QATAR | Page 16
Much at
GULF TIMES
In brief
QATAR | Phone talk
Amir, German Chancellor
review strategic relations
His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad al-Thani held yesterday
a telephone conversation with
German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
During the phone call, they reviewed
the strategic relations between the
two friendly countries, and means of
boosting them, as well as a number
of regional and international issues
of common interest.
QATAR | Official
Amir condoles with
Indian president
His Highness the Amir Sheikh
Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and His
Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh
Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani have
sent cables of condolences to Indian
President Ram Nath Kovind on the
death of former prime minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee. HE the Prime
Minister and Minister of Interior
Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin
Khalifa al-Thani has sent a similar
cable to Prime Minister Narendra
Modi. Page 11
QATAR | Official
Amir congratulates
president of Mali
His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad al-Thani has sent a cable
of congratulations to President
Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali on
his re-election for a second term,
wishing him success and the friendly
Malian people further development
and prosperity. His Highness the
Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin
Hamad al-Thani has sent a similar
cable to President Ibrahim Boubacar
Keita.
PAKISTAN | Politics
MPs elect Imran Khan
as next prime minister
Pakistan’s
World Cup
cricket hero
Imran Khan was
formally elected
prime minister
of Pakistan
yesterday,
promising a
new era of
responsibility and prosperity in
a fighting speech in parliament.
Khan won a simple majority in a
confidence vote held in the lower
house of parliament. “I am here after
22 years of struggle. No dictator has
taken care of me. I am standing here
in this parliament on my own feet,”
he told the assembly after the vote.
Clad in a waistcoat and traditional
white shalwar kameez garments, he
smiled broadly and could be seen
wiping tears from his eyes while
clutching prayer beads as the count
was announced. Page 13
Qatar could play a key role in carbon-related fields: expert
By Denise Marray
Gulf Times Correspondent, London
Q atar could be a leader in apply-
ing carbon capture and stor-
age technology, the Qatar Car-
bonates and Carbon Storage Research
Centre (QCCSRC) director Professor
Martin Blunt has told Gulf Times at
Imperial College London.
He was talking in the context of the
culmination this year of a major 10-
year, $70mn collaboration between
Imperial College London, Qatar Petro-
leum, Shell and the Qatar Science and
Technology Park to advance under-
standing of carbonate reservoirs.
SPORT | Page 1
Leisure, entertainment
big businesses in Qatar
Qatar, South Korea eye stronger ties
HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met in Seoul
yesterday with South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha during his official visit to Korea. During the meeting,
they discussed bilateral relations and means of boosting them in all fields, besides issues of common concern. HE the Foreign
Minister affirmed the close partnership between Qatar and South Korea, which is considered as Qatar’s second trading partner,
expressing the aspiration of both sides to expand ties. Page 2
QTA lines up shows at malls
to celebrate Eid al-Adha
By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter
Q atar Tourism Authority (QTA)
has lined up a series of enter-
tainment shows at shopping
malls across the country to mark Eid
al-Adha.
The offerings form part of the Qatar
Summer Festival (QSF) 2018, which
aims to provide an array of family-
friendly and fun-filled activities for
residents and visitors in the country
during this period.
Holiday-goers will have the chance
to watch unique shows from the first
day up to the fifth day of Eid at par-
ticipating QSF malls: Mall of Qatar
(MoQ), Lagoona Mall, Doha Festival
City (DHFC), Al Mirqab Mall, Hyatt
Plaza, B Square Mall, Gulf Mall, Dar Al
Salam Mall, Al Khor Mall and Land-
mark Mall.
The Roaming Robots, Superheroes:
Live Avengers Doubles, Peter Pan’s
Adventure, Characters from Frozen,
Kerala flood crisis mounts as 324 confirmed dead
The death toll from floods that have
triggered landslides and sent torrents
sweeping through villages in the Indian
state of Kerala trebled yesterday to
324, authorities said, amid warnings of
worse weather to come.
Hundreds of troops and local
fishermen are staging desperate
rescue attempts with helicopters and
boats across the southern state, which
The QCCSRC has addressed chal-
lenges that include Carbon Capture
and Storage (CCS), enhanced oil re-
covery and producing clean fossil
fuels.
Gulf Times visited Imperial College
to learn more about the latest research
and findings into these undertakings
which have such an important bearing
on the health and sustainability of the
planet.
Asked for his view on the achieve-
ments to date, Prof Blunt said: “I would
say that our understanding of this
process has been transformed through
having a large, long-term project.
“We had had a large project with
Shell, specifically looking at CO2-re-
stake as 18th
Asian Games
begin today
Qatar Traditional Dance, and Levita-
tion Man are expected to attract a large
number of spectators throughout the
holidays.
According to QTA, malls will also
present one-of-its-kind children’s
shows and activities besides the rotat-
ing shows, such as MoQ’s “SpongeBob
SquarePants Show” from 11am to 10pm
and DHFC’s Ben 10 from 2pm to 9pm.
DHFC partnered with Cartoon Net-
work to present Ben 10, one of the most
adored cartoon characters. It aims to
gather families and children under one
roof during the holidays.
DHFC will also host the third and
final draw of QSF on August 31, where
QR350,000 cash prizes and a Lam-
borghini Huracan 2018 luxury super
car are at stake.
Mall-goers can also visit Dar Al
Salam Mall for the The Princess and
the Beast and The Frozen Land shows,
and Hyatt Plaza for the Robin Hood live
stage show.
The Minions live show at Al Mirqab
Mall and Sleeping Beauty at Lagoona
draws international tourists to its
tropical hills and beaches.
Kerala has been battered by record
monsoon rainfall this year and is
“facing the worst floods in 100 years”,
chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in
a Twitter statement, adding that 324
lives had been lost so far.
With thousands still trapped, power
and communication lines down and
lated issues. Qatar wanted to under-
stand some of the science associated
with CO2 storages, so this collabora-
tion seemed like a good fit.”
Qatar, he believes, could play a lead-
ing role in the CCS field.
“In Qatar there are many places
where you have an almost pure stream
of CO2 or the CO2 is separated from gas
anyway. It is completely standard in the
oil industry to separate out the carbon
dioxide from the natural gas. This is a
process that has been around since the
1930s. Normally, that carbon dioxide is
then vented into the atmosphere. Qatar
also does a lot of gas processing – natu-
ral gas to liquids. You burn a lot of gas
during those processes and produce
Mall are expected to draw huge crowds
due to their popularity.
Cultural shows such as the tradi-
tional Syrian Arda, and the Jordanian
and Palestinian ‘Dabkeh’ dance per-
formances will take centre stage at
Al Khor Mall, providing people with
a diverse range of entertainment of-
ferings.
According to QTA, these special
free entertainment and indoor shows
throughout the summer season aim
to energise the tourism sector through
diversifying Qatar’s events calendar
and tourist source markets.
Retailers at participating malls will
also continue to offer huge discounts
and special promotions until August
31, which gives mall-goers more time
to shop and gather coupons for the
grand draw.
QTA said that nearly 50 of Qatar’s
five and four-star hotels are offering
various packages and discounts on
brunches, beach and pool access, ac-
commodation and spa treatments until
August 31, the last day of QSF.
fresh alerts of further torrential rain,
authorities warned of more trouble
ahead and further deaths to come.
“We are deploying more boats and the
army to ramp up rescue operations,”
senior state government official P H
Kurian said.
More than 30 military helicopters and
320 boats are attempting rescues
across Kerala. Page 11
carbon dioxide.”
Typically, with CCS the carbon diox-
ide is injected several kilometres below
the surface into porous rock where it
can be safely stored deep underground
for millions of years.
“CCS allows us to have a smoother
transition away from fossil fuels and
one at a much lower cost. It’s not a
magic bullet – it needs to be done in
combination with other technologies,”
Blunt explained.
However, while the techniques for
CCS are well established, making the
commercial case means overcoming
resistance from those who look only to
short-term gains, he cautioned.
“I would say as an engineering and
SATURDAY Vol. XXXIX No. 10914
August 18, 2018
Dhul-Hijja 7, 1439 AH
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals
Turkey ready
to respond if
US imposes
more sanctions
Agencies
Istanbul/Ankara
T
urkey yesterday threatened to
respond in kind if Washington
imposed further sanctions over
the detention of an American pastor
which has sparked a diplomatic stand-
off and hit the Turkish currency.
A Turkish court yesterday turned
down another appeal to free the pastor
in the third such rejection, his lawyer
said.
As Ankara sought to reassure mar-
kets after the lira went into a tail-
spin over the deepening spat, US
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
warned more sanctions would be on
the way until Andrew Brunson was
released.
Last week, US President Donald
Trump said he had doubled the tar-
iffs on aluminium and steel tariffs
from Turkey, prompting Ankara to
sharply hike tariffs on several US
products.
Yesterday, Turkey’s Trade Minister
Ruhsar Pekcan said to expect more of
the same.
“We’ve already responded based on
the World Trade Organisation rules
and will continue to do so,” state-run
Anadolu news agency quoted him as
saying.
The nearly two-year detention of
Brunson, who is being held on terror
charges, has soured relations between
the two Nato allies and sent the lira
tumbling.
The court in the western city of Izmir
ruled that Brunson, who faces 35 years
in jail if convicted, would remain under
house arrest, his lawyer Cem Halavurt
said.
US sanctions and the declining lira
created panic in the markets but on
the streets, many Turks appeared to
support the government’s retaliatory
measures.
Muharrem Bozkurt sounded upbeat
despite the lira crisis.
“As we are a country where patriotic
sentiments are high, no matter how
much the dollar increases, we will get
over this,” he said.
Qatar, Turkey sign currency swap deal
Qatar Central Bank (QCB), and the
Central Bank of Turkey (CBRT)
signed a currency swap agreement
to promote bilateral co-operation
between the two central banks by
establishing a two-way currency
exchange line. The signing
ceremony was held yesterday at
the QCB headquarters in Doha.
The agreement was signed by HE
scientific challenge, Carbon Capture
and Storage is something we can do
now. It is being done in many sites
around the world. The commercial vi-
ability depends on how you view the
problem.
“From a power generation perspec-
tive doing CCS is a cost. It will cost
more money than allowing the CO2
to be vented into the atmosphere.
And the power station is less effi-
cient; you produce less electricity
for a higher cost. So at the moment
CCS is just presented as cost – so
it is not commercially viable in the
sense that it costs more than not do-
ing it. So the question is how do you
account for the fact that you are pro-
pu AT 19
Q since
bl A 78
is
h R ed
in
Others agreed.
“American sanctions will have no ef-
fect on us as long as we remain united,”
said another man, Ibrahim Aktar.
The latest US announcement came
after Turkish Finance Minister Berat
Albayrak tried to soothe the markets
during an unprecedented conference
call with hundreds of foreign inves-
tors, insisting Turkey would emerge
“stronger” from the currency crisis and
would not need an IMF bailout.
Albayrak and his French counterpart
Bruno Le Maire spoke by phone yester-
day and discussed US sanctions steps
against Turkey, agreeing to act together
in response to such moves, Albayrak’s
ministry said.
The two ministers decided to work
closely to develop co-operation be-
tween Turkey and France and agreed to
meet in Paris on Aug 27.
Analysts say a sharp hike in interest
rates is needed to stop the declining
value of lira, but Ankara is opposed to
any rate hike which would likely under-
cut growth.
Erdogan has remained defiant in the
face of the crisis with Washington, say-
ing Turkey could turn to new alterna-
tive markets.
Despite its economic woes, Tur-
key did this week find support from
friendly Qatar, which promised to
make a $15bn direct investment in the
country.
Erdogan has also held talks with the
German and French leaders, a sign that
Ankara is moving closer to Europe after
several years of sharp tensions.
There have notably been unexpect-
ed moves in key legal cases that have
been bones of contention with the
EU, although Ankara always insists its
judiciary operates independently of
politics.
An Istanbul court on Wednesday al-
lowed the release of Amnesty Interna-
tional’s Turkey chair Taner Kilic, who
spent more than a year in jail over al-
leged links to a 2016 coup bid.
The previous day two Greek soldiers
held by Turkey since March for illegally
crossing the border were also freed in
a move warmly welcomed by Athens.
Page 10, Business Page 1
Governor of Qatar Central Bank
Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud al-Thani
and Governor of the Central Bank of
Turkey Murat Cetinkaya.
The deal would facilitate exchange
of trade between the two countries
while providing liquidity and support
for financial stability.
A number of officials from both sides
attended the signing ceremony.
ducing low-carbon electricity? How
do you account in the Qatari context
for collecting the CO2 produced from
oilfield operations and injecting it
underground?”
There are, he said, a number of ways
to address the cost issues.
“There are a number of mechanisms
you could use: a carbon tax, a subsidy
for low-carbon electricity. Whether
or not it is commercially viable is very
much a question of the economic con-
text in which you place it. In some cases
it is – for example in Norway – because
there is a carbon tax in Norway it is
cheaper to inject the CO2 underground
than it is to pay the tax and vent into the
atmosphere.
 Gulf Times
2 Saturday, August 18, 2018
QATAR
New French envoy visits Aspetar
Aspetar, Qatar’s orthopaedic and sports medicine hospital, recently welcomed the newly appointed French ambassador
to Qatar, Franck Gellet, which marked his first visit to the hospital. Received by Dr Philip Landreau, chief of surgery at
Aspetar, the envoy attended a briefing on the services the hospital provides for athletes and a tour of some Aspetar
facilities such as the Rehabilitation Centre and Fitness Area, Altitude rooms, in addition to the Sport Science and the
Athlete Screening departments. About the visit, ambassador Gellet said: “Aspetar is one of the first facilities I visited in
Qatar after arriving in the country. I must say I was impressed with the high quality of the facility. So, I believe it’s a matter
of great pride for Qatar. I understand there are athletes from many countries, including France. For that, I’d like to thank
this prestigious organisation for helping French athletes perform at their best.”
Deadline for Qatar Museums
internship programme nears
Q
atar Museums (QM) is
offering students in Qa-
tar the opportunity to
work alongside its experts in
various departments and muse-
ums as part of its sought-after
internship programme, which is
now accepting applications for
the Fall 2018 Internships.
The Fall Internship period will
run from October to December
2018 and is open to university
students, recent graduates, and
high school students. The dead-
line for students wishing to ap-
ply is August 30, 2018.
This year, QM is advertis-
ing 68 internship placements,
covering a variety of projects
and learning experiences. These
include openings in the Orien-
talist Museum, the Children’s
Museum, the Museum of Islamic
Art, the Department of Educa-
tion, Culture Pass, Architectural
Conservation and Events.
All interns will be granted a
Certificate of Completion Letter
upon successfully completing
the programme.
“Students have shown con-
siderable interest in the Summer
Internship Programme and we
are excited to offer internships
on an ongoing basis during the
Fall and Spring semesters (part-
time) and during the Summer
Ritz-Carlton, Doha
unveils Eid offerings
T
he Ritz-Carlton, Doha has
unveiled an array of of-
ferings in view of the up-
coming Eid al-Adha.
The offerings will “allow
guests to spend precious mo-
ments together and create cher-
ished memories during this
special time of year”, The Ritz-
Carlton, Doha has said in a state-
ment.
The celebrations kick off at
Lagoon Restaurant where the
“lavish buffet and live sta-
tions feature a wide variety of
international cuisine show-
casing the Farm to Table con-
cept”. On offer is a selection
of Middle Eastern delights
featuring a Qatari corner and
Turkish sweets. Family and
friends will be entertained
with musical performances
while children will join the
festive fun with an array of
activities such as face paint-
ing, balloon twisting, cinema
watching and more.
The Eid Brunch will take place
at Lagoon Restaurant on the first
day of Eid al-Adha (August 21)
and on the last day (August 24)
from 1pm to 4pm. The event
costs QR325 per person inclu-
sive of soft beverages. Young
guests below five years eat com-
plimentary, while children aged
between five and 12 years will
receive 50% savings.
Further, guests can celebrate
the arrival of Eid at The Ritz-
QM’s Fall Internship is open to university students, recent graduates,
and high school students.
(full-time),” QM’s Education di-
rector Dr Jelena Trkulja said.
“Informal learning is one of
the pillars of QM and our intern-
ships are instrumental in helping
younger generations choose a
path that fits their personal in-
terests and goals,” she noted.
“By exposing more and more
students to the exciting career op-
tions available at cultural institu-
tions and by contributing to the
creation of a knowledge-based
economy, QM is supporting the
cultural goals of Qatar National
Vision 2030,” Trkulja added.
The Summer Internship edi-
The Ritz-Carlton, Doha has
unveiled an array of offerings
in view of the upcoming Eid
al-Adha.
Carlton Spa with a “unique
hammam experience designed
to focus on the cleansing and
purification of the mind, ensur-
ing the body is nurtured and in-
dulged”.
This 90-minute treatment
includes a complete face, body
heat treatment incorporat-
ing Cleopatra’s secret recipe
of Honey Whitening Mask and
Royal Jelly. This bespoke pack-
age is priced at QR750 per per-
son and is available from August
19 to 27.
Regular guests booking three
nights or more can enjoy a 20%
savings on the room, dining and
spa while Ritz-Carlton, SPG
and Marriott loyalty programme
members will receive a 30%
savings with The Wander More
package.
For further information or
reservations, one can visit ritz-
carlton.com/doha or call +974
4484 8000.
tion, which has recently con-
cluded, saw 23 participants work
as integral parts of teams across
QM.
Participants shared their im-
pressions, highlighting valu-
able hands-on experiences and
professional connections they
gained as a result of the intern-
ship.
“The great thing about this
experience is that I got to see
and be a part of a project like
this from the ideation stage to
its realisation. I experienced re-
searching and curating content
to create a narrative and was able
4,513 abandoned vehicles
removed so far since April
T Stable prices, fresh items
he Ministry of Munici-
pality and Environment
(MME) has carried out
a comprehensive campaign to
remove abandoned vehicles
around the country. A total of
4,513 abandoned vehicles have
been removed from April until
August, according to an MME
official.
The initiative, implemented
by the MME’s committee for
removing abandoned vehicles,
covered main roads, lanes,
parking lots as well as areas ad-
jacent to garages. The vehicles
were removed after the munici-
palities concerned completed
the necessary legal procedures.
The campaign comes within
the framework of efforts un-
dertaken by the the ministry to
preserve the aesthetic and civil
appearance of places around
Qatar, the MME has said in a
press statement. Saleh Hassan
al-Kuwari, vice-chairman of
the committee, said the panel is
continuing with its inspection
campaign across all municipal-
ities in the country with the aim
of curbing the practice of aban-
doning cars and other vehicles.
He said 4,513 abandoned vehi-
cles have been removed from
April until August.
Al-Kuwari called on all enti-
ties concerned in the country to
co-operate with the committee
FM meets Ban Ki-moon
HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani
yesterday met Ban Ki-moon, President and Chair of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), during his visit
to Korea. During the meeting, they discussed means of enhancing partnership and co-operation between
Qatar and the Global Green Growth Institute. Qatar is one of the first countries to support the establishment
of the Institute since its inception in 2012.
to sit and discuss the content
and history of artworks and pho-
tographs with specialist cura-
tors,” said Hind Ghanim al-Saad
al-Kuwari, a graphic design stu-
dent at Virginia Commonwealth
University-Qatar.
She interned at the Depart-
ment of Education working on
the Visual Literacy project that
aims to increase engagement
with the QM audience.
“I was able to create multiple
directions for the branding of
the challenge and get feedback
on my work, which is always in-
valuable,” al-Kuwari said.
Aya, a Georgetown University
– Qatar graduate with a bach-
elor’s degree in Foreign Service
and also interned at the Depart-
ment of Education, said: “Dur-
ing this internship, I learned how
educational resources (teachers’
guides and lesson plans) are de-
veloped and have had a fantastic
opportunity to work on creating
some of them for future use in
QM’s programmes and teacher
engagement initiatives.”
Fatima Ramzan, also a VCU-
Qatar student, who had the
chance to work with the Fire
Station team this summer, said:
“I thoroughly enjoyed my in-
ternship and now have very val-
uable experience under my belt.”
Lifting of heavy machinery and equipment.
to end the ‘abandoned vehicles’
phenomenon as soon as pos-
sible and also asked owners to
avoid abandoning their vehi-
cles on open grounds, roads,
streets, etc.
Meanwhile, Al Daayen Mu-
nicipality, represented by the
“It was beyond my expecta-
tions and the entire Fire Station
team was very kind and helpful.
I was so happy to see that the
Qatari students are so talented
and passionate about art,” she
stressed.
“I had the chance to mentor
students and had a lot of inter-
action with many people as part
of the internship that has built
up my confidence,” Ramzan said.
“All the artists were very sup-
portive and easy to engage with,
which made me excited to work
with them.”
“As a whole, I believe that
this internship was successful
in furthering my knowledge of
a career in the field of art and
has been the best out of all the
internships I have done so far. I
thank QM and Fire Station for
having faith in me and giving me
such a wonderful opportunity,”
she added.
QM is dedicated to sharing
knowledge in the fields of arts
and culture and nurturing young
generations by exposing them to
the work of cultural institutions.
QM offers internship pro-
grammes that integrate knowl-
edge and theory acquired in the
classroom with practical skills
development in a professional
museum setting.
general supervision depart-
ment and in co-operation with
the mechanical equipment
department, has started im-
plementing a campaign to lift
heavy machinery and equip-
ment within the jurisdiction of
the municipality.
QU among top
50 universities
in Shanghai
Global ranking
Q
atar University (QU)
has been ranked 48th
in Telecommunica-
tion Engineering subject in
the Shanghai Global Ranking
of Academic Subjects 2018,
making a significant leap on
last year’s ranking in the range
of 51-75 best universities.
For the Shanghai Global
Ranking of Academic Subjects
2018, more than 4,000 uni-
versities are assessed from 83
different countries and ranked
in 54 subjects across five broad
areas, natural sciences, engi-
neering, life sciences, medical
sciences, and social sciences.
The Shanghai Global Ranking
of Academic Subjects is heav-
ily focusing on research pro-
ductivity and based on publi-
cations in related journals.
The ranking calculations
are based not only on the total
number of publications, but
also on citations and the per-
centage of publications pro-
duced in collaboration with
industry partners. The pub-
lication threshold is different
for different subjects. Biblio-
metric data are collected from
InCites database.
Other QU ranked subjects
include Chemical Engineer-
ing (151-200), Computer
Science & Engineering (201-
draw customers to
vegetable & fruit market
T
he Vegetable and
Fruits market at Doha
Central Market has
seen an increasing turnout
of customers ahead of the
upcoming Eid al-Adha, with
many affirming that prices
are stable and supply is ad-
equate.
Local Arabic daily Arrayah
reported yesterday that the
supply of various types of veg-
etables and fruits from differ-
ent countries on daily basis.
Besides, the local produce of
various types including leafy
vegetables has helped reduce
and stabilise prices of various
types of goods.
For instance, recently a
box of nearly 7kg of tomatoes
was going for QR15-20, a 9kg
sack of potatoes for QR10-15,
more than 6kg of cucumber
for QR16-20, box of 10kg for
QR25-30, pineapple QR4-5 a
piece, and orange QR30 for big
boxes.
All the different varieties of
300), Electrical & Electronic
Engineering (201-300), En-
ergy Science & Engineering
(201-300), Materials Science
& Engineering (201-300), and
Chemistry (401-500).
QU president Dr Hassan
al-Derham said, “Qatar Uni-
versity has been achieving re-
markable progress in the uni-
versities ranking over many
years so far. This accomplish-
ment is an added value to Qa-
tar University’s Engineering
Programmes in general, and to
the Communications, Electri-
cal and Electronic Engineering
in particular. This develop-
ment definitely reflects and
affirms the compatibility of
our programmes with the best
international standards.”
“It is also an outcome
of the partnerships which
QU entered into with local
and international institu-
tions. These partnerships
undoubtedly enrich QU’s
offerings and programmes;
they contribute to the insti-
tution’s commitment of pro-
viding high quality academic
and research outputs as well
as responding to the local
and regional needs while ad-
hering to the best interna-
tional standards and world
practices,” he added.
vegetables and fruits, includ-
ing watermelon and sweet
melons, are available fresh in
the market during the morn-
ing hours.
Isamil al-Ansari, a regu-
lar customer, pointed out
that fresh goods come to the
market from different parts
of the world including Tur-
key, Iran, India, Pakistan,
Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon,
Latin America and other
parts of Europe. He stressed
that turnout of customers
dramatically increases ahead
of Eid holidays as customers
prefer the market to other
outlets due to the reasonable
price and variety of prod-
ucts.
Nasser al-Hajiri, another
customer, said that the qual-
ity of the products at the
market are always high. He
also noted that prices of most
varieties have been stable in
spite of the increasing de-
mand.
 Gulf Times
Saturday, August 18, 2018 3

QATAR/REGION/ARAB WORLD

Russia experience ‘will help Qatar deliver accessible tournament in 2022’

F
aisal al-Kooheji, chairman
of Qatar Social and Cul-
tural Centre for the Blind
since 2014, has been a key figure
in the Supreme Committee for
Delivery & Legacy (SC)’s Acces-
sibility Forum since its inception
two years ago.
This summer, al-Kooheji was
part of a 15-strong delegation
comprising forum members
who visited Moscow to observe
accessibility features for fans
with disabilities at the 2018 FIFA
World Cup.
Al-Kooheji, who is regis-
tered blind, spoke to www.sc.qa
to share his experiences of the
tournament and look ahead to
Qatar 2022.
z From an accessibility per-
spective, how would you de-
scribe your visit to Russia?
My stay in Moscow gave me an
understanding of the accessibil-
ity features provided for football
fans during Russia’s World Cup.
It helped me put in perspective
the measures required by Qatar
as it strives to host an inclusive
tournament in 2022.
I was impressed with the exten-
sive accessibility features at Luzh-
niki Stadium. We were taken on a
guided tour of the venue by FIFA
The Accessibility Forum delegation in Russia.
and attended the Mexico versus
Germany match there to get an idea
of the complete fan experience.
zWhat were the main lessons
learned from the trip?
I realised that the Russia 2018
Local Organising Committee
was not involved in the planning
for the provision of accessibility
features. That role was played by
FIFA consultants and the Cen-
tre for Access to Football in Eu-
rope (CAFE), the body providing
consultation services to UEFA
regarding the provision of an
inclusive match-day experience
for people with disabilities.
It was a wonderful learning
experience to know the level of
detail that had gone into CAFE’s
planning. It was reassuring to
experience that FIFA and UEFA
respected their expertise.
In 2022, the SC will be directly
Faisal al-Kooheji with another delegate.
driving the provision of acces-
sibility elements and the level of
detail will be higher because of
the longer period of planning we
will have benefited from.
zHow can Qatar ensure it of-
fers a first-class experience for
people with disabilities in 2022?
The Accessibility Forum has
already made huge strides in
planning for an inclusive tour-
nament. With more stakehold-
ers opening up their initiatives
for evaluation, further progress
will be achieved.
For example, Qatar Rail is a
stakeholder of the Accessibility
Forum and committed towards
the provision of extensive acces-
sibility features. I visited a Metro
station in Moscow and found
that accessibility features were
not at the same level of excel-
lence as in the stadium.
Even in the stadium, Qatar can
deliver a greater level of detail.
In Luzhniki Stadium, there were
only two language options in the
audio description device handed
out to fans with visual disabilities
– Russian and English. Qatar is
planning to include at least three
other language options in addition
to Arabic and English in 2022.
Also, Qatar’s definition of the
term disability is broader, in-
cluding cognitive and intellec-
tual disabilities in its scope.
z What are Qatar’s main chal-
lenges in the provision of acces-
sibility services in 2022?
We are already past the stage
when we faced our biggest chal-
lenge – which was creating social
awareness. Thanks to the SC’s
Accessibility Forum initiative,
all key government and non-
government bodies in Qatar are
now steadfast in their commit-
ment towards accessibility. It is
now time to deliver.

PHCC announces Higher living costs, fees force

many Egyptians to drop Haj plans
working schedule Reuters
Cairo

for Eid holidays M

ahmoud Aouni has al-
ways wanted to make
the Haj pilgrimage to
the holy city of Makkah in Saudi
Arabia, an important religious

T
he Primary Health Care
Corporation (PHCC) has
announced the working
hours of its health centres during
the Eid al-Adha holidays.
Al Thumama, Abu Nakhla, Al
Gharafa, Al Karaana, Umm Salal,
Al Wajbah, Al Ghuwairya and Al
Daayen Health Centres will re-
main closed during the holidays.
Within Doha, Omar Bin Kattab,
Al Rayan, Madinat Khalifa, Raw-
dat Al Khail, Abu Baker Al Sidiq,
Leabaib, West Bay, Mesaimeer,
Umm Ghuwailina, Muaither and
the Airport health centres will be
open from 7am to 2pm and from
4pm to 11pm. Dental services in
these centres will be available from
7am to 2pm and 4pm to 10pm. The
dental clinics will be closed on the
first day of Eid al-Adha and on Fri-
day morning.
Health centres at Al Khor and
Al Shamal will be open from 7am
to 2pm and 4pm to 11pm. Al Wakra
health centre will open daily from
7am to 11pm and the Al Sheehani-
ya health centre from 7am to 9pm.
The Al Jumailia health centre and
Al Kabaan health centre will op-
erate on call system round-the-
clock. Dental services at the Al
Khor health centre will be avail-
able from 7am to 2pm and from
4pm to 10pm. At the Al Wakra
Health Centre dental clinics will
open from 7am to 2pm and 3pm
to 9pm. The dental clinics at Al
Sheehaniya and Al Shamal health
centres will open from 7am to
2pm. The dental clinics of these
health centres will be closed on
the first day of Eid al-Adha, Friday
and Saturday.
Among specialised clinics, the
ophthalmology clinics will operate
UN invites Yemen govt
PHCC suggests healthy eating to enjoy Eid duty for all Muslims, but says
he might never be able to do so
The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has suggested several now because of Egypt’s eco-
measures and healthy options to enjoy Eid al-Adha. nomic woes.
PHCC has advised everyone to avoid overeating as it has a lasting “They say charity begins at
impact on human body, causing obesity which in return can cause home. In the current economic
diabetes and heart diseases. climate, that’s where it stays,”
PHCC also asks everyone to choose quality over quantity, eat said Aouni, a 47-year-old youth
healthy and decide the foods that are the best and the fulfilling ones ministry worker who like many
for the body. Always use a small plate instead of a large one. Egyptians has been forced to
Research shows that people first eat with the eyes, so a small plate put off his plans indefinitely by
can help them in getting a feel that they have taken enough food the rising cost of living.
but the portion will definitely be smaller than in a large plate. All Muslims are expected to
Hence, this will lead to eating less. join the annual Haj at least once
Moreover, if people start the meal with a glass of water, it can make in a lifetime, provided they are
them fuller before the meal and make them eat less, as a result. physically and financially able.
Another way to healthy eating is to eat slowly. But many Egyptians have
The feeling of fullness can take around 20 minutes before the brain been badly hit by soaring prices,
recognises the signals. especially of fuel and electricity,
Eating fast overrides these signals and causes people to eat more as the government slashes state Pilgrims attend Friday prayer at the Grand mosque ahead of annual Haj pilgrimage in the holy city of
than what they need. subsidies under IMF-backed Makkah, Saudi Arabia, yesterday.
When slowing down and chewing the food properly, people get economic reforms.
more satisfaction with the food and also help the brain recognise Even wealthier pilgrims are Jeddah airport ahead of the dropped by almost 50% in 2018 on economy packages by land,
the signals of fullness. now finding the journey more pilgrimage, which starts next from last year. while luxury packages — which
People are also advised to eat proteins more. difficult after Saudi Arabia and week, culminating in the Eid al- “It’s because of the economic include flights, upmarket ac-
Eating protein prior to the ingestion of sugars will help minimise Egypt both imposed additional Adha feast, had been cancelled. situation and the Umrah fees. commodation and other servic-
blood sugar spikes. fees for Muslims repeating the “No one can fork out enough Egypt and Saudi’s decision to es — have increased to 152,000
Protein is also helpful in making people feel fuller. ‘Umrah’, within three years. for religious obligations. How make people who want to do Egyptian pounds from 100,000
The foods that best promote satisfaction contain protein, water, Unlike the last two years, can I undertake the Haj when I it more than once pay more last year, Haj companies say.
fibre and healthy fats. when all those who signed up can barely afford to run a house- has meant many people sim- Hamada Radi a 55-year-old
Additionally, the best way to feel a guilt-free Eid al-Adha is to for the Haj made the journey hold?” Aouni said. ply aren’t going back again,” he civil servant, said the total pil-
exercise before sitting at the dining table. A brisk walk or a cardio to Makkah, state news agency “Before 2010, five or six of my said. grimage can end up costing
exercise can help people feel eat leisurely and enjoy the delicious MENA quoted Parliamentary neighbours would go each year. Saudi Arabia set a 2,000 riyal as much as 120,000 Egyptian
food items. It is also advisable to have a 20 minutes leisurely walk so Affairs Minister Omar Marwan Now, it’s one person from the ($533) fee for Muslims perform- pounds (around $6,700).
that it will help in digesting the food faster. as saying only 64,000 of Egypt’s neighbourhood every three or ing the Umrah journey for a sec- “Plane ticket prices have
80,000 Haj quota would now four years.” ond time within three years. gone up, and the Haj fees here
make the pilgrimage — a drop Ahmed Ibrahim, a tourism This year Egypt also raised its and in Saudi also, so it is those
daily at Rawdat Al Khail, Madinat morning shifts at the Al Leabib of 20%. ministry official who works own fee for citizens planning to with money who get to go,” he
Khalifa and Al Rayyan Health Cen- Health Centre today and at Al Last year 80,000 Egyptians on its Haj committee, said the make a second Umrah pilgrimage. said.
tres in the mornings and will remain Rawdat and Al Khail Health went on the Haj. number of Egyptians perform- Pilgrimage costs have dou- “But it is in my plans. God
closed on Friday Centres today and on August Officials at Cairo airport said ing the Umrah, which can be bled to 60,000 Egyptian pounds willing, I will do the Haj when I
The ENT clinics will oper- 20, 22 and 25. The premarital several flights to Saudi Arabia’s done at any time of the year, had ($3,361) for people travelling can get things together.”
ate daily at the Rawdat Al Khail examination clinics at all health
health centre during the morn- centres will be closed during the
ings, except for Friday and Sat- holidays except for Al Rayyan
urday. The dermatology clin- health Centre which will operate
ics will operate only during the on August 23 from 7am to 1pm.
Israelis kill 2 Palestinians on Gaza border
Over a dozen AFP
dead in Egypt
Gaza City, Palestinian Territories,

and Houthis to peace talks road crashes I

srael troops yesterday shot
dead two Palestinians tak-
ing part in protests along
the Gaza border, the Palestinian
AFP killed nearly 10,000 people since DPA health ministry in the enclave
Geneva 2015. Cairo said.
The UN’s Yemen envoy Mar- The ministry named the dead
tin Griffiths has said the talks men as Karim Abu Fatayer, 30,

T A
he United Nations has
invited Yemen’s govern-
ment and Iran-backed
Houthi rebels to Geneva next
month for talks on resolving the
country’s civil war, a spokes-
woman said yesterday.
“I can confirm that the Office
of the Special Envoy sent out in-
vitations to the government of
Yemen and to Ansarullah,” UN
spokeswoman Alessandra Vel-
lucci told reporters.
Ansarullah, which means
Supporters of God, refers to the
Houthi rebels group that has
been battling the Saudi-backed
internationally recognised gov-
ernment in a conflict that has
due to open on September 6
will be aimed at charting a path
forward to revive UN-backed
negotiations which broke down
in 2016.
Vellucci said she had no in-
formation on whether rep-
resentatives from Iran, Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates — another key gov-
ernment backer — had also
been invited to Geneva.
Yemen’s government has said
it has low expectations for the
talks, blaming the Houthis for
refusing to make concessions.
The UN has repeatedly de-
scribed Yemen as the world’s
worst humanitarian crisis.
t least 14 people were
killed and 17 injured
in two road crashes in
Egypt, local media reported yes-
terday.
Eight people died and 14 were
injured early yesterday after two
buses collided on a coastal road
in Egypt’s Red Sea province,
state-run newspaper al-Ahram
reported online.
Prior to that, a collision on
Thursday involving three trucks
and a private vehicle in the
province of South Sinai left six
people dead and three others
injured, private newspaper al-
Masri reported. It was unclear
what caused the accidents.
shot near the central Gaza Strip
town of Bureij and Sadi Moam-
er, 26, killed near Rafah, in the
south.
It said that both men were
shot in the head.
The Israeli military did not
know of any deaths but said that A picture taken yesterday shows teargas canisters, thrown by Israeli forces, falling onto Palestinian
troops had opened fire in border protesters during a demonstration along the border of the Gaza Strip, east of Gaza City.
incidents.
At least 171 Gazans have been formed Friday prayers in Khan the main Jerusalem-Jericho rael’s plan to demolish the
killed by Israeli fire since late Al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem, in road, which passes near the village.
March, mostly during border solidarity with the village which village, to express their re- Khan al-Ahmar, a few kilo-
clashes and protests. is facing an imminent threat of jection of the Israeli move, metres to the east of Jerusa-
One Israeli soldier was shot demolition by Israeli authori- Palestinian WAFA news lem, is under threat by Israel of
dead by a Palestinian sniper in ties. agency reported. demolition and displacement of
July. Following the prayers, The protesters waved the its Bedouin community in order
Meanwhile, hundreds of the worshippers took part flag of Palestine and chant- to build a Jewish settlement on
Palestinian worshippers per- in a non-violent march at ed slogans condemning Is- the location.
 Gulf Times
4 Saturday, August 18, 2018
AFRICA
Demolitions to protect river
spark rows in Kenyan capital
Reuters
Nairobi
F
or decades the Nairobi River
has been besieged by the
construction of buildings
teetering perilously over its banks,
bringing pollution, blockages and
floods to the waterway that runs
through the Kenyan capital.
The government is taking bull-
dozers to the problem, in a demo-
lition campaign begun this month
that has levelled shopping malls, a
petrol station and a coffee shop in
Nairobi, to the horror of business-
people who insist that official per-
mits prove their buildings are legal.
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s
spokeswoman Kanze Dena said
such permits had no legal force,
citing widespread corruption.
“It’s very clear that riparian
(riverbank) land is land that is not
supposed to have any buildings on
it,” Dena told Reuters.
“If that land was given away it
was done so in a way that was not
legal, so that’s an area of corrup-
tion. The president has been very
firm on his fight against graft. It
has to start somewhere.”
The effort is cheered by many
in the city of more than 4mn,
who have watched with dismay as
apartment blocks, shopping malls
and even swimming pools have
popped up along the river.
The late Kenyan environmental
activist Wangari Maathai, the first
African woman to win the Nobel
Peace Prize, tried in vain to halt
such construction.
“It’s good that the demolitions
have picked up again and it’s a
shame that it’s taken so long,” said
veteran anti-corruption cam-
paigner John Githongo, referring
to unsuccessful past attempts to
stop illicit construction.
The trouble, say Githongo and
some of the businesses affected, is
the haphazard nature of the dem-
Nigerian court frees
journalist on bail
Reuters
Lagos
A
Nigerian court yesterday
released a journalist on
bail after he was arrested
following the publication of an
article that cited a confidential
letter from the chief of police, the
reporter’s newspaper said.
The story, covered by various
Nigerian media outlets, disclosed
a letter from national police chief
Ibrahim Idris to Vice President
Yemi Osinbajo, the Premium
Times said.
The newspaper said reporter
Samuel Ogundipe was arrested
on Tuesday for refusing to reveal
the source of the letter, which
identified who was blamed for a
blockade on parliament last week
by members of the Department of
State Security.
Opposition lawmakers said
the blockade was an attempt to
intimidate its leaders but the
presidency condemned the move
and the acting president fired the
head of the security agency.
“Mr Ogundipe was released
on Friday morning after he was
granted bail,” said the newspaper
Ebola cases in DR Congo rise to 78; 44 dead
AFP
Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo
S
eventy-eight cases of Ebola
have been recorded in an
outbreak in northeast Dem-
ocratic Republic of Congo, claim-
ing 44 lives, DRC officials and
the World Health Organisation
(WHO) said yesterday.
The latest outbreak of the viral
disease, which is highly conta-
gious and frequently fatal if un-
treated, has prompted a visit by
the head of the US Centres for
Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), the health ministry said in
a statement.
People watch as heavy machinery demolishes the UKAY Mall in Westlands, Nairobi.
olitions, which they say come with
little or no warning.
There have been chaotic scenes
in busy areas.
On Thursday evening street
children scurried through the
rubble next to a traffic circle while
workers attempted to bring order
to what resembled a bomb blast
site.
Steel rebar and metal sheeting
jutted into the air through piles of
debris.
A man whose shop was torn
down one recent morning argued
business owners should be given
notice when the government de-
clared existing permits invalid.
“You don’t just turn up with a
bloody bulldozer,” he said. “On
what legal basis is this happening?”
in a tweet, adding that his case
had been heard by a magistrate’s
court in the capital, Abuja.
The newspaper did not state
when the next court hearing
would take place.
Nigerian police said on Thurs-
day Ogundipe was being pros-
ecuted in relation to “theft and
unlawful possession of restricted
and classified documents” capa-
ble of compromising state secu-
rity.
It said the charges against him
were related to the official secret
act and a cyber crime act.
The government led by Presi-
dent Muhammadu Buhari - a
former military ruler - has fre-
quently been accused of con-
stricting press freedoms, which
it has denied, and security serv-
ices have often detained report-
ers.
Nigeria ranks 119th out of 180
nations in Reporters Without
Borders’ World Press Freedom
Index.
Amnesty International and the
Committee to Protect Journalists
have called for all charges against
him to be dropped.
They also called for him to be
freed, prior to his release on bail.
“In all, 78 cases of haemorrhagic
fever have been reported in the
region, of which 51 are confirmed
and 27 probable” while “24 suspect
cases are under investigation”, ac-
cording to reports from Congolese
authorities and the WHO.
Confirmed cases are verified by
way of laboratory tests on samples
taken from patients.
The cases treated as “probable”
often concern diseased people
who had a close epidemiologi-
cal link with confirmed cases, but
have not been tested.
Congolese authorities reported
“two deaths of confirmed cases
at Beni” - a trading town with a
population approaching a quarter
In a statement, the Law Society
of Kenya said: “Our environment
and planning laws have evolved
over time and in some instances,
developments have predated the
law. The state should ensure that
the application of the current law
does not result in unlawful depri-
vation of private property.”
It is unclear how many build-
ings are at risk of being demol-
ished.
The National Construction
Agency said in a statement in
March that nationwide 2,028
buildings, some of them on river-
banks, had been classified as un-
safe.
Kenyan media this month said
there was a list of 4,000 unsafe
buildings in Nairobi earmarked
During the blockade, armed
men wearing the black uniform
of the Department of State Se-
curity stood at the gates of par-
liament in Abuja and were later
joined by police officers blocking
entry for up to an hour - evoking
memories of the decades when
the security forces held sway
over politics.
The head of Nigeria’s state se-
curity service, Lawal Daura, was
fired by Osinbajo hours after the
blockade.
Ogundipe reported in the Pre-
mium Times that Idris had writ-
ten to Osinbajo - in charge while
Buhari takes a 10-day holiday - to
say an investigation had conclud-
ed that Daura had been behind the
blockade.
The government has not re-
sponded to contents of the story.
Earlier this week the DSS an-
nounced the appointment of a
spokesman to improve trans-
parency in the way the security
agency operates.
And, on Tuesday, Osinbajo or-
dered the overhaul of a special
unit following allegations of re-
peated human rights violations
that came to prominence in a so-
cial media campaign.
of a million people in North Kivu
province.
There were also “five new con-
firmed cases at Mabalako, includ-
ing a health worker at the Health
Reference Centre in Mangina,” the
epicentre of the outbreak in the
Beni region.
“We are expecting to see more
cases,” WHO spokesman Tarik
Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.
The outbreak is the tenth to
strike the DRC since 1976, when
Ebola was first identified and
named after a river in the north of
the country.
It affects a part of the coun-
try wracked by violence for more
than 20 years, from all-out war to
for demolition by a committee ap-
pointed by the president.
Dena, his spokeswoman, said
she could not speak about specif-
ics.
A wall of a 12-acre temple com-
plex built close to the river by the
Visa Oshwal Community of Kenya
was knocked down last weekend.
“We got all the necessary ap-
provals that were needed at the
time,” said Jinit Shah, vice chair-
man of the religious group.
“Investors out there might be
running scared now that the ap-
provals granted by government
bodies within Kenya are not now
valid.”
Nearby, the Ukay shopping cen-
tre - which contained a supermar-
ket, restaurants, pharmacies and
Election campaign
starts in Mauritania
DPA
Nouakchott
P
olitical parties in Mauri-
tania started their official
campaigns yesterday for
legislative, regional, and munic-
ipal elections set for next month.
Independents are not allowed
to run in the elections, which
are being contested by the ruling
Union for the Republic party and
the National Forum for Democ-
racy and Unity, a coalition of 11
opposition parties that boycott-
ed the 2013 vote.
Contenders in the elections,
which will be on September 1,
13 Cabinda separatists acquitted
Thirteen separatists in an oil-
rich enclave on Africa’s west
coast ruled by Angola have
been acquitted of charges of
crimes against state security,
local media said yesterday.
The activists are members of
a small secessionist group,
the Cabinda Independence
Movement, whose organisation
is seeking “dialogue” with
Luanda on holding a referendum
on self-determination. They
were arrested last Friday
insurgency and sustained ethnic
clashes.
Forty-one deaths were reported
in North Kivu and three in neigh-
bouring Ituri region to the north,
according to the health ministry.
Congolese Health Minister Oly
Ilunga Kalenga had talks with the
director of the CDC, Robert Red-
field, regarding CDC training pro-
grammes for epidemiologists in the
field, an official statement said.
The ministry’s directorate for
disease control announced on
Tuesday that doctors in Beni had
started to use a novel treatment
called mAb114 to treat patients
with Ebola.
The treatment is “the first
other shops - was simultaneously
felled.
A week earlier, the centre’s
owners had been invited before
the national assembly’s commit-
tee on environment and natural
resources to present their build-
ing permits amid the committee’s
inquiry into encroachment onto
riparian land across Kenya.
The lawmakers unanimously
assured them that their docu-
ments were in order, so it was a
shock when cranes arrived just af-
ter 5am and began the demolition,
said someone involved who spoke
on condition of anonymity.
“The government has torn
down a building which the same
government had given us permits
to continue operating,” he said.
can campaign until August 30.
The polls will be the first time
regional councils are elected in
the north-west African country.
They replace the upper house
of parliament, the Senate, which
was abolished in a contested ref-
erendum last year, and boycotted
by a major opposition alliance.
The forthcoming polls are seen
as a window into how next year’s
presidential election will unfold.
Should pro-government par-
ties win a clear majority in the
157-seat parliament, they could
change the constitution, which
bars incumbent President Mo-
hamed Ouled Abdel Aziz from
running for a third term.
during a meeting to organise a
public debate on the enclave’s
autonomy. They were charged
with crime against state security.
The interior ministry said
“hostile propaganda material”
had been seized. In court, the
activists said they had informed
the authorities of the planned
debate and even invited
Cabinda’s provincial governor,
political parties and churches to
participate in it. The judge ruled
that the meeting was not illegal.
therapeutic drug against the virus
to be used in an active Ebola epi-
demic in the DRC,” it said.
mAb114 is an antibody initially
isolated from a survivor of an Eb-
ola outbreak in the western DRC
city of Kikwit in 1995, it added.
Ebola has long been considered
incurable, though swift isolation
and the rapid treatment of symp-
toms such as vomiting, diarrhoea
and dehydration has helped some
of the patients to survive.
The quest for a vaccine grew
increasingly urgent during an Eb-
ola epidemic that killed more than
11,300 people in West African
neighbouring states Guinea, Li-
beria and Sierra Leone in 2013-15.

President shelves military
parade plans due to cost
AFP
Washington
U
S President Donald
Trump said yesterday
that he had cancelled
a military parade planned for
November due to high costs
– hours after the Pentagon
indefinitely postponed the
much-maligned event – and
would instead head to Paris for
ceremonies marking the end of
World War I.
Trump had ordered a show
of military prowess after mar-
velling at France’s Bastille Day
parade last year – but critics
said that it would be a waste of
money and akin to events staged
by authoritarian regimes such
as North Korea.
The Pentagon said late on
Thursday that the controversial
event, originally scheduled for
November 10 in Washington,
was being pushed back to a pos-
sible date in 2019.
A US official told AFP on
Thursday that the planning
estimate had gone as high as
$92mn, though no final figure
had been reached.
Trump said that he pulled the
plug because local politicians
were charging a “ridiculously
high” price.
“The local politicians who
run Washington, DC (poorly)
know a windfall when they
see it,” Trump said yesterday.
“When asked to give us a price
for holding a great celebratory
military parade, they wanted
a number so ridiculously high
that I cancelled it.”
The Republican president
vowed to attend a different
event at a base near Washington
and then “go to the Paris pa-
rade, celebrating the end of the
War, on November 11th”.
“Maybe we will do something
next year in D.C. when the cost
comes WAY DOWN,” Trump
said. “Now we can buy some
more jet fighters!”
Washington Mayor Muriel
Bowser hit back, sarcastically
emulating the president’s char-
acteristic Twitter tone.
“Yup, I’m Muriel Bowser,
mayor of Washington DC, the
World pays tribute to Aretha Franklin
AFP
Detroit
T
ributes poured in across
the world to “Queen of
Soul” Aretha Frank-
lin yesterday as her family and
hometown made arrangements
for her funeral and a celebration
of her extraordinary career.
The 76-year-old music leg-
end, who died on Thursday,
influenced generations of sing-
ers with unforgettable hits in-
cluding Respect (1967), Natural
Woman (1968), and I Say a Little
Prayer (1968).
The 18-time Grammy award
winner cemented her place in
music history with a powerful,
bell-clear voice that stretched
over four octaves, her genera-
tions of hits spanning from soul
and R&B, to gospel and pop.
Yesterday fans continued to
pay tribute to the celebrated
singer, leaving mementos out-
side her father’s New Bethel
Baptist Church and queuing
outside the Motown Museum,
which is playing her music on
loudspeakers through the week-
end and hosting a book of con-
dolence.
Sessions issues order to speed up immigrant deportations
Reuters
Washington
U
S Attorney General Jeff
Sessions has sought to
speed up the deportation
of illegal immigrants, telling im-
migration judges they should
only postpone cases in removal
proceedings “for good cause
shown”.
Sessions, in an order that was
criticised by some lawyers, said
the “good-cause” standard “lim-
its the discretion of immigration
judges and prohibits them from
granting continuances for any
reason or no reason at all”.
Trump: will go to the Paris parade instead.
local politician who finally got
thru to the reality star in the
White House with the realities
($21.6M) of parades/events/
demonstrations in Trump
America (sad),” she tweeted.
DC’s City Council, which
has no Republican members,
chimed in on Twitter: “Better
late. Then: never. Tanks but no
tanks.”
Trump reveres all things mil-
itary, and surrounded himself
with former and current gener-
als when he took office.
Even before becoming presi-
dent, aides reported that Trump
had considered a military pa-
rade to mark his inauguration –
although that idea was eventu-
ally scrapped.
Trump went to a military
academy, but received multiple
deferments, including once re-
portedly for bone spurs, from
having to serve during the Viet-
nam War.
Instead of buying new fighter
jets, as Trump had suggested in
his tweet, critics said the money
saved from not having a parade
could be better spent improving
the lives of veterans.
“Until such time as we can
“It’s just been amazing.
Of course we’re all very sad-
dened and heartbroken with the
thought of her passing, but peo-
ple are flocking to the museum,”
general manager Sheila Spencer
told AFP. “She performed at our
gala for our 20th anniversary
and it was a phenomenal, phe-
nomenal performance. So we’re
just so honoured.”
Some Detroit media reported
that Franklin’s family and the
city were drawing up arrange-
ments for a four-day celebra-
tion of her life, during which her
body would lie in repose for two
days, open to the public.
Her funeral will be held at
Greater Grace Temple, a spokes-
woman for the church confirmed
to AFP, with the date and final
arrangements still being worked
out.
“It’s difficult to conceive of a
world without her. Not only was
she a uniquely brilliant singer,
but her commitment to civil
rights made an indelible impact
on the world,” tweeted singer
Barbra Streisand.
“I’m sitting in prayer for the
wonderful golden spirit Aretha
Franklin,” said Motown legend
Diana Ross, while former Beatle
Unlike the federal judiciary
system, US immigration courts
fall under the Department of Jus-
tice and the attorney general can
intervene.
Sessions, a Republican former
US Senator appointed by Presi-
dent Donald Trump, has been
unusually active in this practice
compared to his predecessors.
Sessions has led efforts by the
Trump administration to crack
down on illegal immigration, in-
cluding a “zero tolerance” policy
that separated immigrant parents
from their children while they
were in US detention.
Trump abandoned the separa-
tion policy in June.
celebrate victory in the War on
Terrorism and bring our mili-
tary home, we think the parade
money would be better spent
fully funding the Department
of Veteran Affairs and giving
our troops and their families the
best care possible,” the Ameri-
can Legion’s national com-
mander Denise Rohan said.
Senator Jack Reed, who is
the top Democrat on the Sen-
ate Armed Services Committee,
said that halting the parade was
the right call.
“It would have diverted re-
sources and manpower from
core missions,” he said.
Defence Secretary Jim Mattis
scoffed at the cost estimate and
attacked the media for report-
ing the number.
“Whoever told you that is
probably smoking something
that’s legal in my state but is not
in most states,” said Mattis, who
hails from Washington state,
where pot is legal.
“Whoever wrote it needs to
get better sources ... I guar-
antee you there’s been no cost
estimate to me,” he told report-
ers travelling with him in South
America.
‘Aretha’ is spray-painted next to a sign at the Franklin Street subway station, in memory of singer Aretha
Franklin, in the Brooklyn borough of New York.
Paul McCartney called her “the
Queen of our souls”.
Franklin passed away on
Thursday morning surrounded
by her family and loved ones at
her Detroit home, following a
Critical in showing “good
cause” is whether a person is
likely to succeed in efforts to re-
main in the United States, either
by appealing for asylum or re-
ceiving some form of visa or work
permit, Sessions said.
Stephen Kang, an attorney
with the American Civil Liber-
ties Union (ACLU) immigrants’
rights project, described Ses-
sions’ order as “troubling” and
one of a series that “has moved
in the direction of restricting
due process rights for individuals
who are in removal proceedings”.
He said that Sessions seemed
to portray immigrants seeking
more time to prepare their cases
Ex-CIA chiefs
issue Trump
condemnation
AFP
Washington
F
ormer CIA directors and
another half dozen of
America’s most senior
spies have issued an unprec-
edented condemnation of Presi-
dent Donald Trump, after his de-
cision to blacklist their colleague
John Brennan.
In a statement, former Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) bosses
appointed by Republican and
Democratic presidents – includ-
ing Robert Gates, George Tenet,
Porter Goss, Leon Panetta, and
David Petraeus – denounced
Trump’s decision to strip Bren-
nan of his security clearance.
“The president’s action re-
garding John Brennan and the
threats of similar action against
other former officials has noth-
ing to do with who should and
should not hold security clear-
ances – and everything to do
with an attempt to stifle free
speech,” the statement read.
Trump targets Justice Department official over clearance
US President Donald Trump said yesterday that he
will likely strip Justice Department official Bruce
Ohr of his security clearance and complained
again that Special Counsel Robert Mueller, leading
the ongoing investigation into possible Russia
meddling in the presidential election, had conflicts
of interest.
Speaking to reporters days after he revoked the
clearance of former Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) director John Brennan, Trump aired his
long-held grievances about the probe into possible
collusion between his 2016 presidential campaign
and Moscow.
Trump has denied any collusion and Russia has
long battle with pancreatic can-
cer, her family announced in a
statement issued by her publi-
cist.
Fred Zilian, a university
teacher from Rhode Island on a
as trying to “game the system and
avoid deportation”.
Kang said removal proceed-
ings were complex and people
needed time “both to get lawyers
to ensure that their due process
rights are protected and time just
to make sure their cases get a fair
hearing”.
The Justice Department has
been struggling to reduce a back-
log of deportation cases.
An analysis by the Govern-
ment Accountability Office
found the number of cases that
drag on from one year to the next
doubled between 2006 and 2015.
Department spokesman Devin
O’Malley said more immigration
Describing Trump’s move as
“inappropriate and deeply re-
grettable”, they insisted that
“we have never before seen the
approval or removal of secu-
rity clearances used as a political
tool, as was done in this case”.
Two of those who signed the
statement – former director
of national intelligence James
Clapper and former CIA director
Michael Hayden – have been cit-
ed by Trump as on a list of people
who could lose their clearance.
Former officials often retain
security clearance after leaving
office to allow their successors to
consult them on issues of the day.
After the White House said
that Brennan – a notable Trump
critic – had been stripped of
clearance due to his “erratic” be-
haviour, Trump admitted that it
was because of his criticism and
comments on the Trump cam-
paign’s ties with Russia.
In an interview with the Wall
Street Journal, Trump admitted
his decision on Brennan’s clear-
ance was linked to the ongoing
said it did not meddle in the election.
“I think Bruce Ohr is a disgrace. I suspect I’ll be
taking it away very quickly,” Trump said about
the clearance for an attorney in the department’s
criminal division.
Ohr is linked to a dossier on Trump’s campaign and
Russia, compiled by Christopher Steele, a former
British spy.
“Mr Mueller has a lot of conflicts also, directly
himself,” Trump said. “You know that. Mr Mueller is
highly conflicted.”
Still, Trump said Mueller should be allowed to
finish a report on potential Russia meddling in the
election that Russia has denied.
reunion with classmates from
the US Army officers’ training
school Westpoint danced with
his wife to an Aretha track play-
ing at the Motown Museum.
“I want to be sad because we
judges had been hired, but “un-
necessary and improper contin-
uances ... continue to plague the
immigration court system and
contribute to the backlog”.
Sessions said the “use of con-
tinuances as a dilatory tactic is
particularly pernicious in the im-
migration context” because peo-
ple in the US illegally who want to
remain have an incentive to delay
their deportation.
Granting continuances solely
for good cause would be an “im-
portant check on immigration
judges’ authority” and demon-
strate public interest in “expedi-
tious enforcement of the immi-
gration laws”, Sessions said.
Gulf Times
Saturday, August 18, 2018 5
AMERICA
“So I think it’s something that
had to be done,” he added.
Trump’s actions have been
widely condemned, including by
former admiral William McRa-
ven, the commander of the US
Navy SEAL raid that killed Osa-
ma bin Laden.
“Through your actions, you
have embarrassed us in the eyes
of our children, humiliated us on
the world stage and, worst of all,
divided us as a nation,” he said.
However, most of Trump’s Re-
publican allies have defended the
move or refused to condemn it
publicly.
Yesterday Trump said he
would likely remove the security
Brennan: a notable critic of clearance of Justice Department
Trump. official Bruce Ohr, who has been
targeted by Trump supporters, in
federal probe into possible col- part because his wife worked for
lusion between his campaign and a company that produced a dos-
Russia to influence the 2016 elec- sier alleging Russia had incrimi-
tion. nating evidence against the now
“I call it the rigged witch hunt, president.
[it] is a sham,” Trump was quoted “Bruce Ohr is a disgrace. I sus-
as saying in the interview. “And pect I’ll be taking it away very
these people led it!” quickly,” Trump told journalists.
Officer
uses Taser
on elderly
woman
AFP
Washington
A
US police chief has de-
fended the use of a Taser
on an 87-year-old grand-
mother cutting dandelions near
her home in the southern state of
Georgia.
lost Aretha Franklin, but I had The incident occurred last
to go in the street and dance,” Friday when a youth club worker
he told AFP, remembering how called 911 after spotting Martha
he loved her music and those al-Bishara, who does not speak
of black artists who recorded at English, using a knife to cut dan-
Motown in the 1960s. delions in the club’s grounds
“The country was riven by near her home.
race relations tension and we, Responding to the scene, po-
you can see are all white, we lice in Chatsworth, around 85
didn’t give a damn,” he said. miles (135km) north of Atlanta,
“It’s really a statement about the stunned her with a Taser and
unifying effect that music can handcuffed her after she failed to
have.” follow instructions to drop the
In 1987, Franklin became the knife.
first woman inducted into the “It was the lowest use of force
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. we could have used to simply
In 2010, Rolling Stone maga- stop that threat at the time,”
zine put her at the top of its list Chatsworth police chief Josh
of the 100 greatest singers of all Etheridge told local media.
time, male or female. However, al-Bishara’s grand-
She performed for several daughter, Martha Douhne, told
presidents, including at the NBC that “she thought she got
2009 inauguration of Barack shot”.
Obama, the country’s first Afri- She said that her grandmother
can-American head of state. is having trouble sleeping and is
Obama and his wife Michelle afraid to go outside.
paid heartfelt tribute to the Etheridge insisted that the oc-
woman who they said “helped togenarian had posed a potential
define the American experi- threat: “An 87-year-old woman
ence”. with a knife still has the ability to
US President Donald Trump hurt an officer.”
said the singer “brought joy to The officer “used the Taser, he
millions of lives and her extraor- deployed the Taser rather than
dinary legacy will thrive and in- using deadly force to stop the
spire many generations to come”. situation”, he said.
US man charged with killing his
pregnant wife and two toddlers
A Colorado man who spoke of worriedly leaving the lights on for
his pregnant wife and two small daughters when they failed to
come home as expected has been charged with killing them.
Chris Watts, 33, was taken into custody on Wednesday night and
faces three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of
tampering with a body in the Denver area of the western US state.
A TV station, Denver 7, said Watts has confessed to the bizarre
killings.
There was no immediate word on a possible motive.
The body of Watts’s 34-year-old wife Shannan, who was 15 weeks
pregnant, was found earlier on Wednesday on the property of an oil
company where the father used to work.
So were the bodies of their daughters Bella, three, and Celeste,
four, Colorado Bureau of Investigation director John Camper told
reporters on Thursday.
The three had gone missing on Monday.
Watts told TV station KMGH on Tuesday that he thought his wife
had taken the kids to a friend’s house when she did not answer
his text messages. “Last night I had every light in the house on ... I
was hoping that I would just get ran over by the kids running in the
door, just barrel-rushing me. But it didn’t happen.”
 Gulf Times
6 Saturday, August 18, 2018
ASIA
Sri Lanka ex-president claims ‘witch hunt’ over kidnap probe
AFP
Colombo
S
ri Lanka’s former president
Mahinda Rajapakse said he
was the victim of a “witch
hunt” as investigators questioned
him for the first time yesterday
over the abduction of a newspa-
per editor. Rajapakse, who ruled
his country with an iron first for
a decade, was interviewed by five
Murders leave
Rohingya camps
gripped by fear
AFP
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
A
spate of bloody killings
is fuelling unease in the
Rohingya camps on the
Bangladesh-Myanmar border,
where overstretched police are
struggling to protect nearly a
million traumatised refugees
from violent gangs.
Just 1,000 police officers guard
the labyrinthine shanties that
make up the giant camps and au-
thorities want to more than dou-
ble the force in the wake of the
murders.
Three respected community
leaders are among those slain in
what police suspect is a power
struggle between Rohingya gangs
in the refugee slums in camps
around Cox’s Bazar. One, Ari-
fullah, was stabbed 25 times on
a busy road in June and left in a
pool of blood. The other two were
killed in their shacks just days
apart by masked assailants.
Police in the crime-ridden
Cox’s Bazar district are investi-
gating 21 refugee murders, many
in recent months, which they
blame on score-settling and turf
wars.
Many in Kutupalong, the
world’s biggest refugee camp, and
others nearby, say the unchecked
violence leaves Rohingya families
at the mercy of criminals. “When
China plane slides off Manila
runway causing flight delays
AFP
Manila
A
Chinese passenger jet
slid off the runway as it
landed at Manila airport
in torrential rain forcing dozens
of flight cancellations yester-
day, as engineers struggled to
remove the stricken aircraft.
The Xiamen Airlines plane,
carrying 157 passengers and
eight crew, landed on its second
attempt before skidding onto
the grass and ripping off its left
engine late Thursday evening,
airport general manager Ed
Monreal said.
All on board were safely evac-
uated from the aircraft with no
serious injuries. But nearly 24
hours after the accident, res-
cue crews were still unable to
remove the plane, forcing the
airport to cancel take-offs and
landings from the largest of its
two runways.
An official statement said the
runway would remain closed
until around 5am (Saturday) as
two cranes were still being put
in place to lift the plane. Civil
Aviation Authority of the Phil-
ippines spokesman Eric Apo-
lonio said at least 67 local and
international flights were can-
celled yesterday.
He told AFP that recovery
efforts were being hampered
by recent heavy rains that had
softened the ground around
the runway, making it difficult
to lift the aircraft. Four people
suffered “superficial scratches”
as they evacuated the Boeing
737-800 jet, which had flown to
the Philippine capital from Xia-
detectives over the 2008 kidnap-
ping and torture of Nation weekly
news editor Keith Noyahr, near
the end of Sri Lanka’s bloody civil
war.
Federal investigators believe a
group of military officials impli-
cated over Noyahr’s abduction
were also responsible for the Jan-
uary 2009 murder of another ed-
itor fiercely critical of Rajapakse.
Rajapakse was questioned after
parliamentary speaker Karu Ja-
US sanctions Myanmar military commanders
The US government yesterday
hit four Myanmar military
commanders and two military
units with punitive sanctions,
accusing them of “serious
human rights abuses” and
“ethnic cleansing” in violently
expelling minority Rohingya
from their homes.
Military and border guard
commanders Aung Kyaw Zaw,
Khin Maung Soe, Khin Hlaing,
and Thura San Lwin were
accused of leading violent
campaigns against the Muslim
the gangs come into the camps,
people call the police. But they
only arrive after the criminals
are gone,” said 16-year-old Runa
Akter, whose father disappeared
in July with a relative who was
later found dead. Police only filed
a case after her uncle’s body was
found, she said.
“We are scared. We are espe-
cially worried about my brother,
because there have been threats
to kidnap and kill him,” the anx-
ious teenager told AFP. “I don’t
want to lose anyone else in my
family.”
A police investigator, SM Atiq
Ullah, said no suspects had been
identified so far. Criminals have
long preyed on the Rohingya
camps however. Police say refu-
Workers try to remove a Xiamen Air Boeing 737-800 from
the tarmac after it skidded off at the runway of Ninoy Aquino
International airport in Paranaque, Metro Manila.
Rescue workers walk past the detached left engine of a Xiamen Air
Boeing 737-800.
men in southeast China, airport
general manager Monreal said.
“With God’s blessings all
passengers were able to evacu-
ate safely,” Monreal said, adding
the cause of the incident was
under investigation.
yasuriya told police he telephoned
the president in 2008 to ask for
help after Noyahr was abducted
— a claim the former president
has disputed. “I don’t remember
such a telephone conversation,”
Rajapakse told reporters after he
was questioned at home. He said
he was not being directly accused
of involvement in the abduc-
tion, but his government at the
time was being smeared. “This
questioning is part of mount-
Rohingya in Rakhine state as
well as minorities in Kachin
and Shan states. “Burmese
security forces have engaged
in violent campaigns against
ethnic minority communities
across Burma, including ethnic
cleansing, massacres, sexual
assault, extrajudicial killings,
and other serious human rights
abuses,” said Sigal Mandelker,
Under Secretary for Terrorism
and Financial Intelligence in the
US Treasury, which announced
the sanctions.
gees with ties to Bangladeshi
drug and human trafficking net-
works have sold Rohingya girls
into sex and recruited mules to
courier methamphetamine.
The scourge has intensi-
fied since an army crackdown
in Buddhist-dominated Myan-
mar drove nearly 700,000 of the
stateless Muslim minority into
Bangladesh last year.
Hundreds of Rohingya refu-
gees have been arrested since
the August influx for rape, drug
offences, human trafficking and
weapons possession, among oth-
er crimes.
Afruzul Haque Tutul, a sen-
ior police officer who until mid-
August was deputy chief of Cox’s
Bazar, said gangs cashing in on
The second runway for
smaller aircraft remained open,
but the authorities said the ac-
cident has delayed thousands
of passengers, including holi-
daymakers travelling ahead of a
long weekend.
ing pressure on me, to corner me
and to hurt me,” he said. “There
is a political motive behind this.
This is a political witch hunt, a
vendetta.”
The high-profile interrogation
comes as Rajapakse engineers a
return to politics, posing a new
threat to President Maithripala
Sirisena, whose Freedom Party
has split. Rajapakse has emerged
as the de facto leader of a rival
political faction and is expected
the human misery were extorting
“huge money” from new refu-
gees desperate for land, shelter
and food. Internal feuds over ter-
ritory quickly turn deadly.
Among the bodies was Ariful-
lah, one of the “mahjis” or com-
munity leaders tasked with over-
seeing day-to-day camp affairs.
As an English speaker, he
met with dignitaries and liaised
closely with police — a posi-
tion of power Tutul says could
have irked rivals. Arifullah’s wife
blamed Rohingya militants for
the death of her husband who
was surrounded and stabbed by a
group of men.
She told AFP that Ariful-
lah was a “big critic” of the Ar-
akan Rohingya Salvation Army
(ARSA). Bangladesh denies the
ARSA have a foothold in the
camps and the group distanced
itself from crime in a rare Janu-
ary statement issued after two
mahjis were murdered.
“It is very challenging, and
sometimes threatening, being
a mahji,” said Arifullah’s right-
hand man, Abdur Rahim, who
took over four days after his
friend’s killing.
Just a day earlier, a mahji in a
neighbouring camp was savagely
beaten by a mob but there were
not enough police to deter vio-
lence, he told AFP in his bamboo
office in Balukhali camp. Tutul
said patrols had been increased
Dead whale shark found in Manila
Residents look at a dead whale shark at the Navotas Fish Port in Manila yesterday. The whale shark, which measured about 5m long and
weighed 800kg, was found floating at the bay, according to the Philippine Coast Guard. Its cause of death is still unclear.
Nepal crime reform sparks press freedom concerns
AFP
Kathmandu
N
epal introduced a new
criminal code yesterday
that makes sharing confi-
dential information a jailable of-
fence, sparking concerns among
journalists that the laws could be
used to muzzle the press.
Media have warned that the
Communist-led government,
which has shown an increasing
intolerance for dissent, could use
the vaguely worded code to si-
to name his choice of candidate
to contest presidential elections
slated for 2019.
Rajapakse lost his re-election
bid in January 2015 and also failed
to secure the prime minister post
after parliamentary elections
later that year. The former leader
and members of his family are
under investigation for murder
and large-scale financial fraud
during his decade as president.
All deny any wrongdoing.
Bangladeshi police patrolling in a Rohingya refugee camp in Teknaf.
but forces were spread thin.
Some 1,500 additional officers
had been requested from Dhaka,
he added.
“Definitely it’s a huge task.
We are trying our best to con-
trol the area,” he told AFP. As
the body count climbed, Bang-
ladesh’s Daily Star newspaper in
July printed an editorial declar-
ing it “amateurish to hope that
less than 3,000 police would be
enough” to guard one million
desperate people.
The murders and other unex-
plained crimes have eroded trust
in law enforcement and under-
lence critics. The new laws make
publishing private information,
recording audio or taking pic-
tures without permission pun-
ishable by up to three years in jail
and a fine. Publishing content
that damages a person’s reputa-
tion directly or through satire is
also subject to the same sentence.
“These general laws can be
misused to silence journalists
and discourage investigative re-
porting,” Federation of Nepalese
Journalists president Govinda
Acharya told AFP.
Prominent political cartoon-
A total of 17 journalists and
media workers were killed during
Rajapakse’s presidency. Noyahr’s
abduction, which prompted
widespread criticism, came after
he published an article criticis-
ing a top military commander at
the height of the government’s
war against Tamil rebels. He was
snatched from outside his home
near Colombo as he returned
from work, and was released —
battered and bruised — in the
scored gaps in policing. On one
recent visit, AFP reporters saw a
police unit armed with shotguns
and sticks patrol a camp near
where two men were found dead
in July.
But a community leader,
who requested anonymity, said:
“There are no police after mid-
night. Even during the day, dur-
ing their shifts, they often stay in
their posts.”
Few officers speak the Ro-
hingya language, further ham-
pering inquiries. Fear has kept
mouths shut.
“That is why Rohingyas do not
ist Rajesh KC warned that the
new laws mark a slide towards
“authoritarianism”. “Our work is
to point out mistakes and abuses
of those in power, but these laws
can force self-censorship,” said
KC, whose satirical cartoons ap-
pear regularly in top newspapers.
“This harms our democracy,” he
added.
The Kathmandu Post news-
paper called for the government
to reconsider the laws, which
are worded in a way that leaves
“much room for interpretations”
and could be used to prosecute
streets of a suburb of Colombo a
few hours later. Prosecutors al-
lege he was taken away in a white
van and beaten up at a safe house
run by the Directorate of Military
Intelligence (DMI). Noyahr has
since moved to Australia.
Investigators also believe the
DMI was behind the murder of
Lasantha Wickrematunga, an ed-
itor who had accused Rajapakse’s
brother Gotabhaya of taking
kickbacks for arms purchases.
come forward. They are scared.
In your town, if criminals or ter-
rorists or robbers were there,
definitely you will be scared,” Tu-
tul said. Aid groups are installing
floodlights to improve safety, es-
pecially for women, and police
checkposts are planned for vul-
nerable areas of the dense slums.
But Mohibullah, an influential
Rohingya leader, said policing
such ghetto-like conditions was
difficult and crime was inevita-
ble.
“It is very bad,” he told AFP.
“But, we think the refugee life is
like this.”
journalists, an editorial said. Ne-
pal’s media industry has boomed
since the monarchy was over-
thrown a decade ago following a
brutal civil war, spawning dozens
of newspapers and news chan-
nels.
A new constitution passed in
2015 enshrines the right to press
freedom and bans censorship of
news, which was common under
the monarchy. But the Himalayan
nation is ranked just 106 out of
180 countries in the Reporters
Without Borders press freedom
index.

73rd Independence Day of Indonesia
A cadet carries the Indonesian national flag during a ceremony for the 73rd Independence Day celebrations at the
presidential palace in Jakarta yesterday.
China sacks officials
in vaccine scandal
AFP
Beijing
C
hina’s Communist Party
has sacked a dozen pro-
vincial and local officials
and vowed to punish a pharma-
ceutical firm over a vaccine scan-
dal that inflamed public fears
over the safety of domestically
produced drugs.
The government has been
struggling to shore up public
confidence in the pharmaceutical
sector following the revelation
last month that a major Chinese
manufacturer of rabies vaccines
was found to have fabricated
records and was ordered to cease
production.
The government has said the
suspect rabies vaccines did not
enter the market but the case
provoked unusually strong out-
rage online from consumers
fed up with recurring product-
safety scandals, particularly in
the drug sector. The CEO of the
company in question, Chang-
chun Changsheng Biotechnology
in the northeast province of Jilin,
has been arrested along with 14
other people in connection with
the scandal.
The first political casualties
fell on Thursday as a dozen of-
ficials were removed from office,
including Jilin’s deputy governor
Jin Yuhui, according to the offi-
cial Xinhua news agency.
Jin was in charge of monitor-
ing the safety of food and phar-
maceuticals. The decision to
sack him was made at a meeting
of the ruling Communist Party’s
elite seven-member standing
committee, led by President Xi
Jinping. “Those who break the
law and jeopardise public safety,
notably in the matter of vaccines
and medicines, should be severe-
ly punished,” Xinhua reported,
citing the meeting’s conclusions.
The standing committee also
asked for the resignations of
three other officials: The vice
chairman of a provincial com-
mittee, the mayor of Jilin’s capi-
tal, Changchun, and the deputy
head of the State Administration
for Market Regulation. Another
Tonga backs down on Pacific plan to pressure China on debt
Tonga’s prime minister yesterday
backed down on calls for Pacific
island nations to collectively lobby
China to forgive their mounting
debts, after a source said Beijing
had complained about the plan.
Tonga is one of eight island na-
tions in the South Pacific carrying
significant debt to China, and
had started building support in
the region to press the lender to
cancel repayments. Pacific nations
were due to progress the plan at
a forum of regional leaders sched-
uled to be held in the tiny island
nation of Nauru early next month,
Tongan Prime Minister Akilisi Po-
hiva told Reuters. In a statement,
Pohiva said “after further reflec-
tion” he now believed the forum
was not the proper platform to
A child receiving a vaccination shot at the local disease control and prevention centre in Jiujiang in China’s
central Jiangxi province.
eight provincial and city officials
were removed from office by the
regional leadership.
The former deputy chief of
the now defunct China Food
and Drug Administration will
be investigated by the party’s
anti-graft agency, Xinhua said.
Another 35 non-centrally ad-
ministered officials “will be held
accountable”, the agency said
without elaborating.
China is regularly hit by scan-
dals involving sub-par or toxic
food, drugs and other products,
despite repeated promises by the
government to address the prob-
lem.
Since the latest case came to
light, the authorities have an-
nounced a nationwide inspec-
tion of laboratories producing
vaccines, but many Chinese par-
ents say they no longer have con-
fidence in the medicines admin-
istered to their children. China’s
cabinet, the State Council, held a
meeting Thursday on the inves-
tigation into the latest case.
The company will face a fine
and all of its “illegal profits” will
be confiscated, the officials Xin-
discuss Chinese debt, and that Pa-
cific nations should each find their
own solutions. “Each Pacific Island
country has its particular national
conditions and different needs for
foreign loan, and it’s up to each
government to independently
seek solutions through bilateral
channels,” Pohiva said.
A source said the Tongan govern-
ment received a complaint from
China shortly after Pohiva called
on indebted island nations to
consider a co-ordinated response
to China. In the interview with
Reuters, Pohiva said Pacific na-
tions who borrowed from China
should “collectively work together
to find a way out”. In yesterday’s
statement, Pohiva said China was
the only country willing to provide
Food and Drug Administration officials checking on vaccines for
rabies at the Disease Control and Prevention Center in Huaibei in
China’s eastern Anhui province.
hua news agency reported yes-
terday. “In its reckless pursuit of
profits, the company committed
unlawful acts of grave nature,”
Xinhua said in its report on the
meeting. The case exposed su-
pervision failures by local gov-
ernments and regulatory agen-
cies, it said. “We must conduct
thorough safety checks on vac-
large-scale concessional loans
to help Tonga rebuild its capital
after riots in 2006 and over the
years had provided a range of
grants that had “greatly facilitated
Tonga’s development”. A recent
Reuters analysis of the financial
books of South Pacific island
nations showed China’s lending
programmes have gone from al-
most zero to over $1.3bn currently
outstanding in a decade. The high
debt burdens among small econo-
mies with little earning power has
stoked fears the region could fall
into financial distress and become
more susceptible to diplomatic
pressure from Beijing. China’s For-
eign Ministry did not immediately
respond to a request for com-
ment on the statement. It has also
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo hands over the national flag to be raised during the country’s 73rd Independence
Day celebrations at the presidential palace in Jakarta.
cine production ... and close all
loopholes in the vaccine regula-
tory mechanism,” Premier Li Ke-
qiang said at a meeting of China’s
State Council, according to Xin-
hua.
“Efforts should be made to
build public confidence in the
safety and effectiveness of vac-
cines made in China,” Li said.
not yet commented on Pohiva’s
original remarks. China has previ-
ously said it retained good rela-
tions with Tonga and there was no
evidence China was responsible
for creating unsustainable debt in
the region. Despite holding little
economic sway, each small Pacific
state represents a vote at the
United Nations. They also control
vast swathes of resource-rich
ocean and hold strategic military
significance. The issue of Chinese
debt levels — Tonga owes $115mn
to Beijing, representing about one-
third the size of its annual gross
domestic product — has become
more pressing after China took
possession of a Sri Lankan port as
Colombo struggled with a spiral-
ling debt crisis.
ASIA/AUSTRALASIA
Exiled Chinese Uighurs
feel state’s long reach
AFP
Paris
S
itting on the terrace of a
Paris cafe, a young Chi-
nese woman glances
nervously at her mobile phone
as a message from a police of-
ficer in her native Xinjiang re-
gion pops up.
A member of China’s Mus-
lim Uighur minority, Mariem
travelled halfway around the
world to study in France, but
has found herself pulled into a
mass security crackdown under
way back home.
“They want to know where
I live, what I do, how I spend
the weekend. They want me to
give them information about
Uighurs here. They threaten
my family who beg me do do
what they ask,” she said, visibly
stressed.
Mariem is one of several
ethnic Uighurs in France who
shared accounts of harassment
by Chinese authorities and ex-
pressed concern for missing
family members caught up in
sweeping security operations
back home. All their names
have been changed to protect
their identity.
AFP saw messages several
Uighurs received from the au-
thorities on China’s messaging
application WeChat. “Do you
have your degree now?” one of-
ficer asks a student. “Send me
your address and tell me who
you work for and what your de-
gree is,” reads another message.
“Why don’t you send photos?”
another person returning from
holidays is asked.
On Monday, Chinese officials
were grilled by a UN human
rights committee in Geneva
over reports that it is holding
up to 1mn Muslims, mostly Ui-
ghurs, in camps under cover of
a massive anti-terrorism drive.
China has pointed to a series
of attacks in Xinjiang by sus-
Waterbomber pilot killed fighting Australian wildfires
A helicopter pilot died yester-
day when his aircraft crashed
while waterbombing rare winter
bushfires in Australia that have
swept across its drought-strick-
en southeast, police said. About
75 fires are burning across New
South Wales state, fanned by
dry conditions that prompted
authorities to declare a drought
across the state last week.
The pilot was found dead at
the scene after his helicopter
crashed near Ulladulla, about
Australia teen breaches Apple’s secure network
A schoolboy who “dreamed” of
working for Apple hacked the
firm’s computer systems, Austral-
ian media has reported, although
the tech giant said yesterday
no customer data was compro-
mised. The Children’s Court of
Victoria was told the teenager
broke into Apple’s mainframe — a
large, powerful data process-
ing system — from his home in
the suburbs of Melbourne and
downloaded 90GB of secure files,
The Age reported late Thursday.
The boy, then aged 16, accessed
the system multiple times over a
pected radicals in recent years
as justification for a draconian
clampdown in a region with a
long history of tensions with
Beijing. But it has called the
reports of internment camps
“completely untrue”, saying
that the “education and train-
ing centres” to which “minor
criminals” are assigned serve
merely “to assist in their reha-
bilitation and reintegration”.
Several NGOs and China ex-
perts believe that what is under
way is far more sinister, saying
accounts from former detainees
and official documents point to
a massive programme of politi-
cal and cultural indoctrination.
Last year, China banned “ab-
normally long” beards and veils
in Xinjiang and ordered all car
owners in the region to install
GPS tracking devices.
In December, New York-
based Human Rights Watch re-
ported that Xinjiang authorities
were planning to collect biodata
from all residents. “An Orwelli-
an society has been put in place
in Xinjiang,” Thierry Kellner, a
politics professor at Belgium’s
Universite Libre de Bruxelles
specialising in China and the
Muslim world, told AFP.
A report published by US-
based security analysis group
Jamestown Foundation in May
estimated that “at least several
hundred thousand and possi-
bly just over one million” peo-
ple had been interned as part
of a “pacification drive”. “This
is unprecedented and exceeds
anything that China has done in
any other region including Ti-
bet,” the report’s author, Adrian
Zenz, told AFP.
Surveillance of overseas Ui-
ghurs is also “a very common
practice”, Kellner said. Ques-
tioned about the allegations
the Chinese foreign ministry
said it was “not aware” of any
such practices. Nijat, a young
man who arrived in France on a
student visa in 2007, deleted his
180km south of Sydney, at
around 2pm police said, but did
not identify him.
“The pilot put his life on the line
to protect and keep our com-
munity safe and he has paid the
ultimate price,” regional politi-
cian Shelley Hancock told the
Milton-Ulladulla Times.
Fire authorities say the unsea-
sonal blazes, regular in summer
but rare in winter, have flared
because of dry conditions that
have blighted vast tracts of
year as he was a fan of Apple and
had “dreamed of” working for
the US firm, the newspaper said,
citing his lawyer. Apple said in
a statement that its teams “discov-
ered the unauthorised access,
contained it, and reported the
incident to law enforcement”.
The firm, which earlier this month
became the first private-sector
company to surpass US$1tn in
market value, said it wanted “to
assure our customers that at no
point during this incident was
their personal data compro-
mised”. An international inves-
Gulf Times
Saturday, August 18, 2018 7
WeChat account after getting a
call from a person claiming to
be a police officer who asked for
a copy of his passport and visa.
“He said if I didn’t co-operate
my family would get into trou-
ble,” he told AFP.
For months now he has
been without news of his sister
and his parents, who asked his
brother in Canada to stop call-
ing home, fearing the contact
was inviting unwelcome atten-
tion.
At a Uighur rally in Paris in
July, AFP also met Adil, who
held aloft a photograph of his
grandmother and brother, who
he claimed were being held in
camps in Xinjiang. Adil first
moved to Turkey, which has
close religious and cultural ties
to Xinjiang.
But after Turkey began
cracking down on “anti-Chi-
nese” forces at Beijing’s request
he fled to France, leaving behind
another brother, of whom he
also has no news.
Mariem says her family is
also in the state’s sights. One of
her brothers has been arrested
and the other has disappeared.
“I cannot get hold of him. When
I ask about him I get conflicting
information. I think he has been
sent to a camp,” she said.
She fears she could face a
similar fate if forced to return
home to renew her passport,
a service usually available to
overseas citizens through their
embassy but which has been
denied to her. Questioned by
AFP about similar claims of
passport “blackmail” from
other France-based Uighurs,
the Chinese foreign ministry
said that the issuing of travel
documents was China’s “inter-
nal affairs”.
“Chinese embassies and
consulates have always been is-
suing passports and other travel
documents to overseas Chinese
citizens in accordance with
laws and regulations,” it added.
grazing and crop land. Hundreds
of firefighters and dozens of
aircraft are battling the fires that
have so far destroyed at least
two houses, both near Bega,
a town 100 miles south from
Ulladulla.
Last month was Australia’s fifth-
driest July on record, in New
South Wales’ driest January-to-
July period since 1965.
The weather bureau has fore-
cast warm, dry conditions to
continue until November.
tigation was launched after the
discovery involving the FBI and
the Australian Federal Police, The
Age reported. The federal police
said it could not comment on the
case as it is still before the court.
The Age said police raided the
boy’s home last year and found
hacking files and instructions
saved in a folder called “hacky
hack hack”. “Two Apple laptops
were seized and the serial num-
bers matched the serial numbers
of the devices which accessed the
internal systems,” a prosecutor
was reported as saying.
 Gulf Times
8 Saturday, August 18, 2018

BRITAIN
VIOLENCE
Four children stabbed
as gangs clash in street
A teenager was fighting for life yesterday
and another was seriously injured after four
schoolchildren were stabbed in the latest
eruption of street violence in south London.
The group, thought to be 15 or 16, were attacked
as fighting between two gangs broke out on a
Camberwell estate – minutes from where drill
rapper Siddique Kamara, known as Incognito,
was stabbed to death this month. All four were
taken to hospital after the attack outside Landor
House at about 5.25pm on Thursday night.
Six youths, aged around 15 or 16, were being
questioned at police stations in south London
on suspicion of violent disorder and grievous
bodily harm. The crime scene was left littered
with bloodied clothing, trainers and medical
equipment.
INITIATIVE
Councils snub WWI
silhouette memorial
Standing tall, a red poppy on their chests, they are
a haunting tribute to the millions who fell in World
War I. The 6ft aluminium and Perspex Tommy
silhouettes have been purchased by cities around
the world, where they will be proudly displayed
next to memorial sites. But for hundreds of British
councils, it seems honouring those who made the
ultimate sacrifice is not a priority. Former head of
the Army Lord Dannatt personally wrote to 433
local authority leaders asking them to support
the charity campaign. So far, however, only 160
councils have agreed to make a £750 donation to
buy one of the silhouettes to display in their town
or city for the centenary of the war. The head of
the charity behind the initiative said the response
was “incredibly disappointing” and accused the
councils of making pitiful excuses.
POULTRY
Farmers demand big
increase in egg prices
Farmers are pushing for a big rise in egg prices
after a warning that higher feed costs have left
many of them on the brink of collapse. The high
cost of chicken feed and plunging farm-gate prices
have left many free-range producers ‘desperate’
for retail price rises. The summer drought has left
farmers paying up to 50% more for feed than a
year ago, says Robert Gooch, head of the British
Free Range Egg Producers Association. Calling for
an immediate price increase, he said the feed bill
for the lifetime of an average flock of 16,000 birds
is now up to £40,000 higher than at the start of
2018. He also wants supermarkets to introduce
special contracts which link the prices of eggs and
feed. Somerset free-range producer Blackdown
Hills went bust this week with a loss of 18 jobs and
Gooch warns that more could follow.
INVESTIGATION
Westminster suspect
‘was in London for visa’
The family of the suspect in the alleged
Westminster terror attack have claimed he
was in London to get a visa to travel to Sudan
to visit his “sick mother”. Detectives were
yesterday continuing to interview Salih Khater,
29, at a police station in south London after
he allegedly drove a car into cyclists and
pedestrians before crashing into a barrier
outside the Houses of Parliament. The British
national, originally from Sudan, had driven to
the capital from his home in Birmingham on
Monday evening. He is thought to have driven
around Westminster for more than 90 minutes
before crashing into the barrier shortly before
7.40am on Tuesday. Khater was arrested by
firearms officers and appears to have been
lucky not to have been shot.
TRAGEDY
Top teacher diagnosed
with brain tumour
One of Britain’s most renowned headteachers
has revealed that she has the same incurable
brain cancer that killed former minister Tessa
Jowell. Bernice McCabe, a friend and aide to
the Prince of Wales, spoke of her diagnosis of a
grade 4 glioblastoma as she backed a campaign
to make immunotherapy available on the NHS
for brain tumours. After surgery to remove 90%
of the tumour, McCabe, 65, has received the life-
extending drug ipilimumab privately at University
College London hospital. The size of the remaining
tumour has shrunk by more than half. She says
it is her “mission” to help raise £250,000 via the
JustGiving website to run the first NHS trials, which
are due to start in October. McCabe stepped down
as head of North London Collegiate School in
Edgware, after 20 years last August.

My judge role
will inspire
women, says
Outcry after
Thompson
Evening Standard
MPs call for
easing rules
London

I
t’s “terribly important”
for girls to see women in
top-flight careers on the
big screen, according to Dame

on vaping
Emma Thompson who plays
a high court judge in her new
film.
The Oscar winner, 59, was
speaking at the London pre-
miere of The Children Act, an
adaptation of the Ian McEwan
novel of the same name. By Colin Fernandez/ Daily Mail mittee had been swayed by cigarettes “was still developing”
Thompson’s character is a London the vaping industry. Simon and there was “little evidence”
judge who finds herself con- Capewell, professor in Public of their effectiveness or safety as
flicted by the case of a teenager Health and Policy from Liv- medicinal products. A series of

who has leukaemia but is refus-
ing treatment.
She said it was the first time a
female judge had been the cen-
tral character of a film.
“If you think about the way
in which the iconography was
changed when Barack Obama
became president,” she said.
“In exactly the same way, as
soon as you see a powerful role,
a government role, a role like
this, being taken by a woman,
as a young woman you see that
and think, ‘Oh I can be a judge’.”
She argued that more needed
to be done to help women and
people from less advantaged
backgrounds to break into the
judiciary.
“It’s all right having dreams
and everything, but they have to
be backed up by the intentions
of your government and if they
are cutting educational oppor-
tunities for people, in particu-
lar people from lower-income
environments, the pool from
which people are going to be
able to come up to become judg-
es, if they are women, is getting
smaller and smaller,” she said.
“My friends who are judges
are saying it is getting smaller,
necessarily because of what has
happened with austerity and
Brexit.”
She added: “This is all about
educational opportunities,
and also about challenging the
automatic routes that mostly
men, mostly white men, can
take through Eton and Ox-
bridge.”
The Children Act will release
in UK cinemas on August 24.
A
row erupted on Thursday
night over a hugely con-
troversial call by MPs to
relax rules surrounding e-ciga-
rettes.
They said ministers should
conduct an urgent review to
make it easier to get the devices
on prescription.
And they said bans on vaping
in public places – such as in hos-
pitals, restaurants or on buses –
should be reconsidered.
However, leading scientists
called the report by the Com-
mons science and technology
committee ‘one-sided’. They ac-
cused the MPs of largely taking
evidence from researchers who
had published studies positive to
e-cigarettes and of ignoring evi-
dence highlighting health risks.
The MPs also want the tobacco
industry to be given greater free-
dom to advertise the devices as a
less harmful option for smokers.
E-cigarette makers are cur-
rently banned from making any
health claims for their prod-
ucts in advertising. The report
claimed that widespread con-
cerns that e-cigarettes acted as a
gateway to conventional smok-
ing, particularly for the young,
had ‘not materialised’. It comes
despite a string of reports – in-
cluding one this week from Brit-
ish scientists – warning that e-
cigarette vapour can cause lung
damage.
Earlier this year, a panel of
lung experts described vaping as
a ‘one-way bridge’ to smoking
tobacco and said it could spark a
British actress Emma Thompson (left) grabs British-American actress Hayley Atwell on the red carpet health crisis in decades to come.
as they arrive to attend the UK premiere of the film The Children Act in London on Thursday. Scientists claimed the com-
erpool University said: “The
committee has concentrated
solely on ‘experts’ who are e-
cig champions. More balanced
reviews of the evidence by the
World Health Organisation, (US)
Food and Drug Administration
have concluded that e-cigs are
no better for quitting smoking
than things like nicotine gum,
patches or tablets.
“E-cigs in teens are a gateway
to subsequent smoking lit ciga-
rettes and e-cig vapour contains
a large number of toxins which in
time will obviously harm users,
and bystanders.”
Martin McKee, professor of
European Public Health at the
London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, added: “It is
simply impossible to know how
safe a product is when it has only
been used widely for a relatively
short time.”
E-cigarettes, which first went
on sale in the UK in 2007, have
been at the centre of contro-
versy over whether they really
are a safe alternative to smok-
ing. Around 2.9mn in the UK are
currently using the devices, with
around 470,000 using them to
stop smoking.
Last month, anti-tobacco
campaigners called on the gov-
ernment to act to prevent a new
kind of e-cigarette from tak-
ing off among children, as it has
done already in America. The
Juul vape pens offer flavours
such as mango and glacier mint.
In March this year, the Na-
tional Institute for Health and
Care Excellence (NICE) said the
long-term health impact of e-
reports have highlighted how e-
cigarettes still have many nega-
tive health effects. These include
increasing the risk of the lung
condition chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease, lung damage
and infection. Nicotine – which
is contained in e-cigarettes – is
itself an addictive substance that
increases heart rate and blood
pressure.
The World Health Organisa-
tion is among bodies to call for
stiff regulation of e-cigarettes
and bans on their indoor use.
However, Public Health Eng-
land claimed recently that e-
cigarettes are “95% safer” than
conventional smoking.
That claim was repeated in
yesterday’s report which said:
“Regulations should be relaxed
relating to e-cigarettes licens-
ing, prescribing and advertising
of their health benefits.”
Chairman Norman Lamb
added: “If used correctly, e-cig-
arettes could be a key weapon in
the NHS stop-smoking arsenal.”
The committee said that while
“uncertainties” remained about
the long-term health impact of
the devices, they presented “an
opportunity to significantly ac-
celerate already declining smok-
ing rates”.
The MPs also called for ‘wid-
er debate’ on vaping in public
spaces. While vaping is not il-
legal inside pubs or restaurants,
many major pub and restaurant
chains such as Wetherspoons
have imposed bans indoors as it
is difficult from a distance to tell
whether someone is smoking or
vaping.

Reality show
Sadiq Khan consults disaster Details sought on
use of child spies
planners over no-deal Brexit Guardian News & Media She said the police and in-
London telligence agencies needed to
Reuters the increased chances of a “no- tions for a no-deal scenario. “strike an appropriate balance
London deal” Brexit. The government will start between preventing wrong-

P
“Even ministers now admit sending out advice to firms about arliament’s human doing and ensuring that those
that crashing out of the EU with such a scenario in August and rights committee has involved in assignments are

L
ondon’s mayor Sadiq
Khan said yesterday he
had asked the organisa-
tion that deals with militant at-
tacks and disasters in the British
capital to assess the impact of a
“no-deal” Brexit on access to
medicines and food and on law
and order.
Khan said he would consult
the London Resilience Forum,
which plans responses to disas-
ters such as the Grenfell Tower
Fire, about the implications for
Britain of crashing out of the
European Union without a deal,
saying that such a “catastrophic”
outcome looked more likely than
ever.
Britain is due to leave the EU in
March 2019, and with time run-
ning out to secure agreement on
future ties, both British and Eu-
ropean politicians are warning of
no deal is now more likely than
ever,” Khan said in a statement.
“We are now left with no
choice but to plan for a no-deal
scenario.”
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt
told ITV News in an interview on
Thursday that leaving the EU in a
“messy, ugly divorce” would be a
mistake that Britain would “re-
gret for generations”, although he
tweeted yesterday to clarify that
he believed Britain would “sur-
vive and prosper without a deal”.
Denmark’s Finance Minister
Kristian Jensen told BBC radio
he believed the odds that there
would be no deal in Brexit ne-
gotiations were 50/50, echoing
comments by Latvia’s foreign
minister earlier in the week.
Khan criticised the lack of
engagement by the government
with companies over prepara-
September, a British official said.
Prime Minister Theresa May
has repeatedly said that noth-
ing is agreed until everything is
agreed in Brexit talks, so a no-
deal Brexit would jeopardise an
accord reached, in principle, for
a transition phase that would
extend close ties to the bloc until
December 2020.
Khan said he would consult
businesses over their contingen-
cy plans, with agreement over
the “settled status” of European
employees dependent on suc-
cessful talks with the EU over the
future relationship with the bloc.
“I am calling on Theresa May
to do the only sensible and hu-
mane thing and extend the offer
of settled status to EU citizens
currently living in the UK now,
regardless of the outcome of the
negotiations,” Khan said.
asked the government
to explain how the police and
security services’ use of child
spies is reconciled with inter-
national law.
In the first step of a poten-
tial investigation into child
spies, the joint committee on
human rights has asked the
Home Office to explain how
many juveniles have been re-
cruited as so-called covert
human intelligence sources
(CHIS), their ages and the
type of crimes they are being
used to investigate.
The committee’s chair,
Harriet Harman, a Labour
former solicitor general, wrote
to Ben Wallace, the security
A contestant, Hardeep Singh Kohli, arrives at the house as minister, saying assurances he
the reality show Celebrity Big Brother starts, in Elstree, near had so far given about the use
London, on Thursday. of child spies had served only
to deepen concern.
given appropriate protec-
tions”.
Human rights groups and
politicians responded with
shock last month after the
Guardian reported that the
Home Office believed child
spies could be of use during
investigations into terrorist,
gangs, drug trafficking and
even child sexual exploita-
tion.
The Home Office claimed
juvenile CHIS could offer
“unique access to informa-
tion” on such cases, after
a Lords committee ques-
tioned an attempt to amend
delegated legislation that
would give agencies more
power to deploy them. The
committee established that
some of the spies were aged
under 16.
 Gulf Times
Saturday, August 18, 2018 9

EUROPE
Germany
to send
8,000
Italy govt acts to punish
soldiers
to Nato
exercise
motorway bridge firm
Reuters
Genoa

DPA

I
Berlin taly’s government has
launched a formal procedure
aimed at revoking conces-

T
he German armed forces
plan to contribute some
8,000 troops, 100 tanks
and a total of more than 2,000
vehicles to what could be the
largest the Nato military alli-
ance exercise since the end of the
Cold War.
Germany’s contribution
would be among the largest to
the Trident Juncture exercises,
scheduled for between October
25 and November 7 in Norway.
The operation set to involve
some 40,000 soldiers from 30
Nato and Nato-partner states.
The aim of Trident Juncture is
to “ensure that Nato forces are
trained and ready, display ... col-
lective capabilities and to show
that Nato stands strong”, ac-
cording to the Norwegian Armed
Forces.
Costs are to reach €90mn
($102.6mn), according to the
German ministry of defence.
The North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation (Nato) has poured
more resources into its military
exercises since the beginning of
the Ukraine crisis in 2014.
Such exercises also serve as
a deterrent to Russia, perceived
by eastern Nato member states
Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, and
Latvia to be a threat.
Norway is one of the five Nato
member states bordering Russia.
Moscow has also been beefing
up its exercises near the Nato al-
liance territory since 2014.
The “Sapad” exercise in Be-
larus, which borders Lithuania,
Latvia and Poland, caused quite
a stir a year ago.
According to Russian sources,
12,700 soldiers were involved.
According to Western sourc-
es the number was 60,000 to
80,000.
sions held by Autostrade per
l’Italia to operate toll highways
after a bridge it managed col-
lapsed this week, killing at least
38 people.
Some members of the govern-
ing coalition had earlier hinted
that less drastic steps, such as
a fine, may be considered, but
the leaders of both ruling par-
ties vowed a hard line and Prime
Minister Giuseppe Conte later
said he had put words into ac-
tion.
“Today the government ... has
formally sent to Autostrade per
l’Italia the letter of complaint
which launches the process for
revoking the concession,” Conte
said in a statement.
The statement said that the
disaster was the fault of the
company which “had the obli-
gation to look after the ordinary
and extraordinary maintenance
of the motorway”.
It added that Autostrade now
had 15 days to present its coun-
ter-arguments.
Matteo Salvini, deputy prime
minister and head of the right-
wing League party that gov-
erns with the 5-Star Movement
(M5S), said that the procedure
for revoking the licence would
take “weeks or months”.
Some sector experts estimate
that if it revokes the conces-
sion, the government will have
to pay Autostrade up to €20bn
($22.85bn) in compensation for
investments the firm has made,
though the government denies
this.
Shares in Atlantia, parent
company of Autostrade, plunged
more than 30% after the bridge
collapse in Genoa on Tuesday,
but recovered somewhat yester-
day, closing up 5.7%.
Relatives pray yesterday near the coffins of the victims of the
Morandi bridge’s collapse, in Genoa.
Atlantia is controlled by the
holding company for the Benet-
ton family, famous for its cloth-
ing empire.
Conte said that from now on
the government would com-
pel holders of concessions in all
Italy’s creaking infrastructures
to invest more of their profits in
maintenance and safety.
“This disaster obliges us to
take new initiatives which are far
more rigorous than those con-
templated by previous adminis-
trations,” he said.
A Genoa court will try to es-
tablish the exact cause of the
bridge failure, but experts said
problems with the concrete-en-
cased cable stays were a possible
culprit.
An engineering study com-
missioned by Autostrade last
year warned about the condition
of the stays, said Carmelo Gen-
tile, a professor from Milan’s
Polytechnic university who was
on the team that carried it out.
Antonio Brencich, an engi-
neering professor at Genoa Uni-
versity, said that the bridge had
been shown to be defective just
two decades after it was opened
in 1967.
Yesterday, he said that the
failure of a cable stay could have
been behind the collapse.
“The rupture of a cable stay is
a serious working hypothesis,”
Brencich said. “There are wit-
nesses and videos that point in
that direction.”
Atlantia did not respond to
a written request for comment
and attempts to phone a compa-
ny official were not successful.
Autostrade has said it moni-
tored the bridge on a quarterly
basis, as required by law, and
carried out additional checks by
hiring external experts.
It had no immediate comment
on yesterday’s reports about
problems with the stays.
As politicians responded to
public outrage over the tragedy,
rescue workers used jackham-
mers and cranes to lift giant
slabs of concrete from the riv-
erbed beneath the fallen span,
hoping to find survivors buried
in the rubble.
More than 300 firefighters
have been working non-stop
since Tuesday, though experts
say chances of finding survivors
are now slim.
The civil protection agency
said yesterday that five people
feared to be near the site of the
Rescuers use heavy machinery as they work among the rubble of the Morandi motorway bridge, days
after a section collapsed in Genoa.
disaster were still unaccounted
for.
Vehicles on the highway that
links Genoa to the French border
west of the Mediterranean port
city plummeted 50m (165’) when
a 200m (660’) stretch of the via-
duct collapsed.
Firefighters, who were using
sniffer dogs as well as heavy ma-
chinery, have not yet reached all
the cars.
“We are trying to find points
where we can penetrate these
incredibly heavy slabs. Then the
earthmoving equipment moves
in to create a passageway where
the dogs can enter,” firefighter
Stefano Zanut said at the scene.
Rescuers are hoping the large
chunks of debris may have cre-
ated a “triangle of survival”
when they fell, where someone
could still be alive, he said.
A state funeral for many of
the victims will be held today at
Genoa’s convention centre, led
by the city’s archbishop, Car-
dinal Angelo Bagnasco, and at-
tended by President Sergio Mat-
tarella and Conte.
Twelve coffins have already
been placed in a large hall, and
family members visited them
yesterday, sometimes kissing
the caskets.
One coffin held the body of
seven-year-old Samuele Robbi-
ano, who died with his parents.
“It is something that has
touched everyone because we all
used the bridge and it could have
happened to anyone,” Bishop
Nicolo Anselmi said after bless-
ing the coffins.
Some families plan to boy-
cott the event and hold their
own private services, as a sign
of protest against what they say
was negligence that caused the
bridge to collapse.
The funeral of four young men
who were en route to a holiday
together in France and Spain
when the disaster struck was
being held yesterday in Torre del
Greco, near Naples.

Fishing trawler
nets WWII bomb
A French fishing trawler netted
Merkel does not expect much from meeting with Putin
a World War II bomb containing
nearly a tonne of explosives off Reuters dent Emmanuel Macron yester- controlled by Russian-backed
the coast of Normandy yesterday, Berlin day, ahead of her meeting with rebels, including on the Ukraine-
prompting the emergency Putin, and discussed the situa- Russia border.
evacuation of the crew while tion in Ukraine and Syria, Ma- Russia opposes this idea.

the device was returned to the
seabed, authorities said.
The trawler was fishing around
two nautical miles off the coast
in the English Channel when
it swept up the German bomb
containing some 860kg of
explosives.
Alerted to the haul in the early
hours of yesterday, the region’s
maritime authorities sprang into
action.
Within two hours a marine
helicopter had been scrambled
to the scene with five mine
clearance divers, who were
winched onto the vessel.
Using straps, the divers freed the
bomb from the net and lowered
it gently back into the water,
noting its GPS position so that it
can be defused by bomb disposal
experts next week.
The crew was evacuated during
the operation.
C
hancellor Angela Mer-
kel has warned against
expectations that her
meeting with Russian President
Vladimir Putin today will pro-
duce any breakthrough on the
conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.
Speaking on the eve of talks
with the Russian leader, Mer-
kel pitched the meeting as the
product of necessity rather than
choice: Russia and Germany
must engage in dialogue on the
long list of problems they have an
interest in solving.
“It’s a working meeting from
which no specific results are
expected - but the number of
problems that occupy us – from
Ukraine and Syria to the issue
of economic co-operation – is
so big that it is justified to be in
a permanent dialogue,” Merkel
This picture taken on May 18 shows Merkel and Putin following their meeting in the Black Sea resort said.
of Sochi, Russia. Merkel spoke to French Presi-
cron’s office said in a statement,
without elaborating.
Merkel and Putin last met in
Sochi in May, when they strug-
gled to overcome differences
during the German chancellor’s
first visit to Russia since it an-
nexed Ukraine’s Crimea penin-
sula in 2014.
The annexation and ensu-
ing conflict between Russian-
backed separatists in eastern
Ukraine and the Ukrainian army
set off the worst confrontation
between Russia and the West
since World War II.
Russia and Germany agree
that an internationally-brokered
peace deal known as the Minsk
agreement must be fully imple-
mented to end the conflict, but
cannot agree on the mandate of
the UN peacekeeping mission.
Germany and France want
UN troops deployed in all areas
Relations between the two
countries have also been strained
by the Nord Stream 2 pipeline
that will carry gas from Russia to
Germany under the Baltic Sea.
The United States says it will
increase Germany’s dependence
on Russia for energy.
Ukraine fears the pipeline will
allow Russia to cut it off from the
gas transit business.
Germany’s eastern European
neighbours, nervous of Russian
encroachment, have also raised
concerns about the project.
A spokesman for Merkel said
this week that the European Un-
ion was still in talks with Russia
to ensure that Ukraine continues
to play a role in the lucrative en-
ergy transit business even after
Nord Stream 2 is completed.
On Syria, Germany wants Pu-
tin to finalise a lasting ceasefire
there with the United States.

French culinary ‘royalty’, well-wishers

mourn again at Robuchon memorial
AFP chef’s whites, along with cooks
Poitiers, France from across the world.
“As far as I am concerned, he’s
the only French chef to have mas-
Robuchon’s memorial was appro- At the height of his career
priate for the “very religious” chef. his eateries boasted a record 32
His funeral took place last week Michelin stars.
in a private setting with his family. He still had 24 stars at the time

T
op names in French cooking,
as well as foreign followers
and hundreds of well-wish-
ers, attended a memorial service
yesterday for Joel Robuchon, the
world’s most-starred Michelin
chef who died earlier this month.
The public homage to one of
the most famed figures of French
gastronomy took place at Saint-
Pierre Cathedral in the western
city of Poitiers where a giant post-
er of Robuchon was on display.
France’s cooking royalty, in-
cluding Alain Ducasse, Michel
French chefs leave after the memorial service for the late Robuchon at the Saint Pierre’s cathedral in Guerard, Guy Savoy and Andre
Poitiers. Dutournier, attended in their
tered soy sauce,” Japanese chef Hi-
rohisa Koyama told AFP. “In Japan,
there is more and more demand for
French food and it’s the Robuchon
effect.”
Robuchon’s death at the age of
73 on August 6 from pancreatic
cancer marked the passing of a
second French superstar this year,
following the demise of the “pope”
Paul Bocuse in January whose fu-
neral was also attended by the
French culinary elite.
Michelin-starred chef Alex
Manes, head of Robuchon’s Pa-
risian restaurant L’Atelier, told
AFP that the cathedral setting for
The son of a bricklayer, who was
hailed as one of four “chefs of the
century” by the Gault & Millau
industry bible in 1990, founded a
string of restaurants that revolu-
tionised fine dining across three
continents.
His first vocation was the
priesthood but as a young semi-
narian he discovered a passion for
food and went into the restaurant
trade at 15.
He preached the merits of nou-
velle cuisine, which did away with
heavy sauces in favour of ultra-
fresh vegetables and intricately
crafted dishes.
of his death, with foodies lining up
from Tokyo to Paris to Macau for
seats in his L’Atelier restaurants,
where they can watch chefs in ac-
tion, perched on high stools at a U-
shaped bar.
The two-hour ceremony yes-
terday featured a performance
from opera singer Catherine
Trottmann, as well as a eulogy by
former prime minister Jean-Pierre
Raffarin.
“Joel Robuchon was the es-
sence of the great universal chef,”
said fellow chef Guerard. “He was
also symbol of working with your
hands, of artisanal work.”
 Gulf Times
10 Saturday, August 18, 2018

EUROPE

Catalan dispute
clouds homage
to terror victims
AFP central Plaza Catalunya, another “I was really lucky as I had left us stronger in the face of terror
Barcelona large banner hung from a build- half an hour before but my moth- and barbarism”.
ing reading in English: “The er was still there and she’s been Catalonia’s pro-independence A banner against King Felipe is
Spanish king is not welcome really affected,” said Fidel Poles, president Quim Torra said “we displayed yesterday in

A
year after a religious ex-
tremist rampage in Cata-
lonia killed 16 people,
Spain paid homage to the victims
yesterday without managing to
set aside bitter divisions over the
region’s independence.
Families of the victims had
called for a “truce” in the po-
litical row over Catalonia’s failed
secessionist drive last October,
which quickly overshadowed the
bloody attacks that shook Spain.
However, right above the spot
on Barcelona’s famous Las Ram-
blas boulevard where a van came
to a stop after ploughing into and
killing 14 pedestrians on August
17, 2017, separatist activists un-
ravelled a banner reading: “Free
political prisoners. Without
them this ceremony is a scam.”
Under the banner – which re-
fers to separatist leaders in jail
over the failed secession attempt
– relatives of the victims laid
flowers on a pavement mosaic
designed by Barcelona-born art-
ist Joan Miro.
Further up the road on the
in the Catalan countries”, with
an upside-down picture of the
monarch, who took a hardline
stance against the secession bid.
King Felipe VI, his wife Queen
Letizia and Prime Minister Pedro
Sanchez joined families of the
victims on the plaza for an emo-
tional commemoration, to cries
of “long live the king” and “long
live Spain” by pro-unity onlook-
ers sporting Spanish flags.
“It was a complete disgrace,
such a shame. In the end others
took the limelight and not the
victims,” Jose Vargas, president
of the Catalan association of ter-
ror victims told AFP.
A year ago, tourists and locals
in Barcelona were enjoying yet
another sunny day in the city,
perusing the many flower stands
that line Las Ramblas.
Around 4.30pm (1430 GMT),
everything changed.
Younes Abouyaaqoub, a orative marches to avoid being in
22-year-old Moroccan man,
drove his van into the crowds,
killing 14 people, including two
children aged three and seven.
a 33-year-old florist. “The man
from the flower shop opposite as
well – he saw a woman dying in
front of him and he’s having a re-
ally hard time.”
Abouyaaqoub fled, stabbing to
death a young man before steal-
ing his car.
Hours later, a car carrying five
of his accomplices sped into the
seaside resort of Cambrils some
120km (75 miles) south of Barce-
lona.
The five occupants of the Audi
A3 jumped out and went on a
stabbing spree, killing a woman,
before they were shot dead by
police.
Even then, at a defiant gath-
ering against the attacks days
after they happened, the king
was jeered by supporters of inde-
pendence.
Yesterday, separatist organisa-
tions staged their own commem-
the monarch’s presence.
On Twitter, Sanchez stressed
the need for “the unity of all of
Spanish society”, which “makes
emerged stronger and more unit-
ed and more convinced of our
principles” after the attacks.
He paid tribute to former
Catalan police chief Josep Lluis
Trapero and Joaquim Forn, the
former regional interior minister
who is in jail over the subsequent
secession bid, and whom Torra
described as “unjustly impris-
oned”.
Ruben Guinazu, one of the vic-
tims in Cambrils, described the
horror of a moment when he was
convinced he would die.
“I don’t remember anything
about the attacker, I only saw him
stabbing me. He left the knife
stuck in my face, it plunged 15cm
(6”) into my head,” the 55-year-
old said. “He slashed my tonsils,
my carotid, my vocal cords, my
tongue.”
The Islamic State group
claimed responsibility for the
carnage but investigators have
not found any evidence that the
cell of young men who carried
them out had any international
links.
Barcelona, prior to ceremonies
marking first anniversary of
attacks in Barcelona and
Cambrils that left 16 people
dead.
Right: People attend a ceremony
in Barcelona marking first
anniversary of the attacks in
Barcelona and Cambrils.
They believe an imam in the
Catalan mountain town of Ripoll
indoctrinated a group of youths
of Moroccan origin.
They made explosives at an
abandoned house which police
believe they intended to use to
strike the Sagrada Familia basil-
ica in Barcelona, the city’s Camp
Nou stadium or even the Eiffel
Tower in Paris.
However, these accidently
went off on August 16, destroying
the house, killing two of them in-
cluding the imam, and prompt-
ing the remainder of the cell to
improvise a vehicle attack similar
to the ones carried out in other
cities such as Nice and London.

Turkish court refuses to release US pastor Serbia

DPA
Istanbul
A
Turkish court has refused
to release an American
pastor at the centre of an
escalating diplomatic and trade
spat between Washington and
Ankara, with the US warning of
more sanctions.
Yesterday a higher court in the
Aegean province of Izmir reject-
ed both the appeal for Andrew
Brunson’s release from house
shutters
is being tried on espionage and ades, has denied all the charges. back a long time ago. Turkey in
terrorism-related charges, was
detained in October 2016 and
arrested that December in the
After the pastor’s trial started
in April, US President Donald
Trump said that he believed
my opinion has acted very, very
badly,” the president said. “We
have not seen the last of that.
military
aftermath of a failed coup.
On Wednesday, another court
in Izmir denied his release,
Brunson “was being persecuted
in Turkey for no reason”.
When Brunson was moved to
We will not take it sitting down.
They cannot take our people.”
With no end in sight to the
camp for
prompting his lawyer to file an
appeal to the higher court for
review.
house arrest in July after spend-
ing about a year-and-a-half be-
hind bars, the US said it was “not
row over the clergyman, the two
countries have slapped sanc-
tions on each other’s ministers,
children
Ismail Cem Halavurt, enough” and demanded his full as well as tariffs on imports.
Brunson’s lawyer, told DPA be- release. The impasse has also trig- AFP
fore yesterday’s ruling that he Trump has repeatedly warned gered a currency crisis in Turkey. Belgrade
would continue the appeals’ Turkey he would punish his The US-Turkey relationship
process at various courts. North Atlantic Treaty Organisa- was already frayed by the war in

arrest and the lifting of a travel
ban against him, according to
the ruling seen by DPA.
Authorities are still examining
the evidence against Brunson,
who is also a flight risk because
he is a foreigner, the court said in
its ruling.
The 50-year-old pastor, who
Brunson is accused of links to
the movement of Fethullah Gu-
len, an Islamic cleric who lives in
exile in the US.
Ankara blames Gulen for a
coup attempt by a faction of the
military on July 15, 2016.
Brunson is also accused of
having ties to the outlawed
Brunson: accused of links to the movement of Fethullah Gulen.
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK),
which is designated as a terrorist
organisation by Turkey, the US
and the European Union.
Brunson, a pastor from the
US state of North Carolina, who
served at a church in Izmir and
has lived in Turkey for two dec-
tion (Nato) ally if Brunson was
not released.
“Turkey has been a problem
for a long time. They have not
acted as a friend,” Trump said
outside the White House hours
after the latest Turkish court
ruling.
“They should have given him
Syria,
Turkey’s decision to buy a
Russian air defence system,
the conviction in New York of
a former employee of Turkish
state lender Halkbank for violat-
ing US sanctions, and efforts to
block the delivery of F-35 fighter
jets to Turkey.
S
erbian authorities have or-
dered the closure of a con-
troversial “patriotic youth
camp”, where teens were han-
dling fake weapons and dress-
ing in army uniforms as part of
military-style training.
Serbia’s interior minister told
reporters that he had ordered
the closure of the camp, which
was run by Serbian and Russian
veterans, a day before it was set
to finish in response to a public

Couple denied Swiss citizenship Thousands rally in Armenia in backlash.

“We ordered the dismantling
of this camp because of possible

over refusal to shake hands support of new prime minister exploitation of children and the
reaction it provoked among the
public,” Nebojsa Stefanovic said.
Since early August around
AFP Hungary refuses asylum-seekers food: report AFP After spearheading weeks of priorities remain focused on four dozen boys and girls be-
Geneva Yerevan anti-government protests, Pa- strengthening allied relations tween the ages of 14 and 23 had
Hungary has begun forcing some asylum-seekers to abandon their ap- shinyan was elected as prime with Russia. been attending the “Patriotic
plication by refusing them food, a human rights organisation said. minister in May, promising to “We want our strategic part- Youth Camp” on Zlatibor, a

T T
he Swiss city of Lausanne
has blocked a Muslim
couple’s bid to become
Swiss nationals over their re-
fusal to shake hands with mem-
bers of the opposite sex.
The municipality said it re-
fused to grant the couple’s
citizenship application over
their lack of respect for gender
equality, Lausanne mayor Gre-
goire Junod told AFP.
He said a municipal commis-
sion had questioned the couple
several months ago to deter-
mine if they met the criteria
for citizenship, but had deter-
mined in the ruling made public
yesterday that they missed the
mark on integration.
He refused to divulge the
couple’s nationalities or other
identifying details, but said
they “did not shake hands with
people of the opposite sex”.
They also “showed great dif-
ficulty in answering questions
asked by people of the opposite
sex”, he said.
Some devout Muslims ar-
gue that Islam does not permit
physical contact with a person
of the opposite sex, with the
exception of certain immediate
family members.
Junod pointed out that free-
dom of belief and religion is
The move targets people who appealed the rejection of their asylum housands of Armeni- stamp out official graft. ner Russia and other countries mountain south of Belgrade.
applications in the first instance, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee ans rallied yesterday in His crackdown on corrup- to respect our new government, The camp, which organisers
(HHC) said. Yerevan in support of tion has sparked military ally don’t meddle in our internal af- say focuses on survival skills,
During the appeal procedure, the applicants are held in an enclosed the anti-corruption reformist Moscow’s anger with Russia’s fairs. It’s none of their business was run by veterans groups from
transit zone on Hungary’s border with Serbia, and some have been Prime Minister Nikol Pashin- Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who is being prosecuted in Ar- Serbia and Russia.
refused food. yan, 100 days after mass anti- warning Yerevan last month menia,” 24-year-old student Last April, some 30 children
While barred from entering Hungary during the procedure, the Hun- government protests propelled against targeting former offi- Aram Amaryan told AFP at yes- from Serbia travelled to Russia
garian immigration authority allows the people to return to Serbia at him to power. cials. terday’s rally. for similar training.
any time, the HHC said, quoting asylum-seekers and their lawyers. Pashinyan led thousands Lavrov’s warning came af- Kocharyan was on Monday Local reports about this year’s
“This amounts to inhuman treatment and an absurd legal situation,” of supporters who marched ter former Armenian president released from pre-trial deten- camp on Serbian soil drew criti-
the HHC said. through the streets of the city Robert Kocharyan was charged tion and announced a political cism from rights groups and op-
Hungary’s conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban took a harsh before gathering in Yerevan’s with tipping a 2008 election in comeback. position parties, who slammed
stance on refugees and migrants during the 2015-16 migration crisis. central Republic Square. favour of his pro-Moscow suc- Analysts said that the pro- the training as indoctrination.
His country was the first to stop people from entering and has passed “I want to report to you on cessor. Russian former leader is trying Zeljko Vukelic, a Serbian vet-
laws aimed at discouraging migrants from attempting a transit or from what has been done since I was Armenia’s foreign minis- to mobilise opposition forces eran of the conflicts in former
seeking asylum. elected prime minister hundred try quickly tried to reassure against Pashinyan’s govern- Yugoslavia and one of the camp’s
days ago,” Pashinyan declared. Moscow that its foreign policy ment. organisers, criticised the closure.
“The camp was organised like
enshrined in the laws of the fused handshakes have stirred others that have existed for years
Canton of Vaud, which encom- tensions in Switzerland. Germany reaches deal on sending back migrants to Greece in Russia and tend to reinforce
passes Lausanne. In 2016, there was national patriotic feelings” among chil-
But “religious practice does uproar over revelations that a Germany has reached an agreement with Greece But she said that, just as with Spain, the Greek dren, he told the press.
not fall outside the law”, he middle school in the north of to send back migrants to the Mediterranean agreement would affect migrants entering via He insisted a similar train-
stressed. the country had allowed two country if they have already applied for asylum Germany’s border with Austria and Germany ing would be organised in Serbia
His vice-mayor, Pierre-An- Syrian brothers not to shake there, a German interior ministry spokeswoman would be able to send the migrants back to Greece next year because “patriotism
toine Hildbrand, who was on their teachers’ hands after said yesterday. within 48 hours. has no price”.
the three-member commission they complained that doing so Last week Germany and Spain sealed a similar deal She said that Germany was also in “very advanced” Russia and Serbia are key al-
that questioned the couple, told would run counter to their reli- on returning migrants. negotiations on a similar deal with the Italian lies.
AFP that he was “very satisfied gious beliefs if the teacher was a Both deals come after a dispute between government and she expected a deal to be struck. Belgrade has refused to join
with the decision” to deny the woman. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and their Last Friday Petermann said both Italy and Greece Western sanctions against the
couple’s application. This ran counter to a deeply- Bavarian allies over returning migrants that nearly had made counter-demands. Kremlin, while Moscow supports
“The constitution and equal- entrenched Swiss tradition of split them and brought down the government. The deals are not likely to affect many refugees. Serbia in denying the independ-
ity between men and women students shaking their teacher’s “We have reached an agreement with Greece,” Figures from the interior ministry last week ence of Kosovo, a former south-
prevails over bigotry,” he said. hands as a sign of respect, and interior ministry spokeswoman Eleonore showed that since mid-June around 150 people ern province that broke away
The couple has 30 days to ap- amid the outcry regional au- Petermann told a news conference, adding that who had already applied for asylum in another after a North Atlantic Treaty Or-
peal the decision, Junod said. thorities quickly overruled the she would not be able to reveal any details before EU country had been detected entering Germany ganisation (Nato) bombing cam-
This is not the first time re- school’s decision. the deal was formally signed. from Austria. paign in 1999.
 Gulf Times
Saturday, August 18, 2018 11

INDIA
JUDICIARY INVESTIGATION TRAGEDY CONTROVERSY POLITICS
HC reserves order CBI raids 12 places in 3 bodies recovered Agnivesh roughed up Malik leads protest
on Ilyasi’s appeal shelter home probe from MP waterfall outside BJP office in support of Article 35A
The Delhi High Court The CBI yesterday raided 12 places in Bihar, The bodies of three of six people swept away in Social activist Swami Agnivesh was yesterday Jammu and Kashmir
yesterday reserved order on including former minister Manju Verma’s residence, the Sultangarh waterfall in Madhya Pradesh’s roughed up outside the Bharatiya Janata Party Liberation Front (JKLF)
former TV producer Suhaib in connection with its probe into the Muzaffarpur Shivpuri district have been recovered, police headquarters in New Delhi when he went to chairman Yasin Malik
Ilyasi’s plea challenging shelter home rape cases, an official said. The CBI said yesterday. Sub-divisional Police Officer pay his respects to former prime minister Atal yesterday led a protest in
a trial court order which team conducted searches at Verma’s residence Suresh Dohre said: “Out of the six missing, Bihari Vajpayee, whose body was lying in state Srinagar in support of Article
convicted and sentenced in Patna and Begusarai. They interrogated the bodies of three have been recovered. The for people to pay homage. Soon after Agnivesh 35A. Immediately after
him to life imprisonment former social welfare minister and her husband police and divers are now searching for others.” arrived, some people raised slogans asking him Friday prayers, Malik along
for murdering his wife Chandeshwar Verma separately. Manju Verma Several people were picnicking near the to go back. News channels showed footage of with his supporters, led the
in 2000. The trial court delivered its verdict on resigned on August 8 following allegations that Sultangarh waterfall on Wednesday when India the former Janata Party MP running and being protest in Maisuma area of
December 20, 2017. Ilyasi, also the editor-in-chief Brajesh Thakur, the main accused in the case, had celebrated Independence Day, when the water chased by people, believed to be BJP workers. Srinagar. Malik asked people to support every
of Bureaucracy Today magazine, faced the trial for links with her husband. The CBI has also raided level suddenly swelled. Several people, who The Delhi police then took Agnivesh in a van programme announced by the Joint Resistance
17 years in the dowry death case of his wife Anju Thakur’s Hindi newspaper office in Patna and were standing on the river rocks, got stuck and and moved him to safety. Agnivesh was recently Leadership (JRL) separatist conglomerate to
Ilyasi. Anju died on January 11, 2000 at her Mayur also the property of councillor of Social Welfare about 10 people were washed away. Rescue attacked in Jharkhand’s Pakur district when protect Article 35A which gives powers to state
Vihar house. Charges were framed against Ilyasi Department Sunil Kumar Jha. In Muzzafarpur, the teams including the Border Security Force (BSF), he was on way to attend a public function in a legislature to define permanent residents of
after his sisters-in-law and mother-in-law alleged CBI raided seven places including Thakur’s hotel the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), village. Suspected BJP youth wing and ABVP Jammu and Kashmir and their privileges. The
that he used to torture his wife for dowry. Ilyasi and his house in his native village. Raids were also and the Indian Air Force, have till now rescued workers allegedly attacked him accusing him of article has been challenged in the Supreme
shot into limelight after hosting the reality TV conducted at the places of Thakur’s aide Suman around 40 people with the help of an IAF being hand in glove with Christian missionaries Court. The court will hear the petition during the
show India’s Most Wanted. Sahi and close confidant Madhu. helicopter and thick ropes. for “instigating” tribals to convert. week beginning August 27.

SC wants
Kerala flood toll mounts to dam water
level to be
324, thousands still trapped
Authorities warn of
reduced
IANS
New Delhi
more trouble

T
Agencies he Supreme Court yes-
Kochi terday expressed grave
concern over the flood
crisis in Kerala, and suggested

T
he death toll from floods
that have triggered land-
slides and sent torrents
sweeping through villages in
Kerala trebled yesterday to 324,
authorities said, amid warnings
of worse weather to come.
Hundreds of troops and local
fishermen are staging desperate
rescue attempts with helicopters
and boats across the state, which
draws international tourists to its
tropical hills and beaches.
Kerala has been battered by
record monsoon rainfall this year
and is “facing the worst floods
in 100 years”, Chief Minister Pi-
narayi Vijayan said in a Twitter
statement, adding that 324 lives
had been lost so far.
With thousands still trapped,
power and communication lines
down and fresh alerts of fur-
ther torrential rain, authorities
warned of more trouble ahead
and further deaths to come.
“We are deploying more boats
and army to ramp up rescue op-
erations,” senior state govern-
ment official P H Kurian said.
More than 30 military helicop-
ters and 320 boats are attempting
rescues across Kerala.
Authorities said thousands of
people have been taken to safety
so far but 6,000 more are still
waiting for rescue.
Helicopters have also been
dropping emergency food and
water supplies, while special
trains carrying drinking water
have been sent to Kerala.
According to the weather bu-
reau, since the beginning of June
more than 321cm of rain has fall-
An aerial view shows partially submerged houses at a flooded area in Aluva.
en on the hilly central district of
Idukki, which is now virtually cut
off from the rest of the state.
With no end in sight to the del-
uge, people all over the state of
33mn people have made panic-
stricken appeals on social media
for help, saying they cannot make
contact with rescue services.
“My family and neighbouring
families are in trouble,” wrote Ajo
Varghese, a resident of the coast-
al city of Alappuzha, in a Face-
book post that quickly went viral.
“No water and food. Not able
to communicate from afternoon.
Mobile phones are not reachable.
Please help,” he added.
Other messages have been sent
from people trapped inside tem-
ples and hospitals as well as their
homes.
The Kerala government has
said it faces an “extremely grave”
crisis and Chief Minister Vijayan
warned of a new wave of rainfall
hitting the battered region over
the weekend.
Strong winds have also been
predicted for today and tomor-
row.
In the morning, Prime Minis-
ter Narendra Modi discussed the
flood situation with Vijayan by
phone. He was expected to arrive
in the state in the evening and
undertake an aerial survey of the
affected areas today.
The gates of dozens of dams
and reservoirs across the state
have been opened as water levels
reach danger levels, inundating
many other villages.
North and central Kerala have
been worst-hit by the floods with
the Kochi international airport
shut until at least August 26.
At least 220,000 people dis-
placed from across the state are
taking shelter in more than 1,500
relief camps.
A witness on board a relief
helicopter in Chengannur town
in the south of the state said peo-
ple stranded on roof tops were
seen waving desperately at navy
aircraft.
“The town looked like an is-
land dotted with houses and cars
submerged in muddy flood wa-
People are airlifted by navy soldiers during a rescue operation in
Chengannur.
ters and downed coconut trees,”
said the witness.
Two navy helicopters circled
as people on roofs of flooded
homes waved clothing to call for
help.
The helicopters dropped food
and water in metal baskets and
airlifted at least four people, in-
cluding a three-year-old child,
from roofs, the witness said.
Elsewhere, a man with a cast
on his leg was seen lying on the
roof of a church as he awaited
rescue.
Anil Vasudevan, the head of
the Kerala health disaster re-
sponse wing, said his department
had geared up to handle the needs
of victims.
“We’ve deployed adequate
doctors and staff and provided all
essential medicines in the relief
camps, where the evacuees will
be housed,” he said.
But a big worry was what hap-
pens after the flood waters fall.
People going home will be sus-
ceptible to water-borne diseases,
he said.
On top of tourist cancellations,
Kerala’s valuable rubber industry
has been badly hit by the floods.
The government says
10,000km of Kerala roads have
been destroyed or damaged,
along with thousands of homes.
News reports said electric-
ity supplies to more than half the
state have been cut.
that the Disaster Management
sub-committee, National Cri-
sis Management Committee
(NCMC) and a court-appointed
committee should meet to ex-
plore the possibility of reducing
the water level in the Mullaperi-
yar Dam to 139ft.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak
Misra and Justice D Y Chandra-
chud said: “We are not experts.
We are leaving it to the commit-
tee... to bring down the water
level to 139ft from 142dft at the
Mullaperiyar Dam.”
The central government told
the court the sub-committee has
decided to reduce the level by re-
leasing the water.
The said measures should be
put in place to ensure inhabitants
downstream are safe before the
release of water from the dam.
The court said the idea was to
resolve the “calamity, rescue and
rehabilitate people” caught in
flood.
The bench also asked the Ker-
ala chief secretary to file an af-
fidavit on what steps were being
taken for disaster management,
rescue and rehabilitation of those
affected.
The situation in Kerala is be-
ing monitored on a “minute-by-
minute” basis, Additional So-
licitor General P S Narasimha told
the top court.
The bench asked Tamil Nadu
to “scrupulously” comply with
instructions to bring down the
water level in the dam.
The court was hearing a peti-
tion seeking proper management
of water in the dam.

Vajpayee cremated
with state honours
Agencies President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice ee’s demise on Thursday. “It’s
New Delhi President M Venkaiah Naidu, like losing a father.”
former prime minister Manmo- The government has an-
han Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker nounced seven days of national

T
ens of thousands of
mourners joined the fu-
neral procession of former
prime minister Atal Bihari Vaj-
payee, one of India’s most popu-
lar politicians, in New Delhi yes-
terday.
Vajpayee, a founding leader of
the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party,
died on Thursday at the age of 93.
He was admitted to the All In-
dia Institute of Medical Sciences,
where he was being treated for a
kidney infection and chest con-
gestion.
The former premier’s body
was cremated with full state
honours at a memorial near the
banks of the Yamuna River yes-
terday evening.
Vajpayee’s foster daughter,
Namita Bhattacharya, lit the
funeral pyre amid the chanting
of Hindu Vedic hymns after the
firing of a 21-gun-salute by sol-
Sumitra Mahajan, veteran BJP
leaders and Vajpayee’s long-time
associates L K Advani and Murli
Manohar Joshi, Rashtriya Sway-
masevak Sangh chief Mohan
Bhagwat, Home Minister Rajnath
Singh, External Affairs Minister
Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister
Nirmala Sitharaman and Con-
gress president Rahul Gandhi.
The foreign dignitaries in-
cluded Nepal’s Minister for
Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar
Gyawali, Sri Lanka’s Acting For-
eign Minister Lakshman Kiriella
and Bangladesh Foreign Minister
Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali.
Earlier in the afternoon, Modi,
along with top BJP leaders,
walked a 4km stretch amid a sea
of people as the cortege wound
its way to the cremation ground.
People chanted “Long Live
Atal Bihari” and showered rose
petals on the glass casket carry-
mourning.
Schools and offices were shut
across many states yesterday.
Vajpayee served three times as
prime minister: first for 13 days
in 1996; for several months be-
tween 1998 and 1999; and then a
full-term from 1999 to 2004.
He retired from politics in 2005.
Vajpayee played a pivotal role
in making India a global nuclear
power.
His administration surprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi walks behind a truck pulling the coffin with the body of Atal Bihari Vajpayee during a funeral procession in New
the world by conducting a series Delhi yesterday.
of underground nuclear tests in
1998.
India first carried out nuclear
tests in 1974.
The tests sparked fears of a nu-
clear war with Pakistan, but Vaj-
payee later launched a landmark
A sincere peacemaker, says Dawn
peace process with Islamabad. IANS Dawn on its front page wrote that be “remembered for his bold arms race with archrival Paki-
The BJP patriarch had been New Delhi Vajpayee “was idolised in Paki- peace initiatives with Pakistan stan.”
suffering from ill health in the stan as a sincere peacemaker and and defiant nuclear tests”. The nuclear tests “established
past years and remained confined wooed by rivals at home as the The Washington Post in an India as an overt nuclear-weapon

diers.
Top leaders, including Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, and
foreign dignitaries, like the Bhu-
tanese King Jigme Khesar Nam-
gyel Wangchuck and former
Afghan president Hamid Karzai,
were present.
Among others present were
ing the politician’s body.
All through the day, massive
crowds paid their last respects
to the leader at his residence,
and later at his party headquar-
ters, where his body was kept for
homage.
“I am speechless, numb,” Modi
had said, while grieving Vajpay-
to his home.
He suffered a stroke in 2009
and was also hospitalised that
year with a serious respiratory
infection.
Vajpayee was considered one
of India’s most respected leaders,
with friends and admirers across
the political spectrum.
A
tal Bihari Vajpayee will be
remembered for his bold
peace initiatives and also
for the nuclear tests in 1998 –
many foreign newspapers yester-
day wrote about the late former
prime minister who passed away
on Thursday.
Pakistan’s influential daily
right man in the wrong party”.
Recalling Vajpayee’s 1999 visit
– one of his three to Pakistan, the
daily remembered how the then
prime minister Nawaz Sharif had
famously remarked that Vajpayee
“could win an election” from
there.
The daily said Vajpayee would
obituary referred to him as “the
Indian prime minister who over-
saw nuclear tests that ushered in
a new arms race in South Asia”.
“Vajpayee shocked the world
in May 1998 with five under-
ground nuclear tests, prompting
international sanctions, rattling
neighbours and setting off an
state”, it said.
“Vajpayee worked discreet
diplomacy behind closed doors
and set in motion a friendly
dialogue with US president
Bill Clinton, who went to India
in 2000, the first visit by a US
president to the country in more
than two decades.”
 Gulf Times
12 Saturday, August 18, 2018

LATIN AMERICA

Uber opens Brazil centre to improve driver, passenger safety

Reuters in its rapid expansion in Latin The development centre, cash for rides instead of rely- markets the danger can cut New tools help to confirm the had been flagged by its systems.
Sao Paulo America, the company said yes- Uber’s first in Latin America ing solely on credit and debit both ways, as drivers accept- identity of users without credit Uber also allows drivers and
terday. and one of a dozen around the cards has also brought safety ing cash have become targets cards, he said. One such meth- riders to share their locations in
Uber’s Safety Product Di- world, will open by the end of challenges. for attacks. “Cash is extremely od, which requires the Brazilian real time with contacts. The per-

R
ide-hailing company
Uber Technologies Inc
plans to open a 250mn
reais ($64mn) centre in Brazil to
develop technology to improve
safety for its riders and drivers,
including for drivers to accept
cash, a key payment method
rector Sachin Kansal said in an
interview that the investment
over the next five years would
fund an office with around 150
tech specialists in Sao Paulo,
where the company provides
more rides than anywhere in
the world.
2018.
Brazil is Uber’s second-
largest national market after
the United States, with 1bn
rides in the past four years
and a profitable bottom line,
according to executives. Yet
the imperative of accepting
Chief Executive Dara Khos-
rowshahi, who took the helm one
year ago, has said safety is Uber’s
top priority.
While in the United States
and other developed markets
concerns have focused on the
safety of riders, in emerging
important for us to support,”
Kansal said. “There is a certain
segment of society which does
not have access to credit cards
and that is also the segment of
society that is probably in the
most need of convenient, reli-
able transportation.”
equivalent of a social security
number for a rider to pay with
cash, was introduced last year
after a spike in attacks. Kansal
said Uber was also using ma-
chine learning to block trips it
considered risky. He declined to
share the number of trips that
centage of Uber users that acti-
vate the feature is in the “high
single digits,” he said. “Drivers
are using it more than riders
globally,” Kansal said, “but the
magnitude of that difference in
Latin America is actually quite
high.”

Nine planes grounded

Brazil must let Lula run by bomb threats: officials

in October election: UN
Reuters gasta when it was instructed to
Santiago return to Santiago, the state-
ment said. Flight LATAM 2369,
originating from Lima, the capi-

N
ine planes were forced to
make emergency chang-
es to their routes within
AFP Chilean, Argentine and Peruvian
Geneva airspace on Thursday because of
bomb threats issued to Chile’s
civil aviation authority, its di-
tal of Peru, and heading for San-
tiago, was forced to land in the
southern Peruvian city of Pisco,
it added.
Peru’s transport ministry said
no one had been injured and a
team for deactivating explosives

T
he UN Human Rights Committee
ruled yesterday that Brazil’s im-
prisoned leftist leader Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva cannot be disqualified from
upcoming presidential elections because
his legal appeals are ongoing. The com-
mittee issued the finding following an
urgent request filed by Lula’s lawyers on
July 27.
In a statement, the panel “requested
Brazil to take all necessary measures to
ensure that Lula can enjoy and exercise
his political rights while in prison, as (a)
candidate in the 2018 presidential elec-
tions.”
Lula, who served as Brazil’s president
from 2003-2010, began serving a 12-year
sentence for corruption in April, but re-
mains the front-runner ahead of Octo-
ber’s election. The committee said Lula
cannot be barred as a candidate “until
his appeals before the courts have been
completed in fair judicial proceedings”
in order to avoid inflicting “irreparable
harm” on the 72-year-old.
Committee member Olivier de Frou-
ville told AFP that Lula’s appeals at Bra-
zil’s superior and supreme courts could
lead to the cancellation of his conviction.
Given this legal uncertainty, Lula should
be able to “organise and campaign, even
from the jail,” he said.
The Geneva-based committee moni-
tors a member state’s compliance with
Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is carried by supporters in front of
the metallurgic trade union in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, in a file photo.
the International Covenant on Civil and
Political rights, as well as a supplemen-
tary text called the Optional Protocol.
Because Brazil has ratified both texts, it
is technically obligated to abide by the
committee’s findings.
De Frouville explained that Lula’s law-
yers had asked for urgent action on three
issues: that he be immediately freed from
jail, that he be granted access to the me-
dia and his political party, and that he be
allowed to run in the election. The panel
rejected the first request but sided with
Lula on the two other issues.
Lula’s lawyers filed a broader com-
plaint with the rights committee in
2016 over his treatment by the Brazil-
ian authorities. That case is ongoing
and may take a year or more to resolve.
The committee underscored that Fri-
day’s emergency decision was not an
indication that it would ultimately
A banner that reads: “Lula is innocent”
hangs on a building in Rio de Janeiro.
A sticker depicting former Brazilian
president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that
reads: “Free Lula” is seen in Rio de Janeiro.
side with Lula in the larger case.
But de Frouville noted that panel
members would not have requested ur-
gent action on Lula’s behalf unless they
believed his broader complaint had merit
and that there was evidence Brazil vio-
lated his rights while prosecuting him
over corruption.
rector general told journalists.
At least two of the planes were
operated by LATAM Airlines and
three by Sky, a low-cost Chil-
ean airline, the companies con-
firmed.
Victor Villalobos Collao, the
director general of Chile’s civil
aviation authority (DGAC), said
11 threats were made in total on
Thursday, two of which were
“fictitious” and nine of which
related to existing flights. All of
the planes were declared free of
explosives, and at least one plane
was later allowed to resume its
flight, he said.
He said calls warning of
bombs onboard flights were
made to LATAM’s offices, and
the civil aviation authority, and
police were now trying to trace
their origin. “We always have
an abandoned suitcase or two,
that’s normal,” he told journal-
ists in a briefing at Santiago air-
port. “But this is a totally excep-
tional case.”
For four of the flights, Santia-
go, Chile’s capital, was either the
origination or the destination,
the DGAC added in a statement.
One flight, Sky 162, took off
from Santiago’s Arturo Merino
Benítez airport and was headed
to the northern city of Antofa-
has been notified. “Right now
the situation is under control,”
it said on Twitter. Another Sky
flight, Sky 524, is understood
according to flight schedules to
have taken off from the Argen-
tine city of Mendoza. It made an
emergency landing in Santiago
before proceeding to Rosario in
Argentina, the DGAC said.
Sky said another of its planes,
Flight 166, was prevented from
taking off from Santiago because
of a bomb threat. In addition,
LATAM 800, which according
to flight schedules took off from
Auckland, New Zealand, per-
formed an emergency landing in
its destination of Santiago. That
flight was still undergoing secu-
rity checks, the DGAC added.
Collao said other flights were
checked in Iquique, another
city in northern Chile, Antofa-
gasta and Mendoza, without
giving further details. LATAM
confirmed that at least two of
its planes had been affected.
“The affected passengers will be
transferred by LATAM onto oth-
er flights,” it said. “The authori-
ties have not at this moment
found any evidence that might
put passengers at risk.”
Chilean police did not respond
to a request for comment.

Brazil mall executives dismiss Ecuador, Peru

looming Amazon expansion
Reuters e-commerce is overblown. They say
Sao Paulo a better mix of non-retail tenants in
malls, the high costs of shipping in
Brazil and other factors should allow
tighten entry for
Venezuelans
safe public environment in a country
with the most murders in the world Reuters
in recent years. Home delivery, which Quito
Amazon and other e-commerce

F
ears of e-commerce taking off malls here to continue to thrive. companies rely upon, is more diffi-

in Brazil have sunk shares of
the country’s big mall operators
this year, but industry executives ex-
pressed confidence that local shop-
ping habits, the reputation of malls
as public spaces safe from crime and
other factors will help them avoid the
shakeout that has hit their US peers.
The optimism of executives gath-
ered this week at the Shopping
Center International Congress in Sao
Paulo contrasted sharply with global
investor sentiment about malls in
the age of online retail. E-commerce
giants Amazon.com Inc and Argen-
But some say the industry is over-
confident, noting that Amazon has
been scooping up local warehouses
and negotiating air cargo deals in Bra-
zil, while some retailers are reporting
double-digit growth in online sales
from last year.
“In New York, the investors are
much more concerned about e-com-
merce than in Brazil,” said Thiago
Muramatsu, chief financial officer
at Cyrela Commercial Properties SA
(CCP), which owns malls and office
buildings. “In the US, they’re seeing
a big crisis with malls closing every-
cult in Brazil due to shoddy highways,
tricky state taxes and large-scale car-
go robbery.
In addition, Brazil’s shopping mall
market is not saturated, with just a
fraction of the malls per capita found
in the United States. Brazilian malls
dedicate less area to retail, while
many US malls are just starting to di-
versify their tenant mix.
“Close to half of gross leasable area
here is not retail. It’s dining ... all
sorts of things,” said Maximo Lima,
a founding partner at real estate in-
vestment firm Hemisferio Sul Inves-
V
enezuelans entering Ecuador and Peru
will soon be required to show their pass-
ports, rather than national identity cards, Chilean Franco Sepulveda is escorted upon his arrival in Santiago after
the Ecuadorean government and Peruvian of- being arrested in Antofagasta for allegedly making false bomb threats
ficial sources said on Thursday, amid concerns which forced emergency operations in nine commercial flights.
over an influx of economic migrants.
Ecuador and Peru have hitherto allowed Vene-
zuelans to enter using national ID cards, provid-
ing desperate Venezuelans with an easier route
out of their crisis stricken homeland.
“As of this Saturday the government will re-
Man arrested in Chile
quire that anyone entering Ecuador present his
or her passport,” Ecuador’s Interior Minister
Mauro Toscanini said. The Foreign Ministry later
over bomb threats
said it would apply specifically to Venezuelans.

tina’s Mercadolibre Inc have set ma- where, electronics retailers shrink- timentos. “It’s a one-stop-shop for
jor expansions here, spooking some ing. But here in Brazil, there’s still middle-class Brazilians to solve their
foreign investors and sending shares upside.” life.”
in Brazil’s three largest mall operators Several Brazilian executives and While shares of the biggest mall
down more than 19% so far this year. investors noted in interviews that the operators have taken a hit, some Bra-
Executives and some major Bra- malls here attract a steady stream of zilian investors are still betting on
zilian shareholders say the threat of patrons because they offer a relatively malls.
Between November and April,
Brazilian investment firm Vinci Part-
ners raised 730mn reais ($187mn)
— largely from domestic investors —
for Vinci Shopping Centers, a vehi-
cle known as an FII, which is Brazil’s
answer to a real estate investment
trust, or REIT. Shares of the some of
the larger, more liquid FIIs are also
up this year, an indicator that local
investors are more sanguine than
their US peers.
Still, mall operators are hedging
their bets. Firms such as CCP and
BR Malls Participacoes SA, Brazil’s
largest mall operator, have developed
e-commerce units to adapt their
business models for digital retail.
Multiplan Empreendimentos Imobil-
iarios SA, another major mall opera-
tor, told Reuters the company plans to
follow suit. Those e-commerce units
have taken various forms. CCP’s unit,
for instance, allows customers to buy
online, and pick up items at a mall.
“The customers will have to go to
the mall,” said CCP’s Muramatsu.
“So it may give them time to go to the
movies, go to restaurants, even make
People are seen walking through Iguatemi shopping mall in Sao Paulo, Brazil. additional purchases.”
Ecuador declared a state of emergency in three
provinces this month after a spike in Venezuelan
migrants crossing the Ecuadorean-Colombian
border high in the Andean mountains. Authori-
ties said up to 4,500 Venezuelans were crossing
daily, compared with around 500 to 1,000 previ-
ously. An official at Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry
told local radio that some 600,000 Venezuelans
had entered the country so far this year, with
around 109,000 staying on.
Unable to afford flights and often earning a
minimum wage of just a few dollars a month,
Venezuelans have been taking days-long bus
rides across South America, many passing
through Ecuador on their way south to Peru or
Chile. Peru is also planning to require passports
from Venezuelans soon, two government sourc-
es said on condition of anonymity ahead of a
pending announcement.
Immigration officials estimated that there are
nearly 400,000 Venezuelans in Peru, most of
whom entered this year.
About 20% of Venezuelans enter Peru without
a passport, Peru’s interior minister said earlier
this week.
Venezuelans selling food or knick-knacks
on the streets have become a common sight in
Lima and Quito, raising fears among locals that
the migrants could take their jobs and increase
crime. Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno is
left-wing like his Venezuelan counterpart Nico-
las Maduro, but he has distanced himself from
Caracas since taking office last year.
Centrist Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra
took office in March after his predecessor, Pedro
Pablo Kuczynski, a vocal critic of Maduro, re-
signed in a scandal.
C
hilean police arrest-
ed a 29-year-old man
over bomb threats that
grounded nine commercial air-
planes in Chile, Peru and Argen-
tina on Thursday.A specialist
organised crime unit arrested
the man in the northern Chilean
city of Antofagasta overnight.
“The police managed to trace
the phone calls that were made
warning of explosives on dif-
ferent planes,” a police spokes-
man, Diego Rojas, said yester-
Bus involved in Ecuador
crash was carrying cocaine
A bus that crashed in Ecuador
this week killing 24 people
was carrying 80kg of cocaine,
Colombian authorities said. The
drug was hidden under false
floors, the attorney general’s
office said. Another 20 people
were seriously injured when the
bus, which was travelling from
Colombia, crashed into another
vehicle around 40km east of
Quito on Tuesday and tipped
over.
Colombian police said the
passengers, who were mostly
Colombians as well as some
Venezuelans and Ecuadorians,
day on local radio. The man was
due to appear before a court in
Santiago yesterday afternoon
charged with making threats of
explosives contrary to national
security legislation. Police did
not release the man’s name.
Hundreds of passengers and
their luggage were grounded at
airports around the region after
threats were made toward planes
operated by LATAM airlines, a
major regional carrier, and Sky, a
low-cost Chilean airline.
had been used as a distraction
to mislead authorities. Relatives
of the victims told Colombia’s
El Tiempo newspaper that they
had been invited on the trip for
free and that it was to go as far
as Peru. The paper also reported
that the bus, which belonged to
Colombian transport company
Cotrans, did not have the proper
permits to travel outside the
country.
A spokesman for the company
confirmed that the vehicle was
affiliated with Cotrans but said
it had not authorised the trip
abroad.
 Gulf Times
Saturday, August 18, 2018 13

PAKISTAN

‘Deficiencies’ in anti-terror funding action plan

Internews ownership regime and counter- to leaks and misuse, while the committed to by Pakistan. other visit by the APG in October. ing officials of various agencies, in formulating a consolidated
Islamabad terror financing mechanisms to beneficial ownership regime did The authorities told the APG The delegation also told the strengthening of systems and progress report submitted to the
handle suspicious transaction not meet transparency standards that focal persons had been ap- authorities to upgrade the agen- processes and improving laws,” APG delegation, which consisted
reports (STRs). and benami ownerships were still pointed at all levels for inter- cies and their human resources to said an official who was part of of members from Turkey, China,

A
six-member visiting del-
egation of the Asia Pacific
Group (APG) has found
some deficiencies in Pakistan’s
systems, agencies and laws
to meet its global obligations
against money laundering and
terror financing, but noted that
progress was taking place.
In the concluding session with
host authorities, the delegation
pointed out deficiencies in legal
mechanisms governing non-
profit and charitable organisa-
tions, transparency in beneficial
The APG will submit its report
to the Paris-based Financial Ac-
tion Task Force (FATF).
Both the government and the
APG did not issue any statement
at the end of the three-day talks
that ended on Thursday (Au-
gust 16), while the authorities
involved in the negotiations de-
clined to speak on record.
The delegation told the au-
thorities that legal framework
covering the non-profit and
charitable organisations was se-
riously deficient and vulnerable
widespread.
A benami transaction is one in
which ownership of a property
is transferred to one person for
a consideration paid by another
person.
Also, the Financial Monitoring
Unit (FMU), the National Coun-
ter Terrorism Authority (Nacta),
and provincial agencies like po-
lice required a lot of training and
preparedness to combat money
laundering and terror financing
to the satisfaction of the FATF
under a 10-point action plan
agency and inter-provincial co-
ordination and the regulators.
It was, however, noted that
some of the shortcomings in
policymaking and legal arrange-
ments stemmed from inherent
limitations of a caretaker set-up
and political transition.
Therefore, another review will
now take place next month to en-
gage with the new PTI coalition
government as well as provin-
cial governments for an effective
push.
This would be followed by an-
be able to handle foreign requests
to block terror financing and
freeze illegal and targeted assets.
It also advised the strength-
ening of mutual legal assistance
laws for extradition of those in-
volved in terror financing and
money laundering on requests
from FATF-member countries.
According to a source, Pakistan
lacked mutual legal assistance
arrangements with a number of
countries.
“It was noted that there is a
long way to go in terms of train-
the four-day consultations.
A number of Pakistani agen-
cies were part of the dialogue
with the delegation and, among
others, included officials of the
ministries of interior, law, fi-
nance and foreign affairs, besides
State Bank of Pakistan, the FMU,
the Nacta, the Federal Investiga-
tion Agency (FIA), the Federal
Board of Revenue (FBR), and the
Securities and Exchange Com-
mission of Pakistan (SECP).
The FMU played a co-ordi-
nating role with other agencies
the UK and the US.
The next session with the APG
will take place by mid-Septem-
ber to examine progress on the
FATF action plan.
By the end of September next
year, Pakistan has to comply
with the 10-point action plan it
committed to with the FATF in
June this year, to combat terror
financing and money laundering
to get out of the grey list.
Failure of implementation
could mean being put on the
black list.

Report
Imran Khan elected PM
AFP/Reuters/DPA The army and Khan have de-
warns of
housing
Islamabad nied the claims.
In his speech, Khan urged the
opposition to continue their
crisis
P
akistan’s World Cup crick- protests.
et hero Imran Khan was National Assembly Speaker Internews
formally elected prime Asad Qaiser said Khan had se- Karachi
minister yesterday, promising cured 176 votes.
a new era of responsibility and He had needed 172 votes for a

prosperity in a fighting speech in
parliament.
He won a simple majority in a
confidence vote held in the lower
house of parliament.
“I am here after 22 years of
struggle. No dictator has taken
care of me. I am standing here
in this parliament on my own
feet,” he told the assembly after
the vote.
Clad in a waistcoat and tra-
ditional white shalwar kameez
garments, he smiled broadly
and could be seen wiping tears
from his eyes while clutching
prayer beads as the count was
announced.
The July 25 election was
branded “Pakistan’s dirtiest”
after accusations through the
campaign that the military was
trying to tilt the playing field
against the Pakistan Muslim
League – Nawaz (PML-N) and in
Khan’s favour.
The former cricketer, who
captained Pakistan to World Cup
victory in 1992, won the July 25
election but fell short of an out-
right majority, forcing him to
partner with smaller parties and
independents in order to form a
government.
Rival parties have alleged
“blatant” rigging, and yester-
day’s proceedings triggered
raucous scenes as opposition
parliamentarians shouted
protest slogans in the assem-
bly.
“The whole nation has reject-
ed this election,” said PML-N
chief Shehbaz Sharif, demand-
ing an investigation of electoral
irregularities.
Murtaza Abbasi, a PML-N
lawmaker, said in parliament
Khan was “brought here by al-
iens”, a euphemism for the mili-
tary.
majority.
His only rival, the PML-N’s
Sharif, won 96 votes, Qaiser
said, with some opposition par-
ties including the third-largest
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)
abstaining from the vote.
The result brings Khan one
step closer to ending decades of
rotating leadership between the
PML-N and the PPP, punctu-
ated by periods of military rule.
He is due to be sworn in at a
ceremony today.
Khan and his Pakistan Te-
hreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party cam-
paigned on promises to end
widespread graft while building
an “Islamic welfare state”.
He has promised to create
millions of jobs and build world-
class hospitals and school sys-
tems in the mainly-Muslim
country of 208mn people.
“I promise that we will bring
that change, for which this na-
tion was starving,” he said in his
address to the assembly. “First
of all, we will start strict ac-
countability.
“I promise to my God that
everyone who looted this coun-
try will be made accountable.”
The party has already formed
a government in its strong-
hold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province, and an alliance with
regional parties in the south-
western province of Balu-
chistan.
It is expected to form a coa-
lition government in Punjab
province, formerly a PML-N
stronghold, in coming days.
Sindh province remained in
the hands of the PPP.
PTI candidates were also vot-
ed speaker and deputy speaker
of the National Assembly this
week, putting the prime minis-
ter in a strong position to carry
A shopkeeper looks at his cellphone at his shop in Karachi, with the screens in the background showing PTI chief Imran Khan ahead of a
vote in the lower house of parliament to elect prime minister.
forward his legislative agenda.
He will face myriad challenges
including militant extremism,
water shortages, and a booming
population negating growth in
the developing country, among
others.
Most pressing will be a loom-
ing economic crisis, with specu-
lation that Pakistan will have to
seek a bailout from the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund (IMF).
He will also have to contend
with the same issue as many of
his predecessors: how to main-
tain a balance of power in civil-
military relations.
Khan’s election was only the
second democratic transfer of
Presidential election scheduled to be conducted on September 4
The Election Commission of Pakistan (EVP) has an-
nounced that the presidential election will be held on
September 4 – five days before the expiry of the five-
year term of President Mamnoon Hussain.
Article 41 (4) of the Constitution says the presidential
election is to be held not earlier than 30 days before
expiry of the term of the president in office.
“Provided that, if the election cannot be held within
the period aforesaid because the National Assembly
is dissolved, it shall be held within thirty days of the
power since Pakistan’s 1947 in- for militants waging war in Af-
dependence, and came at a time ghanistan.
when relations with on-off ally Islamabad denies aiding in-
the United States are fraying surgents.
over alleged Pakistani support The Senate, the upper house,
R
ural to urban migration is
taking place on an unprec-
edented scale in the coun-
try, and at present the state has
no plans for dealing with the mi-
grant influx and political parties
have failed to fulfil the promises
related to housing schemes, a
Pakistan housing report has said.
The report co-authored by
Arif Hasan and Hamza Arif was
prepared for the Asian Coalition
of Housing Rights as part of a
larger development and plan-
ning unit project of the Univer-
sity College London.
It observed that as per Census
2017, the country’s population
was 207.7mn and had grown at
the rate of 2.4% per year in the
intercensal period.
Its urban population, on the
other hand, had grown at the
rate of 2.7% per year during the
same period and was estimated
at 75.5mn.
For the first time in Pakistan’s
urban areas (especially in Ka-
rachi and other larger cities),
people were seen sleeping under
bridges, on roundabouts, pave-
ments, and open-air “hotels”,
the report added.
However, it regretted that the
general election to the Assembly,” a proviso added to state was not in a position to
the Constitution reads. provide them with homes and
An ECP official said that the presidential election could their options of living in katchi
not be held on time as the assemblies were dissolved, abadis (squatter settlements on
and even after the general polls it was not possible to public land) in the absence of
announce a schedule for polls before members of all the availability of land near the
the assemblies take the oath, as both houses of parlia- ever-expanding urban centres
ment and the provincial assemblies form the electoral are becoming difficult due to an
college for presidential election and members from increase in cost, distances, and
amongst them are to become proposer and seconder. inconvenience related to com-
muting.
Referring to housing scheme-
is controlled by the opposition. related policies introduced by
“Legislative business will be various political parties, it said
difficult for him,” said Raza Ah- that very little of the policy rec-
mad Rumi, editor of the Daily ommendations had been fol-
Times newspaper. lowed, except for support to
the builders in accessing loans,
reducing taxes on them, and in-
creasing the number of katchi
abadis for regularisation pur-

Justice Musarrat the first woman to head an election tribunal poses.

Internews Pakhtunkha (KP), in another
Islamabad first has appointed a woman
judge from the same province as
election tribunal.
cate election disputes.
One of the tribunals compris-
es Justice Musarrat Hilali.
Normally, election tribunals
given to candidates for filing
cases against the results.
As the notification for elec-
tion tribunals has been issued
four for Sindh, and three for
Baluchistan.
Under the elections act, the
law states that an election tri-
sought by a party will be granted
only for up to three days and that
too on payment of special cost of
Rs10,000 per adjournment.
It alerted that the expansion
of urban centres was swallowing
up valuable agricultural land and
damaging the ecology of the re-
gions in which the cities are lo-
cated, depleting water resources
and polluting water bodies.

T
he Election Commission
of Pakistan (ECP), which
already has the first-ever
woman member from Khyber
In a belated exercise, the ECP
appointed on Thursday 20 tri-
bunals comprising serving judg-
es of the high courts to adjudi-
are appointed with the issuance
of final notification of election
results, which is also the begin-
ning of the countdown of 45 days
late this year, the applicants will
have less than 40 days.
Eight tribunals have been ap-
pointed for Punjab, five for KP,
bunal has to decide a petition
within 120 days of its filing, but
at the same time if the decision
is delayed, further adjournment
The ECP has requested that
high chief justices not to assign
routine judicial duties to the
judges appointed.
It is also destroying geological
formations, forests, and natural
drainage systems.
This was leading to flooding
and bringing about a rise in tem-
perature, creating “heat island”
effects in the urban areas, espe-
cially in the high-density high-

Chinese artistes perform to mark Pakistan’s Independence Day rise informal settlements.
If unchecked, these environ-
mental hazards would increase,
the report warned.
Pakistanis litter with impunity Internews Irfan said that as compared to Pa- those who enjoyed the Chinese per- tor of the department of culture in It recognised that more re-
on Independence Day Islamabad kistani stage performances, Chinese formance. China’s Shaanxi province, meanwhile cently the courts had taken cog-
performances are more “colourful”. “It was not just a function, or a per- told Xinhua that this was the first time nisance of the lack of housing
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) “Their dresses are very beautiful, formance of art and music and dance, he and the troupe had visited Pakistan. opportunities for low-income

would have to collect piles of trash from
different areas of the city after the Independ-
ence Day celebrations.
During the celebrations this week, visitors
and city residents alike enjoyed the freedom
of littering with impunity.
The capital’s parks and other recreational
spots saw a massive influx of visitors to mark
Independence Day but left heaps of garbage.
CDA director (sanitation) Sardar Khan Zimri
said that some 200 sanitation workers were
assigned on Thursday to collect heaps of
garbage from different places of the capital.
However, he admitted that more trash bins
at high-volume areas would have helped
reduce the littering, but he commented that
the already-available bins were not being
used anyway.
S
aba Irfan, a housewife in Islama-
bad, watched a performance of
a Chinese troupe marking Paki-
stan’s Independence Day on August 14.
“Since I was a child, I have been
taught at home and school that there is
no closer friend of Pakistan than Chi-
na, and that the Pak-China friendship
is enduring and incomparable.
“The Chinese have always shared
our joys and sorrows like true friends,
and I am very happy they came again
today to strengthen the bond of friend-
ship,” Irfan told the official Xinhua
news agency after the performance.
The performance was organised by
the Pakistan National Council of Arts
(PNCA) in an auditorium packed to ca-
pacity.
my children liked their brightly col-
oured dresses,” she said.
Irfan said that the Chinese are a
hardworking people, and this quality
can easily be seen through their per-
formance on stage.
“I take my children to watch Chinese
performances because I want them to
be confident and hardworking like
them.
“China is a great source of inspira-
tion for us, I always tell my children to
work hard like the Chinese.”
A 32-member Chinese troupe per-
formed at the Independence Day event.
Pakistani and Chinese artistes pre-
sented national songs, folk tunes and
dances.
Pharmacist Irfan Junaid was among
but a symbol of great friendship be-
tween Pakistan and China,” he told
Xinhua.
Junaid said that although there is a
language barrier between Pakistan and
China, and members of the audience
could not understand the meaning of
the songs presented by the Chinese
performers, everyone enjoyed the per-
formance.
Pakistan’s Acting Information Min-
ister Ali Zafar was also at the event.
He thanked the Chinese artistes for
taking part in Pakistan’s Independence
Day celebration.
“This gesture by the Chinese reflects
the level of friendship and understand-
ing between the two nations,” he said.
Zhao Xiaoqiang, the deputy direc-
He said that he was overwhelmed by
the warm welcome and friendship be-
tween the two peoples.
“This is a very important day, Inde-
pendence Day, and we are so honoured
to join this celebration, and I feel that
everyone is excited,” Zhao said.
He said that cultural exchanges
are very important for the people of
two countries, as it helps people un-
derstand each other better: “The ex-
changes will facilitate the feeling of
friendship between the two countries.”
Zhao told Xinhua that they visited
Pakistan to share the joy of Pakistan’s
Independence Day with its people,
and will invite Pakistani artistes to join
them in the 5th Silk Road Art Festival in
Shaanxi province.
groups, demolition of informal
settlements and corruption in
the real estate sector.
The report also took notice of
problems in water supply and
sanitation services and estab-
lished a special tribunal to re-
view them.
However, there is considerable
cynicism regarding the ability of
courts to bring about meaningful
change.
The report stressed that with
the support of academic insti-
tutions and civil society, the
movements against urbanisation
could draw interest from the po-
litical authorities and the courts
of law for implementation.
 Gulf Times
14 Saturday, August 18, 2018
COMMENT
Egypt’s record on human
CHAIRMAN
Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Faisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka
rights is getting worse
Deputy Managing Editor
K T Chacko
Production Editor
Amjad Khan
By Melissa Etehad
P.O.Box 2888, Doha, Qatar Los Angeles Times
editor@gulf-times.com
T
44350478 (News), he pattern over the last five
years has been consistent:
44466404 (Sport), The US withholds military
44466636 (Home delivery) aid from Egypt, citing human
rights concerns, only to eventually
44350474 release the funds before any substan-
facebook.com/gulftimes tial improvement.
The first time was under President
twitter.com/gulftimes_Qatar Barack Obama’s administration in
2013. The United States suspended aid
after Egypt’s first elected president,
GULF TIMES Mohamed Mursi, was ousted. Two
years later, Obama restored the an-
nual $1.3 billion in military financing,
citing the need to help Egypt defeat
Islamic State militants in the Sinai
province.
Corruption scandal It happened again most recently
under President Donald Trump. After
growing concern of repression under
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah
in Argentina fells al-Sissi’s government, the Trump ad-
ministration froze $195mn in military
assistance to Cairo, only to release it
at the end of July – 11 months later –
titans of business despite the Egyptian government not
meeting US conditions.
The failure of two administrations
to sustain pressure on al-Sissi’s gov-
Records kept in notebooks of the kinds used by schoolchildren ernment despite worsening repres-
are bringing down titans of Argentina’s industry in a multimillion- sion on civil society suggests that
dollar corruption scandal. American national security interests
Dirty dealings are nothing new in Argentina. supersede human rights concerns,
What sets this case apart is the large number of people going experts said.
“The US cares more about security
down — around 20 so far, with additional names surfacing regularly
than human rights,” said Steven Cook,
— and their high-flying status in the business world. a senior fellow for the Middle East
The scandal involves under-the-table payments to the at the Council on Foreign Relations.
governments of Nestor and Cristina Kirchner, the Peronist couple “It also implies that suspending aid
who ruled before the current president, Mauricio Macri. hasn’t really done anything to improve
One big mystery is whether the money went to enrich Egypt’s human rights situation.”
government officials personally or was helped finance election Since the late 1970s, the US has
viewed Egypt as an important and
campaigns.
powerful ally in the Middle East.
Investigative Magistrate Claudio Bonadio is raising eyebrows Part of maintaining that good-faith
by aggressively ordering the arrest and questioning of so many relationship has been to provide Egypt
business leaders, from both ends of the political spectrum in with military aid.
Argentina. Egypt is the second-largest recipi-
Most of the arrests happened on August 1. ent of foreign military funding after
“It is not the first time that major businessmen have gone to jail. Israel. Every year the US provides
Egypt with $1.3bn in military assist-
What is new is the number and the reason,” said Sergio Morresi, a
ance that it uses to buy equipment and
political scientist at San Martin National University. conduct training.
Prosecutor Carlos Stornelli has said bribes paid in the so called A year ago, then-Secretary of State
“corruption copybooks” case total $160mn. Rex Tillerson froze 15%, or $195mn, of
Bonadio began jailing tycoons after the publication of the records the total annual military aid and con-
by Oscar Centeno, who worked as ditioned its release on three points:
a driver for the deputy planning Egypt must downgrade relations
Dirty dealings and public works minister Roberto with North Korea, repeal a law that
restricts the work of nongovernmental
are nothing Baratta.
In these notebooks, Centeno
organisations and resolve the case of
43 NGO workers who were convicted
new in meticulously recorded the alleged in 2013 of working illegally.
receipt of sacks of money from Egypt and North Korea have had
Argentina 2005 to 2015. friendly diplomatic and military rela-
tions for some time, including weap-
The whistleblower had been
ons purchases from each other.
expelled from the army for bad behaviour.
A small number of the NGO work-
“There is no doubt that the copybooks describe in detail the ers left the country after they were
way in which the Kirchners raised money illegally for seven years convicted but still face jail sentences
without any alarm going off at any oversight agency,” said Nicolas if they return to Egypt. Egypt’s top
Solari of the consultancy Poliarquia. appeal court ordered retrials for 16
So far, eight business leaders have confessed and struck plea- people in April, but the outcome
remains to be seen. The workers were
bargain deals.
Angelo Calcaterra, a cousin of Macri, acknowledged having
ordered the payment of cash requested as a bribe in order to receive
government contracts.
Testifying before the judge, he said he thought this was a
How the Republican Party lost its way
mandatory election campaign contribution.
Leaders of big multinational companies such as Argentina’s
Techint and Isolux of Spain have paid a visit to Bonadio’s office.
“The indictment and arrest of business leaders is new, and
considering the unpopularity and impunity that big business
people enjoy, it will probably be well received by public opinion,” By Albert R Hunt
Bloomberg News
said sociologist Ricardo Rouvier.
Morresi, the political scientist, said “one possible result is real
W
progress in transparency and criminal convictions.” hen the Watergate
The Buenos Aires stock market has taken a hit with the arrests. scandal mushroomed
in 1974, shell-shocked
Alberto Fernandez, who served as chief of staff to the late Nestor
Republicans had spent
Kirchner, has complained that only business leaders who supported their political lives viewing the
the Kirchners and their leftist Peronist governments have ended up Democratic Party as corrupt, and
behind bars — not those close to the current, conservative Macri dominated by big-city machines and
government. favour-swapping Southerners. This
A dozen or so people from the planning and public works characterisation, though exaggerated,
ministry have gone before the judge — though they have not yet contained an element of truth.
Today, it’s the Republicans led by
been charged over the case .
President Donald Trump who are
Ex-planning minister Julio de Vido and his deputy Jose the party of corruption, without
Lopez have been in prison for corruption since 2017 and 2016, exaggeration. The rot is in Congress,
respectively. where a prominent lawmaker was
They managed the federal government’s public works projects indicted last week, in state houses,
under the Kirchners and were the only two ministers to survive the where the governor of Missouri had
various cabinet reshuffles across the couple’s 12 years in power. to resign, and, most of all, in the
national administration. Trump, who
Lope was caught red-handed hiding 160 suitcases and duffel bags
vowed to drain the swamp, has instead
containing $9mn in a convent with the help of a nun. presided over a sewer of scandals
not seen since the days of the Teapot
Dome affair of the early 1920s.
To Advertise The other party isn’t beyond
reproach. The top Democrat on the
advr@gulf-times.com important Senate Foreign Relations
Committee is Robert Menendez
Display of New Jersey. He was indicted for
44466621 44418811 bribery and fraud in 2015, though
the trial ended with a hung jury
Classified in 2017 and the prosecution chose
44466609 44418811 to drop the case. This year, the
bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee
Subscription “severely admonished” him for shady
transactions. There are state officials,
circulation@gulf-times.com in places like New York, who soon will
be in orange jump suits.
To be sure, there were systemic
© 2018 Gulf Times. All rights reserved problems well before Trump took
employed by various unregistered
NGOs, including US and German
organisations.
Less than a year after freezing the
military aid, on July 25, Secretary of
State Michael R Pompeo lifted the
restrictions without specifying what
progress, if any, has been made.
Releasing military assistance to
Egypt without seeing improvements
in human rights taints the perception
that the US is serious in holding Egypt
accountable, said Andrew Miller, dep-
uty director for policy at the Project
on Middle East Democracy.
“Releasing the money removes
pressure on the Egyptian govern-
ment to meet conditions that were
originally attached to that funding,”
Miller said. “Egyptians will look back
and see that this is further evidence
Americans aren’t serious about hu-
man rights concerns. It hurts the
idea of using assistance to leverage
influence.”
The other time the US froze military
aid to Egypt was in 2013 over the
bloody crackdown and repression of
supporters of Mursi. He was ousted
by the military after massive dem-
onstrations by Egyptians concerned
that Mursi was failing to solve the
country’s many problems.
The Obama administration released
that military aid in 2015 to help Egypt
fight Islamic State militants who had
established a toehold in the Sinai.
Since then the human rights situa-
tion in Egypt has worsened. Egyptian
officials continue to lock up young
activists who speak out against the
government as tens of thousands of
political prisoners sit in jail.
“US policymakers look at Sissi
and say he may be a dictator but
at least he’s taking care of Islamic
State in the Sinai. They are willing to
overlook human rights violation to
maintain security,” said Amr Kotb,
advocacy director at the Wash-
ington-based Tahrir Institute for
Egyptian security forces detain supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi as they clear a sit-in camp set up near Cairo
University in Cairo’s Giza district, Egypt, on August 14, 2013.
office. Supreme Court decisions
and the unwillingness of Republican
congressional leaders like Mitch
McConnell to require transparency
have often made campaign financing
the equivalent of secretive legal
bribery.
Last week, New York Representative
Chris Collins was indicted for
securities fraud, accused of insider
trading of stock in an Australian
health care company where he serves
as a director and tried to help in
Congress. Four of his Republican
colleagues, while they weren’t
charged, also traded in the company’s
shares. One, John Culberson of
Texas, explained that the obscure
company had a promising treatment
for multiple sclerosis, a disease that
afflicted family friends. There are
a handful of other members facing
potential legal issues.
Republicans have controlled the
House for eight years and done
nothing to prohibit members from
serving on corporate boards or trading
stocks that could be affected by
legislation.
And no administration has been as
tarred by scandal in its first 18 months
in office. Two cabinet members, Tom
Price, the secretary of Health and
Human Services, and Scott Pruitt,
the EPA chief, were forced to resign
because of clear improprieties.
Two current officeholders, Interior
Secretary Ryan Zinke and Commerce
Secretary Wilbur Ross, could face
serious investigations over conflicts
of interest.
At the White House, National
Security Adviser Mike Flynn was
Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Hussein spends 600th day in Egypt prison
It has been 600 days since Al Jazeera
journalist Mahmoud Hussein was
arrested and jailed in Egypt without
charge.
Egyptian authorities accused the
Qatar-based news producer of
broadcasting false news and receiving
foreign funds to defame state
institutions. He and Al Jazeera strongly
deny the allegations, and the move
to continue to hold him has drawn
international criticism.
Hussein has been held for more than
18 months, which is the maximum
period of detention permitted for
an individual being investigated for
a felony, according to article 143 of
the Egyptian penal code. Authorities
should have either released Hussein or
referred him to court.
The Egyptian journalist was arrested
on December 20, 2016, upon his arrival
in Cairo while on annual vacation
visiting his family.
Five days after his initial arrest,
Egypt’s interior ministry accused
Hussein of “disseminating false
news and receiving monetary funds
from foreign authorities in order to
defame the state’s reputation”.
Since then, he has been put in solitary
Middle East Policy. “The US views
human rights and national security
as mutually exclusive.”
The next time the US decides to
withhold funds, it will have less
impact, rights advocates and experts
warn.
“The administration fails to un-
derstand that the status of human
rights in Egypt has a direct impact
on US national security interests,
including counter-terrorism,” Miller
said.
Miller said there have been ex-
amples in which withholding aid
indicted for lying about illicit dealings
with the Russians, and Staff Secretary
Rob Porter was forced out following
multiple allegations of assault. A
lesser figure was forcibly marched out
of the White House.
Overhanging all this are questions
about whether Trump and his
associates engaged in illegal activities
involving Russia.
The president and his defenders
say the suggestions of impropriety
are fake news and amount to political
witch hunts. Other Republicans in
trouble have borrowed from this
playbook. Jim Jordan, a right-wing
Republican congressman from Ohio,
says allegations that he covered up
sexual abuse of athletes when he was
an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio
State are politically inspired or fake
news.
It’s not clear this will matter
politically; it certainly won’t with
core Trump supporters. Others may
be inured by all the fake scandals
– Benghazi, the Internal Revenue
Service or the accusations against
Deputy Attorney General Rod
Rosenstein – drummed up by House
Republicans.
The partisan charge is absurd.
Consider what would happen if
Republicans such as former Florida
Governor Jeb Bush or Ohio Governor
John Kasich were in the White
House. There is no chance that the
likes of Pruitt, Flynn or Ross would
be top officials or even hangers-on
like Corey Lewandowski, Anthony
Scaramucci or Omaraosa Manigault-
Newman.
From the days of Watergate in
Mahmoud Hussein
confinement. Hussein suffered a
broken arm and has been refused
proper medical treatment for his injury.
In February, the United Nations called
his case one of “arbitrary detention”,
saying the “appropriate remedy would
be to release Mr Hussein immediately”.
Rights groups have reported an
unparallelled crackdown on Egypt’s
media in recent years since Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi seized power, and say it is
getting worse.
According to the Committee to Protect
Journalists, at least 20 media workers
are being held in Egyptian prisons -
some as long as four years.
has been effective in the short term,
such as pressuring Egypt to release
detained Egyptian Americans.
“Military assistance holds are
like sanctions in that you’re deny-
ing something with the hope that it
changes behaviour,” Miller said.
“It’s not instantaneous. Obama
and Trump have backed down from
assistance holds and lifted them
before they could have an effect,”
he said. “It reduces incentives
from Egypt. They don’t believe our
stance, and it prevents more signifi-
cant change.”
the 1970s until the past few years,
neither party could claim to be
ethically superior. The vast majority
of politicians were honest, but there
were a few bad apples on both sides.
But as Norm Eisen, the ethics czar
in the Obama White House who now
heads Citizens for Responsibility and
Ethics in Washington, notes: “The
tone at the top sets everything.”
Trump refused to release his tax
returns, which every president since
Gerald Ford has done. He also hasn’t
put his financial holdings in a blind
trust and his Washington hotel is a
venue for foreign governments and
domestic special interests to curry
favour.
In this administration, transparency
is a dirty word and lying is a way of
life.
The president’s daughter, Ivanka
and her husband Jared Kushner, both
White House aides, have also refused
to divest their holdings and have
innumerable conflicts. “Ivanka and
Jared never should be in the White
House in the first place,” Eisen said.
The Trump-dominated Republican
Party, sometimes unfairly, is
identified with race-baiting, frequent
contempt for the rule of law and
corruption. The corrosion is a
reminder of the old proverb: “A fish
rots from the head down.”
z Albert R Hunt is a Bloomberg
Opinion columnist covering politics
and policy. He was the executive editor
of Bloomberg News, before which
he was a reporter, bureau chief and
executive Washington editor at the
Wall Street Journal.
 Gulf Times
Saturday, August 18, 2018 15

COMMENT

Europe’s Google fines cross the line

By Pascal Salin
Paris

T
he European Union’s regulatory bodies
seem to be particularly hostile to
Google. In June 2017, the European
Commission fined the company
€2.42bn ($2.75bn) for breaching EU antitrust
rules, after concluding that, “Google has
abused its market dominance as a search engine
by giving an illegal advantage to another Google
product, its comparison shopping service.”
Then, last month, the Commission went
after Google again, fining it €4.34bn ($4.94bn)
for “illegal practices regarding Android mobile
devices.” Google had made agreements with
mobile-device manufacturers and network
operators to “to pre-install the Google Search
app and browser app (Chrome).” Moreover, it
seems that the European Parliament and several
EU member states would like to dismantle
Google by separating its search engine from
other possible revenue sources.
There is no doubt that Google holds a unique
position on the Internet. In terms of search
activity, it has commanded around 90% of the
market for over a decade, leading many soi-
disant defenders of competition to denounce
it for “abusing” its “dominant position.” But The European Commission fined Google €2.42bn ($2.75bn) for breaching EU antitrust rules.
most of these attacks are driven by a mix of
misconceptions and questionable claims of and those that are a result of state coercion. that freedom in such a way as to establish or when they had the chance. Today, Google makes the case for which it was fined in July 2018. It
harm by Google’s competitors. Traditionally, “pure and perfect competition” maintain a single private or public producer’s freely available important services such as email, entered into voluntary contracts with device
Google’s critics would define a monopoly is taken to mean that many firms are producing market dominance, then it has created a translation, video hosting, and more. It is able manufacturers, who agreed to pre-install some
as any firm that has a 100% market share, or the same good with the same techniques. harmful monopoly, by severely limiting to do this because it makes profits on other of its services. There was no “abuse” of its
at least a share large enough to make credible But this definition takes a static approach, opportunities for innovation. activities, namely online advertising connected “powerful market position.” There was only
competition seem impossible. Traditional measuring market outcomes at a single point In the case of Google, no one has prevented to its search service. By dismantling Google, one innovation in the context of free contracts and
economic theory holds that a monopoly can in time, even though the economy itself is others from entering the Internet-search risks undercutting its means of survival, and free markets.
take advantage of consumers by imposing dynamic. market. Google thus owes its reputation in this imposing high costs on consumers. In fact, if there has been any “abuse”
higher prices than would otherwise be Consider the case of a firm that is launching area to talent and ingenuity. When it entered Let us return to the EU’s recent actions. The of one’s “dominant position,” it has been
possible under conditions of “pure and perfect an innovative product. By definition, its market the market, it was not the first search engine, Commission levied its June 2017 fine because committed by the EU. Through coercion, the
competition.” By this simple reasoning, share will be 100%, at least for a while. The firm and any firm around the world had the freedom Google prioritised its own “comparative state is constraining individuals and firms from
legislators and judges must rein in monopolistic owes its “dominant position” to merit, and to to pursue the same opportunity. Google shopping service” over those of its competitors. making their own decisions in the market, and
“despoilers” by imposing heavy fines, or by the fact that consumers appreciate its product. prevailed because it provided a better service And yet, anyone who uses Google and its innovative firms are being punished as a result.
breaking them up, as has happened many times As this scenario demonstrates, competition than anyone else, and it did so early. various services does so freely, not because - Project Syndicate
throughout history. should not be defined by some arbitrary Google should not be punished for this Google is somehow forcing them. They could
But to follow to this line of thinking, one number of producers, but by whether other success. In the absence of state coercion, the just as well use other services, so their decision z Pascal Salin is honorary Professor of
must ignore a fundamental distinction firms are free to enter the market. Ultimately, word “dominant” has no purchase, and the to use Google must mean that Google provides Economics at the University Paris-Dauphine
between two kinds of monopolies: those that market entry is the key prerequisite of complaints of Google’s potential competitors the service most useful to them. and a former president of the Mont Pèlerin
emerge from the free operation of the market; innovation. If the state imposes constraints on have no legitimacy. They should have acted Likewise, Google did not use coercion in Society.

LEGAL HELPLINE Three-day forecast

TODAY
Maximum Temperature : 430c

Guarantees must be concluded in writing Minimum Temperature

SUNDAY
Maximum Temperature
Minimum Temperature
:

:
:
330c

430c
320c

By Dr Nizar Kochery
Doha
Q: By just guaranteeing a loan
repayment orally, can the court
make the guarantor liable? In a
personal loan transaction, I just said
“you pay, I know him”. Later the
lender and borrower made several
transactions. Now the lender
threatens me that he will sue me on
the ground that oral contracts are
valid in Qatar. Please advise.
DT, Doha
shall be granted subject to a medical
certificate issued by a licensed
physician stating the probable date
of delivery. If the remaining period
of the leave after delivery is less
than 30 days the female worker may
be granted a complementary leave
from her annual leave. Otherwise
the complementary period shall be
deemed to be a leave without pay.
Punishment for
trespassing
A: According to Article 323 of multiple times to the landlord’s MONDAY
the Penal Law, whoever commits manager, but maintenance Maximum Temperature : 430c
trespass by entering into residential is not done properly. In this Minimum Temperature : 310c
premises, or at premises intended case, am I legally eligible to Fisherman's forecast
for residential purposes or annexes terminate the contract and get
thereof or a place for custody of my remaining cheques back WARNING
property, without the consent of from the landlord? Inshore : Nil
the owner or is contrary to the MS, Doha
stipulations of the law, shall be Offshore : NIl
liable to imprisonment for a term A: According to relevant laws, the WEATHER
not exceeding one year or a fine not landlord shall undertake to maintain the Inshore : Hot daytime with slight
exceeding QR5,000 or both. The leased property in good condition by dust at times and
case needs to be defended at court to performing all necessary repairs during humid by night.
establish innocence of the accused. the term of the lease in accordance
with common practice, unless agreed
Offshore : Fine and some cloud.

Q: There is a case against a friend otherwise. Where the landlord, upon WIND
A: The relevant law that governs of mine who entered a wrong villa Maintenance receiving notice, fails to perform the
Inshore : Northwesterly-North-
easterly 05-15/18 KT
guarantees is the Qatar Civil Code.
Though contracts may be concluded
by mistake. He entered villa No
13 instead of No 30 during day
issues in villa necessary repairs, the tenant may obtain
permission from the court to perform Offshrore : Mainly Northwesterly
03-13/17 KT
verbally, Article 809 stipulates that time. The tenant called police Q: I have signed a lease contract such repairs personally and to deduct
guarantees must be concluded in and a case was filed against him for a villa with a Qatari landlord the cost incurred from the rent, without Visibility : 4-8 KM
writing. For a guarantee to be valid, for trespassing. He has received a and provided him with post- prejudice to the tenant’s right to demand
Offshore : 1-3/4 FT
reference should be made to the notice from the court notifying the dated cheques. We have serious termination of the lease or a reduction in
underlying debt being guaranteed. case date. What is the punishment maintenance issues in the the rent as provided for by law. Around the region
The guarantor must guarantee a as per law in such a situation? villa including faulty ACs and Weather Weather
specific debt. A guarantor may Please advise. leaks in bathrooms. In the last z Please send your questions to today Max/min tomorrow Max/min
guarantee future and unspecified JS, Doha one month, I have complained leges@qatar.net.qa Baghdad Sunny 43/27 Sunny 43/26
obligations of a debtor, provided Kuwait City Sunny 46/32 Sunny 46/31
that the maximum amount being Manama Sunny 39/32 Sunny 39/32
guaranteed and the maximum period Muscat Sunny 33/28 M Sunny 32/28
of the guarantee are specified in the
guarantee document. LEGAL SYSTEM IN QATAR Tehran Sunny 39/25 Sunny 38/22

According to Article 480 of Civil descriptions of these occupiers;

Law regarding and Commercial Procedure law, (5) Conditions of sale as shown by
maternity leave the minutes of attachment shall
be exhibited before the judge
the judge to the concerned parties
based on which the sale shall take
Q: I have been working in a of execution within seven days place; (6) Estimated value of the
construction company in the from the date of signature of real property as a basic price at
Industrial Area since February such attachment. The judge shall which the auction shall commence
2018. Six months’ probation issue the list of conditions of sale in the session of sale; (7) Division
is included in the employment and determine the basic price at of the real property into portions, if
contract. I have applied for which the auction shall commence any, stating the basic price of each
maternity leave from August 10, within the session of sale within a portions.
2018 due to some complication in maximum of thirty days from the The submission of objections against
pregnancy. But the company has date of exhibiting the minutes of the conditions of sale shall take place
Around the world
refused to grant maternity leave attachment. The judge may seek through a report to be filed with the
and asked me to take unpaid help from experts in assessing Registry of the court at least three Weather Weather
leave. This has led to some this price. Moreover, the judge days prior to the specified hearing today Max/min tomorrow Max/min
differences with management shall decide the date of hearing to him to pay the value of the debt, for examination of these objections, Athens Sunny 35/25 Sunny 34/25
and now I have decided to resign. examine objections raised against interests and expenses thereof otherwise the right to comply with Beirut M Sunny 29/26 M Sunny 29/25
My salary for the last four the list, provided that the date shall within 15 days from the date of issue the conditions shall lapse. Bangkok S T Storms 32/27 S T Storms 32/27
months is due. How can I get it? not exceed thirty days from the date of the judgment on the objections The judge of execution shall rule on Berlin P Cloudy 27/16 P Cloudy 28/17
Being an employee, am I eligible of determination of the basic price. against the list, otherwise the all objections submitted pertaining Cairo P Cloudy 36/24 Sunny 36/24
for maternity leave? What is the The Registry of the court shall, judge shall order the sale of the to the list of conditions of sale Cape Town Sunny 18/08 Showers 15/09
law in this regard? Please advise. within 15 days following the issue of real property owing to him in the within a period not exceeding 15 Colombo T Storm 28/26 S T Storms 28/26
CA, Doha the list, serve a summons upon the auction. days from the date specified for the Dhaka T Storm 34/27 S T Storms 33/27
distrainee, whether he is a debtor As per Article 481, the list of session to examine such objections. Hong Kong S T Storms 31/26 S T Storms 32/29
A: If the management is reluctant or owner or in-kind guarantor conditions of sale shall include The judge shall determine a session Istanbul Sunny 31/23 Sunny 32/23
to pay due salary, the employee and creditors; holder of restricted the following: (1) Statement of for the sale of the real property Jakarta M Sunny 33/24 M Sunny 33/24
can approach the Labour Dispute rights on the real property, before the executive deed that is subject within 30 days from the date Karachi Cloudy 30/27 M Cloudy 30/27
Resolution Committee and file a case registration of attachment in this to execution; (2) Date of minutes specified for issuing a ruling on London P Cloudy 25/16 M Sunny 23/17
against the company. list. The Registry shall also specify of the attachment executed on these objections. Manila T Storm 29/26 T Storm 29/26
Article 96 of the Labour Law is the basic price and date of the the real property and the date of According to Article 484, the Moscow P Cloudy 24/11 M Sunny 26/16
regarding maternity leave. A female hearing identified for examination registration; (3) Specification of the sale shall be made in the court. New Delhi T Storm 33/28 T Storm 35/28
worker who has been employed by an of an objection against the list. If attached real property with details The person who assumes the New York Cloudy 31/21 Rain 24/19
employer for a complete year shall be one of the abovementioned persons of location, area, boundaries and proceedings, the distrainee and Paris M Sunny 27/15 M Sunny 29/17
entitled to maternity leave with full is dead, summons shall be served other particulars that are helpful in any concerned party may request Sao Paulo P Cloudy 21/12 P Cloudy 25/12
pay for 50 days. Such maternity leave upon all of his heirs in the last identification of the property; (4) a permission from the judge of Seoul M Sunny 32/23 M Cloudy 32/24
shall include the period before and domicile in which he lived. Accessories of the real property execution to conduct the sale at the Singapore S T Storms 32/27 S T Storms 32/27
after the delivery provided that the The summons to be served upon the and whether it is occupied by the location of the same real property or Sydney Cloudy 22/08 Cloudy 16/08
period following the delivery shall distrainee shall include ordering distrainee or third parties and the in another place. Tokyo Clear 28/20 Clear 29/21
not be less than 35 days. This leave
 Gulf Times
16 Saturday, August 18, 2018
QATAR
Some of the unique food joints at the Summer Entertainment City (SEC). PICTURES: Shemeer Rasheed
Leisure, entertainment
big businesses in Qatar
By Peter Alagos
Business Reporter
C
oncepts related to the
entertainment and lei-
sure industry are “very
promising” ventures for entre-
preneurs in the Qatari market,
an official of the Summer En-
tertainment City (SEC) has said.
There is an “immense need” for
activities that cater to entertain-
ment and leisure in the country,
especially during the summer
season, according to SEC project
manager Adil Ahmed.
“Just take for example the An-
gry Birds World park at the Doha
Festival City or the football fan
zones, they were packed. People
will look for an outlet, especially
anything related to leisure. If you
have the right ingredients: AC
and an indoor facility, entertain-
ment and leisure-related busi-
nesses will work,” Ahmed told
Gulf Times.
The leisure and entertainment
industry also provides a host of
business opportunities for en-
trepreneurs and micro and small
companies, he said.
At the SEC, around 80% of
participating companies are
thriving Qatari concepts such
as Exit 55, Glitter Cafe, and Pas-
turger, among many others. He
also lauded the power of social
media in helping build, promote,
Municipalities gear up for Eid celebrations
Food inspection under way.
A young boy hones his driving skills.
and market local brands. Entre-
preneurs maximise the use of
Twitter for live broadcast pre-
miers or Instagram and What-
sApp; bloggers also play a major
role in spreading information,
Ahmed explained.
“The SEC gives local entre-
preneurs the opportunity to
operate their businesses amid
the lull of the summer season. It
also gives them a chance to test
new concepts in the local mar-
ket. Local entrepreneurs are very
pleased with the response that
they get,” he said.According to
Ahmed, QSports — the organ-
iser of the SEC which runs until
August 31 at the Doha Exhibition
and Convention Centre - “made
a deliberate step” into the leisure
and entertainment market just
last year.
“But look at what we’ve done
Al Zubarah Fort gets spruced up as part of the Eid al-Adha preparations in Al Shamal Municipality.
M
unicipalities around
the country are gearing
up for the upcoming
Eid al-Adha holidays. They have
taken a number of steps as part
of the preparations, covering a
wide range of services and facili-
ties. Al Sheehaniya Municipal-
ity has adopted a comprehensive
plan to cover all public services
within its jurisdiction ahead of
and during the Eid al-Adha holi-
days.
The health control depart-
ment at the municipality has put
QSports is planning to hold an event showcasing various inflatable entertainment facilities during the winter holidays.
Even adults enjoy some of the inflatable games at the SEC.
in the past year: from the Sum-
mer Entertainment City, we
were present in events like the
Souq Waqif Spring Festival, the
Mall of Qatar Fun Fair, and the
Al Bidda Park Spring Bazaar. We
were also present at the Qatar
International Food Festival, and
now we’re back with the SEC,”
Ahmed pointed out.
He added: “We have setups
in the malls as well, such as our
QSports digital playground, VRs
(virtual reality), and ball pits, so
we create these little concepts
in the malls. In the summer,
you can focus on indoor activi-
in place a schedule that guaran-
tees the presence of veterinar-
ians at slaughterhouses all the
time, in addition to increasing
the number of butchers and por-
ters to meet the anticipated high
demand. Inspection of various
food establishments, including
restaurants and shops, will be
intensified to prevent any ma-
nipulation by retailers.
Meanwhile, cleaning works
and removal of garbage from
street containers will be carried
out regularly with special fo-
ties and conversely, outdoor fun
during the cooler months.”
Ahmed also said plans are
in the pipeline for the launch
of an ‘Inflatable City’, which is
based on the inflatables concept.
“When we bring inflatables, we
really showcase big inflatables,”
Ahmed stressed, noting that the
project is planned for the winter
holidays.
“This concept is on the cards,
and then we have another con-
cept called the ‘glow run’, which
is a single day event where there
will be a nighttime run with
glowing paints,” he added.
cus on public places and parks.
Besides, special efforts will be
exerted to detect any potential
attempts to slaughter sacrifi-
cial animals outside designated
places such as slaughterhouses.
Similarly, Al Daayen Mu-
nicipality has intensified its
inspection campaign at food
establishments such as meat,
fish and poultry outlets, eater-
ies and sweet shops due to the
high demand during this time
of the year. A daily schedule has
been prepared for all inspectors
Novelty shops are thriving businesses at the SEC.
Qatari business concepts are a familiar fixture at the SEC.
A park ready to welcome visitors in Al Shamal Municipality.
and veterinarians to monitor ments, pest and rodent control,
food establishments during Eid as well as maintenance of clean-
al-Adha to ensure the safety of liness on roads and in other pub-
food products and conformity to lic areas.
health standards. The necessary Al Rayyan Municipality, too,
action will be taken against vio- is all set for the Eid al-Adha
lators in order to maintain public celebrations, the Ministry of
health and safety. Municipality and Environment
The initiatives also include (MME) has said in a tweet. Four
the distribution of pamphlets inspection teams have been set
to educate the public on getting up to carry out checks at restau-
sacrificial animals slaughtered rants and commercial complexes
only at slaughterhouses and not in the area. Also, a team of vet-
outside. erinarians will be available at the
Al Shamal Municipality said it Al Rayyan and Muaither slaugh-
has made the necessary prepa- terhouses.
rations for Eid al-Adha with the Meanwhile, the MME’s Gen-
aim of providing the best serv- eral Cleanliness Department is
ices to the public. Carried out making intensive efforts to keep
by various departments of the designated Eid prayer yards and
municipality, the preparations mosques, parks, beaches and
cover areas such as cleanup of other places of public interest
public gardens, prayer yards clean ahead of the Eid holidays,
and mosques, health and safety the MME has said in a press
inspections at food establish- statement.