SPORTS 8 @newsofbahrain OP-ED Bahrain to go all out · 2019. 11. 19. · nificantly to the strengthening of human communication. His Majesty pledged to contin-ue promoting the vision

Edict on self-sponsored residence permits to be amendedManama

The Cabinet yesterday chaired by Deputy Prime Minister, His Highness

Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubar-ak Al Khalifa approved, based on a presentation by the Min-ister of Interior, to grant a self - sponsored residence permit to any foreigner whose share as a partner in any of the financial, commercial, industrial, tourism or other economic or investment projects in the country is not less than BD 50,000, instead of the current BD100,000 requirement.

The Cabinet also agreed to

allow the issuance of self-spon-sored visas and residency permits to retired foreigners if they come from one of the countries that are allowed to obtain electronic visas

to enter the Kingdom of Bahrain.The session endorsed a draft

ministerial edict on amending the provisions of Edict 74/2007 on granting self-sponsored resi-

dence permits for foreigners.Among other things, the Cabi-

net approved two draft edicts sub-mitted by the Minister of Interior.

Under the first draft edict, Thai tourists will be exempted from the prescribed fees to enter Bahrain pursuant to the princi-ple of reciprocity.

Under the second, Ukraine and Serbia will be added to the list of countries whose citizens are allowed to obtain an electronic visa to enter the Kingdom, which raises the number of countries whose nationals are allowed to obtain electronic visas to enter Bahrain to 121 countries.

8

Aliens on the radar7WORLD

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Bahrain to go all out National team head coach Helio Sousa says that Bahrain will be going all out to claim a victory against Iraq today in their joint-qualifier for the Fifa World Cup 2022 and the AFC Asian Cup 2023.P16

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03Campaign targets car workshops violating safety rules, regulations

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A land of tolerance

The Kingdom’s efforts to promote social tolerance stressed

• His Majesty pledged to continue promoting the vision and mission of peace, and to bring people of all cultures and beliefs together.

• His Majesty stressed the openness and cultural interaction, marking the Kingdom’s society.

Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa yester-day received, at Al Sakhir

Palace, King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Co-existence board of Trustees Chairman and members and This is Bahrain, marking the World Tolerance Day.

Former President of former President of Bosnia and Herze-govina Haris Silajdžić and his accompanying delegation and High Representative for the Unit-ed Nations Alliance of Civilisa-

tions Miguel Ángel Moratinos were also present.

HM the King welcomed them all hailing their activities and fruitful co-operation to promote Bahrain’s efforts in boosting so-cial tolerance through laws and institutions.

“We have been able through this pioneering experience to pre-serve the stability of our home-land and the unity of our people, known for their civilisation and their adherence to the human val-ues that are rooted in peace and harmony, and based on respect for all peoples and religions, val-ues that stem from the essence of

our Islamic Sharia,” the King said.“This month, the world cele-

brates the importance of toler-ance in peoples’ lives as an es-sential means of achieving peace

and the survival and continuation of humanity,” His Majesty added.

“We are proud to say here that we have never felt that the ap-proach of tolerance in our coun-try is “contrived” or “emergency practice”, but rather is embodied as “civilised behaviour and inher-ent practice,” HM the King said.

“The Kingdom of Bahrain will always to be the home of plu-ralism and a beacon for cultural harmony and religious and hu-man coexistence,” the King said, stressing the openness and cul-tural interaction marking society in Bahrain, which contribute sig-nificantly to the strengthening of

human communication.His Majesty pledged to contin-

ue promoting the vision and mis-sion of peace, and to bring people of all cultures and beliefs togeth-er, in faith and commitment to the values of love, tolerance and harmony.

High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations Miguel Ángel Mor-atinos delivered a speech hailing the world of pluralism, tolerance and diversity that nurtures and enriches Bahrain’s society

“The Kingdom of Bahrain has more than a hundred religious places, including Christianity, Buddhism and other religions. These places of worship consti-tute a multicultural and multi-re-ligious society that has lived for years,” he said.

He stressed the importance of Bahrain’s Declaration which carries this importance message and rejects all forms of hatred and discrimination that reinforce these negative aspects.

He pointed out that the The King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Coexistence reflects these concepts on the ground.

His Majesty receives dignitaries marking World Tolerance Day at Al Sakhir Palace.

His Majesty addresses the board of trustees of King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Co-existence.

The Kingdom of Bahrain will always

to be the home of pluralism and a beacon

for cultural harmony and religious and

human coexistence. HIS MAJESTY

HH Shaikh Mohammed

50,000Bahraini dinar worth

foreign share holders in the Kingdom’s firms will be issued self-sponsored

permits.

Jewellery Arabia opens today Manama

Under the patronage of His Royal High-

ness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Sal-man Al Khalifa, the Jew-ellery Arabia 2019 will open tomorrow at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Conven-tion Centre (BIECC).

More than 561 exhib-itors from 36 countries are taking part in the 28th edition, which is considered one of the most important show for jewellery and luxury watches in the Middle East.

The five-day exhibi-tion, which runs until Saturday, showcases wide collections of luxurious jewellery and high-end watches, in addition to precious stones and gems, and luxury accessories.

02TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa yesterday received, at Al Sakhir Palace, High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, marking his visit to the Kingdom. HM the King welcomed the UN official’s visit to the Kingdom of Bahrain to attend the UN World Tolerance Day, held by the King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Co-existence. His Majesty stressed the importance of the ceremony, which consolidates tolerance and peaceful co-existence between peoples and countries in the world and promotes the renunciation of all forms of violence and hatred.

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa received at Sakhir Place yesterday former President of Bosnia and Herzegovina Haris Silajdži and his accompanying delegation. His Majesty welcomed him and his wife, lauding strong bilateral relations and common keenness to boost co-operation in various fields. HM the King lauded the role of the former President Haris Silajdžić in strengthening ties binding both countries, wishing the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina more growth and prosperity. HM the King expressed appreciation of Bahrain’s glorious history as a pioneering international model in tolerance and coexistence.

The City of Diriyah, the birthplace of the Saudi nation, is hosting the cornerstone-laying event organised by the Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA,) today, to inaugurate the Diriyah Gate project. It aims to restore the historical city as a cultural heritage project, and restore it to its former state, to become a local and international tourist destination. The event comes as the country continues its transformation plans in line with Vision 2030, with Diriyah considered one of the most prominent destinations for tourism and culture. The event will also feature fireworks and a performance by an Orchestra. Above, Jerry Inzerillo, Chief Executive Officer at DGDA details about the authority’s future plans at an event held yesterday at the World Class Heritage Centre in Riyadh. The Turaif district in Diriyah was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010.

Deal for training Bahrainis to work for United Nations

Foreign Ministry, Tamkeen sign the agreement Manama

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed an agree-ment with the Labour

Fund (Tamkeen) on training of Bahrainis to work in the United Nations organisations.

The agreement was signed in the presence of the Undersecre-tary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for International Affairs, Dr Shaikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, and the Chief Executive of Tamkeen, Dr Ibrahim Janahi.

The agreement aims to in-crease Bahrain’s representation in regional and international organisations and to enhance the Kingdom’s presence in the United Nations organisations through the Junior Professional Programme.

The Undersecretary for Inter-national Affairs expressed pride in signing the agreement, appre-ciating Tamkeen’s support for the Junior Professional Programme.

He noted that this programme aims to provide young cadres with the opportunity to gain practical experience in many

areas including international multilateral cooperation, as well as developing and strengthening capacity-building in the United Nations and other participating agencies.

Dr Shaikh Abdullah also af-firmed the Kingdom of Bahrain’s keenness to increase the rep-resentation of national cadres in various regional and inter-national organisations through working in the various UN offices

and agencies.Tamkeen’s CEO highlighted

the importance of this agree-ment in supporting Bahraini youth and enhancing their skills in the field of regional and inter-national relations, especially in serving the various development goals and programmes.

Dr Janahi stated that accord-ing to the terms of the agree-ment, the training will focus on the professional and practical as-

pect of Bahraini cadres through scientific training in internation-al organisations, and enhance their competitiveness in the in-ternational labour market.

He added that this will be done in an integrated training curricu-lum that allows to provide career opportunities for Bahraini tal-ents to work permanently within those organisations in the fields of economy and sustainable and social development.

Dr Shaikh Abdullah, Dr Janahi sign the agreement.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, received yesterday the High Representative of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, Miguel Ángel Moratinos. During the meeting, the Minister hailed the Alliance’s initiatives which contribute to enhancing inter-cultural and religious dialogue. He affirmed the keenness of the Kingdom to work jointly with the Alliance to achieve its desired goals, namely in the field of youth, confronting challenges and the fight against extremism and terrorism, wishing the Alliance continued success.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa met at the Ministry’s General Court yesterday, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, Mr Ivica Dacic. The Minister of Foreign Affairs welcomed Mr. Dacic, whose visit reflects the distinguished level of friendly relations between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Republic of Serbia and their joint desire to continue mutual coordinating towards several issues. The Minister underlined the growth of relations between the two countries at all levels, stressing the Kingdom’s keenest to enhance bilateral cooperation with the Republic of Serbia in various political, economic and cultural fields, for the common interest of the two countries and their friendly peoples.


Media Partner

Psychiatrist accused of ‘covering up rape’TDT | Manama

A female psychiatrist will face charges for alleg-

edly covering up on a rape incident.

This comes as she failed to report a rape incident involv-ing a minor to the police and opted to solve the matter on her own, according to Pros-ecutors.

According to sources, the victim sought help from the psychiatrist after she was al-legedly raped.

Apparently, the victim did this as she was afraid of in-forming her family or report-ing the matter to the police.

The psychiatrist then con-tacted the alleged rapist in a bid to solve the matter dis-creetly and didn’t report the incident to the police.

Sources added that the psy-chiatrist’s attempts to solve the matter were in vain and the victim eventually sought help from the police, which investigated the matter.

The victim’s statements included that the psychia-trist knew about the case and covered up on the crime by not reporting to the police.

Hence, a report has been submitted and referred to the Public Prosecution on the rape and the psychiatrist will also be interrogated for covering up for it. No further information was available.

Campaign targets car workshops violating safety rules, regulations

Drive aimed to ensure safety of workers, public TDT | Manama

The Northern Governorate has carried out a major inspection campaign in

Salmabad, which discovered a large number of violations at many workshops.

A task force handled the in-spection, which was organised in collaboration with the Min-istry of Interior, the Supreme Council for Environment, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism and the Municipality of the Northern Governorate.

The campaign aimed at ensur-ing the safety requirements to be adhered by workshops, removal of scrap vehicles, and dealing with environmental and traffic violations.

The task force dealt with all violations successfully. Officials explained that the campaign was aimed at ensuring the safety of workers at the workshops as well as the public.

“The campaign was a suc-cessful one as it successfully dealt with many violations and brought awareness. The safety of workers and of the public is that we take very seriously,” an

official from the governorate said.

Meanwhile, the Capital Mu-nicipality recently conducted a similar drive as it removed nearly 7,900 road occupancy vi-olations in three months, from

July to September 2019. The number was announced

by the municipality through its official website and social media accounts.

The municipality pointed out that the drive was carried out by

its cleaning department with an aim to ensure the flow of traf-fic and to preserve the “beauty of the places”.

Removed and confiscated items included posters and abandoned vehicles, construc-

tion violations, abandoned and fallen houses, dead animals, ve-hicle sunshades and iron poles, the municipality added.

The municipality assured that it has been conducting periodic campaigns to monitor and re-move the violations.

The municipality noted that the placing of posters and ran-dom advertisements or iron poles and construction waste were a great risk to road users as they cause confusion in the vision of drivers, or faltering by traffic, in addition, to distort the overall appearance of the area.

It added that these violations distort private and public prop-erties and cause visual and envi-ronmental pollution.

An abandoned vehicle being removed as part of the drive.

The campaign was a successful one as it

successfully dealt with many violations and brought awareness.

GOVERNORATE OFFICIAL

Witnesses to testify in murder case TDT | Manama

The trial of three Asian men who allegedly killed a fellow national by hit-

ting him with hammers last May will be held at the High Criminal Court yesterday, as witnesses will state their testi-monies before the judges.

As reported earlier on Trib-une, the trio who remained be-hind bars since their arrest in May, are suspected of killing the victim after luring him to an abandoned land in Al Daih village.

There, they beat the victim to death using hammers and ce-ment blocks, after an argument over a financial dispute has ap-parently gone out of hand.

The case was first reported when the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Forensic Science was notified

about a severely injured man found in a farm in Al Daih, a couple of kilometres to the west of the Capital.

The victim was rushed to Sal-maniya Medical Complex after informing the cops that he was attacked and robbed by three individuals.

The man succumbed to his wounds and passed away in the hospital.

The authorities launched a manhunt to nab the three suspects, who were eventual-ly arrested, after investigators acknowledged that they are related to the victim.

The trio told the interroga-tors that they had requested the victim to meet them after he apparently cheated them by selling them a work permit and employment visa, for BD1,000, promising that it is valid for two years, while it was only valid for one year.

On May 14, 2019, the Public Prosecution accused the three men of pre-meditated murder and robbing the victim.

The Prosecution ordered to detain them and referred the case to the High Criminal Court, which is scheduled to hear the testimonies of wit-nesses and the forensic coroner today.

The defendants beat the victim to death using hammers and cement blocks, after

an argument over a financial dispute

apparently went out of hand.

PROSECUTORS

Four men jailed in fake bomb trial TDT | Manama

The High Criminal Court has sentenced three de-fendants to three years

behind bars each for placing a fake bomb in Al Naim village in the Capital Governorate.

All the three were sentenced while they were present in the courtroom, but a fourth de-fendant was tried in absentia and he was handed down a sim-ilar verdict for funding them.

The fourth man is said to be living in Iran and sent the money from there to the trio to carry out the illicit plot.

According to court files, many policemen rushed to the village after being alerted of the

presence of a suspicious object. Bomb experts were sum-

moned to the scene to exam-ine the device and they later declared it was a fake bomb,

according to Prosecutors. Police immediately launched

t h e i r i n v e s t i g a t i o n a n d wrapped it up with identify-ing the four men as the culprits behind placing the device.

The three defendants who are in detention admitted to communicating with the fourth defendant, who en-couraged them to execute the plot.

He also taught them how to make the fake bomb using crude tools, including wires, plastic pieces and an old phone.

They said that they want-ed to trigger panic among the residents in this area and to destabilise peace.

Bomb experts were summoned to the scene to

examine the device and they later

declared it was a fake bomb.

PROSECUTORS


Thai chef who smuggled drugs in shoes loses plea

13 plastic bags of narcotics were seized from the defendant

• Laboratory examination proved that the seized substance was methamphetamine, a drug that is locally known as ‘Shabu’.

• The court reviewed his appeal, rejected it and decided to uphold the previously announced judgement.

TDT | Manama

A Thai chef got his five years imprisonment upheld by the First Supreme Criminal Court

of Appeal this week.The 27-year-old man has been sen-

tenced earlier and was fined BD3,000 for attempting to smuggle narcotics from Thailand into the Kingdom by hiding it in his shoes and luggage.

The defendant has been arrested at Bahrain International Airport upon his arrival, coming from Thailand, on December 18, 2018.

At the airport, he raised the sus-picions of customs officers, who re-ferred him to a detailed inspection.

There, 13 plastic bags of narcotics were found professionally hidden in his luggage, while another bag was found stashed in his right shoe.

Laboratory examination proved that the seized substance was meth-

amphetamine, a drug that is locally known as ‘Shabu’.

In the interrogation, the defendant confessed that he was attempting to smuggle the substance into the Kingdom with the intention of sell-ing and peddling it, according to Prosecutors.

He added that he received it from a friend back in Thailand to deliver it to a woman here in return of BD750.

He was sentenced by the court ear-lier to the aforementioned sentence, but he appealed against the verdict.

The court reviewed his appeal, rejected it and decided to uphold the previously announced judgement.

‘11 saboteurs made 96 bombs to murder cops’ TDT | Manama

The High Criminal Court has begun hearing the case of 11 defendants

accused of attacking police officers with firebombs in Sitra.

Shockingly, the court files revealed that the suspects made more than 96 Molotov cocktails before proceeding with their assault as they attempted to murder cops stationed at checkpoints in Sitra.

The defendants were arrested after police investigations uncovered their identity.

According to court files, they admitted to their plan to murder police officers using the firebombs which they used after causing riots in the area in an effort to lure cops.

Prosecutors said that the defendants were found to be in possession of tools being used in vandalism acts.

“I received a call from a co-defendant who informed me of their plot. I agreed and I participated with them,” one of the defendants told prosecutors, confirming that they made 96 firebombs for the assault.

The defendant confessed that he was attempting

to smuggle the substance into the Kingdom with the

intention of selling it. PROSECUTORS

Key conference ‘will focus on Bahrain’s growth story’ TDT | Manama Pradeep Puravankara

The Kingdom’s growth sto-ry will be the main area of focus at the upcoming

international conference of the Bahrain Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of In-dia (BCICAI).

The conference will be held on November 29 and 30 at the Diplomat Radisson Hotel, Ma-nama.

Former Indian Cabinet Minis-ter and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sherpa for the G7 and G20 summits, CA Suresh Prabhu, also a chartered accountant, will be one of the lead speakers at the conference.

Mr Prabhu will address the topic of disruption and growth, built around the theme, ‘Disrup-tion, A Catalyst for Growth’.

At a press conference held yesterday, BCICAI Chairperson CA Maheshkumar Narayan an-nounced that over 350 delegates as well as distinguished speakers are expected to participate in this conference including Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chairman of Axilor Ventures, current Chair-

man of Manipal Global Edu-cation, a Padma Shri Awardee, educationist and thinker CA Mohandas Pai, entrepreneur Venkatesh Iyer and star feature includes Academy and Oscar winner Resul Pookutty.

Held under the patronage of the Minister of Industry, Com-

merce and Tourism, Zayed Al Zayani, the conference will ex-plore the technological changes and workplace structural pro-gress that have disrupted old ways of working and living life-style. The quest of the confer-ence is to tap into disruption as a means for growth.

M r Ma h e s h k u m a r s a i d : “Chartered accountants are increasingly seen globally as harbingers of change manage-ment in large establishments, companies and also in govern-ment policy-making. We seek to create a platform to share ideas and update our members

and delegates about how they can stay ahead of the curve in professional developments that are shaping their workplace and also their lifestyle in these annu-al conferences. This year, 2019 is our 11th consecutive annual conference, which was started in 2008.”

The BCICAI Annual Confer-ence will be attended by the Who’s Who of the Indian ac-counting fraternity in the region. This event also attracts CEOs, CFO and Chartered Accountants who have made their mark as entrepreneurs and have business lessons to share.

The conference is expected to see the presence of the ICAI President CA Prafulla Chhajed and ICAI Vice-President CA Atul Gupta, addressing delegates and putting professional changes in perspective.

The press conference in progress.

The only public toilet in Manama has remained defunct for over two months now. The authorities haven’t taken any steps to get the required repairs done, most often forcing the people to compromise with their privacy, which is a blatant violation of the recently proposed Cleanliness Law. The global community marks World Toilet Day today, which is an inspiring action to tackle the global sanitation crisis.

Defunct toilet

Expatriate artist found deadTDT | Manama

Biju Kuttoth, a prominent expatriate artist and sculptor in the Kingdom,

was found dead yesterday at his workplace in Hidd.

He was 49 and hailed from Kozhikode district in the In-dian state of Kerala.

Mr Kuttoth had created a coin portraying Modi out of fibre glass, which was gifted

to the Indian Prime Minister during his visit to the Kingdom last August.

Mr Kuttoth also designed the national emblem structure, which is being erected in Ha-wali Roundabout.

The death news came as a shock to many among the ex-patriate community as Mr Ku-ttoth was quite active in social circles. The coin created by Mr Kuttoth.

Judges’ efforts in boosting courts’ effectiveness stressed Manama

President of the Court of Cassation and Deputy Pres-ident of the Supreme Judi-

cial Council Chancellor Abdullah bin Hassan Al Buainain thanked members of the judicial branch for their valuable contributions and tireless efforts to promote judicial work and justice.

At a meeting held yesterday with the judges at the Secretariat General building of the Supreme Judicial Council, at the Diplo-matic Area, he praised the judg-es’ efforts to develop the judicial

system. He pointed out the global pro-

gress achieved by the Kingdom of Bahrain in the Enforcing Con-tracts Indicator in commercial courts according to the World Bank report.

The Kingdom’s judiciary has taken up a prestigious regional and international status in the World Bank’s Enforcing Con-tracts Indicator moving up 69 places to rank 59th internation-ally and second at the Arab level according to the World Bank’s ease of doing business index. Mr Al Buainain speaks at the meeting.

Mr Kuttoth

05

world

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019

KNOW WHAT

Russia hands ships back to Ukraine• The ships -- two gunboats and a tugboat -- had been handed over to Ukraine

• The Ukrainian vessels were seized in November last year

• 24 Ukrainian sailors were returned to Ukraine as part of the September prisoner swap

AFP | Kiev

Russia yesterday handed over three navy ships it seized a year ago from

Ukraine, Moscow and Kiev au-thorities said, in the latest move to ease tensions between the two countries ahead of a crucial summit.

After an exchange of prisoners in September and the withdraw-al of some frontline forces over the last few weeks, the handover marked another step in trying to resolve the five-year conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Efforts have been building since the election of Volodymyr Zelensky as Ukraine’s new pres-ident, and on Friday France an-nounced he would hold his first face-to-face talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Par-is on December 9.

The talks, which will be me-

diated by French President Em-manuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, will be the highest-level negotiations on the conflict since 2016.

Russia’s foreign ministry said yesterday that the ships -- two gunboats and a tugboat -- had been handed over to Ukraine.

It said they had “illegally crossed the Russian border” and been held as evidence but were no longer needed.

Ukraine confirmationU k ra i n e c o n f i r m e d t h e

handover of the “Nikopol”, “Berdyansk” and “Yany Kapu” vessels.

Ukraine’s Navy said the ships “had begun moving towards mainland Ukraine”.

The Ukraini-an vessels were seized in No-vember last year in the most serious confrontation be-tween the two coun-tries since the start of the conflict in 2014.

Russian forces took control of the vessels as they headed through the Kerch Strait, a nar-row waterway giving access to the Sea of Azov that is used by Ukraine and Russia.

They captured 24 Ukrainian sailors, who were returned to Ukraine as part of the Septem-ber prisoner swap.

Television on Sunday showed footage of the ships being towed by the Russian coastguard

through the Kerch Strait.

First talks in yearsKremlin spokesman Dmitry

Peskov confirmed Monday the talks would go ahead on Decem-ber 9 but appeared to downplay hope of a major breakthrough.

“There was a long delay, a long break in work under the Nor-mandy format, and so we should not set expectations too high,” he said.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was expected to ar-

rive in Kiev later Monday to help prepare

the summit.In Berlin, a foreign

ministry spokes-m a n s a i d t h a t for the f i r s t

time in a long time

there has been “some

movement ” in the conflict.

“We want to seize this mo-mentum,” he said.

The four-way summit was in-itially announced by Macron for September, after talks with Putin in France, but was held up until the troop withdrawals took place.

The structure for the talks is known as the “Normandy format” after a first meeting brought together the four heads of state in France’s Normandy

region in 2014.The last such meeting took

place in Berlin in 2016.It aims to implement the

“Minsk agreements”, deals reached in 2014 and 2015 to end the conflict but which have yet to be properly put in place.

The conflict in Ukraine’s in-dustrial east broke out after Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which led the West to impose wide-ranging sanctions on Mos-cow.

The separatists have declared unrecognised breakaway state-lets in the mainly Russian-speak-ing Ukrainian eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Ukraine and its Western al-lies accuse Moscow of giving financial and military backing to separatists, which Russia denies.

September’s exchange was the first major step in years to reduce tensions, with the two countries swapping 70 prison-ers.

It was followed over the last few weeks by the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops and separatist forces from several flashpoint areas along the frontline.

The Paris talks are expected to focus on a roadmap that would give special status to the sepa-ratist territories if they conduct free and fair elections under the Ukrainian constitution.

The conflict has been a ma-jor drain on Ukraine’s economy but Zelensky is facing oppo-sition to his peace plan, espe-cially from war veterans and nationalists.

The Ukrainian ships were seized in November last year in the most serious confrontation between the two countries since the start of the conflict in 2014. Inset, Volodymyr Zelensky Ukraine’s new president

The election of Zelensky, a television comedian who shocked the coun-try’s elites by winning

the Ukraine presidency in April, has raised hopes

the conflict can finally be resolved.Zelensky has

said ending the war -- which has left more than 13,000 dead -- is his top

priority.

Dress Diana wore when she danced with Travolta up for sale

London

A midnight blue velvet gown worn by Princess Diana

when she danced with actor John Travolta at the White House is being put up for sale, an auction house said yester-day.

She wore the Victor Edel-stein dress when she and her then husband Prince Charles attended a state dinner host-ed by then president Ronald Reagan on November 9, 1985.

It was immortalised when Diana was photographed dancing with Travolta to the song “You Should be Dancing”

from his film “Saturday Night Fever”.

Estimated at £250,000-£ 3 5 0 , 0 0 0 ( $ 3 2 4 , 0 0 0 -$454,000), the dress is one of three being sold by Kerry Tay-lor Auctions on December 9.

They also include a long-sleeved dress from 1986 by Katherine Cusack, also in midnight-blue velvet, and a Catherine Walker navy wool day dress from around 1989.

The Edelstein dress was part of a collection of outfits that Diana herself sold for charity at auction in June 1997, just weeks before she was killed in a car crash in Paris.

Princess Diana wore the Victor Edelstein dress when she danced with actor John Travolta in 1985

Girl dies, several feared missing in bridge collapse

• A car bonnet could be seen sticking out of the water as helicopters circled overhead

• Among those feared missing were the truck driver and the driver of a potential third vehicle

Mirepoix-sur-Tarn | France

A 15-year-old girl was killed after a suspension bridge

over a river in southwest France collapsed yesterday, causing a car, a truck and possibly a third vehicle to plunge into the water, local authorities said.

Four people were rescued but several others were feared missing after the collapse of the bridge between Mirepoix-sur-Tarn and Bessieres, 30 kilo-metres (18 miles) north of Tou-louse, said fire service and local security chief Etienne Guyot.

The central part of the 155-metre (510-foot) bridge, measuring 6.5 metres wide, was submerged by the fast-flowing Tarn river.

A car bonnet could be seen sticking out of the water as hel-icopters circled overhead and emergency workers in inflat-able boats searched for survi-vors.

Over 60 emergency service members, including divers, were taking part in the rescue operation, Guyot told reporters, adding there were “probably several missing”.

Among those feared missing were the truck driver and the driver of a potential third ve-hicle, Guyot said, adding that witnesses had reported seeing a van on the bridge.

The dead girl was travelling by car across the bridge with her mother when it collapsed.

Her body was retrieved from the river, which is 100 metres wide and over 20 metres deep at the level of the bridge.

The girl’s mother was pulled alive from the sunken car by bystanders, some of whom were badly injured in the rescue at-tempt.

Two rescue workers were also seriously hurt, according to the region’s security depart-ment.

‘Important crossing point’An investigation into the

cause of the accident was un-derway.

The bridge, dated to 1931, had a load limit of 19 tonnes and was “regularly checked”, Guyot said.

The Haute-Garonne depart-ment council said the bridge had undergone a “thorough” inspection in 2017, which had shown “no structural problem”.

Mirepoix-sur-Tarn mayor Eric Oget described it as a “very important crossing point” for people going to work in the re-gionla capital Toulouse on the other side of the river.

Rescuers search the Tarn river for survivors after a suspension bridge collapsed

Cambodian Princess who rebuilt ‘Apsara’ dance dies aged 76

Phnom Penh

Cambodian Princess Norodom Bopha Devi,

a former culture minis-ter who helped resurrect traditional Apsara dance from the ashes of the brutal Khmer Rouge rule in the 1970s, died on Monday at the age of 76, premier Hun Sen said.

Daughter of late king No-rodom Sihanouk and half sister of current monarch Norodom Sihamoni, Bopha Devi died from an illness in a Bangkok hospital, accord-ing to family.

In a condolence letter shared on the prime min-ister’s Facebook page, Hun Sen said her death marked “the greatest loss of a mul-ti-skilled actor in the cultur-al sector”.

He later declared No-vember 20 a national day of mourning and for flags to fly at half-mast.


KNOW WHAT

We’re built like that, we’re stubborn. We know the price we

have to pay to live in this city. We’ve lost almost everything,”

he said. “All the Christmas orders had just arrived: new frames, gift

cards...

DE GUGLIELMI

Rogue elephant dies in captivity after killing villagersGuwahati | India

A rogue elephant named af-ter the late Al-Qaeda lead-

er Osama bin Laden has died in captivity after he was cap-tured following a massive hunt in northeastern India, officials said Sunday.

The male animal -- nick-named “Laden” -- was tracked for days by forestry officers and tranquilised on Monday after a deadly October rampage killed five villagers in Goalpara, in the northeastern state of Assam.

It was moved to Assam’s Orang National Park where offi-cials planned to teach it to patrol wildlife parks and sanctuaries in the state, but said it died early Sunday.

“The animal was behaving as normal. It was, however, kept with its legs tied so that it couldn’t escape,” a park rang-er, who asked to remain anony-mous, said.

The keeper reported the an-imal dead at roughly 5:00am (10:30 GMT) Sunday, he said.

The cause of death was un-clear, but a senior official said the state government had sent a team of veterinarians to carry out an autopsy.

Before the creature’s death,

the forestry department planned to tame it using “kraak” -- a con-troversial training regime used on younger elephants and con-demned by wildlife conserva-tionists as torture.

The animal was unsuitable for captivity because it was believed to be about 35 years old, conser-vationists said.

Nearly 2,300 people have been killed by elephants in India over the last five years, according to official figures released in June.

But 700 of the creatures have been killed since 2011, officials said, partly as a result of shrink-ing natural habitats.

They frequently migrate into Goalpara, resulting in high num-bers of fatal encounters with humans because of rampant de-forestation.

Many have been poisoned or shot by locals, or died on elec-tric fences and railways cutting through migration routes.The elephant was tracked for days by forestry officers and tranquilised after a deadly rampage killed five villagers

The male animal -- nicknamed “Laden”

-- was tracked for days by forestry officers and tranquilised on Monday after a deadly October rampage killed five vil-

lagers in Goalpara

Japan probe on its way back after asteroid mission

Reuters | Tokyo

A Japanese space probe is heading home from an asteroid 250 million km (155 million miles) from Earth after collecting

sub-surface samples that could help scientists seeking the ori-gins of life, Japan’s space agency said yesterday.

Asteroids are believed to have formed at the dawn of the solar system and scientists say the asteroid, called Ryugu, may con-tain organic matter that may have contributed to life on Earth.

If the return trip is completed successfully, that will be the first time samples from beneath an asteroid’s surface have been brought back to Earth, a spokeswoman for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said.

The unmanned Hayabusa 2, named after a falcon, began leav-ing Ryugu last week, but it is still sending images back to Earth.

Those observations will be wrapped up on Monday or Tues-day before its main engine is activated for the year-long flight, JAXA said.

“This is us bidding farewell to Ryugu,” the spokeswoman said.Hayabusa 2 is scheduled to return to Earth by the end of

2020. After dropping off a capsule containing the samples, without landing, the probe itself will keep on going and fly away into space, finishing its six-year, 29 billion yen ($266 million) mission.

Computer graphic handout image shows Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa 2 probe arriving at an asteroid in the image released by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency,

Venice comes up for air after week of record floodingAFP | Rome

Venice sought to return to normal life yesterday after a week of unprece-

dented flooding that devastat-ed the city, submerging homes, business and cultural treasures.

The wave of bad weather that struck throughout Italy -- from rivers of water rushing through the streets of the southern town of Matera to tornados in the Grosseto region of Tuscany - was still a concern in certain areas, and was expected to con-tinue.

In the north, the Trenti-no-Alto Adige region border-ing Austria was at high risk of avalanches, forecasters said, with continued strong rains expected to batter the region around Genoa and the island of Sardinia.

Schools reopened in Venice as shopkeepers with mops and buckets in hand tried to muck out the water and mud that had flooded their stores since Tues-day.

The high of 110-115 cm (3.6-3.7 feet) expected midday in Venice was a welcome improvement on the past week when the so-called “acqua alta,” or high wa-ters, exceeded a level of 150 cm three times.

Venetians are accustomed to flooding in their UNESCO city surrounded by a lagoon, but last week’s wave of inundations was unprecedented in modern times, with Tuesday’s high not seen since 1966.

St Mark’s square, in one of the lowest points of the city, begins to flood when the tide rises 80 cm above sea level, according to Venice’s tides authority.

“Forms will soon be available to citizens and businesses to claim compensation. Thanks to all who worked so hard to get through the day,” tweeted May-or Luigi Brugnaro on Sunday,

after the waters submerged yet again an estimated 70 percent of the city.

Outside a gallery, painter Da-vide De Guglielmi, vowed to reopen after cleaning up.

“We’re built like that, we’re stubborn. We know the price we have to pay to live in this city,” De Guglielmi told AGI.

“ W e ’ v e l o s t a l m o s t everything,” he said. “All the Christmas orders had just ar-rived: new frames, gift cards...,” he said.

Forecasters expect the waters not to exceed 110 cm in Venice in coming days, allowing resi-dents to assess the damage that the mayor has already put at over a billion euros.

On Sunday, residents of Flor-ence and Pisa braced for pos-sible flooding of the Arno riv-er, but the two Tuscan cities managed to escape flooding or damage and a state of alert was lifted.

In Italy’s northeast heavy snowfall on Sunday provoked an avalanche that grazed a populat-ed area of the Martell Valley in the Alto Adige, without causing major damage.

About 30 highways in the area remained closed to traffic on Monday and schools were shut.

Forecasters expect a welcome improvement in water levels in Venice over the coming days, allowing residents to assess damage the mayor has already put at over a billion euros

North Korea ‘no longer interested’ in summits with USSeoul

North Korea is “no longer in-terested” in summits with

the US unless Washington offers new concessions in their nucle-ar negotiations, Pyongyang said Monday, hours after Donald Trump hinted at the prospect.

“You should act quickly, get the deal done,” Trump tweeted Sunday, referring to North Ko-rean leader Kim Jong Un. “See you soon!”

Kim and Trump have met three times since June last year, but talks have been gridlocked since their Hanoi summit in February broke up in disagree-

ment over sanctions relief, while October’s working-level talks rapidly broke down in Sweden.

Pyongyang has set Wash-ington a deadline of the end of the year to come forward

with a fresh offer, and for-eign ministry advisor Kim Kye Gwan said the US was stalling while “pretending it has made progress”.

He interpreted Trump’s tweet as a signal for a new summit, he said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA, but declared: “We are no longer in-terested in such talks that bring nothing to us.”

“We will no longer gift the US president with something he can boast of,” he went on, adding the North should be compen-sated for the “successes” that President Trump touted as his own achievements.

Kim and Trump have met three times since June last year

Trump says will ‘strongly consider’ testifying in impeachment probeWashington

President Donald Trump s a i d ye s t e rd a y h e i s

“strongly” considering accept-ing a challenge from opposi-tion Democrats to testify in his own impeachment inves-tigation.

After the speaker of the lower house, Nancy Pelosi, upped the ante by suggesting that Trump come forward to tell the “truth,” the Repub-lican president said he was keen.

Pelosi suggested “that I tes-tify about the phony Impeach-ment Witch Hunt. She also

said I could do it in writing,” Trump tweeted.

“Even though I did nothing wrong, and don’t like giving credibility to this No Due Pro-cess Hoax, I like the idea & will, in order to get Congress focused again, strongly con-sider it!”

It was unclear what kind of testimony the president had in mind.

Any testimony by Trump would potentially be risky and his tweet could be nothing more than a tactical move in the tussle with Pelosi’s Dem-ocrats.


Metro

The US Army recent-ly joined forces with a UFO investigation group

to study mysterious advanced technology. To The Stars Acad-emy of Arts & Science is led by Tom DeLonge, a founding mem-ber of Blink 182, and was set up to investigate UFOs.

In a move one observer de-scribed as a ‘bizarre twist’, TTSA has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Army Combat Capabili-ties Development Command. The two organisations will now work together to ‘leverage de-velopments in material science, space-time metric engineering, quantum physics, beamed ener-gy propulsion, and active cam-ouflage’.

It’s not know how TTSA came to know about these technolo-gies, which are more associated with science fiction than gen-uine academic research. But it is rumoured to have obtained alien ‘metamaterials’ salvaged from UFOs.

The partnership comes after a series of astonishing revelations about a shadowy government research drive called the Ad-vanced Aerospace T h r e a t

Identification Program (AATIP), which investigated ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’.

‘Our partnership with TTSA serves as an exciting, non-tradi-tional source for novel materials and transformational technol-ogies to enhance our military ground system capabilities,’ said Dr Joseph Cannon of U.S. Army Futures Command.

‘At the Army’s Ground Vehicle Systems Center, we look for-ward to this partnership and the potential technical innovations forthcoming.’

Exotic technologiesThe AATIP project investi-

gated ‘exotic technologies’ in-cluding wormholes, antigravity, invisibility cloaking, warp drives and high energy laser weap-ons, as well as the health ‘con-sequences’ suffered by people who had close encounters with UFOs. One of the most famous incidents revealed during the exposure of AATIP took place in 2004 when pilots on the USS Nimitz Carrier Group were out-manoeuvred by ‘Tic Tac’ crafts moving so quickly they did not appear to obey the laws of phys-ics. It was headed up by Luis Elizondo, who currently serves as director of global security

and special programs at the To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science.

Several videos of super-fast aircraft have been released since the existence of AATIP was re-vealed by the New York Times in 2017, while earlier this year TTSA claimed to have obtained ‘exotic’ metals believed to have come from ‘an advanced aerospace vehicle of unknown origin’.

crashed spaceship?At this stage, there is no way of

knowing whether these materi-als were salvaged from a crashed alien spaceship or an experi-mental top-secret aircraft built here on Earth.

Steve Justice, TTSA’s chief op-erating officer and aerospace division director, added: ‘This cooperative research agreement brings additional, critically im-portant expertise that is neces-sary to advance the state-of-the-art in both our near and long-term technology areas of study.

‘While the Army has specific military performance interests in the research, much of the work is expected to have du-al-use application in support of TTSA’s path to commercializa-tion and public benefit mission.’

When asked Nick Pope, a for-

mer UFO investigator at the Min-istry of Defence, if he believed the US Army was now studying alien technology. He said: ‘This is arguably the most bizarre twist yet in the ongoing saga of the Pentagon’s UFO program. For some time now there have been rumours that one of the most tangible elements of AATIP related to strange materials – so-called “metamaterials” associat-ed with UFOs.

‘One allegation was that mon-ey had been spent on modifying buildings at Bigelow Aerospace’s Nevada facility, to store these materials.

Bigelow Aerospace won the AATIP contract and did much of the work. ‘Opinion is divided about these metamaterials.

wreckage from UFO!‘Believers think this could be

wreckage from the UFO they say crashed at Roswell in 1947. Sceptics suggest the materials might be nothing more remark-able than odd bits of metal found by the public over the years and associated with UFOs, more by wishful thinking than by virtue of any tangible evidence.’

In a recent interview with US news host Tucker Carlson, Luis Elizondo confirmed that some of these materials TTSA had col-lected were obtained from ‘gov-ernmental sources’.

‘If any of this was genuinely extraterrestrial in origin, scien-tific testing techniques such as isotopic ratio analysis and x-ray diffraction should be able to put the matter beyond dispute,’ Pope added. ‘Considering the meta-materials in the context of these new revelations about US Army interest, the important point is that if all of this was just non-sense, the government and the military would steer clear.

‘To engage in this way, the

US Army must either know or suspect that there’s a genuine technological advantage to be gained here, that collaboration with TTSA might deliver – and TTSA can legitimately be regard-ed as an offshoot of the US gov-ernment’s AATIP program, on the basis that many of the same people are involved.

‘The potential damage to the US Army’s reputation if TTSA can’t deliver anything is signifi-cant, so they must be very, very sure that there’s something to all this. Therefore, the signifi-cance of this research and de-velopment agreement cannot be overstated.’

Area 51The UFO community has

spent decades claiming that al-ien technology obtained from UFO crashes was being secret-ly ‘back-engineered’ at Area 51 and then quietly introduced into the military. But these claims have never been taken seriously. Pope added: ‘It was suggested that innovations such as stealth technology, night vision goggles and Kevlar body armour were all

derivations

from extraterrestrial technol-ogies.

‘These theories were widely dismissed as nonsense, but these new revelations about the US Army’s interest and involvement will only reignite such specu-lation, with many believing that the conspiracy theorists might have been right about this one all along.’ So are we on the verge of discovering the truth about whether aliens have been visiting Earth? ‘Whatever the truth of the matter, we’ve come a long way since the end of 2017 – before when the official line from the US government was that UFOs were of no interest and that no investigations were being undertaken,’ Pope added.

‘US Congress has been look-ing into AATIP and the spate of recent US Navy encounters with UFOs, and classified brief-ings on all this have been taking place. ‘Congress will doubtless demand to know what the US Army is doing partnering with TTSA, what they know about these bizarre metamaterials and their origin, and what technolo-gies or capabilities they hope to derive from all this.’

An apparently unidentified object on a Navy jet’s infrared camera

Aliens on the radarThe AATIP project investigated ‘exotic technologies’ including wormholes, antigravity, invisibility cloaking, warp drives and high energy laser weapons, as well as the health ‘consequences’ suffered by people who had close encounters with UFOs

Nick Pope greets fans and supporters at an AlienCon event. (Courtesy of Metro.co.uk)

An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to the Red Rippers of Strike fighter squadron (VFA) 11 takes off from USS Harry S. Truman in North Atlantic in September 2018

This drawing of a strange experimental aircraft was released in a patent


Hon. Chairman Najeb Yacob Alhamer | Editor-in-Chief Mahmood AI Mahmood | Chairman & Managing Director P Unnikrishnan | Advertisement: Update Media W.L.L | Tel: 38444692, Email: [email protected] | Newsroom: Tel: 38444680, Email: [email protected] & circulation: Tel: 36458394 | Email:[email protected] | Website: www.newsofbahrain.com | Printed and published by Al Ayam Publishing

BARIA ALAMUDDIN

Michel Aoun’s depress-i n g l y o u t- o f- t o u c h interview last week —

culminating in him disparagingly declaring “let them emigrate,” addressed at all Lebanese discon-tented with the miserable status quo — focused renewed popular anger against the president. A month after it began, the revo-lution accumulates momentum, energy and confidence with each passing week.

The nomination of Moham-med Safadi to head a new gov-ernment reassured nobody that Lebanon’s sectarian governing framework has renounced its clientelistic instincts (Safadi has since withdrawn his candidacy anyway). Protesters denounced the 75-year-old former finance minister as one of the corrupt elite’s more grotesque faces. “Choosing Mohammed Safadi for prime minister proves that the politicians who rule us are in a deep coma,” remarked one demonstrator.

No possible choice of Sunni prime minister can solve this crisis — the sectarian system is rotten to the core and must be abolished in its entirety. Saad Hariri is one of the few leaders to understand the depth of the popular anger; hence his insist-ence on only cooperating with a government entirely composed of technocrats. Hariri was burnt by

his participation in previous gov-ernments for the sake of consen-sus and civil peace — yet amount-ing to no more than a sticking plaster over a gaping wound.

Following his opportunistic embrace of the pro-Syria/Iran camp after his 2005 return from exile, Aoun became the corner-stone on which Hezbollah con-solidated its dominance of the Lebanese state, effectively neu-tralizing Lebanon’s Christians as a potential counterweight to Iranian hegemony.

Aoun, at the age of 84, is dis-connected from the realities of contemporary Lebanon. His son-in-law Gebran Bassil has been the real driving force behind efforts to cobble together a government behind the scenes and subvert the revolution’s momentum. These labours reportedly in-cluded meetings with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to pre-pare the ground for a transition of power from Aoun to Bassil. Yet Bassil is even more deeply loathed than Aoun — as attested by the unrepeatably rude chants from demonstrating crowds. Even among erstwhile Christian supporters of the Free Patriotic Movement, there is recognition that Aoun and Bassil stand guilty of facilitating Iran’s hostile take-over of their homeland.

This weekend’s sudden out-break of protests across Iran over skyrocketing petrol prices, along with the sustained explosion of anger against Iranian meddling in Iraq, should be a salutary re-minder to Nasrallah that the fu-ture disintegration of the Islamic Republic will cause the ground to disappear beneath his feet. Un-

til recently, Hezbollah appeared omnipotent; yet, with each pass-ing day of mass protests, Nasral-lah is left scrabbling to adjust to new realities.

The Iranian protests already have many commonalities with the Lebanese and Iraqi upris-ings, with economic grievances rapidly giving way to calls for “death to the dictator.” Attempts by Iraqi and Lebanese protesters to directly communicate with

each other indicate a way that citizens can capitalize on their common grievances — as they all ultimately desire an end to the detested ayatollahs’ regime.

Lebanon’s sectarianism and factionalism have set communi-ties against each other, rendering the country a plaything of foreign powers, with France, the US and various regional states having their favoured factional allies. However — as is the case with

OUR GREATEST GLORY IS NOT IN NEVER FALLING, BUT IN RISING EVERY TIME WE FALL.CONFUCIUS

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Let Aoun, Nasrallah

and Bassil be the ones to

emigrate Ordinary people’s voices have

been extinguished entirely in a state governed for the malign

pleasure of oligarchic and foreign interests

GAVIN ESLER

There is an old British cli-che that something tru-ly safe is “as solid as the

Rock of Gibraltar”. But Gibraltar itself does not entirely feel safe nowadays. Legally it is a British Overseas Territory, a tiny foot-hold of British imperial pow-er since 1704, attached to the landmass of mainland Europe at the southern tip of Spain. At the top of the Rock there is a sign that says the monkeys – Barbary macaques originally from the Rif mountains of Morocco – will snatch plastic bags from visi-tors. The monkeys know the bags often contain food. Very clever survivors, these monkeys live on a fortress that has been fought over for centuries.

I am on a short visit, thinking what an important part the Rock and the seas around here have played in British history. The Battle of Trafalgar was fought – and won – by the British fleet in the seas not far from where I am staying. Gibraltar stood out against Nazism and fascism in the Second World War and survives as a British territory, despite occasional friction with Spain. Everywhere, there are monuments to past conflicts adapted for peaceful use. Near my hotel was an air-raid shel-

ter with a sign that said it was built in 1939. A man in a Jaguar sports car was using it as a park-ing space.

Speaking to a local, I asked if the monkeys really do snatch plastic bags. She laughed and said one even stole the hat she was wearing from her head. I rather admire these monkeys – and the view from their home at the top of the Rock, from which you can see north Africa. The currency here remains the Brit-ish pound, the language is Eng-lish – although many workers come over the border from Spain every morning. The food is Brit-ish, Spanish and Moroccan. But many locals fear that their way of life is perhaps being snatched from them by the distant political monkeys in Westminster.

Most Gibraltarians loathe the idea of Brexit. At the Gibraltar Literary Festival, I am discussing my latest book on the subject and listening to local people, who say Britain leaving the Europe-an Union will complicate their lives unnecessarily as a result of their often fractious relationship with Spain. The recent Span-ish general election has proven a boost for the far-right party Vox. One group of Gibraltarians explained to me that Vox rep-resented a section of Spanish politics that “hates us”, was a

party for “fascists” and cherished the memory of Francisco Franco, Spain’s former dictator. Franco is controversial even in death. After years of protests, his body was exhumed last month from

Spain’s great war memorial and reburied in a private family plot.

In the 2016 Brexit referendum, an astonishing 96 per cent of Gibraltarians voted to remain in the EU. Every political party here

and every member of Gibraltar’s parliament supported Remain. All this points to a new strain in what it means to be part of the UK and its dependent territo-ries. Scotland, Northern Ireland,

Leaving the EU will remove the connection that those

living in places such

as Gibraltar have with the

UK

For UK territories, Brexit will amount to being cut off from Westminster



BARIA ALAMUDDIN

Michel Aoun’s depress-i n g l y o u t- o f- t o u c h interview last week —

culminating in him disparagingly declaring “let them emigrate,” addressed at all Lebanese discon-tented with the miserable status quo — focused renewed popular anger against the president. A month after it began, the revo-lution accumulates momentum, energy and confidence with each passing week.

The nomination of Moham-med Safadi to head a new gov-ernment reassured nobody that Lebanon’s sectarian governing framework has renounced its clientelistic instincts (Safadi has since withdrawn his candidacy anyway). Protesters denounced the 75-year-old former finance minister as one of the corrupt elite’s more grotesque faces. “Choosing Mohammed Safadi for prime minister proves that the politicians who rule us are in a deep coma,” remarked one demonstrator.

No possible choice of Sunni prime minister can solve this crisis — the sectarian system is rotten to the core and must be abolished in its entirety. Saad Hariri is one of the few leaders to understand the depth of the popular anger; hence his insist-ence on only cooperating with a government entirely composed of technocrats. Hariri was burnt by

his participation in previous gov-ernments for the sake of consen-sus and civil peace — yet amount-ing to no more than a sticking plaster over a gaping wound.

Following his opportunistic embrace of the pro-Syria/Iran camp after his 2005 return from exile, Aoun became the corner-stone on which Hezbollah con-solidated its dominance of the Lebanese state, effectively neu-tralizing Lebanon’s Christians as a potential counterweight to Iranian hegemony.

Aoun, at the age of 84, is dis-connected from the realities of contemporary Lebanon. His son-in-law Gebran Bassil has been the real driving force behind efforts to cobble together a government behind the scenes and subvert the revolution’s momentum. These labours reportedly in-cluded meetings with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to pre-pare the ground for a transition of power from Aoun to Bassil. Yet Bassil is even more deeply loathed than Aoun — as attested by the unrepeatably rude chants from demonstrating crowds. Even among erstwhile Christian supporters of the Free Patriotic Movement, there is recognition that Aoun and Bassil stand guilty of facilitating Iran’s hostile take-over of their homeland.

This weekend’s sudden out-break of protests across Iran over skyrocketing petrol prices, along with the sustained explosion of anger against Iranian meddling in Iraq, should be a salutary re-minder to Nasrallah that the fu-ture disintegration of the Islamic Republic will cause the ground to disappear beneath his feet. Un-

til recently, Hezbollah appeared omnipotent; yet, with each pass-ing day of mass protests, Nasral-lah is left scrabbling to adjust to new realities.

The Iranian protests already have many commonalities with the Lebanese and Iraqi upris-ings, with economic grievances rapidly giving way to calls for “death to the dictator.” Attempts by Iraqi and Lebanese protesters to directly communicate with

each other indicate a way that citizens can capitalize on their common grievances — as they all ultimately desire an end to the detested ayatollahs’ regime.

Lebanon’s sectarianism and factionalism have set communi-ties against each other, rendering the country a plaything of foreign powers, with France, the US and various regional states having their favoured factional allies. However — as is the case with

OUR GREATEST GLORY IS NOT IN NEVER FALLING, BUT IN RISING EVERY TIME WE FALL.CONFUCIUS

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Let Aoun, Nasrallah

and Bassil be the ones to

emigrate Ordinary people’s voices have

been extinguished entirely in a state governed for the malign

pleasure of oligarchic and foreign interests

GAVIN ESLER

There is an old British cli-che that something tru-ly safe is “as solid as the

Rock of Gibraltar”. But Gibraltar itself does not entirely feel safe nowadays. Legally it is a British Overseas Territory, a tiny foot-hold of British imperial pow-er since 1704, attached to the landmass of mainland Europe at the southern tip of Spain. At the top of the Rock there is a sign that says the monkeys – Barbary macaques originally from the Rif mountains of Morocco – will snatch plastic bags from visi-tors. The monkeys know the bags often contain food. Very clever survivors, these monkeys live on a fortress that has been fought over for centuries.

I am on a short visit, thinking what an important part the Rock and the seas around here have played in British history. The Battle of Trafalgar was fought – and won – by the British fleet in the seas not far from where I am staying. Gibraltar stood out against Nazism and fascism in the Second World War and survives as a British territory, despite occasional friction with Spain. Everywhere, there are monuments to past conflicts adapted for peaceful use. Near my hotel was an air-raid shel-

ter with a sign that said it was built in 1939. A man in a Jaguar sports car was using it as a park-ing space.

Speaking to a local, I asked if the monkeys really do snatch plastic bags. She laughed and said one even stole the hat she was wearing from her head. I rather admire these monkeys – and the view from their home at the top of the Rock, from which you can see north Africa. The currency here remains the Brit-ish pound, the language is Eng-lish – although many workers come over the border from Spain every morning. The food is Brit-ish, Spanish and Moroccan. But many locals fear that their way of life is perhaps being snatched from them by the distant political monkeys in Westminster.

Most Gibraltarians loathe the idea of Brexit. At the Gibraltar Literary Festival, I am discussing my latest book on the subject and listening to local people, who say Britain leaving the Europe-an Union will complicate their lives unnecessarily as a result of their often fractious relationship with Spain. The recent Span-ish general election has proven a boost for the far-right party Vox. One group of Gibraltarians explained to me that Vox rep-resented a section of Spanish politics that “hates us”, was a

party for “fascists” and cherished the memory of Francisco Franco, Spain’s former dictator. Franco is controversial even in death. After years of protests, his body was exhumed last month from

Spain’s great war memorial and reburied in a private family plot.

In the 2016 Brexit referendum, an astonishing 96 per cent of Gibraltarians voted to remain in the EU. Every political party here

and every member of Gibraltar’s parliament supported Remain. All this points to a new strain in what it means to be part of the UK and its dependent territo-ries. Scotland, Northern Ireland,

Leaving the EU will remove the connection that those

living in places such

as Gibraltar have with the

UK

For UK territories, Brexit will amount to being cut off from Westminster

Bahrain continues to play a key role in the new coalition. It is not only participating in the coalition but also willing to host the head office of the operation, which has recently become functional.

Lebanon’s sectarianism and factionalism have

set communities against each other, rendering

the country a plaything of foreign powers, with

France, the US and various regional states having their

favoured factional allies.


TOP

4TWEETS

04

02

01

Never has the Repub-lican Party been so

united as it is now. 95% A.R. This is a great fraud being played out against the American people by the Fake News Media & their partner, the Do Nothing Democrats. The rules are rigged by Pelosi & Schiff, but we are win-ning, and we will win!

@realDonaldTrump

03

I’m sickened to once again wake up to news

of a mass shooting. My heart goes out to the community of Fresno, the first responders on the scene, and the vic-tims’ families. We can’t go on with the status quo. You should be able to feel safe in your own backyard.

@KamalaHarris

We can only invest in our great pub-

lic services if we support the entrepreneurs, busi-nesses and hardworking people who get up each day to build our strong economy.

@BorisJohnson

Being too self-centred can give rise to anx-

iety and depression. An effective antidote is to cultivate a sense of altru-ism, taking the whole of humanity into account. Appreciating the one-ness of humanity leads us to recognise our es-sential equality as human beings.

@DalaiLama

Disclaimer: (Views expressed by columnists are personal and need not necessarily reflect our

editorial stances)

Syria and Iraq — Arab influence in Lebanon has lamentably with-ered away altogether in recent years.

Of all the foreign parties, it is Tehran that came to domi-nate the Lebanese arena through its chosen vehicle of Hezbol-lah, while exploiting clients like Aoun to monopolize the entire political system. Instead of the sectarian system guaranteeing that all communities are repre-

sented, ordinary people’s voices have been extinguished entirely in a state governed for the malign pleasure of oligarchic and for-eign interests. The Aoun-Bassil relationship is a further remind-er of the feudal nature of Leba-non’s politics, with the same few families monopolizing power since pre-civil war days. How can anybody mistake this for de-mocracy?

The civil war shattered Leba-non’s sense of collective national belonging. Recent protests herald the rebirth of this unified identi-ty, the rejection of sectarianism, and an assertion of national sov-ereignty. The revolution’s first martyr, Alaa Abou Fakhr, has posthumously come to embody this patriotic mood, with his face appearing on huge murals and across social media, while the local school and the American University of Beirut have pledged to cover the costs of his bereaved children’s education.

Whether in Iran, Lebanon or Iraq, democracy only exists when

people’s choices at the ballot box are meaningfully reflected in the composition and agenda of the administration. A nation state can only exist when people’s primary loyalties and affiliation are to the entire motherland and not to communities segmented along bitter sectarian divides or to for-eign powerbrokers.

Aoun’s insulting retort about appointing independent techno-crats — “Where can I find them? On the moon?” — illustrates his blinkered detachment from the deep reserves of experienced, ed-ucated and dedicated figures that Lebanon can draw on when the crooks are forced to step aside.

Lebanon’s chronic crises and cronyism, generation after gener-ation, have consistently impelled its finest minds to choose the uncertainties and rootlessness of exile. Rather than dismissive-ly exhorting patriotic citizens to emigrate, future leaderships should offer their most outstand-ing citizens incentives to invest their energies, wealth and exper-tise in their homeland.

This is a nation capable of great things, if only protesters retain the courage of their convictions and follow through on this rev-olution to bring in a new gen-eration of leaders dedicated to Lebanon’s well-being rather than their own.

If Nasrallah, Aoun, Bassil and others dislike this aspiration, then they know where they can go.

(Baria Alamuddin is an award-win-ning journalist and broadcaster in the

Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has

interviewed numerous heads of state.)

1952Greek Field Marshal Alexander Papagos becomes the 152nd Prime Minister of Greece.

1954Télé Monte Carlo, Europe’s oldest private television channel, is launched by Prince Rainier III.

1959The Ford Motor Company announces the discontinuation of the unpopular Edsel.

1967The establishment of TVB, the first wireless commercial television station in Hong Kong.

TODAY DAY IN

HISTORY

United response against threats

Commercial sea-lanes, littoral states and Is-lands are prone to maritime-based security risks including piracy and terrorism. Around

two decades ago, Somali pirates wreaked havoc on the maritime navigation in the Western Indian Ocean and Southern part of the Red Sea. Pirates seized dozens of ships, several sailors abducted, and millions of dollars ransom demanded.

The incident has negatively affected commercial navigation and accordingly supplies including oil to world markets fell short of the demand that lead to price hikes and caused a temporary shock to the global economy.

Individual country’s effort to ward off the chal-lenges proved to be unsuccessful. Then some countries took an initiative to establish a coalition of forces to confront the pirates, the outcomes of which gave an overwhelming setback to the piracy operations. Within few months, the security of the maritime navigation was secured, commercial activities revived and some abductees freed.

Bahrain, due to its geostrategic location, played a dominant role in the fight against piracy, smuggling

of illegal drugs and terrorism. The Bahrain based and US-led Com-bined Maritime Forces (CMF), has successfully ward off terrorism, piracy and illegal drug smuggling along the world’s most important chock point - Bab Al Mandab- through which one fifth of the daily oil exports pass through. In general, the CMF gave maritime security to over 3.2 million square miles of ocean stretching from the Red sea to Gulf of Aden to Western Indian Ocean.

Yet again, another threat looms large in the region. Following the Iran –US standoff, the Arabian Gulf maritime navigation does not seem to be secured. Proxy forces alleged-

ly backed by Iran appear to be active in the region. The oil route that passes through the Strait of Hormuz is under security threat. Unlike the Somali pirates who were operating as a group of loosely or-ganized bandits, this time the proxy forces, backed by Iran are suspected to be behind the sabotage.

On several occasions, oil cargo ships were bombed, explosive dynamites planted along the routes has disrupted oil export and as a result, pric-es went up temporarily. Iran took ships hostage at least on two occasions and reciprocal measures were taken by affected countries. The standoff seems to be eased now but the threat still looms large in the area.

Once again, the United States initiated interested countries to establish a coalition force similar to the CMF, headquartered in Bahrain, to confront those forces that aim to disrupt oil flow along the Strait of Hormuz and to restore the freedom of navigation and ensure safe and secure shipping lanes for cargos.

Bahrain continues to play a key role in the new coalition. It is not only participating in the coalition but also willing to host the head office of the operation, which has recently become functional. The new US-led coalition named as the International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC), also known as Operation Sentinel, cur-rently composed of seven nations including Bah-rain. It is tasked with monitoring, policing the shipping lanes and affording protection to cargo vessels. Since its formation, sabotages along the Strait of Hormuz seem to have subsided.

Formation of alliance has been and continues to be at the centre of Bahrain’s foreign policy for both security and prosperity purposes with the aim of safeguarding its own interests and stabilizing the region. Let us remember that Bahrain was an ac-tive participant in the US-led coalition against the so- called Islamic State terrorist in Syria and Iraq. It is also actively engaging in the Saudi –led forces in Yemen against the Iran backed Houthi rebels, aimed at restoring the legitimate government.

London and Gibraltar voted Re-main three years ago but they were overruled by the majority of English voters. Now, in my re-cent visits to Belfast, Edinburgh and Gibraltar, many citizens I

have spoken to and heard from in public meetings say they feel resentful that their opinions do not count for much. And that is the flaw in having a referendum in the first place.

Brexit, above all, is about the politics of identity. Those still opposed to Brexit often manage to juggle several layers of iden-tity – Scottish, Northern Irish or Ulster, Gibraltarian, plus British, plus a citizen of the EU. Brexit means being forced to drop one identity – that of EU citizen – and in Gibraltar that could at best be a significant inconvenience at the Spanish border. Those in favour of Brexit say losing freedom of movement in the EU is a price worth paying

to restore “lost sovereignty”, and avoiding “interference” from the EU.

But sovereignty, as I learned from the leading British jurist Sir David Edward, is a slippery idea. Sir David said that at its core sov-ereignty is about power. Within the EU, the British have accepted some dilution of sovereignty in order to achieve a greater eco-nomic and political power as part of the world’s richest trading bloc. But in Scotland, Northern Ireland and most notably here in Gibraltar, loss of sovereignty means something different. It means, some Gibraltarians said, a sense of powerlessness to influ-ence the faraway British govern-ment in Westminster.

All this political turmoil adds up to a very profound change in the way the parts of the UK and dependencies like Gibraltar now see themselves, with many fearing that the union itself may be in jeopardy. It would be a truly great irony if the Conservative party of Boris Johnson, steeped in the history of the British empire and of the union of the UK, were to “get Brexit done” – as their slogan tells us – and then find that Brexit, like one of those cheeky Gibraltar mon-keys, snatches away the historic structure of the country that they claim they wish to preserve.

For UK territories, Brexit will amount to being cut off from Westminster All this political turmoil

adds up to a very profound change in the way the parts of the UK and dependencies

like Gibraltar now see themselves, with many

fearing that the union itself may be in jeopardy.

YENUS S

10

business


Mazda3 named Women’s World Car of the Year 2019

Hiroshima, Japan

Mazda3 has been named “Supreme Winner” of the

2019 Women’s World Car of the Year awards.

The model also won Women’s World Family Car of the Year.

Established in 2010, Women’s

World Car of the Year #WWCOTY is voted on by a panel of female judges from over 30 different countries who are asked to vote according to criteria women use when buying a car.

The Mazda3 adopts a matured Kodo design language that aims to embody the essence of Japa-

nese aesthetics. While the overall form pre-

sents a simple, single motion, subtle undulations bring the de-sign to life through shifting light and reflections that glide over the body surface.

The result is a more natural and powerful expression of vi-

tality than previous Kodo mod-els.

Despite sharing the Mazda3 moniker, the hatchback and se-dan models have distinct per-sonalities; the design of the hatchback is emotive, the sedan elegant.

The model incorporates Maz-

da’s Skyactiv-Vehicle Architec-ture, designed to help people to make the most of their natural sense of balance.

The powertrain lineup com-prises the latest Skyactiv-X, Skyactiv-G and Skyactiv-D en-gines, each of which provides responsive speed control in any

driving situation. Based on its philosophy of

designing the car around the human being, Mazda has dra-matically enhanced the model’s fundamental driving attributes to make accelerating, turning and braking feel completely nat-ural.

The model also won Women’s World Family Car of the Year.During the award ceremony.

Air Arabia places $14bn order for 120 Airbus A320 aircraft

• The deal announced at Dubai

• New orders include a mix of Airbus A320neo, A321neo and A321XLR aircraft

Sharjah, UAE

Sharjah-based Air Arabia yesterday announced an order for 120 Airbus A320

Family aircraft during Dubai Airshow 2019.

The new orders are for 73 A320neo, 27 A321neo and 20 A321XLR airplanes.

Delivery is scheduled to com-mence in 2024, but the company is yet to specify the engines to be installed.

The deal, whose total book value exceeds US$14 billion (list price), will more than triple Air Arabia’s current fleet strength

as well as support the carrier’s global network expansion strat-egy.

The deal was signed by Air Arabia’s Chairman Sheikh Ab-dullah Bin Mohammed Al Thani and Guillaume Faury, Chief Ex-

ecutive Officer of Airbus. Adel Al Ali, Group Chief

Executive Officer of Air Ara-bia, said: “The addition of the A320neo, A321neo and A321XLR complements our existing fleet and allows us to expand our

service to farther and newer destinations while remaining loyal to our low-cost business model.”

Air Arabia’s current fleet consist of 54 Airbus A320 & A321neo-LR.

The deal was signed by Air Arabia’s Chairman Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Al Thani and Guillaume Faury, Chief Executive Officer of Airbus.

Emirates chairman warns of ‘tough’ second halfReuters | Dubai

Dubai state-owned airline Emirates chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said on Monday the airline will face

a tough second half of the company’s financial year.“There are headwinds, all the time changing... This year has

been tough. It will be tough,” he said.

Boeing close to winning order for 737 MAX from Turkey’s SunExpressReuters | Dubai

Boeing is close to a deal to sell some 737 MAX aircraft

to Turkish carrier SunExpress, industry sources said on Mon-day.

Boeing declined to com-ment. SunExpress, a subsid-iary of Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa did not respond to a request for comment.

Boeing was due to make an aircraft order announcement later on Monday at the Dubai Airshow but the details could not immediately be confirmed.

Reuters reported on Sunday that SunExpress, which uses an earlier version of the 737, was a potential target for Boe-

ing at the Dubai Airshow as it tries to shore up confidence in the MAX after it was grounded in March over safety concerns.

Randy Tinseth, vice president of Commercial Marketing for Boeing Airplanes

German airline Hahn Air issues first blockchain-based ticketsReuters | New York

German airline Hahn Air, which offers scheduled and

charter flights within Europe, announced yesterday it has is-sued the first airline tickets en-abled by blockchain technology, in partnership with Winding Tree, an open-source travel dis-tribution platform.

Blockchain, which f irst emerged as the system pow-ering bitcoin, is a shared data-base maintained by a network of computers.

Hahn Air yesterday flew passengers holding block-

chain-powered tickets on its scheduled flight from Dussel-dorf to Luxembourg. The first blockchain passengers are Mak-

sim Izmaylov, Founder of Wind-ing Tree; Dave Montali, chief information officer of Winding Tree; and Frederick Nowotny, Head of Sales Engineering at Hahn Air.

“For us, it is important to look into the future to understand how can we make distribution faster,” Jörg Troester, Hahn Air’s head of corporate strate-gy and government & industry affairs, told Reuters in a phone interview.

He added that after the flight, the airline will analyze the de-tails of how things worked for

the first blockchain ticket and look into ways on how to com-mercialize it.

“We are not at that point right now,” Troester said.

Aside from being an airline, Hahn Air is also a distribution solution for travel agents.

Using the Winding Tree plat-form, Hahn Air is able to list inventory, manage the reserva-tion requests, and receive pay-ments once the booking process is complete. As a mode of pay-ment, the airline accepts cash, credit card, or cryptocurrency, either the lif token or ether.

Hahn Air yesterday flew passengers holding blockchain-powered tickets

Swiss exchange to bid for Spanish BME bourseZurich

Swiss stock exchange op-erator SIX said yesterday

it planned to bid for Bolsas y Mercados Espanoles (BME) to create Europe’s third biggest operator, just as pan-European exchange Euronext signalled its own interest in the Spanish firm.

The Swiss group said in a statement that it was propos-ing an all-cash tender offer of 34 euros per share for BME, which was 33.9 percent over

its closing price on Friday, for a total of 2.84 billion euros ($3.14 billion).

The share price premium implies that investors were betting on a potential contest over BME which would likely result in a sweetened offer.

BME for its part called the SIX offer “amicable”, meaning it has the backing of the target company’s board.

Earlier Monday, Euronext announced that it was in talks with BME with the aim of tak-ing over the Spanish operator.


HP says open to exploring bid for XeroxReuters

HP Inc said on Sunday it was open to exploring a

bid for US printer maker Xerox Corp after rebuffing a $33.5 billion cash-and-stock acqui-sition offer from the latter as “significantly” undervaluing the personal computer maker.

Xerox made the offer for HP, a company more than three times its size, on Nov. 5, after it resolved a dispute with its joint venture partner Fujifilm Holdings Corp that represent-ed billions of dollars in poten-tial liabilities.

Responding to Xerox’s offer, HP said in a statement that it would saddle the combined company with “outsized debt” and was not in the best interest of its shareholders.However, HP left the door open for a deal that would involve it becoming the acquirer of Xerox, stating that it recognised the potential

benefits of consolidation.“With substantive engage-

ment from Xerox management and access to diligence infor-mation on Xerox, we believe that we can quickly evaluate the merits of a potential trans-action,” HP said in its state-ment.

The move puts pressure on Xerox to open its books to HP. Xerox did not immediately re-spond on Sunday to a request for comment on whether it will engage with HP in negoti-ations as the potential acqui-sition target, rather than the acquirer.

Pursue ‘innovation and creativity’ to overcome challenges: Minister

TDT | Manama

Bahrain’s oil minister has expressed his keenness to promote young Bahrainis

talents to take up key roles in the industry here, thereby boosting the Kingdom’s overall compet-itiveness in the sector.

The National Oil and Gas Au-thority (NOGA) and oil compa-nies are “keen to provide spe-cialised courses and training to Bahrainis in the sector,” said Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa.

Shaikh Mohammed was in-augurating the BSTD Second Annual Human Resources De-velopment International Con-ference, under the theme “In-

novation and Future Skills”, on Sunday at the Diplomat Hotel.

The minister said it’s impor-tant to boost Bahrain’s empow-erment drive in the sector and overcome global challenges “through innovation and crea-tivity,” the minister said.

Promoting young Bahrainis to senior positions and help them understand the challenges and competition in the industry would “enhance the develop-ment of the oil sector in the Kingdom,” the minister said.

Outlining the benefits, Shaikh Mohammed said Bahrain was able to make the “great histor-ical oil discovery”, thanks to the efforts of ambitious young Bahrainis.

In this regard, the minister praised the role of Bahrain So-ciety for Training and Develop-ment (BSTD) in promoting and developing human resources.

Oil and Gas Academy in The Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) is providing appropri-ate specialised scientific pro-grammes in oil and gas to sup-port young nationals.

The two-day conference or-ganised by BSTD in cooperation with the International Federa-tion of Training and Develop-ment Organisations was held in coordination with the Na-tional Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA). Tamkeen, The Oil and Gas Holding Company (noga-holding), Nass Corporation, Al

Salam Bank and several local and regional companies sup-ported the event.

The conference showcased several technical papers and the latest experiences in innova-tion, digital transformation and artificial intelligence by local and international experts and speakers.

Dr Ramin Mohajer, Advisor to the Ministry of Technology and Communications in Oman, Dr Bijan Majidi, CEO of Dinamica International, Hassan Jarrar, CEO of Bahrain Islamic Bank, Dr Akbar Jaffari, CEO of Jafcon Consultants for Productivity Improvement, and Dr Jassim Haji, President of Artificial In-telligence Society took part.

Oil minister Shaikh Mohammed with other top officials in the oil sector during the inaguration of the BSTD Second Annual Human Resources Development International ConferenceBritain’s Johnson drops

corporate tax cut plan

Reuters | London

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yes-terday he was putting

on hold further cuts in cor-poration tax and told voters he would use the money for spending on health and other priorities.

His comments addressed a central issue in a Dec. 12 elec-tion as Johnson has been un-der pressure to show how he would pay for a plan to reverse cuts to many public services over the past decade and boost infrastructure investment.

“We are postponing further cuts in corporation tax,” John-son told business leaders at a conference organised by the Confederation of British In-dustry, an employers’ group.

“This saves 6 billion pounds that we can put into the pri-orities of the British people, including the NHS (National

Health Service).”Britain’s main corporation

tax is among the lowest among the world’s industrialised economies but the government had been due to cut it to 17% next year from 19% now.

In September, finance min-ister Sajid Javid announced Britain’s biggest increase in day-to-day spending in 15 years in what was widely seen as an attempt to counter the spending promises of the left-wing opposition Labour Party.

Johnson, who called the election to try to secure a ma-jority in parliament that would back his plan for Britain’s de-parture from the European Union, said on Monday he would keep Javid as his fi-nance minister if their Con-servatives win the election. British media have reported tensions between the teams of the two most powerful men in the government.

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks at the annual CBI Conference in London

Emirates announces $16 billion deal to buy 50 Airbus 350Dubai

Emirates Airline said yester-day it would buy 50 Airbus

350-900 widebody aircraft in a $16 billion deal, as it reorganises its fleet after cutting orders of the A380 superjumbo.

“I am happy to announce we are purchasing 50 Airbus 350 for $16 billion,” the carrier’s chair-man and CEO Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum told report-ers at the Dubai Airshow, adding that delivery would begin from

May 2023.Its move earlier this year to cut

39 aircraft from its total A380 or-ders prompted Airbus to pull the plug on the costly plane, which airlines have struggled to fill to its capacity of 500-850 people.

At the time, Emirates said it would buy smaller A330 and A350 models instead in a deal worth $21.4 billion.

The airline said that Mon-day’s announcement “replac-es the heads of agreement

signed in February where Emirates announced its intent to purchase 30 A350s and 40 A330Neos.”

Sheikh Ahmed said the deci-sion “follows a thorough review of various aircraft options and of our own fleet plans.”

The airline said the A350 will enable it to serve a range of new markets, including on long-haul routes up to 15 hours of flying time from its base in Dubai.

The UAE air force aerobatic team performs at the Dubai Airshow with an Airbus A380 superjumbo, which airlines have struggled to fill to capacity

Coty to pay $600 mn for stake in Kylie Jenner cosmetics brandNew York

Beauty products giant Coty announced yesterday a deal

to take a majority stake in Kylie Jenner’s cosmetics and skincare company, marrying Jenner’s ce-lebrity prominence with Coty’s distribution and commercial prowess.

Under the transaction, Coty, whose brands include Hugo Boss and Burberry fragrances, will pay $500 million for a 51 percent stake in Jenner’s com-pany.

Jenner, the youngest daughter of Kris Jenner and Caitlyn Jen-ner, formerly known as Bruce Jenner, has more than 270 million social media followers and rates as “one of the most influential voices among beau-

ty consumers globally,” said a statement from both companies.

She launched the brand in 2015 with “Kylie Lip Kit” and

has since added eyeliners, eye shadows, blushes and other items.

“I’m excited to partner with

Coty to continue to reach even more fans of Kylie Cosmet-ics and Kylie Skin around the world,” Jenner said.

“This partnership will al-low me and my team to stay focused on the creation and development of each prod-uct while building the brand into an international beauty powerhouse.”

Coty described the deal as part of its effort to become a “more focused and agile com-pany” adding that its global capacities in research and de-velopment, manufacturing and distribution, as well as exper-tise in cosmetics, would enable Jenner’s products to thrive as a “high growth, digitally native beauty brand.”

Kylie Jenner, shown with rapper Travis Scott, reached a deal to sell a majority stake in her cosmetics business to Coty for $600 million

Emirates serves a global network

spanning over 158 destinations in 84 countries. Its fleet stands at 261 large aircraft, including

113 Airbus A380 su-perjumbos and 158 Boeing 777 planes.


Key figures around 1530 GMT New York - Dow Jones: 0.4pc at 26,017.31 points

London - FTSE 100: 0.6pc at 7,516.03 (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: 0.5pc at 12,494.24 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: 0.4pc at 5,478.06 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: 0.7pc at 3,431.82

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: 0.1pc at 22,869.50 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: 0.9pc at 28,164.05 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: 1.1pc at 2,737.74 (close)

Euro/dollar: at $1.1646 from $1.1709 at 2100 GMT

Pound/dollar: at $1.3004 from $1.3028

Dollar/yen: at 111.24 yen from 111.68 yen

Saudi Arabian stocks gain on financialsReuters

Saudi Arabian stocks rose yesterday, led by gains in financial shares, but Egypt

saw a sharp decline as most blue-chip stocks fell.

Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index advanced 0.9 per cent, with Al Rajhi Bank rising 1.1pc and National Commercial Bank climbing 1.3pc.

Mediterranean and Gulf Co-operative Insurance and Re-insurance (MedGulf ) climbed 2.7pc, a day after it signed a health insurance contract with Saudi Electricity. However, Sau-di Electricity traded 0.6pc down.

Saudi Industrial Export was up 1.8pc following its board approval on Sunday to open a branch in Baghdad.

B a s i c C h e m i c a l I n d u s -tries hiked 1.7pc. The chemical firm, in a bourse filing, said that

it has completed 35pc of work in its chlorine production project at Jubail Industrial City.

E g y p t ’ s b l u e - c h i p i n -

dex dropped 1.2pc, with 28 of its 30 stocks declining. The coun-try’s largest lender Commercial International Bank fell 1pc and

El Sewedy Electric eased 3.6pc.In Dubai, the index retreated

0.9pc, led by a 1.6pc fall in Emir-ates NBD.

In the previous two sessions the lender gained over 10pc after it confirmed on Wednesday the sale of 31 million shares in Net-work International Holdings for 160 million pounds.

Arabtec Holding plunged 10pc, its biggest fall since May. On Friday, the firm swung to a third-quarter loss, compared with a profit a year earlier.

Among other real estate stocks, DAMAC Properties tum-bled 4.8pc. Last week, the de-veloper reported a 78pc plunge in third-quarter profit amid an extended slowdown in Dubai’s property sector.

DAMAC shares have fallen by 50pc this year, with profits con-tracting in the first three quar-ters, according to Refinitiv data.

The Abu Dhabi index extend-ed losses to close 0.3pc down, a day after it saw its biggest fall since August. Telecoms firm Emirates Telecommunica-tions decreased 0.7pc, whereas Invest Bank dived 9.9pc.

Earlier in November, the latter reported accumulated losses of 1.86 billion dirhams as of Sep-tember.

In Qatar, the index .QSI was down 0.2pc, with Qatar Electric-ity and Water and Ezdan Hold-ing dropping 2.6pc and 0.8pc.

Closing bell SAUDI 0.9pc to 8,000 pts

ABU DHABI 0.3pc to 5,047 pts

DUBAI 0.9pc to 2,682 pts

QATAR 0.2pc to 10,297 pts

EGYPT 1.2pc at 14,379 pts

BAHRAIN 0.2pc to 1,502 pts

OMAN 0.2pc to 4,086 pts

KUWAIT 0.3pc at 6,280 pts

A trader watching stock movements (Courtesy of Nasdaq)

Stocks slide as investors puzzle over trade talksLondon

Global stock markets most-ly fell yesterday as trad-

ers wondered when and how a US-China trade war will be resolved, prompting mild prof-it-taking after strong recent gains, dealers said.

Optimism over ongoing trade talks between the US and Chi-na had helped push US markets to new records last week, but “a deal has yet to be inked and whether the US will roll back tariffs on China remains a huge point of contention”, said an-alysts at the Charles Schwab brokerage.

“Stocks are in the red head-ing into the close after it was reported the mood in Beijing in relation to a deal is ‘pessi-mistic’,” said David Madden, market analyst at trading firm CMC Markets UK.

“It is believed that China are not happy that President Trump is not interested in rolling back on tariffs,” he added.

“It is likely that this is a ploy by China, but for now dealers are keen to adopt a more risk-off approach,” said Madden.

The major European markets finished lower save for London’s FTSE 100 which squeeked out a gain of less than 0.1 pc.

Meanwhile on Wall Street the main indices were also margin-ally lower in late morning trad-ing.

Earlier in Asia, Hong Kong stocks rallied after last week’s hefty losses but investors remain on edge over violent protests

that have wracked the city. Else-where, Asian equities diverged.

‘Close communication’Before the weekend, Wall

Street’s Dow finished above 28,000 for the first time on Fri-day after top White House offi-cials played up the progress of negotiations with Beijing.

US President Donald Trump’s economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the first part of a wider pact was on track, while Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that there’ll be a deal “in all likeli-hood”.

Then on Saturday, China said Vice Premier Liu He had spo-

ken to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and had a “constructive discussion on each side’s core concerns regarding the phase-one agree-ment”.

It added that the two sides will “continue to maintain close communication”.

The comments provided a much-needed fillip after differ-ences over whether, when and by how much to reduce tariffs on each other’s goods spilled out into the open.

Trump this month denied the Chinese commerce minis-try’s claim that the two sides had agreed to roll back exist-ing tariffs as part of the deal, details of which have not been released.

In foreign exchange markets, the pound extended gains on opinion polls showing a big lead for the ruling Conserva-tive party ahead of next month’s general election, with traders hoping a clear victory will help Prime Minister Boris John-son push through his Brexit deal.

Shares in Madrid stock ex-change operator BME, mean-while, rose nearly 38 pc at 35.04 euros, in reaction to a bid by Swiss exchange SIX valuing BME at 34 euros per share.

The premium over the offer price reflected investor senti-ment that Euronext, which ear-lier said it was talking to BME about a takeover, might swoop in with a hostile counter-offer.

Key figures around 1630 GMTLondon - FTSE 100: less than 0.1 pc at 7,307.70 points (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: 0.3 pc at 13,207.01 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: 0.2 pc at 5,929.79

EURO STOXX 50: 0.3 pc at 3,699.74

New York - Dow: less than 0.1 pc at 28,008.82

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: 0.5 pc at 23,416.76 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: 1.4 pc at 26,681.09 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: 0.6 pc at 2,909.20 (close)

Pound/dollar: at $1.2969 from $1.2901 at 2100 GMT

Euro/pound: at 85.49 pence from 85.67 pence

Euro/dollar: at $1.1086 from $1.1053

Dollar/yen: at 108.59 yen from 108.78 yen

Brent North Sea crude: 1.8 pc at $62.15 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: 1.6 pc at $56.82

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange at Wall Street in New York City.

Fed chief reasserts independence in talks with Donald TrumpWashington

Federal Reserve Chairman Je-rome Powell reasserted the

independence of the US central bank during White House talks with President Donald Trump on Monday, the Fed said.

Powell attended the meeting, which comes amid an unprec-edented campaign of public at-tacks on the central bank, at the invitation of the president, and was joined by Treasury Secre-tary Steven Mnuchin, the Fed said in a statement.

In a tweet, Trump, who has lambasted Powell in harsh, per-

sonal terms over monetary poli-cy, said the meeting was “good & cordial,” adding that “everything was discussed” including inter-est rates, inflation, foreign ex-change and the Fed’s balance sheet policies.

The Fed, however, said Pow-ell’s comments were consistent with last week’s congressional testimony and did not concern “expectations for monetary pol-icy,” except to say it will depend entirely on new economic in-formation.

“Finally, Chair Powell said that he and his colleagues on

the Federal Open Market Com-mittee will set monetary policy, as required by law, to support maximum employment and sta-ble prices and will make those decisions based solely on care-ful, objective and non-political analysis,” the statement said.

Powell has long insisted pol-icymakers disregard politics when setting policy.

But Trump has repeatedly hammered the central bank, calling policymakers “bone-heads” and “clueless,” and accus-ing them of mistakenly raising interest rates in 2018 and being

too slow to lower them this year.The Fed’s policy-setting Fed-

eral Open Market Committee has cut interest rates three times this year, saying that Trump’s trade war in particular poses a danger to the economy, which has slowed since the start of the year.

But, after the most recent cut, Powell said last month the cen-tral bank will hold its fire for now as officials wait to see how the economy progresses.

Trump and Powell had last met in February, over dinner at the White House.

President Donald Trump has lambasted Fed chief Jerome Powell in harsh, personal terms over monetary policy

SoftBank’s Yahoo Japan to merge with Line app operator

Tokyo

Japan’s Softbank said yes-terday it will merge its Z

Holdings unit -- formerly called Yahoo Japan -- with popular chat app Line in a multibillion-dollar deal it hopes will help it better compete against big guns in the digital services sector such as Amazon.

The tie-up will create a tech giant worth $30 billion, with Softbank and South Korea’s Naver Corp, which owns a majority stake in Line, to offer shareholders 5,200 yen a share.

Once the deal expected in October next year is agreed, the new company will delist with each side holding a 50 percent stake.

SoftBank holds about 44 percent of Z Holdings while Naver owns 73 percent of Line. The two expect to spend 170 billion yen ($1.56 billion) each on the bid.

Line was launched in 2011 after Japan’s quake-tsunami disaster damaged telecoms infrastructure

CHARLIE’S ANGELS (PG-15)(ACTION)OASIS JUFFAIR : 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PM OASIS JUFFAIR (VIP): 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.30 + 6.00 + 8.30 + 11.00 PMCITY CENTRE:(12.45 MN THURS/FRI)CITY CENTRE (IMAX 2D) :10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.30 + 6.00 + 8.30 + 11.00 PMCITY CENTRE (ATMOS):11.30 AM + 2.00 + 4.30 + 7.00 + 9.30 + 12.00 MNCITY CENTRE VIP (I) :11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PMSEEF (I): 11.15 AM + 12.15 + 1.45 + 2.45 + 4.15 + 5.15 + 6.45 + 7.45 + 9.15 + 10.15 + 11.45 PM+ (12.45 MN THURS/FRI.)WADI AL SAIL: 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PM

KRISTEN STEWART, NAOMI SCOTT, ELLA BALINSKA

THE GOOD LIAR (PG-15)(DRAMA)OASIS JUFFAIR :12.30 + 5.00 + 9.30 PMCITY CENTRE:10.45 AM + 1.15 + 3.45 + 6.15 + 8.45 + 11.15 PM SEEF (II):12.30 + 2.45 + 5.00 + 7.15 + 9.30 + 11.45 PMWADI AL SAIL:10.45 AM + 3.00 + 7.15 + 11.30 PM

HELEN MIRREN, IAN MCKELLEN, RUSSELL TOVEY

HAUNT (15+)(HORROR/THRILLER)OASIS JUFFAIR : 2.45 + 7.15 + 11.45 PMCITY CENTRE:11.30 AM + 1.45 + 4.00 + 6.15 + 8.30 + 10.45 PM + (1.00 AM THURS/FRI)SEEF (II):10.30 AM + 12.45 + 3.00 + 5.15 + 7.30 + 9.45 + 12.00 MN + (12.45 MN THURS/FRI.)WADI AL SAIL:1.45 + 6.45 + 11.45 PM

KATIE STEVENS, WILL BRITTAIN, LAURYN ALISA MCCLAIN

MARJAAVAAN (PG-15)(HINDI)OASIS JUFFAIR : 12.30 + 3.15 + 6.00 + 8.45 + 11.30 PMCITY CENTRE:12.45 + 3.30 + 6.15 + 9.00 + 11.45 PMSEEF (I): 12.15 + 3.00 + 5.45 + 8.30 + 11.15 PMSEEF (II):(12.45 MN THURS./FRI.)WADI AL SAIL:1.30 + 6.30 + 11.30 PM

RITEISH DESHMUKH, SIDHARTH MALHOTRA, TARA SUTARIA

MOTICHOOR CHAKNACHOOR (PG-13)From Friday 15th OASIS JUFFAIR : 3.00 + 8.30 PMCITY CENTRE:12.15 + 3.00 + 5.45 + 8.30 + 11.15 PMSEEF (I): 12.45 + 3.30 + 6.15 + 9.00 + 11.45 PMWADI AL SAIL:11.00 AM + 4.00 + 9.00 PM

NAWAZUDDIN SIDDIQUI, ATHIYA SHETTY, SANJEEV VATSA

ONE PIECE : STAMPEDE (PG)OASIS JUFFAIR : (JAPANESE) : 2.15 + 6.45 + 11.15 PMCITY CENTRE :(JAPANESE) :12.00 + 4.45 + 9.30 PMSEEF (II):(ENGLISH) 11.15 AM + 1.30 + 5.15 + 9.00 PMWADI AL SAIL: (JAPANESE) :9.15 PMWADI AL SAIL: (ENGLISH) :11.15 AM + 4.15 PM

FELECIA ANGELLE, MAJOR ATTAWAY, GREG AYRES

THE LAST DOOR’S HOUR (PG)(BAHRAINI/DOCUMENTARY) SEEF (II): 3.45 + 7.30 + 11.15 PM

Director: Khalid AlRowaie

BY CHANCE, BEL SODFA (15+)(ARABIC/ DRAMA/ ROMANTIC) SEEF (I): 4.45 + 9.30 PM

CAROLE SAMAHA, BADIH ABOU CHAKRA, PAMELA EL KIK

MALEFICENT 2: MISTRESS OF EVIL (PG)ةةةة ة OASIS JUFFAIR :12.00 + 4.30 + 9.00 PMOASIS JUFFAIR (KIDS CINEMA):2.30 + 6.45 PMCITY CENTRE: 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PM + (12.30 MN THURS/FRI)CITY CENTRE VIP (II):3.15 + 8.30 PMSEEF (II): 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.30 + 6.00 + 8.30 + 11.00 PM WADI AL SAIL:10.45 AM + 1.15 + 3.45 + 6.15 + 8.45 + 11.15 PM

ANGELINA JOLIE, TERESA MAHONEY, MICHELLE PFEIFFER

JOKER (15+)(THRILLER/CRIME/DRAMA) ةةةةةة CITY CENTRE: 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.45 + 6.30 + 9.15 + 12.00 MNCITY CENTRE VIP (II):12.30 + 5.45 + 11.00 PMSEEF (II): 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PM

JOAQUIN PHOENIX, ZAZIE BEETZ, ROBERT DE NIRO

PLAYING WITH FIRE (PG)(ADVENTURE/COMEDY/FAMILY) OASIS JUFFAIR (KIDS CINEMA):10.30 AM + 4.45 + 11.00 PMCITY CENTRE:11.15 AM + 1.30 + 3.45 + 6.00 + 8.15 + 10.30 PMSEEF (II):12.15 + 2.30 + 4.45 + 7.00 + 9.15 + 11.30 PMWADI AL SAIL:10.30 AM + 3.45 + 9.00 PM

JOHN CENA, KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY, JOHN LEGUIZAMO

TERMINATOR: DARK FATE (PG-15)ةةةةةة ةة CITY CENTRE: 12.30 + 3.15 + 6.00 + 8.45 + 11.30 PMSEEF (II) : 11.30 AM + 2.00 + 4.30 + 7.00 + 9.30 + 12.00 MN

LINDA HAMILTON, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, MACKENZIE DAVIS

BALA (PG-15)(HINDI/COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANTIC) OASIS JUFFAIR : 12.00 + 2.45 + 5.30 + 8.15 + 11.00 PMSEEF (II):3.30 + 9.00 PM

AYUSHMANN KHURRANA, BHUMI PEDNEKAR, YAMI GAUTAM

MIDWAY (PG-13)(ACTION/THRILLER/DRAMA/WAR) CITY CENTRE:11.30 AM + 5.30 + 11.30 PM

ED SKREIN, PATRICK WILSON, LUKE EVANS

THE ADDAMS FAMILY (PG)(ANIMATION/COMEDY) OASIS JUFFAIR (KIDS CINEMA): 12.30 + 9.00 PMCITY CENTRE: 10.30 AM + 12.30 + 2.30 + 4.30 + 6.30 + 8.30 + 10.30 PMSEEF (II): 10.45 AM + 12.45 + 2.45 + 4.45 + 6.45 + 8.45 + 10.45 PMWADI AL SAIL:1.00 + 5.15 + 9.30 PM

OSCAR ISAAC, CHARLIZE THERON, CHLOË GRACE MORETZ

DOCTOR SLEEP (15+)(THRILLER/HORROR) ةةةةة ةةةة CITY CENTRE: 2.30 + 8.30 PM

EWAN MCGREGOR, REBECCA FERGUSON, KYLIEGH CURRAN

GEMINI MAN (PG-15)(ACTION/THRILLER/DRAMA) ةCITY CENTRE: 11.15 AM + 1.45 + 4.15 + 6.45 + 9.15 + 11.45 PM

WILL SMITH, MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD, CLIVE OWEN

ABOMINABLE (PG)(ANIMATION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY) CITY CENTRE:10.30 AM + 1.15 + 5.30 + 9.45 PM

CHLOE BENNET, TENZING NORGAY TRAINOR, ALBERT TSAI

COUNTDOWN (15+)(HORROR/THRILLER) ةةةةةةةة ةةةة CITY CENTRE: 11.15 AM + 3.30 + 7.45 + 12.00 MN

CHARLIE MCDERMOTT, ANNE WINTERS, ELIZABETH LAIL

HOUSEFULL 4 (PG-15)(HINDI/COMEDY) ةةOASIS JUFFAIR:11.45 AM + 5.15 + 10.45 PMSEEF (II):12.45 + 6.15 + 11.45 PM

AKSHAY KUMAR, POOJA HEGDE, RITEISH DESHMUKH

KHAYAL MAATA (PG)(COMEDY/DRAMA) ةةةة ةةةة CITY CENTRE: 12.00 + 4.45 + 9.30 PM

AHMAD HELMY, MINNA SHALABI, HASSAN HOSNEY

ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP (15+)ةةةةةة CITY CENTRE:2.30 + 7.15 + 12.00 MN

WOODY HARRELSON, JESSE EISENBERG, EMMA STONE

ANGEL HAS FALLEN (PG-15)(ACTION/THRILLER/DRAMA) CITY CENTRE :2.15 +7.00 + 11.45 PM

GERARD BUTLER, MORGAN FREEMAN, JADA PINKETT SMITH

KAITHI (PG-15)(TAMIL) OASIS JUFFAIR: 2.30 + 8.00 PMAL HAMRA: 12.00 NOON.

KARTHI, NARAIN, GEORGE MARYAN

SAFE ()(MALAYALAM) SEEF (I):3.15 PM

SIJU WILSON, ANUSREE, APARNA GOPINATH

41 (PG-15)(MALAYALAM) OASIS JUFFAIR : 12.15 + 5.45 + 11.15 PMSEEF (I) :8.45 + 11.30 PM

BIJU MENON, NIMISHA SAJAYAN

ANDROID KUNJAPPAN VERSION 5.25 ()(MALAYALAM) OASIS JUFFAIR: 11.45 AM + 5.30 + 11.15 PMSEEF (II): 12.00 + 5.45 + 11.30 PMAL HAMRA: 3.00 + 9.00 PM

SOUBIN SAHIR, SURAJ VENJARAMUDU, KENDY ZIRDO

ACTION (PG-15)(TAMIL) FromThursday 7:30pm Onwards.OASIS JUFFAIR: 2.30 + 8.15 PMSEEF (II) :2.45 + 8.30 PMWADI AL SAIL:12.45 + 6.00 + 11.15 PMAL HAMRA: 6.00 + (12.00 MN THURS./FRI)

VISHAL, TAMANNAH, AISHWARYA LEKSHMI, YOGIBABU, AKANKSHA PURI

JHALLE ()(PUNJABI/COMEDY) SEEF (I):2.15 + 7.00 + 11.45 PM

BINNU DHILLON, SARGUN MEHTA, PAWAN MALHOTRA

SANGA THAMIZHAN ()(TAMIL) From Friday 15th SEEF (I): 12.15 + 5.45 PM

VIJAY SETHUPATHI, RAASHI KHANNA, NIVETHA PETHURAJ

JABARDAST SHANKARA (PG-13)(TULU) SEEF (I): 11.45 AM

ARJUN KAPIKAD, NISHMITHA

13 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019

M O V I E R E V I E W

Once Upon a Time is a fairy tale tribute to Hollywood’s golden age

Once Upon a Time in Hol-lywood is a 2019 come-dy-drama film written

and directed by Quentin Taran-tino. Produced by Columbia Pic-tures, Bona Film Group, Heyday Films, and Visiona Romantica and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is a co-production between the United States and the United Kingdom.

It features a large ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Timo-thy Olyphant, Austin Butler, Da-kota Fanning, Bruce Dern, and Al Pacino. Set in 1969 Los Ange-les, the film follows an actor and his stunt double as they navigate the changing film industry, and features “multiple storylines in a modern fairy tale tribute to the final moments of Hollywood’s golden age”.

Announced in July 2017, it is the first Tarantino film to not involve Bob and Harvey Wein-stein, as Tarantino ended his partnership with them follow-ing the sexual abuse allegations against the latter. After a bidding war, the film was distributed by Sony Pictures, which met Taran-tino’s demands including final

cut privilege. Pitt, DiCaprio, Robbie, Zoë Bell, Kurt Russell, and others joined the cast be-tween January and June 2018. Principal photography lasted

from June through November around Los Angeles. It is the last film to feature Luke Perry, who died in March 2019.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film

holds an approval rating of 85% based on 505 reviews, with an average rating of 7.81/10. The site’s critical consensus reads, “Thrillingly unrestrained yet

solidly crafted, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood tempers Tarantino’s provocative impuls-es with the clarity of a mature filmmaker’s vision.”

Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 61 critics, indi-cating “universal acclaim”.Au-diences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of “B” on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average of 4 out of 5 stars and a 58% “definite recommend.”

The Hollywood Reporter said critics had “an overall positive

view”. Some calling it “Tarantino’s

love letter to ‘60s L.A.’”, prais-ing its cast and setting. Oth-ers were “divided on its end-ing.”ReelViews, James Berard-inelli awarded the film 3.5 stars out of 4, saying it was “made by a movie-lover for movie-lovers.

And even those who don’t qualify may still enjoy the hell out of it”.

RogerEbert.com’s Brian Tal-lerico gave it four out of four stars, calling it “layered and am-bitious, the product of a confi-dent filmmaker working with collaborators completely in tune with his vision”.

The Chicago Sun-Times, Rich-ard Roeper described it as “a brilliant and sometimes outra-geously fantastic mash-up of real-life events and characters with pure fiction”, giving it full marks.

Writing for Variety, Owen Gleiberman called it a “heady engrossing collage of a film—but not, in the end, a masterpiece”.

Peter Bradshaw of The Guard-ian gave it five out of five stars, praising Pitt and DiCaprio’s per-formances and calling it “Taran-tino’s dazzling LA rede

DON’T MISS IT

Announced in July 2017, it is the first Tarantino film to

not involve Bob and Harvey Weinstein

14 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2019

Sona Mohapatra ‘elated’ to get Tanushree Dutta’s supportMumbai

Singer Sona Mohapatra is “truly elated” to re-

ceive actress Tanushree Dutta’s support in her pro-test against composer Anu Malik being reinstated as judge on Sony TVs “Indian Idol Season 11”. Last year, Malik was removed as Sea-son 10 judge after Sona al-leged that the composer h a d s ex-ually har-assed her. There were accusations against Malik by other sing-ers such as Neha Bhasin, Shweta Pandit and Caralisa Monteiro, too.

Tanushree, who kick-started the Me Too cam-paign in Bollywood in 2018, in a recent interview said that she wanted to “stand up, raise my hands up and applaud Sona Mohapatra” for her guts to speak up against Malik.

Shruti Haasan heads to UK soon for upcoming concertsMumbai

Actress-singer Shruti Haasan has the Ta-mil film “Laabam”

and an untitled Telugu project coming up, and is also focussing on her musical journey. She will head to the UK later this month for her latest gigs.

Shruti, who had toured the UK earli-er this year, will be doing another set of concerts there

in November and December. The gigs will start from November 28.

“I’ve really enjoyed performing in the UK and the response has been great. I’m also meeting some really accomplished musicians who I hope to collaborate with in the

near future,” she said.This year, Shruti starred

in her first internation-al series, “Treadstone”, which released a few months back. She plays the recurring character Nira Patel in the action drama series.

Aamir Khan makes an impressive ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’Mumbai

Superstar Aamir Khan on Monday unveiled

his look from “Laal Singh Chaddha”.

He shared his look on Twitter while introducing himself as: “Sat Sri Akaal ji, myself Laal...Laal Singh Chaddha.”

The ac-tor looks simple and innocent in a pink and grey ch eck shirt and grey trousers with a powder pink turban. He can also be seen sporting a long beard.

The image currently has 2.7K Retweets and 30.1K Likes. Aamir’s fans couldn’’t stop themselves from commenting on the actor’s look.

One wrote: “300cr on the way. Best of luck laal singh chaddha.”

Another said: “Sir Leave No Stone Unturned to make #LaalSinghChaddha a C-L-A-S-S-I-C.”

Hannah Jeter went into hiding after gaining weight post pregnancy

Los Angeles

Model Hannah Jeter has revealed that she “went

into hiding’’ after she gained weight during her first preg-nancy.

In an interview with the Editorialist, Hannah shared her difficulty with her post pregnancy weight loss recent-ly, reports dailymail.co.uk.

She jokingly admitted that she “went into hiding” after gaining 70 lbs following the birth of daughter Bella.

“No one really saw me, but I have pictures,” she said.

Hannah also gained 55 lbs after welcoming daughter Story earlier this year.

The star also assumed that she would be able to “bounce back’’ to her previous figure after birth.

She added: “I always thought, you know, I’m going to have kids and go right back to work and pop back into shape. And it’s not that easy.”

Demi Lovato spends quality time with boyfriend Austin Wilson

Los Angeles

Looks like Demi Lo-v a t o i s

spending some quality time with

her new boyfriend Aus-tin Wilson as they went for a hike in Los Angeles.

On Sunday (local time), the singer and model Aus-tin Wilson went for a hike in Los Angeles together, and it was the first time the new couple have been pho-tographed together in public, reported Peo-ple magazine.

While on the hike, Lovato and Wilson appeared to smile, holding hands and cuddling up to one another.

T h e ‘ S o r -ry Not Sor-r y ’ s i n g e r s p o r t e d a pair of leg-gings with a Nirvana T-shirt and b a s e b a l l cap. Wilson coordinat-ed with his girlfriend by rocking a baseball cap along

with sweatpants and a Metallica T-shirt.

Their first pub-lic outing comes just days after the

pair seemed to make their romance Ins-tagram official. Last week, Lovato shared

an Instagram photo of herself with the model.

W i l s o n a l s o posted a photo of the pair to his own In-stagram ac-count at the same time. He captioned the cozy pho-to, “My Love.”

Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck petition for release of Snyder cut version of ‘Justice League’Los Angeles

Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck have joined the chorus for demanding the Snyder

cut version of their film “Justice League”.

Fans of the DC Extended Uni-verse (DCEU) long believe that an original cut from director Zack Snyder of the 2017 film exists and have been petitioning Warn-er Bros for its release.

Snyder, who had previous-ly helmed “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Jus-

tice”, had left “Justice League” during the

post-production due to a family tragedy.

The studio had then roped in Joss Whedon, best known

for Marvel tentpole “The Avengers” and its

follow-up “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, to oversee the post-production as well as the film’s reshoots.

However, many people believe Whe-don had significantly toned down the film, making it different from one envisioned by Snyder. The film ultimately performed moderately at the box office.

Jason Momoa, who portrayed Aquaman in the film, has time and again demanded the release of Snyder cut.

But now, he has found support in Gadot and Affleck, who played Wonder Woman and Batman in the film, respectively.

Ben Affleck

Hannah Jeter

Aamir Khan

Sona Mohapatra

Austin Wilson

Demi Lovato

Manushi Chillar: First shot for

debut film was simply surrealMumbai

Former beauty queen Manushi Chillar gave the first shot for her debut Hindi film “Prithviraj” on Monday. It was a “beautiful coincidence”, she

noted that she gave her first shot for the film on the same day she was crowned Miss World two years ago.

“It is really a beautiful coincidence that I gave my first shot for “Prithviraj’’ on the same day that I had won Miss World two years back. November 18 is definitely one of the most spe-cial days of my life and I’m thrilled that two of my life’s biggest

milestones fall on the same day. Giving the first shot for my debut film was simply

surreal,” she said.Manushi said she has a lot of grati-

tude.“I know I have a lot of hard work to

do to prove myself as an actor and I’m prepared to do just that. I wish the universe showers the film and me with tons of good luck.”

Directed by Chandraprakash Dwivedi, “Prithviraj” is based on

the life and heroism of the fear-less king Prithviraj Chauhan. It stars

superstar Akshay in the title role while Manushi will play the

role of the Sanyogita, the love of his life.

Gal Gadot


CBA Division D T-20 LeagueTornado A 133/5 (Sooraj 35, Ravi 24, Seban 2/18) beat Superb XI 126/8 (Kaleem 30, Sarath 2/23) by 7 runs

Kooheji Contractors 106/2 in 9.4 overs (Faisal 56, Sam 2/18) beat Black Feathers 104/10 (Sayed 50, Riaz 4/26) by 8 wickets

Phoenix 105/9 (Prakash 27, Ramesh 4/14) beat Falcon CC 100/5 (Sujeendran 33, Rajesh 3/19) by 5 runs

Kothambawala XI 121/7 (Yusuf 53) beat Hydrabad Boys 103/10 (Raju 39, Yusuf 4/16, Ravi 3/16) by 18 runs

Jinnah CC 173/10 (Sheroz 56, Nafees 28, Parabakaran 2/29) beat Cebarco 153/6 (Millon 108, Abdullah 3/15) by 20 runs

Matrix CC 211/6 (Danushke 102, Vijesh 50, Jomon 2/21) beat Kerala XI 151/5 (Ravi 43, Sajeer 24) by 60 runs

Bulls CC 180/9 (Hari 54, Chandrasekar 42, Surfus 3/16) beat United CC 104/10 (Gireesh 22, Anil 4/17, Sumesh 3/16) by 76 runs

Rising Stars 120/7 (Joju 38, Noufal 2/9) beat RCB 71/10 (Salam 14, Pranav 3/12) by 49 runs

Indian Super Kings 64/10 (Ravi 09, Karan 2/8) tied with Young Blasters 64/9 (Zulfi 23, Ravi 3/15)

Super Kings 122/6 (Suraj 42, Deepu 43, Khan 2/16) beat Spartan CC 89/10 (Zeeshan 20, Rafique 4/11, Praveen 4/11) by 33 runs

Infonas 109/9 (Arafath 20, Naeem 3/10) beat Nelofar Events 91/10 (Ashfaq 25, Haroon 3/21, Rashid 3/19) by18 runs

Karnataka Strikers 143/10 (Haider 48, Tushara 2/17) beat Alfa Fire 115/10 (Kumara 29, Sainu 4/28) by 28 runs

CBA division B T-20 Results Tornado IRS 181/6 (Suhail 61, Aneesh 29, Barathi 3/20) beat Strikers 120/8 (Prinson 47, Abeejith 3/21) by 61 runs

Lagoona Blues 149/4 in 19.2 overs (Swapnil 47, Asif 31) beat Climax 148/5 (Rajon 68, Awad 30, Majid 2/17) by 6 wickets

RKCT 122/6 in 18.2 overs (Suraj 22, Allaudeen 2/10) beat Young Challengers 121/10 (Tauseef 41, Guru 2/6) by 4 wickets

BOC 133/6 in 19.5 overs (Shahi 43, Abbasi 36, Jamal 2/16) beat Hajwari Zalmi 132/10 (Atif 44, Ubaid 37, Nawaf 3/27) by 4 wickets

Indian Lions 103/9 (Sikdar 22, Karthick 3/14) beat Bahrain Indians 89/10 (Biju 44, Ameer 3/8) by 14 runs

Six Bahrainis triumph in Drag Racing season-opener at BICTDT | Manama

Bahrain International Cir-cuit (BIC) hosted an ac-

tion-packed first round of the 2019/2020 Bahrain Drag Rac-ing Championship over the weekend in Sakhir.

A massive field of more than 100 participants took to BIC’s quarter-mile drag strip for four days of excitement, culminating with plenty of heated head-to-head battles on Race Day, which determined the meeting’s win-ners.

From the total number of competitors, 73 were racing in cars while another 40 were on bikes. Bahraini drivers, emerged victorious on the night, include Mohammed Mubarak, Hamad Al Murbati, Hussain Moham-med, Tariq Hadi, Abdulla Al-doseri and Hussain Ali.

Mubarak claimed first place in the Outlaw FWD category. He won with a run of 9.375s in the final, where he defeated fel-low-Bahraini Zakariya Abdulla, who clocked 9.585s.

Al Murbati triumphed in the Super Street 6-Cylinder class with a time of 7.580s. He over-came the challenge of Ali Saleh of Saudi Arabia, who had a mark of 7.986s in their decisive battle.

Mohammed followed suit in the Super Street V8 category with a winning time of 4.408s, beating Abdulla Alshamsi of Saudi.

Hadi was the winner in the Pro Mod class in 4.155s, with Hani Ali, also of Bahrain, fin-ishing as the runner-up.

Aldoseri claimed first place

in the Index 10.5 category with a run of 10.530s in their final. Countryman Abdulrahman Askar had to settle for second in 10.554s.

Ali rounded out the list of Bahraini winners for the day following his triumph in the Index 9.5 class. He had a time of 9.443s in the final, where he defeated fe l low-Bah-raini Abdul la Hassan in 9.665s.

Elsewhere amongst the cars categories, Obaid Al Blooshi from the UAE won the Com-petition 4.5 with a final run of 4.515s. He beat fellow-Emirati Abdulmajid Al Zarooni who had a 4.532s mark. Ahmed Mohammed Alkhalifa of Saudi followed suit in the Index 8.5 class with an 8.733s time. Ad-nan Sulaiman of Kuwait was second. Meanwhile, in the mo-torbikes categories, four differ-ent winners emerged.

Fadi Abu Jamus of Pales-tine claimed the Street Fight Bikes class with a final run of 9.537s, beating Bahraini Hamad Ahmed’s 9.639s.

Khalid Aldoseri of Saudi won the Index 8.5 Bikes in 8.531s. Abu Jamus came second in 8.694s for his second podium of the night.

Mishari Alturki of Saudi was the top man amongst Super Street Bikes runners. He won their final against compatriot Jehad Al Jamal.

Mohammed Alawwad of Ku-wait then won the Pro Bikes category with a mark of 4.075s. Christopher Dominique of the USA was the runner-up in 4.044s.

Tornado ISR beat Strikers by 61 runs

TDT | Manama

A tidy performance by Torna-do bowlers took the game

away from Strikers in their CBA division B T-20 match by restricting them to 120 runs and winning the match by 61 runs.

Tornados were asked to bat

first by Strikers captain after winning the toss.

But an entertaining stroke play by opening batsman Suhail blasted the game away from Strikers with a quick 61 runs.

Batsmen following Suhail maintained the scoring rate setting a target of 181 runs for Strikers in 20 overs.

Barathi took three wickets

for Strikers. In second innings, Tornado

pacers took up the responsi-bility and dominated the show.

Abeejith turned the match around for Tornodo’s by pick-ing three Strikers’ wickets and restricting them to 120 runs.

P r i n s o n w a s s t r i k e r s top-scoring batsman with 41 runs.

Danushke - Matrix Sheroz - Jinnah CC Sohail - Tornado Vijesh - Matrix

Al Awadhi shoots highest single game in bowling World Cup

• Al Awadhi took down 1,239 total pins over his first six games for an average of 206.50

TDT | Manama

Bahrain’s Ahmed Al Awa-dhi scored the highest

single game of the first day as he enjoyed a superb start to his men’s qualifying campaign yesterday in the 55th Qubi-caAMF Bowling World Cup, being played in Palembang, Indonesia.

The 20-year-old outplayed many of his more experienced counterparts and secured a place in the top 10 after the first of four rounds of play at Jakabaring Bowling Centre.

Al Awadhi took down 1,239 total pins over his first six games for an average of 206.50.

His outing put him in 10th place overall amongst the field of 73 of the world’s top bowl-ers.

His almost played a perfect game after scoring a 290 in the day’s sixth and final game. That was the top single-game score of the day.

He also had a low of 154 in game number two, while his other scores were 212, 204, 183 and 196.

Francois Louw of South Af-rica rose to the top of the qual-ifying standings with a first-round total of 1,345 pins and a 224.17 average. Following in

second place was Daniel Vezis of Latvia with a 1,302 total and 217.00 average, while Christo-pher Sloan of Ireland was third with a 1,290 total and 215.00 average.

Ranked ahead of Al Awadhi from fourth through ninth, re-spectively, were Lee Wanhee of South Korea, Jasem Alsaqer of Kuwait, Niko Oksanen of Finland, Dian Dinev of Bulgar-ia, Oliver Morig of Germany and Ryan Lalisang of Indo-nesia.

Qualifying continues today with the second round of an-other six games. Al Awadhi is hoping to remain in the top 24, which makes the cut for the next round.

Al Awadhi at the World Cup in Palembang

Bahrain International Trophy arrives ahead of historic raceBespoke trophy commissioned from the longest-serving jeweller in the world, The House of GarrardTDT | Manama

A key component of the inaugural Bahrain Inter-national Trophy horse

race has arrived on the island, in the form of a bespoke tro-phy commissioned from the longest-serving jeweller in the world, The House of Garrard.

Designed and handcrafted in Garrard’s London studio, the stunning sterling silver cup is 45cm in size and is supported by an elegant mahogany and silver base.

It will be unveiled during the Post Position Draw (PPD) that is taking place at the Rashid Equestrian and Horseracing Club (REHC) tomorrow, which will be broadcast live and exclu-sively on Racing TV for interna-tional audiences and on BTV for local audiences.

The House of Garrard has been serving royalty and private clients worldwide for almost 300 years, with a legacy of cre-ating some of the world’s most illustrious sporting trophies, including The Dubai World Cup in addition to the America’s Cup, The Royal Ascot Gold Cup, The British Masters Trophy and

The Cricket World Cup.The occasion coincides with

the showcase of Garrard’s new Wings Embrace designs at Jew-ellery Arabia, as the renowned jewellery house and silversmith expands its presence in the re-gion.

The magnificence of the tro-phy, plus its illustrious makers,

reflect the prestige and stature of the horse racing event and its participants.

Bahrain International Trophy is the island’s first international horse race, debuting as a major fixture on the world calendar. Bursting out of the gates in fine form, it has attracted world-re-nowned runners, jockeys, own-

ers, trainers, and media figures.The historic race will be held

at REHC on Friday, with the sup-port of local partners Gulf Air, Bapco and Batelco.

Bahrain International Trophy is expected to spur the intro-duction of more glittering in-ternational racing events to the kingdom in the future.

The stunning sterling silver cup is designed and handcrafted in Garrard’s London studio


Bahrain to go all outNational team hoping to grab full three points with a victory against tough Iraqi side

TDT | Manama

National team head coach Helio Sousa says that Bahrain will be going all

out to claim a victory against Iraq today in their joint-qualifier for the Fifa World Cup 2022 and the AFC Asian Cup 2023.

The Bahrainis will be hoping to come away with the full three points, which would propel them to the top of qualification Group C.

The match is set to be played at Amman International Stadi-um and it is scheduled for a 5 pm kick-off, Bahrain time.

Speaking in his official pre-match Press conference yester-day, Sousa said that he is expect-ing a tough challenge against the Iraqis, who he described as a very strong team that will be posing a great test for Bahrain.

The Portuguese coach add-ed, however, that his squad is prepared to take the challenge head-on, and that they will be doing their very best to defeat their opponents.

It will be the national team’s fifth match of qualifying. Iraq are currently in solo first place in the Group C standings where they have 10 points from their four games, two points ahead of Bahrain. Iran are third with six points, followed by Hong Kong with two and Cambodia with one point.

Sousa noted that Bahrain are hoping to bounce back from the negative result they had in Hong Kong on Thursday last week when they dropped two points in a goalless stalemate in a game that they could have won. Iraq had also clinched a 2-1 vic-tory over Iran that same evening, which helped them move to the top of the group table.

Sousa said that Bahrain have played two games against Iraq over the past few months and both teams know each other’s styles and areas of strength. Bahrain drew 1-1 in their first

qualifying meeting at home in early September – a match that came after the Bahrainis de-feated an understrength Iraq side in August for the title in the West Asian Football Federation Championship.

He noted that the Iraqis will have a boost from the huge sup-

port he expects from their fans in Amman. Meanwhile, defender Sayed Mahdi Baqer said that the Bahrainis came to Amman focused only on winning.

Midfielder Komail Alaswad was quoted as saying: “We should forget the match against Hong Kong and concentrate

on the match against Iraq. We know, though, that it will be a difficult test because Iraq are going into the match on the back of an important victory against Iran.”

On the opposing end, Iraq’s Slovenian head coach Srecko Katanec said that his team must

n o t b e c o m p l a -cent against Bahrain after defeating their Iranian rivals in their last game.

“We are only midway through qualifying and we should have an overall look at the group and not stop competing because we defeated Iran,” he said. “We must concentrate on the next matches as we still have four matches to play and things could change.”

The Bahrainis had a pair of training sessions at the match venue yesterday as part of their final preparations for today’s clash. The match commission-er’s meeting also took place and it was attended by a team headed by Bahrain Football Association technical department head Abed Al Ansari.

Bahrain are hoping to bounce back from

the negative result they had in Hong

Kong on Thursday last week when they

dropped two points in a goalless stalemate in a game that they could

have wonCOACH SOUSA SPEAKS AT HIS PRESS

CONFERENCE

Bahrain players during training at Amman International Stadium

• The match is set to be played at Amman International Stadium

• Scheduled for a 5 pm kick-off, Bahrain time

• Team’s fifth match of qualifying

• Bahrain have played two

games against Iraq

Bahrain’s Alaswad during training

Riffa complete semi-final line-up for BBA CupTDT | Manama

Riffa booked their seat in the semi-finals of the Bahrain

Basketball Association (BBA) Cup last night following a 73-61 victory over Bahrain Club in both teams’ concluding prelim-inary round game.

Riffa earned their fourth win in five outings and it helped them claim second place in Group B. With their ranking, they completed the line-up of teams for the tournament’s last four. Bahrain Club suffered their fourth loss and are out of the competition.

The semis are scheduled to be played on Thursday, with Riffa taking on Group A winners Muharraq and Group B winners Manama facing Group A run-ners-up Nuwaidrat.

In Riffa’s triumph yesterday, they took control early in the contest and never allowed their rivals to threaten.

Riffa led 23-13 at the end of the first quarter and remained 37-29 ahead at the half. They stretched their advantage to 56-

43 heading into the final period, and then they cruised to the final whistle.

Riffa enjoyed their big-gest lead of 21 points mid-way through the fourth when Mohammed Khalid made a

lay-up to put his team ahead 67-46.

American professional Jo-seph Jones paced Riffa with 20 points and five rebounds in the win. Ali Jassim added 17 includ-ing three three-pointers while

Khalid had 10.Lightning-quick Bahraini

guard Hussain Lulu led Bahrain Club in the loss with 22 points. Khalid Ali came off the bench to contribute 13 as did Fadhel Abbas with 11 markers.

Final Group Standings (*Advanced to semi-finals)GROUP A P W L Pts

*Muharraq 5 4 1 9

*Nuwaidrat 5 4 1 9

Al Najma 5 3 2 8

Al Ettihad 5 2 3 7

Sitra 5 2 3 7

Al Ahli 5 0 5 5

GROUP B P W L Pts

*Manama 5 5 0 10

*Riffa 5 4 1 9

Al Hala 5 3 2 8

Samaheej 5 2 3 7

Bahrain Club 5 1 4 6

Isa Town 5 0 5 5Riffa’s Younes Kuwayed goes for a jump shot against Bahrain Club

Tsitsipas win invites cautionLondon

Stefanos Tsitsipas said he was ready for a break-

through Grand Slam victory after winning the ATP Finals in London -- but a glance at recent history invites caution.

The 21-year- old Greek was in bullish mood after he beat Dominic Thiem, having ousted Roger Federer in the semi-finals, to become the sea-son-ending event’s youngest winner since 2001.

“I believe I’m really close to being crowned a Grand Slam champion,” he said, after his 6-7 (6/8), 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) tri-umph in London on Sunday. “I know these are strong words that I say but I do feel I belong there.”

But although Tsitsipas’s vic-tory feels significant, he is the fourth first-time champion in as many years at the season finale, which has proved a poor predictor of future success.

Last year, young German Alexander Zverev pummelled Novak Djokovic in the final but he had a miserable time at

this season’s Slams -- while the Serb, 32, picked up the Austral-ian Open and Wimbledon titles to take his overall tally to 16.

Rafael Nadal, 33, won a bare-ly credible 12th French Open title and added the US Open, underlining the fact that the old guard were still very much in charge.

No member of the “Big Three” -- also featuring Feder-er -- has won the season-end-ing ATP Finals since 2015, when Djokovic picked up his fifth title.

Djokovic was also the last ATP Finals champion to go on to win a major title.

Stefanos Tsitsipas poses with the ATP Finals trophy

Documents

SPORTS 8 @newsofbahrain OP-ED Bahrain to go all out · 2019. 11. 19. · nificantly to the strengthening of human communication. His Majesty pledged to contin-ue promoting the vision