “Three Bs” of music alongside Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven, Brahms was a German composer and virtuoso pianist who wrote wide ranging compositions and worked with some of the leading per-formers of his time.

Maestro Renchang Fu, the artistic director and principal conductor of Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, will lead tonight’s concert. With a very wide

repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music, Fu has con-ducted numerous orchestras in Europe, America, Asia and Oceania. He has conducted Chinese premieres of western classic music in China, and has also premiered contemporary music pieces in different music fes-tivals at home and abroad.

Concert tickets are priced QR125 to QR1,000 and can be purchased at Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra’s website. Brahms’ First Piano Concerto starts at 7.30pm at QNCC Auditorium 3. Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra’s next concert will be Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto on October 20 at Katara Opera House featuring Arabella Stein-bacher on violin and Dmitrij Kitajenko as conductor.

American pianist Eric Lu.

Twenty-year-old Lu was

the youngest among the

68 piano virtuosi from 27

countries who competed

last month in the triennial

event regarded as one of

the most coveted prizes in

the musical world.

An employee makes humanoid robot Justin move his arms in a laboratory at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Wessling, near Munich, Germany.

Humanoid robot

Turkish movie gets award in San Diego festANATOLIA

ISTANBUL: Turkish movie Batlir was chosen for Chris Brinker Award in 2018 San Diego International Film Festival.

The film, which focuses on a character that has a big head since birth, was directed by Stare Yildirim — who accepted the award at the ceremony.

The movie description on the festivals website reads: “Hello, my name is Batlir, not Butler. I’m not actually over-weight, I just have some excess in a certain area. It is told in Anatolia that, the baby looks like whatever the mother craves for while she is pregnant.”

The film was also awarded in two other film festivals in 2018, the “Flathead Lake Film Festival” and the “Julien Dubuque International Film Festival.” The Chris Brinker is given to the films’ directors who made their debut in the interna-tional arena. The festival is held between October 10-14 this year.

A wagging finger sticking out of your mobile phone is creepy. Why?REUTERS

PARIS: A French researcher has invented a robot finger that attaches to your mobile phone. It can wriggle across your desk. It can stroke your hand. And guess what? It’s creepy. No, really, watch the video. Creepy, see? He wants to know why.

“My PhD subject is around touch in communications,” explains Marc Teyssier, a researcher at Telecom Paristech engineering school. “When we talk with people in real life we touch each other to commu-nicate emotions, for example a stroke on the arm, or stuff like that. But for mobile devices and interaction in general in com-puters, we don’t use touch at all. So my starting point was: how can we bring touch in human-computer interfaces?”

So he designed, built and patented the MobiLimb robotic finger, which plugs into a mobile phone and looks very much like a real finger.

It can drag the phone across the table. Your friends can activate it and operate it

remotely, to give you a com-forting pat on the wrist when they talk to you.

“We have a tonne of reaction on the Internet, like: ‘It’s creepy’. Everybody tells me it’s creepy. And it is, actually, in fact,” Teyssier said. “We com-municate with humans with touch. We use fingers. We use motion. But when we put that on a mobile device, everybody thinks it’s crazy and creepy.” The creepy phone finger tells us something about who we are, and what we expect from a world where your phone listens and responds to your commands like a person, but still doesn’t have a moving body, Teyssier said. For now, he thinks, the robot finger is both too human, and not quite human enough.

“With this project, we question a lot: the smartphone and the human being and human nature,” he said. “What if all devices had arms and limbs and were able to touch us like a human? I think we would behave totally differently with technology.

Sotheby’s to hold sale dedicated to gold REUTERS

LONDON: From a sculpture of model Kate Moss to an elaborate elephant beverage set, an array of items made with gold will go under the hammer next week in auction house Sotheby’s first ever sale dedicated to the precious metal.

From antiquities to contem-porary pieces, “The Midas Touch” sale on October 17 in London fea-tures jewellery, art, furniture - and even a Ferrari car.

“It’s the first time we’ve had a sale totally devoted to gold,” Constantine Frangos, senior director at Sotheby’s, said.

“We’re looking at gold objects that are pure gold, objects that are gilt gold, which means that there is gold leaf on them or the colour gold. So we’ve kept it pretty open to cover all types of gold.” Among the highlights is an 18 carat gold sculpture of Moss’ head made by British artist Marc Quinn, estimated to be worth between £300,000 and £400,000 ($395,000-$527,000).

An artwork with gold leaf by Yves Klein, “Monogold Sans Titre”, is seen fetching £800,000 — £1.2m, while a

Baccarat gilt-bronze and frosted cut-crystal set in the shape of an elephant is estimated at £250,000 - £400,000 pounds. The 1977 Ferrari 512 BB model, whose paintwork boasts a rare shade of gold, is priced at

£350,000 — £450,000. “It’s the rarity of gold,” Frangos said of the metal’s popularity. “Gold is extremely rare, and it’s one of the few materials that can’t be reproduced. There’s no such thing as man made gold.”

A Sotheby’s employee poses with a bust of Kate Moss in solid 18-carat gold during a photocall for ‘The Midas Touch’ collection at Sotheby’s in London, yesterday.

80m-year-old dinosaur egg fossils found in ChinaANATOLIA

BEIJING: Fifteen dinosaur egg fossils, dating back to 80 million years, have been unearthed in China’s eastern Zhejiang province, according to the coun-try’s state-run newspaper.

The fossils were found during excavation in the village of Guanyintang in Yiwu, Global Times reported.

Some of the fossils formed clusters while others occurred individually. The fossils belonged to the Cretaceous

period of the Mesozoic era, dating back to 80 million years, said Du Tianming, director and a researcher at the Earth Science department of the Zhejiang Museum of National History.

The fossils were sent to the Yiwu Museum to be examined.

IANS

LONDON: Jupiter’s ocean moon Europa is probably covered with blades of ice up to 15 metres tall in its equa-torial regions, making alien life search difficult, researchers have found.

The potentially life-supporting Europa has been studied by Nasa, whose work has become more difficult due to the ice towers, Xinhua news agency reported. “Clearly, the paper suggests very strongly that the tropics of Europa are going to be spiky, and it would be unwise to plan to land there without a specially adapted lander,” said Dan Hobley, a lecturer in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Cardiff University.

Jagged ice towers could also be found on Earth, espe-cially in high, dry and cold tropical regions like the Chilean Andes. These ice towers are named “penitentes”, Spanish for “penitent”, because they often look like people kneeling in penance.

Scientists found that penitentes on Europa could be up to 15 metres tall, spaced about seven meters apart, while on Earth their height usually ranges from one to five meters.

“The Europa penitentes grow much slower than the Earth examples, but on Earth they might be restricted to a season or maybe two until they melt in summer or get covered in more snow, but on Europa, they are sat out in the sun growing for 50 million years,” Hobley explained. NASA plans to launch a mission called Europa Clipper in the 2020s. At a cost of $2bn, the mission will “perform repeated close flybys of the icy moon from a long, looping orbit around Jupiter”, assess the possible landing site on Europa and try to seek out signs of life on the moon.

Ice blades cover Jupiter’s moon Europa: Study