INDEX

QATAR

3 5, 23, 24
6

REGION

7, 8

ARAB WORLD
INTERNATIONAL

9 20

21, 22

COMMENT
BUSINESS

1 4, 10 12

CLASSIFIED

59

SPORTS

1 12

SPORT | Page 1

Aviation industry
targets 1.5% fuel
efficiency a year

Xavi-less Al
Sadd on edge
ahead of
Mesaimeer
clash

AMERICA | Obituary

Musical maestro
Kurt Masur dies
Kurt Masur, the German conductor
who revitalised the New York
Philharmonic and played a
key role in peaceful protests in
Leipzig that paved the way for
the 1990 reunification of postwar
Germany, died in Greenwich,
Connecticut yesterday at age 88.
Masurs distinguished musical
career saw him rise from an
orchestra coach at a theatre in
communist East Germany to
roles including music director of
the New York Philharmonic and
principal conductor of the London
Philharmonic Orchestra.
EAST ASIA | Pageant

Spanish model claims

Miss World crown
Spanish model Mireia Lalaguna
was crowned Miss World 2015 after
beating out 113 contestants from
across the globe last night at a
coastal resort city in south Chinas
Hainan Province. The pharmacy
student from Barcelona claimed
the illustrious crown after winning
over the contests judges during
the 65th edition of the world
famous pageant in Chinas Sanya.
Page 13

34.55

+50.89
+0.52%

-0.40
-1.14%

in

Turkey yesterday said it would

continue to pull its troops
out of northern Iraq after US
President Barack Obama urged
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
to do so in order to de-escalate
tensions with Baghdad over the
deployment. Taking into account
the sensitivities on the Iraqi side...
Turkey will continue the process
it has already begun to withdraw
its troops stationed in Mosul
province, the foreign ministry said
in a statement.

9,912.92

-339.00
-1.95%

Heavy casualties
in Yemen fighting

Turkey announces
Iraq troop pullout

17,017.00

Star Wars fans raise their lightsabers during Lightsaber Battle LA in Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. Star
Wars: The Force Awakens raked in an estimated $120.5mn in its first full day in US and Canadian theatres, setting an industry
record, Disney said yesterday. The movie is likely to become the highest grossing film in an opening weekend, Disney added,
while reporting that it had already made $250mn globally. Page 10

SUNDAY

kidnapped Qatari citizens

H

E the Prime Minister and

Minister of Interior Sheikh
Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani held yesterday a telephone conversation with Iraqi Prime
Minister Dr Haider al-Abadi.
They discussed developments in
the kidnapping of Qatari citizens in
Iraq. HE the Prime Minister of Qatar
expressed his appreciation to the efforts of the Iraqi government in dealing with the situation. He expressed

his hope of securing the release of the

Qatari citizens as soon as possible.
For his part, Prime Minister alAbadi stressed that Iraqi security was
working on releasing the Qatari citizens.
Meanwhile, al-Abadi met in Baghdad with Qatars Assistant Foreign
Minister HE Mohamed bin Abdullah
al-Rumaihi.
Discussions during the meeting
dealt with the kidnapping of Qatari
nationals in Iraq, where HE Assistant
Foreign Minister expressed appreciation of the efforts of the Iraqi government to follow up the matter, hoping

that these efforts will contribute to

their release as soon as possible.
For his part, the Iraqi Prime Minister stressed that the competent security agencies are working hard for
their release.
The meeting was attended by Iraqi
Interior Minister Mohamed Salem
al-Ghabban, Iraqs National Security
Adviser Faleh al-Fayad, and a number
of Iraqi officials.
On the Qatari side, the meeting was
attended by Qatars ambassador to
Iraq Zayed bin Saeed al-Kharyeen and
the delegation accompanying HE the
Assistant Foreign Minister.

Beijing on
red alert
AFP
Beijing

eijing issued its second-ever

red alert for smog and put its
emergency response plan into
action once again as severe pollution
hit Chinas capital yesterday.
The notice from the capitals environmental bureau ordered factories to
close and pulled half of all private cars
off the streets, among other measures,
as bad air ooded into the city for the
third airpocalypse of the month.
The red alert, the highest tier of a
four-colour warning system, will last
until Tuesday, according to a statement on the Beijing Municipal Envi-

Steam rises behind a wall of the Forbidden City, once the home of Chinas
emperors, on a polluted day in Beijing yesterday.
ronmental Protection Bureaus website.
It is the second time the highest

Vol. XXXVI No. 9942

December 20, 2015

Rabia I 9, 1437 AH
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

The plan was described as

unrealistic by the Istanbul-based
National Coalition, the main Syrian
opposition grouping
AFP
Beirut

A
Talks on seeking release of
QNA
Doha/Baghdad

he R
is
bl TA 978
A 1
Q since

REGION | Conflict

ARAB WORLD | Unrest

NYMEX

Opposition
sceptical
over Syria
peace plan

In brief

Fierce fighting between

government forces and Iranbacked rebels in Yemen produced
heavy casualties yesterday amid
UN alarm at ceasefire violations
ahead of a final day of peace talks
in Switzerland. At least 68 people
were killed near the northern town
of Haradh, which was overrun by
loyalists on Thursday, military and
tribal sources said. The casualties
were 28 troops and 40 Shia Houthi
rebels, with another 50 Houthis
and 40 loyalists wounded. The UN
confirmed that today would be the
last day of the talks. Page 6

QE

Latest Figures

GULF TIMES
New Star Wars shines

DOW JONES

pu

BUSINESS | Page 12

level alert has been issued since the

city established a pollution warning
system in 2013. Page 13

UN-backed roadmap to end the

Syrian war was met with scepticism yesterday by members of
the countrys fractured opposition who
insist President Bashar al-Assad must
go to achieve peace.
The US and Russian initiative, unanimously approved by the UN Security
Council on Friday, foresees talks between the rebels and the regime and
a rapid ceasere, perhaps even next
month.
But the plan was described as unrealistic by the Istanbul-based National
Coalition, the main Syrian opposition
grouping.
The resolution undermines the
outcome of the meetings of revolutionary forces in Riyadh and waters down
previous UN resolutions concerning
a political solution in Syria, coalition
head Khaled Khoja said on Twitter.
Fellow coalition member Samir
Nashar said bombing by the regime
and Russia must stop for there to be a
sustainable ceasere, otherwise the
agreement is absolutely not applicate.
The Security Council met after the
latest round of talks by the International Syria Support Group (ISSG),
which had gathered in New York to renew its push for peace.
In January we hope and expect to be
at the table and to be able to implement
a full ceasere, US Secretary of State
John Kerry said.
And that means all the barrel bombs
will stop, all the bombing, all the
shooting, all the attacks on either side.
The US and Arab allies remain convinced Assad must leave office as part
of the process, but his allies Moscow
and Tehran insist this is a decision for
the Syrian people.
The resolution does not touch on
this vital issue.
We often hear the argument that
without resolving the Assad question,
it is impossible to truly co-ordinate in
the ght against terrorism, Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
This is a dangerous logic, a dangerous approach, RIA Novosti news agency quoted him as saying.
Kerry, who has agreed to disagree
with Moscow on Assads fate, emphasised that victory over the Islamic State

group hinges on a peaceful settlement

in the civil war.
We know that Daesh can never be
allowed to gain control in Syria so we
have a global imperative here to deal
with a terrorist entity but also to end
the civil war, he said, using an Arabic
acronym for IS.
He said Assad had lost the ability, the credibility to unite and govern
Syria.
But experts nevertheless see a narrowing of differences between the major powers.
The West and Russias position are
coming closer together, Alexander
Baunov, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said.
Russia would not have voted for a
resolution in which it would have been
written that Assad needs to step down.
The absence of Assad is a form of compromise to get the resolution through.
Karim Bitar, head of research at the
Institute for International and Strategic Affairs, described the UN-backed
plan as a very signicant rst step
but added that many ambiguities and
ulterior motives remain.
Sunni regional powers still fear that
this pragmatism perpetuates the status
quo and allows Assad to stay too long
during a transition period, he said.
The Security Council resolution calls
for free and fair elections supervised
by the UN within 18 months in which
all Syrians would be eligible to vote.
More than 250,000 people have died
since the conict erupted in March
2011, and millions more have ed their
homes.
Regime troops backed by Russian
warplanes have sought to wrest back
ground from Assads opponents in recent weeks.
They suffered a setback yesterday as
rebels managed to recapture a hilltop
overlooking a strategic highway in Assads coastal heartland, Latakia, just
days after they were forced to retreat.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 18 progovernment ghters and several rebels
were killed.
It also reported that Kurdish ghters
from the Peoples Protection Units yesterday agreed a ceasere with Islamist
militants in the Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood of Aleppo after three weeks
of clashes.
Dozens of people on both sides have
been killed in the ghting, which also
involved Al Qaedas Syria affiliate, Al
Nusra Front, in the northern citys
mostly-Kurdish district since it erupted at the end of November.

GCC visitors among National Day revellers

By Ayman Adly
Staff Reporter

large number of citizens, expatriates and foreign visitors

thronged the Corniche from the
afternoon until late at night on Friday
to express their love and loyalty for Qatar on the occasion of the National Day.
Earlier on Friday, the Corniche
played host to the annual National Day
parade, attended by VVIPs, dignitaries
and a number of Qatar inhabitants.
Among those who ocked to the
Corniche on Friday were several visitors from neighbouring GCC states.
They came in vehicles decorated with

the Qatari ag, along with images of

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and HH the Father Emir
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani as
well as verses expressing their pride in
taking part in the celebrations.
A number of vehicles bearing number
plates of the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait could be seen on
Corniche Street.
Traffic, meanwhile, was slow as hundreds of vehicles jostled for space along
the road. However, this did not deter
the crowds from participating in the
festivities.
Cars could be seen slowly making
their way through the congested stretch
even as children waved the Qatari ag

Traffic along the Corniche on Friday. Seen in the picture is a vehicle specially
decorated for the occasion. PICTURE: Thajudheen

and patriotic songs lled the air.

A reworks display lit up the night
sky over the Corniche, enthralling the
large crowds that had gathered there.
The revellers expressed joy at participating in the celebrations at the
Corniche and elsewhere in the country.
The festivities took place at various locations and highlighted the culture and
heritage of Qatar.
The tribes of Qatar organised distinguished events to mark the occasion
and express their pride at being part of
this country. Their celebrations were
held in pavilions set up especially for
the occasion and included recitation
of patriotic poems and the traditional
sword dance.

Traditional Arabic coffee was served

to guests along with exquisite varieties
of dates.
The tribesmen stressed the progress
achieved by the country in recent years
due to the wise leadership of HH the
Emir.
Meanwhile, expatriate communities
and government and private entities
took part in the celebrations with many
of them holding special events in order
to express their love and gratitude for
the country.
Despite the traffic jams, it was a
great occasion that affirmed the love
of the people for this country and their
strong condence in its leadership, a
resident said.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

QATAR
Ooredoo Group
selects GoSwiff
as global mobile
payments partner

Executives from public and private organisations in Qatar and the Middle East complete training programme on eMarketing in tourism recently.

Tourism sector executives attend

eMarketing training programme
M

ore than 70 executives

from public and private
organisations in Qatar
and the Middle East have completed the Regional Executive
Training Programme on eMarketing in tourism held recently.
Organised by Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) and conducted by the United Nations
World Tourism Organisation
(UNWTO) and its Themis Foundation, the three-day training
provided participants with international expertise in tourism
eMarketing.
The programme also included a conference and two-day
workshop held in both English
and Arabic. The course aimed

to equip tourism sector officials

and professionals across Qatar and the Mena region with
knowledge, capacity and skills in
eMarketing.
Mohamed al-Mahmeed, head
of Tourism Investment Promotion at QTA, said they had jointly
trained close to 600 industry professionals from across the region
in various aspects in tourism.
Our aim is to empower the private sector and equip them with
tools such as best practices and a
platform for knowledge sharing,
so that they are better able to diversify and promote a sustainable
tourism sector, he said.
Al-Mahmeed added that QTA
is also working to position Qatar

as the regional hub for tourism

education in the Gulf.

Our aim is to empower the

private sector and equip
them with tools such as best
practices and a platform
for knowledge sharing, so
that they are better able to
diversify and promote a
sustainable tourism sector
Faisal al-Nuaimi, director
general of Tourism Development
at the Tourism Development Department of Ajman, UAE, noted
that the course has shown how
much Qatar is doing to support
the tourism sector with UNWTO taking the country as a

case-study in developing tourism through marketing and social media.

UNWTO studies show that
the expansion of new technologies has transformed the tourism
sector in unprecedented ways,
presenting immense opportunities as well as great challenges
for the public and private tourism sectors that need to keep up
with constantly changing and
competitive environment.
The course provided a platform for participants to examine
the latest developments and best
practices in eMarketing, including social media and content
marketing. They were also introduced to a step-by-step process

for developing an eMarketing

strategy in tourism, in addition
to a selection of tools available to
them as eMarketers to succeed in
their role.
This is the second time I
have done a training course on
this topic. The subject this time
around is a lot more interesting,
as there is more emphasis on social media as the new marketing
tool, and the professors had a
wealth of knowledge to share,
said Tamara Khalil, corporate
director of Marketing Communications at Katara Hospitality.
The course is also more diversied, with participants from
all over the region and different
parts of the industry.

oredoo Group has selected GoSwiff, a global

mobile payments and
marketing solutions provider,
as its partner for the implementation of its international
mPOS (mobile point of sale)
platform.
The partnership will cover
some nine markets covering Algeria, Indonesia, Iraq,
Kuwait, Myanmar, Maldives,
Oman, Qatar and Tunisia. It
will include recruiting merchants to the platform, from
large corporates to micromerchants.
GoSwiff will provide an integrated multi-payment solution including mPOS, mobile
money and airtime top-up
for Ooredoos merchant clients. The service will also
include value added services
including merchant reward
programmes, to encourage a
greater volume of transactions, and consumer loyalty
tools that will enable Ooredoo
to better engage with its customers.
As part of the agreement,
Ooredoo Group is outsourcing
managed services for mPOS to
GoSwiff, including merchant
proling, segmentation and
engagement with different industry verticals.
With its comprehensive
range of services and international experience, GoSwiff
is a strong partner to help
Ooredoo build our mPOS
platform. Combined with its
global footprint and extensive
capabilities in outsourcing
the deployment, merchant
acquisition and merchant on-

boarding in emerging markets, we are condent that

our partnership with GoSwiff
will enable us to broaden our
offer and engage even more
effectively with our customers, said Ooredoo Group CEO
Sheikh Saud bin Nasser alThani.

We are proud to have

been selected by Ooredoo
Group as its global
partner as the company
introduces its offer of
mobile payments to nine
exciting markets across
North Africa, Middle East
and South East Asia
We are proud to have been
selected by Ooredoo Group as
its global partner as the company introduces its offer of
mobile payments to nine exciting markets across North
Africa, Middle East and South
East Asia. We already have
a presence in each of these
regions and, with this new
partnership with Ooredoo,
look forward to serving local
merchants even better, said
GoSwiff CEO Simone Ranucci
Brandimarte.
Our focus will be on
long term value creation,
offering a seamless buying experience to customers, benefiting Ooredoos
customers both online and
at the point of sale. We look
forward to developing new
services jointly in the future
and bring innovation into
the countries we operate in
together, said GoSwiff COO
Stefano Diemmi.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

QATAR
Hamad Hospital Trauma Centre anniversary

Leaders and multidisciplinary staff from across Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) recently gathered to celebrate
the 8th anniversary of the Trauma Centre at Hamad General Hospital (HGH). The participants also attended the 4th
Trauma Multidisciplinary Critical Care Educational Day, which highlights the importance of teamwork among
multi-disciplinary professionals providing care to severely injured patients.

Qatars missions hold special

events to mark National Day
QNA
Doha

atars embassies and

diplomatic
missions abroad continued celebrations to mark
the countrys National Day,
which falls on December
18 to commemorate the
founder Sheikh Jassim bin
Mohamed bin Thani.
Qatars ambassador to
Lebanon hosted a reception
in the capital Beirut to celebrate the Day.
The ceremony was attended by Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister of Defense Samir
Moqbel, representing the
Prime Minister Tammam
Salam and Speaker of the
Parliament Nabih Berri,
along with ministers, deputies, ambassadors of Arab
and foreign countries accredited to Lebanon, as well
as representatives from the
eld of politics, culture, art
and media, religious gures
and military personnel.
In a speech on the occasion, the ambassador
extended heartfelt congratulations to HH the Emir
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad
al-Thani, HH the Father
Emir Sheikh Hamad bin
Khalifa al-Thani, and to all
citizens and residents of
Qatar.
He underlined that the
leadership of Qatar was
keen on unlocking the human potential as the basis
of the comprehensive de-

Commercial
Arbitration Law
due in first half
of 2016: Minister
Qatars commercial
arbitration law will be due
in the first half of 2016, HE
Minister of Justice Dr Hassan
Lahdan Saqr al-Mhannadi
said yesterday.
Speaking at the annual
conference of lawyers and
arbitrators, which is taking
place in Doha, the Minister
said that the investment
environment in the GCC will
see many developments.

Minister attends
inauguration of
Kuwaiti stadium
HE Qatars Minister of
Youth and Sports Salah bin
Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali
yesterday participated in
the inauguration of Jaber alAhmed International Stadium,
under the patronage of Emir
of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah alAhmed al-Sabah.
The Minister of Youth and
Sports wished the Kuwaiti
leadership and people further
progress. He expressed his
hope that the new stadium
will host many prominent
sporting events in the future.
His Excellency also extended
his congratulations to
Kuwaits Minister of
Information and Minister of
State for Youth Affairs Sheikh
Salman al-Hamoud al-Sabah.
The 400,000-sq-m stadium
can take up to 60,000
spectators.

velopment process in the

State. Thus, Qatar has succeeded in making signicant achievements in economic, social, health and
educational elds, based on
Qatar National Vision 2030.
In Amman, Qatars ambassador to Jordan Bandar
bin Mohamed Abdullah
al-Attiyah hosted a reception, attended by Jordans
Senate president Faisal alFayez, Speaker of the House
of Representatives Atef
Tarawneh, Interior Minister Salamah Hammad,
Minister of Awqaf and Islamic and Sancitities Affairs
Hayel Abdul-Hafeez, and
several other high-ranking
officials, dignitaries, leaderships, businessmen, representatives of regional and
international organisations
and heads and members of
the diplomatic corps accredited to Jordan.
In a speech on the occasion, the Qatari ambassador
highlighted the important
achievements of Qatar under the leadership of HH the
Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
In Vienna, Qatars ambassador to Austria Ali
Khalfan al-Mansouri, who
is also the countrys permanent representative to
the International Organisations in Vienna, held a
ceremony to celebrate the
National Day. Prominent
Austrian politicians and
the director-general of the
Opec Fund for International Development Sulei-

man Harbash attended the

event.
In Turkmenistan, Qatars
ambassador Khalifa bin
Ahmed al-Suwaidi held a
ceremony that was attended
by Minister of Oil and Gas
of Turkmenistan Muhammetnur Halylov. He praised
Turkmen-Qatari relations.
In Mexico, Qatari ambassador Ahmed bin Abdullah
also held a ceremony that
was attended by a number
of Ministers and diplomats.
In Djibouti, ambassador
Jassim bin Jaber Jassim Sorour held a ceremony that
was attended by many ranking officials from Djibouti,
led by Minister of Foreign
Affairs Mahamoud Ali Youssouf. Minister of Higher
Education Nabil Mohamed
Ahmed also attended along
with Minister of Transport
Ahmed Hassan.
In Brussels, Ambassador of Qatar to Belgium HE
Sheikh Ali bin Jassim alThani, who is also the head
of Mission to the European
Union, held a ceremony to
celebrate Qatar National
Day. A number of officials
from Belgium, European Union and Nato attended the
ceremony. Arab and foreign
ambassadors as well as Qatari citizens in Belgium also
attended the ceremony.
In his speech, the ambassador congratulated HH
the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin
Hamad al-Thani, HH the
Father Emir Sheikh Hamad
bin Khalifa al-Thani and the
Qatari people. The ambas-

sador said that December

18th was the day that everyone reects on the achievements of those who founded
the State of Qatar led by
Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed
bin Thani.
The ambassador added
that celebrating National
Day was crucial to Qatari
youth as it helps maintain
their link to the traditions of
the country.
In Tokyo, Qatars ambassador Yousif Mohamed Bilal
held a ceremony at Imperial
Hotel, attended by Chairman of the General Council of Japans ruling council
Toshihiro Nikaio, who is
also the president of Japanese Parliamentary Association for Friendship with
the State of Qatar and the
Minister of Economy, Trade
and Industry Motoo Hayashi in addition to diplomats, businessmen, public
gures and representatives
of Japanese media.
In his speech, the ambassador congratulated HH the
Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, HH the Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin
Khalifa al-Thani and the Qatari people. The ambassador
praised the Qatari-Japanese
relations which were established in 1972.
In Colombo, Qatars
embassy held a ceremony
which was attended by the
Sri Lankan Minister of Urban Planning and Water
Supply Rauf Hakeem and a
number of Sri Lankan ministers and officials.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

QATAR

QF Radio inspires children

at National Day celebrations
Q

F Radio, the inhouse

broadcasting station of Qatar
Foundation for Education,
Science and Community
Developments (QF), is giving children the opportunity to act as radio presenters
as part of National Day celebration at Darb Al Saai.
Taking place in a specially-designed booth set up in
QFs tent, school children
learn how to be radio presenters and get the chance
to interview visitors. The
activity is designed to boost
the participants condence
and enhance their methods
of self-expression, as well as
think about potential career
paths, which is in-line with
QFs overarching mission of
unlocking human potential.
Jawaher F al-Mana, Arabic Station Supervisor, QF
Radio, said: One of our objectives at QF Radio is to invest in people and help them
realise their full potential.
And we are doing just that
here in Qatar Foundations
Darb Al Saai tent as we are
providing local children and
youth with a unique opportunity to learn how to be
radio presenters and media
personalities.
Catering to both Arabic
and English speakers, the
activity has proved popular
amongst both children and
parents alike. Mohammed
al-Kaabi, an 11-year-old
Qatari student at Oxford
English School, said: This
is the rst time I have ever
spoken on the radio. It is really interesting to know that
everybody can hear your
voice, it almost feels like I
am on television. Now I am
thinking about being a reporter when I grow up.
Additionally, every af-

Young boys send a message to Qatar on National Day at the QF Radio booth at Darb Al Saai
tent. Below: Children from the English Modern School participate in the QF Radio activity at
Darb Al Saai tent

ternoon throughout the

National Day celebrations,
QF Radio has been broadcasting special live coverage
from Darb Al Saai, highlighting the activities taking place within QFs tent,

as well as hosting interviews

with visitors, including QF
management, families, and
VIPs.
Furthermore,
students
from various universities
across QF are also benet-

ting from QF Radio at Darb

Al-Saai. Young men and
women are lining up guests,
conducting interviews with
them, which are then edited
and presented as in-depth
reports on QF Radio.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

REGION

Iran to ship out enriched uranium within days

Reuters
Dubai

ran will export most of its enriched uranium to Russia in

the coming days as it rushes
to implement a nuclear deal and
secure relief from international
sanctions, Tehrans nuclear chief
was quoted as saying yesterday.
Drastically reducing its stock
of enriched uranium, which can

be used in nuclear weapons,

was at the heart of the deal Iran
reached in July with a group of six
world powers.
Under its terms, Iran must cut
its stockpile to around 300kg and
mothball most of the centrifuges
that produce the enriched fuel.
It must also remove the core of a
heavy water reactor at Arak so it
cannot be used to produce plutonium, another potential bombmaking source.

Once the United Nations veries those steps, international

sanctions will be lifted, giving
Iran access to global markets for
the rst time in years and opening a lifeline for its ailing economy.
In the next few days around
nine tonnes of Irans enriched
uranium will be exported to Russia, nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying by state
news agency Irna. That is roughly

the amount that Iran must export

to bring its stock down to the required level.
He said the enriched uranium
would be taken out of Iran on
board a Russian ship. Iran has
already received a shipment of
yellowcake, an unenriched uranium compound, from Russia in
exchange for the stockpile.
President Hassan Rouhanis
government is aiming to get
sanctions lifted by the end of

January, to boost pro-government candidates in February 26

elections to parliament and the
Assembly of Experts, the clerical
body that chooses the supreme
leader.
Iran is set to reap an economic
windfall once sanctions are lifted. The government has pledged
to quickly boost oil production,
and foreign companies are jockeying to enter the market of some
80mn people.

Nevertheless, the economy

has stagnated since the deal was
reached, as consumers hold off
on spending until the market
opens up.
With no concrete improvement to voters quality of life, the
government risks losing its nuclear dividend if sanctions have
not been lifted before the elections; hardliners opposed to the
deal would stand to gain.
On Wednesday, Tehrans envoy

to the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency said

Iran was working to complete the
requirements in the next two to
three weeks, after the UN watchdog closed its investigation of
Irans past nuclear activities.
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano,
responsible for verifying that
Tehran has taken the necessary
steps, said in an interview that
it is not impossible that sanctions could be lifted in January.

Yemen forces
press advance
against rebels
Government forces are
now heading west, toward
the contiguous rebel
strongholds of Amran and
Saada provinces, which lie
immediately to the north of
the capital
AFP
Aden

ighting raged between Yemeni government forces and

Iran-backed rebels yesterday
as the UN voiced alarm at ceasere
violations but insisted that peace
talks in Switzerland are still alive.
Loyalists were within 40km
of the rebel-held capital as they
pressed their advance against the
Shia insurgents, military sources
said.
Pro-Hadi forces supported by
a Saudi-led coalition were keeping up pressure in Nihm district,
Sanaa province, after signicant
gains in Marib province, east of the
capital.
The forces loyal to President
Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, and
allied tribes in the area, have laid
siege to Nihms Fardha military
base, northeast of the capital.
Despite the proximity, the
roughly 40km separating Nihm
from Sanaa is mostly rugged
mountainous terrain.
On Friday, loyalists seized
Hazm, capital of Jawf province, to
the northeast of Sanaa.
By yesterday, they had extended
their gains in Jawf, capturing Al

Ghayl and Al Maton districts, according to sources in the pro-Hadi

Popular Resistance militia.
The two areas fell after clashes
between advancing forces and
rebels and renegade troops loyal
to former president Ali Abdullah
Saleh, said Ameen al-Ukaymi, a
tribal chief of the Popular Resistance.
Government forces are now
heading west, toward the contiguous rebel strongholds of Amran
and Saada provinces, which lie
immediately to the north of the
capital, Ukaymi said.
Military sources said pro-Hadi
forces, which are supported by a
Saudi-led Arab coalition, brought
reinforcements to Hazm yesterday, including tanks and armoured
vehicles.
The operations took place despite
a ceasere that has been repeatedly
violated since it entered into force
on Tuesday, as UN-sponsored talks
began in Switzerland.
The UN Yemen envoy was
deeply concerned at the numerous reports of violations of the
cessation of hostilities, his office
said late Friday.
His comments came after the
pro-government forces seized
two northern towns and the rebels
red two ballistic missiles at Saudi
Arabia.
He urges all parties to respect
this agreement and allow unhindered access for the delivery of
humanitarian assistance to the
most affected districts of Yemen,
the statement said.

It was issued after a fourth day

of rocky peace talks, during which
the special envoy held several
sessions with the participants, the
statement added.
The discussions focused mostly
on security issues in Yemen, in light
of the alarming developments on
the ground, it said, stressing that
both sides had renewed their commitment for a ceasere.
A co-ordination and de-escalation committee was created to
strengthen adherence to the cessation of hostilities, the statement
said.
The UN announced a rst
breakthrough in the talks on
Thursday, saying the sides had
agreed to allow for a full and immediate resumption of humanitarian assistance in the ashpoint
city of Taez.
But a local relief group, the Humanitarian Relief Coalition, said
no UN aid had reached the city,
accusing rebels of blocking aid delivery to areas where Hadi loyalists
are holed up.
On Thursday, pro-government
forces and rebels completed an exchange of hundreds of prisoners in
the southern province of Lahj.
Yemens conict began in September 2014, when the Houthis advanced from their northern strongholds to occupy the capital Sanaa.
It has escalated dramatically
since Saudi-led air strikes against
the rebels began in March, with
more than 5,800 killed and more
than 27,000 wounded since then,
according to the UN.

Rivals agree to set up truce monitor: source

Negotiators taking part in Yemen peace talks in
Switzerland agreed yesterday to create a neutral
committee to monitor the countrys fragile ceasefire after new clashes left it in tatters, a source
close to the talks told AFP.
There is an understanding over forming a neutral
military committee tasked with monitoring the
ceasefire, a source close to the government
delegation said.
The office of UN special envoy for Yemen Ismail
Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the negotiating parties
had created a co-ordination and de-escalation
committee ... to strengthen adherence to the cessation of hostilities.

The negotiators met at a hotel in the northwestern

Swiss city of Biel for a fifth day of talks yesterday.
But sources close to both delegations said yesterday afternoon that the talks had ended for the day
with little progress.
A source close to the delegation representing
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadis government
said there had been no agreement on the general
framework for the talks and no agreement on the
opening of humanitarian corridors.
In a letter submitted by the government delegation to the talks yesterday a lawyer in Taez
accused the rebels of confiscating aid sent by the
UN World Food Programme.

A woman wears a facemask as she walks in a heavily polluted area in Tehran yesterday.

Schools shut in Tehran as

air pollution levels soar
Agencies
Tehran

ran is to close schools for two

days in Tehran, an official
said yesterday, following air
pollution three times the acceptable level that has blanketed
the city in smog.
Air quality in Irans capital
this week was the worst for at
least nine months, media said,
and airborne particles from car
emissions were at seven times
the standard level.
All schools will be closed on
Sunday in Tehran and in the...
towns of Shahr-Rey and IslamShahr (both south of the capital), said environment official
Mohamed Hadi Heydarzadeh.
If the pollution continues,
schools will also be closed on
Monday, he said on state television.
Traffic will be limited in the
city centre and some factories
will be closed, media reported.

The official Irna news agency

said that schools will also shut
in Alborz province, west of Tehran.
Authorities have asked state
employers to grant mothers time
off to look after children who
will be unable to go to school
and urged the elderly, children
and sick people to avoid going
outdoors.
Emergency services have also
been mobilised.
In December 2014, almost
400 people were hospitalised
with heart and respiratory problems caused by heavy pollution
in Tehran, with nearly 1,500
others requiring treatment.
The Air Quality Index on
Monday showed an average
reading of 162 - a red status
warning that the air is unhealthy
for everyone, according to World
Health Organisation standards.
Yesterday it had dropped
slightly to 148, still well above
the normal healthy level of between zero and 50.

Peak pollution hit 180 in

some areas of Tehran, where
poor air is worsened due to
high altitudesbetween 1,100
and 1,700m above sea levelin
a basin surrounded by mountains.
Visibility was low yesterday
as a grey fog blanketed the capital, a megacity of an estimated
14mn people, and authorities
said they expect pollution to
worsen in the coming days.
Exhaust fumes from 5mn cars
and almost as many motorcycles
that ply Tehrans roads each day
make up 80% of its pollution,
which increases in winter as
emissions fail to rise above cold
air.
We cannot breathe. My eyes
are itchy and my head hurts,
said a taxi driver who only gave
his rst name, Khosro.
Traffic is getting worse each
day, it is stiing. It is like there
is a grey haze hanging over the
city. We cant see the mountains, he said referring to the

snow-capped Alborz range that

overlooks Tehran.
Irans government has tried to
cut pollution by supplying lower
emission fuel in large cities, Masoumeh Ebtekar, a vice president
responsible for environmental
protection, said this week.
In 2012, pollution contributed to the premature deaths
of 4,500 people in Tehran and
about 80,000 in the country, the
health ministry said.
According to the office in
charge of monitoring air quality,
the air in Tehran was pure for
only 219 days during the past
16 years.
President Hassan Rouhanis
government has pledged to
tackle pollution and introduced
measures such as converting vehicles to cleaner fuel.
Last month, Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a
set of environmental policy directives and called for the government to support investments
in clean energy.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

ARAB WORLD
Two hurt
in Israel
stabbing
attack

Bewilderment
after shooting
of Palestinian
teenaged girls
Security camera footage
from the incident on
November 23 appears to
show the two girls in school
uniform chasing a man with
scissors before being shot
AFP
Qalandiya, West Bank

alestinian mother Maleeha

Awwad still cannot explain what happened the
day her 14-year-old daughter
stabbed a man with scissors and
was shot dead by police.
As far as she knew Hadeel had
walked to school with her cousin
Norhan, 16. Instead the two girls
went to Jerusalems central market and carried out the attack.
Nearly a month later, Israeli authorities nally released
Hadeels body on Friday to enable the family to bury her.
I still dont understand what
happened, Awwad said at her
home on the edge of the Qalandiya refugee camp near Ramallah,
shaking her head and close to
tears.
The United Nations and human rights groups have voiced
concern that Israeli security
forces are responding to attacks
with excessive force.

The Israeli police officer who

shot the teenagers has been
placed under investigationthe
rst such probe since a wave of
violence began on October 1.
Security camera footage from
the incident on November 23
appears to show the two girls in
school uniform chasing a man
with scissors before being shot.
Police said the girls had
stabbed and lightly wounded a
70-year-old Palestinian nearby,
apparently mistaking him for a
Jew.
The footage shows both girls
shot and on the ground. The policeman runs back towards one
of themapparently Norhan
and opens re despite her being
curled in a ball.
Norhan was seriously wounded, but survived and has been
charged with attempted murder.
Lawyers for the policeman
have said he was concerned that
the girls may have been wearing
explosive belts.
Suicide bombings were common during the second Palestinian Intifada from 2000-2005,
but have not occurred in the current unrest.
At least 120 Palestinians and
17 Israelis have been killed in
over two months of stabbing,
shooting and car-ramming at-

tacks by Palestinians, as well

clashes between Palestinian
youths and Israeli soldiers.
Over half of the Palestinians
killed have been alleged attackers.
This week a UN spokeswoman
voiced deep concern over the
unacceptable wave of attacks,
as well as reports of excessive
use of force by Israeli forces.
The response from Israeli
security forces has resulted in
alleged attackers, protesters and
even bystanders being killed
and injured, said Cecile Pouilly,
spokeswoman for the UN human
rights office.
Amnesty
Internationals
Philip Luther welcomed the
probe by the justice ministry
as a positive development but
warned other cases did not appear to be getting the same
treatment.
The fact that this is the rst
such investigation into killings by police since... October
is deeply troubling, particularly
given the strong indications that
many Palestinians were killed
when they were not posing an
imminent threat to life or of serious injury, Luther said.
Earlier this year Luther accused Israel of carrying out extrajudicial executions.

AFP
Jerusalem

Relatives of Hadel Awwad mourn during her funeral in Qalandiya refugee camp on Friday.
The Israeli police dismissed
the criticism.
What does Amnesty understand about split-second decisions that police officers have to
make when there is a terrorist
holding a 30cm knife in front
of their face, just about to cut
their throat? police spokesman
Micky Rosenfeld said.
Each attack is different
and each different scenario is a
split-second reaction, he said
when asked about the November
shooting.
The case has also turned the
spotlight on a series of measures adopted by Israel to quell

assaults, including the demolition of the homes of some attackers and withholding their
bodies.
Some politicians have also
encouraged Israeli Jews to carry
guns at all times.
Critics say many of the suspects could be tasered and arrestedas was done this month
in London when a man stabbed
three people in a train station.
Prominent Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi said Israels
reaction to attacks is worsening
the situation.
Israels shoot-to-kill policy
actually creates more resent-

ment, more anger and is a driving force behind individual cases

of revenge, she said.
When you kill somebodys
friend, cousin, sister... there are
people who will go out and seek
revenge, she added.
Hadeels brother was shot in
the head and killed two years
ago during a protest against the
Israeli occupation of the West
Bank.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that the
surge of attacks since October
was a reection of anger at Israels occupation and the failure
of the peace process.

Palestinian youth stabbed

and wounded two Israelis
north of Tel Aviv yesterday before being apprehended,
police said.
A man is badly wounded
and a woman lightly injured, a
statement said. The alleged assailant was caught by forces in
the area, it added.
The 20-year-old from the
northern West Bank, who had
entered Israel illegally, was found
hiding in the yard of a house near
the scene of the attack in the
Israeli town of Raanana, police
said.
Israeli rescue services said
that the wounded man was in
his 40s and the woman about 60
years old.
A wave of violence since the
start of October has claimed the
lives of 123 on the Palestinian
side, 17 Israelis, an American and
an Eritrean.
Many of the Palestinians
killed have been alleged attackers, while others have been shot
dead by Israeli security forces
during clashes.
On Friday, two Palestinian
drivers tried to run down Israeli
security forces in separate attacks in the occupied West Bank,
with one attacker shot dead and
the other wounded, Israeli officials said.
Troops later shot dead a
man in clashes northeast of
Ramallah, while in the Gaza
Strip, soldiers shot dead a
Palestinian protester and
wounded 41 others during
clashes along the border with
Israel, the Palestinian health
ministry said.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

ARAB WORLD

At least 14 killed in Libya clashes

Reuters
Benghazi

t least 14 people have been

killed and 25 wounded
during clashes in eastern Libya between armed groups
loyal to official government and
Islamist groups, two medical
sources said yesterday.
The ghting, which was continuing yesterday, erupted on

Thursday in the town of Ajdabiya, the same day as Libyas

warring factions signed a United
Nations-brokered agreement to
form a unity government. Western powers hope the deal will
bring stability and help to combat
a growing Islamic State presence.
However, the agreement faces
questions from critics about how
representative the proposed government will be, and whether
armed factions on the ground will

obey the new government. Some

brand it a UN-imposed deal.
Casualties in the Ajdabiya
ghting included civilians or
members of groups supporting
the Libyan National Army, said
the sources who asked not to be
named. They added that casualties from the other side were not
treated in the towns hospitals.
It was unclear whether the Islamist ghters were affiliated to
Islamic State (IS) militants.

In a separate incident, two

guards were wounded when an
unknown group attacked the
military intelligence building in
the western town of Sabratha, the
mayor said.
IS has exploited a growing security vacuum in Libya, where
two administrations - each with
its own government and parliament - are ghting for control
four years after the toppling of
Muammar Gadda.

The official prime minister and

parliament have been based in the
east since a rival group seized the
capital Tripoli. Its government
has been working from hotels in
the city of Tobruk, about 270km
from Ajdabiya.
Both sides have several former
anti-Gadda rebel groups ghting for them. After Gaddas
ouster, the various factions split
along political, regional and tribal lines.

Iraqs Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi speaks during a

news conference in Baghdad yesterday.

Iraq set
to retake
Ramadi:
minister
An offensive in Al
Tameem this month
marked a significant
step in long-delayed
efforts to recapture the
city
AFP
Baghdad

raqs defence minister

predicted yesterday that
security forces backed by
US-led coalition air strikes
would retake full control of
the city of Ramadi by the end
of the year.
I met with the Joint Operations Command and they
conrmed to me that we will
regain all of the city of Ramadi by the end of this month,
Khaled al-Obeidi told reporters in Baghdad.
Earlier this month, forces
led by Iraqs elite counterterrorism service retook Al
Tameem, a southwestern
neighbourhood of Ramadi,
from the Islamic State group.
IS took full control of Ramadi in mid-May, in what
was Baghdads most stinging defeat since it launched
a counter-offensive to regain
the large regions the militants captured in the summer
of 2014.
The offensive in Al
Tameem this month marked
a signicant step in longdelayed efforts to recapture
the city, around 100km west
of Baghdad and capital of the
vast province of Anbar.
The reason the battle
took so long was to avoid
casualties among our forces
and also to avoid civilian casualties, Obeidi said. There
are still many civilians in the
city.
Militants still holed up
in the city centre and using
tunnels to avoid air strikes
may number no more than
300, according to military

officials. IS ghters attacking from northwest of Ramadi with suicide car bombs
attempted to retake control
of the key Palestine bridge in
recent days but Iraqi forces
still have the upper hand.
The city of Ramadi has
now been fully isolated, and
the Iraqi security forces are
beginning to conduct their
clearing operations, the
coalitions Baghdad-based
spokesman, Colonel Steve
Warren, told reporters on
Friday.
He said that IS had been
using the Euphrates river
that runs through Ramadi to
supply its ghters inside the
city with men and military
equipment.
Control of both sides of
the river banks in key areas
has signicantly reduced the
militant organisations ability to resupply, Warren said.
The defence minister
also said yesterday Iraq has
opened an investigation into
the circumstances that led to
the death of 10 Iraqi soldiers
in a coalition air strike west
of Baghdad.
We lost 10 of our soldiers, Obeidi said, adding
that an investigation into
the incident was opened.
A statement from the Joint
Operations Command on
Friday mentioned that 10 had
been wounded or killed
but Obeidi and another senior military source claried
yesterday that 10 troops were
killed.
According to the joint
command, the incident occurred when two coalition
strikes allowed Iraqi ground
forces to advance rapidly
towards positions held by
IS ghters south of their
stronghold of Fallujah.
A third air strike came
when the two sides were in
close combat, resulting in
casualties to both, it said.

Ankara says Baghdad

undermining IS ght
Reuters
United Nations

urkey accused Iraq on

Friday of undermining
the global ght against
Islamic State militants by
taking its complaint about
the deployment of Turkish
troops in northern Iraq to the
UN Security Council.
The 15-member council
met on the issue on Friday
at the request of Iraq, and
Foreign Minister Ibrahim
al-Jaafari asked the body to
adopt a resolution demanding Turkey withdraw its
troops immediately.
Jaafari signalled the request for council action was
a last resort. Iraq has spared
no effort to exhaust all diplomatic channels and bilateral
negotiations with Turkey, in
order to withdraw its forces

that are unauthorised in

Iraq, he said.
Turkey deployed around
150 troops in the Bashiqa
area earlier this month with
the stated aim of training an
Iraqi militia to ght IS. Turkey withdrew some troops
this week, moving them to
another base inside Iraqs
Kurdistan region, but Baghdad said they should pull out
completely.
Turkeys UN ambassador
Halit Cevik said the deployment had been taken out of
context and that additional
troops had been sent to the
camp to provide force protection due to increasing
threats.
He said Ankara believed it
had taken sufficient measures to de-escalate the situation, so efforts could be
refocused in combating IS
militants.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

AFRICA

Uganda to
start fresh
Burundi
peace talks

Rwanda vote grants

Kagame extra terms
AFP
Kigali

wanda has overwhelmingly voted to change

the constitution to allow
President Paul Kagame to potentially rule until 2034, election
officials said yesterday citing
partial referendum results.
We have seen the will of the
people. Its clear that what the
people want, they can achieve,
said National Electoral Commission chief Kalisa Mbanda, announcing 98.1% had voted yes
with preliminary results in from
some 70% of the country.
They called for the change of
the constitution and they have
made it, the pro-government
New Times newspaper quoted
him as saying.
Kagame, 58, could now be in
power potentially for another 17
years.
What is happening is the
peoples choice, he told re-

porters after casting his vote on

Friday.
The amendment allows Kagame to run for a third seven-year
term in 2017, at the end of which
the new rules take effect and he
will be eligible to run for a further two ve-year terms.
The US and European Union
have denounced the proposed
amendments as undermining
democracy in the central African
country.
On Friday, the EU delegation
in Kigali said there had been a
lack of sufficient time and space
for debate on the issue, with the
date for the referendum only announced on December 8 and the
draft of the changes only published publically less than one
day ahead of the vote.
The short time between the
announcement and the holding
of the referendum left little or
no opportunity for all parties to
present their arguments, the EU
said.
Kagame has run Rwanda since

his ethnic Tutsi rebel army, the

Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF),
ended a 1994 genocide by extremists from the Hutu majority, when an estimated 800,000
people were massacred, the vast
majority of them Tutsis.
The issue of long-serving rulers clinging to power has caused
turmoil in Africa, where some
leaders have been at the helm for
decades.
Kigalis pro-government New
Times newspaper said in an editorial on Saturday that Rwandans had spoken out regardless
of the lame attempts to pour water on the process by Rwandas
closest development partners
in an allusion to US and European
criticism.
The countrys tiny opposition
Green Party also protested that
it was impossible to organise a
counter campaign at such short
notice.
The opposition would have
won, Green party president
Frank Habineza said in a state-

Reuters
Kampala

ganda said yesterday

it would resume mediating peace talks for
Burundi after violence that
has pushed the Central African country close to civil war
and led the African Union to
prepare for the imposition of a
peace keeping force.
Both the government and
Burundis largest opposition
coalition welcomed the move
to restart talks.
On Friday, the African Union said it was preparing to
send 5,000 peace keepers to
Burundi to protect civilians,
for the rst time using powers
to deploy troops to a member
country against its will.
Tensions have been running
particularly high since gunmen attacked military sites in
the Burundi capital Bujumbura
last week, unnerving a region
where memories of the 1994
genocide in neighbouring
Rwanda are still raw.
Burundi slid into crisis in
April when President Pierre
Nkurunziza announced plans
for a third term in office.
The United Nations says at
least 400 people have been
killed since April when Nkurunzizas decision triggered
protests and later a failed
military coup.
Ugandas defence minister,
Chrispus Kiyonga, told a news
conference in Kampala the
security situation in Burundi
had been deteriorating.
It is now considered appropriate and critical that the
dialogue resumes, Kiyonga
said.
He said about 14 groups
representing various sections
of Burundian society, including the ruling party, opposition parties and civil society
would attend the talks.
Burundi
government
spokesman Philippe Nzobonariba said the government has

Rwanda President Paul Kagame casts his vote in Rwandas capital Kigali.
ment on Saturday, adding the
party will not give up on the
struggle to make Rwanda a
vibrant democracy.
Some Rwandans said they
had boycotted the vote as the
outcome was already known.
Carina Tertsakian, of Human
Rights Watch (HRW), noted that

after years of government intimidation... open expressions

of dissent are rare, and that approval of the referendum was no
surprise.
As one man told us: It would
be stupid to vote no because
it wont change anything, she
added.

Car bomb kills

three in Somali
Reuters
Mogadishu

car bomb exploded yesterday on a busy street

in the Somali capital
Mogadishu, killing at least three
people and wounding at least
eight, a police officer said.
The number of casualties is
likely to increase, police Major Nur
Farah said at the scene of the blast,
which was claimed by Al Qaedalinked Al Shebaab militants.
The place is busy with hotels
and supermarkets. Most of the
casualties are pedestrians. The
casualty number is sure to rise,
Farah told Reuters by phone.
Al Shebaab ghters have

launched frequent attacks in

Mogadishu in their bid to topple
the Western-backed government, including a major assault
on a hotel used by government
officials and lawmakers in November, in which more than a
dozen people were killed.
A Reuters reporter said the explosion yesterday was followed
by gunre, and smoke could be
seen rising from the scene. Part
of a supermarket and a number
of cars were destroyed.
We were behind the blast
operation. Some government
officials and soldiers died and
others were injured, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, an Al Shebaab
spokesman, said, without giving
details of the number of dead.

Security forces inspect the site of a bomb blast near Makka al-Mukarama Road in the Somali capital
Mogadishu yesterday.
Mohamed Ismail, a nurse at
Madina hospital, said they had
received 21 wounded people,
mostly civilians.
The government is battling to
rebuild Somalia after more than

two decades of conict. Al Shebaab

ruled much of Somalia until 2011,
before being driven out of Mogadishu by African and Somali troops.
The group wants to overthrow
the government and impose its

own strict interpretation of Islam

on Somalia. It has been driven
out of other major strongholds in
Somalia but continues to launch
bomb and gun attacks against
officials and politicians.

always been open to talks and

was waiting for an invitation.
Its an inter-Burundian
dialogue and only Burundians will determine what to
discuss, he said.
Nzobonariba,
however,
ruled out holding talks with
anyone it accused of being behind the May attempted coup.
It may be an occasion to
put our hands on them as they
are sought by Burundi justice,
he said.
Pancrace Cimpaye, spokesman for Burundis largest
opposition coalition known
as CNARED, welcomed the
resumption of talks, though
he said the group was yet to
receive an invitation.
For us talks are between
two parties in conict, and
the two warring parties today is Nkurunziza and his
government on one side,
and CNARED on the other,
he said.
The talks will resume in
Uganda on December 28 and
thereafter move to Arusha in
northern Tanzania. Arusha
is the headquarters of the regional bloc East African Community (EAC), to which Burundi belongs. In July the EAC
appointed Ugandas president
Yoweri Museveni to mediate in the conict and initial
meetings were held in Burundis capital Bujumbura in the
same month.
In the worst clashes since
the failed coup in May, insurgents attacked military camps
in the capital Bujumbura last
week and nearly 90 people
were killed.
Rights groups have reported
violent clashes between protesters and authorities, gun
attacks and detentions of
government critics. The government dismisses reports of
rights abuses.
Hundreds of thousands
have also ed the worst violence to hit the country since
it emerged from an ethnically
charged civil war in 2005.

Mercy for Nigeria troops facing death

Nigerian military has
commuted the death
sentences handed to 66
soldiers for mutiny over
claims they refused to fight
Boko Haram Islamists, a
spokesman said yesterday.
Instead, each soldier will
serve a 10-year prison term.
The death sentences by
firing squad passed on 66
soldiers in January and
March 2015 by separate
general court martials
have been commuted to 10
years imprisonment each,
Colonel Sani Usman said in
a statement.
The sentences were
commuted following a
review by the military
authorities.
Usman said 71 soldiers
were arraigned on several
charges, including criminal
conspiracy and conspiracy
to commit mutiny.

They were tried,

discharged on some
charges but found guilty
and convicted on other
chargeswhich included
mutiny, he said.
Out of that number, 66
were found guilty on
some of the charges and
sentenced to death, while
five were discharged
and acquitted and one
was given 28 days
imprisonment with hard
labour, he said.
The military said in May that
579 officers and soldiers
were facing two separate
trials over indiscipline. The
66 had been condemned to
die by a military tribunal in
two batches in September
and December 2014, with
their death sentences
confirmed by a military
council in January and
March this year.

War criminals return to serve out sentences in Congo

Reuters
Kinshasa

he International Criminal Court handed over two

convicted war criminals to
Congolese authorities yesterday,
the justice minister said, the rst
time it has entrusted enforcement
of its sentences to a country.
Thomas Lubanga Dyilo and
Germain Katanga will complete
their sentences in Democratic Republic of Congos central prison
of Makala in Kinshasa for crimes
committed during the brutal war
in the central African countrys
northeastern region of Ituri.
Millions of people died in resource-rich eastern Congos two
regional wars between 1996 and

2003, mostly from hunger and

disease, and the area is lled with
dozens of armed groups.
Thomas Lubanga Dyilo and
Germain Katanga were handed
over ... in the morning to the qualied authorities, said Justice Minister Alexis Tambwe Mwamba in a
statement read on public radio and
television. Both men had indicated
a preference to serve the remainder of their sentences in Congo,
the Court said in a statement.
Lubanga, who was found guilty of
recruiting child soldiers, was sentenced in 2012 to a 14-year sentence
including time already served. He is
due for release in ve years.
Katanga, who was convicted last
year for murder, pillaging and attacking a civilian population in a
2003 attack on a village, was sen-

Eritrean boat survivor dies

in hospital escape bid
An Eritrean man who survived a perilous
journey across the Mediterranean by
boat to Italy has died after falling from a
hospital window in a night-time escape
bid, Italian media reported yesterday.
The 24-year-old, who was rescued from
his rickety vessel by the Italian coastguard
earlier in December and brought to the
island of Sardinia, was being treated for
scabies in the infectious diseases ward of
a hospital in Cagliari.
In the early hours of Saturday he knotted
his sheets together and tried climb down
the side of the building from his third-floor
room, before falling and hitting his head,
dying on the spot.
It was not clear why the man was determined
to leave undetected. Hospital staff insisted
his room was not locked and his treatment
was almost complete, after which he would
have been free to go, the reports said.
Eritrean migrants picked up from boats
and brought to Italy face relocation along
with Syrians and Iraqis to other European
countries as part of a controversial
programme to share the refugee burden,
which has proven unpopular with people
hoping to join family members elsewhere.

tenced to 12 years imprisonment.

The duration was reduced on appeal
and he will be released in Jan. 2016.
Human rights groups expressed
concern about the transfer.
Our prisons are in bad condition, said Dolly Ibefo, executive
director of Voice of the Voiceless,
adding that it was not clear whether the pair could be kept safe.
Jean-Claude Katende, president of the African Association
for the Defense of Human Rights
(ASADHO), said he believed the
move complied with international norms but feared the inmates
would not be properly monitored.
I only fear that Germain Katanga and Thomas Lubanga can
escape. If they escape, they are
going to constitute a danger for the
victims, he said.

Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga, left, and militia chief Germain Katanga.

Seychelles president
scrapes third-term win
AFP
Victoria

eychelles President James

Michel won a third term in
power by the narrowest of
margins of just 193 votes, with the
opposition calling for a recount, the
election commission said yesterday.
Today the people made their
choice. The people have said that they
wish that I continue on the path that I
have commenced ... for me to continue to lead Seychelles forward in stability, peace, and prosperity, Michel
said in a broadcast on national SBC
television. The election has tested
the maturity of our democracy.
Michel, 71, won 50.15% with
31,512 votes in the unprecedented
second round run-off on the In-

dian Ocean archipelago, compared to opposition leader Wavel

Ramkalawans 49.85% with 31,319
votes, according to official results.
At this point in time, it is necessary, more than ever, that we continue to create more unity in our
country. Today, more than ever, we
need to work together as Seychellois, we need to ensure we bring our
people together, Michel added.
But Ramkalawan, 54, an Anglican
priest, said there were several irregularities, according to the Seychelles News Agency (SNA), and
referring to reports of cash being
given to voters ahead of the polls.
We do not accept the results of
the elections because we thought we
were participating in an election
but it turned out to be an auction,
Ramkalawan said, according to SNA.

10

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

AMERICA
Sanders, DNC reach deal after data breach uproar

Clinton and Sanders

facing off in debate
Reuters
Manchester, New Hampshire

S Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton

and rival Bernie Sanders square off in a potentially
combative debate this weekend,
one day after their presidential
campaigns erupted in a bitter
feud over an improper breach of
Clinton voter les by a Sanders
staffer.
The rising tension at the debate between two rivals who have
largely refrained from attacking each other comes at a crucial moment for Sanders, who is
trying to erase Clintons lead in
the November 2016 Democratic
White House race just six weeks
before the rst nominating contest in Iowa.
On Friday, Sanders led a
lawsuit to force the Democratic
National Committee to restore
access to his voter les, which
the DNC had blocked after the
Sanders campaign improperly
accessed les generated by the
Clinton campaign.
The DNC and Sanders reached
a late-night deal restoring access
for Sanders (see report on the
right).
Sanders campaign manager
Jeff Weaver accused the DNC

of working to protect Clinton,

pointing to the partys limited
debates at low-viewership periods like Saturday nights as another example.
Clinton campaign manager
Robby Mook accused the Sanders campaign of stealing parts of
its strategic road map for voter
turnout in the primary battle.
The moderators of the ABC
News debate will no doubt try to
get the two candidates to renew
that ght on the stage at the debate, where Sanders already had
signaled his intention to turn up
the heat on Clinton on foreign
policy issues.
The debate is the partys rst
since the deadly December 2 attacks in San Bernardino, California, and Sanders also is eager to
explore his differences with the
former secretary of state on issues like her support for a no-y
zone in Syria and her 2011 advocacy for regime change in Libya,
his campaign said.
She comes off as more hawkish on some of her foreign policy
ideas, said Michael Briggs, a
spokesman for Sanders. He is
going to point out those differences very clearly.
Sanders could be running out
of time to catch Clinton, who
holds a double-digit lead in national polls and a smaller polling

Sanders: trailing Clinton in the

polls.
edge in Iowa, which kicks off the
race on February 1.
She narrowly trails the US senator from Vermont in neighbouring New Hampshire, the second
state to vote.
Sanders likely needs a win in
both states to mount a serious
challenge to Clinton, who will
be heavily favoured in the next
state contests in Nevada, South
Carolina and in a Super Tuesday round of voting in 11 states
on March 1.
The reality for Sanders is hes
only got a couple more shots to
change the dynamic of the race,
said Democratic strategist Chris
Konis. The only choice hes got
is to shake the race up.
Clinton, Sanders and former
Maryland
governor
Martin
OMalley, who lags badly in polls,

Clinton: just needs to stay on point.

will participate in the debate in
Manchester, New Hampshire,
which begins at 8pm EST (0100
GMT today) and will be televised
nationally by ABC News.
As an experienced frontrunner, Clinton is unlikely to get
drawn into a ght, said Kathleen
Sullivan, a former chairwoman of
the New Hampshire Democratic
Party and a Clinton supporter.
Shell be ne. She isnt going to focus on Bernie Sanders or

Martin OMalley. Shes just going

to deliver her message and stay
on point, Sullivan said.
The television viewership is
almost certain to be relatively
small, given its timing on the
Saturday before Christmas.
Less than 9mn viewers
watched last months Democratic debate on a Saturday night.
The Republican debate earlier
this week drew more than 18mn
viewers.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has agreed to restore access

to a key voter database to the campaign of US presidential hopeful Bernie
Sanders following uproar over a breach.
The DNC had on Thursday temporarily suspended the campaigns access
to the database after at least one of its staffers took advantage of a computer glitch to peek at crucial voter data for rival Hillary Clinton.
The suspension was a slap to Sanders hopes of scoring an upset over
Clinton for the Democratic nomination because the database features
information on voters nationwide, and candidates use it to plan strategy
as they vie to replace Barack Obama.
DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said access was being restored
after the campaign complied with a request for information, but said an
investigation would continue to ensure the data has been erased.
The fact that data was accessed inappropriately is completely unacceptable, she said in a statement early yesterday.
As tensions mounted over the matter, the Sanders team filed a 12-page
lawsuit with the US Court for the District of Columbia against the DNC
over breach of contract on Friday.
The Vermont senators campaign also fired one staffer and the party
blamed NGP VAN, the technology company that provides campaigns
with access to the data, for allowing the intrusion.
In its statement on renewed access, the Sanders campaign claimed the
DNC had capitulated and said its about face came as a deadline approached for a hearing on a motion for an emergency injunction.
Clearly, they were very concerned about their prospects in court, said
Jeff Weaver, Sanders campaign manager.
Sanders, an independent who calls himself a democratic socialist, is
running a distant second in national polls behind Clinton, who has a more
than 20 point lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The glitch in which a firewall protecting proprietary data was lowered
briefly on Wednesday made voter data unique to the Clinton campaign
viewable for outside eyes.
The dismissed staffer, Josh Uretsky, told CNN he had not been trying to
spy on Clinton.
Rather, Uretsky said he had become aware of the breach and just poked
around in the Clinton data for a while to see how exposed the Sanders
campaign was.
Then the firewall protecting the data went back up.
To the best of my knowledge, nobody took anything that would have
given the campaign any benefit, Uretsky told CNN.
Although Uretsky was the only staffer fired, the New York Times reported
that during the time that Clintons data was exposed, searches were carried out by four user accounts associated with the Sanders campaign.
Sanders campaign spokesman Michael Briggs said it was not the first
time the technology company has dropped the firewall.
He said the Sanders team had learned of such glitches months ago and
told the DNC that campaign data, including Sanders material, was being
made visible to other campaigns.
Unfortunately, yesterday, the vendor once again dropped the firewall
between the campaigns for some data, Briggs said late on Thursday.
After discussion with the DNC, it became clear that one of our staffers
accessed some modeling data from another campaign. That behaviour is
unacceptable and that staffer was immediately fired.

Obama feels the

Force during
press conference

Star Wars surges toward record

Reuters/AFP
Los Angeles

tar Wars: The Force Awakens hurtled toward $120mn

at the US and Canadian box
office on Friday and a potential
record-breaking $215mn today,
giving the long-awaited movie
a shot at the biggest opening
weekend of all time.
The ticket sales gures from
Walt Disney Co late on Friday
indicated that the lm could
eclipse the $208.8mn record
set by dinosaur adventure lm
Jurassic World in June.
Disney said movie theatres
were continuing to add screenings to meet unprecedented demand.
Fans ocked to theatres on
Thursday evening, many dressed
as Stormtroopers or lightsabre-

wielding Jedi as the movie took in

$57mn at domestic theatres.
That surpassed the previous
opening-day record of $43.5mn
for the nal Harry Potter movie
in 2011.
Interest extended to international markets, where the movie
brought in $72.7mn in 44 countries.
At the White House, a beeping
R2-D2 and two Stormtroopers
surprised reporters with a quick
appearance in the brieng room.
First Lady Michelle Obama
hosted a screening for children
of families that lost members to
war.
The new Star Wars lm is the
seventh installment in the series
created by George Lucas in 1977.
Disney bought Star Wars producer Lucaslm for $4bn in 2012
and spent more than $200mn to
produce Force Awakens.

The companys shares dropped

3.8% on Friday, however, after
BTIG analyst Rich Greeneld
cut his rating on Disney to sell
from neutral.
Greeneld said the success of
Force Awakens would not offset
the impact of subscriber losses
at ESPN.
Nomura Securities analyst
Anthony DiClemente, who rates
Disney a buy, said that he was
more condent after seeing the
movie that it could become the
top-grossing lm of all time.
The record is held by Avatar
with $2.8bn.
Jeff Bock, box office analyst at
Exhibitor Relations, said: As far
as breaking records go, its the
strongest candidate weve seen
in a long, long time. It might join
the $2bn club worldwide, and
maybe, just maybe, be the highest grossing lm of all-time.

Critics lavished praise on Force

Awakens, which features newcomers Daisy Ridley, John Boyega
and Oscar Isaac alongside original stars Mark Hamill, Harrison
Ford and Carrie Fisher.
The movie scored a 95% positive rating on review aggregation
website Rotten Tomatoes.
Disney said 47% of Thursdays
domestic ticket sales came from
higher-priced 3D tickets.
Strong reviews plus a decadeslong affection for the Star Wars
franchise are driving interest,
said Paul Dergarabedian, senior
media analyst at box office tracking rm Rentrak.
Disneys carefully planned release of lm trailers and tidbits of
information over several months
also boosted ticket sales, Dergarabedian said.
That worked the audience
into a frenzy, he said. Its just

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest appears in the briefing

room with Stormtroopers and R2-D2 after Obama finished his end of
the year news conference at the White House.
a perfect storm of Star Wars enthusiasm.
The Force Awakens picks up the
intergalactic story of good versus
evil 30 years on from The Return
of the Jedi, the nale of the original trilogy.
The trio of heroes who appeared in the rst of the blockbusters in 1977 smuggler Han

Solo (Harrison Ford), Princess

Leia (Carrie Fisher), leader of
the rebel alliance, and her twin
brother Luke Skywalker (Mark
Hamill) are all back and played
by the actors that Star Wars rst
made famous.
The lm is being screened in
4,134 theatres in North America,
a record for a December opening.

President meets families of most

San Bernardino shooting victims
Reuters
San Bernardino, California

resident Barack Obama met

with the families of most of
the San Bernardino shooting
victims on Friday for nearly three
hours, and said he was moved by
their emphasis on tolerance following the December 2 attacks.
As difficult as this time is for
them and for the entire community,
they also represent the strength and
the unity and the love that exists in
this community and in this coun-

try, Obama told reporters.

Fourteen people died in the
shootings in San Bernardino, California on December 2, when radicalised Muslims Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik
opened re on Farooks co-workers
at a holiday party.
The president and his wife
Michelle spent nearly three hours
offering their condolences to the
family members of victims and rst
responders in the library of Indian
Spring High School.
The Obamas, who were greeted
on arrival in San Bernardino by

Mayor Carey Davis and County Supervisor James Ramos, made the
visit on their way to Hawaii, where
they will spend the holidays.
On Thursday, federal authorities
charged Enrique Marquez with providing material support to Farook
and Malik. Marquez allegedly purchased two ries used in the attack
and had plotted to carry out attacks
with Farook in 2011.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said on
Wednesday that there was no indication that Farook or Malik were
part of an organised cell.

California shooters visa request was

missing key information: politician
AFP
Washington

member of the US Congress

has accused immigration ofcials of allowing California
attacker Tashfeen Malik into the
country despite critical missing information in her request for a ancee visa.
After reviewing Tashfeen Maliks immigration le, it is clear that
immigration officials did not thoroughly vet her application, House
Judiciary Committee chairman Bob
Goodlatte said in a statement.

Malik, a 29-year-old Pakistani

national, came to the United States
last year on a ancee visa, which
Goodlatte said was issued despite a
lack of proof that she had ever met
her US-born husband, Syed Farook,
28.
The immigration official reviewing Maliks application requested more evidence to ensure
the two met in person but it was
never provided and her visa was approved anyway, Goodlatte said.
He added that the only pieces of
evidence provided to show that the
couple had been in Saudi Arabia at
the same time where they are said

to have married were a statement

by Farook and pages from their
passports.
However, the exit month and date
on Maliks passport was illegible,
Goodlatte said, citing a translation
provided by the Congressional Research Service.
Furthermore, Malik had a visa
that was valid for only 60 days,
which showed her entering Saudi
Arabia in early June 2013 while Farooks passport indicated that he
did not arrive until October 1, casting further doubt on whether they
were in the country at the same
time.

President Barack Obama, 55

minutes into his year-end press
conference, finished answering a
question about US incarceration
rates and seized an opportunity
to make his own escape like
Darth Vader fleeing the Death
Star.
OK, everybody, I gotta get to
Star Wars, Obama said Friday
afternoon.
The room erupted with a
cacophony of reporters shouting
additional questions, but Obama
just smiled, said: Thank you,
and slipped out of the room to
join the expected tens of millions
of filmgoers watching the newly
released sequel, Star Wars: The
Force Awakens.
White House spokesman Josh
Earnest later appeared at the
press room dais flanked by two
Stormtroopers, along with chirpy
droid R2D2.
Obama had earlier warned
the press corps that they were
not the droids he was looking
forward to.
Clearly, this is not the most
important event thats taking
place in the White House today,
Obama said to start the press
conference. There is a screening
of Star Wars for Gold Star families
and children (of US soldiers killed
in combat) coming up. So Ill try
to be relatively succinct.
Meanwhile, Obamas foes in the
imperial Congress were trying to
use the Force against him.
Paul Ryan, speaker of the
opposition-led House of
Representatives, touted that
wasteful spending a long time
ago in a Congress far, far
away had been halted by his
conservative Republican Party.
He blasted Obama for signing
past budgets laden with wasteful
spending.
This was the Dark Side of out-ofcontrol Washington spending and
backroom deal-making, Ryan
said in a press release.

Famed conductor
Kurt Masur dead
Conductor Kurt Masur, who
helped bring a worldwide
reputation to the New York
Philharmonic while seizing on the
power of music on key moments
of history, has died. He was 88.
The New York Philharmonic
announced yesterday the death
of Masur, one of its longestserving music directors who led
the orchestra from 1991 to 2002.
A German born in what is
today Poland, Masur won
wide praise for polishing the
musical bona fides of the New
York Philharmonic and raising
its global profile with 17 tours
around the world including a
first trip to mainland China, now
a key country for the orchestras
overseas activities.

12

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

ASEAN
Jakarta to deploy
150,000 security
staff for celebrations
Reuters
Cilangkap

ndonesia will deploy

more than 150,000
security
personnel
and several religious organisations to safeguard
churches
and
public
places around the country during Christmas and
New Years Eve celebrations, the military chief
said late on Friday.
Indonesia, with the
worlds largest Muslim
population, has already
stepped up security and
surveillance in some areas in the wake of attacks
in Paris last month that
killed nearly 130 people and for which militant group Islamic State
claimed responsibility.
We call on all communities, such as Islamic
and Hindu youth organisations, to participate in
safeguarding
churches
during Christmas, armed
forces chief Gatot Nur-

mantyo told reporters

at the national military
headquarters on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta.
Some of the youth organizations have stated
their readiness, he added.
Indonesia also recognises five other religions
including
Catholicism,
Hinduism, and Buddhism. Police in Indonesia will be on their highest
alert level between Dec
24 and Jan 2, national police chief Badrodin Haiti
told reporters earlier this
week.
Military and police
troops will be on standby
at airports, train stations,
houses of worship, and
public celebrations, Haiti
said, as millions of people
travel across the archipelago for the holidays.
The government has
warned that Indonesians
ghting for IS in Syria and
Iraq could attempt to return and mount attacks.

Rescuers struggle to
reach Indonesian ferry
Reuters
Jakarta

igh winds prevented

rescuers
from reaching a
ship with more than 100
passengers that was adrift
in rough seas off the coast
of Indonesias Sulawesi
island yesterday, officials
said.
Earlier, local media said
the vessel had sunk. Police
and rescue authorities denied these reports and said
it was still aoat, but with
a broken engine and out of
radio contact.
The ship has not sunk,
a South Sulawesi police
spokesman said by phone.

Roki Asikin, head of the

local Search and Rescue
Agency, said his team of
rescuers could not reach
the vessel because of the
bad weather but at daybreak today larger ships
and air force helicopters
and aircraft would join the
search.
News website Detik.
com earlier said 108 people were on board the ship
which left from Kolaka, on
the southeastern side of
the island, and was heading across the Gulf of Boni
for South Sulawesi when it
sank.
Another report that it
went down, on Kompas.
com, said 122 people were
on board.

Children swim in a swollen creek under a flyover in Manila yesterday.

Death toll climbs to 41 as

Philippine oods spread
AFP
Manila

eavy rains pummelled the

entire Philippines yesterday, ooding more areas as
the government declared a state
of national calamity.
The death toll after a week of
devastating weather has risen to
41, according to conrmed reports
from national and local disaster
monitoring agencies.
Poor farming communities in
the main southern island of Mindanao were ooded yesterday after at least two rivers burst their

banks, local disaster officials said.

The storm, locally named
Onyok, had weakened into a low
pressure area after hitting land late
Friday but continued to bring more
rains to Mindanao and the central
Visayas islands.
Cold monsoon winds blowing
from the northeast brought rains
to Luzon, the main northern island, where large farming communities have been submerged in
mostly waist-deep oods from
Typhoon Melor, which hit at the
start of the week.
Areas inundated by Melor have
barely recovered from oods
brought by Typhoon Koppu in Oc-

tober. Almost the entire Philippines is experiencing rains. More

oods are possible, state weather
forecaster Robert Badrina said.
We expect the rains to peak today. The weather will start to improve tomorrow, he said.
President Benigno Aquino ordered state agencies to hasten the
rescue recovery, relief and rehabilitation efforts, in a statement
declaring a state of national calamity.
The government will control
prices of basic goods in affected
areas, the statement read.
The weather bureau issued a
warning of up to 30 millimetres of

rain per hour in the central islands

of Cebu, Negros and Bohol, while
residents were advised to be on
alert for possible evacuation.
The three Visayas islands, with
a combined population of 7.4mn
people, are home to major tourism,
trading and agricultural hubs.
Close to 10,000 people were
evacuated from the poor farming
region of Caraga in Mindanao before the latest storm.
In Agusan del Sur province, large
portions of the national highway
were inundated after a nearby river
burst its banks, regional civil defence officer Manuel Ochotorena
said.

Another river in Davao del Norte

province, roughly 100 kilometres
away, also burst its banks, forcing residents out of their homes,
provincial disaster officer Romulo
Tagalo said.
In Luzon, 140,000 people displaced by oods and landslides
triggered by Melor remained in
evacuation centres.
The Philippines, a nation of
100mn, is battered by an average
of 20 typhoons per year, many of
them deadly.
In 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan
wiped out entire shing communities in the central islands, leaving 7,350 people dead or missing.

Asean air safety regulator may still be decades away

Reuters
Bangkok/Jakarta

t could take Southeast Asia, one of the

fastest growing air travel markets, two
decades to set up a regulatory body to
oversee safety in an industry blighted by disasters in recent years, say national regulators
and airline executives.
The need for tougher regulations gained
urgency following this months report by
Indonesias National Transportation Safety
Committee (NTSC) into the crash of an Indonesia AirAsia A320 passenger jet last year
that killed all 162 on board.
Investigators found no single cause for
the crash, but listed a combination of factors
including a glitch-prone rudder component and pilots response when things went
wrong.
The 200-page report has been hailed as a
potential turning point as pressure grows for
stronger regulation to keep pace with rampant growth in aviation in Southeast Asia.

File photo shows passengers walk towards

a Lion Air passenger plane on the tarmac of
Tjilik Riwut Airport in Palangkaraya, central
Kalimantan, Indonesia.
AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes has himself led calls for the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (Asean) to forge a common
aviation regulator, saying Asean institutions
should step forward, for commonality, and
for standardisation, and for quality..
But the 10-nation group is already struggling to implement an Open Skies initiative,
or single aviation market, to liberalise air
services by the end of 2015.
That will slip due to differences among the

member states, and the difficulty in achieving it illustrates the challenges in taking it a
step further and creating common aviation
regulatory and safety standards, experts say.
Unlike Europe, Asean has no legal or executive body to push through liberalisation
or create regional organisations that oversee
safety and air traffic control.
This is mainly because member countries are reluctant to give up their sovereign
rights, say industry experts.
Given the (different) speed of development in each country, I dont think it will be
done anytime soon and may take at least 20
years to take shape, Chula Sukmanop, director of the Office of Civil Aviation in Thailand, told Reuters.
A lack of consensus among stakeholders
is delaying the process, even as more of the
regions 600mn population take to the skies,
aided by robust growth of low-cost carriers
such as AirAsia and Indonesias privatelyheld Lion Air.
Both airlines have placed record orders
with the main plane makers.

Malaysia is open and ready, but some

other countries are not ready, a senior Malaysian official involved in the Asean talks
told Reuters, declining to be more specic.
Airline executives, too, are divided on how
to regulate the industry.
In contrast with Fernandes call for a
cross-border regulator, Arif Wibowo, chief
of the Indonesian National Carriers Association and CEO of ag carrier Garuda,
believes aircraft safety should be left to national regulators.
Each inspector should intensify aircraft maintenance and ensure a high level of
scrutiny. Second, regulators in each country
should be able to check all airlines in an integrated way. Theres no need to raise it to the
Asean level, he told Reuters.
Air safety standards have improved in
much of Southeast Asia, including Indonesia. In 2007, safety standards were so bad
that the European Union barred all Indonesian airlines from ying to its member states.
That ban was lifted in August 2009 for all the
countrys airlines except Lion Air.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

13

AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA
Crowning glory

Presidential
hopeful apologises
over racist joke
AFP
Seoul

he frontrunner to be
South Koreas next
president has apologised after sparking a public
uproar for jokingly likening
the skin colour of an African
student to coal.
Kim Moo-Sung, the leader
of the countrys ruling conservative Saenuri Party and
the leader in polling ahead of
December 2017 elections, issued the apology in the face of
public criticism over the gaffe.
I failed to realise that
showing friendliness this way
could hurt someones feelings, Kim wrote on his Facebook page on Friday.
I am really sorry and there
is no excuse. I sincerely apologise from the bottom of my
heart.
He made the quip while
delivering coal briquettes to
the needy in Seoul alongside a
group of foreign exchange students earlier on Friday.
The event was part of a
charity programme which
drew around 40 students

from 27 countries as well as 50

young members of the Saenuri
Party.
Your face colour is the
same as the briquettes colour, the 64-year-old said to a
Nigerian student while laughing.
The
student,
Babalola
Joushua Adekunie, said he did
not take offence.
I dont give any special
meaning to it, Adekunie told
local news outlet Focus News.
He said it jokingly. He was
laughing.
Personally Im a black
man... Its nothing that I am
ashamed of.
Asked whether he thought
Kim should apologise to him,
Adekunie replied in Korean:
Guenchanayo (No problem).
The 26-year-old student is
attending a local university on
a South Korean government
scholarship.
Kim topped a Real Meter
survey published last week
on support levels for various
presidential hopefuls with
22.5% of respondents backing
him. Moon Jae-In of the main
opposition party was second
on 16.1%.

Mireia Lalaguna Rozo (centre) of Spain waves after winning the new title at the Miss World Grand Final in Sanya, next to Miss Russia, Sofia Nikitchuk (left) and Miss World
Indonesia, Maria Harfanti in southern Chinas Hainan province yesterday. Contestants from over 110 countries competed in the final of the 65th Miss World competition.

China criticises provocative

US ypast over disputed sea
AFP
Beijing

wo US B-52 bombers ew
close to islands in the
ashpoint South China
Sea this month in a serious military provocation, Beijing said
yesterday, as tensions simmer in
the disputed waterway.
China insists it has sovereignty over virtually all of the
resource-rich sea, conicting
with the various claims of several neighbouring nations, and
US activity in the area has provoked Beijings ire several times
in recent months.
In the morning of December
10, two US B-52 bombers entered air space over the Chinese

Murdered
childrens
kin attend
memorial
DPA
Sydney

elatives of eight children

stabbed to death in their
home in northern Australia gathered yesterday to mark
the rst anniversary of the tragedy, the motive for which is still
not clear.
Raina Thaiday, 38, has been
charged with the murders of her
seven children and a niece. She
is currently under assessment to
determine whether she is mentally t to stand trial in June.
The victims were aged between 2 and 14 years old.
What happened inside the
house in Manoora, a suburb of
Cairns in tropical far north Australia, remains a mystery. Local
pastor James Gela told broadcaster ABC the community was
supporting the relatives of the
victims. A healing concert was
being held in a nearby park for the
extended indigenous family from
the Torres Strait Islands.
Twelve months on, its a positive gesture and part of that healing process, Gela said.
The house was demolished six
months ago and the property has
become a little park, with fruit
trees planted as memorial to the
child victims.

Nansha islands and nearby areas

without authorisation, Beijings
defence ministry said, using the
Chinese name for the Spratly Islands.
This behaviour is a serious military provocation which
complicates the general situation in the South China Sea,
(contributing) to the militarisation of the region, the ministry
said in a statement.
During the mission by the two
B-52 bombers, one of the aircraft
unintentionally ew within two
nautical miles of an articially
constructed island, the Wall
Street Journal quoted Pentagon
officials as saying Friday.
This may have been because
of bad weather conditions, according to officials quoted in the

newspaper. Washington said

Saturday it routinely conducts
training missions in the region,
including the South China Sea,
adding that it was investigating
the reports of the bomber near
the Spratly chain.
The Chinese have raised
concerns with us about the
flight path of a recent training
mission. We are looking into
the matter, Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said.
I will also say that for this
mission there was no intention of flying within 12 nautical
miles of any feature, he added.
This was not a Freedom of
Navigation Operation.
The US has previously argued
for its right to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea

and is critical of China building

artificial islands there.
It has flown other B-52
bombers and sailed a guidedmissile destroyer near some
of the constructions in recent
months.
In October, Washington infuriated Beijing when the USS
Lassen guided missile destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of at least one land
formation claimed by China
in the disputed Spratlys.
The US has continuously
sent military ships and planes
to make a show of force and
create tensions in the waters
and airspace of the South
China Sea, Beijings defence
ministry said earlier yesterday.

The Chinese army will

take all necessary measures
to defend the sovereignty and
the security of the country.
Chinas military conducted
war games in the area this
week, with warships, submarines and fighter jets deployed
over a range of several thousand kilometres, the Peoples
Liberation Army Daily said.
Beijings claims in the sea
conflict with those of its regional neighbours Vietnam,
Malaysia, the Philippines,
Taiwan and Brunei.
This week, Australia said
one of its military surveillance
planes had flown near disputed
areas of the South China Sea.
The crew reportedly heard
warnings from Chinas navy.

Beijing on highest pollution alert

but smog not as bad as forecast
Reuters
Beijing

hinas capital Beijing was

bracing for four days of
choking smog starting yesterday, but residents said the haze
was less severe than forecast, with
some questioning why the government had issued its highest air pollution alert.
China had warned residents
across a large part of its north on
Friday to prepare for severe smog
arriving over the weekend, the worst
of which would hit Beijing, prompting the capital to issue its second
ever red alert.
A red alert is triggered when the
government believes air quality will
surpass a level of 200 on an index
that measures various pollutants for
at least three days. The US government deems a level of more than 200
to be very unhealthy.
On Saturday morning the Beijing
Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center was showing an air quality reading of 104. Today I have
to work. And where is the smog?
posted one Beijing resident on Weibo, Chinas Twitter equivalent.
The smog is not so bad. Why do
they have driving restrictions? said
another Weibo user in the capital.
The Beijing city government issued its rst red alert last week
following criticism that previous
bouts of smog had failed to trigger
the highest warning level.
In Beijing, a red alert means
around half the vehicles are re-

A visitor wearing a protective mask walks at the Temple of Heaven park as

Beijing braces for four days of choking smog.
moved from the roads, with an oddeven licence plate system enforced.
Schools are recommended to close
and outdoor construction is banned.
Wang Bin, head of the emergency
response division of the Beijing
Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, said that measures
were taken in advance to reduce
the impact of the pollution and
help people to prepare, the official
Xinhua news agency reported.
The red alert issued earlier this
month prevented further deterioration of air quality, the report
added, citing the authorities.
Beijings latest red alert is due to
last until midnight on Tuesday.
The National Meteorological
Center said Thursday that parts

of north China will see the worst

smog so far this year, starting Saturday.
But it only issued a yellow alert
for the city and many surrounding areas on Saturday. Yellow is the
second level on Chinas four-tier
colour-coded pollution alert system. The weather observatory said
that areas including southern Beijing, central Hebei, north Henan
and west Shandong would be affected by heavy smog, which would
start to dissipate from Wednesday.
It advised the public to take
protective measures and those
who suffer from respiratory diseases were urged to stay indoors
or to wear face masks if they need
to go out.

Angry single men stage

anti-Christmas rally
AFP
Tokyo

nti-Christmas protesters calling themselves

Losers with Women
marched through Tokyos
streets yesterday, bashing the
upcoming holiday as a capitalist ploy that also discriminates
against singletons.
The group of about 20
-- part of the Communistinspired group that routinely
protests Western holidays -marched under angry banners
that read Smash Christmas!
in Tokyos Shibuya district,
where couples and families
strolled for holiday shopping.
The scrooges mostly
single men said they were
against capitalism and were
opposed to the commercialisation of Christmas.
In this world, money is
extracted from people in love,
and happy people support
capitalism, said the head of

the organisation, formally

called Kakumeiteki Hi-mote
Domei, or the Revolutionary
Losers League.
Christmas is the most
symbolic event for this, he
added. The man, who identified himself only by the
pseudonym MarkWater, said
the rally was also in support
of unloved men.
Unpopular men, who
dont have a girlfriend or are
not married, are overly discriminated. We want to break
this barrier, he said amid the
shouting protesters.
In Japan, Christmas is not
an official holiday and is
mostly celebrated informally
as a romantic event for couples, while the New Years
day is an occasion for family
reunion.
The Christian population
remains small in the Asian
country, stores offer special holiday sales and people
decorate Christmas trees at
home.

14

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

BRITAIN/IRELAND

UK premier
cornered on
EU migrants
AFP
London

ritish Prime Minister David

Cameron is rolling over his
European Union renegotiation bid into 2016, as member
nations seek a deal on the contentious issue of welfare handouts for migrants.
Cameron hinted after a Brussels summit on Friday that he
wants to hold Britains longawaited in-out referendum on
membership of the European
Union next year.
Press reports yesterday suggested that Cameron was eyeing
a June/July referendum, which

would follow British local elections in May.

It looks like Cameron will
however have to give ground on
his demands on curbing welfare
payments for citizens from other
EU countries arriving in Britain,
in the face of opposition from a
string of other European leaders who see his proposals as discriminatory.
French President Francois
Hollande warned Cameron that
the plan was unacceptable.
While German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seen as generally
supportive of Britains position,
she has stressed that the fundamental achievements of European integration such as freedom

of movement and non-discrimination were not up for debate.

This left Cameron talking of a
tough road to a deal at the next
summit in February after Thursdays crunch dinner dominated
by the issue.
EU President Donald Tusk said
other leaders had voiced their
concerns but were willing to
compromise.
Cameron faces deadlock over
EU benet plan was the Guardian newspapers headline on Friday, while the Sun ran with Cam
pole-axed.
That was a pun on the opposition to his plans from Poland,
one of the eastern European nations whose citizens have moved

Cameron: wants to force migrants from EU countries who have jobs in Britain to wait four years before they can claim state benefits.
to Britain in their hundreds of
thousands.
Cameron has made a rod for
his own back with his promise
on benets, said Professor Simon
Hix of the London School of Economics.
He may now have to concede
on that issue in return for a compromise deal.
While Cameron is pushing for
reforms of Britains relationship
with the EU in four areas, it is
the issue of benet payments to
European migrants which is the
most problematic.
He wants to force those migrants from EU countries who
have jobs in Britain to wait four
years before they can claim state

560mn plans to overhaul Bank station

By Ramzy Alwakeel
Evening Standard

ajor plans to overhaul Bank

Tube station to the tune of
563mn have been given the
green light, with work set to begin in
the new year.
The transport hub, the third busiest Tube station, will be able to handle

40% more people by the time work is

complete. At the moment 1mn people
walk through the gates every week.
Bank was voted Londons most disliked Tube station in a 2013 YouGov
poll.
The upgrades were signed off on Friday by the government. They include
an extra Northern line platform, a new
entrance in Cannon Street, new lifts,
and two more moving walkways like

the one that now leads to the Waterloo

and City line.
But commuters hoping to see an immediate improvement will be disappointed the work isnt scheduled to
nish until 2021.
Passengers will still be able to access
all four lines that run through Bank
during the overhaul: Central, Northern
and Waterloo and City Tubes, as well
as the DLR.

ONE SMOKER.
TWO PATIENTS.

benets in a bid to make the

country which saw record net
migration last year a less attractive destination.
With other European leaders pushing back against that,
sources and commentators suggest several alternative ways for
Cameron to address the issue.
One could be to impose an
emergency brake on migration
into Britain, allowing Cameron to
limit migration from the 27 other
EU states if its public services
were overwhelmed or welfare
system was being abused.
Another is to withdraw such
benets from young Britons as
well as EU migrants.
There are still more questions

Youth who died in a freak

accident will save 20 lives
By Robin de Peyer
Evening Standard

he parents of a trainee surveyor

who died after a hockey accident
have revealed yesterday that he
could save more than 20 lives after having signed up as an organ donor.
Tom Wilson, 22, died in hospital after
being hit on the head with a stick during
a practice match at Old Loughtonians
hockey club in Essex earlier this month.
After he went into cardiac arrest, his
teammates performed CPR on him
keeping his heart alive and preserving
the organs that could now save other
desperate patients lives.
His mother, Lisa, a 52-year-old PE
teacher, and father Graham, a 63-yearold former journalist, spoke yesterday
of their pride in their son, who lived
near London Bridge after graduating
from Nottingham Trent University.
He was a perfect son, brother,
grandson, nephew, cousin and had a
wonderful sense of humour, they told
BBC Breakfast. And so charming, we
couldnt have wished for any better.
It was a freak accident. Weve heard
of bad injuries in hockey. Weve heard
of concussion and things but rarely of
fatalities.

The Wilsons also revealed that they

did not know Tom was a donor until
the hospital told them after their sons
death.
Not until those awful nal words
time of death that the donor nurses
came back to us and said we have got
some news for you: your son signed up
at Nottingham Trent University as a
fresher, said Mrs Wilson. It was a big
relief to know that Tom had done that
and I was so proud again.
I was proud of him when he was
alive and I just wanted to say Tom, I
am so proud of you now with that decision.
She added: Weve now heard he
could contribute and save over 20 peoples lives. They found matches for
all the major organs and half his liver,
weve heard, will go to a child.
Even in death he has made us very,
very proud, by making that decision.
Its the only comfort we can take. He
was a wonderful boy and life was perfect.
His club, Old Loughtonians, held a
memorial service for him after he was
pronounced brain dead on December 9.
Tom had previously been a games
captain at The Coopers Company and
Coborn School in Upminster, east London.

Snobbish Tube passenger

ordered me to move
By James Bullen
Evening Standard

builder claims he was ordered to

vacate his seat on the Tube by a
commuter because he had a better job than him.
Jamie Loveday, 19, said he was approached by a man on a Victoria line
train on Wednesday around 7.20pm
after he stepped onto the carriage at
Green Park station.
The teenager was sitting on the Tube
as he made his way home to Luton having nished a days work at the Adelphi
Building in Westminster.
He told the Standard that a wellspoken smartly dressed man, aged between 40 and 50, told him to vacate his
seat because he was the nance manager of an upmarket hotel.
The man offered no other explanation as to why he deserved to sit down,
claimed Loveday.
When the bizarre request was dismissed he asked a young Chinese woman to give up her seat using the same
ploy and she did, Loveday claimed.

TOBACCO KILLS

than answers but it looks like

everyone now has their sights
on reaching a deal in February,
said Stephen Booth, co-director of think tank Open Europe.
Whether thats the case will
likely depend on whether this
broad political impetus is sufficient to see the process through.
In his closing press conference on Friday, Cameron insisted
that good progress had been
made at the Brussels summit and
seemed to suggest that the referendum could be held in 2016.
Reports in Britain suggest June
next year is his preferred date.
No date has been officially set,
though it must by law happen
before the end of 2017.

He said: I couldnt believe what I

was hearing and said excuse me before saying no I wasnt going to give up
my seat. Everyones faces around me
dropped.
He muttered this is outrageous
and stormed off down the carriage before asking the same question to a Chinese girl who moved for him.
He probably thought because he
earns more money than me he could intimidate me. I was in my dusty clothes
and he was in a Calvin Klein suit.
The 19-year-old, who commutes to
London from his home in Luton, said
that it wasnt the rst time he had been
a victim of snobbery in the capital.
Last week, he said that he was helped
by an elderly gentleman after dropping his tools on the Tube while men
in smartly dressed suits walked over
him.
However, the latest Tube incident
prompted him to take to Twitter to vent
his disgust.
Loveday added: It annoyed me that
he thought was so arrogant to think he
was better than me but I nd it happens
in London.

I believe 2016 will be the year

we achieve something really vital, fundamentally changing the
UKs relationship with the EU
and nally addressing the concerns of the British people about
our membership, the British
prime minister said.
Opinion polls suggest the British public is nely balanced on
whether they want to remain in
the EU or leave.
Seven months after his May
election victory which ensured
the EU referendum would become a reality, Cameron now
faces another long, hard slog in
2016 if he is to secure the result
he wants Britain staying in the
EU, but with reforms.

Police
warning
over use
of drones
Evening Standard
London

olice have issued a warning

to drone owners ahead of
Christmas after two nearmisses with planes at an airport.
Hampshire Police said 46 incidents involving drones were
recorded this year.
They included reports of a
drone coming within a wings
length of two separate aircraft
landing at Southampton International Airport.
Other incidents included
drones being found in peoples
gardens and one hitting the roof
of a house and causing damage.
Police
constable
Andy
Sparshott said that a drone had
also been used during an ongoing neighbour dispute where one
person ew a drone over their
neighbours garden intentionally
to cause annoyance.
Sparshott said that anyone
using a personal drone should
be aware of the regulations and
guidelines for their use and also
note that some are intended for
indoor use only.
He added: The majority of
reported incidents we get are
drones ying low over houses
or close to people in recreation
parks.
Our message is not that
drones are dangerous or that we
are spoiling someones Christmas present enjoyment, but increased awareness by everyone
is an essential part to preventing
incidents before they happen.
So if you see a drone being
own recklessly or think its location may be a risk to the public
or aviation then please report it
to the police on 101, and if you
do get one for Christmas please
make sure youre aware of the
guidance and regulations regarding ying them.
He added: Breaches of these
regulations may result in prosecution. Officers wouldnt look to
criminalise innocent misuse, as
education or other out-of-court
disposals may be more appropriate, but the risk to safety may
have been reckless and prosecution could prove necessary.
The Civil Aviation Authority
regulates drone safety through
its regulations in the Air Navigation Order 2009.

Lord Janner, Labour peer accused of sex assaults, dies aged 87

Issued in Public Interest by

GULF TIMES

Labour peer Lord Janner has died aged 87 after a long illness,
his family confirmed yesterday evening.
Lord Janner, who was made a life peer in the House of Lords
in 1997, had been suffering from dementia and passed away
at his home yesterday.
In a statement, his family said: Lord Janner died peacefully
on Saturday, December 19 after a long illness. He will be
deeply missed.
Sir Mick Davis, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council,
said: The passing of Greville Janner marks the end of an era

for the Jewish community. Our thoughts and prayers are with
the Janner family at this most difficult time.
The former MP, who represented Leicester North West from
1970 to 1974 and then Leicester West from 1974 to 1997,
had previously been accused of a string of historic sexual
offences.
He faced a total of 22 charges, including 15 counts of indecent
assault, for alleged incidents from the 1960s to the 1980s.
He was ruled unfit to stand trial earlier this month and a trial
of the facts was due to take place in April 2016.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

15

EUROPE

70 killed in anti-PKK offensive

AFP
Diyarbakir

eventy suspected members

of the militant Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) have
been killed in a vast operation
against the group in the mainly
Kurdish southeast over the past
four days, the army said yesterday.
Eight PKK rebels have been
killed since Friday, taking the
death toll in the unprecedented
offensive by the army and police
on pro-PKK bastions in three
towns and cities to 70, the army
said on its website.
The army also said that it had

carried out airstrikes Friday on

PKK hideouts and weapons
sites across the border in northern Iraq, where the outlawed
group has its rear bases.
A Turkish soldier was killed in
the operations yesterday, bringing the death toll on the army
side to two.
Some 10,000 soldiers, supported by tanks, have been deployed in the southeast to try to
rout young PKK supporters from
urban areas, according to local
media.
The operation, which has targeted the towns of Cizre and Silopi in Sirnak province as well as
a neighbourhood in Diyarbakir,
the largest city in the region, be-

gan on Wednesday, according to

the army.
Thirty-six militants were
killed on Thursday alone.
Army chief Hulusi Akar visited Sirnak province yesterday
for a brieng by the local military
command.
The army said that two schools
that had been used by the PKK
as hideouts had been rendered
inoperable while a stash of arms
had been seized in Silopi.
The operations mark a new escalation in ve months of ghting between the army and the
PKK since a two-and-a-half year
truce collapsed in July.
Although analysts have called
for peace talks, the authorities

led by President Recep Tayyip

Erdogan have said Ankara must
eradicate the PKK.
The terrorists wanted to
paralyse daily life in these towns
by intimidating inhabitants who
they had extorted, Interior Minister Efkan Ala told the state-run
Anatolia news agency last week.
He said that the authorities
had seized 2,240 weapons, 10
tonnes of explosives and 10,000
Molotov cocktails from the militants.
Images published by Anatolia
showed heavily armed soldiers
backed by tanks going houseto-house in the towns and ring
from street corners.
You (the PKK) will disap-

pear into those trenches that you

dug, the president told his supporters in a speech in the central
city of Konya that was broadcast
on television.
The Turkish government says
the operation is needed to eliminate militants who were effectively taking over the towns by
building barricades and digging
trenches.
But Kurdish activists and politicians have accused the army
of acting with impunity and
pounding large parts of the towns
to rubble.
Images from the area show
troops clashing with militants in
the otherwise deserted streets.
Cizre has a population of some

100,000, and Silopi more than

80,000.
Are you trying to be heroic by
sending six generals and 10,000
soldiers against a few PKK (members) in Cizre? the leader of the
pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party, Selahattin Demirtas,
asked the government.
By conducting an operation
with such an amount of forces,
bombing cities, sending soldiers
on the people you only show, in
fact, how helpless you are, he
told reporters this week.
Demirtas lambasted the official
Turkish rhetoric used to describe
the crackdown as a cleansing
operation.
The curfews in Cizre and Silopi

are the latest in a succession of

such measures across the southeast that have angered activists.
There have also been growing tensions over a curfew in the
Sur district of southeastern Diyarbakir province also mainly
Kurdish that has been in place
almost uninterrupted since December 2.
The PKK launched a formal
insurgency against the Turkish government in 1984, initially
ghting for Kurdish independence although it now presses
more for greater autonomy and
rights for the countrys largest
ethnic minority.
The conict has left tens of
thousands dead.

Thousands participate in Polish

pro-democracy demonstrations

Videos of interviews
with militants spark
Swiss terror probe

AFP
Warsaw

Reuters/AFP
Zurich

housands of people demonstrated in Polands

capital Warsaw and other
cities yesterday, accusing the
conservative government that
took power just last month of
undermining democracy.
We are going to defend democracy, we are going to defend
the constitution, a crowd of
around 10,000 demonstrators
that gathered outside parliament
in Warsaw, which is now controlled by the Law and Justice party
(PiS), shouted.
The PiS, led by staunch conservative ex-premier Jaroslaw
Kaczynski, has already plunged
the country into a political crisis over its controversial nominations to the Constitutional
Court.
The ruling party has attempted to install ve judges of its
own choosing in the 15-member
court, and refuses to recognise
judges who were appointed by
the previous parliament when
the liberal Civic Platform (PO)
party was in power.
We have our freedoms and we
are going to defend them, said
Mateusz Kijowski, founder of
the Committee for the defence of
democracy (KOD), a civic movement that was created to oppose
what critics see as an attempt by
the PiS to politicise the top court.
The KOD has also organised
demonstrations in other cities
from Lublin in eastern Poland, to
Gdansk in the north and Poznan
to the west.
Public television estimated the
crowds at 4,000 in Lublin and
Gdansk and 1,000 in Poznan.

Kaczynski
The conservative-controlled
parliament is also debating a law
that would raise the bar for Constitutional Court rulings, from
a simple majority of judges to a
two-thirds majority.
Kaczynski, who is neither
president nor prime minister
but is widely seen as pulling the
strings in his party, has said he
wants to break up the band of
cronies in the nations highest
judicial body, whom he accuses
of protecting their own interests.
According to a TNS Institute
poll published in the Gazeta
Wyborcza, approval ratings for
the PiS have slid to 27% from
42% at the start of December.
The new governments critics
include Lech Walesa, Polands
Nobel Peace laureate and rst
democratically elected president
since World War II in 1990.
Im beginning to be ashamed
of this democratic choice, said
Walesa on Thursday.
We have to change some
things. They are right on a lot of
points, but not in the way they
are doing it, he added, calling
for an open and democratic
reform process.
If they dont do it like that,
I am warning them, its going to
end in civil war, Walesa said.
Demonstrations also took
place last weekend when 50,000
people marched in Warsaw
against the new ruling party.

Protesters shout slogans during an anti-government demonstration yesterday in Warsaw. Thousands of

Poles participated in demonstrations across Poland to protest moves by the new right-wing government
to neutralise the Constitutional Tribunal as a check on its power.

Switzerland seeks claimants

for 2,600 dormant accounts
AFP
Geneva

or anyone who may have

forgotten about their fortune sitting idle in a Swiss
bank account, a list published
this week is a must read.
The rst-of-its-kind list
published by the Swiss Bankers Association identies more
than 2,600 accounts with total
assets estimated at 44mn Swiss
francs ($44mn/41mn) which
have been dormant for at least
60 years.
For accounts that have been
idle since 1955, individuals have
one year to make a claim or the
assets will be transferred to the
federal government, an SBA
statement said.
For accounts dating from
1954 or earlier, claimants have a
ve-year window.
The publication of the accounts followed a law passed on
January 1 which aimed in part to
help give banks legal clarity on
how to handle dormant assets,
the SBA said.
By publishing this information, the banks are making a last
attempt to re-establish contact
with the customer, SBA chief
Claude-Alain Margelish said in
a statement. This publication
gives customers and their legal

heirs another opportunity to

assert their claims.
A spokeswoman for the association, Sindy Schmiegel Werner, told AFP that the legislation
was pushed for by banks anxious to avoid the complications
posed by dormant accounts,
including some that have been
idle for nearly 100 years.
Werner added that the problem of dormant accounts affected banks globally and that
the SBA was at the forefront of
efforts to regulate the issue.
Only accounts with more
than 500 Swiss francs were
listed.
The association is also looking for claimants for around
80 safety deposit boxes, which
have been opened with an inventory taken, the SBA said.
Switzerland intends to publish a fresh list every year, with
the 2016 version identifying accounts dormant since 1956.
Switzerland has previously
published lists of dormant accounts, but only those with
a direct link to victims of the
Holocaust.
A 1998 agreement that
sought to resolve the controversy surrounding Holocaustera accounts saw Swiss banking
giants UBS and Credit Suisse
pay out $1.24bn to a victims
fund managed by New York-

based judge Edward Korman.

The majority of names belong to Swiss nationals or those
with addresses in Switzerland,
but the various nationalities
listed include Americans, Argentinians, Brazilians, Germans
and Israelis.
Some of the account holders
in the list were born in the 19th
century and some appear tied
to prominent European families
like the Vogues of France who
have no connection to the famous magazine.
There are families with six
dormant accounts, and families
with no accounts but multiple
safety deposit boxes.
Among the curious entities
listed is the apparently extinct
Press Club of Locarno, which
opened an account in 1955 and
has not used it since.
Perhaps anticipating a ood
of hopeful claimants seeking
to access previously unknown
riches, the SBA highlighted the
thorough verication process
requiring concrete evidence
before a claim is considered legitimate.
Certain accounts have no
corresponding names or addresses and are identied only
through an ID number found
in a passbook which, in theory,
should be in the possession of
the account holder.

he Swiss attorney general has opened a criminal

investigation of a leading member in a Swiss Muslim
organisation accused of violating a ban on jihadist groups,
the attorney generals office
said yesterday.
Switzerland is on alert after
Islamist militants killed 130
people in Paris in November.
A week ago, two Syrians
were arrested near the French
border on suspicion of having
links to Islamic State.
Traces of explosives were
found in their car.
The attorney generals ofce did not name the accused,
but the Islamic Central Council, which says it is the largest
Muslim organisation in Switzerland, identied him as the
German head of its multimedia
department, Naim Cherni.
He was either 23 or 24 years
old, the spokeswoman said.
According to State Attorney
Michael Lauber, the accused
traveled to Syria in October
and interviewed the leader of
a jihadist umbrella group as
well as the leader of Jabhat alNusra, which is affiliated with
Al Qaeda.
He subsequently released a
roughly 40-minute video, in
Arabic with German subtitles,
documenting their exchange.
Lauber said that he presented his journey to embattled regions of Syria in a video
for propaganda purposes,
without having explicitly distanced himself from Al Qaeda
activities in Syria.

The Islamic Central Council

says on its website that it seeks
to promote the recognition of
Islam in Switzerland and that it
had more than 2,500 members
at the end of 2012.
A spokesman for the council
said earlier yesterday that its
leaders were unable to make
a statement immediately but
would respond at the press
conference with Cherni tomorrow morning in Berne.
The Swiss government on
Friday announced that it had
added 86 employees to what
it called its terror ghting
activities within the federal
police, intelligence service and
border patrol agencies.
Lauber recently opened a
criminal inquiry on the basis
of a terrorist threat in Geneva against unknown persons
suspected of belonging to a
criminal organisation and of
violating the ban on Al Qaeda
or Islamic State.
The attorney generals ofce said the move shows the
rigorous prosecution brought
against all persons in Switzerland who attempt to take part
in jihad-motivated terrorism,
or who support this by means
of propaganda.
It also pointed out that it
was currently in the midst of
46 criminal proceedings in
conjunction with the topic of
jihad-motivated
terrorism,
adding that most of these cases were linked to suspected
propaganda support of terrorist organisations.
The attorney generals office
highlighted that in October it
had led charges against four
Iraqis accused of preparing a
terrorist attack.

Swiss reject Ikea refugee

shelters due to re risk
AFP
Geneva

he Swiss city of Zurich has

announced that it would
not use the 62 Ikea refugee shelters it has purchased to
house asylum-seekers after a test
showed they constituted a re
hazard.
Amid swelling numbers of
refugees and other migrants arriving in Switzerland, Zurich
city councillor Raphael Golta on
Friday morning proudly unveiled
a large hall lled with dozens of
Ikea ready-to-assemble refugee
shelters aimed to house 250 people by early January.
But just a few hours later, the
city was forced to announce that
a re safety test had revealed the
shelters do not live up to Swiss
re protection requirements.
The test showed the temporary
shelters are easily combustible,
the city of Zurich said in a statement.
Golta voiced surprise at the
verdict, but insisted that the city
had done its best under the circumstances.
We have to host 40% more
asylum seekers in the space of
two months, so we had to move
quickly to choose the best solu-

Packages of disassembled migrant shelters are seen inside an

exhibition hall in Zurich.
tion available, he told the RTS
public broadcaster.
The shelters, developed in
co-operation between Swedish
furniture giant Ikea and the UN
refugee agency, have already reportedly been deployed by the
thousand in refugee camps and in
places like Greece that are facing
a heavy inux of migrants.
The city of Zurich said it had
relied on safety information from
the UNHCR and a Swedish study.
But regional authorities had
requested a new test after learn-

ing that a German report this

week raised concerns about the
accuracy of the Swedish study.
UNHCR spokeswoman Anja
Klug told Swiss news agency ATS
on Friday that the organisation
was preparing to compare the
Swiss and Swedish safety test
results.
If we discover problems, we
will seek a solution, she said,
stressing though that the shelters are emergency housing,
temporary solutions, which we
consider better than tents.

The Swiss canton of Argau,

which had been planning to
house 300 asylum seekers in
the Ikea shelters within a few
months, also said on Friday that
it was seeking alternatives following the Zurich test results.
Switzerland is expecting to
receive some 39,000 asylum applicants this year, up from 23,800
in 2014.
Yesterday the Ikea Foundation
insisted that its refugee shelters
are safe.
Maerta Terne, a spokeswoman
for the Better Shelter project,
born out of a collaboration between the Ikea Foundation and
the UN refugee agency, told AFP
she could not comment on the
Swiss safety test before seeing a
translation of the report on the
results and the method used.
However, she stressed the tests
against European safety standards on the walls and covering
panels showed that the material
held a security level superior to
that required for temporary shelter.
According to Better Shelter,
the UN agency has ordered for
its operations this year 10,000
of the 17.5sq m (188-squarefoot) easy-to-assemble shelters,
which come in Swedish furniture
giant Ikeas famous atpacks.

16

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

INDIA

Detention of
gang-rape
victims
parents denied
IANS
New Delhi

he parents of the December 16, 2012 gangrape victim said Delhi

Police yesterday detained
them for protesting outside the reformation home
against the release of the juvenile convict.
Police, however, denied
they were detained.
They were protesting outside the reformation home
in Majnu Ka Tilla where the
juvenile was remanded after
the Juvenile Justice Board
sent him for reformation for
three years.
We all were forcefully
dumped in a bus and kept
at the Maurice Nagar police
station under detention for
half an hour. We were later
allowed to go, the gang-rape
victims father Badrinath
told IANS.
Delhi Police, however, denied the allegation, saying
the gang-rape victims parents were not detained.
We did not detain the
gang-rape victims parents.
We gently asked them to
leave the place. They themselves were ready to board
the police bus along with
other protesters. They were
taken to the Maurice Nagar

police station and were free

to go,Deputy Commissioner
of Police Madhur Verma said.
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief
Minister
Arvind
Kejriwal termed the detention a
shocking incident.
I am shocked to learn that
Nirbhayas parents have been
detained. They should immediately be released, Kejriwal tweeted.
In another tweet, Kejriwal
said: Police action against
Nirbhayas parents is unacceptable. I have asked the
chief secretary to talk to police commissioner and get
them released.
Delhi Commission for
Women (DCW) chief Swati
Maliwal also said: It is too
much. Why has police detained Nirbhayas parents.
They have all right to peacefully protest. They should be
immediately released.
The convict is now
20-years-old. He was a juvenile in 2012 when he along
with five other accused committed the gang-rape in a
moving bus in the capital.
The court found him guilty
of raping and assaulting the
victim along with five accomplices.
Sources said the juvenile
was shifted to some undisclosed location a day before
his release today.

Man saves fathers

life by donating
liver of different
blood group
IANS
Noida

n a rare surgery, a 26-year-old youth saved his fathers life by

donating a portion of his liver in spite of having a different
blood group, hospital officials said yesterday.
After 50-year-old Andrew was diagnosed with liver damage due
to poor food habits, the only option left for the patient was liver
transplant. Though his own son, Aaron was willing to donate a part
of his liver, the difference between his and his fathers blood groups
made it difficult.
A doctor, whom Andrew consulted, told him about the new ABO
incompatible liver transplant process through which a transplant
was possible even if the blood groups of the receiver and donor do
not match. According to doctors, until now people used to rely only
on matching blood groups or cadaver donors, but now with the ABO
incompatible technique, the lives of hundreds of patients can be
saved.
Success of this operation has given hope to people around the
world who are ghting to save their lives just because they are unable to nd a donor whose blood group matches theirs. Two to three
weeks after the operation, the line of treatment and the medicines
are similar to those patients who have undergone a normal compatible transplant, said KR Vasudevan, senior consultant for liver
transplant, who was a part of the operative team at Jaypee Hospital.
Under the AOB incompatible transplantation, a simple blood
test is performed rst to determine the amount of antibodies in the
blood stream. Most people have a level of antibodies that is treatable.
Following that, there is a treatment done to reduce the blood group
antibodies of the organ receiver. Once it is done, antibodies of the
blood group of the receiver are removed using a process of plasma
exchange. Then nally the task of removing the cells that make more
of antibodies in the blood group is done and a medication called intravenous immunoglobulin or IVIg is given to the patient to decline
the antibodies completely, after which the transplant is possible.
The WHO says that every fth person in India suffers from some
liver complication. Annually, around 250,000 patients die of liver
failure in India owing to cirrhosis. Over 25,000 patients need a liver
transplant every year but only 1,100 actually manage to undergo
transplantation.

Vice-President of Congress Party Rahul Gandhi (centre) walks with his mother and party President Sonia Gandhi and officials as they leave Patiala House Court in New Delhi yesterday,
after a court appearance by the pair.

Court grants bail to Sonia,

Rahul in corruption case
AFP
New Delhi

New Delhi court granted

bail to opposition leaders
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi
yesterday in a high-prole corruption case that has gripped
India, as they accused political
rivals of waging a malicious vendetta against them.
The mother-son duo, scions
of the famous Gandhi-Nehru
dynasty, arrived at the capitals
Patiala trial court accompanied
by ex-premier Manmohan Singh
and other senior Congress leaders, underscoring the intensely
politicised nature of the case.
The Gandhis waved to their
supporters outside the court
where hundreds of police and
paramilitaries stood guard, before entering for a ve-minute
hearing in which they were
granted unconditional bail.
This is clearly a case of political vendetta, defence lawyer
Kapil Sibal said, adding the case
had been adjourned until February 20.
The Gandhis were summoned
by the court after Subramanian
Swamy, a politician from the
ruling Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) led a private criminal
complaint accusing them of
misappropriating property belonging to the now-defunct National Herald newspaper.
They ercely deny Swamys
allegations, which they say are
evidence of a Prime Minister
Narendra Modi-led campaign
against their embattled party,
struggling since a bitter electoral
defeat last year.
I have no doubt that the truth

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, daughter of main opposition Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, arrives at the
court in New Delhi.
will come out. We are well aware
of the campaign of attacks and
criticism that our political rivals
follow, Sonia Gandhi said at a
press conference following the
hearing.
They are targeting us and
making full use of the state
agencies, she said.
The BJP rejects any suggestion
it is involved in the case, saying
Swamy acted alone and stressing
the courts independence.
The Gandhis were granted bail
on a personal bond of 50,000 rupees ($754) each, their lawyers

said, with Sonias daughter Priyanka Gandhi and former defence

minister AK Antony providing
sureties. Three others accused
were also granted bail.
The Congress party is united
in support of (Sonia and Rahul).
We will give a determined ght,
former premier Singh told reporters.
It followed a tumultuous week
in Indian politics which saw
members of the embattled Congress and their allies throw parliament into chaos several times
in protest at the case.

The intensifying spat between

the main parties looks set to stall
the progress of a landmark sales
tax reform in parliament.
Separately, Modi clashed with
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, head of the anti-corruption Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after federal investigators searched
the city administrations headquarters, with Kejriwal branding
the premier a psychopath.
The AAP in turn caused a
storm by accusing Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley of presiding over nancial irregularities

when he controlled the capitals

cricket association - a claim he
vehemently denies.
Swamy rst led the case
against the Congress bosses in
2001.
He accused them of illegally
acquiring the now-defunct
newspapers assets after buying
its publisher through a new private company, Young Indian, using a loan from party funds.
He alleged that the Gandhis
aimed to grab property worth
$332mn owned by the publishing
rm, Associated Journals, using
fraudulent papers.
Both Gandhis are directors
of Young Indian, owning a 76%
stake in it and the remaining
shares.
Sonia and Rahul were rst
summoned in the case in June
2014 but refused to appear in
court in person, sending their
lawyers instead.
On December 7 the Delhi High
Court turned down a plea by
the Gandhis to quash the latest summons and exempt them
from appearing in person.
The National Herald was
founded by Jawaharlal Nehru
who went on to become Indias
rst prime minister.
It rst published from the
northern city of Lucknow in
1938 and played a prominent
role promoting nationalist sentiment before Indias independence from Britain in 1947.
Sonia Gandhi, widow of Nehrus grandson Rajiv, later became the chief patron of the
trust that ran it.
But dogged by bad management, poor circulation and falling revenue, she nally decided
to close the publication in 2008.

NRI-promoted power project likely to take off in Kerala

By Ashraf Padanna
Thiruvananthapuram

nfrastructure Kerala Limited or Inkel, promoted

by
prominent
expatriate investors in the Gulf, is
likely to take up a Rs60bn
petcoke power project in the
southern state.
The state plans to set up its
rst petroleum coke-based plant
using the fuel produced from
Kochi Renerys Integrated Re-

nery Expansion Project (IREP),

which will be available from
February.
The IREP will yield approximately 1.4mn metric tonnes per
annum (MMTPA) of petcoke,
when it is expected to be completed by May 2016. This can
be used to produce 500 to 600
megawatts of power.
The power produced using
petcoke is expected to be much
cheaper than that of naphtha or
LNG-red plants. The project
is also supposed to create a

large number of jobs in rening, petrochemical, power and

construction sectors with the
renery residues leading to light
petroleum products.
It is expected to bring down
the cost of production by half
compared to heavy fuel oil
plants.
The state authorised Inkel
to study its feasibility last year.
Based on discussions with major
power plant technology providers and extensive data analysis,
it said, the company submitted

a comprehensive report, which

endorsed its implementation.
As such, this can be one of the
best infrastructure projects initiated by the state, Inkel managing director T Balakrishnan
said in a statement.
It can be a key contributor
to Keralas economic development.
The government, identifying
the merits of petcoke as a primary fuel for power generation,
has approved the proposal, in
principle. The high caloric val-

ue solid fuel is extensively used

for power generation in various
countries.
The project is bolstered by
many favourable factors, including assured fuel supply from the
BPCL renery with negligible
transportation cost, adequate
water source, pollution-free,
eco-friendly, advanced technology and excellent connectivity.
The land identied for the
project is 150 acres of Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore
Limited (FACT), Irumpanam,

adjacent to the BPCL expansion

project. It will be acquired by
Kerala State Industrial Development Corp (KSIDC) and used
only for the implementation of
the petcoke based power plant,
under government directions.
The power project proposes to
employ the most environmentfriendly technology currently
available in the world, with a
minimal requirement of land, it
said.
Inkel, chaired by industries
minister PK Kunhalikutty, has

prominent non-resident Indian

(NRI) investors, CK Menon (Qatar), Mohamed Althaf (UAE),
Siddeek Ahmed (Saudi Arabia),
CV Rappai (Qatar) and Verghese
Kurien (Bahrain) as directors.
The state government holds
26% of the company through
investment arm Kerala State
Industrial Development Corp
(KSIDC) and infrastructure developer, Kerala State Infrastructure Development Corp (Kinfra)
under the industries department.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

17

INDIA

Jaitley says
collateral
reasons
delaying GST
IANS
New Delhi

ashing out at the Congress

party again for blocking a
pan-India goods and service tax (GST) regime, Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday
said some reform-oriented laws,
nonetheless, were expected to
be passed during the remaining three days of what has been
a none-too-productive winter
session of parliament thus far.
The next three days are crucial with very important pieces
of legislation coming up before
our parliament, Jaitley said here
addressing the annual general
meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce

and Industry (Ficci). Among the

legislations listed by him, one of
them included the bankruptcy
code and the other was arbitration.
Nonetheless, he said the steps
taken by his government will
prove to be benecial. Were
hoping that structural reforms
undertaken will help us go to 8%
growth in 2016-17, he said, even
as the mid-term economic survey released a day before had cut
the prospect to 7-7.5%.
Jaitleys speech had political content as well, notably on
the effort in vain, thus far, to get
the goods and services tax bill
passed in the current parliament
session.
Ive no doubt in my mind that
the attempt to delay the GST is

Jaitley: promising reform-oriented laws

Comedian Innocent t
after chemotherapy
IANS
Kochi

ce comedian and Lok

Sabha member from
Chalakudy in Kerala
Innocent who was undergoing
chemotherapy, said yesterday
that he is t.
Three days back, a PET scan
was taken and it has been found
out that I am perfectly ne after the treatment that I took in
Delhi. From now on, I will be
with my voters, Innocent told
reporters near Kochi.
Since August, the popular
actor-turned-politician
was
undergoing chemotherapy at All
India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the national
capital following a disease reac-

tivation of non-hodgkins lymphoma, which was rst detected

in 2012 .
In a glittering lm career that
began in the 70s, Innocent,
66, has acted in more than 500
lms. Since 2000, he is serving
as the president of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists
(AMMA), the body of Malayalam
lm actors.
He said that the book he wrote
while undergoing the treatment
would be released in February
next year, and he will also don
the grease paint again.
Innocent, who contested the
2014 Lok Sabha polls as a Leftbacked independent candidate
shocked many, when he defeated Congress heavyweight PC
Chacko from the Chalakudy Lok
Sabha constituency.

entirely for collateral reasons,

he said. The only collateral reason I suspect is: If I couldnt do
it, then why let someone else do
it! Jaitley exclaimed, but added: A delayed GST is better than
a awed GST.
As regards the legislations
which the government wished
the two houses to consider over
the next three days, Jaitley said
one of them sought to put India
back on the global adjudication
map for cases of arbitration, as
the costs of such litigation were
enormous abroad.
Were bringing in a bill for
fast-track arbitration, including
single-member tribunals.
He also referred to the proposed new bankruptcy code
that aims to resolve cases of insolvency at the earliest so that
amounts lent to such companies
can also be recovered fast. The
bill has proposed a timeline of
180 days, extendable by another
90 days, to resolve such cases.
Speaking at the event later,
Jaitleys deputy and Minister of
State for Finance Jayant Sinha
forewarned that low farm sector growth and the cost of implementing the pay commission
recommendations together with
a slow global expansion will
prove to be taxing for his government next year.
Next year is a challenging
year. Headwinds of two major
factors will be slowing us down,
Sinha said, adding the slowing farm output growth was the
result of two successive years
of bad monsoon and the global
slowdown was hitting Indias
merchandise exports.
He also said the government
has its task cut out in meeting
the scal decit targets.

Film promo

Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan (right) and Salman Khan pose with dancers during a promotional event for the Hindi film
Dilwale on the set of a Colors TV Reality Show in Lonavala, some 100kms from Mumbai yesterday.

Dissident Congress group to

move court over stay order
IANS
Guwahati

he dissident Congress
group in Arunachal
Pradesh yesterday said
they will move the Gauhati
High Court, after it kept in
abeyance the governors order to summon the winter
session of the legislative assembly.
Kalikho Pul, leader of the
rebel group, who has been
camping in Guwahati along
with some his supporters, said
it was the mismanagement,
nancial mess and corruption
by Chief Minister Nabam Tuki

that led to dissidence in the

ruling party and subsequent
constitutional crisis in the
state.
He said they will meet President Pranab Mukherjee and
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
to apprise them about the ongoing political turmoil in the
state.
Pul ruled out the alleged involvement of the BJP and the
RSS in the developments in the
state.
He also dismissed reports of
the involvement of Governor JP
Rajkhowa in the developments
that have led to the present
constitutional crisis.
A total of 34 legislators 21

of the Congress, 11 from the

BJP and two Independents
recently impeached Speaker
Nabam Rebia and passed by
voice vote a no-condence
motion against Tuki and his
council of ministers at the winter session convened by the
governor on December 16 and
conducted by Deputy Speaker T
Norbu Thongdok.
Subsequently, Speaker Rebia filed a writ petition in the
Gauhati High Court against
the governors order, and a
single judge bench of the high
court kept in abeyance the
governors order and asked to
maintain status quo till February 1.

Odisha police launch probe

into terror suspects money trail
IANS
Bhubaneswar

he Odisha police yesterday said it was

looking into the bank accounts of Al
Qaeda terror suspect Abdul Rehman,
who was arrested in Cuttack on Wednesday,
to establish the money trail for possible terrorist activities.
The police had earlier seized one SBI and
two Canara Bank accounts of Rehman.
A police team each would be dispatched
to Jharkhand and Delhi to garner further information about Rehman, who is alleged to
be a member of Al Qaeda in the India Subcontinent (AQIS).
One team of the commissionerate police
will leave for Jharkhand tomorrow while
another team will go to the Delhi special
cell, said police commissioner RP Sharma.

Earlier, Jharkhand police had arrested

Rehman for inammatory speeches and
anti-national talk in some areas of the
state.
Rehman was arrested from Jagatpur area
in Cuttack in a joint operation by Odisha
police and Delhi police. Presently, the terror
suspect is in Delhi police custody.
Meanwhile, the Cuttack district administration yesterday handed over the children staying at the madrassa run by Rehman in Tangi area, to their guardians in the
presence of police.
Around 60 children from Jharkhand were
studying in the seminary while others were
from Odisha. The administration decided
to get the madrassa vacated after enquiring
into its legality.
Meanwhile, two teachers of the madrassa
have been interrogated by police at Jagatpur
police station.

Reiterating that law and order has broken down in Arunachal Pradesh, Pul said the
governor was in danger even in
a highly secured place like Raj
Bhavan.
He dismissed the Congress
claims that the governor was
working as a BJP agent and had
turned Raj Bhavan into an RSS
office.
He also blamed the Congress
central leadership for failing
to handle the situation, saying they waited for over two
months in New Delhi to meet
the top leadership, including
party president Sonia Gandhi
and vice president Rahul Gandhi but to no avail.

Tweet lands
man in jail
IANS
Patna

A recent photo of the suspected

member of Al Qaeda arrested by
the Delhi Police Special Cell.

girl, who was harassed on

a running train, tweeted
to the Railway Ministry
for help, following which the
accused was arrested, a Railway
police official said here yesterday.
The girl was travelling in
Shramjeevi Express from New
Delhi to Patna. Finding her
alone, the accused started misbehaving and passed objectionable comments, the official said.
After the girl tweeted, the
Railway police was directed
to help her immediately, after
which the accused was arrested
and sent to jail for harassment,
the official added.

Spiritual leader calls for keeping apart religion, politics

IANS
Kolkata

eligion and politics should

be distinct and should not
be mixed, spiritual guru
Ravi Shankar said here yesterday.
Religion and politics should
be kept separate. They are both
distinct and important but they
shouldnt merge. But politics
could be guided by spirituality... for example Mahatma Gandhi was a spiritual person, Ravi
Shankar told the media on the
sidelines of the Kolkata Meditates event organised by the Art
of Living Foundation.
Asked about the inuence of
religion on politics, Shankar said

his message was: Spiritualise

politics, secularise religion and
socialise business.
Ravi Shankar said it was
wrong to dub the entire country intolerant in the wake of
criminal acts.
In the country, there are
criminal acts today and they
were there in the past. It is
wrong to dub the whole country
intolerant.
I think it shouldnt be dubbed
as intolerance and the criminal
acts must be punished, he said.
However, he dodged a poser
on whether the intolerance debate was politically motivated,
saying: You can answer that
better.
On the award wapsi, Ravi
Shankar said there is clear poli-

tics in the conferment of awards,

and thats why I refused to accept an award in the rst place.
Ravi Shankar declined to accept the Padma Vibhushan, the
second highest civilian award in
January.
The spiritual guru also advised religious leaders to adopt a
broad mindset.
Religious leaders should
not make their followers fanatics. They should not only think
about their own community.
They should give them a broad
base, else terrorism will take
over the world which is happening now.
Religious leaders should cultivate a broad mindset and politicians should follow Gandhian
principles, he said, adding that

narrow mindedness will not

work for the country.
Ravi Shankar alongwith
West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee today
will launch a boarding school
for children of sex workers of
Sonagachi at Pailan.
I am for elimination of
prostitution, he said when
asked about his views on legalising sex work in the country.
To prevent youth from turning to terrorism, Ravi Shankar
vouched for skill training to increase their employability and
also practising yoga and spirituality.
He also spoke about launching a door-to-door happiness
survey to gauge what Indians
need.

Spiritual leader Ravi Shankar at a press meet in Kolkata yesterday.

18

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

LATIN AMERICA

Rousseff picks close

aide to replace Levy
B

Rousseff: Faced with the threat of impeachment by

her opponents, she has watered down Levys push
for austerity.
Left: This August 31 file picture shows then-finance
minister Levy and then planning minister Barbosa
at a news conference at the Planalto Palace in
Brasilia, after presenting the budget for 2016 to
the congress. Barbosa is replacing Levy as Brazils
economy minister, the government announced on
Friday.
which is what we need for the
economy to recover, Barbosa
said. Our commitment to scal
stability remains the same.
Barbosa is considered a leftist
economist in much the same vein
as Rousseff and his appointment
will be interpreted as a return of
the policies blamed by critics for
sinking Brazils economy into recession this year.
Markets will react negatively
because of the good reputation
of the departing minister, said
Alberto Ramos, a senior economist with Goldman Sachs in New
York. And also out of fear that
Levys replacement will signal a
shift back to scal populism.
Before the announcement,
speculation that Levy was leaving weakened the real more than
1% and pushed down the bench-

mark Bovespa stock index 3% to

end the day at its lowest since
April of 2009.
The real futures showed the
currency weakened another 1.0%
after the conrmation that Barbosa was taking over the ministry.
Moodys Investor Services
said in statement that Levys exit
could hinder efforts to improve
Brazils public nances.
Moodys, the only of the three
major rating agencies keeping Brazil on investment grade,
has warned it could downgrade
the country to junk in coming
months.
Barbosa, a former nance
ministry official during Rousseff s rst term, has pushed for
more exible budget targets, although he has reiterated Brazil

should take measures to stabilise

its growing public debt.
The Fitch downgrade this
week, though widely expected,
reected the sharp reversal in
Brazils economic fortunes.
The departure of Levy, who has
held the post since January, could
hinder the approval of several
measures such as the revival of a
controversial nancial transaction tax, known as CPMF, aimed
at heading off a full-blown scal
crisis that has scared investors.
Barbosa is closely associated
with the same school of thought
that Rousseff subscribes to,
which is known in Brazil as developmentalism and which defends
high government spending and
intervention to protect industries
from foreign competition.
A graduate of The New School

for Social Research, a US-based

college known for its leftist economics teachings, Barbosa was
one of the main economic advisers to Rousseff and the architect
of her successful low-cost housing programme, called Minha
Casa Minha Vida (My House,
My Life).
Rousseff has been in office
since 2011.
In a year-end breakfast with
reporters earlier on Friday, Levy
criticised the government lack
of clarity in economic policy and
urged policymakers to seek deeper reforms.
We need clarity from the government to remove uncertainties
and return to growth, Levy said.
The downgrade was a warning
call and we have the capacity to
change our path.

Argentina receives
Macri-economic
shock treatment
AFP
Buenos Aires

n just a week as Argentinas

president, conservative Mauricio Macri has passed drastic economic reforms, drawing
praise from foreign investors
but angry protests from citizens
afraid for their salaries.
The so-called Macri-economic shock treatment in Latin
Americas third-biggest economy saw the peso currency plunge
by a third after he scrapped his
leftist predecessors dollar exchange controls.
That was an even sharper fall
than during Argentinas nancial
crisis in 2002, when it had to be
bailed out by the International
Monetary Fund.
Macri says that a sharp adjustment is needed to make the
country competitive, though
economists as well as his political opponents warn it will hurt
Argentines purchasing power in
the medium-term.
There is a sense of relaxation,
aside from the critical economic
situation, said political analyst
Gustavo Cordoba. One week
into its term, the governments
record is very positive.
But cheaper pesos mean ordinary Argentines will be able to
buy less.
Labour unions demanded the

AFP
San Jos

Reuters
Brasilia

razilian President Dilma

Rousseff has named leftist
economist and close aide
Nelson Barbosa to replace scally conservative Finance Minister Joaquim Levy, signalling a
dramatic break with the decitcutting policies that her administration has pursued for most of
this year.
Barbosa, who was the planning minister, has been one of
the strongest opponents of an
aggressive austerity drive that
Levy led in an attempt to regain
the condence of investors in an
economy that has been mired in
its worst recession in a quarter of
a century.
Levys exit had been expected
after Fitch this week became the
second ratings agency to strip
Latin Americas largest economy
of its coveted investment grade.
Faced with the threat of impeachment by her opponents,
Rousseff has watered down
Levys push for austerity, the latest sign that she could abandon
market-friendly policies to gain
support from her leftist allies in
Congress.
Levy, who had been in his post
for nearly a year, clashed repeatedly with Rousseff over budget
cuts that he sought to improve
the countrys scal health.
In his rst comments to the
press, however, Barbosa said that
the government was committed to shoring up the countrys
nances with new scal savings
measures.
The focus of economic policy
continues to be scal stability,

Costa Rica splits

from SICA over
migrant crisis

government give vouchers for

workers at Christmas to compensate for having their spending
power slashed by the currency
reforms and by soaring ination.
And small domestic producers
have warned that freeing up exports and imports will drive them
out of business.
We will have to wait and see
what measures the government
takes to stop peoples salaries
evaporating and more marginal
sectors being impacted, Cordoba warned.
The currency reform was the
most dramatic of Macris measures since taking office on December 10.
He has also axed a controversial tax on agricultural exports
including grain and meat. And he
lowered the tax on another major
export: soybeans.
We are racing against the
clock. We have no time to lose,
he said, announcing those measures. The world doesnt give out
presents and neither do we. This
is an incentive for investment
and innovation.
The freeing up of Argentine
farmers stockpiles raised fears
on world markets that they
would be ooded with cheap Argentine produce.
European grain prices fell after
Macris announcement.
Argentina is the worlds thirdbiggest soybean producer but the

Macri greets local residents from a farming sector during a visit yesterday to the city of Curuzu Cuatia in
the province of Corrientes. Argentine farmers are slowly starting to sell their soy and corn stockpiles now
that newly elected president has devalued the currency and needs export dollars to help rev up central
bank reserves left thin by the previous government.
protectionist policies of Macris
predecessor Cristina Kirchner
stied exports.
Exporters welcomed the agriculture reform. Farmers called
them a historic move that could
lead them to sow 30% more
wheat and corn next year.
The free oating of the currency meanwhile is likely to
boost Argentine exports further
by making them cheaper.
By lifting capital controls and
devaluing the currency, the new
administration will have tackled
the most obvious distortion in
Argentinas macro-policy framework, wrote Neil Shearing of research group Capital Economics.
The economic benets, how-

ever, may not materialise until

well into next year, he added, in
a note.
Economist Aldo Ferrer called
Macris measures a drastic
course to correct the exchange
arrears and scal imbalances in
Argentina.
Popular anger erupted against
the new government in some
quarters however.
Tens of thousands demonstrated outside Congress on
Thursday against Macri.
We have to defend what was
done in recent years to combat
the advance of neoliberalism,
said one demonstrator, Nicolas,
who would not give his last name.
One of Macris measures has

failed meanwhile, in a sign of the

political challenges he faces with
an opposition-dominated Congress.
He tried to appoint two new
Supreme Court judges by decree
but was forced to back down by
widespread opposition.
Argentine stock prices plunged
by more than 4% on Friday. They
were down by 10% overall on the
week.
Media cited investor uncertainty over the reforms, though
Eduardo Blasco, an analyst at
consultancy Maxinver, dismissed
any link to the dollar change.
When things are this volatile it
is best to analyse in the medium
term.

osta Rica has partially

pulled out of SICA, a
regional body promoting Central American co-operation, after neighbouring nations refused to help handle a
growing Cuban migrant crisis.
President Luis Guillermo
Solis announced the decision
at a news conference on his
return from a SICA summit in
El Salvador that failed to reach
agreement on the fate of thousands of US-bound Cubans
stuck in Costa Rica since midNovember.
He also declared his country
would be giving no more transit visas to any arriving Cubans
and would instead deport
them to their country of origin.
There are more than 5,000
Cubans in the country with
the temporary visas, stuck near
the border with Nicaragua, and
the immigration service said
another 2,000 were looking to
join them.
Solis said that Costa Rica
was suspending its political participation in SICA, the
Central American Integration
System, because it cannot
participate in a body that does
not respect a fundamental, basic principle that is solidarity.
It was not pulling out entirely, though: Solis said Costa
Rica would continue its economic participation in the
body.
The political suspension
underlined Costa Ricas frustration over the migrant crisis,
sparked by a November 15 decision by its northern neighbour Nicaragua a Cuban ally
to close its border to Cubans.
That exasperation was already apparent when Solis
abruptly left the summit in
San Salvador before it nished,
after failing to convince other
members to help.
Nicaraguas government issued a statement after Fridays
summit demanding the United States nd a solution for
the Cubans.
The situation should be resolved not by Central America
but by the United States since
it is the one that has prompted
many Cubans to want to try to
get to it, Nicaraguan Deputy
Foreign Minister Denis Moncada told AFP.
Cubans managing to reach
America benet from a Cold
War-era policy permitting

Solis: Costa Rica cannot

participate in a body that does
not respect a fundamental,
basic principle that is
solidarity.
them to live in the US.
The number of Cubans trying to make the journey jumped
this year out of fear that policy
could soon be scrapped given
the thaw in US-Cuban ties announced in December 2014.
With the US Coast Guard
sending back Cubans found
crossing the Florida Straits,
many are trying to y to South
America so they can make their
way to the US border overland
through Central America and
Mexico.
But Ecuador, their entry
point to the continent and
another Cuban ally, recently
closed the door to the migrants
by requiring them to get visas.
Yet thousands of Cubans are
already on the trail, relying on
people smugglers and bribetaking officials to let them
through.
Costa Rica in November dismantled a people-smuggling
ring the Cubans had been using, inadvertently bringing
the migratory ux out into the
open.
Bad relations with Nicaragua, with which Costa Rica
has had several border disputes including one resolved
this week in its favour by the
International Court of Justice
have stood in the way of a
diplomatic accord.
Several of the other countries represented at the summit, which included host El
Salvador, Guatemala, Panama,
Belize and the Dominican Republic, called for a solution,
but offered nothing concrete
beyond insisting a consensus
was needed.
The stranded Cubans are being put up in schools and tents
in northern Costa Rica, waiting
for the chance to continue their
odyssey north.

Nicaragua asks for

US airlift to move
stranded Cubans
Reuters
San Salvador

he Nicaraguan government on Friday proposed that the United

States y out thousands of
Cuban migrants who have been
stranded for several weeks on
the Costa Rican border with
Nicaragua.
Nicaraguas deputy foreign
affairs minister, Dennis Moncada, told a summit of Central
American leaders that United
States had the capacity as
well as the technical and nancial resources to transport the
Cubans directly to US territory.
Nicaragua has refused to let

the growing number of Cubans trying to reach the United

States who have become stuck
in Costa Rica pass through its
territory.
Around 5,000 Cubans are
estimated to be in limbo on the
border.
The Costa Rican government
has tried to convince both Belize and Guatemala to allow the
Cubans passage.
Central America and Mexico
have seen a surge in migrants
from the Communist-ruled island as the process of a detente
between Washington and Havana, announced last December, stirs fears that current US
asylum rights for Cubans may
soon end.

Castro: Theres more the US can do to normalise relations

Reuters
Havana

uba is willing to keep improving relations with the

United States even though
Washington has failed to meet its
key demands for normalisation,
Cuban President Raul Castro said
on Friday, a day after the anniversary of detente.
Castro, 84, the younger brother of retired leader Fidel Cas-

tro, spoke to top government

and party leaders in an address
broadcast on state TV without
prior notice.
He hailed advances the two
countries have made since December 17 last year when he and
US President Barack Obama announced they would seek to normalise ties and set aside decades
of Cold War-era hostilities.
But he said they had not made
any progress on issues Cuba
considers necessary for normal

relations, such as ending the US

trade embargo of Cuba and US
withdrawal from the naval base
at Cubas Guantanamo Bay.
He also said Obama could exert
more of his executive authority
on Cuba.
The government of Cuba
is fully willing to continue advancing in the construction of a
kind of relation with the United
States that is different from the
one that has existed throughout
its prior history, that is based on

mutual respect for sovereignty

and independence, said Castro,
dressed in his four-star generals
uniform.
Cuba and the United States
restored diplomatic ties in July
and have reached agreements on
restarting direct mail service and
environmental protection.
On Thursday they struck a deal
to re-establish scheduled airline
ights.
Obamas administration embarked on rapprochement after

concluding that decades of US

isolation of Cuba had failed. But
even as the two countries draw
closer, Washington continues to
criticise the Communist, oneparty political system.
Obama told Yahoo News in an
interview released on Monday
about the anniversary that he
hopes to visit Cuba in 2016, but
only if he is able to meet with
political dissidents and if he can
possibly nudge the Cuban government in a new direction.

Human rights, Castro said,

was one area on which we have
profound differences and about
which we are having an exchange
on the basis of respect and reciprocity.
Castro also reiterated Cubas
commitment to socialism and
bemoaned
US
programmes
aimed at undermining the Cuban
government, such as support for
dissidents.
No one should expect that, in
order to normalise relations with

Castro: no progress yet on issues

Cuba considers necessary for
normal relations.
the United States, Cuba will renounce the principles and ideals
for which several generations of
Cubans have struggled throughout more than half a century,
Castro said.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

19

PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN

US prefers to deal with military regimes in Pakistan

IANS
Doha

ormer foreign minister

Hina Rabbani Khar defended Pakistans civilian
leadership and her governments
role in the countrys disrupted
democratic process, saying that
the US governments preference

of dealing with military regimes

has resulted in the pre-eminence
of military inuence in Pakistan.
The US government has had
a long history of immense fascination with the military of
Pakistan, Khar asserted in an
interview with Mehdi Hasan on
Al Jazeeras Head to Head.
Despite being pushed on this
point, Khar refused to concede

that the Pakistani military runs

the show, though she admitted
that the military has historically
played a much a larger role than
the Constitution should permit.
The US, she said, was complicit in causing a constant disruption in Pakistans democratic
process by propping up one military dictatorship after another.
When Ziaul Haq came in,

Dont speak
against India,
Sharif tells
his ministers
IANS
Islamabad

akistani Prime Minister

Nawaz Sharif has stopped
his ministers from giving
anti-India statements so that
the peace process is not hit, an
official said.
A close aide to Sharif said on
Friday that the ministers and
senior officials had been asked
not to issue any statement that
could damage the peace process.
There will be statements
only that encourage the dialogue
process rather than digging out
the past. The PM has asked the
close aides and cabinet members
to promote peace, The Nation
quoted an official as saying.
He said Sharif was optimistic about better ties with India,
which would benet the whole
region.
Sharif was annoyed by statements from India that New Delhi
only wanted to discuss Pakistan
occupied Kashmir in talks, but
understands this is not Indian
governments policy, the official
added.
Sharif, the official said, wanted to give top priority to Kashmir, terrorism and trade when
the two sides discuss peace.
Another official said Sharif
and the military leadership were
on the same page to make peace
with India.
There is no difference of
opinion and both agree that
there should be no compromise
on the stated position on key issues, he added.
An interaction between Sharif and his Indian counterpart
Narendra Modi in Paris and subsequent meeting of the National
Security Advisers in Bangkok set
the pace for improvement in the
bilateral ties.
External Affairs Minister Su-

Nawaz Sharif
shma Swaraj also visited Pakistan on December 8 to attend the

Heart of Asia conference.

She met Sharif and his advisor
on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz on
the sidelines of the conference.
It is expected that Sharif and
Modi will meet again in Switzerland in January. The two leaders
will be together on January 20 to
attend the 46th annual meeting
of the World Economic Forum
(WEF) in Davos-Klosters.
Indias outgoing High Commissioner to Pakistan TCA Raghavan on Thursday said the
relations between the two countries were heading towards betterment.
Analysts said it was a positive
development that Pakistan and
India agreed to resume comprehensive dialogue to resolve all
outstanding issues.

Pakistan-India relations getting better

Indias outgoing High
Commissioner to Pakistan TCA
Raghavan said the bilateral
relations between New Delhi
and Islamabad are heading
towards betterment.
Speaking at a farewell dinner
in Islamabad, Raghavan on
Thursday said the schedule
for meeting of the foreign
secretaries of the two countries
is being worked out.
Raghavan said the improvement
in India-Pakistan ties will help
overcome problems being
confronted by the region.
He said the two countries need
to reduce tension for the sake
of the people on both sides.
Meanwhile, political experts in
Pakistan said better ties with
Islamabad could fix Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modis
image in the South Asia region,
The analysts on Friday took
stock of recent transformations
in the region, beginning with

what was described as the

tremendous re-set opportunity
with India, Dawn online
reported.
External Affairs Minister
Sushma Swarajs call for
uninterrupted dialogue
signalled a welcome and
positive change in New Delhis
approach towards bilateral
engagements, experts said
on Friday during a conference
titled The Road to 2016:
Negotiating Deadlock and
Diplomacy with India and
Afghanistan.
Talking about why Indias
attitude towards Pakistan
had changed, the experts
argued that while Modi had a
positive reputation in the West,
his image in South Asia had
suffered.
Improved relations with
Islamabad could go a long way
towards fixing his reputation in
the region, they said.

when Musharraf came in, Pakistan got the best possible military and civil assistance ever
possible, she remarked.
Khar stated that a civilian-made
constitution - one without any
amendments - had only been applicable in Pakistan twice; once for
four years after 2010, and another
for two years from 1956 to 1958.
Khars term in president Zard-

aris government was marked by

reports of human rights abuses by
the Pakistan military, stated the
host. Khar was asked how she addressed these concerns, or if she
merely threw them in the bin.
Despite her shortcomings in
dealing with the militarys human right abuses, Khar maintained that she was always
ercely independent and was

never pushed by the military to

direct policy matters.
She added that she only consulted the military leadership in
matters where they were relevant stakeholders.
On issues on which I thought
they were not relevant stakeholders, for instance trade with
India, I didnt, she explained.
Its none of their business.

Hina Rabbani Khar

Weapons seized

FIR against
toddler for
land grab!
IANS
Islamabad

Afghan policemen display Taliban weapons to media in Herat province, west Afghanistan.
Some 120 rounds of Taliban militants weapons were seized by Afghan National Police during
separate operations across Herat over the past couple of months, Herat provincial police chief
Majid Rozi told reporters recently.

three-year old child in the

capital city of Pakistan
was yesterday booked for
land grabbing of a plaza and for
stealing property from inside the
plaza, the media reported here.
The infants family approached the court to secure bail
before the arrest of the toddler.
Upon looking at the matter the
bench expressed its displeasure over the Islamabad polices
blunder, Geo News reported.
The court demanded to know
from the childs legal counsel
if securing bail was even warranted; the counsel informed the
court that since the child was
named in the FIR bail before arrest was being sought.
The court has summoned the
Station House Officer and the
investigation officer on January
7 next year to explain their position.

Pakistan Taliban reject IS

leaders claim to be caliph
Reuters
Dera Ismail Khan

akistans Taliban have rejected Islamic State leader

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadis
claim to be the global leader of
all Muslims, the movement said
in a statement seen by Reuters
yesterday.
The
Pakistani
Talibans
statement comes after a similar
rejection by the Afghan Taliban
following pledges of allegiance
from low-level commanders
of both Islamist movements to
the Middle East-based Islamic
State (IS).
Last year, IS, an Al Qaeda
offshoot, proclaimed its leader
as caliph - the head of the
state. Al-Baghdadi aspires to
establish a global caliphate with
himself at its head.
The latest statement from
the Pakistani Taliban comes
amid speculation that the

movements leadership, whose

goal is to topple the government
of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
and set up a Shariah state, is
actually wary of IS, which is
driven by different ambitions
that have little to do with South
Asia.
Baghdadi is not Khalifa
(caliph) because in Islam, Khalifa means that he has command
over all the Muslim world, while
Baghdadi has no such command; he has command over a
specic people and territory,
the Pakistan Taliban said in a
statement.
Baghdadi is not a Islamic
Khalifa because his selection is
not according to Islamic rules,
the statement said, adding that
the IS leader had little control
in Muslim countries like Egypt,
Libya, Yemen and Afghanistan.
The Pakistani Taliban operate
separately from the Afghan insurgents of the same name, but
are loosely aligned with them.

Late last year, a few breakaway factions of the Pakistani

Taliban declared allegiance to
Islamic State and ordered militants across the region to join
its campaign to set up a global
Islamic caliphate.
Pakistani authorities say IS
has no nancial ties with any
Pakistani group. But there are
concerns about further turmoil
in the region as US-led foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan, with groups like the
Haqqani network and IS likely
to exploit the security vacuum.
The entry of Islamic State,
while its numbers remain small,
will also complicate Pakistans
ght against indigenous Islamist militants ghting to overthrow the government.
The Pakistani Taliban have
been beset by bitter internal rivalries in the recent past, with
the inuential Mehsud tribal
faction of the group refusing to
accept the authority of Mullah

Fazlullah, who came to power in

late 2013.
IS, in an effort to extend its
global reach, could exploit
these rivalries to its advantage,
wading into a region ripe with
erce anti-Western ideology
and full of young unemployed
men ready to take up guns and
ght for Islam.
In its latest statement, the Pakistani Taliban, like the Afghan
Taliban, also condemn the barbarity of Islamic States rule.
Baghdadis caliphate is
not Islamic because in a real
caliphate you provide real justice while Baghdadis men kill
many innocent mujahideen
(ghters) of other groups, the
statement said.
Earlier this year, the Afghan Taliban sent a letter to
al-Baghdadi to stop recruiting
in Afghanistan, saying there
is room for only one ag, one
leadership in their ght to reestablish strict Islamist rule.

Indian lm legend Om Puri regales Pakistani audiences

Internews
Lahore

ndian thespian Om Puri has

said he has got so much love
and respect in Pakistan that
he would like to come here every
year.
There are two locks on Pakistan and India sides and the keys
to these locks are in the hands
of Nawaz Sharif and Modi. Unlocking these will afford people
on both sides an opportunity to
interact with each other, he said
in a lighter vein.
Puri was recollecting his lm
journey memories at the International Film Festival at the Alhamra Art Centre in Lahore over
the weekend.
Narrating
his
childhood
memories and struggle in early
life, he said when he was six his
father, who was a railway employee, was put behind bars on
allegation of cement theft at the
railways store.
We had to vacate the railway
quarter and my mother rented
out a room. She sent my elder

brother to railway station to

work as coolie and I was sent to a
kiosk to serve tea to customers,
he said and jocularly remarked:
If I had a tea shop, I would have
been the prime minister of India.
Mentioning his early days at
the National School of Drama, he
said the school not only taught
how to act but also built our
character.
He made mention of a teacher who played a pivotal role in
building up my personality.
Consulting music and reading
material in libraries was mandatory at the NSD, he added.
He told the audience that his
rst lm was Chor chor chhup
ja. He also talked about his
friendship with Naseeruddin
Shah who he met at the institute.
He also shared with the
audience how Neelam Man
Singh, a known theatre actress
and director, helped him get
admission to the lm institute
at a time when he was facing
penury.
Meanwhile, he got a job at

Will come to Pakistan if threatened

Renowned Indian actor Om Puri
on Thursday said he will come
to Pakistan if ever threatened
by extremist elements in India,
Dunya News reported.
According to details, Puri
slammed the rising extremism
in India. He said people eat beef
across the world and should be
permitted in India as well.
The acclaimed Indian actor is
visiting Pakistan these days.
He said people making fuss
over beef in India are limited
in number. I want to ask them
if they will fight people eating

Indian film actor Om Puri in Lahore.

Actors Studio, where he used to
teach speech and among his pupils were Anil Kapoor, Gulshan

Grover and many other famous

Indian artistes.
Since he was struggling

to become part of the mainstream cinema, he said, Naseeruddin Shah took him to

Shayam Benigal and he also

did stage plays and Punjabi
cinema.
People still remember my
Punjabi movies Chan Perdesi and
Long Da Lashkara.
I was recognised with the
lm Aakrosh in 1981 for which I
got Rs10,000, Puri said.
Speaking about his experience of the Western cinema af-

beef everywhere in the world?

he asked.
He said now that he has spoken
against beef ban, he would
come to Pakistan if faces
any backlash from extremist
factions in India.
The Indian actor said people
use cows and buffaloes for milk
and people abandon them on
streets when aged. He told that
beef is even exported from
India to foreign counties.
If Muslims want to eat beef in
India, it shouldnt be a problem,
he said.

ter commercial and art movies,

he said his character in City of
Joy was a good experience and
he learnt how to drive rickshaw
for the particular role in the
lm.
Speaking about his role in lm
Machis, his eyes turned teary
while recalling that some of the
dialogues of the lm were immensely moving.

20

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL

Bangladesh panel rules

out army for civic polls
By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka

erming the present environment in Bangladesh

very
election-friendly,
chief election commissioner
(CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad yesterday said no situation
has arisen so far that requires
deployment of army ahead of
the December 30 municipal
elections.
The overall situation is under
control of them (regular law enforcement agencies). Theres no
tension anywhere, he said.
The Rapid Action Battalion
(RAB) and the Border Guard
Bangladesh (BGB) informed the
commission that they have adequate forces and they will deploy
them during the election.
The CEC made the remark

No free-hold
lands port
city project,
says Lanka

after a co-ordination meeting

of the election commission (EC)
with law enforcement agencies
and local administrations over
security measures to be taken
for the countrywide municipal
elections.
The chiefs of police, RAB,
BGB, Coast Guard and Ansar
as well as different intelligence
agencies, representatives from
the armed forces division, divisional commissioners, deputy
commissioners, superintendents of police and returning ofcers joined the meeting.
Four election commissioners
- Mohammad Abdul Mobarak,
Abu Haz, Md Zabed Ali and
Shah Nawaz- and EC Secretary
Sirazul Islam - were also present
at the meeting.
Talking about the election atmosphere, the CEC said the law
enforcement agencies and local

administrations informed the

election commission that the
situation is still very friendly for
elections.
He said the commission exchanged views with all at the
meeting and assessed the
eld-level situation. Well
take measures and deploy law
enforcers on the basis of that
assessment, he said.
Rakibuddin said the commission was informed that
there is nothing to be worried
about the eld situation as everything is ne there. All are
now election oriented. They
(candidates) are conducting
electioneering amid enthusiasm following the election
code of conduct, he said.
Replying to a question, the
CEC said militancy issue also
came up at the meeting for discussion. We can say everything

is under control due to massive

drives and prompt actions by
law enforcement agencies.
About violation of polls code,
Rakibuddin said the commission has directed all, especially
the returning officers, to investigate any complaint, no matter who les it, and take action
accordingly.
As they (returning officers)
are in the eld, theyll take action immediately and inform us.
We asked the returning officers
to report us (over violation of
polls code) every day, he said.
Turning to vulnerable polling
stations, the CEC said the commission has taken measures to
deploy extra force for the vulnerable centres, but yet to nalise
the list of such polling stations.
In reply to a query over media
access to polling stations, he said
the commission has instructed

the participants to be careful to

avoid misunderstanding with
journalists.
The journalists, having passes
provided by the EC, will have the
access to the polling stations,
he added.
The CEC asked the media
people to be careful so that voting is not hampered for their
long stay.
On November 24, the election commission announced
the election schedule for
234 municipalities out of the
countrys 323 ones.
According to statistics provided by the commission, a total of 12,045 candidates - 923
mayoral, 8,589 general councillor and 2,533 women councillor contenders in reserved seats
- are contesting the polls in the
234 municipalities across the
country.

Sheltered from rain

Agencies
Colombo

ri Lanka yesterday said

that the Chinese-funded Colombo Port City
project will go ahead but the
companies will not get any
free-hold land for the controversial $1.4bn project, a media
report said.
We are looking at the environment impact assessment
report and the project will go
ahead. But there will be no freehold of lands there, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told
parliament.
Wickremesinghe also said
the formula one racing track
will not be constructed in the
project aims to build 233 acres
of reclaimed land adjoining the
port of Colombo.
President
Maithripala
Sirisenas
government
in
March had temporarily suspended the project launched
by the previous Mahinda Rajapakse regime in partnership with China in September
last year.
The government had suspended the project saying
that it was reviewing the
award of the project to China
Communications Construction Company over the allegations that the previous
administration breached local laws and sidestepped environmental
requirements
for the deal.
It had asked the Chinese
project company to agree to
a change in provision of freehold land into lease-hold
land to enable the project to
resume.
The governments main
spokesman had told media on
December 17 that it has agreed
to restart Chinese-funded
projects worth billions of dollars which were suspended following allegations of
corruption.
We tried to renegotiate these contracts with the
Chinese, but it was not very
successful. We have now decided to go ahead with the
projects. It is not feasible
to abandon them half-way
through, spokesman Rajitha Senaratne, who is also
the health minister, had told
reporters.
Wickremesighes
UNP
in opposition criticised the
project as a sell out to the
Chinese.
China had secured contracts
to build highways, railroads
and ports during the Mahinda Rajapakse regime and had
also emerged the largest single
lender to Sri Lanka which had
relied heavily on Beijing for
both economic and political
support.
The new government has
complained that it was paying too much interest on Chinese loans funding much of the
development.

A man pushes a wheelchair with a disabled man, who is sheltered from the rain with a plastic cover, at Galle Face Green in Colombo yesterday.

Hundreds
of death-row
convicts
languishing
in prisons
By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka

bout 1,200 death-row

prisoners have been
languishing in jails in
Bangladesh for ve years or
more in some cases because
of delay in disposal of death
references and appeals by the
Supreme Court.
According to statistics in
the Supreme Court registrars
office, 405 death references,
cases referred to the High
Court by trial courts for judicial conrmation of the death
sentences given by them, were
pending with the High Court
as of October 31.
Court officials said in many
of the death references cases,
more than one person had
been sentenced to death.
No convict can be executed
until the death sentence is
conrmed by the High Court
and subsequently by the Supreme Court, said lawyers.
The number of condemned
prisoners was 1,009 in November 2011. It was 1,107 on
February 17, 2015 and 1,166
on October 1, 2015. The High
Court usually maintains serial
of death references in hearing based on dates which they
reach the High Court.
The High Court is now
hearing death references of
2010, court officials said.
They said that paper books,
the compilation of all documents of the case, for the death
references of 2011 are now being prepared and the cases
would be ready for hearing on
completion of the preparation,
the court officials said.
They said the death reference in BDR carnage case is
now being heard by the High
Court breaking the serial on the

list of death references on permission from the Chief Justice.

In November 2013, 152 soldiers of Bangladesh Ries (BDR),
now renamed as Border Guard
Bangladesh, were sentenced to
death on charge of killing their
officers from army during the
February 2009 mutiny at the
BDR headquarters in Dhaka.
At least 50 people were sentenced to death by different
trial courts in the past month,
according to a report released
by UK-based rights organisation Amnesty International
Bangladesh on December 14.
Jurist
Shahdeen
Malik
told newsmen that it is now
a worldwide tendency not
to sentence people to death
for offences other than heinous crimes like genocide and
crimes against humanity.
However, we seem to be
joining the rank of those countries which impose or inict
most number of death sentences such as China, Iran,
among others, he said, adding: The large number of
executions invariably makes
a society cruel, heartless and
barbarous. We have embarked
on this path of heartlessness.
He said the fact that almost 400 death references are
pending with the High Court
means that many of the convicts might have to wait four
or ve more years before their
fates are nally decided.
Such a long wait for eight to
ten 10 years in condemned cell
is certainly a cruel and inhumane punishment, he said.
After 15th amendment
to the constitution in 2011,
Shahdeen said, all death sentences needed to be conrmed
by the Supreme Court causing
further delay in the disposal of
such cases which makes the
process more inhumane.

Lost in Bangladesh, woman set to

return home in India after ve years
By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka

inally, the authorities have

ascertained the identity of
an Indian woman named
Parboti alias Parul, who had
been living in a safe home in
northwestern city of Rajshahi
for three years.
She was in a jail for two years
following her arrest from the
Dinajpur border on charge of
intrusion.
Only her language acted as a
barrier to conrmation of her
identity so long. That is why she

had been living in the safe home

over the last three years.
Siddika Sohely Rashid, deputy superintendent of Rajshahi
Safe Home, said Parul was sent
to the safe home on July 24, 2013
following a case led with Kotwali police station in Dinajpur
district in 2010 on charge of
intrusion into the Bangladesh
territory.
After her arrival there, staff
of my office, including me,
tried to ascertain her identity
but Parul tended to talk in her
mother language only, thats
why, not a single word of her
speech could be understood,

said the safe home superintendent.

Later to recognise her, she
was given the name Parul, she
added.
Siddika said they had no idea
about Paruls language. But one
day, it occurred to Siddika that
Paruls language was almost
similar to Tamil, the language of
the Indian state of Tamil Nadu,
because she heard this type of
language in Indian lms on television.
Based on a guess, she discussed it with Rajshahi deputy
commissioner Mizbah Uddin
Chowdhury, also president of

the safe home managing committee that Parul could be a

Tamil.
In the meantime, Chowdhury raised the issue of Parul at
a deputy commissioner-district
magistrate level conference between India and Bangladesh
held on November 25 in Rajshahi.
After hearing about Parul,
police superintendent of Nadia
district of West Bengal, Sree C
Shudakar, who participated in
the conference from the Indian
side expressed his interest to
talk with Parul because he also
belonged to Tamil Nadu.

Later the Rajshahi deputy

commissioner arranged a meeting between Parul and Shudakar
at Rajshahi Safe Home where
Parul talked in her own mother
language with Shudakar.
After long ve years, the
identity of Parul came to light
through the conversation.
While talking to newsmen, C
Shudakar said after having conversation with Parul he could
conrm her original name to be
Parboti. She hails from Tirunelveli city of Tamil Nadu.
He further said Parboti while
getting on a train lost her way and
later found herself in Bangladesh.

Parboti hails from Tirunelveli

city in Tamil Nadu.
Weve already informed
the matter about Parbati to the
Tamil Nadu administration and
the local government and they
expressed sincerity about taking her back to the country,
Shudakar added.
Chowdhury said that process
of repatriation of Parboti has
been started between the two
countries. He hoped that Parboti could return home within
a month.

Nepal hit by quake; no

casualties reported
DPA
Kathmandu

estern Nepal was

rocked by a 5.5-magnitude
earthquake
early yesterday, reviving fears
from a devastating quake in
April that killed nearly 9,000
people.
No casualties were reported
initially, but the still-fresh
memories of hundreds of
quakes and aftershocks this year
haunted some.
It was around 4am when
people were sleeping. Many

went out and waited in the cold

because they feared there would
be an aftershock, said Dhan
Prasad Sharma Poudel, chief
district officer of Bajura district,
by phone.
The epicentre is a days walk
from the district headquarters so weve dispatched a police team to check if there are
casualties.
Several other districts in the
western part of the country felt
the quake.
The April 25 quake and a second 6.9-magnitude quake on
May 12 left thousands of people
homeless. Many are still hud-

dling in temporary sheds, as the

harsh Himalayan winter sets in.
The government last week
began distributing money for
winter clothes to those affected by Aprils earthquake
amid victims demands for
more consistent support from
authorities.
Displaced families are eligible
to receive 10,000 rupees ($100)
to go towards buying warm apparel.
Its good to get this money,
because my children are cold.
But it would be better if the government prepared to help with
reconstruction so that we have

A Nepalese man tightens the binding on his tarpaulin roof in a camp for people displaced by earthquakes
in April and May.
proper homes to live in, said Gita
Shrestha, an earthquake survivor
from Bhaktapur district.
A bill that would establish a
national reconstruction authority has been passed in parlia-

ment due to political wrangling.

According to the UN, 2.8mn
people in Nepal were displaced
by the two earthquakes.
Many of the displaced have
yet to receive the nancial aid

promised to them from a relief

fund, with the disbursements
held up by procedural hassles and red tape, even as the
temperatures plummet in the
Himalayan region.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

21

COMMENT

The global migration blowback

The EUs current myopic,
reactive response to mass
migration is driven by
a zero-sum view of the
economy that ignores the
far-reaching effects
of domestic policy
By Dambisa Moyo
New York

he roughly 750,000 people

who have arrived in Europe
by sea in 2015 make up
just a small part of the
60mn people displaced by war or
persecution the largest number
in recorded history. Europe has
experienced a mass inux of migrants
before; some 700,000 refugees
entered the European Union following
the 1993 the breakup of Yugoslavia.
But this marks the rst time in history
that the EU has been tasked with
accommodating so many people from
outside the continent, including new
arrivals from Libya, Syria, Iraq, and
Afghanistan.
Moreover, the non-European
refugees who landed on European
shores this year are unlikely to be the
last. But the EUs response to mass
migration makes it less likely that
the refugee crisis will be resolved in
a sustainable way. Unless European
leaders incorporate a long-term vision
into their approach to migration, the
probability of emergencies similar to
this years refugee crisis will continue
to rise. And that approach needs to
acknowledge how domestic European
policies contribute to the movement
of people from the developing world.
The EUs current myopic, reactive
response to mass migration is driven
by a zero-sum view of the economy
that ignores the far-reaching effects

Migrants stand behind a fence outside a temporary housing facility located in a former Olympic hall in Faliro suburb of Athens.
of domestic policy. In its design and
implementation, it is focused almost
exclusively on immediate measures
and short-term outcomes. The
possibility of future impact is largely
discounted.
Rather than attempting to dissuade
mass migration by encouraging and
supporting fundamental, long-term
economic and political development
in countries that are impoverished
or wracked by civil strife, EU
policymakers tend to intervene after
the fact, with pledges of aid and
emergency resettlement schemes. But,

because this approach ignores the root

causes of migration, it is unlikely to be
effective in the long run.
The failure to take a long-term view
not only undermines the effectiveness
of the EUs response; it is actively
counterproductive. The absence of a
framework that addresses the factors
driving migration leaves politicians
free to attend to their domestic
markets, with little thought to the
negative political and economic
externalities that may be wreaking
havoc outside their borders.
Protectionist, multibillion-dollar

programmes such as the EUs

Common Agricultural Policy and
farm subsidies in the US prop up
domestic producers at the expense
of emerging economies. These unfair
trade practices have a devastating
impact on the income and living
standards of farmers in South
America, Africa, and Asia, who are
unable to compete with their richer,
coddled rivals.
More recently, the monetary
policies adopted by advanced
economies, in particular the US, have
contributed to the dramatic weakening

NY: A place where anything goes

By James Williams
New York

he great cities of the world

have been written about,
reported on and reviewed
to death, in a never ending
series of travel shows, guide books,
newspaper columns and TripAdvisor
reviews.
As the world becomes increasingly
more connected and informed, so
too do our travel experiences become
homogenised. With everyone
visiting the same cities, following
the same itineraries, and coming
away with the same results, the
romance and excitement of travel has
been lost.
CNN Internationals new monthly
travel programme, In 24 Hours
uncovers one action-packed days
worth of unique, exclusive and
unheard of experiences in some of the
most famous cities in the world.
The inaugural episode takes viewers
to the self-declared capital of the

world - New
York City. The
lesson I learnt
whilst lming
is that theres
more than
meets the eye
to even the
most talkedabout of cities.
New York is
brimming
with secrets.
Hidden
locations,
clandestine clubs and an anything
goes attitude offering unrestricted
access as long as you know who to
ask.
Perhaps no location sums this up
more, than New Yorks Grand Central
Terminal Manhattans iconic
transportation hub. Few know that
hidden nearby, rests a train platform
built exclusively for President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt. It was intentionally
left off of train charts to protect its
secrecy. All the while, it was hidden

directly beneath one of New Yorks

nest hotels, the Waldorf Astoria. And
sitting there to this day, abandoned to
time, rests FDRs train car, itself built
to protect his own biggest secret - a
debilitating illness.
Its thick steel walls, heavily
armoured, and painted an industrial
navy blue, are riddled with rectangular
openings. A safety precaution, to allow
the Presidents Secret Service detail to
re on any would-be attackers. I pull
myself up and inside, using torchlight
to guide my way. Brushing off the dirt
that now covers its entire surface, a
testament to its 70 years abandoned
here, I push aside the old papers that
scatter the oor. Moving further
inside, to the location where FDR
himself once rode, I stand and stare, in
awe at history itself.
Later, from the depths of the city,
we travel just a few blocks south to
the top of one of New Yorks most
beloved landmarks: the Empire State
Building. Almost every tourist that
visits this city makes the pilgrimage
to the observation deck on the 86th

oor. Yet few are aware that near the

buildings very top is a secret outdoor
viewing platform. Its 17 oors higher
than the main tourist area, just less
than a metre across, and wide open
to the elements. Only a handful of
people can t outside at any one time,
yet the sweeping 360 degree views all
the way to the horizon are inimitable.
Special permission needs to be granted
to access the 103rd oor and its not
easy to get but if you can, its the
most awe inspiring place to watch the
sunset anywhere on the island.
These are just two of the many
activities we uncovered in New
York. And after spending one frantic
day in the city that never sleeps
overwhelmingly, one feeling pervades:
relief. Its a relief to know that even
in the most written about, pored over
and mythologised cities in the world,
there can still be experiences that are
uniquely yours. You just have to know
where to look.
zJames Williams is host of In 24 Hours
on CNN International

of emerging-market currencies. The

US Federal Reserves 2013 taper
tantrum over the expected reduction
in the scope of quantitative easing,
and expectations of an interest-rate
hike, have all contributed to a marked
outow of capital from the developing
world.
According to the Institute of
International Finance, some $548bn
fled emerging markets in 2015, the
largest outflow since 1988. The
result has been a dramatic drop
in the amount of capital available
for much-needed investment in

zDambisa Moyo, an economist and

author, sits on the board of directors of
a number of global corporations.

Weather report
Three-day forecast
TODAY

High: 26 C
Low : 17 C
Expected poor horizontal visibility at
places at first due to fog

MONDAY

High: 24 C
Low : 17 C
M Sunny

TUESDAY

High: 23 C
Low : 16 C
P Cloudy

Fishermens forecast
OFFSHORE DOHA
Wind: NW 05-15/20 KT
Waves: 2-4/6 Feet
INSHORE DOHA
Wind: NW-NE 03-12 KT
Waves: 1-2/3 Feet

Around the region

Abu Dhabi
Baghdad

Dubai
Kuwait City

Manama
Muscat

Live issues

infrastructure and productive

capacity. This has resulted in slower
growth across the developing world,
home to more than 80% of the world
population.
Blinkered policymaking is
entrenching what Pope Francis
has described as the globalisation
of indifference. Increasingly,
domestic policies are evaluated
for their local benets, with little
consideration given to their social,
economic, and political consequences
abroad. The ideals of globalisation,
which emphasised cross-border
interconnectedness, are being
replaced by a framework of every
nation for itself.
A lasting solution to Europes
migration crisis must take into
account the impact developedcountry policies have on the rest
of the world, including economic
instability and political upheaval in
many of the countries from which
migrants are arriving. Policymakers
should carefully consider the secondorder effects of their policies, as
they reverberate back on their own
economies in the form of disorderly,
growing mass migration.
The current global economic
and geopolitical environment is a
crucible for the next wave of migrants.
The International Monetary Fund
and the OECD have been rapidly
downgrading their forecasts for global
economic growth, and the Economist
Intelligence Unit estimates that
nearly half of the worlds economies
are at a high or very high risk of
political and social unrest. This mix
is a disaster waiting to happen, one
that global policymakers should act to
avert, rather than waiting to respond
only after the next crisis has erupted. Project Syndicate

Riyadh
Tehran

Weather
today
P Cloudy

Sunny
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M Cloudy
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P Cloudy
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Max/min
27/17
17/05
27/19
18/11
23/19
27/18
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07/00

Weather
tomorrow
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P Cloudy
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tomorrow
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12/03

A new era of healthcare innovation

By Joseph Jimenez
Zurich

e are experiencing a new

wave of innovation in
healthcare one that
promises to create the
smartest, most connected, and most
efficient health systems the world
has ever seen. Game-changing new
technologies and treatments are
transforming the practice of medicine,
dramatically altering the patient
experience, and creating conditions
for even more breakthroughs.
The proof is in the data. Last year,
a record 61 drugs were introduced
worldwide, compared with an
annual average of 34 in the previous
decade. More than 40% of these
treatments were for rare or difficultto-treat conditions, including
hepatitis C, meningococcal B, and
metastatic melanoma. And more new
breakthroughs are on the horizon. It is
estimated that about 70% of the drugs
currently in development across the
industry are potential rst in class
treatments, meaning that they use a
completely new mechanism of action
against disease.
The new wave of innovation is
attributable to three key factors: the
ability to personalise therapy, the
capacity to get treatments to market

faster, and improved engagement with

patients.
First, major advances in our
knowledge of genomics specically,
the way diseases manifest and develop
in the body at the genetic level are
improving our ability to target illness
at each stage and improve the patient
experience. Genetic markers, for
example, can indicate which patients
are likely to benet from a drug,
thereby improving outcomes while
allowing patients to avoid potentially
painful side effects of treatments that
are unlikely to work.
For early-stage breast cancer
patients, genetic markers show whether
chemotherapy is likely to have an
impact, or if hormone therapy alone is
the better option. A new lung cancer
drug developed by my company,
Novartis, is effective only in patients
with non-small-cell lung cancer who
have a particular genetic mutation.
The use of genomic expertise to
improve healthcare is just beginning.
One promising area of investigation
is CRISPR a cutting-edge tool
that could allow us to delete, repair,
or replace the genes that cause
disease. As our understanding of the
characteristics of a particular patients
illness becomes increasingly precise,
treatment will become increasingly
effective and will reduce the risk of
side effects.

Moreover, advances in our

understanding of disease are boosting
the efficiency of the drug development
process, making it possible to bring
new innovations to market faster. For
example, genetic testing is being used
to pre-select participants for clinical
trials, cutting recruitment times. With
this approach, research can begin in as
little as three weeks, compared to the
34 weeks, on average, for a standard
trial. Add to that our ability to analyse
data more quickly, and to make more
precise decisions about dosing, and
the clinical trial timeframe shrinks
considerably.
Finally, real-time data and emerging
technology tools have the potential
to improve patient engagement and
adherence, especially among those
with chronic conditions caused by
non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
As the worlds population ages, the
incidence of NCDs is expected to
rise, accounting for 52mn deaths
annually by 2030. More than 80% of
NCD deaths are the result of chronic
conditions such as cardiovascular
and respiratory diseases, cancer, and
diabetes.
As it stands, noncompliance with
medication regimes is a major problem
in treating NCDs. For example,
diabetes patients in the US with the
lowest level of compliance have a
30% yearly risk of hospitalisation,

compared to a 13% risk for patients

with a high level of adherence. That
implies large costs for healthcare
systems about $200bn in the US
and 125bn ($133bn) in the European
Union each year. Technologies
that engage patients in their own
healthcare and enable more seamless
adherence to medication regimes
have the potential to improve disease
management, reduce hospitalisation,
and lower costs.
Todays transformational
advances in healthcare owe much to
new genomics information, to the
availability of big data to inuence
decisions in real time, to more
targeted and individualised therapies,
and to smarter, more connected
delivery systems. But they are just the
beginning. Further breakthroughs,
enabled by the convergence of science
and technology, can be expected,
especially as unconventional
players enter the healthcare sector.
In this process, partnerships
between healthcare and technology
companies will become increasingly
important.
It is an exciting time for healthcare,
with many disruptive innovations on
the horizon. For patients and providers
alike, this is very good news. - Project
Syndicate
zJoseph Jimenez is CEO of Novartis.

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
P Cloudy
P Cloudy
P Cloudy
Cloudy
S T Storms
Sunny
Showers
Sunny
T Storms
Sunny
P Cloudy
P Cloudy
Cloudy
Sunny
Sunny
M Cloudy
T Storms
M Cloudy
P Cloudy
Sunny
Clear

Max/min
15/07
18/12
33/21
11/08
19/09
27/17
32/23
24/13
18/16
11/05
31/23
28/12
13/08
29/23
02/02
21/07
07/04
14/10
26/19
07/-1
32/25
31/22
10/02

22

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

COMMENT
Chairman: Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah
Editor-in-Chief : Darwish S Ahmed
Production Editor: C P Ravindran

P.O.Box 2888
Doha, Qatar
editor@gulf-times.com
Telephone 44350478 (news),
44466404 (sport), 44466636 (home delivery)
Fax 44350474

GULF TIMES
Budget in line with
sustainable economic
development policies
Qatars continued commitment to sustainable
economic development is well reected on the
State Budget for 2016, which lays emphasis on
infrastructure upgrade and health and education
sectors.
The budget, which was recently endorsed by HH the
Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani through Law
No. 26 of 2015, has set apart a whopping QR90.8bn
for major projects, which is QR3.3bn higher than the
previous scal year.
A signicant outlay (QR90.9bn) has been made
for the infrastructure, health and education sectors,
which represents 45.4% of the total expenditure in the
2016 budget.
The allocation to the infrastructure sector totalled
QR50.6bn in the 2016 budget, while education
sector will have QR20.4bn and health QR20.9bn.
Numerous projects have been announced in the
countrys education and health sectors, which is a step
forward in the countrys goal of achieving sustainable
development in realising the Qatar National Vision
2030.
HE the Minister of Finance Ali Sherif al-Emadi
said the State Budget for 2016 demonstrated the
governments keenness on sustainable development.
By providing a signicant outlay for major projects,
the minister said Qatar underscores its commitment to
the implementation of development projects based
on the planned schedule.
The budget for the
next scal year projects
a revenue of QR156bn
and an expenditure
of QR202.5bn. The
gures, however, show
that Qatar might post a
decit of QR46.5bn in
2016, which al-Emadi said would be nanced through
debt instruments in the local and international
markets.
The decline in projected revenues is due to a
reduction in the oil price assumption to $48 a barrel
compared with $65 in the previous scal year.
In early December, benchmark Brent crude briey
dipped below $40 a barrel for the rst time since
February 2009, from $115 a barrel in August 2014.
Qatar emphasised that the main goal during the
preparation of the 2016 budget was to ensure the
completion and implementation of major projects
in key sectors along with projects related to the FIFA
World Cup in 2022. The nance minister asserted
that this policy would help Qatar maintain robust
economic growth.
Meanwhile, Qatars economy is expected to grow
3.7% this year but a pick-up in hydrocarbons is slated
to expand the real growth higher at 4.3% in 2016, then
easing to 3.9% in 2017, according to the Ministry of
Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS).
Although a modest scal decit of 4.8% of gross
domestic product (GDP) is expected in 2016 against
a surplus of 1.7% this year, an expected oil price
recovery and continued spending restraint could see
the decit fall to 3.7% in 2017.
Qatars determination not to source funds either
from the countrys reserves at Qatar Central Bank
or the investments made by the countrys sovereign
wealth fund- QIA is based on sound economics.
Qatar has accumulated strong nancial reserves
at QCB and made signicant investments through
QIA during the period of high oil and gas revenues.
Qatar will maintain and reinvest these reserves and
investments to further enhance the countrys nancial
position, al-Emadi claried.

Relief aid? What aid?

Besieged Yemenis ask
The World Food Programme
announced last week that
it had trucked in enough
provisions to last 145,000
people a month
By Nasser Al-Sakkaf
Taiz

n Thursday night,
representatives of Yemens
warring parties announced
a deal to immediately allow
aid into the besieged city of Taiz. But
residents say last weeks truce still
hasnt brought them the relief they so
desperately need.
Taiz has seen some of the ercest
ghting since the conict intensied
in March. Many people here started
plotting their escape months ago,
when rumours of a truce rst began
circulating.
Fawaz Ameen, 37, said he had been
waiting anxiously, ready to take his
family out at the rst sign of a lull.
When I heard about a truce I
was very glad as [it] would open the
roads that lead to my [home] village,
he said. But the war hasnt stopped,
and we havent seen a truce yet.
A coalition of 200 aid organisations
inside Taiz released a statement on
Friday morning expressing their
frustration that despite the apparent
progress at the Switzerland peace
talks, they were seeing no practical
changes on the ground.
We want international
organisations that send humanitarian
aid to Taiz [and we want the
international community] to send
observers, the statement said.
It is too soon to really tell what
impact Thursday nights agreement

will have, but some recent progress

has been noted.
Julien Harneis, Yemen country
director for Unicef, said his
organisation had managed to bring
water, fuel, and mobile medical clinics
into Taiz in the last week. He hoped
the new deal would make this aid
easier to access.
We have been able to operate inside
Taiz and throughout, Harneis said.
However, this new access will allow
this to be done in a safer way and will
allow families to access the assistance
we provide.
We can do water trucking. We can
bring in mobile medical clinics. But
if parents dont feel it is safe to move,
then that assistance is not going to be
used.
In late November, UN humanitarian
chief Stephen OBrien said 200,000
civilians in Taiz were living under
a virtual state of siege, with only
limited humanitarian assistance
making it into the city, once Yemens
third largest.
For the most part, Houthi
rebels control access in and out.
Fighters loyal to the deposed but
internationally recognised president,
Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, are
holed up in certain quarters. A Saudi
Arabian-led coalition backs attempts
to oust the Houthis from power and
has lent the Hadi loyalists air support.
Despite the latest truce, which
supposedly began on Tuesday
morning, clashes were ongoing. Both
sides accuse the other of breaching
the ceasere, although Thursday
nights agreement was seen as a major
breakthrough for the peace talks
and was accompanied by a reported
exchange of prisoners.
Streets are deserted in Taiz, apart
from military vehicles. The Old City,
once a popular destination for dining

out, has been taken over by Hadi

loyalists and is routinely targeted by
Houthi shelling.
Ameen wants to leave so he can nd
work and enroll his children in school.
Almost all of the 58 schools in Yemen
that the UN says have been occupied
by armed groups are here, in this one
city.
I dont think there will be a truce in
Taiz as the two warring sides insist on
ghting, he said. We are just waiting
for death in Taiz, as we have neither
work nor a way to ee.
When war rst came to Taiz in
March, many people were displaced.
They are now sheltering in the much
larger expanse of Taiz Province, where
the UN estimates 79% of people are in
need of humanitarian assistance.
Adnan al-Soraimi, who ed Taiz
city in June, now wants back in.
I left my furniture at my house
as the battles were erce, he said.
When I heard about the truce,
I decided to enter [to recover my
belongings].
But the main road from his
neighbourhood into Taiz is said
to be mined, leaving him only
unpaved mountain paths that only
well-equipped vehicles can make it
through.
After OBriens statement,
efforts to get more aid into the city
were redoubled. The World Food
Programme announced last week that
it had trucked in enough provisions to
last 145,000 people a month.
But some intended recipients said
it wasnt enough, and that despite
plans by aid organisations to scale up
operations during the truce, they
had seen no change in what people
were actually getting.
Ibhrahim al-Faqeeh, a supervisor
at Al-Hikmah, a local charity that
helps distribute for international aid

organisations, said that the aid he

anticipated was still stuck.
We have 5,000 bags of wheat, our
and rice in [southern] Ibb Province,
and we were waiting for the truce to
bring them to the city. But the war
did not stop and the Houthis are still
besieging the city, so they did not
allow us to bring aid to Taiz.
Thursdays deal has not brought
results, he said. The conditions
in Taiz are still the same the only
thing that has changed is that the
warring sides in Switzerland agreed
to allow humanitarian aid to arrive
in the city. But, in fact, nothing has
arrived.
The war has left many Taiz residents
jobless and dependent on food aid.
Abdul-Jabbar Al-Roaini lost his
job as a tutor when war broke out
and relies on aid for his basic needs.
He said he was shocked at the lack of
change the truce had brought to his
home city.
Basic goods are available in the
market as traders can bring them to
the city on unpaved back roads. But
the price is more than double and we
do not have the money, he said.
Medical aid is in short supply too. A
doctor at Al-Thawra Hospital, which
is under the control of ghters loyal
to Hadi, said that patients were dying
due to a shortfall in oxygen supplies.
Many people died in hospital
because of the shortage of oxygen,
he said. We have been bringing
it through the mountains, but it is
difficult and we cant bring much as it
isnt safe.
OCHA, the UNs emergency aid coordination body, was not immediately
available for comment. Other aid
groups said it was simply to soon to
tell what the new deal would mean,
both for their access and for the
people of Taiz. - IRIN

Qatar has
accumulated
strong financial
reserves at QCB

To Advertise
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Yemens last attempt at a truce saw continued airstrikes and fighting.

Trumps objectionable electoral propaganda

Harun Yahya
Istanbul

epublican Party candidate

Donald Trump has been
cunningly seeking to use
the wave of fear that has
enveloped the American people since
9/11 as an electoral opportunity.
His latest anti-Muslim rhetoric has
elicited erce criticism from inside
the country as well as from the world
in general. Trumps comment on
banning Muslims from entering the
US has been described as dangerous
and discriminatory by officials from
his own party, Democrats, the UN, and
Muslim and foreign leaders. In recent
months, Trump has also sought to
seek attention by suggesting that he
would close down mosques in the US
if he is elected the President.
Trump previously spoke in
disparaging terms of the Scots, the
British and migrants, and then referred
to Hispanics in the US as criminals
and rapists. At rst, nobody took these
sallies, which were intended to raise
Trumps prole, seriously. However,
the increasing level of defamation and
hatred in his language nally brought a
barrage of criticism and condemnation
down on Trumps head.
Trumps proposal was strongly
condemned in the media as
being incompatible with the US
Constitution and values. Civil society
organisations and rights and freedom
groups issued statements condemning
Trump. Members of the New York
City Council, led by Speaker Melissa
Mark-Viverito, some 200 politicians,
religious leaders from various faiths,
civil society representatives and
other activists met together in front
of City Hall and condemned Trumps
discriminatory proposals against

Muslims in the strongest terms.

Speaking at the protest, New York City
Advocate Letitia James demanded that
Trump withdraw his candidacy.
White House spokesman Josh
Earnest said that Trumps proposal
to ban Muslims from the US made it
impossible for him to be president.
Former Vice-President Dick Cheney, a
Republican, said on a radio programme
that Trumps proposals were against
all the values that America stood for
and believed in.
People in Britain reacted against
Trumps statements against Muslims
by setting up a petition to have
Trump banned from entering Britain.
The campaign emphasised that the
ban on entry into Britain, which is
enforced against several people for
using hate crimes, should also be
applied to Trump without making
any exception, and more than half a
million signatures have been gathered.
In the event that more than 100,000
signatures are collected, the British
Parliament has an obligation to
discuss the issue in question.
British Ambassador to Washington
Sir Peter Westmacott disregarded
all diplomatic protocols about not
becoming involved in local politics
when he said: There is somebody
called Donald Trump running in your
presidential campaign, and he again
spoke this morning about the UK,
saying that we were busy disguising a
massive Muslim problem. Thats not
the way we see it. We are very proud of
our Muslim community in the United
Kingdom.
British Prime Minister David
Cameron also described Trumps
proposals as divisive, unhelpful and
quite simply wrong. French Prime
Minister Manuel Valls accused Trump
of inciting hatred.
In Islamic countries, Trumps

words were compared to Hitler and

Nazi slogans, and various companies
and organisations in those countries
decided to sever commercial relations
and partnerships with Trump. This
embargo against Trump in Muslim
countries is expected to gather
impetus in the days ahead.
Trumps words of hate and anger
are literally an invitation to terror,
itself entirely rooted in negative
feelings. If terror, which thrives on
hatred, rage and revenge, regards
itself as legitimised, that will further
encourage violence and ruthlessness.
US Defence Department spokesman
Peter Cook replied to a question about
Trumps anti-Muslim statements by
saying that such talk represented a
threat to national security and that
statements that excluded Muslims
further increased support for radical
terror. Democratic Party presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton said on
Twitter, Donald Trump. You dont
get it. This makes us less safe.
It is obviously nothing more than
fanaticism to equate the Muslim
community of some 2bn people with a
handful of radical terrorists. It is also
clearly an irrational policy to alienate
the world Muslim community and
billions of intelligent people of good
conscience and moral values who
support them for the sake of the votes
of an extremist group who support
this perverse mentality.
The primitive, ruthless, insensitive
and febrile policies that sweep aside
innocent and guiltless Muslims at a
stroke and brand them all as terrorists
must therefore be abandoned
forthwith. The proper thing for Trump
and all the presidential candidates
to do is to adopt a moderate and
consistent language based on good
instead of evil, based on differentiating
between the guilty and the innocent,

and that embraces people from all

sections of society, from all races,
faiths and classes
Otherwise, turning a blind eye to
such discrimination today will end in
the encouragement of hostility toward
other minorities, coloured people,
migrants, Jews, Hispanics, Chinese,
Japanese, Russians, etc. tomorrow.
The USA might then become a country
in which religious, ethnic and social
conicts spiral out of control and
in which there is a huge growth in
uprisings against the government and
general turmoil. Such a tragedy would
also inevitably be reected in other
Western societies.
We have been watching the recent
increase in violence against the
West with great alarm. Provocative
language that fans the ames on
the part of candidates for the US
presidency at such a sensitive time
is therefore incompatible with the
maturity and responsibility to be
expected from such people. A position
such as the presidency of the US, one
of enormous importance among world
leaders in terms of the establishment
of global peace, stability and
security, requires quality gures
who are serious, consistent, just and
conciliatory and possess powerful
ethical and moral values.
In the light of all this, we believe
that the US, a leading pioneer on the
subjects of liberty, democracy and
human rights, will not abandon the
values it has espoused and believed in
to date, and that the rational American
people will make the correct choice in
the light of these important values.
zThe writer has authored more than
300 books translated in 73 languages
on politics, religion and science. He
may be followed at @Harun_Yahya and
www.harunyahya.com

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

23

QATAR

Alfardan Group marks QND

A

lfardan Group has celebrated Qatar National

Day (QND) as a show of
support for the governments
ongoing efforts towards making Qatar one of the worlds
most innovative and pioneering
countries.
The occasion was marked
by a wide range of cultural and
leisure activities organised to
showcase the countrys evolution over the past decades.
As a silver sponsor of this
years celebrations, the Group
signicantly contributed to the
festivities as a token of its unwavering allegiance to Qatar. Its
support also reects the conglomerates steadfast commitment to complement the vision
of the countrys wise leadership, Alfardan Group said in a
statement yesterday.
National Day, also known as
Founders Day, provides a plat-

form for citizens and residents

of Qatar to join together in observance of their rich tradition
and unied identity.
Hussain Alfardan, chairman
of Alfardan Group, attended
the festivities at the Corniche,
which was the main venue of
the celebrations.
The roster of activities, including the popular Darb Al Saai
and other events staged ahead
of the National Day, was open to
the public and highlighted different aspects of the countrys
cultural and social dimensions.
Alfardan Group president
and CEO Omar Alfardan was
awarded a trophy and a certicate of appreciation by HE Salah
bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali,
Minister of Youth and Sports
and head of the National Day
Celebration Committee, during
a special event held at Darb Al
Saai on December 15.

The event was organised by

the committee to commend the
sponsors for their role and support for the National Day celebrations.
On this occasion, Hussain
Alfardan said: It is an honour
to be part of this truly momentous event. This is a proud day
for Qatar as we stand together
with the wise leaders who have
established this country as the
dynamic economic powerhouse
that it is today.
We would also like to extend
our greetings and congratulations
to HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad al-Thani, whose inuence greatly contributed to the
prosperity of the country.
Omar Alfardan added: The
National Day is a signicant
cultural event that provides a
platform for the people of Qatar
to gather and celebrate the social and economic progress that

Hussain Alfardan
the country has established following the directives of HH the
Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad
al-Thani.

HE al-Ali with Omar Alfardan.

Bedaya inks pact with business school QF R&D launches

edaya Centre for Entrepreneurship and Career

Development
(Bedaya
Centre) has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU)
with Qatar Finance and Business Management Independent Secondary School for Boys,
aiming to enhance co-operation between the two parties and provide counselling
and professional development
services for students.
Both parties will work to raise
the awareness of students by
holding lectures and workshops
for them in professional development and entrepreneurship
topics, exposing students to a
work environment, conducting
preliminary tests and providing
consultancy sessions in co-ordination with academic advisers, according to a statement.

Officials at the MoU-signing ceremony.

Under the MoU, Bedaya Centre will be invited to participate
in the various events held at the
school and provide an opportunity for the centre to promote
its programmes. It will also allow Bedaya Centre to use all
sources available at the school
and encourage students to participate in events and activities
hosted by the centre.

These are in addition to announcing the centres programme through the schools
various communication channels such as social networking sites, e-mail and SMS, the
statement explains.
A series of special workshops on basic skills for students will be organised as
part of the agreement. These

will cover professional development issues such as CV

writing, career planning and
interview skills and also provide opportunities for Qatari
students to experience the
work environment at several
institutions in Qatar.
Bedaya Centre will also organise motivational workshops
for students presented by Qatari entrepreneurs.
Reem al-Suwaidi, general
manager of Bedaya Centre,
said: This MoU is an important step in the process of
vocational and professional
guidance in Qatar.
Ahmed Yussef al-Mahmood,
principal of the school, said:
We share with the centre the
same commitment in order to
shape the future of youth in the
State.

Todays schedule
for HMC hospitals
Most of Hamad Medical
Corporation (HMC) hospitals
will be operating normally today
(Sunday) with the exception of a
few centres.
The following outpatient clinics
will be operating as normal:
Hamad General Hospital, Al Wakra
Hospital, Cuban Hospital, National
Centre for Cancer Care and
Research (NCCCR), Heart Hospital
Rumailah Hospital, Physical
Management and Rehabilitation
(PMR) and geriatrics clinics and
the outpatient clinic at HMCs
psychiatry department.
The outpatient clinics at Womens
Hospital, Al Khor Hospital,
Rumailah Hospital - plastic
surgery, dermatology, and
therapy clinics and HMC Bone
and Joint Centre will remain
closed and appointments will be
rescheduled.
HMCs Patient Contact Centre is
open today from 7am to 10pm
and will contact patients to
reschedule appointments as
needed.
The contact centre will also
continue to make appointment
reminder phone calls and
send text message reminders
to patients. Patients with
any questions about their
appointments can call 4439 5777.

discussion series

Toyota Corolla
models recalled

The Ministry of Economy and

Commerce (MEC) has announced a
free recall campaign for 2001-2007
Toyota Corolla models to fix a
manufacturers defect in the inflator
of the passenger-side airbag.
The campaign is being jointly
conducted with Abdullah
Abdulghani & Bros Co, the
authorised distributor of Toyota
vehicles in Qatar.
The campaign falls within the
framework of the MECs ongoing
efforts to protect consumers and
ensure that car dealers follow up
on vehicle defects and repair them.
The ministry will co-ordinate with
the dealer to follow up on the
maintenance and repair works
and communicate with customers
to ensure that the necessary
repairs are carried out.

atar Foundation Research and Development (QF R&D) hosted

its rst-ever Research Dialogue session at Qatar National Convention Centre recently.
The seminar, titled Building an Innovation Ecosystem
in Qatar, was organised as part
of the wider series designed
to bring together researchers
from around the country.
The talk was led by Dr Maher
Hakim, associate professor of
entrepreneurship at Carnegie
Mellon University in Qatar.
The
discussion
series,
which engages with stakeholders in strategy and research, will be held once every
two months.
QF R&D plays an active role

in promoting Qatar Foundation for Education, Science

and Community Developments vision of cultivating
life-long learning and interests in many areas, including
science and research in Qatar,
in a bid to foster a progressive
knowledge-based society, according to a statement.
Dr Hamad al-Ibrahim, QF
R&D executive vice-president,
said: The aim of these discussions is to help build a platform
with our stakeholders and the
local community for the importance of creating synergy,
common understanding and
expectations, and the needed
research ecosystem and culture
that will empower and drive
the research agenda in Qatar.

24

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

QATAR

A section of the audience at a programme in Asian Town.

Children wearing the national dress take part in the celebrations.

National Day events draw

thousands of expatriates
T

housands of Asian expatriates joined the associated activities organised

by the Ministry of Interior to celebrate Qatar National Day.
The events were held at Asian
Town in the Industrial Area, Al
Rayyan Sports Club, Al Wakrah
Sports Club and Al Khor Barwa
Workers Recreation Complex.
The activities started at 8am
with the Qatar national anthem,
which was followed by a parade
by school students and expatriate community teams.
The Indian and Sri Lankan
communities joined the associated activities in Asian Town. A
number of expatriate associations representing the two communities showcased cultural
programmes at the venue.
Students of MES Indian
School, Pak Shamaa, Stafford
Sri Lankan School, Birla Pub-

A dance troupe performing in the Industrial Area. PICTURE: Jayaram

Children presenting a cultural programme.

A football match, held as part of the associated events, in progress.

lic School, Doha Modern Indian

School and Bright Future School
participated in the competitions
held on the occasion.
MES Indian School won the
overall championship at Asian
Town while Doha Modern Indian
School came second and Birla
Public School third.
Indian expatriate forum Incas
received the best marching contingent award. More than 40,000
people, including families, attended the festivities.
At Rayyan Sports Club, the
Filipino, Indonesian and Malaysian communities participated in
cultural and sports events.

Philippine School Doha, Philippine International School Qatar, Ideal Indian School, Shantiniketan School and Scholars
International School were the
participants at the venue.
Philippine International School
Qatar won the overall championship while Ideal Indian School and
Philippine School Doha came second and third, respectively.
Wakrah Sports Club hosted the
Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. More than 15,000 people enjoyed musical shows performed by famous artistes from
Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Students of PEC School, Bang-

ladesh School, Bhavans Public

School, TNG, DPS-MIS and Noble International School showcased their talents at the venue.
Bhavans Public School became
the champions while Bangladesh
School and DPS-MIS nished
second and third, respectively.
The Nepali community and
Al Khor residential communities joined in the activities at Al
Khor Barwa Workers Recreation
Complex.
Several sports competitions,
such as football, cricket, volleyball, basketball, futsal and tug of
war, were also held on the sidelines of the events.

A tug-of-war competition. PICTURE: Jayaram

The Pearl-Qatar hosts series of special programmes

A

number of recreational
and educational programmes were held at The
Pearl-Qatar on Friday evening as
part of the official Qatar National
Day celebrations.
The festivities, which highlighted Qatars culture and heritage, took place across various
locations on the island.
United Development Company, master developer of The
Pearl-Qatar, organised the National Day celebrations that included events and attractions
such as Al Ardha, the traditional
Qatari dance that symbolises national unity and strength.
Three shows were held daily in
an arena adjacent to The PearlQatars car parking area and attracted citizens, residents of the

A cultural programme in progress.

island as well as a number of visitors from the GCC states.

As one of the gold sponsors of
the celebrations, The Pearl-Qatar,
in collaboration with the organising committee, has honoured the
event with a series of events that
began on December 16 and continues until this evening.
The Pearl-Qatar organised
a reworks display on the waterfront. Thousands of visitors
thronged the Marsa Arabia area
and the reworks show lasted for
about 15 minutes.
Thousands rushed to The
Pearl-Qatar on the events eve,
where celebration sites began
receiving visitors from within
and outside Qatar since the early
hours, according to a statement,
which noted that the main cel-

ebration of the evening also witnessed the arrival of a number of

families and children.
Additionally, traditional tents
set up at 12 Croisette in Porto
Arabia attracted several visitors,
especially children and women,
who enjoyed henna drawing and
tasted Arabic coffee and dates,
the statement added. Further,
the tents offered a variety of food.
Visitors also made a beeline for
Karak tea at a booth in Medina
Centrale. They enjoyed several
complimentary cups and urged
The Pearl-Qatar administration
to x a location for a tea corner
throughout the year.
The photography corner also
attracted a large number of
guests, displaying the best moments of National Day.

The fireworks display at The Pearl-Qatar.

LOCAL SQUEEZE | Page 2

BITCOIN FALLOUT | Page 11

Foreign banks
charging back
into the Gulf

Blockchain tech
may transform
banking industry

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Rabia I 9, 1437 AH

CARBON-NEUTRAL GROWTH: Page 12

GULF TIMES

BUSINESS

Aviation industrys
immediate goal is to
gain fuel efficiency
by 1.5% a year until
2020: IATA official

QNBFS sees 6.5% gain in aggregate

earnings by key Qatar equities in 16
P

ositive global economic growth

prospects and a possible improvement in oil prices are
among the factors that QNB Financial Services has taken into account in
forecasting a decent 6.5% increase in
aggregate earnings by key Qatari equities in 2016.
We have compiled net income expectations of key Qatari equities that
we cover. Factors that can positively
reinforce our thesis includes but not
limited to improvement in oil prices,
positive global economic growth prospects, easing of regional geopolitical
issues and better than expected earnings from stocks under coverage,
QNBFS said.
However, QNBFS has listed some
key risks, which included depressed oil
prices, increase in volatility, and exit of
hot money from emerging and frontier
markets.

QNBFS said it remained optimistic on the Qatari equity market in the

long term. We believe the signicant
sell-offs driven by declining oil prices
have been overdone and consider most
of our equities under coverage as attractive opportunities. On an average
basis, the 17 Qatari equities we cover
imply a long-term upside of 26% to
our price targets. Dividend yields remain strong with stocks under coverage expected to yield 5.6% and 5.9% in

2015 and 2016, respectively.

Valuations continue to be attractive with most companies trading at
compelling price-to-earnings multiples along with the best dividend
yields in the region. On an overall basis, the Qatar Exchange index trades
at a 2016 P/E of 10.4x complemented
by a dividend yield of 5.6%, while the
Bloomberg GCC 200 Index trades at
10.8x 2016 P/E along with a 2016 dividend yield of 4.9%.

The QSEs benchmark Qatar Index

has corrected by 32.8% (27.5% annualised) to 9,643.65 as of December 13
from its all-time high of 14,350.5 on
September 18 last year.
Like any other market, the Qatar Index experienced regular troughs and
peaks. As such, we revisit past periods
of signicant movements when the Index corrected and subsequently followed
through with a major rally, QNB said.
For instance, the index dropped

by 54.8% (48.2% annualised) and by

66.5% (77.8% annualised) between
2005-2006 and 2008-2009, respectively. Consequently, the index gained
112.4% (88.5% annualised) and 118.5%
(51.8% annualised) during 2007-2008
and 2008-2011, respectively.
Having said that, we can expect
history to repeat itself, QNBFS said.
Quoting QNB, QNBFS said Qatars
economy is expected to remain resilient to lower oil prices.

Qatar is well-positioned to withstand lower oil prices thanks to its

strong macroeconomic fundamentals including a relatively low scal
breakeven oil price ($60.7 in 2015), the
accumulation of signicant savings from
the past and low levels of public debt.
QNB has forecast Qatars real GDP
growth would accelerate from 4% in
2014 to 4.7% in 2015 and 6.4% in both
2016 and 2017, as the government expands its investment spending program in the non-hydrocarbon sector.
The non-hydrocarbon sector is projected to remain the engine of growth
in the economy. Its near double-digit
expected growth is underlined by
strong investment spending in line
with the Qatar National Vision 2030.
QNB Group anticipates non-hydrocarbon GDP growth at 10.4% in 2015,
followed by 9.9% in 2016 and 10% in
2017, it said.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

BUSINESS
Carrefoursa
owners said
to weigh
share sale
for liquidity
Bloomberg
Istanbul

Pedestrians walk past signage for Mizuho Bank displayed outside a branch in Tokyo. Leading the charge by foreign lenders in the Gulf are Japans megabanks: Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Mizuho
Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG).

Foreign banks charge back into

Gulf as local lenders squeezed
Local Gulf banks losing market
share; Japan banks among leading
international lenders; interbank
lending rates jumped as oil prices
fell
Reuters
Dubai/Tokyo

oreign banks are regaining lost

ground in the Gulfs nancial
sector, stealing a march on local
lenders as they grapple with job cuts
and a liquidity squeeze caused by the
plunging oil price.
Japanese, French and US banks are
looking to pick up business in the region as the oil price slump pushes domestic players to curb the ow of cheap
loans which, until recently, had secured
them a dominant position in the market.
The shift marks a change in fortune
for Gulf banks, which in the years following the global nancial crisis had
poached staff and aggressively lled
gaps left by international lenders as
they retreated to tackle problems at
home.
The recent changes in liquidity and

pricing have probably levelled the playing eld more equally between the local
and international banks, said Simon
Eedle, group regional head of the Middle East at Natixis, noting the market
was much changed from six months
ago.
Leading the charge of foreign lenders are Japans megabanks: Mitsubishi
UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Mizuho
Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui
Financial Group (SMFG).
Flush with the proceeds of their governments Abenomics quantitative
easing programme, all three are hiring
staff and increasing business lines as
they look to deploy funds.
We believe that current market
conditions will create a number of
business opportunities for us if we use
our strengths effectively. said Hidefumi Takeuchi, regional head of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia
at Mizuho Financial Group.
Japans export credit agencies Japan Bank for International Cooperation
(JBIC) and Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) - have helped
support the lenders inroads, with Japanese contractors securing big wins in
Gulf infrastructure projects and bring-

ing with them cash from their home nancial institutions.

That puts Japanese lenders in prime
position for advisory roles on these
huge deals. The adviser on the $5.2bn
Liwa plastics project in Oman is SMFG.
Local banks dominated Gulf loan
markets in recent years due to the low
cost of funds from government oil deposits which provide around 10% to
35% of banks non-equity funding in
the six-nation Gulf, according to rating
agency Moodys.
While this drove loan interest rates to
uneconomical levels for foreign lenders, the oil price fall has severely impacted the amount of liquidity local
banks could lend and the rate at which
they do.
Highlighting this problem is the
UAEs three-month Emirates Interbank
Offered Rate (EIBOR), at a record low
as recently as February but trading at a
31-month high recently.
The squeeze is already starting to
be felt: First Gulf Bank, the UAEs
third-largest bank by assets and one
of the most expansive names during
the boom, laid off around 100 staff last
month.
Local banks are also going from being

Iran seeking $70bn to triple petrochem capacity

Bloomberg
Tehran
Iran, seeking to triple petrochemicals production capacity within a decade, presented about 60 projects
to potential investors at an event with international
companies including BASF, the worlds largest chemical company by market capitalization.
Once sanctions against Irans economy end, the country will target $70bn in investment from companies
as part of an effort to increase production capacity
to 180mn metric tonnes a year by 2025 from 60mn
currently, Mohammad Hasan Peyvandi, vice president
of Irans National Petrochemical Co, said last week in
an interview in Tehran.

The criteria for choosing a foreign partner is for it to

bring in technical know-how, he said on the final day
of a two- day conference in the Iranian capital. For us
the right combination of technology and capital to be
brought in by the investor is most ideal.
Iran is preparing to rebuild its economy after more
than 10 years of economic sanctions that have choked
off foreign investment and access to energy markets.
The Gulf nation agreed in July to accept limits on its
nuclear programme in return for a removal of the
curbs, which have targeted exports of petrochemicals
as well as oil.
BASF, Siemens and Linde were among companies that
attended the Tehran event. Potential investors should
form a partnership with local companies, Peyvandi
said.

A view of a petrochemical complex in Assaluyeh seaport on Irans Gulf coast. Once sanctions against
Irans economy end, the country is planning to target $70bn in investment as part of an effort to
increase production capacity to 180mn metric tonnes a year by 2025 from 60mn currently.

lenders to borrowers, with unprecedented activity in the nancial institutions loan market as the year closes and
banks seek to lock in funding before US
interest rates increase.
The result is only one regional bank
Riyad Bank has a top-six slot in the
year-to-end-November 2015 league
table for Gulf syndicated lending, down
from four in 2014, according to Thomson Reuters data. Japans MUFG and
SMFG secured second and third spots
in the table respectively, while Samba
Financial Group slipped to 23rd from
2nd in 2014.
The trend is set to continue in 2016
as oil remains subdued, restricting the
revenue Gulf governments can place
with local lenders.
Last time foreign banks held pole
position in Gulf banking, the leading
names included many US and European
banks, but many of those cut services
or, in the case of Royal Bank of Scotland
and Lloyds Banking Group, withdrew
completely after the nancial crisis.
Thats helped clear the way for the
Japanese banks to gain market share so
quickly: they had leading roles as three
of six arrangers on a $5.5bn loan to Qatar.

But some of the old international

players remain.
In the loan market, French banks are
returning strongly and are set to benet
as liquidity dries up at local lenders.
Whereas some people are now
nervous because weve seen the price of
credit rise very quickly, this is exactly
what I want as I can continue lending,
said Natixis Eedle.
Such price rises, plus a reduction in
liquidity as fewer banks offer loans,
should push more borrowers to debt
capital markets in 2016, which will suit
international banks who can give local
institutions access to global investor
cash.
The environment in which international banks operate has changed much
since 2008 though. New regulations
make it more capital-intensive to sell
the kind of products which have been
the staple of the Gulf, such as longdated loans, meaning local companies
will have to adapt to the new banking
order.
We live in a return on equity world
and thats what motivates us now,
said Sammy Kayello, chairman of Middle East and North Africa at Morgan
Stanley.

The owners of Turkish

grocery chain Carrefoursa
are considering selling shares
in the joint venture to boost
trading on the Istanbul stock
exchange, according to a
person with knowledge of the
matter.
French supermarket giant
Carrefour and local group
Haci Omer Sabanci Holding
are seeking to increase
the units free float from
2.9% through a so-called
secondary public offering
(SPO), the person said, asking
not to be identified because
the matter isnt public. The
SPO could be held next year,
though no firm decision has
yet been made, the person
said.
Carrefoursa reported a profit
for the first time in at least
5 years in 2014, a year after
Sabanci bought a 12% stake
from Carrefour to take over
control of the retailer with a
51% holding. Its bought local
closely held regional market
chains Genyapi supermarkets,
Ismar Marketler, Antalya
Market, and a 85%-stake in
listed Kiler Alisveris Hizmetleri
Gida Sanayii last year and this
year to speed up growth.
The retailer is integrating
assets acquired in the past 18
months which will contribute
to sales and profit next year,
the person said.
The company is competing
with discount retailer Bim
Birlesik Magazalar, the
countrys biggest grocer, as
well as Migros Ticaret and
Tescos unit Kipa in Turkey,
where the food and non-food
retail industry is expected to
grow 9% to $120bn in 2015,
according to Vahap Kucuk,
head of All Shopping Malls
and Retailers Federation of
Turkey.
No decision has been made
on the sale, Sabanci said in an
e-mailed statement in reply
to Bloomberg questions. A
Carrefour spokeswoman
declined to comment.
Sabanci Holding raised its
stake in the joint venture to
50.9% after acquiring the
12% stake in 2013 for 56mn
($62mn) from Carrefour,
whose stake then fell to
46.2%. Sabanci, Turkeys
second biggest business and
industrial group, plans to sell
shares in units through initial
and secondary offerings,
chief executive officer Zafer
Kurtul said in March, without
identifying the units that
could hold share sales.

Iran to unify exchange rate

after nuke deal implemented
Bloomberg
Frankfurt

ran plans to unify the rials

exchange rates with the dollar after the nuclear accord
signed with world powers is
implemented, according to the
countrys central bank Governor
Valiollah Seif.
We have a very stable currency market, but to proceed toward a unied exchange rate requires accelerating the countrys
access to foreign currency, Seif
said in an interview in Frankfurt
last month. It can happen once
the nuclear deal is implemented,
maximum six months after that.
The agreed lifting or suspension of sanctions on Iran
is expected to begin in the rst
quarter of next year following
verication that the Islamic Republic has met its commitments
on dismantling its nuclear program. The unfreezing of assets
worth at least $30bn and access
to international nance and foreign direct investment may follow.
Under the terms of the deal,
most of Irans banks will be reconnected to Swift, the global
nancial messaging system that
facilitates bank transfers.
Iran has both an official ex-

A vendor inspects Iranian rials at a currency exchange shop in Baghdad. The rial lost about 80% of its
value in the year to late 2012 as a result of sanctions.
change rate to the dollar and another rate that is used in unregulated markets.
The rial lost about 80% of its
value in the year to late 2012 as a
result of sanctions. Since President Hassan Rouhani took office
in August 2013, the central bank
has tightened credit and stabilized the currency.
The central banks role is to
smoothen uctuations of exchange rates, Seif said. But if
we allow the rate to be dened
by the economic realities and

decided by the market the banks

only role will be to prevent
shocks, he said.
Irans economy will expand
less than 3% this year, with
growth rising to 5% in the Iranian year starting March 2016
boosted by oil sales, industrial
output and tourism, he said. Ination will fall to single-digits
next year, from 13%, he said.
Rouhani has said Iran needs
$150bn in investment to achieve
the 8% economic expansion
that can lower the countrys

chronic youth unemployment.

Iran has 100bn worth of
projects, which investors can review and choose from either by
partnering, or nancing them,
or through direct investment,
Seif said. Given the countrys
geographic location, its mines
reserves and the vast market
around, Iran is in a position to
create a good market for Europes developed industries so
that in partnership, they can
produce goods in Iran and sell in
the region.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

BUSINESS

Libya peace agreement wont

be enough to restore oil output
Bloomberg
London

ibyas United-Nations-brokered peace deal may help calm

deepening political turmoil,
but the North African nation will
struggle to restore oil production to
levels reached before the Arab Spring
ve years ago.
Output in the country with Africas largest oil reserves has slumped
almost 80% since Muammar Gadda was toppled. Representatives
from the two rival factions that
emerged after a 2011 rebellion ended the dictators 42-year rule - an
Islamist- backed government in
Tripoli and an internationally recognized administration operating out
of the east - signed a peace deal on
Thursday, paving the way for shuttered oil elds and export terminals
to be reopened.
While a lasting peace deal would
allow the North African country
to ramp up its output from below 400,000 bpd last month, the
threat from Islamic State in the
oil-producing Sirte region means
the situation may get worse in the
short term, according to Richard
Mallinson, a London-based geopolitical analyst at Energy Aspects
Ltd.
Theres no immediate signs that
its opening up oil facilities, he said
by phone. The risk is that this expansion of Islamic state into the
Sirte basin and some of the producing elds there is a bigger risk than
production coming back.
Italys Eni is the biggest international oil investor in the warn-torn
country and days before the peace
deal was brokered, chief executive officer Claudio Descalzi said his
company was talking to all the players in the country. With offshore operations sheltered from the conict,
Enis Libyan production, which consists mainly of gas, has increased by
about 15% to 300,000 barrels of oil
equivalent a day since 2011.

Eastern oil
company to
sign deals
amid UN
peace deal
Bloomberg
Dubai

A general view of the Hariga oil seaport in the city of Tobruk, Libya. Output in the country with Africas largest oil reserves has slumped almost 80% since
Muammar Gaddafi was toppled.
Wintershall Holding GmbH,
which operates eight onshore oil
elds in the eastern Sirte basin, said
it will take time and patience for
Libya to nd stability.
The recent signing of the Libyan
political agreement is an important
step towards restoring peace and
stability for the Libyan people, Stefan Leunig, a spokesman for Wintershall, said in an e-mail.
The company said onshore production has been halted several
times since the summer of 2013 at
the request of Libyas national oil
company. Wintershall was forced

to suspend oil exports from the AsSarah eld last month because the
Zueitina terminal was unable to load
cargoes.
Its still quite a long way before
you can go from an agreement between the two rival governments to
a Libyan industry which gets back to
full capacity, Paul Horsnell, head of
commodities research at Standard
Chartered, said by phone. There are
still splits within the regional governments, there are still insurgent
groups within there as well.
While other attempts to reach a
peace deal have failed, the situation

might be different this time around

as world powers agree on the need to
counter the spread of Islamic State,
according to Energy Aspectss Mallinson.
The renewed willingness of the
international community to engage
with the people who actually have
power on the ground is more likely to
break the deadlock, he said.
Italy is drawing up plans to lead a
military coalition that would seek to
stabilise Libya but have no combat
role, according to two Italian officials
with knowledge of the matter.
Any additional Libyan output

would feed a glut that has seen oil

prices slump by more than 65% since
June last year, and even the prospect
of production coming back could
spark further declines, Mallinson
said.
Still, for now, the outlook for
Libyan output is little changed, said
Standard Chartereds Horsnell.
Does it change an expectation of
Libyas average production for next
year? Probably not yet, he said, adding that if output averaged 500,000
barrels, it would be a very good outcome compared to where they are at
the moment.

he National Oil Corp affiliated with the

internationally recognised government
in eastern Libya said it will sign agreements with six companies to sell the countrys
crude oil after a peace deal was signed between
rival factions in the divided country.
Companies including Netoil SA will sell
crude from the Mesla and Sarir oil elds via
Hariga port, Nagi Elmagrabi, chairman of
the Bayda-based National Oil Corp, said by
phone. Netoil will market term contracts for
next year, offering 2mn barrels a month in
cargo sizes of 1mn barrels, said Robin Henderson, head of business development at the
company.
We will soon sign with six companies, including Netoil, for the sale of Libyan oil from
Mesla and Sarir oil elds from Hariga port,
Elmagrabi said. We are in negotiations with
about 40 companies for crude exports.
Libya has two administrations, one in the
west and an internationally recognized government in the east. The NOC in the west is
recognized by traders such as Glencore and
Vitol Group as the official marketer of Libyan oil. The eastern government has set up a
separate NOC administration, which represents Libya in matters relating to oil including Opec.
Elmagrabi said the headquarters of the NOC
in the east will be moved from Bayda to Benghazi on December 24, in line with a decision
taken by his government in 2013. We have
invited all NOC employees to work from Benghazi.
Rival Libyan factions from the Tripoli-based
General National Congress in the west and the
House of Representatives in the eastern city of
Tobruk signed a peace deal on Thursday after
a year in which opposing groups, each with its
own legislature and armed allies, tussled over
oil and power. The strife has caused output
from the country with Africas largest oil reserves to slump almost 80% since Muammar
Gadda was toppled in 2011. Libya pumped
375,000 bpd in November, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg.

Algeria to boost 2016 oil output, offer rights amid global glut
Bloomberg
Cairo
Algerias state oil producer Sonatrach
Group plans to raise crude output
by 5% next year and offer energyexploration rights to foreign companies
by the end of March, steps that may
add barrels to an oversupplied global
market.
Algeria, Africas biggest naturalgas producer, is seeking to attract

international companies to an auction

of rights to develop oil and gas fields,
including those with hard-to-reach
tight deposits, Salah Mekmouche,
Sonatrach vice president of exploration
and production, said in an interview
in Algiers. State petroleum regulator
Alnaft will organize the bidding round,
taking into consideration feedback
from foreign companies to improve on
the results of the countrys last auction
in 2014, he said.
We hope that oil prices will rise by

then as this will increase the interest of

companies in the bidding round even
more, Mekmouche said.
Sonatrach has struggled to raise
production in the aftermath of a
corruption probe at the company and
an Al-Qaeda terrorist attack in 2013 at
In Amenas, a gas field that the state
company operates with BP and Statoil.
Algerias oil output has remained at
about 1.1mn bpd for the last two years.
Brent crude has tumbled 35% in 2015
amid a worldwide supply glut.

We will end the year 2015 with about

the same level of output as last year,
Mekmouche said. For 2016, we expect
an increase in production by at least 5%
compared with 2015, he said, declining
to give figures.
Algerias production rose 4.4% in
2014 to 200mn metric tonnes of oil
equivalent, the state news agency
APS reported in February, citing
energy ministry data. Royal Dutch
Shell and Repsol won licences in
a September 2014 energy auction

Best Israeli stock

may still have 32%
upside for Barclays
Bloomberg
Tel Aviv

rutarom Industries Ltd, the best performer this year

on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, is near the most expensive its ever been. Barclays and Citigroup are undeterred.
Theres still a potential 32% upside to the maker of avours for Coca-Cola Co and Nestle, Barclays said on
Wednesday. Citigroup started coverage of Haifa, Israelbased Frutarom with a buy last month, just as valuations
climbed to the highest on record. The company this week
announced its largest acquisition and raised its sales target
to $2bn for 2020 from $1.5bn.
After a string of acquisitions that has made it the sixthlargest player in the $12bn-plus global avours market, Frutaroms stock is up 57% this year, growing at least twice as
fast as its two main competitors, Switzerlands Givaudan SA
and Germanys Symrise AG. The company is still cheaper
than its Swiss and German rivals, according to Bloomberg
data.
Successful growth in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the
US primarily could drive the stock to 250 shekels, Tel Avivbased Tavy Rosner from Barclays said in an e-mailed note.
Our upside case accounts for successful execution of 2020
targets.
Barclays has raised its target price shares to 200 shekels
from 150 shekels.
The aggressive expansion strategy of Frutaroms chief executive officer Ori Yehudai, who has nearly doubled revenue
since 2010, has made the company the top performer on Israels benchmark index, which it joined at the end of 2014.
The company has made 12 acquisitions this year including
Indias Sonarome Pvt Ltd and Polands Amco Sp ZOO, extending its product base and geographical reach.
Frutarom has a strong track-record of creating value
through M&A, typically targeting smaller deals where prices
are lower, Citigroups Michael Klahr wrote in an e-mailed
note on November 26.

that awarded rights to only 4 of

31 offered areas. Algeria pumped
1.1mn bpd in November, ranking
ninth for output among members
of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries, data compiled
by Bloomberg show.
Sonatrach has reduced costs and
spending and curtailed investment as
a result of lower oil prices, Mekmouche
said. The company has restructured
since Amine Mazouzi became chief
executive officer in May and delegated

greater decision-making powers to its

managers, he said.
Sonatrachs top three priorities are
exploring for oil and gas in areas
near existing production facilities,
raising output through the use of new
technology and overcoming delays to
deliver projects on time, Mekmouche
said. The companys upstream unit
has changed its name to Exploration
& Production and will be in charge of
dealing with international companies,
he said.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

BUSINESS

he Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE)

index lost 101.90 points, or
1.02%, during the week to close
at 9,912.92. Market capitalization
decreased by 0.70% to QR525.1bn
versus QR528.8bn at the end of the
previous week. Of the 43 listed companies, 13 ended the week higher,
while 29 fell and two remained unchanged. Al Meera Consumer Goods
Co (MERS) was the best performing
stock for the week with a gain of
10.0% on 86,128 shares traded. On
the other hand, Qatar Cinema & Film
Distribution Co (QCFS) was the worst
performing with a decline of 10.0%
on only 2,500 shares traded.
Qatar Islamic Bank (QIBK), Masraf
Al Rayan (MARK) and Barwa Real
Estate Co (BRES) were the primary
contributors to the weekly index
loss. QIBK was the biggest contributor, shedding off 36.8 points from
the index. MARK was the second
biggest contributor, erasing 32.9
points from the index. BRES pushed
the index down by 17.1 points. On the
other hand, QNB Group (QNBK) and
Ezdan Holding Group (ERES) added
17.4 and 12.1 points to the index,
respectively.
Trading value during the week decreased by 10.5% to reach QR1.3bn
versus QR1.4bn in the prior week.
The Banks and Financial Services
sector led the trading value during
the week, accounting for 45.1% of
the total trading value. The industri-

als sector was the second biggest

contributor to the overall trading
value, accounting for 26.0% of the
total. MARK was the top value traded stock during the week with total
traded value of QR288.2mn.
Trading volume decreased by
7.1% to reach 31.5mn shares versus 33.9mn in the prior week. The
number of transactions fell by 6.6%
to reach 18,850 versus 20,181 in the
prior week. The banks and financial
services sector led the trading volume, accounting for 41.2%, followed
by the real estate sector, which accounted for 17.3% of the overall
trading volume. MARK was also the
top volume traded stock during the
week with total traded volume of
8.4mn shares.
Foreign institutions remained
bearish during the week with net
selling of QR75.0mn versus net selling of QR341.0mn in the prior week.
Qatari institutions remained bullish
with net buying of QR123.1mn versus
net buying of QR359.1mn the week
before. Foreign retail investors remained bearish for the week with net
selling of QR9.8mn versus net selling
of QR17.7mn in the prior week. Qatari
retail investors remained bearish
with net selling of QR38.4mn versus
net selling of QR432.8k the week before.
In 2015 year-to-date, foreign institutions bought (on a net basis)
$463mn worth of Qatari equities.

QSE Index and Volume

Weekly Market Report

Source: Qatar Exchange (QE)

Weekly Index Performance

Source: Qatar Exchange (QE)

Source: Bloomberg
Source: Qatar Exchange (QE)

DISCLAIMER
This report expresses the views and opinions of Qatar National Bank Financial Services SPC (QNBFS)
at a given time only. It is not an offer, promotion or recommendation to buy or sell securities or other
investments, nor is it intended to constitute legal, tax, accounting, or financial advice. We therefore strongly
advise potential investors to seek independent professional advice before making any investment decision.
Although the information in this report has been obtained from sources that QNBFS believes to be reliable,
we have not independently verified such information and it may not be accurate or complete. Gulf Times and
QNBFS hereby disclaim any responsibility or any direct or indirect claim resulting from using this report.

Qatar Stock Exchange

Top Five Gainers

Top Five Decliners

Most Active Shares by Value (QR Million)

Most Active Shares by Volume (Million)

Investor Trading Percentage to Total Value Traded

Net Traded Value by Nationality (QR Million)

Technical analysis of the QSE index

he QSE index dropped by 1.02%

and closed at 9,912.92 points versus the week before. A small Hammer candlestick was created just above
the 9,600 support level we expected
last week. One of the major concerns we

have is the traded volumes. The index

remains in a downtrend but a chance
of a corrective bounce is possible. The
weekly support level remains at 9,600
points while the resistance remains at
11,300 points.

Definitions of key terms used in technical analysis

andlestick chart A candlestick

chart is a price chart that displays
the high, low, open, and close for a
security. The body of the chart is portion
between the open and close price, while
the high and low intraday movements
form the shadow. The candlestick may
represent any time frame. We use a oneday candlestick chart (every candlestick

represents one trading day) in our analysis.

Doji candlestick pattern A Doji candlestick is formed when a securitys open
and close are practically equal. The pattern indicates indecisiveness, and based
on preceding price actions and future
confirmation, may indicate a bullish or
bearish trend reversal.

10

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

BUSINESS
Russia boosts Asia oil sales as Opec battles to win customers
Reuters
Singapore
Russian oil producers have
strengthened their position in Asia by
supplying nearly a quarter more crude
this year, shifting the balance of power
in one of the few bright spots in the
global market and blunting Opecs highprofile drive to win customers.
Aided by a weak rouble and new
pipelines, Russia has replaced Iran as a
top five supplier to Asia, boosting sales
23% to 1.3mn bpd in the first 11 months
of 2015 from a year ago, according to
data compiled by Reuters based on
trade flows and customs information.
Russias share of the worlds biggest oil
market has risen to 7.3% from 4.7% five

years ago and shows how President

Vladimir Putins efforts to court Asian
countries such as China is bearing fruit
as it looks to cut its dependence on its
traditional markets such as Europe.
China and South Korea saw the biggest
jumps in Russian imports, according to
the data.
Given Russias proximity to major crude
buyers in North Asia, it can export
crude on tankers via Sakhalin Island,
and by pipelines directly to China or via
the Russian port of Kozmino on the Sea
of Japan.
Another advantage for Russia has been
the more than halving in the value of
the rouble against the US currency
since mid-2014, slashing production
costs in dollar-traded international oil
markets.

Given Asia is the main crude short

(undersupplied area) left in this market,
the battle for market share remains
intense, said Amrita Sen, chief oil
analyst at consultancy Energy Aspects.
Within the Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec),
Iraq has been the firm winner, raising its
supplies to Asia by a quarter thanks to
record production and heavy discounts
that illustrate how intense the price war
for customers has become even within
Opec.
The expansion by Russia and Iraq in
Asia this year has capped increases for
Saudi Arabia, suggesting the strategy
the Opec kingpin is leading of pumping
more oil to expand market share has
only worked within limits.
Led by Saudi Arabia, Opec decided

in November 2014 not to cut output

to prop up prices but instead to keep
producing in defence of market share
against other producers like Russia or
shale drillers in the US.
We dont think this strategy can last
much longer especially if you see how
Russia expanded in Asia in 2015, said
Emril Jamil, senior analyst at Thomson
Reuters Oil Research & Forecasts, in a
reference to producers struggling to
make a profit at low prices.
Opec did not make significant gains in
market share in Asia in 2015, he added.
While Saudi Arabia managed to halt
a decline in its Asian market share
last year and remains the regions top
supplier by raising exports by 2.7% in
the first 11 months this year to 4.2mn
bpd, Opec data shows that its sales to

Asia peaked at 4.59mn bpd in 2013.

Within Opec, Iraq overtook Kuwait to
become the third-largest crude supplier
to Asia behind Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) this year.
The second-largest Opec producer
boosted its crude deliveries to major
customers in Asia by close to 360,000
bpd to 1.77mn bpd in the first 11 months,
Reuters data showed.
Iraqi oil exports to India rose by a third
to just over 600,000 bpd, nearly on
par with top buyer China, as refineries
such as Reliance Industries boosted
purchases and as India created
strategic stockpiles.
Top UAE producer Abu Dhabis exports
fell 3.7% in the first 11 months on
rising domestic demand, Reuters data
showed, but trade sources said the

Emirate may reclaim some of its share

when it increase production in the
second half of 2016.
Asia is now spoilt for choice, so
producers will have to continue to
discount their crude to get in, said Sen
of Energy Aspects.
Other competitors who have lifted their
sales in Asia include Latin American
producers Venezuela and Brazil whose
exports rose by more than 100,000
bpd.
Asias crowded market means that Irans
plans to ramp up exports if and when
sanctions are lifted next year could be
more difficult.
The Iranians are not going to hold back
and if they have to they will compete on
price just to secure their barrels homes
with Asian refiners, Jamil said.

US, Japan data on

tap for Tokyo
investors this week
AFP
Tokyo

Cranes are seen at a construction site in Beijing. Chinas economic conditions deteriorated across the board in the fourth quarter, according to a private survey from a New
York-based research group that contrasted with recent official indicators that signaled some stabilisation in the countrys slowdown.

China Beige Book shows

disturbing economy
Bloomberg
Hong Kong

hinas economic conditions deteriorated across the board in the

fourth quarter, according to a private survey from a New York-based research group that contrasted with recent
official indicators that signalled some
stabilisation in the countrys slowdown.
National sales revenue, volumes, output, prices, prots, hiring, borrowing,
and capital expenditure were all weaker
than the prior three months, according
to the fourth-quarter China Beige Book,
published by CBB International. The indicator is modeled on the survey compiled by the Federal Reserve on the US
economy, and was rst published in 2012.
The worlds second-largest economy
lacks the kind of comprehensive data
available on developed nations, making
it harder for investors to get a clear read
- particularly as China transitions from
reliance on manufacturing and investment toward services and consumption.
Official data on industrial production,
retail sales and xed-asset investment
all exceeded forecasts for November,
while consumer ination perked up and

ing to the Peoples Daily. Officials typically set the growth target for the coming year at the conference, which lasts a
few days. In contrast to the gloomy Beige
Book report, data on Friday showed Chinas home-price recovery spread to more
smaller cities in November, after Chinese
authorities rolled out easing measures
targeting regions with a surplus of unsold homes.
New- home prices increased in 33 cities
among the 70 cities tracked by the government, compared with 27 in October,
the National Bureau of Statistics said.
The Beige Book report was based on
surveys of more than 2,100 rms across
China and interviews with bankers,
managers and executives. CBB began
the series in mid-2012, when its inaugural survey indicated a pick-up in growth
from early that year, a forecast later
borne out.
Geographically, the three most highprole regions performed the worst,
with Shanghais dismal showing outpacing Guangdongs and Beijings. Every
region weakened on-quarter except for
the Center and West, the report showed.
More concerning than overall growth
weakness was degradation of two components of the economy that were previ-

a slide in imports moderated. The Beige

Books prot reading is particularly disturbing, with the share of rms reporting
earnings gains slipping to the lowest level
recorded, CBB President Leland Miller
wrote in the release. While retail and real
estate held up reasonably well, manufacturing and services performed poorly,
with revenues, employment, capital expenditure and prots weakening.
The survey shows pervasive weakness, Miller wrote in the report. The
popular rush to nd a successful manufacturing-to- services transition will
have to be put on hold for a bit. Only the
part about struggling manufacturing
held true.
After efforts including six interestrate cuts since late 2014 failed to revive
growth, policy makers are switching
focus to x problems like overcapacity
on the supply side. President Xi Jinping
- seeking to keep growth at a minimum
6.5% a year through 2020 - is juggling
short-term stimulus with long- term
prescriptions to avoid the middle-income trap that has ensnared developing
nations after bouts of rapid growth before they became wealthy.
Chinas leaders convene their annual
economic work meeting Friday, accord-

ously overlooked as sources of strength:

the labor market and the impact of ination, Miller wrote. Given growth in
input prices and sales prices slipped to
record-lows while rm performance
metrics fell, it looked like rms were
encountering genuinely harmful deation, he wrote.
If labour market weakness persists,
policy makers in Beijing will feel increasing pressure to ramp up the policy
response, according to the report.
With official indicators picking up in
November, Bloombergs monthly China
gross domestic product tracker rose
to a 6.85% estimated growth pace for
the month, the best reading since June.
Shares have rebounded, with the Shanghai Composite Index climbing 4.2% last
week. The benchmark equity gauge has
rallied 22% since tumbling to the low of
the year in August.
In a worrying sign for the effectiveness
of monetary easing to date, the share
of companies borrowing declined to a
record low, the survey showed.
The interest of rms in both borrowing and spending continues to decline,
suggesting its past time the stimulus
maa rethinks its Pavlovian responses,
Miller wrote. Reform or bust.

slew of US and Japanese

data to be released in the
coming days will be key
trading cues for Tokyo investors after both countries central banks rolled out fresh policy
moves last week.
On Friday, the Bank of Japan
(BoJ) announced surprise tweaks
to its huge stimulus plan, jolting nancial markets and pushing the yen into a brief dive, as
Japans economy struggles to
mount a recovery.
The decision came days after
the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates for the rst time in almost a decade on the back of a
rm US economy.
The moves highlighted a
growing divergence in monetary
policy between the US central
bank and its overseas counterparts.
This week, investors will be
keeping an eye on some key
US data, including economic
growth gures and existing US
homes sales, after the Fed rate
move boosted hopes the worlds
top economy was back on track.
Investors are keen to conrm the health of the US housing
market, Nomura Securities said
in a commentary.
In Japan, markets will be looking at ination, jobs and spending data later in the week after
the BoJ tweaked its massive
stimulus plan on Friday.
Among the moves, the bank
said it would boost its holdings
in rms dedicated to capital
spending and new hiring.
They also made some other
tweaksincluding hiking the
banks exposure to longer-term
bondsafter wrapping up their
last policy meeting of the year.
The announcement comes

as analysts raise concerns the

BoJ would struggle to scoop up
enough bonds under its 80tn
($654bn) annual asset-buying
schemewhich
effectively
prints money to spur lending.
BoJ chief Haruhiko Kuroda
said that the measures announced Friday were designed to
beef up the impact of the banks
monetary easing on the economy.
The benchmark Nikkei 225
index briey rallied more than
two%it was in negative territory during morning trade
as the yen sharply weakened,
boosting exporters. But the jump
quickly faded and the Nikkei fell
1.90%, or 366.76 points, to close
at 18,986.80. It lost 1.27% over
the week.
The broader Topix index of
all rst-section shares dropped
1.76%, or 27.61 points, to
1,537.10. It was down 0.80% this
week.
Investors thought that the
impact of the (BoJ) measures was
likely to be limited, IwaiCosmo
Securities broker Toshikazu Horiuchi told AFP.
But at least its true that the
Bank of Japan still intends to
sustain the economy with abundant cash, which marks a sharp
contrast to the Fed.
Tokyos losses tracked a sharp
decline on Wall Street as the
rout in oil prices pummels petroleum-linked equities again,
with JX Holdings down 3.74% at
491.3 and Inpex losing 2.6% to
1,141.
Toyota fell 0.58% to 7,658,
Nissan dropped 1.64% to
1,257 and Sony sank 2.58% to
2,998.5.
On currency markets, the
dollar weakened to 121.83
from 122.60 in New York on
Thursday. It had jumped over
123 right after the BoJ announcement.

A slew of US and Japan data to be released in the coming

days will be key trading cues for Tokyo investors after both
countries central banks rolled out fresh policy moves

Kuroda and Yellen give Japan Inc an edge over rivals

Bloomberg
Tokyo

Kuroda: Keeping stimulus measures.

apans exporters are getting a helping hand from two different central
banks these days.
While Bank of Japan Governor
Haruhiko Kuroda is keeping stimulus
measures owing at home and putting
downward pressure on the yen, US
competitors are set to be burdened by
higher borrowing costs after Federal
Reserve Chair Janet Yellen enacted the
rst US interest rate increase in almost
a decade.
Add to that BoJ data released Thursday showing that companies are continuing to add to their record piles of
cash, and you get an idea of the formidable ability of Japan Inc to compete in
global markets.
Japanese rms are cash rich amid
record low interest rates, and the Feds
move to tighten monetary policy only

increases their competitive edge, according to Nicholas Smith, a Tokyobased strategist at CLSA.
Right now a Japanese corporate
should be able to take on a three-front
battle while juggling eight champagne
bottles and balancing a carrot on its
nose, said Smith. Super-cheap loans
and a super-uidity of money is a huge
unfair advantage. It would be churlish
not to take advantage of it.
Policies implemented by Japans
government have pushed funding costs
to record lows and helped weaken the
yen by 29% since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power in 2012, drawing
the ire of US competitors.
Cash and deposits held by Japanese
companies rose 6.1% from a year earlier to a record 247tn ($2tn) at the end
of September, the BoJ said Thursday.
Thats a third more than in 2006 when
the Fed last raised rates.
The Feds rate hike may also result
in a weaker yen against the dollar, giv-

ing Japanese companies such as Toyota

Motor Corp and Sony Corp an additional advantage. Sonys shares rose as
much as 4.9% in Tokyo, their biggest
intraday gain since September 30.
The yen may gradually approach
128 against the dollar in a few
months said Takuji Okubo, Tokyobased chief economist at Japan Macro Advisors. The greenback bought
122.42 in London.
The cost of protecting debt against
non-payment fell in Japan, with the
countrys credit-default swaps index dropping 2 basis points to 71 basis
points in Tokyo last week, based on
Citigroup prices. The yield on Japans
10-year bond fell 0.5 basis point to
0.295% last week.
Takehito Yoshino, chief fund manager at Mizuho Trust & Banking Cos
xed-income investment team in Tokyo, said he expects the Fed to raise
rates by 0.25% twice in 2016, lower
than Fed expectations. Fed policy mak-

ers forecast that the short-term policy

rate will rise to 1.375% at the end of
2016, implying four quarter-point increases in the target range next year,
based on the median number from 17
officials.
There is a strong chance that the
US economy will peak out, and companies earnings right now arent that
strong, said Mizuhos Yoshino. There
are a lot of risk factors globally.
The average yield on US corporate
bonds has risen to 3.68%, its highest
since January 2012, representing a 45
basis point gain since the start of the
year, according to Bank of America
Merrill Lynch data.
The corresponding level in Japan
was 0.32%, 6 basis points above a 10year low reached in January, the indexes show.
Japanese companies are incredibly
well capitalized, said CLSAs Smith.
They are not the frail things they were
a decade ago.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

11

BUSINESS

Louis Dreyfus
seeks buyers
for its units
Reuters
London/New York

The logo of Bayer is seen at the Bayer Healthcare subgroup production plant in Wuppertal. Bayer is likely to seek a major life sciences M&A deal in the next few years,
according to banking sources, as its absence from a recent wave of consolidation could undermine its position in markets such as crop protection and animal health.

Bayer may set sights on

big acquisition even as
deal options dwindle
Reuters
Frankfurt

ayer is likely to seek a major life

sciences M&A deal in the next few
years, according to banking sources, as its absence from a recent wave of
consolidation could undermine its position in markets such as crop protection
and animal health.
Possible targets for the German company could include veterinary drug rm
Zoetis and Pzers consumer health
business, the two sources said.
Bayer, Zoetis and Pzer declined to
comment.
Bayer, which makes drugs, seeds and
pesticides, has watched from the sidelines as a string of its rivals in different
life sciences markets have struck deals to
bolster their positions.
The planned combination of DuPont
and Dow Chemicals agriculture businesses creates a more formidable rival for
Bayer in both pesticides and seeds, while
also eliminating two potential merger
partners in those sectors.
In animal health, meanwhile, Bayer is
set to become a second-tier player behind four clear market leaders following

a series of major consolidation moves

in the sector, capped by the exclusive
talks this month between Sano and
Boehringer Ingelheim to combine some
businesses.
Bayer has been hobbled by its refusal
to relinquish any of its life science businesses, which has kept it out of asset
swaps such as the $20bn Sano-Boehringer plan and last years three-way
trade involving Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly.
In the pesticides markets it is held
back by antitrust obstacles, as a close
second in global rankings to Syngenta.
That could also keep the coveted seeds
businesses of their rivals out of reach,
as they are typically combined with crop
chemicals.
Syngenta and Bayer each command
about a fth of the global pesticides
market, with Bayer leading the insecticides segment with a 23% share.
But Bayers strategy chief and CEOin-waiting Werner Baumann is content
to bide his time for now, investment
bankers say.
The company is in no rush to overhaul
its agriculture business - seeds and pesticides - which is already among the most
protable in the sector with nine-month

Denmark set to raise bond

target as demand soars
Bloomberg
Copenhagen
Denmark will probably raise its
debt issuance target for next year
to restore volume and satisfy
demand.
After suspending issuance
for much of this year to keep
speculators out and defend its
currency peg, Denmark will probably try to sell as much as 100bn
kroner ($15bn) in bonds next year,
or about one-third more than
implied in a previous forecast, according to Nordea and Sydbank.
Selling more bonds will help
the office normalise liquidity and
also replenish the governments
account at the central bank,
which had fallen while auctions
were suspended, Henrik Hansen,
senior fixed income analyst at
Sydbank, said by phone.
Since the office resumed auctions two months ago, it has seen
a strong comeback, he said. So
far the debt office has been able
to sell relatively many bonds without strengthening the krone.
Heres a reminder of what
happened in Denmarks bond and
currency markets earlier this year:
The Swiss National Banks January 15 decision to abandon its ties
with the euro triggered a speculative attack against Denmarks
euro peg. Denmark suspended
bond auctions in February to
push down longer-dated yields
and keep speculators out by
choking supply. Without auctions,
liquidity in the Danish bond market dried up, fuelling concerns the
debt office would face difficulties

when restarting sales. As pressure

on the krone eased, the country
resumed auctions in October,
targeting 100bn kroner of sales in
the 15 months through 2016.
The office has already sold
about 23bn kroner in bonds over
5 auctions with a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.7; it sold about 1bn kroner
more at each auction than it had
signalled it would. The office has
one more auction scheduled this
year, on December 16.
Denmark has seen very nice
demand and they also want to
strengthen liquidity, and that
points toward a higher issuance
target, Jan Stoerup Nielsen,
senior analyst at Nordea, said by
phone. So we think that the debt
strategy will include a revision.
The office hasnt said when it
will publish its strategy for 2016.
The issuance target is usually
announced around the middle of
December.
Per Callesen, deputy governor
at the central bank, cautioned
investors against expecting large
quantities of government bonds
next year.
The rest of the world is carrying out quantitative easing by
buying up bonds to push rates
lower, he said at a Copenhagen
press briefing. If we, in this
country, were to do the opposite,
it would be quantitative tightening, which would have potential
monetary ramifications.
Despite those comments, we
still think its likely that bond sales
will be higher, Nordeas Nielsen
said. The government still has
a relatively high financing need
for 2016.

core earnings margins at more than 26%,

above BASF, Syngenta and Dows.
The German group also has to digest
last years $14bn purchase of Merck &
Cos consumer health products, which
saw it outbid rivals such as Reckitt
Benckiser. But the recent M&A hiatus will only whet Baumanns appetite
for deals over the next few years, the
banking sources said. US-based Zoetis,
which has a market value of $23bn, or
any consumer health assets that might
be jettisoned by Pfizer, will be on his
radar, they added.
Werner Baumann is being underestimated. He wont hesitate to do a deal
if it ts. He and (nance chief Johannes)
Dietsch were the driving force behind the
Merck deal, one banker said, asking not
to be named as they are not authorised to
speak publicly.
Pzer, which is in the process of buying Allergan, has a history of aggressively
restructuring its portfolio, with large
takeovers often followed by divestments
or spin-offs to focus on core businesses.
For instance, it split off its Zoetis animal
health unit in 2013. Analysts at brokerages including Bernstein Research and
Exane BNP Paribas have said they do not
expect the US drugmaker to hold on to

its consumer health business for long,

though Pzer has not made any official
statements regarding a separation of that
business.
For Bayer, any such M&A moves might
mean it will have to borrow heavily at the
expense of its single-A credit rating or
even hold a cash call, unless its changes
tack and offers any of its businesses in a
barter trade, the sources said.
Since splitting off its plastics business Covestro in October, the German
rm has repeatedly said it will develop
its plant, animal and human health businesses under one roof.
Sources familiar with the company
said management continued to regard its
animal health and crop protection operations as essential parts of the group
Baumann, who is expected to take the
helm of the company in early 2017, told
Reuters earlier this year that Bayer did
not need a merger to make it more successful and that Bayers responsibility
went beyond its shareholders.
But some investment bankers expect a boardroom rethink following the
wave of industry deals, and say Bayers
crop protection and seeds division
could be spun-off or combined with a
rivals business.

ouis Dreyfus Commodities

is seeking buyers for its
orange juice and fertiliser
units as the global merchant focuses on higher-margin activities, sources said, the latest rm
to take steps to weather weak
commodity markets.
The company had been actively marketing the orange juice
and fertiliser businesses for
some months, having appointed
banks to lead the sales processes,
sources said.
Another source said the trading group was also looking to
spin off its metals and dairy
businesses.
A company spokeswoman declined to comment.
They are recalibrating their
portfolio... They are going back
to the core and looking at where
the margins are, said one source.
The vast juice operations one of the worlds biggest - include seven processing factories in Brazil, the US and China,
as well as orange groves in top
grower Brazil and a global trading network.
In the competitive fertiliser
market, the rm is one of the
largest distributors in West Africa, works extensively in South
America and has begun expanding in Australia, according to its
website.
The search for suitors comes
as the 164-year-old rm overhauls its top management just
months after installing a new
chief and seeks to cut costs after
reporting a sharp drop prots in
the rst six months of the year.
Like its peers, Louis Dreyfus has been buffeted by falling
prices and volatility that have

eroded margins for trading commodities from copper to grains

to seeds.
For the broader market, the
potential retreat from juice and
fertilisers reects torrid conditions in those industries as demand and prices shrink.
Randy Freeman, senior orange
juice trader based in the US, left
the company this week after
more than three decades at the
rm, a fourth source said.
Last year, the companys juice
division implemented a costcutting program and lowered inventories to deal with shrinking
demand and crops hit by greening disease that attacked trees
in Florida, the top US growing
state, according to its annual report.
Orange processors have also
struggled as consumers drink
less juice from concentrate.
Louis Dreyfus, one of the
ABCD quartet of traders
which dominate global agricultural trading along with Archer
Daniels Midland Co, Bunge and
Cargill, is in the midst of a management shake-up.
The group has streamlined
its management structure by
reducing the number of senior executive committees from
three to two, information on
its website showed, less than
three months after promoting
Gonzalo Ramirez Martiarena to
become chief executive of the
family-owned rm.
Former cotton head Anthony
Tancredi was named head of
the companys sugar business,
which was said to be struggling
as years of excess production
punish prices.
Tancredi has been replaced by
Tim Bourgois, who was most recently the companys global cash
trading manager for cotton.

A sign for Louis Dreyfus Commodities is seen in a field in the

soybean-growing region near Campo Nueve, Paraguay. Louis
Dreyfus is seeking buyers for its orange juice and fertiliser units as
the global merchant focuses on higher-margin activities.

Bitcoin blockchain technology likely

to transform banking industry
AFP
New York

he technology that drives the

shadowy cryptocurrency bitcoin
is drawing interest from the established banking industry, which sees a
potential to revolutionise the sector.
Although bitcoin and related virtual
currencies are limited to a small set of
transactions and are often associated
with the underground economy, the socalled blockchain technology is gaining
currency in the nancial world.
A blockchain is essentially a shared,
encrypted ledger that cannot be manipulated, offering promise for secure
transactions that allow anyone to get an
accurate accounting of money, property
or other assets.
The blockchain, which is the technology behind the encryption and ecertication, that is a technology which
might very well be very useful, said
Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase at a conference
earlier this year.
Leah Gerstner, a vice president for
public affairs at American Express, said
the nancial group made its rst investment in a digital currency company
called Abra as a way to get a better understanding of blockchain technology
and explore its potential.
Gerstner told AFP that we believe
blockchain technology is playing an important role.
The use of blockchain began in 2009
with the introduction of bitcoin and other virtual currencies that are generated
by complex chains of interactions among

The technology that drives the shadowy cryptocurrency bitcoin is

drawing interest from the established banking industry, which sees a
potential to revolutionise the sector
a huge network of computers around the
planet, and are not backed by any government or central bank, unlike traditional currencies.
The blockchain offers potential to the
traditional nance sector due to its ease
of transaction with verication from any
point on the platform.
You can imagine a number of potential use cases for this technology in
nancial services across both businessto-consumer and business-to-business
transactionsfrom international money
transfers to stored value, Gerstner said.
The Linux Foundation recently announced a new collaborative Open
Ledger project to advance blockchain

technology, teaming with tech rms such

as IBM and Intel, stock exchanges and
major banks including Wells Fargo and
Mitsubishi UFJ.
Distributed ledgers are poised to
transform a wide range of industries
including banking and shipping, among
others, said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation.
Blockchain technology could lower the
cost for many kinds of consumer cash
transfers that now are handled by companies like Western Union and MoneyGram.
The banking industry could save $15bn
to $20bn in transaction costs for international payments by using the technology,

according to Banco Santander, which is

working on its own virtual currency.
A consortium of global banks including Morgan Stanley, HSBC, UBS,
Credit Suisse, Barclays, Societe Generale and Commerzbank are working
with the finance tech startup R3 to
use blockchain technology for a wide
range of applications.
Others moving forward include Bank
of America, Citigroup and Goldman
Sachs, which is working on its own virtual currency that could cut out intermediaries for settlements between nancial
institutions.
The technology could help facilitate
instantaneous, secure nancial transfers which now sometimes can take days
when moving internationally, according
to blockchain backers.
This would change the way settlements of securities are traditionally carried out, said Prableen Bajpai, founding
director of the India-based research rm
FinFix.
The use of a cryptographic currency such as the one being developed by
Goldman Sachs facilitates rapid, secure
and conrmed transactions via network,
thereby eliminating the need for a third
party, Bajpai said.
The results are extremely timely and
efficient settlements.
Another advantage is that transactions
could be made without revealing identities and other informationwhich could
be important for institutions trying to
keep personal data secure from hackers.
But a number of issues need to be resolved before virtual currencies and
blockchain technology become mainstream.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

BUSINESS

GULF TIMES

Aviation industry targets 1.5%

fuel efficiency a year until 20
T

he aviation industry rst goal

was to continue to improve fuel
efficiency across the eet by an
average of 1.5% a year until 2020, according to a senior IATA official.
This is already bearing fruit. In fact,
the industry is currently tracking ahead
of our goal, with an average fuel efficiency improvement of 2.9% per year.
Thats a cumulative fuel efficiency improvement since 2009 of 13.6%, said
Michael Gill, IATA director (Aviation
environment).
The second would be to stabilise net
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from
aviation at 2020 levels, Gill said at the
IATA Global Media Day in Geneva recently.
This carbon-neutral growth is an
effort by the industry to acknowledge
that many countries want to continue
their aviation development to ensure
trade and tourism into the future but
it needs to balance that with climate
action. The concept allows the industry to keep feeding economic activity
and also cap our emissions.
This goal will be addressed not only
through the technological, operational
and infrastructural advancements, but
most importantly through the development of a global market-based measure
at the UNs International Civil Aviation
Organisation (ICAO), he said.
The third goal, Gill said was to look
out to 2050 when the industry aimed to
be down to half of what its CO2 emissions were in 2005.
This is much longer-term than the
previous two, but aviation partners are
already working together to put in place
the building blocks to achieve it.
Reducing aviations net CO2
emissions by 50% by 2050 is certainly
ambitious. We are concentrating action in two key areas: a combination
of technological advancements and
the development of sustainable alternative fuels. To date, no other industry has been able to agree and put
forward targets like these at the global
level, Gill said.
For 2016, the International Air
Transport Association forecast the
airlines fuel bill would fall to $135bn,
which represent 20.6% of their total
operating costs.
Jet fuel prices have fallen substantially and IATA based its forecast on an

The Federal Reserve aims to keep the

US economy running hot next year to
boost the job market and inflation, a top
central banker said, and to achieve that
goal interest-rate hikes will be slow but
will not follow any predictable pattern.
Every meeting will truly be live in
terms of adjusting policy one way or the
other, San Francisco Federal Reserve
Bank President John Williams told
Reuters in an interview, referring to the
Feds policy-setting meetings.
Fed officials on Wednesday
unanimously backed an increase to the
central banks benchmark interest rate
target, lifting rates from near zero for
the first time since the financial crisis.
The policy meeting had been widely
anticipated as ending in a rate hike.
Afterwards, attention turned
immediately to the likely timing of
the next move. Many economists
have latched on to March as the most

Bloomberg
London

Musicians perform next to the 25th unit of Boeing 787 Dreamliner received by Qatar Airways and displayed at the Dubai Airshow on November 9, 2015. For 2016, the
International Air Transport Association forecast the airlines fuel bill would fall to $135bn, which represent 20.6% of their total operating costs.
average price of $63.8 a barrel next year,
and $51 a barrel for the Brent crude.
The future price of oil is highly uncertain, with some forecasters expecting $20 per barrel in 2016 while others

expect a rise to $60 per barrel. Certainly, record oil inventories suggest
a signicant rise in 2016 is highly unlikely, but expected stronger economic
growth should pull prices up from cur-

rent levels later next year, IATA chief

economist Brian Pearce said.
Fuel is such a large cost that it focuses intense effort in the industry to
improve fuel efficiency, through re-

placing eet with new aircraft, better

operations and efforts to persuade governments to remove the airspace and
airport inefficiencies that waste around
5% of fuel burn each year.

Fed official wants low rates, hot economy in 2016

Reuters
San Francisco

Carney-Yellen
yield spread
shows UK
trailing by
most since 06

probable, in part because that would

coincide with Fed Chair Janet Yellens
next scheduled press conference.
Fresh forecasts from the Fed suggest
policymakers are looking for about four
rate hikes next year. Williams who
worked for Yellen when she ran the San
Francisco Fed before handing the reins
to him, and whose views are seen to
align closely with hers said his own
view is in line with that expectation. The
Fed meets eight times a year.
You might immediately jump to
the conclusion that its every other
meeting, Williams said, referring to
the likely timing of next years rate
increases. But as weve learned over
the last several years, the economy
does not always perform as forecast.
Though much more optimistic about
the economy than in prior years,
Williams said that at the end of this
weeks meeting, there was no round of
high-fives among the 17 policymakers
at the table.
We are not done: we still have inflation
unquestionably running stubbornly low

Williams: More optimistic about the

economy than in prior years.
due to mostly, I think, global factors,
he said. To keep job creation strong,
rates will need to stay low, rising only
modestly next year, he said, adding:
We are going to run a higher-pressure
economy for a while.
If the economy springs any surprises,
he said, the Fed will respond as needed.

And Fed policymakers could decide

to raise rates even at meetings when
Yellen does not hold a scheduled press
conference, he said.
There was value to having the first
move at a press conference meeting,
Williams said, but in the future I dont
think thats as much of an issue.
Yellen, in her news conference
immediately following Wednesdays
decision, also emphasised that rate
hikes, though gradual, would not
necessarily be all a quarter of a
percentage point or evenly spaced in
the calendar year.
In a wide-ranging, hour-long interview
at the San Francisco Feds headquarters,
Williams said he expects easy Fed
monetary policy to help push the
unemployment rate, now at 5%, down to
around 4.5% by the end of next year.
On inflation, he saw it rising towards the
Feds 2% goal next year as the effects of
a strong dollar and falling energy prices
dissipate.
He did not see a need for the economy
to run hot any more by 2017, saying: I

just need it to be running at kind of a

steady pace.
That second, slower stage of economic
growth in 2017 and 2018, he said, will
occur as the Fed gradually raises its
target interest rate to around 3.25% to
3.5%, a level he sees as the likely longrun neutral rate.
Williams said he is completely
confident that the Feds timing on
its first rate hike was appropriate.
Even so, he said, theres some kind of
probability, perhaps about 10%, that a
shock could hit the economy and send
it back into recession.
If that happens, he said, the Fed would
not hesitate to cut rates and perhaps
buy more bonds or promise to keep
rates low for a certain period of time.
These are tools it used after the
financial crisis to ease monetary policy
when rates were already near zero.
We are still in a situation where most
of our tools are fully employed. Its like
an army thats got all of your forces out
there, you dont have a lot of reserves,
said Williams.

ederal Reserve Chair Janet

Yellen may have raised
US interest rates for the
rst time in nearly a decade this
week, but the Bank of England
(BoE) is going nowhere fast.
Thats the message from bond
markets, where the yield difference between UK and US twoyear government securities widened to the most since July 2006
this week. With a December 23
report set to conrm Britains
economic growth cooled in the
third quarter, forward contracts
imply traders dont expect a UK
rate increase in 2016.
That view was reinforced by
BoE Governor Mark Carney,
who said in an interview with
the Financial Times published
December 15 that the economic
developments required to justify
the rst increase in UK benchmark borrowing costs in eight
years arent yet in place.
The yield gap does reect a
likely substantial lag of the BoE
to the Fed, said Marc Ostwald, a
strategist at ADM Investor Services International in London.
The risk with the UK is that the
BoE does end up going sooner,
given markets have pushed on
UK rate expectations so heavily.
The UK two-year gilt yield rose
two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, this week to 0.59% in
London on Friday. The 1% bond
due in September 2017 fell 0.035,
or 35 pence per 1,000 ($1,492)
face amount, to 100.695.
Treasury two-year note yields
climbed eight basis points in
the same period, boosting the
premium investors demand to
hold the securities over their
UK peers to 37 basis points. The
spread closed at 39 basis points
on December 17, the day after the
Feds announcement.
The diverging policies of the
Fed and BoE are also weighing on
the pound. It posted its biggest
weekly drop since the period
ended November 6, sliding 2%
to $1.4916 and touched $1.4865
on December 17, the lowest since
April 21. It depreciated 0.7% to
72.74 pence per euro.
Carney isnt the only policy
maker pouring cold water on
speculation of liftoff in the near
term. His comments came a day
after BoE Deputy Governor for
Markets and Banking Minouche
Shak said that wage pressures
werent strong enough to justify an increase. A December
16 report showed weekly wages
excluding bonuses grew 2%
from a year earlier, less than the
2.3% forecast by economists in a
Bloomberg survey.
The central bank has held its
key rate at a record-low 0.5%
since March 2009 and forward
contracts based on the sterling overnight index average, or
Sonia, arent fully pricing in a
quarter-point rate increase until
February 2017, data compiled by
Bloomberg show.
Data next week may add to
pressure on the BoE to keep
monetary policy loose to support the economy. Gross domestic product expanded 0.5%
in the three months through
September from the previous
period, when it grew 0.7%, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Sliding oil prices could smudge Wall Street stocks rally

Reuters
New York

ith Wall Street heading into

its usually buoyant year-end
period, continued weakness
in oil prices presents a major wildcard
that could spoil any holiday cheer for
stock investors.
With seven full trading days left in
the year, plus a shortened Christmas
Eve session, some investors say the
market remains poised for its traditional strength to close out what has
been a sluggish 2015, having moved
past the Federal Reserves historic decision to raise interest rates.
While the S&P 500 index is down
3% this month, December ranks as the
best-performing month on average for
the index since 1950, according to the
Stock Traders Almanac. Since 1969,
the last ve trading days of the year,
plus the rst two of January, have resulted in an average 1.4% rally.

But the recent and persistent slide in

oil prices raises some doubts. The price
of crude has closely correlated with the
S&P 500 over the past 20 sessions as
the commodity has slid toward multiyear lows.
For whatever reason, this has been
the theme pretty much ever since oil
got under $50: that lower oil prices are
bad for the market, said Eric Kuby,
chief investment officer at North Star
Investment Management Corp in Chicago.
For the year, the S&P is down about
2%. At 2,016 as of mid-day Friday
trading, the benchmark US index
would need to rally more than 4% to
reach the median year-end forecast of
2,100 (a 2% gain for the year) from 46
strategists polled earlier this month by
Reuters.
As US crude prices have dropped
about 20% since late November, deepening their 1-1/2 year freefall, the S&P
500 has pulled back more than 3%. The
energy sector, the worst-performing

S&P group, slumped more than 12%

over that time.
Goldman Sachs said on Thursday it
sees a high risk of oil prices declining
further.
The oil story is not going away,
said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark,
New Jersey. As (US crude) continued
to push downward, it is affecting the
market.
While low oil prices have been
thought to be a potential stimulant for
the economy by lowering gas prices
and putting more money in consumers pockets, the recent drop has apparently sent a negative signal to the
market.
I think people interpret lower oil
prices as a weakness to the overall world
economy and therefore if theres not
a real strong demand for energy, the
economy is getting weaker, said Gary
Bradshaw, a portfolio manager with
Hodges Capital Management in Dallas.
Although stocks have slid after

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. With Wall Street heading into its usually buoyant year-end
period, continued weakness in oil prices presents a major wildcard that could spoil any holiday cheer for stock investors.
an initial rise, the Feds decision on
Wednesday to raise rates was largely
expected by investors and signalled

faith in the US economy. That the

market absorbed the rst rate hike in
nearly a decade suggests that we can

nish the year on a positive note, said

Alan Gayle, director of asset allocation
at RidgeWorth Investments in Atlanta.

To Advertise here
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NBA | Page 7

BOTTOMLINE | Page 9

Warriors
get revenge
with late rally
against Bucks

Diack denies
funding
Salls Senegal
presidential bid

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Rabia I 9, 1437 AH

FOOTBALL

Leicester, Chelsea
win; Norwich win
imperils Van Gaal

GULF TIMES

SPORT

Page 2

FOOTBALL/QATAR STARS LEAGUE

Xavi-less Al Sadd on edge

ahead of Mesaimeer clash

Unfortunately we are missing a few players who have gone to the Olympic team and also some injuries

Al Sadd captain Xavi (left) will miss todays Qatar Stars League clash against Mesaimeer, coach Jesualdo Ferreira (right) announced yesterday.
By Sports Reporter
Doha

nder pressure to close the gap

on leaders Al Rayyan, Doha
giants Al Sadd are feeling
edgy going into their round
14 clash against minnows Mesaimeer
today. The match begins at 6.45pm.
Al Sadd coach Jesualdo Ferreira said
he will miss the services of captain
experienced midelder Xavi and key
striker Hassan al-Haydos.
It will be a difficult game for us just
like all other games.
Unfortunately we are missing
a few players who have gone to the
Olympic team and also some inju-

ries, Ferreira said yesterday.

We will not have a strong bench.
But its not an excuse to not win this
game. Al Sadd must win this game despite the situation of the players, Ferreira added.
Last Monday El Jaish hammered Al
Sadd 4-2 after Ferreiras side beat Al
Rayyan in the previous round.
Ferreira said Al Sadd needs more
time to settle with a new coach.
We have had three matches, each
one had its own level. Three weeks of
working with the team doesnt give you
all the indications of what the players
are capable of doing Ferreira said.
A couple of matches we havent
done well. We changed some players
in the last match and we will have to do

that in this match. And thats why the

teams rhythm is not stable.
So I cannot judge the players. We
have to play each match looking for
the victory. This is my philosophy as a
coach and thats what I am communicating with the players and that is what
they have to do in the future he said.
When asked about the missing players, Ferreria said: Xavi and Hassan alHaydous will miss this match because
of injury.
There is no easy game. Maybe some
players think that the game is easy
and that can cause surprises during
the game. And as a coach I am careful
against any opponent and ask my players to play each match with full concentration and determination.

Its not impossible but as you said

its a big gap between us and Al Rayyan. But as a coach there is no end till we
play our last game in the league.
We still have our targets that we are
working for during our training. We are
looking to get three points from each
match.
I have seen during my career a lot
teams who lost the title despite having a 9-10 points lead and so anything
is possible in football. And at the end
we dont have just one team playing for
the title.
Many teams are trying to get there.
We still have points on the eld. Hopefully our team will get a winners mentality and we will ght till the end of
the league to win all games.

Mesaimeer coach Rodion Gacanin

said his team has injury concerns going
into the clash at Al Ahli Stadium.
The rst part of the league is nished with us in the last position. The
three teams directly in front of us have
been able to get a few points and put
some distance between us and them.
For tomorrows game we will miss seven players, Gacanin said
Considering the quality of players
that we have and the strength of the
squad, it will be a difficult game for us.
But Al Sadd too have players missing
for this match. Tomorrow we will go to
the eld, hope to play well and look for
a positive result.
Hopefully we will be able to bring
in new players in January. I will give

the management a report of my teams

performance so far. Give them a list of
the players that I am not satised with
and also the list of players that I want.
And I hope that these players will come
to us next week and start training with
us.
We must bring in better local players and better foreign players. I have
been saying this. Players who have
been playing in the second division are
not at the level that is needed in this
league.
They lack the agility and the quality. Some players need three days to recover after a game. Now they are much
better than when we started but that
is not good enough for this level, he
added.

BOTTOMLINE

Al-Khelaifi wants PSG fans to show passion

AFP
Paris

lub chairman and CEO Nasser

al-Khelai has hit out at Paris
Saint-Germains fans for being
too well-behaved in an interview published yesterday.
Speaking to Le Figaro newspaper, alKhelai said he wants the clubs supporters to make more noise in cheering
on their dominant heroes at the Parc
des Princes.
We need more atmosphere in the
stadium. Sometimes our fans are a bit
too well-behaved, said al-Khelai.

Before al-Khelaifi
took control of PSG
in 2011, the Parisians
had endured serious
problems from violent
hooligan groups that
more often fought
amongst themselves
than with those ultras
of rival teams

We give our time, our heart, our

passion for the fans. Id like them to
be constantly behind us, from the rst
minute to the last.
Before al-Khelai took control of
PSG in 2011, the Parisians had endured
serious problems from violent hooligan
groups that more often fought amongst
themselves than with those ultras of rival teams.
Al-Khelai even supported the supporter pacication process begun in
2010 by his predecessor, aimed at rooting out the violent, but noisy, hooligan
groups, a move which saw the Boulogne
Boys and Tigris Mystic disbanded along
with several other notorious groups.

In the interview, Al-Khelai also

ruled out bringing in new faces during
the January transfer window.
Our team is very strong, therefore
we wont need new players; we need
every player (already) in this He said he
wanted to keep coach Laurent Blanc at
the Parc and that he was looking to extend the former France boss contract,
suggesting he is not in the market to
hire Jose Mourinho, who was sacked by
Chelsea on Thursday.
However, al-Khelai was less concrete on the future of star forward and
record PSG goalscorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whose contract runs out at the
end of the season.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

FOOTBALL
EPL

FOCUS

Leicester, Chelsea win;

Norwich imperil Van Gaal
Leicester win 3-2 at Everton to guarantee that they will top the table on Christmas Day
RESULTS
Chelsea 3 (Ivanovic 5, Pedro 13, Oscar 50-pen)
Sunderland 1 (Borini 53)
Everton 2 (Lukaku 32, Mirallas 89) Leicester 3
(Mahrez 27-pen, 65-pen, Okazaki 69)
Manchester United 1 (Martial 66) Norwich 2
(Jerome 38, Tettey 54)
Southampton 0 Tottenham 2 (Kane 40, Alli 43)
Stoke 1 (Bojan 76-pen) Crystal Palace 2 (Wickham 45+1-pen, Lee 88)
West Brom 1 (McAuley 79) Bournemouth 2
(Smith 52, Daniels 87-pen)

POINTS TABLE
Read as: played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals
against, points
Leicester
17 11 5 1
37 24 38
Arsenal
16 10 3 3 29 13 33
Man City
16 10 2 4 32 17 32
Tottenham
17 7 8 2 28 14 29
Man Utd
17 8 5 4 22 14 29
Crystal Palace
17 9 2 6 23 16 29
Watford
16 7 4 5 18 16 25
West Ham
16 6 6 4 25 21 24
Liverpool
16 6 6 4 20 19 24
Everton
17 5 8 4 31 24 23
Stoke
17 6 5 6 14 16 23
Southampton
17 5 6 6 21 21 21
West Brom
17 5 5 7 17 23 20
Bournemouth
17 5 4 8 22 32 19
Chelsea
17 5 3 9 21 27 18
Norwich
17 4 5 8 20 29 17
Newcastle
16 4 4 8 18 31 16
Swansea
16 3 5 8 15 24 14
Sunderland
17 3 3 11 18 33 12
Aston Villa
16 1 3 12 13 30 6

Manchester Uniteds Memphis Depay (right) vies for the ball with Norwich Citys Martin Olsson
during the English Premier League at Old Trafford in Manchester, yesterday. (AFP)

AFP
London

helseas new interim manager Guus Hiddink saw his team beat Sunderland 3-1
yesterday, while Norwich City won at
Manchester United to imperil their manager Louis van Gaal.
Appointed prior to kick-off in place of the sacked
Jose Mourinho, Hiddink was in the stands at a discontented Stamford Bridge as Chelsea prevailed
through goals from Branislav Ivanovic, Pedro Rodriguez and Oscar.
The match unfurled amid tension, as Chelseas
fans took out their anger over Mourinhos dismissal on their own players, and there was also a bilious
atmosphere at Old Trafford, where Norwich won

2-1. It was Uniteds third straight defeat in all competitions, sending them out of the top four, and
saw Van Gaal assailed with boos from the home
supporters and chants of Jose Mourinho, hes taking your job! from the away end.
Uniteds next home xture is against Chelsea on
December 28 and social media was quickly abuzz
with speculation that Mourinho could nd himself
sitting in Van Gaals seat by then. A world away
from the managerial intrigue, Claudio Ranieri, the
former Chelsea manager, saw his Leicester City
side win 3-2 at Everton to guarantee that they will
top the table on Christmas Day.
Hiddink, 69, has returned to Chelsea in the hope
of pulling off a salvage job similar to the one he
masterminded in 2009, when he led the club to FA
Cup glory after being parachuted in by owner Roman Abramovich.

With rst-team coach Steve Holland taking

charge of the team, Hiddink sat alongside Russian
billionaire Abramovich and former Chelsea striker
Didier Drogba as the bedraggled champions began
life without Mourinho.
Pro-Mourinho banners were visible around the
groundone bearing the message You let Jose
down, you let us downand his name was chanted by the home supporters right from kick-off.
Despite the hostility from their own fans, Chelsea made a storming start, Ivanovic heading in
Willians corner in the fth minute and Pedro
slamming home from Willians cross eight minutes
later.
Oscar added a third early in the second half with
a penalty, before Fabio Borini replied from close
range for the visitors. Victory took Chelsea up to
15th place, four points clear of the relegation zone.

United are now nine points adrift of Leicester in

fth place after Cameron Jerome and Alexander
Tettey scored either side of half-time to give Norwich a rst win at Old Trafford since August 1989.
Wayne Rooney, back after three games out with
an ankle injury, made his 500th United appearance, but having lost the ball in the build-up to the
55th-minute Tettey goal that was to prove the winner, it is not an occasion he will recall fondly.
It could prove an even costlier result for Van
Gaal, who sat impassively in his seat as United
vainly pushed for an equaliser after Anthony Martial reduced the arrears in the 65th minute. Already
feeling the heat from Uniteds fans over the dire
quality of his sides football, he has now presided
over six games without a win in all competitions.
Tottenham Hotspur took advantage by winning
2-0 at Southampton to capture fourth place, Harry
Kane, after a neat run, and Dele Alli scoring within
three minutes of each other late in the rst half.
Riyad Mahrez scored twice from the penalty
spot, with Shinji Okazaki also on target, as Leicester won 3-2 at Everton, who netted through Romelu Lukaku, scorer for the seventh league game running, and Kevin Mirallas.
Bottom of the table this time last year, Leicester provisionally moved ve points above Arsenal
and six clear of Manchester City, who face off at the
Emirates Stadium tomorrow.
Lee Chung-Yongs thumping 89th-minute goal
saw sixth-place Crystal Palace win 2-1 at Stoke
City, while Charlie Danielss penalty gave Bournemouth a 2-1 victory at West Bromwich Albion, who
had James McClean and Salomon Rondon sent off.
Bottom club Aston Villa visit fourth-bottom Newcastle United in the late game.

SPOTLIGHT

Chelsea turn back to Hiddink

AFP
London

uus Hiddink has returned to

Chelsea as manager until the
end of the season following the
sacking of Jose Mourinho, the
struggling Premier League champions
announced yesterday.
The experienced Dutch coach, 69, returns to a role he previously performed in
2009, when he led Chelsea to glory in the
FA Cup. I am excited to return to Stamford Bridge, Hiddink said in a statement
on the Chelsea website.
Chelsea is one of the biggest clubs in
the world, but is not where it should be at
the moment. However, I am sure we can
all turn this season around. I am looking
forward to working with the players and
staff at this great club and especially renewing my wonderful relationship with
the Chelsea fans.
Hiddink attended Chelseas game
against Sunderland yesterday, but rstteam coach Steve Holland took charge of
the team. Mourinho, 52, was sacked by
Chelsea for the second time on Thursday
after a run of nine defeats in 16 games
saw them slump to within a point of the
relegation zone.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich
previously turned to Hiddink in February
2009 after sacking Luiz Felipe Scolari.
The owner and the board welcome back
a coach with a wealth of top-level experience and success, including his previous

New Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink (left) and owner Roman Abramovich watch
Chelseas game against Sunderland. (Reuters)
spell with the club in 2009 when we lifted
the FA Cup, Chelsea said in a statement.
Mr Abramovich and the board believe
that Guus has what it takes to get the best
out of our talented squad.
Well travelled and vastly experienced,
Hiddink began his coaching career with
PSV Eindhoven and led the club to their
rst ever European Cup success in 1988.
He has also managed Fenerbahce, Valencia, Real Madrid, Real Betis and Anzhi
Makhachkala, as well as the national
teams of the Netherlands, twice, South
Korea, Australia, Russia and Turkey.
His most recent role, as Netherlands

coach, came to an end in June after a

poor start to qualifying for Euro 2016.
Hiddinks rst game at the Chelsea helm
will be the Boxing Day xture at home to
Watford next Saturday, which is followed
by a trip to Manchester United on December 28.
Writing in the match programme for
the Sunderland game, Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck said the club had anguished over the decision to dismiss
Mourinho for some time.
Please believe me when I say the decision was made for no reason other than to
do what we believe is in the best interests

of this club, he added. We are one of the

biggest clubs in the world and we are all
determined, as a collective unit, to get
back to where we should be.
Chelsea technical director Michael
Emenalo said palpable discord between
manager and players was a factor in
Mourinhos dismissal, but captain John
Terry said player unrest was not the reason for his departure.
We are aware there have been rumours of player power at the club, but I
want to make it clear that is not the case,
Terry wrote in the programme. We leave
all decisions to Mr Abramovich and the
board, and know that our job, as players, is to focus on getting results on the
pitch.
Mourinho attended the Championship
match between Brighton and Hove Albion and Middlesbrough yesterday in his
rst public appearance since his sacking.
Sporting a newly shaven head and
wearing a dark jacket, he was photographed in a seat at the Amex Stadium,
where his former Real Madrid assistant
Aitor Karanka was taking charge of Middlesbrough.
The agency that represents Mourinho
said in a statement that he would not be
taking a sabbatical and would be attending matches in order to provide support
to his friends in the game.
He will not be taking a sabbatical, he
isnt tired, he doesnt need it, he is very
positive, and is already looking forward,
said a statement from CAA, which said
Mourinho would remain in London.

Van Gaal
accepts
Man Utd
pressure
AFP
Manchester

anchester
United
manager Louis van
Gaal admitted that
his position was under scrutiny after his sides 2-1
defeat at home to Norwich City
yesterday.
United have lost their last
three matches in all competitions and have gone six games
without victory, while they now
trail Premier League leaders
Leicester City by nine points.
Van Gaal has already taken ak
over the poor quality of Uniteds
play and with Jose Mourinho
now a free agent following his
sacking by Chelsea on Thursday,
the Dutchman admitted that he
was in the spotlight.
Thats the football world,
he said. I know that, my board
knows that, my players know
that. Were not used to that because normally we win, so its a
difficult period. Weve lost three
matches in a row, so its not happening so much for Manchester
United. We cant accept that and
thats why I have to repeat, we
have to stick together and believe
in ourselves.
Ive encountered these circumstances also with other
teams and other staff. The main
thing is that you have to be professional and do the things that
you have to do and work very
hard to come out of this bad period. Asked if he thought that
United would stand by him, he
replied: Its not up to me to say
about that question, but we shall
see.
United dominated the rst
half, but fell behind in the 38th
minute when Cameron Jerome
side-stepped the sliding Ashley Young before driving the
ball through United goalkeeper
David de Gea. Alexander Tettey
made it 2-0 in the 55th minute,
robbing Wayne Rooney on halfway, exchanging passes with
Jerome and toeing the ball home.

Manchester United manager

Louis van Gaal. (AFP)

Jimmy Hill, credited with

transforming English
football, dies aged 87
London: Jimmy Hill, a player,
manager and pundit who
helped transform English
football by leading a campaign
to remove caps on footballers
salaries, has died at the age of
87, his family said.
Hill was chairman of the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) when it succeeded
in 1961 in scrapping players
maximum salaries, which at the
time were capped at 20 pounds
a week, to stave off a threatened strike. The move paved
the way for the huge sums top
professionals earn today.
He also championed the idea
of awarding teams three points
for a win instead of two to
encourage more attacking play,
which the English Football Association embraced in 1981.
His family said Hill had died
after suffering from Alzheimers
disease. In many ways, Jimmy
Hill was football, Greg Dyke,
the Football Association chairman said in a statement.
During his 11-year playing
career Hill represented London
clubs Brentford and Fulham.
He went on to become
manager of Coventry City,
taking them from the third tier
of English football to the top
flight, and was chairman of

Coventry and Fulham.

A distinctive figure with a
sharp chin and dark beard, he
later moved into broadcasting
and became a household name
in Britain as the host of BBC
TVs football highlights show
Match of the Day. He was
credited with revolutionising
TV match analysis and bringing
in expert pundits to scrutinise
matches in depth. Tributes
poured in from ex-players,
clubs and fans across England.
He was a successful player,
a great manager at Coventry
City and changed the game as
chairman of the Professional
Footballers Association, FA
chairman Dyke said.
Former England striker Alan
Shearer wrote on Twitter: Footballers and football have so
much to thank him for. A man
who loved the game.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

FOOTBALL
CLUB WORLD CUP FINAL

SPOTLIGHT

Messi trains as
Enrique denies
Barca conspiracy
Oh, give me a break! Look, theres no mystery. We havent hidden him or anything

Mourinho to stay
in London while
job-hunting
AFP
London

ose Mourinho will remain in London despite

being sacked by Chelsea
on Thursday, according
to the agency which represents
him.
The 52-year-old Portuguese
says he intends to get back into
a job as soon as possible, but
in the meantime will be helping friends in the cut-throat
business of football management.
He will not be taking a
sabbatical, he isnt tired, he
doesnt need it, he is very
positive, and is already looking forward, said a statement
from CAA.
Because of his love of football, you will see Jose at football grounds working and supporting friends. He will not
be attending any high-prole
games because he wants to
discourage any speculation
about his future.
Jose will remain living in
London and hopes he and his
family will be given the opportunity to do this privately.
Jose will not speak about
his current situation for the
foreseeable future. He asks
the media to respect this decision.
Although
Chelsea
announced the separation was
by mutual consent, the CAA
statement directly contradicted that version of events.
During his career, Jose has
sometimes chosen to leave
a club, but only at Chelsea

has the club decided that he

should leave, it said.
Each time represents for
him the end of a cycle, and the
opportunity to start a new one.
Jose hopes that his future after
Chelsea this time will be as
successful as when he left the
club in 2007.
Mourinhos rst stint at the
west Londoners from 2004
to 2007 also ended with him
being shown the door due to
differences with billionaire
Russian owner Roman Abramovich, despite the self-styled
Special One leading the Blues
to two Premier League titles,
as many League Cup wins and
an FA Cup success.
He went on to win the
Champions League with Inter
Milan in 2010 and lifted league
titles in both Italy and Spain,
with Real Madrid, before rejoining Chelsea in 2013.
Another league title and
League Cup win followed for
the man who rst came to
prominence in 2004 when
guiding Porto to the Champions League crown.

Amiable Club World Cup a far

cry from its ugly predecessor

Barcelonas player Lionel Messi (L) attends a training session ahead of their Club World Cup final match against Argentine club River Plate in Yokohama, (Reuters)
AFP
Yokohama

arcelona coach Luis

Enrique denied bizarre
claims of a conspiracy
surrounding injured talisman Lionel Messi before their
Club World Cup nal against
River Plate in Japan today.
Messi missed Barcas 3-0
semi-nal win over Guangzhou
Evergrande midweek with abdominal pains and Enrique
reacted
with
bemusement
yesterday when an Argentine
journalist insisted that Messis
absence from public view was
mysterious.
Shaking his head, Enrique
said with a smile: Oh, give me a
break! Look, theres no mystery.
We havent hidden him or anything.
To emphasise the point, moments later Messi jogged out to
join training in Yokohama, raising the possibility he could play
a part in the nal when Barca will
look to become the rst team to
win the title three times. With
Neymar also close to tness after
tweaking his groin, the European
champions could unleash both
of them against River alongside
Luis Suarez, who scored a hattrick on Thursdaythe rst ever
at a Club World Cup.
Messi and Neymar are both
progressing nicely, said Enrique
without elaborating. Its a nal
and we expect a very tough game.
We came here to be crowned the
worlds best team but in a nal
theres always a chance for an
upset.
River boss Marcelo Gallardo
unsurprisingly said the Catalan
giants were favourites, but Barca
captain Andres Iniesta refused to
get into any mind games before
the nal. Im not buying into
any of that, said the Barcelona
playmaker. If we start saying
were favourites then we could
fall at on our faces.
Iniesta admitted he wasnt
sure if the ve-time kings of Europe would practice spot kicks

River Plate head coach Marcelo Gallardo (C) speaks with his coaches during a training session at the Club World Cup tournament in Yokohama
yesterday. (AFP)
in the event of being taken to
penalties. I really dont know,
he shrugged. Hopefully we can
win the game in regulation time
so it doesnt get to penalties.
Penalties are bad for your heart.
Barca captured the Club World
Cup in 2009 when they beat Argentinas Estudiantes 2-1 and
again in 2011 when they thrashed
Brazils Santos 4-0.
River, known as los millonarios because they are based in
the wealthier northern suburbs
of Buenos Aires and count politicians, business leaders and celebrities among their fans, won
the old Intercontinental Cup in
1986. Its a chance to make history, said Gallardo, whose Copa
Libertadores winners struggled
to beat Japans Sanfrecce Hiroshima 1-0 in midweek but will
be roared on by some 15,000 fans

who made the trip from South

America. Barcelona are the best
team in the world and we hope
Messi, Neymar and Suarez all
play, he added with a sheepish
grin. You dont get many opportunities to play games like this so
we will play with big heart, look
to attack and enjoy it.
River goalkeeper Marcelo
Barovero, expected to be the
busiest man in the stadium on
Sunday evening, echoed his
managers comments.
You dream of matches like
this, he said. We want to pay
back all the fans for making the
long trip over to Japan.
Menawhile River Plate coach
Marcelo Gallardo was happy to
accept the role of underdogs in
nal against Barcelona, saying
that while European champions
had the best players, his team

had a big heart. He added that he

hoped Lionel Messi and Neymar,
doubtful due to illness and injury
respectively, would play in what
Gallardo described as an emblematic game for the Argentine
club. I would like all the best
players to play, Gallardo told reporters on Saturday. For me, its
a pleasure to face the best three
or four players in the world.
Although South America produces a stream of world class
players, a difficult nancial reality means they are all based
with European clubs. As a result,
South American teams, who
once competed on equal terms
with their European counterparts, now look upon the competition as a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to face a top team.
Rivers team is made up a
mainly journeymen profession-

als with only a smattering of international caps between them.

It would have to be a perfect
game for us to have any chance,
said Gallardo, who himself
played for Argentina at the 1998
and 2002 World Cups.
They are a very complete
team, its a big challenge for us
and we are going to have to play
very intelligently and be very intense to have a chance.
River won the old Intercontinental Cup, played only between
the European and South American champions, in 1986 and were
beaten by Juventus 10 years later,
when Gallardo was in the team.
I dont know if its the biggest match of our lives, but it is
the most emblematic, said Gallardo, who has transformed the
team during his 18 months in
charge.

European champions Barcelona have been thronged by admiring fans and autograph hunters in Japan whenever they have
appeared in public since their arrival this week for the Club
World Cup.
Japanese fans formed long queues to buy official Barcelona
merchandise on the way to the stadium for Thursdays semifinal against Asian champions Guangzhou Evergrande where
most of the crowd were rooting for the Catalans.
On the pitch, team captains took part in the so-called Handshake for Peace, described by FIFA as a gesture of friendship
and respect intended to inspire the world to unite in peace,
solidarity and fair play.
It has all been very amiableand a complete contrast to its
forerunner.
From 1960 to 1979, the Intercontinental Cup, an annual meeting
of the champions of Europe and South America played over two
legs, was a sorry history of intimidation, brawls, violence and
skullduggery.
Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has already said it will feel odd
to face River Plate, a team from his native Argentina in the final,
but at least he will not be subjected to the same treatment that
Nestin Combin went through in 1969.
An Argentine playing for Italian side AC Milan, Combin had a less
than friendly reception when they went to Buenos Aires to face
Estudiantes.
His nose and cheekbone were broken when he was elbowed in
the face, and photographs showed him on the ground covered
in blood.
At that point, he was arrested by Argentine police and accused
of dodging his military service before he emigrated. He was
eventually released after spending a night in jail.
Reports of the match allege that Milan players had hot coffee
poured over them as they entered the field and that Estudiantes
players kicked balls at them while they trained.
Television footage certainly show an extraordinary sequence of
late tackles, punches, wild kicks and fights.
Estudiantes goalkeeer Alberto Poletti later spent 30 days in
prison for his involvement and was banned from football for
seven years.
In an interview in 2005, he told the Spanish newspaper As that
the team were under pressure from the military government.
They wanted us to win because there were rebellions by the
workers, strikes and they wanted to put a lid on this... We were
young, I was 23 years old..., he said, denying rumours that his
team mates also stuck needles into their opponents.
Two years earlier, Argentinas Racing Club and Scotlands Celtic
had been involved in what became known as the battle of Montevideo after their two-leg tie went to a playoff in the Uruguayan
capital.
Amid yet more wild scenes, six players were sent off, one of
whom refused to go and managed to play until the end amid the
confusion.
Celtic defender Tommy Gemmell said in a documentary that he
deliberately kneed a Racing player in the genitals behind the
referees back after the player concerned had spat in the faces
of all the Celtic forwards.
In 1972, Johan Cruyff scored a brilliant individual goal for Ajax
away to Independiente, only to be put out of the game by a vicious tackle before the half hour.
The Dutch were so angry about the tackling that they threatened to abandon the match at halftime and, although they went
to on to win 4-1 on aggregate, declined to take part the following
year after retaining the European Cup.
A series of further withdrawals by Liverpool and Nottingham
Forest in subsequent years led to a change of format, with a
single one-off match in Tokyo from 1980 which turned out to be
considerably calmer.
FIFA become involved in 2000 by organising a Club World Cup
with the champions of other continents. Financial problems
meant the competition was not held again until 2005 and since
then it has taken place annually.
Yet, it had all begun so promisingly, with Pele leading Santos to
an 8-4 aggregate win over Benfica in 1962.
His performance in the second leg in Lisbon, when he scored
a hat-trick in a 5-2 win, is regarded as one of the best of his
extraordinary career. S
antos display has never since been matched in either the Intercontinental Cup, or its successor.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

FOOTBALL
BUNDESLIGA

LIGUE 1

Bayern beat Hanover

to go eight points clear
An announcement on coach Guardiolas future plans will be made today

AFP
Paris

Bayern Munichs coach Pep Guardiola talks

to striker Thomas Mueller during their
match against Hanover 96. (Reuters)

AFP
Munich

ayern Munich opened an eightpoint lead in the Bundesliga yesterday with a 1-0 win at struggling Hanover as the Bavarians
wait to learn whether Pep Guardiola will
leave at the end of the season.
Guardiolas contract as head coach
expires in June and the club say an announcement on the 44-year-olds future
plans will be made today when the German league begins the month-long winter break.
Daily newspaper Bild insist Guardiola
will leave in May and claim Bayern have
already made a verbal agreement for Carlo Ancelotti to take over.
Regardless of who will coach them next
season, Bayern nish 2015 eight points
clear after Thomas Mueller converted a
40th minute penalty for his 14th league
goal of the season when Hanover captain
Christian Schulz conceded the spot-kick
after the ball hit his arm.
It was clear that Hanover werent going to give any points away, so were delighted to get the win, Mueller told Sky.
But after sealing Bayerns 15th win in 17
league games, Mueller said Guardiola

has given no indication to the squad as to

whether he will stay or go.
Well see what happens. Regardless
of who is coach, the squad just wants to
keep winning, added the Germany forward. We havent heard anything, it could
be that he stays. Besides the media normally nd out before we do.
But this was the third game in succession where jaded Bayern have laboured to
victory although the Bavarians have still
only dropped ve points from their 17
games so far for a seasons tally of 46.
Second-placed Borussia Dortmund
are now eight points behind Bayern after
crashing to a 2-1 defeat at Cologne as the
hosts scored twice in the nal 10 minutes.
Dortmund took the lead after just 18
minutes when Greece centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos headed home a
corner swung in by Henrikh Mkhitaryan
past the goalkeeper.
But Cologne took the three points
when Simon Zoller red home from close
range on 83 minutes before Anthony
Modeste earned a yellow card for ripping off his shirt, yelling a primal scream,
after hitting the 90th-minute winner.
Bayer Leverkusen climbed to fourth in
the table with a 1-0 win at Ingolstadt as
Mexico striker Javier Hernandez kept up
his stunning scoring run.

Chicharito claimed his 17th goal in

Leverkusens last 14 games in all competitions when he stabbed home his 11th
league goal of the season since joining
from Manchester United.
Europa League side Augsburg picked
up their third straight win to move away
from the relegation places into mid-table
with a 1-0 victory at Hamburg thanks to
Jan Moraveks headed equaliser.
Eintracht Frankfurt picked up their

Ibrahimovic
wondergoal
as PSG break
points record

aris Saint-Germain go
into the winter break
with a Ligue 1 record
points haul of 51 after a
3-0 away win at Caen lit up by
a thrilling Zlatan Ibrahimovic
strike yesterday.
Already 1-0 up from an early
Angel di Maria goal Ibrahimovic
produced a stunning 25-yard
snap-shot which ew into the
top corner of the Caen goal on 36
minutes.
As the stadium rose to acclaim
the giant Swede for the simple
power and precision of his splitsecond effort, even the beaten
keeper was left smiling.
The win lifted PSG to a massive 20 points clear of Angers, in
action today at Saint-Etienne.
It also extends the star-studded Qatar-backed clubs unbeaten record in the league to 28
games since March.
Summer-signing Di Maria
rounded off the scoring with his
sixth Ligue 1 goal since joining
from Manchester United, making it 3-0 as he rounded off a
slick team effort on 50 minutes.
Caen keeper Remy Vercou-

tre deserves a special mention

himself after saving four stinging shots in a bewildering rsthalf goalmouth scramble, two of
them spectacular stops with the
feet from Lucas Moura and Ibrahimovic.
Not to be outdone PSGs German keeper Kevin Trapp then
saved an 84th minute penalty
from Caens Andy Delort as the
champions shone in every area
against a side who went into the
game in fourth place.
Third-place Monaco end a
turbulent 2015 at Troyes later
yesterday, with the bottom club
still looking for a rst win of the
season. Among the other xtures
is a Brittany derby between Guingamp, who are in the relegation
zone, and a Rennes side with just
one win in their last 13 league
games.
Marseille will look to end a difcult year on a high note when
they visit Bordeaux on tonight
in the last match before France
takes a two-week winter break
over the festive period.
On Friday teenager Olivier Boscagli sent Nice into the
French winter break on a winning note as he struck the only
goal in a 1-0 victory at home to
Montpellier.

rst win in eight matches when captain

Alex Meier and Stefan Aigner scored in
their 2-1 win at home to fellow strugglers
Werder Bremen which left both teams
just above the relegation places.
Schalke are up to fourth in the table
thanks to Fridays 1-0 win against struggling Hoffenheim when Cameroon forward Eric Choupo-Moting was credited
with a goal which deected off Hoffenheims Czech defender Pavel Kaderabek.

RESULTS
Hamburg 0 Augsburg 1 (Moravek 76)
Eintracht Frankfurt 2 (Meier 31, Aigner 48)
Werder Bremen 1 (Pizarro 29)
Cologne 2 (Zoller 83, Modeste 90)
Borussia Dortmund 1 (Sokratis 18)
Hanover 96 0 Bayern Munich 1
(Mueller 40-pen)
Ingolstadt 0 Bayer Leverkusen 1
(Hernandez 73)

POINTS TABLE
Read as: played, won, drawn, lost, goals for,
goals against, points
Bayern Munich 17 15 1 1 46 8
46
B Dortmund
17 12 2 3 47 23 38

Hertha Berlin
B Leverkusen
Schalke 04
VfL Wolfsburg
Mgladbach
Mainz 05
Cologne
Hamburg
Ingolstadt 04
Augsburg
Darmstadt 98
E Frankfurt
Werder Bremen
Hannover 96
Hoffenheim
VfB Stuttgart

FOCUS

16
17
17
16
16
16
17
17
17
17
16
17
17
17
17
16

9
8
8
7
8
7
6
6
5
5
4
4
4
4
2
3

2
3
3
5
2
3
6
4
5
4
6
5
3
2
7
3

5
6
6
4
6
6
5
7
7
8
6
8
10
11
8
10

24
25
23
25
31
23
18
19
11
21
15
21
17
18
17
19

18
20
23
18
28
21
21
23
18
26
23
28
32
29
25
36

29
27
27
26
26
24
24
22
20
19
18
17
15
14
13
12

Paris Saint-Germains forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic (right) does a

bicycle kick during the French Ligue 1 football match against Caen
at the Michel dOrnano stadium in Caen, northwestern France. (AFP)

LA LIGA

Platini hits out at FIFA investigators Nevilles Valencia denied

in four-goal thriller
AFP
Zurich

ichel Platini launched a virulent

assault on FIFAs ethics watchdog in a statement read out at
the football world bodys tribunal
which is deciding whether he is guilty of corruption.
I am already judged, I am already condemned, the 60 year-old suspended FIFA
vice president and UEFA leader said in the
statement which was released yesterday after
being read out by his lawyer at Fridays hearing in Zurich.
The tribunal is to release its verdict tomorrow and FIFAs ethics investigators have
called for Platini to face a life ban. Platini
however attacked an anthology of indiscretions, rumours, condences leaked to the
press by anonymous and malevolent sources
from within FIFA that you have done nothing
to silence, in the statement to the judges.
The statement highlighted a media interview given by Domenico Scala, head of FIFAs
audit committee, in October when he gave
details of a two million Swiss franc ($2 million/1.8 million euro) payment approved by
FIFA president Sepp Blatter to Platini in 2011.
The payment is the cause of the FIFA investigation and Scala highlighted how there
was no contract and how the sum did not appear in FIFA accounts.
Blatter and Platini, both serving 90-day
suspensions, deny any wrongdoing. But
FIFAs ethics commission has called for a
life ban for Platini. Blatter, 79, who appeared
before the tribunal on Thursday, also faces
a long ban. Platini said the case prepared by
FIFA prosecutor Vanessa Allard is loaded
and declared: I no longer have any trust in
FIFAs disciplinary bodies.
Neither Platini nor Blatter have revealed

Michel Platini
any of the details of their defence used to
justify the payments, however. FIFAs ethics
commission would not comment on Platinis
decision to release his statement.
A source close to FIFAs temporary leadership said it is not the investigators job to be
impartial. But neither is Mr Platini impartial.

CANDIDATES FOR FIFA PRESIDENCY

LOBBY AFRICA FOR SUPPORT
It was Africa versus Europe in Johannesburg yesterday as Tokyo Sexwale and Jerome
Champagne lobbied southern Africas football bosses for support to become the next
head of the scandal-ridden body FIFA.
The South African apartheid-era political prisoner turned multimillionaire and
the former French diplomat laid out their
plans to reform FIFA to the Confederation
of Southern African Football Associations

(COSAFA) annual general meeting.

The two men hoping to succeed suspended
FIFA head Sepp Blatter presented a show of
solidarity as they recalled working together
on South Africas successful bid to host the
2010 World Cup tournament.
World footballs governing body is traversing the worst corruption scandal in its over
100-year history and Blatter faces a Swiss
criminal investigation. He denies any wrongdoing.
But the show of unity began to show cracks
when Sexwale pointed out that FIFA had
never had an African president.
The score is 111 to zero against Africa.
For 111 years FIFA has not had an African,
said Sexwale, adding that Europe would have
pulled out of FIFA if the situation had been
reversed.
I am not here to keep quiet like a slave and
pretend that these things are not happening,
he added, raising the emotional temperature
in the small hotel conference room.
Champagne, who served as a FIFA executive for nearly a decade until 2010, responded
by saying the choice was more about experience and ability than nationality.
Its not matter of origin, he said. Its a
matter of knowing exactly of how to manage
the structure.
Because I was pushed out of FIFA by a coalition of people who are all today suspended, I know exactly what needs to changed.
And that is the experience I can provide, he
said with growing passion in his voice.
The air of unity returned toward the end of
the news conference, with Sexwale quipping
he would name Champagne as his general
secretary if the Frenchman promised to do
the same.
Prince Ali Hussein of Jordan, another candidate, addressed the COSAFA meeting via
video link. He promised to have African leaders in his team if he won the presidency.

AFP
Madrid

ary Neville is still searching for his rst

La Liga win as Valencia boss after Los
Che twice fought back from a goal down
to draw 2-2 at home to Getafe yesterday.
All four goals arrived in a 25 minute period in
the rst-half as Paco Alcacer cancelled out Pablo Sarabias opener. Angel Lata then put Getafe
back in front only for substitute Santi Mina to
level once more.
A point leaves Valencia still six points off the
top four, but does at least preserve their unbeaten
home record in the league stretching back to November last year. Neville had manged to get his
rst win in three attempts against third-tier Barakaldo in the Copa del Rey in midweek.
But, just as against Eibar in his rst taste of
La Liga action last weekend, Valencia make a
poor start and were behind after just 10 minutes.
Goalkeeper Jaume Domenech has been Valencias
player of the year so far this season, but he reacted late to Sarabias free-kick and couldnt prevent
the ball nding the top corner despite getting a
hand to it.
However, the hosts reacted quickly to going
behind as Alcacer caught Joao Cancelos cross
from the right sweetly to register his seventh goal
of the season. Yet, Valencia were still incredibly
open at the back and were behind again midway
through the half when Lata smashed home a
loose ball after Shkodran Musta had appeared to
upend Victor Rodriguez inside the box.
Getafe centre-back Cala had another goal
marginally ruled out for offside moments later
as the home fans began to turn on their side. And
it seemed Neville had suffered another setback
when Jose Luis Gaya had to be replaced through

A point leaves Gary Nevilles Valencia still six

points off the top four. (Reuters)
injury. Yet, that proved to be a blessing in disguise
as Mina replaced the full-back and equalised
with his rst touch as he swept home Alcacers
cross at the back post. The hosts then looked the
more threatening side for large spells, but were
denied by former Valencia keeper Vicente Guaita
as he produced great saves to deny Danilo and
Dani Parejo either side of the break.
Neville through on former Manchester City
striker Alvaro Negredo in the search for a winner and he had a golden chance when he headed
straight at Guaita three minutes from time.
Yet, in the end, Valencia were lucky to even get
a point as Getafe passed up a series of chances on
the break in the nal few minutes with Lata hitting the bar two minutes into stoppage time.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

CRICKET
SPOTLIGHT

Khawaja firms for Boxing Day Test against WI

Reuters
Melbourne

sman Khawajas bid to reclaim his spot in Australias

top order for the Boxing Day
test against West Indies is
back on track after the batsman was
passed t to play in the domestic
Twenty20 competition.
Khawaja missed the West Indies
series-opener in Hobart and the third
and nal Test against New Zealand in
Adelaide last month after suffering
a hamstring injury against the Black
Caps in Perth.
The left-hander was rested for Sydney Thunders Big Bash opener on
Thursday but passed a tness test the
following day and will pad up for the
side at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
today.
If he emerges from that unscathed,
Khawaja is expected to be picked for
the second test against West Indies
in Melbourne, leaving selectors with
a tough call to drop either opener Joe
Burns or batsman Shaun Marsh.
If theres one thing that gets real

sore after a T20 game, its my hamstring, Khawaja, who turned 29 on

Friday, told reporters yesterday.
Its going to be a test and Im not
going to go out there and nurse it in any
way because I want to test it. I dont
want to go into the Boxing Day test

match not having that condence.

I want to go out pretty hard.
Khawaja scored back-to-back centuries in the rst two tests of Australias 2-0 series win over New Zealand,
a brilliant return after two years in the
international wilderness.
However, his replacement Marsh
has also performed well and smashed
182 in Hobart in a record-setting partnership with Adam Voges that set up
a dominant win and a 1-0 lead in the
three-test series against West Indies.
Burns starred in the series-opener
against New Zealand in Brisbane, scoring 71 and 129, but has had a modest
output in the three tests since.
Whoever they leave out, theyre going to be hard done by, former captain
Michael Clarke told local media.
Joe Burns got a beautiful hundred
in the rst test and I think his contribution with (opener) David Warner has
been really important.
Shaun Marsh grabbed his opportunity with both hands.
Whoever they go with will perform.
Whoever they leave out will go back to
state cricket and continue to make runs
and wait for another opportunity.

Lyon hoping to show white ball form ahead of World T20

Australia spinner Nathan Lyon fought hard to cement his
place in the test team and now hopes to convince selectors
of his white ball prowess in time for the World Twenty20 in
India. Lyon celebrated his 50th test against West Indies in
Hobart last week but played the last of his eight one-day internationals more than a year ago and has yet to represent
Australia in a T20 international.
The 28-year-old will have a chance to impress on Sunday
when he bowls for the Sydney Sixers in the domestic Big
Bash T20 tournament, a match pitting him against the
Hobart Hurricanes Cameron Boyce, the incumbent spinner
in the national team.
Lyon collected eight wickets from his four Big Bash (BBL)
matches last season and was one of the Sixers best in
their opening loss to cross-town rivals Sydney Thunder on
Thursday. Although he made his test debut in 2011, it took
Lyon nearly three years to nail down a permanent place in
the side after a number of false starts and setbacks.
Proving himself a contender in the shorter formats has also
been a slow process and he was omitted from the squad
that secured a fifth 50-over World Cup victory for Australia
in march.
Youre going to have to ask Rod Marsh and the rest of the
selectors about that one, Lyon told reporters on Saturday
of his fleeting appearances in limited-overs cricket.
I want to be the spinner in all three formats. I dont know

REPORT

how many times I have to say it. Thats my goal and the
T20 World Cup is definitely on my radar. I just have to come
out here and perform well for the Sydney Sixers and enjoying bowling in the BBL.
Lyon will also have to battle for his spot in the squad for the
March 8-April 3 World T20 against spin-bowling all-rounder
Glenn Maxwell and Ashton Agar, who forced his way into
the one-day team on the tour of England this year.
A former groundsman at Adelaide Oval, Lyon surpassed
Hugh Trumbles 141 test wickets in June to become Australias most prolific off-spinner and now has 175 to his name.
He said he felt confident he could thrive with red ball, white
ball or pink ball. It doesnt faze me what game Im playing in,
I just want to do well for the team Im playing for and get the
right result.

FOCUS

Chameera produces
career-best return
as Kiwis struggle
We havent batted the way we would have liked and the way we should have
Dushmantha Chameera of Sri Lanka walks off
the field with teammates after taking five wickets
during day two of the Test against New Zealand at
Seddon Park in Hamilton yesterday. (AFP)

Yuvraj, Nehra in
T20 squad, Raina
left out of ODIs for
Australia tour
IANS
New Delhi

eterans Yuvraj Singh

and Ashish Nehra
made a comeback to
the Indian squad yesterday after being included in
the list of 16 probables for next
months limited overs tour to
Australia.
The duo has only been selected for the Twenty20 International (T20I) matches for
the January 12-31 tour and will
not feature in the One Day Internationals (ODI).
Experienced
batsman Suresh Raina has been
dropped from the ODI squad
but has been retained for the
T20Is. All-rounder Stuart
Binny has been dropped from
both squads.
Rookie pacers Rishi Dhawan and Brainder Singh Sran
received their rst call-ups
to the national side. Younger
pacer Gurkeerat Singh Mann
has been retained in the squad.
Mann was in the India squad
for the ODI and T20I series

at home against South Africa,

but is yet to make his international debut.
The selectors also announced that Mahendra Singh
Dhoni will continue to lead the
Indian ODI and T20 teams till
the World T20 Championship
which is to be held in India in
March-April next year.
India are scheduled to play
ve ODIs and three T20Is in
Australia.
ODI squad: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat
Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish
Pandey, MS Dhoni (C) (Wk),
Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Axar
Patel, Ishant Sharma, Umesh
Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann,
Rishi Dhawan, Brainder Singh
Sran.
T20I squad: Shikhar Dhawan,
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli,
Ajinkya Rahane, Yuvraj Singh,
MS Dhoni (C) (Wk), Suresh
Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin,
Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami,
Harbhajan Singh, Umesh
Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra.

YUVRAJ SINGH

Reuters
Hamilton

aceman
Dushmantha
Chameera took careerbest gures with aggressive short-pitched
bowling to give Sri Lanka a slight
advantage at the close of play
on the second day of the second Test against New Zealand at
Seddon Park in Hamilton yesterday.
Doug Bracewell was unbeaten
on 30 with Neil Wagner dismissed for 17 with two balls remaining in the days play as the
hosts nished on 232 for nine, 60

runs behind Sri Lankas rst innings of 292.

Chameera had sparked a
top-order collapse shortly after
lunch by taking three wickets
in 13 balls before he returned to
pick up two more after tea to end
the day with gures of 5-47.
We havent batted the way
we would have liked and the way
we should have, New Zealand
opener Martin Guptill told Radio
Sport.
It was just one of those things
that happens in cricket.
Sri Lanka are allowed to bowl
well and they did bowl very well
for a period there. The guys
couldnt get through it as well as

we would have liked.

We are still in the game, a little bit behind the eight ball, but
not very far.
Chameeras previous best had
been 3-53 against Pakistan in
Colombo in June and his spell after lunch had reduced the hosts
to 89-4 before New Zealands
lower order buckled down.
Mitchell Santner (38) and BJ
Watling (28) thwarted Sri Lanka
for 19 overs and just 40 runs for
the sixth wicket before Santner
got the thinnest of edges off Nuwan Pradeep through to wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal after
tea.
Watling then fell to a low catch

by Kithuruwan Vithanage at
gully off Suranga Lakmal just after he and Bracewell had reduced
the decit to under 100 runs.
Chameera, however, returned
for the nal 40 minutes of play
and got his fourth wicket when
Tim Southee became the third
batsman to fall into Angelo
Mathews leg-side trap.
New Zealand had been well
placed at 61-0 at lunch and proceeded to take 20 runs from the
rst two overs after the break before their innings fell apart.
Chameera, the quickest bowler in the match, had conceded 13
runs in his rst over after lunch,
but then tightened up consid-

erably as he bowled with pace

and aggression and to a plan by
Mathews to stack the leg side
with elders.
He had Tom Latham caught
at leg gully for 18 and Kane Williamson snapped up by Suranga
Lakmal at deep backward square
for one.
The 23-year-old then angled a
short delivery across Ross Taylor
(nought) that caught his glove
and went through to Chandimal
to leave the hosts on 89 for four.
Left arm-spinner Rangana
Herath also grabbed two wickets before tea, dismissing Guptill
for 50 and New Zealand captain
Brendon McCullum for 18.

SCOREBOARD
Sri Lanka 1st innings (overnight 264-7)
D. Karunaratne c Watling b Southee..........12
K. Mendis c Watling b Southee .....................31
U. Jayasundera run out Santner/Watling26
D. Chandimal c Watling b Bracewell .........47
A. Mathews c Latham b Southee ................77
M. Siriwardana c Taylor b Boult ...................62
K. Vithanage c McCullum b Boult .................0
R. Herath run out (Williamson) ...................... 4
D. Chameera c McCullum b Bracewell ....... 4
S. Lakmal c Williamson b Wagner ................ 4

N. Pradeep not out ................................................2

Extras: (lb11, w12) .......................................23
Total (10 wickets; 80.1 overs) .............. 292
Fall of wickets: 1-39 (Karunaratne),
2-44 (Mendis), 3-115 (Jayasundera),
4-121 (Chandimal), 5-259 (Siriwardana),
6-259 (Vithanage), 7-264 (Herath),
8-284 (Mathews), 9-288 (Lakmal), 10292 (Chameera)
Bowling: Boult 20-2-51-2, Southee 21-5-633 (w1), Bracewell 22.1-4-81-2 (w1), Wagner

9-1-51-1 (w2), Santner 7-0-34-0, Williamson

1-0-1-0
New Zealand 1st innings
M. Guptill c Mathews b Herath .................... 50
T. Latham c Karunaratne b Chameera .....28
K. Williamson c Lakmal b Chameera ........... 1
R. Taylor c Chandimal b Chameera .............0
B. McCullum c Mendis b Herath ...................18
M. Santner c Chandimal b Pradeep ...........38
B. Watling c Vithanage b Lakmal ................28
D. Bracewell not out .......................................... 30

T. Southee c Jayasundera b Chameera ..... 4

N. Wagner c Vithanage b Chameera..........17
T. Boult not out .......................................................0
Extras: (lb3, nb7, w8) ................................18
Total (9 wickets; 78.4 overs) ............... 232
Fall of wickets: 1-81, 2-83, 3-86, 4-89, 5-128,
6-168, 7-196, 8-201, 9-232.
Bowling: Lakmal 16-4-48-1 (w1, nb1), Mathews 11-7-25-0, Pradeep 17-4-34-1 (w1, nb5),
Herath 22-1-75-2, Chameera 12.4-3-47-5
(w2, nb1)

Amir included in Pakistan

training squad
Paceman Mohamad Amir has taken another step towards
international re-integration following a ban for match-fixing
after being included in a Pakistan training and fitness squad.
Amir, former test captain Salman Butt and fast bowler Mohammad Asif served jail sentences in Britain after being found
guilty in 2011 of various offences of corrupt behaviour.
The trio were cleared to return to the sport by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in September after serving suspensions.
Left-armer Amir, 23, is one of 26 players named for the fitness
camp that will run from Dec. 21-Jan. 7 in Lahore, said the Pakistan Cricket Board.
I am thankful to my fans, family and my friends who always
support me and encourage me, said Amir on his Twitter account.
Will try my best to give 100 percent to my country.
Pakistan travel to New Zealand for three Twenty20 internationals and three one-dayers against Brendon McCullums side
starting from January 15.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

SPORT
QATAR BASKETBALL LEAGUE

SPOTLIGHT

Rembert shines as
Khor shock Arabi
with late rally
We should have won the match but we were too complacent towards the final stages
By Sports Reporter
Doha

onald Rembert scored

a match-high 27 points
as Al Khor produced a
magnicent late rally to
shock Al Arabi 87-80 in the Qatar Basketball League (QBL) last
evening.
At the Al Gharafa Indoor
Hall, it was Al Arabi who appeared headed for victory when
they led for most part of the
match and were ahead 53-47
at the end of the third quarter before Al Khor engineered
a 26-point effort to level 73-all
and take the match into overtime.
Combining aggression with
stoic defence, Al Khor then produced 14 points in the tiebreaker while restricting Al Arabi to a
mere seven.
Al Arabi, who led 21-8 and
41-27 after the rst two quarters
were deated by the defeat.
We should have won the
match but we were too complacent towards the nal stages,
Al Arabi coach Hatem Mamlouk
said.
But this sometimes happens
in sport and I would like to congratulate Al Khor on their win.
We will be back strongly in the
next match, he added.
Al Khor coach Ahmed Kamel
was delighted with his teams
showing.
The boys showed great
ghting spirit. I cant have any
complaints, he said.
Rembert scored thrice from
three pointers, while Charles
Abouo gave him splendid support with 20 points.
For Al Arabi, Moutasim
Hamed top-scored with 18
points, while Masoud al-Nasr
with 15 and Narcellius Soyebo
with 13 also excelled.
In another match, Al Gharafa
led from the start to beat Al
Wakrah 87-65 with Osaro Adako top-scoring with 27 points
for the winners.
Hassino Ndoye with 21 and
Mohamed Saad and Dwayne
Galloway with 16 each also
excelled for the winners, who
held a decisive 62-lead 41 at the
end of the third quarter.
For Al Wakrah, Adamu Saaka
scored 20, Souleye Ndour 18 and
Earl Cage Jr 15.
Today El Jaish play Al Shamal
at 5.15pm followed by a clash
between Al Sadd and Al Rayyan
at 7.25.

Wakrahs Cage Jr Calvin Earl (L) is guarded by Gharafas Adako Emmanuel Osaro (R) during their Qatar Basketball League match yesterday.

Abu-Faisal Fahad Abdulla of Al Arabi (L)

attempts to dribble past Ronald Rembert of
Al Khor yesterday.

Haas set to roll out

new car in Barcelona
Reuters
New York

ormula One debutants

Haas are on schedule to
roll out their new car at
the rst test in Barcelona
next February and are hoping to
challenge for points in the opening race, according to team principal Guenther Steiner.
Haas, the rst US owned team
in the sport since 1986, will be
using a car built in Italy by chassis maker Dallara with Ferrari
engines and technical support.
Experienced Frenchman Romain Grosjean and Mexican
Esteban Gutierrez have been
signed as drivers.
Its only 10 weeks (until the
test), which is not a lot, but the
work is going to plan. We are
pretty happy, everything seems
to come together, Steiner told
Sky Sports television at the
teams Banbury base in central
England. He ruled out a launch
before the team arrives in Spain
for testing.
The car is the last thing
you bring in and the production planning is going well, he
added. We will start to produce
a car in mid-January, we will do
the crash test at the beginning of
January and then we will start to
put one together.
We will roll it out hopefully
the day before the testing starts.
Formula One has two preseason tests in Barcelona with
the rst starting on Feb 22. The
opening race in Melbourne is on
March 20.
Steiner said the team had yet
to decide on a colour scheme.
Mr Haas has not decided yet,
I think its a very personal decision and we give him time until
the last minute... I actually dont
know, the Austrian added.
He said Ferrari would not deliver the teams engines until
mid-February.
Everything has been designed
and signed off. The Barcelona car
is signed off, everything is in production now, said Steiner.

The aim for Melbourne was

to be competitive and reach the
second phase of qualifying: To
have a chance of points, that is
our goal. To show good, to show
what we worked the last two
years for, that we have no big
dramas going on.
Haryanto seeking $16
million to realise F1 dream
Indonesian Rio Haryanto
needs to raise 15 million euros
($16.29 million) to realise his
dream of racing in Formula One
with the Manor Marussia team
next season, the Jakarta Post reported yesterday.
The newspaper said Youth and
Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi
was lobbying businesses and
state-owned enterprises to garner support for the 22-year-old,
who tested for Marussia in Abu
Dhabi this month.
It added that while Haryanto
can count on some 5 million euros from sponsors Pertamina,
the state-owned Indonesian oil
and gas company, he had less
than three weeks to raise the remainder.
I need to nd a perfect formula for Rios nancial support
to meet Manor teams requirement, Nahrawi was quoted
as saying in a statement after
meeting State-owned Enterprises minister Rini Soemarno.
Nahrawi had issued a statement earlier in the month stating that his ministry would
guarantee the money in return
for branding to promote Indonesia and associated companies.
Tail-enders Manor, who nished the 2015 season last and
without a point, are the only
team yet to announce any drivers
for 2016.
They had Briton Will Stevens,
Spaniard Roberto Merhi and
American Alex Rossi driving for
them this year. The team is due
to switch from Ferrari power
units to Mercedes next season.
Haryanto nished fourth in
the GP2 support series this year,
with three race wins.

Bristol agrees to release

Borthwick to join England
The Rugby Football Union (RFU) announced yesterday that Bristol
have agreed to release Steve Borthwick so that he can join Englands coaching set-up under new head coach Eddie Jones.
The former England captain, 36, agreed personal terms with the
RFU earlier this week, only for second-tier Bristol to block his appointment on the grounds that he had been contacted without the
clubs permission.
We very much appreciate that our approach for Steve has come
at a challenging time for Bristol during the season, and in such
circumstances I thank them for reaching this agreement, RFU
chief executive Ian Ritchie said in a press release. I would like to
thank in particular the clubs chairman Chris Booy for concluding
the matter. The stand-off was embarrassing for the RFU, which
had hoped that by appointing Jones it would draw a line beneath
the humiliation of Englands World Cup group-stage exit on home
soil in October. Borthwick, who won 57 England caps and played in
the 2007 World Cup final, is a line-out specialist and worked with
Australian Jones in the Japan set-up before joining Bristol. He follows defence coach Paul Gustard, formerly of Saracens, in joining
Joness back-room staff ahead of next months Six Nations. Jones
began work earlier this month after being appointed on a four-year
contract as the successor to Stuart Lancaster, whose tenure ended
after the World Cup. On behalf of the club we wish Steve Borthwick
the very best with England and we are pleased that we can move on
and begin the process to recruit a new coach as quickly as possible,
said Bristol chairman Booy.

GOLF

Renolds maintains lead in Philippine Open

AFP
Manila

anadas Lindsay Renolds kept his lead and

stayed on track to win
his rst Asian Tour title,
shooting a second round fourunder-par 68 at the Philippine
Open yesterday.
The Phuket-based Canadian
was followed closely by Scott
Barr of Australia, who shot a 66
at the Luisita Golf and Country Club. It is exciting to be
in this position. My game feels
good and I feel good. Im not really worried or nervous, said
29-year-old Renolds, who needs
to win the tournament to keep
his Asian Tour card next year.
Obviously theres a lot on the
line tomorrow but if I play good
golf then things will work out the
way it should, he said. The Philippine Open, which was slashed
to 54 holes due to a one-day
delay from Typhoon Melor, will
end on Sunday.
Second-placed Barr needs to

improve his 64th place Order of

Merit ranking by a notch to keep
his Asian Tour card next year.
Im pleased. Obviously this is a
huge week, said Barr, who said
he got a great putting lesson
with old Asian Tour member Ahmad Bateman.
Obviously when the putter
starts rolling, the fairways get
wider and everything gets easier, he said. Home favourite
Miguel Tabuena shared third
place with ve-time Asian Tour
winner Gaganjeet Bhullar of India, Kalle Samooja of Finland
and Giwhan Kim of Korea.
Leading scores:
134-Lindsay Renolds (CAN)
66-68
135-Scott Barr (AUS) 69-66
136-Kalle Samooja (FIN) 69-67,
Miguel Tabuena (PHI) 67-69,
Giwhan Kim (KOR) 68-68, Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND) 67-69
137-Keith Horne (RSA) 69-68,
Khalin Joshi (IND) 70-67, Chinnarat Phadungsil (THA) 67-70,
Niall Turner (IRL) 69-68, Jeunghun Wang (KOR) 67-70
138-Simon Griffiths (ENG) 70-68,

LINDSAY RENOLDS

Tirawat Kaewsiribandit (THA)

68-70
139-Mardan Mamat (SIN) 68-71,
Charlie Wi (KOR) 70-69, Charles
Hong (PHI) 71-68, Janne Kaske

(FIN) 71-68, Adam Groom (AUS)

70-69, Juvic Pagunsan (PHI)
68-71, Brett Munson (USA) 70-69,
Orlan Sumcad (PHI) 72-67, Goh
Kun Yang (SIN) 70-69

Inkster to return as 2017 US

Solheim Cup captain
Juli Inkster, who captained the
Americans to a comeback victory over Europe at this years

Solheim Cup in Germany, will

return to guide the US womens golf squad in 2017, she announced Friday. The 55-year-old
World Golf Hall of Famer will
try to win two in a row when the
biennial team match-play competition is played August 18-20,
2017 at Des Moines, Iowa.
The Americans lead Europe
9-5 in the all-time rivalry after
a 14 - 13 victory last September. Europe led 10-6 entering the last-day singles matches
but the visitors rallied to win the
closest Solheim Cup in history.
Inkster, a nine-time US Solheim Cup team competitor,
rated the trophy grab after two
prior losses to Europe among her
greatest achievements. I have
had a lot of exciting and memorable highlights during my time
on tour but leading that team of
12 women was one of the biggest
thrills of my entire golf career,
Inkster said. So the answer was
easy. And I wanted to have this
announced as soon as I could because keeping a secret isnt one
of my strengths. Im thrilled by

the challenge of defending the

Cup on home soil next summer
and cant wait to put on a show
in Des Moines.
Inkster becomes just the
fourth two-time captain to
lead the Americans after Kathy
Whitworth (1990, 1992), Judy
Rankin (1996, 1998) and Patty
Sheehan (2002, 2003).
Our teams performance in
Germany was so inspiring for all
of us and was a prime example
of the current state of American
womens golf, Inkster said.
I enjoyed the role so much
and had such a fun time that it
was an easy decision for me to
do it again. We have a lot of work
ahead to make the experience in
Des Moines just as successful
and Im looking forward to the
challenge of defending the Cup
on home soil. Inkster won seven
major titles among 31 LPGA triumphs. Her 18.5 career Solheim
points are the most by any US
player. Her last Solheim Cup appearance came in 2011 in Ireland,
when at 51 she became the oldest
player in the history of the event.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

SPORT
NBA

Warriors get revenge with

late rally against Bucks
Two games in a row we havent come out with focus. We didnt have that aggressiveness and physicality we needed until
the final 10 minutes of this game. You dont play with fight youre not going to have success against them
DPA
Los Angeles

he Golden State Warriors were

out for revenge but were nearly
beaten for the second time in
a week by the upset-minded
Milwaukee Bucks.
Reigning league MVP Stephen Curry
had 26 with 10 rebounds and nine assists Friday, and the Warriors rallied for
a 121-112 victory over the lowly Bucks.
The Bucks (10-18) snapped the Warriors epic 28-game winning streak
dating back to last season on Saturday. They were on the verge of ending
Golden States 29-game home success,
including a 12-0 start before the defending champs found their game.
Two games in a row we havent
come out with focus, Curry said. We
didnt have that aggressiveness and
physicality we needed until the nal 10
minutes of this game. You dont play
with ght youre not going to have success against them.
Klay Thompson had a game-high
27 points while Draymond Green accumulated 21, nine rebounds and eight
assist for Golden State (26-1) which
outscored its guests 36-19 in the decisive fourth quarter.
We made it public we wanted revenge but didnt come out with that
mentality, Warriors intrim head coach
Luke Walton said. Theyre no going to
fold just because we said it.
They came out they wanted apiece
of the champs. They scored 70 points
in the rst half and thats not who we
are. We just challenged them. Our guys
turned it up and gave them 42 points in
the second half.
Golden State trailed 70-58 at halftime and by 11 with just under seven
minutes remaining. But Green netted nine points and Curry added six to
spark a 19-6 surge, giving the Warriors
a 108-106 edge with 2:55 left.
After Milwaukee squared it on a Greg
Monroe layin, Curry hit the tie-breaking layup and added two free throws
while Andre Iguodala buried a corner
triple to ignite a 13-2 closing run, and
the Warriors handed the Bucks their
12th straight road loss.
Michael Carter-Williams led Milwaukee with 24 points and Giannis
Antetokounmpo added 20.
ELSEWHERE:
Detroit Pistons 147, Chicago Bulls 144 (4
OT): Andre Drummond had 33 points
and 21 rebounds, Reggie Jackson netted 14 of his 31 in the fourth overtime,
including two free throws with four
seconds left and the visiting Pistons
outlasted the Bulls despite Jimmy Butlers career-high 43 points.
Derrick Rose added a season-best 34
points while Spaniard Pau Gasol contributed 30 and 15 rebounds for Chicago,

Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors drives to the basket against the Milwaukee Bucks at ORACLE Arena on December 18, 2015 in Oakland, California.
which had won its previous four games.
Indiana Pacers 104, Brooklyn Nets 97:
Paul George scored 23 points, Jordan
Hill had 10 of his 14 in the nal quarter
along with 11 rebounds off the bench,
and the Pacers won their third in a
row after clipping the visiting Nets (718) led by Jarrett Jacks game-high 26
points.
Toronto Raptors 108, Miami Heat 94:
DeMar DeRozan scored 30 points, Kyle
Lowry had 21 and the visiting Raptors
used a domininant 58-39 second half
to beat the Heat.
New York Knicks 107, Philadelphia 76ers
97: Arron Afflalo scored 22 points, reserve Derrick Williams added 17, and

the visiting Knicks (13-14) led by 22

at halftime en route to sending the
league-worst Sixers (1-27) to a ninth
straight loss.
Atlanta Hawks 109, Boston Celtics 101:
Germanys Dennis Schroder scored 22
points, Paul Millsap added 15 of his 20
in the nal quarter, including the tiebreaking three-point play down the
stretch, carrying the visiting Hawks
over the Celtics.
Isaiah Thomas scored 29 for the
Celtics while Jae Crowder added career-high 24 with 10 rebounds.
Minnesota Timberwolves 99, Sacramento Kings 95: Andrew Wiggins had
32 points with 10 rebounds, and the
Timberwolves topped the visiting

had its three-game winning streak

snapped.

Results
Indiana ................ 104
Orlando ...............102
New York ...........107
Atlanta ................. 109
Toronto ............... 108
Detroit....................147
Minnesota ..........99
San Antonio .....115
Dallas ....................... 97
Utah .......................... 97
Phoenix .............. 104
Golden State....121

Brooklyn ...................97
Portland.................... 94
Philadelphia ..........97
Boston....................... 101
Miami .......................... 94
Chicago 144 (4 OT)
Sacramento ..........95
LA Clippers ......... 107
Memphis ................. 88
Denver ....................... 88
New Orleans ....... 88
Milwaukee.............. 112

Kings for just their second win in the

last 10 games
DeMarcus Cousins had 24 points,
11 rebounds for Sacramento, which

NHL

Dallas Mavericks 97, Memphis Grizzlies

88: German juggernaut Dirk Nowitzki
scored 20 points, Zaza Pachulia had 10
with 18 rebounds, and the Mavericks
handed the visiting Grizzlies their
fourth loss in the last ve games.
San Antonio Spurs 115, LA Clippers 107:
LaMarcus Aldridge had 26 points with

Utah 97, Denver Nuggets 88: Gordon

Hayward scored 26 points and the
Jazz snapped its four-game slide while
ending the visiting Nuggets seasonbest four-game success.
Phoenix Suns 104, New Orlenas Pelicans 88: Eric Bledsoe scored 29 points,
Alex Len added 19 with 13 rebounds,
and the Suns beat the Pelicans for the
rst time in three meetings this season.

ANALYSIS

Clippers not as good as

Spurs or Golden State

Beat-up Canucks edge Red

Wings in shootout, 4-3
MCT
Detroit

he Detroit Red Wings

segued from insipid
to inspiring.
They hosted a
beat-up Vancouver Canucks
squad Friday at Joe Louis Arena but had to rally to make a
game of it.
A shootout left them on the
short end of a 4-3 loss. Radim
Vrbata and Brad Richards
traded shootout goals. It took
seven rounds before Linden
Very ended it
Jimmy Howard had a busy
night, facing 39 shots through
regulation as his teammates sleepwalked for two
periods. Joakim Andersson
bought himself some breathing room with his rst goal
of the season. Pavel Datsyuk
also scored, and set up Henrik
Zetterbergs goal with 1:07 to
go in regulation as the Wings
overcame 2-0 and 3-2 decits.
The Canucks came into the

Orlando Magic 102, Portland Trail

Blazers 94: Tobias Harris had 24 with
12 rebounds, Nik Vucevic added 24
and 11 boards, carrying the Magic to
its third straight win after beating the
visiting Trail Blazers despite CJ McCollums game-high 29 points.

13 rebounds, Frenchman Tony Parker

netted 21 and Kawhi Leonard added 19,
as the Spurs moved to 15-0 at home after holding off the Clippers.
Chris Paul paced the Clippers with
27 points and 10 assists. Blake Griffin
netted 25 while DeAndre Jordan nished with 16 and 17 boards.

Vancouver Canucks Matt Bartkowski (right) shoves Detroit Red

Wings left wing Tomas Tatar (21) in the third period.
night reeling and ailing, having lost three straight games,
the last time Thursday at
Philadelphia where the pain
included seeing captain Henrik Sedin leave with an injury.
The Wings came in rested after last playing Monday. Of
course one team dominated
the other.
Only it was the Canucks
who ran up a 6-0 edge in shots

in four minutes, and who kept

swarming Howard.
Howard made his ninth
save in eight minutes when
he robbed Alexandre Burrows with a quick glove. A few
minutes later, Howard dove to
make a stick save on Bo Horvat as he eyed a wrap-around
attempt. The Wings, on the
other hand, barely tested
Ryan Miller. Tomas Jurco had

one shot. Danny DeKeyser

another. Luke Glendening
tried a tipped shot.
The Canucks saw their efforts bear fruit with a minute
to go in the rst period, when
Jared McCann sent Jannik
Hansens rebound stick-side
into Detroits net. They had
17 shots at periods end, while
the Wings had ve, none from
the teams top threats.
The second period was
worse, as neither side generated anything noteworthy.
At the games midpoint, the
Wings had seven shots on net.
The Canucks had 22.
Tomas Tatar got the Wings
a power play with six minutes
left in the second period, but
the rst thing that happened
was the Canucks drove the
Wings into their own zone.
Two minutes later, Howard
had made as many saves as
Miller during the power play.
The Canucks doubled up at
17:08, when Sven Baertschi
nished a beautiful setup by
Horvat.
The Wings nally struck

MCT
San Antonio

Results
Bruins ................ 6
Panthers ..........2
Lightning ........3
Canucks...........4
Sharks ................2
Rangers ...........2

Penguins .........2
Hurricanes ...0
Capitals .............5
Red Wings .....3
Senators ......... 4
Jets ........................5

back at 18:53, from an unusual source. Andersson was

rewarded for being in front of
the net with a deection on
DeKeysers shot. It was big for
the Wings and bigger for Andersson, who needed to make
an argument for staying in the
lineup.
Brendan Smith sent a beauty of a pass to Datsyuk to the
right of Vancouvers net to
make it 2-2 at 3:29 of the third
period, but two minutes later
Vrbata was left free to pick up
a rebound in the low slot and
swing it around for a goal.
Finding a third goal was
made harder when tempers
ared in the third period, at
one point seeing three Wings
jammed into the penalty box.

t was a game that was supposed to

say something about the Los Angeles Clippers and it did.
Theyre nowhere near the
team they want to be, the evidence
unfolding during another shoddy
fourth quarter that doomed them
Friday night at the AT&T Center.
The Clippers had persevered
through shaky late-game stretches
against middling teams but quickly
discovered that formula wouldnt
work against the San Antonio Spurs,
a 115-107 loss serving as a declaration of their standing in the Western
Conference.
I think we know where were at,
Clippers shooting guard J.J. Redick
said after the Spurs scored the first 11
points of the fourth quarter to wipe
out a three-point deficit. Were not
as good as San Antonio and Golden
State.
As a second unit, weve got to do
a better job at maintaining the lead,
and I think we got kind of flustered
a little bit over some calls that we
thought were missed, Clippers forward Josh Smith said, but weve
just got to move to the next play.
Clippers point guard Chris Paul
had 27 points and 10 assists and
Griffin finished with 25 points. It

Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul

(centre) battles for the ball.
wasnt nearly enough on a night
when the six Clippers reserves who
played combined for 20 points.
Rivers acknowledged his bench
needed to improve but said he
wouldnt stagger his lineups so that
there was always a starter on the
court. We do at times and at times
we wont, Rivers said. Honestly,
we wont right now. Weve only won
nine out of 11, by the way, so weve
been pretty good.
The needs-improvement list was a
lengthy one for the Clippers.
Execute better, get stops, limit
teams to one shot, said Jordan, who
had 17 rebounds and 16 points.
Were not there, Redick said.
We know that. Were playing better,
I think weve made some progress in
the last 10 to 14 days but we know
where were at.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

SPORT
SPOTLIGHT

Lakers weak team remains

a strong draw, thanks to
Kobe Bryants farewell
We all know that hes not what he used to be, but people go and hope hes
going to have a great game. You can get excited about that

FOCUS

Kobe & Oklahoma are

forever intertwined

File picture of Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers celebrating a play during their game against the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center.
MCT
Los Angeles

ollowers of the Los Angeles

Lakers are painfully aware of it:
Their team is one of the NBAs
worst.
Trackers of leaguewide popularity
are acutely aware of a different notion:
The Lakers are among the NBAs best.
Win or lose, the Lakers are a strong
draw in many basketball corners because of Kobe Bryants nal season.
The Lakers are a weak 2-15 away from
Staples Center but own the NBAs best
road attendance with an average of
19,223 fans. Cleveland is next at 18,979.
In the days after Bryants retirement
announcement three weeks ago, ticket
resales to see the Lakers spiked 85 percent, with an almost equal increase for
home and away games, according to
Ticketmaster.
On top of it, the Lakers are screaming toward their worst-ever record and
remain the second-most popular team

in single-game sales on NBA League

Pass, where viewers pay $6.99 to watch
a live out-of-market game. Golden
State is the most popular.
Bryants retirement has been a huge
assist to many bottom lines.
We all know that hes not what he
used to be, but people go and hope hes
going to have a great game. You can get
excited about that, said George Belch,
chairman of the San Diego State University marketing department. If he
scores 20 points that night or makes a
few great plays, you feel like you got to
see something.
You almost wonder about that onegame bump Dallas, Orlando and a few
other teams will miss. They played the
Lakers at home before Bryants announcement and wont host them again.
The Lakers are paying Bryant $25
million this season and somehow
squeezing revenue from it while following up last seasons heinous 21-61
record with an even worse 4-22 start.
The team has sold out all nine of its
Staples Center games so far, a trend

expected to continue after experiencing nine non-sellouts each of the last

two seasons.
Bryant has not played well at age 37
except for a recent three-game burst
in which hes averaging 23 points on
commendable 53 percent accuracy. For
the season he is averaging 16.7 points
on dreary 33.9 percent shooting.
DUNK MANIA
He dunked Thursday for the rst time
since January and the home crowd
went bonkers. There was a standing
ovation. The Lakers trailed the Houston Rockets by eight at the time and
would lose by 20.
The Lakers record is irrelevant at
this point, said Bob Corb, president
of Realize Excellence Consulting and
former sports psychology program director at the University of California,
Los Angeles. Kobe would obviously
like to be going out in a different way.
For the fans, I dont know that it really
matters. Theyll just remember this is
Kobes last year.

Lakers Coach Byron Scott called the

teams popularity a little bit surprising based on their record. He credited
a strong national fan base and, obviously, that other reason.
They want to get a glimpse of
greatness, Scott said. Ive never seen
so many 24 jerseys in (road) arenas. If
theres 17,000 fans in there, it seems
like ve or six thousand have on gold
jerseys with No. 24.
If Bryant stays healthy _ a big if in
recent seasons _ its hard to imagine
the attraction dwindling as the Lakers tumble toward (hopefully) another
draft lottery appearance.
Whether you love him or hate
him, you had to have an opinion of
him. He wasnt bland, he wasnt neutral, Corb said. People just want
to be able to say I was there for his
last game in Houston or Boston or
whatever city you come from. Its
that thing of, Kobes been around for
a long time, Ive hated him all these
years and now I want to say goodbye
to him. I respect him.

he Oklahoma City/NBA romance was a few months old

on Feb. 4, 2006. The Hornets shingle had dangled
downtown since autumn.
Dwight Howard, young and
charming, had come through the
Ford Center. Dirk Nowitzki, foreign
and regal, too.
Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Garnett. Allen Iverson and Paul Pierce.
Steve Nash and Dwyane Wade. The
glorious Pistons and the stately
Spurs.
But on Super Bowl Saturday night,
our jaws really dropped and our eyes
really widened. Kobe Bryant and
the Lakers landed on the Bricktown
border, and our NBA experience was
baptized not with a sprinkle, but
with a plunge.
The energy in the building, the circus-has-to-come town expectation,
the sight of those purple uniforms on
Oklahoma soil, Kobe scoring 19 rstquarter points only two weeks after
he hung 81 on Toronto, making us
hold our breath that we, too, might
see something historic.
Ten years later, those sights and
sounds and sensations are no less
surreal, even as the Hornets have
faded from memory and our own
two superstars have shoved their way
into the world-wide spotlight.
And now, on another Saturday,
Kobe Bryants farewell tour stops off
on Reno Avenue. Basketballs polarizing icon is intertwined with Oklahoma Citys NBA history.
Kobe came back for another baptism. Five years later, the Thunders
initial playoff series featured Kobe
and the defending champion Lakers. Two years later, the all-grown
up Thunder beat the Lakers in a
Western Conference seminal that,
barring an unlikely trade, will serve
as Kobes nal post-season high, a
Game 3 victory. Come April, barring
injury, Kobe will play his nal NBA
road game on the court he helped
christen.
Kobe still brings a buzz to a building, especially since he announced
this, his 20th NBA season, will be his
last. But nothing like 10 years ago.
It was just crazy, said fan Chris
Foshee, who was at the Ford Center
10 years ago and still attends Thunder games. This is nuts. I remember I had to almost dress up to go
to that game, because it was such a
monumental thing. I still consider
that game right there, as far as crowd

Kobe is a shell of his former

self, averaging 16.7 points
a game. But downtown
Oklahoma City will be
rocking Saturday. It always is
when Kobe is in town
loudness, rivaled up with almost
any.
Kobe settled down after the rst
quarter. He nished with 35 points.
It was just cool being 10 feet
away from a superstar, him having
a night like that, said Robby Holzberger, scoreboard operator for both
the Hornets and the Thunder. One
of the highlights of the 10 years of
working games here.
And the crowd was liberally packed
with Laker fans and Kobe jerseys.
No such division was apparent
ve years later, when the Lakers and
Thunder met in a rst-round playoff
series, one season after the Thunder
had recorded a 23-59 record. The
Lakers won the rst two games out
in LA, then the Thunder returned for
Game 3, and the scene still resonates
with Thunder veterans.
I remember coming out, I knew
it was going to be loud for the warmups, but everyone was already
in their seat, Nick Collison said.
Sound level was great. As loud as
I ever heard it. It was a lot of fun. It
was really good for us. For our development, to have that experience.
Most of our guys were 21 years old. It
was really big for us.
Kobe averaged just 23.0 points in
that series and shot but 40.8 percent
from the eld. His most famous shot
was a miss in Game 6, Kobe missed
a short jumper in the nal seconds,
but Pau Gasol hit a follow shot at the
buzzer to give the Lakers a 95-94
victory and end the series.
Two years later, everything had
reversed. The Thunder was the elite
team, on its way to the NBA Finals.
The Lakers were scratching to avoid
elimination. Kevin Durant had surpassed in Kobe in superstardom,
placing second in the MVP balloting.
The Thunder won the Western Conference seminal series in ve games.
In Game 3, Kobe scored 36 points,
and the Lakers won 99-96. He has
no playoff victories since and now,
at age 37, is a shell of his former
self, averaging 16.7 points a game
and shooting 33.9 percent from the
eld. But downtown Oklahoma City
will be rocking Saturday. It always is
when Kobe is in town.

BOTTOMLINE

Bucs not quite there yet in quest to be contenders

MCT
Tampa Bay

ince forging a 6-6 record while

lling a frustrated fan base with
optimism that an eight-year
playoff drought was about to
end, the Buccaneers cant even get a
lead, let alone a victory.
Back-to-back drab performances wrecked Tampa Bays postseason
chances, ensuring a fth consecutive
year without a winning record.
Were not there yet, and thats what
we get from the game, Bucs coach
Lovie Smith said Friday, less than 24
hours after a 31-23 loss at St. Louis in
Tampa Bays only prime-time game of
2015. I thought we had arrived. Were
getting closer, but we havent made it
there yet.
In losses to the Saints and Rams
within a ve-day span, the Bucs (6-8)
were outscored by a combined 52-16
margin through three quarters. They
never led in either game, spending
more than 110 of a possible 120 minutes
in trailing mode.
Thursday nights loss included the
usual suspects nine penalties, soft
pass coverage, spotty special teams

St. Louis Rams wide receiver Tavon Austin (R) runs the ball in for a touchdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

play and a slow start. The Bucs are 3-6

this season and 7-37 since 2011 when
yielding the rst points of the game.
Trailing 28-6 heading into the nal
quarter, the Bucs outgained the Rams
283-21 in the nal 15 minutes to provide
a deceptive nal score. Rookie quarterback Jameis Winston nished with
363 passing yards and two touchdowns
without suffering a sack.
He is an outstanding young quarterback, Rams coach Jeff Fisher said.
Hes ercely competitive, hes highly
intelligent and in addition to that, he
has a very good arm. He has every right
to be frustrated with the loss because
he hates losing, because hes not use
to losing and thats a good quality for a
young quarterback.
Tampa Bay tied a franchise record
with 30 rst downs, rolling up 509
yards as Doug Martin took over the NFL
rushing lead with 91 yards in 18 carries.
Martins an elite back, Rams defensive end William Hayes said, and
Winston is an up-and-coming guy.
Dudes a stud. I was telling people early,
the dude is probably one of the biggest
competitors Ive ever played against.
He can sit up there and take those hits.
After he gets up, hell tell you to bring it
back again, talking crazy to you. Hes a

competitor. You can just tell by the way

he operates his offense. He demands a
lot for them.
A pass rush led by stellar defensive
tackle Aaron Donald pressured Winston relentlessly in the opening half,
and Martin made most of his yards on
his own.
Id say they played pretty physical,
Martin said of the Rams defense. Now
that I think about it, the other team
played a little more physical than we
did, which led to not being as productive on offense as we should have.
Smith disagreed, suggesting the Bucs
matched the physicality of the Rams,
who had dropped ve of their previous
six games. But while Winston had little
time to work through his progressions,
St. Louis quarterback Case Keenum
posted a near-perfect passer rating of
158.0 from the comfort of an effective
pocket.
I understand the fans frustration
and ours, I might add on us losing the last two games, Smith said.
And there is so much more that goes
into it than just a start. Its the overall
play throughout. And, believe me, we
understand their frustration and were
working to get it right. Were making
progress, but were not there yet.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

SPORT
SPOTLIGHT

IN SHORT

Golfer Days wife

compares LeBron
hit to car crash
Being tackled by that large man I would compare to a minor car accident. My head
and neck hit pretty hard so it was really scary. My body feels like it was hit by a truck

Switserlands Gut claims Val dIsere

double as Vonn fails to finish
Switzerlands Lara Gut completed a Val dIsere double by
winning the alpine ski downhill Saturday as World Cup
leader Lindsey Vonn failed for
the first time at a speed event
this season.
Gut followed up Fridays
super-combined win to clinch
the downhill in 1 minute 44.51
seconds, 0.16 seconds ahead
of fellow Swiss Fabienne Suter,
with Canadas Larisa Yurkiw
third at 0.41 seconds.
Vonn, with bib 17 on her 350th
World Cup race, was leading
on intermediate times when
she lost her balance after her
left ski appeared to snag.
The 31-year-old American was
able to just stay upright despite considerable pressure on
her left knee and was able to

ski slowly down the remainder

of the course.
Gut, starting three places later,
then followed up to post the
best time of the day for her
third win of the season and
the 15th of her World Cup
career.
As I said yesterday, its always
fun at Val dIsere, she said. I
actually had the feeling I was
standing too hard on the skis.
Gut moves to 478 points
overall, just two points behind
Vonn, who has won four races
this season including the two
previous downhills and a
super-g.
Swedens Frida Hansdotter,
who did not race Saturday, is
third on 315.
A giant slalom is scheduled
today in Courchevel, France.

German documentary about sports

doping false: Moscow court
A Moscow court on Wednesday ruled that a German TV
documentary which alleged
widespread doping among Russian athletes was based on inaccurate information and ordered
ARD, the broadcaster behind
the film, to pay a small fine.
The film, first shown in
December last year, caused
an international furore and
led to Russian athletes being
suspended from international
competition, triggering the
deepest crisis in Russian sport
since the boycott-hit 1980
Moscow Olympics.
The programme, which used
secret recordings obtained by
Russian middle distance runner Yulia Stepanova and her
husband Vitaly, formed the
basis of a hard-hitting report
by the World Anti-Doping
Agency, which prompted the
International Association of
Athletics Federations to suspend Russia last month.
Unless overturned, it means
Russian athletes will be unable
to take part in next years
Olympics in Brazil.
Russian sports officials
disputed some of the reports

Cavaliers LeBron James #23 crashes into the stands in pursuit of a loose ball during the second half against the Oklahoma City Thunder. (Below) Golfer Jason Days wife Ellie.
AFP
Washington

llie Day, the wife of Australian

golf star Jason Day, had concussion symptoms Friday but was
out of the hospital after being
fallen upon by LeBron James while sitting
courtside at an NBA game.
Day, who gave birth to the couples second child last month, was taken out on a
stretcher after James tumbled into her
while chasing a loose ball in the fourth
quarter of Thursdays 104-100 victory
over Oklahoma City.
Ellie Day I hope youre doing okay!
My apologies! Hope u guys come back
to another game soon. Love LJ! James
tweeted Friday.
The wife of the 2015 PGA Championship winner was kept overnight for observation at Clevelands MetroHealth
Medical Center before being released

after
being
knocked onto
the oor by
the NBA superstar while
sitting beside
her husband
along
the
sideline.
On Friday
afternoon, Ellie Day posted
a statement on her Twitter account that
said KingJames we good! and marveled
at the attention as it detailed how being
tackled felt.
Wow!! Its official. More mesages
from getting plowed over by Lebron than
Jason winning a major. HA, she tweeted.
First of all, I am okay!! I am incredibly
sore and exhausted. Being tackled by that
large man I would compare to a minor car
accident. My head and neck hit pretty
hard so it was really scary. My whole body

feels like it was hit by a truck.

Second, it was so fast. I didnt remember until 2am seeing the ball come
toward me. It was a blur. To the crazies
that think Jason should have protected
meif he had had time to react, so would
have I. Also, I would not have liked both
dudes landing on me.
James saved the ball from going off the
court but only by hurling himself beyond
the boundary and head-rst into Ellie
Day.
An earlier statement from Jason Days
agent, Bud Martin, said Ellie Day has been
suffering from concussion symptoms
and added, She is resting comfortably
and appreciates all of those who have
reached out and are concerned about her.
Finally, no hard feelings toward LeBron: He was just doing his job. Go Cavs.
The game was halted briey while
Days neck and head were stabilized and
she was stretchered out, her husband
joining her for the ambulance ride. James

checked on her status during the next

stoppage in play.
It wasnt anything out of the usual
besides the injury, James said. But to
me, obviously her health is very important and hopefully shes doing well. The
guys told me shes doing great. I was going for a loose ball. Just trying to keep a
possession going and I hate that was the
end result of it.
Despite the incident, James said he
thinks courtside seats are wonderful for
spectators.
I think its a great experience for our
fans, James said. I mean that doesnt
happen much. Its unfortunate it happened tonight but that doesnt happen
much. Sitting courtside, its all part of
the game. Its pretty cool.
The Days, who live in nearby Columbus, have attended several games recently. Jason chipped foam basketballs at
spectators as part of a team promotion a
few minutes before his wife was injured.

BOTTOMLINE

Diack denies funding Salls

Senegal presidential bid: lawyers
Reuters
Paris

ormer
international
athletics
federation
(IAAF) head Lamine
Diack denies having
given money to finance Macky
Salls successful bid to become
the president of Senegal, his
lawyers said in a statement to
Reuters yesterday.
Le Monde newspaper reported
on Friday that Diack told French
police he asked Valentin Balakhnichev, then-president of the
Russian track and eld federation, for 1.5 million euros ($1.6
million) to nance political opposition in Senegal in 2011.
Diack has been placed under
formal investigation in France
on suspicion of corruption and
money laundering following a
complaint from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) last
month, allegations his family
called excessive and insignicant.

Le Monde quoted from what it

said were transcripts of Diacks
interview with the police and
an investigating magistrate in
November, when he was questioned on suspicion of covering

up positive dope tests on Russian athletes.

Sall, 50, was the main challenger to Senegals then-president Abdoulaye Wade, 85, in the
March 2012 election that was

widely praised as fair and democratic.

President Lamine Diack afrms that he never gave the
slightest sum of money to the
candidate, Macky Sall, who became president of Senegal, nor
to his electoral campaign managers, Diacks lawyers Daouda
Diop, Christian CharriereBournazel and Alexandre Varaut
wrote in the statement e-mailed
to Reuters.
Everything, both in his declarations to the police and to
the investigating magistrate,
demonstrates this, they wrote.
Any contribution that may
have come from Russia to Senegal has no link with either the
functions or the actions of Mr
Lamine Diack in his role of IAAF
president.
He reaffirms nally that he
neither sought nor obtained
personal enrichment.
Reuters calls to Balakhnichev
on Friday evening were not answered, but Le Monde quoted
him as denying having had such

a discussion with Diack or being involved in such an arrangement.

Diack, who has been released
on bail but is banned from leaving France, was quoted as telling investigators: At that time,
there were the suspension problems of the Russian athletes a
few months ahead of the world
championships in Russia.
We came to an agreement,
Russian-nanced. Its Balakhnichev who organised all that.
Last month, Russia was suspended from international athletics on the recommendation of
an independent WADA commission, which had uncovered systematic state-sponsored doping
and cover-ups.
Balakhnichev, who stepped
down as head of the Russian
athletics federation in February,
has denied WADA allegations of
conspiring to blackmail athletes
ahead of the 2012 London Olympics. He has also said he will take
legal action to defend his name
and that of Russian athletics.

findings and are working to

get their athletes reinstated.
Wednesdays court case,
which is largely symbolic,
appeared to be part of that
campaign.
The court said it had ruled in
favour of the Russian Athletics
Federation (VFLA), which had
filed the case, complaining
that its honour and integrity
had been impugned by the
ARD documentary.
It ordered ARD, the films producer, and Stepanova and her
husband to pay fines of 3,000
roubles ($43) each, the Interfax news agency reported.
ARD declined immediate
comment.
Following the courts decision, ARD do not have to issue
a retraction, as they are from
Germany and the court process was in Russia, Valentin
Balakhnichev, the former
president of the VFLA, told
Reuters in a phone interview.
However, Russian law can
now let us say that all the
information in this film is a lie.
This is a big step forward in
defending our interests and
our rights.

Bribe paid to get funds for Rio

Olympic project, claims report
In the first allegation of corruption linked to next years
Olympics in Rio de Janeiro,
Epoca magazine reported
that construction company
Carioca Engenharia allegedly bribed the speaker of
the lower house of Congress
in order to secure funds for a
massive port area regeneration project.
The report, which Epoca attributed to leaked documents,
could cause headaches for the
city of Rio and its mayor Eduardo Paes who has repeatedly
said he would deliver Olympic
projects free of corruption,
delays and cost-overruns.
Porto Maravilha, or Marvelous
Port, is a regeneration of Rios
downtown port area that has
been heralded by authorities as one of the potential
great legacies of the Olympic
Games.
Although accounting for a fifth
of the nearly 40 billion reais being spent on the games in Rio, it
is not supervised by the organizing committee of Rio 2016 as
it is not an Olympic venue.

Epoca cited plea bargain

testimony by bosses of Carioca
Engenharia, who are under
arrest for participating in the
widespread corruption scandal
centered on state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA.
A lead investigator told
Reuters last month that some
of the big engineering firms
caught up in the Petrobras
probe very probably broke
laws against price-fixing and
bribery on contracts to build
Olympic venues.
Rios City Hall did not immediately respond to requests for
comment. Carioca Engenharia
said it does not comment
about ongoing investigations.
Federal prosecutors responsible for negotiating plea deals
declined to comment on the
article.
Epoca reported that Carioca
Engenharia executives said
they paid 52 million reais
($13 million) to lower house
speaker Eduardo Cunha, who
prosecutors have charged
with receiving bribes skimmed
off Petrobras contracts.

Doctor not guilty of negligence in

South Korean swimmer Parks case
The doctor who administered
injections which caused decorated South Korean swimmer
Park Tae-hwan to fail a doping
test was found not guilty of
causing injury through professional negligence.
The doctor, identified only by
her surname Kim, had been
accused by prosecutors of
causing Park bodily harm
by failing to disclose the
substances contained in the
injection, and of violating the
medical code.
Park, who won 400 metres
freestyle gold at the 2008
Beijing Olympics and is one
of his countrys most popular
athletes, tested positive for
testosterone ahead of the
Incheon Asian Games in September 2014.
He said he had been assured
by the hospital that the injections contained only vitamins
and would not violate any
doping regulations.
The 26-year-old received an
18-month ban from the sport
by swimmings governing body FINA, leaving his
chances of competing at the

2016 Rio Olympics hanging by

a thread.
On Thursday, Seoul Central
District Court handed out a
fine of 1 million won ($847.74)
to the doctor for failing to
leave records of the injections,
local media reported.
However, while the court accepted she had failed to properly explain the side effects
of the injection, there was no
proof Park had suffered bodily
harm because of this and so
she was found not guilty of
professional negligence.
Under the terms of his suspension, Park was barred from using national facilities in Korea
and has recently returned
from a training stint in Japan.
While his suspension ends in
March, it is unclear whether he
will be able to compete at the
2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
The Korean Olympic Committee ruled last year that
any athlete who has served
a doping suspension is
ineligible to participate on the
national team for a period of
three years from the day the
suspension ends.

10

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

SPORT
SPOTLIGHT

Al Emarat emerge triumphant

at Al Ain Air Championship
The Fursan Al Emarat team of the UAE Air Force is the national aerobatics demonstration team of the seven emirates

By Satya Rath
Al Ain (UAE)

hree days of hair-raising

stunts,
mesmerising
aerobatics and daring
ypasts later, it were the
local heroes, Fursan Al Emarat, who cornered the grand
champions honours of the Al
Ain Air Championship, that concluded in this serene heritage
city yesterday.
The Fursan Al Emarat team of
the UAE Air Force is the national
aerobatics demonstration team
of the seven emirates. Formed
in 2010, the team comprises of
seven Italian-built Aermacchi
MB-339NAT jet aircraft decked
with the UAEs national colours.
With this years event adding a new championship format
where the fans votes carried
35% weightage with the rest 65%
coming from the four-member
judges panel, the Al Emarat
team, ably guided by team leader
Lt Col Nasser al-Obaidli, garnered the maximum score of
51.06 to win the grand champions trophy.
Bravo3 Repsol Aerobatic Team
from Spain, the Day 2 leaders,
came a close second, with a score
of 51.05. They were followed by
the Breitling Wingwalkers (50.21)
and Richard Goodwin (47.80) in
that order.
Our aim was to do the nation
proud as our team represents
the hopes and aspirations of the
UAE. Our focus was on making the combination right and
stay as close to each other as we
possibly could. Everything went

perfect today, the co-ordination

was great and so were our manoeuvres. Our hard work and
practice has got us this reward.
We couldnt have been any happier. We dedicate this win to our
country, said al-Obaidli.
Awards were also given in
four categories: Power, Grace,
Pride and WOW Factor. The
Bravo3 Team, who are the only
Sukhoi-ying formation team
in the world, were adjudged the
winners in the Power category,
while Goodwin was the WOW
winner. The Grace category honours went to Glider FX Aerobatics Team from the UK, while Al
Emarat were the Pride category
winners.
The Breitling Wingwalkers team gave a spectacular and
breathtaking display of acrobatic
manoeuvres with their ying
ballerinas and drew some of the
biggest cheers from the nearly
30,000 strong crowd. Winning
the title is not the main thing for
us, our aim is to win the hearts of
the spectators, and we think we
managed that. It was an amazing
experience performing in Al Ain
as the evening landscape, with
the setting sun against the backdrop of the vast desert, just gives
you goosebumps. We hope to be
here next year again, said wingwalker Sarah Tanner.
The event was held under the
aegis of Abu Dhabi Tourism &
Culture Authority at the Al Ain
airport. Breitling were the official time partner and prize sponsor of the championship, which
was also supported by the UAE
Air Force and the Abu Dhabi Airports Company.

QATAR STARS WIN T2O MATCH

The Al Ain Air Championship that

concluded in Al Ain, UAE yesterday.

QMMF celebrate Qatar National Day

Qatar Stars and Pakistan Stars pose after their T20 cricket match at the Asian Town Stadium on Friday. Qatar Stars won by 10 runs.

Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation and its president Nasser Khalifa al-Attiyah celebrated
the Qatar National Day at the Islamic Museum at Corniche, with Soul Riders, Oryx Riders, Soul
Jeepers and Qatar Riders, on Friday.

Gulf Times
Sunday, December 20, 2015

11

SPORT
SPOTLIGHT

Aspire Academy makes

significant contribution to
football, youth development
During the gathering, participants shared and examined the training methods and approaches they
adopt to nurture football talent and explored ways in which training methodologies and strategies can
be improved to support young elite footballers, to develop their talent and enhance their performance

Delegates shared knowledge and expertise besides

also taking part in a friendly football match.

By Sports Reporter
Doha

spire Academy has hailed the

success of the Aspire in the
World Fellows Gathering
which concluded on Thursday,
December 17. The two-day event brought
together a group of world leading coaching and football experts to share best
practice and expertise, develop recommendations for training methodologies
and support the management of young
players.
The group of leading experts that
travelled to Qatar represent several of
the worlds best clubs, federations and
leagues, including Real Madrid, Juventus, Everton and many more. They belong to the Aspire in the World Fellows
programme which brings together 50 of
the worlds most important clubs, federations and leagues to support the development of elite youth football players
through sharing knowledge and expertise, experience, applied practice and research in football performance and science.
The Fellows Gathering explored in
greater detail a number of the key topics that were covered during the Aspire
Academy Global Summit held in Berlin
in October. This exclusive annual event
is an integral part of the Aspire in the
World Fellows programme. These topics
included training plan strategies, match
and training recovery, integrated training
methodology, and preventing soft tissue
injuries.
During the gathering, participants
shared and examined the training methods and approaches they adopt to nur-

ture football talent and explored ways in

which training methodologies and strategies can be improved to support young
elite footballers, to develop their talent
and enhance their performance.
The event comprised a number of
workshops, discussions and training
sessions including a presentation by
prominent sports psychologist Dr. Gloria Balague that explored the effects of
psychology on athletic performance. Dr.

Donna OConnor, an expert in optimising performance from the University of

Sydney in Australia, also gave a lecture
that showcased methods of developing
learning opportunities for players. Moreover, an open discussion session between
the visiting experts and the Academys
student-athletes gave students the opportunity to share their experiences of
training and competing at the Academy.
The event concluded with a friendly

football match between the experts,

which was played in the Aspire Dome.
During their stay in Qatar, the visiting Fellows were also taken on a tour of
Aspire Academys facilities. They visited
Dohas best-known tourist attractions
and important landmarks, learning about
Qatari history and culture.
Commenting on the two-days, Professor Valter Di Salvo, Director of Football Performance & Science department

at Aspire Academy, said: Were delighted to have welcomed Aspire Academys Fellows from all around the world
back to Qatar, including from Europe,
Asia, the Americas and elsewhere. All the
sessions were insightful and thoughtprovoking and were condent participants will benet from fresh thinking
and innovation in relation to developing
their training methodologies. Through
this programme and the involvement of

our Fellows, we hope to collectively make

signicant progress towards the broader
development of the game.
Dr Gloria Balague said: The level
of sophistication we have experienced
here, whether in terms of the Aspire
Academy facilities or the sessions of the
symposium, is unprecedented and unlike
anything I have experienced before. The
open-discussion format that the sessions were based upon really helped facilitate rich and valuable discussions between presenters and participants. I have
really enjoyed my rst trip to Doha, and
look forward to returning in the future.
Dr Paolo Noga from Porto FC said: I
was really happy with my trip to Doha,
and Aspire Academy specically, which
has exceeded all expectations. I have
visited many sports facilities around the
world but I have never seen something
as spectacular as Aspire Academy, which
embodies the vision of an entire nation
and not just a specic club or team. The
sessions we participated in were great.
Since the Fellows are from very different parts of the world and cultures,
were each able to share a wide variety
of knowledge and expertise that will
help enrich the development of enhanced training and coaching techniques.
Aspire Academy rst opened its doors
in 2004 and is considered to be one of the
leading sports institutes in the Middle
East. The Academy offers an integrated
educational programme of sports development, sports science and academic
learning to boys aged 12 to 18. The school
develops well-educated sports champions and aims to become the worlds leading sports academy for young athletes by
2020.

SQUASH

Qatar Circuit squash main draw starts today

By Sports Reporter
Doha

he main draw of the Qatar Circuit II, a PSA M15

tournament, begins today at the Khalifa Tennis & Squash Complex and sees
Egyptian World No 35 Omar
Abdel Meguid lead a competitive eld for what is the last PSA
World Tour event of 2015.
With nine PSA World Tour titles to his name, Meguid is one of
the most successful players in the
draw but, after failing to lift silverware so far in 2015, is running
out of time to prevent this year
from being a barren one.
The 27-year-old has reached
three nals in the past 12 months
but has been unable to convert
any of those appearances into

In focus: Qatars Abdulla

al-Tamimi

PSA World Tour titles as yet.

Meguid faced wildcard and local player Syed Azlan Amjad in
the opening round as he bids to
kickstart his tournament with a
win.
Qatars top player Abdulla
Mohd al-Tamimi, seeded sixth,
will take on a qualier in his
opening clash today.
Malaysian Ivan Yuen is also
looking to get in on the title winning-act. He has captured two
PSA World Tour titles this year
with his most recent coming at
the Malaysian Tour Squash XI
last month.
Yuen lines up against compatriot Addeen Idrakie in the rst
round as the pair meet for the rst
time on the PSA World Tour.
World No. 73 Danish Atlas
Khan is also one of the forerunners for the crown. Khan won

his sole PSA World Tour title of

2015 two months ago at the Life
Time Fitness Chicago Open.
The 21-year-old failed to make
it past the quarter-nal stage of
the President Gold Cup International Squash Tournament on his
last PSA World Tour appearance,
however, and will be looking to
bounce back in Qatar.
Khan, who has eight career
PSA World Tour titles, takes on
Ammar Altamimi in round one as
he aims to end the year on a high.
New Zealands Martin Knight
is a dark horse for the event but
the 31-year-old is one of the most
experienced participants with
13 years behind him on the PSA
World Tour. Like Meguid, Knight
is yet to claim any silverware this
year but did reach the nal of the
Wasatch Funds Salt Lake City
Open in October. He is set to meet

a qualier for a place in the next

round.
The quarter-nals will be
played tomorrow, with the seminals and nal scheduled for
Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.
Main Draw
[1] Omar Abdel Meguid (EGY) v
[WC] Syed Azlan Amjad (QAT)
[Qualifier] v [8] Khawaja Adil
Maqbool (PAK)
[6] Abdulla Mohd al-Tamimi
(QAT) v [Qualifier]
Ammar Altamimi (KUW) v [3]
Danish Atlas Khan (PAK)
[4] Martin Knight (NZL) v [Qualifier]
Robert Downer (ENG) v [5] Jens
Schoor (GER)
[7] Mazen Gamal (EGY) v [Qualifier]
Addeen Idrakie (MAS) v [2] Ivan
Yuen (MAS)

Sunday, December 20, 2015

SPORT

GULF TIMES

CYCLING

Tunisian rider Hasnaoui

wins Tour of Zubarah

It was very hard for me and the team. But finally, we won the Tour of Zubarah. It is really a big achievement for us
RESULTS AND STANDINGS

By Sports Reporter
Doha

unisian rider Meher Hasnaoui of Skydive Dubai Team emerged overall winner of the Tour of Zubarah as Eugen
Wacker of KCP Kuwait Cycling Project
won the 119.86km-long third stage at Zubarah
yesterday.
Kyrgyzstans
Wacker
clocked
2hrs:45mins:08secs to outsprint Naser Rezavi
of PKY Pisghaman Giant Team and Hasnaoui
for the stage.
The 26-year-old Hasnaoui braved a strong
head-wind to post his maiden win.
I was second in the general classication until yesterday. I like the windy conditions and Im
lucky that we had the conditions which help me.
Im delighted with the win, Hasnaoui said.
It was very hard for me and the team. But
nally, we won the Tour of Zubarah. It is really
a big achievement for us. Well come back next

Stage three
1 Eugen Wacker, Kuwait Cycling
Project
2 Naser Rezavi, Pisghaman Giant
Team
3 Meher Hasnaoui, Skydive Dubai
4 Mohammadesmaeil Chachi
Raghmi, Pisghaman Giant Team
5 Jos Manuel Gutierrez Revuelta,
Kuwait Cycling Project
General individual classification
1 Meher Hasnaoui, 9:15:21
2 Eugen Wacker, 9:15:36 +0:15
3 Naser Rezavi 9:15:41 +0:20
4 Mohammadesmaeil Chachi

Raghmi, 9:16:10 +0:49

5 Jacob Tipper, 9:16:10 +0:49
General points Classification
1 Andrea Palini, 37 points
2 Jacob Tipper, 32
3 Meher Hasnaoui, 24
4 Koos Jeroen Kers, 21
5 Michael Schweizer, 19
Team classification
1 Pisghaman Giant Team, 27:48:09
2 Kuwait Cycling Project, 27:48:50
3 Sharjah Team, 28:06:08
4 Skydive Dubai, 28:11:19
5 Team Giant - RBS, 28:20:59
Young riders classification
1 Mohammadesmaeil Chaichi

year to defend the title here, said Hasnaoui.

Hasnaoui, the winner of the rst stage, gave
a perfect nishing touch to his teams strategy,

Raghimi (PKY Pishgaman Giant

Team) 9:16:10
2 Mahdi Rajabikaboodcheshmeh
(PKY Pishgaman Giant Team) +24
3 Ben Hetherington (ACH Achieve
Northside Skinnergate) +35
4 Mansouri Abderrahmane (Sharjah
Team) +5:47
5 Shawky Talat Islam (Sharjah
Team) +6:08
Overall Jersey winners
Yellow: Maher Hasnaoui (Skydive
Dubai)
Red: Andrea Palini (Skydive Dubai)
Light Blue: Mohammadesmaeil Chaichi
Raghimi (PKY Pishgaman Giant Team)

which placed him in the 18-rider main group

along with lead teammate Andrea Palini.
The group had all the three overnight jersey

holders as well Team Giant RBS Jacob Tipper

(Yellow), points leader Palini and youth rider
Mahdi Rajabikaboodcheshmeh.
Palini and Tipper were both tied for the
points honours before the start of the nal day.
First, the Italian unsettled the Briton and won
the opening intermediate sprint. Then Tipper
used his energy and clinched the second sprint
ahead of Palini in a bid to collect more points.
Without any support in the peloton, Tipper
began to feel tired. Then Skydive Dubai upped
their game and sent Hasnaoui to attack, which
split the peloton. As the 190-cm tall Tunisian
powered ahead and the breakaway got about
45 seconds ahead of the chasing bunch, Tipper did not have enough strength to chase the
splinter.
While Hasnaoui, the UAE Cup champion,
went on to nish third behind the former double
Asian ITT and Herald Sun Tour winner Wacker
and Pishgaman Giants Rezavi, Tipper fell far
behind and was visibly dejected at having lost
the chance of winning the title. Wackers vic-

tory moved him to the second overall and Rezavi

picked the last podium place.
This is a big surprise for me. There was a
strong head-wind for us. I am not a sprint specialist. But we were very lucky today. I managed
to stay with the breakaway with 10k to go and
kept pushing myself till the nal sprint, Wacker
said.
Im very happy with this performance. This
was the last stage of the race but its really a big
one for us. Now I hope that this win will help us
nish better both in the GC and Team Classication, he added.
Skydive Dubais pre-race favourite Palini was
also pleased with his performance. It was a
good race. Our team took both the Yellow and
Red Jerseys. Im satised with my race here as I
got the Red Jersey. Well go back home and rest,
before preparing for the next race next year. Abdullah Af of Qatar National Team nished 23rd
in the general classication, one place above
than Qatars Ahmed Bassam al-Bourdainy, who
represented Sharjah Team in the tour.

BOTTOMLINE

World chess champ Carlsen top draw in Qatar

By Yash Mudgal
Doha

ith a star studded eld taking part and $130,000 up

for grabs, the Qatar Masters Open chess tournament beginning today at Aspire will be
the strongest and richest open event in
the sport.
Reigning world champion and world
No 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who
is taking part in an open tournament for
the rst time in eight years, is undoubtedly the top draw in Qatar.
The 24-year-old Norwegian will be
matching wits with Vladimir Kramnik,
Anish Giri, Wesley So and Sergey Karjakin in the event over nine mentally gruelling rounds.
The last time Carlsen played in an
open tournament was in August 2007
as a 16-year-old top seed at the Arctic
Chess Challenge in Tromso.
Were very happy to have Carlsen. To
have Carlsen in Qatar is a big thing and
this has further reinforced the fact that
this years championship is the strongest ever in the history of open chess
tournaments, Qatar Chess Association
(QCA) president Khalifa Mohamad alHitmi said yesterday.
This is the rst time in history that
a current world champion will be participating in an open tournament.
They dont usually play in this type of
championships as they prefer the club
competitions and the world championships, he added.
Carlsen had defeated Indias Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess
Championship in November 2013, thus
becoming the new world champion. In
the May 2014 FIDE rating list, Carlsen
reached his top ELO rating of 2882, the
highest in history. He successfully defended his title in November 2014, once
again defeating Anand.
Though Carlsen will be playing in

World chess champion Magnus Carlsen (third from left) poses with officials ahead of the Qatar Masters Open chess tournament.
Qatar for the rst time, he has been here
previously on two occasions. He camped
in Doha for two weeks on his way to the
last World Chess Championship.
Talking about the tournament, QCF
secretary and tournament director Mohamad al-Medaikhi said: The idea of
organising the tournament is to spread

the games popularity in Qatar and make

it a chess destination in the Gulf region.
Weve added one rest day to the
tournament unlike last year which was
played at a stretch for nine days, he
said.
The winner will get $27,000 while
the second and third placed will receive

$16,000 and $12,000, respectively. The

best woman player will get $8,000 and
the best Arab player will receive $2,500.
Among women, Georgias Bela Khotenashvili (Elo 2,496), the highestplaced player in last years competition,
will try to improve her show. Chinas
former world champion Hou Yifan

(2,683), who is also the world No.1, Indias Koneru Humpy (Elo 2,583), the
worlds second highest-rated woman,
and Russias former world champion
Alexandra Kosteniuk (Elo 2,542) can
cause big upsets.
GM Mohamed al-Sayed (Elo 2,520)
and International Master Husain Aziz

Nezad (Elo 2,425) will represent the

hosts. But given the strong eld, the best
the Qatari duo can hope for is to earn
some valuable points.
Chinese GM Yu Yanyi defeated pretournament favourite Vladimir Kramnik
of Russia to lift the championship trophy last year.