Qatar, Kuwait and US hold second joint meeting with Qatar. "We need a diplomatic solution. We are not looking for an escalation." The group previously called the list of demands "non-negotiable"

Bardet shines as Aru grabs yellow from Froome

Turkish PM meets Minister of Economy

& Commerce

BUSINESS | 11 SPORT | 16

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Getting the parties in the dispute to talk directly to one another would be an important next step in resolving the crisis, says US State Department official.

"The State of Qatar reiterates its firm position that it is always open to constructive dialogue to resolve any disputes between states," says Foreign Minister.

Qatar, Kuwait and US hold second joint meetingQNA & Agencies

In the presence of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the second joint meeting was held at Al Bahr Palace bringing together Foreign Minister H E Sheikh

Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Kuwait's Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Acting Minister of Informa-tion, H E Sheikh Mohammed Al Abdullah Al Mubarak Al Sabah, and the Secretary of State of the United States, Rex Tillerson.

The meeting discussed the latest developments of the Gulf crisis and the efforts being exerted to solve it through dialogue and diplomatic channels.

"We appreciate the mediation efforts led by the Emir of Kuwait H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, and the support provided by the US to reach a diplomatic solution to the current cri-sis," the Foreign Minister told Qatar News Agency after meeting with Till-erson and Sheikh Mohammed Al Abdullah Al Mubarak Al Sabah.

"The State of Qatar reiterates its firm position that it is always open to con-structive dialogue to resolve any disputes between states. This crisis can only be resolved through dialogue based on the principles of mutual respect and the sovereignty of states in accordance with the provisions of international law and the State of Qatar is ready to dis-cuss all the demands presented by the four countries and their evidence based on these grounds," he added. The US

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with the US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, and Kuwait's Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Acting Minister of Information, H E Sheikh Mohammed Al Abdullah Al Mubarak Al Sabah, at Al Bahr Palace, yesterday. → See also page 2

SAUDI ARABIA and three other Arab countries that have imposed a political and economic blockade on Qatar are to drop their demand that the Al Jazeera Media Network be shut down. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Qatar on June 5 and issued a 13-point list of demands that included shutting down Al Jazeera Media Net-work. In an interview published by London's The Times newspaper on Wednesday, Noura Al Kaabi, the UAE minister for the federal national council, said the Emirates sought "fundamental change and restructuring" of Al Jazeera rather than to shut it.

"The staff at the channel can keep their jobs and Qatar can still fund a TV channel but not one which provides a platform for extremists and where the English channel is a protective shield for the much more radical Arabic one," Kaabi told The Times. She also said that the Saudi-led group was ready to nego-tiate with Qatar. "We need a diplomatic solution. We are not looking for an escalation." The group previously called the list of demands "non-negotiable".

Irfan Bukhari / The Peninsula

AMBASSADOR of Turkey to Qatar, Fikret Özer, yesterday said that as part of his efforts to resolve Gulf crisis, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would visit Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Ara-bia next month. “President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will visit three Gulf countries from August 18 to 20 in a bid to resolve tensions in the region as Turkey is sad over current scenario and wants peace and sta-bility in the region,” the ambassador said. He was responding to questions after addressing the press conference organised to pay tributes to the martyrs of botched coup attempt of July 15 in Tur-key. Ambassador Özer said that Turkey was worried about the current crisis in the Gulf and wanted its swift resolution.

→ Continued on page 3

UAE minister says demand to shut Al Jazeera dropped

Erdogan to visit Doha next month

Saudi Arabia's and its Arab allies' move to impose a political and economic blockade on Qatar has "plunged the

Middle East into further discord", a lead-ing foreign policy magazine published by the US-based Council on Foreign Relations said.

In an article published on Wednesday, Foreign Affairs magazine said the "missteps" committed by the Saudi-led group pushed

Doha "directly into Iran and Turkey's hands", noting that the many of its demands "were based on false premises".

"The blockade is unlikely to result in Qatar returning to the GCC fold. Rather, it will essentially affirm that the new leader-ship in Saudi Arabia has a penchant for overplaying its hand," Bassima Alghussein and Jeffrey A Stacey wrote in the article.

"In addition to Saudi Arabia driving Qatar closer to Iran, its behaviour has weakened the GCC — a body that is fundamental for regional stability and commerce."

With no prospect of the dispute being resolved soon, "the stare-down will continue apace", the Foreign Affairs article said.

"Because Qatar complied with none of

the GCC's demands, the gambit's lack of coherence is being laid bare. Without a plan B, immediate escalation is unlikely to tran-spire. "Instead, it is probable that both sides will go forward for the time being in a state of mutual diplomatic paralysis."

The article also pointed out that while the blockading countries are demanding that Qatar cut its relationship with Iran, the UAE contin-ues to maintain a relationship with Tehran. "The UAE’s relationship with Iran is tolerated because the Emirates, by and large, do not challenge Saudi hegemony in the region. Qatar has repeatedly said that while it is will-ing to talk with its Gulf neighbours to resolve the rift, it will not change its "independent" foreign policy.

Siege forces region into further discord

Amna Pervaiz Rao /The Peninsula

QATAR AIRWAYS Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said the block-ade imposed on Qatar by siege countries has failed to meet its purpose. He was speaking to media persons on the sidelines of an event organised to install a vast patriotic canvas displaying the iconic image of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in front of Qatar Airways’ corporate headquarters, yesterday.

“Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is a glorious person and this blockade is not working in our country, as at the end our Emir will be the victorious person. Other than the 18 destinations Qatar Airways is flying nor-mally to all other destinations, as the matter of fact Qatar Airways is growing we have added two new destinations and next month we are going to add five more destinations, this blockade is actually failing the purpose for which it was created,” said Al Baker.

→ Continued on page 2

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker signing on 'Tamim Al Majd' banner, at Qatar Airways Tower 2 in Doha, yesterday.Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

Blockade failed to meet its purpose: Al Baker

Foreign Affairs article says Riyadh's leadership has 'a penchant for overplaying its hand' in the region.

State Department said yesterday that getting the parties in the dispute to take directly to one another would be an

important next step in resolving the cri-sis. “Based on his meetings, the Secretary of State believes that getting the parties

to talk directly to one another would be an important next step,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told

reporters. “We hope the parties will agree to do so and we will continue to support the Emir of Kuwait in his mediation efforts.”

02 FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017HOME

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met Minister of Defence of Ethiopia, Siraj Fergessa, and his accompanying delegation at Al Bahr Palace yesterday. Talks dealt with issues of mutual interest.

Emir meets Ethiopian Defence Minister

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani met with French Ambassador to Qatar, Eric Chevallier, yesterday. Talks dealt with bilateral ties.

PM meets French Ambassador

Ezdan launches giant 'Tamim Al Majd' murals Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

As a symbol of strong support for Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Ezdan Real

Estate Company (EREC) launched three giant murals depicting the iconic Tamim Al Majd image at Ezdan Village 2 in Al Gharrafa yesterday.

Omar Al Yafei, Acting Gen-eral Manager of EREC, led the signing ceremony which marked the event attended by residents of Ezdan Village 2, Ezdan employees, local media and visitors.

The attendees, young and old, wrote messages and wishes for the country and signed their names on the board as a ges-ture of loyalty and support to the Emir and the nation. Qatari flags were distributed among those in attendance, setting a patriotic ambience.

“We are happy to have this ceremony today. It is hearten-ing to see the overwhelming expression of support to Qatar by all people from citizens to persons of different national-ities. Hopefully, everything will be okay for Qatar and its peo-ple,” Al Yafei told The Peninsula af ter the ceremony.

The murals in varying sizes will stay in the residential com-plex for three days to offer a chance to residents and visitors to sign up their support, said Al

Yafei, adding another mural is set to be unveiled in Ezdan Vil-lage in Al Wakrah.

Of the current situation in Qatar, he said, “Everything is under control. Everybody is together and there is unity among citizens and residents. We hope and trust that every-thing will turn out fine for everybody.”

The murals which bear the monochromatic painting of the Emir’s image with the Arabic phrase which translates to “Tamim is glory” has become a symbol of unity, resilience and strength of Qataris and resi-dents alike.

Murals with the image, which was originally created by Qatari artist Ahmed Almaad-heed, can be seen installed around the country through which people can signify their support to the nation.

The Peninsula

An innovative sustainabil-ity start-up has been shortlisted as a Challenge

22 finalist by the Supreme Com-mittee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) for its creativity in redis-tributing surplus food to those in need.

Wa’hab is the brainchild of Qatar-based entrepreneur Wardah Mamukoya. It has pro-gressed to the second round of calls as the programme contin-ues its commitment to find the Arab world’s leading innova-tions, which could one day enhance the experience of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar™.

The SC recently announced an impressive list of finalists, which includes start-ups from across the MENA region and projects which range from emergency response systems to an app which guides

spectators through the entire tournament experience.

Wa’hab is the first organi-sation to develop a strategic response to re-distribute sur-plus food, by using technology and social media to promote the use of excess unmarketable food, leading to a reduction in waste.

For founder, Wardah Mamukoya, however, the moti-vation behind Wa’hab wasn’t just about sustainability.

“We are thrilled and excited about being selected as final-ists in a prestigious competition like Challenge 22,” he said.

“Since Wa’hab had been positively reviewed by expert panel of judges at various stages of Challenge 22, this gives us much faith in our project. “Though at one point, this was only a dream, it is now some-thing that benefits the lives of many people around us."

Emir greets Mongolia PresidentQNA

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent yesterday a cable of

congratulations to President of Mongolia, Khaltmaa Bat-tulga, on his victory in the presidential elections and taking the oath of office.

Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani sent yesterday a similar cable.

The murals which bear the monochromatic painting of the Emir’s image with the Arabic phrase which translates to 'Tamim is glory' has become a symbol of unity, resilience and strength of Qataris and residents alike.

People write messages on 'Tamim Al Majd' murals at Ezdan Village 2 in Al Gharrafa yesterday.

A proud moment for Qatar AirwaysContinued from page 1

“If people think they can shake our con-fidence in the government by doing illegal acts this proves to everybody around the world that we have very high regard and by grace of Allah our Emir will be glorious exactly the way it is shown in the picture,” he added. He said Qatar Airways would go ahead with plans to buy a stake in Ameri-can Airlines even though the US carrier is ending their code-share agreement.

“We are disappointed because it is not in the spirit of the One World alliance. How-ever, we have other partners to work with us, we will continue. If this is to reduce or stop our operations to US we are not going to do so because we comply with the open sky policy, which is a very wise policy of US. We are business partners with US we have a lot of relations with US and people in our region have huge diaspora in US so we are only serving those passengers” he said.

“Our stock purchase request and filing is going ahead as normal. We had to clarify certain questions of the regulator, which we complied with. Once we get approval from the regulator we will buy the stocks we said we are going to buy,” added Al Baker.

Salam Al Shawa, Qatar Airways Senior Vice-President of Marketing and Corporate Communications told The Peninsula: “Today it’s a very proud moment for the staff of Qatar Airways including all Qatari pilots, the crew, airport staff and entire group of Qatar Airways, all turned up today to demonstrate

that they are all behind our Emir.”“Qatar Airways operations are normal

in spite of the blockade and we have announced six new destinations and we will continue to prosper and the blockade has failed in stopping our progress,” she added.

Qatar Airways employees signing on 'Tamim Al Majd' banner at Qatar Airways Tower 2 yesterday. Pic: Baher Amin/ The Peninsula

Foreign Minister meets Tillerson & Kuwait MinisterQNA

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Moham-med bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met yesterday with US Secretary of State

Rex Tillerson, and Minister of State for Cab-inet Affairs and Acting Information Minister of Kuwait, Sheikh Mohammed Al Abdullah Al Mubarak Al Sabah, during their visit to Qatar.

They discussed the Gulf crisis and the mediation efforts of Kuwait as well as the results of the US secretary of State's visit to Jeddah.

"We appreciate the mediation efforts led by HH Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, and the support provided by the United States of America to reach a dip-lomatic solution to the current crisis," the Foreign Minister told QNA after the meeting.

"The State of Qatar reiterates its firm position that it is always open to construc-tive dialogue to resolve any disputes between states. This crisis can only be resolved through dialogue based on the principles of mutual respect and the sovereignty of states in accordance with the provisions of

international law and the State of Qatar is ready to discuss all the demands presented

by the four countries and their evidence based on these grounds," he added.

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Acting Information Minister of Kuwait, Sheikh Mohammed Al Abdullah Al Mubarak Al Sabah.

Start-up shortlisted as Challenge 22 finalist

RAF spent QR12.5m on Iftar projectsQNA

Sheikh Thani bin Abdul-lah Foundation for Humanitarian Services

(RAF) has announced that the cost of Iftar projects it carried out in Qatar during the last Holy month of Ramadan was QR12.5m. The projects included serving Iftar meals for more than 620,000 peo-ple at Iftar tables and meal distribution centres estab-lished by the Foundation at 48 locations across the country.

Various RAF projects were implemented within the Iftar programme held in 38 Iftar tents in various locations.

03FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017 HOME / MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

→ Continued from page 1He said that since the start of

the Gulf crisis, Turkey had pro-vided full support to Qatar. “So far, 197 cargo planes from Tur-key have landed in Qatar with various kinds of goods and this cooperation will continue. The first ship from Turkey also called on Hamad Port on July 3,” he added.

He said that the ministries of economy of both countries were in constant contact and were working in close cooperation for future initiatives like the possi-bility of starting joint ventures etc.

Earlier addressing the press conference, the ambassador said

that Turkey had left behind an extremely difficult year. “On the night of July 15, 2016, a terrorist cult tried to stage a coup in Tur-key, trying to depose the democratically elected govern-ment. The coup was organized by a clique within the Turkish armed forces linked to the Fet-ullahist Terrorist Organisation (FETO),” he said.

He said that the perpetrators of this attempt fired on civilians, stabbed their commanders in the back and bombed the national parliament and the office of the presidency. “This heinous coup attempt was an act of treason which targeted our national val-ues, our democratic and

economic achievements, and our foreign policy.”

“It was the whole Turkish nation that rose up against this plot. Our fellow citizens showed historical resilience and solidar-ity as they went to the streets and took up the challenge. Soldiers who fired on innocent civilians had to lay down their weapons. The attempted coup had thus failed,” he added.

“We have witnessed such a great solidarity from Qatar. His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was the first leader to call President Erdoğan and expressed support to our Government and Turkish peo-ple. Then, HH the Father Emir,

HH the Emir, HE the Prime Min-ister, HE the Foreign Minister and many Qatari Minister visited Tur-key and demonstrated Qatar’s absolute support. This support will never be forgotten,” he said.

The Ambassador said: “Today we commemorate once again with gratitude and com-passion our martyrs that night and we respectfully bow to their memories.”

“For a long time, we have been informing our partners and allies about FETO and how this terrorist organization has secretly infiltrated public insti-tutions over the years. We also tell our friends that FETO is pre-sented in 160 countries via its

network of schools, companies, media centers and NGOs and that

this is also a threat to these coun-tries,” the Ambassador said.

So far, 197 cargo planes from Turkey arrived

Fikret Ozer, Ambassador of Turkey to Qatar, during a press conference yesterday. Pic: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

Mosul's displaced await post-battle securityHassan Sham Camp Reuters

The US-backed Iraqi offensive to oust Islamic State from Mosul forced Um Youssef to flee her

home in the city's historic quar-ter but, despite the government's declaration of victory this week, she is in no rush to return.

The 27-year-old mother of five says she and her husband are waiting for the situation to stabilise, and they have no plans to leave their tent in a UN camp east of Mosul until they are con-vinced it is safe to go home. "To return now when we don't feel at ease, we won't do it. I just want security," she said yesterday, sur-rounded by her young children. "I don't want sectarianism like before. I want something better than before, not to repeat the past."

Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi declared victory over Islamic State (IS) in Mosul on Monday after nearly nine months

of devastating urban warfare, though Iraqi forces have contin-ued to clash with militant holdouts. Yet authorities have not prepared a post-battle plan for governance and security in Mosul, officials say.

Critics accuse the Shia gov-ernment of failing to offer a substitute for policies that alien-ated Mosul's Sunni Muslim majority following the US-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein. That has left many of the 300,000 residents still sheltering in camps on Mosul's outskirts wondering when, or even if, they should return to Iraq's second-largest city.

Since sweeping through large swathes of northern and west-ern Iraq in 2014 and declaring a

"caliphate" over that area and parts of Syria, Islamic State has lost most of that territory. Mosul was the largest city ever to come under its rule.

A reign of terror followed under which the ultra-hardline group's opponents were exe-cuted, such "crimes" as smoking were punishable by public whip-ping, and music, television and the internet were banned.

Civilian activity has quickly returned to much of Mosul and work is underway to repair dam-aged homes and infrastructure, something the United Nations estimates will initially cost more than $1bn and take more than a year in western neighbourhoods where the fighting was most intense. Newly trained local police are deployed in Mosul alongside the military, but inse-curity remains a part of daily life — a series of car bombs have already gone off close to civil-ians in areas previously declared "liberated".

The security forces rely on a list of names and witness

testimonies to identify suspected IS members, every day picking up men who managed to blend in with fleeing civilians in the fog of war and formed sleeper cells.

Um Horeb, a 60-year-old woman from the Jabour tribe, appeared traumatised by months of violence as she lay on the ground of her tent. Both her feet are heavily bandaged from shrapnel wounds incurred in a bombing which she said killed all her male relatives.

As militants retreated deeper into the city, giving way to the Iraqi advance, Um Horeb also moved homes several times, ulti-mately ending up in the Maydan district where some insurgents are making their final stand.

She was evacuated four days ago but now, she says, she wants to stay with relatives in Iraq's nearby autonomous Kurdistan region. "Mosul has left us exhausted. I don't ever want to return. I don't have anyone in

Mosul," she said.As for Um Youssef, she is set-

tling into an inconvenient but relatively safe life away from her hometown. Sweltering summer temperatures regularly approach 50 degrees Celsius, but she says her basic needs are met and she has even enrolled her children in a school at the camp.

Asked if she was optimistic about the future, she said: "God willing. I must be, for my children."

Iraqis cross a bridge connecting west and east Mosul, yesterday, a few days after the government's announcement of the "liberation" of the embattled city from IS militants.

Authorities have not prepared a post-battle plan for governance and security in Mosul

Mali conflict spreading to Burkina Faso and Niger: UNTHE conflict in Mali is spill-ing over to Burkina Faso and Niger, with a significant surge of attacks by extremist groups in border areas over past months, the UN envoy for West Africa warned yesterday.

Mohamed Ibn Chambas said deadly attacks along bor-der areas were having an impact on the local economy in the northern provinces of Burkina Faso and western regions of Niger.

"In the Sahel, persistent instability in Mali is spilling over to Burkina Faso and Niger, with deadly attacks along border areas," Cham-bas told the UN Security Council.

The Liptako Gourma region, which encompasses the border areas of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, "has seen a significant expansion of violent extremist and ter-rorist activities in the past months, including coordi-nated cross-border attacks against security posts and ransacking of border settle-ments," he said.

The Security Council last month adopted a French-drafted resolution that welcomed the deployment of a 5,000-strong force set up by the three countries along with Mauritania and Chad to fight militants in the region.

Johannesburg

Reuters

South Africa's anti-graft watchdog wants President Jacob Zuma (pictured) to

comply with an order by her predecessor and appoint a judge to investigate influence-ped-dling allegations in his government, court filings showed yesterday.

Then Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, a constitutionally mandated watchdog, said in a

report in November that a full investigation was needed into allegations that members of the Gupta family, friends of Zuma, wielded undue influence over appointments and the award-ing of government tenders.

Zuma asked to open graft probe

US envoy mediates Palestine, Israel water dealJerusalem

AFP

US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace envoy said yesterday Israel would supply

the Palestinians with millions of cubic metres of water annually, as Wash-ington seeks to build confidence for fresh negotiations.

Jason Greenblatt hailed an "impor-tant step forward" in a wider regional water deal, as Israel announced it would provide more than 32 million cubic metres of water to the Palestin-ians annually. "Water is a precious commodity in the Middle East. The United States welcomes the agreement reached by the Palestinian Authority and the government of Israel which will allow for the sale of up to 33

million cubic metres of water from Israel to the PA," Greenblatt said at a signing ceremony in Jerusalem.

Israel's Regional Cooperation Min-ister Tzachi Hanegbi and Mazin Ghunaim, head of the Palestinian Water Authority, also attended.

Palestinians suffer from water shortages and say the unequal distri-bution of water resources favours Israel. The deal announced is part of a wider water project involving the Red and Dead Seas to be developed over the next five years, but the Pal-estinians are likely to begin receiving water from it before then, Hanegbi said. It came after Greenblatt helped broker an agreement between the two sides on the price and quantities of water, as well as where the connec-tion points will be.

Ramallah

AFP

Prominent Palestinian pol-itician and rights campaigner Khalida Jarrar

has been ordered detained for six months without trial by Israeli authorities, a rights group said.

Jarrar was arrested earlier this month over her membership of a movement that Israel con-siders a terrorist organisation after having been released from prison only a year before.

A legislator in the largely defunct Palestinian parliament, she was given a six-month administrative detention order, said the Addameer rights NGO that she used to head.

A confirmation hearing will be held at Ofer military court in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on July 17, Addameer said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

The "detention constitutes an attack against Palestinian civil society leaders", the movement

said. The Israeli army did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Jarrar's case.

Jarrar is a senior figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist party con-sidered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and European Union.

Many of its leaders are in custody and Jarrar has been jailed multiple times.

Israel has said she was arrested for her involvement with the PFLP.

Jason Greenblatt (centre), US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, sits next to Tzachi Hanegbi (left), Israeli Minister of Regional Cooperation and Mazen Ghoneim, head of the Palestinian Water Authority, at a conference in Jerusalem, yesterday.

Palestinian MP gets six months jail term in Israel without trial

04 FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017ISLAM

Sheikh Salman Al Oadah

We always talk about doing good deeds for Allah’s sake alone. We

know that showing off to others can nullify the blessing we could receive for doing those act of vir-tue. We know that the reward for doing a good deed for worldly gain is only the worldly award, nothing more.

This is because the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Actions are but by intentions and every-one will have only what they intended. So whoever emigrated for Allah and His Messenger, then their emigration was for Allah and His Messenger. And whoever emi-grated to attain something of this world or to marry a woman, then their emigration was for whatever reason they emigrated.” (Sahīh Al Bukhārī & Sahīh Muslim)

But there is one important question that almost never gets discussed:

What about doing good deeds just to do good?

What about helping someone because you are moved by com-passion? What about giving charity because you feel gener-ous? What about showing kindness due to your heart being full of goodwill, not seeking any-thing from the other person in return?

There are many people who love virtue. They love to pardon those who have wronged them. They love acquiring religious knowledge, exhibiting good man-ners, and behaving ethically. It is the way they are, even without formulating any conscious, delib-erate intention to be that way. They love what is good in the same way that people love beauty, comfort , and

camaraderie. The caliph Al Ma’mūn used to say: “Pardoning people has become so dear to me that I fear I will receive no bless-ings for it.”

He also said: “Pardoning peo-ple has become so dear to me that I fear people will court my favour by disobeying me!”

It is good for people to have such tendencies. They benefit those who possess them as well as the people around them. A nat-ural love of virtue is something desired in Islam, even without for-mulating a specific intention to do something good. Such deeds are worthy of blessings in their own right.

Having such a conscious intention to do the deed for Allah’s sake just adds to the deed’s blessings.

Allah says: “There is no good in much of their private conver-sation, except for those who enjoin

charity or that which is right or reconciliation between people. And whoever does that seeking Allah’s pleasure, We will give them a great reward.” (Sūrah al-Nisā’: 114)

This means that doing good for the sake of doing good is something Allah and His Messen-ger have enjoined upon us. Every virtuous deed we do voluntarily through our actions, our wealth, our influence, or our gifts is some-thing encouraged by Islam. Allah said: “Engage in virtuous deeds. (Sūrah Al Hajj: 77)

When we do so because of our good natures, this is virtuous. This is blessed. We might begin an act of virtue without thinking about it, but then renew our intentions so we do so consciously and delib-erately for Allah’s sake, thereby increasing our reward. Some of the Pious Predecessors said: “We began seeking knowledge for

other than Allah’s sake, but He refused to let it be except for His sake.”

Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) said to the Prophet (PBUH) when he first began receiving revelation: “I swear by Allah! Allah will never disgrace you, for by Allah, you keep good relations with your kith and kin, you speak the truth, you help the poor and the destitute, you entertain your guests gener-ously and you assist those who are stricken with calamities.” (Sahīh Bukhārī and Sahīh Muslim)

This is how Allah safeguards His servants from shame and error. Good deeds do not go unrewarded. True goodness is never unnoticed by Allah. This is why Allah rewards unbelievers in this world for the good deeds that they do, even though they do not have the intention to do so for Allah.

Mansoor Alam

I pray five times a day. I fast the month of Ramadan. I pay my zakat. I have performed the hajj more than once. I participate in Islamic activities in the mosque. I am a

contributing member of an Islamic organization. I practice remembrance of Allah. I donate to charities. I then am entitled; it would seem, to consider myself a practicing Muslim.

It is fashionable in religious circles these days to use terms like ‘practic-ing Muslim’ or ‘practicing Muslimah.’ By this, it is commonly understood that one practices the so-called five pillars of Islam. In many Islamic magazines even the matrimonial ads use this term. Sadly, it seems the emphasis is more on the observance of rituals in order to be called a practicing Muslim or Muslimah? But is it enough that we are simply physically practicing these rituals?

What about the importance of our aims and objectives? What criteria should we use to assess our objectives? And, how are we to ensure that our objectives are being met or that we are, at the very least, moving in the right direction?

We must ask ourselves if, in good conscience, we can continue to simply follow repetitive ritual while we can observe and confirm that the advance of Muslims in the world from a moral, humanistic and quality of life perspec-tive is only getting worse. In what way are we achieving Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) aims for us if we have settled into repetitive patterns without reflective, discerning and deep thought in regard to our place in the world and the contributions that we could be making had we not fallen into a coma of repetitive action?

Today a very large number of Mus-lims are praying, fasting, giving zakat, performing Haj, yet they are not getting the same results as did the Muslims in the time of the Prophet (PBUH), a time in which Muslims did these very same rituals. We need to figure out why.

Instead of engaging in theoretical explanation or presenting excuses let us look at a few examples illustrating instances when our rituals have failed to give us the insight needed to respond thoughtfully and compassionately as our Prophet (PBUH) would have expected of us.

1. Imagine it is extremely cold. A chilling wind is blowing. And a worker is looking for a job. His children are hun-gry and have not eaten for days. His wife is sitting with her young children in a decrepit shack with no heating. She has gathered some dry branches, grass, and leaves during the day. She lights them to provide some warmth and diversion for her hungry children. It is approach-ing evening and she is waiting for her husband. But her husband returns home without any food. The children run to their father as the wife glances at her husband’s grief stricken face. Teardrops were barely clinging to his eyes, as his wife asked him if there was any luck in

finding work. In a low, barely audible tone he replies that despite spending the whole day searching and begging for work, he was not able to find any work. At this same time in a nearby mosque, courtesy of a well-known rich religious leader, a lavish carpet is being laid down for Muslims to pray on. The many Mus-lims at the mosque exchange glad tidings with each other, shouting greatness of Islam, as the Imam promises a palace in heaven to the donor of the carpet.

2. Imagine a child whose father passed away and whose mother was forced to work day and night in order to raise him? One can imagine how hard it must be for a woman to find work if it is difficult for a man to find one. Many times the child goes to school on empty stomach. Can you dare to imagine the feelings and thoughts going through a mother whose child goes to school on an empty stomach? What kind of pain-ful emotions she must be experiencing about her son, a dear innocent soul, a symbol of poverty and misfortune. While returning from school he noticed a house at which there seemed to be a rather large gathering. Many types of fruit, varieties of desserts and candies were spread on the tables. Today a rich Muslim’s son was about to break his very first fast. The hungry orphan just watched and then passed away. No one

took any notice of him.3.He was a healthy 18-year old,

whose father was a construction worker. Unfortunately, one day his father fell from the roof of a building and was killed. The builder simply put someone else on the job and there was not even so much as an inquiry as to who was orphaned and who was widowed. Fol-lowing this tragedy, the mother was forced to toil day and night to sew clothes in order to raise her son. One day her son became ill. There was a doc-tor in the neighbourhood who wrote free prescriptions for the poor. The mother got the prescription from him but could not afford the medicine, but believe me, she tried. On this dark, rainy night she went to every house asking for some loan so that she might get the medicine for her son. Her plight was evident to everyone; her prescription was in her hand and her son was seriously ill. Yet no one loaned her a single penny and that poor young man agonizingly took his last breath in his mother’s arms. All this happened on the same day that a special train departed with people on their way to Haj. Flowers costing hun-dreds of dollars were strewn about on the station floor, in their honor.

4. She received news of the death of her brother. Being poor she could not afford to go by bus. She had relatives in

her village who might have been able to help her, if it was not for a wedding, for which the entire town was invited. The poor woman was forced to travel on foot through the intense heat, so that she may see her dead brother’s face. (This is the same woman who as a girl accompanied her late father to Haj.)

5. She brought her two year old very sick son to the city hospital from her vil-lage. Her brother came along with her. They were poor. Her brother thought he would find a job in the city, but he was not able to. The son died. Despite weak-ness and hunger, she carried her dead son on a horse carriage with whatever few possessions they had (including the shroud of the dead son in a worn out bag); then someone snatched their bag and ran away. No one came to their rescue in this very religious Muslim city filled with beautiful mosques and pious worshippers.

We find many such examples today. With such examples emblematic of the apathy within our current Muslim soci-eties, how can we be surprised that our five pillars are not producing the qual-ity of society as they did for our Prophet (PBUH) and his companions? Remem-ber the Prophet's hadith?

If a single soul in a town goes to bed hungry then Allah’s protection is lifted from that village.

Is it any wonder then that Allah's wrath has engulfed us?

The Quran covers all aspects of life and is there to offer us insight into ‘how’ to live. That means Islam is a system of life. Other religions advocate personal relationship between the individual and God. Islam, on the other hand, in addi-tion to personal aspects, addresses societal aspects. To this end, Islam con-siders every believer to be an extremely important individual, whose every action and struggle will have an effect on the society at large.

When every part in its place func-tions in a coordinated manner then the system will produce the desired result, just as a car does. But, if various compo-nents are unaligned, no matter how much effort is put into improving the individ-ual components, they will not produce the desired result. This is what has hap-pened to us. We have compartmentalised Islam into separate components, i.e. prayer, fasting, etc., and as a conse-quence, our efforts are not producing the results we would expect.

Yet, if we study the Quran carefully, then it will become quite obvious that a people who are satisfied with their state of indignity, dependence, hopelessness and insecurity are a people experienc-ing Allah’s wrath (1:6).

We know that a particular people upon whom Allah’s wrath has fallen, cannot declare themselves as being the recipients of Allah’s blessing by simply going through repetitive rituals. We need to recognise that compassion and mercy, engagement with others, and genuine self-sacrifice are key aspects to our faith for a reason.

Allah promises that He will give us power and dignity in this world in return for our faith and good deeds (16:97; 20:75; 22:50; 24:55).

Therefore, when one realises that their faith and good deeds have not resulted in societal dignity, self-respect, power and independence, then a reas-sessment is necessary and one must know that this expression of faith can-not be true faith and those good deeds cannot be true good deeds. We can reach no conclusion other than this. This is Allah’s immutable law.

If we look to the period of our Prophet (PBUH) and attend to the pro-grammes and plans of Muslims in those days, will we not find that the very same pillars of faith that transformed that soci-ety are the pillars we honour today? Yet, the Prophet’s early community deserved to call themselves ‘practicing Muslims.’

In circumspect reflection, we must acknowledge that our practice of those very same pillars seems to have taken us nowhere. Not only should we then refrain from self-acclaim in pronounc-ing ourselves to be ‘practicing Muslims,’ but more importantly we must spend time in self-examination and reflection in regard to correcting our errors, and then seek to rebuild and establish a soci-ety truly worthy of the name, ‘practicing Muslims.’ We are given the book of guid-ance that shows us how. We need only attend to the message given.

www.islamicity.org

Who is a practicing Muslim?

Doing good for goodness’ sake

It is fashionable in religious circles these days to use terms like ‘practicing Muslim’ or ‘practicing Muslimah.’ By this, it is commonly understood that one practices the so-called five pillars of Islam. In many Islamic magazines even the matrimonial ads use this term. Sadly, it seems the emphasis is more on the observance of rituals in order to be called a practicing Muslim or Muslimah? But is it enough that we are simply physically practicing these rituals?

Good deeds do not go unrewarded. True goodness is never unnoticed by Allah. This is why Allah rewards unbelievers in this world for the good deeds that they do, even though they do not have the intention to do so for Allah.

05FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017 ASIA

Martyrs' Day

Govt rules out third party mediation in KashmirNew Delhi

IANS

Rebuffing China's offer, India yesterday ruled out any third party mediation on Kash-mir about which it is

ready to talk to Pakistan at a bilateral level as terrorism is at the core of the problem between the two countries.

Reacting to the Chinese For-eign Office spokesperson's remarks that China was ready to mediate between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, Exter-n a l A f f a i r s M i n i s t r y spokesperson Gopal Baglay said cross-border terrorism was at the heart of the issues between New Delhi and Islamabad.

"Our stand is absolutely

clear. You are all aware of the fact that at the heart of the mat-ter is the issue of terrorism perpetrated on India, including on the people of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. So, the matter is that cross-border ter-rorism in our region emanating

from a particular force is threat-ening the peace and stability in not only India but other neigh-bours and also the entire region and the world," Baglay said in his weekly media briefing.

"As far as the Kashmir issue is concerned, you know that the government's position has been very consistent and clear. We are ready, we have been ready to have dialogue with Pakistan... That position of addressing all the issues with Pakistan, includ-ing Jammu and Kashmir, in a bilateral framework has not changed."

The Chinese foreign minis-try on Wednesday offered to play a "constructive role" in improving India-Pakistan ties over Kashmir where the "situ-ation has attracted the attention

of the international commu-nity". Baglay also rubbished Pakistan media reports hinting at use of chemical weapons in Kashmir.

"The claims are completely baseless and incorrect. India is against the use of chemical weapons anywhere in the world."

He said it was "quite sur-prising" to see what the government of Pakistan was talking about and reading from the terror script of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

"They have taken a leaf out of the book of Lashkar-e-Taiba on those ridiculous comments. The government is taking its cue from an internationally banned terrorist organisation," he added yesterday.

AAP backs Meira Kumarin Presidential battleNew Delhi

IANS

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) yesterday announced its support for opposition

candidate Meira Kumar (pic-tured) in the July 17 Presidential election.

"The Political Affairs Com-mittee (PAC) headed by (Delhi) Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has decided to support the united opposition candidate Meira Kumar," party leader Sanjay Singh said.

He said the former Lok Sabha Speaker's representa-tives had telephoned Kejriwal and sought support for her candidature.

The AAP's vote share accounts for a little over 9,000 as it has 67 MLAs in Delhi and

20 in Punjab apart from four MPs from Punjab, which is less than one percent of the total votes in Presidential election.

Sanjay Singh said that the AAP was backing Meira Kumar since the opposition had a huge role to play in the country in the present circumstances.

11 Indian workers dead in Saudi blazeNew Delhi

IANS

OF the 11 Indians killed in a fire in a Saudi Arabian city, four were from Uttar Pradesh, three from Kerala and one each from Bihar and Tamil Nadu, the External Affairs Ministry said yesterday.

While Tabrej Khan, Ateeq Ahmad, Waseem Akram and Vakeel Ahmad hailed from Uttar Pradesh, Kamalapan Sathyan, Baiju Raghavan and Sreejith Kottassseri were from Kerala, and Gauri Shankar Gupta was from Bihar and Morokanandan Kaliyan from Tamil Nadu, MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.

Citing authorities, the Saudi Gazette reported that 11 migrant labourers died of asphyxiation in Najran on Wednesday in a fire that engulfed the windowless house they shared.

"Firefighters put out the blaze in an old house lacking windows for ventilation. Eleven people died of asphyx-iation, and six others were injured," the report quoted Najran Civil Defence spokes-man Abdullah Al-Farie as saying.

Najran is a city in south-western Saudi Arabia near the border with volatile Yemen.

Baglay said that details of two others killed as also of those injured were being ascertained.

He said that all assistance is being extended by the Indian Consulate in Jeddah.

Book on Prime Minister Modi launchedMumbai

IANS

Maharashtra Governor C V Rao and Chief Minis-ter Devendra Fadnavis

yesterday released a new book on the Prime Minister, 'March-ing with a Billion: Analysing Narendra Modi's government at Midterm'.

Authored by veteran India Today journalist Uday Mahurkar, the book analyses Modi's per-formance as BJP-led NDA government completed three years.

Addressing the gathering,

Rao said the book has come at the most appropriate juncture with the Prime Minister com-pleting three years in office and will enable people to take an objective look at the "immense work done by the government" during this period.

The author's long stint with India Today in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, provided him with a unique opportunity to watch from close quarters the entire chief ministerial tenure of Modi from 2001-2014, and witness his whirlwind campaign in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he said.

After Modi's spectacular vic-tory, Mahurkar followed his meteoric rise in national and international politics, and the implementation of the twin agenda of social and economic change by Modi.

"To his full credit, Mahurkar has done justice to the subject by analyzing and assessing crit-ically the decisions, policies and vision of the Modi government. At times, he has also criticized the decisions which according to him were not in the interest of the nation," said Rao.

At every step, the Prime Min-ister has marched with a billion,

taken the 1.25 billion people of the country into confidence while taking every single major decision, howsoever unpleasant or bitter it might be, and bridged the gap between the "ruler and the ruled", he added.

"In a time span of little over three years, the PM has set off a thousand revolutions in differ-ent spheres of governance - social, economic and political. Many of the revolutionary ideas may not have borne fruition yet, but these have created a deep impact on the minds of the peo-ple," Rao pointed out yesterday.

Green panel bans dumping of waste into GangaNew Delhi

IANS

THE National Green Tribunal (NGT) yesterday ordered that there can be no landfill sites or garbage dumping within half-a-kilometre of the Ganga between Haridwar in Utta-rakhand and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.

The bench also announced a penalty of Rs 50,000 on anyone dumping waste near the river on the same stretch.

During the hearing of a petition regarding the clean-ing and rejuvenation of the Ganga, NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar said a huge amount of money had been spent on cleaning the river but desired results were not visible.

In a 543-page order, the green panel said all area within 100 metres of the river should be declared "no devel-opment zone".

The green panel directed all authorities concerned that various projects including setting up of a sewage treat-ment plant and cleaning of drains should be completed within two years and asked the Uttar Pradesh govern-ment to shift its tanneries from Jajmau in Kanpur to another place within six months.

The green court also directed the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand govern-ments to develop guidelines for any religious activities on the ghats of the Ganga or its tributaries and also formed a supervisory committee and asked it to submit a report.

Court slams Assam CM over NRC draft preparationNew Delhi

IANS

The Supreme Court yester-day took exception to Assam Chief Minister Sar-

banand Sonowal's interference with the preparation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft in the state.

Sonowal had said the NRC draft would be prepared by December 31, 2017.

This is three months in advance to March 31, 2018 deadline given to the top court by the State Coordinator for NRC, Prateek Hajela.

In an earlier hearing, Hajela had told the top court that they would be able to complete and publish the draft NRC by March 31, 2018. However, yesterday, he told the court that it would be done by December 31, 2017.

The obvious question was whether the advancing of the

date was linked to the state-ment of Chief Minister Sonowal that the NRC draft would be ready by December 31, 2017.

A bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman said the apex court did not appreciate other authority intervening in the national reg-ister preparation process when the court was monitoring it.

"We have a statement of Assam Chief Minister that he has revised the date to Decem-ber 31. When the Supreme Court is monitoring, how can another agency intervene," Jus-tice Gogoi asked.

"We have spent time, money and energy for over two years. It is not fair to this court," he said pointing out that last time the court was told the draft NCR would be ready by March 31, 2018, and now the chief minister was revising it to December 31, 2017.

Assam floods death toll rises to 40Guwahati

Reuters

Floods in northeast India that have killed at least 40 people and displaced

nearly 1.5 million have also inundated a national park that is home to the world's largest

concentration of one-horned rhinoceros.

The Brahmaputra river, which flows from China down to India and then through Bang-ladesh, has burst its banks after torrential monsoon rains, swamping more than 2,500 vil-lages in India's Assam state over

the past two weeks.Prime Minister Narendra

Modi has expressed his anguish over the human suffering, with thousands of people seeking shelter in more than 300 relief camps. Authorities have declared a "maximum health alert" to stop the spread of disease.

One-horned rhinoceroses are seen at the flooded Kaziranga National Park in the northeastern state of Assam, yesterday.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti (in green) salutes at the martyrs' graveyard during an event to mark "Martyrs' Day" in Srinagar, yesterday.

As far as the Kashmir issue is concerned, you know that the government's position has been very consistent and clear. We are ready, we have been ready to have dialogue with Pakistan: Spokesman

Border row All-party meet on China standoffNew Delhi

IANS

Ahead of Parliament's Monsoon Session, the government has called leaders of opposition parties on Friday for a briefing on the India-China standoff in Doklam in Sikkim sector, as

also the Kashmir situation in the wake of killing of seven Amar-nath pilgrims.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh will brief the opposition in the meeting, to be held at the latter's residence. The meeting is primarily aimed at taking the opposition leaders into confidence on both issues ahead of the Parliament session which commences on July 17.

The standoff between India and China in the Doklam Plateau, adjoining the tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan, is now a month old, with no end to it yet in sight. Sources said the gov-ernment also wants to discuss in the meeting the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, which has witnessed a spate of violence following the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani in July last year.

06 FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017ASIA

Sharif rejects graft report as slanderIslamabad

Reuters

Pakistani Prime Minis-ter Nawaz Sharif yesterday for the first time explicitly dis-missed a report from

a corruption investigation that raised questions about the source of his family's wealth, rejecting it as slander.

Sharif, 67, serving his third term as prime minister, faces opposition calls to step down but he was defiant in his condem-nation of the report that alleges his family's income from busi-ness was not large enough to explain its wealth.

A Joint Investigation Team (JIT), set up by the Supreme Court to investigate corruption allegations that surfaced follow-ing the Panama Papers leak, also accused his children, including heir apparent Maryam Sharif, of signing falsified documents about ownership of off-shore companies.

"The JIT report about our family businesses is the sum of hypotheses, accusations and slander," Sharif said in a state-ment after meeting his cabinet.

"Accusations amounting to billions are being made here but no wrongdoing has been proven."

The investigation team, which included officials from a military intelligence agency,

presented its report to the Supreme Court on Monday.

Copies of it were then leaked to the media, prompting a cho-rus of demands from political parties that he resign from office.

"Nawaz's authority is com-pletely eroded," Shah Mehmood Qureshi, vice chairman of the opposition PTI party, said. "There is no legal, moral or political jus-tification for him to continue."

Pakistan has for decades been plagued by pervasive graft, and by rivalry between the mil-itary and civilian politicians.

Sharif's term expires in June 2018 and elections are expected

two months later. If he were forced to step down, his ruling PML-N party could appoint a new leader as prime minister until the polls.

Nevertheless, worries gen-erated by the 254-page report has sent stocks tumbling amid fears of chaos after several years of relative stability and acceler-ating economic growth.

The economy expanded by 5.3 percent last fiscal year - its fastest in a decade. Big infra-structure investment by China has boosted growth while

confidence has been buoyed by a decline in militant attacks.

After years of electricity shortages and cuts, power out-ages have also been reduced but not eradicated.

Sharif said the economic progress made since his election in 2013 showed the government was on the right track and any disruption would only hurt progress.

"We will not let darkness once again prevail in our towns and factories," he said.

Sharif, the son of an

industrialist, will have his fate decided by the Supreme Court, which could disqualify him or order a trial.

Sharif was originally nur-tured by the military as a civilian politician who would protect their interests, and he served as prime minister twice in 1990s.

But he later fell out with an army chief and was ousted in a 1999 coup leading to a decade of exile.

"Our family has gained noth-ing from the politics, in fact it has lost a lot," Sharif said

China donates 100 buses to CambodiaPhnom Penh AP

CHINA yesterday turned over to Cambodia 100 buses to be used to expand public trans-portation in its capital, Phnom Penh.

The donation of the vehi-cles comes three years after municipal bus transportation was reintroduced in the cap-ital. Currently, the city of roughly 2.5 million people has about 1.5 million motorbikes and more than 30,000 cars clogging its roads.

The value of the new buses was not announced. Labels on the buses indicated they came from China's Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Co., one of the world's leading bus producers.

China is Cambodia's most important political and eco-nomic ally. It has provided millions of dollars in aid and investment over the past dec-ade, agreed to write off debts and granted Cambodia tariff-free status for hundreds of items.

Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo diesBeijing

Reuters

Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize lau-reate Liu Xiaobo

(pictured) died yesterday from multiple organ failure, the authorities said, having not been allowed to leave the country for treatment for late-stage liver cancer as he wished.

Liu, 61, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 for "inciting sub-version of state power" after he helped write a petition known as "Charter 08" calling for sweeping political reforms.

He was recently moved from prison to a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang to be treated.

The Shenyang Bureau of Justice said in a brief statement on its website that Liu had

suffered multiple organ failure and efforts to save him had failed.

Despite being given mul-tiple forms of treatment, his illness had continued to worsen, it added.

The hospital treating him confirmed in a separate state-ment the cause of death.

The leader of the Norwe-gian Nobel Committee, which

awards the peace prize, said the Chinese government bore a heavy responsibility for his death.

"We find it deeply disturb-ing that Liu Xiaobo was not transferred to a facility where he could receive adequate medical treatment before he became terminally ill," said Berit Reiss-Andersen.

"The Chinese Government bears a heavy responsibility for his premature death".

Rights groups and Western governments had urged China to allow Liu and his wife, Liu Xia, to leave the country to be treated abroad, as Liu had said he wanted.

But the government had warned repeatedly against interference and said Liu was being treated by renowned Chinese cancer experts.

Suspected drug smuggler shot dead in JakartaJakarta

AFP

A Taiwanese man caught with a tonne of crystal meth was shot dead by Indonesian police after he tried to escape, authorities said yesterday.

Lin Ming Hui was among a group of four Taiwanese men found in Banten prov-ince -- a couple of hours outside the capital Jakarta -- with 1,000kg of the drug packed in 51 boxes.

Police had begun inves-tigating after receiving a tip-off from Taiwan author-ities that drugs had been transported into Indonesia from China, Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono said.

"We caught them last night, but because one of them tried to escape he got shot and died. Two of them are now in our custody, while the fourth man managed to flee and we are now search-ing for him," Yuwono said yesterday.

Abu Sayyaf executes Vietnamese hostageZamboanga City Anatolia

Daesh-linked Abu Sayyaf terrorists brutally shot to death one of three

remaining Vietnamese sailors they kidnapped last year off Basilan, officials confirmed yesterday.

The military said that a bul-let-riddled body of Vietnamese national, Tran Viet Van, was recovered in Barangay (village) Buhanginan in Patikul town, Sulu province.

Capt Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Western Mindanao Command, said that Joint Task Force (JTF) turned over the sailor's body to Anti-Kidnapping Group, or AKG, on Monday.

She did not give further details on what day or time the slain Vietnamese crewman was recovered.

The Viet Nam News, how-ever, reported that the Vietnamese embassy in the Philippines was working with both the Vietnamese and Fili-pino authorities to complete forensic and legal procedures, preparing documents to bring Van’s body back to his family.

The Vietnamese major daily quoted foreign ministry spokes-woman Le Thi Thu Hang as saying, “I am grief-stricken to confirm that Vietnamese national Tran Viet Van has lost his life. We want to send our deepest con-dolences to Tran Viet Van’s family, wishing that they soon overcome such a great loss."

Storm causes power outages in New ZealandWellington

Reuters

SEVERE wind, rain and snow caused flight disruptions, road closures and power outages across New Zealand yester-day, when the South Pacific island nation was hit by a storm carrying gales of up to 160km an hour.

The southerly gales rat-tled the capital, Wellington, as the storm moved north towards Auckland, New Zea-land's largest city.

More than 10,000 prop-erties on the North Island were hit by power cuts, sev-eral highways were shut and ferries that travel across the Cook Strait between the North and South islands were suspended because of tower-ing waves, domestic media reported.

Severe weather warnings were issued earlier, and media reported that motor-ists stuck on one North Island highway had to be rescued.

Japan protests to N Korea over 'armed' boatTokyo

AFP

Japan has lodged a protest with Pyongyang after one of its patrol vessels was chased

by an apparently armed fish-ing boat believed to be from North Korea, the government said yesterday.

The incident occurred Fri-day in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) and within Japan's exclu-sive economic zone (EEZ), which extends 200 nautical miles from the coast, Tokyo said.

The fisheries agency ship was on patrol when it was pur-sued by "a vessel of unknown origin which had what appeared to be a gun", top gov-ernment spokesman Yoshihide Suga said.

"The patrol ship suffered no damage as it urgently left the area for safety," Suga said.

"Given the high possibility that the vessel is linked to North Korea, we have lodged a strong protest through the embassies in Beijing," said Suga, who

noted Japan had observed the ship's crew and collected other information.

Japan and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations but Tokyo sometimes makes diplomatic protests to Pyongyang by having its embassy in the Chinese capital contact North Korea's.

Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper, quoting fisheries agency sources, said the North Korean ship pointed the gun at the Japanese vessel.

The government spokes-man withheld comment on what the ship was doing in the waters.

Afghan girls join US robotics contestKabul

Reuters

A team of Afghan girls are on their way to compete in an academic robotics

competition in the United States after American officials agreed to allow them to enter the coun-try despite initially denying them visas.

"We were disappointed, and we were feeling bad, but now we are very happy that they have given us a chance to go," 14-year-old Fatemah Qaderyan said as she and five teammates arrived in Kabul yesterday.

The girls are hoping to receive the documentation there that they need to travel to the United States.

The reversal reportedly came at the request of US Pres-ident Donald Trump, who has been embroiled in controversy over his efforts to restrict immi-gration from several Muslim-majority countries.

Afghanistan itself is not on the list, and Team Afghanistan's robot had already been allowed entry to the United States.

Lawyers shout slogans during a protest against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in Lahore, yesterday.

A Joint Investigation Team also accused Sharif's children, including heir apparent Maryam Sharif, of signing falsified documents about ownership of off-shore companies.

Scandal

The JIT report about our family businesses is the sum of hypotheses, accusations and slander. Accusations amounting to billions are being made here but no wrongdoing has been proven: Sharif

Members of Afghan robotics girls team arrive to receive their visas from the US embassy in Kabul, yesterday.

An official said the fisheries agency ship was on patrol when it was pursued by "a vessel of unknown origin which had what appeared to be a gun.

07FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017 EUROPE

Something could happen on climate accord: TrumpParis

Reuters

US President Donald Trump held the door open to a reversal of his decision to pull the United States out

of the Paris climate accord yes-terday, but did not say what he would need in return to persuade him to do so.

Trump, who has made few friends in Europe with his rejec-tion of the 2015 Paris agreement and his "America First" trade stance, met with French President Emmanuel Macron as both lead-ers sought common ground to reset an awkward relationship. "Something could happen with respect to the Paris accords, let's see what happens," Trump told a news conference. "If it happens, that will be wonderful, and if it doesn't, that'll be OK too."

Trump has said the Paris accord is soft on leading pollut-ers like China and India, putting US industry at risk. "I respect the wish to preserve jobs, I think that's compatible with the Paris accord," Macron said at the joint conference. "There is no sudden and unexpected change today, otherwise we would have announced it, but there is the shared intention to continue dis-cussing these issues," the French

president added.Trump and Macron's relation-

ship got off to a bumpy start, but both have an incentive to improve relations — Macron hopes to ele-vate France's role in global affairs, and Trump, seemingly isolated among world leaders, needs a friend overseas.

Trump came to France beset by allegations of Russian inter-ference in the 2016 US election, with emails released on Tuesday suggesting his eldest son wel-comed an offer of Russian help against his father's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Weeks after Macron hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin

at the Palace of Versailles, Trump will bask in the trappings of the Bastille Day military parade today and commemorations of the entry 100 years ago of US troops into World War One.

Macron welcomed Trump with a warm handshake and smiles, a contrast to the

clenched-jaw greeting they shared at their first encounter in May. "Emmanuel, nice to see you. This is so beautiful," the US Pres-ident told Macron as they met at the Hotel des Invalides where Napoleon Bonaparte and other French war heroes are buried.

For the 39-year-old Macron,

France's youngest leader since Napoleon two centuries ago, the visit is a chance to use soft diplo-macy to win Trump's confidence and set about influencing US for-eign policy, which European leaders say lacks direction.

Macron views it as counter-productive to isolate the United

States on the world stage, and said he and Trump had asked diplo-mats to draw up in the coming weeks a concrete initiative aimed at preparing the future of Syria. "On the Iraq-Syria situation, we have agreed to continue working together, in particular on the building of a roadmap for the post-war period," Macron said.

Trump said work was under-way to negotiate a ceasefire in a second region of Syria.

Trump will be guest of hon-our at France's July 14 celebrations, a year after a Tuni-sian man loyal to Islamic State ploughed a truck through revel-lers on a seafront promenade in Nice, killing more than 80.

During the US election cam-paign, Trump said a wave of militant attacks showed "France is no longer France", and repri-manded the then-Socialist government for allegedly bow-ing its head to militants.

In bringing Trump to Paris, Macron has stolen a march on Britain's embattled Prime Minis-ter Theresa May. London's offer of a state visit for Trump met fierce domestic criticism and warnings that he would be greeted by mass protests.

An Elabe poll showed that 59 percent of French people approved of Macron's decision to invite Trump.

Trump, who has made few friends in Europe with his rejection of the 2015 Paris agreement and his "America First" trade stance, met with French President Emmanuel Macron as both leaders sought common ground to reset an awkward relationship.

French President Emmanuel Macron greets US President Donald Trump at the Elysee Palace in Paris, yesterday.

UK unveils bill to make Brexit a realityLondon

AP

There's no divorce without paperwork. Just over a year after Britons voted to leave

the European Union, the UK gov-ernment yesterday unveiled the first piece of legislation to make it a reality — a 62-page bill that opposition politicians are already vowing to block.

The European Union (With-drawal) Bill aims to convert some 12,000 EU laws and regulations into UK statute on the day Britain leaves the bloc. That is scheduled to be in March 2019. All those rules can then be kept, amended or scrapped by Britain's Parliament, fulfilling the promise of anti-EU campaigners to "take back con-trol" from Brussels to London.

The government says the bill will ensure continuity — law on the day after Brexit will be the same as on the day before. Brexit Secretary David Davis said the legislation will allow Britain to leave the EU with "maximum cer-tainty, continuity and control." But opponents of Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative gov-ernment fear the legislation gives officials powers to change laws without sufficient scrutiny

by lawmakers. They worry the government could water down environmental standards, employment regulations or other measures brought to Britain through EU law since it joined the bloc in 1973.

Contentiously, the bill gives the government powers to fix "deficiencies" in EU law by what's known as statutory instruments, which can be used without the parliamentary scrutiny usually needed to make or amend legis-lation. Such powers are often referred to as "Henry VIII

powers" after the Tudor king's bid to legislate by proclamation.

Andrew Blick, a politics lec-turer at King's College London, said such executive powers are "a very sensitive subject" and likely to face opposition. "Henry VIII powers have been used before, but here they apply to a very, very wide range of law," Blick said.

The powers are temporary, expiring two years after Brexit day. Even so, Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon branded the bill a "naked power grab."

British Prime Minister Theresa May with King Felipe VI of Spain at 10 Downing Street in London, yesterday.

EU to crack down on terror art traffickingBrussels

AFP

The EU said it would cut off financing for terror groups from the lucrative

trade in priceless cultural arte-facts stolen in war zones such as Syria and Iraq by imposing tough import controls.

"Money is the life blood of war for the terrorists who attack our continent or who fight in Iraq and Syria," EU Eco-nomic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said.

"For our own security, we must at all costs cut off their sources of funds, starting with the traffic in antiquities stolen in these countries."

Historic sites such as the Roman town of Palmyra in Syria and countless other even older cities in Iraq have been looted and damaged by extrem-ist groups such as Islamic State who sell the cultural treasures to fund their wars.

Murky middlemen sell them on to collectors in the west who may, or may not, care too much

about the origin of priceless artefacts of national or even global cultural importance.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said it aimed "to stop this traffic in its tracks by banning the import into the EU of cultural goods exported illegally from their home countries."

"Diverging and ineffective existing national legislations in this area means that EU action is necessary to ensure consistent treatment of imports of cultural goods all along the EU's external borders," a statement said.

Among the measures, the Commission said it wanted EU member states to agree a com-mon definition for "cultural goods" which would cover "a broad range of objects includ-ing archaeological finds, ancient scrolls, the remains of historical monuments, artwork, collections and antiques."

A new licensing system will require importers to obtain clearance from EU authorities before bringing these objects into the bloc, not afterwards.

Stop 'demonising' war games: Russia to Nato Brussels

Reuters

Russia sought to reassure Nato yesterday that its war games in September

would respect international limits on size, but Nato's chief remained wary about their scale and scope.

Russia and Belarus aim to hold manoeuvres that some Nato allies believe could number more than 100,000 troops and involve nuclear weapons training, the biggest such exercise since 2013.

Nato allies are nervous because previous large-scale Russian exercises employed special forces training, longer-range missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Such tactics were later used

in Russia's annexation of Cri-mea in 2014, its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and in its intervention in Syria, Nato diplomats say.

After a meeting on Monday of the Nato-Russia Council, a liaison forum, Moscow's ambassador to the North Atlan-tic Treaty Organization called on the alliance to stop "demon-ising" the exercises.

"Today was a major step, we were asked to brief on (the) Zapad exercises and I really hope this will help stop the demonising ... and rumours about threats," Alexander Grushko told reporters, using the Russian name of the manoeuvres.

"The problem is..., we read a lot of speculation and have heard from Nato countries."

Merkel, Macron put defence at heart of blooming tiesParis

AFP

France and Germany agreed yesterday to begin work on a joint fighter jet, a major

advance in their relations designed to underline their united front in the face of frac-turing Western relations.

Newly elected French Pres-ident Emmanuel Macron welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the Elysee Pal-ace in Paris for a joint cabinet meeting between their govern-ments. Among a host of measures agreed between their economy, culture and education ministers, the joint fighter jet proposal underscored their plans to create a new dynamic in the Franco-German motor at the heart of the European Union.

"The aim of this joint fighter jet project is to do research and development together... to use

it together... and to coordinate on exports," Macron said, call-ing it "a profound revolution."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron leave the Elysee Palace in Paris yesterday, after an annual Franco-German Summit.

May shed a 'little tear' over failureBRITISH Prime Minister Theresa May said she cried a "little tear" when an exit poll revealed she had failed to win an overall majority in a June 8 snap elec-tion. May told BBC radio she felt "devastated" when the results came in, revealing she had lost her parliamentary major-ity, despite her call on Britons to give her a strong mandate to negotiate Britain's exit from the European Union.

May said her campaign was not "perfect", but said she expected that her party would increase its majority.

The prime minister said her husband Philip told her the result of the exit poll and gave her a hug to console her. "When the result came through it was complete shock," May said. "It took a few minutes for it to sink in what it was telling me."

"When it came to the actual result there were a lot of people within the party who had been very close to the campaign who were genuinely shocked by the result as it came through."

Poland plans to replace all Supreme Court judgesWARSAW: Poland's ruling conservatives have intro-duced draft legislation that would replace all Supreme Court judges except those chosen by the justice min-ister, drawing protests from the judges, the opposition and rights groups.

The proposal marks the latest move by the right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS) to gain more influence over the judiciary, which critics and the centrist opposition say violates the constitu-tional separation of powers.

"Its aim is to give the jus-tice minister broad control over the Supreme Court," the court's president, Malgorzata Gersdorf, said.

08 FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017VIEWS

E S T A B L I S H E D I N 1 9 9 6

QUOTE OF THE DAY

We agreed we must stabilise the euro zone and develop itfurther, that a standstill is always close to going backwards sowe need some dynamism.

Angela MerkelGerman Chancellor

The four nations who cut diplomatic and trade links with Qatar last month will find it difficult to signif-icantly increase the stakes for the world’s largest gas exporter without

hurting their own economies.Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates,

Bahrain and Egypt have promised addi-tional punitive measures on Qatar after it rejected their 13 demands for ending the standoff last week. They accuse it of sup-porting terrorism, meddling in their internal affairs and cozying up to their rival Iran — all charges that Qatar has denied. Mediation efforts led by Kuwait have failed to prevent the dispute dragging into a second month.

Here are some of the options that Saudi-led alliance can pursue and the impact on both sides:

GCC Expulsion?Unlikely due to an expected veto from

Kuwait and Oman, expelling Qatar from the Gulf Cooperation Council would have severe political, economic and social conse-quences. Qatari citizens have long enjoyed visa-free access to the other five GCC nations — and vice versa — while busi-nesses enjoy preferential treatment that would be lost if Qatar was expelled or its membership frozen.

Expelling a member would severely damage the organisation. While the six members have struggled to agree on meas-ures such as establishing a single currency, they have pushed through an accord on value-added taxation to bolster revenue after the drop in oil prices.

The bloc’s weakening or disintegration would also be welcomed by Iran, Saudi Ara-bia’s main rival for regional influence with which the kingdom is locked in proxy con-flicts from Yemen to Syria.

The breakup of the GCC “would proba-bly lead to more disputes between the Gulf countries spilling out into the public arena,” Jason Tuvey, an economist at Capital Eco-nomics in London, said in an emailed note on Wednesday, adding that disbanding the group remains unlikely even if Qatar is expelled.

Tougher Sanctions?Sanctions have already caused Qatar’s

costs to quickly rise, with Qatari planes banned from Saudi and UAE airspace and goods once imported cheaply through the land border with Saudi Arabia now coming in via sea or plane.

Finding additional measures that would seriously pressure Qatar’s economy is diffi-cult because the country’s vast gas revenue is mostly derived from sales outside the region — beyond the bloc’s control. Qatar’s three biggest trading partners in 2016 were Japan, South Korea and India respectively, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Though trade with Qatar isn’t critical for

Saudi bloc seen lacking options not involving self harmZainab Fattah Bloomberg

the siege countries, their economies do miss out due to sanctions. Turkey has stepped in to ship food imports that were coming from Saudi Arabia, while Iran has provided assistance.

Qatar is finding alternative sources of dairy products, while building sup-plies and materials critical for Qatar’s $200bn infrastructure upgrade for soccer’s 2022 World Cup are now being routed via ports in Oman and Kuwait — GCC members which haven’t taken sides in the spat.

Pressuring Partners?One avenue the Saudi-led bloc may

pursue is to force international compa-nies to abandon business deals with Qatar to retain contracts with the boy-cotting nations. Saudi Arabia in particular may have leverage in this area — from arms purchases to the

future listing of a stake in state-run oil giant Aramco, the country’s wealth is in demand.

Even so, the timing is not ideal for the bloc

to play hardball with its trading part-ners. The plunge in oil prices has left Gulf producers in need of overseas investment, while Egypt is still recov-ering from a financial crisis that was driven in part by a shortage of hard currency. Europeans nations, in partic-ular, won’t accept being forced to make choice, said Andreas Krieg, a lec-turer in the department of defence studies at King’s College, London.

The tactic also looks like a non-starter given the many cases where global conglomerates already have contracts in both Qatar and a bloc nation. India’s Larsen & Toubro Ltd., for example, is building a stadium for the World Cup in Qatar, and has major infrastructure projects across the Gulf — including in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Pulling Money OutThe bloc could order its banks to

pull all their funds out of Qatari financial institutions. But while this could strain domestic liquidity for Qatar, it would also deprive other Gulf banks from earning higher inter-est rates on the riyal — the key reason for parking money in Qatar in the first place.

Qatar’s three-month interbank rate climbed to 2.47 percent on July 12, the highest level since 2010. That com-pares with 1.55 percent in the UAE and 1.8 percent in Saudi Arabia, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The writer is Bloomberg politics & econ-

omy reporter covering the Gulf.

Finding additional measures that would seriously pressure Qatar’s economy is difficult because the country’s vast gas revenue is mostly derived from sales outside the region — beyond the bloc’s control.

E S T A B L I S H E D I N 1 9 9 6

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

[email protected]

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

[email protected]

In a picture from 2010, the contours of Liu Xiaobo’s face resemble that of the Dalai Lama. Bespectacled, bald, and grinning, the Chinese dissident who won the Nobel Peace Prize the same

year, epitomised the struggle that rebels have to wage against forces inimical to freedom. Liu died yesterday, unsung in the Chinese establishment but mourned by the West. Sina Weibo deleted all posts related to the former professor who was behind a charter of demands after the Tiananmen masscare in 1989.

The state-owned China Global Television Network (CGTN) website had no mention of Liu’s death. The nationalist Global Times carried a report saying he died from liver cancer at 61. There was no mention of his Nobel Laureate status with the article saying Liu obtained his doctorate in 1988 and became a teacher at Beijing Normal University.

China has a number of dissidents who have been shunned by the Communist Party government which generally labels them as criminals. The Dalai Lama’s is a case in point. The Buddhist monk fled China after leading an uprising for freedom for Tibet. The Nobel Peace Laureate lives in exile in India and the two coun-tries often trade barbs over the spiritual leader.

Most states hate dissidence and summon all their machinery to stub any rumblings of a rebellion. Undemocratic societies resort to brazen measures while democratic ones generally put up a semblance of decorum while dealing with dissent. Western liberal

democracies like those in Western Europe and Scan-dinavia are known to be most tolerant to dissenting values and consider them as forces that are neces-sary to further consolidate their democratic institu-tions like parliament, executive, judiciary and civil society.

Liu remains controver-sial in death as in life. Suffering from terminal cancer, he got transferred to hospital from prison where he was serving a 11-year term for subversion

of the state. Yesterday, the United States joined the western world in urging Beijing to free his wife and let her travel abroad.

As Liu’s ailment worsened in hospital, China called doctors from Germany and United States to examine him. The footage of doctors with Liu created a contro-versy with Beijing accused of playing to the galleries.

Controversy over the Nobel Peace Laureate’s life and death is not only about dissent and democracy. It spawns a larger arena of civilisational politics and underscores the clash of values between the East and West. Liu had said: “I look forward to (the day) when my country is a land with freedom of expression, where every citizen can state political views without fear, and where no one can under any circumstances suffer political persecution for voicing divergent political views.

It is hoped Liu’s wishes come true in the distant future in a China where the development paradigm will be woven around a strong value element.

Noble dissident

Controversy over Liu during his life and in death underscores clash of institutional forces that pull different ways.

ED ITOR IAL

Qatar Airways aircraft seen at Hamad International Airport in Doha.

09FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017 OPINION

centre. Particular emphasis was put on Lula’s business-friendly language and explicit recogni-tion that market economics was not antithetical to the poverty eradication that became the hallmark of his eight years in office.

What these studies failed to fully acknowledge was the extent to which Lula’s inner coterie chose to play Brazil’s established political game. Collec-tively we missed the clearest of signs when militant factions of the PT in Congress began to criticise the policies and actions of their president, ultimately resulting in several being expelled from the party. As the first Lula government corruption scandal broke — the 2005 Mensalao affair that saw cash payments made for congressional sup-port of the government’s agenda — the PT split and the hardline leftists formed the rival Socialism and Liberty Party (Partido Socialismo e Liberdade, PSOL).

The problem with Brazilian politics that was made abundantly clear in 2005 was corruption. While this was not a surprise to anyone, I am not certain the depth of this embedded democratic failure was consciously appreciated. A discussion I had with a Sao Paulo business leader last May about another scandal engulfing current president Michel Temer offered a key insight. His complaint was not really about the need to offer side pay-ments to government officials and politicians. Instead, he was dismayed by the sheer greed of the current crop of decision-makers.

Islamic State remains dangerous in defeat

With Mosul recaptured from Islamic State and Raqqa, part of its old town already in the hands of US-backed groups, probably weeks from being taken, the Islamic State is likely

soon to be wiped off war zone maps. Like Lord Vol-demort in the early Harry Potter books, it won’t have a physical presence—but it will live on in other forms: The minds of the foreign fighters returning to their homelands, the online presence it has built and the souls of the disaffected Sunni populations in the areas that the terrorist group has held for years.

It’s important to assess all three dangers and start dealing with them even before the looming military defeat of IS.

The foreign fighters, reportedly, have been aban-doning the failed caliphate in droves—the ones, that is, who haven’t been killed, a number that’s hard to estimate. But thousands of them are still in Syria and Iraq, and many will try to go home.

In 2013, Thomas Hegghammer, an authority on foreign fighters at the University of Oslo, calculated that of 401 terrorists who took part in attacks in the West between 1990 and 2010, 107 had travelled to foreign countries to fight for Islamist causes. Hegg-hammer has estimated that at most, one in nine foreign fighters return to strike in the West, but, in a 2016 paper, Daniel Byman of Georgetown University argued that one in 20 would be more accurate. That could still mean a lot of attacks considering how big a magnet for foreigners Islamic State has been.

According to Byman, the returnee threat is over-rated, though. The former foreign fighters take a number of “off-ramps” on the road to terror, even if

they outlive the conflicts in which they went to fight. Some go off to other Middle Eastern wars, and IS fighters now have the opportunity to move to Afghanistan and other places where the organisation has active cells. Others are intercepted by the intelli-gence services and put under such intensive surveillance that they can’t be effective as terrorists. Yet others find it hard, and perhaps demeaning, to apply the skills they gained fighting in a civil war to the clandestine planning to attacks on civilians.

But, in the case of IS returnees, the reasons why most of the returnees won’t continue their jihad will be psychological. Byman wrote:

“At the start, simply defending the Syrian people against the regime’s brutality was the primary moti-vation of many foreign fighters, not defending them against a Western or other ‘foreign’ enemy. Most joined the fight to gain bragging rights among their friends or to seek ‘excitement and adventure.’ In their eyes, Syria seemed an admirable and an honor-able way for them to do so.”

Taking the fight to one’s peaceful neighbours is far more iffy in terms of bragging rights.

Besides, many will come back disappointed. Islamic State propaganda promoted the caliphate’s territory as a paradise. But in reality, many of the for-eigners couldn’t blend in with the locals, were given menial tasks, and were appalled by the brutality of the Middle Eastern civil conflict. Especially after a military defeat, they won’t come back as poster boys for the cause. It’s up to Western societies to make

contact with them and seek their help in countering further terrorist propaganda. Denmark’s experience in foreign fighter rehabilitation could come in handy.

The Islamic State’s propaganda network will still be in place after its military defeat, though the group’s dwindling financial resources have already hit its media operations hard. Ultimately, running recruit-ment campaigns on the social networks is cheap, and taking down the terrorists’ propaganda product is nothing but a game of whack-a-mole. But the propa-gandists will have trouble with the message.

The dream of an actual state was an effective propaganda tool for a while, and so was the buzz of early victories. That’s all in the past now, and propa-ganda channels have to push the tired idea of vengeance. It doesn’t measure up to the enormity of a looming apocalyptic battle against crusaders near the Syrian town of Dabiq, a mainstay of Islamic State propaganda in previous years—until the town was captured from IS by the Syrian rebels last October, without much fanfare.

Soon, Islamic State will be just another terrorist group competing for the angry attention of potential recruits. Defeat is hard to sell, as Al Qaeda has found out in the long years while its leaders were killed off and its bases destroyed one by one. The rise of IS would have been impossible without the erosion of that major terrorist “brand.”

The plight of the Sunni Arabs in the areas of Iraq and Syria that are being liberated today is more diffi-cult to cope with than the returnees or the remaining

Having looked back through my research notes from the early 2000s, I am not sur-prised by the conviction this week of former Brazilian

President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva for corruption.

This is not a statement about the long-running, concerted efforts of Bra-zil’s right-wing elites to squash a upstart union leader. Rather, reviewing my notes brought a sad recognition that the under-lying realities of Brazil’s complex political economy almost compel anyone with national political ambitions to sidle up to the trough of corruption.

In Lula’s case the warning signs were clear at least as far back as October 6, 2002, the day of first-round voting in the election that would bring him to power as the Workers’ Party (Partido dos Tra-balhadores, PT) candidate. A short interview during the election night cov-erage offered the clue.

In keeping with the television net-work’s anti-PT editorial line, the news anchor was aghast that Lula might actu-ally win the ballot. The anchor expected similar shock from his next guest, a sen-ior official from the Sao Paulo Federation of Industrial Enterprises, FIESP. Much to the anchor’s surprise the FIESP man calmly said he was not worried and, in a line that stuck with me, noted that “Lula is a good negotiator” and that businesses would have no trouble working with him.

Subsequent scholarly and journalistic works seeking to explain how Lula won the presidency on his fourth attempt focused on his move to a pragmatic

The scandal & tragedy of Lula’s corruption conviction

A man walks along a damaged street in west Mosul, a few days after the government’s announcement of the liberation of the embattled city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters.

As he explained, during Brazil’s industrial surge in the 1950s it was not at all unusual for a company’s government relations manager to arrange for delivery of a television set or refrigerator to strategically positioned officials. The cost was small — nowhere near 3 percent of a billion-dollar contract — and really more about showing appreciation than anything else. What seemed to pass him by was how this bred a business culture predicated on buying contracts, not winning them through competitive tenders.

In a recent column for the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, Matias Spektor points out that these habits were already afflicting public works management in the early 1970s. Recently released US classified documents discuss how a leading official of the Emílio Garrastazu Medici mili-tary government sought bribes in 1972 from US businessmen looking to win contracts in Brazil. In other words, there is a long-standing tradition of direct illicit payments by Brazilian firms to politicians and policy-mak-ers in return for public contracts and access to financing from state-run banks.

That these scandals appear to revolve almost entirely around the country’s highly successful and proficient con-struction companies should be no surprise. Nearly all of these firms trace their growth from small mom-and-pop operations to massive civil engineering conglomerates back to the mother of all public works projects: the 1950s building of the capital city, Brasilia, quite literally in the middle of nowhere. Habits form, expectations develop, the questionable becomes routinised and commonplace to the point where Brazil’s biggest company creates a “Division of Structured Operations” to manage its bribe payment schedule.

So it is hardly surprising that Lula, a president who pre-sided over possibly the richest half-decade in Brazilian history, has been convicted of corruption. But this is not really the scandal.

The scandal is that Lula’s personal and political trajec-tory suggests it is impossible for anyone in Brazil, no matter how well-meaning, to get elected to public office and gov-ern from that office without actively playing the corruption game. Dilma Rousseff, it appears, refused and was impeached for it by a bevy of Congressmen busy lining their pockets. The tragedy of Lula is not just that a good man was brought down so low, but that there seems such scant chance that the system which forced him to kneel at the trough of corruption is likely to meaningfully change any time soon.

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IS propaganda operation. IS couldn’t have held on to these lands for as long as it did without local support.

But Mosul was ruined by the time it was liberated, and Raqqa will follow in its path. Rebuilding either—and other areas formerly held by IS—seems like a longshot given the resources of the Iraqi government and Syrian rebels. Reaching a political settlement is more realistic, but will also take time. The areas IS occupied are likely to be worse off once the ter-ror group is gone.

A 2013 Rand Corporation report that attempted to summarise the modern experience of dealing with insurgencies has found that only one strategy (out of the 24 Rand singled out) was a glaring failure: “Crush them,” or “escalating repression and collective punish-ment.” It’s still a likely scenario at this point, and locals fear it from the Shia-led government of Iraq. What works is confident policing coupled with a rebuilding effort—a difficult combination to get right.

A June report from the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point shows that IS remains active in the liberated cities, conducting terror attacks and maintaining a clandestine presence. There must be a better alternative for the locals than a new insurgency, and that’s the biggest challenge in Mosul and, soon, in Raqqa.

The writer is a Bloomberg View column-

ist. He was the founding editor of the

Russian business daily Vedomosti and

founded the opinion website Slon.ru.

Leonid BershidskyBloomberg

Sean W BurgesAl Jazeera

A June report from the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point shows that IS remains active in the liberated cities, conducting terror attacks and maintaining a clandestine presence. There must be a better alternative for the locals than a new insurgency, and that’s the biggest challenge in Mosul and, soon, in Raqqa.

The scandal is that Lula’s personal and political trajectory suggests it is impossible for anyone in Brazil, no matter how well-meaning, to get elected to public office and govern from that office without actively playing the corruption game.

10 FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017AMERICAS

Republicans unveil revised health care billWashington

AFP

Republican leaders unveiled a revamped health care bill yes-terday aimed at salvaging Donald

Trump's top legislative priority, after the US President warned he'll be "very angry" if party divi-sions scupper his drive to dismantle Obamacare.

The new Senate bill is intended to woo Republicans from both conservative and moderate factions, and reassure those who fear repealing Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act — a longstanding goal for the party — could adversely impact mil-lions of Americans.

With Democrats united in opposition, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell needs support from at least 50 out of 52 Republicans to pass the meas-ure in the 100-member chamber.

Ten Republicans have said they will not support the previ-ous version of the bill. The test is whether leadership can convince most of them to get on board.

Like the previous version, the new draft eliminates a funda-mental principle of Obamacare,

the requirement that almost all individuals either obtain health insurance or pay a fine, accord-ing to a summary of the bill released by the Senate Budget Committee.

It still includes plans to slash by more than $700bn the Med-icaid federal health care programme for the poor and dis-abled, a move that Republican centrists fear could devastate millions of families. But key changes include the provision of an extra $70bn to stabilise the health insurance exchanges cre-ated under Obamacare, on top of the $112bn earmarked under

the previous version. In a nod to moderate Repub-

licans, the revamped bill jettisons plans to repeal two taxes on wealthy Americans that are used to help pay for Obamacare, and scraps repeal of a tax on health insurance executives.

It also provides $45bn to sup-port opioid abuse treatment programmes and individuals with mental disorders.

Concessions to conservatives include giving states flexibility to let insurance companies offer cheap, no-frills plans alongside those that include certain health benefits mandated by Obamacare.

Some Republicans warn that move could end up abolishing protections for people with pre-existing conditions and send costs soaring for children and older insurance holders in the individual market.

The chamber's 52 Republi-cans entered a closed-door meeting yesterday where McCo-n n e l l u n v e i l e d t h e much-anticipated measure.

With opposition growing, and McConnell postponing the Senate's August recess by two weeks to allow time to bring sceptical lawmakers on board, the president used his bully

pulpit to urge fellow Republicans to rally round the effort.

Trump warned on Wednes-day he would be "very angry" if Congress failed to pass legisla-tion to replace large parts of Obamacare.

"For years, they've been talk-ing about repeal-replace, repeal-replace," Trump told the Christian Broadcasting Network. "They have to get together and get it done.... I will be very angry about it" if they fail.

But Senator Rand Paul, a longtime critic of the bill, said he still has serious doubts. "I don't know that this is better than

Obamacare," Paul told Fox News. "The new plan actually

doesn't repeal Obamacare. It keeps about half of the Obamacare taxes. Keeps most of the Obamacare regulations, keeps most of the Obamacare subsidies and it creates a giant insurance bailout super fund," he warned.

McConnell has been criti-cised for crafting the initial bill in secret and rushing the proc-ess, leaving lawmakers with little time to analyse the legislation and consider changes.

"We're just kind of throwing stuff up against the wall

— concepts, policies, things that we think will work — but we haven't given outside groups... the time" to analyse the plan, said Republican Senator Ron Johnson.

Polls show the previous ver-sion to be widely unpopular. An analysis by the non-profit Con-gressional Budget Office forecast that under the bill, ranks of the uninsured would swell by 22 mil-lion people by 2026 compared to current law. McConnell wants to receive a CBO score on the new version as early as next Monday, and hold a vote to begin debate on the bill next week.

Senators John McCain and Bob Corker walk to a meeting of Republican senators to discuss a new version of their healthcare bill at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Lula defiant after conviction, wants to run againSao Paulo

AP

Former President Luiz Ina-cio Lula da Silva launched a defiant public defence

yesterday after being convicted of corruption and money laun-dering, accusing his political opponents of trying to prevent him from becoming president again.

A federal judge found Silva guilty the previous day and sen-tenced him to nearly 10 years in prison, though the charismatic leader remains free while an appeal is heard.

Speaking to supporters as sweat dripped from his forehead, the man popularly known as simply "Lula" said the court had no proof and the conviction was politically motivated. To cheers, he said he wants to run for re-election next year. "If anyone thinks that with this sentence they will pull me out of the game, they should know that I am in the game," he said. "The only people who can declare my end are the Brazilian people."

At various points the crowd broke into cheers of "Lula for president!" A supporter raised a poster behind him that read, "Election without Lula is a fraud."

Silva was accused of receiv-ing a beachfront apartment and

repairs to the property as kick-backs from construction company OAS.

He never owned the apart-ment, but prosecutors argued it was intended for him.

The case is part of Brazil's

largest-ever graft investigation, in which dozens of top politi-cians and businesspeople have already been jailed. It has also led to a corruption charge against current President Michel Temer, who could be suspended

and put on trial if the lower house of Congress votes to accept it.

Silva is the highest-profile figure to be convicted so far, and the first Brazilian ex-president to be found guilty in a criminal proceeding at least since the res-toration of democracy in the 1980s. Silva was Brazil's first working-class president and remains beloved in many quar-ters, though the corruption probe has dented his reputation. He faces charges in four other cases but has been considered a front-runner for next year's election.

He left office at the end of 2010 with sky-high popularity after riding an economic boom to fund social programmes that pulled millions out of poverty and expanding the international role of Latin America's biggest nation.

The case now goes before a group of magistrates. If they uphold the conviction, Silva would be barred from seeking office. Prosecutors said they would appeal seeking to increase the 9½-year sentence.

Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva speaks during a press conference in Sao Paulo, yesterday.

The new Senate bill is intended to woo Republicans from both conservative and moderate factions, and reassure those who fear repealing Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act — a longstanding goal for the party — could adversely impact millions of Americans.

Carter hospitalised in Canada over dehydrationWinnipeg

Reuters

Former US President Jimmy Carter (pic-tured) was receiving hospital care yesterday after becoming dehydrated

at a charity house-building project in Can-ada, but he is doing "OK," Habitat for Humanity said.

Carter, 92, became unsteady at the con-struction site and slumped away from his work area to a chair, according to eyewit-nesses, who said he was working for more than an hour on steps of the home, using a drill. Several workers helped him to sit, and he was later taken away by ambulance.

His medical issue resulted from dehy-dration, the Carter Center said in a statement. He had been working on a building project with Habitat for Humanity, a charitable organisation promoting affordable home ownership. Carter was taken to St. Boniface General Hospital for treatment, according to the Carter Center, which is based in Atlanta. "President Carter told us he is OK and is being taken offsite for observation," Habitat said in a statement, noting he had been working in the hot sun. "He

encourages everyone to stay hydrated and keep building."

Carter, a Democrat who served in the White House from January 1977 to January 1981, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002

for his humanitarian work. Carter, whose family had a history of cancer, disclosed in August 2015 that he had been diagnosed with melanoma, a form of skin cancer, that had spread to his brain and elsewhere and had been spotted during liver surgery. But by December of that year Carter told his church that his latest brain scan showed no sign of the disease.

The peanut farmer from Georgia has lived longer after his term in office than any other president in US history. Through his work on global issues, he became widely regarded as a better former president than he was a president, having left office pro-foundly unpopular.

In Canada, Carter had been volunteer-ing with a project to build 150 homes with Habitat for Humanity in honour of the coun-try's 150th birthday.

The organisation noted that Carter had requested that others involved with the effort continue their work for the day.

Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, have travelled around the world working with Habitat since 1984, according to the organisation. She was with him at the hos-pital, the Carter Foundation said.

Plans to call on Donald Trump Jr. to testifyWashington

AP

The Republican Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says he will

call on President Donald Trump's son to testify amid investigations into Russian meddling in last year's election — and he says he'll subpoena him if necessary.

Senator Chuck Grassley, said yesterday he plans to send a letter to Donald Trump Jr. to ask him to appear before the committee.

He said he wants Trump's eldest child to testify "pretty soon," and it could be as early as next week. Asked if he was willing to issue a subpoena if Trump Jr. declined to appear, Grassley said "yes."

Trump Jr. released emails this week from 2016 in which

he appeared eager to accept information from the Russian government that could have damaged Hillary Clinton's cam-paign. The emails were sent ahead of a Trump Tower meet-ing with a Russian lawyer that Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also attended.

Grassley has said he also wants Manafort to testify. He said on Wednesday that he wants to question Manafort about the government's enforcement of a law requiring registration of foreign lobby-ists. But Manafort would certainly also be asked about the New York meeting.

Grassley wouldn't say what he wants to hear from Donald Trump Jr., but said members aren't restricted "from asking anything they want to ask."

US charges 412 people for health fraud and scamsWASHINGTON: US authorities announced charges yesterday against more than 400 peo-ple, many of them doctors and nurses, over health care scams worth $1.3bn includ-ing the wrongful prescription and distribution of opioids.

The Justice Department called it the largest ever enforcement action of its kind and said 120 of the 412 defendants had been charged with opioid-related crimes.

Attorney General Jeff Ses-sions said a rehab clinic in Florida, for instance, allegedly recruited opioid addicts with gift cards, visits to clubs and even drugs. This allowed the clinic to bill for more than $58m in false treatment and tests, said Sessions. And a clinic in Houston allegedly sold prescriptions for opioids in exchange for cash, with one doctor there giving out pre-scriptions for more than two million doses, Sessions said.

BUSINESSBUSINESS7,413.44

-3.49 PTS0.05%

FTSE100 PAGE | 12PAGE | 12

S Africa looks to privatise key firms

China’s trade with North Korea

rises 10%Dow & Brent before going to press

$46.13 $46.13 +0.64+0.64

BRENT

Friday 14 July 2017

8,922.72 -6.76 PTS

0.08%

QE

21,552.39+20.25 PTS

0.09%DOW

Mwani Qatar to get two new ships from MalaysiaThe Peninsula

Qatar Ports Management Company (Mwani Qatar) yesterday signed an agreement with a number of

Malaysian shipbuilding compa-nies in the presence of the Minister of Transport and Com-munications HE Jassim Saif Ahmed Al Sulaiti , who is cur-rently visiting Malaysia.

As per the agreement, the signatory Malaysian companies will provide Mwani Qatar with two ships for containers and gen-eral cargo transport at lengths of 68 meters and 64 meters, over the next few months.

On this occasion the Minis-ter, who is also the Chairman of Mwani Qatar, said: “The agree-ment signed today contributes to boosting economic coopera-tion with Malaysian companies in a way that backs the goals of Qatar National Vision 2030.”

The agreement represents a key turning point for Mwani Qatar, the Minister said. He explained that beside its activity in managing ports, wharfs, dry

ports, container terminals and cruise and passenger ship termi-nals, Mwani Qatar will be owner of the ships, and will be manag-ing them for the interest of the national economy and in sup-port for the domestic efforts that aim to promote Qatar’s compet-itiveness on world map.

“We well know the amount of responsibility that we shoul-der to ensure local market stability and the support for sus-tainable development efforts. For this, we have put a clear strategy

with the aim of enabling our ports to become integrated eco-nomic entities that support and boost the national economy sus-tainability and that contribute to achieving the goals of transform-ing Qatar into a vibrant business hub in the region,” the Minister said.

Captain Abdulla Al Khanji, CEO of Mwani Qatar, said that the two ships would be built under the supervision of NK, the Japanese classification society, which is one of the internation-ally recognised societies in the field. This, he noted, aims to ensure that the ships meet world shipbuilding standards and spec-ifications. He also confirmed that the two ships would be equipped with latest world technological systems as Mwani Qatar always takes the matters of environ-ment, security and safety as top priority in all its activities.

The Malaysian companies that will build the two ships, Al Khanji said, are recognised in shipbuilding industry with long expertise in the field and owns a great market share in shipbuild-ing industry around the world.

Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim Saif Ahmed Al Sulaiti (standing right), who is also the Chairman of Mwani Qatar, witnessing the signing ceremony, between Mwani Qatar and Malaysian shipbuilding companies, in Kuala Lumpur, yesterday.

Boosting ties

The signatory Malaysian companies will provide Mwani Qatar with two ships for containers and general cargo transport.

Mwani Qatar will be owner of the ships, and will be managing them for the interest of the national economy.

QSE index made big gains of 6.3% last week The Peninsula

Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) benchmark index made a significant gain of 547.21

points, or 6.13 percent, last week when the bourse closed yesterday at 9,469.93 points.

Trading value during the week increased by 7.12 percent to reach QR1.46bn compared to QR1.36bn.

Trading volume decreased by 8.25 percent to reach 49.20 million shares, as against 53.62 million shares, while the number of transactions fell by 3.59 per-cent, to reach 17,735 transactions as compared to 18,396 transactions.

Market cap rose by 6.46 per-cent to reach QR510.67bn as compared to QR479.68bn at the end of previous week.

Banking and Financial Serv-ices sector led traded value last week with 49.56 percent of the total traded value. Industries sector accounted for 16.45 per-cent. Telecoms sector accounted for 11.23 percent and Real Estate sector accounted for 8.12 per-cent. Banking and Financial Services sector led traded vol-ume last week with 31.71 percent of the total traded volume. Tel-ecoms sector accounted for 30.60 percent. Industries sector accounted for 15.06 percent and

Real Estate sector accounted 12.17 percent.

Banking and Financial Serv-ices sector led traded number of transactions this week with 37.2 percent of the total number of transactions. Industries sector accounted for 18.09 percent. Real Estate sector accounted for 13.44 percent and Transporta-tion sector accounted for 10.85 percent.

Out of the 44 listed compa-nies, 43 ended last week higher, while one company remained unchanged. QNB led trading value during last week account-ing for 24.24 percent of the total traded value. Masraf Al Rayan accounted for 8.51 percent and Vodafone Qatar accounted for 8.31 percent, reports QNA.

When compared on daily basis, the QSE index gained 189.55 points, or 2.04 percent, when the bourse closed trading at 9,469.93 points.

The volume of shares traded yesterday increased to 17.48 mil-lion from 12.77 million on Wednesday and the value of shares also increased QR433.03m from QR413.52m on Wednesday.

Out of the 44 companies listed on QSE, shares of 39 saw trading yesterday. Of these 31 gained and 8 companies closed lower yesterday.

Turkish PM meets Minister of Economy & CommerceQNA

Turkish Prime Minister H E Binali Yildirim yesterday met the Minister of Econ-

omy and Commerce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Moham-med Al Thani, during his visit to Turkey.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Econ-omy and Commerce, both sides discussed, during the meeting, means of developing economic and trade relations between the two countries, and reviewed trade opportunities for Qatari and Turk-ish companies, as well as means of enhancing joint cooperation and increasing trade exchange and investment flows between the two countries.

The Minister thanked the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish government and the Turkish people for their support to Qatar since the begin-ning of the current crisis. The volume of trade exchange between Qatar and Turkey reached QR9bn for the years 2015 and 2016.

The Minister of Economy and Commerce also held a meeting with Turkish Deputy Prime Min-ister Mehmet Simsek and Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci on Wednesday and provided an incite about the economic funda-mentals of the Qatari economy. He also met with representatives

of Turkish companies from vari-ous sectors. During the meeting Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim affirmed that the Qatari economy is strong, solid, diversified, and enjoys attractive investment climate.

The Minister of Economy and Commerce said that there are great opportunities for all com-mercial companies in both Turkey and Qatar to increase the volume of trade exchange and flow of investments between the two countries in all sectors, not only

in the food and consumer sectors.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim extended Qatar's gratitude for Turkey's supportive stance since the beginning of the ongoing cri-sis and the response of Turkish companies to providing high qual-ity food and consumer products to the Qatari consumer.

He highlighted the Qatari economy's ability to deal with and overcome all the difficulties and crises because of its strength and

durability and because the siege failed to affect the movement of trade exchange, pointing that the Qatari economy has been able to overcome several global and regional crises.

The meetings also discussed the arrangements for organising the Qatari-Turkish Economic Forum and exhibition, which will be held from July 26-27 in the Turkish city of Izmir with a rich participation of Qatari and Turk-ish businessmen.

Turkish Prime Minister H E Binali Yildirim (centre); Qatar’s Minister of Economy and Commerce, H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani (fourth left); Qatar's Ambassador to Turkey, Salem bin Mubarak Al Shafi (third left) and other senior officials from Qatar and Turkey at the meeting, in Ankara, yesterday.

Miguel Messmacher (right), deputy finance minister and Juan Carlos Zepeda, head of Mexico's National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH), speak to the media, after an auction of offshore oil and gas blocks in Mexico City, yesterday.

Auction of Oil & gas blocks

12 FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017BUSINESS

S Africa looks to privatise key firmsJohannesburg Reuters

South Africa’s finance minister laid out an ambitious 14-point pro-gramme yesterday to wrench the economy

out of recession that included the sale of non-core assets and par-tial privatisation of state-owned firms.

The plans to stimulate growth in the continent’s most industrialised economy appear to represent an ideological shift by the ruling African National Congress, whose political alli-ance with the unions has tended to make privatisation a dirty word.

A team commissioned by President Jacob Zuma to review state firms last year recom-mended that some should be sold. Now the government has set a date - March 2018 - by which to roll out a “private sec-tor participation framework”.

But despite the opposition the plans are likely to face, Zuma’s government has to take action as the economy slid into recession for the first time since 2009 in the first quarter and is

facing high unemployment and credit ratings downgrades.

“All of these items that we have announced ... they consti-tute an important intervention to restore confidence and dem-onstrate action,” Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba told a news conference. The govern-ment would also reduce the number of debt guarantees to the firms, especially those extended for operational purposes, he said.

“I’m not sure how far he is going to be able to get with this because I think ideologically there’s a lot of opposition,” NKC African Economics analyst Gary van Staden said.

“The last time I heard the ANC even talk about privatisa-tion or even talk about sale of state owned assets on any kind of level is when Thabo Mbeki was president. It’s been a long time.” The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), a powerful union umbrella group and ANC ally, said the proposals

went against the ruling alliance’s ideology. “It is an abandonment of the principles. He is going the route of privatisation, something we have spent decades oppos-ing,” spokesman Sizwe Pamla

said. The economic slump is add-ing to the pressure on Zuma, who is also facing persistent corrup-tion allegations and increasing calls for him to stand down from within the ANC. Parliament will

hold a no-confidence vote on Zuma next month.

The opposition Democratic Alliance said the plan was a “huge disappointment” as it did not include “one big, bold, new idea capable of restoring busi-ness confidence and stimulating private sector investment”. Many of South Africa’s 300-odd state-owned companies are a drain on the government’s purse and rat-ings agencies have singled them out as threat to its investment rating. The firms, known as “parastatals”, include companies such as South African Airways, power utility Eskom and logis-tics group Transnet regarded as central to the functioning of the economy. Gigaba did not say what would be going under the hammer first, saying that would be determined by an audit.

BNP Paribas South Africa economist Jeff Schultz said inves-tors would want to see more details before endorsing it as a viable turnaround strategy.

South Africa's finance minister, Malusi Gigaba (right), poses with Johannes Jordaan, an independent economist at Economic Modelling Solutions after he was named the Thomson Reuters economist of the year in Sandton, yesterday.

March 2018 deadline

A team commissioned by President Jacob Zuma to review state firms last year recom-mended that some should be sold. Now the government has set a date March 2018 by which to roll out a private sector partici-pation framework.

South Africa sold its stake in mobile phone firm Vodacom in 2015 to as part of a 23 billion rand capital raising for Eskom.

Uber & Yandex for ride-sharingMoscow Reuters

Uber and Yandex , the “Google of Russia”, have agreed to combine their

Russian ride-sharing businesses, with Yandex the leading part-ner in a deal that extends to five nearby markets.

The deal marks another pullback from Uber’s breakneck global expansion, a year after its exit from China, though it does have potential upside for the Sil-icon Valley online taxi hailing pioneer, based on its 36.6 per-cent stake in the merged company.

For months, Uber has strug-gled with legal setbacks, accusations of a sexist work cul-ture and driver protests, culminating in the June depar-ture of co-founder and CEO

Travis Kalanick under investor pressure. Shares in Russia’s larg-est internet company leapt almost 20 percent as investors bet the deal could accelerate the move of Yandex’s taxi business into profitability.

Yesterday’s agreement fol-lows the recent merger of rival Russian taxi players Fasten and Rutaxi, marking a rapid consol-idation of the market. “With this deal Yandex eliminates an aggressive competitor which, in the long run, will lead to improved monetization and profitability,” said Sergey Libin, an analyst with Raiffeisen Bank in Moscow. “It’s a good deal.”

San Francisco-based Uber has agreed to invest $225m while Yandex will contribute $100m into a new joint company in which Yandex will own 59.3 percent and employees will have

a 4.1 percent stake. In a joint statement, Yandex and Uber said they would join forces in Rus-sia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Kaza-khstan to create a new company operating in 127 cities, in a deal expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Yandex.Taxi Chief Executive Tigran Khudaverdyan will become the CEO of the com-bined business and Yandex will consolidate the new company’s results in its financial state-ments. Yandex will hold four board seats, with Uber holding three, they said. Uber will con-tribute its UberEATS food delivery business in the six-country region to the new venture. There is ride-sharing and food delivery and beyond that there are also numerous opportunities .

China’s trade with North Korea rises 10%Beijing Reuters

China’s trade with isolated North Korea rose more than 10 percent in the

January-June period from a year earlier, a Chinese official said yesterday, amid pressure from the United States for Bei-jing to do more to rein in its erstwhile ally. Last week US President Donald Trump denounced China’s trade with North Korea, saying it had grown almost 40 percent in the first quarter, and cast doubt on whether Beijing was helping to counter the threat from North Korea.

China has repeatedly said it is fully enforcing United Nations sanctions on nuclear-armed

North Korea and there is noth-ing wrong with what it terms “normal” trade with Pyongyang, referring to areas not covered by sanctions.

Chinese customs spokes-man Huang Songping told a briefing on China’s overall trade figures that total trade with North Korea expanded by 10.5 percent to $2.55bn in the first six months of the year. While China’s imports from North Korea dropped 13.2 percent to $880m in the period from Jan-uary to June, exports to North Korea rose 29.1 percent to $1.67bn, he said.

The exports were largely driven by textile products and other traditional labour-inten-sive goods not included on the United Nations embargo list,

Huang added. “As neighbours, China and North Korea main-tain normal business and trade exchanges,” he said, adding that goods for ordinary people and those used for humanitarian reasons are not subject to sanc-tions. Numbers showing an increase are not evidence that China is failing to enforce UN resolutions, with imports from North Korea falling every month since March, Huang added.

China suspended imports of North Korean coal in February, while imports of iron ore accord with relevant UN resolutions, he said. “China customs have all along fully, accurately, con-scientiously and strictly enforced relevant Security Council resolutions.”

Adding to the potential for further US China trade friction, China had a $25.4bn trade sur-plus with the US in June, up from $22.0bn in May, customs data showed. The surplus with the United States was China’s largest since October 2015.

While China has been angered by North Korea’s repeated nuclear and missile tests, it also blames the United States and South Korea for worsening tension with their military exercises and not doing enough to get talks back on track, as Beijing has proposed.

Though Trump took a more conciliatory tone on the North Korea issue and China’s role at a meeting with Chinese Presi-dent Xi Jinping .

Lebanon finalises EBRD membership after two yearsLondon Reuters

It took almost two years, but Lebanon has finalised its membership of the Euro-

pean Bank for Reconstruction and Development the bank said yesterday.

It applied to become a member in July 2015, saying that the development bank’s support would help it boost sus-tainable growth and strengthen the economy. Lebanon has seen refugees flood across its border to escape the war in Syria, putting a heavy strain on resources in a country already struggling to overcome inter-nal divisions and long periods

of political paralysis. Alain Bifani, director general of the country’s Ministry of Finance tweeted: “After two years of perseverance, #Lebanon is finally a member of #EBRD! Congratulations #Lebanon, #EBRD, and team!!!”

The EBRD confirmed it had received an e-mail from Leba-non that the official steps had now been completed.

It means it should be able to start lending and working in the country in around a month’s time once it receives a written version of membership docu-ments and its shareholder governments rubberstamp the next step of becoming a “coun-try of operation”.

Gold prices steady as US Fed chair Janet Yellen hints at rate hikeLondonReuters

Gold steadied yesterday as a weaker dollar and lower US yields lent support, with

investors wagering that policy tightening in the United States would be glacial at best, though gains were capped by surging glo-bal stock markets.

The dollar was steady against a currency basket, having fallen to its lowest since last October after US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen (pictured) struck a less hawkish than expected tone

in testimony before Congress on Wednesday.

A weaker US currency makes dollar-priced gold cheaper for non-US investors.

Denting gold’s safe-haven appeal, however, the MSCI world index hit a record high for the fourth time in less than a month as investors took Yellen’s remarks as a green light for risk-taking.

“Risk off is what we need for gold to really come to life. When stock markets do fall, which I think is only a matter of time, then we’ll see gold rise sharply,” said Forex.com analyst Fawad Raza-qzada. “Until then it’s still a range-bound market.”

Spot gold edged up 0.1 per-cent to $1,219.70 an ounce by 1345 GMT, having hit its lowest in nearly fourth months at $1,204.45 this week. US gold futures for August delivery were flat at $1,218.80.

The US economy is healthy enough for the Fed to raise inter-est rates, though low inflation and a low neutral rate could leave the central bank with diminished lee-way, Yellen saidThe comments, part of her two-day monetary policy testimony, prompted a rally in treasuries, with yields on two-year notes falling to

three-week lows. Lower yields reduce the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.

“The consolidation around $1,220 should be viewed as pos-itive for near-term pricing, with the relatively light long position-ing instilling confidence in the market that the metal is open to

further top-side moves,” MKS said in a note. “Geopolitical concerns out of the Korean peninsula are likely to supportive for the broader precious complex, while the very fluid Trump-Russia col-lusion story continues to create u n c e r t a i n t y a c r o s s markets.”Among other precious metals, silver dipped 0.2 percent to $15.85 an ounce. “Interestingly, the gold/silver ratio is approach-ing 80, meaning that silver is very inexpensive compared with gold and is a particularly good bargain,”said Gregor Gregersen at Singapore.

A weaker US currency makes dollar-priced gold cheaper for non-US investors.

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SALE OF BUSINESS,SWEDEN TRADING & CONTRACTING WLL, (Reg No. 48923 & 48923/1), hereby gives notice of the sale of its ownership from Mr. Nixon Joseph Philip QID (27235627457) and Mr. Mohsen Jassim A M Al Haddad QID (27363400034), as a going concern, including its assets, in respect of the business conducted under the name and style of Sweden Trading & Contracting WLL to Mr. Aneer Perumplly QID (27335609976) and Khalid Zayed A F Al Jassim QID (28063401754) who will carry on the said business for its own bene�t and account, the effective date of the transaction no more than 14 (FOURTEEN) days after the date of publica-tion hereto.

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15FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017 BREAK TIME

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E HO

RRIB

LE

ALL IN THE MIND

AEROBICS, ATHLETICS, BALANCE BEAM, BARBELL, BICEPS, BIKE, BODY BUILDING, DELTOID, DIET, EXERCISE, FITNESS,GYMNASIUM, HEALTH, HORSE, JOGGING, MEDICINE BALL, MUSCLES, NUTRITION, PARALLEL BARS, PECTORAL, PHYSIQUE, PUSH UPS, RINGS, ROWING MACHINE, RUNNING, SPORT,SWIMMING, TRAINER, TRAMPOLINE, TREADMILL, TRICEPS, WEIGHTS, WORKOUT.

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15:00 Prison Lives: Inside

And Out

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23:00 ISIL And The Taliban

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10:55 Marooned With Ed

Stafford

11:40 Heavy Rescue

12:25 How Do They Do

It?

13:55 How It's Made:

Dream Cars

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Demolition

Theatre

15:02 What On

Earth?

20:35 How Do They Do

It?

21:00 Fast N' Loud


Dream Cars

22:40 Fast N' Loud:

Demolition

Theatre

23:30 Deadliest Catch

01:05 Fast N' Loud


Dream Cars

10:05 Tanked

11:00 Dogs/Cats/Pets

101

11:55 Animal Cops

Philadelphia

12:50 After The

Attack

13:45 Big Fish Man

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101

21:05 Wildest India


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Philadelphia


02:35 Tanked

13:10 Girl Meets World

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Ever After Sneak

Peek

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Whenever

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21:05 Miraculous Tales

Of Ladybug...

21:30 Stuck In The

Middle

21:55 Tangled Before

Ever After Sneak

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22:00 Bunk'd

23:10 Miraculous Tales

Of Ladybug...

23:35 Lolirock

Conceptis Sudoku: Conceptis Sudoku is a number-

placing puzzle based on a 9×9 grid. The object is to

place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so

that each row, each column and each 3×3 box

contains the same number only once.

CROSSWORD

CONCEPTIS SUDOKU

Yesterday's answer

MALL

LANDMARK

ROYAL PLAZA

ASIAN TOWN

NOVO — Pearl

ROXY

Spider Man: Homecoming (2D/Adventure) 10:00am, 12:40, 3:00, 3:20, 6:00, 8:40, 9:00 & 11:30pm Cars 3 (Animation) 3D 11:30am, 12:10, 3:00, 4:30, 8:00 & 8:50pm 2D 10:00am, 2:20, 6:40 & 11:00pmTisbah Ala Khair (2D/Arabic) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 12:20, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnightDespicable Me 3 (2D/Animation) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00 & 6:00pm Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2D/Action) 10:00am, 2:45, 7:30, 8:00, 11:00pm & 12:15am Overdrive (2D/Action) 12:45, 5:30 & 10:15pm Hunter's Prayer (2D/Action) 10:30am, 2:45, 7:00 & 11:15pmThe Bad Batch (2D/Romantic) 12:30, 4:45 & 9:00pmWar For The Planet of The Apes (2D/Action) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 12:50, 3:40, 6:00, 6:30, 9:20, 11:45pm & 12:00midnight Spider Man: Home Coming (3D IMAX/Action) 10:40am, 1:20, 4:00, 6:40, 9:20pm & 12:00midnight

Despicable Me 3 (2D/Animation) 1:30pm Jagga Jasoos (Hindi) 1:45 & 11:30pmThe Bad Batch (2D/Romantic) 2:00pm Cars 3 (2D/Animation) 3:00, 5:00 & 7:00pm Hunter's Prayer (2D/Action) 4:00pm & 12:00midnight Thondi Muthal (2D/Malayalam) 4:30pm Once Upon A Time In Venice (2D/Comedy) 6:00 & 10:15pm Spiderman: Homecoming (2D/Adventure) 7:00pm War For The Planet of The Apes (2D/Adventure) 7:45, 9:00 & 11:30pm Tisbah Ala Khair (2D/Arabic) 9:30pm

Once Upon A Time In Venice (2D/Comedy) 2:00 & 8:00pm Gemini Ganeshanum Suruli Raajanum 2:00pm

Cars 3 (2D/Animation) 2:30, 4:30 & 6:30pm Hunter's Prayer (2D/Action) 3:45 & 9:45pm Jagga Jasoos (Hindi) 4:30pmWar For The Planet of The Apes (2D/Adventure) 5:30, 8:30 & 11:30pm Spiderman: Homecoming (2D/Adventure) 9:15pm Tisbah Ala Khair (2D/Arabic) 7:15pm The Bad Batch (2D/Romantic) 11:30pm Thondi Muthal (2D/Malayalam) 11:30pm

Jagga Jasoos (Hindi) 2:00 & 11:30pm Despicable Me 3 (2D/Animation) 2:30pmCars 3 (2D/Animation) 2:00, 4:00 & 6:00pm War For The Planet of The Apes (2D/Adventure) 4:00, 9:00 & 11:30pm Gemini Ganeshanum Suruli Raajanum 4:45pm

Spiderman: Homecoming (2D/Adventure) 6:30pm Thondi Muthal (2D/Malayalam) 7:15pm Hunter's Prayer (2D/Action) 9:45pm Tisbah Ala Khair (2D/Arabic) 8:00pm Once Upon A Time In Venice (2D/Comedy) 10:00 & 11:30pm

Thondi Muthal (Malayalam) 12:30, 3:15, 3:30, 4:30, 6:00, 6:30, 8:45, 9:30,

10:30, 11:30pm, 00:30, 01:30 & 02:15am Jagga Jasoos (Hindi) 1:30 & 7:30pm Gemini Ganeshanum Suruli Raajanum (Tamil) 1:30, 7:30pm & 01:30am

Role Models (2D/Malayalam) 4:30 & 10:30pm

Cars 3 (Animation) 12:00noon, 2:20, 4:20, 7:00 & 9:20pm Thondi Muthal (Malayalam) 12:00noon, 5:50, 8:40 & 11:30pm

Spiderman: Homecoming (2D/Adventure) 2:15, 5:00, 7:45pm & 12:50am Mom (2D/Hindi) 2:45 & 11:40pm Hourob Ezetarari 12:00noon & 10:30pm War For The Planet of The Apes 12:00noon, 2:50, 5:40, 8:30 & 11:20pm

AL KHORWar For The Planet of The Apes 11:45am, 5:30 & 11:15pm

Cars 3 11:45am, 2:00, 4:15 & 6:30pm Despicable Me 10:30am Jagga Jasoos 12:30, 6:00 &

11:30pm Gemini Ganeshan 3:30 & 9:00pm Thondi Muthal 2:45 & 8:30pm

Spiderman: Homecoming 8:45 & 11:30pm

Yesterday's answer

London

AP

All these years later, Wimbledon still brings out the best in Venus Williams.

With her latest display of gutsy serving and big hitting, Williams beat Johanna Konta 6-4, 6-2 yesterday to reach her ninth title match at the All England Club and first since 2009.

At 37, Williams is the oldest Wimbledon finalist since Martina Navratilova was the 1994 runner-up at that age.

Williams also stopped Kon-ta's bid to become the first woman from Britain in 40 years to win the country's Grand Slam tournament.

"I couldn't have asked for more, but I'll ask for a little more. One more win would be amaz-ing," Williams said. "It won't be a given, but I'm going to give it my all."

She will be seeking her sixth Wimbledon championship and eighth Grand Slam singles trophy overall. Her most recent came in 2008, when she defeated her younger sister, Serena, for the title at the All England Club. A year later, she lost the final to Serena.

In the time since, Williams revealed that she was diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome, which can sap energy and cause joint pain. As time went on, there were questions about whether she might retire, especially after a half-dozen first-round losses at major tournaments. But she kept on going, and lately has returned to winning.

Her resurgence began in ear-nest at Wimbledon a year ago, when she made it to the semifi-nals. Then, at the Australian Open in January, Williams reached the final, where she lost to — yes, you guessed it — her sister. Serena is off the tour for the rest of this year because she is pregnant.

Tomorrow, the 10th-seeded American will participate in her second Grand Slam final of the season, and 16th of her career, this time against 14th-seeded Garbine Muguruza of Spain.

"She knows how to play, especially Wimbledon finals,"

Muguruza, the 2015 Wimbledon runner-up and 2016 French Open champion, said about Williams. "It's going to be, like, a historic final again."

Muguruza overwhelmed 87th-ranked Magdalena Ryba-rikova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-1 yesterday.

Williams arrived in England a few weeks after being involved in a two-car accident in Florida; not long afterward, a passenger in the other vehicle died. At her initial news conference at Wim-bledon, a tearful Williams briefly left the room to compose herself after being asked about the crash.

She has tried, coach David Witt said, to "just focus on the tennis."

In the semifinals, it was Konta who had the first chance to nose ahead, a point from serving from the opening set when it was 4-all

and Williams was serving down 15-40.

Williams erased the first break point with a backhand win-ner down the line, and the second with a 106 mph (171 kph) second serve that went right at Konta's body. It was a risky strategy, going for so much pace on a sec-ond serve, but it worked. That opened a run in which Williams won 12 of 13 points.

She wouldn't face another break point and produced another impressive second serve — in the second set, at 103 mph (166 kph), it went right at Konta, who jumped out of the way.

Konta played quite well, especially early, and finished with more winners, 20 to 19, each greeted by roars from the Centre Court spectators.

This was her 10th semifinal in 20 Wimbledon appearances; Konta had never been past the second round at the grass-court tournament before this year.

In the other semifinal, Mugu-ruza won 15 of the first 20 points en route to a 5-0 lead. Even though Rybarikova entered having won 18 of her past 19 grass-court matches, mostly at lower-level tournaments, she suddenly looked

a lot more like someone whose career record at Wimbledon before last week was 2-9.

Muguruza won the point on 19 of 25 trips to the net and had a 22-8 edge in winners.

That earned the 23-year-old

Muguruza a berth in her third career Grand Slam final, second at the All England Club. She lost to Serena Williams with the title on the line at Wimbledon in 2015, then beat her at Roland Garros last year.

SPORT16 FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017

Bardet shines as Aru grabs yellow from Froome Peyragudes, France

Reuters

Frenchman Romain Bardet timed his final effort per-fectly to win the 12th stage

of the Tour de France yester-day, setting up a thrilling second half of the three-week race as defending champion Chris Froome showed a rare sign of weakness.

Italian Fabio Aru claimed the overall leader's yellow jer-sey as previous leader Froome could not sustain the pace in the final few hundred metres up a steep climb to the finish line.

Astana rider Aru attacked in the final part of the climb to Peyragudes, a 2.4-km ascent at a punishing average gradi-ent of 8.4 percent. But Bardet had more left in the tank and powered away in the last 200 metres to beat Colombian Rig-oberto Uran by two seconds.

Aru, who won the Vuelta in 2015, came third, also two seconds behind Bardet while Froome cracked and ended up 22 seconds adrift of the Frenchman.

Overall, Aru leads Froome

by six seconds and Bardet by 25. "It's a great joy. I had good legs but I was patient," said AG2R-La Mondiale rider Bardet.

"The team has never been so strong, we are a real factor in the race. Now we have to do our best in the final part."

Froome and Aru went off the road briefly in the descent from the Port de Bales, the penultimate climb of the day, but the group of overall con-tenders waited on them.

They caught the last survi-vor of the day's breakaway, Briton Stephen Cummings, 8.5km from the finish, in the final slopes of the Col de Peyresourde.

Nairo Quintana had already been dropped, as the Colom-bian struggles to recover from an energy-sapping Giro d'Italia.

He and two-time champion Contador, who was dropped in the finale, saw their hopes of winning the race all but vanish.

For the second time after Aru prevailed at the top of La Planche des Belles Filles last week, Froome was beaten in a summit finish.

"I didn't have the legs. It's a nice victory for Romain Bardet, and hats off to Fabio Aru for taking the yellow jersey," said Froome, whose team had con-tained the opposition until the final effort.

"I did my best but I didn't have the legs to follow."

Today's 13th stage is a rel-atively short 101-km trek through the Pyrenees that should see the overall favour-ites attack.

"Let's be wary of Team Sky. They don't like to lose and they will be out for revenge," said Bardet, who is looking to become the first Frenchman to win the Tour since Bernard Hinault in 1985.

TOUR DE FRANCE

S TAGE 12 RESULTS

(TOP 15)

1. Romain Bardet (France / AG2R La Mondiale) 5:49:38"

2. Rigoberto Uran (Colombia / Cannondale-Drapac) +2"

3. Fabio Aru (Italy / Astana Pro Team)

4. Mikel Landa (Spain / Team Sky) +5"

5. Louis Meintjes (South Africa / UAE Team Emirates) +7"

6. Daniel Martin (Ireland / Quick-Step Floors) +13"

7. Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) +22"

8. George Bennett (New Zealand / LottoNL-Jumbo) +27"

9. Simon Yates (Britain / Orica-Scott)

10. Mikel Nieve (Spain / Team Sky) +1:28"

11. Nairo Quintana (Colombia / Movistar Team) +2:04"

12. Warren Barguil (France / Team Sunweb) +2:08"

13. Damiano Caruso (Italy / BMC Racing Team) +2:11"

14. Alberto Contador (Spain / Trek-Segafredo) +2:15"

15. Pierre Latour (France / AG2R La Mondiale) +2:59" CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 12

(TOP 10)

1. Fabio Aru (Italy / Astana Pro Team) 52:51:49"

2. Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) +6"

3. Romain Bardet (France / AG2R La Mondiale) +25"

4. Rigoberto Uran (Colombia / Cannondale-Drapac) +55"

5. Daniel Martin (Ireland / Quick-Step Floors) +1:41"

6. Simon Yates (Britain / Orica-Scott) +2:13"

7. Mikel Landa (Spain / Team Sky) +2:55"

8. Nairo Quintana (Colombia / Movistar Team) +4:01"

9. George Bennett (New Zealand / LottoNL-Jumbo) +4:24"

10. Louis Meintjes (South Africa / UAE Team Emirates) +4:51"

French rider Romain Bardet celebrates as he crosses the finish line at the end of the 214,5 km 12th stage of the 104th Tour de France yesterday.

Venus, Muguruza book final showdown

WIMBLEDON WOMEN'S SINGLES

SEMI-FINALS

�� Garbine Muguruza (ESP x14) bt

Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) 6-1, 6-1

��Venus Williams (USA x10) bt Johanna

Konta (GBR x6) 6-4, 6-2

Spain's Garbine Muguruza returns against Slovakia Magdalena Rybarikova during their women's singles semi-final match of the 2017 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, yesterday. Muguruza 6-1, 6-1.

US player Venus Williams celebrates after beating Britain's Johanna Konta during their women's singles semi-final match of the 2017 Wimbledon Championships yesterday. Williams won 6-4, 6-2.

Venus oldest Wimbledon finalist for 23 years London

AFP

Venus Williams became the oldest Wimbledon finalist for 23 years yes-

terday as the American star ended Johanna Konta's history bid with a masterful 6-4, 6-2 win.

Twenty years after mak-ing her Wimbledon debut, five-time champion Williams is into her ninth final at the All England Club and her first since 2009.

The 37-year-old's sublime display of power-hitting on Centre Court stopped Konta becoming the first British woman to make the final for 40 years and set up a title match against Spain's Garbine Muguruza.

Venus, aiming to win her first Wimbledon title since 2008, took only 73 minutes to write her name in the history books as the oldest Wimble-don finalist since Martina Navratilova in 1994.

"I've played a lot of finals here. It's been a blessing. I couldn't ask for more, but I'll ask for a little more! One more would be amazing," Venus said.

After losing the Australian Open final in January, the world number 11 would be the oldest Wimbledon champion in the Open era -- breaking her sister Serena's record -- if she collects her eighth Grand Slam crown tomorrow.

Williams' 87th match win at Wimbledon took her past Serena into sole possession of first place among active players.

With Serena at home pre-paring to give birth to her first child, Venus has picked up the baton and can make it a 13th Wimbledon title for the Wil-liams family this weekend.

17FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017 SPORT

FIFA whistleblower Chuck Blazer dies New York

AP

Chuck Blazer (pictured), the disgraced American soccer executive whose

admissions of corruption set off a global scandal that ulti-mately toppled FIFA President Sepp Blatter, died on Wednes-day. He was 72.

Blazer's death was announced by his lawyers, Eric Corngold and Mary Mulligan. At a November 2013 court hearing during which Blazer entered guilty pleas to 10 fed-eral charges, Blazer said he had rectal cancer, diabetes and coronary artery disease.

A person familiar with his death said Blazer died in New Jersey. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the place of his death was not disclosed in the statement.

"I've known Chuck for a lot of years. He did a lot for the sport. Sorry about all the issues regarding FIFA, but he was a good man," US national team coach Bruce Arena said. "He helped the sport in the United States."

With huge girth, charm, wit and a pet parrot, Blazer was a bon vivant as he made deals from an office and apartment in Trump Tower. The No. 2 official in the governing body of soccer's North and Central American and Caribbean region from 1990-2011 and a member of FIFA's ruling exec-utive committee from 1997-2013, Blazer was central to the rise of the sport in the United States. He relished his status, posting a photo on his blog of him in a private jet with Nelson Mandela.

Soccer corruption had been rumoured for years before Blazer accused his boss, CON-CACAF President Jack Warner of corrupt practices.

But it turned out Blazer's conduct was as corrupt as the actions of the people he accused.

A CONCACAF investigation report released in 2013 said Blazer "misappropriated CON-CACAF funds to finance his personal lifestyle," causing the organisation to "subsidise rent on his residence in the Trump Tower in New York; purchase apartments at the Mondrian, a

luxury hotel and residence in Miami; sign purchase agree-ments and pay down payments on apartments at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas."

US government agents stopped him on a Manhattan street, threatened him with arrest, and he became a gov-ernment informant in 2011.

"Chuck hoped to help bring transparency, accountability and fair play to CONCACAF, FIFA and soccer as a whole," his lawyers said in a statement. "Chuck also accepted respon-sibility for his own conduct by pleading guilty and owning up to his mistakes. Chuck felt pro-found sorrow and regret for his actions."

Blazer pleaded guilty in November 2013 to one count each of racketeering conspir-acy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and willful failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, and to six counts of tax evasion.

He forfeited $1.96m and agreed to forfeit a second amount, to be determined at the time of sentencing, but he was never jailed as the inves-tigation continued. He also agreed to pay a FBAR civil pen-alty for $487,875.

He was banned from soc-cer for life by FIFA on July 9, 2015.

An NYU business graduate, Blazer started in soccer coach-ing his son's club in New Rochelle and joined boards of local and regional soccer organisations. He was the US Soccer Federation's executive vice president from 1984-86, then became chair of the national teams committee. In 1988, he and Clive Toye, who had brought Pele to the United States as the general manager of the New York Cosmos, formed the American Soccer League.

Blazer urged Warner to run for president of CONCACAF in 1990. When the Trinidadian won, he made Blazer the gen-eral secretary.

In 1991, Blazer created the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the organisation's national team championship that is played every two years, and he rose within FIFA to become chair-man of its marketing and television advisory board.

Messi vows to do 'best' under new Barca coach

Record signing Lacazette scores on debut for Arsenal

Tokyo

AFP

Barcelona star Lionel Messi shied away from making major prom-

ises for the coming season yesterday, pledg-ing only to do his "best" under new coach Ernesto Valverde.

Messi said he was not familiar with Val-verde's style, but voiced cautious hope.

"Well, I say the exact same thing I say all the time," he said at the team's celebration of a new sponsorship deal with Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten at its Tokyo headquarters.

"Whenever I start a new season, there is a very clear-cut goal, which is FC Barcelona would do its best," said the

Argentina international who recently extended his contract with the Catalan giants.

"Personally, I am very happy and looking forward to starting a new season," he said.

"Everything will become new (under Valverde). We are hearing a lot about his very good reputation," he said, add-ing that he held "hopes on the new beginning."

"We would like to do our best."

Teammate Arda Turan was more enthu-siastic about the coming season.

"It's important that we are going to win all the titles this year. We can do it," the Turkey international said.

They were joined by Neymar and Gerard Pique for the media event with Rakuten founder and chief exec-utive officer Hiroshi Mikitani.

Rakuten's four-year sponsorship deal, worth €55m ($63m) a year, will last through June 2021, with the option of a one-year extension.

Rakuten signed the deal as it seeks to expand overseas.

The company already owns J-League side Vissel Kobe and professional baseball team Rakuten Golden Eagles.

Sydney

AFP

Arsenal's record sign-ing Alexandre Lacazette scored on debut in the Gunners' 2-0 win over Aus-

tralian champions Sydney FC yesterday.

Lacazette, signed last week in a £52.5m ($68m) deal from Lyon, came off the bench in the second half to score Arsenal's second goal before more than 80,000 fans at Sydney's Olym-pic stadium.

Lacazette side-footed home to beat goalkeeper Andrew Red-mayne from close range after skipper Per Mertesacker had opened the scoring for the Gun-ners in the fourth minute.

Up to Lacazette's slick finish Redmayne had denied the Gun-ners with a string of spectacular saves to give Sydney FC an out-side chance of snatching a draw against the English aristocrats.

The Gunners got off to a dream start when defender Mertesacker latched onto an overhead kick off a corner from fellow German Mesut Ozil to put his team ahead in the opening minutes.

Mertesacker pivoted and let fly to beat Redmayne from close range.

Youngster Reiss Nelson was lively down the right wing and troubled the home defence before his lack of fitness caught up with him late in the half.

Sydney made few inroads

into Arsenal territory but almost equalised when striker Matt Simon hit the side netting after Petr Cech made a low parry save off a Josh Brillante volley in the box.

R e d m a y n e made a double save shortly afterwards and then flung him-self to prevent Joe Willock from scor-ing with three m i n u t e s t o half-time.

Nelson came close just after the resumption before substitute keeper Emi Martinez had to get down quickly to keep out Chris Zuvela.

Arsenal received a dubious penalty decision 10 minutes into the second half when Theo Wal-cott's shot hit scrambling Sebastian Ryall's back but refe-ree Shaun Evans signalled hand ball.

But Redmayne again came to Sydney's aid with a diving save to his right to keep out Danny Welbeck's spot kick.

Manager Arsene Wenger made mass changes midway through the second half, taking off all 10 of his outfield players and among his substitutes on came the club's new record

signing Lacazette. Redmayne again produced another acro-batic save to keep out an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain free kick.

But Lacazette delivered the clinching goal when he finished off Alex Iwobi's cross from the right to find the net.

Arsenal play the second of a double-header of friendly matches in Sydney against West-ern Sydney Wanderers tomorrow before they head to China.

FC Barcelona players Lionel Messi and Neymar attend a news conference to announce the sponsorship deal between the team and Rakuten Inc. in Tokyo , Japan yesterday.

The Peninsula

Al Arabi has bolstered their ranks ahead of the new 2017/2018 cam-

paign with the capture of Al Rayyan youngster Abdulrah-man Anad.

Anad, who enjoyed last season on loan with Al Sha-haniya is a regular at U23 level and will be hoping to make an impact at the Dream Team over the course of the new sea-son. The signing of Anad, who has two brothers who play for Al Gharafa and Al Rayyan, rep-resents the end of a busy week of transfers for Al Arabi.

Earlier on in the week, Al Arabi management confirmed a trio of professional players for the side. With midfielder Diego Jardel, defender Ammar Jemal and striker Mardik Mardikian had signed con-tracts with the club.

Al Arabi, under the guid-ance of new coach Kais Yaakoubi, will head to Slove-nia for a pre-season training camp which will take place from the July 31 to August 28.

Anad joins Al Arabi

Mosaab signs Markhiya dealThe Peninsula

QSL new boys Al Markhiya have further strengthened their side

ahead of their return to the Qatar Stars League (QSL) with the signing of former Al Rayyan defender Mosaab Mahmoud.

The club unveiled the former Qatar international player on Wednesday evening, with the 34 year old defender penning a one year deal with the side. Mosaab has also been handed the number three shirt, in the presence of club officals. The signing of Mosaab has capped off a busy week for the newly promoted team, which com-pleted the signing of Iraqi defender Rebin Sulaka ear-lier on the week.

Dar es Salaam

AFP

Wayne Rooney was the centre of attention in Tanzania yes-terday with England's record

goalscorer set to make his first appear-ance back in an Everton shirt against Kenya's Gor Mahia.

Rooney rejoined his boyhood club from Manchester United last week on a free transfer after 13 years at Old Trafford.

Everton are touring East Africa as part of their preparations for the upcoming Premier League season after

signing a deal with Kenyan betting firm SportPesa to become the club's new shirt sponsor.

The Toffees received a warm wel-come after arriving in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday with large numbers of Tanzanian football fans eager to greet Rooney and his new team-mates.

Manager Ronald Koeman has con-firmed all players making the trip will play at least 45 minutes in the game against the reigning Kenyan champi-ons, which kicks off at 1700 local time (1400 GMT).

In May, Everton announced they had penned a five-year sponsorship deal

with SportPesa to succeed Thai brew-ing company Chang.

"We're pleased to have secured the biggest commercial partnership deal in the club's history with an ambitious and growing, global company," Ever-ton chief executive Robert Elstone said at the time.

"We are thrilled to have secured an alignment with Everton, a club weaved prominently throughout the tapestry of world football," added Ivo Bozukov, director of global strategy for SportPesa.

Rooney in spotlight as Everton tour AfricaThai brew-

secured thenership deal n ambitious

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Arsenal player Alexandre Lacazette (left) celebrates after scoring his first goal for Arsenal in his first match during their football friendly against Sydney FC played in Sydney yesterday.

18 FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017SPORT

Pacquiao to 'continue to fight' as Horn seeks rematch Manila

AFP

Manny Pacquiao (pictured) says he will "continue to fight" as the new World

Boxing Organization welter-weight champion Jeff Horn called for a rematch to validate the Australian's stunning victory.

Philippines legend Pacquiao, winner of an unprecedented eight world titles in different weight divisions, defiantly suggested he was not ready to hang up his gloves after controversially losing to Horn in Brisbane on July 2.

"I love this sport and until the passion is gone, I will continue to fight for God, my family, my fans and my country," the 38-year-old declared on social media.

A bloodied picture of his face accompanied the posts on his Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts and appeared to open the way for a rematch.

The posts were made on Wednesday as Horn was telling reporters in the United States he was the deserving winner of the bout but that only a rematch will settle the controversy.

Horn stunned the boxing

world with a unanimous 12-round decision over Pacquiao, a hotly contested result that trig-gered an outcry in the Philippines.

The WBO moved to quell the controversy by re-scoring the fight with a different set of judges -- who found that Horn won by seven rounds to five.

"I kind of feel it has been put to bed and that I definitely won the fight because it has been res-cored," Horn said in Los Angeles.

"But people are always going to have their opinions and you're not going to be able to change

those. So I guess the only way you're going to be able to do it is to have a rematch. And I think I would do better a second time," he said.

Pacquiao's camp did not immediately respond yesterday when asked about Horn's challenge.

US trainer Freddie Roach advised his boxer to quit a day after the Filipino's defeat to the unheralded Horn.

But US promoter Bob Arum said he believed Pacquiao would be reluctant to retire after a loss. The Horn fight contract included an option for a rematch.

Arum said any rematch in Australia might be held in November, with the Docklands Stadium in Melbourne the like-liest venue.

Pacquiao has not stopped an opponent in eight years and briefly quit boxing last year to pursue his long-held political ambitions and was elected senator.

But he quickly made a successful comeback against Jessie Vargas in N o v e m b e r before losing to Horn.

m said any rematch ina might be held iner, with the Docklandsin Melbourne the like-

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Farah to make Birmingham his British track farewell London

AFP

Athletics legend Mo Farah will run his final race as a track athlete

in Britain at the Diamond League meeting in Birming-ham on August 20, the organisers announced yesterday.

The 34-year-old -- a four-time Olympic champion -- had been expected to bring the curtain down on his track career in Britain when he attempts a third successive world championship double in the 5000 and 10000 metres at the London Stadium.

The championships -- in the stadium where he mem-orably won double Olympic gold in 2012 -- is scheduled to run from August 4 to August 13.

However, legendary Farah -- who warmed up for the worlds with a gritty win in the 3000m at last Sun-day's Diamond League meet in London -- will give it one last hurrah in Birmingham before he turns his focus to road racing, primarily marathons.

"I'm really looking for-ward to what will be my final track race in Britain at the Grand Prix Birmingham on August 20, and I'm sure it will be a day I remember for the rest of my life," said Farah on the Athletics Weekly website.

"To get the opportunity to say goodbye to the track in front of a British crowd is something that means a lot to me and I hope I can take eve-rything in.

"I've run many great races at the Alexander Sta-dium over the years, and have a history there, so it's a fitting venue for my last track race.

"The meet is only a week after the world champion-ships, so it will be a great chance for the fans who didn't make it down to London to see me race," said the Olym-pic hero.

Mo Farah

Root expects seamers to shine Nottingham

AFP

England captain Joe Root is determined his side don't let up when the second Test against South Africa

starts at Nottingham's Trent Bridge today.

Root's first match since suc-ceeding Alastair Cook as England skipper was a personal triumph, with the 26-year-old Yorkshire-man scoring a first-innings 190 in a 211-run win in the series opener at Lord's last week as the hosts went 1-0 up with more than a day to spare.

England, however, lost eight Tests last year and Root is wary of letting complacency creep in.

"We definitely want to make sure we make this start count," Root told reporters at Trent Bridge yesterday, with England looking to go an unassailable 2-0 up in this four-match series.

"It's important we set the tone with whatever we do tomorrow morning and drive that forward throughout the rest of the game."

Root confirmed England would field an unchanged team after off-spinner Moeen Ali, who took 10 wickets on a turning pitch at Lord's, and slow left-armer Liam Dawson helped ease the workload on his seamers.

"We're going to go in with the same team," Root said.

"It gives us great balance if spin does come into it later in the game, we've got plenty of options.

"Our seamers, it might be that they play a bigger part this week, but that quite excites me. They only bowled a handful of overs in the second innings last week.

"It means they're nice and fresh, and when they get their opportunity they'll still be pretty fresh coming into the

second innings later in this game."

About one of those pacemen, James Anderson, Root insisted England's all-time leading Test wicket-taker was fully fit after struggling with groin and shoul-der problems recently.

"He had a little bowl today," Root added.

"Jimmy knows his body, he's obviously had a couple of injury issues over the course of this year and I think he's just been smart with the way that he practises.

"He's a senior player, he knows what he's doing. He's done it for such a long time now.

"It's really important that he's smart in how he looks after his body and I think how he's gone about it this week is when he has bowled he's made sure that he's been right on it and he's got something out of it, but at the same time he's got plenty in the tank for when we start on Friday."

This match will be England's

first Test at Trent Bridge since their stunning Ashes-clinching success two years ago, when Stuart Broad took a remarkable eight for 15 on his Nottingham-shire home ground as Australia were bowled out for just 60 on the first morning.

"I think Stuart's excited to get another opportunity to bowl here on his home ground," said Root.

"We've played some good cricket here over the last four or five years and we want to make sure that continues this week."

This week also saw Eng-land's women qualify for the semi-finals of their World Cup.

"It's brilliant for the game," said Root.

"To get to the semi-finals is a great achievement and to do it under the pressure of hosting the tournament is great. I wish them all the luck."

The England women went into the last four on the back of a 75-run win over New Zealand at Derby on Wednesday that saw

Natalie Sciver twice deliberately hit the ball between her legs dur-ing the course of a brilliant 129.

Asked about the 'Natmeg', as the shot has become known, Root -- one of the leading bats-men in the men's game -- said: "I'm not sure I've quite got that in my locker.

"It's a great bit of skill to be able to play that and I think Jonny Bairstow has played it a few times but not quite as good as that."

England's James Anderson during nets

yesterday, on the eve of second Test against South

Africa in Nottingham.

Eng vs SA teams

England: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jen-

nings, Gary Ballance, Joe Root (capt),

Jonny Bairstow (wkt), Ben Stokes, Moeen

Ali, Liam Dawson, Stuart Broad, James

Anderson, Mark Wood

South Africa: (probable): Dean Elgar,

Heino Kuhn, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis

(capt), Temba Bavuma, Theunis de Bru-

yn, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Chris Morris,

Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Morne

Morkel

Du Plessis wants SA to pass 'huge character test'

Nottingham

AFP

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis (pic-tured below) has

urged the Proteas to pass a "huge test of character" when they face England again at Trent Bridge.

Du Plessis did not play in England's crush-ing 211-run win in the first of a four-Test series at Lord's last week fol-lowing the birth of his first child.

"I had the baby with one arm and watched the cricket with one eye," du Plessis told reporters at Trent Bridge yesterday -- his 33rd birthday and the day before the second Test starts.

"I'm really excited to be back with the team. It was tough going for us, the previous one, we weren't as good as we would like to have been but in cricket you get another go and we're looking forward to this next Test."

South Africa have a proud away Test record. In their past 19 series spanning some 10 years on the road, they've won 13, drawn five and lost just one -- in India in 2015/16.

South Africa's task this match has been made harder by the fact that pace bowler Kagiso Rabada has been ruled out after being hit with a one-match ban as a result of swearing at England's Ben Stokes at Lord's.

"The stuff off the field you can't plan for (either) -- I didn't expect the baby to come earlier, the tragedy in Russell's fam-ily etc -- it's a huge character test for us."

"What was missing in the first Test was that we didn't do that (show enough character)."

Sri Lanka face buoyant Zimbabwe Colombo

AFP

Sri Lanka are looking to usher in Dinesh Chandi-mal's era as skipper by

bouncing back from a humiliat-ing ODI series defeat to Zimbabwe with victory in the Test starting today.

Chandimal will lead the islanders in a Test for the first time after Angelo Mathews resigned Wednesday following Sri Lanka's shock 3-2 series loss to the cricketing minnows.

The 27-year-old Chandimal has long been earmarked for the captaincy and Sri Lanka's cricket board hope his elevation will spark an upturn in fortunes for the demoralised side.

"I am passionate about lead-ing the side and I want to take this team forward and improve our rankings," Chandimal told

reporters on Wednesday ahead of today's one-off Test at Colom-bo's Premadasa Stadium.

Sri Lanka, ranked seventh in Test cricket, hope victory can

be the start of rebuilding their reputation.

Their loss to Zimbabwe fol-lowed a fitness and coaching crisis and an early departure

from the Champions Trophy. Left hander Danushka Gunath-ilaka, who did well in the ODI series, is expected to make his Test debut by opening the bat-ting with the experienced Dimuth Karunaratne.

Fast bowler Vishwa Fern-ando is also in the squad while Rangana Herath, who has picked up 373 Test wickets, and Dilru-wan Perera will lead their spin attack after not featuring in the ODIs.

A fired-up Zimbabwe will be hoping to maintain their momentum with Hamilton Masakadza, who was named Player of the Series in the ODI tournament, likely to be the main source of their runs.

But beating Sri Lanka in a Test match poses a far greater challenge than the ODI series for t h e i n e x p e r i e n c e d Zimbabweans.

Zimbabwe's cricketers during a practice session at the Premadasa Cricket Stadium in Colombo yesterday.

19FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017 SPORT

Federer steps into Wimbledon land of the giants

London

AFP

Roger Federer stands just two wins away from a record eighth Wimbledon title but faces a perilous trip

through the land of the giants if he is to become the tournament's oldest champion.

The 35-year-old Swiss has defied time and logic to reach a 12th semi-final at the All England Club where he will face Tomas Berdych, the 2010 runner-up today.

If he gets past the Czech for the 19th time in 25 meetings,

Federer will face either Sam Querrey or Marin Cilic in Sun-day's final.

The contrast between the 18-time Grand Slam title winner and the other three contenders could not be more stark.

Federer stands 6ft 1in (1.85m) and weighs in at 187lbs (85kg); Berdych is 6ft 5ins (1.95m) and 200 lbs (91kg).

Querrey and Cilic tower over him at 6ft 6ins (1.97m) and 210lbs (95kg) and 196lbs (89kg) respectively.

Federer, bidding to reach an 11th final at Wimbledon, is there-fore aware of the physical threats posed by his rivals.

"All three guys are taller and stronger than I am," said Federer.

"I've got to figure out a dif-ferent way, carve my way through somehow with my slice and my spins, my consistency.

"Being the favourite or not the favourite doesn't matter. These other guys are all big hit-ters. I feel like they will have their say in the outcome of the matches.

"They've got big serves, big forehands, they are big hitters."

Federer has made the semi-finals without dropping a set and has been broken just three times.

He even managed to match Milos Raonic -- who boasts the second fastest serve of the tour-nament at a blistering 142mph (228.5km/h) -- with 11 aces in his quarter-final victory.

Federer is the second oldest semi-finalist after Ken Rosewall who finished runner-up in 1974 at the age of 39.

He is also the overwhelming favourite after 'Big Four' rivals Andy Murray and Novak Djok-ovic suffered injury-hit exits on Wednesday and Rafael Nadal lost in the last 16.

Federer is reaping the rewards of pruning his schedule with Wimbledon just his seventh event of 2017.

He skipped the 2016 and 2017 French Opens which were won by Djokovic and Nadal.

After losing to Raonic in the Wimbledon semi-finals last year, he shut down his season to rest a knee injury which had already required surgery earlier in 2016.

He came back in January this

year, won the Australian Open for his 18th Slam, added the Indian Wells-Miami Masters double before hibernating again through the clay court season.

"I'm playing very well. I'm rested. I'm fresh. I'm confident," added Federer.

Berdych, meanwhile, will not be overawed by facing Federer having defeated him in four sets in the 2010 quarter-finals on his way to his only appearance in a Slam final.

Four years younger, 11th-seeded Berdych came to Wimbledon ranked outside the top 10 for the first time since 2009.

He knocked out eighth-seeded Dominic Thiem in five sets in the last 16 before seeing Djokovic retire with a right elbow injury in their quarter-final.

Berdych is in the Wimbledon semi-finals for the second

successive season after a poor year at the Slams in which he exited the Australian Open in the third round and Roland Garros after two matches.

"Roger is an exceptional ten-nis player, he's the greatest of them all. It's a great challenge to have the opportunity to play him," said the 31-year-old.

Querrey, meanwhile, has reached a maiden semi-final at the majors at the 42nd time of asking.

The 24th-seeded American, who knocked out 2015 champion Djokovic 12 months ago, proved that was no fluke by downing defending champion Murray in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

The 29-year-old is also the first American man to reach a Grand Slam semi-final since Andy Roddick reached the Wim-bledon final in 2009.

Querrey trails 2014 US Open champion and seventh seed Marin Cilic 4-0 in head-to-head meetings.

Two of those clashes have been at Wimbledon -- in 2009 and 2012.

The encounter five years ago was the second longest match in Wimbledon history at five hours and 31 minutes, something Cilic doesn't want to experience again on Friday.

"Hopefully it's not the long-est one ever," he said of a match decided 17-15 in the final set.

However, with Querrey and Cilic having fired 231 aces between them at the tourna-ment, a long afternoon cannot be ruled out.

Czech Republic's

Tomas Berdych plays a shot

as he attends a practice

session yesterday, on the eve of his Wimbledon semi-final

match against Switzerland's Roger Federer

in London.

Men's semi-finalsSam Querrey (USA x24) v Marin

Cilic (CRO x7)

Roger Federer (SUI x3) v Tomas

Berdych (CZE x11

Federer factsFederer has made the semi-finals

without dropping a set and has

been broken just three times.

Federer is the second oldest semi-

finalist after Ken Rosewall who

finished runner-up in 1974 at the

age of 39.

ORDER OF PLAY

Djokovic ponders long break 'for body and mind' London

AFP

Novak Djokovic admits a long break is on the cards after an elbow

injury forced him to retire from his Wimbledon quarter-final against Tomas Berdych.

Djokovic's miserable 12 months hit a fresh low on Wednesday when a right elbow problem curtailed his bid to win Wimbledon for a fourth time.

The 30-year-old Serb was trailing 7-6 (7/2), 2-0 and felt he had no option but to call it quits as the pain, from an injury that has troubled him for more than a year, began to increase.

"There is a possibility that they will propose surgery, but I don't think that is good," Djok-ovic told Serbian media.

"To go be cut in surgery or to poison myself with pills.... none of the solutions is good.

"A logical conclusion is that

a kind of a rest and a longer break is a logical solution. Maybe a longer rest is neces-sary, not only because of the injury but for my mind as well.

"During my entire career I have followed a school sched-ule, I have never been reprimanded, maybe I will skip the next semester."

Djokovic, who has also struggled with a shoulder issue, had spoken to medical experts about the elbow problem before Wimbledon and was told sur-gery was an option.

Asked what he would do to finally resolve the nagging injury, Djokovic had admitted he wouldn't rule out an operation.

"The specialists that I've talked with, they haven't been really too clear, mentioning also surgery, mentioning different options," he said.

"Nobody was very clear in what needs to be done. As long

as it kind of comes and goes, it's fine.

"But obviously, adding up, maybe it worked for seven, eight, ten months, but now the next seven months is not work-ing that great.

"Obviously it's adding up more and more. The more I play, the worse it gets. Yeah, I guess the break is something

that I will have to consider right now."

With the US Open just six weeks away at the culmination of the American hard-court swing, Djokovic doesn't have long to return to full fitness.

Since winning the French Open last year to complete his career Grand Slam, Djokovic has failed to claim another

major title. He crashed out of the Australian Open in the sec-ond round and the French Open in the quarter-finals.

With world number one Andy Murray losing against Sam Querrey earlier on Wednesday, Djokovic knew he would have regained top spot in the rank-ings if he won Wimbledon.

That honour will have to wait for now and, with Murray hobbled by a long-term hip injury against Querrey, Djoko-vic conceded the two rivals could be paying the price for their gruelling battle for the top ranking last year.

"Could be. We both had a very long, very tough year, a lot of matches, a lot of emotions, a lot of things in play," he said.

"Our bodies have taken a lot physically. So, I mean, as an athlete, one way or another, at a certain stage of your career, you're going to experience these kind of things."

Novak Djokovic

Golf: McIlroy recreating 2014 to find form for British OpenIrvine, Scotland

AP

Rory McIlroy is recreat-ing his British Open build-up from 2014 in

an attempt to rediscover some form for another shot at the claret jug at Royal Birk-dale next week.

In the week prior to win-ning at Hoylake three years ago, McIlroy took the ferry from Northern Ireland to Scotland, played the Scottish Open at Royal Aberdeen and stumbled on a successful for-mula with his putting to take to the British Open.

Fast forward to this sum-mer and the four-time major champion is looking to get out of a rut by playing the Scot-tish Open — the leading warmup event for the British Open — for the first time since 2014.

Again, he took the ferry across to Scotland and he has also been working on simpli-fying his putting routine, after getting "bogged down in tech-nical thoughts."

"The Open Championship is eight days away ... I need to see good signs in my golf game going in there to have a bit of confidence," the No. 4-ranked McIlroy said on Wednesday at Dundonald Links, a course in west Scot-land that is hosting the Scottish Open for the first time.

McIlroy had two separate periods out this year with a rib injury before missing the cut at two of his last three events — the US Open at Erin Hills last month and then at last week's Irish Open when he said his short game was not sharp enough.

By continuing to insist his best form is "close" — he said it again on Wednesday — McIlroy acknowledged that he is starting to sound like a "broken record."

"I'm excited about my game. I feel like I'm doing a lot of good things. And again, it's just putting it all together, not just for one day but for four days; and not just for four days, to do it week-in and week-out," said the Northern Irishman, who has just started a run of seven events poten-tially in an eight-week stretch.

Eight of the world's top 23 have chosen to play compet-itive golf at the Scottish Open rather than practice in the week leading up to Royal Birkdale.

Adam Scott is playing the event for the first time since 2009, while Rickie Fowler — the 2015 Scottish Open champion — is back after missing last year because of the busy summer schedule arising from golf being played at the Olympics.

Fowler started the Sun-day of the Masters and the US Open in contention this year, only to falter in the final round, and he feels like he'll be in good shape to challenge for the British Open with a week's preparation in Scotland.

Rory McIlroy

FRIDAY 14 JULY 2017

FAJRSHOROOK

03.24 am

04.52 am

ZUHRASR

11.40 am

03.04 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

06.29 pm

07.59 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 07:45 – 20:30 LOW TIDE 03:30 – 13:00

Hot and humid daytime with scat-

tered clouds, hazy at places by

night.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

34oC 43oC

20 MORNING BREAK

Westworld tops Emmy nominationsLos Angeles

AFP

HBO's sci-fi western "West-world" and NBC's comedy sketch show "Saturday Night Live" led the field for television's prestigious

Primetime Emmy awards yesterday, with 22 nominations.

"Stranger Things," Netflix's award-winning sci-fi-horror drama set in the 1980s, and FX's "Feud: Bette and Joan," about the famous rivalry between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, scored the next highest tallies with 18 nods.

HBO's political comedy "Veep," starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as hap-less former president Selina Meyer — scored 17 nominations for televi-sion's equivalent of the Oscars, to be handed out on September 17 in Los Angeles.

"Veep" actress Anna Chlumsky — who earned a fifth consecutive nomination for supporting actress in a comedy series — and "Criminal Minds" star Shemar Moore presented the nominations from the Television Academy in Los Angeles.

Leading the nominations in totals by platform were premium cable net-work HBO (110), streaming powerhouse Netflix (91) and traditional network NBC (60).

"It's been a record-breaking year for television, continuing its explosive growth," said Television Academy Chairman and CEO Hayma Washington.

"The Emmy Awards competition experienced a 15 percent increase in submissions for this year's initial nom-ination round of online voting. The creativity and excellence in present-ing great storytelling and characters across a multitude of ever-expanding entertainment platforms is staggering."

Industry watchers had predicted a wide open race, with awards jugger-naut "Game of Thrones" out of the

running — and that prediction was borne out.

HBO's fantasy epic about noble families vying for control of the Iron Throne raked in a record-breaking 12 awards last year, but was ineligible this time around since the new season doesn't start until Sunday.

The outstanding drama category included five first-timers — "West-world," Hulu's dystopian sci-fi series "The Handmaid's Tale," NBC's family drama "This Is Us," and two Netflix shows -- "The Crown" and "Stranger Things."

"The Crown" — a Golden Globe winning series about Britain's Queen Elizabeth II — is generally thought to be the favourite for the Emmy, but will face stiff competition from returnees "Better Call Saul" (AMC) and "House of Cards" (Netflix).

Some hotly-tipped shows missed out on widely-expected nods,

however, including "The Americans," "Homeland" and "Mr. Robot," which were shut out of the best drama category.

The Television Academy's 21,000 members were given two weeks in June to sift through a crowded field of some 8,000 entries from shows aired during the previous 12 months across 113 categories.

The most star-studded category

was best actor in a limited series or TV movie with the nominations led by Robert De Niro, who anchored HBO's "The Wizard of Lies" as Ponzi scheme fraudster Bernie Madoff.

Riz Ahmed, Ewan McGregor, Geof-frey Rush and John Turturro were also nominated, alongside Benedict Cumberbatch.

New record "House of Cards" star Kevin

Spacey, a double Oscar winner who has never won an Emmy, picked up a nomination in the best drama actor category — his 11th nod overall.

He faces competition for the elu-sive statuette from Sterling K Brown ("This Is Us"), Bob Odenkirk ("Better Call Saul"), Liev Schreiber ("Ray Dono-van"), Matthew Rhys ("The Americans"), Anthony Hopkins ("West-world") and first-time nominee Milo Ventimiglia ("This is Us").

From left: Actor Shemar Moore Television Academy Chairman and CEO Hayman Washington and actress Anna Chlumsky present the nominees for the 69th Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, yesterday.

The Television Academy's 21,000 members were given two weeks in June to sift through a crowded field of some 8,000 entries from shows aired during the previous 12 months across 113 categories.

Saudia Hypermarket and Qatar Shopping Complex staff showed their solidarity with Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, at Chairman Mohamed Al Attiya’s residence.

Saudia Hypermarket & Qatar Shopping Complex staff show solidarity with Emir

London

AFP

"Hope" the blue whale took over from "Dippy" the dinosaur as the centre-

piece of the revamped atrium of London's Natural History Museum yesterday despite a spirited campaign

to keep the much-loved attraction. The towering replica skeleton had been in the museum for more than 100 years and news of its impending demise in 2015 sparked an outcry from dinosaur fans who sent the hash-tag #savedippy trending on Twitter.

Some 14,000 people signed a peti-tion to stop the move.

But the museum said the skeleton of the blue whale, the largest animal to have lived on Earth and which has been hunted to near extinction, would better raise awareness of mankind's impact on nature.

The 25.2-metre (83-foot) real skeleton suspended from the ceiling "is a powerful reminder of the

fragility of life and the responsibility we have towards our planet," Museum Director Michael Dixon said.

The whale was previously in the mammals section but was not fully in view and will now take centre stage in the diving lunge feeding position in Hintze Hall, a cathedral-like space built in the late 19th century.

Hope chases out Dippy as London museum's skeleton star

Documents

Qatar, Kuwait and US hold second joint meeting with Qatar. "We need a diplomatic solution. We are not looking for an escalation." The group previously called the list of demands "non-negotiable"