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Volume 23 | Number 7556 | 2 RiyalsWednesday 13 June 2018 | 28 Ramadan I 1439 www.thepeninsula.qa

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RAMADAN TIMINGTodays Iftar: 6:28 pm

Tomorrow’s Imsak: 03:04 am

The Peninsula publishes special book to mark a year of victoryIRFAN BUKHARI THE PENINSULA

DOHA: To mark one year of unjust siege imposed against Qatar by Saudi-led quartet, The Peninsula newspaper has published a special 126-page book “365 Days of Dignity and Pride” which shows with the help of facts and figures how Qatar has defeated the blockade and shattered hopes of architects of crisis.

Divided into 35 chapters, the book deals with various subjects and throws lights on different sectors like economy, diplomacy, sports, health, education etc. With hundreds of colourful pic-tures, authentic information and brief write-ups, the book merits itself to be a good read.

Dr. Khalid Al-Shafi, Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula, writes in book’s editorial, “A victo-rious year for Qatar”, that the year of the siege was full of challenges and victories, giving the country and its people an opportunity to explore themselves and their potential. “That is why we decided to publish this book titled ‘Qatar Year of Glory and Dignity’ on the occasion of the anniversary of the siege observing the most important events witnessed throughout the year of dignity and steadfastness,” he further writes.

The beginning chapters of the book carry three speeches of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani delivered on July 21, 2017 in his address to the nation, at the UN General Assembly session on September 19, 2017 and at the opening session of the Advisory Council on November 14, 2017.

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Erdogan inaugurates TANAP project

President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met with Minister of Energy and Industry H E Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada yesterday who was representing the State of Qatar at the inauguration ceremony of the Trans Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP).

HIA launches football Fan ZoneSACHIN KUMAR THE PENINSULA

DOHA: To ensure that thousands of passengers travelling through Hamad International Airport (HIA) do not miss the excitement of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC), HIA and Qatar Airways yesterday announced the launch of a football Fan Zone at the airport.

This initiative marks HIA’s latest steps on the country’s journey towards the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar. To help prepare Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, HIA is set to increase its

passenger capacity from 30 million passengers per year to a target of more than 50 million per year. The airport is also working together with the SC to process the arrival of approximately 96,000 passengers per day during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

From Friday, the matches will be broadcast live at the airport in three beautifully themed viewing areas in con-courses A, B and C, as well as in Qatar Duty Free’s (QDF) Marché restaurant, where fans will be able to watch the matches whilst they enjoy a range of hot dishes.

The viewing areas are stra-tegically spread across the

terminal so that viewers are close to their boarding gates. The three viewing areas have been designed to resemble a living room, a stadium and a majlis – a traditional Arabic seating area where guests are received. The themes have been carefully selected to ensure that pas-sengers feel fully immersed in the viewing experience and get a taste of what to expect when Qatar hosts the world’s biggest sporting event in 2022.

The public inauguration of the airport Fan Zone was officiated in the presence of Qatar Airways Senior Vice President Marketing and Corporate Communications,

Salam Al Shawa; HIA Vice-Pres-ident Commercial and Marketing, Abdulaziz Al Mass; and Commu-nications Director at the SC, Fatma Al Nuaimi.

Official 2018 FIFA World Cup memorabilia will also be on sale at QDF’s stores throughout the airport and shoppers will have the opportunity to take selfies alongside the 2018 FIFA World Cup mascot.

The iconic Lamp Bear area of HIA has been transformed to resemble a football pitch, which will feature games and activities for passengers.


Summer working hours effectivefrom June 15THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Ministry of Administrative Devel-opment, Labour and S o c i a l A f f a i r s h a s announced that the implementation of the Ministerial decision No. (16) of 2007 determining the working hours in open workplaces during the summer will take effect from June 15 until August 31.


MoI fully set for Eid Al Fitr holidays SIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Ministry of Interior has completed all preparations for the Eid Al Fitr holidays, providing its 24-hour security services to respond to any emergency that can disturb the joy of Eid for all.

All the security departments and the various sectors such as traffic and patrol directorate, coast and border security, Al Fazaa Police, community policing, security depart-ments in various areas, airport passport and security, and other service and security sectors have all prepared well for this occasion.

As for the traffic sector, Major Jaber Mohamed Rashid Odaiba, Assistant Director of Media & Traffic

Awareness Department told media yesterday at Corniche at the occasion of distribution of gifts among motorists that the traffic accidents had decreased during Ramadan compared to before despite the fact that many schools were still open.

Regarding the preparation for Eid Al Fitr, Odaiba said: “The traffic

patrols will be present around all areas where Eid Al Fitr prayers will be held and the streets leading to them to control traffic, in addition to streets leading to commercial complexes, and also public parks to ensure the security and safety of all.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs has also prepared more than 362 mosques and prayer grounds in various areas across the country for Eid Al Fitr prayer. It also announced that Eid Al Fitr prayer will be performed at 4:58am, 15 minutes after sunrise.

According to a statement issued by the MoI, Director of Central Oper-ations Department Brigadier Saeed Hassan Al Mazroui said that the department will work around the clock without interruption through

the service of (999) to receive all communications and direct them to the competent authority.

Al Mazroui explained that the department provides humanitarian services to the public in addition to its basic functions such as answering queries or providing some other information that serves the public, such as contacting hospitals or ambulances to transport a patient if required, and other useful and important information.

He added that emergency calls are received in different languages Arabic, English, Hindi, Filipino, Persian, French and Chinese, adding that the average response time is up to 10 seconds.


More than 362 mosques and prayer grounds have been prepared for Eid Al Fitr prayer. The prayer will be performed at 4:58am, 15 minutes after sunrise.

Qatar welcomes Trump-Kim summitDOHA: Qatar has welcomed the meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean President Kim Jong-Un yesterday in Singapore.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled the meeting that took place between the leaders of the two Koreas in April and considered Trump and Kim meeting a historical precedent promising the further easing of tensions on the Korean Peninsula and reaching a binding agreement under which the denucleari-sation of the peninsula would be made.

The comprehensive solution will be a quantum leap and a new achievement in

efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons around the world, and perhaps that step is significant for the Middle East, which Qatar fears to become a nuclear racing arena, unless the situation of esca-lation is contained by activating peaceful means to resolve disputes and differences and to reduce the nuclear ambitions of all parties. The statement expressed the sat-isfaction of Qatar for the success of the meeting and expressed its wish that this would be followed by practical steps to achieve sustainable peace on the peninsula.

→SEE ALSO PAGE 13

Qatari & Omani firms establish JV to store gabbroTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Chamber hosted yesterday signing of a cooper-ation agreement between Marafi ASYAD Company (owned by the Omani Government) and Dolphin Integrated Company (Qatari company and a subsidiary of Rafa Holding) to establish Marafi Sohar Company for trans-porting, shipping and storing gabbro between the two coun-tries and worldwide.

Qatar Chamber’s Chairman Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassem Al Thani attended the ceremony along with the Ambassador of Oman to Qatar, Najib bin Yahya Al Balushi, and CEO of Qatar Primary Materials Company, Essa Mohamed Kalidary.

The agreement was signed by Dolphin’s CEO, Ghanim bin Saif Al Khayaren, and Acting CEO of Marafi, Dr Asyad Ahmed Mohammed Al Abri.

Sheikh Khalifa said this is the second agreement signed between Qatari and Omani parties in the field of primary materials, expressing his thanks to both countries for establishing this company which will boost primary materials market in

Qatar. Sheikh Khalifa lauded the close cooperation between Qatar and Oman at all aspects, noting that Qatar Chamber will hold the second external edition of “Made in Qatar’ expo in Oman by year-end.

Ghanim bin Saif Al Khayaren extended his thanks to the chamber, noting that this part-nership comes in the frame of the concessions granted by both countries with a view to enhancing joint cooperation between the private sectors. He said Marafi Sohar aims to provide Qatar with gabbro, especially that there are mega projects being established in the country for developing the infrastructure and for the FIFA World Cup 2022.

Marafi Sohar’s Operations Manager, Rashid Abu Zahr, said the company is specialised in transporting, shipping and storing gabbro, with a capacity of 8 million tonnes in the year. He noted it will commence exporting gabbro to Qatar in Sep-tember 2018.

Kalidary affirmed the com-pany’s support to the estab-lishment of Marafi Sohar which aims to provide Qatari market with gabbro.

02 WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2018HOME

03WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2018 HOME


QNA

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent yesterday a cable of congratulations to the Pres-ident of the Russian Feder-ation, Vladimir Putin, on the occasion of his country’s National Day.

Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani also sent similar messages respectively to the President and Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev.

Amir greets President of Russia

QNA

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent yesterday a cable of congratulations to the Pres-ident of the Republic of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, on the occasion of the anni-versary of his country’s Inde-pendence Day.

Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani also sent similar messages.

Amir greets President of Philippines

Amir ratifies MoU on cooperation in sports with IraqTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued yesterday Amiri Decision No. (48) of 2018 appointing Mohammed Hamad Saad Al Fuhaid Al Hajri as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

H H the Amir also issued Amiri Decision No. (49) of 2018 appointing Ali Hamad Ali Mohammed Al Sulaiti as Ambas-sador Extraordinary and Pleni-potentiary to the Republic of Peru. The decisions are effective starting the date of issue and are to be published in the official gazette.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued yesterday Decree No. (36) of 2018, ratifying a memorandum of under-standing on cooperation in the field of culture between the Min-istry of Culture and Sports of the State of Qatar and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts of the Republic of the Phil-ippines, signed in Doha on 16/04/2017, annexed to this decree, and to have the force of law in line with Article (68) of the constitution.

H H the Amir also issued Decree No. (37) of 2018, ratifying a memorandum of under-standing on cooperating in the field of youth and sports between the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the State of Qatar and the Min-istry of Youth and Sports of the

Republic of Iraq, signed in Doha on 16/01/2018, annexed to this decree, and to have the force of law in line with Article (68) of the constitution.

H H the Amir issued Decree No. (38) of 2018, ratifying a mem-orandum of understanding on cooperation in the health field between the Government of the State of Qatar and the Gov-ernment of the Republic of Indo-nesia, signed in Jakarta on 18/10/2017, annexed to this decree, and to have the force of law in line with Article (68) of the constitution. The decrees are effective from their date of issue and are to be published in the official gazette.

H H the Amir also issued an instrument of ratification approving a draft agreement between the Government of the State of Qatar and the Gov-ernment of the Argentine Republic on the avoidance of double taxation and the pre-vention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and on capital and the draft pro-tocol thereto, signed in Wash-ington on 19/04/2018. HH the Amir also issued an instrument of ratification approving the ratification of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products adopted at the fifth session of the Con-ference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on 12/11/2012 in Seoul.

Minister of Culture meets Chairman of Iraqi Media Network

Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali met with Chairman of the Iraqi Media Network, Mujahid Abu Hail, and an accompanying delegation on Monday during their visit to Doha. They discussed to boost cultural and media relations between the two countries during the meeting.

The Peninsula publishes special book to mark a year of siegeCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“Inspiring the nation: A dip-lomatic success” is the chapter covering tours and diplomatic contacts of H H the Amir with various world leaders in post siege scenario and the success of Qatar’s diplomacy in interna-tional arena.

The book also highlights efforts of H H Sheikha Moza in promotion of education and research during the last one year. “Qatar’s tireless efforts to promote education and research especially through global initia-tives reached heights during the past one year despite the ongoing unjust blockade imposed on the country,” says the chapter “Sheikha Moza: Promoting edu-cation and research”.

It is pertinent to mention that Qatar achieved a milestone in addressing a global challenge through Education Above All Foundation’s Educate A Child program by succeeding in its objective of helping 10 million of the most marginalized out of school children to receive quality, primary education.

Apart from extracts from the interview of Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani he gave to Qatar TV on November 22, 2017 in one chapter of the book, another chapter “FM proves his mettle as an unde-featable diplomat” extensively covers the diplomatic endeavors and successes of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohamed bin

Abdulrahman Al Thani.“In the last 365 days, all state

institutions and functionaries under wise leadership and guidance of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani per-formed an outstanding role to foil the conspiracies of the blockading countries but the role of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheik Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani will ever be remembered in golden words.” The book has another dedicated chapter on the efforts and achievements of Deputy Prime Minister and Min-ister of State for Defence Affairs, H E Dr Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah, and how he took strategic ties of Qatar with various coun-tries to a new level during last one year under siege.

The book also praises laudable role played by National Human Rights Committee after imposition of siege and how it successfully showed the world human rights violations com-mitted by the blockading coun-tries during the last one year. A chapter “QNHRC: At the forefront of protecting people’s rights” also records number and nature of human rights violations emerged from the blockade of Qatar.

It also gives the reader an insight into professional approach adopted by Qatari media and Qatar Media Corporation in beating media blitz against Qatar by adhering to universal prin-ciples of factual reporting and ethical journalism. Qatar’s eco-nomic growth and resilience have been discussed in chapter

“Economy forges ahead on all fronts” while another chapter “Hamad Port and new shipping routes give a fillip to trade” shows how Qatar’s transport and avi-ation sector proved its robustness and resilience during the year-long unjust siege.

How Qatar Airways defeated all restrictions imposed by the blockading countries and con-tinue delivering beyond expec-tations has been discussed in chapter “Qatar Airways: Flying high” while Hamad International Airport’s last year’s achievements have also been included in the treatise.

The book sheds light on the milestones achieved by Qatar Rail during unjust siege as well as launched or completed devel-opment projects of the Public

Works Authority (Ashghal).Two exclusive interview of

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci, con-ducted by Dr. Al-Shafi, Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula, in November 2017 are also part of the book.

Regarding sports, chapter “Qatar’s football diplomacy wins over erring neighbours” high-lights how Qatar saved 2017 Gulf Cup from the effects of blockade by agreeing to move the high-profile tournament to Kuwait to show solidarity with Arab world.

The last part of the book bears a meticulously-arranged timeline of all major happenings, devel-opments and events occurred since June 5, 20017 till the com-pletion of one year of siege.

HIA launches football Fan ZoneCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The entire terminal will come alive throughout the FIFA World Cup with roaming entertainment such as football freestylers, football jugglers and impromptu football matches around the airport.

Over the next few weeks, it will also have pop-up activations including foosball games and virtual football. Die-hard fans can have their faces painted with the flag of the country they are supporting.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, said: “We are just two days away from the start of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, a world-class event which we are extremely excited to be a part of. I am truly delighted to be offering our passengers from across the globe a unique opportunity to experience the joyous atmosphere of the FIFA World Cup as they depart or transit through our award-winning home and hub, HIA. Passengers from all corners of the globe will be able to watch and support their football teams as they travel through HIA, home to our

exclusive football Fan Zone”.The SC’s Assistant Secretary General

for Tournament Affairs, Nasser Al Khater, stated: “Launching the Airport Fan Zone reflects our objective to transfer the atmosphere of the tour-nament in Russia to people in Qatar who are passionate about football and keen

to watch the matches. We also intend to familiarise Qatar’s visitors and pas-sengers in HIA with the Qatari culture and the exceptional expe-rience we will provide for them in 2022. I’d like to thank our partners in HIA and I look forward to working with them to deliver the first World Cup in the region.” E n g r . B a d r Mohammed Al Meer, Chief Operating Officer at Hamad International Airport, commented: “ We’ve worked hard to ensure that our pas-

sengers never have to miss a moment of the World Cup while they are at HIA, by bringing some of that excitement to them. As the airport of Qatar, we have a unique opportunity to give the pas-sengers transferring through our airport a peak into the country’s passion for the sport”.

Salam Al Shawa (first left), Senior Vice-President of Marketing and Corporate Communications, Qatar Airways; Fatma Al Nuaimi (second left), Communications Director at the SC; and Abdulaziz Al Mass, Vice-President of Commercial and Marketing, HIA; during the opening of Fan Zone at HIA yesterday.PIC; BAHER AMIN / THE PENINSULA

Preparations for Eid holidays completeCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

On the preparations of the General Directorate of Civil Defence for Eid Al Fitr, Assistant Director General Brigadier General Hamad Osman Al Dhaimi said that the directorate and the civil defence centres are operating around the clock, saying that certain procedures are made during holidays in Sealine area, which large numbers of citizens visit during the Eid.

The Maritime Patrols of the General Directorate of Coasts and Borders Security operate around the clock and providing the necessary assistance to fishermen or those who go to sea for other purposes.

As for the work of the security departments in the various municipal-ities (Capital Police, Al Rayyan, the South, Al Shamal and Dukhan), the directors and officials of these depart-ments confirmed that the police stations will work around the clock to facilitate the security procedures and carry out all security duties to the fullest extent.

Concerning the Airport Passports Department, the Director of the Department Colonel Mohammed Rashid Al Mazrouei, said that the preparations began with the start of the summer vacation, and that the work of the

department is continuous around the clock.

Director of Airport Security Department Brigadier General Issa Arar al Rumaihi, said that the administration prepared to intensify security patrols inside and outside the airport. Meanwhile, the General Directorate of Traffic distributed more than 1000 gifts named ‘Director’s Gift’ to motorists to thank them for their cooperation with Department in decreasing traffic viola-tions and accidents during Ramadan at Corniche Doha.

Working hours in open places set from FridayCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The decision stipulates that starting from June 15 to August 31, the works done under the sun or open workplaces must not be longer than five hours in the morning and must stop from 11:30am to 3pm, QNA reported.

Employers are required to set a working hours timetable in accordance with the decision.

The timetable should be placed in a visible place where all workers can see and labor inspectors can easily notice during their inspection visits.

The Ministry called upon the owners of establishments to respect the provisions of the decision and warned that any company violating the decree will be closed for a period not exceeding one month, stressing

that inspectors will conduct field visits on the sites to ensure com-pliance with the provisions of the decision.

The Ministry also called upon those concerned in the companies and various sectors to take into account the condi-tions of the workers and working conditions in accordance with the prescribed controls.

Major Jaber Mohamed Rashid Odaiba, Assistant Director of Media & Traffic Awareness Department.


Qatar Airways launches non-stop services to Bodrum in Turkey

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Airways’ first non-stop flight from Doha to Bodrum landed yesterday at Milas-Bodrum Airport, marking the airline’s sixth gateway in Turkey and third new Turkish route in just nine months. Qatar Airways flight QR 317, operated by an Airbus A320, departed Hamad International Airport at 7:15am and arrived at Milas-Bodrum Airport at 11:55am, where it was welcomed by a traditional water canon salute.

The airline will further expand its services to Turkey with the launch of seasonal

flights to Antalya, Turkey today, just one day after the launch of direct flights to Bodrum.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, said: “Today’s inaugural flight to Bodrum, our third new Turkish route in just nine months, dem-onstrates our commitment to Turkey. We have seen very high demand for services to Turkey, as both business and leisure travellers show great interest in experiencing all this country has to offer”.

“We are tremendously excited to be able to provide passengers the opportunity to visit the beautiful resort city of

Bodrum, just in time for the summer holiday season. Pas-sengers from Bodrum now be able to travel seamlessly through our award-winning Doha Hub, Hamad International Airport (HIA), to any destination in our rapidly-expanding network,” he added.

Qatar Airways’ twice-weekly flights to Milas-Bodrum Airport will be operated by an Airbus A320, featuring 12 seats in Business Class and 132 seats in Economy Class. The seasonal service will be operated every Tuesday and Friday until 28 September 2018.

Qatar Airways now operates flights to six destinations in Turkey, with separate services to Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport (twice a day) and Istanbul Ataturk Airport (10 times a week), Adana Airport (three times a week), Hatay Airport (three times a week) and daily flights to Ankara. The award-winning airline launched direct services to Adana in Sep-tember 2017 and to Hatay in February 2018.

The officials and dignitaries during a ceremony to mark the launch of Qatar Airways non-stop flight to Bodrum in Turkey.


MSSH organises Iftar dinnerTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Marzooq S. Al Shamlan Holding (MSSH) organised an Iftar event at the Crown Plaza Hotel where all associated company’s employees enjoyed the ritual of breaking the fast together.

This joyful event was an opportunity for all executives and employees to connect, bond and share the spirit of Ramadan in the extended

family of the Shamlan Holding.Present at the Iftar gath-

ering was Tarek Al Shamlan – Chairman, Joe Lahoud, Group CEO as well as the group and companies managing teams.

Lahoud applauded the efforts of every staff member, he commented; “We believe in the individual initiative, and our organization is designed to be an efficient and sup-portive structure for devel-oping talents. Our team of

highly professional and knowl-edgeable individuals, who, through their hard work, passion, dedication and per-ceptiveness, will continuously drive our firm forward. He also congratulated everyone on their positive attitude embracing the change Initia-tives being launched to establish the group and create a high performance culture. He congratulated everyone on the holy month of Ramadan”.

The employees of Marzooq S Al Shamlan Holding during the Iftar programme.

Iraqi reciter wins Katara Holy Quran contestTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: An Iraqi reciter Sabah Khalaf has won first prize worth QR500,000 in Katara Holy Quran recitation contest.

The first five winners were selected by an expert panel of judges from about 100 contestants from across the globe. Iraqi reciter Sabah Khalaf won the first position bagging a cash prize of QR500,000. The second prize worth QR400,000 went to Mohammed Muftah Basheer from Libya while Mohammed Niyazi from Egypt won the third position taking home QR300,000.

Younus Mohammed Mahra from Syria won the fourth prize worth QR200,000 and the fifth prize of QR100,000 went to Mohammed Azyawi from Morocco. The

contest was being aired by Qatar Tele-vision since the beginning of the Holy month of Ramadan.

Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of Katara Cultural Village honoured the winners. He said that the second edition of the competition had become a big success in terms of par-ticipation as well as organization. He thanked Qatar Television for being an active partner in the contest.

Al Sulaiti said that the Katara Prize for Quran Recitation has achieved its goal of promoting and discovering new talents in the learning and recitation of the Holy Quran.

Katara will produce a CD containing full chapters of the Holy Quran with rec-itations by winners of the first five prizes.The winners of Katara Holy Quran recitation contest receive prize from officials.

Nikai launches 86” 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TVTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Nikai launched the 86” 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV.

It comes with category redefining smart Android oper-ating system with features like e-share and air play that lets you enjoy entertainment on the big screen direct from your smartphone or tablet. TV viewing on this new Nikai 86” UHD smart TV with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 with family and friends is an experience in itself. This top end product offers a value proposition of being available at a fabulous price of QR9,999.

The TV also comes with a Digital Video Broadcasting — Second Generation Terrestrial Digital Tuner (DVBT2) capable of receiving local TV channels transmitted over radio waves. It also has built-in smart apps like Youtube, Facebook, Skype, Twitter for endless hours of full screen Youtube content viewing and social networking. This is all backed by a robust Quad Core Processor, 1 GB RAM & 8 GB ROM for smooth operation.

All this is packed in an ultra-slim frame making it a piece of modern art for walls. This is complimented with a powerful 16W speaker system for an in-depth audio expe-rience. With so many features, TV viewing experience on it can be truly addictive. Hence it comes with an ‘Easy Sleep Timer’ that switches off auto-matically as per preset times.

“This Eid we want our cus-tomers to take home a TV that not only offers top of the line specs but also be at an affordable price. With the Nikai 86” UHD Smart Led TV we achieved just that. With the football world cup just around the corner, this TV will provide an immersive viewing expe-rience to football fans.” said CV Rappai, Director & CEO, Video Home & Electronic Centre and Jumbo Electronics.

QIC Group sponsors MoQ’s broadcast of 2018 World Cup THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Insurance Group, Qatar’s flagship insurance powerhouse, has signed a part-nership agreement with the Mall of Qatar (MoQ).

The signing ceremony, which was held yesterday at the QIC Headquarters in West Bay, was attended by Deputy Group Pres-ident & CEO QIC MENA region, Salem Al Mannai, CEO of the Mall of Qatar, Stuart Elder, and other QIC officials.

Through this strategic part-nership, QIC Group will promote the World Cup FIFA 2018, which will be broadcasted across the World Cup Fan Zone located at the Oasis in the Ground Floor of the Mall of Qatar.

As the flagship insurer in Qatar and in the MENA region,

QIC Group takes pride in pro-viding support to all sporting activities. Owing to its repute of being the most popular sport worldwide, the FIFA serves as an excellent platform for demon-strating true sportsmanship to a global audience.

Echoing the same phi-losophy, QIC believes that sports can bring people together and create social and cultural plat-forms, which is a precursor for building a sustainable nation.

Speaking on this important partnership, Salem Al Mannai, Deputy Group President and CEO QIC MENA stated, “As a strong supporter of the FIFA World Cup, this partnership with MoQ is yet another demonstration of QIC Group’s ongoing commitment to sporting events. It also underpins our involvement and effective

support in realising the four pillars of Qatar National Vision 2030.”

He further added, “Capital-ising on this partnership, we would also like to cast a spotlight on QIC Group’s growth trajectory and expanding global footprint through a corporate video that

will be played at the Mega Screens in the MOQ ahead of the matches.”

Stuart Elder, CEO of Mall of Qatar stated, “We are delighted

to sign this strategic partnership agreement with QIC Group. As a leading national mall, MoQ is constantly committed to devel-oping partnerships with major

entities in Qatar to ensure that the World Cup FIFA 2018 serves as an effective platform to bring people together and share good times.”

Deputy Group President & CEO QIC MENA region, Salem Al Mannai, and CEO of the Mall of Qatar, Stuart Elder, during the signing ceremony at the QIC Headquarters in West Bay.

Through this strategic partnership, QIC Group will promote the World Cup FIFA 2018, which will be broadcast across the World Cup Fan Zone located at the Oasis in the Ground Floor of the Mall of Qatar.

Confectionery shops offer variety of sweets to customers on Eid Al FitrTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Confectionery shops are ready to offer variety of sweets to customers on Eid Al Fitr, said a market player.

“The most sought-after items on Eid Al Fitr are chocolates such as ‘Baid Al Niam’ sweets of dif-ferent varieties and coffee sweets arranged in flower shape,” said Shadi Abo Husaini, Deputy General Manager of Rellato Sweet Shop.

Rellato is a chain of

sweatshop operating at several places across the country including Al Wakrah, Al Rayyan, Al Khraitiyat, Al Azizia and Al Khor. He said that coffee sweets which are served with coffee are having high demand for family gathering during Eid Al Fitr as it is a combination of past tradition and modernity with a wonderful original taste.

“Other high demanded sweets are Al Baiti Fur of nine dif-ferent flavours, including caramel, pistachio, chocolate, and

mango as well as sweets like fruit nutella and Swiss roll with its delicious flavours like chocolate, vanilla and pistachios,” said Abo Husaini.

He further said the customers also preferred cakes which are available at his shops in various flavours, sizes and designs, such as black forest and milk cake and cake Karak, pistachio cake, caramel cake and strawberry cake, saffron cake, honey cake, pistachio cake, as well as galaxy basbosa, marshmallow,

lotus sweet, and kanafa. “Customers also buy salty

items during Eid Al Fitr like grape leaf with lemon and pomegranate which are imported from Turkey in large quantity,” said Abo Husaini adding that other popular Eid items are mini dumplings stuffed with cheese, vegetables and chicken, in addition hot bev-erages, kebab, tabbouleh, and nuts like cashew, almonds and walnuts. Deputy General Manager of Rellato said that his sweets shop offers about ten type

of roses which have pretty good demands on Eid Al Fitr.

“We receive orders for about 1,000 rose bouquet and large selling flower during the festival like Lily and Basil,” he added.

Regarding the working mech-anism at Rellato shops, Abo Husaini said that a factory was established in 2011 to prepare the orders of all branches, hinting to start building a larger factory with higher production capacity in order to meet the growing demand from customers at all

branches located in Al Wakra and Al Rayyan, Al Khraitiyat, Al Azizia and Al Khor. He said that there is a separate factory for making all types of wooden trays needed at the shops.

“The chocolate moulds and fillings are being imported from France. The filling includes saffron, cardamom, hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts and other nuts. All orders are prepared in the factory. Each type of pastry is pro-duced by the most famous cooks,” said Abo Husaini.

Sidra Medicine gears up to open CED in early July THE PENINSULA

D O H A : Sidra M e d i c i n e , a member of Qatar Foundation, is preparing to mark the next major milestone in its development as Qatar’s leading provider of pediatric care with the opening of its Children’s Emergency Department (CED) in early July.

The new CED will add capacity to Qatar’s existing healthcare facilities — such as the five Pediatric Emergency Centers (PECs), which will remain open – and com-plement those services already available at Sidra Medicine.

“This is a major milestone in our journey towards deliv-ering a world-class center for children’s services in Qatar and our aim to become a beacon of healthcare excellence for children, young people, and women,” said Sidra Medicine Chief Executive Officer Peter Morris. Sidra Medicine’s CED will provide emergency care

and treatment for children requiring life-saving inter-vention or immediate attention – such as in cases of severe trauma and major medical and surgical emergencies - free of charge. Children who require non-urgent care - including upper respiratory issues like sore throats and coughs, rashes, or low-grade fever - should continue to seek treatment with their regular healthcare pro-vider, as they normally would. Should patients choose to come to Sidra Medicine for treatment of cases that are considered non-emergencies, its Children’s Urgent Care Clinic will treat patients in order of medical urgency and require a charge of QR550 to be paid for consultation.


QC distributes foodstuff to needy people in TurkeyTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Charity’s (QC) office in Turkey has been organising Iftar programmes for underprivileged people and refugee families in addition to hosting Iftars for the general public and the Muslim commu-nities living in the country. Also, the distribution of Ramadan food baskets and e-vouchers continues in many Turkish cities and governorates.

QC office has held four large collective Iftar tables in the municipality of Üsküdar, which were attended by more than 160,000 fasting people, whereas several Iftar programs were organized in the municipality of Şahinbey in the Gaziantep Province, where each table was

attended by more than 40,000 fasting people, said a release.

Also Iftar tables are being hosted by QC in the municipality of Ankara, targeting Syrian fam-ilies and members of the Muslim communities, where more than 100 families participate in each QC’s Iftar table.

QC office in Turkey managed to distribute 5,000 Ramadan food baskets con-taining basic foodstuffs in many Turkish municipalities and cities. Also, around 13000 e-vouchers were gifted to the needy in cooperation with official local authorities to help beneficiaries receive free food-stuff from commercial stores under these vouchers.

Mohammad Wahi, director of QC’s regional office in Turkey,

said Qatar Charity implements Iftar projects and distributes food baskets and vouchers in cooperation with the local authorities in targeted places. He pointed out that vouchers are gifted to families, who can not attend Iftar tables, to enable them to purchase their needs in a manner that preserves their human dignity.

An agreement has been signed with the A-101 company, a chain of commercial stores with more than 7,000 branches in all neighborhoods in Turkish cities, to help beneficiary fam-ilies purchase all their food items from the stores of this company until the end of the holy month of Ramadan, which is the expiration date of these vouchers, Wahi said.

People break fast in the backdrop of officials during the Iftar programme organised by Qatar Charity in Turkey.

Stock Burger Co. offers football fans epic experienceTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Stock Burger Co. collab-orated with Virgin Megastore Qatar to offer Doha-based football fans an epic experience at their premises during 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Football enthusiasts will get the chance to enjoy the games at Stock Burger Co. and take part in exciting daily activities and prizes presented by Virgin Megastore Qatar. Football brings more people together than any other sport in the world. To ensure an epic expe-rience while cheering for your preferred team, Stock Burger Co. has made sure its social, interactive, and fun setting will bring on that energetic atmosphere.

The setting at Stock Burger Co. mimics a smaller-scale stadium experience where eve-ryone can enjoy uninterrupted

view of the games on multiple high definition screens. “We are very happy to partner with Virgin Megastore to bring to our valuable guests an incredible experience. We want football fans and enthusiasts to gather and share their passion while enjoying menu options that further enhance the game watching experience,” com-mented Khaled Shafik, Director

of Sales and Marketing, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Doha – The Business Park

On this occasion, Paula Manzanera, Marketing Manager, Virgin Megastore Middle East, commented: “We are truly humbled to be part of the hype this FIFA World Cup with Stock Burger Co. We are set to provide every football fan an unforget-table experience.”

A view of the arrangement at Stock Burger Co. to offer Doha-based football fans an epic experience during the World Cup.

Retail Mart opens 7th hypermarket THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Indian Supermarket, a pioneer in the retail business for more than 48 years in Qatar, started a new chain of hyper-markets under the brand name Retail Mart in order to cope up with the ever growing demands for fresh foods and excellent products of a rapidly expanding Qatar.

The Director the group PT Muhammad Aslam, said, “We opened our 7th outlet under this

brand name at Madinath Khalifa North last Monday. The super-market is located near the Health Center and the Old Traffic Department. Retail Mart offers an ultra-modern shopping ambience by integrating all con-ceivable needs of our customers under one roof.”

He further stated that “fresh and best” is our motto and that the group has always kept up to its commitment by providing its customers the best and most fresh vegetables, directly

imported from India on daily basis. “Our regular customers can also vouch for fresh and regular supply of meat, poultry & fish. Other plus points of shopping with us is easy to access shopping racks and cus-tomer friendly employees as well as the availability of most Indian brands under one roof.”

Chief Development Officer Razim Ahamed added, ‘We are opening two more branches soon, one in Al Thumama and the other in Al Wakrah.”

P T Muhammad Aslam, Director of the Group; Abdul Rahman Abdullha Ibrahim Ansari, Chairman; P P Faisal, Director; Razim Ahmed Sayed, Chief Development Officer; Jafer T K, Operation Manager; Khalid Mubarak S A Al Kaabi and P T Asharaf Sharafudheen, General Manager; and other officials during the opening of the seventh hypermarket of Retail Mart in Madinath Khalifa. PIC: BAHER AMIN / THE PENINSULA

Mall of Qatar to broadcast World Cup matches on its giant screensTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Mall of Qatar has invited all football fans to expe-rience the excitement of every World Cup match live on the giant LED screens at the Ooredoo Oasis Stage.

Shoppers have been invited by MoQ to watch every goal and

see history in the making whilst cheering on their favourite teams from the June 14 until July 15.

Fans will be able to get in the spirit by watching every match from Mall of Qatar’s very own fan zone, sponsored by QNB and QIC, or over a bite to eat with family and friends at one of the numerous restaurants and cafes

in the Oasis on the ground floor or the first floor.

A dedicated kids zone will entertain children daily from 1pm to 10pm with face painting, PlayStation area, creative work-shops and more.

“We can’t wait to share the excitement and passion of all shoppers during the World Cup.

Thanks to QNB and QIC we have been able to provide the perfect area for fans of every nation to come together and experience the thrill of the game live on the amazing screens at the Ooredoo Oasis Stage, all while looking forward to 2022” said Stuart Elder, Mall of Qatar CEO.

World Cup fever is just one

part of Mall of Qatar’s Eid Al Fitr events, including Dora’s Friendship Fiesta, Dora’s Rain-forest Mission, a live interactive TV kids show with Al Rayyan TV at the luxury court, and as part of the Qatar Summer Festival organized by Qatar Tourism Authority, roaming artists like The Fluffy Bears, Aladdin & the

Genie, and the Qatari Ardha dance will entertain kids throughout the mall and shoppers can enter three raffle draws for a chance to win one of 27 cash prizes worth QR2mn or a Lamborghini Hurricane (2018 model) super car for every QR200 spent at any of the retailers.

Mercure Hotel announced ‘Special Eid Offer’ during the first 3 days of Eid. Family and friends can enjoy a wide spread buffet for lunch or dinner for just QR50 net. Children from 4 to 12 years will be charged at QR25 only. Special Eid stay packages available for 2 nights and 3 nights on request.

Mercure Hotel announces Eid offer

08 WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2018MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

REUTERS

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said yesterday he opposed any repeat of the May 12 parliamentary election, and warned that anyone who tried to sabotage the political process would be punished, after allega-tions of electoral fraud raised tensions.

Parliament has demanded a nationwide recount of votes, drawing calls for the election to be re-run. Abadi said only the Supreme Federal Court could decide whether to re-run the vote, which was won by Shiah cleric Moqtada Al Sadr’s bloc.

“The matter is exclusively in the hands of the judiciary, not politicians. The government and parliament don’t have the power to cancel the election,” Abadi said.

On Monday, Sadr urged Iraqis to unite rather than squabble over a possible re-run of the election, in a message apparently meant to lower the political temperature after a ballot box storage depot caught fire.

Abadi called the fire a delib-erate act and said the attorney general would bring charges against those who are trying to undermine the political process.

An Iraqi court ordered the arrest of four people accused of setting fire to the storage site, the judiciary said. Three of them

were policemen and one an employee of the Independent High Elections Commission.

Abadi said a preliminary report had provided evidence of gasoline at multiple areas inside the storage site. It also showed that security cameras had been disabled and no locks had been broken, implying it was carried out by someone with access to the storage site.

Iraqi authorities said the ballot boxes had been rescued but the fire has fuelled fears of violence.

Sadr, a Shia Muslim cleric who once led violent campaigns against the US occupation that ended in 2011, has emerged as a nationalist opponent of powerful Shia Muslim parties allied with neighbouring Iran and as a champion of the poor.

He has warned that certain parties are trying to drag Iraq into a civil war, adding that he would not participate in one.

Abadi opposes any repeat of Iraq election

Syrians inspect the damaged of buildings following reported air strikes by pro-government forces in the town of Binnish in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province.

Ten civilians dead in Syrian air raid AFP

BEIRUT: An air raid on a village in northeast Syria held by the Islamic State militant group killed at least 10 civilians including three children yesterday, a Britain-based monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes on Tal Al Shair in the north-eastern province of Hasakeh were carried out by the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and neighbouring Iraq since 2014.

The coalition’s press office said it was aware of the allega-tions but did not have records of carrying out strikes in the area. It is the latest in a series of raids on the area that have reportedly caused civilian cas-ualties in past weeks.

Tal Al Shair lies in a small pocket still held by IS fighters near the Iraqi border in the south of Hasakeh, where a Kurdish-Arab alliance backed by the coalition has been bat-tling the militants in recent days.

According to the Observ-atory, a coalition air strike last week killed 11 civilians in the same IS-held area, and another 12 lost their lives in coalition raids on June 1.

The coalition said it was car-rying out an investigation into the June 1 allegation.

Earlier this month, it admitted to nine more civilians deaths, bringing to 892 the total number of civilians it acknowl-edges to have killed since it intervened in Iraq and Syria.

Monitors like the Observ-atory and Airwars say the toll is

much higher. The Observatory, which relies on sources inside Syria, says it determines whose planes carried out strikes according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions involved. IS has lost most of the cross-border caliphate it declared in 2014. In Syria it was pushed back by separate offen-sives — one by Russia-backed regime troops and another by the US-backed Syrian Demo-cratic Forces alliance. But the militants still hold slithers of eastern Syria and have a presence in the vast Badiya desert running from the centre of the country to the border with Iraq. More than 350,000 people have been killed in Syria’s war since it started in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-gov-ernment protests.

Netanyahu quizzed as submarine graft probe witnessAFP

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was yesterday questioned as a police witness in a probe of alleged corruption over the state purchase of three German submarines, his office said.

Netanyahu is the subject of several corruption investiga-tions, but he is not under sus-picion in the submarine affair, known as Case 3000. “The prime

minister gave his testimony in Case 3000. He has given all the details that led to his professional decisions on the matter of the submarines, while explaining their importance for state security,” his office said in a statement.

The statement said Netanyahu was delighted to “put an end once and for all to false claims spread by politicians” that he acted improperly in the affair.

It is the first time Netanyahu

has given oral evidence on the matter, and he reportedly spent several hours answering questions.

The case centres on alleged corruption surrounding Ger-many’s sale to Israel of three submarines manufactured by industrial giant ThyssenKrupp.

Two associates of the prime minister have been questioned several times in the past few months by police heading the investigation.

The German submarines ordered by Israel could be equipped with nuclear missiles and deployed for spying missions off the coast of Iran, where they could be used in the event of a war between the two countries, according to foreign military experts.

Separately, Netanyahu is the subject of two investigations in which the police on February 13 recommended he be indicted.

In one case, he and family

members are suspected of receiving one million shekels ($285,000, 240,000 euros) worth of luxury cigars, cham-pagne and jewellery from wealthy personalities in exchange for financial or per-sonal favours.

In the other case, investi-gators suspect the premier of trying to reach an agreement with the owner of Yediot Aha-ronot, a top Israeli newspaper, for more favourable coverage.

Nigeria jails another governor for corruptionAFP

ABUJA: A Nigerian former state governor and serving senator was yesterday found guilty of corruption, the second high-ranking official to be sentenced to jail the past two weeks.

Former governor of Plateau State Joshua Dariye was found guilty of misappro-priating millions of dollars earmarked for an ecological fund by the Abuja High Court, marking the end of a case that had been running for over a decade. “I can’t imagine such a brazen act of systematic looting and stealing,” said Justice Adebukola Banjoko.

She sentenced Dariye to 14 years behind bars for criminal misappropriation and two years for criminal breach of trust, with the sen-t e n c e s r u n n i n g concurrently.

Dariye, who represented the opposition People’s Dem-ocratic Party before crossing the floor to serve as a senator for the ruling All Progressives Congress, was in 2007 accused of diverting over 1.1bn naira (more than $8.5m at the time) from the state treasury. The sentence comes as Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking to burnish his cre-dentials as an anti-corruption crusader ahead of presential elections next year.

Congo’s Kabila won’t seek third term: PMREUTERS

MONTREAL: Congo’s current President Joseph Kabila won’t seek a third mandate in the African country’s upcoming December elections because of constitutional term limits that prevent him from running again, Prime Minister Bruno Tshibala said yesterday.

“The elections are going to take place without the par-ticipation of President Kabila who will abide by the spirit and the letter of the consti-tution,” Tshibala said in an interview on the sidelines of the International Economic Forum of the Americas, Con-ference of Montreal.

E Guinea leader calls for ‘dialogue’ after coup bidAFP

MALABO: Equatorial Guinea’s authoritarian president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, has called for “national dialogue,” a move that comes on the heels of a thwarted coup and a crackdown on the opposition.

In a speech broadcast nationally on state television yesterday, the 76-year-old leader said “dialogue and political interaction” would take place in July.

“(They) constitute the ways to preserve peace and devel-opment,” he said in the speech which he delivered on Monday.

He called on Guineans living abroad “to come home, to the country of our birth, to look for all-embracing, inclusive strategies.” The offer also applies to those who are in exile, he indicated — “to all Equatorial Guineans who are dispersed in the diaspora for political reasons, for certain political crimes.”

A former Spanish colony of 1.2 million people, awash with oil but mired in poverty and a reputation for corruption, Equatorial Guinea has been ruled with an iron fist by Obiang since August 1979.

He seized power by ousting his own uncle, first post-inde-pendence president Francisco Macias Nguema, who was shot by firing squad.

Obiang has since seen off at least half a dozen assassination or coup attempts. He won a fifth seven-year term in 2016 with nearly 94 percent of votes.

The most recent attempted coup, in December, involved a group of men from Chad, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Sudan, according to the authorities.

The operation was followed by the arrests of scores of oppo-sition activists and the banning of their party, the Citizens for Innovation (CI), purportedly over scuffles that took place before legislative elections last November. Dozens were tor-tured, according to the CI, which says two died in custody. In February, 21 CI members including the party’s only MP, were sentenced to 30 years in prison for “sedition, public dis-order, attacks on authority and serious bodily harm.” Obiang’s proposed “dialogue” is the sixth in his 38 years in office.

The country currently has 17 officially recognised political parties.

ANATOLIA

ANKARA: Turkish Armed Forces will remain in northern Iraq until the terrorists are cleared from the region, Turkey’s Defence Minister said yesterday.

Speaking at Anadolu Agency’s Editors' Desk in the capital Ankara, Nurettin Canikli said: “Turkish Armed Forces will remain in [northern Iraq] with all means until the mission completes.” He said the latest round of operations in

northern Iraq differed from the previous ones in that Turkish troops for the first time had set up bases there.

“We will be there [in northern Iraq] permanently until we will wipe out the terror completely.” Canikli also said that Iran has expressed “very clearly” their support to Tur-key’s anti-terror operations tar-geting all the terror elements in northern Iraq, including Qandil region. More than 500 terrorists have been neutralised in northern Iraq since the

beginning of 2018, he noted. “They [PKK terrorists] are staging attacks from there [northern Iraq] against our country. There are some serious infiltrations [into Turkey]. It is a quite mountainous area [...] where terror and terrorists can easily move.”

The Minister also empha-sised that the army has been carrying out operation without harming any country’s territorial integrity. Turkey has launched operations in both Qandil and Sinjar regions in northern Iraq.

Turkish Armed Forces to remain in Northern Iraq until mission ends

ANATOLIA

TURKEY: At least 202 undoc-umented migrants have been held in northwestern Turkey, a security source said yesterday.

The migrants were held during a gendarme patrol in Orhaniye, Bosnakoy, Ipsala, Uzunkopru and Meric dis-tricts of Edirne province, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

Following legal proce-dures at a police station, the migrants from Syria, Pakistan, Libya, Algeria, Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Morocco and Somalia were taken to a provincial migration authority, the source added.

Turkey has been a main route for refugees and asylum seekers trying to cross into Europe, especially since the beginning of the civil war in Syria.

Over 200 migrants held in Turkey

Turkish Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar (second right) monitors the air operations towards Iraq’s Qandil, Sinjar, Hakurk and Avasin-Basyan regions at Combined Air Operations Center in Eskisehir, Turkey, yesterday.

“The matter is exclusively in the hands of the judiciary, not politicians. The government and parliament don’t have the power to cancel the election,” Abadi said.


If a transition towards the Chinese model is what the future holds, Trump might be doing China a massive favour. Kim Jong-Un will naturally seek guidance from the Chinese to script such an outcome.

10 WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2018VIEWS

What is next for North Korea after the Singapore summit?

After weeks of uncertainty about the planned US-North Korea summit, US President Donald Trump and North Korean

leader Kim Jong-Un signed a “compre-hensive” document. Kim claimed that “the world will see a major change”, while Trumpdescribed him as “a very talented man” who “loved his country very much”, and appeared willing to invite him to visit the White House.

The document apparently embodies four pillars: first, the two sides commit to establishing “new … relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity”; second, they will “join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula”; third, North Korea reaffirms the “April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration …[and] commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula;” and fourth, they “commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified”.

Follow-up negotiations are also planned under the agreement.

The possibility of a deal was sig-nalled by Kim Jong-un at the beginning of the summit when he said, “The old prejudices and practices worked as

obstacles on our way forward, but we’ve overcome all of them, and we are here today.”

However, the text of the doc-ument does not contain much that is new. It merely recites already documented posi-tions. Its real sig-nificance lies in the context in which it was signed and the accompanying statements by the two leaders.

In this sense, what “old preju-

dices” is Kim referring to and what “change” is the world likely to see? Are the two leaders simply promising to stop using characterisations such as “little Rocketman” or “mentally deranged US dotard” and avoid threatening to unleash “fire and fury”?

Or is the North Korean leader referring to deeper, older prejudices that have held back his country for decades? If so, is it really possible for him to overcome them and still stay in power?

The answer to these questions depends on a good understanding of how central these “prejudices” are to the very raison d’etre of Kim Jong-Un-ism and his regime’s survival.

His grandfather, Kim Il-sung, insti-tuted a cult of personality in addition to a centralised system of self-reliance and extreme nationalism - “juche”. This ide-ology requires North Koreans to build their country by relying on their own resources under the guidance of the supreme leader. Following his death, his son and successor, Kim Jong-il, devised another doctrine to consolidate power, “songun”, or military first.

Kim Jong-un clearly embraces this doctrine - as he must to survive. In 2013, he described songun as a “revolutionary idea” that his father built by “the strength-ening of the KPA [Korean People’s Army] … as the buttress, the main force, of our revolution and achieved the historic victory in the grim anti-imperialist, anti-US showdown in defence of the country’s security and socialism by training the KPA to be the army of the leader boundlessly faithful to the cause …”

Surely, juche and songun qualify as old prejudices and represent obstacles to cooperation. Will North Korea jettison such core values?

If you think these are not enough, consider the “Ten Principles in Estab-lishing Party’s Monolithic Ideological System,” which remains the manifesto for the regime. Article 2.1 states “The Great Leader Comrade Kim Il-sung is a genius of the revolution, the sun of the people and a legendary hero whom we must respect unendingly, revere eter-nally and come to with the greatest hap-piness and glory …”

Article 4.3 commits people to “Unconditionally accept, treat as a non-negotiable condition, and decide every-thing” upon Kim Il Sung’s “instructions” and in every act think only about his “greatness”. Further, article 4.10 pledges to “Fight with all one’s will against anti-Party and anti-revolutionary thinking trends that have its origin in capitalistic ideas …” and retain “the purity of revolu-tionary thought and Juche ideas of the Great Leader.”

In other words, the “old prejudices” that are obstacles to cooperation are intrinsic to the North Korean state. If Kim Jong-un has to overcome them, he will have to accept the prospect of a much-diminished role in the future.

He knows that if North Koreans are told that there is a way to prosperity other than through self-reliance and that the imperialist US approach is not so bad after all, this risks undermining the regime.

Citizens might ask for justice for past wrongs and seek to overthrow the supreme leader because the entire edifice upon which his rule rests would be invalid. And there is plenty for Kim to fear. North Korea has a record of horrific human rights abuses. Tens of thousands are in prison and disappearances, exe-cutions, torture, rape, and forced labour are widespread.

No rational leader would risk being held accountable for such crimes. The best-case scenario is that Kim Jong-un will seek a soft landing away from the Ten Principles and songun rather than a crash-and-burn outcome. That might mean a transition away from self-reliance and towards opening up the economy while maintaining pervasive social controls a la China in the era of Deng Xiaoping.

Even that carries significant per-sonal risks to himself and the regime. Therefore, much like China, Kim is likely to retain his military capability. In such a scenario, Tiananmen Square-style events might occur. As all the historical evidence shows, once people experience freedom, they are reluctant to accept servitude.

Rights beget demands for more rights. This begs the obvious question: will the West stand by if such a crackdown occurs when North Korea opens up and its citizens demand more?

So, the sensible conclusion is that Kim Jong-un’s idea of overcoming old prejudices hints at a much more limited conception of obstacles to North Korea’s integration into the global economy. The farthest extreme of what is possible is post-Deng China: an open economy governed by a dictatorship.

If a transition towards the Chinese model is what the future holds, Trump might be doing China a massive favour. Kim Jong-Un will naturally seek guidance from the Chinese to script such an outcome.

Once North Korea opens up and sanctions are lifted, Chinese enterprises will seize the opportunity to secure highly lucrative deals — from building infrastructure to supplying weapons to exploiting North Korea’s cheap labour for its own purposes. This will not advance US interests.

The writer is the pro vice-chancellor for academic innovation and a law pro-fessor at Deakin University.

SANDEEP GOPALAN AL JAZEERA

QUOTE OF THE DAY

A Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons

will contribute to the security of Nato allies and of our partners in the region, and to the security of the entire

global community.

Jens Stoltenberg Nato Secretary-General

Up to 60 percent of Afghan girls out of school

Just one in three girls are currently attending school in Afghanistan, marking the biggest

drop in the number of school attendees since the Taliban were removed from power 16 years ago.

According to a report by UNICEF, some 3.7 million children between the ages of seven and 17, or 44 percent, are out of school, with girls accounting for 2.7 million of that figure, 60 percent.

“The ongoing conflict and worsening security sit-uation across the country, combined with deeply ingrained poverty and dis-crimination against girls, have pushed the rate of out-of-school children up for the first time since 2002

levels,” UNICEF’s Afghan-istan country study said in a statement.

The spread of violence had forced many schools to close, undermining fragile gains in education for girls in a country where millions have never set foot in a classroom.

The report added that up to 85 percent of girls were not going to school in some of the worst-affected provinces, such as Kan-dahar, Helmand, Wardak, Paktika, Zabul and Uruzgan.

Adele Khodr, UNICEF’s Afghanistan representative, said those out of school were at an “increased danger of abuse, exploi-tation and recruitment [into armed gangs].”

She also emphasised the importance of school in giving children a point of orientation amid the dis-ruptions caused by conflict.

“[Schooling] is about providing routine and sta-bility in life, which is a wise investment given the inse-curity across parts of the country,” Khodr added.

Among others, the report also marked child marriage, shortage of female teachers and poor infrastructure as the main reasons further aggravating the situation.

‘Year of Education’Without mentioning the

Taliban or the local chapter of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), Education Minister Mirwais Balkhi

said there were “many reasons” for children not going to school.

The Taliban have waged a rebellion against the Western-backed Kabul government since being toppled from power in 2001 and has inten-sified attacks across the country in recent months, despite the cold winter months.

“Education of children is the most important development in all human communities,” he said.

“It is the most important tool in fighting war, poverty and unemployment.”

This comes as the Afghan government has declared 2018 as the “Year of Education”.

All leading global human rights organizations have also been denouncing these violations time and again asking the Saudi-led quartet to respect human values and rights but the blockading countries have so far paid no heed to these calls.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK [email protected]

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM [email protected]

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI [email protected]

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

In the dock

Qatar has registered its protest against serious human rights violations committed by the blockading countries since the imposition of siege against it last year with full

force. All leading global human rights organizations have also been denouncing these violations time and again asking the Saudi-led quartet to respect human values and rights but the blockading countries have so far paid no heed to these calls.

Now Qatar has announced that it is taking the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations’ International Court of Justice over human right violations.

It is an established fact that during the illegal blockade, the UAE enacted a series of measures that discriminate against Qataris. These measures included collectively expelling all Qataris from the UAE, prohibiting Qataris from entering into or passing through the UAE, ordering UAE nationals to leave Qatar, closing UAE airspace and seaports to Qatar, interfering with property owned by Qataris in the UAE and discriminating against Qatari students in the UAE.

UAE also criminalized any speech deemed to be in “support” of Qatar, shut down Al Jazeera’s local offices, and blocked trans-mission of Qatari stations and websites.

From the start of Gulf crisis, the Qatar National Human Rights Committee (QNHRC) has been calling the blockading states to refrain from using social factors as leverage card, which is a violation to the international law and the international human rights law.

Various international human rights organizations and govern-ments also expressed concerns about the detrimental impact of the decision on individuals’ civil, political, social, economic and cul-tural rights.

The government of Qatar has said regarding the recent move against the UAE that it believes the actions (taken by the UAE) were in violation of the International Con-vention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) - including discrimination on the basis of nationality - of which the UAE and Qatar are both

signatories. The CERD is a multilateral convention that commits its members to the prohibition and elimination of racial discrimination, including discrimination on the basis of nationality. It is one of the United Nations core human rights instruments.

“Why is Qatar moving a case against the UAE before the International Court of Justice & not against Saudi or Bahrain? Unlike the other parties to the GCC crisis, both Qatar & UAE have consented to article 22 of the Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD),” HE Lulwah Alkhater, spokes-person of Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted the other day. The UAE’s attacks on free expression have been described in a December 2017 Report issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights “OHCHR” as part of a “widespread defamation and hatred campaign against Qatar.” It is also responsibility of world community and global human rights organization to come forward to play active and decisive role in ending ongoing human rights violation contin-uously being committed by the blockading countries.

11WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2018 OPINION

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New secretive deal between UN, Myanmarsmells foul

World Cup is the perfect way to help heal a divided country

MAUNG ZARNI & NATALIE BRINHAM ANATOLIA

CASS SUNSTEIN BLOOMBERG

One million Rohingya sur-vivors of the Myanmar genocide, who took refuge across the borders in the

neighboring Bangladesh, remain largely unpersuaded by the news of the latest repatriation deal the United Nations agencies have signed with their perpetrators in Nay-pyidaw, and openly call for “UN Security Forces” to guarantee safe return to their homelands in the Western Myanmar state of Rakhine.

On June 6, the two UN agencies with mandates for refugee protection

and “development” inked the Memo-randum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of Myanmar, a hybrid military-Aung-San-Suu-Kyi regime. Knut Osby, UN’s man in Yangon, took to the Twittersphere, putting the spin that “Secretary General Antonio Guterres welcomes the agreement”, whose content is treated as if it were Myanmar’s top national security secret.

Additionally, Mr. Osby, who holds the assistant secretary general position, tried to assure the Rohingya refugees via the mass media that UN would be pressing for “group identity” recognition by Myanmar and a “voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable” return.

Leading INGOs, including the Nobel Peace Prize winning Physi-cians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Washington-based Refugees International, headed by Eric Schwartz, the former US Assistant Secretary of State for Refugees and Migration, issued statements, stressing the total absence of nec-essary conditions and injecting a dose of reality as if to pre-empt the typically phony reactions of ‘welcome’ that pervade diplomatic quarters. Both organizations express varying degrees of valid skepticism about the MOU. The conditions on the ground indicate no semblance of physical safety for any returning Rohingyas. There is no indication

that the official acceptance of Rohingya by Myanmar as an integral ethnic minority of the Union is forthcoming, especially when one remembers the national standing Rohingyas had enjoyed as a group until the early years of the military rule in the 1960’s.

And there is little prospect for their re-integration into the pre-dominantly Buddhist society where the most powerful Senior General Min Aung Hlaing publicly declared his genocidal intent, that the presence of the Rohingya in N. Rakhine was an “unfinished business” from the pogroms of the Second World War.

In addition to the frightening prospects of being marched back to Myanmar’s “killing fields”, what has truly unnerved the Rohingya ref-ugees in Bangladesh — thousands have been in refugee camps in Bangladesh since the early 1990’s as they fled the earlier waves of violent persecution — about this latest UN-Myanmar refugee deal is this: UN agencies — the UNDP, the UNHCR, the World Food Program (WFP) — have a dismal record when it comes to standing up for the Rohingya in the last 40 years since the UNHCR first became involved in the repatri-ation process in the summer of 1978.

The UNHCR operates in both countries at the pleasure of the gov-ernments in Dhaka and Naypyidaw, neither of which is a signatory to the Refugee Conventions. The UN’s rotating international staff in Myanmar may lack the institutional memory about their uncomfortable role in the broken sacred principle of non-refoulment, but those Rohingya who were forcibly repatriated have not.

The UN agency whose principal mandate is protection of the ref-ugees was in fact in no position to stand up for the most vulnerable Rohingyas sand-wiched between the perpetrating Myanmar and Bangladesh.

In the decades that followed the 1990’s repatria-tions, the UN’s refugee watchdog had consistently put keeping good relations with host governments in order to secure

access — or “pragmatic humanitari-anism” — above its own organiza-tional mandate of protection. That is why the UNHCR, and all other UN agencies operating in Myanmar, have had an open, if unwritten, directive for all staff to comply with regarding Myanmar’s refusal to use the term ‘Rohingya’.

So the staffs of all UN agencies operating in Myanmar avoid using the word ‘Rohingya’ in all their com-munications seen or heard by Myanmar officials. On the eve of Myanmar’s “ethnic cleansing” of the N. Rakhine state, the WFP reportedly recalled its July 2017 report about the semi-famine like conditions in which 80,000 Rohingya children under the age of 5 were living at the “request” of the Myanmar government.

Specifically, UN agencies in Myanmar lead an organizational double-life, speaking in two dif-ferent scripts: one, tailored to placate the host regime by not calling Rohingyas by the group’s ethnic name in meetings and inter-actions with Myanmar authorities, who have attempted to systemati-cally erase the group’s identity from Myanmar’s collective consciousness, history and official records; the other one to please the ears of global human rights organizations and Rohingya campaigners interna-tionally by calling the group by their proper name, Rohingyas.

At the level of individual man-agement of the UN’s in-country team, the last UN Resident Coordi-nator, Renata Lok-Dessallien, opted to maintain cordial relations with Myanmar leaders and prioritizing (business-friendly) development approach over human rights, an act which undermined the then UN Sec-retary General Ban Ki-moon’s policy of Human-Rights-First.

Might the World Cup, which starts this week, reduce ethnic divisions and political violence?

Absolutely. To see why, we have to back up a bit.

All over the world, many people closely identify with their religion, their race or their ethnicity — and much less with their country.

That can be a serious problem. When people separate themselves from their fellow citizens, they tend to distrust each other. They become less able to address shared chal-lenges. They regard each other as strangers — and, in extreme cases, as enemies.

Aware of that risk, national leaders often try to strengthen peo-ple’s sense of national identity. In the United States, Independence Day is an effort to do that. But does it really help? Does anything?

South Africa’s Nelson Mandela thought so. In 1985, he rallied his nation around its rugby team, even

though rugby had, by tradition, been an Afrikaner sport, closely asso-ciated with support for apartheid; black people had often rooted for the opposing team.

When Mandela embraced the team and its despised symbol, the springbok, he unified a divided nation.

His support was a masterstroke because it announced to those who were most suspicious of him: We are all South Africans, and we have that in common.

A new study, involving sub-Saharan Africa, demonstrates that Mandela was onto something uni-versal: National sports teams can combat the effects of ethnic, racial and religion differences. That prop-osition is important in itself. It also offers broader lessons about how to increase unity and reduce division.

Conducted by an international team of economists — Emilio Dep-etris-Chauvin, Ruben Durante and

Filipe R. Campante — the study explores how a victory by the national soccer team affects peo-ple’s sense of ethnic identity.

To do that, the authors matched data from four waves of the Afroba-rometer survey (including 24 countries in sub-Saharan Africa) with results from about 70 soccer matches from 2002 to 2013.

Fortuitously, the survey includes ques-tions about how people identify themselves: “Let us suppose that you had to choose between being

a [National] and being a [respond-ent’s ethnic group]. Which of these two groups do you feel most strongly attached to?” The survey also includes questions about trust.

The researchers’ central finding is stark: In the aftermath of a victory, citizens are more likely to embrace a national identity, and their sense of ethnic identity is reduced. The effect is big: a 20 percent reduction in the probability that people will self-identify in ethnic terms.

Depetris-Chauvin and his col-leagues also find that when their national team wins, people show a higher level of trust in those with different ethnic identities. You might think that’s a kind of euphoria effect, but if so you would be wrong. Wins by the national team do not increase optimism about the economy or support for the current government.

Survey evidence is informative, but it’s reasonable to ask whether it means anything in terms of actual behavior. That’s where Depetris-Chauvin and his colleagues produce their most interesting finding. They asked: What is the effect of soccer success on violence and civil conflict?

Specifically, they explored whether nations whose teams nar-rowly succeeded in making the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations experienced different levels of con-flict from nations whose teams nar-rowly failed to qualify. Their data set included information on the date, location and severity of episodes of political violence, including rebel groups, civilians, militias or the government.

Stunningly, they found that

There is no indication that the official acceptance of Rohingya by Myanmar as an integral ethnic minority of the Union is forthcoming, especially when one remembers the national standing Rohingyas had enjoyed as a group until the early years of the military rule in the 1960’s.

nations whose teams made the finals showed significantly lower levels of conflict and violence within their borders than nations whose teams did not make the finals - and that the compara-tively lower levels of conflict and violence persisted for a full six months after the successful event.

World Cup players have enough pressure on them, but we now have to add this: Victory in sports can dampen national divisions, increase trust and decrease violence. But the broader lesson extends well beyond sports.

Highly publicized events, inculcating a sense of national pride, can increase the likelihood that people will see themselves as fellow citizens, involved in a common endeavor. For nations that now face serious internal divisions, that’s a challenge — and an opportunity.

World Cup players have enough pressure on them, but we now have to add this: Victory in sports can dampen national divisions, increase trust and decrease violence. But the broader lesson extends well beyond sports.

12 WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2018ASIA

Rahul compares Modi with fugitivesIANS

MUMBAI/THANE: Without naming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi yesterday compared him with prominent fugitives and expressed suspicion that even “he may run away” like Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi.

“Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi ran away with Rs350m, Vijay Mallya took off with Rs90bn and even Lalit Modi decamped... But he says nothing... He will also run away,” Gandhi said, addressing a massive meeting of the party’s booth-level workers in suburban Goregaon.

Launching his sharpest attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Modi, Gandhi said claimed there was “fear” now in Modi’s voice.

“There is fear in his voice... The Prime Minister runs the country through speeches only... But I am not scared as I am a soldier of truth,” Gandhi said amid spontaneous rounds of claps punctuating his speech.

He said Modi had contended that he would be a watchman of the country and not the Prime Minister, but instead he has

become “a watchman for only 15 to 20 rich people”. Gandhi said the country is suffering under the “lies” of Modi, while the Congress always stood for the truth.

Hinting at Opposition unity in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, he warned that the Congress and all other parties together will defeat the BJP.

“In Gujarat, you barely sur-vived... In Karnataka you were thrown out. In Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhat-tisgarh, you will be nowhere in the picture. The Congress and Opposition parties will unitedly vanquish you,” Gandhi said.

Referring to the demoneti-sation of November 2016, the Congress President said that the common masses who used to eke

out a survival with Rs500 or Rs1,000 were suddenly left in the lurch as the government laugh-ingly spiked those currencies.

However, he said a certain Jayesh Shah (referring to BJP president Amit Shah’s son) did not suffer and could convert his Rs50,000 to Rs800m in a short time.

Accusing the BJP and Modi of spreading hatred throughout the country, Gandhi pointed out that the Congress has always united India and taken eve-rybody along.

“The ordinary Indians who voted for the BJP had faith in the Prime Minister, but now they feel Modi has betrayed their trust totally. Farmers were expecting proper prices for the produce from him, but now they die alone and the Prime Minister is not there with them... He has made everybody cry,” Gandhi said.

He demanded to know where are the two crore jobs Modi promised, reiterating that the country continues to reel from high inflation, spiralling petrol-diesel prices and unemployment.

Earlier, Gandhi, who attended a court hearing in a defemation case in Bhiwandi (in adjoining Thane district), said:

“Ours is a fight of ideology and the system... Let them file any number of court cases against me, I shall fight them... I am not bothered.

Bhiwandi Court judge AI Shaikh summoned Gandhi to the witness box and read out the charges against him, to which he pleaded not guilty. The defa-mation case was filed by Rash-triya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist Rajesh Kunte who objected to Gandhi’s utterances at an election rally in March 2014 wherein he blamed the RSS for the killing of Mahatma Gandhi.

The matter will come up for further hearing on August 10.

Arriving here this morning on his maiden visit to Mahar-ashtra after taking over as Con-gress President, Gandhi was greeted with hoardings pro-claiming him as the ‘Future Prime Minister’ on the roads outside the Mumbai Airport to Thane.

He was accorded a warm welcome by state party President Ashok Chavan, Mumbai city chief Sanjay Nirupam, party General Secretary Mohan Prakash, former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, former Union Ministers Ashok

Gehlot and Gurudas Kamat, former state ministers Naseem Khan and Manikrao Thakre, and other leaders like Janardhan Chandurkar, Bhai Jagtap, Raju Waghmare and hundreds of party workers.

Gandhi also launched the Congress’ national initiative ‘Project Shakti’ by which the he would establish direct commu-nication between the grassroots workers and the party’s central leadership, said Nirupam.

India’s Congress leader Rahul Gandhi (centre) leaves after appearing in a criminal defamation case filed against him for his alleged remarks against the RSS at a magistrate court in Bhiwandi, yesterday.

President Kovind to visit Greece, Suriname & CubaIANS

NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind will embark on an eight-day, three-nation tour from June 16 that will see him going to Greece, Suriname and Cuba.

Briefing the media here, Subrata Bhattacharjee, Joint Secretary, Central Europe, in the External Affairs Ministry, said that Kovind will reach Greece on June 16 at the invi-tation of Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulus.

He will hold a meeting with Pavlopoulus as well as with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Leader of the Opposition Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

According to Bhattach-arjee, India-Greece bilateral trade stands at $530m and some Indian companies are also present in the infra-structure, pharmaceutical and steel sectors in that central European nation.

From Greece, Kovind will leave for Suriname on June 19 in what will be the first ever visit by an Indian head of state to the South American nation.

Partha Satpathy, Joint Secretary (Latin America and Caribbean), said that Kovind’s visits to Suriname and Cuba are a reflection of New Delhi giving more importance from this year to ties with Latin America.

While in Suriname at the invitation of President Desi Bouterse, following official talks, some agreements are expected to be signed, including on health and infor-mation technology. India will offer some lines of credit as part of development assistance.

From Suriname, he and his delegation will leave for Cuba which again will be the first ever presidential visit from India to the Caribbean island country.

Satpathy said that both India and Cuba are important partners in the global South-South cooperation.

Four agreements are expected to be signed, including in the areas of bio-technology and traditional and alternative systems of medicine.

Kovind will conclude his visit on June 23.

Cabinet nod for new telecom policy 2018 likely by July-endIANS

NEW DELHI: A new telecom policy aiming to attract investment of $100bn in the digital communications sector is likely to be in place by July 2018, Communications Minister Manoj Sinha (pictured) said yesterday.

“By July-end I am hopeful that the Cabinet approval will come for the National Digital Communications Policy,” Sinha told reporters here.

He was holding a press meet to share the achievements of the Department of Telecommunica-tions and Department of Posts in the last four years.

The government on May 1 had released the draft National Telecom Policy 2018 aiming to attract investment of $100bn in the Digital Communications

sector by reforming the licencing and regulatory regime in the country along with promoting the ease of doing business.

The draft National Digital Communications Policy focuses on provisioning of broadband for all, creating 4 million additional jobs in the digital communica-tions sector and enhancing the contribution of the digital com-munications sector to 8 per cent of India’s GDP from around 6 per cent in 2017.

It also plans to propel India to the Top 50 nations in the ICT Development Index of Interna-tional Telecommunication Union from 134 in 2017, enhancing New Delhi’s contribution to global value chains and ensuring digital sovereignty.

Talking about the last four years, Sinha said: “When we took

over telecom department it had challenges like trust deficit. The sector was in turmoil. In the last four years we have brought in transparency and good governance.”

Asked about the present turmoil in the industry due to merger and consolidation resulting in job losses, Sinha said: “Consolidation is happening

across the world. India is not out of that. After consolidation there will be major four to five players in the market.”

Assuring that this was a passing phase and the turmoil would subside, the Minister said though there were some job losses, many new jobs had been created as well.

Talking about some important projects of the gov-ernment, Sinha said “in-flight connectivity” services were likely to start within a year.

It is learnt that Communica-tions Ministry officials will be meeting their counterparts in the Civil Aviation Ministry in a week to discuss this matter.

Asked about the poor health of the telecom sector the min-ister said: “It is true that sub-scription cost has gone down and

services have become cheaper. There is a substantial improvement in call drop situation.”

Asked about the poor service quality of state-run BSNL and MTNL, the minister said these two telecom companies provide services in places where other operators cannot reach.

But he admitted that there is need for improvement in both the companies.

The minister said the gov-ernment is seriously examining the request of BSNL and MTNL for equity infusion.

While speaking on newer technology adoption like 5G, the minister said the government is gearing up for 5G adoption and unlike other telecom technology adoption this time the gov-ernment would not miss the bus.

Protesting for you, Kejriwal tells DelhiitesIANS

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a video message released yesterday told Delhiites that he is protesting for them as he and three of his Ministers prepared to continue their sit-in in the Raj Niwas drawing room for another night.

“The protest is for you all, for the people of Delhi, so that you can get roads, schools, hos-pitals, Mohalla Clinics, water and electricity,” Kejriwal said in the video that was put out in the social media and also cir-culated on various WhatsApp groups.

Kejriwal claimed the IAS officers were “only working on important files” and “not responding to Ministers’ calls and messages, and not attending our meetings”.

“People of Delhi are suf-fering, the work planned for Delhi by the government is suf-fering,” he said, adding: “He (Lt. Governor) asked us to seek per-mission from the Centre. We all know what does it mean. The file will go and will remain there for five years.” Kejriwal, along with his three senior Min-isters -- Manish Sisodia, Saty-endar Jain and Gopal Rai -- has been camping in the Raj Niwas, the official accommodation-cum-office of Lt. Governor (LG) Anil Baijal, since Monday evening.

The Delhi Chief Minister said he and his colleagues would not leave Baijal’s office until their demands were met. Jain also started an indefinite hunger strike since yesterday morning.

The Raj Niwas called it a “protest without reason”.

The demands include a direction to IAS officers working in the Delhi adminis-tration to end their “strike”, action against officers who have struck work for “four months” and approval to his government’s proposal for doorstep delivery of ration to the poor.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s national secretary Pankaj Gupta said that today all party MLAs would gather at the Chief Min-ister’s residence at 4 p.m and march to LG’s house and protest there.

The AAP leaders also exhorted the common people of Delhi through a video message to join the protest march.“Kejriwal was forced to take the step as LG was not lis-tening to the Delhi govern-ment’s demand,” Gupta told the media.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit back at Kejriwal and termed the protest as “a planned trick to divert people’s attention from the real issues of poor health system in government hospitals and acute water shortage in the city”.

There is fear in his voice... The Prime Minister runs the country through speeches only... But I am not scared as I am a soldier of truth.

Taliban launch attacks as Afghan govt ceasefire startsAFP

MAZAR-I-SHARIF: Taliban fighters killed a governor and took control of his district in northern Afghanistan as clashes broke out across the country, officials said yesterday, accusing the militants of defying the start of a government ceasefire with them.

There was intense fighting

between Afghan security forces and Taliban gunmen in the northern provinces of Faryab and Sari Pul, with officials reporting an unspecified number of casualties on both sides.

The governor of Kohistan district in Faryab was killed along with eight others in an ambush overnight, provincial governor spokesman Jawed

Bidar told AFP, blaming the Taliban. He said the militants had seized control of the district.

“The ceasefire went on effect this morning,” interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said. “We have ordered our forces to defend with all their power if they are attacked by an enemy that has no respect for anything.”

Flooded Kutupalong refugee campThe Kutupalong refugee camp after a storm, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

13WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2018 ASIA

Trump to halt Korean military execisesREUTERS

SINGAPORE: US President Donald Trump made a stunning concession to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un yesterday about halting military exercises, pulling a surprise at a summit that baffled allies, military offi-cials and lawmakers from his own Republican Party.

At a news conference after the historic meeting with Kim in Singapore, Trump announced he would halt what he called “very provocative” and expensive regular military exercises that the United States holds with South Korea.

That was sure to rattle close allies South Korea and Japan. North Korea has long sought an end to the war games.

The two leaders promised in a joint statement after their meeting to work toward the “denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula and the United States promised its Cold War foe security guarantees, but they offered few specifics.

The summit, the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader, was in stark contrast to a flurry of North Korean nuclear and missile tests and angry exchanges of insults between Trump and Kim last year that fueled worries about war.

Noting past North Korean promises to denuclearise, many analysts cast doubt on how effective Trump had been at obtaining Washington’s pre-summit goal of getting North Korea to undertake complete, verifiable and irreversible steps to scrap a nuclear arsenal that is advanced enough to threaten the United States.

If implemented, the halting of the joint military exercises would be one of the most con-troversial moves to come from the summit. The drills help keep US forces at a state of readiness in one of the world’s most tense flashpoints.

“We will be stopping the war games which will save us a tre-mendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should. But we’ll be saving a tremendous amount of money, plus I think it’s very provocative,” Trump said.

His announcement was a surprise even to President Moon Jae-in’s government in Seoul, which worked in recent months to help bring about the Trump-Kim summit.

The presidential Blue House said it needed “to find out the precise meaning or intentions” of Trump’s statement, while adding that it was willing to “explore various measures to

help the talks move forward more smoothly”.

Current and former US defense officials expressed concern at the possibility that the United States would unilaterally halt military exercises without an explicit concession from North Korea that lowers the threat from Pyongyang.

The two leaders smiled and shook hands at their meeting at the Capella hotel on Singapore’s resort island of Sentosa, and Trump spoke in warm terms of Kim at his news conference afterward.

Just a few months ago, Kim was an international pariah accused of ordering the killing of his uncle, a half-brother and hundreds of officials suspected of disloyalty. Tens of thousands of North Koreans are imprisoned in labour camps.

The leaders’ joint statement did not refer to human rights, although Trump said he had

raised the issue with Kim, and he believed the North Korean leader wanted to “do the right thing”.

Trump said he expected the denuclearisation process to start “very, very quickly” and it would be verified by “having a lot of people in North Korea”.

He said Kim had announced that North Korea was destroying a major missile engine-testing

site, but sanctions on North Korea would stay in place for now.

The joint statement said Trump “committed to provide security guarantees” to North Korea and Kim “reaffirmed his firm and unwavering com-mitment to complete denuclear-isation of the Korean Peninsula”.

North Korea has long rejected unilateral nuclear

disarmament, instead referring to the denuclearisation of the peninsula. That has always been interpreted as a call for the United States to remove its “nuclear umbrella” protecting South Korea and Japan.

Kim said after the summit he and Trump had “decided to leave the past behind. The world will see a major change.”

US President Donald Trump (right) and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un shake hands following a signing ceremony during their historic US-North Korea summit, at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island in Singapore, yesterday.

Eid ShoppingPakistanis shop at a market ahead of Eid Al Fitr in Lahore, yesterday.

SC upholds death sentence for child killerAP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court (SC) has upheld a death sentence for a man who killed eight children, including a 7-year-old girl whose rape and murder drew nationwide condemnation earlier this year.

Yesterday’s court order came months after Mohammad Imran challenged his death sen-tence following sentencing in February, claiming his trial was not fair. He still has the right to seek clemency from President Mamnoon Hussain.

Imran was arrested in

January after he raped and killed Zainab Ansari and threw her body into a garbage dump in the city of Kasur in eastern Punjab province. His arrest at the time brought to light seven more killings, prompting Pakistanis to demand he be publicly executed.

Pakistan lays out regulations for NGOsINTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: Amid security concerns - both on the interna-tional and domestic levels - over money laundering, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has, for the first time, framed a set of regulations for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs).

According to the new reg-ulations, both NGOs and INGOs cannot directly or indirectly participate in any political cam-paign for elective public office, or engage in activities akin to those of a political party.

They are also barred from funding political parties, indi-viduals or any other associa-tions that may be set up for such purposes.

Although all NGOs are reg-istered with the SECP under the Companies Ordinance 1984, there was no complete set of regulations to oversee their conduct. The new regulations have been formulated under the Companies Act 2017, and all NGOs registered with the Com-mission must abide by them.

Among other things, the regulations - which refer to

NGOs as companies - outline the procedure concerning licence grants as well, which are issued for three years unless revoked earlier by the Commission.

The directors and the chief executive officer(s) shall be entitled only for the reim-bursement of expenses incurred by them for attending meetings.

Payment of remuneration and other benefits shall be allowed only to the chief exec-utive officer(s) and directors who are non-members and are full time employees of the company.

The income and any profits of the company, will be applied solely towards the promotion of objects of the company and no portion of it shall be dis-tributed, paid or transferred directly or indirectly by way of dividend, bonus or otherwise by way of profit to the members of the company or their close relatives.

The company shall close its accounts on the June 30 each year. The regulations highlight that the NGOs must make trans-actions grants, contribution and donations through proper banking channels but any amount less than Rs25,000 may be received in cash.

Over 15,000 nomination papers filed for Pakistan’s general electionsINTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has stated that over 15,000 nomination papers were filed by candidates with the electoral body as the deadline expired yesterday.

The ECP has forwarded data of all the candidates to depart-ments concerned including Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

Meanwhile, ECP is scruti-nising the data submitted by can-didates through online scrutiny system whereas the process of scrutiny will be summed up by June 19.

Following completion of the scrutiny process, candidates can file appeals against the

objections raised on nomination papers by June 22. Electoral body will dispose of the appeals by June 27, whereas a revised list of candidates will be issued by June 29.

In response, data of over 7,500 candidates has been checked through the ECP Scrutiny Cell, established at its secretariat here.

Several cases of bank loan default and other irregularities could impede the possibility of getting a clean chit from the Election Commission for con-testing the elections.

The ECP extended the time of filing of nomination papers by two hours on the last day.

Former president General Pervez Musharraf filed his nom-ination papers in Karachi, Layyah and Chitral.

Former prime minister

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will contest against Imran in NA-53 constituency of the federal capital, whereas former PTI MNA Ayesha Gulalai, who leads her party PTI-Gulalai, will also vie for this seat and face her former party chairman.

According to the ECP spokes-person, details of dozens of can-didates have been declared to be extremely suspicious. All this record was being sent to the returning officers across Pakistan on fast-track basis so that during the scrutiny period of June 12-19, this data could be taken into account.

Meanwhile, the ECP decided to let foreign observers as well as local observers to witness the electoral process and also observe the counting of ballot papers and consolidation of results.

In this connection, the ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad chaired a meeting, which was attended by repre-sentatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior, the FBR and security agencies.

The Election Commission reiterated to welcome the foreign observers to Pakistan in connection with the observation of the upcoming general election.

In a related development, all the major political parties sub-mitted their priority lists of can-didates for reserved seats for minorities to the Election Commission.

Moreover, political parties also submitted lists for the 60 reserved women seats in the National Assembly and pro-vincial assemblies, ahead of the deadline for submission of

nominees, according to the revised schedule.

Meanwhile, a total 284 can-didates have filed their nomi-nation papers for seven National Assembly and 15 provincial assembly seats before Returning Officers (ROs) here in judicial c o m p l e x , R a w a l p i n d i , yesterday.

Scrutiny of papers started yesterday. In the Rawalpindi dis-trict, as many as total 1,389 can-didates 352 for National Assembly and 1,039 candidates for pro-vincial assembly seats had obtained nomination forms from Returning Officers to contest the upcoming general elections 2018.

According to the changed schedule issued by Election Commission, the deadline to complete the scrutiny of nomi-nation papers was extended from June 14 to June 19.

We will be stopping the war games which will save us a tremendous amount of money.

Vietnam MPs approve cyber security lawAFP

H A N O I : Vietnamese lawmakers yesterday approved a sweeping cyber security law which could compel Facebook and Google to take down critical posts within 24 hours, as space for debate is crushed inside the Communist country.

Activists and dissenters are routinely harassed, jailed or tied up in legal cases in Vietnam, a one-party state which is hyper-sensitive to critical public opinion.

Social media and Internet forums have provided a rare platform to share and debate views against authorities.

But the bill, waved through by an overwhelming majority of MPs in the National Assembly, is poised to end that relative freedom.

The law’s far-reaching provisions mean internet companies will have to remove posts deemed to be a “national security” threat within a day and store per-sonal information and data of their users inside Vietnam.

“Currently, Google and Facebook store personal data of Vietnamese users in Hong Kong and Singapore,” Vo Trong Viet, chairman of National Assembly’s defence and security committee told lawmakers.

“Putting data centres in Vietnam will increase expenses for the service pro-viders... but it is necessary to meet the requirements of the country’s cyber security.”

The new law outlaws material encouraging public gatherings or that “offends” everything from the national flag to the country’s leaders and “heroes”. There was no immediate detail of the pun-ishment for violating the new rules. Only 15 out of the 466 MPs present in the rubber-stamp assembly voted against the bill, which the government says will become law from January 1, 2019.

“In the country’s deeply repressive climate, the online space was a relative refuge where people could go to share ideas and opinions with less fear of censure by the authorities,” said Clare Algar of Amnesty International.

14 WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2018EUROPE

British PM avoids Brexit defeat in parliament voteAFP

LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May narrowly avoided a major blow to her Brexit strategy yesterday after MPs rejected a plan that would have given parliament a veto on the final deal negotiated with Brussels.

The House of Commons voted 324 to 298 to defeat an amendment to the EU (With-drawal) Bill which would have removed her government’s power to unilaterally walk away from talks with Brussels.

But in extraordinary scenes, ministers were forced to offer last-minute compromises to pro-European MPs before holding private talks in corners of the chamber as the debate raged on.

May had feared a rebellion by her Conservative MPs over the motion, one of 15 submitted by the unelected upper House of Lords on which lawmakers will vote over the coming two days.

The bill will then go back to the Lords on Monday.

The pro-European cause was boosted when junior justice min-ister Phillip Lee, a close personal

friend of the prime minister, resigned shortly before the debate in order to back the veto amendment.

May had earlier warned that defeat would weaken her hand in exit talks, while a string of eurosceptic MPs stood up to accuse the rebels of trying to thwart Brexit.

“Anything that undermines the government at home will make negotiations with the EU more difficult,” May told a meeting of her cabinet.

Talks with Brussels have stalled over the fraught issue of the Irish border, but both sides

are hoping to agree a final deal by October in time for the break on March 29, 2019.

- ‘Immense crisis’ - The EU (Withdrawal) Bill would formally end Britain’s membership of the bloc and transfer more than 40 years of European law onto the British statute books.

May is seeking to overturn 14 of 15 amendments passed by the Lords earlier this year, but

has a fight on her hands due to her fragile majority in the 650-seat Commons.

She has already agreed to give MPs a vote on the final Brexit deal, but says it will be a yes or no decision — meaning that rejecting it could see Britain crash out of the EU.

The Lords amendment would have given parliament the power to decide what happened next, with the possibility of going back to the negotiating table or even staying in the bloc.

Following its defeat, the gov-ernment’s own amendment on the so-called meaningful vote

will go forward to the House of Lords for debate next week -- but with some changes.

Solicitor General Robert Buckland promised to work on the proposal taking into account concerns raised by former attorney general Dominic Grieve, a leading pro-European rebel.

Grieve told MPs: “If we don’t achieve a deal at all, the fact is we are going to be facing an

immense crisis.“The question is how do we

take some sensible steps to anticipate that happening and try to make sure that there is a coherent process for dealing with it.”

Passions ran high in the three-hour debate, when angry eurosceptics accused their rivals of trying to undermine the 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU. “The decision was taken by the people, we gave them that decision and we have to stand by it,” said Conservative MP Bill Cash.

His pro-European colleague

Anna Soubry hit back that hardline eurosceptics were seeking to “take us over the cliff of hard Brexit”.

She has previously spoken of the threats she faced for chal-lenging the government, and revealed that one colleague would not be voting as they wished this week for fear of reprisals.

Opposition Labour law-

maker Chuka Umunna had earlier accused Britain’s tabloids of intimidation, holding up Tues-day’s edition of the eurosceptic Daily Express.

It featured a British flag and the headline: “Ignore the will of the people at your peril.” Also on Tuesday, the government suc-cessfully overturned an attempt to remove the date of Brexit from the face of the bill.

Further clashes were expected on Wednesday during debate on amendments relating to how closely Britain stays aligned with the EU’s economy after leaving.

Pro-EU demonstrators hold posters of Britain’s former junior justice Minister Phillip Lee, who resigned yesterday, during an anti-Brexit protest outside the Houses of Parliament in London.

The House of Commons voted 324 to 298 to defeat an amendment to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill which would have removed her government’s power to unilaterally walk away from talks with Brussels.

Merkel on tightrope over disputed migrant policyAFP

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel was fighting yesterday to stamp out the first major row within her uneasy coalition, as disputes over her refugee policy returned to haunt her while she negotiates a broad EU asylum deal.

The discord within her con-servative bloc burst into the open on Monday when hardline Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, of Merkel’s Bavarian allies CSU, hastily cancelled the presen-tation of his tough new “mas-terplan” on immigration.

The interior ministry said in a short statement that the unveiling of the plan had been pushed back, acknowledging that “several points still need to be agreed”.

Merkel has made clear she rejects a plan to turn back at

German borders any asylum-seeker already registered in another EU country, arguing that her country shouldn’t go it alone

while Europe searches for a common policy. Seehofer, the former premier of conservative Bavaria state, has long been one

of the fiercest critics of Merkel’s decision to open Germany’s borders at the height of Europe’s migration crisis in 2015.

Highlighting the chasm, See-hofer invited to Berlin Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who on Monday flatly refused to allow a rescue vessel carrying hundreds of migrants to dock. Salvini and Seehofer in a phone call were in “full harmony on security and immi-gration policies” and agreed that the EU must “not waste any more time” and protect its external borders, said the interior min-istry in Rome.

Seehofer, citing scheduling difficulties, will also stay away from a chancellery “integration summit” Wednesday for volun-teers, aid workers and officials helping refugees settle in Germany — a move the opposition Greens party labelled an “affront” to all

involved. But Merkel and Seehofer both signalled they wanted a quick end to the spat.

They told conservative law-makers in Berlin that they would try to negotiate a solution “in the coming days”, participants who attended the meeting told AFP.

- The arrival of more than a million asylum seekers, many fleeing war-torn Syria and Iraq, since 2015 has deeply divided Germany and reshaped the party political landscape.

Voters handed Merkel her worst-ever score in September’s elections as well as giving the far-right AfD seats for the first time in the Bundestag. With a crucial state election in Bavaria coming up in October, Seehofer and his Christian Social Union (CSU) party are anxious to stop the haemorrhage of support to the anti-migrant and Islamo-phobic AfD.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) and her Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz attend a press conference at the Chancellery in Berlin, yesterday, as Austria prepares to take over the rotating presidency of the EU.

Armed man holds hostages in ParisAFP

PARIS: Dozens of police officers converged on a street in central Paris yesterday after an armed man took hostages, sources said.

The man was “armed and holding at least two people,” a source said, adding that “the sit-uation is quite confused”, but did not appear to be terrorism-related. “Based on our initial investigations it could be a men-tally unstable person whose moti-vations are still unclear,” another source said.

The standoff began around 4pm, with BFM television

reporting that the man had entered the offices of a start-up company on the Rue des Petites Ecuries, a gritty area of the bus-tling 10th arrondissement.

At least one man was lightly injured while fighting with the hostage-taker and escaping before the BRI officers arrived on the scene, a police source said. Crowds of bystanders were held back by a security perimeter at the site, where police and rescue workers were massed, deploying at least one remote-controlled robot on tracks toward the building where the armed man had barricaded himself.

French police, special police forces (BRI) and firemen secure the street as a man took two people hostage at a start-up form in Paris, yesterday.

Macedonia makes name change deal with GreeceAP

ATHENS: Greece and Mace-donia reached an agreement yesterday to end a bitter 27-year name dispute that had kept the smaller and younger country out of international institutions such as Nato, the two countries’ prime ministers announced.

Greece’s Alexis Tsipras and Macedonia’s Zoran Zaev said the former Yugoslav republic’s new name for both domestic and international purposes would be Republic of Northern Macedonia. Macedonia will also amend its constitution to reflect the change as part of the deal.

The nationality of the coun-try’s citizens will be listed on official documents as “Mace-donian/citizen of the Republic of Macedonia.”

Greece had long demanded that its northern neighbour change or modify its name to

avoid any claim to the territory and ancient heritage of the region in northern Greece named Macedonia — birthplace of ancient warrior king Alex-ander the Great.

The current prime min-isters’ attempts to find a com-promise have faced dissent in both countries, leading to large protests by opponents of a deal, threatening to split Greece’s governing coalition and pro-voking a rift between Macedo-nia’s prime minister and pres-ident. In a televised address, Tsipras said the 140 countries which had recognised the Balkan state simply as Mace-donia would now recognise it as Republic of Northern Mace-donia. “This achieves a clear distinction between Greek Mac-edonia and our northern neigh-bours and puts an end to the irredentism which their current constitutional name implies,” he said.

EU Parliament to phase out plastic water bottlesSTRASBOURG: The European Parliament has told its lawmakers and staff to set an example for EU citizens by no longer drinking water from plastic bottles by next year. The European Parliament bureau headed by Antonio Tajani and 14 vice presidents adopted a measure late Monday to phase out the plastic bottles and build a network of drinking fountains.

“Happy to announce that the EP bureau has decided to get rid of all plastic bottles and minimise single use plastic altogether at the parliament from July 2019,” tweeted Heidi Hautala, an EP vice-president, yesterday. “Phase out already under way! EP will lead by example!,” added Hautala, a Finnish ecologist.

The move comes amid broader European Union and international efforts to stop eight million tonnes of plastic waste polluting the world’s oceans annually. One million bottles were consumed last year during events and meetings in the EP which gathers in the French city of Strasbourg and also in Brussels.

EU agrees to bolster security data sharingBRUSSELS: The European Union agreed to require member countries to share more information about suspected extremists and more records of fingerprints and other biometric data, as part of a security upgrade to thwart militant attacks.

Countries will now be required to add more data to the bloc’s Schengen Infor-mation System (SIS), making it easier for police in other EU states to trace suspects using fingerprints, palm prints or facial images. Police will receive more timely alerts about suspected militants.

“We have been making the SIS stronger and smarter,” Europe’s Security Commis-sioner Julian King said in a statement. “A strengthened SIS will provide police and border guards with the information they need to do their jobs and help keep Europeans safe.” The move comes as the EU is nego-tiating with London about the future of security cooperation once Britain leaves the bloc.

Macron blasts Italy over migrantsAFP

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron blasted Italy yesterday for “irresponsibility” after it turned away a rescue boat carrying African migrants, exposing deep tensions in the European Union over the issue.

The decision by Italy to stop the Aquarius rescue boat landing on its shores at the weekend with 629 migrants on board has created the first serious clash between the

country’s new populist government and its EU partners.

During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Macron accused Italy’s leaders of “cynicism and irresponsibility” and said they had broken international maritime law by refusing the boat the right to dock.

“In cases of distress, those with the closest coastline have a responsibility to respond,” spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said in unusually harsh criticism by Paris of

its southern neighbour.In response the Italian government said

it would not accept “hypocritical lessons from countries that have preferred to look the other way on immigration,” apparently a reference to French reinforcements at its border with Italy. For years, Italy has pleaded with its EU partners for help with a massive influx of arrivals from Africa that has seen 700,000 people cross the Mediterranean and land in the country since 2013.

BUSINESSWednesday 13 June 2018

PAGE | 20PAGE | 16QINVEST records

$858m of completed exits

Japan is back in Malaysia amid doubts over Chinese funding

Woqod mobile fuel stations to remain in service: CEOMOHAMMAD SHOEB THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The mobile petrol stations deployed by Qatar Fuel (Woqod) at several strategic places across the country will not be phased out anytime soon, said a top official of the company.

Woqod, the main distributor of retail petroleum products in the country, have put up tem-porary refueling facilities to meet the growing demand for petrol and diesel products at various underserved areas, including at those places where petrol sta-tions of other private companies were shutdown to make way for other developmental projects, and in some newly developed areas where proper petrol sta-tions are yet to be built in.

“The mobile petrol stations will continue to serve for some time at least until we achieve the target of 110 to115 petrol stations, or even more” Saad Rashid Al Muhannadi, Chief Executive Officer of Woqod, told The Peninsula.

Al Muhannadi added: “As of now we cannot think about removing them given the ground realities. But we will eventually phase out them because these are temporary facilities deployed to provide services to ensure customer satisfaction.”

He noted that the return on investment on mobile petrol sta-tions is very low as there are no

convenient stores (Sidra outlets) and other Woqod services at these facilities. However, he also noted that “at the end of the day our aim is to deliver customer satisfaction and not only making profit”.

According to some market analysts, these mobile petrol sta-tions have been proved as a very helpful and effective in easing serpentine queues of motorists at existing petrol stations and reduce the wastage of time.

However, the queues at many fuel stations in Doha con-tinues to be relatively long, especially during peak hours due to the closure of many petrol stations owned by other private companies due to safety concerns and several other reasons, and also due to the growing number of motorists in Qatar.

Analysts say that with the

operation of the upcoming Doha Metro in less than a couple of years’ time is expected to reduce the number of private vehicles significantly putting downward pressure on the demand for petrol and diesel products.

Asked if Woqod is worried about the expected fall in demand for its products and services in the future, he said: “The anticipated impact of Doha Metro on the demand of our services is part of our calcula-tions. But at the end of the day we are more focused to serve our customers and their satisfaction.”

However, Al Muhannadi remained tight lipped if the operation of the upcoming Doha Metro, which aims to provide affordable and convenient public transport to masses, will have any adverse impact on Woqod’s revenues and profitability.

Saad Rashid Al Muhannadi, Chief Executive Officer of Woqod

Nakilat signs deal with Excelerate Energy-USA for first FSRU vesselTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Nakilat achieved another historical milestone yesterday with the signing of an agreement with Excelerate Energy- USA, to establish a joint-venture company and acquire a 55 percent interest in a floating storage regasification unit (FSRU), the first such vessel to join the Nakilat fleet.

Remarking on the strategic importance of this deal, Minister of Energy and Industry and Nakilat Chairman, H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada, said: “This acquisition is pivotal to the State of Qatar, as this is the first FSRU co-owned by a Qatari company, which paves the way for Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) to expand its outreach to developing and emerging markets. This will enable Nakilat to widen its inter-national outreach and thus, secure its industry-leading position in the dynamic and competitive LNG market.”

Nakilat Chief Executive Officer, Abdullah Al Sulaiti, said: “We are extremely proud to be

the first Qatari company to acquire ownership in an FSRU in an effort to maintain our lead-ership in energy transportation and simultaneously support the country’s position as the top exporter of clean energy worldwide. Excelerate Energy is a well-recognised global leader in floating LNG regasifi-cation solutions, and this agreement marks the beginning of our penetration into the FSRU market. This opens up a new business avenue for Nakilat to sustain its long-term growth and development strategies, which in turn will further maximize value and returns for our share-holders. We shall continue to develop in-house capabilities to establish and develop know-how in the management of FSRUs to achieve the company’s vision in becoming a global leader and provider of choice for energy transportation and maritime services.”

FSRUs act as a hub for LNG deliveries, providing an effective solution for delivering clean-burning natural gas to con-sumers. The FSRU unit has a

capacity of 150,900 cubic meters and a peak regasification rate of 745 million cubic feet per day. The vessel is located at Port Qasim in Pakistan, and has received 10.4mt of LNG since it started operations in 2015, out of which 7.8mt were Qatari LNG.

Excelerate Energy’s Man-aging Director Steven Kobos said: “We are incredibly pleased to be entering into this important foundational rela-tionship with Nakilat. Exceler-ate’s FSRUs ensure rapid-to-market and reliable LNG solu-tions that complement our integrated services along the entire LNG value chain.”

He added: “In 2017, the FSRU “Exquisite’’ delivered more regasified LNG ashore than any FSRU in history. This offering of the FSRU unit to the joint-venture company along with Nakilat’s expertise and rep-utation as the world’s largest LNG ship owner will serve Qatar well as they seek access to emerging global LNG markets. We look forward to a successful working relationship with Nakilat and Qatar.”

Abdullah Al Sulaiti (right), Nakilat Chief Executive Officer, and Excelerate Energy’s Managing Director Steven Kobos, signing the agreement.

“The mobile petrol stations will continue to serve for some time at least until we achieve the target of 110 to115 petrol stations, or even more” Saad Rashid Al Muhannadi, Chief Executive Officer of Woqod, told The Peninsula.

Some French petrol stations run dry as farmer blockade continuesREUTERS

PARIS: Oil and gas major Total said yesterday that 3.5 percent of its petrol stations in France had run out of fuel on the second day of a blockade of refineries and fuel depots by farmers that has disrupted distribution.

Farmers are protesting against France’s decision to allow Total to use imported palm oil at a biofuel plant, which would compete with biodiesel made from

locally produced oilseed crops, further souring relations between the EU’s biggest farm sector and the government of President Emmanuel Macron.

The blockade now con-cerned a total of 18 refineries and depots across France, and would continue until the farm minister agreed to some of the farmers’ demands, said the FNSEA, the country’s largest farm union, which is organising the protests.

“It is really an alarm call that 3,000 farmers on 18 blocked sites have sent out to say, please listen to us and take up this message at a European level,” FNSEA Pres-ident Christiane Lambert said after meeting Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert.

“The negotiation is not over, we do not have what we want. But by mutual agreement we decided to meet again at the end of the day to move forward on our claims,” she added.

Total, which operates 2,200 petrol stations and five of France’s seven refineries and nine depots, said the depots and four refineries were still blocked. The refineries were still operating.

“There are some difficulties in supplying petrol stations par-ticularly in Paris and the Ile-de-France region,” a Total spokesman said.

Total had urged customers not to rush to petrol stations to

fill their tanks, which could spark panic buying and shortages.

French authorities last month gave Total permission to use palm oil as a feedstock at its La Mede biofuel refinery in southern France, infuriating farmers who grow crops such as rapeseed. Environmentalists also blame palm oil cultivation for deforestation in southeast Asia.

Total argues its plans call for using less palm oil than allowed

by the authorities, offer an outlet for 50,000 tonnes of locally pro-duced rapeseed and will develop large-scale recycling of used oil and fat. But Lambert said 50,000 tonnes was “not enough” and that the price needed to be based on producers’ costs, not on palm oil prices.

“As long as we are not suc-cessful... we will remain on the blockades,” the head of France’s young farmers group JA, Jeremy Decerle, said.

Trump tariffs may cost carmakers 1million annual salesBLOOMBERG

NEW YORK: If President Donald Trump slaps a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles, it may cost the US auto industry 1 million annual vehicle sales —and that’s just the low end of the estimated damage.

The projection by researcher LMC Automotive assumes auto-makers would absorb at least half the cost of a tax on imported vehicles, said Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting. If companies pass the full 25 percent cost on to consumers, it could snuff out about 2 million sales, or

more than 10 percent of annual US deliveries, he said.

Trump’s order last month to investigate auto imports for potential trade penalties on national security grounds came as a surprise and quickly drew crit-icism from automakers, dealers and Republican lawmakers.

16 WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2018BUSINESS

9,160.97 -42.35 PTS0.46%

QSE FTSE100 DOW BRENT7,703.81 -33.62 PTS0.43%

25,320.73 -1.58 PTS0.062% Dow & Brent before going to press

$66.04 -0.23

MarketWatch

BREAK TIMEVILLAGGIO & CITY CENTERCROSSWORD NOVO Pearl Qatar

MALL

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

LANDMARK

ROXY

AL KHOR

ASIAN TOWN

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Action) 12:00noon, 12:30, 12:45, 2:45, 3:00, 3:15, 3:30, 5:30, 6:00, 6:15, 8:15, 8:45, 9:00, 11:20, 11:40, 11:45pm & 12:00midnight Kaala (2D/Tamil) 12:00noon, 3:30, 7:00 & 10:30pm Last Rampage: The Escape of Gary Tison 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnight Sid & Aya (2D/Tagalog) 12:15noon, 4:45 & 9:00pm Veere Di Wedding (2D/Hindi) 2:15, 6:45 & 11:00pm Solo: Star Wars Story (2D/Action) 12:00noon, 2:45, 5:30, 8:15 & 11:00pm Avengers: Infinity War (2D/Action) 12:00noon, 5:00 & 10:00pm Armed Response (2D/Action) 3:00 & 8:00pm Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (3D/IMAX /Action) 2:00, 5:00, 8:00 & 11:00pm

Kaala (2D/Tamil) 2:30, 8:15 & 11:15pm Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2D/Action) 3:00, 8:00, 9:45 & 11:00pm Sid & Aya: Not A Love Story (2D/Tagalog) 8:00pm Veere Di Wedding (2D/Hindi) 11:30pm

ROYAL PLAZA

Kaala (2D/Tamil) 8:00 & 11:15pm E. Ma. Yau (2D/Malayalam) 8:30pm Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2D/Action) 9:00 & 11:15pm Kaala (2D/Telugu) 11:00pm

Kaala (2D/Tamil) 2:30 & 11:00pm Kaala (2D/Hindi) 8:00pmSid & Aya: Not A Love Story (2D/Tagalog) 8:00pm Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2D/Action) 8:30 & 11:00pm Last Rampage: The Escape of Gary Tison (2D/Drama) 9:45pm E. Ma. Yau (2D/Malayalam) 11:30pm

Kaala (Tamil) 1:00, 7:30, 10:00 & 10:30pmKaala (Telugu) 7:00pmKaala (Hindi) 7:30pmE. Ma. Yau (2D/Malayalam) 8:00, 10:15 & 10:30pm

Kaala (Tamil) 10:45am, 2:00, 8:15 & 11:30pmE. Ma. Yau (2D/Malayalam) 12:30 & 8:45pmKaala (Telugu) 10:30am & 7:45pmKaala (Hindi) 1:30 & 11:00pmJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2D/Action) 3:00 & 11:15pm

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2D/Action) 12:30, 3:10, 5:50, 8:30 & 11:10pm Kaala 12:30, 3:45, 5:00, 7:00, 8:15, 10:15 & 11:30pmKaala (Hindi) 4:15pm Kaala (Telugu) 1:00, 7:30 & 10:45pm Stolen Princess 12:30 & 2:45pm

Four girls on their way to find true love discover that friendship this strong has its consequences.

FLIK Mirqab

VEERE DI WEDDING

Avengers: Infinity War 10:00pmE.Ma.Yu 2:40, 3:20, 8:00 & 10:35pmIncredible Story of The Giant Pear 2:35 & 5:15pm Jurassic World 3D 4:05, 6:40, 9:20pm & 12:00midnight Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 2:30, 5:00, 7:35, 8:55, 10:15 & 11:30pm Kaala 2:55, 4:50, 6:20, 7:40, 9:45 & 11:00pm Masha And The Bear 4:20pm Show Dogs 3:10, 6:05 & 7:00pm Sid & Aya: Not Love Story 2:50, 5:55 & 8:00pm Solo: A Star Wars Story 5:00 & 11:05pm

Credit Suisse to cut senior investment-banking jobsBLOOMBERG

ZURICH: Credit Suisse Group AG has been cutting senior investment-banking jobs as the Swiss bank reorganises its European advisory business to boost profitability, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

Since February, the lender bank has dismissed about 26 directors and managing directors with responsibility for mergers and acquisitions and industry coverage, the people said, asking not to be identified as the decisions aren’t public. The cuts have mostly been focused on London, the people said. A spokesman for Credit Suisse declined to comment.

The investment bank was reorganised last year when Mathew Cestar and Jens Welter became co-heads of the advisory and origination business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. They replaced Marisa Drew, who was given a new role overseeing sustainable finance, and Mark Echlin, who became chairman of the investment bank in the UK The cuts are an attempt to boost efficiency and put pressure on dealmakers to bring in new business, one person said.

Credit Suisse has two investment-banking units

-- global markets, which focuses on trading, and IBCM, which advises on deals and security issuance. Global Markets has been the focal point of the bank’s restructuring in recent years.

Credit Suisse has scaled back trading to focus on wealth management under Chief Exec-utive Officer Tidjane Thiam. The Swiss lender separated its cor-porate advisory business in 2015 from volatile trading operations. The advisory unit, renamed investment banking and capital markets, helps clients with mergers and offerings of stocks and bonds and is led by Jim Amine. The unit’s pretax income fell 60 percent in the first quarter to 59 million francs, partly due to lower advisory fees and debt underwriting, according to Credit Suisse filings.

Credit Suisse is ranked 11th in advising on mergers globally this year, compared with 9th in 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The bank ranked sixth in advising on global equity offerings this year, compared with seventh last year. While Credit Suisse has cut thousands of jobs in its Global Markets unit since the restructuring started in 2015, it has cut fewer at the smaller investment bank and advisory unit. Thiam has even earmarked more capital for the business over time.

Opec cites uncertain market outlook for 2018REUTERS

LONDON: Oil fell yesterday, reversing earlier gains, although volatility subsided to its lowest in three weeks, as investors prepared for a key meeting of the Opec producer group next week.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Coun-tries released its monthly report on Tuesday, in which it cited the high degree of uncertainty hanging over the global oil market this year.

Brent crude futures fell 35 cents to $76.11 a barrel by 1347 GMT, while U.S. West Texas

Intermediate crude futures traded 13 cents lower at $66.23.

“The market has been range-bound for two weeks and that is likely to remain the case,” Ole Hansen (pictured), senior manager at Saxo

Bank, said.Opec, together with partners

including Russia, has cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) since January 2017 in an effort to boost the market.

Volatility in oil prices has subsided due to caution around the group’s meetings scheduled

for June 22-23, at which it will decide on future supply policy.

With US sanctions threat-ening to cut Iranian exports and the potential for more declines in Venezuelan production, Opec kingpin Saudi Arabia and Russia have indicated they would be willing to raise output to make up for any supply shortfall.

R u s s i a n p r o d u c t i o n reportedly climbed to 11.1 million bpd in early June. In the United States, output has risen by almost a third in the last two years, to a record 10.8 million bpd.

Top exporter Saudi Arabia - which has so far led Opec’s efforts to withhold supplies - is also showing signs of raising production.

Opec said on Tuesday the outlook in the second half of the year is highly uncertain even though the oil producer group’s figures show a global glut is gone, suggesting exporters will be in no rush to fully relax output curbs next week.

“Recently, crude oil futures have lost some momentum amid uncertainty as traders prepare for potentially more supply returning to the market,” the group said.

Crude remained in a tight trading range, in line with the broader financial markets, which were largely unruffled by a US-North Korea summit aimed at the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

QINVEST records $858m of completed exits

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: QINVEST, Qatar’s leading private investment group and one of the region’s most prom-inent Islamic financial institu-tions, yesterday announced the

successful exit of a real estate mezzanine murabaha trans-action in the US.

The transaction, backed by a diversified portfolio of 108 sub-urban commercial properties located across the USA, gen-erated a realised IRR in excess of 13 percent and further demon-strates QINVEST’s international network and structuring expertise.

This transaction brings QIN-VEST’s track record of completed exits to $858m across 24 trans-actions and funds with a weighted realised cash IRR of 15.5 percent.

Tamim Hamad Al Kawari, CEO of QINVEST, said: “As we rotate our capital towards new investments, we add to our strong track record of realized exits that positions QINVEST as one of the top investment groups in the region. Our strong

governance and risk framework, coupled with our ability to gen-erate compelling cash returns, makes QINVEST the preferred investment partner for clients in Qatar and abroad.”

Al Kawari Added: “In

response to growing investor demand for more innovative and income-generating financial products, QINVEST has success-fully launched the series of its “QINVEST SQN Income Fund”, where the first and second version of the fund were oversubscribed.

This series offers share-holders and investors a unique opportunity to access income generating assets in developed markets. It aims to pay out a net yield of 7 percent per annum on a monthly basis and has a targeted IRR of between 8 percent and 9 percent, with a tenure of 5 years. In the second half of 2018, QINVEST will unveil new products targeting local investment opportunities in Qatar across sectors including healthcare, indus-tr ia ls , educat ion, and agriculture.”

Tamim Hamad Al Kawari, CEO of QINVEST

The transaction, backed by a diversified portfolio of 108 suburban commercial properties located across the USA, generated a realised IRR in excess of 13 percent and further demonstrates QINVEST’s international network and structuring expertise.

17WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2018 AMERICAS

Trump: Trudeau’s criticism will cost Canada ‘a lot of money’AP

SINGAPORE: US President Donald Trump said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “learned” from the mistake of criticizing him and it’s going to cost Canada “a lot of money.” Trump adviser Peter Navarro, meanwhile, said he made a mistake when he said “there’s a special place in hell” for Trudeau.

At a news conference yes-terday after his summit with

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, Trump recounted his recent tough exchanges with Trudeau. He said the Canadian leader must not have realised that Trump had televisions on Air

Force One, allowing him to monitor Trudeau’s news con-ference at the end of the G-7 summit.

“That’s going to cost a lot of money for the people of Canada. He learned,” Trump said wagging his finger. “You can’t do that. You can’t do that.” The President said he was annoyed by Trudeau’s comments about not letting Canada get pushed around.

“He’s giving a news con-ference about how he will not be

pushed around by the United States. And I say, push him around? We just shook hands. It was very friendly,” Trump said.

Trump called Trudeau “dis-honest” and “weak” in tweets fol-lowing the summit yesterday.

Trump advisers also took up the attack in appearances on Sun-day’s news shows, levelling more withering and unprecedented criticism against Trudeau, branding him a back-stabber unworthy of Trump’s time.

When asked about Trump’s remarks in Parliament yesterday, Trudeau said he supports Trump’s efforts on North Korea and looks forward to the details of that agreement.

“On his comments, I’m going to stay focused on defending jobs for Canadians and supporting Canadian interests,” Trudeau said before walking away from reporters.

A Trump adviser had sug-gested on Sunday that Trump saw

Trudeau as trying to weaken his hand before the meeting with Kim. The President also discussed in Singapore the viral photo taken of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others standing before him. Trump said it was snapped as they waited for changes he’d requested to the communique, which he ended up pulling out of.

Trump said it “didn’t look friendly” but it was “very friendly.”

White House aide says sorry for comment on Canadian PremierREUTERS

WASHINGTON: White House trade adviser Peter Navarro apol-ogised yesterday for saying there was a “special place in hell” for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after last week’s Group of Seven summit, the Wall Street Journal reported.

At an event hosted by the Journal, Navarro said he had made a mistake, according to the newspaper. “My mission was to send a strong signal of strength,” Navarro said at the event, according to the Journal. “The problem is that in conveying that message I used language that was inappropriate.” The admission was a rare act of contrition from US President Donald Trump’s White House, where public apol-ogies are few.

Canada reacted coolly to the

apology, with Trudeau declining to answer when reporters asked him whether he accepted it.

“We will continue to conduct our diplomacy the Canadian way, that is, being positive and con-structive and firm in defending the interests of our industries... in diplomacy it doesn’t really matter about personal feelings and per-sonal comments,” said Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne when asked about the apology.

Navarro condemned Trudeau following the Canadian leader’s news conference after his summit meeting with Trump and other world leaders from the Group of Seven. “There is a special place in hell for any leader that engages in bad-faith diplomacy with Pres-ident Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door and that’s

what bad-faith Justin Trudeau did with that stunt press conference. That’s what weak, dishonest Justin Trudeau did,” Navarro said on the “Fox News Sunday” programme.

A day before, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow had also lashed out at Trudeau.

Both aides accused Trudeau of betraying Trump, a Republican, at a news conference held after the US President had departed Canada. That was when Trudeau said Canada would take retali-atory steps in response to steel and aluminium tariffs imposed by Trump on Canada and other allies. Before the apology, some US lawmakers questioned the strong language the White House and Trump have used toward Canada in contrast to the praise he gave North Korea at the summit in Singapore.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (second left) speaks with dairy farmers in Ottawa, Ontario yesterday. Canadian politicians of all stripes rallied round their Prime Minister after his cautious and polite defence of free trade rules drew an extraordinary personal rebuke from US President Donald Trump.

Fuego volcano death toll tops 110 A person burnt during the Fuego volcano eruption is carried onto a plane of the Mexican Federal Police before departing for Mexico to receive specialised treatment, at the Guatemalan Air Force (FAG) base in Guatemala City, yesterday. More than a week after Guatemala’s Fuego volcano eruption, the death toll has reached 110 with almost 200 people still unaccounted for, leaving dozens of people injured, more than 12,000 evacuated and some 4,500 with no homes to return to, according to figures from the country’s disaster agency.

Hurricane Bud forecast to weaken on path to BajaAP

MEXICO CITY: Hurricane Bud weakened slightly and was once again a Category 3 storm off Mexico’s Pacific coast yesterday, as forecasters said they expected cooler waters to rob most of its punch before a potential collision with resorts on the

southern Baja California Peninsula.The US National Hurricane Center said

Bud had maximum sustained winds of 205 kph and was centered about 525km south-southeast of Cabo San Lucas at the penin-sula’s southern tip. Earlier it had just barely crossed the threshold of wind strength to be classified a Category 4 storm.

Bud was moving toward the north-northwest at about 6 mph (9 kph) and was forecast to approach Baja California Sur on Thursday as a tropical storm. “Further weak-ening, possibly rapid at times, is expected during the next 48 hours, and Bud is forecast to weaken below hurricane intensity by Wednesday night,” the centre said.

Extreme fire danger forces another US forest to closeAP

DENVER: Extreme fire danger prompted officials to shut down a sprawling forest that includes some of Colorado’s most stunning mountains in a region that attracts tourists from around the world, a rare tactic also being used in neighbouring states as the US Southwest struggles with severe drought.

National forests and parks in Arizona and New Mexico have already been shut down as precautions.

San Juan National Forest officials in southwestern Colorado closed hundreds of miles of trails and thousands of miles of back roads to hikers, bikers, horseback riders and campers yesterday to prevent the possibility of an abandoned campfire or any other spark from starting a wildfire.

It’s the first full closure of a national forest in Colorado since 2002, which was another very dry year.

The closure will remain until sufficient precipitation eases the fire danger.

The move comes as the res-idents of over 2,000 homes have been forced to evacuate because of a fire that started June 1 in the forest that has burned about 80sqkm. It is 15 percent contained. Another fire nearby has burned about 10 sqkm. Authorities are still investigating how the fire started.

No homes have been lost although the fire came close to buildings Sunday night, author-ities said. Fire managers credited advance fire mitigation work by homeowners for helping firefighters save the structures.

Much of the US West is experiencing some level of drought and the Four Corners region — where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet — is at the centre of a large patch of exceptional drought.

Republicans try to rescue ‘Dreamer’ immigration talksREUTERS

WASHINGTON: Negotiations in the US House of Representatives on immigration legislation were on the verge of col lapse yesterday as Republicans fought over how much protection to give undocumented “Dreamer” immigrants and as President Donald Trump ramped up his war against illegal and legal immigrants.

High-level talks were set later involving House Republican leaders and warring centrist and conservative lawmakers in the party that controls both chambers of Congress.

Some House Republican

aides portrayed the closed-door session as crucial amid the deadlock. Failure to craft a compromise could result in renegade centrists forcing votes on the House floor on a bill that could pass with mostly Democratic support.

Even if House Speaker Paul Ryan manages to write a compromise bill toughening US border security and ending the threat of deportation for “Dreamers” — undocumented immigrants brought into the United States as children — his solution could be rebuffed by Democrats who are needed to enact any immigration bill.

House aides familiar with this months-long effort to dislodge immigration legislation

from a conservative blockade acknowledged that Democrats were not part of the consultations. Even some prominent Republicans viewed Ryan’s gambit skeptically.

Republican Senator Jeff Flake, a central figure in efforts to protect Dreamer youths now that Trump wants to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that temporarily protects them from deportation, scoffed at the idea of the House moving ahead with a Republican-only bill.

He added: “If it’s anything like what was part of the Goodlatte bill, that’s just not going to fly.” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob

Goodlatte has been pushing legislation to continue Dreamers’ temporary legal status, but without any prospect for US citizenship. Embraced by the White House, the measure would reduce the amount of legal immigration and prevent US citizens from sponsoring some relatives living abroad who want to relocate to the United States. A similar measure failed in the Senate last February.

Meanwhile, on Monday US Attorney General Jeff Sessions took actions that potentially could exclude foreigners seeking asylum from gang attacks, domestic abuse and other violence.

On a related front, the

Trump administration in recent months has ramped up a practice of separating immigrant children and parents who cross US borders without visas and of holding them in detention centres.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the senior Senate Judiciary Committee Democrat, pledged to fight for legislation she introduced last week to end the practice. At a press conference, Feinstein acknowledged she neither had any Republican backers or a promise from Chairman Chuck Grassley to hold hearings on the measure.

“Children are terrified, parents are heartbroken and families are being destroyed,” Feinstein said.

Trump called Trudeau “dishonest” and “weak” in tweets following the summit yesterday.

2 US dams at risk of ‘insider threats’AP

SACRAMENTO: Two dams critical to US national security are at high risk for “insider threats” that could impair operations because of poor computer security practices such as too many employees having access to adminis-trator accounts and failures to routinely change pass-words, according to a new inspector general report.

An evaluation released by the US Department of the Interior doesn’t name the two dams, and spokeswoman Nancy DiPaolo cited national security concerns. But they are among five dams operated by the US Bureau of Reclamation that are con-sidered “critical infra-structure,” meaning their destruction or impairment could hurt national security. Those five dams are Shasta and Folsom Dams in Cali-fornia, Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona, Grand Coulee Dam in Washington and Hoover Dam, which straddles Nevada and Arizona.

The United States and other countries have accused Russian hackers of trying to infiltrate critical infra-structure such as power plants, elevating the sensi-tivity around making sure US systems are secure. The inspector general’s report found the two dams are at low-risk of outside cyber infiltration — but at high risk of threats from within.



FAJRSHOROOK

03. 14 AM

04. 43 AM

11. 34 AM

02. 57 PM

06. 28 PM

07. 58 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 03:15 – 17:15 LOW TIDE 09:45 – 00:00

Hot daytime with slight dust at times.

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum 35oC 44oC

QU’s Al-Bairaq program celebrates distinctive featTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar University’s (QU) Al-Bairaq program recently celebrated its distinctive achievements during Spring 2018.

In the end of the 4th cycle primary stage and 3rd cycle preparatory stage of “I Am Discovering Materials” program, Al-Bairaq attracted 414 male and female students from 19 different schools in Doha and other areas such as Al-Khor, Al-Shahaniya, Al-Wakrah and Rawdat Rashid. The participating students successfully achieved 107 innovative ideas and products in the field of material science.

Additionally, the “Problem Solving” program was reactivated this year with a new curriculum that suits the early stages of the 3rd and the 4th primary grades. The new curriculum was successfully designed within 6 months, which attracted 80 male and female students from different schools.

Several research projects con-ducted by Al-Bairaq students won 7 awards in the National Students Research Fair 10th cycle. The research project on “Leidenfrost effect drops as a reactor for direct methanol fuel cell catalyst” won the 2nd place in the overall awards which was nominated

to represent Qatar in “Intel ISEF 2018”exhibition in the United States.

The same project won 1st place in the Special Awards honored by Shell Qatar Company and 2nd place in the Chemistry and Material Science cat-egory. The research project on “AUTI-LIGHT; a product specially designed for children with ASD” won 1st place

under the Special Awards honored by Texas A&M University at Qatar and 2nd place under the Biomedical Engi-neering category. Additionally, the research project on “Performance of Novel Electroless Plated Ni-P-C3N4 Nanocomposite Coating” won 2nd place in the Special Awards presented by Shell Qatar Company and 3rd place

in the Chemistry and Material Science category.

Al Bairaq program also won in ITEX interschool competition (Qatar) organized by Qatar Science and Tech-nology Park (QSTP). The winning project was nominated to represent Qatar in “ITEX 2018” exhibition. Finally, Al-Bairaq won the 2nd place in “ITEX 2018” exhibition in Malaysia for the research on “Marine Degra-dable plastic based on soybean by-product”.

In her remarks, Section Head of Outreach and Communications at QU Center for Advanced Materials Dr. Noora Al-Thani expressed her appre-ciation of the great efforts made by Al-Bairaq team, which was honored by many schools which participated in “I Am Discovering Materials” program. She also thanked the team members for their keenness to con-tinuously develop and improve the program which applies STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) curriculum.

She noted that Al-Bairaq has recently attracted a larger number of students who participated in the pro-gram’s research projects and she high-lighted the innovative ideas and research outcomes produced by Al-Bairaq students.

Al-Bairaq students doing research.

WCM-Q and Sidra research finds new discoveries about genetic variationsTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar researchers, working alongside peers from Sidra Medicine and Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, have made important new discoveries about genetic variations that affect the human metabolism, which could eventually help make diagnoses and treatments more effective.

The researchers analysed the genetic material and the metabolisms of 1,000 Qatari subjects to identify links between genetic variations and metabolism. While similar research has previously been carried out in European populations, this is the first time that such a large study of this

kind has focused on an Arab population.

The study, which has been pub-lished in the leading scientific journal Nature Communications, sheds light on the role of genetic differences between people and their ability to metabolize certain molecules from food. Some of these genetic differ-ences may explain why people have different risks of developing metabolic disorders, such as diabetes and car-diovascular disease.

The research has established a high-quality data resource that will aid diagnosis of inherited diseases in Qatari and other Arab populations, as well as helping physicians identify targets for personalized treatments

tailored to the individual genetic and metabolic profiles of patients.

The paper, titled ‘Whole-exome sequencing identifies common and rare variant metabolic QTLs in a Middle Eastern population’ has two joint first authors: Dr. Noha A. Yousri, adjunct assistant professor of genetic medicine at WCM-Q, and Dr. Khalid Fakhro, director of human genetics at Sidra Medicine and assistant pro-fessor of genetic medicine at WCM-Q.

Dr. Yousri said: “While previous studies of this type – known as Metab-olomics Genome Wide Association Studies (mGWAS) – have been con-ducted in Caucasian populations, none had looked at Middle Eastern

populations. Our motivation was to do a similar study for Qataris to understand how genetic variations affect metab-olite levels in both health and disease states in this population. However, the use of an enhanced technology -whole exome sequencing- facilitated studying the effect of functional variants, in par-ticular, on moderating metabolic pathways.

She added: “This study is the first of its kind to be done in a Middle Eastern population, and will benefit the whole region. It will eventually allow us to predict the likelihood that individuals will develop certain dis-eases, and also point the way towards more effective personalized medicine.


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