INDEX
QATAR
2-4, 20
REGION
5
BUSINESS
ARAB WORLD
5
CLASSIFIED
INTERNATIONAL
6–17
18, 19
COMMENT
1–6, 12-16
SPORTS
7-12
1–8
BUSINESS | Page 1
SPORT | Page 1
Qatar can weather the
blockade with huge
reserves: QCB chief
Nadal
stunned
by Muller
in epic
game
DOW JONES
QE
NYMEX
21,414.28
8,995.12
44.43
+00.06
+0.00%
+90.96
+1.02%
+1.20
+0.45%
Latest Figures
pu
d
he R
is
bl TA 978
A 1
Q since
in
GULF TIMES
TUESDAY Vol. XXXVIII No. 10511
July 11, 2017
Shawwal 17, 1438 AH
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals
Emir sends message to Sultan of Oman
Siege a clear
violation of
Riyadh pact,
says Qatar
In brief
QATAR | Trade
LNG exports stable
despite siege: al-Sada
HE the Minister of Energy and
Industry Dr Mohamed bin Saleh
al-Sada has said the unfair siege
imposed by neighbouring countries
has highlighted the strength and
diversity of Qatar’s economy. The
country’s LNG exports to major
markets such as Japan, India,
South Korea and China have not
been affected by the blockade, he
said, stressing that Qatar remains
“committed to all its agreements
with its partners and is determined
to maintain this status despite the
illegal and unjust embargo imposed
on it”. Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Shell
yesterday said Qatar’s LNG exports
remain stable amid the ongoing
tension between the world’s biggest
LNG exporter and its neighbours.
Business Page 1
QATAR | Diplomacy
Al-Marri urges US to
take firm stance
The National Human Rights
Committee (NHRC) has called on
the US Department of State to take
a clear and firm stance against
violations and collective punishment
against the Qatari people and
residents as a result of the siege
imposed on the State . This came
during a meeting of NHRC Chairman
Dr Ali Bin Smaikh al-Marri at the
State Department yesterday with
Ellen Germain, Acting Assistant
Secretary of State, and Christina
Lucosen, head of the Office of
Human Rights and Workers’ Affairs
at the US Department of State.
QATAR | Project
Manateq signs deal for
workers’ housing
State-run special economic zone
provider and developer Manateq
signed yesterday a QR550mn
agreement with Ismail Bin Ali Group
to develop a workers’ accommodation
project at the Ras Bufontas Special
Economic Zone. The facility, which will
be built on a 150,000sq m area, will
house 8,784 employees and workers
from factories and warehouses in
Ras Bufontas and surrounding areas.
Page 2
ARAB WORLD | Unrest
Iraqi PM declares Mosul
liberated from IS
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi
officially announced victory over
Islamic State militants in their
former stronghold of Mosul. “We
announce victory from the heart of
the liberated Mosul. We defeated
Daesh with our unity,” al-Abadi said.
Page 5
QNA
Doha
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani has sent a written message to Sultan Qaboos bin Saeed of Oman,
pertaining to the relations between the two countries, the latest developments on the Gulf arena as well as regional and
international developments. The message was handed by HE the Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani,
during a meeting in Muscat yesterday with Sayyid Asaad bin Tariq al-Said, Deputy Prime Minister for Relations Affairs and
International Co-operation, and Special Representative of Sultan Qaboos. Page 2
‘Leaked files show true
colours of siege nations’
O Qatar Media Corporation CEO
lists violations by blockading
countries in a series of tweets
O Riyadh agreement equally
applicable to all GCC states, says
Sheikh Abdulrahman
T
he joint statement issued by
the blockading countries after
CNN published leaked documents of the Riyadh agreement and
making the American news channel
its source clearly show the “leak-approach” of the siege nations and their
underestimation of the conscious
minds that form public opinion, HE
Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad alThani, CEO of the Qatar Media Corporation, said.
“The media attacks launched by the
blockading countries after the cyberattack on Qatar News Agency and the lack
of respect for the mechanism of dispute
resolution reveal the explicit violation
of the Riyadh agreement by them.”
He said the evidence [that Qatar has
met the Riyadh agreement] is [the absence of any complaint from Qatar] in
all the minutes of the GCC meetings at
the different levels.
In a series of tweets, Sheikh Abdulrahman said: “The Saudi media attack
on Qatari women reveals who is the one
who violates the basic rules of Islam
and Riyadh agreement; all of you saw
which part [in the Gulf crisis] did not
adhere to the basics.
“Saudi Arabia’s land siege, although
it (Abu Samra) is the only land link to
Qatar, as well as the air and sea blockade violate the law and the Charter of
the GCC.
HE Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad al-Thani, CEO
of Qatar Media Corporation.
“Each of the blockading countries
must commit itself to providing evidence that supports the demand or
complaint it submitted, and must depart from the allegations and demands
[which were] ‘sent’ [to Qatar].
“It is unacceptable to demand from
Qatar that which is not demanded from
others when discussing any demands
or claims [all GCC members are equal].
“The siege nations did not submit
any complaint to Qatar prior to their
announcement of severing the diplomatic relations, which constitutes a
violation of both the Riyadh agreement
and international law.
“Qatar confirmed that it did not receive from any GCC member any request or complaint which includes a
reference to the failure of Doha to meet
the Riyadh agreement.
“The demands of [the
blockade countries] were discussed and replied to by Qatar. The issues that were put
forward by all the GCC countries have been met within
the framework of the Riyadh
agreement.
“Supported by al-Sisi, the
Egyptian media continued to
attack the women of Qatar;
Riyadh and Abu Dhabi did not
express their dissatisfaction
with that attack.
“All of you know that the
leaked e-mails of the UAE
ambassador to the US reveal
clearly that Abu Dhabi has
not complied with the Riyadh
agreement of 2013-2014, and
the leak of the agreement now
is an attempt to gain public
opinion.
“Both Abu Dhabi and Riyadh did not
abide by the Riyadh agreement, nor did
they stop the ongoing media incitement against Qatar. They also tried to
invent a Qatari opposition.
“The blockading countries are trying
to mislead [the world], and that Qatar is
the only one concerned with the Riyadh
agreement, although Qatar by name is
not mentioned in the agreement. So, the
Riyadh agreement is a collective document for ‘everyone’ to abide by.
“The leak of Riyadh agreement 2013
stresses that the siege countries are using [leaks] as an approach; they already
leaked the conditions used to subjugate
the State of Qatar. The agreement is
binding on all Gulf countries and not
Qatar alone.”
Telecom services cheaper in Qatar
P
rices of telecommunications
services in Qatar are broadly lower than the rest of the GCC and
Arab region, according to the findings
of a recent study.
In a statement yesterday, the Communications Regulatory Authority
(CRA) said it participated in the ‘Telecommunications Retail Price Benchmarking for Arab Countries’ study by
Aregnet, which compares the prices of
a range of telecoms services across the
GCC, Arab and OECD (Organisation of
Economic Co-operation and Development) markets.
The survey shows that mobile voice
prices in Qatar have fallen by 57% since
2008, which is in line with the rest of
the region.
“However, importantly, for mobile
voice services that included data bundles, prices in Qatar are below the GCC
and Arab average (for low and medium
usage) and on a par with the OECD
average. For mobile voice services not
including data packages, Qatar’s prices
are on a par with the GCC and Arab averages but above the OECD average,”
the statement noted. “In both cases,
Vodafone Qatar was cheaper than
Ooredoo.”
For mobile broadband services, there
have been significant changes in Qatar
over the last five years mainly due to the
upgrade from 3G services to faster and
cheaper 4G services, the study reveals.
Overall, prices for mobile broadband
in Qatar are among the lowest in the
GCC for both residential and business
services.
In addition, residential mobile
broadband services are cheaper than
the OECD average but higher (than
OECD) for business mobile broadband
services.
For residential fixed voice service
prices, Qatar is well below both the
GCC and Arab averages, and for low usage the OECD average as well.
However, for both fixed calls to a
mobile and for business voice services,
Qatar has some of the highest prices in
the region, the study shows. One reason
for this is that residential fixed charges
have not changed since 2008 while the
price of business fixed services have
continued to rise over the same period,
the CRA statement explains.
For business fixed broadband Internet services, prices in Qatar for higher
speed packages (10Mbps and above)
are below the GCC and Arab averages
but still significantly above the OECD
average.
However, for low-speed packages
(less than 10Mbps), prices are expensive compared to GCC and Arab averages and significantly above the OECD
average.
Meanwhile, leased line charges in
Qatar are below the GCC and Arab averages. One of the most commonly taken lease line speed is 2Mbps.
Price comparisons of this speed show
tariffs in Qatar to be 11% lower than the
Arab average, 20% lower than the GCC
average but 50% higher than the OECD
average. The prices for leased lines have
not changed in Qatar since 2013.
CRA president Mohamed Ali al-Mannai said, “We shall use competition as a
means to foster growth and innovation
for everyone’s benefit.”
T
he siege laid on Qatar is a clear
violation of the Charter of the
GCC, the Riyadh agreement
2013-2014 and its implementation
mechanisms, a senior Qatari official
has said.
Director of the Government Communications Office HE Sheikh Saif bin
Ahmed al-Thani told CNN that the
provisions and articles of the Riyadh
agreement aimed at enhancing co-operation between sovereign GCC states
and avoiding interference in internal
affairs. He added that the recent developments were an unwarranted and
unprecedented attack on Qatar’s sovereignty by the siege countries.
Sheikh Saif said the demands submitted by Saudi Arabia and its allies
bore no relation to the Riyadh agreement which included shutting down
Al Jazeera and paying damages, adding
that the measures of the siege countries led to breaking up of GCC families. “Neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE
communicated their concerns to Qatar
ahead of the crisis, in accordance with
the mechanisms of Riyadh agreement.”
Responding to a question by CNN
on the documents broadcast by the
channel allegedly revealing the contents of the Riyadh agreement 2013 and
the Riyadh supplementary agreement
in 2014, Director of the Government
Communications Office said he was
unaware of the (CNN) report on the
two agreements and whether it contained the full agreements or parts of it.
He stressed that some of the allegations and demands of the siege countries have no basis, while the others
were an unwarranted and unprecedented attack on the sovereignty of Qatar in violation of all international and
regional agreements. Sheikh Saif said
this prompted Qatar to reject those
demands as they were illegitimate and
were condemned by the international
community.
He said the current crisis was a result
of a hacking, fabricated statements,
and a co-ordinated media campaign
against Qatar. “Saudi Arabia and the
UAE attempted to conceal facts from
the general public, including their own
citizens, going so far as to block Al
Jazeera and other media outlets within
their borders.” Pages 2, 20
The Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, receiving US Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson at Bayan Palace in Kuwait City yesterday.
Kuwait, US, UK call for
rapid end to Gulf crisis
Agencies
Kuwait/Doha
K
uwait, the US and Britain yesterday called for a rapid end to the
Gulf crisis through dialogue, as
they expressed their concern over the
prolonging of the dispute.
Kuwait’s Acting Prime Minister and
Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled
al-Hamad al-Sabah, US Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson and Britain’s National
Security Adviser Mark Sedwill expressed
deep concern “over the continuation of
the current crisis in the region.”
The three officials, meeting in Kuwait,
urged all parties to “contain this crisis
rapidly, and to find a solution through
dialogue as soon as possible.” Tillerson
and Sedwill reaffirmed support for mediation carried out by Kuwait and efforts
of the Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad alJaber al-Sabah to solve the crisis.
The Emir of Kuwait met yesterday
with Secretary of State Tillerson, who
arrived in Kuwait at the beginning of a
GCC tour.
Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA) reported that Tillerson’s visit is part of the
efforts being made to resolve the crisis
triggered by the cutoff of links with Qatar by Saudi Arabia and Arab allies.
The US has stressed its support to
Kuwaiti mediation efforts in that regard.
The State Department said Tillerson
would hold talks with leaders in Kuwait,
Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
He was flying from Istanbul where
he attended an international petroleum
conference. R C Hammond, a senior adviser to Tillerson, said he would explore
ways to end a stalemate following Qatar’s rejection of 13 demands issued as
condition for ending sanctions.
“The trips to Saudi Arabia and Qatar are about the art of the possible,”
said Hammond, who added that the
13 demands “are done” and “are not
worth revisiting as a package. Individually there are things in there that could
work”. Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan reiterated his support for Kuwait’s mediation efforts exerted to resolve the Gulf crisis.
The Turkish president said that he
would embark on a Gulf tour to contribute to the resumption of dialogue
between the two sides of the crisis to
resolve it.
2
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
QATAR
Omani FM briefed on Gulf crisis
Talks held with ICC chief prosecutor
OFFICIAL
Minister briefs
OIC delegates
on Gulf crisis
HE the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met the Minister
Responsible for Foreign Affairs of Oman Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, in Muscat yesterday. They
reviewed bilateral relations and means of developing them, in addition to issues of common
concern. HE the Foreign Minister briefed the Omani Minister of Foreign Affairs on the latest
developments in the Gulf crisis, and the illegal measures taken against Qatar.
Manateq, IBA Group
sign QR550mn deal
for workers’ housing
The facility will
accommodate 8,784
employees and workers
Under the agreement, IBA
Group will construct and
manage the project for 25
years
By Peter Alagos
Business Reporter
S
tate-run special economic
zone provider and developer Manateq signed yesterday a QR550mn agreement
with Ismail Bin Ali (IBA) Group
to develop a workers’ accommodation project at the Ras Bufontas Special Economic Zone
(SEZ).
The facility will accommodate
8,784 employees and workers
from factories and warehouses
in Ras Bufontas and other surrounding areas.
The agreement was signed by
Manateq CEO Fahad Rashid alKaabi and IBA Group CEO Hamad Mohamed Esmael al-Emadi
at Manateq’s headquarters in
West Bay. Under the agreement,
IBA Group will construct and
manage the project for 25 years
under a build, operate, transfer
(BOT) model.
Al-Kaabi said the agreement
emphasises “the strong partnership between the public and private sectors in the development
of Qatar”.
The project will be built on
a 150,000sqm area, which has
already been handed over by
Manateq. Construction will begin this month, said al-Kaabi,
who noted that the project is expected to be completed in three
years.
The official stressed that the
project has been designed to enhance the overall experience of
both employees and employers.
It will include worker, superviser
and technician accommodation units in the form of fullyequipped rooms, one- and twobedroom apartments.
He said the complex includes
catering, laundry, training, indoor and outdoor recreational
facilities, as well as community
areas. Along with a public retail
centre, it will house a mosque
and medical, banking and administrative facilities.
Al-Kaabi said the project “underpins the strong bond” between Manateq and the private
sector “to successfully contribute to the diversification and economic development of Qatar”.
According to al-Emadi, IBA
Group will offer local and international companies competitive
rental rates for their workforce at
the Ras Bufontas project.
“This is a landmark agreement
for Qatar and builds on the success that Manateq has achieved
to date as we continue with
the development of our special
economic zones, which play a
crucial role in transforming the
country into an industrial and
logistics hub for the world.
“Our partnership with Ismail
Bin Ali Group is a key indicator
of how collaboration between
the public and private sectors
can have a beneficial contribution on the economic success of
our country,” al-Kaabi said.
Al-Emadi added, “We believe in the strength of Qatar’s
economy and would like to thank
our government for its continuous and unlimited support to
the private sector. Our role is to
contribute to the achievement of
Qatar National Vision 2030.
“We are proud to be working
with Manateq to drive the economic development of Qatar.
We are committed to quality and
performance and our reputation in these two areas speak for
itself. Clients who invest in this
leading new development will
be assured of a quality product
that will benefit them and their
workforce.”
The Ras Bufontas SEZ is strategically located near Hamad
International Airport, providing businesses with easier access to global markets. The
SEZ is aimed at various sectors,
including firms specialising in
healthcare and medical devices, light industries, advanced
technology and air cargo services.
(From left) Al-Kaabi and al-Emadi shake hands after signing the agreement. PICTURE: Nasar T K
HE the Minister of State for Defence Affairs Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah met the Chief
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Fatou Bensouda in Doha yesterday. During the
meeting, they discussed areas of co-operation between the two sides, means of developing them,
and the developments in the Gulf crisis. The meeting also discussed the developments in Yemen
and Libya.
Minister meets Turkish FM
HE the Minister of State for
Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad alMuraikhi yesterday held separate
meetings with Foreign Minister
of Mali, Abdoulaye Diop and the
head of the Beninese delegation
to the 44th session for foreign
ministers of the Organisation
of Islamic Co-operation (OIC),
currently under way in Cote
d’Ivoire’s capital Abidjan.
During the meetings bilateral
relations and ways to develop
them, and issues of mutual
interest were discussed.
The Minister of State for Foreign
Affairs briefed the Malian foreign
minister and the Beninese official
on the latest developments in the
siege imposed on Qatar by some
OIC member-states.
The minister stressed that the
unilateral measures imposed
on Qatar contradict with the
UN Charter and constitute a
blatant violation of international
law, resulting in humanitarian
consequences and serious
violations of human rights.
Advisory Council’s
45th session
adjourned
HE the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad al-Muraikhi yesterday met Turkish
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on the sidelines of the 44th session for foreign ministers of the
Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC), currently under way in Cote d’Ivoire’s capital Abidjan.
They reviewed relations between Qatar and Turkey and means of developing them. During the
meeting, the Turkish foreign minister was briefed on the latest developments in the Gulf crisis and
all the illegal measures taken against Qatar. The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs expressed his
appreciation for the Turkish stance on the siege imposed on Qatar.
Hamad Port continues
to receive more cargo
By Ramesh Mathew
Staff Reporter
M
ore vessels with cargo
are continuing to call
on Hamad Port from
different parts of the world, according to sources in the shipping industry.
The steady arrival of ships is
in line with efforts undertaken
to ensure the continuous flow of
supplies and meet the needs of
the local market in light of the
recent measures taken against
Qatar.
Five new direct service lines
were launched between Hamad
Port and a number of ports in the
region and beyond in less than 20
days, Gulf Times reported earlier
this week, citing a statement by
the Qatar Ports Management
Company (Mwani Qatar).
Close on the heels of two
ships of Mediterranean Shipping
Company (MSC) arriving with
large loads of cargo from the Far
East and Oman, sources at the
port said a Maersk vessel - Jack
London - arrived in Doha yesterday.
This is the second time in
around 10 days that the vessel, which is operating between
Salalah in Oman and Hamad
Port, has arrived in Doha, enquiries revealed. Jack London
is the first ship to be welcomed
under the new service launched
by Maersk between Hamad Port
and Salalah Port.
Industry sources said the
same ship is expected to once
again come to Hamad Port with
cargo from Salalah in the third
week of this month.
Meanwhile, the sources informed that MSC Busan, a large
vessel of 9,000 TEUs, is expected to arrive in Doha tomorrow.
It had left Shanghai in China almost a month ago. It will arrive
in Doha from Umm Qasr (Iraq).
Another MSC vessel, Seaboxer, which is operating between
Salalah and Doha, is expected at
Hamad Port tomorrow, according to the sources.
It is learnt that more than
1,000 containers of cargo will be
offloaded from the two vessels
together at Hamad Port.
The Advisory Council yesterday
its regular weekly meeting
during its 45th ordinary session
under the presidency of HE the
Speaker Mohamed bin Mubarak
al-Khulaifi.
During the session, the memo of
the cabinet’s general secretariat
on a 2017 draft law regarding the
national system of accounting for
and control of nuclear material
was discussed. The council
decided to refer the draft law to
the Legal and Legislative Affairs
Committee and submit its report
to the Advisory Council.
The session discussed the
Legal and Legislative Affairs
Committee’s report on the
draft law regulating real estate
registrations and decided to refer
their recommendations to the
cabinet.
HE the secretary general read
out Emiri Decree No 31 of 2017
regarding the adjournment of
the 45th ordinary session of
the Advisory Council, which
stipulated that His Highness the
Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad
al-Thani, after reviewing the
constitution, Emiri Decision No
25 of 2016 on extending the
Advisory Council’s term, Decree
No 41 of 2016 on calling the
Advisory Council to convene for
the 45th ordinary session, and
the cabinet’s draft decree, has
ordered the Advisory Council to
adjourn its 45th ordinary session
starting Tuesday Shawwal 17,
1438 H, which corresponds to
July 11, 2017 (today).
The Emiri decree also ordered
all relevant entities, each in their
respective capacity, to implement
the decree starting from its date
of issue and ordered the decree
to be published in the official
gazette.
On the occasion of the
session’s adjournment, the
speaker extended thanks to
His Highness the Emir Sheikh
Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani for
his continuous support to the
council.
The speaker highlighted the
sincere efforts and constructive
discussions that resulted in
worthy recommendations during
the session, which was full of
achievements in terms of draft
laws, general discussion requests
and proposals.
Qatar will continue to support people of Gaza despite siege
Qatar launches $3mn
project to renovate 600
houses in Gaza
QNA
Gaza Strip
Q
atar Committee for the
Reconstruction of Gaza
has signed an agreement
under which it is launching a
project to renovate 600 houses
for poor families in the Gaza
Strip at a total cost of $3mn.
Head of the Qatar Committee
for the Reconstruction of Gaza
ambassador Mohamed al-Emadi
signed the agreement here.
Speaking during the agree-
ment signing ceremony al-Emadi said the project to renovate
the houses of poor families in the
Gaza Strip will be launched under the slogan “a decent home”.
He said that Qatar continues
to support the Palestinian people to alleviate their suffering
despite the “unjust” siege imposed on it. He asserted that Qatar’s support for the Gaza Strip
“will not be affected” by the
siege measures announced by
several Arab countries on June 5.
The ceremony included the
distribution of cheques to the
families benefiting from the
project. These included 127 families in the first stage which costs
$1mn. The second and third
phases will cover 600 families.
Palestinian
Undersecretary
of the Ministry of Public Works
and Housing Naji Sarhan praised
the efforts of Qatar in supporting
the Palestinian people and alleviating their suffering under the
harsh siege imposed on the Gaza
Strip for the 11th year in a row.
Sarhan noted that the poor
families were selected based on
lists submitted by the Ministry
of Public Works and Housing to
the Qatari Committee according
to the need of these families to
help and renovate their homes.
In addition, these families
were selected after being examined by engineers from the Ministry and the Qatari Committee.
He pointed out that the first
phase will be completed within
3 months.
Qatar Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza is carrying
out dozens of vital and important projects in the Gaza Strip.
Over the past five years, Qatar has already pledged $1.4bn
worth of reconstruction money
which has been going to hospitals, upgrading roads to housing
projects.
Some 2mn people live in the
Gaza Strip, which has been under
Israeli blockade for over 10 years.
The UN has warned that the dire
humanitarian crises afflicting
Gaza would render the territory
uninhabitable by the year 2020.
Qatar’s ambassador Mohamed al-Emadi visited Gaza for the first time since the Gulf crisis began. (Picture
courtesy of Al Jazeera)
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
3
QATAR
Celebrating
Skytrax
award with
special fare
discounts
42 pupils join
internship at
Qatar Airways
Q
atar Airways inducted
42 Qatari university
students into its Summer Internship Programme as
part of its Al Darb Qatarisation
Programme.
The programme provides
interns with the opportunity
to work across various Qatar
Airways divisions, including
Commercial, Finance, Information Technology, Human
Resources, Legal and Technical,
as well as with Qatar Airways
subsidiaries, including Qatar
Airways Cargo and Qatar Aviation Services, allowing them to
gain the necessary knowledge
to work for the airline after they
graduate.
The induction ceremony
celebrated the fifth year of the
programme. Qatar Airways’ Al
Darb Qatarisation Programme is
a hands-on project that brings
young Qataris to develop themselves and their country through
the national airline and allows
them to apply what they learn in
real-life situations in Qatar Airways offices around the world.
Qatar Airways senior vicepresident for Human Resources,
Nabeela Fakhri, said: “We at Qatar Airways take great pride in
our ability to attract and develop
world-class talent from here at
home within Qatar. Our Al Darb
Summer Internship Programme
highlights our commitment to
premier talent acquisition, and
gives our employees the opportunity to leverage their experience for the students’ professional growth. We offer students
the opportunity to be part of
a team in a truly international
company across a wide variety
of functional areas to help them
find their professional niche.”
Interns in the programme
begin their assignments with
four days of training in business communications etiquette,
presentations and Microsoft
Excel, to prepare them to work
in a professional environment.
Following their induction training, students are then paired
with a performance coach to
ensure that each of them makes
the most of their internship
experience.
Currently, the programme
features 35 majors and eight
programmes: the Summer Internship Programme, National
Scholarship Programme, Cadet Pilot Programme, Aircraft
Maintenance Engineering Programme, Graduate Development
Programme, Airport Operations
Programme, Aviation Management Programme and Jossor
Programme.
Q
The induction ceremony celebrated the fifth year of the programme.
Aviation sector’s growth rate to be
highest in Middle East: IATA chief
QNA
Doha
D
espite the challenges facing the aviation industry,
its future will be “promising” and its growth rate in the
Middle East will be the highest
and fastest in the world, Alexandre de Juniac, director general
and CEO of International Air
Transport Association (IATA),
said in an interview with Qatar
Sky magazine.
“The future of aviation is
positive. People want to fly. We
expect 7.2bn passengers to travel
in 2035, a near doubling of the
3.8bn air travellers in 2016. And
if trade liberalisation gathers
pace, demand could triple the
2015 level,” De Juniac said.
The IATA chief said aviation
is a major player in global economy as it contributes $2.7tn,
equivalent to 3.5% of world
gross domestic product (GDP),
while also supporting 62.7mn
jobs globally.
On the major challenges of
safety, security and sustainability, De Juniac said that when it
comes to safety, IATA’s strategy
reflects the importance of global
standards.
“The flagship is the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA).
Alexandre de Juniac ... future “promising” in the Middle East
It is the global standard or global best practice for operational
safety. Every IATA airline must
be on the IOSA registry. And
even our non-members are
using IOSA,” he said.
“We also face a growing vulnerability on security. Flying is secure but there are risks
and challenges insider threats,
DGPS meets French envoy
landside exposure at airports,
overflight of conflict zones, and
cyber security. Efficient airport
checkpoints are important. And
our Smart Security programme
is a risk-based approach that
will make airport checkpoints
more effective, efficient and
convenient. But that alone is not
enough to stay a step ahead of
Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class models recalled
The Ministry of Economy and
Commerce (MEC) has announced
a recall of Mercedes-Benz GLEClass models of 2015-2016 as
engine control units with incorrect
data may have been installed.
The recall is being carried out
in collaboration with Nasser Bin
Khaled Automobiles, dealer of
Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Qatar.
In a statement, the ministry
has said the recall campaign
comes within the framework of
its ongoing efforts to protect
consumers and ensure that car
dealers follow up on vehicle
defects and repairs.
The MEC will co-ordinate
with the dealer to follow up
on maintenance and repair
works and communicate with
customers to ensure that the
necessary repairs are carried out.
The ministry has urged all
customers to report violations to
its Consumer Protection and AntiCommercial Fraud Department
through the call centre: 16001,
e-mail: [email protected], Twitter:
@MEC_Qatar, Instagram: MEC_
Qatar and the mobile app for
Android and iOS: MEC_Qatar
addressed. At the top of the list
is infrastructure. In general, the
airport infrastructure in Mena
demonstrates the foresight of
governments wanting to capture
aviation’s economic and social
benefits. But to retain their competitive advantage, continuous
consultation is needed so that
capital expenditure aligns industry growth, required service
levels and acceptable costs.
“Even more urgent is the need
to modernise air traffic management in the Gulf. A recent
study calculates average delays in the Gulf at 29 minutes
with the potential to double by
2025. More expensive technology is not the solution. Regional
co-operation is.
“The next issue is an unprecedented rise in taxes and charges
across the region about $700mn
in extra costs over 2015,” the
IATA director general said.
De Juniac said that having a
driving down the cost of structure is a “key component of the
region’s success,” especially in
the Gulf.
“I am, however, very optimistic about aviation in the Middle East. You have governments
that understand the value of
aviation indeed they have built
it into their national economic
strategies,” he said.
Until July 19,
passengers will
enjoy discounts of
up to 40% off, allinclusive fares on
flights for travel until
December 10
are delighted to celebrate these
great wins with our passengers
from all over the world, and we
hope this unique offer will allow them to experience our renowned, world-class service on
our rapidly-expanding global
network.”
The airline stressed that it
has “maintained its position at
the forefront of international
air travel with the introduction
of a game-changing, patented
new Business Class seat, set
to transform the face of aviation and Business Class travel:
Qsuite”.
Qsuite features the industry’s
“first-ever” double bed available
in Business Class, with privacy
panels that stow away, allowing
passengers in adjoining seats to
create their own private room.
Adjustable panels and movable TV monitors on the centre four seats allow colleagues,
friends or families travelling together to transform their space
into a private suite, allowing
them to work, dine and socialise
together.
To avail of the offer, one can
visit any Qatar Airways sales
office, preferred travel agency
or qatarairways.com/WorldsBestAirline
Registered planes
in Qatar rise to 340
QNA
Doha
T
he number of registered
planes in Qatar has increased to 340 over the
last year, according to data by
Qatar Civil Aviation Authority’s
department of statistics and
analysis.
The planes included 191 passenger and cargo aircraft, 52 private
aircraft, 50 helicopters, 20 training
aircraft, 20 business aircraft and
seven government aircraft.
The data also showed the
rate of increase in the number
of registered aircraft during the
past six years, with 208 aircraft
in 2011, 232 in 2012, 259 in 2013,
284 in 2014 and 319 in 2015.
Ties with Qatar built on mutual trust
and respect, says Philippine envoy
By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter
Staff Major General Saad bin Jassim al-Khulaifi, Director-General
of Public Security (DGPS), met with French ambassador Eric
Chevallier on Sunday. During the meeting, they discussed
means of co-operation in areas of mutual interest and ways to
enhance them.
those who would do us harm,”
the IATA director general told
Qatar Sky magazine.
He added that sustainability
“is a difficult one for a carbonintensive industry that is growing to meet demand,” noting that
governments attending the 39th
ICAO assembly in October have
agreed to a Carbon Offset and
Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).
“Aviation is committed to carbon-neutral growth from 2020.
And by 2050 we want to cut net
emissions to half of 2005 levels.
CORSIA is a ground-breaking
historical achievement that is
critical to meeting our carbon
neutral growth target. IATA is fully supporting ICAO, governments
and airlines to iron out the details
so that it will be implemented
successfully,” he said.
Asked about the future of air
transport in the Middle East, De
Juniac said aviation supports
2.4mn jobs and nearly $160bn
in economic activity. “That’s
an impressive number. Over the
next two decades we expect traffic in (and to) the region to grow
by an average of 4.6% annually.
That’s faster than the global
average of 3.5%.”
“However there are a number
of issues that continue to plague
the Middle East that need to be
atar Airways has announced it is celebrating winning the Skytrax
‘World’s Best Airline’ award by
offering passengers up to 40%
off, all-inclusive fares on flights
to “popular holiday destinations across its growing global
network”.
This is part of its ‘Fly with the
World’s Best Airline’ global sales
campaign launched this week,
according to a statement.
Until July 19, passengers
will enjoy discounts of up to
40% off, all-inclusive fares
on flights for travel until
December 10. Further discounts are also on offer for
the recently announced destinations, including Nice,
France; Skopje, Macedonia;
Sohar, Oman; and Prague,
Czech Republic.
The special promotion follows
a string of major recent wins
for Qatar Airways at the 2017
Skytrax World Airline Awards
held during the Paris Air Show
last month, where it was named
‘World’s Best Airline’, ‘World’s
Best Business Class’, ‘Best Airline in the Middle East’ and
‘World’s Best First Class Airline
Lounge’.
Passengers can now take advantage of special discounts on
fares to a host of popular holiday
destinations, including its recently launched routes to Nice,
France and Dublin, Ireland, as
well as many other destinations
on the airline’s growing global
network that now spans six continents, the statement notes.
Additionally, Qatar Airways
Privilege Club members will
enjoy double Qmiles when they
book during this offer.
Qatar Airways chief commercial officer Ehab Amin said, “We
T
he visit of Philippine
President Rodrigo Duterte to Qatar in April has
reaffirmed strong bilateral relations between the two countries, Philippine ambassador
Alan Timbayan has said.
Speaking at the 119th Philippine Independence Day reception in Doha on Sunday,
the envoy stressed that such
relationship “was built on the
foundation of mutual trust and
respect, spanning 36 years”.
According to Timbayan, the
president’s visit saw the signing of four bilateral agreements
that are expected to boost trade
and co-operation initiatives
for halal products and services,
as well as promote investment
opportunities back home.
Citing figures from the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), he noted that the Philippine economy is expected to
see a 6.8-7% increase in gross
domestic product growth this
year, which is within the government’s target of 6.5-7.5%
growth for 2017.
“The economy’s good performance may be attributed
to the government spending
on public goods and services,
sustained investment flows
and domestic consumption,”
Timbayan told attendees at the
event.
The reception was attended
by HE the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr
Mohamed Abdul Wahed Ali alHammadi, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs’ Chief of Protocol Ibrahim Yousif Abdullah Fakhro and
other dignitaries.
He pointed out that inflation
slowed to 2.8% in June and it is
expected to settle for the rest of
the year.
Despite factors such as the
ongoing armed conflict in Marawi, the Philippines remains
to be one of the fastest growing
economies in Asia, the envoy
added.
While the Philippines con-
HE Dr Mohamed Abdul Wahed Ali al-Hammadi (second, right) and ambassador Alan Timbayan (centre) lead the ceremonial cutting of cake at the
Philippine Independence Day reception on Sunday. They were joined by
Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Chief of Protocol Ibrahim Yousif Abdullah Fakhro
(right) and two Asean ambassadors. PICTURE: Imelda Enrile
tinues to experience robust
economic growth, Timbayan
said they also want to strengthen cultural exchanges through
vigorous tourism promotion
campaign.
Such efforts, he added, will
give tourists an opportunity to
discover the wonders of fascinating destinations in the
Philippines.
“The Philippines offers a
wide array of entertainment,
with its scenic islands and exotic beaches, world-class diving
spots, unique wildlife, exciting
fiestas and the world-famous
Filipino hospitality,” the
ambassador said.
“With 7,107 islands, the Philippine archipelago is blessed
with a wealth of natural re-
sources, a rich and vibrant history, and a unique and colourful
culture,” he noted.
Timbayan announced that
the Philippines is also set to
chair the Association of South
East Asian Nations (Asean),
which also coincides with
the Asean’s 50th founding
anniversary.
With the theme “Partnering for Change, Engaging the
World”, he said the Philippines
aspires for a prosperous and
“drug-free” Asean that is a catalyst for positive change in the
international community.
Timbayan thanked His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad al-Thani, Qatar’s
government and its people for
the hospitality accorded to
more than 220,000 Filipino
expatriates in the country.
“We are honoured to be able
to contribute to the progress
and development of Qatar. We
look forward to sustaining the
strong bonds of friendship between our two countries in the
years to come,” he said.
4
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
QATAR
Ministry, Vodafone
Qatar sign pact to
raise ICT awareness
T
he Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) and Vodafone
Qatar signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday to support the
implementation of the executive phase of the
Better Connections Programme.
The MoU stipulates that Vodafone Qatar
will support the ministry’s efforts in raising the ICT awareness and achieving better connections among migrant workers by
providing Internet connectivity services and
devices in the ‘1,500 ICT Lab’, which was
established for the Better Connections Programme.
The MoU was signed by MoTC’s assistant
undersecretary of Digital Society Development Reem al-Mansoori and Vodafone Qatar
CEO Ian Gray. Also in attendance was Khalid
al-Ghanim, Labour International Relations
Department manager at the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs (MADLSA).
“The MoTC will continue work with different entities and bodies concerned in the
State of Qatar to broaden the programme
scope, increase the number of its beneficiaries and achieve more progress in digital inclusion across all the society,” al-Mansoori
said. “I believe that such work and co-operation with our partners and stakeholders will
make a positive difference towards achieving
the programme goals and bear amazing fruits
in the years to come.”
Gray said: “Vodafone globally has long
championed the importance of giving Internet access to all members of society, so
Reem al-Mansoori and Ian Gray at the signing ceremony.
we are delighted that thousands of workers
will benefit from being included in the digital
world through the MoTC’s Better Connections Programme that utilises our worldclass network.”
Al-Ghanim said: “The Better Connections Programme seeks to enable employers
to provide ICT tools and the Internet to migrant workers in their accommodation places
in order to integrate them into the digital
community, keep them connected with their
friends and families and enhance their digital
skills, in addition to helping them become
aware of their work rights and responsibilities.”
In its coming executive plans, al-Ghanim
added that the programme is targeting 1.5mn
workers in the country, establishing the
‘1,500 ICT Lab’, providing 15,000 computer
devices worth QR55mn and securing 3,000
volunteers.
Following the MoU signing, Vodafone
Qatar COO Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah bin
Jassim al-Thani handed over Vodafone Internet devices to representatives of a number of
contracting companies participating in the
programme.
Launched by the MoTC in co-operation
with MADLSA last May, the executive phase
of the Better Connections Programme aims
to broaden the programme’s scope over the
next two years, taking the total number of
ICT labs up to 1,500 and achieving digital
inclusion across all migrant workers in the
country.
Launched in 2014, the Better Connections
Programme is a unique initiative that will
help workers reach their families back home,
learn basic IT skills, and widen their knowledge by being digitally-connected.
It gives contractors and employers a practical framework to provide training and access
to ICT tools for their labourers. Programme
partners include several Qatari institutions,
entities and local contracting firms.
Prizes were given away at the end of the event.
Jaidah Auto celebrates sale of
1mn ACDelco batteries in Qatar
J
aidah Automotive Aftermarket Division has
held the annual customer appreciation event
to celebrate the sale of 1mn ACDelco Maintenance Free (MF) batteries in Qatar.
ACDelco is the leading maintenance free battery in the automotive industry and retains the
highest market share in the Qatari market, according to a press statement.
The annual event was attended by 180 customers and representatives from Jaidah Automotive Aftermarket Division, General Motors
and Mebco. During the event, customers were
presented with the latest product and new packaging updates, stamped grid technology from
Johnson Controls as well as updates on warranty
procedures and battery warranties. Jaidah Automotive’s KT Rao, manager of Automotive Wholesale, welcomed attendees in a speech and said:
“ACDelco MF batteries are part of General Motors and manufactured in Mebco using Johnson
Controls stamped grid technology, in a state-ofthe-art facility that boasts of the latest technologies and hi-tech equipment.
“We are proud of achieving the sale of 1mn batteries in Qatar. This wouldn’t have been possible
without the support of our loyal customers, our
experienced professional sales team and our supplier. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this great success.”
Zeki Bagran, general manager of Jaidah Automotive Independent Aftermarket, said: “We
would like to thank our customers for their ongoing support, and our supplier for providing a quality product that enables us to win the trust of our
clients. Our goal is to reach the 2mn-unit milestone in the near future with the support of our
customers and supplier.” The customers honoured
at the event were Marhaba International Trading & Transport Co, Ali International Trading Est,
Falcon Trading Est, Al Fajer Auto Spare Parts, Khalid Saif Auto Spare Parts and Woqod – Qatar Fuel.
Zahi El Chaar, sales business manager at General
Motors, thanked the customers present and the
Jaidah Automotive team on the occasion and congratulated the audience for the achievement.
Representatives from Mebco gave presentations to the audience, updating them on the latest technical information and benefits regarding
the ACDelco MF batteries. Mufeed AlDawood,
assistant manager for Customer Satisfaction at
Mebco, also made a presentation.
Slim Samir Ayadi, Quality and Controls engineers supervisor at Mebco, also gave a presentation. Customers participated in a Q&A session
held at the end of the presentation.
At the end of the event, a raffle draw was held
featuring 25 gifts and prizes – including 48”
curved LED TVs, smart LED TVs, refrigerators, laptops, home theatres, Bluetooth wireless
speakers, mobile phones and more.
QIB, MasterCard launch summer promo
Q
atar Islamic Bank (QIB) has teamed up with MasterCard to launch a summer promotion titled,
‘Win Every Week with QIB MasterCard’, which
runs until October 24.
Customers can take advantage of extra rewards this
summer every time they use their MasterCard World or
Platinum debit card in Qatar or abroad, according to a
press statement.
Customers who use their QIB MasterCard debit cards
for their purchases, for a minimum transaction of QR500
in Qatar or abroad, will get a chance to win QR10,000
weekly, while one Grand Prize winner will win QR100,000.
ATM cash withdrawal transactions will be excluded.
D Anand, general manager of QIB’s Personal Banking
Group, said: “Whether our Private and Tamayuz customers are staying in Qatar or travelling overseas this summer,
we encourage them to use their QIB MasterCard for all
their purchases, whether they are in shopping malls, hotels, restaurants or shopping online.
Customers now have the whole summer to get a chance
to win great cash prizes on weekly basis.”
QIB and MasterCard will reward a total of 15 winners
and one Grand Prize winner.
To be eligible for the prize draw, customers need to use
QIB’s MasterCard debit card on point-of-sale purchase or
online only.
The draws will be conducted in the presence of representatives from MasterCard on the QIB premises along
with the Ministry of Economy and Commerce.
“This is yet another special promotion that QIB brings
to its valued customers with more rewarding benefits and
the opportunity to win 15 valuable cash prizes every week
and one Grand Prize worth QR100,000 when using the
bank’s MasterCard debit card,” Anand added.
Qafco holds career fair
Q
atar Fertiliser Company (Qafco) recently held a career fair in
Doha with the aim of meeting
Qatari students and graduates and familiarising them with opportunities to
intern or work at the company.
The career fair was attended by a
considerable number of university and
school graduates, in addition to qualified national cadres, Qafco said in a
press statement, adding that the event
was in line with the company’s Qatarisation strategy and efforts undertaken
to achieve the Qatar National Vision
2030 goals.
The Qafco staff welcomed the visitors and responded to their queries
on the nature of work at the company,
types of jobs as well as training and development programmes.
Qafco personnel from various fields
interviewed the applicants and signed
contracts to fill technical and administrative positions in the company. More
than 500 applications were received
for these positions.
“As part of our commitment to the
Qatarisation policy, we are keen to
recruit and develop Qatari youth and
continue to attract and prepare national cadres to work for the company,”
Qafco’s chief administrative officer Dr
Hamed al-Marwani said in a statement.
He noted that they offer a wide range
of opportunities in different fields for
young Qataris looking for jobs, including technical and administration.
In the field of training, Qafco is a
“pioneer in providing scholarships” to
its Qatari staff to equip them with the
necessary knowledge, according to Dr
al-Marwani.
Qafco public relations and communications manager Maryam Mat-
Qafco’s chief administrative officer Dr Hamed al-Marwani with an applicant.
Qafco staff interview applicants.
tar said they give special consideration in recruiting Qatari youth and
developing them to meet future challenges.
For university graduates, some of
the opportunities available are in supply chain, information technology
and laboratory, as well as in different
branches of engineering. For higher
secondary school students, Qafco invited applications in the fields of security, firefighting, warehouse and other
operational and technical fields within
the company.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
5
REGION/ARAB WORLD
Iraqi PM hails win over
‘brutality and terrorism’
AFP
Mosul
I
raqi Prime Minister Haider
al-Abadi declared a victory
over “brutality and terrorism” in Mosul yesterday after his
forces ended the Islamic State
group’s rule over the country’s
second city.
Flanked by soldiers, Abadi
hailed the retaking of Mosul —
where IS dealt Iraqi forces a devastating defeat three years ago
— as a historic moment in the
battle against the militants.
“Our victory today is a victory over darkness, a victory
over brutality and terrorism, and
I announce to the whole world
today the end and failure and
collapse of the mythical terrorist
state,” Abadi said in a televised
address from west Mosul.
The US-led coalition that
backed the Mosul offensive and
is supporting another assault on
IS’ Syrian bastion Raqqa hailed
the victory, but warned it did not
mark the end of the war against
the militants.
“This victory alone does not
eliminate (IS) and there is still a
tough fight ahead. But the loss
of one of its twin capitals and a
jewel of their so-called caliphate
is a decisive blow,” Lieutenant
General Stephen Townsend, the
commander of the operation,
said in a statement.
Iraqi forces were earlier yesterday still fighting to eliminate
the last pockets of IS resistance
in Mosul, with militant fighters
surrounded in a sliver of territory in Mosul’s Old City.
Attention was also turning to
the huge task of rebuilding and
helping civilians, with aid groups
Members of the Iraqi federal police forces celebrate in the Old City of Mosul yesterday after the government’s
announcement of the “liberation” of the embattled city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters.
warning that Iraq’s humanitarian crisis was far from over.
Mosul’s Old City in particular
has been devastated, with many
buildings reduced to little more
than concrete shells and rubble
littering the streets.
Abadi said that as well as continuing to tackle IS, Iraq had
other challenges including “the
mission of stabilisation and the
mission of building”. A senior
commander said on Monday that
Iraqi forces were still engaged in
“heavy” fighting with the remnants of militant forces, but that
the battle was near its end.
Soldiers armed with machineguns and sniper rifles fired from
atop ruined structures in the Old
City yesterday, and air strikes
sent plumes of smoke rising over
Mosul’s historic centre.
Lieutenant General Sami alAridhi of Iraq’s elite CounterTerrorism Service said the militants had been reduced to an area
of the Old City of about 200 by
100 metres.
“They do not accept to surrender,” Aridhi said.
But “operations are in their fi-
nal stages,” and “it is likely that
(the fighting) will end today,” he
said. Aridhi said his forces had
information that there were between 3,000 and 4,000 civilians
in the area but that could not be
independently confirmed.
Backed by the US-led coalition, Iraqi forces launched their
campaign in October to retake
Mosul, which was seized by the
militants during the mid-2014
offensive that saw them take
control of large parts of Iraq and
neighbouring Syria.
Army, police and special forc-
Yemen cholera outbreak tops
300,000 suspected cases: ICRC
AFP
Geneva
A
cholera outbreak in Yemen has
now surpassed 300,000 suspected cases, the Red Cross said
yesterday as the war-torn country reels
from disease as well as the threat of
famine.
The International Committee of the
Red Cross said the cholera epidemic
“continues to spiral out of control”
since it erupted in April.
“Today, over 300,000 people are
suspected to be ill. More than 1,600
have died,” it said in a Twitter post.
ICRC regional director Robert Mardini said about 7,000 new cholera cases
were being recorded daily in the capital
Sanaa and three other areas.
The collapse of Yemen’s infrastructure after more than two years of war
between the Saudi-backed govern-
Rights activist
sentenced to
two years in jail
A Bahrain court sentenced rights
campaigner Nabeel Rajab to two
years in jail yesterday, supporters
said, for allegedly making “false
or malicious” statements about
Bahraini authorities. Authorities
at Bahrain’s information affairs
office could not immediately be
reached for comment.Bahrain
has repeatedly denied systematic
rights abuses. The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy
(BIRD) said Rajab had been unable to attend the trial, having
been at an interior ministry hospital since his health deteriorated
in April. He was detained a year
ago. “This outrageous sentence
against someone speaking the
truth exhibits brutality,” said Sayed
al-Wadaei, director of advocacy
at BIRD. In a January 2015 media
interview cited by the prosecution,
according to al-Wadaei, Rajab had
said Bahrain’s jails housed political
prisoners. Amnesty International
called Rajab’s imprisonment “a
flagrant violation of human rights,
and an alarming sign that the
Bahraini authorities will go to any
length to silence criticism”. Human Rights First called the ruling
“blatant injustice designed to serve
political interests”.
ment and rebels who control Sanaa has
made for a “perfect storm for cholera”,
according to the World Health Organisation.
Cholera is a highly contagious bacterial infection spread through contaminated food or water.
Although the disease is easily treatable, doing so in Yemen has proved
particularly difficult.
The war has left less than half of the
country’s medical facilities functional.
The WHO’s own figures for the outbreak list 262,649 suspected cases
and 1,587 deaths as of July 2, in 21 of 23
Yemeni governorates.
It is expected to update those numbers shortly.
The battle against cholera has caused
aid groups to pull resources away from
fighting malnutrition among Yemen’s
war-weary people, raising the risk of
famine as they struggle to find funds, a
UN official warned last week.
Jamie McGoldrick, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator in Yemen, said
much of the $1.1bn (966,000 euros)
in aid pledged by donor governments
in April to deal with the hard-pressed
population’s needs had yet to be disbursed, leaving relief agencies struggling to get their hands on new money.
“Humanitarian organisations have
had to reprogramme their resources
away from malnutrition and reuse
them to control the cholera outbreak,”
he said in Sanaa on Thursday.
“And if we don’t get these resources
replaced, then using those resources
for cholera will mean that food insecurity will suffer. We’re trying to do our
best, but it’s very much beyond what
we can cope with.”
About 17mn people — two-thirds
of Yemen’s population — are uncertain of where their next meal will come
from, according to the World Food Programme.
Hopes high for ‘positive’
US decision on Sudan
AFP
Khartoum
T
he United Nations said yesterday it hopes the United States
will make a “positive decision”
on sanctions against Sudan for allowing more humanitarian aid access across
war zones as sought.
President Donald Trump is to decide
tomorrow on whether to permanently
lift the US sanctions on Sudan after his
predecessor Barack Obama eased the
embargo in January but kept Khartoum
on a six-month review period.
Obama made the permanent lifting
of sanctions dependent on Khartoum’s
progress on five areas of concern at the
end of the review period.
Giving more access to humanitarian
workers was one of the five conditions
Obama insisted Sudan must meet before the sanctions can be lifted permanently.Yesterday, the United Nations
said there had been a “marked improvement” in humanitarian access in
the past six months.
“Recent months have seen UN agencies and partners increasingly working
in areas that were previously inaccessible, to carry out needs assessments
and provide humanitarian assistance,”
said a UN statement titled “UN hopes
for positive decision on US sanctions
relief.”
It said areas now accessible also included war-torn Darfur’s mountainous region of Jebel Marra — a site of
intense fighting between Sudanese
government forces and rebels for years.
It said access had also been possible in government-controlled areas of
Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.
CRIME
Six executed for drug trafficking, homicide
Six people convicted of drug trafficking and homicide were executed in Saudi Arabia
yesterday, the government said. A Pakistani citizen was executed for drug trafficking and
five Saudi nationals for homicide, the interior ministry said.
es, backed by waves of US-led air
strikes, seized the eastern side of
the city in January and launched
the battle for its western part the
next month.
The fight grew tougher when
security forces entered the
densely populated Old City on
the western bank of the Tigris
River, which divides the city, and
intense street-to-street fighting
followed.
The cost of victory has been
enormous: much of Mosul in ruins, thousands dead and wounded and nearly half the city’s population forced from their homes.
The United Nations has said
920,000 people fled their homes
during the Mosul operation, and
while some have returned the
vast majority remain displaced.
“It’s a relief to know that the
military campaign in Mosul is
ending. The fighting may be
over, but the humanitarian crisis is not,” said Lise Grande, the
UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator
in Iraq.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) yesterday said it could be
many months before civilians are
able to return to their homes.
“It is likely that thousands of
people may have to remain in displacement for months to come,”
the UNHCR said. “Many have
nothing to go back to due to extensive damage caused during the
conflict, while key basic services
such as water, electricity and other key infrastructure, including
schools and hospitals, will need to
be rebuilt or repaired,” it said.
Twenty-eight aid groups working in Iraq issued a statement calling for international support for
rebuilding efforts and urged authorities not to press civilians to
return.
UN lauds truce in
Syria, but warns
on partition risk
Reuters
Geneva
A
greements to de-escalate the fighting in
Syria could simplify the
conflict and help to stabilise
the country, but such accords
must be an interim measure
and avoid partition, UN envoy
Staffan de Mistura told a news
conference yesterday.
Speaking at the start of five
days of peace talks in Geneva,
de Mistura said discussions
were being held in Amman to
monitor implementation of a
ceasefire for southwest Syria
brokered by the United States
and Russia, the first peacemaking effort of the war by the
US government under President Donald Trump.
“When two superpowers...agree fundamentally at
that level in trying to make
that ceasefire work, there is a
strong chance that that will
take place,” he said.
So far, the agreement that
went into force mid-day on
Sunday was broadly holding,
he added.
He also struck a positive
note on ceasefire talks in the
Kazakh capital Astana last
week, which failed to agree on
a monitoring mechanism for a
Russian-Iranian-Turkish deescalation deal but produced a
lot of work “in the right direction”.
US Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson was in Turkey discussing a particular problem
area yesterday, the rebel-held
town of Idlib in Syria, de Mistura said, adding that it was a
deal that “could almost have
been announced”.
The world was perhaps witnessing the simplifying phase
of the most complex conflict
of our time, the veteran mediator said, adding that de-escalation of the war must be an
interim phase and not undermine Syria’s territorial integrity. It should lead rapidly to a
stabilisation phase, he said.
Asked if the war was ending after almost six and a half
years and hundreds of thousands of deaths, de Mistura
said several stars were aligning
— on the ground, regionally
and internationally.
“In that sense...there is a
higher potential than we are
seeing in the past for progress.”
De Mistura said he was not
expecting breakthroughs in
this week’s talks.
UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria Staffan de
Mistura looks on during a round of negotiation, during the
Intra Syria talks, in Geneva, yesterday.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
6
AFRICA
Drone watch
With election
near, Kenya to
cut salaries of
top officials
Reuters
Nairobi
K
An employee of the Ivorian Electricity Company (CIE) pilots a drone that ensure the monitoring of the high voltage electric network, yesterday at the Centre des Metiers
de l’Electricite (Electricity Professional Centre) in Bingerville, near Abidjan. Ivory Coast, one of the African leaders in electricity, announced on July 6 a project to use
drones to monitor its 5,000km of high voltage lines, seeing “a solution that is essential.”
Congo’s opposition blasts
poll delays as ‘provocation’
AFP
Kinshasa
T
he main opposition party
in the Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday
blasted as a “provocation” and
a power grab an announcement
that elections to end a deep political crisis in the mineral-rich
country will likely not be held
this year.
The president of DR Congo’s
electoral commission, Corneille
Nangaa, had told reporters in
Paris on Friday that “it will not
be possible” to hold presidential
and legislative elections “before
the end of the year”. But the opposition views it as a move to
keep President Joseph Kabila in
power.
“Corneille Nangaa is helping
Joseph Kabila to achieve his plan
to hold on to power,” Augustin
Kabuya, spokesman for the Union for Democracy and Social
Progress (UPDS), said. “It is a
provocation. It’s not responsible”.
“We will not let this happen,”
he added.
Elections are due this year under a transitional deal brokered
last New Year’s Eve, aimed at
avoiding fresh political violence
in the vast central African country after Kabila failed to step
down when his mandate ended
in December.
Under the deal, Kabila, 46,
was allowed to remain in office until elections in late 2017,
ruling in tandem with a transitional watchdog and a new
prime minister chosen from
within the ranks of the opposition.
Kabila took office after his father Laurent Kabila’s assassination in 2001.
He was elected president in
2006 and again in 2011.
We “condemn in the strongest possible terms this unilateral
decision, illegal and anti-democratic,” read a statement by a
coalition of 33 NGOs that has
been pushing the government to
respect the country’s constitution, which sets a two-term limit
for the presidency.
The group charged that Nangaa has been subtly enabling
a “power without legitimacy”
which is “aggravating a political and social crisis”. It called on
civil society and other partners,
local and international, to reject
the Nangaa’s announcement and
urged setting an electoral calendar.
Nangaa had cited ongoing
security issues in the country’s
troubled central Kasai region
for the delays which previously
forced electoral officials to postpone voter registration in two
provinces there.
The violence in Kasai erupted
last September after the death
in clashes of a tribal chieftain,
known as the Kamwina Nsapu,
who rebelled against the authority of Kabila’s regime and its local representatives.
The killing sparked gross violations of human rights such as
extra-judicial killings, rapes,
mutilations, torture and the use
of child soldiers, according to
rights groups and the United
Nations.
A tally by the Roman Catholic
Church said the brutal violence
has claimed more than 3,300
lives and displaced 1.3mn people — more than 600,000 of
them children, the UN children’s
agency said.
Nangaa said the commission was “working wholeheartedly to organise these
elections” and fix the delays,
and that voter registration in
Kasai, which had been postponed indefinitely because of
the unrest, was due to resume
“before the month of August”.
For the UPDS, the transitional
deal remains the only viable
solution to resolve DR Congo’s
political crisis. “Naanga has
declared war against the Congolese people with his declaration proving his allegiance” to
Kabila, opposition leader Felix
Tshisekedi tweeted on Sunday.
Felix Tshisekedi is the son of
veteran UPDS chief Etienne Tshisekedi, who before his death in
February had headed the opposition coalition that negotiated
the deal with Kabila’s government.
The party, along with other
opposition groups, led numerous demonstrations in the days
following Kabila’s refusal to step
down, resulting in deadly clashes with armed police.
At least 40 people were killed
and more than 100 injured, the
UN said, and over 450 people
were arrested.
DR Congo has never seen a
democratic transfer of power
following polls since independence from Belgium in 1960.
Four lions escape from Kruger Park
Four male lions escaped over the weekend from South Africa’s famed Kruger National Park, officials said yesterday,
two months after five others slipped out. Park management said in a statement that the majestic predators were
believed to have sneaked out on Sunday night, and that
they had been spotted in a nearby village. They urged
residents to “exercise extra caution” as the hunt for the
animals was underway. Kruger Park, which borders Zimbabwe and Mozambique, is home to about 1,500 lions, and
nearly the size of Belgium. Animals sometimes slip past
the barrier fences, especially during the dry winter season.
Two months ago, five other lions escaped from the park.
Four were re-captured in neighbouring farms and one is
still on the loose. Officials said animals usually sneaked out
through dry river beds, or used holes dug out by other
animals near the fences.
enya said yesterday
that it was cutting the
salaries of top officials,
including the president and
lawmakers, and slashing their
allowances, saving the East
African economy 8.5bn shillings ($81.90mn) annually.
The announcement comes
ahead of elections on Aug 8
when Kenya chooses a president, lawmakers and other
regional officials, and is certain to be viewed favourably by
the average Kenyan voter who
sees members of parliament
in particular as symbols of a
greedy political culture.
In 2013, the lawmakers,
even then among the world’s
best-paid lawmakers, voted to
increase their salaries to more
than 130 times the minimum
wage in defiance of government plans to cut them as part
of spending reforms.
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission, which
advises the government on
the wages of public sector
officials, said members of
parliament would now earn
621,250 shillings a month
down from 710,000 shillings
previously.
It said the president’s salary would be cut to 1.44mn
shillings a month from
1.65mn shillings, while his
deputy will earn 1.23mn shillings from 1.4mn shillings.
“To ensure that the desired
public services are delivered
in a cost-effective and fiscally sustainable manner will
require effective management of wage bill spending,”
the SRC said in a statement.
Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is seeking
re-election in August, said in
March that the overall wage
bill had to be cut.
He said salaries consumed
half of all revenues and were
impeding spending on development projects in Kenya,
a country mired in poverty
where the unemployment rate
stands at about 40%.
To save elephants, Mali
employs Dutch dogs
Reuters
Bamako
I
n an effort to save one of
Africa’s last desert elephant herds, Mali has
employed Mitch, Bobby and
Amy — Dutch spaniels with
a nose for sniffing out illegal
ivory.
The
chocolate-coloured
spaniels are the newest members of an anti-poaching brigade set up to dismantle ivory
trafficking networks that have
devastated elephant herds in
Mali, General Birama Sissoko,
an adviser to the environment
ministry, told Reuters.
Poaching has been rampant
since Tuareg rebels and other
militants took over the north
of the country in 2012.
French forces pushed them
back a year later, but lawlessness still reigns and ivory
smuggling has flourished.
Trade in elephant tusks
funds militants, the United
Nations says. Only about 300
elephants are left in Mali.
About 167 have been
slaughtered since fighting
broke out in 2012 and a system
of local self-policing fell apart,
the environment minister said
earlier this year.
“There is a stock of ivory
that circulates. If we can get
hold of the ivory, we can work
backwards until we get hold
of the poachers,” Sissoko told
Reuters.
The anti-poaching team
will take the dogs on searches when they get intelligence
about traffickers’ hideouts,
and they should be able to
help police make arrests,
said Susan Canney, director
of the Mali Elephant Project,
which partnered with the
US-based Chengeta Wildlife
organisation to obtain the
dogs.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
7
AMERICAS
GAFFE
EAGLE-EYED
SPACE
INITIATIVE
MEDIA
Trump defends daughter
Ivanka’s seat at G20 table
High school student scores
Mattis interview scoop
Nasa craft to fly over
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
UN to help Colombia rebels
reintegrate into society
Google-Facebook online
‘duopoly’ condemned
US President Donald Trump yesterday defended
his daughter, White House adviser Ivanka Trump,
after she raised eyebrows over the weekend by
taking his place at a table with world leaders at a
G20 meeting. She briefly sat in her father’s chair at
the global gathering in Hamburg during a closeddoor session on African development as the World
Bank president spoke. Yesterday, Trump called the
arrangement “very standard” in a tweet where
he also noted that German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, who was hosting the G20 summit, agreed.
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said the
president’s daughter had often sat in on meetings,
especially those regarding women and business.
A US high school student has scored an
exclusive interview with Pentagon chief Jim
Mattis after an aide of President Donald Trump
inadvertently exposed the defence secretary’s
cell phone number. The Washington Post in May
ran a photo of Trump’s Keith Schiller and sharpeyed readers noticed that atop the papers was a
yellow sticky note with a phone number. Teddy
Fischer from Mercer Island High School saw
the number and called Mattis with an interview
request. “I was pretty curious if this is actually
his number or is it kind of a joke,” Fischer told
the King 5 news channel. To his surprise, Mattis
called back and agreed to schedule an interview.
An unmanned Nasa spacecraft is about to fly
over a massive storm raging on Jupiter, in a
long-awaited a journey that could shed new
light on the forces driving the planet’s Great
Red Spot. “Jupiter’s mysterious Great Red Spot
is probably the best-known feature of Jupiter,”
said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno
from the Southwest Research Institute in San
Antonio. “This monumental storm has raged on
the solar system’s biggest planet for centuries.”
The storm looks like a churning red knot on the
planet’s surface. It has been monitored since
1830, and may have existed for more than 350
years, the US space agency said.
The UN Security Council yesterday decided
to establish a new mission in Colombia to
help Farc rebels reintegrate in society as the
peace deal moves to a challenging phase
after the laying down of weapons. After the
historic agreement ended half a century of
guerrilla war, the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (Farc) completed the handover
of individual weapons on June 27, under
UN supervision. The council unanimously
adopted a British-drafted resolution that
sets up the new verification mission as
of September 26, when the first mission
overseeing the disarmament ends.
The US newspaper industry yesterday warned
of a “duopoly” in online news by Google
and Facebook, and called for legislation that
would relax antitrust rules allowing collective
negotiations with the internet giants. The News
Media Alliance said that because Google and
Facebook dominate online news traffic digital
advertising, “publishers are forced to surrender
their content and play by their rules.” A statement
by the association of some 2,000 media groups
said news organisations “are limited with
disaggregated negotiating power against a de
facto duopoly that is vacuuming up all but an
ever-decreasing segment of advertising revenue.”
Trump presses
Congress to pass
healthcare plan
Reuters
Washington
P
resident Donald Trump yesterday
prodded the Republican-led US
Congress to pass major healthcare
legislation but huge obstacles remained in
the Senate as key lawmakers in his party
voiced pessimism about the chances of
rolling back the Obamacare law.
The House of Representatives approved
its healthcare bill in May but the Senate’s
version appeared to be in growing trouble as lawmakers returned to Washington
from a week-long recess.
“I cannot imagine that Congress would
dare to leave Washington without a beautiful new HealthCare bill fully approved
and ready to go!” Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to the seven-year Republican quest to dismantle Democratic former
president Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement.
Trump appeared to be referring to the August recess that lawmakers typically take.
Senate Republican leaders have faced
a revolt within their ranks, with moderate senators uneasy about the millions of
Americans forecast to lose their medical
insurance under the legislation and hard-
line conservatives saying the bill leaves
too much of Obamacare intact.
Republican Senator Pat Toomey said
a new version of the legislation is expected to be released, telling the CNBC
programme “Squawk Box” that “there’s a
shot” of getting to the 50 votes his party
needs to win passage in the 100-seat Senate, with Vice President Mike Pence casting a tie-breaking vote.
Repealing and replacing the Affordable
Care Act, dubbed Obamacare, was a central campaign pledge for Trump.
Obamacare expanded health insurance
coverage to some 20mn people, with much
of the increase due to an expansion of the
Medicaid government health insurance
programme for the poor and disabled.
Republicans criticise the law as a costly
government intrusion into the healthcare
system while Democrats call the Republican legislation a giveaway to the rich that
will hurt millions of the most vulnerable
Americans.
“The Senate now is literally within
weeks of being able to deliver on that
promise to the American people,” Pence
said in an interview with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, adding there is
“not yet agreement” in the Senate “but
we are close.”
Some Republican lawmakers were more
pessimistic, with Senator John McCain
saying on Sunday the legislation is “probably going to be dead.”
Opponents of the legislation are expected to hold protests in Washington,
organising sit-ins at congressional offices, holding marches and stage vigils outside Republican senators’ homes.
During last week’s recess, liberal groups
organised town hall meetings and protests
and ran advertisements criticising the bill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell faces the tricky task of crafting a bill
that can attract Republican moderates
and hard-line conservatives in a chamber
his party controls with a slim 52-48 majority.
The Senate legislation would phase
out the Medicaid expansion, drastically
cut federal Medicaid spending beginning in 2025, repeal most of Obamacare’s
taxes, end a penalty on Americans who
do not obtain insurance and overhaul
Obamacare’s subsidies to help people buy
insurance with tax credits.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget
Office, which assesses the impact of legislation, has estimated 22mn people would
lose health insurance over the next decade
under the Senate bill.
Flight of fancy!
Balloons fly over Bald Eagle Lake during the 36th Annual Hot Air Balloon Rodeo in Steamboat Springs,
Colorado, on Sunday.
Thousands flee California fires, state
of emergency in British Columbia
Agencies
Los Angeles
By Jennie Matthew, AFP
New York
E
M
ore than a dozen wildfires were
raging yesterday across California forcing thousands of
residents of the most populous US state
to flee their homes.
Further to the north, the Canadian
province of British Columbia was under
a state of emergency as fire crews there
also battled blazes fuelled by searing
temperatures and high winds.
The worst of the brush fires in California was the Alamo fire in San Luis Obispo
County, which had burned nearly 29,000
acres as of yesterday morning, according
to the California Department of Forestry
and Fire Protection known as Cal Fire.
More than 1,200 fire personnel were
battling the Alamo blaze, Cal Fire said,
adding that hot and dry conditions were
expected to continue for the next several
days and the inferno has been only 15%
contained so far.
The California fires have forced the
evacuation of around 8,000 people while
another 10,000 have fled their homes in
British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost
province, where around 200 blazes of varying degrees of intensity have been reported.
The Alamo fire, which began four days
ago, has spread to Santa Barbara County,
approximately midway between San
Francisco and Los Angeles, and is currently the state’s largest active fire, according to Cal Fire.
Fire containment efforts were particularly aimed at guarding mountain
peaks holding vital infrastructure such
as a high-voltage line that delivers power to nearby cities, according to the Los
Angeles Times newspaper.
Another fire in Santa Barbara County,
the Whittier fire, is threatening hundreds of homes in the Santa Ynez Valley
and forced the evacuation of nearly 150
children and counsellors from a youth
camp over the weekend, authorities said.
DC-10 tanker aircraft were spreading
fire retardant in a bid to prevent the fire,
which has engulfed some 10,800 acres,
from spreading, according to the Los Padres National Forest service.
The Whittier fire has destroyed 20
New York commuters
face ‘summer of hell’
Firefighters save a US flag as flames from the Wall fire close in on a luxury home in Oroville, California.
structures and is threatening 150 more,
according to Cal Fire.
Area resident Sarah Gustafson told the
Los Angeles Times that she was getting
her tires changed when she saw a pillar
of smoke rising and realised her six cats
were trapped at home.
She rushed back and managed to save
the animals, and described a sky painted
orange and black and “flames up on the
ridge.”
“It was terrifying,” she told the paper.
“When I got home it was smokey with
ash.” She then scrambled back to a Red
Cross shelter parking lot where she and
her cats spent the night.
Another blaze, the Wall fire in northern Butte County, has burned some
5,600 acres and has been 35% contained
as of yesterday morning, according to
Cal Fire.
Four people have been injured by the
Wall fire, according to the authorities.
Most of southern California including
metropolitan Los Angeles has been in
the grips of a blistering heat wave with
temperatures reaching as high as 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius).
In British Columbia, the provincial
government has declared a state of emergency as thousands of firefighters battle
blazes across the sprawling territory.
Kevin Skrepnek, chief information officer for the BC Wildfire Service, told the
National Post that lightning storms on
Friday had ignited many of the fires following a prolonged dry spell.
“We’re focusing now on public safety,
keeping these fires away from communities, protecting transportation routes,
things like that,” Skrepnek said.
Wildfires are common in California
and other parts of the American west
over the summer.
In April, California Governor Jerry
Brown declared an official end to the
state’s drought that lasted more than
five years.
But he kept in place water reporting
requirements, as well as bans on practices such as watering during or following
rainfall and hosing off sidewalks.
British Columbia has announced
C$100mn ($78mn) in emergency funds.
The Canadian Red Cross will hand
out stipends of C$600 to help those displaced by fires and other money will be
reserved for rebuilding.
Canada’s military has agreed to supply airplanes and helicopters and put
personnel on standby, and other jurisdictions have agreed to send some 260
personnel to help.
mergency repair work began yesterday at New York’s
Penn Station, kicking off a
“summer of hell” for hundreds of
thousands of commuters battling
chronic delays, overcrowding and
frayed tempers at North America’s
busiest rail hub.
An estimated 650,000 passengers pass every day through Penn
Station — twice as many as for the
three New York area airports combined — where rail lines from New
Jersey, Long Island and the East
Coast corridor connect with the
Big Apple’s aging and crumbling
subway system.
The two months of track repairs,
which began Monday, will reduce
the number of trains at peak hours
by around 20% until September 1.
Commuters have been urged to
switch to replacement bus, ferry
or subway services wherever possible, and come into work earlier
or later.
Some fares have been reduced to
help alleviate the inconvenience.
“Everybody is at different levels
of breaking point,” says Andrew
Sarnow, who works in marketing
and says he has been battling delays of 30-40 minutes for the last
two months on his commute from
Princeton, New Jersey.
He reeled off a litany of complaints: a station not designed to
handle the volume of passengers;
tracks with one point of entry —
“an unforgivable design flaw;” delays; breakdowns and faulty tracks.
The repair work follows three
derailments since March.
Penn Station’s woes sunk to a
new low in May when dirty water,
widely reported to have been sewage, gushed from the ceiling.
“It’s going to be a struggle,” says
Sarnow. “I’m going to be working a
lot on the train.”
But he admitted his journey time
of one hour, 15 minutes was “not
bad” and admitted he had been expected worse.
“It’s long overdue and I blame
many politicians for taking so long
to do something,” he said.
Perhaps because the disruptions
were so long planned, commuters had time to make contingency
plans and almost everyone AFP
spoke to yesterday said their journey had not been as bad as they had
expecting.
“Lately it’s been much longer
than today,” admitted logistics
worker Thomas Fletcher, dashing off the train from Newark and
walking at breakneck pace through
the station en route to work.
“It has been a pain and I was
worried,” he said. “I just wish they
had taken care of it sooner.”
New York Governor Andrew
Cuomo warned as early as May
that the repair work would spell a
“summer of hell for commuters.”
The disruptions coincide with
woeful delays in the ageing subway
system, which is similarly straining
to cope with increased ridership,
and highlights a wider problem of
crumbling infrastructure in the
United States.
Sean Cribbin, 27, who works in
asset management, said he was
grateful that he lived and worked in
New Jersey most of the time and so
could avoid the commuter life.
“It’s a terrible experience,” Cribbin said, laughing.
“God forbid, there’s a drop of
rain that comes down, or snow —
trains shut down or are massively
delayed,” he told AFP.
“The subways are nasty. It seems
to be everywhere you look in New
York, public transportation’s a
mess.”
But neither will the next two
months be a one-off.
A solitary century-old tunnel
used by all trains crossing under
the Hudson River — one track in,
one track out — was damaged in
Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and will
also need repair work in the future.
“If we all stay cool, respect the
train crews and don’t let these
frustrations take over, everyone
will get to where they need to be,”
Steven Santoro, the executive director of NJ Transit, advised in a
recent letter.
8
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
ASEAN
Students celebrate the Unesco announcement,
on the Sambor Prei Kuk temple complex as a
World Heritage Site, in Phnom Penh yesterday.
HONOURED
SUICIDE BID
CONSERVATION
MAKEOVER
Third World Heritage site
named in Cambodia
German slits own throat to
evade arrest for murder
Bid to smuggle ‘bearded
dragons’ foiled in Malaysia
Thai heartthrobs enlisted
to boost military pride
Cambodia’s Sambor Prei Kuk archaeological
site has been named as a World Heritage site
by the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (Unesco), making
it the country’s third. Located in Kampong
Thom province, the site includes ruins from
Ishanapura, the walled capital of the Chenla
Empire which encompassed parts of Cambodia,
Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Built between the
late 6th and 7th centuries, the site predates the
Angkor Wat complex and played an important
role in the evolution of Cambodian architecture.
The architectural style “are true masterpieces,”
according to Unesco.
A German national has slit his throat to
avoid being arrested by Phuket police for
the suspected murder of his Thai girlfriend,
authorities told DPA yesterday. The 36-yearold was sent to a local hospital late Sunday
after he attempted suicide when Thai police
surrounded his hideout, according to Chanad
Hongsitthichaikul, an investigator with Phuket
police. “He didn’t say anything when we closed in
on him, but I think he did what he did to escape
the arrest,” Chanad said. The man is the main
suspect in the murder of his 35-year-old Thai
girlfriend, who has been missing since July 1. Her
body was found dumped in a jungle on Sunday.
Malaysia has foiled an attempt to smuggle dozens
of bearded dragon lizards and tortoises into the
country from neighbouring Thailand to be sold
as pets, authorities said yesterday. Two Thais and
one Malaysian were arrested as they drove an
SUV with the animals hidden inside, according
to local border security chief Syed Basri Syed Ali.
Authorities found 58 bearded dragons and eight
African spurred tortoises. Both animals are popular
pets in Malaysia but it is illegal to bring them into
the country without the correct permits. If found
guilty of breaking wildlife protection laws, the trio
— who were arrested Thursday — could be jailed
for up to 10 years, said Syed Basri.
Sporting flak jackets, machine guns and
smouldering stares, four Thai heartthrobs have
been enlisted to woo fans in a new soap opera
dividing the army-run kingdom. The series, titled
Love Missions, follows four leading men — one
from each branch of the armed forces, plus the
police — as they take down drug traffickers, foreign
terrorists and of course, traverse the battlefield of
love. “We are allowing them to use military camps
as a filming location and making suggestions
on the right costumes and make-up,” Ministry
of Defence spokesman General Kongcheep
Tantravanich told AFP. “We are also letting them
use our soldiers, military vehicles and helicopters.”
Cambodia
tweaks law
ahead of
2018 polls
By Prak Chan Thul, Reuters
Phnom Penh
C
ambodia’s parliament yesterday
amended the law to ban people from
associating with anyone convicted
of a criminal offence, a move the opposition
says aims to hobble rivals of Prime Minister Hun Sen ahead of a general election next
year.
Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s
Party (CPP) voted to change the election law
to ban political parties from engaging with
such individuals, who also face bans on participating in politics through images, audio
recordings and writing.
Political parties which violate the law
face a five-year suspension or could be dissolved.
The amendment effectively bans former
opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who lives in
exile in France to avoid arrest in a number of
convictions, from campaigning from abroad
for the Cambodia National Rescue Party
(CNRP).
The opposition CNRP boycotted yesterday’s National Assembly vote, calling the
changes illegal.
“The proposed law is politically motivated and is a political pressure on individual
rights, the party and on rivals,” the CNRP
said in a statement.
The ruling CPP denied the changes were a
bid to rein in the opposition.
“These amendments are aimed at pro-
moting the rule of law...and strongly respect
multi-party democracy,” CPP lawmaker
Cheam Yeap told parliament before all 66
lawmakers present voted to back the changes.
Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia for more
than three decades and has shown no signs
of wanting to relinquish power.
His party won local elections last month.
The opposition CNRP did not fare badly in
the vote, which many saw as a litmus test of
its position ahead of the all-important national poll, winning about 43% of the vote.
Commenting on the change to the law,
Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights
said the CPP was expanding its harassment
of the opposition.
Hun Sen proposed the amendments last
month with the aim of removing Sam Rainsy
from the political equation, one analyst said.
“This is the CPP’s way of consigning
Rainsy to an early retirement, but expect him
to continue his campaign against Hun Sen
from abroad,” said Sebastian Strangio, author of the book “Hun Sen’s Cambodia.”
Strangio said the impact on the CNRP remains to be seen as current opposition leader
Kem Sokha has shown that he is able to lead
the party on his own.
Sam Rainsy resigned from the CNRP in
February before a law was adopted to bar
those convicted of an offence from seeking
office.
He continues to be an active voice in Cambodia’s politics, however, posting comments
on social media platforms.
Corps anniversary
Female police officers perform a traditional Acehnese dance during a ceremony yesterday to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the Indonesian
police corps in Banda Aceh.
Vendors uprooted by historic market find new home
DPA
Singapore
D
ozens of vendors displaced
yesterday by the closure
of Singapore’s historic flea
market have been given the opportunity to set up shop in a new location.
The famed Sungei Road Thieves
Market was shut down yesterday after eight decades in operation in or-
der to make way for a new metro station and residential development.
The market is known for its kooky
second-hand goods and drew its
name from an old adage that if
someone’s possessions were stolen,
they could likely find the items at
the market.
Patrons of the market were handed leaflets yesterday announcing the
market’s “relaunch” next Saturday
at the open-air carpark of a mall 1km
away from the original venue.
Some 80 out of the 200 market
vendors have indicated they will move
to the new market at Golden Mile
Tower’s carpark on the sixth floor,
the chairman of the Association
for the Recycling of Second Hand
Goods, Koh Eng Khoon, told DPA.
The association represents about
70 stalls at the market and is spearheading the effort.
It’s near clear if the new market
will retain the name of the former
one.
“I rarely leave empty handed during my visits to the old market on
my off days,” said longtime marketgoer David Cheong, who believes the
market held heritage and practical
value.
It was also the last rent-free
hawking zone in Singapore,
with many stall owners in
their twilight years using their earnings to scrape through in one of the
most expensive countries in the
world.
Myanmar workers in Thailand victims of broken system
AFP
Myawaddy
W
ith only meagre belongings stuffed into backpacks and duffel bags, tens
of thousands of Myanmar migrants
have streamed home across the Thai
border over the past two weeks.
But it is not a joyous homecoming for the truckloads of men and
women, who fled Thailand in fear
of a new law that hardens penalties
on the millions of undocumented
migrant workers underpinning its
economy.
Thailand’s sudden rollout of the
labour decree, which hikes up fines
on unregistered workers and their
employers, sent a lightning bolt of
panic through migrant communities.
“If we were arrested, we would
have to pay money to police. If this
happened, all of our money would
disappear,” Thu Ya, who worked in a
Thai plastics factory, told AFP while
preparing to cross back into Myanmar’s eastern border town of Myawaddy.
The mass exodus of migrants —
estimated to be more than 60,000
— is only the latest chaos to highlight the precarious lives of migrant
workers who take up difficult and
dangerous jobs in Thailand’s factories and fishing boats.
Much of the work force lacks
proper documentation and lives in
constant fear of exploitation from
police, bosses, and traffickers.
And yet many Myanmar migrants
scrambling across the border said
these hardships still beat the prospect of dire poverty in their home-
Migrant workers returning from Thailand process their paperwork at the
Myanmar immigration office in Myawaddy.
land, where jobs and good wages are
difficult to come by.
“I will consider coming back in a
legal way, with the full documents,”
said Thu Ya, 32, who has spent much
of his life in Thailand.
Myanmar’s new civilian government, which came to power last
year, was expected to usher in a
windfall of foreign investment into
a resource-rich country that was
closed off to the world during the
former junta’s 50-year reign.
In a jubilant visit to Thailand in
June 2016, de facto leader Aung San
Suu Kyi vowed to drive the economic
growth that would bring her countrymen home.
But a year on the gains have fallen
short of expectations and Myanmar
is still years away from offering wages that rival those in Thailand.
A steep decline in foreign investment — down 28% in the last quarter
of 2016 — sounded alarm bells over
an economy whose initial opening in
2011 was met with a rush of investor
excitement.
The country’s GDP growth also
fell below 7% for the first time in five
years in 2016, clocking in at 6.5%.
Having fleetingly become the
fastest-growing economy in the region, Myanmar now lags behind the
Philippines, Laos and Cambodia.
Economists blame the slump on
a lack of clarity from the new government on its economic policies,
as well as the ponderous progress in
passing a new investment law.
“We have a problem because the
ministers have no economic culture,
and then the reforms are done too
slowly,” said Myanmar economist
Khin Maung Nyo.
The young civilian government,
stacked with political novices, faces
the monumental challenge of trying to unpick the junta’s devastating
economic legacy.
“We need to create thousands of
jobs but I doubt we will be able to do
it quickly,” Khin Maung Nyo added.
In the meantime, Thailand looks
set to continue to be a magnet for its
neighbour’s workers.
Huge sections of Thailand’s economy, especially construction and
food production, rely on migrants to
do jobs that comparatively wealthier
Thais have long since eschewed.
And while the country has one
of the slowest growth rates in Asia,
the minimum wage of 305 baht ($9)
a day is more than three times the
equivalent in Myanmar.
Since coming to power in 2014
Thailand’s junta has unveiled a series of campaigns to clean-up abuses in its migrant labour sector, which
also attracts significant numbers of
workers from Cambodia and Laos.
But rights groups say the drives
are often short lived and ad-hoc,
creating more confusion.
This time was no different.
Caught off-guard by the mass
exodus, Thailand’s junta ruled last
week to suspend its new law for six
months. Junta chief Prayut ChanO-Cha called for calm and reassured
business owners: “Don’t panic, they
will come back soon.”
He is likely to be right.
Silar, a Myanmar nurse working in
Bangkok, went home full of hope in
2015, eager to reunite with her husband and daughter.
But she struggled to find work and
is now back in the Thai capital —
gripped with fear after misplacing
her work permit.
“In Myanmar, there is still not
enough work, especially in the
countryside, and wages remain very
low,” she told AFP, using a pseudonym for anonymity. “I do not know
what I’m going to do.”
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
9
AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA
Fire department officers remove debris from a
damaged house in a flooded area in Asakura.
WEATHER
SEASONAL WOES
RECONSTRUCTION
HONOURED
Death toll rises to 21 in
flood-hit southwest Japan
Scores dead, 1.6mn hit
as China battles floods
New Zealand rebuilds
quake-hit road, rail route
Japan’s men-only island
gets Unesco Heritage nod
The death toll from last week’s floods and
mudslides in south-western Japan yesterday
rose to 21, while more than 20 people remained
unaccounted for, local media has reported.
Search and rescue operations continued in the
prefectures of Oita and Fukuoka as weather
authorities forecast more torrential rains in
parts of the disaster-stricken areas. About 250
people were still cut off in the two prefectures
while some 1,700 people had to spend the night
at emergency evacuation centres, the Kyodo
News agency reported, citing local authorities.
Torrential rains started to inundate rivers and
residential areas last Wednesday.
Floods and landslides have killed scores of
people in China’s central Hunan province as
two weeks of torrential rains forced 1.6mn to
flee, authorities said yesterday. Some 53,000
homes have collapsed while nearly 350,000
others were seriously or partially damaged
after 11 straight days of rain, according to Tang
Biyu, deputy director of Hunan’s civil affairs
department. At least 63 people were killed by
landslides, the flow of debris or the collapse of
homes, while 20 more are missing, Tang said in a
statement, which put the damage bill at $5.6bn.
Central and southern China have been hit by a
deluge since last month.
More than 1,000 men and women are working to
clear the highway and railway that connect Picton
with Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island,
eight months after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake
caused landslides that buried much of the road and
tracks. The NZ$1.3bn rebuilding project is the “biggest
job in New Zealand,” site supervisor Peter Thompson
said, in a six-minute documentary video released
yesterday, showing the extent of the damage.
“Pictures and paper clippings don’t do justice,
until you can actually, physically see it first hand,”
Thompson said. The project will tackle more than
200 landslide sites as well as damage to bridges, road
surfaces, embankments, tunnels and retaining walls.
A men-only island in Japan where women are
banned, has been declared a Unesco World
Heritage site. The tiny landmass of Okinoshima
is permanently manned by a Shinto priest who
prays to the island’s goddess, in a tradition
that has been kept up for centuries. Limited
numbers are permitted to land on the island
in the Sea of Japan for a yearly festival that
lasts just two hours. Despite its inscription on
Unesco’s World Heritage list, shrine officials
say they are now considering banning future
travel for anyone apart from priests, partly out
of fears the island could be “destroyed” by too
many visitors.
Abe eyes
reshuffle
to boost
ratings
Reuters
Tokyo
J
apanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe will reshuffle his cabinet and
party leaders early next month,
moving to shore up his worst levels
of popular support since returning
to power in 2012, following a historic
loss in a Tokyo assembly election.
Last week’s loss, delivered by a
novice political group, spotlights
Abe’s potential vulnerability after
nearly five years in power, with many
blaming voter perceptions of arrogance on his part and that of his powerful chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga.
Opinion polls yesterday showed
Abe’s popularity at its lowest since he
returned to power late in 2012, with
support of 36% in one conducted by
the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun
newspaper — tumbling from 49% a
month earlier.
Another, in the liberal Asahi, found
support of 33%, a slide from 38%
from a week earlier, with 60% of independent voters not supporting
Abe’s cabinet — numbers Suga said
the premier was aware of.
“I believe he wants to sincerely accept this as the voice of the people,”
Suga told a news conference, adding
that the administration needed to “be
even more earnest” about tasks such
as rebuilding the economy.
Abe, in Europe for a summit of
leaders of the G20 grouping of ations,
told traveling media he would retain
core officials in the reshuffle of the
cabinet and ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) officials planned
for August.
“I will reshuffle the LDP leadership
and the Cabinet members early next
month, aiming to renew peoples’
feelings,” Jiji news agency quoted Abe
as saying in Stockholm.
“Stability is extremely important
to deliver results. The core structure
of the cabinet should not be changed
so often.”
Japanese media said the remarks
mean he will retain Deputy Prime
Minister Taro Aso, who also serves as
finance minister, along with Suga and
LDP number two Toshihiro Nikai,
while ditching gaffe-prone Defence
Minister Tomomi Inada.
He also said he would skip a
planned visit to Estonia and would
arrive back in Japan a day early to visit
the flood-devastated southwest.
Reshuffling the cabinet is a step
often taken by beleaguered leaders
to repair popularity, but Suga denied
that was the case. “The prime minister is himself selecting the best person for each job in order to achieve
what we have to do,” he said.
Exactly a year ago, Abe’s ruling
bloc stormed to a landslide victory
in an election for parliament’s upper
house, despite concerns over his economic policies and plans to revise the
nation’s postwar constitution.
His administration has since been
battered by a scandal over suspicions
of favouritism to a friend’s business,
verbal gaffes by cabinet ministers and
concerns about Abe’s intentions to
revise the constitution.
He faced another challenge yesterday, when former vice education
minister Kihei Maekawa testified to
parliamentary panels on concerns
Abe may have intervened to help win
approval for a veterinary school run
by an education group whose director, Kotaro Kake, is a friend.
Abe has repeatedly denied doing
Kake any favours.
On July 2, Tokyo Governor Yuriko
Koike’s novice Tokyo Citizens First
party and its allies — including the
LDP’s national coalition partner —
won a landslide victory in the assembly election, taking 79 of the 127 seats
up for grabs.
The LDP got 23 seats, its worst ever
result in the capital and less than half
its pre-vote tally.
Mongolia’s President Khaltmaa Battulga and his predecessor Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj wave at the inauguration ceremony in Ulaanbaatar yesterday.
Martial arts expert sworn in as Mongolian president
AFP
Ulaanbaatar
M
ongolian businessman and
martial arts expert Khaltmaa
Battulga was sworn in yesterday as president, vowing to revive the
flagging economy and pursue relations
with countries outside its giant neighbours Russia and China.
Battulga inherits a $5.5bn International Monetary Fund-led bailout intended to stabilise the economy of the
debt-laden country and lessen its dependence on China, which purchases
80 % of Mongolia’s exports.
In his inauguration speech, Battulga pledged to “stand for equally
beneficial foreign relations” and to
pay “special attention to the ‘third
neighbour policy’” — a push toward
strengthening Mongolia’s partnerships with the US, Japan, Germany
and other countries beyond its two
powerful neighbours.
The opposition Democratic Party
(DP) candidate, who was elected with
50.6% of the vote in a runoff last Friday, said he wanted to kickstart the
economy, end poverty and boost the
manufacturing sector.
The billionaire property tycoon and
world champion in the Soviet martial
art Sambo ran a populist campaign that
was linked to simmering anti-China
sentiments.
At one rally last month, Battulga
supporters accused anti-Battulga protesters of being “mixed Chinese”, and a
video circulated on social media purporting that opponent and parliament
speaker Mieygombo Enkhbold of the
ruling Mongolian People’s Party (MPP)
has Chinese ancestry.
The Chinese foreign ministry yesterday noted this element of the campaigns while congratulating the new
president on his election victory.
“During the election, certain politicians made some untrue and irresponsible remarks,” foreign ministry
spokesman Geng Shuang said during a
regular press briefing in Beijing.
“We express concerns about this.”
Battulga also promised to “fight
against the selling of public service
positions,” which Enkhbold and other
MPP officials had been accused of doing.
Battulga replaces Tsakhia Elbegdorj,
also of the DP, after the outgoing president served the maximum two fouryear terms.
Cardinal Pell back in Australia to face abuse charges
AFP
Sydney
V
atican finance chief Cardinal
George Pell arrived back in Australia yesterday ahead of a court
appearance later this month over historical sex abuse charges.
The 76-year-old, a top adviser to
Pope Francis, touched down in Sydney
and was met by security before being
whisked away in a waiting car.
He has been ordered to face a Melbourne court on July 26 for a preliminary hearing on multiple sexual assault
charges related to offences allegedly
committed decades ago, when he was
a senior cleric in Australia. The former
Sydney and Melbourne archbishop has
always maintained his innocence and
strenuously denies the allegations.
Details of the charges have not been
made public although police said they
involved “multiple complainants”.
A spokesperson for Pell said in a
statement he would be making no comment, but was grateful for “the numerous messages of support he continues
to receive”.
“When he was told of the charges
by Victoria Police Cardinal Pell said
in Rome he totally rejected the allegations, was completely innocent of the
charges and would return to Australia
to vigorously defend himself and clear
his name,” said the statement. “His
return today then should not be a surprise.”
Pell, unofficially considered the
number three in the Vatican hierarchy,
said from Rome after being charged late
last month that he was “looking forward finally to having my day in court”.
“I am innocent of these charges.
They are false. The whole idea of sexual
abuse is abhorrent to me,” he said at the
time.
Pell has been granted a leave of absence by the Pope, who made clear the
cardinal would not be forced to resign
his post as head of the Vatican’s powerful economic ministry.
The charges coincided with the final
stages of Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to
Child Sex Abuse, ordered in 2012 after a decade of pressure to investigate
widespread allegations of institutional
paedophilia.
The commission has spoken to thousands of survivors and heard claims of
child abuse involving churches, orphanages, sporting clubs, youth groups
and schools.
Pell appeared before the commission
three times, once in person and twice
via video-link from Rome.
In one hearing, he admitted that he
“mucked up” in dealing with paedophile priests in Victoria state in the
1970s.
S Korea to build ‘comfort women’ museum in Seoul
AFP
Seoul
S
A June 23, 2015 file photo of former ‘comfort women’ Kim Bok-Dong (left) and Gil Won-Ok demonstrating outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul.
outh Korea intends to
build a museum in memory of wartime sex slaves
for Japanese troops, a government minister said yesterday,
re-igniting perennial tensions
in the two neighbours’ relationship.
The plight of the so-called
“comfort women” who were
forced into sexual slavery for
Japanese troops during World
War II is a hugely emotional
issue that has marred ties between the US allies for decades.
Mainstream historians say up
to 200,000 women — mostly
from Korea but also other parts
of Asia including China — were
forced to work at Japanese army
brothels across the region during the 1939-1945 conflict.
“We are planning to build a
‘comfort women’ museum in
Seoul,” said new gender equality minister Chung Hyun-Back
at a shelter for a shrinking
number of survivors, who now
number only 38 in total.
The ‘House of Sharing’, in a
rural area south of Seoul, has a
memorial hall but Chung said
the country needed a museum
in the capital with better public
access.
She did not elaborate on
when it will open or what kind
of materials it will display.
But it is likely to worsen the
relationship between Seoul and
Tokyo, two US allies whose cooperation Washington needs as
Donald Trump seeks to address
the threat from nuclear-armed
Pyongyang.
Japan maintains that there
is a lack of documentary proof
that the women were forcibly
made to work at the brothels.
In late 2015, under now-
ousted president Park GeunHye, Seoul and Tokyo reached
what they described as a “final
and irreversible” agreement
under which Japan offered an
apology and a one-billion yen
($8.6bn) payment to South Korean survivors.
Critics of the accord, including some survivors, say the deal
did not go far enough in holding Japan legally responsible
for wartime abuses during its
1910-45 colonial rule over the
Korean peninsula.
Tension escalated further
after South Korean activists refused to remove a statue of a girl
erected in front of the Japanese
embassy in Seoul to symbolise
the victims of sex slavery.
Tokyo has pressed Seoul to
remove it, but activists have
since put up more statues — including one outside the Japanese consulate in Busan.
Tokyo recalled its ambassa-
dor in protest in January, and he
did not return for three months.
New South Korean President Moon Jae-In has repeatedly voiced criticism of the 2015
deal, suggesting a potential
push by Seoul to renegotiate it.
Yesterday’s comments came
after South Korean researchers
last week unearthed what they
described as rare footage of the
sex slaves during the war.
The 18 seconds of film, discovered at the US national archive and believed to be taken
in 1944, shows a group of seven
women standing in front of a
hotel used as a Japanese military brothel in Songshan, China.
They were not named, but
some of them were identified
as the same women featured
in another rare photo showing
Korean comfort women, according to researchers at the
Seoul National University.
10
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
BRITAIN
Terminally ill baby’s
case hearing begins
Bombings
suspect says
sorry for
IRA atrocity
Guardian News and Media
Belfast
A
self-confessed IRA member who has been named
several times publicly as
the man who built the Birmingham pub bombs has apologised
for the atrocity that killed 21
people.
Michael Christopher Hayes
has spoken for the first time
about his role in the IRA unit
that caused the explosions in the
city on November 21, 1974.
Six Irishmen, who later became known as the Birmingham
Six, were wrongly convicted of
the bombings.
Speaking to the BBC for a special programme on the atrocities, Hayes claimed his unit had
not intended to kill civilians. He
also alleged there was an eightminute delay on the explosive devices that went off at the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town
pubs in Birmingham city centre.
Asked if he planted the devices, Hayes replied: “No comment.
No comment.”
He continued: “I’ve been accused of a lot of things, without
one shred of forensic evidence,
without one statement made,
without one witness coming out
against me.”
Hayes revealed that the bombs
were made of gelignite explosive
and were left by two IRA operatives. Pressed on whether he was
one of those individuals, Hayes
said: “I’m not telling you.”
He said he defused a third
bomb on Birmingham’s Hagley
Road when he heard about the
carnage in the city centre pubs,
saying “we were horrified” because “it was not intended”.
The Dublin-based former IRA
man said he took “collective re-
sponsibility” for many of the
organisation’s activities in England, including the Birmingham
bombs.
Hayes also claimed he thought
the IRA had given sufficient time
for the police to evacuate the
buildings. “We believed that we
gave adequate warnings,” he said.
Addressing the families of
the 21 victims, Hayes said: “My
apologies and my heartfelt sympathy to all of you for a terrible
tragic loss that you have been
put through. I apologise not only
for myself, I apologise for all active republicans who had no intention of hurting anybody and
sympathise with you.”
Julie
Hambleton,
whose
18-year-old sister Maxine was
killed in the pub bombings,
branded Hayes “a coward”.
She said: “He’ll take collective responsibility for those
unarmed, innocent people, but
won’t say who done it? He’s gutless and spineless. He’s told us
nothing, he’s admitted nothing.”
Hambleton is one of the
founders of the Justice for the 21
pressure group, which is campaigning for an independent
public inquiry into the atrocity.
On the Birmingham Six, who
spent 16 years in prison, Hayes
defended his decision not to
name the real bombers when the
innocent men were languishing
in jail.
Hayes said he would rather die
than become an informer, even if
that meant holding back information that could have freed the
Birmingham Six earlier. The men
were eventually released from
jail after their convictions were
quashed by the court of appeal
in 1991.
A year before the Birmingham
Six walked free, ITV’s World in
Action named Hayes and three
other men they said were responsible for the bombings.
The investigative TV show
accused Hayes of being one
of those who planted the pub
bombs. It also alleged he helped
plan other IRA attacks in England including the Hyde Park
and Regent’s Park bombings in
1982, in which 11 people died.
Hayes was also accused of
being part of the IRA unit that
bombed the Harrods department
store in London in 1983, killing
six people. He was also, according to World in Action, connected
to the bomb at the Grand Hotel in
Brighton in 1984, when the IRA
tried to kill Margaret Thatcher
and murdered five people.
Hayes has not been charged
with any offences and no one has
been convicted of the Birmingham bombings.
Last year, English detectives
investigating the Birmingham
bombings interviewed the IRA’s
director of intelligence at the
time of the atrocity, who admitted he was debriefed after the
attack.
Kieran Conway was questioned
by officers from the West Midlands police counter-terrorism
unit in Dublin in January 2016.
The interview took place at
Pearse Street garda station in
central Dublin under the terms
of the mutual legal assistance
treaties, which allow foreign police forces to question Irish citizens in the republic about crimes
committed in other countries.
Conway, who wrote about the
fallout from the pub bombings
in his memoir of life in the IRA,
Southside Provisional, said he
felt “personal shame and regret
over the bombings, which he described as murderous and among
the worst atrocities committed
by the IRA”.
Campaigners hold up banners showing support for allowing Charlie Gard to travel to the US
to receive further treatment, outside the High Court in London yesterday.
A court yesterday began re-examining
the case of a terminally ill baby whose
life support is due to be withdrawn at a
London hospital, after Pope Francis and
US President Donald Trump intervened
in the case. London’s Great Ormond
Street Hospital said last week that it
had received “claims of new evidence”
that 11-month-old Charlie Gard could be
treated for his disease and has asked
a court to rule on how to proceed. The
boy’s parents, who submitted a petition
of over 350,000 signatures demanding that they be allowed to take him
to the US for treatment, attended the
hearing at the high court in London.
His father Chris Gard shouted at a barrister representing the hospital saying:
“When are you going to start telling
the truth?” Judge Nicholas Francis
asked the parents to set out any “new
evidence” they had and later adjourned
the hearing until today. Pope Francis
last week expressed his support for the
baby’s parents and said he hoped doctors would allow them to “care for their
child until the end”. Bambino Gesu, a
Vatican-run hospital in Rome, has since
offered to treat Gard and sent medical
advice suggesting that treatment could
be possible. Trump also waded into
the debate last week, tweeting that the
US “would be delighted” to help. A US
doctor has also proposed treatment for
Gard. The British hospital said on Friday
that it stood by its opinion that Gard’s
rare form of mitochondrial disease,
which causes progressive muscle
weakness in the heart and other key
organs, was not treatable. Doctors there
believe Gard’s brain damage is “severe
and irreversible” and have said the baby
may be suffering, in contradiction to the
parents’ views. But doctors said it was
“right to explore” any new evidence and
said they were seeking the court’s view.
Gem thieves ‘had key to cabinets’
London Evening Standard
London
T
hieves who stole millions
of pounds of jewellery
from a Chelsea art fair
had a key to unlock secure cabinets, it was claimed yesterday.
Detectives are hunting two
men who calmly walked into
the Masterpiece art show last
week and unlocked a cabinet
before stealing several pieces of
diamond jewellery.
The men, both white and
casually dressed, then locked
the cabinet at the stand of Swiss
jewellers Boghossian before
strolling away. A source likened
the heist to the plot of the Pink
Panther films.
Detectives are examining
CCTV footage which apparently
shows the two thieves walking
into the art fair in the grounds
of the Royal Hospital Chelsea on
Tuesday last week, the day before it was due to close.
An insider said: “They walked
in and went straight to the stand
and to a particular window on
the aisle. They were blocking the
view of the CCTV but, apparently, one of them had a key and
opened up the cabinet. You could
see the cabinet being opened and
one of the men reaching with
his hands inside, taking items
out and then the cabinet being
closed and locked.”
The source added: “They
walked in and went straight to
the Boghossian stand, took the
items and left. They knew exactly what they were after. It
was too smooth to be opportunistic — it is not like they had
to break into anything.”
The theft took place at about
5.20pm but apparently went
undiscovered until 9am the
next day.
One worker at the event said
it was swarming with roundthe-clock security, including
covert guards and uniform police officers. He said: “It was not
the normal hospital security —
these were all suited and booted
and really meant business. It’s
like the Pink Panther films or
something.”
The exhibition, which attracts thousands of visitors,
features sculpture, Parisian de-
cor, fine jewellery and contemporary art. It describes itself as
a “leading international event”
for viewing buying the “finest
works of art”.
One expert said the jewels
were likely to be too recognisable to be sold on. Tobias Kormind, of 77 Diamonds in Mayfair, said: “The best way for the
stones to be sold on the open
market would be if they were
re-cut to be slightly different
and less obvious.”
The thieves were described
as white, with one of them
said to be in his thirties and the
other aged between 35 and 40.
Boghossian, which is based in
Geneva but opened a store in
London’s New Bond Street in
2013, has declined to comment.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
11
BRITAIN/IRELAND
LEGAL
AUCTION
INVESTIGATION
ANNOUNCEMENT
CRIME
Man loses 14-year fight
against extradition to US
Jane Austen letter
goes on sale
Police say 255 people
survived Grenfell blaze
Teachers face another
year of 1% pay cap
Accused in schoolgirl’s
murder denies charge
A 39-year-old British murder suspect who has
spent 14 years fighting his extradition to the
US lost his final appeal at the European Court
of Human Rights yesterday. Philip Harkins
was arrested in Britain in 2003 over the killing
of a man during an armed robbery in Florida
but fought his extradition through the British
and European courts twice. Harkins argued
that he faced the risk of the death sentence
in the US — which American authorities had
promised not to seek — or a full-life sentence
which he claimed infringed on his human
rights. “The decision is final,” said the court in
a statement.
Jane Austen once wrote that a large income
was the best recipe for happiness. Now a
private letter written by the author to her niece
could well make someone very happy indeed.
A letter critiquing a contemporary author for
being “prosy” goes under the hammer at a
London auction house today. The letter is from
Austen to Anna Lefroy, the eldest daughter of
the author’s eldest brother Rev. James Austen.
Auctioneers Sotheby’s expect it to fetch £80,000
to £100,000. The subject of the letter is a “most
tiresome and prosy” Gothic novel entitled Lady
Maclairn, the Victim of Villainy, published by her
contemporary Rachel Hunter.
The Metropolitan Police believe there were about
255 survivors from last month’s fire at Grenfell
Tower. Police say “extensive investigations” led
them to conclude 350 people should have been
in the Kensington tower block on the night of the
blaze on June 14. That night, 14 residents were
not in the building, leaving at least 80 people
dead or missing, the Met said. In the update to its
operation, which includes a criminal investigation
into why the fire began, police said the coroner
had formally identified 32 bodies.So far, 140
witnesses have been spoken to, with plans to
interview the 650 firefighters and 300 police
officers involved in the rescue operation.
Teachers’ pay in England and Wales will have to
stay within austerity pay limits - with another
year of increases restricted to 1%. It will mean
another real-terms pay cut for more than
500,000 teachers in England and Wales. The pay
review body - which was expected to keep pay
rises to 1% - has expressed its concern. The cap
on pay, initially of 0% and then 1%, has been in
place since 2010, as part of austerity measures.
The National Union of Teachers says that
successive years of below-inflation pay deals has
seen teachers’ pay fall in real terms by 13%. The
union’s leader Kevin Courtney said it was a case
of the last seven years being “austerity for some”.
A man accused of murdering a 15-year-old
schoolgirl in 1976 has told a court he had
nothing to do with her death. Stephen Hough,
58, is accused of Janet Commins’ rape, sexual
assault, murder and manslaughter but denies
the charges. Hough said he could not explain
why DNA matching his was found on her body.
The Mold Crown Court has previously heard that
another man, Noel Jones, admitted killing Janet
at the time and served half of a 12-year sentence
for her manslaughter. He has never challenged
his conviction, but he insists he did not kill her
and has told the trial his signed confession
statements were made up by police.
Misshapen
commas cost
children marks
in Sats tests
Guardian News and Media
London
A
row has broken out over
the marking of this year’s
primary school tests after
teachers complained that their
pupils had been unfairly marked
down for the shape and size of
their semi-colons and commas.
Children were asked to insert
punctuation in a pre-written
sentence and, despite getting
the answer correct, failed to get
a mark because their commas
were not curved the right way or
their semi-colon was too large or
not in precisely the right place,
teachers have claimed.
Using the hashtag #SATsshambles, teachers posted a litany of apparent inconsistencies
in marking of key stage 2 Sats
tests for 10 and 11-year-olds and
urged all schools to go through
their pupils’ marked papers in
detail to check for further errors.
One of the questions that
caused most outcry in the spelling, punctuation and grammar
(Spag) tests asked pupils to insert a pair of commas in the correct place in the following sentence: “Jenna a very gifted singer
won the talent competition that
was held in the local theatre.”
But many who correctly put the
commas around “a very gifted
singer” failed to get a mark, to
the bafflement of their teachers.
Another question asked pupils
to insert a semi-colon into the
right place in the sentence: “Come
and see me tomorrow I will not
have time to see you today.” Again
many pupils appeared to have got
it correct, placing the semi-colon
between “tomorrow” and “I”, but
scored zero while their peers got a
mark for the same answer.
Primary teacher Liz Hindley,
who tweets as @Leaping_liz,
posted pictures of four answers
all featuring the semi-colon in
the correct place, but two were
given a mark and two were not.
“The lack of consistency is so
frustrating,” she commented.
Writer and poet Michael Rosen
tweeted: “The punctuation police demand that the mark has
to be drawn correctly and at the
right angle #TheyAreHooligans”.
Teachers’ leaders criticised the
marking for being inconsistent
and pedantic, complaining that
children were being marked down
on a tiny technicality when it was
clear that the pupil knew the correct answer to the question.
Kevin Courtney, general secretary of the National Union of
Teachers, tweeted an image of
marking guidance on the semicolon question, which included
such strict and detailed instructions that one teacher described
it as “beyond parody”.
“The comma element of the
semi-colon inserted should be
correct in relation to the point of
origin, height, depth and orientation,” the guidance read.
“Where the separation of the
semi-colon is excessive, neither element of the semi-colon
should start higher than the letter ‘I’. The dot of the semi-colon
must not be lower than the letter
‘w’ in the word ‘tomorrow’.”
It went on: “The orientation of
the comma element of the semicolon must be inclined to the
left or straight down. It cannot
incline to the right.” Courtney
commented: “Marking advice
for a 1 mark question in 11 yr olds
SATs. You can know where to put
a semi colon - but not get a mark.”
Pearson, which administers
the tests for the department for
education, confirmed that the
marking guidance was genuine
and said it was part of a wider
suite of training materials for
markers. A spokesman for the
department for education said
that schools can apply for a review of contested marks.
Russell Hobby, the general
secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT),
commented: “We now operate
within a testing culture which
appears focused on catching
young children out rather than
recording their achievements”.
Harry to help fight HIV stigma
Prince Harry meets Tlotlo Moilwa from Botswana who is HIV positive during a visit to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London yesterday. The
school is at the forefront of global efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. Harry pledged to help end the stigma facing those battling HIV and Aids.
Tory MP suspended
over racist remark
Guardian News and Media
London
T
heresa May has ordered
the chief whip to suspend
a Conservative MP who
used racially offensive word at
an event while talking about
Brexit.
Anne Marie Morris, the MP
for Newton Abbot in Devon,
was recorded casually using
the term at the East India Club
in London, where she was appearing on a panel to talk about
Brexit alongside Tory colleagues
Bill Cash and John Redwood.
The remarks caused an im-
Brexit to hit thousands of
cancer patients: expert
London Evening Standard
London
T
heresa May yesterday
faced a Tory rebellion
and a stark warning that
“thousands” of cancer patients
face delays to their treatment as
a direct result of Britain’s decision to quit the European nuclear
body Euratom.
The agency, which governs the
movement of radioactive material around Europe, is not formally part of the EU but is under
the jurisdiction of the European
Court of Justice — leading to the
government’s decision to pull
out as part of the Brexit process.
Dr Nicola Strickland, president of the Royal College of Radiologists, told the Standard she
was “seriously concerned” that
“Brexatom” threatens the supply of vital imported radioactive
isotopes, widely used in scans
and treatment.
Nine Tory MPs have signalled
their opposition to pulling out
of Euratom, enough to inflict a
humiliating defeat on a key el-
ement of the Prime Minister’s
Brexit plans. Several ministers
are also said to be unhappy with
the decision.
Dr Strickland’s comments
mark the first time that the college has spoken out about the
potential medical implications
of leaving Euratom. Some of the
isotopes are derived from weapons-grade uranium.
About half a million scans are
performed annually in Britain
using imported radioisotopes
and more than 10,000 patients
across the UK have their cancers
directly treated by these materials.
Dr Strickland said: “Radioactive isotopes play a crucial role in
diagnosing and treating cancer
in the UK... the Royal College of
Radiologists, like others in medicine and industry, is seriously
concerned about continued access to these materials if we
leave the Euratom treaty under
Brexit.” Many of the most widely
used isotopes are sourced from
nuclear reactors in EU countries
including Holland, Belgium,
Poland, France and the Czech
Republic and cannot currently
be produced in Britain. They are
used to “zap” cancerous cells but
cannot be stored as many have a
short shelf life.
This means hospitals depend
on a reliable supply from abroad.
Radioactive materials that are
vital to the production of isotopes for scans include Molybdenum 99, which is imported
mainly from the Czech Republic
and Belgium and is used in 80%
of procedures. Lutetium 177,
used for treating pancreatic cancers, is supplied from Italy.
Dr Strickland said: “So far,
there is little certainty about
what leaving Euratom might actually mean in practical terms.
Government officials have given
general assurances they will consult with industry over nuclear
safeguarding. The Royal College
of Radiologists is adamant that
they must do just that, and soon.
We need assurances the radiation safety laws and regulations
around movement of radioactive
materials enshrined in Euratom
will continue in the form of mirrored legislation post-Brexit”.
mediate backlash, with opposition politicians calling on
May to withdraw the whip from
Morris.
About three hours after the
comments emerged, May released a statement saying Morris was being disciplined and
the whip suspended in a move
that will reduce the prime minister’s already slim majority.
“I was shocked to hear of
these remarks, which are completely unacceptable,” May
said. “I immediately asked the
chief whip to suspend the party
whip. Language like this has absolutely no place in politics or in
today’s society.”
Earlier, a string of politicians
called for Morris to be sacked.
Tulip Siddiq, the Labour MP
for Hampstead and Kilburn,
expressed her disgust in a tweet
and asked if the prime minister
would take action.
Tim Farron, the outgoing
leader of the Liberal Democrats,
called for Morris to lose the Tory
whip. “This disgusting comment belongs in the era of the
Jim Crow laws and has no place
in our parliament,” he said.
“The Conservative party
should withdraw the whip
from Anne Marie Morris and
they should do it today. Every
hour they leave her in place is a
Eleventh Night bonfire
stain on them and the so-called
‘compassionate conservatism’
they supposedly espouse.
“I am utterly shocked that
this person represents the good
people of Newton Abbot. Even
if she mis-spoke, this is the
nastiest thing I’ve heard an MP
utter since Lord Dixon-Smith
uttered the same awful phrase a
few years ago.”
Caroline Lucas, co-leader of
the Green party, also called on
the Tories to remove the whip.
Within an hour of the comments emerging, Morris had
issued a statement of apology. “The comment was totally unintentional. I apologise
Major rail disruption
looms in August
Guardian News and Media
London
R
A man looks at a bonfire in the Ballymacash area of Lisburn,
south of Belfast, Northern Ireland ahead of the traditional
11th night. The Eleventh Night refers to the night before the
Twelfth of July, an annual Protestant commemoration of the
famous battle were Protestant King William III of Orange
defeated Catholic King James II at the battle of the Boyne
on July 12, 1690. On this night, large towering bonfires are lit
in many Protestant/loyalist neighbourhoods.
unreservedly for any offence
caused,” she said in an e-mail.
A Conservative source said
that May had initially been unaware of the remarks because she
had been with the Australian
leader and then in the House of
Commons.
Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s
campaign co-ordinator, said
Morris’s comments were “outrageous and totally unacceptable”.
“While the Conservative
party has tabled a debate on
Wednesday to apparently discuss and condemn abuse of
candidates in the general election, these comments prove
their hypocrisy,” he said.
ail passengers have been
warned to prepare for
unprecedented disruption on journeys into London
this August, with thousands of
trains cancelled or delayed as
engineering works closes some
of Britain’s biggest stations.
The August bank holiday
will see Network Rail carry
out the biggest weekend of
engineering works it has ever
planned, worth £133mn.
Services from all directions
into the capital will be disrupted
over the bank holiday weekend.
Euston will close entirely on August 26-27, affecting some services on the West Coast main line
to Birmingham and cities north
to Glasgow. London Bridge and
Charing Cross will be closed to
Southeastern services for the
entire following week.
London Paddington and
Liverpool Street will also be
affected, with only King’s
Cross, St Pancras, Victoria and
Marylebone operating normally in the capital, although
all are expected to be busier
than usual to accommodate alternative journeys.
Mark Carne, the Network
Rail chief executive, said that
he wanted the public to plan
ahead and be aware that there
would be major changes to
many services around the capital, although holidaymakers
could be reassured that all airport trains will run as normal.
However, the worst of the
disruption will be felt throughout the month by commuters
into Waterloo. The UK’s busiest station will have about half
its platforms closed between
August 5 and 28.
Many South West trains will
not run and passengers have
been warned to expect “very
difficult” journeys, including
queues of up to half an hour
just to enter suburban stations
on the network, such as Wimbledon and Surbiton, during
summer rush hours.
Network Rail said the work
would bring significant benefits to millions of passengers,
allowing longer, more spacious
and modern trains to run on
the busiest part of the network.
12
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
EUROPE
FRAUD
WEATHER
CRITICISM
HANDOUT
SCANDAL
Italian anti-immigrant
party ex-leader convicted
Storm unleashes record
rainfall on Paris, suburbs
Hungary says EU not doing
enough to integrate Balkans
13-year-old gives away
thousands of euros
Bolshoi pushes Nureyev
premiere back to May
An Italian court yesterday jailed Umberto
Bossi, founder and former chief of the antiimmigrant and anti-EU Northern League, for
over two years after finding him guilty of fraud
while he led the party. Bossi, once a key ally of
former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, was
forced out of his party in 2012 after allegations
he was implicated in the embezzlement of
hundreds of thousands of euros in public
funds. The case was known as “The Family”,
which was the name of a file held by the
party’s former treasurer, Francesco Belsito,
who was sentenced to two years and six
months in prison.
A storm on Sunday night lashed Paris with the
highest rainfall ever recorded in the French
capital, while other areas of France’s centre-west
saw as much rain as would normally fall in the
entire month of July. Weather authority Meteo
France said that 49.2mm fell in one hour between
9pm and 10pm on Sunday. The previous record
for heavy rainfall in Paris was set on July 2, 1995,
when 47.4mm fell. In total, 66mm of rain fell on
the city from 8am on Sunday to 8am yesterday.
Metro services in Paris were disrupted with social
media footage showed water cascading down
the steps onto the platform at one station and
pouring from the ceiling in another.
The European Union is not doing enough to
promote the European integration of the West
Balkans — something that holds security risks,
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said
yesterday. The top diplomat made the comments
at a meeting of foreign ministers from the socalled Visegrad Group — made up of Hungary,
Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Hungary
currently holds the rotating presidency of the group.
Representatives from Croatia, Slovenia and Austria
were also present. “All craftsmen of world and
regional politics” have a strategy for the Balkans, but
the EU “apparently does not belong in this category,”
state news agency MTI quoted Szijjarto as saying.
German police are investigating the case of a
13-year-old boy who is believed to have given
away thousands of euros to passers-by on the
street on Saturday. The boy, from the town of
Bad Toelz in the southern state of Bavaria, gave
away amounts of 100 to 2,400 euros ($110
to $2,740) according to police. A number of
beneficiaries later reported the cash gifts to the
authorities, with 4,500 euros eventually being
handed in at the local police station. Newspaper
Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that 6,000
euros still remained unaccounted for however.
The teenager admitted that he had taken the
money from his family home.
Russia’s Bolshoi Theatre was battling to calm a
storm of speculation yesterday after cancelling
the world premiere of a ballet about star
dancer Rudolf Nureyev. just three days before
opening night. The ballet was to open today
at the legendary Moscow theatre, with a bevy
of international critics in the audience. But on
Saturday the Bolshoi said the premiere had
been postponed. The theatre’s general director
Vladimir Urin announced yesterday that the
premiere would now be held on May 4, telling
a packed news conference that he and artistic
director Makhar Vaziev had pulled the show
because of poor performances in rehearsals.
New curbs sought on
anti-G20 militants
Kate Connolly in Berlin
Guardian News and Media
A
llies of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel,
have called for new curbs
on leftwing extremists, including
a Europe-wide register, after her
decision to hold the G20 world
leaders’ summit in Hamburg ended in violent clashes and injuries
to nearly 500 police officers.
The cost of the damage has
not yet been established but is
expected to run into millions.
Merkel, who faces a parliamentary election on September 24, has said that Hamburg
residents who suffered damage
will be properly compensated.
Olaf Scholz, the mayor of
Hamburg, meanwhile faced
calls for his resignation over
accusations he had mismanaged the summit.
Hundreds of anti-capitalist
militants descended on the city
torching cars, looting shops and
throwing molotov cocktails.
The violence dominated
German media coverage of the
event, which also featured the
first meeting between Donald
Trump and Vladimir Putin.
The German justice minister, Heiko Maas, of Merkel’s
SPD coalition partners, said
the federal government would
put more money into preventing leftwing extremism as he
pledged that no German city
would ever have to host a world
leaders’ summit again.
He told the tabloid Bild that
the G20 had shown the reality
of experts’ assessments that
“Germany has reached a historic high point in terms of politically-motivated violence”.
The fact that many of those
ready to commit violence had
come from abroad was an added incentive to setting up an
extremism database, to which
every European country should
have access, he said.
Maas described the violent
protesters as “antisocial hard
criminals” who had “committed serious crimes in Hamburg,
including attempted murder”.
The interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, claimed
leftwing
extremists
had
planned for more than a year
for the G20 and “several hundred” people had been turned
back after Germany tightened
its border controls.
“The events surrounding the
G20 summit must be a turning point in our view of the
leftwing scene’s readiness to
use violence,” he said.
Peter Altmaier, Merkel’s
chief of staff, said the government would look at the possibility of closing down leftwing
centres, such as the Rote Flora
in Hamburg and the Rigaer
Strasse commune in Berlin.
“We will look closely as to
which role those at Rote Flora
played,” Altmaier said, adding
there was evidence that “many
of the crimes committed” were
carried out by people linked to
the centre.
Altmaier’s earlier appearance
on a Sunday evening television
show that analysed the G20
protests and sought to establish whom was to blame excited
conspiracy theories after it
went off air at the very moment
when he was asked if Merkel accepted any responsibility.
Programme-makers
said
a technical error had been to
blame after screens remained
blank for 10 minutes.
Traditional dance
Members of Evenk folk music
and dance ensemble
Osiktakan perform the
Ikenipke dance at the 14th
World of Siberia International
ethnic festival in the Siberian
village of Shushenskoye in
Krasnoyarsk region, Russia.
Turkey warns Greek Cypriots
Reuters
Istanbul
T
urkey last week warned
Greek Cypriots not to
make a grab for energy reserves around the divided island
and President Tayyip Erdogan
yesterday told oil companies
to be careful they did not lose a
“friend” by joining in.
Talks to reunite the ethnic
Greek and Turkish sides of Cyprus collapsed in anger and recrimination on Friday, marking
the end of a process many seen
as the most promising in genera-
tions to heal decades of conflict.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim,
speaking at an energy conference in Istanbul, called on Greek
Cypriots to refrain from taking
“one-sided measures” after talks
failed.
It was a clear reference to plans
by the internationally recognised
Greek Cypriot government to exploit potential hydrocarbon deposits around the Mediterranean
island.
The government has already
issues a maritime advisory for a
natural gas drill from July to October.
“We want to remind once again
that the hydrocarbon resources
around Cyprus belongs to both
sides,” Yildirim said.
“The Greek Cypriot leadership must seek a constructive
approach rather than setting an
obstacle for peace. We advise
that they refrain from unilateral
measures in the east Mediterranean.”
Erdogan, speaking later at the
same conference, went further,
with a not-very-veiled threat
yesterday to oil companies who
may be tempted to participate in
the Greek Cypriots’ plans.
“It is impossible to appreciate
that some energy companies are
acting with, and becoming part
of some irresponsible measures
taken by, Greek Cypriots,” Erdogan said. “I want to remind
them that they could lose a friend
like Turkey.”
Erdogan did not name the
companies, but a number have
already beaten a path to the island.
Italy’s
ENI,
ExxonMobil, France’s Total and Korea’s
KOGAS have won offshore exploration licences A drilling ship
contracted by Total, the West
Capella, is already heading for
Cyprus.
“What we expect from any-
one who takes sides in the developments in Cyprus is that they
should refrain from steps that
might pave the way for new tensions in the region,” Erdogan said.
Asked by Reuters at the petroleum conference whether the
company was worried that drilling could alienate Turkey, Arnaud Breuillac, Total’s president
of exploration and production,
said the company had “no concerns”.
The issue has risen to the fore
again because of the failure of
the latest round of reunification
talks, which were started in part
to try to solve the energy issue.
Pledging reforms, Ukraine seeks route into Nato
Reuters
Kiev
U
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (left) speaks to Nato Secretary
General Jens Stoltenberg after their talks in Kiev yesterday.
kraine will begin discussions with the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization on an action plan to get
it into the US-led alliance, its
leader said yesterday, while the
country would work on reforms
to meet membership standards
by 2020.
President
Petro
Poroshenko, whose country is fighting
a Kremlin-backed insurgency
in eastern Ukraine, revived the
prospect of Nato membership
during a visit by Nato Secretarygeneral Jens Stoltenberg who
himself used the occasion to
call on Moscow to withdraw its
troops from Ukraine.
“Ukraine has clearly defined
its political future and its future
in the sphere of security,” Poroshenko speaking to reporters
alongside Stoltenberg.
“Today we clearly stated that
we would begin a discussion about
a membership action plan and our
proposals for such a discussion
were accepted with pleasure.”
Russia, deeply opposed to enlargement of Nato towards its
borders, weighed in quickly, saying the prospect of Nato membership for Ukraine would not
promote stability and security in
Europe.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov, reacting to Stoltenberg’s
comment repeated Russia’s assertion that it had never had
troops in Ukraine.
Nato leaders agreed at a sum-
mit in 2008 that Ukraine would
one day become a member of the
alliance.
But there was little popular
support for the issue at the time
and it was never pursued by
Ukraine’s pro-Russian president,
Viktor Yanukovich.
Support for Nato membership
however has soared since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in
March 2014, following the fall of
Yanukovich, and the outbreak of
the war in eastern Ukraine, which
has killed more than 10,000 people.
Some 69% of Ukrainians want
to join Nato, according to a June
poll by the Democratic Initiatives
Foundation, compared to 28%
support in 2012 when Yanukovich was in power.
Most observers say any pros-
pect of Nato membership for
Ukraine is years off.
No dates were issued for when
talks on a membership action
plan might begin and Poroshenko himself said: “This does not
mean that we will soon be applying for membership.”
Poroshenko, in separate comments issued by his office, said
Ukraine was determined to conduct reforms in order to “have a
clear schedule of what must be
done by 2020 to meet the Nato
membership criteria.”
A Nato spokeswoman said
these would relate to defence,
anticorruption measures, governance and law enforcement.
But the war in the east, which
still ticks on despite a theoretical ceasefire, also poses a big obstacle to membership since Nato
rules state that aspiring members
must first settle international
disputes by peaceful means.
Stoltenberg called on Russia
to withdraw thousands of troops
from Ukraine — forces that Moscow has repeatedly denied sending — and raised concerns about
the growing threats to the safety
of international teams monitoring the conflict.
He also said Nato had provided
Ukraine with new equipment
to uncover the perpetrators of a
cyber attack that hit Ukraine in
June and spread globally.
A cyber attack that began in
Ukraine on June 27 spread around
the world, knocking out computers and disrupting factories and
shipping. Ukrainian politicians
pinned the blame on Russia, while
Russia denied involvement.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
13
INDIA
AVIATION
CONTROVERSY
WEATHER
LEGAL
OPINION
Debt-ridden Air India ends
non-vegetarian meals
Court issues notices over
Shah’s Goa airport rally
26 die in lightning
strikes across Bihar
Rs1mn payout for Kashmiri
used as human shield
Amartya Sen concerned
over Basirhat violence
Cash-strapped national carrier Air India
yesterday announced it will stop serving
non-vegetarian food to economy-class
passengers on all domestic flights as part of its
cost-cutting measures. “Air India has taken a
conscious decision not to have non-vegetarian
meals in economy class on its domestic flights
to reduce wastage, reduce costs and improve
catering service,” a company statement read.
Air India officials said non-vegetarian food
will continue to be served to passengers in
business class and first class. Cost-cutting has
been a priority for the airline, which faces a
debt burden of Rs550bn.
The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court has
issued notices to top central and state officials in
connection with a meeting addressed by BJP chief
Amit Shah within the Dabolim International airport
premises on July 1. The court issued notices to
the secretary of the civil aviation ministry and the
Goa chief secretary, among others, asking them to
submit a written explanation within three weeks.
The notices were issued following a petition by
a city lawyer, who had alleged that the Bharatiya
Janata Party meeting was held at the Goa airport,
which is operated from an Indian Naval Base.
The petitioner had alleged that it was illegal and
conducted in contravention of laws.
At least 26 persons, including women and
children, have been killed and over a dozen
injured in lightning strikes across Bihar in last 24
hours, an official said in Patna yesterday. Deaths
were reported from Vaishali, Patna, Rohtas, Saran,
Buxar, Bhojpur, Gaya, Samastipur, Siwan, Araria
and Aurangabad districts on Sunday, Bihar state
disaster department official Anirudh Kumar
said. The state government has announced a
compensation of Rs400,000 to the family of
each victim. Lightning strikes during the JuneSeptember monsoon season are common across
Bihar, with bamboo and grass huts more at risk.
Bihar received heavy rainfall on Sunday.
The Jammu and Kashmir Human Rights
Commission (SHRC) yesterday asked the state
government to pay Rs1mn as compensation to a
man who was tied to the front of an army jeep as
human shield against stone pelters. In a judgment
announced yesterday, justice (retired) Bilal Nazki,
chairman of SHRC directed the state government
to provide the compensation money to Farooq
Ahmad Dar, who was used as a human shield
by an army major, in Beerwah area of central
Kashmir during the Lok Sabha by-poll for SrinagarBadgam seat on April 9. Nazki directed the state
government to compensate Dar, for endangering
the victim’s dignity as well as his life.
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen yesterday said there
is a “reason to worry” over the communal violence
that has engulfed pockets in Basirhat sub-division
of West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district. “Why
is it happening? Is it because someone is inciting
it? There is reason to worry over this,” Sen told
a television channel in Kolkata. The economist
was in the city to attend the screening of a
documentary on him. Violence erupted between
two communities at Baduria on July 3 night over
a Facebook post by a youth. While he was soon
arrested, violence broke out with mobs attacking
shops and houses and torching vehicles, including
those of police, and putting up road blockades.
Woman
claims to
be Sanjay
Gandhi’s
daughter
Statehood demand
Rahul mocks
Modi after row
over meeting
China envoy
AFP
New Delhi
A
woman who claims to be
the secret granddaughter of the murdered
former prime minister Indira
Gandhi has gone to court to
block a new Bollywood movie
that she says shows the dynasty
in a bad light.
Priya Singh Paul, 48, told a press
conference yesterday she had been
adopted as a baby and only told after
she grew up that her biological father was Indira’s eldest son Sanjay,
who died in a plane crash in 1980.
IANS
New Delhi
T
“I am not after power, wealth
or property. I just want to
establish my identity and
protect my family name
which is being sullied”
She is fighting a legal battle for
access to her birth certificate and
adoption papers, but said she decided to make her claim public
after watching a trailer for the upcoming Indu Sarkar.
The movie deals with the controversial state of emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975.
“The film is 70% fiction and 30%
fact. I can’t stay quiet if somebody points a finger at my father
or grandmother,” Paul said in New
Delhi.
“I am not ashamed, I am not
afraid. I am not after power, wealth
or property. I just want to establish
my identity and protect my family
name which is being sullied.”
No one in the Gandhi family has commented publicly on
Paul’s claim, which began to
emerge in the media over the last
few weeks.
Paul says her mother married
Sanjay Gandhi in secret because
she was underage and was later
made to give her up for adoption.
Demonstrators shout slogans as they block a railway track during a protest organised by the
Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) demanding a separate state be carved out of the
northeastern state of Tripura, at Khamtingbari on the outskirts of Agartala, yesterday.
Reliance Jio probing
claims of data breach
Reuters
Mumbai
R
eliance Jio is investigating
whether personal data of
over 100mn of its customers was leaked to a website, in
what analysts said could be the
first-ever large-scale breach at
an Indian telecom operator.
Jio, India’s newest telecoms
entrant, said that the data on the
website, “Magicapk.com”, appeared to be “unauthentic” and
that its subscriber data was safe
and maintained with the highest
security.
But people complained on
Twitter about personal information of Jio users being publicly
available on Magicapk.com, and
some media reports said their
checks had led them to believe the
leak was real.
Jio declined to comment on the
media reports.
“We have informed law enforcement agencies about the
claims of the website and will follow through to ensure strict action
is taken,” a Jio spokeswoman said.
The Indian Express newspaper
said it was able to cross-verify details on a number of Jio customers
known to them.
“Indianexpress.com checked
with some Jio numbers and found
that details of numbers bought
as late as last week are up on the
site. However, it was not clear if
all the numbers are available on
the site, as a lot of queries were
throwing a blank,” the newspaper
reported.
Magicapk.com is showing as
“suspended” since late on Sunday.
Rony Das, a security analyst
with Defencely, an online security firm, described the likely data
breach as “dangerous”.
Many users had been registered
for Reliance Jio services by using a
12-digit Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) provided
number, commonly known as the
‘Aadhaar’ number.
The government has begun
mandating the use of Aadhaar for
everything from opening a bank
account to filing tax returns.
The ‘Aadhaar’ number, which
works on similar lines as US Social Security numbers, is unique to
every Indian citizen and it stores
biometric data of users in a centralised database.
Local tech website MediaNama
said that Aadhaar information on
the website had been redacted.
It also said it had independently
verified data on the website for
multiple Jio numbers, and that the
data was accurate for those numbers.
Srinivas Kodali, an independent security researcher, said it was
tough to assess the scale of the
alleged breach until “Jio releases
a statement saying what went
wrong, and how they’re fixing it.”
He said that while the alleged
breach was only reported by media late Sunday, data from the
potential breach was shared on a
messageboard forum in June and
screenshots of it were also available on the “dark web”. Jio declined
to comment.
Jio, run by Reliance Industries,
launched last September and has
already added over 100mn subscribers.
he Congress yesterday
did a flip-flop on its vice
president Rahul Gandhi’s
meeting with Chinese ambassador Luo Zhaohui in Delhi amidst
the border standoff, but sought
to do some damage control later
by asking questions of the government over Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s meeting with
Chinese President Xi Jinping in
Hamburg last week.
Hitting back at the government, Gandhi said if it was so
concerned about his July 8 meeting with the Chinese envoy how
did three union ministers enjoy
Chinese hospitality “while the
border issue is on”.
Last week, around the time
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
met with Chinese President Xi
Jinping in Hamburg, Rahul Gandhi had questioned the “silence”
of the prime minister on the border standoff in Doklam, at the
trijunction of India, China and
Bhutan.
Inexplicably, the party started
the day on a bad note calling reports on the meeting as “fake
news”, only later to admit that
such a meeting did indeed take
place.
Party spokesperson Randeep
Singh Surjewala tweeted denying
such a meeting between Gandhi and the Chinese envoy when
some news channels went on air
with the report.
He alleged that the report was
“planted” by the external affairs ministry and Intelligence
Bureau sources. “They should
re-verify that we still have diplomatic relations with all our
Highways blocked
neighbours,” Surjewala said.
But in the evening Surjewala
did a U-turn. “Various ambassadors and envoys keep meeting Congress president Sonia
Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi from time to time
on a courtesy basis, particularly
those of G5 nations as also of the
neighbouring countries...be it
Chinese ambassador or Bhutanese ambassador or former NSA
Shiv Shankar Menon,” Surjewala
said in his clarification.
“It is my job to be informed
on critical issues. I met
the Chinese ambassador,
ex-NSA, Congress leaders
from NE & the Bhutanese
ambassador”
However, he had no explanation on why the denial was issued
in the morning. He sought to
clarify that his statement that it
was fake news was in the context
of news channels terming the
meeting as “anti-national”.
Mysteriously, the Chinese embassy, which had posted on its
website about the July 8 meeting
between Gandhi and Luo, later
withdrew it. The embassy had
said in its ‘Wechat’ account: “On
July 8, ambassador Luo Zhaohui
met with Rahul Gandhi, vicepresident of the Congress party.
The two sides exchanged views
on the current China-India relations and other business. Counsellor Zhou Yuyun attended the
meeting.”
Search on for Indians
after Mosul victory
AFP
New Delhi
T
Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Singh Chautala
addresses the media after INLD activists yesterday
blocked the national highway near Ambala and four
other highways in Haryana as part of their one-day road
blockade protest. “Our fight is for getting water for the
farmers and people of Haryana through the SYL canal,”
Chautala said.
Later Gandhi himself came out
with tweets defending his meeting with the ambassador saying
it was his job to be informed of
critical issues.
“It is my job to be informed on
critical issues. I met the Chinese
ambassador, ex-NSA, Congress
leaders from NE & the Bhutanese
ambassador,” Gandhi said.
“If the government is so concerned about me meeting an
ambassador, they should explain
why three ministers are availing
of Chinese hospitality while the
border issue is on,” he added.
Gandhi also referred to a media report of 2014 about Chinese
troops entering India during the
official visit of Chinese President
Xi Jinping and took a dig at Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, who
had hosted the visiting leader in
Ahmedabad. The two leaders had
also sat on a swing.
“And for the record I am not
the guy sitting on the swing
while a thousand Chinese troops
had physically entered India,”
Gandhi said. In the afternoon
statement Surjewala said: “Nobody should try to sensationalise such normal courtesy calls
to term them as events like the
‘sources’ from the home ministry are trying to do.”
“Rahul Gandhi as other opposition leaders are fully aware
of our national interests and are
concerned about the grave situation on the Indo-Chinese border as also the situation arising
in Bhutan and Sikkim,” he added.
Speaking more specifically, he
said: “So, the envoys met Rahul
Gandhi, not only the Chinese envoy, but also the Bhutanese envoy,
as also former National Security
Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon,” he
said.
he government yesterday
announced it will send a
top minister to Iraq in an
effort locate dozens of its missing citizens after Mosul was all
but recaptured from the Islamic
State group. Thirty-nine Indian
labourers have been missing, believed taken hostage by IS, since
the militant outfit overran Iraq’s
second largest city in 2014.
There has been no word on their
fate since but New Delhi has insisted that without information
otherwise, the Indian construction workers are still considered
alive.
A foreign ministry spokesman
said all possible avenues for locating the missing nationals would
be explored now that the city had
been liberated by Iraqi forces.
Iraq has declared victory in
Mosul, with its forces fighting to
eliminate the last pockets of IS resistance after months of difficult
battles that have left much of the
key northern city in ruins.
The Indian spokesman said
junior foreign minister V K Singh
would travel to the Kurdish city of
Erbil to co-ordinate the search efforts. “India’s ambassador to Iraq
and our consul general in Erbil
have been instructed to continue
the efforts to locate them on priority,” he said in a statement.
Iraqi authorities have extended
their co-operation to help find the
missing workers, the spokesman
added. The Indians labourers were
employed by the Baghdad-based
Tariq Noor al-Huda construction
company.
The workers were trying to leave
battle-ravaged Mosul when they
were intercepted by insurgents
soon after they stormed the city
in June 2014, reported the media
reported.
More than 10,000 Indians fled
Iraq amid the upsurge in violence in 2014, including dozens of
nurses who were held briefly by
suspected IS militants in Tikrit
and Mosul before being allowed to
return home.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbadi on Sunday announced that
his forces had retaken Mosul from
IS after a months-long battle that
killed thousands of civilians and
forced nearly a million people from
their homes.
14
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
INDIA
VIOLENCE
TRAGEDY
DISPUTE
DECISION
SHOCKING
Six killed, many hurt
in Kashmir attack
Selfie craze claims eight
lives in Maharashtra
2,000 petrol pumps to
stay shut in Kerala today
Maharashtra police to
get ‘beef detection kits’
Man denied ambulance
carries brother’s body
Six Amarnath pilgrims were killed and 12
others injured, including policemen, when
a bus was caught in a crossfire between
militants and a police party in Jammu and
Kashmir’s Anantang district yesterday,
police said. Inspector general of police,
Munir Khan, confirmed the toll and said 12
others were injured, including security men.
The bus was carrying pilgrims back from
Baltal. The attack took place hours after the
Jammu and Kashmir police claimed to have
busted a Lashkar-e-Taiba module with the
arrests of two persons, including Sandeep
Kumar Sharma alias Adil, a resident of
Muzaffarnagar.
Eight youths who had gone to the Vena Lake
near Nagpur drowned when they fell off a
boat while clicking selfies, police officials said.
Nagpur Guardian Minister Chandrashekar
Bawankule, who visited the accident site said
the small boat was carrying 11 people when
tragedy struck on Sunday evening. “According
to information from the police, the youths
were clicking selfies on their mobiles when the
tragedy occurred,” Bawankule said. The police
said that while clicking selfies, the youngsters
allegedly moved. This may have caused the
boat to rock throw the people off balance,
the police said. Two youths and the boatman
managed to swim safely to the lake shore.
With over 2,000 petrol pumps across Kerala
threatening to observe a shutdown today,
serpentine queues were seen outside many
gas stations in the state yesterday. Petroleum
dealers have announced the shutdown
to protest the new policy of petroleum
companies, necessitating daily revision of
petrol and diesel prices, saying it’s causing
them losses. As part of the shutdown,
dealers have not been taking supplies for
the past two days, leading to some stations
running out of fuel. In Kerala, there are two
associations to which the more than 2,000
pumps in the state owe their allegiance. They
have come together to register their protest.
A government-run laboratory in Maharashtra
has developed portable “beef detection kits”
that will allow police to quickly determine
whether meat is that of an illegally slaughtered
cow, an official said. The slaughter of cows
and the possession or consumption of beef is
banned in most states, with some imposing
life sentences for breaking the law. “We have
been working on beef detection kits for the past
eight months and these will be distributed to
Maharashtra and Mumbai police in August,” a
Maharashtra government official said. Police
would just need to pour a sample into the kit
and it would change colour to identify whether
it was bovine meat or not within 30 minutes.
The poor medical services in Jharkhand
were once again in the limelight after a man
and his sister-in-law were forced to carry the
dead body of his brother after being denied
an ambulance in the state’s Chatra district.
According to media reports, Rajendra Oraon, a
resident of Sidpa village of Chatra district, was
bitten by a snake. He was admitted at Chatra
district Sadar hospital for treatment, where he
died on Sunday. Locals have alleged that the
treatment was not started on time, leading
to his death. The family members requested
an ambulance to ferry the body, which the
hospital denied. The brother of the dead man
and his sister-in-law then carried the body.
Nitish, Lalu
have held
talks, claims
RJD leader
IANS
Patna
A
senior Rashtriya Janata
Dal (RJD) leader yesterday
claimed that Bihar chief
minister and Janata Dal (United)
president Nitish Kumar had spoken over the phone with RJD chief
Lalu Prasad after the Central Bureau of Investigation raids on the
latter’s residence here.
Jagdanand Singh revealed the
news after the RJD decided that
Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi
Yadav, the younger son of Lalu,
will not resign.
“Nitish Kumar spoke with Lalu
on phone,” Singh, a former minister, said here – sending a strong
political message and countering
reports in a section of media that
Nitish Kumar’s “silence” over the
CBI raids had Lalu worried.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish
Kumar is likely to break his
silence only after holding
a meeting with party MLAs
today
Singh made it clear that Lalu
was not unhappy and was in
touch with Nitish Kumar. “Both
have spoken over phone,” he reiterated.
Nitish Kumar heads the Grand
Alliance government of Janata
Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal
and Congress in Bihar.
Interestingly, JD-U leaders, including the party spokespersons,
said they had no idea about the
telephone conversation.
The silence of Nitish Kumar
and his party over the CBI raids,
despite repeated demands by
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders for the chief minister’s comments on the issue, has been a
matter of discussion across the
state.
Nitish Kumar and JD-U’s si-
lence on the issue has been causing anxiety in the RJD camp. At a
time when Lalu and his family are
in trouble over the CBI raids, Nitish Kumar has been keeping mum
instead of supporting the Yadav
family like the other ally, Congress, a RJD leader said.
Unlike Congress leaders, not
a single JD-U leader has visited
Lalu Prasad in the past four days.
Nitish Kumar himself returned
to his official residence from Rajgir in Nalanda district on Sunday
after spending three days there,
away from the heated political
climate in Patna after the CBI
raids on the Lalu-Rabri residence.
Nitish Kumar has called a
meeting of his JD-U party’s 70
MLAs here today.
According to a senior JD-U
leader, considered closed to Nitish Kumar, the chief minister is
likely to break his silence only after holding a meeting with party
MLAs today.
JD-U MLAs and party spokespersons have reportedly been
instructed by Nitish Kumar not
to issue any statement on the issue as it may worsen the already
strained ties between the two
parties.
In the last four days, opposition BJP leaders have repeatedly
demanded that Nitish Kumar
break his silence and take action
against Lalu’s two sons – Tejashwi Yadav, who is deputy chief
minister and Tej Pratap Yadav,
who is the health minister – for
their alleged involvement in corruption.
Some BJP leaders have even
been demanding Nitish Kumar
snap ties with the RJD.
The CBI has registered a case
against Lalu Prasad, his wife and
former chief minister Rabri Devi,
Tejashwi Yadav, former Indian
Railway Catering and Tourism
Corporation (IRCTC) managing director P K Goyal, and Lalu
Prasad’s confidante Prem Chand
Gupta’s wife Sujata on allegations
of awarding tenders for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri
in 2006.
Animals marooned
One-horn rhinos take shelter from flood waters on higher land at the Kaziranga National Park, about 250km east of Guwahati yesterday.
Malayalam star held in
actress abduction case
IANS
Aluva
M
alayalam
superstar
Dileep was yesterday
evening arrested in
connection with the abduction
and molestation of a popular
actress in a car in February this
year.
Kerala Police chief Loknath
Behra told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram that Dileep has
been arrested.
The actor was yesterday questioned at an undisclosed location
near here, and after five hours the
police probe team recorded the
arrest of the actor.
Around 7.20pm, Dileep was
brought to the Aluva Police club
from the place where he was
questioned.
Pakistan’s visa refusal for
Jadhav’s mum criticised
IANS
New Delhi
T
he government yesterday
stepped up the heat over
the Kulbhushan Jadhav issue, with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj complaining
that Pakistan was yet to grant a
visa to his mother, Avantika Jadhav, who is hoping to meet her son
who has been sentenced to death
for alleged spying.
The minister also clarified that
all Pakistani nationals seeking
medical treatment in India have
to get their applications vetted
by Islamabad’s foreign affairs advisor, Sartaj Aziz. The minister
wondered why he was not doing
it.
In May this year, government
of India had ruled that only after a
letter of recommendation by Pakistan’s foreign affairs advisor will
a Pakistani national be able to get
a medical visa for India.
In a series of tweets, Sushma
Swaraj said Aziz should not hesitate to write recommendations
for Pakistanis seeking medical
treatment in India.
The remarks came amid media
reports in Pakistan that the Indian
embassy in Islamabad had rejected the medical visa application
of a 25-year-old Pakistani cancer
patient who was to travel to India
for treatment.
Faiza Tanveer had sought Sushma Swaraj’s intervention and
help to “save my life”.
“I have my sympathies for all
Pakistani nationals seeking medical visa for their treatment in India,” Sushma Swaraj tweeted. “I
am sure Sartaj Aziz also has consideration for the nationals of his
country,” she said. “All that we
require is his recommendation for
the grant of medical visa to Pakistani nationals.”
Sushma Swaraj said that she
saw no reason why Aziz should
hesitate in giving his recommendation for nationals of his own
country.
The minister also raised the
Jadhav issue and said she had personally written to Aziz regarding
a visa for Avantika who wanted
to meet her son languishing in an
unknown military prison in Pakistan.
“We also have a visa application
pending for an Indian national,
Avantika Jadhav who wants to
meet her son in Pakistan, against
whom they have pronounced a
death sentence,” Sushma Swaraj
said.
“I wrote a personal letter to
Sartaj Aziz for the grant of her
visa to Pakistan. However, Aziz
has not shown the courtesy even
to acknowledge my letter,” she
claimed.
Jadhav was said to have been
arrested from Pakistan’s restive
Balochistan province in March
3, 2016. Pakistan claimed that he
was involved in spying and terror
activities in Balochistan, a charge
rejected by India. He was convicted in April by a Pakistani military
court and sentenced to death.
Dileep is understood to be behind the abduction of the young
actress on February 17. Dileep
had been questioned last month
for 13 hours in the case and let
off.
The Congress party demanded
that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan give up the Home portfolio,
alleging that he tried to derail the
investigation process by stating
that there was no conspiracy.
State Congress president M M
Hassan said the Left government
had promised security for women, but in the actress abduction
case, after the arrest of prime accused Pulsar Suni, Vijayan had
immediately dismissed any conspiracy angle to the abduction.
Leader of the opposition and
former home minister Ramesh
Chennithala demanded that Vijayan apologise to the people for
his statement that there was no
conspiracy in the case.
Meanwhile, a group of youth
shouted slogans against Dileep
in front of the Aluva Police club,
when the actor was brought. A
hotel that the star owns in in Kochi was attacked and ransacked
by angry youths.
Angry Congress workers were
seen shouting slogans demanding the resignation of Lok Sabha
member Innocent who is also
president of AMMA – Association of Malayalam Movie
Artistes. Innocent had
strongly defended Dileep.
None of the big names
in the film industry –
Mammootty
and
Mohanlal – have
said a word in the
case.
On February
Naval exercise
17, the hugely popular actress was
travelling from Thrissur to Kochi
by road when she was abducted.
After almost two hours she was
dumped near the house of director-turned-actor Lal, who upon
hearing her harrowing experience, informed police.
She was reported to have been
molested enroute.
The police probe team arrested
Pulsar Suni and his aides, who
effected the kidnap, a week after
the incident.
The conspiracy angle surfaced ever since Dileep
and his close aide, actorturned-director
Nadir
Shah, was questioned
for 13 hours last
month.
Trouble began
for Dileep last
month after his
GST row puts chicken
off the menu in Kerala
IANS
Thiruvananthapuram
C
US Rear Admiral William Byrne speaks during the
inauguration of joint naval exercises with India and
Japan in Chennai yesterday. The Indian Navy began
holding naval exercises with the US and Japan off its
south coast yesterday, seeking to forge closer military
ties to counter growing Chinese influence in the region.
name surfaced in a jail inmate’s
letter who had shared the cell
with Suni. Following this, Dileep
was called for questioning. During the marathon questioning,
he claimed he did not know
Suni. But by then the police had
established the fact that Suni
was at the shooting location of
Dileep’s film in November at
Thrissur. A photo of Suni at the
film locales was released by TV
channels.
Pressure mounted on the police to get to the bottom of the
conspiracy. The Congress party
sought a CBI probe into the case,
while the BJP expressed its displeasure over the police probe.
The Association of the Malayalam Movies Artistes (AMMA)
came under heavy attack from
several quarters over its stand on
the issue.
hicken appears to have
bowed out from dining tables in Kerala with
poultry sellers up in arms against
Kerala Finance Minister Thomas
Issac who has demanded that
they sell chicken meat at Rs87 a
kg under GST.
Across the state, chicken sellers have begun an indefinite
strike from yesterday onwards
claiming it is not possible to sell
the meat at the price fixed by the
government.
Issac had tried to cool tempers
but failed to prevent the strike
after talks broke down on Sunday.
Speaking to the media yesterday, Issac accused the major
poultry companies outside the
state of fixing prices.
“Prior to GST, chicken meat
had a tax of 14.5%. From July 1
that’s no longer being imposed,
so it is only natural the consumer should get the benefit. At
least one portion of the tax gain
should be passed on to the consumer. The state-owned Kepco
is selling chicken at Rs 120 a kilogram as their product is cleaned,
skinned and all waste removed,”
Issac pointed out.
The strike has led to another
problem as chicken farmers have
been left with full-grown birds
with no buyers. Many poultry farmers have since Sunday
been moving their birds to Tamil
Nadu.
However, an unfazed Issac said
that just as products are brought
into Kerala, poultry firms are free
to send their products out of the
state as well.
The poultry industry has been
demanding they be given time
till September so that they can
streamline their operations for
GST. However, their demands
have been shot down by Issac.
On Friday, Issac had warned
that action would be taken if
chicken prices are not brought
down as chicken meat comes
under the zero tax bracket in the
GST rolled out on July 1.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
15
PAKISTAN
Pakistan LNG
imports to
surge by 2022
zLNG imports could top
30mn tonnes by 2022 —
Abbasi
zPakistan could be among
top-5 importers globally
zConsortium to decide
in Sept on $700mn LNG
terminal
z Pakistan in talks on govtto-govt LNG supply deals
Reuters
Islamabad
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif listens as experts explain a process of the Haveli Bahadur Shah LNG power plant during the
inauguration in Jhang, Pakistan July 7, 2017.
P
akistan says it could become one of the world’s
top-five buyers of liquefied natural gas (LNG), with Petroleum Minister Shahid Abbasi
predicting imports could jump
more than fivefold as private
companies build new LNG terminals.
Outlining Pakistan’s ambitious plans — which, if fully
implemented, could shake up
the global LNG market — Abbasi told Reuters that imports
could top 30mn tonnes by 2022,
up from just 4.5mn tonnes currently.
Cheaper than fuel oil and
cleaner burning than coal, LNG
suits emerging economies seeking to bridge electricity shortfalls and support growth on tight
budgets.
“Within five years, I don’t see
any reason why we should not
be beyond 30mn tonnes (in annual LNG imports). We will be
one of the top five markets in the
world,” Abbasi said.
That kind of jump would represent one of the fastest growth
stories in the energy industry,
comparable to what China has
done in many commodities —
but there are doubts whether
Pakistan can achieve its ambitions, given the complexity and
cost of expansion projects.
“It’s always possible, but
seems very difficult as they will
need much more (regasification) capacity and downstream
pipeline capacity,” said Trevor
Sikorski at Energy Aspects, a
London-based industry market
researcher. “There are infrastructural issues and financial
issues.”
“Still, it is one of the key LNG
growth markets, and its demand
will help tighten up the market
that has threatened to lurch into
over supply.”
Abbasi said no one took Pakistan seriously after a decade
of botched attempts to bring
LNG to the country, but this has
Pakistani Petroleum Minister Shahid Abbasi poses for a photo during
an interview with Reuters after the inauguration of the Haveli
Bahadur Shah LNG power plant in Jhang.
changed with the construction
of new LNG terminals and gas
plants.
He said foreign suppliers
are now arriving in Pakistan —
where energy shortages have
prompted Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif to promise he’ll end the
country’s frequent blackouts.
“Before, we used to go out
to talk to LNG suppliers. Now
they’re coming to us,” Abbasi
said.
“(LNG) is really what has
saved the whole energy system.
It has been a huge success in
Pakistan and it will continue,”
he said after Sharif on Friday inaugurated a new Chinese-built
LNG power plant that uses General Electric turbines.
Pakistan built its first LNG
terminal in 2015 and, after some
delays, a second terminal is due
to come online in October, doubling annual import capacity to
about 9mn tonnes.
A consortium of ExxonMobil,
Total, Mitsubishi, Qatar Petroleum and Norway’s Hoegh is
expected to decide by September whether to build a third LNG
terminal for about $700mn, Abbasi said.
Pakistan has dropped plans to
finance up to two more terminals, as private companies have
said they would finance these
themselves and use Pakistan’s
existing gas network to sell directly to consumers.
“That’s been the real success
and that’s where the growth
will come from,” Abbasi said,
adding that about 10 mn homes
are linked to gas connections in
Pakistan — a nation of around
200mn.
“In the last four years, we
would have added 2mn additional connections. We are really
ramping that up.”
If Pakistan achieves its ambitious development goals, it
could significantly erode market
oversupply, which has helped
pull down Asian LNG spot prices
by more than 70% since 2014
to around $5per million British
thermal units (mmBtu).
Abbasi said Pakistan is in talks
with Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia
and Oman about governmentto-government deals for up to
three monthly LNG cargoes for
its second terminal, which can
import 600 mn cubic feet of gas
per day, equal to six cargoes a
month.
“We have a basic idea of what the
market is. So if we are able to better those prices through negotiated
procurement, we will go with that,
otherwise we might float some
more tenders,” Abbasi said.
Tenders for two of the terminal’s six cargoes have already
been won by trading house Gunvor and Italy’s Eni, which have
signed 5-year and 15-year deals,
respectively.
The contracts are worth about
$5bn over their lifetime.
Qatar supplies most of the gas
for Pakistan’s first LNG terminal.
Abbasi said Pakistan is considering inviting private investors to build small-scale gas
power plants to add another
3,000-4,000 megawatts to the
network, on top of the three new
LNG plants that will contribute
3,600 MW.
PM opens 760MW Haveli
Bahadur Shah Power Plant
Agencies
Jhang, Pakistan
P
rime Minister Mohamed
Nawaz Sharif has inaugurated the first 760MWunit of the Haveli Bahadur Shah
Power Plant here.
The first unit of the power
plant, fuelled by environmentfriendly liquefied natural gas
(LNG), will add 760 megawatts
of electricity to the national
power grid.
Addressing the inauguration
ceremony the Supreme Court,
the prime minister: “We had
promised to end darkness from
the country and it had already
been fulfilled to some extent,
he said. Diamer-Bhasha dam is
also in final stage of construction. The prime minister said
the giant Haveli Bahadur Shah
Power Plant project had been
set up at a piece of land, which
was being used as fields a few
months ago. Prosperity and
past glory is returning to the
country. Income and purchase
power of masses is growing.
Tourist industry is flourishing
in the country”.
He said the country’s growth
rate has reached to seven percent
and hopefully it increase further.
The first unit of power project
has been completed in 21
months.
The project is a combined cycle power plant with an installed
capacity of 1,230MW.
Earlier, the prime minister
also visited the control room of
the plant and witnessed its functioning.
The prime minister was in-
formed that the installed unit
was the world’s most efficient
and modern with guaranteed efficiency of 62.44% on LNG.
The plant has been jointly
constructed by M/S Power Construction Corporation of China
and Pakistan’s Qavi Engineering
Pvt Ltd.
The project is expected to
be environment friendly with
a minimum impact on climate
change as efficient technology
has been used which guarantees
the productivity and regulation
of the plant at 62.44% on LNG.
Bomb kills police chief, guard in SW Pakistan
AFP
Quetta
A
bomb yesterday killed a
police chief and his guard,
and wounded 11 others in
a southwestern Pakistani town
bordering Afghanistan, officials
said, the latest attack to strike
the restive area.
The bombing took place in
Chaman, a tense border town
in southwestern Baluchistan
province, which has seen many
bombings and extremist attacks
in the past.
“Senior police officer Sajid
Khan Mohmand and his guard
Police and security personnel search through the site of a bomb blast
in Chaman, Pakistan yesterday.
were martyred, and 11 others were wounded in the bomb
blast,” Baluchistan government
spokesman Anwar Kakar said.
He said according to initial reports the bomb was planted on a
roadside in a motorcycle, which
exploded when Mohmand’s vehicle passed by.
Two senior government officials confirmed the attack and
casualties, saying police were
targeted.
No
group
immediately
claimed responsibility for the
attack.
Tribal rebels, Taliban and
other militant groups have carried out attacks against security
forces in the province recently.
Pakistan has been battling Islamist and nationalist insurgencies in mineral-rich Baluchistan.
Desperate search for missing climbers on ‘Killer Mountain’
Reuters
Islamabad
S
earch team leader Alex Gavan wept uncontrollably
after a helicopter dropped
him at a Himalayan base camp
on June 28, certain an avalanche
had killed the two men he was
searching for as they tried to
conquer
Pakistan’s
“Killer
Mountain”.
Gavan, a Romanian climber,
had abandoned his own efforts
to scale the world’s ninth-tallest
mountain a week earlier to lead
the search for Alberto Zerain
from Spain and Mariano Galvan
from Argentina.
Detailing the desperate search
for Zerain and Galvan for the first
time to Reuters, Gavan said he
had even spoken to them over a
satellite phone just a day before
they went missing on June 24,
when they stopped responding
to calls.
The two experienced climbers had chosen a daring route to
ascend the 8,126m Nanga Parbat via the treacherous 13km
Mazeno Ridge, which had been
scaled successfully only once
before.
However, Gavan became
desperate after June 24 when
Zerain and Galvan lost radio
contact near the ridge, realising that the two men had run
out of food.
Climbers climb to Camp 2 on the Kinshofer route the day the photographer received the last SMS from
Alberto Zerain while climbing Nanga Parbat, Pakistan June 24, 2017.
Rescue efforts were called off
after a final helicopter flight over
the ridge on July 1.
Photographic evidence suggests an avalanche had struck
some time in the preceding eight
days.
“Just where the avalanche debris is was their last GPS location,” Gavan told Reuters, speaking of their last known signal on
Mazeno Ridge.
“In the photos you see the
tracks of the climbers...suddenly end at the avalanche
fracture line and do not appear
anywhere after the fracture
line,” he said.
Geographically, Pakistan is a
hot destination for climbers, but
climbing deaths are also common.
It rivals Nepal for the number
of peaks over 7,000m and is
home to the world’s secondtallest mountain, K2.
In all, it has five of the world’s
14 summits higher than 8,000m.
However, Pakistan offers other challenges for climbers.
In 2012, Islamist gunmen
dressed as policemen stormed
the 4,200-m Nanga Parbat base
camp, killing 10 foreign climbers
and a Pakistani guide.
Galvan and Zerain both loved
climbing.
The Spaniard was part of an
elite club of climbers who have
The last photo taken with Alberto Zerain and Mariano Galvan by the photographer on the approach trek
to the Base Camp at Nanga Parbat, Pakistan June 14, 2017.
scaled the world’s two tallest
mountains, Everest and K2.
Galvan climbed Everest in
2012 but an attempt to climb K2
alone and without oxygen ended
at 7,300m.
Romania’s Gavan said the
search for Zerain and Galvan was
delayed by a day because they
did not have insurance, which
meant he had to find the collateral for a rescue mission.
Gavan, who wrote a report on
the failed search, said the pictures taken during a second helicopter search on July 1 were conclusive proof that the two men
died in an avalanche.
“We looked down the ridge,
we looked in the valleys, we
looked everywhere, we triple
checked,” he said.
An eight-member team from
the Pakistani mountaineering
company Karakorum Expeditions began a new ground search
on Friday despite Gavan’s evidence.
“The team will search on
the Mazeno Ridge of the Nanga Parbat, where the missing
climbers are believed to be buried under an avalanche,” company spokesman Mehboob Ali
said.
Gavan described that operation as “irresponsible”, saying
it would “only endanger more
people’s lives”.
16
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
PHILIPPINES
Militants force kids and
hostages to fight: army
AFP
Manila
AFP
Manila
B
C
hildren and hostages
are being forced to fight
alongside
pro-Islamic
State gunmen waging a sevenweek battle for a Philippine city,
the country’s military said yesterday.
Militants seized Marawi on
May 23 in a bid to create an IS
province, and over 100 remain
holed up in the city despite intense military efforts to oust
them.
Some of the extremists are
teenagers who may have been
recruited and trained to use guns
when they were still children,
said Brigadier-General Restituto
Padilla, a military spokesman.
“We continuously get disturbing narratives from (escaped
residents) that children as well
as hostages are being employed
in the firefight,” Padilla told reporters in Manila.
Casualties among children
and civilians forced to take up
arms could not be ruled out, Padilla said.
“As disturbing as it is, our
troops are doing their best to
avoid any casualty among these
children that are being employed,” he said.
“But in the event...they bear
arms and are involved in the
fighting, there is nothing much
that we can do. Similarly to the
hostages who are being forced.”
Shortly after seizing Marawi
gunmen took at least a dozen
hostages, including a Catholic
priest.
Some of the estimated 300
other civilians still trapped in the
area may have also been taken
captive, said Padilla.
The military earlier said civilians had been forced to help the
gunmen by carrying supplies
and ammunition, bearing their
wounded and even helping them
loot the city. More than 500
World’s ‘oldest’
hippo dies at
Manila zoo
This undated handout photo received from the military yesterday shows militant members of the so-called Maute group, inside a house in Marawi.
people have been killed in the
fighting, including 89 soldiers
and police, 39 civilians and 379
militants, according to figures
released by the government yesterday.
Nearly 400,000 civilians have
Australia, Israel issue Mindanao travel advisory
The Australian government has advised its citizens to avoid travelling to
central and western Mindanao, citing a very high threat of kidnapping, terrorist attack, violent crime and violent clashes between armed groups.
In an advisory dated July 9 and posted on the Australian government’s
Smart traveller website, Australians were reminded to exercise a high degree of caution in the Philippines due to the “high threat” of terrorist attack,
including in Manila. “Do not travel to central and western Mindanao due
to the very high threat of kidnapping, terrorist attack, violent crime and
violent clashes between armed groups,” the advisory stated.
The Australian government cited the ongoing clashes between government forces and militants in Marawi City. Meanwhile, the Israel Embassy in
the Philippines confirmed the travel warning issued by its counter-terrorism bureau to its citizens.
Fresh 5.9 quake rocks central island
A 5.9-magnitude quake yesterday rocked a central Philippine island still
reeling from a deadly tremor last week, though there were no immediate
reports of damage or casualties, seismologists said. The US Geological
Survey said the moderately strong quake struck Leyte island near Ormoc,
a city of about 200,000 people, at 9:41 am (0141 GMT) at a relatively shallow depth of 12.7 kilometres. A 6.5 quake stuck the region on Thursday last
week, killing two people and leaving 72 others injured.
fled their homes. Daily air strikes
and artillery barrages against
militant snipers who control
tall buildings have left Marawi’s
central business district a ghost
town.
Philippine president Rodrigo
Duterte last month vowed to
“crush” the militants but several government-set deadlines
to end the conflict have already
been missed.
The fighting also prompted
Duterte to declare martial law
over the entire southern Philippines. Padilla yesterday expressed hope that the fighting
would soon be concluded.
“We continue to gain headway with our operations on the
ground,” he said.
ertha, believed to be the
world’s oldest hippopotamus, has died aged
65, the Manila zoo said yesterday, having beaten the typical
lifespan for the mostly herbivorous mammals by decades.
The 2.5-tonne female was
found dead Friday in her enclosure, with a post mortem
examination concluding that
Bertha, the zoo’s oldest resident, had died from multiple
organ failure, zoo director
James Dichaves said.
“Bertha was among the pioneer animals here. Her mate
died sometime in the 1980s
and the couple failed to produce any offspring,” he said.
A seven-year-old Bertha
arrived at the zoo in the Philippines’ capital the year it
opened in 1959.
The zoo has lost the
records of where she came
from, Dichaves said.
Fed a diet of grass, fruit,
and bread in a 1,000 squaremetre pen, Bertha lived far
beyond the 40 to 50 year
lifespans which are typical
for the species in the wild
and in captivity respectively,
Dichaves said.
Zoo officials believed Bertha was the oldest living hippo in captivity at the time of
her death.
Donna, who died in 2012
at the age of 62 at the US
Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic
Garden in Evansville, Indiana, was previously said to
be the world’s oldest hippo,
according to media reports at
the time.
Two years ago, an adult
male hippo named Bertie was
euthanised at the Denver Zoo
in Colorado at the age of 58,
the reports said.
Bertha’s death touched off
a wave of sympathy on social
media. “It’s a sad day. Bertha
the world’s oldest hippo has
passed away,” Twitter user
Eric M Davis posted with a
crying emoji.
“You’re one of my favourites to see in the zoo ever
since. Sleep peacefully,” Jen
Tolibas tweeted.
The common hippopotamus of sub-Saharan Africa
faces a “high risk of extinction in the wild” from habitat
loss and illegal hunting for
meat and ivory from its teeth,
according to the Swiss-based
International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals criticised Manila
Zoo’s “cruelty” for having
“imprisoned” the hippo and
other wild animals.
“Bertha’s life at the Manila
Zoo was one full of boredom,
misery and deprivation. It’s
a tragedy that she only realised freedom through death,”
PETA’s Jason Baker said in a
statement.
“This cruelty will end only
when animals are no longer
held as living ‘exhibits’”,
Baker added.
Bertha’s death leaves Mali,
a 43-year-old Asian elephant, as the oldest remaining animal among the some
500 residents at the Manila
Zoo, Dichaves said.
PETA and global celebrities
had teamed up on a seven-year
campaign for Mali, a female,
to be retired from the zoo and
sent to a Thai sanctuary.
However, the country’s environment department eventually allowed the zoo to keep
the elephant after experts
ruled it was healthy.
The authorities were also
uncertain how Mali would react to the other elephants at
the Thai sanctuary, Dichaves
said.
De Lima wants mandatory
drug tests in prison facilities
Manila Times
Manila
D
etained Senator Leila De Lima has sought
“mandatory and unannounced” drug
tests for both prisoners and their custodians to put a stop to the reported unabated drug
abuse in penal institutions nationwide.
The senator filed Senate Bill 1496 or the DrugFree Prisons Act of 2017 that seeks to conduct regular drug tests in all detention facilities nationwide,
including the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.
“With this measure, it is envisioned that our
detention facilities and correctional institutions
shall finally be rid of the scourge of illegal drugs,”
De Lima, who is detained at the Philippine National
Police (PNP) Custodial Centre on drug charges,
said. “Reports that our penal institutions are at
the crux of the illegal drugs trade in the country are
not new,” she added. She deplored the admission
of the Duterte administration that illegal drug use
and trade continue to flourish inside the national
penitentiary despite its campaign to weed out drug
operations at the NBP.
“Barely months from taking over, inmates were
found to still be able to do drugs in NBP. A year after
taking over, the current justice secretary (Vitaliano
Aguirre) has admitted there has been a resurgence
of the drug trade,” she said.
“It appears that in spite of the early pronouncements of the DoJ Secretary and the PNP Chief (Ronald Dela Rosa), the current measures being implemented are still ineffective in eradicating the drug
problems in our penitentiary system,” De Lima said.
This undated handout photo received yesterday shows the 2.5-tonne
female hippopotamus, ‘Bertha’ being fed in her enclosure in Manila.
Church-Duterte ties may improve under new archbishop
By Jefferson Antiporda
Manila Times
T
he move by the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of
the Philippines (CBCP) to
elect Davao Archbishop Romulo
Valles indicates that the Philippine Church might take a nonconfrontational position in dealing with the mercurial President
Rodrigo Duterte, an analyst said.
Ramon Casiple, executive
director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform, said
the CBCP likely wanted to tone
down the war of words between
leaders of the Church and the
president, who have repeatedly
clashed over the government’s
bloody drug war and alleged human rights violations.
“The Church may have realised that it cannot just publicly
criticise the president because
he will really retaliate and everyone knows the manner in which
he responds to critics,” Casiple
said.
On Saturday, the CBCP followed tradition and raised Valles,
vice president to outgoing CBCP
president Archbishop Socrates
Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan,
to the presidency of the influential bishops’ conference during
its semiannual plenary in Manila.
Valles will take over in December from Villegas, who had been
in Duterte’s crosshairs amid the
Church hierarchy’s criticism of
the government’s bloody drug
war.
While Villegas enjoys good
relations with the Aquino family, Valles is close to the Dutertes.
Valles baptised the president’s
newest grandson, Marko Digong
“Stonefish” Duterte Carpio, in
March.
It was Valles who announced
in December 2015 that the Vatican had replied to Duterte’s letter seeking forgiveness for hurling expletives at the Pope. Valles
and Duterte later met in Davao
City with the latter promising
to donate P1,000 to charity for
every expletive hurled.
Valles was born on July 10,
1951 in Maribojoc, Bohol. He
got his bachelor of arts in philosophy degree and his degree in
theology from St Francis Xavier
Regional Major Seminary in
Davao City.
On April 6, 1976, Valles was
ordained priest of Tagum, Philippines. He was appointed bishop of Kidapawan in June 1997.
“The closeness is nothing
to do with what is right
or wrong. It will have a
relevance on how CBCP
will look at the overall
value of the actuation of the
president of the republic”
In November 2006, Valles,
at the age of 55, was appointed
archbishop of Zamboanga. He
became archbishop of Davao in
2012.
Valles had been CBCP vice
president since December 2013.
Malacanang cheered the election of Valles, who, as Davao
prelate, has spiritual charge over
President Duterte, a long-time
mayor of Davao City before becoming chief executive.
Valles’ election as CBCP
president signals a “new day of
peace,” the Palace said on Sunday.
“Our warm congratulations
to Archbishop Valles as he leads
the faithful in the country towards developing a deeper spir-
itual life and for the Church to
have a more open dialogue and
co-operation with the government, especially in working for
the poor and the marginalised,”
Presidential spokesman Ernesto
Abella said. “The new CBCP
head from Davao signals a new
day of peace for a multi-cultural
Philippines. His familiarity with
Davao and Mindanao would augur well as we promote interfaith dialogue and intercultural
understanding as part of our
efforts to rebuild Marawi and to
transform Mindanao into a land
of fulfilment,” Abella added.
This was not the first time a
Mindanao prelate is in charge of
the CBCP, however. The most
prominent of former CBCP
presidents still active in the
Church is Cotabato Archbishop
Orlando Cardinal Quevedo, a
leading figure in the ChristianMuslim dialogue. He was CBCP
president from 1999 to 2003.
Aside from Valles, the CBCP
elected Caloocan Bishop Pablo
Virgilio David as vice president,
Palo, Leyte Archbishop John Du
as treasurer, and Fr Marvin Mejia
as secretary general.
Retired archbishop Oscar
Cruz said there was “nothing magical or mystical” over
Valles’ election, saying it was
the CBCP’s tradition to promote
the vice president to the top position. The outspoken former
Lingayen-Dagupan prelate said
the CBCP plenary’s decision was
a mere formality or standard operating procedure.
Last year, Cruz, expressed
alarm over Valles’ impending
election to the presidency of the
bishops’ conference, noting that
the latter was “rather close” to
Duterte.
“The closeness is nothing to
do with what is right or wrong.
It will have a relevance on how
CBCP will look at the overall
value of the actuation of the
president of the republic,” Cruz
told the ABS-CBN News Channel last year.
Cruz told Manila Times it was
Valles’ call if he wanted to be less
critical of Duterte.
“If he (Valles) will be less critical of the president, that’s his
call. But he cannot decide alone
for the CBCP. The collective decision always comes from the
CBCP Permanent Council,” he
said.
“If the president has a Cabinet, the CBCP Permanent Council is its equivalent,” he added.
Fr Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the CBCP public affairs committee, said that
the election of Valles would not
change the stand of the Church
on key issues.
“I don’t think that it will
change the Church stand on human rights violations, injustices
committed, unemployment and
environmental issues, among
others,” he said.
He stressed that the new
CBCP president should always
make a distinction between his
stand as archbishop of Davao
and his stand as president of the
conference. “If you noticed (outgoing CBCP president Soc Villegas) always made a distinction
between what he said as president of the CBCP and what he
said as archbishop of LingayenDagupan,” Secillano said.
Duterte and the CBCP have
been at odds because of the
president’s pronouncements on
issues that matter to the Catholic Church such as birth control,
human rights and the restoration
of the death penalty.
The president’s first brush
was with no less than Pope Francis himself whom he blamed and
cursed for the traffic congestion
he allegedly caused when he
came to the Philippines in 2015.
In April, Villegas disclosed
that an initial dialogue between
some members of the Duterte
Cabinet and the bishops transpired and made a breakthrough.
Among the issues both parties
agreed to work on together were
support for the poor, the empowerment of Mindanao, and
the pursuit of peace negotiations
with rebel groups.
Casiple said Valles’ election
as CBCP head was a good development because the prelate and
the president know each other
personally, and that relationship
could help address issues between the Palace and the bishops.
The change in the CBCP leadership should result in better
relations between the Duterte
administration and the Catholic Church, he said, even as the
Church was expected to continue protesting drug-related killings and the planned reinstatement of the death penalty.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
17
SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL
Top monks vow to resist
deal with Tamil minority
AFP
Colombo
S
ri Lanka’s hardline monks
yesterday broadened a
growing campaign by the
Buddhist clergy against the government, threatening street protests if the island’s Tamil minority is granted greater autonomy.
Radical monk Maagalkande
Sudaththa said hardline Buddhists were mobilising Sri
Lankans from the majority Sinhalese ethnic group to resist a
new power-sharing arrangement being drafted by the government.
“Monks are going from district to district to educate their
followers about the dangers
of the proposed constitution,”
Sudaththa told reporters in
Colombo.
Last week the government vowed to enshrine in
law a promised power-sharing agreement in Sri Lanka’s
Tamil-majority northern and
eastern regions in exchange for
a lasting peace.
President Maithripala Sirisena has stated he wants to prevent
a repeat of the bloody separatist
war that claimed 100,000 lives
on the tiny island between 1972
and 2009.
The 225-member national
parliament is currently drafting the legislation, but hardliners have vowed to take to
the streets before the measures
take effect.
“About 70% of MP’s are asleep
in parliament when important
issues are discussed,” Sudaththa
said, accusing many of them of
being “uneducated.”
Sudaththa is an ardent supporter of firebrand monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara, who is on
bail after being accused of hate
speech and stoking violence
against Sri Lanka’s tiny Muslim
population, the second largest
minority after Tamils.
Nearly 70% of the island’s
population is Buddhist and the
monks, who hold huge sway,
have generally opposed any political concessions to Tamils.
The mounting opposition
from the Buddhist clergy is seen
as a challenge to Sirisena, also
a Buddhist from the Sinhalese
majority, who is committed to
ethnic unity.
Hardline Sinhalese oppose a
federal system that would ensure
more political power for Tamil
Sri Lankans.
The island’s Tamils took
up arms in 1972 against
what they claimed was entrenched discrimination in
Monk Maagalkande Sudaththa speaks during a press conference in
Colombo yesterday.
Lanka mulls taxing
vacant land to help
curb dengue spread
Hasina
unveils
postage
stamps on
1971 war
IANS
Colombo
By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka
T
B
angladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, at the
outset of weekly cabinet
meeting yesterday, unveiled 71
commemorative postage stamps
and the First Day Covers with
photos of genocide and war
crimes of the Pakistani army and
their local collaborators carried
out during the Liberation War
in 1971.
On the occasion, a short video
documentary on the genocide
and war crimes of the Pakistani
occupation forces and their local
collaborators was also displayed.
The cabinet approved two
proposals for observing the December 9 as the International
Anti-Corruption Day while April
6 as International Sports Day.
education and employment.
These grievances expanded
into a full-fledged war with the
Tamil Tigers, a guerrilla rebel
group, eventually controlling a
third of Sri Lanka before being
crushed in May 2009.
The brutal suppression of the
Tigers movement caught civilians in the crossfire, with government forces accused of war
crimes including the murder of
at least 40,000 Tamil civilians.
Sirisena was elected to power
partly on the back of support
from Tamils, after he pledged
reconciliation and promised
investigations into war-time
atrocities.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina unveiling 1971 commemorative postage stamps and the First Day Covers
with photos of genocide and war crimes of the Pakistani army and their local collaborators yesterday. On
her right is Tarana Halim, state minister of the post and telecommunications division.
Briefing reporters after the
meeting, Cabinet Secretary
Shafiul Alam said the proposals
were separately proposed by the
cabinet division and the ministry
of youth and sports respectively.
He said the cabinet also approved proposals for the inclu-
sion of the two days in the ‘Kha’
category of the gazette notification of the cabinet division regarding observation of various
national and international days.
The cabinet meeting also endorsed the draft of an agreement
to be signed between Bangladesh
and Sri Lanka on visa exemption of diplomatic and official
passport holders.
The cabinet was apprised
about the recent of visits of
various Bangladesh delegations
to various countries to attend
various crucial meetings.
he Sri Lankan government yesterday said it
would impose a new
tax on abandoned land in the
Western Province to help curb
the spread of dengue fever,
which has claimed 225 lives.
Western Province Chief
Minister Isuru Dewapriya said
a 2% tax would be charged on
the total value of the abandoned land from its owners in
order to curb the spread of the
mosquito-borne disease.
The epidemiology unit of Sri
Lanka said that to date, 80,732
people had been infected with
dengue and approximately
43.22% of dengue cases were
reported from the Western
province.
This is the worst ever den-
gue outbreak to hit the island
country, health workers said.
“A 2% tax would be
charged on the total
value of the abandoned
land from its owners in
order to curb the spread
of the mosquito-borne
disease”
“This situation warrants
regular removal of possible
mosquito breeding sites from
the environment. It is also
important to seek medical attention in the event of fever
by day three of the illness,” the
epidemiology unit said.
The government has already
deployed 400 soldiers and
police officers to clear away
rotting garbage, stagnant water pools and other potential
mosquito-breeding grounds
throughout the country.
The navy is also presently
engaged in clearing waterways
in capital Colombo from garbage which has been hindering
the free flow of water.
The number of infected people with dengue nationwide is
already 38% higher than last
year, when 55,150 people were
diagnosed with dengue and 97
died, according to the health
ministry.
Both local and state hospitals
have been overcrowded with
patients leading to a shortage
of beds prompting the army to
build two temporary wards at
the Negombo Base Hospital,
just outside the capital.
President
Maithripala
Sirisena has urged public and
private sectors as well as politicians to join hands in fulfilling
their respective duties to combat the spread of dengue virus
around the country.
Nepal team to visit India for new tax regime talks
Court orders
reinstatement
C
of mutiny force
IANS
Kathmandu
By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka
T
he Bangladesh High
Court yesterday directed the government to reinstate those Ansar
members who were earlier
sacked from their duties following Ansar mutiny in 1994
considering their appropriate age-limit and physical
capacity.
After the final hearings on
two writ petitions, the court
also ordered the authorities
concerned to bring the other
Ansar members who went beyond the age-limit of government services under pension
scheme.
A two-member bench of Justice Sheikh Hasan Arif and Justice Mohamed Badruzzaman
passed the order.
Ansar is a paramilitary auxiliary force responsible for
preservation of internal security and law enforcement
in Bangladesh. It is administered by the ministry of home
affairs of the government of
Bangladesh.
The name originates from
the Arabic word of ‘ansar’,
which denotes a ‘helper’.
In 1994, a mutiny over low
pay and several other demands
broke out among members of
Ansar.
The army along with the
then Bangladesh Rifles or BDR
had to be called in to tackle the
situation when several Ansar
members fled.
Following the mutiny, the
home ministry reinstated
some of the 2,696 members
of the force. A total of 2,496
Ansar members were sacked
and prosecuted for criminal
charges.
A petition to the president
by those who had been acquitted failed to evoke any response then.
Yesterday’s order by Justice
Arif and Justice Badruzzaman
came after disposing of two
previous rules issued on the
matter.
The court said those who
have not reached their retirement age and are physically able must be reinstated
while others will be entitled to
pensions.
In a previous order on April
13, the same High Court bench
ruled in favour of 289 Ansar
personnel.
Following that order,
1,447 sacked Ansar members, who were acquitted
of mutiny charges, filed
two writ petitions with the
court.
After hearing the petitions,
the High Court issued a rule
on April 25 asking why their
removal will not be declared
illegal, which was disposed of
on Monday.
Those who will be reinstated will get paid after joining work and those who have
reached the retirement age
will get pensions, said Jahangir Hossain, one of the
lawyers representing the
Ansar members.
oncerned about the apprehended impact on
Nepal’s commercial and
trading activity due to the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) in India, a highlevel government delegation
from Nepal will be holding talks
with Indian government officials
in New Delhi today.
A 15-20 member team, led by
Ravi Shankar Sainju, joint secretary in the commerce ministry,
will be visiting India to discuss
the new tax system in relation
to the bilateral trade and transit
treaty between the two countries, the Kathmandu Post reported.
The delegation will also include officials from the ministries of foreign affairs and finance.
“Although we are yet to see
the actual impact of the GST
recently imposed by India, the
(Nepal) government has targeted
to address the problems that the
traders are reported to have been
facing following the GST implementation,” Sainju said.
According to the bilateral
treaty governing trade and transit, “Goods intended for import
into or export from the territories of either contracting party
from or to a third country shall
be accorded freedom of transit
through the territories of the
other party.”
“No distinction shall be made
which is based on the flag of vessels, the place of origin, departure, entry and exit destination
or ownership of goods.”
Despite this provision in the
treaty, traders and freight forwarders have been complaining about a slowdown in export
and import of goods to and from
third countries via India during
last week in the wake of the Indian government enforcing GST,
the report said.
According to Nepali traders
and freight forwarders, authori-
ties at Kolkata Port earlier used
to impose 15% logistic service
charge on goods imported from
third countries. With the GST
coming into effect, that charge
has been raised to 18%.
“Although the GST should
not affect Nepal’s trade, with the
confusion among the officials at
the implementation level, Nepali
traders could have been facing
problems,” said Sainju, adding
that the ministry will finalise the
main issues to be discussed in the
meeting with Indian officials.
Sopranos actor
kicks off Nepal fire
truck expedition
AFP
Kathmandu
S
opranos star Michael
Imperioli kicked off an
expedition
yesterday
that will see a motley crew of
celebrities drive 10 fire trucks
on Nepal’s hair-raising roads
for charity.
Imperioli and around two
dozen other celebrities – including actor Malcolm McDowell and British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes – will drive 480km
(300 miles) from the India-Nepal border in November to the
capital where the trucks will be
donated to Kathmandu’s fire
brigade.
“I got involved in the project
first of all because I just think
it’s a great idea. I think it’s
going to save lives and save
properties and bring benefit to
a lot of people,” Imperioli said.
The Emmy Award-winning
actor was joined at Kathmandu’s
Boudhanath Stupa yesterday
by Nepali Bollywood star Sunil
Thapa and one of the donated
fire engines.
The truck – gifted by the Japanese government – was driven
about the revered Buddhist sight
as worshippers made their early
morning offerings at the stupa.
The fire department in
earthquake-prone
Kathmandu – a city of 2.5mn – is
poorly equipped with just three
functioning fire engines.
“Every day we are facing
problems regarding the fire
and rescue services because we
don’t have new fire trucks and
we don’t have adequate equipment,” said Kathmandu fire chief
Kishor Kumar Bhattarai.
Six fire engines, one ladder
truck, two front-loader trac-
Michael Imperioli and Nepali Bollywood star Sunil Thapa, left, talk at the Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu yesterday.
tors and a fire command vehicle, mostly donated by fire departments in the United States,
will be commandeered by the
celebrities for the charity drive.
The project is the brainchild of
German watchmaker and twotime Everest summiteer Michael
Kobold, who initially planned
to drive one fire engine over the
Himalayas with Sopranos actor
James Gandolfini.
Gandolfini died in 2013 and a
devastating earthquake hit Nepal
two years later, forcing Kobold to
delay the project.
“James Gandolfini passed
away and then the earthquake
struck in 2015 and that’s when all
of my friends said we’re going to
come with you and deliver this
fire truck,” Kobold said.
“Then we had too many people for one fire truck so we just
kept getting more fire trucks.”
Kobold hopes the initiative
will spur further donations to
bolster Nepal’s fire departments.
The impoverished Himalayan
country has a poor fire safety
record with many buildings falling short of basic fire safety
standards.
Nepal is also occasionally hit
by devastating wildfires, mostly
in the lowlands that border India.
18
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
COMMENT
Chairman: Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah
Editor-in-Chief: Faisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka
Deputy Managing Editor: K T Chacko
P.O.Box 2888
Doha, Qatar
[email protected]
Telephone 44350478 (news),
44466404 (sport), 44466636 (home delivery)
Fax 44350474
GULF TIMES
Draw with Lions
points to waning
All Blacks powers
“That’s it, the hooter went a while ago,” the television
match official told the referee as a confused hush
descended over Eden Park. The third Test between the
All Blacks and British and Irish Lions had ended in a 1515 draw with the series tied 1-1.
It was a result no one wanted.
Not the 48,000 fans clad in red and black who had
shouted themselves hoarse at Eden Park, not the
millions more watching around the world on television,
nor the more than 50 players who battled it out over
three epic test matches.
The Lions will go home happiest after coming so
close to performing the Herculean task of beating the
most dominant team of the modern era twice at home
to match their predecessors of 1971 in winning a series
in New Zealand.
All Blacks captain Kieran Read said it was
“heartwrenching” and the world champions had
some reason for grievance after referee Romain Poite
backtracked on the award of a late penalty that surely
would have given them victory.
It was only the second drawn series in more than a
century of Lions tours, the 1955 tourists also shared
a series with the Springboks, and All Blacks coach
Steve Hansen suggested it was not an unreasonable
conclusion.
Lions coach Warren Gatland said he thought drawing
with the back-to-back world champions in their own
backyard was an “unbelievable achievement” for his
players, especially as so many people had predicted a
3-0 blackwash.
“I think both teams would have been frustrated but if
you’d said six weeks ago come to New Zealand and get a
draw, you’d have taken
that,” he said. “The
result is probably a fair
reflection of where the
tour is at.”
It was a third
thunderous contest in
three weeks. Almost
every inch of progress
was hard-earned, the
tackles flew in and
players were back and forth off the field for concussion
tests with troubling regularity.
Meanwhile, Clive Woodward, the coach who helped
England win the World Cup in 2003, feels the All
Blacks no longer are invincible.
“The aura of an unbeatable New Zealand rugby
team is no longer a psychological barrier for northern
hemisphere sides following the tied series with the
Lions,” he said, adding that the ‘genie is out of the
bottle’ with regards to the unbeatable All Blacks.
Woodward, who was knighted for his guiding
England to a thrilling victory in the 2003 World Cup,
puts forward as evidence the All Blacks historic defeat
by Ireland last year and then being held by the Lions
when everything was in their favour.
“The genie is out of the bottle – a new generation of
British and Irish players will no longer be intimidated
mentally by playing New Zealand.”
If Woodward’s assessment is correct, the All Blacks
will have their work cut out at the next Rugby World
Cup to be held in Japan in 2019.
Lions coach
Warren Gatland
said it was an
“unbelievable
achievement” for
his players
To Advertise
[email protected]
Display
Telephone 44466621 Fax 44418811
Classified
Telephone 44466609 Fax 44418811
Subscription
[email protected]
2017 Gulf Times. All rights reserved
West cannot afford to
ignore Iraq once again
Although IS’s so-called
caliphate, Mosul, has
fallen, it would be
a mistake to expect
harmony in northern Iraq
any time soon
By Ranj Alaaldin
London
T
he liberation of Mosul is
complete. Islamic State (IS)
is unlikely to again govern
and control large swaths of
territory in the near future. While
the past three years of war have been
brutal, there will be some justice and
respite for those who have lost friends
and family to IS, as well as for the
broader Iraqi population that has had
to put up with it and its ilk for more
than a decade.
However, while there is some
reason to celebrate, the end of
the so-called caliphate does not
mean the end of IS: the militant
organisation still controls
strategically important, if smaller,
patches of territory in places such
as Hawija and Tal Afar, and will
continue to enjoy the infrastructure
that will allow it to continue terrorist
attacks in the country. To make the
liberation of Mosul count, the Iraqi
government will now have to take
on the more difficult long-term
challenge of confronting militant
groups by way of reconstructing
the country and reconciling its
communities and political factions.
The war on IS has resulted in a
far-reaching humanitarian crisis.
Multiple Iraqi towns and cities have
been destroyed during the course of
the military campaign, more than
3mn people have been displaced and
11mn require assistance, according
to international organisations.
Rehabilitating local communities
and economies, and bridging the
differences between and among the
diverse sections of Iraqi society is
fundamental to ensuring IS does
not enjoy the space and structural
conditions that enable it to mobilise
supporters and resources.
But will the government make
the most of this opportunity? This
is, after all, a political class that has
received billions of dollars in support
and investment from the international
community over the past decade, yet
has little to show for it.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi
should be commended for his
composure and conciliatory style
of government since replacing the
controversial former prime minister
Nouri al-Maliki in 2014. However,
the prospects for stability are reduced
by both the lack of a framework that
could reconcile differences among the
political class and the heavy build-up
of disparate, rival actors in and around
Mosul.
IS and other militant groups will
thrive unless credible, legitimate
and viable governing structures are
established. Iraq’s Arab Sunnis must
never again have to be stuck between,
on the one hand, a government
perceived to be sectarian and whose
sanctioning of Shia militias and
neglect of northern Iraq has confirmed
such fears and, on the other, militant
groups that exploit these fears to swell
their ranks.
Northern Iraq is now dominated
by Shia militia groups aligned
with Iran (among them groups
that have fought the Iraqi army in
the past). They have repeatedly
challenged the federal government
and will represent a continuing
problem for the Iraqi state. But
Iraq’s Iran-aligned Shia militias
are not going anywhere – they
have capitalised on the war on
IS to establish themselves in
northern Iraq, particularly in Tal
Afar, which both lies close to key
disputed territories and constitutes
an important transit point for
reinforcing fighters and supplies
in Syria (where Iraq’s Shia militias
and the Iranian regime are fighting in
support of the Assad regime).
The presence of these groups
does not bode well for Iraq’s crisis of
authority and governance. They are
feared by local Arab Sunni populations
because of their sectarian atrocities
and human-rights abuses. And it is
unclear what form of political and
administrative structure will replace
IS and address the concerns and
grievances of the local population.
Viable local government is not
just a matter of security but is also
fundamental to reconstruction
efforts and the international support
on which it depends. There will
not be another chance for Iraq
unless it begins to make the colossal
investment count.
Amid the crisis in Baghdad, a
thriving civil society has emerged in
recent years that may represent the
country’s best (and only) hope for
the future. Iraq’s civil society has
braved militants, Shia militias and
the corrupt elite to do its utmost to
foster pluralism and co-existence,
and is attempting to hold the elite to
account. Its people are better placed
to do so than outside actors but lack
sufficient support internationally.
Indeed, while the west is grappling
with its own challenges at home,
that does not mean it should allow
Iraq to fall off the radar, as it did
before, in the years preceding the
emergence of the so-called caliphate
(the consequences of which have
now been felt globally).
Many of Iraq’s problems are
attributable to the failures of the
international community. Long-term,
proactive and creative engagement
with the Iraqi state and population
could reduce the space that groups
such as ISIS or Shia militias beholden
to foreign interests enjoy. Where the
US and its allies disengage, it is often
its enemies that prosper, and the
moderate, reformist Iraqis that suffer.
- Guardian News & Media
zRanj Alaaldin is a visiting fellow at
the Brookings Institution in Doha
After Mosul’s liberation, celebrations should mark the start of a new phase in Iraq’s history.
Asia’s unhappy anniversary
By Barry Eichengreen
Aix En Provence
T
his month marks the 20th
anniversary of the Asian
financial crisis – or, more
precisely, of the event that
triggered the crisis: the devaluation
of Thailand’s baht. While such
anniversaries are not exactly cause
for celebration, they at least afford an
opportunity to look back and examine
what has changed – and, no less
important, what hasn’t.
The causes of the crisis were
contested at the time, and they
remain contested to this day. Western
observers placed the blame on Asian
countries’ lack of transparency and
on overly close relations between
firms and governments – what they
described as “crony capitalism.”
Asian commentators, for their part,
blamed hedge funds for destabilising
regional financial markets and the
International Monetary Fund for
prescribing a course of treatment that
nearly killed the patient.
There is some validity to both
viewpoints. The Bank of Thailand’s
published balance sheet wildly
exaggerated its available foreignexchange reserves – hardly a shining
example of financial transparency.
Foreign speculators actively bet
against the baht, and the short sellers
included not just hedge funds but
also investment banks, including one
that was simultaneously advising the
Thai government on how to defend its
currency. And when counselling Asian
countries on how to manage the crisis,
the IMF erred – not for the last time,
it should be noted – in the direction of
too much fiscal austerity.
At a more fundamental level, the
crisis reflected the mismatch between
Asia’s historic growth model and its
current circumstances. That model
emphasised stable exchange rates,
which were seen as necessary for
the expansion of exports. It stressed
investment – however much was
required for double-digit growth. And
it encouraged foreign borrowing as
needed to finance the requisite level of
capital formation.
But by 1997 the Southeast Asian
economies had reached a stage of
development at which brute-force
investment alone was no longer
enough to sustain high growth rates.
In relying on foreign borrowing, their
growth model neglected the risks.
External forces, meanwhile,
compounded the problem. South
Korea’s admission to the OECD
required its government to dismantle
capital controls, exposing the
economy to inflows of short-term
“hot money.” More generally,
countries felt pressure from the
IMF and the US Treasury to remove
capital-flow restrictions, which
magnified the risks and made
maintaining pegged exchange rates
still more problematic.
This sketch of the crisis highlights
how much has changed over the
subsequent 20 years.
For starters, the crisis countries
have ratcheted down their investment
rates and growth expectations to
sustainable levels. Asian governments
still emphasise growth, but not at any
cost.
Second, Southeast Asian countries
now have more flexible exchange rates.
None is perfectly flexible, to be sure,
but the region’s governments have
at least abandoned the rigid dollar
pegs that were the source of such
vulnerability in 1997.
Third, countries like Thailand that
were running large external deficits,
heightening their dependence on
foreign finance, are now running
surpluses. Running surpluses has
helped them accumulate foreignexchange reserves, which serve as a
form of insurance.
Fourth, Asian countries are now
working together to ring-fence the
region. In 2000, in the wake of the
crisis, they created the Chiang Mai
Initiative, a regional network of financial
credits and swaps. And now they have
the Asian Infrastructure Investment
Bank to regionalise the provision of
development finance as well.
These initiatives can be understood
as a reaction to Asia’s unhappy
experience with the IMF. More
fundamentally, they reflect the
emergence of China. In 1997, a China
still uncertain of its regional role was
not a vocal supporter of the Japanese
plan for an Asian Monetary Fund. Its
lack of support ultimately sealed the
fate of that proposal.
Subsequently, China’s growing
self-confidence and leadership helped
to spearhead regional institution
building and cooperation. This
change, occurring against the
backdrop of 20 years of robust Chinese
growth, is the most consequential
change affecting Asia since the crisis.
But if the emergence of China
signifies how much has changed, it is
also a reminder of how much remains
the same. China is still wedded to a
model that prioritises a target rate
of growth, and it still relies on high
investment to hit that target. The
government maintains liquidity
provision at whatever levels are
needed to keep the economic engine
humming, in a manner dangerously
reminiscent of what Thailand was
doing before its crisis.
Because China’s government
relaxed restrictions on offshore
borrowing faster than was prudent,
Chinese enterprises with links to the
government have high levels of foreign
debt. And there is still a reluctance to
let the currency float, something that
would discourage Chinese firms from
accumulating such large foreigncurrency-denominated obligations.
China is now at the same point as
its Southeast Asian neighbours 20
years ago: like them, it has outgrown
its inherited growth model. We have
to hope that Chinese leaders have
studied the Asian crisis. Otherwise
they are doomed to repeat it. – Project
Syndicate
zBarry Eichengreen is a professor at
the University of California, Berkeley,
and the University of Cambridge.
His latest book is Hall of Mirrors:
The Great Depression, the Great
Recession, and the Uses – and Misuses
– of History.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
19
COMMENT
How to get China to rein in Kim
By Doug Bandow
Los Angeles Times
E
ven when President Donald
Trump has a good idea, he
doesn’t stick with it long
enough. Like pushing China
on North Korea.
Of North Korea, said candidate
Trump: “We should put pressure
on China to solve the problem.” As
president, he initially placed the issue
front and centre in the US-China
relationship.
But a couple of months later, Trump
appears to have lost hope in Beijing.
“While I greatly appreciate the efforts
of President Xi & China to help with
North Korea, it has not worked out. At
least I know China tried,” he tweeted
recently.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesman responded that his
nation had “played an important and
constructive role” in promoting peace
on the Korean peninsula. Exactly how
the People’s Republic of China helped
is unclear, however. It cut back on
coal purchases, but other commerce
with North Korea continues. The
Trump administration asked the Xi
government to act against 10 firms and
individuals who trade with the North,
but is still waiting for action.
Proponents of “the China card”
imagine Beijing cutting off trade.
Having just returned from Pyongyang
– the North Korean government
invited me but the Cato Institute paid
my expenses – I found both energy
and food to be in seeming good supply.
Despite reports that gasoline prices
have increased, there was no visual
evidence of a shortage.
An undefined diplomatic duty
won’t prompt China to act. The
Trump administration must therefore
convince Xi’s government that
punishing North Korea benefits China.
Which means Washington must take
Military strikes might not destroy the North’s main nuclear assets and probably would trigger a second Korean War.
into account Beijing’s interests.
First, Chinese officials have
long blamed the US for adopting a
threatening policy, which spurred
the North to build nuclear weapons.
Thus, Washington should work with
South Korea and Japan to develop
a package of benefits – economic
assistance, security assurances,
diplomatic recognition and more – to
offer in return for denuclearisation,
and present it to Beijing, then to the
Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea.
Second, China fears a messy
collapse if the DPRK refuses to disarm.
Nightmares of millions of refugees
crossing the Yalu River, factional
conflict in Pyongyang, combat
among competing military units
spilling across the border, and loose
nukes have created a strong Chinese
preference for the status quo.
The US needs to emphasise that the
present situation is also dangerous
and discuss how the allies are prepared
to assist with any ill consequences. A
commitment to help care for refugees
and accept Chinese intervention in
the North, for instance, might help
assuage Beijing’s concerns.
Third, Beijing does not want
to facilitate Korean reunification,
creating a larger and stronger state
allied with the US and leaving
American troops on the Yalu, or even
farther down the peninsula. Among
the issues worth discussing: respect
for Chinese economic interests in
North Korea, withdrawal of US forces
after reunification, and military
nonalignment of a unified Korea.
Fourth, the US could offer
additional positive incentives.
Trade, Taiwan and territorial issues
all provide areas where Washington
could offer specific concessions in
return for Beijing’s assistance. That
obviously would increase the price
of any agreement, but the US has to
decide how far it will go to promote
denuclearisation.
Of course, such an approach leaves
much to be desired. Even if Kim Jongun’s government accepted benefits in
exchange for disarmament, human
rights abuses could still continue. Or
Pyongyang might refuse and survive,
leaving an even more dangerous and
impoverished nuclear nation. In the
event of government collapse, China
might resurrect the DPRK, only with
more pliable rulers.
However, there are no better
options. Military strikes might not
destroy the North’s main nuclear
assets and probably would trigger
a second Korean War, which would
result in horrific death and destruction
even for the “victors.” Targeting
Chinese firms would damage relations
with Beijing without necessarily
significantly weakening Pyongyang.
People look longingly to Beijing only
because enlisting China’s help appears
to be the best of several bad options.
If there ever were a time to
secure Chinese co-operation, it is
now. Trump and Xi appear to have
established a positive relationship.
The tragic death of Otto Warmbier
after his release by Pyongyang adds
urgency to efforts to address North
Korea. Moreover, in Pyongyang I saw
no visible signs of the warm friendship
that officially exists between North
Korea and China. In fact, North Korean
officials said they wanted to reduce their
dependence on “any one nation.”
Winning Chinese assistance remains
a long shot, but Trump should put his
self-proclaimed negotiating skills to
work. There is no alternative, other
than accepting North Korea as a nuclear
state, which Trump presumably does
not want as his foreign policy legacy. –
Tribune News Service
zDoug Bandow is a senior fellow at
the Cato Institute and a former special
assistant to President Reagan. He is
the author of Tripwire: Korea and US
Foreign Policy in a Changed World and
co-author of The Korean Conundrum:
America’s Troubled Relations with
North and South Korea. He wrote this
for the Los Angeles Times.
Trump’s press-bashing is historically undignified Weather report
Three-day forecast
TODAY
By Dan K. Thomasson
Washington
L
yndon Johnson could be
vulgar to the extreme, giving
interviews while sitting on
the toilet with the door open,
pulling up dogs by their ears, exposing
his stomach to show a scar from an
operation.
The Kennedys were notorious
for their fickleness when it came to
the press, courting favourites, then
dismissing or ostracising them at the
first sign of criticism or disagreement.
They hid their dedication to
philandering behind a facade of good
will. Woodrow Wilson, dismissive
of the press at times, also worked to
court favour with powerful publishers
like E W Scripps.
Dwight Eisenhower and Barrack
Obama were aloof. George HW Bush
was condescending, beneath it all a
president raised in an atmosphere
of snobbery – not unlike Thomas
Jefferson, who despite his upbringing
saw the absolute importance of a free
press.
All these men and indeed every
president until now have had two things
in common. They tried as hard as they
could to manage the flow of news and
those who control it while at the same
time openly reaffirming their belief
in the Fourth Estate no matter how
frustrated they were by its zealousness.
None of them condemned the entire
institution as has the current occupant
of the Oval Office.
Why? Because they swore to
defend the Constitution, whose First
Amendment has guided the United
States since the beginning. Even
more important, they understood
that curtailing the people’s right to
know is the first objective of every
authoritarian government. Once a free
press goes away, the rest of bedrock
liberty – freedom of religion, speech
and peaceable assembly – soon
disappears too.
In the months Donald Trump has
called himself president, evidence
has piled up indicating he not only
is unaware of his responsibilities to
the Constitution but that he is fully
capable of shredding the dignity of
the office he holds to get his way. His
recent video-attack showing him as
a wrestler undoing a nemesis, CNN,
was a silly and sophomoric attempt
to play to the mob that elected him
and stimulated his campaign rallies
with “lock her up” cries befitting the
French Revolution.
What really seems to be occurring
in this display of little boy pique with
its “fake news” theme is an attempt
to distract Americans from a lack of
campaign-promised achievement and
understanding of the job.
But when do verbal attacks cross
into “kill the messenger” territory? It’s
worth asking in this age of unfettered
firearms and online hate. One need
only think of the violence committed
against journalists around the world to
imagine the worst.
Every American understood Harry
Truman’s threat to thrash a critic
whose opinion of his daughter’s
singing was less than kind. It was a
father defending his daughter. But
there is no comparison here with
Trump’s diatribes.
In 65 years in journalism, I have
tried to treat criticism as the right
of the reader and to admit mistakes
High: 43 C
Low : 33 C
openly. I have been sued only once,
and the judge directed a verdict of
innocence. I truly believe that most
of the men and women who have
been my colleagues have diligently
tried to hold themselves to the same
standards.
At the same time, I am not naive to
the fact that we are not perfect in our
effort to be the watchdogs of liberty.
Our opinions do creep into our news
columns, we are shrill and sometimes
unfair in our dislikes, and yes, we’re
even frequently guilty of political bias.
But flawed or not, we are necessary
to a free society.
Trump should get on with the
business of trying to run the country,
accepting criticism for what it is,
perhaps even showing some civility
and dignity in the process. Those two
traits, above all others, are absolutely
necessary for holding the nation’s top
office. – Tribune News Service
zDan Thomasson is an op-ed
columnist for Tribune News Service
and a former vice president of Scripps
Howard Newspapers. Readers may send
him e-mail at [email protected]
Inshore: Hazy to misty/foggy at
places at first becomes hot daytime
with some couds and relatively
humid by night.
WEDNESDAY
High: 43 C
Low: 33 C
Sunny
THURSDAY
High: 44 C
Low: 32 C
Sunny
Fishermen’s forecast
OFFSHORE DOHA
Wind: SW-SE 03-12 KT
Waves: 01-03 Feet
INSHORE DOHA
Wind: NW-NE 07-18 KT
Waves: 1-2 Feet
Around the region
Abu Dhabi
Baghdad
Dubai
Kuwait City
Manama
Muscat
Riyadh
Tehran
Live issues
Weather
today
Sunny
Cloudy
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
M Sunny
M Sunny
M Sunny
Max/min
40/33
47/30
41/33
51/37
43/34
37/33
47/32
39/24
Weather
tomorrow
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Cloudy
Cloudy
Sunny
M Sunny
M Sunny
Max/min
41/34
46/29
43/35
48/33
41/34
38/33
46/31
34/23
Weather
tomorrow
Sunny
Sunny
S T Storms
Rain
Sunny
Sunny
S T Storms
T Storms
S T Storms
P Cloudy
P Cloudy
S T Storms
P Cloudy
T Storms
Showers
T Storms
S T Storms
Rain
P Cloudy
P Cloudy
S T Storms
Showers
Clear
Max/min
38/25
32/27
33/26
20/12
40/24
17/09
29/27
29/25
31/27
30/20
32/25
31/28
22/13
31/26
22/16
31/25
32/24
23/13
22/12
31/23
30/26
14/07
32/23
Pet owners likely to find ticks on themselves
By Carolyn Crist
Reuters Health
H
aving a pet dog or cat more
than doubles the odds that
humans will find a tick on
themselves, and that could
raise the risk of contracting tick-borne
diseases like Lyme, researchers say.
“Ticks can transmit disease to
people and their pets, particularly
in the warmer months when they
are most active,” said lead study
author Erin Jones of the Maryland
Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene in Baltimore.
Jones’ team analysed data collected
by a US Centres for Disease Control
and Prevention initiative called
TickNET, which aims to prevent tickborne diseases across the country.
Lyme disease is the most common
such disease in the US; the risk of
exposure is highest in northeastern
states, the researchers write in
Zoonoses and Public Health.
“Preventing tick bites by avoiding
wooded and brushy areas with high
grass and leaf litter, appropriately
using repellents on skin and clothing,
and checking for ticks after going
outside are effective prevention
methods,” Jones said in an e-mail.
The researchers surveyed 2,727
households in three states where Lyme
disease is endemic: Connecticut,
Maryland and New York.
More than half of the households,
1,526, had a dog, a cat or both.
About 88% of these households
reported using some form of tick
control on their pets.
Overall, about 31% of pet owners
had found a tick crawling on a human
in the household and 19% of pet
owners had found a tick attached to a
human household member.
By comparison, about 20% of nonpet owning households found a tick
crawling on a human and 14% found a
tick attached to a human.
About 20% of pet-owning
households had found ticks on their
pets.
Finding a tick on a pet doubled the
likelihood of finding ticks crawling on
or attached to household members.
Owners still found ticks on their
pets when they used tick control
medication, the study authors note.
But the researchers found no
significant difference in tick-borne
diseases reported by pet owners and
non-owners — in each group, about
20% had had a verified tick-borne
illness.
Certain property characteristics,
such as having a vegetable garden,
compost pile, log pile, bird feeder,
stone walls and children’s play
equipment, were associated with
higher odds of finding ticks crawling
on, or attached to, human household
members.
“Lyme disease is getting more
attention because the number of
human cases has increased, and tick
habitats are changing as an indirect
consequence of climate change,”
said Dr Bruno Chomel, a veterinary
researcher at the University of
California, Davis who wasn’t involved
in the study.
“It makes sense that people who
have pets, especially dogs, are more
likely to be around fields or areas
where ticks could be hanging out,” he
told Reuters Health by phone. “Pets
can bring these parasites into the
human environment, especially if they
sit on couches or sleep in beds with
owners.”
One limitation of the study is that
tick control use was self-reported, so
the research team wasn’t sure whether
the owners applied the medication
accurately and consistently or what
brand was used.
In addition, the study group may
have been too small to detect an
increased risk of tick-borne diseases
when a household included pets, the
authors write.
“Pet owners are encouraged to
check their pets for ticks daily,
especially after they spend time
outdoors,” Jones told Reuters Health.
“Enjoy the outdoors, but prevent tick
bites on yourselves and your pets.”
Around the world
Athens
Beirut
Bangkok
Berlin
Cairo
Cape Town
Colombo
Dhaka
Hong Kong
Istanbul
Jakarta
Karachi
London
Manila
Moscow
New Delhi
New York
Paris
Sao Paulo
Seoul
Singapore
Sydney
Tokyo
Weather
today
Sunny
Sunny
S T Storms
S Showers
Sunny
M Sunny
S T Storms
T Storms
P Cloudy
Sunny
P Cloudy
S T Storms
Rain
T Storms
M Sunny
M Cloudy
S T Storms
Cloudy
Sunny
S Showers
S T Storms
M Sunny
Clear
Max/min
37/24
31/28
33/26
23/14
40/24
16/07
29/27
30/26
31/27
29/20
32/24
31/28
20/14
33/26
24/14
34/27
34/23
24/18
24/12
31/24
29/26
17/09
33/25
20
Gulf Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
QATAR
HE Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad al-Thani along with journalists and media professionals attending the unveiling of the
‘Tamim Al Majd’ mural at the QMC headquarters yesterday.
Journalists and media professionals writing messages on the ‘Tamim Al Majd’ mural.
Qatar Media Corporation
shows support to Emir
z Sheikh Abdulrahman
bin Hamad al-Thani rejects
blockade, muzzling of free
speech
I
n a show of support, solidarity and loyalty to His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad al-Thani, Qatar Media Corporation (QMC) unveiled
the ‘Tamim Al Majd’ mural at its
headquarters in Doha yesterday.
The event witnessed the participation of a large number of
journalists and media professionals who came to sign on the
mural and express their solidarity and firm stand with the Qatari
people in the Gulf crisis.
On this occasion, HE Sheikh
Abdulrahman bin Hamad al-Thani, CEO, QMC, said, “This is one
great demonstration of solidarity
and loyalty to His Highness the
Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad
al-Thani and also a demonstration of the social cohesion between Qataris and the residents.”
He said journalists and media professionals attended the
programme in good numbers
to express their rejection and
condemnation of the blockade
imposed on Qatar by its Gulf
neighbours.
Sheikh Abdulrahman added
that the ‘Tamim Al Majd’ mural
is displayed all over the country
and there is great enthusiasm
among the citizens as well as the
residents to sign and write messages to show their support to
the nation and its leadership.
Editors, broadcasters and media professionals who participated unanimously rejected the
blockade and expressed their
opposition to the policy of silencing public opinion, which
is followed in the siege countries. They also rejected the
“demands” submitted by the
blockading countries, especially
those directed towards curbing
the freedom of information and
expression.
‘Qatar’s pledge to fight terrorism far
exceeds that of any of siege nations’
Q
atar’s commitment to
and role in combating
terrorism far exceeds
that of any of the blockading
countries, the Qatari embassy in
Canada has stressed.
“Qatar regrets the siege countries’ fierce campaign, false accusations and lies attempting
to connect Qatar to any form of
terrorism,” the embassy said in a
statement, noting that the blockading countries – Saudi Arabia,
the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt failed to provide any evidence
to back the baseless allegations
against Qatar even a month after
imposing the blockade.
Qatar continues to strongly
believe in a diplomatic solution
and calls for a dialogue based
on clear principles to resolve
the ongoing Gulf crisis, but
only after the siege is lifted, the
statement points out.
“This dialogue should be based
on respect for the sovereignty of
Qatar and on the principles of international law, taking into consideration that dialogue and negotiations require a real will and
commitment by the other parties
as well as presenting evidence to
support any claims or demands
from Qatar.
“Qatar’s commitment to and
role in combating terrorism and
its financing far exceeds that
any of the blockading countries,” the statement stressed.
“This important role was once
again highlighted on July 7 by
US Secretary of Defense Jim
Mattis by emphasising the importance of Qatar’s contributions to the anti-ISIS coalition
and affirming the commitment
to continued US-Qatar co-operation and deepening the strategic partnership,” the embassy
noted.
The statement refers to Qatar’s position vis-à-vis the
blockade, the baseless allegations against it and the humanitarian implications of the siege.
Highlighting Qatar’s efforts
in combating terrorism, the
embassy said the country is a
proactive member in the fight
against terrorism and the drying
up of its sources of funding, and
has taken a number of measures
to address this issue.
Qatar hosts the US Central
Command, the base of the global coalition against ISIS and
all other terrorist groups. It has
also enacted counter-terrorism
laws, established a national
committee on terror financing
and countering terrorism, and
“Qatar regrets the
siege countries’ fierce
campaign, false
accusations and lies
attempting to connect
Qatar to any form of
terrorism”
never allows persons who support terrorism to stay in or pass
through its territories. Also,
Qatar’s banks never provide any
platform for the supply of funds
to terrorists, it observed.
“Successful mediation carried out by Qatar in several crises
in the region is solid evidence of
its effective contribution to the
security, stability in the region
and the world,” the embassy said,
adding that Qatar is a founding
member and funder of the Global Community Engagement and
Resilience Fund that is meant to
protect communities from violent extremism. Qatar extended an
invitation to host the fund’s next
board meeting in September 2017.
The embassy further notes that
Qatar also combats terrorism and
violent extremism through its
support of educational projects,
enhancing dialogue and religious
tolerance, propagating peace and
providing work opportunities for
the youth.
Qatar provides more than
300,000 jobs in North Africa to
fight the despair that surrounds
young people, and provides
education for 7mn children in
42 countries, thereby “replacing the weapon with a pen” and
teaching children not to fall into
joining extremist organisations,
noting that most of the children
in refugee camps receive their
education from institutions that
Qatar supports.
Also, Qatar’s major charity organisations that have been falsely accused of funding terrorism
implement projects in more than
70 countries in partnership with
the United Nations and prominent NGOs, where they apply
the best established financial
transparency standards, and use
internationally renowned audit
firms to monitor and report their
activities to the public. This is in
addition to registering all financial assistance and grants with
the Financial Tracking system
that is managed and operated by
the UN.
The statement also highlights
Qatar’s ‘Open Door policy’, noting that the country has mediated in nearly 10 regional and
international portfolios in less
than eight years (2008-2016).
Ooredoo shows support for Qatar’s leadership
O
oredoo has completed a
host of activities in order
to show the company’s
support for the leadership of
Qatar, including updating the
name of its network to ‘Tamim
Al Majd’ and installing canvases
of His Highness the Emir Sheikh
Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani at
Ooredoo’s HQ1 and HQ2.
To ensure that Ooredoo’s staff
and visitors can show their support for Qatar, the company has
installed a huge ‘Tamim Al Majd’
canvas at its HQ1 and HQ2 buildings. The display was unveiled in
the presence of senior management members, including Ooredoo chairman HE Sheikh Abdulla
bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani,
Group CEO Sheikh Saud bin
Nasser al-Thani and Ooredoo
Qatar CEO Waleed al-Sayed.
Ooredoo senior executives mark the occasion.
The event, which was documented for customers by the
Ooredoo social media team, saw
Ooredoo’s senior management be
the first to sign the HQ1 display.
Talking about the event and
activities, al-Sayed said: ‘As a
Qatari company, we are extremely proud of the way our customers and employees have supported Qatar and helped us show our
pride in our country’s leadership.
Gestures such as temporarily
changing our network name and
distributing Qatar-themed gifts
is our way of helping unite Qatar’s communities and we plan to
do more initiatives in the coming
weeks.”
Ooredoo announced an automatic update to its network, so
that it displays the words ‘Tamim
Al Majd’ (Tamim the glorious),
late Friday night, and the company “has seen great response
to the temporary initiative”,
according to a press statement.
Ooredoo has vowed to continue
to show its support for its country
through various activities involving local artist Ahmed bin Majed
Almaadheed’s iconic portrait of
His Highness the Emir.
It has exerted “strenuous diplomatic and political efforts at
the regional and international
levels in mediating between
factions, entities and countries,
with the request of the parties
concerned, and without interfering in the internal affairs of
others, with a view to achieve
convergence of views and find
sustainable solutions for conflicts and differences, which
resulted in several peaceful
settlements in both the Middle
East and Africa”.
Qatar doesn’t endorse any
political movement but simply
provides a platform for negotiations aimed at achieving peaceful resolutions that would otherwise be absent in the region,
and Qatar recognises a group as
terrorist once it has been designated by the United Nation Security Council or if there is proof
it has committed violence.
Also, Qatar’s success in playing this role of mediator or negotiator has always been with
the support of the international
community and in close coordination with its allies. The
statement points out that former
CIA director and retired US
General David Petraeus stated a
few days ago that Qatar’s hosting
of delegations from Hamas and
the Taliban was upon the request
of the US.
The Hamas representation in
Qatar is a political one, as some
of its leaders come from Gaza to
Doha to participate in negotiations aimed at national reconciliation in which Qatar plays
the role of mediator, the statement continues. “These negotiations are supported by the
international community and in
co-ordination with the US, as
Qatar does not support Hamas,
but supports the people in Gaza
and the unity of the Palestinian
people.”
Qatar hosted the Taliban office in Doha upon a request from
the US government and as part
of “Qatar’s open door policy to
facilitate talks, to mediate and to
bring peace, as Qatar was facilitating talks between the Americans, the Taliban and the Government of Afghanistan”.
Regarding Al Nusra Front and
how Qatar helped release a US
journalist held in custody, the
embassy stressed that dealing
with Al Nusra Front does not
mean Doha supports the outfit’s ideas. Qatar has only played
the mediator’s role in facilitating dialogue and has no direct
communication with the group.
The Muslim Brotherhood
group is not designated by Qatar as a terrorist organisation,
yet Qatar does not support this
group, as it does not exist in
Doha. The Muslim Brotherhood
is represented in several parliaments in the region, including in Bahrain, one of the siege
countries, which clearly reflects
a double standard when one of
the siege countries’ demands is
for Qatar to classify the Muslim
Brotherhood as a terrorist group.
The fact that Qatar doesn’t
support the Muslim Brotherhood group is clear in Qatar’s
policies towards both Egypt and
Tunisia, where Qatar supported
any individual that assumed the
presidency regardless of their
political affiliation.
Qatar’s willingness to assist
the global community in addressing different crises in the
region has not been hindered
by this crisis, as it hosted last
month the 10th meeting of the
major donors group for Syria.
Since the beginning of the crisis,
Qatari aid to the Syrian people
has reached more than $2bn, the
statement added.
(This statement was issued by
the Qatari embassy in Canda.)
QFSW staff sign on ‘Tamim Al Majd’ mural
Qatar Foundation for
Social Work (QFSW), whose
headquarters are located at
Tornado Tower in Al Dafna,
has set up a ‘Tamim Al Majd’
mural in the tower’s outer yard
to enable employees of the
foundation and its affiliated
centres to place an imprint,
sign or write something on it
to express their loyalty to and
support for the country and
His Highness the Emir Sheikh
Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
Amaal bint Abdullatif al-Mannai,
QFSW’s CEO, said: “Amid the
unjust attack that our beloved
country is witnessing, we
can only hold our heads high
and express our firm stance
towards our leader, ‘Tamim Al
Majd’. In Qatar, we follow the
words of our Emir…and also
affirm to everyone that we only
bow down to God Almighty.”
PICTURE: Thajudheen