Volume 24 | Number 8039 | 2 RiyalsWednesday 9 October 2019 | 10 Safar 1441 www.thepeninsula.qa

BUSINESS | 01 SPORT | 12

Sanchez hails Qatar’s planning, wants team to be in ‘right shape’ for World Cup

Qatar to reduce over 5MTPA

of CO2 by 2025

Sheikha Jawaher honours QU female graduates

FAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

H H Sheikha Jawaher bint Hamad bin Suhaim Al Thani, wife of H H the Amir, patronised yesterday morning the 2019 graduation ceremony of Qatar University’s 42nd batch of female students, which was held at the QU Sports and Events Complex.

H H Sheikha Jawaher pre-sented certificates to 411 distin-guished female students in dif-ferent disciplines of QU recog-nising their exceptional academic performances.

The ceremony held was attended by several distin-guished guests and dignitaries. A short documentary film was screened about the various achievements of QU, global rankings achieved by the uni-versity and QU’s role in sup-porting the country achieve Qatar National Vision 2030.

The President of QU, Dr. Hassan bin Rashid Al Derham, emphasised the achievements of the university and the impor-tance of women play in the development of the nation.

“Our celebration today, is in recognition that women have a stake in our beloved country. This is a declaration that our

society is determined to invest in the human before currency, and in substance before pre-tence. The women is, just the same as a man, completely,” said Dr. Al Derham.

“Women are the nation’s capital, the beating heart, and cherished by us and by our model leadership, H H the Amir of Qatar

and the Qatari government. For this, distinguished guests, allow me to say, we are proud of what this university has offered, and what it continues to offer. Since the university’s founding over four decades ago, and till today, it has been a leading force in the contribution of knowledge and expertise and in the push to

advance and develop our nation Qatar,” he added.

He also highlighted that QU has garnered a great number of achievements and found itself among the world’s most elite universities.

“In recent years, by the grace of Allah, with the continued support of our government, and

guidance from our Board of Regents, we continuously place ourselves among the top univer-sities worldwide. The university placed 276 in QS Quacquarelli Symonds Global Rankings and 408 in the Times Higher Edu-cation Rankings World University Rankings,” said Dr. Al Derham.

“In the context of excellence,

a different colleges have received accreditation for their programs from the most pres-tigious international bodies, which is further evidence of Qatar University’s academic advancement,” he added.

This year saw the estab-lishment of the College of Dental Medicine, which will join the health cluster in the university named ‘QU Health.’ Dr. Al Derham expressed hope that ‘QU Health’ will be a great support to the health care services that Qatar offers its citizens and residents.

Noor Al Mashhadany, one of the distinguished female stu-dents of Class of 2019, was the master of ceremony and Aisha Khalid Al Mulla delivered the graduation speech on behalf of the Class 2019 female graduates.

QU will also host individual graduation ceremonies starting today to honour female students graduating from eight colleges. It will recognise 2,468 female students who have successfully completed their bachelor and the master’s degrees in various dis-ciplines including business, eco-nomics, education, engineering, health sciences, law, Shariah and Islamic Studies.

This year more than 3,000 male and female students grad-uated from the 42nd batch of Qatar University and will join the university’s growing alumni network which is over 50,000 members.

H H Sheikha Jawaher bint Hamad bin Suhaim Al Thani with distinguished female students of Qatar University during the graduation ceremony yesterday. BELOW: H H Sheikha Jawaher bint Hamad bin Suhaim Al Thani honouring one of the outstanding students.�P2

QA wins 4 awards at 2019 Business Traveller AwardsTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Airways has been named ‘Best Airline’ at the prestigious 2019 Business Traveller Awards, held on Monday at London’s Royal Garden Hotel in front of 250 industry leaders. In addition to being voted ‘Best Airline’ by readers of Business Traveller, the airline was also awarded ‘Best Long-Haul Airline’, ‘Best Business Class’ and ‘Best Middle Eastern Airline’.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, said: “To be recognised once again by the readers of Business Traveller with these prestigious awards is

a huge honour for Qatar Airways and an appreciation of our promise to consistently deliver a truly world-class service.”

Business Traveller readers are invited to vote for the awards, which are then further authenticated by an independent auditing company. The awards were collected from the host, BBC News journalist John Pienaar, on behalf of Qatar Airways by the airline’s European Senior Vice-President Sylvain Bosc and UK and Ireland Country Manager Gary Kershaw.

The haul is the latest in a string of awards successes for Qatar Airways, as the airline was also named ‘World’s Best Airline’

by the 2019 World Airline Awards, managed by interna-tional air transport rating organ-isation Skytrax.

It also collected ‘Best Airline in the Middle East’, ‘World’s Best Business Class’ and ‘Best Business Class Seat’, in recog-nition of its ground-breaking Business Class experience, Qsuite. Qatar Airways is the only airline to have been awarded the coveted “Skytrax Airline of the Year” title, which is recognised as the pinnacle of excellence in the airline industry, five times.

Airline alliance 'oneworld', of which Qatar Airways has been a member since 2013, once again won the ‘Best Airline Alliance’

award, confirming its position as the world’s premier global airline alliance.

Qatar Airways currently operates a modern fleet of more than 250 aircraft via its hub, Hamad International Airport, to more than 160 destinations worldwide. The airline has recently launched an array of exciting new destinations, including Rabat, Morocco; Izmir, Turkey; Malta; Davao, Philippines; Lisbon, Por-tugal; and Mogadishu, Somalia. The airline will add Langkawi, Malaysia to its extensive route network later this month; with Gaborone, Bot-swana; Luanda, Angola and Osaka, Japan set to follow over the next few months.

H H Sheikha Jawaher presents certificates to 411 distinguished female students.

Best AirlineBest Long-Haul AirlineBest Business ClassBest Middle Eastern Airline

Business Traveller has honoured Qatar Airways with four awards:

Qatar Airways set the benchmark with world-class travel experience

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Sheikha Jawaher honours QU female graduates

H H Sheikha Jawaher bint Hamad bin Suhaim Al Thani, wife of H H the Amir, at the 2019 graduation ceremony of Qatar University’s (QU) 42nd batch of female students at the QU Sports and Events Complex.

QU President lauds progress achieved by Qatar’s higher education sectorQNA DOHA

The President of Qatar University, Dr. Hassan bin Rashid Al Derham, has praised the progress achieved by the higher education sector in Qatar in recent years, pointing out that QU has achieved a great number of achievements and found itself among the world’s most elite universities.

In his speech on the occasion of the graduation ceremony of its 42nd batch of distinguished female students at the QU Sports and Events Complex, the Pres-ident of QU said: “We are proud of what this university has offered, and what it continues to offer. Since the university’s founding over four decades ago, and till today, it has been a leading force in the contribution of knowledge and expertise and in the push to advance and develop our nation Qatar.”

“It is our right -as we cele-brate the 42nd batch of grad-uates of female Qatar University students - to say, we are not only celebrating our daughters the graduates. Rather, we celebrate and take pride in the recognition, honor and pride extended to half of society by our blessed nation

and faithful Qatari society. Our Qatari society has not forgotten the mother that raises, the sister that struggles and labors, the daughter that aspires to see a prosperous future.” He added, “Our celebration today, is in

recognition that women have a stake, any stake, in our beloved country. This is a declaration that our society is determined to invest in the human before cur-rency, and in substance before pretense. The women is, just the

same as a man, completely.” “What warms our hearts, and

brings us optimism, is what we are witnessing today, the pio-neering intellectual Qatari women as she emerges from the university steps, armed with knowledge, generosity, right-eousness and loyalty to her country. You allow this nation to stand tall and give it hope.”

Dr Al Derham continued, “Qatar University has achieved a great number of achievements and found itself among the world’s most elite universities. In recent years, by the grace of Allah (SWT), then by the con-tinued support of our gov-ernment, and guidance from our Board of Regents, we continu-ously place in the top universities worldwide. The university placed 276 in QS Quacquarelli Symonds Global Rankings and 408 in the Times Higher Education

Rankings World University Rankings.” “In the context of excellence, a great number of University colleges have received accreditation for their programs from the most prestigious inter-national bodies, which is further evidence of Qatar University’s academic advancement.”

This year saw the estab-lishment of the College of Dental Medicine, which will join the health cluster in QU called QU Health. Dr Al Derham expressed his hope that this sector will be a great support to the health care services that Qatar offers its cit-izens and residents.

Dr Al Derham then addressed the graduating students, Class of 2019, by advising them, “Edu-cation is a path we walk on, not a goal we reach. Every stage of learning that we face is in fact a station, from a number of sta-tions in life that do not end.

Nevertheless, education alone does not make a renaissance, currency does not make a ren-aissance, rather what makes a renaissance is the mind that believes and has faith in its ability. All the elements of progress can be present, as varied and abundant as they may be, and not create a renaissance unless the mind invests in his nation.”

He adds, “Qatar University is not merely a passing stage in your respective journeys, but rather, it is a starting point and a reference for knowledge. The university’s professors and researchers in all subjects are here to serve you, whenever you seek to learn and educate yourselves.”

On behalf of the Class of 2019, female distinguished grad-uates, graduate Aisha Khalid Al Mulla delivered a speech in which she said, “Education is, and will continue to be, the foun-dation on which societies and nations are built. Education is the vessel in which to build a distinct society with a distinct mind and it is a weapon against corruption. This is what led our leadership to focus on education and position it as a central pillar in the Qatar National Vision 2030.”

The President of Qatar University, Dr. Hassan bin Rashid Al Derham, speaking on the occasion of the graduation ceremony of its 42nd batch of distinguished female students at the QU Sports and Events Complex.

The President of QU said: “We are proud of what this university has offered, and what it continues to offer. Since the university’s founding over four decades ago, and till today, it has been a leading force in the contribution of knowledge and expertise and in the push to advance and develop our nation Qatar.”

H H Sheikha Jawaher bint Hamad bin Suhaim Al Thani honouring outstanding graduates at the event.

Aisha Khalid Al Mulla from the College of Business and Economics, representing the Class of 2019, delivered a speech on behalf of the graduating female students, saying that education was and is still the basis on which communities and countries are built, and is the best way to build a distinct society with distinct thought, and effective tool to address all kinds of corruption, pointing to the wise leadership’s attention and focus on education, as it is a cornerstone of the Qatar National Vision 2030.

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PM meets Minister of Justice of Cote d’Ivoire

The Prime Minister and Interior Minister, H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, met yesterday with the Minister of Justice and Human Rights, and Keeper of the Seals of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, Sansan Kambile, and the accompanying delegation, on the occasion of their visit to the country. During the meeting, they reviewed cooperation relations between the two countries and ways of developing them, especially in the legal judicial fields. Additionally, they discussed a number of topics of common interest.

PM meets General Prosecutor of Tajikistan

The Prime Minister and Interior Minister, H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, met yesterday with the General Prosecutor of the Republic of Tajikistan, Rahmon Yusuf Ahmadzod, and the accompanying delegation, on the occasion of their visit to the country. During the meeting, bilateral relations between the two countries and aspects of enhancing and developing them were discussed, especially in the legal and judicial field.

Afghan official meets Qatari envoy KABUL: The Chairman of the Afghan Senate House, Meshrano Jirga Fazal Hadi Muslimayar, met with the Ambassador of Qatar to

Afghanistan, Saeed bin Mubarak Al Khayarin. They reviewed rela-tions and ways of boosting them and matters of common concern.

Workshop on combating human traffickingQNA/DOHA

The Public Prosecution, repre-sented by the Institute of Criminal Studies, is organising a training workshop on combating human trafficking, in cooperation with the National Committee for Combating

Human Trafficking and the British Embassy in Doha. The workshop, which began yesterday, aims to equip the participants with the necessary information and skills. The three-day workshop will be attended by representatives from several official bodies.

QFFD partners with QRC to support primary healthcare for Syrian refugees in JordanTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Qatar Fund for Devel-opment (QFFD), has signed an agreement with Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) to support the provision of lifesaving primary healthcare for Syrian refugees in Al Za’tari camp in Jordan.

As this agreement is a con-tinuation of an already estab-lished clinics. The Qatari clinics under the supervision of the Qatar Red Crescent Society have been providing primary health care services for over 4 years and are a major con-tributor to the health care system within the camp. Qatari clinics are located in Area 8, which has the largest popu-lation in the camp. The clinics provide life-saving health

services (counselling and treatment) for all ages. It has been providing dental services for the last 3 years, as well as providing prenatal care.

The implementation of this project is following three phases, phase 1 will include renewing and reviewing Min-istry of Health (MoH) and Min-istry of Planning and Interna-tional Cooperation (MoPIC), licensing and registering of the Qatari clinics in Zaatari camps, and obtaining necessary per-missions for the new.

The second phase includes assessing the status of the infrastructure and equipment of the Qatari clinics. In order to ensure quality delivery of services and efficient use of resources ensuring all instru-ments and equipment in the

clinic are in good condition and meeting the standards of QRC and QFFD.

The third phase where QFFD and QRC will coordinate with UNHCR and Health Working Group in the camp, they will revise the services packages provided in the clinic. The main objective is to ensure that all basic health needs are adequately met.

As the health systems in the Zaatari camp is facing a major pressure on due to large inflow of refugee populations, priority becomes to support the capacity of health care services in the host countries one of which is Jordan to help ensure primary health care services to both Syrian refugees and host communities are effectively provided. Also this support

comes in various forms, including direct support through the provision of equipment and supplies, capacity-building and the strengthening of health system. Strengthening surveillance, detection, response and pre-vention of infectious diseases is a priority, as well as increasing access to chronic disease treatment services. By promoting health care systems, QFFD aims to facilitate the inclusion of Syrian refugees and reduce pressure on services to host communities and increase flexibility.

A high-level delegation from QFFD visited Zaatari camp in the beginning of this year and to observe the situ-ation in the camp and QFFD funded health programmes.

FM message to Dominican MinisterSANTO DOMINGO: The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic, Miguel Vargas, has received a written message from the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, pertaining to the bilateral relations and ways of enhancing them. The written message was handed over by Acting Charge d’Affaires of the Qatari Embassy to the Dominican Republic, Yasser Awad Al Abdullah, during his meeting with the Minister of Foreign Relations of the Dominican Republic yesterday.

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Minister of Education and Higher Education, H E Dr Mohammed Abdul Wahed Al Hammadi, during the GCC Ministers of Education Committee meeting in Muscat, yesterday.

Shura Council Speaker meets Serbian envoy

The Speaker of the Shura Council, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, met yesterday with Ambassador of Serbia to Qatar, Jasminko Pozderac. They reviewed bilateral relations and ways of enhancing them, especially in the parliamentary field. The meeting was attended by a number of officials at the Shura Council.

Qatar participates in GCC EducationMinisters meeting in MuscatQNA DOHA

The State of Qatar participated in the 19th meeting of the Committee of Ministers of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and the third meeting

of the GCC Ministers of Education Committee in Muscat yesterday.

The delegation was headed by Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Dr Mohammed Abdul Wahed Al Hammadi. A preparatory meeting for the higher education

and scientific research under-secretaries in the GCC was held on Sunday and Monday, during which the Qatari delegation was headed by Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education Dr Ibrahim bin Saleh Al Nuaimi.

Qatar Airways unites with HIA, QAS andQDF for Breast Cancer Awareness MonthTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Airways has joined forces with Hamad International Airport (HIA), Qatar Aviation Services (QAS) and Qatar Duty Free (QDF) to show their united support for Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a series of ‘Think Pink’ themed events and giveaways throughout the month of October.

Activities for staff will include pink giveaways and a series of lec-tures from the Qatar Cancer Society (QCS) at HIA, along with awareness workshops, free mam-mogram screening by qualified medical staff for all eligible employees, and the return of annual Charity Bazaar fundraising events at a variety of Qatar Airways locations.

The multiple award-winning airline will also be relaunching a refreshed version of its much-loved pink BRICs amenity kits, containing exclusive products from Italy’s Castello Monte Vibiano Vecchio eco-range, for passengers travelling on ultra-long-haul or long-haul flights in First Class and Business Class.

Qatar Airways Senior Vice -President and Executive Adviser to the Group Chief Executive, Nabeela Fakhri, said: “We are proud to unite with our partners HIA, QAS and QDF to, once again, show our com-mitment to raising awareness of breast cancer, as well as our support for those affected by it. Edu-cation and awareness are key to continuing

the tremendous efforts being made across the globe to eradicate this devastating disease. Together we hope to reach as many people as possible, whether employees or passengers, and help save lives with vital information about the tell-tale signs to look out for and where to go for help.”

As part of HIA’s month-long ‘Think Pink’ campaign, airport staff will be inviting breast cancer survivors to talk about their expe-rience, and will be setting up an educational booth offering key messages around the importance of early screening and detection to passengers passing through Qatar Airways home and hub.

Hamad International Airport

Vice-President of Marketing and Corporate Communications, Abdulaziz Al Mass, said: “As Qatar’s gateway to the world, part of our mission is to support and inspire the community we serve. Our bespoke breast cancer edu-cational booth will engage pas-sengers travelling through HIA to raise awareness and encourage people to get screened and support the cause.”

HIA has been dedicated to social and health initiatives and has previously entered partner-ships to provide additional services to passengers with special needs, with a focus on passengers with autism. HIA has also part-nered with an eye health charity to inspire the airport’s passengers to learn more about preventable eye conditions.

Qatar Duty Free Senior Vice- President, Bruce Bowman, said: “QDF is thrilled to be able to promote this campaign in part-nership with the Qatar Airways family. We will be displaying a ‘call to action’ in all our outlets, both at HIA and in Doha, to help underline the importance of regular breast screening and encourage donations to the Qatar Cancer Society.”

Qatar Aviation Services Senior Vice-President, Mehmet Murat Nursel, said: “The alarming rise in the number of cancer patients is very dis-tressing and we encourage everyone, women and men, to take all the necessary pre-cautions in order to e n s u r e t h e i r wellbeing.”

Fifth edition of Katara Prize for ArabicNovel to be held from October 13

THE PENINSULA DOHA

The fifth edition of Katara Prize for Arabic Novel will be held from October 13 to 15 at Katara Cultural Village, offi-cials announced at a press conference yesterday.

The press conference was addressed by Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of Katara Cultural Village, Hassan bin Ramadan, Chargé d’Affaires at the Tunisian Embassy in Doha, and Khalid Abdul Rahim Al Sayed, Manager of the Katara Prize for Arabic Novel.

A special feature of the fifth edition will be the launch of Arabic Fiction lab and a journal specialised in fiction, as well as other activities which will be announced at the function.

Tunisian writer and intellectual Mahmoud Al Massadi has been chosen

as the Person of the Year for the fifth edition. Dr. Mohammed Abdul Rahim Kafoud will be awarded the Aldad Shield for 2019 in recognition of his significant contributions to the advancement of Arabic language.

“The Katara Prize for Arabic Novel has achieved all its objectives in pro-moting and supporting Arabic fiction. It is serving as a platform for writers to enrich their creativity and for Arab nov-elists and critics to highlight their role. The Prize is also promoting dialogue between civilizations and building a spirit of camaraderie among nations through the translation of the novels into multiple languages,” said Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti. He said that the prizes will be given in five categories, including the published Qatari novel category and the winners of the prizes will be announced at the ceremony.

Sayed Hassan bin Ramadan thanked

Katara for choosing the late Tunisian writer Mahmoud Al Masadi as the Person of the Year in the fifth edition. He said that the works of Mahmoud Al Massadi made him one of the most influ-ential writers of Tunisia in the modern era, because of the intellectual depths of his writings.

Khalid Al Sayed, Manager of the Katara Prize for Arabic Novel, said: “The number of participants for the prize reached 1,850 this year from various countries of the Arab world. This is an increase of 30 percent over the fourth edition, which received 1,283 participation.”

Seminars will be held on Tunisian novelist Mahmoud Massadi and renowned Kuwaiti writer Ismail Fahad Ismail and the third seminar is about cultural engineering and fiction, in addition to a fiction play by the novelist Sameh El Jabass.

Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti (centre), General Manager of Katara Cultural Village, Hassan bin Ramadan (left), Chargé d’Affaires at the Tunisian Embassy in Doha, and Khalid Abdul Rahim Al Sayed, Manager of the Katara Prize for Arabic Novel, during the press conference.

Over 800 entries from 29 countries to compete for Doha Prize for Drama WritingDOHA QNA

The organizing committee of Doha Prize for Drama Writing announced yesterday that the number of texts participating in the first edition of the prize reached 819 entries competing in the fields of (theater script, tele-vision script, cinema scenario).

A statement issued by the Ministry of Culture and Sports said today that 29 countries are

participating in this year’s prize, which is an annual prize created by the Ministry of Culture and Sports for dramatic writing, in accordance with the decision of the Minister of Culture and Sports No. 58 of 2019.

The creation of this award came as a culmination of the Doha drama, With a set of recommen-dations aimed at developing the dramatic industry in the Arab world. As writing is the starting point of any artistic drama project,

the award comes as an endeavor to promote public taste by creating texts that are technically and qual-itatively consistent.

Drama writing is an important source in providing communities with their goals and aspirations, improving their positive attitude towards their members, and increasing community solidarity, emphasizing dialogue among cul-tures and civilizations, and building bridges of understanding between all.

The multiple award-winning airline will be relaunching a refreshed version of its much-loved pink BRICs amenity kits, containing exclusive products from Italy’s Castello Monte Vibiano Vecchio eco-range, for passengers travelling on ultra-long-haul or long-haul flights in First Class and Business Class.

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CRA secures access to additionalspectrum demand during Doha WorldsTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The IAAF World Athletics Cham-pionship Doha 2019 — hosted in Qatar from September 27 to October 6, 2019 — has shaped a guidance to the strategy approach of the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) in dealing with spectrum management and moni-toring during the major events to be hosted in Qatar in the coming years.

Hosting of Doha 2019 in Qatar has contributed to the devel-opment of the key features that CRA will follow in developing its high-level spectrum plan for the World Cup, which is expected to be initiated early next year 2020 in coordination with the con-cerned entities and stakeholders in Qatar.

Earlier this year, the CRA started coordination with the Organizing Committee of the World Athletics Championship, Qatar Olympic Committee, rep-resentatives of the International Association of Athletics

Federations (IAAF) and represent-atives of the IAAF Productions.

The CRA drew their attention to the followed regulations and procedures with respect to the use of spectrum, variety of radio applications and a substantial number of radio equipment that expected to be aggregated within a limited area as well as the fol-lowed procedures for spectrum monitoring in Qatar.

Commenting on the hosting of Doha Worlds 2019, Noof Ahmed Al Naama (pictured), Public Relations and Communi-cations Specialist, CRA, said: “The CRA has played a key supporting

role in this Championship. That comes in line with CRA’s keenness to enable people around the world to watch the championships through use of the latest technol-ogies in the field of information and communications technology and broadcasting field. The CRA seeks to contribute within its mandate to the success of the world-class events hosted in Qatar and will continue to support all future events, like FIFA World Cup 2022.”

The CRA assigned more than 740 frequencies to be used during the championships by different parties concerned that included more than 40 broadcasting agencies and more than 60 media and press agencies.

The CRA has also facilitated the issuance of customs clearance approvals of 130 shipments that contained a large number of radio applications, radio equipment, broadcasting equipment, micro-phones, wireless tracking and controlling systems, wireless cameras and radio local area networks.

Attorney-General, Tajik counterpart sign MoU

Attorney-General, H E Dr Ali bin Fetais Al Marri, signed yesterday a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the field of public prosecution with H E General Prosecutor of the Republic of Tajikistan, Rahmon Yusuf Ahmadzod. The MoU aims to enhance cooperation between the two sides in the field of public prosecution and to exchange expertise and laws related to the work of prosecutors in both countries. H E Attorney-General met with his Tajik counterpart, where they exchanged views on a number of issues of common interest and on ways of closer cooperation in the field of exchange of expertise and training.

Qatar attends GCC Cultural Committee meeting in OmanQNA MUSCAT

The 49th meeting of the Cultural Committee of the Gulf Cooper-ation Council (GCC) was held in Muscat yesterday.

The State of Qatar was rep-resented in the meeting by Director of Culture and Arts Department at the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Hamad Mohammed Al Zakiba.

The Director of Culture and Arts Department at the Ministry of Culture and Sports said that the Cultural Committee dis-cussed many topics related to the common Gulf cultural affairs the most important of which is the new cultural strategy of the GCC countries, which will be put in place next year and lasts until 2030.

The Committee also dis-cussed cooperation with inter-national organisations with which it has agreements related to the cultural, heritage and artistic fields, and reviewed the schedule of the cultural projects that the ministries of culture in the GCC countries will seek to implement in

cooperation and partnership with different countries and international institutions such as Jordan, Morocco, and the Arab World Institute in Paris, in a way that promotes coop-eration between the GCC coun-tries and these countries and cultural centres.

The meetings of the GCC Culture Ministers will also be accompanied by a ceremony to honour the Gulf creative individuals.

The ceremony is held in conjunction with the annual ministerial meetings and during which two individuals from each country will be honoured in various cultural fields. Qatari writer Dr Mariam Al Naimi and artist Ghazi Hussein from the State of Qatar will be honoured during the ceremony.

The Cultural Committee discussed many topics related to the common Gulf cultural affairs, including the new cultural strategy of the GCC countries which will be put in place next year and will last until 2030.

Shura Council officials receive US Congress team

Qatar Parliamentary Friendship Group with the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in the Shura Council, chaired by H E Nasser bin Khalil Al-Jaida, met yesterday with a delegation of senior members of the US Congress, who are currently visiting the country. During the meeting, they discussed parliamentary relations between the Shura Council and the US Congress and ways to support them. The meeting was attended by members of the Group.

Ministry of Public Health launches mental health awareness campaignTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), along with Qatar’s leading healthcare providers, has launched a public awareness campaign to educate the public about mental health and to remove the stigma associated with mental health conditions.

The MoPH is collaborating with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Primary Health Care Cor-poration (PHCC), Sidra Medicine, and Naufar for the campaign, which begins tomorrow (October 10), World Mental Health Day.

Mahmoud Saleh Al Raisi (pictured), Chair of the National

Taskforce for Mental Health and Wellbeing and Chief of the Con-tinuing Care Group at HMC, explained that raising awareness of mental health and wellbeing is of enormous importance and is one of the seven priority areas outlined in Qatar’s National Health Strategy.

“Across the world, increas-ingly, more is being done to raise awareness of mental health issues. In Qatar we want to go further as recent research suggests that one in five people in Qatar will be affected by a mental illness at any given point in time,” said Al Raisi.

Dr Samya Ahmad Al Abdulla, Deputy National Lead for Mental Health and Wellbeing and

Executive Director of Operations, PHCC, explained that mental health is about the way we think, feel, and behave and our ability to manage everyday situations.

“We all experience feelings of stress, anxiety, and sadness, and

most of the time these feelings pass quickly, but for some people, these feelings persist and nega-tively impact their quality of life,” said Dr Al Abdulla.

The symptoms of mental illness are often less obvious than those of physical illness, yet their impact on the sufferer can be equally debilitating.

“It is important that people understand the potential severity of mental illness. Just because the outward symptoms of conditions such as depression and anxiety can go unseen, we must not underestimate the impact they can have on the individual. Mental health and physical health should not be thought of as separate.

They are often directly linked; physical illness can increase a per-son’s risk of developing mental illness and, similarly, mental illness can negatively impact on physical health,” stated Dr. Majid Al Abdulla, Chair of the Mental Health Service at HMC.

Iain Tulley, Qatar National Health Strategy 2018-2022 Lead for Mental Health and Wellbeing and CEO of HMC’s Mental Health Service, underlined the impor-tance of focusing on mental health for Qatar.

“The launch of this campaign emphasizes the priority that is being given to mental health across the health system and the country. We will continue to work

with healthcare partners and other organizations across Qatar to raise the profile of mental health and wellbeing and to promote an environment where mental health is talked about as openly as physical health,” said Tulley.

The campaign will run throughout October and November and include messaging via newspapers, TV, radio, and social media, as well as several events for both the community and healthcare workers.

The campaign’s first com-munity event takes place inside the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) this weekend, Friday, (October 11) and Saturday, (October 12).

Woqod opens Al Wajba-2 Petrol StationTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

As part of Woqod’s ongoing expansion plans aimed at serving every area in Qatar, Qatar Fuel Woqod opened Al Wajba -2 Petrol Station yesterday, which raised its network of various petrol stations to 90. Saad Rashid Al Muhannadi, Managing Director & CEO, Woqod, said: “We are pleased to open new fixed petrol station in Al Wajba. Woqod aspires to

expand its petrol station network in the country to meet the rising demand for petroleum products and achieve the goal of providing customers with access to best-in-class products and services at their convenience and comfort. Woqod has recently accelerated the process for the construction of new petrol stations to meet the fuel and energy needs of the country. Woqod team would like to extend their gratitude to all

concerned governmental and private entities that contributed to the completion of this project.”

Al Wajba -2 Petrol Station is spread over an area of 11300 square meters and has four lanes with 12 dispensers.

The new Petrol Stations offer round-the-clock services to res-idents, in addition to sale of gasoline and diesel products for light vehicles.

Further, Al Muhannadi added that Woqod is currently overseeing the implementation of 21 new petrol stations, which most of them will be operational in the current year 2019. Al Muhannadi concluded his announcement by saying that “As part of its strategic expansion plan, Woqod is targeting the achievement of a total of 114 fuel stations by the end of 2020”. The newly-opened Al Wajba-2 Petrol Station.

06 WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019HOME

Qatar participates in conference on‘Governance of Planet Ocean’ in MoncaoQNA MONACO

The State of Qatar participated in a conference on ‘the Oppor-tunities and Challenges in the Governance of the Planet Ocean’ held at the International Hydro-graphic Organization in Monaco.

The delegation of the State

of Qatar was led by H E Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, Secretary-General of the Min-istry of Foreign Affairs and the Chairman of the Standing Com-mittee of the Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The conference will discuss a number of themes, including progress in the resolution of the

maritime boundary dispute, the effects of new technologies on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the emer-gence of independent maritime vehicles and electronic maritime security, and negotiations for a legally binding instrument for the management of outer areas of national jurisdiction.

H E Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi (centre) during the conference on ‘the Opportunities and Challenges in the Governance of the Planet Ocean’ at the International Hydrographic Organization in Monaco.

Senate President of the Philippines meets Qatari Ambassador

The President of the Senate of the Philippines, Vicente Sotto III (right), met with the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Philippines, Ali bin Ibrahim Al Malki. During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations and ways of supporting and developing them, as well as matters of common concern.

Regency Travel & Tours opens new branch at Al Asmakh Tower THE PENINSULA DOHA

Regency Travel & Tours yesterday inau-gurated a new branch at Al Asmakh Tower in West Bay — Doha’s most modern and most vibrant areas and Qatar’s main financial and business district where government offices and private businesses are located, in addition to several magnificent business and residential towers and hotels.

It is also a lively area with a col-lection of luxurious restaurants and markets such the City Center Shopping Mall and DECC. Additionally, the prox-imity to the Corniche Road and Diplo-matic Area gives it a very special geos-trategic location.

Equipped with latest travel and tour technologies, advanced technical solu-tions and skilled and experienced man-power, the new branch is poised to provide high-quality services such as air tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, train tickets, cruises and ship trips, tourist visa assistance and thera-peutic trips. The branch opens Saturday through Thursday from 08:00 to 17:00.

The event was attended by repre-sentatives from Qatar Airways and global airliners, in addition to a host of guests interested in the travel industry,

company’s local agents and a number of company managers and staffers.

“Inaugurating this new branch is part of Regency Travel & Tours’ endeavours to meet all guest needs regardless of where they are in Qatar and make their access to all our

services and advantages as easy and smooth as it used to be at all other branches countrywide, which now exceed 40 branches. People who fre-quent West Bay area will be able to enjoy the various services the new branch offers,” said Regency Travel &

Tours CEO, Tareq Abdullatif Taha. “The new branch adds significantly

to Regency Travel & Tours’ efforts on local market with its high-quality services, something that helps maintain the company’s global ranking on local, regional and global travel and

tourism map,” he added.The new branch, he said, keeps

pace with the massive urbanization, business and population growth in Qatar.

Regency Travel & Tours cooperates constantly with the National Tourism Council on all its missions and programs to scale up Qatari tourist products. It plays a key role in developing the travel and tourism industry through adopting highest customer service standards, in addition to its contribution to enriching travel and tourism sector with its 24/7 services.

The Chief Executive Officer of Regency Travel and Tours, Tareq Abdullatif Taha, with the Chief Commercial Officer of Qatar Airways, Ehab Amin, inaugurating the new branch of Regency at Al Asmakh Tower, West Bay, on Monday. PIC: SALIM

MATRAMKOT / THE PENINSULA

Equipped with latest travel and tour technologies, advanced technical solutions and skilled and experienced manpower, the new branch is poised to provide high-quality services such as air tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, train tickets, cruises and ship trips, tourist visa assistance and therapeutic trips.

QNRF launches program to build Qatar’s research profileTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), a member of Qatar Foundation, has announced the launch of a new program — the Researchers Exchange and Mobility Program (REMP).

The REMP is designed to help students and employees build their employability skills and strengthen their research capabilities through interna-tional research collaborations. The program aims to raise the interdisciplinary research

profile of Qatar by focusing on the four pillars of the Qatar National Research Strategy (QNRS): Energy and Envi-ronment; Computer Science and ICT; Health; and Social S c i e n c e s , A r t s a n d Humanities.

Dr. Abdul Sattar Al Taie, Executive Director of QNRF, said: “As a part of our com-mitment to develop local human capital, we strive to encourage our researchers to tackle and overcome the major research challenges that are present not only in the region,

but around the world. To that end, research institutions glo-bally are advancing innovative technologies and building knowledge to address these challenges, and through the REMP, we want our local talent to be at the center of these efforts.

“I am certain that this new program will be received with a lot of enthusiasm by Qatar’s aca-demic and research community as well as our students who will make the most out of this novel opportunity.”

Along with building the

research culture in Qatar, the program will also help cement relations of local researchers and institutions with the interna-tional research and development network.

Moreover, it will also produce tangible research out-comes to help bridge the gap between academia and industry.

The call for applications opened on October 8 and will conclude on November 18. Inter-ested Qatari nationals and eli-gible residents are encouraged to apply.

INS Mysore to arrive atHamad Port todayTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Indian Naval Ship (INS) Mysore, a guided missile destroyer of the Indian Navy, will arrive at Hamad Port today. In the framework of the deep-rooted friendly ties, multi-faceted and growing cooperation between India and the State of Qatar, Indian Naval Ships have been frequently visiting Qatar.

INS Mysore (D60) is the second ship of the Delhi class guided missile destroyers, and was commissioned into the Indian Navy on June 2, 1999. One of the largest warships designed and built in India, she displaces 6,700 tonnes and is capable of speeds in excess of 30 knots (about 55 kmph), the Embassy of India said in a release.

Equipped with an impressive array of weapon and sensors, the ship is capable of addressing and neutralising threats from the air, sea and undersea. The ship’s combat power is supplemented by two helicopters.

Named after the historical city of Mysuru in southern India, Mysore is the second ship in the Indian Navy to bear the same name. Her illustrious predecessor served the Indian Navy with dis-tinction from 1957 till 1985,

remaining at the forefront of every major campaign that the Navy undertook during this period.

The ship is currently deployed in the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman for Operation ‘Sankalp’ to support the safe

transit of Indian flagged mer-chant ships through the Gulf region. The ship’s deployment in the region is in pursuance of the Indian Navy’s commitment towards ensuring the safety of Indian Flag Merchant vessels.

Mysore has a crew of 40 officers and 300 sailors who abide by the ship’s motto ‘Always Fearless’. The ship is presently being commanded by Capt Prakash Gopalan.

While the ship’s visit to Qatar is a testimony to the friendly ties between India and Qatar, it also highlights the Indian Navy’s commitment to build cooper-ative partnerships with friendly nations of the Indian Ocean region to develop solutions to meet maritime challenges.

Equipped with an impressive array of weapon and sensors, the ship is capable of addressing and neutralising threats from the air, sea and undersea. The ship’s combat power is supplemented by two helicopters.

Customs officials foil smuggling of hashish hidden inside shoesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The General Authority of Customs at Hamad International Airport recently foiled an attempt to smuggle hashish into the country.

A total of 785 grams of

hashish was seized hidden inside the shoes of a passenger from an Asian country, tweeted the General Authority of Customs.

Prior to this, on September 23, 2019, the authorities had managed to thwart smuggling of 9.45kg hashish and 7gms

marijuana at Hamad Interna-tional Airport in the luggage of passengers.

Customs officials in the country are provided all means of support including developed means of systems and con-tinuous training to read body language of passengers and to

be aware of the latest methods followed by smugglers.

07WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019 HOME

Qatar wins bid to host World Symposium of Choral Music in 2023THE PENINSULA DOHA

Following a successful bid by Qatar National Choral Associ-ation, supported by Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC), Qatar has won the rights to host the World Symposium of Choral Music in 2023.

Held once every three years, the event is considered the most prestigious non-competitive choral event and will attract 2,000 to 4,000 international del-egates to the country, reinforcing Qatar’s position as a hub for cul-tural events.

The bidding process has spanned the past 12 months, with extensive examination by the Inter-national Federation for Choral Music (IFCM) of all details of the city, the venues, levels of support and the commitment of the local choral, musical and cultural life to hosting the Symposium.

Akbar Al Baker, Secretary-General of QNTC and Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, commented “We are delighted to have the World Choral Sym-posium join the growing list of events coming to Qatar in the

next few years. Attracting large scale events in the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) space is a pri-ority area for us as we continue to drive the tourism industry’s growth. It was a pleasure to support the talented Qatar National Choir Association and their passionate leadership throughout this bid, and we look forward to working with repre-sentatives of Qatar’s various

sectors to attract more events across a broad range of sectors, including culture, sports, edu-cation, health, and science.”

In a statement the IFCM said: “The international choral com-munity through the IFCM

congratulates Qatar on their winning bid and wishes them every success and support in their preparations for this unique event in 2023. We are looking forward to an exciting explo-ration of the musical treasures

of the Middle East and Central Asia. The Symposium in Qatar provides IFCM and the hosts with the opportunity to create a new network and enhance exchange and cooperation within and beyond this area.”

Giovanni Pasini, member of Qatar 2023 WSCM Organising Committee, said, “I would like to thank Qatar National Tourism Council, Qatar Foun-dation, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, Qatar Music Academy and Qatar Airways for supporting us.

“Through the IFCM’s decision, Qatar will shine a spotlight on a geographic and cultural region that has thus far been hidden on the global choral map, offering a unique opportunity to introduce the diverse musical treasures of the Middle East to a huge interna-tional audience.”

Every three years since 1987 the World Symposium on Choral Music has brought the finest choirs, conductors, presenters, composers, and choristers from around the globe together to share in a celebration of fine choral singing. The WSCM has been hosted in cities around the globe including Barcelona, Puerto Madryn, Seoul, Copen-hagen, Kyoto, Minneapolis, Rot-terdam, Sydney, Vancouver, Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Vienna and Auckland.

FROM LEFT: Gábor Móczár, International Federation of Choral Music’s Vice-President; Emily Kuo Vong, International Federation of Choral Music’s President; Jennifer Taynen, Qatar National Choral Association’s Director and Giovanni Pasini, member of Qatar 2023 WSCM Organizing Committee.

Unicef, QC implement water project in PakistanTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Charity continues to implement the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project in Shorkot located in the Pakistani province of Punjab. The WASH project comes as part of Qatar Charity’s partnership with Unicef and is expected to benefit over 44,000 households in 98 villages, including people with special needs. At a joint meeting of Qatar Charity and Unicef, the latter expressed satisfaction with the progress of the project. Local representatives also expressed their confidence in the quality of the project.

The project, in general, aims to contribute to improving the health and well-being of the rural population by changing their culture regarding sanitation, hygiene and safe drinking water.

Out of about 14,258 house-holds, who did not have toilets in their homes at the launching of the project, 8,564 households have so far managed to build lavatories in their homes, taking the completion rate of the project to 60 percent.

Qatar Charity also installed a 50,000-gallon water plant that

contributed to the clean drinking water supply for 200 houses, ben-efiting 1,400 people in Jhang, in addition to building seven toilets for people with special needs, and installing basins in 18 public schools to promote the culture of washing hands with water and soap among students.

Because of Qatar Charity’s awareness campaign within the framework of the project, 59,360 people have access to primary and basic hygiene and hand-washing facilities in their homes, while 261,000 became able to change their behaviour and increase their knowledge of hygiene.

As part of its work in schools, Qatar Charity has established 340 school clubs and 1,117 teachers have been trained to improve school health and hygiene con-dition. More than 650 people from the local community were trained to help target communities change their behaviour regarding hygiene.

Unicef held a workshop to review the progress made on the WASH project, and discuss its challenges. A team from Qatar Charity’s offices in Islamabad and Shorkot and the government and society representatives attended the workshop.

Children taking water from a water plant established under WASH project in Pakistan.

WISH convenes meeting of policy steering committee ahead of 2020 global summitTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), an initiative of Qatar Foundation, recently convened the first meeting of the WISH 2020 Policy Steering Committee, bringing together senior officials from key stake-holders in the local healthcare sector.

The Policy Steering Com-mittee will act as a local advisory board for WISH 2020, proac-tively promoting issues that are identified as important by the healthcare community in Qatar and ensuring that they are included in reports prepared for discussion at WISH 2020, which will take place next fall and will

convene the global community of healthcare leaders in Doha for the fifth time.

Chaired by Sultana Afdhal, CEO, WISH, members of the Policy Steering Committee are drawn from key stakeholders in Qatar’s healthcare sector with significant ongoing interest and relevance to the work of WISH.

The new Policy Steering Committee will provide a Qatar-specific perspective and provide recommendations within the framework of Qatar’s National Health Strategy 2018-2022.

Afdhal said, “Ahead of our 2020 summit, the leadership of WISH identified a need to broaden our outreach and engage the wider healthcare

sector in Qatar. Through this new committee, we have created a forum to partner with regulators, healthcare providers, and stake-holders in the private and public sectors as well as academia in Qatar, to bring to the fore the prevalent issues impacting the health and wellbeing of commu-nities that demand our urgent attention. We hope to produce innovative solutions that will inform the discussions at WISH 2020, and lead to healthcare innovations that will result in a better quality of life for the people of Qatar and also on a global scale.”

Once the committee has agreed on relevant topics, member organisations will nom-inate individuals to constitute an

expert working group, which in turn will be tasked with pro-ducing reports for presentation at WISH 2020. The committee is

also expected to explore oppor-tunities for alignment with the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar given the potential for

collaboration between health and sports organizations and the need to tackle non-communi-cable diseases.

Key stakeholders in Qatar’s healthcare sector convene to advise on community health needs.

HBKU delegates attendMoscow graduate fair,visit Russian varsitiesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Delegates from Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s (HBKU) six colleges are currently in Russia meeting students and fellow academics. Their objective is simple: to heighten awareness of the University’s dynamic programs and encourage high-caliber candidates to continue their studies with one of the Gulf region’s leading research-focused universities.

The visit began in Moscow, where HBKU had a booth at the latest QS World Grad School Tour educational fair. Held Sep-tember 30, the event provided prospective students and grad-uates with opportunities to meet faculty members and consider study options based on the Uni-versity’s multidisciplinary programs.

Delegates have also trav-elled to leading universities across Russia to raise awareness of HBKU and highlight what makes studying in Qatar such a unique proposition. The Moscow State Institute of International Relations and the European Uni-versity at St. Petersburg are among the academic institutions visited.

Speaking after the most recent university visit , Maryam Hamad Al Mannai, vice president of student affairs, HBKU, said: “One of HBKU’s core missions is to dis-cover innovative solutions that are locally relevant but with

global impact. We can only achieve the latter by being a truly global university. To this end, we’re encouraged by the potential that Russian students and graduates could bring to our programs. Our delegates have been consistently impressed with their natural enthusiasm for academic studies as well as their interest in studying overseas. We’re confident that HBKU can make a telling contribution to their academic and professional journeys.”

As part of HBKU’s ongoing student outreach initiative, rep-resentatives from student affairs, enrollment and faculty showcased the university’s multidisciplinary programs at the annual International Edu-cation Fair in Turkey held in March.

HBKU Student Affairs is tasked with ensuring an inclusive and strengthened envi-ronment that is conducive to student needs. It regularly hosts events and engages the wider public in community-driven outreach.

Held once every three years, the event is considered the most prestigious non-competitive choral event and will attract 2,000 to 4,000 international delegates to the country, reinforcing Qatar’s position as a hub for cultural events.

Delegates have also traveled to leading universities across Russia to raise awareness of HBKU and highlight what makes studying in Qatar such a unique proposition.

Malabar Gold & Diamonds offers ‘A Gift of Gold’THE PENINSULA DOHA

Malabar Gold & Diamonds, one among the largest jewellery retailers globally with a strong retail network of 250 outlets spread across the globe, has revealed its much awaited festive season offer, ‘A Gift of Gold’, giving a golden chance for the customers to win assured gold coins with Gold & Diamond Jewellery purchases.

In Qatar, the offer is starting from October 10 (tomorrow) and will be spanning till October 27, 2019. Also, the company has unveiled the latest Festive Jew-ellery collection at special offer prices in gold, diamond and

precious gem jewellery featuring the most eye-catching and unique trends bound to captivate the customers.

‘A Gift of Gold’ by Malabar Gold & Diamonds gives unmatched chances for the cus-tomers to win gold coins with their gold & diamond jewellery purchases. Customers can win a guaranteed gold coin or up to 50 gold coins instantly on purchase of gold jewellery worth QR3,000 via ‘Scratch & Win’ coupons.

Adding to the above, cus-tomers also get two gram gold coin on diamond jewellery pur-chase of QR5,000 and a one gram gold coin on purchase of diamond jewellery worth QR3000.

Also, customers will have a

great opportunity to get pro-tected from the increasing gold rate by just paying 10 percent of the entire amount on your favorite gold jewellery. This offer is valid until October 25 only. Furthermore, customers can avail the zero deduction offer on 22K (GCC) gold jewellery exchange as well. Above offers are valid at their outlets in Qatar until October 27 only.

The latest jewellery col-lection launched in celebration of the festive season includes both traditional and contem-porary designs in 18 & 22K gold, diamond and precious gem jew-ellery and are guaranteed to suit the tastes of their multicultural and multinational customers.

Malabar Gold & Diamonds has incorporated these designs as a part of various brands pre-sented at Malabar Gold & Dia-monds’ namely Mine - Diamonds Unlimited, Era - Uncut Diamond Jewellery, Precia - Gem Jew-ellery, Divine- Indian Heritage Jewellery and Ethnix - Hand-crafted Designer Jewellery.

Al Kuwari pointed out that international trade plays an important role and constitutes an enabling tool to stimulate economic growth, create an enabling economic environment and establish an open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system.

THE WASHINGTON POST

08 WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019VIEWS

Qatar committed to principle of cooperation to address challenges facing international community

The State of Qatar has reit-erated its commitment to action based on the principle of cooperation and part-

nership, pointing out that the efforts of the international community will have a positive effect in overcoming the challenges facing the international community and moving forward in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This came in a statement delivered by the Second Secretary at the Per-manent Delegation of Qatar to the United Nations, Ahmed bin Saif Al Kuwari in front of the general dis-cussion of the UN Economic and Financial Committee of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Al Kuwari said that a number of reports under the work of the Com-mission have shown that climate change remains a critical threat of our time, which calls for concerted multi-lateral action to address risks asso-ciated with climate change.

He noted that the global nature of climate change and the need of effective international cooperation and response. Emanating from the State’s belief that there is a role for all parties to address this phenomenon, which constitutes an obstacle to the advancement of social and economic development and the achievement of the goals of sustainable development, Qatar has played a leading role in the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit last month, as the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani along with France and Jamaica, led the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, he said.

He added that H H the Amir announced during the Summit that Qatar’s con-tribution of US$ 100 million to support to support small developing island states and the least developed countries to deal with climate change, espe-cially as these countries bear the

brunt of the impact of climate change. He pointed out that this contribution reflects the importance and seri-ousness attached by the Government of the State of Qatar to take the nec-essary measures to activate what has been agreed internationally in the field of climate change, and that Qatar will continue to work with the interna-tional community to translate the obli-gation of its ratification of the Paris Agreement.

Al Kuwari pointed out that inter-national trade plays an important role and constitutes an enabling tool to

stimulate economic growth, create an enabling economic environment and establish an open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system to be an integral part of this environment, stressing the importance of the conclusions mentioned in the report of the Secretary-General on international trade and development, which highlighted the importance of strategies to promote trade take into account social, economic and devel-opment concerns such as poverty reduction, job creation and environ-mental sustainability.

Successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Devel-opment requires special attention to least developed and conflict-affected countries, and to ensuring equal opportunities for all segments of society, especially women, children, youth and persons with special needs along providing them with the nec-essary knowledge and skills in close alignment within Vision 2030 plan, he stated.

Al Kuwari also stressed the impor-tance of inclusive and equitable quality education, which is one of the important and enabling tools for achieving progress in all SDGs.

He said that comprehensive and sustainable development is an important focus to which the State of Qatar attaches high priority, The Qatar National Vision 2030 sets an objective framework for achieving sustainable development and focuses on major issues including the paramount importance of sustainable devel-opment and its mainstreaming so that regularity is achieved between eco-nomic growth, social and human development and environmental protection.

He stated that as part of Qatar’s efforts to build an efficient and effective system to monitor and follow up the implementation of the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the State has aligned the goals and objectives of this agenda with the objectives of the Second National Development Strategy 2018-2022 and has developed a monitoring and follow-up system.

As part of its efforts to fulfill its

commitments to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Qatar presented at the sessions of the High-level Political Forum on Sus-tainable Development voluntary national reviews that gave a clear idea of the progress made by the State in implementing the Sustainable Devel-opment Goals discussed, Al Kuwari noted.

The State of Qatar is among the first countries that provided devel-opment and relief assistance, for example, in 2018 Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) financed projects in the sectors of education, health, economic empowerment and job creation in more than 70 countries around the world, at a cost of US $ 585 million, he added.

As part of the strategic partnership between the State of Qatar and the United Nations, Al Kuwari pointed out that during the Doha Forum 2018, the State of Qatar announced a a multi-year support for UN’s core resources amounting to US $ 500 million, that will benefit the enhanced implemen-tation of the 2030 Agenda for Sus-tainable Development.

As part of this support, a multi-year contribution of US $ 20 million has been allocated to support the Qatari labs network to accelerate the UNDP Sustainable Development Goals.

Al Kuwari stressed that Qatar ranked first in the Arab world and 11th globally, as one of the largest contrib-utors to the UN inter-agency pooled funds in 2017, stressing continued support and financing of development activities.

The Second Secretary at the Per-manent Delegation of Qatar to the UN concluded by saying that the State of Qatar will host the fifth UN Least Developed Countries Conference in Doha in 2021, stressing that this hosting comes out of Qatar’s keenness to work with partners in the interna-tional community to achieve common goals, and its belief in the need to pay greater attention to respond to the needs and priorities of the least developed countries, and achieve comprehensive and sustainable development.

QNA NEW YORK

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The global economy is now in a synchronized

slowdown. This means that growth this year will fall to

its lowest rate since the beginning of the

decade.

Kristalina Georgieva IMF Managing Director

EU court just gave countries free pass for censorship on Facebook

“Lousy traitor.” “Corrupt oaf.” Member of a “fascist party.” These characterizations may not be very nice, but

they’re certainly not illegal in the United States, or in most other countries. A recent ruling from the top European Union court could stop the whole world from seeing them anyway.

The decision concerns an Austrian politician who sued Facebook for allegedly defamatory comments accom-panying a news story on its platform. The country’s courts eventually decided she was right, and not only did they order Facebook to proactively block similar posts in the future but they also asked the EU Court of Justice to consider whether Facebook should have to do so globally. Last Thursday, the judges answered yes: A country can tell a company to use filters, and it can tell a company to use them everywhere. These two declara-tions are dangerous on their own. Together, they are near-disastrous.

First, the filtering. EU state courts are allowed to tell companies to monitor for “identical” or “equivalent” uploads and then prevent them from appearing at all. But how do you program an algorithm to stamp out the phrase “corrupt oaf” when it applies to an individual politician and not when it appears in countless acceptable other contexts? The court also wants companies to act against posts with the same “message” as an offending one. But that invites inevitable overreach once again - especially given how dif-ficult it has proved for machine learning to navigate the nuances of human communication.

Now take that overreach and apply it around the world. We have long argued against the export of censorship in other countries to this one, or any other. Admittedly, the Internet changes things: A British citizen in search of a banned book once would have had to travel thousands of miles to the United States to pluck it off a shelf. Now, an Austrian who wants to read angry commentary about a representative can easily download a

tool to mask his location and access it as if he were in, say, Luxembourg.

But the remarkable reach of plat-forms such as Facebook also means that billions of people may now be stopped from speaking with a bang of a faraway judge’s gavel - even when what they are saying is lawful where they live. Other countries will gleefully get the message: Russia, Turkey and those similarly fond of pushing the legal envelope on shutting down online expression may use the EU ruling as an excuse to impose their own prohibitions on the global population.

EU legislators plan to reconsider laws relevant to both parts of the court’s decision, and though they are unlikely to rule out blocking technologies altogether, they could at least limit them to cases in which they are proved necessary, accurate and not an undue impediment on privacy or speech. They should also recognize that the whole world should not be forced to play by their rules, just as they would likely prefer not to play by those of some opportunistic despot.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

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

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

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Bon voyage, Qatar Airways

This year, Qatar Airways, the flag carrier of Qatar, has been on an award winning streak, winning almost all the recognition and honours in the global

airline industry. The latest is the 2019 Business Traveller Awards held in London, where the airline won four awards. Business Traveller readers voted Qatar’s national carrier Best Airline, Best Long-haul Airline, Best Business Class and Best Middle Eastern Airline. The prestigious honours, the latest addition to the accolades gallery of the airline, are decided by the Business Traveller readers’ voting, which is audited by an independent auditing company, adding to the credibility of the awards.

In June this year, Qatar Airways was named Airline of the Year for the fifth time by the 2019 World Airline Awards, managed by international air transport rating organisation Skytrax. It Was also named World’s Best Business Class, Best Business Class Seat and the Best Airline in the Middle East.

The multi-award-winning carrier scooped three out of five global accolades in the 2020 Airline Passenger Experience Association’s (APEX) Passenger Choice Awards

at the APEX/IFSA Awards Cer-emony in Los Angeles. The airline won the top titles for Best Seat Comfort, Best Cabin Service, Best Food & Beverage and was named 2020 Five Star Global Airline in the APEX Official Airline Ratings as voted by passengers using the world’s highest-rated travel app TripIt.

The officials at Qatar Airways, especially its Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker, under the visionary leadership of the country, is taking the carrier to an ever-increasing high realm of fame.

Qatar Airways beat all the odds to spread its wings higher and wider by continuously adding destinations across the world and inducting the most modern aircraft available in the industry.

The state carrier is proving again and again that it is the best airline in the world as it is the first choice of most inter-national passengers, whether they are on a business trip or on a holiday. Right from the entrance gate at the airport, the airline literally pampers

its passengers, providing them with all the comfort and support to make every journey a memorable one. The excellent and award-winning entertainment provided on board every aircraft of Qatar Airways keeps passengers engaged throughout their travel duration, which makes them yearn for more. The overwhelming response from passengers reflects in surveys where they vote for their favourite airline time and again for the most prestigious awards every year.

Qatar Airways beat all the odds to spread its wings higher and wider by continuously adding destinations across the world and inducting the most modern aircraft available in the industry. The state carrier is proving again and again that it is the best airline in the world as it is the first choice of most international passengers, whether they are on a business trip or on a holiday.

Ahmed bin Saif Al Kuwari, the Second Secretary at the Permanent Delegation of Qatar to the United Nations.

If voters do not care about politics, why do they even bother to vote? Much like going to a football game and cheering for your favourite team, voting allows people the vicarious satisfaction of participation without the hard work of getting onto the field and wrestling with the issues.

09WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019 OPINION

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Why it might have been better if the Supreme Courthad let colleges have ‘quotas’

Why democracy is crumbling in the West

CHARLES LANE THE WASHINGTON POST

PATRICK GATHARA AL JAZEERA

It might have been better if the Supreme Court had allowed minority admissions “quotas” for colleges and professional schools

when it had the chance 40 years ago.That’s one way to read Judge

Allison Burroughs’ September 30 opinion upholding Harvard’s race-conscious undergraduate admissions

process against a lawsuit from Asian American plaintiffs. They asserted that Harvard puts a de facto floor under African American and Latino admittances - at the cost of creating an unlawful ceiling on Asian Americans.

Asian Americans got in to Har-vard’s classes of 2009 through 2018 at a suspiciously consistent rate of 18 percent to 21 percent of each class, even as more and more of them applied annually. Burroughs acknowledged that admissions officers consistently awarded these students lower ratings for “personal qualities,” somewhat offsetting their usually high test scores and grades.

But, she ruled, lower subjective assessments reflect insufficiently glowing high school recommenda-tions or some other unknown factor, not bad faith by Harvard, whose admissions officers swore they used race only as a “plus factor,” and gave each applicant “individualized,” “holistic” review.

In fairness, Burroughs and Harvard were following convoluted

Supreme Court doctrine on affirm-ative action, beginning with the pivotal 1978 Bakke case.

In the mid-1970s, the University of California at Davis medical school set aside 16 of 100 places in each class for African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos and Native Americans, partly to compensate for historical discrimi-nation against these groups.

A white man, Allan Bakke, argued this “quota” denied him admission, in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans racial discrimination in federally funded programs such as higher education.

(Students of color could bypass the 16 set-aside positions and compete for one of the 84 spots awarded based on test scores and grades. In 1973, 15 of the 84 went to Asian Americans. That was 17.8 percent, or nearly six times the Asian American share of California’s popu-lation at the time.)

Justice Thurgood Marshall saw Davis’s program as a legitimate cor-rective to systemic discrimination that still continued “within our lifetimes.” To him, it mattered greatly that indi-vidual whites who might lose out were still not “treated as second-class citizens because of their color,” as black Americans were.

Davis’s quota troubled Justice Lewis Powell Jr. immensely, however. It targeted “ ‘societal discrimination,’” he wrote, “an amorphous concept of injury that may be ageless in its reach into the past.” And it was unfair to people like Bakke, who “bear[s] no responsibility” for the harms to minorities that Davis sought to remediate.

The only rationale “compelling” enough to justify race-conscious admissions would be academic “diversity,” Powell wrote, and then only if every applicant got individual

consideration. Marshall and three other justices accepted Powell’s com-promise rather than see affirmative action banned altogether.

The rest is history - history which has, on balance, vindicated Marshall. He and others on the court saw little practical difference between Davis’s “quota” and Powell’s racial “plus factor,” except that the former was more transparent and straight-forward. One hundred and thirty pages of elaborate exegesis of the Bakke doctrine by Burroughs does very little to contradict this. To the contrary.

Davis was also more forthright about the justification for affirmative action: as a remedy, not for an insuffi-ciently diverse educational climate, but for the lingering effects of a cen-turies-old caste system.

It was arguably truer to the intent of anti-discrimination laws, from the 14th Amendment to the Voting Rights Act, which were adopted not so much to enforce a pristine colorblindness as to eradicate caste. Such arguments might not persuade the conservative critics of affirmative action, who, in the name of colorblindness, support the lawsuit against Harvard.

Yet, from a conservative point of view, both quotas and the compen-satory rationale have certain advan-tages. The main one is that they are finite, as former Yale Law School dean Anthony Kronman argues in a new higher-ed critique, “The Assault on American Excellence.”

Under a Davis-like system, Kronman writes, measurements of progress for black Americans and other minorities would loom larger in affirmative action debates, because they would bear on the continued validity of a compensatory rationale. “But they all become moot once the rationale for affirmative action is put on the ground of diversity,” Kronman notes.

Strange as it may seem, there was once a time not too long ago when the United Kingdom and the United States were held

up to the developing world as exem-plars of the benefits of democracy. Today, as the former hurtles seemingly inexorably towards a dreaded “no-deal Brexit” and the latter is in the throes of an impeachment inquiry, one question springs to mind: is the slide into populist idiocy the inevitable fate of democracy?

The current state of the Anglo-Saxon world would certainly appear to suggest so. Steeped in an ever-deep-ening constitutional crisis, courtesy of its 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union, the UK has installed a populist, Boris Johnson, as leader. On the other side of the Atlantic, the US is governed by a similarly incompetent populist, Donald Trump.

A famous quote from a 1920 article by US journalist Henry Mencken seems to adequately capture the situation: “As democracy is per-fected, the office of president repre-sents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Mencken believed that democratic competition would inevitably result in a race to the bottom and laid the blame on the ignorance and stupidity

of the electorate. “The first and last aim of the politician,” he wrote, “is to get votes, and the safest of all ways to get votes is to appear to the plain man to be a plain man like himself … filled to the brim with the flabby, banal, childish notions that challenge no prejudice and lay no burden of exami-nation upon the mind.”

This rather pessimistic view of the nature of the average voter, however, does not necessarily capture the com-plexity of the democratic process and the day-to-day reality we live in.

Kenyan academic and author, Nanjala Nyabola, offers a different explanation: “Democracy is hard,” she writes when discussing the Schaden-freude many in the third world feel at the chaos of Brexit. “It requires con-stant vigilance - something that we now see is difficult to achieve even under the most ideal circumstances.”

For many, life is already a soul-sapping constant struggle to put food on the table and keep a roof over one’s head. In such circumstances, constant popular engagement with the issues of the day as well as keeping an eye on what the state and political elite get up to, as is necessary for any democracy to thrive, seem onerous. So voters take short-cuts which include relying on someone else to tell them what is going on in the democratic kitchen.

For example, in Kenya, during the 2010 referendum on adopting a new

constitution, many people openly admitted that they did not bother reading the document. “Baba amesoma” (father has read it), a ref-erence to Raila Odinga, perhaps the best-known politician in the country, was a common refrain.

With little knowledge of constitu-tionalism and little time to get clued in, voters were opting to take their cue from him. Similarly, Brits were not necessarily fully informed before they headed to the polling booths to cast their vote in the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Whether they take their cues from politicians, journalists or other self-appointed “experts”, one risk is the electorate may not know when they are being misled, as many say was the case with Brexit. But then again, voters may not care.

Seeking the truth (shock, horror!) is not always the reason one follows pol-itics and politicians. Ilya Somin, a pro-fessor of law at George Mason Uni-versity, notes that political supporters tend to behave very much like sports fans, less interested in the merits of arguments or how well the game is played than in whether their side wins.

If voters do not care about politics, why do they even bother to vote? Much like going to a football game and cheering for your favourite team, voting allows people the vicarious satisfaction of participation without the hard work of getting onto the field and wrestling with the issues. And like their sports teams, many voters rarely pick political teams based on their ideas rather than on arbitrary consid-erations such as ethnicity or place of birth. If your family and neighbours vote for a particular side, the like-lihood is so will you.

The media exacerbates this trend both in the content of their reporting and in which manner they do so. They report the news, rather than analyse and explain it. To attract larger audi-ences, the sensational is prioritised over the important, and anything that cannot be easily reduced to a soundbite or squeezed into a two-minute news segment is abandoned.

Brought up on this fast news diet, voters believe that, in Somin’s words, “the world is a very simple place [requiring] very little knowledge to make an informed decision about pol-itics”. This leads to the embrace of simplistic panaceas for complex problems, and a preference for “plain

The only rationale “compelling” enough to justify race-conscious admissions would be academic “diversity,” Powell wrote, and then only if every applicant got individual consideration. Marshall and three other justices accepted Powell’s compromise rather than see affirmative action banned altogether.

speaking” populist politicians, like Trump or Johnson, who disregard complexity. After all, if the world is so simple, then fixing it requires no specialised knowledge.

Populism is thus less a cause of democratic demise than it is a con-sequence of it. Western democracy has been crumbling from within for a long time as a result of the “tacit compact” between electorates and elites, where the former defer to the latter as long as they deliver economic growth and prosperity.

This has transformed democracy into a reality show, where elites compete over who gets a turn at the trough, while the media provides a running com-mentary and the public is reduced to watching on TV and casting votes for the winner. Is it any wonder that this model has pro-duced a real-life reality show host as the leader of the free world?

Democracy is hard. That is not news to the societies struggling for democracy against tyrannical regimes which time and again have been ridiculed by the West as “banana republics” and “shithole countries” for their trouble. What is news, though, is the cost of trying to fake it as the West has been trying to do.

Plato warned that “one of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors”. To that we can now add the lesson from the ongoing political debacles in the US and the UK: the penalty for reducing democratic participation to mere voting is that you will be governed by “morons”.

A file picture of US President Trump and British Prime Minister Johnson meeting on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

Feeding time

10 WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019GULF / MIDDLE EAST

Turkey says won’t bow to US threat over Syria plansAP BEIRUT

Turkey will not bow to threats over its Syria plans, the Turkish vice-president said yesterday in an apparent response to Pres-ident Donald Trump’s warning to Ankara the previous day about the scope of its planned military incursion into northeastern Syria.

Trump said earlier this week the United States would step aside for an expected Turkish attack on Syrian Kurdish fighters, who have fought alongside Americans for years, but he then threatened to destroy the Turks’ economy if they went too far.

The US president later cast his decision to abandon the Kurdish fighters in Syria as ful-filling a campaign promise to withdraw from “endless war” in the Middle East, even as Repub-lican critics and others said he was sacrificing a U.S. ally and undermining American credibility.

Trump’s statements have reverberated on all sides of the divide in Syria and the Mideast.

In Ankara, Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay said Turkey was intent on combatting Syrian Kurdish fighters across its border in Syria and on creating a zone that would allow Turkey to resettle Syrian refugees there.

“Where Turkey’s security is

concerned, we determine our own path but we set our own limits,” Oktay said.

Meanwhile, in the Syrian capital of Damascus, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad called on the country’s Kurds to rejoin the government side after apparently being abandoned by their US allies.

Mekdad’s comments were the first Syrian reaction since Trump’s announcement on Sunday and as northeastern Syria braces for an imminent Turkish attack on Syrian Kurdish militias. Trump’s statement has infuriated the Kurds, who stand to lose the autonomy they gained from Damascus during Syria’s civil war, now in its ninth year.

“The homeland welcomes all its sons and Damascus will solve all Syrian problems in a positive

way, away from violence,” Mekdad claimed in an interview with the pro-government daily Al Watan.

President Bashar Assad’s government abandoned the pre-dominantly Kurdish area in northern Syria at the height of Syria’s civil war to focus on more key areas where the military was being challenged by the rebels.

The US began working with the Syrian Kurdish fighters after the emergence of the Islamic State group.

The Syrian government “will defend all Syrian territory and will not accept any occupation of any land or iota of the Syrian soil,” Mekdad said about the expected Turkish incursion.

The Syrian Kurdish force has

pledged to fight back, raising the potential for an eruption of new warfare in Syria. “We will not hesitate for a moment in defending our people” against Turkish troops, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said in a statement, adding that it has lost 11,000 fighters in the war against the Islamic State group in Syria. Yesterday, a spokesman

for the US-backed predomi-nantly Kurdish force that fought IS invited Trump to come see the progress the force and the US made in northeastern Syria.

“We have more work to do to keep ISIS from coming back & make our accomplishments permanent. If America leaves, all will be erased,” he tweeted, referring to the Islamic State group by an alternative acronym.

Turkey, which considers Kurdish fighters in Syria ter-rorists and links them to a decades-old insurgency in Turkey, has already launched two major incursions into northern Syria over the past years. The first was in 2016, when Turkey and Syrian oppo-sition fighters it backs attacked areas held by the Islamic State group west of the Euphrates River. Last year Turkey launched an attack on the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin, leading to the displacement of some 300,000 people.

Also yesterday, Iran urged Turkey not to go ahead with its planned attack on Syrian Kurds, the Iranian state TV reported. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, to express Tehran’s opposition to the anticipated Turkish oper-ation. Zarif urged Turkey to respect Syria’s integrity and sov-ereignty, the report said.

Syrian National Army forces are dispatched to Manbij front line ahead of Turkey’s planned operation in the east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria’s Aleppo, yesterday.

Iraq parliament meets after protests spark crisisAFP BAGHDAD

Iraq’s parliament held its first session yesterday after a week of anti-government protests that left dozens dead and sparked a political crisis the country’s pres-ident said required a “national dialogue”.

Security restrictions were lifted around Baghdad’s Green Zone, where government offices and embassies are based.

Morning traffic was at normal levels and an internet blackout in place for most of the past week appeared to ease.

More than 200 parliamen-tarians arrived for an extraor-dinary session called by speaker

Mohammed al-Halbusi, defying expectations that they would not meet quorum.

MPs hosted several ministers to discuss the demonstrations, which erupted one week ago in Baghdad before spreading to the country’s Shia-dominated south. The session followed a failed attempt on Saturday, when par-liament’s largest bloc, including the 54 MPs led by populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, boycotted the session.

Sadr threw his weight behind the protests last week and called on Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi to resign, but the embattled premier has held on and suggested his own string of reforms. Yesterday, Abdel

Mahdi held marathon meetings with Halbusi, the cabinet, tribal chiefs, and the country’s top justice over the demonstra-tions, with his office’s state-ments insisting life had “returned to normal” after a w e e k o f b l o o d y demonstrations.

But it remains to be seen whether Halbusi and Abdel Mahdi’s suggestions would be enough to appease protesters, who have repeatedly said they had “nothing left to lose” and

scoffed at overtures by political and religious figures.

The demonstrations began with demands for an end to rampant corruption and chronic unemployment but then escalated with calls for a complete overhaul of the political system.

They were unprecedented because of their apparent spon-taneity and independence in a deeply politicised society, but have also been exceptionally deadly -- with more than 100

people killed and 6,000 wounded in one week.

On Monday night, President Barham Saleh made a televised appeal for “sons of the same country” to put an end to the “discord”.

Saleh said those responsible for the violence were “enemies of the people” and proposed a cabinet reshuffle, more oversight to stamp out corruption, and a “national, all-encompassing and frank dialogue... without foreign interference.”

A member of the Iraqi security forces mans a checkpoint in Baghdad’s Sadr City, yesterday.

Flamingos are pictured feeding off a beach north of Kuwait City, yesterday.

Kuwait Deputy PM meets US Deputy Defence Secretary

QNA KUWAIT CITY

Kuwait Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Sheikh Khaled Al Jarrah Al Sabah, met here yesterday with Deputy Defence Secretary of the United States, David Norquist.

During the meeting, bilateral relations and cooper-ation between the two coun-tries were discussed in various fields, in addition to the most important topics of mutual interest between Kuwait and the United States of America, Kuwait News Agency reported.

ANATOLIA/BAGHDAD

The death toll of the anti-government protests in Iraq reached 165, a source in the country’s Health Ministry said yesterday. “The death toll of the anti-government protests is between 165 and 180 while the number of the injured hit 5,000 including many in critical condition,” the medical source told Anadolu Agency.

Most of the shots were in the heads and chests, the source added. The mass protests in Iraq broke out across several Iraqi cities on October 1 with demands of improving living conditions and end to government corruption, but as the security forces used live ammunition against peaceful protesters which had claimed hundreds of lives, protesters raised their demands and called for the departure of government.

Death toll hits 165: OfficialIsraeli minister storms Al Aqsa

ANATOLIA JERUSALEM

Israeli minister and former mem b e r o f K n e s s e t (Parliament) along with dozens of Jewish settlers yesterday forced their way into East Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque complex accompanied by Israeli police, read a statement.

“More than 230 extremist Jews stormed Al Aqsa today accompanied by Israeli police,” said the statement by the Muslim Waqf (Endowment) Council in Jerusalem.

Israeli Minister of Agri-culture and Rural Development Uri Ariel and former member of Knesset for Likud party Yehuda Glick were among the settlers, according to the witnesses.

Many Jewish extremist groups called on to storm Al Aqsa Mosque to mark the Jewish Yom Kippur which begins Tuesday night, and lasts until Wednesday.

The police are backing all the settlers every day except for Friday and Saturday.

The Islamic Endowments Council in Jerusalem calls on exerting pressure against the Israeli government to halt these incursions.

Israel occupied East Jeru-salem — in which the Al Aqsa is located—during the 1967 Middle East War. In 1980, Israel unilaterally annexed the entire city, claiming it as its “eternal and undivided” capital.

Arab League affirms support for Palestine legislative pollsQNA & ANATOLIA/CAIRO

The Secretary-General of Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit met yesterday with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al Maliki, who handed him a complete file prepared by the Palestinian Authority on the demarcation of the maritime borders of the State of Palestine.

During the meeting, Al Maliki explained the steps the Palestinian Authority intends to take to hold legislative elections throughout Palestine, including the Gaza Strip and occupied Jerusalem, followed by the pres-idential election, a statement from the Arab League’s General Secretariat said.

The statement pointed out that Aboul Gheit expressed great satisfaction over the move, affirming the support of the

League for the elections because they represent a great importance for intra-Palestinian reconcili-ation. The meeting also dealt with the latest developments in the Palestinian situation at the diplo-matic level in light of the discus-sions and consultations on the Pal-estinian cause in the 74th session of the UN General Assembly.

Palestinian president on Monday asked head of the election body to resume talks with Palestinian groups for preparation of the parlia-mentary elections that could be followed by presidential elec-tions after few months. According to Palestinian official news agency (WAFA), Mahmoud Abbas met Hanna Nassir in the presence of top Palestinian officials, and directed the government officials to provide all needed support for conducting the elections.

Vice-President Fuat Oktay said Turkey was intent on combatting Syrian Kurdish fighters across its border in Syria and on creating a zone that would allow Turkey to resettle Syrian refugees there.

Algerian protests continue

11WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019 AFRICA

AFP/TUNIS

An EU observer mission yesterday regretted the lack of campaigning for Tunisia’s presidential run-off between a candidate detained in prison and a rival who has called off his own canvassing for votes. Business tycoon Nabil Karoui has been behind bars since late August — just before campaigning began for the first round -- in a money laundering probe, but won through to the run-off on Sunday. He will run against conservative law professor Kais Saied, who announced last Saturday that he would stop his campaign to keep a level playing field with his adversary.

“What we are seeing is an unprecedented situation —a cam-paign of silence instead of debate — because one cannot cam-paign and the other does not want to,” said Fabio Massimo Castaldo, head of the EU observer mission. The mission, as well as many Tunisian political bodies and officials, has called for Karoui to be able to campaign freely, but courts have rejected several appeals for his release. Nazih Souei, a lawyer for Karoui, said that his client has lodged a suit to postpone the second round until he is free and able to campaign.

Ennahda struggles to form coalition government

Observers regret ‘silent campaign’ahead of presidential vote

BLOOMBERG/TUNIS

Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party is getting a taste of the difficulties of putting together a governing coalition as the polit-ically polarized country awaits the results of parliamentary elections.

Ennahda, which an exit poll suggested narrowly won the most seats in Sunday’s vote, has pledged a “policy of partnership” as it tries to assemble a majority in the 217-member parliament. But with its main rival, Heart of Tunisia, unwilling to collaborate, the once-outlawed party would have to build a fragile patchwork with lower-profile candidates that will struggle to govern effectively.

“It will be a fractured coa-lition without a clear mandate for Ennahda or anyone else,” said Sarah Yerkes, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for Inter-national Peace in Washington. Official results are due today.

Further political deadlock would be a blow for the North African country that’s already endured years of infighting after its 2011 Arab Spring uprising. Frustration with the situation helped fuel last month’s shock presidential election result, in which voters spurned the political establishment.

It showed Nidaa Tounes, for-merly the main centrist party, winning a single seat, down from 86 in 2014. Ennahda, which Sigma said may take 40 seats, previously had 69. Heart of

Tunisia, the populist party of controversial TV mogul Nabil Karoui, is predicted to secure 33, while Tahya Tounes, which split from Nidaa, could win 16.

About 41.7% of Tunisia’s more than 7 million registered voters cast a ballot. After the results are finalised, the largest party will have two months to form a government.

Tahya Tounes, led by current Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, isn’t interested in joining a coa-lition, Secretary-General Slim Azzabi was quoted by local broadcast Mosaique FM as

saying yesterday. “The winning parties must assume their responsibilities, form a gov-ernment and hurry up in finding solutions,” he said.

Other political groups in Tunisia are giving mixed signals.

The Dignity Coalition, which the poll showed could win 18 seats, has said it could make a deal. But in a sign of the bar-gaining Ennahda can expect, the Democratic Current, another party, made its collaboration conditional on getting control of the interior, justice and admin-istration-reform ministries.

Police officers surround a demonstrator during a protest opposing the election that Algeria’s veteran ruling cadre has set for December and demanding the freeing of opposition leaders in Algiers, yesterday.

Germany announces additional $73m in aid to SomaliaANATOLIA/MOGADISHU

Germany said it will provide an additional $73m in financial aid to Somalia as it vowed to boost bilateral ties. Ambassador Annett G u n t h e r m a d e t h e announcement while hosting a celebration in Mogadishu to

mark German Unity Day attended by Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire.

“To support Somalia on its path, Germany is increasing its support in its development coop-eration by $73m over the next two years,” said Gunther.

“This increase, as was jointly

agreed, will foster inclusive growth, skills development (through technical and voca-tional education and training) and urban infrastructure. Fur-thermore, Germany is engaging with a higher priority in rural development, agriculture and water management.”

Also present at the event was the Speaker of the Upper House, Abdi Hashi Abdullahi, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Isse Awad and other members of the Somali government. Gunther noted that the substantial support by the German government honors the progress made by the Somali

people. “It aims to support main-taining the positive trajectory Somalia has taken in recent years,” she added. The event, which took place at the European Union Diplomatic Compound, com-memorated the 29th anniversary of the reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990.

UNSC for full implementation of South Sudan peace dealAP UNITED NATIONS

The UN Security Council said yesterday that a peace deal in South Sudan signed a year ago is “a window of opportunity” to end the civil war in the world’s newest nation and achieve “sustainable peace and stability” — but it must be fully implemented.

The UN’s most powerful body said in a statement approved by all 15 members and read at an open meeting that it welcomes “initial progress” in implementing the agreement. That includes a reduction of

political violence and the return of some opposition representa-tives to the capital Juba.

It welcomed recent meetings between President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar, who returned to Juba in early September for the first time in nearly a year for talks in prepa-ration for the formation of a coa-lition government in November.

The talks focused on speeding up the screening and reunification of forces in order to create a united national army before Machar’s expected return again next month, where he’ll once again serve as Kiir’s deputy.

But the council expressed concern at “the dire humani-tarian, human rights and eco-nomic situation in South Sudan,” and condemned all violations of the peace deal and a December 2017 cease-fire.

It singled out “the ongoing conflict in the Equatorias region, and continued use of sexual vio-lence as a tactic by the parties to the conflict against the civilian population.”

Council members called on parties to the peace deal to quickly implement transitional security arrangements and work toward agreement on internal

political boundaries.They also called on parties

that have not signed the peace agreement “to renounce vio-lence, adhere to cessation of hos-tilities agreements, and seek a political resolution to their con-cerns” about the peace deal.

South Sudan is slowly emerging from five years of civil war that killed almost 400,000 people and displaced millions. The fragile peace deal signed last September so far has been marked by delays and continued fighting in parts of the country.

The Security Council said it looks forward to seeing

“substantial progress” on these and other issues during its visit to South Sudan in late October.

It underscored “the pressing need to ensure accountability and end impunity for any viola-tions of international humani-tarian law in South Sudan.”

The council warned that “actions which threaten the peace, security or stability of South Sudan may be subject to sanctions.” But it also affirmed that it is prepared “to adjust measures contained in these resolutions in light of the implementation of the parties’ commitments, including the cease-fire.”

Ethiopian Airlines flight makes emergency landing in DakarREUTERS/DAKAR

An Ethiopian Airlines plane was forced to make an emergency landing minutes after taking off in Senegal on Tuesday because an engine had caught fire, an airport spokesman said.

No one was injured in the incident, he said.

The airline confirmed on Twitter that its plane had to land unexpectedly at Senegal’s Blaise Diagne International Airport near the capital Dakar because of “a technical problem” without providing more detail on the cause. It said that all pas-sengers were being rebooked on other flights. Seven months ago, Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 nose-dived into farmland outside the capital Addis Ababa, killing 157 people.

Nigerian President offers record $33.8bn budget for 2020REUTERS ABUJA

N i g e r i a n P r e s i d e n t Muhammadu Buhari presented a record 10.33 trillion-naira ($33.8bn) budget for 2020 to lawmakers on Tuesday, the first spending plan since his re-election in February.

The plan for Africa’s top oil exporter assumes crude pro-duction of 2.18 million barrels a day and an oil price of $57 per barrel.

Nigeria emerged from its

first recession in 25 years in 2017. Growth remains sluggish, although higher oil prices and recent debt sales have helped the country to accrue billions of dollars in foreign reserves.

Buhari told lawmakers at a joint session of the upper and lower chambers of parliament that the “economic envi-ronment remains challenging” but he said the budget was expected to increase the pace of growth.

The spending plan, which includes a value-added tax

increase from 5% to 7.5%, is up from the 8.83 trillion-naira budget for 2019 and tops the previous record budget spending plan set by the 9.12 trillion-naira budget for 2018.

Buhari’s government has repeatedly rolled out record spending plans but struggled to fund them because of lower oil production and an inability to boost non-oil exports.

The budget must still be approved by parliament before being signed into law by Buhari, a process that can take months.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari presenting the 2020 budget proposal to lawmakers in Abuja, Nigeria, yesterday.

Mozambique police unit linked to poll observer’s murderAFP/MAPUTO

Mozambican police said members of one of its elite units were involved in the murder of a poll observer in a ruling party stronghold just ahead of next week’s election.

Anastacio Matavele, 58, the head of a local election obser-vation mission, was shot dead Monday while driving away from a workshop in Xai-Xai, the capital of the southeastern Gaza province. National police com-mander Bernardino Rafael said there were five perpetrators involved in the “homicide”, of whom “four (were) police officers of the Republic of Mozambique assigned to the Gaza rapid inter-vention sub-unit”.

He said the attackers suf-fered a fatal car accident as they fled the scene, colliding into another vehicle at full speed.

Two died on the spot and

two were seriously injured, while a fifth managed to escape.

He added that two senior provincial police officers had also been suspended and that a commission of inquiry had “15 days to present a detailed report”.

Gaza is a stronghold of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo party, which has dominated power since the southern African country gained inde-pendence from Portugal in 1975.

President Filipe Nyusi is widely expected to win re-election in next Tuesday’s election. The opposition alleges that the government has already started tampering with the elec-toral process.

Mozambique’s poll obser-vation mission has accused Frelimo supporters of attacking opposition members, blocking campaigns and burning their homes.

Al Qaeda affiliate claims attacks on Malian army basesREUTERS/BAMAKO

Al Qaeda’s West Africa affiliate yesterday claimed responsi-bility for coordinated, deadly attacks last week on two army bases in central Mali. Thirty-eight soldiers were killed and dozens others went missing during attacks on bases in Boul-kessi and Mondoro, in some of the worst violence seen against the army this year. The attack underscored the reach and sophistication of militant groups operating in central Mali, which has slipped from government control despite the presence of the French army and other international forces.

From their stronghold in Mali, groups with Al Qaeda and Islamic State links have been able to fan out across the Sahel, destabilising parts of Niger and Burkina Faso. Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wal Muslimin said that it had kidnapped two soldiers, including a colonel in charge of the Boulkessi base, and seized five vehicles, 76 machine guns, and two mortar shells.

12 WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019ASIA

Tourists to be allowedin Jammu & Kashmirfrom tomorrowIANS SRINAGAR

In another major step towards return of normalcy to Jammu and Kashmir, Governor Satya Pal Malik directed that the two-month old advisory asking tourists to leave the valley be lifted from tomorrow, and also took stock of preparations for the upcoming block devel-opment council elections.

Malik held a situation cum Security Review Meeting with the advisers and the chief sec-retary. The meeting was also attended by the Principal Secre-taries of Planning and Housing & Urban Development Department.

The Governor has been holding situation-cum-security review meetings on a daily basis for two hours generally from 6 to 8pm each day since August 5.

Initially, the meetings focussed on reviewing the security scenario following the imposition of restrictions after constitutional changes that were made. For the past six weeks, all the security restrictions were removed in most parts of J&K, the Governor has been focussing on bringing life back to normal.

Some of the major decisions taken in the past in the Situation cum Security Review Meetings include reopening of Higher Sec-ondary Schools; Colleges and Universities; restarting public transport; opening additional travel counters at TRC Srinagar;

opening 25 Internet kiosks in each district to facilitate the public and Government depart-ments; monitoring attendance in Government offices, etc, a statement from the Governor’s office said.

In yesterday’s meeting the Governor was briefed about the October 24 BDC elections. He was informed that there is active Interest in the BDC elections and most of the seats of Chairpersons

of BDCs would be filled. All assistant returning officers and assistant electoral registration officers have been provided mobile phone facility to ensure smooth conduct of elections. Nomination papers were accepted even on Monday.

The Governor was also briefed about the progress in apple procurement which has crossed 850 tonnes and worth Rs3.25 crores.

Another Pakistani drone spottedCHANDIGARH: Security forces have spotted another Pakistani drone flying over Indian territory close to the Hussainiwala border in Punjab’s Ferozepur district.

The police have intensified their search operation after the Border Security Force informed about the drone’s sighting.

The drone was seen flying on the Pakistan side from 10pm to 10.40pm and again at 12.25am when it entered the Indian side, officials said. Punjab Police has already launched elaborate inves-tigations to account for the weapons consignments apparently smuggled into India from across the border by the two drones recovered near the Indo-Pakistan border over the last around one month. Police teams are also on the job to ascertain the links of the terror groups involved in sending these drones from Pakistan, said a police spokesperson said on September 27, clarifying that so far only two such drones had been recovered — one last month and the second in a burnt condition three days ago in Jhabal town in Tarn Taran district. Investigations so far suggest that several Pakistan-based terrorist groups were engaged in smuggling weapons into India since August.

Governor Satya Pal Malik held a situation-cum-Security Review Meeting with the advisers and the chief secretary and also took stock of preparations for the upcoming block development council elections.

India’s Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, with the first Rafale fighter to the Indian Air Force after a delivery ceremony at the factory of French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation at Merignac, near Bordeaux, in France, yesterday.

India receives first Rafale fighterIANS NEW DELHI

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh formally received the first of the 36 Rafale fighter jets in France yesterday.

The fighter jet was handed over at Merignac at a facility of Dassault Aviation, the manufac-turer of Rafale jets.

Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier welcomed Rajnath Singh after he landed at the Bor-deaux-Merignac Air Base from Paris on a French military air-craft. He visited the production unit of Dassault Aviation led by Trappier and other French offi-cials. Rajnath Singh was shown a short audio-visual clip on the history of aircraft manufacturing by Dassault before the handing over ceremony. His French

counterpart Florence Parly was also present during the handover ceremony.

“Former (French) President Jacques Chirac had laid the basic groundwork for strategic part-nership between India and France along with Prime Min-ister (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee. We are thankful to them. Today is a milestone day for Indio-France strategic partnership and a new high in bilateral defence co-operation,” he said.

A traditional Shastra Puja (worship of weapons) ceremony will take place, following which Rajnath Singh will undertake a sortie in a twin-seater trainer version of the fighter aircraft.

India chose October 8 for receiving the first Rafale jet not only because it is the occasion of Dussehra, but the day is also

celebrated as Air Force Day every year.

The first jet bears the tail number RB 001 which are the initials of Indian Air Force (IAF) chief, Air Chief Marshal R.K.S. Bhadauria, who played a key role on behalf of India in the Rafale negotiations with France.

Before proceeding to Das-sault’s Bordeaux facility, Rajnath Singh called on French President Emmanuel Macron at his official residence Elysee Palace in Paris yesterday. He also met the Parly and Defence Adviser to the Pres-ident of France, Admiral Bernard Rogel. Rajnath Singh is on a three-day visit to France accom-panied by senior defence min-istry officials, including Defence Secretary Dr, Ajay Kumar and IAF Vice-Chief, Air Marshal H S Arora, from.

Senior leader of Congress sounds alarm on party’s fateAP NEW DELHI

A senior leader of India’s main opposition Congress party says its struggles are at the point that it may not be able to win key upcoming state elections or ensure its own future.

The party is facing attrition because it is taking too long to come to terms with its defeat in May national elections, former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters late on Monday. Congress won only 52

of 542 parliamentary seats in the polls, compared to 303 won by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

The party faces crucial tests in October 21 state elections in Haryana in the north and Maharashtra in the west.

Party president Rahul Gandhi resigned after the May defeat. His mother, Sonia Gandhi, stepped in on an interim basis.

The party’s chief in Haryana quit following a difference with the party’s leadership over a

choice of candidates. Ashok Tanwar was among the party’s main campaigners in the party’s bid to wrest power from the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state. A revolt also is brewing in Maharashtra.

Sanjay Nirupam, a key state leader there, threatened to quit the party after his recommen-dations for its nominees were rejected by the party leadership. An Uttar Pradesh state law-maker, Aditi Singh, also seemed to join the revolt by staying away from a street march held by

Priyanka Gandhi, a party general secretary and daughter of Sonia Gandhi, in the family’s stronghold of Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. A top party leader and former finance minister, P. Chidambaram, has been arrested by federal investigators for alleged economic offenses, adding to the party’s woes.

On Monday, Khurshid said Rahul Gandhi left in a huff after the party’s defeat in national elections, and that his mother was appointed interim president in August until a new president

is chosen by the party, possibly after the October state elections. “We haven’t really got together to analyse why we got defeated. Our biggest problem is our leader has walked away,” Khurshid said, adding that Rahul Gandhi still retains the alle-giance of the party.

“It’s kind of left a vacuum,” Khurshid said. “Sonia Gandhi stepped in, but there is more than an indication that she is treating herself as a stop-gap arrangement. I wish it wasn’t so.”

The Indian Air Force (IAF) Surya Kiran aerobatic team flies past in formation during the Air Force Day parade at an IAF station in Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of New Delhi, yesterday.

Abhinandan flies MiG-21 in Hindon on Air Force DayIANS NEW DELHI

Wing Commander Abhinandan flew a MiG-21 at an air show held at the Hindon Air Base in Ghaz-iabad during the Air Force Day

celebrations yesterday. The air show was also marked by aerial displays of fighter aircraft by other Balakot heroes. While Abhinandan led a group of three MiG-21s flying in avenger formation, Balakot heroes Group

Captains Saumitra Tamaskar and Hemant Kumar flew a Jaguar and a Mirage 2000, respectively. Abhinandan’s aerial manoeuvre on the MiG-21 was greeted by huge cheers from the crowds.

Anaemia a health problem in all states except KeralaIANS NEW DELHI

Anaemia is at least a mild public health problem for school-age children between the age group of 5-9 years in all states except for Kerala, according to the findings of the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS), 2016-18.

Anaemia was a moderate or severe public health problem among pre-school children in 27 states, school-age children in 15 states and adolescents in 20 states, the report said.

Anaemia was most prevalent at more than 50 percent among both boys and girls under two years of age and thereafter, decreased steadily to 11 years of age to about 15 percent.

Overall, 41 percent of pre-schoolers aged 1-4 years, 24 percent of school-age children aged 5-9 years and 28 percent of adolescents aged 10-19 years had some degree of anaemia.

The survey noted that the severity of anaemia varied across age groups.

Among pre-schoolers, 22 percent had mild anaemia, 18 percent had moderate anaemia and 1 percent had severe anaemia. Among school-age children, 10 percent had mild anaemia, 13 percent had moderate anaemia,

and 1 percent had severe anaemia. Among adolescents, 17 percent had mild anaemia, 10 percent had moderate anaemia and 1 percent had severe anaemia.

An increased prevalence was observed among older adoles-cents. Anaemia was more prev-alent among female adolescents 12 years of age and older at 40 per cent compared to their male counterparts at 18 per cent.

In all three age groups, anaemia was most prevalent among scheduled tribes, followed by scheduled castes. More than half (53 percent) of pre-schoolers and more than one-third of school-age children and adoles-cents (38 percent each) belonging to scheduled tribes were anaemic.

Among pre-schoolers, the prevalence of anaemia was highest in Madhya Pradesh (54 percent), followed by Haryana (48 percent) and Delhi (47 percent) and was lowest in Nagaland (8 percent) and Manipur (10 percent).

Among school-age children, Tripura (41 percent), Assam (35 percent) and Jharkhand (34 percent) and West Bengal (34 percent) had the highest preva-lence of anaemia and Kerala (3 percent), Jammu & Kashmir (7 percent) and Manipur (7 percent) had the lowest prevalence.

Kerala serialkiller showing‘suicidal tendencies’ IANS KOZHIKODE

Jolly, the prime suspect in six mysterious deaths in a family and who is currently in judicial custody at a jail near here, was taken to a hospital yesterday after she complained of uneas-iness, even as jail officials suspect that she has begun to display suicidal tendencies.

After the medical exami-nation and tests conducted at a state-run hospital here, Jolly was taken back to jail where the authorities have posted more officers to keep an eye on her.

According to jail officials, Jolly, who has been in judicial custody for the past three days and has appeared to be calm, suddenly felt uneasy on Monday.

She and her two accom-plices, who helped her by sup-plying cyanide, have been arrested for plotting the murder of Jolly’s husband Roy Thomas. The police are yet undecided on registering cases in the remaining five deaths that took place between 2002-16.

Jolly’s second husband Shaju, who has been let off after questioning, said that he is passing through difficult times as Jolly is trying to implicate him too in the crimes that she has allegedly committed. “At the moment, she is alone and wants to trap me also, when I have no role in this.” By now, Shaju has been questioned five times by the police.

BJP leader shot dead in UP’s Deoband, tension in areaIANS SAHARANPUR, UTTAR PRADESH

BJP leader Chaudhary Yashpal Singh was shot dead yesterday by bike-borne unidentified assailants near his home village

in Deoband area of Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district.

Singh was the former district Vice-President of BJP Kisan Morcha and his elder brother Chaudhary Shiv Kumar is the headman of their home village

of Miragpur. As soon as the news of the murder, which took place at Talhedi Khurd near the village, spread, huge crowds gathered in the village and tension was palpable. SSP Dinesh Kumar said that efforts were on to arrest the

assailants at the earliest. “We have sought the help of Muzaf-farnagar and Uttarakhand Police to nab the accused. Several teams have been formed and the forest areas are also being combed,” he said.

13WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019 ASIA

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan (right) reviewing a guard of honour with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during a welcoming ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing yesterday.

Al Qaeda regional chief killed during raidAFP/KABUL

The leader of Al Qaeda’s South Asian branch was killed in a US-Afghan joint raid in southern Afghanistan last month, Afghan officials confirmed yesterday.

Asim Umar, who led Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcon-tinent (AQIS) from its inception in 2014, was killed during a raid

on September 23 on a Taliban compound in the Musa Qala dis-trict of Helmand province.

Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security said Umar was a Pakistani citizen, though some reports claim he was born in India. He “was #killed along with six other AQIS members, most of them Paki-stani”, the NDS said on Twitter.

The raid was part of a lengthy and confusing overnight operation from September 22-23 for which the US provided air support. Authorities said they would investigate reports that 40 civilians, including children, were killed in an airstrike during the operation. The NDS said that among the six other AQIS members killed in the raid was a

man identified as “Raihan”, a courier for Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri. US Forces-Afghan-istan declined to comment.

Under a stalled withdrawal plan negotiated between the US and the Taliban, Washington agreed to pull troops from Afghanistan if the insurgents abide by security guarantees and cut all ties with Al Qaeda.

Bomb goes off insideclassroom in Ghazni,19 injured

AP/KABUL

An Afghan official says a bomb has gone off inside a classroom in eastern Ghazni province, wounding at least 19 university students.

Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor, says 12 of the wounded are female students of the Ghazni University, located on the outskirts of the provincial capital, the city of Ghazni. Noori added that two of the wounded are in critical condition.

Last month a magnetic explosive device attached to a mini bus belonging to the same university detonated, killing the driver. Noori says five students were also wounded in that blast. The Taliban are active in the province and regularly launch attacks against security forces there.

Afghan election commission workers transfering data from biometric devices to the main server at a warehouse in Kabul, yesterday.

Sri Lanka faces costliest election, longest ballot paperAFP/COLOMBO

A record number of candidates for Sri Lanka’s presidential poll next month has led to the longest-ever ballot paper and the most expensive vote in the coun-try’s history, the Election Commission said yesterday.

Thirty-five candidates are

running in the November 16 poll, the highest number in any single ballot, Elections Commission chief Mahinda Deshapriya told reporters in Colombo.

“The ballot paper will be the longest-ever we have had,” he said. “It will be 26 inches (65 cen-timetres) long. “With the increase in the size of the ballot

paper, we will have to import plastic ballot boxes because the wooden boxes we have with us will not be big enough.”

The cost of the election was originally estimated at some $22m, but it is now thought that will rise to $28m, officials said.

Sri Lanka does not have electronic voting machines and

ballots are counted manually, with the results expected the day after the polls.

The authorities allow each candidate to have two polling agents at each of the 11,000 voting booths across the nation.

The minimum voting age is 18 and 16 million people are eli-gible to vote. There are two

Buddhist monks and just one woman among the 35 people running for president of the nation of 21 million people.

Former president Mahinda Rajapakse’s younger brother Gotabhaya, 70, is the frontrunner while his main challenger is 52-year-old Housing Minister Sajith Premadasa.

Afghanistan braces for political uncertaintyREUTERS/KABUL

Despite pulling off a safer presidential election than expected, Afghanistan looks headed for a prolonged period of political uncertainty, with the two front-runners claiming victory before ballots are tallied and signalling they would not accept defeat.

The situation echoes 2014, when candidates Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah alleged massive fraud by each other, forcing the United States to broker an awkward power-sharing arrangement that made Ghani pres-ident. Both men, front-runners again, say they would not accept a similar arrangement this time.

At the same time, Taliban insur-gents rule more of the country than at any time since they were ousted from power nearly two decades ago, and

have refused to accept the legitimacy of what they call a puppet US-backed government. The unity government between the two candidates holds power until the winner is selected and takes office.

Results are expected on October 19. If neither man wins over half the votes, a runoff would take place.

“There is serious risk of an extended political crisis and divisive battle over the outcome, while the Taliban remain effectively unified,” said Colin Cookman, a program officer with the US Institute of Peace, who has analysed Afghan politics since 2008.

Petr Stepanek, ambassador of the Czech Republic to Afghanistan, said a second round of voting possibly would not be held until spring, prolonging the uncertainty.

Chinese military leadership backs Pakistan on Kashmir

INTERNEWS/ISLAMABAD

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has become the sixth most popular world leader on Twitter, boasting yesterday 10.5 million (10,471,650) followers on the micro-blogging platform.

The development comes following his fiery, successful

speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) last month where he raised the Kashmir issue, garnering praise not only from his supporters but his critics as well. Khan’s Twitter following has grown at a rapid pace in the past few months. In April this year, the former-cricketer-turned-pol-

itician was on the ninth most followed world leader on the social media platform with 9.4 million followers. According to data compiled in 2018, Imran ranked fifth among the 50 most influential leaders of the world and ninth among 50 world leaders with most interactions on Twitter. He was also the tenth

most followed world leader on Twitter in 2018.

As of right now, US President Donald Trump stands on the first position with 65.3 million fol-lowers, India’s Narendra Modi on second with 50.6 million, and Pope Francis, a little later, at 18.1 million followers.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the

president of Pakistan’s ally nation, Turkey, comes fourth with 14.1 million followers, Indonesia president Joko Widodo fifth at 12.2 million, and Prime Minister Imran Khan at 10.5 million.

Then comes the queen of Jordan, Rania Al Abdullah with 10.46 million followers.

Imran is sixth most popular world leader on Twitter

INTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The Chinese military leadership yesterday supported the stance of Pakistan on the lingering Kashmir dispute with India, according to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

The affirmation was made when Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa met General Han Weiguo and General Xu Qiliang of the Peo-ple’s Liberation Army in Beijing. Issues of regional security and defence cooperation were dis-cussed in the meeting.

According to the statement, Bajwa apprised the Chinese mil-itary leadership about conse-quences of the ongoing situation in Indian-administered Kashmir and said that India needed to respect United Nations resolution in this regard and ensure provision of human rights to Kashmiris.

“The Chinese military lead-ership supported Pakistan’s prin-cipled stance on Kashmir issue, and appreciated sane Pakistani approach in the interest of peace,” the ISPR stated.

The ISPR also said that in the meeting, the two sides agreed that continued Pak-India tension

would have serious implications for peace and stability in the region.

The media wing of the mil-itary also said that Bajwa apprised the Chinese military leadership about the peace efforts made by Pakistan and said that the efforts would not be at the cost of any com-promise on principles or honour and dignity of the nation.

Both sides also discussed the developing situation in the Gulf region and efforts for peace in Afghanistan, the press release said. They also agreed to enhance existing defence cooperation in line with history of mutual time-tested relationship.

Earlier upon arrival at the PLA headquarters, General Bajwa was presented with a guard of honour. The Pakistani army chief is also scheduled to meet high-ranking Chinese officials along with Prime Minister Imran Khan on his trip.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Pres-ident Dr Arif Alvi has promul-gated two ordinances to set up the China-Pakistan Economic Cor-ridor Authority and grant tax con-cessions to the Gwadar port and its free zone, sending a strong signal to Beijing that Islamabad is serious in implementing the multibillion dollar strategic initiative.

The ordinances were prom-ulgated late night on Monday on the same day Prime Minister Imran Khan flew to China where he is scheduled to discuss eco-nomic and political matters of mutual interests with the friendly country’s leadership, official said on Tuesday.

“The CPEC Authority Ordi-nance 2019” and “The Tax Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2019” are aimed to set up a new body to oversee and implement CPEC and give income tax, sales tax and custom duties exemptions to Gwadar port and Gwadar Free Zone.

INTERNEWS/ISLAMABAD

A special court in Islamabad has decided to hear a high treason case against former military dictator retired general Pervez Musharraf on a daily basis effective October 24.

A three-member bench, led by Justice Waqar Seth, while hearing the case yesterday directed all parties to submit their written arguments before next hearing of the case.

At the start of the hearing, an application was submitted on behalf of Musharraf’s counsel Raza Bashir for deferment of the hearing due to his health.

According to the plea, Bashir is suffering from dengue and is under treatment at Mayo Hospital in Lahore. The plea was granted.

Sharif challenges controversial video case verdict

Court orders daily treason trial against Musharraf

INTERNEWS/ISLAMABAD

Jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has filed a review petition against the Supreme Court of Pakistan verdict in the controversial ‘judge’s video scandal’ case, pleading that it was per incuriam as it was passed without jurisdiction.

In the review petition, moved through his counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed, Sharif asked the court to recall its August 23 order in which it held that the video clip concerning accountability court judge Arshad Malik could benefit the petitioner if its genuineness was established and was properly produced before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in a pending appeal against his conviction.

Imran begins 2-day China visit,rallies support for investmentBLOOMBERG/BEIJING

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan began a two-day visit to China yesterday to help rally support for more investment after project spending declined sharply.

Chairman of business giant

China Gezhouba Group Lyu Zexiang called on Prime Minister Imran Khan in Beijing yesterday and discussed cooperation in the energy sector. The Chinese magnate showed keen interest in exploring new business avenues in Pakistan especially in the energy sector.

Foreign Minister Mahmood Qureshi, Minister for Planning Khusro Bakhtiar, Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid, Adviser on Commerce Razak Dawood, Special Assistant on Petroleum Nadeem Babar and Chairman Board of Investment Zubair Gilani also attended.

“The Chinese military leadership supported Pakistan’s principled stance on Kashmir issue, and appreciated sane Pakistani approach in the interest of peace,” according to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

14 WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019ASIA

HK not ruling out Chinese help over protests: LamAFP HONG KONG

Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam yesterday said China intervening to end months of pro-democracy protests is an option following a particularly violent week of unrest that paralysed the city.

The financial hub has been gripped by four months of rallies, and last weekend saw much of the city grind to a halt as masked demonstrators took to the streets in defiance of a controversial ban on face coverings.

Lam’s decision last Friday to invoke colonial-era emergency powers — not used for half a century — to impose the ban sparked some of the most violent scenes since the crisis began, as hardcore protesters trashed dozens of subway stations, van-dalised shops with mainland China ties, built fires and blocked roads.

Hong Kong was virtually locked down over the three-day holiday weekend, with the majority of subway stops closed. Thirteen damaged stations remained shut yesterday morning as rush-hour com-muters returned to work after the long break, although two reopened later.

The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) operator said the entire network — which carries four million people daily — would close at 8:00pm (1200 GMT), five hours earlier than usual.

Lam told reporters that while she believes the city’s authorities

can cope with the unprecedented troubles, China could be called upon if the situation becomes “so bad”.

“At this point in time, I still strongly feel that we should find the solutions ourselves. It is also the position of the central gov-ernment (in Beijing) that Hong Kong should tackle the problem on her own.

“But if the situation becomes so bad, then no options can be ruled out if we want Hong Kong to at least have another chance.”

Lam has faced widespread criticism over her decision to ban face masks — ubiquitous in Hong Kong since a deadly SARS out-break in 2003 — and thousands of Hong Kongers flouted the pro-hibition during an unsanctioned mass march on Sunday.

Two people — a male uni-versity student and a 38-year-old woman — appeared in court on Monday charged with illegally wearing masks, and supporters wore their own face coverings in the courtroom.

They were both charged with unlawful assembly, which carries up to three years’ jail time, and with defying the mask ban, which has a maximum one-year sentence. Both were released on bail.

Another 26 people who were

arrested on Sunday in Wan Chai district have been charged with rioting and 14 of them addi-tionally in violation of the mask ban.

A total of 77 people have been arrested for defying the ban since it came into place over the weekend, police said, adding that 2,363 people had been arrested overall since June.

Lam told journalists it was “too early” to say whether the anti-mask law was effective or not.

“I’m sure you’ll agree that for any new policy or new legis-lation, it will take time to be effectively implemented,” she said.

The leader insisted she was “very committed” to using political, legal and policy instru-ments, including dialogue, to address some of the “deep-seated problems” in the city.

According to Hospital Authority figures, 10 of the 13 people admitted to hospital over the weekend were in a stable

condition yesterday while three had been discharged.

US President Donald Trump earlier urged a “humane solution” to the crisis, telling reporters: “I think they have to do that in a peaceful manner.” He remarked on the “great people over there” and said pro-testers had been “flying the American flag”.

However, Trump avoided expressing support for the dem-onstrators’ defiance and

questioned whether they were losing steam.

At the start, “I saw two million people. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump said. “The crowd size is much smaller now, so maybe that’s saying something.” While not refer-encing Trump, Lam said: “I hope anyone, especially foreign members, whenever they have to comment on Hong Kong’s current situation, they have to look at the fact objectively.”

Students throw eggs into a school as they protest against the punishment of those students who fought to protect the Lennon walls, one of the symbols of anti-government protest, outside Po Leung Kuk Yao Ling Sun College, in Hong Kong, yesterday.

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong Chief Executive

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo (left) shakes hands with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in Singapore, yesterday.

Singapore offersIndonesia helpto combat hazeBLOOMBERG SINGAPORE

Singapore has reached out to Indonesian authorities to offer assistance and urge action in combating the “perennial scourge” of haze on the region, with no response from Indonesia thus far, the Ministry for the Environment and Water Resources said in written responses to Parliament queries on Monday.

The ministry said fires in Indonesia have released 360 million tons of carbon dioxide since August, equivalent to more than Spain’s emissions for the whole of 2018.

It said the two-month haze episode of 2015 cost Singapore S$1.83bn ($1.33bn) in health costs, lost productivity, and diminished tourism and business.

“Singapore is supportive of the Indonesian government’s continuing efforts to suppress the forest and land fires. We

recognise President Joko Widodo’s personal attention and efforts in tackling this problem. The key is to prevent the fires from starting in the first place.”

Singapore has contributed S$5m to the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre for a regional capability building pro-gramme to monitor haze, including hotspot activities, and build predictability around weather and climate.

“We will not tolerate the

irresponsible actions of errant companies, whether Singapore-based or otherwise, that harm our environment,” the ministry said.

Noting that consumer choices and demand can help shape forestry and palm oil industries’ actions, MEWR said, “as more consumers opt for sus-tainable products, this will incentivise companies to adopt more sustainable practices which in turn contributes to reducing haze.

UN rights chief urges Australia to overhaul detention policiesAFP SYDNEY

The UN’s top rights official urged Australia to reform its criminal and refugee detention systems yesterday, just days after the country’s prime minister took a veiled swipe at the international body.

Speaking in Sydney, United Nations Human Rights Commis-sioner Michelle Bachelet said she had been “shocked” to learn that the country’s age of criminal responsibility was just 10 years old, calling on Australia to raise the age to the “internationally accepted level” of 14 years.

The policy disproportion-ately affects indigenous children, who make up 70 percent of those aged under 14 held in Aus-tralian jails.

She also said it was “time to roll back” the mandatory detention of asylum seekers, a policy she described as becoming “entrenched” under successive governments.

Austral ia ’s hardl ine approach to asylum seekers

includes turning away refugees arriving by boat and offshore detention. Both measures have been condemned by the UN previously.

“I encourage Australia to make greater use of human rights-compliant alternatives to detention, which are non-cus-todial and community-based,” Bachelet said.

Her comments came after conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week used a major foreign policy speech in Sydney to decry international institutions that he said “demand conformity rather than inde-pendent cooperation on global issues”. “We should avoid any reflex towards a negative glo-balism that coercively seeks to impose a mandate from an often ill-defined borderless global community,” he said.

“And worse still, an unac-countable internationalist bureaucracy.” Morrison went on to declare that the government “can never answer to a higher authority than the people of Australia”.

Azerbaijan’s parliament elects new PMANATOLIA BAKU

Azerbaijan’s parliament yesterday agreed to approve Ali Asadov, assistant to the pres-ident for economic issues, as new prime minister of the country.

The parliament convened to designate the country’s new prime minister.

Parliamentary Speaker Ogtay Asadov announced that Novruz Memmedov submitted his resignation from the prime ministry to President Ilham Aliyev.

Asadov then told the par-liament that Memmedov’s res-ignation was accepted and the president appointed Asadov as prime minister.

He was elected the new prime minister of Azarbaijan, taking 105 votes.

Philippine graft court hands family of former dictator another winAFP MANILA

A Philippine court said yesterday that it has thrown out a decades-old civil case against the widow of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, dealing a fresh blow to a protracted effort to recover alleged ill-gotten wealth.

In ruling for Imelda Marcos, the special anti-graft court chas-tised government lawyers for their “unjustified” absence at court hearings and for sub-mitting “mere photocopies” of documentary evidence that the judge rejected.

Filed shortly after Marcos fled to the US in exile following a bloodless 1986 “people power” revolt, the case sought to seize shares of stocks and real estate which it said were already worth millions of dollars at the time.

“The plaintiff... failed to prove by preponderance of evi-dence that the defendants by themselves, or in conspiracy

with the defendants the Mar-coses, obtained ill-gotten wealth,” said the September 25 court ruling made public only yesterday.

“Of course Madam Imelda is elated,” said Robert Sison, lawyer for the now 90-year-old

former first lady Imelda Marcos, one of the seven defendants.

Sison said he expects the government to appeal the court verdict, adding his client is still facing more than a dozen similar cases. Marcos’s family is acused of embezzling at least $10bn.

Supporters of Philippine Vice-President, Leni Robredo, hold a rally in front of the Supreme Court in Manila, yesterday.

Japan protests to N Korea over sea collisionAP TOKYO

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said yesterday that Tokyo has lodged a protest with Pyongyang over a collision between a North Korean fishing boat that illegally entered Japan’s exclusive economic zone and a Japanese patrol boat, pledging to step up measures against foreign poachers.

Japanese authorities on Monday rescued about 60 North Korean fishermen who were thrown to the sea after their ship collided with a Jap-anese Fisheries Agency inspection vessel and sank in Japan’s exclusive economic zone off the country’s northern coast.

Abe told parliament yes-terday that the authorities helped the fishermen onto another North Korean ship and let them go rather than arrest them for criminal investigation due to lack of evidence showing illegal fishing.

But Abe said that doesn’t mean Japan is looking the other way.

“The government of Japan will continue to respond reso-lutely to prevent illegal opera-tions by foreign fishing boats inside of our exclusive eco-nomic zone,” he said, adding that Tokyo protested to Pyongyang via a diplomatic channel in Beijing.

Japan and North Korea have no diplomatic ties.

Thai man charged over alleged royal criticism AFP BANGKOK

A Thai pro-democracy activist has been charged over an “inap-propriate” social media post, police said yesterday, as author-ities use a tough cyber law against perceived critics of the powerful monarchy.

Police arrested 25-year-old Kan Pongprapapan late Monday and charged him with violating the Computer Crimes Act after a Facebook post touching on the turbulent lives of world-famous royal families.

The charge carries up to five years in jail.

Kan, who was later released on bail, did not mention Thai-land’s ultra-wealthy monarchy, which is shielded from criticism by one of the harshest royal def-amation laws in the world.

The law heavily restricts reporting on cases involving the monarchy inside a country where all media must

self-censor when discussing the unassailable institution.

“He (Kan) was arrested at his home on Monday night,” Thai-land’s cybercrime police said in a statement, adding that the message “spurred hatred”.

It warned others could also be prosecuted for sharing similar content.

The statement also men-tioned an “inappropriate hashtag”.

It was not clear if it was referring to a controversial hashtag about royal motorcades on Bangkok’s traffic-clogged streets that pinballed around Twitter in recent days.

Kan’s lawyer Winyat Chat-montri said his client had “no intention of talking about the Thai monarchy” in his Facebook post. A cabinet minister covering technology over the weekend warned that the government would pursue an anti-monarchy “network” using computer crimes legislation.

Probe: Doomed Kiribati ferry crew was drunkAFP WELLINGTON

Crew members of an over-loaded Kiribati ferry which sank in the Pacific claiming 95 lives were drunk, leaving passengers to die slow deaths from starvation and hypo-thermia, a damning report has found.

The report gives the first official account of the loss of the ferry MV Butiraoi, which sank in January last year after setting off from Nonouti island bound for the capital Tarawa.

It details a string of failures that led to the sinking and also gives a glimpse of the horrors endured by victims, who were missing in the vast ocean for eight days before the alarm was raised. The deaths of 84 pas-sengers and 11 crew was the worst maritime disaster ever in Kiribati, a collection of 33 atolls and reefs.

A total of 77 people have been arrested for defying the ban on putting on face masks.

15WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019 EUROPE

Britain’s Brexit talks with EU on verge of collapseAFP LONDON

Brexit talks between Britain and the European Union teetered on the verge of collapse yesterday, with tit-for-tat claims of intran-sigence and sabotage before an end-of-the-month deadline.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as he tried to salvage new divorce terms he had proposed ahead of next week’s pivotal EU leaders’ summit in Brussels.

Breaking with convention, Downing Street then provided a readout of what Merkel allegedly said, provoking an incendiary tweet from EU Council President Donald Tusk.

According to the London source, Merkel demanded a rewrite of Britain’s approach to the long-vexing Irish border problem that made a com-p r o m i s e “ e s s e n t i a l l y impossible”.

A deal now looked “over-whelming unlikely” and talks were “close to breaking down”, the source added.

Britain has been trying for more than three years to find a

way to deliver on UK voters’ wishes and end its almost five-decade involvement in the European project.

Riding a wave of British frus-trations with the saga, Johnson is threatening to leave at any cost — with or without a withdrawal deal — on October 31.

In Berlin, Merkel’s office said it would not comment “on such confidential discussions”. John-son’s official spokesman also declined to comment on the sub-stance of the call.

But he told reporters the pair had a “frank exchange” — dip-lomatic speak for a disa-greement. The spokesman rejected Tusk’s accusation that Johnson was playing “some stupid blame game” by having

his office leak out the detail of private talks.

A frustrated Tusk had accused Britain of playing with “the future of Europe and the UK” with no clear plan of what the country wanted.

Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney said he found it “hard to disagree” with Tusk, stressing that Dublin would “not strike a deal at any cost”.

Although Johnson’s Brexit negotiators were still meeting various European officials, much of the focus is shifting to what happens after the talks are for-mally pronounced dead. The

Irish government published a 2020 spending plan with a ¤1.2bn ($1.3bn) relief fund based on the assumption that there will be no agreement.

The UK government also released updated preparations for a “no deal” exit at the end of the month, indicating it was increasingly expecting the outcome.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank, however, warned that “even a relatively benign no-deal Brexit” would see Britain’s debt burden surge to 50-year highs. On the markets, the pound slipped to its lowest value against

the euro in about a month.Johnson, who took over from

Theresa May in July, has been accused of political manoeuvring before calling a snap general election to strengthen his position in parliament.

The government yesterday suspended the legislature from Wednesday until October 14, when Queen Elizabeth II will set out the government’s legislative domestic agenda.

Johnson’s proposals outline a new way to avoid a hard border between EU member the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland after Brexit.

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson (right) shakes hands with European Parliament President David Sassoli, at Downing Street, in London yesterday.

F-16 jet crashesin Germany,pilot survives AFP FRANKFURT

An American F-16 fighter jet crashed yesterday near the city of Trier in western Germany, the German air force said, with the pilot surviving after using the ejector seat.

After multiple emergency calls around 3:15pm local time (1315 GMT), emergency services reached the scene near the village of Zemmer, police said in a statement.

The airman was taken to hospital. Police said it was not immediately clear how seri-ously he was injured in the crash.

Authorities blocked off a large zone around the crash site including several roads, the police statement added, urging drivers to avoid the area.

A spokesman for the nearby US military air base at Spangdahlem said he had no further information about the crash, its causes or the health of the pilot.

Several EU countries refuse to back migrant boat planAP BRUSSELS

A large majority of European Union member countries have refused to back a plan to quickly get migrants off boats in the Mediterranean Sea and distribute them among willing EU partners.

At a meeting of EU interior ministers, only Ireland, Luxem-bourg and Portugal offered to take part in the “fast-track” plan drawn up by Germany, France, Italy and Malta, which would

screen migrants, relocate asylum-seekers and return people who do not apply or qualify for asylum, all within four weeks.

“We were seven yesterday, seven this morning and seven this evening. So things haven’t changed much,” said a downbeat Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg’s minister responsible for migration. “Why us, and why no one else?”

For more than a year, humanitarian ships that have

picked up migrants from Libya in unseaworthy boats were blocked from docking or disem-barking passengers in Italy or Malta. Italy’s former anti-migrant interior minister even threatened to jail the crews of charity-run rescue ships.

The stance taken by the two countries resulted in standoffs that kept rescued migrants at sea for weeks until other EU nations pledged to take at least some of the people seeking safety or better lives in Europe.

The meeting in Luxembourg yesterday had been meant to gauge enthusiasm for the tem-porary plan, in which countries would make “pre-declared pledges” on how many asylum-seekers they would accept. Details of the scheme are sketchy, but it would operate for at least six months, unless migrant arrivals increase dramatically.

Earlier, France’s European affairs minister, Amelie de Montchalin, had claimed that several countries were willing to

accept asylum-seekers.“I think there are around 10

countries that are ready to play the game. Perhaps others,” she told reporters. “We are going to be able to say that when a boat arrives, we know who to call and that there are countries ready to send teams in.” But Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese said that those who agreed to take part “are those three or four states that had already said they were available, like Luxembourg and Ireland.”

Climate protestClimate activists from the Extinction Rebellion action group block the ABN Amro Private Banking building in the business district of Zuidas, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, yesterday. Mayor Halsema called on climate activists to leave. Those who did not leave were arrested.

Italy’s parliament votes to slash MP numbersAFP ROME

Italy’s parliament yesterday overwhelmingly approved slashing the number of lawmakers, a move the left-leaning government hopes will help keep the far-right from power.

Reducing the number of MPs and senators in Italy by 345 was a flagship manifesto promise of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which rules in coa-lition with the country’s centre-left, and promised voters it would tackle political elitism and wasteful spending.

The move, linked to broader electoral law reforms, was passed by 553 MPs, with just 14 voting against and two

abstentions. “It’s done!” the M5S said on its blog. “Promise kept.”

Italy currently has the second highest number of law-makers in the EU after Britain —some 630 elected representa-tives in the lower house and 315 in the Senate.

The constitutional reform, which could be subjected to a popular referendum in the coming months, cuts the number of MPs to 400 and senators to 200 from the next legislature, with an expected saving of some ¤100m ($110m) a year.

“It’s a well-balanced reform with an excellent profile,” legal expert Guido Neppi Modona told Il Fatto Quotidiano on Monday.

A reduced number of law-makers will “lead parties to take particular care in choosing

candidates,” he said. Critics have warned such a cut could affect popular representation, and increase the influence of lobbyists over governing institutions — all for a minimal saving that will have little effect on debt-laden Italy’s budget balance.

This is the country’s eighth attempt to cut its number of law-makers since 1983, according to the Open news website.

Five Star (M5S) made the cut a condition of its alliance with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), following the collapse of the previous, far-right coalition in August.

The PD had previously voted against the reductions, but agreed to support them if it meant clinching a deal with the M5S which would prevent a return to

the polls and keep far-right leader Matteo Salvini out of power.

The party has insisted the cut be followed by a new electoral law, and is pushing for the reintroduction of a proportional representation system.

Under the current mix of pro-portional representation and first-past-the-post systems, a winning coalition needs more than 40 percent of the vote to have the necessary parliamentary majority.

With full proportional repre-sentation, parties or coalitions would need a much bigger majority to form a government.

That would force League leader Salvini to ditch any plans to run alone or with a small fellow far-right party at the next election.

Swedish hospitaltests patient for EbolaREUTERS STOCKHOLM

A hospital in southern Sweden said yesterday it was testing a patient for Ebola who had come in with a fever after travelling in an infected area.

It was unlikely that the patient had caught the deadly disease, “but we can’t rule it out before we have the test results,” a spokesman at the Skane Uni-versity Hospital said.

Authorities in east and central Africa have been on high alert for possible spillovers of Ebola from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a year-long outbreak has killed more than 2,100 people.

“The reason the suspicion arose is symptom in the form of fever, combined with where the patient has been,” the head of the hospital’s infectious disease department, Maria Josephsson, said in an emailed statement.

Russia extends house arrest of US investor CalveyAFP MOSCOW

A Moscow court yesterday extended the house arrest of prominent US investor Michael Calvey and a French senior executive at his fund who are accused of defrauding a Russian bank.

The arrests of Calvey, the founder of multi-billion-dollar investment fund Baring Vostok, and French banker Philippe Delpal have raised serious con-cerns among foreign investors in Russia.

Moscow’s Basmanny district court extended their house arrest to January 13, 2020, when their next hearing is due.

Calvey, Delpal and three

other suspects are alleged to have defrauded Vostochny Bank of 2.5 billion rubles ($38.7m) —charges they say were fabricated by a competitor and relate to a shareholder dispute.

After they were detained in February, both were held behind bars for several months.

Calvey transferred to house arrest in April and Depal in August. Three of their Russian colleagues are still behind bars.

Last week Russian author-ities froze assets belonging to all five men.

The court yesterday refused defence petitions to pay bail of five million rubles ($77,000) each for Calvey and Delpal or to soften the terms of their house arrest.

Police swoop on Britain’s biggest drugs racket, 13 heldAFP LONDON

Thirteen men were arrested yesterday on suspicion of involvement in the biggest drugs racket ever uncovered in Britain, police said.

The suspects were allegedly part of an international organised crime group respon-sible for importing more than 50 tonnes of drugs, worth bil-lions of pounds, into Britain from the Netherlands.

The men, aged between 24 and 59, were arrested in dawn raids in London, Manchester, Leeds and five towns in northern England, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

They are suspected of being part of the British arm of a group that used front com-panies to import heroin, cocaine and cannabis, con-cealed within truckloads of vegetables and juice.

Four men and two women were arrested in the Nether-lands in April and are awaiting extradition to Britain as part of the same investigation.

“We believe we have dis-mantled a well-established drug supply route,” said Jayne Lloyd, the NCA’s regional head of investigations.

“We suspect these men were involved in an industrial-scale operation — the biggest ever uncovered in the UK — bringing in tonnes of deadly drugs that were distributed to crime groups throughout the country.” The men arrested yesterday were held in con-nection with three consign-ments that were intercepted in September 2018, the NCA said.

That shipment contained 351 kg of cocaine, 92 kg of heroin, 250 kg of cannabis and 1,850 kg of hemp/hashish, with a total street value of more than £38m. Enquiries led officers to believe the men have imported drugs through British ports on several occasions between Feb-ruary 2017 and October 2018.

The NCA said the investi-gation was linked to an oper-ation in which 13 individuals were sentenced to a total of 176 years in jail following the seizure of more than 100 kg of heroin in 2015.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to the British Prime Minister yesterday, reportedly demanding a rewrite of Britain’s approach to the long-vexing Irish border problem.

16 WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019EUROPE

Dark matter, exoplanet discoveries win Nobel Physics PrizeAFP STOCKHOLM

Canadian-American cosmol-ogist James Peebles and Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz yesterday won the Nobel Physics Prize for research that increases the understanding of our place in the universe.

Peebles won one-half of the prize “for theoretical discoveries that have contributed to our understanding of how the uni-verse evolved after the Big Bang,” professor Goran Hansson, sec-retary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, told a press conference.

Mayor and Queloz shared the other half for the first discovery, in October 1995, of a planet outside our solar system — an exoplanet — orbiting a solar-type star in the Milky Way.

“Their discoveries have forever changed our conceptions of the world,” the jury said.

Developed over two decades since the mid-1960s, Peebles’ theoretical framework is “the basis of our contemporary ideas about the Universe.”

Peebles built upon Albert Einstein’s work on the origins of the Universe by looking back to the millenia immediately after the Big Bang, when light rays

started to shoot outwards into space.

Using theoretical tools and calculations, he drew a link between the temperature of the radiation emitted after the Big Bang and the amount of matter it created.

His work showed that the matter known to us — such as stars, planets, and ourselves — only make up five percent, while the other 95 are made up of “unknown dark matter and dark energy.”

“This is a mystery and a challenge to modern physics,” the academy said.

Peebles is Albert Einstein Professor of Science at Princeton University in the United States, while Mayor and Queloz are both professors at the University of Geneva. Queloz also works at the University of Cambridge in Britain.

Using custom-made instru-ments at their observatory in southern France in October 1995, Mayor and Queloz were able to detect a gaseous ball similar in size to Jupiter, orbiting a star

around 50 light years from our own Sun.

Harnessing a phenomenon known as the Doppler effect, which changes the colour of light depending on whether an object is approaching or retreating from Earth, the pair proved the planet, known as 51 Pegasus b, was orbiting its star.

The Nobel jury noted that the discovery “started a revolution in astronomy” and since then over 4,000 exoplanets have been found in our home galaxy.

“Strange new worlds are still being discovered,” chal-lenging our preconceived ideas about planetary systems and “forcing scientists to revise their theories of the physical processes behind the origins of planets.”

In a statement, the two astronomers hailed their win as “simply extraordinary”, saying the discovery was “the most exciting of our careers”.

The prize consists of a gold medal, a diploma and the sum of $914,000.

The trio will receive the prize

from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.

In 2018, the honour went to Arthur Ashkin of the US, Gerard

Mourou of France and Donna Strickland of the US for laser inventions used for advanced precision instruments in cor-rective eye surgery and in industry.

This year’s Nobel prize season kicked off on Monday with the Medicine Prize awarded

to Americans William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza, and Britain’s Peter Ratcliffe.

They were honoured for research into how human cells sense and adapt to changing oxygen levels, which opens up new strategies to fight such dis-eases as cancer and anaemia.

A computer screen displays the portraits of the laureates of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics, FROM LEFT: Canadian-American James Peebles, Swiss scientists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in Stockholm, yesterday.

Kremlin rejects idea of US role in Ukraine conflict talksREUTERS/MOSCOW

Russia yesterday rejected the idea of involving the United States in talks to help resolve the conflict between the Kiev government and pro-Russian

separatists in Ukraine’s east.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry

Peskov said there was no support for the idea of Washington joining the Normandy Format talks to settle the conflict, which involves Russia, Ukraine,

Germany and France.A diplomatic breakthrough

last week potentially opened the way for an international summit between the countries aimed at finding a way to end the fighting.

Peskov did say, however,

that the US could use its influence in Ukraine, reacting to comments by Belarusian President Alex-ander Lukashenko who said it would not be possible to resolve the Ukrainian conflict without US participation.

“The viewpoint that the US must eventually join this (Nor-mandy) format has found no support,” Peskov told reporters yesterday.

“Nevertheless, the US can certainly use its influence in Kiev

in order to ensure that Ukraine meets its obligations under the Minsk accord as soon as pos-sible,” he added, referring to a 2015 peace agreement which remains to be fully implemented.

Macron vows ‘unrelenting fight’ against terrorismAFP PARIS

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed an “unrelenting fight” against extremists yesterday as he paid tribute to the four Paris police staff stabbed to death last week by a radi-calised colleague.

Mickael Harpon, a 45-year-old computer expert in the police i n t e l l i g e n c e - g a t h e r i n g department, used a kitchen knife and an oyster shucker to kill three male and one female col-league in a 30-minute rampage

that ended when an officer shot him in the head.

The attack in the police’s inner sanctum caused shock in France, where the government is being pressed to answer how Harpon’s radicalisation went unnoticed, despite him having high-level security clearance.

“We will wage an unre-lenting fight in the face of Islamist terrorism,” Macron vowed at a ceremony at the police headquarters near Notre-Dame cathedral where the attack took place.

Macron said it was

“inconceivable and unacceptable” that Harpon, who had worked for the police since 2003, had managed to carry out an attack “in the very place where we pursue terrorists and criminals”.

He blamed the attack on “a distorted, deadly extremism” which he vowed to eradicate and vowed to build in France a “society in a state of vigilance”.

At the same time he warned against lapsing into a climate of permanent suspicion, assuring: “This is not a fight against a religion but against the distortion of it which leads to terrorism.”

Thursday’s attack brought to 255 the number of people killed in attacks blamed on, or claimed by Islamist radicals since 2015.

Harpon, a father of two, had been in close contact with a hardline Salafist imam in the months before his rampage last w e e k , a c c o r d i n g t o investigators.

Le Parisien newspaper reported yesterday that a USB key containing details on dozens of his police colleagues had been found among his possessions.

The paper, which citing unnamed sources close to the

inquiry, said it was not clear if Harpon had gathered the data as part of his job or had surrepti-tiously extracted it, as well as whether he had shared it with others.

The key also contained several propaganda videos from the IS militant group, it added.

The four victims of the attack — Damien Ernest, Anthony Lancelot, Aurelia Trifiro and Brice Le Mescam — were post-humously awarded the Legion of Honour, France’s highest civilian award, at yesterday’s remembrance ceremony.

Suspect detained after hijacked truckrams into traffic in western GermanyREUTERS BERLIN

A Syrian man has been arrested on suspicion of hijacking a truck and ramming it into traffic in western Germany yesterday night, injuring eight people, prosecutors said.

German media cited security officials as saying the incident in the city of Limburg was being treated as an act of terrorism.

Prosecutor Ralf Badle declined to comment on the motive yesterday. He said it was being treated as an attempted murder.

The truck rammed into eight other vehicles in the city north of the financial hub of Frankfurt, Badle said.

The 32-year-old suspect was due to appear before a judge who will decided whether to issue a formal arrest warrant.

Police searched two addresses linked to the suspect where they seized mobile phones and USB sticks, Badle said. “We can’t give specific details about the motive,” he added. “All possibilities are being investigated.”

The incident occurred almost three years after a failed Tunisian asylum seeker killed 12 people by ramming a truck into a Berlin Christmas market.

A truck stands beside damaged cars, in Limburg, Germany, yesterday.

Politician rescueschild, father fromburning car

AP/WARSAW

A left-wing party leader in Poland has rescued a 2-year-old boy and his father from a burning car, winning praise across the political spectrum days before a national election.

The car collided with a truck and began to burn on Monday evening in Tabor, south of Warsaw. Robert Biedron wit-nessed the crash and helped the father and child until rescue officials arrived, fire officials reported.

Local firefighters posted a photo on Facebook of them-selves with Biedron, praising him and saying that “like a real fireman he went to the burning car with a fire extinguisher.”

It’s not clear whether Bie-dron’s heroics will help lift the fortunes of a left-wing alliance that his Spring party belongs to in election on Sunday.

Swiss scientists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz won the Nobel Physics Prize “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star,” while Canadian-American James Peebles won for the “theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology”.

Austria’s Kurz starts talks to form new coalition govtREUTERS VIENNA

Austrian conservative leader Sebastian Kurz opened talks with potential coalition partners yesterday after his People’s Party (OVP) fell short of the majority needed to form a government in last month’s snap parliamentary election.

Kurz, 33, has not ruled out governing with any of the four other parties and kicked off what could be a protracted process by sounding out the second-placed Social Democrats (SPO) and the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), which came in third.

Today, Kurz will meet the other two parties, the environ-mentalist Greens and the liberal Neos, as he tries to find a deal that would give him the extra 21 seats he needs for a majority in parliament.

Before meeting SPO leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner for an hour yesterday, Kurz told reporters his aim was to improve Austria’s political culture after a campaign full of mud-slinging and to explore ways for parties to cooperate in parliament.

“The most important goal of course is in the medium term to form a stable and durable

government,” Kurz said.The publication in May of a

sting video showing FPO leader and then-Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache offering to fix state contracts forced him to resign and blew up the gov-erning coalition of the far-right party and the OVP.

The FPO repeatedly called for another coalition with Kurz during the election campaign but it has backed away from the idea as the scale of its defeat at the ballot box became clear - even though its 31 seats would be enough for Kurz.

The FPO’s new leader Norbert Hofer said forming another OVP-FPO coalition is now “at least very unlikely”, without ruling it out altogether. He and others in the FPO worry they would be negotiating from a position of weakness.

Some commentators think it would make sense for Kurz to join forces with the resurgent Green party, which has 26 seats, and the Neos with 15 seats, but it will not be easy to bridge policy differences with the Greens, led by Werner Kogler.

Austrian President and former Greens leader Alexander van der Bellen has encouraged Kurz to put climate change atop the political agenda.

Police units probe huge chemical plant fire in FranceAP/PARIS

Paris prosecutors said police units specialised in environ-mental risks are leading inves-tigations into a huge fire at a chemical plant last month in the French city of Rouen.

The Paris prosecutor’s office, which is in charge of the probe, said in a statement that about 130 complaints have been filed mostly over potential health risks following the September 26 fire.

Environmentalists and some Rouen inhabitants claim authorities didn’t do enough to protect the population and didn’t release health and safety information quickly enough.

Authorities ordered a freeze on local agricultural production and sales after the blaze as a precaution while awaiting test results.

17WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019 AMERICAS

White House blocks envoy’simpeachment testimonyREUTERS WASHINGTON

The Trump administration yesterday blocked an ambas-sador from testifying to the US House of Representatives’ impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, a move top House Democrats vowed to counter with a subpoena.

The chairmen of three House committees leading the impeachment investigation said they would compel testimony from US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, a Trump donor who started his diplomatic job in July. The investigators are interested in what the ambassador knew and what his role was in Trump’s efforts to get Ukraine to probe former vice-president Joe Biden, who leads the field of potential challengers to the Republican president.

Through his lawyer yes-terday, Sondland said he hoped “the issues raised by the State Department that preclude his testimony will be resolved promptly.”

“He stands ready to testify on short notice, whenever he is per-mitted to appear,” Sondland’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, said in a statement.

State Department officials could not be immediately reached to comment on what issues had blocked his testimony.

The impeachment probe is focusing on a whistleblower’s allegations that Trump used nearly $400m in US military aid to secure a promise from Ukraine’s president to investigate Biden, a leading candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

The whistleblower’s legal team was in the final stages of talks for the intelligence officer to speak to both Democratic and

Republican-led congressional intelligence committees as early as this week, congressional offi-cials said.

Representative Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee spearheading the impeachment probe, told reporters the move to block Sondland from testifying or turning over his text messages or e-mails was obstruction.

“We will consider this act today ... to be further acts of obstruction of a coequal branch of government,” Schiff told reporters.

Sondland was a key witness for the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight Com-mittees, whose staff had been expected to ask him why he became involved in dealings with Ukraine, which is not a member of the EU.

Trump has derided the impeachment inquiry and has denied he did anything wrong in a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which Trump pushed for an investigation of Biden and his son.

“I would love to send

Ambassador Sondland, a really good man and great American, to testify, but unfortunately he would be testifying before a totally compromised kangaroo court, where Republicans’ rights have been taken away, and true facts are not allowed out for the public. ... to see,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

According to text messages released by House committee

leaders last week, Sondland was heavily involved in contacts with Zelenskiy as he sought a meeting with Trump, and Ukrainian offi-cials expressed concern at the administration’s decision to block US military assistance for Kiev.

In one of the texts, for example, Sondland emphasised that Trump “really wants the deliverable.”

Following the allegations that Trump pressured Zelenskiy to investigate Biden while with-holding the military aid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment investi-gation last month.

Concerns about the July 25 call, and possible Trump threats to Ukraine, came to the attention of Congress in a report by a whistleblower.

US Representative Mark Meadows and fellow Republicans watch House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff leaves after speaking to reporters outside the committee offices on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, yesterday.

‘El Chapo’ gave $1m to Honduran President’s brother: WitnessAP NEW YORK

A Honduran former mayor and drug trafficker testified that Mexican kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán personally gave $1m to the brother of Honduras’ President in 2013 for the politi-cian’s presidential campaign.

The longtime Sinaloa cartel boss made the payment to be able to smuggle cocaine through Honduras to Guatemala, Amílcar Alexander Ardón alleged in tes-timony on the fourth day of the Manhattan drug trial of Tony Hernández, brother of President Juan Orlando Hernández.

Between 2007 and 2013 Tony Hernández sold drugs to

“El Chapo” and alleged helped him move shipments thanks to information he obtained from top Honduran officials, Ardón said.

Juan Orlando Hernández has vehemently denied any wrong-doing and has not been charged. Tony Hernández’s defense argues there is no evidence proving the charges.

“Any accusation that @JuanOrlandoH as a candidate for president may have received or accepted money from El Chapo directly or indirectly is 100% false, absurd and ridiculous,” the Honduran presidency tweeted yesterday. “It is craziness like Alice in Wonderland.”

Prosecutors said last week at

the start of the trial that jurors would hear testimony about the purported bribe from Guzmán.

In hours of testimony, Ardón gave details of dozens of meetings with traffickers including with Guzmán, whom he said he first met in 2007 and had seen six times through year 2013.

Ardón testified that in 2013, $1m in bundles of $50,000 and $100,000 was put on the table during a meeting in the munic-ipality of El Paraiso, where he was mayor, and delivered there to Tony Hernández.

“We counted it,” he said. “It was in plastic bags.”

Ardón said several others were present at the meeting.

He also alleged that Guzmán used six trucks from the broad-caster Televisa to transport drugs, and each vehicle had a capacity to carry 6,000 kilo-grams of cocaine.

Televisa said in a brief statement that the company was not aware of the specific nature of the testimony, “but it would not be the first time they try to pass vehicles off as those of Mexican businesses. When we have been aware, the respective complaints have been presented.”

The witness also said he met with the president and ex-Pres-ident Porfirio Lobo to discuss payments.

He alleged that in 2008 Lobo

asked for $2m for his presi-dential campaign and for Juan Orlando Hernández, who at the time was running for president of Honduras’ congress.

Lobo has previously denied allegations against him, calling them “falsehoods from criminals who are trying to reduce their sentences.”

“I have not received money, I have not been, nor am I, nor will I be a friend, partner or much less a collaborator with any criminal,” the ex-president said on Friday on Twitter.

Ardón, dressed in his prison uniform, acknowledged being responsible for 56 murders.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.

Representative Adam Schiff told reporters that the move to block Sondland from testifying or turning over his text messages or e-mails was obstruction.

Bolsonaro says oil spills appear to be criminal

A worker removing oil on a beach in Aracaju, Sergipe state, in Brazil.

Crackdown announced after Alec Baldwin falls for tour ‘scam’AP NEW YORK

New York City officials vowed to crack down on vendors selling boat rides around the Statue of Liberty after actor Alec Baldwin (pictured) complained that he was among the many people scammed into thinking he was buying tickets to the statue itself.

Baldwin posted on Instagram on Sunday that he and his wife, Hilaria, “Two sharp, savvy NYers,” bought $40 tickets for themselves and their children for a boat tour of the Statue of Liberty and were escorted to a shuttle bus to New Jersey.

“I kid you not,” Baldwin said in his social media post. “We paid. Then we read the tickets.”

New York City Department

of Transportation spokesman Scott Gastel said the shuttle bus the Baldwins were directed to transports passengers from lower Manhattan to New Jersey, where they get on a boat that offers views of the Statue of Liberty.

A message was left with the tour operator that apparently sold Baldwin the tickets.

Only one tour company, Statue Cruises, is licenced to take visitors to Liberty Island, but ticket sellers from other com-panies often mislead tourists into believing they are booking a ride to the statue. There have also been reports of scammers selling

tickets to the Staten Island Ferry, which is free.

Mayor Bill de Blasio saidy that city agencies including the police, the Department of Trans-portation and the Economic Development Corporation are joining forces to crack down on unlicenced and misleading Statue of Liberty tour operators.

“The Statue of Liberty is an enduring symbol of the promise of the America,” said de Blasio, a Democrat. “Tourists and vis-itors have been taken for a ride, and it’s unacceptable. We won’t let up until illegal and deceitful practices are a thing of the past.”

AP RIO DE JANEIRO

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said yesterday that the oil spills that have been contaminating the northeastern coast since the beginning of September appeared to involve crimes.

“It seems that something was dumped criminally,” Bol-sonaro said in Brasilia after meeting with Environment Min-ister Ricardo Salles.

But Bolsonaro declined to say who authorities suspect to be behind the leak. On Monday, the president said one country was on their radar.

Local authorities began investigating the oil spills on September 2, when the oil sludge started to land on Bra-zilian shores.

The spills have now reached 61 municipalities in nine states,

contaminating more than 130 beaches, the Environment Min-istry said in a statement.

Roberto Castello Branco, president of state oil company Petrobras, called the spills a “very worrying disaster” yesterday.

“It is a very strange phe-nomenon, there are no signs that it is receding,” Castello Branco told members of the lower house of Congress’ mining and energy commission.

The company had helped retrieve over 130 tonnes of oil as of Monday night. Petrobras analysed several samples of spilled oil and determined it was not produced or commercialised by the company but said it came from a single source.

In the state of Sergipe, authorities declared a state of emergency and recommend people not use beaches that were contaminated.

Border apprehensions drop as immigration crackdown continuesAP WASHINGTON

The number of migrants appre-hended at the southern S border declined in September for the fourth straight month, Trump administration officials said.

Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said border officials encountered about 52,000 migrants at the border last month — down about 65% from the peak in May of about 144,000.

The news will likely be greeted with glee by President Donald Trump, who has used the monthly tally as a benchmark for whether his hardline immi-gration policies are working. Curbing immigration has been

Trump’s signature issue, but the overall numbers rose dramati-cally under his watch.

The number of people encountered at the border during the 2019 budget year is likely to be nearly 1 million, one of the highest figures on record.

The volume of border crossers vastly strained resources and prompted an outcry over fetid conditions at border stations where families and children were held for days and weeks at a time in facilities meant to hold them at maximum for 72 hours.

The number of migrants crossing the border traditionally declines in hot summer months. Numbers tend to rebound when the weather gets cooler, though officials have insisted that the

decline cannot be explained simply by seasonal factors. Morgan said the administration’s strategies brought about results.

Those policies have included denying asylum to most migrants who crossed through another country to arrive at the US-Mexico border and sending more than 45,000 migrants back to Mexico to wait out their asylum claims.

“This administration’s strat-egies have brought about results, dramatic results,” Morgan said from the White House press briefing room. Fewer people are being held in custody at border facilities. Four months ago, it was about 19,000, a massive number when 4,000 was con-sidered a crisis. Now it’s just under 4,000, he added.

Three suspectedof slaying witnessat former Dallascop’s trial: PoliceAP DALLAS

Three Louisiana men are wanted in the killing of a witness who testified at the murder trial of a former Dallas police officer, authorities said yesterday, cautioning that the killing had nothing at all to do with that trial and case.

Assistant Chief Avery Moore said at a news conference that the three suspects — Jacque-rious Mitchell, 20; Michael Mitchell, 32; and Thaddeous Green, 22 —are from Alex-andria, Louisiana, and that investigators believe they were in Dallas to buy drugs from Joshua Brown.

Police said Michael Mitchell is the uncle of Jacquerious Mitchell and that Jacquerious is in a Dallas hospital in “critical condition.” Neither Michael Mitchell nor Thaddeous Green are in custody.

Brown’s death on Friday came two days after a jury sen-tenced former police Officer Amber Guyger to 10 years in prison for killing her upstairs neighbor, Botham Jean. Guyger killed Jean in September 2018 in his fourth-floor apartment, which she said she mistook for her own unit one floor below.Brown lived on the same floor as Jean and he testified that on the night Jean was killed, he heard what sounded like “two people meeting by surprise” and then two gunshots.

At times during his tes-timony, Brown became emo-tional and used his T-shirt and tissue to wipe away tears.

18 WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019AMERICAS

Ecuador movesgovernmentout of capitalBLOOMBERG QUITO

As Ecuadorian protesters infu-riated by rising fuel prices invaded government offices and oil fields, the president and his administration fled the capital, warning of a coup.

In a national address late Monday, President Lenin Moreno said he had moved the executive branch from Quito to the port city of Guayaquil due to security threats. The President said that allies of his predecessor Rafael Correa had infiltrated protests against increases in fuel prices in a bid to topple his government.

“They are the ones behind this coup attempt,” Moreno said, without providing evidence. “The looting, vandalism and the violence show that here there is an organized political intention to destabilise the government and break the democratic order.”

The government of the South American nation of about 16.5 million decamped after another night in a week of unrest. Pro-testers in Quito damaged Ecua-dor’s congressional building and violently entered the comptroller

general’s office across the street. On Monday, rioters also

attacked an oil production facility, a major dairy and dozens of rose plantations. They burned police and military vehicles as security forces struggled to contain the violence.

“When I read that Moreno had left, I felt that we’ve been left alone, who is going to defend us?” said Susana Vega, a Spanish teacher in Quito. “This isn’t a strike, this is something much more sinister.”

The tumult began when the government eliminated subsidies on gasoline and diesel, a move welcomed by the International Monetary Fund and rating com-panies including Moody’s Investors Service.

Moreno reiterated yesterday that he wouldn’t reinstate the fuel subsidies, which had been

in place since the 1970s and which were costing the gov-ernment close to $1.4bn a year. Observers didn’t take that as the final word.

“There is a non-zero risk that Moreno knuckles under pressure and rolls back the subsidy cuts,” Edwin Gutierrez, London-based head of emerging-market sov-ereign debt at Aberdeen Asset Management, wrote in a written reply to questions. “Given the violence and protests, that risk has clearly risen.”

The nation’s dollar bonds due in 2028 fell 3.6 cents to 93 cents on the dollar, the biggest drop since they were sold in

January 2018, sending yields up 0.65 percentage point.

The nation has been engulfed by the protests. In the Amazon region, demonstrators entered facilities of the Sacha oilfield, prompting authorities to shut down production and causing the loss of 70,000 barrels of Ecuador’s 550,000 barrel-a-day output.

Central regions were cut off from television and radio service as demonstrators seized repeater antennas. Indigenous commu-nities blocked numerous main roads in the Andean region, home to half the nation’s resi-dents. Cuenca, the third-largest

city, is receiving supplies by air.As president, Moreno has

been a maverick. When he took office in 2017, many assumed he’d continue to lead the country along the repressive and spend-thrift path forged by Correa, his former mentor.

Correa is responsible for a string of ill-considered public works projects, including power plants, refineries, pipelines, airport terminals and a railway. They have been dogged by cost overruns, construction and design flaws and accusations of corruption. Correa defaulted on $3.2bn in bonds for political reasons.

People walk past a damaged government building after a protest in Quito, yesterday.

Rafael Correa denies planning coup attempt from exileREUTERS BRUSSELS

Ecuador’s former president Rafael Correa denied yesterday he was orchestrating a coup against the government from his self-imposed exile in Belgium, after being accused of stoking the worst unrest there in years. in the Andean oil producer.

Protests over an end to fuel subsidies have erupted across the country, prompting President Lenin Moreno to accuse Correa, his predecessor and one-time mentor, of trying to overthrow him with help from Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.

“They are such liars ... They say I am so powerful that with an iPhone from Brussels I could lead the protests,” he said. “People couldn’t take it anymore, that’s the reality,” he said, referring to aus-terity measures brought in by Moreno with support from the IMF.

Correa, who lives in Belgium, has fiercely criticised Moreno, including with a video circulating on social media where he sings “Ecuadoreans, to the streets ... Goodbye, Lenin!”

Sitting in an office with an Ecuadorean flag and his official photograph as president, Correa said he would be ready to return, possibly as a candidate for vice president, if new elections were called.

Couple faces judgement for rigging daughter’s entrance examsAP/BOSTON

The founder of a food and beverage packaging company and his wife, a former journalist, are returning to court to be sentenced in a scandal involving dozens of wealthy and some-times famous parents paying bribes to get their children into top colleges.

Gregory and Marcia Abbott, of New York and Colorado, are scheduled to appear in Boston’s federal court Tuesday. They pleaded guilty in May to a single count of fraud and conspiracy.

Authorities say the couple

paid $50,000 to have a test proctor correct their daughter’s ACT exam answers in 2018, along with $75,000 to rig her SAT subject tests. They kept the scheme hidden from their daughter.

Prosecutors are recom-mending sentences of eight months in prison and a $40,000 fine for each parent. Lawyers for the couple suggested probation and community service.

In a September 27 letter to the court, Gregory Abbott said that his actions were “wrong and that he feels “genuine remorse.”

“I share the same

sensibilities as most people and, strange as it may sound, identify with the public outrage over my own actions,” he wrote.

Gregory Abbott, who lives in New York City, was chairman and CEO of International Dis-pensing Corp in New York until he took a leave of absence in March.

Marcia Abbott, who lives in the couple’s home in Aspen, is a former magazine editor and writer. A wedding announcement in 1987 said she was a former fashion editor for Family Circle.

Meanwhile, the case’s lead prosecutor said he plans

to recommend longer prison sentences for “Full House” star Lori Loughlin and other parents contesting the charges against them.

Massachusetts US Attorney Andrew Lelling said in a Sunday interview with Boston’s WCVB-TV that the longer Loughlin fights the charges, the longer her recommended sen-tence will be.

“Let’s say she goes through to trial: If it’s after trial, I think certainly we’d be asking for something substantially higher. If she resolved her case short of trial, something a little lower

than that,” Lelling said.Loughlin and her fashion

designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of paying $500,000 to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as fake ath-letes. They have pleaded not guilty.

Lelling added that actress Felicity Huffman’s sentence of 14 days in prison was “reasonable.”

The “Desperate Housewives” star was sentenced on Sep-tember 13 after she admitted to paying $15,000 to rig her daugh-ter’s SAT score.

Conservative leader calls Trudeau a ‘fraud’AP TORONTO

The leading candidate to replace Justin Trudeau as Canada’s prime minister attacked him yesterday during the second debate of the campaign, calling him a phony and fraud who can’t even recall how often he’s worn blackface.

Conservative party leader Andrew Scheer immediately brought up Trudeau’s blackface scandal after it was not men-tioned in the first debate. Trudeau is seeking a second term in the October 21 elections.

“Mr Trudeau, you’re a phony

and you’re a fraud and you do not deserve to govern this country,” Scheer said.

The blackface controversy surfaced last month when Time magazine published a photo showing the then-29-year-old Trudeau at an “Arabian Nights” party in 2001 wearing a turban and robe with dark makeup on his hands, face and neck. Trudeau was dressed as a char-acter from “Aladdin.”

Trudeau said he also once darkened his face for a per-formance in high school. A brief video surfaced of Trudeau in blackface as well when he was in his early 20s. Trudeau has said he can’t give a number for how

many times he wore blackface because he didn’t remember the third incident.

“He can’t even remember how many times he put blackface on, because the fact of the matter is he’s always wearing a mask,” Scheer said.

Trudeau accused Scheer of hiding his campaign platform, which he hasn’t released yet. And he accused the Conservative leader of wanting to impose cuts like unpopular Ontario Conserv-ative Premier Doug Ford.

“You’re choosing, just like Doug Ford did, to hide your platform from Canadians and deliver cuts to services and cut taxes for the wealthiest,” he said.

Canada’s Conservatives leader, Andrew Scheer campaigns for the upcoming election in Markham, Ontario, yesterday.

9-year-old faces 5 murder charges in Illinois fireAP EUREKA

A prosecutor said a central Illinois 9-year-old will be charged with five counts of first-degree murder in connection with a mobile home fire that killed five people.

Woodford County State’s Attorney Greg Minger tells the (Peoria) Journal Star the juvenile also will be charged with two counts of arson and one count of aggravated arson.

The April 6 fire near the village of Goodfield killed a 1-year-old, two 2-year-olds, a 34-year-old man and a 69-year-old woman.

Minger would not reveal other details about the suspect, including a possible rela-tionship to the victims, but he confirmed charges were expected to be filed today.

He said the child, if con-victed, could be placed on pro-bation for at least five years but not beyond the age of 21. Therapy and counseling would be likely.

After an investigation by the Woodford County Sheriff’s Office, Woodford County Coroner, Eureka Goodfield Fire Department, Illinois State Police and the Office of the Fire Marshall and Woodford County States Attorney, officials said they believe the fire was inten-tionally started. The incident was ruled as a homicide nearly two weeks into investigating.

It was also previously reported at that time that an unidentified juvenile was being questioned.

President Moreno said that allies of his predecessor Rafael Correa had infiltrated protests against increases in fuel prices in a bid to topple his government.

Judge clears record of man jailed for missing jury dutyAP WEST PALM BEACH

A Florida man who spent 10 days in jail after he overslept and missed jury duty had his record cleared by a judge.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge John Kastrenakes rescinded his contempt finding against 21-year-old Deandre Somerville, writing that Somer-ville has been apologetic, “totally rehabilitated” and no longer needs to be on probation, news outlets reported.

“I know he now understands and respects our system of justice and the critical role jurors play in that system,” Kastrenakes wrote. “In conclusion, I do not want even a finding of contempt to be gleaned from a perusal of his background or record.”

Somerville served his 10-day jail sentence last month . Kast-renakes had initially also sen-tenced him to 12 months of pro-bation and ordered him to perform 150 hours of com-munity service. On Friday, the judge reduced those terms to three months of probation and 30 hours of community service.

Three days later, Kastre-nakes vacated the probation sentence entirely, although he maintained that Somerville had been careless to not show up for jury duty on August 21.

Somerville said he overslept and didn’t call the bailiff before heading straight to his afternoon job in an afterschool program at the West Palm Beach city parks department. His absence delayed the court by 45 minutes, according to court records.

Hospital seeks source of bacteria after 3 babies dieAP DANVILLE

A Pennsylvania hospital is racing to determine the source of a waterborne germ that appears to have infected at least eight infants in the neonatal intensive care unit, three of whom have died, officials said.

Geisinger Medical Center in Danville has begun sending very premature newborns and some expectant mothers to other facil-ities while officials investigate, the hospital said.

Four babies have recovered from an infection caused by the Pseudomonas bacterium, and one is still being treated with antibiotics, the hospital said.

Officials said they are working with state and federal health authorities to ensure the bacteria have been eradicated.

The bacteria are common and often harmless but can cause disease in “very fragile patients,” Dr. Frank Maffei, the hospital’s chair of pediatrics, said at a news conference. The deaths, he added, “may have been a result

of the infection complicating an already vulnerable state.”

As a precaution, the hospital is transferring babies born at less than 32 weeks’ gestation and diverting expected premature deliveries to other hospitals.

“It’s important to remember that we are only talking about diverting these very premature infants, less than 32 weeks, both the moms who would be deliv-ering at that age or the babies already born,” said Dr. Rosemary Leeming, the hospital’s chief medical officer.

19WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019 HOME

NU-Q and GU-Q offer joint course on ‘Qatar in the contemporary Muslim world’THE PENINSULA DOHA

Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) has joined with Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) to collaboratively offer the Doha Seminar, a signature course that NU-Q has been offered since 2013. This is the first time that the two universities will teach the course jointly and thus serves as a model for future collaboration by the partner universities at Education City and contributes to the fulfilment of Qatar Founda-tion’s multiversity vision.

This year’s Doha Seminar, ‘Behind the Head-lines: Context and Meaning of Qatar on the World Stage, Qatar in the Contemporary Muslim World,’ examines the process of nation-building and identity-making within Qatar and the country’s reception on the world stage.

This is the first time that a GU-Q faculty member has co-organised and co-taught the course which has been taught for the past several years by NU-Q Associate Professor Zachary Wright. As in past years, special guests from uni-versities and leading institutions in Doha will serve as guest lecturers.

“NU-Q is delighted that GU-Q is joining us in offering this course to students in Education City. Our hope is that we will expand this seminar to include additional partner universities,” said Everette E. Dennis, dean and CEO of NU-Q. “The Doha Seminar is fast becoming an institution in

Education City and we look forward to future collaborations for this and other courses with our partner universities.”

Dean of GU-Q, Dr. Ahmad Dallal, who also served as a guest lecturer in the seminar, com-mented: “We strongly encourage our students to take advantage of the unique possibilities that Education City has to offer, and this collaboration is another way of concretely demonstrating to everyone that we are a joint community of scholars and researchers working together for the benefit of the wider community.”

Associate Professor of Theology, Dr. Sohaira Siddiqui, who is spearheading the initiative at GU-Q said, “By working together institutionally

and leveraging the tremendous expertise that is available in Education City, our students benefit from multidisciplinary perspectives on the devel-opment and history of Qatar. The focus on various methodologies allows us to deal with specific issues around education, religion, and gender, in a way that really challenges our stu-dents, and pushes them to question assumptions and develop strong critical thinking skills.”

Previous guest lecturers at the Doha Seminar at NU-Q have included experts from GU-Q, and NU-Q including the deans HBKU’s College of Islamic Studies, UCL Qatar, and others. Twenty-two students from NU-Q and cross-registered students from GU-Q are enrolled this semester.

NU-Q Professor Wright and GU-Q Professor Siddiqui jointly teaching the Doha Seminar course.

HBKU to examine Islamic Ethics of gene editingTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

As part of its mission to deliver stim-ulating and thought-provoking debates on Islam, the College of Islamic Studies (CIS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) will hold a panel discussion entitled Moral Discussions on the Concept of ‘Altering God’s Creation’ (taghyir).

The panel will comprise members of faculty delivering CIS’ newest Master’s program in Applied Islamic Ethics: Dr Mohammed Ghaly and Dr Mutaz Al Khatib from the Research Center of Islamic Legis-lation and Ethics (CILE); and Dr

Samer Rashwani, visiting professor from the Center for Islamic Theology in Tübingen University, Germany.

The event will highlight recent case studies that have sparked con-troversies worldwide and raised ethical questions in terms of research and clinical applications in the field of genetics and genomics. It will look into the various approaches towards trying to understand and respond to complex moral issues, and the Islamic the-ology and guidance in developing these approaches.

Can parents be given sole authority to make decisions on their

children’s biological development? If and to what extent is modern technology permitted in its appli-cation towards taghyir?

Speaking about the upcoming event, Dr Ghaly, Program Coordi-nator for the Master’s program in Applied Islamic Ethics, said:,“The topic of this lecture shows what we try do in our new MA program, and how concepts like taghyir – which is deeply rooted in the Islamic tra-dition – can engage with moral deliberations on cutting-edge issues such as gene editing. We simply want to argue that the scholarly dis-cipline of Islamic Ethics can

contribute to, and similarly benefit from, global moral discourse.”

Such topics of debate and the discussion of many more critical issues comprise the crux of the new program. The aim of the program is to develop in students critical skills to be able to investigate and establish ethical positions to complex ethical issues by drawing on both scientific research and religious traditions.

The public event, Moral Discus-sions on the Concept of ‘Altering God’s Creation’ (taghyir) will take place from 7pm to 9pm today at the Auditorium, Minaretein (College of Islamic Studies Building).

CROSSWORD

An Indian soldier is assigned a mission to eliminate his former mentor, who has gone rogue.

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

WAR

War (2D/Hindi) 2:15, 8:30, 11:15Asuran (2D/Tamil) 4:30pmAbominable (2D/Animation) 5:00pmGanagandharvan (2D/Malayalam) 2:30pmA Shaun The Sheep Movie: Faramageddon (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 6:45pm Joker (2D/Crime) 5:00, 7:00 & 11:00pmGemini Man (2D/Action) 7:15, 9:30 & 11:30pmRambo: Last Blood (2D/Action) 9:15pm

Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy (2D/Telugu) 12:00, 3:00 & 9:00pmWar (2D/Hindi) 11:30am, 2:30, 5:30, 8:30 & 11:30pmJoker (2D/Crime) 11:00am, 1:30, 4:00, 6:30, 9:00 & 11:30pmAsuaran (2D/Tamil) 6:00 & 12:00pm

LANDMARK

AL KHOR

War (2D/Hindi) 6:00, 6:30, 9:00 & 9:15pmSye Raa Narasimha Reddy (2D/Telugu) 10:15pmSye Raa Narasimha Reddy (2D/Hindi) 7:00pmAsuaran (2D/Tamil) 6:00, 8:45 & 11:30pm

ASIAN TOWN

ROXY

FLIK Mirqab Mall

A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Faramageddon (2D/Animation) 12:30 & 4:30pmAbominable (2D/Animation) 10:30am, 2:20, 6:30 & 8:40pmAsuran (2D/Tamil) 12:30, 3:20, 6:50, 7:30pm & 0:30amThe Informer (2D/Crime) 11:30am & 12:30pmSye Raa Narasimha Reddy (2D/Telugu) 10:30am, 12:30, 2:00, 5:30, 9:00pm & 0:30amJoker (2D/Crime) 10:30am, 12:30, 1:15, 2:10, 3:15, 3:30, 6:20,7:30, 8:00, 9:00, 9:20, 10:15, 11:00pm & 0:10amWar (2D/Hindi) 10:30, 1:30, 4:00, 4:30-, 5:00, 6:00,7:30, 8:40, 9:40, 10:30 & 11:45pm

A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Faramageddon (2D/Ani-mation) 10:15am, 12:00 & 1:45pmAbominable (2D/Animation) 10:30am, 1:35am, 12:30, 2:30, 3:35 4:30, 6:30 & 8:00pm; Ad Astra (2D/Adventure) 11:25, 1:50, 3:30, 4:15, 9:55pm & 0:20am; Avengement (2D/Action) 11:55pmJoker (2D/Crime) 10:45am, 11:45am, 1:15, 2:10, 3:45, 4:35, 5:35, 6:10, 7:00, 9:25, 10:00, 11:50pm & 0:25am.Rambo: Last Blood (2D/Action) 10:15, 12:20, 1:35, 2:20, 4:20, 6:20 & 8:20pm; Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy (2D/Hindi) 8:10pm; (2D/Tamil) 6:40, 8:35 & 11:05The Informer (2D/Crime) 11:10am, 1:25, 3:40, 5:55 & 11:25pmWar (2D/Hindi) 6:00, 9:00, 10:20pm & 0:00 midnight.

Gemini Man (2D/Action) 7:15, 9:30 & 11:30pmWar (2D/Hindi) 2:00, 5:30, 8:30 & 11:15pmA Shaun The Sheep Movie: Faramageddon (2D/Animation) 2:30pm Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy (2D/Telugu) 2:15pmGanagandharvan (2D/Malayalam) 6:00pmJoker (2D/Crime) 4:30, 7:00 & 9:15pmAsuran (2D/Tamil) 4:45 & 11:30pm

ROYAL PLAZA

Asuran (2D/Tamil) 2:00pmWar (2D/Hindi) 2:00, 6:00, 8:45 & 11:30pmA Shaun The Sheep Movie: Faramageddon (2D/Animation) 4:30pmJoker (2D/Crime) 4:45, 7:00, 9:15 & 11:30pmSye Raa Narasimha Reddy (2D/Tamil) 2:15pmThe Big Trip (2D/Animation) 5:15pmGemini Man (2D/Action) 7:00, 9:15 & 11:30pm

MALL

20 WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2019MORNING BREAK

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum31oC 35oC

HIGH TIDE 03:43 – 14:10 LOW TIDE 07:09 – 22:12

Slight dust to blowing dust at times and

local clouds formation with chance of

scattered rain maybe thundery at south-

ern areas at times.

FAJRSHOROOK

04. 13 AM05. 29 AM

11. 21 AM02.42 PM

05. 15 PM06. 45 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS Ooredoo honours Qatari athletesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Ooredoo’s Chairman, Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani, welcomed Dr. Thani bin Abdulrahman Al-Kuwari, the Second Vice-President of the Qatar Olympic Committee and President of Qatar Athletics Federation (QAF), along with Qatari athletes Mutaz Essa Barshim and Abderrahman Samba — who competed in the IAAF World Athletics Champion-ships 2019 held last week in Doha — and retired athletics hero, Talal Mansour, to honour and thank them all for their amazing contribution.

Qatar’s leading telecom-munications operator, which acted as National Partner of the Championships, invited the athletes to Ooredoo’s head-quarters in West Bay in the aftermath of the event, which concluded on October 6.

In the presence of Sheikh Saud bin Nasser Al Thani, CEO, Ooredoo Group, and Waleed Al Sayed, CEO, Ooredoo Qatar, and a host of senior executives from Ooredoo, Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani met with Qatari athletes

Mutaz Barshim — winner of gold in Men’s High Jump and current world record holder — and Abderrahman Samba, who won bronze in Men’s 400m hurdles.

He commended both ath-letes for their outstanding commitment and dedication, noting their continued partic-ipation in the Championships

despite carrying injuries, and congratulated Barshim on his repeated success at Doha 2019 following his gold medal win in London 2017.

Sheikh Abdulla presented both athletes with a token of appreciation on behalf of Ooredoo. Sheikh Abdulla also thanked Talal Mansour, the Qatari sprinter who holds an

Asian indoor record for the Men’s sprint, for his contri-bution to the fan experience at Doha 2019. Mansour received the Chairman’s recognition for his efforts behind the scenes to report on all the action, with Sheikh Abdulla noting his ded-ication to ensuring he provided exclusive and breaking news from behind the scenes to his

many followers and sports fans in Qatar and the wider Gulf region. His enthusiasm motivated many other social media influencers to cover the event, Sheikh Abdulla said.

Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani, said: “It gives us great pleasure to be able to recognise the efforts and achievements of our national sports stars who made world records and rep-resented our country in the best possible image. We thank them all for proudly flying the flag for Qatar and look forward to more sporting achievements in the near future. We’re proud to have been National Partner for the IAAF World Athletics Championships, and delighted to have contributed to the success of this prestigious event.”

Officials of Ooredoo with Qatari athletes Mutaz Essa Barshim and Abderrahman Samba.

Photography exhibition onTanzania at Education CitySIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar (WCM-Q) and Qatar Foun-dation (QF) yesterday opened a photography exhibition titled ‘Experience Tanzania’.

The exhibition, which is being held at Multaqa (Edu-cation City Student Center) and runs until December 8, gives visitors an opportunity to know more about the lifestyle, traditions, socioeconomic hierarchies and health systems of the local Tanzanian communities.

‘Experience Tanzania’ is a yearly project supported by Students Affairs Division of Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar that allows students and faculty to explore and immerse themselves in Tanzanian urban rural cultures.

A number of people visited the exhibition to learn more about the lifestyle in Tanzania, its culture and what sets it apart from the rest of the

world. Commenting on the exhibition’s opening, Fatma Mohammed Rajab, Ambas-sador of Tanzania to Qatar, said that the exhibition shows the beauty, the nature of Tan-zania, its people, its animals and how its people welcome guests.

She said that the exhibition is being organised by Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar

(WCM-Q) together with Qatar Foundation and it is curated by Dr. Dietrich Büsselberg.

“They frequently visit Tanzania to offer health checks and basic healthcare services to the local com-munity. During their trip they also experienced beauty charm of Tanzania, its nature, its people, fauna and flora and then they come with this idea

to organise such an exhibition to share their experience with people in Qatar,” she said. The Ambassador said this was the first time a photography exhi-bition on Tanzania was being organised in Qatar. Speaking to The Peninsula on the sideline of the exhibition, she said that the Embassy pro-vided all the support to the organisers like the visa to

visit Tanzania. Rajab also pointed out

that this exhibition is very important and will definitely attract more people to visit Tanzania and know more about its culture and lifestyle. The exhibition represents not only Tanzania but also African continent, because there exist a lot of similarities in African countries.

A photo on display during ‘Experience Tanzania’ photography exhibition which opened at Education City Student Center, yesterday. RIGHT: Tanzanian Ambassador to Qatar, Fatma Mohammed Rajab (left), and Professor of Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Dr. Dietrich Busselberg, at the opening of the exhibition. PIC: ABDUL BASIT/THE PENINSULA

Qatar Pavilion wins two awards at Expo Beijing 2019QNA BEIJING

Qatar Pavilion participating in the International Horticultural Exhibition (Expo Beijing 2019) won the grand award from the Expo’s organising committee for the best foreign pavilion and also won the grand award of the International Associ-ation of Horticultural Producers (AIPH), the most prestigious awards for foreign pavilions participating in the exhibition.

The award was received by Deputy Commissioner-General of the Qatar Pavilion at Expo Beijing, Dr Fikra Ashkanani at a ceremony held on the occasion.

Dr Ashkanani expressed her happiness for winning the two awards, pointing out that the honour was the result of the collective efforts by the members of the Committee for the preparation of the Qatar Pavilion, as well as the great support from the Ministry of M u n i c i p a l i t y a n d Environment.

Dr Ashanani added that despite their confidence in the wins, they were overwhelmed with the announcement that

Qatar Pavilion won two awards instead of one, the two highest awards given to par-ticipating wings.

Member of the Qatar Pavilion at the Expo Beijing, Faisal Abdullah Al Dosari said that the efforts exerted by the Committee and the unlimited support of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment resulted in this win, which was the fruit of all the efforts and an affirmation of the

distinguished participation of the State of Qatar in this event, a participation praised by all.

The win is an affirmation of the efforts exerted by the State of Qatar represented by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment in preparing for this participation to be dis-tinctive and not just attendance.

The pavilion used eco-friendly materials, designed by Qatari engineer Fatima Fawzi,

inspired by the Sidra tree, which enjoys the love and appreciation of the Qatari community for its qualities of strength and rigidity and ability to withstand all the dif-ficult circumstances. The Sidra tree remains strong and green despite drought and lack of water, which symbolizes the rigidity and perseverance of the State of Qatar to overcome al l d i f f icul t ies and tribulations.

Visits to the Qatar Pavilion at the Expo Beijing exceeded two million from various nationalities and ages who were impressed by this mas-terpiece of urban and diverse activities, which were designed specifically to suit all visitors. The organising com-mittee of Expo Beijing has set many conditions and criteria for the evaluation of entries, and the Qatar Pavilion has met all the required criteria and deserved the grand prize.

The pavilion also won the grand prize of the Interna-tional Association of Horticul-tural Producers (AIPH), which is an organizer and licensor of the Expo Beijing.

The International Associ-ation of Horticultural Pro-ducers promotes and supports horticultural producers, organizes and supervises fes-tivals and exhibitions related to horticulture. The association also works to stimulate the increasing demand for orna-mental trees, plants and flowers worldwide, as well as to protect and promote the interests of the industry and strive to secure best practices in the production of orna-mental plants.

The award was received by Deputy Commissioner-General of the Qatar Pavilion at Expo Beijing, Dr Fikra Ashkanani. The Qatar Pavilion received more than two million visitors at the expo.

Ooredoo Chairman Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani and other top Ooredoo management officials hosted and honoured the Qatari athletes.

UN may run out of money by end of the month: GuterresAFP UNITED NATIONS

The United Nations is running a deficit of $230m, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, and may run out of money by the end of October.

In a letter intended for the 37,000 employees at the UN secretariat, Guterres said unspecified “additional stop-gap measures” would have to be taken to ensure salaries and entitlements are paid.

“Member States have paid only 70 per cent of the total amount needed for our regular budget operations in 2019. This translates into a cash shortage of $230 million at the end of September. We run the risk of depleting our backup liquidity reserves by the end of the month,” he wrote. To cut costs, Guterres mentioned postponing conferences and meetings and reducing services, while also restricting official travel to only essential activities and taking measures to save energy.

Guterres had asked member states earlier this year to up contributions to the world body to head off cash flow problems, but they refused, a UN official said on con-dition of anonymity.

“The ultimate responsibility for our financial health lies with Member States,” Guterres said. Excluding peacekeeping operations, the UN’s operating budget for 2018-2019 is close to $5.4bn, with the US contributing 22 percent.