polarisation causes more instability in middle east: fm - qatar

Now, Ooredoo gives home internet a 5X boost for free

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHA

ARE you an Ooredoo home broadband subscriber? If yes, then there’s some good news for you.

The telecom giant has increased the home inter-net speed by five times for free of charge.

“Enjoy – the best news is here! We’ve boosted your home internet speeds for free! Your home in-ternet will now be up to 5 times faster – at no extra costs!,” Ooredoo said in a tweet.

“If you were on the 15

Mbps plan, you will be up-graded to 50 Mbps. If you were on 30 Mbps, you will be upgraded to 150 Mbps. If you were on 50 Mbps, you will be getting 250 Mbps. And finally, if you were on 100 Mbps, you will get a free upgrade to 500 Mbps,” Ooredoo said in a tweet.

HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, attended the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra’s 10-year anniversary concert at the Qatar National Convention Centre on Tuesday. The orchestra was led by world-renowned Conductor of Honor Dmitrij Kitajenko. (HHOPL) PAGE 20

SHEIKHA MOZA GRACES QATAR PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA’S 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

QNADOHA

THE National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has de-plored the UAE authorities for their failure to comply with the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) decision to allow a UAE national and her two Qatari children to leave the country.

In a statement on Tues-day, the NHRC urged the UAE authorities to comply with its obligations under the Interna-tional Convention on the Elim-ination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and to apply a set of provisional measures ensuring that families, that include a Qatari, separated by the measures adopted by the UAE since 5 June 2017, are united.

“Mixed families continue to face an uncertain future, under critical circumstances, which have changed the lives of thousands of families in the Gulf region, due to the severe restrictions imposed by the blockading countries on Qatar leading to separation of fami-lies,” it added.

The committee noted that the most recent cases involved the prevention of some fam-ily members from leaving the UAE. For instance, there is the case of Shaqraa Mohammed Obaid, an Emirati citizen, who is married to Fahd Abdullah Dhyiab, a Qatari citizen.

“She left Qatar on January 23, 2019, with her two sons — Dhyiab (aged 2 years) and Abdullah (aged 4 months) — to visit her family in the UAE. And she is currently banned from leaving the UAE with her two children, in violation of her right to reunite with her family, ” the statement said.

NHRC calls on UAE to allow Emirati citizen, her two Qatari kids to leave


PARENTS beware of your ward’s online activities! A new study has revealed that chil-dren are now spending at least 8 hours online every day.

According to a Vodafone AmanTECH research, about 32 percent of pupils surveyed re-ported that they spend at least 8 hours online per day.

The most popular activity is watching videos (40 percent), followed by playing games (23 percent) and social media activ-ities (21 percent), it said. A total of 1,761 children took part in the survey.

According to the survey, game consoles are the most popular platform for gaming (45 percent). Sports games are

the most popular (29 percent), followed by shooter games (27 percent).

Most young people were aware of the risks of meeting with online friends.

As many as 50 percent said they would tell parents if a stranger online wanted to meet them, while 35 percent said they would tell the person they were not comfortable. About 6 per-cent said they would arrange a secret meeting on their own, while 11 percent said they would go to the meeting, but take a friend along.

Responses to online bully-ing were mixed. While 31 per-cent said they would send back mean messages, 14 percent opined they would keep quiet about it.

About 31 percent said they

would block the bully and 21 percent said they would tell a teacher or parent about it.

As many as 46 percent of children thought their parents were concerned about them spending too much time online,

the findings revealed.Vodafone Qatar’s award

winning online safety pro-gramme, AmanTECH, has been engaging with the chil-dren on the subject of digital safety, and its latest research

findings clearly show a number of gaps to address.

In parallel to AmanTECH’s many community engagements, Vodafone Qatar, in partnership with the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC), have been delivering online safety workshops at primary schools since late 2017.

To date, 30 workshops have been conducted for close to 3,000 students in the age group of 3-8 years, with plans to con-duct 20 more before the end of 2019. In each workshop, the children are required to perform tasks related to online safety, in order to learn specific skills in-cluding identifying fake news, safe online gaming, and how to deal with cyber bullying.

Children spend 8 hours online daily: Survey

WEDNESDAYFEBRUARY 27, 2019

JUMADA AL-AKHIR 22, 1440VOL.12 NO. 4558 QR 2

HISHAM ALJUNDIDOHA

QATAR is spending a whop-ping QR200 million daily on infrastructure projects.

Minister of Municipality and Environment HE Eng Ab-dullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki al Subaie said this during his visit to the Central Municipal Council (CMC) on Tuesday.

“Infrastructure projects are progressing steadily,” Sub-aie said, adding that there was an average annual budget of QR50-60 billion for the infra-structure projects.

“Providing the best services for our homeland and people is a lofty objective for us,” he said.

Subaie highlighted the min-

istry’s efforts and achievements in seven different sectors of de-velopment.

The sectors are food secu-rity, infrastructure, develop-ment and urbanisation, land and marine environment, waste recycling, environmental sus-tainability, and improved work efficiency through technology.

He said food security is an essential part of the national development programme and ministry has ambitious plans.

He praised the CMC for their efforts to provide solution to the complaints of the people and follow them up to ensure that the people get best facili-ties and services.

Qatar spending QR200 mn daily on infra projects, says minister

Minister of Municipality and Environment HE Eng Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki al Subaie at the CMC on Tuesday.

New health insurance law soon: Official

Studies are being conducted for the reintro-duction of the health insurance law, a top

official of the Ministry of Public Health has said.“We are currently conducting studies on

the return of health insurance. But there will be fixed grounds for the application of health insurance and therefore the law is under study. It will be enforced when ready,” Ali Abdulla al Khater, Executive Director of Corpo-rate Communications at the Ministry of Public

Health and Hamad Medical Corporation, said.He said a new and modern facility for

emergency services and injuries caused by accidents will be opened at Hamad General Hospital this year. “This will quadruple the current emergency section. We are also look-ing forward to the success of our vision of the academic health system, based on research and higher education, to provide exceptional care,” he said. (TNN)

An AmanTECH school workshop.

Congestion at fuel stations due to service centres irks CMC (PG 2 )

UN chief lauds Qatar’s support for AU Commission (PG 4)

Expect a dusty and windy weekend ahead: QMD (PG 3)

Polarisation causes more instability in Middle East: FM‘Global powers must be inclusive in their approach to the region’


THE Middle East’s polarised and repressive politics will lead to even more instability in the region unless countries take steps to reform and calm ten-sions, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Ab-dulrahman al Thani has said.

Sheikh Mohammed urged international powers includ-ing the US to be more inclu-sive in their approach to the region, saying one-sided ini-tiatives that excluded either the Iranians or Palestinians did not work, reports The Guardian.

“Anyone that looks at the situation right now – the po-larisation in the region – is quite certain that things will not remain like this,” Sheikh Mohammed said.

“You cannot keep people under oppression for a long time, so to prevent this in-stability from happening, we just want leaders to start re-forming. We have to practice preventative diplomacy rath-er than reactive diplomacy, ” he said.

The minister said besides acting as a mediator with the

Taliban, Qatar has provided more than $1 billion in help to alleviate sufferings in Gaza and spent $500 million to sta-bilise the Lebanese economy.

Unlike most other Gulf

states, Qatar has continued to support the Iran nuclear deal. “Our position on the Iran deal is that, like the Europeans, we support it,” Thani said. “We do not want a nuclear arms race in our region, and that is the danger.”

He insisted this did not mean his country had now, as some claimed, formed a new axis with Iran and Turkey. “Our geography is difficult. We have sided with no one. It’s not easy to be a facilitator for talks between adversaries.

“If you look at the core of the issue, the Gulf Coopera-tion Council (GCC) needs to reach an understanding with Iran, not just Saudi Arabia and Iran – all of us are liv-ing in the same neighbour-hood and we need to reach an understanding. That was the common position of the GCC countries until 2017, but the boycott changed everything,” he said.

The FM said he had spo-ken to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s Middle East advi-sor, who told him his much-delayed Israel-Palestine peace plan for the region would be “ready in a few weeks”.

You cannot keep people under oppression for a

long time, so to prevent this instability from happening, we just want leaders to start reforming. We have to practice preventative diplo-macy rather than reactive diplomacy.”

— HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani

Continued on page 2

Continued on page 2

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Business 12UDC to spend QR5.5 bn to complete ongoing projects

Sports 16Attiyah storms to 6th win in Qatar Cross-Country Rally

CMC rues congestion at petrol stations due to service centres

HISHAMALJUNDIDOHA

THE Central Municipal Coun-cil (CMC) has urged the Minis-try of Commerce and Industry not to renew licences of those car service centres at petrol stations that don’t have suffi-cient parking space.

The CMC said the presence of service centres with inade-quate space always causes con-gestion at petrol stations caus-ing inconvenience to people.

At its meeting held on Tuesday, the CMC discussed

the issue and urged the con-cerned authorities to take necessary action to ease the situation.

According to the CMC, some motorists have to re-turn from these petrol stations without refuelling their vehi-cles due to insufficient parking space caused by the presence of service centres.

The CMC has also submit-ted a recommendation to the Ministry of Municipality and Environment to allocate space outside cities for car service centres to avoid congestions.

Preliminary CMC polls candidates’ lists today

THE preliminary lists candi-dates for the sixth Central Mu-nicipal Council (CMC) elections will be released in all constitu-ency offices on Wednesday. Altogether, 116 candidates, in-cluding five women, registered for the elections in all 29 elec-toral districts.

Director of Legal Affairs Department at the MoI and Deputy Chairman of the Su-pervisory Committee for CMC Elections Brig Salem Saqr al Muraikhi said the commit-tee will start appeals regard-ing registration of candidates from Wednesday until March 7 from 4 pm to 7 pm. (QNA)

President of Somalia Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo arrived in Doha on Tuesday for a work visit. The Somali president and his accompanying delegation were welcomed at the Hamad International Airport by Minister of Transport and Communications HE Jassim bin Saif al Sulaiti, Qatar’s Ambassador to Somalia HE Hassan bin Hamza Asad Hashim and Somali Ambassador to Qatar HE Abdul Razak Farah Ali. (QNA)

PRESIDENT OF SOMALIA ARRIVES IN DOHA Khashoggi’s family needs answers: FM

Continued from page 1

QATAR, he insisted, “had no interest in any-thing that is not a two-state solution, 1967 borders, the right of return, clear designation of Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine”.

On journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s assas-sination, he said, “What has happened was a brutal crime. The family of Khashoggi needs answers and needs to be able to identify what happened to their father. There has to be ac-countability for what happened. Dealing with political opposition through crimes is wrong.”

Although he said it was not for him to judge the legal process of other countries, the FM said he hoped Saudi would cooperate with the UN inquiry into the death. “Since the UN inquiry is an international process under international law, everyone should cooper-ate,” he said.

Need to instil healthy online habits: Yami

Continued from page 1

AT the end of each workshop, the pupils com-plete an electronic survey on their use of technolo-gy, games, videos and social media.

Mohammed al Yami, director of external af-fairs at Vodafone Qatar, said, “Qatar is one of the most connected countries in the world and chil-dren are exposed to technology from a very young age. It is our duty to ensure that children are given the opportunity to make the most of communica-tion technologies for their development while also instilling healthy and safe online habits. Our work through AmanTECH has touched thousands of children and members of the community but there is much to do to raise awareness of digital safety and our research clearly shows a number of gaps.”

Al-Attiyah Foundation to host energy dialogue TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

AL-ATTIYAH Foundation, the leading energy and sustainable de-velopment think tank in Qatar, will host global experts for its quarterly CEO Roundtable and Senior En-ergy Managers Dialogue on March 19 and 20.

Both events will explore the significant challenges, emerging trends and potential solutions for reducing methane emissions across the oil and gas industry.

The highly interactive and content driven CEO roundtables and energy dialogues allow min-

isters, industry leaders and deans from local universities to engage with world experts on the chosen theme: “Reducing Methane Emis-sions from Energy-Related Ex-tractive Activities”.

Chairman of the Al-Attiyah Foundation HE Abdullah bin Hamad al Attiyah launched the CEO Roundtable Series and Dia-logues to provide a platform for knowledge exchange and support for the global community in the quest towards a sustainable energy future. The guests have the oppor-tunity to share their opinions and insights into what is always a lively and thought-provoking discussion.

The invited expert speakers include Scott Foster, director, Sus-tainability Energy Division, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE); Braulio Pikman, expert advisor, Environmental Re-sources Management (ERM); and DrIoannis Economou, associate dean for Academic Affairs and pro-fessor of Chemical Engineering at

Texas A&M University. The thoughts and commentary

from the CEO Roundtable and the Energy Dialogue will be captured in a white paper for Al-Attiyah Foun-dation members and will be avail-able on the Al-Attiyah Foundation’s website later in the year.

In addition to the CEO Round-table Series, the Al-Attiyah Founda-tion publishes expert opinions and insights through a variety of daily, weekly and monthly reports and papers. Further details of the foun-dation’s activities can be found at www.abhafoundation.org or by fol-lowing the foundation on LinkedIn or Twitter.

The thoughts and commentary from the CEO Roundtable and the Energy Dialogue will be captured in a white paper for Al-Attiyah Foundation members

02 Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Contact US: Qatar Tribune I EDITORIAL I Phone: 40002222 I ADMINISTRATION & MARKETING I Phone: 40002155, 40002122, Fax: 40002235 P.O. Box: 23493, Doha.

Qatar’s youth encouraged to play active role in job market

AILYN AGONIADOHA

QATAR Career Development Centre (QCDC) welcomed many high school students from across Qatar at the open-ing the 2019 edition of its Ca-reer Village at the Multaqa (Education City Student Cent-er) on Tuesday.

The annual event, aimed at instilling in Qatar’s youth a strong career culture, is show-casing various companies rep-resenting eight sectors, includ-ing a number of government agencies and those from the medical, media, education and oil and gas fields.

The three-day fair gives op-portunity for the students to familiarise themselves with the dynamics and challenges of Qa-tar’s job market.

“Qatar is investing a lot in

the education of the youth in all sectors and so they have to take this chance to evaluate them-selves to know how they can give back to the country by be-ing active in the Qatar job mar-ket, said Saad Abdulla al Kharji, head of Programmes and Ca-reer Services at QCDC, told Qa-tar Tribune in an interview.

He underlined the main objective of QCDC and the

event in raising the awareness of the country on the impor-tance of young people choos-ing their right path based on their hobbies and interests from an early stage.

He said among the impact of Career Village is encourag-ing dialogues between students and their parents on their fu-ture career path.

“There are many sectors in

Qatar investing in human cap-ital and raising the awareness on this. These days, you can see a lot of youth in Qatar as-piring to be entrepreneurs or having a side income instead of just having the mentality of wanting to work as a staff in an organisation or ministry. Having this kind of culture is good,” Kharji added.

This year, Career Village is

featuring more activities to bet-ter engage the students such as workshops and lectures, an exhibition featuring a selection of photographs provided by participating institutions and a Mini Career Village for children aged five to 10 years to learn about various careers and pro-fessions in an entertaining and interactive way.

Hanane Ibrahim of

Bedaya Center said there is a growing interest among the youth in Qatar to venture into entrepreneurship.

She underlined Bedaya’s support in helping and guiding the youth through administra-tion procedures as well as work-shops and opportunities to par-ticipate in different exhibitions and events.

“Bedaya is under Qatar De-velopment Bank and we are a non-profit organisation which aims to help youth discover their path and, as we are con-centrating on entrepreneur-ship, we help them come up with a business idea and start their own startups. We really encourage the youth in Qatar to start a side business,” she said.

Shaikha Alkhater of the Qatar Media Corporation said many young students are also showing interest in careers in media field.

She said, “We are partici-pating in the Career Village to show the students the dynam-ics in our organisation and also

to invite them to come and ex-perience what is going on in the media field.”

Ahmed Fahad al Khulaifi of the General Directorate of Coasts and Borders Security said they are glad to educate the students on the works of the coast guards through the fair and to inspire some of them to join the organisation in future.

Other organisations taking part in the event include the Ministry of Administrative De-velopment, Labour and Social Affairs, General Directorate of Traffic, General Directorate of Civil Defence, General Author-ity of Customs, Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar Finance and Business Academy, Qatar Uni-versity, Police College, Stenden University of Applied Sciences Qatar, University of Calgary in Qatar, Qatar Petroleum, Qatar-gas and Qatar Airways.

The Career Village will be open to visitors from 8am to 1pm and 4pm to 7pm until February 28.

QCDC’s Career Village 2019 is showcasing various companies representing eight sectors, including a number of government agencies and those from the medical, media, education and oil and gas fields. (HANSON K JOSEPH)

QCDC’s Career Village 2019 opens

‘Qatar making efforts to preserve, sustain and protect environment’

QNADOHA

QATAR is harnessing all its ca-pabilities to preserve, sustain and protect the environment, Minister of Municipality and Environment HE Eng Abdul-lah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki al Subaie has said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the event to mark Qatar En-vironment Day at the Cultural Village Foundation (Katara), the minister said that observ-ing Qatar Environment Day is a proof of this keenness.

The minister referred to the projects carried out by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment for environ-mental sustainability and bio-diversity, protecting land and

sea environment, monitoring of air, water and soil quality, and protecting wildlife and endangered animals.

He said the environment and its sustainability is a global issue that calls for individual, collective, international and so-cietal responsibility.

The minister stressed that government officials, indi-viduals and communities must come together to preserve the environment and natural re-sources as well as combat and prevent pollution.

Subaie also said the na-tional laws for the protection

and preservation of the envi-ronment are strict, adding that modifications are, however, be-ing made to include waste recy-cling and monitor air quality into certain legislations.

He also touched on a num-ber of other environmental pro-jects that the ministry is keen to

develop, including the protec-tion of rangelands and affor-estation, as well as the biologic information bank for all plants and livestock in Qatar.

Qatar Environment Day falls on February 26 every year. The Ministry of Municipality and Environment will be host-

ing a three-day event under the theme ‘Our Environment is our Future’, in which environmen-tal departments will present their activities and efforts in the field of environmental protec-tion, in addition to holding a series of activities, workshops and events.

Minister of Municipality and Environment HE Eng Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki al Subaie at the event to mark Qatar Environment Day at Katara on Wednesday.

Qatar Environment Day observed on Feb 26 every year

Dusty, windydays aheadEXPECT a spell of windy and dusty weather accompanied by scattered rain from Friday (March 1) evening until Satur-day, the Qatar Meteorology De-partment (QMD) has forecast. The QMD has also forecast er-ratic weather between Wednes-day and Friday morning with a chance of light and scattered rain coupled with strong winds.

According to QMD, strong northwesterly winds are ex-pected during the period with a speed ranging between 18 and 28 knots gusting to 40 kt at times in some areas causing dust and poor visibility below one kilometre in most areas. The state of sea is expected to be rough reaching 12 ft.

The windy conditions are, however, expected to ease on Saturday evening with a notice-able drop in temperature with maximums expected to range between 18 and 22 degree Cel-sius and minimums between 14 and 16 degree Celsius.

QMD has urged residents to be cautious and avoid all marine activities during the period, as well as to follow lat-est updates through its official social media accounts. (TNN)

Ooredoo drives Qatar to 5G global top five country statusTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

OOREDOO and Arthur D. Little (ADL) at Mobile World Congress on Tuesday launched a new report that shows Oore-doo’s 5G pilot projects have driven Qatar to be ranked glob-ally among the world’s top five 5G-leading countries.

The ADL 5G index bench-marks more than 40 countries in terms of advancement in 5G based on two main cat-egories of input data spanning technical infrastructure avail-ability and 5G commercialisa-tion tendency.

In Qatar, Ooredoo has been actively driving its 5G agenda and found success with the first launch of 5G on a commercially available network globally in May 2018.

Waleed al Sayed, chief ex-ecutive officer, Ooredoo Qatar,

said: “Ooredoo has always had a strong technology push and followed global best practices in the adoption of next gen-eration mobile network tech-nologies. We have made 5G spectrum available, have an-nounced ambitious goals for 5G rollout and have success-fully trialed various use-cases

to include the world’s first drone taxi.”

With 100 mobile sites al-ready upgraded and operating on 5G, Ooredoo is now cover-ing more than a third of the population and nearly all large enterprises with 5G. This will grow to more than 50 percent population coverage in 2019.

Dr Karim Taga, managing partner and Global Practice leader, ADL TIME, said: “5G is the first mobile network generation which promises the data throughput, latency and flexibility to enable the next level of digitisation across consumer types.

“In Qatar, especially verti-cal eco-systems and corporate bodies will benefit most from 5G. Use cases based on 5G like AR/VR and enhanced video are suited for smart venues and smart city to enable a next level user experience.”

Ooredoo transforms digital experience for its customers in Kuwait and Oman TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

BARCELONA, SPAIN

OOREDOO at Mobile World Congress on Tuesday an-nounced a partnership with MATRIXX Software, a Sili-con Valley-based company whose MATRIXX Digital Commerce Platform is rein-venting global business, to digitally transform the mo-bile experience for millions of mobile customers in Kuwait and Oman.

Ooredoo Kuwait has launched ‘ANA’, giving cus-tomers complete control of their mobile plans and the freedom to choose and cus-tomise the digital package that fits their needs.

In Oman, Ooredoo has ex-panded its successful Shaba-biah digital service to include postpaid mobile services, all powered by Matrixx, which

specialises in helping mobile customers buy, manage, share and pay for digital services.

Both Ooredoo Kuwait and Ooredoo Oman are the first operators in their markets to launch such services, which provide an all-digital, individu-ally customised mobile product that gives customers complete control of their mobile plans and digital worlds, and makes it easier to buy, use and pay for

Ooredoo services directly from their mobile phones.

Sheikh Saud bin Nasser al Thani, Group Chief Execu-tive Officer, Ooredoo, said: “In line with the MWC theme of ‘Intelligent Connectivity,’ our new digital mobile services in Kuwait and Oman enrich our customers digital experiences with the freedom to choose and customise the digital package that fits their needs

through features like eSIM, roaming and booster packs.

“Oman and Kuwait cus-tomers can create their own mobile number, make ap-pointments, track health, pay bills and much more. We are proud to push the digital ex-perience boundaries for our customers, bringing the best of Silicon Valley through our partnership with Matrixx.”

Dave Labuda, founder, CEO and CTO, MATRIXX Software, said: “We are hon-oured to partner with Ooredoo as it leads digital transforma-tion in Kuwait and Oman. It is important for mobile operators to be able to offer their customers transparency, creativity and control. We are proud to have our MATRIXX Digital Commerce platform at the core of Ooredoo’s commit-ment to enriching their cus-tomers’ digital lives.”

Dr Karim Taga, managing part-ner and Global Practice leader, ADL TIME.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulla al Thani, Ooredoo Kuwait CEO with Ian Dench, Ooredoo Oman CEO with Dave Labuda, founder, CEO and CTO, MATRIXX Software.

Nation 03Wednesday, February 27, 2019

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a) Name of the bidder / company with Qatari ID no.b) Bid pricec) Valid passport / Identity card copyd) C.R. Copy of the Companye) Contact address and telephone no.

All the items can be inspected ‘as is on is’ basis from 3rd March to 9th March 2019, from 9:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. at Industrial Area, Street 28 and Street 42.

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First batch of CCQ cybersecurity course set to graduate


AS an answer to the increasing demand for highly trained cy-bersecurity professionals in the run up to the year 2030 and the establishment of a knowledge-based society, the Community College of Qatar (CCQ) is cur-rently preparing for the gradu-ation of the country’s first batch of students carrying a bach-elor’s degree in Cyber and Net-work Security.

The academically-qualified and aspiring professionals are eying for leading roles in pro-tecting the nationwide ICT in-frastructure that would help facilitate Qatar’s anticipated

socioeconomic transformation.Having placed ICT develop-ment at the top of its priorities, the Government of Qatar has taken several steps to build a smart digital infrastructure that can help achieve the objectives of the country’s national vision by powering its augmented healthcare services, technolo-gy-assisted learning environ-ments, modernised business models, and environmentally sound technologies, among other enhanced outcomes.

CCQ President Dr Mo-hamed al Naemi said the sheer volume of data transmitted through such a massive inter-connected network requires coordinated efforts in order to

protect and secure. “On the national level, it is

important to capture the op-portunities that a sophisticated digital infrastructure presents,

while mitigating its inherent risks,” he added.

“A key note here is that na-tional cybersecurity not only entails policies that safeguard

IT systems, but also the tech-nological resources and skilled personnel instrumental for their implementation. This is why CCQ developed the BS in Information Technology-Cyber and Network Security pro-gramme; to secure this massive digital asset of Qatar.”

Following up on the presi-dent’s remarks, the college’s Chair of the Information Tech-nology Academic Department Dr Mohammed al Dorani said: “Through courses and practical lab sessions that cover a wide range of information-security related topics, the programme equips students to analyse real-life scenarios, design network security and develop effective

security policies. Remarkably, since we started accepting stu-dents in 2015, the college’s IT academic programmes have captured the interest of more than 200 students. With that, our next graduation ceremony will introduce to the country’s workforce the first batch of students to hold a bachelor’s degree in Cyber and Network Security in Qatar.”

Dorani’s remarks came on the sidelines of the launch of his second published book ti-tled ‘Cyber War: Qatar Block-ade - GCC Countries’, which examines how cyberwar has engulfed all nations within the Middle East and the impact of cyber-attacks on national infra-

structures.On the insights she gained

from the programme, Dhabya al Naimi said: “Studying this domain in depth has been nothing short of fascinating and my practical training at Qatar Computing Research Institute added another di-mension to my learning expe-rience as I had the chance to work with various stakehold-ers in the industry.”

Fatimaezzahra Harim, who was a national finalist in last year’s Huawei ICT Competi-tion in China, said: “I would definitely love to contribute to Qatar’s digital transformation and apply the skills I’ve gained at the college in the real world.”

Dr Mohamed al Naemi, Commu-nity College of Qatar President.

Dr Mohammed al Dorani, CCQ Information Technology Academic Department Chair.

The academically-qualified and aspiring professionals will be eying for leading roles in protecting the nationwide ICT infrastructure

Traffic diversion on Mesaimeer RdTHE Public Works Authority ‘Ashghal’ has announced a traffic diversion at Al Shehaimiya Inter-section on Mesaimeer Road start-ing Thursday midnight (February 28) to facilitate the upgrade of Mesaimeer Road, which is part of Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor Project.

The diversion, which will be implemented in coordination with the General Directorate of Traffic,will remain in place for one year. During this period, traffic coming from Al Shehaimiya Street heading towards Bu Hamour or turning left to Mesaimeer Inter-change will be closed, as shown in the attached map.

Road users will be required to take the right exit at Al Sheehe-miya Intersection and continue straight onto Heenat Al Meashab Intersection, and make a U-turn to Bu Hamour Street or Mesai-

meer Interchange. The Public Works Authority

will install road signs advising motorists of the traffic change.

Ashghal requests all road us-ers to abide the speed limit and follow the road signs to ensure their safety. (TNN)

Regulatory Authority for Charitable Activities meet discusses challenges

QNADOHA

THE role of information and modern techniques is crucial to combating money launder-ing and terrorism funding, experts and specialists noted at a conference. The experts also discussed development of the technical infrastructure of institutions to deal with these challenges in modern times. This came as the Regula-tory Authority for Charitable Activities, in collaboration with Thomson Reuters In-stitute, held an international conference to discuss the regional and global develop-ments and the challenges related to combating money laundering, terrorism fund-ing and financial crimes.

The conference, with par-ticipation of experts and spe-cialists in this field, highlighted the role of information and modern techniques in the field of combating money launder-ing and terrorism funding.The

conference aims to enhance awareness and raise the effi-ciency of the concerned parties in combating money launder-ing and terrorism funding and financial crimes.

The conference also re-viewed other topics related to financial crimes such as up-dates on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for mon-ey laundering, the Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO), the use of artificial intelligence, and getting accurate and doc-umented information from relevant media.

The Director of Public Re-lations and Communications Department of the Regulatory Authority for Charitable Ac-tivities Mohammed Hassan al Jaber said that the conference aims at highlighting the effec-tive role of the authority in rais-ing awareness and efficiency of

the concerned parties and ben-efiting from the international expertise and experiences, in light of the authority’s belief in its responsibility in the field of charitable and humanitarian work in the State.

Jaber pointed out that the efforts of the authority in this regard are clearly reflected in its strategic partnerships and agreements with international and regional institutions.

The Director of Thomson Reuters Qatar Ahmed Hafez praised the strategic coopera-tion with the authority and its leadership in dealing with the risks and challenges related to combating money launder-ing, terrorism funding and financial crimes.

He also praised the author-ity for adopting the latest tech-nologies and global solutions in this field.

Dreama, Geneva Institute discuss children’s rightsTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

THE Orphan Care Center ‘Dreama’, in collaboration with the Geneva Institute for Human Rights, hosted the second training workshop for departmental heads and so-cial service and care providers recently under the title ‘Mech-anism of the Work of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’.

Dr Nizar Abdulqadir and Dr Kholoud al Khateeb delivered the workshop which aimed to enhance the capabilities of the centre’s staff in drafting reports for the UN committee.

The report includes rights of the children, the role of non-government organisa-tions (NGOs) and their expe-riences in this regard as well as responses to the issues raised by the committee on the last report.

The workshop addressed the rights of children from sev-eral pivots including the inter-national conventions, organi-sations established in line with the conventions and Qatar’s joining of the key conventions of human rights.

Mariam bint Ali bin Nasser

al Misnad, executive director of the Orphan Care Center, said: “The second workshop comes as part of our continuous efforts to improve services offered by the centre to the orphan child. Held in the framework of joint cooperation between Dreama Center and the Geneva Insti-

tute for Human Rights, the workshop will be very useful for NGOs working in the field of child rights that have to submit reports to the UN committee.”

Dr Nizar Abdulqadir, ex-ecutive director of the Geneva Institute for Human Rights, stressed the importance of the workshop in introducing the international conventions for human rights, which Qatar has joined, to NGOs working in this field. Abdulqadir also praised the Dreama Center’s commit-ment to promoting and protect-ing the rights of children.

The training course, Dr Kholoud al Khateeb pointed out, will enhance efficiency of the Dreama Center staff and service and care providers on the rights of orphan children.

The training workshop held at Qatar National Con-vention Center (QNCC) en-tailed a number of practical and collective exercises.

Participants at a training workshop organised by Dreama in collabora-tion with the Geneva Institute for Human Rights.

The conference highlighted the role of information and modern tech-niques in the field of combating money laundering and terrorism fund-ing. It also discussed development of the technical infrastructure of institutions to deal with these challenges in modern times

Turkish Airlines carries 5.7 mn passengers globally in January


TURKISH Airlines carried 5.7 million passengers across the world in January, the airline has recently announced in its Janu-ary 2019 passenger and cargo traffic results.

According to the report, the airline recorded 79.5 percent load factor in the month.

On top of the strong base effect of the same period last year, growth in revenue per kilometre has come into prom-inence as an important indica-tor of the positive demand en-vironment for Turkish Airlines in 2019.

According to the January 2019 Traffic Results, domestic load factor was 87.1 percent and international load factor was 78.3 percent.

International-to-inter-national transfer passengers (transit passengers) went up by 5.2 percent compared to the same period of last year.

In January, cargo/mail vol-ume continued the double digit growth trend and increased by 14.9 percent compared to the same period of 2018. Main con-tributors to this growth in car-go/mail volume were Europe with 21 percent, Far East with 13.7 percent and North America

with 11 percent increase. In January, Far East

showed load factor growth of 1.4 points, while North America increased by almost one percent compared to the same period of last year.

Commenting on the results, Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee M İlker Aycı said, “In 2018, we have achieved re-cord traffic results for almost the whole year. Now, when we look at the first monthly results of 2019, seeing the continuity of this momentum is an important sign of our stable performance that we will display in the com-ing months of the year.

“As we always say, 2019 will be a tremendous year both for our national aviation and our flag carrier.”

The airline recorded 79.5 percent load factor in January.

Indian textile global exhibition and summit holds roadshow in DohaTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

THE Vibrant Terry Towel Global Expo and Summit 2019 (VTT GES 2019) held a roadshow titled ‘Vibrant Ter-ry Towel 2019’ in Doha.

Indian Ambassador to Qatar HE P Kumaran was the chief guest at the show.

The ambassador present-ed some pertinent facts on trade between Qatar

and India. He said ex-ports from India to Qatar have risen by more than 80 percent in 2017-18 and are expected to rise further in 2018-2019.

The envoy laid emphasis on the key factors that are driving India as a business and investment destination, along with the opportunities emerging in Qatar.

He said the textile sec-tor of India is the second biggest employer after the agriculture sector.

The roadshow was or-ganised by Textile Develop-ment Foundation (TDF), a leading not-for-profit asso-

ciation working for hundreds of small decentralised terry towel and textile units lo-cated in Solapur, Maharash-tra, and Global Network, an international trade advisory firm based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, in collaboration with the Indian Business & Profes-

sionals Council, Qatar (IBPC).The roadshow, which was

attended by around 50 peo-ple from the sector, was held to promote and highlight the features of the VTTGES 2019 which will be a first-of-its-kind event focusing on towel industry in India.

The event, scheduled to be held in Solapur from Septem-ber 25 to 27, 2019, will bring customers, towel manufac-turers, importers, exporters, technologists and traders to-gether on a common platform to discuss, share, debate and celebrate the best practices of the towels industry.

VTTGES 2019 will be one of the key commercial mile-stones of the year with 100 Solapur-based towel compa-nies as exhibitors and sev-eral other booths earmarked for yarn manufacturing, ma-chinery, textile dyes

and chemicals.Azim Abbas, president of

IBPC in Qatar, welcomed the promoters of VTTGES 2019 from India and conveyed IB-PC’s support to Vibrant Terry Towel 2019.

Anmol Modi, senior head - Promotions of Vibrant Terry Towel 2019, highlighted some strength of the textile cluster of Solapur and its success in gaining Geographical Indica-tion (GI) status for Solapur Jacquered Towel and Solapur Chaddar (blanket).

Ambassador of India to Qatar HE P Kumaran attended the roadshow of Vibrant Terry Towel Global Expo and Summit 2019 as its chief guest.

Ministry of Justice updates ‘SAK’ portalTHE Ministry of Justice has updated its digital documen-tation portal ‘SAK’ to benefit people. The new updates are designed to make it easier for people to access services provided by SAK and shorten steps previously required to execute a transaction.

The provision of these fa-cilities comes within the frame-work of the directives of the Minister of Justice and Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Af-fairs HE Issa Bin Saad al Jafali al Nuaimi, to remove the obsta-cles facing the public in obtain-ing real estate registration and documentation services.

The new updates include

access to SAK using the same ‘login credentials’, used on Qa-tar e-Government Portal (Hu-koomi), ability to access to mo-bile screens (SAK services from smart devices without the need to be registered with the portal.

The public, unregistered on Hukoomi or SAK can also use the services on the mobile phones and web portal provid-ed that at least one party to the transaction is registered with Hukoomi.

The new update will help overcome the obstacles that have been a source of inconven-ience to many people and will save time and effort in complet-ing transactions. (QNA)

Guterres lauds Qatar for fighting illegal migration

UNITED Nations (UN) Sec-retary-General Antonio Gu-terres has praised Qatar’s ef-forts with the African Union (AU) Commission to combat irregular migration and the reintegration of illegal immi-grants and victims of human trafficking into their societies.

Qatar has signed a memo-randum of understanding (MoU) with the AU Commission on the establishment of a fund under the auspices of AU and a $20 million grant for the rein-tegration of irregular migrants and victims of human traffick-ing into their communities.

This came in an official letter issued by the Office of the Secre-tary-General of the UN in which Guterres said the UN appreci-ates the efforts of Qatar and the AU Commission to take practi-cal action in this endeavour.

The UN chief commended the establishment of the fund to improve conditions for the rein-tegration of returning migrants and human trafficking victims.

“It was crucial to build the capacity of concerned govern-ments and stakeholders to consolidate the policy of inte-grating returning migrants,” he said. (QNA/NEW YORK)

Nation04 Wednesday, February 27, 2019


HBKU’s CIS in pact to study Covenants of the Prophet


THE College of Islamic Stud-ies (CIS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) has signed an agreement as part of the Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism (CRT) to collaborate on a study of the Covenants of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in relation to the Christian com-munities of his time.

A recent roundtable dis-cussion, ‘The Consideration of the Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) with Christian Communities’, held in the Vatican City in Rome, marked the first milestone of

the agreement.The Covenants highlight

the Prophet’s (PBUH) rela-tionship with surrounding Christian communities, pro-mote a set of values that bind the Muslim Ummah to the re-spect and protection that is due to non-Muslim communities, and raise awareness of the pro-claimed rights and freedoms accorded to those outside the Islamic faith.

Dr Emad El-Din Shahin, dean of CIS, said: “The final proceedings from the round-table are a step forward in the deeper study of the Cov-enants of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), which is being led

by Dr Ibrahim Zein, professor at CIS. We are effectively the

first institution in the world to conduct systematic academic

research into the Covenants, which hold great relevance in

today’s pluralistic societies.”Steve Young, global execu-

tive director, Caux Roundta-ble for Moral Capitalism, ex-plained that the concept of the Covenants was very new to them as well as to their Catho-lic circles, which prompted the agreement to bring Catho-lics and Muslims together.

He said: “The contribu-tions from our peers at the College of Islamic Studies have offered Vatican repre-sentatives insightful experi-ence. The Covenants show the Prophet (PBUH) as a Messenger of God, setting forth standards for plural-ism, tolerance and compas-sion for all people, calling on all Muslims to be respectful of Christians and their faith; and this message is very im-portant for our world.”

Archbishop Silvano To-masi, secretary of the Dicas-tery for Promoting Integral Human Development, echoed Young’s sentiments: “It is im-portant to educate European cultures about the Muslim faith. The concept of pluralism in the Covenants serves to pro-mote a culture of inclusion.”

The agreement provides CIS with access to a collection of documents in the Vatican and in St Petersburg in Russia that are relevant to the study of interfaith scholarship and un-derstanding.

CIS is committed to forg-ing local and international partnerships as a means of enhancing learning and out-reach, and promoting a deeper understanding of the various aspects of Islam and knowl-edge exchange.

HBKU’s CIS outreach to the Vatican City was initiated with the signing of an agreement with the Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism to study the Covenants of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Agreement paves way for understanding the Covenants to promote interfaith tolerance

QA introduces training programmefor staff to tackle wildlife trafficking


QATAR Airways (QA) has launched an industry-leading training pro-gramme focused on preventing illegal wildlife trafficking.

The bespoke e-learning pack-age, developed by QA to enhance employees’ awareness regarding the illegal trafficking of wildlife, is tar-geted at the roles within the airline that are most likely to encounter il-legal activity.

The training programme aims to familiarise employees with the ef-fects of wildlife crime, the common routes and methods used to smuggle wildlife, and ways to report and re-spond to illegal activity. The training package will also be made available to Customs and security staff at Hamad International Airport (HIA).

QA Group Chief Executive Ak-bar al Baker said: “The launch of the training programme marks a signifi-cant milestone in our strategic ap-proach to preventing wildlife crime across our network. Qatar Airways

has a zero-tolerance policy towards the illegal trade of endangered wild-life, and is actively engaged in stop-ping illegal wildlife transportation in its tracks. We remain committed to providing our staff with the tools they need to combat this illegal activity.”

Illegal trade in wild animals and animal products is worth an estimat-ed $23 billion per year, and it is one of the largest threats to the survival of some of the world’s most endangered species. Wildlife and wildlife products are transported around the world for trade, relying on commercial trans-port services, including global avia-tion, to smuggle illicit goods.

Since signing the United for Wildlife Transport Industry Declara-tion at Buckingham Palace in March

2016, QA has risen to the challenge of tackling global wildlife crime by implementing multiple initiatives to raise employee and passenger aware-ness, and improve detection of illegal activity.

To strengthen its position through collaboration and access to shared re-sources, QA joined USAID’s ROUTES Partnership in October 2017. The ROUTES Partnership comprises a select group of private sector, non-government organisations and gov-ernment agencies working together to combat wildlife crime across trans-portation networks. This partnership has been instrumental in the develop-ment of QA’s training and awareness campaign, and has helped the airline to share intelligence and best practice within the industry.

In addition, QA has been pro-actively working with government stakeholders responsible for secu-rity and customs at HIA and at hot-spot outstations. This has led to the development of shared procedures for wildlife crime reporting and fol-low-up.

Qatar Airways partners with IATA to launch Diversity & Inclusion Awards


QATAR Airways (QA) has part-nered with The International Air Transport Association (IATA) for the launch of the ‘IATA Diversity & Inclusion Awards’, which promote greater gender diversification in the aviation industry.

The airline, in a press statement, said it has committed to supporting the awards for the next ten years, as it recognises the need to encourage women to succeed and excel at all lev-els of the industry.

IATA has created three categories of awards: Inspirational Role Model, High Flyer, and Diversity & Inclu-sion Team. Each category comes with $25,000 in prize money payable to the awardee or their nominated char-ity working on diversity and inclusion projects.

QA Group Chief Executive and Chair of the IATA Board of Governors Akbar al Baker said: “Qatar Airways recognises the need for wider diver-sity in the workplace, not just in our

airline but across the industry as a whole, which is why we are delighted to have this opportunity to reward individuals and teams who are going against the trend and proving that diversification is the way forward for aviation. We see this as a long-term project and look forward to work-ing hand in hand with IATA for the next decade continuing to encourage greater inclusion and diversification in the airline community.”

IATA’s Director General and Chief Executive Officer Alexandre de Juniac said: “The essence of avia-tion is building a global community by connecting people, businesses and cultures across great distances. By launching these awards, we want to recognise and celebrate the great work that is being done to take the industry into the future.”

Nominations for the awards are open on the IATA website from Feb-ruary 26 until March 31. They will be judged by an international and inde-pendent panel of experts. The first of these annual awards will be presented at IATA’s 75th Annual General Meet-

ing and World Air Transport Summit to be held in Seoul, South Korea, on June 1-3.

The Inspirational Role Model Award will be presented a female (30+) who holds a senior position within the industry who has had a significant impact on the aviation agenda through her strong contri-bution to business delivery, as well as her ongoing support of promot-ing diversity. This award is open to all female participants in the avia-tion industry.

The High Flyer Award is designed to recognise a female under 30 who has started to grow their career, and is demonstrating thought leadership in the industry through their inspira-tional work. This award is open to all under-30 female participants in the aviation industry.

The Diversity and Inclusion Team Award has been created to give recognition to an airline that has seen a tangible change in their diversity as a result of the work they have been doing in diversification and inclusion.

BASIR Sultan Kazmi is a UK-based Pakistani poet, creative writer and educationist. Born in Pakistan in 1953, Basir studied and taught English at

the Government College, Lahore. He edited “Ravi” magazine in 1974 that is named after the river Ravi that flows to the North-West of the city of Lahore. He went to the UK in 1990 and did his M Ed and M Phil from the University of Manchester. He was the news editor and reader for the BBC’s Asian Pro-gramme (1990-91) and a literature adviser to the North-West Arts Board (1993-1996). Ba-sir has taught at a few high schools, colleges and two universities (Bradford and Chester) in the UK. Basir won a North-West Play-wrights Workshops Award in 1992. His plays were performed at many Northern theatres. His poem, “Taking Time”, selected by the Po-ems for the Waiting Room Project (2001), was displayed in UK hospitals and clinics. One of his couplets, with English translation, was carved in stone and installed at McKen-zie Square Slough, UK, in 2008. Basir has been awarded an MBE (2013) by the Queen, for Services to Literature as a Poet. Basir’s play “Bisaat” has recently been included in the A Level syllabus. Basir has participated in mushairas in the UK, Pakistan, India, Middle East, Europe, USA and Canada.

He recently came to Qatar on the invita-tion of Bazm-e-Sadaf International to receive an award in recognition of his meritorious services in the field of literature. On this occa-sion, his poetry collection published recently in New Delhi was also launched.

In an interview with Qatar Tribune, Bashir Kazmi spoke about the literary scene in the UK and his achievements. Excerpts:

How would you describe the Urdu liter-ary scene in UK? Can only ‘mushairas’ (poetry recitation session) and some other literary activities are enough for the promotion of Urdu language?

Literary organisations hold events, mainly mushairas, book launches and receptions to honour the visiting writers. Of course, mushairas and literary activities are not enough to promote Urdu but the teaching of this rich and beautiful language at several schools in the UK is helping to promote it. It is offered as a modern language along with other European languages.

Do you agree that mushairas are be-ing commercialised with the passage of time and the selection of those invited is also questionable?

The element of entertainment that had always been a part of mushairas has been growing in recent times. In big mushairas, the majority of audience prefers to hear verses on political/social issues or humorous poetry. Poets invited include established and reputed ones as well as those selected just on the basis of personal contacts with the organisers.

What motivated you towards pursuit of literature?

I was born with a ‘poetic spoon’ in my mouth. My father, Nasir Kazmi (1925-1972), was a famous poet. One day, looking up at some trees while I was four years old I am said to have uttered, “Papa leaves!” Accord-ing to my father, that was my first poem. Like every child I started with drawing and colouring. I joined the school band and learnt to play on the flute. At eleven, I wrote

my first poem. A guest poet recited a poem for children on my favourite radio pro-gramme. The rhythm, content and rhyme scheme touched me in such a way that I myself ended up composing a few couplets on a similar pattern. Encouragement from

my father and his friends only deepened my creative urge. Besides poetry, I was inspired to write plays and critical articles.

Can you tell us about your publica-tions?

Four collections of my poetry, Mauj-e-Khayal (1997), Chaman Koi Bhi Ho (2009), Hawa-e-Tarab (2015), Chaunsath Khanay Chaunsath Nazmein (2015), a long play Bisaat (1987) and three short plays have been pub-lished. All these are included in my collected works Shajar Honay Tak (2015), published in Lahore. Last year (2018), a collection of my poetry was published in New Delhi as ‘Ab Wa-han Raat Ho Ga’ee Ho Gi’. English translation of my long play Bisaat was published as The Chess Board (1997) and of poetry as Passing Through (2014). Translations of my ‘ghazals’ and poems have also appeared in many maga-zines and anthologies of UK. I have also writ-ten extensively on the life and poetry of my father Nasir Kazmi.

What is the present state of Urdu in the UK?

Most of the people who use Urdu in their daily life are those who had learnt it before migrating to the UK. Those who were born and brought up here had learnt it at home or in schools for practical purposes only e.g. to communicate with the elders of the family or guests from the Sub-continent, or to get good grades in exams. They mostly communicate in English.

Can you tell us if Europe has produced any notable Urdu poet so far?

Incidentally, the notable Urdu poets

who have lived in the European countries and the Americas were not the product of those countries. They had learnt their art at home and made a name in the Sub-conti-nent before migrating to the West.

How would you describe your visit to Qatar?

It has been very rewarding. I’m very grateful to Bazm-e-Sadaf International and its Chairperson Shahabuddin Ahmed for inviting me. It has been a great oppor-tunity to meet the poets and writers from the Sub-continent and members of the lo-cal community who are enthusiastically active in promoting Urdu. I was honoured with an award and a collection of my po-etry, recently published in New Delhi, was also launched. It was very gratifying to lis-ten to the local poets who are composing good poetry.

What is your impression about the lit-erary forums functioning in Qatar?

I had the pleasure of being a guest on the occasion when Bazm-e-Sadaf Interna-tional was launched a couple of years ago. In a short period, Bazm has made amazing progress. It not only organizes mushairas and literary events but also publish books of poetry and prose. Ten books were launched on the present occasion. A comparatively much older organisation, Majlis-e-Farogh-e-Urdu Adab is well known for its annual mushairas. Like Bazm-e-Sadaf, Majlis confers awards to recognise the services of poets and writers. I had the pleasure of be-ing invited to their mushaira in 2014, which was very impressive.

THE fifth “Open House” organised by Pakistan Inter-national School-Qatar recently was

a huge success with an impres-sive turnout of parents wishing to know how the institution they wanted to shape up the future of their wards was going about its job.

The objective behind organ-ising the annual event is to at-tract prospective students and their parents to make them get familiarised with the current fa-cilities available on the campus. Moreover, it also aims to open a channel of communication be-tween school staff and students’ parents and get feedback on how the school is faring.

Overall, the event pro-vided a good opportunity for the guests to visit the school hoping to receive first-hand information about the institu-tion from various desks set up to provide the visitors full in-formation. These information desks included Senior Boys Wing, Senior Girls Wing, Pri-mary Wing and KG Wing, ETL (Education, Technology & Lab-oratory), Evening Classes, FBA (Federal Board Affairs), Qatar Debates, PISMUN, i-EARN and IGCSE.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to Qatar HE Syed Ahsan Raza Shah graced the occasion as the chief guest. A number of pro-fessionals from various fields were also among the visitors.

They learnt about the institu-tion’s academic programmes, curricular and co-curricular activities. Alumni and current students along with their men-tors were also present in large numbers to share their expe-riences at PISQ. IGCSE Block has been the major milestone in the recent academic devel-opment and progress of the school. The envoy took keen interest in IGCSE desk and also visited IGCSE Block site.

Parents lauded the idea of Open House at PISQ which provided them with an oppor-tunity to have a glance around the school and enrich them-selves with detailed informa-tion about the academic facili-ties and the entire working of the school.

They particularly appre-ciated the endeavors of the management and the faculty to impart quality education along with a host of co-curricular ac-tivities for the character build-ing of the students.

A variety of food stalls of-fering continental and tradi-tional dishes were a centre of attraction for the guests who enjoyed a perfect dining ex-perience.

PISQ Principal Nargis Raza Otho expressed her gratitude to the guests for giving a posi-tive response and constructive feedback. “The success of PISQ is not possible without the co-operation of all the stakehold-ers,” she said.

Pakistan PrismReports by L N Mallick For events and press releases email [email protected] or call (974) 4000 2222


PISQ’s 5th ‘Open House’ a huge success

Pakistani Ambassador HE Syed Ahsan Raza Shah visits IGCSE Block.

HE Syed Ahsan Raza Shah meets the PISMUN team.

HE Syed Ahsan Raza Shah visits the i-Earn project desk.

UK-based Pakistani litterateur finds Urdu literary scene in Qatar vibrant

Title cover of Basir Sultan Kazmi’s poetry collection “Ab Wahan Raat Ho Ga’ee Ho Gi” launched on the occasion of his recent visit to Doha

The objective behind organising the annual event is to attract prospective students and their parents to familiarise them with the current facilities available on the campus SALT n’ Spice Restau-

rant is the latest addi-tion to the fast-grow-ing list of Pakistani

restaurants setting shops in Qatar to cater to the gour-mets with a taste for tradi-tional Pakistani and North Indian cuisine. Salt ’n’ Spice Restaurant is located on Al Mansoora Street near Car-pet Centre.

“Beside Pakistani and North Indian cuisine, we also offer continental dishes to suit every pal-ate,” said chairman and owner of the restaurant Zahid Ullah Jan Orakzai, adding that the response of the customers has been beyond his expectations.

Experienced chefs have been employed to prepare tasty dishes at very afford-able prices. The restaurant offers special Friday buf-fet dinner for only QRs 35. Sheermaal and taftaan breads are also available.

“Within days of its open-ing, our outlet has attracted a large number of foodies coming to taste and enjoy the rich fare on offer. The restaurant has arrange-ments for parties. Home de-livery and catering services are also available,” said manager of the restaurant Dilawer Khan Orakzai.

A group of Pakistani poets who arrived in Doha to participate in the Pashto mushaira organised by Pak Pashtoon Welfare Society recently visited the restau-rant. They appreciated the quality and service of the restaurant.

Zahid Ullah can be contacted on GSM

33183283 for any feedback.

Dilawer Khan Orakzai.

restaurant.Zahid Ullah c

contacted on33183283

any feedb

Community leader Janan Bangash (second left) with visiting poets (from left) Qarar Orakzai, Sabir Shah, Roghaney Baba, Bakhat Zada Danish, Khater Orakzai and Farooq Firaq who recently vis-ited the restaurant.

Yet another Pakistani eatery beckons foodies

QRCS and KRCS build shelter for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh


QATAR Red Crescent Soci-ety (QRCS), in collaboration with Kuwait Red Crescent So-ciety (KRCS), has launched a humanitarian project to secure convenient and safe shelter for 1,000 Rohingya families (nearly 6,000 people) in Bangladesh.

Co-funded by QRCS and KRCS, the $319,994 project also involves providing nonfood items (NFIs), sanitation facili-ties and other basic services at Refugee Camp No 14, Block No 18 of Cox’s Bazar.

QRCS’s representation of-fice in Bangladesh is coordi-nating with Bangladesh Red Cross Society (BDRCS), the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Cres-

cent Societies (IFRC), and local authorities.

Under the first phase, 50 shelters, solar-powered lamp-posts for lighting at night and six environment-friendly public

latrines were installed.The refugee camps were al-

ready rehabilitated for the mon-soon and typhoon season to prevent muddy conglomerates.

The teams are currently

procuring the NFIs, which in-clude cooking fuel (20 litres per household), rugs, seeds, kitch-enware, lamps and sheds. These supplies will be distributed by a delegation from QRCS and KRCS to visit Bangladesh by the end of this month.

The project entails install-ing 1,000 shelters, 51 public latrines and 20 solar-powered lampposts. Also, a mosque and a school will be built, and passages will be rehabilitated for easy movement at night. The distribution will include 100 shelter maintenance kits, 2,000 mosquito nets and cash subsidies.

The project is registered under the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ (OCHA) Humanitarian Re-

sponse Plan (HRP).From the inhabitants of the

refugee camp, 10 community committees will be formed to follow up with the maintenance and cleaning work.

Earlier this year, a team of QRCS’s representation office performed a field assessment to select the beneficiaries. The cri-teria of selection covered home-less households, the poorest households in totally unlivable shelters, the households with no breadwinners and households with people with disability.

QRCS has a wide range of shelter, food, and relief pro-jects for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Costing more than $3 million, these projects are aimed at meeting their var-ious needs amid terrible and ongoing conditions.

QRCS, Eid Charity provide solarpower for patients’ houses in Gaza


QATAR Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has carried out a chari-table project to provide power for poor families with seriously ill members in the Gaza Strip.

With QR350,000 funding from Eid Charity, the project serves some 58 families -- a to-tal of 400 people -- by provid-ing electricity to run the medi-cal equipment used by patients round the clock.

The people of Gaza suffer from long power cuts, some-times lasting up to 16 hours a day. To deal with this problem, QRCS installed solar panels to secure an environment-friendly source of alternative energy.

When selecting the ben-eficiaries, certain criteria were observed, such as the house lo-cation, family size and the ratio of children, women and senior citizens, to the total number of family members.

With this vital interven-tion, many patients will be safe against the risks of seri-ous health implications or even death as a result of the recurrent power cuts in the blockade.

Coordinated with Pales-tine’s Ministry of Social Devel-opment, the project covered families registered with the ministry’s national programme.

The staff who implement-ed the project noticed positive difference in the lives of the beneficiaries. The solar panels

provide stable power free of cost and meet the basic needs of the patients.

One of the beneficiaries was Hayat al Bahisi (62), who sat on her bed in a one-room house at Deir Al-Balah Camp,

southern Gaza, while her son was administering her artifi-cial ventilator, which she has had to use because of her bad health condition.

“For the past few years, I have suffered severe respiratory

diseases, which required me to use an artificial ventilator on a permanent basis,” said Bahisi. “The machine needs power to work, and power in Gaza is not something that you can easily find every day.”

Another family has two chil-dren with cerebral palsy. The medical equipment used by the beneficiaries ranged from air mattresses for bedsores to vital signs monitors.

Since 2008, QRCS has been working in Gaza to provide di-verse health care, water, sanita-tion and other forms of aid to improve the living conditions of the local community.

A total of 80 projects have been implemented at an overall cost of over $110 million.

The project serves 58 families by providing electricity to run the medical equipment used by patients round the clock.


QATAR Charity (QC) distrib-uted blankets to nearly 1,450 families in the Gaza Strip to ease their hardship in the cold winter, while warm clothes will be provided to orphans soon.

The distribution of the aid came with support from the people in Qatar as part of Qa-tar Charity’s winter campaign ‘Below Zero’.

Mohamed Abu Haloub, director of Qatar Charity’s of-fice in the Gaza Strip, said the project was implemented due to the urgent need of blankets for people in the winter.

One of the most important objectives of the project was to provide warmth and safety to underprivileged families spon-sored by Qatar Charity’s office in the Gaza Strip and to miti-gate their economic pressures.

According to Abu Haloub,

QC’s office in the Gaza Strip will distribute warm clothes to 600 orphans. The aid comes as part the care of the orphans sponsored by Qatar Charity in Gaza.

The beneficiaries thanked QC and the benefactors for funding the project.

Donations in favour of the campaign can be made through Qatar Charity’s web-site (QCH.QA/B0)and app (QCH.QA/APP). Donors can also request a ‘home collector’ through the app or by dialing the hotline, 44667711, to make their contributions or through Qatar Charity’s 27 branches and 92 collection points in commercial complexes within the country.

Mobile donations can also be made. To send QR100, QR200 and QR500, one can send an SMS with code (B0) to 92642, 92015 and 92428, respectively.

The project was implemented due to the urgent need of blankets for people in winter.

The project entails installing as many as 1,000 shelters, 51 public latrines and 20 solar-powered lampposts

The project also includes providing nonfood items, sanitation facilities and other basic services.

QC distributes blankets to 1,450 families in Gaza


ESTABLISHED SEPTEMBER 3, 2006

PRINTED AT ALI BIN ALI PRINTING PRESS

HAMAD BIN SUHAIM AL THANI CHAIRMANADEL ALI BIN ALI MANAGING DIRECTORDR HASSAN MOHAMMED AL ANSARI EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Cut Down On Facebook And Feel Better About Everything

MOST likely you know someone who has either deleted their Fa-cebook account, or significantly cut down on how much they share on the platform. Whether

it’s the privacy concerns which perpetually surface or how using it makes people feel worse about themselves, disdain for Face-book is a relatively common thing. Yet, 30 percent of the people on planet Earth use it at least once a month, with most spending 45 minutes a day on social media.

As someone who has greatly reduced the time I spend on Facebook, I’ve noticed increased productivity at work, being more inclined to use high quality news and opin-ion websites and apps, and feeling lighter and more positive in general. Still, I haven’t completely cut the cord. Why is this so hard? Well, fear of missing out, for one thing. An-other factor: sheer laziness. Keeping up-to-date with what’s going on with friends and family used to involve making phone calls and spending time with people in person, but Facebook has automated the process.

“How often do you reach out to your friends to ask them how it’s going? Or to

see if there are any big updates in their lives?” asks founder, writer and podcaster Nat Eliason. “We don’t have to put in the work, the information comes to us, and so we’ve lost the muscles we used to use for staying updated on our social circle.”

If spending less time on Facebook is something which appeals to you, I offer some suggestions -- at least in terms of getting your head in the right place .

Think back to before Facebook existed. What was the quality of your social life then? Personally, I had roughly the same number of real friends (not mere acquaintances) 20 years ago as I do now. While some of those individuals are no longer what I’d consider close -- because of moving away, dying or whatever other reasons people drift apart -- I’ve gained other people who have taken their place. And Facebook had nothing to do with it. In reality, going back to school and get-ting a new job have most influenced who I communicate with and care about. It’s because spending time with people in the real world is what makes a real friend. If you want to get scientific about it, some experts say it actually takes 200 hours of hanging out with someone to bond well enough to consider them a close friend.

Find non-Facebook ways to stay in touch. If you’re like most people, you only have a few close friends. Honestly, who else do you need to keep tabs on, oth-er than the friends and family members you love? So, instead of putting all your life on display for 200 people you don’t really care about, how would it be if you texted a photo to your besties when cools stuff hap-pens? Or, go old school and make an actual phone call to stay in touch. If they really care about you they won’t find it an inter-ruption and will appreciate the attention.

Understand that Facebook is like a morally bankrupt person who only wants to profit from you. Elia-son points out that everyone should delete Facebook given that the company’s entire mission depends on knowing as much about its users as possible. The more it knows, the more targeted their ads can be,

the more you’ll click on those ads and the more money the company makes. That’s why Facebook is highly invested in making sure users are addicted to its service. He puts it in this creepy way:

Imagine, for a moment, that you had a friend with this level of knowledge about you. Someone who knows everywhere you go, what you like, what you fear, what you want, who you hang out with, how happy you are at any given moment. They could be an amazing boon to your life. Or they could be a nightmare. It all depends on what they do with the information, and how well you can trust them with it. Now imagine the friend can use their informa-tion about you to make money, say by ma-nipulating your decisions to benefit them. And imagine they’re the kind of morally bankrupt person who would take advan-tage of their friend this way. What would their incentives look like? Since they can make money by manipulating your deci-sions, they’ll try to manipulate your deci-sions. And since they can better manipu-late your decisions by learning more about you, the more they’ll want to learn. If they want the greatest success for themselves, they will necessarily have to manipulate you as much as possible and collect as

much data on you as possible.Essentially, he says Facebook’s prod-

uct isn’t its platform, it’s you and the rest of its billions of users.

Unfollow all your acquaintances.Maybe you don’t care about Facebook ma-nipulating you in order to make money and you’re not ready to delete your account. You still don’t have to subject yourself to posts which are political, bragging or otherwise annoying in nature. When a post comes through which doesn’t make you smile or otherwise increase your sense of well-being, click on the three little dots on the top right of a person’s post. You can choose to unfol-low the person, meaning you’ll no longer see their stuff without defriending them.

Get better at befriending people in real life. I’ve written about this before be-cause the topic of having a real -- not digital -- network of people who care about you is one of the top things that determines a per-son’s quality of life. If you’re serious about living your best life you need to have at least a couple of good friends, meaning people you can call if you need help moving, a ride to the airport or emotional support if your world falls apart. If you don’t have anyone who fits that description, it’s time to figure out why not, and what you can do about it.

CHRISTINA DESMARAIS TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

You’ll be more productive at work, able to pay attention to stuff which actually matters and feel lighter and more positive

Opinion

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ON THE OPINION AND ANALYSIS PAGES ARE THE AUTHORS’ OWN. QATAR TRIBUNE BEARS NO RESPONSIBILITY.

(Tribune News Service)

MYANMAR recently had a major call for outside business invest-ment at the Invest Myanmar Summit. The injection of outside capital could serve as a produc-

tive push for an improvement in humani-tarian conditions, but not if human rights issues are glossed over at the onset.

“I stand here to reaffirm our commit-ment to continue our reform and to build an investment-friendly environment,” Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s de facto leader and state counsellor said at the summit, a first-of-its-kind showcase for international investors.

Notably, Aung San Suu Kyi never ad-dressed the Rohingya crisis in Rakhine state. In fact, it only received a passing mention by a Rakhine state official who said, “the crisis happened in a small part of the state,” and the state therefore is “open for business to the world.”

Meanwhile, there are more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled from Rakhine to Bangladesh since August 2017. Long subject to discrimination and isolated in Burmese society, the Rohingya — a Muslim ethnic minority group — have been subjected to mass atrocities by the Myanmar military. In the process, the Ro-hingya lost their homes and lands where they have lived for generations. In 2018, the United Nations described the Rohing-ya situation as the “world’s fastest grow-ing refugee crisis” and the military offen-sive in Rakhine as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

Given this context, it’s troubling that Aung San Suu Kyi’s government would invite foreign investment into Rakhine without properly acknowledging the po-litical situation or pursuing solutions to

resolve it by guaranteeing the Rohingya’s safe and dignified return home. The real-ity is that Myanmar has had little incen-tive to right its wrongs.

China, infamous for circumventing international human rights statutes, has injected billions of dollars into Rakhine

through a special economic zone part-nership. Beijing has been eager to exploit Myanmar’s strategic coastal location and rich natural resources by developing a deep-sea port, oil and gas pipelines, and an industrial park.

These China-led development pro-jects are bad for Rakhine’s human rights situation because it’s unlikely that Beijing will do anything to help the Rohingya. History has shown us as much. The horrif-ic treatment of ethnic minorities includ-ing the Uyghurs – a largely Muslim ethnic minority group detained in a network of internment camps in Xinjiang— can at-test to that.

This is an opportunity for responsible businesses enticed by Suu Kyi’s call for in-vestment to be upstanding global citizens. Morally it is the right thing to do, but it also makes economic sense. Companies doing business with a country that grossly ignores a human rights crisis are more likely to have economic sanctions placed on them.

The business community can leverage the government’s desire for foreign capi-

tal by tying investment to more inclusive and supportive policies of Myanmar’s minority ethnic groups – including the Rohingya. They should send a clear mes-sage that if the state is not safe for all its peoples, it is not safe enough for business either and that the “investment-friendly environment” they are trying to foster will be unachievable without reaching this milestone.

There is great historical precedent for the idea. In the 1970s, the international business community showed it could be a force for good in Apartheid-era South Af-rica. The Sullivan Principles were drafted in 1977 by an African-American minister, Rev Leon Sullivan. They set guidelines for foreign companies doing business in South Africa and were widely adopted by multinationals operating in the country. Many American businesses, including GM, committed to provide fair employ-ment and equal treatment for all, regard-less of race. During the 1980s, at least 160 of the 300 American-owned companies in South Africa voluntarily adopted the Sulli-van Principles, promoting democracy and economic empowerment in the country.

Businesses can not only improve the economy of a transitional society but also can contribute to human rights situation in the country. Myanmar would benefit from an adaptation of the Sullivan Principles.

History shows that Aung San Suu Kyi won’t advocate for the Rohingya, Rakhine state officials won’t advocate for the Ro-hingya, and China won’t advocate for the Rohingya. Perhaps a principled business community can advocate for them and provide the Rohingya with a new oppor-tunity for lasting peace and prosperity.

(Jieun Pyun is senior programme manager of the George W Bush Insti-

tute Human Freedom Initiative.)

Myanmar Is Open For Investors, Not Rohingya

JIEUN PYUN TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

The international business community should send a clear message that if the country is not safe for all its peoples, it is not safe enough for business eitherTHE second summit meeting between

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offers an opportunity for the sort of spectacle

Trump loves — starring himself as the wiz-ardly negotiator who wins huge concessions that eluded his inept predecessors. He’d be wise to resist the temptation, and to concen-trate on progress not theatre.

A real grand bargain with North Ko-rea is, at this point, virtually impossible. It would ask too much of both sides — for North Korea to eliminate its nuclear and long-range missile arsenals and production facilities, which the regime sees as essential for its survival; and for the US to end sanctions and possibly withdraw troops from the Korean Penin-sula, which would under-mine its alliances and stra-tegic position in Northeast Asia. Even if such pledges were made, neither coun-try could expect the other to honour them.

The real question is what concrete, achievable steps might be possible. Kim is hoping that Trump wants a deal badly enough to make big concessions, particular-ly on easing sanctions, in exchange for col-ourful-but-symbolic gestures. That’s proved a fair bet up to now. True, the North hasn’t tested a nuclear weapon or intercontinen-tal ballistic missile in over a year, but Kim hasn’t had to accept a formal testing ban or any other specific disarmament measure. The North is thought to continue to churn out missiles and bomb-making material.

So Trump needs to concentrate on ek-ing out realistic, verifiable commitments. He could start with the dismantlement of the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, an idea that Kim has reportedly raised. The North has used Yongbyon, spread across a large area and several facili-ties, to reprocess plutonium and enrich ura-nium for its bombs. Shutting all of it down for good would limit if not end Pyongyang’s ability to add to its nuclear arsenal. The North has let international inspectors into parts of Yongbyon before; this time, they’d have to be granted access to the whole site, including its centrifuge facility, and Kim would have to agree to a short timeline to disable and dismantle the reactor and re-processing and enrichment facilities.

Trump should also demand a detailed plan of other steps the North will take to-ward full denuclearisation. These should include providing a list of all the North’s nu-clear and missile stocks and facilities, which Kim has resisted up to now. A verifiable cap on these arsenals should be imposed. Kim’s “voluntary” freeze of nuclear and missile tests should be laid out in more detail and made permanent. And it’s about time the two sides agreed on exactly what they mean by “denuclearisation.”

What the US offers in return should de-pend on how many of these demands Kim accepts. Granted, some measures would

serve US purposes anyway: Expanding cultural, edu-cational and sporting ex-changes, and even opening a diplomatic liaison office in Pyongyang, would give Washington a better view of what’s going on in the North. If Kim offers nothing more

than superficial concessions, that’s about all he should get.

Other measures under discussion are riskier. A declaration that the Korean War had officially ended would invite calls to end the US military presence in South Korea. Al-lowing Seoul to restart some economic pro-jects with the North would revive the flow of hard currency to the regime and increase pressure to lift broader sanctions as well. The US should float such possibilities — but provide them only in exchange for firm, detailed, verifiable actions that reduce the North’s capabilities.

Some prospective giveaways should be off the table entirely. Trump ought to do nothing that would undermine the US al-liances with South Korea and Japan. The stationing of US troops on the peninsula shouldn’t be up for negotiation, as Trump has hinted in the past it might be. Nor should he accept a deal that reduces the threat to US territory — say, by eliminating Pyongyang’s ICBMs — while leaving Japan and South Ko-rea vulnerable. Finally, Trump should assure Kim that North Korea’s isolation cannot end until it curbs its appalling record on human rights, drug-dealing and cybercrimes.

If this limits what’s possible in Hanoi this week, so be it. Progress that’s modest but real is better than bold declarations sig-nifying nothing.

Trump Should Aim Small AtSummit With N Korea’s Kim

US president needs to concentrate on eking out realistic, verifiable commitments from the reclusive state’s leader

It’s troubling that Aung San Suu Kyi’s government would invite foreign investment into Rakhine without prop-erly acknowledging the political situa-tion or pursuing solutions to resolve it by guaranteeing the Rohingya’s safe and dignified return home

Trump should assure Kim that North Korea’s isolation cannot end until it curbs its appalling record on human rights, drug-dealing and cybercrimes

Instead of putting all your life on display for 200 people you don’t really care about, how would it be if you texted a photo to your besties when cool stuff happens? Or, go old school and make an actual phone call to stay in touch


NEWS IN BRIEF

AHMEDABAD: India’s air force shot down a drone near the frontier with Pakistan on Tuesday, officers said, just hours after New Delhi announced its warplanes had bombed a militant training camp over the border. Villagers discovered debris from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) not far from the Paki-stan border in western Gujarat state, police sources said. “A UAV has been shot down by the armed forces. We are investigating it,” a senior police officer said on condition of anonymity. Investigators would probe whether the drone came from Pakistan, he added. The nuclear-armed rivals frequently claim to have shot down surveillance craft that strayed into each other’s territory. (AFP)

Indian air force downs drone near Pakistan border: Police

FAISALABAD: Following an improvement in the security situation, Pakistan government is striving to at-tract maximum foreign direct investment (FDI) despite daunting internal challenges, said United King-dom House of Commons member Faisal Rasheed. Speaking to a meeting at the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI), Rasheed revealed that he had established a CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) group in the UK parliament. “The purpose of this forum is to raise awareness of the opportunities to be created following the completion of this mega infrastructure project, which is part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI),” he pointed out. (AGENCIES)

CPEC awareness forum established in British parliament

DPAMANILA

THE Philippines on Tuesday protested a Washington Post story about the killings in the government’s anti-drug cam-paign, alleging that it was meant to discredit the country.

“We take strong exception to the article entitled, ‘This is Manila’ that appeared on the front page of the Washington Post on 25 February 2019,” the Philippine Embassy in Wash-ington said in a statement.

“It is disappointing how this article hides behind the guise

of journalism to advance an agenda that seeks to discredit the Philippines in the eyes of the international community,” it added.

The Washington Post ar-ticle centres on the unsolved killing of a 44-year-old jobless Filipino man whose body was found floating under a bridge in a slum community in Manila.

He is one of thousands of people killed in the Philippines since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power in 2016.

While some of the deaths are not confirmed to be related to Duterte’s anti-drug cam-

paign, the Washington Post noted that “what connects them all is a kind of numbed silence.” “His is a portrait of one more life broken - and one more death left unexplained - in a city with many such stories,” the ar-

ticle said. “Since President Rod-rigo Duterte rose to power more than two years ago, the death toll from his war on drugs has kept climbing,” it added.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in police opera-tions under the government’s crackdown against illegal drugs since 2016.

The New York-based watch-dog Human Rights Watch said the true death toll in the drug crackdown, including victims of hired or vigilante killers, could be higher than 12,000, based on estimates by local rights and church groups

Philippines protests Post story on drug killings

‘I felt powerful’: Afghan trailblazer who confronted Taliban on womenAFPKABUL

FAWZIA Koofi was hesitant to face the Taliban militants who jailed her husband, threatened to stone her for wearing nail polish, and–when she became a high-profile MP and women’s rights champion–tried to assas-sinate her.

But the trailblazing politi-cian and mother of two daugh-ters could not refuse a rare invitation this month to stand before her oppressors and de-clare unequivocally that their brand of misogyny and preju-dice would never again take root in Afghanistan.

“It was not that I wanted

to do it, but I was doing it for the women of Afghanistan,” she said in an interview at her Kabul home. “I felt powerful. It was a room full of people, all male... For me, it was im-portant that I make myself vis-ible and my message clear to them.” Koofi was one of just two Afghan women invited to a grand hotel in Moscow earlier this month for informal meet-ings with the Taliban.

The talks came days after other, separate negotiations be-tween the militants and the US raised expectations of a break-through in the 17-year conflict.

Washington, which re-sumed talks with the Taliban on Monday, is seeking a way out of

its longest war but Afghans and many observers fear a hasty de-parture could see the Taliban return to power, or the country

fracture into civil war. Many women, in particular, are afraid of being forced back under Tali-ban rule, beneath burqas and behind walls, without access to

education or jobs. In Moscow, in scenes unthinkable under the Taliban regime, the mullahs sat in silence as Koofi defended her daughters’ rights to thrive in a

modern Afghanistan, free from harsh limitations. The other 48 delegates at the unprecedented conference in the Russian capi-tal were all men, Afghan politi-cal heavyweights and bearded Taliban officials, none used to being addressed so assertively by a woman.

“You cannot just put her in her house and deprive her, like you did me, seeing the world through the small window of their burqas,” Koofi said, recall-ing her defiant speech before the delegation.

“She has now much more connectivity. She will not go back to your time.” - Life of defi-ance -One of Koofi’s fellow pas-sengers on the flight to Moscow

was the Taliban’s head of vice and virtue–the dreaded moral police who cruised the streets in white pickup trucks flogging women accused of indecency.

“I remember how danger-ous... the Hilux pickup car sound was to every woman when we heard it. That sound is still in my ears,” said the 44-year-old widow.

“I tried to be friendly with him, and I tried to be open and cool. I didn’t try to hide my hair, or whatever... I was just making fun, trying to tell them ‘you might not be hap-py the way I am, but I am the way I am’.” Not everyone was pleased Koofi was given a seat at the table in Moscow.

AGENCIESNEW DELHI

INDIAN warplanes breached Pakistani airspace Tuesday in a move that sent tensions over disputed Kashmir spiralling, but Islamabad furiously denied claims the strike destroyed a militant camp and inflicted heavy casualties.

The incursion across the ceasefire line that divides Kashmir between the nuclear-armed neighbours came after India threatened retaliation over a February 14 suicide bombing claimed by the Paki-stan-based Jaish-e-Moham-mad (JeM) group, that killed 40 troops in Indian Kashmir.

New Delhi said its jets had hit a JeM training camp and killed “a very large number” of militants training to stage sui-cide attacks in India.

“In the face of imminent danger, a preemptive strike became absolutely necessary,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said.

Pakistan said it scram-bled its fighters to push back the intruders and denied In-dia’s claim of heavy casualties, branding it “self serving, reck-less and fictitious”. Foreign Minister Shah Memhmood Qureshi said his country would “respond at the time and place of its choosing”.

Pakistan military spokes-man Major General Asif Gha-foor said on Twitter that the In-dian jets had crossed the Line of Control that divides Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir and that they had re-leased a “payload in haste while escaping” near Balakot.

He did not say what was meant by a “payload” and im-ages he posted on Twitter ap-peared to show pieces of metal and displaced soil in a heavily forested area.

India’s foreign minis-try also said the camp was at Balakot, but gave no further detail and the exact location re-mained unclear. A strike inside undisputed Pakistani territory would be a serious heightening of the rivalry that has existed since they divided after inde-pendence from Britain in 1947, analysts said. The purported

attack was India’s first use of air strikes against Pakistan since 1971, when the two went to war over Bangladesh’s inde-pendence.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Paki-stan counterpart Imran Khan both summoned emergency meetings of top ministers after the attack.

Modi, who is expected to call an election in April, had threatened a “jaw-breaking” response to the February 14 attack.

But at a rally in Rajasthan on Tuesday, the Indian leader did not directly mention the strike. He paid tribute to the military and said: “I assure the nation that the country is in safe hands.” Other top Indian officials said the strike dis-played the country’s determi-nation to act against Pakistan -- which New Delhi accuses of using militants as proxies against it.

“They say they want India to bleed with a 1,000 cuts. We say that each time you attack us, be certain we will get back

at you, harder and stronger,” said foreign affairs minister of state, Vijay Kumar Singh, a for-mer head of the Indian army.

While India has consistent-ly accused its neighbour of sup-porting extremist groups, Pa-kistan has equally vehemently denied any role in attacks in India and its only Muslim-ma-

jority state, Kashmir.This is the biggest crisis

between the neighbours since 2016, when Pakistan-based militants attacked an Indian army camp in Kashmir, killing 19 soldiers.

In response, India launched what it called “surgical strikes” in Pakistan Kashmir. Pakistan

denied the strikes ever took place. Pakistani military ana-lyst Hasan Askari called the latest events “dangerous”.

“If such actions continue, it can escalate into major conflict, which will not serve any pur-pose but to plunge the region into serious crisis,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani government has strongly re-jected Indian claim of target-ing an alleged terrorist camp near Balakot which New Delhi said had resulted in heavy casualties.

“Once again Indian gov-ernment has resorted to a self-serving, reckless and fictitious claim,” a statement issued after the National Security Comittee met in Islamabad.

The leadership resolved that India had committed an “uncalled for aggression to which Pakistan shall respond at the time and place of its choosing”.

The Pakistani prime minis-ter lauded timely and effective response of the PAF to “repulse Indian attempt without any loss of life or property.”

Indian air incursion sends Pakistan tensions soaring

Pakistani residents walk on a bridge in the mountainous area of Balakot where the Indian Air Force (IAF) launched a raid, on Tuesday. (AFP)

Indian warplanes breach Pakistani airspace; Islamabad vehemently denies claims strike destroyed an alleged militant camp

Fact-check: Viral videos showing Indian, Pakistani warplanes in action fake?

AFPISLAMABAD

VIDEOS which have been viewed hundreds of thou-sands of times on Facebook and YouTube, and published by mainstream media in both India and Pakistan, show military jets flying at night and dropping what appear to be bombs.

They went viral as In-dia claimed Tuesday it had launched an air strike which killed a large number of mili-tants in Pakistan, a claim which Islamabad has denied and which sent tensions soaring between the nuclear-armed arch-rivals.

Indian social media posts and television channels claim the videos show Indian fight-er jets carrying out strikes in Pakistan; Pakistani Facebook posts and newspapers say the footage shows Pakistani jets chasing Indian military planes out of their airspace.

All the claims are false; the videos are actually from a 2014 demonstration by the Pakistani Air Force for Inde-pendence Day celebrations in Islamabad.

The first misleading video shows what appears to be an F-16 jet flying through the night sky and firing what could be bombs or flares into the darkness.

The post’s caption says: “Immediate and timely flights by Pakistan air force planes. Indian planes ran away: DG ISPR”. “DG ISPR” stands for Director General Inter Services Public Rela-tions, or Pakistan’s military spokesman.

The same video was post-ed on an Indian Facebook

account alongside claims it showed the Indian Air Force bombing “terror camps”. The video has been posted repeat-edly on Facebook in both countries.

A second video which was posted on Pakistani Fa-cebook page SiasiTV, where it has been viewed more than 20,000 times in the two hours since it was published, contains similar footage of a warplane flying at night.

The caption on the post claims it shows the Pakistani air force responding to the Indian incursion.

The exact same footage was also posted by an Indian Facebook account, where it has been viewed 36,000 times in the five hours since it was published. The caption says: “Indian Airforce Attacks Pakistan”.

A YouTube search found both videos shared in all the misleading posts actually show a 2014 air show to mark Pakistan’s independence day.

An August 12, 2014 state-ment by Pakistan Air Force announces the night flying demonstration for the next night, August 13, 2014.

It says: “Two formations of PAF fighter jets will partici-pate in the fly past during the Independence Day ceremony being held at Islamabad. The two formations of 04 F-16s and 04 Mirages combat air-craft are already undertaking fly past rehearsals.

“To mark this auspicious occasion the fighter jets will also release illuminating flares during night fly past between 13 and 14 August night.” The videos show the night fly past when the fight-er jets released flares.

Attacks are fine but troopers’ safety should have been ensured: Widow of Pulwama victimKOLKATA: West Bengal’s martyred CRPF trooper Bablu Santra’s wife on Tuesday said the government can do whatever it feels is correct to avenge the Pulwama attack but it should have ensured the troopers’ safety. Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Head Constable Bablu Santra of West Bauria in Howrah district was one of the 40 troopers killed by a suicide bomber in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

Santra, however, was categorical that the safety of the troopers should have been prioritised. Voicing her resentment at the govern-ment’s failure to ensure security, she said: “They did not think about installing IED jammers in the CRPF convoy or think about ensuring a safe journey for them. I think they must give more attention to the safety of the jawans”. She mentioned that it is a binding responsibility of the Indian government to ensure all the defence forces posted in various parts of the nation are safe and secure. (IANS)

8 Afghan soldiers mistakenly killed in air raidKABUL: At least eight members of the Afghan security forces were killed in an airstrike in south-eastern Ghazni province that was launched using incorrect information, officials said on Tues-day. The airstrike - allegedly carried out by the Afghan air force - hit a checkpoint of the forces in Jaghori-Gelan districts’ border area of the province, provincial council members Nasir Ahmad Faqiri and Khaliqdad Akbari said.

The strike has also left four others wounded, the officials said. The incident happened due to the wrong coordinates being provided to air force, the officials said. Meanwhile, a clinic in Gilan district was also bombed by the air force on Monday night, the officials said. Details of casualties are yet to be cleared. (DPA)

Fawzia Koofi.

President Rodrigo Duterte.

Rakhine villagers go missing: Needleof suspicion points to Myanmar army YANGON: Eight villagers have gone missing since skirmishes erupted between Myanmar’s military and Arakan Army insurgents in Rakhine state’s Mrauk-U township earlier this month. The Rakhine Ethnic Congress (REC), a local development organization, said on Tuesday that relatives believe the military is behind the disappearances. “One woman told us she saw Burmese soldiers from Brigade 22 arresting her husband,” REC secretary Zaw Zaw Tun told dpa. “She asked a military officer to release him, but the officer refused.” Clashes between the military and the Arakan Army have displaced an estimated 7,000 civilians in Rakhine and Chin states, Myanmar’s two poorest regions, since January. The Arakan Army, which demands autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Bud-dhists, claims to have killed dozens of police and military officers in surprise attacks on security outposts along Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh, the same area from which the military displaced more than 720,000 Rohingya Muslims in 2017. (DPA)

Pakistan summons Indian envoy over air violation

ISLAMABAD: Hours after India’s violation of Pakistani airspace near the Line of Control, Is-lamabad on Tuesday summoned New Delhi’s diplomat to register ‘strong protest’.

The acting foreign secretary summoned the Indian acting high commissioner and strongly condemned the Indian violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to an official statement. Baseless and reprehensible Indian claims of targeting a large terrorist camp and resultant causalities to placate Indian domestic audi-ence. (EXPRESS)

‘Attack aimed at subverting polls’KOTTAYAM: Speaking at his ongoing “yatra” near here, state CPI-M Secretary Kodiyeri Bal-akrishnan said the aerial attack conducted by India is a ploy by the Bharatiya Janata Party-Rash-triya Swayamsevak Sangh com-bine to derail the general elec-tion process. “Today’s (Tuesday) attack can be seen as a ploy by the BJP-RSS combine to insti-gate a war with Pakistan ahead of the general elections so as to delay it,” said Balakrishnan. He went on to say that the Naren-dra Modi government instead of resolving the Kashmir issue is trying to make the people of Kashmir “enemies”. (IANS)

Beijing urges restraintBEIJING: China urged India and Pakistan on Tuesday to “exercise restraint” after New Delhi said its warplanes attacked a militant camp, in a move that sent ten-sions soaring between arch-rivals over disputed Kashmir.

“We hope both India & Pakistan can exercise restraint and adopt actions that will help stabilise the situation in region and improve mutual relations,” China’s foreign ministry spokes-man Lu Kang said. China FM Wang Yi is expected to meet his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj and Russia’s Sergei Lav-rov in the Chinese city of Wuzhen on Wednesday. (AFP)

Asia 09Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Nigeria’s Buhari keeps lead as vote count proceeds

AFPABUJA

INCUMBENT Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday kept a lead over his main rival in the race to become Nigeria’s next pres-ident, with nearly half of all states declared.

The death toll from vio-lence linked to Saturday’s vote meanwhile increased from 39 to 47, according to the Situa-tion Room umbrella group of civil society election monitors.

Buhari, 76, who is seeking a second term, has so far won 10 states, including Kaduna and Jigawa in his northwest heartland.

Former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, 72, has won seven states and the Federal

Capital Territory of Abuja, ac-cording to the Independent National Electoral Commis-sion (INEC).

Three states, including Abubakar’s home province Adamawa in the northeast, swung back to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) af-ter voting for Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015.

To win Nigeria’s presi-dency, a candidate needs a majority of votes and at least 25 percent of support in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT.

With 17 states and the FCT declared, Buhari, a for-mer military ruler, had a to-tal of 6,153,880 votes versus Abubakar’s 5,149,869.

JOHANNESBURG: A South African court started hearing arguments on Tuesday on whether Mozambique’s ex-finance minister, held since December on a US warrant, can be extradited and if so, to where. Manuel Chang, 63, was arrested at Johannes-burg’s O.R. Tambo Interna-tional Airport on December 29 over alleged involvement in $2 billion (1.76 billion euros) of fraudulent loans to Mozambican state firms. Both the US and Mozam-bique have issued their own extradition requests. (AFP)

S Africa court mulls Mozambique former minister extradition

JOHANNESBURG: A United States airstrike in Somalia has killed 20 suspected al-Shabaab militants, the US Af-rica Command said Tuesday. The strike in central Hiran region on Monday “success-fully targeted an encamp-ment from which al-Shabaab could stage, coordinate, and execute attacks,” the US said in a statement. On Sunday, a US airstrike killed 35 suspected militants, also in Hiran region. US forces are partnering African Union troops and the Somali Na-tional Security Forces. (DPA)

US air strike in Somalia kills 20 suspected militants

KHARTOUM: Sudanese Presi-dent Omar al-Bashir on Mon-day banned unauthorised rallies as he announced a slew of new measures to end demonstrations that have rocked his rule for weeks. Bashir’s latest orders come as part of a nationwide state of emergency. “As part of a state of emergency declared by the president, he issued an order banning any gather-ing or rally that has not been authorised,” the presidency said in a statement. Bashir has given sweeping powers to the security forces. (AFP)

Sudan’s Bashir bans unauthorised rallies amid demonstrations

JERUSALEM: An Israeli ex-minister was sentenced to 11 years in prison Tuesday for spying for his country’s main enemy Iran, with pros-ecutors saying the plea bar-gain was necessary to avoid revealing secret information. Gonen Segev, who served as energy and infrastructure minister from 1995 to 1996, had previously agreed to a plea bargain on charges of serious espionage and transfer of information to the enemy. Court hearings were held in secret due to the nature of the case. (AFP)

Israel ex-minister sentenced to 11 years over spying for Iran

News in brief AFP

ANKARA

TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday lambasted the EU after the bloc held a summit with Arab lead-ers in Egypt despite Cairo’s ex-ecution of nine men last week.

Egypt on February 20 hanged the nine men for the 2015 assassination of prosecutor general Hisham Barakat, despite pleas from human rights group Amnesty International.

Around 40 EU and Arab leaders met after during a two-day summit which began on Sunday in the Egyptian

Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh hosted by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

“Can we talk about democ-racy in EU member countries who accepted the invitation of Sisi, who has executed 42 people since he came to power and nine young people last week, although capital pun-ishment is banned (in the EU)?” Erdogan said during a speech in the northeastern province of Giresun.

“Can we talk about rights and freedoms over there?... It is not possible to understand them. The EU is not sincere.” Turkey-Egypt relations are al-most non-existent since the

Egyptian military, then led by Sisi, ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, an ally of Er-dogan, in 2013.

Although Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood is outlawed in Egypt, members of the group have sought refuge in Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier that it was “an example of dou-ble standards, hypocrisy that the EU leadership would give support to Sisi and be in the same place as him in the days after nine people were mar-tyred, were executed.”

“When we look at the lead-ers who run Europe today, in-cluding the EU, there are no values, there are only interests,” he told reporters in Ankara.

Cavusoglu also hit out at the EU’s “hypocrisy” over its criticism of Turkey when there were concerns that the death penalty could return after the July 2016 failed coup.

Erdogan slams Brussels ‘duplicity’ over EU-Arab summit

AFPBEIRUT

THOUSANDS of people have been displaced and dozens killed in one of the worst flare-ups to rattle a precarious truce deal in northwestern Syria, a monitor said Tuesday.

Twenty government troops and allied fighters were killed in attacks by a militant group on the edge of the Idlib region since Sunday, the Syrian Ob-servatory for Human Rights said.

The latest casualties were five government and allied fighters killed Tuesday near a planned buffer zone around rebel-held territory in neigh-bouring Idlib.

The Britain-based Obser-vatory said the attack was led by Hurras al-Deen, an alliance formally linked to Al-Qaeda

that includes Syrian and for-eign militants.

At least nine militant fight-ers were killed in the clashes, among the deadliest since a deal was reached in September last year to spare the region a massive government assault.

Regime bombardment near Khan Sheikhun, in Idlib prov-ince, also killed two civilians on Tuesday, raising the civilian death toll to 42 since February 9, the Observatory said.

The Idlib region is mainly controlled by the militants of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Syrian group led by former Al-Qaeda fighters, after they pushed back smaller, Turkey-backed rebel outfits last month.

Under the September 17 deal, all fighters in the zone were supposed to withdraw their heavy weapons and jihad-ists including HTS and Hur-

ras al-Deen were supposed to leave.

Increased regime shell-ing on the Idlib town of Khan Sheikhun has sparked one of the largest waves of displace-ment since the truce agreement was struck in the Russian re-

sort of Sochi. “The UN remains deeply concerned for the safety and protection of thousands of people recently displaced from Khan Sheikhun following an increase in hostilities in the area,” David Swanson, spokes-man for the UN Regional Office for the Syria Crisis in Amman said.

He said 7,033 women, chil-dren and men were displaced from Khan Sheikhun between 1 and 21 February.

The vast majority moved to districts within Idlib, while around 152 people were dis-placed to the town of Afrin in Aleppo province.

The Syria conflict has killed more than 360,000 people since it erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of an-ti-government protests and displaced more than half the country’s population.

Twenty government troops and allied fighters were killed in attacks by a militant group on the edge of the Idlib region since Sunday

Members of the Syrian Civil Defence (also known as “The White Helmet”) carry a wounded person following reported shelling in the town of Khan Sheikhun in the southern countryside of the rebel-held Idlib province, on Tuesday. (AFP)

Thousands displaced, dozens killed in Idlibclashes, air strike

AFPBEIRUT

GLOBAL indifference is fuel-ling atrocities across the Middle East, rights watchdog Amnesty International warned Tuesday in a report condemning what it called growing impunity.

“The crackdown on civil so-ciety actors and political oppo-nents increased significantly in Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia,” the rights watchdog said in its annual regional report.

“Is it acceptable for activ-ists to undergo arbitrary de-tention, torture, sexual har-assment... and even enforced

disappearances simply for expressing their opinions in a peaceful way,” Amnesty’s re-gional director for the Middle East and North Africa, Heba Morayef told a press confer-ence in Beirut on Tuesday.

The annual report said “global indifference to human rights violations” had fuelled “atrocities and impunity” in the region in 2018.

It cited the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul On October 2, say-ing the “case has not been fol-lowed by concrete action to ensure those responsible for

his murder are brought to jus-tice”.

It applauded “rare action”

from countries like Denmark or Germany which suspended arms supplies to Riyadh, but noted that “key allies of the kingdom, including the USA, UK and France, have taken no such action”.

Amnesty also denounced Riyadh’s military intervention in Yemen, saying the Saudi-led coalition battling rebels is “responsible for war crimes” and has contributed to a “hu-manitarian catastrophe” in the embattled country.

And it condemned Israel’s crackdown on demonstra-tions in Gaza and the West Bank, which it says has killed

“at least 195 Palestinians, in-cluding 41 children”. Iran also came under fire for its repres-sion of mass demonstrations to protest deteriorating socio-economic conditions.

“Security forces violently dispersed the protests, beating unarmed protesters and using live ammunition, tear gas and water cannons against them, causing deaths and injuries,” it said. The “intense crackdown on dissident voices” in a num-ber of Arab countries is linked to the 2011 Arab uprisings, said Morayef.

“Authoritarian govern-ments today are trying to

make very, very sure that there is no political space to ever al-low such an uprising to occur again”, she said.

The Amnesty report also denounced “war crimes” com-mitted in Syria, Libya and Yemen, which have been rav-aged by deadly conflicts and humanitarian catastrophes.

In the three countries, “military forces with air power carried out indiscrim-inate air strikes and direct attacks on civilian homes, hospitals and medical facili-ties, sometimes using inter-nationally banned cluster munitions,” Amnesty said.

Impunity reigned in Middle East last year: Amnesty

Iran FM Zarif quits,Rouhani yet toaccept resignation

AFPTEHRAN

IRANIAN Foreign Minis-ter Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was the lead negotiator in a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, has abruptly tendered his resig-nation, although there was no sign on Tuesday President Hassan Rouhani had accepted it.

Zarif offered an apol-ogy for his “shortcomings” in Monday’s unexpected Insta-gram message, with promi-nent members of parliament calling for Rouhani to reject the resignation.

Zarif, 59, has served as Rouhani’s foreign minister since August 2013 and has been under constant pressure from hardliners who opposed his policy of detente with the West.

“I apologise for my inabil-ity to continue serving and for all the shortcomings during my term in office,” he said in the message posted on his ver-ified Instagram account.

On Tuesday, he urged Ira-nian diplomats not to follow his lead as rumours spread of mass resignations.

“I hope my resignation will act as a spur for the foreign ministry to regain its proper statutory role in the conduct of foreign affairs,” state run IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

The prospect of Zarif’s de-parture was swiftly welcomed by Iran’s foes. His ready smile and mastery of both the Eng-lish language and social me-dia have made him a formida-ble player on the diplomatic stage. “Zarif is gone. Good rid-

dance,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-yahu. Netanyahu was a bitter opponent of the 2015 nuclear deal Zarif negotiated with Ba-rack Obama’s administration and threw his own formidable lobbying powers into an ulti-mately successful campaign to persuade US President Donald Trump to abandon it last May.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that it made no difference to Washington whether Zarif stays or goes.

“Either way, he and @HassanRouhani are just front men for a corrupt religious mafia,” he said, adding that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “makes all final de-cisions”.

Zarif’s announcement came hours after a surprise visit to Tehran by Syrian Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad, who has been a major recipient of Ira-nian aid during his country’s nearly eight-year civil war. Semi-official ISNA news agen-cy said Zarif was not present at any of Assad’s meetings with Khamenei and Rouhani.

Gulf / Middle East / World10 Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Turkey President Tayyip Erdogan.

Kim, Trump arrive in Hanoi ahead of nuclear summitHANOI: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump arrived in Hanoi Tuesday, ahead of a second summit closely watched for concrete steps to dismantle Pyong-yang’s nuclear programme.

After an initial historic meeting in Singapore in June that produced only a vague statement about denuclearisation, analysts say the second date must deliver more in the way of tangible progress.

The summit itself is shrouded in secrecy and there was still no official word even on the venue when Trump touched down in Air Force One late Tuesday. The two leaders were expected to have an informal dinner on Wednesday before more formal talks on Thursday.

Trump made no comment to reporters on his aircraft but had previously tweeted his hopes for a “very productive” meet-ing, reiterating that North Korea could enjoy economic riches if it gave up its nuclear weapons. (AFP)

Govt, allies casualtiesThe latest casualties were five government and allied fighters killed Tuesday near a planned buffer zone around rebel-held territory in neighbouring Idlib. The Britain-based Observatory said the attack was led by Hurras al-Deen, an alliance formally linked to Al-Qaeda that includes Syrian and foreign militants.

Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Jamal Khashoggi.

UN reaches aid warehouses on Yemen frontlines, seeks $4.2 bn

AFPGENEVA

THE UN said Tuesday it had finally reached vital food aid warehouses on Yemen’s frontlines as it scrambled to raise $4.2 bil-lion to provide desperately needed assistance in the war-torn country.

The United Nations had since September been un-able to reach the Red Sea Mills, which are grain ware-houses in a government-controlled area estimated to hold enough to feed 3.7 million people for a month.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a donor conference in Ge-neva that he had “good news” from Yemen. “Fi-nally it was possible for us to reach the Red Sea Mills.” A spokesman for the UN’s World Food Programme said that an evaluation mission reached the ware-houses near the western port city of Hodeida.

“We hope to be able to begin using this site again as soon as possible,” Herve Verhoosel said.

European rights chief takes France to task on ‘Yellow Vests’ policing

DPAPARIS

A top European rights official on Tuesday sounded the alarm on France’s policing of the Yel-low Vests protest movement as well as a draft law to crack down on violence at demonstrations.

Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic called on the French government to suspend the use of rubber bullets, blamed for most of the serious injuries suffered by protesters.

Figures compiled by an independent journalist up to February 4 indicated that 20 persons had been blinded in an eye, five had lost a hand and three suffered injuries to the genitals, Mijatovic noted.

The head injuries in par-ticular were evidence of a dis-proportionate use of force and showed that rubber bullets were not suitable for public order operations, the commis-sioner said.

Protesters wearing yel-low safety tops have blocked suburban roundabouts and held weekend marches around France since mid-November.

They initially opposed planned fuel tax rises but have since raised broader demands about standards of living and direct democracy, as well as calling for President Emma-nuel Macron to resign.

Marches every Saturday in Paris and some other cities have repeatedly degenerated into clashes with police.

NEWS IN BRIEF

LONDON: Facebook on Tuesday removed the accounts of leading British far-right activist Tommy Robinson for violating its “community standards” by promoting “organised hate” and other prohibited behaviour.

The US social media giant said Robinson, a controversial figure who founded the anti-Islam English Defence League (EDL), had used its platform to share “dehumanising language” and “calls for violence targeted at Muslims”.

The company added it was closing his Facebook page and Instagram profile. (AFP)

Facebook bans UK far-right figure Tommy Robinson

STOCKHOLM: Sara Danius resigned on Tuesday from the Swedish Academy that selects the Nobel Prize in Literature, almost a year after she was forced out as permanent secretary by a #MeToo scandal.

The Swedish academic’s resignation is the latest development in a scandal that emerged from the #MeToo movement to halt sexual abuse, and forced the Academy to postpone awarding the literature prize in 2018.

“I have decided to give up my seat... once occupied by the first woman elected to the Acad-emy, Selma Lagerloef,” Danius, 56, said in a statement. (AFP)

Nobel figure quits after Swedish body’s #MeToo scandal

AFPLONDON

PRIME Minister Theresa May promised on Tuesday to al-low parliament to delay Brexit by up to three months so that Britain would not crash out of the European Union without a deal on March 29.

The dramatic reversal in May’s steadfast strategy came after threats of mass resigna-tions from her own ministers and calls for a second referen-dum on Britain’s EU member-ship from the main opposition Labour Party.

It saw the pound rally to its highest level since May 2017 against the euro -- and since October 2018 against the dol-lar -- as investor fears of immi-nent trade gridlock and finan-cial market mayhem eased.

But the change in course did little to draw London and Brussels closer to an agree-ment over how to end a 46-year partnership that Britons narrowly voted to end in a June 2016 referendum.

The beleaguered British leader told parliament she would offer MPs the chance on March 14 to back a “short, limited” extension of the Brex-it deadline if her own divorce proposals fail to win the sup-port of lawmakers by March 12.But she also stressed that she wanted to leave the bloc on time.

“Our absolute focus should be on working to get a deal and leaving on 29 March,” May said.

May laid out a three-step procedure that begins with a vote in parliament on her lat-est Brexit proposals by March 12. Their refusal to back her would see lawmakers con-fronted with the option of leaving the EU club without an agreement.

“The United Kingdom will only leave without a deal on 29 March if there is explicit consent in this House for that outcome,” May said.

That measure’s expected defeat would see parliament vote on March 14 on a dead-line extension.

The other 27 EU leaders would need to unanimously

approve a delay by March 29.The EU has been watch-

ing with growing concern the political machinations in Brit-ain and the possibility that the country will crash out of the bloc without a deal, risk-ing chaos on both sides of the Channel.

European Council Presi-dent Donald Tusk said Mon-

day after meeting May on the sidelines of an EU-Arab sum-mit in Egypt that an extension would be a “rational solution”.

But some of the bloc’s of-ficials have argued that there was no point in briefly post-poning the deadline -- and prolonging the market uncer-tainty -- only to be confronted with the same issues again.

And May has repeatedly said that the no-deal threat must be kept on the table in order to wrest concessions from Brussels needed to push her deal through parliament.

Yet her strategy’s failure to make tangible headway so close to the wire was raising the prospects of a major mu-tiny in her ministerial ranks.

May offers lawmakersvote to delay Brexit

Brexit activists hold placards and wave flags as they demonstrate outside of the House of Commons in London on Tuesday. (Inset) British Prime Minister Theresa May. (AFP)

Once again, a Mexican filmmaker takes Oscars by stormAFP

MEXICO CITY

ALFONSO Cuaron’s big Os-cars night -- three golden statuettes for his personal film Roma, including his sec-ond for best director -- once again highlights the major success in Hollywood for Mexican filmmakers.

This time, though, is a bit different. When Cuaron won the first time, it was for space epic Gravity, a mega-studio production with a budget of $100 million and mega-stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.

In sharp contrast, Roma was an intimate black-and-white movie about a family in turmoil in 1970s Mexico City, and the class dynamics that

reigned. It also was filmed in Spanish and the indigenous Mixtec dialect.

It was the first film Cuaron made in his homeland since he burst onto the scene with his coming-of-age flick Y Tu Mama Tambien. The cast and crew of the Netflix production were nearly all Mexicans.

Cuaron’s success is “good for all of Mexican cinema,” the president of the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences, Ernesto Contreras, told AFP.

“We owe the success of Roma to Alfonso Cuaron, but also to his team, from the ac-tresses to production design-er to sound technicians.”

For years, the Oscars have become a bit of a love fest for the so-called “three amigos”

of Mexican filmmakers, who have won the best director

trophy for five of the past six years.

It started with Gravity, which won seven Oscars in 2014, including best cinema-tography for Mexico’s Emma-nuel Lubezki.

The following year, Ale-jandro Gonzalez Inarritu tri-umphed with Birdman, which won four Oscars including best picture and best director.

And in 2016, Inarritu scored again with The Rev-enant -- the director and Lubezki again took home statuettes, as did lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio. He again won a special achievement Oscar for his interactive “Car-ne y Arena” (2017).

Last year, it was Guillermo del Toro’s turn -- his fantasy romance The Shape of Water earned four Oscars including best picture and best director.

AFPWASHINGTON

MICHAEL Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former law-yer and problem fixer, arrived in Congress on Tuesday for a closed door hearing in which he was expected to detail his ex-boss’s alleged law-breaking and questionable business practices.

It will be the first of three much-awaited appearances on Capitol Hill this week -- only one of them public -- for Cohen, who has already been convicted for illegally arrang-

ing hush payments to women who claimed to have had af-fairs with Trump.

An unnamed source close to Cohen told the Wall Street Journal that Cohen was pre-pared to discuss Trump’s “lies, racism and cheating” as well as “evidence of criminal con-duct since Mr Trump became president,” but gave no specif-ics to the newspaper.

Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Da-vis told ABC News last week that his client would detail “personal, front-line experi-ences” of incidents and con-

duct by President Trump that even hardened listeners would

find “chilling.” The three hearings this

week -- a closed session at the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday; an open, televised hearing at the House Over-sight Committee Wednesday; and another closed hearing at the House Intelligence Com-mittee on Thursday -- could stir new troubles for Trump.

The White House is al-ready unsettled in anticipation that Special Counsel Robert Mueller might soon conclude his almost two-year-old inves-tigation into possible collusion

between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 presi-dential election.

The Senate Intelligence Committee hearing opened Tuesday just as Trump ar-rived in Hanoi for his second showcase summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

Cohen’s open testimony on Wednesday could well over-shadow the first day of talks over North Korea’s nuclear weapons between Trump and Kim. From Hanoi, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders dismissed Cohen’s credibility.

Cohen threatens to spill beans on former boss Trump

REUTERSWASHINGTON

THE US House of Represent-atives was poised on Tuesday to vote for terminating Presi-dent Donald Trump’s pro-claimed national emergency at the US-Mexico border, a first step toward what could be a stinging rejection of his proposed border wall.

If the Democratic-con-trolled House approves a resolution ending the presi-dent’s emergency, as expect-ed, the measure would go to the Republican-controlled Senate where its chances of passage were slimmer, but seemed to be improving.

Trump has vowed to issue a veto, which would be the first of his presidency, against any resolution approved by both chambers targeting the emergency that he single-handedly declared on Feb 15 as a way to fund his wall by circumventing Congress.

Overriding such a veto in Congress would require two-thirds majorities in both chambers, making it highly unlikely, said lawmakers.

“When you see the vote today, there will be nowhere near the votes to override a veto,” US Representative Ste-ve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

The battle in Congress is the latest chapter in a long-running war between Trump and Democrats over border security, immigration policy and the “great, great wall” that Trump has pledged to

build since becoming a presi-dential candidate.

He originally promised that Mexico would pay for it, but after Mexico refused, he asked US taxpayers to foot the bill for the project, which Democrats call unneeded and ineffective.

In his first two years in office, Trump’s Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress, which under the US Constitution holds the national purse strings, but lawmakers failed to provide the funding Trump wanted for his border barrier.

When Congress, with the House now controlled by Democrats, refused in recent weeks to provide the money he wants, Trump declared an emergency and vowed to divert funds toward the wall from accounts already com-mitted by Congress for other purposes.

That set up a test of the constitutional separation of powers between Congress and the presidency that will likely lead to a court chal-lenge after lawmakers deal with the resolution.

A coalition of 16 US states led by California has already sued Trump and top members of his administra-tion in an attempt to block his emergency declaration.

Writing on Twitter on Monday, President Trump, who says the wall is needed to stop illegal immigration and drugs, warned Repub-licans not to “fall into the Democrats ‘trap’ of Open Borders and Crime!”

US House set to reject Trump’s emergency to construct border wall

Europe / Americas

Michael Cohen

Rep Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) speaks during a news conference about the resolution he has sponsored to terminate President Trump’s emergency declaration in Washington on Monday. (AFP)

SHARM el Sheikh, Egypt: Britain’s main opposition Labour Party has said it could support a second Brexit referendum as the European Union opened the door to postponing the country’s exit from the bloc beyond the March 29 deadline.

European Council President Donald Tusk said he had discussed the “legal and procedural con-text of a potential extension” when he met May on Sunday on the sidelines of an EU-Arab summit in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh. “I believe in the situation we are in, an extension would be a rational solution but Prime Minister May still believes she’s able to avoid this scenario,” Tusk told a closing summit press conference.

The opposition Labour Party on Monday raised the pressure, saying it would put forward its own plan for Brexit, which calls for Britain to stay in the EU customs union, as part of those votes.

Labour then said if its plan was rejected, it would lend its support to an amendment on holding a second referendum on EU membership -- without specifying a date.

“We are committed to... putting forward or supporting an amendment in favour of a public vote to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit being forced on the country,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said in a statement. (AFP)

British oppn raises prospect of second Brexit referendum

UN hosts talks for Cyprus leaders in push for peace

AFPNICOSIA

THE United Nations on Tues-day hosted an informal meet-ing between the leaders of divided Cyprus, aimed at re-viving stalled peace talks.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cyp-riot leader Mustafa Akinci met for the first time in nearly four months at a UN compound in the island’s buffer zone.

“They had a constructive exchange of views in a cordial atmosphere,” the UN said af-ter the meeting, which was hosted by Elizabeth Spehar who heads the body’s Cyprus peacekeeping mission.

It said “the leaders were committed to intensifying con-fidence-building measures with the objective of improving the daily lives of all Cypriots”.

The measures discussed include proposals already ta-bled in recent years, such as improving mobile phone con-nectivity across the island.

Despite moves to improve relations such as two new border crossings opening in November, tensions continue between the two sides over off-shore energy resources claimed by both administrations.

There have been no offi-cial peace negotiations since those hosted by Switzerland collapsed in 2017, and the UN Security Council last month pressed all sides to get talks back on track.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded and occupied the northern third of the island in response to a Greek military junta-sponsored coup.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci (left) and Head of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus Elizabeth Spehar at the old Nicosia airport on Tuesday. (AFP)

11Wednesday, February 27, 2019

US preparing to invade Venezuela: Russia

MOSCOW: The United States is preparing to invade Venezuela with troops deployed to neighbouring Colombia, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said in an interview published on Tuesday.

Russia, which has provided billions of dollars in credit to Venezuela to stave off an economic collapse, is one of the few countries that directly supports Venezuela’s beleaguered presi-dent, Nicolas Maduro.

“The US is preparing a military invasion of an independent state,” Patrushev told Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty.

“The transfer of US special operations forces to Puerto Rico, the landing of US forces in Colombia and other facts clearly indicate that the Pentagon is reinforcing the grouping of troops in the region for the purpose of ousting the legally elected current president, Maduro,” Patrushev said.

The US and dozens of other countries support Maduro’s political rival, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido. (DPA)

Britain will only leave EU without a deal on March 29 if there’s House consensus: PM

The leaders were committed to intensifying confidence-building measures with the objective of improving the daily lives of all Cypriots: UN

Trump declared the emergency after Congress declined his request for $5.7 bn to build barrier

Alfonso Cuaron winner of the Best Director Award, Best Achievement in Cinematography Award and Best Foreign Language Film Award for ‘Roma’ during the 91st annual Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, USA, on Sunday. (EPA)

Qatar Cinema holds board meeting

TNNDOHA

QATAR Cinema and Film Distribution Company held its board of direc-tors meeting in Doha on Tuesday. During the

meeting, the board decided to recommend to the gen-eral assembly, which will be held on April 3, to distribute cash dividends equivalent to 15 percent of the share nominal value or QR1.5 per share to the shareholders.

SATYENDRA PATHAK DOHA

UNITED Development Com-pany (UDC) will spend over QR5.5 billion over the pe-riod 2019-2023 to complete a number of projects including an international school named ‘United School International’, Gewan Island which is adja-cent to The Pearl-Qatar Island, the company’s chairman said on Tuesday.

Talking to Qatar Tribune on the sidelines of the compa-ny’s Ordinary General Assem-bly and Extraordinary General Assembly meeting in Doha, UDC Chairman Turki bin Mo-hammed al Khater said the master developer of the iconic The Pearl-Qatar is currently in discussions with concerned authorities to under-take real-estate projects in other parts of Qatar.

“We are looking for right opportunity to launch re-alty projects in other parts of Doha. We are working on it. Once we get the right project, we will work on it,” he said.

Talking about the upcom-ing international school pro-ject, Khater said the ‘United School International’ will be developed in Giardino Village prescient to meet the needs of the community at the The Pearl-Qatar Island and the neighbourhood.

“We are also in talks with concerned parties to build a 150-bed hospital on The Pearl to serve the local community. Hopefully we will announce the project very soon,” he said.

All key developments on the island like Giardino Vil-lage, Al Mutahidah Towers and Floresta Gardens are currently progressing according to plan, he said adding these develop-ments would further enhance the ambiance of the island and ensure economic viability of The Pearl for years to come.

Solid progress made on multiple levels of the project

at The Pearl, he said, was re-flected positively on UDC’s fi-nancial results in 2018.

For 2018, UDC reported a net profit of QR544 million and revenues of QR1.6 billion, with the net profit attributable to equity holders of the parent standing at QR501 million and basic earnings of QR1.41 per share.

Given the challenging con-ditions under which these fi-nancial results were achieved, he said, demonstrated that The Pearl Qatar is a viable business model that can gen-erate solid financial results even during challenging times.

The solid financial results were driven primarily by a combination of sales and lease of real-estate properties and cost efficiencies, he said add-ing recurring revenue gener-ated from the leasing of office, residential and retail units was enhanced during the year.

Giving further details, UDC President and CEO Ibra-him Jassim al Othman said, “Recurring revenues from the rental of office, residential and commercial units have increased in 2018 as the num-ber of residential properties under lease increased to reach 719 residential units, while the

volume of office space under lease at UDC Tower reached to 21 percent.

The volume of retail areas under lease remains steady at 60 percent.” In addition to these increases in occupancy, Othman said, the number of vehicles entering The Pearl Qatar rose from 11 million vehicles in 2017 to 13 mil-lion vehicles in 2018 indicat-ing that the man-made island is becoming an increasingly popular destination for office, residential and retail tenants to live and work.

Earlier, the UDC’s general assembly approves dividend distribution of QR354 million representing 10 percent of share capital and equal to QR 1 per share.

The meeting also elected six new members to UDC’s board of directors represent-ing the private sector, for the period 2019 – 2021. The new

board members are Sheikh Faisal bin Fahed al Thani, Ali Hussain Al-Fardan repre-senting Al Fardan Holding, Ibrahim Jassim al Othman, Abdulaziz Mohamed al Mana, Abdulrahman Abdullah al Ab-dulghani and Abdulrahman Saad al Shathri.

While three seats have been allotted to board mem-bers representing the state of Qatar, which completes the number of the company’s board members of nine. These are Turki bin Mohammed al Khater, representing the Civil Fund of the General Retire-ment and Social Insurance Au-thority, Mubarak Ali Mubarak al Nuaimi, representing the Civil Fund of the General Re-tirement and Social Insurance Authority and Nasser Jaralla al Marri, representing the Mil-itary Fund of the General Re-tirement and Social Insurance Authority.

Company in talks to launch realty projects in other areas of Qatar Approves dividend of QR1 per share

UDC Chairman Turki bin Mohammed al Khater with other board members at the company’s Extraordinary General Assembly meeting in Doha on Monday. (JALAL PATHIYOOR)

UDC to spend QR5.5 bn to complete ongoing projects

Key projects United School

International will be developed in Giardino Village to meet the needs of the community at the The Pearl-Qatar Island and the neighbourhood

Plans to build a 150-bed hospital on The Pearl to serve the local community


QATAR International Islamic Bank (QIIB) has announced the successful issuance of $500 million sukuk under the bank’s $2 billion sukuk programme.

The offering was oversub-scribed six times with investors bidding for more than six times the amount offered and reflects the positive outlook of the Qa-tari economy and the strength of its financial position, QIIB said in a press statement on Tuesday.

The issue was arranged and offered though a syndicate com-prising of QNB Capital, Al Khalij

Commercial Bank, Barwa Bank, Boubyan Bank, Barclays Bank, MayBank and Standard Char-tered Bank.

QIIB said the offering was oversubscribed to $3.3 billion by investors, mostly from out-side the Middle East. The issue was priced at a spread of 175 basis points over the 5-year mid swaps carrying fixed coupon of 4.264 per annum percent.

QIIB said investors from around the world participated in the sukuk, with 30 percent from the MENA and 70 percent from Europe, Asia and other countries.

“The bank’s success in is-suing sukuk and securing good

pricing is primarily due to the strength and high rating of the Qatari economy, which is con-sidered to have one of the high-est credit ratings in the entire region,” said QIIB CEO Abdul-basit Ahmad al Shaibei.

He said, “All indicators and market researches place the Qa-tari economy at the forefront of the economies in the region. The Qatari banking sector en-joys the confidence of investors because it provides a very high solvency and is in a strong fi-nancial position.

“The strong appetite of in-vestors from MENA, Asia and Europe, some of whom are dealing with sukuks for the very

first time, reflects the strong financial position of QIIB and the continued strong support and confidence of both inter-national and local investors in the bank’s ability to design and

launch high quality products at competitive prices.”

Sheibei said, “The launch of the QIIB sukuk and the huge turnout of investors is further evidence of the failure of at-tempts being made to stifle the Qatari economy through an un-justified blockade. The Qatari economy also enjoys tremen-dous confidence of the global financial system and various prestigious global institutions continue to see promising growth opportunities and a sta-ble economy in Qatar.”

This sukuk issuance is the second for QIIB after the bank succeeded in issuing sukuk worth $700 million in 2012.

QIIB’s $500 mn sukuk oversubscribed by more than 6 times

QIIB CEO Abdulbasit Ahmad al Shaibei (centre) with other officials.

Our success in the sukuk issuance is due primarily to the strength, high rating and resilience of the Qatari economyQIIB CEO Abdulbasit Ahmad al Shaibei

QNA DOHA

QATAR’S foreign merchandise trade balance showed a surplus of QR15.8 billion in January 2019, an increase of QR0.1 bil-lion (0.8 percent) compared to January 2018, and decreased

by QR0.05 billion or 0.3 per-cent compared to December 2018, according to the Plan-ning and Statistics Authority’s (PSA) data on Tuesday.

In January 2019, the total exports of goods (including ex-ports of goods of domestic ori-gin and re-exports) amounted

to QR24.7 billion, a decrease of 2.6 percent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), and 3 percent month-on-month (M-o-M).

The imports of goods in January 2019 amounted to QR8.8 billion, a decrease of 8 percent Y-o-Y, and a decrease by 7.5 percent M-o-M.

PSA said the Y-o-Y de-crease in total exports was mainly due to decrease in ex-ports of petroleum oils and oils from bituminous minerals

(crude) by 11 percent to QR3.7 billion, and petroleum oils and

oils from bituminous miner-als (not crude) by 7 percent to QR1.6 billion. However the group of petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons (LNG, condensates, propane, butane, etc) increased by 0.1 percent to QR16.3 billion in January 2019.

In January 2019, Japan was at the top of the coun-tries of destination of Qatar’s exports at QR4.24 billion (17.2 percent of total exports),

followed by China QR4.23 billion (17.2 percent), and South Korea QR3.8 billion (15.5 percent).

In January 2019, the group of “motor cars and other pas-senger vehicles” was at the top of the imported group of com-modities at QR0.3 billion, a decrease of 39.4 percent com-pared to January 2018.

This was followed by “parts of balloons etc; parts of aircraft, spacecraft etc” at

QR0.3 billion, an increase of 2.8 percent, and “turbojets, turbo propellers and other gas turbines; parts thereof” at QR0.3 billion, a decrease of 50.2 percent.

In January 2019, the US was the leading country of origin of Qatar’s imports at QR1.4 billion (15.4 percent of total imports), followed by China QR1.1 billion (12.7 per-cent), and Oman QR0.7 billion (7.5 percent).

Japan was the top destination of Qatar’s exports at QR4.24 billion

Qatar’s trade surplus up 0.8% to QR15.8 bn in January 2019In January 2019, the US was the leading country of origin of Qatar’s imports at QR1.4 billion (15.4 per-cent of total imports), fol-lowed by China QR1.1 bil-lion (12.7 percent), and Oman QR0.7 billion (7.5 percent)

ICC Qatar to organise annual banking workshopTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

THE International Chamber of Commerce Qatar (ICC Qa-tar), in collaboration with the London Institute of Bank-ing and Finance will organise a banking workshop titled ‘Trade Finance Training 2019’, in Doha on March 27, the Qa-tar Chamber announced in a statement on Tuesday.

The fourth banking work-shop will be held under the patronage of Qatar Chamber Chairman Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim al Thani, and will be led by Kim Sindberg, Technical Advisor to the Banking Com-mission of the International Chamber of Commerce and founder of Sindberg Consult. Sindberg is also a member of several national and interna-tional trade finance forums and has served in several ICC

working and drafting groups.The workshop will benefit

professionals working in trade finance departments with various products and instru-ments such as best practices of letters of credit, letters of guarantees, highlights from Incoterms 2020, and status on the demand guarantee stand-ard banking practices.

The training will also be beneficial to business execu-tives active in trade finance, the statement added.

The comprehensive bank-ing workshop will enable at-tendees to obtain 6.5 PDUs.

ICC Qatar stressed its keenness on holding this workshop for a fourth year in a row that seemed enormous-ly beneficial to the attendees within the banking industry. It said that it should continue to host this workshop on various topics in the future.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2019

French carmaker PSA boosts outlook after ‘historic year’ PAGE 14

US financial regulatory agency targets Musk over tweet again PAGE 14

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AFPBEIJING

US companies in China fore-cast a gloomy year ahead, with many worrying about a dete-rioration in bilateral trade ties and nearly a quarter delaying investments, a business survey showed Tuesday.

The survey of 314 US busi-nesses by the American Cham-ber of Commerce in China provided a full accounting of challenges American business face after Beijing and Wash-ington exchanged tit-for-tat tariffs on more than $300 bil-lion in two-way trade.

The report was released two days after US President Donald Trump said he would delay a planned further hike in tariffs on Chinese goods this week after he and Beijing both hailed “substantial progress” in trade negotiations.

“Certainly our members are hopeful that the uncertain-ty and the loss and the delays in business that have resulted from the trade negotiations and trade frictions will turn out to have been worthwhile in the end,” said Tim Stratford, chairman of the chamber.

“If not then it would be a tremendous waste,” he told reporters.

The survey found that 89 percent of businesses report-ed a pessimistic view on the world’s most important bilat-eral trade relationship.

The tariffs directly hit US businesses, increasing costs and lowering demand from Chinese consumers with some companies even forced to lay off workers, the survey showed.

The US-China trade spat was among the top concerns for businesses across sectors. Three-fourths expect the rela-

tionship to further deteriorate or remain the same this year.

Nearly two-thirds said the tensions affected their plans for the market, and caused nearly a quarter to delay fur-ther investment in China, the survey showed.

About one-fifth of firms have moved or are considering moving production outside of China, with the tariffs and ris-ing costs top reasons, accord-ing to the survey.

Still US firms see the tariffs have gotten both governments to sit down at the negotiating table and seriously hash out their issues, Stratford said.

He added that a separate business survey conducted last week found a majority of firms think tariffs should be kept in place “in some fash-

ion” during negotiations.Concerns have grown

among top US lawmakers that President Donald Trump will settle for a deal that steps up Chinese purchases of US goods without solving the thornier issues like Chinese state support for firms and an unfair playing field for foreign companies.

Buying more American products “doesn’t address the underlying systematic prob-lems, and if we don’t address the underlying systematic problems then I think we will not be putting the trade rela-tionship on a sustainable foot-ing,” Stratford said.

-Market access-Market access -- a long-time concern

for US, European and other foreign businesses and at the top of the Trump administra-tion’s list of gripes -- remains a problem for more than half of companies.

“China has made doing our type of business, which partly involves importing ag-ricultural products into China, more difficult every year since I have been coming to China,” said one anonymous execu-tive, according to the cham-ber.

Another issue under de-bate between the world’s top two economic powers is pro-tection of American intellectu-al property, with Washington accusing Beijing of encourag-ing theft of US creations.

American business firms in China see gloomy year ahead

A survey has found that 89 percent of US businesses in China reported a pessimistic view on the bilateral trade relationship between the two countries.

Survey says 89% of US businesses in China have a pessimistic view on trade ties between the two countries

Tariffs war American businesses started facing stiff challenges after Beijing and Washington exchanged tit-for-tat tariffs on more than $300 billion in two-way trade. The tariffs directly hit US businesses, increasing costs and lowering demand from Chinese consumers.

QNAMUSCAT

CHAIRMAN of Qatar Standards Mo-hammed bin Saud al Musallam led the country’s delegation to the fifth GCC Laboratory Efficiency Confer-ence that began in Muscat on Tues-day.

The two-day conference, which is being organised by GCC Stand-ardisation Organisation (GCC-SO), discusses the latest developments in the field of laboratory efficiency and challenges faced by the petro-leum and petrochemical sectors. The conference addresses the oil and petrochemical sector as it is of vital importance to the economies of the GCC countries, which are among the

largest producers of oil and related industries, said Oman’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Ali bin Ma-soud al Sunaidi.

The petrochemical industry, for instance, is the second largest in-dustrial sector in the region, with a global market whose total value in the next five years is expected to ex-ceed $1 trillion.

Since the establishment of GCC-SO, its Secretary General Saud bin Nasser al Khusaibi said, the organi-zation has been supporting the im-plementation of a unified economic agreement for the GCC countries, based on the objectives of the GCC Statute aimed at achieving coordi-nation, integration and connection among member states.

President of the International Or-ganisation for Standardisation (ISO) John Walter stressed the importance of the conference, especially in qual-ity control.

The ISO president noted that the objective of the conference was to set discussion manufacturing quality’s impact on the oil and gas sectors as a priority.

The conference started with sev-eral sessions focusing on the integra-tion of the quality infrastructure of the GCC countries in the fields of pe-troleum and petrochemicals, specifi-cations and accreditation as a strong tool in the efficiency testing, in addi-tion to efficiency testing programmes and their role in the sustainability of quality.

Qatar delegation attends laboratary efficiency conference in Muscat

AFPBARCELONA

HUAWEI’S chairman said Tues-day that the United States has “no evidence” that its equipment to build next-generation 5G wireless net-works could be used as a vehicle for Chinese spy operations.

In a keynote address at the mo-bile industry’s biggest annual global event in Barcelona, Guo Ping reit-erated his company’s position that there are no “backdoors” in its tech-nology that could allow Beijing to spy on countries.

“The US security accusation against our 5G has no evidence. Nothing. The irony is that the US Cloud Act allow their entities to ac-cess data across borders,” he said at the Mobile World Congress.

“We don’t do bad things. Let me say this as clear as possible. Huawei has not and we will never use back-doors and we will never allow anyone to do so in our equipment. We take this responsibility very seriously,” he added, speaking in English.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has in recent months ramped up efforts to block Huawei, the leader in 5G, by urging allies to avoid the Chinese powerhouse, claiming that national security inter-ests are at stake.

Washington considers the matter urgent as countries around the world prepare to roll out fifth-generation or 5G networks that will bring near-instantaneous connectivity, vast data capacity and assist futuristic technol-ogies such as self-driving cars.

Network operators seeking to quickly deploy the new wireless net-works are in a bind as Huawei’s 5G equipment is seen as being consider-ably more advanced than that of its rivals such as Sweden’s Ericsson or Finland’s Nokia.

Huawei, China’s most success-

ful global firm, says it is 12 months ahead of its rivals in implementing 5G technology.

“Huawei is leading in 5G glob-ally but we understand innovation is nothing without security,” said Guo, before adding 5G security stand-ards should be decided by technical experts. The head of Vodafone said Monday the United States needed to share any evidence it has about Huawei with European authorities so they can decide whether or not to use the Chinese firm’s technology in their 5G networks.

Huawei says US has ‘no evidence’ to support 5G spying allegations

The Huawei logo is displayed at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on Tuesday. (PAU BARRENA/AFP)

Fed: US economy healthy but sends ‘conflicting signals’

AFPWASHINGTON

DESPITE solid growth and continuing job gains, the US economy will see inflation fall even further below the central bank’s two percent goal, at least for a time, Fed-eral Reserve Chairman Je-rome Powell said Tuesday.

That forecast added weight to Powell’s repetition that the Fed will be “patient” before making any further changes in the benchmark borrowing rate.

“Recent declines in en-ergy prices will likely push headline inflation further below the... longer-run goal of 2 percent for a time,” he said in semi-annual testi-mony before the US Senate Banking Committee.

The US central bank in-creased the key policy inter-est rate four times last year, but rising uncertainty, espe-cially around the US trade confrontation with China, amplified concerns about slowing global growth and fears the Fed was moving too aggressively.

That prompted the Fed to signal clearly for the past several weeks that it would tread carefully and many economists now do not ex-pect any increase this year, while a few say the next move could be a cut if the economy slows further.

Noting the Fed’s pre-ferred annual inflation measure sits at 1.7 percent, Powell said “the extent and timing of any further rate in-creases would depend on in-coming data and the evolv-ing outlook.”

He remained upbeat about the economic outlook, saying Fed officials “gen-erally expected economic activity to expand at a solid pace, albeit somewhat slow-er than in 2018, and the job

market to remain strong.”However, he acknowl-

edged that “over the past few months we have seen some crosscurrents and conflicting signals,” includ-ing slower growth in major economies, especially China and Europe.

- ‘Unresolved’ issues -”And uncertainty is el-evated around several un-resolved government policy issues, including Brexit and ongoing trade negotiations,” he cautioned. “We will care-fully monitor these issues as they evolve.”

The United States and China have hammered each other with punitive tariffs on more than $360 billion in two-way trade, raising prices to producers and con-sumers and undercutting economic growth.

The International Mon-etary Fund cites the trade war between the world’s two largest economies as a “ma-jor risk” to global growth, and cut their growth fore-cast for this year.

But President Donald Trump on Monday said he expected to hold a “signing summit” soon with China’s leader Xi Jinping to resolve the issue and he pushed back the March 1 deadline which would have triggered tariffs to more than double on $200 billion in Chinese exports.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell

Economy & Business

Goldman Sachs says legal losses could be up to $1.9 bn more than reserves

REUTERSNEW YORK

GOLDMAN Sachs Group Inc said losses related to ongoing lawsuits could possibly exceed its reserve for legal matters by up to $1.9 billion.

The amount disclosed in the filing is considered as a separate accounting item from legal reserves, and covers all matters considered “reasonably possible”, the bank said.

In September, the invest-ment bank said its losses could be up to $1.8 billion in excess of its reserve. The bank did not give specific details on why it raised its loss estimate.

Apart from the lawsuits Goldman is already facing, it is being investigated by Ma-laysian authorities and the U.S. Department of Justice for its role as underwriter and ar-

ranger of three bond sales that raised $6.5 billion for 1Malay-sia Development Berhad.

The Malaysian government said in December it was seeking up to $7.5 billion in reparations from Goldman over its dealings with 1MDB.

The bank added $844 mil-lion to its legal and regulatory provisions last year, more than four times what it set aside in 2017, though it did not specify the purpose.

Goldman shares were little changed in early trading.

AFP PARIS

FRENCH auto giant PSA, which produces the Citroen and Peugeot brands, said Tuesday it had boosted its profit outlook after record-ing a “historic year” in 2018 despite the car industry fac-ing “strong headwinds”.

Ranked the second larg-est carmaker in Europe af-ter Germany’s Volkswagen, Paris-based Groupe PSA said its net profit rose 47 percent to a record 2.83 bil-lion euros ($3.21 billion) in 2018, while recurring op-erating income soared 43 percent to 5.69 billion euros, also a new high.

The company said in a statement that it also posted a new record for revenue, which was up 18.9 percent to 74 billion euros, as well as for volume of sales.

PSA chairman Carlos Tavares hailed the “historic results” despite an “ex-tremely chaotic 2018” for the car market.

But at a press confer-ence on Tuesday he warned that the industry faced “even stronger headwinds”.

The car industry is deal-ing with a series of chal-lenges, including a slowing global economy, uncertainty over Brexit and new strict European Union emissions standards.

Because of the positive results, Tavares told Fran-ceinfo radio that French em-ployees who earn less than twice the minimum wage would receive a bonus of

3,810 euros, up 43 percent from last year.

PSA also said sharehold-ers would be offered an in-creased dividend of 78 euro cents per share, a rise of 47 percent.

The group also an-nounced a target operating margin of more than six per-cent by 2021 for its automo-tive activities, and a total of 4.5 percent in 2019-2021.

The six-percent goal had previously only been a target for the Peugeot, Citroen and DS brands but now includes Opel and British-based Vauxhall, both of which PSA acquired from General Mo-tors in 2017.

After the group acquired the two brands, they re-turned to profitability in less than 18 months following 20 years of losses.

Tavares said the fore-casts were valid even in the most pessimistic scenarios -- including the possibil-ity of Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal -- but “that will not prevent us from doing better if we can”.

PSA said that without the Opel contribution, 2018 sales would have been down 12 percent due to the impact of fresh sanctions imposed on Iran by US President Donald Trump as well as a slump in China.

The company sold 3.88 million vehicles last year, up 6.8 percent from 2017.

Eighty percent of those sales were in Europe, com-pared to 65 percent in 2017, due to the popularity of its Peugeot and Citroen SUVs.

French carmaker PSA boosts outlook after ‘historic year’

Chairman of the Managing Board of French carmaker PSA Group Carlos Tavares poses beside the new Peugeot e-208 in Rueil-Malmaison on Tuesday. (AFP)

Iran buys Indian sugar to overcome US sanctionsREUTERS

MUMBAI

INDIAN traders will export raw sugar to Iran for March and April delivery, five trade sources said, the first Indian sugar sales to Tehran in at least five years as Iran strug-gles to secure food supplies under sanctions imposed by the United States.

Under the sanctions, Iran is blocked from the global fi-nancial system, including us-ing US dollars to transact its oil sales. Iran agreed to sell oil to India in exchange for ru-pees but it can only use those rupees to buy Indian goods, mainly items it cannot pro-duce enough of domestically.

Trading houses have con-tracted to export 150,000 tonnes of raw sugar for ship-ments arriving in March and April at $305 to $310 per tonne on a free-on-board ba-sis, the trade sources told Reu-ters this week.

“Oil payments have piled up in UCO Bank. Iran is keen to utilize the payments to buy sugar and other food items,” said one of the sources, a Mumbai-based dealer with a global agricultural trading firm, who asked not to be iden-tified as he was not authorized to speak to media.

Iran’s state buyer, the Gov-ernment Trading Corporation (GTC), purchased the sugar to ensure ample supplies in the coming months, said a second source, a Mumbai-based ex-porter. Iran usually buys sugar from Brazil, the world’s big-gest producer and exporter of the sweetener.

Iran could import as much as 400,000 tonnes of raw sugar from India in 2019 as its local production is not enough to fulfil the demand, he said.

Cargill, Bunge and other global traders have halted food supply deals with Iran because the new US sanctions have disrupted the banking

systems used to settle pay-ments, industry and Iranian government sources said in December.

Iran is paying a premium of as much as $7 per tonne compared to other buyers as traders are anticipating a risk of a delay in payments, said a third source, also based in Mumbai, who did not want to be identified because of

the sensitive nature of the US sanctions.

The exports will help re-duce swelling sugar invento-ries in India, the world’s sec-ond-biggest sugar producer, but could weigh on global pric-es that have risen 8.9 percent so far in 2019 to 13.1 cents per pound as of Monday.

During the last round of US sanctions that ended in 2015, India was one of the few countries that continued to trade with Iran.

India is Iran’s biggest sup-plier of premium basmati rice and Indian rice traders have extensive business relation-ships in the country.

US President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of a multilateral nuclear deal with Iran in May and reimposed sanctions on Iran’s vital oil industry from November.

Since the renewal of the sanctions, India’s soymeal ex-ports to Iran have also surged

to overcome a shortage of ani-mal feed.

A few Indian sugar traders are hesitant to open trade with Iran because of the sanctions and have carried out their sales through existing connec-tions in the rice and soymeal sector, said a New Delhi-based sugar dealer with a global trading firm.

“A few trading houses fear selling sugar to Iran could hurt them in future. They are now helping rice and soymeal trad-ers in arranging sugar ship-ments,” he said.

Iran is expected to import 535,000 tonnes of sugar in the 2018/19 marketing year ending on Sept. 30, accord-ing to the International Sugar Organization (ISO). The coun-try’s demand of 2.54 million tonnes outpaces production of around 2 million tonnes, the ISO said.

Iran bought 720,000 tonnes of the sweetener in 2017/18, the ISO said.

Price pressure The exports will help reduce swelling sugar inventories in India, the world’s second-biggest sugar producer, but could weigh on global prices that have risen 8.9% so far in 2019 to 13.1 cents per pound as of Monday

AFP WASHINGTON

US stock regulators have ac-cused Elon Musk of violating a court-endorsed deal between the electric automaker and the regulatory agency, and this latest apparent slip by the tech wunderkind could cost him dearly.

The action by the powerful Securities and Exchange Com-mission, with which Musk ap-

pears to be doing battle, does not really come as a surprise.

On February 19, he tweet-ed that Tesla would make 500,000 cars in 2019 -- up from the 400,000 that the company had estimated until then, as it grapples with pro-duction problems with the Model 3.

In his latest display of seemingly erratic behavior, Musk corrected himself four hours later.

He said Tesla would in-deed produce about 400,000 cars this year. “Meant to say annualized production rate at end of 2019 probably around 500k,” he wrote.

The SEC said the tweets violated a deal under which his tweets had to be reviewed prior to being published.

That constraint followed Musk’s now famous tweet last year about planning to take the company private, a claim which proved unfounded but rattled markets.

On “February 19, 2019, Musk tweeted, ‘Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make

around 500k in 2019.’ Musk did not seek or receive pre-ap-

proval prior to publishing this tweet, which was inaccurate and disseminated to over 24 million people,” the SEC said in court filing in New York fed-eral court.

“Musk has thus violated the court’s final judgment by engaging in the very conduct that the pre-approval provi-sion of the final judgment was designed to prevent,” it said.

Musk took to Twitter to defend himself later Mon-day, saying the “SEC forgot to read Tesla earnings transcript, which clearly states 350k to 500k.”

“How embarrassing,” he

added.But Musk also spoke of

his “great respect for judges.”His lawyers said in court

filings that Musk did not be-lieve he needed authoriza-tion to tweet details that he understood to have been pre-viously publicly announced. But the SEC does not consid-er that defense to be credible and says Musk never intend-ed to follow the agreement.

This case now goes to a judge and a lot is at stake for Musk because US authorities have little patience with re-peat offenders, especially in cases that affect US financial

markets.Already, Tesla shares were

down 3.6 percent after Mon-day’s stock market close.

The deal with the SEC came about after Musk tweet-ed last year that he planned to take Tesla private and had the financing to do it.

That assertion caused Tesla shares to shoot up but proved false and made in-vestors betting against the company lose millions. Musk is known to loathe so-called short sellers who doubt him, and has been suspected of or-chestrating the whole affair to punish them.

US financial regulatory agency targets Musk over tweet againOn Feb 19, Musk tweeted that Tesla would make 500,000 cars in 2019

REUTERS LONDON

BANK of England Governor Mark Carney said on Tuesday the BoE would probably give more support to the economy if it suffers the shock of a no-deal Brexit, but that the options available to the British central bank would be limited.

The BoE has previously stressed that it would not have an automatic inter-est rate response to Britain leaving the European Union without a transition deal, which is due to happen in just over a month’s time.

But Carney said the chances of the BoE loosen-ing or tightening monetary policy were not equal.

“Given the exceptional circumstance associated with Brexit, I would expect the committee to provide whatever monetary support it can,” he said in an annual report to lawmakers.

“But there are clearly lim-its to its ability to do so.”

The BoE has raised rates only twice since the global fi-nancial crisis, due to a slow recovery and more recent Brexit uncertainty hang-ing over the economy, and its benchmark lending rate stands at 0.75 percent, close to the historic low of 0.25 percent.

Prime Minister Theresa May is still trying to find a deal with the EU that can bridge the divide within her Conservative Party, little more than a month before the scheduled Brexit date of March 29.

Media reports on Tues-day said May was poised to rule out a no-deal Brexit and delay Britain’s depar-ture from the EU, sending sterling to it strongest since May 2017 against the euro and topping $1.32 versus the U.S. dollar.

The BoE said on Tuesday it would increase the fre-

quency of its liquidity opera-tions to weekly from monthly in the weeks around March 29, as it did at the time of the 2016 Brexit referendum in order to keep the financial system working.

“This is a prudent and precautionary step,” the BoE said.

In 2016, after British vot-ers opted to leave the EU, the BoE cut rates and ramped up its bond-buying stimulus program to help the econo-my weather the shock.

Policymakers have said that after a no-deal Brexit they might need to raise rates because the likely sharp fall in the value of the pound, new tariffs, disruption to

trade and less investment by companies would stoke infla-

tion pressures.Carney acknowledged in

his report on Tuesday that the BoE’s tolerance of a sus-tained overshoot of its 2 per-cent inflation target could be breached and some tighten-ing might be required.

Earlier this month, Ger-tjan Vlieghe, one of nine Monetary Policy Commit-tee members, broke ranks and said he thought the BoE would need to keep rates on hold or cut them in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

But two other MPC mem-bers, speaking alongside Car-ney to parliament’s Treas-ury Committee on Tuesday, sounded a note of caution about the risks from infla-

tion after a no-deal Brexit.Shares breathe easy as

Trump delays tariff hikeDeputy Governor Dave

Ramsden said there was lit-tle precedent of a similar shock and that inflation ex-pectations in Britain had risen, unlike in the United States and the euro area.

MPC member Jonathan Haskel said he was hesitant that the BoE would be able to make good predictions about inflation.

Carney himself acknowl-edged that a no-deal Brexit would be inflationary due to new tariffs and trade disrup-tion, and that this would lim-it the BoE’s ability to soften the economic blow.

BoE likely to help economy after no-deal Brexit: Carney

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney in London on Monday. (AFP)

May was poised to rule out a no-deal Brexit and delay Britain’s departure from the EU: Report

File photo of Tesla CEO Elon Musk in California. (AFP)

Key move The BoE said on Tuesday it would increase the frequency of its liquidity operations to weekly from monthly in the weeks around March 29, as it did at the time of the 2016 Brexit referendum in order to keep the financial system working

The bank added $844 mil-lion to its legal and regu-latory provisions last year, more than four times what it set aside in 2017, though it did not specify the purpose

Economy & Business14 Wednesday, February 27, 2019

www.guide.com.qaWednesday, February 27, 2019

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TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKLUSAIL

NASSER Saleh al Attiyah fol-lowed up his stunning victory at the Dakar Rally with a start-to-finish success in the Manateq Qatar Cross-Country Rally, the opening round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, on Tuesday.

The Qatari and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel guided their Toyota Hilux to a win-ning margin of 11min 10sec to confirm a sixth victory for the driver in the eight years that the event has been a round of the FIA series. Attiyah also won the candidate event when it was called the Qatar International Baja in 2011. This win was Baumel’s fifth.

“I am quite happy to win my rally in Qatar seven times. This is nice for the championship. I took it easy this morning with no risks. We did a good gap over the last four days and we just needed to finish without any problems.”

Baumel added: “It’s never easy in Qatar, but one of the big differences is Nasser’s experi-ence and knowledge here. He knows very quickly to choose the direction. It’s a very satisfy-ing win, especially for Nasser, Qatar and the start of our championship.”

Despite pressure on some stages from Yazeed al Rajhi and defending champion Jakub Pr-zygonski, Attiyah was able to manage his pace and preserve the Toyota. Rajhi and Dirk von Zitzewitz began the day 12min 33sec behind their Toy-ota team-mates in second place and fought off a fierce last stage challenge from Przygonski to seal second place on the podi-um by just 46 seconds, despite one puncture.

Przygonski’s defence of his FIA World Cup crown is still on solid ground after a profession-al showing to claim the final podium position with new Ger-man navigator Timo Gottschalk in the first of two X-raid MINI John Cooper Works Rally cars.

Gottschalk said: “Today was a big fight. In fact, the whole rally was a lot of good fights. It was not easy but I enjoyed working with Kuba and we look forward to the next rally. We managed to catch Yazeed. Then

he got lost a bit and we overtake him and he pass us back again. Then he had a puncture, so it was a nice fight. No-one was giving up.”

Vladimir Vasilyev and Kon-stantin Zhiltsov fought a lone battle in their BMW X3 CC and were rewarded with fourth place for a solid drive with few risks and only minor problems en route. “I am not happy with this result,” said Vasilyev, who finished second in 2018. “No problems, no punctures today. It was good.”

Yasir Seaidan and French navigator Laurent Li-chtleuchter became more ac-customed to their new MINI as the event progressed and fin-ished fifth.

Dutchman Bernhard Ten Brinke and Belgian co-driver Tom Colsoul recovered strongly from time lost earlier in the rally to finish sixth overall in the third Overdrive Toyota. “We may not complain about this result after

day two and day three. This is not the result that we hoped for but, okay, six is okay and two times we were P2 on the stages. We are happy for now.”

Monster Energy Can-Am driver Reinaldo Varela began the final day with a massive T3 lead of 2hrs 36min 10sec over Russian Fedor Vorobeyev and the Brazilian cruised through the final kilometres to record

the win and finish seventh in the overall standings. Vo-robeyev reduced the eventual winning margin to 2hrs 33min 12sec on his way to a fine eighth in his South Racing Can-Am.

Italian female driver Came-lia Liparoti was the last compet-itor to finish the event without massive time penalties and the plucky Yamaha driver and her French co-driver Max Delfino

were rewarded with a stunning ninth place and third in T3.

A third successive T3 stage win fell to Qatar’s Adel Abdulla and navigator Marc Serra, but water in the fuel had cost them any chance of fighting for the win earlier in the week.

Italy’s Eugenio Amos and French co-driver Sebastien Delaunay missed one day be-cause of the driver feeling un-

well, but the Ford 2WD Buggy crew bounced back to round off the top 10.

Mohammed al Meer reached the finish to claim T2 honours in his Nissan Patrol and Ibrahim al Muhanna per-severed at the rear of the field with his Mercedes Unimog to claim T4 honours on a truck’s first participation in the event.

The final stage of 263.80km utilised three passage controls at 14.03km, 139.13km and 203.68km. It started east of Dukhan and headed in a north-erly direction up the western Qatar coast to a PC at Musaykah before crossing the northern de-serts to a final checkpoint north of Al Ghariyah, on the north-eastern coast, before passing down the eastern extremities of the country to finish north of Sidriyat Al Kheesah.

National competitors ran as far as PC2 and this stage counted as the sixth and final round of the Qatar Manateq

National Baja Championship.Adel Abdulla and Spanish

co-driver Marc Serra claimed outright victory in a Can-Am Maverick X3 with a time of 1hr 35min 26sec. Mohammed al Attiyah and Sergio Lafuente were second and Ahmed al Kuwari and Manuel Lecchese rounded off the top three.

Numerous additional time penalties were handed to com-petitors on Monday evening for missing different sections of the route. The top nine remained unchanged, but the likes of Mo-hammed al Meer and Khalid al Mohannadi were declared OTL on leg four and additional penalties were also imposed on Ibrahim al Muhanna and Mo-hammed al Attiyah.

Only nine of the original 22 FIA entrants were run-ning without at least 100 hours of penalties.

Mohammed al Harqan re-tired from the T2 battle at the end of leg four.

Nasser Saleh al Attiyah and his French co-driver Matthieu Baumel in action during the sixth Special Stage of Manateq Qatar Cross-Country Rally on Tuesday.

IT’S ATTIYAH ALL THE WAY

Rajhi holds off fierce Przygonski challenge to claim second place; Reinaldo Varela claims T3 triumph in Qatar; National Baja win for Adel Abdulla

The podium finishers of Manateq Qatar Cross-Country Rally, the opening round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, at The Pearl-Qatar on Tuesday evening.

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al Attiyah and his French co-driver Matthieu Baumel celebrate with QMMF President Abdulrahman al Mannai after the final stage at Lusail on Tuesday.

FINAL POSITIONS

1. Nasser Saleh al Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 13hrs 18min 44sec2. Yazeed al Rajhi (SAU)/Dirk von Zitzewitz (DEU) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 13hrs 29min 54sec3. Vladimir Vasilyev (RUS)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) BMW X3 CC 14hrs 14min 32sec4. Yasir Seaidan (SAU)/Laurent Lichtleuchter (FRA) MINI John Cooper Works Rally 14hrs 52min 42sec5. Bernhard Ten Brinke (NLD)/Tom Colsoul (BEL) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 16hrs 16min 18sec6. Reinaldo Varela (BRA)/Gustavo Gugelmin (BRA) Can-Am Maverick T3 19hrs 14min 08sec7. Fedor Vorobeyev (RUS)/Kirill Shubin (RUS) Can-Am Maverick X3 T3 21hrs 47min 20sec8. Camelia Liparoti (ITA)/Max Delfino (FRA) Yamaha YZX 1000 R T3 23hrs 05min 26sec9. Eugenio Amos (ITA)/Sebastien Delaunay (FRA) Ford 2WD Buggy 111hrs 09min 38sec10. Miroslav Zapletal (CZE)/Marek Sykora (SVK) Ford F150 Evo 111hrs 54min 56sec2019 Qatar Manateq Baja – Round 3 (unofficial @ 13.00hrs)

1. Adel Abdulla (QAT)/Marc Serra (ESP) Can-Am Maverick T3 1hr 35min 36sec2. Mohammed al Attiyah (QAT)/Sergio Lafuente (URY) Can-Am Maverick T3 1hr 40min 25sec3. Ahmed al Kuwari (QAT)/Manuel Lucchese (ITA) Can-Am Maverick X3 1hr 50min 30sec4. Khalid al Mohannadi (QAT)/Loic Minaudier (FRA) Polaris RZR 1000 T3 1hr 51min 41sec

2019 Manateq Qatar Cross-Country Rally

I am quite happy to win my rally in Qatar. This is nice for the championship. I took it easy this morning with no risks. We did a good gap over the last four days and we just needed to finish without any problems.Nasser Saleh al Attiyah

Qatar’s ace rallyist storms to his sixth victory in Manateq Qatar

Cross-Country Rally

Qatar’s Adel Abdulla and Spain’s Marc Serra on way to winning the Qatar Manateq Baja with 3rd successive T3 stage triumph on Tuesday.

Al Rayyan ready for Shahania test: BulentPAGE 18

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2019

QNB STARS LEAGUE

AL RAYYAN VS AL SHAHANIA

Real’s Sergio Ramos charged by UEFA for receiving a yellow card on purpose’ PAGE 18

ent

Nishikori comes through ‘tricky’ first roundAFPDUBAI

TOP seed Kei Nishikori dis-patched the “tricky” Benoit Paire 6-4, 6-3 on his debut at the Dubai Championships on Tuesday, while Marin Cilic was knocked out by Gael Monfils.

Asia’s top player, the world number six, will meet Hubert Hurkacz in the sec-ond round at the Aviation Club. The Pole beat French qualifier Corentin Moutet 6-3, 7-5.

Cilic became the highest seed to exit so far as he went down to Gael Monfils, with the Frenchman storming through a decider to win 6-3, 4-6, 6-0.

Nishikori has shaken up his schedule this season and is playing Dubai for the first time after limiting himself in the past to North American venues including the defunct Memphis event and Delray Beach at this time of year.

Victory over the unpredict-able Paire took 81 minutes.

“It’s never easy play-ing Benoit, of course. Great serve, great backhand. Tricky player. Good dropshot, good touch,” said Nishikori.

“The key to the first set was the (eight-minute) long (third) game.

“After I got that one, I was more confident -- but if he broke back, anything can happen. It was good match, it’s never easy with this wind. I think played good enough tennis today.”

Nishikori saved eight break points in the opening set to blunt the Frenchman’s attack, with two breaks in the second

set enough to ensure victory.The top seed stands 12-2 for

the season after a title in Bris-bane, reaching the Australian Open quarter-finals and the semis this month in Rotterdam.

Third seed Cilic, the 2014 US Open winner, has made a slow start this season and is playing in just his second event of 2019 after a knee injury.

Monfils won the Rotterdam title this month and arrived in the emirate in full flow.

“I thought I got a bit un-lucky in the draw, Marin is such a tough first round,” Monfils said.

“But I was ready, I like the

way I competed and played, especially how I came back after losing the second set.

“It’s a daily job for me and my team to stay focused, when you are concentrating so much on your tennis, it’s natural to concentrate on your job.”

Monfils will play Mar-cos Baghdatis in the second round. The Cypriot beat Egyptian Mohamed Safwat 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Lithuanian qualifier Ri-cardas Berankis knocked out another seed after Monday’s exits of Karen Khachanov and Milos Raonic, beating Rus-sian eighth seed Daniil Med-vedev 6-3, 6-3.

Two-time finalist Tomas Berdych escaped with a win over Ilya Ivashka of Belarus 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4).

American Denis Kudla eliminated Matteo Berrettini of Italy 2-6, 7-5, 7-5, while Egor Gerasimov of Belarus beat Dutchman Robin Haase 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/5).

VINAY NAYUDUDOHA

THE 2019 Longines Global Champions Tour (LGCT) and the Global Champions League (GCL) series was officially launched at one of the world’s finest equestrian venues – Al Shaqab at a pre-season press conference on Tuesday.

Al Shaqab, which has been a preferred destination for LGCT finale the last six years, this time is the launchpad for the 14th season of LGCT and 4th year of GCL, with over 50 riders from 17 different coun-tries heading to Qatar’s capital to take part in this weekend’s competition to be held from February 28th to March 2.

Welcoming the world’s best horses and riders to Doha, Omar al Mannai, the Event Director and Commer-cial Manager of Al Shaqab said, “This event is in line with Qatar National Vision 2030 – as the sporting hub. With the Federations and infrastruc-ture available in Qatar we have to use them in the best way possible in order to show our capability of hosting in-ternational events and prove the big part that Qatar plays (in hosting global sporting events). The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be the (pinnacle) of this and will contribute to (the vision of) Qatar as a sporting destination.”

He also termed the LGCT showjumping series as “one of the best events in the world.”

Qatar’s Olympic and LGCT and GCL rider Sheikh Ali bin Khalid al Thani, LGCT Found-er and GCL Co-Founder Jan Tops, LGCT Sporting Direc-tor Marco Denese and Fahad al Hajri, Media and Broadcast Manager along with Al Mannai addressed the media.

Tops spoke of the huge an-ticipation among fans around the world for the kick off event of the season. “I am very happy to be in Doha – we call this our second home. We have been here for many years and have a great relationship with Al Shaqab and the Qatar Founda-tion. Everyone is watching the start of the season to see which horse and rider combinations are on form (in the LGCT and GCL Championship). The fo-cus (from around the world) is on Doha and this amazing facility,” he said.

Al Mannai also praised Sheikh Ali for inspiring the next generation of talent in Qatar. “Sheikh Ali is a role model for all the young peo-

ple who are taking part in this sport and we wish him all the success for this edition of the LGCT. We have many plans that contribute to forming and training the young riders (of the future),” he said.

As the champions of showjumping gather at Al

Shaqab for the first event of the 2019 season, there was praise for the impact the circuit has on motivating young riders and Qatar’s national riders.

Competing for the home city team in GCL, the Doha Falcons’ Sheikh Ali highlighted the importance of the cham-

pionship and the calibre of competition. “LGCT is world famous – it includes the best riders in the world and partici-pating in this event allows us to continue to improve. We can-not elevate our level if we don’t compete against the best, so it is very important for our team

to do this. As a Qatari team we are interested in the GCL as it is not possible to participate in many team competitions and to have team spirit is very im-portant for us.”

However the tall and ath-letic rider Sheikh Ali admit-ted that the GCL team line ups

look particularly formidable this season. “We will work hard to be in the top 5 – we will do our best but the teams are strong so our objective is to be the best we can,” he said.

Sport Director Marco Da-nese spoke of the superb fa-cilities Al Shaqab provides the top international horses and riders: “This is one of the best facilities in the world - every year we improve a little bit the conditions; not only the beau-tiful stadium but behind the scenes everything is really per-fect for the horses and riders. All the facilities for the horses are amazing – this is really im-portant because it means the best horses and riders in the world are happy to be here and are able to enjoy the high level of sport. We can guarantee the best conditions in the sport.”

Al Shaqab, a member of

Qatar Foundation, runs spe-cial programmes to encour-age youngsters to take up riding and train to become future athletes, and with the GCL team series providing a global platform for U25 com-petitors to train and gain ex-perience on.

To add to this, a youth camp will run alongside LGCT Doha, with 8-18 year old ath-letes able to meet and watch many of their international heroes. A total of 21 riders (7 from Qatar and 14 from Eu-rope – Belgim, France, Ger-many, Turkey and France) will hone their skills at the camp.

Mohammed S al Suwaidi, Equine Education Manager, said, “The idea was to seize the opportunity of this event, we are the first institution to put this together and we can focus on riders who have talent.

“We have some of the best facilities in the world – the horses, riders and staff. We aim at mixing culture and sport and our focus is on sta-bility in producing talents,” added Suwaidi.

Also adding to the big ac-tion will be the eighth leg of Hathab – the National eques-trian series – alongside LGCT.

The showjumping action will begin at 2.45pm on Thurs-day (Feb 28) with the first round of GCL Doha kicking off at 17:45 local time.

Friday will see two top level competitions, before the GCL Doha winners are revealed on Saturday (March 2).

The climax of the weekend, the LGCT Grand Prix of Doha will kick off at 5.45pm with rid-ers not only vying for the win but also the first golden ticket to the GC Playoffs and the LGCT Super Grand Prix.

Sheikh Ali bin Khalid al Thani, Qatar’s Olympic and LGCT and GCL rider, Omar al Mannai, Event Director and Commercial Manager of Al Shaqab, LGCT Founder and GCL Co-Founder Jan Tops, LGCT Sporting Director Marco Denese and Fahad al Hajri, Media and Broadcast Manager at the press conference at Al Shaqab on Tuesday.


ASPIRE Academy student-athletes representing the State of Qatar struck gold at the Arab Fencing Championship, which took place between February 8 to 10 in Kuwait.

Qatari fencers triumphed in the cadet (U17) team competi-tion, won silver in the junior (U20) team category and took home a number of medals for individual achievements.

In the team competition, Qatar’s U17 team - featuring Hussain al Mutawa, Khaled Aref Hussein, Abdallah Ismail Khalifa and Faisal al Sowaidi - won gold. The same team entered the U20 competition, where strong performances saw them reach the final and win the silver medal. In both finals, the Qatari fencing stars faced teams from the host country, Kuwait.

In the individual competi-tions, Khaled Aref Hussein won silver in the U20 category and bronze in the U17. Meanwhile, Abdallah Ismail Khalifa won silver in the U17 and bronze in the U20, while Hussain al Mu-tawa took the bronze medal in the U17 competition.

The impressive displays from Qatar’s fencers are a re-sult of a strategic programme that Aspire Academy has estab-lished with Qatar Weightlifting and Fencing Federation. The initiative will develop young fencers by providing them with quality training and top compe-

tition opportunities on the Eu-ropean Circuit, as well as access to the worlds’ top coaches and Federations.

The initiative is designed to establish a world-class pro-gramme to develop athletes and prepare them for success-ful participation in Asian and international competitions, including the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The head coach of Qatar’s fencing team, Massimo Omeri, said: “We won against two of the strongest teams in fenc-ing; Kuwait and Egypt, which goes to show what we are ca-pable of as a team. We have

competed with all of the Arab countries, as well as in the Eu-ropean training circuit where we achieved great results.”

“Our future plans revolve around maintaining our mo-mentum, keeping up our per-formance for these types of competitions. To develop the fencers, we must engage them in a wide variety of competi-tions. Moreover, we have ex-cellent relationships with the various federations, including that of Italy, and we are look-ing to collaborate with other European organisations. An-other focus point is the U-17’s development; we are proud of

our players and our scholarship athlete Ali Turki who is ranked number 50 in the world and Khaled Aref is ranked within the top 100.

“The team that consists of Khaled Aref, Ismail Abdullah, Hussein al Motawea and Faisal al Suwaidi, is considered one of the best fencing teams found within the Arab region.”

The coach also empha-sised on the strong relation-ship between the federation and Aspire.

“We are looking to expand our fencing team and are re-cruiting athletes based on strin-gent criteria,” Omeri added.

Aspire Academy’s student-athletes win gold at Arab Fencing Championship

Longines Global Champions Tour & GCL 2019 launched at Al Shaqab

A youth camp will run alongside LGCT Doha, with 8-18 year old athletes able to meet and watch many of their international heroes. A total of 21 riders (7 from Qatar and 14 from Europe – Belgim, France, Germany, Turkey and France) will hone their skills at the camp.

This event is in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030. With federations and infrastructure available in Qatar we aim to use them in the best way possible in order to show our capability of hosting international events. The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be the pinnacle of this. LGCT is one of the best events in the world (in showjumping).Omar al Mannai, Event Director, Al Shaqab

LGCT is world famous – it includes the best riders in the world and participating in this event allows us to continue to improve. We cannot elevate our level if we don’t compete against the best.Sheikh Ali bin Khalid al Thani

The fencing athletes on the podium in Kuwait.

Japan’s Kei Nishikori in action against Benoit Paire.


It’s never easy playing Benoit, of course. Great serve, great backhand. Tricky player. Good dropshot, good touch.Kei Nishikori

Sports


AL Rayyan coach Bulent Uy-gun says that after their Cla-sico defeat in the QNB Stars League Al Rayyan need to pick all 3 points against Al Shaha-nia on Wednesday.

The Week 18 fixture will be played at the Grand Hamad Stadium from 8.10pm.

Both Al Rayyan and Al Sha-hania lost in the last round, to Al Sadd and Al Arabi respec-tively, so they will be keen to win. More so for Al Rayyan, who are fourth with 30 points (eight wins, six draws and three defeats), as Al Ahli are breathing down their neck with one point less.

So Al Rayyan will not want any slip-up in their pursuit of a top-four finish. Their goal dif-ference is +6 (25 goals for and 19 against).

“We want to beat Al Shaha-nia, so we can leave for Saudi Arabia with a good frame of mind to play Al Ittihad in our AFC Champions League open-er. I have confidence in our players and they will do what it takes for us to stay in the top four,” Bulent said.

Al Rayyan have their eyes in the AFC Champions League, where they will face Al Ittihad. But Bulent said the focus is in the league before they focus on their continental duty.

“Right now, our full focus is on the Al Shahania game. Then we will think about the AFC Champions League.

Al Shahania coach Jose Murcia says his players will make up for the loss in their

previous league game when they face Al Rayyan.

“There is no doubt that this game against Al Rayyan is tough, but we will play with all our strength and enthusiasm. We consider all matches as fi-nals,” Murcia said.

“We are going into this game after suffering a loss at the hands of Al Arabi. So we need to make up for the lost points.

“Our players are enthusi-astic and motivated to stay in the First Division. I have confi-dence in the team and its ability to stay in the top flight. We do not think much about the rest of the matches. My focus now is on Al Rayyan and we have to be at the top of our form to win this match,” he added.

He continued: “We always

seek to learn from defeats. In fact, we did well in the second half against Al Arabi. We will build on that aspect against Al Rayyan.

“Al Rayyan are a strong side in Qatar football with outstand-ing players in their ranks. I ex-pect their revival following their loss to Al Sadd.”

Al Rayyan mainly depend on Venezuelan striker Gelmin Rivas, Brazilian forward Lucca Borges and Khalfan Ibrahim besides the return of Tabata.

However, The Lions will sorely miss Sebastian Soria, who was red-carded during their Qatar Clasico loss to Al Sadd.

On the other hand, Lu-ciano Vazquez, Yousef Hani and Kessey Amanguoa lead the charge of Al Shahania,

who occupy the ninth position with 17 points. Their goal dif-ference is -15 (15 goals for and 30 against).

Will Al Kharaitiyat upset Al Gharafa one more time? That is the question doing the rounds when they face off in Week 18 of the QNB Stars League on Wednesday, 27th February. The kick-off is at 18:00 at the Al Khor Stadium.

The match is sure to be ex-citing as Al Kharaitiyat, even though they are at the bot-tom of the standings with six points from just two victories, will throw everything into it in search of points.

Al Kharaitiyat defeated Umm Salal 1-0 last week. The Thunders are desperate for more points at this stage if they are to stay away from the dan-

ger of getting relegated.Al Gharafa are also on a

high after holding reigning champions Al Duhail to a goal-less draw in the last round. The Cheetahs thus compensated for their loss to Umm Salal in Week 16.

Al Gharafa are present-ly eighth in the QNB Stars League standings with 19 points (five wins, four draws and eight defeats). Their goal difference is -2 (28 goals for and 30 against).

They rely mainly on Ira-nian striker Mehdi Taremi, Ahmed Alaaeldin, Vladimir Weiss, Diogo Amado and Ab-dulaziz Hatem.

Al Kharaitiyat’s goal differ-ence is -37 (12 goals for and 49 against).

Interestingly, Al Kharaiti-yat had defeated Al Gharafa when they clashed against each other in the first leg this season.

Al Kharaitiyat count on players such as Romanian Val-entin Lazar and Mohammed Razaq, while Moroccan Anwar Deba may take the field after recovering from an injury.

We need to make up for loss to Al Arabi: Coach Murcia; Al Gharafa face bottom-club Kharaitiyat

Al Rayyan coach Bulent Uygun with player Mohamed Bader Sayyar during a press conference ahead of their Week 18 clash at Al Gharafa stadium on Tuesday.

Al Rayyan ready forShahania test: Bulent

Ramos charged by UEFA with drawing deliberate booking

AFPPARIS

REAL Madrid centre-back Sergio Ramos was charged by UEFA on Tuesday for “receiv-ing a yellow card on purpose” during their Champions League last-16 tie with Ajax.

The Spaniard was booked for a tackle on Kasper Dolberg in Real’s 2-1 first-leg victory in Amsterdam on February 13, two minutes after Marco Asen-sio scored the winning goal.

Three yellow cards bring a one-match suspension but Ramos may have seen sitting out the second match against Ajax as preferable to potentially missing a match later in the competition.

UEFA said that Ramos’ case would be dealt with on Thurs-

day.European football’s govern-

ing body set a precedent last season when Real full-back Dani Carvajal was suspended for two games after initially earning a booking in the group stage.

The 32-year-old Ramos said the day after the match that he did not “force the card”.

But straight after the game, he had appeared to admit that he got himself booked on pur-pose.

“The truth is that given the result I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t something I had in mind,” Ramos had said.

Real resume their bid for a fourth consecutive Champions League title in the return leg against Ajax at the Santiago Bernabeu on March 5.

QNB STARS LEAGUE

Fixtures27/02/19 Al Kharitiyath : Al Gharafa Al Shahaniya : Al Rayyan 28/02/19 Al Duhail : Al Ahli Al Sadd : Qatar SC 01/03/19 Al Sailiya : Al Arabi Al Khor : Umm Salal

Double Clasico in a week not normal: ValverdeAFP

MADRID

GARETH Bale dominated the build-up to the first of two Cla-sicos in four days but Santiago Solari and Ernesto Valverde each tried to instil calm ahead of an extraordinary week for Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The two rivals take a 1-1 draw into the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final on Wednesday, and will then reconvene on Saturday in La Liga, when Madrid hope to cut their deficit at the top from nine points to six.

“It is not normal to play two games of this magnitude in the same week,” said Barce-lona coach Valverde on Tues-day. “But it can happen. Our intention is to separate them and focus on the one in front of us. The one on Saturday is still far away.”

“We have to just keep do-ing what we have been doing,” said Real boss Solari.

“The first leg was good for us, hopefully it can be again tomorrow.”

But a Clasico always car-

ries something extra, still more a double-header, that will likely shape the mood of both clubs heading into the season’s final straight.

Bale’s bolshy reaction to scoring against Levante last weekend has been the major topic of discussion, with So-lari dodging seven questions on the Welshman during his press conference on Tuesday.

He refused to criticise, or defend, Bale’s behaviour but has started him only twice in the eight matches since the 29-year-old returned from a calf injury in January.

“Look, I understand eve-ryone wants to find a focus and you put the focus where it seems important,” Solari said.

“But our focus is only on what we think is important. It is on the game, to win tomor-row, to be united. Where oth-ers focus is up to them.” Asked if he had spoken to Bale about the incident against Levante, Solari said: “There are some things that stay in the dress-ing room and that remain private.” Bale was left out of the starting line-up at the

City of Valencia Stadium and after coming on to convert a second-half penalty, remained stony-faced while brushing off attempts from team-mates to congratulate him.

“He won us the game,” said Solari after the 2-1 win. “The players can celebrate goals how they want, as long as they score.” - Bale controversy -It was the second time this month that Bale’s response to

a goal has caused controversy.After scoring in a 3-1 win

over Atletico Madrid two weeks ago, Bale seemed to make an obscene gesture to-wards the Atletico fans, which could still see him banned for both upcoming games against Barca.

Vinicius Junior has con-tributed to Bale’s problems, his blistering form on the left of Madrid’s front three mak-

ing him all-but indispensable from Solari’s line-up.

“He has arrived with and demonstrated his humility and his talent,” Solari said. “The rest of the team respects him and has always tried to help him. He brings talent, effort, humility and a desire to learn.” It was Vinicius’ cross that led to Lucas Vazquez’s goal in the first leg. “He is unpredictable,” said Valverde. “He brings gives them speed and has a lot of self-confidence. He is hav-ing a great season.” Back to his best for Barca, meanwhile, is Lionel Messi, who may be rest-ed for the cup semi-final after scoring a stunning hat-trick, the 50th of his career, against Sevilla on Sunday.

Asked if Madrid’s players fear Messi this week, Solari said: “For those that compete at this level, this word does not exist in football.” Barca midfielder Arthur Melo is back in training but more likely to return on Saturday, while Val-verde said he will make a late decision on goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen, who was injured for the first leg.

Barcelona’s Coach Ernesto Valverde during their UEFA Champions League match against Lyon recently. (AFP)

AFPLONDON

JOSE Mourinho wants his next club to be one where “internal empathy” exists and not “inter-nal conflict” he told the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday.

The 56-year-old Portu-guese -- sacked by Manchester United on December 18 after a series of bust-ups with senior players and poor results -- said the club where he had felt this the most was Serie A side Inter Milan.

He guided them to a Cham-pions League, two league titles and an Italian Cup in two sea-sons there from 2008-10.

Mourinho said money is not the priority admitting since he left United he had turned down a lucrative offer from an unnamed club because “I want high-level football and ambi-tions at the highest level”.

However, he says that comes second on his list of in-gredients for taking a job.

“I don’t want an internal conflict,” said Mourinho, who has down the years earned a reputation for confronting sen-ior players at clubs he has man-aged.

“I want internal empa-thy. And then your conflict is on Sunday on the pitch when you play against somebody who wants to steal your three points. “That’s the moment of the conflict.”

Mourinho, who enjoyed a good first season with United landing the Europa League and League Cup before things turned sour winning nothing last year, says structural empa-thy is obligatory for him.

“I don’t know if it is a bad translation from Portuguese to English but focus on these two words, ‘structure’ and ‘empa-thy’,” said Mourinho.

“I want to work with struc-tural empathy. A club is a structure, a complex structure where the manager is an im-portant part of that structure but he is not the structure.

“I want to work with peo-

ple that I love.“People I want to work

with, that I am happy to work with, with whom I share the same ideas.

“It was what I had at Inter. There are clubs like this. Nor-mally, that is a very important part of a successful club.”

Mourinho, who says he does not want to work where there is “permanent contra-diction (conflict)”, said he is a

natural winner but concedes going 18 months without a trophy has taught him things.

“People used to say that you learn more with defeat,” he said.

“Maybe there is some truth in it. I feel my natural habitat is winning.

“This is the first time when I didn’t win any trophy for 18 months.

“Some guys don’t win any trophies for 18 years. I didn’t win any trophy for 18 months.”

Mourinho, who stunned many when he paid a warm tribute to long-time bitter rival Arsene Wenger at an awards ceremony last week, said aside from some football punditry he has spent the time since being sacked by United to pre-pare for his next job.

“Now I have time for thinking, reflection, trying to understand everything and trying to be more ready for the next one that is coming,” said Mourinho.

“I know it is coming. It hasn’t come yet because what has come along, I didn’t want.”

Lack of ambition from unnamed club made Jose turn down offer

Empathy pivotal to Mourinho’s next destination

Jose in search of true love“I want to work with people that I love. People I want to work with, that I am happy to work with, with whom I share the same ideas. It was what I had at Inter. There are clubs like this. Normally, that is a very important part of a succesful club.”

Former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho hopeful of a new club job with ‘structure and empathy’.

Al Shahania coach Jose Murcia with a player during the team’s press conference on Tuesday.

Sergio Ramos receives a yellow card during their UEFA Champions League match in Amsterdam recently.

Sports18 Wednesday, February 27, 2019

AGENCIESPARIS

THE international athletics federation (IAAF) on Tues-day announced a first ever world ranking system for competitors.

The IAAF said in a state-ment the system is “designed to provide a more effective way of identifying the top athletes in each discipline by reward-ing consistency and competi-tion among the world’s best.”

It explained that athletes’ “rankings will be based upon

the points they score, deter-mined by their performance and place, and the importance of the competition.”

IAAF president Sebastian Coe said it would also make the sport easier to follow.

“For the first time in the sport’s history, athletes, me-dia and fans will have a clear understanding of the hier-archy of competitions from national through to area and up to global events, allowing them to follow a logical sea-son-long path to the pinnacle of athletics’ top two competi-

tions,” Coe said.The IAAF said the world

rankings will not be used for qualification for the IAAF World Athletics Champion-ships Doha 2019, but today’s launch will enable athletes, member federations and key stakeholders to see dur-ing the 2019 season how the world rankings system works in practice.

“The IAAF world rankings will drive and shape the global competition system including entry into future major cham-pionships and enable every-

one in and interested in our sport to know who is No.1 in the world,” he said.

Following a 10-month period of consultation with stakeholders from across the athletics family, the final rankings system balances the wide-ranging feedback and competing needs of those within the sport.

The world rankings will also bring clarity to the compe-tition structure from national through to global events, in-centivising the top athletes to support the best competitions.

IAAF launches its first ever world ranking system

Hosts M Pallonji emerge champs with five-wicket win in finalTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

HOSTS M Pallonji posted a five-wicket victory to win the fifth M Pallonji Cricket Tour-nament final, beating CCRC Warriors in a tight finish at the West Bay Ground.

CCRC Warriors, who had also the 2018 final to Asian Cricket Club, got 131 before getting all out in 19.4 overs. Rajesh and Rauf set up the vic-tory in the 19th over.

M.Pallonji have been spon-soring the Veterans’ Cricket League for the fifth time. Chi-dananda Nayak, Regional Gen-eral Manager of M.Pallonji, was the chief guest, while Sharad Reddy, Contracts Manager at M Pallonji, was the guest of honour at the prize distribution ceremony.

The conditions were ex-cellent but CCRC Warriors,

after electing to bat first, could not exploit the ele-ments and managed only 61 for three in the first 10 overs. In a bid to step up the run rate, they began to lose their players and eventually were shot out in the last over.

Asadullah led the scoring for CCRC Warriors with 24 in 15 deliveries, including two fours. Mazhar Abbas and Mu-zammil chipped in with 16 runs each. Naveed and Alban shared six wickets, while Sanath, Sid-diq, Praveen and Sandesh picked one each.

M Pallonji also lost five players in the first 10 overs for 71. But Rajesh and Rauf launched a counter-attack and M Pallonji needed only eight runs in the last four overs. A twist raised hopes for CCRC Warriors but M Pal-lonji scampered through to win by five wickets with eight

balls to spare. Rajesh smashed 26 runs

off 18 balls with one six and two boundaries. Rauf also collected 26 runs in 15 balls, smashing two sixes and as many fourts. Firdous then dis-missed Rauf, giving away only three runs in the 17th over. As-addulah made the match more exciting as he conceded only a single run in the next over. Muzammil waited patiently for the first three balls in the 19th over and then edged in-telligently to the rope to secure the win for his team.

Mazhar Abbas bagged three wickets. Moshin, Firdous and Fawu Khan split three scalps.

SPECIAL AWARDS:Man of the final: Rauf (M Pallonji)Best batsman: Muzammil (CCRC Warriors)Best bowler: Alban (M Pallonji)Best all-rounder: Praveen (M Pallonji)Best wicket-keeper: Mazhar (CCRC Warriors)

Chidananda Nayak, Regional General Manager of M.Pallonji, Sharad Reddy, Contracts Manager of M Pallonji, and Qatar veteran cricket officials with skippers of champions M Pallonji and runners-up CCRC Warriors after the prize distribution ceremony at the West Bay ground.


The world rankings will not be used for qualification for the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019, but will enable athletes, member federations and key stakeholders to see during the 2019 season how the world rankings system works in practice.


QATAR was elected to the European Conference of Arab Horse Organisations (ECAHO) Executive Commit-tee during the Annual Gen-eral Meeting held in Rome on Sunday. Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club (QREC) was represented in the meeting by Hassan al Mannai, QREC Head of Show Section, and Saad al Kubaisi, QREC Deputy Head of Show Section.

The representative of QREC, Hassan al Mannai, scored 21 votes, which was the second highest number of votes obtained by a candidate, securing him a place among the nine members and the chairman of the ECAHO Ex-ecutive Committee.

Such success in the elec-tions highlights the standing of Qatar’s equestrian sport worldwide and QREC’s com-mitment to realise its vision of promoting Qatar as a world hub for the equestrian sport. It is worth mentioning that earlier, the Qatar Internation-al Purebred Arabian Horse

Show was promoted to a title show, which is the highest lev-el of horse show events in the world, putting the Qatar In-ternational Purebred Arabian Horse Show on equal footing with the World Arabian Horse Championship held in Paris, France annually as the top event of its kind worldwide. The election to the member-ship of the ECAHO Execu-tive Committee also coincides with massive success of the HH The Amir’s Sword Festi-val, which concluded at QREC on Saturday.

Commenting on this new

achievement for Qatar’s eques-trian sport, QREC CEO Nasser bin Sherida al Kaabi said: “The election of Qatar to the mem-bership of the ECAHO Execu-tive Committee is a natural outcome of the progress of our horse shows, especially as ECAHO monitors all shows worldwide and is aware of the level of each country whether in terms of organisation or quality of horses. I’d like to thank Issa bin Mohammed al Mohannadi, QREC Chair-man, for his valuable support and commitment to develop all QREC-organised activities

and events and to ensure op-timum representation of Qatar and QREC overseas. I would also thank Hassan al Mannai, QREC Head of Horse Show Section, for his efforts during the ECAHO Annual General Meeting. No doubt, the elec-tion of Qatar to the member-ship of the ECAHO Executive Committee will be in favour of the Arabian horse shows to be held in Qatar in future,” he added.

Mannai was elated with the success in the elections. “I’m very happy that Qatar was elected a member of the

ECAHO Executive Committee. I had the honour to be the rep-resentative of Qatar in the An-nual General Meeting. In fact, I felt the strong appreciation by most of the delegates of the 28 countries represented in the meeting of Qatar’s commit-ment to Arabian horse shows.

“Now, Qatar will have an influential representation in the ECAHO Executive Com-mittee by working towards progressing such shows worldwide and increasing the number of top-level ones as well as abandon those, which aren’t very useful.”

“The Executive Commit-tee has several roles both in terms of shows and approval of international judges. In the near future, there will several meetings to enhance its role and achieve its tasks. Qatar does deserve to be a member of the Executive Committee given the firm commitment to the equestrian sport in gen-eral and Arabian horse shows in particular. I’d like to thank the QREC management for their support during the meet-ing and the elections”, added Mannai.

Qatar elected to ECAHO Executive Committee Jayasuriya banned for two years: ICC

AFPDUBAI

SRI Lankan cricket legend Sanath Jayasuriya has been banned from all cricket for two years after admitting two breaches of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti-Corruption Code announced on Tuesday.

The 49-year-old - regarded as one of the greatest One-Day International batsmen of all time and was pivotal in win-ning the 1996 World Cup - ac-cepted the punishment.

“This conviction under the Code demonstrates the impor-tance of participants in cricket cooperating with investiga-tions,” said Alex Marshall, ICC General Manager of the Anti-Corruption Unit in a statement.

“Compelling participants to cooperate under the Code is a vital weapon in our efforts to rid our sport of corruptors. These rules are essential to maintain the integrity of our sport.”

Jayasuriya was charged in October after failing to provide

his mobile phones to the ACU.He was also accused of

obstructing or delaying any investigation into corruption in the game. Jayasuriya in a statement said he had pleaded guilty to the charges expecting a mitigated punishment.

“Consequent to corre-spondence between the ICC ACU officials and my lawyers we agreed to a sanction of a period of ineligibility of two years, which period is to take effect from the 15th of October 2018,” Jayasuriya said.

Jayasuriya played 110 Tests, 445 one-day interna-tionals and 31 Twenty20s for Sri Lanka and was also a for-mer captain during his illustri-ous career between 1989-2011.

He is also a former mem-ber of Sri Lanka’s parliament and a former deputy minister.

Last month, the ICC urged Sri Lanka’s scandal-ridden sporting community to come forward with information about corruption and issued a 15-day deadline that expired in mid-February.

QREC Chairman Issa bin Mohammed al Mohannadi

QREC CEO Nasser bin Sherida al Kaabi

QREC Head of Horse Show Section Hassan al Mannai

Umpire Shivani makes Qatar proud again

RAAJIV TRIPATHIDOHA

INDIAN female umpire Shivani Mishra col-lected another first for the Asian Cricket Council and the Qatar Cricket Association as she was selected for the international panel of the ICC development umpires.

The ICC has just released a list. Though there are seven women who have been en-listed, Mishra is the only female from Asia.

Last year also, she got a rare chance to of-ficiate in the ICC T20 World Cup 2020 Aus-tralia Men’s Asia Qualifiers in Kuwait. Early this year, she was also among the umpires for the ACC Western Region T20 – Men’s 5-Na-tion Championship in Oman.

A sports teacher in the Pearl School in Doha, Mishra is very excited with her inclusion

by the ICC and says its the reward by the ICC for her passion and dedication to the umpiring.

“I’m extremely thrilled to know about it. I want to thank sincerely both the ICC and the ACC for this honour. The ICC Development Umpires Panel is a pathway for umpires from Associate and Affialite nations to move up.

“In this panel, there are seven women members but I am especially proud to be the first from Asia,” she added.

Mishra also wants to thank the QCA and its officials for backing her for a long time. “The sports-friendly atmosphere maintained in Qatar by its government is special in the world. I wish to thank my parent body Qatar Cricket Association and its President You-suf Jeham al Kuwari for all the support for a long time.

“Also I want to say that without the

help from QCA Operations Manager Manzo-or Ahmad, Domestic Cricket Head Gul Khan Jadoun and Mariam Khan, it won’t have been possible for me to come to this level. My fellow umpires also deserve praise for maintaining a high standard of umpiring in Qatar which helped me enrich my knowledge,” she added.

Comparing her first assignment in the ICC World Cup T20 men’s qualifiers with the inclusion in the international panel of the de-velopment umpires, she said, “The joy of get-ting the honour of being the first woman um-pire in men’s T20 Internationals is certainly beyond words but this new responsibility will help me take another step towards rising in my international umpiring profile.

“The 2019 helped me a lot in understand-ing the international level of umpiring. At this new level, the responsibilities are enor-mous and whenever I get my next opportu-nity, I look forward to carrying them out with the utmost sincerity. Also I will see how I can develop myself further.”

Mishra also lauded the support from her school principal and management. “The school management and the principal sir have always been supporting me and cel-ebrating my success. I hope I will make more laurels for the school in the future.”

Shivani Mishra: Another feather in the QCA and ACC’s cap.

Doha-based official is the only Asian female to be included in the international panel of ICC development umpires

I’m extremely thrilled. I want to thank sincerely both the ICC and the ACC for this honour.

Shivani Mishra

Sports

The Last Word20 Wednesday, February 27, 2019

QATARI STUDENTS PERFORM OPERETTA IN KUWAIT

A large number of students from Qatar and Kuwait took part in an operetta in Kuwait City as part of Kuwait’s National Day celebra-tions. The performance was organised by the Qatar Center for Cultural and Heritage Events, in cooperation with the Ministry of Educa-tion and Higher Education and its Kuwaiti counterpart. The operetta expressed the love of the people of Qatar towards their brothers in Kuwait. (TNN)

Qatar Int’l Food Festivalto kick off on March 20

CATHERINE W GICHUKIDOHA

THE 10th Qatar International Food Festival (QIFF) will be held at the Oxygen Park in Qatar Foundation’s Education City from March 20 to 30.

The festival will feature 150 food and beverage stalls spread over three dedicated areas: O1 for main course spe-cialties, O2 for kids-friendly foods and activities, and O3 for cafes and light food along with private seating areas serving curated pre-set menus.

The ‘Cooking Theatre’ at the festival will feature around 30 international and local ce-lebrity chefs, along with cul-tural shows and other forms of entertainment.

The festival also includes month-long side events from March 1 offering participants of all ages the opportunity to learn culinary craft and nutri-tion.

Besides, in line with the Qatar-India Year of Culture 2019, the festival will show-case special food items and cultural offerings.

The event is being or-ganised by Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC) in partnership with Qatar Foundation (QF), BeIN, Qa-tar Airways, W Doha, Voda-fone, Kidzania Doha, Aura Hostpitality, Akly, La Can-tine, Talabat, Uber, Qatar TV and Jeem TV.

“The QIFF has played a key role in our strategy to grow and diversify the coun-try’s tourism offerings. We congratulate all our private sector partners for this suc-

cess and look forward to con-tinuing to attract people from all corners of the world, as well as residents representing different cultures, to come to-gether and enjoy the amazing combination of food and cul-ture,” QNTC official Rashed al Qurese said at a press con-ference on Tuesday.

The QIFF attracted over 430,000 visitors last year. The organisers expect the number to be much higher this year, said Qurese.

QF Executive Director of Outreach and Institutional Advancement Mohammed A Fakhroo said, “By hosting the event, we are stressing the message that our doors are always open to all mem-bers of the community. We invite everyone to discover by themselves the inclusive experience that Qatar Foun-dation offers, and explore the facilities we provide for edu-cation and enjoyment. These facilities are open to visitors from both within and outside Qatar, not just during festi-vals and events, but all the year round.”

Qatar Airways Senior Vice-President of Marketing and Corporate Communications Salam al Shawa said, “As the national carrier of Qatar, we are looking forward to bring-ing the world to Qatar and of-fering residents and visitors a delicious selection of world cuisine.”

QNTC’s Mashal Shah-bik said, “Over the years, the festival has not only inspired entrepreneurs to introduce innovative restaurants and dishes, but it has paved the way for the event organisers to introduce specialised food festivals, making Qatar’s gas-tronomic canvas more vibrant year after year.”

The QIFF will deliver a healthy food and nutrition awareness programme for stu-dents from 50 schools across Qatar from March 10 to 14. It will also provide a platform for local entrepreneurs to intro-duce their offerings, includ-ing local produce from Qatari farms, with reserving 15 per-cent of its spaces for up-and-coming entrepreneurs and lo-cal SMEs.

Officials at a press conference to announce the 10th Qatar Interna-tional Food Festival. (JALAL PATHIYOOR)

QPO celebrates fascinating 10-year journey with concert

AILYN AGONIADOHA

QATAR Philharmonic Orches-tra (QPO) celebrated the 10th anniversary of their inaugural concert staged in Doha in 2008 with a stellar performance held at the Al Mayassa Theatre of Qa-tar National Convention Centre on Tuesday.

Qatar Foundation Chair-person HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser attended the anniversary event which opened with the introduction of QPO musicians hailing from 28 countries from different parts of the world.

Also present were former prime minister and foreign min-ister of Qatar HE Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al Thani, QF Vice Chairperson and CEO HE Sheikha Hind bint Hamad al Thani and other dignitaries.

To celebrate the fascinating journey of the orchestra over the past decade to shape Qatar’s

musical landscape, the concert also featured the same music that QPO performed during their inaugural concert.

Ten years ago, QPO first stepped on the stage and charmed the audience under the baton of celebrated conductor Lorin Maazel. This time Dmitrij Kitajenko, named Conductor of Honor of QPO in 2015 and con-sidered one of the great conduc-tors of our time, led the orches-

tra in their performance. The concert opened with

a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 in C Minor. It was followed by Maurice Ravel’s Bolero.

During the intermission, students from Qatar Music Academy joined QPO musicians under Louise Bourgeois’ sculp-ture of The Spider.

The concert concluded with the orchestra’s performance of

Marcel Khalife’s Arabian Con-certo. Khalife composed the Arabian Concerto specifically for QPO’s inaugural concert and was performed during the or-chestra’s international tours.

Also featured during the concert were international guest artistes Moslem Rahal on nay; Kenan Adnawi on oud; Feras Charestan on qanun; Mohamad Osman on bouzouq; and George Oro on tabla.

HH Sheikha Moza, HE Sheikha Hind attend the event

Doha Debates votes for refugeesTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

THE Chairperson of Qatar Foundation (QF) Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser at-tended the debut live event of the relaunched Doha Debates on Tuesday, which saw a diverse range of participants from Qatar and abroad sharing and debat-ing suggestions for alleviating the world’s urgent and worsen-ing refugee crisis.

The Vice Chairperson and CEO of QF Her Excellency Sheikha Hind bint Hamad al Thani also attended the event held at QF partner university Northwestern University in Qa-tar (NU-Q).

Debate participants includ-ed a young Syrian refugee and education activist and award-winning US and British journal-ists and commentators. They were joined by an Iranian-born conflict mediator, a Lebanese debate moderator and an Af-ghan refugee as the debate’s digital host, with audience con-tributions from QF students and Twitter livestream participants from around the world.

Through the innovative new format for Doha Debates – a QF production – debate moderator Ghida Fakhry challenged the participants to focus on solu-tions to the refugee crisis, while the debate’s digital host, Nelufar Hedayat, highlighted ideas from the international audience par-ticipating via Twitter. The Doha-based audience then voted on the most effective solution to the global refugee crisis, choos-ing “Resist power. Push back” as proposed by debate participant Marc Lamont Hill.

Debate speaker Muzoon

Almellehan, a 20-year-old Syr-ian refugee and education pro-ponent, spoke of the importance of education in giving refugees hope. “Many of us think of refu-gees as numbers, but behind every number, there is a story,” she said. “Why judge people at a time when they need hope, believe in a better life, and want to build a future for themselves and their children?”

British author and political commentator Douglas Murray highlighted “competing vir-tues” in the context of migra-tion. “The first virtue is mercy,

the desire to be merciful to fellow humans who are suffer-ing,” he said. “And the second is justice — not just for those who are fleeing countries, but for those in the countries they are fleeing to.”

US professor, activist and journalist Marc Lamont Hill said, “We can acknowledge the moment and that we have borders — we can’t pretend we don’t. But we also can’t obsess about this. We can reimagine ourselves as a global commu-nity rather than a local com-munity.”

Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini, the debate’s bridge-building ‘connector’, and the founder and executive director of the International Civil Society Ac-tion Network, said, “The refugee crisis is not an easy issue, but it is necessary to discuss it because the problem is urgent. Every day children are out of school, a day their lives are put on hold, and a day they are not fulfilling their potential.”

Amjad Atallah, managing director of Doha Debates, ap-plauded the response and the calibre of contributions to the first live event, saying, “The tone and quality of the Doha Debates conversation sets a new high bar for discourse on complex and difficult issues.”

The full debate, and high-lights of the event, can be viewed on Doha Debates’ website and social media channels.

The next live Doha Debates event is set to be held on April 3 at NU-Q, with a debate on the merits and challenges of Artifi-cial Intelligence.

HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and HE Sheikha Hind bint Hamad al Thani at the Doha Debates event.

HH Sheikha Moza, HE Sheikha Hind attend debut of relaunched Doha Debates

HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, HE Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al Thani, HE Sheikha Hind bint Hamad al Thani, and other dignitaries at the 10th anniversary celebrations of QPO. (PHOTO: HHOPL)

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